Author: Robert Greenberger

Olive: Lost in Inner Space
By Vero Cazot and Lucy Mazel
256 pages/Abrams ComicArts/$38

Autism is a challenge to depict in comic form; so much depends on the artist’s strength, since it’s all about nuance. Take Olive, for example. In Paris, she arrives at school as a 17-year-old, forced to adapt to a world alien to her. The school has worked to accommodate her needs in exchange for maintaining respectable grades. We meet her when the opposite has happened, and she is now being forced to share her dorm room with Charlie, a fairly normal teenager. The counseling sessions helps provide insights into Olive’s past.

Olive lives in her head, a wonderfully creative space she shares with a large rubber duck, Noel, and the transparent whale Rose. When reality overwhelms her, this is her safe space until the day an astronaut crashes into her realm.

The 2024 French album arrives in glorious color, courtesy of Vero Cazot and Lucy Mazel. Broken into four parts, we trace Olive’s attempts to figure out how the astronaut got into her world, which leads her to mount a rescue mission to locate him. Fantasy bleeds into reality when it becomes clear that astronaut Lenny Popincourt has crash-landed on Earth and is missing.

Over the course of the story, Olive searches in both realms, aided in our reality by Charlie, who accepts Olive’s condition and supports her efforts with good cheer. In exchange, Olive begins to open up and, in a rare act, invites her home for Christmas.

The story in both realities slowly unfolds as Olive can’t understand how this other person has invaded her private realm, even though clues about their connection are presented early on.

It’s a charming coming-of-age story as well as a fine fantasy tale; that is, until the final section, where Olive manages to cross into Siberia on her own (when did she get a passport, considering her aversion to the world?) in search of Lenny. But it’s a minor quibble over a lovely tale of magical realism.

Mazel’s art and color help make both realities distinctive and ground the teens well. This is a fanciful tale that is a fine page-turner.

An unnamed man walks into a neighborhood diner and asks for volunteers to help him save the world. But, it can’t be just anyone; it has to be a specific combination of people at that moment, 10:10 p.m. Once assembled, they need to go a few blocks over to insist that a nine-year-old boy install safeguards on the AI he’s developing, otherwise the world will end.

Oh, and this is the 117^th time he’s tried this since he’s been traveling back from the future.

Matthew Robinson’s script for Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a head-spinning cautionary tale that arrives at a moment when everyone is talking about the dangers of AI and society spending more time scrolling than actually speaking to one another.

The film, directed by Gore Verbinski in a pleasing comeback, is well worth a look. Out now on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray from Universal Home Entertainment, the film demands you put the phone down and pay attention.

And that’s fine, considering the cast assembled to save the world. Our protagonist is Sam Rockwell, who is always worth watching. He recruits Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson), a teacher couple, Mark (Michael Peña) and Janet (Zazie Beetz), Susan (Juno Temple), who lost a son to a school shooting, but a numb world doesn’t offer her comfort, and Scott (Asim Chaudhry), whose story remains untold. Those with backstories wind up offering commentary and representations of today’s preoccupation with the digital world rather than with one another. It’s telling that when the man-from-the-future walks in, no one is actually having a conversation, scrolling instead.

Verbinski’s visual presentation is that of controlled chaos, more akin to his Pirates of the Caribbean films than misfires such as The Lone Ranger and Tonto. With Rockwell, Verbinski has a conductor to organize the mess and strive for the best possible outcome.

The 2160 high-definition transfer is crisp, capturing skin tones and the color palette well. The 2.39:1 aspect ratio looks good on the home screen, as does the Dolby Vision. Similarly, the Dolby Atmos audio track complements the visuals, making for a pleasing experience.

For an ambitious film like this, the Making of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (5:07) is way too short and leaves you wanting to know more.

It is likely that many Star Trek fans since the 1960s have shot home movies, recreating Gene Roddenberry’s television in their basements and backyards. I know I was part of one in sixth or seventh grade. So, it’s little surprise that film students in California in 1985 wanted to take their turn at making one such film.

Yorktown: A Time to Heal was the brainchild of college student Stan Woo, who worked with friends and fellow students to make this tribute to the series. Funded largely by Woo’s father, the production cost about $10,000 and was shot in and around the area between 1985 and 1987. Surprisingly, he coaxed George Takei to reprise the role of Hikaru Sulu in this fan film while awaiting work on Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Perhaps even more surprising, Woo found and convinced veteran character actor James Shigeta (Die Hard) to join the production in the role of “revered” Admiral Nogura.

Star Trek production designer Joe Jennings and special effects artist Andrew Probert even contributed to the production. Both were easily located through the phone book (trust me, these were simpler days).

And then the film disappeared. Woo admitted in the 90-minute documentary Beam Me Up Sulu that the Paramount Pictures canvas bag containing the film reels was misplaced in his family home, where it remained undiscovered for years.

Meantime, John Atkin read about the production in Starlog #119 in 2010 and wanted to watch the film. He found Woo, learned the film was never quite finished, and offered to help. Between 2010 and 2022, Atkin worked sporadically on digital effects while additional scenes were filmed to complete the story.

The 23-minute fan production debuted on April 2, 2022, and is available on YouTube. This documentary, produced by Timour Gregory and Sasha Schneider, recounts how this remarkable production came to be and places it in context within the world of Star Trek.

Eugene Roddenberry recounts his father’s pre-television career, while copious film clips depict the social issues consuming the 1960s, with science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer noting that the series was a beacon of hope amid the chaos. Takei himself discusses his upbringing, including the now well-told story of his time in the Japanese internment camps. There’s a digression on how Asians were depicted in film and television until Takei helped break stereotypes with Sulu. Several other actors from across the sprawling franchise—Garrett Wang, Christina Chong, Alexander Siddig, and Ian Alexander—all chime in about how the original series paved the way for diversity to flourish (perhaps Roddenberry’s greatest legacy).

There’s even a section covering diversity and acceptance within the fan community and at conventions (although the scenes are all from pro events like Creation rather than fan-run shows).

As a result, we get a lot of digressions to pad out the film, each element deserving its own examination. The real joy is watching the young cast and crew in behind-the-scenes footage from the original production, along with recollections from several participants. James Sheigeta’s widow was totally unaware of his participation, and there’s genuine delight on her face as she sees his scenes for the first time. To bridge some of the stories, the producers brought in Gazelle Automations to produce Filmation-style animated bits, which provide a nice touch.

This is a mostly engaging documentary, available on disc from Tribeca Films, and a true Valentine to Star Trek and the generations of fans who were in some way inspired by its promises.

Soviet Land
By Pierre-Henry Gomont
320 pages/Abrams ComicArts/$34.99

Those of us of a certain age recall when the Berlin Wall was breached and the USSR, the evil empire that was our Cold War enemy, was shattered. We knew of détente, perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the other big players of the time.

But, as I recall, the Western press didn’t spend a lot of time talking about what this meant to the citizens of the former organization who were now merely Russians. We heard about the rush of capitalism and the arrival of America’s biggest brands, but also about supply shortages and long lines for meager offerings. But the full picture of daily life remained elusive.

French creator Pierre-Henry Gomont invites us along for a glimpse into what that world must have been like for people living there. We open a few years into the new era and follow the efforts of the young, disillusioned artist Slava and the con man Dmitiri Lavrin as they scavenge and sell remnants of the old regime amid the country’s collapse. We watch as they, like so many others, loot abandoned Soviet sites for valuables to sell to collectors and to put food on the table. They’re an odd couple, but their friendship is genuine as they look after one another throughout the story.

At one stop along their nomadic path, they encounter Volodya and his daughter Nina, who are squatters in their latest target. The older man physically is the old Russian bear, menacing to those who threaten him or his daughter, who, of course, has caught Salva’s eye.

We follow their travails as Lavrin breaks away to use his skills to parlay his way out of poverty and become a major wheeler-dealer. Volodya and Nina get involved in an abandoned mining operation, trying to repair its equipment and put people to work, but find themselves embroiled in a new form of corruption, embodied by Morkhov, one of the oligarchs who cares about money rather than Communist ideals.

Gomont, a former sociologist, has been producing acclaimed graphic novels since 2011, and this appeared as a three-album series between 2022 and 2024, making its English-language debut in this collection. His energetic art is expressive, with kinetic, layered pages and loose, flowing linework. It’s an appealing style and makes the complicated interrelations between characters and story arcs easy to follow.

He explores the erosion of ideals, the struggle for survival, profiteering, and the search for purpose in a disorienting new world. Being Russian, it has its share of humorous moments and keen tragedy. 

Geeks come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors. Among the earliest might be Henry James, who developed the box score for baseball, which evolved under Bill James into the field of Sabermetrics. An entire generation of people scoured box scores and then followed James, who dug deeper and came up with entire categories Major League Baseball had never considered. After all, to them, the Save and the Hold were still newfangled concepts in the 1980s. 

In 2001, though, those stats and their analysis broke through to the professional ranks. After losing the World Series to the Yankees, in a true David and Goliath matchup, the Oakland Athletics were about to lose first baseman Jason Giambi, outfielder Johnny Damon, and pitcher Jason Isringhausen to free agency, and there just weren’t the financial resources to match what other Big Market teams were willing to pay. General Manager Billy Beane, a young but open-minded executive, lost out on a trade with Cleveland but met a Yale economics graduate named Peter Brand, who had theories about player value that ignored the handful of stats MLB typically used. Intrigued, Beane hired Brand, and together, they built a stronger A’s for 2002, and after convincing old-school manager Art Howe to try it, they found success.

Business writer Michael Lewis covered this transformation in the best-selling book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, which became the hit film Moneyball in 2011, and has just arrived on 4K disc from Sony Home Entertainment.

Director Bennett Miller (Capote) faced the challenge of presenting statistics in a compelling way to keep audiences riveted in their seats. It helped that he had Steven Zaillian’s help, who wrote the original script for Steven Soderbergh. When he left the project in 2009, Miller was hired, and he had Aaron Sorkin revise the script so that the two had clearly delineated personalities and matching dialogue.  Miller was fortunate to assemble a stellar cast, led by Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as this triumvirate of executives. The tension comes from Brand convincing Beane, then executing the plan until they hit the stone wall of Howe, chipping away at him, until finally the plan is executed to smashing success. They are three very different personalities, each with vastly different experiences, and they find common ground thanks to the singular goal of winning.

Anyone who knows baseball knows this was a turning point in analytics, and suddenly, one team after another hired their version of Peter Brand, including Bill James himself, which lends importance to this story, since it worked outside expectations and delivered, and could be replicated.

The film comes with 4K Digital HD and a Digital Code. The 2160 transfer is very good, though not as sharp as one might hope, given the quality of the 1080 edition from 2013. The video is supported with an excellent DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix, ported over from the Blu-ray, so you can enjoy the game without leaving your home.

This 15^th anniversary edition eschews major new supplemental features but uses the ones from the original 2013 Blu-ray release:

Deleted Scenes (3 clips, 12:05); Brad Loses It (3:11); Billy Beane: Re-Inventing the Game (16:02); Drafting the Team (20:51); Moneyball: Playing the Game (19:28) Adapting Moneyball (16:33); Theatrical Trailer (new to the collection, 2:33)

Human Nature: Book 1
By Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel, and Jeff Welch
208 pages/Abrams ComicArts/$29.99

When an inventive filmmaker like Darren Aronofsky produces a graphic novel, it warrants attention. His work on Black Swan, The Wrestler, and Requiem for a Dream, among other movies, shows an inventive director but also an inquisitive storyteller, examining different aspects of the human condition. Here, without budgetary limitations, he tackles the biggest issue of them all: life after death.

Here, he partners with his frequent screenwriting collaborator Ari Handel, along with screenwriter Jeff Welch (Bet Your Life), who first conceived the idea in 2011, although none of them could craft a script that secured studio funding. (George Clooney was considered for Duke, which would have been an interesting approach.) This is a first for them all, which may be why the story takes so long to ramp up.

We are introduced to Duke, a self-made success who leverages his poultry business to become one of the world’s richest men. He seeks a way to cheat death, taking the Walt Disney route of cryogenics, hoping that the brain tumor slowly killing him can be cured at some future date. He finds such a company but decides it costs too much, so he buys it out and grows it into profitability through scale by offering to freeze the near-dead for a mere $99.99.

Duke is not a pleasant person, letting the bottom line dictate his choices, refusing to acknowledge people’s frailties. The only glimmer of kindness emerges when he discovers the existence of Pembroke, an adult daughter he never knew. He’s frozen before he can search, thanks to the unscrupulous actions of his number two.

His search for her drives some of the story. When he awakes, Duke discovers an unrecognizable world, one where aliens have invaded and remain unknown, their motivations and actions unexplained. We see him slowly learning to please his captors by singing whatever songs he can recall, and trying to engage with his neighboring captives.

We learn all of this as an elderly Duke tells a group of initiates his story sitting around a campfire. Most of the book is then an extended flashback.

It’s billed as a satire, and it’s a very subtle satire, more about the human failings and corporate greed – so far. We’ll have to wait and see. It’s also billed as Book 1 of a trilogy and utterly fails the reader by ending on a cliffhanger. For $30, I would think the reader deserves enough story to feel satisfied, welcome to return for the next installment. Here, we are forced to buy Book 2 to continue the story.

Martin Morazzo is best known for Ice Cream Man, a title I am unfamiliar with, but I really enjoyed his work on 2018’s She Could Fly. But his art is richly textured, and the writers give him plenty of space for vast vistas or thousands of chicks. He doesn’t skimp on detail and invites us to immerse ourselves in this new reality. He is ably supported by the subtle colors from Chris O’Halloran and Aditya Bidkar’s lettering.

Overall, it’s a breezy read with plenty to look at and enjoy. As for giving us much to consider, well, that will just have to wait.

The Undertaker Volume One
By Xavier Dorison and Ralph Meyer
112 pages/Abrams ComicArts/$25.99

While the Western has risen and fallen in favor here in America, it has continued to fascinate European creators, who have produced works set in an era they know only from history and movies. Among the more interesting offerings has been the Undertaker series from French-born Xavier Dorison and Ralph Meyer. They have been producing multiple story cycles since 2015, and last week their English-translated stories (by Tom Imber) finally reached us.

“The Gold Eater” cycle introduces us to Jonas Crow, who is, in 1868, an itinerant undertaker, arriving in Anoki City to collect the body of mining tycoon and grade-A asshole Joe Cusco. Rather than bequeath his wealth, he has decided to take it with him, swallowing gold nuggets. He has contracted with Crow to bring his corpse to the spot of his first gold strike and bury him there. His faithful assistant, Rose Prairie, is blackmailed into assisting him because if she doesn’t, some unknown innocent will be killed in three days’ time.

As they set out, they collect the Chinese governess Miss Lin, and the three are beset by Cusco’s former employees, led by McKullen, the town’s sheriff,  who learn of the gold and want it. Add in American soldiers seeking Crow, wanted for murder and known as the Butcher of Skullhill, and we’re off to the races.

Meyer wanted to write a Western, and Meyer conceived of the Crow to subvert the traditional notion of the Western hero. Here, he’s closer to Jonah Hex than John Wayne, cynical and solitary, uncomfortable with sharing the hearse wagon with the women. He is accompanied by the injured vulture Jed, whom he speaks to more than the women.

Once we’re off, the action is fast-paced as Crow and company have to contend with a harsh environment and with men willing to risk everything to get the gold their families need. There’s desperation to spread around, along with violence.

Working within the tried-and-true Western conventions, the story also addresses universal themes of loyalty, responsibility, and, of course, greed. Justice and morality are examined in the actions the Undertaker takes to protect the women and fend off the men, as he tries to honor his obligation.

Meyer’s Franco-Belgian art is rich in period detail and paces the action sequences quite well. He colored the work with Caroline Delabie in subtle tones, subduing the harsh glare of the sun and desert.

Each cycle is in two parts, so we can hope this does well enough for the remainder of the series to come to the States.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Omnibus
By Various
384 pages/IDW Publishing/$24.99

While Star Trek: Deep Space Nine may never achieve the commercial success of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, it is, for many, the best of the many series. Produced while the focus was on TNG and the development of Voyager, it allowed the series to delve deeper into characters and themes that its predecessors had not explored. It really found its point of view once the Dominion was introduced, followed by the multi-season war, which led to some of the franchise’s strongest writing. 

It’s little surprise then that IDW waited three years after acquiring the license from Paramount Pictures before publishing any DS9 material. There have been miniseries and one-shots, which are now nicely collected into this omnibus.

Collected are Fool’s Gold, Too Long a Sacrifice, and The Dog of War, along with five short stories. These have been written by Scott Tipton, David Tipton, Mike Chen, Cecil Castellucci, Cavan Scott, Dave Baker, and Thom Zahler, with artists Fabio Mantovani, Emanuela Lapacchino, Francesco Lo Start, Greg Scott, Ángel Hernández, Megan Levens, Josh Hood, Nicole Goux, and Andy Price.

Fool’s Gold (clearly set between seasons three and four) focuses on the space station being a gathering spot for thieves and bounty hunters, testing Constable Odo and Colonel Kira, and delighting Quark. Too Long a Sacrifice (set late sixth season) is an Odo murder mystery, while The Dog of War (a 30th anniversary tribute) is a delightful romp as Quark brings a corgi aboard the station. What no one noticed is that the dog has some Borg components wreaking havoc in its wake.

While this provides entertaining stories, they all lack the real feel of the series, its busy population and numerous subplots dealing with nearby Bajor, the wormhole, the mysterious Founders who dwell within it, or Sisko’s spiritual journey.

These are serviceable and respect the characters and their actors; they don’t really explore anything new or delve deeper. Certainly, the short stories work well given their length, with “The First Year” being the best of the bunch.

Much of the writing is solid and serviceable; the art captures the look and feel of the station and its varied population, along with some nice cameos from races from other corners of the franchise.

Since we’re not getting a movie or even new novels, we have these to provide us with some reading comfort, and if these are new to you, this volume does a good job packaging them together, although there are just a few bonus pages.