drama | ComicMix

The Point Radio: Making THE PLAYBOY CLUB Cool (Again)

Podcasts
September 13, 2011

Yes it is a 60s-era series, but don’t call NBC‘s new series, THE PLAYBOY CLUB, “MADMAN with a tail & ears”. The crime drama also has a strong music element – and the series stars Amber Heard and Eddie Cibrian explain it all. Plus more DC sell outs, updates on the CLUE and THREE STOOGES films and somebody ripped off Darth Vader!

The Point Radio is on the air right now – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or mobile device– and please check us out on Facebook right here & toss us a “like” or follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

Win Win

Reviews
September 3, 2011

As the end credits rolled, the first thought that occurred to me was that Win Win felt real. These were basically good people trying to do what is right but imperfections spoil any hope for total bliss. Heroes prove to have feet of clay and monsters don’t seem so monstrous once you get to know them.

The film, out on DVD from 20^th Century Home Entertainment, is another terrific showcase of the wonderful Paul Giamatti. He’s become the everyman of his generation, infusing his characters with traits and flaws’ that make them feel real enough you’d expect to find them living down the block. Here, he’s private lawyer Mike Flaherty, suffering from a decline in business thanks to the economy and he is presented with a short-cut so grabs it. He has a court appoint him as guardian to Leo (Burt Young) so he could collect the $1500 monthly fee but then dumps Leo in a nursing home to make the job easier. All Leo, suffering from dementia, wants to do is watch TV and live in his house.

Mike thinks he’s got thinks under control and won’t need to burden his stay at home wife Jackie (Amy Ryan) with their financial woes. Then, suddenly, Leo’s grandson Kyle (Alex Shaffer) shows up from Ohio and things get complicated. Mike and Jackie suddenly become unofficial parents to a high school student who turns out to be an all-star wrestler.

Mike and his pal Stephen Vigman (Jeffrey Tambor) have been coaching the high school wrestling team and see Kyle as a chance to turn the losers into winners. But Kyle is damaged, having been neglected by his drug abusing mom Cindy (Melanie Lynskey) and abused by her latest boyfriend hence his sudden arrival in New Jersey. The way Kyle interacts with the Flaherty’s is the heart of the film as Mike is seen as the one good thing to happen to Kyle, until Cindy turns up and in short order, the ugly truth is revealed. (more…)

MARTHA THOMASES: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Flashpoint — Not!

Columns
September 2, 2011

This is the week when everything is supposed to change. The first of the New 52 comics is on the stands. Since better folks than me are weighing in on the new stuff, I want to talk about what went right before.

Specifically, Flashpoint.

While I like team-up stories, I’m not a big fan of “After today, nothing will ever be the same again” hype. Not because I’m against change, but rather because change is constant. After every day, nothing is ever the same. In reality, this hype usually means a bunch of characters will be killed. Death is the substitute for drama in modern comics.

I didn’t like Supergirl’s death in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Kara has always been one of my favorite characters, even though she was rarely written well. Her love interest was named Dick Malvern, for crying out loud, which I always understood to mean Bad Green Penis. I thought her death was a symbolic admission that the men who wrote comics at the time didn’t understand girls.

Ever since, there have been company-wide, month long crossovers where nothing will ever be the same. This year, the promise was backed up by 52 Number One issues that will be published the month after the crossover ends.

So what happened in Flashpoint? Damned if I know. As near as I can tell, it was a five-issue Bill & Ted adventure, except that instead of Bill and Ted remembering to travel back in time to leave themselves a note telling themselves what to do in the past, there was Flash, a Cosmic Treadmill, and no George Carlin. And a lot more carnage.

Why is this necessary? I mean, I actually enjoyed the Flashpoint mini-series, but they would have been just as satisfying as Elseworlds, and that would have allowed the creators to let loose even more. Is it really this complicated to jump through these hoops to wipe a slate clean?

Why can’t we just agree that the old continuity is gone, and get on with telling stories? And if, for whatever reason, some of these stories aren’t successful, why can’t we let a new creative team come in and start from scratch again?

When I first started writing comics, an editor (sorry, I forget who) told me that no one wanted to read comics written by someone’s mom. In this case, though, I think comics could certainly use someone who simply said, “Because I said so.”

Dominoed Dare-Doll Martha Thomases thinks there should be more George Carlin in comics, and everywhere else. Read her political stuff at michaeldavisworld.com every Saturday.

Surveying Keanu Reeves More Interesting Performances

News
August 23, 2011

Keanu Reaves is no stranger to the crime genre! Films like Point Break and Street Kings come to mind, but we think he got his start officially in the TV crime drama, Night Heat. In Henry’s Crime, which is out on Blu-ray and DVD today, Reeves stars as Henry Torne, a wrongly accused man who winds up behind bars for a bank robbery he didn’t commit. After befriending a charismatic lifer (James Caan) in prison, Henry finds his purpose — having done the time, he decides he may as well do the crime. But his outlandish plan to rob the very same bank spins wildly out of control, as he finds himself performing in a stage play and falling in love with the production’s seductive leading lady (Vera Farmiga).

To celebrate the release of Henry’s Crime, our pals at ThinkJam put together a list of our favorite law-breaking and abiding Keanu films. We know they skipped the obvious like Bill & Ted and The Matrix Trilogy but did they miss anything?

Speed – 1994

It all started with, “There’s a bomb on the bus!” This one really put Keanu Reeves on the blockbuster map. With its non-stop high action sequences, and bombs on the bus, train, Sandra Bullock, this movie is an action flick-junkie dream.

Street Kings – 2008

In this fast-paced action-crime film, Keanu portrays a disillusioned LAPD detective haunted by the death of his wife. We love it when he breaks rules and butts heads.

Chain Reaction – 1996

How progressive. This film about alternative energy delves deep into a sociopolitical dialogue that involves the FBI, CIA and basically Big Brother chasing our beloved scientists down!

Point Break – 1991

Classic. This box office success melded surfing with bank robbery, making it by far one of Keanu’s most bodacious films to date. And orphan surfer girl Lori Petty just sweetens the deal.

Henry’s Crime – 2010

Working as a toll collector, Henry gets swept up in a crime he didn’t mean to commit. Now that he’s done the time, he had a lot of time to think about reaping the rewards if he had

The Watcher – 2000

Mr. Reeves plays David aka your worst nightmare if you’re a woman. Talk about a misleading first date. Once you feel like you can trust a man, he’s meticulous about the way he kills you.

Constantine – 2005

Supernaturally tubular Keanu solves mythical crimes in this wild and epic film that plunges viewers into the afterlife and spiritual worlds beyond this realm.

Krazy Kat & The Art of George Herriman A Celebration

Reviews
July 28, 2011

Krazy Kat & The Art of George Herriman A Celebration
By Craig Yoe
176 pages, Abrams ComicArts, U.S. $29.95/Can. $35.95

As a kid, my first exposure to Krazy Kat were the 50 animated shorts that were produced between 1962-1964 and ran with Beetle Bailey and Snuffy Smith cartoons in a thirty minute block. I found the cartoons charming if a little odd and it was years later before I finally saw some of George Herriman’s wonderful comic strip work. While a comic genius, I knew little about him or how the world perceived his amazing creation.

Thankfully, Craig Yoe, a man with a keen eye for pop art and culture, has assembled a work dedicated to Herriman’s art but also serves as a biography. I now know that the Herriman was born as a light-skinned, Creole African-American in Louisiana before moving west where he did his professional work. In California, he began as a newspaper cartoonist and did everything from political cartoons to sports cartoons before settling down to produce the daily adventures of The Dingbat Family. At the bottom of the panels first appeared a cat of indeterminate gender and a mouse. In time, the mouse began throwing things at the cat and audiences picked up on the drama so Herriman was encouraged to give the two their own feature.

In time, Krazy Kat and the brick-tossing Ignatz Mouse were joined by Offissa Bull Pupp and other denizens of Coconino County, Arizona. They soared in popularity while Herriman took full advantage of the comic strip form before it became rule-bound and limited. The dailies and later Sunday pages rarely repeated themselves and careful reading showed a literary and poetic quality to the writing that belied the physical comedy.

Herriman’s characters enchanted a nation between 1913 and 1944, when he died way too soon at 63. They remain enshrined in Arizona folklore where Herriman maintained a vacation home and became fascinated with the Native Americans who lived in the vicinity. (more…)

News
July 13, 2011

Legendary Superhero Doc Savage Returns in Second Audiobook Adventure

The greatest pulp fiction character of the 20th Century is featured in a brand new audio release from RadioArchives.com!

He was a role model during the Great Depression and World War II and a pop icon for the millions who thrilled to his paperback exploits from the 1960s thru the 1980s. Now Doc Savage, the legendary Man of Bronze, comes to vivid life in “White Eyes”, the new and soon to be released audiobook adventure from RadioArchives.com.

In “White Eyes”, a new supercriminal emerges from the underworld. Dressed all in white, his face masked, eyes blank as a blind man’s, he calls himself White Eyes. Who is he? What are his goals? All of Manhattan reels under the onslaught of the Blind Death, a scourge so terrible that innocent people are struck dead, their eyes turning white as hardboiled eggs. From his skyscraper headquarters high above the streets of New York City to the sugarcane fields of Cuba, Doc Savage races to crush gangland’s latest uncrowned king!

Written by Will Murray and produced and directed by Roger Rittner – the same team that created “Python Isle” and “The Adventures of Doc Savage” audio collections also available from RadioArchives.com, “White Eyes” features dramatic narration by Richard Epcar, cover art by Joe DeVito, and two exclusive audio interviews with Will Murray on the continuing history of Doc Savage and the original Lester Dent manuscript that led to the writing of this exciting edge-of-your-seat adventure.

Scheduled for release on July 29, 2011, “White Eyes” will be available as a 10-CD set priced at $31.98 and as a 10-hour digital download priced at $21.98. This Doc Savage thriller is the second in a new line of pulp fiction audiobooks from RadioArchives.com; upcoming releases will feature the classic adventures of The Spider, Secret Agent “X”, and more of Will Murray’s exciting Doc Savage adventures.

RadioArchives.com is one of the largest creators and distributors of old time radio and pulp fiction entertainment in the United States. Specializing in fully restored radio programs, remastered from original recordings, they are known for their outstanding audio fidelity, impressive packaging, and commitment to top quality customer service.

###

www.RadioArchives.com

###

Doc Savage “White Eyes” Creative Team Biographies

Will Murray (author) is the literary agent for the estate of Lester Dent, and the author of over 50 novels, including several posthumous Doc Savage collaborations with series originator Lester Dent, among them “Python Isle”, “White Eyes”, and his latest novel “Desert Demons”, soon to be released by Altus Press.

Roger Rittner (producer, director) has written, produced, and directed specials and multi-part series for National Public Radio, including the drama series “Darkness”, the mystery/macabre series “Midnight”, “The Adventures of Doc Savage”, and the musical special “Charlie Sent Me!” Other radio projects have been heard on stations KMPC, KFI, and KGBS in Los Angeles. Roger created and directed The Variety Arts Radio Theatre, live recreations of classic radio drama, for 10 years at the Variety Arts Center in Los Angeles.

Richard Epcar (narrator) is well known to animation, anime, and gaming fans, having voiced over 300 characters in his lengthy career. He is “Batou” in “Ghost in the Shell” and he’s also featured in a new series from Nickelodeon, “Airbender: The Legend of Korra’. Video game credits include “Robotech”, “Kingdom Hearts”, “Transformers”, “Star Wars”, “Mortal Kombat”, “Modnation Racers”, “Mortal Kombat vs. D.C. Universe”, “Call of Duty: Black Ops”, “Dead Space”, “Star Craft”, “Red Faction Guerilla”, “Command & Conquer”, “Xenosaga”, “Guilty Gears”, “.Hack”, and “Resident Evil”, to name only a few. Animation fans have heard his voice in “Bleach”, “Bobobo”, “X-Men”, “Macross Plus”, “The New Speed Racer”, “Rurouni Kenshin”, “Lupin the Third”, “Digimon”, and “Power Rangers”. On camera, Richard has appeared in many films and television shows, including “Memoirs of an Invisible Man”, “Columbo”, “Diagnosis Murder”, “Guns of Paradise”, “Beverly Hills 90210”, “Matlock”, “Who’s the Boss?”, “Cheers”, “Days of Our Lives”, and “General Hospital” and he will be featured in the film “Broken Spirits”, scheduled for release later this year.

###

White Eyes – Unabridged Audiobook

Written by Will Murray, based on a concept by Lester Dent
Narrated by Richard Epcar
Produced and Directed by Roger Rittner
Cover Art by Joe DeVito
ISBN: 9781610814027

10 Audio Compact Disc Set $31.98

10 Hour Digital Download $21.98

Release Date: July 29, 2011

T-Mobile Girl Morphs into Powers’ Retro Girl

News
June 27, 2011

Apparently the first case taken on by the television adaptation of Powers will be “Who Killed Retro Girl?” now that the title character has been cast. Sexy model Carly Foulkes, best known for the T-Mobile ad campaign of the last two years, has been added to the FX pilot.

Series co-creator Brian Michael Bendis revealed this casting tidbit when appearing on on Sirius XM’s Geektime radio show over the weekend. The 23-year old Canadian model turned actress will leap from pretty-in-pink pitchman to geek immortality with this move.

She joins a cast already including Jason Patric and Lucy Punch as the Powers Homicide detectives in the drama series based on the long-running series by Bendis and co-creator Michael Avon Oeming.

Who Killed Retro Girl? is the name of the first Powers collection, including the debut storyline from the series when it was published in 2000 from Image Comics. The story remains in print as a hardcover or softcover.

TUNE INTO PULP RETURNS ON A TRIP TO ‘PYTHON ISLE’!

News
June 21, 2011

First, some housekeeping. Yes, it’s been a while since I debuted this column and due to a variety of reasons, this is the first one in awhile. Do not worry, pulpsters, there will be one a week after this ad infinitum! Audio Pulp is not only an important part of Pulp history that many are not aware of, but its a growing facet of the genre even today, as you will see in this column today and weeks to come.

You’ll notice an addition to our logo. Yes, its true, Radio Archives has stepped forward, noticing the trend toward Audio Pulp and entered into an arrangement with All Pulp to sponsor this column. RA produces top of the line audio material bringing old time classic radio of all varieties to a modern audience. Fantastic sound quality, tremendous effort to not only preserve material, but also provide new and interesting information on material, and awesome packaging make RA’s offerings top notch. RA as well is readying itself to be one of the leaders in New Audio Pulp with its foray into audiobooks based on Pulp characters starring in new stories, just like the one I’m about to leap into the middle of. I will continue to cover all aspects of New Pulp Audio, not simply RA’s contributions, but I do want to thank Harlan Zinck and RA for the support and material and willingness to see the importance of this column enough to sponsor it.

PYTHON ISLE-A Doc Savage Audiobook
Written by Will Murray based on a concept By Lester Dent
Narrated by Michael McConnohie
Directed and Produced by Roger Rittner
Published by Radio Archives (www.radioarchives.com)

Not only has Radio Archives decided to move into New Pulp audio, They have done it by taking giant steps. The first RA offering in their Pulp Audiobook lineup is not only no lightweight when it comes to Pulp, but instead it is probably the top of the heap, the primo of premium pulp. And, not to telegraph this review or anything, Radio Archives meets that challenge just the way Doc Savage would have.

PYTHON ISLE is an audiobook version of the novel written in 1991 by Will Murray, based on a concept by Lester Dent. Directed and produced by Roger Rittner for RA and narrated by Michael Mcconnohie. The story opens with diamond smugglers catching sight of a plane they believe to be the authorities. Once the plane is downed, the smugglers discover that not only are there two strangely garbed people aboard, but the plane, once damaged, had been patched and repaired with what appears to be soft, pure gold. One of the plane passengers, a man who can speak English, is desperate to protect a bamboo tube he has and to make contact with only one man-Doc Savage!

Author Will Murray

What ensues from this tense, in your face opening is the stuff pulp dreams are made of. From fist fights and gun battles to harrowing chases in various locales all the way to a ride and epic conflict aboard a Zeppelin, PYTHON ISLE delivers all the thrills and chills anyone could want. Add into that that this is a Doc Savage tale complete with Doc’s stoic presence, supreme intelligence, and skills honed finer than any blade as well as three of the five aides in their finest form ever and what you have in PYTHON ISLE is more than a treat, better than a nice surprise. It is simply New Pulp storytelling at its best.

Narrator Michael McConnohie

With material like this, one would think that it would be difficult for an audiobook version to add anything at all to it. Boy, one would be wrong. PYTHON ISLE from Radio Archives takes this story from the pinnacle it already reaches in prose to an unbelievable high mark as an audiobook. Michael McConnohie is more than the ‘reader’ or ‘narrator’ of this adventure. He brings the exact intensity and passion to this story that any well crafted Doc tale would command. His mastery of his own voice is phenomenal, switching back and forth from Monk’s high pitched affectation to Renny’s thunderous rumblings and then to Bull Pizano’s gravelly retort. McConnohie makes this feel like a full cast audio drama and that brings the listener completely into the folds of the story.

Director/Producer Roger Rittner

One issue many audiobooks have, and this is in part due to the fact that they are based on written prose, not scripts, is pacing. At times, audiobooks lag in the middle and whatever gait had been set previously is lost. This is definitely an issue with Pulp stories due to the naturally frenetic pacing good Pulp should have. PYTHON ISLE does not fall victim to this. Due to McConnohie’s voicing as well as Roger Rittner’s directing, this tale moves along at a good clip from beginning to end. There are points that I, being both an avid Pulp reader and an audio fan, predicted were going to be those spots where things started to plod and slow down, but every single time due to either a musical sting or a change in inflection or even the speed at which the words were delivered, that plodding never came, nothing slowed down. Rittner produced a fine piece of roller coaster up and down drama, probably the finest I’ve ever listened to.

Could PYTHON ISLE be better? Usually I would say that any audiobook could be improved by adding voices and sound effects and changing the leopard’s spots, so to speak, from audiobook to full cast drama. And don’t get me wrong, I would love to hear this story given that treatment. Having said that, though, I think that in this case, it would not improve what has been done to make it a full cast drama. I feel like that this audiobook would sit on a shelf right alongside the best possible version of this story as a full drama and still hold its own. The feeling I got from listening to PYTHON ISLE was much akin to what it must have felt like sitting in a darkened theater in the 1940s waiting to see what Captain Marvel or Gene Autry would do in the next chapter of the latest serial. It was nail biting, cliff hanging, and inspiring.

Radio Archives has announced that this is only the first of their Pulp Audio books and that future volumes would not only include Doc, but cover other characters as well. If that’s the case, then I’m one heckuva happy Pulpster.

Review: ‘The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones’

Reviews
June 14, 2011

On the one hand, you have to wonder what took so long for Hanna-Barbera to get around to having their two most famous franchises meet. On the other, maybe they should have waited for inspiration. Today, Warner Archive is releasing The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones and the 96 minutes went by at a glacial pace.

This 1987 television production features just about every significant character from both shows with the possible exception of the Great Gazoo. The simple premise has Elroy building a time machine for a class project and the hilarity begins when the entire Jetson family is accidentally transported to the past.

By the time the story ends, both families have had a chance to experience how the other half lives with parallel issues of both bread-winners having their jobs on the line. In the future, Spacely Sprockets has been on a losing streak with Mr., Spacely believing George Jetson was responsible for industrial espionage. Meantime, Mr. Slate is fighting to keep from losing his company to arch rival Turk Tarpit.

Writers Don Nelson and Arthur Alsberg should have spent some time watching reruns of It’s About Time, the 1960s sitcom about astronauts accidentally catapulted back to the days of the caveman. The “fish out of water” motif would have been more interesting to watch than the ease with which the two families adjusted to their alien surroundings. Instead, they pad out the script with an odd subplot showing George earning fabulous wealth thanks to a flying demonstration. He and Jane then essentially buy up Bedrock and the plot goes nowhere and ends with a thud.

Everyone has a moment to shine or be the butt of the joke, with Mr. Spacely particularly stupid as he sees Fred in the Jetson apartment and somehow concludes its his employee in disguise. Jane, Wilma, and Betty prove to be the sensible ones while the men folk remain idealistic fools. The one character to experience some real drama is Judy, who falls for rock star Iggy Sandstone (whose band plays an original song clearly patterned after “Monster Mash”), and is conflicted about whether to stay with him or return home. Even Dino and Astro get their moments as the two animals see one another more as rivals than friends.

I’m not sure what message is being sent by having Rosie, the beloved robot servant, repeatedly wind up saving the day.

I do miss Alan Reed as Fred’s voice but Henry Corden does a fine job and it’s nice to have George O’Hearn, Jean Vader Pyl, Mel Blanc, Daws, Butler, and Don Messick back in their familiar places. The only voice that sounds off is Julie McWhirter’s Betty.

The video transfer is more than acceptable and this is for H-B afficianados.