Posted in Comics, Reviews, Swashbuckling, Zorro on February 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I was understandably geeked when I discovered that there would be a new Zorro comic this year, and written by Matt Wagner, no less. (That it’s by Dynamite, the same company who’ve been releasing the current Lone Ranger comics, which I’ve heard are pretty good, is a plus.) So, naturally, when the first issue came [...]
Posted in Comics, Pulp, Reviews on February 15, 2008 | No Comments »
So awhile ago I happily discussed The Next Issue Project, wherein many modern-day writers and artists would essentially continue defunct old series from the golden age of comics, using characters that are now in the public domain. A great idea indeed. Then, more recently, I geeked out over the fact that it was, supposedly, about [...]
Posted in Comics, Kung Fu, Pulp, Reviews on February 8, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Sorry about the long, long, long, long, long, looooong absence. School. Bleh. I’ll continue to post when I can, but it won’t be as often as I’d like.
Moving on, it’s funny that my three favorite current comic titles are all a) ongoing series featuring perennial C-list characters, and b) written by a team of two [...]
Posted in Pirates, Reviews, Salgari, Swashbuckling on January 7, 2008 | 3 Comments »
So, I know that I have already rambled a good deal about the insanely-popular, but virtually unheard-of to English-speakers, series character known as Sandokan. (For your edification, I previously discussed him here and here.)
Having now read the first book, Sandokan: The Tigers of Mompracem, I must say that I can see what all the fuss [...]
Posted in Horror, Reviews, Sci-Fi on January 4, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I know it’s been covered, but I felt that I should say a little something about I Am Legend, which I just read (and which only takes a few days to breeze through, at the longest).
I first heard of the story, and its bizarre title, when some of the new version was filmed outside my [...]
Posted in Reviews, Shellabarger, Swashbuckling on December 22, 2007 | 1 Comment »
The film Captain From Castile is a beautiful first half of a historical epic. The first time I saw it, I hadn’t read the book and yet it was still more than clear that its ending was tacked on, and took place a good deal before the book’s ending would have. What’s more, the movie [...]
Posted in Reviews, Shellabarger, Swashbuckling on December 20, 2007 | No Comments »
“… Not that Pedro de Vargas knew what nerves were, but they still functioned.”
There is something immensely comforting, especially in these colder winter months, about picking up a gigantic, hardbound, historical adventure–about taking that first glance into an era and world and saying “I’m going to be here for awhile.” Knowing that one has a [...]
Posted in Fantasy, Reviews on November 23, 2007 | No Comments »
It’s always nice when the first line of a book is something like “The deck of the French ship was slippery with blood.” That’s the kind of opening that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, because it means that action and historical adventure are both to come.
I don’t generally read much fantasy, not [...]
Posted in Hard Case Crime, Hardboiled, Mystery, Pulp, Reviews on November 5, 2007 | 1 Comment »
To be frank, I wouldn’t have even writen a review of Mickey Spillane’s Dead Street if I hadn’t liked the book. I have no desire to spit on the fairly recent grave of one of the most popular and influential mystery writers of all time.
Truth be told, I’d never read any Spillane before Dead Street. [...]
Posted in Comics, Reviews, Sci-Fi on October 3, 2007 | No Comments »
As I mentioned recently, the bulk of what I’ve been reading recently has been comic books. I’ve always been a fan, but something about the medium is especially pleasing when the rest of my time is spent reading scholarly texts for school (although I do enjoy those). I actually just gave up on the book [...]
Posted in Comics, Reviews on September 23, 2007 | No Comments »
I’ve been reading an awful lot of comic books lately. Not because I particularly prefer them to normal ol’ books (having a preference at all there would be awfully silly) but because they challenge and entice an entirely different part of my brain than my school reading does, making them a better break from that [...]
Posted in Comics, Reviews on September 18, 2007 | No Comments »
So, it took me a little longer to get to my review of Stan Lee’s The Last Fantastic Four Story than I intended to, but I’ve found the time, and here we are.
Now, it seems that the basic consensus amongst internet reviewers has been that it isn’t too good–it’s far too silly and old fashioned [...]
Posted in Doc Smith, Reviews, Sci-Fi on September 15, 2007 | No Comments »
Hey everyone, I’m back-ish. My time for personal reading has gone down considerably during the last few weeks (thankfully, however, I’ve been reading some pretty cool stuff for school: expect a write-up of the Sundiata epic soon) but I’ve managed to get it in where I can. For example, I just recently finished up the [...]
Posted in Best Author Ever, Movies, Musketeers, Reviews, Swashbuckling on September 4, 2007 | 4 Comments »
So, apparently Turner Classic Movies is the place to go for strange, obscure, generally not-good swashbucklers. (For the record, they show alot of good movies too.) Not long after my recent discovery of the abysmal The Black Knight, I was treated to a double bill of films starring someone I’d never heard of: Louis Hayward. [...]
Posted in Doc Savage, Doc Smith, Himes, Pulp, Reviews, The Shadow, Thriller on August 29, 2007 | No Comments »
He felt something explode off the back of his head, and he sank to his hands and knees, bolts of pain radiating through his body like the energy waves broadcasting from the RKO Studios’ theatrical emblem.
- The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril, p. 281-282
I really am pretty mad at myself for waiting so long to read [...]
Posted in Movies, Reviews, Swashbuckling, Zorro on August 27, 2007 | No Comments »
Phew, ok, so it’s been awhile since I last worked on my gargantuan undertaking to cover (most of) the breadth of the Zorro mythos, but I guess that’s kinda fitting considering that I’m also skipping ahead nearly fifty years from the last part that I covered.
But first of all, for those who have no idea [...]
Posted in Pérez-Reverte, Reviews, Swashbuckling on August 23, 2007 | 1 Comment »
And worst of all is the person who acts as exegete of The Word–whether it be from the Talmud, the Bible, the Koran, or any other book already written or yet to come. I am not fond of giving advice–no one can pound opinions into another’s head–but here is a piece that costs you nothing: [...]
Posted in Movies, Reviews, Swashbuckling on August 20, 2007 | No Comments »
I came across the strangest movie the other day. Apparently, in 1954, Alan Ladd made an Arthurian swashbuckler called The Black Knight. Who knew?
The first thing that strikes one about such a film, is how ridiculously misplaced Ladd is in the lead. For those who don’t know, Alan Ladd is mostly known for stalking about [...]
Posted in Hard Case Crime, Reviews, Thriller on August 16, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Don’t let the psuedo-Marilyn Monroe bombshell on the cover fool you, Fright is not any kind of particularly simmering or sexual story. I’m not sure I’d even go so far as to classify it as the same kind of noirish, hardboiled stuff that Hard Case Crime normally puts out. It is, however, a gripping, if [...]
Posted in Reviews, Sabatini, Swashbuckling on August 13, 2007 | No Comments »
Phew, sorry about being gone so long, everybody. I still don’t have internet in my new home, but at least the personal distractions that kept me from doing any reading have slowed down, if not stopped entirely. I did a good deal of catching up the other night, and most importantly finished a book whose [...]
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