CBR Xombi (2011)

 

Time to check out some less popular, less known American comic books.
Today's title, a "weird" light horror lil' comic going by the name....

Comic title: Xombi
Art by Frazer Irving
Story by John Rozum
Brave & The Bold feature art by Scott Hampton

Published by DC
From 2011
Lineup Xombi
Format:Trade Paperback collecting the entire six-issue Xombi series as well as The Brave and The Bold #26.

Originally pitched by writer/producer Dwayne McDuffie and created at Milestone Comics, a little independent publisher created to for African-American comic book creators, Xombi is probably one of the most original ideas to come out of that group.
Milestone was founded in the early 90s and was home to many original characters such as the popular and endearing Static Shock.
But unlike the others original ideas from Milestone, Xombi finds its roots in the old creepy and eerie 1980s comics. (too much Milestone characters suffer from the "Extreeeeeme!"-approach usual for 90s characters, just take a look at Hardware or Icon!)

Xombi is also a minority group, but isn't defined by it at all.
Rather is comics are a sort of mix of scifi and fantasy similar to DC/Vertigo's Constantine: Hellblazer.

This book is the first properly developed at DC Comics after they purchased the Milestone group, and after Xombi's original series. It was supposed to be an on-going series, but was stopped due to the company-wide relaunch ("The New 52").

David Kim was a simple man.
He had a fiancée, Dalia Rose, with whom things seemed to go for the better.
From Korean origin, he was a big shot scientist in Dakoto, who came from the New Jersey.
He had developed fantastic nanotechnology which, bonded with living organisms acted as a sort of virus.
One day due to an accident, he was mortal wounded. His assistant used the nanotechnological virus to help him....but ended "used" as raw material in the process.
Now, turned into a "xombi", David has become immortal, he is physically enhanced to his peak physical form and has the ability to regenerate from any condition.

Xombi was originally created by created by John Rozum and Denys Cowan.
This comic sees the return of his co-creator Rozum on his character over a decade later. He created Xombi and knows this character the best, and it shows.
The comic is fun, quite entertaining and really a unique read.

This new adventure sees David facing giant monsters of biblical proportions, ghouls and ghosts of all kinds and taking on flying fortresses.
His friend Julian Parker tags along, alongside a couple of crazy nuns, a "Catholic Girl" and more!
Our unnatural unlikely team of misfits face an evil mastermind prepared for every potential threat...

David is now living in the strangest worlds, facing things unlike anything he ever thought to ever see and yet tries to keep a foot in his old life as it was.
It's a fun story, full of deep thoughts on what it means to go through changes and what you would do to keep it from changing.

It is also a gorgeous well illustrated book. The artwork of Frazer Irving is simply outstanding.
The colors really set the tone of this fantastic world. Background might seem a bit empty or secondary, but it really contributes to this comic's tone.

As a "bonus", DC thrown in issue 26 of The Brave and the Bold comic, which was already collected in its own collection, but it's not a reason to dismiss this little addition.

It features a team up of Xombi with The Spectre.
A ghost is seemingly on a killing rampage, eating lifeforces of various creatures, from ghosts to vampires..and getting closer and closer to the living each time.
Xombi tries to reason with the former-Crispus Allen, now The Spectre. He was a cop in his anterior life, perhaps he can be reasoned with...

It's a pretty simple and straightforward story, too short to go anywhere really. But it's a fun portrayal of this new Spectre and Xombi and his cast all get their little moments to shine.

Overall, a very fun book. Recommended!

You like supernatural stories such as Hellboy and the B.P.R.D? Well this is right up your alley!
No need to read the previous Xombi stories, David Kim is only on his 2nd month being a xombi (which would consist on the entire previous series).

Creepy, but not horror. Fantastic, but not fantasy.

I give it:

  2.5 / 3 Plastic-trophies!

ComicPanelsOfTheWeek: God, I pity Me.

(Click for bigger pic)

Bone © Cartoon Books

ComicPanelsOfTheWeek: Is this honey

(Click for bigger pic)

Bone © Cartoon Books

MR Nausicaä

This week, let's look into what is considered the first Studio Ghibli movie (though it isn't!)
If you want to check out my previous reviews, follow the Ghibli-Marathon tag or simply click over the above picture!

Considered by many, a classic of the Japanese animations - for both fans of anime or not. Let's review Miyazaki's big independent debut...

Movie: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind 
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Release date 1984
Genre Anime/fantasy adventure
Country Japan

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a post-apocalyptic animated filmd written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and produced by his long time friend and co-animator Isao Takahata, who had both been trying to launch their own anime studio for years.
Tired of all the usual commercial and cheap productions Japan had been producing for years, he experimented making movies for larger audiences with more mature content and serious production values.

The story of Nausicaä was actually based on a manga going by the same name, drawn and written by Miyazaki. Serialized from '82 to '94. it is about a princess from small kindom that is then brought into a war between empires. She tries to seek the coexistence between these different nations why preventing the humans own selfishness and ambitions from destroying nature in the process.
The movie is actually the adaptation (more or less) of the first chapters (2 of the 7 volumes).

Nausicaä is therefore an adaptation of a manga...which itself was originally inspired by the character Nausicaä from Homer's Odyssey. This character served as basis for Miyazaki's story. The daughter of King Alcinous, trying to bring back peace in the middle of a imperial war amongst nation.

But back on the movie itself, shall we?

The film tells the story of Nausicaä, a young girl, princess and fighter from the "Valley of the Wind" who gets involved in a struggle  between empires.

But let's start at the beginning first.
The story takes place a 1000 years after an apocalyptic event, called the "Seven Days of Fire", it was a cataclysmic war that destroyed both the planet's civilizations and ecosystem.
Now, there are Toxic Jungles all over the world, also called the Sea of Decay, where the air is toxic and there lies giant insects, the result of various evolutions and aberrations, nature's answer to man's destruction.

Nausicaä lives in this Valley of the Wind that is a place relatively protected from the toxic spores thanks to the air coming from the ocean.
A wise and mysterious man who lives there from time to time, called Master Yupa, is searching for the "Man in Blue", he who will unite the people back with nature. To help him out, Nausicaä goes on exploration, searching from jungle to jungle and beyond the desert for this mysterious savior.
She uses this flying glider, a Möwe, to move around.

Nausicaä is actually sort of able to talk to these giant insect creatures and would love to see peace returning to the world..
She is particularly found of the "insect kings", the Ohmus/Ômus (depending on the version of the film).

One day, a giant airship crashes near the Valley.
Nausicaä notices it and tries to rescue a little girl she sees aboard.
The villagers soon find out it is the princess Lastelle of Pejite.

Which brings war to the peaceful village.

The war is still going between various rival kingdoms. A military flying ship from the Tolmekia (/Tolmek/Tolmèque) Empire comes around.

Nausicaä discovers an embroy of a Giant Warrior in the first crashed airship - which are dangerous weapons created by man from the old war.
Lastelle was actually trying to destroy the monster, these embryos need to be destroyed!

But the empire Tolmekian wants to resort to what originally destroyed the world in their conflict against the Dork Empire.
The Princess Kushana and General Kurotowa invade the valley for the embryo...

Meanwhile, Nausicaä finds out the jungle is actually toxic because of what people did to the ground, plants actually grow in water beneath the sand and jungle.

The Tolmekia kingdom tries to use an ancient weapon too soon, to fend off from an Omhu attack...
Nausicaä must stop the Tolmekians from killing these insects, the survival of the planet depends on it!

Let's simply say it, Nausicaä is a gorgeous looking animated movie, with great animation quality, an amazing atmosphere and feel, a mature tone, fantastic orchestral music compositions and a great story to boot.

Miyazaki and his very competent staff did the impossible, made Japanese animation relevant again and popular worldwide with both fans and critics alike.

The movie's production was done in a record time of under 10 months (!!!) for a budget of about 1 million $USD, which at the time was a lot and without precedent.

It helped establish the Studio Ghibli, which would be the home of various other Miyazaki and Takahata films for the following decades. That is why it actually is often considered part of Ghibli's filmography and legacy.
It went on to win several prizes and breached  various records of the JKapanese box office and worldwide as well.

Originally Tokuma Shoten wanted to turn Miyazaki's Nausicaä manga into a movie, but Miyazaki preferred to take the occasion to do so himself. It was then released by Toei on March 1984.

There's a lot of Takahata as well as Miyazaki in this movie.
It really is a joint effort to launch their Studio Ghibli.
There's a lot of inspiration both brought in from their previous productions. Be it from Lupin or Horus. Mostly esthetically.
And as fantastic as it is, it is a story of characters before anything.
Ghibli's first leading female heroine, a model for generations to come.

Overall, it is a must see, simple as that.
Beautiful gorgeous looking, great and entertaining.

It's a movie for all, all ages and wherever you come from. It's an universal kind of story.
People fighting for peace, people raging war, nature being ignored and caught in the middle.
Environmentalist and meaningful.

But please, I will add this to this conclusion, please don't watch the butchered US translation from the late 90s - also re-released on DVD for some reason.
Avoid the version of the movie translated under the name Warriors of the Wind at all cost!!
It was heavily edited and modified to be more "manly" and less "girly" as stereotypical 80s American cartoon companies would have put it. Avoid this release!!

Anyways, Nausicaä is a must watch!

I give it:

2.5 / 3 DonPatchis!

COOLAPE Wednesday - The Pit

Link for the full comic on CoolApe:
http://www.coolape.org/comic-eyz-pit.html

Hey! It worked for Spartans, why can't your regular good ol' medieval Knights do the same as well?

BestMovieScenesOfAllTime - Yo She-Bitch, Let's Go!

And one more from Army of Darkness.



I just love these Sam Raimi's montage scenes :P

BestMovieScenesOfAllTime - This is my BOOMstick!!

Easily one of my all-time favorite scenese, from one of my favorite movies ever made!



From Army of Darkness.

Felicia Day playing with herself.

...
What?

Anyway, here's a follow-up of sorts to this previous post.
Wanna see how fun, or awkward it is to play with your own digital alter ego?



Felicia plays a bit of the Dragon Age DLC "Mark of the Assassin".

She even has to pay for her own DLC? Bad EA, bad!

Best DVD Commentary Ever - Arnie on Conan The Barbarian

You know what's better than a DVD Commentary by Schwarzenegger?
Another DVD Commentary by Schwarzenegger!

Have some of the awesome reparties between the Governator and with director Jon Milius on the classic badass film Conan The Barbarian!



An already awesome movie, made awesomer!

And kids prefer Rifftrax over the actual movie commentaries... -tsk!-

AwesomeLooneyTunesShowScene: The Wizard

 This was from a recent episode of The Looney Tunes Show. (a cartoon, I might add, I've been loving and enjoying since day one!)



Daffy's a pretty fun character in this show (has he truly been otherwise in any past Looney Tunes material anyway?)
There's been lots of allusions of Daffy dreaming to be a great wizard or sorcerer over the last few episodes, culminating into this fantastic "Merry Melody" musical segment :P

So much epicness!
And the silly anime-inspired retro fantasy cartoon-style here suits this segment pretty well! XD

Gamin' NEWS! "Mark of the Assassin DLC"

Here's Felicia Day turned into a Dragon Age II character in an upcoming DLC episode:



Random.
I just hope Bioware won't do the same with future Mass Effect 3 DLC characters and missions..
I mean, it can be fun with their fantasy-RPG series and The Guild's actress, I see the link, sure.
But I sure won't like having "real actors" popping-up as bonus squad members* in their scifi action-RPG series as well...
We already have fake!Vandamme there, that's more than enough.

*of course we already have that with Seth Green/Joker and Yvonne Strahovski/Miranda, but that's besides the point. I'm talking about additional "celebs" getting into the game via paid add-ons.

MR Horus: Prince of the Sun

With this review, I'm gonna start what I've been wanting to do for quite some time now... what we will call the "Studio Ghibli Marathon"!
But instead of going through the usual Spirited Aways and other Totoros right from the start like everybody else, I wanna take a look at the more obscure Pre-Ghibli movies as well.

So without further ado, let's start from the very beginning...

Movie: Horus: Prince of the Sun and also known as The Sun Prince - Hols' Great Adventure  aka The Little Norse Prince or Little Norse Prince Valiant
Directed by Isao Takahata
Release date 1968
Genre Anime/adventure
Country Japan

Started in 1965, Horus: Prince of the Sun's production was finally finished a bit shy in the middle of 1968 only. Why did an old anime movie from the 60s take so much time, which was quite unusual for the time, a simple original movie which wasn't even an adaptation from an important work or manga?

Because of the various troubles that were happening behind the scenes. A conflict arose between the creative team (composed mostly of animation director Hayao Miyazaki and director and producer Isao Takahata) with the producers at Toei.
This was long before they co-opened their own animation company, Studio Ghibli.
It was in fact Isao Takahata's first film debut. Before that he and Miyazaki both worked on television anime series. Several animes, amongst them, the more famous across the world were Lupin III, Heidi or also Future Boy Conan...
Anyway, they had problems over budget disputes.

You see, they wanted to make a movie they'd want to watch themselves, with content and interesting themas to explore. But Toei was only interested in making a cheap movie for kids.
Takahata and his crew were also quite demanding regarding to the quality of the final product.

This movie marks the starting point, for Japanese animation, when creators (writers, artists, directors,..) took the reins behind the direction of their movies from the hands of producers and companies.

It also united for the first time Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki and Yoichi Kotabe who would go on to make their own studio, leaving Toei, becoming independent and making such movies as Panda Ko Panda. [Eyz note: we'll see this one later!]

Our hero begins a journey the same way King Arthur did... errr...not quite though..

The story opens with Horus!
[note: "Hols" in some American releases..]
Horus is a young boy. He is first seen fighting against a pack of "silver wolves".
In the middle of it all, Horus wakes up an ancient stone giant nammed Moog. [or Mogue]
After helping this giant pull out an horn from his shoulder, which turns out to be a mystic sword, the gentle giant makes a pact to Horus. He will leave this Sword of the Sun in his hands, if he promises to forge it (the sword is all rusty and old..), in return Moog will return to aid him that day and Horus will be hence known as "Prince of the Sun" according to an old legend.

Returning to his home, Horus finds out his father died in the meantime...
Horus ends up swearing a second oath that day. He will return to his father's old village, in the north. It was destroyed many years ago by the evil sorcerer Grunwald.
Horus promises to avenge his village.

Horus goes on a journey to the northern villages, accompanied by his friend Coro, a bear cub.
There, Horus finds Grunwald quite easily. Grunwald, in true evil sorcerer fashion asks him to join his side...to become his "brother", so he'll take care of him and will help Horus become powerful and feared like him...but Horus refuses...

Finally, Horus finds an inhabited fishing village. He helps out the village, takes care of an enormous monster that was terrorizing the lake nearby and finally settles in.
He ends up meeting a lone girl wandering around in the remains of his father's old village. This girl, called Hilda, is brought back to the same fishing village. She spends her days singing for the villagers.

Everything was going fine, right? All's well in the end...but the chief of the village starts resenting these newcomers, Horus' popularity amongst the inhabitants is annoying the chief. His deputy Drago starts spying on our hero and planning a way to kick the intruders out.

In the last act, things get going badly, Horus finds out Hilda is Grunwald's "sister" (or is she...?), the village gets attacked on all sides and from withing, and Grunwald makes his presence felt....

This movie was produced by the animation studio Toei Doga.

The story, if a bit straightforwad, seems pretty rushed. Takahata and co were used to the television format, and such the structure you'd find in an episodic series is sort of felt through the movie.
But as forward and rushed the story seems, it still is a pretty good movie.
The art and animation isn't 100% consistent all the way through, but I think it makes the charm of a 60's anime movie.
It still is of great quality. And the voice acting or music only helps make this movie come to life even moreso.

The story takes place in the Scandinavia around -500 (BC). The whole movie reflects this "Viking era", without resorting to clichés or your classic elements you would find in stories taking place during that age.

It's a great movie, if a bit less known from Miyazaki and Takahata's other productions.

Overall, a great movie.
Simple, but fun. The characters come out a bit sketchy at first glance, but they're properly developed over the course of the movie.

Grunwald is specially a good villain even if he comes out plain "evil". He is quite mysterious in the end, he seems to be a normal man that has turned to evil and who's promised himself to get rid of all mankind. Using animals (giant fish, wolves, etc..) to help him on his devilish quest.

The movie explores some similar themes to the later Ghibli movie Laputa. Even some characters like Pazu or Sheeta seems based on these earlier characters Horus and Hilda who probably served as protypes for them. (even in their designs)
The story seems to draw a lot from the novels of Ursula K. Le Guin, the tales from Earthsea from 1964 (published from '68 to 2001), which Miyazaki admitted being a big fan many times. He wanted to make a movie based on Earthsea for many years, until his own son ended up being the one to direct an adaptation in 2006.

Anyway, it's a good movie. Give it a try if you found yourself interested in it!

I give it:

2 / 3 DonPatchis!

MR Prince of Persia

By now, you've probably seen I'm sort of an expert on all-things Prince of Persia.
We've seen last time the comic book, but what about the movie adaptation?

Movies based on video games tend to suck, mostly because Hollywood decides to take the easy route and turn those into cash-ins. (and also, for some strange reason, adapt fighting games, which aren't the best type of narrative-filled games...)

Also, don't miss my previous PoP reviews (you can find listed on this page if I don't forget to update it sometimes...)

Movie: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time 
Directed by Mike Newell
Release date 2010
Genre Action adventure/fantasy
Country USA
 
For quite some time, Jordan Mechner always wanted to adapt the Prince of Persia series into a motion picture.
During the mid-90s', an animated motion picture based on the original Prince of Persia games almost came to be. But due to a lack of interest from producers Mechner wasn't able to pull it....

Then, thanks to the current mainstream popularity of the series under Ubisoft, Mechner was able to first adapt it into a fantastic comic book (link above), and finally convince a studio, Disney nonetheless, to buy the license and make something out of this cult series.
The comic book can be seen as a tryout. Nor a particular adaptation of one of the games but its own product developing its own narrative.

This movie was written by Jordan Mechner himself (the screenplay mostly), Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro, and Carlo Bernard. It was directed by Mike Newell and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer for Walt Disney Pictures.

New PoP requires a new Prince and Princess.

What is it about?
The story is loosely based on the very game it shares its title with.
It follows rather closely the Sands of Time distinctive plot.
Jordan Mechner changes a lot of details, kept some of the best elements and dragged some references from almost all of the video game entries. Since he's the creator of the IP, I didn't had much problem with that.
The plot as usual still revolves around a Persian Prince who turns into a fugitive, embarks on a journey and fights his way back against evil forces all the while ending up with a Princess and battling a corrupt power. (the Vizier usually)
It didn't keep all of the series trademarks (the evil doppelgänger) but kept most (time, duels, parkour...).

Some non-Prince of Persia elements find their way into the movie...hint for upcoming Ubisoft adaptations?

The plot is about Dastan. Yes, the Prince is named this time. (Hollywood hates unnamed protagonists)

Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) was an orphan living in the Persian Empire. He was adopted at a young age by the King Sharaman himself. There, in the palace, he grew up along his step-brothers Tus and Garsiv.

Several years came by, now an adult, the brothers are planning an attack on the sacred city of Alamut, rumoured to have been selling weapons to their enemies.
In fact, a treachery of their own uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley) who was seeking this city for his own reasons...

Dastan leads a surprise attack in the city and ends up finding a magical blade, the Dagger of Time.
The brothers forces the local Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) to marry Tus as a peace agreement.

Short story short, Dastan is tricked, accused of the murder of the King and has to flee the kingdom.
Accompanied by Tamina, he goes on a journey first to get more Sands of Time for his Dagger, and then to strike back at his deceivers.
On his adventure, the Prince goes through a lot. He meets Sheik Amar (played fantastically by Alfred Molina) and his fidel "Um Bakr" Knife thrower Seso, faces the legendary Hassassins, participates in ostrich racing(!), and much more!

 Spinoff potential?

Jordan Mechner wrote a very fun script.
Rather than a plain straightforward word-for-word adaptation, he took the best elements of PoP and used the story arc of the first Ubisoft-produced Prince of Persia to showcase the most of the series.
The story deviates, sure, but in a very fun and entertaining movie.

There's a lot of elements ported directly from the game.
The Prince is loosely based on both the Sand of Time trilogy and the 2008 Princes. As such, he starts the movie in the Warrior Within garb and end up in a pretty similar costume to the one wore by the 2008 PoP hero.
While the game's about getting the Sands back into the hourglass/sealing it back, the movie is about preventing it to be released in the first place. (which sort of makes more sense in my eyes, though it takes the fantastical monsters and enemies out of the movie)
The Prince Tamina serves a role similar to Farah in the SoT game, but seems to draw a lot more from Elika from the 2008 game (as well as her relationship with the Prince).

Similarly, the overall plot is pretty close to the one from the original 2nd game The Shadow and The Flame. The hero flees the palace but needs to get back to it in the end.

The score is amazing!
Best aspect of the movie for me. Pretty epic, well composed and conducted by Harry Gregson-Williams. It's not that far from the 2008 PoP score itself, with some tunes sounding pretty close to some of Two Thrones or even, dare I say, the Arabic melodies of Prince of Persia 3D.

 Face-off! It all comes down to this, an hourglass, a Prince and an evil Vizier...

The movie's pretty entertaining.
Fun and epic. For me, it's the (proper) return of the adventure genre!
Without silly gimmicks like movies such as Journey to the Center of the Earth  and its 3D-in-yoour-face.

It feels like a cross between the Arabian Nights and Indiana Jones.
The movie doesn't contain much magical/fantasy elements, but it's in the backdrop beneath the story or in the musical approach.

The new characters introduced are fun.
There's some humour, even one of the most memorable action scenes ever featuring osterich in a movie. A scene that will have people talk about for years to come fo' sure!

Overall, a very good movies in my own opinion.
It was able to adapt most of Sands of Time while not being trapped by it and being able to feature elements from most Prince of Persias.

Easily the best video game adaptation. Probably because the team behind the movie didn't want it to end up being just another usual bad video game movie. But a proper movie in itself.
Sure it might not be something new. A hero needs to prove his innocence, a magical object, tagging with a disinterested Princess, facing the corrupt member of the family and getting the girl in the end... But it's the whole package and atmosphere that really sold it to me.

The movie incorporates for the first time in the series the fabled Hassassins, who originally came from the old Persia. And main characters of that other platform-ysh parkour-inspired video game series developed by Ubisoft. Is Ubi trying to tie Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed? (there's some elements that seem to be directly referencing AC, from an "Eagle View" moment, early in the film, to the order of the Assassins, the acrobatic sequence in the flashback sequence, etc..)

It's a pretty good movie, already one of my favorites. And much better that I hope it would be!

I give it:

2.5 / 3 Films!