Seth Harris

Comic Book Review – Starman Omnibus Volume Two

Starman Omnibus Volume Two (2022)
Reprints All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant #1, Batman/Hellboy/Starman #1-2, JSA: All-Stars #4, Starman #44-81, Starman #1,000,000, Starman: The Mist #1, Starman/Congorilla #1, Stars and STRIPE #0, and The Shade #1-12
Written by James Robinson with David Goyer & Geoff Johns
Art by Tony Harris, Peter Snejbjerg, Mike Mayhew, Dave Ross, Mike Mignola, Mike Mckone, John Lucas, Brett Booth, Lee Moder, Cully Hamner

The second half of James Robinson’s Starman is mainly comprised of two storylines: Stars My Destination and Grand Guignol. Intermixed within are Times Past stories, filling in gaps in the backstories of the Golden Age Starman and Scalphunter. There’s a brief interlude for the DC One Million crossover that Robinson still uses to build on the legacy themes so prominent in this work. It should also be noted how popular Starman was at this point. It was enough to warrant a crossover with Batman and Hellboy. That’s amazing for a character who took his bow in the last issue of his series and hasn’t been seen since. Very few comic book superheroes get this sort of finality to their story. Yet, DC has never brought Jack Knight back.

Movie Review – Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
Written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman
Directed by Robert Zemeckis

There will never be a film like this one again. Warner Bros. and Disney allowing their characters on screen together makes it a rare event. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was a celebration of classic American animation, both in the characters featured but also in animation legend Richard Williams overseeing that part of the production. Watching it now as an adult, it is surprisingly straightforward. It follows the noir genre closely with its plot while letting the tone be set by the zany premise. The story takes place over two days, and there’s never a lull; the pacing keeps us moving along with the characters, leading up to a very memorable conclusion.

Movie Review – The French Connection

The French Connection (1971)
Written by Ernest Tidyman
Directed by William Friedkin

It’s not the story that compels you to keep watching. It’s the lead performance by Gene Hackman. It’s the bleak atmosphere of a decaying New York City. It’s the sense that no matter how this turns out, no one really wins. The rot will just keep spreading. Reactionary cinema had its Golden Age in the 1970s. Most of those depicted the rogue cop or the street vigilante as a bastion of “real justice,” pushing aside those pesky civil rights laws to “get the job done.” You might lump The French Connection in with something like Dirty Harry, but that would be a mistake. Dirty Harry revels in Callahan’s sadism and hatred of pretty much all humanity. Popeye Doyle is not someone we’re meant to admire. He’s an animal we’re observing who stalks and hunts vulnerable prey, invoking the Law as his justification. He doesn’t care about the Law, though. This is about ego.

Movie Review – The Conformist

The Conformist (1970)
Written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci

Time and again, people in the States seem to conflate fascism with iconography. Yes, that is undoubtedly a piece of the ideology, but its believers are clever enough to know that continuing to wear swastikas and black leather while goosestepping isn’t going to sow seeds anymore. The danger of fascism is how much like the mundane & ordinary it can appear. This is where “I was just following orders” emerges from. You can be a mild-mannered civil servant, just signing the papers across your desk and filing them correctly. Nothing wrong with that, right? If those papers are in connection to greenlighting death camps or murdering political dissidents, then it doesn’t seem like you are “just doing your job.” You are carrying water for a type of thought that seeks to annihilate every last atom of humanity in us.

TV Review – Kingdom: Exodus

Kingdom: Exodus (Mubi)
Written by Lars von Trier and Niels Vørsel
Directed by Lars von Trier

I just can’t hate Lars von Trier. I think he’s a massive asshole, and he often has a horrible sense of humor. However, I find his work enjoyable…mostly. He’s frequently on the cusp of a breakthrough but then misses the point. While David Lynch’s Twin Peaks inspired the Kingdom series, I do not think this comes close to that masterpiece. Part of this is Lynch’s willingness to grow and change as an artist. Von Trier, instead, has entered his grumpy old man phase, and Exodus puts much of that on display. It’s eye-rolling & annoying. He has such a cynical viewpoint in the way he ends this story. Lynch wrapped up Twin Peaks: The Return with a dark ending, but it’s clear he doesn’t see things as hopeless.

PopCult Podcast – Love Lies Bleeding/Drive-Away Dolls

As Billy Eichner once said, “Let’s go, lesbians!” On this week’s sapphic episode we look at a two lesbian neo-noirs with two very different takes on the genre.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Heinrich’s Call of Cthulhu Guide to Carcosa Part Two

Heinrich’s Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation
Written & Designed by Heinrich D. Moore
You can purchase it here

Heinrich’s Call of Cthulhu Guide to Carcosa
Written & Designed by Heinrich D. Moore
You can purchase it here

In our first part, I focused on the Guide to Character Creation and its incredibly robust tools that lead to unique player characters every single time you go through the book. Now, we get the adventure with the Guide to Carcosa. For the unfamiliar, Carcosa was originated by Ambrose Bierce in the short story “An Inhabitant of Carcosa” (1886) where a character described the city in hindsight after its destruction. Nine years later Robert Chambers would borrow the name for stories featured in his eerie fiction collection The King in Yellow. From there, authors who wrote in the cosmic horror vein of Lovecraft would fold Carcosa and The King in Yellow into the Cthulhu Mythos associating the king with the deity Hastur.

Comic Book Review – Starman: The Cosmic Omnibus Volume One

Starman: The Cosmic Omnibus (2020)
Reprints Starman #0-42, Starman Annual #1, The Shade #1-4, Starman Secret Files #1, and The Power of Shazam #35-36
Written by James Robinson (with Jerry Ordway)
Art by Tony Harris, Teddy Kristiansen, Kim Hagen, Bjarne Hansen, Christian Højgaard, Guy Davis, J.H. Williams III, Gary Erskine, Steve Yeowell, Craig Hamilton, Dusty Abell, Jerry Ordway, Ray Snyder, Matthew Smith

James Robinson walked so Geoff Johns could run. In 1995, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC Comics rolled out Zero Hour: A Crisis in Time. By the end of the mini-series, things were more or less the same with a few tweaks. Part of the changes was the rollout of a handful of new titles: Extreme Justice and REBELS continued storylines started in the pages of Justice League America and LEGION, respectively. Manhunter and Fate introduced new characters using legacy names. Primal Force was a magic title, while Xenobrood was about human-alien hybrids, seeming like a play on some of Image’s popular books. None of these last very long. There would only be one book post-Zero Hour that would go the distance and run for 81 issues, Starman.

Movie Review – Happy-Go-Lucky

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)
Written and directed by Mike Leigh

I remember when this film came out, and a significant part of the discourse was how annoying the main character was. In revisiting it, I didn’t find that to be true. Oh yes, Poppy is very positive, but she reminded me of the Kindergarten teachers I worked alongside as an elementary teacher. Her seemingly endless cheeriness serves a purpose in Leigh’s story. It’s a protection against the nihilism of the world around her, which I think we all can admit is easy to sink into. I know that in real life, I probably would feel overwhelmed and overstimulated being in Poppy’s presence for long periods. The mistake many characters make, and I suspect it is the same with the audience, is that because Poppy is so cheerful, she must be a fool. And that is not true in the slightest.

Movie Review – Vera Drake

Vera Drake (2004)
Written and directed by Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh’s second foray into historical drama takes us back to the early 1950s. The UK is still healing from the wounds of World War II, and people get on with their lives. It’s also the first of his films that I don’t think quite hits the mark. There’s a very potent moral space to be explored with Vera Drake, but Leigh and his acting collaborators seem to avoid it. That would be the more interesting place to go than where we do, which is a fairly bog standard story. If you have even the slightest experience with cinema, then you’ll likely know where this film is going the minute you learn about Drake’s side gig and the volunteer work she does for her community.