April 3, 2016
hughjodonnell
Podcast, Uncategorized
CCR, hugh, JRD, Opopinax, Podcasts, Rich The T T
Join Hugh, Rich the T. T. Opopinax and JRD as we take a look at 1959’s Vincent Price classic, House on Haunted Hill. It’s HYSTERICAL.
Click HERE to listen online.
Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by http://skinner.fm and Way of the Buffalo, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
This podcast was originally posted at Skinner.fm on March 27, 2016.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it, or rate and review it in iTunes. You can also support me via Patreon for more content.
April 2, 2016
hughjodonnell
Podcast, Uncategorized
Every Photo Tells, Fiction, Katharina Bordet, Mick Bordet, Podcasts, The Freelance Hunters
In this story performed and produced by Katharina and Mick Bordet of the Every Photo Tells podcast, The Freelance Hunters must sneak into an impregnable castle to prevent an international incident. Easy enough, but there’s just the tiny matter of the goblin war band standing in their way…
Click HERE to listen online.
This podcast was originally posted at Every Photo Tells on October 8th, 2013. Visit their site for more excellent audio fiction and inspiring photo prompts.
You can find more Freelance Hunters fiction and audio at TheFreelanceHunters.com.
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it, or rate and review iTunes! You can also support me via Patreon for more content.
March 30, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Comics, Uncategorized
Comic Bento, HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, Marvel, Spider-Man
Edge of Spider-Verse
Written by Various
Drawn by Various
Published by Marvel Comics
I am a sucker for alternate versions of iconic characters. Different twists, new ideas, and retellings are my jam, which is why I really enjoyed “Edge of Spider-Verse” even if it is a set-up for a very complicated Spider-Man crossover event that I didn’t read. The graphic novel collects five single-issue comics, each with a different version of the iconic superhero.
Each story is complete, and has very different styles and takes. Spider-Man Noir is a 30’s pulp take on the hero, who fights a stage magician version of villain Mysterio. A classic horror-comic version imagines Spider-Man not as hero, but as a grotesque, bloodthirsty monster. And the breakout hit of the book imagines what would happen if Gwen Stacy, rather than Peter Parker, was bitten by the radioactive spider of destiny.
My favorite version was Sp//dr, a Katsuhiro Otomo-inspired take which stars a teenage girl piloting a spider-like robot with the assistance of a genetically engineered creature.
The art and writing vary across the different titles, and each of them ends with some tie-in to the big event comic, either recruitment by the good guys or a confrontation with the villains. It gives some of these tales slightly unsatisfying endings, but what I like about this collection is the creativity that is brought to this well-established character.
I received this comic via Comic Bento, a subscription service that mail delivers curated boxes of comics to subscribers. It is also available from Comixology or your local comics shop.
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March 26, 2016
hughjodonnell
Podcast, Uncategorized
Bad movie, CCR, hugh, JRD, Opopinax, Podcast, review, Rich The T T, The Gorilla
Hugh and the rest of the Chrononauts endure 1939’s “The Gorilla.”
Click HERE to listen online.
This podcast was originally published at Skinner.fm on March 15, 2016.
Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by http://skinner.fm and Way of the Buffalo, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
March 17, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Fiction, Uncategorized
Audible, audiobook, Claudia Gray, HLF, Hugh Likes Fiction, Lost Stars, Pierce Cravens, Star Wars
Lost Stars
Claudia Gray
Penguin/Random House Audio
Narrated by Pierce Cravens
Lost Stars is one of the new Star Wars novels that does what I like best about the new Expanded Universe. Following two aspiring young pilots from the backwater mountain world of Jelucan, it updates the events of the original Star Wars movies with delightful new characters and fresh perspectives.
Marketed as a YA Romance, it follows the relationship of of Ciena Ree, a peasant girl from Jelucan’s valley settlement, and Thane Kyrell, the son of an urbane, upperclass ‘Second Wave’ family from childhood friendship to budding war-time lovers, and finally to conflicted enemies as they find themselves caught on opposite sides of the Rebellion. Thane, awakened to the Empire’s cruelty, defects to the rebels, but Ciena, bound by a strong sense of honor, stays at her post.
Much like Chuck Wendig’s Star Wars: Aftermath, Gray infuses a sense of darkness and nuance into the new Star Wars cannon that is both welcome and refreshing. She spends a significant portion of the book following Ree and her fellow Imperial officers throughout the events of the film trilogy. She does a great job giving these characters a human face and exploring the hard choices that living under a military dictatorship necessitates. Furthermore, she manages to thread the needle of doing so without excusing the atrocities and loss of life that result from those choices.
I experienced this book as an audio book via audible.com Narrator Pierce Cravenss does an excellent job with the text, bringing characters to life without slipping into exaggerated voices. He is supported by a mix that incorporates moments of the films’ iconic scores and sound effects.
Star Wars has always worked with romance at its heart. Ciena and Thane’s story is a worthy addition to the canon for new and old fans alike. This is one flight I heartily recommend.
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March 16, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Comics, Uncategorized
DC, Gotham Academy, HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, review
Gotham Academy Vol. 1
Written by Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher
Drawn by Karl Kerschl
Published by DC Comics
“Gotham Academy” is a boarding school mystery set in the DC Universe, and with Batman appearing in atmospheric, gothic offerings like Scott Snyder’s run on the book and the Arkham Asylum video game franchise, it feels like a perfect fit for his world. Much like the well-beloved “Gotham City Central,” this comic rarely features the Dark Knight, but his shadow falls heavily over the book. And while a YA take on the gritty police drama seems bizarre at first blush, it works very well.
Sophmore Olive Silverlock is returning to Gotham Academy with some problems. The first is a mysterious incident over the summer that left Olive with a spotty memory and unfocussed anger at Gotham’s resident superhero. The other is her freshman mentee ‘Maps’ Mizoguchi. Maps is inquisitive, obsessed with gaming, and the kid sister of her boyfriend Kyle, who would likely be her ex if she could work up the nerve to speak with him. When Olive gets caught in the middle of a ghost-hunting mania sweeping campus, will she find answers to her own mysteries, or just more trouble?
“Gotham Academy” is a great comic for new readers and hardcore Batman fans. An original story that needs no prior knowledge, it is also littered with tantalizing easter eggs for observant fans. Such as 60’s villain Bookwork working as school Librarian. Fletcher’s art, and the lush, shadowy coloring seal the deal. This is an all-ages mystery filled with likable characters and believable high school drama. Of course, it can’t fully escape the towering fantastical elements of Gotham City, but it arrives as a refreshing antidote to DC’s ‘New 52’ sturm and drang. You can pick up Gotham Academy digitally from Comixology, or in trade paperback and single issues from your local comics shop.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this article, please share it, or support my Patreon for more content!
March 8, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Fiction, Uncategorized
Catherynne M Valente, HLF, Hugh Likes Fiction, review, Sci-Fi
Radiance
Written by Cathryne M. Valente
Published by Tor
Where does cinema end and the real world begin? Can a camera really film the truth? And which is more real? Life, or the film that captures it? These are the questions that overshadow the life of documentary filmmaker Severin Unck. Filmed from the moment she appeared as a baby in a basket on the doorstep of Gothic director Percival Unck, she has constantly rejected his brand of fantasy in favor of the truth. Living in an alternate reality where movies never advanced past black-and-white silent films and every planet and moon in the solar system is both habitable and welcoming, she documents food riots on Mars, end of the world parties on Neptune, and of course, her own larger than life childhood. But when Severin disappears on an ill-fated voyage to document the destruction of a Venusian settlement, the truth may be the one thing that is indistinguishable.
Compiled from witness interviews, abandoned film treatments, and radio transcripts, Radiance is an ambitious and strange epistolary novel about the life of a realist documentarian in a fabulist universe. The novel rarely follows a conventional prose format, and when it does, the authenticity of these sections is explicitly suspect. But the fascinating worlds that Valente creates make sifting through the story puzzle she creates a sheer delight. The walls between the events of Severin and her associates’ lives, and that of their film counterparts jumble together in an epic spanning a night flower-carpeted Pluto to a tropical Venus that is home to the Callowhales, island-sized aquatic creatures whose milk is essential for long-term survival in space. But of course, they aren’t really whales, and their milk isn’t really milk.
In this novel, Valente invites us into an editing booth and lays out all these pieces in a lush, fantastic sci-fi mystery. Like Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, It leaves the challenge of constructing a linear narrative to the reader, and leaves the reader not with the satisfaction of a completed story, but the wonder of a messy, complicated, and beautiful life. This novel is not to be missed.
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March 7, 2016
hughjodonnell
Podcast, Uncategorized
Watch along with the Flash Mob as we confront the 80’s musical puzzle that is Purple Rain.
Click HERE to listen! Note: This is an audio podcast. Video of the film Purple Rain is not provided.
This podcast originally aired at Skinner.fm on March 5, 2016.
Thanks for listening!
March 6, 2016
hughjodonnell
Podcast, Uncategorized
hugh, Interview, Lauren Harris, Pat, Podcast, The Way of the Buffalo
Hugh and Pat interview author and audible narrator Lauren ‘Scribe’ Harris.
Click HERE to listen
This podcast originally aired at wayofthebuffalopodcast.blogspot.com on March 1, 2016.
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it, or leave a review on iTunes. You can also join my Patreon for exclusive content and early releases.
March 2, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Comics, Uncategorized
HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, Iron Fist, Marvel, Power Man, review
Power Man and Iron Fist #1
Written by David Walker
Drawn by Sanford Greene
Colored by Lee Loughridge
Published by Marvel Comics
I haven’t read much of the original Power Man and Iron Fist comics from the ’70’s, but I’m a big fan of the concept, especially the way the characters relate in modern Marvel comics. So needless to say, I’m onboard with Power Man and Iron Fist’s 2016 incarnation.
In the Marvel tradition, this is a getting the band back together sort of story, but while it builds on older continuity, it didn’t leave me lost. Years ago, Jennie Royce was the office manager for Luke Cage and Danny Rand, the Heroes for Hire. When she was tried for killing her ex-boyfriend, they did everything they could to help, but she was still convicted. Released from prison, the former partners reunite to meet her at the ferry. Luke has moved on since then, and has started a family. Danny is still fighting crime by night as Iron Fist. When Jennie asks them for a favor, the return of a necklace she says was stolen by gangsters, they get pulled back into street-level crime-fighting. And while Danny is happy to relive his glory days, Luke is less enthusiastic.
While Walker is setting up a nice little crime story, what really sells it is Greene’s art. He uses design and body language to give reinforce the plot and sell the characters. Even something as simple as putting Danny in his Iron Fist jumpsuit while leaving Luke in his vest and collared shirt says volumes about where these characters are and what they want. I particularly like the way flashbacks were drawn. They hover in the negative space above the figures, and it is both unusual and effective.
Power Man and Iron Fist #1 tells a nice little crime tale, while setting up a larger story to come. Check it out on Comixology or in your local comics shop.
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