Comics Primer

Hello, My Name is George and I'm a Marvel Zombie.

BY GEORGE CAVALENS

I was born in the early 80's so my introduction to comics, like most people born then, was the 90's X-men cartoon(1992). I'm not sure if Marvel made a concerted effort back then to market to tweenies but it worked on me. At first, I didn't even know comics existed. My first comic that I can remember buying with my own money was Darker Image # 1 (and only one, march 1993). That was it for me. For the next 15 years I was reading Marvel and Image books. Of course I dropped in and out of comics (After all, I had hundreds of worthless Wetworks and Heroes Reborn comics). When comics crashed, so did I.

I started playing in bands and drinking beer. Comics were the last thing on my mind. Then something happened. I started hearing about this guy Brian Michael Bendis. At the time, Ultimate Spider-Man (oct. 2000) had just come out and he was doing a book calld Powers over at Image. I came in at around issue 6 or 7 but I tracked down the back issues (this was before trades had become so popular). This is what got me back into comics. After that I was reading everything I could get my hands on. Wednesdays had become a ritual and everything was awesome. I was of course reading only Marvel and Image. The other company never interested me. And lets face it, DC had done some pretty fucked up things. In 2000, when I came back I didn't know anything about DC but now I can go back and find out stuff and I can see why I just never got intrested in it back then. But thats not what this article is about.

Now you know my history as a Marvel Zombie. In the last six months I have read a couple of DC books that i really enjoyed: Starman Omnibus 1 and 2 and Gotham Central HC vol 1. These were fucking excellent! So, I'm not against reading DC books. And now that Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, and Greg Rucka are saving this company I may be ready to read a couple books. Every monday here on storiesinmedium.com you will get:

-Awesome comics articles

-My DC progress

-What I'm reading every week

-Reviews in 7 words or less

-Recomdations

In addition to all this, feel free to leave me recomendations on what to read with my DC "quest".

Coming up, I've got Starman Omnibus 3, Gotham Central HC vol 2, and Green Lantern: Rebirth

on my plate. Now lets get to what I read this week and some 7 words or less reviews.

SGT. Fury and His Howling Commandos by Jesse Alexander and John Paul Leon(Marvel $3.99)

Horrible story telling meets gorgeous art.

Dominic Fortune #1 by Howard Chaykin (Marvel $3.99)

1950's James Bond punches and fucks.

Ultimate Spider-man #2 by Brian Michael Bendis and David Lafuente (Marvel $3.99)

I'm Confused. I didn't read it before.

Invincible Iron Man #17 by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca (Marvel $2.99)

What Captain America was 2 years ago.

Irredeemable #6 by Mark Waid and Peter Krause (Boom $3.99)

Kind of creepy. Give me more.

Sweet Tooth #1 by Jeff Lemire (Vertigo $1.00)

Great! Buy it assholes!

Detective Comics #854-856 by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III (DC Comics $3.99)

Wow. That's art. I'm in.

Lost Dogs by Jeff Lemire (Ashtray Press $????)

Jeff knows how to make people sad.

Cat Getting Out Of A Bag and Other Observations by Jeffrey Brown (Chronicle Books $12.95)

Hilarious! Right on the money.

The Walking Dead Hardcover Vol. 4 by Robert Kirman and Charlie Adlard (Image $29.99)

Holy shit.

That's it for this week. Read Invincible Iron Man or you're and asshole!!!!!

Next week: Spider-man.

Issue One Quick Review: Days Missing

Phil Hester takes a Roddenberry idea from a napkin!

BY COLIN ENQUIST

0.99 cents for issue number one of most comics I will buy. Most of the time I actually know what I am picking up though, today I had no idea. I saw Roddenberry presents (creator of Star Trek) and Phil Hester. Figured it had to be worth my one dollar. Especially once I heard that the idea sprouted from something on a napkin.

The story for Days Missing seems basic at first. Just another apocalyptic plague ready to destroy mankind (think Ebola virus but more contagious). A little sci fi twist though and we have an immortal who seems to have been around since, well that is never explained, but before the dinosaurs roamed Earth.

A self contained story about the mystical immortal that makes days go "missing" as we find out in the issue with a flashback that describes surreal events that could have destroyed humanity but do not because of our "savoir". This unique ability to make the days vanish in our minds is not yet explained but we know he wants to save us. Phil Hester is creating a world where anything could happen (or it already did and you don't know about it!).

Art by Frazer Irving does not set the benchmark too high for the next artist to come aboard. Not entirely sure if the book will have a rotation of artists for each issue or not but next issue is drawn by Chris Burnham. Irving's art in this book is almost basic in detail but his ability to tell the story is apparent in the way he uses the panels, really having each panel play off the previous one perfectly. My main problem was the colouring did not suit my taste. The painted style has never been my thing as I feel it takes away from the art itself too much.

Possibilities are endless for this 5 issue mini series with a wide array of stories that could be created from any time in human history. Hester has my money for the next issue for sure. This one was definitely worth 0.99 cents!

4 out of 5

If You Don't Like This Movie Then You're An @$$hole!: 001

JAWS

BY GEORGE CAVALENES

“Here's to swimmin' with bow-legged women.”

I’m sure I’m not the only drunkard who hasn’t uttered those 7 words mid soiree. On many occasions I can remember when me and my friends would break it down, get serious…say those seven words. Nostrovia! I can only think of a handful of movies that are as quoted, parodied, and ripped off as JAWS.

I remember being a kid and catching this movie after Cubs games on WGN. A movie so scary to an 11 year old that I cried my first time getting into the ocean (second and third didn’t go as well, either). Steven Spielberg redefined suspense for this movie and inspired filmmakers for decades to come.

Responsible for creating "summer blockbuster season" and most likely Shark Week, this movie was made to scare people of all ages. I'm not going to bore you with a synopsis of the film because you don't need it to want to see this movie. You should just know that Roy Scheider, Richard Dryfuss, and Robert Shaw turned in the best acting performances of their careers. You should know that this movie launched Steven Spielberg's career. Without it we wouldn't have E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler's List, or Jurassic Park. I could go on for days about useless trivia on this movie like how Spielberg used to call the animatronic shark (bob, for you people in the know) the great white turd or that Charlton Heston was considered for the role of Chief Brody, but I'm not going to. This movie is so great that it makes me want to know useless facts about it. The point is... this is one for the best movies ever made and if you don't like it you're an asshole.

Iron Maiden Flight 666

Up In Irons

BY GORAN SAVIC

This film covers a tour Iron Maiden embarked on in the year 2008. It covered the first leg of their tour, and a tour which they assembled an airplane to carry their gear and their crew.

The cover tells the story, 23 concerts in 45 days, over 5 continents. It was a gruelling schedule, and you can see the fatigue on the band's faces as the movie gets farther into their tour. It's not just concert footage, but what went on backstage, and other areas. You see the band on their rare days off relaxing, playing golf, or other pastimes. These kinds of movies are wonderful, as it shows

the human side to a band, that they are not just what you see when you go to see them live.

It is also quite amazing to see the difference in how certain crowds in different cities and countries react to Iron Maiden coming to their country to perform for them. Some of these places this is the first time Iron Maiden has ever performed there. It is quite moving actually, to see grown men cry after the concert is over, as some of them have stated that Iron Maiden is not just a band, but more like a religion.

The directors behind this have previous experience with Heavy Metal documentaries, with Global Metal, and Metal: A Headbangers Story the other two that they have done. Starting in Mumbai, and finishing in Toronto, this film shows us why this band is still popular to this day.

I must add that there is a 2nd disc of the entire concert itself, which I have not viewed yet. Having seen this tour last year, there isn't a rush to see this just yet. All in all, it was a nice journey through time.

Inglorious Basterds is Exhilarating!

Filling the fantasy of what we wish we could have done to Hitler

BY COLIN ENQUIST

Quentin Tarantino worked on the script for Inglorious Basterds for almost a decade. During that decade the exceptional filmmaker has given us: Kill Bill (Vol 1 & 2), Deathproof (part of the Grindhouse double feature with Robert Rodriguez), and a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation two part season finale (which got Tarantino an Emmy Nomination). Not only did he direct these entire but wrote them as well (with the exception of CSI which he co-wrote) and he had minor roles in a few of the films.

This revenge war film that Tarantino has repeatedly stressed is a “spaghetti western but with a World War II iconography” takes place mostly in 1944, after D-Day but before the liberation of Paris. Inglorious Basterds is set in an alternate history of the Second World War.

Like most other Tarantino films, Inglorious Basterds has a cast of movie stars from beginning to end. Some are prominent, taking central roles: Brad Pitt and Eli Roth, others get little screen time: Mike Myers and Michael Fassbender, and a few only lend their voices: Samuel L. Jackson and Harvey Keitel. Tarantino regulars are around as well but it is the new faces in Christopher Waltz and Melanie Laurent who steal the show.

Waltz was nominated (and won) the Best Actor Award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for his role in this film. The multi-linguistic actor displays magnificent depth and he is: pure evil, derisive, articulate, intelligent, and absurd. Aside from Waltz, most of the other actors/actresses do not have much screen time. Even the main protagonists in Pitt and Laurent have limited screen time, despite such integral parts to the story. Pitt looks like he is having too much fun as his role of commanding officer of the Basterds.

Tarantino has used extreme violence that always pushes the boundaries and this film is no exception. This is not for those with a weak stomach. It is painful to watch some of the damage done to the human body during the times of war.

Dialogue filled and driven is the heart of any Tarantino film. I have always enjoyed this aspect of his films but I think it hurt this film slightly. Not to say the film would have been better in only English dialect but the constant reading took away from the focus on character reaction to the conversation(s) occurring.

Inglorious Basterds has some very good scenes but one stood out for me. When the Nazis are watching the premiere of “Nation’s Pride” (based off of a character’s exploits in Inglorious Basterds) they are laughing at the 300 Americans dieing on film. This propaganda film makes the Nazis so happy. A little spoiler for the ending here, so skip the rest of the paragraph if you want! Yet at the climax of both films, 350 Nazis (Hitler included!) get shot, are burned alive and caught in a giant explosion, causing the same joyous feeling to come over the audience I was watching the film with. There was no shouting and laughing like the Nazis were but you could tell the reaction was emotionally the same.

I have no knowledge (and I do not think Tarantino knows either) as to why Basterds is spelled incorrectly in the title of the film. During the film though we see Brad Pitt’s character, Lt. Aldo Raine, carry a gun holding with the title written on the barrel, so maybe the title is incorrect because Lt. Raine is possibly illiterate?

This could possibly be Tarantino’s best film since Pulp Fiction. I may throw out the argument for Deathproof to be included in that conversation of best Tarantino film. A brutal film, Inglorious Basterds draws on Tarantino’s strong dialogue to drive the story. Ending with Brad Pitt finishing his “masterpiece”, which may prove to also be Tarantino’s?

4 out of 5

About Us

And what our site intends to bring to the table!


Here at StoriesinMedium.com we all love a good story. The format of how the story told is irrelevant to us: films, novels, television, comics, hell even old time radio (how can you not like listening to Orson Welles read War of the Worlds!), as long as the void in us that craves a good story is filled. So how did our love for the many different story telling art forms translate into a website, you ask?

It all started because we – Colin Enquist, Emil Tiedemann, and Goran Savic – seemingly were given the task of informing friends and family if the many films we saw were worth watching. This slowly blossomed into us sharing our thoughts and opinions on a few websites. With the progression it only seemed natural to build our own website. As we discussed the ideas we wanted to include, the suggestion came up that we should not only share our opinions and reviews of films, but should expand the site to include all the different types of media that are used to tell stories. So on January 1st 2009, StoriesinMedium.com was born.

Since the beginning our main focus has always been the film industry and it will still be the film industry but we now are giving ourselves more freedom to spotlight on other aspects of the storytelling mediums that we all enjoy. My fellow SiM writers and I want to bring you opinionated reviews of any story that we consume with our brains, eyes and ears. We also want to bring you some unique content with our original articles and musings about items that relate to any medium that piques our curiosity.

Since we started SiM in January we have done over 70 reviews, dozens of articles and many news items. While we plan on shying away from news in general, that doesn’t mean we will never post any. The news articles we post now though will be something we are excited for or something we believe you should be excited for it. Those readers who enjoyed the focus on movie posters and trailers do not worry; they will still be around, just in a little different format.

We have brought on a few more writers to help us through this transition and they will hopefully stick around for a long, long time. Make sure you welcome George Cavalenes, Matt Luecke and Ashley Kalagian as the new crop of writers next time you visit the site. I should also make special mention of Laura Gies who joined after the site was made, and has stayed with us!

All of us here at StoriesinMedium.com hope you enjoy the new direction. Let us know by commenting on the posts you like or send us an email at contact@storiesinmedium.com!!