Book Review: The Invaders: Alien Missile Threat

Book Review: The Invaders: Alien Missile Threat by Paul S. Newman The Invaders was a Quinn Martin production that ran on American television from 1967-1968. Architect David Vincent (Roy Thinnes) discovers that aliens from a dying planet are infiltrating Earth (particularly America) in human disguises for the purpose of making our planet their planet. Since… Continue reading Book Review: The Invaders: Alien Missile Threat

Magazine Review: Hooded Detective January 1942

Magazine Review: Hooded Detective January 1942 The Black Hood was one of the superheroes created for the MLJ (later Archie) Comics line, first appearing in Top-Notch Comics #9 in 1940. Matthew Kipling “Kip” Burland was originally a rookie cop who was framed for grand larceny and injured to near death by a criminal known as… Continue reading Magazine Review: Hooded Detective January 1942

Movie Review: Earthquake (1974)

Los Angeles in the wake of the Big One.

Movie Review: Earthquake (1974) directed by Mark Robson There are many attractive features to living in Los Angeles. Ground stability isn’t one of them. The San Andreas Fault runs nearby, and it’s overdue for a major seismic shift in the area. This movie asks, “What if the Big One hit now?” To give us some investment… Continue reading Movie Review: Earthquake (1974)

Comic Book Review: Best of DC #20: World’s Finest

Art by Ross Andru & Dic Giordano

Comic Book Review: Best of DC #20: World’s Finest Art by Dick Dillin & Joe Giella For a few decades, World’s Finest Comics was by default the Superman/Batman team-up book, featuring DC Comics’ two top characters working together to handle various cases and crises. This 1982 reprint digest presents three of these stories from 1971-1972,… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Best of DC #20: World’s Finest

Movie Review: The Gorgon

Professor Meister has some sharp remarks for Doctor Namaroff.

Movie Review: The Gorgon (1964) directed by Terence Fisher It is 1908, and the police state of Van Dorf has had seven unsolved murders in five years. When painter Bruno Heizt’s (Jeremy Longhurst) model and lover turns up dead and himself hanged, the police, led by Inspector Kanof (Patrick Troughton), are quick to call it murder-suicide.… Continue reading Movie Review: The Gorgon

Magazine Review: Oriental Stories Winter 1932

Magazine Review: Oriental Stories Winter 1932 edited by Farnsworth Wright Oriental Stories was a mostly-quarterly pulp magazine published from 1930-1933, with a name change to The Treasure Chest Magazine for an additional year. Its remit, as you might have guessed from the title, was tales of the exotic, mysterious East, from Islamic North Africa through… Continue reading Magazine Review: Oriental Stories Winter 1932

Book Review: The Argosy Book of Adventure Stories

Book Review: The Argosy Book of Adventure Stories edited by Rogers Terrill This collection of exciting tales of action and bravery plucked from the pages of Argosy, the long-running pulp magazine, is most notable for only choosing from those printed between 1946 and 1952, when the collection was published. Thus it had, at the time,… Continue reading Book Review: The Argosy Book of Adventure Stories

Movie Review: Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe

It was brave of the filmmakers to use Jesse Ventura's actual hair.

Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe (1990) dir. Damian Lee Sonia Murray (Marjorie Bransfield) has lived all her life in the small town of Thornbury in Canada. About six years ago, she was assaulted and impregnated by a foreign criminal who’d entered the country illegally. The criminal was almost immediately captured and hauled away by the foreign… Continue reading Movie Review: Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe

Anime Review: Case Closed: The Culprit Hanzawa

Phrasing, Dr. Agasa!

Anime Review: Case Closed: The Culprit Hanzawa I’ve reviewed several volumes of the long-running Detective Conan (“Case Closed” in the American dub) manga. The “teen genius detective trapped in the body of a pre-teen” premise has remained popular, and the associated anime has run for over twenty years and a thousand episodes. This has caused… Continue reading Anime Review: Case Closed: The Culprit Hanzawa

Book Review: The Crystal Stopper

Book Review: The Crystal Stopper by Maurice Leblanc Arsène Lupin should probably have been more cautious when two members of his gang, Vaucheray and Gilbert, asked him to assist with the burglary of the Enghien country home of government deputy Daubrecq. But Vaucheray is experienced, and Lupin is impressed with Gilbert’s good character (for a… Continue reading Book Review: The Crystal Stopper