Anime Review: Kengan Ashura Kazuo Yamashita is 56 years old, and it’s been a pretty miserable life. He works as a salaryman in the sales department at Nogi Publications with a manager who’s constantly bullying and belittling him. Kazuo’s wife left him years ago, and he’s estranged from his sons, shut-in Kenzo and delinquent Yasuo.… Continue reading Anime Review: Kengan Ashura
Tag: rivalry
Movie Review: The Damned Don’t Cry
Movie Review: The Damned Don’t Cry (1950) directed by Vincent Sherman Someone may be getting rich off this Oklahoma oilfield, but it’s sure not Ethel Whitehead (Joan Crawford). She, her husband Jim (Morris Ankrum) and son Timmy live in her parents’ house, and they’re still barely getting by. Jim isn’t getting promotions or raises, and the… Continue reading Movie Review: The Damned Don’t Cry
Movie Review: For Your Eyes Only
Movie Review: For Your Eyes Only (1981) directed by John Glen James Bond (Roger Moore) is visiting his wife Tracy’s grave when he’s informed that a helicopter has come to take him to “the office.” This turns out to be a trap, as the pilot is murdered by his own headphones so that a man who… Continue reading Movie Review: For Your Eyes Only
Movie Review: The Broadway Melody (1929)
Movie Review: The Broadway Melody (1929) directed by Harry Beaumont Things are looking up for Eddie Kearns (Charles King). The singer/composer/dancer has managed to sell his latest song, “The Broadway Melody” to producer Francis Zanfield (Eddie Kane) to use in his new musical revue, sung by himself! Plus his fiancée Henrietta “Hank” Mahoney (Bessie Love) has… Continue reading Movie Review: The Broadway Melody (1929)
Comic Book Review: Baltimore Omnibus Volume One
Comic Book Review: Baltimore Omnibus Volume One written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, art by Ben Stenbeck Lord Henry Baltimore was once a happily married man, wealthy enough and fairly privileged. But then World War One happened, and his country called. But this was not quite the WWI you may have read about in… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Baltimore Omnibus Volume One
Comic Book Review: Simpsons Comics Confidential
Comic Book Review: Simpsons Comics Confidential published by Matt Groening The Simpsons started as a number of short cartoons shown on The Tracy Ullman show in 1987. A dysfunctional family partially named after creator Matt Groening’s own family, they were popular enough to spin off into their own prime time series in 1989. It was… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Simpsons Comics Confidential
Book Review: The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries
Book Review: The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler While stories that could be considered “mysteries” in some sense have existed as long as writing, and perhaps a bit before, the short story mystery came into its own during the lifetime of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). This volume collects forty-nine notable stories from… Continue reading Book Review: The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries
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
Manga Review: The Crater
Manga Review: The Crater by Osamu Tezuka In the late 1960s, Osamu Tezuka’s career was facing a crisis. He was still popular, with publishers quite willing to buy more of the kid-friendly material he’d become famous for. But he wasn’t a trend-setter anymore. The new generation of manga creators was into gekiga, more serious and… Continue reading Manga Review: The Crater
Comic Book Review: Bunty Picture Story Library #242: Tina the Tester
Comic Book Review: Bunty Picture Story Library #242: Tina the Tester art by Tony Speer Bunty was a weekly British comic paper for working class girls under the age of 14, which ran from 1958-2001. It primarily focused on serialized stories with teenage girls as the protagonists, dealing with school, jobs, family issues, and sometimes… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Bunty Picture Story Library #242: Tina the Tester