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Today’s Must own Blu-Ray Steelbook in the age of Digital : THE THIRD MAN (1949)
In the age of Digital when traditional DVDs are going the way of the dodo, Steel-books are just getting more and more popular. Here is this installment’s STEEL-BOOK of the day:
Orson Welles and Carol Reed’s THE THIRD MAN (1949)
Credited to Carol Reed, Orson Welles directorial hand is all over this one. In my opinion Orson Welles’ finest film, and that is saying a lot considering his masterpieces like CITIZEN KANE, MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, LADY IN THE WATER, OTHELLO, CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT and the list goes on. And if any film deserves the upscale Steel-book treatment… it is this one. And this one offers a stellar transfer, commentaries, and great features.
Get yours here! (Use this link and get a great item, AND earn a couple very appreciated pennies for this blog):
THIRD MAN LIMITED EDITION STEEL-BOOK
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Great Directors Series : Walter Hill’s EXTREME PREJUDICE
“Hell you can buy me Cash, you always could. But you can’t buy the badge. And one without the other ain’t no damn good.”
I LOVE This film.
See my previous review about how my initial disinterest the first time I saw this film, turned to absolute adoration the 2nd time I saw it. Every time I have seen it in the years since, my love for this film deepens.
“Sarita we’ve gotta give it a rest. The talk. All of it.”
“You don’t want to be with me any more?”
“No I didn’t say that. I just said we gotta give the talk a rest. That’s all. You, me and Cash. It’s too hard. It’s going to get too goddamned complicated.”
“For you Jack. But what about me?”
It is an imminently quotable film. Every line is a poetry of sorts. Not the poetry of Shakespeare’s HENRY V , but in its way the dialogue here is every bit as iconic and memorable and haunting.
“I’m just a poor ass dirt farmer. Nobody ever gave me nothing. And nobody’s gonna take it away!”
It is the culmination of Walter Hill’s filmic soliloquy on masculinity and violence and relationships.
And it stars some of the greatest character actors of the day, in arguably their finest roles.
“I don’t want to see you around here anymore.”
“Hell no Deputy. You can color me gone.”
The late great Rip Torn (who by all reports was a fun, rebel raising bad ass, here in this role gets to be closest to the bad-ass he was), Michael Ironside, the late great Powers Booth (who delivers an award worthy performance), Larry B. Scott, Maria Conchita Alonzo, William Forsythe (who steals every scene he is in) , Clancy Brown and Nick Nolte all deliver for me, some of the finest performances of their respective careers.
“State Legislature??!! Shit, Jack! !Only thing worse than a politician is a child molester.”
I learned a valuable lesson that day many years ago, that first impressions while unavoidable are seldom solid ground to stand on. What matters is informed opinions.
My informed opinion is this Walter Hill ode to his love of Peckinpah and Ford, driven by a torrential, act of god script by the great John Milius, transcends its inspirations and influences to be one of the greatest films ever made. And arguably the best modern day western ever made.
There is unfortunately no DVD or BluRay that does a great job on this film. No cast or director’s commentary. Probably your best best currently is the beautiful German mediabook Bluray edition. But even then, the Bluray is obviously just taken right from the DVD. with no mastering done. Picture wise you might as well stick with the DVD, however, the mediabook, has beautiful photographs to accompany the Bluray. The text is in German, but any online translator can help with that.
Still I do hope for a worthy well mastered Bluray someday soon, complete with commentary by the surviving cast and crew. ShoutFactory (a well known Bluray special edition producer)… make it happen!! 🙂 .
Until then to get the Bluray MediaBook, go HERE!
“He died going forward. That means a hell of a lot down here. “
THE LAST WORD: Joe Kubert’s BEST Comic Book Covers!!(Some of them)
I have an appreciation for the late, great Joe Kubert here in 2018 as an adult, that I really didn’t have for him as a kid. And much of that is down to exposure, as well as a broader scope of reading material.
As a kid, comics that interested me were what interested most kids of the latter 20th century. We were children of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Chis Claremont and John Bryne, Marv Wolfman and George Perez, David Kraft and Keith Giffen, Bob Haney and Jim Aparo. The very exciting and colorful, but delineated world of Superhero comics.
But then the late 80s happened, and creators like Alan Moore and Frank Miller and William Mesner Loebs created works that seemed to challenge and expand the horizons and genres and tropes of the medium. They were following in the footsteps of late 70s pioneers such as Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy, and the aforementioned creators, who all had their moments of scripting comics with an Indy sensibility before the term existed.
And now as an adult, having explored much of the growth of the mainstream comic industry from their golden age roots, to their big screen interpretations, here in 2018 I am revisiting some work that was largely before my time.
Namely the westerns and horror books and combat books, of the late 60s and early 70s.
And this deep dive into this world (I mean I have gone deep in 2018), has solidified and cemented and revealed somethings. Most notably is 1/ The western comic books of Marvel Comics, the 12cent and 15 cent, etc comics, RAWHIDE KID, TWO-GUN KID, GUNHAWKS, MARVEL WESTERN, by mostly Larry Lieber, and Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby, and Gil Kane, and Herb Trimpe and John Severin are masterpieces. And these books are MUST OWNS. And many have not been reprinted. And while MARVEL COMICS were hands down producing some of the best Western Comics, some other notable comics in this genre are the painted cover LONE RANGER comics by Dell and Gold Key Publishing, and DC’s TOMAHAWK–
(Brief interuption to gush on Kubert’s TOMAHAWK. The last 25 issues or so of TOMAHAWK go from Neal Adams covers to the final ten which are Joe Kubert covers, from issues 131 to 140. There are not many people who can follow Neal Adams on covers, and be able to equal him.
When Neal Adams does a run of covers, those become the definitive sought after covers, especially during this period of the 60s and 70s in DC. Whether BATMAN or DETECTIVE or SUPERMAN or SUPERBOY, to this day the definitive covers for all those titles, are the ones drawn by Neal Adams, and with good reason. Neal Adams is a master artist.
So it is no small compliment to say not only does Joe Kubert’s ten issue cover run on TOMAHAWK equal the work of his good friend Neal Adams, they surpass them. As someone who just acquired those ten books this year, listen to me when I say they are INCREDIBLY undervalued, sporting both stunning covers and interiors, and no true fan of comics should be without them. If you can get them in high grade for $10 a book, that is a steal.
Get those issues at the link below. You get great comics AND you earn a few pennies to keep this blog’s lights on.
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?tid=181351&pgi=101&AffID=200301P01
)
–and ALL STAR WESTERN & WEIRD WESTERN. All fantastic and I will be doing a bit on Western Comics in an upcoming post.
And 2/ where the Marvel Comics of yesterday ruled the WESTERN genre, the WAR or COMBAT genre was ruled by DC Comics. Largely because of two names the great Robert Kanigher and the great Joe Kubert. Both men master story tellers, one with words and one with images, and both men incredibly prolific and productive. My favorite TEEN TITANS story of the silver age is by Robert Kanigher, my favorite FLASH stories by Robert Kanigher. So I always meant to pursue Kanigher’s work into his combat/conflict/war books of the period, and I am finally getting a chance to do that in 2018. And what immediately sells these books is the iconic covers and visual storytelling by the late, great Joe Kubert.
His work, especially pre the mid 70s, where his covers got to play with the typography and marrying that to the cover image… gold. Absolutely gold. To the point where covers for OUR FIGHTING FORCES and OUR ARMY AT WAR for a brief period in the late 60s, early 70s are cover art truly raised to the level of Art with a capital A. Why anyone would pay $4, $5, $6, and $7 for a brand new comic book (that can be found in the $1 bins or reprinted in a much better quality trade in a few months), when you can take that same money and get a classic issue from this period of comics… is beyond me.
It is work you are typically not going to see unless you go looking. Not many people are showing off 50 year old war comic book covers. In 2018 I have gone looking.
Let me show you some of what I’ve found. We will start with a taste of his unconventional and relatively rare Superhero work and move onto his more prolific genre work.
SYFYWIRE’s Matthew Funk says it best when they say…
“G.I. Combat #88
Kubert’s contributions to the visual language of war stories can’t be overstated, and this cover proves as much. This is very Stanley Kubrick-style imagery, but the comic predates Full Metal Jacket by 26 years. Kubert was creating iconic, haunting, and cinematic images of war that would influence generations of storytellers.”
When you think of great, iconic cover artists, the names Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Nick Cardy, and more recently Alex Ross come to mind. And all deservedly so. But one that arguably has gotten overlooked by the masses is Joe Kubert, and this is largely because he worked mostly in genres that did not get the attention back in the day. But now as an adult and getting into genres of Western and War and Horror, I am getting exposed to the work of great artists such as Joe Kubert, I am seeing much of it for the first time, and it is…. ASTONISHING. What really amazes me about Kubert is when he gets to play with Typography in his covers, and make that part of his story-telling, those are absolute game changers. Such as the above, and many of his Combat books.
Ready to own some of these great comic books?
Then use the link below and start ordering:
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?q=our+army+at+war&pubid=&PubRng&AffID=200301P01
Drool worthy Item/Gift/Auction/Deal of the Day!
BATMAN: SECRETS-SAM KIETH Gallery Edition
Regular Edition
248 pgs • 12 x 17″ • Smyth-Sewn Hardcover
AVAILABLE FEB. 14
| Price: | $125.00 | |
BATMAN: SECRETS series, this large-format, Smythe-sewn hardcover edition is sourced from and captures the look and feel of the original boards. Rounding out this 248- page presentation is the complete art from BATMAN: CONFIDENTIAL #40, BATMAN/LOBO #1, Kieth’s eight-page story from BATMAN #38 and an extensive gallery section containing covers and pages from SCRATCH, ARKHAM ASYLUM: MADNESS and BATMAN: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS.
Graphitti Designs’ Gallery Editions replicate the look, feel and attitude of the original artwork. Every page is reproduced at full board size on heavy paper stock to provide fans and collectors with museum-quality reproductions that are unobtainable from any other source.
Containing samples of Kieth’s art from his early days (1992) to the present (2015), this book gives the fan, collector and art student a never-before-seen overview of his incredible work.
Auction of the Day Link:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/263560025941?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
Today’s best and worst Comic Book related Youtube Channels
First Point, Youtube via your laptop or computer I find annoying and not worth your time.
Youtube via Roku, on my big screen TV, and absent all stupid comments I find incredibly useful and watchable.
Here without further ado, my additional points, Youtube Winners and Losers for First Quarter 2018.
BEST
I like buying artbooks, and graphic novels, and collected editions, so I find some of these channels very helpful in helping me decide if an item is worth buying. Especially when you are dealing with something like artist editions that can run hundreds of dollars.
So here are channels that helped me make great purchase decisions.
GABE INFINITY WATCH
GEM MINT COLLECTIBLES
NEAR MINT CONDITION
WALT’S COMIC BOOK CHANNEL
EARL GREY
OMNIBROS LIVE
GORE VIDAL
WALLACE RYAN
WORST
Anyone who uses acronym’s such as SJW in their headlines, or as a snarky insult (I’m looking at DIVERSITY & COMICS channel, which is not about Diversity and is not about comics, but is about click baiting and laziness) is generally not a channel you should support or be subscribed to. The thing with acronyms is you end up blindly lumping things together that have nothing to do with each other. And instead of dealing with a specific argument, you tend to become the very caricature you are arguing against. You become as misinformed, in your ‘lumping together and your stigmatizing’ as those you accuse of lumping together and stigmatizing others.
Here’s the thing, we are all of us (if not idiots) more than the party line.
Let me say that again, we are all of us more than the party line.
Whatever party you choose to support this day or that. We are conservative when it comes to some things, liberal when it comes to some things. And biased when it comes to some things.
Take me.
I’m not a fan of witch-hunts. Whether that is the Salem Witch trials, or the McCarthy Witch Trials. Or today’s sexual harassment witch trials. I believe no one should lose their job or be punished, based on unproven allegations. I believe people are innocent till proven guilty in a COURT OF LAW. That goes for Cosby, or Weinstein, or Lauer, or Singer or Spacey, or Gibson, or as it affects comics, Berganza.
I do not like mobs. And I do not like Mob mentalities, and I do not like knee jerk responses, and I do not like talk show mentalities, and most of all I don’t like people tried on twitter and Youtube, and based on the accusations of the unproven, the opinions of the uninvolved, and the fear, and in some cases the vendettas of the powerful, people before trial… are tried and punished.
I do not like it.
Not when it comes to movies, or sports, or newscasters, or the medium of comic-books.
I do not know Editor Berganza from a hole in the wall. He could well be guilty. My problem he was fired on allegations rather than proof. As were all those I’ve mentioned. Accolades and awards and honors they have earned, stripped from them at the merest whiff of scandal. So until proven guilty, a man is innocent, and should be treated as such. I don’t like that comic book artist Adrian Syaf was fired for placing the numbers ‘212’ and the number ‘5:51’ in the background of drawings. Artists sneaking easter eggs into the background of drawings is not new for comics or any other medium. And how that is any different from Christians putting bible verses in the background of their scenes. Long story short, it isn’t. That’s what an editor is for to catch that stuff, and if you don’t you don’t. Based on the agregiousness of it, you take the appropriate action. Which usually involves a good talking to, not ruining someone’s career.
So I do not like witch hunts..
Whether led by a republican, a lesbian, a trans-gender person, a bigot, I do not like witch-hunts. You have a case, prove it in a court of law, not by gathering lynch mobs.
And this overreacting is on both sides of the fence, and the quickness to throw broad dismissive labels, obscures the fact of what you are fighting against, and what you are fighting for.
That is the folly of labels, it makes people side with fools, and fools lead good men to horrible acts.
Labels and acronyms are always shorthand for the lazy, who can’t be bothered to know what or who they are really arguing against or about. If you are using the acronym SJW you might as well carve a swastika in your forehead because that’s the level you are arguing on.
We are all of us gradations of right, and gradations of wrong, and we are all gradations of irrational.
Being aware of those places where the unfair and the fair fight for possession of our soul, being aware of our culpability in any argument, makes us less likely to glibly go along with the mob, or those who would throw the first and last stone.
Being unaware that anyone who uses the term SJW or dem or repub, is in and of himself, guilty of being the exact same thing they would denigrate; makes you ignorant.
But that is fine, we are all ignorant of something.
Staying ignorant however, makes you stupid or evil.
And that is not fine.
You have to know in any argument, you may not be on the side of the right. And you must learn to accept no truth you went to bed with, as the truth you’ll wake up with. Only through constant questioning of yourself, and the things you love and the things you hate, and the things you believe, can you grow and stay on the right side of those things.
And just as surely… assuming you are always right, especially your side or group or acronym is always right, is the surest way to go marching down the road to hell.
Deep waters for Youtube and comics, huh?
Here is the thing, it doesn’t matter over what we conflict, How seemingly trivial or important. it matters that we always know, the conflict is with ourselves first. And reason and right is not a given, it must be continually retried within ourselves.
I generally do not gravitate to comics that have trans-gendered or homosexual people in it. That has nothing to do with either of those groups, and everything to do with me. I would like to think it is less about homophobia and more my aversion and dislike of talk shows and reality shows and Lifetime movies, and not wanting that in my comic. Though definitely homophobia plays a part. But mostly its an aversion to those topics heavy handedly crowbarred into what should be a a superhero/action genre. That was my problem with Supergirl Season 2. And why I stopped watching it. It was the gay subplot, handled incredibly annoyingly.
Now contrast that to JH Williams III’s BATWOMAN which was a brilliant superhero book, that just so happened to have a Lesbian character. Or Priest’s DEATHSTROKE with its bisexual character, and these things aren’t written in 20 point type, it’s just another brilliantly layered part, or a brilliant superhero story.
But most people aren’t as talented as a Priest or Williams, so when my comic reads more like a mission statement it is time for me to find a different comicbook.
And it is specifically a superhero/comic related bias, I have an archaic definition of what Superhero and other comics are and should be, an idea that works for me. An idea of what entertains me in comics, So I understand this bias in me, and I buy the comics that appeal. However I’m not going to have a problem with their being homosexual or trans-gendered comics or creators, that do want to focus on the lifetime channel or talk show extremes. If there is an audience for those stories great. I won’t be reading them, but neither am I going to have a fit because these stories or creators or characters exist. And that is because I ‘m good with the world being what it is, and me being what I am, and I am aware what part of the failing is me rather than the world.
There is a lot of talk on youtube about social justice warriors, mostly by white men (mostly but not exclusively, there are also enough Black and Brown and Red and Yellow idiots to go around), who see comics by creators not like them, and filled with new characters not like them, and they are not comfortable with that.
That is not a problem. Like I said, I also feel that discomfort for things outside my comfort zone.
But here is the difference, they feel threatened by these things out of their comfort zone, and attack. Rather than allow people to ‘do them’ (as the kids would say), and simply choose to not patronize the books and creators they don’t like, and just buy and read and enjoy the things they do, instead they want to attack, and force the industry to only reflect them and exclude the other.
That is a problem.
It is a problem of ignorance, and it is a problem of fear, and it is a problem of not knowing yourself, that the world is wide and wonderful, and we don’t have to agree to like the same books or like the same creators.
But we do have to agree to, not stop others from liking what they like.
We do have to agree, to fight with ourselves before we fight others, because most of the time when we lose control, and take up arms against others, it is because we haven’t solved something with ourselves.
So that was an incredibly long aside to get you to my list of Youtubers who are doing a disservice to our hobby, by waging war with others, because they can’t just embrace this idea… that ‘you do you’. :).
Case in point…
cAPN C-SUMTHING (not worth remembering the dudes correct channel, or name) – emphasizes one of my pet peeves, people who think having an opinion is enough. When it comes to sharing and broadcasting it to a larger audience, it is not enough to have an opinion. It needs to be an informed. You are sitting in a movie theater, and because you are warm you start screaming fire, and spreading an opinion, that with two seconds to inform that opinion… you may have realized you still have your jacket on, or the person a row in-front of you is smoking; so the theater is not actually on fire. So your initial knee-jerk animal brain opinion may have been ‘fire’, but shouting out that uninformed opinion, in the theater to a crowd, would create panic and possible injuries; whereas a moment to look around and inform that opinion, makes all the difference.
An informed opinion is worth sharing, an uninformed opinion is not. This Capn C-something perfectly illustrates the type of knee-jerk reactionary that is the bane of the Internet and the world.
First he has the money to buy a 100+ dollar Artist Edition, the time and resources to want to do a video on it and share his opinion on it, however he doesn’t even know what it is. When the description of the artist Edition is on every blurb about it, as well as on the back and inside cover You don’t even know what you are buying, and you are trying to do a review on it. Strike one.
Next he’s one of these reactionaries who uses acronyms and labels coined seemingly just to be denigrative. Social Justice Warrior, and then he is too lazy, to use the whole word. The kind who resorts to shorthand like SJW and Dems, the sign of someone who can’t be bothered to research the bandwagon he is jumping on, or the things he supports or objects to in any great depth. Strike two.
Third he sees a post by Christopher Priest, lamenting his pigeonholing by DC Comics as a Black Writer,and Priest stating that a good writer can write characters outside his ethnicity and gender, and that the publishers should not be lead by the ‘twitterverse’ the vocal minority who comments on titles they have not read and subjects they are not informed on. Capn Crumudgeon responds to this by saying ‘this Priest guy gets it’ while showing his ignorance by not knowing the writer currently works for DC and is one of their most acclaimed writers, and that Capn Cummudgeon by definition is the vocal minority Priest is calling out. Priest is not railing against diversity, he’s railing against editorial mandates decided by people who can not be bother to be informed on the positions they take.
Strike 3, you are out. What really lit me up about this, is a lazy acronym user like this guy, has more subscribers than actually informative people like some of the users listed above. It’s like people subscribing to JERRY SPRINGER instead of COSMOS. People stumble across his channel, probably like I did (i did not subscribe to him) because of his numerous Artist Edition reviews, and then he uses that as a platform for this half baked uninformed drivel, posing as a stance or world view. It reminds me of the brain damaged circus that passed for the last presidential debates. Something that debases viewer and viewed. If you are subscribed to this guy, unsubscribe. There are better places to get your book reviews from. And I list a bunch of them above. :).
And to not end on a down note here are more people/channels you should be watching and even subscribing to:
JARED OSBORN- He offers weekly pull list comic book hauls, and the occasional collected edition
POPE CEREBUS THE FIRST-
THE DARK NATE
IDWPublishing
24FRAMES
CURTISCAMRON
DRACIR’S COMICS AND THINGS
SOLID4STBEND
BRANDON 191
LUTHER MANNING
MARCUS LIM
JACKKIRBYBRONZE
So any of the above are better than those who embrace attacking the difference of others, rather than simply trying to better understand… the difference of themselves. CAP’N and DIVERSITY (in name only), Youtube channels, come to mind, but any channel using acronyms such as SJW to cloak their ignorance and fear, you should strongly consider unsubscribing from.
Don’t support the uninformed who want to spend their time screaming fire, in a theater where there is no fire. Instead support the above channels that are trying to help people just find the seats, that are a good fit for them.
Here endeth the lesson.
