Spotlight on Non Super Hero Comics

Super hero movies have been a money making business for the past few years. I'll be the first one to admit that I love every single one of them. More importantly, I love the years of work that great comic book writers and illustrators have been doing to bring these characters to such relevance. The super hero has paid it's due, and comics are a driving force in storytelling again. I've been on a mission to read every single New 52 comic from DC and every Marvel NOW title from Marvel. I'm only about a third of the way through, but now and then I read other titles, that aren't super hero related that just blow my mind. Non-super hero books have held their own for a while now. Examples being Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Walking Dead, Archie, The Crow, and so on. I'm going to list a few newer titles that have been amazing. The writing in comics right now is at an all time high, along with people's interest. If you wondering what is your next book, look no further. (Just a side note here, if you haven't read The Superior Foes of Spider-Man you are letting the best of life pass you by).

Deadly Class by Rick Remender, Wesley Craig & Lee Loughridge

You will see Rick Remender's name quite a bit in this entry, because he is the man. Deadly Class takes place in 1987 at a school for assassins. Your typical High School is escalated with gang war, unique weaponry and the inexperience of "skilled" killers. The first volume (issues #1-6) is fast paced, drug induced insanity with a 80's "we own the world" attitude. I'm looking forward to volume two which was just released.

The Manhattan Projects by Jonathan Hickman & Nick Pitarra

Jonathan Hickman has been known for his exploits at Marvel, and more importantly as the author of East of West from Image Comics. Before that, he wrote an insane re-imagining of the Manhattan Project. The worlds' geniuses are gathered by the U.S. military, use the atomic bomb project as a front, and create all sorts of doomsday devices. Outer worldly dimensions and evil doppelgangers are just the beginning of the madness that The Manhattan Projects exhumes.

Black Science by Rick Remender, Matteo Scalera, & Dean White

The art of this book was truly the first thing that drew me to it. Add the fact the Rick (the f'ing man) Remender is writing it, I had no choice but to give it a read. Following suit with mad scientists, Black Science follows a rogue scientist and his fellow "Dimensionauts" through worlds that would be impossible to describe with just words. I can't emphasize the beauty of the art in this book. I've followed their journeys through two volumes so far and every issue leaves you begging for more. Definitely my favorite comic in a long, long time.

Andre the Giant: Life & Legend by Box Brown

This is not a single issue comic, but a graphic novel. Being a huge wrestling fan, this was a no brainer. If you aren't a wrestling fan, this is an interesting way to see into the life that was Andre the Giant's. It is a collection of stories told by other wrestlers over the years, some are true, some are unbelievably true, and some are legend in wrestling folklore. Graphic novel biographies are being done more and more these days, and I completely support that. This is a must read.


The following is a list of comics that are related to the ones above, but I haven't finished reading or they are just a few issues in.

Descender by Jeff Lemire 

Outcast by Robert Kirkman

Rebels by Brian Wood

Chrononauts by Mark Millar

ei8ht by Rafael Albuquerque

Trillium by Jeff Lemire

Room 237

Do you ever get that feeling in your head when you know that something is going to be totally rad? It may start as a rumor, and slowly get put together like a huge 50,000 piece puzzle? You wait and wait for all the red tape to clear and finally you get yours hands on it and you discover that it's just a big old pile of dump wrapped in fancy artwork and sealed with empty promises.

That's the disappointment I've felt while watching Room 237. It was worse than watching Jar Jar Binks for the first time on the big screen. I heard about a documentary that centers around The Shining a couple of years ago. Being one of my favorite movies of all time, I got a little gitty when hearing the news. I followed the production team on Twitter, I favorited their website and even signed up for an email newsletter when the movie was available in my area. Simply said, I have put a lot of work into making sure I saw this movie when it was available. They finally released the movie independently and had shown it throughout the world in small theaters. I missed the Chicago debut, definitely dropped the ball on that one. It toured the festival scene for a while so I waited patiently. It was released in September of 2013 and I finally got a copy through Netflix last week.

I made some tea, put on the pj's and popped this in the computer. I was hoping to dig deep into The Shining and uncover some of the questions I had about the film. Learn some new things that maybe I haven't caught before. Boy was I wrong.

The documentary is four people (they don't tell you their profession, which really discredits anything they say) talking over movie footage (not particularly from the Shining, plenty of footage from other movies that aren't relevant) and making crazy accusations about what The Shining is "about." You don't get to see the people being interviewed which is kind of weird. I'm all about crazy theories, if they have reputable arguments behind them. One dude assumed that the Shining was about the Native Americans being slaughtered by the white man because there are Native American paintings and artwork throughout the hotel. That was the only reason he gave! No ties to the violence in the movie or the spirits that haunt the place, just because the tapestry is Native American in origin.

I appreciate what they tried to do with this documentary. There are so many unanswered questions I had, so many questions about changes from the book. I hope someone else gives this idea another shot because they really failed on this one.

Rated: NR
Run Time: 102 Minutes

I give Room 237 -  2 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Movie Review: Frankenweenie

Frankenweenie was a nice treat to watch on a random weekday. Thanks to the free Netflix trial (I'm still milking that) I received Tim Burton's latest animated film. From the get go, you know there will be some unhappy scenes. I mean the main character is a re-animated dog, he has to go somehow. Burton plays on the heart strings of all dog lovers and makes Sparky's scene pretty excruciating even though you know it's coming.

The dog's owner, Victor Frankenstein (clever) is completely distraught over the lost of not only his dog, but his only and best friend. He's forced to pair up with fellow classmate Edgar Gore (e. gore, clever again) for a science project. Frankenweenie becomes a rehashing of the classic Frankenstein monster story, but Burton takes it to a new level. Victor and E. Gore re-animate life, and the other class mates catch wind and try to replicate. Each experiment gets exponentially more evil and eventually there are a town of monsters.

The animation is very unique, as are all of Tim Burton's animated works. It's a classic tale with a modern twist and executed really well. I love Burton's homage to old horror movies and his constant monster movie references.

Rated: PG
Run Time: 87 Minutes

I give Frankenweenie 4 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Book Review: Cycle of the Werewolf

Stephen King published Cycle of the Werewolf in 1983, the same year Christine and Pet Sematary were released. Cycle of the Werewolf was a little over shadowed that year, but its a solid story nonetheless.

I'm a big fan of the layout of this book. Each chapter is one month of the year and follows a year where the werewolf exists. Each month is pretty much its own short story. The coolest part of this book are the illustrations. They appear every other page or so, and Bernie Wrightson did a great job of making the wolf look terrifying. I like this format so much, I might have to steal it, I mean borrow it and credit the author of course........

Cycle of the Werewolf starts in January is Tarker's Mill, Maine where the moon is full and a vicious murder occurs. This happens each month when the moon is full, and the people of Tarker's Mill start hearing things, and spreading rumors of a serial killer. Eventually the story changes to a werewolf because of evidence of foot prints and fur at the scene of the crimes. As the body count heightens, a smart teen-aged boy in a wheel chair discovers the secret of the wolf and is determined to stop him.

If you're looking for a quick scare, this is the book for you. The illustrations really make the werewolf creature come to life.

I give Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King 4 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Book Review: City of the Dead by Brian Keene

**Spoiler - If you haven't read The Rising, don't read this review**

If you follow me on Goodreads.com, I've been reading this book the entire year of 2013. And for the most part, that is the case. Something has always come up or some other book or movie distracted me from finishing this book. Well I finally finished it, and I am glad I had.

Brian Keene is described as the next Stephen King. Quite the bold statement, but Keene has quite the resume. He isn't known in the huge circles of the writing community but is well respected in the horror community. He has won two Bram Stoker Awards, which is the highest award you can receive as a horror writer. Keene has over 100 original works including novels, comics and short story collections.

City of the Dead is the sequel to The Rising. In The Rising, Jim Thurmond starts his journey in a bomb shelter, built for the Y2K scare. Zombies are inhabiting the Earth. These zombies aren't the typical zombies, they are creatures from another dimension, that take over any formerly living organism with a brain. They can take over humans, birds, lions, etc. They are extremely intelligent as well. They are only limited by the decaying bodies they inhibit. Jim's mission is to find his son who is at his ex-wife's house in New Jersey. Along the way he befriends a minister named Martin and a former stripper named Frankie. After some crazy roadblocks and insane enemies, they meet throughout their adventure, they find Danny. Keene left a major cliffhanger at the end of The Rising, so you have to read the City of the Dead to really find out what happens. A genius move by Keene.

City of the Dead picks up at Jim's ex-wife's house with them trying to escape with Danny. They hear rumors that there are a safe haven in a skyscraper in downtown New York, so they set theirs sets to the Big Apple. The building that is supposedly indestructible is Ramsey Towers. Ramsey has holed himself up in the tower and has "saved" the rest of humanity. The tower contains a community of survivors and is heavily armored. In the wake of 9/11, Ramsey didn't spare any expense to make his building impenetrable. Jim and his group eventually make it to the tower and blend in with everyone pretty well. Eventually people start losing their minds, and find the end inevitable. Ramsey himself watches Ob and the army of the dead start to amass a gigantic army.

The Rising was a great start for this two book series, setting the tone and developing the characters perfectly. The massiveness of City of the Dead was unexpected but highly favorable. Keene knows what scares people, and what scared people would do in these extraordinary circumstances. I own 5 other books by Keene and I am excited to see what he can do outside the zombie genre. He has the potential to be the "next" Stephen King, but he has some stiff competition from Joe Hill.

I give City of the Dead 4 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Movie Review: World War Z

So I finally was able to experience World War Z. I have been a bit reluctant to watch this movie since I'm a big fan of old school low budget zombie flicks. I have read the Max Brooks book of the same name and heard that it had nothing to do with the book. Which is right and wrong at the same time. The book is an oral history of all the events that have taken place throughout "World War Z" and its pretty similar how the story flows. Brad Pitt is finding out information through many different sources and piecing it together. They took the concept from Brooks and put an A-list actor, some gun play and crazy CGI scenes and made it into an action/ horror blockbuster.

To my surprise, I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. Albeit it wasn't a traditional zombie movie, the zombies were fast moving and smart. It felt more like an epidemic type movie more in the style of 28 Days Later. There are many definitions and mythologies connected with the term "zombie" so I can let some of the details fly.

World War Z was gripping from the very first scene. They open it up in Philadelphia, PA on a regular morning at the Lane family household (Brad Pitt's family). On a morning drive, they find themselves in some traffic downtown. All of a sudden chaos breaks loose and people are being attacked by other people. Pitt's character witnesses a man being attacked and bitten, and resurrecting after 12 seconds becoming one of the walking dead. The Lane family escapes to New Jersey. Throughout the madness that ensues, Lane is contacted by some important men and they attempt to extract him and his family to safety. You're not sure why he has such connections until a little bit later in the movie. Eventually they are hauled off to an airship carrier where they discuss the origin of this outbreak.

The army has assembled a team of "experts" and the word zombie is thrown around and no one believes that this is a real possibility. Lane is eventually called into duty to research the origin of this outbreak and find patient zero. This is where the concept of the book comes into play. All these experts have are stories they have heard from other experts in foreign nations and the dailogue of the book is strictly conversations about first hand experiences with the outbreak. South Korea is rumored to be the location of patient zero so Lane and his team sets out. They fly to several other nations in search for answers and hope. The action is well paced and the visuals are pretty stunning. I'm glad they released the un-rated version, because a movie of this type needs a little violence to really accentuate the seriousness of these zombies.

I was very satisfied with World War Z and would recommend it to people who aren't zombie fans. It's not too violent, and has a great story.

Rated: Un-rated
Run time: 123 Minutes

I give World War Z 4 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Book Review: Horns

Horns is a tale of young love, revenge, jealousy and the supernatural. It may sound pretty much like any teen/ tween/ young adult novel that is popular right now with that description, but I promise there aren't shirtless werewolves or sparkling vampires. I hope I get my point across as this book was so damn good I had a really hard time putting it down. I will try my best, but my advice is to just read it and experience it for yourself.

Joe Hill (Joseph Hilstrom King) is the oldest of Stephen King's children. It's not the first Hill book I've read. I listened to NOS4A2 which was pretty good in its own right, but nowhere on the level of Horns. I received an email from amazon.com last week, asking me to try this new service Audible, which is their e-audiobook service. They gave me a free trial and I searched Stephen King. I couldn't find one that I wanted to listen to so I searched Joe Hill since I am a HUGE fan of his comic book Locke and Key. Seriously, read this comic, you won't regret it. Horns has also been on my to-read list for a long time so I gave it the old college try and downloaded it. One of the best decisions I've ever made.

Horns starts off with our protagonist Ig Perrish. Ig is short for Ignatius which seems fitting because Ig's character is almost saint like. He is very loyal, caring and is the worst liar in the entire world. Uncharacteristically he wakes up in a drunken stupor, not remembering what happened the night before. Next to him lies his old childhood friend Glenna Nicholson, who starts telling Ig every single bad thing she's done in her life. Most recently hooking up with Ig's best friend Lee. He stumbles awake and notices that he has sprouted little horns on his head. Ig goes to the doctor  to get his "horns" checked out. The doctor's office is a surreal experience for Ig considering the secretary, a mother and her child in the waiting start spewing awful facts about their life and don't seem to be bothered by it. All these confessions are poured out because Ig has developed some sort of power that is tied to the horns that he's grown. He tries to find comfort with his family, but the horns have the same effect on them and he finds out a terrible secret.

A year before the book starts, Ig's long time girlfriend Mirren Williams was found dead in the forest near an old foundry. Everyone suspected that Ig was the one who murdered her and left her body. Ig and Mirren were the perfect couple. Both extremely smart, both extremely involved in the church and their community. So the death of Mirren Williams, was a huge tragedy in the small town of Gideon, NH. Knowing Ig and his back story, you know he wouldn't be capable of such horrific acts. Ig was scheduled to start a job in Britain, and Mirren breaks up with him ending a ten year relationship. This scene was the most intense, heart wrenching chapter I have ever read in my entire life. Joe Hill was brilliant displaying how deep their love was for each other and how hard it is to let go to someone you love. I was enraged, depressed, on edge and completely exhausted after their break up and set up the rest of the story perfectly.

The main antagonist is Lee Tourneau, as I mentioned earlier, is Ig's best friend. Hill tells a tale of when they were younger and Ig rolled down a hill in a shopping cart into a pond. Ig grows up thinking that Lee saved his life and is forever indebted to him. Their relationship has its ups and downs. Lee turns out to be a real scum bag but finds "Christ" after an accident with a cherry bomb in which he loses vision in one of his eyes. Lee is the epitome of modern day evil. The definition of a wolf in sheep's clothing. He can talk his way out of anything and uses intimidation and cunning to force people to take the fall for him. He eventually gets into politics and uses his "gift" to further his career.  Hill makes you want to punch Lee repeatedly in the face for hours. He oozes vileness and really gets you riled up. Thinking about his character gets my blood hot.

The book slowly reveals what happened that night at the foundry, and covers Ig's transformation into something outer-worldly or should I say under-worldly?? What makes this book so great is how real these characters felt. You can truly believe the love between Ig and Merrin, the jealousy and hate of Lee and the reality of the secrets that people hold deep inside of them. I know this is a bold claim, but I enjoy this book way more than a lot of Stephen King books. It is early in Joe Hill's career but he is really hitting them out of the park. I hope he has a long and illustrious career that mirrors his fathers'. I will say that Horns is one of my favorite books that I have ever read. Thus giving it.......

5 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Book Review: Zombie, Illinois by Scott Kenemore

Zombie, Illinois isn't your typical zombie novel. It's more of a crossover that involves a mystery that just so happens to occur during the zombie apocalypse. There are three main characters: Maria Ramirez, Ben Bennington and Pastor Leopold Mack. The chapters are written in first person perspectives switching between the three. Maria Ramirez is the drummer for Chicago's premiere punk rock band Strawberry Brite Vagina Dentata. Ben is a reporter for Brain's Chicago Business newspaper. Finally, Leopold Mack is the pastor of the Church Heaven's God in Christ Lord Jesus. The character's start off pretty strong and their identities are pretty well known, but somewhere in the middle they stray from I believe their morals are and make really stupid, pointless decisions. They don't progress throughout the story, if anything they regress at some points. Ben is the cowardly lion of the bunch, eventually becoming a hero, kind of. Maria is the tough chick who swoons when she sees a hot guy. Pastor Mack is a powerful leader in the black community and has a deep, dark secret. I could tell you that secret, but I want you to read this book and be as disappointed as I was, when it was revealed. I wish Ben sacrificed himself for the group, Maria would soften up and take kindly to Ben's nerdiness and I wish pastor Mack would become the leader he was born to be. Kenemore gave us a tiny glance at that, but fell short. But you can't always get what you want.

The horror aspect of this book started off pretty well. First hand encounters of the dead rising from Lake Michigan. People digging up graves to prevent them from attacking. The coolest part of this book is when the Mayor's face was bitten off by Al Capone's corpse. Far fetched but still pretty cool. It never felt like the characters actually feared for their lives. There wasn't a moment that really affected their psyche. In most horror books there is a moment where you're not really sure if good could overcome evil. There was no such peak, no sense of impending doom. Close calls yes, but not much more than that.

I like that fact that Scott Kenemore, the author, did his research on Chicago geography and its neighborhood history. I don't know if it's all true, but he sure convinced me that it was all right. Apparently he did some research in Chicago politics as well, because Zombie, Illinois turned from a zombie book into a political satire about Chicago's corrupt government. I know that Chicago has a storied past with politics, and it was a nice back story at first, but then the entire book was about Chicago politics.

Zombie, Illinois was well written and the story is decently developed. However the horror aspect was extremely lacking. The zombies became an after thought. It's a good book for anyone who doesn't like gruesome books but is looking for a different type of mystery book. Not really my cup of tea though.

I give Zombie, Illinois by Scott Kenemore 3 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Book cover provided by goodreads.com.

Movie Review: This is the End

End of the world movies don't have the best record. 2012 was terrible, Day After Tomorrow was a snooze fest. Waterworld is well Waterworld. I think what these types of movies are missing is comedy. Kevin Costner and Jake Gyllenhaal are the furthest thing from funny. Let's face it when the sky starts to fall, we're all going to be helpless and it is pretty comedic how unprepared we are for catastrophic events, especially the end of the world.

This is the End showcases the Rapture at one of James Franco's parties. Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen are best friends. Jay flies in from Canada to hang with Seth and they end up at the party besides Jay's reluctance. Every comedian/ actor/ music star is at this party. Mindy Kaling, Rihanna, Paul Rudd, Kevin Hart and the list goes on. My favorite cameo was Michael Cera. He is a coke snorting, disgusting human being and I absolutely love every scene he is in. Jay and Seth head to a gas station to get some snacks and all of a sudden the proverbial stuff starts to hit the fan. Many people are beamed into the sky, and the rest are left to  survive on Earth. Jay and Seth make it back to the party and it seemed like nothing happened. Suddenly a gigantic hole opens up in Franco's front lawn. Being hollywood stars, everyone looks out for themselves and most of them die in a comedic fashion.

After the dust settles, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Craig Robinson are the last survivors of the party. They barricade the house, ration all the food and prepare for the worst. One of my favorite scenes was the discussion of who gets to eat the last Milky Way bar.(It gets used later, don't worry!) They decide to save it for emergency use. They all split up to go to bed for the first night. Eventually all of them become scared and sleep together on the floor in very tight quarters next to Jay. Early in the morning they all awake to a russling upstairs and a giant shadow heading towards them all. It is non other than Danny McBride and he has no idea what happened because he passed out in Franco's tub the night before. They all struggle with rationing and make plans to explore the outside world. Demons, possessions, and cannibals makes appearances in the film with hilarious results.

This is the End is extremely crude, so I wouldn't recommend watching it with your mother. It's definitely a guy oriented flick with plenty of violence and swearing. I would say it is my favorite comedy in a long time.

I give This is the End 5 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Rated R
Run-Time 107 Minutes

Movie poster provided by amazon.com.

Movie Review: The Conjuring

I've heard a lot of buzz for this movie and have been waiting a while for it to come out on DVD. The Director James Wan has a pretty decent resume coming into this one including Saw, Insidious 1 and 2, and Death Sentence. I haven't seen Insidious 2 but I know it will be as good as the first one. The cast was great. Everyone performed perfectly, every cast member added to the movie and nobody's performance took away from this bone chilling tale.

A lot of movies lately have been about spirits and demonic possession, and a lot of them have been absolutely great. The Conjuring is probably the best to date. It was terrifying. What made it the most terrifying is that it was based on a true story. I know a lot of movies make this claim, and most of the time I believe it. I buy into it and I feel it makes the movie watching experience that much more enjoyable.

The movie starts off with a back story of Warren family in the early 1970's. They were pioneers of "Ghost Hunting" and went around to Universities with their findings in paranormal activity. The story they told was about a possessed doll named Anabelle. I don't know what it is about possessed toys, but it creeps the hell out of me. It was a perfect way to set the tone in this movie and laid a nice back story.

The Perron family has moved to a country house to accomadate their five daughters and move away from the city. Strange happenings start to occur at the house and leave everyone frightened. The mother, Carolyn Perron, attends one of these sessions taught by the Warrens and asks them for help. Seeing the seriousness of their problem, they agree to help.

The story of the house and the occurrences that shaped this evil house are more horrific than I could imagine. The entire movie is intense, but the last fifteen minutes has my hair raising and goosebumps all over my body. If you are looking for a good scare, this is the movie for you.

I give The Conjuring 5 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Rated R
Run-time 112 Minutes

Movie poster provided by amazon.com.