Hello everyone

I would just like to say thank you to all of those who have been supporting The Oswald Chronicles, and please continue to do so by voting for it on Top Web Comics.

Machete, I watched it on Sunday night and it was pretty much what I expected it to be and what I feel Robert Rodriguez advertised it to be, a cheesy Charles Bronson meets Shaft rolled into a Mexican revenge flick with liberal amounts of the directors political leanings. One could say it’s satire, one could say he’s attempting to deliver a subversive message in the guise of violence, and naked women. I just say he wanted to show a lot of naked chicks and some new and creative ways to dismember bad guys. It was a fun movie so long as you’re not looking for a lot of depth and are willing to accept some absurd action scenes, the best of those being the intestine swinging life line. Good stuff so long as you’re not easily offended.

Now onto the book and some trade paperbacks

Imaginalis Written by J.M. Dematteis

Now to preface this I would like to say that I’ve been a J.M. Dematteis fan for a long time. I consider his Kraven’s Last Hunt story for Spider Man that series high points if not the highest. I also love his Moon Shadow, Brooklyn Dreams, and Stardust Kid as well as Abadazad. It was sad to see Abadazad go away but without its demise we may never have gotten Imaginalis, which J.M. Dematteis produced because of his need to free himself of that prior series and the sorrow that came with its cancellation. I’m not going to say much about the book except that I liked it and if you like stories like the aforementioned Stardust Kid and Abadazad you’ll probably like this. I’m looking forward to a sequel, that’s supposed to be a hint, Mr. J.M. Dematteis, now get to writing

The next book is the Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers Written by Chris Eliopoulis and Illustrated by Ig Guara

Now on the surface this may seem like an absurd concept and it is, but in being so it’s fun and brings some fresh air to the stale gloom and doom of most of Marvels main line books. I’m a sucker for Thor frog or Throg as they call him in the book and I found the book to be paced a bit too quickly for my tastes and the dialogue could have been better in places. I’m looking forward to seeing what they do in the future with these characters though.

The Cloud Searcher (Amulet) by Kazu Kibuishi

I picked up the first two books in the series of this book in hopes of finding some strange fantasy and luckily enough I got it. The story is one we’ve heard before girl/child finds object goes to strange world where she’s the only hope of preventing a great evil from taking over the world. Even with that being said the story is fun and the art work by Kazu Kibuishi is fantastic. If you like far out fantasy with steam-punk elements you may want to give this one a try, but do start at the first one.

Alien Pig Farm 3000 Written by Todd Farmer, and Thomas Jane and Illustrated by Don Marquez

If these guys were going for a cheesy B-movie feel, with some EC comics style comic pages, then they succeeded. The title says it all, it’s aliens attacking a pig farming community, with a lot of references to brother and sister love mixed in to go along with bubba heroics. The book is better than I’m making it out to sound, it was a fun read, but it feels just like the last book I read from this group a treatment for a movie. I have to say that this would make a great DVD late night flick.

Buck Rogers Volume 1 Written by Scott Beatty and Illustrated by Carlos Rafael

I don’t know a great deal about Buck Rogers or his history. I remember watching the TV show in the 80’s as a kid, but that’s about all, so I thought I would give this book a try and see what all the fuss is about. The book was again better than I thought it would be. Scott Beatty works the story by taking us into the present and then flashing us back and forth into the past to fill in plot points and to make story connections, ala the TV series Lost (which owes much to Watchmen for that, but that’s another post:) Basically it’s a man shot from the 21’st century into the future where mankind is struggling to survive despite some very sophisticated technology. Apparently humanity has lost something in its drive, and Buck is the man who can help bring humanity back. Back from where I don’t know, because Scott Beatty hasn’t explained all of the problems that humanity is facing yet. I’m looking forward to finding out what’s going on and how Buck affects the lives of these future humans. Fun stuff.

Next is Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love, Written by Chris Roberson and Illustrated by Shawn McManus

Cinderella is a spy a very good one that would put Mr. Bond to shame. She’s old and has been in the game for over a hundred years and her experience and skill shines, as does both the authors and illustrators. For this book Bill Willingham brought in another one of his old cohorts from his Clockwork storybook crew and I have to say Mr. Willingham has whipped them into a fierce crew of urban fantasy authors. In this story we see Cinderella travel the world in search of illegal magical artifacts and finds that the troubles delve deep into her own past causing her to travel back to the Homelands. This was a fun read and I hope they allow Chris Roberson to do more of these.

As usual your comments are both welcomed and wanted.

Thank you for your time.

JD Calderon