Steven W. Alloway (292)
Recently, Andrez Bergen finished a comic series called Trista & Holt: a genderbent retelling of the story of Tristan and Iseult, told in classic noir style and set in the disco era. I had the pleasure of reviewing the comic and highly recommend it. Now, Bergen has adapted that story into a novel called Black Sails: Disco Inferno. It’s the same story, told in a different way, but the effect is a very different one. Even at the places where I knew what was going to happen, I still found it a thrill to read.
As we conclude the latest Dirk Gently story arc, we finally get to meet the creatures who have been stealing people’s ability to communicate. As we learned at the end of the previous issue, they’re some sort of aliens, or inter-dimensional beings. But, what do they want? Why are they wreaking havoc on Earth? Having solved the mystery, it’s now up to Dirk to interrogate them as best he can and find out.
What would you do if you found out you were dying? Would you extend your life by any means possible? Or would you make the most of the time you had left? That’s just one of the issues raised by the short film Beautiful Dreamer which had its west coast premiere recently at Dances With Films.
When I talked with writer/director Alicia Slimmer at the Dances With Films festival about her movie, Creedmoria, she told me it was uplifting. Given the plot synopsis, it was a little difficult for me to believe. From beginning to end, the story is full of tragic events and terrible people. Even while watching the movie, at times, I wondered how a film like this could be considered uplifting, when it puts its protagonist through such hell. Yet somehow, uplifting is exactly what Creedmoria manages to be. Because the focus isn’t on the tragic events or the terrible people. The focus is on rising above those things and realizing that that’s not all life has to offer.
In recent years, there’s been a bit of a stigma against clowns. Rather than the traditional portrait of funny, friendly, silly caricatures whose main goal is to make us laugh, they’re most often portrayed as grotesque, evil monsters. I’ve never liked this hostility towards clowns, particularly since I used to perform as a clown myself, as did my mother. Fortunately, it would appear that I’m not alone in my views. Karen McPherson, the writer/director of the short film Pop, feels much the same way and said so during a Q&A at Dances With Films, where the film screened recently.
It’s the ultimate sci-fi love story. A man tells the woman he’s seeing that he’s from the future. Not only that, but the whole reason he came back in time is to be with her. He saw a picture or a glimpse of a woman from years ago and fell so in love with her that he gave up his life in the future and traveled back in time just to win her heart. Variations on this theme have been done in movies ranging from Terminator to the highly underrated Happy Accidents. It’s also the plot of the short film Future Boyfriend which had its west coast premiere recently at Dances With Films—only with a slightly different twist on things.
Danger Girl was one of the first things I ever reviewed for this site. I’ve been hooked ever since, gleefully reading whatever Danger Girl comics I can get my hands on. So, when I saw a new Danger Girl title up for review, of course, I jumped on it. It wasn’t until afterwards that I started to wonder: how do you review a coloring book?
Adamant #1 is the beginning of what promises to be a pretty cool and exciting, new comic. It combines two of my favorite things—superheroes and time travel—and already, it doesn’t disappoint.
And so, we have reached the end. After over a year of buildup, this is the final issue of Andrez Bergen’s gender-bending disco noir twist on classic literature. It’s been an incredible ride, getting better and better with every issue. It goes without saying that I’ll be sorry to see it go.
We’re nearing the end of this story arc, and Dirk has just about solved the case of the people who have lost all communication. In the previous issue, we learned that the victims of this strange occurrence respond to music. Now, Dirk just has to perform one final, elaborate test to get to the bottom of exactly what’s happening and why, and stop it once and for all. Oh, and Tamasha Travers and Madluck Biggun, Dirk’s two traveling companions on this adventure, have to have sex.
