This much is certain: Theodora Goss’ The Thorn and the Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story is an interesting book. I’ve never really read one like it. It’s a text where its central idea is also its star, where a formal experiment powers the incidental characters and situations around it. I don’t think it’s especially successful, but it certainly gives readers something to think about. read more
- film
- Warrior by Grisly Gunnar
- Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark by Grisly Gunnar
- Movie Quick Hits: Reviews of The Beaver, Colombiana & more by Grisly Gunnar
- Our Idiot Brother by Grisly Gunnar
- music
- The Lonely Island: Turtleneck & Chain by Rebel Rikki
- The Cars: Move Like This by Rebel Rikki
- 8in8: Nighty Night by Rebel Rikki
- Ray Davies: See My Friends by Rebel Rikki
- comics
- Charley’s War: Hitler’s Youth by Rebel Rikki
- Quick Hits: Reviews of Batwoman #5, Frankenstein #5 and Secret Avengers #21 by Rebel Rikki
- Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #1 by Rebel Rikki
- Green Lantern #5 by Rebel Rikki
Movie Quick Hits: Reviews of Blitz, The Debt, Dream House & more by Grisly Gunnar
We can’t write 500 words on everything, so here are bite-sized portions of recently seen independent and foreign releases, as well as films new to DVD. Even though they slipped through the cracks, these films still warrant your attention.
Presadona: Filling the Void by Rebel Rikki
Presadona has a unique relationship with Nerdy Nothings. Their song “Back & Forth Forever” has provided the intro music to our podcast since the first episode. We even got the band to record an episode of that podcast, though it’s sadly been lost to the ages due to mangled audio. Clearly we know and like read more
Tank Girl: Bad Wind Rising by Rebel Rikki
Thanks to Rachel Talalay’s 1995 film I’m familiar enough with the character of Tank Girl, but until Bad Wind Rising, the latest collected miniseries from Titan Books, I’d never really experienced her comics. Going into this series relatively blind is a pretty interesting experience. You’ll need to check your expectations of traditional narrative structure at read more
New Comics This Week: January 25th
New Comics for January 25th, 2012
A weekly list of new comic books, graphic novels, trade paperbacks and toys hitting your favorite comic stores this week. Need to find a comic store near you? Use the Comic Shop Locator. See the full list, with my picks in red and other books of note in bold, after the jump! — more
Serial, Super Serial: The Living Daylights
Super Serial aims to dissect series of pop art — be it a filmography, discography or run of comics — by looking at its individual components.
Although we’ve seen four James Bond films made in the 1980s (three official), The Living Daylights is the first that feels like an “80s movie.” Although all of the Bond films have been financially and culturally successful, with new action hits like The Terminator, First Blood, Predator and Die Hard made in during the decade, we can see a major trend of machismo and explosions (which has never really gone away). It was only a matter of time before the Bond franchise would follow, and John Glen’s 1987 The Living Daylights delivers as a more serious action film in that style. Changing the star of the film certainly helps this shift in tone, and first-time Bond Timothy Dalton more exemplifies the action star than any of the previous actors. — more
Star Wars Uncut
There is a reason the internet was invented… and here it is. I remember watching a handful of these scenes years ago when the project first started. I think I saw Kevin Smith in one of the first few scenes. starwarsuncut.com
New Comics This Week: January 18th
New Comics for January 18th, 2012
A weekly list of new comic books, graphic novels, trade paperbacks and toys hitting your favorite comic stores this week. Need to find a comic store near you? Use the Comic Shop Locator. See the full list, with my picks in red and other books of note in bold, after the jump! — more
Tank Girl: Bad Wind Rising
Thanks to Rachel Talalay’s 1995 film I’m familiar enough with the character of Tank Girl, but until Bad Wind Rising, the latest collected miniseries from Titan Books, I’d never really experienced her comics. Going into this series relatively blind is a pretty interesting experience. You’ll need to check your expectations of traditional narrative structure at the cover, and your sense of decency too. Fortunately, those are two things that don’t really hinder me, so I was more or less prepared for the weird world constructed by Alan Martin and Rufus Dayglo. — more
Charley’s War: Hitler’s Youth
There will always people for whom World War II and especially Adolf Hitler provide a source of endless fascination. Perhaps it’s because Hitler seems like literally the most evil person to ever exist — people feel the need to analyze and unpack this larger-than-life figure who caused the world unimaginable misery. Those people will likely be captivated by the contents of this eighth volume of the 1980s serial Charley’s War reprints, subtitled Hitler’s Youth. — more
Quick Hits: Reviews of Batwoman #5, Frankenstein #5 and Secret Avengers #21
Batwoman #5: JH Williams III and W Haden Blackman’s first story arc ends as Batwoman figures out how to defeat the supernatural “Weeping Woman” who’s been abducting Gotham City children. Williams’ lush, creative art is obviously this book’s biggest selling point; simply put, no one crafts comic pages like him. But a conversation I had on Facebook last month made me realize another one of this book’s biggest strengths: story-wise it just has so much going on. — more
New 52 Shake-Up: Six Down, Six Up
It was only a matter of time before DC Comics began playing with the titles that comprise their New 52, and according to Newsarama – with backup from DC’s official blog The Source — that’s exactly what they’re doing. As of today, six titles have been added to DC’s roster, some of them obvious and others less so, while six have been axed. — more
Grisly’s Top 10 Films of 2011
As you’ve probably noticed, 2011 was a pretty good year for film. While I was one of the few saying the hate for 2010 was a little exaggerated, there is no doubt that this year’s crop of films really delivered. — more
- film
- Star Wars Uncut by Noah Nickels
- Grisly’s Top 10 Films of 2011 by Grisly Gunnar
- Serial, Super Serial: A View to a Kill by Grisly Gunnar
- Serial, Super Serial: Never Say Never Again by Grisly Gunnar
- music
- Gig Posters: Volume 2 by Rebel Rikki
- The Doors covering Reading Rainbow by Noah Nickels
- Beirut on Fallon by Noah Nickels
- Garbage covers U2 by Noah Nickels
- comics
- New Comics This Week: January 18th by Nerdy Nothings
- New 52 Shake-Up: Six Down, Six Up by Rebel Rikki
- New Comics This Week: January 11th by Nerdy Nothings
- VIDEO: Girl in a Comic Book Shop by Nerdy Nothings
- nightly nothings
- Nightly Nothings: Flatliners, Sin City 2 and Justice League #1 by Noah Nickels
- Nightly Nothings: JGL covers Nirvana, Ghostbusters 3 & Ryan Adams by Noah Nickels
- Nightly Nothings: Jeff Lemire, Mastodon & New Primus! by Noah Nickels
- Nightly Nothings: Bridges talks R.I.P.D & Austin Powers 4 by Noah Nickels
Serial, Super Serial: The Living Daylights by Grisly Gunnar
Super Serial aims to dissect series of pop art — be it a filmography, discography or run of comics — by looking at its individual components. Although we’ve seen four James Bond films made in the 1980s (three official), The Living Daylights is the first that feels like an “80s movie.” Although all of the Bond read more
Top 5 Songs of 2011 by Nerdy Nothings
2011. Aren’t we supposed to be colonizing space and flying around in hover cars? But instead we’re still down here on lowly Earth making top 5 lists. I know, I know, less chin-wag more tunes: here are each of the staff’s top 5 tunes of the year. Let us know what we missed in the read more
New Comics This Week: January 25th by Nerdy Nothings
New Comics for January 25th, 2012 A weekly list of new comic books, graphic novels, trade paperbacks and toys hitting your favorite comic stores this week. Need to find a comic store near you? Use the Comic Shop Locator. See the full list, with my picks in red and other books of note in bold, after the jump!
Nightly Nothings: Dark Shadows, Party Down & Ryan Adams by Noah Nickels
Movie Nothings 40 behind the scenes photos from Star Wars. Really, really cool. Some trailers you should check out: Tom Tykwer’s 3, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Goon, Killing Bono.