Doomsday Squad #1

 

TITLE-Doomsday Squad Issue 1

PUBLISHER-Fantagraphics

Now I had heard about this 70s John Byrne series for years. Might have even flipped through an issue before. But until recently never owned an issue never read an issue.

Was a nice day shocking warm for this time of year. Filled up my travel tumbler with drink,grabbed a stack of comix and was sitting on my back porch reading comix and looking out at the lake.

Had just got this Fantagraphics reprint. Oh yea while this serie started in the 70s,published as Doomsday + 1 by Charlton,it got recolored and reprinted in the 80s by Fantagraphics once Johny Byrne had made his name on a few titles over at Marvel. Recolored cause anyone that has read Charlton stuff can tell you the colors were either average or horrible.

Set in the new future a few scientists are on a space statio orbiting the Earth. A nuclear war breaks out and they watch it from outer space. Rations are almost out so they try to figure out where to land. Possibly they are the land humans alive. 

Discovering that thanks to a storm Greenland has low radiation levels that is where they land. Seeing on the way that the ice melting has caused almost all the coastal cities world wide to flood.

Landing in Greenland they see a Wooly Mammoth trapped in an ice flow. This melts and also what appears to be a ancient Viking is freed. After escaping this Viking joins the group and they start to a port to find a ship and head off. Hoping to find supplies and maybe other humans.

This is a very 70s sci fi series. Byrne at this time wasn't a great writer,and still this 1 issue got me to go order the rest of the run. There is 7 total. All easy to find in the Fantagraphics reprint run.

The art is that 70s/early 80s John Byrne. Back before he started going to fast. One of the female scientists has redhair and in Greenland puts on a black snowsuit. Making her look like mid 70s era Black Widow.

If you enjoy 70s sci fi and/or John Byrne art track this down. Bonus each issue has a new back up story with various properties Fantagraphics was publishing back then. Issue one  a  Dalgoda story. Always love the art on Dalgoda but the story has never caught and kept my attention.

Doomsday Squad #1 gets a B-.

Stray Bullets Issue 6

 

TITLE-Stray Bullets issue 6

SOURCE-El Capitan Comics 

I have heard for 30 years now how great Stray Bullets was. And over those 3 decades collected a stack of the 40 or so issues. Just never really sat down read any of them. 

Seems this issue is a one and done. We meet Amy Racecar, a young girl who is in something that isn't a coma but that is the closest I can think of to what she is in. She doesn't talk or move. And in her head she is talking to God and learns that when you die you fade into nothingness. Heaven isn't waiting on you.

After years of all kinds of doctors trying all they can ,Amy's mother is at the end of her rope. So when a group of feds show up and offer to test out the new experimental Truth Machine on Amy the mother accepts. Once the machine is turned on they all see Amy in Heaven with God and learn what Amy knows about Heaven. Causing the Truth Machines inventor to jump out the window.

Momma Racecar gets mad. Grabs a knife starts attacking her daughter. Carving up her face. Then Amy regains conciousness,and kills everyones in the house. 

Amy goes on the run ,becoming a bank robber. Thanks to a FBI agent that is in love with Amy she keeps escaping. Then finally she is caught put on trial and the Truth Machine is used on her again. The world now knows what Amy knows. Heaven isn't where you go when you die. And it causes all kinds of shit to happen. 

The President talks Amy into saying she followed the machine. After this she gets offered a job. Going around talking to at risk teens. But before she can accept she rushes off to an escape pod in the White house and flies off into space.

Now haven't read the next issue I'm guessing the entire issue was in Amy's head as she lays in bed in her Not Coma. But I have no clue.

Amazing art plus a great panel layout and good writing makes this a series I now want to read all of.

Stray Bullets Issue 6 gets a A.

Piranha DVD

 

Title-Piranha

SOURCE-Shout Factory DVD

Yea normally I save horror stuff for October. Just after watching this the other night I felt the need to write about it. Now I have covered the 90s remake and the 2000s remake on this blog before. And I've seen  the original many times. 

First time viewing it had to be when it premiered on network tv. Sure it was some channels Movie of the week,who else remembers that? Each major OTA network would have a night of the week where they showed cut for tv versions of big movies. Would be a big deal when stuff like Alien played tv for the first time. I had to be 8 or so when I first saw Piranha and I loved it.

The plot is Jaws but replacing the giant shark with a pile of mutated piranhas. They are heading to a water resort and of course the owner doesn't want to shut it down.

Cheesy and cheaply made this is still the best Jaws rip off from that era. Decent FX work,ok acting and a decent plot.

This DVD is loaded. Got a great commentary,that is full of info on  the film. A almost 20 minute long featurette with Corman and others that worked on  the film. They even dug up the scenes added back into the TV version. Back in the day lots of the time when  a film was edited for tv it would cause the running time to be too short,average movie needed to be 90 to 95 minutes so a 2 hour block would have 25 to 30 minutes of ads,so cut scenes would be added back in. Some films even  had new scenes filmed for the tv version.

I know there is a great blu ray of this out there. Betting a 4k is either out or out soon. This DVD is a great cheap choice if you want to try out the film

Piranha gets a B-.

The Jerk 26th Anniversary Edition DVD

 

TITLE-The Jerk
SOURCE-26th Anniversary DVD

Talk about a film I saw often as a kid and then haven't watched in maybe 30 years. Steve Martin is a white man born into a black family in rural Mississippi. He heads out to make his life and just has wacky adventures.

The film is just one hour and almost 30 minutes of Steve Martin going wild on screen. With enough plot to connect the bits. 

For a bit he is working at a gas station. Which is a bit I remember seeing many times on  TV. Or when he joins the traveling carnival. Working as the guy that guesses your weight. He ends up hooking up with the lady daredevil motorcycle driver. Which brings one of the best scenes. Every few weeks Martin will mail some money home and send a letter. You get the famiyl all gathered around as Steve's mother reads this letter. "And I might be able to send more money next week getting a extra job,Shelia mentioned a blow job" And Steve's brother just busts out laughing while the rest of the family is puzzled.

Thanks to a tiny invention he made at the gas station Steve ends up rich. Married to Bernadette Peters and living in a huge manstion. Then he loses it all. But that money he was sending home his Dad invested it well and we end with the entire family back at the shack in rural Mississippi celebrating their new wealth.

The Jerk gets a A-.