Pick of the Brown Bag
October 17, 2023
by
Ray Tate
Pick of the Brown Bag returns with an October treat for the fans of good comic book artwork...
That expression on Andromeda's face kills me.
...comedy and those who loathe post-apocalyptic cinema. Yes, yes. There are exceptions.
Fury Road despite its superb execution and visual poetry nevertheless shared the same intrinsic flaws as other post-apocalyptic films.
Simply far too many survivors roam the desert or the ruins.
There's always technology that somehow works, and/or primitive mechanics.
Food though scarce is available, and there's enough water to keep people alive.
The average human can only live three days without water.
Aquaman even less so.
I suppose I would be able to swallow the premises of post-apocalyptic movies had I not seen the truth as a kid.
The Day After continues to be the most realistic depiction of nuclear holocaust. The lucky ones get killed at ground zero. The sort of lucky Louies are caught in the blast radius and die with maybe a flash of indescribable pain. The most unlucky sods live on the outskirts of the bullseye. They didn't even win the lottery to get smashed by the horrendous wind that's capable of shattering bone.
The witnesses saw the mushroom cloud. I don't know what's worse. That they're under the impression they somehow managed to scrape out of the tragedy, or that they will die slowly from various cancers and the equivalent of AIDS. Oh, yeah. Nuclear War destroys the immune system. Cheers.
You mean, Fred Williamson lied to me?
You see. If a thermonuclear holocaust occurs, it's the end of the human race. We're all dead. The smug bastards who built underground bunkers are dead. The evil fucks that knocked over the dominoes are dead.
Wait. Wait. Selby?
Selby's dead, Dave. Everybody's dead, Dave.
Wonder Woman saved us all, and nobody got it. Except apparently me. Wonder Woman 1984 is an utterly chilling experience. Of course, it's a fairy tale. Nobody with a magic lasso is going to rescue us.
Although...Gal Gadot does possess a black belt and is adept in multiple martial arts...so...possibly...she may be in a position...More and more, the world is turning into a James Bond nightmare.
Gadot began her career in The Fast and Furious franchise. It's the kind of elevation Sonya Devereux can only lust for.
Sonya Devereux is a fictional actress in grade Z to B movies. Each of her comic books is essentially a film strip of the latest cinematic feast. Each issue is a number one. The first of the series is available in trade paperback.
In this issue of Starring Sonya Devereaux, Sonya hosts her post-apocalyptic sequel Renegade Road Riders 3.
While I'm aware of lots of gatherings, a post-apocalyptic convention is new to me. As it is to Sonya, but she quickly adapts. Does such a thing actually exist? Just curious.
The most recent of Sonya's "movies" had me at page three. The gag actually had nothing to do with the bomb.
Ahhhh. Such alliteration must be lauded. All the narration on page three is like that. Really, take a bow. The joke indicates that we're dealing with a bunch of smart people that purposely make bad "movies."
Renegade Road Riders' first swipes at the post-apocalypse check off all the boxes I mentioned. The whole look of the book is shared by its subject of parody. The visuals just have the feel of; let's go out in the desert and make cinema. What kind of movie? If you were filmmakers in the fifties and sixties you would be making a western. Eighties and nineties, post-apocalypse. Seventies? Anything goes.
Post-apocalyptic films and westerns share much in common. More so than the landscape. Artists/writers Brendan and Brian Fraim with some help from Todd Livingston and Nick Capetanakis are keen to demonstrate.
This scene can appear in a western. We're just missing a saloon backdrop and cowboy hats.
The difference lies in the cost. I'm guessing westerns are probably a little more expensive to make. You need to corral the anachronisms and require a lot of horses. For post-apocalyptic cinema, you don't even really need effects.
Biker film? YMCA sequel? Break Dancing 3? No!
It's the post-apocalyptic masterpiece 1990: Bronx Warriors.
To be fair, you can make more expensive post-apocalyptic movies with beautifully designed vehicles, guns, costumes. Fury Road obviously. It's just not absolutely necessary.
Dude's wearing a radio. I wish that was the most absurd thing I saw in a post-apocalyptic flick. I know. If I hate this genre so much, why do I watch? My knowledge comes from late night television broadcasts. I have never sat through a period post-apocalyptic movie in sequence, but I've seen a whole clutch of them in their entirety via staccato.
Sonya Devereux in Renegade Road Riders 3 portrays Andromeda Zoom, leader of a group of bi-sexual...um...truth seekers?
Don't expect any nudity or explicit scenes. The lesbian aspect of the "film" is actually cute, warm and funny. Not that these facets are mutually exclusive. The sexual diversity however is an outlier with regard to the genre.
Post-apocalyptic movies appear to be fueled by testosterone. They generally eschew LGBTQ. Sometimes you get an overtly gay flunky, but he's usually portrayed as perverted. Nudity is also at the most a smidge of boobies.
This genre of cinema gears more toward car fights, gunplay, flamethrowers and exotic weaponry. Rather, weaponry that seems exotic but really consists of tricked out fake uzis, or something.
If you could sex films, the lion's share of the post-apocalyptic would be decidedly male. They tell the story of a male hero. They give you the unflinching machismo perspective. In a way they create a kind of wish fulfillment for certain bros. The kind that think civilization and equality emasculates them. Just give a man a gun, a beer and a car, and he can sort the whole business of nuclear aftermath unbound by law, money or those pesky liberal rights for women. For these men nuclear war is the ultimate leveler, which makes Starring Sonya Devereux quite the surprise.
Andromeda Zoom and her fellow Riders usurp the male focus of this genre while at the same time being extremely funny doing it.
Sonya's impromptu speeches are right up there with Maxwell Smart's expert spoofery. The expressions of her fellow actresses and their interaction provide consistent amusement. As does the running joke of suddenly empty water bottles.
This issue of Starring Sonya Devereux is actually a grade A Movie when compared to the actual animals. The plot makes sense. A fellow played by--Tim Reid?--visits the village. He bears gifts.
All hell breaks loose over the water, depicting humanity's greed. Zephryne--possibly a reference to Jethrine, Jethro's twin sister on The Beverly Hillbillies--who is not part of the village returns to the Renegade Road Riders with the news.
Even their title, Renegade Road Riders makes inherent sense. They are loyal only to themselves not to the village. This departure naturally makes them renegades.
Renegade Road Riders is decidedly feminist. The majority of the characters are women. Though the women date other males, they are sexually bound to each other, which creates a loyal sisterhood. I know. I know. It's a send up, but what're you going to do? The depth is right there. Throughout, this movie counters the typical period post-apocalypse. It runs on estrogen.
The Renegades are looking for concrete survival: water. I've seen some post-apocalyptic goofs that seek for all sorts of useless McGuffins or dubious enlightenment. The writers know that a finite quantity of bottles of water cannot sustain a population, and that's why the conclusion is a good one.
While the car fights and the gunplay are just as ludicrous as some of the "serious" entries in the genre, Andromeda's toe-to-to against the Big Bad actually is brilliantly plausible, true to Andromeda's characterization and once again enforces the Renegades eponym.
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