POBB October 17, 2023

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.  

The creative team of Sonya Devereux distinguish Andromeda and the other ladies with unique personalities.  It's weird.  So many of these flicks' casts blend together, along with the minimal plots.   Renegade Road Riders stands out.  You can also see the blatant schism between actress Sonya Devereux and her character Andromeda Zoom.  So, there's a remarkable meta double-split within the book.  Andromeda is different from Zephryne and brunette Chevlee.  She's also definitely a role played by the fictional actress.  A meatier one to boot.

POBB December 31, 2021

Pick of the Brown Bag

December 21, 2021

by

Ray Tate

Welcome to the 2021 finale of The Pick of the Brown Bag.  In 2022 I hope to keep a better schedule for writing these hopefully enjoyable comic book reviews.  As a whole, I can't really say much about this batch of books without spoiling the surprises.  On the other hand, that gives me the option to tackle more subjects for our 2021 send-off.

This is not the usual Sonya Devereux story.  Rather it's probably the most meta thing you'll read in two years.  It is after all the last day of 2021.

For those not in the the know or those that don't feel like clicking on the tag, Sonya Devereux is a fictional actress who stars in grade Z to B films.  What you see in the book is a movie she features in.  The guest stars in Sonya Devereux distinguish the latest issue from previous cuts.

All of the above ladies are actual scream queens from the horror biz.  The director, a real director.  Sonya Devereux a fictional actress knows the real, breathing actresses and director.  That's not the only meta thing happening.  Sonya Devereux reads like the literary version of a  Russian nesting doll.

Even the plot is a lot more complicated than the average bear.  All of the figures take part in a movie jamboree of terror set in a cosplay summer camp.  Murders begin to occur, but don't expect a tried and true formula.

I can't really say any more, other than the art throughout matches the quality of the samples I included in the review.  The writing agrees with the art, and the comedy is sly rather than overt.  Most of the time.

Why on earth would I buy an issue of The Joker.  Obvious isn't it.  She's on the cover.  Batgirl.  The Joker is barely in the comic book.  So fans the maniac may be a little incensed.  

The story takes place in the past.  Jim Gordon is relatively new to the office of Commissioner.  He's trying to finish cleaning up Gotham, and he has a daughter to worry about.

Barbara Gordon is Batgirl.  She's teaming with Batman frequently to take out miscreants like Cat Man.

Batgirl's brief battle on the rooftops is the best thing about the Annual.   The Commish appears to suspect Barbara is Batgirl, but other times he doesn't.  Babs is quick on the uptake to explain the bruises she sustains.  

On the whole, the story's kind of blasé.  First it takes place in the past.  So, writers Matt Rosenberg and James Tynion cannot really accrue any illusion of threat to the characters.  Second domestic drama between Babs and Jim just makes me feel old and tired.  I miss their best father/daughter relationship   Third Jim's one-Ness clean up of the Gotham PD lacks the verve of an average episode of The Untouchables.  

Batgirl makes a peppier appearance in Nightwing, and artist Bruno Redondo alone can take this bow.  No bones to scribe Tom Taylor, but compared to the previous issues, Taylor provides a simple plot to let Redondo do his stuff.  Double splash pages and after image animation comprise that stuff.  Impossible to capture fully with a simple scanner but you'll get the picture from this example.

Pretty sharp.  Dick Grayson is wealthy thanks to...whatever happened in the Batman books.  He takes after his adopted Dad Bruce Wayne and tries to make Bludhaven a better place in both his guises.  Trouble is a group of hit men want Dick dead.  Batgirl joins Dick's alter-ego to stop that from happening and save an important hostage.  Done in one and only five to ten minutes to read.

Tom Taylor also constructs an entertaining Superman Son of Kal-El Annual.  The story examines the duel between Lex Luthor and Superman, Father of Johnathan Kent.  A lot of the dialogue and      tete-a-tete scenes remind me of Christopher Reeve vs Gene Hackman. So good on Taylor.

After about ten pages, the tale jumps to the present where Superman is in space for...reasons.  Supergirl is also in space for...reasons.  Jonathan Kent is now Superman and protector of the planet.

For those unfamiliar with modern DC, Jonathan Kent is the son of Superman and Lois Lane.  He was the little tyke teaming up with the Damien Wayne Robin in the Tomasi/Gleason/Gray era of the World's Finest titles: sometimes Superman, sometimes Batman and Robin.  Always interesting.

John now defies physics as a teenager.  Lois was young when John was a boy.  She's still that young, if not younger, along with Bruce Wayne, who guest stars.

Awwww.  Dude.

Look let's just say.  Stuff happened, and it was either magic or bad science fiction that probably conflicts with the Grandfather Paradox.  It irritates me, but let's just say that.

It's time for young Superman to meet Lex Luthor, just released from prison.  Of course, it's not going to be casual.  Lex announces his release with typical ego.

That however attracts some competitors that want Lex dead.  This looks like a job for...Superman.  

Right.  After the fight Jonathan plays a game of chess against Lex Luthor.  

During the game, John makes an appeal to Lex's genius, that's actually quite refreshing.  Steve Pugh handles the lion's share of the illustration so you know the annual will be pretty.  Artist Clayton Henry isn't a slouch either.

The entire Justice League turns out for the return of Wonder Woman.  After the Infinite Frontier one-shot, Diana bounced through the afterlife and the multiverse.  For her first arc, she teams up with the Viking warrior Sigfried in Valhalla.  All of those chapters impress.  Then, Diana walks through Olympus, fairy land--where you can see Jill Thompson rendering Wonder Woman again-- and a sort of limbo.  Doesn't matter.  She's back now.

Wait.  I thought you were in space.

These latest issues of Wonder Woman detail Diana adjusting to breathing again and seeing all her friends.  Michael Conrad and Becky Cloonan write this opener with an appropriate light touch.  The Martian Manhunter for example is about to polish off an Oreo cookie analogue when Diana teleports to the Hall of Justice.  An affection he developed in the bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha era of the Justice League.

Perhaps Black Canary's reaction is the biggest surprise.  I don't recall Diana and Dinah being that chummy.  Of course, she's a sister and all that.  Besides, I don't read Bendis.  So, I don't know if he drew them any closer.  

There's a lot of laughs and smiles in the issue.  So, I'll certainly not complain.  The whole world welcomes Diana back, except of course her Rogue's Gallery, one of whom caused some trouble in Asgard and features in the next issue.

The stories unfold at a pleasant, leisurely pace.  Diana for instance may be eating lunch with Etta Candy, teaming up with Deadman to lay Sigfried's sword to rest or saving lives, which she does frequently throughout the run.  

It's all less focused than the Asgard tales but more interesting than the in-between tour of the other mythical realms and parallel earths, that aren't the historical ones.

The very latest issue of Wonder Woman banks on Wonder Woman duplicates turning up all over the place.  These duplicates are remarkably unconvincing.  They also break too easy.

Still they leave behind a puzzle that's solved at the end of the chapter.  Who is behind the duplicates? Conrad and Cloonan answer.  Why is another question.  That's of course Steve Trevor shooting the insulting image of his lady love. 

POBB June 16, 2021

Pick of the Brown Bag

June 16, 2021

by

Ray Tate

Welcome to the latest issue of the Pick of the Brown Bag where I review the newest and the newish comic books.  If you haven't the time for the full blog, check me out on Twitter: #PickoftheBrownBag.

The latest issue of Sonya Devereaux is surprisingly good.  I don't mean that as a backhanded compliment.  I've enjoyed all of Todd Livingston's, Nick Capetanakis' and Brendan and Brian Fraim's previous issues of Starring Sonya Devereaux.  Now collected in trade for those without a local comic book shop.

The premise of Starring Sonya Devereaux is film. 

 

Sonya Devereaux is an actress who stars in Z to B Grade movies.  The comic book is the movie.  

Warrior Woman Death Team 5 is basically as the cover depicts. It's a sword and sorcery movie from the eighties or nineties but filmed with today's technology and given a better script.

If you look at Mystery Science Theater's cache of experiments, you'll find very few of this genre.  That's because the subject is already absurd to begin with.

 

Unless the movie is truly inept and/or features bad acting like that found in Ator the Flying Eagle or Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell, it's very hard to riff one of these movies.  Most of the risible elements are built in.

Warrior Woman Death Team 5 has high production values, unlike Spider-Shark vs. Snake-Bear where professionals were searching for cryptozoology rejects in Walmart greeting vests.  

So, here, we have extras, suits of armor, suitable wardrobe, some good weaponry.  Traditionally these accoutrements have always been available.  Very few if any of these fantasy films go on the super cheap with plastic swords or aluminum foiled cardboard as one may have used for Halloween.

 

The strangest thing about Warrior Woman Death Team 5 is the casting choice of a stand-in for Larry Drake as Lord Tombstroke.

Although I can't see Larry Drake portraying a medieval-like villain, he would no doubt kill it.  Larry Drake was one helluva an actor, and one helluva an actor can pull off a lot of parts.  Even those you wouldn't envision him in.

What I'm saying is this sort of throwback to Roman Emperor Nero isn't the most unusual Big Bad I've witnessed on the cinematic battlefield. 

Even the name isn't too far-fetched given some of the whacky monickers foisted on unsuspecting audience members.  

As for the jester, one shared a pivotal scene with Henry the Eighth in The Tudors.  So the presence of a jester doesn't necessarily throw a production on the trash heap.

The women are Barbarian Queen and Xena types.

And a shout-out to colorist James Couts

As you can see, none of this really strains the disbelief necessary to suspend in a sword and sorcery scenario.  Even if perhaps a few of the amazons strain their bra sizes.

Nevertheless, big all over and proportionate.  There's frequent nudity in violent fantasy presentations.  While we get one nude scene in Sonya Devereaux--it's dictated per ancient Blockbuster rules, censored before it hits the metaphorical video store.  

This nude scene is cleverer than you think because the creative team pay homage to a classic exploitation flick.

The Arena

Unlike Pam Grier and Margaret Markov's masterpiece, our female fighters here are just fooling.  

Believe it or not there's no lesbian subtext in this latest Starring Sonya Devereaux

Sonya Devereaux is risqué at times, but nothing when compared to sword-fests like Flesh and Blood.  Rutger Hauer's Martin rapes Jennifer Jason Leigh's Agnes, but she falls in love with the villain.  It's a lot more complicated than that, but you get my point.

I've explained just how Warrior Woman Death Team 5 isn't so much a parody of sword and sorcery cinema as it is just another in a long line.  So, why should you buy it? 

Because it's damn funny, and it's not funny because it makes jokes at the expense of the plot.  With a few outliers, the narrative is bona fide fantasy fuel.  The jokes on the other hand are, out of context or in context, hilarious.  Some with a few unexpected comedic callbacks pages later.

You can compare Sonya Devereaux favorably with The Invincible Red Sonja by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner.  Moritat, Palmiotti's erstwhile partner from All-Star Western, returns to provide powerful and distinctive artwork as well as the earthy colors.  

A wraparound explains the title of the book.  Red Sonja is indeed invincible, and this is the story of how she came to be that way.  The story unfolds mostly in flashback, with Sonja appearing on a pirate ship.

This scene exemplifies where Red Sonja an authentic sword and sorcery adventure splits from the parody.  Moritat's illustration is open for debate.  See what I did there? Conner and Palmiotti leave Sonja's relationship with Captain Rhaf to the imagination.  They portray him as a man in the vein of Robert E. Howard's fiction.  

Neither good or bad, with a peculiar moral code.  He reminds me of a debauched Sinbad, whom Dungeons and Dragons aficionados would consider Lawful Good.  Literally in some instances.

John Phillip Law The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

In turn, Sonja may have slept with Rhaf to gain passage, also to protect herself from unwanted lower rank advances.  Or let's be blunt.  Gang-raped.  Alternately she may have simply bartered her skill for the voyage.  

In either case, the Captain's word is law.  So if he told his crew not to touch Sonja, they would not.  He in fact reminds the crew of his aegis in another scene.

After an off-panel bloody encounter on the high seas, the pirates and Sonja gather their plunder and an odd find.

Except it's not so odd because Sonja Devereaux features a similar scene.

Girls in boxes are a trope that can be found in many sword and sorcery plots.  Though not just.  I suspect magicians have a hand in popularizing the motif.  Although we may blame Barbara Eden in this particular case.

Princess Zaria's fate seems assured.  Until Sonja, who is just that amount of a sister, tries a more reasonable tact.  

This scene demonstrates the difference between the cheerful send-up and the casual brutality in sword and sorcery, especially the works created by Robert E. Howard, without whom there would be no genre.  Think about it.  Before Conan the Barbarian John Carter was the most popular half-naked swordsman.  He had nothing to do with magic but science fiction.  In addition, the movie Conan the Barbarian jumpstarted imitations in the eighties.

Sonja cannot let on that she thinks raping the girl is the wrong thing to do.  Because that's not the right answer.  You cannot have such confusing lofty ideals in such a place.  She also must weigh the consequences.

Number one, she's bonded with the pirates.  She established her place on the ship.  She cannot jeopardize the whole enterprise over principle especially in the middle of the ocean.  

Number two, Sonja knows her limitations.  She doesn't believe she can take on the entire ship without being injured, perhaps acutely, in the process.  And there's a question of whether or not such battle would be worth the effort.  Sonja doesn't know Zaria.  So why should she risk her neck for her?  It's a breach of barbaric etiquette just to even consider principle.

Number three, she likes Captain Rhaf.  He's a good ally, possibly good in bed.  Regardless, he could be useful in the future as well as the present.  

Number four, protecting Zaria for the sake of the right thing exposes Sonja's weakness in the way she chided Captain Rhaf earlier.  

There is no law and order in Robert E. Howard's universe.  His heroes and heroines mete out their personal dictates which on occasion reflect humanitarian thought.

Just as Sonja's scheme seems to be working, the unexpected occurs, and we segue to a new aquatic danger.  Ably illustrated by Conner on the cover and within by Moritat.

The encounter with the sirens renews Sonja's acquaintance with Zaria.  Zaria's rescue from predicament isn't far-fetched given the explanation, and it plausibly doubles as an escape from doom for Sonja.  Although one can argue that Sonja would have survived her dilemma, albeit not enjoyed it.

Now safe in theory, Sonja accepts an offer from Princess Zaria.

The debut of Invincible Red Sonja is frothy and lustful adventure filled with bloodletting and brutality but the creative team convey these potentially objectionable elements with artistry, warmth and humor.  That could be a double-edged sword.  I didn't fear for Zaria's health at all and didn't think Captain Rhaf would actually give her to his crew.  However, the lack of threat didn't impede my enjoyment of the book.  It furthermore allowed me to sympathize more with the cast.