The Home of the Creative Mind

Welcome to PooBahSpiel, the online voice and home of the creative mind of Mark Monlux, Illustrator Extraordinaire. Prepare yourself for an endless regaling of art directly from the hand of this stellar artist. And brace yourself against his mighty wind of pontification. Updates are kinda weekly and show daily sketches, current projects, and other really nifty stuff.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

The Comic Critic Reviews "GOG"




It’s important to remember that GOG was released in 1954, three years before Sputnik would orbit the planet. At the time, it was seen as yet another novelty movie to feature 3D special effects. As a science fiction film it tried to capture and show ideas that were foreign. And while the terminology used in the film didn’t make its way into common use, the concepts shown did come to fruition: Solar Power Stations, Solar Powered Space Stations, A Space Race, even Wi-Fi. The problem with GOG is that a ton of the “High-Tech” in the movie was shown in such an extremely hokie manner that GOG came across as silly. The ample amounts of boring stock footage didn’t help. If done better, maybe the message of the upcoming space race would have touched the audience. As it was, it was not this movie, but Sputnik flying over the heads of Americans that caused an immediate shift in our society to fast-track math and science education in public schools. Now with computers in our pockets and little kids launching satellites into space as classroom projects, GOG is nothing more than a slightly boring film, laughable for its cigarette-smoking mindset and absurdities. Just why would a top-secret underground installation have not just one, but two flamethrowers?

Do you want a sneak peak?