The Comic Critic's Movie Review of The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Released in 1975, The Rocky Horror Picture Show has never left theaters and continues to be the longest-running movie of all time. Rocky Horror didn’t draw much attention on its initial release, but found a home in the Midnight Movie timeslot. There night owls, loners, and children of the freaking night discovered it and made it their own through spontaneous bursts of audience participation. It quickly gelled into an orchestrated script including audience props, costumes, and the occasional call to the Fire Marshall. Your Rocky Horror cred is based on your knowledge and skills of interaction. For each generation that discovers it, Rocky Horror becomes a rite of passage of movie culture. I loved it when my friends took me to my first show. And I love it now as it’s not something you can stream, download, or fully appreciate on DVD. The full, unvarnished joy of The Rocky Horror Picture Show can only be experienced in a sticky-floored theater—with a bag full of props and a collection of your wild-ass friends.--w ged because as it stood, the theater had the bag and the collection.

The Return of Stickman #1539

Every time I lose my train of thought, this is what pops up in my mind as a visual. There is a lot more detail. If you remember the train crash scene from the recent Lone Ranger movie - that's pretty much what I'm visualizing. I know I'm boring people when I find the train derailment more entertaining than the topic I was yabbering on about.

The Return of Stickman #1538

One of my favorite bits of the Johnny Carson Show was Carnac the Magnificent, where Johnny would put on a huge, over-sized turban and cape and be a soothsayer who provided answers to questions via envelopes. To me it was a variation of the kid's game "One of these things is not like the other" refined for adults. Sometimes I think I should do the Carnac bit with Stickman. But, it's always been a Johnny Carson bit and maybe it should stay that way. Anyway, now you know my thinking behind this strip as I was drawing it up.

The Return of Stickman #1537

I drew this strip thinking my friend, Kevin Boze, would get a kick out of it. I was inspired by his compilation of comics he drew while in the military and made it into the European edition of the Stars & Stripes. Check out his book "...and another day gets off to a flying halt."

The Return of Stickman #1536

I wanted to post a strip today, but I didn't want to wait to submit the strip to my copy editor first. So I had to draw a strip that wouldn't use any words. This was the very first thing that popped into my mind.

The Return of Stickman #1535

There are several robbers shot in the head every year. Below is the specific video that inspired this strip.

The Comic Critic's Movie Review of Close Encounters of the Third Kind

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Close Encounters came out in 1977 the same year Voyager I and Voyager II were launched into space. Everybody was excited about the possibilities of space and what discoveries would be made out there.  Folks were looking up at the sky and dreaming about man’s venture into the cosmos. Close Encounters tapped into our deep desires to explore space. Steven Spielberg guides audiences into a search rather than presenting an invasion underway. First it’s a search for answers to why we are seeing what we are seeing. Then it becomes an urge, a desire to express or explain what is being seen. And before you know it, audiences are filled with a grand sense of homecoming, of returning. That joy of return and exploration is what powers Close Encounters. A lot has been said about the movie’s special effects. An obvious child of the ’70s with its lack of home computers and portable technology, they’re wonderful, practical special effects that still hold up today. But you don’t really notice the tech; what you do notice is its vibrating core message of exploration and hope which continues to make Close Encounters a great movie.

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 [J1]Space is used twice in the same sentence. Changed to avoid that.

 [J2]Deleted to clarify the meaning.

 [J3]Changed because “the public” seems to remove both you and the readers from the rest of us.

 [J4]“Hungry” changed to “deep” to strengthen the sentence structure and meaning. Another way to say this is “…tapped into our deep hunger to explore space.” I think that this is a stronger sentence.

 [J5]“Rather than feeling that an invasion was underway, Steven…” seems to mean that Spielberg may have felt that an invasion was underway.

 [J6]Changed to “audiences” to reflect that audiences everywhere felt this rather than only one audience. You may want to substitute “movie-goers” for “audiences.”

 [J7]Moved to strengthen your meaning (I hope).

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