The Comic Critic Reviews House of Wax

I’m a huge Vincent Price fan. How huge? His was the first movie actor’s name I memorized. I loved watching him perform. Watching him meant watching a lot of horror movies, and every young boy enjoys horror movies. Vincent Price carried himself with a regal, sophisticated air. He was immensely charming, polite, the quintessential gentleman. His bearing was so elegant that his victims apologized for being such a bother when he slid the knife in. Price’s ability to encapsulate menace with such movement and expression enthralled audiences. While he’d played a number of worthy roles before, it was in The House of Wax that he eased himself so easily onto the throne to became the king of horror. It seemed he’d been there all along, the quiet monarch always in command. The House of Wax was a tremendous box office draw. The rage for 3D films had just begun. That, along with Vincent Price’s performance, gave House of Wax a long run, establishing it as one of the 50s classic horror films. There’s a Blu-ray 3D version available now, but I only hope that I’ll eventually have the opportunity to see Vincent Price in a re-release on the big screen, The House of Wax in all of its 3D glory.

The technology was so new, they had to show this trailer at the theaters:

The Return of Stickman #1492

I left enough clues in the cartoon that you should be able to find the news story that inspired this comic.

Oh, I nearly forgot. Tomorrow I will be sharing the Jet City Comic Show both at the Proctor Art Festival in Tacoma. The event will be from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. and I look forward to seeing my fellow Tacoma natives there.

The Comic Critic Reviews R.I.P.D.

If Men in Black and the HBO series Dead Like Me had a love child, it would look like this. That was my first thought when I saw the preview for R.I.P.D. Later, I was eagerly sitting in a movie theater, wearing my 3D glasses, watching my suspicions confirmed. I found R.I.P.D. to be rambunctious, but lacking the zaniness that made MIB so popular. A little more back-story on the Rest In Peace Department might have been nice. Even more back-story on Nick, the recently deceased cop, would have been nice. Instead, the emphasis was on telling the story as quickly as possible, with the only lingering scenes being the CGI action sequences. Most of the character development was centered on Roy, the Old West character played by Jeff Bridges. While I enjoyed watching Roy’s scene-stealing antics, I only wish that there had been more scenes for him to steal. Now I’m looking forward to seeing the DVD version. Hopefully, the additional material will show deleted scenes and the director’s thoughts on the need for them.

The Return of Stickman #1491

The baby wig photos I saw online made my skin crawl.

The Comic Critic Reviews It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Stanley Kramer was known for creating movies with strong social messages. Many said that this made his films depressing. He decided to address this complaint by making a comedy about greed. To that end, he hired every humorous entertainer he could think of, not just big name movie actors, but character actors, emerging television sit-com stars, stand-up comedians, anybody in the business of making people laugh. There are over 105 speaking roles in It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Watching their crazy antics is made all the more hilarious as the endless cascades of talent participate in their scenes. Many of you dear readers might not recognize the sit-com stars of that era. But watching It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World will provide a primer to the wealth of enjoyment that awaits if you seek out the members of this cast in other movies.

The scene with the car flying off the cliff made a real impression on me. All of my drawings of cars going off cliffs tend to look like what you see above.

The Comic Critic Reviews Pacific Rim

Loosely translated, Kaiju means monster. Over decades of men squeezing into hundreds of rubber costumes and trampling cardboard cities, Kaiju has become the term used for the genre that features incredibly huge monsters. Since the 1950s, Kaiju have become nearly omnipresent in Japanese movies, television shows, Manga and Anime. Another Japanese term is Mecha, referring to large machines and robots. Japanese pop culture has had a strong influence on American pop culture; enough so, merely dubbing the original source material doesn’t satisfy the U.S. craving. Remakes into American versions have jumped into the market for decades. It’s gratifying to see Kaiju and Mecha paid homage by such a prominent director. And with a budget for more than a giant rubber suit! I’ve haven’t had this much fun watching a Kaiju since I was a little kid watching my favorite Gamera movies.

On a related side note, there is a growing trend: Anime remade as live-action movies. I want to coin a term for this: Gaiking, in honor of the anime by that name, the first to feature a human riding in the head of a giant robot.

The Return of Stickman #1490

The idea for this strip came from my wife. I might do another strip on it that's a bit more involved. But my whole interest on the story was the "How would you do that?" factor.