Over the years I’ve read and enjoyed a number of comics written by Matt Wagner, his long-running series SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE being the most notable. TRINITY is a fine trade paperback reprinting a three-issue miniseries written and drawn by Wagner and featuring DC’s three most iconic characters: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.
Now, when I was a kid, I wasn’t a Wonder Woman fan. I suppose I was as sexist as any other ten or twelve year old boy in the Sixties. Plus I really didn’t like the art on the issues coming out then. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, DC tried to remold Wonder Woman into a Modesty Blaise sort of character, and while that was interesting, it never really worked for me, either. In the Eighties, though, there was another Wonder Woman relaunch with excellent stories and art by George Perez, and that one won me over. I’m still not a huge fan, but Wonder Woman is okay.
Throw her into an epic story with Superman and Batman, though, and you’ve got something. TRINITY is the story of Wonder Woman’s first meeting with them, and it involves an evil, globe-spanning conspiracy hatched by one of Batman’s arch-enemies, Ra’s Al Ghul, as well as one of Superman’s antagonists, Bizarro (who’s not really evil but still plenty dangerous anyway). Several things make TRINITY a fine piece of graphic novel entertainment. Wagner provides the art as well as the story, and it really works. He’s a good storyteller who uses classic layouts most of the time. His script is top-notch, capturing the personalities of Superman and Batman in all their complexity. There’s a sense of rivalry that’s always there, as well as a certain frustration and disapproval that each feels about the other’s methods, but above all, they’re friends. Then that sort of gets knocked cock-eyed by the arrival of Wonder Woman. No, there’s not any sense that they’re vying for her affections (although Batman is surprisingly interested in her). Wagner is too subtle a writer to take the easy, obvious route. But having Wonder Woman around does change the dynamic between Superman and Batman, at least a little.
This is one of the best comic book series I’ve read recently. If you’re a fan of the classic DC characters (another of whom makes a funny, unbilled cameo appearance), give TRINITY a try. I had a great time reading it.
I enjoy a good war movie every now and then, and THE LOST BATTALION fits the bill. Made for the A&E cable network, it’s based on the true story of an American battalion that gets cut off from the rest of the American forces during an advance into the Argonne forest during World War I. Almost completely surrounded by the Germans, the Americans resolve to hold their position until help arrives, which takes days. Outnumbered, starving, without medical supplies, the odds are against any of them surviving.
In classic war movie fashion, THE LOST BATTALION introduces us to about a dozen of the soldiers, most of them from New York but some from Texas and Montana as well. Most of them are “citizen soldiers”, who were either drafted or enlisted to fight, not career military. Their commander, a lawyer in civilian life played by Rick Shroeder, fits into this category, too, and struggles to become a respected leader. You know going in (at least you do if you’ve ever watched many war movies) that not all of them are going to make it, but this grim, gritty film directed by Russell Mulcahy makes their life-and-death struggle very interesting.
With its unrelenting air of doom, I’m not sure I’d say that THE LOST BATTALION is an entertaining film, but it’s very well-done (other than some shaky camerawork I didn’t like) and I think it’s a movie that’s well worth watching.
I was never a big fan of Farrah Fawcett or Michael Jackson, but I'm sorry to hear about their passing. The third death today hits a lot harder in the Western field. Don Coldsmith, who collapsed last week during the Western Writers of America convention, has passed away. I was definitely a fan of Don and his work. We weren't close friends but always talked whenever we were at the same convention. I believe we shared an agent for a while. He was a good man and a fine writer. Best known for his multi-book Spanish Bit series, he also wrote several very good stand-alone historical novels. He will definitely be missed.
THE TARNISHED STAR, the debut novel by Gary Dobbs of The Tainted Archive (writing as Jack Martin), is out now, and I’m happy to report that it’s a fine traditional Western novel. It’s the story of Sheriff Cole Masters, who runs afoul of the evil Bowdens, father and son. Wisely starting in the middle of the action, Dobbs takes a page from the movie RIO BRAVO and has Masters waiting for the arrival of the circuit judge so that the prisoner in his jail, Sam Bowden, can be tried for the murder of a prostitute. Sam’s father, wealthy and powerful cattleman Clem Bowden, has a different idea. He plans to free his son, no matter what it takes.
From that point, Dobbs veers off from the expected and spins a yarn of violence and redemption in gritty, tough-minded prose. Cole Masters is hardly an infallible hero. He can be indecisive at times and dangerously impulsive at others. He never loses his devotion to the law, however, and before the book is over, the title reference to a tarnished star takes on more than one meaning.
THE TARNISHED STAR is an entertaining, fast-moving story, as are all the books I’ve read from the Black Horse Westerns line. From the pulpish cover to the final showdown in which plenty of bullets fly, it’s a fine, action-packed Western that still manages to be character-driven. You can order it from an assortment of places, including Amazon and The Book Depository (which offers prompt, free shipping worldwide – hard to beat that deal, which is why I ordered THE TARNISHED STAR from them), and if you’re a Western fan, you want to get your hands on this one.
Speaking of explosions, as I was in the previous post, there’s one in TAKEN, and a lot of other action, too. Liam Neeson, handling the running, shooting, and fighting parts just fine, plays a retired CIA agent who goes after the bad guys who kidnap his daughter while she’s vacationing in Paris. Needless to say, since Luc Besson co-wrote this film, Neeson’s character is a one-man army much like Frank Martin in the Transporter movies, although the stunts in this one are somewhat more believable. There aren’t really any twists to the plot. Everything plays out pretty much like you’d expect it to. But when it’s done as well as it is here, that’s fine with me. I liked TAKEN a lot, and if you’re in the mood for an action movie, I highly recommend it.
That was my comment, referring to my usual movie-watching habits, after we watched LITTLE MANHATTAN, a sweet, occasionally funny film about the budding romance between a couple of fifth-graders who live in New York City. This movie takes place in what I think of as sitcom Manhattan, where everything is incredibly clean and safe and charming. It's a pretty good film, although, lowbrow that I am, I wouldn't want a steady diet of movies like it, either. But that takes me back to my original comments about six-guns, etc. On the other hand, why the hell not?
The blog got hit with spam comments in Japanese on nine different posts during the night. I've deleted all of them, and if it continues I'll turn on comment moderation again. I'd rather not do that unless I have to, though. I like for people to be able to see their comments right away, and it doesn't take much longer, if any longer, to delete the spam than it does to approve comments. I do hope this isn't the start of a whole new wave of spam, though.
Crass, crude, silly, predictable teen sex comedy about a couple of football players going to cheerleader camp to chase girls. And I laughed all the way through it and thoroughly enjoyed it. (Big surprise there, eh?) Seriously, if you can say such a thing about a movie like this, the script is considerably smarter than you might expect. Worth checking out if you're in the mood for some lightweight entertainment, which I usually am.
I got a call this afternoon from a small press publisher who's interested in reprinting some of the work of one of my favorite pulp authors, Donald Barr Chidsey. It seems this fellow had read something I wrote on-line about Chidsey and thought I might be able to give him some information he's been looking for. As it happens, I was able to tell him what he needed to know, and we had a nice long conversation about pulps, mysteries, Westerns, and the current state of the publishing business. Probably wouldn't have happened, though, if he hadn't run across my comments about Chidsey. (By the way, "Battleship on a Mountain" is a heck of a story.)
Cullen Gallagher mentioned this novel a couple of weeks ago on his blog, and since I happened to have a copy on hand, I thought I’d go ahead and read it. I’d never read any of McCoy’s novels before, although I’ve read several of his pulp stories and enjoyed them. And I SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME is dedicated in part to Joseph T. Shaw, the famous editor of BLACK MASK, so I figured it might be worthwhile.
Which it certainly is, although it’s not a crime novel at all. A few minor crimes take place, but they’re hardly the focus of the book. Instead it’s a Hollywood novel set in the Thirties, narrated by Ralph Carston, a young would-be actor from Georgia who’s determined to make it big in the movies. As the book opens, he’s working sporadically as an extra and living, platonically, with a bit-part actress named Mona Matthews. Ralph makes the acquaintance of a wealthy widow known for throwing lavish Hollywood parties, and despite being rather naïve, he knows that she can help him advance his career if he goes along with what she wants, which is him.
This book is pretty much a soap opera. Along with Ralph’s affair with the widow, the plot features a big star who turns out to be a lesbian, an interracial couple, some nights spent in jail, a suicide, and lots of boozing and sex. What makes I SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME worth reading is McCoy’s bleak, fast-paced prose. The plot may be melodramatic, but the writing is pure hardboiled, with a grim, fatalistic tone that makes the book qualify as noir, as well. I’ll definitely have to get around to McCoy’s other novels, and in the meantime, if you like Hollywood novels, this one gets my recommendation.
Over the years I’ve read and enjoyed a number of comics written by Matt Wagner, his long-running series SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE being the most notable. TRINITY is a fine trade paperback reprinting a three-issue miniseries written and drawn by Wagner and featuring DC’s three most iconic characters: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.
