The Factual Opinion

Comic Books Are Burning in Hell Episode 12

This tim around, Sergeant Peepers and Eyeball Company pick up--sort of--right where they left off in episode 10: talking about 2000 AD! First up, Joe McCulloch gives us his secret origin as a reader of British weekly comics, which leads into everybody getting honest and frank about the comics that they just can't take seriously...because they LOVE EM TOO MUCH! That's right, friend: Matt can't get enough of newspaper comics, Tucker always finds himself nodding frantically whenever the subject of the 5 Years Later run on Legion of Super-Heroes comes up, while Chris thinks Dick Tracy is what all men should be, and become. And then Matt and Chris bond over Moon Mullins! But that's not all: now it's time to talk about Amulet. And man alive, do these guys like to talk about Amulet, even if they don't really like it that much at the end of the day. Along the way they talk about Flight.

 

Download Comic Books Are Burning In Hell Episode 12

JOE GETS DOWN TO BUSINESS

TUCKER CAN GIVE YOU THE BUSINESS

MATTHEW AND BENJAMIN MARRA ALSO KNOW OF THE BUSINESS

CHRIS MAUTNER ONCE SHOT A MAN MULTIPLE TIMES WHILE SCREAMING STAY OUT OF MY BUSINESS DAD I ALREADY TOLD YOU ONCE AND NOW THIS BULLET IS TELLING YOU FOR A SECOND AND EIGHTH TIME I BELIEVE THIS TIME YOU'LL UNDERSTAND I MEAN BUSINESS

 

Travis Bickle On The Riveria: Living In Fear of Ron Silver

00:00-00:32 - Intros

00:33 - 08:03 - Each week, we assign each other a movie to watch: we call them homework assignments. First up, Tucker told Sean to watch Vengeance (2009) (originally titled Fuk Sau) directed by by Johnnie To. Also mentioned in this section - Le Samourai (1967) directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, Sunrise (1927) directed by FW Murnau, and Mad Detective (2007) co-directed by To and Ka-Fa Wai. In addition, Ka-Fa Wai wrote the screenplay for Vengeance.

Also referenced (and it will likely be the first of many times we shout him out) is film critic Ignatiy Vishnevetsky.



08:04 - 18:10 This time around, Tucker's homework was Attack the Block (2011), directed by Joe Cornish and produced by Edgar Wright. Also referenced in this section - The Goonies (1985) directed by Richard Donner, and Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) directed by John Carpenter. Just so you know, Sean's gonna keep talking about Carpenter way way too much. All the time. He has a problem. Tucker also has a problem realizing that you aren't supposed to call British people "African-Americans". Sorry about that!



18:11 - 23:28 And now, we start the movie game for the week, where we didn't tell each other what films we watched all week and now have to guess how the other reacted to the film on title alone. First up - Tucker watched Black Rain (1989) directed by Ridley Scott. Also referenced in this section - The Yakuza (1974) directed by Sydney Pollack and Ken Takakura.



23:29-31:59 - Sean watched Centurion (2010) by Neil Marshall. We talk about Marshall's other films The Descent and Doomsday, as well as director Larry Fessenden and the upcoming Martin McDonagh film Seven Psychopaths (2012). We also talk about this picture of Al Pacino and Christopher Walken:



Whoa. Let's move on.

32:00 - 38:25 Tucker watched Blue Steel (1989) directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Also referenced: Bigelow's Near Dark (1987) and the Ben Stiller directed/Dan Harmon & Rob Schrab written Heat Vision and Jack pilot (1999).
Oh and when Sean mentions Jeff Lester telling me about Kathryn Bigelow, he was wrongly remembering hearing him mention it on the wonderful Wait, What? podcast.


38:26 - 42:40 Sean watched The Wanderers (1979) directed by Philip Kaufman. Also there is a lot of talk about The Warriors directed by Walter Hill, and a double feature of both films at the New Beverly theater held by Edgar Wright. Kaufman's version of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Linda Manz, and Erland Von Lidth come up too.



42: 41 - 47:39 Tucker watched Port of Shadows (1938) directed by Marcel Carne (originally titled Le Quai Des Brumes) and starring Jean Gabin. Also mentioned Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly (1955).

47:40 - 50:25 Sean watched Let There Be Light (1946) directed by John Huston - which you can watch in its entirety here.

50:25 - 50:30  weird technical problems. Sorryz. All you missed was Sean struggling to talk about John Huston with really no handle on Huston's filmography. Tucker also forgot about Roman Polanski. In other words, you missed nothing.



50:30 - 58:48 We recover with Tucker talking about Kathyrn Bigelow's bona fide 1991 classic Point Break. Also we mention the proto-surfer philosophy movie Big Wednesday (1978) directed by John Milius.



58:49 - 1:08:11 To wrap it up, Sean watched The Castle, a 1997 tv movie directed by Michael Haneke (originally Das Schloss) It was adapted from Franz Kafka's The Castle. Also mentioned - Steven Soderbergh's Kafka (1991), which adapts some of the same material. Finally, we have a short tangent talking about 2011 tv series The Shadow Line. GATEHOUSE.

Oh yeah: Hello. You can subscribe to this thing in iTunes if you'd like. Thanks!

Download Travis Bickle On The Riveria - In Fear Of Ron Silver

No Pictures: A Girl Totally Might Be Willing To Kill Her Make Believe Lover

Inverted World
By Christopher Priest, 1974

This is not the Priest who wrote Black Panther comics, this is the Priest who wrote the book The Prestige was based on. If you care. I sort of care? This book is science fiction, according to the first part of John Clute's afterword, it's classified as "hard" SF, but I'm not sure why, as Clute's afterword lost me pretty much immediately after it started. He seems like a fine writer, but his afterword is one of those that assumes way too much about his audience's awareness of the nuances or history of a branch of writing that has always been, almost by design, somewhat obscure. On the other hand, Inverted World is also one of those books that has a back cover blurb written by somebody who should be slapped repeatedly in the face, because they fail to grasp that the book they're spoiling the pants off of is heavily dependent on rolling out its information in a very specific style at very specific times so that it can be made more obvious to the reader that the plot's construction is mirroring the plot's content, that you are supposed to discover information at the same moments the characters discover it instead of knowing it going in there. That being said, Priest doesn't seem to care about expanding upon why his characters feel the way they do, he just likes to depict them doing and perceiving thing--which means you have sections where seemingly important sequences are passed over in sentences like "they figured it out" alongside interesting (albeit dry) pages describing the, for example, deterioration of one's sense of vision. It's an impressive, intelligent book, but it's also incredibly cold.

-Tucker Stone, 2012

Comic Books Are Burning in Hell Episode 11

This week, the crew is a man down, but that's no problem: there's a convention to talk about! That's right, this time around, Joe McCulloch, Matt Seneca and Chris Mautner are going to handle things news-a-roaming style, and the topic on display is the SPX convention, which they all attended, together, like a couple of Hardy Boys. SPOILERS: they had a nice time, and have nice things to say. The books! The panels! The room itself! It's all going well for everyone involved.

Download Comic Books Are Burning In Hell Episode Eleven

Links, you ask? They'll be back asap. In the meantime: give me a kiss!

Comic Books Are Burning in Hell Episode 10

 

This week the Comic Books Burn In Hell Action News Team--that's Chris "Muscles" Mautner, "Professor" Joe McCulloch, "Angry Matt" Seneca and Tucker "Chester" Stone--tear into the humor early, with jokes that will leave you in stitches. Thanks to the crew over at Hooded Utilitarian and their delightful anniversary month of hate, the subject of Geoff Johns once again rises up as a topic of conversation. Yay! It's yaytime, you guys! First up, Matt talks about him for a long time, and the other guys respond. Tucker responds with an anecdote about an old roommate! Then Joe gets into his love of Shako, the polar bear. And let me tell you: his love may sway you. Shako really is the best. Joe's love of Shako gives way to an affectionate discussion about 2000AD--nobody does it better! After that, the affection passes on to Raina Telgemier, whose book Drama is on its way to the same bestselling status as her previous book, Smile. Everybody likes the book. Happy ending for us all!

Download Comic Books Are Burning In Hell Episode Ten

 

Comic Books Are Burning in Hell Episode 9

In this week's examination of the comic book medium, Tucker Stone, Joe McCulloch, Matt Seneca and Chris Mautner open the door to controversy! Firstly, Tucker examines the difficulty inherent in medal refusal, and then Joe blows the doors off by opening the conversation to Chuck Forsman's End of the Fucking World, a comic that the entire crew has strong, positive feelings about. However, strong and positive does give way to conflicted feelings on the part of Matt, and you'll want to pay close attention to what he has to say. Publishing strategies! Then they talk about what should reach conclusion, industrially. Then Tucker disagrees with Matt. Then they move onto stuff they're really into that they wish was more easily available in the United States. Tucker doesn't participate in this part due to the fact that his response was delivered in a decidedly boring fashion which is why it was cut, and also because the cartoonist he talked about--that Boulet guy--is super easy to come by. Everybody else does though, and they have a whole crop of surprises to show off. Drink it up!

Download Comic Books Are Burning In Hell Episode 9

Joe KNOWS MORES ABOUT JACK CHICK THAN JACK CHICK DOES

Tucker DOESN'T HAVE THAT MANY TIRES TO KICK

Matt AND SEAN WITZKE TALK ABOUT DAMION SCOTT

Chris HAS THE SCOOP ON MARJANE SATRAPI