F E A T U R I N G
Michael Michael
Walsh
Psycoanalyzing
Superman
Toy
King ISSUE 2
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Welcome to Punch A
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Michael
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Toy King
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smoke and mirrors
21 Defence of Dune
fanzine made by local comic lovers for comic lovers here in Saskatoon. Ding! We’re back for round two! This issue features even more beautiful and inspiring work from our talented city. Once again, the response was overwhelming. You will be pleased to see more articles and art about the things that you are passionate about; everything from Manga and Cosplay, to magic, all your favorite Superheroes, and just about everything in-between. You will need a heart wrenching tale of a comic-con dream that almost died, but was saved by the graces of friendship; dip into the psyche of the man of steel; and so much more!
20 Pen Pals
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Monster Movies
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Appleseed
Mad Max (306) 242-8996 amazingstories@mac.com
www.facebook.com/amazingstoriescomics #370 – 2600 8th Street East
Layout By Spencer Henderson
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Jordan Ratzlaff
Top Ten DC
Trades
Batman: The Long Halloween
DC Comics Written by Jeph Loeb Drawn by Tim Sale
Set in the early days of his career, Batman sides with Commissioner Gordon, and Harvey Dent to take on the Mob, and the mysterious Holiday Killer. (This is my all time favourite book.)
Green Lantern Sinestro Corp War DC Comics
Written by Geoff Johns and Dave Gibbons Drawn by Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ethan Van Sciver Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, Guy Gardner and the rest of the Green Lantern Corps fight a war with Sinestro, and his yellow lanterns, The Sinestro Corp.
Flashpoint
DC Comics Written by Geoff Johns Drawn by Andy Kubert
The Flash stars in this tale of a world without Superman, where Wonder Woman is in an all out war with Aquaman. Could this be the real DC universe?
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Batman: Hush
DC Comics Written by Jeph Loeb Drawn by Jim Lee
Who is Hush? Follow Batman as he encounters his entire rogues gallery and all of Gothams protectors in search of the answer. This is a great starting point for new readers of Batman, DC comics, or comics in general.
Deadman vol. 1
DC Comics Written and drawn by Neal Adams
Boston Brand is the high flying trapeze artist “Deadman” until he gets shot and killed mid act. Reborn as a ghost with the power to posses people’s bodies, can he find out who killed him?
Superman: Birthright DC Comics Written by Mark Waid Drawn by Lienil Francis Yu
We all know who Superman is; now learn how he came to be in this modern retelling of his origin.
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Crisis on Infinite Earths
DC Comics Written by Mar Wolfman Drawn by George Perez This classic from 1985 changed the face of the DC universe forever. Heroes from infinite earths are called upon to save their planets from the Antimonitor and things have never been the same since. This is a great classic tale that changed the DCU forever
Identity Crisis
DC Comics Written by Brad Meltzer Art by Rags Morales This is a “whodunit” for the Justice League. The death of Elastic Man’s wife calls upon all the JLA to rethink just how safe they are? Find out what secrets could tear the team apart. (I broke into DC with this story and never looked back.)
52 vol. 1-4
DC Comics Written by Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Geoff Johns Drawn by various artists
In a year without Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, follow several intertwining stories of some of DC’s lesser-known heroes. Includes The Question, then Black Adam Family, Elastic man, Animal Man, and more.
The Question Vol. 5: Riddles
DC Comics Written by Dennis O’Neal Drawn by Denys Cowen The Question continues his quest to clean up the cesspool that is Hub City. Is he enough for the task? Will The Riddler stop him before he is finished? (Some of the best writing I’ve ever had the pleasure
By Graeme Williams
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smoke and mirrors Tony Antonuk interviews Davis Hordern
F
or almost a decade, my Sunday nights were ritual of television, as my friends and I would get together to end the week by turning into The X-Files. I remember watching the credits at the start of each episode; when you read the name William B. Davis, you knew it was going to be an episode that featured the nefarious Cigarette Smoking Man. I sat down with Mr. Davis to discuss The X-Files and his recent memoir, villains, and acting.
what the actor has to do is find a reason, however bizarre In your book [Where there’s Fire...The Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man] you talk about ‘generational differences’ on the set of the X-Files. How did having a more professionally trained set of standards affect your experience with younger ‘Hollywood’ actors like David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson? Davis: I don’t know if they were generational differences or geographical differences but I was raised in British theatre traditions of civility. For all their good qualities none of these three adjectives would apply
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Photo of the Smokey Man
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well to David and Gillian.
Were you surprised at any of the reaction, good or bad, to your memoir? Davis: The reaction to the memoir has been terrific --- even winning a prestigious award. I can’t say I was surprised even by some who felt I had been too candid. They may be right. But one has to write what one feels.
Did you truly see The Cigarette Man [CSM] as a villian? Or did you try to play him more as a guy with his own motivations? Don’t you think this usually makes villains stronger? Davis: I don’t think an actor should ever play a villain as a villain. Unless it’s melodrama. After all, villains don’t think they are villains. They think they are doing what is best, or what just needs to be done. And that was how I approached CSM. I used to do convention talks where I tried to persuade the fans that CSM is the hero of the show and Mulder the villain.
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Hahaha, I could go with that theory. On a similar note, The CSM wasn’t a ‘heavy’ in physical sense --- how did you imbibe him with qualities that made him intense and intimidating?
Davis: Generally, the experience has all been good. I have been brought by the show and my role in it to a lot of different places, from more science fiction roles to skeptical conferences. But I have not really been ‘typed’ and I get to play many other types of characters.
I would love to see where that might go in some real work. Davis: I had quite a bit of help, especially from the director of photography. He always placed and lit me in a menacing framework. Christ Carter’s vision of the character’s silence and menacing observation also helped. After that it is a matter of what am I thinking
Do you still tend to embrace what the CSM character has brought to your life, or do you feel pigeon-holed sometimes in that “I Am Not Spock” sort of way?
What is the hard part about giving a nuanced performance on a TV show? Davis: [I] have done a number of TV movies that are challenging, as they are so often written for plot rather than character, and with clumsy exposition. But as always, what the actor has to do is find a reason, however bizarre, for why he has to say what he says.
What piece of work have you done that you’re proud of, aside
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PSYCHOANALYZING SUPERMAN
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ith the release of the new trailer for Zack Snyder’s upcoming Superman film, Man of Steel, brings forth once again the question of identity and masks in the Superman character. A debate that swirls around the concept of which belongs to his real self and which is the false identity that Superman is deliberately performing. Is Clark Kent the real self while Superman the façade? Or is the reverse true? Complicating the issue is that there are in fact three facets to the Superman personality; Clark Kent, Superman, last son of Krypton, as well as Kal-El. The 1978 Superman movie shows us that Superman does have access to Kryptonian culture (by way of Marlon Brando’s large floating head). It can be argued that this aspect is too removed and distant to be have the full impact on his identity, but in actuality I would postulate that it is in fact more significant access to cultural heritage than humans have. As a mortal I do not have the facility to interact and have a dialogue with my ancestors. In this regard Superman has a greater knowledge of his genealogical past than we humans do. John Byrne argues the opposite view in the mid-80’s mini-series called Man of Steel. Byrne however, highlights the main difficulty with establishing the Clark Kent persona as the authentic self. The only way to promote this idea of Superman as the
public role and Clark Kent as the true identity is that Byrne strips all the silver age elements from the character in order to make this idea work. By doing this, by modernizing the Superman character, readers lose everything that differentiates Superman from his origins. lity of his extraordinary abilities. As Jules Feiffer points out, when Superman wakes up in the morning he is that powerful being known as Superman. This would be particularly evident during adolescence, when everything that separates an individual from the rest of his peers is highlighted and exaggerated, often becoming the point of ridicule. There is no way for a character with powers of this magnitude would be able to comfortably blend into the rest of the teenagers. Not only is it psychologically unbelievable that a powerful being from an alien world would be able
devalues everything that is interesting about the character.
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interesting about the character. By removing the alien heritage as integral to Superman’s identity the readers are left with an assimilationist ideal of a unique being called Kal-El becoming comfortable with his adopted culture and abandoning the traditions that helped formulate his identity.
-Douglas Rasmussen
Punch
NATHEN WAHL
Pen Pals:
My First
Con Adventure
H
i my name is Curtis, and would like to share my experience at my very first convention at the Calgary Comic Expo in April 2013. I went along with my friends Jordan and Adam. Stan Lee was the main reason we went to the convention. I’ve waited most of my life for this opportunity, and knowing he is getting up there in age and might not be to do conventions much longer, I decided this was my best chance to meet him. I remember when I was 12 years old; I and my brothers would always try to watch TV shows that would have Stan Lee on it. We would tell each other how cool it would be to meet him. Well, on Friday April 26th, that dream became a reality. I anxiously waited in line with Jordan for over 3 hours for him to make his appearance; unfortunately he came a bit late, but what an entrance! The crowd cheered and screamed as he sat down, and he’s still looking great! I had purchased an art poster reprint of the cover to Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider-man, and brought it along for him to sign. I was concerned about black ink not appearing well on the poster, so I also brought a gold pen for him to sign it
The pen exploded and there was a big pool of gold goop
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with. Unfortunately, when Stan Lee signed the poster with my pen, the pen exploded and there was a big pool of gold goop that was mildly in the shape of his signature. I set it aside, hoping it would dry, but eventually I had to move along and the ink ran everywhere – the poster and signature were ruined. At this time my eye started to twitch and I felt sick to my stomach. After all the waiting, the planning, the anticipation, this was how it worked out. However, this story still has a happy ending. After these events, I left, broken-hearted, to my photo-op I had with Stan. While I was doing that, Jordan and Adam took it upon themselves to right what had happened. They looked around the convention and bought a poster that was similar to the one I had, and then the next day, they waited in line and got the new
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photo of Stan Lee and Curtis Witt
poster signed by Stan Lee, this time with a regular pen, and gave it to me. I was still a bit upset at how everything went down initially, but their gesture and effort meant a lot to me and I was truly thankful that it all worked out in the end. I met many celebrities over the weekend, but my favorite person to meet at the convention was Cary Elwes; he seemed to genuinely care about fans. I also got to sit in the Delorean from Back To The Future, which was another highlight. My only wish at the time was that there was plutonium in the tank and had enough road to reach 88 mph,
by Curtis Witt
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CWPoole
Fanart
Ta m m y P a r k e r
L i n dsay S ander
N ao m i W i w ch a r
J osh Todd
PUNCH Interviews
MICHAEL WALSH C
anadian artist Michael Walsh has been drawing comics for as long as he can remember. “My mom likes to tell people that I could fingerprint the ninja turtles before I could talk. I always knew I would be an artist of some sort and after college I decided to put all my energy into comic art.” His first major series, Comeback, written by Ed Brisson, was released by Image Comics in November to wide acclaim. He is currently creating art for the X-Files, and is launching a new series, Zero, with Ales Kot this fall. Michael was kind enough to share some insights into the life of a professional illustrator.
Punch: Are you formally trained? Where did you go to school? Is it necesary to follow that route, or do you feel it’s possible to be successful if you’re self-taught? MW: I attended OCAD in Toronto and have a BA in Illustration. I don’t think it is necessary at all as long as you have a strong work ethic, direction and the will to learn and improve. It does help with understanding how to take a negative critique and interact with peers. I learned more from other students than I did from my teachers.
Punch: When did art become your full time job and how did it feel? MW: I quit my day job a few months before Comeback got picked up as I was getting a ton of commissions and had a few other small gigs lined up. I figured without a day job I would be more motivated to get full time comic work and I was right! It felt great to be doing what I love full time. It’s a privilege not a lot of people get to experience and it’s extremely rewarding.
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Punch: How do you draw? Are you a diligent, disciplined, draw every day kind of guy? MW: In comics you can’t afford to not be working. Right now I’m drawing 6 days a week ten hours a day. If I’m hung up on something I just move on and keep working then come back to said hang-up. I find it fastest to spend a few days pencilling and then take a day to ink all those pencils as inking is usually a little faster than pencilling.
Punch: What is your favorite medium? MW: My favourite medium is plain old India ink and brushes. It’s the most cathartic part of the process where I can let my arm do the work and my mind gets to rest.
Punch: How much does technology assist in your creative process? MW: Technology helps me in a bunch of different ways, the most helpful of which is that it saves me time (one of the most important commodities to a comic artist). I mostly use the computer for preliminary drawing, pencilling, printing/scanning and looking up building/gun/car reference. It’s a valuable tool and helps me every day.
Punch: What does your process look like? Do you have any favorite supplies... paper, pens? MW: My two new tools I’m in love with are a Blue Pilot Color Eno mechanical pencil (the first easily erasable non photo blue pencil i’ve found) and FW Artists Ink (It’s acrylic based so it dries a nice and thick matte black, makes the original art more appealing to potential buyers) My current process is as follows: I thumbnail the pages in photoshop, using just a regular round Pencil tool and a page template I created. All the photoshop drawing is done on a bamboo tablet. After these are approved I blow up the thumbnails and
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pencil them in photoshop. I’m not too finicky at this point as I do a lot of drawing during the inking phase but I do make sure everything Is tight enough so that all the anatomy and perspective is worked out. I then
I’m in love with are a Blue Pilot Color Eno mechanical pencil print these pencils out in a light non-photo blue onto an 11x17 strathmore paper. most of the time I just jump into inks. I use a variety of tools and am constantly experimenting with new inking techniques. I use #4 brush quite a bit and also brush pens from zebra and pentel. I use the Pentel Pocket correction pen
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Punch: How long have you participated in Artists’ Alley at comic-cons? How successful were you? What advice would you give fledgling artists hoping to break into comics?
Spare time? HA. I’m a comic artist, I don’t have spare time!
MW: I’ve been in the artist alley game for about 2 years now. I’ve always been decently successful at cons as I have pretty cheap, eye-catching prints that sell really well. I always do commissions for relatively cheap and bring a boat load of original sketches in case my commission list fills up. As for con advice, I would say to find a way to make your work stand out amongst the dozens of artists in AA. Make the prints bold and position them so that people walking by can see them. At the end of the day its better to charge a little more and do a few less to give yourself some breathing room, less stressful that way.
Punch: Who is/was your biggest influence artistically? Are there any artists/writers in the comic world that particularly inspire you? If you could work with anyone on your next project, who would it be? MW: I have so many influences its impossible to name just one but I’ll try and keep it brief, Alex Toth (Zorro, Torpedo, etc), David Mazzuchelli (Batman: Year One), Mike Mignola (Hellboy), then there are tons of modern artists I look to for inspiration as well, including Samnee, Aja, Lark, Phillips, Leon … the list goes on and on (I read a ton of comics). For my next project? I’d love to take a crack at something in the Hellboy/BPRD universe under the penmanship of Mignola/Arcudi. Also I’ve been loving Locke & Key and I feel I’d be a good match for the writing of Joe Hill.
Punch: Do you do other artwork in your spare time? Is it stylistically similar to your technique in Comeback? MW: Spare time? HA. I’m a comic artist, I don’t have spare time! My work schedule is pretty demanding so I don’t find myself creating artwork for fun. That said if my load does lighten at all in the next few months
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I want to do a short fantasy webcomic that’s been brewing in my head for the last bit. Would be a dark fairy tale in the vein of Pan’s Labrynth.
Punch: What artwork are you most proud of? MW: This really changes from day to day. As of TODAY I am probably most happy with a particular sequence from the first issue of X-Files that I just got back fully coloured by Jordie Bellaire (Coloring Godess). Looking back I’m still pretty happy with how the covers to Comeback all turned out. It’s great seeing them all in a row popping off the comic shelves.
Punch: How did you get on board with Image Comics? Are they good to work for? How do you like the other titles in that line? MW: Image itself is a hard nut to crack and it took quite a few pitches before we had any response from them, perseverance and patience were key. Image is great as there isn’t very much editorial influence and we were given pretty much free reign on the interior
pages. Image is one of my favourite publishers and they are pumping out a bunch of my favourite books right now. Including Saga, Fatale, The Manhattan Projects, Nowhere Men, Prophet, Walking Dead…
Punch: You’re currently also working on the X-files comic. Were you a big fan of the show? Any favorite characters or memorable moments? MW:When the show originally aired I was a little too young to watch it as it was way too scary for me. That said I’ve watched it since then and loved it! One of my favourite characters is Walter Skinner, that dude is just way too bad-ass I love the scene where him and Mr. X scrap in the elevator in the episode End Game.
Punch: On your blog, you say that Nightcrawler is your favorite comic character. Why? MW: Hm, did I say that? You guys did your homework! I don’t know if he’s my favourite character today? He might be my favourite X-Man. dude grew up in the circus looking like a Demon, yet ended up being a priest. He’s a swashbuckling ladies man with values, and he really has a sense of childlike charm to him. I think my favourite character ever
Yeah I just convinced myself. Favourite character.
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MIGHT be Hellboy. Today it’s Hellboy. Probably because I’ve been re reading the comics from the beginning lately and they are so damn good. He has a giant right hand that is the key to unlocking 7 Lovecraft inspired dragons which will bring about the end of the world but he chooses to use that
hand to smoke cigars and drink whisky. Yeah I just convinced myself. Favourite character. Michael Walsh will be a guest at the Saskatchewan Entertainment Expo in September. Let’s show this talented artist, (and native of Canada’s Doughnut Capital, Hamilton, origin of TIm Hortons) some prairie hospitality. “Tim Hortons? I love Time Hortons. Large Regular
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Collete Turner
5 Monster Films B izarre G iant
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1. “Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad” (1994-5)
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What makes the show bizarre isn’t its concept, but its ideas and execution. In one episode, the villains infect a mechanical (not digital) egg timer with a Megavirus Monster. In another, they replace the local water supply with hydrochloric acid. Monster footage is reused ad nauseum, it has a certain ‘90s charm, and the kaiju and mecha are well realized.
2. Pulgasari (1985)
Despite its unique setting and well designed monster, the movie is rather dull. Its synthesizer score is as ill-conceived as that of Ladyhawke (1985). In most other respects, from acting to visual effects, the film is unremarkable. Its weirdness lies primarily in its origin. The late dictator wanted to make his own Godzilla film, one which would express North Korean policies.
3. The Bermuda Depths (1978)
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The plot of The Bermuda Depths is exceptional among giant monster films. It’s Moby-Dick stapled to a quiet ghost story, with a humongous turtle instead of a whale. Action movie fans shouldn’t be wholly disheartened:
while it starts very slowly, it grows more engaging and intense over its 90-minute runtime. Eric is played by Carl Weathers, best known as Apollo Creed in the Rocky franchise and as Dillon in Predator (1987). The movie also boasts good special effects, courtesy of Tsuburaya Productions.
4. The X from Outer Space (1967)
This film is sillier than a basic synopsis would suggest. Most conspicuously, Guilala is a warty alien chicken monster. It spews fireballs from its mouth, and can even turn into a fireball. In addition, whimsical jazz music accompanies all of the proceedings. Our heroes, who are astronauts, doctors, and biologists, show as much concern for partying as for science. The script features the line. The sum of these parts equals pure entertainment.
5. Dogora (1964)
Toho Studios made and released Dogora in the same year as Mothra vs. Godzilla and Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. Each was directed by Ishiro Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya (who founded Tsuburaya Productions), music by Akira Ifukube, and a script by Shinichi Sekizawa. With that in mind, it’s
Nathen Wahl
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In
Defense
of
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f you’ve seen it, you either love it, or you hate it. Or maybe you were just plain baffled by it. I was first introduced to David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune on VHS at a sleepover in grade nine or ten, around 1989. It has since become one of my favourite movies of all time, and yet, it’s a movie I can’t recommend to anyone while still keeping my professional credibility as a movie critic. Dune was a pretty colossal flop; it’s one of the most off-putting, confusing, and dense films of the last 50 years. It didn’t make back its budget on its initial theatrical run and was denounced as one of the worst movies of 1984 by more than a few film critics, including Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. It took me seeing the movie about five more times and reading the book twice before I truly understood the entirety of what was going on. Most people wouldn’t put that kind of time into studying a piece of entertainment, because most people aren’t pasty basement dwelling weirdos. But I found something worth studying in Dune, worming my way like Shai Hulud into all the cracks and crevasses of meaning and subtext. Too bad my obsession is with movies and not astrophysics or something that would have made me a rich brainiac. But over the years, Dune has given me endless hours of entertainment, quotations, jokes with like-minded friends, and philosophical food for thought. So that’s worth something, right? While the 2001 Sci-fi Channel mini-series version of Dune (and its sequel, Children of Dune) is a
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DUNE
workable version that’s much easier to understand, I would have to argue that Lynch’s version feels much closer to the source material in its breadth and its weirdness. From the hellish chambers of the diseased, evil Baron Vladimir Harkonnen to all the strange visions and whispery
internal monologues, Lynch’s Dune sets the stage for an epic sci-fi film that was just too unique for its own good. Lynch turned down the chance to direct Return of the Jedi to make Dune, which might have been a heck of an interesting movie with his sensibilities (instead of following a bunch
because most people aren’t pasty basement dwelling weirdos of teddy bears giving the Empire a good thrashing). As a side note, you can see the embers of what would have been an even more insane version that never came to pass in the documen
Nathen Wahl
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Kacey Thurston
Lindsay McNab
Appleseed Masamune Masamune Shirow’s Shirow’s -By Douglas Rasmussen find more convincing than the Terminator model of building a networked system capable of sentience, which inevitably leads to machines rising to supplant us in the evolutionary chain. Appleseed does not wholeheartedly endorse unmitigated technological progress as being innately good as a vehicle for
B
efore achieving fame for Ghost in the Shell, Masamune Shirow had previously garnered attention for his work on the Appleseed series. Appleseed functioned as a sort of playground for him to generate the narrative threads regarding the convergence of technology and humanity that he would later build upon in greater detail. What distinguished Appleseed from Ghost in the Shell is that by the time Oshii’s animated film version of Ghost arrived at the multiplex, the science fiction savvy audience had already been exposed to a fair amount of seminal classics in the genre. Viewers were accustomed to appreciate artistic endeavours such as William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy, the Akira film, and numerous adaptations of Philip K. Dick novels (that I have been reading ever since my father took me to see Blade Runner during its brief cinematic run.) While there is no denying the skill in which Shirow combines politics, philosophy, and cyberpunk tropes in the world of Ghost in the Shell, many of those ideas that he perfected in that series would not have been as nearly as intriguing without being first worked out ahead during Appleseed’s brief initial run. Appleseed only consists of two slim volumes of comic book material, a databook of information, sketches, and background detail (think DC Who’s Who or the Marvel Guide to the Universe), and a collection of shorter, miscellaneous stories repackaged in a trade paperback. Appleseed is a largely unfinished project, which has
largely unfinished project, which has been constantly reinvented
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been constantly reinvented or rebooted through various anime films by other creators, often varying in quality. The original 1988 animated film was the most faithful to the original story, albeit abbreviated and condensed. The 2004 computer generated film and its 2007 sequel Appleseed: Ex machine fare better, in terms of animation quality and action sequences. They improve upon Shirow’s vision, since Shirow’s quality later in his career suffers from a noticeable dip. Early Shirow, however, established intriguing science fiction landscapes and environments with a realistic
ble and interesting. Appleseed is a fairly conventional police procedural. Whereas Ghost in the Shell is primarily motivated by the immensity of its ideas, Appleseed’s narrative construction is of a more mechanical nature. This works to
narrative as outsiders roaming the desolated badlands that surround the city of Olympus, and as such occupy the reader’s perspective of entering into the technological marvel of the Appleseed mythos unfamiliar with the societal structure with
certainly worth a rental on Netflix at least
and complex approach to technology, but his worlds seem better served by the interjection of artists and creators who can navigate around the unfortunate tendencies in later Shirow and arrive at the core structure of what makes these works via-
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its advantage, for Shirow can lapse easily into muddled abstraction. Appleseed takes as its origin point a simple premise of the buddy cop film, a sort of hyper-technological rendition of Lethal Weapon, 48 Hours, Bad Boys, or Hot Fuzz. Briareos Hecatonshires and Deunan Knute, the two main protagonists, function as the reader’s entry point into the world of Appleseed. They begin the
which Olympus functions. Once immersed and acculturated in the structure of Olympus they use their military training to good use as members of ESWAT tactical police unit. Appleseed posits some relevant questions concerning consumerism, technological dependency, and the role of bioroids in Olympus. Bioroids are synthetic clones created as placid, docile, servants to humanity. A vision I
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Fanart
Jan e s sa Sa su k e
Ri n M atsuok a
B obby L e e
J am i e E m i s ch
Marie McNeil
T o y
King T
his part TWO of the Action figure/toy collecting article begun in Punch #4. We are looking at the various ways to find action figures. Okay, so if looking about various stores doesn’t net you many results, you can always fall back to mail-order. Ordering toys on-line can be a mixed-bag for some folks. There are pluses and minuses--the pluses being that it can be far easier to score certain toys this way. The minuses being that costs will tack shipping onto the tally and that can effectively DOUBLE the price (or more). The linchpin for most is the hassle-factor.......how much time and effort do they want to expend, versus how much they’ll pay to get the items in hand. In some ways, paying the cost of the toy plus shipping via mail-order can be LESS expensive than spending free-time toy-hunting in stores, using up gas, and the price of snack/meal costs while shopping. I’ll say at this juncture here that ( in my opinion) Ebay is probably the
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BEST and the WORST thing to ever happen to toy collecting. How can it be both? Best, in the sense that it’s opened up the market--actually the secondary market--for access to toys from sources all over the world. Chances are very good to almost certain that you can find that toy you seek from a seller located somewhere else in the world. Worst, in the sense that virtually over-night.......literally EVERYTHING toy-wise became “collectible” and “rare”, which somehow jumps the prices on pristine items and outright junk to exponential heights. Bashedup toys became “sellable”
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and worth more in the seller’s eyes simply because it was up there on auction alongside genuine collectibles. Scoring bargains have become less about luckily stumbling over something, and more about sniping techniques to bid at the last SECOND. EVERY toy is now a commodity, in light of Ebay, and the mark-up tends to be premium no matter what it is. One thing about
ponents to them--can be incomplete, or fleshed out with substitute parts from other toys. Do certainly take the time to both research what the given toy includes, as well as the offering up for bid, to ensure it’s complete. Do NOT necessarily trust the seller’s claims that the item is complete, or their photographs of the item, if it doesn’t show everything they claim it comes with. Caveat Emptor applies here, always. But it’s not all doom and gloom on-line. There’s another aspect to collecting via-online that a surprising number of collectors are not savvy about......and that
Ebay is probably the BEST and the WORST thing to ever happen to toy collecting
Ebay, and similar auction sites is that you really need to know your toys. Many offerings --especially toys or sets that have a lot of com-
is OTHER collectors. On-line social media, forums, collecting groups have flourished and the flavour and tenor of collecting in such circles is almost unlimited. There are groups of collectors, of frequently like-mind and interests, who gather to socialize, and exchange/convey information, tips and reviews about the hobby, AND trading is frequently a component of this, as well. When I first went on-line and found such forums, I was an insular collector. My info resources and access to toys was really limited to my immediate city, and the toy magazines I’d read. I was aware of trade newspapers like Toy Shop News,
Art and Article
By Ken Davis
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MAD MAX A
fter a 30 year absence there is a new Mad Max movie on the horizon. The last addition to the franchise was the 1985 movie Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome. The new addition, Mad Max: Fury Road, features Tom Hardy in the main role as Max Rockatsanky, a former officer with the global Main Force Police in the dystopian landscape of a futuristic Australian outback. It was a role that made young actor Mel Gibson famous, playing the largely silent roamer of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Mad Max is a variation on the archetypal Western gunfighter haunted by having to live in the violence of a lawless and chaotic frontier. The original Mad Max film came out in 1979 and was directed by George Miller, who would later go on to direct family fare like Babe: Pig in the City and Happy Feet. Considering the outsider
status of the original Mad Max it’s surprising the longevity the franchise has been able to maintain. The original film came about as a low budget action thriller made with a generous amount of tax credits from the Australian government who funded almost any film projects it could, regardless of skill or creative talent, as long as the end product prominently featured the Australian countryside. As a result many appallingly bad, and quite honestly, morally questionable material was produced
during that brief time span. Mad Max, however, is one of the few films from the Australian genre period of low budget horror and action thrillers to not only maintain audience interest decades later, but also to have
If you don’t mind your escapism having an edgier and brutal approach to action influenced a generation of film directors, video games, and comic book artists who copied or paid homage to the dark, violent, leather-clad punk rock ethos of Mad Max. The promise of Mad Max is fairly simple: a wild spectacle of mechanical mayhem
By Douglas Rasmussen
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Punch
Leah Keeler