Category Archives: Books

Marvel Comics: Civil War. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

What would you do if you had a super power so great that you were able to help many thousands of people survive the everyday viciousness, cruelty and the malevolent? To be able to walk the streets in safety with no fear attached to their daily routine knowing that there was a hero out there looking out for them. This power is so great though that it frightens others and forces you to come clean, to reveal who you are and there by jeopardising your own safety as the criminals and the ones with evil intent come after you and those that you love. Would you, could you, sign up to act that required you to disclose your true identity?

Marvel Comics: Civil War. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(767 words, estimated 3:04 mins reading time)

Angela Douglas, Swings And Roundabouts. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Angela Douglas is one of Britain’s much loved actors. Married to one of British cinema’s legendary performers, she made a mark in both theatre and films, notably perhaps the four Carry On Films she appeared in as the romantic female lead, Carry On Sreaming, Cowboy, Follow That Camel, On Up The Khyber and in films such as The Comedy Man and The Gentle Terror. Her life is one that unfortunately seen under the gaze of a British public that was under such moral sexual introspection, a hangover from the so called Victorian values that dominated society until the 1970s and the perhaps phony tides in which people judged other lives.

Angela Douglas, Swings And Roundabouts. Book Review. full post

(650 words, estimated 2:36 mins reading time)

Captain America: Winter Soldier, Ultimate Collection. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

The graphic novel/ film/television tie-in has had many great reasons in which to celebrate multi-media crossover in the last couple of decades. From Sin City to The Watchmen, from V For Vendetta to Buffy The Vampire Slayer, each has carried the other with the weight of heavy expectation foaming from its pages or celluloid extravagance. When it comes to the world of Marvel, arguably the heaviest hitter in the world of the comic book communities, the films have been great, the comics have been superb but the tie-ins have not been so enamouring.

Captain America: Winter Soldier, Ultimate Collection. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(657 words, estimated 2:38 mins reading time)

Sin City: That Yellow Bastard, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

In the Robert Rodriguez 2005 film Sin City, one of the more interesting set of stories weaved together was that of Nancy Callaghan, Detective Hartigan and one of the beasts that haunts Basin City like a Japanese knotweed being cultivated by perverted and foul paedophile, the obscene Roark Junior. Sin City: That Yellow Bastard follows that story neatly from start to finish and it is arguably the best story in the entire series because of it.

Sin City: That Yellow Bastard, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(490 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Batman: Haunted Knight, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It’s hard to imagine any superhero in the Marvel Universe having the same type of intrigue and fascination with Halloween as D.C. Comic’s biggest hero Batman does. Indeed across every spectrum and genre no other title perhaps lends itself more to the crazy upside world of the night than the Dark Knight.  In a collection of three different one shot Halloween special stories by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, under the one title of Batman: Haunted Knight, the complicated relationship he has with the day is one that captures the imagination but also the fixation, the near fixation he has in dealing with those who bring harm to Gotham City is at near psychosis levels.

Batman: Haunted Knight, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(495 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Sin City: The Big Fat Kill. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Dwight McCarthy, perhaps one of three decent men who inhabit the world of Sin City, has a new face but that doesn’t stop him from finding trouble by the truck load or even getting involved with the women of Old Town once more in the third book in the Graphic Novel range by lauded artist and creator Frank Miller.

Sin City: The Big Fat Kill. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(515 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Batman: Dark Victory, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is no wonder that Batman remains arguably one of the finest superhero creations to ever grace comic book, graphic novel and film alike, not just in the realms of D.C. Comics but across the whole spectrum.

Batman: Dark Victory, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(540 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Twenty years since the events that unfolded in the second book by the esteemed Frank Miller, one of the finest set of graphic novels is being tuned into an arguably must-see film for its fans.

Despite the prestige of the novel being tuned into a film, Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For is much more than the chance to relish into the grimy neo-noir world of Basin City and the chance to see Robert Rodriguez add extra class to an already seminal story, the focus should be on just how good, how superior the idea was to almost anything since the mind bursting days of Film Noir and the rise of the Detective novel.

Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(559 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

Frank Miller’s Sin City: The Hard Goodbye. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Frank Miller is an institution, not just to the world of graphic art and comic books but to film also and no matter that he has worked for the big two when it comes to artwork and writing, on titles such as Batman/ The Dark Knight, Superman (D.C. Comics) and Spider-Man, Daredevil and Elecktra (Marvel), it is perhaps the works that were turned into highly successful and critically acclaimed films, namely 300 and Sin City.

Frank Miller’s Sin City: The Hard Goodbye. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(729 words, estimated 2:55 mins reading time)

Batman: The Long Halloween: Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Alongside Wonder Woman and Superman, Batman is perhaps arguably D.C. Comics’ greatest hero and certainly lucrative money spinner in an ever increasing market for film adaptations. The films, especially the darker and grittier Dark Knight series starring Christian Bale were mesmerising and brutal and aside from perhaps the first two Batman films of the 1980s with the excellent Michael Keaton in the role, were the epitome of graphic novel/adaptions from the D.C. universe.

Batman: The Long Halloween: Graphic Novel Review. full post

(638 words, estimated 2:33 mins reading time)