Welcome to Arkham: An Illustrated Guide for Visitors - Book Review

 

'Witness Arkham like you’re walking its streets, peering into its shadows…

'It is the height of the Roaring Twenties. Flappers and young fellas dance the Charleston at raucous jazz clubs gleaming bright with electric lights. Beneath this gilded glamour, bloody turf wars rage, funded by gangsters and crooked cops who frequent rival speakeasies and gambling dens. Amid these changing times, old New England towns hold their secrets close. Off the Aylesbury pike, in reclusive Dunwich, rolling hills hide decrepit farms and witch-haunted hollows. Past Cape Ann, the remote fishing village of Innsmouth rots from within. At the mouth of the Miskatonic River, mist-shrouded Kingsport lies dreaming. All the while, historic Arkham broods on the upper banks of the Miskatonic, its famed university delving into the world’s darkest, most ancient mysteries.

'Welcome to Arkham invites you to venture deeper than ever before into this legend-haunted city, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos and made famous by the Arkham Horror series of tabletop games. Welcome to Arkham is a complete guide to the city of Arkham and the neighboring towns of Dunwich, Innsmouth and Kingsport, detailing 115 fabled locations and featuring more than 500 illustrations. Walk the streets of Arkham, ride the Essex County Express, hitch a ride to Innsmouth (and pray you can find a way out), or take a ferry down the Miskatonic River, and read between the lines to discover what other mysteries lurk deeper still in the pages of this tattered old book…'

I've yet to actually play an Arkham Horror game, having not found anyone who knows the game or has interest in playing it. I have however, come to really enjoy the world of monsters, cults, and daring heroes that the game has created thanks completely to the work of Aconyte Books. Yes, I have experience with the works of Lovecraft, but the Arkham Horror novel series has been one of the best places to take the concepts that he created and expand upon them; and they've been some of my favourite Lovecraftian reads.

But, when you've got the foundation of Lovecraft himself, the creations from the game and it's various updates and expansions, and the books, it can be a lot to keep track of. It's not the biggest and more lore heavy tabletop game around, but it is a pretty expansive one in its own right. Rather than keeping copious notes and spreadsheets trying to keep track of everything, Aconyte offers fans a much better way with Welcome to Arkham: An Illustrated Guide for Visitors.

Written by the Arkham Historical Society, this travel guide for new visitors to the town is the perfect thing to pick up to help you learn more about the city, or to prepare yourself for a visit. The book is written within universe for the most part, acting like a regular travel guide to Arkham and some of the surrounding areas in the Miskatonic River Valley, including infamous locations such as Dunwich, and Innsmouth. Each location is given a write up, telling you about its history, and notable buildings and locations in each area, accompanied by beautiful full colour artwork that show of the beauty and horror of the place.

But the book doesn't just cover geographic locations, but includes a ton of easter eggs and nods to the wider world. This includes stuff like playbills, restaurant menus, newspaper and magazine articles, and other bits and pieces that have been collected together to give a wider view of the area. Care and attention is given to making the book feel as real as possible, and each of the pieces included in it is given a little bit of age, weathering, and general wear and tear in order to make it feel like something that someone could have put together themselves rather than the glossy new publication that it actually is. 

For those eagle-eyed readers, however, there's a little something extra hidden amongst the pages of this guide. We all know that Arkham isn't a normal place, that the world of the paranormal and extraordinary seeps through around the edges of your perception. And this book is no different. Early on there's a hint of a missing person case. Scattered throughout the book are bits and pieces that add to this mystery, hinting at answers waiting for an intrepid reader to discover.

Whether you're new to the world of Arkham Horror, or if you're an old hat at the game and know every piece of lore and detail there is, Welcome to Arkham: An Illustrated Guide for Visitors is sure to delight and enthral. Having only read the digital version I can only imagine how good the book looks in person. The digital version is fantastic to read through, or even just flicking through the pages to stare at the gorgeous art. But this is definitely a book that I'm going to want to see in person too. It has the feel of something a little bit special, something that elevates the world of Arkham Horror in new and creative ways. 

Support Amy on Patreon

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

The Glass Box by J. Michael Straczynski - Book Review

 

'Riley Diaz was born to fight back. When she's incarcerated under the authority of a shadowy new defence act, Riley is sent to one of a growing number of American Renewal Centres (ARCs)--institutions modelled after psychiatric facilities--for mandatory re-education. Forced therapy, involuntary medication, solitary confinement, restricted rations, and more are all in the ARC program's bag of dirty tricks designed to break down dissidents. Give in, and you go free. Resist, and ... Riley declares a one-woman war against the gaslighting and manipulation in a struggle to take down the ARC program and its white-coated collaborators. 

'Despite being isolated and resented by her fellow inmates, Riley eventually wins their trust, and forms a heartfelt, life-and-death bond with a mysterious patient known only as Frankenstein, who is as enigmatic as his namesake. Sometimes breaking an unjust system starts with one person willing to stand up--when standing is the hardest thing in the world--and saying "no." Riley Diaz is willing to stand behind that word, regardless of the cost, in order to put her fist through the Glass Box once and for all.'

Dystopian fiction is one of those genres that felt a lot different a decade or more ago. The worlds where an openly cruel and corrupt government were standing upon the backs of the oppressed, where bold-faced lies were being used to keep them in power, where the marginalised were treated as less than human, all felt a bit too fake. There was a sense that the real world would never get that way. But in 2024 I doubt there are many that would argue that we're not close to being in a dystopia ourselves, and those that do are probably the ones benefitting from it. As such, The Glass Box can sometimes be an unpleasant read thanks to how real it can feel.

The Glass Box takes readers to a dark world where the government is an oppressive force, and we see this through the eyes of Riley Diaz, a young woman who has been raised by her parents to question authority, and to hold the government to account when they do something wrong. The main problem is that this is a world where even legal, peaceful protest can be incredibly dangerous, where simply speaking out can land you with an arrest. It's at one of these protests that Riley is arrested, and taken to one of the moany American Renewal Centres, where people that the government considers either undesirable or agitators are put through a forced re-education.

However, Riley wasn't just arrested by chance. She wanted to be taken to one of the Centres so that she could find out what happens inside in order to try and reveal the truth to the world. The biggest flaw in her plan, she has no idea how she's going to get back out. Thus begins Riley's life in the Centre, where the powers that be set out to turn her from an agitator into a peaceful, productive member of society who will never again question her government. 

The Glass Box is a book that's a hard read at times. It's frighteningly real and eerily reflective of where things are in our modern day to the point where it makes larger parts of the book get under your skin. A lot of the things that Riley believes in the book are very reasonable things, yet her government is against them in the worst possible way, where violence is a tool they'll be more than happy to deploy. I don't know if Straczynski was looking to current events for ideas when he was writing the book, or if things just lines up by chance, but some of the events felt so relevant and familiar that a quick Google search could find similar that has happened in real life.

The book is gripping because of this, and I started to really connect with Riley and wanted things to go well for her. Because of that it ended up being a book that I struggled to put down, and I was pushed on to read more, to find out what horrors were coming next and if it would break her spirit and resolve. It's a book that not everyone is going to have an easy time reading because of this, and I couldn't blame some people for wanting to put it down at points, but I think it's also an important read that has a lot of relevant and needed messages within it. 

The Glass Box is a thought-provoking read, one that will have you considering your own views, and how strongly you yourself might stick to your own convictions and morals when faced with frightening, almost dangerous choices.

Support Amy on Patreon

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey - Book Review

 

'The refugees from the Empire have established a thriving city called Haven with the help of the Tayledras and their allies. But the Tayledras have begun a slow withdrawal to the dangerous lands known as the Pelagirs, leaving the humans of Haven to find their own way.

'But even with Haven settled, the lands around Haven are not without danger. Most of the danger comes in the form of magicians: magicians taking advantage of the abundant magical energy in the lands the Tayledras have cleansed; magicians who have no compunction about allying themselves with dark powers and enslaving magical beasts and the Elementals themselves.

'Kordas, his family, and his people will need all the help they can get. But when a prayer to every god he has ever heard of brings Kordas a very specific and unexpected form of help, the new kingdom of Valdemar is set on a path like nothing else the world has ever seen.'

The Valdemar series has been going for a long while now, with the very first book having been published back in 1987 (making the series as old as me). And whilst I have come to it very, very late there are fans who have been reading along with it since the very beginning. As such, depending on your own experience with the series you're going to have a very different time reading Valdemar, the third and final novel in the Founding of Valdemar trilogy. For those like myself, every new development in the story is a surprise, something new to be discovered, but for those who have read all of the other books it's more a game of waiting, as fan favourite characters, locations, and creatures slowly make their appearances.

Valdemar has a very big, very important one, something that fans have likely been waiting since the first book in this trilogy to finally make it's appearance. The Companions. As a new reader to the series, I'd heard a little bit about these creatures, but knew next to nothing, as such, their introduction here made for a truly interesting new experience. 

The people of Haven have built their new city, having settled in a new land at the end of the last book. However, just because they've found a new home it doesn't mean that things are perfectly safe for them. There were hints of monsters and dangers in the last book with twisted creatures and living forests, and Kordas and his people were given a warning that their new home wasn't completely safe. But those warnings perhaps didn't quite prepare for what would be discovered in this volume, as dark magicians and cruel magic users stalk the borders of Haven. 

It's with these new dangers looming that Kordas, now a king to his people, prays to all of the gods he's ever heard of for help. A prayer that is soon answered. The scene in which the Companions first appear is a fantastic one, and contains a great deal of wonder and awe that had almost been missing up to now. So far most of the larger than life events and wonders have been connected to danger in some way, so having those feelings linked to something like the Companions instead was the shot of hope that the people of Valdemar, and the readers, needed. 

But, this is a Founding of Valdemar novel, which means that it's not just high fantasy and magic that take centre stage, but the smaller details too. This book deals a lot with how Valdemar functions, how the young nation governs itself, the way they make their decisions, what the people think of it. All of the stuff that's either going to be hugely interesting to you or will put you off. However, this is nothing new to the series, and if you're on book three it's likely that these details are something that interest you, and have been parts of the first two books that won you over to the series. 

With things having moved on around a decade since the last book it's interesting to jump back into this world and see how things have changed, especially for the characters that we've spent a great deal of time with. I loved seeing how Kordas had settled into his new position as King, something that should have been easy for his considering his past leadership positions, but has still been a challenge for him; especially when it comes to his own son. 

Having only really dipped my toe into this world recently I'm glad that I took a chance with the first book in this trilogy, and that my first experience with the world of Valdemar was with the founding prequels. I got to experience things brand new, the same way that the characters did, with no expectations of what was to come or informed guesses as to where the future would lead. It was a wonderful experience that has resulted in me being eager to read more of this world, and to easily making this trilogy a recommendation to any fantasy fan.

Support Amy on Patreon

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

Disciples of Chaos by M.K. Lobb - Book Review

 

'Damian Venturi isn't aware of it yet. But as small shifts start to crack the foundations of the Ombrazian power structure after the Rebellion's attack, cracks are beginning to show in Damian's own facade. Uncontrollable anger is bubbling to the surface and can't always be pushed down. Can he keep everyone safe, even from himself?

'Rossana Lacertosa should feel victorious. She accomplished everything she set out to do, and more. The Rebellion's attack set countless prisoners free and brought attention to the unfairness in the Palazzo's structure. And Damian is back by her side where he belongs. Yet the war with Brechaat rages on and government officials are hellbent on keeping the status quo. Then an Ombrazian general arrives from the front lines, and orders dozens of arrests, shipping Roz and Damian's friends up north. Determined to free those who matter most, Roz and Damian set their sights on Brechaat. But their journey is dogged by strange magic, and Damian shifts further from the boy he used to be.

'The complications of love, magic, faith, and war will keep readers eagerly turning the pages as they head towards the gripping conclusion in the Seven Faceless Saints duology.'

Disciples of Chaos, the conclusion to the Seven Faceless Saints duology, begins almost immediately after the events of the first book, and drops readers straight into thigs. So, if you haven't read the first novel this book is not going to be fun straight out the gate. I, unfortunately, realised too late that this was the second part of a duology, and it wasn't until the book arrived and was sitting there, waiting to be reviewed that I realised my mistake. (The joys of brain fog!). However, rather than trying to jump in half way through the story I managed to track down a copy of the first book; and would advise anyone in a similar situation to do the same as the first book is really rather good. 

Where the first book was more akin to a murder mystery story, and focused more on that than the wider world, this volume expands things quite a bit. We spend time learning more about the war, as well as the people behind it who are controlling things and keeping the conflict going. This coming in the second book felt like a really good choice, as it means that after spending a decent amount of time settling into this world and these characters stories we could then jump outwards onto bigger things without it feeling like you're being bogged down by lots of lore and information.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about this particular part of the story was that it moves at a decent pace. A lot of stuff happens, and our cast of characters seem to be propelled from one action piece or location to another with a sense of fury. There's always the feeling like danger is looming just around the corner, or that something bad could happen at any moment, and it really helps to keep momentum and to have you invested in making sure that the characters make it out alive.

Speaking of the characters, Damian and Roz do not have it easy a second time round. Damian has a pretty tough time in this volume, and his slip towards chaos is something that's hard to read, but makes a great deal of sense in the narrative. We see him start to fail, start to lose himself, and it raises the stakes considerably. 

Disciples of Chaos was a satisfying conclusion to the story, even if there were times when it was hard to see what our lead characters went through along the way. It's an immersive and engaging fantasy story with some great lead characters whose relationship is sure to draw you in. 

Support Amy on Patreon

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

The Passing of Akira Toriyama – How he inspired my love of an art form

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Over the weekend the news broke that Akiray Toriyama had passed away at the age of 68, and thousands of people across the world grieved. A manga artist, writer, and character designer, Akira Toriyama’s work had a long reach, having worked on projects such as Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, Blue Dragon, and most famously, the Dragon Ball franchise. His work spanned more than five decades, and his style not only became instantly recognisable, but would inspire other creators across multiple fields, and around the world.

My first exposure to Akira Toriyama’s work came when I was eleven years old. Like a lot of people of my generation here in the UK (and for some in the US), my first experience with anime came when the children’s television network Cartoon Network (which was still free for everyone to watch at the time) aired the first episode of Dragon Ball Z. Despite the show being a continuation of a five season, 153 episode story, I was still absolutely hooked by that first episode. I didn’t know anything about these characters, their world, or the rules of anime, but I was drawn in by the bright and colourful characters, the over-the-top action, and an animation style that was so unlike anything I’d seen before. Yes, there had been more action oriented shows that I’d grown up with, things such as 90’s Spider-Man or X-Men: The Animated Series but against to the high octane action and violence of Dragon Ball Z these shows didn’t even begin to compare.

I began to watch Dragon Ball Z religiously. By the end of that first week the show had dropped the revelation that the lead character, a defender of the Earth named Goku, was actually an alien, and killed him. His young son, who was possibly the most powerful fighter on Earth, had been taken away by Goku’s once enemy to be trained to defend the Earth from a coming pair of alien warriors who would kill everyone. This was not how most kids’ shows start off. As the years went by and I watched more of the show, things would only get weirder and wilder as it introduced more and more powerful villains, special transformations, and gave viewers fights that would last weeks or more as you waited for episodes to air (and that’s weeks when airing daily!). Akira Toriyama’s work introduced a whole new style of storytelling and art form to me via Dragon Ball Z.

And because of Dragon Ball Z I found myself watching other anime, also on Cartoon Network. I watched Tenchi Muyo, and Gundam Wing when they aired and whilst neither drew me in as much as Dragon Ball Z I did watch a lot of them. I don’t know if it was a coincidence of timing, me noticing it more, or if the airing of Dragon Ball Z had started something, but other channels began to show more anime series too. I remember watching Digimon, Cardcaptors, and Yu-Gi-Oh! when they came on, my viewing habits definitely shifting more towards Japanese-created shows. The people I was friends with in school at the time also began sharing anime DVDs around this time, leading me to get to watch things like Ninja Scroll and The Grave of the Fireflies (which I watched way too young and it wrecked me).

But it wasn’t just television and film that Akira Toriyama changed for me, as I also started paying more and more attention to video games that fit into a similar vein. There were of course the Dragon Ball games, half of which my friends and I couldn’t get hold of legally, but an enterprising and clever friend hooked us up with thanks to emulators on floppy discs. But most JRPGs began to draw my attention at this time too. I tried out my first Final Fantasy game around this time and sank an unhealthy amount of time into it. This would become something that I would do a lot, and whenever I was shopping for a new video game and I saw one that had an anime style cover or was inspired by manga I would be drawn to it over most western games. Even as my gaming tastes changed over the years I’d still find myself coming back to these kinds of games, especially the Dragon Quest series, as it would feel like returning to some of the only happy times of my childhood.

Dragon Ball Z was also the very first manga that I read. I remember seeing the first three volumes of the books on the shelf at my local Waterstones, and grabbing them on the spot. This was a few years after Cartoon Network had switched over to being paid for, and I’d not been able to watch Dragon Ball Z for a long while. I read all three that same night, and whilst it would be a long time before I was able to get more volumes, it did start me reading manga in general and I would go on to read several other series over the years and would discover some stories that have stuck with me ever since.

In writing this I’ve even unlocked some long forgotten memories, one being of the time we were visiting family in Italy and a television advert came on to promote a Dragon Ball Z multi-part magazine collection that would slowly build up a set of the DVDs (the first time I’d seen this concept). I was supremely jealous of this and made sure that whenever we visited a shop that holiday that I kept my eyes open for a copy or two.

Another is how when in France on holiday with my family I found a vending machine that would drop out capsules containing random miniature Dragon Ball Z toys that I spent way too much on. But the one that sticks out in my head the most is actually my very first exposure to Akira Toriyama’s work, even before that first episode of Dragon Ball Z aired. A few years before, whilst still in primary school, a friend brought in a stack of Dragon Ball Z cards that she got when visiting her family in Japan. I was enraptured by the designs and the artwork, and she ended up giving me a holographic Imperfect Cell card. A card I kept for years and have since sadly lost.

I may not be a ‘weeb’ by any means, I don’t dedicate my life to reading manga or watching anime, but I always have time for them both. Japanese comic and animation have become genres that I love and that mean a lot to me, and is art that has helped to shape me into the person I am today and it all stems back to Akira Toriyama’s work. That’s why when the news broke that he’d passed it made me cry a little. The first celebrity death that ever has. Akira Toriyama helped to make me into the person I am today, and the memories connected to his creations are some of the only ones from my teens that aren’t painful to me. So for that all I can say is thank you so much Akira, you’ve touched my life in wonderful ways, and the lives of many others. You will be sorely missed.

Support Amy on Patreon

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock - Book Review

 

'It is an unusual thing, to live in a botanical garden. But Simon and Gregor are an unusual pair of gentlemen. Hidden away in their glass sanctuary from the disapproving tattle of Victorian London, they are free to follow their own interests without interference. For Simon, this means long hours in the dark basement workshop, working his taxidermical art. Gregor's business is exotic plants – lucrative, but harmless enough. Until his latest acquisition, a strange fungus which shows signs of intellect beyond any plant he's seen, inspires him to attempt a masterwork: true intelligent life from plant matter.

'Driven by the glory he'll earn from the Royal Horticultural Society for such an achievement, Gregor ignores the flaws in his plan: that intelligence cannot be controlled; that plants cannot be reasoned with; and that the only way his plant-beast will flourish is if he uses a recently deceased corpse for the substrate.

'The experiment – or Chloe, as she is named – outstrips even Gregor's expectations, entangling their strange household. But as Gregor's experiment flourishes, he wilts under the cost of keeping it hidden from jealous eyes. The mycelium grows apace in this sultry greenhouse. But who is cultivating whom?'

There are certain stories that have resonated so well with readers that they're guaranteed to stick around forever, being retold, or re-imagined in so many ways that people can be deeply familiar with the story without ever having read the original. Frankenstein is one of these stories. The birth of science fiction, the original story was written hundreds of years ago, and whilst most people have never read it, will know the name, and will instantly conjure images in their minds of the patchwork 'monster' the titular doctor created. And Frankenstein serves as the inspiration point for the new novel A Botanical Daughter, but doesn't hold the story slave to the original text, with author Noah Medlock having created something truly unique and magical.

The story centres on taxidermist Simon Rievaulx and botanist Gregor Sandys, two Victorian gentleman husbands who live together in a botanical garden on the edge of town, caring for the plants within and keeping away from the bigoted and judgemental eyes of those around them. They're free to explore their love for each other in their own little garden of Eden. However, there's something missing from their lives. They want another person with them, a child of sorts. Coming together, the two of them use their talents for gardening and experimentation to craft a living being made of body parts, plants, and fungus.

There have been a lot of stories that have drawn upon the central theme of Frankenstein, of the creation of a new being from pieces of bodies. Some of these will even use some form of technology in the process too, and there have been more than a fair few versions of the creature that have been cybernetic in nature; but I don't think I've ever seen a version done like this, one that incorporated flora and fungi in order to bind the various parts used and to breathe life into the creature. It adds a unique and creepy flavour to A Botanical Daughter that makes the book stand out immediately. It also creates a character, Chloe, who I'd love to see depicted in a visual medium. The descriptions for the character created a vivid image in my mind, but I'd love to see her brought to life in another form, where I could see her moving and interacting with the world with her unique biology.

As with most stories like this, however, things are not always easy when creating new life, and there are a number of troubles that the characters go through over the course of the book; mainly interpersonal ones. It was nice to see Medlock explore the shifting relationships between the characters as the story progressed, focusing on how people change over the course of the book. However, there were times where I was hoping for more of this, and wanted the book to go into greater detail. But, the fact that the book did spend some time on this where other stories would not makes it even better than I was hoping for. 

A Botanical Daughter manages to intertwine together beauty and horror in its narrative, much in the same way Chloe's fathers manage to do so when creating her. The prose has some wonderfully descriptive, beautiful moments, and some parts that get under you skin and chill you. If you were to ask me what I'd want to see in a Frankenstein inspired story I'd never have thought about queer love stories, plant human hybrids, or the Victorian era, but it turns out that these were all things I really wanted, and for A Botanical Daughter showed me what I'd been missing out on. 

Support Amy on Patreon

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

Dogman – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Writer and director Luc Besson has delivered some much beloved movies over the years. He’s given us action stars with long legacies in the form of La Femme Nikita and  Léon: The Professional, he’s toyed with historical retellings with The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, and he’s been downright silly with The Fifth Element. These films all have long legacies, and people tend to think of them fondly thanks in part to the level of passion that Besson puts into his work. Dogman, his latest quirky action drama, more than has the ability to join these other movies as a film that people will remember decades from now.

Dogman tells the story of Douglas ‘Doug’ Munrow, who we first meet as he’s pulled over by police in the pouring rain. Dressed in a fabulous cocktail dress, sporting a curly blonde wig and flashy jewellery, what makes the sight unusual is the fact that he’s bloody and wounded. That, and the dozens of dogs in the back of his van. It feels like this opening scene is one of those set-ups that is designed to grab you and appeal to your sense of curiosity, and if you come away from this moment thinking ‘what the hell?’ your desire to learn more will keep you hooked as we get into the meat of the story.

After being arrested, Doug, played wonderfully by Caleb Landry Jones, is put into a cell as the cops try to figure out what to do with him. A criminal psychiatrist is called in to talk to Doug, to find out what happened to him and why his home is filled with dead bodies. Thus begins a series of flashbacks that delve deep into Doug’s life, that reveal his abusive childhood that began his love for dogs, that explains why he’s in a wheelchair, that explores his career as a jewel thief and drag performer, and explains why a dozen gangsters have been killed in elaborate and bloody ways in his makeshift home in an abandoned school. If that description sounds wild and confusing to you then it gives you a slight sense of how bizarre the story of Dogman is.

Dogman is not your average film, and more than once it feels like you’re shifting from one genre to another. The opening moments are dark and moody, and make you think that you’re going to be watching a gritty thriller. And whilst the film never quite loses that edge, it does sometimes slip into the background so that the film can try something different. From the first time that we see Doug using his highly trained dogs to help out a local business owner, using them to deliver a warning to a local gangster by way of phone delivering Jack Russell, and a German Sheppard crotch grab, it’s clear that Besson is going to inject a lot of fun into proceedings, and honestly, it’s the moment that hooked me for good.

Over the course of the flashbacks we get to know Doug well, beginning in his childhood with a stand out performance by young actor Lincoln Powell. The tragedy of Doug’s youth paves the way for a story of learning to love yourself, and to moving on from your trauma. However, things aren’t easy for Doug, and he comes up against several hurdles.

When the film eventually introduces his discovery of drag it becomes a heart-warming tale of found family as the other Queens flock to him, and several real friendships are formed. And through it all Caleb Landry Jones is absolutely captivating, able to convey the deep emotional pain of Doug, yet making him believably eloquent and surprisingly deep. It feels like you could sit down with Doug and talk to him for hours on end and come away absolutely fascinated by the experience, which makes the fact that his psychiatrist does that all the more believable. This is the first film of Jones’s that I’ve seen, but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more because of his performance here.

Whilst the film is essentially the story of Doug’s life, which borders on Forrest Gump levels of silly at times, it’s also a Luc Besson movie, and so action is never far away. When the film deals with why Doug’s home is filled with corpses the movie reaches an all new level of fun. His dogs lure people into traps, some are dragged into the wall like they’ve just been grabbed by the Xenomorph, and there are a few shots that elicited vocal reactions from me because they were so well made and so creepy that I began to wonder if the movie had turned into a horror film. Besson puts his action stamp onto Dogman and it’s absolutely wonderful.

On occasion, before writing a review for a film, I will have a look over what other people have said about it, skimming through a few articles to see if my enjoyment or dislike of it is an outlier or not. When looking at some scores and quotes for Dogman I came away wondering at what point a lot of reviewers began to hate films for having fun. I’ve seen Dogman mocked and ridiculed for not being deep or highbrow, and criticised for telling a somewhat silly story. And whilst it’s not a film that takes itself too seriously, and has a plot that feels like several different movies stitched together at times, it’s never dull, it’s never boring, and by the time it ended I was sad that it was over.

Besson has made ridiculous films in the past (The Fifth Element) and they’re beloved classics, but doing so in 2024 seems to be the point where it brings out the nastiness in people. So whilst you might see it getting some lower scores, or even people openly mocking it, if you like a film whose main goal is to entertain the audience, and genuinely want to have a great time then Dogman is a film that you’re going to want to watch. Luc Besson has made some beloved films in the past, and Dogman more than has the ability to become one that people talk about in the same way.

Support Amy on Patreon

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

The Comic Cave – The Nice House On The Lake

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Comic Cave is a fortnightly feature where we spin the Wheel of Comics and see what graphic novel story it brings up for us to deep dive into! This week we take a look at The Nice House On The Lake, one of the popular entries in the DC Black Label imprint that took the world of comics by storm.

“How do you think the world will end?” A question that seem innocuous, if a little creepy, as The Nice House On The Lake begins. A question asked between friends, a thought exercise, a way of learning about you more as a person and how you see the world. It’s the kind of ‘what if?’ scenario that I’m sure we’ve all been asked by a friend at some point or another, one of those random questions that you never think twice about. Unfortunately, for the characters in James Tynion IV‘s twelve issue series, it becomes something that they can’t escape.

DC Comics have had a lot of stories over the years that don’t fit into established continuity, from things such as Superman: Red Son or The Dark Knight Returns, that take familiar characters and do something completely different with them, to their Vertigo imprint that crafted series like The Sandman and Hellblazer, stories that could take place within the regular universe, but made more sense being their own things. The already mentioned Vertigo was joined by the Elseworlds imprint, but over the years things changed and Vertigo was folded into the DC Universe, and the Elseworlds label was dropped for out of continuity books. Then, in September 2018 DC launched DC Black Label. Black Label would create darker and more adult stories that didn’t have to follow the continuity of the regular DC Universe, becoming something of an amalgam of Elseworlds and Vertigo.

Black Label enjoyed early success with titles like Batman: Damned by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo, and Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child by Frank Miller and Rafael Grampá. Many of the early Black Label books involved Batman, thanks to the character being an almost instant guarantee of sales. As time went on more characters like Superman and Wonder Woman would receive Black Label titles, but the series also produced titles that had no connection to the DC Universe at all, that played by their own rules and took place in more real world settings. One of these titles was The Nice House On The Lake, first launched in June 2021.

The Nice House On The Lake begins normally enough, with a group of ten people being invited up to a remote mansion on the edge of a forested lake for a weekend away from the pressures of the real world. Most of the people know each other, though not all of them are friends, but they all have strong connections to Walter, a nice guy who they’ve each known at some point in their life. Walter seems like a bit of a loner, a quiet guy who collects friends and keeps the ones who mean a lot to him, creating a handful of strong relationships that mean the world to him. And it’s these people that he invites up to the lake.

As the group arrives at the house they find a world of luxury awaiting them with a cinema room, a huge library, a pool, and gorgeous countryside surrounding them. It feels like the perfect getaway, even if not everyone there is completely cool with each other. Their friendship with Walter and the gorgeous weekend is what matters. Until one of them checks their social media feed. Post after post detail the end of the world. “The sky looks like it’s on fire. I’ve never seen colors like this before”; “I can pull my skin off in sheets. It doesn’t even hurt. It feels like pudding. My skin is sticking to the phone as I type this. Fuck.”; “My mom just called me screaming that her skin is coming off in pieces.”; “I think we need to start having a reasonable conversation about a painless way to kill yourself, before the fire gets you.”

As the group watch people die, watch cities burn on their phone screens, they realise the end of the world has come, that everything is over. It’s then that Ryan remembers a conversation that she and Walter had: “How do you think the world will end?”; she simply points at him as she comes to the realisation “You picked”. Walter reveals to his assembled friends that he brought them to the house to spare them from the end of the world, from the apocalypse that his people brought. He wants them to survive, to live on, and he’s created a haven for them. In the panic and anger that follows, Walter reveals himself to be more than human, beyond what we’d understand, displaying powers beyond imagining. Vanishing, he leaves his friends to continue on as the world burns around them.

Thus begins a mystery story, and a horror story, as the ten survivors of the end of the world try to figure out what to do with themselves. They discover that their haven has been designed to keep them alive, that they can write down requests for food and supplies which will then appear on their doorstep the next day, preventing them from starving to death or getting bored. However, their haven is determined to keep them alive in other, more sinister ways too. As the group digs deeper for answers they learn that Walter has been testing them for years, making sure that they’re the people he wants to save, making them forget things if they ever get close to learning the truth about him. The more they learn, however, the more dangerous things become for them, and the more Walter becomes involved, determined to prevent his friends from going too far.

The Nice House On The Lake is a dark book, one that very quickly into the first issue enters a realm of existential horror and grief that never really lets up. Its characters watch the world end, via their smart phones and the strange statues around the property that let you see the outside world when touching them. Being the last of humanity, knowing that your old life is gone, and everyone you’ve eve known and loved died in agony and fear is enough to break most people, and we see that in the book. Characters slip into depression, some even become suicidal, and it’s this for me that really makes the book a horror story. It’s a horror for the soul, it’s the emotional pain that seeps in that none of them can do anything about that sends shivers down my spine. Normal grief and depression are hard enough to manage, but when your old life is gone forever, when there’s no end in sight, how do you move past that?

James Tynion IV spends at least one issue of the series focusing on each of the members of the group, members who are picked to be archetypes for humanity, almost reduced to their role in life to fit some kind of alien agenda that Walter is working towards. There’s the artist, the pianist, the writer, the comedian, the accountant, the scientist, the reporter, the acupuncturist, the consultant, and the doctor. Each issue moves the mystery forward, deepening the mythology of the world and revealing more about Walter and his past, whilst also putting the focus squarely on each character, getting into their heads and seeing how the story is affecting them at that point.

The result is that you get a chance to know each of them, but you also feel like you’re not really spending any time with them as well. We get small insights into each of them for an issue, but them most slip into the background for a while. The only characters that seem to get a bigger focus are Walter, who we learn more about each issue as we see flashbacks to his relationships with each of the members of the group, and Norah. Norah is the character that I found to be the most fascinating of the group, and not just because I’m biased because she’s a trans woman. Norah seems to know more than is first apparent, and as the story evolves goes through some extra hardships and trials that the others don’t, and she plays a pivotal role in the ending.

Speaking of the ending, I’m not going to go into the small details of the story, as this is first and foremost a mystery, and ruining that would make reading the book pointless for anyone who hasn’t yet, but I can say that the ending feels like an ending, yet sets up for more to come. Tynion IV has seeded hints that things continue on after the events of the book from the very first page. Each issue opens with the focus character talking directly to the reader, dressed like they’re a character from Mad Max, in ruins and the wreckage of the world; something that doesn’t happen in the book itself. Whether Tynion IV is planning to do more, or if this is his way of adding further mystery, to get the reader thinking about what could happen beyond the final page, is still unknown. There are rumours that there might be more, but this has so far been based on vague statements and fan speculation. But even if it doesn’t go on, the twelve issues that we have craft a fantastic story all in itself.

The art on the series is provided by Álvaro Martínez Bueno, with Jordie Bellaire on colours, and is a wonderfully dark and moody series, one that keeps things fairly visually simple, yet manages to pack a lot onto each page. The art team are at their best when they’re either portraying the beauty of the world around the house, showcasing the rich landscape or the gorgeous buildings, or when things are going horribly wrong for the group. The moments when emotions are high (of which there are many) jump off the page as Bueno and Bellaire flood the characters with visible emotion. You don’t need to be told how they’re feeling, because you can see the anger, the range, and the despair coming off them just by how they’re standing, the looks on their faces, and the way the colours and lighting shift subtly. And each issue has covers that can only be described as works of art. They convey the horror of the story, the destruction and the loss in ways that the book doesn’t always do, and it’s easy to see how seeing these books on the shelf at your local comic book shop would lead you to picking the series up.

With DC Black Label filling up with darker and edgier superhero stories, most of which ended up being Batman, The Nice House On The Lake felt like something new and different. It took a big, bold step away from the world of super heroes and told a much more focused, character driven story that’s part mystery, part horror, part sci-fi, and part emotional drama that has an incredibly simple hook but will keep you reading and guessing throughout. Whilst it’s not the easiest read, and it’s full of dark emotions, it’s certainly never a dull one.

The Nice House On The Lake was published from June 2021 to December 2022 by DC Comics.

Support Amy on Patreon

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

Dark Souls II – Throwback 10

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

There are occasionally games that come out that feel like they change the landscape of gaming forever. Resident Evil changed the survival horror genre, Final Fantasy VII changed role playing games, Street Fighter II changed fighting games. Each one may not have been the first of their respective genres, but they did something that would make all other games that came after different, whether in an attempt to emulate, or an attempt to compete.

Dark Souls was not the first hugely punishing action adventure game (that would be Demon Souls), but Dark Souls is the one that ignited what would become known as the ‘Soulslike’ genre. Thanks to the popularity of Dark Souls other companies began trying to create their own version, but whilst they were all trying to catch hold of the wave FromSoftware did what the fans were hoping for for three years: they released a sequel.

Announced two years before, at the Video Game Awards in 2012, Dark Souls II took many elements from the previous game, and as such had a shorter development time. Staples of the series, such as the focus on combat difficulty, environmental storytelling, and monstrous enemies in a empty dark fantasy world, all made a return, with FromSoftware focusing on smaller innovations and changes rather than trying to change the things that fans had come to love. As such, even with an entirely new setting the game feels instantly familiar to those that have played the very first Dark Souls.

As with the previous game, Dark Souls II begins with the player character becoming cursed, made into an undead creature that can never truly die. Assigned a mission to obtain four Great Souls in order to break this curse and free themselves from undeath, the player character travels to the new land of Drangleic. As with the first game, this results in the player exploring their way through danger filled environments as they try to find the next piece of the puzzle in their quest. The story leads from one place, one deadly foe, to another, slowly growing stronger as you have to take on ever increasingly monstrous creatures. Things haven’t changed much from the last game, and it’s instead in the smaller details that any real changes that the developers have made can be found.

One of the most obvious ways in which the game differs is in its locations. Dark Souls II offers a little more variety than the first game, and it incorporates environments such as seaside kingdoms, castles surrounded in lava, and danger filled marshlands. Whilst the first game created one giant, interconnected world that worked from a practical level, Dark Souls II does not. The locations don’t line up properly, they can’t be in the places they’re supposed to exist in. This is something that modders and data-miners have explored further in the years since its release, discovering that certain locations actually inhabit the same spaces at times. The result is a world that feels less real and more dreamlike at times, where the rules of reality don’t work, and the result is a more unsettling and confusing experience.

The combat was also tweaked somewhat, with the magic system having been altered to become less powerful than the previous game, and the parrying system (which was already somewhat difficult to master) was made even more unforgiving as timings were made much stricter. The system of dying over and over was also altered slightly. Whilst it was still expected that players would die frequently, using the death as a learning experience, this time there was also a penalty for dying. In Dark Souls II each time you die you incur a penalty to your maximum health, with each death slowly bringing down how much health you have to play with the next time you respawn. In a game where death is not just expected, but part of the process, this penalty felt harsh to some, and whilst it was welcomed by returning players who were used to the Dark Souls gameplay style it did result in the game being even harder for new players.

Upon release Dark Souls II received almost universal acclaim, being awarded near perfect scores from many media outlets and gaming magazines. The game was praised for the improvements to environments and lighting effects, with some pointing out that the combat tweaks and increase in difficulty was something of a detraction. Despite that, most reviewers still scored the game highly, and it would go on to win Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards, as well as being nominated for Game of the Year at other awards.

Whilst over time some people have come to view Dark Souls II as the weaker of the three Dark Souls games, and possibly the weakest of the entire FromSoftware catalogue, it’s by no means hated or disliked. Fans of the series love Dark Souls II, and its success proved that the franchise could go on for multiple entries (something FromSoftware have yet to do for their other SoulsLike series). The success of Dark Souls II, and the series as a whole, also helped to make the SoulsLike genre one that’s guaranteed to stick around.

Support Amy on Patreon

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) – Limited Edition 4K UHD Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

There are some things that seem to strike fear into humanity across history, irrational fear from days long past. We fear the dark because it could hide monsters, a fear that almost all of us begin with but that often fades with age. We understand why this fear exists, that it’s from a more primitive part of our brains, and we deal with it.

One primitive fear that sadly lingers to even this day is the fear of the other. People fear those that are different from them, people that they don’t understand or have little experience with. This fear comes from a tribal past, and rears its head in the modern day as the root of things such as racism, homophobia, transphobia, and any kind of prejudice that fears people as potential dangers based on nothing. This fear can lead to terrible things, including the notion that those different to us want to replace us. The Great Replacement Theory, a white nationalist, far-right belief that non-white people will try to slowly replace white people has led to people quite literally marching with flaming torches whilst chanting ‘You will not replace us’.

What does this have to do with Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Well, that should be somewhat obvious at this point if you have any kind of knowledge of the story. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a film that preys on this primal fear of the other, that feeds into the very idea of The Great Replacement, even if the original book, The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, was written some fifty years before the theory came into being. This is a large part of why the story has struck a chord with audiences, why we’ve had four direct big screen adaptations and numerous other stories that use the novel as a basis. The story plays into this fear, it puts it at the heart of the conflict, and it’s because this fear is one of the hardest for our society to kill that Invasion of the Body Snatchers will always feel relevant and frightening.

The 1978 adaptation of the film, from director Philip Kaufman, was the second major adaptation of the book, having followed the hugely popular 1956 film of the same name. Where the original movie played into the small town setting of the book, showing what the replacement invasion would look like to most Americans living in small communities, the Kaufman version updated things to a more modern audience, shifting events to the big city. Set in San Francisco, the film follows a small group of characters, including Health Department inspector Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland), Health Department scientist Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams), aspiring writer Jack Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum), and his wife Nancy (Veronica Cartwright) as they begin to notice strange things happening in the city.

The horror of Invasion of the Body Snatchers begins small, with Elizabeth believing something strange has happened to her boyfriend, and that the man living in her home with her isn’t who he says he is. She becomes convinced that he’s been replaced, a worry that is dismissed by everyone around her to begin with. Mirroring the themes of Gothic horror, where female characters are often ignored by the men in the story, their knowledge of the strange things happening around them dismissed as hysteria, it’s not until Matthew begins to witness unexplainable, bizarre events that he starts to listen to Elizabeth’s fears. But by then it’s too late. Matthew, Elizabeth, Jack, and Nancy realise that the world is changing around them, that the noose is tightening around their throats, and that if they don’t find a way to escape the ever growing horror they’ll become yet more victims to the replacements happening around them.

One of the ways in which Invasion of the Body Snatchers works so well is in the slow creeping nature of the horror, and the ever present feelings of paranoia. It’s almost impossible to go into this film without knowing what’s happening. Even though I’d never seen this version of the movie I was well aware of the story, and knew that the people were being replaced, but rather than this being some kind of spoiler, or ruining the movie it just heightened the tension. As the audience, I knew what was coming long before the characters, and I found myself waiting desperately for them to figure things out as the evidence slowly mounts, making for an incredibly tense viewing experience. But the film doesn’t just rely on this slow creeping dread, and features some genuine, visceral moments of body horror that feel so shocking and disturbing.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers will be with us for a long time, reinvented every fifteen to twenty years with new spins on the tale, new ways in which the horror can fit into our evolving culture. And whilst the original premise is strong enough to survive that, to be used over and over again without being twisted beyond what the novel was saying, no film has ever really succeeded in capturing the horror and the fear the way this version has. There’s a reason why when people mention Invasion of the Body Snatchers people’s first question tends to be ‘the Donald Sutherland version?’; it’s because when it comes to these adaptations the others just don’t come close.

The new Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD version of the film from Arrow Video offers a gorgeous looking version of the film. The image is wonderfully crisp and clean, and the audio sounds great, with the tiniest details able to be picked up. Arrow have been doing a fantastic job at updating older films, preserving and presenting them in ways that are better than their initial release, and this movie is no exception.

Alongside the film the new set offers a full length audio commentary from director Philip Kaufman, and a number of behind the scenes interviews and features, including a panel conversation about Invasion of the Body Snatchers and invasion cinema, an interview with Jack Seabrook, a documentary on the making of the film featuring featuring various cast and crew members, a look at the film’s pioneering sound effects, an interview with the film’s cinematographer Michael Chapman, a look at the creation of the special effects, and more. For those with a love of diving into the making of films and learning more about cinema history this set is likely more appealing for these extras than the film itself.

Support Amy on Patreon

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

The Art of Hight on Life by Paul Davies - Book Review

 

'Explore the hilarious, surreal, anarchic alien worlds of High on Life in this stunning compendium of concept art, final designs, storyboards, and exclusive commentary.

'High on Life is a hilarious, surreal adventure set in a world where alien invaders have enslaved Earth … so they can use us as recreational drugs. Armed with a pre-loved bounty hunter suit and a bizarre arsenal of talking weaponry, it’s your mission to bring down an intergalactic cartel and free humanity from its clutches – and maybe make a little money on the side.  With stunning full-colour illustrations throughout, The Art of High on Life showcases the crazy creatures, weird worlds and grotesque gunplay of the game, featuring expert commentary from its creators, Squanch Games.'

Video games are an incredibly collaborative medium, and as technology has progressed and more and more advanced games have become the standard it's become less common to find games made by small teams; and the 'triple A' games will sometimes consist of teams of hundreds of people. This means that there is often no one person who has direct input, and you'll have a lot of people bringing their own ideas, concepts, and designs to the table. High on Life, the fourth and latest game from Squanch Studios, is very much an example of this. 

Released in December 2022, High on Life was presented as a comedy first person shooter game that put players in control of a young teen who, along with their sister, is transported off Earth when the planet comes under attack from an evil alien overlord who's looking to make humans into drugs. Arriving on a strange alien world, the player character has to find a way of stopping the aliens and saving humanity, all with the help of their talking gun. 

Developed by the minds behind the television series Rick and Morty, it's a game that puts odd humour at the forefront, and engages in some weird character designs that wouldn't feel out of place in the show. One of the main reasons I picked up The Art of High on Life, despite not thinking too much of the game after trying it out, was that I was interested in seeing the creation of the game. I wanted to look at the designs that the team who made it went through, the ideas that were rejected, the trial and error that got them to the finished version. However, this was something that the book doesn't really deliver on in huge ways.

© 2024 SQUANCH GAMES

The book is written by Paul Davies, who does a great job at providing the reader with a lot of extra information and behind the scenes tales; as much as he's able to. It seems to be a book where 'tell, don't show' was the main instruction, as Davies talks the readers through the main story of the game, the characters that you encounter, and some of the reasons why certain designs were used for the characters. Whilst this is decent information in itself, it never really goes beyond a surface level. For example, when discussing the main villain of the game, Garmantuous is talked about in context to his role in the game and the way he looks, but there's no real discussion on how that look came about or if there were other designs before that one.

This is also, unfortunately, reflected in the art used throughout the book. The book is filled with behind the scenes art for characters, locations, and items, but only ever the designs used in the game. There's no development stage shown, and whilst that isn't always something that is guaranteed in an art book it often proves to be the most interesting part, and all of my favourite art books include those segments. The lack of inclusion of that here does leave it feeling a bit less impressive.

© 2024 SQUANCH GAMES

Sadly, the presentation of the art that is used does on occasion detract from the overall quality of the book too. I had to get someone else to come and have a look at several pages for me, because I assumed there was a problem with my eyes at one point, and thought that perhaps I was tired and not seeing things properly. Unfortunately, it wasn't just an issue with my eyes, and there are multiple pages within the book where the art seems to have been blown up in size and has lost focus. There are parts of the book that look incredibly blurry, often on full page splash pieces that should be highlights, but come across looking out of place. There are also some places where a part of an image seems to have been cut out from its background and pasted onto the page in a rush, with blocky, almost pixelated edges. 

I was incredibly disappointed at these issues, as it seems like somewhere along the line there was a mistake in quality control. With the amount of research and writing that Paul Davies seems to have put into the accompanying text it's a shame that opening a page and seeing large pieces of art looking blurry and out of focus will be the first thing that draws your eye, rather than the information that the book is trying to convey. 

Art books are big, expensive pieces, and The Art of High on Life is no exception to this. It's a pricey book that fans are going to want to have, and to see what I can only describe as low, almost shoddy quality within the book feels like something that's doing a disservice to those fans; and some of the people who worked on the project. I was enjoying the book for the most part, and was happy to give it a higher score, but the image quality issues brought my enjoyment down a lot, and means that I cannot score the book higher, nor recommend it to anyone but the most hardcore, diehard fans who need it no matter what. For those who might be interested in it but are unsure if they want to spend that much on an art book I'd advise perhaps holding off and looking at some of the other art books Titan has on offer instead.

Support Amy on Patreon

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram