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The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Monthly Archives: February 2020

Episode 408: A Discussion of Paul Fussell’s Class, with Vanessa Blakeslee!

29 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, Miami Book Fair International, Paul Fussell, Vanessa Blakeslee

Episode 408 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing.)

This week, my occasional co-host, Vanessa Blakeslee, and I discuss Paul Fussell’s entertaining treatise, Class: A Guide Through the American Status System. While this is clearly not a craft book, a sociological understanding of the American class system can add layers to your characterization, or so John found when he discovered this gem back in the early 1990s. Paul Fussell (1924-2012) possessed a gorgeously sardonic wit when not hiding in academia.

John Vanessa Sailboat

Someday John will own a sailboat, and become truly, deeply, fatally lost, and happy.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Paul Fussell ClassPaul Fussell BADImage result for the official preppy handbook Fussell Thank God

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.


Episode 408 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing.)

The Curator of Schlock #311: Space Raiders

28 Friday Feb 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Film, Science Fiction, The Curator of Schlock

≈ Leave a comment

The Curator of Schlock #311 by Jeff Shuster

Space Raiders

It’s got robots in it. 

We’re on Week 4 of Star Wars/Star Trek Wannabe Month here at the Museum of Schlock, and this cannot end fast enough. Is there anything in this world worse than bad science fiction? Is there anything worse than Star Trek: Picard? I wouldn’t know. It’s not like I watch that show. I used to dunk the heads of devotees of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in toilets back in high school. I can imagine them watching Star Trek: Picard right now seeing their once respected starship captain (and part-time archaeologist) reduced to a doddering old fool who everyone hates.

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But we’re not here to talk about Star Trek. We’re here to talk about 1983’s Space Raiders from director Howard R. Cohen and producer Roger Corman. As we know, Roger Corman produced the science fiction classic Battle Beyond the Stars that featured an original score from James Horner and special effects by James Cameron. Roger Corman must have been really impressed by their work on that film because he reused the same score and the same model effects for this movie! Just pretend that Space Raiders takes place in the Battle Beyond the Stars cinematic universe and you’ll be fine.

I think I’m going to cry now.

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The movie begins with a young boy named Peter (David Mendenhall) hunting for some lizard like creature at a spaceship port on a planet called Procyon III. Yes, this movie features a kid as the protagonist. Why do they do this? Everyone hates kids in science fiction properties. Just ask Jake Lloyd. People accused him of destroying Star Wars all throughout his childhood. I guess they’ll be leaving him alone now that they’ve moved on to picking apart the Disney Star Wars trilogy. Jake, you still have Jingle All the Way to your credit. They can’t take that away from you.

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Let’s get back to Space Raiders. So some space pirates are having a shootout with some corporate goons who work for an evil corporation known imaginatively as The Company. They are lead by the fearless Captain Hawk (Vince Edwards), a former space military leader turned space pirate because he got disillusioned with the system or something. They steal some experimental spacecraft and, wouldn’t you know it, young Peter has stowed away on the vessel. Also, young Peter is the son of the woman who runs The Company. What a pickle.

Other members of Captain Hawk’s crew consist of sharpshooter Amanda (Patsy Pease) and alien psychic Flightplan (Thom Christopher). Captain Hawk decides he’s going to figure out a way to return young Peter back to his parents even if they are evil intergalactic corporatists with an army of robots at their disposal. Meanwhile, they stop at some space station run by a froggy alien named Zariatin (Ray Stewart) who doesn’t like young kids poking around his station. Zariatin is just a big meanie, and he’s ugly too!

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Will Peter get returned to his home planet? Yes. Will every member of Captain Hawk’s crew get killed? Yes. Could all of this have been avoided if Peter had just gone home instead of stowing away on the spacecraft? Yes. Did I enjoy the movie? Not really. Is it better than Battle Beyond the Stars? No way! Is Roger Corman a cheapskate? I’ll let you decide.


Jeffrey Shuster 3

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, and episode 284) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #59: Today’s Double Feature

26 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart

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Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #59 by Drew Barth

Today’s Double Feature

A month ago I wrote about some of the upcoming comics this year that have me most excited. And to my excitement, one of those just released. Tartarus is a new series from Image by Johnnie Christmas and Jack T. Cole. The duo spin a new universe filled to bursting with technology bordering on magic and a family story built on deception and secrets. The first issue hits all of the marks—new worlds, interesting characters from their first panels, and a story that burns slow over its fifty-five pages. But what is most interesting is the way Christmas and Cole build their story.

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The first issue of Tartarus is split in two—one story in the past, one story in the future. Both stories center around either imprisoned Surka or her daughter, Tilde. And this dual family narrative is what makes Tartarus so interesting from the beginning—namely since Tilde doesn’t know her lineage. From the first page, Surka is a figure spoken of as a hushed legend. She’s the long shadow cast over the Baxnan empire whose crimes have landed her in a deep, dank pit on a mining colony’s prison. So of course she escapes from prison in this first story. But it is in this first story that we are introduced to her infant daughter, Tilde, and it is where we see Surka die.

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And so begins the second part of Tartarus. Seventeen years later, Tilde is in a Baxnan empire military academy and learns that she was lied to about her parents. As a piece of family intrigue, it’s incredibly interesting since the above-mentioned reveal is the kind of thing saved for the end of the first arc. But here, we know that Tilde is Surka’s daughter, and we know that she has been lied to most of her life. Where will the story go? If you’re a team like Christmas and Cole, you can take this story so much deeper. The questions set up in the first issue (namely how did Tilde end up in an academy for the military that killed her mom?) are the kinds of questions series are built around. And with the abundance of world-building on every page, there’s nearly another series worth of characters and story to to build off of.

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I don’t know if this dual story structure will continue. The interplay of past and future allows the reader to start piecing together puzzles that characters don’t know exist and creates a different kind of reading experience, one that isn’t seen all that often in monthly comics.

Get excited. Split the story.


drew-barth-mbfi

Drew Barth (Episode 331) is a writer residing in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. Right now, he’s worrying about his cat.

Episode 407: Nathan Holic!

22 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode, Florida Literature, Graphic Novels, Literature of Florida

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bright Lights Medium-Sized City, Burrow Press, Nathan Holic, Orlando

Episode 407 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing.)

This week, I talk to my friend and colleague Nathan Holic about his new novel that is a true epic of our hometown (Orlando), Bright Lights, Medium-Sized City.

Nathan Holic

Nathan Holic at an undisclosed location in Orlando, without a beer.

This is Nathan’s 8th appearance on TDO!

TEXT DISCUSSED

Bright Lights Medium Sized City15 Views of OrlandoAmerican Fraternity Man

NOTES

  • This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

typewriter

  • If you are in Orlando on February 29, come to the Typewriters and Jazz Write-in from 1-3 PM being held at Jack Kerouac’s old residence (from when On the Road came out).

Episode 407of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing.)

The Curator of Schlock #310: The Black Hole

21 Friday Feb 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Horror, Science Fiction, The Curator of Schlock

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Gary Nelson, John Barry, The Black Hole, The Curator of Schlock

The Curator of Schlock #310 by Jeff Shuster

The Black Hole

It’s not the worst thing ever made. 

Have I ever covered a Disney movie on this blog? I don’t remember. I know I’ve screamed about TRON enough times, but didn’t review that one. I’ve toyed with the idea of writing about the loathsome animated Robin Hood, but I can’t bring myself to watch it again. I know there are some of you out who do love that movie. Try watching it when you’re not hopped up on goofballs. Anyway, I needed another science fiction spectacular from the age that followed the release of the original Star Wars so get ready for Disney’s The Black Hole.

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1979’s The Black Hole from director Gary Nelson is not a Star Wars rip off. In fact, I suspect this movie would have reached the silver screen regardless of Star Wars. What we get with this production is a kind of Irwin Allen disaster movie meets 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The movie begins with a sumptuous score from the great John Barry, so at least our ears are in for a treat. And then we lay eyes on the majestic, yet foreboding black hole, a decent special effect considering the production team couldn’t get Industrial Light & Magic to lend a hand.

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And the movie features a great cast of 70s motion picture regulars. We have the crew of the USS Palomino, a spacefaring vessel made up of Captain Dan Holland (Robert Forster), Lieutenant Charlie Pizer (Joseph Bottoms), Dr. Alex Durant (Anthony Perkins), journalist Harry Booth (Ernest Borgnine), Dr. Kate McCrae (Yvette Mimieux), and a robot named Vincent (voiced by Roddy McDowell). They go investigate the USS Cygnus, which had gone missing twenty years earlier. Somehow they ship emits a gravity field that prevents it from getting sucked into the black hole. Don’t ask me how this done. I read that Neil deGrasse Tyson was not too impressed with the science on display in this motion picture.

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The crew of the Palomino boards the Cygnus and is greeted by a scary looking robot named Maximillian, this hulking red giant with a glowing red eye and propellers for hands. Unpleasant robots run the whole ship from robed, silver faced drones to bug-faced soldiers. This is not a good place to be, but the crew needs to repair their ship before they can take off again. The solitary human being on the Cygnus crew is the ship’s captain, Dr. Hans Reinhardt (Maximillian Schell). I get a real Captain Nemo vibe off of this guy. He’s a mad genius who wants to fly the Cygnus through the black hole and see what’s on the other side.

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Captain Holland asks Dr. Schell what happened to the crew, and he says they left the ship a long time ago. Dr. Schell prefers his robots to people anyway. Dr. Durant admires the genius of Dr. Schell, but the rest of the Palomino crew doesn’t trust him. There are some shocking surprises in store, but I’ll let you experience them on your own. The Black Hole is not a perfect movie, but I was awfully impressed by the set design. The Cygnus is a cathedral of death in the middle of space and might be the creepiest spaceship I’ve ever seen. In fact, The Black Hole might be the closest thing to horror movie Disney has ever produced.


Jeffrey Shuster 3

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, and episode 284) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #58: Let’s Not Forget Old City Blues

19 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart, manga

≈ Leave a comment

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #58 by Drew Barth

Let’s Not Forget Old City Blues

Fantastic new graphic novels and comics come out every week—so much coming out that some things end up not being as revered as they should have been. There are graphic novels and comic series still sitting on my shelf that I come back to every few months to remember how good they still are after all these years. One such graphic novel is the first volume of Old City Blues by Giannis Milonogiannis, released in 2011.

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From the outset, Old City Blues wears its influences on its sleeve—Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell most notably. Beginning in the sprawling metropolis of New Athens in 2048, cyborgs are being murdered at random. Solano, a special police division detective, heads up the investigation. Milonogiannis spirals the story into the corporate intrigue, piloted mecha, and the general dystopia of the world he has created. And as familiar as some of these themessound, his direct storytelling and wonderfully kinetic pen and ink art renders Neo Athens bas more than the sum of its influences.

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The example images included in this article are only from the first volume released in 2011 in a larger format hardback. The second volume, released in 2013, was released in a paperback volume closer to the size of a traditional manga. The third volume is still ongoing, but not in print—Milonogiannis has instead moved everything online. From the Old City Blues website, the entire series can be read: volumes one, two, and the still in-progress three.

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As Old City Blues closes in on a decade since its initial release, it is still one of the most relevant comics coming out. From its environmentally dystopian setting to its musings on robotics and personhood to the ways in which the series has adapted to different release formats, Milonogiannis has created a series that will last well into the rest of the century. If there is a series worth remembering, it’s Old City Blues.

Get excited. The future is coming.


drew-barth-mbfi

Drew Barth (Episode 331) is a writer residing in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. Right now, he’s worrying about his cat.

The Anonymous Diaries of a Sozzled Scribbler #4

19 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Functionally Literate, Sozzled Scribbler

≈ Leave a comment

The Anonymous Diaries of a Sozzled Scribbler #4

As transcribed by DMETRI KAKMI

19 February 2020

Melania Trump rang. She and I go back a long way—since her modelling days in Milan. We share ways to annoy the extra-sensitive left-wing media. I’m her go-to man for fashion tips (you can blame me for the disastrous African wardrobes) and I even posed her for the famous photo shoot in Max, but not the vulgar one in GQ.

‘Hang on, Mel,’ I said. ‘I’m watching something important on TV.’

 

‘What is more importan than speaking to First Lady of United States?’ the famous voice intoned in her first ever polysyllabic sentence.

‘Which Australian singer makes it to Eurovision Song Contest.’

‘Vincent Bueno.’

‘Australian, not Austrian.’

‘But Australia is not in Europe.’

‘Geographically they’re not, mentally they are.’

‘Which is why they have problem.’ The astute political commentator was definitely breaking new ground with long sentences that night. ‘When they accept they are sixtieth state of the United States they have no problem.’

‘The U.S. has fifty states.’

‘Sixty,’ Melania repeated in a steely voice. ‘Israel, Iraq, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Argentina, Nicaragua—‘

‘I get your point,’ I interrupted. ‘What do you want?’

I put the television on silent, sipped my martini, and waited, one eye on the tele, as a lower class of Australian says.

Things have been testy between Melania and myself since she married the Master of the Combover. I do no approve of him or his children. Far too bargain basement for my tastes. But I accept that, as a devoted wife, Melania’s loyalties lie with her millions. In my opinion, a savvy girl like her could have done better. Putin, for instance, or Lukashenko in Belarus. Even the startlingly beautiful Angela Merkel was after her at one stage.

‘I am rinking to tell you Donal is not getting him peached,’ Melania breathed.

‘Pardon, I didn’t quite catch that.’

Melania’s English is not good at the best of times, and I had a bit to drink.

‘I say, Donal not him peached.’

‘Oh, I see. Donald is not going to be impeached.’

‘Thaz what I say.’

‘He’s been acquitted, has he? That must come as a surprise to no one. Except the Democrats.’

‘Thaz right, Donal is acquittal and I am invite you to celebration party at the Rococo Palace.’

That’s what the Trumps call the White House after the post-Obama combover. I mean makeover.

administration-1846270_1920

‘That’ll be nice,’ I said. ‘I haven’t been to the White… I mean the Rococo Palace since Bill docked cigar with intern.’

‘What about George Bush?’

‘Bill didn’t fuck George Bush with a cigar. Hillary drew the line at that.’

‘Silly. I meant didn’t Bushes invite you to White House.’

Without knowing it, Melania had strayed into a minefield. I needed to scald the old wind pipes with another martini before I answered.

‘George might be hanging out with Ellen Degenerate now, but he didn’t want to be seen with Uranians when he was president,’ I uttered after a good quaff.

A brief silence before Melania said, ’I didn’t know you were from another planetarium.’ Her voice was filled with awe.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. ‘Nein, mein liebchen,’ I said. ‘That’s an old fashioned way of saying homosexual.’

Longer silence this time. ‘I didn’t know you were gay.’

‘I dip my wick in occasionally.’

‘God does not like to see such things,’ Melania intoned, her Catholicism bubbling to the surface.

‘Then he shouldn’t watch.’

Melania laughed. ‘You are so cheeky. What about Obamas? Didn’t they invited you?’

‘The Obamas wouldn’t have a bar of me.’

‘Why not? You are so nice.’

‘I sided with Grace Jones when she said Barack could not be trusted because his eyes were too close together.’

Melania laughed again. No doubt her pen was poised at the other end, ready to note any new and startling revelation. It was all going in her autobiography, Becoming Melania Trump: wife, mother, first lady, fashion icon, inspiration to blue-collar workers everywhere. So I thought I’d give her something to write about.

Becoming Melania Trump

‘Besides,’ I added, nonchalant, ‘Michelle won’t let me near her husband.’

‘Why?’

‘Barack and I were an item at Harvard Law School. Grace Jones was right. You can’t trust him. Gave me herpes.’

There was an audible gasp. I could almost hear Melania’s Aurora Diamante Fountain Pen fly over the offical Rococo Palace notepad.

‘Ugh,’ she said when she finished scribbling. ‘Michelle is so creepy. She left traces of her good taste all over the place. It has taken me ages to get rid of it.’

Suddenly, there was an explosion of activity on the television. Glitter flew everywhere.

‘Hold on,’ I said to Melania. ‘I think they’re announcing the Australian entrant to Eurovision.’

I turned up the volume on the TV. My voice was flat when I returned to Melania seconds later.

‘Who won?’ she said.

‘Some blue-haired clown called Montaigne.’

‘Oh, I tried to read his essays once,’ Melania said. ‘They were all me me me. We threw them out with Barack’s other first editions.’

‘All right,’ I said, deflated after the Eurovision announcement and in need of another drink. ‘I’ll see you at the party.’

‘Make sure you come. There’s surprise special guest.’

‘Who?’

‘Nancy Pelosi.’

‘What?’

‘She’s coming to eat humble peach pie in front of everyone. I send Airforce One to collect you.’

‘That’s rather extravagant, isn’t it?’

‘Don’t worry, the American people pay for it.’

And there you have it, reader. A peek behind the scummy plastic shower curtain of current world politics.

Until next we meet. Cheerio!


people-2570596_1920

The Sozzled Scribbler was born in the shadow of the Erechtheion in Athens, Greece, to an Egyptian street walker and a Greek bear wrestler. Of no fixed abode, he has subsisted in Istanbul, Rome, London, New Orleans and is currently hiding out in Melbourne. He partakes of four bottles of Bombay gin and four packets of Dunhill cigarettes a day.

His mortified amanuensis, Dmetri Kakmi, is a writer and editor. The fictionalised memoir Mother Land was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards in Australia. He edited the children’s anthology When We Were Young. His new book The Door and other Uncanny Tales will be released in May 2020.

Episode 406: Amy Watkins!

15 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry, Publishing

≈ Leave a comment

Episode 406 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing.)

This week, I talk to my friend and colleague Amy Watkins about becoming more systematic about submitting work, and about conceiving of book-length projects of poetry.

Amy Watkins

TEXTS DISCUSSED

wolfdaughterLucky

NOTES

  • This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

  • Check out Rollins College’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Setzuan.
Tree with Shen Te and Shui Ta

The Good Person of Setzuan.

  • If you are in Orlando on February 29, come to the Typewriters and Jazz Write-in from 1-3 PM being held at Jack Kerouac’s old residence (from when On the Road came out).

Episode 406 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing.)

The Curator of Schlock #309: Galaxina

14 Friday Feb 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Science Fiction, The Curator of Schlock

≈ Leave a comment

The Curator of Schlock #309 by Jeff Shuster

Galaxina

Is this worse than Casino Royale?

Happy Valentine’s Day. Well, happy Valentine’s Day to everyone else, but me. Beatrice broke up with me about six months ago, complained that I didn’t have a five-year plan. I don’t even know what that means. Maybe I made her watch Howard the Duckone too many times. And I maybe I showed up to our anniversary dinner in a duck costume, but that’s neither here nor there.  Whatever. I’m fine being a bachelor once again…I’m so lonely…

Galaxina1

Hey, don’t worry about it. I’ve got a sexy sci-fi film I’d like to recommend to you tonight and by recommend, I mean the exact opposite of recommend. It’s 1980’s Galaxina from director William Sachs. The first thing I decided to do was check to see if William Sachs was involved with Casino Royale, the disastrous James Bond parody from 1967. He was not, but Galaxina is almost as bad as Casino Royale. Film critic Richard Roeper once said that the most offensive thing a comedy could be is to not be funny.

Galaxina is not funny.

Galaxina2 (1)

The main draw of this motion picture is Dorothy Stratton, 1980’s Playboy Playmate of the Year, starring as Galaxina, an intergalactic police android. Dorothy Stratton could have been the Marilyn Monroe of the 1980s, but her life was tragically cut short. I do feel sorry for her and those who had high hopes for her stardom, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give this movie a pass. Anyway, Galaxina makes up one member of the crew of the police spaceship Infinity.  She is joined by the moronic Captain Cornelius Butt (Avery Schreiber), manly Sgt. Thor (Stephen Macht), druggie space cowboy Pvt. Buzz (J.D. Hinton), a Confucius impersonator named Sam (Tad Horino), a bat like creature named Maurice (Lionel Mark Smith), and a rock eating alien named Rock-Eater (voiced by Herb Kaplowitz).

Galaxina3

Rock-Eater says he eats rocks because it’s how he “gets his rocks off.” This joke is told maybe two or three times in this movie. It wasn’t funny the first time. The movie plays itself off like a parody of Star Trek and Star Wars. You get a brothel filled with aliens instead of a cantina. Captain Butts puts a paper bag over the head of one of the bird-faced prostitutes before taking her upstairs. Ha ha? You get a restaurant that has human meat on the menu. The specialty is “chilled lady fingers.” Ha ha. The barkeep has pointy ears and is named Mr. Spot. Ha ha. You get a gang of bikers who worship their god Harley-David-Son. Ha ha.

Galaxina4 (1)

Yeah, it’s not funny. I like a good comedy. I’ve probably watched Beverly Hills Cop at least fifty times. You can make a great parody of Star Trek and Star Wars. Galaxy Quest and Spaceballs proved that. Just skip Galaxina. That’s two for two this month. Next week is Disney’s The Black Hole. I could use some cheering up. Disney knows how to deliver those happily ever endings, right?


Jeffrey Shuster 3

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, and episode 284) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #57: The Upshot of Things

12 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Upshot Comics

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #57 by Drew Barth

The Upshot of Things

In the past few years, the number of new comic publishers has exploded to levels not seen since the 90s. Publishers like Aftershock, Vault, Ahoy, Boom!, Black Mask, and a host of others have changed the landscape of monthly comics. Each publisher has its own unique voice and feel to its stories as well as a distinct image and style their comics on the shelf maintain. Back in 2018, another new studio was founded by former Marvel comics officers Axel Alonso and Bill Jemas. The pair, with Jon Miller, began AWA Studios and from there began the comic publisher Upshot Comics.

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What makes Upshot as a publisher so interesting right now is two things: 1) They haven’t even released a single issue yet and 2) There is already a large selection of their work already out in the world.

Just a few months ago during New York Comic Con, Upshot Now #0 came out, highlighting many of the new stories coming from Upshot across 2020—even including nearly the entire first issue of their flagship book, The Resistance by J. Micheal Straczynski and Mike Deodato, among others. Some of the upcoming releases only had a couple pages, enough to make me want to read that first issue.

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Upshot Now is a statement book—it is black and white newsprint filled with nothing but comics, covers, and that’s it.

When I was first given a copy of this book, I didn’t know what Upshot was and even after finishing, I still wasn’t completely sure since the only explanation was a quick letter from Axel Alonso at the end of the book. That just made me more curious. Where did this publisher come from? Why were they putting out these books? Why were names like J. Michael Straczynski, Margaret Stohl, Garth Ennis, and Benjamin Percy attached to create all new series? The book was a mystery object, but the snapshot of the upcoming comics inside was still solid. Books like The Resistance, Hotell, Year Zero, and Old Haunts don’t look like any other book on monthly shelves and this is before I’m even able to see them all in color.

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There is a distinct brazenness in how mum Upshot Now is about the publisher. They’re letting the comics speak for the company itself. We’re a month out from the first issue of their first series, The Resistance.

Get excited. There’s always something new.


drew-barth-mbfi

Drew Barth (Episode 331) is a writer residing in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. Right now, he’s worrying about his cat.

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