Graphic novel mini-reviews

Crossed (Volume #1)
By Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows

Published: 2006

My Thoughts: Remember how I reviewed a few single issues of Crossed a few weeks back? Well I finally got my hands on Volume 1 and 2 of the primary story. Volume 1 was fantastic!! Infusing elements of the zombie genre (these aren't zombies though), with global fears of contagion, primal aggression and the end of the world, this book is dark and nihilistic yet incredibly compelling. I found it so easy to slip into the mind frame of the primary characters, which only made it more clear how ill-equipped I would be for anything like it! This isn't for the faint hearted...if you find it hard to read violence, viewing it in graphic novel form is not going to make it any better. However it isn't mindless violence, the social commentary runs thick through it and it never feels like it's just for shock and awe sake. A really great read, I highly recommend it.

Crossed: Family Values (Volume 2)
by David Lapham and Javier Barreno

Published: 2011

My Thoughts: Remember a few lines back when I said the violence wasn't gratuitous...wasn't simply for shock and awe? Well one volume later, that's all that I could take from this story. A new writing and art team tackle a new story with all new characters in this volume. The only similarity is  that the world is still over-run with the "Crossed". Where the first volume showed restraint, reality and was full of commentary on the state of our current society, this volume  just took it too far, horrendously far, and lacked the substance to back it up. It wasn't terrible, there was a few really decent story threads and the basic premise was very promising. I just wish it hadn't felt like a snuff film. Only read this is you're a completest.

Locke and Key: Keys to the Kingdom (Volume 4)
By Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

Published: 2011

My Thoughts: I seriously cannot say enough good things about this series. The writing is fantastic, the story is amazing and every time I think the artwork has hit a new high Rodriguez goes and blows himself out of the water! This book continues to advance the story of the Locke family as they discover even more mysterious keys and slowly seem to be piecing together the larger mystery. Dodge is batshit crazy as ever, and the sneakiest motherf*cker of all time....but man oh man do I love him! This is such a rich series, even if you don't normally read graphic novels you simply have to start reading this one. It will blow your mind and convert you to a comic lover for life!!

Watch this not that (or that)

This weekend Tom and I went down to the Gold Coast to see The Woman in black, Iron Sky and Cabin in the Woods play at their film festival. It was a pretty poor weekend (lots of rain and study time spent in a strange library) but all three films were sensational and deserve a viewing.

So to honour our movie filled weekend I'm going to do a three-way Watch This, Not That.

Cabin in the Woods is the kind of film that works best if you know NOTHING about it. Apparently this film is getting a seriously limited release, we may have seen one of Australia's only showings.

Iron Sky is a hilarious romp about Space Nazis. Add a Sarah Palin-esque president, the "albinisation" of a black model/astronaut ("Black to the moon? Yes we can!"), an Albert Einstein look-a-like and some Nazi jokes  and how can it possibly fail?

The Woman in Black has to convince audiences that Harry Potter is now old enough to be a widow with a four year old son. Despite this challenge, it manages to deliver a creepy atmospheric movie that manages to meld the iconic Hammer style of horror cinema with the visual spectacle of J-Horror.

All three deserve a watch, but given the limited chance everyone has to see Cabin in the Woods on the big screen (so worth it guys!) I'm going to have to say WATCH Joss Whedon's movie about [BLANK], NOT Old-timey Harry Potter or Nazis on the moon!