Frezno's Comics Challenge: The Straight Story Six Part 1 (Kamen Rider)

Wait, what are we doing back here after only two days? What's with that title? What's going on here? This is the first strike back against the gauntlet thrown down to me by one Sean Dillon. It is the beginning of the culmination of a long-running inside joke between us in which they claim that David Lynch's The Straight Story is the best Star Trek movie ever made, and refuse to elaborate further. Unless, that is, I can successfully analyze and critique six comics in addition to the regular comics challenge I've been doing for half the year now. I am down for it. When these words are complete, I'll be a sixth of the way in getting to the explanation at long last. Bring it on, let's go.

The Hyrule fantasy.

I want to start this one with a personal anecdote, far back in the past. The summer of 2001. I discovered a lot of things over that summer, like The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Final Fantasy VI, or seeing Final Fantasy The Spirits Within in a cinema (and LIKING IT, but such a hot take is a story for another time). Another memory I have is of going to a used book store in Gander, Newfoundland called The Book Worm and purchasing something which spoke to my interests. It was an old issue of Nintendo Power, specifically #32 which featured Super Castlevania IV on the cover. I enjoyed the tips and tricks as a teenage ROM fiend, but I am relaying this story because of something else which was in this issue: the first installments of two comic series which would run through 1992 in the pages of the magazine. There was one based on Super Mario World which was quite comedic and fun, but what stood out to me was the second comic which was an adaptation of The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past. I haven't read the book in many years, but parts of its art still stick with me. The way the wizard Aghanim, clad in green in the games, is cloaked in crimson reds for the comic. Or the beauty and grace of this particular styled Princess Zelda. I didn't know it at the time, but the craftsman behind this comic was Shotaro Ishinomori, an absolute legend of manga. That was my first run-in with his style, and here I am two decades later analyzing it again.

Frezno's Comics Challenge: June 2024 (Are You Listening?)

(TW: sexual assault)

For this entry of the Comics Challenge, which I welcome you back to once again, I want to start off with Sean's question to me regarding the book: What is your favorite memory of a car trip? Being honest, I don't know if I really have one, but that doesn't mean I can't answer the question in my own way. I don't recall the specifics of any one particular car trip, but I do remember the way that I feel upon encountering certain vistas. The endless wilderness of Central Newfoundland is well-worn ground for me, with its own landmarks and familiar spots that are as ingrained in my memory as a natural clock. I could talk about the odd feeling I get whenever I pass from Central into Eastern Newfoundland, a crossing of a spiritual border into a country not my own. I could speak of the mighty Burin Peninsula, craggy mosslands and massive seaside cliffs and the cozy comforts of my home away from home. Alongside all of that is a concept I dubbed the lonely highway, of driving late at night or early in the morning with nothing but the open road ahead and whatever music or podcast I've brought with me. Resonant music, interesting podcasts, voices from the machine which speak to me and only me thanks to the magic of my headphones. My constant companion on the rural highways of this half of my wind-swept frigid rock.

New Doctor Who Season 1 First Impressions: Episode 8 (Empire Of Death)

Death, but not for you, gunslinger.

 I find myself in an interesting position for this. Not just in the sense of getting catharsis for temporal grace, or having the mysterious mysteries be answered (some of them anyway), but in my literal position. I'm on vacation right now, in an upstairs bedroom that's not my own, banging this fucker out on a laptop. It's quite a new sensation for me, but there's a fun sense of mirroring to it: I was here, 7 months ago, for The Star Beast. I was here for the beginning, and I am here for the end. A bit like 2011's Doctor Who being bookended by trips I took when the premiere and finale aired. It's 22 degrees Celsius out, I just had a spicy chicken sandwich, so let's talk about the end of all things in Empire Of Death.

New Doctor Who Season 1 First Impressions: Episode 7 (The Legend Of Ruby Sunday)

Oh good lord. I did not want to be back here again, but here we are. After a string of absolute bangers from Boom to Rogue, I am sad to report that The Legend Of Ruby Sunday is the first real dud from Doctor Who for me since Chibnall left. I did not care for this one, and the reasons for it are so innately tied to it being June the 16th of 2024 as I write these words. We are once again in the ballpark of what I coined as "temporal grace", where we as viewers are sitting in the wake of part 1 of a two-part season finale trying to wonder where the hell the back half is going to take us. Sometimes that leads to intense anticipation, but sometimes it also leads to a sense that the proceedings were lacking. The Legend Of Ruby Sunday unfortunately fell in that latter camp for me. It might improve in six days when I get to see Empire of Death, but here on June 16th this is a massive letdown. Allow me to tell you why.

New Doctor Who Season 1 First Impressions: Episode 6 (Rogue)

Heated drama between men.

 So far with the first season of the New Doctor Who (or Series 14 if you wanna be like that) there has been this renewed freshness to the proceedings. Some of it has been re-introducing old concepts to the new folks jumping on board, like Space Babies was. Much more of it introducing new ideas and concepts to the show, as 73 Yards was. Thus far, however, we have had no returning villains or anything like that. The closest recoccuring element has been Kate, and I guess Mel is back next week as well. It reminds me a lot of the 13th Doctor's first season, and I will forever stand behind the idea of having all-new shit in that season (until Resolution anyway) being a good one. The writing was less good that season, but at least there was that freshness. We've seen what happens when that quality of writing gets paired with the opening of the continuity floodgates, and it's bad. Rogue, on the other hand, is quite good. It's fresh but familiar, and it paves the way forward for a new vision of Doctor Who.

New Doctor Who Season 1 First Impressions: Episode 5 (Dot And Bubble)

Good Christ, the bangers just keep on coming. I genuinely am not used to this level of consistent quality from Doctor Who after that fugue state of the Chibnall era. I don't just bring up that old bugbear to pick at an old scab for the thousandth time, however. There are genuine comparisons you can make between certain aspects of it and Dot And Bubble. There's a very big one coming at the end when we get to the ending and how it makes one read the episode, but there's a more obvious one at play when you get into the swing of things at first. Digging into that will help uncover just what I think RTD is doing with this particular story, and where its strengths really lie.