Max Zing Debuts at Drunk Duck
May 1st, 2012
I've put up the comic strip sequel to Warlord of Io over at Drunk Duck.
Updated five days a week and in full colour, you can check it out here.
Go ahead. Click that link. You know you want to.
I'll also be appearing once again at TCAF (The Toronto Comics and Arts Festival) at the Metro Toronto Reference Library on May 5th and 6th. Drop by!
John Carter: SPOILER Laden Review
March 10th, 2012
I'd rather not damn John Carter with faint praise. Being a fan of the original books I very much wanted to like it, but while the film has many fun scenes, taken together they don't exceed their sum.
The film begins with the mystical Therns, blue-hued, shape-shifting beings, introducing themselves to Sab Than (Dominic West). They bestow upon him a powerful Ninth Ray weapon, and as long as he follows their instructions, they'll see to it he 'rules' Barsoom.
The film then cuts to earth, where we're introduced to John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), prospecting in the Old West; in short order it's ten years later, we're back in New York, where we meet Edgar Rice Burroughs (Daryl Sabara), who inherits Carter's estate and diary. He promptly begins to read it, delivering us back ten years to John Carter's tale.
It's a bit of a roundabout beginning, and much of the film is like that: fun but overly complex, slowed down thanks to a surfeit of material. A sin I'm familiar with.
There are great action sequences and moments of laugh out loud comic relief along the way. The creatures are believable, the sets superb, and the floating ships magnificent. Yet John Carter lacks epic sweep and, to my mind, the convoluted plot doesn't effectively build to a satisfying climax. The ending seems rushed, almost an afterthought, especially after how well earlier sequences with the Tharks played out. Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) is awesome.
Director Stanton makes a noble effort, but by remaining so faithful to the source material he may have hamstrung himself. He tries to cram too much in, so rather than barrel along at a mile a minute, the ride is slowed down, if not derailed. Even without the Atmosphere Factory.
The Therns and their shape shifting, planet hopping, Machiavellian games just diminish Sab Than into a hapless puppet rather than an effective villain. The marriage subplot seems almost extraneous, given that Helium is already at the mercy of Zodanga. Of course, like much else, Sab Than's pushed into it by the Therns. And after the wedding he's to assassinate her to put an end to Ninth Ray research. His men are posed to plunder Helium right after the wedding. Why bother with the whole charade then?
There's a scene where Sab Than (convincingly) puts his life at the mercy of Dejah Thoriss (Lynn Collins), who's quite likely to take him up on the offer. It seems completely out of character for Sabby; obviously, the Therns put him up to it. Again, we have a shallow villain being pushed about by the whims of these enigmatic, blue-hued fellows in robes who look like refugees from Beneath the Planet of the Apes. I kept expecting them to peel their false faces off.
At one point the nameless Thern leader (Mark Strong) takes Carter prisoner, and like other great villains before him, can't resist explaining his entire nefarious plan to our seemingly helpless hero, who promptly escapes. Such is the price of hubris.
What on Mars was Strong's character going to do with Carter? An obvious threat, a wrench in their plans, yet for utterly inexplicable reasons the Therns don't bother to dispose of him when they have the chance. I guess they haven't watched Goldfinger.
Star Wars liberally pillaged Edgar Rice Burroughs books for ideas, yet A New Hope has a very clear storyline that builds to a planet shattering crescendo, something that John Carter lacks. There is a battle at the end, true, but it feels more rushed than epic.
Events happen at a bewildering rate. The final battle in Star Wars is well staged and beautifully paced in order to build suspense to the highest level possible. Here, everything happens in a big jumble. No build up. No elegant pacing. Just borderline chaos, albeit with well played comic relief.
To top that off, there's no real spark between Kitsch and the Princess, which is a pity. They're both appealing actors. This isn't Hamlet, and for an action flick I thought there performances were fine. But they couldn't fake a romantic spark for the cameras and their romance, such as it was, remained undeveloped and unconvincing. Given the target audience (young males), they may have decided to skip this aspect, but it's to the films detriment.
After saying all that, you might think I hated John Carter. On the contrary, I didn't dislike the film. I wasn't bored, even during the extended middle, which is something I can't say of numerous other aspiring blockbusters. And I stayed to the end, something I can't say of the wretched monstrosity that was the first Transformer movie. If I were ten, I'd surely have loved it (admittedly I'd probably have loved Transformers at ten, too).
As it is, I've seen too many movies with epic pretensions, and after seeing dozens of them, you get a little jaded. John Carter's playground has been pillaged for decades, making his film debut feel derivative, which is hardly fair.
I'd recommend John Carter for what it is: a fun action adventure flick that reintroduces the world of Edgar Rice Burroughs classic books to a new generation. And that's something worthwhile.
Sadly, the film looks to be on track to lose the studio $200 million, making it one of the most catastrophic money losers ever made. We won't be seeing a sequel anytime soon, but you can read the original ERB books at Project Gutenberg.
I should avoid making bets. See previous post.
John Carter: Box office boom or bust?
March 10th, 2012
As a fan of the original Edgar Rice Burroughs series, I've been awaiting the big budget Disney adaptation. I know what you're thinking: he's crazy! Au contraire, dear reader. It's taken a long and painful trip to the silver screen, true. They've been trying to make a version since the 1930's. But I have my reasons for being hopeful, which I'll get to in a moment.
The comics biz has been cashing in on the impending release, with both Dynamite and Marvel fielding series based on the original books, now in public domain. I took a look at the Dynamite adaptation, and while I enjoyed it overall, I don't think Deja Thoris has ever been so well endowed. Her metal nipple pasties must be equipped with anti-gravity devices to prevent her from toppling forward. Then again, Mars does have lighter gravity.
A Princess in distress, a powerful hero, menacing villains, an alien world and swashbuckling adventure are all to be found in the books; they're pitched directly at the adolescent male market. Burroughs had the recipe down a long time ago: he began writing the first in 1911. It predates Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, and while the books are more fantasy than science fiction, he did include wonderful ideas like atmosphere factories and memetic beings in the series. He developed a complex backstory, elements of Martian languages, measurements, and more, decades before Tolkien would do the same thing with Lord of the Rings.
The books aren't well known now, but they've inspired thousands, from George Lucas to Ray Bradbury and Carl Sagan. I even patterned the title of my graphic novel, Warlord of Io, after Warlord of Mars, one of the Carter books.
It's not the only pulp sci-fi source that influenced Lucas: Star Wars only exists because Lucas couldn't get the rights to Flash Gordon, so he had to come up with his own property. I'm glad he did. He reinvented space opera.
Each generation takes the stories of the previous and rebuilds them. The blocks are the same. It's new combinations, inventive patterns, that make them new again. The Star Wars mythos is imprinted with subjects that preoccupied the Boomer generation, Vietnam being one example. Having a low tech force (Ewoks) defeat a highly advanced military (The Empire) is a theme that you'll find in the work of James Cameron as well. He's dipped into this idea dish twice, first with the gritty Aliens and then with the spectacular Avatar (Smurfs in Space).
It'll be interesting to see what angle they take with John Carter. I'm looking forward to it, in spite of all the nay saying. Industry pundits wrote off Titanic as a bloated, over budget monstrosity. It then went on to break box office records. Mind you, the Titanic probably has better name recognition than Carter. But it is Pixar, and I love their films. They're tight, well plotted, beautifully realized creations.
I'm betting John Carter will be too. I'll be back with a review.
Hell Lost now live!
February 1st, 2012
The online comic is now up and running. You can check it out here.
It'll be updated Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Hell Lost
January 10th, 2012
Announcing my next comic, Hell Lost, about the inevitable counter-revolution in, you guessed it: Hell. It'll detail what's gone down in the Infernal Realm since Milton's Paradise Lost.
Yeah, that's right, I haven't stopped.
So. Why a counter-revolution in Hell?
Are you kidding?
Hell sucks.
And, sooner or later, some Fallen Angels are going to wise up and ask, "What were we thinking?"
More to come soon.
End of 2010 orbit round up
January 5th, 2011
The year end lists are in, and Warlord of Io is on them, so if you're looking for fun, sci-fantasy retro-pulp adventure comedy, well, look no further.
It made CBR's Top 100 Comics of 2010, Michael May's top 10 ten (you'll have to scroll down), as well as James Fulton's top ten.
WIRED Magazine's Geek Dad column has a great review by Jason Cranford Teague, as does CBR's Greg Burgas and Pop Dose's Comic Shop Junkie.
To top it all off, CBR has 3 exclusive single page Warlord of Io shorts that can be seen nowhere else.
Not bad for a book that got cancelled in serial format.
It's out!
August 4th, 2010
Warlord of Io has hit the store shelves and garnered positive reviews, of all things. Check some of them out here and here. The mighty Michael May at CBR also presents Warlord of Io vs. Science Fiction, and asks some intereting questions.
I'm interviewed in The Frontiersman No. 7, which you can download here.
Aaaaand I did a podcast with the great crew over at Comixology, which you can listen to here.
Warlord of Io available now!
August 4th, 2010
Venture into the orbit of power politics on Jupiter's moons in the 25th Century. Can newly crowned teen Emperor Zing keep his throne with the help of his friend, Moxy Comet? Will he be able to reform an unjust Imperial system, or will it consume both him and his allies?
And what about his music career?
And the revolt of the equatorial steam swamp mud men?
Find out the answers to these questions and more in the astonishing new series Warlord of Io by James Turner!
SLG has it available here.
Or you can order a copy from Amazon here.
Hope you'll check it out. It's a fun sci-fi rollercoaster. At least, I think it is.
New Warlord of Io promo video
May 3rd, 2010
Another promo video for Warlord of Io
April 29th, 2009
Check it out. This one has the rock score.
The first Warlord of Io promo video
April 27th, 2009
Check out our exciting video promo for the comic.
Robots!
October 20th, 2009
Behold the robo!
I almost forgot I had this up. It's a build your own robot app, which allows you to print out the result of your tinkering. Combine heads, chassis, and locomotors. Check it out here.
