BotTalk Reviews

A seinen manga by Osamu Tezuka  Spoilers! Spoilers!  CHAPTER 1: The Department Store Woman (Shinjuku Station (Tokyo, Japan). Young, warped, famous novelist Yosuke Mikura meets Barbara, a mysterious fuuten/vagabond who is a chronic alcoholic and the youngest daughter of Mnemosyne. Mnemosyne? The Greek goddess of memory who previously had nine daughters (all muses) with Zeus? Will Barbara be able to make Mikura realize that he's romancing a mannequin (Maname Sugata)? "Chanson d'automne" and "Le ciel est par-dessus le toit" by Paul Verlaine get quoted. The 1973 Japan National Railways strike, Bacchus (Roman god) and "Pavane pour une infante défunte" by Maurice Ravel get mentioned.) CHAPTER 2: The Woman and the Dog (Will Barbara be able to make Mikura realize that he's romancing the Afghan Hound (Sonya) of Rumi Nagahama (Hiroyuki Yotsuya's fiancé)? The Box Man by Kobo Abe, Guillaume Apollinaire and Franz Kafka get mentioned.) CHAPTER 3: The Bla...

CHAPTER 1 58 BC. Helvetii lands (Switzerland). Marcus Coax/Crow, a gigantic horseshoe moustache-wearing Gaul that looks like the long-lost brother of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, saves Sanian Divico (an Helvetii oracle) and her entourage from Germanic scouts. Sanian invites Coax to her village. Irika and Sanian spy on Coax, while Coax has a nightmare about his recent blood oath of vengeance.  Coax informs Sanian's father, Divico (possibly the leader of the Helvetian tribe of the Tigurini) that Germanic clans are gathering on the other side of Lacus Lausonius (Lake Geneva on the north side of the Alps). The Helvetians are sure to be raided and decimated before springtime.  Flashback!  75 BC. A Rhodian galley is intercepted by Cilician pirates, a 25-year-old Julius Caesar gets captured.  Farmakonisi (island in the Aegean Sea, Greece). Caesar makes the acquaintance of a clean-shaven Coax who does not know his own tribe because his parents were slaves, killed ...

You know the sword-and-sorcery heist story by heart: From 1933, The Tower of the Elephant by Robert E. Howard. A strange, blood-freezing story of an idol that wept on its throne, and a valiant barbarian from the fringes of an elder civilization. What I did like: 25 impassioned paintings by French comic book artist and illustrator Valentin Sécher starring David Boistault as Conan. 1) The Maul neighbourhood, the City of Thieves, Zamora, street level. 2) In a tavern, a Kothian, a professional kidnapper schools a young Conan about the Elephant Tower that houses the great jewel called the Elephant's Heart (the secret of Yara's magic). 3) The lacerated corpse of the kidnapper. 4) Conan the Cimmerian hits the streets. 5) The temples of the City of Thieves (Arenjun) and Yara's impenetrable tower. 6) Yara, the high priest. 7) Yara's mysterious gardens. A Zamorian royal guard lies strangled. Conan encounters Taurus.  8) Conan converses with Taurus of Nemedia aka the Prince of all...

A seinen manga by Osamu Tezuka (Translation: Motoko Tamamuro & Jonathan Clements) Spoilers! Spoilers!  EPISODE 1: The Woman in the Box (Count Alucard/Dracula entrusts his mysterious niece, I.L/Aiel (pronounced "I’ll"), a vampire and actress who can change her physical appearance by slipping into her coffin, to a dispirited film director, Daisaku/Masterpiece Imari.) EPISODE 2: Moths (Can I.L cure Shihoko's husband from his freaky moth obsession?) EPISODE 3: The Messenger (I.L helps a cancer stricken woman find contentment one final time. Hyotantsugi (Gourdski) appears.) EPISODE 4: President Flareluno/Fralerno’s Treasure (Just before his execution, I.L will make Micronesia's former president believe that his Japanese wife Mayako never betrayed him. We get a The Reptile (1966) homage. Cornell Woolrich gets mentioned. Masami Fukushima, Shoji Otomo, Sakyo Komatsu, Hiroshi Manabe, Junnosuke Kishida, Taro Okamoto and Shigeru Mizuki appear.) EPISODE 5: The Monster in Broc...

Full Title: Jean-Claude Van Damme et ses doubles: de Jean-Claude Van Varenberg à JCVD Author: David Da Silva (not the Brazilian footballer, the other one with the PhD) Publisher: Omaké books ISBN-13: 9782379892103 Finally! A life-long fan gives us a serious and extensive analysis of Van Damme's Hollywood carrier.  What I did like: The author is always positive and respectful.  Nice foreword by screenwriter and film director Sheldon Lettich. A short chapter about Van Damme's box office rival: Steven Seagal. Plenty of unrealized movie projects. Fascinating!  Fresh content from: Keith W. Strandberg (No Retreat, No Surrender (1986)) Eric Karson (Black Eagle (1988), Lionheart (1990)) Christopher Cosby (Bloodsport (1988))  Paulo Tocha (Bloodsport (1988), Death Warrant (1990), In Hell (2003)) David Worth (Bloodsport (1988), Kickboxer (1989)) Paul Hertzog (Bloodsport (1988), Kickboxer (1989)) Dennis Chan (Kickboxer (1989), Knock Off (1998)) Harrison Page (Lionheart (199...

Sword-brothers, sword-sisters, your local spinner rack is finally sporting another fantastic new issue of SSOC!  64 pulsating pages of barbaric savagery in black-and-white printed on newsprint!  Inside this magical magazine you will find the following treasures: A behind-the-scenes look at Conan’s upcoming appearance in NetherRealm Studios’ Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns Expansion Incredible art pin-ups: Conan the Barbarian by Stuart Sayger Breckinridge Elkins the Hillbilly from Bear Creek by Patch Zircher CONAN: MARK OF THE BEAST by Roy Thomas (inspired by The Mark of the Beast by Rudyard Kipling) and Roberto de la Torre Yota-Pong, the capital city of Kosala next to the much larger Vendhya. A twenty-year-old Conan has been with the lovely blonde Helgi (from Conan the Barbarian (1970) #28, a slave of Thutmekri, a Stygian from south of the Vilayet sea) for fourteen days. He is attacked by four thieves. Conan kills three, but the fourth is killed by the arrow of Raja of Vezek, a ...

A catalogue accompanying the exhibition at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.  Edited by Peter Maresca and Brian Walker. What you'll actually find inside this mysterious "Companion Catalogue": Photos: Cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller at his drawing board in 1955, Ernie with a group of Nancy and Sluggo vinyl dolls, Ernie in 1948, Ernie reading a Nancy Dell comic book by John Stanley and Dan Gormley in 1959 and Ernie at a Red Cross fundraiser. A nice Preface by Caitlin McGurk, Curator of Comics and Cartoon Art at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Nancy and Me by Ernie Bushmiller from Collier’s Magazine (September 18, 1948) Ernie Bushmiller’s famous self-portrait for Martin Sheridan’s 1942 book, Comics and Their Creators. A drawing of Ernie Bushmiller dreaming by Bushmiller from 1945. The Life and Times of Ernie Bushmiller by Brian Walker The first appearance of Nancy from the Fritzy Ritz daily comic strip, January 2, 1933. Original art from around 1935 ...

The Conan the Barbarian screenplay adaptation from 1982 is back in print! What!? Crom listened? Yes! By L. Sprague de Camp, his wife Catherine Crook de Camp and Lin Carter  Foreword by L. Sprague de Camp A movie novelisation based on a screenplay by John Milius and Oliver Stone Also available Unabridged on audiobook read by Bradford Hastings  Also available in Portuguese: ISBN-13: 9786554481540  Conan o Bárbaro – Novelização Oficial do Filme Spoilers! Spoilers!  King Conan is know as Conan the Great. Kallias of Shamar is our narrator from southern Aquilonia, instead of Akiro, the Wizard of the Mounds. Corin the smith, Conan's father, masters the secret of steel from the Atlanteans. The father sword's pommel resembles the hooves of an elk, its grip is wrapped with string made from the intestines of forest tigers. Mystic rites are performed to make the Cimmerian sword INVINCIBLE. Conan's father beheads a Vanir raider from Vanaheim and kills a horse. Maeve, Conan's moth...

It's Wouzit's time to shine! Who is this Wouzit? It's actually Pierre Tissot and he's just rejuvenated his fantastically delightful and famous The Great Red (Le Grand Rouge) to mesmerize a new generation of readers. This graphic novel is also a great way to practice your French. The self-taught Mr. Tissot has been honing his craft for years now. Fans have watched him bloom into a mature craftsman and this new amended/expanded/completely redrawn edition that sports thirty extra pages, shows off his improved story telling skills on every single page. Ivan Barnave, our influenceable protagonist is a scammer that prefers to paint the town red, your typical red-headed stepchild without a red cent to his name... and now, sadly, he has blood on his hands. Sentenced to death Ivan clumsily escapes his captors... but ends up stranded on a strange island. Miles away from civilization, surrounded by a fauna that is disturbing and equally dangerous, he quickly becomes lost in the i...

Don't look for this Marvel Masterworks that is masquerading as an Omnibus. You may not like what you find. But, all joking aside, if you are a fan of extremely lurid colours in your comics you'll be in bronze age ape heaven. The direct market edition with the Gil Kane cover has Dr. Zaius on its spine while the standard edition with the new E.M. Gist cover has a Dr. Zira spine. Pick your spine doctor wisely for your bookshelf. The scripts, not the actual movies, of Planet of the Apes (1968) and Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) are expertly adapted by Doug Moench, George Tuska and Alfredo Alcala. This means that both adaptions feature many altered, extra and cut scenes not seen on screen. Note that you will find absolutely no physical likenesses to actors. Charlton Heston (1923-2008), Robert Gunner (1931-2001), Jeff Burton (1924-1988), James Franciscus (1934-1991), Victor Buono (1938-1982) and Linda Harrison are completely unrecognizable. The Omnibus collects the complete el...