Phobia

The omnibus horror film: Tales from the Crypt, Creepshow, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, etc. -- if you're a fan of this mulit-vignette format and have an interest in Asian cinema, you can't go far wrong with Phobia. Four Thai filmmakers weave a queasy quartet of compact shockers, each a mini gem of supernatural outfreakage. Unlike other collective Asian efforts such as Three ... Extremes, where stories and techniques vary wildly according to the whims of their respective directors, here unity of purpose underlies the divergent directorial styles of the participants, providing a more natural progression from tale to tale.

First off we have a bit of cell phone horror with Yongyoot Thongkongtoon's Happiness. (If you don't know what I mean by "cell phone horror," I suggest you check out the excellent 2002 K-horror film Phone). Then it's on to bullies 'n black magic with Tit for Tat, courtesy of Paween Purikitpanya. This second installment is probably the most disturbing (you decide), so the third, Banjong Pisanthanakun's In the Middle, wisely opts for a more comedic approach. A group of young guys are on a white water rafting trip and before you ask, no, there are no buggering rednecks on hand; the horrors these four young guys encounter are strictly of their own making ...

Last Flight, directed by Parkpoom Wongpoom, is by far the most claustrophobic, taking place as it does on a commercial airliner. It's also the only one to feature a vengeful female ghost, and before you say, "Oh no, not another one of those ... " well, just wait 'til you get a look at her. Not your daddy's Sadako ...

Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom co-directed the creepy, photography horror-oriented Shutter (2004) -- that would be the original Thai production, not the tepid Hollywood remake. For my money, theirs are the best vignettes in the bunch, but the others are certainly strong contenders. I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed Phobia; everything just clicks, making for a rip-roaring supernatural thrill ride with a very definite Thai flavor.

Phobia will be released on DVD May 10th in the UK from Icon Home Entertainment. Not sure about a US release date. But if you're in the States and reading this, surely you're a dedicated foreign film fanatic and already own a region-free player, yes? So no problem then.

Nikki Burch covers Archie's Joke Book Magazine 184

Original cover artist is unknown; Archie Comics 1973. Nikki Burch's website is here.

Some art from The New Wonder Book of Knowledge

Another proof circa 1935 showing that stupidity was not always a virtue.


Note written on the inside front cover "From Uncle Virgil, Xmas, 1935."

The New Wonder Book of Knowledge (1935).

Related: Man's Crown of Distinction.

Al Garcia covers Thrilling Comics 71

Original cover by Alex Schomburg; Standard 1949. Al Garcia's website is here.

Paul Hornschemeier covers Lidsville 1

Original cover photo credit is unknown; Gold Key 1972. Paul Hornschemeier's website is here.

Quit asking about your mom

She's staying with a "friend", okay?

The redirect possibilities are endless

One of the more seemingly harmless though in reality careless acts a parent can do is placing the name of their child on the exterior of their child's clothing. Predators could sometimes use that information to the disadvantage of a child who would believe anyone who knows their name must be a friend of the family or knows them.

While it statistically isn't all that likely that having a name visible on an outer article of clothing will make a child the victim of a crime it becomes ever so slightly more possible that they will. Given their druthers a predator goes for the easier target, something that allows them to separate prey from the herd. For that reason the makers of those stick figure family car window decals advise against identifying the family members by name. I would advise against displaying them at all.

So it was that yesterday while at the mall I witnessed one of those Things That Make You Go Tsk. A barely-supervised child was running up and down the sidewalk, playing, ducking out of sight, wandering further away from the parent by increments and being distracted by things. All in all being a typical kid. She was pretty gregarious and talked up every person that walked by. Not a problem mostly except that on the front of her dress was a piece of tape with her name written on it, apparently a remainder of a class field trip that was not removed before school ended.

When her Billy-esque wanderings brought the child to my side I asked her for her name tag because I had lost mine. Without pausing the youngster stripped the tape off and handed it to me. As she then bounced off to play I wadded up the tape and tossed it into an adjacent trash can. The parent, siting on a bench a few feet away, paused the phone conversation long enough to glare at me with her piggish, dead, hate-filled eyes. "Yeah." I told her. "You probably don't want strangers to know your daughter's name." She then resumed her phone call, annoyed perhaps that a complete meddling stranger was the better parent to her child than she was.

The name tag incident led me to think about how funny/cool it would be to put an ambush QR code on a shirt or on stickers to place around playgrounds. When some weirdo photographs happy children playing on a jungle gym their phone will detect the code in the camera field and immediately lead them to some website like whyareyoutakingpicturesofmykidyoufreak.com, preferably with some self-starting, screaming audio designed to draw attention to the creepy stalker. The destination of the code link is limited only by the imagination of the creator.

QR codes are easy to generate and print out on a variety of media. Don't be surprised if some educationally-themed QR codes start showing up in the wild around some local San Diego playgrounds and parks.

Rahzzah Wundabar covers Moon Girl 3

Original cover by Sheldon Moldoff; EC 1948. Rahzzah Wundabar's website is here.

Late Again

My mother had her second stroke in three years earlier this month and I have not been in the state of mind to read or comment on comics. As a result, I have fallen far behind in keeping this site up-to-date, though it is 40 years late already. Hopefully, my mental and emotional faculties will return shortly and I can get back to this. I ask for you patience. Thanks.

Paul Shinn covers Uncanny X-men 141

Original cover by John Byrne and Terry Austin; Marvel 1981. Paul Shinn's website is here.

Take that, sneak-hunter!

I sincerely doubt anyone can go six minutes in a Fiction House jungle without getting attacked by something. That is one angry, hungry universe.

From Jungle Comics #43 (July 1943).

Christian Brandt covers The Vision and the Scarlet Witch 12

Original cover by Richard Howell and Joe Sinnott; Marvel 1985. Christian Brandt does not have a website.

Eric Reynolds covers Tarzan 3

Original cover by Jesse Marsh; Dell 1948. Eric Reynold's website is here.

Chambara gold this Saturday at Japan Society NYC

Hey New Yorkers, two of my all-time top sword films are playing this Saturday, April 24th at the Japan Society: The third installment in the Zatoichi series, New Tale of Zatoichi, and the fourth film in the so-called Sleepy Eyes of Death franchise, Sword of Seduction. The latter film in particular is my favorite in the 12-part series starring the incomparable Raizo Ichikawa.

Sword of Seduction was a make-or-break film for the series; box office hadn't been great and the Daiei studio execs tasked director Kazuo Ikehiro with turning things around or else. Fortunately, Ikehiro had the good sense to take a page (or two) of the more transgressive material contained in the original novel by Renzaburo Shibata to liven things up. And it worked. Sword of Seduction is the chambara equivalent of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll (with swords replacing electric guitars). You can read my drooling review of the film in Stray Dogs & Lone Wolves or in the booklet that accompanies AnimEigo's box set of the first four films.

Joaquín Aldeguer covers Batman 89

Original cover by Winslow Mortimer; DC 1955. Joaquín Aldeguer's website is here.

Air Doll

Like many Westerners, I first became aware of the lovely and versatile Bae Doo-na as the spunky, one-woman anarchist revolution in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002). While researching Asia Shock, I learned she'd been discovered on the street by a talent scout in 1998 and had made her film debut in 1999 in the Korean Ringu adaptation, The Ring Virus. She went on to appear in a wide variety of films extending to black comedy and erotic romance. Ones I've seen include the aforementioned Ring Virus, the coming-of-age picture Take Care of My Cat (2001), the needlessly insipid girl rock flick Linda Linda Linda (2005) and giant monster blockbuster The Host (2006). I guess you could say I'm a fan. So when I heard that in her latest film outing she portrays a blow-up sex doll that comes to life, I was intrigued to say the least.

Far from some some trashy exploitation flick or campy romp, however, Air Doll (2009) turns out to be a multi-layered meditation on what it is to be a human being, told from the point of view of, yes, a newly self-aware blow-up doll. Somehow, she has developed a heart, and this allows her to walk the streets of Tokyo, delighting in the everyday, mundane miracles the rest of the population has long since forgotten. She gets a job at a local video rental place, learning about movies and gradually getting involved with a young guy who works there. The only person who doesn't seem to notice her transformation is her owner, a somewhat pathetic figure who carries on with the elaborate charade of pretending she's alive as he did before, even though now she is. Could it be because he too is "empty inside"? Elsewhere in the film, her living doll status barely raises an eyebrow; no one is particularly surprised that a blow-up doll has become alive. Upon cutting her arm at work one day and promptly deflating, her co-worker merely applies a bit of scotch tape and blows her back up. Problem solved.

Air Doll is the latest film from art house stalwart Hirokazu Kore-eda, who began his career making TV documentaries in the early 90s. In his feature films, dating from Maborosi (1995), Kore-eda's stylistic choice has been to apply a documentary approach to narrative fiction, whether it be the supernatural After Life (1998) or the more fact-based Nobody Knows (2004). More recently, Kore-eda tried his hand at period drama with the well-recieved neo-samurai film Hana (2006). Since Air Doll represents an immersion in all-out fantasy, one wonders in what direction Kore-eda will strike out next ... ?

I will say I found Air Doll to be one of Kore-eda's more absorbing films, not least due to the performance of the perfectly-cast Bae Doo-na (who won best actress awards at the 2009 Japan Academy Awards, Tokyo Sports Movie Awards and Takasaki Film Festival). The film takes a dark turn in the third act which required a measure of rumination, but I'm always up for some not-altogether-impenetrable ambiguity. In this case, it was a matter of taking the internal logic of the film to a certain extreme ... oh, you'll see.

As it happens, Air Doll was not Bae's first foray into Japanese cinema -- Linda Linda Linda was also a Japanese feature. When asked recently about the differences between filming in Korea and Japan, she said, "When an actress is shooting a nude or bed scene in Korea, there are very few staff members on set -- like only the director, cinematographer and boom mike operator. But my first scene [in Air Doll] was a nude scene and I was very surprised because there were so many staff members and I felt this is really different." No surprise, then -- "peeping" is something of an epidemic in the Land of the Rising Sun ...

Air Doll is playing April 30th at the San Francisco International Film Festival and will soon be available on DVD from Palisades Tartan.

Damon Gentry covers Super Mario Bros. 2

Original cover artist is unknown; Valiant 1990. Damon Gentry's website is here.

Christian Scheuer covers Wonder Woman 196

Original cover by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano; DC 1971. Christian Scheuer's website is here.

LEND ME YOUR DREAM OR I'LL CUT IT FROM YOUR COLD, DEAD BRAIN!

When it comes to the old romance comic books that various companies published the writers gave forth a story that more or less followed a few standard plots. They were typically Girl-Meets-Boy kind of tales with a few twists thrown in as morality fables. Love usually overcame all obstacles that lay in the path of true happiness. Some stories were precautionary and did not have a happy ending due to the sacrifices or selfishness of the heroines invloved. A few stories even skirted the subject of gay issues in subtle and some not-so-subtle ways.

Then there were those stories where you knew the writer was just screwing with the reader.

Pretty much eight pages of unhinged obsession from Falling in Love #60 (July 1963).

Eric Shonborn covers Fantastic Four 73

Original cover by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott; Marvel 1968. Eric Shonborn's website is here.

Aaron Conley covers Flash 177

Original cover by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito; DC 1968. Aaron Conley's website is here.

Vicky's Secret

And so...Pre-Code cheesecake for the kiddies from Vicky #4 (Dec 1948).

Noah Medlen covers Giant-Size X-Men 1

Original cover by Gil Kane and Dave Cockrum; Marvel 1975. Noah Medlen's website is here.

Pocorn for Two

Nice illustrations by a pre-Herbie Ogden Whitney for a text-story in Keen Teens #3 (Feb-Mar 1947).

James Clark covers Strange Adventures 55

Original cover by Murphy Anderson; DC 1955. James Clark's website is here.

This is why you're fat

Oh, sure...The shovel is supposed to be for use with the bucket for sandbox play after all the snacks have been eaten but who they fooling?

Spotted in a San Diego store April 2010.

Joseph Barrile covers Shogun Warriors 1

Original cover by Herb Trimpe and Al Milgrom; Marvel 1979. Joseph Barrile's website is here.

Things I've Eaten When Sober

Girls' Romances #149

Girls' Romances #149 (On Sale: April 9, 1970) has a cover inked by Vinny Colletta.

We begin with our cover-story "That Kind of Girl" drawn by Ric Estrada and Vince Colletta (personally, I always loved those kinds of girls!). Next is "You Can't Lie About Love" drawn by Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs. We end with "Too Good to Be Loved" drawn by Murphy Anderson.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.