Just ordered some stuff, really essential stuff I've been wanting for a while. Scraped up the dough, begged the wife to let me spend said dough, and then went clicking over at Deep Discount.com.The biggie was the second set of Mr. Moto movies from Fox. Loved the first set from last year – I hadn't really seen the films before and was surprised how damned cool the character was. I expected a Charlie Chan-styled protagonist and similar whodunnits, but Peter Lorre's Moto is much more of an adventurer than a detective – in fact, the "mystery" in most of these flicks is just what the hell Moto's up to! Can't wait to see the remaining films in the series, as well as the notorious 1965 Return of Mr. Moto film (starring Henry Silva) that Fox has included as a bonus feature!
Also ordered the eleventh volume of Dark Horse's trade paperback reprintings of Marvel's great Conan the Barbarian comic books from the 70s. More Hyborian hijinx with the raven-maned Cimmerian and his she-pirate sextoy, Belit – with scripts by Roy Thomas and sublime art by Howard Chaykin and John Buscema. Earlier volumes of the Chronicles of Conan books, in which Dark Horse decided to re-color and re-letter the original comics, had some sloppy typos and questionable color choices, but the last several volumes have been really nice. I like Dark Horse's new Conan comics too – but I like these old ones better.
Finally – as we know, I'm a big fan of Chuck Dixon's comics, and I really enjoyed last year's Iron Ghost miniseries from Image Comics, which told the story of a mysterious vigilante murdering Nazi officials in war-torn Berlin, just as WWII was grinding to its inevitable end. Well, I enjoyed five of the six issues, anyway – I never managed to snag a copy of the climactic final issue. So, now the trade paperback collection is out, and I'll finally get to read the end. I don't mind buying most of it twice, really; I'm a big fan of artists Sergio Cariello and Flint Henry, too, and it will be nice to have a quality collection for the bookshelf and handy re-reading.
I love ordering stuff.
I just hate waiting for it to arrive. :)
8 comments:
I've never seen any of the Moto films, but I enjoyed all of the books I've read in the series.
Whereas, I haven't read any of the Moto books, but I loved the first four films.
You really should check them out, Glen. I don't know how they'll compare to the books, but they're solidly-crafted B-movie thrillers, with a lot of entertainment value!
They'll be on TCM someday.
I also read and enjoyed the comic from Moonstone.
I'm getting this vivid image of you standing on the deck of the 'Tigress' and calling Belit a "she-pirate sextoy".
I bet the reaction would be worthy of a John Buscema splash-page.
Ans you'd be the one doing the splashing.
John – did I ever tell you how much I loved Conan and the Emerald Lotus? One of the best Conan pastiche novels by far, and I wish you'd had the opportunity to write more!
No Chris, I didn't know you'd read LOTUS or even that you knew I wrote it.
Many thanks for the kind words. It seems a long time ago I wrote the book, but I can still find a few reasons to be proud of it.
Oh yeah, the first time you posted here, I was like, "Oh cool! The guy that wrote that great Conan book!"
I'm not as critical as a lot of Howard/Conan fans, but I really found Emerald Lotus to be notably superior to pretty much any of the other Tor novels. As non-Howard Conan novels go, I'd rank it up there with Karl Wagner's The Road of Kings.
I hope you're still writing...
Hve the Mr. Moto films ever arrived? I'm curious to know what you thought of them, especially the fabled Henry Silva version.
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