Personal blog - and temporary home page until new website is finished - of writer, editor and graphic artist Christopher Mills


Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Pre-order GRAVEDIGGER Trade Paperback Collection Now

The Gravedigger: Hot Women, Cold Cash trade paperback collection from Action Lab: Danger Zone is now available for pre-order in the August Diamond Previews catalog for October release.

"It's not easy being a bad guy, as career criminal "Gravedigger" McCrae knows all too well. First he's framed for the murder of a mob boss's daughter, and has to escape from an army of professional killers, unarmed and alone. Then, he's brought in on a South of the Border arms heist where everything that can go wrong, does. It's all about hot women and cold cash, in this hardboiled, hard-hitting collection. Collects the three-issue Gravedigger miniseries."

Diamond Item Code: AUG150972

UPDATE: If you can't get to a comic shop, it's also available through Amazon.

Cover and interior art by Rick Burchett, 'natch!

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

GRAVEDIGGER #1 On Sale Now!

The first issue of the Gravedigger print miniseries from Action Lab: Danger Zone, featuring part one of “The Predators,” is on sale now from finer comic book retailers everywhere!

This first issue is also available as a digital download from comiXology for only 99¢!

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

An Eye for An Eye

One of my favorite Chuck Norris vehicles has just been released on Blu-ray by Kino-Lorber: An Eye For An Eye (1981), directed by Steve Carver.

If I remember correctly, this is the last of the beardless Norris flicks (did he have a beard in the subsequent
Silent Rage? Or just the 'stache? I can't recall).

Veteran exploitation director Steve Carver (
Big Bad Mama, Jocks) worked well with Norris, playing to his leading man's strengths and shooting action scenes with a certain amount of clarity and style (They re-teamed on 1983's Lone Wolf McQuade with equally good result.) He also knew how to fill out the supporting casts with talented, veteran character actors, allowing Chuck to concentrate on the ass kicking while others handled the heavy lifting, acting-wise.

In this particular film we have an all-star exploitation line-up, including Mako, Christopher Lee, Shaft's Richard Roundtree,
Star Trek DS9's Rosalind Cho and Space Academy's Maggie Cooper, all working their butts off to help make Chuck look good in what's essentially a fairly routine cop movie with a big "Bondian" climax. 

But it's a lot of fun, and very well directed and paced by Carver, with a standout (if too brief) battle between Chuck and wrestler Professor Toru Tanaka. The best part of this film, though, is the late, great Mako, who is in top form as Chuck's acerbic sensei.

The Blu-ray marks the first time the movie has been released in widescreen on domestic home video, and features an audio commentary by Carver.