Quick Reviews Late 2025

  Hello and welcome back to Death to the Algorithm. While I try to keep up with all the new stuff coming out, I don't always make a video reviewing it. Sometimes I don't like the thing or I just don't have much to say about it. So, instead of forcing myself to talk about a bunch of things and [ __ ] out mediocre videos every time I watch something, I figure I can periodically do a quick reviews video and lump them all together. So, let's get into it.

MOVIES

  I'm going to break it up by medium. Let's start with movies. 

 

Sinners: A great flick about (among many things) the dangers of commodifying art, especially as black art has been commodified over the last centuries. Plus I’m for any film with a scene that is just SPOILERS a bunch of clansman getting mowed like a lawn.

Legend of Ochi: Very cute movie. Very Nordic. 

Thunderbolts/Batman Ninja 2: Let’s talk superheroes. I’m making a whole video on F4 and Superman so I won’t go into it here. I’ll start with Thunderbolts. 

  Finally, existentialism is in the MCU. Kierkegaard literally gets a name check. As for the movie itself I was surprisingly into it. Very streamlined and The Void was terrifying. Will it lead to anything interesting Doomsday? Eh. My hopes aren’t high but we will see. I also watched Batman Ninja 2, the second to last direct to video DC animation. The first one was one of very few of these animated movies I didn’t like. But after seeing this one, and just accepting how silly it is, might like it a bit more. The animation style is still not for me though. I also saw what I assume is the last of the direct to Blu-ray movies,  

Batman Aztec: I went into this one ready for it to be trash. The trailer did not instill confidence in me. But it was better than I expected. Not great by any means, but not a total train wreck. It just took a really long time to get to the Batman of it all and some it was a bit forced. Plus they seem to be setting up a sequel but I just don’t see that happening under the new regime. Who knows. Either way, I’m gonna miss these Blu-ray’s. 

Vulanizadora: I saw this as a part of a film festival at the theater I clean but the power went out right in the final 15 mins of the film. So I can’t give you a complete verdict but I, enjoyed is not the right word, but it’s effective. As a guy who spent a lot of his late teens and 20s thinking and attempting the big sleep, this shit hit hard. It really nails the desire to make your final act novel and to leave behind a document. It’s pure ego. Good stuff.

Friendship: Male loneliness is a wild thing. Dudes are just desperate for a good hang.

Life of Chuck: Very saccharine. But I’m a guy who thinks constantly about death so it worked on me. It’s very close to being a Hallmark movie though.

Becoming Led Zeppelin: They really wanted to make their version of the Beatles: Get Back doc but they refuse to let themselves be seen in any negative light. For a band notoriously the progenitors of sex, drugs & rock’n’roll, this was real light on the sex and drugs. And if you know anything about their sex lives, you’ll understand why. Ends up mostly being the surviving members reacting to their first two records. 

The Phoenician Scheme: Look, either Wes Anderson is extremely your shit, or he isn’t and well for me he is. A much more straight forward story compared to his last few flicks but just as zany and well shot. The opening titles, funnily enough, I thought were stunning. 

Ballerina: Non stop action. And that is exactly what I want out of a John Wick spinoff. I don’t care why people are fighting. Just give me a grenades only Goldeneye level with real people. Give me a flamethrower fight. Fuck yea.

Lady Snowblood Set: Simple stories of revenge that I guess Tarantino ripped off. Very fun and grimey. 

Roanoke Western Set: These westerns are very much made for Sunday afternoons. They’re something you’d catch on TV and half watch while thinking about whatever floats into your mind. Great stuff.

Jojo Dancer, This Is Your Life: This movie makes me think everyone should make a movie about the worst day of their life and the circumstances that led up to it. Call it Regret Fest. Pryor is just flexing throughout. He’s funny, he can act, he can direct. What can’t he do? Apparently, in this movie, stay sober.

Paper Moon: This movie makes grifting seem fun. Set in a time when con men had a romance to them. Nowadays they just use AI to rip off your grandma or become President. Boring.

Naked Gun: Very silly movie. I loved it. I hope absurd silly humor is coming back in vogue. 

Spinal Tap 2: Has its moments but doesn’t quite lampoon excessive rock culture as well as the first. Elton John is hilarious though. As I’m writing this, Rob Reiner died and that’s depressing. American entertainment has so been shaped by Rob and his father Carl, it’s actually astounding. Imagine making Spinal Tap as your FIRST movie. That’s a legendary talent. RIP.

How to Get Ahead in Advertising/Withnail & I: Between these two films you get to see Richard E Grant become Richard E Grant. How to Get Ahead is the perfect amount of absurd. Like the idea is of a talking boil is so outlandish but they play it so straight that it’s impossible not to get sucked into the word. We all have a toxic boil in us just waiting for a reason to come out. In Withnail & I, the plot is basically two desperate alcoholic take a trip to the countryside and yet, I could watch these two former Doctors for hours. Cynical, dirty and highly entertaining. Nothing strengthens bonds like extreme poverty. 

Shin Godzilla/Godzilla vs. Biogante: I watched two different Godzilla movies that were bland spots in my Godzilla knowledge. First, Godzilla vs. Biogante, the beginning of a new era in Godzilla canon. A move away from the safe children’s fare it had become in the decade prior. It mostly works. The highlight for me was the crazy puppetry on display for Biogante. Something like 100 wires were used and the effort shows. Then I finally got a movie I’d wanted to see for years, Shin Godzilla. The idea of Godzilla quickly evolving is terrifying. Once again, the true enemy is bureaucracy.     

One Battle After Another: There’s a lot to say on this flick and I could probably make a whole video about it. here are clear themes on revolutionary politics and tactics, race and racism, imperialism and how it boomerangs. But others have made videos much better than anything I could make so I’ll just mention I think others missed. This movie really shows the dangers of fetishizing revolutionary violence. There is a clear divide between those who are interested in organizing a revolution and are ready to deal with the State, played brilliantly by Benicio Del Toro, and those who simply want to commit violence for violence sake. I’m not against violence as a tool, but it must be rooted in political ideology to be effective. Otherwise, it’s just an excuse for the State.

Hangman Also Die: Here’s a movie with a lesson in solidarity we can all learn from. Imagine if we on the left were this organized today. They never would have caught Luigi. 

Goodbye & Amen: My first Radiance Blu-ray! Fun little spy thriller/hostage movie with a great soundtrack. There American in this is frankly a rude stereotype but let’s be honest, we deserve it.

Slap The Monster on Page One: Another Radiance release and another thriller from the 70’s. Instead of a hostage situation, we have a story of police on the hunt for a murderer. But really that is just the backdrop to show how the media, in this case a right wing newspaper, use stories to push their politics. Sad how relevant this is today. But between these two films, I’ll definitely be picking up more Radiance releases. Although, I will say the special features on this disc, while the content of them is great, the production value leaves a bit to be desired. Nothing that can’t be fixed with a nicer camera and an ND filter. Call me. 

Frankenstein: You can tell Del Toro has wanted to make this movie his whole life. It’s gorgeous. Oscar Isaac is maybe the best looking dude to ever live? I love the structure of the story. Just on a nut & bolt film making level, it’s near flawless. The story does not disappoint either. We go beyond the surface level story of a mad scientist and get at the heart of the dangers of obsession. How without reflection, even the most noble of goals can turn sour. Just beautiful stuff.

Bugonia: I could not stop thinking about this movie, which happens a lot with Yorgos Lathimos. Sensing a real theme of movies looking grimey this year and this fits that trend. Without spoilers, I’ll say, I was certain of the twist for the whole movie. Then, just before the twist is revealed, there is a scene that changed my mind. Just for the next scene to confirm what I suspected the whole time! Expertly done. And the ending had my mouth on the floor.

Running Man: Fun! Would I watch it again? Probably not. But still fun!

Wake Up Dead Man: Oof this one hit me hard as someone who grew up steeped in religion. Better than the second Knives Out as it’s much more personal. Once again just an astonishing cast acting their asses off. Definitely got me chocked up in the end. Too bad there will never be a Blu-ray.

Robinson Coruso on Mars: I have such a soft spot for old sci-fi. Very funny (in a, depressing, this-is-exactly-how-it-would-go way) to me that the instant the main character finds another being that is obviously enslaved while stranded, the first thing his colonizing ass does is keep him enslaved. This is what Elons wet dreams are made of.

Designed For Living: This film is proof, people have always been horny. Damn Hays code kept us from seeing more gems like this. It’s a little uneven sometimes but fun nonetheless.

Straight, No Chaser: Monk is one of my favorite musicians ever and it’s so strange to just see him being a person and walking the streets. A very calming flick about one of the most important artist of the last 100 years. This Criterion is light on special features though.

Afro Samurai: I rewatched this over my little break for the holidays and uh holds up. Animation is great. A simple idea for a story can take you so far. You have the number one headband and you have the number two headband. The number one headband can only be challenged by the number two and the number two could be challenged by anybody. Off you go. That's all you need.

Nothing But A Man: This is an app title for this movie. This guy just wants to be a human being, but he happens to be black in Jim Crow South and they just won't let him be a dude. I can also relate to being fired for organizing twice now.

Midnight: One of the things I love about old movies is everybody falls in love about 2 seconds after seeing each other. This whole movie could have been solved in like 10 seconds if everybody was just poly. 

Mr. Klein: This movie really goes to show the systemization of hate just because of a name on a piece of paper suddenly he's getting carded off to Auschwitz. If you think you're safe from the boot of fascism, just give it time. 

That does it for movies but if you wanna keep up to date with me, I’m on Letterboxd at SydMonk. Let’s move on to shows!

SHOWS

  I didn’t watch much in the way of TV shows lately. Too busy I guess. But here’s what I did watch.

 

Drew Carey Show: The Drew Carey Show finally, after nearly 30 years in the vault, is seeing the light of day. They released the whole show on DVD and started uploading all the episodes to YouTube. And I’m pleased to report, it holds up! That’s not always the case with a sitcom from the 90’s but for the most part the jokes still hit. Even the risqué stuff is ahead of its time, just maybe not ours. The main characters are ind of lovable losers, so the show never really punches down so much as it punches wildly. And that’s saying something for a show that has Rush Limbaugh (rest in piss) on as a guest star. Where the show shines though is when it gets absurd. The improv episodes, the episodes that hold a contest to find all the things wrong on screen, the wild musical bits, these parts make the show a cut above most of what came out at the time. You can tell it was written by comics because the jokes and bits are razor sharp (or incredibly dumb in the best sense of the word), even if the story lines are repetitive. I’m just finishing up season seven, so I don’t have much to go. I just wish they had released it on Blu-ray instead of DVD.  

Ironheart/Eyes of Wakanda/Marvel Zombies: Ok let’s go over the recent Marvel offerings, starting with Ironheart. I liked the teen Ironman aspect of this and was interested in seeing more from this character who I know little about. The idea of recreating your best friend as an AI is eerie. But it really fell apart for me with the Mephisto stuff. All I remember is being very frustrated with Riri making the same mistake over and over. Lovely visuals though. Then we move on to some animated shows. Eyes of Wakanda was a short series, too short. I wanted at least another four episodes. The premise of following these spies throughout time just leaves open so many opportunities for stories. But I guess you should leave them wanting more, which they very much did. As for Marvel Zombies, it was fine. I think I’m just tired of this animation style. I also can’t believe this is our first taste of Blade and as Konshu’s vessel no less. How is it so hard to have my man go around killing vampires? What is the hold up?

Peacemaker S2: What a letdown. The season started strong but just kind of petered out. The finally was an especially bad jumble of stitched together music videos for mediocre bands. The first misstep from Gunn in the DC universe. Hopefully the ship rights itself with Supergirl.

Star Wars Visions S3: Hell yea. One hundred more seasons. Every story better than the last. And the finale was insane. I’ve probably said it before but, I wish they would take this approach of non-canon, high production stories and apply them to other IP like Marvel. The fact that they want to replace this with AI slop is downright insulting.

 

BOOKS

 

Ok, I’ve been reading a bunch lately so let’s get into it.

 

Best Short Stories 2024: I pick this and the best poetry book up each year just to see that’s out there. There’s usually one or two pieces that stand out to me. Worth getting if you wanna see if the short story is right for you.

Let This Radicalize You: I’ve long been radicalized, so I mostly got this to see what all the good press was about. Turns out that praise is well earned as this book is a great entry into how and why you should get organized. Featuring stories mostly from the COVID era of people organizing mutual aid and protest, it does a really good job of distilling lessons learned from those experiences into simple guiding principles to take into your life. By no means an exhaustive methodology of organizing, but a great starting point to get you thinking about what your community might need from you. It also leaves you with a sense that, to fight despair, you need to take action. Good stuff.

Them: This is my first Joyce Carol Oates book and god damn. This is extremely my shit. I love books that are less a three act, clean narrative, and more just a cross section of someone’s, or this case a family’s, life and experience. This book really is a case study in how poverty destroys everyone it touches. So much of this book is this family trying to get some semblance of a stable life. Almost all of their problems come from seeing what they think is an opportunity to reach the surface and breathe a bit, only to be kicked even deeper underwater. Gut wrenching stuff.

On Bullshit: A short but very dense philosophical work about the phenomenon of bullshit. As a guy who grew up in a place that, if your bullshit detector wasn’t finely tuned, you were gonna get hurt or worse, it was interesting to see someone try to put it all into academic terms. 

Mutual Aid: Like Let This Radicalize You, this is a great starting book if you’re looking to get into organizing. Short, sweet and to the point. 

Mukasonga: I bought this when I was in San Francisco at City Lights, mostly because of how small it is. I wanted to figure out how they bound something so small. But this is memoir from someone who lives in a totally different reality from me. They have lived a way of life that could not be more foreign to me and through torturous events like a genocide and yet, our common humanity shines through. Books are good. 

It Can’t Happen Here: A hundred year old book that theorizes about what it would look like for fascism to come to America. Total fiction and definitely has no analog in the modern day. So sir. *exhale* The most frustrating thing about this book is that the main character is such a lib and if you watched my Star Wars Space Liberals video, you know how I feel about that. The dude will literally be getting arrested by secret police and still be like, we will beat them in the next election though. Or, those Communist go too far. Spent a lot of the book wanting to slap him.

Death of a Salesman: I think I watched a production on this once but had never read it. It’s kind of the atypical story of the lie of the American Dream breaking someone and, yea. Boy does it. The guy just wants what he was promised for doing what he was supposed to do and is instead kicked back into the dustbin of history. Tragic stuff.

Notes on the Cinematograph: This was interesting if you like Bressons films, which you should. Outside of that, it’s not gonna give you much in the way of advice for general filmmaking. 

Manifesto: This book took me a minute to finish. It’s a collection of manifesto mostly from the 20th century from futurism to Castro and beyond. I got it because I recently wrote a manifesto myself for the art collective I’m apart of, The Bread & Roses Art Collective, and needed some inspiration. I think what I really learned is, all of these manifestos are based in some kind of truth. Its purpose is to shape that truth to your own ends, for good or ill. Interesting stuff.

Mood Machine: I’m not quite done with this yet but god damn Spotify has really done a number on the art of music. Just depressing as a guy who likes to make art.

COMICS

 

  Let’s move on to comics. There’s a lot here as I was trying to make my way through a giant pile, so I’ll try to keep it short.

Superman Books: With the release of the new Superman movie (review coming soon), I was in a big Superman mood. So I picked up a bunch of Superman books. First up is a pair of books based on TV cartoon versions of Big Blue. This My Adventures with Superman book takes place between the seasons of the show and, just like the show, is good fun. I can’t get enough of this take on Supes and can’t wait for Season 3. Then we have a book based on what I think most people agree is the gold standard for Superman, the 90’s animated series. Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking, but god damn this book was good. I need the second part of the compendium right away. Next we have two classic tales that were blind spots for me and two books that I seem to recall James Gunn saying were big inspirations for his Superman, Superman For All Seasons and Birthright. Both books are stories set early in Superman’s superheroing life and feature Lex Luthor as their main villain. For All Seasons is by an artist and writer pair that made some of my favorite Batman books, Geoff Loeb and Tim Sale. The art is downright gorgeous. The story itself is kind of a year one and isn’t necessarily breaking new ground, but it is paced so well that you just get sucked in. I was flipping through just now while writing this to refresh myself and ended up reading a whole issue. In Birthright, the art didn’t always hit for me but the story is a great, in depth, version of the Superman origin. You really get to spend a lot of time figuring out who this guy is. Lastly, we have this special Superman Red & Blue one shot. This is one of two books like this I read recently (I’ll take about the other in a bit), where the at is limited to just a few colors. It’s simply gorgeous. Often when making any kind of art, limitation is a source of creativity and that rings true all through this book. Plus the stories are very sweet and made me fall for Superman all over again. 

DC Compact Comics: Along with Superman Birthright, I have these two other books that are part of the DC Compact Comics line. DC is very smartly publishing some of their greatest stories in this very portable and affordable books. What a great way to get people to try stuff they might not otherwise. For like ten bucks, you can take a chance on something that might become your favorite thing. Aside from the Superman book, I have Static: Season One and Catwoman: Trail of The Catwoman. Static: Season One is the newest that I’ve seen in this line. It’s a pretty classic origin for Static Shock just modernized a bit. I liked it a lot and wanna read more of these Milestone characters. I picked up Catwoman: Trail Of The Catwoman solely based on Darwin Cooke’s name on the cover. I love his stuff and this is no different. Great heist book. 

Star Wars: As with Superman, after Andor finished up (please watch my long ass review/essay) I was in a Star Wars mood. So I picked up these two books. And although neither of them really scratched the Andor itch, they were still pretty good. The first, Doctor Aphra, apparently is a fan favorite, is the classic Star Wars scoundrel. It’s got all you could want from a Star Wars. Weird droids, a mcguffin to chase, moral ambiguity, and a Vader storyline. Fun stuff that I would like to continue at some point. Speaking of Vader, I got this book, Darth Vader: Black, White  Red. Just like the Superman book I mentioned before, this book uses a limited color palette to great effect. That effect being making Vader scary. 

Fantastic Four Tie In: While we are in the Marvel world, I also picked up the tie in issue for the Fantastic Four movie (to be reviewed with Superman). It’s cute. Great art. I just want to shout it out cause I feel like every comic book movie should do stuff like this. Get me immersed and hyped in every movie with in-world stories that deepen the world.

The Absolute Universe: This is just an update on what I’ve liked and not liked in the Absolute Universe. These things sold millions of copies, so you really don’t need me to tell you to check them out. But, that said, I have stopped reading Flash and Green Lantern. They just weren’t hooking me the way the others were. But the other three books are killing it. I especially love Martian Manhunter. The art is so out there and surreal. I’ve read nothing else like it. 

Murder Falcon: I picked up this book on the recommendation of Hector Navarro of Heroes Reforged. It’s a very heart warming story wrapped in the iconography of metal. So it’s right up my alley. Reminds me a lot of this book, Black Metal, in tone. It’s over the top and silly but in the coolest way. Pick it up.

Danger Boi & The Antagonist: I backed this on Kickstarter and unlike most things I’ve backed on Kickstarter, it showed up on time and fully fleshed out. This book wears its politics on its sleeve and I like those politics. The artwork uses this great color palette that is almost neon. Strong 90’s TMNT vibes. I hope there’s more because the world has a lot of room for exploration. 

DSTLRY: Let’s end this with a quick update on the latest DSTLRY books, of which there aren’t many since Diamond gong under really fuck their distro. All of these are just based on the first issue as I wait for the trades. Endeavor is kind of a Twilight Zone, Lord of The Flies mashup. It was just interesting enough for me to get hooked. White House Robot Romance is a zany concept with excellent execution. I really can’t wait to see where it goes. Galactic really, really wants to be Star Wars. Maybe a little too much. I can’t remember if I talked about this one, Come Find Me. It’s a collection of small stories all based on Autumn vibes. Some creepy, some cozy. This is where DSTLRY really shines for me. If you only pick up one book from these, get this one. Hopefully now that DSTLRY seems to have their distro back on track, we will see more from them in the next year, including some trades of books I liked the first issue of. Fingers crossed!

MUSIC

 

 Lastly, let’s go through some music I’ve been listening to. There’s not a ton mostly because I played my first show in nine years and spent like a month and a half listening to the songs that made up my set over and over again to try and relearn them. Plus, it’s winter here, which means I’m getting stuck in a Dylan, Waits, Oberst, Smith rut. Lately I’ve been stuck on New Morning by Bob Dylan, specifically The Man In Me. No idea why but here we are. Anyway, let’s dive in.

FACS ‘Still Life in Decay’: A lot of these records I’m gonna talk about, including this one, are random Bandcamp Friday gets. Heavy disgusting bass, simple drums. It’s got a real post punk, goth vibe. You can put this on and dance like the crowd of the Lalapalooza episode of The Simpsons.

Dean Johnson 7” and ‘I Hope We Can Still Be Friends’: Dean Johnson continues to amaze. Every track on these two releases are lovelier than the last. I still prefer the reduction on the first record but all these tracks still make me miss a place I’ve never been.

Jesse Welles: In the same general genre, I picked up all of Jesse Welles records. You’ve probably seen this guy on TikTok, playing some songs in a field. He’s been blowing up recently, playing late night shows and such, and I like him a lot. Some folks have some criticism of his seemingly shallow politics but, hey, people got to start somewhere. If some kid hears Jesse Welles and it leads them to Dylan, or Phil Oches or Utah Phillips or Woody Guthrie, etc. then more power to him. 

Scared to Death ‘II’: Scared to Death were a doom group here in Ann Arbor back in the day and their first record is one of my favorite Arbco Records releases (and that’s saying something as they were my favorite local record label, including my old label). So when I found out there was more to be had from them I jumped on it. It’s heavy and hypnotic and continues the from where the first LP left off. Just transports you to the dirtiest, sweatiest basement Satantic ritual full of metal heads you’ve ever been to. That’s a compliment. 

Hello Mary ‘Emita Ox’: I forget how I found Hello Mary. I seem to vaguely recall listening to a live session of theirs and eventually picked this record up as a result. This is a band that uses contrast well. Heavy, booming riffs will bump right up against some downright pretty melodic playing and it flows beautifully. It’s like if the band Roar got into industrial. 

Shallowater ‘There Is A Well’: If you know me I’m just a sucker for good slowcore. Luckily for me there are a lot of bands out there making great slowcore records. Bands like deathcrash, Flooding, and Shallowater are all bringing the mumbling, clean tone, quiet/loud heat. I’m slightly sus of this band though because I think I saw a video of them playing and the guitarist had an anti communist stick on his guitar. But I’m gonna just stack that up to them being from Texas.

Tunic ‘A Harmony of Loss Has Been Sung’: I’ve really just love me some down and dirty bass. This noisy outfit has made a record that makes you feel the right kind of crazy. Like you could get a little nuts. They never stay on an idea for very long which makes it the right kind of schizophrenic for me. 

Bob Vylan ‘Bob Vylan Presents The Price of Life’: I’m probably late to the game, but there’s a real explosion of cool, experimental hip hop lately. From the big names like clipping., to groups like Infinity Knives (and an artist I’ll talk about next), it seems trip hop/experimental hip hop/whatever you want to call it is popping off and I’m here for it. The 90’s are back baby! I heard about Bob Vylan about a month before their Glastonbury set and mainly listened to them because of the name, which I think is perfect. But while the name brought me in the door, the tunes kept me hooked. This shit rips. Then of course they got on a huge stage, in front of a large crowd and on live television called out the IDF for their war crimes which meant I had to immediately….become a fan for life. Fuck Israel. I love an artist willing to put their money where their mouth is. So go pick this up because they have been attacked by all sorts for calling a genocide what it is. 

Billy Woods ‘Golliwag’: Another great experimental hip hop artist that I am probably late to the game for. I listened to this record and loved its sparse and strange production. Then I immediately went back and started listening to his past works, both solo and with the group Armand Hammer. He has great, surreal and abstract bars without ever losing a tight flow. I can see how he has become your favorite rappers favorite rapper. Can’t wait to keep diving deeper. 

Sleepwalk ‘Splatter’: Picked this up on a Bandcamp Friday as well. Just some real solid shoegaze or grunge-gaze I guess. I think the song Ooze was what hooked me. 

Special Features ‘Che Guevara T-Shirt’: I found the video for this single on Reddit and all I can really say is I wish it wasn’t a single. I want a full record. 

YASS ‘Feel Safe’: First off, great album art. I’ve written several pieces on the site ihavethatonvinyl.com about the importance of good album art and this nails it. As for the music, we have heard a blend of two of my favorite sounds, krautrock and noise. It’s motorik beats but if that motor was a Mac truck. It’s gonna get you pumped.

Krautwerk ‘Neuling’: Speaking of krautrock, this record is exactly what I think of when I hear the term. Sometimes you don’t want a band to break the mold. Sometimes you just want someone to execute the formula perfectly. Probably gonna have to get the rest of these records.

A Blurry Pink ‘Loveland’: This is a tape by a fellow member of the artist collective I am helping get started, the Bread & Roses Art Collective. We have a channel on our Discord for self promotion and he put this up. It’s really hooky, lofi rock in the vein of Elephant 6 bands like The Gerbils. The perfect kind of music to have on cassette. 

Closed Circuit Cassettes ‘Snakeskin Beetleboots’: Another band consisting of friends of mine, Todd and Dalton, or I should say Higgs Boson and Vince Quantum. This band has lore and is hard to describe. Very chaotic, synth driven, oddities. If you’re into bands like Brainiac, Foetus, and, I don’t know, Ween I guess, or any other act that doesn’t fit cleanly into a genre, you might get into CCC. It’s so funny to me though because I’ve known Todd over 20 years now and was in a few bands with him. But our dynamic was always that I was into all the strange experimental music and he was into more of the classics. Now here he is in a band making music way weirder than anything we ever made together. Just goes to show how bad of an influence I am. 

Carbon Decoy ‘Crush The Sun’: Let’s continue with the local to me bands here with the new record from Carbon Decoy. I talked about them a bit in my last Quick Reviews video after I saw them at Blowout but only briefly. This new record and their first record Superstition Plagues The Purity Of All, are chock full of locomotive riffs and an absolutely pounding rhythm section. When this band locks into a grove, you’re gonna be sucked into a head banging trance. Plus, they are one of the best live bands going right now in the Metro Detroit area. See ‘em if you can.

Prostitute ‘Attempted Martyr’: Yet another local band! I can’t help it if the Detroit area just produces the best music in the world. It’s just fact. This Dearborn noise punk band create such a punishing ratchet without sacrificing melody that you almost become overwhelmed by the tidal wave of sound. Great use of horns and sirens. Also, I think this band is using Islamophobia to its major advantage. When you make confrontational music, you sometimes just think of who you want to piss off. You picture in your head the enemy and start writing and creating your image. Prostitute closed their collective eyes and imagined a white, conservative, Fox News viewing, flag waving, MAGA douche and went, got it and came up with this album cover and did the thing that would piss off that caricature the most, be unapologetically themselves. And we are all better for it. 

Sunset Images ‘NADA / CERO 0 / INFINITO’: I love Sunset Images. This band from Mexico City is pushing showgaze and gaze-esque music into such interesting places and this ten inch is just one example of that. I was already in love with their record Traumatismo Nacional, which is a terrific spacey jam record, but this three song EP pushes those boundaries in every direction. It’s both louder and quieter, rougher but more composed. All that in only three songs as well. I don’t know what is happening down there, south of the border but keep it up. Also, it looks like they have a new record coming out in January, so I’m going to put that into the script to remind myself to preorder that. Your welcome past self.

Plovers ‘Fear The Man Who Hides In Light’: I fell for this Australian band after hearing the song Think Again and caught myself dancing around the kitchen, thinking of all the billionaires I’d like to meet in a dark alley. The whole record is equally fun. 

Hauspoints ‘Eel Feeling’: Finally, a British band that is apart of my favorite genre of angry British talking over a beat. Closer to Yard Act than Gilla Band but with a bit more of a traditional instrumentation. I’m just a sucker for this strange scene I’ve somehow found across the pond.

Noisepicker ‘The Earth Will Swallow The Sun’: Here’s a dark and gnarly one to go out on. This is the second record from this UK duo and it’s nasty. It’s a record for whipping a chain around while riding a sick motorcycle. The opening track gives strong Brick Layer Cake vibes. And listen, I’ve never drank and maybe smoked like five packs of cigarettes in my life. But I might be persuaded to change those habits if I could have a voice like this.

  And I think that does it for this round of quick reviews. Let me know if you check any of this out and recommend some stuff in the comments. Until next time, death to the algorithm.

 

 

Pitch Please Episode 2: DSTLRY Comics

  Hello again and welcome back to Pitch Please. It’s a show all about guiding you through something new. I’m your host Jason and this episode we are talking comics! But we aren’t talking the big two. No we are talking about a newer publisher on the scene, creator owned DSTLRY Comics! Oh fancy…

  Before I drill down into DSTLRY, let me show my bona fides a bit and talk about my love of comics. As you can probably guess just from looking at me, I grew up on superhero comics. (Shocker) As a kid, my neighbors uncle used to sell comics for a dollar each, every year at their annual garage sale. It was mostly 90’s trash (complete with wild body proportions and infinite pockets) with gimmick 3D lenticular covers, but I was like 10 so those gimmicks worked on me and I was hooked. As I got older, I fell off of superhero comics (for reasons I’ll get into), replacing them with superhero movies and more adult (ie pretentious) graphic novels. I stopped reading DC and Marvel books and started reading stuff from Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics, and the like. 

  As I got older, I also started to learn the stories of the people who made some of my favorite books and noticed a theme of them getting absolutely boned by the corporations they were writing for. I’m thinking of people like Alan Moore with Watchmen, Bill Finger with Batman, or Shushter and Segal with Superman. It seemed that, just like the rest of the working class, the creatives I loved were being exploited by creating some of the most recognizable and profitable characters in fiction and never seeing the fruits of their labor. You shouldn’t be able to invent Superman and die penniless. 

  It’s all possible through a trick as old as the creative industry. In case you don’t know, when you make anything for a big comic publisher, most of the time you’re under contract with them. So whatever you create is theirs. You’re just the hired gun. (It’s the same idea behind all the gig apps like Uber and Doordash. It’s a nice little trick to get out of giving people the benefits of being a full employee) The trade off is that, theoretically the corporation has the resources so that, whatever you create, will be seen by more people (and you’ll get a bigger upfront check). Theoretically. Even if you aren’t creating characters whole cloth, any story you write or picture you draw, is theirs to do what they see fit with. So say, years down the line, there’s a multibillion dollar movie that is inspired heavily by something you created, while it may be cool, you won’t see a dime.

  This changed in the 90’s when Image comics came along. Image offered artist the chance to publish their work and keep the rights to whatever they created. Image wasn’t without its controversies (chronically late books, tensions amount partners leading to lawsuits, the 90’s comic bubble crash, etc. It’s almost like they had a bunch of artist in charge of a company. Weird.) but this strategy seemed to work out for them in the long run. They are now the third largest publisher out there and have put out some of the all time most influential comics in history (Spawn, The Walking Dead, Invincible, god damn Saga. It’s a star studded list). It’s almost like if you give creative folks room to be creative, you have a higher chance of getting quality work. Crazy.

  The brings us to DSTLRY, which seems to be looking to replicate that Image success, albeit in a simpler, smaller, and more modern way. DSTLRY was started by the guys behind Comixology, the digital comics reader (another thing that Amazon has gobbled up and essentially destroyed). Now, I’ll be straight with you. I don’t trust these suits as far as I can throw them. Unlike with Image, they are not artist, they are business men (which means they are not in it because they like comics. They’re in it because they like money.) and business men are not to be trusted. (That might be our first evergreen rule on this channel. Let’s put it on the board.) For example, while the company stresses that their digital collectible comics aren’t NFTs, they certainly smell like NFTs. So before I go heeping praise on the books they’ve been pumping out, let me be clear that just because they’re a corporation that has realized that giving the creatives that give your brand value a steak in the company, thereby aligning your wellbeing to their wellbeing, does not mean they aren’t still a corporation at the end of the day. 

  Disclaimers aside, DSTLRY is making one business decision that I do agree with in that they are copying that Image model. Artist and writers not only get to keep the rights to their creations but the founding creators even earn equity in the company. So if their books sell and the company does well, they do well. Rising tides and all that. What that means is, say some all consuming media conglomerate comes around and wants to make a movie based on, let’s say Gone by the artist known only as Jock, then instead of the company who just happened to print the book and happens to have a relationship with Diamond Distributors, raking in the dough, Jock makes that money and, crazy thought, could even work on the movie based on the book he made. (If only there was some way for all workers to get the value they create and own the means in which they produce value in common. Hmmmm)

   But for any of this scheme to work you have to have some damn good founding creators and attract some big talent with big ideas. In a business dominated by to behemoths, it’s a steep uphill climb to even be noticed, so you need some heavy hitters (and, in the case of a few folks, whose name alone can move a few units). Well between the founding creators and the folks currently slated to have books put out on DSTLRY, it seems the these business types went deep into their Rolodex to call in some award winning titians from around the industry and world to write a book of two and have ended up with an absolutely stacked list of creatives. (Kids, a Rolodex is this mechanical device we had before cellphones…never mind) We have the likes of (and apologies if pronounce any names wrong here) the aforementioned Jock, Becky Cloonan, Marc Bernardin of podcast fame, Jamie McKelvie, Scott Snyder, Chip Zdarsky, and on and on. This a group of people that have put out some of the best comics this century and here they are, under one label, given what seems like free rein. (At the very least there seems to be no restrictions on content, style or genre)

  So far, hiring the best comic book writers and artist has paid off. Every book DSTLRY has put out as of writing has been good or, often times, better than good. There’s any genre you can dream of here (except, notably, superheroes.) from western to sci-fi to romance to heist. Each with enough of a twist to get deep hooks in you. Plus, the art in some of these books is stunning. It helps that all their books come in this oversized, magazine dimensions that really suck you into the artwork. I love a big ol’ physical piece of media (He said in front of his 1500 records. Admittedly, this doesn’t make them harder to store but I think it’s worth it). When you make something this size, it feels like a statement. Like a celebration of the medium. Maybe it’s the American in me but, bigger is usually better (I can hear you snickering) and these are some hefty comics. 

  While the physical size of the books may be supersized, one thing I really like about DSTLRY is each story is only three or four issues long, with the exception of Life which is listed as being six issues. But still in the single digits. The big two could learn a thing or two from this approach. Actually, I think this is gonna take us to a new segment, Side Rant. Come join me in my old man corner.

 

  One of the things that caused me to fall off of superhero comics was the tendency for them to spin out into multiple books with long arcs over hundreds of issues. For example, I started reading the Ta Nehisi Coates run on Black Panther month to month. It was a really interesting take on the character by a great writer who was from outside comics. But then that single book spun off into three books and, if I recall correctly, was broken up by one of those crossover events that superhero comics love so much. I stopped reading because I simply didn’t have the funds to collect that many books every month. It was just too much. And not just for me but for you, the publisher, too judging by the amount of times you have to reset the continuity. It became unwieldy and the story just fizzled out. And for my money, the ending is the most important bit!

  So here’s my pitch. Less is more. Instead of ongoing series with no real end, limit the story to a maximum twelve issues. The artist pitches a story for the character THAT MUST INCLUDE AN ENDING, and that goes for movie producers too. People only remember the ending so it’s best to start there. Then you stagger your books so there’s always something coming out but in a way that there’s always a number one each month and readers know there will be a satisfying end to the story and a fresh jumping on point regularly. So it’d be like: Superman: Luthors Revenge: 1 of 7, or whatever, and once it was done, new creative team, new story, new number one. Everything as an interconnected collection of miniseries.

  Granted, it has been a while since I bought single issues so maybe the big two are already doing this and I just don’t know it. I read Absolute Batman #1 recently and it appears that all these Absolute stories will be miniseries. In which case, I’m really showing my ass here. All I know is, if there’s a book with a lot of hype out, I usually wait for the collected softcover or the big hardcover if it’s really special. Maybe that’s just me and I’m yelling at clouds again. Anyway, rant over. Back to what we were talking about.

  Ok, where were we? Oh yea, DSTLRYs short and sweet runs. I love this approach as it’s concise and means you always have something new on the horizon. But I will admit, it’s a double edge sword. It is a very hard thing to world build in three issues, especially if you’re doing something a little more out there. Gone, the book by Jock I mentioned before, is a prime example. This book takes place in what seems like a deep, interesting universe with a lot of characters and factions I’d love to see more of. But with only three issues, you really have to focus on the one story you’re telling. That’s not to say Jock couldn’t come back and expand in further series but maybe he’d rather move on to other things. In the end, it’s always better (in fiction, movies and playing music) to leave the audience wanting more rather than have them grow tired of you.

  And let me tell ya, boy do I want more of these books. No matter what book you start with, you’re gonna get quality. I’m gonna go over some of my favorites but I’d honestly start with the first book the put out, The Devils Cut. This compilation book serves as a great taste of everything they’re doing over there at DSTLRY. It’s like a bunch of trailers for these comics. You can read through this and figure out which stories you want to get or keep an eye out for. DSTLRY has only been around for about a year, so there’s not so much backlog that you’re going to be way behind on. The only just started putting out collected hardcovers (That I very much like as well). So not everything in The Devils Cut has been expanded into a full book yet, but plenty has. 

  A lot of what I’ve read are just number ones so I’ll start with the aforementioned new hardcovers. The first, Somna by Becky Cloonan & Tula Lotay, is the story of a woman at the height of the witch trials having an affair on her witchfinder husband with the devil…in her dreams. (I can’t do it because I’ll get a copyright strike but, if you could put the band Witchfinder General on in the background here while I talk about this book, that’d be ideal) If that synopsis doesn’t do it for you, I don’t know what will. I love how this book uses its setting and the supernatural to explore how society was (and let’s face it, still is) openly hostile to women who dare to reach for power of any kind. And how other women, instead of coming together in solidarity, use that hostility to turn on other women. The addition of the actual Devil only serves to bring out those gulfs between the powerful and powerless. Plus the art is fabulous, switching from a more traditional comic art to this soft watercolor look when the character is in the dream world. I won’t spoil the ending but, while I liked it, I did wish it’d go a slightly different way. (As always, I was rooting for everyone to burn)

  The second collected hardcover is a book I’ve mentioned a few times already, Gone by Jock. I first became aware of Jock when he did a book with Scott Snyder called Wytches that creeped me the hell out (in a good way of course). His art in that book was so experimental and different that it was hard not to become engrossed in the book. In Gone, Jock is doing everything, so the art is a little more traditional but still with great design and incredibly inventive page layouts and panel work. This world feels grimey and lived in but with the scale of the future in its giant slums and looming ships (making use of the large format book). The story is that of a kid who, while tying to steal supplies from a luxury interplanetary ship, gets trapped aboard, stranded for possibly many years back on Earth (The ship travels at light speed so it’s your classic case of one year for her is like six back home. Or is it the other way around? You know, that old gem.). The fact that they cover so much story in just three issues is kind of mind boggling. There are many twists and turns and factions and politics that sort of get glaced off of in pursuit of telling the main characters story well. But as I mentioned before, I’d love to spend more time in this world.

  Lastly, they just released the collected Blasfamous by Mika Andolfo. This is the story of a new religion secretly run by demons, using immoral pop stars to turn faith and worship into drugs. It’s a wild concept but also not so far fetched if you’ve ever been around religion in your life (especially here in the states). Just imagine one of those megachurches plus JoJo Siwa. The art is lovely and borders on cartoonish with big spreads depicting angels and demons in battle. The story was fun but once again I was a little lukewarm on the ending. (It falls into the cliche I think a lot of big heady stuff like this falls into. High fantasy, sci-fi, cosmic stuff, it all gets to a point where it’s so out there that only a mcguffin of twisted internal logic, a special sword, a spell, the right code, can reset the story stakes arms race that had been going on beforehand. In comics, it’s usually in stories with cosmic multiversal enemies like The Anti-Monitor or Eternity) Other than that, I liked it a lot. It was the weakest of these three so far but I still had a great time. 

  That does it for their collected editions, so I’m gonna quickly run through my favs of the #1’s they’ve put out. Now, for these, I’ve only read the first issue. So if the ending sucks, I’m sorry, I’m waiting for the hardcover. 

   Let’s start with my favorite, White Boat by Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla. I don’t have many fears (some would say I have almost a complete lack of self preservation) but one big fear I have is water. The last six times I’ve been in a body of water, I’ve almost drowned. So we have an understanding now and I stay on dry land. (I’m even nervous in the shower at this point) So, I cannot think of a worse place to be when a Lovecraftian nightmare kicks in than on a cruise ship in open ocean. I’ve liked almost everything I’ve read by Scott Snyder (I wasn’t big on Dark Knight: Metal or The Batman Who Laughs) and he has scared me before with a comic I previously mentioned he did with Jock called Wytches. But this one feels like it’s targeted at me. Plus the Hellboy-esque, tattoo worthy art really adds to the atmosphere with it’s thick line work and jagged edges. (If you’re thinking of getting almost cliche tentacle tatttoos, get it in this style instead to mix it up) I’m really excited to see where this one goes. (And if anyone has an unsigned copy of the seven inch they put out with this book they can spare, slide into my DMs.)

  Next up, Life by Brian Azzarrello, Stephane Philips, and art by Danijel Zezelj (again, so sorry if I mispronounced any of those names. I’m hopelessly white). Now, this looks like any other DSTLRY release except, what’s this? *flips book around* What the hell? Which side is the front? Up is down? Topsy turvy. This is actually a cool way to tell the same story from to different angles. One side from the perspective of a band of criminals looking for a score on what they think is an abandoned planet and the other side from the perspective of the mutant prisoners on that planet, with the two stories meeting in the middle. I have the first two issues of this because I think this (for lack of a better word) gimmick is so interesting. That’s why I love small publishers. They have the freedom to experiment with the format in a way the big two would never. Gimmick aside, it’s a cool villain on villian story that I’m actually gonna collect all six issues of. That’s like 12 stories! (Talk about bang for your buck)

  Lastly, let’s talk about Spectregraph by James Tyrion IV and art by Christian Ward. Like White Boat, this is another horror book, this time set around a billionaires mansion (at least it’s on land this time) and the cult dedicated to whatever he’s building in there (insert Tom Waits reference here). These billionaires are always up to no good. They are not to be trusted. In fact, let’s update the board. (*adds billionaires to earlier rule*) The art is surreal yet crisp and like White Boat, really sells how unnatural all the goings on are. This real estate agent (and all around terrible mom) is in deep shit for sure. (Although, the housing market is so bad, I’m sure I know a few people who would take the house, murderous cult and all, if they could get it for cheap) I hope this gets collected soon so I can really spend some time in this unsettling mansion. 

  Those three are just my favorites but honestly, every book that’s come out so far has been good to great. I can’t wait to see what comes next. They’ve recently announced (or released depending on when I put this up) a few holiday one shots and have teased some upcoming books that all look intriguing, even if I’m not familiar with any of the names attached. But that’s actually what I would like to see from DSTLRY. Don’t get me wrong. I can think of a few names I’d love to see do books for them. I’m thinking Sean Murphy, Crom, Alexis Zeritt, Ben Passmore, Kelley Sudiconik, Andrew MacLean, etc. But the DSTLRY M.O. is great for new talent. You don’t have to worry about a new team tanking sales on a popular character or shoehorning their take into a bigger continuity and 3-5 issues is relatively not too big a commitment to take a chance. DSTLRY is what the world needs more of. Less big, risk adverse companies, churning out sequels and remakes and more smaller companies taking chances, making mistakes, and getting messy (to paraphrase Miss Frizzle). It’s been a banger year of books and I can’t wait for more (even if I’m very skeptical of the digital collectible side of things).

  Well I think that about does it for this episode of Pitch Please. What are your thoughts? Have you read any of these books? Love ‘em? Hate ‘em? Let me know in the comments along with any other comics talk you want. Do all that normal YouTube stuff with the liking and subscribing and shit and I’ll see you in the next one where we will talk about film photography. But until then, death to the algorithm.