Thursday, October 20, 2022

Comics Review: "Nita Hawes' NIGHTMARE Blog #9" - Sista is Doing It for Herself

NITA HAWES' NIGHTMARE BLOG #9
IMAGE COMICS

STORY: Rodney Barnes
ART: Szymon Kudranski
COLORS: Luis Nct with mar and Silvestre Galotto
LETTERS: Marshall Dillon
EDITOR: Greg Tumbarello
COVER: Szymon Kudranski
VARIANT COVER ARTIST: Davi Go
28pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S. (October 2022)

Rated “M/ Mature”

Nita Hawes' Nightmare Blog created by Rodney Barnes and Jason Shawn Alexander

“Murder By Another Name” Part III: “A Devil by Another Name”


Nita Hawes' Nightmare Blog is a comic book series created by Rodney Barnes and Jason Shawn Alexander.  Nita Hawes' Nightmare Blog is written by Barnes.  The current artist is Szymon Kudranski.  Colorist Luis Nct and letterer by Marshall Dillon complete the creative team.  The series focuses on a woman who is on a quest to root out evil by helping the people who contact her blog.

In Baltimore, Maryland, which some call “Bodymore, Murderland,” there is a woman named Dawnita “Nita” Hawes.  She is the owner of “Nita Hawes' Nightmare Blog” where citizens can contact Nita when they have a problem of a supernatural or paranormal nature.  Nita has just begun her quest to root the evil out of her city – with the help of her dead brother, Jason.

Nita Hawes' Nightmare Blog #9 (“A Devil by Another Name”) opens with a meeting of the minds between Anasi (the Spider-God) and the self-styled “Master Demon of Hell,” Belial (one of the four demon kings).  It seems that whatever war is going on in Philadelphia (as seen in the super-comic book, Killadelphia), the repercussions are destined for two Maryland burgs, Baltimore (“Bodymore”) and Annapolis (“Naptown”).

A darkness is spreading through Annapolis because the echo of a lost soul murdered in cold blood has come back, screaming for vengeance.  The only thing standing in its way is Nita Hawes because she has chosen to be that thing.  Little brother Jason returns to warn Nita a second time about involving herself in this mystery, but will she listen?  Or is she going to pay the price to stop this evil?  Is she willing?

THE LOWDOWN:  Nita Hawes' Nightmare Blog is a spin-off of Rodney Barnes and Jason Shawn Alexander's hit vampire comic book, Killadelphia.  The current story arc, “Murder By Another Name,” makes direct connections to recent events in Killadelphia.

I think that this is a quiet issue, the hints of Killadelphia blow back aside.  Writer Rodney Barnes offers something new and usually mind-blowing in every issue that he writes.  The surprise this time is the Nita Hawes' evolution – as I see it.  Has she embraced her destiny fully?  By my reading, I don't sense the fear in her about her new profession (so to speak) that I have in previous issues.  She has begun the hero's journey … I think.

As I wrote in a previous review: I am in love with Szymon Kudranski's lovely art, especially how he subtly shifts the atmosphere and lighting for each change of scenery.  This issue he joins colorist Luis Nct to create one of the most unsettling creatures that I have seen in comic books in a long time – the demon king Belial.  This concepts recalls classic creations of Steve Bissette and John Totleben in the 1980s Swamp Thing written by Alan Moore.

I said: Nita Hawes' Nightmare Blog is like if “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” and Hellblazer knocked demonic boots and conceived a black baby girl.  Now, that she is here, please, read Nita Hawes' Nightmare Blog.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Killadelphia and of the original Hellblazer will want Nita Hawes' Nightmare Blog.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Review: "SCOOBY-DOO! Return to Zombie Island" Revisits Scooby-Doo History

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 62 of 2022 (No. 1874) by Leroy Douresseaux

Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island (2019) – Video
Running time:  77 minutes (1 hour, 17 minutes)
Rated TV-G
DIRECTORS:  Cecilia Aranovich Hamilton and Ethan Spaulding
WRITER: Jeremy Adams
PRODUCERS:  Amy McKenna and and Rick Morales
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Sam Register
EDITOR:  Robert Ehrenreich
COMPOSER:  Robert J. Kral
ANIMATION STUDIO:  Digital eMation

ANIMATION/FANTASY/FAMILY and ACTION/COMEDY/MYSTERY

Starring:  (voices) Frank Welker, Matthew Lillard, Grey Griffin, Kate Micucci, Janell Cox, David Herman, John Michael Higgins, Dave B. Mitchell, Cassandra Peterson, Roger Rose, and Travis Willingham

Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island is a 2019 straight-to-video, animated, comic mystery film.  It is the thirty-third entry in the Scooby-Doo straight-to-video series from Warner Bros. Animation, and it is a direct sequel to 1998's Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, the first movie in this series.  In Return to Zombie Island, the retired Mystery Inc. gang visits a remote, but familiar island with a dark secret.

Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island opens a few months after the events depicted in Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost.  The members of Mystery Inc.: Fred Jones (Frank Welker), Daphne Blake (Grey Griffin), Velma Dinkley (Kate Micucci), Shaggy Rogers (Matthew Lillard), and Scooby-Doo (Frank Welker), have retired, and Fred is still depressed about selling the Mystery Machine.

On her television show, legendary horror hostess, Elvira (Cassandra Peterson), announces that Shaggy has won a trip to a tropical island paradise.  Coincidentally, Shaggy is allowed to bring three friends and a dog along.  Because they are supposedly retired from mystery-solving, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo make Fred, Daphne, and Velma promise that they will not solve any more mysteries and will actually try to relax on this vacation.

As they sail on a ferry toward the island, Fred, Daphne, and Velma realize the surroundings are more swamp-like than tropical.  The ferry captain (Dave B. Mitchell) says that zombies inhabit the island, which reminds some of the gang of the last time, years ago, when they visited “Moonscar Island” a.k.a. “Zombie Island,” an island with zombies on it.

When they arrive on this supposed island paradise, two people greet them off the boat, but warn them to get out.  Also, once on the island, a mysterious dark cat creature stalks them.  Even the the hotel is coincidentally named “Moonstar Island Resort.”  Still, no matter how many times they run into something that reminds them of Zombie Island, Shaggy and Scooby make their friends stick to their promise not to try to solve mysteries.  But has that promise put them all in danger of suffering a fate from which they once only narrowly escaped?

Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island, like its predecessor, 1998's Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, has an strong premise, but clumsy execution delivers an inconsistent film.  Sometimes, the sequel is fun, fast-moving, and comically horrifying, in the tradition of Scooby-Doo TV series and films, but other times, Return to Zombie Island meanders, juggling multiple subplots.  One of those subplots pops up late in the film and involves a movie, “Zombie Teenagers and the Island of Doom.”  At this point, Return to Zombie Island loses credibility, although the film-within-a-film subplot introduces a fun character, the self-absorbed movie director, Alan Smithee, voiced by John Michael Higgins, who delivers a good performance.

Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island is a children's movie, but adults who are fans of this straight-to-video series will want to watch it.  Like me, they may even find some enjoyment in it.

6 of 10
B
★★★ out of 4 stars

Tuesday, October 5, 2022


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Review: "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island" Started a Thing

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 61 of 2022 (No. 1873) by Leroy Douresseaux

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) – Video
Running time:  77 minutes (1 hour, 17 minutes)
Rated TV-G
DIRECTOR:  Jim Stenstrum
WRITERS: Glenn Leopold; from a story by Glenn Leopold and David Doi (based on the Hanna-Barbera characters)
PRODUCER:  Cosmo Anzilotti
EDITOR:  Paul Douglas
COMPOSER:  Steven Bramson
ANIMATION STUDIO:  Mook Animation

ANIMATION/FANTASY/FAMILY and ACTION/COMEDY/MYSTERY

Starring:  (voices) Frank Welker, Scott Innes, Billy West, Mary Kay Bergman, B.J. Ward, Tara Strong, Cam Clarke, Jim Cummings, Mark Hamill, Jennifer Leigh Warren, and Ed Gilbert

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is a 1998 straight-to-video, animated, comic mystery film.  It was the first animated movie in what became the Scooby-Doo straight-to-video series from Warner Bros. Animation.  In Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, the Mystery Inc. Gang reunites and visits a remote island with a dark secret.

As Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island opens, the five members of Mystery, Inc.Fred Jones (Frank Welker); Daphne Blake (Mary Kay Bergman), Velma Dinkley (B.J. Ward); Shaggy Rogers (Billy West), and Scooby-Doo (Scott Innes) have gone their separate ways.  They apparently became bored of mystery solving because culprits were never real ghosts, aliens, and monsters, but were practically always people in costumes.

Daphne Blake now has her own television series, “Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake,” in which she investigates claims of supernatural occurrences.  Fred Jones is her cameraman and producer.  Shaggy and Scooby are security guards, and Velma owns a book shop, “Dinkley's Mystery Book Shoppe,” which is also known as “Mystery Inc. Books.”

Daphne decides that she wants to hunt down a real ghost rather than investigating ghosts that turn out to be fakes.  So Fred calls the gang back together, and the reunited Mystery Inc. embarks on a road trip scouting haunted locations across the United States for Daphne's TV show.

That is why they end up in New Orleans, Louisiana, where they meet a curious local, Lena Dupree (Tara Strong).  She tells them that they can find real ghosts at her place of employment, a mansion and hot pepper plantation on Moonscar Island.  Skeptical at first, Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby follow Lena to the island hoping to find a real ghost instead of a villain in a costume.  What they find is more than they expected in a spooky place that might as well be called “Zombie Island.”

I remember that I first heard about Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island probably about a month or so before it was released in September 1998.  It was big news in the world of the American television animation industry and in home entertainment.  I bought a copy for the elementary school age son of a close friend of mine, who was a huge Scooby-Doo fan, then.  [He is now an adult in his late twenties (as of this writing), and I don't know if he still loves Scooby-Doo.]

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island was billed as the first time that a Scooby-Doo cartoon would find Scooby and Shaggy and company facing real supernatural entities.  The advertising for this straight-to-video (VHS) release declared, “This time, the monsters are real.”  However, as early as a 1980 episode of the “Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo” animated TV series, the stories featured real aliens and a real vampire.

That aside, it is nice to see Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island pit the characters against real ghosts, real zombies, and other real supernatural creatures.  My problem with Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is that the writers open the movie with some nice character development, but by the time the characters reach Moonscar Island, the story devolves into Scooby and Shaggy running around and screaming or we get tedious scenes of Scooby chasing one or more of the cats that belong to Moonscar mansion's owner, Simone Lenoir (Adrienne Barbeau).

That animation is average to above average, with the best sequences being those with the zombies.  The film's direction presents an inconsistent pace to go with the inconsistent story, so sometimes even a haunted mansion and a zombie island seem like boring places.  Still, I am glad that I finally watched Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island.  I've been putting it off for at least two decades.

I will say that it is an important film because it launched the Scooby-Doo straight-to-video series, of which I am a big fan.  So Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is a must see for fans of all things Scooby-Doo and Mystery Inc.

6 of 10
B
★★★ out of 4 stars


Wednesday, July 7, 2021


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Monday, October 17, 2022

BOOM! Studios Shipping from Diamond Distributors for October 19, 2022

BOOM! STUDIOS

AUG220314 ALL NEW FIREFLY #9 CVR A FINDEN $4.99
AUG220315 ALL NEW FIREFLY #9 CVR B TOWE $4.99
JUN220416 ALL-NEW FIREFLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JAYNE HC VOL 01 $19.99
AUG220270 EVE CHILDREN OF THE MOON #1 (OF 5) CVR A ANINDITO $3.99
AUG220271 EVE CHILDREN OF THE MOON #1 (OF 5) CVR B LINDSAY $3.99
AUG220319 HOUSE OF SLAUGHTER PACK (BUNDLE) #1 $39.99
JUN220365 IM STILL ALIVE OGN HC (MR) $24.99
AUG220327 SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN AZURE BANDANA $19.99
JUL229388 STUFF OF NIGHTMARES #1 (OF 4) 2ND PTG $4.99
AUG220358 WYND THRONE IN SKY #3 (OF 5) CVR A DIALYNAS $5.99
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Dark Horse Comics Shipping from Diamond Distributors for October 19, 2022

DARK HORSE COMICS

JUN220528 BLACKWOOD LIBRARY ED HC $39.99
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AUG220390 CASTLE FULL OF BLACKBIRDS #2 (OF 4) CVR B STRYCHOWSKA $3.99
FEB220298 CRITICAL ROLE TALES OF EXANDRIA TP VOL 01 BRIGHT QUEEN $19.99
AUG220376 HELLBOY IN LOVE #1 (OF 5) $3.99
AUG220430 PARASOMNIA DREAMING GOD #3 (OF 4) CVR A MUTTI $3.99
AUG220431 PARASOMNIA DREAMING GOD #3 (OF 4) CVR B SCHARF $3.99
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AUG220406 SHAOLIN COWBOY CRUEL TO BE KIN #6 (OF 7) CVR B HARREN (MR) $4.99
AUG220407 SHAOLIN COWBOY CRUEL TO BE KIN #6 (OF 7) CVR C LEE (MR) $4.99
JUN220513 STRANGER THINGS OMNIBUS AFTERSCHOOL ADVENTURES TP $19.99
JUN220530 WHEN EVERYTHING TURNED BLUE HC $19.99

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AUG220574 GARBAGE PAIL KIDS ORIGINS #1 CVR L LAGO LTD VIRGIN $50.00
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JUL220574 NINJETTES #1 (OF 5) CVR L LEIRIX METAL PREMIUM $100.00
JUL220711 NYX #10 CVR I MATTEONI LTD VIRGIN $50.00
AUG220554 UNBREAKABLE RED SONJA #1 CVR P PARRILLO LTD VIRGIN $50.00
JUL220559 VAMPIRELLA MINDWARP #1 (OF 5) CVR M LINSNER METAL PREMIUM (C $100.00
JUL220560 VAMPIRELLA MINDWARP #1 (OF 5) CVR N ATLAS SGN $49.99
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IDW Publishing Shipping from Diamond Distributors for October 19, 2022

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JUN221633 BLOOM COUNTY LIBRARY SC BOOK 01 $34.99
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AUG221525 CRASHING #2 CVR B KYRIAZIS (MR) $3.99
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