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Expand your Star Wars library with pocket-sized books from Insight Editions

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September 23, 2021

Whether you use it as the perfect stocking stuffer, for an office party gift swap, or you just want some convenient content to carry around in your backpack, publisher Insight Editions has the right book for you. For Harry Potter fans we reviewed the detailed MinaLima-designed treasure trove The Art of Harry Potter–Mini Book of Graphic Design a few years ago, and for superhero fans we looked at two volumes of the history of Wonder Woman in comic book covers. These are jam-packed books that literally fit inside your pocket, and the content spans the scope of pop culture and genre. Love Batman? Check. Mickey Mouse? Check. Beauty and the Beast and other Disney favorites? Check.

Today we have previews from four of Insight Editions’ books featuring Star Wars, one with the artwork of Ralph McQuarrie, a two-volume collection of Marvel comic book covers, and another with famous poster artwork that spans the 11 films. Typically available at $11.99 or less, it’s an inexpensive source for the visual details of the movies, production, and marketing that you’ve never seen before, and a quick gift idea for your favorite Star Wars fan.

Here is a comparative look at the size of the books in the series:

Check out these previews from The Complete Star Wars Marvel Comics Covers Volume 1 and Volume 2, Star Wars: The Concept Art of Ralph McQuarrie, and Star Wars: The Poster Collection:

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Updated and expanded Star Trek Shipyards volume incorporates Starfleet ships from Discovery, Lower Decks, and Picard

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September 20, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

By my count there are six books so far in the Star Trek Shipyards library from publisher Hero Collector: Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2063-2293, Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2294 – The Future, Star Trek Shipyards: Federation Members, Star Trek Shipyards: Klingon Fleet, and most recently in 2021, Star Trek Shipyards: The Borg and Delta Quadrant (reviewed here), and Star Trek Shipyards: The Delta Quadrant Volume 2 (reviewed here). With two more volumes due out in the coming months available for pre-order now (Alpha Quadrant and Major Species Volume 1 and Alpha Quadrant and Major Species Volume 2), the publisher is taking a step back with the late summer release Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2294 – The Future, an updated and expanded edition of the second volume in the library, adding significant content to the original edition. The most popular of the Star Trek Shipyards library, this volume presents many of fans’ favorite ships of the line in high-quality illustrations. A lot has happened in the franchise in the past few years, and readers will find much of it making its way into this book, with vessels from all three seasons of Star Trek: Discovery to Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Picard.

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L.A.’s Finest–Your next favorite buddy cop fix is now streaming on Netflix

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September 19, 2021

las-finest-season-2-trailer

Review by Elizabeth C. Bunce

You don’t need to be familiar with the Bad Boys franchise to love L.A.′s Finest, the two-season 2019-2020 series that missed most of its audience by streaming first exclusively on Spectrum’s cable platform. Sure, it’s technically a spinoff of the raunchy buddy cop flicks starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Yes, Gabrielle Union reprises her role as Syd Burnett (sister of Lawrence’s character), a former DEA agent turned L.A. detective. But this sharply-written action comedy cop show, with a leading duo that parallels both the drama and the antics of Smith and Lawrence, has much more going for it than its big brother movie series. Starring Union (Bad Boys II, The Lion Guard) and Jessica Alba (Dark Angel, Fantastic Four) as ex-U.S. Navy intelligence expert, now detective Nancy McKenna, wisecracking partners in the Bad Boys mold, the series moves from its Miami roots to Los Angeles, and digs into local culture, politics, and above all, crime. That’s really all you need to know about the show, whose 26 episodes at last made it to Netflix this summer.

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TCM’s Essential Directors–A definitive guide to the most influential directors in Hollywood

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September 17, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

For both film buffs and a new generation of a movie fans, a definitive guide to the most influential film directors–spanning a century of Hollywood creativity–will soon be a fixture in libraries everywhere. Turner Classic Movies/TCM and film writer Sloan De Forest, author of TCM’s Dynamic Dames (reviewed here) and TCM’s Must-See Sci-fi (reviewed here), chronicle 58 directors, their works, and influence on the filmmaking in TCM’s The Essential Directors: The Art and Impact of Cinema’s Most Influential Filmmakers. From Charlie Chaplin to Steven Spielberg, these are the directors that film aficionados will be unlikely to quibble with. Some made their marks as household names, others are legendary auteurs, while others provided a singular film or image that has made them synonymous with Hollywood royalty. From epic dramas, to laugh-out-loud comedies, readers will find TCM’s Essential Directors as the go-to source for the heavy-hitters behind the biggest movies in history.

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Marvel gives first look at new Hawkeye in Disney+ holiday series trailer

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September 14, 2021

After Jeremy Renner’s good guy Clint Barton was converted to bad guy in the 2012 MCU Avengers movie, it seemed like there was nowhere for the character to go but down. Already merely a Green Arrow knockoff (who, in turn, was inspired by Robin Hood), the least interesting Avenger ultimately was relegated to lawless, one-note assassin status by the Endgame finale. That was the Avenger on the big screen. What the movie studio missed and is at last catching up to is what was happening in the comics pages while Avengers was in theaters. Enter writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja, who tapped some of the better elements from DC Comics’ Green Arrow comic book series and suddenly Hawkeye became interesting in the comics.

But what would become a multiple Eisner-winning comic wasn’t just about Clint Barton. The next Disney+ Marvel series is coming this Christmas, and it’s bringing the even better character from Fraction and Aja’s comic book series forward, revealed in a first preview that looks like we may finally get a Disney+ Marvel series as good as the Marvel movies. They even got the logo and Matt Hollingsworth’s color scheme right. Check out the first trailer for Hawkeye below.

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George A. Romero’s zombie sequel The Living Dead arrives in paperback to get you ready for Halloween

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September 12, 2021

Living Dead cover

Review by C.J. Bunce

Oddly, creepily, Tor Books had readied a virus story that was supposed to land in bookstores early in 2020. I reviewed an advance copy here at borg in March 2020. Writer Daniel Kraus had picked up a story begun by zombie guru George A. Romero decades ago, a story about a zombie virus that leveled our world, a behemoth 654-page follow-up to his movie series called The Living Dead: A New Novel. It was delayed, but made its debut in hardcover in August 2020, and this month it’s available for the first time in paperback. It’s the kind of story you either gravitate toward in a pandemic, or you duck away from. Multiple scenes from the novel have played out over the past two years. If that sounds like something for you as you head into Halloween season, you probably have enough time to fit this book into your reading schedule. It’s big, and it could stand an edit, but if you’re a fan of horror and zombies, you’ll probably want to check this one out.

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Tags: 28 Days Later, Daniel Kraus, Edgar Wright, George A Romero, George Romero movies, Hellraiser, horror novels, Netflix Kingdom, Night of the Living Dead, Quentin Tarantino, Shaun of the Dead, The Living Dead paperback, The Living Dead: A New Novel, The Walking Dead, Tor Books, viral outbreak novel, virus response fiction, zombie horror, zombie novels

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Halloween Kills–Streaming to your home for Halloween 2021

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September 11, 2021

jason 2021

It’s been a little more than a year since we said it. Now the distributors of Halloween Kills are doing exactly as we’d hoped. The latest installment in John Carpenter’s original slasher movie series has been ready for viewing since early 2020. Halloween Kills was wisely kept from theaters a year, so the studio released a teaser then and another earlier this year to keep us interested. The excuse for not just streaming the movie to viewers was always that the filmmakers didn’t want audiences to have a “compromised theatrical experience.” We suggested streaming it for Halloween last year here at borg, because it just makes financial sense. And guess what? They must have changed their minds. This Halloween we get a 1980s style celebration with another Halloween movie entry streaming at home for anyone and everyone who wants to see it. Now it will be released the same day as in theaters via Peacock’s Premium streaming platform. That’s not the free version we bragged about a few weeks ago here, but the version you can subscribe to for as little as $4.99 per month. So instead of dropping $20-40 in a crowded theater at the height of the second year of the pandemic, you can just stay home with the fam and watch it for less than five bucks. That’s going to be great for the streaming service, as it’s sure to be the top bet this Halloween weekend. Then you can hang around for some of the best classic TV series available on any current platform. Plus, we now have a full preview of a new Carpenter music track from the film. Check it out below!

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Tags: Andi Matichak, Anthony Michael Hall, Charles Cyphers, coronavirus delays, Halloween Ends, Halloween Kills, Halloween Kills preview teaser trailer, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Carpenter, John Carpenter Halloween Kills soundtrack, Judy Greer, Kyle Richards, Nancy Stephens, Robert Longstreet, shelter at home 2020, theater at home, theater at home 2020

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Snowpiercer: The Art and Making of the Film–A good diversion from one hot summer

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September 9, 2021

Snowpiercer book cover a

Review by C.J. Bunce

Three things should get you to take a second look at both the 2013 movie Snowpiercer and the new behind the scenes book Snowpiercer: The Art and Making of the Film, just released from Titan Books. First, it’s been a really hot summer almost everywhere and the movie is all about freezing cold temps. Second, everyone loves Chris Evans, and it’s time to revisit his work outside of the supersuit and shield. Third, after winning three Oscars in 2020, for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Picture, everyone should also go back and revisit the works of Korean director Bong Joon-ho. After the film suffered a long and clunky path to theaters thanks to the Weinstein scandal, the end result–even if it was far removed from its source material–was an interesting action movie, notable for actor Song Kang-ho, too. It’s been seven years since Snowpiercer, the highly, almost ludicrously improbable story of a train carrying the last humans on Earth akin to Noah’s Ark, finally arrived in wide release (see my review here), but now it gets a thorough investigation in Snowpiercer: The Art and Making of the Film, which was also delayed, this time for the COVID-19 pandemic. In the intervening years a prequel tie-in TV series took off. For all the above reasons, it’s a good time to hunker down and take a look at this book and its one-of-a-kind vision.

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Army of Darkness–Next series takes Ash back after the big bad book in the 1970s

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September 8, 2021

AOD1979-01-01021-B-Suydam AOD1979-01-01031-C-Yoon

Review by C.J. Bunce

While you me, he, her, them, and we are waiting for Bruce Campbell to launch a reboot of The Rockford Files (if you say it out loud enough times, it might just come true), you get to see Campbell’s image as Ash Williams–our favorite cyborg horror hero–in a new comic book series with the laughs and tone of the great Ash vs. Evil Dead television series. Get ready for Army of Darkness 1979, written by Rodney Barnes and artist Tom Garcia, with colorist Dinei Ribero and letterer Troy Peteri. These creators take Ash back from his current attempt to work in the great Pacific Northwest as a logger way back 42 years in pursuit of killing Deadites and laying his hands on the Necronomicon. A strange new/old gang in the Bronx is standing in his way.

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Tags: Army of Darkness, Army of Darkness 1979, Army of Darkness 1979 preview, Army of Darkness 1979 review, Arthur Suydam, Ash vs Evil Dead, Ash Williams, Borg Hall of Fame, borg horror, cyborgs, Dinei Ribero, Dynamite, Dynamite Comics, Evil Dead, Jason Shawn Alexander, Junggeun Yoon, Rodney Barnes, Stuart Sayger, Tom Garcia

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Star Trek Villains–The past comes together to forge the biggest look yet at the enemies of the Federation

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September 3, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

Sometimes you wish you could go back in time, to decades past where life was simpler and you could grab a magazine at the local bookstore or grocery store rack to get a fix from your favorite movies or TV series. Back in the 1970s and 1980s sometimes that meant Starlog, Starburst, or Space Wars, Fantastic Films Magazine, or even mags aimed at the younger set, like Dynamite. Then publishers targeted fandoms with The Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine for Star Wars, and Star Trek Communicator all sprouting out of fanzines. Titan Magazines has been publishing both Star Wars Insider and Star Trek Magazine–soon to become Star Trek Explorer–for decades, and it’s the articles from the Star Trek mags that fans can “read again for the first time” as Titan launches its best magazine-sourced overview yet from the big franchises, Star Trek Villains, now available for pre-order here. What is your favorite Star Trek villain? Check out a preview below courtesy of Titan.