Retro Fix | borg

Category: Retro Fix

47 Ronin–Richardson and Sakai’s definitive graphic novel adaptation arrives in paperback for the first time

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January 19, 2021

In the graphic novel 47 Ronin, independent comics pioneer Mike Richardson (Star Wars: Crimson Empire) and Japanese-born American legendary comics artist Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo) re-created the famed 1700-1701 historical event of a group of loyal Japanese ronin (leaderless samurai) who avenged the death of their leader. The award-winning book from Dark Horse Comics is filled with action and intrigue, a dramatic account of the importance of loyalty, sacrifice, persistence, and honor that influenced the culture of Japan ever since. Initially released in hardcover, at last the graphic novel is getting its first trade paperback edition. The more affordable edition is available for pre-order now here at Amazon and we have a look inside for borg readers below.

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Tags: 47 Ronin, 47 Ronin preview, Akira Kurosawa, Dark Horse Comics, Japanese culture, Japanese folklore, Japanese history, Mike Richardson, ronin, Stan Sakai

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Swords, Starships, and Superheroes–Writer recounts 30 years writing for genre television

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Con Culture, Fantasy Realms, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, Superheroes, TV — 1 Comment

January 18, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

For most television viewers, the names after a show scroll by without much notice. But if you pay attention, you may find the writer of one of your favorite episodes is the writer of many of your favorites, which may point you to other series and episodes you’ve not seen yet that you may like. You might not have heard of Paul Robert Coyle, but it’s likely that anyone who is a fan of one or more genre shows has watched the results of his work. Or maybe you haven’t heard of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Superboy, The Dead Zone, Simon & Simon, or earlier detective and police series like The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, Crazy Like a Fox, Jake and the Fat Man, and CHiPs. Coyle wrote for these series, and readers of his new book Swords, Starships, and Superheroes: A TV Writer’s Life Scripting the Stories of Heroes may find he wrote some of their favorite episodes.

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Tags: Barnaby Jones, Beaming Up and Getting Off, Bruce Campbell, CHiPs, Cinema Alchemist, Crazy Like a Fox, DC Fontana, Deep Space Nine, Gerald McRaney, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Jacobs Brown Press, Jake and the Fat Man, Jameson Parker, Kevin Sorbo, Legend of the Seeker, Lucy Lawless, Martha Hackett, Michael Hurst, Michael Piller, Paul Robert Coyle, production process, Simon & Simon, Space Precinct, Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Superboy, Swords Starships and Superheroes, Swords Starships and Superheroes A TV Writers Life Scripting Stories of Heroes, Swords Starships and Superheroes book review, television production, The Cape, The Dead Zone, The Show Runner: An Insider's Guide to Successful TV Production, The Streets of San Francisco, TV production, TV studios, TV writing, Writers Guild, Xena Warrior Princess

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Smuggler’s Run–Star Wars Adventures offers a great jump-on point for the series

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January 13, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

It’s the nature of the new Star Wars brand to bounce back and forth in the galaxy stories–a lot. Where the idea of looking back in 2021 to Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens may not sound like an obvious choice, once you realize the context, the characters, and the setting, anyone can get onboard the new two-part Star Wars Adventures tale Smuggler’s Run. If you don’t know Star Wars Adventures, it’s the cartoonier side of Star Wars in the pages of Marvel Comics, targeted at kids. So you can always rely on some good fun in an issue of the series. This tale spins out of the monthly series with a story about Han Solo and Chewie after the destruction of the first Death Star, and their plan to spend their reward money.

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Tags: 2021 borg Hall of Fame, Alec Worley, borg, Borg Hall of Fame, Commander Beck, Disney, Greg Rucka, Ingo Römling, Journey to Star Wars The Force Awakens, Lucasfilm, Marvel Comics, Rucka Smuggler's Run, Smuggler's Run, Smuggler's Run comic book adaptation, Smuggler's Run comics preview review, Solo: A Star wars Story, Star Wars, Star Wars Adventures

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Skim Deep–Nolan returns in all-new Max Allan Collins crime novel

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January 11, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

Fifty years after author Max Allan Collins wrote his first novel while in college at the University of Iowa, titled Bait Money. The novel featured Nolan, a 48-year-old thief tied in with the mob toward the end of his career in crime, inspired by Donald Westlake’s popular character Parker. Collins would write eight more Nolan stories, but now 33 years after the last he’s released an all-new Nolan sequel through the Hard Case Crime imprint, the cleverly titled Skim Deep. In 1987 Nolan is 55 now and thinking about tying the knot with long-time girlfriend Sherry, who he saved from Coleman Comfort, the villain in earlier novels, years ago. But can someone like Nolan ever quit the business? Will his past let him settle down in his house with Sherry in the Quad Cities on the Iowa-Illinois border? Count Skim Deep as another in the win column for author Collins, and a great read that will usher in coming reprints of all his Nolan novels.

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Revolution of the Daleks–Whittaker and Chibnall hit their stride in holiday Doctor Who episode

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January 6, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

It’s always a big surprise when the holiday episode of Doctor Who is a critical not-to-be-missed episode. When we last saw the Doctor, she was trapped millions of light years away in an alien prison. The New Year’s Day 2021 special Revolution of the Daleks is not a filler, out-of-continuity holiday showpiece, instead continuing after ten months have lapsed for the Doctor’s companions back on Earth, and after the Doctor has been imprisoned for years in that same relative time span. If you missed this episode you missed: the return of John Barrowman’s universal fan-favorite character Captain Jack Harkness, another Law & Order/Law & Order UK crossover/reunion, the last we’ll see of some major characters, a new Prime Minister, a preview of a new companion, and one of the best Dalek episodes in the 57 years of the series. As the studio releases word that Jodie Whittaker will be soon leaving the series, Revolution of the Daleks reflects that both her performance as the 13th Doctor and Chris Chibnall’s running of the series has finally arrived. It’s a timeless story full of important, lovely emotional beats, fantastic new sci-fi special and visual effects, and a return to the classic framework and themes of the show’s past.

Let’s take a look at why this episode was superb and offer up some candidates for the 14th Doctor…

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Star Trek Voyager: A Celebration–Excellent chronicle of the seven-year series arrives for 25th anniversary

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January 4, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

For a fan like me, Star Trek: Voyager was the definitive Star Trek series, the crew that most fully embraced Gene Roddenberry’s vision beyond the television series he created in 1966. It featured a crew on a ship that explored like no crew before it, with only their available technology and their wits to survive. Helmed by Kate Mulgrew’s personable yet tough Captain Kathryn Janeway, the crew would travel 70,000 light years home after being stranded in the Delta Quadrant. The 25th anniversary of the launch of the series was 2020, and worthy of the celebration, authors Ben Robinson and Mark Wright have created the definitive behind the scenes account of the 1995-2001 series, Star Trek: Voyager–A Celebration, available now here at Amazon.

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Sea of Sorrows–A 1920s Lovecraftian mystery of submariners and undersea divers arrives in new series

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December 31, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

Just the image of a deep sea diver in a copper and brass helmet and lead boots conjures legends and lore of 19th century explorers, mysteries yet unsolved and shipwrecks and lost gold treasure. A four-issue comic book series from IDW Publishing titled Sea of Sorrows introduces readers to a crew of a salvage ship after the first World War. They are searching for a lost U-boat said to have gone down with enough gold to reward the crew several times over. It should be a simple errand, until a diver thinks he sees a woman swimming at the bottom of the sea.

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Tags: Alex Cormack, H.P. Lovecraft, IDW Publishing, Justin Birch, Matt Kindt DeptH, Rich Douek, Sea of Sorrows, Sea of Sorrows preview, Sea of Sorrows review, sirens, undersea noir, Underwater movie, World War I

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Retro review–Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man, and a TCM marathon of Nick, Nora, and Asta for New Year’s Eve

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December 30, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

Is there a better way you can think of for New Year’s Eve than spend it with Nick and Nora Charles and their spunky dog Asta? If you haven’t met them yet, read on, or just check out the TCM marathon tomorrow featuring Dashiell Hammett’s iconic trio as played by William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Skippy. Find the amiable, put-upon, imbibing hilarity and forced sleuthing–and much more–with 1934’s “Pre-Code” movie The Thin Man, followed by After the Thin Man (1936), Another Thin Man (1939), Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), The Thin Man Goes Home (1945), and Song of the Thin Man (1947), beginning tomorrow morning at 8:15 a.m. Central on TCM tomorrow all day–appropriately on New Year’s Eve.

But where did it all begin? In Hammett’s 1934 novel The Thin Man.

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The Muppet Christmas Carol–The classic movie in storybook form

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December 25, 2020

Merry Christmas!

If The Muppet Christmas Carol (reviewed five years ago here at borg), is a favorite for your family as it is for many, you may have a new item for your wish list. What many consider the most spirited and faithful adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol on film is also available in a storybook edition. Adapted by Brooke Vitale with illustrations by Luke Flowers, The Muppet Christmas Carol: The Illustrated Holiday Classic features an abridged version of the movie in a large, full-color hardcover edition for kids of all ages.

Check out a look inside the book courtesy of Insight Kids:

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Tags: A Christmas Carol, Brooke Vitale, Charles Dickens, Insight Kids, Luke Flowers, The Muppet Christmas Carol, The Muppet Christmas Carol review, The Muppet Christmas Carol: The Illustrated Holiday Classic, The Muppet Christmas Carol: The Illustrated Holiday Classic preview

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Changing the world begins with you

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December 22, 2020

What inspired you this year to be a hero?

It’s been a heckuva year. One of the major areas that got slighted because of the pandemic–because of job losses and attention to political and other matters–were donations to animal charities. So we at borg are endorsing and hoping you’ll support all the worthy groups below that try to help those that can’t help themselves. Please help give them a chance.

You don’t need superpowers to change the world.

You can change the world one dollar at a time. And it may even help your own pocketbook if you make charitable contributions by the end of the month for your next tax filing.