Review: Woodstalk #4 & 5

I talked about the first three issues of Wolkstalk here, and I think it’s now a good time to revisit the series and discuss what has happened since.  As a refresher, Woodstalk is the comic about the heretofore unrevealed tale of the zombie outbreak at the classic hippiefest concert known as Woodstock. So now on to issue #4 and 5:

Whereas the first trio of issues centered on the British rock group The Zombies, the focus of the tale suddenly changes with the introduction of a couple hippies that shall be the center points of these stories.  Starlight and Sunshine have come to Woodstock selling some homegrown hash to make some cash to invest in their relationship and the raising of their soon-to-be born child.

They find there isn’t much interest in their product as everyone’s more into the brown acid that’s turning everyone zombie-like.  Or maybe it’s actually turning them into zombies.  It’s hard to tell with tripping hippies.  Anyway, Star and Sun find themselves able to rise above their pacifistic nature and take out some zombies as they begin their adventure in the zombie-infested Woodstock.

Writer/artist Bruce Worden does a great job telling a captivating tale of hilarious zombie/ hippie action and mayhem! I highly recommend this series!  It just gets more interesting!

Review: Out With Dad 4.03: "An Island Outing"

Well, if I start now I should be able to catch up on my Out With Dad review/comments before the next episode is released.  So here goes episode 4.03: “An Island Outing”.

This episode takes place on an island.  Of course.  Rose and Nathan are spending some time together much to the joy of Dad (Nathan) who wishes he could spend more time with his daughter.  During their island adventures some important happenings come up in conversation.  They begin discussing Kenny, who is apparently doing something with his life other than seeking further education.  Kenny was never much into the books and school, so this makes sense.  Rose notes how different Kenny and Alicia are, which makes it a wonder they were ever a couple.  Though they are both very caring people who are great friends to Rose, this alone didn’t keep their relationship going after High School.  This, as Nathan notes, is rather typical of what happens as people grow and mature.

Next the duo discusses Valerie, a woman Nathan dated when Rose was younger. Though Valerie and Nathan got along well, in the end it was Rose that split them up.  At least, the fear of parenting eventually scared Valerie off.  Rose gets upset that Nathan always seems to use Rose as an excuse for not having romantic relationships. Then they discuss some closure Nathan had by meeting Valerie at a convenient store.  This leads to discussions of Rose and having some closure with Vanessa or Claire.  We learn that Rose and Claire avoided each other for 3 years of High School.  I find it a bit surprising that Clare stayed in the school where she was treated badly and wasn’t allowed to have a GSA, but maybe that was her way of not giving in.

At the end Nathan mentions that there might be more to Vanessa’s story than Rose is aware of.  Besides the clever choice of words, I hope this will lead to us finding out about Vanessa’s current life soon.  Despite the happy ending of “Vanessa’s Story” she is certainly has confronted and is confronting a whole different level of challenges than Rose.

Review: Fantastic Four: The Musical

I wanted to make some comments on the Fantastic Four, since there’s a new movie featuring them coming out soon.  I don’t know exactly when and I’m not interested in it so I’m not going to  check right now.  Anyway, Fantastic Four was the FIRST comic of the Marvel age, created by the immortal Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.  Definitely one of the greatest creations ever.  And they’ve been interpreted in other media for quite some time also.  The new movie will be, I think, the fourth attempt at a version on the big screen.  I’ve never been able to get through any of the other 3 versions, and I don’t think the new movie looks good at all.  So I won’t talk about them.  Instead I am here to discuss: Fantastic Four: The Musical!

Yes, there really is a Fantastic Four musical available out there.  It’s part of season 4 of Arrested Development. If you don’t know, Arrested Development is the greatest television comedy ever created.  It had a tumultuous but award-winning run on Fox and was revived in 2013 on Netflix.  I don’t have Netflix, but I recently watched the season on DVD.  Anyway, the Fantastic Four are mentioned plenty in this series, including a reference to their strange low-budget 1990’s movie, a bit fictionalized to make ever more hilarious.  But the big payoff is the musical, performed by a bunch of patients in rehab and done without permission from Marvel or Disney or whatever.  It’s the brainchild of Tobias Funke, whose dream is to become an actor.  One spoiler: he’ll never succeed, he’s terrible.  But that’s what makes it hilarious.  The DVD extras include even more footage concerning the musical and how it was put together.  I never thought about how difficult it would be to choreograph something and make it look bad.

I could ramble on about Arrested Development and how wonderful it is forever, but I think I’ll end this post with a plead: please, everyone skip going to the movies and instead buy Arrested Development on DVD or download or whatever.  Please support the BEST Fantastic Four adaptation ever! It sure ain’t Lee and Kirby, but that’s what makes it so good.

Now I’m going to go get my rocks off…