TONY'S TIPS #221

This week in TONY'S TIPS at Tales of Wonder...Pre-Code Classics: Tom Corbett, Space Cadet Volumes One and Two, collecting all 14 issues of the legendary media star's comic books; from Papercutz, Gumby Vol. 4 #1; and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 11 #1-7 by Christos Gage and Rebekah Isaacs.

SHARKNADO WEEK 2017: PART THREE

Circumstances delayed this third and final entry in my coverage of Sharknado Week 2017. But here I am to sink my teeth into the last two movies that aired on the Syfy channel. Let’s get right to them.

Empire of the Sharks aired on Saturday, August 5. Made by the fine folks at the Asylum, it had a lot going for it. Set in a future era where global warming has turned most of Earth’s surface into ocean, it has a sort of “Mad Max on the high seas” vibe going for it. However, despite a claim by the Internet Movie Database, it’s not a sequel to last year’s Planet of the Sharks. It’s similar in tone, but both bigger and more deliciously cheesy in scope.

It was directed by Mark Atkins, who directed over two dozen other movies, including Planet of the Sharks, 2012's fun Sand Sharks and the goofy-but-still-fun Snakes on a Train [2006]. He also wrote the movie. I like his work enough that I plan to check out other Atkins works in the near future.

Empire stars John Savage as the ocean dictator Ian Fien, Jonathan Pienaar as Mason Scrim, Fien’s scenery-chewing second-in-command, and several earnest performers as the movie’s hero, heroine, and a rag-tag bunch of outsiders who band together uneasily to rescue the heroine and prevent Fien/Scrim from wiping out her people. There’s a little “Magnificient Seven” in this one as well.

The IMDb summery gives away much of the plot, so I’ll activate our usual warning right now...

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On a future earth where 98% of the surface is underwater, a Warlord who controls an army of sharks meets his match when he captures the daughter of a mysterious shark caller.

Fien and Scrim demand tribute from the floating villages they rule in exchange for the fresh water only they can provide. The villains get this water through a tedious process that demands the labor of slaves. When a village fails to provide sufficient tribute, Scrim takes people instead. The captives literally slave until they drop and are then fed to the sharks the bad guys control.

It’s not a complicated plot. The hero is working on a way for his village to produce its own fresh water. The heroine, who he loves, is a pacifist whose power to control sharks naturally is triggered during her captivity. The hero and a friend recruit their rag-tag commandos. Some will live, some will die, and it all boils down to a fairly epic battle between Fien’s man-made control of the sharks and the heroine’s natural ability.

Thanks to the IMDb summery above you know how it ends.

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Empire of the Sharks is a solid “B” action thriller. The heroes are sufficiently heroic if not always competent. The villains are very hiss-able. There is considerable shark fu and the special effects are up to it. Of the movies that led up to the Sharknado 5: Global Swarming finale, I’d rank it a close third behind the excellent Mississippi River Sharks and the pretty good Toxic Shark. I would watch this movie again.

                                                                              

Sharknado 5: Global Swarming had me giddy with expectation - I love the franchise - and a wee bit pensive because it would be the first movie in the series not written by Thunder Levin. Instead, the film was written by Scotty Mullen. I’ve not seen any of Mullen’s other six films, but he has many credits as a casting director and a few as an actor. So, as with many of the fine folks who work with the Asylum, he’s well-rounded. Based on this Sharknado screenplay, I’m going to be checking out his other work.

Returning as director is the wonderfully mad Anthony C. Ferrante, along with the fighting Fin Shepard family. Here’s the quick IMDb summary, corrected for content and grammar:

With much of America in ruins and the rest of the world bracing for a global sharknado, Fin and his family must travel around the world to stop the toothy storms.

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This may be the silliest Sharknado movie of them all, but, except for some incredibly shocking surprises, I never stopped smiling and even laughing out loud as I watched. It’s a family saga, a series of hilarious sketches and cameos and an international thriller all rolled into one.

Nova [played by Cassandra Scerbo] has joined a secret sisterhood of sharknado fighters. They have learned that such storms happened in the distant past and that mankind defeated them. In a Indiana Jones riff, she and Fin [Ian Ziering] discover one of the hiding places of a powerful gem and, in doing so, accidentally trigger the most deadly sharknado of all. It can create portals that allow it to go all over the world.

With android/robot wife April [Tara Reid] and their son Gil [Billy Barratt] fight against this unstoppable menace. They’re assisted by Nova’s sisterhood and a very Q-like British scientist [Clay Aiken, if you can believe it]. In an inspired performance, Chris Kattan is the Prime Minister of England. There are lots of other great cameos as well, but, with one exception, I’m going to let you experience them on your own. That one exception is Fabio as the Pope. That’s right. Fabio. As. The. Pope. The brilliance of that casting had me laughing so hard I cried a little bit.

The jumping from locale to locale and the sketch nature of the film throws the actors somewhat. I still loved Ziering and Reid in this movie, but they were a little off their game. I have no doubt they will be back on the mark for the next movie.

The movie has a very depressing ending. Except...just when you’re convinced you’ve seen the last Sharknado, which, in itself, would be a crime against nature in my book...that’s when you get another inspired development that will lead into Sharknado 6. I’m excited, so much so that I’ve already sent suggested titles to my friends at the Asylum.

Sharknado Week 2018 can’t come soon enough for me.

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If you’ve been keeping track of the score, Sharknado Week 2017 ends on a score of 4-2. While I’d like to see some variety next year - it’s been a while since Syfy has graced us with any giant reptiles or other creatures - this week of premieres is my favorite annual television event. Keep them coming!
In other news...

My life continues to be crazy busy and crazy exciting. I’ve got so much to write and write about. Obviously, with the news of both the Black Lightning TV series and a new written-by-me Black Lightning mini-series, I’m getting asked all sorts of questions about these things. I’ll do my best to answer them - or, to be accurate, answer those I can answer without violating my agreements with DC Comics - in a timely fashion. You can expect a lot of Black Lightning stuff in this blog in the weeks and months to come.

There’s also a lot of other things I want to write about here and that you have asked me to write about here. I’ll get to it all as soon as possible. This blog means a lot to me and your enthusiasm for it means even more. We’re gonna have a lot of fun here.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2017 Tony Isabella

ASK ME YOUR QUESTIONS

ASK ME YOUR QUESTIONS AND I'LL TELL YOU SOME LIES, BUT MOSTLY I'LL ANSWER THEM HONESTLY.

Here's the deal. Tuesday's bloggy thing will answer questions about Black Lightning. It'll probably have one of those click-bait titles because I love to make fun of Comic Book Resources and its obvious limits as a news site. So, we're talking 15 questions because CBR can't count any higher than that.

DO NOT post your questions here. E-mail them to me at

tonyisa at ohio dot net

This will be a prologue to a regular weekly bloggy thing feature that will cover Black Lightning news past, present and future within the confines of the NDAs I've signed. So, I can't tell you everything, but I can tell you a lot.

One more thing. If websites and podcasts want to interview me on Black Lightning, I'll do my best to accommodate them. But writing my stuff comes first.

If it's a website that has consistently refused to use the correct current Black Lightning creator credit line, they'll have to get it right three times before I'll agree to their request.

Bleeding Cool finally got it right in yesterday's story, even if the anonymous Jude Terror was snarky about it. Amateur snark doesn't bother me. Getting the facts wrong does. Two more to go, BC.

Not being a dick to me or my creation is also essential.

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's back to work I go...

TONY'S TIPS #220

This week in TONY'S TIPS at Tales of Wonder...I saw The Defenders before you did and here's what I thought of it!

NEO COMIC CON (AUGUST 20, 2017)

NEO Comic Con 3 is my next convention appearance. It will be held on Sunday, August 20, at the Soccer Sportsplex, 31515 Lorain Road in North Olmsted, Ohio. The convention runs from 10 am to 7 pm with a low admission of $7 for the day. Kids under 12 and attendees in costume get in free. A portion of ticket sales will go to charity. Kids under 12 and attendees in costume get in free.

This is NEO’s largest venue ever. It’s over 25,000 square feet or roughly half the size of a football field. There’s more space and more free parking. There will be are more artists, special guests and vendors. There will be cosplay, contests, panel discussions, a gaming tournament and other special events.

My fellow guests include Kevin Nowlan, Bob Hall, Marc Sumerak, Ted Sikora, Gary Dumm, Don Simpson, Matt Horak, Darryl Banks, Chris Yambar, Aaron Archer, Mike Gustovich and others. Marc and I will be doing separate panels - Marc on “The Craft of Comics” and me doing the legendary “Tony’s Tips Live!” - and there will also be a performance by The Confused Greenies, a devised and improvisational comedic performing troupe.

NEO Comic Con will have over 40 vendors and over 125 tables selling comic books, collectibles, toys, action figures and more. Based on my dropping a bundle of cash at last year’s event, I am confident fans attending the convention will find all kinds of treasures to delight them.

Getting to the Tony Isabella stuff...

I will be at tables 117 and 118, right across the aisle from those fine folks from WBNX aka the CW in Northeast Ohio. They always have free cool swag and, this year, they will have Black Lightning mini-posters from the forthcoming TV series based on my creation. Meet my WBNX friends, get a poster and then bring it over to my table. I’ll be delighted to sign them without charge. As regular readers of this bloggy thing know, I’m not charging for my signature at any of the conventions and events I am attending this year.

What will I be selling at my tables? I’ll have copies of both Black Lightning Volume 1 (collecting my first run on my creation and two stories written by Denny O’Neil) and July 1963: A Pivotal Month in the Comic-Book Life of Tony Isabella Volume One. I’d explain what the latter book features, but typing that long title always wears me out.

In addition to those books, I’ll have boxes of great comics priced at a mere dollar each. I’ll have a box of Isabella-written comics at various prices. I will have a couple boxes of hardcovers and trade paperbacks at approximately 30% of their original prices. I’ll also have a box of my few remaining double-sided Superman in Cleveland posters from 1988, priced to sell at only $25 each.

I’m looking forward to attending Neo Comic Con 3, seeing old pals and making new friends. I’ll do my best to answer your questions, assuming doing so doesn’t violate any of the non-disclosure things I have signed. No alternative facts or fake news from me. Just the honest-to-Godzilla truth!

If you’re going to be anywhere near this convention, you definitely need to check it out. It’s gonna be a blast!

That’s all for now. This is going to be a too busy week for me as I finish a comics script, have some dental surgery and prepare for NEO Comic Con. But the bloggy thing will return on Monday, August 21. See you then.

© 2017 Tony Isabella

TONY'S TIPS #219

This week in TONY'S TIPS at Tales of Wonder...Usagi Yojimbo Saga Volume 7 by Stan Sakai, the world's greatest living cartoonist; Archie Comics and Marvel Comics team up for Marvel Comics Digest #1; and the new Youngblood series from Image Comics!

GET MORE TONY: THE GARFIELD SHOW #7

With script restoration and additional dialogue by me, The Garfield Show Vol 7: Desperately Seeking Pooky [Papercutz; $12.99] is due to be released on September 5. Confusing as it may sound, this latest volume is both bigger and smaller than its predecessors. I’ll get to that in a moment.

First, the back cover copy:

DON’T CRY OVER SPILLED LASAGNA!
That’s Garfield’s Favorite Seventh Lunch
Everyone loses things sometimes. But right now, it seems like “sometimes” means “all the time” for Garfield. In “High Scale,” Garfield receives a terrible ultimatum from the vet: lose two pounds in a week or get sent to Maggie’s Cat Spa, where lunch is a single pea. Then, in “Freaky Monday,” Garfield gets a dose of karmic justice as he and Odie switch bodies and he’s forced to watch the helpless pup-turned-cat eat the cheesy treat that rightfully belongs to him. Finally, in “Desperately Seeking Pooky,” tiny but terrible forces conspire to cost Garfield his favorite food and his best friend!

 

Sidebar. I worked on all three of these stories and, until I read this back cover copy, it never occurred to me that they shared that common theme. Sheesh!

This volume of The Garfield Show has more pages than the previous ones. The raw material for these stories [screen captures from the show turned into comic-book stories] is now coming from China and not France. The Chinese are not abridging the stories in the manner of the French, who would sometimes reduce an episode to a mere five pages. So each of the stories is a full 23 pages in length, adding up to 69 pages of feline fun. That’s the bigger.

The smaller? This volume measures 5 x 6.5 inches. That concerned me when I first saw a copy, but, on looking through the book, it’s as easy to read as ever. Plus, the more compact size makes it perfect as a stocking stuffer or other small gift.

Papercutz gives me a lot of room to exercise my own sensibilities as I translate the stories from their original televised scripts to the comics format. I have a ball working on Garfield and I’d like to think that fun is contagious.

Kudos to all the fine people who make this fun possible. Editor-in-chief Jim Salicrup hired me. The show itself is written, produced and voice-directed by Mark Evanier, my dear friend of nearly half a century. Letterers Tom Orzechowski and Wilson Ramos Jr do a terrific job making my copy look good. Dawn Guzzo is the production coordinator. New editor Alexander Lu came up with a schedule I could handle and supported my efforts. The bottom line is that I’m proud of this book.

Do yourself (and us) a favor and check it out.

ISBN 978-1629917450

The bloggy thing will be on hiatus until August 14. I’m heading to New York tomorrow for a special screening of Marvel’s new Defenders TV series. The eight-episode show will be available on Netflix starting August 18.

When I return, I’ll have all sorts of cool stuff for you. More on Black Lightning. More Sharknado Week reviews. Reports from G-Fest. I’ve got so much material I could write two bloggy things a day and not cover it all.

Be happy and safe while I’m gone. See you soon.
 
© 2017 Tony Isabella