I've read that Dicks is closer to a co-author on his novelizations and that he liked to work with whoever wrote said serial in fleshing that out into novel form. Sounds like someone who didn't want to step on anyone's toes, and aimed for a faithful adaptation. I wasn't aware Ian Marter wrote some!
It helps a lot too that V for Vendetta is one of the greatest comic books ever made, so even a heavily flawed adaptation is still playing in a sandbox of very strong images and ideas.
A slim blue novel for Doctor Who and the Face of Evil, showing images of the Fourth Doctor and Leela from the serial.
Terrance Dicks is one of the great Doctor Who writers/script editors and I've always been curious as to the quality of his novelizations. He was I think the most prolific writer of Doctor Who serial novelizations. An online used bookstore from Ontario was selling this for $4 and I quickly ordered it
At least five or six times listening to this, I thought, "damn should I revisit Clerks 2??" [A movie I once liked but haven't seen since about 2010]. the communal experience of watching that specific movie amongst a packed house of the precise people it's for sounds so singular and special.
While I did criticize this event happening, if I lived closer ...yeah, I might have actually gone to this as well. I'm so happy for your genuinely impactful 2026 Kevin Smith Experience, Rob.
Podcast of the year.
I'm grateful to have played a small role in this coming together, a silly (and mean spirited) post I made bringing this event to @wormsgreenrealm.bsky.social 's attention. My own Kevin Smith history mirrors Rob's to a degree. These 3 and a half hours flew by.
Anyway, I am working on my Miskatonic lecture, which is happening on March 16th! I'll be discussing Ed Wood, Psycho, Leatherface, Dressed to Kill, Sleepaway Camp, our pal Jame Gumb, I Saw the TV Glow, and much more!
miskatonicinstitute.com/events/gazin...
THREAD: I got laid off from NYMag/Vulture after 14 years. The family lost 75% of income + medical. Now mzs.press bookstore, once a side project. is do-or-die for Judith & I. I feel weird telling you this because others are doing much worse. But if you could like or share this, we'd be so grateful!
Just watched Curse of the Devil (1973), which is curiously the second of three werewolf movies Paul Naschy made that incorporates Elizabeth Bathory. The non-Bathory wolfman Naschy movies involve a fake Dracula couple, Jekyll, a Yeti, and a Samurai. I love the imagination of Naschy's monster mashes.
The spirit of 40s Universal and 60s Hammer monster movies is alive and well in the 70s Paul Naschy canon, while also leaning into lurid Eurocult abstractions and hazy dream pacing replacing traditional plotting. Taking all the monster movie formula beats and blending them into a bloody nonsense soup
A very slay selection. Letβs be friends: boxd.it/87cF
These movies play fast and loose, and have more emphasis on ambiance than plotting. In Curse of the Devil, Naschy's Waldemar Daninsky appears to transform into a werewolf across 4 consecutive nights, and his well tailored suit is perfectly intact when he goes full wolf mode. It rules.
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf-Man and House of Frankenstein are lovely charming films, but Universal didn't know what it was tapping into, and its evocative titles and posters tease movies that don't actually exist. Naschy's '70s career is all about finally delivering on the promise of a monster rally
I'm someone who's been jamming the brand new Rob Zombie album on repeat - he's sincerely one of my favourite musical artists - and I'm not sure if there's a filmmaker filmography that matches the throwing-it-all-on-the-wall childlike wonder of horror's pleasures better than Paul Naschy's.
Just watched Curse of the Devil (1973), which is curiously the second of three werewolf movies Paul Naschy made that incorporates Elizabeth Bathory. The non-Bathory wolfman Naschy movies involve a fake Dracula couple, Jekyll, a Yeti, and a Samurai. I love the imagination of Naschy's monster mashes.
The spirit of 40s Universal and 60s Hammer monster movies is alive and well in the 70s Paul Naschy canon, while also leaning into lurid Eurocult abstractions and hazy dream pacing replacing traditional plotting. Taking all the monster movie formula beats and blending them into a bloody nonsense soup
A black and white film. A shot of tanks driving through a city street in a procession. Text on screen reads "Everything is over now"
A black and white film. A shot of tanks driving through a city street in a procession. Text on screen reads "Nothing is left but progress"
Gushing Prayer (1971, Directed by Masao Adachi)
Checking in with my animal friends.
A cat lady looking at a door that reads ANIMATED CARTOON STUDIO
A row of animal animators drawing their pages.
A band playing musical score, which is being recorded directly onto the film strip
Animal folks gathered around for an outdoor movie screening.
MAKIN' 'EM MOVE (1931) from Van Beuren is one of the most charming early '30s animated films I've seen; a behind-the-scenes look inside a cartoon studio, showing to some accuracy aspects of filmmaking and transitioning into a screening of a film within the film.
A sad character weeps and walks while carrying a boulder he is tied to which he plans to drown himself with. Lyrics: Everything is over and I'm feeling bad
Lyrics: I lost the best pal that I ever had.
Closeup on character writing a suicide note. His crying is escalating. His pen is also weeping. Lyrics: Seems like she's gone though for twenty year
A deeper close up on the character during his moment of crisis. Lyrics: Oh, how I miss her my old pal.
The follow-the-bouncing-ball singalong Screen Song short films from Fleischer are the purest distillation of the Great Depression as a cultural point of view as depicted in the animation of its day. This is from My Gal Sal (1930).
Going through Wakamatsu and Adachi this year has me thinking I gotta re-watch Nagisa Εshima's '60s work. I was obsessed with Εshima in my early 20s for their images and moods but I know all the political context surely went over my head back then. These films hit harder now.
Four frames from Masao Adachi's Gushing Prayer (1971), a black and white with high contrast film prominently featuring four disaffected youth.
An achingly sad film about broken people and the hopelessness of tomorrow. 70% of its images I can't show on here because I don't want my account deemed nsfw. If you can handle it, Gushing Prayer is an incredible film.
Four frames from Masao Adachi's Gushing Prayer (1971), a black and white with high contrast film prominently featuring four disaffected youth
Scorsese has always been captivated by what can be expected of a person, and how a person may or may not live up to a personal moral code. It is dialectic that runs throughout the entirety of his work. Scorsese made a few films prior to Mean Streets in 1973, but the course was set for him ever since Harvey Keitelβs gangster character in that film got on his knees and prayed for guidance. Scorsese seems to always come back to the question of whether or not a man can ever truly be good, and he has wavered back and forth with his answer. Jake LaMotta punched his way into an animalistic state in Raging Bull (1980) in pursuit of it, Christ nearly failed when he was given the task of weighing our qualities against his crucifixion in The Last Temptation of Christ, and we are shown to be merciless and not worthy of such a sacrifice in Killers of the Flower Moonβs portrait of aboriginal genocide within an American community. Scorsese is probably American cinemaβs greatest chronicler of the post-world war II era, and he has remained vital because his questions have remained personal, even when theyβve become maximalist in his final years, and he has begun to grapple with centuries of violence. I donβt believe he has much faith in the collective body of mankind, but I think a hope remains in his films that one man can do one good thing on any given day, and that it can matter a great deal to put in the effort to try. In his adaptation of βSilenceβ there are many examples of this happening, and they are among some of the most moving and profound moments in the picture. He finds God in hopeless places, between men clasping each others palms, in acts of mercy, and in the sacrifice of identity for the sake of another personβs safety.
a still image from SILENCE of Andrew Garfield praying in the foreground and Shinya Tsukamoto praying in the background
I wrote about Martin Scorsese's SILENCE for my readers choice series and wrestled with its many questions of faith.
www.patreon.com/posts/152227...
A black and white film. A shot of tanks driving through a city street in a procession. Text on screen reads "Everything is over now"
A black and white film. A shot of tanks driving through a city street in a procession. Text on screen reads "Nothing is left but progress"
Gushing Prayer (1971, Directed by Masao Adachi)
A real peanut butter and chocolate situation.
Masaaki Yuasa's Jack Kirby's Fourth World
Masaaki Yuasa's Jack Kirby's Fourth World
The new Fleischer cartoon restorations that have been traveling from cinema to cinema are making their Blu-ray debut. This Volume 1 is an eclectic curation of 20 great shorts, some which have never been on home video in HD before. And the ones that have are gonna look a lot better on this disc.
