Monarch: Legacy of Monsters terrific fun

When I was not joining team-effort karaoke with a fine friend and belting out life-affirming songs with new and interesting folks, I was watching Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which I rented (yes; you read that right, rented) from Movies 'N Stuff. 

As always, I should thank Marc Bernardin for praising it on Fatman Beyond with Kevin Smith. His recs always steer me right, this time towards glorious, perilous adventure in lands where there be monsters. 

It's the absolute (atomic?) bomb-—shot gorgeously, with stunningly beautiful or quirkily interesting players. Monarch is shamelessly pulpy, globe-trotting to locales that include deep dives into catacombs and the outskirts of Monster Island itself. The cast sells it, hard, toggling between the 1950's and present day. Not a weak actor among them.

Oh—and the monsters, meted out at a good pace, are always also gorgeous. Comic-book rockstar writer Matt Fraction, chief executuve producer, has crafted a compelling, jaw-droppimg, epistolary and Lovecraftian thing, here. Couldn't take my eyes off it. 

It's amazing work for Godzilla or rubber-suit monster lovers to lose themselves in. Now lemme get back to it as I recover from karaoking. 

At last, I got the cult series Kolchak: The Night Stalker series

At last, I closed with my quarry of many moons. I procured the entire run of Kolchak: The Night Stalker from Pete at Movies N' Stuff, one of the last video-rental places remaining in Ottawa. I was watching the show on the NBC site for a spell but then couldn't access it anymore,  and instead resorted to the flotsam and jetsam on YouTube.

ABC's Kolchak, now widely recognized as a cult classic, aired in 1974–1975, starring wire service reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) who investigates mysterious crimes with unlikely causes, particularly those involving the supernatural or science fiction themes, including fantastical creatures. Two ratings-garnering television movies preceded the series, The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973).

Did you enjoy or ever watch The X-Files? Show creator Chris Carter attributed his creature--of-the-week inspiration to Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Carl availed well of himself despite a limited budget, gay stereotypes and featured the Windy City of Chicago, Illinois with many stock shots and a pulpy voiceover. Regular guest stars of 1970's TV fame abounded. Impressive celebrity cameos included Jamie Farr, Larry Lunville and Dick Van Patten. Ultimately, it's a charmer, with all the show's early-to-mid-1970's foibles. I kinda dig it. Besides, Kolchak: The Night Stalker bridges the gap between weird-horror TV of the seventies with its earnest continuation in the early nineties, still inspiring gifted imitators, as well as graphic novels and fictional anthologies, in including writer-editor James Aquilones' very good Kolchak: The Night Stalker–—50th Anniversary Graphic Novel. 

Review of Lee Demarbre's very fun Enter the Drag Dragon

Quite enjoyed Enter the Drag Dragon, a fine bad-good flick by local filmmaker luminary director Lee Demarbre. It's a raunchy, over-the-top exploitation film shot in and around my stomping ground of Ottawa, Canada with drag queens galore. Some gorgeous aerial shots figure, including recognizable landmarks such as the local legendary second-run venue, the Mayfair Theatre and the Brian Nolanesque shots of downtown's ByWard Market. As other reviewers have noted, Demarbe's is a rich, colourful Ottawa (or world) a brim with kitsch, costumes and off-the-wall humour.

The flick features an array of quirky, sexy, entertaining local actors including Demarbre favourite Phil Caracas. Caracas starred as pulpy tough guy send-up in Demarbre's 2004 Harry Knuckles and the Pearl Necklace, and the 1999 Harry Knuckles and the Treasure of the Aztec Mummy. Likely, his riotous portrayal of Jesus in Demarbre's  2001 Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter is Caracas' best-known role, and Demarbre's most well-known and notorious film.

And, oh, yes, three—count 'em, three—leads play the drag queen protagonist, Crunch, an underestimated private detective. In Enter the Drag Dragon, the three actors and the slinky sexy rollerblader Jaws (Beatrice Beres) get centre screen, and rightly so. They're sort of a mystery-solving/no-job-is-too-odd duo. Matt Miwa, Sam Kellerman and Jade London all portray Crunch, and bring great sass to the role in diffetent ways. And brandish a staple weapon—dildo nunchucks, giving a wonderfully twisted statement of intent every single time. As well, I haven't seen this many protaganist costume changes since Jane Fonda's 1968 Barbarella.

Enter the Drag Dragon also serves up plenty of fun fighting (how Irish of me to say), but be warned—there's much Drag Fu and bare-breast tussling and even gratuitous singing. All in all, it's ridiculous fun. Ottawa is lucky to have cinematic talent Lee Demarbre. Besides, our red-brick storefronts on Bank Street are cinematic as hell. Even the Gatineau Hills, a tourist and local draw for even casual hikers, beg to be filmed. There's a skydiving scene with the heroes that is a barn burner. Besides, the cast, in the outtakes and film proper, is clearly having a blast with dirty sight gags and snappy patter and includes viewers in the naughty jokes. In short—entertaining as all get-out, thanks to Lee Demarbe's uncompromisingly naughty, twisted vision.

Traveling to Mars by Mark Russell

Here is another backlogged review I placed on social media but would rather have living here on my cozy blog.

Finally read my newly purchased gorgeous Traveling to Mars (ABLAZE) by Mark Russell, one of my favourite contemporary comic writers, He's predominantly a satirist, but like me, writes across the genres, so ... here's my money. Same reason I snap up anything Alex de Campi does. They are both proverbial bad asses when it comes to horror, sci fi and suspense.

Traveling to Mars concerns Roy Livingston, the protagonist with stage-four cancer who gets a one-way ticket to Mars. There's an international space race on to get boots on-planet first. Turns out, a corporation, Easy Beef, wants to land there first in order to claim the rich gas deposits from Mars' past. In this dystopic sci-fi yarn, Earth's resources are severely depleted, and humans are looking off-world for resources. 

As a collected eleven-issue trade, the Traveling to Mars graphic novel is beautiful, poignant, has some clever SFF ideas about space travel and a surprisingly ingratiating depiction of robotic rovers. As well, admittedly, Roberto "Dakar" Meli's art transports you and Chiara Di Francia's lush colours pop.

Don Coscarelli's dream-like 1979 Phantasm

Here's another backlogged mini-review from February, 2025, regarding Phantasm. a late 1970's cult classic that is as fascinating and entertaining as it is divisive.

Finally viddied Don Coscarelli's 1979 Phantasm. No regrets! A sweeping dream, or nightmare, with Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave's haunting Tubular Bellsesque score. Stunning performance from androgynous teen A. Michael Baldwin. Logic gaps you can drive a 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda through. Utterly enjoyable-more than it has a right to be.

Some shots are startlingly beautiful shots such as the ‘Cuda coming down the road through a heat mirage. Coscarelli steals Jawas from Star Wars (released the previous year), making them monstrous, but also from Dune and lays the dream groundwork  for future original slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street. There’s Bill Thornbury as the hunky but too laid-back older brother Jody, Reg6gie Bannister as brother’ bestie Reggie, an ice-cream-truck river and offensively talented musician pal Reggie, and Angus Scrimm as the over-the-top Tall Man.

Phantasm’s dreamy feel either works for you, or it doesn't. So sit down, strap in and enjoy the trip.

Backlogged reviews—August 2024: Taboo and B. Earl's Deadly Neighborhood Spider-Man

Backlogged reviews—August 2024

Realized I have been posting mini-reviews about graphic novels on Instagram that can have a nice home here. So, without  further adieu, here's the oldest one I found ....

Deadly Neighborhood Spider-Man

This 2023 comic trade from Marvel, collecting co-writers Taboo (of the Black Eyed Peas fame) and B. Earl's Deadly Neighborhood Spider-Man five-issue series, is a trippy experience, with wild nightmarish art. Peter Parker toils with his colleague Crystal Catawnee on a sound experiment in LA and contends with a reality-bending foe. The premise allows for whole vistas that may or may not be part of a nightmare, while certainly the most bizarre fight of his life ensues amid clever new adventures. Juan Ferreyra's art is off the charts, suffused with a vivid, vibrant colour palette. In all, it's utterly breathtaking work and well-characterized scripting.

Haven't had a trip this wonderfully heavy, and heady, since Tradd Moore's mind-bending  phantasmagoric horror yarn, Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise. That's some high praise.

Kudos to the whole crew involved.

Felice Pacino, the godfather of gay lit, has passed

Stunned to hear Felice Picano has passed.

While some may be at a loss for words right now, he never was, when I met him, ready with either a quip, a kind word, a story or a ribald riposte. I was lucky enough, along with AJ, to meet him on June 12, 2022. We drove him to an Ottawa reading organized by Octopus Books with our pal Jeffrey Round. Although my new book Fear Itself was not yet out, at the last minute, Felice insisted I also read, so I excerpted my story "Three, to the Swizz!" from Burly Tales.

Afterwards, we had the immense pleasure of having him back at the house for wine and conversation. It was a pleasure because he was, well, a legend, the godfather of gay lit, considered a founder of modern gay literature. To our delight, Felice not only enjoyed our company, but he also got on with our young teen son Dylan, enjoying the younger generation's perspective. Our conversation was equal parts thrill and talk about the craft of writing, and what it meant to all of us.

Later on, I asked him to blurb Fear Itself, which he did, with flair. Still later, we met him down in New Orleans for our first Saints & Sinners LGBTQ+ Literary Festival. I recall that he greeted us effusively, like family.

Here I am, asking him a tough question about his debut novel Lure and delighting in his racontage. And the blurb in question.

We were lucky to catch you on our home turf, Felice. Thank you so much. Rest in power, Felice.