Hawk the Slayer: The Last of Her Kind (2025)

Hawk the Slayer: The Last of Her Kind (2025)

Author: Alec Worley | Illustrator: Simon Colby (line) / Gary Caldwell (col) | Page Count: 52

"She is like a child absorbed in her own cruel fantasy, forcing us to play along."

A continuation of Hawk's story set after Watch for Me in the Night (2023). The Last of Her Kind was serialised in 10 consecutive issues of the weekly 2000 AD magazine (#2413-22), for a total of just 52 pages. Rebellion might consider that enough page count for a proper TPB of its own, but it's considerably less than the previous story, so it seems unlikely that it'll get one - not unless there's a similarly-sized third part to add to it.

So I decided to feature it as is, with no official cover art - the pic to the right is Cliff Robinson's cover art of #2419 onto which I added a Hawk the Slayer logo. [1]

The Dark Tower (2017)

The Dark Tower (2017)

Dir.  Nikolaj Arcel

'The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.' Those twelve words, the opening paragraph in the first part of Stephen King's fantasy western opus, will resonate with anyone that's read the book. Nothing about the film adaptation, however, has even the slightest hint of such resonance.

It begins with Jake (Tom Taylor) in NY, which, as fans will know, means it draws from more than the first book. The boy is having dreams about the Tower that include the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey); but revealing the primary antagonist so early robs him of any and all mystery; he's a man who ought to be partially defined by his elusiveness. But that's only the beginning of the film's failings; there are many, many more reasons to turn off.

Nine Inch Nails: Hesitation Marks (2013)

NIN: Hesitation Marks (2013)

The return of NIN after a five year hiatus was something that I anticipated greatly, but when it came it came with disappointment. [1]

Reznor was (happily?) married, rich, and had been free of record label interference for a number of years prior to its release — allowing for, one supposes, a pleasing level of creative freedom — all of which meant he'd less to get upset or angry about.

A nice place to be, for sure, but it eliminated many of the things that had traditionally been a source of inspiration and/or a motivational factor in the artist's music.

Consequently, lyrically it skims still waters while trying to remain as close to the deeper NIN formula as possible.

Kids Return (1996)

Kids Return (1996)

Dir. Takeshi Kitano

Told mostly in flashback, it's the story of two high school friends, Shinji and Masaru (Masanobu Andô and Ken Kaneko, respectively), who occasionally go to school but spend very little time in actual class.

The tutors have given up on them, seeing them as either directionless morons or little more than petty thieves in training. In time, the duo would probably agree... but a single event gives perspective that leads to insight.

Often in Kitano films the secondary characters are just as interesting as the primaries, but in Kids Return some of the lesser characters actually stole the show, being arguably even more interesting than the two main ones and I'd love to have seen their sub-stories expanded and further explored.

Oddly, even though it's but a tiny portion of the film insofar as the total running time goes, I was affected more by the scenes set in the present than in flashback.