DUNE: The Graphic Novel - Books I, II, III (2020-24)

DUNE: The Graphic Novel - Books I, II, III

Adapted from Frank Herbert's original novel by hack authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson | Illustrator: Raúl Allén | Colourist: Patricia Martín | Page Count: 180 / 179 / 204

'He must find something that will inspire him.'

A three-part comicbook adaptation of Frank Herbert's first DUNE novel. My original plan was to give each part of the trilogy its own post, but my feelings about each one are largely the same, so I've combined them into one post. It'll be shorter and mean less repetition.

I won't give a synopsis because I've did that at least once before. I'll concentrate on the adaptation itself, which is variable but mostly not very good.

01. Book 1: DUNE (2020) is the worst of the three volumes, in both its writing and its art, but the early part of Frank's novel is at its weakest there, too, so I trudged on through, page after boring page, in the hope that things would get better once [spoiler] entered the open desert. I'm saddened to say that they rarely do.

40 Years of Scream!: The Archival Collection (2024)

40 Years of Scream!: The Archival Collection (2024)

Authors: Various (inc. Alan Grant / Alan Moore / Gerry Finley-Day / John Wagner / Simon Furman | Artists: Various (inc. Brendan McCarthy / Cam Kennedy / Eric Bradbury / Jesus Redondo / José Ortiz / Mike Western) | Page Count: 464

'A torturous approval system was imposed, where pages thought editorially sound had to pass four further levels of oversight...'

Rebellion, current owners of 2000 AD and its associated media, would publish the instructions from a toilet roll if they thought they could make money from it, and then within a year or two probably republish it as part of a themed anthology, perhaps with the ingredients of some liquid hand soap to bulk out the page count, and some adverts for other upcoming collections.

On the flip side, they're rescuing some classic-era works from virtual obscurity via their Treasury of British Comics imprint and giving them a new, vibrant life on higher quality paper stock than most ever would've been given back in the day.

Godzilla: Reiwa Era Films (2016—)

29. Shin Godzilla (2016)

Dirs. Hideaki Anno + Shinji Higuchi

NOTE: numbering continues sequentially from the Millennium Era. For simplicity I've used English titles, but it's always the Japanese language versions of the films that I refer to.

Another hard reset of the franchise, with a new creature design and new origin story behind it.

The majority of the film involves politicians, bureaucrats, military leaders, etc, talking about how to deal with the irradiated daikaijū threat.

It utilises fast cuts to give the impression that things being discussed hurriedly is some kind of compensation for things being uninteresting - but it's really not. The first hour in particular is dense with such dry, ponderous dialogue.

Godzilla, referred to as male more than once in the English subs, is mostly CGI, mo-capped so that it moves kind of like a man in a suit. It gets points for good intentions, but ultimately it's just another CGI creature with zero personality. If I wanted that I'd watch the American films.