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Your search for “ZB.com. Review 2020|Bityard.com 258U Bonus” returned 100 results.
The Jungle Book Tuesday April 19, 2016
There’s no way to film the Mowgli stories from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book absent the influence of the 1967 Disney classic, which casts a long shadow. Several such films have been made, and most of them didn’t work very well at all. 2016’s The Jungle Book does work, however, and it does… Read more
Rampage Thursday April 19, 2018
Rampage was everything I wanted from a cinematic adaptation of one of my favorite video games. The writers did a fine job of splitting the difference between making the monsters our protagonists, and giving us human protagonists we can relate to. It’s worth seeing on the big screen, because big. I… Read more
Movie Review: Cars Friday June 9, 2006
I just got back from Cars. It was wonderful. Sure, the story arc and character arcs are predictable (especially if you've seen lots of similar Disney/Pixar films), but it is still a wonderful film. The animation and voice characterization is uniformly brilliant, and the art direction and concept design is… Read more
Book Review: A Practical Guide to Dragons, by Lisa Trumbauer Friday February 23, 2007
If you're a D&D fan with kids, you need this book. I mean, you can't be letting your kids read the monster manual, even though they really want to, because they're not supposed to know how many hit dice that beholder has, right? A Practical Guide to Dragons is perfect… Read more
TypeCast RPG Tonight! Tuesday January 21, 2020
It’s Typecast RPG Night¹. Last week we discovered that Vaeron’s cloudscape civilization—massive flying cities kept aloft on the backs of dreaming gods—is kept intact at a price: human sacrifice is what keeps the dreamers asleep, and if they wake up, they’ll destroy the world². At least, that’s what we’ve been… Read more
Book Review: Mad Mike's Sniper series Thursday June 29, 2006
Let's get the obligatory disclaimers out of the way. Michael Z. Williamson is a friend of mine, and I'm happy to count him as such. He is a fan of Schlock Mercenary, and I am a fan of his work. Recently (well... Penguicon, so maybe not so recently) Mike handed… Read more
DVD Review: Doom Tuesday February 21, 2006
For some reason I've had a hankering to see Doom for a while now. Last night I rented it via RedBox, and while it's certainly not great cinema, I enjoyed it a lot. I've played the game on which the movie is (probably very loosely) based, but not all the… Read more
A Wrinkle In Time Friday March 9, 2018
I saw A Wrinkle In Time in the IMAX theater on opening night, and loved it. The film is beautiful, and the younger cast members were absolutely brilliant, especially Storm Reid and Derek McCabe. It’s been decades since I read the book. In fact, it’s been so long that I barely… Read more
Coming this Tuesday: Book 13, The Kickstarter Thursday September 14, 2017
On Tuesday, September 19th, we will launch a Kickstarter for the printing of Random Access Memorabilia, Schlock Mercenary Book 13. The book itself is complete, the bonus story is currently being illustrated, and our layout architect says the cover blueprint is almost ready for elements that have color in them.… Read more
Movie Review: V for Vendetta Friday March 17, 2006
I need to see this film two or three more times. Only then can I write the review it deserves, but that wouldn't be a review -- it would be critical analysis, bordering perhaps on deconstruction. One thing is certain: this film falls far outside the typical range for comic-book… Read more
Book Review: Better to Beg Forgiveness Friday December 21, 2007
Okay, I love Michael Z. Williamson's heroes. They're tough, they're flawed, and when they break stuff it stays broke. When I saw that the title of his latest was Better to Beg Forgiveness I figured I was in for a great ride. I was right. But before I gush: I… Read more
Sketching is About Half Done Friday February 8, 2019
I’m about half-way finished with the book sketching—a little over half of the Delegates And Delegation books are sketched, and a little under half of the Broken Wind books are sketched. I had a super-productive session Monday evening (Feb 4th), sketching in over 200 books over the course of about seven hours. Sessions… Read more
The Expanse. It is Just. That. Good. Wednesday January 20, 2016
I’m amazed by how good SyFy’s The Expanse is. It is head-and-shoulders above anything else in TV science-fiction, with the possible exception of The Martian, which was a movie. Yes, I include Star Trek, Babylon V, and Firefly. Here’s my stake in the ground: In 2020 we’ll look at the state… Read more
Pre-Order Your Tub of Happiness Today! Thursday September 20, 2007
At long last, the first five-hundred and seven days of Schlock Mercenary are coming to a dead-tree near you. Pre-orders for Schlock Mercenary: The Tub of Happiness are now open. This 240-page volume features every strip and footnote from June 12th of 2000 through November 11th of 2001, and includes… Read more
Deadpool 2 Friday May 18, 2018
Deadpool 2 was more fun and less uncomfortable than 2016’s Deadpool. At least for me. YMMV, of course. The film unmistakably earns its R-rating, so it’s not one to bring the kids to. That said, it does clear my Threshold of Awesome, thanks to some final scenes putting it over the top.… Read more
Kickstarting BROKEN WIND and DELEGATES & DELEGATION Friday October 12, 2018
This Tuesday, October 16th, we’ll be opening a Kickstarter for print editions of Broken Wind: Schlock Mercenary Volume 14, and Delegates and Delegation: Schlock Mercenary Volume 15. Each volume has a bonus story at the end, lots of margin art in the middle, and the same top-shelf quality of binding,… Read more
Death by Cliché at 99 Cents Wednesday September 7, 2016
I’ve talked about Death by Cliché before. I really like the book, and I’m a beta-reader for the sequels. It’s a game-genre dark comedy in which an RPG designer gets shot in the head and wakes up in the terribly-designed role playing game that is being run by the young man who… Read more
American Ultra Tuesday August 25, 2015
I saw American Ultra just one day after seeing Hitman: Agent 47, and the similarities between the two are misleading: Super-agents with amazing abilities Physics-defying stunts Protagonist who is unaware of their latent super-agent abilities Mentor who helps them unlock those abilities Everybody wants to kill the protagonists because of who they… Read more
Howard's 2018 Movie Rankings
This is a ranked list of the movies I've seen in 2018. I've ranked them according to how much fun I had in the theater, which is a fantastically subjective exercise that is not uncommonly at odds with how well a movie does what it's trying to do. I've been… Read more
Hitman: Agent 47 Monday August 24, 2015
Hitman: Agent 47 does nothing to set itself apart from other action movies, and is kind of predictable from start to finish. Still, it didn’t actually disappoint me, so it enters my list at #17, safely above the Threshold of Disappointment. Rupert Friend’s performance as the titular 47 is pretty… Read more