Review of World War 3 Illustrated: Facts on the Ground

Review of World War 3 Illustrated: Facts on the Ground

(panel from Seth Tobocman's Disaster and Resistance)

The Indypendent printed Hueso Taveras' review of the World War 3 Illustrated Collective's latest anthology.

Here's an excerpt:

While most comics anthologies like Mome and Drawn and Quarterly aim for diverse and multicultural content, World War 3 Illustrated has consistently provided a breadth unmatched even by contemporary publishers. For their latest anthology, Facts on the Ground, the collective culled stories from around the world, including Baghdad, Johannesburg and El Salvador. As the title suggests, most are first-hand accounts, featuring everyday folks up against institutionalized corruption.

The first comic, by writer and Voices in the Wilderness activist Cathy Breen with artist Edowyn Vazkez, illustrates a letter by an Iraqi woman and the daily perils she faces in occupied Baghdad. Peter Kuper captures the complicated and sordid story of last year’s Oaxaca teachers’ strike and their battle with the state’s murderous, corrupt governor — which ended with the death of numerous people, including journalist Brad Will — in his firsthand mixed-media account “Oaxaca.”

Other comics take a look at familiar locales. Standouts include Seth Tobocman’s excerpt from his new book Disaster and Resistance (AK Press), about the struggle of residents of a NOLA housing project to return home after the devastation of Katrina and authorities. Mac McGill’s “Hurricane Katrina” is a meticulously rendered expressionist pantomime about life, loss and hope of New Orleans residents. Fly’s interview with Bill DiPaola serves as the basis for her rollicking, illustrated history of radical environmentalist group Times Up! “NYC Cyclists Memorial” is Christopher Cardinale’s lyrical and poignant mixed-media comic about the bicyclists killed by motorists and the city’s inhospitability to bicyclists.


Read the full review.

Bring on the Blood: Review of the 2007 New York City Horror Film Festival

(Top: still from Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door. Bottom: still from Uwe Boll's Seed.)


This is an excerpt for a review I did on the 2007 NYC Horror Film Festival. You can read the full review on the Indypendent site.

BRING ON THE BLOOD
by Frank Reynoso

Cold, sporadic rain didn’t deter ardent fans from making the pilgrimage to NYU for the sixth annual New York City Horror Film Festival. The five-day extravaganza, like a Mexican Day of the Dead celebration in celluloid, brimmed with as many laughs as gasps. Festival directors Michael Hein and Anthony Pepe selected excellent films that showed the breadth of an often pigeonholed genre. A broad range of works from Australia, California, Germany, Indonesia and New York drew as diverse a crowd of supporters.

Despite scholarly attention and critical success, horror is viewed by many as little more than porn: sadistic and voyeuristic schlock for degenerates. This year’s fest presented a thriving genre that’s often thought stagnant and juvenile and rampant with clichés and predictable narratives. I had shared that opinion but this fest showed me that horror is alive and kicking.

Standout films included Richard Gale’s crowd-pleasing Criticized (which won the award for best short), a black comedy about an unhinged filmmaker who abducts and tortures a prominent critic who trashed his film. A period piece set in Texas, Chickenfüt is a funny and touching short about the torment of a German exchange student who gets revenge on his bullies; his fate spawns an urban legend. Matthew Byrne directed the eerie and pensive Southern gothic tale The Wake. The mostly pantomimed film follows a middle-aged woman who binds a boy, hangs a cabbage above his face, and starves him. Quiet and revealing, the story plunges into a surreal ending. The Fifth is a tightly written and acted absurd comedy about five suburban men gathering for their regular poker game, which is annoyingly interrupted by one man’s job as a serial killer. The claustrophobic short Of Darkness, by Gary Irwin, is a modern Lovecraftian tale about a group of suburban boys who unlock an incomprehensible evil contained within an ancient book.

[Read full review...]

© Frank Reynosos, Nov. 2007, All Rights Reserved

What I read and watched...

What I read and watched...

Desolation Jones by Warren Ellis and J. H. Williams III
A sordid romp of espionage, government experiments and Nazi porn. J. H. Williams III's crisp and graphic illustrations embedded in experimental layouts sometimes further entangles an already convoluted narrative.

NextWave: Agents of Hate by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen
High-velocity action and attitude make this mainstream comic a delight. If only it's price tag would equal it's shelf life...

Fog of War directed by Errol Morris
An opaque documentary on one of the architects behind the war in Vietnam and one of the most influential figures in world history. Morris masterfully presents a complicated and mysterious man against the backdrop of a brutal political world.

The Thin Blue Line directed by Errol Morris
Morris' critically acclaimed documentary on a heinous injustice in Texas perpetrated by the legislative authorities and its consequences on an innocent man.

Interviews: Mike Leigh (Conversations with Filmmakers Series) by Howie Movshovitz
An intelligent look at one of the world's most respected filmmakers alive right now and his confounding methods for producing his works. Leigh ultimately appears as complex and layered as his films.

Pride of Baghdad written by Brian K. Vaughn and art by Niko Henrichon
A captivating although simplistic narrative that presents some harsh realities of the war in Iraq. The anthropomorphic characters dull a potentially powerful story. Henrichon's art, although skillfully rendered, at times feels to light for a scene.

Reel Bad Arabs directed Sut Jahlly with Jack Shaheen
A good documentary and educational filmthat explores the various Hollywood stereotypes of Arabs on the silver screen. Unfortunately the narrator Jack Shaheen makes a couple sweeping statements that are simplistic, undermining some of his good intentions.

Wong Kar-wai by Peter Brunette
A thoroughly researched but often overly complicated and theoretical book on one of the world's greatest filmmakers. The collection of interviews alone, which shed some light on Wong's unconventional production process, makes this book worthwhile.

© Frank Reynoso, Nov. 2007, All Rights Reserved

Tribeca's "Other" Film Festival

Tribeca’s ‘Other’ Film Festival

This is an excerpt from my review, with Irina Ivanova, of VisionFest 2007. You can read the full review at The Indypendent.

- Frank

VisionFest 2007
Tribeca Cinemas

VisionFest, founded in 2001 as The Guerrilla Film and Video Festival, aims to elevate domestic filmmaking to the status of foreign films. Dubbed “the other festival,” the Tribeca-based annual event occasionally unearths films that go on to success at Sundance and elsewhere.

Participating films are mostly unrestricted in length and subject matter, and everything from three-minute horror shorts to full-length features are shown side-by-side, loosely organized by theme and genre. This year’s VisionFest, which ran from Sept. 19-23 at Tribeca Cinemas, was a mixed bag with a few gems.

Several films caught our eye. Patrick Smith’s Puppet is a humorous and existential treat in traditional hand-drawn animation.

Roland Becerra’s Dear Beautiful, a 30-minute animated horror feature, blends rich textures and a single-narrative voice to portray an apocalyptic story set behind a Connecticut couple’s deteriorating relationship. In the House of the Sin Eater, by Paul Kloss and Mathew Acheson, animates puppets and found objects to create a lush blend of anthropology and fairy-tale.

© Irina Ivanova & Frank Reynoso Oct. 2007, All Rights Reserved

What is he reading now...?

The Improvised Play: The Work of Mike Leigh by Paul Clements

An unnecessarily complicated but insightful look into the methods of a brilliant playwrite and filmmaker. You can own this out-of-print book at the low half.com price of $145.

Art by Committee by Charna Halpern

Although targeted to comedy, an invaluable resource for improv and performance arts based on the teachings and theories of the late Del Close.

Apparat: The Singles Collection Vol. 1 by Warren Ellis, Jacen Burrows, Laureen McCubbin, Carla Speed McNeil, Juan Jose Ryp

A collection of fantastic and weird tales - inspired by old time pulps - from a master comics writer with great art by some of the best artists around. A kick in the head to a medium with so much potential.

© Frank Reynoso, Sept. 2007, All rights reserved

Current readings

City of Tomorrow by Howard Chaykin (Graphic Novel)
A dystopian-noir graphic novel with amazing visuals. I wish the characters and setting were more than elements to move the plot. The action moved too quickly for me to understand, let alone care, about what was going on.

Doom Patrol: Down Paradise Way by Grant Morrison, Richard Case, Kelley Jones,
Mark McKenna and others (Graphic Novel)
A mad romp throughout the inner and outer universes with a team of absurd heroes. Ideas, history, and imagination abound, creating an unforgettable read.

Reunion & Dark Pony by David Mamet (Plays)
With eccentric dialogue and haunting characters, Mamet pens visceral stories
not intended for casual readers.