After years of experimenting with writing implements – from the cheapest of the cheap to the most iconic fountain pens to digital notebooks – I've returned (for now) to the plastic embrace of my old standby warhorse, the Papermate Flair: it's nice to come home.
GODZILLA MINUS ONE (Takashi Yamazaki, 2023)
(*****+ / *****): Best GODZILLA film since the 1954 original. Deeply-drawn characters whose pain and fear pack an emotional wallop; a resonant anti-war message and examination of Japanese PTSD and devastation; and – at last – a return to Godzilla as a terrifying, world-destroying monstrosity. Adding to Blu/4k library as soon as it's available – hope they include the black and white version. Masterpiece.
Tomorrow's newsletter's in the send queue and I've returned to Fiction(s) land.
KRAVEN'S LAST HUNT (DeMatteis / Zeck, 1987)
(*****+ / *****): Hate to admit it, but this isn't a re-read: a cardinal sin – nevermind KRAVEN'S LAST HUNT's hallowed status, but (for me) that it's penned by one of my favorite Spidey writers (and comics writers in general; I have a soft spot for his run on THE SPECTRE, featuring Hal Jordan on his post-Parallax road to redemption), JM DeMatteis, under the moody, evocative pencil of genius Mike Zeck makes it even more so. That said, HUNT deserves every bit of its hallowed status: though I knew the main points of the story and the surprise at the end of part five, it still came as a shock. A case study in why I'm devoted to getting the "Great" comics stories in their original single issues: to experience it for the first time largely as it was originally released was something special.
