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Excellent Shakespeare available from Koch Vision here: it’s Twelfth Night–the ITV Saturday Night Theatre version from 1969. It stars Alec Guinness, Joan Plowright and Ralph Richardson. Twins each think the other drowned. So Viola (Plowright) disguises herself as a man in order to stay safe and tries to help a Duke with his chosen lady, only to have the lady in question fall in love with the disguised Viola. In the meantime, Viola has fallen for the Duke. And then when Sebastian, the other twin (also played by Plowright), arrives on the scene–hijinks ensue. Guinness is in the role of Malvolio, the Duke’s steward. No bonus bits, but this one’s worth it for the excellent performances alone. Any collector of Shakespeare adaptations will definitely want to snag it. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)
[ad#longpost]Wulf and Batsy is out from Viper Comics and is the story of a pair of travelers, one male, one female. Unfortunately, nothing’s terribly simple with them, since he’s a werewolf and she’s a vampire. And now they appear to have found themselves in BFE where the hicks are going to get upset about a couple of shredded and devoured goats. The nerve of them–I mean, seriously. This is by scribe/artist Bryan Baugh and his stuff reminds me of Sam Kieth in places. This is a first issue, so there’s not a lot of backstory to fall back on, but it’s interesting enough for the moment–especially when we get to see what Batsy uses instead of a coffin. My only problem with the book–and I hate to sound petty–but the title. It’s…terribly cute, isn’t it? Wulf and Batsy sounds like a Saturday morning cartoon rather than a comic in which we’re treated to a goat being gnawed in half. Not that I have anything against goats. Not a bad first issue. (Check out the official site here.)
The latest issue of Back Issue amuses me to no end. So it’s the “Heroes Behaving Badly” issue…and for the month where Iron Man is going to burn up the screen, what’s the cover? The drunk Iron Man flying, woman in one hand, drink in the other. Love the editorial choice there–and yes, I’m being serious. Lots of focus this issue on The Hulk (no surprise) as well as The Thing. Then you’ve got the theme of the issue, with stories covering Kid Miracleman, Iron Man, Terra, The Flash and more. There’s art by Arthur Adams, Walt Simonson and others, plus interviews with David Lloyd and John Byrne. I know you’re sick of hearing it, but Wizard is a joke. TwoMorrows is the real deal. (Click here to buy it from TwoMorrows.)
