Tuesday Reviewsday: Corto Maltese

Corto Maltese is a series of European action/adventure comics by famed Italian creator, Hugo Pratt, chronicling the life of its titular character through the early decades of the 20th century. Though related to Tintin, Gil Jordan, Lupin III, and other continental adventurers, Corto carries himself more as a pulpy Sinbad the Sailor. Embarking on adventures for lost Imperial Spanish gold and thwarting Nazi spies for the sake of outrunning boredom than the allure of wealth or pursuit of truth. Along the way he crosses paths with historical figures like Rasputin, Butch Cassidy, Ernest Hemingway, and Jack London.

With striking black and white art from an artist at the height of his powers and narrative depth belying comics, Corto Maltese is well worth the time. Especially if you love pulp adventure tales staring colonialism's ugliness full-on. This series is definitely in the Old Man's Bar DNA. The stories have most recently been translated and printed by IDW and some animation was done 4-5 years ago.

Tuesday Reviewsday: The Sinner

We're all spending time at home as the Troubles extend into a 4th month and probably watching a lot of TV. If so, you've found you can only watch Terriers (on Hulu right now) so many times before you need a new crime drama. You can replace Terriers with something else more fitting your tastes - True Detective, Black Spot, The Shield, Bosch, The Glades, or what-have-you. But the sentiment is the same.

There's a LOT of good media out there but we consistently return to the crime drama/police procedural well for some degree of comfort. Even in the most hardboiled or noir story offer a structure delineating the good, the bad, and the bad-but-good-enough-to-live-with into boxes and delivering some sort of justice in an increasingly unjust world. The Sinner dumps those comfortable boxes out on the floor and kicks the contents into the wall where hey break and spill, leaking their contents into a runny mess defying a shallow viewing. In the first season Jessica Biel plays Cora Tanetti, a seemingly placid housewife, who stabs a man to death at a public beach in upstate New York. Bill Pullman plays Detective Harry Ambrose, a police detective on the rocks, who feels a pull that Cora's crime is a part of something larger and, like a bad tooth, just can't leave it alone.

If you enjoy being pushed out into deep water and feeling your way back to shore, then The Sinner would be for you.

The Sinner seasons 1 & 2 are currently on Netflix.

Tuesday Reviewsday: Space Dandy

Hey everybody, Aaron here. It's been a long time since my last post, but I've been really busy writing adventures and mysteries for games such as: Savage Rifts, Trophy, and Brindlewood Bay. Besides being the Head Writer for a ZineQuest 2 Kickstarter project Oligarchy - a game of political folly. Those are all wrapping up in the near future so I have time to get back to Tuesday Reviewsday. 

Earlier this month we finished watching Space Dandy! a science fiction comedy anime from Shinchiro Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo fame. Over the course of the series, the titular character travels the star in his tiki themed spaceship searching for alien lifeforms, falling in love, and hanging out at an interstellar Hooters. It's a love letter to fishbowl helmets, rayguns, scantily clad ladies, Americana, and high adventure across a lurid galaxy. Every episode shares a loose continuity but rarely impact one another. Which is probably for the better since that gives each episode room to breathe, no matter how gonzo or ridiculous the individual premise may seem. 

Overall the show alternates between lighthearted and poignant, delivering  a heartfelt salute to its influences while leaning on animation's strengths. Similar to Watanabe's other series the soundtrack is impeccable. I mean, watch this:



If you like pulpy sci-fi stories like Flash Gordon, the Original Star Trek, Secret of Sinharat or Barbarella you should check out Space Dandy! You can watch it on Hulu.

If you'd rather have dandy adventures in space for your next tabletop game, then check out Troika! the Otherworld's Favorite Roleplaying Game (art free SRD here) and try out Across the Humpbacked Sky, Baby! from Carol and I. It's a collaborative framework for creating weird aliens and some weird planets for them to hide on.