Comic Books or Graphic Novels, or whatever you want to call them, ... they've never been a huge-interest of mine. I've attended Comic Con the last two years, but, thing is, I seldom read any of the books I bought.
I think it's because superheroes never interested me at all as a comic-book, mostly because the film and television industry is so saturated with them that I've had my fill.
I love horror though, and because the millions of different ways it can be spun, I always have enthusiasm for it. And, the difference is that superheroes are fulfilled in film, and horror films are scarcer and more niche. Comics offer the sort-of nourishment that isn't received from films these days. Been waiting six-years on a new Elm Street, seven-years for a new Friday the 13th and Halloween film. In the mean-time though, I forget there's thousands of comics already related to them. Like Ash vs. Freddy vs. Jason, or Hack Slash, or Clive Barker's Hellraiser, or, of course, Full Moon's recent line-up of movie-adaptations which all starts with Puppet Master.
I'll keep the introduction short – don't wanna bore you with trivial details. (Just kidding!)
Puppet Master needs no introduction. Less, of course, you're in the 99.9% of the world that has never heard of them. Nine films have helped create a rich, albeit flawed and disproportionate, back-story to pull from. Whether it be them as anti-heroes, or … heroes-heroes.
In 1902, an Egyptian named Afzel steals the secret of life from the god Sutekh. In his attempts at escape, Afzel is severely wounded and sheltered by a man named Andre Toulon. Afzel teaches Toulon the spell that allows him to animate several of his puppets. Blah, blah, blah, … demons are introduced in the fourth film, and they're led by Sutekh, who makes an attempt at another attack against the Puppets. Each Puppet has the soul of one of his friends, or whoever else, … Toulon liked to do that. For example, Blade has the soul of a German doctor who tried to help Toulon during World War II. Fast forward, and the Puppets are at the command of their master, which navigates them between good guys and villains.
Far from a definitive explanation of the franchise, but it's all you need to know to get the stuff fresh in your mind for Issues 1 thru 7. (1-3 are The Offering and 4-7 are The Rebirth, and both can be fully appreciated without each other. For example, I read 4-7 first.)
I think it's because superheroes never interested me at all as a comic-book, mostly because the film and television industry is so saturated with them that I've had my fill.
I love horror though, and because the millions of different ways it can be spun, I always have enthusiasm for it. And, the difference is that superheroes are fulfilled in film, and horror films are scarcer and more niche. Comics offer the sort-of nourishment that isn't received from films these days. Been waiting six-years on a new Elm Street, seven-years for a new Friday the 13th and Halloween film. In the mean-time though, I forget there's thousands of comics already related to them. Like Ash vs. Freddy vs. Jason, or Hack Slash, or Clive Barker's Hellraiser, or, of course, Full Moon's recent line-up of movie-adaptations which all starts with Puppet Master.
I'll keep the introduction short – don't wanna bore you with trivial details. (Just kidding!)
Puppet Master needs no introduction. Less, of course, you're in the 99.9% of the world that has never heard of them. Nine films have helped create a rich, albeit flawed and disproportionate, back-story to pull from. Whether it be them as anti-heroes, or … heroes-heroes.
In 1902, an Egyptian named Afzel steals the secret of life from the god Sutekh. In his attempts at escape, Afzel is severely wounded and sheltered by a man named Andre Toulon. Afzel teaches Toulon the spell that allows him to animate several of his puppets. Blah, blah, blah, … demons are introduced in the fourth film, and they're led by Sutekh, who makes an attempt at another attack against the Puppets. Each Puppet has the soul of one of his friends, or whoever else, … Toulon liked to do that. For example, Blade has the soul of a German doctor who tried to help Toulon during World War II. Fast forward, and the Puppets are at the command of their master, which navigates them between good guys and villains.
Far from a definitive explanation of the franchise, but it's all you need to know to get the stuff fresh in your mind for Issues 1 thru 7. (1-3 are The Offering and 4-7 are The Rebirth, and both can be fully appreciated without each other. For example, I read 4-7 first.)
The Rebirth (Issues 4 thru 7)
The Rebirth introduces a woman named Madam Adon who has the ability to return their souls to a human-form. In return, she receives their former puppet bodies as payment, also, one condition is that they must supply their own person for their souls to infiltrate as a vessel.
Shawn Gabborin writes the new narrative and builds the story using inspiration from the source-material to do so. Little notes in the corner of some panels even acknowledge which film they drew from in certain instances. Michela Da Sacco and Yann Perrelet do the aesthetics well, and in-fact, might even do more justice to the series than it deserves.
That's a fact which surprises me, … Full Moon's transition into a comic-book medium seems natural. The best aspects of the Full Moon features are the cinematic score comprised by Richard Band, the outlandish B-movie characters, and free-spirited and often mindless narrative weaving each character into the film. Sometimes it has legitimate storyline-driven depth, sometimes it has someone else doing the score, and sometimes it has this and that and something else, but from someone who has seen 57 films between Empire Pictures and Full Moon, this is the belief I have come to have. The occasionally practical effects are a nice perk as well. The biggest issues? The acting isn't always the best, the budget forces them to cut-corners, and they go overboard with uninspired sequels.
Comic-books aren't dealt the same detriment. There are no budgets, no actors, and in this occasion, a writer has been given the means to take a new approach with the material. Is it earth-shattering? Perhaps not, but at least it feels creatively driven and inspired.
I like Charles Band. I like his films. Hence why I've supported him over the years and why I went out of my way to buy these comic-books. But his films are hit-and-miss and occasionally feel done for the wrong reason. Which is unfortunate, but understandable, being a low-budget independent film company that needs to churn a profit. And ever-since all the movie-rental companies shutdown and he lost his deal with Paramount, a grubbier approach is anticipated.
But with Rebirth, it feels fun and even if he didn't have a hand in penning the story, I can't help but feel like Charles Band films work better as comic-books. Like with books, graphic-novels allow a closer interpretation of one's vision, where budgets don't matter and you can do what you want to do.
Seeing the Puppets established more as characters is something I really enjoyed seeing, and it's something I definitely would like to see more of in later issues. The dialogue and their characters as a whole weren't too enthralling, but the simple novelty of seeing them portrayed with a different and refreshing approach makes that less noticeable. It's like having some really good friends, and discovering you've never even met them.
The end of Rebirth also leaves me looking forward to seeing more from the comics, and more from Full Moon's latest line-up of comics.
Rebirth isn't drop-dead amazing, but it's very well-made and feels like inspired work by individuals who actually give-a-damn and want to make something great.
“You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.”
Shawn Gabborin writes the new narrative and builds the story using inspiration from the source-material to do so. Little notes in the corner of some panels even acknowledge which film they drew from in certain instances. Michela Da Sacco and Yann Perrelet do the aesthetics well, and in-fact, might even do more justice to the series than it deserves.
That's a fact which surprises me, … Full Moon's transition into a comic-book medium seems natural. The best aspects of the Full Moon features are the cinematic score comprised by Richard Band, the outlandish B-movie characters, and free-spirited and often mindless narrative weaving each character into the film. Sometimes it has legitimate storyline-driven depth, sometimes it has someone else doing the score, and sometimes it has this and that and something else, but from someone who has seen 57 films between Empire Pictures and Full Moon, this is the belief I have come to have. The occasionally practical effects are a nice perk as well. The biggest issues? The acting isn't always the best, the budget forces them to cut-corners, and they go overboard with uninspired sequels.
Comic-books aren't dealt the same detriment. There are no budgets, no actors, and in this occasion, a writer has been given the means to take a new approach with the material. Is it earth-shattering? Perhaps not, but at least it feels creatively driven and inspired.
I like Charles Band. I like his films. Hence why I've supported him over the years and why I went out of my way to buy these comic-books. But his films are hit-and-miss and occasionally feel done for the wrong reason. Which is unfortunate, but understandable, being a low-budget independent film company that needs to churn a profit. And ever-since all the movie-rental companies shutdown and he lost his deal with Paramount, a grubbier approach is anticipated.
But with Rebirth, it feels fun and even if he didn't have a hand in penning the story, I can't help but feel like Charles Band films work better as comic-books. Like with books, graphic-novels allow a closer interpretation of one's vision, where budgets don't matter and you can do what you want to do.
Seeing the Puppets established more as characters is something I really enjoyed seeing, and it's something I definitely would like to see more of in later issues. The dialogue and their characters as a whole weren't too enthralling, but the simple novelty of seeing them portrayed with a different and refreshing approach makes that less noticeable. It's like having some really good friends, and discovering you've never even met them.
The end of Rebirth also leaves me looking forward to seeing more from the comics, and more from Full Moon's latest line-up of comics.
Rebirth isn't drop-dead amazing, but it's very well-made and feels like inspired work by individuals who actually give-a-damn and want to make something great.
“You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.”
Second Introduction, I guess: - If you're paying attention, you've certainly noticed that my reviews are 'out-of-order,' with The Rebirth listed before, even though chronologically, it came after. This is because I went to my not-so-local comic-book store (an hour away, … my hometown sucks.) and bought The Rebirth. I would've bought The Offering as well, but it wasn't available, so I bought a digital version of The Offering (I include links at the bottom!). I'd recommend The Following more than The Offering by a long-shot, however.
The Offering (Issues 1 Thru 3)
The Offering feels more familiar to the first few films than The Rebirth does in-terms of narrative and layout. Truth is, that doesn't make for a very good backdrop as a comic-book, and makes Offering a very inferior work. Puppet Master's film-series is sketchy business. The first two films weren't the best, but I really liked Puppet Master III, which stands as one of my favorite series' from Full Moon. The series' never touched those heights again though, with a fun fourth film, a decent fifth, and other films that aren't worth writing about. (Though, I likely will. Puppet Master: The Legacy was awful. A thrown-together montage with less than 20 minutes of new footage. I haven't seen the Axis Rising film, but I know Axis Termination comes out soon, so I have to watch that. Why? Because.)
The issue is the Puppet Master series has been pursued a million-times over and in about a million-different ways and Full Moon Feature fans are all well aware of this. In-fact, with Demonic Toys, Ooga Booga, Devil Dolls, Skull Heads, and other Puppet-based films from Full Moon, the thinly-done narrative is hard to be excited about. At least Puppet Master integrates Nazis and World War II as a backdrop to make things interesting, but what I liked about The Rebirth is it took an entirely unique approach from what we had seen. They're sentient and conscious, and their human-side was further established, while at the same time, holding the lore that has been established in the last twenty-something years. And, more than that, it left me excited to see what they could do in later followups, and that doesn't happen with this.
In The Offering, a mess of friends find themselves at an abandoned building called Bodega Day Inn. Once there, the stories commence about Bodega's history with Toulon and the Puppets, and it's basic horror-story tropes that follow. I can't even really bring myself to write about the characters or the story and all that, because it's all too run-of-the-mill and uninspired.
The issue is the Puppet Master series has been pursued a million-times over and in about a million-different ways and Full Moon Feature fans are all well aware of this. In-fact, with Demonic Toys, Ooga Booga, Devil Dolls, Skull Heads, and other Puppet-based films from Full Moon, the thinly-done narrative is hard to be excited about. At least Puppet Master integrates Nazis and World War II as a backdrop to make things interesting, but what I liked about The Rebirth is it took an entirely unique approach from what we had seen. They're sentient and conscious, and their human-side was further established, while at the same time, holding the lore that has been established in the last twenty-something years. And, more than that, it left me excited to see what they could do in later followups, and that doesn't happen with this.
In The Offering, a mess of friends find themselves at an abandoned building called Bodega Day Inn. Once there, the stories commence about Bodega's history with Toulon and the Puppets, and it's basic horror-story tropes that follow. I can't even really bring myself to write about the characters or the story and all that, because it's all too run-of-the-mill and uninspired.