deerstalker

Creators: Emma Kubert, Rusty Gladd / Image

I miss libraries. Or rather, I miss the concept of libraries. In the information age, I didn’t actually spend that much time in libraries given the preponderance of texts that I have readily available in my own house and online, but with libraries come a certain sense of comfort and mystique. There is something to be said about entering a building that is meant to house stories and tomes. There is something to be said about being surrounded by knowledge. And that same something is also why fantasy books live the concept of archives. Inkblot is the latest comic that is a story about stories, and one I remembered how to read cursive, I found myself playfully engaged with the Seeker’s inadvertent trigger to the story.

The first act of Inkblot is a lot of your standard world building affair. There is an introduction to your magical lands, vague allusions to an ancient evil, and a not so subtle shift to the present day as we find our reluctant, nameless protagonist. And our main character starts off the adventure by creating a cat made out of magical ink and thus the story truly gets started as this magical black cat is every bit as mischievous as your standard cat, except with some extraordinary abilities that make pet care a little difficult.

Kubert and Gladd work well together and the blending of creative control results in something truly stunning to look at. The art has a distinct flair comprising of Kubert’s pencils, Gladd’s inks, and finished with Kubert’s colors. Gladd’s words accentuate a lot of the work that the visual storytelling manages to accomplishes, and there are some truly marvelous panels that resonate with minimal text. The lettering of the narration is a little hard to read, but this is coming from someone who gave up on cursive years ago, and I acclimated quickly enough.

It takes a while for Inkblot to build momentum, but once the actual inkblot shows up, it’s a chaotic run to the end and reminds me of Pagemaster, a movie you may or may not remember, but I adore as someone who loved and loves libraries. Inkblot‘s a good starter fantasy and one with some stunning visual design. It evokes a familiar level of comfort and I’m hoping once we get to spend more time with the magical familiar, Inkblot will come into its own.

7.9 “Library Cats” out of 10

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The post Inkblot #1 Review is a Story About Stories appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

Funko started to tweet out its Star Wars Celebration exclusives today. They are listed below for you and we will update them as more are revealed. As we know Star Wars Celebration this year was canceled due to Covid-19 but will return to Anaheim in 2022.

The post Star Wars Celebration Virtual Con presents: Coming Soon – Star Wars Concept Series appeared first on The Nerd Element.

A Love Song For Latasha showcases what the life of Latasha Harlins could have been had she not been murdered by a convenience store owner in 1991 at the age of 15. Latasha’s death was a catalyst for the 1992 riots in Los Angeles and feels even more important now as we reflect on the entire Black Lives Matter movement in our country.

The injustice surrounding the shooting death of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins at a South Central Los Angeles store became a flashpoint for the city’s 1992 civil uprising. As the Black community expressed its profound pain in the streets, Latasha’s friends and family privately mourned the loss of a vibrant child whose full story was never in the headlines. Nearly three decades later, director Sophia Nahli Allison’s A Love Song For Latasha removes Latasha from the context of her death and rebuilds an archive of a promising life lost. Oral history and memories from Latasha’s best friend and cousin converge in a dreamlike portrait that shows the impact one brief but brilliant life can have.

First time filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison takes an artistic and poetic look at the life of Latasha with this 15-minute film.

Imagine a cabin deep in the Southern countryside, hugged by trees and farmland, bathed in shadows. A man lies comatose in one bedroom. A woman sews dresses in the gray basement. She’s surrounded by mannequins; ghostly bodies that don’t mimic life so much as they spell unease. They recall something else in the house—something unseen. A presence that poisons the people inside. All houses have stories to tell. This one has several.

Bryan Bertino knows how to manifest dread. The writer/director burst onto the scene with the hit horror flick The Strangers, about a terrifying home invasion. Now he’s back with The Dark and the Wicked, another invasion movie—this time, of the demonic variety, and of the things that grow between families until they rot. “You should have never come,” a mother’s voice echoes through the film. But it doesn’t matter where we go or where or how long we stay there; family pulls us back in, binds us together, and has the power to tear us gruesomely apart.

The Dark and the Wicked tells the story of a broken family gathering in rural Texas after the patriarch falls ill. While he’s bedridden, his wife (Julie Oliver-Touchstone) goes slowly mad, taking her own life shortly after her adult children—Louise (Marin Ireland) and Michael (Michael Abbott Jr.)—return home. The siblings are thrown into a grief so terrible it tears through them, striking them with dark, haunting visions: of blood, of death, of figures in the night. But are these mere plays of the imagination, or is something more sinister afoot? Something devilish?

The film keeps us at arm’s length, with icy night between us and Louise, who’s centered in this nihilistic nightmare. Ireland gives a tremendous performance with high-caliber delivery that elevates every scene. She moves through each frame with a nervous energy that punctuates the sparse landscape she occupies. It’s impossible to look away from her; she has the perfect horror aura, transfixing and peculiar. Her rapport with Abbott Jr. draws us in so that every horrible thing that happens to them feels like the twist of a knife.

The Traveling Picture Show Company

And oh boy are there knives in this movie. Plenty of them. Knives that cut through flesh and slice off body parts. The Dark and the Wicked is loaded with piercing imagery like this, subtle moments that pack a punch. Bertino is a master at this kind of paralyzing, suspicious fear. He layers the film in religious iconography that teases the presence that haunts the siblings. Their Godless mother hoards plastic Sunday school crosses and writes journal entries about the devil. A maniacal priest (Xander Berkeley), channeling Kane from Poltergeist 2, shows up unannounced. There are omens. Bleating sheep underscore the horror in the household. A great unspoken energy between everyone—a disparateness where evil manifests.

These various strains never quite convene in a satisfying narrative way. Still, The Dark and the Wicked is a delightfully unsettling film with amazing performances, atmosphere, and visuals. Bertino has another impressive horror entry on his hands. The sort of chilling film you’ll think about well into the night. We’re glad we didn’t stay away.

3.5/5

Featured Image: The Traveling Picture Show Company

The post THE DARK AND THE WICKED Is a Devilish Delight appeared first on Nerdist.