When I turned 12, every other kid was outside playing and I was hidden in my room devouring every gigantic issue of the Comics Buyer’s Guide, a newsprint tabloid packed with the hidden occult knowledge behind the pages of funnybooks by the same people who made All In Color for a Dime, a book I’d checked out of the library for years at a time.

Before the black and white comics explosion, I discovered Cerebus, which began as a Conan parody and then became an exploration of whatever creator Dave Sim — working with background genius Gerhard — wanted to have it be about like politics and religion.

Sim was inspired to create 300 issues of this comic when he was hospitalized for a bad acid trip. Self-publishing as Aardvark-Vanaheim, Inc. and encouraging others to do the same, he was the kind of creator that inspired others to make their own comics that they owned themselves.

By the late issues, Sim underwent a religious conversion to his own unique form of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. And where the comic once was quite female positive, so much of the book misogynist. Sim even claimed that it was anti-feminist. It was quite a shift for so many who wanted to make the journey through all three hundred issues.

As Robin Bougie said, quoting Coop, in his sketchbook exploration of the anti-vax cartoon that Robert Crumb recently drew, “Crumb is the ghost of xmas future for all of us maladjusted fuckhead artists.” Much like movie nerds — me — who spend much of their time in a basement, most comic artists aren’t people who go around others all that often and are often taught to never trust anyone. So when one of them goes off the rails, it can be hurtful. But maybe you shouldn’t be suprised.

Sim’s follow-up to Cerebus, Glamourpuss, further explored Sim’s theory that women can’t create like men — I’m really simplifying here — so they steal from them while looking like a fashion magazine with photorealistic imagery of teenage women and a story about the death of Flash Gordon artist Alex Raymond.

Cerebus learned at one point that he was destined to die alone, unmourned and unloved. Maybe Sim will be as well. But somehow, some way, a movie was made from his comics. I was shocked to find it with no fanfare on Tubi.

Oliver Simonsen spent more than a decade making this unauthorized film, knowing full well that Sim may nix the entire project once he saw it. Luckily, he liked the work of Simonsen and a team of animators who made this movie for nearly no budget whatsoever. Don’t expect Hollywood animation but also don’t expect to be disappointed. You’ll be quite surprised how great this looks and moves, getting in the story of Cerebus against Necross the Mad, the theft of the jewel of wizard Maki and appearances by Lord Julius, Prince Mick, Prince Keef, Elrod the Albino and G’ar and T’ar, who believe Cerebus is the next manifestation of a pig god.

This is an incredible effort — as difficult and near-quixotic as Sim’s 300 issue goal — but I consider it a success. There’s a lot of cover across its 80-minute story and those who have a strong foundation in the comics will do better at deciphering it. I’m just so pleased that this exists. 12-year-old me is so excited about it.

You can watch this on Tubi and learn more at the official site and the director’s Facebook page.

This is a movie of weird inconsistencies and you’re either going to be forgiving or you’re going to hate it. Or maybe you’re a Marvel fan and will just love anything they put on screen. I’m predisposed to enjoy comic book movies because I remember an era when all we got was Ron Ely as Doc Savage — and we liked it — and fake Iron Man TV movies like Exo-Man, so I always wonder when people dislike these movies for reasons — that I’ll get into — it kind of makes me wonder how filmgoers went from being so afraid of the train in The Great Train Robbery and then a few years later didn’t think motion pictures were dark magic and started saying, “Oh, this is kind of boring.”

Mining the work of comic book writer Jason Aaron — having Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) gain the hammer and powers of Thor as she battles cancer; Gorr the God Butcher attacking gods throughout time and space — director, co-writer (with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson) and co-star (as Korg) Taika Waititi has created a movie that is as much about Thor (Chris Hemsworth) seeking his identity as it is superheroics.

Gorr lost his daughter and realized he was the last being left on his planet. After praying for salvation to the god Rapu, he discovered that the gods no longer care or hear these pleas. He discovers a weapon called the Necrosword and immediately slays that god, deciding that there’s no need for them. You know, kind of like how we have monarchs and leaders who beg so much of us with no return.

Thor has been with the Guardians of the Galaxy, who have begun to tired of him and a call from Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander) informs him that Gorr the God Butcher is coming to Asgard to destroy any of the gods who survived. It’s intriguing that while Thor took Gorr’s arm in their first comic book battle, Gorr takes hers.

Asgard has become a tourist spot and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) has begun to miss the life of combat she once savored, instead being trapped by bureaucracy. Gorr is a threat she can handle more easily than red tape, so she dives into the battle, soon joined by Jane as Thor, Thor’s friend Korg, two braying space goats named Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher, and Thor himself, carrying Stormbreaker, a hammer that begins to grow jealous of its owner’s old weapon.

Gorr ends up kidnapping the children of Asgard and makes his way to find Eternity, the being in the center of the universe that he can ask to end the gods. Thor and his friends head to the Galactic Senate on Coruscant — err, I mean Omnipotence City. There, they petition Zeus (Russell Crowe) for help, but start to realize that maybe Gorr went on his mission to end the gods with good reason.

The movie is, at the end, about the love that binds us to people and defines us more than hitting shadow creatures with axes and hammers. The tone may vary throughout the film, as major threats are joked at throughout the film, a fact that was embraced in Thor: Ragnarok and yet disliked here. I’ve ever read comments that people wanted the entire film to be like the dark opening as Gorr loses his daughter and I wonder, “Have they ever seen a summer blockbuster with four Guns ‘n Roses songs blaring on the soundtrack?”

Christian Bale is what made this movie, playing a role that finds him frightening children and laying powerful gods low. After The Dark Night Rises he claimed he’d never make another superhero film, but his children begged him to be in this. I hope they have the action figure of their dad; he’s one of the best — if not the best — Marvel Cinematic Universe villains, one that may be more right and devoted to his cause than Thor, whose only cause is his own life for most of the film.

I also loved that Korg starts and ends the film almost as a riff on Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, telling the children of the adventures of a legend. His constant fumbling as he tells the tale is actually pretty endearing. And hey — any space Viking ship that names its bar after Cocktails & Dreams, the one Tom Cruise works at in Cocktail — is going to make me laugh.

Are people tired of superhero movies? Sure. But they’re the reason to leave our homes and go see a movie. This is the natural evolution of the summer blockbuster and if big studios could have made a Star Wars every few months, they would have. As for most comic book fans, we get it. We get hundreds of new blockbusters released every Wednesday at comic shops and keep thousands of characters and timelines and alternate realities straight. I just wonder what people expect from movies now and what would make them happy. Honestly, I get the feeling that some people instantly dislike a movie just because they need something to kvetch about. Then again, I’m a forgiving lover of 80s sword and sorcery movies, Jack Kirby and neon colors on film. So maybe I was predisposed to like this.

That said — I never thought that I’d see so many Celestials — much less one — in a movie. Yes, I realize they were in The Eternals, but seeing so much of this movie is like reading through old issues of Journey Into Mystery. Sometimes, you just need to enjoy things, find the good and love the feeling of summertime, when movies just want to entertain you.

A remake of the 1986 animated film Valhalla, this film takes advantage of Thor’s popularity to tell the story of Røskva and Tjalfe, two Viking children who travel from Midgard to Valhalla with the gods Thor and Loki to face the Jotnar, the Fenrir wolf and Ragnarok.

Shot on location in Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, this has characters that look nothing like the Marvel films. That’s great because this movie demands to stand on its own two feet.

Røskva and Tjalfe become the servants of the gods yet learn that the ones that they worship are just as human and filled with issues as all of us. Yet can they help those very same flawed gods when the end of all there is looms large?

I thought this was going to be one of those WalMart sneaky films where people buy it because they think it’s the real Thor, but this feels closer to the mythological Thor than the more popular Marvel movies. It’s definitely worth a watch.

You can watch this on Tubi.

I’m beyond happy that social media did not exist for Tim Burton’s Batman. Could you imagine how upset — more than letters columns, fans in comic book stores angry about the film and the 50,000 protest letters sent to Warner Brothers — they would be about Batman being played by comedic actor Michael Keaton? The guy who made Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure making Batman? Didn’t we come so far from the Adam West Batman which people still hated and had not reevaluated in 1989?

Producers Benjamin Melniker and Michael E. Uslan had purchased the film rights of Batman from DC Comics in 1979 and Uslan continued pushing the dark detective side of the character when every studio wanted camp.

This was almost made a decade earlier, as Tom Mankiewicz completed based on the comics by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers, who was hired to do the concept art. It never happened — at one point, William Holden was going to play James Gordon, David Niven almost was Alfred Pennyworth and Peter O’Toole would have been the Penguin –despite Joe Dante and Ivan Reitman — who wanted Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy as the Dynamic Duo — getting involved.

At this point, Batman in the comics had become a grim and gritty force of crime-fighting vengeance. The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: The Killing Joke became critical successes and despite an Englehart script that got closer, it was Sam Hamm who would take the story and make it work.

It took another Burton success with Beetlejuice to get this movie greenlit. Yes, comics were not big business in 1989. Bob Kane, who always had his name listed as Batman’s creator despite Bill FInger probably doing all the work with none of the savvy to get the credit, endorsed the film in the face of disbelieving comic book fans.

With Keaton on board, the role of the Joker had plenty of potential actors attached, such as Tim Curry, Brad Dourif, Ray Liotta, James Woods, Robin Williams, David Bowie and John Lithgow. Burton wanted John Glover, which I would have loved. But the studio always wanted Jack Nicholson.

Comic book fans were happy with this casting. As for Nicholson, he reduced his $10 million fee to $6 million for a cut of the film’s earnings and merchandise, which ended up making him around $90 million dollars.

The third star of the film would be Gotham City itself, a place designed by Anton Furst, who Burton had wanted to work with since he saw The Company of Wolves. He would later say, “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so naturally in tune with a director. Conceptually, spiritually, visually, or artistically. There was never any problem because we never fought over anything. Texture, attitude and feelings are what Burton is a master at.”

The city was based on Brazil and Blade Runner, as well as the idea that Gotham was — in the words of Furst — “what New York City might have become without a planning commission. A city run by crime, with a riot of architectural styles. An essay in ugliness. As if hell erupted through the pavement and kept on going.”

Before Batman‘s release in June of 1989, a whole new wave of Batmania took over with $750 million worth of merchandise sold. I can’t even explain to people not alive for that summer what it was like or the lines of people waiting to see this movie. It was incredible, levels of fandom not seen since Star Wars.

For once, in the face of so much hype, a movie delivered.

Gothan is on the edge of chaos, as always. Boss Grissom (a perfect Jack Palance) openly challenges the authority of the police and government. His associate Jack Napier (Nicholson) is making time with his best girl Alicia Hunt (Jerry Hall). And reporter Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl) and photojournalist Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) are investigating a human bat that has started destroying criminals.

Napier and Batman face off at Ace Chemicals and the mobster crashes into toxic chemicals, transforming body and soul into the Joker. He takes over the mobs of the city and declares war on Gotham and Batman, who of course is Bruce Wayne (Keaton) and who has fallen for Vale.

Sure, it’s simple in retrospect, but that’s because it’s become part of the fabric of our fandom. Even today I marvel at the fact that Prince did this soundtrack, that Nicholson got his buddy Tracy Walter into the role of Bob the Goon — who had his own action figure and we figured was a major new bad guy only to unceremoniously be killed off by his own boss — and that character actors like Michael Gough and Pat Hingle could so easily become who so many of us envision Alfred and Commissioner Gordon.

Batman changed culture. It’s why superhero movies were finally taken seriously, even if it took Marvel to finally cement that. It launched Batman the Animated Series, perhaps the greatest comic book adaption of all time, a show better than its source material. And according to Scott Mendelson, it led to an increased importance of opening weekend box office receipts, less time between movies playing in theaters and being released for home viewing which killed second-run theaters, big time merchandising tie-ins and PG-13 being the best possible rating for box office.

As for Melniker and Uslan, all their hard work really added up to nothing. Their 1992 case against Warner Brothers claimed they were “the victims of a sinister campaign of fraud and coercion that has cheated them out of continuing involvement in the production of Batman and its sequels. We were denied proper credits, and deprived of any financial rewards for our indispensable creative contribution to the success of Batman.” The films made $2 billion but the settlement offered by Warner Brothers to the production team was minuscule.

Batman is a film that holds up for me. It was released at a magical time, my final summer at home before college, seeing my love of comic books shared on a big screen surrounded by my brother and best friend. I can still imagine it as if it were yesterday, my brother endless repeating the Joker lines we’d seen in endless trailers and commercials until the lights went down. “Wait until they get a load of me.”

Not everyone gets a romantic origin story. For Willy Wilson, a 12-year-old comic book fan, it takes falling into a manhole and getting trapped in a sewer for a few days to learn that he can fly and has telekinesis. So when he’s free, Willy puts on a mask and does what more than one remix remake ripoff Superman has done: hunt down his parents’ murderers and kill them in cold blood.

Directed, written and produced by Vinayan — who also made the three hundred dwarf-starring Albhuthadweep (Wonder Island) — Little Superman has sequences of low budget CGI and 3D that give it a cheaper quality than perhaps even Süpermen Dönüyor, the gold standard for the lowest of the low budget Men of Steel.

When Little Superman isn’t throwing parent murderers into buildings or letting them die in burning buildings, he’s embarrassing every single teacher at his school. They can’t discipline him or they’ll die, so you have to forgive them for their lack of authority.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Jessica (Cassandra Delaney, one-time wife of John Denver; also the star of One Night Stand and Hurricane Smith) just wants to take care of an animal sanctuary but now she has to deal with the fury of three kangaroo poachers — Sunny (Peter Ford), Ringo (David Sandford) and Sparks (Garry Who) — after she tries to turn them in for hunting on protected land.

They take things too far when they break into her quarters while she sleeps and take nude Polaroids of her. She responds by messing with their guns, so they assault her and tie her to the hood of The Beast, a specially redesigned Ford F100, and tear through the outback. Then, they destroy her home, smash her car and kill every animal that she’s sworn to protect.

If the police (Don Barker) don’t care, if she can’t get to town and if she’s probably going to die at the hands of these men, there’s no way she’s not taking some of them out with her.

Directed by Mario Andreacchio and written by Rob George — who would also work together on The Dreaming, Captain Johnno, Abduction…Who’s Next? and several episodes of Pals. 

George was inspired by driving through Australia, saying “The original source of the idea for me was driving back from Sydney to Adelaide one night, we left about midnight, and around about West Wyalong we got taunted by some guy who kept driving right up behind us … just sitting a foot or two behind the back of our ute and then he’d pass us and go up and come back on the other side of the road and play chicken with us. It was really distressing.”

Andreacchio would later say, “Fair Game came out of a situation where we were wanting to make a movie that was a B-grade video suspense thriller. I wanted to treat it like comic book violence — it was always like a comic book study of violence. What amazed me and the thing I found quite disappointing was that it started to become a cult film in some parts of the world and people were taking it seriously. And that, for me, became a real turning point. I thought, if people are taking this seriously, then I don’t think I can make this sort of material.”

This movie exudes sleaze and danger, as everything surrounding Jessica is out to hurt her. It’s shot in blazing sunlight by Andrew Lesnie, who would go on to The Lords of the Rings movies. It feels like I Spit On Your Grave and Razorback had a child and then Death Proof was the kid it had when it was just a teenager.

Stick with this. It takes some time to get to where it needs to be. But when it does, it’s ready to deliver on everything you watch exploitation films for.

Farir Game will open theatrically July 8 before a digital release July 12 from Dark Star Pictures, A physical release is planned for August.