Category Archives: Entertainment Consumed

My thoughts on Books, Comics, TV Shows, Movies and Music that I want to share.

Comics: Masks & Mobsters #1

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A little while ago I gave my thoughts about the new comics company monkeybrain comics’ roll-out titles. Those can be found here. The company’s newest creator owned title is Masks & Mobsters and its my favorite of the titles so far.

It’s written by Joshua Williamson (@Williamson_Josh) and the artist for this first issue is Mike Henderson (@MikeSHenderson), though the info page says that there will be a rotating cast of artists. I’m sure the other artists to come will all do great but I’m definitely looking forward to more issues drawn by Mike Henderson. The art is black and white evokes a great sense of mood.

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Some Thoughts About monkeybrain comics

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So as I mentioned in my post last night I love stories and all the many ways people tell stories. That includes comics. I’ve always been a comic fan, though for most of my life I didn’t have the finances or time to really get into them.

There was a time when I was younger (The beginning of the ’90s) that I remember I collected some series: The New Warriors, Sleepwalker, Deathlok. Not exactly A list (or even B list) titles those. There was a reason for that though – I always felt daunted by the sheer size of Marvel and DCs universe. So many titles and many of them rolling into issue numbers in the triple digits. Or at least high doubles.

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Book Recommendation: Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine

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So I’ve been meaning to write this review for about 2 weeks now. As soon as I finished Mechanique I knew I wanted to write about it, but I haven’t had the time. I teach English as a Foreign Language at a university in South Korea and the end of semester always means two weeks of exhausting work. I mostly teach English Conversation so final exams mean I have to sit down and talk to students. It doesn’t sound so bad but going over the same questions and hearing the same sorts of answers (often with the same sorts of mistakes) over and over again for hours a day over the course of a week is surprisingly draining. There is also the fact that when you’re marking someone’s conversation skill and language ability you really have to give them your full and undivided attention. If you let your mind wander you risk being unfair in your marking. The week after exams is always long too as I usually have a backlog of final tests and homework assignments to mark before I can compile final grades. The payoff for those two weeks of mental exhaustion though are a generally easy job and two months of paid vacation per semester, so I’m not complaining.

This means I’m going to have lots of time for writing and blogging, assuming I don’t let the joy of freedom devolve into long hours of TV, computer games and naps. That’s always a danger. Anyway, expect to see more action here on Looking For a Rabbit Hole (still pondering a name change on that front…). To start us off I should get to that review, yes?

To be clear, I am reviewing the audiobook of Mechanique, which means I’m really reviewing the work of two different storytellers: the book’s author, Genevieve Valentine [ her blog here] [her twitter here], and the audiobook’s narrator, Scott Aiello [other books narrated by Scott here]. Both of these fine artists did a great job in making Mechanique an enjoyable audiobook experience. Early on in my listening I realized that, as someone aiming sqaurely at the goal becoming a proffessional writer, I was very jealous of the writing here. Mechanique is not your standard novel. The narrative is non-linear, effortlessly jumping back and forth through time, and uses multiple points of view; many of the Circus Tresaulti’s performers take their turn in the spotlight.

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Review: Fireside Magazine Issue #1

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Let’s get something out of the way right now: I love short stories. I’m a big fan of anthologies and magazines. The root of this love for the short format can be found in my adoration for the writing of Harlan Ellison. Even though it’s never going to bring me the kind of money it takes to support a family I fully intend to devote a noticeable chunk of this writing career I’m trying to develop to short fiction. For that reason I’m all for jumping in on crowdfunding projects looking to get new fiction magazines off the ground. At the time of this writing, I’m supporting the Fireside Magazine Issue 2 & Beyond kickstarter and the Nightmare Magazine kickstarter. The way I see it, supporting a new magazine (or an established one for that matter) benefits me and other writers in two ways.

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Book Recommendation: Blackbirds, by Chuck Wendig

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One thing I intend to include in this blog are reviews of books, movies and other sorts of entertainment that interest me. This is my first one and the first serious review I’ve ever attempted to write. I’ve added this review to the Amazon page for Blackbirds but I wanted to include it here as well. After all, Looking for a Rabbit Hole needs content!

The Review:

If I were to write a one-sentence review of Blackbirds it would be something like this:

Blackbirds, by Chuck Wendig, is one heck of a tense, terrifying ride.

A longer, but short review:

I loved this book and would recommend it to almost everyone. There is a lot to like about it, including the characters, the story and the ideas running around in it. It has to be said that there is also a little that some may find unacceptable. If you absolutely cannot read something liberally laced with profanity, a bit of truly horrific violence and a smattering of straight up gore then you should probably stay away. For everyone else: buy and read it now!

Now, if you’d like a more fleshed out review continue on:

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