Tag / Pia Guerra

by admin

2021: The Year In Television

Now that I am home full time, I have plenty of time to catch up on the streaming shows I may have missed in years past or that were newly released. Since we cover the network and cable shows that I watch elsewhere, let’s take a look at the 34 seasons of the 24 shows I streamed on 8 different platforms this year.

13 Reasons Why Seasons 1-2 (Netflix)
When a high school girl commits suicide, she sends a series of confessional tapes to the people she deems responsible.

The Blacklist Season 8 (Netflix)
Having missed an episode or two along the way, I had to wait for the season to hit Netflix to combine with what was on my DVR to come up to date as the story of Elizabeth Keen wraps up.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 4 (Netflix)
The final installment of the darker interpretation of Archie Comics character somehow found a way to crossover with the 90s ABC version before ending its run.

Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol (Peacock)
A very unfaithful adaptation of the novel which I probably should not have watched right after reading the book.

Devs (Hulu)
A woman keeps digging into the death of her boyfriend, running afoul of his employer, who is up to some sketchy stuff.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Disney+)
Burdened by the legacy of Captain America, both the Falcon and the Winter Soldier try to find their way in a post-blip world.  When the government’s replacement Cap goes bad, the Falcon finally decides he is ready to take on the legacy Steve Rogers left for him.

The Flash Season 7 (Netflix)
I used a combination of Netflix and my DVR to catch up on the goings on from last season.

Hawkeye (Disney+)
Hawkeye takes on a new apprentice when the re-emergence of his old Ronin costume causes an uprising in New York’s underworld.

The History of Swear Words (Netflix)
Nicholas Cage hosts this look at some of our culture’s favorite words, including their etymology and most popular uses.

Loki Season 1 (Disney+)
Loki teams up with many different versions of himself to find out who is behind the TVA.

Love Life Season 1 (HBO Max)
An anthology series that follows one person’s romantic history per season.  The first season focused on Anna Kendrick’s Darby Carter as she learns to love herself and let herself be loved.

Mad About You Season 8 (Amazon Prime)
The 12-episode revival, released in 2019 on something called Spectrum Originals, finds the Buchmans rediscovering themselves after their daughter leaves for college.

Masters of the Universe: Revelation Season 1 (Netflix)
I wasn’t originally planning on watching Kevin Smith’s revival of the old He-Man cartoons, but when fandom acted all butthurt by them, I needed to see what the fuss was all about. Continue reading →

by jim

The Year In Books

With the year coming to an end, it is time to take a look back at the books I’ve read this year, 24 in total and 18 if you exclude the graphic novels.  Of those 24, 6 were graphic novels, another 6 were non-fiction, and 3 were TV show tie-ins.  Overall, I did a good job of clearing out the “to-read” drawer, as 9 of the 18 books came from there.

The 8 authors that I read for the first this year were:
Eliot Asinof
Hugh Delehanty
James Patterson
Len Berman
Marcos Breton
Phil Jackson
Ray Bradbury
Sammy Sosa

Amber Benson, Brian K. Vaughan, and Pia Guerra were the only authors I read multiple times in 2012.

Greg Rucka’s Alpha and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl were the only books released in 2012 that I read in 2012.

I revisited the work of 5 authors that I had not read since the previous century:
Stephen King 1993
John Grisham 1996
Scott Adams 1997
Ketih R.A. DeCandido 1999
Mel Odom 1999

Finally, the breakdown by month.  Being off for most of December certainly helped pad the total a tad bit. Continue reading →

by jim

Book 19 (of 52) – Y The Last Man Book Five

Y The Last Man Book 5: Brian K. Vaughan/Pia Guerra/Goran Sudzuka

The final chapter of Y The Last Man gives a few different possible explanations on what caused the death of nearly all of the world’s men, including nature’s reaction to Dr. Mann and her father’s race to create a human clone and a failed American chemical attack against China.  Meanwhile, Yorrick finally makes it to Paris and is reunited with his Beth, but his heart may be leading him somewhere, and to someone, else, assuming he can avoid Alter and her band of Israelis.  The epilogue, set 60 years in the future, shows a world being repopulated by clones, most of which are based off of Yorrick, while he is held captive by his daughter.

Vaughan and Guerra wrap up their story of the last man on Earth, giving Yorrick the ending he was looking for, but not the one he really wanted.   The story ended up being more than just that of the only man on a planet populated by woman, but also of a boy growing into a man and learning to leave behind the dreams of his youth and focus on the relationships he has in front of him while he can.  Having fallen out of the comics scene over the past 5 years, I really don’t know what either Vaughan or Guerra have been up to since this end of this series in 2008, but I hope to find out.

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Book 18 (of 52) – Y The Last Man Book Four

Y The Last Man Book 4: Brian K. Vaughan/Pia Guerra/Goran Sudzuka

The penultimate chapter of Y The Last Man covers issues 37 – 48 of the series from the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics.  These 12 issues see Yorrick, Agent 355, and Dr. Mann travel to Australia, where a quick search for Beth exposes Yorrick in more ways than one, and Japan, where they are reunited with Ampersand and Dr. Mann’s mother.

One book left to go before I finally find out how this series ended.  Definitely looking forward to the ending and then moving on to Vaughan’s other work, Ex Machina.

by jim

Book 17 (of 52) – Y The Last Man Book Three

Y The Last Man Book Three: Brian K. Vaughan/Pia Guerra/Goran Sudzuka

The third installment of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s tale about the last living man on Earth covers issues 24 – 36 of the Vertigo series.  Yorrick, Agent 355, and Dr. Mann have finally reached California, where they deal with Yorrick’s guilty conscious, the return of Hero, botulism, the Setauket Ring, and a ninja who steals Ampersand.

Unlike the last installment, some of these stories did seem familiar to me, especially the boat trip and the encounter with the Australian navy.  I must be getting close to the point where I stopped reading comics altogether, though, as there are only 2 books left, which would cover approximately 2 years and 24 more issues.  I don’t know what else I can say about Vaughan and Guerra’s work at this point.  This is clearly their masterpiece work, and, with only two volumes to go, I am looking forward to finishing it up.

by jim

Book 16 (of 52) – Y The Last Man Book Two

Y The Last Man Book Two – Brian K. Vaugham/Pia Guerra/Goran Parlov

Book Two of the hardcover collection of Y The Last Man covers issues 11 through 23 of the Vertigo series about the last man on Earth.    Yorrick, Agent 355, and Dr. Mann continue their issue-filled journey to San Francisco.  They deal with the potential arrival of two surviving astronauts who were on the International Space Station when all the men died, a plot to kidnap Yorrick by Israeli forces, and an Arizona militia.

While I’m sure I’ve read these stories before, I don’t have much of a recollection of them at this point, so the whole thing seems new to me.  Pia Guerra gets a little break in this volume and is replaced by Goran Parlov for three issues and Paul Chadwick for two.  Thankfully, Parlov’s style meshes rather well with Guerra’s.  Unfortunately, the same can not be said for Chadwick.  The one saving grace for his two issues were that they were a side story that didn’t really have much to do with the overall tale.

There are three more volumes to go, and I want to both read them right away to find out how the tale ends and to save and savor them, knowing that the end is near.  That, I guess, is the ultimate compliment that you can give to creators.

by jim

Book 13 (of 52) – Y The Last Man Book One

Y The Last Man Book One – Brian K. Vaughan/Pia Guerra

When I stopped reading comics a few years back, one of the books I was still enjoying was Y The Last Man, Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s tale of Yorrick Brown, the sole survivor of a worldwide episode that left the male of all species dead.  Now that the series has completed, Vertigo re-released the series as deluxe hardcovers, the first of which covers the first 10 issues of the series.

These issues first came out 10 years ago, so despite having read them at the time, I didn’t really remember much about them.  Yorrick Brown, an amateur magician who is training a monkey on the side, is talking to his girlfriend, who is in Australia, when something starts killing men throughout the entire world, leaving Yorrick, and his monkey Ampersand, as the last remaining males on Earth.  These first ten issues focus on Yorrick’s trip to Washington, where his mom is in the senate and he gets assigned to Agent 355 of the Culper Ring, and then to Boston, where he and 355 look for a cloning expert, who fears she is responsible for the plague that killed all of the men.

I’ve had this first edition for a few years now and was waiting for the last edition to come out before I started reading it.  I didn’t want to have to wait for the ending like I did back when I was reading it monthly.  Recently, I went to check on when the latest edition would be released and found out that I got the last volume last year, either for my birthday or Christmas, so I’ve been sitting on the whole collection for nearly a year now.  Having read the first volume, I can see what drew me to the series in the first place.  Vaughan has a tight story going on and Guerra’s pencils are even better than I had remembered.  I imagine I’ll be tearing through the remaining 4 volumes in short order.