This is Halloween! - "Bela Legosi's Dead"

For this next post, I thought I’d continue down the rabbit hole of the vampire. Maybe that Batman/Dracula movie would’ve suited better here, but it is what is. When it comes to the big monsters, vampires aren’t exactly on my list of favorites… well, Blade is, but the Daywalker is one bad brother. Also, Angel’s a good vampire… when he isn’t sometimes transforming into Angelus. Unfortunately, I have no Dark Shadows episodes for today, but these definitely fit with that gothic feel… well, three of them do. So, here a couple of recent watches, one of the first movies I watched on HBO Max, and one of the worst things I’ve watched in years.

Tales From the $3.99 Bin! - Bruce Lee: The Dragon Rises #1

Next up for the month is a pretty modern comic. Back in 2016, an independent publisher called Darby Pop released a mini-series called Bruce Lee: The Dragon Rises. It’s a book for all ages. I don’t remember when I first heard about it, but I was kind of interested in it. It lasted four issues and I own the first two. It’s been released in the trades since then. Today, I’ll just be talking about the first issue to the miniseries.

One of the biggest things about it is that Shannon Lee, Bruce Lee’s daughter, is actually involved in it. She and Jeff Kline wrote the story. Kline was a producer and writer on some of the recent Transformer shows and Jackie Chan Adventures. Finding that out helps me get this comic. The artwork is handled by Brandon McKinney, the colors are done by Zac Atkinson, and Troy Peteri does the letters. Reginald Hudlin is on here as a consulting producer which sounds weird. I guess that means he’s the editor? Oh well, on to the synopsis!

Bruce Lee: The Dragon Rises #1

Writers: Shannon Lee and Jeff Kline

Art: Brandon McKinney

Colors: Zac Atkinson

Letters: Troy Peteri

Design: Steve Blackwell

Consulting Producer: Reginald Hudlin

Movie Talk - Iron Monkey and Iron Monkey 2

Well, it’s the last week for this butt-kicking, leg-aching month. During my snow-laden stay at home, I decided to revisit a movie I saw when I was younger, Iron Monkey. I saw this a few years ago on TV and I remember enjoying it. Since it was on Netflix and I had nothing to do, I decided to watch it. I also saw that the movie had a sequel called Iron Monkey 2, so I thought it might be a good watch too. They both have Donnie Yen, a martial arts actor I’m beginning to enjoy more of these days.

Iron Monkey was first released in 1993 overseas. It was eventually brought over US theaters in 2001. Quentin Tarantino was behind getting it over here. I guess someone eventually saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and thought this would be good over here. You know, I still haven’t seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon yet. I may have to do that someday. It has an easy title to spoof with Crouching Tiger, Hidden “Insert Random Thing Here.” As for its “sequel”, it was released in 1996. There really isn’t much else to say about it… yet.