Army of Crime - Comic & Film Bulletins

028. Watchmen

Army of Crime returns for Season 2! The theme for our second season is "Attack of the Modern Age", and what better place to start a freewheeling tour of the modern age of comics than with Watchmen, the New York Times bestselling comic that catapulted Alan Moore into the pantheon of all time great comics writers. Join us as we attempt to read Watchmen with fresh eyes and disentangle the comic from the cultural legacy that has grown up around it.

Music is by Free Rap Beats.

Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444.

Topic for this episode is Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins.

027. Army of Crime Season One Coda

All pods have been cast for Season One here at Army of Crime headquarters. Our retrospective episode looks at Hellboy, Nat Turner, Hellblazer, the upcoming Dune film and uh, cattle. Your interprid hosts are heading back to the workshop to get started on Season Two. Stay alive out there, kids. 

 Music is by Free Rap Beats. 

 Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com. 

 Topics for this episode include Hellboy, Hellblazer, Dune, Nat Turner, First Cow.

026. La Marseillaise + Wolverine/Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection

La Marseillaise is a 1938 French film from director Jean Renoir about the French Revolution. Wolverine/Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection is a 1989 graphic novel by Archie Goodwin and Howard Chaykin.

Music is by Free Rap Beats. 

Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com. 

Topics for this episode include La Marseillaise, The Rules of the Game, Wolverine/Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection, Judge Dredd: Judgement Day and Copra.

025. Unconquered + Nat Turner

This episode we look at two starkly different takes on historical fiction. Unconquered is a Technicolor epic from 1947 directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gary Cooper and Paulette Goddard. This film represents an extremely Anglo-centric history of the United States, ostensibly telling the story of Pontiac's War from the perspective of a frontiersman and an indentured servant. Nat Turner is a four issue mini series written and drawn by Professor Kyle Baker about a violent slave uprising led by the titular enslaved man turned violent revolutionary and messiah. Nat Turner is both historically accurate and emotionally searing on a technical and thematic level. 

Music is by Free Rap Beats. 

Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com. 

Topics for this episode include Unconquered, Nat Turner, Sign of the Cross and The Nightingale.

024. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

The Star Wars saga began over 40 years ago with the release of Star Wars (later re-titled A New Hope) in 1977. Now, decades later, Star Wars has spanned nine films in the main storyline, multiple spin offs and countless TV shows, video games, books, and comics. Rise of Skywalker certainly represents a technical and cultural achievement, but is it any good? Join us as we try to parse out the end of the Skywalker saga and decipher what exactly has made Star Wars such an unstoppable juggernaut of pop culture. 

 Music is by Free Rap Beats. 

 Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com. 

 Topics for this episode include Rise of Skywalker, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and Star Wars: Clone Wars.

023. Mort Cinder + The Terrorizers

This episode we look at the black and white historical fantasy comic book Mort Cinder and the Taiwanese New Wave film The Terrorizers. These works together show a variety of people's lives subject to the invisible gears of historical and social processes, as well as pirates, jail breaks and even the Battle of Thermopylae. 

Music is by Free Rap Beats. 

Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com. 

Topics for this episode include Mort Cinder, The Terrorizers and Frank Miller's Sin City.

022. Unsane + Dr. Doom and Dr. Strange

Hell is other people. Hell is also ourselves. It is also, I suppose, a magical realm where evil creatures and the like live. This episode we examine the Steven Soderbergh joint Unsane, which is possibly about an insane person, corrupt institutions, and how awful people can be for twisted reasons. Then, we take a journey through the Roger Stern written and Mike Mignola drawn Marvel story Dr. Strange and Doctor Doom, which involves a titanic team up of gnarly neophyte necromancers into a mystic maelstrom against Mephisto. 

 

Music is by Free Rap Beats. 

 

Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com. 

 

Topics for this episode include Unsane (available on streaming), Dr. Strange and Dr. Doom, available in print or digital, and The Limey, available on disc.

021. The Devils

Hell will no hold no surprises for you after listening to our episode about the 1971 film The Devils, directed by Ken Russell. Repeatedly censored and often out of print, The Devils is a searing and phantasmagorical look at early modern witchcraft trials, demonic possessions, church-state power and the depths of human viciousness. Fascinating, outrageous and offensive to many, The Devils is not a film easily forgotten. 


Note: As this film is based on real events that happened in France in the early 1600s, we will be discussing the plot in full and getting into what might be considered spoilers.

Music is by Free Rap Beats. 

Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com. 

Topics for this episode include The Devils (available on streaming).

020. Coraline + Flight of the Raven

This episode we look at Other Mothers and other types of dangerous characters. From witch haunted American woods to the Nazi controlled streets of Paris, nothing is what it seems in Coraline and Flight of the Raven. Coraline is a stop motion animation film adapted from a Neil Gaiman novella and directed by Henry Selick. Flight of the Raven is a beautifully illustrated story of La Résistance written and drawn by French comics creator Jean Pierre Gibrat. Talking cats! Fast talking cat burglars! Jumping circus mice!  

 

Music is by Free Rap Beats. 

 

Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com. 

 

Topics for this episode include Coraline, (available on streaming or disc), Flight of the Raven by Jean-Pierre Gibrat (available in print), Anomalisa, directed by Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman (available streaming or disc), and Kubo and the Two Strings directed by Travis Knight (available on disc).

019. Hellboy Animated + Black Panther by Jack Kirby

Hellboy returns! Wakanda Forever! This episode we check out the Hellboy Animated films, featuring the voices from the 2004 live action film and an assortment of vampires, witches and monsters. Then the King of Comics gives a guided tour of Wakanda, home of the Black Panther. It's Bronze Age Kirby at his most artistically powerful in a lesser known run on the character he created decades earlier. Immortal samurai, vampires, monsters and punch ups abound! 

 

Music is by Free Rap Beats. 

 

Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com.  

 

Topics for this episode include Hellboy Animated, (available on streaming), Black Panther by Jack Kirby (available in digital or print), Newsboy Legion by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon (available in print or digital), and The Demon by Jack Kirby (available in print or digital).