The best of anything should move us. It shouldn’t be the same old, same old; the tried and true; the vanilla when one could’ve had a cinnamon orange swirl! It should be a surprise, an overheard conversation, a kiss and a delight.
Which is why we recap what we felt were the best attempts by indie artists to move something in us a hair off-center. We grow by allowing things to change us, and if every delight we experience is just the tip of a greater iceberg, let’s salute (and support) those artists steadfastly chipping away on our behalf!
And to 2020’s amazing indie creations we say: Bring it!
Best Always!
Team Narazu
All Indie. All Awesome.
Film
by Leo Faierman
Hi folks. I’d like to bring a few unusual best-of-2019 sci-fi delights to the usual tirade of critically-acclaimed familiar titles (Ad Astra? Are you all sure about that one?). I’d also like to lead with the notion that 2019 was not the best year for sci-fi in theaters, which only makes me more excited for what 2020 will bring. I’d wager that television is currently a mightier home for the genre — with laudable projects such as HBO’s sublime, fiercely political Watchmen or Amazon’s The Boys — but there are big-screen treasures for those who take the time to look. We took the time, so read on.
Best Zombie Film That Might Not Actually Be One, Really: One Cut of the Dead
I don’t know enough about Japanese director Shin’ichirô Ueda, and this is something I should quickly correct in the coming months. His experimentally zealous zombie film One Cut of the Dead released in 2017, but saw a proper American theatrical presence earlier this year, contrasting even its own Wikipedia summary with a subversive and immersive sense of hard-to-explain joyous creativity. Get comfortable as you watch a super-low-budget zombie horror film, all shot in one take and unpredictably madcap in its presentation…that is, until you get to the halfway point of the film’s runtime. All of a sudden, it mutates into its own documentary, detailing the background context, happy accidents, and corners cut to bring you the finished project you just sat through. Equal parts found-footage horror, comedy, family drama, and meta-mockumentary, One Cut of the Dead isn’t what you might think (even after reading this blurb) all the way to and through the final credits. If anything, it takes a basic horror premise and turns it into an inspiring pep-talk to go ahead and produce your art, at any cost.
Best Anime Feature-Length Film: Promare
I really didn’t think I would love Promare as much as I did. Readers of my occasional anime inclusions in NARAZU newsletters might intuit some selectivity with the medium’s treasures. Here, however, is a crowd-pleasing, deliriously colorful two-hour action anime that is smarter than most series I’ve picked over along several years. Plucky rookie Galo Thymos joins Burning Rescue, a mecha-powered firefighting brigade constantly at odds with the Mad Burnish, a group of fabulous pyromaniac mutants setting the city Promepolis ablaze. Front-loaded with silly posturing and dazzling action sequences, Promare eventually evolves into a humanist fable invoking ecological themes which stealthily embrace outsider-ism and the politics around immigration. If that sounds like a lot of heavy lifting, the debut feature-length film by fan-favorite Studio Trigger flexes its muscles with a grin, tackling its heady content so capably that I was stunned in my seat for most of its latter half. Promare manages to be a drastically sincere, meme-worthy, and wildly hallucinogenic ride all at once, an exciting portent of Trigger’s future projects and a must-buy DVD when it finally releases in 2020. If you missed it in theaters, try to make sure to go into this firefighting anime cold when the opportunity strikes.
Best and Worst Presentation of Outstanding Young Talent Sasha Lane in Sci-Fi: Daniel Isn’t Real / Hellboy
It’s no secret that I adore Sasha Lane, ever since first seeing her vivacious performance in the coming-of-age gay conversion camp drama The Miseducation of Cameron Post, with an electrically expressed charismatic honesty that beams out of any role she dives into. The young queer biracial actress found herself in two divisive genre projects this year and, while her performance never falters in either, each diverts wildly in terms of quality.
Daniel Isn’t Real is a demented and risky psychological thriller that is well worth seeking out. Taking a stylized yet non-romanticized approach to trauma and childhood imaginary friends, its spooky narrative seems silly on paper but soon emerges as a slick concept with stakes. Lane plays a young artist here, a potentially healing presence at odds with unstable protagonist Luke’s dangerous delusions. Yes, I do wish she was in it for longer and with greater substance to sink her teeth into, but the film’s compelling mix of body horror, slasher film, anguished youth, and weird celebrity legacy (its co-stars’ fathers are Tim Robbins and Arnold Schwarzenegger, respectively. Yes, really.) sings to the rafters. It deserves to be seen by wider audiences.
Opposite that is the Hellboy reboot starring David Harbour. Lane manifests in the film with greater agency though in a far lesser project overall, a wholly unnecessary and ill-observed bit of dark-fantasy cigar-chewing nonsense that manages to disrespect both its actors and original comic series with an insipid script and disastrously C-grade-level special effects. When Harbour was first announced as the titular nurture-over-nature hellspawn, I had nothing but upbeat optimism…an attitude that now seems foolishly invested, dashed against the rocks.
Regardless: I’d love to see Sasha Lane truly thrive in 2020, perhaps in the upcoming American adaptation of the BBC cult-classic television series Utopia.
Worst Netflix Sci-Fi Kindling: In The Shadow of the Moon
Where to begin with this? Critics seemed mostly warm towards this horrid patchwork genre quilt, a tepidly predictable detective thriller that bleeds into time-travel tomfoolery for its encore trick. The improbably-named model-turned-actor Boyd Holbrook takes the lead as a police officer in 80s Philadelphia, pursuing a mysterious murderer and detective career. Legion’s magnificent Rachel Keller gets blink-and-you’ll-miss-her doomed-pregnant-wife duties as Holbrook’s character struggles to understand the sci-fi film he wasn’t meant to star in. It’s hard to describe how disappointing it is to see second-wind-relishing Bokeem Woodbine feebly deliver his atrociously-written dialogue (the script is so banal that it’s truly not his fault), but this is a Netflix film which includes, among other shameful moments, a scene where the main character answers a cellphone with a pause before stating, with no self-awareness whatsoever, “What do you mean ‘it’s happening again?’” In The Shadow of the Moon really is 2019’s Mute, a clumsy Netflix dumpster fire script which disrespects both its actors’ and audience’s abilities and intelligence, readily reaching for a crowd-pleasing genre hybrid like Dark City and directly face-planting into a flattop grill.
Comics & Graphic Novels
A world of hidden magicians, cybernetic animal spirits, steampunk adventurers and a trip Uptown make up our Best of 2019 list. I know these books walk a fine line between independent and mainstream, but these books could only be made without the corporate overseers stifling these brilliant creators from making the gutsy, off the wall and challenging books the world needs!
Writer/Artist/Creator – Daniel Warren Johnson
Colorist – Mike Spicer
Letterer – Rus Wooton and Daniel Warren Johnson
Cover Artists – Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer
Creator Daniel Warren Johnson balances mega outrageousness with insightful tenderness in this raucous off-the-wall comic. Main character Jake went from being a rising superstar to a “down on his luck” guitarist who has to join forces with Murder Falcon (MurF), a cybernetic anthropomorphic falcon from an alternate dimension who is powered up by the music of Metal. Using the awesome powers of Metal, Jake and MurF travel around the globe reuniting Jake’s old band and gathering musical weapons for a cosmic battle to save Earth from an alien invasion, along the way joining forces with a Japanese orchestral army and other animal spirits fighting the good fight. This is a complete and self-contained story and with Johnson’s gritty high-energy style makes for a fast-paced and engaging read. Johnson’s next project is out soon for one of the Big Two. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram to stay current on his work.
Creators – Brandon Thomas and Khary Randolph
Writer – Brandon Thomas
Artist/Cover Artist – Khary Randolph
Colorist – Emilio Lopez
Letterer – Deron Bennett
Excellence is a loaded title for a loaded book… loaded with ideas and amazing talent. To call this a black version of Harry Potter is a disservice; Harry had to fulfill a prophecy, whereas Spencer has to create a legacy while inside of a system that demands complete obedience in maintaining the status quo. This brings us back to the idea of the excellence that Thomas and Randolph explore in a modern-day fantasy adventure that at times is a very personal and reflective work of art. With big ideas about societal structure and justice, Thomas crafts a world and story that is tailor-made for the stylistic line work that Randolph lays down on the page. If you haven’t heard about this book, you’re in luck as the first 6 issues of have been collected under the title of Excellence Vol. 1: Kill The Past.
Created by Chuck Brown, David F. Walker, and Sanford Greene
Writers – Chuck Brown and David F. Walker
Artist – Sanford Greene
Colorists – Rico Renzi and Sandford Greene
Letterer – Clayton Cowles
Cover Artist – Sanford Greene
Set during the 1920s, in and around the Harlem Renaissance, Bitter Root is the story of the Sangerye Family and their never-ending battle against the demons who use hate to plague our world. At this point in their family history, the Sangerye’s are divided in how they must battle the demons: continuing to cure the victims or escalating to lethal force. Brown and Walker map out this world of guardians with a tight plot and distinctive characters, and Greene breathes life into their words with organic visceral art. This book is on the verge of truly blowing up as superstar director Ryan Coogler has shown a distinct interest in bringing the Sangerye family to the big screen. As the members of Bitter Root Crew are all very active on the socials, follow them on their respective accounts: Sanford Greene (Twitter, Instagram), Chuck Brown (Twitter, Instagram), and David F. Walker (Twitter, Instagram).
To close out my Best of 2019, rather than another book, I’m going to recommend a trip to the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) in Harlem, New York. They are currently hosting a gallery exhibit of comic creators from the diaspora entitled The Color of Power: Heroes, Sheroes, & their Creators. This celebration of independent artists began on November 16, 2019, and will run until June 13, 2020. If you happen to be in the New York City area stop by this intimate collection of art from Eisner winners Afua Richardson and Alitha Martinez, Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity winner Nilah Magruder, Ronald Wimberly, and Bitter Root artist Sanford Greene. Also on hand, artwork from guest curator Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez’s critically-acclaimed independent comic La Borinqueña and the late Billy Graham, the first African-American to draw for Marvel.
As always enjoy the Holidays, Happy New Year and don’t be afraid to share with your fellow Blerds, Nerds, Geeks and Freaks! See you in 2020.
Books
By Clarence Young aka Zig Zag Claybourne
2019’s rallying cry might have been “Dree yer weird!” Terry Pratchett fans, nod up. Even mainstream sources got their weird on. Tor published Gideon the Ninth, a hugely successful book billed as “Gothic lesbian necromancers in space”. HBO hit it out of the park with its Regina King-led take on Watchmen. And one of the best movies of the year quietly slid in right before the door shut on 2019 and has been wowing folks (particularly lots of writers). I speak of Knives Out.
So, of course, indie remains to show the way.
Here are my picks for works that dazzled me these past 12 months. Apologies for not being able to include everything…but that’s what the Narazu archives are for 😉
See you on the flip side!
Rosarium Publishing is no stranger to work that pushes boundaries, has hella fun, and stimulates the brain in five directions at once. Baaad Muthaz, written by Rosarium’s frontman himself, Bill Campbell, takes the best of comics, pop culture, deep funk, and sci fi tropes and runs with them full-tilt boogie, resulting in a graphic novel series that is to word play and visual fun what Funkadelic was to your musical brain. If Funkadelic has not yet affected your musical brain, rectify that with all due haste. But get this series first. No reason not have it on hand.
Gabino Iglesias is not only a great writer but a great inspiration. If you haven’t checked out his Twitter feed, do yourself a favor. Whether you’re a creator or a fan, he dishes out shots of truth about craft, industry, and life itself that cut through all the levels of BS we get surrounded by, offering moments of blessed clarity. The same can be said for his 2019 offering: Coyote Songs, released by Broken River Books in late 2018, is a novel that reads like interconnected short stories. Its been described as a ghost story/road adventure/coming of age/good versus evil novel that gives not one damn about your notions of genre. That, my friends, is my jelly and my jam. Pick this one up, devour it, set is aside (note: you’ll come back to it for a second reading), then do the Twitter follow. Your 2020 will thank you.
“Call him the Barrio Palahniuk, a badass Henry Miller, Charles Willeford in Cholo-land—whatever the moniker, for my money Gabino Iglesias is one of the most fearless, original and riveting writers working today.” – Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight“Iglesias is a master of compact phrasing and perfectly paced suspense.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
The Devil’s Guide to Managing Difficult People
Say the devil, in the form of a talkative woman with zero respect for your boundaries (because, y’know, devil) follows you home from a business trip and starts rifling through your purse looking for spare tampons? And won’t frikking leave. Awkward, yes. Likely damning. In the hands of Robyn Bennis, it becomes concept-gold. Hilarious throughout yet never overdone, achingly honest at times, this independently-published offering from the author of The Signal Airship series, might have slipped under most folks’ radars, which is a shame. Bennis takes us on a totally believable romp with Satan in this slim novel.
If you want to go into 2020 with an edge of protective laughter to your sense of dread, this is the way to go. Think Dante after he’s had a couple of good drinks and a cleansing laugh at the heavens.
So you’ll get some smallish person saying smallish things like “women can’t be scary.” Here’s what you do. Don’t argue, just give that person a name: Lucy Snyder. Better yet, give Wee Willie a book. The Garden of Eldritch Delights. Watch him read it, and then watch how haggard his face looks after a few sleepless nights wondering when an invisible touch might come, and from which direction. Lucy Snyder’s fiction hollows you out, pours you full of potions and tonics, then sends you on your way to bubble yourself into something new. As a 4-time Bram Stoker Award winner, Snyder knows how to get into your head when you’re not looking…and then she’ll wait there…till you’ve forgotten about her…then the full force of a story like Blossoms Blackened Like Dead Stars hits you so hard you’re wondering whether your universe was ever real. The Garden features 12 distinctly-voiced stories but all Snyder. Snyderian? If she hasn’t become an adjective a la “Lovecraftian” it’s due to a lack of trying on our part, not the deserving quality on hers. This is a must-read if you’re into disturbing reads that don’t let go.