Summertime
Summer feels like a time of freedom. We get to doff all the layers of Winter, Spring, and Fall in favor of flip flops and open tops. Our minds stretch like taffy on hot concrete that’s just met a shoe, and we don’t even mind the goo because it means we get to kick off those shoes for a grassy detour.
Summer is the wandering time. Mind, body, and soul, all three as one or pulling you in separate directions. Our entertainment takes off layers same as us, or maybe it tries a brighter color. Books go to the beach, movies ask us to enjoy the air-conditioning and popcorn, and million-dollar ideas slide past us on skateboards, tipping their sunglasses low to give us a grin.
Let’s jump into a cool pool. Bite the popsicle to celebrate brain freeze. Take our expectations to the beach in hopes that our toes get wet and the surf refresh. Narazu has the sunscreen for your soul.
Do your back for you?
We don’t mind.
Team Narazu
All Indie. All Awesome.
Books: BLOWING THRU THE JASMINE OF OUR MINDZ
by Clarence Young
Look, we know summer is all about the visual. We’re checking folks out left and right. We’re looking at flowers, muscle shirts, summer dresses, blue skies, and barbecue smoke wisping upwards to seed the clouds. Summer’s a kaleidoscope of Wish you were here with I’d rather be anywhere else. Even books are breezy movies in our minds. With that in mind, let’s tease our brains with some excellent hot-weather covers!
(*all available via your favorite indie outlets, as well as Book Depository, B&N, Amazon, et al; put your Google finger to werk! CLICK TO EMBIGGEN AND PERUSE AT LEISURE.)
Film: THE LIGHTER SIDE OF THINGS
by Leo Faierman
On our Summer sci-fi steez here at Narazu, gathering a few low-investment, high-yield, breezy and enjoyable genre romps. All three share something of a post-apocalyptic vibe, which was sort of unintentional. Maybe, as trepidatious public gatherings perilously eke onto city streets and parks, I draw into a Zen-level acceptance of a crumbling world that still has a few good parties left. Back in the ’80s and ’90s, the aftermath seemed scrappy, desperate, even occasionally noble, not a situation where people would risk their lives for spicy ramen or a quarter pound of brisket. Simpler, sillier times, perhaps, at least on the screen.
SIX-STRING SAMURAI
Lance Mungia’s desert kung fu post-apocalyptic epic is one I’ve wanted to talk about on here for a while. Six-String Samurai was one of those completely random yoinks from the local video store that became a permanent installation, the kind of thing I’d throw at friends with some careful justification…basically, I’m not completely certain that the film is conventionally “good.” But mixing up martial arts, chanbara, post-apocalyptic sci-fi, surf rock, and a truly compelling lead performance results in a messily marvelous movie that stretches for cult status and sort of achieves it, despite that being a contradiction in terms. Buddy is making his way through the radiated Nevada desert to Lost Vegas, attempting to be crowned the new king after the fall of Elvis Presley. He ends up Lone-Wolf-and-Cubbing it en route, employing a back-strapped guitar hiding a beaten-up katana to protect a new young protege. There’s even a kind of allegorical layer about the history of rock and roll, which you can take or leave, as well as a bloodless PG-13 rating that makes it approachable to the young’uns as well. It’s pure cheese and knows it, and a hell of a lot of fun. Six-String Samurai isn’t presently streaming and has been long out of print, but DVD copies still manifest on Amazon for around $20 a pop; luckily, a new proper Blu-Ray release with a gorgeous painted cover was recently announced, so sit tight and hopefully it’s home for the summer.
MUTAFUKAZ
Another film aiming for cult status but sorely missing the mark was Mutafukaz, an international anime that had its eventual streaming distribution arrive Netflix. It’s another example of top-tier American voice talent – we’re talking Michael Chiklis, Giancarlo Esposito, even the RZA and Vince Staples in the English dub – doing their best with a disaster of a script. This is brains-off, eyes-open material, and it’s perfect for a lazy half-watch with some occasionally sensational eye candy. Staples is Vinz and his buddy is a dude named Angelino with a flaming skull for a head. The latter is eventually revealed to be part-alien, with that side of the family intending to conquer the earth, and the drama is all viewed from the run-down streets of Dark Meat City. Yes, it’s all a complete ignorant mess, but there’s some cool imagery, truly impressive background art, and plenty of pyrotechnics throughout. Mutafukaz (or MFKZ) is basically Tekkonkinkreet with none of the brains or soul or visionary heft or care of that majestic animation, which still makes it worth a casual spin on the Netflix subscription you’re already paying for.
DOUBLE DRAGON
Speaking of brains-off, who remembers Double Dragon? Certainly not myself, as I was first turned on to the live-action film by writer and Twitter dynamo Stephanie Williams on a special #BlackComicsChat stream last year. All of us quickly understood why she loves it. Pairing Scott Wolf just around the time he starred in Party of Five with martial arts actor Mark Dacascos as the Lee brothers, Double Dragon converts most of the imagery of the video games to a quasi-cyberpunk urban blight setting, and fans of Technos Japan’s beat ’em ups will cop a thrill when, say, Abobo and whip-wielding Linda first appear. Alyssa Milano’s denim daydream presence can’t quite outshine Robert Patrick, though, who ravenously feasts on the scenery as the central villain, awash in some of the most embarrassing CGI available to mankind in 1994. It’s incredibly fun cheese at the end of the day, and works best in a room (or Zoom room) filled with people who are ready to clown it. Double Dragon still lives happily on Amazon Prime, but if anyone is gutsy enough to pick up the recent Blu-Ray release, lemme know how it is.
Comics: YOUR SUMMER FU IS STRONG
By George Carmona, III
Cyberpunk. You’re seeing William Gibson’s name, right? Mod guys with bad hairdos and gritty tech? Images of Blade Runner? A lot of vaguely East Asian cultural influences? But what about the rest of the big, wide, technologically-adept world? You seeing the Black experience? Palestinian, Greek, Nigerian, Laotian, any cyber not rooted in visions of Robin Hood via Tony Stark?
Not very likely.
Till now. Till right bloody now.
Fu Jitsu
AfterShock Comics
Writer: Jai Nitz / Artist: Wesley St. Claire
Colorists: Maria Santaolalla and Wesley St. Claire
Letterer: Ryane Hill / Cover Artist: Wesley St. Claire
Fu Jitsu is a fun, funny, and energetic mini-series from Aftershock about a near-immortal super-genius boy, Fu Jitsu, a master of the martial arts fused with science. Fu and his arch-nemesis, Robert Wadlow, also near-immortal but uses magic and science to achieve his goals, battle over the decades and through time. Writer Nitz and artist St. Claire, the creative team behind this mini-series, craft a nerdy love letter to various movie genres. You can see their love for the various forms in the stylish artwork and witty word play, serving up a pulpy tale. The series is collected now and hopefully they will get the band back together to give us more of Fu.