Enola Holmes (2020) Millie Bobbie Brown, Henry Cavill and Helena Bonham-Carter

So what do I think of Enola Holmes? This movie nearly needs to be viewed through several lenses. How was it as its own thing? How faithful was it to the Enola Holmes books and how faithful was it to the Sherlock Holmes Canon? I must admit I haven't read any of Nancy Stringer's books so I can't speak to that question but the others I can. How was the movie? I found it quite enjoyable Enola is an interesting heroine, and I certainly wouldn't object to more of her adventures. In several ways it reminded me of a favourite series of mine from the 90s "THe Adventures of Shirley Holmes" which featured a female relative of Sherlock Holmes solving mysteries. Shirley was the great granddaughter of Mycroft Holmes who solved mysteries in Canada where her diplomat father was stationed. (It was almost a precursor to Sherlock and Elementary) The show aired on Nickelodeon here in Australia. The difference though is that the Sherlock Holmes looms large over Enola. She and Sherlock operate in the same time and city - I'd almost prefer that Sherlock didn't appear in the next movie. It's not that I don't like Henry Cavill's Sherlock but his presence does detract from Enola's adventure. But hey give Cavill his own Sherlock Holmes film I'm down for that. In a sense it become a competition between the two siblings to solve the mystery and our expectations are that Sherlock will be the one that solves the case. This seems to be a gripe of several internet comentators that Sherlock is useless in this adventure. It's not that he's useless, he still solves the case with a different line of deduction but this movie is called ENOLA HOLMES and she has to be the one to solve the case. I'm the guy who wrote "The Family Tree of Sherlock Holmes" showing several siblings and descendants of Sherlock Holmes (for a man who enshews the fairer sex he has a lot of children) so I have no issue with a relative of Holmes having adventures and solving mysteries. I think that the production seemed to be somewhat vague as to when the movie was set - most commentators seem to think that the movie is set in 1884. There is a newspaper with that date but the opening of the movie seems to suggest that Enola was born in 1884 and this adventure took place on her 16th birthday which would be 1900. The 1900 date would fit with the motor car driven by the headmistress of the boarding school drives. Then there is a clipping implying that Sherlock worked on the Ripper murders in 1888. Which brings me to the question - how does this work within what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle established in the Sherlock Holmes stories? Oh boy where to begin with that? Let’s assume that the story is set in 1884 – they say that Sherlock works alone and he has no friends. Except that is not accurate – Sherlock has the Baker Street Irregulars. Gloria Scott has Sherlock telling Watson about his first case in 1874 and mentions his friend Victor Trevor. But while “A Study in Scarlet” was published in 1887 the story is dated by Baring Gould as 1881, and in the “Five Orange Pips” Watson states “when I look over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes Cases between the years ’82 and ‘90” to imply that we are pre Watson is just not right. Then there is Mycroft Holmes – this does the most violence against Mycroft Holmes. When we are introduced to Mycroft in “The Greek Interpreter” Sherlock tells us that Mycroft is smarter than him. In this movie we are told that Mycroft is normal and that Sherlock and Enola are the great geniuses (with the suggestion that Enola is smarter than Sherlock) And seriously are there no heavyset actors to play Mycroft? (okay this is a gripe I have with many Holmes adaptations) Look if we take Enola Holmes as its own little world it’s fine and fun but it doesn’t play well with the established Conan Doyle stories.

The New MacGyver

The Eighties was something of a Golden Age for me, we had Knight Rider, The A-Team, Airwolf, Stingray, The Equaliser, Hardcastle and McCormick, Streethawk and, of course, MacGyver. And I loved them all from ages 7- 12 you know the period you absorb the stuff you love. It may be that love is a little too uncritical but I don't care. Since then there have been shows that I’ve loved as much The Pretender, Vengeance Unlimited, Relic Hunter, The Sentinel, Bugs, Leverage, The Librarians, Arrow, The Cape, Burn Notice, Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Person of Interest and I could keep going... And as is the way of things there have been attempts to revive some of these properties Knight Rider seems to get a new pilot or series every few years Knight Rider 2000, Knight Rider 2010, Team Knight Rider and Knight Rider (2008). There was an A-Team movie in 2010. Two Equaliser movies starring Denzel Washington. And I’m sure there are more to come. Which brings me to MacGyver. Richard Dean Anderson has revived the character a few times for commercials – Mastercard and Citan spring to mind.

He even appeared as MacGyver in a MacGruber skit as MacGruber’s dad.

Then there was the unaired pilot, MacGyver where a pre-Supernatural Jarod Padalecki, played Clay MacGyver the original’s nephew. This seems to be universally referred to as Young MacGyver Which brings me to the current MacGyver or NuGyver as I like to call him. The show is now at four seasons with a fifth on the way. I watch the show and my wife asked me what I thought of the show and I told her I still wasn’t sure about it. “You’ve watched how many seasons?” She asked. “Three” I said (before the fourth came out) “And you’re not sure. Riiiiiiight. Three seasons, you like it” So a little history would seem to be in order A pilot was shot in 2016, featuring a longer haired Till that was scrapped and reshot, I’m still curious about what was in that pilot (It’d be a nice special feature in one of the DVD sets – just saying) But they retooled it and reshot it and I’m not sure of the end result – many of the characters are callbacks or versions of characters from the original series which I can live with. Mac is still improvising his way out of situations and really that’s all I want but here’s the thing about the classic MacGyver – the show was about him, other characters came in and out and aside from Mac’s boss Pete Thornton there were no regular characters and a handful of recurring characters. In this iteration, Mac is part of a team. His boss was initially Patrica Thornton who was replaced by Maddie Weber, which I’m fine with (I won’t spoil why the change happened but they keep trying to hint of the same fate for Maddie which is an annoyance because I know they wouldn’t go to the same well twice). My big problem is the team and the size of it. Initially the team was Mac, Jack Dalton (Mac’s bodyguard) and Riley (a hacker) and I thought that was a bit big. Then they added Bozer, a childhood friend of Mac’s who initially didn’t know about Mac’s job at the Phoenix Foundation but soon joined the team. Then we got Samantha Cage an Australian psy ops expert but she left after one season, then Bozer’s spy school girlfriend Leanna Martin who lasted about the same time, Jack left and was replaced by Desi Nguyen and then in season 4 the Phoenix Foundation was bought by Russ Taylor.

If you think that’s a lot of characters you’d be right and the show has to give them all something to do which means that we get B plots of Bozer at spy school, Riley and the issues with her father, Jack Dalton find the guys who robbed him. Some episodes Bozer just stands there in the ready room with Maddie as the team is on a mission. I suspect that Cage and Leanna left because they had nothing to do but they keep trying to shoehorn in new regular characters. Riley’s hacking is almost as important as Mac’s improvisation and in a recent episode centred on Riley and her hacking had Mac stopping a nuclear meltdown with two jet skis relegated to a B Plot. I repeat the guy with his name in the title is relegated to a B plot doing the very thing we want him to do. And it’s not every episode but to give the characters space it means that the title character gets less space. In the next episode, Mac is out of action and Desi, Riley and Russ Taylor take on the brunt of the adventure with a showdown with the villains and a few “What would Mac dos”. Look there might be a reason why Lucas Till is taking a smaller role – I recall reading that there were on set issues which lead to health issues and I can’t begrudge him that. BUT his name is on the Title, I’m watching for MacGyver if he isn’t fairly consistently driving the A Plot then what’s the point? Knight Rider 2008 suffered from the same problem. Look, MacGyver is successful enough that it’s been renewed for a fifth season and I keep watching because of my love for the classic MacGyver but I don’t love it in the same way. It’s not MacGyver using his brains and ingenuity to save the day. Jack, or Desi, might punch the problem or Riley might hack it or Bozer, er Bozer might do something and Macgyver doesn’t feel the same. Back in the day MacGyver hated guns and when he punched someone he shook his fist afterwards because the punch hurt – it made the punch seem like a last option. Now Mac is okay with people using guns and he’s just as happy to hit someone. This a point Richard Dean Anderson made when he turned down a guest spot (I do wonder if the plan was for him to be Oversight, Mac's Dad.) I know I should judge it on it’s own merits but the producers want to trade on my nostalgia inviting the comparison. Perhaps if they called it Phoenix Foundation I wouldn’t be so hard on it. I watch the show and I may be part of the problem – the show gives me enough to remember being a boy watching the original to keep me coming back but It’s not the same. The nostalgia may give the show an extra notch or two in my ratings it’s better than Scorpion that had me hoping for some MacGyver/A Team style builds but never quite did. (A Scorpion/MacGyver crossover would have been fun) (A quick aside NuMac and Scorpion are in the same universe as NuMac crossed over with NuHawaii 5-0, who in turn crossed with NCIS LA. NCIS LA crossed with Scorpion.) There’s a story when Oasis released Wonderwall, a very 1960s Beatles inspired tune, someone asked George Harrison what he thought. George said that it would have been an average song back in the 60s but now it was a pretty good song. And that’s how I feel about NuGyver, it would have been an average show in the 80s but now it’s okay

Code of Vengeance 1985 TV movie

So Knight Rider is quite the franchise the orignal series ran from 1982-1986 for four seasons. In 1991, we got the TV movie and failed pilot Knight Rider 2000, this was followed by the in name only Knight Rider 2010 in 1994. 1997 saw the one season Team Knight Rider and the 2008 season of Knight Rider with Justin Bruening as Michael's son driving a new KITT. But what tends to be forgotten is the short lived spinoff Code of Vengeance - In season 2 episode 21 "Mouth of the Snake" (a two part episode) had Michael and KITT meet and team up with David Dalton (Charles Taylor), martial artist and government agent. I do wonder if Glen Larson or anyone in the Knight Rider team read the Destroyer series? The intent was to spin Dalton off onto a series called "All that Glitters" where he would be paired with Joanna St John (Joanna Pettet) All that Glitters was the title given to the fourth Knight Rider novelisation, and David and Joanna are mentioned to be married in the 5th book. Reportly the netwrk felt the concept felt too close to another Larsen series "Cover Up' so the decision was made to retool the series with a pilot called "Code of Vengeance" I'll talk about the new premise when I talk about the movie. It was followed by a second TV movie Dalton: Code of Vengeance II. The show then went to series called Code of Vengeance (although I have seen it referenced as Dalton's Code of Vengeance) and it ran for a whole 2 episodes. "Rustler's Moon" and "The Last Hold Out" Recently the Youtube channel Knight Rider Historians posted first Code of Vengeance TV Movie.

So Dalton is no longer a martial artist who works for the Department of Justice, here he is a Vietnam veteran who is wandering the country in his campervan. In this movie he's in a border town in Arizona where he is gets work building a room for a single mother - the only person in town who will talk to Dalton. Dalton discovers that the woman's brother is missing and he finds the body and that there is smuggling of guns across the border. In many ways Dalton reminded me of Billy Jack, a peaceful man who can kick much ass and has intervene when there is injustice. I'm also sure that Shane was an influnce as the woman's young son becomes attached to Dalton and follows him during the final fight (I was yelling at the kid to run AWAY from the gunfire) It almost feels like a prequel to the Knight Rider episode where we see how Dalton came to the attention of DoJ but the show never got that far. Interestingly in a meta moment, one of the characters is watching Knight Rider in the movie. It's an enjoyable enough 90 min TV movie (and I don't why but the original video that Knight Historians have loaded is a studio original and has several points where it says "Insert ads here" which made me smile - even though youtube just ignored them and put ads whereever.

Goldtiger.

I am a big fan of Modesty Blaise and following through some of the series that she inspired through several generations has lead me to several interesting series – The Baroness, The Seekers, The Girl Factory, Black Swan, Conversant USA, just off the top of my head. So I am searching ebay for Modesty Blaise when Goldtiger pops up. A supposedly forgotten series from the sixties crested to rival Modesty Blaise dropped from the paper because the leads were gay. The book reprints the first story and some behind the scenes interviews. So I order the book and the damned pandemic means I have wait months for the book to arrive. It finally arrived and it's a trip. Lily Gold and her partner John Tiger are former mercenaries turned fashion designers who trouble shoot on the side their first adventure has them tracking down disappearing ships on the Thames. There's a master villain with a plot that would make a Bond Villain blush. Hench men and women who are memorable. Interspersed with the strips are behind the scenes interviews, letters and articles with the writer Louis Schaeffer and artist Antonio Barretti. The relationship between the pair is strained as the artist is crazy and prone to ignoring the scripts and inserting himself into the strip. There are portions of the strip missing and we get sketches of strips, rough outlines from the artist and an extract from the novelisation. At one point Baretti inserts himself into the narrative as what Schaeffer has written is too boring and he wants to draw Rio. The ending is so audacious and meta that I can’t even. Of course, the truth is Goldtiger was never a real strip, Baretti and Schaeffer never existed and Guy Adams and Jimmy Broxton made the whole thing up and was published by 2000AD through a Kickstarter. The strip is a nice companion to the lovely Modesty Blaise strips collections that Titan books had been putting out indeed it’s almost a satire of them. Throughout are plent of wnks and nods to Modesty Blaise - the aborted Goldtiger movie had Terrance Stamp as John Tiger, Stamp had played Willie Garvin in Modesty Blaise. A letter to the editor of the paper that runs Goldtiger is written by Jim O'Donnell a reference to Jim Holdaway and Peter O'Donnell the artist and writer for Modesty Blaise. You know for all the hubbub about the characters’ sexualities there is almost nothing of it in this book – John Tiger tells a female assassin, Farina Karesh, he’s picky about what he lets people stick in him as she tries to stab him with her talons. And Lily Gold asks Anouska, the Russian Doll of death – what appears to be a large cloaked woman is actually three thin women “Where have you been all my life?” Sadly the fight between them is lost but we are told that it is as sexual as it is violent. Part of the gag is that Baretti keeps trying to revive the strip I get the feeling that I may have to reread this a few times to really get the story

Bruce Lee against the Supermen (1975) starring Bruce Li

Aka Superdragon vs Supermen, Call me Dragon, and Meng Long Zheng Dong. I saw this movie must be 30 years ago now, I rented it from The Plains Video and the tape had "Stamp Day for Superman" Back then I knew little about The Green Hornet, Bruce Lee or Brucespoitation. I'd mostly forgotten this film until I was listening to Derrick Ferguson and Percival Constantine on the Superhero Cinephiles podcast - for fans of superhero cinema I cannot recommend it enough. They did Doctor Mordred and mentioned that they had watched it on Tubi. I downloaded the app and scroll through their catalouge and find Bruce Lee against the Supermen. So a bit of back story Bruce Lee first found fame as Kato in the Green Hornet TV series. After that show ended he moved to Hong Kong where he made a handful of films. His last full role was in Enter the Dragon, He died tragically soon after the end of filming but before the release of the film. Enter the Dragon was a major success and his earlier Hong Kong films were released in the west. But there was still hunger for more. Episodes of The Green Hornet were cobbled together as two movies "the Green Hornet" and "Fury o the Dragon" and a few minutes of footage for Bruce's final film "Game of Death" was cobbled together with outtakes from other films, footage of Lee's real funeral and some dodgy doubling. But still people wanted more and Brucespoitation was born and actor who if you squinted might be Bruce Lee were given names like Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Dragon Lee and thrown into martial arts films - basically the first mockbusters. Which brings us to this movie starring Bruce Li. I think this wants to be a Kato film. THe movie opens with bank robbers on the run and tossing the money out the window. A young couple find the money and a masked chauffeur appears and drives them to the station in a black car.

The Chauffeur who we later learn is named Kata (or Carter) then meets with The Green Hornet and they are wearing some red tights

Continuity is not a strong suit of this movie. I should mention the dialogue mentions that this is the Green Hornet at least twice. Later in the movie The Green Hornet looks like this

After getting his tights on to mention that Kata's friend Angela is traveling with her father Professor Ting. Kata goes in plain clothes to visit a friend who doesn't get name and mentions that The Green Hornet is injured. He looked fine in that scene. Professor Ting has made a mcguffin formula that the bad guys want, who just happen to be the bank robbers. Kata and his friend cause so much trouble for the gang that they hire Superman and his students. And there was Kung Fu fighting, their hands were as fast as lightning because of the undercranked camera. While Kata is fighting the supermen, the bad guys kidnap the professor and his daughter who now drive the black car that Kata was driving earlier. The now Asain looking Green Hormet is following the bad guys in a blue car. Ropes and gags appear and disappear from the hostages. Weapons appear from thin air. Look it's a cheesy Green Hornet knockoff film, with some interesting fights but this does not hang together well at all. It's a curiousity and nothing more. You can watch it for free on youtube as part of the Wu Tang Collection

Adventureman #3 by Matthew Fraction and the Dodsons

 

So when we left Claire she had just stumbled into the family dinner.  OK there was a gap of some hours between when we saw last saw her until the dinner. It's a mystery what happened to her and one that should be solved in this installment. Let's see what Matt Fraction wrote.

The family is concerned and they race her to the Emergency Room.  Claire feels great and she can hear again (or at least partially).

When one of the cops she saw last issue is brought in injured.  He was injured in a bug attack and is losing blood.  He's AB- and Claire declares that she's multiversal blood type n and after an Adventureman flashback she gives him a transfusion of blood.

Record scratch - WHAT THE BUTTS?????

multiversal type n???  Fine, he's AB- but O- is the universal donor and can be given to anyone.  I get that they may have limited blood stocks but to make up a blood type from the whole cloth - which you don't really explain I was yanked out of the story sooooo fast.

Now I'll accept a lot in my pulp and pulp-adjacent fiction, I mean I'm the guy who wrote about a ray that causes the blood to rust (or at least appear to rust)  check out my novel Australis Incognito for more details.

But the type n blood was a step too far for me.

It may seem that I'm hard on this book and I am - I have high expectations of this story.

Back to the story, we get the information that Claire's dad may have been the Chief of Police as Claire's old partner calls him Chief.  

Then we're told that Claire appears to have grown fifteen inches (37.5 cm) but I'm not quite seeing that growth reflected in art.  (BTW the Dodson's art is gorgeous)

The MRI scan shows Claire's brain is active, really active.

And we're half way through the book and the mystery is set up and Claire can't remember what happened to her.

She goes home with her father where they along wih her son watch an Adventureman serial.  "Fair Phantom of the Lost Fortress" is the title (the other appears to be Adventures of A Dark Tomorrow)

As Claire watches she declares that she remembers.

But we leave Claire to see what is happpening with Baron and Baroness Bizarre torturing Philanda Phade - the ghost assistant of the original Adventureman.  There's several pages of Baron Bizarre talking where they are trying to release Abbathexiddion the Beast-GOd of the Ultravoid.  It ends with the Beast-God sending the Baroness to take the head of Adventureman.

The we get several pages of anecdotes and sketches about the creation of Claire's family and specifically her sisters.

I get the feeling that this comic would do better with less behind the scenes and more background, make it more like Watchmen where the back matter tells us about the classic pulp era Adventureman - excerpts from "the Great Pulp Heroes", fanzine articles about the Adventureman serials, interviews with the original pulp author, explanations about the magic pill Adventureman takes (because for all the mystery it seems obvious that Claire has taken that drug)

Pulp should be fast paced we are now three issues into the series and very little has happened.  I'm sticking with the book because it seems that we are building to something in the next issue but we need more answers and explanations of this world.   

Adventureman #2 by Matt Fraction and the Dodsons

 So we're back for issue 2 and when issue #1 ended insects were crawling all over our heroine's house and a beam of light or something shoots out of the house.

So what happened next?  Uh not sure.  What was the beam of light? No idea.

The issue opens in some sort of scary dimension where a voice with scary borders chastises Phaedra Phantom.  Phaedra was one of Adventureman's team and she is being held in this dimension by Adventureman's archnemesis Baron Bizarre and Baroness Bizarre.  It's implied that she escaped and visited Claire in the first issue but that's not clear.  Baron Bizarre is made of bugs. There's a hint that if people remember Baron Bizarre it gives him more power.

That interlude ends and Claire and her son Tommy are walking to school.  Tommy is reading the Adventureman guidebook from last issue.  Tommy advises that they gave the address of Adventure Worldwide - Adventureman's headquarters.  Like Doc Savage's 86th floor headquarters the building is never identified in the pulps, but they give the address in this guidebook.

(This came from Philip Jose Farmer's Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life where Farmer made a confincing case that Doc's Headquarters was the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, a fact never revealed in the pulps) 

Tommy has to race to school and Claire has an appointment with two of her sisters.  One is baking souffles and the other arrives late, makes noise and ruins the souffles and bugs crawl out of them. Could they be connected to Baron Bizarre and the bugs from last issue?

During the exchange with her sisters, Claire is reading the guidebook and the test is in white writing accross the page.  In at least one point, one of the sister's talks to Claire and her speech bubble covers the text - I get that it shows that this is interrupting the reading but it hides the words.  The white words also appear over the top of the panels even over lighter parts of the picture where the words are lost and impossible to read.  This happens several times in this issue and it is so annoying.

After the souffle incident, Claire decides to visit Adventure Worldwide - so she jumps on her vespa and  zips through the city.  She snatches a coffee from a cop and we discover that Claire Connell used to be an NYPD cop.  We have no idea why she stopped - it may be when she lost her hearing or when she had her son or someother reason.   2 pages about how cool Claire looks on the Vespa but just the hint about her past.

She gets to building and there's a giant art deco skyscraper there, that she doesn't remember being there before.  She texts her son in class for the street view of the address.  Tommy gets into trouble and can't respond.

Claire then accosts a passerby and he tells her that the building there is a dump.  Clearly Matt Fraction has seen the 1994 Shadow movie starring Alec Baldwin where Shiwan Khan hides an entire hotel which serves as his headquarters in a similar fashion - and Alec Baldwin accosts a passerby in the same fashion.

Claire walks to the door but there is no handle but she remembers how one of Adventureman's assistants first finds the building - another place with white writing where it gets lost in the image.  This time the information is important to the story. 

It turns out that Phaedra Phantom phases you thorugh the door - the place is in ruins but the security system still works as Phaedra warns before she disappears.  Claire immediately sets off the security system and has a fight with two robots where Claire uses brains and brawn to defeat them.  Claire takes the elevator to the top of building (shades of Doc Savage's flearun elevator) and calls out that she has the book.

We then skip to the family Friday night dinner - Tom is there but his mother isn't.  His grandfather is about to ask about Claire when she charges in with her shirt and pants torn (in a likely homage to covers to the 1960s Doc Savage reprints that featured Doc in a torn shirt) 

And the issue ends.

Argh, there is so much to like in this book but it frustrates me in so many ways.  It seems like there is information that we should be getting but aren't and transitions that aren't quite working for me.  

And the timing of events is confusing.  Every Friday night the family gathers for dinner.  This happens in issue 1.  What appears to be the next day, (Saturday) she gets the guidebook from Phaedra and that night the bugs over the house and the light.

But that can't be right as what appears to be the next day (Sunday) Claire is dropping her son to school - she visits her sister, visits Adventure Inc and then turns up late for Friday night dinner.    

But that timeline can't be right clearly she got the book on Thursday of that week, then took Tommy to school on Friday morning and spent the day at Adventure Inc.  but it's not clear.  I'm not even sure that the events of issue two take place the day after the end of issue 1. 

Let's see if issue 3 solves some of these issues.

   

Jurassic Park (1991) by Michael Crichton

Reportedly, the movie rights for this were sold before the book was even published and if you have seen the 1993 movie version you have the basic plot.

Billionaire John Hammond, owner of genetics company InGen, has found a way to source dinosaur DNA to "clone" dinosaurs and is making a zoo/tourist resort. Things go wrong.

You really don't need more than that.

I'd read the novel in the late 90s from memory and a lot of the details had been forgotten between now and my recent reread.

I'd forgotten that there was a lot of background to the genetic engineering industry and detail of Alan Grant and Ellie Satler's dig and a subplot involving dinosaurs escaping the island before we get to the more familiar parts of the movie. (although a dinosaur attack was modified and later appears at the Lost World movie)

It makes sense that things had to be cut from a 400 page novel to fit a 2 hour movie - Crichton himself worked on the screenplay as well. The novel also has several additional dinsaur chases that weren't in the movie and a raid on a raptor nest.  Characters who survive in the novel - die in the movie and vice versa, although 1 death in the novel is reversed in the sequel novel The Lost World.

Crichton had a lengthy career as a writer and movie maker writing thrillers in med school as John Lange, under his own name he wrote The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Sphere, he wrote the screenplay for Westworld, Twister and co-created ER but this was probably the first time he had come to my attention.

If you enjoyed the movie, check out the novel  there are some differences but it enriches the experience of the movie.

I now have a desire to reread the Lost World.

This is the End; Jurassic Park novels

Everyone knows that Jurassic Park is a series of five (soon to be six) movies.

Jurassic Park,

The Lost World Jurassic Park, 

Jurassic Park III,

Jurassic World,

Jurassic World:Fallen Kingdom.

Jurassic Workd: Dominion


And most people know that the first two movies were based on the novels by Michael Crichton

Wow Brad, a whole post about two books?  Hardly an effort to get them I hear you say.

But wait there's more all the movies had junior novelisations,   So we are currently at 5 books.

Now the novelisation of Jurassic Park III was by Scott Ciencin.  Now Ciencin wrote three original novels called Jurassic Park Adventures

The first Survivor is set during the events of Jursassic World III and follows Eric Kirby and how he survived on the island unitl he was rescued

The second Prey is set after the movie where Dr Grant and Eric set up a scientific research facility on Site B and have to rescue intruders.

The third and final book (and the last one I had to find) has Eric and Dr Grant stopping a pterandons who have made their way to Universal studios in Florida - corporate synergy there.


Now there is one more book  The Evolution of Claire by Tess Sharpe which tells us the back story of Claire Dearing showing her joining Jurassic World and her adventures on the island.

So there you have it nine books.  Crichton's books are easy to find, the junior novelisations aren't too expensve or hard to get, the Evolution of Claire may still be in print and I bought my copy new.  Ciencin's three book expansion of Jurassic Park III are much harder to find at a reasonable price.  So that brings us to the end of Jurassic Park novels for now.  With Jurassic World Dominion we may see more.

I recently re read Jurassic Park and will do a review here soon.

Adventureman #1 by Matt Fraction and the Dodsons

So I have a Matt Fraction story - he appeared at the 2013 Brisbane Writer's festival and I went along to his panel and got some Immortal Iron Fist and The Punisher signed by him.

I remember waiting for the panel to start and the panelists were talking and somehow Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Family  comes up.  I forget exactly if he remembered Phil and not Wold Newton or vice versa but I piped up with the missing piece.

It's not an interesting story and I had completely forgotten about it until I read the text pages at the back of Adventureman.  Fraction mentions that Farmer's Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life was a major influence on this story.

Could I have helped inspire Adventureman? He mentions he got the idea in 2008 so no I didn't.

I haven't read a great deal of Fraction's work just the Punisher War Journal and Immortal Iron Fist but in Immortal Iron Fist we get the highly pulp inspired Iron Fist before Danny Rand -  Orson Randall.  Randall is an Iron Fist who uses dual chi pistols.  

The short lived Iron Fist TV series had some awesome footage of Orson Randall and had Danny learn the gun trick in the last episode. (Iron Fist was the Netflix Marvel series that got better in the second season)

So when I read a preview which described Adventureman I was on board.  The plot of a lost Pulp hero and a new sucessor to their title sounded interesting.  

Fraction's stuff was okay and  I like the Dodson's Red One, which has a Russian spy becoming an American superhero.  

Great team, great concept - what more can you want?

Well a great execution obviously.  So how did the execution go?

In effect Adventureman#1 is two comics, literally and figuratively.  Literally as it's a double sized issue and figuratively because there are two stories happening here.

The first story and the first half is a classic "pulp" adventure for Adventureman and his team of assistants facing down an attack by Baron Bizarre and his Nazi Hell pirates.  Adventureman tells his team that it's bad, so bad they all have to drink his super serum (shades of Simon Spectre).  They fight the Baron and his evil team of associates. (which is a great idea)

There are grand fights and aerial adventures that would make Sky Captain happy (in fact I was waiting for him to turn up)

Adventureman is defeated and Baron Bizarre has a gun pointed at his head.  Then we see the text of the last few paragraphs of the pulp novel which ends with:

"It was at long last, time for Adventureman to journey into the greatest unknown.  He closed his eyes."

And we're told The End

Which leads us to the second story where Claire is reading the story to her son Tommy.  I'll talk some more about that shortly but I have agree with Tommy here, What the Butts?  What type of ending is that?  

Now this is a story where we are told that Claire is part of Adventureman's legacy but EVIL wins in this story. Claire is supposed to be in the same world as Adventureman.  But with Adventureman and his team deafeated and likely killed who stops the villians from destroying everything? or taking over the city.

It's a great cliffhanger but we're told that this is the end.  There were no more adventures.  Claire suggests that sometimes things just stop but that wasn't a stop that was meant to be a finale - if they went "come back next month to see if Adventureman excapes" and the publisher went bust I'd say that's ok but that isn't an ending.  

I can't think of too many pulp and pulp-inspired series that end with the death (real or implied) in such a fashion. The Lone Wolf by Mike Barry (Barry N. Malzberg), Adrian Chase The Vigilante series both ended with their deaths (Chase is one of the few comic characters who have not come back from the dead) 

Let's move onto Claire's story.  Claire finishes reading the book, her son Tommy goes off that it's a bad ending.

We discover that Claire wears hearing aids and she settles in for a quiet night reading.  She then mentions that she also turns them off at the noisy  weekly extended Connell family dinner with her father, her son and six sisters.   The sisters all appear to be multiple races which confused me (the back matter explains that Claire is one of seven adopted sisters - but that wasn't clear from the story)

The six sisters are all high achievers leading eventful single lives (at least there is no indication that they have partners or children)  Claire just lives a quiet life running  her mother's bookstore.  There is a hint that she lead a more active life but that appeared to before she had Tommy and is implied before she lost her hearing.

At the store, she finds a mysterious customer when a mysterious woman leaves an Adventureman concordance.  The woman runs out the back and hops into the coolest car I've seen in some time, followed by a man made out of bugs.  The woman has Adventureman's logo on the palm of her glove. 

Claire shows Tommy who says that their house and Hi-Brow make a triangle - uh that's only two points, then he draws an Adventureman logo on the book on three points.

Claire sends Tommy to bed and turns off the lights and heads to bed and swarm of insects cover her house and appear to turn on a spotlight or something.

The endings are a weakness.  There's nothing in Claire's world that suggests that Adventureman really existed before especially with the apocalytic ending to Adventureman's story.  The fact that the Connells are a mixed race family tells me that the Nazis didn't win and create a racial purity law.   So what was Baron Bizzare after?

Yet despite these issues I loved this story and I'm keen to see where issue 2 and beyond lead to.

Uncharted Timeline

Much like my Tomb Raider timeline, this is intended to put all of the Uncharted franchise into one timeline. This is made much easier in that there is much less material than Tomb Raider has generated and no reboots.

There is a rather comprehensive timeline I found at the Uncharted Wiki but it didn’t have everything and I didn’t necessarily agree with all the dates but it’s a very good and detailed.

I’ll likely do a new version of this once the Uncharted movie starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg comes out along with any ancillary material.

Like Tomb Raider I am excluding fan works, but I am making one exception – the Uncharted Live Action Fan Film starring Nathan Fillion as Nathan Drake and Steven Lang as Sully. My timeline, my call.

THE TIMELINE

1988 
Chapter 1 Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – Nathan, along with his other brother Sam, escape from the orphange.

1990
Chapter 2 & 3 Uncharted 3:Drake’s Deception – Nathan meets Sully

2000 
Chapter 3 Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – Nathan is working with Sam and Sam is presumed dead.

2004 

Uncharted (Comic)

2005
Uncharted: Golden Abyss (game).

“Through Panama by Elena Fisher” (Youtube Video)

2006
Uncharted: Drake’s Trail (game)

Uncharted: The Eye of Indra (Motion comic)

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Motion Comic)

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Game)

2008

Uncharted: Fortune Favors the Bold (Commercial)

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Game)

Uncharted: Breaking and Entering (Youtube Video)
(Technically the proper name is Uncharted Live Action Fan Film but the shooting title was Breaking and Entering, I decided to run with that.)

2009
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (Game)

Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth (novel)

Uncharted: Fight for Fortune (Game)

2012

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Game)

Uncharted: Fortune Hunter (Game)

2016
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (Game)


Uncharted Media

Playstation Games
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (2007)

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009)

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (2011)

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (2013)

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (2017) PlayStation Game

Nathan Drake also appears in Playstation All Stars Battle Royale (2012) but this games does not appear to fit Uncharted contiunity.


Playstation Vita Games
Uncharted: Golden Abyss (2012)

Uncharted: Fight for Fortune (2012)

Online Game
Uncharted: Drake’s Trail (2007)

Mobile Game 

Uncharted: Fortune Hunter (2016)

Motion Comics
Uncharted: The Eye of Indra (2009)

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (2007)

Commercials
Uncharted: Fortune Favors the Bold (Toyota Commercial)

Comic Book
Uncharted (2011)

Novel

Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth (2011)

Youtube Videos
“Through Panama by Elena Fisher” (2007)

Uncharted Live Action Fan Film (2018)

Guardians of the Tomb (2018) starring Kelsey Grammer, Kellan Lutz, Shane Jacobson, Bingbig Li

This Chinese/Australian co-productions is also known as The Nest, Tomb of the Mummy and 7 Guardians of the Tomb. My copy is Guardians of the Tomb so I'm going to run with that.

I saw the trailer for this a couple of years back and thought that looks like a fun romp.

I kept an eye out for it but never found it.  Then I tune into FBI:Most Wanted and see Kellan Lutz and remembered he was in this.  So I bit the bullet and bought a copy.

The beginning is a little middled with flashbacks and references that don't quite make sense but most thing things were explained/resolved by the end of the film.

The movie opens with a shadow puppet story of a Chinese delegation meeting with Australian Aborgines.

Then we jump to the present day when two researchers discover a tunnel in China. They had been sent on the mission by Mason (Grammer),, a wealthy industrialist. 

Mason then seeks out Jai (Li) who is the sister of one of the researchers.  We dscover that there is history with Mason and the researchers are now missing. The pair set out to the last known location where they meet the rest of the team including Jack Ridley (Lutz) and Gary (Shane Jacobson). Ridley is a first responder with a tragic history that he won't talk about.

The team heads towards the GPS signal from the missing team but have to take cover from a sandstorm in a deserted house.  All the occupants are dead except for a teenage girl and a heap of spiders.  The team heads into the basement which is an access point to the tunnels.

The team loses members to spider bites, one of whom takes a swan dive into a lava pool covered in spiders. 

We discover that the spiders are funnel web spiders that had been imported to China by the delegation at the start of the movie at the behest of the Emperor.  These spiders had been bred to be more aggressive and poisonous - because that's what you do for poisonous spiders - to have them produce a enzyme that prolongs the life of the Emperor. 

The spider's eventually escaped and killed the Emperor in his tomb which is in the tunnels that the expedition is in now.

This is a solid B movie, with no real surprises.  Mason is the bad guy (because the wealthy industrialist is always the villian) .  Ridley reveals his tragic backstory to bolster the troops when all seems lost. 


In enjoyed the hell out of this movie it really put me in mind of Congo (another movie/novel I'll have to revisit soon) with a lashing of Arachnaphobia and a pinch of Indiana Jones/The Mummy. 

For me Shane Jacobson's Gary stole the movie with his Aussie attiude and comebacks "these are 2017 spiders they follow each other on instagram"  were a highlight,  I don't know if his lines were scripted or if he improvised them but he stole every scene.

If there was one downside it was the last few seconds -  it seemed like they tried introduce a twist/sequel hook in that wasn't needed and really just raised more questions and detracted from the movie.

Overall, I'd say watch this.

Tomb Raider Timeline Updated!

The intention of this timeline is to work much of the Tomb Raider Franchise into one cohesive timeline. I am limiting this to event in Lara Croft’s life so no expansions on the history of the artefacts she finds. I am working on the assumption that the new “Survivor” game continuity is a prequel to the earlier games and that the “Legend” games are also part of this continuity. Any speculation on my part to explain any discrepancies will be clearly indicated.

There have been three games called Tomb Raider the 1996 original, the 2000 Gameboy game and the 2013 reboot. I will be referring to the games as Tomb Raider followed by their year. The 2018 movie will be referred to as Tomb Raider 2018. 

Other adventures will be referred to by their subtitles as we know they are Tomb Raider products. I will also be referring to the source for each entry and the media type (So the novel Tomb Raider: The Lost Cult will be referred to as The Lost Cult (novel))

I won’t be including fan productions as much as I have enjoyed many of them. I also won’t incorporating references to Lara Croft (in Rob Hayes Adventures Rob tells a female friend she is not Lara Croft) or characters dressing as Lara Croft (Ally McBeal, Looney Tunes, Dexter, How I met Your Mother.) The holographic projection of Lara in an episode of Totally Spies is also excluded.

I’m excluding advertisements that treat Tomb Raider as just a game for example one of the later Lucozade commercials has Lara drinking a Lucozade while the game is paused.

What’s new? 

Since I did the original back in 2017, Dark Horse released the two four issue miniseries Survivor’s Quest and Inferno, there was a new game Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and a tie-in novel Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Path of the Apocalypse. There was a new movie starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft.

This time I've decided just to list the games and not the expansion levels - the timeline is very long and Shadow of the Tomb Raider had seven DLC levels and they are effectively part of the games.

I did a deep dive into the Top Cow Tomb Raider comics including the appearances in other Top Cow titles. I was never happy with the original placement of the comics and I did a bit more moving things around. The biggest move was for Tomb Raider Journeys, the 12 issue series instead of taking place near the time of publication in 2001 was moved to 1994, a year that had very few adventures – which actually worked much better as issue 5 had Lara’s ten year high school reunion which would have been in 1994.

I didn’t realise that there were 3 different Tomb Raider/Witchblade titles only having one in the original timeline, I also had Dark Crossings and Monster War as one shots when there were two and four issues respectively in those miniseries.

To my eternal shame, I realised that I had forgotten U2’s Elevation video clip from the movie soundtrack in the original timeline, that has been fixed. As far as I can tell none of the songs from that soundtrack had a Lara Croft video clip.

Timeline 

14 Feb 1968 
Lara Croft born to Lord Richard Croft and Amelia Croft (Core Design Bio) (Legend - Game)

1971 - 1979
Private Tutoring Ages 3-11 (Core Design Bio)

1977
Lady Amelia Croft and Lara are in a plane crash. Amelia disappears and Lara walks out (Legend –game)

1979 - 1984
Wimbledon High School for Girls ages 11-16 (Core Bio)

1980
“Pre-Teen Raider” (Re/Visioned animation) (Gail Simone advises that Lara is about 12) Lara is a student at Croft Academy.

Speculationon: It may be that Lara was expelled after this exploit and moved to Wimbledon High School for Girls.

1984
Lara graduates Chesterfield Private Academy (Journeys 5)
Speculation: The book says class of 1992, this must be an error as Lara was 24 at that time. Chesterfield is a co-ed school so it cannot be Wimbledon School for Girls. It seems likely that Lara went to multiple schools and the Core Bio simplified her academic history.

Training with Von Croy in Ankor Wat (The Last Revelation –Game)

“Black Isle” (Chronicles Game)

1985
Lord Richard Croft dies (differing accounts are given in Rise of the Tomb Raider– Game, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – Movie and Legend –Game)

(The 2018 Tomb Raider movie has Lord Richard presumed dead and does not die until the events of that movie)

Speculation Lara is adopted by her uncle Lord Henshingly Croft and his wife. Neither are fans of Lara adventuring and try to mould her into a proper lady. The adoption explains why in 1996 her father is listed as Henshingly Croft in the first game.

1984-1987
Gordonstoun Boarding School ages 16-18

1987-1989
Swiss Finishing School ages 18-21

1989
Plane crash 21 year old Lara is only survivor (Core Bio)

1990
Excavation Massacre (Legend – Game)

The Beginning (Dark Horse Comic)

Tomb Raider 2013 (game)

Speculation: The Tomb Raider 2018 (movie) – could be viewed as a simplified version of this game but I’ve gone with a different interpretation and placed it after Shadow of the Tomb Raider. YMMV. (Basically the movie is too different from the game to be an adaptation of the game but has enough elements from the game to make it hard for it to be its own story and to make it work either way requires a fair amount of damage to the movie))

The Ten Thousand Immortals (novel)

Season of the Witch (Dark Horse Comic 1-6)

1991 
Secrets and Lies (Dark Horse Comic 7-12) 

Queen of Snakes (Dark Horse Comic 13-18)

1992 

Rise of the Tomb Raider (Game)

Spore (Dark Horse Comic 1-6)
Speculation: Spore features a 1996 flashback this must be a 1976 flashback.

Trial and Sacrifice (Dark Horse Comic 7-12)

Survivor’s Quest (Dark Horse Comic Miniseries 1-4)

Inferno (Dark Horse Comic Miniseries 1-4)

1993

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Path of Apocalyse (Novel)
This is a novelisation of the early part of the Shadow of the Tomb Raider Game.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Game)

Tomb Raider (2018) (Movie)
Speculation: After the apocalyptic events of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara temporarily retires from tomb raiding and becomes a cycle courier before being drawn into a mystery about her father’s death which ends with her buying her trademark weapons. The movie uses some elements of the 2013 game but is a different adventure. (Basically the movie is too different from the game to be an adaptation of the game but has enough elements from the game to make it hard for it to be its own story and to make it work either way requires a fair amount of damage to the movie)

1994 
Tomb Raider Journeys 1-7 (comic)

Finds Bigfoot (Tomb Raider 1996 – Game)

Tomb Raider Journeys 8-12 

Finds Ark of the Covenant (Tomb Raider 1996 - Game)

1995
Mean Machines (comic)

Philosopher’s Stone (Chronicles – Game)

1996 

Tomb Raider 1996 & Anniversary (Games)

1997 
Vendetta (Tomb Raider/Witchblade 1 - comic)

Witchblade/Tomb Raider ½ (Comic) This comic is a sequel to Vendetta.

Tomb Raider II (Game)

Tomb Raider/Witchblade (Top Cow Comic)

Lucozade (commercials) (the last commercial is not counted)

PlayStation Commercial

ZDnet Commercial

“Tibet Air” (Short Story)

1998
Witchblade/Tomb Raider 1 (Comic)

PlayStation Commercial

Tomb Raider III (Game)

Seat Cars (Commercials)

Spear of Destiny (Chronicles –Game)

Die Artze “Manner Sind Schweine” (Music video)

Tomb Raider 2000 (Game)

1999

Dark Aeons (Comic)

The Medusa Mask 1-4 (Comic)

Brigitte Magazine (Commercial)

“Hemos terminado con él” The Companeros (Spanish TV Episode)

The Time’s Exclusive Bonus Level (Game)

The Last Revelation (Game)

Tomb Raider Chronicles (Framing Sequence – Game)

The Amulet of Power (Novel)

Dark Crossings: Dark Clouds Rising (Comic)

Dark Crossings: Dark Clouds Overhead (Comic)

The Merlin Stone 5-6 (Comic)

The Resurrection of Taras (Fathom 12-14, Fathom Crossover Tour Book – Comic)
(The Crossover Tour book seems to be set during the events of issue 13 – and is five page story where Aspen recaps the first issue. The artwork does not appear in the three issues. There is also a three page bit where we see a drawing of each of ladies in the story Aspen Matthews, Lara Croft and Sara Pezzinni and a paragraph from the other two characters about that character.)

Dead Centre 7-10 (comic)

2000 
The Tomb Raider Technical Manual (Book)

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (Movie + Novelisation)

U2 “Elevation” (Music Video)

Tomb Raider/The Darkness 1 (Comic)

Chasing Shangri-La 11-12 (comic)

Grim Reaper 13-15 (Comic)

Tomb Raider 0 (Comic)

2001 
Pieces of Zero 16-17, 19-20 (Comic)

Year of the Cat 18 (Comic)

Curse of the Sword (Game)

The Trap: Path of the Tiger 21-23 (Comic)

Scarface’s Treasure (Comic)

Medusa’s Garden 24 (Comic)

2002 
The Prophecy (Game)

The Osiris Codex (Game)

The Quest for Cinnabar (Game)

The Elixir of Life (Game)

Endgame (Tomb Raider 25, Witchblade 60, EVO 1 – Comic)

Abyss 26-28 (comic)

Strange Flesh 29- 30 (Comic)

Tomb Raider: Apocalypse (Game)

2003
Conquista 31 (comic)

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider The Cradle of Life (Movie + Novelisation)



Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness (Game)
(The Action Adventure/The Board Game/Flash Game versions and comic adaptation issues 32-34)

Epiphany (Top Cow comic One Shot)

Black Legion 35-37 (Comic)

G4 – (Commercial)

Visa - Monster Chase (Commercial)

The Lost Cult (novel)

The Man of Bronze (novel)

2004
Sphere of Influence (comic)

Takeover (comic)

Bloodstone 38-39 (Comic)

Risen 40 (Comic)

Spirit Walker 41-42 (Comic)

Arabian Nights (Comic)

Tower of Souls 43-44 (Comic)

Signs and Portents - Witchblade 78 (Comic)

Inner Demons 45 (Comic)

Gathering Storm 46-48 (Comic)

2005 
Vendetta 49 (Comic)

Alpha/Omega 50 (Comic)
In this comic Lara finds the Fountain of Youth and is seen adventuring into the far future.

Monster War (comic 1-4)

The Greatest Treasure of All (comic)

2006 
Legend (game)

The Reckoning (game)

Puzzle Paradox (Game)

2007

The Keys to the Kingdom (3 Parts) (Re/visioned Animation)

Revenge of the Aztec Mummy (Re/Visioned Animation)

Angel Spit (2 Parts)( Re/Visioned Animation)

Lara Croft Legacy (Re/Visioned Animation)

Raising Thermopolis (Re/Visioned Animation)

A Complicated Woman (Re/Visioned Animation)

2008
Tomb Raider Underworld (Game - also has a board game)

2010
Lara Croft and Guardian of Light (game)

2013
Lara Croft Reflections Card Game (Game)

2014 
Lara Croft and Temple of Osiris (Game)

2015
Lara Croft Relic Run (game)

Lara Croft Go (Game)

Lara Croft and the Frozen Omen (comic)

2016
Lara Croft and the Blade of Gwynnever (novel)

TOMB RAIDER MEDIA ITEMS 

Games

The Core Series –Original Timeline
Tomb Raider 1996

Tomb Raider II 1997

Tomb Raider III 1998

Tomb Raider: The Times Exclusive 1999

Tomb Raider the Last Revelation 1999

The Tomb Raider Chronicles 2000



Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness 2003
(The Action Adventure/The Board Game/Flash Game versions and comic adaptation) 

Crystal Dynamics – Legend Reboot
Tomb Raider Legend 2006

Tomb Raider Anniversary 2007

Tomb Raider Underworld 2008

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light 2010 

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris 2015

Survivor Reboot
Tomb Raider 2013

Rise of the Tomb Raider 2015

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2018

Gameboy Games
Tomb Raider 2000

Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword 2001

Tomb Raider: The Prophecy 2002

Interactive TV Games
Tomb Raider: Apocalypse 2002

Tomb Raider: The Reckoning 2006

Mobile Phone Games 
Tomb Raider: The Osiris Codex 2003

Tomb Raider: The Quest for Cinnabar 2003

Tomb Raider: The Elixir of Life 2003

Tomb Raider: Puzzle Paradox 2006

Lara Croft Reflections 2014

Lara Croft Relic Run 2015

Lara Croft Go 2015

Board Games
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness 2003 

Tomb Raider: Underworld 2009

DVD Game 
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Action Adventure 2006
(adaptation of Angel of Darkness)

Flash Game Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness 2004

Books 
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Tech manual by Michael Jan Friedman 2001

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Movie Novelisation by Dave Stern 2001

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life Novelisation by Dave Stern 2003

Tomb Raider The Amulet of Power by Mike Resnick 2003

Tomb Raider The Lost Cult by E.E. Knight 2004

Tomb Raider The Man of Bronze by James Alan Gardner 2005

The Ten Thousand Immortals by Dan Abnett & Nik Vincent 2014

The Blade of Gwynnver by Dan Abnett & Nik Vincent 2016

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Path of the Apocalypse by S.D Perry 2018
(Fun fact S.D. Perry is the daughter of Steve Perry who wrote Indiana Jones and The Army of the Dead)

Short Stories
“Tibet Air” in Lara’s Book: Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider Phenomenon by Douglas Coupland 1998 (reprinted in Tomb Raider Archives Vol 3.

Movies
Lara Croft Tomb Raider 2001

Lara Croft Tomb Raider Cradle of Life 2003

Tomb Raider 2018

TV
The Companeros “Hemos terminado con él” 1999 (tie in for Last Revelation) 

Commercials
PlayStation 1997 & 1998

Lucozade 1998 & 2001

Seat Cars 1999

Brigitte Magazine 1999

ZDnet 2000

Visa Monster Chase 2003

G4 2003

Video Clips
Die Artze “Manner Sind Schweine” 1998

U2 “Elevation” 2001

Re/Visioned 2007
The Keys to the Kingdom (3 Parts)
Revenge of the Aztec Mummy (1 part)
Angel Spit (2 Parts)
Lara Croft Legacy (1 part)
Pre Teen Raider (1 part)
Raising Thermopolis (1 part)
A Complicated Woman (1 part)

Comics
Mean Machine Sega #46 (reprinted in Tomb Raider Archives Vol 1)
Untitled story that I called “Mean Machine” predate the release of the first game 

Glenat
Dark Aeons 1999

Top Cow Comics

Top Cow Crossovers
Tomb Raider/ Witchblade 1997

Witchblade Tomb Raider ½ 2000

Witchblade/Tomb Raider 1 1998
 (Tales of the Witchblade 9 is a follow up to this story -while Lara appears on the cover she does not appear in the story)

Dark Crossings: Dark Clouds Rising 2000 

Dark Crossings: Dark Clouds Overhead 2000

Fathom the Resurrection of Taras 12-14 2000-2002,  Fathom The Crossover Tourbook 2000

Tomb Raider The Darkness 2001

Top Cow Book of Revelations 2003

Monster War 2005
     1 Magdalena vs Dracula
     2 Tomb Raider vs The Wolf-Men
     3 Witchblade vs Frankenstein
     4 The Darkness vs Mr Hyde

Tomb Raider 25 (Endgame part 1)

Witchblade 60 (Endgame part 2)

EVO 1 (Endgame part 3)

Witchblade 78 (Lara cameo)

Witchblade 84 (Witchblade lists Lara as a friend and an image of Lara appears)

1999-2005 Tomb Raider Series
       The Medusa Mask 1-4
       Merlin Stone 5-6
       Dead Centre 7-10
       Chasing Shangri-La 11-12
       Grim Reaper 13-15
       Pieces of Zero 16-17, 19-20
       Year of the Cat 18
       The Trap: The Path of The Tiger 21-23
       Medusa’s Garden 24
       Endgame 25 (Crossover with Witchblade #60/EVO #1)
       Abyss 26-28
       Strange Flesh 29-30
       Conquista 31
       The Angel of Darkness 32-34 (Comic Adaptation of Game) 
       The Black Legion 35-37
       Bloodstone 38-39
       Risen 40
       Spirit Walker 41-42
      Tower of Souls 43-44
      Inner Demons 45
      Gathering Storm 46-48
      Vendetta 49
      Alpha/Omega 50

Tomb Raider Journeys 1-12 2001-2003

Top Cow One Shots
Tomb Raider Origins 2000

Scarface’s Treasure 2003

Epiphany 2003 (AOD tie-in)

Takeover 2004

Sphere of Influence 2004

Arabian Knights 2004

The Greatest Treasure of All 2005

Dark Horse Comics
The Beginning 2013 (Digital only)

Tomb Raider 
     Season of the Witch 1-6
     Secrets and Lies 7-12
     Queen of Serpents 13-18

Lara Croft and the Frozen Omen 1-5

Tomb Raider II
      Spore 1-6
      Trials and Sacrifice 7-12

Tomb Raider: Survivor’s Quest 1-4

Tomb Raider: Inferno 1-4

This is the End: Tomb Raider & Uncharted.

It's funny what I know about video games is really small.  The family Playstation serves mostly as a glorified blu ray player for me.  (with a lot of "what do these blasted buttons do?" if I try to pause.)

Yet there are two video game franchises that I absolutely love - not surprisingly Tomb Raider and Uncharted.  I cannot play the games to save my life but I love their expanded universes - not surprisingly they both are "descendants" of Indiana Jones.

This was initially just going to celebrate the catching up with Tomb Raider but I hadn't really talked about Uncharted that much and there wasn't enough Uncharted material to justify it's own post (but I have notes for an Uncharted timeline similar to what I did for Tomb Raider. I'll have to get back to that.)

I've been collecting now for a long time - nearly forty years.  Series and franchses went in and out of favour.  It's easier to  collect things as they come out - I jumped on the extended Uncharted material as it came out.  One novel and a six issue miniseries and I'll get the associated material for the Tom Holland/ Mark Walhberg movie assuming they make it before Tom Holland looks old enough to play Sully. (although I hear it or Spiderman 3 are his next films once the virus allows filming to start again)

Tomb Raider pretty much captivated me from 1997 when I first heard about her.  I admit we got a PC version of the first game and I could not play it to save myself but the character was interesting.  

I saw the first movie in the cinema when we lived in Emerald, a city in the Outback.  I got the novelisation, and the technical manual which came out then, the book store could order things for me.  

I also got the Tomb Raider Magazine in the newsagents that reprinted the Top Cow Comics from issue 5 and none of the crossovers with other Top Cow characters.  By the final couple of issues Lara was sharing her magazine with Aphrodite IX.  There were no comic shops in Emerald and buying things on the internet wasn't really a thing then.

I remember trying to get the Tomb Raider action figure from the Emerald Toyworld and they just flatout refused to order it or even aknowledge it was a thing.  My wife rang the Toyworld in Rockhampton (three hours east of Emerald and the closest town) and bought it for me over the phone with the credit card and they posted it out to us.

By the time the sequel to the movie came out we had moved back to Ipswich and could get to the comic shops in Brisbane.  I saw Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life in the cinema in Ipswich and bought the novelisation.

Then they brought out the first three novels The Amulet of Power, The Lost Cult and The Man of Bronze.  SOOOOO good with references and easter eggs galore.

The Top Cow Tomb Raider comics were a little more elusive and trying to buy the back issues was difficult.  I eventually got the bulk of them when Dark Horse did the Archives in 4 volumes that reprinted the issues 1-24, 26-50, the 12 issue Journeys and the various one shots.  issue 25 was a crossover with EVO and Witchblade and wasn't included.  

I also bought the new comics that Dark Horse printed to tie in with the 2013 reboot game and the 20th anniversary of the original game in 2016.  

But I wanted those Top Cow comics - I found a list and started working my way through it.  Ebay and comic shops selling on line have been a godsend.

I thought I had most of them only discover that there were two one shots that had not been reprinted in the archives.  Top Cow had done two books for Dynamic Forces - Scarface's Treasure and Sphere of Influence.  Both were bought fairly soon thereafter.  I discovered the French comic Dark Aeons and grabbed it too (sadly there is no English edition but I found a translation on line)

Then last week , it arrived the final two books I needed to finish off the Tomb Raider comics - the two issue event Dark Crossings.

I enjoyed both these series - Uncharted is fun and Tomb Raider is just solid action adventure. It was a fun hunt to chase these books down, discovering new appearances and false leads.  I may have to revisist my Tomb Raider timeline to include the books I wasn't aware of at the time I wrote it.

Simon Spector (2004) written Warren Ellis, art by Jack Burrows

Last year I wrote a review of Mark Millar's Prodigy, which I really enjoyed.

I was looking at the comments for that post and Alan Blank posted his review of the series on Goodreads which can be found here

In that review he mentions Simon Spector, a character I'd never heard of - a modern pulp character I'd never heard of.  Naturally, this was something that had to be rectified.

Simon Spector was part of Ellis' Apparat line for Avatar Comics.  The quick version is Ellis had a thought experiment - what if the pulp influence on comics was a little stronger and superheroes hadn't been as dominant.  What might comics of various pulp genres look like?  Science Fiction adventure, detective stories, aviator adventures and pulp vigilantes were the four genres picked and Angel Stomp Future, Frank Ironwine, Quit City and Simon Spector were the results.

Four one shots -  it sounded intriguing.  If I could find Simon Spector I wasn't off on a long term quest it was one and done. If I liked it then there were three more of similar style to track down.

And I found a reasonably priced copy and promptly bought it.

In the back of the book, Ellis talks of his inspiration for the line and this book in particular.  How he would read Doc Savage, The Shadow and The Spider and speculate about the pharmacutical assistance these heroes must have.

It's an interesting idea, not one I'd be keen to see used for a proper Doc Savage or Shadow adventure but intriguing.

In fact now that I think about it, Ellis is running not quite in the same groove as Philip Jose Farmer in A Feast Unknown but a parallel track.  Farmer isn't mentioned in his essay but ......

Simon Spector is a modern day riff on Doc Savage.  He operates out what appears to be the spire at the top of the Chrysler Building.

The story opens when a woman comes to Spector's office telling about her kidnapped husband who works for a weapons manufacturer. She mentions that one of the kidnappers was named Cristos. 

Cristos we discover is Spector's archenemy who was believed dead (first villian rule - if you don't see a body they are not dead) when the plane which he was locked in the cockpit crashed. 

Spector takes a pill that effectively speeds up his brain (Not unlike NZT in Limitless movie and TV series and the drug in Lucy)  There's a nice five page sequence after he takes the pill, where he asks for the lady's address and through deduction and knowledge of Cristos' MO is able to determine the villian's lair. 

Spector grabs his custom made weapons (because a number of pulp vigilantes had custom made weapons) made with his parent's wedding rings. 

He then makes his way to the hideout, where he battles Cristos. 

There's a surprise or two in the confrontation that I won't spoil.

I really loved this book - it was perfectly self contained giving us everything we need to know about Simon Spector yet also managing to tantalise us with hints of a larger story.  We don't know what happened to his parents, the nature of his earlier encounters with Cristos, what other villians has he faced, does he always need the tablets? Where did he meet his bodyguard and his doctor? Is Simon Spector his real name?

You could write a whole series of hundreds of adventures with this character and yet in this single adventure we know all that we need. 

This was a really good comic I enjoyed it immensely.  I'll have to see if I can find the other three Apparat books.