If Chins Could Kill - Bruce Campbell

Campbell's first autobiography, following his interest in acting from making Super 8 movies with his buddies in Michigan, up to appearing in the first Spider-Man movie. He spends a little time on his personal life, mostly in his childhood and school years. After that, it's mostly to the extent his career intersects with his personal life (like how all the traveling helped bring about the end of his first marriage.)

I didn't realize how much other stuff related to movies he'd done, in terms of being a producer, helping with editing or filming second shots for movies, even directing several episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. The nice thing is, these aren't treated as simply parts of his resume. Campbell spends time describing the process and the work behind the different roles.

There are multiple chapters about he, Sam Raimi, and others' efforts to raise money to film Evil Dead. He details the process, breaking up paragraphs about who you ask with brief examples of phone calls he might have with old acquaintances, or how he asked his dad if he could put the family farm up as collateral to get a bank loan. Once the film is made, all the work that goes into preparing it for release, all the things you have to put together to convince a distributor they should want to sell your movie, the trailers and translated titles for release in other countries. In the chapters about Adventures of Brisco County Jr., he talks about the process of being selected for a role, the number of times you may have to audition, and how many different people you have to sell yourself to.

Kind of amazing to me that anyone gets anywhere in show business at all. 

The book has a lot of visuals. Photographs of him as a kid (still easily recognizable, although it was the brow line more than the chin), stills from the various films he and his friends put together - with names like Bogus Monkey Pignut Swindle - or a "Kiwi Primer", translating various American words to their New Zealand equivalent. "Body Shop" becomes "Panelbeater", apparently.

My favorites were the diagrams of the different rigs they came up with to capture some of the shots Sam Raimi wanted on the Evil Dead films. The "Vas-O-Cam" in particular, where the camera sat on a U-shaped bracket that could slide over over tape coated with Vaseline and stretched across two sawhorses. It's a poor man's dolly, as Campbell notes, but has the benefit of being portable, light, and cheap.

It's a quick read. Most of the chapters are short; some read more like a collection of brief anecdotes that a true narrative. This paragraph details something funny that happened, the next paragraph details something else funny, without any particular connective tissue or overarching theme other than this is stuff you may deal with in acting. But the anecdotes are funny, or failing that, informative. I went in expecting a standard autobiography, and learned a lot of things about acting I didn't expect, so I'd consider that a win. 

'Raising money for the Man with the Screaming Brain was a little like being trapped in a slow-moving elevator after someone farted - the ride took too long and the atmosphere was foul.'

Steady State in Spring

April looks to be a pretty neutral month in the solicits. Not much new that caught the eye, just a lot of things that I figure I'll be buying going into the month, and I'll continue to do so in April. I did notice Marvel seems to be double-shipping some of their X-books. I hope they're not going to get back in the habit of doing that.

What's new? Marvel gets their turn at the Spider-Man/Superman crossover. Setting aside the cost being prohibitive to my cheap ass, the list of creators was not encouraging. Geoff Johns? Bendis? Brad goddamn Meltzer?! Fuck outta here.

The other thing I noticed was from Abrams Comics Art, Soviet Land by Pierre-Henry Gomant. Set after the fall of the USSR, but following a character who gathers things, remnants of the state, that other people might pay money for. I assume as curios, and that we're not talking about codes to nukes, but who knows. 

What's ending? So far as I can tell, nothing I'm buying is wrapping up in April.

And the rest: Batgirl has Cassandra still dealing with her strange new powers, Fantastic Four is going to wrap up this "Invincible Woman" arc. You know, I've seen the first issue and still have no idea what that's supposed to be. Nova: Centurion, there's an odd comment in the solicit about Rich 'skipping town whenever it all comes down.' Not sure what that's about.

Babs and Spirit of the Shadows are on issue 4, so nearing conclusions for both. It's a May release, but the 4th and apparently final issue of Touched by a Demon was solicited this last week as well. In the question of Is Ted OK?, issue 3 would suggest he is not. D'Orc has the lead being pursued by some dwarf looking to erase him from existence. Not just kill him, erase him entirely. This feels like it's going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. All these people try to kill D'Orc because he's going to do bad stuff, and that makes the bad stuff happen.

Marc Spector #3 suggests Moon Knight's going off the deep end. What, again? Everyone hold tight to your faces! Generation X-23 makes it look like things are going bad for Laura, while Moonstar is trying to stop a god(?) from removing the pain of existence from everybody. By killing them.

Hey, catch me on the right day, I might not object to that plan. . .

Johnny O'Clock (1947)

Johnny O'Clock (Dick Powell) thinks he's got things figured out. Plays it smart, plays it safe. Makes sure none of the dealers in his gambling parlor sneak any cash up their sleeves. Rejects the advances and gifts of his partner's wife. Advises the naive coatcheck girl to take the hint and stop pursuing the bent cop that takes cares of problem gamblers. Uses a two-time loser of a con as his sidekick. Brushes off the questions of nosy Inspector Koch (Lee J. Cobb.)

And then the bent cop, after trying to cut Johnny out of the business, turns up dead. As does the coatcheck girl, seemingly a suicide, until the cops determine there was poison in her stomach. Odd choice for someone who sealed herself in her apartment and turned on the gas, unless she figured she was a descendant of Rasputin and was going to be hard to kill.

So while Koch digs into the girl's life, Johnny's doing his own digging. Then the girl's sister, Nina (Evelyn Keyes) arrives. She can't offer much help to Koch, but when Johnny sneaks into the apartment looking for something incriminating, the two of them end up spending some time together.

A lot of the movie revolves around this fast-moving relationship, which I'm not sure is to its benefit. Powell plays Johnny as constantly running hot and cold on Nina. He's charming one minute, keeping her company when rain delays her flight out, and then the next he's pushing her away. Or she's pleading with him to leave with her one minute, and mocking him for not deciding to go kill his partner - because it's not the right time, according to him - the next. Meanwhile, Koch is the one driving a lot of the plot, as he pokes and prods for a weakness to exploit to solve two murders, but it feels like there are long stretches we don't see him.

I guess the point is Johnny thinks he's smart by playing everything close to the vest, by only being concerned about himself, but it backfires. Johnny could have told his partner his wife was trying to make a play for him, but that could have loused the business one way or the other. Better to let Guido think he's in a happy marriage, keep his eyes on making money. He figures if he gives Charlie some nice shirts, then Charlie won't mind getting pushed around or humiliated by cops on Johnny's behalf. After all, what other job options does he have? But keeping every relationship on that level means there's no one with any real loyalty to him, and not everyone is willing to put money above personal grudges.

What I Bought 1/23/2026

I had to run to the next town over on Friday to meet with Alex and hammer some things out before what will hopefully be the only Winter-geddon we get this year. It did give me the chance to stop at the store there and pick up a couple of comics from earlier in the month. Then it was back into my apartment, where I largely remained the rest of the weekend. Depending on the roads, I may not leave Monday either. I made the mistake of driving to work on the hilly, snow-covered roads of this town last winter, and I'm not sure my teeth can survive the experience again.

Babs: The Black Road South #1, by Garth Ennis (writer), Jacen Burrows (artist), Andy Troy (colorist), Rob Steen (letterer) - Great, Babs is swinging her sword in the wrong direction. The dragon's behind you!

Babs enters a gladiator battle for the specific purpose of killing a guy who smashed her sand castle when she was a child. But, having successfully completed that task, and with lots of people betting on her, she sticks around and takes out the entire "Matazax Hack-Pack," which includes a panda with a unicorn horn. Panda-corn? Pandicorn?

Eh, whatever. Point is, her friend Izzy bet on her and they made a lot of money. They splurge on a nice room, hit the tavern, and engage in medieval fantasy karaoke, about Red Sonja. Mostly about how horny "the Sonj" is, because nobody can beat her in a fight, so, you know, no nookie. This takes three pages, but the crowd gets into it (minus the lute-playing elf bemoaning how this isn't really music.) Burrows has a lot of fun with the crowd reactions, people gradually get more hyped until they're jumping off the stage and swinging from chandeliers. Plus, in some real Flintstones' shit, the microphones are little geckos with a funnel up their butts. It's a livin'.

After a little more fun, they wake up the next morning, hungover (and wearing each other's outfits), with no money. While they run around like idiots, we learn via flashback there's some set-up where you can invest in heroic quests, and get a share of the proceeds when the party returns. But they invested in a quest to Mordynn, which may or may not be a shithole. Either way, Babs is adamant she'd rather kiss the money good-bye than go back there. Too bad.

I can't decide if Ennis is going to take the route of Babs and Izzy constantly running into trouble on the Black Road, and never even catching up to the party, or they do catch up and get swept up in trying to keep the band of likely bungling idiots alive. I'm guessing the latter, if only because the merchant mentioned some 'balls-up' from a few years ago, which Babs is probably connected to. So she gets to see the end result of her handiwork.

Batgirl #15, by Tate Brombal (writer), Stephen Segovia (artist), Rain Beredo (colorist), Steve Wands (letterer) - Don't be fooled, there is very little that's calm in this issue.

Batgirl is having weird dreams about being betrayed and learning truths, then lashing out at Tenji. Jaya tries to tell her she has to stop feeling guilty about where she started, face her past, blah blah blah. I'm especially suspicious of the part where she talks about Shiva becoming "more" the day she abandoned her vengeance, which she defines as the day Cass was born. Wouldn't it be the day she agreed to fuck David Cain, the guy who killed her sister?

Also, the "more" Shiva became includes a person who kills a lot of people without batting an eye. Maybe it would have been better for her to stay "less."

While Batgirl confronts Nyssa about her complicity in the destruction of the monks who used to live there, Tenji goes snooping and runs into the big oaf of an Unburied in a cell. Guy is pretty calm, because his people know the underground, and they've been tunneling in. Batgirl's discussion with Nyssa gets nowhere, because apparently Cass can't read if Nyssa's lying or not, possibly due to the no emotions thing. So she's going to leave, but wants to say good-bye to Jaya first. Too bad Jaya is working for the Unburied. When Tenji warns Nyssa of the sneak attack, Nyssa says everything is going according to plan.

Brombal is spamming the hell out of the "surprise betrayal" button.Props to Segovia, who draws Jaya with this very open face. Huge, expressive eyes, always leaning towards people and offering comfort. It at least makes her look "innocent", so the betrayal should, in theory be a surprise. However, I'm not sure Brombal has completed the part of the deal where I have to care about most of these characters, especially with how many betrayals we're seeing. Also, now both sides are doing the, "you thought I lost, but it was part of my plan," shtick!

And what the hell does any of it have to do with Shiva, or Cass' connection to her mother?! I am fully onboard with Batgirl just leaving them to it and going home to Gotham. She's not getting anything out of this, especially since she couldn't trust any of what Jaya said, given her apparent true loyalties. Although there's still a part of expecting Shiva to turn up as leader the Unburied, and this is all part of some mindfuck to make Cass stronger.

Sunday Splash Page #411

"Casualties," in Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka ch. 11, vol. 2, by Naoki Urasawa, Osamu Tezuka, and Takashi Nagasaki

Someone is targeting the seven most advanced robots of the world, as well as those who advocate for the rights of robots. Victims are left displayed with something resembling horns sticking from the ground around their head, like the Roman God of Death. The Europol detective assigned to the case of the murdered activists, Inspector Gesicht, is one of those "great" robots himself, so a failure to solve the mystery in time could have very real consequences for him.

Pluto is a work of Naoki Urasawa's, inspired by Osamu Tezuka's "The Greatest Robot on Earth" story in the manga we know here in the States as Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atom in Japan.) I don't know the original work, don't know much about the character or his world, period, so I can't say in what ways this is inspired, and in what ways it's simply Urasawa's own thing that just happens to inhabit a fictional world created by another writer/artist.

The impetus for the attacks traces back to the "39th Central Asian War", where the President of the United States of Thracia convinced the rest of the world the Persian Kingdom had too big a robot army, and was working on dangerously advanced artificial intelligences which could threaten the world. So they invaded, with those same seven robots taking part to one degree or another. Some fought, others, like the pacifist Epsilon, refused to fight, but helped with surveys after the war that sought proof of these dangerous A.I.s.

They didn't find anything, except a bunch of shattered remains of robot bodies. No sign of the alleged brilliant scientist Persia had working for them, "Dr. Goji," either. But now something was killing advanced robots, and people who advocated for their rights. Something that seemed to harness nature itself.

Something Urasawa does, after the murder of Mont Blanc kicks things off, is spend time with each of the robots. What they do, what they want. North No. 2 - the second to go - is built for war, but chooses to act as butler for a blind pianist, one brilliant but embittered. North No. 2 keeps all his weapons concealed beneath a cloak, and asks to be taught to play the piano. Brando became one of two great fighting champions (another of the robots, Hercules, is the other), but he and his wife have a house full of kids. Epsilon takes in orphans, including one boy traumatized by something he saw during the 39th Central Asian War. Gesicht has a wife, and they discuss maybe adopting a child, or going on vacations. Even robots that aren't designed to look as human have lives. Gesicht delivers the news to the wife of a robot cop that was badly damaged by an assailant, and both are shiny metal, with Johnny-Five like faces and dimensions. But the loss of her husband shakes the wife dearly.

It makes it seem odd that Gesicht treats things like struggling to tell if Atom is human or robot as a rare experience, because all these robots seem human. Maybe "alive" is the better word. They aren't the same as humans, but they're still alive. They seem able to hallucinate, or see things that aren't real, as they die. Brando cries out that he won against Pluto, even though he didn't. Gesicht sees the past when he dies, the things that were locked away from him in his memory.

Urasawa spends a lot of panels on close-ups of faces, and I don't think you could tell from the expressions, which characters were organic and which weren't. Maybe Gesicht doesn't pout or grumble like some of the human cops Atom interacts with, but he smiles softly, he narrows his eyes, he shouts or grows angry when someone he cares about is attacked. He's aware he interprets the world differently from humans, that he drinks tea just to look normal. That he even bothers to pretend, to put people at ease, or simply for his own reasons, seems like a living, thinking response.

The other major theme I notice is memory. The various robots often exchange memory cards, or connect to each other wirelessly as a way to share evidence. In this way, sometimes one character learns something the other didn't notice, or doesn't remember. Atom finds something in Gesicht's memories that he's forgotten. Or more accurately, been made to forget. Hercules comments that humans erect monuments, or hold memorials, to preserve a memory against being forgotten, while robots never forget, so long as they don't erase the memory.

What we see in this story is humans do a lot more than just build monuments or hold vigils for those they miss or admire. Atom was created by Dr. Tenma to replace his dead son. Tenma, however, considers Atom a failure, because he isn't like Tenma's son. He likes a book on insects he found, a gift from Tenma the dead boy hid away. And Pluto, and the mysterious "Bora", are both products of a man's unwillingness to let go. They're monuments to his anger, to his loss, and he wants the world to be unable to forget, no matter how much damage that requires, even to himself or his children.

Saturday Splash Page #213

"Top o' the Heap," in Robin #85, by Chuck Dixon (writer), Pete Woods (penciler), Jesse Delperdang (inker), Noelle Giddings and Jamison (colorists), Willie Schubert (letterer)

Robin was the first DC title I bought monthly. Starting with this very issue, in fact. I had issues from the various mini-series they used to start Tim Drake out with. Mostly the one where he has to face the Joker while Batman's out of town. I had a handful of issues from the Chuck Dixon/Tom Grummett run which started this ongoing. Mostly tie-ins to larger linewide events. Knightfall. Knightsend (Knights End?). The Zero Hour issue where Tim meets a young Dick Grayson Robin.

Also issue #4, which was my introduction to Stephanie Brown, aka Spoiler.

Chuck Dixon wrote the book for about 100 issues, often with the approach of Tim's civilian and superhero lives getting in each other's way. Crimefighting causes Tim to miss class, or leaves him unable to account for his whereabouts when his father wants to know where he was last night, if not at home. Missing a date with his school acquaintance Ariana, or trying to have a relationship with a fellow vigilante when he knows her secret identity, but won't buck Big Daddy Bats enough to share his own.

By the time I was buying the book regularly, Tim and Batsy were having more frequent falling outs, as Batman was fully into his early-2000s, Paranoid Dickhead Era. Tim was also attending a private school, which gave Dixon and penciler Pete Woods a way to introduce new plots and problems, via Tim's various classmates. It did seem to get a little much when one kid turns out to be the potential rightful ruler of some Middle Eastern country, and ends up with a demon set on him, and another turns out to potentially be the next head of Kobra, both in about a 10-issue span.

As much as I like Tom Grummett's work, I do prefer Pete Woods on Robin. His Tim was skinnier, maybe even wiry (I don't think he's tall enough to qualify as "lanky.") That seemed to fit the approach Dixon was going with for Tim, compared to the earlier Robins. Tim wasn't the athlete, certainly not the acrobat, Grayson was. He had to be more cerebral, just to stay alive. I only saw Dixon write a few issues where Tim was dealing with what I'd call a mystery, but his adventures still usually boiled down to him having to think his way through a problem, because his opponent outmatched him physically.

Might have been why I liked him. That and the bo staff, the Ninja Turtles influence still strong in me. The long pants and ditching of the pixie boots didn't hurt, either. Apparently the costume design was strong enough it keeps getting adapted for Dick Grayson in other media, like Batman: The Animated Series and the Teen Titans cartoons.

Dixon left, Jon Lewis took over as writer, as Tim moved back into Gotham proper. Some of the plots Lewis trotted out were weird, or I just didn't get what he was going for. Two kids in some traveling rural roadshow who could heal from terrible injuries, but had to stay close to each other. Batman testing Tim by having Alfred pretend to time travel with a dire warning that one of their friends turns totalitarian. That plot was undercut by Batman criticizing Tim for not dismissing the idea outright on the basis of time travel, when Tim was literally on a team with a kid from the 30th Century, and it was still in continuity that Batman was on a Justice League roster with Booster Gold, who was from the 25h Century.

Then Bill Willingham took over as writer, and the Bat-Editorial took a sledgehammer to Tim's life. Spoiler died in War Games. Tim's dad died in Identity Crisis. Willingham sent Tim to Bludhaven, and had him fight magic-using losers and a bunch of other goofy villains. Also sent Tim's step-mom along, after she had a mental collapse, but oops, she got blown up with the city by Deathstroke in Infinite Crisis. Geoff Johns kept teasing futures where Tim would become some Authoritarian Batman in his depressing Teen Titans run. Then One Year Later, and Adam Beechen, and the whole Cass Cain mess, and boy did I regret not pulling the ripcord 30 issues sooner. Better late than never, I suppose.

All told, I bought Robin for about 5 years, but only 16 issues remain in my collection.

What I Bought 1/21/2026

Similar to my 2024 watch-through of all the movies I owned, I decided to go through all my anime this year. Which has been fun. It had been at least a decade since the last time I watched Azumanga Daioh or Cowboy Bebop. I'm working through Desert Punk at the moment, which is mostly confirming my memory that buying Desert Punk was a mistake. 

Fantastic Four #7, by Ryan North (writer), Humberto Ramos (penciler), Victor Olazaba and JP Mayer (inkers), Edgar Delgado (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Why have the sleeves of the outfit stop partway up the arm? Makes it look like the unstable molecules shrank in the washing machine.

The FF conclude they have to go see what's up with Galactus, that he sent this message. Which involves building a faster-than-light ship that Ramos draws as very 1950s flying saucer. But since they won't be bringing the kids or Alicia along, they need someone to look after them. So each member of the team picks someone to get a teleport bracelet that can bring them to the kids if there's trouble. And there is, from the Mad Thinker, who also decoded the message and decides to attack as soon as the FF depart.

It's definitely the more nuanced approach that Nicieza took with M.T. in the first volume of New Warriors, but reducing the Mad Thinker to a guy attacking kids with killer robots for revenge is really lame. If North established this is part of some larger goal, clearing the deck of an obstacle so he can get at resources Reed has, that would be one thing. But revenge is just so, petty, and lacking in any gain in knowledge.

But that's the plot we've got, so with the robots designed to counter anything the kids can manage, Franklin calls in the cavalry. We see Johnny ask Wyatt Wingfoot, and Sue asks Felicia (though she admits this would usually be a She-Hulk situation.) I'm assuming Ben asked Wolverine and Reed asked Carol Danvers? Can't really see it the other way around. And, because the Thinker predicted the FF would ask these 4 specific people, the quartet gets taken out in less than a page.

That pitiful showing is all to set up the big twist. This issue is narrated by the Thing, though he admits he only learned about the stuff with the Thinker after the fact. Throughout the issue, he makes reference to a lunch date he was worried about missing. As it turns out, it was with a bunch of third-rate villains that Ben has shown kindness to over the years, whether that's giving them a ride home instead of to the police station, or just not clobbering them.

So he made a request to look after his family, and they dogpile the Mad Thinker. The point is something about guys like the Thinker believing it's always one person alone, but it's really about the connections you make, but I'm left thinking how embarrassing it is for Wolverine and Captain Marvel that they got trounced by a guy who just lost to 8-Ball, the Melter (I think), Frog-Man, and some guy named Pulverizer. And 8-Ball's nominally a good guy now, can he even hang out at villain bars? For that matter, when did Frog-Man go bad? His dad was the crook!