Joshua Hale Fialkov

Purveyor of sheer awesomeness.

Joshua Hale Fialkov is the Harvey, Eisner, and Emmy Award nominated writer of graphic novels, animation, video games, film, and television, including:

THE LIFE AFTER, THE BUNKER, PUNKS, ELK'S RUN, TUMOR, ECHOES, KING, PACIFIC RIM, THE ULTIMATES, I, VAMPIRE, and JEFF STEINBERG CHAMPION OF EARTH. He's also written television including MAX’s YOUNG JUSTICE, NBC's CHICAGO MED and NETFLIX’s AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER.

The Killing

October 03, 2006  /  Joshua Fialkov

While I'm at it, I suppose I should just say a word or two about The Killing. I seem to recall Kubrick hating this movie, but that might be me confusing it with Spartacus.  Which you'd think is pretty fucking hard to do.  In any event, The Killing is an odd-duck of a movie.  It manages to be pretty damn close to what Kubrick would do in Strangelove and Clockwork, while still being a lesser work.  The big downfall is the weird pulp noir voice over that more or less evaporates by the end of the first hour.  It's like someone mixed up the first few reels with the audio from Dragnet.

Once you get past that, you get something that's pretty atypical for Kubrick, an extremely tight, tense, and suspenseful caper picture.  It really has the feeling that Ocean's Eleven (the Soderbergh one) tries and (in my opinion) fails to  accomplish.  Utter fucking chaos, where there's only one or two guys smarter than the room.  It's interesting mostly to me because despite fitting snugly into the cliches and devices of Noir, it manages to be a wholly different beast.  Hell, it's almost an action movie, save for the lack of flat-out action scenes.

It's one of those movies that a lot of Kubrick fans seem to overlook, and, considering the style and form he gained just a few years later in Strangelove and beyond, I suppose it's understandable.  That being said, it's a helluva lot of fun, which is not something one often hears when describing Kubrick movies.

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categories / Movies, Reviews, Reviews by Me

Blogging my way through the Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection

October 03, 2006  /  Joshua Fialkov

I spent a nice chunk of my very slight change on the Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection. So, I figure to make sure I’m actually a) watching them, and b) analyzing them properly for research purposes, I’m going to blog about each movie as I watch them.It’s 14 movies, so it’ll take a while, and I’ve seen 95% of them before so I don’t know how much I’ll really have to say, but, I’ll do my best to make it interesting (and let’s be honest, there’s not a lot one can say about The Trouble with Harry to make it interesting.)

Anyways, there’s the little link to the box set up above if you want to know what’s in it, and what to look forward to. It’s really worth every penny, seriously. So, if you have the extra cash, go buy it and follow along.

I’m starting with Rear Window tonight. While I’m watching it, I’m reminded of a couple of things that make it really stand out to me (and I suppose to just about every fan of Hitchcock’s) as something special. From the use of minatures to the dynamic camera work for what is essentially a very static and stationary film is really, really remarkable. Plus, you get Jimmy Stewart with his shirt off. C’mon you just can’t go wrong. Alright, I’ll be back with something, hopefully more profound later on.

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categories / Movies, Reviews, Reviews by Me

Fuck the Reviews…

September 05, 2006  /  Joshua Fialkov

Crank is the best movie of the year.  It's a fucking tour-de-force of insane action on par with anything Leone or Peckinpah ever produced. Run, do not walk, to see it if you have any love for action movies.  It's fan-fucking-tastic.

It was part of a quintuplet of great movies I watched this weekend including D.O.A. (the original, not the remake), the afore-mentioned Crank, The Big Lebowski, Vertigo, and good friend Mark Wheaton's A&E TV Movie, Wildfire: Last Stand at Yellowstone.

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categories / Movies, Reviews, Reviews by Me

I’m an Absentee

September 03, 2006  /  Joshua Fialkov

Sorry for not being around.  Past few weeks have been incredibly busy.  Nothing really worthy of announcing yet, but, y'know, everything in due time.  I've been banging through a few WFH pitches, that would be incredibly cool to see come to light, but we'll see, I guess. More excitingly, I've been banging through the first draft of Tumor, and Noel's doing some sample art from the WIP script we have.  I think we've found a worthy successor to Elk's Run. It's some seriously fucked up shit and I think y'all will enjoy it.  I'm trying my best to keep it under my hat for now, aside from that sample art we put up next week, in hopes of having our publishing plans squared up before we spill any beans (or tumor addled brains.)

I spent the day with my new lady love at her awesome job at the Los Angeles Public Library, working on scripts and generally being away from telephones and tv's.  It's nice to just get some work done, and be able to look up and see someone I really and truly love just a few feet away.

Also, i got a terrible haircut.  That's all the shit thats fit to print.

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categories / Comics, Comics Business, My Comics, Personal

Almost there…

August 21, 2006  /  Joshua Fialkov

Got most of my stuff out of the apartment and into the new place yesterday.  Didn't actually y'know... sleep much from Friday to Sunday, but, I finally got a chance to lay down last night.  So, that's good.  Now I have to clean the shit hole of an old apartment, and get the cats settled in to their new life of confinement. Woofa.

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categories / Personal

Western Tales of Terror on Bookgasm

August 20, 2006  /  Joshua Fialkov

Bookgasm has a great review of the entire five issue run of Western Tales of Terror.  I somehow missed it when it came out (probably because the book had already been dead and buried for about a year when it ran), but, it's greatly appreciated. Y'know... I'm actually incredibly proud of those five issues.  I think they go toe to toe with just about any horror comic on the market today or yesterday.  And they're still for sale over at the Hoarse and Buggy store.

Go, buy them, enjoy.

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categories / Comics, My Comics, Reviews, Reviews of Me