Adventure | Big Bearded Bookseller

Lukas Kummer. Top Shelf Productions, (168p) ISBN: 9781603095587. Graphic Novel, read 21/05/25, eBook ★★★★☆

Ionheart

I’m pretty much asking for any non-Manga graphic novels from Net Galley at the moment (I received this in exchange for an honest review) as there is so many good ones coming to print right now across so many different genres.

Ionheart initially places us in a world of knights, demons, princesses, castles, and quests, with a returning knight and a some nods to Arthurian legends.

This is suddenly all upturned when the demon is revealed, though there are quite a few hints when magic items are shown.

Transdimensional high jinx then ensues, identities are revealed, motives and back story is expanded upon and the twists and turns get better and better.

The graphic style of the story telling is nice and crisp with a great use of bold colours and theming short sections of the story together with one main colour as an indicator really works and keeps the story going.

The story of Billy is a brilliantly twisting one with a fascinating ending (?) and lots of different threads weaving backwards and forwards through time and universes.

Predator (1987)

Right from the start you could smell the testosterone oozing from the screen, but in the right way.

This is another vehicle for the talent that is Arnold Schwarzenegger, as most of the 80s was. He did action but each of them seemed to have a little bit of a twist that took them just outside the run of the mill action films.

Team this up with John McTiernan who really knows how to direct a half decent action film (Die Hard!) and we have a marriage made in heaven.

What looks like a straight forward action blaster from the start, rescue mission that’s really a cover up for a CIA operation. Lots of gun fire, betrayals, and goodies win out in the end.

But the brilliant twist on this is the addition of one of the best sci-fi protagonists of the 80s, The Predator, and an excellent but sparse script moving the action forward and piling up the tension.

Completely forgot how much I enjoyed this film, and was lucky enough to see it in the cinema when it came out.

The alien proceeds to hunt the special ops group, upping their testosterone at every step, and knocking them off one by one.

Though still don’t really get the bit with Billy near the end, just a bit silly, but then again it is a silly film, good but silly.

The ending is an absolute classic, setting up further films for the franchise.

Predator | June 12, 1987 (United States)

7.8

Director: John McTiernanWriter: Jim Thomas, John ThomasStars: Stars, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Kevin Peter Hall, Summary: