More than just a revenge flick

The movie "Rolling Thunder" is one of those gems that you just don't hear about. At least I hadn't heard of it until my good buddy J.R. brought it over for us to watch.

William Devane was perfect as the man who survived being a POW in Vietnam and is trying his god-damnedest to make it back in "the world". His wife has moved on and he doesn't really know how to relate to her anymore anyway. Tommy Lee Jones' character came back from captivity with him and he also has no idea how to lead a normal life. His wife and family are trying really hard to be loving and happy and are also trying to pretend that nothing is wrong. They are both completely numb, but go through the motions without complaint.

It takes murder, torture, and mutilation to push these men into action, but once the action is needed, they both slide so easily into combat mode that you can actually see the relief on their faces that they are going into life-threatening battle rather than having to face another day of forced normality.

Q. Tarantino called it "the best revenge movie", but it is so much more. My favorite moment in the whole damn thing is when Devane tells Jones that he's about to take on a whole bunch of baddies across the border and Jones replies simply, "I'll get my gear."

That's all he has to say and it speaks volumes. Young TLJ was amazingly skilled from early on. Compare him in this to his charming character in Eyes of Laura Mars. Both great but completely different multi-layered performances of complex characters. He's one of the few actors that can emulate pure visceral anger without changing his expression. Not one clench or furrow.

The violence is hard and is neither 80's fun, 90's slick, nor 00's stylish. It hurts to watch. There's no way to watch it and feel that it glorifies violence. The men don't treat the women very well at all and you know it's because the war and the torture stole their ability to relate to anyone except for someone who's been through the same thing.

I highly recommend this movie to fans of movies.

Trivia: The opening theme, "San Antone" was also used in my favorite movie of all time, "The Ninth Configuration" AKA "Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane".

Tokyo Akahon Manga “Gulliver’s Travels” by NAKAMURA Hiroshi

According to a post by akahon manga researcher Yuuzora Retro (pen name), the Tokyo-based publisher Taikōdō ( 泰光堂 ) created their Manga Classics series in response to the PTA backlash against manga contributing to delinquency in Osaka. This is Gulliver’s Travels by NAKAMURA Hiroshi (中村ひろし), a B6-sized 3-color akahon* printed with red ink fills on either blue or green lines costing 85 yen. NAKAMURA seemed to be the main artist for Taikōdō as evinced by the ad pages at the back. There is no publishing date, but it probably wasn't too far from 1951 when "Cinderella" and "Snow White" from the same series were published. Looking at the stamps on the endpapers on the back, we can see that this particular book was rented out at a kashihon-ya (rental comic shop) in Saga, Kyushu called Imazato Neo Shobō. It was lent to me by a Mr. Fujita, a collector heavy into Showa-era items. I will continue to introduce the books I was able to borrow from his

Lighthouse Illustration

I was suddenly possessed by the desire to draw lighthouses. Inspired by the work of Don Kenn , Edward Gorey, and H.P. Lovecraft. First in a possible series.

Starry-eyed heroes of Akira 'Leiji' Matsumoto

Hello, friends and manga-philes. You probably know that my interest in Japan was originally fueled by a combined interest in Japanese animation and martial arts. My interests expanded somewhat over the years, but one big change happened about the age of 15 when I bought my first Japanese collected comic. From that moment on, I became more interested in comics than animation and eventually after moving to Japan, I started to collect the comics of Mr. Leiji Matsumoto . At first, I was put off by the heavy-lined art and blocky characters, but the more I got into the stories, the less I cared about the style. Eventually, though, I started to appreciate the artistry much in the same way it took me a while to warm to Jack Kirby's art. Like most Leiji fans, I was heavy into Space Cruiser Yamato , Captain Harlock , Queen Emeraldas , and finally, Galaxy Express 999 . These comics were created in the 70's and are representative of Matsumoto's style of that time. After

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