The Last Game Of Thrones!

No attempt at spoilers below so tread carefully.

They tell me that hardcore fans of the series Game of Thrones are not all that happy about how the epic television series wrapped up. But truth told, I was only surprised a few times to be honest and that was mostly in which character ended upon the the "Iron Throne", the throne itself melted to slag. (More on that later.) Many are carping about the "breakneck" pace of the season which for my money was still just about as mopey as it's always been. There were whole episodes dedicated to yammering before a decent bit of action intervened.

I sure as heck don't want more hours dedicated to "character". We know who these folks are now, we all have ideas about how they will stand or fall. The villains were dispatched and the heroes were rewarded (mostly) with only a few getting not what they deserved, but that's life sadly. I can see a few bits of plotting condensed to make way for the two hay maker endings but that was really only in the transition from one war to the last. One more episode at most to show that transition might be argued for, but that's all I can see at the absolute most.

GoT fans like The Walking Dead fans have become accustomed to dawdling and don't like it when dawdling isn't the order of the day. And that's why I've abandoned the latter and reluctantly only bought into the former in recent years.  For me the pacing was better, I wanted to see the end and in some episodes thought I might not make as boredom wore me down. All things must come to an end, even the game of thrones.

As for what it all meant, let me venture this proposition. The true heroes of the story were always the young ones, and we get to see how they grow and deal with the immense challenges they face. The Iron Throne was purported to be made of individual swords fused together to make the seat of power. The Iron Throne was only ever a symbol, but that stagnant symbol of a generation gone partly mad was demolished  and for the most part the madness itself was expunged. But when it was melted down, when the wheel of was broken, we see that the "swords" are actually the young characters themselves, grown finally to adulthood having been tempered by the suffering, loss, and joys they've encountered, and embracing their roles as queen, captain, explorer, and otherwise. Both the extremes of fire and of ice have been repelled, the dark age is swept away and a more moderate rational world beckons. Sounds pretty good to me.

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Delay Of Game Of Thrones!

Over the holidays I got my mitts on some of the early Game of Thrones dvds for dirt cheap. Then for Christmas my daughters got me the rest of the series and I've just finished them.  I'd never been all that attracted by the HBO series for a couple of reasons, the first is I'm too damn cheap. The idea of paying extra for TV when I have more TV than I can watch now always struck me as ludicrous. And when I sampled the show once upon a time, I must've found a dull episode because it didn't strike me as much of anything but a wee bit of spectacle. So why buy it? Curiosity as a sword and sorcery fan of Conan and LotR and frankly the spur of the moment.

I enjoyed the early seasons for what they were, soap operas in medieval clothing with a hint of magic. What I found to my pleasant surprise were some really good actors in some complex roles.  Sean Bean has been a fave for years and his morally tormented Warden of the North Ned Stark was a noble but ultimately foolish man. Ian Glenn as Sir Jorah Mormont has proven to be perhaps my favorite character, a tortured failure of a knight who is desperate to win back some measure of approval from his chosen queen and his peers, but mostly himself. Other standouts are Bronn (Jerome Flynn), the Hound (Rory McCann), and the Onion Knight (Liam Cunningham). Some of the darlings of the show like Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister and Kit Harrington as Jon Snow are fine but my interest varies as their stories wax and wane. The girls are dandies with Maisie Williams as Arya Stark the stand out. Sophie Turner has grown into her role, but still falls short relative to the other talents who populate the show.

The show hurts itself with the exceedingly soft porn it peddles from time to time. A woman's breasts and behind are lovely to behold and I'm happy to do it, if it makes sense in the story. Sometimes it does, but more often the nudity is clearly presented for its own sake. When the lovely Emilia Clarke as the would-be queen Daeneryis Targyrean steaps out naked from the fire which gave birth to her dragons, that's necessary for the story. A few of the visits to the brothels make sense but often they seem thrown into the story just to wiggle some bum at the audience. I noticed this sort of thing waned as the series progressed. The internal strife of King's Landing usually brings the show to a halt, the political intrigue is never ending and frankly can be quite dull at times. Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) was fun, but he wasn't on screen all that much.

My favorite story line was about The Night's Watch, a cadre of dedicated men who have committed crimes or fallen out of favor in some way who work to protect the world of mankind from a threat it no longer understands nor really believes. Much of the best of the early series dealt with that aspect of the world and spoke to the core plot which slowly (too slowly sometimes) begins to develop.

And that brings me to the show's greatest weakness, a sense of scale and time. When it is required by the story a character's journey can take weeks if not months. But if the story requires it, a character's journey over that same territory can take only a few moments in terms of storytelling. The Army of the Dead have been marching relentlessly for years, while humans come and go across the same territory multiple times. It don't make sense to me. Communication across the sprawling world of Westeros is maintained by a network of ravens who carry messages, a great gimmick, but one relied upon a bit too much and conveniently.

The story adapts the unfinished fantasy series by George R.R. Martin, a writer I've been dabbling in all my reading career. He's a good one for certain but this sprawling yarn has the looks of a tale which might have consumed its creator. The inspirations of Tolkien are clear and I see more than a mote of Moorcock sprinkled about Westeros and beyond. The last few seasons of the show are derived from Martin's  notes and not from the books because those books have not been published nor are they written to my knowledge. The story has only gotten better as the show gets more resources for special effects to support the world-building they required to do. The greatest difference is in the way the Night Walkers and the Army of the Dead are displayed. When they first showed up they were mysteries (smart move) and later weak computer graphics. Now as they the story focuses on them more and more they have become a truly awesome enemy, one I'm eager now to see routed...I hope.

More to come as the end isn't near, but I hope it will come.

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The Doctor Is Weird!

Created by Howard Keltner, a fan-talent and part of the "Texas Trio", Dr.Weird has gotten a life in comics outside his fannish beginnings. Keltner is not timid about saying that Mr.Justice, the old MLJ hero was Weird's inspriation.



I first chanced on the good Doctor in a Caliber Comics reprint of vintage Dr.Weird stories by now-famous writer George R.R. Martin and now-famous comics artist Jim Starlin. They kindle with the robust energy of youth and have a vigor and life missing from most modern comics, overcome by ironic commentary. Starlin's artwork is very like the stuff he first showed up at Marvel with on Iron Man and Captain Marvel, a fusion of Kirby and Kane and others, a synthesis of what was good in comics art at the time. The special reprints the contents of the two Dr.Weird issues published by Keltner along with a few other short tales.




The stories are a blend of science and sorcery. The Doctor is a lost time traveler who dies before he was born creating a paradox that gives him a weird unlife in which he's given the mission to use vast powers to help mankind in the 20th century. The threats are cults and demons and whatnot, vaguely Lovecraftian with a comics twist.

Dr.Weird got a few issues from Caliber of new adventures but these don't have the same magic somehow. Then he was folded into the Big Bang universe and had some fun things happen there. I've seen a few other issues advertised but I don't have those.




He's also shown up at Hamster Press in some classic reprints from the 60's with artwork Landon Chesney and others, really fine stuff. Howard Keltner his creator apparently sold the rights to the Big Bang guys, but I don't know where they reside now since Keltner passed away.

Dr.Weird is good reading for fans of vintage comic book heroes!