Tony Caponey Comics: April 2022

Saturday, April 30, 2022

Ange Hardy/ Red Phantasm concept art

Thursday, April 21, 2022

American Splendor review

There's very few movies that inspired me, and this film was no exception. This was the movie that inspired and encouraged me to become a fiction writer. I don't remember exactly when or how I came across this movie, but I think I randomly came across a copy of the dvd at a 2nd & Charles store and looked up about this film and read into Harvey Pekar's work, mainly his American Splendor comic series. I've watched the movie before I read Pekar's comic series. Needless to say, I'm a fan of Harvey Pekar's work and thankfully, I own the volume collection which contains all of his American Splendor comic issues (with the exceptions of the recent ones published by Dark Horse and Vertigo). Anyway, this movie is great, from its writing and story to its performance and cinematography. Paul Giamatti did a great job portraying Harvey Pekar in this film, as well as the filmmakers who made this movie about his life and his work in the comic medium. Highly recommend it.

Clerks review

I don't think we'll get another movie like this ever again, either in the near future or for a long time. This is one of the best films ever made, with great writing by Kevin Smith, who is also known for his comic work on other series such as Daredevil, Green Arrow and the Green Hornet. I'm more into contemporary or classic stories (like fantasy, sci-fi, even the vigilante-superhero adventure stories) than the usual "slice-of-life" or "coming-of-age" story that I used to like a lot, but I would definitely be down for more movies of this caliber with funny and relatable characters and excellent writing. The story is not much, but it's competent, and you don't usually ask for much from a story like this where it involves ordinary people getting into some shenanigans or put into awkward situations. Some will get triggered or cringe over the use of derogatory words in this film, but I could care less because it's still a hilarious and fun film. Highly recommend it.

A Scanner Darkly review

A story that has become more relevant by each passing day. I think many people, especially of my generation, will like this movie more than George Orwell's 1984, even though that book is as much an important piece of work and commentary on censorship, corruption, mass surveillance and authoritarian-tyranny as Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly. I have not read the book first before watching the movie despite owning a copy of the book, although, like many adaptions of Philip K. Dick's work over the years, I'd say it's still faithful to the source material and true to its messages and themes that it presents in this story. Probably the best and most memorable performance from this film, not excluding any of the other actors who also did a great job performance wise, was Robert Downey Jr. as James Barris with his dark sense of humor and very warped sense of mind with conspiracy theories galore. The rotoscope animation is also stunning and gives the film a unique identity and look to it, especially adding the feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty. Highly recommend this movie.

Monday, April 11, 2022

Hyper Light Drifter review

Man, I forgot how great (and difficult) this game was. Really enjoy it a lot now than the first time I played it. Not that I didn’t enjoy playing this game for the first time. I really liked it. The Zelda-like gameplay, world, characters, atmosphere, even the soundtrack are all great. I highly recommend it. Also, special thanks to one of my old buds from high school who got me this game for my birthday years ago.