Recent media 2/7/26

The Knives by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

It's been really fun reading new Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips work as standalone graphic novels. I will always love the individual issue format, but the older I get, the more I come to appreciate collected editions and OGNs, if for no other reason than shelf logistics. I have a closet full of short boxes that represent a hobby measured in cubic feet. The Knives finds the duo (with Phillips' son Jacob on colors) back in the world of Criminal, an off-beat crime series the pair have been fleshing out for 20 years now. Criminal was how I discovered these two, although they both have done work with other characters and publishers and genres. The Knives finds some familiar characters in new situations, and brings the series up to the present in a lot of ways. There will be more books coming, and even a TV show based on the book.

I'm not sure Brubaker translates well to television, but I'm glad he keeps trying. I was excited for TOO OLD TO DIE YOUNG, the collaboration he did with Nicolas Winding Refn that streamed on Amazon Prime. Ten episodes of the weirdest, sexiest, most horrific shit you've ever seen on TV, an artifact of when the big streamers were throwing money at auteurs to make 10-hour movies with little or no commercial appeal. It's good, but you can barely see Brubaker through the Refn.

Rabbit Trap

Rabbit Trap is relatively small movie with only a few things to say, but what it does it does well. You had me at Dev Patel folk horror.

A couple, one of which is some kind of recording artist, move a ton of recording equipment to a remote cottage in the Welsh countryside in the 1970s. The cottage is one of those picturesque places that must exist in real life but that I have a hard time imagining isn't surrounded by power lines and cell towers. Maybe I'm just an American in that way. Anyway, I want to go there. They set out to record spooky nature sounds for some kind of project, and stumble across a young boy(?) who proceeds to give away the entire plot before attempting to install himself into the couple's life. The finale is weird and gross and leaves you with more questions than answers. Folk horror should do that. If you feel like the mystery is completely solved at the end, I would probably exclude it from that particular subgenre.

Anyway, if you like watching Patel stroll through lush forests, have psychedelic experiences in faerie circles and spend copious amounts of screen time staring, worried-looking, into the middle distance, then Rabbit Trap is for you. It's available on Kanopy with most library cards, I believe.

Dungeon synth

I'm amazed at how prolific the Heimat Der Katastrophe label is. They put out new dungeon synth cassettes on the reg, many of which include bespoke pen and paper RPG adventures folded in with their j cards. You can of course listen to all of it digitally on Bandcamp, which is what I usually do. I'd go broke if I paid international shipping for every cassette release.