Berserk - Complete Series (1997)

Berserk is a long-running seinen manga by legendary manga-ka Kentaro Miura. It is an incredibly dark and deeply textured tale centering on two men; the black swordsman: Guts, and the leader of the Band of the Hawk: Griffith. The first volume of the manga was published on November 26, 1990 by Hakusensha in it's Jets Comics collection. 

In 1992, after the publication of three more volumes, Berserk was serialized in Young Animal. The series was adapted into a twenty-five episode series covering the series' first story arc from October 7, 1997 to March 31, 1998. 

It should be noted that Berserk, the manga, is still running and still features some of the best artwork ever created for the medium. Miura is an undisputed master and Berserk is his masterpiece. The series gets progressively more supernatural as it goes forward and fans who began the series in the nineties are still eagerly awaiting it's conclusion.

The anime series below is an excellent introduction into the Berserk universe and covers the first major story arc of the manga, The Golden Age, extremely faithfully. As good as the anime is (and it is good), the manga is better, and so if you like the show I assure you, you will need to read the series, especially since (without giving anything away) the show ends extremely abruptly and at a very insane cliffhanger that if you are anything like me, will just encourage you to read through the entirety of the manga, probably as quickly as possible.

The Prisoner- The Complete Series

Those who know me know of my long and abiding obsession with the 17 episode 1960s british Sci-Fi/Spy television show the Prisoner. In my opinion the Prisoner was probably the first television show (and one of the only ones to this day) that can be considered as a work of art. On a purely literary, or textual level, the entire show functions as a massive critique of the spy-serial genre, taking all the recycled and expected plot elements from Danger Man (known in the U.S. as Secret Agent Man), and turning them on their head, exposing them as hollow and politically compromised residual elements of a nationalist surveillance state percolating all around the space of the screen but never within it. This is precisely why Patrick McGoohan decided to make the Prisoner after his work on Danger Man. His deep thinking about the social and political role he played in Danger Man made him the perfect, and only person qualified to launch such a critique. The Prisoner is much more than a genre critique however, and its unfair to only think of it in those terms. It is a stunning show with impeccable acting and writing. The basic plot follows a former secret agent (McGoohan) who is held prisoner in a mysterious seaside village where his captors try to find out why he abruptly resigned from his job. Each episode Mcgoohan attempts an escape from his captors, unraveling slowly the precarity of his situation each time his attempt is thwarted, slowly learning more and more about the prison he is held in and its striking similarity to the social and political situation of the home land. The show is incredibly complex, and the last episode is so incredibly confusing and shot through with symbolism that it caused an uproar when it was finally shown. Audiences did not at the time have any clue what to make of the seemingly absurdist spectacle, they wanted answers, real closure like in a real spy serial. Mcgoohan had no intention of giving it to them. The last episode, entitled FALLOUT raises many more questions than it answers, the way it should be. I cannot recommend this series enough.

Georges Bataille: Literature and Evil (TV Interview)

The only existing television interview with Georges Bataille.

Invisible Hands-Richard Sala
A couple months back I stumbled upon Maniac Killer Strikes Again by Richard Sala. There was something oddly familiar about Sala's work, but I couldn't quite place where I'd seen it before. After doing some quick internet research on him I found out where I'd encountered his art. I was surprised to find that I'd seen his stuff on MTV. It may be hard to believe considering the state of the channel now, but MTV used to be one of the only channels on television during the nineties willing to give alternative comic artists and animators a chance to showcase their material. One of the well known shows where they were allowed to do this was Liquid Television. LTV is mostly remembered now for being home to the original Aeon Flux shorts as well as Bevis and Butthead. In a way, the popularity of these two franchises have eclipsed much of the other material that aired on LTV. If we couple this with the fact MTV has let the LTV shorts on DVD become discontinued, its easy to see why the legacy of the other artists who did pieces for the show has languished. LTV was so incredible because it allowed animators unaffiliated with MTV to work independently for the network, submitting material freelance as it was comissioned from them. In this sense the show functioned much more like a comic anthology than anything else, culling the best work from contributors as it was asked of them.

Adapting works from such graphic giants as Charles Burns and Bill Plympton LTV also comissioned a serial from Richard Sala. Sala chose to adapt a strip of his called Thirteen O'Clock for MTV, which eventually morphed into Invisible Hands. Interested primarily in working through the giallo and noir genres, Sala's comics are a blend of hard boiled detective fiction with the essential 'black gloved hands' gialli fans will quickly recognize. Theres always a ton of humour, mystery and nefariousness in Sala's comics. The highest compliment I can pay to his Invisible Hands is that it reads just like his comics. Its only about 12 minutes long, but was memorable enough for me to have recalled seeing it in my childhood. Highly reccomended.