Geek of Oz

The great irony of comic books is that although they're constantly disregarded as childish and 'for kids', there is very little in the modern comic book store that is actually suitable for children. Between Batman punching the criminally insane, Wolverine carving up bad guys like Christmas turkeys and Hitgirl dropping an 'F-bomb' in every panel, there's not much on the shelf made with younger readers in mind. Well, Winter City Production's Patrick Purcell and artist Diego Toro aim to change that with their latest offering, Mechanical Knight. Most Australian comic book readers will know Winter City Productions for their namesake title ' Winter City ', a gritty and gruesome tale about a mass murdering vigilante known as the Winter Reaper. Although this probably goes without saying, Mechanical Knight goes in a completely opposite direction. Where  Winter City takes cues from series like Batman and Spawn, Mechanical Knight takes its own from a...

Could you imagine if you woke up tomorrow in someone else's life, or perhaps if you stole someone else's lifestyle? How would you present yourself as a Police officer, an actor or a drug dealer? Fact of the matter is, you'd probably do an absolute hatchet job of it because although we think that we know how other people's lives work, we really have no idea.  So what if you took on the role of a master assassin? Big shoes to fill, no? This is the basic premise of Kenji Uchida's KEY OF LIFE (鍵泥棒のメソッド). Takeshi Sakurai is a down-on-his-luck actor who, after considering suicide, crosses paths with Junitsu Kondo and immediately envies the cashed up assassin's lavish lifestyle. When and errant bar of soap gets the better of Kondo, Sakurai swoops in and takes over the lifestyle of the amnesiac hit man. But before this, we meet Kanae Mizushima, a dedicated magazine editor who announces her intention to get married even though she doesn't have a partner. This is...

As detailed in our Transformers viewing guide, the Japanese Transformers series which includes Headmasters, Masterforce and Victory, carries on from the end of Season 3 of the original series.  Headmasters retains many of the old favourite characters who survived the epic battle with Unicron. Still battling for control of Cybertron, the Headmasters are shown to be an ancient race of tiny Transformers whose power more than matches that of those twice their size.  Onto Masterforce and this time it's the humans that deliver most of the action in taking on the nasty Decepticons who, like the Autobots, now have the ability to shrink down and pass themselves off as humans.  Finally, Victory which introduces new leaders Star Saber and Deathsaurus, and completes Generation 1 of Transformers. Unfortunately as the Generation 1 series' progress, the franchise slowly loses much of what made the original series so great . Not only do the stories start to drift from ...

Last weekend I the chance to have an exit interview with Ryan Ferrier after his mini series D4VE finished. We talk about the series and what he has instore next. Billy Tournas: Ryan, thanks for sitting down with me today. Since we last spoke your miniseries D4VE from Monkeybrain comics has ended. Ryan Ferrier: It’s come and gone. Yes with its finite ending. How has it been since the ending? It’s been real bitter sweet for Valentin and myself. It was Awesome in that people seemed to really enjoy it, but it was also really hard to see it end just because as a team we were firing on all cylinders, and it was a lot of fun. A lot of people didn’t realise it was done in 5 issues and were saying that there were surprised that issue #5 was the last one. So it kind rang true for us too. We were like “Aww man this sucks that it’s over”. But it’s been really cool. Which was your favourite issue? That is a tough one. I think I had a lot of fun with issue #3. I felt like ...

Belle and Sebastian , the latest film from Nicolas Vanier, has all the nourishing warmth of a bowl of hearty stew in the depth of winter. It has a wholesome charm that is very welcome in this season of super-sleek blockbusters, and serves as a timely reminder of why it’s worth getting out to see the smaller flicks which sadly never seem to hang around quite long enough on the big screen. Set during the second World War in a picturesque village nestled in the French Alps, this is the simple story of Sebastian (Félix Bossuet), a spirited young farmhand under the care of world weary farmer César (Tchéky Karyo), who befriends a gigantic stray dog suspected by local villagers of preying on their livestock. The two form an inseparable bond which leads them on many adventures in the surrounding countryside. While Sebastian and Belle are frolicking about, the village is dealing with the increasingly intrusive actions by Nazi soldiers, who are attempting to uncover agents within the villa...

So we here at Geek of Oz HQ (it's actually just a cardboard box with 'club house' written on the side in marker [way to ruin the magic! - Ryan] ) have been a bit busy and may or may not have had time to put together last weeks Image round-up. So to make it up to you my partner in crime Chris and I bring you our picks from the last two weeks of Image releases. Enjoy! SEX CRIMINALS #6 Written by Matt Fraction Art by Chip Zdarsky Christof: The honeymoon period is over. With issue six kicking off the next story arc of Sex Criminals it's time to see if Fraction and Zdarsky's saucy foray into a comic book sex comedy is more than just a five issue fling. Spoiler alert: It most certainly is. That said if you thought Sex Criminals #6 was going to be more of the same you would be wrong. Issue six shifts the focus away from protagonist Susie and instead shines some light on her partner John. Although it was certainly hinted at previously that ...

Thanks to our good friends at the Japan Foundation, we've got 3x double passes to see the Japan Academy Award winning comedy film Key of Life during JFF ENCORE! Screening at Event Cinema George St Sydney at 6:30pm on July 11th, Key of Life is the hilarious tale of two men whose lives are switched during an unfortunate accident. What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in the shoes of a cold-blooded assassin? All you have to do is fill out the form below and you're in the running to win a double pass to see Key of Life on the big screen thanks to Japan Foundation Sydney and the Japanese Film Festival . Don't forget, you can get yourself a bonus entry just by  following us on Twitter  or  liking us on Facebook! THIS COMPETITION HAS CLOSED E ntries close 11:59pm on Sunday 6th July 2014. Your details will not be used in any way other than for the delivery of your prize. Geek of Oz and Japan Foundation Sydney do not take any responsibility for th...