The past few weeks have seen longer than usual blogs. The reason was due to being on vacation, and having a lot to say.

This week will continue that trend, as I have had the time to watch quite a few DVD’s which have been gathering dust on my shelf.

Workwise, I wrote up the usual two entries for New Mutant Monday series two – the Crocobear and the Vegarep. One was inspired by a chimera picture I found online, the other by an image sent to me by one of my fans.

This week I have two original creations, a humanoid as well as another critter. Both are small and if you make the mistake of believing they will be a pushover, it will cost you your life!

I wrote up a single entry for my Conversions series, the Teleporting Shark. Yes, it was inspired by Snarknado 2: The Second One. I’ll have a brief review of that movie a little later in this blog.

At this time I’m dealing with a lot of issues. An impending death (although it could be a year or more, but more likely in the next 6-12 months), as well as job hunting and dealing with all manner of paperwork and preparing for the death.

No, obviously not mine.

So this has taken a major toll on my creativity. I do believe I’ll  need to get back to work before I can fully concentrate on being creative once again.

Hey at least I have the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo to look forward to this week!

Once I get my house back in order and life is back to some semblance of normality I am hoping that my creative juices will flow like a flood once again.

This week I finished Demon Star – Star Force book 12. It finally wrapped up a storyline which began with book 10 and left it open to continue the series. I don’t know if B.V. Larson will continue or not, as the last three of the series were written in conjunction with another author, and Mr. Larson is a busy man.

It’s fun SF pulp, with memorable characters and interesting aliens, and I have been a fan of the series for several years now.

I’m almost finished another novel, but did not have enough time to complete it so I’ll be reviewing it next weekend. And hopefully the latest Joe Ledger book as well called Kill Switch, which is released on Tuesday.

I also finally got around to finishing Daredevil season 1. This is very gritty, and extremely violent. It took me nearly half the season to get into it, but finally around episode 7 it clicked. I find that I like the characters and their interaction and I am enjoying the rather flawed storyline. I will continue with season 2 soon, and I’ll also watch Jessica Jones.

On top of that I finished season 1 of Z-Nation. The Walking Dead it isn’t, and it gets quite goofy here and there, but I found I like the characters and I enjoy the overall story arch. In a nutshell a group of survivors, two years into the Zombie Apocalypse, are to transport a man who had been injected with a serum, rendering him immune to the virus and allowing him to survive being bitten eight times.

They encounter other survivors, some good, some bad, and more than a few just plain fucked up. Murphy, the titular character in question also begins to undergo some startling changes himself.

Several characters are killed through the first season, which should not come as a surprise to anyone. Of course it ends on quite the cliff hanger too.

As I said it’s goofy but the show has grown on me. If my wife has her way (and she typically does), I’ll be finished season two by the time I’m ready to work on next week’s blog.

Which, incidentally, most likely won’t be going up until Monday or later, due to the Expo.

Movies, well I did finish quite a few. Really ripping through the stack of DVD’s I have sitting waiting to be watched!

I finished Harlock: Space Pirate. This is a computer-animated two hour movie based on a long running anime from the 70’s. It had quite the mixture of genre’s, being both very high-tech, but mixed liberally with Steam Punk and Gothic. Well, I guess the latter are often found hand-in-hand.

The visuals were beautiful, the computer animation top-notch.

The story? More than a little confusing. Then again I find a lot of anime to be confusing when it comes to the storyline, so that is one of the reasons I tend not to watch very much.

If you’re a fan of anime, by all means, watch this!

I also watched both Sharknado 2: The Second One and Sharknado 3: Oh hell no! Okay, they’re cheesy as hell and often difficult to watch – not because of gore, but because of horrible acting and a worse plot.

The thing is, that’s the charm of the movies! They were specifically made to be bad and as such the reason I enjoy them. I really liked part 2 more so than part 3, and this is why - Goofy as hell, some of the strangest deaths I have seen in a long time and completely over the top. No wonder this -dare I say- franchise has a 4th movie coming out.

A few things that I got a serious kick out of - a tip of the hat to Taxi, even had Judd Hirsch!

Robert Hays from the original Airplane! was in it, and they joked about Chicken and fish. Trust me, if you have seen the original movie, you'd get the reference.

Cameo's galore, even had some funny references like jumping the shark.

Sharnado 3: Oh Hell No had several cameo’s including Malcom in the Middle’s Frankie Munez. What happened to him was really off the wall. A character returns from the first movie, and I was surprised to see Bo Derek was in this and the second one as well. Huh, for some reason I thought she was dead. Go figure.

Lots of references, and there were a few cameos which, in my opinion, did not belong, including the piece of shit who played the VP of the United States.

Sharks surviving in a vacuum? Yeah, right. Still it was part of the series charm.

The most cringe-worthy scene was right at the end and it involved another character having been swallowed whole by a shark. It wasn’t gory; it was just one of the dumbest things I’ve witnessed in a long time.

Sorry this scene and the piece of shit person playing the Vice President really detracted from the movie for me. Hey, it won’t stop me from watching the next entry!

I watched a zombie movie called Re-kill.

This movie takes place well into the zombie apocalypse, but unlike so many movies of this type, the government remained intact, people continued to go about their daily lives, and so forth.

The feds use teams to deal with outbreaks, filming it live (well with a 2 hour delay) and then broadcasting it as entertainment.

It was VERY entertaining, a lot of action, and really good effects. I could also appreciate the way life had changed and the kind of shows and commercials that were played.

There were a few technical issues, like one scene near the end where the soldiers took off their armor and left it behind only to have it magically appear again.

As zombie movies go, and I've watched a LOT, this is really worth your time to check out.

You can watch it on Netflix Canada for sure.

Another movie I watched was called Infini. This had excellent special effects but the whole story as just a mess. Confusing as hell. I believe it is about an alien life-form which causes people to go bonkers on a remote mining outpost on the other side of the galaxy. That really had a vibe similar to The Thing, but there were enough differences.

If you’re good at figuring strange movies out, then watch it. Otherwise I would suggest avoiding this one.

And in my never-ending hunt for creatures to convert, I watched A.E. Apocalypse Earth. Another terrible movie with abysmal acting staring Adrian Paul. Aliens are attacking Earth and the survivors are taking off in arks in hope of finding a new home. They awaken from cryonic suspension as their craft is crashing on an unknown and hostile world.

They encounter aliens that possess firearms and are invisible, and the natives, two humanoid appearing species, one all white, the other sexy as hell and possessing a camouflage pattern. Of course it’s all a matter of survival and trying to find a way off the planet.

A stinker.

Expect at least one conversion from it.

So there you have it. Another longer than usual blog. You already know next week will be late, so that’s pretty much all I have to say.

Have a great week, folks!