It would be fair to say I am enthralled with this comic and rightly so, the dialogue, plot, characters, style and length of the comic pages are brilliant and Butler’s artwork is even more so. If every web comic were as good as this one I would give up my fedora just to read them all, the only gripe I do have with this comic is the sparseness of updates as the comic only updates anywhere between one and four times a month and not at any frequent intervals, although considering the amount of effort put into the art of Lackadaisy Cats it’s not surprising that it is infrequently updated and so this small sin can be forgiven quite readily.

Another defining and appealing characteristic of the comic is the sepia tone each page is graced with, people who like colour in their comics may feel a little off put by the sheer lack of colour, but personally I feel that the sepia toning gives it the feel of the era, and this was surely the artists intent.

Over the few pages that have been completed thus far you are introduced to a variety of characters relatively quickly, thankfully it’s not a problem to memorise who each character is thanks to Butler’s amazing dialogue.

The first three pages are based in the past and set up the premises, whereby the reader is introduced to St. Louis where the story takes place and also to the circumstances that have lead upto the decline of popularity in the Lackadaisy Speakeasy. Then you are introduced to Rocky and his trade mark Cheshire grin. You are then introduced to the rest of the sepia coloured cast including (but not limited to) Mitzi May, Viktor Vasko and Calvin “Freckle” McMurray (who is cousin to Rocky and also shares his grin, among other traits.)

Another endearing feature for me was the size of the updates, in most web comics you’ll maybe get a four to six panel update where in Lackadaisy the updates are absolutely gigantic! Which certainly makes it worth the wait, as I mention previously.

I’d like to add one more thing about the art.
In quite a few web comics you’ll see that a lot of the background art is vectorised, meaning it lacks the detail that the characters posses however Butler has gone above and beyond when composing her background work each scene has an extremely detailed background which not only looks great but serves to increase the immersion factor of the comic, pulling the reader deeper and deeper into the world of St. Louis and Lackadaisy.

Butler also has an extraordinary talent for dialogue, each scene has an immaculate dialogue that fits in with the era, flows, gets the message across and is easy to follow. There are no obscenely large dialogue balloons in the comic which serves as a testament towards Butlers skill as a writer.

Lackadaisy Cats has to be by far the best web comic I have had the fortune to read so far. While it lacks the almost seamless frequency of updates of some web comics it certainly puts them in their place with it’s awe inspiring art work and dialogue. With skills like Butlers it’s not surprising she has been picked up to produce 2D and 3D graphical images for the video game company Simutronics Corp. At any rate if you’ve never read a web comic before and your not likely to do in the future I urge you to read this at least once, it is in one word brilliant.

*a speakeasy is where illegal alcohol can be bought.

As The Club continues this event is revealed to the audience, along with things that have Ted, Gerry and Jock, a committee man and club meddler –played by John Wood- fighting against their own football team. The Club is full of anger and backstabbing along with plenty of humour and asks us to choose between what is morally right and what is good for the whole.

The set of The Club tries to recreate the feel of the seventies and pulls this off rather well. However after getting past the large panoramic backdrop of a football oval, the set seems very skeletal with only a table chairs, a bar and photos making up its entity, however when the actors walk on stage you can see how having a bare minimum actually adds to the play. Indeed if it wasn’t for the minimalist set John Wood would not have been able to pull off his marijuana smoking scene so well.
An interesting quirk about the set is the way it is built around the carpet, which is shaped like a football oval, with the table and chairs making up the center and positions on field respectively.
The set also has a deep undercurrent of symbolism running through it, especially when the photos are removed from the wall, showing a different colour of paint underneath them than what is on the wall currently, this tells the audience that while the colours of the club may have changed its champions and traditions have not. It also offers the contradictory point that the tradition has been quickly and decisively cast away. Another oddity are the two entrances only football players would exit and enter from the left side and only the suits would enter and exit from the right, deepening the feeling of management versus the team. Director Bruce Myles should be credited with creative use of his stage.

While the set is minimalist the acting is by all means the complete opposite.
John Wood who played Jock, was ambitious in the way he portrayed the former club champion.
Wood transformed him from a major villain into a weak, chauvinistic morally corrupt man, second in command to Gerry, he also was perfect comic relief from the seriousness of The Club. While this is perhaps David Williamsons’ original intention, Wood executes this portrayal immaculately.
The two greatest parts of Wood’s performance is the highly physical and extremely funny marijuana scene which had Wood rolling around on the floor and if the space allowed the audience would have been rolling around with him. Another memorable part is where he comments he can’t stand wife beaters and then goes on to comment on the way he had beaten his wife once. While this can be attributed to writing, the way Wood vocalises and acts out his story is what brings on the laughs.
Myles has been proved a wise director by making John Wood the calling card of The Club as Wood lives up to all expectations and forces the other actors to lift their game, so to speak.

Christopher Connelly who played Laurie, the disgruntled club coach who is at odds with management performed well when he was the centre of attention. However when the focus was shifted onto another actor he became a shadow of his character and became part of the furniture; unnoticeable. That is until the focus came back onto him where we would bring the character back to life with an explosion of energy and again he would fall back into a shadow when his part was completed. This brought down the overall performance of The Club and is something Myles should have picked up on.

Simon Wilton’s outrageous portrayal of Gerry, was like Wood different from what Williamsons original intention was. Instead of Gerry being Jocks underling and spy the roles were reversed with Gerry calling the shots and Wood being the face of the enterprise. One can almost see a small back story of Jock brining in Gerry only to have Gerry dominate him and Jock becomes Gerry’s pawn, just for the sake of business, similar to the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Dennis Moore as Ted was a rollercoaster of emotions and Moore’s performance reflected that. Moore showed all the emotions that Ted was feeling all at once, even when the focus was on another character he retained a strong stage presence, not allowing himself to fall into waiting mode unlike other actors. Moore’s part was very external leaving little room for any subtext, indeed subtext was not needed for this part.

While The Club is not something elegant and refined was and is an excellent piece only let down by the occasional lapse of concentration by some of the actors. It is what it is and doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not.

Frank Darabont’s dark take on the Stephen King novella The Mist is a harrowing and deceptively good horror film. The Mist shows us what happens when more than two people are locked in a room together, it represents the darkest parts of humanity. It also teaches the audience to never give up hope, even in the face of the greatest despair. It is riddled with political statements, comments on religion and the state of the human mind.
Set in one of King’s favourite locations; an unnamed town in the state of Maine, The Mist follows the story of commercial artist David Drayton – played by Thomas Jane – and his son Billy Drayton
– played by Nathan Gamble – as they head to the town supermarket to pick up supplies to repair their house which was damaged extensively due to a storm that happened in the night. As they leave an ominous mist follows them across the lake swallowing everything in its path. When they arrive they find that the entire town has had the same idea and that the mist has followed them to and swallowed up the supermarket. The suspense climaxes when Dan Miller half running-half stumbling to the store warns of creatures in The Mist, this is backed by the scream of a man who ventures outside. Soon the characters start showing signs of cabin fever, segregation begins to occur with two main factions forming, the “sane” people with Drayton at its head and the flock of Mrs Carmody –Marcia Gay Harden – a religious zealot who believes that the mist is part of God’s Armageddon.
Thomas Jane takes up the role of David Drayton surprisingly well, surprising because David is really a cut-out character; he unfortunately is the typical oh-so-cool tough guy character. Thomas manages to break away from this in stages and varying degrees throughout the movie, most notably at the ending scene. However although Thomas Jane does manage to hold the audience’s attention with a good performance as David Drayton, he is hampered by his bad character stereotype, making his performance a lot worse than it could have been.
Marcia Gay Harden on the other hand was brilliant in her role as the religious zealot Mrs Carmody.
After reading the actual The Mist novella it seems that Darabont has kept Mrs Carmody closer to her roots than other characters; this has worked in Darabont’s favour. Harden through dedicated acting makes Mrs Carmody scarier than the actual monsters are. Darabont uses Mrs Carmody as a catalyst always making the movie come closer and closer to climax. Mrs Carmody’s growing power can be felt throughout the film and Harden can be visibly seen growing more comfortable with the role alongside her.  Hardon and Darabont capture fully the willingness of humans who are weak minded to believe the loudest voice, even when it argues against reason. This is showcased in two particular scenes, where she orders her flock to kill an innocent marine and when Drayton’s faction –what is left of it – attempt to leave and she orders the flock to sacrifice Drayton’s son and a teacher that he had met in the supermarket.
Nathan Gamble seizes the role of Billy Drayton with gusto, making the character one of the few believable child characters in Hollywood films. In the beginning Nathan makes Billy a picture of innocence and continues to do so through out. This coupled with his youthful looks make his inevitable end a truly heartbreaking moment. Nathan is excellent at using the ensemble and bounces off his stoic father character, bring a little joy and a little bit of relief to the bleak atmosphere of the movie.

The movie has an underlying political current in it. The Mist referencing real world people and ideology’s, even at one point comparing Mrs Carmody’s speeches with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s “It’s like those speeches Castro used to make” says one of Drayton’s faction members. Darabont seems to condemn everyone in the movie whether they are the likeable characters or not. “You don’t have much faith in humanity do you?” “None whatsoever” quips one character to another.
This theme is not present in the novella, however Darabont obviously felt that the movie should contain some elements of what happens when “You put three people in a room and they begin to take sides”
The Mist takes its time setting up its character relationships and only about half an hour in do the actual monsters appear. Of course the audience doesn’t care whether the monsters are there because Darabont continually enforces the idea that the monsters on the outside are scary but the monsters on the inside are terrifying.
This is a bleak movie, not by poor script writing or poor directing but by intent. The setting is bleak, the outlook of the character’s future is bleak and the opinions of the characters are bleak. Even the ending is bleak all this contributes to the feeling that there is no hope. However although the movie exhibits and forces upon the audience negative emotions it also inspires hope by showing the comparisons and contrasts between the grim outlook of Mrs Carmody and the survivalist attitude of David’s faction. This keeps the audience from moving into a poor mindset and losing interest in the movie.
It is not just the plot and acting of The Mist that makes it such a harrowing experience, the camera angles, music, lighting and CGI contribute in major ways. Darabont mainly uses two different angles, one for the people and one for the monsters. When shooting the people Darabont likes to use close up and midrange shots. This allows the audience to not only see what is happening but also shows the audience the characters eyes, the windows to the soul allowing the audience to see the raw terror, hysteria or fury that Darabont wishes the characters to exhibit.
The music and lighting work in tandem, to bring about emotions in the audience, while the CGI although unimpressive, brings about a feeling of awe when coupled with the camera angles.
The Mist is a harrowing experience. There are some flaws certainly but The Mist knows what it is and doesn’t try to be anything that it’s not and while the ending may finally vanquish any good feelings you have remaining The Mist doesn’t care it aims to please and please it does.