Ricky Sprague's Blog, page 6

Here's EVERYTHING that's coming to Netflix streaming in December 2016

This is the exhaustive list of literally every single new Netflix streaming option for December 2016. There are no other new streaming options for December, aside from these. Seriously, this is it:

Dieter (2013) 10 episodes

This highly acclaimed series from a country where all the signs have O’s with slashes through them begins with the discovery of a horrifically murdered young girl. Then

Some Fake News about Steve Ditko

Steve Ditko, dreaming of being left alone by smug, pompous "journalists."

Earlier this month, Vulture ran a sleazy, facile article titled “The Creator of Doctor Strange Will Not See You Now.” The subtitle states, “Marvel Comics legend Steve Ditko wants his work to stand for itself. If only it were that easy.”

What follows is an article proving that the reason why it’s not “that easy” is

The Hardboiled Dicks, edited by Ron Goulart

 There was a dark and gloomy era before the advent of radio, film, television, VCRs, laser discs, the internet, DVDs, blu rays, and streaming video. In that age, people read. Serialized dramas took the form of printed documents called “books,” “dime novels,” “fiction weeklies,” etc. From the end of World   War I through end of the 1940s, roughly four million pulp magazine titles had appeared

Who is the better mayor—Green Arrow or Penguin?

That’s a trick question, obviously. Star City and Gotham City are two very different places. Gotham City has a much smaller manufacturing base, for instance. But there is one category in which the two cities are comparable. Both have experienced unprecedented upticks in crime rates. From earthquake devices leveling entire areas of the city to mass medical experiment mutant escapes, it’s clear

Trouble Man by Ed Gorman

Former gunfighter (“gunny”) Ray Coyle has put his own gunfighting past behind him, having worked in a Wild West traveling show for the past ten years. His eighteen year-old son Mike, however, hasn’t. At least, not until he’s killed in a gunfight in Coopersville.Ray carries a lot of guilt over the fact that he taught his son to be a gunny, just before abandoning him and his mother to join the

Trust Me On This by Donald E. Westlake

Trust Me On This is a satirical novel with a murder mystery grafted onto it. It works because Westlake is one of the all-time great popular fiction writers, and he writes with an engaging voice that keeps you interested in both sides of the story.But.The book was originally published in 1988, and what was I’m sure biting satire back then seems absolutely quaint in the age of WikiLeaks and

Spirit Cooking-- don't ask for seconds

Thanks to the heroic efforts of WikiLeaks, we’re learning more and more about what our ruling classes think of us, and how they spend their free time. Short answer: They think very little of the hoi polloi over which they rule, and spend their free time engaged in depraved criminal activities designed for the sole purpose of increasing their hold on power.

But every once in a while they like to

Unreliable Editor-- Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

It is impossible to “spoil” great art. We all know that Romeo and Juliet get married and have four children at the end of Shakespeare’s famous play, but that doesn’t stop us from re-reading it and re-watching performances and films of the story. That said, this post reveals detailed plot information about Agatha Christie’s book The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. If you don’t want to know who did what

Michael Moore creates an impassioned pro-Trump viral video

Michael Moore has a new movie out called “TrumpLand,” which was made, according to the headline of this Los Angeles Times article, “to ‘rally depressed Hillary voters’.” Presumably there are a lot of depressed Hillary Clinton voters.

But something has happened to the movie. A small clip, featuring Mr. Moore first showing empathy for working-class Trump supporters, then assuming the posture of a

Mandy and the Dutchess

My friend Ed Gorman and I wrote a story called “Real Life, Real Death” that appeared in the September/October 2013 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. That story featured a character called Aaron Hall, who worked at a small cable network. Ed and I talked about the possibility of writing a novel together, and not long after we made that sale (one of the most exciting moments of my professional