| fire alarm |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|07:00 pm] |
I totally totally totally hate this comic, but I ended up drawing a follow up tomorrow which I like a little better. That means I have to use this piece of crap today.
I don't know if this helps anyone out, but Southwest Air is having a big sale today. If you book a trip now for sometime in the fall, you only pay like $30 to $90 bucks one way, depending on how far you're going. It seems like a hell of a deal; if I were a swingin' single, I might book something now and figure the rest of it out later. I know it's short notice but check it out. |
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| subbing summer school |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|07:48 pm] |
I've always been far more a fan of newspaper comic strips than comic books so DC's Wednesday Comics #1 has my interest. In short, it's a standard sized comic book that folds out into the size of the Sunday funnies. It seems like its attracted a lot of talent in the superhero biz and I'd like to sample it at some point. Aside from that book, there's a whole lotta nothin' coming out this week. |
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| activity |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|06:12 pm] |
In general, I've been skipping out on writing DVD release previews because nothing super interesting has been coming out. I mean, I liked watching Parker Lewis Can't Lose when it was on TV, but I don't think I'd buy it on DVD and nor do I have anything remotely interesting to say about it. That being said, there is something coming out this week that I've been dying to see for years, but never had the chance: the 1922 silent film version of Sherlock Holmes starring John Barrymore.
I remember reading about this movie years ago in some ancient book about Holmes, written when the film was still considered "lost" and thinking that I would love to be able to see it someday. Sherlock Holmes is available in The John Barrymore Collection, which includes a bunch of other silent films featuring the actor, or on its own separate disc. I am certainly not in a position where buying either the collection or the disc are an option, but it looks awesome. |
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| suddenly remembering |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|07:12 pm] |
(I'm playing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and it's pretty much exactly the kind of Star Wars game I wanted when I was 12 years old. If I were twelve, I could probably get past stage 4, but whatever, it's fun.)
Here's a drawing I did for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) captain_slinky many moons ago- it took me awhile of unpacking at the new place to send it out, but send it I did:
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| Saturday Geek Out |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|10:14 am] |
I'm excited about MTV's plans to bring their late 1990's Beavis and Butthead spin-off Daria to DVD.
MTV has previously released the two Daria TV movies to DVD with a couple of episodes included as bonus features, but this looks to be the first time a complete season set is in the offing.
I always found Daria interesting in that usually when it comes to spin-offs, the producers of the new show try to retain at least some of the feeling of the original series, if not flat out try to make it a second half-hour of the show from which they're spinning off. For example, The Jeffersons and Maude may have been about as far as you could get in some respects from All in the Family... but a viewer of those shows, you could be reasonably sure you'd be getting a similar tone and type of humor from each episode. I can't imagine any hardcore B&B fan being pleased when turning on the first couple of episodes of Daria. It was sort of a bold, risky move when you think about it.
While at first a little one-note, Daria gradually became a incredibly soulful portrayal of teenage ennui, in particular, smart teenage girl ennui, a demographic that's rarely catered to even in today's television landscape. The show wouldn't have worked if they had kept Daria a one-note snark machine, but as the episodes progressed, the writing and performances revealed hidden depths to the character, not only through her actions, but with her interactions with other people. Among other things, Daria's also a wonderful essay on how important real friendship is when you're growing up. The show is also pretty darn funny too.
I'm worried about what MTV's planning on doing with many musical cues and score; as was the case with a lot of MTV series in the Nineties, they liberally borrowed popular music of the day for episodes, making for a monetary and logistical nightmare in terms of obtaining music rights for DVDs.
I occasionally ran across the odd episode of Daria being re-run on the teen cable network The N and found some of the episodes to be eerily quiet. I suppose they'll probably swap in some cheaper fare which would be serviceable, I suppose... but occasionally the music on Daria tied directly into the joke and losing that would be a shame. Then again, when the show was on the air, MTV would sometimes make running changes to the music even in the first or second airing of an episode. One memorable Daria episode taking place at a wedding featured a scene set to Celine Dion's "My Heart WIll Go On" exactly ONE time. I remember because I watched that episode when it first aired... and then for some reason, watched it the second time it aired a few days later, when the song had been lifted out, presumably because of some issue with the movie Titanic.
I can't help but want to see the episodes as they were originally presented, but it doesn't change the fact that I loved Daria and would welcome a collection of the episodes. Hell, MTV finally got The State out, didn't they?
.........
A few months ago, I posted a tour of our house from before we bought the place. For some reason, it got a ridiculous amount of views on YouTube, so I can only assume that the interest in there for this new video, which is a second tour of the house... only this time, you can see it furnished with all our stuff.
For those that don't feel like watching the video (and believe me, I understand), Elliot's being SUPER naughty through this whole thing. He eats my eraser! |
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| farewell old friend |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|07:07 pm] |
The iMac is a Father's Day gift; Ellen let me choose either a new computer or upgrading our cable service to include DVR. I chose the iMac because right now I pretty much use the laptop that my school issued to me exclusively and I'd like to leave this at school next year. Also, I can't look at pornography on this computer. Drag. |
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| i need help? |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|09:14 pm] |
I have new favorite Minimates, everybody.
Also, I bought this animation cell on eBay for $8 dollars.
That is all. |
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| chewie's new hobby |
[Jun. 30th, 2009|08:21 pm] |
There's nothing that's really grabbing me and making me take notice this week, although I'm looking forward to Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's Batman and Robin #2. I really liked the first issue. I will probably end up reading Captain America: Reborn in trade at some point; I've been picking up Brubaker's Cap run in trades and I enjoy reading it that way. I can't say I have a lot of enthusiasm for bringing original Captain America Steve Rogers back from the dead but I should probably reserve judgement until I actually read the comics... which will probably be around this time next year. Check back in 2010 to see what I thought! |
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| things to do this week |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|06:49 pm] |
Anyone who ordered a comic: They went in the mail today. I definitely did not anticipate the number of people who bought comics, nor did I realize just how much drawing I had to do for people. I let people request drawings this time and man, if I ever do another print comic... that will definitely NOT be something I do again! Not that it wasn't fun, it was just very time intensive and people had some VERY specific requests. At any rate, they're in the mail now so you should see 'em by the end of the week! |
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| sale at half price books |
[Jun. 28th, 2009|06:46 pm] |
I love feeling like an overindulgent comic nerd when in fact I only spent $1.30 on all these comics:
JSA #82 (Infinite Crisis tie-in... basically I bought it for the George Perez artwork)
JSA Classified #2 (Infinite Crisis tie-in... basically I bought it for the Amanda Connor artwork)
Gotham Central #37 (Infinite Crisis tie-in (man, do you get the feeling "Fuck Infinite Crisis" from this bargain bin?)... mainly bought for the Steve Lieber artwork, although Greg Rucka's no slouch either)
Marvel Knights #1 (the aborted not a team/team concept from the '90's... this one was actually pretty good! Chuck Dixon on writing chores, Ed Baretto on pencils, Klaus Jansen on inks. I would have bought this if I had been buying comics when it came out!)
The Boys #2 & #3 (Garth Ennis' and Darick Robertson's twisted take on superheroes. These were just OK... Ennis is real hit-or-miss with me.)
Empire #3-#6 (The best find, I bought the first two issues of Mark Waid & Barry Kitson's "What if a supervillain took over the world?" comic when Image published it... but then I think I went to college and forgot about it. Apparently DC republished it, 'cause that's the logo in the upper left-hand corner. It's a REALLY awesome mini-series.)
Speed Demon #1 & X-Patrol #1 (from DC/Marvel's Amagalm line of comics where they blended characters. I remembered some of these being fun comics... but these two stunk!)
Thunderbolts # 39 (one of Marvel's "100 Page Monster" comics from the late 1990's where 60 pages were reprints of old comics. I really like this format; I wish comic companies still did these and used their back catalog of stories more often.)
High Roads #1 Leinil Yu artwork, but goddamn, I couldn't make sense of this comic. It reads like the kind of comic where you'd have to have read an interview with the writer explaining his concept before you sit down to the actual comic. Awful.)
...and of course, the best part about bargain bin diving: very little remorse if you pick up something that sucks. |
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| Saturday Geek Out |
[Jun. 27th, 2009|11:32 am] |
As I think I mentioned last weekend, I spent the better part of this week re-reading Stephen King's 1975 novel 'Salem's Lot.
My copy of King's vampire opus is one of the numerous paperback reissuings wherein the publishers asked King to write a forward. I read a lot and I can safely say I've never run into an author who writes as many introuductions and afterwards as Stephen King, but I may not be as widely read as some. King's intro to 'Salem's Lot does everything you'd expect it to (talks about the debt the book owes to Bram Stoker and EC Comics, some stuff about his mother, and so on) but the thing I've always liked about it was his description of how he first encountered Dracula, via a lovingly read and worn-in library copy from his childhood.
That's always stuck with me because I first encountered 'Salem's Lot in exactly the same way- a dust jacketless copy checked out from the Newburgh Free Library, page edges worn down soft. I don't know why that quality should have affected my original enjoyment of the book, but I am sure that it did. 'Salem's Lot felt less like a glossy new release and more like some weird notes from the undeground. It's my second favorite King book even today, standing right behind The Stand, a book that in many respects reflects a lot of the lessons King learned from writing 'Salem's Lot. The creative use of the large cast of characters, the bitterness of the mother/daughter dynamic in both novels, the protagonist becoming a hero despite his shortcomings.
It's a good book and I recommend it, but as King cops to in the introduction, it's very much a book of its time. Shades of Nixonian America are peeking their head around every corner of the Lot and while it's terrific on its own, I imagine that a lot of aspects of 'Salem's Lot would give someone who wants to adapt it for today's audiences a headache.
After reading the book as a teenager, I went to Blockbuster and rented the 1979 TV miniseries starring David Soul.
I can remember my mother saying that she found it very scary when she first watched it, but as a jaded teenager in the 1990's, I didn't find it much so. I remember enjoying it despite a lot of its dated nature, which is something in its favor... but I don't remember finding the vampires very scary, especially head vamp Barlow who was kind of a homage/rip off of Nosferatu, the original movie monster. This was a cool visual (the box that the VHS cassette came in certainly scared the bejeezus out of me as a kid) but effectively neutered the character. Whereas Barlow was once a suave romantic vampire in the mold of Count Dracula, the '79 miniseries basically turned him into a freakshow. I also remember thinking (and I have no proof of this or anything) that the ending of the movie seemed to give the producers an out to turn 'Salem's Lot into a regular series in that the surviving characters are still being chased by vampires rather than stamping out the menace.
I honestly hadn't thought about that miniseries in years... until I found out that TNT had made a new mini-series based on 'Salem's Lot, this one far more faithful to King's original vision.
I can't say that I was dying to see 'Salem's Lot remade, although the '79 miniseries did leave a lot of ground that a new version could cover. It turns out our library had a copy of the new 'Salem's Lot on DVD so I took it out and watched it last night.
I have to say, I thought the new miniseries was pretty good. There are aspects about it that I'm not a fan of, but I think anyone who's ever been a fan of a book and seen it turned into a movie has their quibbles. I didn't like how this version of 'Salem's Lot seemed determined to "dirty" up the entire cast. While one of the undercurrents of King's book was that the town of Jerusalem's Lot was "dead" (morally, socially, economically to a lesser extent) before the vampires set up shop, King had a way of still making the characters warmer and more endearing than this movie even attempts. In particular, the character of Ben Mears suffers from the script's twisting upon itself to give him a resonant backstory and make him a true asshole before he becomes the Lot's vampire hunter. It seemed unnecessary to me, however I will concede that perhaps the Ben of the novel lived in his head a bit much and they needed to hang some more action on this new movie.
One change I thought worked spectacularly well was shifting the seasons of the story from the novel. In the novel 'Salem's Lot, the seasons move from late summer to fall and this works in the context of King's narration. In essence, we're seeing the town die as we see fall march in and destroy summer. In the new miniseries, the entire thing takes place in the dead (pun intended) of winter and stylistically I think this choice works.
I also appreciated how many of the characters were preserved for this version. It's easy enough to combine and blend characters together for the purposes of adaptation, but the script does a nice job of keeping most of the Lot's inhabitants in tact... and in some cases, improves on their relationships. That's right, improves. I think the love story between Eva Miller and Weasel Craig is far more resonant in the 2004 miniseries than it was in the novel.
That being said, the cast of the new miniseries very strong. I wish they could have given Andre Braugher a little more to do... but then again, I suppose they tried in giving his Matt Burke a more antagonistic relationship with Mears than in the novel. I've done a little bit of Googling on the book and it seems like fans of 'Salem's Lot felt that Donald Sutherland's take on the Renfield-esque Straker character was too "over the top" but I liked it. He was suitably charming at points and you can see the actor having a lot of fun at the demented evil parts he gets.
Best of the lot (pun intended yet again! yow!) was James Cromwell as Father Callahan. It really made me laugh, watching Cromwell's performance and imagining how frustrated fans of Stephen King's Dark Tower series of novels were probably getting at the miniseries wrap-around story featuring a more despicable Callahan. For those who aren't in the know, Callahan appears in 'Salem's Lot and then reappears in one of King's later novels in the DT cycle. That being said, I thought Cromwell was a fine Callahan and would love to see him in the role again.
I'm afraid this week's ramblings are neither fish nor foul. I tried to stay away from huge spoilers in both the books and the movies but in doing so I probably turned off just about everyone who might be interested in reading about 'Salem's Lot, either because they've already read the books or they haven't read any of them.
At any rate, if you're looking for a good summer beach read, you couldn't do better than 'Salem's Lot |
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| no comic thursday |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|09:41 pm] |
No comic tonight, but please enjoy my "tribute" to Michael Jackson:
Of course, by now demand for this stupid thing will have gone through the roof and I will have squandered a golden opportunity to pay for Elliot's college tuition. |
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| where the wild things are not |
[Jun. 24th, 2009|07:12 pm] |
The only thing I'm buying this week is JLA Deluxe Hardcover, Volume Two. Grant Morrison and Howard Porter's take on the Justice League are some of my favorite superhero comics ever, and I'm glad DC is releasing these in nice hardcovers. Included here is the big "Rock of Ages" story (I skipped out on DC's Final Crisis because I liked THIS Darksaid story so much) and somewhat surprisingly, the crossover with Wildstorm's Wild C.A.T.s (which was pretty damn fun and inventive, considering it's... you know a crossover with fucking Wild C.A.T.s) |
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| gameboy explained |
[Jun. 23rd, 2009|06:59 pm] |
The Angry Video Game Nerd does a great job of paying tribute to/making fun of Nintendo Power in this video.
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| a great find at goodwill (or a good find at greatwill) |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|07:19 pm] |
Man, the Archie digest is an amazing value- less than three bucks for 48 plus pages of comics AND you can find them on just about every checkout counter in the country. I wish other comics were available like this, although it's pretty obvious looking through the digests I picked up that the editors can really "mix and match" stories from the past four or five decades, given the consistency of the Archie house style. Anyway, they were a steal at a quarter apiece!
Weirdly enough, this comic will be continued tomorrow with more Gameboy ruminations. Don't piddle yourself. |
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| ellen is the boss of my beard |
[Jun. 21st, 2009|08:06 pm] |
A Comics Reporter's Five for Friday: "Briefly Describe Five Fondly-Remembered Convention Experiences."
1. Having Mike Mignola tell me he was "impressed" that I wanted him to personalize his signature on my copy of Hellboy #1. I guess this was right at the height of the speculator boom and there were thousands of other 12 year olds who just wanted to turn-over signed comic books for cash.
2. Finding a copy of Batman: The Sword of Azreal #1 for $5 dollars. For those that don't remember (and really, why should you?) Azreal was the character who took over for Batman when he had his back broken during a big crossover in the 1990's. Azreal's first appearance was a big deal for awhile and to find it for $5 bucks was a coup.
3. Buying a Monty Python's Flying Circus tee shirt. This was before Hot Topic had the market cornered on "weird geeky tee shirts" so finding something like that was AMAZING.
4. One show featured an appearance from goofy metal band/performance artist GWAR. My friend Dave wanted to buy something from them but he was too scared so I went and did it for him.
5. My father drove me to the last comic book convention at the old Javits Center in New York City in the middle of a blizzard. We parked in a lot where, when we returned, he had gotten a parking ticket. Then, the door to the car wouldn't close so, for the entire drive back home, he drove while holding the door closed.
I decided to post this Five for Friday late because it's Father's Day and that last one was an awesome thing my Dad did for me. In general, it was pretty awesome of Dad to take me to all those conventions. |
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| Geek Out Saturday |
[Jun. 20th, 2009|07:56 pm] |
Here's a bunch of random stuff!
Live Concerts from All Songs Considered is a podcast that I've been enjoying a lot of the the last few months. I've never been much of a live music guy, but this podcast has a nice collection of long format sets from artists I've been meaning to check out for awhile. This was how I first started enjoying bands like She & Him and Fleet Foxes and it looks like NPR's keeping quite a nice backlog of old performances. Well worth looking at.
.........
A few weeks ago I picked up X-Men: Deadly Genesis from a website that was selling the hardcover edition for an unbelievable $3 bucks. I am so not an X-Men guy, but Deadly Genesis was written by Ed Brubaker. I'm a big fan of Brubaker's crime comics and I've been reading his Captain America run in trades... so I figured, what the hell? Whoo boy, not my thing at all. A mishmash of artists, an unfocused story, and although I don't really care about X-Men history, this is one hell of a rewrite. I can't say I liked Deadly Genesis, but again, I'm not an X-Men fan. Maybe somebody else would come at this with a different opinion.
.......
I enjoy reading The Onion's AV Club but I cannot stand the commenters on the site. That being said, I really enjoyed some of the commentary generated on Gateways to Geekery: Stephen King. I'm an unapologetic King fan; I number The Stand as one of my top five favorite novels ever and I don't really know anyone else who's into the man's work. I've been trying to get Ellen to read Salem's Lot for a couple of years now and I just ended up picking the book up again yesterday. I really do think its fantastic.
........
Hey, remember Gleek, the monkey sidekick to the Wonder Twins on the old Superfriends animated series? Did you know that Mattel is producing an action figure based on that monkey? Further, did you know that there's a significant portion of toy collectors out there who are mightily pissed off at Mattel because you can only buy Gleek if you go to this year's San Diego Comicon... thereby denying hundreds of toy collecting thirty year old men their blue simian fix. I couldn't believe how pissed off people are about this when I found out about it; I could see getting uptight if this were some major character in the DC Universe... but I don't know, I couldn't get excited about getting a Gleek toy.
(By the by, if you are a thirty year old man who likes buying action figures like me, that website I linked is pretty good.)
........
Buy a Dr. Venture Speed Suit! Remember, It needs to be tight across the shoulders and roomy in the crotch. |
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| friday five |
[Jun. 19th, 2009|01:34 pm] |
I haven't been doing the Friday Fives lately because they've been downright stupid. This one is only slightly stupid.
1. If you could go back in time to change one choice in your life, what would it be?
2. What would you like your dying words to be?
3. If you HAD to change bodies with someone you knew for 1 year, who would it be?
4. Choose your favorite license plate combination. What does it read?
5. What fantasy world would you live in (i.e., movie, tv show, book)?
1. I mean, the standard answer would be "nothing" since even all the crappy stuff that have happened to me lead me to my kick-ass life now. That being said, Melissa and I were talking recently and I expressed a wish that I had a bit more grace when it came to my dating history.
2. I don't know. Something about how delicious the steak is that I'm eating when I collapse from a heart attack, maybe.
3. Warren Beatty, and the year would the 1974.
4. I can't think of anything. I just watched The Muppet Movie and the license plate in Miss Piggy's fantasy reads "I DO 2". I'll choose that.
5. Probably the world of the Harry Potter books. |
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