Here's a video shot about the same time as we were at FCBD at Austin Books.
You can hear Jason laugh at the Defuser's joke at one point (when he tells the Statesman guy he smells of evil, I believe), but we don't show up on camera.
Shame they didn't use the video of a whole family who showed up for the event, led by Mom the Comic Geek. Brandon is the guy who tells you how little your comics are actually worth when you try to sell them to Austin Books.
Anyway, its also a peek inside Austin Books as it is now.
Monday, May 04, 2009
Sunday, May 03, 2009
X-Men Origins Colon Wolverine Colon Isn't Very Colon Good
Surprise, right?
Long, long ago, I got into superhero comics in no small part because of Claremont's "Uncanny X-Men", a team book which was, as is now well known, all about mutants and the prejudice they faced on the streets of New York. The first issue I recall reading was issue 210. It would be a year or so later before I would discover back-issues and be able to find out what led up to that issue, but the clear social message, which reflected very much what I was taught at home, in theory at school, at church, etc... matched up pretty darn well with the "Mutants are People, Too!" message of the issue.
No fights in the comic, but the X-Men regrouping after a big fight (almost unheard of for such continuity in comics today), and Kitty Pryde and Colossus having a run in with some anti-mutant bigots, while Rogue's heroism won over some tough guy New York construction guys.
Wolverine stabbed nobody.
At that time, Wolverine had been through quite a bit. His past was shrouded in mystery to both he, the X-Men and the reader. He had already had some adventures in Japan, and so by the time I reached the character, he had studied to become a samurai (not a ninja), and had a fallen-out romance with a woman of Japanese nobility.
Still, he was a gruff, stocky, hairy guy prone to drinking cases of beer, smoking cigars, and using what passed for profanity under the Comics Code Authority (he said "blazes" a lot, in place of "hell" or "damn"). He came across as Kitty Pryde's tough uncle, who was all bluster. For goodness sake, he occasionally hung out with Power Pack.
Wolverine had had a successful 4-issue mini-series in 1982, but never starred in his own title. He was a utility player that I think, wisely, Marvel knew was popular, but feared over exposure and the audience's realization that the character might not be much more than the word "Bub" and a set of claws.
At some point, the letters coming in and successful solo stories in Marvel Presents convinced Marvel that they should try a Wolverine solo-series. I wasn't convinced Wolverine needed a solo series. I preferred him as a member of the X-Men, but I think I started trying to pick up the series to go along with X-Men around issue 3 or 4 when I realized that Wolverine in his own series might just be the way of the world. Part of this (and this will stun younger readers) was that back then, if a character had a solo mini-series, they would actually demonstrate this in continuity by removing the character from their usual book for the duration. That's how seriously fans and the editors took continuity and would try not to put the same hero in two places at once. Ie: a successful Wolverine series should mean that Wolverine might not be in the X-Men anymore.
I didn't care for the series.
I don't know who was writing, but I'll guess it was Claremont. There was a lot of business about some stand-in island for Singapore called Madripoor, and a ridiculous secret ID for Wolverine in which he wore an eye-patch (like a pirate) and called himself "Patch".
Some character can take glomming on to certain parts of their past, and others... not so much. The Madripoor stuff opened the gate to pretty much any cockamamie notion anyone wanted to throw at Wolverine (who was ageless due to his "healing factor"), becoming a part of his background, whether it was a good idea or not.
Meanwhile, in the wake of Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, etc... and an increasing wave of acceptance of rougher material in comics, it became the comic language du jour to come up with a berserker character who was at least potentially deadly, and dub that character the "Wolverine of the group" for team books, in everything from X-Factor to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I don't know exactly when or why I quit reading Uncanny X-Men, but I threw in the towel on Wolverine's solo title almost immediately, years before I gave up on X-Men. And at some point, something about Wolverine as a "superhero" didn't really work for me. Under Morrison, the X-Men would abandon any premise of being a comic about "superheroes", but aside from that, I just wasn't too keen on a superhero (a) stabbed people as his primary function, and (b) killed lots and lots of people. None of that sounded much like a "hero" to me. Add in what became what continues as some serious over-exposure, and I mostly lost interest in Wolverine.
The casting of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine was an accident, originally. Dougray Scott went for the surefire hit of Mission Impossible: II, featuring John Woo as a director and Tom Cruise as a co-star, bowing out of this silly little superhero movie nobody would go see. I recall seeing the first pictures of this Jackman fellow and being confused.
He was tall, lanky, and handsome. The opposite of how I pictured the guy. Fortunately, both director Bryan Singer and Jackman were on the same page with the comic version in personality (he's gruff and rough around the edges, but he's got a noble warrior's heart). And I never complained.
Wolverine was already overshadowing the rest of the X-Men (my personal favorites as a kid were Colossus, Rogue and Cyclops, and Psylocke until they made her into a ninja). Today's Marvel comics have become so Wolvie-centric that, I am not making this up, this month Wolverine is on the cover of almost every Marvel comic, whether he appears in the comic or not. The character has a rabid fan base as deep and loyal as Spidey, Superman and Batman.
And I know virtually nothing about the character as he's been presented since about 1995. I did read the "Origin" limited series in 2001 or so, which is covered in its entirety by a sequence which occurs before the credits roll in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". It was written specifically so that the studios wouldn't just make up an origin without any input from Marvel, and it works well enough. But everything I've heard over the past ten years leads me to believe that Marvel really doesn't have a "good idea/ bad idea" policy for Wolverine's past, anyway, and that much of it seems to pop out of what I'd suggest sounds, from the outside, like bad fan-fiction (he now has a son named "Daken" or some such, who has tattoos and whatnot.).
I wasn't particularly enamored by the mini of "Origin", even if I felt the basic idea was solid. But since then, there have been numerous Wolverine origin series. And the movie is based on a lot of comics I never read and don't know much about.
The basic problem with "Wolverine" is that it feels a bit like a 90's action movie in that there's a lot of attention to superheroics, improbably stunts, etc... and absolutely no attention paid to whether the story makes sense. Unlike Transformers, which seemed to hold both the property of Transformers and the audience in disdain as not worth bothering to put together a respectable movie, Wolverine feels much more like everyone but Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber (as Victor Creed) are out of their depth, including screenwriters, director, 3D specialists and whomever had to cut the darn thing together.
It's a movie where several times the characters mournfully shout their anger to the sky, and the camera pulls back to an aerial shot (this shot should have been retired when Rainier Wolfcastle first shouted "Mendoooozzaaaaaa!) and dying people say things like "I'm so cold...". Especially in the last forty minutes or so, people seem to just be doing stuff because it moves the plot forward, not because it makes sense (why, on God's green Earth did gambit attack Sabretooth and Wolverine at that moment? and why didn't Wolverine pursue Sabretooth?).
Nothing about Stryker's plan makes any sense, aside from his end goal. The secret base in the Canadian Rockies from X2 and X3 is in the movie, but why its there, and why they use that, and what the hell Stryker bothers to imbue Wolverine's skeleton with adamantium doesn't, honestly, make much sense. Nor does the final explanation of Wolvie's memory loss. One gets the feeling all of this did make sense but... Wolverine was plagued with re-shoots.
While I am glad they didn't bother with the Madripoor stuff or try to tackle Wolverine's years in Japan, as that would have extended the movie (with five endings or so already) even further, the story they do tell is sort of... just not all that interesting. Oddly, like Watchmen, what seems far more interesting as a movie than what unfolds on screen is the stuff in the opening credits. Jason and I agreed that all THAT seemed far more interesting than the paint-by-numbers plot of the movie.
And, seriously, how many "women in refrigerators" does Logan have under his belt at this point?
The writers were aiming for fanboy acceptance, and try to cram 10 pounds of mutants into a five pound bag. Characters come and go, and its hard to care about any of them. Any thrill fans of the X-books might have been getting from seeing, say, Gambit flit briefly across the screen, was lost in the morass of 20 other mutants, many of whom I suspect debuted well after I quit the X-books.
The special FX are mostly OK. There are a few scenes in which, oddly, Wolverine's claws don't look quite right, which I found mind-boggling. How do you mess up solid metal in CG? But it just didn't look quite right. And, occasionally, when Sabretooth is hopping about, it looks a little wonky.
Nobody is all that bad in delivering the clunky lines they've got. Jackman, typically, throws himself into the Wolverine role, and there's no doubt that the replacement of Tyler Mane as Sabretooth (as seen in X-Men 1) was a very good idea.
The movie has some neat action sequences, but that's pretty much what you'd expect. If that's all you're looking for, you should do well, I suppose. But that's mostly what the movie hangs on rather than stuff like plot or character.
And, no, after 40 years of Wolverine in comics and the past few years of comic movies, I don't think fans of the material should lower their sites just because someone deigned to see fit to make a movie about their favorite character.
I'll be the first to say that Wolverine is taking 21st Century superheroics from the comic to the big screen. He's a character more fit for modern movie tastes than Superman or even Batman, in many ways. With any luck, a second Wolverine movie will take things up a notch and not be the narrative mess of this film.
But I'd probably still prefer just getting an X-Men movie over another installment in the solo missions of someone who is much more interesting as the wild-card on a team of straight arrows.
Long, long ago, I got into superhero comics in no small part because of Claremont's "Uncanny X-Men", a team book which was, as is now well known, all about mutants and the prejudice they faced on the streets of New York. The first issue I recall reading was issue 210. It would be a year or so later before I would discover back-issues and be able to find out what led up to that issue, but the clear social message, which reflected very much what I was taught at home, in theory at school, at church, etc... matched up pretty darn well with the "Mutants are People, Too!" message of the issue.
No fights in the comic, but the X-Men regrouping after a big fight (almost unheard of for such continuity in comics today), and Kitty Pryde and Colossus having a run in with some anti-mutant bigots, while Rogue's heroism won over some tough guy New York construction guys.
Wolverine stabbed nobody.
At that time, Wolverine had been through quite a bit. His past was shrouded in mystery to both he, the X-Men and the reader. He had already had some adventures in Japan, and so by the time I reached the character, he had studied to become a samurai (not a ninja), and had a fallen-out romance with a woman of Japanese nobility.
Still, he was a gruff, stocky, hairy guy prone to drinking cases of beer, smoking cigars, and using what passed for profanity under the Comics Code Authority (he said "blazes" a lot, in place of "hell" or "damn"). He came across as Kitty Pryde's tough uncle, who was all bluster. For goodness sake, he occasionally hung out with Power Pack.
Wolverine had had a successful 4-issue mini-series in 1982, but never starred in his own title. He was a utility player that I think, wisely, Marvel knew was popular, but feared over exposure and the audience's realization that the character might not be much more than the word "Bub" and a set of claws.
At some point, the letters coming in and successful solo stories in Marvel Presents convinced Marvel that they should try a Wolverine solo-series. I wasn't convinced Wolverine needed a solo series. I preferred him as a member of the X-Men, but I think I started trying to pick up the series to go along with X-Men around issue 3 or 4 when I realized that Wolverine in his own series might just be the way of the world. Part of this (and this will stun younger readers) was that back then, if a character had a solo mini-series, they would actually demonstrate this in continuity by removing the character from their usual book for the duration. That's how seriously fans and the editors took continuity and would try not to put the same hero in two places at once. Ie: a successful Wolverine series should mean that Wolverine might not be in the X-Men anymore.
I didn't care for the series.
I don't know who was writing, but I'll guess it was Claremont. There was a lot of business about some stand-in island for Singapore called Madripoor, and a ridiculous secret ID for Wolverine in which he wore an eye-patch (like a pirate) and called himself "Patch".
Some character can take glomming on to certain parts of their past, and others... not so much. The Madripoor stuff opened the gate to pretty much any cockamamie notion anyone wanted to throw at Wolverine (who was ageless due to his "healing factor"), becoming a part of his background, whether it was a good idea or not.
Meanwhile, in the wake of Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, etc... and an increasing wave of acceptance of rougher material in comics, it became the comic language du jour to come up with a berserker character who was at least potentially deadly, and dub that character the "Wolverine of the group" for team books, in everything from X-Factor to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I don't know exactly when or why I quit reading Uncanny X-Men, but I threw in the towel on Wolverine's solo title almost immediately, years before I gave up on X-Men. And at some point, something about Wolverine as a "superhero" didn't really work for me. Under Morrison, the X-Men would abandon any premise of being a comic about "superheroes", but aside from that, I just wasn't too keen on a superhero (a) stabbed people as his primary function, and (b) killed lots and lots of people. None of that sounded much like a "hero" to me. Add in what became what continues as some serious over-exposure, and I mostly lost interest in Wolverine.
The casting of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine was an accident, originally. Dougray Scott went for the surefire hit of Mission Impossible: II, featuring John Woo as a director and Tom Cruise as a co-star, bowing out of this silly little superhero movie nobody would go see. I recall seeing the first pictures of this Jackman fellow and being confused.
He was tall, lanky, and handsome. The opposite of how I pictured the guy. Fortunately, both director Bryan Singer and Jackman were on the same page with the comic version in personality (he's gruff and rough around the edges, but he's got a noble warrior's heart). And I never complained.
Wolverine was already overshadowing the rest of the X-Men (my personal favorites as a kid were Colossus, Rogue and Cyclops, and Psylocke until they made her into a ninja). Today's Marvel comics have become so Wolvie-centric that, I am not making this up, this month Wolverine is on the cover of almost every Marvel comic, whether he appears in the comic or not. The character has a rabid fan base as deep and loyal as Spidey, Superman and Batman.
And I know virtually nothing about the character as he's been presented since about 1995. I did read the "Origin" limited series in 2001 or so, which is covered in its entirety by a sequence which occurs before the credits roll in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". It was written specifically so that the studios wouldn't just make up an origin without any input from Marvel, and it works well enough. But everything I've heard over the past ten years leads me to believe that Marvel really doesn't have a "good idea/ bad idea" policy for Wolverine's past, anyway, and that much of it seems to pop out of what I'd suggest sounds, from the outside, like bad fan-fiction (he now has a son named "Daken" or some such, who has tattoos and whatnot.).
I wasn't particularly enamored by the mini of "Origin", even if I felt the basic idea was solid. But since then, there have been numerous Wolverine origin series. And the movie is based on a lot of comics I never read and don't know much about.
The basic problem with "Wolverine" is that it feels a bit like a 90's action movie in that there's a lot of attention to superheroics, improbably stunts, etc... and absolutely no attention paid to whether the story makes sense. Unlike Transformers, which seemed to hold both the property of Transformers and the audience in disdain as not worth bothering to put together a respectable movie, Wolverine feels much more like everyone but Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber (as Victor Creed) are out of their depth, including screenwriters, director, 3D specialists and whomever had to cut the darn thing together.
It's a movie where several times the characters mournfully shout their anger to the sky, and the camera pulls back to an aerial shot (this shot should have been retired when Rainier Wolfcastle first shouted "Mendoooozzaaaaaa!) and dying people say things like "I'm so cold...". Especially in the last forty minutes or so, people seem to just be doing stuff because it moves the plot forward, not because it makes sense (why, on God's green Earth did gambit attack Sabretooth and Wolverine at that moment? and why didn't Wolverine pursue Sabretooth?).
Nothing about Stryker's plan makes any sense, aside from his end goal. The secret base in the Canadian Rockies from X2 and X3 is in the movie, but why its there, and why they use that, and what the hell Stryker bothers to imbue Wolverine's skeleton with adamantium doesn't, honestly, make much sense. Nor does the final explanation of Wolvie's memory loss. One gets the feeling all of this did make sense but... Wolverine was plagued with re-shoots.
While I am glad they didn't bother with the Madripoor stuff or try to tackle Wolverine's years in Japan, as that would have extended the movie (with five endings or so already) even further, the story they do tell is sort of... just not all that interesting. Oddly, like Watchmen, what seems far more interesting as a movie than what unfolds on screen is the stuff in the opening credits. Jason and I agreed that all THAT seemed far more interesting than the paint-by-numbers plot of the movie.
And, seriously, how many "women in refrigerators" does Logan have under his belt at this point?
The writers were aiming for fanboy acceptance, and try to cram 10 pounds of mutants into a five pound bag. Characters come and go, and its hard to care about any of them. Any thrill fans of the X-books might have been getting from seeing, say, Gambit flit briefly across the screen, was lost in the morass of 20 other mutants, many of whom I suspect debuted well after I quit the X-books.
The special FX are mostly OK. There are a few scenes in which, oddly, Wolverine's claws don't look quite right, which I found mind-boggling. How do you mess up solid metal in CG? But it just didn't look quite right. And, occasionally, when Sabretooth is hopping about, it looks a little wonky.
Nobody is all that bad in delivering the clunky lines they've got. Jackman, typically, throws himself into the Wolverine role, and there's no doubt that the replacement of Tyler Mane as Sabretooth (as seen in X-Men 1) was a very good idea.
The movie has some neat action sequences, but that's pretty much what you'd expect. If that's all you're looking for, you should do well, I suppose. But that's mostly what the movie hangs on rather than stuff like plot or character.
And, no, after 40 years of Wolverine in comics and the past few years of comic movies, I don't think fans of the material should lower their sites just because someone deigned to see fit to make a movie about their favorite character.
I'll be the first to say that Wolverine is taking 21st Century superheroics from the comic to the big screen. He's a character more fit for modern movie tastes than Superman or even Batman, in many ways. With any luck, a second Wolverine movie will take things up a notch and not be the narrative mess of this film.
But I'd probably still prefer just getting an X-Men movie over another installment in the solo missions of someone who is much more interesting as the wild-card on a team of straight arrows.
Fun at FCBD and Showering the Baby
Yesterday was action packed until about 5:30 or so.
We picked up Jason before 11:00 and headed down for Free Comic Book Day at Austin Books. This year they'd set a tent up outside the shop to sort of artificially create a lot more square footage and keep the aisles in the store open and free from the line of people who could have made it tough to walk around and browse the store.
We stood in line for a short while, and it sort of had the same spirit of camaraderie that I've seen at opening night for sci-fi movies, etc... Jason and I wound up chatting with a really nice guy about everything from The Flash to Star Trek (Jamie went inside for air conditioning after a few minutes in line).
There was this guy hanging outside in a cape and goggles, whose get-up I immediately admired. He even had a teen-age side-kick with him, and went by the name "Lord Vile". I admired Lord Vile's wardrobe, as well as his snarkiness. If you're going to be a villain, you might as well have banter, says I.
I picked up some interesting stuff. Love and Rockets. Blackest Night. Love and Capes. Bongo Comics. Stuff like that. And I did grab Peabo's copy of the "Cars" comic.
Also picked up my most recent two week's worth of titles and the 4th volume of "Queen and Country".
Inside Jason and I queued up to meet "The Defuser", Austin's own superhero and winner of Season 2 of Stan Lee's "Who Wants to be a Superhero?".
The Defuser is a local Austin police detective (no, really!), who is using his alter-ego to raise money for "SCARE for a Cure", a cancer awareness charity. I picked up a signed copy of his comic from Dark Horse, and a signed picture, which I will find a home for in The Fortress of Ineptitude (as Jason suggested I call my office).
I have to admire The Defuser. The man is already a police officer, which is reason enough to think a guy is doing something with himself, but he spends his weekends dressed as a superhero raising funds of cancer charities. Say what you will about dudes in tights, but when you can do a little good with what you have on hand, that's something I can support.
There was also a group of guys who showed up as Cyclops, Professor X and Banshee (and someone else, but I forget who).
I was digging through back-issues of Action Comics and overheard the Statesman reporters who were there talking to each other about how exciting all of this was, but they weren't really sure why, or even what was really going on. Neither had any familiarity with comics, and I heard them trying to decipher why people were into comics.
I do think that one of them sort of hit the nail on the head in realizing its a storytelling medium that's visual and readily accessible. She was also pretty clear that it wasn't all Superman and X-Men, as she mentioned Archie, etc... so I hope they picked something up to look at before leaving.
Never saw the story show up, though...
In the afternoon, Jamie and I attended a babyshower for League Pal's Letty and Juan (and, one would assume, the baby-to-be). I had never been to a baby shower, and I actually breached Baby Shower protocol at least twice (I grabbed a champagne glass for lemonade and wandered off before a champagne toast), and probably did several other things wrong.
But it was good to get together with Letty and Juan and wish them well as the baby is coming.
I think rightfully so, they've sort of passed the "oh, we've got a baby coming!" point in the pregnancy and are headed toward figuring out logistics, etc... around having a child.
The event was held at author Stephanie Klein's home. I admit, I have not read Klein's work, and don't really know much about her, but she and her husband were extremely gracious. It was nice of them to have all of us hanging about and trashing their place. I have no idea how Letty and Juan know Stephanie or her husband, so don't ask.
On top of that, we didn't get too wound up to do much else.
Supposed to see Wolverine today. I suppose I shall report out.
We picked up Jason before 11:00 and headed down for Free Comic Book Day at Austin Books. This year they'd set a tent up outside the shop to sort of artificially create a lot more square footage and keep the aisles in the store open and free from the line of people who could have made it tough to walk around and browse the store.
We stood in line for a short while, and it sort of had the same spirit of camaraderie that I've seen at opening night for sci-fi movies, etc... Jason and I wound up chatting with a really nice guy about everything from The Flash to Star Trek (Jamie went inside for air conditioning after a few minutes in line).
There was this guy hanging outside in a cape and goggles, whose get-up I immediately admired. He even had a teen-age side-kick with him, and went by the name "Lord Vile". I admired Lord Vile's wardrobe, as well as his snarkiness. If you're going to be a villain, you might as well have banter, says I.
I picked up some interesting stuff. Love and Rockets. Blackest Night. Love and Capes. Bongo Comics. Stuff like that. And I did grab Peabo's copy of the "Cars" comic.
Also picked up my most recent two week's worth of titles and the 4th volume of "Queen and Country".
Inside Jason and I queued up to meet "The Defuser", Austin's own superhero and winner of Season 2 of Stan Lee's "Who Wants to be a Superhero?".
The Defuser is a local Austin police detective (no, really!), who is using his alter-ego to raise money for "SCARE for a Cure", a cancer awareness charity. I picked up a signed copy of his comic from Dark Horse, and a signed picture, which I will find a home for in The Fortress of Ineptitude (as Jason suggested I call my office).
I have to admire The Defuser. The man is already a police officer, which is reason enough to think a guy is doing something with himself, but he spends his weekends dressed as a superhero raising funds of cancer charities. Say what you will about dudes in tights, but when you can do a little good with what you have on hand, that's something I can support.
There was also a group of guys who showed up as Cyclops, Professor X and Banshee (and someone else, but I forget who).
I was digging through back-issues of Action Comics and overheard the Statesman reporters who were there talking to each other about how exciting all of this was, but they weren't really sure why, or even what was really going on. Neither had any familiarity with comics, and I heard them trying to decipher why people were into comics.
I do think that one of them sort of hit the nail on the head in realizing its a storytelling medium that's visual and readily accessible. She was also pretty clear that it wasn't all Superman and X-Men, as she mentioned Archie, etc... so I hope they picked something up to look at before leaving.
Never saw the story show up, though...
In the afternoon, Jamie and I attended a babyshower for League Pal's Letty and Juan (and, one would assume, the baby-to-be). I had never been to a baby shower, and I actually breached Baby Shower protocol at least twice (I grabbed a champagne glass for lemonade and wandered off before a champagne toast), and probably did several other things wrong.
But it was good to get together with Letty and Juan and wish them well as the baby is coming.
I think rightfully so, they've sort of passed the "oh, we've got a baby coming!" point in the pregnancy and are headed toward figuring out logistics, etc... around having a child.
The event was held at author Stephanie Klein's home. I admit, I have not read Klein's work, and don't really know much about her, but she and her husband were extremely gracious. It was nice of them to have all of us hanging about and trashing their place. I have no idea how Letty and Juan know Stephanie or her husband, so don't ask.
On top of that, we didn't get too wound up to do much else.
Supposed to see Wolverine today. I suppose I shall report out.
Saturday, May 02, 2009
GI Joe Trailer is Go
So, I am not actually excited about the upcoming GI Joe movie, other than seeing The Baroness as something other than a cartoon animated at 8 frames per second.
G.I. JOE trailer in HD
Calvin of Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool is pumped, but I look at this and I see.... Transformers. Big, expensive set pieces, when nobody did the obvious thing and tried to decide if what they were doing (a) was actually reflective of the source, and (b) whether it was stupid or not in the first place, and whether they'd made it somehow stupider.
I don't know. I look at this trailer, and I'm just not sure I can make myself care about this kind of stuff anymore. CG has meant an open gateway for me to think something will be good, but then find myself entirely disappointed. (see: Transformers. Which was stupid.)
Speaking of, here's the trailer for the Transformers sequel, which looks every bit as dumb as the first movie.
G.I. JOE trailer in HD
Calvin of Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool is pumped, but I look at this and I see.... Transformers. Big, expensive set pieces, when nobody did the obvious thing and tried to decide if what they were doing (a) was actually reflective of the source, and (b) whether it was stupid or not in the first place, and whether they'd made it somehow stupider.
I don't know. I look at this trailer, and I'm just not sure I can make myself care about this kind of stuff anymore. CG has meant an open gateway for me to think something will be good, but then find myself entirely disappointed. (see: Transformers. Which was stupid.)
Speaking of, here's the trailer for the Transformers sequel, which looks every bit as dumb as the first movie.
Friday, May 01, 2009
FREE COMICS: SATURDAY AT YOUR LOCAL COMIC SHOP
Hey, Leaguers!
Tomorrow is FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, the annual event which attempts to lure you into the nasty habit that is comic buying with the promise that the first one is free.
It was the second choice of the retailers association, but somehow "I'll give you a Spider-Man comic if you get in my van" didn't get the traction they were looking for.
Nonetheless, its a sort of festive, carnival-like event at many comic shops, and for those of you with kids, there is lots of free, kid-safe material.
I'll be at Austin Books in the morning (gotta go early, because we gots a baby shower to attend), so if you're not in Austin, I recommend looking up a shop in your area.
Click here for info and to search for a shop.
I am a genuine fan not just of superheroes or Superman or the genre of science-fiction or leotard-clad do-gooders. I'm a fan of the medium.
Here are some books you can look for that may not be free, but that might be worth reading.
Queen and Country.
Now collected into 4 novel-sized-ish volumes, Greg Rucka's UK-based espionage series is brutally smart, relevant, and full of all manner of internal and international intrigue... I didn't read the series until they collected it in these compact volumes, but its quickly become one of my favorite comics.
In the Shadow of No Towers.
You were either with Art Spiegelman on Maus or you weren't. Spiegelman tells his first-person account of being a New Yorker in the days, weeks, etc... after 9/11. Beautifully rendered, whether youa gree with Spiegelman's politics or not, there's little denying that his mastery of the form, a la the styling of Winsor McCay and other predecessors.
Laika.
Tells the story of the little Russian dog first sent to space in Sputnik II.
Which I'd pair with:
First in Space.
The story of the first Chimp in orbit.
First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.
Marvel attempted the Vertigo War Stories approach under Warren Ellis and Howard Chaykin, and for some reason it wasn't a bigger seller. But I loved this comic. This book collects the series, of a young American joining the British Air Forces in World War I, and realizing that being a pilot may not really be the equivalent of the modern-day knight.
Tales Designed to Thrizzle.
I highly recommend this title. It is funny. And brought us the great concept of "Snake and Bacon".
Apocalypse Nerd.
Also strangely appealing. If you're into stories about IT guys and the fate which awaits them after N. Korea nukes the US.
The Great Outdoor Fight.
One of the greatest tales ever put to the comic medium.
and many, many more...!
Tomorrow is FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, the annual event which attempts to lure you into the nasty habit that is comic buying with the promise that the first one is free.
It was the second choice of the retailers association, but somehow "I'll give you a Spider-Man comic if you get in my van" didn't get the traction they were looking for.
Nonetheless, its a sort of festive, carnival-like event at many comic shops, and for those of you with kids, there is lots of free, kid-safe material.
I'll be at Austin Books in the morning (gotta go early, because we gots a baby shower to attend), so if you're not in Austin, I recommend looking up a shop in your area.
Click here for info and to search for a shop.
I am a genuine fan not just of superheroes or Superman or the genre of science-fiction or leotard-clad do-gooders. I'm a fan of the medium.
Here are some books you can look for that may not be free, but that might be worth reading.
Queen and Country.
Now collected into 4 novel-sized-ish volumes, Greg Rucka's UK-based espionage series is brutally smart, relevant, and full of all manner of internal and international intrigue... I didn't read the series until they collected it in these compact volumes, but its quickly become one of my favorite comics.
In the Shadow of No Towers.
You were either with Art Spiegelman on Maus or you weren't. Spiegelman tells his first-person account of being a New Yorker in the days, weeks, etc... after 9/11. Beautifully rendered, whether youa gree with Spiegelman's politics or not, there's little denying that his mastery of the form, a la the styling of Winsor McCay and other predecessors.
Laika.
Tells the story of the little Russian dog first sent to space in Sputnik II.
Which I'd pair with:
First in Space.
The story of the first Chimp in orbit.
First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.
Marvel attempted the Vertigo War Stories approach under Warren Ellis and Howard Chaykin, and for some reason it wasn't a bigger seller. But I loved this comic. This book collects the series, of a young American joining the British Air Forces in World War I, and realizing that being a pilot may not really be the equivalent of the modern-day knight.
Tales Designed to Thrizzle.
I highly recommend this title. It is funny. And brought us the great concept of "Snake and Bacon".
Apocalypse Nerd.
Also strangely appealing. If you're into stories about IT guys and the fate which awaits them after N. Korea nukes the US.
The Great Outdoor Fight.
One of the greatest tales ever put to the comic medium.
and many, many more...!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Jon and Kate plus 8 plus "Mystery woman"
Oh, man. There is no way for me not to come off all judgy and jerk-like on this one, but its my theme of the week, so here goes.
Who called it just a few months ago?
Jon was, apparently, spotted with a "mystery woman" sans wedding band. Here and here.
I watch the TLC show "Jon and Kate Plus 8" religiously while blogging on Monday nights. It's masochistic, and I admit, I watch for all the wrong reasons. TLC either is unaware of, or knows and doesn't care, that its been documenting a show less about a couple struggling to raise 8 kids than it's been documenting a man's slow emotional evisceration. Its not a great reason to be hooked on a show, but hooked on it, I am.
And I wanted to be there when he cracked. And crack, he (apparently) finally did.
Jon and not Kate
Sure, Jon TOLD the crew on the last episode of the most recent season that he didn't want to do the show anymore, and he's taken to staring without blinking for entire episodes... And, possibly partying with co-eds. But Kate loves doing the show, loves being famous for being herself, loves being told she's a great person, and loves having the platform for her celebrity and associated benefits/ money.
Jon will, of course, be vilified, and people will ask "how could he do it?"
I shall tell you!
1) Jon married a terrible harpy of a woman who takes pleasure in emasculating him at every opportunity. If you identify with Kate, I highly recommend standing up, walking to your spouse and apologizing. Because its possible you're a terrible, terrible person. Kate is.
2) He mistakenly gave birth to 8 children, 6 of them at the same time, all of whom communicate by screaming and crying every minute in which they are awake, if the show is any indication. As part of the show, he has to stay home all day with these kids he accidentally made with whatever fertility treatment Octomom must have used.
3) He hates being on the TV show, and being the object of constant, unwanted attention. He said so right on the show.
4) His income, needed to support the 8 screaming children and the horrible harpy lady, stems from being on the TV show. Whatever IT career he supposedly has is a shell of whatever it was.
5) The ratio of screaming kids and wife berating him at every turn versus anything resembling kindness or gratitude or anybody noting that he's involved in this, too, is about 100 to 1.
6) Ever see Jon with friends or family other than Kate? Think maybe there's something to all that?
7) Also, Kate is awful.
8) Jon is in a living hell of his own making. And I pity that man every day.
Does all of this pressure mean Jon is entitled to cheat on his wife and bring shame upon his children? I'll leave that for another person to determine. I know the "right" answer is to say "no, he shouldn't do that", but... have you watched that show? They're lucky that picking up co-eds is all he's doing and they can actually find him when they look for him.
Also, not Kate.
Here's a lesson to take home, Leaguers: if you treat the person you married with no ounce of love or respect (especially in public/ on TV), eventually, they are going to decide they don't respect you, either.
And if they don't respect you, and you have put them in a position where you're making their life a living hell? They won't really care about the consequences of their actions and how it reflects on either of you.
In February I said:
Indeed, that day is already here.
I guess I'm sort of interested in the cult of personality Kate has built of people who think she's a good enough idea that they buy her books and whatnot. I assume many people raising young ones feel a certain kinship with Kate, especially those who may imagine themselves or relate to Kate's pithy comments at a husband who seemingly just doesn't get it.
There's a lesson here somewhere about fame, fertility drugs, etc... but there's also a lesson about two people who very publicly want different things and its led to one of them not caring about their marriage, and I'd question whether either of them care, but for different reasons. And why you shouldn't ever really want to be on TV.
A show about the joys of family has turned into sort of the opposite. And there are eight kids who are going to be able to buy the DVD set of the dissolution of their parents' marriage.
Also, that Matt Roloff dude on Little People, Big World? He totally got picked up for a DUI in 2007ish. Apparently it was his second.
Who called it just a few months ago?
Jon was, apparently, spotted with a "mystery woman" sans wedding band. Here and here.
I watch the TLC show "Jon and Kate Plus 8" religiously while blogging on Monday nights. It's masochistic, and I admit, I watch for all the wrong reasons. TLC either is unaware of, or knows and doesn't care, that its been documenting a show less about a couple struggling to raise 8 kids than it's been documenting a man's slow emotional evisceration. Its not a great reason to be hooked on a show, but hooked on it, I am.
And I wanted to be there when he cracked. And crack, he (apparently) finally did.
Jon and not Kate
Sure, Jon TOLD the crew on the last episode of the most recent season that he didn't want to do the show anymore, and he's taken to staring without blinking for entire episodes... And, possibly partying with co-eds. But Kate loves doing the show, loves being famous for being herself, loves being told she's a great person, and loves having the platform for her celebrity and associated benefits/ money.
Jon will, of course, be vilified, and people will ask "how could he do it?"
I shall tell you!
1) Jon married a terrible harpy of a woman who takes pleasure in emasculating him at every opportunity. If you identify with Kate, I highly recommend standing up, walking to your spouse and apologizing. Because its possible you're a terrible, terrible person. Kate is.
2) He mistakenly gave birth to 8 children, 6 of them at the same time, all of whom communicate by screaming and crying every minute in which they are awake, if the show is any indication. As part of the show, he has to stay home all day with these kids he accidentally made with whatever fertility treatment Octomom must have used.
3) He hates being on the TV show, and being the object of constant, unwanted attention. He said so right on the show.
4) His income, needed to support the 8 screaming children and the horrible harpy lady, stems from being on the TV show. Whatever IT career he supposedly has is a shell of whatever it was.
5) The ratio of screaming kids and wife berating him at every turn versus anything resembling kindness or gratitude or anybody noting that he's involved in this, too, is about 100 to 1.
6) Ever see Jon with friends or family other than Kate? Think maybe there's something to all that?
7) Also, Kate is awful.
8) Jon is in a living hell of his own making. And I pity that man every day.
Does all of this pressure mean Jon is entitled to cheat on his wife and bring shame upon his children? I'll leave that for another person to determine. I know the "right" answer is to say "no, he shouldn't do that", but... have you watched that show? They're lucky that picking up co-eds is all he's doing and they can actually find him when they look for him.
Also, not Kate.
Here's a lesson to take home, Leaguers: if you treat the person you married with no ounce of love or respect (especially in public/ on TV), eventually, they are going to decide they don't respect you, either.
And if they don't respect you, and you have put them in a position where you're making their life a living hell? They won't really care about the consequences of their actions and how it reflects on either of you.
In February I said:
I look forward to the day when we all find out Jon fled on a very special episode of "Kate Plus 8 (minus Jon and his Income)".
Indeed, that day is already here.
I guess I'm sort of interested in the cult of personality Kate has built of people who think she's a good enough idea that they buy her books and whatnot. I assume many people raising young ones feel a certain kinship with Kate, especially those who may imagine themselves or relate to Kate's pithy comments at a husband who seemingly just doesn't get it.
There's a lesson here somewhere about fame, fertility drugs, etc... but there's also a lesson about two people who very publicly want different things and its led to one of them not caring about their marriage, and I'd question whether either of them care, but for different reasons. And why you shouldn't ever really want to be on TV.
A show about the joys of family has turned into sort of the opposite. And there are eight kids who are going to be able to buy the DVD set of the dissolution of their parents' marriage.
Also, that Matt Roloff dude on Little People, Big World? He totally got picked up for a DUI in 2007ish. Apparently it was his second.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Trek Showing
For Your Information:
Jamie, Jason and I will most likely be seeing Trek on Sunday, May 10th at 2:00 at Alamo South Lamar.
I have no idea what the movie will be like, but I'm going. You're welcome to join us there.
Here's a link.
Is the new Uhura more fabulous than the original formula? Only one way to know.
Original formula: still the best.
This is a confirmation email from LAMAR
3 Matinee Tickets
For STAR TREK showing at Sun May 10, 2009 2:00p
Jamie, Jason and I will most likely be seeing Trek on Sunday, May 10th at 2:00 at Alamo South Lamar.
I have no idea what the movie will be like, but I'm going. You're welcome to join us there.
Here's a link.
Is the new Uhura more fabulous than the original formula? Only one way to know.
Original formula: still the best.
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