Title IX

Lauren, over at Carte Blanche, has posted a column on the perception of female athletes. Apparently market research is demonstrating that female athletes are mostly measured on their athletic prowess, versus a sexualized appeal. To sum up the sentiment, I'm pulling a quote from Lauren's quote:

Though there are a few notable exceptions — Anna Pornikova, Playboy covergirl/ tennis star Ashley Harkleroad among them — most Olympic caliber women are delightfully unsexualized. Which is not to say that they're not sexy, but that the press about them is about their athletic achievements as opposed to their finely toned backsides.

It is a shame that so few women's sports seem to make a go of entering into a televised professional capacity at the same level as the trinity of football, baseball and basketball. Scratch that: It's a shame that the televised events don't get the same media push that, say, the NFL enjoys. Now, I love the NFL and NCAA football, and I'm not sure if there's a chicken and egg effect... I'm just saying: The WNBA isn't on in prime time.

But... with things kicking off this weekend in Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics, it's a firm reminder to us folks in the general public that sport is captivating, not necessarily just the sport of one gender or another. And I think that's something young female AND male athletes need to see. When you get past the marketing and hoopla of pro sports, its about who plays the game well.

If the market researchers are looking for a particular reason why female athletes are being seen as athletes first, I would point to Title IX. We're now 36 years after the institution of Title IX, and into a generation of adults who never knew life without female athletes. And a generation of children who, thankfully, take it for granted that either gender can participate.*

Add in role-model athletes like the US Women's Soccer Team, May-Treanor and Walsh of the beach volleyball circuit, Diana Taurasi or Cheryl Miller of the WNBA, softball players like Cat Osterman... and while the athletes may not be as high profile as Terrell Owens or Shaq, they somehow manage to be just as stunning as athletes as the guys with all the advertising deals.

When the Brandy Chastain's of the world score a World Cup winning goal, it was only the pundits with need of something for the news cycle who missed the celebratory moment for what it was. The rest of us were jumping up and down in our living rooms and screaming at the TV (and, yes, maybe tearing up a little). It was a moment of sport at its finest.



Geez, that team was amazing.

Anyway, it was a moment when those who understood the implications of Title IX seemed at odds with those who sort of think a girl looks like a tramp unless she's got her ankles and wrists covered. And, honestly, there's no damn room for that in sport.

So, yeah. I might make cracks that I'm going to watch Walsh and Treanor-May in the beach Volleyball competition, but that's for teasing Jamie. Have you ever seen those two play? They're inhuman. And that's what I'm looking for in my sports, Olympics or otherwise. I'm looking for my few weeks every four years in which I get to see the most amazing athletes on the planet compete.

Man, now I'm kind of excited about the Olympics.

I just hope I don't spend my time following another doping athlete the way I did the summer Marion Jones was breaking records.



Whoo-hoo!

*It's worth noting that the actual Educational Amendment, Title IX, while routinely applied to athletics, was not specifically written about athletics. In fact, the wording is about academic access and discrimination based on gender. This happened to expand out to athletics where the differences in available activities were greatly unequal.

Gorilla City?

Barry Allen, take heed...

whole mess of Gorillas found in jungle.

Animated Wonder Woman in February

hey, Leaguers!

here's a link Randy sent me for a trailer to an upcoming animated Wonder Woman movie.

Linkety Link.

I am very excited about new Wonder Woman media, and this looks like its as much fun as I'd hope an animated Wonder Woman film could be. And because longtime DCU animators and DC Comics writers are involved, it looks like they're getting the character down pretty well. At least what see looks familair to the spirit of the comics, even if I can't tell what the story is about, per se.

Also, here's the movie's official website.

D-War = The League on Crazy Pills

So, this weekend Jason and I watched the 2007 film "Dragon War" off the ol' DVR. The movie was in theaters only last summer, and already its made its way from theatrical release, through DVD and onto basic cable (most likely bypassing HBO, etc... en route).

One should enter into watching any movie with a raised eye-brow when one cannot determine if a movie is called "Dragon Wars" or "D-War". Even when the movie begins and both titles share equal importance during the credits.

Opening in modern day Los Angeles, the movie quickly goes through a flashback, wrapped in a flashback, wrapped in Robert Forester dumping a lot of exposition and Korean words with which you can't possibly keep pace.

The story to the movie is probably not that complex, but the writer/ director's inability to simply get out of the way of device and tell a story is mind-boggling. Let alone his refusal to provide characters with story-arcs, growth, and dialog that doesn't sound like it came from a Babelfish translation. Also, the director's idea for a black character is mostly an amalgamation of other black sidekick buddies who tend to say things like "That's whack!" and "Say whaaat?" Unfortunately, he cast Craig Robinson of "The Office" and Apatow film fame, who is making a career out of not being the black-guy stand-in character. The whole thing reminded me of this scene from Clone High.

And there's a really weird scene where Robinson's character is attacked by one of the villains with a magic sword, and our two heroes abandon him as soon as its convenient. Bad enough, but in the next scene they comment on how "he's probably fine", though they left him for dead.

Say, whaaaaat?


The appropriate reaction to this picture is to click on it, which will blow it up to a much larger size. You will then want to perform a face melting air guitar solo in front of your computer.

Several times during the movie, I turned to Jason and said "I have no idea what's going on". It's always a little bizarre to watch a movie and get that same feeling I used to get in college watching a movie after a few drinks, and that's why you can't keep up. But when your only substance of abuse is a Starbucks Frappucino and a pack of Willy Wonka "Shockers", well... you begin to feel a bit like you've been taking crazy pills.

Which is always a sure sign that you're in for a treat of a movie.

I don't know if I was supposed to be making inferences about how Point A was tied to Point G, skipping all points between. Or, in fact, what was going on for huge chunks of the movie. Such as, where was the good-guy Dragon larvae? What was this Grand Cave they referred to frequently, but which never shows up in the film? And why had nobody but one sad sack zoo keeper noticed the 200 yard-long snake (which must have weighed several thousand tons) zipping through the streets of LA? And why would the cops believe the five dead and mutilated elephants (tossed around like rag dolls) were the work of the zoo keeper?

Inexplicably, there's a ten minute stretch in the middle of the film that's suddenly and jarringly pretty good. 16th Century Korean Magical knights and their reptilian steeds take to the streets of Los Angeles, and the effect is lot more rewarding than the jumbled mess of a street brawl from Transformers (which I think used the same streets for their climactic battle).


You may do the air guitar riff thing once again. This $#!& is totally rad.

What's most disturbing about the movie is that they hired some actors you'll recognize, such as the lovely and underappreciated Elizabeth Pena, and then stick them in thankless supporting roles. Its just bizarre casting. And I could understand "The snakes are the stars of the show" pitch for casting unknowns as leads, but neither is able to do anything with their part. My gut reaction is: hey, these guys can't act. When I'm pretty sure the reality is: hey, I think the director is awful and Meryl Streep couldn't do anything with this dialog.

That doesn't mean anything about the final scenes of the movie makes any sense, but it's staged well, and you can see the money right up there on the screen. Until they shift to the end at some mystical castle which appears to be in Apache Junction, Arizona. And I don't feel like I'm giving anything away, because... really.

I have to recommend "D-War: Dragon Wars" or "Dragon War: D-War", or whatever its called. It will blow your mind.

Lollapalooza 1991

I would say Lollapalooza seems safely back as one of the premier music festivals, seemingly leaving ACL Fest (at least this year) pretty far in the dust.

When I was 16, my parents gave me a strange taste of freedom. It was not the usual for Karebear and The Admiral to hear out a plan, and just agree to it. But it was also an unspoken indicator that my folks recognized Jason and I were now older (he'd just graduated high school, so perhaps no big a deal to him after living on his own for a year as he wrapped high school in Austin while the rest of us had zipped off to Spring), but somehow I landed permission to attend that first tour of Lollapalooza, back in 1991.

This was, for our younger readers, before Nirvana and Pearl Jam and that awkwardly affixed title of "alternative music". The show was at the then-titled "Dallas StarPlex Amphitheater", and I think we attended the show they scheduled after the first show sold out (but which wound up scheduled for the previous night). Which means the line-up that's listed on Wikipedia isn't actually the line-up I saw in 1991.

They have:
Jane's Addiction, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Living Colour, Nine Inch Nails, Ice-T & Body Count, Butthole Surfers, Rollins Band, Violent Femmes, Emergency Broadcast Network

I saw:
Jane's Addiction, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Living Colour, Ice-T & Body Count, Fishbone, Butthole Surfers and Rollins Band.

Jason is going to need to correct me if I'm wrong about that line-up. I mostly recall that the sun was very high in the sky to have to come face-to-face with the Rollins Band, which I'd never heard of at the time. And we thought Butthole Surfers were just great, but probably needed rehab.

Mostly, I remember the first roadtrip. For some reason we'd included a friend of Jason's from Austin, so our travel was a jump from Spring to N. Austin, to Dallas. Which, despite the breakneck speed of Jason's champagne colored '84 Camaro, was a lot of miles. Especially when we had a moment of panic, realizing that our directions to crash at Cousin Sue's house were coming in on I-45 from Houston, not I-35 from Austin.

So, sometime before it got too dark, we picked out a two lane farm road on a map to make the jump from I-35 to I-45, adding on more time to our drive, but getting lost in Dallas in the dark seemed even diceyer. Keep in mind, this is all pre-cellphone. And I have this memory of us driving west-to-east down this two lane road between corn stalks and wheat and sorghum an hour or so before dark, driving just way too fast, and probably doing exactly what Karebear was hoping we wouldn't do, playing freeway tag with two cars with the sun coming in over the head of the crops in this lovely amber light.

Anyhow, Sue let us crash on her wood floors in urban Dallas.

Lollapalooza itself was never the same after that first year. After the first year, when it got all the good (and well deserved press) in SPIN, Rolling Stone and the MTV, the festival which had been one stage with regular beer concession and a few tents selling art and hemp bags and whatnot turned into a corporate sponsored alternative event. Any of the feeling of "we're gonna do this ourselves, because it sounds like a good idea" was gone. And looking back, it seems so very strange that the press was initially skeptical of this "festival" idea. And that Perry Ferrel (a man prone to believe his own BS) had given it this whimsical nonsense name that in itself somehow stewed up controversy. Within two years, the "Palooza" suffix would be universally attached to any event, but at the time...

The next year Houston had its own stop on the tour, and the thing had quadrupled in size, along with creating a traffic nightmare that lasted hours (I missed Lush and part of Pearl Jam). And while I enjoyed it, partially because my group of friends ballooned from 4 of us in total to two cars full of people, you could see the places where the MTV's and Budweisers were getting their hooks in.

Another year later, and the conversion was mostly complete. The term"'Alternative Music" had been coined, thanks to the press's inability to categorize Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, and the Sorority Girls had started showing up to see Arrested Development.

By '95 I'd lost interest in the bands they were putting in the line-up, and I'm not sure Perry Ferrell was involved anymore. But the point is: I didn't show up. Mostly, honestly, because I was so poor that summer, that I made the decision to make money instead of spend it.

And by 96', despite the fact the Ramones were going to be included, the thought of Metallica fronting a music fest that had been inititally set up for overlooked and somewhat underground acts seemed preposterous. It was moving towads the "Monsters of Rock", and I just wasn't interested. And I could see the Ramones any time. They weren't going anywhere any time soon...

Although, looking at he '97 line-up, one can only wonder about the ephemeral nature of rock stardom. One day you're Orbital and almost unknown, next you're pretty much headlining Lollapalooza. By 2001, you're forgotten.

And yet Goo Goo Dolls and Blink 182 are still around. There's no @#$%ing justice, I tell you.

But I guess my point is: It's tough to share what it was like to be at the StarPlex on that balmy day in 1991. Being the second show, it hadn't sold out, and so while there were a lot of tickets sold and folks there, it wasn't the crushing thing that Lollapalooza became. It was just a few thousand people. And like all good, fun things, it wasn't something everyone knew about. Not yet.

And certainly before marketing agencies had pegged the audience for non-Top 40 music as a demographic to be marketed to (we'd have the rest of the 90's to suffer through before they finally figured out how to reach that audience with Hot Topic and Suicide Girl chic). And I think for a lot of the kids like me from our bedroom communities, and the kids who were the ones who got beat up living in Hogstick, Texas for their refusal to sport a mullet... it was a revelation to see you and the four pals you hung out with weren't the only ones who liked this album or that band. That, though "Color Me Badd", Amy Grant and "C+C Music Factory" were burning up the charts, if there were enough folks into the same thing, this could be a good thing, even if you had to jump cities to see a show.

Mostly, I remember an odd bit of crying when the last band left the stage and those harsh flood lights were turned on the audience and the Star Plex had to beg people to leave. Who knows? Those crazy kids were probably just having a teen angsty moment, but I can read into it what I want.

I'm old and decrepit, and I probably know less about what the kids are listening to than other folks my age. I'm routinely baffled by the popularity of bands like "My Chemical Romance", forgetting that this is some 15 year-old kid's first time. And that my bands were, no doubt, just as ridiculous to some 30 year-old at the time. And I'm now more than twice as old as I was when we hit the road that summer morning to head out for our three city tour.

And I'm a lot more at ease these days with sponsorship deals, and how you fund a festival like Lollapalooza 2008. And I'd probably feel worse for these kids, not seeing this stuff untouched, but I'm pretty sure that clubs haven't changed that much, and even the kids in Hogstick, Texas are going to wind up in a city as soon as they graduate. And they'll wind up at some bar not too different from where I was trying to get into (if they hadn't closed Liberty Lunch).

It was just fun to be there that first summer.

Contest for NBC's "Heroes"

Hey, Leaguers!

I've watched some "Heroes", but I know Jamie has watched the whole series (to this point). And I know a bunch of you guys are nuts for The Heroes television program.

I was contacted by BJ at M80 marketing, and I thought this was actually pretty cool.

Apparently, there's a contest going on, sponsored by Sprint. Here's some language:

In November 2007, Sprint & the NBC television show Heroes partnered on the “Create Your Hero” contest, putting viewers in control of creating the next Hero from scratch. Over 4 weeks, viewers were able to choose the specific attributes that make up a “Hero” (with a unique question each week exclusive for Sprint users only).

As the third season of “Heroes” approaches, Sprint & the creators of the show compiled all the attributes based on America’s answers, creating two new potential “Heroes.” Now it is time to vote! Will it be Audrey, or will it be Santiago? The winning character will appear as the subject of a brand new Live Action web series written by the creators of Heroes, debuting around the November sweeps week.

As part of our partnership with Heroes, “Create Your Hero” will be live at the NBC booth at Comi-con promoting the voting for phase II of “Create Your Hero” with giveaways and exclusive comic books with an illustration by the late Michael Turner.

Here's a link to vote: LINK



And here's some info on that Michael Turner comic:

Heroes the comic book, illustrated by the late Michael Turner is an exclusive comic for the 2008 San Diego Comic Con. The comic includes 4 stories that reveal more about the Heroes Universe. The stories focus on the back stories of Mohinder Suresh, Echo De Mille (the main character of the new Heroes webisode series), and Adam Monroe (Takezo Kensei).

Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes

I was planning to really hit you guys over the head with a review of the Trade Paperback release of Geoff Johns' recent run on Action Comics.

But I just read BeaucoupKevin's review, and its spot on. Comic readers should be reading BeaucoupKevin, anyway.

I may review this myself, anyway. But, here's a first shot.

Tron 2 Apparently a Reality (TR2N)

Back around 2000, there were a lot of rumors about a sequel to Tron. I believe it eventually boiled down to an updated Tron videogame, and that was about it.

I'm not a drooling Tron fan, but I do own a Collector's Edition on DVD. Well worth seeing, especially for the mind-blowing effort that went into the movie.

Last night Steven mentioned to me something about some very authentic looking Tron 2 footage. Having monitored ComicCon pretty closely online, I was surprised I'd missed it, but, hey... I'm a comic nerd, not the Oracle.

Anyhoo... I'm linking to several sites with illegally captured video that was shown at ComicCon in case any get pulled, which I don't think will happen.

It's my theory that despite the NDA they were trying to enforce regarding no footage being leaked, or even descriptions... they knew footage would get out (this is ComicCon, for the love of mike). And they knew that this is how you work a viral campaign. Camera-phone, shaky footage from a top-secret panel at ComicCon is how you start. And, in fact, they may have placed the footage themselves. I'll believe anything when it comes to marketing.

Whatever. I'll be their pawn in their little viral campaign. Why? Because TR2N looks totally rad.

Here. Here. Here. Here.

And embedded:


TR2N. Awesome.

The League considers movies

Me am smrt 2! Me like Hulk movie!

Have you seen this new ad for "Brideshead Revisited?"

The one that says "The movie intelligent filmgoers have waited for all year!" by Rex Reed.

Wow. Isn't that kind of an insult to anyone who enjoyed any other movie this year? I mean, its one thing for Reed to make the statement (and he did like the movie), but isn't this a weird way to appeal to a mass audience on TV?

I'm not even disputing that the movie is good, or that Reed isn't right. But how many stories of Victorian-style class issues am I supposed to sit through, watching a middle-aged, respectable actress do her passive-aggressive thing over tea while our Pip stand in sits there and squirms?

I read "Great Expectations". I get it. You can't crack the upper class in Britain, and you don't want to, because Victorian stuffiness rots you from inside. Got it. Thanks.

I mostly just don't really think that it makes me a genius for going and seeing yet another Merchant-Ivory knock-off with lovely period outfits.

You know, I kinda sorta thought this would be a good one to go do for a matinee sometime next week, but I don't now if I really want to see a movie when the marketing team decided to suggest was my only intelligent choice this year.


Step Brothers

Which is why I went to go see the new John C. Reilly/ Will Ferrell movie, Step Brothers.

Which, is NOT going to be for everybody. Or most anybody. It's dumb and juvenile, and it made me want to buy a Wookie mask. And maybe hit a little close to home sometimes... But I don't think you can go wrong seeing a movie that makes you laugh until you get those little tears coming up. Mostly because what you're seeing on screen is so very, very wrong.

Step Brothers is part of the Apatow collective's steady stream of comedies (I am looking forward to "Pineapple Express"), and having others playing along certainly helps Ferrell. I liked the man in "Semi-Pro" and "Blades of Glory", but I felt like he was doing it all himself. In an Apatow movie, everybody gets to play. It's not the Robin Williams comedies of the 80's where a coked-up Williams was wound up and set loose on the squares. Part of the comedy comes from everyone's participation.

I think Mary Steenburgen is a lovely woman and fine actress, but she's never made me laugh before this movie. Not that I can recall. And the whole cast pitches in. Especially Kathryn Hahn, who plays Ferrell's sister-in-law.

Anyhoo, I was slightly appalled that a ticket this summer at Westgate is now $9.00, so that seemed a little steep, but I think its definitely worth a matinee, or rental.

Doesn't live up to the hype

The other day I took a gamble and DVR'd a movie off cable. "They Came from Beyond Space". Here's the description: Caped spacemen need slaves on the moon; a physicist and his girlfriend deal with them.

What isn't awesome about that?

Well, pretty much everything. And the caped aliens aren't really wearing capes, its more like neon colored robes. And they don't even show up until the last five minutes. And then they're represented by this old British character actor who really could have done without all the cigarettes and tea, if the color of his teeth is any indication.

I gotta say, when you're thinking of watching 1967 Brit Sci-Fi epic "They Came From Beyond Space", you might want to just skip it and save yourself the trouble.

Watching "Watchmen"

I'm a bit stunned by the popularity of the Watchmen trailer that's tied to Dark Knight. It seems there are two distinct audiences for Watchmen, the comic geeks and the general public. But upon further review and from observation, it looks like there's the general public, comic geeks who've read Watchmen, and then comic geeks who have somehow managed NOT to read Watchmen.

My assumption, when it came to Watchmen, was that after two decades in print, isn't it likely that Watchmen will have saturated the market of potential buyers?

The other day I popped into Austin Books and it seems that the demand for the book is extremely high. This is a comic that is 22 years old, that's never been out of print for any serious duration, and which is one of the usual perennial favorites on the shelf of bookstores and comic shops alike. Add in multiple years of Watchmen making "best of" lists for both comics and regular old books, and I'm sort of amazed that the interest in the trailer is high enough to push the kinds of sales we're seeing. Watchmen was #6 (NUMBER 6!) on the Amazon books lists when I just checked sales rankings.

That said, Austin shoppers will want to hit Austin Books rather than Amazon for their Watchmen/ Dark Knight needs. There's a display at the counter, I believe, and plenty of copies.

Brad pointed out some figures to me on the audience for the comic thus far, versus the millions of eyeballs that have seen The Dark Knight, and thus the Watchmen trailer. The numbers are simply exponentially larger. But its still curious. I don't think the original novel of "I am Legend" sold through the roof despite the millions who saw the recent Will Smith adaptation.


Buy our book

Part of me is a bit disappointed with the masses of comic readers who've been raised on a generation of manga and graphitti style art, and who didn't see enough enormous eyes, mecha, boobs or guns or bloody swords enough, page per page, to get them to crack the comic before. So if it takes a movie trailer to get them to understand the significance of uttering "Hurm" under your breath... so be it. But, hey, hopefully this will be enough to convince them to give the comic a shot.

Its also apparently sold out at the printer or distributor for the time being, but DC is printing 200,000 more copies (thanks to Simon for that info), so that's a lot of copies of Watchmen that could move by Christmas.

Part of my joy in this whole illogical exuberance over a movie trailer is that it will give so many readers a chance to say "The book was better than the movie". And to sample the material before the movie ever hits (Miller's "300" had a bubble after the movie was released, but it was AFTER, not several months before). I'm not saying the movie won't be good or great, but with so few people ever really turning to the source material after watching a comic-book inspired movie, and taking the movie as cannon, its a novel opportunity. If not for comics, DC, etc... than for readers to discover Alan Moore (as copies of his "Killing Joke", the classic Batman/ Joker one-shot, have also been selling like hot cakes, 20+ years later).

If I can be allowed a bit of an aside here: This is the perfect opportunity for DC to attempt to make amends with Alan Moore. He's simply too important to DC and Warner Bros. at this point to allow a silly dispute over his work to continue. Clearly DC doesn't need to have Moore on board to exploit his material, from "V for Vendetta" to "Watchmen", but moving forward, it couldn't hurt DC and Moore to be on friendlier terms, and at least establishing a first-look relationship between themselves and Moore. I believe that right now, that's how he's working with Top Shelf, and maybe that's a good home for him (I doubt DC would have published "Lost Girls"). But old family squabbles need to be resolved at some point.

The comic movies don't seem to be simply finally exploiting some of the material that saw the superhero genre move from kid's entertainment in the 80's to entertainment for older readers, but that the movie industry may see with The Dark Knight and Watchmen as the turning point for the possibilities for superheroics that comics have seen since the 1980's.

Let's just hope that the movies don't have to suffer through the same post DKR-hangover/ chromium age/ extreme make-over that the comics had to suffer through. Watchmen and DKR succeeded for a reason, and it wasn't because blood + guts + boobs = entertainment for older readers.

get your vote on

Comic Geeks

I was reading this post at The Beat, and it gave me a moment of pause. Apparently comic fan Steve Marmel has taken exception to how some of the newer, non-comic-fan attendees regard the Con. And how it chaps his hide.

Really, I was with the author until:

I love this form of story telling. For those of us who weren’t the “winners” in high school, there was always something wonderful about comic books (or gaming) because those were morality tales where good and evil was clear, outcasts were respected…

…the good guys won, even if they weren’t popular.

And the San Diego Comic Con is their super bowl. Their prom. Their homecoming. If you don’t know that Wolverine is supposed to be short, and that Batman doesn’t kill, you are a welcome guest. But somebody let YOU past the velvet rope, not the other way around.

I've mentioned a few times before how I don't really understand the constant reinforcement in comics of jocks picking on geeks and other convenient stereotypes.

The post says so very, very much about comics, their fans and their creators. The fact that Marmel so closely relates his love of superherodom to a painful adolescence doesn't really do a lot to shake the image of the lonely comic geek living in Mom's basement, or why the rest of the population looks at us comic fans a bit cockeyed. How many years on and this guy isn't just romanticizing outsider status, but he's drawing a clear line to some sort of moral superiority?

Do we ever really escape high school?

And is it really the majority of comic readers who felt they were having a rough time of it between gym class and Algebra? Or is it just Con attendees?

Look, I'm not going to try to play up my vision of myself at age 17 one way or another, but I certainly never felt drawn to comics because they reflected some way in which I felt I'd been kicked to some social curb. But in some ways, I feel like Marmel is speaking for comic geeks and he's making a lot of assumptions that have nothing to do with my reality.

When I use the term "comic geek", I use it lovingly. Because "fan" doesn't really do it, and enthusiast makes it sound like I should somehow be using model glue and be wearing lures in a fishing hat. Calling myself a comic geek is co-opting the derogatory and owning the term, stripping the words of the negative. I know my fellow comic geeks are folks of all different stripes, of different backgrounds and with several different brands of social dysfunction. Some of them living in a world where squeezing into a homemade Flash costume when you are far from a Barry Allen physique makes the costume less than practical. Others are folks who wouldn't be caught dead in a unitard.

Does that make it okay for the Hollywood suit to show up and roll his eyes at the guy in the Flash costume? Well, if comic fans want to see comics come back out of the basement, they're going to have to know that not everyone embraces the spirit in which such a costume is donned.

The thing is, I do agree with many of Marmel's points. It's probably right to be suspicious of the suits there trolling like sharks, trying to figure out how to, literally, exploit an as-yet-unsigned comic property for development in some other medium.

But as long as the geeks keep couching things in terms of some hurt feelings from 10-20 years ago, the longer the stereotype of the guy in the ill-fitting Green Lantern t-shirt will persist. And as a guy with a closet full of Superman shirts, I'm not asking anyone to change how they're living, but I am suggesting that Marmel quit worrying about something as ludicrous as high school popularity and working through some misplaced mix of entitlement and persecution complex.

Comics have always taken heat for their black and white morality portrayals, so when I see someone pairing their LOVE of guys in white hats vs. guys in black hats, juxtaposed, perhaps unconsciously, with their own feelings regarding the suits as "bad guys", and outcasts living in a world where they get the respect they deserve...

Many people are geeks in one way or another. And, honestly, people who aren't geeks sort of creep me out in a Stepford Wives sort of way. What kind of a life are you living if you aren't passionate about something for yourself, be it comics, airplanes, hunting, movies, lawn maintenance or even some crazy-bizarre conspiracy theory you're trying to propagate? And many of those guys and girls you sneered at in high school... they weren't so bad (and some of them were)... but, honestly, who cares?

Well, Nicole is at our house for the evening. And maybe until Friday. I'm not sure.

It seems Nicole had herself a very rough night last night and wound up in the ER feeling ultra-funky. The thinking is that it were a kidney stone that done it. Unfortunately, much of Nicole's support crew is out of town (Matt's at a family reunion, Letty and Juan G. in Boston), so we've opened up the doors of League HQ to our ill amiga.

It's a packed house. We've got Nicole, but we've also got Judy (Jamie's mom) who is here for an appointment with Jamie. And, to top things off, Cassidy is here, too. Jason dropped her off while he's in San Antonio for some sort of continuing legal education conference.

To make things work, tonight I am crashing on the couch. And I am looking forward to the 5:00 AM decision Cassidy will surely make to begin licking my nose. It's funny the things I'll tolerate from Cassidy that would end poorly if Lucy made the same decision. And how weirded out I'd be if it were Nicole who were licking my nose.

Anyway, I'm glad we can put Nicole and Cassidy up, and I'm glad Judy is here to help out with Jamie's appointment. I'll let her cover all that on her blog, if she so chooses.

The Peabo/ Onion/ Al Gore/ Jor-El/ Superman connection

Last fall, Peabo sent me an e-mail regarding his theory on an Al Gore/ Superman/ Jor-El connection. You can go here for Peabo's thoughts.

Well, Mr. Harms made my morning by sending me this article from The Onion. And, later, Jim D sent it as well.

I think The Onion owes Peabo a dollar.

Comic Fodder

I've got a post up on Comic Fodder. I discuss my inner feelings about ComicCon International.

Unemployment Chronicles: The Great American Novel

Despite the crippling unemployment, I'm trying to keep a bit busy. As I posted last week, a good part of my day during the week is spent looking for employment. I'm doing less reading and writing in my evenings than I feel I should be doing. Being unemployed has led to the discovery of a truckload of shows I probably wouldn't notice, and a whole network (Channel 250 on my dial) which shows nothing but hour long documentaries about serial killers. Seriously. 24 hours a day. I don't even know what the name of the network is, but its "DTMS" in my cable info. Watch more than one of these in a row, and you'll find yourself tucked into a ball in a corner and weeping for the evil that brews in the heart of man.

I wish I spent more time writing. At one point in my life I'd started something of a lengthy prose thing, but I cant ever seem to really get going past the first major story turning point. I think I can understand the appeal of writing workshops at this point. Forcing you to turn in pages at least keeps you going, even if its not in the right direction. You can't just freeze up and start second guessing yourself, nor can you tell yourself "it's going to be awesome... if I ever finish it" because you've got pages out and feedback coming in.

The funny thing is that it's something I've touched on and off since college, and while the beginning and end have always been pretty solid in my mind, as well as many of the characters, it still hasn't exactly gushed out onto the page. Even funnier to me is that the story does take place in a pretty specific time and place when I started writing it, and I'm glad I have a few tidbits in there, like the price of certain items such as the $2.00 caps you used to be able to buy at Fiesta, because it reminds me of details of my 20's that I'm pretty sure would otherwise now be gone forever. It also takes place pre-cellphone, and just as the world was becoming networked and computers moved into the workplace on everyone's desk, and its hard (already) to remember what it was like to find a phone. Or that answering machines used to have tapes in them.

While I'm unemployed, I should really take a greater stab at it, but part of me is also older and more cynical than when I started. Not that it effects the story, but I'm no longer graced with the college-kid naivete and ego that makes you think you're going to be the next big thing. 10 years on, I know now that I'm not some undiscovered diamond in the rough. I'm a dude, like 6 billion other dudes, and even if I finish some "book", it doesn't mean anyone would want to pay for the privilege of reading a word I wrote. I think five years of losing money on LoM is evidence enough that if you build it, nobody will come.

But it seems like a good goal. Finish what you start. Let the characters at least finish the journey you started instead of leaving them hanging at the end of the first act. Give them some closure, if not yourself.

And, more than anything... how many words do I need to burn online criticizing the work of others but being too sheepish to make anything myself?

Anyway, I guess I'll go off and take a look at this thing again. It isn't going to write itself.

Alamo Drafthouse Trailers

No post tonight. Going to do other stuff.

Not all of you live in Austin, so you might not have been able to enjoy the Alamo Drafthouse as your movie venue of choice.

JasonC pointed to the Alamo Drafthouse preview pieces on Vimeo. Every month they make a new trailer highlighting some of the month's big events, and its always fun to sit through. And its always amazing to see how much stuff they cook up every month. I think I make it to about 1/8th of the stuff I would gladly attend.

Anyway, they're usually cut together pretty well, so check out the trailers for July and August.



July's Alamo Previews from Henri Mazza on Vimeo.
July



August's Alamo Montage from Henri Mazza on Vimeo.
August

Rocket Racing League at Oshkosh AirVenture

As I mentioned, there's some news coming out of Oshkosh that I'm pretty excited about. The Rocket Racing League is going to demo at AirVenture on Tuesday.

The Rocket Racing League is an all-new, very high-tech sport with all sort of individuals involved, from Richard Branson to Burt Rutan to Cousin Jim, who happens to own Bridenstine Rocket Racing, one of the teams in the RRL.

I highly recommend jumping over to the Rocket Racing League website to get a feel for how crazy this sport is going to be, in a very George Lucas sort of way. Pilots will essentially be strapped into a rocket powered craft, and will fly a 3D course in the sky.

Here's a video on YouTube:



Cool.

round-up

Got some Sun

Yesterday we took Lucy, Mel and Cassidy to the spillover yesterday. I need to take them during the week when there are fewer dogs. Its nice to see them play with other dogs, but I think they're more tired from excitement than from the actual activity of swimming, chasing balls around in the water, etc...

I love the Barton Springs pool, but the spill over is really fun, too. Its a bit like taking the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. You get the pizza and can watch the floor show, and just hope the kids don't hurt themselves in the ball crawl.

Oshkosh is Next Week

It's been a long, long time since I've been to an airshow. But were I a man of limitless wealth (I can't say "and limitless time" because, honestly...), I would like to go to Oshkosh. It's an enormous air show in Wisconsin. I believe the biggest in the US. Sort of like ComicCon for plane geeks (such as The Admiral).

Anyway, its also in the hottest part of the Texas summer, so walking around Wisconsin and getting some sun and checking out both classic and cutting edge aircraft sounds like a pretty decent few days to me.

Plus, I think in a day or two I may be able to make an observation about AirVenture.

Two Movies

Last night I ended up watching two movies. "Be Kind, Rewind" and "Murderball".

We think our DVD player has blown up on us, which is problematic. So we strayed up to the Pay-Per-View realm.

I didn't know "Be Kind, Rewind" was a Michael Gondry film. It turned out not to be the yuckfest I was expecting, and was, in fact, better than I'd expected. Funny and sweet, and a genuine love for movies and film making. There was probably a deeper message about the creative process I missed, but, anyway... wortha view.

"Murderball" is a doc on the US Paralympic Rugby team. I had meant to see this movie for what seems like years, and I'm glad I finally quit watching "Tori & Dean" long enough to finally make time to watch it through. Great, compelling subject matter, with great personalities.

If you have any preconceived notions about Paralympians, check them at the door before watching. The titular sport is rougher than anything I've played.

The only problem with the movie is that I really wanted to know a bit more about more of the people in the movie, but there just wasn't time. Also, I wouldn't mind an update on the team. But I guess that's what the internet is for.


Shark Week is On

Discovery Channel's annual tribute to our fishy friends has started. I, myself, watched two hours of Shark-themed Mythbusters this evening. Not a single explosion, and I learned something about night diving, sharks and flashlights that makes me never, ever, ever want to us e a flashlight anywhere near the water.


ComicCon Last Thought (I Promise)

Well, Comic Con drew to a close with a whole lot of bluster about Dark Knight and Watchmen (a lot of hype for a trailer, I think). Despite 125,000 comic geeks sequestered in San Diego, Batman still managed to pull in a record setting total of $300 million. Yowza.

I confess to being a little disappointed that there was no announcement of additional DCU related movies. It seems like it would have been a good time to learn we're getting a Flash movie, etc... Or Bryan Singer is done dinking around with Tom Cruise's Nazi movie, and that we're getting that second Superman flick. Didn't happen.

There were some picture of some neat upcoming toys and whatnot (don't worry, Jamie, I won't buy all of them. Or even most of them.). And, of course, the DCU MMO game that I'm very excited about. But there was a surprising lack of information about the upcoming year for actual comics. But I think that's actually okay.

I never understood the push in the last four years or so for Marvel and DC to try to outline all of their moves for the next 6 - 12 months during the summer convention season. But in a way, it also sort of points to the possibility that DC is still recovering from the Countdown debacle, and unsure of the final shake out from Final Crisis. Add in that they're probably struggling not to give away the conclusions to "Batman R.I.P." and "Final Crisis", and perhaps the less said, the better.

Happy Birthday Nicole and Judy

Two very special Leaguers have their birthdays this weekend. Happy, happy birthday to both Nicole and Judy (Jamie's mom).



The only cake we felt was appropriate for a Nicole birthday



And here's a picture of the Helen Corbitt cake Jamie made for Judy

Bully, the little stuffed bull, is at ComicCon. He's doing a phenomenal job covering the Con from the floor.

Here's the first post, and here's the second.

Batman: Brave and the Bold Trailer

Oh my Awesome.

New kid-friendly Batman cartoon coming this fall. Batman: Brave and the Bold



And did you see the guest stars? Plastic Man? Green Arrow? BLUE BEETLE!!!?

I know there will be many more guests, as I've heard Aquaman will be on the show. I think the idea is the same as the 70's-era "Brave and the Bold" comics. Batman + guest star, rotating almost every week.

I am quite psyched for the kids (and me). This looks like so much fun, and the design work on this clip is really spectacular.

Coffee with JenIn

Facebook is funny. Not only have I recently got back in touch with Mere, but I'm also now back in touch with a former KOHSer, JenIn. I haven't seen much of Jen since her Freshman year at UT (she's a year behind me), but as I understand it, she's got all kinds of book learnin' under her belt these days and is still in Austin.

Anyhoo, I'm grabbing coffee with her tomorrow, if anyone wants me to pass along a message.


ComicCon is On

Comic Con International has started in San Diego, and once again, I am not there.

That's okay, though, because you can usually get all the Con news I'd care about within 8 hours or so on the interwebs.

There was some good information on what us Superman comic fans can expect.

And Johns and Van Sciver on Flash. (That Flash image alone gives me hope)

Johns and Morrison are saving the DC line of comics, in spite of itself. Apparently the reception for Trinity (Busiek) and Final Crisis (Morrison) is pretty mediocre, according to reporting on the DC Nation Panel. Honestly, I've loved my Final Crisis reading, so I'm not sure what the deal is there. Trinity... may not be my cup of tea. Which is weird, because I do like Busiek's stuff, and it stars Bats, Superman and Wonder Woman.

I'm also increasingly excited about the reporting and images for DCU Online. Holy smokes, does this look like fun. (And, Hey Sony Online Entertainment! I'm available!)

They also had this to say about character design:

When asked about the creation of customizable characters, Chris Cao explained that there would be two different ways to generate an avatar for the game: a “free form method” that is completely customizable and an “inspired method” that allows for theme based concepts to be employed which allow a player to be “like Batman if they want to be.”

Rad.


Hello, Dolly!

It rained like crazy here today. And by crazy, I mean in brief, violent spurts on and off throughout the afternoon and evening. We need the rain. That's good. Unfortunately I think it messed up the travel today for Jamie (coming back from San Marcos), KareBear (coming back from New Braunfels), and The Admiral (flying back in from Brazil). I think Jamie was stuck on a 2 mile stretch of road for about an hour and a half today. Apparently a bus drove into a semi and spilled oil all over I-35.

But its also been so @#$%ing hot and dry here this summer, we needed every drop of the deluge. Austin gets its water from the Edwards Aquifer, which sits under the town. If it doesn't rain in Austin, we don't have water. When I lived in Phoenix, the city was living under a sort of mass denial in regards to their water sources and would become agitated if you pointed out: (a) we're using more water here than is probably smart in the desert, and (b) we're sort of wasteful with the water here in Phoenix, what with things like that cannon fountain in Fountain Hills, and the blue-dyed ponds in all the posher neighborhoods (seriously, gross).

Anyone whose lived in Central Texas for a while is pretty aware of the water issue. Sometimes you let your lawn die, because you'd rather take showers and have drinking water. And we tend to get our dander up when developers try to pave over the recharge zones or run-off areas. It isn't some crazy environmental issue, so don't get your political dander up. This is pretty straightforward stuff. If we want to have drinking water, we have to be careful with our natural spaces and consumption. And we have to be a little happy when the rain comes down.

Smash Comics!

A little while ago I did a post over at Comic Fodder on how today's comics might relate to kids.

One of the things that I mentioned was that I thought was that kids might not have spinner racks at drug stores, but they do have internet connections. A little while after I posted the column, I was contacted by the team at SmashComic.com. They're doing an all ages comic, and, seriously, this looks like a lot of fun. Maybe in the spirit of "HeroBear and the Kid", with a pretty sharp injection of Calvin & Hobbes' "Stupendous Man".

There's not a ton of content up yet, but from what I see, I absolutely love the art style. It's a great mix of cartooning and superhero-style artistry. And the design for our title character is perfect.



So, parents, kids, Leaguers... Check it out! I think this is really cool not just from a storytelling perspective, but from a distribution model.

Unemployment Chronicles: I need a job

I apologize for the radio silence the past few days. I don't have a particularly compelling reason WHY I was unable to post. I just sort of looked at the blogger editor and that flashing cursor, and, man, I had nothing to share.

Sometimes being jobless means there's very little going on. Then, last night, I was struggling with a post for Comic Fodder, and finally finished it up tonight. I feel the post is a little incoherent, as I had to give up several times and come back to the post, but hopefully I made my point.

Working out

I started working out this week for the first time in two years. I've made two jabs at running since I moved back, but I get bored running, so I'm trying some exercises that I can do in the house that I used to do at TKD. Unfortunately, this has meant that the past two days, my abs, neck and tri-ceps have hurt. Hurray, exercise.

Unemployment has meant that I'm buying cheaper food and getting out of the house less, which means I'm a bit concerned about atrophying into a person-blob. And while I know Jamie would still love me if I turned into Jabba the Hutt, I think I can do her a solid and not just merge with the couch (although Jeff the Cat would make a nifty Salacious Crumb analog).

I'm also getting tired a lot earlier at night, which I'm figuring has to be a good thing.

I dunno. I don't mind a certain panda bear shape, but when I start looking like "My Neighbor Totoro", it's time to start cutting back on the potato skin sour cream bombs.

Bat Commentary of the Day

I've also been pondering how to follow up on some of Steven's comments from a few days ago regarding his reading of The Dark Knight. By and large, I agree with him. I don't think it's unique to DC's pantheon of characters that their bigger characters and their conflicts can draw out these kinds of readings. Maybe Spidey or Cap could do the same at Marvel. But I do think that characters who've become modern myths, such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman (and even Flash and GL) lend themselves to working as both icon and character in a way that other superheroes may not.

I really, really want to see the movie again. And maybe that'll get me going on that second post on Dark Knight. We'll see. It's also in IMAX here in Austin, so I suspect that'll be my excuse for going back to see it.

I'm also enjoying seeing people actually take to Batman as I've known him since the mid-80's. Not all writers handle the character terribly well, or even seem to get the character entirely as he's been defined for the past 30 years. But it's gratifying to see a film maker who is seemingly unconcerned that someone might laugh if he takes the character seriously (and let's be honest, that's what happened with the Schumacher movies), and to see people discussing the movie the same way Bat-geeks have discussed Batman and his rogues gallery all their lives.

TV I've Been Watching

BBC America has been running episodes of "Spaced", the Simon Pegg sit-com from a few years back. Comic geeks have known about it for a while as Pegg's character is a comic artist/ asst. manager at a comic shop. So there's some reference to comics, etc... but mostly its just pretty funny, so far.

I've also been watching a LOT of "Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares". It's a weird show as I really know absolutely nothing about cooking, and I've never seen "Hell's Kitchen". But, I always end up watching shows about people in the workplace (I find the vocations of others endlessly entertaining in small bursts), and I think its interesting to watch people have to actually think about what they've been taking for granted as part of their process and go through the mental change required to keep their business from imploding. Food just happens to be something everyone touches to a degree, so you can keep up.

I don't know if I even recommend the show, because, seriously... its a show about restaurants being run into the ground. But its probably better for me than Jerry.

The Job Hunt

Here's my basic job hunt schedule:

Monday - Pretty much all day, on and off while I'm awake. This can go from 11:00 AM to 2:00 AM. A few hours for dinner.

Tuesday - Usually from 1:00 - 5 or 6:00. Usually again after 11:00 PM.

Wednesday - Maybe some in the morning.

Thursday - 1:00 - 4:00.

Friday - By the end of the week, you've seen the postings for the week and you're not seeing much new. I'll look again, maybe Sunday, but with how things seems to work, the posts mostly go up Monday and Tuesday, with a decreasing number of new listings after Tuesday, slowing down to nothing by the weekend.

Things that blow my mind:
-When employers won't let you just upload your resume and want you to fill out their weird form
-The Craigslist postings where they neglect to tell you how to contact them
-wonky websites that fail multiple times after you spent all the time filling out the weird form
-a list of skills and attributes, degrees etc... that anyone would be proud of, and then listing a salary somewhere near the poverty line (see: UT)
-filling out a job form, and then realizing you took the bait for some spammer before Craigslist flagged the post
-Jobs listed in Austin, which really aren't

Things that are nice:
-Sites where you can upload your resume and cover letter
-job descriptions that make sense
-job descriptions with a salary range listed
-Sites that have a follow up question or two to make sure you're the right candidate to begin with, and nobody is wasting anybody's time
-call backs

Comic Fodder

There's a new post up at Comic Fodder, where I wisely describe what DC needs to be doing for their movie projects, and why.

Here.

no morning post. I'm sure you'll somehow muddle through.

A Few Items

Item! Jason has posted both photos from my grandmother's funeral, as well as a description of our trip (also expect Jason's thoughts on The Dark Knight).

Item! The trailer for Watchmen premiered with Dark Knight. Here. It seems like just yesterday that I was in middle school and reading "Comics Scene" magazine, where they were describing trying to get Arnie on board to play Dr. Manhattan. Blue, nude, Arnie.

I am still very skeptical. For all the sturm und drang of Zack Snyder's adaptation of Frank Miller's "300", it ended up feeling like a really long, pretty Korn video. The movie was probably a technical achievement, but you're talking about the difference between adapting a picture book versus a dense and complex story with genuine characters. And, unlike Hulk or Batman, you can't really relaunch Watchmen if Snyder drops the ball.

Item! Speaking of Miller, his directorial debut in adapting Eisner's "The Spirit" looks... kinda not like The Spirit.

I see Sin City with The Spirit's mask glued on for good measure. For those keeping up, Miller's world view is pretty specific, and it may not serve the world of Eisner's gum shoe terribly well.

And certainly anyone who would pick up Spirit reprints to find out what this Spirit guy is about isn't going to find Miller working through his issues with women (even if Eisner's comic did feature a number of femme fatales).

What's weird is that Miller clearly thinks Eisner is the bee's knees. Check out Eisner/ Miller some time. So I'm wondering what Miller is up to.

That said, Eisner employed a lot of crazy imagery in his strip, so some of what I've seen in the trailer fits...

We'll see. I just always found "The Spirit" a lot... jollier... than what I'm seeing.

Item! Steven has thrown down the gauntlet for Nicole. She is to learn Rush's "Tom Sawyer".

I fully support this challenge.

Item! This week is Comic-Con International. That's the big Comic-Con that routinely sends the press into a conniption fit because they can't believe this many people enjoy pop entertainment that isn't covered by "Us Weekly".

Usually some failry interesting comic related news comes out during this period, or else we get a sneak peek of movies, TV shows, what have you.

I'm not expecting a whole lot this year as far as surprises go. The internet news cycle has gotten to be such that entertainment companies are trying to get out ahead of the SDCC rather than making the announcements there.

Some day I'd like to go to SDCC, but part of me is pretty sure it would just wind up being a disappointment. I don't get a particular thrill out of standing in lines, so I don't know if I'd manage to get any sketches, signatures, whatever. Plus, the temptation to spend too much money on comics once I was there would be too great.

I hear a lot about the after parties, but getting sloppy drunk and kissing the ass of some writers and artists sounds... weird (ie: lame). But, still, I think you kind of need to see this thing as part of comic culture. So... maybe one day.

The League finally saw Dark Knight

I think this is Part 1 of 2

So... Let us discuss The Dark Knight. This is relatively spoiler free, I guess.

Jamie and I got up and went to the 11:35am show at The Alamo. And, really, there is a heck of a lot of material out there for The Alamo to pull from for their pre-show. I highly recommend hitting one of the Alamo locations, for no other reason than seeing Prince's "Bat Dance" on the big screen.

It's actually an interesting contrast to see some of the decades' worth of Bat material prior to the film, as a reminder that Batman has changed so much, so frequently over the years, and how those different versions are so embedded in the public memory, a bit like different versions of King Arthur hitting TV, movies, the Broadway stage, what have you. All of them work (to a degree), and all of them serve a purpose.

Dark Knight throws off the last remnants of the Tim Burton era of Batman, and is able to take Bale's Batman into a world that is much, much closer to our own than any previously seen in any medium. And the movie is that much more powerful for it. There's still Batman's fantastic toys, but we've moved past the world of ninjas from Batman Begins, and the world no longer looks as if the director let the artistic director go kooky. It's an aesthetic choice that I think informs the viewer of the presentness of the characters and the very human dilemmas they face.

I won't go into discussing the performances of the various actors. Yes, they're all devoid of camp or irony. Yes, it is a pleasure to see Ledger's mad dog Joker, Bale's Wayne/ Batman, and Caine as an Alfred with a bit more mettle than most.

There's something exhausting about the new film, clocking in at over 2.5 hours with wall-to-wall story, and nary a quiet moment. But it was a familiar exhaustion. The kind I get when I kick back with a graphic novel or trade paperback collection that doesn't mind taking you through the ringer. Think "Long Halloween", "Watchmen", the original "Sin City"... stories that you can read in a single shot or two, but that are fairly densely packed and leave no one unscathed by the end of the story.

As much fun as I've had with super-flicks coming out this summer, its best that the super-offerings ended with Dark Knight rather than started with this movie. And I'm not saying this lightly, but Dark Knight has changed the game for superhero movies, just as Burton's Batman did in 1989. As I've mentioned on this site a few times, when Burton's Batman appeared, people were still thinking "Bam! Pow! Ziff!" when they thought superhero comics and movies (despite several Superman films, each of which still had no small amount of camp and humor tucked in for good measure). Nicholson's playfully deadly Joker wasn't necessarily frightening, but he was a darn sight more interesting than Romero's cackling criminal. And, more in spite of Keaton than because of him, it gave the public a new and far, far different take on Batman than Adam West.

Batman Begins acts as a great transition, setting up the newly pragmatic take on Batman, while still keeping him with a toe, if not a foot, in the fantastic.

I may be alone in this, but I felt The Dark Knight isn't just a huge leap for the Batman franchise, its a quantum leap for superhero movies in general from popcorn action flick to serious (crime) drama. Perhaps it's not Godfather II, but the movie operates on such a completely different level from this summer's other flicks such as "Hulk", "Hellboy II" and even "Iron Man".

This isn't:
-Hero has to stop Doomsday device (Superman, Spider-Man II, X-Men)
-Hero has to fight his equal (Superman II, Spider-Man)
-Hero has to explore their origins to solve the mystery (Hellboy)
-or some combination of the above (Superman Returns)

As much as I liked Hellboy II and Iron Man, they were both pretty pat stories that worked in the easy morality that usually makes up summer flicks. And, in fact, made up Batman Begins, in its way.

Nolan and Co. set out to push the boundaries of the accepted superhero norms of white hat heroism, and looked at exactly the way you make those involved pay. Structurally, it balances between superherodom and movies from guys like Michael Mann, De Palma or other film makers who've successfully delved into the morally gray territory of criminal and crime fighters. At least that's the basic world the film emulates far more than one of Bat-nipples and the possibility of anyone mistaking Alicia Silverstone as competent enough to drive a car, let alone act as an unlicensed crime fighter.

What's interesting is that the film does what I sort of suspected from the trailers: it manages to bring to the screen the busted, broken, fever dream of Gotham that I've known since middle school. Since the post COIE launch of Batman: Year One, this is the Gotham I've seen on the page, this is the Joker I've seen (in the more memorable stories), this is Harvey Dent (crusading DA), and this is the Batman I've known. For the first time, I white knuckled, both knowing exactly how this would play out, and having no idea what to expect next...

But more than that, its a Batman that makes sense on the screen, with walking, talking humans rather than humans trying to emulate a cartoon, and believing their story fits within the confines of children's entertainment. All while keeping the essence of Batman intact.

And after years of people in Batman costumes who weren't really Batman, and a promising start with Batman begins, its positively rewarding.

It's a unique thrill to feel the genre of superhero film being taken as a bit more than escapist fantasy (even when, like Iron Man, it has some interesting underpinnings). And it gives me hope for the future of superhero films. Can they move beyond the usual mad scientist schemes and doomsday devices? The comics all too rarely manage to do so, so it seems a bit premature to think that the next Hulk movie will do much more than open a can of whup-ass on some other over-sized muscled mutant, or that if they do a Flash movie, it will be about much more than the joy of moving far faster than the speed of sound. And I certainly don't think all superhero films NEED to go this direction, and Batman is uniquely posed to do so. But the fact that the window has been opened...

I don't want to overstate all of this, and I know I'm at risk of doing so. Dark Knight isn't going to ping on the cultural radar in the same manner as something either like Godfather or Star Wars. Because parents may wisely avoid taking their children to see Dark Knight (and I recommend this movie only for kids 12 or older) it's going to miss out on the humongous box office numbers of something like Spidey 3 (which, by the way, wasn't very good and mostly rode the goodwill of Spideys 1 &2 ). But I do see it as a shifting point for superhero movies.

Hopefully Dark Knight will give WB and DC the courage to take more chances on their own properties, mining them for the stories and characters that they already own.

Now, if the Superman team can figure out how to get that level of action and drama with their already developed story telling...

So, what'd you think? Chime in!

Well, I'm back. We're back. Jason and I flew out for my grandmother's funeral Thursday and came back tonight.

I hate flying, by the way. Even when everything goes as smoothly as possible, as it did during our travels, there's nothing pleasant about air travel.

I'm 6'5", and Jason is slightly taller. I wear something like a 52 long jacket thanks both to girth and shoulders that occasionally scrape when I walk through the right doorway, jumping into airplane seats is something I do with a terrific amount of caution. Likewise my brother. So the standard coach seating, which is designed for someone of lilliputian proportions, makes flying a literally painful experience. Jason referred to our seating as "CIA approved stress positions" at one point, and I can't argue.

Add in the the rumor that airlines want to weigh you and charge you for your seat by your weight (something I both can and cannot do anything about), and that some airlines, such as Southwest, want to charge you for two seats if you're a certain width (something i quite literally can do nothing about. Sorry. The bones are what the bones are), I'm beginning to think I've had it with the privilege of flying.

And, really, that's increasingly how the older carriers treat their service. $15 for a checked bag (we paid it). $4 for a bag of trail mix (we declined). Ever decreasing leg space to jam in more seats. Flight attendants who treat you as an inconvenience. Intentionally over booked flights. Overscheduled airports.

The folks who fly, and fly a lot... as well as folks with influence (ie: dough) might not notice all of this in First Class. I've sat in First Class, and it is a vey, very different experience. And you pay for that different experience. 2-4x what the plebes in coach are paying. Plus, your bathroom to passenger ratio is so, so much better up front.

And, mostly, I don't fly. But there are the times like a family funeral where two days on the road isn't really an option (plus the cost of gas at $4.00 per gallon). And that's when I'm going to have to get coach seats and cram my fat butt between the little aluminum rails that they have on the exit row (yeah, we landed exit row. We were really lucky). But, seriously, the flight was only 2.5 hours long from Tampa to Dallas, and 30+ minutes from Dallas to Austin, and I can feel it in my back and legs still, five hours later.

It seems like American Airlines, in particular, has issues with their seats. I'm not sure if its too many other airlines. It seems like Northwest had good seats. And maybe Southwest.

FYI: The family is doing pretty well, all things considered.

Anyhow, I'm tired.

I'm off

Tomorrow Jason and I are off to Florida for my grandmother's funeral. We'll be meeting up with my Dad's side of the family in central Florida. The funeral is Friday. Saturday we're back on an aeroplane and should be home before too late in the evening.

So, you know, expect blogging until Monday to be pretty light.

In the meantime, you can visit Jamie's blog. Or Lauren's blog. Or Steven's, for that matter. Or any of the blogs in my "League Links" section.

No pressure to update your blogs, guys.

I'll also not be seeing "The Dark Knight" until after all the rest of you. So, you know, no spoilers, please.

And I'm not going to be attending the Astros v. Cubs game in Houston. Nor will I get to catch up with any Houston friends, like we'd planned. Sorry, ya'll. And sorry to the Astros, who really could have used my support vs. The Cubs.

I hope the rest of your week goes well.

Comic Fodder

There's a new Comic Fodder post up. This one is based on a conversation I had with Meredith and appropriate Batman material for her kids, aged between 2 and 5.

The past few days have not been banner days at League HQ.

This made me feel a bit better. Radiohead covering New Order.



found at BeaucoupKevin.com

Batman (1966)

As much as I consider myself a Superman nut, as much as I dig the Green Lantern Corps and Wonder Woman... my love of superheroes, and, in fact, my life is indelibly linked with Batman. In fact, it all started with the 1960's TV show featuring Adam West and Burt Ward.

As a very young kid, I was Bat-crazy. There are stories that suggest that "Batman" was my first word. Apparently, when I was very tiny, they re-ran the old Batman episodes on a local affiliate every day at the time my Mom would start on dinner. And for whatever reason, as a VERY tiny kid, putting me in front of Batman would keep me from freaking out and doing the things kids of that age can do to distract nice Moms who are making dinner.

Its also Steans family lore that as soon as I could put words together, I was tying my blanket around my neck and singing the Batman theme song. This was followed by collecting what must have been Mego Batman dolls, Batmobiles, etc... And, in all honesty, it never really stopped.

And I've never quit digging the old Batman show. Sure, when I was little, I had no idea it was being played for laughs. Adam West seemed not unlike my Dad in unflattering tights, and it seemed reasonable that The Admiral was off fighting crime in much the same way. Moreover, it seemed reasonable that crooks and criminals were brightly dressed weirdos with themed criminal plots, who really weren't going to hurt anyone.

Today Jamie and I went to see the 1966 movie of "Batman" at the Alamo, which was playing a free kid's matinee.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the theater was very full, and full of kids. Prior to the show, they played an episode of the most recent animated Batman series. Then, just before the lights went down, an Alamo employee addressed the audience from behind a convincing Batman mask, and informed the kids that only bad guys talk during movies. Heck, I was convinced.

The movie was released theatrically between the first and and second seasons of the TV show. I'd always thought it to be created prior to the series, so it goes to show you: You learn a new Bat-Fact every day. And, apparently, had its world premier here in sunny Austin because, it seems, the boat was manufactured in Austin. Possibly at the Paramount (I'm looking for photos to confirm)!


Jason and Reed: ready for a night on the town

The movie and series hold up pretty well, all things considered. There's something off-kilter about the show that I've always liked, as if every was hanging out and smoking a Kool about ten seconds before the cameras rolled, and then threw themselves headfirst into the insanity.

West's Batman has become iconic since the show first aired. Utterly serious, while delivering the awesomest dialog ever.

Batman: We've been given the plainest warning. They're working together to take over...
Chief O'Hara: Take over *what*, Batman? Gotham City?
Batman: Any *two* of them would try that!
Commissioner Gordon: The whole country?
Batman: If it were three of them, I would say yes, but *four*? Their minimum objective must be... the *entire* world.

Really, I hesitate to seriously ponder how much of my personality is imprinted from Mr. West.

Burt Ward's Boy Wonder is great, as is Alan Napier's Alfred. But what really sells the film is the cast of villains.

My favorite of the Bat-villains from the TV show was always Frank Gorshin as The Riddler. I particularly like Dini's take on Edward Nigma in recent issues of Detective, but its hard to beat Gorshin's sheer joy at befuddling the Caped Crusader. Plus, those costumes are iconic.


Villainy abounds!

Burgess Meredith and Caesar Romero are good as The Penguin and Joker are pretty good, too.

Topping the list, however, is Lee Meriwether as Catwoman/ Kitka. Apparently Julie Newmar had a prior commitment during filming, but I think Ms. Meriwether more than fills the catsuit. Yowza.


Meow.

Apparently I'm not the only one who appreciates Ms. Meriwether as Catwoman. Mr. Romero is very "hands on" with Catwoman in several scenes, particularly in the Penguin submarine. Seriously. With that make-up, its a little creepy.

The movie also features one of my favorite aspects of Batman in all his incarnations: the vehicles! Batcopter. Batcycle. Batmobile. Awesome.



The Batman TV series left an amazingly deep impression upon the public's concept of the superhero. I still remember going to see Burton's "Batman" on opening weekend and the theater had decorated the lobby with all of these hand-made "Bam! Wap! Pow!" signs all over the place.

To say that the show wasn't a fairly accurate representation of the comics of the time is a bit of a stretch. The comic was very light kid's fair at the time, and was mostly Batman and his pal Robin in light scrapes. And while not exactly Tolstoy, it wasn't necessarily set up for laughs the way the TV series was.

It seems the post Spider-Man movie world has finally shaken off the Batman TV series impression of how superheroes should be viewed. And, in fact, it's sort of a game in the comics' blogosphere to highlight articles where the writer uses phrases like "Bam! Pow!", or comments that comics aren't as silly or childish as they'd assumed. (That's been a staple of mainstream journalism since Burton's Batman bowed in 1989, yet writers in search of a fluff article keep re-discovering this same topic.)

From anecdotal evidence, I think most parents today grew up with Burton's Batman, Donner's Superman and had the whole experience capped with Raimi's Spider-Man. So the legacy of the 60's Batman isn't the pervasive thing it was. And I think that's actually, as it should be.

The 1960's Batman is very good at what it does. The cast is terrific. Its a fun show (especially the movie). And I think there's room for all sorts of interpretations of Batman, from Bale's grim Dark Knight to West's philosophizing playboy on the town. And I think it's a fantastic part of the legacy of Batman.

Mostly, I was pleased with how the kids seemed to like it, if their silence throughout the film was any indication.

I did mention to Jamie, as we were leaving and I was processing the film in my mind "You know, about two-thirds of the way through, I felt like I had been taking crazy pills." The kaleidoscope colors, rapid pacing, nonsensical plot and, really, haphazard pacing of the thing just sort of adds up to a unique and strange whole. As pointed out by a kid leaving the theater...

Mom: Did you like it?
Kid: Yeah! (pause) It was weird...
Mom: Well, it was supposed to be.

That is one hip, hip mom.

DCU Online - Game Trailer

here's the official DCU Online trailer that will be shown at E3.



And, hey DCU online... that offer still stands. I already live in Austin, I have PM experience. Let me know what I can do for you.

Meredith comes to the blogosphere

hey, this keeps me from having to blog anything tonight! I've found something worth reading so you don't have to get your daily supplement of blogginess from The League today.

My old high school pal, Meredith, has started up a blog. Meredith is good people, so you should head over there and see what you can see.

And if you're a former Klein Oak Panther, make sure you pop over to her comments section and identify yourself to Mere. I know she's want to say "howdy".

Grandma Ross

In case you didn't see mention of this at Jason's blog, my grandmother passed away yesterday afternoon. I am still processing the emotion that comes along with losing family. Our family is small, and so while we rarely attend family funerals, each death is a reminder of just how few of us there are in my family and extended family.

The grandmother who passed was my father's mother, Katherine Ross (she had been remarried for a long, long time before I was born. Thus the different last name). The passing was of natural causes.

I hope you'll forgive me if I choose not to go into some lengthy post on the topic.

Also, I'll be leaving for Florida in a day or so to be gone for an as-yet-to-be-decided amount of time, so when the blog goes dark for a few days, bear with me.

If you have any grandparents still with you, do me a favor and let them know you care about them, okay?

Update on the Cone Kids

Nathan sent this along last week. Here we see Max and Sam, Nathan's lovely children, revelling in the success of their latest crime spree.




Note the intense expression on Max's face. What sort of plan is he masterminding even now?

Truly, a heart of darkness beats beneath that wagon on his bib.

Samantha, on the other hand, is the woman of action who should have her fists registered as lethal weapons.

Hellboy II? Why the hell not?

So the relatively small action flick, Hellboy, has spawned a sequel.

I enjoyed the first film, but felt like you could almost feel the edges of the film that couldn't be explored as it was written and designed with a certain budget in mind. Multi-million dollar movie, sure... but of an unknown, untested character with some pretty terrific weirdness behind it all.

But I really liked the three main protagonists, with Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman and Hellboy. The villains were bizarre and cool, and the threat appropriately apocalyptic for our hero to challenge.


Also, I believe Selma Blair to be sort of a fox.

Mostly, though, I think Ron Perlman is super great as Hellboy. I love the direct, uncomplicated guy who happens to be able to take on world-threatening baddies. All without a Will Smith "Ah, hell naw!" In a lot of ways, Hellboy is sort of a great stand-in for how I think many guys see themselves. Unpleasant, uncouth, and hoping their capable enough working with what they know to get the job done. But a totally different guy when it comes to dealing with their significant other.

The plot has an odd ring of familiarity as so many superhero films have been hitting the screen. A villain with a plan for ending the world, some personal problems, and a nick of time ending. In some ways, the plot of Hellboy II feels, in some ways, a little too much like the plot for Hellboy I, only streamlined. Instead, director Del Toro focuses on the dreamlike imagery you might remember from Pan's Labyrinth, presented on a grander scale.


This looks like the group shots of my prom pictures

And, really, no matter what else you might be skeptical about, Hellboy II is visually stunning. The dialog can be a bit clunky, and the action sequences a bit disorienting, but the creature scenes here are the best mass creature scenes since Luke Skywalker walked into a cantina.

I'm not guaranteeing its the best movie you're going to see, but its a good summer popcorn flick with surprisingly developed characters for a movie starring a red guy with an arm that came from Steelcase.

Del Toro might always have scripts that feel like they could be a bit more developed, but you have to salute him as a visionary. He's able to bring not just cool visuals (which movies like "Chronicles of Riddick do, and yet fail), but also a solid action film with a good deal of heart.