Lazy Weekend

Getting a late start today.

418. Irredeemable, vol. 1 by Mark Waid & Peter Krause. What if the most powerful superhero in the world went bad? Very good, but it is clearly just the first act of a longer story. Looking forward to further volumes.
     
419. Wolverine: Tales of Weapon X by Marc Sumerak, Mark Robinson, et al. Picked this up on a whim. Not really for me. Glad I didn't buy it. (Checked out of the library.)
     
420. The Last One by J.M. DeMatteis and Dan Sweetman. As I've said before, DeMatteis's mystical stuff tends to be hit or miss with me. This was okay. (Library.)
     
421. Black Jack, vol. 6 by Osamu Tezuka. Great series.
     
422. Prince Valiant, vol. 1: 1937-1938 by Hal Foster. Absolutely gorgeous artwork and engaging stories. I had never read any of this strip before. I can see why it's legendary.
     
423. Essential Doctor Strange, vol. 4 by Roger Stern, Gene Colan, et al. I really do love the Essentials & Showcase Presents series. Lots of comics (sometimes great, sometimes not) printed cheap. I really liked this volume and can't wait for volume 5 (which I hope is coming), which will contain the part of Stern's run when Paul Smith did the art. I have fond memories of those comics.
     
424. Fullmetal Alchemist, vol 19 by Hiromu Arakawa. (Library.)
     
425. Black Jack, vol. 7 by Osamu Tezuka.
     
426. Fantastic Four: True Story by Paul Cornell and Horacio Dominguez. I'd heard some good things about this on a comics podcast, but I have to say I didn't find it particularly impressive. (Library.)
     
427. Talking Lives: The Graphic Stories of R.O. Blechman. (Library.)
     
428. The Annotated Mantooth by Matt Fraction & Andy Kuhn. Talking gorilla as James Bond. (Library.)
     
429. House of Mystery, vol. 2: Love Stories for Dead People by Matthew Sturges, Luco Rossi, et al. This volume had less of the characters telling each other that they need to tell another character something important (and then failing to do so) than the first volume, but there was enough to still be annoying. (Library.)
     
430. Locke and Key, vol. 2: Head Games by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez. I know this is an ongoing story, and that it's horror, but I was beginning to think that the bad guy would never get any set-backs, that he'd be able to achieve his goal without any opposition whatsoever. If there hadn't been an indication at the end of the volume that not everything is going to go his way, I wouldn't have been reading any further volumes. (Borrowed from Teena.)

So here are the movies I've seen since the HPL Film Festival:

• RiffTrax: Shorts-tacular Shorts-stravaganza.
  
• Death Note II: The Last Name. The manga series would have been a lot better if it had wrapped up the story as quickly as these two movies did.
  
• Where the Wild Things Are. Absolutely wonderful movie. Very powerful. Not for kids, though. I think they'd be bored. It's too much about what it's like to be a kid for children to really get it. Teena says, "I loved it, but I never want to see it again." I understand her. Highly recommended.
  
• RiffTrax: Wide World of Shorts. Still more funny commentaries on instructional films.
  
• Call of Cthulhu. The first of the scary movies we watched on Halloween. Very nicely done adaptation of the story, done as if it had been made shortly after Lovecraft wrote it: silent and with period special effects. Fantastic job.
  
• AM 1200. Very well done. I must say that it seemed quite a bit longer the first time we say it (at last years HPL Film Festival). Borrowed the DVD from Michael.
  
• Kaku Ren Bo. Anime short about a game of hide & seek. Very creepy.
  
• Cloverfield, watched with RiffTrax commentary. I do like the movie, but it's even more enjoyable with the commentary pointing out the absurdities (and how many times Hud says "Rob"). This was the first time we had purchased a RiffTrax commentary (as opposed to buying the DVDs that they sell), and we were very pleased at how well it worked.
  
• Touch of Evil. Was flipping channels this morning and noticed that this was just starting. Tuned in to see that long opening shot and got sucked in. Had to watch the whole thing. Great movie.

On the video game front:

I may have hit a game-ender in Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. I just don't know if I can do this one thing required to get through this dungeon. I had been really enjoying the game, and I hate to abandon it, but I don't know if I can get past this.

I am slowly making my way through Katamari Forever and enjoying the weirdness as much as ever.

And today I just started playing Final Fantasy XII. Beautiful game, and I'm looking forward to playing it. (As is Teena. She gets to experience the game again without having to replay it.)