Philip's Book & Movie Lists

Puppy Bowl Sunday

2012-02-05T16:00:00.000-08:00

The Art of Doug Sneyd.
Infinity Gauntlet by Jim Starlin, George Perez & Ron Lim. Big super-hero cross-over. Lots of bombast and action. It's all nonsense, but pretty entertaining. (Checked out of the library.)
Incorruptible, vol. 4 by Mark Waid & Marcio Takara. I recently learned that this series and its companion: Irredeemable will be ending soon. As much as I enjoy them, this is a good thing, because I cannot see them continuing indefinitely. They should conclude, and they will. (Library.)
Excalibur Visionaries: Warren Ellis, vol 2 by Warren Ellis, Casey Jones, Carlos Pacheco, et al. Good stories, but I really didn't care for the art.
Irredeemable, vol. 7 by Mark Waid, Peter Krause & Diego Barreto. (Library.)
The Green Hornet, Year One, vol 1: The Sting of Justice by Matt Wagner & Aaron Campbell. I have to admit, this feel a lot like Sandman Mystery Theatre, another period piece about a masked mystery man. Not that I'm complaining. (Library.)
Shaky Kane's Monster Truck

I don't even know how to describe this. 50 pages that connect to make one enormous picture. Pop culture ephemera of days gone by. Just plain weirdness. It's great.
Mystic: The Tenth Apprentice by G. Willow Wilson & David Lopez.

Great young adult fantasy. I would love to see the story continue, but I haven't seen any indication that Marvel's revival of CrossGen titles did well enough that they'll do more. Which is a damn shame.
Polly and the Pirates, vol. 2: Mystery of the Dragonfish by Ted Naifeh & Robbi Rodriguez. I liked the story, but the art often did not do a good job of conveying what was going on. Also, since it has been six years since volume one came out, I'm sure I'm not the only one who would have preferred to have a bit of a re-introduction to the characters and situations.
Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise, pt. 1 by Gene Luen Yang & Gurihiru.

This captures the feel of the cartoon series. It's wonderful. If you love the cartoon (and you should), check this out.
Secret Six: The Darkest House by Gail Simone, J. Calafiore, et al.

Final volume of Gail Simone's twisted series about a group of super-villains for hire. I'll miss it.

Only one movie this week, and I want to go watch the Puppy Bowl, so I'll put it off until next week.

All Over the Place

2012-01-29T17:11:00.000-08:00

The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths, vol. 1 by Brian Holguin, Alex Sheikman & Lizzy John.

The title sums this up pretty well. The cover and some sketches are by Brian Froud.
Scalped, vol. 8: You Gotta Sin to Get Saved by Jason Aaron, R.M. Guera, et al. Continuing the noir series set on a Native American reservation. (Checked out of the library.)
20th Century Boys, vol. 18: Everybody's Song by Naoki Urasawa.

I am very glad I didn't give up on this series. While the emphasis has changed from the early volumes, it has become gripping again.
Yesterday's Tomorrows by Rian Hughes, et al. Nice to see Hughes' art collected. I particularly liked the adaptation of a Raymond Chandler story and the two stories written by Grant Morrison. (Library.)
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, vol. 1 by Nick Spencer, Cafu, et al. The latest attempt to revive the late 60s-early 70s series. I quite liked this and wish it had continued as a monthly series. With luck, the current mini-series is doing well enough for them to do another.
Avengers: West Coast Avengers: Sins of the Past by Steve Englehart, Al Milgrom, et al. These comics do not warrant a deluxe hard-cover reprint. If Marvel had put these out as part of their inexpensive Essentials line, I would have been thrilled. I got these comics when they first came out in the 80s, but I am under no illusions that they are good. Awkward exposition and ham-fisted characterization are par for the course here. The action and plot-oriented parts are fun, though. (Library.)
Essential Defenders, vol. 5 by J.M. DeMatteis, Don Perlin, et al. More comics from the 80s. These hold up a bit better, and the fact that this book is approximately 500 pages for $20 makes me more charitable in my assessment. I read these comics when they were first published in the early 80s, but I remember nothing from them. Enjoyed this a lot.
DC Comics Presents: Batman-Blaze of Glory by Will Pfeifer, Chris Weston, et al. Enjoyable Batman story.

Only one movie this week:

The RescuersI hadn't seen this since it was first released in 1977. The animation is a bit stiff in places, but the story and acting hold up great, which is the important part.

Getting Back Up to Speed

2012-01-22T16:41:00.000-08:00

This post may have the same number of books as the last one, but that was a couple of weeks' worth of reading instead of just one.

Baltimore, vol. 1: The Plague Ships by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden & Ben Stenbeck.

Comics continuation of the story begun in the novel Baltimore; or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire. A fair amount of this is a recap of the novel, but it has been a couple years since I read it, so the refresher on the character was welcome.
The Boys, vol. 9: The Big Ride by Garth Ennis, Russ Braun & John McCrea. Building towards the climax of this series. (Checked out of the library.)
Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 27 by Hiromu Arakawa.

The final volume of this manga series. Arakawa actually managed to bring it to a satisfying conclusion, which is no mean feat. Looking forward to seeing what she does next. (Library.)
Takio by Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Avon Oeming. A couple of school-age sisters become super-heroes.
Brody's Ghost, bk. 2 by Mark Crilley. Moving along the story. (Library.)
The Complete Alan Moore Future Shocks by Alan Moore, et al.

Short, humorous stories Moore wrote for 2000 AD early in his career.
Wolfskin: Hundredth Dream by Warren Ellis, Mike Wolfer & Gianluca Pagliarani. Barbarian comics from Ellis.
Pogo, vol. 1: Through the Wild Blue Wonder by Walt Kelly.

I have read previous collections of Kelly's comic strip, but it had been years, and I had forgotten how amazing it is. Simply beautiful art and wonderful jokes. This is one of the absolute best comic strips, and I am so glad that it is finally being reprinted from the beginning in a format that does justice to Kelly's art. I want the next volume now.

A couple of DVDs finished since last week:

Justice League Unlimited, Season 2. Such a great interpretation of the DC characters. Love the episode where Lex Luthor and the Flash switch minds.
His Girl Friday. Man, Cary Grant was such a great comedian. Amazing timing.

Back to Books

2012-01-15T17:44:00.000-08:00

New year, new list:

The Wonder Woman Chronicles, vol. 2 by William Moulton Marton & Harry G. Peter.

Man, Golden Age Wonder Woman stories were weird, even before you get into the bondage aspects. Magnetic hearing, interplanetary travel and astral projection are all par for the course. I will say that the Golden Age version of Etta Candy is a fantastic character. Yes, she's presented as comic relief, but she's confident, self-reliant and a lots of fun.
Brody's Ghost, bk 1 by Mark Crilley. Manga-ish. I'll see where it's going. (Checked out of the library.)
Red Hulk: Planet Red Hulk by Jeff Parker, Gabriel Hardman, et al. (Library.)
A Clash of Kings: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book Two by George R.R. Martin.

I love this series. When I finished, I wanted to go straight on to the next book, but I think I'm better off pacing myself on these. I'm going to content myself with keeping ahead of the TV series. With luck, book six will be out by the time I get to A Dance with Dragons. (Besides I've got lots of other books to read).
Iron Man: Dragon Seed Saga by John Byrne & Paul Ryan, with M.D. Bright. Nothing special. (Library.)
Criminal, vol. 6: The Last of the Innocent by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips.

The latest volume of Brubaker & Phillips' noir series. This time the premise is: What if Archie & friends acted more like actual teenagers & then grew up? Extremely well-done and highly-recommended, but I'm not sure this story counts as noir.
Duncan the Wonder Dog by Adam Hines.

Wow. This is an amazing book. The elevator pitch would be: A serious take on the kind of world presented in Get Fuzzy. In the world of the book, animals are sentient and can speak. 400 pages long, this is only the first of a proposed nine volumes. I can't wait to see the next volume, but I'm going to have to, since this one took Hines seven years to create. I can't do justice to this book, but check out this article and this interview with Hines for more information. The book well deserves being named the best graphic novel of 2010 by Comics Alliance.
Dave Stevens: The Complete Sketches & Studies. Sketches from the creator of The Rocketeer. Gorgeous art. We lost Stevens way too soon.

A few movies in the new year so far:

TrollhunterReally enjoyed this Norwegian film about a guy who hunts trolls for the Norwegian government. He's nothing special, just doing a hard, dirty job, and that's what makes this work. If he were presented as some kind of hero, it'd be different. But he's just a guy.
Sherlock Jr.Amazing physical comedy from Buster Keaton.
Tales from EarthseaNot very satisfying adaptation of bits and pieces of Ursula LeGuin's series of fantasy novels. I wish Hayao Miazaki had been able to direct this himself. His son directed this and just didn't do a very good job.
MirrorMaskSo visually amazing.
Village of the DamnedCreepy British science fiction.

Disney, part 2

2012-01-08T16:32:00.000-08:00

I'm in the middle of reading A Clash of Kings, so there's not much in the way of books this week, so on to Disneyland.

We arrived shortly before the park opened. Disney does something very clever: they start admitting people into the park a bit early, but they can't go any further than Main Street, USA. This helps prevent huge ticket lines. But people do build up inside the park. See?:

Sorry the image is pretty dark, but it was before 8am on the winter solstice.

We went straight to Tomorrowland.

There, we went on Star Tours, which is very popular. Fortunately, by going there so early, there was hardly any wait. (Early in the day we had very good luck when it came to lines. Later in the day, using FastPass was a great help.)

After that, we headed over to the Indiana Jones Adventure. Again, we just walked through the waiting are. Actually, we walked and walked and walked through the waiting area. They have allocated a lot of space to the wait for this ride. Fortunately, Disney knows how to make that wait interesting.

Lots of things to look at. Plenty to keep your interest. The ride itself was a blast. I'm sorry we missed it the previous time we were at Disneyland.

The other rides we went on were (in no particular order)Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Enchanted Tiki Room (when we needed to sit down for a while), and Pirates of the Caribbean. There is some weird recursion going on with the last ride: it wasn't based on any particular movie (although Disney's version of Treasure Island has to have been an influence), then it was the basis for a movie series, and now the ride has been altered to more closely resemble the movies.

The food on this day wasn't quite as good as it had been in California Adventure, but it was still fine (if rather overpriced). And it was fun:

By the end of the day, we were completely exhausted. It was a fabulous couple of days, and I want to go back already.

Disney Adventure part 1

2012-01-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

As part of our trip to visit her parents in the week before Christmas, Teena & I went to Disney's California Adventure and Disneyland. This won't be a full account of our trip, but some highlights.

We spent our first day at California Adventure, which we had never been to before, and it was great, if a little sparse. (Two large sections of the part were closed off for renovation.) We got very lucky with rides. We walked right into Muppet*Vision 3D, which was a blast. Animatronic Statler & Waldorf heckle the show from a balcony, and the 3D effects are handled well. The movie itself is very much in the spirit of Henson, who was never afraid of corny jokes or ending things with a bang. At one point in the movie, there are bubbles, and real bubbles fall from the ceiling, so it's hard to tell which are part of the movie and which are real.

I didn't have too long of a wait for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, which is fortunate, because I felt a little guilty about making Teena wait for me while I went on a ride she had no interest in. The drop was very scary, but thrilling. I definitely want to do this again when we go back.

The Golden Zephyr is basically the Dumbo ride with retro-science fiction trappings, but I really enjoyed it and the view it affords of the park.

The shorter line and Teena's propensity for motion sickness meant we chose a stationary gondola for Mickey's Fun Wheel, which is a damn tall Ferris Wheel.

The highlight of the day was the World of Color show in the evening. We spent quite a while waiting for it, but it was worth the wait. While waiting I took these pictures:

The World of Color show was amazing. A light show projected onto water from hundreds of fountains shooting up into the air. Just spectacular. Disney really knows how to put on a show.

On the way out, I convinced Teena that we should get the aviator caps we had seen earlier in the day.

I don't know when we'll wear these, but I'm glad we bought them.

That's enough for now. I'll try to post about Disneyland soon.

2011 A-Z Title List

2012-01-01T12:04:00.000-08:00

Before I start my 2012 A-Z list, here's the 2011 one:

Ayako by Osamu Tezuka
B.P.R.D., vol. 14: King of Fear by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, & Guy Davis
Castle Waiting, vol. 2 by Linda Medley
Dr. Horrible & Other Horrible Stories by Zack Whedon, et al
Echo, vol. 5: Black Hole by Terry Moore
Finder: Voice by Carla Speed McNeil
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Hereville by Barry Deutsch
Invincible Iron Man, vol. 5 by Matt Fraction & Salvador Larroca
John Constantine, Hellblazer: India by Peter Milligan, et al
Korgi, vol. 3 by Christian Slade
Love & Capes, vol. 2: Going to the Chapel by Tom Zahler
Marvel 1602: Spider-Man by Jeff Parker & Ramon Rosanas
Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, vol. 13: Beginning of the End
Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman
Planetary, vol. 4: Spacetime Archaeology by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday
The Question: Pipeline by Greg Rucka & Cully Hamner
Red Mass for Mars by Jonathan Hickman & Ryan Bodenheim
Snuff by Terry Pratchett
Tiassa by Steven Brust
Ubu Bubu by Jamie Smart
The Viking Prince by Bob Haney, Joe Kubert, et al
The Walking Dead, bk. 1 by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, & Charlie Adlard
X'ed Out by Charles Burns
Yotsuba &!, vol. 8 by Kiyohiko Azuma
Zorro, vol. 3: Tales of the Fox by Matt Wagner & Francesco Francavilla.

Wrapping up 2011

2012-01-01T11:58:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Here are the movies from the last 3 weeks of December:

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Time of the Apes. This is the first MST3K episode I ever saw. It's a good introduction to the concept with lots of funny jokes about a nearly incomprehensible movie.
MST3K: Mighty Jack. Yet another awful movie made watchable by the addition of jokes.
MST3K: Santa Claus Conquers the the Martians. Another of the movies Teena & I watch each December.
MST3K: The Brute Man. Yes, we've been watching a lot of MST3K in the past month.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. I think the creators realized one of the selling points of the first movie was the relationship between Downey's Holmes & Law's Watson, and they really ramped things up for this one. Lots of fun.
MST3K: The Violent Years.
It's a Wonderful Life. Still another movie we watch each year for Christmas.
RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-stravaganza. This isn't something we make a point of watching each year, but we had the time and felt like watching it.
Love Actually. This is the last of the movies we watch each year. We adore this movie.
Doctor Who: Inferno. Alternate universe Doctor Who story. As a friend says, "Eye patches are the Doctor Who equivalent of goatees."
Going Postal. While both Teena and I were greatly impressed by the adaptations of The Colour of Magic and Hogfather, this one didn't do as good of a job. We felt the lead actor didn't really capture the spirit of his character, and the golems were disappointing.
Cinematic Titanic Live: War of the Insects. I do not know where they find such awful movies to make fun of.

After my post yesterday, I finished a few more books, so here they are:

DC Comics Presents: Elseworlds by various.
DC Comics Presents: Batman - The Secret City by various.
DC Comics Presents: Batman - Urban Legend by various.

Last Entry of 2011

2011-12-31T15:05:00.000-08:00

I'll post tomorrow with a description of our trip to Disney's California Adventure and Disneyland, but today is the last of the books I finished in 2011.

The Royal Historian of Oz by Tommy Kovac & Andy Hirsch.

After a rough start, this settles down into a very Ozzy book that I quite enjoyed. Glad I stuck with it.
5 Ronin by Peter Milligan, et al. Five superheroes re-imagined as ronin. The feudal Japanese setting works for me, but I can see how it wouldn't for everyone. Still, I liked this quite a bit.
DC Comics Presents: The Life Story of the Flash by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, Gil Kane, Joe Staton & Tom Palmer. A biography of the Barry Allen Flash, from a time when it was thought he would stay dead. This is very good. I never bought it before because I thought it was overpriced. So a reprint in the cheap DC Comics Presents format was welcome.
Gladstone's School for World Conquerors by Mark Andrew Smith & Armando Villavert. First book about young super-villains that I recall reading. Fun stuff.
Captain America: Forever Allies by Roger Stern, Nick Dragotta, Marco Santucci, et al. Marvel has put out a lot of Captain America stuff in the past year or two (thanks, Hollywood), and I've been picking up the stuff I think I'd like. So far so good.
Essential Spider Man, vol. 8 by Len Wein, Ross Andru, et al. These comics from the 70s hold up very well.
Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham by Steve Skeates, Mark Armstrong, et al. Funny-animal comics from 80s Marvel. Not bad, but overpriced. I'm glad I got this on sale.
DC Comics Presents: Captain Atom by James Robinson, Greg Rucka & Cafu. Back-up comics from Action a year or two ago.
Milk and Cheese: Dairy Products Gone Bad by Evan Dorkin.

This may be a one-joke strip, but given that each story is only 1-8 pages long, this makes great bathroom reading.
Mutts, vol. 10: Who Let the Cat Out? by Patrick McDonnell.

Love this comic strip. Not necessarily funny, but always gentle.

I'll save movies for tomorrow.

Possibly My Last Post Until New Year's

2011-12-11T15:45:00.001-08:00

Traveling next weekend. Then Christmas. So this may be the last post here until New Year's.

Stargazing Dog by Takashi Murakami.

Very touching story about a dog's loyalty. I do wish the translation had been presented in the Japanese format, since flipped art is occasionally distracting. (Checked out of the library.)
Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 26 by Hiromu Arakawa. Only one volume to go. (Library.)
The Secret Society of Super-Villains, vol. 1 by various. A collection of standard 70's fare from DC. The stories are okay, but there is absolutely no way this material warrants one $40 hardcover, much less the second one implied by the "vol. 1" in the title. Originally DC solicited a Showcase Presents for this material. $20 for 400-500 pages of comics printed in black and white on cheap paper would have been ideal. So glad I didn't buy this. (Library.)
The Show Must Go on by Roger Langridge.

Odds & ends from Langridge. Very funny stuff.
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol. 1: Race to Death Valley by Floyd Gotfredson.

Comic strips from the 30s. A great mix of adventure and humor. Looking forward to getting future volumes from the library.
PS Magazine: The Best of the Preventive Maintenance Monthly by Will Eisner. Here is a book that owes its existence to a creator's reputation. If Eisner weren't a legend, there would be no call to collect the best of the comics he created for an Army-published magazine about maintaining equipment. Some great art here, but the stories are mostly all-business. Fortunately, Eisner brought interest to what could have been some incredibly dull comics. (Library.)
Moomin, vol. 6: The Complete Lars Jansson Comic Strip. After his sister Tove stopped doing the Moomin comic strip that she created, Lars took over and kept up the gentle humor. (Library.)
Dragon Puncher Island by James Kochalka. (Borrowed from Teena's classroom.)
Hellboy: House of the Living Dead by Mike Mignola & Richard Corben. An untold tale of Hellboy's time in Mexico working as a luchador. Man, I love Corben's art.
DC Comics Presents: Batman: Don't Blink by Dwayne McDuffie & Val Semeiks.
The Misadventures of Prince Ivan by Diane Duane & Sherlock. I don't know enough about Russian folklore to know if this is an unusual retelling of an old tale or an original story from Duane, but I quite enjoyed it.
Captain Swing and the Electrical Pirates of Cindery Island by Warren Ellis & Raulo Caceres.

Ellis takes on steampunk and the nature of police work. I loved this.
B.P.R.D.: Being Human by Mike Mignola, Karl Moline, et al.
Short pieces about some B.P.R.D. agents.

Just one movie since last week:

Hogfather. Amazingly faithful to the book. Incredibly well-done. This may go into the list of Christmas movies Teena & I watch each December. If you love Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, you have to see this.

Books, Books, Books

2011-12-04T16:31:00.001-08:00

Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 25 by Hiromu Arakawa. So close to the end. Almost there. (Checked out of the library.)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.

After seeing the movie (see below), I knew I had to read this. I am glad I did. I wish I had listened to Teena sooner when she recommended it. Great book, with an interesting mix of text and pictures. (Borrowed from Teena.)
New Mutants: Unfinished Business by Andy Lanning, Dan Abnett, Leandro Fernandez & Michael Ryan. Pretty good super-hero stuff. I enjoyed it, but I am very glad I didn't buy this: $20 for a hardcover collection of 4 issues. Marvel seems determined to wring the last drop out of their audience. (Library.)
Echoes by Joshua Hale Fialkov & Rashan Ekedal. Suspense/horror. I saw the twist coming early on, and I don't like the way the ending was handled. (Library.)
Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes by Carl Barks.

Oh man, there are some great comics collected here. So glad Fantagraphics is collecting Bark's duck stories. Great mix of humor and adventure in these comics. My one quibble is that I don't know how good an idea it was to include, in the premiere volume of this new series of reprints, a story that includes African characters given that the story is from the 50s and follows the then standard depictions of the time.
Superman: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank. Enjoyable story about the beginning of Superman's career, although I find that "one-note" is a little generous in describing a couple of the characters, and it's just a little creepy how closely Frank models Clark/Superman on Christopher Reeve. (Library.)
Ray Bradbury's the Martian Chronicles: The Authorized Adaptation
by Dennis Calero. This book is too short. There isn't enough space to adequately adapt the stories, and so the art doesn't bring anything new. It just serves as a replacement for description. Occasionally awkward and confusing word balloon placement highlights how this book would have been better served by allowing more space for the story to flow. Much as I love the original, I can't recommend this. (Library.)
Irredeemable, vol. 6: by Mark Waid, Peter Krause & Diego Barreto. Still enjoying this series. (Library.)
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four: Four-Three-Two-One... by Paul Tobin, et al. More great all-ages comics.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Dust to Dust, vol. 2 by Chris Roberson & Robert Adler. Concluding volume of this authorized prequel. I enjoyed the story and art, and Roberson does a great job of integrating technological advances that have arisen since Dick wrote the novel. (Library.)

And now for movies from November and the beginning of December:

K-9 and Company. Pilot for a Doctor Who spin-off that never went anywhere.
Up. Pixar does great movies. There are a couple points where I always tear up when watching this. If you've seen it, you know where they are.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Secret Agent Super Dragon.
Hugo. Great adaption of the novel I wrote about above. Scorsese really made it a love-letter to early cinema.
Doctor Who: The Invisible Enemy. The introduction of K-9.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus. Each December there are a handful of movies Teena and I always watch as Christmas approaches. This is one of them. Look for the others as the month progresses.
The Film Crew: Killers from Space. Another bad 50s science fiction movie made fun of by MST3K alumni.

Teena's Birthday Post

2011-11-27T14:19:00.001-08:00

I finished Mass Effect earlier today, so I'm hoping I'll be back on schedule for a while. (No guarantees though. Mass Effect 2 is available used pretty cheap, so I may just move on to it. I doubt it, though. I expect my next video game will be a re-play of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, something completely different from the gritty science fiction I have been playing.
Anyway, on to the books I've finished in the last 3 weeks:

Supergod by Warren Ellis & Garrie Gastonny. The third and most apocalyptic of Ellis's three meditations on how people with superpowers would deform the world (following Black Summer and No Hero.)
Spider-Girl: Family Values by Paul Tobin, Clayton Henry, et al. (Checked out of the library.)
Secret Warriors, vol. 6: Wheels Within Wheels by Jonathan Hickman & Alessandro Vitti. The final volume of this series looking at super-spies in the Marvel Universe. It depicts things as being much grayer than is typical in superhero comics. (Library.)
Unwritten, vol. 4: Leviathan by Mike Carey & Peter Gross.

Man, I love this series and its exploration of stories. This volume has a couple of moments that just stunned me, and I was left saying, "Of course. It couldn't be anything else." This is the best comic being published at the moment.
Everything, vol. 1: Blabber, Blabber, Blabber, Blabber: Comics from around 1978-81 by Lynda Barry.

Barry's art and writing style have changed in the 30-some years since these comics were created, but she was good even then. Looking forward to the next volume.
The Legion of Super-Heroes: The Curse by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen. Over a year of LSH comics from Levitz' peak era. Very glad these comics have been collected.
Neonomicon by Alan Moore & Jacen Burrows.

An interesting (and very disturbing) take on Lovecraft. One I've never seen before. It ends in an oddly touching way. Moore may have become obsessed with sex as he has gotten older, but he can still write rings around most people.
Essential Captain America, vol. 5 by Jack Kirby, et al. Two-thirds of this book is by Kirby, and reading these comics now, I find it hard to believe there was a time I didn't like his art style. When I was a kid, I thought it was too blocky. I eventually figured things out and see Kirby for the genius he was. Great stuff (even if it is pretty damn silly).
DC Comics Presents: Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham by Dough Moench & Jim Balent. An Elseworlds story with Catwoman & Batman trading places.
Black Jack, vol. 16 by Osamu Tezuka. The penultimate volume of this medical manga. (Library.)
DC Comics Presents: JLA: The Age of Wonder by Adisakdi Tantimedu, Galen Showman & P. Craig Russell. Another Elseworlds story, this one setting superheroes in the early part of the 20th century. Beautiful art and a good story.
20th Century Boys, vol. 17: Cross-Counter by Naoki Urasawa.

At this point I can't believe there was a time I was considering dropping this series. I can't wait to see where the story goes next. This volume contains a hint at a revelation that has me more interested than ever.
Chew, vol. 4: Flambe by John Layman & Rob Guilory. (Library.)
DC Comics Presents: The Jack Kirby Omnibus Sampler. I can't afford The Jack Kirby Omnibus, so I'm making do with this. Some great old comics here.
Star Wars Omnibus: Quinlan Vos - Jedi in Darkness by John Ostrander, Jan Duursema, et al. Glad to see these comics collected. Ostrander has a great handle on showing somebody tempted by the Dark Side. Much better than Lucas (not that that's saying much.)
Showcase Presents All Star Comics by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton, et al. 70s comics set on Earth-2.
Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum, adapted by Eric Shanower & Skottie Young.

I'm loving these comics adaptations of the Oz books, if for no other reason than they give me a chance to understand the jokes that went over my head when I read the books as a kid. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Detroit Metal City by Kiminori Wakasugi. The final volume of this absurd series about death metal in Japan. (Library.)
Scarlet, vol. 1 by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev. This story about a young woman fighting a corrupt system seems especially relevant given that the Occupy Wall Street movement began since these comics were published. (Library.)
Yotsuba & !, vol. 10 by Kiyohiko Azuma

More adorableness. (Library.)
DC Comics Presents: Batman: Bad by Doug Moench & Barry Kitson. It'd be nice to see more of Moench's stuff get collected (and not just the Batman as a vampire stuff that has been), but I'll make do with stuff like this.
Essential Fantastic Four, vol. 7 by various. Super-hero comics from the 70s. The final issue in this collection was the first issue I got as part of a subscription I had when I was a kid. I'm going to have to pick up the next volume and see if the rest of those comics hold up to my memories. (I suspect they won't.)
FF, vol. 1: Tomorrow by Jonathan Hickman, Steve Epting & Barry Kitson. Hickman tosses out huge SF concepts all through these comics. He's a great fit for the Fantastic Four. (Library.)
Superman: The Black Ring, vol. 1 by Paul Cornell & Pete Woods. Ironic that Superman appears at the head of this book's title, since he doesn't appear in it. This is all about Lex Luthor and his ambition. It's tough to pull off a comic focused on a villain, but Cornell pulls it off.

Since I've been so far behind and this post is so long, I'm going to put movies off until next week.

Another Excuse

2011-11-20T21:42:00.001-08:00

No house guest this week, but Mass Effect was calling, so no real post this week either. There's a 4-day weekend coming up, so maybe I'll get caught up then.

An Excuse

2011-11-13T18:56:00.001-08:00

We have a houseguest this week, so no post.

2011-11-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

Man, I'm really enjoying Mass Effect. What a great game. That's why this update is late.

Detroit Metal City, vol. 9 by Kiminori Wakasugi. More absurdity. (Checked out of the library.)
Stumptown by Greg Rucka & Matthew Southworth

Crime story set in Portland. Great story and beautiful art. It's fun identifying the locations Southworth used for reference in his art. The book design is gorgeous, as well. An amazing package all around. I hope there's more to come, but in the current comics market, I'm not holding my breath. This book was a birthday present. Thanks, Gemma & Dee!
God Save the Queen by Mike Carey & John Bolton.

Urban fantasy. Bolton is a fantastic artist, and this story plays to his strengths.
Alpha Flight Classic, vol. 2 by John Byrne. Some awkward story-telling here & there, but still plenty entertaining. I hope we see a third volume of Byrne's run and then another with Mantlo's & Mignola's issues.
Boy's Ranch by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. I've had this book for years but kept putting off reading it. Reading the collection of Simon & Kirby's Sandman comics a few weeks back convinced me to crack it open. I'm glad I did. Fun stuff.
The Last Dragon by Jane Yolen & Rebecca Guay.

Comics adaptation of one of Teena's favorite stories by Yolen. Beautifully done. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Beards of Our Forefathers: A Collection of Wondermark Comic Strips by David Malki !

Web-comic collection. The creator repurposes art from old magazines, advertisements and books. Very absurd stuff. Lots of fun.
All-New Atom: Small Wonder by various. I really enjoyed the end of Gail Simone's run. But the writer who took over after she left made the story entirely too serious.
Captain America: The Trial of Captain America by Ed Brubaker, Butch Guice, et al. This continues to be a great series.
Zorro, vol. 3: Tales of the Fox by Matt Wagner & Francesco Francavilla.

And with this book, I have completed by 2011 list of A-Z book titles.
DC Comics Presents: Batman: Blink by Dwayne McDuffie & Val Semeiks. While it is nice to see more of McDuffie's comics collected, it would have been nice if this had come out before he died.

Movies:

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Manos: The Hands of Fate. Actually watched this a few weeks back but kept forgetting to list it here.
Doctor Who: The Creature from the Pit. I had seen this once before when PBS showed it in the 80s, but I remembered almost nothing about it. It's quite funny.

Halloween Eve

2011-10-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

Mass Effect has been eating up a lot of my time lately, so I'll keep things short.

Motel Art Improvement Service by Jason Little.

(Checked out of the library.)
Showcase Presents: Secrets of Sinister House by various. Horror stories from the early 70s. I've read one of the other horror Showcase Presents volumes before, and I wasn't impressed. I think I liked this one better because I read a story or two a day rather than devouring the whole thing at once.
Snuff by Terry Pratchett.

After learning that Terry Pratchett has early onset Alzheimer's, I keep expecting each new Discworld novel to be the last, but he's still going strong. This latest one may be a little predictable, but Pratchett still understands human nature as well as ever.
Dracula: The Company of Monsters, vol. 3 by Kurt Busiek, Daryl Gregory, Damien Couciero & Scot Godlewski. Conclusion to the best vampire story I've read in a long time. (Library.)
The All-New Atom: Future/Past by Gail Simone, Mike Norton & Eddy Barrows.
Invincible Iron Man, vol. 8: Unfixable by Matt Fraction, Salvador Larroca, et al. (Library.)
Sigil: Out of Time by Mike Carey & Leonard Kirk. Great young-adult fantasy story. I hope to see more of this.
Essential Monster of Frankenstein by various. Frankenstein's Monster in Marvel comics. Pretty good, although the stories from the black and white magazines (that were not subject to the Comics Code) were too nihilistic for my tastes.
Superman/Batman: Worship by Paul Levitz, Jerry Ordway & Renato Guedes. (Library.)
Greek Street vol. 3: Medea's Luck by Peter Milligan, Werther Dell'edera & Davide Gianfelice.

The final collection of this comic updating Greek myths to current day London.
Vertigo Resurrected: The Eaters by Peter Milligan, Dean Ormston, et al.
Dungeon Zenith, vol. 3: Back in Style by Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim & Boulet. (Library)
The All New Atom: The Hunt for Ray Palmer by Gail Simone & Mike Norton.
DC Comics Presents: Superboy's Legion by Mark Farmer & Alan Davis. The DC Comics Presents format is giving DC a place to reprint a bunch of Elseworlds stories. Fine by me.
Showcase Presents: The Phantom Stranger, vol. 2 by various.

More Comics Code-approved horror.
Morning Glories, vol. 2: All Will Be Free by Nick Spencer & Joe Eisma. The Prisoner meets teen drama. I enjoy this series quite a lot, but I do hope we start getting at least a few answers soon.
Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis by Warren Ellis & Kaare Andrews.

Movies:

Doctor Who: The Two Doctors. The 6th Doctor (Colin Baker) meets the 2nd (Patrick Troughton).
Thor. Enjoyed this more than I expected. Plenty of jokes and some spectacular action.
Howl's Moving Castle. When it has been a while since I've seen a studio Ghibli movie, I forget how beautiful they are. I love this movie.
Kakurenbo. Japanese animated short. Horror story about a special game of hide & seek.
Bride of Frankenstein.
Frankenstein. Teena & I probably should have watched these two in the other order, but once we finished Bride, we realized there was time to watch the first movie. Really impressed by Karloff's performance, especially in that costume & under that makup.

And that brings me up to date.

Skip Week

2011-10-23T18:35:00.000-07:00

Not many books this week (since I read a novel). And since I spent the afternoon playing Mass Effect, I'll put things off until next week.

Some Spooooky Books

2011-10-16T16:06:00.000-07:00

We are well into October, so I have been picking some horror titles for my reading. Not everything, but some.

The All-New Atom: My Life in Miniature by Gail Simon, John Byrne, & Eddy Barrows. Finally got around to picking up the collections of Simone's run.
American Vampire, v.2 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque & Mateus Santolouco. I'm enjoying this series, but I'm not blown away by it. (Checked out of the library.)
Hellboy, vol. 11: The Bride of Hell and Others by Mike Mignola, Richard Corben, Kevin Nowlan & Scott Hampton.

Latest collection of Hellboy short stories, including the one in which Hellboy spends time fighting as a luchador in 50s Mexico. Great stuff, as always.
Captain America: Man Out of Time by Mark Waid & Jorge Molina. The story of Cap dealing with culture shock after being rescued from the ice where he spent the years since WWII. Very well done. Waid really gets the character and what he stands for. (Library.)
iZombie, vol. 2: uVampire
by Chris Roberson & Michael Allred, with Gilbert Hernandez.
This series is really growing on me. I like the characters and am looking forward to seeing where Roberson takes them.
Amulet, bk. 4: The Last Council by Kazu Kibuishi.

And now I am caught up with this series and will have to wait a year before I learn what happens next. Great, all-ages comics. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Scary Godmother Comic Book Stories by Jill Thompson.

It's so nice to have all of Thompson's Scary Godmother comics collected into one book. Really fun stuff. Aimed at kids (complete with craft projects and snack recipes) but enjoyable by adults as well. Tons of spooky fun. Highly recommended.

And now for movie catch-up:

Bringing Up Baby. Cary Grant & Katharine Hepburn are hilarious in this screwball comedy. I was surprised to learn that the movie didn't do well when it was first released, because it is fantastic. Wonderful performances all around.
Ocean's 11. The original from the 60s. The recent remake bears almost no resemblance to this. It's interesting, but a very different movie.
Clue. About the only good movie I can see being made from a board game. So many great comedians in this.
James Burke's Connections. Thanks to Netflix, Teena & I watched this series about how things are connected. Some amazing chains of connection. Absolutely fascinating. We will be getting the later series soonish but need a break right now.

Lots of Books This Week

2011-10-09T18:04:00.000-07:00

Mermaid Saga, vol. 4 by Rumiko Takahashi. Final volume of this horror series.
Frequently Asked Questions: An Unshelved Collection by Bill Barnes & Gene Ambaum. More comic strips about a public library. (Checked out of the library.)
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch.

Enjoyed this so much when I got it from the library a few months back I decided to pick up a copy at Stumptown Comics Fest. Deutsch is local, and he was there. So I got this copy signed. Wonderful story. I hope there will be more.
Invincible Iron Man, vol. 7: My Monsters by Matt Fraction, Salvador Larroca & Carmine Di Giandomenico. Another Iron Man collection. This one includes a story that takes the Iron Man villain The Mandarin, and rescues him from his racist origins as a Yellow Peril cliche. (Checked out of the library.)
Taskmaster: Unthinkable by Fred Van Lente & Jefte Pao. A minor character that's been around for ages get a back-story. Both funny (especially Don of the Dead) & touching. (Library.)
The Other Side of the Mirror, vol. 1 by Jo Chen. Romance comic. The art is very nice, but the story feels amateurish. But then, this is one of Chen's first published works.
The Other Side of the Mirror, vol. 2 by Jo Chen.
Shadowland: Power Man by Fred Van Lente & Mahmud Asrar. A new character emerges from a Marvel cross-over. (Library.)
Strange Science Fantasy by Scott Morse.

Fun, weird stories using comics tropes from non-superhero genres: war, detective, adventure, science fiction. I quite enjoyed this. (Library.)
Korgi, vol. 3 by Christian Slade. Latest volume of this silent comic about a magical korgi and his friends. (Borrowed from Teena.)
The Sandman by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby

I had gotten used to Golden Age comics being more about enthusiasm than skill. A lot of the comics I've read from the 40s have an undeniable energy (stemming from the excitement of young people doing something that's brand new), but they're just not very good. That is not the case with the stories reprinted in this book. They're great. Simon & Kirby knew what they were doing, and they crafted some highly entertaining stories about a guy in a purple and yellow jumpsuit. So glad I picked this up.
Amulet, bk. 3: The Cloud Searchers by Kazu Kibuishi.

The story continues. Still fantastic. (Borrowed from Teena.)
John Constantine, Hellblazer: Bloody Carnations by Peter Milligan, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Stefano Landini & Simon Bisley. I am glad that Milligan's run on Hellblazer turned out to be one of the things by him that I enjoy. I'm not sure what is happening with the character now that he is again part of the main DC universe. I hope this continues as a separate continuity.
Questionable Content, vol. 2 by Jeph Jacques. The second collection of the web-comic. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Ruse: The Victorian Guide to Murder by Mark Waid, Mirco Pierfederici & Minck Ooserveer.

Sherlock Holmes pastiche. Pretty good, too.
Essential Defenders, vol. 4 by various. It took me a long time to get through this book. The stories just didn't hold my interest, especially the "Tunnelworld" one. That story dragged on and on. There was a great bit late in the book when Valkyrie and the Hulk go grocery shopping. Other than that, it was pretty dire.
Paying for It: A Comic-Strip Memoir about Being a John by Chester Brown. This is a very odd book. Self-serving, I have to assume. I don't think that Brown is going to convince anybody who doesn't already think prostitution should be decriminalized, but his arguments are interesting (if not persuasive). (Library.)
Chester 5000 XYV by Jess Fink. Silent steampunk erotic comics.

That's a lot of books, so I'll hold off on movies until next week.

Light on Books, but Finally Some Movies

2011-10-02T15:45:00.000-07:00

Northlanders, vol. 5 Metal and Other Stories by Brian Wood, Riccardo Burichelli et al. Another volume in this series of stories about vikings. I especially liked the third story, "The Girl in the Ice." (Checked out of the library.)
The Ballad of Sleeping Beauty by Gabriel Benson & Mike Hawthorne.

Fairy tale western. Pretty good, but I didn't find it particularly compelling.
Amulet, bk. 2: The Stonekeeper's Curse by Kazu Kibuishi.

The next volume. Wonderful stuff. I do seem to be managing to pace myself on these, but it's hard. I want to see what happens next. Wonderful fantasy series aimed at kids but enjoyable by adults. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Black Jack, vol. 15 by Osamu Tezuka. Yet another volume. Still great. (Library.)
Mermaid Saga, vol. 3 by Rumiko Takahashi. These stories are quite good. I wouldn't be surprised if this didn't sell as well as her romantic comedy stories, but I wish Takahashi would do more like this.

And that's it for books this week. But the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival was this weekend. The main festival has moved to southern California, although, there will be a satellite festival in Portland in spring starting next year. This was a shorter festival to tide us over until then. There were 2 shorts blocks; one of which I didn't much care for (except for a single, fairy-tale like story about mismatched silverware), the other of which was pretty good. There were also 2 feature films:

The Whisperer in Darkness, which is a fantastic adaptation of the story. Extremely well-done. Very impressive.
Die Farbe, a German adaptation of "The Color Out of Space", my favorite Lovecraft story. I was blown away by this. This actually captured the sense of dread, foreboding and helplessness of the story. (Very unlike the Italian adaptation I saw a couple of years ago that went for shock and gore rather than attempting to actually capture the feel of the story.)

Enjoyed the festival, and the shorter length meant that Teena and I weren't completely wiped out when it it was over. So that was nice.

Last Sunday in September

2011-09-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

Atomic Robo, vol. 5: Atomic Robo and the Deadly Art of Science by Brian Clevinger & Scott Wegener.

I'm glad I stuck with this series after the first volume (which felt a lot like a Hellboy pastiche). It keeps getting better & funnier. (Checked out of the library.)
Fallen Angel: Return of the Son by Peter David & J.K. Woodward. This appears to be the final volume of this series. There is a chance there will be more, but they will be quite dark, and I'm not sure I will get them.
Vertigo Resurrected: Johnny Double by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. Another mini-series collected.
20th Century Boys, vol. 16: Beyond the Looking Glass by Naoki Urasawa.

Another nine volumes to go, and I'm still eagerly anticipating each one. Can't wait to see where it goes next.
Thunderbolts: Violent Rejection by Jeff Parker, Kev Walker & Declan Shalvey. Don't know what to say other than that I enjoyed this. (Library.)
Amulet, Book 1: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi

The fourth book in this series is coming, so I decided it was time to re-read this one and to finally read 2 and 3. I had forgotten how good this fantasy comic is. Looking forward to reading more. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Excalibur Visionaries: Warren Ellis, vol. 1 by Warren Ellis, et al. Even though I like Ellis's writing a lot, I resisted picking up this collection of some of his early work at Marvel. But I found a used copy and picked it up. The first issues reprinted here don't impress me, but the final three issues are definitely Ellis doing good work. The character he introduced earlier, Pete Wisdom, starts to feel like the standard Ellis protagonist (if you've read Transmetropolitan or Gravel or just about anything Ellis has written, you know what I mean). I'll be getting the other volumes when the opportunity presents itself.
The Best of Archie Comics by various.

Over 400 pages of comics ranging from Archie's first appearance in 1941 to an issue from 2010, all for $10. This is quite a bargain. I will never claim that Archie comics are high art, but they can be plenty entertaining.
Showcase Presents: Blackhawk by unknown and Dick Dillin. DC comics no longer knows who wrote these stories from the late 50s, but they do know that Dillin drew them. The first few issues reprinted here are all about how evil Communists are, and the stories suffer for it. (Not that I'm pro-communist. Just anti-propaganda.) Once the Blackhawks' opponents become gangsters with fantastic weapons and vehicles, the stories get more readable.
Stan Lee's Starborn, vol. 1: Beyond the Far Stars by Chris Roberson & Khary Randolph. (Library.)
Mermaid Saga, vol. 1 by Rumiko Takahashi. Not her usual formula, but this is a horror series, not a romantic comedy.
Mermaid Saga, vol. 2 by Rumiko Takahashi.

Still no movies.

Mid-September

2011-09-18T16:48:00.000-07:00

X'ed Out by Charles Burns.

Disturbing, as Burns always is. I had not realized this was the first volume of a series. Looking forward to more. I wonder if the next volume will also have a certain Tintin feel to it. (Checked out of the library.)
Hulk Visionaries: Peter David, vol. 8 by Peter David, Dale Keown, et al. David wrote the Hulk for a long time, and I am very glad his run is being collected.
Fantastic Four, vol. 4 by Jonathan Hickman & Steve Epting. Hickman seems a perfect fit for the Fantastic Four. Plenty of super-science concepts flying around. (Library.)
Sweet Tooth, vol. 3: Animal Armies by Jeff Lemire. Latest collection of this post-apocalyptic comic. Sweet an horrifying at the same time. The more of Lemire's work I read, the more I like him.
Star Trek: The Manga, Ultimate Edition by various. Manga-style comics about classic Trek.
The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Eric Shanower & Skottie Young.

Comics adaptation of the second Oz novel. I had forgotten just how funny these books can sometimes be. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Essential Spider-Man, vol. 7 by Gerry Conway, Len Wein, Ross Andru, et al. When I was a kid, I had a subscription to The Amazing Spider-Man sometime in the mid-70s. The issues I got in my subscription are reprinted in this volume. It was a weird feeling, re-reading something after 35 or so years.
Madame Xanadu, vol. 4: Extra Sensory by Matt Wagner, et al. I had thought volume 3 was the final collection of this series, but I was wrong. However, this is the last one.
Congress of the Animals by Jim Woodring.

Woodring's comics are always surreal and dream-like, particularly his Frank stories, which are wordless. Freaky stuff, but very good. (Library.)

No movies this week.

10 Years

2011-09-11T11:29:00.000-07:00

Don't have much to say about the 10th anniversary, but we shouldn't forget.

Anyway, on to books:

Call of the Wild: A Mutts Treasury by Patrick McDonnell.Such a wonderful comic. Sweet and gentle unlike anything else on the comics page, but not cloying or saccharine.
Avengers: The Coming of the Beast by Steve Englehart, Tony Isabella, George Tuska and Don Heck. I really wonder who at Marvel decides what comics get fancy hardcover collections. This one consists of the first four Avengers issues where the Beast is a member and 2 unrelated fill-in issues from shortly thereafter. Different creative teams too. Why do these issues warrant a $20 hardcover? (Checked out of the library.)
Casanova, vol. 2: Gula by Matt Fraction and Fabio Moon.Man, I love this comic. Weird and surreal and fantastic. So glad that new issues are being published again.
Rin-Ne, vol. 6 by Rumiko Takahashi. I'm sure I've mentioned this on every previous volume: Takahashi's formula is very apparent here, but it's still entertaining. (Library.)
Fantastic Four, vol. 3 by Jonathan Hickman & Neil Edwards. More super-science concepts. (Library.)
Doctor Strange: Into the Dark Dimension by Roger Stern, Paul Smith, et al.Another of the fancy hardcovers I was talking about above, but this time it's a coherent storyline (although I suspect the final issue reprinted here may have been included just to pad the page count). I really enjoy Stern's writing and wish there were more collections of his work.
DC Comics Presents: JLA - Heaven's Ladder by Mark Waid & Bryan Hitch. One of the things DC seems to be using these DC Comics Presents for is to bring back into print stories that were originally published as overpriced hardcover original graphic novels. I'm glad they are now cheaper.
B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth, vol. 1: New World by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis.
Still a remarkable series. Still going strong.
Gen 13: Best of a Bad Lot by Gail Simone & Talent Caldwell. Reboot of the Wildstorm property. Probably moot with DC's latest relaunch, but still a good story.
Usagi Yojimbo, vol. 25: Fox Hunt by Stan Sakai.
Now this is an achievement. Sakai has been creating this comic for nearly 25 years, and it is as good as it has ever been. He just keeps honing his craft. Excellent comics. One of the best being published.

Movies:

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Teena and I had our niece over for a visit, so we watched a kid's movie. This was better than we had expected. Not filled with lazy jokes, which was a pleasant surprise.

Happy Labor Day!

2011-09-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

Three day weekend means a Monday post.

Today is a nice reminder that the U.S. hasn't always been so hostile to the common worker. I'm just glad that Labor Day is old enough that there is little chance of it being rescinded. (Although who knows? As this page shows, the Right has stopped pretending not to be outraged that the poor have the audacity to think they should have a say in their own governance.

Anyway, on to the past weeks books:

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher.

The latest Dresden Files novel. Where do you go when your protagonist ends the previous book by being shot in the chest and falling into the icy waters of Lake Michigan? Well, the title should give you a hint. Looking forward to the next book next year.
The Warlord: The Saga by Mike Grell, Joe Prado & Chad Hardin. Grell returns to a character he wrote and drew for a good deal of the 70s.
Incognito, vol. 2: Bad Influences by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips.
Pulp-inspired super-villainy. Can't wait to see where the story goes next.
Rasl: Pocket Book One by Jeff Smith.Smith's latest book is very different from Bone, but is just as good. (Although I will admit I am starting to get a little burned out on stories that use Tesla as a source for whatever science McGuffin they need.)
Dan Dare Omnibus by Garth Ennis & Gary Erskine.

Catch-up time for movies:

Cowboys vs. Aliens. Actually saw this back at the beginning of August, but forgot to post about it then. Enjoyed the movie itself fine enough. Unfortunately, our experience was ruined by a jerk who got to the theater after previews had started, sat right next to Teena and spent the entire movie texting.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gamera vs. Zigra. It's really strange to see a kaiju (giant monster like Gamera or Godzilla) speaking in one of these movies.
Doctor Who: Enlightenment. Wraps up the story arc of Turlough's introduction.
RiffTrax Live: Jack the Giant Killer. Old kids' movie with some respectable stop-motion animation effects and a bizarre story.
The Heroic Trio Kung Fu super-heroics.
RiffTrax: Shorts to Go. One of the latest collections of short films and joke-filled commentaries.
RiffTrax: Olde Tyme Shorts Roundup. The other latest collection.
Doctor Who: The Seeds of Death. The Second Doctor vs. invading Martians.
The Film Crew: The Giant of Marathon. A Steve Reeves movie that isn't about Hercules. Amazingly, he still plays an incredibly strong ancient Greek.
Big Trouble in Little China. This movie is so much fun. I love the description of Kurt Russell's character as "A sidekick who thinks he's the lead." It fits perfectly.
RiffTrax: Shortstoberfest. Still more short films.

Quite a Backlog

2011-08-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

Stephen King's The Stand: No Man's Land by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa & Mike Perkins.

Continuing the adaptation of the novel. Just one volume to go, I think. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Conan, vol. 9: Free Companions by Timothy Truman, Tomas Giorello, et al. (Checked out of the library.)
Conan, vol. 10: Iron Shadows in the Moon and Other Stories by Timothy Truman, Tomas Giorello, et al. I have been reading a fair number of Conan comics lately. (Library.)
Welcome to Tranquility: One Foot in the Grave by Gail Simone & Horacio Domingues. I hope we get a chance to see more Welcome to Tranquility stories now that DC is folding the WildStorm universe into the main DC Universe.
Children at Play: A Cul de Sac Collection by Richard Thompson.

I've really been enjoying this comic strip and need to look for any further collections.
Avengers - West Coast Avengers: Family Ties by Steve Englehart, Al Migrom, et al. If Marvel had published an Essential West Coast Avengers book, I'd have been all over that, but instead by putting out an overpriced hardcover, I gave it a pass until I could get it from the library. Fun, but the writing is extremely clunky in places. (Library.)
Shadowland: Thunderbolts by Jeff Parker, Kev Walker & Declan Shalvey. It's so great when a writer does a good job of tying an ongoing series into the latest cross-over, as Parker does here. I'd prefer fewer cross-overs, but they sell, so we will keep seeing them. (Library.)
Wolverine and Jubilee: Curse of the Mutants by Kathryn Immonen & Phil Noto. Immonen's writing is growing on me. (Library.)
Ruse, vol. 1: Enter the Detective by Mark Waid & Butch Guice. Found a used copy of this old CrossGen collection and decided to pick it up. I always enjoy a good Sherlock Holmes pastiche.
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. I've been thinking about reading this ever since I started reading FreakAngels (which was inspired by this), but kept putting it off until I discovered that Teena had a copy. I may need to check out the film version (Village of the Damned) next. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Star Trek: Crew by John Byrne. Exploring the early career of Majel Barrett's pre-Nurse Chapel character. (Library.)
The Sixth Gun, vol. 1: Cold, Dead Fingers by Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt.

I enjoyed this horror-western so much when I got it from the library I had to pick up a copy of my own.
DC Comics Presents: Teen Titans by Mike Allred, et al.
The Sixth Gun, vol. 2: Crossroads by Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt

Still loving this. I have realized in recent years that I quite enjoy westerns. And if they have fantastic elements, so much the better.
The Tooth by Cullen Bunn, Shawn Lee, and Matt Kindt. This is designed to look a lot like a Marvel monster comic from the 70s. (Library.)
Yeah! by Peter Bagge & Gilbert Hernandez. Fun, all-ages comic about a girl band who is famous all across the galaxy, but not on their home planet of Earth. (Library.)
Locke & Key, vol. 4: Keys to the Kingdom by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez. While I am still enjoying it, I really wish the protagonists could catch a break. The antagonist always seems two or three steps ahead of them. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Penny Arcade, vol. 7: Be Good, Little Puppy by Jerry Holkins & Mike Krahulik. All of the Penny Arcade strips from 2006. I started reading the site regularly sometime around then, so I actually remembered some of these. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Bat Lash: Guns and Roses by Sergio Aragones, Peter Brandvold, and John Severin. Straight western here. I love Severin's art. It really grabs me, and is perfectly suited to cowboy stories.
DC Comics Presents: Shazam! #1 by Jerry Ordway & Peter Krause. I'm not sure how DC picks which comics get reprinted in these inexpensive collections, but there are some good choices.
DC Comics Presents: Shazam! #2 by Jerry Ordway. Fun stuff.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Dust to Dust, vol. 1 by Chris Roberson & Robert Adler. Authorized prequel to Dick's novel. (Library.)
Counter X, vol. 3: X-Man by Warren Ellis, Steven Grant & Ariel Olivetti. Found a cheap copy of this, so I picked it up. Enjoyed this quite a bit more than the other Counter X collections.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Manga: Boukenshin, vol. 1 by various. Boy, that's a lot of colons in the title. STTNG comics featuring manga-influenced art. One story is written by David Gerrold and another is by Diane Duane
John Byrne's Next Men, vol. 1: Scattered. Byrne returns to his creator-owned characters after 15 years. This feels pretty self-indulgent, even by Byrne's recent standards. (And that's saying something.) Glad I didn't pay for this. (Library.)
Order of the Stick: Snips, Snails and Dragon Tales by Rich Burlew. Odds and ends that don't fit in with the larger Order of the Stick storyline.
Stop and Smell the Roses: A Mutts Treasury by Patrick McDonnell.

The best word I have found to describe this comic strip is sweet. It's very gentle. Not necessarily funny everyday, but always beautiful art.
Girl Genius, vol. 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse by Phil and Kaja Foglio. I read the webcomic faithfully, but the collections help show that the storyline isn't as bogged down in minutiae as it sometimes appears reading only 3 pages a week. And as always, the art is fantastic.

There have been several movies in the past couple of weeks, but I just got through a bunch of books, so they can wait until next week.

Skip Week

2011-08-21T17:01:00.001-07:00

I have family here to visit today, so no real update this week.

Time to Catch Up

2011-08-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

The Boys, vol. 8: Highland Laddie by Garth Ennis & John McCrea. This volume really goes a long way to humanizing this series. (Checked out of the library.)
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill.

I finally got around to re-reading this so I could read the following book:
Impossible Territories: The Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier by Jess Nevins. Annotation to the references in the above book, plus an interview with Alan Moore. I admire the effort Nevins puts into researching these annotations.
PunisherMax: Bullseye by Jason Aaron & Steve Dillon. (Library.)
Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson.

A great, new newspaper comic strip. Very funny, and covering different territory than the many other strips about suburban kids. Highly recommended.
Fables, vol. 15: Rose Red by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, et al. Moving things along. (Library.)
Dracula: The Company of Monsters, vol. 1 by Kurt Busiek, Daryl Gregory, Scott Godlewski & Damian Couceiro. (Library)
Dracula: The Company of Monsters, vol. 2 by Kurt Busiek, Daryl Gregory, Scott Godlewski & Damian Couciero. The best vampire story I've read in a long, long time. Can't wait for volume 3 to come out. (Library.)
Captain America: The Fighting Avenger by Brian Clevinger, Gurihiru. Tie-in with the movie (which I haven't seen.) (Library.)
DC Comics Presents: The Metal Men by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, & Kevin Maguire. Light-hearted treatment of one of DC's more absurd super-hero groups.
Captain America: American Nightmare by Mark Waid, Andy Kubert, et al. Comics from the 90s. (Library.)
Northlanders vol. 4: The Plague Widow by Brian Wood & Leandro Fernandez. Another story of vikings. (Library.)
Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger: The Little Sisters of Eluria by Robin Furth, Peter David & Luke Ross. Looks like these sell well enough that they will end up adapting the entire Dark Tower series.(Borrowed from Teena.)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century, vol. 2: 1969 by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill.

What we have seen of Century so far has been darker than previous LoEG stories. I'm hoping volume 3 ends on an up note.
Conan, vol. 8: Black Colossus by Timothy Truman & Tomas Giorello. (Library.)

A fair number of movies since I last posted a real update:

Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead. Turlough's introduction. Interesting to see a companion who isn't as altruistic as usual.
Doctor Who: Terminus. I hadn't been getting Doctor Who discs in sequence from NetFlix, but because these two stories and the following one have a character arc for Turlough, I broke with tradition.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gamera. Yay for Japanese monster movies and Americans poking fun at them.
MST3K: Gamera vs. Barugon.
MST3K: Gamera vs. Gaos.
MST3K: Gamera vs. Guiron. Of the 5 Gamera movies in the latest MST3K box set, Teena and I had seen only 2. We've got one movie to go, and it is one of the ones we had not previously seen.

Vacation Post

2011-08-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

I did not get many books read during my week off, so this is the only post this week. I will catch up next time.

I'm Back

2011-08-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

Here is the promised post.

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man & the Avengers by Paul Tobin, et al. More great all-ages comics.
S.H.I.E.L.D.: Architects of Forever by Jonathan Hickman & Dustin Weaver. A secret history of the Marvel Universe. Revealing that S.H.I.E.L.D., the super-spy organization has been defending Earth for centuries. (Checked out of the library.)
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four: Doomed If You Don't by Paul Tobin & David Hahn.
War of Kings: Road to War of Kings by Christover Yost, Dustin Weaver, et al. Preliminaries to Marvel's cosmic cross-over. (Library.)
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 4: Realm of Kings by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Brad Walker, & Wesley Craig. The more Abnett & Lanning I read, the more I enjoy their work. (Library.)
Legion Lost by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Olivier Copiel, & Pascal Alixe. Collection of a series that came out at a time when I wasn't reading Legion of Super-Heroes comics. So I knew almost nothing about this. It's very good. (Library.)
Richard Stark's Parker, Book 2: The Outfit adapted by Darwyn Cooke.

I enjoyed the first book, but this one blew me away, especially the section in the middle of the book where a bunch of heists are described, each in a different art style. I'm definitely on board for the next book.
Citizen Rex by Mario & Gilbert Hernandez. Science fiction weirdness. (Library.)
The Nobody by Jeff Lemire.

The Invisible Man set in small-town America. (Library.)
Batman: The Bat and the Beast by Peter Milligan and Andy Clarke. Milligan can be hit or miss for me, especially when writing corporate characters. Fortunately, this is one of the hits. Batman in Moscow.

No movies since last time, but Teena and I did go to

Trek in the Park: Mirror, Mirror on Saturday. This is getting more & more popular. We were there 2 hours early, but we still ended up having to sit behind the "stage." Fortunately, we were still able to see most of the action. Also, while we were in the sun when we arrived, the shadows moved over us by the time the show started. Lots of fun. Looking forward to the show next year (even if we have to show up 3 or 4 hours early).

Delay

2011-07-31T16:58:00.000-07:00

Don't feel like updating today. I'll update tomorrow, since I'm on vacation and will have the time.

Once Again, a Light Week

2011-07-24T15:23:00.000-07:00

(I realize just how skewed a perspective it is that I consider a week in which I finished reading 8 book to be light.)

Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 25 by Hiromu Arakwa.

I keep expecting this series to wrap up with each new volume, but it looks like there are 2 to go after this one. (I have noticed a tendency for manga series to run a few volumes too long. The dangers of serial publication, I suppose.) (Checked out of the library.)
Echo, vol. 6: The Last Day by Terry Moore. The final volume of this series brought in connections to his previous series, Strangers in Paradise, which I never finished. Fortunately, you don't need to know anything about that series to enjoy the climax to this one. Apparently his next series is set in the same world. Looking forward to that one.
Batman: Haunted Gotham by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones. Batman vs. demons. Well-suited to Jones's art style. (Library.)
Red Hulk: Scorched Earth by Jeff Parker & Gabriel Hardman. Basically, this is Marvel Team-Up: Starring the Red Hulk. Lots of guest-stars, lots of fun. (Library.)
Dungeons & Dragons, vol. 1: Shadowplague by John Rogers & Andrea DiVoto.

I've been buying the individual issues of the new D&D comic, and had been going to pass up on the collection, but was won over when I saw that the book was packaged to look like a source-book for the role-playing game. It looks fantastic and even comes with an appendix with the story from the comic converted into a 4th edition D&D adventure.
Secret Warriors, vol. 5: Night by Jonathan Hickman, Alessandro Vitti, et al. More spy action. (Library.)
Essential Captain America, vol. 4 by Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema, et al. Captain America stories from the early to mid-70's, when Cap undergoes a crisis of conscience brought on by Watergate (and by seeing the Marvel Universe version of Richard Nixon commit suicide after his attempt to become dictator of the US was thwarted*).
Shadowland by Kim Deitch. Sordid & trippy stories about carnival life and the early days of Hollywood.

*Long story.

Once again, only one movie:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I. Once the books finished, both Teena and I pretty much lost interest in the movies, which is why it has taken us this long to get around to this movie. When we see the final one soon will depend on whether or not we can find a decent theater showing it in 2D. We may just wait for it to show up on NetFlix (as we did this one).

That's More Like It

2011-07-17T16:52:00.000-07:00

Essential Tomb of Dracula, vol. 4 by various. Collecting stories from Marvel's 70s horror magazines. Interestingly, the stories are arranged chronologically by when they occur in Dracula's un-life, rather than when they were published.
Jack of Fables, vol. 8: The Fulminate Blade by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Tony Akins, & Jim Fern. (Checked out of the library.)
Atomic Robo, vol. 4: Atomic Robo and Other Strangeness by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener. I am finding this series more and more enjoyable. It keeps getting better. (Library.)
Batman: Knight and Squire by Paul Cornell & Jimmy Broxton.

I wish the realities of the comic book market didn't dictate that this book be labeled "Batman". It's a fantastic, light-hearted comic that still has some substance to it. But most comics fans don't want that, so, because it's features characters that first appeared in a Batman comic, they don't get top billing in their own book. I loved this and would be thrilled if Cornell were to write more adventures of the Knight & Squire.
DC Comics Presents: Batman: Gotham Noir by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips. I really enjoy stories that take familiar characters and re-imagine them in different circumstances (although I do find it tiresome when the creators cram in too much of the "real" continuity). This is a great version of Gotham City as the setting for a noir story starring private eye James Gordon.
Punisher: In the Blood by Rick Remender & Roland Boschi. (Library.)
Captain America: No Escape by Ed Brubaker & Butch Guice. Still enjoying Brubaker's run on Cap.
Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 3: War of Kings, bk. 2 by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Brad Walker & Wesley Craig. Abnett & Lanning have a great handle on Marvel's cosmic characters. (Library.)
Bat Boy: The Complete Weekly World News Comic Strips by Peter Bagge.

I think this may be the best thing I've read by Bagge in years. Lots of fun, full of tabloid madness. (Library.)
The Barry Windsor-Smith Conan Archives, vol. 2 by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith.

Beautiful art on these stories. Windsor-Smith was growing into his talent when he worked on the comics collected here.

Just one movie:

Transformers, with the RiffTrax commentary. The commentary made the action sequences very funny, but nothing on earth could salvage the attempts at a story. I have never seen such a collection of plot holes, lazy jokes and just plain stupidity. (And I hope to never suffer such again.) Both Teena & I were rooting for the Decepticons. "Kill all humans!"

Simply Haven't Been Getting Through Many Books Lately

2011-07-10T17:27:00.000-07:00

Tex Arcana: A Saga of the Old West by John Findley. Print on demand collection of a horror-western strip from the pages of 80s Heavy Metal. The first story ends via deus ex machina, but the others work well, and the art holds up nicely.
Hikaru no Go, vol. 23: Endgame by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata. The final volume. I enjoyed this, but the series dragged on too long. It really should have ended with Sai fading away when he saw that the Hikaru would continue to grow as a go player. (Checked out of the library.)
Gingerbread Girl by Paul Tobin & Colleen Coover.

Great story about a young woman who may be crazy or who may be the product of mad science. Tobin & Coover play with the medium, utilizing many different narrators (who all address the reader directly). Plus, the story is set in Portland, so I enjoyed recognizing the background.
20th Century Boys, vol. 15: Expo Hurray by Naoki Urasawa.

Still enjoying this series. Can't wait to see where it goes.
Stan Lee's The Traveler, vol. 1: Man Out of Time by Mark Waid & Chad Hardin. Pretty standard super-hero stuff, but I found this more engaging than the other Lee-"created" graphic novel I read recently.
Showcase Presents The Flash, vol. 2 by John Broome & Carmine Infantino. The Flash may well be the quintessential Silver Age super-hero. I had never been all that interested in the Barry Allen version of the character until I listened to the Tom vs. The Flash podcast, which is a lot of fun. Thanks to that, I picked up this Showcase volume, and I will eventually be acquiring the others. (Tom has since moved on to Aquaman, which continues to get better & better. Funny stuff.)

Only one movie this week:

Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin. Tom Baker without a companion. Good, but he works better with somebody to play off of.

Independence Day

2011-07-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

It's a three-day weekend, so my update comes on Monday. (Of course, the 3 or 4 of you who read this probably already know that.)

Thor: Latverian Prometheus by Kieron Gillen & Billy Tan. More Thor comics. (Checked out of the library.)
Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman.

A nicely-presented short story that tells the tale of when Lee Scoresby met Iorek Byrnison. I really enjoyed it, and it made me want to re-read His Dark Materials. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Vertigo Resurrected: The Sandman Presents: Petrefax by Mike Carey & Steve Leialoha. Collecting a story that must have originally been published after I gave up on Sandman spin-offs, since I had never read it before. Entertaining piece about a minor character from Gaiman's epic.
Level Up by Gene Luen Yang & Thien Pham. A comic about coming to terms with parental expectations. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Fighting American by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby.

When Simon & Kirby learned that their creation, Captain America, was being revived in the 50s, they decided to try their hands at another patriotic hero. Their new creation lasted longer than the revival.
Invincible Iron Man, vol. 4: Stark Disassembled by Matt Fraction & Salvador Larroca. I picked this up a few months ago, when Fraction did a signing at a local comic shop. Solid super-heroics.

A few movies since last week:

Wings of Desire. I saw this in a theater when it was released, back in the late 80s, and I loved it. I hadn't seen it since. While I still liked it, it didn't grab me nearly as much as it did 23 or so years ago. Too slow-moving and not a little pretentious.
Doctor Who: Dreamland. Animated Doctor Who story. The writing and acting are fine, but the CGI did not work for either Teena or me.
Doctor Who: Earthshock. Adric's final story. Holds up well.

Still Another Light Week

2011-06-26T16:16:00.000-07:00

Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett.

Great book about a robot invented late in the 19th century and its adventures until its disappearance during WWI. Presented as a history book, and full of amazing photos and illustrations, this could almost convince somebody that there was an intelligent robot over a century ago.
JLA: The Hypothetical Woman by Gail Simone & Jorge Luis Garcia Lopez. (Checked out of the library.)
Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol.

Very well-done young-adult comic about a high-school girl who finds herself haunted by a friendly ghost. Recommended. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Black Jack, vol. 14 by Osamu Tezuka. Another volume of the manga about the maverick doctor. (Library.)
Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars: The Jesse Marsh Years by Paul S. Newman & Jesse Marsh. Comics from the 50s adapting some of Burroughs's Barsoom stories.
Essential Fantastic Four, vol. 6 by Roy Thomas, Stan Lee, John Buscema, et al. Early 70s super-heroes.

Just one movie this week:

Stardust. Fun, not great. Apparently, Terry Gilliam was offered the opportunity to direct this but turned it down. That would have been something to see.

Father's Day Post

2011-06-19T16:54:00.000-07:00

Love and Rockets New Stories, no. 3 by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez.

While still good, Gilbert's stories are getting more & more esoteric. And I'm enjoying Jaime's stories all the more. (Checked out of the library.)
Thor: Wolves of the North by various. It's just amazing how many Thor books Marvel has been putting out recently. I wonder why that is.
The Marvels Project: Birth of the Super Heroes by Ed Brubaker & Steve Epting. An examination of the early days of the Marvel Universe.
Scalped, vol. 7: Rez Blues by Jason Aaron, R.M. Guera, et al. The more I read of this Native American noir, the more impressed I am. (Library.)
George R.R. Martin's Doorways by George R.R. Martin & Stefano Martino.

Adaptation of a television pilot that Martin wrote a while back.
Essential Spider Man, vol. 6 by Gerry Conway, John Romita, Ross Andru, et al. Conway really handles the soap-opera aspect of super-hero comics well. He juggles sub-plots and brings them to prominence when they've simmered long enough. And he keeps adding more threads as old ones resolve. Solidly entertaining comics.
DMZ, vol. 10: Collective Punishment by Brian Wood, et al.

Moving the story along and catching up with other characters.
Judge Anderson, vol. 1: Anderson, Psi-Division by John Wagner, Alan Grant, et al. Spin-off of Judge Dredd. Pretty good, but nothing all that memorable.

Oh, yes. I forgot to mention it when I finished it, but I listened to the audio version of A Series of Unfortunate Events #13: The End, narrated by Tim Curry. I will always love this book for one particular scene; one I don't want to mention because it's the climax of the book. If you've read the book, you can probably guess which scene I mean. If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it (and the entire series {even though there are a couple of books in the middle where the formula gets a bit tedious}).

A few movies since last time:

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Last of the Wild Horses.
Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric. The seventh Doctor manipulating bad guys and helping Ace to deal with adolescent angst.
The Great Muppet Caper. Teena's favorite Muppet movie. (I lean towards the first one myself, but this on is plenty of fun.)
Doctor Who: Planet of Evil. The fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane on the edge of the universe.
Sherlock. The first series of the BBC modernization of Doyle's stories. Teena and I were both blown away at how great a job they did bringing the characters and situations up to the current day. We couldn't believe the ending and cannot wait until the next series comes out and makes it to the US.

And I have finished a couple of video games recently.

Puzzle Quest 2 for the iPad. A match-3 game paired with an RPG. Kept me occupied for hours.
Bayonetta. I mentioned this on Twitter, but this game is completely over-the-top. I have never seen a more preposterous game. The cheesecake is so blatant that I can't even find it offensive. It's ridiculous, and it knows it. Here is a review of the game that does a better job describing it than I could.

More Books this Week

2011-06-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

The Goon, vol. 9: Calamity of Conscience by Eric Powell.

I like the way Powell mixes thrills and angst with goofiness and low-brow humor. (Checked out of the library.)
DC Comics Presents: Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City by Peter Milligan & Kieron Dwyer. I'm generally not in favor of stories that bring us a dark & edgy Riddler. Come on, he's just silly. But this one is well-done and adds to Gotham City's history.
Stan Lee's Soldier Zero, vol. 1: One Small Step for Man by Paul Cornell & Javier Pina. I normally like Cornell's writing quite a bit, but it did nothing for me here.
The Boys, vol. 7: the Innocents by Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson, Russ Brown, & John McCrea. Building towards a climax. (Library.)
DC Comics Presents: Green Lantern: Willworld by J.M. DeMatteis & Seth Fisher. One of DeMatteis' mystical stories, which can be hit or miss for me, but it works here, especially since it is backed up by suitably hallucinatory art from Fisher.
Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 2: War of Kings, bk. 1 by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Brad Walker, et al. More cosmic super-heroics in the Marvel Universe. (Library.)
Secret Six: Reptile Brain by Gail Simone, Jim Calafiore, et al. More twisted fun from Simone. This is one of my favorite comics right now, and I am sad that it will be going away with DC's relaunch in September. I really hope we get a collection of the final issues.
Farscape: Uncharted Tales: D'Argo's Quest by Keith R.A. DeCandido & Caleb Cleveland. (Library.)
Batman and Robin, vol. 3: Batman and Robin Must Die by Grant Morrison, Fraser Irving, et al. Great climax to this part of the huge, sprawling Batman story Morrison has been telling for years.
The Stranded, vol. 1 by Mike Carey & Siddharth Kotian. I need to remember that not everything Carey writes works for me. A lot of it does, and when it does, it really works (see my responses to The Unwritten). But this is not one of those. There's nothing wrong with this story about aliens hiding amongst humanity, but it doesn't really speak to me.
The Stuff of Legend, bk. 2: The Jungle by Mike Raicht, Brian Smith, & Charles Paul Wilson III.

More adventures of a group of toys searching the world beyond the closet for their boy, who has been stolen by the Boogieman.
The Best American Comics 2008 edited by Lynda Barry.

I may not love every comic in this anthology, but I can see the merit to them all. And there is plenty of great stuff here. (I do wish DC had permitted an excerpt from Paul Pope's excellent Batman: Year One Hundred .)

Time to catch up on movies:

Iron Man 2. Not bad, but not as good as the first one. This needed more banter between Tony & Pepper and Tony & Rhodey. You've got Robert Downey Jr., give him a chance to be charming.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Beginning of the End. Peter Graves in a tale of giant locusts menacing Chicago.
The Saturday program of the Northwest Animation Festival. Not everything here was for me, but there was plenty of great animation. I especially liked "The Gentleman's Guide to Villainy", "Something Left, Something Taken", and "Coffee Critics".
The Last Airbender with the RiffTrax commentary. The white-washing of the cast was enough to keep Teena and I from seeing this movie in the theater even before the horrible reviews came in. However, we thought the jokes of a RiffTrax commentary would make it worth a NetFlix rental. There were some funny jokes, but they weren't nearly strong enough to overcome just how bad this movie is. It tries to cram the entire 20 episode first season of the cartoon into an hour and a half. It does this by forgoing any attempt to "show, don't tell." It feels like the movie is nothing but exposition. Particularly awkward exposition. More than once, a character tells another, "As you know..." Also sacrificed to get the run-time down: any trace of charm, humor, and the characters' personalities. Simply awful. Not worth it even with the RiffTrax jokes. Teena and I have started re-watching the cartoon (which is wonderful) just to get the bad taste out of our mouths.

Another Light Week

2011-06-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

The Savage Sword of Conan, vol. 4 by Roy Thomas, John Buscema, et al. More black and white Conan comics from the late 70s and early 80s.
Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles Or, Pirates of the Second Aether!! by Michael Moorcock.

This is not so much a Doctor Who novel as a Michael Moorcock novel (and one of his weirder ones at that) that happens to include the Doctor. I really enjoyed it, but it's definitely not for everybody.
Delirium's Party: A Little Endless Storybook by Jill Thompson.

Cute children's book using the Endless from Neil Gaiman's Sandman.
Love from the Shadows by Gilbert Hernandez. (Checked out of the library.)
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes: The Early Years by Paul Levitz, Kevin Sharpe, and Eduardo Pansica. I'm a fan of Levitz's work on the Legion in the 80s. He hasn't quite recaptured the feel of those stories (and I'm not sure I'd really want him to try), but this is still enjoyable.
Showcase Presents World's Finest, vol. 3 by various. Man, the Silver Age was something else. Bizarre stories, but some fantastic art by Curt Swan.

Feeling lazy, so I'll put off the movies until next week.

A Few Books

2011-05-30T16:57:00.000-07:00

Hitman vol. 3: Local Heroes by Garth Ennis & John McCrea. Somehow I missed this volume when DC first collected this series.
20th Century Boys, vol. 14: A Boy and a Dream by Naoki Urasawa.

I had been considering no longer buying the volumes in this series and just completing it by checking them out of the library, but this volume changed my mind. The twists in this volume were interesting enough to recapture my enthusiasm for the series.
Hitman vol. 4: Ace of Killers by Garth Ennis & John McCrea. This is as far as I got before. Volume 5 is coming in a few months. Looking forward to it.
Bayou, vol. 1 by Jeremy Love. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Bayou, vol. 2 by Jeremy Love.

More of this fantasy version of the South in the 30s. The story isn't done yet, so I hope it continues in at least one more volume. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Untold Tales of the New Universe by various. New stories set in Marvel's 80s attempt to create a new line of comics.
Starman Omnibus, vol. 6 by James Robinson, Peter Snejbjerg, et al. The final volume of this series collecting one of the best super-hero comics of the 90s. Beautiful presentation, and it is so nice to see a complete collection, including side-stories and an associated mini-series. I'd like to see other worthy series get similar treatment.
Empire State: A Love Story (or Not) by Jason Shiga. This is a well-done graphic novel by someone with an impressive command of the medium. I just didn't like the story. The main character is too passive and doesn't seem to change. I wish I could recommend this, but I can't.
Superman Vs. Lex Luthor by various. Stories featuring Superman's arch-enemy, starting with his very first appearance.

Just one movie this week:

Notting Hill. Great romantic comedy.

Memorial Day

2011-05-29T14:47:00.001-07:00

3 day weekend means I will post on Monday.

Not Much This Week

2011-05-22T16:57:00.000-07:00

The Viking Prince by Bob Haney, Joe Kubert, et al.

The stories collected here blend together, but the real draw is Kubert's art, which is pretty fantastic. (Checked out of the library.)
The Boys, vol. 6: Self-Preservation Society by Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson, et al. More of Ennis's brutal exploration of super-heroes. (Library.)
DC Comics Presents: Son of Superman by Howard Chaykin, David Tischman, and J.H. Williams III. Not as cynical as I had expected, given that it was co-written by Chaykin.
The Bulletproof Coffin by David Hine & Shaky Kane.

Bizarre take on comics and nostalgia. Wonderfully strange and brain-bending.
DC Comics Presents: The Legion of Super-Heroes by Dan Abnett, Andy Lannning, & Olivier Copiel. Not sure why DC chose to reprint these 4 issues, but it's a pretty good LSH story.
Hitman, vol. 1 by Garth Ennis & John McCrea. DC has been reprinting Hitman, and so I decided to re-read the volumes I already had to prepare for when they get to the gaps in my collection.
Hitman, vol. 2: 10,000 Bullets by Garth Ennis & John McCrea. Over the top violence.

No movies this week, but I did run the fourth session of In Nomine today. We nearly finished up the adventure. The next time we play will be the denouement.

Some More Books

2011-05-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

Fantastic Four, vol. 2: Unified Field Theory by Jonathan Hickman ^ Dale Eaglesham. More super-heroics and fantastic science. (Checked out of the library.)
Thunderbolts Classic, vol. 1 by Kurt Busiek & Mark Bagley. A great take on super-heroes finally collected. I hope further volumes are coming.
Powers, vol. 13: Z by Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Avon Oeming. (Library.)
A Sickness in the Family by Denise Mina & Antonio Fuso. Family dysfunction comics. (Library.)
DC Comics Presents Night Force by Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan. Cheap collection of the first four issues of a horror series from the creators that brought us a fantastic run in Tomb of Dracula.
The Sensational She-Hulk, vol. 1 by John Byrne. Light-hearted and fourth-wall-breaking super-heroics. Can't decide if the cheesecake in this book is fan service or Byrne indulging himself (possibly both).
Stephen King's The Stand: Hardcases by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa & Mike Perkins.

Continuing the adaptation. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Marvel Adventures Avengers, vol. 9: The Times They Are A-Changin' by Paul Tobin, Matteo Lolli, et al. More fun all-ages comics.
Showcase Presents, vol. 3: Green Lantern by John Broome, Gardner Fox, & Gil Kane.

I love DC's Showcase Presents and Marvel's Essentials collections. They are a cheap way to read tons of old comics.
Marvel Adventures Avengers: Iron Man by Paul Tobin & Ronan Cliquet. Tobin really does write some fun comics.
Essential Defenders, vol. 3 by various. The first third or so of this volume (the issues written by Steve Gerber) are filled with wild & interesting ideas. Bizarre and absurd stories that really work for me. The rest of the book isn't quite so good.

A couple of movies this week:

Doctor Who: The Five DoctorsDoctor Who's 20th anniversary story.
The Imaginarium of Doctor ParnassusVery definitely a Terry Gilliam movie. I think we have finally reached the point where special effects have caught up with Gilliam's vision.

Many Borrowed Books

2011-05-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

Detroit Metal City, vol. 8 by Kiminori Wakasugi. More death metal silliness. (Checked out of the library.)
Annihilation: Conquest, bk. 2 by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Tom Raney, et al. Science fiction super-heroes in the Marvel universe. (Library.)
Battler Britton by Garth Ennis & Colin Wilson. WWII pilots in north Africa.
Guardians of the Galaxy, vol 1: Legacy by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, & Paul Pelletier. More cosmic Marvel stuff. (Library.)
George R.R. Martin's The Hedge Knight by Ben Avery & Mike S. Miller. Adaptation of a novella set in the world of A Game of Thrones. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Daytripper by Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba.

Amazing set of stories about the life of a Brazilian writer, with the catch that each chapter ends with his death. Moon & Ba are fantastic artists, but I did not realize they could also write. I had bought the first issue when it came out. And while I enjoyed that, it didn't impress me enough to keep getting the issues. The story reads better collected all together. (Borrowed from Teena.)
George R.R. Martin's The Hedge Knight II: Sworn Sword by Ben Avery & Mike S. Miller.

Martin has a wonderful feel for characterization. Great story. (Borrowed from Teena.)

Only one movie this week:

Four Weddings and a FuneralEntertaining, but not as good as Notting Hill or Love Actually.

Late in the Day Update

2011-05-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, vol. 1: Pterror of Paris & The Eiffel Tower Demon by Jacques Tardi.

Strange goings on in turn of the century Paris. (Checked out of the library.)
Gotham Central, bk. 4: Corrigan by Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker, Kano, et al. The final volume of a great police procedural comic set in Batman's home town. I wish the series had lasted longer.
Spider-Man: Grim Hunt by Joe Kelly, J.M. DeMatteis, Michael Lark, Max Fiumara, et al. Sequel to DeMatteis' & Zeck's Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt. (Library.)
The Thing Classic, vol. 1 by John Byrne & Ron Wilson. Thing solo series that followed Marvel Two-in-One.
Axe Cop by Malachi & Ethan Nicolle. Collection of the web comic written by a 5-year-old and drawn by his 29-year-old brother. Wacky stuff, but best in small doses. (Library.)
Thor: Godstorm by Kurt Busiek & Steve Rude. Good story and gorgeous art (which should be obvious, given the creative team). (Library.)
Superman Adventures, vol 4: The Man of Steel by Mark Millar & Aliur Amancio.
Dominic Fortune: It Can Happen Here and Now by Howard Chaykin. Swashbuckling adventure set in the 30s. This came from Marvel's "Max" imprint, so there is nudity & swearing.

Also this week I listened to an audio version of the first book in the Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning. Each character is voiced by a different actor, and Tim Curry (who is perfectly cast) provides the narration.

Just a few movies:

Doctor Who: The War GamesPatrick Troughton's last adventure as the Doctor. Interesting ending, but a little too much running around, getting captured, and escaping before then. 10 episodes seems too much.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with the RiffTrax commentary. Like the first movie, this adheres to the book way too closely, but jokes make it more endurable.
This American Life: Season One and Season Two Just as fascinating on television as on the radio.

Also this week, I finished playing Dragon Age IIWhile it never engrossed me as much as the first game, it grew on me as I played. And at the end, I had to make an absolutely brutal decision which really adds some depth to the game. If you've played the first game, I definitely recommend this.

Easter Sunday

2011-04-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

Stumptown was a lot of fun. I picked up some interesting books and wish I could have afforded to get even more.

Thor: The Mighty Avenger, vol. 2 by Roger Langridge & Chriss Samnee. This was a great series. I wish it had lasted longer than 8 issues. Great, all-ages comic. Plenty of super-hero fights, but it's really about Thor & Jane Foster dating.
Marvel Adventures Avengers, vol. 10: Invasion by Paul Tobin, et al. More fun all-ages comics.
Dar!: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary, vol. 1 by Erika Moen. This is one of the things I picked up at Stumptown. This is a collection of Moen's autobiographical web comic (which she has stopped doing and moved onto a new web comic. Very good and extremely personal. I will have to pick up volume 2 when I can.
Space: A Couscous Collective Collection by various. Anthology of space-themed stories picked up at Stumptown. A higher percentage of good stories than most anthologies.
Fables, vol. 14: Witches by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, et al. Not willing to buy this series anymore, but interested enough to borrow it. (Checked out of the library.)
Phoenix Without Ashes by Harlan Ellison & Alan Robinson.

Comics adaptation of a story Ellison wrote for the pilot of a 1970s television show The Starlost. (Ellison removed his name from the show before the pilot episode aired.)
Marvel Adventures Avengers: Thor by Paul Tobin & Scott Koblish. Tobin has a real knack for these all-ages comics.
Sweet Tooth, vol. 2: In Captivity by Jeff Lemire. I enjoyed the first volume, but it didn't really grab me. This volume did. (Library.)
Unwritten, vol. 3: Dead Man's Knock by Mike Carey & Peter Gross.

God, I love this series. This is the best comic Vertigo has published since Sandman. It is all about stories and how they affect the world. Plus, there is adventure. Read this comic. Do it.
I, Zombie, vol. 1: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson & Mike Allred. Enjoyable comic about a zombie who passes as living and her adventures in Eugene, Oregon.
Powers, vol. 12: The 25 Coolest Dead Superheroes of All Time by Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Avon Oeming. I had a sense of deja vu while reading this, but I was a third of the way into it before the nagging sense of familiarity resolved itself into certainty that I had read it before. (Almost exactly a year ago.) While I enjoyed it, it doesn't say much for the story's memorability. (Library.)
Marvel Adventures: Black Widow and the Avengers by Paul Tobin, Ig Guara, et al. Bought this directly from Tobin at Stumptown.
Essential Marvel Two-in-One, vol. 2 by various. Marvel's 1970s-80s team-up title featuring the Thing.

Only one movie this time, so I'll save it for next week.

Early Post This Week

2011-04-16T15:19:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow Teena & I will be at Stumptown Comics Fest, so I'm updating today.

Tiassa by Steven Brust.

The latest Vlad novel. This one is unusual in that it is divided into 3 parts with 3 different narrators (including the narrator of Brust's Khaavren Romances*). (Borrowed from Teena.)
Invincible Iron Man, vol. 6: Stark Resilient, bk. 2 by Matt Fraction & Salvador Larroca. Iron Man's latest attempt to reinvent himself from a weapons dealer to philanthropist. (Checked out of the library.)
Vertigo Resurrected: Bad Blood by Jamie Delano & Philip Bond. Vicious look at British politics & royalty. Rather appropriate that it has been reprinted shortly before a royal wedding.
Rin-Ne, vol. 5 by Rumiko Takahashi. Supernatural romantic comedy (like nearly everything else Takahashi has done). (Library.)
Black Jack, vol. 13 by Osamu Tezuka. Still more medical manga. (Library.)
Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman, vol. 1 by Jonathan Hickman, Dale Eaglesham, & Neil Edwards. Great comics, but not very imaginatively named collection. (Library.)
Demo, vol. 2 by Brian Wood & Becky Cloonan.

More one-issue stories about people with extraordinary abilities (although that premise seems to be falling by the wayside). Some great stuff here.
Thunderbolts: Cage by Jeff Parker & Kev Walker. The previous volume of Thunderbolts pretty much was Parker wrapping up plot threads from the previous writer. In this one, he takes the series in the direction he wants.
Showcase Presents The Doom Patrol, vol. 2 by Arnold Drake & Bruno Premiani.

These comics are insane but a hell of a lot of fun. I get the impression that Drake had a blast writing them. So glad DC collected them in an affordable format.
Superman Adventures, vol. 3: Last Son of Krypton by Mark Millar, et al. More comics in the style of the 90s animated Superman show.

*Which I really need to finish reading one of these days.

Watched a lot of movies while on vacation last week:

Doctor Who: Revenge of the CybermenEarly-ish Tom Baker Story.
Source CodeTeena & I both really enjoyed this director's Moon, and we liked this movie as well, although we felt that the ending was somewhat mishandled.
Doctor Who: The Brain of MorbiusDoctor Who takes on the Frankenstein story (sort of).
RedThis bears almost no resemblance to the graphic novel it is nominally based on, but it is an entertaining movie. Completely preposterous, but loads of fun. What's not to love about Helen Mirren kicking ass?
The Third ManI don't think there's anything I can say about this classic that hasn't already been said.
Doctor Who: The VisitationThe final story with the sonic screwdriver until New-Who.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Project MoonbaseSupposedly based on something written by Robert A. Heinlein. I suspect very little of his story remains.

The Next Few Weeks

2011-04-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

Here we go:

Yotsuba &!, vol. 8 by Kiyohiko Azuma. More cuteness. (Checked out of the library.)
Irredeemable, vol. 5 by Mark Waid & Peter Krause. (Library.)
Showcase Presents: The Phantom Stranger, vol. 1 by various. The Doctor Thirteen back-ups included in this work better when the Phantom Stranger doesn't appear. Since Dr. Thirteen's whole premise is that he's a rationalist and ghost-breaker, he is undermined by the presence of a supernatural entity (even if Thirteen refuses to believe it). Some great art by Jim Aparo.
Star Trek: Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor by John Byrne. (Library.)
It Was the War of the Trenches by Jaques Tardi.

WWI comics. Grim but good. (Library.)
Vertigo Resurrected: Finals by Will Pfeifer & Jill Thompson. Satirical look at higher education.
The Walking Dead, bk. 1 by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, & Charlie Adlard. I requested this from the library several months before the tv series began on AMC, but because the local system only has 3 copies, it took until several months after the season ended for my turn to arrive. (Library.)
DMZ, vol. 9: M.I.A. by Brian Wood, Riccardo Burchielli, et al. The main character goes a long way toward redeeming himself in this volume.
Yotsuba &!, vol. 9 by Kiyohiko Azuma.

Simply adorable. (Library.)
Goon, vol. 10: Death's Greedy Comeuppance by Eric Powell. (Library.)
Angel: Immortality for Dummies by Bill Willingham & Brian Denham. Apparently at the end of the previous writer's run on the Angel comic, a reset button got pressed, which doesn't make me inclined to seek out the book collecting those issues. Hell, the only reason I got this one was that I enjoy Willingham's writing. (Library.)
Naoki Uraswa's 20th Century Boys, vol. 13: Beginning of the End. "Beginning of the end", really? There are another 12 volumes to go. However, I am still enjoying this & will keep going for now.
The Walking Dead, bk. 2 by Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard. It took considerably less time (although it was still a while) to get the second volume. (Library.)
The Downsized by Matt Howarth.

Something unusual for Howarth, a slice of life comic. Excellent as his work always is. I am afraid I haven't been keeping up with his work since he moved primarily to self-distribution via his website. I really should rectify that, since he does some amazing SF comics.
Finder: Voice by Carla Speed McNeil.

I am so glad that McNeil found a publisher for her amazing series when self-publishing became no longer viable. I have raved about previous volumes here, so here is a link to a preview of a book that will be showing up on this blog sooner or later.
Angel: The Crown Prince Syndrome by Bill Willingham, Elena Casagrande, et al. (Library.)
Air, vol. 4: A History of the Future by G. Willow Wilson & M.K. Perker. The final volume of this magical realist series. It ended before the creators had told all the stories they wanted to with these characters, but they were able to wrap things up in a satisfactory manner. I look forward to their next project.
Farscape: Scorpius, vol. 2: Glorious Basterds by Rockne S O'Bannon, David Alan Mack, & Gordon Purcell. (Library.)
The Complete Bad Company by Peter Milligan & Brett Ewins. British SF war comics from the 80s. Gets pretty trippy at times, but that's not unusual for Milligan's work.
Superman Adventures, vol. 2: The Never-Ending Battle by Mark Millar, Aluir Amancio, et al. Comics based on the animated Superman series from the 90s. Much better than Millar's recent work. These were written before he stopped trying and/or developed contempt for his audience.
Owly & Wormy-Friends All Aflutter! by Andy Runton. Wordless comics. (Borrowed from Teena's classroom.
Essential Captain America, vol. 3 by various. Reading these Essential volumes has made me realized that Sal Buscema appears to have penciled every Marvel title in the 70s at one point or another and that Tom Palmer inked these same titles, just not at the same time.

And that brings me up to date. I might update tomorrow about a podcast or two, but no guarantees.

A Month Behind

2011-04-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, hasn't it. Comments will be short in an effort to get through this quickly.

Freakangels, vol. 5 by Warren Ellis & Paul Duffield.

Another collection of the excellent webcomic.
Incorruptible, vol. 2 by Mark Waid & Horacio Domingues. Super-villain reforms after a super-hero goes bad. (Checked out of the library.)
Incorruptible, vol. 3 by Mark Waid & Marco Takara. (Library.)
Astonishing X-Men, vol. 6: Exogenetic by Warren Ellis & Phil Jimenez. SF take on the X-Men.
Chew, vol. 3: Just Desserts by John Layman & Rob Guillory. (Library.)
Morning Glories, vol. 1: For a Better Future by Nick Spencer & Joe Eisma. Runaways crossed with The Prisoner.
Secret Avengers, vol. 1: Mission to Mars by Ed Brubaker & Mike Deodato. (Library.)
Batman: Fortunate Son by Gerard Jones & Gene Ha. Batman & rock 'n' roll.
The Sixth Gun, bk. 1: Cold Dead Fingers by Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt

Great supernatural western. May need to get a copy for myself. (Library.)
Hikaru no Go, vol. 22: China vs. Japan by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata. (Library.)
Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger: The Journey Begins adapted by Robin Furth, Peter David, & Sean Phillips. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Captain America: Man and Wolf by Mark Gruenwald & Rik Loving. Captain America as a werewolf. (Library.)
Black Panther by Jack Kirby.
Moving Pictures bu Kathryn & Stuart Immonen

The other graphic novels written by Kathryn Immonen that I have read (mostly superheroes) haven't really impressed me. This one, about people smuggling art out of Nazi control during WWII, did. (Library.)
Time and the Batman by Grant Morrison, Tony S. Daniel, et al.
Pantheon by Mark Andreyko & Stephen Molnar. This version of "Greek gods in the modern world" (from an idea by Michael Chiklis) reads like a series proposal that didn't go anywhere. Zeus is even drawn to look like Chiklis. (Library.)
Mondo Urbano: A Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'roll Story. by Mateus Santolouco, Eduardo Medeiros, & Rafael Albuquerque. (Library.)
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne by Grant Morrison, et al. Baman lost in time.
Suicide Squad, vol. 1: Trial by Fire by John Ostrander & Luke McDonnell.

Finally, a collection (the first of several, I hope) of one of the best super-hero comics of the 80s. Ahead of its time then and possibly even now. I really hope this sells well and we see more collections.
Moto Hagio's A Drunken Dream and Other Stories. Shojo manga that ranged from just okay to amazing ("Iguana Girl"). Library.
Essential Nova by Marv Wolfman, Sal Buscema, Carmine Infantino, et al. Marvel's 70s attempt to recapture the magic of Spider-Man.

Not caught up yet, but that's enough for now. More tomorrow.

Movie Catch-Up

2011-04-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

Update: I have fixed the links to a couple of the movies.

Too many books read in the past 4 weeks to do all at once. Plus I have a bit of a headache, so I'm going to keep this short & just do the movies I've seen since my last real update.

Finding NemoI've said this before, and I'll say it again, Pixar casts their movies exactly right. "Just keep swimming."
Doctor Who: RobotTom Baker's first story as the Doctor. Eccentric from the very beginning.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Magic Voyage of SinbadA Russo-Finnish version of an Arabian story. Bizarre stuff. In one scene a guy fights a bear that switches (seemingly at random) between a guy in a bear costume and an actual bear.
MST3K: Master Ninja 1The first 2 episodes of a short-lived tv-series starring Lee Van Cleef & Timothy Van Patton edited together to make a "movie". Only the commentary makes it bearable.
Fraggle Rock: Complete First SeasonI didn't cable in the 80s, so I had never seen this show until we got NetFlix Watch Instantly. I love it. It's one of the best children's shows I've ever seen. Looking forward to future seasons.
RiffTrax: Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny. I have no idea what prompted anybody to make this movie. It consists of an atrocious version of "Thumbelina" padded out to 90 some minutes by adding a framing sequence of Santa Claus being stuck in Florida and telling a story to the children to attempt to help him. And at the end, a rabbit driving an old firetruck shows up to save the day. This movie makes no sense whatsoever. I think I lost sanity by watching it.
Doctor Who: Carnival of MonstersThis Jon Pertwee story is quite fun, if rather disjointed.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Master Ninja 2The next two episodes.

I finally remembered to at the Saint Clair Gamers Actual Play to my sidebar. The latest session is our first In Nomine session and the first game I have run in a couple years.

That's it for now. I have the week off, so I will update books later in the week.

Sorry There Wasn't Even a Placeholder Post Last Week

2011-03-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

Circumstances (car trouble, house guests, and Dragon Age 2 have all conspired to ensure that I haven't had time to update. I should have some time next week, so I'll catch up then.

Post Delayed on Account of Video Game

2011-03-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

I have spent all weekend playing Dragon Age II, so there is no no post this week. (Other than this.)

Back Up to Speed

2011-03-06T17:11:00.000-08:00

When I'm not in the middle of an 800 page novel, I read more books:

Last of the Independents by Matt Fraction & Kieron Dwyer.

Great heist comic from before Fraction hit it big at Marvel.
R.E.B.E.L.S., vol. 3: The Son and the Stars by Tony Bedard, Claude St. Aubin, et al. More space adventure fighting Starro the Conqueror. (Checked out of the library.)
Heralds by Kathryn Immonen, Tonci Zonjic, et al. This didn't really grab me. I keep hearing great things about Immonen, but her style doesn't really work for me. (Library.)
Hikaru no Go, vol. 21: Great Expectations by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata. (Library.)
Casanova, vol. 1: Luxuria by Matt Fraction & Gabriel Ba.

The book that turned me into a Matt Fraction fan. James Bond crossed with Jerry Cornelius as played by a young Mick Jagger. Fantastic ideas thrown about with reckless abandon. I bought the issues when Image first published them. I bought the Image collection. When Marvel's Icon imprint reprinted the issues, I bought them again. And now I bout the Icon collection. Haven't regretted one of those purchases. One of the best comics being published.
Richard Stark's Parker, bk. 1: The Hunter adapted by Darwyn Cooke.

So stylish. Noir comics have never looked so good. I really need to get the second adaptation.
Madame Xanadu, vol. 3: Broken House of Cards by Matt Wagner, Amy Reeder, & Joele Jones. I guess I shouldn't complain that this series has been canceled, since I only bought the collections and not the issues, but I have to make choices about what I can afford. This is good stuff, and I'm looking forward to Wagner's next project, whatever it is.
House of Mystery, vol. 4:The Beauty of Decay by Matt Sturges, et al. While I like the short stories that appear here, I can't say the overall story has grown on me.
Essential Fantastic Four, vol. 5 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, et al. The last of the Kirby-drawn issues is collected here. I have to say the stories got less interesting after he left.
Showcase Presents Teen Titans, vol. 1 by Bob Haney & Nick Cardy. Once again, a middle-aged man's attempts to write teen slang of the 60s is vastly amusing.

Starting off movies with one I forgot last week.

The Color of MagicWow. Amazing job of translating the first two Discworld books onto the screen. Great casting (including Sean Astin & Tim Curry) and wonderful visual effects (the Luggage looked great). Kind of blown away by this. Makes me want to see more adaptations. Hogfatheris also available, but that's a Christmas story, so I think it'll have to wait.
Speed RacerThe most visually overloaded movie I've ever seen. Unlike anything else anybody else has done. And unfortunately, since it didn't make a ton of money, we're unlikely to see its like again. Full of heart and fun. The Wachowski's really explored what could be done with green screen, but they did so with a story that contains not a single ounce of cynicism. I adore this movie.
The King's SpeechTeena & I wanted to see this before, but scheduling didn't work. The Oscar wins mean that it's showing more often now, and we took advantage of that. Excellent movie, with some fantastic performances.

The podcast this week is This American Life. If you listen to NPR, you probably already know all about it. And if you don't, check out the site. It's a good show.

Finished that Novel

2011-02-27T17:25:00.000-08:00

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

I had been holding off on reading this series until Martin finished (or, possibly, died), but with an HBO series coming up this spring, I decided to start reading these massive books.
Wow.
Teena and my friends have recommended this series, but that did not prepare me for how gripping the book is. I loved it, and I want to plunge straight into the next book, but I have a bunch of books from the library I should be getting to, not to mention a big stack of unread graphic novels. Also, I don't want to run through this series too fast when it could be a long time before volume 5 is published. But I will definitely be reading more soon (although I think I will hold off on A Feast for Crows until after A Dance with Dragons is published).
Black Jack, vol.12 by Osamu Tezuka. Yet another volume of this medical manga. (Checked out of the library.)
Atlas: Return of the Three Dimensional Man by Jeff Parker, Gabriel Hardman, et al. The final volume of one of the best comics Marvel has published in recent years. Parker was doing all sorts of interesting things with super-heroes in this, but not enough super-hero fans are interested in innovation.

Next week, I should have read more books than I have in the past few weeks.

Did watch a couple of movies:

The Last Lovecraft: Relic of CthulhuThis was the highlight of the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival a couple of years ago. Humorous, but with some heart, and surprisingly good special effects. Glad it's finally available on DVD.
WhiteoutI loved the graphic novel this is based on, but I just didn't find this adaptation engaging. Admittedly, I am still infatuated with my iPad and was playing with it while watching the movie, but I don't think that's all. There's nothing specific I can point to, but it's just not that gripping.

The podcast this week is one that I am participating in: The Saint Clair Gamers Actual Play Podcast.My role-playing group has started recording some of our sessions, and Michael (our host and the guy who GMs most often) has started putting them up. Right now we are playing The Armitage Files campaign for Trail of Cthulhu. We are three sessions in, and it looks like we'll be playing for quite a while. I haven't listened to more than a snippet because I don't like listening to recordings of my own voice, but we are having fun playing the game. Give it a listen & let us know what you think.

Three Day Weekend Means a Monday Post

2011-02-21T15:08:00.000-08:00

Still reading that novel, so it's another light week.

Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 24 by Hiroum Arakawa. Penultimate volume. It looks like the ending is going to wind up more satisfying than the anime version's. (Checked out of the library.)
Star Trek: Romulans: Pawns of War by John Byrne. Events during the original series, from the Romulans' point of view. (Library.)
Showcase Presents: Aquaman, vol. 3 by Bob Haney & Nick Cardy.

These comics don't make a hell of a lot of sense, but they are fun.
Superman/Batman: Saga of the Super Sons by Bob Haney & Dick Dillin. There is almost nothing more amusing than middle aged comics writers trying to capture teen "lingo" from the 60s and 70s.

I said there wasn't much. A few movies this week:

Doctor Who: Silver NemesisThe 25th anniversary story, featuring Cybermen. I'm not quite as enamored of the hints at the Doctor's mysterious (and sinister?) past as I was when I first saw the stories from this period, but I still enjoy them.
Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-ChiangNow, this story still stands up. The fourth Doctor and Leela in Victorian London. And it doesn't feel padded, as so many of the 6-part stories from this era did.
Oscar(tm) nominated animated shorts Fun stuff, especially The Lost Thing, which Teena says feels just like the book.

Since it's another short week, here's another podcast I enjoy: In honor of my finishing Showcase Presents Aquaman, vol. 3, the choice this week is Tom vs. Aquaman, which is available at that site or through iTunes.

Tom reads old comics and recaps them for you, bringing out all the absurdities and unintentional subtext. He has previously covered the Justice League and the Flash. He's been doing this for a while now, and he just keeps getting better. I especially like how Tom gives a rich inner life to Topo, Aquaman's octopus sidekick.

Each episode is short, running about 10-15 minutes, and he usually posts two or three episodes a week.

Light Week

2011-02-13T17:29:00.000-08:00

I started a long novel this past week, so this entry and the next couple are going to be fairly light.

Secret Six: Cats in the Cradle by Gail Simone, John Ostrander, & Jim Calafiore. Latest collection of this series about super-villains. Awful people doing awful things in an awfully entertaining way.
The Question: Pipeline by Greg Rucka & Cully Hamner.

Rucka excels at crime stories. While we are unlikely to see much more of this version of the Question (at least from Rucka), I am glad to have this.
Hikaru no Go, vol. 20: The Young Lions by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata. I'll see this through to the end, but the more I read, the more I think the series should have ended when the character Sai faded away. (Literally. He's a ghost.) (Checked out of the library.)
Doom Patrol, vol. 1: We Who Are about to Die by Keith Giffen, Matthew Clark, & Justiniano. The latest incarnation of this team. Pretty good, but I think it suffers from super-hero comics's inability to let characters stay dead. Also, it suffers by comparison to Grant Morrison's run from the late 80s and early 90s. (Library.)
Love and Capes, vol. 1: Do You Want to Know a Secret? by Tom Zahler. Enjoyed the second volume so much that I picked up a used copy of the first.
Too Much Crazy by Tom Tomorrow.

Political cartoons from mid-2008 to early 2010. Nice to be reminded that there are other liberals out there. (Library.)
Fractured Fables by various. Anthology of reinterpreted fairy tales & fables. Pretty good, but nothing really stood out. (Library.)

Just a couple of movies this week:

Doctor Who: The AztecsEarly story, from when they were still doing historical stories without fantastic elements (other than the Tardis). Interesting to see more of the first Doctor.
The Secret of KellsAbsolutely beautiful animation, and a great story as well.

Since it is a light week, I think it's time to inaugurate a feature I've been thinking about for quite a while now, in which I discuss the podcasts to which I listen. You may have noticed that when I picked a new format for the blog, I added a list of podcasts to my sidebar. First up is CogKNITive, A Knitting & Psychology Podcast by Dr. Gemma.

While I learned to knit in college, and I made a stab at learning to crochet about a year and a half ago, I have to admit that the knitting, crocheting, and spinning parts of the podcast do not interest me. However, the other parts are great. In each episode Gemma discusses a life strategy, something she really likes, and how psychology intersects with her life. These parts make the podcast worth listening to even if you have no interest in the fiber arts.

Episodes tend to be weekly and around half an hour, although lately they've been more sporadic & longer. The show is available through iTunes as "CogKNITive podcast" or from http://drgemma.libsyn.com.

(Full disclosure: Gemma is a friend from college. But my recommendation of her podcast is not nepotism. She has led an interesting life, and her podcast reflects that.)

I Don't Know What To Title This Post

2011-02-06T18:00:00.000-08:00

Essential Captain America, vol. 2 by Stan Lee, Gene Colan, Jack Kirby, et al. Man, these comics are entertaining. And I love the way Gene Colan draws. His art does something to my brain.
X-Men Noir: Mark of Cain by Fred Van Lente & Dennis Calero. X-Men characters translated to the idioms of the pulps. (Checked out of the library.)
Planetary, vol. 1: All Over the World and Other Stories by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday. Ellis's tour through the pop culture of the 20th Century. I finally got the final volume and decided to reread the previous volumes.
Planetary, vol. 2: The Fourth Man by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday. In which it is revealed that the series' bad guys are the Fantastic Four.
Planetary, vol. 3: Leaving the 20th Century by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday.
Planetary: Crossing Worlds by Warren Ellis, et al. Planetary cross-overs.
Planetary, vol. 4: Spacetime Archaeology by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday.

Good wrap-up to the series. Glad I waited for the collection, since the huge gaps between the last few issues would have driven me insane.
Love and Capes, vol. 2: Going to the Chapel by Tom Zahler. I had heard good things about this romantic super-hero sit-com, so when I found a cheap used copy, I picked it up. Occasionally too sit-com-ish for my tastes, but overall very good.
Hikaru No Go #19: Hikaru No Go, vol. 19: One Step Forward by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata. I fell behind in this manga series about the game go, but am catching up now. (Library.)
Groo: The Hogs of Horder by Sergio Aragones, with Mark Evanier. Social commentary in a comic about a profoundly stupid barbarian. Very funny. (Library.)
Uncanny X-Men: The Birth of Generation Hope by Matt Fraction, Whilce Portacio, et al. Fall-out from the latest X-cross-over. (Library.)
Detroit Metal City, vol. 7 by Kiminori Wakasugi. More absurdity & death-metal. (Library.)
The Muppet Show Comic Book: Muppet Mash by Roger Langridge. The final collection of the Muppet Show Comic Book. Fun stuff, and I'm sorry to see it go. Langridge really captured the feel of the Muppets, especially when he did the art himself.
Tales of the Green Lantern Corps vol. 3 by Steve Englehart & Joe Staton. Not exactly profound, but entertaining comics from the 80s.

Catching up on movies (many of which were watched via NetFlix Watch Instantly):

Doctor Who: The Mind Robber. A second Doctor adventure. The one in which the actor playing Jaime got chicken pox and had to be replaced for a couple of episodes.
The Black Adder. The first series. Not as polished as the later ones. (Blackadder III remains my favorite.) But still funny.
Doctor Who: The Green Death. A third Doctor story. Environmental issues, self-aware computers, and giant maggots.
RiffTrax: Order in the Shorts. One of two recent collections of old educational films with sarcastic commentary.
RiffTrax: Shortstoberfest. The other.

Another Week, More Books

2011-01-30T15:34:00.000-08:00

Scary Godmother: Ghoul's Out for Summer by Jill Thompson. Comics featuring Thompson's spooky characters. For some reason, I did not get this when it first came out years ago. And I have regretted it ever since, as the book went out of print. Fortunately, I found a used copy at Powell's. Fun stuff for all ages.
Siege: Thor by Kieron Gillen, Billy Tan, et al. I still haven't read the main Siege story (and it sounds like I'm not missing much), but this is quite good (although it does feel disjointed, since a lot of the story is happening elsewhere). (Checked out of the library.)
John Constantine, Hellblazer: India by Peter Milligan, et al. More horror. This time dealing with some aspects of Britain's colonial legacy.
B.P.R.D., vol. 14: King of Fear by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, & Guy Davis. The conclusion of the first part of B.P.R.D.'s story. I'm guessing later parts won't take 14 volumes to cover, but I am looking forward to reading them.
The Creeper by Steve Ditko.

While Ditko's art is very stylized, I like it a lot, and it does not disappoint. The writing on the stories collected here, on the other hand, is not exactly, scintillating. Still, it's nice to see Ditko get some love.
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: Spectacular by Paul Tobin, Roberto Di Salvo, et al. I have now caught up on the collections of Tobin's Marvel Adventures Spider-Man. (There are other Marvel Adventures books he has written I still need to get.)
Marvels: Eye of the Camera by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, & Jay Anaclete. Sequel to Busiek & Alex Ross's Marvels. Well done, but kind of depressing since it focuses on a time when Marvel Comics were filled with anti-heroes.
Tangent Comics, vol. 3 by various.
Ayako by Osamu Tezuka.

Tezuka's saga about a powerful and decadent family in post-War Japan.

Not much in the way of movies this week, so I'll put those off.

Lots of Books

2011-01-23T17:33:00.000-08:00

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, vol. 14: Thwip! by Paul Tobin & Matteo Lolli. All-ages comics. Lots of fun. Wish I'd picked this up when it first came out.
The Muppet Show Comic Book: Family Reunion by Roger Langridge & Amy Mebberson.

Great translation of the Muppet Show to comics.
Hikaru No Go, vol. 18:Six Characters, Six Stories by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata. A break from the main storyline for some side stories about characters other than the main one. (Checked out of the library.)
20th Century Boys, vol. 12: Friend's Face by Naoki Urasawa.

Half-way through the series. The identity of the mysterious and sinister "Friend" is finally revealed.
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: Peter Parker vs. the X-Men by Paul Tobin, et al. Oddly, Marvel decided to stop numbering these digests with this volume. Also, the chose to skip an issue. Don't know why. Don't care about the numbering, but wish they had included issue #57.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (the Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race. Funny stuff. Great bathroom reading.
Starman Omnibus, vol. 5 by James Robinson, Peter Snejbjerg, et al.

The penultimate collection of the best super-hero comic of the 90s.
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch. Great fantasy story about "yet another troll-fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl." Can't wait for Stumptown to pick up a copy directly from Deutsch. (Library.)
Essential X-Men, vol. 6 by Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr., et al. Oh, the angst.
Gorilla-Man by Jeff Parker & Giancarlo Caracuzzo. Parker knows how to write enjoyable comics. In this one, we get the back story to one of the characters from Agents of Atlas.
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: Amazing by Paul Tobin & Matteo Lolli. One advantage to having fallen behind on Tobin's Marvel Adventures stories is that now I have a bunch of cool comics to read.
Set to Sea by Drew Weing. Short graphic novel about a poet who gets Shanghaied and discovers his love for the sea. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Dr. Horrible and Other Horrible Stories by Zack Whedon, et al. Basically back-stories for the major players (and a couple minor characters) from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Several movies this time around:

Doctor Who: The Beginning The first three Doctor Who stories from 1963. I had never seen these before. The first Doctor was quite the jerk. Interesting to see the very first Dalek story too.
Despicable Me Teena saw this over the summer when she was in California, but I hadn't seen it before. Funny & very sweet.
Clash of the Titans The new version, but we watched it with the RiffTrax commentary. It wouldn't have been unwatchable without the jokes, but they made it a lot more palatable.

First Movies of 2011

2011-01-17T16:47:00.000-08:00

Fantastic Mr. FoxCute stop-motion animation. Definitely a Wes Anderson film.
Toy Story 3Finally saw this. Wow. This may be my favorite of the series. Very moving.
Doctor Who: The Caves of AndrozaniPeter Davison's final story as the Doctor. Very dark.
Doctor Who: Spearhead from SpaceJon Pertwee's first story as the Doctor. A good introduction to the character. And, this is the first thing we watched on Netflix Watch Instantly, which we recently signed up for. We've been really enjoyed WI so far and will be keeping it for a while.
Dragon Wars - D-WarWe watched this with the Rifftrax commentary, which is the only reason the movie was bearable. This is an Ed Wood level bad movie. No attempt at continuity. Many plot-holes. Characters who are never introduced. Terrible, terrible movie.

Another New Design

2011-01-16T16:54:00.000-08:00

Decided I wasn't terribly happy with the note paper design, so I have changed it.

Star Wars Legacy, vol. 7: Storms by John Ostrander, Jan Duursema, & Omar Francia. Better Star Wars stories than Lucas has done in over 20 years.
Marvel 1602: Spider-Man by Jeff Parker & Ramon Rosanas. Nice re-imagining of Spider-Man. (Checked out of the library.)
Echo, vol. 5: Black Hole by Terry Moore. Looking forward to reading the whole story at once when it is completed.
Star Wars Legacy, vol. 8: Tatooine by John Ostrander, Jan Duursema, & Kajo Baldisimo. Finally got through the volumes I had read before.
Star Wars Legacy, vol. 9: Monster by John Ostrander, Jan Duursema, & Dave Ross.
Captain America: The Bloodstone Hunt by Mark Gruenwald & Kieron Dwyer. Solid super-heroics aimed directly at kids. Not high art by any means, but fun and entertaining. (Library.)
Star Wars Legacy, vol. 10: Extremes by John Ostrander & Jan Duursema. The final volume of the ongoing series. There is at least one mini-series continuing the story of Cade Skywalker. Looking forward to that collection.
Thor the Mighty Avenger, vol. 1 by Roger Langridge & Chris Samnee.

Great, fun comics. Unfortunately, the series has been canceled. Apparently sales were low because too many fanboys won't buy out-of-continuity comics because they "don't count". Which is a stupid attitude to take. (I have to admit that I didn't buy this series either. In my defense, I decided not to buy it for budgetary reasons. I was waiting for the collection. Not much consolation for the creators, though.)
A Red Mass for Mars by Jonathan Hickman & Ryan Bodenheim. Interesting take on super-hero cross-over events. (Library.)
Peepo Choo, vol. 1 by Felipe Smith. I've read some interesting things about this series online, so I thought I'd give it a try. Not really my thing, but I have to admit that the end of the volume got me curious about the next book.
Seige: Thunderbolts by Jeff Parker & Miguel Sepulveda. Team of super-villains caught up in a Marvel cross-over.

I have tomorrow off, so I will update movies then.

First Books of 2011

2011-01-09T18:06:00.000-08:00

Here we go:

Rocketo, vol. 1: Journey to the Hidden Sea by Frank Espinosa.

Adventure & pulp-influenced derring-do. (I had listed this on my A-Z list, but that was incorrect. The list is for books that I read for the first time this year. It's just that when I read it before, it was from the library. I enjoyed it enough that I wanted to own it.)
Rocketo, vol. 2: The Journey to the Hidden Sea by Frank Espinosa. Beautiful, stylized art.
Chew Omnivore Edition, vol. 1 by John Layman & Rob Guillory. This series is growing on me. I still don't quite get why so many people rave about it online, but I am enjoying it more. (Checked out of the library.)
Invincible Iron Man, vol. 5: Stark Resilient, bk. 1 by Matt Fraction & Salvador Larroca. (Library.)
The Guild by Felicia Day & Jim Rugg. Backstory for the web series about a group of MMORPG players. Very funny.
Star Wars Vector, vol. 2 by various. This contains Star Wars Legacy, vol. 6.
Castle Waiting, vol. 2 by Linda Medley.

Wonderful, low-key fantasy series. I am saddened and frustrated that Medley seems to have abandoned it. The story is nowhere near done, but there hasn't been a new issue in ages, and her website has disappeared. Her Wikipedia page says she's working on a series of graphic novels based on the Oz books. I'm hoping they come soon and she returns to Castle Waiting (although I am afraid the series may not be financially viable for her). A bit of oddness about this book: Medley's name only appears in the copyright notice and on a sticker on the back cover. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Secret Warriors, vol. 4: Last Ride of the Howling Commandos by Jonathan Hickman & Alessandro Vitti. (Library.)
Black Widow and the Marvel Girls by Paul Tobin, et al. All-ages friendly comics.
Spider-Man and the Secret Wars by Paul Tobin & Patrick Sherberger. More all-ages stuff. I really enjoy Tobin's work. This volume also reprints the first issue of the original Secret Wars comic. Man, Jim Shooter wrote some ham-fisted exposition. It's terrible.
Haunted Mansion by various. Anthology of stories set in Disney's Haunted Mansion.
Ubu Bubu, vol. 1: Filth by Jamie Smart. Comic about a cute kitty possessed by a demon and the hi-jinx they get up to.
Two-Step by Warren Ellis & Amanda Connor. Fun science fiction set in a near-future London. "He's a Zen gangster. She's a bored camgirl. They don't fight crime."

Movies can wait until next time.

2011-01-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

2010 A-Z

No regular post, as I haven't read much since yesterday, but here is my list of A-Z titles read throughout 2010.

Agents of Atlas: Dark Reign, by Jeff Parker, et al
B.P.R.D., v. 11: The Black Goddess, by Mike Migola, John Arcudi, & Guy Davis
Children of the Sea, v. 1, by Daisuke Igarashi
Detroit Metal City, v. 1, by Kiminori Wakasugi
Electropolis: The Infernal Machine, by Dean Motter
Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, by Geoff Johns & George Perez
Gravel, v. 2: The Major Seven, by Warren Ellis & Mike Wolfer
Heart of the Beast, by Dean Motter, Judith Dupre, & Sean Phillips
Icon: A Hero's Welcome, by Dwayne McDuffie & M.D. Bright
Jack Staff, v. 4: Rocky Realities, by Paul Grist
Kickback, by David Lloyd
Life and Times of Savior 28, by J.M. DeMatteis & Mike Cavallero
Mourning Star, v. 2, by Kazimir Strzepek
No Hero, by Warren Ellis & Juan Jose Ryp
Order of the Stick, v. 4: Don't Split the Party, by Rich Burlew
Pluto, v.7, by Naoki Urasawa
Question, vol. 6: Peacemaker, by Dennis O'Neil & Denys Cowan
Read Responsibly: Unshelved, v. 5, by Gene Ambaum & Bill Barnes
Shivering Sands, by Warren Ellis
Thor: Ages of Thunder, by Matt Fraction, et al
Usagi Yojimbo: Yokai, by Stan Sakai
Vixen: Return of the Lion, by G. Willow Wilson & Cafu
What a Wonderful World!: v. 1, by Inio Asano
XKCD, v. 0, by Randall Munroe
Yotsuba &!, v. 6, by Kiyohiko Azuma
Zorro, v.2: Clashing Blades, by Matt Wagner & Cezar Razek.

2011-01-01T10:32:00.000-08:00

Last Books of 2010

Ex Machina, vol. 8: Dirty Tricks by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, & John Paul Leon. Glad I decided to re-read this series before reading the final volume. There are lots of details I had forgotten.
Excalibur Classic, vol. 4: Cross-Time Caper Book 2 by Chris Claremont, et al. (Checked out of the library.)
Ex Machina, vol. 9: Ring Out the Old by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, & John Paul Leon.
Ex Machina, vol. 10: Term Limits by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris.

I'm not sure how I feel about the end of this series. It fits, but feels unresolved and unsatisfying. I can't wait for Teena to reread the series & get to this volume so I can discuss the conclusion with her.
Star Wars Legacy, vol. 5: The Hidden Temple by John Ostrander & Jan Duursema. Going slower on this re-read since I don't have the final volume yet.
Dark X-Men by Paul Cornell & Leonard Kirk. (Library.)
DC Comics Presents Batman #3 by Ed Brubaker & Scott McDaniel. Not sure why DC chose to reprint these comics in this format (basically a thick issue of a comic, complete with ads) rather than as a book, but it's reasonably priced, and the comics are good, so I'm not complaining.
Untouchable by Mike Carey, Samit Basu, & Ashok Bhadana. Horror story set in 19th century India & England.

And those are all the books I read in 2010.

A couple more movies:

Doctor Who: The King's DemonsChristmas present from Teena. Short Fifth Doctor story.
True Grit. Blown away by this movie. Glad I watched the original before seeing this. Amazing performances by Jeff Bridges and especially Hailee Steinfeld. I don't love every Coen Brothers movie, but when they are on, they are ON.
RiffTrax: ManiacAbsolutely insane 1934 movie nominally about mental illness. Shockingly, this movie contains nudity, not something I expected to see in a movie this old.

2010-12-26T15:10:00.000-08:00

Dead Part of the Year
The week between Christmas & New Year's always seems like down-time to me. Here is one last entry before my end of the year post.

Showcase Presents Metal Men, vol. 2 by Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru, et al. These comics are insane. Mere words cannot do justice to the weirdness. They have to be experienced to be believed.
Irredeemable, vol. 4 by Mark Waid & Diego Barreto. I am enjoying this, but I hope Waid has a conclusion in mind. A comic about a Superman-equivalent going bad cannot be maintained forever. (Checked out of the library.)
Ex Machina, vol. 4: March to War by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, & Chris Sprouse.

Still re-reading this series.
Essential Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man, vol. 2 by various. Comics I recollect fondly from my childhood. Still entertaining. And how can you go wrong with a comic where Spider-Man fights a Nazi made out of bees?
Doctor Who: The Only Good Dalek by Justin Richards & Mike Collins. The story is good, and the art is well done, but it isn't very strong in terms of story-telling. There were times when it was unclear what was happening. (Library.)
Star Wars Legacy, vol. 3: Claws of the Dragon by John Ostrander & Jan Duursema. I expect to get volume 10 next week, and I am refreshing my memories of this series.
North 40 by Aaron Williams & Fiona Staples.

Lovecraftian story about a Texas county that gets exposed to eldritch horror.
Ex Machina, vol. 5: Smoke Smoke by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris.
Ex Machina, vol. 6: Power Down by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris.
Star Wars Legacy, vol. 4: Alliance by John Ostrander, Omar Francia & Alan Robinson.
Ex Machina, vol. 7: Ex Cathedra by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris.
Thor: Tales of Asgard by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby. Nice presentation of back-up stories from the 60s. Stan & Jack were firing on all cylinders with these stories. The comics; however, have been re-colored for this collection. The colorist did a good job and clearly knows what he is doing, but he used a subdued palette here, which really does not suit Kirby's artwork. Kirby artwork should be full of bright, high-contrast colors, not subtle gradations of muted colors.

A few movies since I last updated:

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians Another of the movies Teena & I watch each December.
Rifftrax: Live Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza This one isn't a tradition yet (we saw the live show last year and watched the DVD of that show this year), but it may well become one.
True Grit I had never seen the original version before this. Fortunately, it aired on cable before we went to see the Coen Brothers' version (which will be later this week).
It's a Wonderful Life The last of the movies Teena & I watch every December. It may be sentimental, but I love it.

2010-12-19T14:56:00.001-08:00

I'm Here After All

Turns out I do have a chance to update today. Don't count on it next week, though.

Excalibur Classic, vol. 3: Cross-Time Caper, book 1 by Chris Claremont, Alan Davis, et al. I really enjoyed this until Davis stopped doing the artwork. The quality went way downhill right away. (Checked out of the library.)
Rolling Stones - Voodoo Lounge by Dave McKean.
Star Wars: Legacy, vol. 1: Broken by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema. The final volume of this is out, so I am re-reading all the previous volumes.
Greek Street Vol. 2: Cassandra Complex by Peter Milligan & Davide Gianfelice.

Re-working Greek myths to contemporary London. Can't wait for the next volume.
Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen.

Nice presentation of a years worth of LSH comics from the mid-80s. It's the kind of storyline you couldn't do nowadays. At the time, the identity of the bad guy was a mystery, and the reveal late in the story was a genuine surprise. Now it would get spoiled months in advance, and people would pick it to shreds on the internet. It helped that this was one of the first uses of Darkseid outside of Kirby's original Fourth World comics. He has been way over-used since then.
Skin Horse, vol. 2 by Shaenon Garrity & Jeffrey Wells. The second collection of the web-comic about the black-ops social service agents tasked with aiding the sapient non-human community. This volume contains the entire Alaska storyline that ran for months & months. I have to say, it reads better all at once. Not that it was bad in small daily doses.
The Best American Comics 2009 edited by Charles Burns.
Star Wars Legacy, vol. 2: Shards by John Ostrander, et al. I do like how not all the stories in this series are about Cade Skywalker.
Ex Machina, vol. 1: The First Hundred Days by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris. As with Star Wars Legacy, the final volume was recently published, and I am going back & re-reading the earlier volumes before tackling the new one.
Ex Machina, vol. 2: Tag by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris.
Ex Machina, vol. 3: Fact vs. Fiction by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris.

2010-12-12T13:47:00.000-08:00

Possibly Last Post for a While

We will have some house guests starting soon, so I may not get a chance to update again until after New Year's. I'll try, but no guarantees.

DC Comics Presents Batman #2 by Ed Brubaker & Scott McDaniel.
Supergirl: Friends and Fugitives bu Sterling Gates, Greg Rucka, Jamal Igle. (Checked out of the library.)
Birds of Prey: The Battle Within by Gail Simone, Joe Bennett, Ed Benes, et al. I love Simone's writing on this series, but I can't say I like the artwork, particularly Benes's work. Awful cheesecake stuff.
Superman: New Krypton, vol. 4 by James Robinson, Greg Rucka, Pete Woods, & Ron Randall. (Library.)
Captain America: Two Americas by Ed Brubaker, Luke Ross, & Butch Guice. This is the book that collects the issues that garnered controversy by depicting the tea party movement as largely racist. Unfortunately, Marvel caved and edited the (accurate) offending panels.
Picture This by Lynda Barry.

Like Barry's previous book: What It Is, this is a meditation on creativity. Beautiful, wonderful book. Barry just keeps getting better. Which isn't to say that I wasn't very excited to learn that next year we will see the first volume of a series collecting her comic strip work. I'm really looking forward to it.
Gravel, vol. 3: The Last King of England by Warren Ellis & Mike Wolfer. I found the conclusion of this series somewhat unsatisfactory. At least, if it is the end of the series. If there is more to come, it's a good ending to the volume.
Fingerprints by Will Dinski. (Library.)
R.E.B.E.L.S.: Strange Companions by Tony Bedard, et al. (Library.)
Li'l Abner, vol. 27: Dailies 1961 by Al Capp. Capp was fairly misanthropic, but boy was he funny. Definitely thinking more about picking up the new collections.
Heart Transplant by Andrew Vachss & Frank Caruso.

This may have started as a screenplay, but it is currently a heavily illustrated novella about bullying. (Library.)
Essential Defenders, vol. 2 by Steve Gerber, Sal Buscema, et al. The weirdness often found in Gerber's work hasn't fully manifested itself yet, but it grows in this volume.
Batman & Robin: Batman vs. Robin by Grant Morrison, Cameron Stewart, & Andy Clarke. I am one of the people who has really been enjoying Morrison's run on Batman and associated titles, and they read even better when collected.

Okay, it has been way too long since I updated movies, so here goes:

Dexter: The Fourth SeasonThis may have been the best season yet. John Lithgow certainly gives an excellent performance. However, I got this season from the library too soon after the previous season, and we had not had time to decompress from the previous season. Watching 12 episodes of this intense series in only 3 weeks can be hard-going.
Doctor Who: The Hand of FearSarah Jane's final story.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Bride of the MonsterEd Wood & Bela Lugosi. Not to mention Tor Johnson.
MST3K: Devil DollCreepy ventriloquist movie.
MST3K: Devil FishItalian rip-off of Jaws featuring a prototype of Sharktopus (from the SyFy Channel movie of the same name).
Love ActuallyThere are certain movies Teena & I watch each December. This is one of them. We adore this movie.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa ClausAnother of the movies we watch each December. Mexican kids movie in which a devil tries to thwart Santa.
MST3K: Robot MonsterAwful movie that makes no sense. None at all.

2010-12-05T16:25:00.001-08:00

Back on Track
I hope. Two weeks in a row. Fingers crossed I keep it up.

Barry Windsor-Smith Archives Conan, vol. 1 by Roy Thomas & Barry Windsor-Smith. The comics collected here are from before Windsor-Smith had fully developed as an artist, but his talent shows through.
Showcase Presents Legion of Super-Heroes, vol. 4 by Jim Shooter, J. Winslow Mortimer, et al.
The Extremist by Peter Milligan & Ted McKeever. Short Vertigo mini-series finally collected.
Power Girl, vol. 2: Aliens and Apes by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, & Amanda Conner. Light-hearted super-heroics. (Checked out of the library.)
Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, vol. 11: List of Ingredients by Naoki Urasawa. More twists. I'm still with this, but I wonder if the story can support another 14 volumes.
Batman: Dark Detective by Steve Englehart & Marshall Rogers.

The creators of some legendary Batman comics in the 70s reunite. Rogers' art is gorgeous as always, and Englehart is one of my favorite comics writers.
Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance by Joe Casey, ChrisCross, et al. Superheroes as celebrities. It's been done before. (Library.)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, vol. 7: Twilight by Brad Meltzer, Georges Jeanty, et al. The big bad of season eight is revealed. Caught me by surprise.
The Annotated Northwest Passage by Scott Chantler. Adventure and derring-do in 18th century Canada.
The Purple Smurfs by Peyo. The original Smurf comics are being translated into English, so I thought I'd check them out. Don't know that I'll get any for myself, but if Teena wants more for her classroom, I'll probably read them before passing them on. (Borrowed from Teena's classroom.)
Siege: Battlefield by various. Assorted one-shots tying into Marvel's "Siege" cross-over. (Library.)
Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation adapted by Tim Hamilton.

The art is good, but it doesn't do a great job of storytelling. The story, on the other hand, is a classic.
Dragon Puncher by James Kochalka. Silly story for kids. (Borrowed from Teena's classroom.)
Grant Morrison's 18 Days by Grant Morrison, with Mukesh Singh.

This is the series bible and scripts for the first three episodes of an upcoming (?) animated series adapting The Mahabharata, the Indian epic. It also includes lots of gorgeous concept art. Based on this, I would love to see this series. However, the site for the series says it is coming in Spring 2010, so I doubt we will ever actually see it. Which is a shame.
Grandville Mon Amour by Bryan Talbot. Much better than you would think from something that could be described as "funny-animal, steampunk Sherlock Holmes". But really, this is great.

Too lazy to do movies today. Maybe next week.

2010-11-27T14:06:00.001-08:00

So Far Behind

Not much in the way of discussion. I've go a lot of books to get through.

The Playwright by Daren White & Eddie Campbell.
Godland, vol. 4: Amplified Now by Joe Casey & Tom Scioli. Kirby-esque madness. (Checked out of the library.)
Usagi Yojimbo, vol. 24: Return of the Black Soul by Stan Sakai.

So good. Best use of "funny animals" I've seen.
Farscape: Scorpius, vol. 1: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie by Rockne S. O'Bannon, David Alan Mack, & Mike Ruiz.
Godland, vol. 5: Far Beyond the Bang by Joe Casey & Tom Scioli. (Library.)
Black Jack, vol. 11 by Osamu Tezuka.
The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, vol. 11 by Eiji Otsuka & Hosui Yamazuki. (Library.)
X-Men: S.W.O.R.D.: No Time to Breathe by Kieron Gillen & Steven Sanders.
Achewood, vol 2: Worst Song, Played on Ugliest Guitar
Phonogram, vol. 2: The Singles Club by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie. Very good, but I think Gillen needs work in toning down his insufferable music snob tendencies. On the other hand, this is a comic about people who use music to create magic, so where better to indulge those tendencies? (Library.)
Capote in Kansas: A Drawn Novel by Ande Parks & Chris Samnee. A fictionalized account of Capote's experiences in researching In Cold Blood.
The Titanic Awards: Celebrating the Worst of Travel by Doug Lansky. (Library.)
Johnny Boo, vol. 4: The Mean Little Boy by James Kochalka. (Borrowed from Teena's classroom.)
Side Jobs: Stories from the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

A collection of short stories. The first couple stories are pretty rough, but they are from early in Butcher's career. Can't wait for the next novel, due in spring.
Savage Sword of Conan, vol. 3 by Roy Thomas, et al.
Batman: King Tut's Tomb by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, & Jorge Luis Garcia Lopez. (Library.)
Stephen King's N. by Marc Guggenheim & Alex Maleev. Adaptation of an extremely creepy short story. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Hellboy: Masks and Monsters by Mike Mignola, James Robinson, et al.

Hellboy team-ups with Batman, Starman, & a character from Dark Horse's attempt to create their own super-hero universe.
Astro City: The Dark Age, Book 1: Brothers and Other Strangers by Kurt Busiek & Brent Anderson. Reread this because book two is finally out.
Astro City: The Dark Age, Book 2: Brothers in Arms by Kurt Busiek & Brent Anderson. Astro City's longest & most ambitious story yet.
Questionable Content, vol. 1 by Jeph Jacques. Collection of a great webcomic, even if it is about disaffected twenty-something hipsters. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Rin-Ne, vol. 4 by Rumiko Takahashi. Yeah, it's the same formula as all of Takahashi's other comics, but it's still entertaining. (Library.)
Excalibur Classic, vol. 1: The Sword Is Drawn by Chris Claremont & Alan Davis. Davis's art is wonderful (as always), and the writing is from before Claremont's tics completely took over his prose, so it is readable as well. (Library.)
Excalibur Classic, vol. 2: Two-Edged Sword by Chris Claremont & Alan Davis. (Library.)
DC Comics Presents: Chase by D. Curtis Johnson & J.H. Williams III. Four issues of a series I have heard good things about but never read before now. It is good, and I wish there were going to be more collections, but it seems unlikely.
Wonder Woman: Contagion by Gail Simone, Nicola Scott, et al. Simone's final issues of Wonder Woman.
Rasl, vol. 2: The Fires of St. George by Jeff Smith. Lots of info on nerds' favorite mad scientist: Nicola Tesla. (Library.)
Secret Six: Danse Macabre by Gail Simone, John Ostrander, Jim Calafiore, & Dustin Nguyen. Would love to see Ostrander get more comics to write.
I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett.

The final Tiffany Aching volume. Still great. I keep expecting each new Pratchett book to be his last, given that he has early-onset Alzheimer's. But he still keeps writing excellent humor novels that say something serious about people.
Fallen Angel Omnibus, vol. 0 by Peter David & David Lopez. Collection of the entire first Fallen Angel series, which is nice, since DC never got around to collecting the final eight issues.
Li'l Abner, vol. 26: Dailies 1960 by Al Capp. It had been so long since I had read any Li'l Abner strips that I had forgotten how funny they are. Since the Kitchen Sink reprints I had have been water damaged (and are long out of print), I may start picking up the IDW reprints (which have the advantage of containing the Sunday strips, not just the dailies).

And that brings me up to date. Movies can wait for next time.

2010-11-21T21:25:00.001-08:00

Still Playing Dragon Age: Origins

Maybe during the long weekend.

2010-11-14T21:37:00.000-08:00

More Delays

Once again, Dragon Age: Origins is taking up all my spare time; either playing it or watching Teena play. So no update this week either. Maybe next week.

2010-11-07T19:04:00.000-08:00

No Post This Week

Just about all my free time is being spent playing Dragon Age: Originsso I won't be updating this week.

2010-10-31T17:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

American Vampire, vol. 1 by Scott Snyder, Stephen King, & Rafael Albuquerque.

Despite all the comics with his name on them, this is the only one that Stephen King is actually involved in (as far as I know). (Borrowed from Teena.)
John Constantine: Hellblazer - All His Engines by Mike Carey & Leonardo Manco. I finally got around to getting a copy of this. Carey's run on Hellblazer was great, as is this graphic novel.
Iron Man: Deadly Solutions by Kurt Busiek & Sean Chen. I am sure Marvel put this out to capitalize on the movies. It's okay but nothing special. (Checked out of the library.)
Farscape, vol. 1: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning by Rockne S. O'Bannon, Keith R.A. DeCandido, & Tommy Patterson. This certainly captures the feel of the show. Scarcely surprising, since the story is by the show's creator.
Blacksad by Juan Diaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido.

Absolutely gorgeous art illustrating these noir-ish stories about a private detective. Like Usagi Yojimbo, this tells serious stories using "funny" animals. I hope more stories are coming. (Library.)

I haven't done movies since the Lovecraft Festival. But there's still not much:

Ghost Rider

RiffTrax commentary

Dexter: The Third Season I never thought I'd enjoy a show about a serial killer as much as I enjoy this.
RiffTrax: House on Haunted Hill This was RiffTrax "Live"*. Many of the same jokes as the DVD release, but plenty of new ones. Plus a couple of new shorts. Very funny.
Doctor Who: Battlefield I really liked the character bits, but I can't say the story itself really worked for me. (Not that it's any more ridiculous than other Doctor Who stories.)

*So many live events aren't really live when you live on the west coast.

2010-10-24T14:23:00.000-07:00

The Past Two Weeks

Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love by Chris Roberson & Shawn McManus. Spin-off from the Fables series. (Checked out of the library.)
Icon vol. 2: The Mothership Connection by Dwayne McDuffie & M.D. Bright. Great super-hero comics from the 90s. I wish more of the Milestone comics were collected.
Crogan's March by Chris Schweizer.

More historical fiction about the Crogan family. This time about a member of the French Foreign Legion. Great stuff, well-written, largely historically accurate (as far as I can tell), and nicely illustrated. I can't wait for the next volume. (Library.)
Sandman Mystery Theatre, vol. 8: The Blackhawk and the Return of the Scarlet Ghost by Matt Wagner, Steven T. Seagle, Matthew Smith, & Guy Davis. This was a great series.
The Adventures of Superboy by various. A collection of the earliest Superboy stories. Interesting to see these stories from the 40s. (Library.)
Ultimate Comics Iron Man: Armor Wars by Warren Ellis & Steve Kurth.
Dark Entries by Ian Rankin & Werther Dell'edera. A John Constatine story printed as part of the "Vertigo Crime" series. (Library.)
Spider-Man: Fever by Brendan McCarthy.

Trippy story with sometimes awkward writing, but great, psychedelic art.
Superman: Tales from the Phantom Zone by various. Oh man, these stories are fantastically silly. Did you know that Jor-El's evil brother (cousin?) was named "Cru-El"? Isn't that awesome?
Essential Punisher, vol. 2 by Mike Baron, Whilce Portacio, & Klaus Janson. Some very 80s comics here. Can't say I like Portacio's art, but Janson's is great as always.
Nancy, vol. 2 (John Stanley Library) by John Stanley & Dan Gormley. These comics almost feel like re-purposed Little Lulu stories, which is not surprising, considering that Stanley wrote Little Lulu for years & years. (Library.)
Secret Warriors, vol. 3: Wake the Beast by Jonathan Hickman & Alessandro Vitti. (Library.)
Stephen King's Dark Tower: Battle of Jericho Hill by Robin Furth, Peter David, & Jae Lee. More back-story to the Dark Tower series. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Super Spy: The Lost Dossiers by Matt Kindt. Odds & ends that didn't make it into Kindt's amazing. Super Spy.
Jimmy Olsen Adventures by Jack Kirby, vol. 2

Kirby's brand of action & insanity applied to Superman's pal.
Showcase Presents Wonder Woman, vol. 2 by Robert Kanigher & Ross Andru. Speaking of insanity, these stories don't make a lick of sense. But they're tons of fun.
Melvin Monster, vol. 2 (The John Stanley Library) by John Stanley. (Library.)
DC Comics Presents Batman #1 by Ed Brubaker & Scott McDaniel. I'm not sure why DC hasn't collected these comics before, given how popular Brubaker has become.
Detroit Metal City, vol. 6 by Kiminori Wakasugi. Heavy metal silliness. (Library.)
Justice League: Cry for Justice by James Robinson, Mauro Cascioli, et al. I got this to see if it was as wretched as I'd read on the internet. Not quite, but close. Robinson used to be one of my favorite comics writers. Not so much anymore. (Library.)
Captain America Reborn by Ed Brubaker, Bryan Hitch, & Butch Guice. The return of Steve Rogers.
The Cartoon History of the Modern World, part. II: From the Bastille to Baghdad by Larry Gonick

The conclusion of Gonick's fantastic history of everything. Comics is an amazingly versatile medium, and it's great to see it used for something other than power-fantasies.

Movies can wait until next week.

2010-10-17T21:01:00.001-07:00

Another Break

Spent the afternoon putting together a DVD rack. Will catch up next week.

2010-10-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

Back to Books

Quite a bit to get through. Over a month to cover.

Penny Arcade, vol. 6: The Halls Below by Jerry Holkins & Mike Krahulik. Yet another web comic collection. (Borrowed from Teena.)
White Night by Jim Butcher.

Still liking the Dresden Files novels. This was NOT borrowed from Michael. I finally bought my own copies.
Red/Tokyo Storm Warning by Warren Ellis, Cully Hamner, & James Raiz. The trailers I've been seeing for the upcoming movie Red got me thinking about this, so I re-read it. The movie bears almost no resemblance to this, but I want to see it anyway, since I want to see Helen Mirren kick ass.
Invincible Iron Man, vol. 4: Stark Disassembled by Matt Fraction & Salvador Larroca. The covers on the original comics collected here are great and unlike any other comics I've ever seen.

See?
Unfortunately, the cover on this collection looks like any other comic.

Not that the art is bad, just not distinctive.(Checked out of the library.)
Small Favor by Jim Butcher. Volume 10.
The Best American Comics 2007 by various.
Showcase Presents: DC Comics Presents: The Superman Team-Ups, vol. 1 bu various. That's quite a mouthful of a title. The stories collected here aren't exactly good, but they are entertaining. And they're a great introduction to DC characters.
Turn Coat by Jim Butcher. Volume 11.
Unwritten, vol. 2: The Inside Man by Mike Carey & Peter Gross.

This series is fantastic and keeps getting better. One of the first things I read each time a new issue comes out.
Unknown Soldier, vol. 2: Easy Kill by Joshua Dysart, Alberto Ponticelli, & Pat Mastoni. (Library.)
Thor: The Warriors Three by Alan Zelenetz, Charles Vess, et al.

Beautiful, beautiful artwork from Vess.
Dumbheart: A Get Fuzzy Collection by Darby Conley.
Empowered, vol. 6 by Adam Warren. As this series goes on, it moves further & further from its roots in cheesecake pin-ups.
X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back by Kathryn Immonen & Sara Pichelli. (Library.)
Locke & Key, vol. 3: Crown of Shadows by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez. This is getting more interesting as it goes along. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Sir Apropos of Nothing: Gypsies, Vamps, and Thieves by Peter David & Robin Riggs. Comic version of David's anti-hero.
Criminal, vol. 5: The Sinners by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips

Great noir.
PS238, vol. 8: When Worlds Go Splat! by Aaron Williams. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, vol. 6: Retreat by Jane Espenson & Georges Jeanty. This is getting better. I wasn't terribly impressed with the early volumes, but I quite liked this one.
Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 23 by Hiromu Arakawa. Not done yet, but winding up to the conclusion. (Library.)
Shade, the Changing Man, vol. 3: Scream Time by Peter Milligan & Chris Bachalo. Glad more of this is finally being collected.
John Constantine, Hellblazer: Hooked by Peter Milligan, Giuseppe Camuncoli, et al.
Changes by Jim Butcher. And with this, I am caught up with the Dresden Files books. Can't wait for the short story collection (due soon) and the next novel (April).
DC Comics Presents: Jack Cross by Warren Ellis & Gary Erskine. Interesting little story that probably would never have gotten collected if DC weren't trying out a new format.
Wally Gropius: The Umpteen Millionaire by Tim Hensley. (Library.)
The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola.

Goofy stories by Mignola.
Patsy Walker: Hellcat by Kathryn Immonen, David Lafuente, & Stuart Immonen. Absurd & silly super-hero stories.

2010-10-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

Movie Catch-Up
Before I get into the books I've been reading, I thought I'd deal with the movies I've seen in the last month or so.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Brain That Wouldn't Die
The Matrix Revolutions with the RiffTrax commentary.
Doctor Who: The Sontaran Experiment
Hancock Okay, but not terribly memorable.
Little Big Man I had forgotten how depressing this is. I don't know why, given that it's about Native Americans in the 19th century.
Tokyo Godfathers Another great movie from Satoshi Kon.
MST3K: The Horrors of Spider Island We watched this our first night in the new place. Teena picked it out because the host segments deal with moving.
MST3K: The Giant Gila Monster
Kung Fu Hustle I love this movie. So much fun.
Pirates of the Caribbean : The Curse of the Black Pearl with the Rifftrax commentary. Teena and I like to pretend that Disney showed restraint and did not make any sequels.

And now for the movies from the (last?) H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival:
The Burrowers Nice, suspenseful western. I do think the filmmakers made a mistake in giving the audience a good look at the monsters in the last part of the movie.
Pan's Labyrinth Such a great movie.
Shorts Block 3. Pretty good selection of shorts, including a great parody of those ads promoting religion.
The Whole Wide World Bio-pic of Robert E. Howard. Probably would not have seen it if there had been anything besides readings & panels on opposite it. I'm glad there wasn't, because this was great. Vincent D'Onofrio & Renee Zellweger give fantastic performances.
Shorts Block 2. Not quite as good as Block 3. I really think it is a bad choice to present a dramatic reading as a movie. Either make it audio only or put in the effort to make it visually interesting.
Shorts Block 1. Other than a humorous piece about a "paranormal drug dealer", I didn't much care for this block. Skipped out early so we could see
Dreams of the Witch House. The most incompetently-made movie I have ever seen. Hilarious.
The Unnamable Oh so 80s horror flick.
The Unnamable Returns: The Statement of Randolph Carter Slightly less 80s than the first one, but just as cheesy.
Dagon Pretty good adaptation of Shadow over Innsmouth. Not exactly faithful, but it doesn't abandon the story either.
El Monstruo del Mar. Lovecraft mixed with Russ Meyer. Not good. Too long at 75 minutes, sound problems, hints at backstory that go unexplored, and main characters made irredeemably unsympathetic in the first 15 minutes.

And one DVD that I picked up at the Festival:
The Cosmic Horror Fun-Pak. A collection of short films from a local production company.

2010-09-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

Hiatus

Getting ready to move. No energy to update. It may be a few weeks before I get back to the blog.

2010-09-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

Not Much to Say

Breaking with my three-day-weekend tradition & updating on Sunday (albeit late on Sunday). However, I am keeping my comments short.

The Talisman, Volume 1: The Road of Trials by Stephen King, Peter Straub, Robin Furth, & Tony Shasteen. I think I have read more graphic novel adaptations of King books than I have his actual novels. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Fantastic Four: World's Greatest by Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch. I think I need to stop reading Millar's comics. They just feel like he's pandering. (Checked out of the library.)
It's Only a Game by Charles Schulz & Jim Sasseville.

The other comic strip Schulz created. (Library.)
Showcase Presents Batgirl by various. Fun comics from the 60s & 70s.
Scalped, vol. 6: The Gnawing by Jason Aaron & R.M. Guera.

This just gets better and better. I do hope Aaron has an ending in mind and doesn't just drag on and on. (Library.)
Thor, vol. 3 by J. Michael Straczynski & Marko Djurdjevic. The end of Straczynski's run. (Library.)
Crogan's Vengeance by Chris Schweizer. Young adult comic about pirates. Seems fairly accurate. Very well done. (Library.)
High Soft Lisp by Gilbert Hernandez. Previously uncollected story about Fritz. (Library.)
Atomic Robo, Volume 3: Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time by Brian Clevinger & Scott Wegener. Lovecraftian horror. Featuring Carl Sagan. (Library.)
20th Century Boys, vol. 10: The Faceless Boy by Naoki Urasawa.

Still amazing.
Invaders: The Eve of Destruction by Roger Stern, Steve Epting, et al. I wish more of Stern's comics were collected.
Fall of the Hulks: The Savage She-Hulks by Jeff Parker, Salva Espin, et al.

Movies later.

2010-08-29T16:20:00.001-07:00

Mostly, But Not Entirely, Library Books

Superman: New Krypton, vol. 2 by various.
Jack of Fables, vol. 7: The New Adventures of Jack & Jack by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Russ Braun, et al. Decided I no longer needed to buy these series, but still interested in what happens. (Checked out of the library.)
Superman: New Krypton, vol. 3 by James Robinson, Greg Rucka, & Pete Woods. (Library.)
Thor, vol. 2 by J. Michael Straczynski, Olivier Coipel, & Marko Djurdjevic.
Hellblazer: Pandemonium by Jamie Delano & Jock. Nice to see Delano working again on the character he defined. (Library.)
House of Mystery, vol. 2: The Space Between by Matthew Sturges, Luca Rossi, Jose Marzan Jr., et al. This is interesting me less & less. I'm not sure I'll be checking out the next volume. (Library.)
Punishermax: Kingpin by Jason Aaron & Steve Dillon. Following Garth Ennis's run on the Punisher has to be tough. But Aaron seems to be doing a fine job. (Library.)
Megatokyo, vol. 6 by Fred Gallagher. I enjoy this, but find it frustrating. Gallagher acknowledges that it has been three years since the last volume was published, but the book doesn't contain a character list or a plot summary. I think he thinks everybody reading the book is a huge fan & follows his web-comic closely enough that he doesn't need anything like that. That's a bad assumption. (Library.)
Stephen King's The Stand: Soul Survivors by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa & Mike Perkins. The adaptation continues. (Borrowed from Teena.)
Incorruptible, vol. 1 by Mark Waid & Jean Diaz. The flip side of Waid's Irredeemable. In the latter, the world's mightiest superhero snaps and goes on a rampage. In this, one of said superhero's enemies goes straight. (Library.)
The Trials of Roderick Spode "The Human Ant" by David Mamet. Odd little doodles & not much of a story. (Library.)

Just one movie this week:
Millennium Actress I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I have owned this DVD since before Teena & I moved in together, but it took the death of the director, Satoshi Kon, to get me to watch this beautiful, touching movie. I agree with Teena's assessment of the movie and just want to add that I don't think this could have been done live action. The transitions between movies, flashbacks, and reality are seamless. With live-action, they would have been jarring. R.I.P. Satoshi Kon.

2010-08-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

Nothing But Library Books

As Teena and I get ready to move (at the end of September), we have packed up quite a bit, including most of my unread books. Therefore I will be reading a lot of library books in the next month & a half.

The Authority: The Lost Year, bk. 1 by Grant Morrison, Keith Giffen, et al. Superheroes. (Checked out of the library.)
X-Men: Nation X by Matt Fraction, Greg Land, Terry Dodson, et al. More superheroes. (Library.)
Wonderland by Tommy Kovaks & Sonny Liew. Not an adaptation of the book, but the story of Mary Ann, the White Rabbit's housemaid. (Library.)
Booster Gold, vol. 3: Reality Lost by Dan Jurgens & Chuck Dixon. Still more superheroes. (Library.)
Other Lives by Peter Bagge. Graphic novel about how people present different faces to the world. (Library.)
Filthy Rich by Brian Azzarello & Victor Santos. Noir. (Library.)
Atomic Robo, vol. 2: Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War by Brian Clevinger & Scott Wegener. I wasn't terribly impressed with the first volume: it just seemed like a Hellboy knock-off. But enough people like this that I gave it another chance, and I am glad I did. This story clicked with me, possibly because it was all one story. I am looking forward to reading further volumes. (Library.)
Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth. No superheroes here, just Batman villains in a madhouse. (Library.)
The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher & Ardian Syaf. I bought a copy of this back before I was reading the Dresden Files novels. I thought the story was okay, but I wasn't impressed with the art, and I ended up selling my copy. Now that I am more familiar with the characters and world, I thought I'd give it another try. I'm still not impressed with the art.

Three movies this time around, including 2 in the theater.

RiffTrax Live: Reefer Madness Very funny riffing on the '30s scare film. The crowd in the theater was annoying, but they shut up once the movie started.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Good adaptation of the graphic novels, although a fair amount had to be dropped. Also, both Teena and I found the final fight unsatisfying.
Doctor Who: Warriors' Gate The last of the adventures in E-Space.