Catch-Up

I read quite a few books in the last two weeks, so time to get cracking.

17. The Miskatonic Project: The Whisperer in Darkness by H.P. Lovecraft, Mark Ellis, et al. An adaptation & expansion of Lovecraft's story.
    
18. Batman Black and White, vol. 3 by various. Collection of short Batman stories. The quality varies. (Checked out of the library.)
    
19. MPD Psycho, vol. 4 by Sho-u Tajima & Eiji Otsuka. This horror series is growing on me as it goes. (Library.)
    
20. Jack of Fables, vol. 4: Americana by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, & Russ Braun. We finally get to see the American fable-land in this volume.
    
21. Charley's War: Return to the Front by Pat Mills & Joe Colquhoun. More well-researched comics about WWI. (Library.)
    
22. Astonishing X-Men, vol. 2 by Joss Whedon & John Cassaday. Whedon's run on X-Men wraps up.
    
23. Gimmick, vol. 3 by Youzaburo Kanari & Kuroko Yabaguchi. (Library.)
    
24. Legion of Super-Heroes: The More Things Change by Paul Levitz & Steve Lightle. I am happy to see Levitz's run on LSH collected, but I wish they'd started earlier in his run.
    
25. You'll All Be Sorry! by Gail Simone. A collection of Simone's humor columns from the days before she was a professional comic book writer.
    
26. Showcase Presents Supergirl, vol. 1 by various. I was annoyed that the final story in this volume, one that spanned five issues, was resolved by a deus (or rather, an imp) ex machina.
    
27. The Brave and the Bold, vol. 2: The Book of Destiny by Mark Waid, George Perez, & Jerry Ordway. Fun super-hero cross-overs. (Library.)
    
28. X-Factor, vol. 5: The Only Game in Town by Peter David, Pablo Raimondi, & Valentine DeLandro. I can't say I care for the art, but I do enjoy the writing.
    
29. Marvel Adventures Hulk, vol. 4: Tales to Astonish by Peter David & Juan Santacruz.
    
30. Thieves & Kings: Apprentices, Book 1 by Mark Oakley. Oakley has returned to comics, and I hope he keeps it up for a long time. I really enjoy his work, even if it sometimes does seem overly precious.
    
31. Mighty Avengers, vol. 2: Venom Bomb by Brian Michael Bendis & Mark Bagley. Still not terribly good, but I'm curious. (Library.)
    
32. The Flash: The Wild Wests by Mark Waid, Daniel Acuna, & Freddie Williams II. I liked this quite a bit. (Library.)
    
33. Serenity: Better Days by Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, & Will Conrad. Set between Firefly and Serenity, this tells of a time when a heist goes right for Mal Reynolds and crew.
    
34. Booster Gold, vol. 2: Blue and Gold by Geoff Johns, Jeff Katz, & Dan Jurgens. Johns tends to be hit or miss for me, but this is definitely a hit. (Library.)
    
35. John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Gift by Mike Carey & Leonardo Manco. This wraps up Carey's run on Hellblazer.
    
36. Nemi by Lise Myhre. A goth-themed comic strip that is just as trite as any you'll find in any family newspaper. Not bad, but not exactly good, either. (Library.)
    
37. The Nightmare Factory: Based on the Stories of Thomas Ligotti by various. I've never heard of Ligotti before this, but these adaptations are pretty creepy. (Library.)
    
38. Madman Atomic Comics, vol. 1 by Mike Allred. I really enjoyed the early Madman stories, but the latest run just doesn't really work for me. It feels self-indulgent. (Library.)
    
39. B.P.R.D., vol. 9: 1946 by Joshua Dysart, Mike Migola, & Paul Azaceta. Man, this series just continues to impress. Creepy & scary, just what I want from a horror title.
    
40. Legion of Super-Heroes: Enemy Rising by Jim Shooter, Francis Manapul, et al. Shooter started his career in comics 40 years ago with the LSH. And he's doing a good job on his return to the franchise. (Library.)
    
41. The New Avengers, vol. 7: The Trust by Brian Michael Bendis & Leinil Yu. I just can't look away. (Library.)
    
42. Sharks Just Wanna Have Fun by Jim Toomey. (Borrowed from Teena.)
    
43. Rosario + Vampire, vol. 1: Vampires by Akihisa Ikeda. Another manga series. (Library.)
    
44. Doctor Who Classics, vol. 2 by Steve Moore, Pat Mills, John Wagner, & Dave Gibbons.
    
45. Ted McKeever Library Book 1: Transit, the Complete Series. This is from early in McKeever's career, and it shows. (Library.)
    
46. Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 17 by Hiromu Arakawa. Still liking this.

And now, what I've been watching:

• Avatar the Last Airbender, Book 3: Fire, vol. 4. The finale to this series. Teena & I both enjoyed this series quite a bit. I think it helped that the creators had a story to tell, and they told it, rather than dragging things out when it proved popular.
  
• Cinematic Titanic: Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks. The jokes are funny, but the movies they've selected to mock are unpleasant enough that the jokes don't matter.
  
• Iron Man. This movie doesn't bear thinking about too much, but it sure is fun.

A Slight Delay

Rearranging furniture and organizing CDs and books today. Will update next week.

Reading Resolution
In 2009, I will read at least one book a month that is not a graphic novel. Also, I will make a dent in the number of unread Essentials and Showcase Presents volumes I have. And, to stop falling months & months behind in listing the movies I've seen, I treat them like books & post about them each week.

Now on to the books I've read so far in 2009.

1. X-Men: Messiah Complex by various. It's an X-Men crossover. Not much more to be said. (Checked out of the library.)
   
2. Punisher, vol. 10: Valley Forge, Valley Forge by Garth Ennis & Goran Parlov. Another Punisher story from Ennis. (Library.)
   
3. MPD Psycho, vol. 3 by Sho-u Tajima & Eiji Otsuka. Disturbing but good. (Library.)
   
4. X-Men: Divided We Stand by Ed Brubaker & Mike Choi. I liked seeing hippie versions of the X-Men. (Library.)
   
5. Private Wars by Greg Rucka. The second novel featuring characters Rucka created for a comic book. Somewhat realistic spy-thriller. Very good.
   
6. Cat Eyed Boy, vol. 2 by Kazuo Umezu. Completely insane, but fascinating. (Library.)
   
7. Magic Trixie Sleeps Over by Jill Thompson. Adorable story about a young witch who tires of her bedtime routine and what she learns when she sleeps over at her friends' houses.
   
8. Scalped, vol. 3: Dead Mothers by Jason Aaron, R.M. Guero, et al. Noir story set on a reservation. (Library.)
   
9. Star Wars Legacy, vol. 4: Alliance by John Ostrander & Omar Francia. I continue to enjoy these stories set over 100 years after the movies.
   
10. Mail, vol. 2 by Housui Yamazaki. After only two volumes, the formula is clear: ghost shows up & menaces somebody, detective appears at the last minute and exorcises the ghost. But the stories are entertainingly told, so I'm not worried about the repetition. (Library.)
    
11. Tom Strong's Terrific Tales, Book 2 by Steve Moore, Alan Moore, et al. I didn't get this when it was first published because I was waiting for the paperback edition. By the time I finally accepted that there wouldn't be a paperback edition, the cloth was basically out of print. Fortunately, there are copies to be found at comics stores & the like.
    
12. The All New Atom: The Hunt for Ray Palmer by Gail Simone & Mike Norton. (Library.)
    
13. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, & Kevin Cornell. I haven't seen the movie, but I suspect it is quite a bit different from this graphic novel adaptation of Fitzgerald's story. (Borrowed from Teena.)
    
14. Empowered, vol. 4 by Adam Warren. There's a surprising amount of heart in this comic that started as a collection of cheesecake drawings.
    
15. PS238, vol. 6: Senseless Acts of Tourism by Aaron Williams. This series about a grade school for superpowered children is great. (Borrowed from Teena.)
    
16. Dan Dare by Garth Ennis & Gary Erskine. (Library.)

And now the movies (& DVDs) I finished watching since the beginning of the year:

• The Muppet Show, Season 3. This season contains the Harry Belafonte episode, one of my favorites.
  
• A History of Violence. We had had this on our DVR for over a year, and we finally got around to watching it last night. Very good.

Wrapping Up 2008

Okay, time for the last few books I read last year.

530. Afterdead 1: The Desert Peach 31, 32 & Beyond by Donna Barr. I've had this since it came out, quite a while ago, but it took me a long time to get around to reading it. Once I did, I remembered just how good Barr is. In this book, she re-envisions and merges her series, including The Desert Peach, Stinz, and Bosom Enemies. It's weird, but it works.
     
531. Afterdead 1.2: The Desert Peach Crosses Over by Donna Barr.
     
532. Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. Very funny and with interesting insights into the origin of Santa Claus (well, the Hogfather, but he's the Discworld version).
     
533. The Best American Comics 2006 by various. Picked this anthology up in a used book store. I was surprised at how many of the selections were things I had already read in their original appearances. I don't think of myself as reading many art comics.
     
534. Tall Tales by Al Jaffee. The best of a vertical comic strip done by the man who created Mad Magazine's fold-ins.
     
535. Garfield Minus Garfield by Jim Davis, with Dan Walsh. The idea of removing Garfield from Garfield is genius. It's amazing how the strips are changed without the cat.
     
536. Promethea, Book 1 by Alan Moore & J.H. Williams III.
     
537. Promethea, Book 2 by Alan Moore & J.H. Williams III.
     
538. Promethea, Book 3 by Alan Moore & J.H. Williams III.
     
539. Promethea, Book 4 by Alan Moore & J.H. Williams III.
     
540. Promethea, Book 5 by Alan Moore & J.H. Williams III. When I bought the final volume of Moore's treatise on magic disguised as a superhero comic, I decided I'd reread the first four volumes. It took me a while to get around to it. I think this comic is great, even if the superhero disguise does grow thin when Promethea takes a tour up the Tree of Life. I think this is one of Moore's best works.

540 books in 366 days.

And now to finish catching up with the movies & DVDs I watched last year.

• Avatar The Last Airbender, Book 2 Earth, vol. 4.
  
• Space Ghost Coast to Coash, vol. 4: The 1998 Episodes.
  Movies seen at the 2008 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival
  
  • Hellboy.
    
  • Shorts Block 2.
    
  • Dark Paradox.
    
  • Shorts Block 3.
    
  • Shorts Block 1.
    
  • The Dunwich Horror.
    
  • Alien Raiders. Despite a generic and uninspired title, this is the stand-out movie from the festival this year. This is a smart & well-done little horror movie. I was glad to look, when looking for the movie on Amazon, that it will be available on DVD next month.
  
  
• Kakurenbo - Hide and Seek. A creepy anime short about a group of kids playing a game.
  
• Avatar The Last Airbender, Book 3 Fire, vol. 1.
  
• Godzilla vs. Megaguirus.
  
• Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter. Amazingly, this movie is available on Blu-ray. I have absolutely no idea why.
  
• Myster Science Theater 3000: Werewolf.
  
• Avatar the Last Airbender, Book 3 Fire, vol. 2
  
• MST3K: First Spaceship on Venus.
  
• Cinematic Titanic: Legacy of Blood. Some funny jokes here, but the movie they are making fun of is so unpleasant and squicky that we won't be watching this again.
  
• Avatar the Last Airbender, Book 3 Fire, vol. 3.
  
• Wall-E. We picked the DVD up shortly after it became available. So good.
  
• Cinematic Titanic: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. We are so used to the MST3K version of this that the jokes fell rather flat.
  
• Love Actually. We just adore this movie.
  
• MST3K: Santa Claus.
  
• Thunder Road. Robert Mitchum as a moonshiner caught between the feds & the mob.
  
• The General. Buster Keaton.
  
• MST3K: Future War. Incredibly disjointed movie that had absolutely no sense of place. Some funny jokes about it, though.
  
• It's a Wonderful Life.
  
• MST3K: Laserblast. The best thing about this movie is the stop-motion animation on the aliens.
  
• MST3K: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. We decided we had to watch this version too.
  
• Sunshine. We liked this quite a bit, although it was easy to pick nits about the poorly-designed spaceship.
  
• Mad Men, Season 1. Wow. What an amazing show. This is absolutely fantastic. They do the period so well. Believe the things you've heard about this.
  
• Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Including Commentary! The Musical.

Stir Crazy

Despite being snowed in the entire week, I did not find the time to update. And I probably won't get the chance to do so until next weekend.

See you next year!

Cabin Fever

Thanks to the snow and ice (and a cold that finally seems to be subsiding), I only went to work one day last week. (And the way things are going, I don't know that I'll be going to work tomorrow. If that's the case, I'll do another movie post.) But despite that, I didn't finish all that many books this week.

524. Monster, vol. 17: I'm Back by Naoki Urasawa. Things are coming to a head, with twists & revelations. One volume to go. (Checked out of the library.)
     
525. Mail, vol. 1 by Housui Yamazuki. Manga about a guy who exorcises ghosts with a special gun. (Library.)
     
526. The Question, vol. 3: Epitaph for a Hero by Dennis O'Neil & Denys Cowan. This comic gets very meta in the issue where The Question reads Watchmen, which contains a character (Rorschach) who is based on the original version of The Question.
     
527. Dungeon Monstres, vol. 2: The Dark Lord by Joann Sfarr, Lewis Trondheim, Andreas, & Stephane Blanquet. Another Dungeon volume. I don't know how fast the originals are coming out in France, but if the translations are a ways behind, I wish they'd step up the production schedule. (Library.)
     
528. Black Jack, vol. 2 by Osamu Tezuka. In Japan, this is Tezuka's most popular manga for adults, and I can see why. (Although I personally think Buddha is better.)
     
529. The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson & Ernie Colon. There is a lot of important information in this book. Unfortunately what I took away from the book is that somebody involved does not know how to lay out comic pages so that they read easily. Far too many times I found myself puzzling over which caption to read next. The eye should flow easily from one panel to the next, with out having to stop & consider which caption is next. Poorly done comics.

The Return of Movie Posts

Between snow & a sore throat, I've been home for the past 5 days. I guess I should use some of that time to catch up on the list of movies I've seen. My last post on the topic was in June, so this is long overdue.

• The Court Jester. It was really strange seeing Angela Lansbury when she was so young.
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Starfighters. This movie has no plot whatsoever; it's just a string of events that happen.
  
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. This is not nearly as good as the first FF movie, and that wasn't anything more than a dumb but entertaining super-hero flick.
  
• Iron Man. Now this is how do do a super-hero movie. Everybody says Robert Downey Jr. is perfect for the role. They say it because it's true.
  
• Double Indemnity.
  
• Best in Show. Teena has commented that Christopher Guest's movies are all pretty much the same, with the only difference being the subject in which the characters are involved. I can't argue with that, but they're still funny.
  
• Ocean's 13. I have a weakness for caper movies.
  
• The Muppet Show, Season 2. It's a wonderful thing when a fondly remembered show from your childhood lives up to your recollections even after you're an adult.
  
• Wall-E. Oh man, does Pixar make some great movies. Simply delightful.
  
• Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Well, it's better than Temple of Doom.
  
• The Mist. A very scary & brutal adaptation of a Stephen King story.
  
• Planet of the Apes. The original, not Burton's remake. I had never actually seen this before, or if I had, I was so young that I don't remember a thing.
  
• The Ghost and the Darkness.
  
• The Fountain.
  
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
  
• Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs. I think the first Futurama (direct to DVD) movie was better, even with way too many call backs to the series. Still damn funny, though.
  
• Cinematic Titanic: Doomsday Machine. An incredibly incoherent movie that simply demands to be made fun of.
  
• The Muppet Show, Season 1. The first season isn't as strong as later ones. I guess that's why it took us longer to finish this even though we bought it before the second season.
  
• A Hard Day's Night. I love the bit where somebody asks Ringo if he's a Mod or a Rocker and he replies, "I'm a Mocker."
  
• The Dark Knight. I think there's some kind of rule stating that anybody who reviews this movie has to mention Heath Ledger's amazing performance as the Joker, but this really feels like a film & a half. I think it would have been better if they could have moved most of the Two-Face story to another movie.
  
• Clash of the Titans.
  
• Amazon Women on the Moon.
  
• Avatar the Last Airbender, book 2 Earth, vol. 1.
  
• Cinematic Titanic: The Wasp Woman.
  
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Indecision 2004. The Daily Show's election coverage from 4 years ago.
  
• Ghost Rider. This is the cheesiest movie I have EVER seen. And the thing is, I cannot tell whether or not they were trying to be cheesy. I suspect they were, but I'm not certain.
  
• Avatar the Last Airbender, book 2 Earth, vol. 2.
  
• Cloverfield. I think the monster was, for some reason, attracted to the video camera the characters were carrying around for the entire movie.
  
• 28 Weeks Later.
  
• Avatar the Last Airbender, book 2 Earth, vol. 3.
  
• Hairspray. They really should have just cast a woman in the Edna Turnblad role. As it is, you just spend too much time thinking, "That's John Travolta in a fat suit & drag."
  
• Six Feet Under - The Complete Series. Teena & I watched this with some friends. It took us a long, long time to get through the whole series, but it was definitely time well spent. The final episode lives up to the hype surrounding it. Just an amazing series all the way around.

I am not caught up yet (this only gets us to mid-September), but I think that's enough for now. Good to stop on a high note. I'm hoping it won't be another 6 months before I get back to posting about movies again.