The Lure of the New

Dragged myself away from my new toy (a Blackberry Storm) long enough to update. I've got two weeks to get through.

291. Mystery in Space, vol. 1 by Jim Starlin & Shane Davis. (Checked out of the library.)
     
292. Mystery in Space, vol. 2 by Jim Starlin, Shane Davis, & Bernie Wrightson. Okay sci fi adventure. Not Starlin's best, though. (Library.)
     
293. Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman. There's a lot of interesting stuff here, especially the interview at the end of the book, but a lot of the book is plot summaries of Gaiman's works, and I've read the vast majority of the things discussed.
     
294. Black Jack, vol. 5 by Osamu Tezuka. More medical drama. I don't know how many volumes this will run, but I'm in for the long haul.
     
295. Showcase Presents: The Doom Patrol, vol. 1 by Arnold Drake & Bruno Premiani. These comics are as strange as anything that Grant Morrison came up with when he wrote the title 25 years later. Wonderfully bizarre stories.
     
296. Hulk: World War Hulk: The Incredible Hercules by Greg Pak, Gary Frank, et al. I've really enjoyed the Hercules stories that Marvel has published recently, even though I read them all out of sequence, since the books aren't numbered consistently. This book is the first in the sequence, but I'm just reading it now. Oh well. (Library.)
     
297. Astro Boy, vol. 3 by Osamu Tezuka. I've been enjoying Pluto so much, that I decided to go back & reread the Astro Boy story that served as its inspiration, "The Greatest Robot on Earth." It's in this volume.
     
298. Justice Society, vol. 2 by Paul Levitz & Joe Staton. (Library.)
     
299. Legend of the Five Rings: Death at Koten by Shawn Carman & YJL of Imaginary FS. I played the L5R collectible card game for years & picked up the role playing books that followed. It's been ages since I played, but I knew I had to get this graphic novel. It's okay and serves as an introduction to the world, but I don't know that anybody who doesn't already know the setting would enjoy it.
     
300. The Adventures of Blanche by Rick Geary. Geary's comics are quirky, but I enjoy them. (Library.)
     
301. Starman Omnibus, vol. 3 by James Robinson, Tony Harris, et al. I am so happy to have this series of collections. The paperback Starman collections don't have all the issues from the main comic, much less things like the Shade mini-series. And it looks like the next volume will have the Starman/Hellboy crossover. Yay!
     
302. Wolverine: First Class: Wolverine-By-Night by Fred Van Lente, et al. (Library.)
     
303. Astro Boy, vol. 20 by Osamu Tezuka. Pluto also inspired me to fill in the gaps in my Astro Boy run.
     
304. New X-Men - Academy X, vol. 3: X-Posed by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, et al. (Library.)
     
305. House of M: X-Men - Academy X by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, & Aaron Lopestri. (Library.)
     
306. Power Girl by Geoff Johns, Amanda Connor, et al. (Library.)

Several movies in the past couple of weeks.

• RiffTrax: Night of the Living Dead.
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Robot Versus the Aztec Mummy. This movie has about 20 minutes of plot spread out over an hour & a half. That, combined with the fact that the MST3K crew are still honing their craft, means that this is painful to watch.
  
• Moon. Great science fiction movie with Sam Rockwell, and an excellently-cast Kevin Spacey as the voice of the creepy computer.
  
• MST3K: Racket Girls. Gangsters & female wrestlers.
  
• RiffTrax: The Little Shop of Horrors.

A Slight Delay (Yes, Again)

Spend most of the day out & about. Will try to update tomorrow.

Here I Am Again

276. Yotsuba & !, vol. 1 by Kiyohiko Azuma. Found a cheap copy of this deeply cute manga.
     
277. The New Avengers, vol. 9: Secret Wars, bk. 2 by Brian Michael Bendis, Billy Tan, et al. Some pretty good stories, but not much in the way of the Avengers. (Checked out of the library.)
     
278. Enigma Cipher by Andrew Crosby, Michael Alan Nelson, & Greg Scott. Like a lot of things from this publisher, this reads as a pitch for a movie. In this case, a thriller. (Library.)
     
279. Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman & Charles Vess. Beautifully illustrated version of the poem Gaiman wrote for Tori Amos when she was pregnant with her daughter. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
280. Legion of Super-Heroes: Enemy Manifest by Jim Shooter, Francis Manapul, et al. (Library.)
     
281. Tokyo Days, Bangkok Nights by Jonathan Vankin, Seth Fisher, & Giuseppe Comuncoli. (Library.)
     
282. Magic Trixie, vol. 3: Magic Trixie & Her Dragon by Jill Thompson. Another delightful kid's book from Thompson.
     
283. She-Hulk, vol. 9: Lady Liberators by Peter David, Vincenzo Cucca, & Steve Scott. The last volume in this series.
     
284. Stephen King's The Dark Tower: Treachery by Robin Furth, Peter David, & Jae Lee. More backstory for Roland.
     
285. Jumper: Jumpscars by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, & Brian Hurtt. Prequel to the movie, Jumper, which I never saw. (Library.)
     
286. Special Forces, vol. 1: Hot to Death by Kyle Baker. Satirical look at the Iraq war.
     
287. GalaxyQuest: Global Warning by Scott Lobdell & Ilias Kyriazis. Eh. (Library.)
     
288. The Age of the Sentry by Jeff Parker, Paul Tobin, Nick Dragotta, et al. Pastiche of Silver-Age Superman. Loads of fun.
     
289. Captain Britain and MI13, vol. 1: Secret Invasion by Paul Cornell & Leonard Kirk. Pretty good. (Library.)
     
290. 20th Century Boys, vol. 3: Hero with a Guitar by Naoki Urasawa. Some clues about the mystery, & the tension builds. I'm really enjoying this series and its exploration of adults looking back at their childhoods.

Three movies this week:

• Creature from the Black Lagoon. Saw this in 3D. Sometimes the 3D effects were fantastic, sometimes not.
  
• RiffTrax: House on Haunted Hill.
  
• RiffTrax: Reefer Madness. Just laughable, even without the commentary.

Another Week Gone

268. Beowulf, v. 1: The Monster Maker by Bill Willingham. Short fantasy novel set in the same world as Willingham's short-lived comics series, "Coventry."
     
269. Essential Luke Cage, Power Man, vol. 2 by various. Mores 70s Marvel comics. (Checked out of the library.)
     
270. The Best American Comics 2008, edited by Lynda Barry. Barry wanted to include an excerpt from Paul Pope's Batman Year 100 in this anthology, but DC wouldn't give their permission. Their loss. (Library.)
     
271. Daredevil: Lady Bullseye by Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark, & Stefano Gaudiano. I may start buying these collections again. (Library.)
     
272. The Rack: Year One (Mostly) by Kevin Church & Benjamin Birdie. Print collection of a web comic about a comic book store. It doesn't depend entirely on knowing comics (but that knowledge doesn't hurt).
     
273. Humbug, vol. 2 by Harvey Kurtzman, et al. The rest of the humor series. This volume contains annotations for the entire series, which helps explain some of the 1950s cultural references that have not survived. (Library.)
     
274. Bayou, vol. 1 by Jeremy Love. Great story and beautiful art, printed on some of the worst paper I've ever seen. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
275. Star Wars: Vector, vol. 1 by various. (Checked out of the library.)

2 movies this week, both from RiffTrax.

• The Best of RiffTrax Shorts, vol. 1.
  
• The Best of RiffTrax Shorts, vol. 2.

Still more books

258. BPRD, vol. 10: The Warning by Mike Migola, John Arcudi, & Guy Davis. More portents of disaster to come.
     
259. Swamp Thing, vol. 8: Spontaneous Generation by Rick Veitch. I finally got around to picking up the second collection of Veitch's Swamp Thing run. Now if only they would finish reprinting it.
     
260. I Saw You...: Comics Inspired by Real-Life Missed Connections edited by Julia Wertz. Like most anthologies, a mixed bag, but there were some good stories here. (Checked out of the library.)
     
261. Justice Society, vol. 1 by Paul Levitz, Gerry Conway, Joe Staton, Keith Giffen, Wally Wood, & Ric Estrada. 1970s stories of Earth-2. (Library.)
     
262. Pluto, vol. 3 by Naoki Urasawa. Still very much impressed by this expansion & retelling of an Astro Boy story.
     
263. Punisher War Journal, vol. 5: Secret Invasion by Matt Fraction, Rick Remender, Howard Chaykin, et al. Bad fun. (Library.)
     
264. Secret Invasion: Thor by Matt Fraction & Doug Braithwaite. (Library.)
     
265. T-Minus: The Race to the Moon by Jim Ottoviani, Zander Cannon, & Kevin Cannon. The latest work of science history from Ottoviani, this time about the space race.
     
266. Rasl, vol. 1: The Drift by Jeff Smith. Very different from Bone, but I like it, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes. (Library.)
     
267. MySpace Dark Horse Presents, vol. 2 by various. This volume includes a Captain Hammer story. (Library.)

Just one movie this week:

• RiffTrax: Plan 9 from Outer Space. RiffTrax is a venture from some MST3K alumni. They do humorous commentaries on movies & then sell them as downloads. The purchaser then plays the commentary as they watch the movie. But recently, they've begun selling DVDs with both the movies & commentaries. Of course Teena & I had to have these. More RiffTrax movies will be showing up in the coming weeks.

Another Update

249. X-Factor: Secret Invasion by Peter David, Larry Strohman, et al. Part of Marvel's latest mega-event crossover, but still comprehensible for all that.
     
250. The Superman Chronicles, vol. 1 by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster. The first volume of a series reprinting Superman stories from the very beginning. The power fantasy elements are very apparent in these early stories. Superman gets his way by beating up people, and lots of people are afraid of him. I do like the way Superman fights for the little guy in these stories. (Checked out of the library.)
     
251. Supermarket by Brian Wood & Kristian Donaldson. (Library.)
     
252. Star Wars Legacy, vol. 5: The Hidden Temple by John Ostrander & Jan Duursema.
     
253. Showcase Presents Jonah Hex by John Albano, Michael Fleisher, Tony DeZuniga, et al. Western comics from the 70s. Very good, and I really hope they do further volumes, even if they do have to renegotiate reprint rights with the creators.
     
254. Countdown to Final Crisis, vol. 4 by Paul Dini, et al. Eh. (Library.)
     
255. Gravel, vol. 1: Bloody Liars by Warren Ellis, Mike Wolfer, Raulo Caceres, & Oscar Jimenez. Combat magician Sergeant Major William Gravel gets an ongoing series.
     
256. MPD-Pscyho, vol. 8 by Eiji Otsuka & Sho-U Tajima. (Library.)
     
257. Showcase Presents Legion of Super-Heroes, vol. 3 by Jim Shooter, Curt Swan, et al. It's great to see these stories made available in an affordable format.

A few more movies:

• More Tales of the City. With the cast changes, & the fact that the main characters are split up for the first half of the story, this isn't as good as the first one.
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Stranded in Space. Another episode courtesy of Dave.
  
• Speed Racer. Light & fluffy, with faster visuals than you can possibly keep up with, but surprisingly entertaining. The visual overload works because it's about conveying an impression. When details are important, the movie slows down enough that you can understand what's going on. Not something I'd want a steady diet of, but it shows what can be done with green screen.

Three in a Row

I really shouldn't be so excited to have updated 3 weeks running.

242. Joker by Brian Azzarello & Lee Bermejo. Pretty good, but I'm not sure how well a semi-realistic depiction of gangsters fits in with Batman & the Joker. In some ways, it reminded me of The Sopranos. (Checked out of the library.)
     
243. Superfolks by Robert Mayer. Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, & Kurt Busiek all cite this 1977 novel about a superhero undergoing a mid-life crisis as an influence. I liked it quite a bit, but I have to admit that the humorous parts largely fell flat for me. I think that's largely the cultural distance between when it was written & when I read it.
     
244. Museum of Terror, vol. 1: Tomie 1 by Junji Ito. One of the things I like about the Japanese horror I've seen is that often there is no reason behind the horror. It's just something awful that happens for no reason & with no origin. In the Tomie stories, Tomie is a young woman who provokes obsession in men. They become so obsessed with her that they hack her into pieces. These pieces then regenerate, sometimes into multiple Tomies. No explanation is ever given as to where she came from or why she has this effect or how she can regenerate.
     
245. Museum of Terror, vol. 2: Tomie 2 by Junji Ito. More Tomie stories.
     
246. Museum of Terror, vol. 3: The Long Hair in the Attic by Junji Ito. More horror manga.
     
247. Essential Ms. Marvel by Chris Claremont, Jim Mooney, et al. Pretty good. Claremont hasn't quite developed into the writer he will be, but on the other hand, his writing tics are not very prominent here.
     
248. Star Wars Clone Wars: The Wind Raiders of Taloraan by John Ostrander & the Fillback Brothers. I haven't seen the show, but I like & trust Ostrander's writing. This was pretty good.

A few movies this week, and a correction:

Last week I identified Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gamera vs. Barugon as being from Dave's collection. That was wrong. It's one of Teena's. I regret the error. (MST3K: Robot Monster from a while back, is from Dave's collection, though.)

• MST3K: Time of the Apes.
  
• MST3K: Rocket Attack U.S.A..
  
• The Film Crew: Wild Women of Wongo.