A favourite animated series of mine and ours, Kim Possible, is returning. I missed the original news bite (which dates back to November 2005) but, thankfully, managed to catch this one. Yet another show saved by the fans.
Oh, man. I just ran across this while doing a search on Jon J Muth and now I want one.
Ran into this site while surfing around tonight. As a fan of the show and the comic, it gave me a few moments of reading pleasure.
Anyway, after setting the book down I think I can say the story was just as good as I'd heard. It was more than I expected, really. I was happy with how Thompson managed to keep things very subdued and very real, yet maintain a lyrical quality to the storytelling. The imagery and his art style probably had a lot to do with that, but considering it is a graphic novel written and drawn by the same guy, it's all the same thing.Former The X-Files star Gillian Anderson gave birth to a baby boy, Oscar Griffiths, on Nov. 1 in London, her second child and her first with boyfriend businessman Mark Griffiths, People magazine reported.
Anyway, all this Pumpkins listening and christening got me to do an internet search (I think I was looking for a remastered version of 'Siamese Dream' or something) and I stumbled across this. I never would have imagined that the four original members would be getting back together anytime soon, but it looks like there is a new album forthcoming. They're working on it probably as I'm writing this post.
A little while ago I managed to snag a copy of Batman Returns for less than $5. It was the new 2-Disc edition with the commentary and features and what-not so naturally I was excited. I'd been waiting many years for a commentary on this film or its predecessor, Batman, so I got it home, tore it out of its case and plugged her into the ol' DVD player post haste.
A couple of days ago I found the first Batman film for the same price and went through pretty much the same process. The only real complaint I have with either release is that Burton's commentary is kind of so-so and not terribly informative. He repeats a lot of things about three or four times over the course of the film and doesn't really talk about the movie in a very retrospective way. Lots of reminding the viewer/listener about the psychological profiles they made for the characters but not too much else.
Originally getting this book was a big draw for people who were unable to see the director's cut of the film because it includes all the deleted scenes, but since Warner Bros. released the unedited version (by popular demand) on DVD that novelty has sort of worn off. I was pleased to discover, however, that a few scenes/lines that were in the screenplay never made the final cut. Nothing major, just a few words here and there that are cool for the trivia obsessed collector like me. Like when Woof comes out of the Jolly Jack building, sees all the cops and says, "Aw, man!"
Next up in my brief but burgeoning series of interview links is an NPR audio piece featuring J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Ploog talking about the latest incarnation of the Abadazad series.
Now that I'm working in the automotive industry I see a lot of car related news. Usually it's the kind of stuff you would expect from MSN Auto News and the like - discussing ft-lbs. of torque, or how fast this vehicle can go compared to another. The other day, though, I stumbled across this neat little human interest story on a site called auto123.com. It's about a guy and his 'vette which was stolen almost 40 years ago, only to find its way back to him this year. He lost it mere months after buying the thing and now, almost 38 years later, the damn thing gets flagged in cutoms on its way to a buyer in Sweden, for crying out loud.
First up, the Sorcerer Supreme. I hummed and I hawed for, like, two days debating with myself whether to pick this book up or not. The artwork by Marcos Martin looked positively sublime and that first page between Araña and Iron Fist in the waiting room (pictured at right) was priceless. Still, when you look through a book and all you see are talking heads, short of reading the book on the spot in the store (instantly making it pointless to buy in the bargain) there's no way of telling if the writer (Brian K. Vaughan, in this case) has done anything truly worthwhile.
In a funny way, it was probably a good thing that I did decide to check out the new Blade because it looked pretty disappointing, to be brutally honest. I'd read some lukewarm reviews before leaving the house so I wasn't expecting a lot, but the final decision to axe the idea came down shortly after skimming through a few pages of the first issue. There was something about it that just didn't feel right. It was probably the main storyline with Blade going around killing a lot of vampires with very little point because the B story featuring previously unrevealed moments from Blade's past looked rather engaging.
Vaughan grounded the story well enough that it didn't just seem...well, beyond everything, you know? The role of Dr. STrange in the Marvel U over the last bunch of years was either as a Deus Ex Machina or as some form of comic relief. In The Oath, Vaughan portrayed Strange as a powerful mystic, sure, but still a man and still a medical doctor. It was a nice balance of what Lee and Ditko did with the character 40 years ago crossed with what an intelligent and discrimination comic audience might be looking for today. One of my favourite Dr. Strange runs of all time was the DeMatteis/Buckingham run just before the series was cancelled in the late '90s and it was for much of the same reasons. When you can connect with the character on some level, you can go that extra step beyond. The Straczynski reboot from a year or so back seemed to be trying way too hard and missing the mark, in my opinion.
To start off with, I'm really curious about the new Dr. Strange: The Oath mini-series by BKV and Martin. From what I've seen the darn thing looks really good. I'm not a huge Strange fan, but I've had some very good reading experiences with the character in the past. If handled right he can be a really interesting guy to explore and it's a corner of the Marvel U that is highly underutilized. Still, even though Vaughan (who has more-or-less proven himself in my eyes as a sure thing) is writing the thing, I still can't cough up the $3.75 (CAN) and just bring the damn comic book home to read, you know? My discretionary funds are pretty much depleted for the pay period and I'm feeling pretty gun-shy when I'm standing there at the shop.
Next up is X-Men: First Class. I wasn't looking forward to this book, then I was really looking forward to this book, now I'm feeling a little lukewarm after finally getting my hands on it. Jeff Parker is a name that generally draws me to any title it's associated with, and 9 times out of 10 it's a sure bet that what he's cooked up for you is something you're going to want to read. It took me a while to track this one down but I finally managed to find a copy of it today and read it in the Vue while waiting for my daughter to get out of Irish Dance.
In the spirit of Halloween, and in an effort to keep my retailer from dumping my file, I picked up the copy of Where Monsters Dwell that's been collecting dust in my file for some months now. I originally set it aside because of the Giffen connection, and then subsequently ignored it because of its $5.75 price tag, but after picking up and reading this crazy gem of a comic book I have to say I'm an idiot for having waited this long.
After watching The Man With the Screaming Brain the other night, I decided to dig out my copies of the mini-series to see how the two compared. I know Bruce Campbell had commented a number of times in interviews that the comic book adaptation was a 'truer' version of the screenplay because of its limitless budget and scale. Moody and atmospheric night scenes remained night scenes whereas in the film they were forced to shoot the whole thing in daylight to save time and money. Some of the sci-fi and horror elements could be better realized and certain shots could be done the way they were originally intended. Nothing was changed due to on set difficulties.
I recently surfed by the blog of artist Nuno Alves. I think I clicked through on one of the other blogs run by Teen Titans alumns and couldn't help but have my attention grabbed by this striking re-imagining of Rogue. The image was created, I believe, for Project Rooftop - a blog where artists come on and do this sort of thing for fun, redesigning characters and the like.
Entertainment Weekly has a 7 page preview of the highly anticipated storyline here.
Check it out. Support the show. Give it a try if you haven't already. Numbers are down and they could use some more warm bodies. God knows Gilmore Girls is doing them any favours.
My brother brought this to my attention earlier today. According to the U.S. Navy, it looks like the ol' Tomcat is finally being retired to be replaced by the much newer F-18. A sad day for those of us who grew up on Top Gun.
As I posted last time, I'm in full BKV mode and have now moved on to reading The Hood, my Runaways FCBD book and the critically lauded, Y: The Last Man. So far, I'm finding them all to be quite enjoyable (well, the Runaways story was a throwaway but I'm not holding that against him), partly because of their differences and partly because of the fact that Vaughan doesn't appear to have a schtick. I don't read 4 or 5 pages of one of his stories and go, 'OH, that's a Brian K. Vaughan story'. A lot of the big name guys have that recognizable quality and it sometimes ends up overshadowing everytrhing to the point of undermining an otherwise interesting yarn. You end up not enjoying it outright but watching for the little Morrison-isms, or the Miller-isms or the Waid-isms...whomever it happens to be that you're following at any given time. I've found that I quite like reading The Hood and having a completely different experience from the one I'm having as I read through the first year of Y.
I just finished and set down the second Mark Waid/Mike Weiringo Fantastic Four collection, 'Unthinkable'. I'd heard so much about this storyline and it landed right around the point where I had to seriously cut back on my comic purchases and I quit buying the book on a monthly basis, so when I found it sitting at the library I couldn't resist picking it up.
Something I am enjoying quite a bit, however, is The Escapists by Brian K. Vaughan and various artists. Based on the Michael Chabon character this 6-issue series tells the tale of a group of kids who revitalize The Escapist comic book for a new audience and have some adventures (super and otherwise) along the way. I don't know if it's just a really well put together book or if it's because I first saw issue 1 after reading Men of Tomorrow, but this has quickly become one of my absolute favourite titles to pick up and read. I'm sorry to hear that it's only going to run the six issues because I'm enjoying it so much.
As a Giffen fan I had to try the first issue of 52 and I can't say that I'm all that impressed, especially since I had to read Infinite Crisis #7 before jumping ahead and doing it. IC had me so amped some months ago only to lose me shortly thereafter. I had gone through and read, like, every cross-over series and tie-in and totally immersed myself in the whole bloated event but then DC put the final issue out something like 2 months late and all the air just went out of it for me - pfffffffffft! Reading #7 now was a bit of a chore and everything they had built to - that had me excited in the first place - now felt empty and hackneyed. I'm starting to understand why the One Year Later books are not really appealing to me in any way shape or form (oops, I think you just got a little unintended commentary on The Flash there).
A couple of seasons ago I was posting about how awesome the producers of Battlestar Galactica and the Sci-Fi Network were for posting internet extras that directly relate to their show. Executive Producer Ron Moore would do podcast commentaries on a regular basis giving fans an inside look into the production of the show which had me, as a huge commentary nut, absolutely beside myself. They also included deleted scenes and blogs which just went 110% over the next guys' efforts which usually consisted of wallpapers and icons and screensavers.
And as Ron Moore states on his blog, these are no throwaway promotional spots. They are written, directed and produced by the crew of the Galactica series in-between shooting the 3rd season's episodes.
Anyway, I found out another small tidbit of information that has driven the stake even deeper into the proverbial heart. It would appear that on the very same day as Star Wars' release, Teen Titans: The Complete Second Season was also hitting store shelves. I don't know how I missed it (heck, I still haven't seen a copy and I'm all over the DVD shelves whenever I hit a big box store) but there you have it. Something I've been waiting a long time for and would have been thrilled to have and share with my kids and I had to go and buy another copy of Star Wars.
Cromartie has been a kind of 'today thing' and has been doing a good job of keeping me well humoured in the face of retail sales adversity. With nary a customer in sight I tried to grab stuff that would occupy me during the excruciatingly slow bits of the day. Vol. 4 has been sitting on my shelf for a while - pretty much since I grabbed it from the library - and is proving to be a life saver. Some of the strips are ones they used for the second DVD so they're familiar to me already, but the manga always does a better job of delivering the jokes, in my opinion.
There's also The Man Who Fell to Earth which came out of left field. I took the movie version out of the library the other day and since it was part of the Criterion Collection it came with the original book in the package. I read the little essays included in the liner notes and realized that the author was the same guy who wrote The Hustler, a movie I absolutely love and a book I've always wanted to read. I figured, if it's the same guy, how bad could the book be? I started reading it and now I'm hooked on the thing. I'm not thrilled to add yet another book to the list, but you can't complain when it's something you enjoy.
After driving back into town I swung by the local Wal-Mart and grabbed myself a copy of the newfangled 'same-but-different' Limited Edition of Star Wars on DVD. Out of the three original Star Wars movies, I feel that the most unwarranted changes were made to 'A New Hope' so I've been waiting for this puppy to come out for a while, now. Still, I should note that I haven't opened it yet because I haven't convinced myself that I'm going to hang on to it just yet. I remember saying during one of those Lucas Sucks arguments with a friend that George should just release them to have them out there for the purists, and if he did, I would certainly buy one to show a little support for the idea. You vote with your dollar, right?
Having corresponded with Sebastien on a few occasions and finding him a straightforward and fairly nice guy to chat with, I had no reason to suspect anything different than what he claimed in numerous posts on the GB message board Weaver Hall and in various direct e-mails to HC customers.
