Halloween Clip-O-Rama The Final Chapter

Happy Halloween, folks. Hope you're having a good one.

This last clip is from William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist III: Legion. It's one of the scenes that left an impression on me when I first watched it. It's long, slow and uneventful - until the very end, anyway. It still freaks out people when I show it to them.



I was going to pick a clip from the first Exorcist film but couldn't find a good one kicking around online. Not that using one from the third is a step down in any way, I just would have picked something from the final 30 minutes of the first film if I had a choice.

And that, my kiddies, brings a close to the clip-o-rama. I should mention that I may be absent for a bit after this since I'm without internet access for a while, but I'll try and come on whenever I can and post a few words.

Later!

mike

Halloween Clip-O-Rama Day 5

I struggled a bit with what to include this time around. I had two other choices that I decided not to go with - possibly to feature one or the other on tomorrow's posting - choosing instead to feature some zombie brain-eating fun. Much like yesterday's claim, what would a clip-fest be without some zombie love, especially in this exceptionally zombie-friendly period of the genre?

There are tons to choose from but I decided to go with a Romero's Dawn of the Dead, partly because I've seen it recently, and partly because I can feature both the old...



...as well as the new:



Not only that, but I can also sneak in a third 'cheat' clip, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's zombie tribute film, Shaun of the Dead:



I'm not going to do the usual trip down memory lane since I'm not posting this at home and I really do need to run, but three clips should keep y'all busy enough not to care too much. Odds are, you weren't paying them much mind anyway.

One day to go. See you tomorrow!

mike

Halloween Clip-O-Rama Day 4

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

It's also Day 4 for the Halloween Clip-O-Rama, a series of posts where I stick up a clip of one of my favourite horror/spooky movies and save myself the trouble of coming up with anything too terribly interesting to say.

This next clip probably needs no introduction:



I think my introduction to the Evil Dead series was through a friend named Robin Bougie. I had watched Army of Darkness shortly after I met him and he knew someone who had edited the three films together into one 4 1/2 hour movie. The video quality was terrible, but it was pretty cool to experience it that way and it sort of started the whole snowball effect that was to follow. Now Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi are synonymous with must see, even if it's a no-budget D2DVD or D2Video project that I would have passed over without a second thought in the past.

Anyway, no list or series of clips would have been complete without including something from the series.

Later!

mike

Halloween Clip-O-Rama Days 2 & 3

My internet connection has gone to crap so I'm going to have to post my updates from work here 2 at a time until I get it sorted out. Two today, two on Monday,I'm sure.

Anyway, this time around we have a clip from two really fun movies, Dog Soldiers and John Carpenter's The Thing. We'll start with the former:



This was one of those 'Have you seen this movie' kinds of experiences where most of my friends and close acquaintances had seen it before me and tried to spread the word about it. It was a bit before my listen to what people tell you to watch/hear/read stage of my life so I was skeptical about this low-budget gore-fest with werewolves and SAS soldiers. It just didn't sound too promising at face value. Once I finally sat down and watched it, though, I was totally thrilled with what these guys put together - its humour, its horror, its timing, acting and story were all very cool and a real breath of fresh air for werewolf movies.

As for the latter:



I've been fascinated with this movie since I was 10 years old. It was a whole different experience for me back then, but the sheer love of the movie and its nail-biting suspense soldiers on. I love MacReady's hat, the many incarnations of the monster courtesy of Rob Bottin, Wilford Brimley was a hoot and this clip of one of my favourite cinema moments of all time. I remember watching it late one night with some buddies and when this thing popped, my stone cold friend launched 4 feet off the couch.

Priceless.

Not to mention it started a long-lasting love affair with Carpenter which continues to this day. In fact, you'll probably be seeing another Carpenter movie on the list before the 31st.

Well, they're bugging me to get off the computer so I better bail. Until next time!

mike

One Week To Halloween - Clip-O-Rama

I figured since it's one week until Halloween (one of my favourite times of year) I would celebrate with a series of clips from fave movies or shows that have a spooky or Halloween themed element to them.

First up is a fave scene from one of my top 5 movies of all time, Ghostbusters:



I can't even put in words how much I love this movie. It's left an indellible mark on me since I first saw it waaaay back in '84. I even still have pieces of the Ghostbuster Halloween costume I made in grade 8 although, sadly, the proton pack and positron glider are no more. Still, the Spengler bage is still proudly adorned on the ol' overalls so something got preserved.

I should see if my buddy Brad (I think he was Venkman) still has remnants of his suit or a photo or something. It's possible he may still have the trap we made.

Anyway, good clip, great line, fantastic movie.

Until tomorrow!

mike

Slow Work Day

Very slow day at work so I had the opportunity to finish reading the screenplay for Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. I had ordered the book from Amazon a while back and I was pretty happy to have it arrive a couple of days ago. I wasn't exactly looking forward to it in that baited breath sort of way, but I've missed the old show and character and was happy to have something new to peruse to get that ol' charge again.

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!"

Good stuff.

Looks like I'm going to have to go and watch the movie again because finishing the book has me all jazzed up. Unlikely that it'll be a movie night with the wife or kids, so I'll have to find 90 minutes somewhere when nobody is around to bother me.

Now that I think about it, I'm almost done the Superman series, maybe it's time I move on to Beyond as my next watch-it-again animated series.

Something to think about.

Anyway, back to work.

Later!

mike

Giving the Yokos Their Due

If you are the type of person who bothers to check out the Amazon links every now and then, you may have noticed that as of today they've all changed over. Beyond that, in the 'What I'm Hearing' column you may also have noticed that the album cover for the Yoko Casionos album is missing - not my fault but Amazon.ca's. I saw these guys live opening for Sloan this past weekend and I thought they were really great. Good energy onstage and they managed to really warm the crowd up netting them a receptive audience - something show openers don't always have the luxury of seeing.

I wouldn't have put them on the sidebar if I didn't want to draw attention to them, so to compensate for Amazon's shortcomings I'm going to post their album cover here:



And here's a YouTube clip of them performing live:



Not the greatest performance of this song (it was better at our show) but somethign to look at anyway.

Later!

mike

Interview Subject Drought Hereby Endeth

My search for an interesting interview subject has continued all week. Since my last post on the subject, I've e-mailed John Rogers but that hasn't turned into anything good. A little disappointed since he is working with Giffen on Blue Beetle and he's done some nice work on one of my new favourite shows, Eureka. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

I also went and did some research on a Mr. Andy Diggle to see if he might be a nice addition to what I'm referring to as the Inaugural Four. After reading a bunch of interviews with the guy I decided that I would likely have a thing or two to ask him so I went ahead and e-mailed him as well. That was today, so I'm still awaiting a response. We'll see how that goes.

There is some good news, though. Another e-mail I sent today has borne fruit and I'm actually pretty excited at the prospect of getting a chance to talk with this guy, even if only by e-mail.

I just got word from Telltale Games' PR person that Steve Purcell is kind of available and will answer a handful of questions if I can send them some to forward on to him. He's apparently a really busy guy so I only get, like, 5-8 questions total, but it's more than 0 so I am happy. I've wanted to interview Purcell since the beginning, really, and having him as a part of the IF is going to be very cool indeed.

Now I just have to think of 5-8 really good questions.

Later!

mike

Made It To 500!

Hey, hey...

I wish I was posting something of more substance for the big 5-0-0 but I have a minute at work here and thought I would come on and make the ol' presence felt again before going back to the wonderful world of auto sales.

Probably the thing of most significance for me this wekend was seeing Sloan again at the Odeon Event Centre here in town. It's, I think, my fourth time seeing the band and they just keep getting better and better. Last year I indoctrinated my brother with their 'A-Sides Win' tour, promoting their greatest hits album. It used to be a lonely but fulfilling enterprise but now I get to share in the Sloan fandom so it's all good.



I also watched the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car this weekend. Working at Saturn, my interest was piqued after I saw the trailer for this movie when I went to see A Scanner Darkly. The Saturn connection is, of course, the EV-1, GM's first Electric Car which they brought into the world and then did everything they could to bury it. The doc is an interesting one and done sans Michael Moore mudslinging. It's well thought out, well presented and makes its arguments well.

Here's an interview with the film's director, Chris Paine:



If you get a chance to see this one, take the opportunity. You'll probably be glad you did.

So, other than moving a tub, working a women's trade show and listening to my brother talk about his new date, that was pretty much my whole weekend. Not too shabby, but nothing too dramatic.

Just like this post, I'd wager.

Anyway, 500 and counting. Later!

mike

A Spirited Life

Continuing the link to interviews series...

Bob Andelman, writer of the Will Eisner biography A Spirited Life, has been doing an interview blog for a little while now. There are some really good ones that are worth checking out. I particularly liked the one with Darwyn Cooke and am looking forward to digging around the site some more. Other subjects include Dave Sim, Howard Chaykin, Bo Hampton, Will Eisner and Alex Saviuk and Gary Chaloner, to name a few.

If you like Eisner, interviews or The Spirit, these are worth checking out.

Later!

mike

Frustrated Interviewer Seeks Subject

Argh!

I've just checked my gMail account which, lately, has been a continuing exercise in frustration. I've sent out three interview requests so far, all of whom I had in mind for launching the new interview blog that I talked about in an earlier post, and no one seems to be interested in participating or, in some cases, responding.

The first of which, Brian K. Vaughan, was chronicalled right here on the blog a few weeks ago. I have become a huge fan of Vaughan's Escapists comic book and have been enjoying his Doctor Strange mini-series, and with his impending departure from Runaways and the release of Pride of Baghdad, I figured Brian for a shoe-in. Over-commitment ended up being my downfall there, I think. I was told that he was unable to fulfill many of the requests he had already agreed to so he wasn't going to take on any more.

Understandable.

So, I rolled up my shirtsleeves and decided to go with my follow-up plan. I searched for some contact information and quickly fired off an e-mail to X-Men: First Class artist, Roger Cruz. The first issue of his and Jeff Parker's mini-series has done very well for itself, and Roger has also introduced a new style which I thought might be interesting to talk about. A response, however, has not been forthcoming.

Granted, I may have sent it to an e-mail that he doesn't check very often or is even valid, now that I think about it. For that matter, there may even be a language barrier to consider here since Roger is a native of Brazil and may not be comfortable communicating in English. I know that in the past I conducted an interview with Humberto Ramos and I discovered that he was a little gun-shy about his responses since English was actually his second language. I don't think that is the case (I've seen interviews with Roger and he seems quite eloquent) but I have to entertain all possibilities.

Whatever the reasons, I decided to move on to Plan C, as it were, and sent a request to another creator I'm itching to talk to, Ted Naifeh. I thought that the great thing about doing an interview with Ted right now would be the Halloween connection. Since Ted's known for books like Death, Jr., Courtney Crumrin and Polly and the Pirates, tying it into a seasonal holiday sounded like an idea that I couldn't turn down.

Unfortunately, I'm still awaiting a response from Mr. Naifeh, as well.

I know that a big problem here is probably my 'press credentials'. I've been out of the loop for some years now and I have no official ties to anything or anyone other than my own blog and website. If I was doing something Buffy related I'm sure I could muster some attention, but even my contacts at Dark Horse COmics have moved on. And as far as the rest of comicdom is concerned, I'm starting from scratch. Leaning on folks I already know and throwing everything else at the wall to see what sticks.

And for the record, just in case I'm coming off like an unsufferably whiny bitch, I'm not trying to complain or pulling an 'o, woe is me' thing, here. I'm not cruising for a sympathy trip I'm just laying down some thoughts and using the blog for what it was always intended for. I'm just a little surprised and disheartened that I'm 0 for 3 so far.

I'm not 100% sure who is going to be next on the hit-list but I have a few names in mind right now. I'll probably post the results in a future post so don't be surprised if this isn't the end of it.

Later!

mike

Abadazad Interview on NPR

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.

It's not a very long piece but if you know me I'm a sucker for J.M. DeMatteis and, really, how often do you get to hear Mike Ploog?

You can listen in RealAudio or with Windows Media Player.

Later!

mike

BKV and Joss Whedon Wax Poetic For Wizard

I enjoyed reading this interview over @ Wizard's website and thought I would give anybody else who wants to see Joss Whedon and Brian K Vaughan gabbing about their impending one-way swap-a-roo a heads up.

Mission accomplished.

mike

Oh Bring Back My Vette To Me

Remember that bike of yours that was stolen when you were twelve? Don't stop believing, man. Stranger things have happened.

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.

My only guess is that it was a show car and was never licensed for most of the time it was missing, otherwise the VIN should have popped a red flag many, many years ago.

Either way, this guy's a happy camper.

Next post, back to the comic blogging (hears collective groaning).

Later!

mike

Comic Blog Part 2

It's been a fruitful week comic-wise at Meanwhile... HQ so I figured I wuld follow-up on my last post with an update on the Doctor Strange mini and some new stuff.

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.

I knew I was going to be at the comic store again today to pick up a copy of Battlestar Galactica #2 and figured I would take one last gander at The Oath as well as another new book, Blade. Marc Guggenheim and Howard Chaykin have a new Blade comic book on the stands and seeing as how I recently acquired the first film on DVD (thus having pored over all of its bonus features) and begun watching the ill-fated television series, I thought it might be a good idea to check this one out as well. I mean, Howard Chaykin. Come on.

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.

Anyway, the overall crappiness of Blade (or at least the perceived crappiness) made Doctor Strange: The Oath #1 look all the better, and the previously cited character moment between Araña and Iron Fist had just the right amount of 'we're going to be a little bit the same, here, but also just a little bit different, too' to it. The rhythm of it just felt right so I took the plunge.

And a good choice, too, because I really enjoyed it.

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 try and shorten an otherwise wordy review, I'll definitely be picking up the next issue - if not the next four - in the series and look forward to seeing what Vaughan has planned for the character and the dilemma he was left with on the final page of book one.

More comic talk later!

mike

PS - In the credit where credit is due dept. all images were shamelessly cribbed from CBR. It was that or try and figure out my wife's scanner set-up.

Comic Blog

Wow! I'm only 8 posts away from hitting the landmark 500. I'll have to keep an eye on the numbers for the next few posts I make.

Anyway, the point of this post in particular is to chat about comic books. Every now and then, I find the funds, or the gumption, and just go out and splurge on a few comic books which then leaves me in the unenviable position of wanting to talk about them but having nobody in my immediate vicinity to do so with. It's always been my curse to enjoy certain areas of pop culture on my own with nary an intelligent discussion to be found.

I would turn to that tried and true institution of the Local Comic Shop, but in my area there are only two to choose from. Shopping at one of them is like being at The Gap (with the vacuous smiley faces and the retail zombie mantra, 'Can I help you find anything') and any discussion I get into at the other tends to revolve around cars and electronics (go figure!).

Anyway, if you've bothered to read this far, now's your chance to either bail out or brace yourself for some idle chatter.

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.

If anybody out there has anything really good to say about this book, please post some comments. It's one of those situations where I need that extra little push to take the plunge. Any words in either direction (good or bad) would be appreciated.

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.

With this first issue I found myself not quite getting into the whole groove of it (sorry, Jeff!). I was a bit surprised initially, especially since I can't really put my finger on what it was exactly, but after a single reading I just found that there was something that didn't fundamentally click the way it had on some of his other Marvel projects - his Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four run being a great example of that. I know it's not the simpler single-issue storytelling, nor is it the choice of characters. Maybe it was my fault. Maybe the lack of a recognizable villain kept me from engaging with the story (although I'd hate to chalk it up to something as lame as that). Maybe having Bobby Drake introducing the characters was a bit redundant for someone who has been reading these character's stories off and on for 20 years.

Bottom line is I'm going to try it again and see where I'm at after another swing at it. It's what I usually do in this kind of situation.

I should mention, however, that I am thrilled for the creative team that this thing is selling out all over. It's nice to see Jeff getting some major props and attention for books like this and his Agents of Atlas. They're being received very well by the comic book community at large, and attention like that can only mean more work and more stories from Jeff. I don't see a problem with that.

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.

The Bombu story that opens the book is an absolute hoot. Written and drawn by Keith Giffen and inked by Mike Allred, this story reminded me of Giffen's glory years in the '80s and '90s when you saw him doing tons of humourous little back-ups and vignettes appearing in various and sundry titles. This was followed by a decent little Hollywood rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-revenge tale as told by Peter David and Arnold Pander (never thought I would see those two names together, never minfd on a Marvel comic), and the book is capped off with a wonderfully campy tongue-in-cheek sci-fi story by Jeff Parker and Russell Braun - Monstrollo and Manoo being the 'monster' stars (monstars?) of the former and the latter.

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.

That being said, I think the two worked better together than as seperate entities. Dialogue which flowed better in the film came off as stilted and unnatural in the comic adaptation. The performances by Stacey Keach and Ted Raimi, which steal the show everytime the appear on screen, could not be done the proper justice by the characters featured in the comic. It's a bit of push and pull where one version does certain elements better than the other, while the other version does certain things better than the first. Overall, I think Remender and Barta did a great job of bringing the film to another medium but, ultimately, I think it serves as more of a companion to the movie than as a book all its own.

There are more that I could list and talk about but I think I'm going to stop the monologue there for the night. I still have Agents of Atlas #'s 1-3 to read, Buckaroo Banzai #'s 1-2, somewhere I have some Battlestar Galactica comics I can comment on and I can't not talk about Death, Jr. at some point very, very soon.

As I stated earlier, feel free to leave comments. Discussion is always welcome.

Later!

mike

Heroes In a Half Shell

As a child of the 80s, my experience with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began with the Mirage comic book and culminated in this:



Cruising the web I stumbled across this:



Pretty cool.

Later!

mike

When All Else Fails, Go To LinkBlog

I posted twice already today, and when I was about to go back to the well to talk about the Eureka renewal and the cool webisodes on YouTube, I figured I might as well do a linkblog and try and cover anything and everything I may want to post today. One fell swoop, I believe, would be the watchword here.

So, as to the aforementioned Eureka, SciFi Wire has just announced that it will renew the show for another 13 episodes. For anyone who has managed to catch this very cool new show this is great, great news. Eureka has quickly become one of my new favourite shows as a result of some very sharp writing, great casting and overall atmosphere. If you haven't had a chance to catch the show, or if it's not available in your area, check out the 'Hide & Seek' webisodes which are still available on the official Eureka site and on YouTube. Here's the prologue (which isn't much of a teaser, really) to start you off:

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It also appears that the animated rock band, Gorillaz, will be calling it quite this year and will be detailing everything in their tell-all biography. I'm not sure how I feel about there not being another Gorillaz album, but I'm less sure what I think of this little promo/cash-grab. I love Damon Albarn and will follow him to the strangest reaches of pop music and beyond, but I'm going to reserve judgment 'til I can see this book for real and see how much effort they've put into it. The optimist in me says this may be a nice goodbye for those of us who loved the band.

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Make Your Own Sam & Max Comic Book.

Need I say more?

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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.

Either way, I like just about everything in this image so I'm bringing attention to it.

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Hmmm...I thought I had more stuff to dump on here.

Ah well.

I think I recall hearing somewhere that if you were going to go out, that it was best to go out on a song. So, to cap it all off, here's some live Keane for those of us who will not be seeing them live anytime soon as a result of Tom's rehab situation.



Peace.

mike

"THIS IS SPARTA!"

Holy crap.



I got goosebumps watching this trailer.

mike

First Look - Johns & Donner's 'Last Son'

Entertainment Weekly has a 7 page preview of the highly anticipated storyline here.

The book is released on October 25th and is written by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner. Johns was previously an assistant for Donner back in the day, so there is a pre-existing relationship there. I'm looking forward to seeing how it pans out. It's also illustrated by Marvel ex-pat, Adam Kubert.

Later!

mike

Looking For My Next Idea

So I'm thinking the other day that it might be as good a time as any to go through with an idea I had a little while ago. Despite having a site and a domain name already dedicated to posting and spotlighting any interviews or articles I have, or may in the future write, I started an interview blog last year just to see what the format would be like to use and whether or not it was a viable idea. I'd seen some other writers doing it. Alan David Doane was relatively successful with it and there were others whose names escape me at the moment, but they all seemed to be short form interviews. 20 questions or 10 questions or however many questions it takes to fill out a release sized Q&A. My favourite interviews (even though I don't get to conduct them like this every time) are the long form ones. Comics Journal style conversational portraits, if you will, of whoever the subject may be. Clearly this is not possible every tme you fire off a handful of questions by e-mail, or even on the phone for that matter (a recent interview with Bruce Campbell taught me that), but it's a good goal, I think.

I never made the blog public and only ever posted a couple of interviews on it just to see what it would look like. Shortly afterwards, deciding it was not a great idea, I chose to ignore it. Never deleting it, just leaving it there to sit idle.

Now, though, I find I'm kind of warming up to the idea again. I could keep the old Meanwhile... site for older or 'lost' interviews (which is pretty much what I'm publishing there now) and put the hot new stuff up on the blog. I could do something on a weekly schedule, give myself some decent lead time and it practically maintains itself. It gets the name out there, keeps the muscles from atrophying and just gives me something entartaining to do. Something to experiment with.

It could be fun.

I have another idea which I've been toying with but I'll leave that one for a later post. I still want to look into a few things before I start bandying that one about.

Later!

mike