Facing Reality

So I'm stuck finding my way home from work the other day (actually, only half the way...I was meeting up with the wife and kids before going the last stretch) and I wind up in a little used music store we have downtown called The Vinyl Exchange. I'm poking arund looking for anything that may be cool. Considering a lot of the music I listen to isn't available domestically it pays to check there because these guys will often have imports or singles you won't find anywhere else in town.

I checked out the Blur section, like I always do. I also peeked at what they had for Belly albums since I've rediscovered them through an episode of Homicide. I also checked to see if they had Phantom Moon, the ever elusive Duncan Sheik album which we never got here above the 49th. Those and many other bins were poked and prodded for their treasures but what I stumbled on and eventually purchased was a used copy of David Bowie's last effort, Reality, in great condition and for only $10. It was a steal of a deal. The two-disc limited edition has become harder to find locally and this was the one album of Bowie's recent output that I had yet to pick up, so...

I've only listened to it briefly, but so far I'm liking the sound. A little more traditional rock, with some jazz and experimental stuff thrown in. Kind of reminiscient of his Budha of Suburbia period (a highly underrated album in the annals of Bowiedom) which bridged the last of his pop albums (Black Tie, White Noise) with his newer, edgier, artier sound (Outside).

Good stuff, overall. I'll try and post more on it later when it's had a chance to sink in a bit more.

mike

Reading Usagi

Being a Groo reader from way back, it can be said I've been aware of the existence of Stan Sakai's anthropomorphic samurai for some time. Until recently I never bothered sit down and actually read Usagi Yojimbo but since finding the collected Usagi sitting at my local library I couldn't help but pick them up.

In just about every interview I've read with Walt Simonson he's mentioned Usagi as one of the books he always makes a point to read. I know exactly what he means. Four volumes in (plus the collected Space Usagi) and I'm hooked. The story never stops being interesting, the art never stops being gorgeous and Sakai's craftsmanship maintains a level of depth, consistency and entertainment that has few equals in the industry.

If you haven't read any Usagi yet, I reccomend making the trip to your library or local comic shop and giving the little guy a try. It may just be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

I should have a little Usagi sketch done by Stan at Comic Con 2000. A smart person would dig it out and scan it to post here on the blog. I'll see what I can do.

mike

Something I Could Never Say No To

I just saw some very good news on this week's All The Rage over at my old stomping grounds, Silver Bullet Comicbooks.

According to guest Rager, John Voulieris, Connor Hawke will be getting his own mini series written by his creator, Chuck Dixon. Connor's stint as Green Arrow remains one of my favourite runs on a comic book ever, and I try to make it a point to pick up any of his appearances if ol' daddy Dixon is writing it. So, as you can probably guess, this is very, very good news for this jaded reader.

The only thing that could make this a monumental event for me is if DiMaggio came out of hiding to draw it as well.

Man, I can't properly put into words how excited I am about this project.

mike

Job Hunting...JSA Style

I'm sure everyone and their dog in the comics blogosphere has linked to or posted this video on their site already but I was cleaning up some bookmarks and figured I may as well join the fray, as it were. The video is a short fan film featuring the maid of steel (or is that might?), Power Girl, and her hilarious search for a day job.


Videos by vMix Member:
blinky500


mike

Alex Toth (1928-2006)

If you've had an interest in comic books or animation it is more likely than not that you know the name of Alex Toth. A great artist and a brilliant designer, Toth's impact on both fields is enormous. He was a giant. He was one of those guys who made just about everybody's "who are your influences list" and never stopped working. Never stopped moving forward.

I'll admit that I was pretty flabbergasted when I first heard the news yesterday. I mean, I knew that he was just in the hospital and that his health wasn't great, but I guess being the eternal optimist I just assumed he would pull through and be one of the ones who managed to slip by fate unnoticed, squeaking in another handful of years before passing.

This, unfortunately, would not be the case.

This is the official notice from the Toth family, written by Eric Toth (Alex's son), which was posted to the SuperHeroNews newslist:

Hello.

I am Alex Toth's oldest son Eric. I meant to be the one to let everyone know that my father did pass away this morning drawing/writing at his table. I do not have any further details other than I will forward an address for those interested in sending cards. We will arrange something appropriate at or around the convention this summer in San Diego. As John shared, all of your cards and letters of the recent past were very much appreciated by my father. Only in these last years did he begin to understand and accept the fact that his work had touched so many people's lives. In time, more information will follow.

Thank you.
Eric Toth and family.

I'd like to extend my deepest condolences to the Toth family and to everyone who was touched by the work. Toth will be missed by all of us.

Many other sites, many more qualified than me to be commenting on his work and life, are featuring memorials to Toth's memory. There's a good list of them over at Tom Spurgeon's The Comics Reporter and worth checking out if you want to see just what an impact he made.

mike

New Trailer

The trailer for the new Ghost Rider movie starring Nicolas Cage is finally out. I'm reserving judgment until I can watch it with sound, but I gotta tell you, as a silent collection of images, it's not so engaging.

Seeing the old western Ghost Rider was cool, though. I'm curious to see how that fits in to the story.

mike

Been Busy

I thought it would be a bad idea to let the blog sit for another day without a new post, so I'm going to do a bit of a quickie here.

The only real news this week is my wife convocating. She doesn't really see the need to do the whole walk across the stage but she's going through with it anyways and I'm going to try and finangle my work schedule to be there. As I've said before, I'm really proud of how well she's done and what she's basically accomplished. Graduated with a BA in History, High Honours and now a Masters degree, something nobody on either side of the family has ever done (the Masters degree, that is). I may yet try and give her a run for her money, but that's a whole 'nother post.

And while I'm pointing out what an awesome wife I have...

She couldn't bear to see me living in agony after spotting Homicide Season 3 at a local bookstore for $29.99 and not being able to pick it up. She pretty much took pity on poor me and bought the set as an early father's day present.

I've already started in on the set. I'm three episodes in and enjoying the hell out of the show. I won't dwell on it here and now, but I'll try and post some thoughts on the series when I have some more time.

Later!

mike

V For DVD

Just caught this bit of news over at DVD Times. It appears that the V For Vendetta DVD (special and regular editions) will be hitting the street August 1, 2006. A quick click over to the site will enlighten you as to the Extra Features for both versions (which look decent, but not altogether impressive) and artwork (the 2-disc being pictured to your right in glorious postage stamp size).

I liked this movie quite a bit but I have to admit the overall buzz from its theatrical release has sort of worn off. I may have to go see it again at the local second run theatre before it disappears and see if it brings the magic back in time for the DVD release.

mike

Black Kiss

Jen tells me she wants to go to McNally Robinson, a local bookstore, after my doctor's appointment this morning and I agree despite the discomfort in my foot. As a 'treasure hunter', I always welcome the chance to plumb the bargain shelves of book merchants and music and video stores hoping to find that elusive great deal. Not too long ago I snagged an inexpensive copy of Bronwen Hughes' Stander on just such a trip, not to mention the 2-disc collector's edition of A Series of Unfortunate Events.

While browsing through the section I see a familiar image - a set of blood-red lips on a blindfolded, bare-chested, choker wearing bombshell with a pair of black-gloved arms seductively cupping her breats. Even though you can't see her eyes, there's a look of being in on a joke that the viewer has yet to be told. Alluring, yet dangerous. Across the bottom of the cover in bold but simple type is the equally eye-catching title of the book in matching red, Black Kiss.

This was, admittedly, the last thing I expected to find there, but what a prize. For anyone who is familiar with Howard Chaykin's body of work, BK was a sort of outrageously outrageous send-up, tribute or fuck you (I've never quite decided on which one...knowing Howard, it may be all of the above) to the whole industry (again, to which one, take your pick). A true product of the period it reflects, this story (originally published in 1988 as 12 comics from the fledgling indie company, Vortex) was Howard completely unhindered. If there was any censorship, it came from Chaykin himself, and what he crafted was a perversely fun, pulp fiction noir porno with a twist. And the beauty of the whole thing, as with anything in gross quantities, you're almost totally numbed to the sexuality of the content before you're even half-way through the story. Matt Fraction's review of the book said it perfectly when he stated:

With no fence to keep his id in check, Chaykin's sexual iconography becomes so deliberately well worn by book's end that even the naughtiest of naughty black negligees packs little more erotic punch than a janitor's uniform. The final irony of BLACK KISS is that Chaykin holds his subject matter, medium, and (one presumes) his audience in such contempt that he wont even let them enjoy the fucking in this, his dirty little fuck book. BLACK KISS is poisonous and bitter, an absurdly funny sucker punch demanding to be spat out.

To have the novelty of it stripped away like that and still have a complex and interesting noir story to follow is no mean feat. I don't think many writers/artists this side of the Atlantic would be able to pull it off with such relish.

I never did manage to complete my collection of original floppies, cheap as they tended to be, when I started picking up Chaykin's stuff in the back-issue bins, so this is a real treat to have it all right here, beautifully bound in the perfect cover for only $5.99 Canadian. The thing was so cheap, I wanted to grab another for a spare or to lend out as a reading copy to friends (although one could question how long they would remain your friends after the fact).

As an interesting side note, I hadn't seen any of Chaykin's work in black and white for some time so I was amazed at how similar this stuff looks to much of Frank Miller's output. The cover, and especially the lips, bring to mind images of Sin City when I look at them somewhat askew, and the interior linework has that rough and gritty edge to it that is kind of like Miller's Daredevil stuff. Considering how many times I've seen Miller's artwork in the last few years (much to my chagrin), I'm surprised that I never caught on to how much he's been riffing on Chaykin's stuff all this time. It makes me think that they should have made the on-again-off-again Black Kiss movie fifteen years ago when they had the chance instead of the murky and 'groundbreaking' quagmire that we got a while ago in cinemas.

Shame on you Frank.

For more on BK, check out the Wikipedia entry here.

That reminds me. I should format and post my old Chaykin interview over on Meanwhile..., too.

Anyway, I'm going to head back and watch the strangely watchable Dungeons & Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God (or is that Elemental Might?). I've only got about 40 minutes left and then I can dispose of it, safe in the knowledge that I never paid a cent to watch it or its predecessor.

Later!

mike

If Adventure Has a Name...

Could there be any news bigger or better right now (don't ask my wife, she'll give you a list as long as my arm, I'm sure)? Lucasarts have unveiled details, screenshots and a trailer for the new Indiana Jones 2007 console game which they claim will revolutionise the way people play, and what they demand of their games.

According to the website, the game will be the "first collaboration of talents and technology between LucasArts and Industrial Light & Magic" and will debut the "revolutionary new euphoria technology from NaturalMotion, which delivers never-before-seen lifelike action and awareness to every character in real time -- so you'll never see the same thing twice." If you get past all the gobbledygook, what this really means for the average joe on the street is that this new game, this next chapter in the continuing adventures of everyone's favourite archaeologist, will probably add up to being whole schwack of unprecedented Indy-riffic fun!

I'm really excited to see what this game looks and plays like. I honestly haven't even watched the trailer yet but the screenshots look very sweet and everything else I've read makes me think this is going to be a home run without exception. Lucasarts puts out 3 or 4 Star Wars games every couple of months, it seems, while original Indy games have numbered in single digits. The award winning Fate of Atlantis was good fun and groundbreaking at the time of its release in 1992 but it took years before we saw another game based on the character and his world. In fact, it was the emergence of Tomb Raider that finally got the Lucasarts brass of their collective duffs. They didn't want to get beat at their own game and went into development on The Infernal Machine, another great game for its time. This was followed by The Emperor's Tomb, taking Indy to China and bringing him fully into the console adventure game world.

Three games in the last 15 years. To paraphrase one of the customers from work last week, "is that any way to run a franchise?"

Anyway, the level of anxiety is building now and I'm likely going to be watching for any new developments or Indy related treats online. I'll also be linking to the official site on the sidebar next time I update the template.

I think I have to mow the lawn, now. Have to give the ol' mower a tune-up and take it out for a spin, so...

mike

What's Next?

I was at my local comic store today after work and I found myself asking James (the guy behind the counter) if he knew anyone who would be interested in maybe drawing a story like Smitten. I was a little surprised with myself since I'd mentioned it, like, last night as a joke in one o fmy posts and never intended to seriously solicit help fropm anyone in specific. Still, I feel like I may have started the ball rolling, to a limited degree, and I'm feeling confident that things will only get more interesting from here on in.

And while I'm on the topic of doing things that I didn't expect to be doing, I'm considering entering NextFest again this year. I really had no intention of doing so, especially since a move this summer would have taken me two or three provinces away from the festival, but now that we're hunkering down for one more year I'm debating on whether or not I want to get embroiled in the whole 'making-a-movie' thing again. I'd be pitching for the DG48 competition which is a 48 hour digital guerilla thing. You have 2 days to shoot and cut your movie using the limited resources provided to you by the festival organisers. It's a manic period with no sleep, but it's not drawn out like the DG14 which was 2 weeks of my life that screwed up 2 months of sleep and eating habits.

The process for the DG48 is to have an original script and idea and pitch the project to a commitee who then decides if it is worth producing. If they agree, you get a green light and 2 days to make the thing. If not, you try again next time. With the DG48 you supply the equipment while they give you a theme, genre and prop which must appear in your film. You then have 2 weeks to write a 7 to 10 minute movie around those elements. Your film is judged on overall quakity and whether or not you implemented the three criteria well.

I have a script that I've been wanting to shoot that would fit well in the DG48 competition. My greatest weak point right now is my utter lack of warm bodies to make it with. I know no actors or crew right now and it's sort of something you have to have in place before you start. Everything else seems to be in order, though, so maybe I'll sniff around and see what I can come up with, regardless. Submission deadline is sometime in June, I think, so who knows, that may be enough time to rally some troops behind me.

Ah well, food for thought, I guess.

I'm gonna head off for bed, now.

Later!

mike

State of the Union

It's been another while since I've posted, so I thought I would do a little bit of catch up.

For starters, there's some good news on the moving front as I alluded to in a previous post. The wife and I have decided to stick it out here for another year in order to shut some things down properly and to get some closure that we maybe wouldn't had we found some way to bolt this summer. This ends up working better for everyone, I think, since it gives me time to find something decent to do and gives Jen time to apply for some grant money and apply to Queens her PHD. I'm actually pretty excited that she's considering going the academic route because it's something she's quite good at. She may not be able to find her keys on a hourly basis, but I know that brain power is being pout to good use elsewhere. I'm really proud that she slogged through the quagmire that has been the last couple of years of our life and managed to finish her Masters with flying colours. Next step for her is to do some publishing, I think, so I hope she finds some opportunities there.

On my end, the job hunt continues. I've got the heads up on a couple of things I may be able to get into but there's nothing for sure yet, so I'm not going to talk about it yet. If any one of them becomes a more solid prospect, I'll back on with a 'Mike-Found-a-Job' post post haste.

I'm still working on the treatment for my Smitten story which is coming along well. It keeps growing beyond its initial outline which is kind of exciting and a little intimidating. The characetrs are becoming more and more real every day, though, so I can't think anything but good things for the new direction.

I'm also thinking of it more in terms of a comic script than a screenplay which is a nice change. Smitten started out as a film script and it took the longest time for me to shake that perception of it. Having it grounded to the page now makes the plotting and staging quite a bit easier for me. There's a better rhythm to it, now. I think when I started conceiving brand-new scenes I moved beyond my preconceived notions of how it was going to play out. My original vision for how flesh-and-blood actors would be handling the lines and drama just doesn't fit with what I have anymore.

As Martha says, "and I think this is good."

There was actually a comic company doing an open call for submissions and I considered putting Smitten in for consideration but I don't have an artist yet so I doubt it would end up going anywhere. No-name talent with a no-name idea and no artist to speak of - no characetr sketches, no panel work, no nothing. Doesn't sound like a winning idea to me just yet.

So, if you're an artist and you're reading this and you like romantic dramadeys, fire me a link or an e-mail and we'll chat.

Yeah, dream on, Mike.

Then again, that's pretty much how Ed Flynn hooked up with Darren Aronofsky for the Pi comic, so...

Anyway, I'm just yammering like an ass now, so I'm going to cut things short. I'm just going to mention that there should be some Giffen-related reviews hitting the Dispatch soon so if you're into that sort of thing, be sure to keep your eyes peeled. Also, whatever you may be doing at the moment, go out and buy yourself (or illegally download, I don't care) some of Yoko Kanno's Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex soundtracks. The stuff is incredible!

And with that, I'm outta here!

mike

Raising Hell With Our John

If you ignore all the other real life things I did today, it could be said that I spent the day reading Hellblazer comics and reacquainting myself with John Constantine and the creative teams that have been handling him for the last five years.

I've been a Constantine fan for many, many years now but this latest burst of interest started a while back with an urge to see the movie based on the series again. For whatever reason that particular desire was never met despite my owning the damn thing, but what happened in its stead was my taking out a Hellblazer trade collection out of the library to get my fix. I don't recall if it was "Setting Sun" or "Rare Cuts", but whichever it was started a chain reaction that has led me to digging out my old Hellblazer pamphlets and finishing off "Red Sepulchre" and "Good Intentions" (with the latter as a reread) tonight, with "Freezes Over" sitting by my bedside in a holding pattern for when I can next get to it. I'm even considering hunting down other trades or back issues to fill the gaps left when I stopped buying the book monthly.

Most of the stories I read in the last while were drawn by the incomparable Marcelo Frusin, whose Constantine I fell in love with from the first panels of "Good Intentions". Other artists have done the character justice, but there's a strange combination of malevolence and heroism in the way Frusin depicts our John. I also really dig the ensemble he sported during Mike Carey's tenure as writer on the series. The signature trench was almost always there but the tieless, buttonless tops and all black pants and shirts gave John a style on top of his attitude that made him as cool as he is dodgy. Frusin's use of composition and shadows also puts him somewhere in my top 3 artists of the series (the other two being Sean Phillips and...ummm...hmm, I'll have to think about that one a little more).

Tonights reading was courtesy of the aforementioned Mike Carey and American writer, Brian Azzarello. Carey's stuff was just what the doctor ordered with a nice balanced mixture of atmosphere, mysticism and adventure to keep the doldrums at bay. He had all the beats necessary to tell a solid Hellblazer yarn and I can't think of a single issue of his yet that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed (bear in mind I still have only read a quarter or less of Carey's run, mind you). As for Azzarello, his stuff was solid, interesting and moody but slow to unspool. I still like his stuff and I consider his run to be one of the better on the title, but I think I was more in the mood for Carey's John than Azzarello's tonight.

I also snuck in one of Warren Ellis' issues, "Telling Tales", also drawn by Frusin. That went down pretty smooth as well.

Anyway, the whole point of this post was to drop some of my thoughts on the books and sing the praises of Mr. Frusin, which I have, so I'll pop off again into the ether and be back again, hopefully, soon.

Later!

mike

Not in the Mood or What I've Been Doing 'Til Now

Man, I have just not been in the mood to hang out on the internet, much less post anything on the ol' blog. I have been keeping busy, however, and not just lying idle like I have been known to do in the past. It's kind of ironic, really. I probably have more to talk and post about right now than I have in months, but the muse is currently on extended leave.

In the meantime, though, I have been recharging my batteries the only way I know how: rest, movies, music, reading and family. I've been putting in a lot of time with all of the above and have been making big plans for the next year with the wife, so don't be surprised if there's a big news on the move post in the near future. I did Free Comics Book Day with the kids and that was a big success. I rented Cromartie High Vol. 1 on DVD and so far my oldest and I are enjoying it. It's also got me in an anime kind of ood because I'm digging up all the stuff I have that I have yet to watch, like GITS: Standalone Complex, Planetes, Lain and I anticipate that I'll be dusting off the Champloo, the Wolf's Rain and possibly even the golden goose itself, Cowboy Bebop.

I've recently taken an interest in Lemony Snickets' Series of Unfortunate Events books after seeing the underrated film starring Jim Carey and some very talented young actors. I've also started in on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with my kids, which is kind of exciting. They're really enjoying the Narnia series so far and are looking forward to seeing the movie when we finish the book (too bad it's only on DVD and not in theatres, thoguh).

I've read Frank Miller's 300, which I mention here because I want to post about it later, as well as Meanwhile... favourite Stefan Petrucha's second Nancy Drew book, "Writ in Stone". I also finished Cromartie High School Vol.2 (the manga, that is) which tickled the ol' funny bone in ways I didn't expect it to.

There's a new Superman Returns trailer which I think everyone should see, so click on through and feel free to come back and share the love.

And lastly, this clip off of SpikedHumour.com made me laugh for its clever concept and fun ending. I should search around and find out what show this came off of originally. Nick Frost appears at the end and it's got my curiosity up.

Anyway, that's it for tonight. I'm going to finish disc 2 of GITS: SAC and go to bed. Got work tomorrow, y'know.

Later!

mike

Addicted to the AvocadoLite

I was reading some of Andi Watson's posts over at his LiveJournal the other day where he mentioned becoming addicted to this game called Farm Hustle. I decided to check it out (being a fan of Watson's work I figured what he found interesting I may find interesting) and found myself in much the same predicament. The mindlessly repetitive and simple matching tile game has completely subverted me.

As of this writing, I have achieved level four and continue to play because I find it strangely soothing. It's like, with everything else going screwy in my life around me, this bit of internet fun is something I can focus on and keep my bearings. A tether, I suppose. Or maybe it's just a time killer.

"Farm Hustle is the time-killer."

Sorry. I've been reading Dune related stuff and I couldn't help myself. I probably should have used that for the title.

Anyway, off to play some FH.

Later!

Update: Make that level 07. Woot!

mike

Giffen Goodness

A few posts back I mentioned how I'd spoken to Gianluca at BOOM! Studios and how he'd agreed to send me a whole schwack of Giffen books to review for the Giffen Resource Page & The Daily Dispatch. Well, as of yesterday (or was it the day before?) the BOOM! care package has officially arrived and inside, pretty much Giffen's entire output from the company to date. Everything from Zombie Tales to Jeremiah Harm and Planetary Brigade. Heck, he even included the two What Were They Thinking? remix books.

I'm pretty excited to start working my way through most of this stuff. I've taken a cursory glance at all of it and I don't think I'll be disappointed.

In related news, I've also gone and bought some new Giffen stuff not published by BOOM!, like Nick Fury's Howling Commandos #1 and Drax the Destroyer #2. Oh yeah, and The Defenders #5. Since things got tight, I haven't been buying the books as they've come out and I managed to play a little catch up thanks to the generosity of the wife (thanks, Jen!).

Anyway, I'm going to go watch some original Trek (it's the first Romulan episode with Mark Lenard, later to be known as Spock's pappy, Sarek) and go to bed. Working early tomorrow at the Superstore.

Later!

mike

Holy Spellchecker, Batman

Wow. I have to say that I'm honestly surprised. After going through and reading some of my more recent posts tonight I've noticed an unimpressive amount of typos creeping into my e-thoughts. Considering I've just applied for a job as a proofreader, this is not a good omen. Still, in my defence, I've been posting most of my blog entries late at night, and in a hurry, so accuracy isn't always the first thing on my mind. Not a great excuse, I know, but it's all I have.

Coming up tomorrow, all kinds of Giffen coming out of every orifice.

And if that aint enough to pique your curiosity, I honestly don't know what will.

Later!

mike

Staring at The Abyss

I recently got my hands on a copy of the special edition of James Cameron's The Abyss. I saw the movie many moons ago in the theatre and have been a fan of the underrated film ever since. I've had several opportunities to purchase the DVD in various formats, but I've always passed it up in favour of other, mor urgent acquisitions. However, when I bought the Ultimate Edition of T2 for a steal at $7.99 about a week ago, and rabidly worked my way through it's features and commentary, I was jonesing for more non-Titanic Cameron and The Abyss sort of fell into my lap.

Overall, the DVD is a well put together edition with lots of bonus features to lose yourself in. Still, one minor/major drawback is the fact that, besides the 60 minute documentary (which I also saw years ago on PBS, I think) all the extras are in text format - either as essays or subtitled text commentary. In some ways, this sucks big-time, but in others, it allows some breathing room for the folks that put the whole thing together since they're not really constrained by running time or budget - lots of room on a disc for text. I wish they would have included a Cameron audio commentary on this one (especially this one) but you take what you can get, right?

Actually, one other niggling little problem with the DVD. Despite going through many of the essays and images contained therein, I have yet to run across a mention of Jean Giraud as a designer on the show. All the credit for the NTI's seems to go to Steve Burg and nobody else gets any credit. NOw, I have no idea what the extent of Moebius' contributions to the film were, or whether they were early on in the conceptual stages (pre shooting script) or afterwards, but I wish there would have been something included in this, the official and extensive history of the film.

I know he worked on it. A quick IMDB search will prove that if you don't believe the images he created. I'd be curious to know why the producers excluded someone who is, to his admission, a strong influence on Cameron as a filmmaker and a world-renowned artist to boot.

Oh well, it's still a decent purchase.

mike

Let No Word Go Unposted

Since it has become pretty clear that PopMatters is not interested in me or my DVD reviews, I decided to post the submission review that I wrote for them on the Batman Beyond Season 1 DVD set.

---

Batman Beyond - The Complete First Season (DC Comics Classic Collection)
Director: Curt Geda
Cast: Will Friedle, Kevin Conroy, Jane Alan, Stockard Channing, Rachael Leigh Cook
(Warner Bros., 2006) Rated: PG
DVD release date: 21 March 2006

By Mike Jozic


This aint your 10-year old’s Batman.

In the late ‘90s, Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Glen Murakami, Alan Burnett and others who had worked on the Batman and Superman animated adventures throughout the decade, were commissioned by Warner Bros. to develop a new show. It was decided by the 'people upstairs’ that the ongoing Batman series was skewing a little old and they wanted to recapture some of the younger audience the WB felt had left for more fertile ground. It was proposed that Timm and co. should reimagine the Dark Knight once again, but this time as a teenager. The result is what we know as Batman Beyond.

The show ran for 52 episodes on the KidsWB and became, ironically, one of the more adult series that the group ever produced. Despite having a teenage protagonist and a desire from the network to lighten things up, the show dealt with darker themes and the writers treated their characters and the world more seriously than they did on any of their previous shows.

The series was groundbreaking in many ways. Taking everything they had learned from working on Batman and Superman, they created something never before seen on a kids animated program. Beneath the super-hero conventions – costume, action, villains and gadgets – was a deeper story of responsibility and redemption for the new Batman, Terry McGinnis. He was an all-new character, he was angry at the world, he had been to juvie and carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Over the course of the first season’s 13 episodes, Terry discovers what it means to accept the mantle of the Bat. Instead of having crazy adventures and playing with all the cool gadgets, Terry had to deal with the impact that being a super-hero entailed. His social life suffered, his school life suffered, he had family problems and dealt with all the usual things teenagers deal with all the while trying to dodge all the crazies who wanted to beat the tar out of him at night when he was ‘on duty’. To be perfectly honest, I would be surprised if Spider-Man wasn’t an early model for Terry.

In the commentary for the pilot episode, “Rebirth”, Bruce Timm mentions an early note from the network advising them to make the show more like Buffy in order to appeal more to a younger demographic. At the time, Timm was not a Buffy viewer and had no idea how to go about making his show more like Whedon’s Slayer epic, but after watching the show for any length of time the similarities begin to creep through, intentional or otherwise.

These similarities occurred, I think, because both shows shared a combination of smart writing, great action pieces, and most of all, a strong focus on developing character.

The real beauty of what Timm and co. did was that they wrapped it all in a package that kids could enjoy and would continue to enjoy on different levels as they grew older. Kind of like those other Warner Bros. classics featuring a carrot chomping wise guy and his pals.

The newly released DVD set comes with all 13 episodes of the first season in full-frame with a 2.0 Dolby Digital soundtrack. In this age of crystal clear digital images, I should also note that while some of the color in certain episodes may appear ‘murky’, this presentation is exactly as the producers of the show intended it to look. Timm has stated in commentaries for the Batman Animated series that he doesn’t approve of the digital manipulation used in ‘cleaning up’ animated films and series, choosing instead to leave all the minor imperfections intact. In fact, Timm will be the first one to point out, but not apologize for, any residual dirt or dust on the image during the commentaries (just one of the downsides of making these things without the aid of computers).

Also included on two of the episodes (“Rebirth” and “Shriek”) are audio commentaries featuring Timm, Dini, Murakami, Burnett, Curt Geda, and Stan Berkowitz giving an informative and entertaining recollection of events on the shows and its production. These guys are probably bigger fans of these shows than any of us and it is pretty clear while listening to them how much fun they had working on them, and how much they enjoyed working together.

There are also featurettes included with this set. The first one is called “Inside Batman Beyond” and is a 10-minute segment featuring the creators in a round robin style interview setting, while the other, called “Music of the Knight”, showcases some of the music cues from the show without dialogue or sound effects to encumber the experience. As a nice added touch for the die-hard fan, the producers of the DVD chose cues not previously featured on any soundtrack album so the music is, essentially, all new.

There is also a fun easter egg where you get to hear composer Kris Carter’s original demo for what would eventually become the show’s rockin’ theme song.

As a features junkie, I would have loved to see a few more extras included with this set, but overall, Warner Bros. has put together a really nice package with Batman Beyond season 1. There’s something here for casual viewers as well as longtime fans of the show as well. I’m looking forward to seeing what they will do for seasons 2 through 4.

---

I didn't want the effort to be a wasted one, so there you have it. A little on the ripe side, maybe, but at least I can say it was 'published'.

mike

Movin' On Up

Had another conversation with Jen about the possible and impending move today. We've had the same sort of talk for a couple of months now, but every time it feels like we're getting closer and closer to something resembling a final solution. It has begun to take on this ominous, looming sort of feeling that leaves me feeling somewhat mentally dishevelled afterwards. Still, it is good news that we're making progress and starting to formulate an actual plan that doesn't sound like a kamikaze mission across Canada, if you know what I mean.

Moving locations aside, I've been watching some great movies and reading some great books, as I mentioned in my last post, and it's acting as a nice counterbalance to the heavier things in life.

This evening the wife and I watched Before Sunset which really impressed me despite some wariness going into it. I really liked the first chapter, Before Sunrise, and almost expected the sequel to be a hollow rehashing of the previous film or possibly even an unbelievable continuation of Jesse and Celine's story. Instead, writer/director Richard Linklater created a story that faithfully recreate the dynamic of the first movie but still manages to adds new levels and depth to the characetrs and their star cross'd romance. It's like they're starting over from the beginning but with almost 10 years of baggage informing their decisions this time. It was quaint and simple in execution but rich with a delicate romanticism that hits all the right warm and fuzzy buttons.

I'm also watching old episodes of The Avengers on VHS, but that's something for anohter post.

mike

Wasssup!

Man, it's been a while since I've posted here. I wish I could say that I've been doing a bunch of cool and interesting stuff, but I've really just been hanigng around, going to work and spending some time with my family. My folks and the In-Laws were both gone for Easter, so we took full advantage of having the holiday to ourselves and spent some real quality time with the kids.

My eldest and I watched Attack of the Clones. She wanted to get it out of the way so we could get to the third movie. She really wants to know how Anakin becomes Darth Vader, and her memory of Episode II was kind of shaky so we did a refresher viewing. In doing so, I noticed some cool stuff that I'd never really noticed before. Like when Obi-Wan and Jango are having their verbal tennis match in his apartment on Kamino? Knowing what I do about Jango's background now, and knowing how things turn out with Code 66, the conversation takes on a whole new meaning for me.

I'm also working up an application to DC Comics. I noticed a job posting the other day and I figured I'd be kicking myself forecer if I didn't at least send in the best application I could. If I can get a call-back for an interview I'll consider it a triumph. I'll keep you posted on how things turn out with that.

Some of the stuff I've been watching for myself include the Back to the Future trilogy. I've really enhjoyed revisiting that story and those characetrs. Good memories. Anatomy of a Murder was a fabulous surprise. I'd heard some good things about this movie but I didn't expect it to be as good, or as ballsy, as it was. I'll probably write more about that later. I'm finally working my way through Frank Herbert's Dune, John Harrison's mini-series nased on the sci-fi classic. I'm enjoying it so far. A few niggling problems, but they change with my mood so it's probably more about me than the movie.

Lastly, I've also made a lot of headway with my Smitten story. I'm really excited by soe of the new directions the story is going and I'll leave a moe detailed discussion of that for later, as well.

Anyway, that's my state of the union. I'll try and not wait a week before posting again.

Later!

mike

Junk Mail

I've received many of these 'gobbledygook' junk mails over the last little while, but on this one occasion, instead of simply deleting the thing cold without sio much as looking at it I actually took a peek at the contents. The mail was titled "relic" and this was the body of the text prior to the 'actual' advertisement:

smuggle a the this psychopath, but connive, a earmuffs is gigabyte
periodical immigrant northwesterly the sensuous!!! tortoise as sixteen the poisoning a topographer skateboard with leech, talk
show
twentieth as balding, the them. accent gunshot affirmation.: lance funeral home, this docket newsworthy, reparation it
overcrowded, applied stressed in separated a and in-line skate q, regulation of that encouragement to and meringue in at brothel.
light-headed the bypass

That's some pretty decent free verse if I do say so myself. The syntax is a little off, but with a tweak here and there I'm sure this baby could sing.

mike

BOOM! Swag

Well, I just spoke with Ross Richie of BOOM! Studios as well as their Press and Marketing person, Gianluca Glazer, about having some Keith Giffen related review material sent over for The Daily Dispatch. I was hoping to beef up the content on the newslist with some reviews of Keith's recent stuff, but since he is currently writing or involved in half of what's being produced on the market right now, I knew there was no way I would be able to keep up with the output unless I resorted to 'other' less scrupulous methods -something I really didn't want to do.

Anyway, I figured nothing ventured nothing gained so I started my quest by hitting up the fine folks over at BOOM! where Keith is writing, like, half of their books. Originally, I only asked about getting my hands on some advance preview stuff (like a B&W proof copy or something) of whatever stuff Keith has up'n'coming but to their credit, the BOOM! crew have gone the extra mile and made this Giffan one seriously happy camper indeed.

From the looks of it, I'm going to have about 90% of Keith's total output from BOOM! mailed out to me, with the rest of it sent electronically when I can get myself a Gmail account (something else they're willing to help accomodate). Soon, I will be deluged with Zombie Tales, Jeremiah Harm, Hero Squared and Planetary Brigade, as well as the 10 one-shot and some PDF files of some of his anthology work that is sold out or unavailable for whatever reason.

I'm looking forward to posting about them when they come.

Besides being a big shout out to Giffen Swag, I also wanted to take this opportunity to salute the crew over at BOOM! for being an exceptionally swell bunch of people. They truly deserve that big shiny Best New Publisher Award that Wizard gave them not too long ago. I may not agree with Wizard on much, but we're definitely on board with this.

mike

My Brains Are Turning to Mush

I think I'm starting to see that old saying 'variety is the spice of life' in a whole new light.

As you may recall from my last post, I've immersed myself in this whole Crisis thing DC has going on. I've been reading the relevant minis and only the direct spin-offs like the "Sacrifice" storyline that ran through the Superman and Wonder Woman titles. I'm probably about halfway through all of them by this point. At last count I've read Identity Crisis #s 1-7, Infinite Crisis 1-6, Superman 219, Action Comics 829, Adventures of Superman 642 & 643, Wonder Woman 219 & 220, The OMAC Project 1-4, Day of Vengeance #1, Villains United #1, DC Special: Return of Donna Troy #s 1-4, and Infinite Crisis: Secret Files and Origins.

I think that's 30 comics and counting. Whew.

One thing I can say about the whole event at this point is that it is very well choreographed. The way one incident in one title gets seen in another book through a different character's perspective is nicely handled and there is a really strong sense of continuity that I haven't seen in comics for a while. Even the art styles tend to be complementary between the main books and the second tier minis. DC, I applaud your efforts. This was obviously well thought out and nurtured by talented writers and artists and, despite the hollow nature of all of these events, it comes off as thorough and entertaining.

Still, I think I'm going to have to take a break because my brain is really turning to mush. My senses dulled after a late evening and morning of marathon reading and it wasn't until I started listening to some music that my head started to clear up.

I think I'm going to go for a Big Gulp or something, too. Fresh air always does a comic-numbed mind good.

mike

Back in a Comic Book Mood

A little while ago, my interest in comic books reached an all-time low. I used to buy a lot of them, and read even more on a regular basis. Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Oni, Image...just about any publisher you can think of, there was probably one comic book they put out that I kept tabs on. It's part of the reason why when I got into the interview/writing game I focused most of my attention to the four-colour world and its artisans. I loved reading comics, talking about comics, and thinking about comics. I still read a few (I'll move Heaven and Earth to snag anything by Andi Watson and I'm enjoying Warren Ellis' Fell like nobody's business, for example), but my visits to the comic store have all but seized, my files closed until further notice.

When I think about it now, the timing of it was pretty serendipitous seeing as my interest dropped to near-zero around the same time I ran out of recreational funds. The two probably worked in concert, like fuel to the fire - or in this case, water.

Lately, however, I've been noticing a distinct increase in the number of comic books that I'm reading again. I started by picking up some old books off the shelves and out of the longboxes that I either hadn't read in a long time or had yet to read. I'm finishing off the Jurgen/Epting Aquaman issues that I never quite kept up with but enjoyed when they were published, and Batman: The Long Halloween was something that I never quite completed while it was new. Stuff like V For Vendetta got new life when the film came out, and seeing as I was reading League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2 at roughly the same time, I figured one more Moore book couldn't hurt and picked up From Hell again in the hopes of finishing it off once and for all.

I've also been grabbing a lot of books from the library. Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez, the final Supergirl storyline by David and Alex Lei, Mike Carey and Leonardo Manco's Hellblazer: All His Engines, DHC's AutobioGraphix, Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo...the list goes on and on. I've just been blowing through the material like nothing and the supply is no longer meeting the demand as it used to.

At the moment, I'm reading through DC's new Infinite Crisis. It, combined with other 'epic' cross-over events like Marvel's House of M storyline, have been partially responsible for my abandonment of the mainstream titles and, like a car accident that you just can't help but look at, I was curiouos to see just how much damage DC was doing to itself in the name of market share. What I was surprised to find out is that Infinite Crisis (the actual mini-series, not the whole bloated crossover event) is actually kind of entertaining. Mind you, the first issue was an incomprehensible mess to someone 'just tuning in', but having been there for the first Crisis, and being one of the people who have criticised DC for their 'darkening up' of their super-hero line, I'm getting a bit of a charge out of this story that features both of those elements quite prominently.

I'm happy to see something that can finally be considered a sequel to the original. Seeing Kal-L, Superboy and Alexander Luthor come back with a point and a purpose makes this event stand head over heels above travesties like Zero Hour or War of the Gods, or even that Kingdom Come mess. I may like the idea of Hypertime, but the execution of it in the DCU has been sloppy at best. When in the hands of guys like Grant Morrison, or even Tom Peyer over in the underappreciated and obviously cancelled Hourman monthly, it makes sense. They play with bits of past and future history and wind it all up together to make a ripping yarn. Everyone else just...didn't.

Anyway, I'm halfway through Infinite Crisis and I'm definitely going to see it through to the end, find out what happens to everyone and what leads to the much ballyhooed 'One Year Later' ploy. This series feels like it has weight, impact and definite purpose beyond making a buck. I don't think the DCU particularly needed 'fixing' (which prompted the first Crisis), but the effort doesn't feel perfectly hollow, either.

I may even go back and check out the minis that led to this new Crisis, like Omac or Villains United, just to add some flavour. I've sampled the Infinite Crisis Secret Files and Origins and I kind of like it, so who knows. The rest of it might not be total shite like I originally expected.

I'll probably post more comic book stuff in the near future, so apologies to those family and friends who hate it when I do that.

Later. I'm off for some grub!

mike

The Magic Roundabout

My youngest had his birthday party this weekend and we took him and a friend to see Doogal at the local second-run theatre. Not being at all familiar with the history of these characters, I came out of it thinking that it was, perhaps, the most bizarre animated film I had ever seen. And not very good, to boot. Knowing that this was a European project, and being the curious type, I came home and Googled the movie to see what I could dig up. There had to be some explanation of why this movie ever got made because the point of it was lost on, I think, everyone who was there to see it.

As it turns out, the movie is actually called The Magic Roundabout and is based on a childrens program that ran in the '60s on the BBC. A little research on the web turned up some helpful information regarding the characters (like why the film's namesake, Doogal, is obsessed with sugar and why another of the characters is a wizard with a big spring instead of legs) and history of the show for anyone who may be trying to make sense of it.

Originally the series hailed from France and was the brainstorm of a gentleman named Serge Danot way back in 1963 or '65. The show was eventually adopted by the Brits, adapted to their cultural needs and quickly became a staple of the BBC's children's programming. The show remains popular to this day with many people remembering it fondly from their childhood as we would with something like Sesame Street or something. This, of course, is why we now have an animated feature based on it.

Armed with the background knowledge, and now fully aware of the original British version of the film (available on DVD in the UK as of July 2005, if I'm not mistaken), I set forth to locate it in order to compare the two versions. I performed a torrent search yesterday and turned up the original which I've since previewed a bit of and I have to say that, from what I've seen so far, it makes way more sense than the American adaptation that is polluting screens all over the country. I mean, while I don't totally agree with it, I can understand changing some of the British slang to suit a North American audience (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, anyone?), but the changes they made also took away the context and point of the whole story.

How a show like Wallace & Grommit can win the Oscar for best animated film without such changes is beyond me. Obviously these are both British productions, so why one is more understandable than the other is kind of confusing. As a Canadian, I guess I'm sort of deep programmed to 'get' the British stuff, but it's not that hard to figure out. And people don't give kids enough credit. They still like Beatrix Potter, and Peter Pan, and various and sundry other Brit cultural exports for children, so they're not complete morons.

Oh well, I guess I'll just sit down with the younguns sometime this week and watch the 'real' movie from beginning to end and see how it plays out. If it turns out to be an entertaining piece of cinema, I'll be sad that it didn't really get a chance Stateside (those wacky Weinsteins), but at least I'll have had a chance to enjoy it.

If it's still crap, ignore this post. Well, some of it, anyways.

Later!

mike

Simpsons Movie Trailer

Since I'm already having to track this trailer down for friends I figured I would just link to it here on the blog and make it a much easier task to do.



I wasn't really excited about this, or really looking forward to it, but this trailer makes me giggle.

mike

Does Whatever a Spider-Phone Can

I haven't done a lot of phone interviews of late since I lost the ability to connect my tape recorder to my telephone. A while ago we decided to ditch our old phone which was being leased from our local crown company in order to save a little cash, especially since we were told that they upgraded to a new model and that they wouldn't even service ours if it was broken. So, we bought ourselves a new phone. One which, unfortunately, could not hook up to my micro casette recorder like the old one could. As a result, I ended up doing a lot less phone interviews than I used to. Not a huge deal since most people prefer to do them by e-mail anyway, but one place where I did notice it was with my regular monthly phone call to Keith Giffen - or lack thereof.

Along with this blog and my website I run The Daily Dispatch, a Keith Giffen newslist. I haven't given it the kind of TLC it requires in a while, but one of the things I used to do for Giffen fans was call him up and chat for a while about everything under the sun. It was something I looked forward to, too. Keith is a fun guy to talk to and he was always good for zinger or two over the course of a 30 to 60 minute chat. Anyway, that's probably what I missed the most about ditching that old phone in favour of the new one.

I actually did go out and buy a new phone, but I screwed up and bought yet another one that didn't satisfy my technological needs. Didn't hook up at all but cheap enough to not bother taking it back. Various reasons contributed to my not searching out another more compatible one, and I eventually just gave up.

Which leads us to now.

I was at a Winners store a couple of days ago when I spotted this phone among the many and varied toys they had lying around (they also had a cool set of classic mod Barbie tumblers that any parent with daughters would give a second look, but cost just a little too much for my tastes). I initially rolled my eyes at the silliness of the thing but when I noticed that it could actually hook into my recorder, and was pretty cheap to boot, I couldn't resist but pick it up. If it was only ever used for calling Keith, the purchase would still be justified based solely on the price of it. I also appreciate the irony that I purchased a Spider-Man phone to do comic book interviews. There's a certain poetry to it, don't you think?

So, I'm happy to say that I'm back in the phone interviewing business. I'm hoping to call Keith this week so if you're a Giffen fan you should probably be watching the newslist for a new update from the horse's mouth. We'll see what else comes of it in the coming months. I'm hoping to have some fun with it.

mike

A Sign of the End Times?

As I said I would, I've been playing with my DVD collection today, getting some movies I have yet to see 'out of the way', so to speak. I finally got through Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West which was an amazing experience. As anyone who has seen it knows, there is very little dialogue over the course of the film's almost 3 hour running time, but what is said is classic. I don't think I'll ever forget Henry Fonda saying, "How can you trust a man who wears both a belt and suspenders. he can't even trust his own pants." Jason Robards also has a cracker of a line when Charles Bronson turns him in for the $5000 reward which went something like this:

Harmonica: The reward for this man is 5000 dollars, is that right?
Cheyenne: Judas was content for 4970 dollars less.
Harmonica: There were no dollars in them days.
Cheyenne: But sons of bitches... yeah.

Once I finished with OUaTitW I moved on to one of my Criterion Collection discs which I've never found the time to watch before now. The disc in question is David Lean and Noel Coward's Brief Encounter and I'm watching it as I type this. It's quite well done and, for someone who's used to Lean's epic films, it's a nice change of pace to see him handling something a bit more intimate.

Anyway, to get to the point of my title for this post, I was inspired by picking one of my Criterion discs to check out the Criterion site and browse through their catalogue and check out some of the essays they have posted on their site (the same ones they include with some of their releases) when I ran into this.

Now, I understand that there are some movies Criterion and I will differ on as being relevant or true classics of the form, but I didn't think anyone would have perceived Armageddon as something worthy of getting the Criterion treatment. Seven Samurai, sure. Brazil, sure. Heck, I'll even go so far as to say I'm not completely opposed to including the films of Kevin Smith (based entirely on their indie street cred), but having Michael Bay's overbloated action/sci-fi/disaster epic on the list just boggles my mind.

Maybe I'm being overly harsh, maybe I need to watch it again. I have friends who think it's an underrated movie (albeit not a classic) so maybe I'm missing some great kernal of genius that Bay has injected into it. Now that I think on it a bit, it's possible that it's being included for Bay's dynamic directorial style (which is undeniable), but this essay kind of asserts that the story has some merit as well.

Well, I'm missing too much of my movie while typing this stuff up so I'm going to get back to it. The two lovers are kissing on the bridge and the Rachmaninoff is swelling. Time to run.

mike

Watching Deadwood

Actually, in all fairness, I'm not specifically 'watching' Deadwood so much as watching the Audio Commentaries to the series. I've acquired a set of the DVDs (damn HBO for charging almost a c-note for these things) and I'm just loving every little bit of it. From the episodes themselves to the documentaries and other treats, Deadwood is probably one of the more satisfying DVD sets I've laid my hands on in a while.

David Milch comes across as a pretty interesting guy and I get a kick out of listening to him talk (even if it is sometimes an agonizingly drawn out experience). Also, as a history student myself I find it especially satisfying to find out how much research and thought has gone into the show. They make changes to suit their storytelling purposes but, for the most part, they've gone to great lengths to create a tangible, realistic representation of Deadwood of the period. It's always great when you find out that a show that you love has smart people behind it who are trying.

And for anybody checking in, I apologise for the lack of posts of late. The wife has been doing some work on the computer and she's been hogging the machine all week. Considering there's a considerable sum of money attached to what she's doing, I'm not raising a fuss over it. I'll just have to settle for playing with my DVD collection some more while I wait for some time to free up.

Until then...

mike

Ooo...Awkward

Looks like my troubles with e-mail yesterday weren't troubles after all, just an odd quirk of the mail delivery system. Despite getting retuned mail messages every time I sent something they apparently got every single message sent.

Here's the note I received this morning from PopMatters...

Mike:

We got your submission. It came through like four times. So, no worries.

Cheers,
Sarah

I'm a little embarrassed now, but at least they'll know that I'm really interested.

At least it's one less thing I have to worry about. And I'm used to having pie on my face so, like the e-mail says, no worries.

Update: I just received another e-mail from PopMatters, this time from the Film/TV editor (the last one was from the top editor, I believe). I'm thinking that if I get the gig, this'll be funny, but if they hate the samples I sent, I'm just looking like a real jackass right now.

mike

Submitting to a Higher Power

Welp, I just sent in my submission for a reviewer job over at PopMatters. I had to put together two past writing samples and write up a brand-spanking new one that, if accepted, will be run on the site as my first contribution.

I'm looking forward to hearing what they say. The site is a pretty good place for pop culture analysis and they have some really good people writing for them. I'm especially impressed by their reviewers tendency to review the bonus features on a DVD in the same manner they would the main feature. As a features junkie, the site has been a help to me in the past when deciding between purchasing alternate versions of certian movies on disc, so it'll be fun if I end up joining the club, as it were.

The only unfortunate aspect of the whole deal is that the work is all without pay, so it would be kind of a return to the same-old same-old for me. On the plus side, they promise a lot of swag like preview copies of movies and tickets and the like.

Anyway, I'll probably hear back within the week as to whether or not I was accepted and I'll be sure to post notice here if I am.

Update: My submission mail seems to be bouncing, so this may all have been for naught. I'm going to explore this problem over the next 24 hours or so and see what comes of it. I'm hoping it's just a tech problem and not some other reason (like I was late submitting, or something).

mike

Movie Watch

I finally got around to picking up a copy of Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist on DVD the other day. It's a movie that I've wanted to add to my collection for some time but never found the time or money to actually do so (that, and there always seemed to be another disc with more attractive features to devour). Anyway, as much as I like having the movie on disc with the full Dolby Digital 5.1 audio and all that stuff that makes piracy 'just not worth it', more than anything I was curious and eager to hear the audio commentary track with director Paul Schrader. The interviews I've read with him since it was announced that Dominion would be given new life have all been very insightful to how I watch the film and the industry in general (it was through Schrader that I first learned how Hollywood treats theatrical releases as adverts for their DVD releases).

Needless to say, I had high hopes for what his audio track would be like.

Unfortunately, what I've heard so far doesn't sound too engaging. It's actually kind of dull, to be perfectly honest. Maybe it was more the province of William Wisher and Caleb Carr to talk about the themes and ideas being presented in the movie, but I think by not discussing them much, if at all, Schrader missed an opportunity to continue the discourse that began over 30 years ago with Blatty's original novel and its film adaptation. Blatty and Friedkin do so on their commentaries and interviews on the various Exorcist DVDs and I think that they're an important part of the overall experience.

I know it could be argued that Schrader has already discussed these things in the interviews I just cited as having read (which he does) but I've been a fan of this body of work for many years and was maybe wanting just one more excuse to have this film stand out in comparison to the PG-13 Harlin version.

Ah well, at least there's a host of deleted scenes to get into when I'm done with the commentary. For that matter, just having this movie in my collection at all should be considered a bonus feature unto itself. What's that saying about being thankful for the things one has?

Later!

mike

Out of Sorts

As the title states. I am feeling pretty out of sorts today. I'm not sure where the restlessness is coming from but it's been bringing me down all day. I've tried various solutions but not even my usual happy stuff is doing the trick. So, I'm hanging out, doing laundry, watching Battlestar Galactica audio commentaries and wondering what I'm going to do next.

At the moment, I'm listening to the commentary for episode 15, "Scar". It's one of the better episodes of the second season and the writers (David Weddle and Bradley Thompson) join Ron Moore for the chat so there's some neat trivia being tossed around. Usually Moore does the track solo, which is almost always great, but it's cool to get a different perspective every now and then just to add some colour. And who better than the writers, right?

While on the subject of commentaries, I'm really glad that BSG has continued with the online goodies, unlike the other shows who dabbled but never really committed to the practice. I'd love to get more Stargate or Star Trek comentaries but, unfortunately, the production companies or PTB in charge of those shows don't feel as if it's worth it, I guess.

Anyway, "Scar" is almost over so I'm going to go and see if I can't shake off some of these blues. Take care.

mike

Silver-Tongued Devil...But I Love Her

On a daily basis I envy my wife's ability to say what she thinks without any fear of repercussions.

I've actually been enjoying her latest string of rants over on our family blog (more her mouthpiece than anyone else's, to be perfectly honest) which have targeted everything from family to politics to society in general. It is possible, I suppose, that I find it so entertaining because none of it has been directed squarely at me since she started blogging a little while ago, but it is fair to say that she's sharp as a tack and worth a gander if you want to see what happens to a firecracker of a redhead after she's had several cups of coffee.

mike

Forward Momentum

After a lot of thought and mental sketching I finally sat down yesterday and wrote a handful of pages on my Smitten script. I already had a couple on the go, but I went in, reworked what I had and continued on for another five pages or so taking the story to it's first real change of locations.

It was a pretty good feeling being able to fire those pages off like I did after...well, 2 years of thinking about them, I guess. Granted, it's not like I spent two whole years working out the dtails of the storyline or developing characters, but it was an off and on sort of process that occured over that period of time, so I'm counting the whole thing. The idea itself is even older than that, but who's counting.

Anyway, as I was saying, it felt good to finally get some of those scenes out of my head and on to the page. I doubt that what I have will stay exactly as it is now (heck, a week ago the whole set-up of these pages was completely different so I have no allusions about the dialogue changing over time) but as long as I keep the forward momentum going and I get to the end, I'll have a complete first draft to deal with and I can shape and mold it as I please at that point. Also, if I do manage to find an artist who was willing to turn it into a comic book with me, than I'm sure he or she will have some input as to how the story unfolds and some of the details will change accordingly.

As I said before, the story was originally meant to be a screenplay but I decided to change it to a comic book script after I realised that I would never be able to produce this as a film on my own. Finding an artist and collaborating on a three or four issue mini-series sounds a lot more doable from where I'm standing, although I'm not exactly sure where I would start to find an artist, never mind one who was interested in a small romantic comedy. Ah well, finish the script and then worry about the artist, I suppose. First things first, right?

My wife was able to offer some encouragement in the form of some positive criticism. Being my first real foray into an original fictional story, I gave her the pages I had to read over and give some opinions on. Being my second harshest critic, I figured that she would be able to set me on the right track, not to mention the fact that she helped me break the story in the first place so she should know if I was screwing up the idea. Her response, as I said, was a positive one. She was happy with how the intro came out and liked the dialogue citing it as fairly natural, which is good. At this stage she feels that I fit into the better-than-average category, so that's fairly encouraging to hear. As long as she wasn't just trying to be a cheerleader for the project, which I doubt.

Among other reasons, I'm actually writing this post as a way of avoiding tackling the next scene which introduces the rest of the protagonist's group of frineds as well as bringing the boy-meets-girl aspect of the story into the mix. Considering the nature of the story, she really has to click with the audience right off the bat in order to sell the idea and I'm nervous about being able to get that just right. I have some ideas about how I might achieve that but I've yet to settle on something as of yet, so I should probably go work that out now.

Later!

mike

DVD Film School

In an interview I once read with James Mangold he said that film school wasn't really necessary for someone who was interested in learning the art of filmmaking. The skills and techniques that you need to make a good film are all things you can learn through either trial and error or through alternative sources such as books and the like. Film school, in Mangold's view, was instead a place for making contacts and possibly hooking up with a mentor who can help you along with the process.

This was pretty much an epiphany for me since I had convinced myself at that point that I wasn't going to be any good, no matter how much I tinkered, unless I went through a 'real' film program at a 'real' film school (a dream which was previously dashed on the rocky banks of cold fiscal and geographic reality). Every now and then I need one of these confidence boosters, and Mangold's came at a time shortly after I completed my first short film which didn't turn out anything like I'd hoped it would and I was feeling pretty down about the whole thing.

So I started reading about various aspects of filmmaking - like screenwriting, directing and producing - and I had found some very good materials that have given me loads of ideas that I can't wait to implement sometime soon. I'm actually feeling pretty confident that I'll be better equipped for when I get behind the camera the next time, hopefully resulting in a superior product to my last effort.

Now, having said that, one part that still intimidates me is dealing with actors. They're kind of a wild card to me and it's an aspect of filmmaking that I haven't seen covered very thoroughly in the books that I've come across. Strangely enough, the one place where I have received the most, and best, advice to date on dealing with actors, and the process they go through while preparing for, and acting in, a film are the various and sundry DVD commentaries and special features I've been watching and accumulating for the last few years. When you think about it, if you have a bit of academic or practical background in the field and understand how a film gets made, listening to these guys and gals talk about their craft is incredibly informative. Everything from what they experience on set to how they prepare for a roll and how they interact with the camera is covered by these interviews and commentaries, and the best part of it is that it is coming from the horses mouth. Instead of listening to or reading Joe Schmoe's thoughts on the craft, you're listening to someone like Al Pacino talking about what he's seen and learned over the course of his his 30 year career.

I use Al Pacino in that last example because I'm watching the Insomnia commentary with Christopher Nolan as I write this and am finding it quite good from a technical/creative standpoint. There was also a great conversation feature where Nolan and Pacino interview each other and reveal a lot of good little bits about their respective crafts. It just made me think of how many of these features I've watched in the last few years (especially since trying to learn new things about film and the process of making them) and how valuable DVDs can be to the aspiring filmmaker. That could just be a way to justify my enormous collection (which my wife is beginning to resent) or it could be the underlying reason for why I'm always on the lookout for the next disc purchase and the potential treasure trove of features lying in wait. Either way, I think it's kind of an interesting observation.

mike

Synchronicity

I've always been a firm believer in the idea of synchronicty or serendipity having an enormous influence/impact on our lives. In the past, I've experienced many things that one would normally chalk up to coincidence or chance, but with such alarming frequency that I have had to put some faith in an overarching, guiding force in the universe.

Now, before you think I'm waxing all philisophical on you, one area where I tend to experience this phenomenon is in my entertainment - comics, TV, movies and music - and today was a perfect example of this.

Case in point. The other day, I picked up Gilbert Hernandez' Palomar from the library. I've been watching Los Bros. Hernandez from the sidelines for years, but had yet to truly get my feet wet with their body of work. While I'm in the middle of reading it, I stumble upon the first Fantagraphics collection of Love & Rockets at a local bookstore. I don't remember ever seeing it there before, nor at such an affordable price ($6.99 CAN), so I can only chalk it up to serendipity that it was, quite literally, dropped into my lap as it was.

Another example of this would be the latest DVD I bought this week, Christopher Nolan's remake of Insomnia from a few years back. You know the one starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank? Anyway, I picked it up for a steal of a price (I'm just a sucker for those can't miss 'em deals) and was remembering, as I purchased the disc, the Criterion Collection release of the Norwegian version and the last time I saw it sitting on a shelf at a Rogers Video thinking, 'maybe I should pick that up sometime'. Flash forward to the very next day and a trip to the library downtown and guess what I find? That's right, the Norwegian version of Insomnia just sitting there on the shelf almost like it was waiting there for me.

And just in case you think I'm stretching it a bit, bear in mind that I was at a different library earlier in the day but they didn't have any interesting DVDs to take out so we went to this other one later on.

To a lesser degree, there was also an instance today where I was finishing up Nick Hornby's About a Boy and talking about the movie adaptation with my wife (making specific comments about the Weitz brothers who made the flick) only to find myself stumbling upon a short Weitz brothers interview while at the bookstore today.

I mean, come on.

There are a number of other times that I could go into to cement my argument, but I think you're starting to see the picture that is forming here.

I don't know if everybody experiences these sorts of events or if it's just me but I do know that I have a lot of days like this (sometimes involving mysterious cheques arriving in the mail) and I can't help but think that there's probably some ineffable universal design at work. Granted, that could be bad news for people like my mother-in-law (she's always getting short-changed when she goes shopping), or my kooky neighbour (people keep stealing her stuff but leaving our house alone) who, more often than not, can't seem to catch a break. Still, I'm pretty confident that there has to be some checks and balances in place, so they're probably getting breaks and I just don't know about it.

Knock wood, I guess.

On a somewhat unrelated note, now that I have all this Hernandez Bros. work lying around the house, I'm reminded of the fact that Eric Reynolds (of Fantagraphics Books) gave me Xaime and Gilbert's phone numbers some time ago for an interview which never got off the ground due to my not using them and calling them up (something for which I am still kind of kicking myself over). Maybe I'll have to remedy that sometime soon. Could be a fun interview. Could be the interview to start the ball rolling again. I dunno. I'm just thinking out loud as usual.

mike

Getting Back in the Game

I know my wife will probably choke when she reads this post, but I've started to get the urge to contact some people and get myself back into freelancing. I'm not talking full-time, or anything, just a part-time gig like I used to have when I was the Features Editor over at Siver Bullet Comicbooks - but maybe with pay, this time.

I don't know what I would focus on if I went through with it, but it's likely that I'd start with the comic journalism again, interviewing folks and writing articles and the like. A few years ago the interview was the big draw for an online magazine but that soon changed. Instead of 'who has the best interview' it shifted to 'who has the best celebrity columnist'. Then the fans were looking for the best rumour mill and then it came back to the columns, only this time it was the up and coming writers who caught everyone's attention (so far,though, I've yet to see any of the 'hot young things' that were all the rage a while ago make anything of themselves in the industry as a whole). Now, it looks like the interview is, once again, a prime focus on the sites, creating a possible haven for me and my favourite pasttime.

I've been sitting here at my computer for the last hour trolling sites I used to write for and sites I'd like to write for, debating on whether or not to contact the editors there to see if they'd be interested in giving me a crack at writing for their mags. Looking at all the material on their sites, I'm thinking there is genuinely something I can offer that they don't currently have in great quantities. You see, while I think that there are many, many creator interviews and 'glad they could take the time away from their busy schedule' chats on these sites, very few of them could be considered (at least in my opinion) any good beyond the absolute basics of disseminating information to the masses.

Now, before I really ruffle some feathers, I think the nature of publishing on the web has a lot to do with that. When you put up new information daily instead of weekly or monthly as the print mags do, you end up with a mass produced sort of feeling to your content. But unless you have a shitload of people writing the stuff, or a handful of extremely talented writers, it's not going to come off very well in the end no matter what you do. I've done the cookie cutter interviews before and, while they serve their purpose, they also steal a little bit of your writers soul every time you do one and not endeavour to change something about them.

And then there's the repetition.

I used to hate the magazine culture and publicists that enforced exclusives and absolute control of where and how much information was getting out at any given time. Now, not so much. When every website has an interview with a new artist and they all ask the same questions, of course the artist is going to repeat the same thing he said to the first guy and the guy before him (or gal - I'm not trying to be sexist, here). I just ran across this with some Steadman interviews that I found at their website (free streaming audio folks - the whole catalogue of their music as well as rarities, live tracks and videos). Everyone wants to ask about 'the Paul McCartney connection'. There's only one answer to that and it's the same one they give every time.

If you look over my body of work you'll notice that, in the past, I've gone to great lengths to try and make my interviews somewhat different from the next guys piece. Hours have been spent reading other people's Q&As, reading previously published works and even looking over my own past interviews to see if I've been asking the same questions too often (patterns breed cookie cutter pieces - not good). It's really very important to me to try and make each interview a little bit better than the last one, and if I can cater the questions to each individual subject then I'm half the way there.

Anyway, I'm starting to digress here, aren't I? If I don't stop ranting, I may start naming names and then I'll be dragging out the trebuchet. No point in burning the bridges before I've even begun the journey, is there?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some editors to e-mail before the wife gets home.

mike

Bowie, Besson & Minimoys, Oh My!

Reuters has this little snippet on the latest project from Luc Besson. I've been waiting for years to find out when and what he was going to direct again. It seemed that after The Messenger he was no longer interested in getting behind that camera. Sure, he wrote Kiss of the Dragon, the two Transporter movies and Unleashed, but he had a visual style that was fairly distinctive and I miss seeing it in his projects.

Anyway, this little animated project is something I will definitely be keeping an eye out for.

mike

Confessions Confessional

The other night I watched George Clooney's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind with my brother and was blown away by how fun and brilliant this movie is. I'm actually not sure how I managed to avoid this flick for so long. I really like George Clooney, as an actor and a filmmaker, so it must have been just laziness. I haven't seen a movie with a script this sharp since Fight Club. I've never been a big follower of Charlie Kaufman - even though I really enjoyed Being John Malkovich - but after seeing this movie, I'll probably hunt down Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Not entirely dissimilar to when I discovered Wes Anderson movies.

As I do with any movie that gives me the ol' wa-POW! to the brain, I'm lending it out to everyone who'll pay attention long enough to be handed the disc. I just handed it off to my parents so I'm looking forward to seeing what they thought of it, and before that I passed it along to a buddy at work. I also have yet to show it to my wife, so I'll probably get another viewing or two out of it in the near future.

Check it out if ya haven't and post comments if you do. I'm curious what y'all think.

mike

From Cerebus to Gun-Fu

I was pretty surprised to see this interview over at The Pulse. One of my 'favourite' interviewers, Jennifer Contino, takes a crack at the always interesting (but not always likeable) Dave Sim. Dave has apparently written a one-shot for Howard Shum's Gun-Fu series which is a send-up of the ol' Sean Connery area Bond films. I'd be curious to check this out just based on the fact that Dave's written it, but seeing as how I'm currently slogging through Dave's 'Chasing Yahweh' nonsense in my quest to finish off Cerebus, I'm interested to see something from him that doesn't involve religion, Woody Allen gags or lengthy text pages.

I guess Gun-Fu is out this month. YOu can also check in on CBR for another Dave interview here.

mike

5 is the New 0

I have to say, I'm pretty happy with myself. After going from staring at a blank page for an hour last night to 5 pages of script today, I think I can say that I have officially began the latest draft and version of Smitten.

I don't write a lot of fiction so it's not something that comes very easily to me yet. If you asked me to come up with 20 questions for an interview with someone at random, I could probably do that in a pinch. If you wanted them to be particular or in-depth, that would take me an hour and access to a computer. But fiction remains a strange animal to me. Something I have to really work at to make it come alive.

So I was a little surprised when my opening (which I had worked out the night before) went from a fairly straightforward narration to something a little less obvious but closer to the overall theme and concept of the story. While I still haven't decided if it's the way I'm going to go with it in the end, it's still a departure from what I had already established, and it was an unexpected one that happened through almost no outward effort of my own. It's a neat feeling to have whatever instinct is in control of that impulse take over and an encouraging one, as well.

Now, if you're a writer and you're reading this, you're probably thinking that I'm like a kid who's just discovered that flicking the light switch up and down makes the bright light come and go away, but I'm still fairly new to this experience so, nyah!

I've always been told and always believed that the key to getting it right is to just write no matter what. Even if it's complete and total crap, you at least have something to work with if you write something down. If nothing else, it becomes a template of what not to do. And sometimes, you hit the nail on the head and discover new and interesting ways to portray a scene or a line of dialogue that you may not have thought of otherwise. But you have to write or absolutely nothing will get done. So write I will, and odds are, I will be posting updates here about the progress I'm making as well as any and all frustrations I may be going through as a result.

I have to hit the sack, now. I work in about 6 hours and my eyes are kind of dry and groggy.

Later!

mike

Lloyd Lends Support to V Film

I jut caught this on the SciFi Wire this morning. A lot of people have criticized the adaptation for being unfaithful to the original but when one of the creators comes out and says he likes it, I can't think of a better endorsement - unless he was bribed to say nice things about it.

There's also been word that if this movie does well, Warner Bros. will greenlight the Watchmen film which they purchased off of Paramount after their new management killed the project.

I'm looking forward to seeing V sometime this month. I think it'll be a winner.

mike

Structural Engineering

I've spent the better part of two weeks hammering out what I thought was a pretty good structural foundation for my screenplay-turned-comic-book-script, Smitten. I had most of the details worked out and mapped out the events to span roughly three or four issues of a 22 page comic book. With most of the nuts and bolts out of the way, I really only needed some tweaking here and there to increase plausability in some of the situations, and to make the relationship line more believeable since the whole story sort of hinges on me selling that one to the audience. I mean, when you're doing a script where you have two characters coming together in a romantic relationship but one of them is absent for 99% of the story, you've got some big hurdles to overcome.

On the plus side, I think I've successfully wrestled that angel.

Tonight, I had a bit of a rap session with my wife where we worked out some of the old problems and came up with some new ideas that will, I hope, flesh out a couple of the characters and add some much needed humour to the whole thing. We also talked about how I can make the first act turning point and the story's climax more true to the original concept while simultaneously adding some dynamism that will help me avoid hitting some very big clichéd moments. I'm really excited about where this could go, now, and I'm going to start the hard part (the first draft) as soon as I can get past the fear of starting a new project.

I'm doing everything I can to avoid actually putting words to the word processor right now (hence the posting) but I'm planning on, at the very least, getting a page or so down before I hit the sack tonight.

Wish me luck!

mike

Listening to F. Scott

About 5 years ago, or so, I discovered the writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Not that I wasn't aware of the guy and his work before that, it's just that I discovered how much I enjoyed his short stories and novels which, subsequently, made him one of my favourite writers to date. There is just something about how he puts words to paper. You can tell that he's agonized over each and every word, phrase and paragraph. His prose has an almost lyrical quality to it and the stuff he writes about just plain interests me.

So, it should come as no surprise that when I saw an audiobook of the short stories of F. Scott as read by the likes of Robert Sean Leonard, Blythe Danner, Campbell Scott, Peter Gallagher and others, I picked it up. I caught it during one of my library trips and figured it would be great for driving to and from work. I'd read some of the stories before so they would be a refresher, but there were some I hadn't, so it would be the best of both worlds.

Unfortunately, what I've discovered (and should have known having attempted audiobooks in the past) is that Fitzgerald's prose loses something for me when interpreted through someone else. Robert Sean Leonard's "Diamond as Big as the Ritz" and Danner's "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", for example, were far less entertaining for me this time around compared to when I first read them. I don't know if it's the actors trying to act the characters and parts, or if there's something wrong with the cadence of it, but it just doesn't feel right.

I've heard three of the stories so far, with three yet to go, so I'm not going to give up on the tapes altogether. I mean, you never know, right? It could be the actors. If not, I'll just go and finish The Beautiful and the Damned when I'm done Hornby's About a Boy (which is fabulous, I might add).

mike