Truth Hurts

Welp, the surprise return of FOX's Tru Calling has left me somewhat wanting.

After a shaky start in season 1, I had actually grown to really like the show and was disappointed to hear that FOX would not be bringing it back - especially with Jane Espenson joining the writing/producing team. So, colour me excited when they announced the show would be returning with the first two episodes of the never aired season 2 tonight, followed over the next four weeks by the remainder of the shows they produced before giving it the axe (and justifying FOX selling the season 2 DVD set which I'm expecting to hear about any day now).

Happy as I was to see the show again, I have to say I got a little bored with it halfway through the first episode. Heck, I'm writing this while watching episode 2, so it can't be too gripping, right? I kind of feel like they've gone back to the beginning with the explaining and the restating of the show's premise and the character relationships. It took 6 or 7 episodes for me to get interested in the first season and, considering there is only 6 episodes of season 2, I'm hoping the viewing curve is less pronounced this time around.

Jane's episode will be coming up soon, so I'll comment again when that happens.

mike

Blackstronauts

Thanks to a post on John Rogers' Kung-Fu Monkey blog, I caught this very funny mockumentary on America's black astronauts in the early days of the space program.

Click on through and check it out. You won't be sorry.

mike

Lone Gunmen Comes to DVD

Mission: Impossible on Laughing Gas

This 3 disc set offers the complete series presented in 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen with English and Spanish Dolby Surround and subtitle options. Extra features include commentaries, a "Making of" documentary and original TV Spots. You will also find an episode from Season 9 of The X-Files titled Jump The Shark complete with commentary.

So, I just picked up my copy of the new Lone Gunmen DVD set and I have to say I am relatively pleased with it. Even though I'm about to bitch a little bit I do want to say that the video transfer, the bonus features and the packaging are all nicely done as FOX proves, once again, that their Home Video division knows far more about what they're doing than the network does.

Now, all other fun stuff aside, I was a little disappointed with the two-sided disc set-up. Since there are only 13 episodes in the series I figured it was going to be reminiscient of the recent Harsh Realm or Wonderfalls sets. They're your basic double-layer DVDs with artwork and the like packaged in slipcased THINpak cases. Seeing as Wonderfalls managed to put all of its episodes on three discs without the double-sided format, I thought that The Lone Gunmen would probably follow suit. I will grant you that the LG video quality is probably better as a result and the two-sided discs do save me some money, so I can understand, I'm just more comfortable with the other format as a consumer, and feel safer with it as a collector.

Also, as a special features junkie, I wish the set included some outtakes or deleted scenes (which they claim exist in at least two of the audio commentaries) , but to be fair, they do include several more commentaries for this 13 episodes series than any of the other Ten Thirteen DVD collections (heck, even Rob Bowman found some time to come out and do a joint commentary with the other writers/exec. producers).

Still, what's done is done and we really are just damn lucky to even have this series on DVD at all so my quibbling stops there.

I totally recommend the set and the show to anyone willing to give it a try.
In an interview just before LG was first broadcast Chris carter referred to it as "Mission: Impossible on laughing gas," and he wasn't too far off - not as depressing as Millenium, longer than Harsh Realm, and funner than The X-Files.

mike

Movie Meme

I've never done one of these memes before, and I wasn't asked to, but I saw this over on Johnny Bacardi's Blog and thought it might be fun...

There are some movies on the list which I've seen half or more of but ultimately gave up on, so I didn't bother hilighting any of those out of fairness. Also, there's one or two flicks that I checked off as seeing because I just rented them and they're on the shelf by the TV waiting to be put in, so I'm going to see them very, very soon, just haven't done it yet. The Hustler is a good example of that.

Also, like everybody else, I've added a few movies of my own to the list.

Anyway, on to the meme...

- BOLD movies you own in your personal video/DVD library
- ITALICS for movies you have seen
- Leave plain movies you haven't seen
- Pass it on to three people at the end


200 Motels (1971)
12 Angry Men (1957)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
28 Days Later (2002)
The 400 Blows (1959)
8 1/2 (1963)
Adaptation. (2002)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1939)
After Dark, My Sweet (1990)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Alien (1979)
Aliens
Alien 3
Alien Resurrection
Almost Famous
All About Eve (1950)
Amadeus (1984)
Amarcord (1974)
Amélie
American Beauty (1999)
The American President (1995)
American Splendor (2003)
The Animatrix (2003)
Annie Hall (1977)
The Apartment (1960)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Apt Pupil (1998)
The Apu Trilogy (1959)
Around the Bend (2004)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)
The Band Wagon (1953)
The Bank Dick (1940)
Barefoot Gen (Hadashi no Gen) (1983)
Barefoot in the Park (1967)
Batman: The Movie (1966)
Batman (1989)
Batman Returns (1992)
Batman Forever (1995)
Batman & Robin (1997)
The Battle of Algiers (1967)
Battle Royale (Batoru rowaiaru) (2000)
The Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Beat the Devil (1954)
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Being There (1979)
Belle de Jour (1967)
The Bicycle Thief (1949)
The Big Heat (1953)
The Big One (1997)
The Big Red One (1980)
The Big Sleep (1946)
The Birds (1963)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Blowup (1966)
The Blue Kite (1993)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Bob le Flambeur (1955)
Body Heat (1981)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Bound (1996)
Bowling for Columbine (2002)
Breathless (1960)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
Broken Blossoms (1919)
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Kabinett des Doktor Caligari, Das) (1920)
Casablanca (1942)
Catch-22 (1970)
Chasing Amy (1997)
Children of Paradise (1945)
Chinatown (1974)
A Christmas Story (1983)
Citizen Kane (1941)
City Lights (1931)
Clerks (1994)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Color Purple (1985)
Comic Book Villains (2002)
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
The Conversation (1974)
Cries and Whispers (1972)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo hu cang long) (2000)
Crumb (1994)
Damage (1992)
Daredevil (2003)
Day for Night (1973)
The Day of the Dolphin (1973)
Days of Heaven (1978)
The Decalogue (1988)
Detour (1945)
Die Hard (1988)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Donnie Darko (2001)
Don't Look Now (1974)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Dracula (1931)
Duck Soup (1933)
Dune (1984)
E.T - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
The Earrings of Madame de... (1953)
Easy Rider (1969)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Ed Wood (1994)
Elektra (2005)
The Elephant Man (1980)
El Norte (1983)
Eraserhead (1977)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The Exorcist
The Exorcist III: Legion
Exorcist: The Beginning
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
Fanny and Alexander (1983)
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
Fargo (1996)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
F for Fake (Vérités et mensonges) (1976)
The Fifth Element (1997)
Fight Club (1999)
The Firemen's Ball (1968)
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
Floating Weeds (1959)
Four Rooms (1995)
Frida (2002)
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
From Hell (2001)
Gates of Heaven (1978)
The General (1927)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Ghost World (2000)
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
The Godfather (1972)
Goldfinger (1964)
Gone With the Wind (1939)
The Goodbye Girl (1977)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1968)
GoodFellas (1991)
Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)
Grand Illusion (1937)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Great Expectations (1946)
Great Expectations (1998)
Greed (1925)
Groundhog Day (1993)
The Hand (1981)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
The Hearts of Age (1934)
Hellboy (2004)
High Fidelity (2000)
Hoop Dreams (1994)
House of Games (1987)
The Hustler (1961)
Ikiru (1952)
In Cold Blood (1967)
The Incredibles (2004)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Jackie Brown (1997)
Jaws (1975)
JFK (1991)
Jules and Jim (1961)
Juliet of the Spirits (1965)
Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
Killing Zoe (1994)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
King Kong (1933)
L'Atalante (1934)
L'Avventura (1960)
La Dolce Vita (1960)
The Lady Eve (1941)
The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
The Last Laugh (1924)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Last Tango in Paris (1972)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
Late Spring (1972)
The Lathe of Heaven (1980)
Laura (1944)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Le Boucher / The Butcher (2003)
Le Samourai (1967)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
The Leopard (1963)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
The Lion King (1994)
Lolita (1962)
Lolita (1997)
Lost Highway (1997)
M (1931)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Mallrats (1995)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Man Who Laughs (1928)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Manhattan (1979)
The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Mean Streets (1973)
Metropolis (1926)
Mon Oncle (1958)
Moonstruck (1987)
Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
The Music Room (1958)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
My Dinner With Andre (1981)
My Life to Live / Vivre sa Vie (1963)
My Neighbor Totoro (1993)
Nashville (1975)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Network (1976)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Nights of Cabiria (1957)
The Ninth Configuration (1980)
Nosferatu (1922)
Notorious (1946)
Not Without My Daughter (1991)
On the Waterfront (1954)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Orpheus (1949)
Out of the Past (1947)
Pandora's Box (1928)
Paris, Texas (1984)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Patton (1970)
Peeping Tom (1960)
Persona (1966)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
Pickpocket (1959)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Pinocchio (1940)
Pixote (1981)
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)
Playtime (1967)
Pollock (2000)
Powder (1995)
The Producers (1968)
The Prophecy (1995)
Psycho (1960)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Raging Bull (1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Raise the Red Lantern (1990)
Ran (1985)
Rashomon (1950)
Rear Window (1954)
Blue, White, Red (1994)
Red River (1948)
The Red Shoes (1948)
The Ref (1994)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Return to Glennascaul (Orson Welles' Ghost Story) (1951)
Return To Oz (1985)
Rififi (1954)
The Right Stuff (1983)
Roger & Me (1989)
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Ronin (1998)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
The Rules of the Game (1939)
Santa Sangre (1989)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Say Anything (1989)
Scarface (1983)
The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Schindler's List (1993)
Scrooge aka A Christmas Carol (1951)
The Searchers (1956)
Se7en (1995)
The Seven Samurai (1954)
The Seventh Seal (1957)
Shane (1953)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Solaris (1972)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)
Spider-Man (2002)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Stalag 17 (1953)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Star Trek Generations (1994)
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
Star Wars (1977)
The Straight Story (1999)
The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977)
The Stranger (1946)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Stroszek (1977)
A Sunday in the Country (1984)
Superman (1978)
Sunrise (1928)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Swing Time (1936)
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
A Tale of Winter (1992)
The Tao of Steve (2000)
Taxi Driver (1976)
The Terminator (1984)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
The Thin Man (1934)
The Thing (1982)
The Third Man (1949)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Three Colors Trilogy (1994)
Three Women (1977)
Tokyo Story (1953)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
The Trial (Procès, Le) (1962)
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
True Romance (1993)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
Ugetsu (1953)
Umberto D (1952)
Un Chien Andalou (1928)
Unforgiven (1992)
The United States of Leland (2003)
Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election (2002)
The Up Documentaries (1985)
Vertigo (1958)
Victim (1961)
Walkabout (1971)
West Side Story (1961)
Where the Buffalo Roam (1980)
Wild at Heart (1990)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Wings of Desire (1988)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Woman in the Dunes (1964)
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
A Woman's Tale (1992)
The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl, Die) (1993)
Written on the Wind (1956)
X-Men (2000)
X-Men 2: X-Men United (X2) (2003)
xXx (2002)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
A Year of the Quiet Sun (1984)
Yellow Submarine (1968)

JB had a book meme posted yesterday that looked like it might be fun, also. I might tackle that later today if I get a chance.

mike

Hunting for Bear

Richard Gibbs & Bear McCreary

I've just received e-mail confirmation that Bear McCreary, the man responsible for the music on the new Battlestar Galactica series, has agreed to do an interview with me this week or the next.

I'm really looking forward to talking to the guy. The score for BSG is unlike that of any other show on TV, I think. It's very interesting, somewhat unpredictable and I'm dying to ask about his choice of music at the end of episode 10, 'The Hand of God'. Great episode, strange Celtic music cue at the end.

Anyway, I guess I should start cooking up some questions for the guy and I'll kee you posted on where that piece will appear.

mike

A Little Less Crowded

CNN.com informs me that, Paul Hester, ex-drummer of Aussie band Crowded House, hung himself in a park in Southern Australia on Friday, March 25th. He has shocked many of his friends and loved ones (including ex-bandmates Nick Seymour and Neil Finn) who didn't see this coming, and is survived by his girlfreind and two children.

While I'm not totally shocked by the news, I am a bit surprised that it ended this way after years of being away from the band and the life that I believed was making him unhappy. Hester left the band in 1994 in the middle of their North American tour in order to be home with his family and relieve the stresses of touring. In an appearance on Much Music at the time, he appeared a little crusty, distant, unhappy and just a little drunk.

I guess he never really got over it.

Anyway, as a past fan of Crowded House, I felt that I should mention it here on the Blog.

mike

Best of the Bins 2

St. Swithins Day
Written by Grant Morrison
Illustrated by Paul Grist
(Oni Press)

Last week it was an enire series that I championed, this week a single issue.

St. Swithins Day, for those of you who may not know of it, was a four part story originally penned by Morrison to appear in the failed Trident anthology back in 1989. Almost ten years later, it saw print, collected in one volume, by Oni Press. If I remember correctly, it was one of the first books they published as a company along with some dreadful magazine sized book by Frank Miller and Simon Bisley.

Anyway, the story revolves around an unnamed male protagonist who is your average disaffected youth in Britain at the end of the '80s. He's on his way to London to shoot the Prime Minister (Margaret Thatcher) hoping to commit one significant act in his otherwise uneventful and unimportant life that will actually affect people. He believes that there will be parties in the streets afterwards, and though he will surely die, it will be his name on the newscasts and in the newspapers the following day.

Paul Grist is the artist on the story and does a great job of communicating the sadness of the main character, and the overall blandness of the world he inhabits. Very simple lines, good uses of blacks and great characterizations make Morrison's story come alive, and it was likely no easy task. It's a very talky piece, with the main character thinking to himself almost throughout the whole story. You can probably count the panels with word balloons on one hand, and with no supporting characters to speak of, Grist is set with the task of communicating the emotional centre of the story through expressions and scenery.

If you're tired of Morrison's JLA or his other forays into the super-hero world, I would definitely recommend St. Swithins Day. It is a solid read that shows what Morrison can do without a 'widescreen' canvas to play in. No trippy science, no crazy twists, just straight solid character.

mike

Commentaries on Atlantis

I've just had it pointed out to me by my buddy Brad (he's like a font of good news these days, isn't he?) that SciFi.com has once again done something very cool with one of their websites.

Like the Battlestar Galactica site before it, the Stargate: Atlantis site has just been updated with audio commentaries for the final two episodes of the 1st season, 'The Siege' Parts 1 & 2. They are available as podcasts or as MP3 files that you can download to your hard drive.

No Deleted Scenes yet (only Galactica fans seem to be the recipients of that kind of fun), but one can only hope. With a second season starting this summer, though, it's a good bet that SciFi may continue this forward thinking trend guranteeing I'm going to be spending some quality time at their site.

Enjoy!

mike

My God, it's full of Stars

So, on April 9th, Stars will be in town as part of something called the Exclaim Tour, along with the bands Apostle Of Hustle and Montag. They're hitting a small local tavern called Amigo's and, having missed them once before in November (I think it was November), I'm totally chomping at the bit to go to this show. I haven't been able to buy my ticket yet, however, due to financial difficulties, so I'm crossing my fingers that the show doesn't sell out before I get a chance to grab one. Normally I wouldn't worry about it, but it is a small place, and they've been selling them for a few weeks so...time is of the essence, y'know?

Anyway, Set Yourself on Fire is, in my opinion, one of the best albums of the year (so far), and their previous effort, Heart, was equally phenomenal, so I'm dying to see them do their thing live.

Wish me luck!

mike

Who Culprit Smoked Out by BBC

For those of you who are following the 'drama', or caught my post on the subject a while ago, this article - courtesy of WENN - details how the BBC finally managed to crack down on the culprit responsible for leaking the premiere episode of the new Doctor Who to the file-sharing masses.

This might tarnish that nice and polite rep us Canadians have you all snowballed into believeing.

mike

Once Bitten...

Looks like one of the best werewolf movies of the last decade or so is getting a return engagement with the announcement of Dog Soldiers 2.

I really quite enjoyed the first film, so I'm going to be watching this sequel's development with cautious excitement. The original director is no longer involved with the 'series', so it could be a total cock up, or it could be another fun lycanthropic romp. I guess time will tell.

mike

Speak of the Devil or Pazuzu Was His Name-O

I am giddy with excitement over this news regarding the possible distribution, in cinemas, of the abandoned Paul Schrader helmed Exorcist prequel.

If I remember my pre-blogging history correctly, Morgan Creek deemed Schrader's version to be too cerebral and decided that the first version would not be commercial enough for them. Despite the investment in time and money, it was shelved in favour of hiring Renny harlin to reshoot the whole thing and hope for big returns.

Anyone who saw Exorcist: The Beginning knows what a deeply flawed movie it was - well intentioned, but oh so very flawed. Unlike Friedkin or Blatty's Exorcist films, it relied on obvious scares, gore and predictable fright beats. It was slow-moving and felt more cerebral when compared to comething like I Know What You Did Last Summer, but all-in-all was a derivative sequel.

And for those Exorcist: Legion naysayers out there, bear in mind that Morgan Creek fiddled with that version, too.

Now, I could be talking out of my ass here since I've never seen Schrader's version, but the actors all stand behind it, Blatty screened it and said he liked it, and the reviews before it got shelved, and since, have all been stellar (at least the ones I've seen, anyways). Here's hoping this one brings us back to what was so great about the first film.

You can watch the opening sequence of the movie here at the festival website, click here to download the trailer, and here for an interview with Schrader just before the Brussel's premiere. There was a great article done just before The Beginning was released, and I'll link to that too if I can find it again.

Enjoy!

Update: I managed to track down that article I was talking about earlier on. It's from the LA Weekly website and was written by Scott Foundas. Click here to check it out.

mike

Gettin' Buzzed With Loonatics Spoof

In response to my Loonatics post from yesterday, I was pointed to this flash animated spoof of the new Loonatics series by my friend Brad. It's not very worksafe, so bear that it mind when you view it.

mike

Say it aint so, WB!

Click here for an example of, if it aint broke, fiddle with it a bit and see what happens. If Warner Bros. thinks that, based on the current 'success' of their Looney Tunes characters in features and on TV, they need a bit of a facelift...maybe they should just stop making movies with live-action and animation blended in and just make a kick-ass Looney movie with these characters that everybody loves, young and old.

sigh

This has a head shake rating of 55 out of 10.

mike

Jane Espenson Article

Sticking with the somewhat Buffy-ish theme today, here's a nice little article by Jane Espenson, television writer extraordinaire (and not coincidentally the subject of several interviews conducted by me over the years), for the LA Times online. In it she talks about writing women characters for television and - like she says in the atrticle - while it won't necessarily change the world, for fans of Jane it's worth pointing out.

Cheers!

mike

Angel In June

As previously announced, a new Angel mini-series will be coming out from IDW and the release date is this June.

IGN has more on that ,here.

I wasn't initially excited by this news (even though I knew I'd be picking the durn thing up) because of its departure from the normally able hands of DHC who handle the Buffy franchise so adeptly, but after reading a bit more on the books, and seeing these great variant covers, I'm actually getting a little giddy.

I know Jeff Mariotte can write Angel in his sleep, so at least I know the character is in able hands (even though I would have loved to see some more Christopher Golden work in the Buffyverse). From what I've seen of the art by Messina, it looks good enough to carry whatever story Jeff has cooked up. I've seen worse artists doing Angel during it's run at Dark Horse, so...

If only they could get Karl Moline to take a crack at the vampire with a soul.

So anyway, bring it on, IDW. Let's see if you can make this franchise come alive and tide us fans over until the Buffy Animated or Spike TV movies come to pass!

mike

I Found My Thrills...

Here is an article that'll have to be run through babelfish before you can make head or tails of it - unless you can read French, of course. It's about the new Blueberry album, 'Dust', and Jean Giraud talks about doing what I believe is the last book in the cycle without collaborator, Jean-Michel Charlier.

It's a little tough to make out here and there. For some reason Babelfish has trouble getting all the pieces to translate properly, but it's interesting to see nonetheless. And with Giraud almost never making headlines over here, it's likely this is the only kind of coverage fans of his stuff - like me - will get the chance to see.

Now if I could only get some kind of update on his Moebius Strip animated film...

mike

Hey Kids, Comics!

This article in an Arizona paper claims that kids who don't read traditional 400 page text laden books will read comic books.

Gee, you think?

Why is this newsworthy? I mean, sure, it's nice for the medium to get a little positive press and a pat on the back that says, "yes, Virginia, comic books aren't going to melt your mind". I mean, really, comic books have always been an alternative to books, even for the cool kids who would never admit to reading them (or in fact did read them, just not the super-hero books). They would still pick up a horror comic if there was one ot be found, or a Calvin & Hobbes or something and kill some time. They're kids. Video games are just interactive cartoons, at heart. The technology has changed, not the impulses.

I think comic books would still appeal to, and be bought by, kids if the accessibility to the material was improved greatly. Prices are waay too high on individual issues and finding them is often very difficult for many people. This is one of the reason Manga is doing so well, but you all know that already.

In a recent post on his blog, Mark Cardwell talks about letting kids have access to stuff like the Ultimate line of books or the same kinds of stuff that got us all into the hobby because of their 'whoah!' factor. Morrison's Doom Patrol, Moore's Swamp Thing...these were books that were instrumental in keeping me into comic books, not Marvel Adventures.

I'll stop there. Nobody needs another 'fix the industry rant'. I guess every blogger does it at least once, right? Anyway, I got it out of my system.

mike

Back in the Middle

Looks like I'm back in the interview game. All pro bono (as has almost always been the case since the beginning) but I have some interesting chats lined up that I hope to take care of in the next week or so. One of them is with some trading card people so that's a new one for me. I've never spoken to anyone about cards before. Maybe I'll learn a thing or two in the process.

It also looks like I might have some sweet DHC related interviews coming up as well. They just have to get set up and then it's ready, steady, go.

Once I have some in the bag, I'm not really sure if I should be posting them here or on Meanwhile..., but I guess I'll sort that out later.

'Til next time...

mike

Best of the Bins

The X-Files
Written by Stefan Petrucha & John Rozum
Illustrated by Charles Adlard, Gordon Purcell, Jill Thompson & Alex Saviuk
(Topps Comics)

While I was a big fan and supporter of the X-Files television show, the comic book series never grabbed my attention until much later. I felt that anything the creative team on the comic book could do was something that could be easily replicated on the show, and more than likely done better than it could in comic form. And anything that wasn't directly approved by Carter just wasn't canon to me.

But eventually I cracked and picked up an issue that piqued my interest. The story was called 'Remote Control' and was about Remote Viewers and somebody's plan to kill a group of them who worked together on a project once. The three parter, wonderfully illustrated by Charles Adlard, showed me that the comic book was a surprisingly well done adaptation of the show. It remained true to the spirit of The X-Files and had found it's own voice and way of presenting stories.

From there I continued to pick up issues, particularly the first year of the series written by Stefan Petrucha. An X-Files nut himself, Petrucha brought his vast knowledge of the paranormal and Forteana to the series and crafted a complex and intricate 12 issue run that, at least in the beginning, didn't appear to have anything to do with each other. Much like the television show, some things didn't come together until you had almost all of the puzzle pieces to look at.

Petrucha and Rozum did a great job of juggling their stories within the regular X-Files continuity, often telling stories dealing with things that the television series would eventually tackle on it's own. At it's best, The X-Files comic series was great, virtually carrying the rest of the Topps Comics line on it's coat-tails and producing stories like the first, and only, X-Files graphic novel, 'Afterflight'. At it's worst, the series still managed to evoke a certain curiosity in the subject matter being dealt with, even though the story itself failed to entertain as it maybe should have.

In hindsight, The X-Files is a worthy counterpart to the television series which often looked down at it's four-colour counterpart, and a pretty decent read to boot. Issues should still be available, and robably at an affordable price with interest in The X-Files at something of a low.

mike