Completely At Random

Well, since I haven't had any real content in a while, I figured I'd do a quick list of crap that's been floating through my mind/DVD player/bookshelf.

Went to see Beowulf in 3-D last week, a few brief thoughts:

• John Malkovich proves that you can act badly in CG animation, there had better be a deleted scene on the DVD of him getting handed his check.
• While some characters look amazing (Beowulf for one), some are plainly rush jobs and fall deeply into the uncanny valley.
• If you want to see it, I'd recommend 3-D, as it's pretty cool and a lot of the shots are plainly made to "be cool in 3-D".
• Those 3-D glasses kinda suck if you have to wear them over glasses.
• The first thirty minutes of the movie could easily be repurposed as an opening to a porn film. Everybody in the beginning just wants to have sex.
• I never, ever need to see a drunk, half-naked, computer-generated Anthony Hopkins ever again. Hell, I never needed to see that in the first place.
  

Saw the Pipettes that same night, go to this old post (and this one too) for repeat gushing.

Also, in a musical vein, go check out this guy's blog, he recently gave me a fantastic mix and it's been playing almost non-stop on my work computer. Send vol. 2 my way when you get a chance DB.

Finally got the first season of Flight of the Conchords from Netflix. I was on the fence during the first episode, but once the below little number hit, I was enamored:

Obviously, the show is deeply odd, but it's a charming odd, not a pretentious odd. Much like New Zealand (ie. the Canada of the southern hemisphere).

Here's what I got comics-wise last week:

Captain America #33 - Excellent as usual, but I think I might be switching to trade on this book. The last four or five issues have essentially been one, long chase sequence and I think it would read better all at once rather than with the monthly breaks (I am not one of those people that can buy books and let them sit, unread until an arc completes).

Brave & the Bold #8 - Another excellent title that really doesn't leave much more to say. It's amazing that the quality of George Perez's art continues to grow every year. Check out that cover (below), awesome. Easily the most fun book on the stands every month (with the occasional skip month).



Ex Machina #32 - I can't believe that I keep forgetting to drop this book. Don't get me wrong, there's really nothing wrong with it, but since it started veering away from political stuff into a more "standard" superhero story, I've kind of lost interest. The book started very strongly but I just don't get the feeling that it's going anywhere. It's odd, both the writer (Brian K. Vaughn) and the artist (Tony Harris) are two all-time faves, but it just isn't clicking with me. I almost feel that it would be better as a prose work.



The Spirit #11 - Darwyn Cooke wraps up his longest story line in this book in his penultimate issue and it's good, but I really didn't want the Spirit to tangle with zombies. I prefer the more down and dirty crime issues and this it just a little too over-the-top. That said, it's still beautiful to look at and I imagine I'll look at it with much more fondness once Mr. Cooke's been off the title for a while. That said, it has a very cool Dia De Los Muertos cover (above). Will have to remember to re-purpose that around holiday time next year.

Other than that, just been trying to finish up the last of the Christmas shopping, hopefully that'll be done in the next few days. I'm picking up my comics tonight, so maybe I'll have some thoughts on this week's books up tomorrow.

Have a good one.

Always Remember.....

Indiana Jones is very disappointed in you.....

Friday Night Fights! The Return!

What happens when you take a Giant Robot, The Thing & The Human Torch?

You get a mon-stah fightin' maniac!

Damn, that's how you do it!

Give thanks to Bahlactus for getting us in the ring!

All images are from Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan. Also featured in these pages...Droom makes a sandwich for Iron Man.

Tony Stark - Fashion Criminal

In an effort to provide some further evidence to support Dr. Campbell's thesis on Tony Stark's dickishness, I grabbed some random issues of 80's Iron Man outta the ol' back issue boxes. It seems that while going on the wagon did curb some of Tony's asshole tendencies, and his kung-fu action, it did make him a bit of a clothes horse, and in 1988, in retrospect, that was a bad thing to be. Here are two random fashion crimes of Mr. Stark:


Now let's get one thing straight, I have no problem with the white tux, I mean, Sean Connery rocked a mean one in Dr. No, but this is just 80's fashion at it's worst. The black collar? Bad. The tux with no tie? Worse. The mullet? Aaaiiieeee...my eyes!

Next we have this loverly little ensem:



Whoa there tiger, no use getting so riled up right before your safari. Further investigation (in issue #237) proves this outfit to be some type of khaki, belted, vested, jumpsuit. In real life this outfit would get you laughed at. By me.

Anyhoo, to show that Tony didn't completely lose his mojo after becoming a friend of Bill W., here's some pimp action Stark Enterprises stylie:


That's right baby, you're on your way to the Great White North, and if you don't put out, well, let's just say that 18 hours on a Greyhound bus can't be that bad.

However, to be fair, my delvings into my own consumer past also unearthed this fine bit of fashion, courtesy of Power Man & Iron Fist #121:


And that dude's omniscient!

Hope every one had a great Thanksgiving, and remember, even if you feel fat today after all that turkey and pie and you can only fit into sweatpants, at least you're not in a pink leather disco suit.

NEWSFLASH: DC Delays (My) Christmas until May

This news (via Newsarama) made me as giddy as a school-boy:

STARMAN, the acclaimed DC Universe series created by writer James Robinson and artist Tony Harris, will be collected for the first time in hardcover, on
high-quality paper, in THE STARMAN OMNIBUS, a series of six volumes beginning in May.

This series will feature new covers by Harris, and will measure 6.75” x
10.25”. Collecting the entire STARMAN series, plus the STARMAN ANNUALS, SECRET FILES, 80-PAGE GIANT, THE SHADE miniseries and much more, these volumes include stories illustrated by Harris, Peter Snejbjerg, Chris Sprouse, J.H. Williams III, Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha, Guy Davis, Teddy Kristiansen, Lee Weeks and many others, as well as several stories co-written by David Goyer.

Scheduled to reach stores in May, THE STARMAN OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC is a 448 page title collecting STARMAN #0 and 1-16, with a cover price of $49.99 U.S.

Starman is absolutely one of my top five, actually top three ever and to know I'll be able to have it all on my book shelf in hard cover is awesome. Especially since it'll collect the last few issues that they haven't gotten around to.

Since I can't grab my comics today, no reviews till Sunday. Have a great Turkey Day and always remember the true meaning of Thanksgiving (per Warren Ellis):

Give your neighbours an infected blanket this Thursday and then move into
their houses after they're dead.

Hey Looksie!

I got a new computer and a scanner!

This may catapult me from a shitty blogger to being a crappy blogger. I'm giddy with anticipation.

Pictured: West Coast Avengers #1. A book that somehow, despite being not very well written or dawn helped draw a little me into a life-long addiction to comics. I mean, it'd be a hell of a lot more explainable if ROM had joined the WCA...just imagine the possibilities.

What I Got 11.14.07

So to echo Calvin's spleen-venting...f--- you federal prosecutors...do you realize what you've done to us sports fans? Here we were, all happy that the A-Rod mess had wrapped up quickly so we wouldn't have to hear about that all off-season and might actually hear about our teams' hot-stove issues, but no, now I can't listen to or watch ANY national baseball or sports shows because I know we're in for months of Barry Bonds talk. Couldn't you just ship him off to Guantanamo and allow us to forget about him?

Listen, I lived a block away from Wrigley Field during the home-run chase of '98, it's one of the things (along with the Cub's wild-card run) that helped turn me from a Cubs fan to a CUBS FAN. I was 24 and I was all but certain that the chase was fueled by steroids, but, I didn't care much, simply because neither baseball, journalists or the government cared enough to do the simple investigations into illegal drug trafficking to clean up the sport before it became an issue that not even my dog could ignore. And she ignores her own poo when she goes in the house. Whenever I hear all of these sportswriters delighting/complaining about Bonds, I keep wondering, what kind of stories were you writing in 98(I'm looking at you Mariotti)? It was obvious to anyone with eyes there was something fishy going on.

BLEARRRGGHHH!!!!

Anyway, here's what I bought this week:

World War Hulk #5

Well, at the end of the day, that was kind of disappointing. I mean it certainly delivered a great fight between the Sentry and the Hulk (and also gave us a good glimpse into exactly how much of a head-case the Sentry is), but c'mon, they may as well have just hung a "to be continued..." on the whole thing. I understand that event comics are meant to be jumping off points for new series and storylines, but really, can't you just give us some type of closure? Shit, has House of M even ended yet?

Fortunately, John Romita Jr.'s art makes the whole thing worth the price of admission, but I still feel like I just ate a really good steak that was slightly over-done.



Nova #8

So yeah, this book has apparently found what its over-arching storyarc is to be and it's Star Trek: Voyager. That is not to say that the comic isn't excellent. We have an entire issue of exposition of Nova's new situation, but since said exposition is delivered by a Soviet, talking, astronaut dog (named Cosmo!), it is awesome.

My only fear is that since this story mirrors said crappy ST series (and Abnett & Lanning's previously awesome series: Legion Lost) that they may go on auto-pilot. But irregardless, I'm in.



X-Factor #25

So this is smack dab in the middle of the Messiah Complex cross-over and instead of something like David's well-written Civil War and (kinda) House of M stories that only tangentially touched the whole things, this issue continues on directly from the last X-issue that came out last week and leads into whatever issue comes out next week. That said, it's not totally incomprehensible, but you only really get about 10 pages of story actually including any of the stars of the book, the rest is Cyclops bitching out whatever members of the New X-Men that are still alive this week.

Anyway, I'm intrigued enough by the thing that I'll probably pick up the trade, but I hope that we'll get back to some stand-alone X-Factory goodness next month.

All-Star Superman #9

So yeah, not much to say. A-hole Kryptonians show up on Earth, try to take over and Superman ends up proving that he's better because he's not a complete dick (depending upon who you talk to).

There's not much more I can say about this series except that it's very good, however this issue was a little disappointing, simply because the resolution came a little too quick, I honestly thought I had missed a page or two somewhere.

TRADES

I know, I know, why am I the only person who's not talking about LOEG: The Black Dossier? Well, I didn't get it (yet), and even if I did, there's no way I'd be through it by now. Truth be told, I've never been completely hit-over-the-head in love with LOEG, I've liked it and thought it was a great idea with good execution, but I've never thought it measured up to Moore's best work of archetypal deconstruction (Watchmen, Tom Strong). Hopefully I'll have something to say about it in a week or so.

But now to the best book I've read this year:

Scott Pilgrim Vol. 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together

If you haven't read the first three volumes of this series of GN's and you enjoy fun, video games, Canada, indie rock, (half)ninjas, laziness or fun, you are doing yourself a disservice by not going out and buying them all and spending your weekend catching up. Seriously, buy copies for yourself and anyone you know over the age of 12, it's like crack, but it won't fuck up your teeth.

This book is pretty much impossible to review, just say that over four volumes and hundreds of pages, Bryan Lee O'Malley has managed to write and draw one of my top five favorite series ever with no drop in quality. Now I'm just pissed I gotta wait a year (at least) for vol. 5.

Anyhoo, thanks for coming, I'm going to an art gallery and (perhaps) a movie tonight, so maybe tomorrow I'll came back to drop some knowledge bombs on y'all.

Dammit

You know, I had this rough-draft of a post I was working on about the incredible oddity that is Ikea. Since I just moved, and needed a whole gang of furniture, I got a bunch of stuff from there since it looks pretty darn snazzy and was inexpensive (if not out-and-out cheap). But then, (thanks to the Beat) I find that David Byrne beat me to it. F---ing David Byrne. Shouldn't he be banging on a bongo and refusing to regroup with the Talking Heads somewhere?

Actually, it's a pretty amusing post, and answers the question about where they get all those weird Scandinavian names from.

While I Was Away: Blade Runner

Annnnndddd....I'm back! Well, not really, as AT&T continues to deny me the internets, but anyway, I figured since my reader has demanded a post, I'd better comply lest I lose him.

Anyhoo, since I last posted in the long, long ago time of October not much has happened except for the damaging my back due to lifting a 30 year old console TV. Saw a few shows (New Pornos & Stars - both very good) and went to the Blade Runner re-release last night at the Music Box. I really can't offer a review of this film since pretty much everyones mind is made up as to it, but if you like the flick, I really recommend going to see it in the theatre. The clarity of it is just amazing. It looks like it was shot this year, everything looks incredibly clear. I really didn't detect much difference from the previous Director's Cut, there was the re-shot scene of Zhora's death (detailed here), but I only really looked at that closely, since I knew it was re-done. It was blended seamlessly. The effects are all the same, they were just cleaned up. They did correct the "sixth replicant" continuity error though, I guess the internets can close all of the conspiracy theory files on that one.

They did include the "unicorn dream-sequence" along with Dekkard finding the origami-unicorn that Adama apparently left for him at the end, meaning that , most likely, Dekkard is a replicant. While at first glance, this seems like an interesting idea (humans sending out another replicant to do the loathsome task of hunting down other replicants), I wonder if it would be more interesting if he was a human? I mean, it's obvious in the movie that he has emotional problems due to his job, wouldn't it be more interesting to investigate the emotions of a human having problems with hunting down "machines" rather than those of a replicant? They already detail that replicants are showing signs of emotional problems, despite their implanted memories. Oh well, it's all academic. I'm very excited for the DVD to come out, I haven't seen the film with the voice-over since the 80's and I remember initially preferring that over the Director's Cut. I can easily see myself blowing a weekend watching different versions of this movie. Of course I'm also hunting for the box that contains my copy of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? so I can tear into that again.

Well, that's what I got for right now, eventually, I'll get my ass down to the shop and pick up the pile o' geekiness that awaits me and transcribe my thoughts on whether Rocket Racoon makes it through Annihilation: Conquest alive. Hope all is well with you, internet friends.