§ April 14th, 2009§ Filed under UncategorizedComments Off on ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME.
So I, along with several internet pals, chipped in on pal Dorian’s latest post where we all came up with, shall we say, alternative descriptions of movies and TV shows that are uncomfortable at best, downright rude at worst. So go, enjoy, be offended, maybe.
I got a mention in the latest episode of Look at His Butt, which perhaps I should explain is a Star Trek podcast with a specific focus on Captain Kirk, William Shatner, and, occasionally, the butt they share. Anyway, they were quite amused by the Trek items from the latest End of Civilization and decided to share it with their listeners, which was quite nice of them.
I also got a brief mention in another podcast, 2 People Talking, in which I’m brought up during a discussion of, what else, Swamp Thing. Specifically, during a review of the recently released Saga of the Swamp Thing hardcover, which (SPOILER) Angie liked.
Enough about me, here’s more about me…well, okay, about a friend, Pal Tom F., graduate of the Kubert School and the fella who let me borrow these Kubert School ‘zines…anyway, he’s got a DeviantART page where he’s showing off some of his swell illustrations. Please, go check it out.
Speaking of Tom, the other day he brought in an original drawing of Swamp Thing recently done for him by his former classmate Steve Bissette, which of course made me insanely jealous. It’s the third one down on this page and it’s even more awesome seeing it in person.
And as long as we’re talking about Swamp Thing: Swamp Thing and Floronic Man Legos. I knew adding “swamp thing” to my Google Alerts would pay off someday.
§ April 13th, 2009§ Filed under howard the duck, movie reviewsComments Off on One of the signs of the end times: Howard the Duck on DVD.
And now, another installment of “SPIN or SARCASM,” featuring the back cover of the recently released Howard the Duck: Special Edition DVD:
“One of the most talked-about movies of all time….”
“…This unbelievably funny comedy….”
“…A hidden treasure the whole family can enjoy.”
“…Groundbreaking special effects.”
“…Its transformation into a cultural phenomenon.”
Those particular quotes just kind of jumped out at me from the DVD cover…yes, this means I now own a copy of the DVD. Don’t you judge me. Anyway, I suppose “one of the most talked-about movies” is certainly true, as is the business about being a “cultural phenomenon.” Enormous cinematic bombs do tend to stick around in the public consciousness for a while…I couldn’t tell you who won the Best Picture Oscar last year, but by God, I remember Howard the Duck pretty much scene-for-scene.
The other quotes…”unbelievably funny comedy” is pushing it a bit. Let’s settle for “mildly amusing.” And while some of the special effects were nice, like the stop motion monster near the end of the film, I don’t know that I’d go for “groundbreaking.” But there is some nice soundwork, and the Howard suit is actually a lot more technologically complex than I realized, after getting a brief shot of its innards during one of the DVD extras. In addition, “fun for the whole family” apparently includes that scene at the beginning of the movie with naked duck breasts (er, what?). I forget where I saw it, but an online review noted that the “fun for the whole family” line was right above a warning on the back cover that read “certain portions of this picture may be unsuitable for younger children.” Granted, not much in the film is the type of the material that’ll warp Little Billy’s mind and turn him into a mass murderer, but there is a joke or two that might need some adult supervision.
Yeah, yeah, I’m nitpicking. Hey, it’s all in fun…I gotta admire whoever wrote the copy on this DVD cover for doing a good job putting a positive spin on a film that’s very famously a failure and a flop.
Now, about those special features…there’s nearly an hour’s worth of bonus material, which, when I first heard about it, surprised the hell out of me. I totally figured we’d get a barebones disc, with the movie and maybe the trailers, dumped on the market at a rock-bottom price. We do get the trailer (with actors talking about Howard as if he’s a real person), plus some other vintage behind-the-scenes shorts (including one with Thomas Dolby and his work on the soundtrack), but we also get new interviews with Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck (the folks who wrote/directed/produced the film), Lea Thompson (who played “Beverly”), Jeffrey Jones (“Jenning/Dark Overlord”) and Ed Gale (who was in the actual Howard costume). There is lots of vintage behind the scenes footage and stills accompanying the interviews, including several appearances by George Lucas his own self supervising the shooting, inspecting the effects, and very clearly pondering the creation of Jar Jar Binks. Or maybe I’m just reading into things, here.
Another element that surprised me, beyond the fact that there even were special features, is the honesty regarding the film’s impact. Granted, for most of the interviews, there is a very upbeat, positive spin on the film. Lots of tales of hard work and enormous effort and hurdles to be overcome and so on…can’t blame them for trying to defend the work they put into the film. Most folks don’t make a film trying for a disastrous flop. But then they have to admit that, yes, the film may not have performed up to expectations, to say the least. Well, it’s not like they could have denied it, right? They’re fully aware of the film’s place in cinematic and cultural history, and there is some discussion regarding how they reacted to the film’s reception at the time (hint: not entirely well).
Howard’s creator, the late Steve Gerber, is mentioned briefly, and there is a quick glimpse or two of the comics, plus a few mentions of how funny those comics were. Though, listening to the interviews, I sorta get the feeling that the folks making the film didn’t really grasp what it was that made Howard special. Well, okay, maybe the actual two hour movie established that already, but there’s still…nothing specific I can point to, but just a general sense from what was said that Howard’s essence eluded them. No real shame in that, however…Howard’s essence has pretty much eluded everyone whose name wasn’t “Steven Gerber.”
All that said…I’m not going to lie to you and tell you this is a good movie. It isn’t. But it’s not a horrible movie. It is, in a strange way, charmingly awful. It’s watchable, it’s dumb, it’s occasionally amusing, it has Jeffrey Jones putting teethmarks in the scenery, it has Tim Robbins in one of his earliest roles, and it has Lea Thompson. Boy, does it ever have Lea Thompson. And occasionally, for only the briefest moments, you do get a minuscule reminder of the Howard you know and love from the comics.
But this…this…is the final insult:
After everything else they’ve put Howard through, they stripped away his cigar, present in all the previous publicity and tie-in material for the film, for the DVD cover? Here’s the original:
Okay, he now has feet sticking out of the egg (which he didn’t have before in the above poster* this cover was based on, and appear to have been taken from this other poster and Photoshopped in), but still…to deprive a duck of his smokes. That’s a damn shame, that’s what that is.
ONE FINAL WARNING: If you do decide to watch, or rewatch, this movie, you will have the refrain from the “Howard the Duck” theme song, as performed by the in-movie band Cherry Bomb, running through your head, unbidden, in a constant loop. This is the price you pay for quality entertainment.
* I had a vague recollection of a series of posters with Howard slowly busting out of the egg, and perhaps one of them had his feet sticking out, too…but perhaps I’m imagining things. I can’t Google up any examples and there are no such posters at the IMDB entry. But I did find this awesome German poster for the film (“HOWARD – An Animal Hero,” if Babel Fish is not lying to me), so my internet search was not in vain!
Click the pic above to be whisked away to the very first chapter, which you can read for free — FREE! — with new chapters to follow on future Wednesdays. Tell ’em Mike sent you!
Longtime customer, comics columnist, and ‘zine publisher Jim Kingman dropped me a line to ask what I thought of Flash: Rebirth #1, the mini-series revival of Barry Allen, the long-dead Silver Age Flash.
Well…I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t looking forward to it. I was a fan of the old Barry Allen Flash series, even all the way through to the bitter end and the generally maligned “trial” storyline (which I actually enjoyed, so there). But my anticipation, I think, is more of a knee-jerk old nostalgic fanboy response more than anything else. When you get right down to it, a revival of Barry Allen is largely unnecessary (as Tim O’Neil notes), as the character was given a heroic send-off in Crisis on Infinite Earths, his heroic identity successfully passed down to his former kid partner, and his place as the Fallen Legend to Whom Others Pay Homage was solidly fixed in the DC Universe. There was also a sense that the character was pretty much “done” at the time of his death (primarily because of that darn trial storyline), and the passing of the torch from one generation to the next felt natural and acceptable.
I was going to go into a comparison between this transition and what happened to the Hal Jordan version of Green Lantern, but that’s been done to death, I realize. Basically, turning Hal into a villain in order to make way for a new GL didn’t feel like a natural transition…it felt like the short-term gain marketing gimmick it was, and when the eventual Green Lantern: Rebirth mini came along, that felt like it was fulfilling a need/correcting a misstep in the franchise.
There is no such “mistake” (if I may so bold as to use that term) being corrected by Flash: Rebirth. The character was quite fine as he’s been for the last couple of decades: a dead hero to whom others kept measuring themselves by, especially his former kid partner and new Flash, Wally West. His occasional, brief time-travel appearances in the modern DCU would remind the characters (and the readers!) of just how awesome Barry Allen was supposed to be, but primarily he was kept to the status of Deceased Heroic Legend. There was no lingering nagging feeling that some grave injustice had been done to Barry Allen, no outcry from fans that the character must be restored…the franchise had moved on, and the memories of the Barry Allen Flash served to enrich the stories that succeeded him.
All that said…the Wally West Flash series sort of felt like it may have run (heh) its course. After nearly 250 issues, the Flash franchise needed a little freshening up. Also, the series never really recovered from the Bart Allen Flash debacle, so a fresh break was probably needed. And bringing back a character that, for over two decades, was very famously dead is a good way to grab some attention. So while bringing back Barry Allen may not have been necessary for the character (as it arguably was for Hal Jordan), it may be a help to the franchise overall. Whether it’s short-term marketing gimmick or long-term franchise adjustment…well, we’ll see.
I realize none of that answers the question “is the comic any good?” to which my response would be “yeah, ain’t bad.” If a Return of Barry Allen comic had to exist, this’ll do. Damning with faint praise, I realize, but reading this comic creates a variety of mixed responses in me (as evidenced in the blathering above). Just on its own, the comic’s fine…it’s readable and enjoyable, which is all a comic really has to be. Considered in the larger scheme of things, you’re left wondering why it seemed necessary, outside of giving a kick in the pants to the franchise. And I suppose that may be reason enough, particularly given the previous attempt to bring life to the series didn’t go so well.
And of course there’s also a question of what’s going to be so different this time with Barry Allen back in the costume, but we may have to wait and see the rest of the Rebirth mini before we find that out for sure. I suspect the answer is “not a whole lot,” but we’ll all find out eventually.
Just no more extended trial storylines. I liked it, as I said, but once was enough, really.
I was typing “kitty pryde and prejudice” into the Google yesterday, to see if anyone beat me to the joke, and I got as far as entering “kitty pryde” into the search bar before I discovered something. To see what I found, I direct you to Mr. Kevin Church, whom I told about this since, given his particular expertise in online promotion and marketing, I thought he’d find it appallingly amusing.
§ April 7th, 2009§ Filed under UncategorizedComments Off on I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve mentioned Jane Austen on my site.
So last New Comics Day, I made a joking reference to Employee Aaron about Marvel’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice being, in fact, Kitty Pryde and Prejudice…which inadvertently alarmed a customer who was within hearing and had a copy of said comic in his hands, who promptly did a double-take at the book. Not that I can blame him, because 1) this is Marvel we’re talking about, whose only apparently problem with their X-Men publishing line is that it isn’t large enough, and 2) the young woman on the cover of the Pride and Prejudice comic does fit within the generally accepted range of illustrated portrayals of Ms. Pryde (i.e. female, young, brown hair). Plus, any world with this in it can’t dismiss the possibility of a Jane Austen/X-Men crossover.
The moral of the story: don’t let Mike get within earshot of the customers. And don’t let him beg them for food or coins, which has nothing to do with the above story, but is generally a good idea anyway.
BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES Netflix Marathon Update: The two-part origin of Two-Face is not just one of the greatest Batman cartoons of all time, it’s one of the greatest Batman anythings of all time. I’d seen it before, but seeing it again reminded me…that they managed to get something as twisted and psychologically dark as this onto Saturday morning (EDIT: or whenever) television is nothing short of a miracle. Richard Moll’s voicework as the tragic Harvey Dent is wonderful, effortlessly shifting from the smooth D.A., to the tortured innocent, to the growling “Big Bad Harv.” The series was excellent from the beginning, but it was this two parter, I think, that really drove home that fact that this was something different in the superhero adventure cartoon genre.
A couple of bits of sad news:
Swamp Thing co-creator Len Wein has lost most of his home to a fire…his family is safe, but unfortunately their pet dog perished. Harlan Ellison’s message board seems to be the place to go for information on this tragic incident. My sympathies and best wishes to the Wein family in this difficult time.
Legendary cartoonist Frank Springer has passed away, and my condolences to his family and friends.
§ April 6th, 2009§ Filed under UncategorizedComments Off on I did not know I needed this until I had it in my hands.
So I don’t get a whole lot of back issues for myself anymore, aside from the occasional Nancy and Sluggo, but this one came in over the weekend and by God, I had to keep it:
It’s an entire comic devoted to The Twist, that nutty dance craze sweeping the nation. The cover is certainly striking, I thought…when I showed it to pal Dorian, he commented on how unusually sexy it was, particularly for a Dell book from 1962.
I wanted to provide some kind of overview of the story within the book itself, but…well, it’s a tad mindboggling. Mostly it’s kids dancing the Twist whenever the opportunity arises, freaking out the old folks…though some eventually give in and start doing the Twist themselves. There’s some kind of competition between a pizza place and some upscale restaurant that involves the Twist, and there are a lot of panels like this:
And yes, the pictures are crying. The Twist is so powerful a dance it can give framed illustrations tear ducts:
…or there’s, you know, a leaky pipe or something. This pizzeria’s getting so shut down.
Anyway, I think I may need to give this crazy-ass comic another read or three before I can do it any kind of justice here. In the meantime, here’s the gag from the back cover:
Oh, you crazy, scary youth culture! Clearly dancing kids would be the most frightening thing you’d be able to find in Times Square, so who can blame the guy, right?
§ April 5th, 2009§ Filed under UncategorizedComments Off on And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids.
So the Dr. Strange promo poster I posted on Friday has elicited some reactions from two of the internet’s biggest proponents of the good Doctor: some commentary at Sanctum Sanctorum, which includes some nice words about me (always appreciated); and of course, some thoughts from the Living Embodiment of Comics Weblogging, the enigmatic and always excellent Neilalien. Go read ’em both!
I think reading both Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! and the Shazam Family-heavy Justice Society of America this week may have given me whiplash, considering the vast differences in tone used with essentially the same set of characters. I will have to say seeing the extremely pissed-off and badass Wizard Shazam in JSA was…satisfying, in a strange way.
Also, I must not have been paying attention or something, because Mike Kunkel, artist/writer of the Billy Batson book, has had a long-running blog devoted to his efforts on this title and I only just now discovered it. Clearly I need to start spending more time on the internet.
Generally I let the employees handle register duty, because…well, mainly because I’ve done register duty long enough over the years, and now someone else can do it. But also partially because right now, with my wild mane of hair, scraggly beard, and (currently) my cane, I look like a Scooby Doo villain and frankly, the customers don’t need my horrifying visage glaring back at them from the other side of the counter, while I’m demanding they hand over their money. So I let Employees Aaron, Kid Chris, and Tim switch off on that particular task, as they still yet retain their youth and some glimmer of joy and hope.
Employee Aaron, in particular, has been heavily pimping the forthcoming Free Comic Book Day (1st Saturday in May, remember!) to any and all customers who dare come within proselytizing range, and yesterday this resulted in my favorite reaction yet to the news. A young man, about 8 or 9 years old, reacted thusly upon hearing about the free bounty of comics soon to be unleashed within our store:
“Free comics? For no money!?”
The very thing, sir!
Watched the new Wonder Woman direct-to-DVD animated movie this weekend. Not bad, not bad…a few good gags, plenty of action, and bless ’em for trying, but you can try to justify WW’s costume in-story all you want, it’s still a tough sell. It’s a reasonably entertaining way to kill an hour or so at the very least. And that was Mike Sterling’s ENTHUSIASTIC REVIEW™. (Should note that the girlfriend loved it. Any movie where the women kick butt and take names, she’s all over it.)
In related DC Animated news, as least as it relates to me, I’m currently beginning to watch all the ’90s Batman: The Animated Series DVDs straight through (or at least ’til I’m burnt out on them), courtesy the Netflix. I’ve seen plenty of them over the years, of course, but only sporadically and nowhere near all of them. Amazing how rough around the edges (but still darkly beautiful) those early episodes appear, especially when compared to the slicker superhero cartoons being produced today. Hard not to look at those early appearances of Renee Montoya and not think “oh, hey, it’s the new Question.” (Okay, maybe not that hard.)
ANOTHER COMMERCIAL REMINDER: I’ve relisted a few things on the eBay that didn’t sell in previous weeks, now (mostly) at lower prices, so if you’d like to help subsidize the time and energy I spend on this site every day, feel free to bid (or you can just send a donation via the PayPal link in the sidebar…I would be most appreciative of that as well). MY PROMISE TO YOU: all money earned via eBay sales/PayPal goes to things like “utilities” and “food,” and NOT to dumb stuff I don’t really need. (That’s what the Amazon referral credit is for.)
. I had no idea such a thing of beauty existed.
featuring Andy with Jerry Lawler. 
in it can’t dismiss the possibility of a Jane Austen/X-Men crossover. 
