Catching up.
Geez, this flu is still lingering, but when a man’s gotta blog, a man’s gotta blog, so let me at least address a few items here before I go wrap the drapery of my couch about myself again:
- A “good luck ‘n’ fare thee well” to pal Ian, who’s putting aside the weblogging thing in favor of paying writing work. Oh, sure, be like that, why don’t you.
Best wishes, buddy. Don’t forget the little people you’ve left behind!
- One thing about being sick is that you watch a whole lot of TV that normally you wouldn’t watch…I’d mentioned that I finally inflicted the Spawn movie on myself last week. Well, I also saw the Hulk movie again, for the first time since experiencing it in the theatre, and…you know, that’s not a bad movie. I’m not saying it’s perfect, not saying it’s the pinnacle of the genre…but this movie at least had the sense to have the Hulk fighting the army in the desert, which is like every ’70s Hulk comic I remember. There are moments of simple beauty, with the Hulk leaping through said desert, finding peace in the quiet of his own solitude. I like the relationships between the characters, I like the multiple-image inset-picture etc. (you know what I’m talking about, even if I can’t describe it properly) direction that resembles comic book pages, I like those two moments in the film when the Hulk speaks. Even the much-maligned climatic battle between the Hulk and Banner’s father didn’t bother me so much this time around.
That said, I could happily watch a two hour movie of the Hulk just fighting things and tearing up cities, without all that “character development” and “dramatic structure” you kids are into. Lowest common denominator? Yeah, probably.
- Okay, I just discovered via Chris’ podcast that Kevin Church has some unsettling domestic fantasies involving yours truly.
- Pal JP has been posting up a storm lately, but I wanted to point out the “Swamp Thing folk art” he found.
- THINGS I DON’T WANT CUSTOMERS TO ASK ME TO DO WHILE I’M AT WORK AND SICK:
1. Explain the Marvelman/Miracleman publishing history/ownership issues/legal brouhaha.
- For the three of you who missed the news: Fantagraphics to release the complete Walt Kelly’s Pogo. Another classic strip, given the complete, chronological reissuing, which is great news for classic strip fans. (One step closer to the complete U.S. Acres…keep your fingers crossed!)
- Pal Dorian got this close to Dolly Parton, and this time security didn’t have to drag him away. No, I’m not jealous, why do you ask?
- Whenever a superhero movie opens, the one thing we can depend on at the shop is repeated iterations of this question: “Have you seen it yet?” No need to identify what it is, of course…there’s a new superhero movie, we’re in a comic book store, what else could it possibly be? Sometimes when I’m asked this, if I feel like being a jerk, I’ll feign ignorance. “Why, whatever do you mean, good sir? Please, speak plainly!” I’ll retort, as I polish my monocle, glaring at the person over my bushy handlebar mustache.
This time around, though, when I was asked “did you see it,” I’d totally forgotten, in the fevered delirium of my illness, that the Ghost Rider film had opened. And that this was apparently, after conferring with Employees Aaron and Jeff, one of the two times this was asked of us since the film debuted. It’s not like we weren’t busy…we had a store full of people all weekend…but there was nearly no discussion of the film instigated by the clientele, unlike every other superhero movie opening weekend ever. Obviously, somebody saw the film, since it was the top moneymaker this weekend, but I guess our customers weren’t among those crowds. Either that, or the customers for once decided not to bring it up.
I did have one fellow looking for Ghost Rider comics for his four and five-year-old niece and nephew. The niece wanted Krypto, which I tried to sell the uncle on, but nope, Ghost Riders for everybody!
- Speaking of Ghost Rider, star Nicolas Cage ain’t happy about a crack made about his new film in Entertainment Weekly.
- So we have these comments from an interview with Fantastic Four star Ioan Gruffud:
AICN: I’m just going to ask: does Galactus play a role in this film?
Ioan Gruffud: Um…his presence is felt in the movie. He doesn’t physically appear, no. Galactus does have a form, doesn’t he, in the comic books?
AICN: Actually he has a really beautifully designed costume that Jack Kirby created. It’s a fairly elaborate costume actually with all sorts of machinations. When I first heard that the Silver Surfer would be in this second film and people were being a bit evasive about whether Galactus appeared, I’d assumed that the second film would set up the coming of Galactus, and that the actual confrontation with him would occur in the third film.
Ioan Gruffud: It’s more of a finite movie than the first one. It’s not open-ended in that sense. But Galactus doesn’t actually appear, so it does leave room for that possibility.
Compare with the quote from this interview with Fox chairman Tom Rothman (which I’d mentioned before):
“IESB: Is [Galactus] going to look like anything like we’ve seen him in the comic books?
TR: Yes, I think that Galactus, look, I don’t want to give away too much, right, but I will say this, Galactus will appear and fans will not be disappointed.”
WHY MUST HOLLYWOOD TOY WITH MY EMOTIONS? Just give me my planet-eating Galactus, you bastards!
