So, the Batman post that's been up the last couple of days was only supposed to be a draft. I certainly didn't mean to include all my work contact info (plus my name). So that's been pulled until I finish it. But it's time for my monthly rundown of what I'm looking at ordering from Previews (the comics catalog) this month. These would be comics coming out in October, for those keeping track:

NEXUS ARCHIVES VOLUME 1 from Dark Horse Comics
Nexus was a favorite of mine as a kid. Mike Baron is a fantastic writer, Steve Rude is an even better artist, and the fact that they apparently can't sell new issues of this work of genius is a crying shame. (And says too much about the comic book marketplace these days.) This reprint is pricy, but it's one of those series I don't mind paying for a really nice edition. And if the people who want more don't buy this one, there won't be more.

13TH SON: WORSE THING WAITING from Dark Horse Comics
Only one thing better than a horror comic drawn by Kelley Jones, and that's one that's also written by Kelley Jones. Nice to see him finally back doing his own stories again. This looks very Lovecraftian (no surprise there), and ... well, I want to say it'll do nicely while waiting for the next Hellboy story, but really, I've been waiting for a new all-Jones story even longer. So there.

BATMAN: GOTHAM COUNTY LINE from DC Comics
DC may have driven me away from the monthly, ongoing Batman books by making them stupid, but that doesn't mean I don't want to read good, self-contained story-driven Batman tales. And while I don't buy everything he writes, I do enjoy every Steve Niles story that I read. And Scott Hampton is a longtime favorite, particularly the Batman graphic novel he did once upon a time with Archie Goodwin (whose title I forget...)

CATWOMAN: WHEN IN ROME HARDCOVER from DC
I love the stories Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale do, but they read so quick, I always wait until they're collected. And now this one is being collected. Case closed.

INFINITE CRISIS #1 from DC
I know what I said. But, the thing is, I really had been looking forward to this story. Plus, if I wait until it's collected, there's no way I'll be able to avoid online spoilers, or even spoilers in the comics I read. (Although, for what it's worth, Jeph Loeb will be off Superman/Batman by that point, so I'll be off it too, and DC has already said that Plastic Man and Legion of Super-Heroes won't be affected by the stuff in IC. But stuff will almost certainly come up in Gotham Central, since they've announced that it'll be crossing over into IC, and Birds of Prey exists pretty squarely in the center of DC continuity these days. And probably Jeph Loeb's Supergirl comic--which he'll be leaving soon enough anyway--will be the same...) So, I'm biting the bullet, but I refuse to buy any extra crossover comics just to be sure I get the complete story, and don't get hosed, a la OMAC Project. But I also go into this knowing I might well end up missing important parts of the story if I don't buy every single crossover, and I accept that, so I can't complain.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS METAMORPHO VOLUME 1 from DC
It's something like 200 pages of Silver Age Metamorpho stories in black and white. I'm so there. Although, having heard the price has been reduced from 14.99 to 9.99, I wonder if it'll be the bookstore-friendly manga size? If it is, that's okay. Ten bucks for about twenty old comics stories is fine by me.

ELFQUEST ARCHIVES VOLUME 3
What I said about loving Nexus enough to pay 50.00 for the fancy hardcover reprints? Same here.

LOVELESS #1 from DC/Vertigo
Brian Azzarello is a fantastic writer when he's doing his own stuff, and I love the idea of a dark Western series (and ongoing, not a miniseries). Sold.

FEAR AGENT #1 from Image
When I was a kid, reprints of the old EC sci-fi, horror, and war comics were the first non-superhero, non-funny comics I read. And here's a comic that promises to combine all three EC genres as influences. And they had the good sense to put preview pages in the catalog to show that they're doing just that.

SHE-HULK 2 #1 from Marvel
Had a soft spot for She-Hulk all the way back in the 80s, and then the first incarnation of this series turned out to be real good. I bought it and read it until it ended, and now it's back.

MARVEL MONSTERS (four one-shots) from Marvel
Four comics by folks like Steve Niles, Duncan Fegredo, Eric Powell, Peter David, Roger Langridge, plus reprints of 50s and 60s Jack Kirby monster stories. If Marvel Comics were good, they'd probably be like these.

BOOK OF LOST SOULS #1 from Marvel
J. Michael Straczynski's work for Top Cow, particularly the series he did with Gary Frank whose title I forget right now, were really pretty good. His work on Marvel superheroes hasn't really approached that level. This new series, with art by Colleen Doran, looks to be more of the former than the latter, so I'll try it.

STOKER'S DRACULA HARDCOVER from Marvel
I didn't buy the miniseries by Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano (childhood favorite creators) that adapts the original Dracula novel, because I wanted to wait for the collection. And here it is.

LIVEWIRES: CLOCKWORK THUGS, YO Digest from Marvel
Wasn't about to order the miniseries sight unseen, even if it is by Adam Warren and frequent collaborator Rick Mays. (See comments about JMS's company work, above.) But, by all accounts, this comic really does read like an Adam Warren comic, and this reprint is fairly cheap. (Cheaper than the original issues would have cost, anyway.)

HAUNTED MANSION #1 from Slave Labor
Using my favorite Disneyland ride as the basis for a ghost story anthology done by really cool creators? Yes, please.

MR NIGHT from Slave Labor
All's I know is it's a one-shot by Glen Dakin and Phil Elliott. And that's enough for me.

DOOMED MAGAZINE from IDW
Hopefully won't live up to its title. The idea of trying a Warren-style black and white horror magazine is just too keen for me to pass up.

LEGEND OF GRIMJACK VOLUME 4 Trade Paperback from IDW
See Nexus Archives and ElfQuest Archives comments above.

IMPORTANT LITERARY JOURNAL by Kyle Baker
I get Plastic Man because of Kyle Baker. I get Nat Turner because of Kyle Baker. I ordered The Bakers because of Kyle Baker, even though I'm still waiting for it. You'd better believe I'm not passing this up.

ROGUE TROOPER: EYE OF THE TRAITOR Trade Paperback from Rebellion
Yay! 2000AD reprints are back! And they're going to finish the Rogue Trooper story, thanks to there being a video game based on the character!

(For what it's worth, the other two Rebellion reprint graphic novels offered this month almost made the cut, as well. Both Family from the Megazine and Judge Dredd: Sin City were pretty good stories, but there were just too many new, original graphic novels for me to get ones reprinting stuff I read just a few years ago, and didn't feel excited about rereading so soon.)

LIVING AND THE DEAD Graphic Novel from Speakeasy
It's written by the guys who do the Black Forest and Wicked West graphic novels, and it's hard to pass up anything that they do. (This is the book that bumped Judge Dredd: Sin City off the list; Family was knocked off by the Metamorpho reprints. I liked both of those 2000AD stories, but they're still fresh in my mind. These other two books, I've never read.)

And there's a tribute book for Jim Aparo, planned and written before his passing, but sadly coming out too late for him to see it.

Scott McCullar - CHUCK DIXON PARTNERS WITH SHOOTING STAR COMICS TO RELEASE HIS OWN IMPRINT LINE OF BOOKS

As a longtime fan of Chuck Dixon, I've been waiting for the day he'd start writing comics I'd want to read again. Now it looks like he is (including a return to Airboy, the comic that made me a Chuck Dixon fan in the first place).

In Focus | August/September 2005 |Serenity Now! Uncut

Pretty thorough Joss Whedon interview.

Bush Appoints Bolton as U.N.
Envoy, Bypassing Senate - New York Times: "President Bush bypassed the Senate confirmation process today and appointed John R. Bolton as the new United States ambassador to the United Nations over the objections of Democratic senators."

NEWSARAMA - GREG RUCKA TALKS "SACRIFICE"

A couple of weeks ago, I was musing here whether or not to buy DC's upcoming Infinite Crisis. Thanks to DC and Greg Rucka for turning OMAC Project (a miniseries that leads into Infinite Crisis) from a six-issue series into a ten-issue series by putting a key, indispensible plot point in a story running in three issues of Superman and one issue of Wonder Woman, they've pretty much made up my mind: I'm not buying it. At least not as a serialized story. I'll buy it once it's collected, but I'm not going to start buying what is supposed to be a seven-issue series, only to discover halfway through that it only makes sense if I also buy however many additional issues of series I wouldn't ordinarily buy.

That's the thing about these big crossover miniseries and having the regular comics tie into them: you should get a greater sense of the big picture, and enhanced enjoyment, if you buy all the tie-in stories. But if you're obligated to buy them, because otherwise the core story won't make any sense, then that's just a marketing ploy. And I'm not interested in buying even a single issue of a coming I'm not currently getting regularly, just to get the "full story" of a miniseries I'm buying. Particularly if I'm not sure if the miniseries will be all that good in the first place.

The thing is, as much as Greg Rucka wants to apologize in this article about how it wasn't intentional, that they didn't want to obgligate anyone to buy any issues beyond the OMAC miniseries, that's crap. The crossover story, where a key plot point occurs, involves four other comics and two other writers. And that takes a certain amount of planning and coordination. It doesn't just happen. And if it can happen in this case, it can happen in another. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice... So, screw 'em. They've lost me as a customer, at least on Infinite Crisis as a monthly series. And, except for the Darwyn Cooke Spirit series, they'll have an uphill battle getting me on board for any new ongoing DC superhero comics, too.

"Terrible written fright film that has possible the worse performance of the last few years by Keanu Reeves, who literally weighs the film down with his bad acting and bad presence in this film. I would love to meet the casting agent with though that Keanu Reeves of all people would have been great in this movie. The dialog is so bad in this film that you really are taken a back at the sheer stupidity of it and the story does not hold any weight as for as common sense goes."

 

And that's why customer reviews on Amazon.com are beneath my notice.

So, comics of interest to me from... last week? Week before? Now that they're not coming on the Saturday after they're released, it's harder for me to remember. Anyway...

All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder from DC Comics:
Drawn by ultra-hot artist Jim Lee and written by the man who made Batman cool again in the 80s, Frank Miller, this is a book that had some pretty heavy expectations weighing it down. (The idea behind the All-Star name is that DC gets big name creators to do stories featuring their top characters, and they just have to do the best Superman or Batman story they want, without having to fit it into current continuity or anything. Later this year, hopefully, we'll see All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, who did WE 3, my favorite comic of this year. Or maybe last year. So hard to remember.) And some of the comments I've seen online, with the exception of the typically-reliable Shiny Shelf, don't feel like it lives up to those expectations. Because it's just getting so-so reviews.

Whatever. I really liked it, for the most part. It's a good, solid retelling of Robin's origin, told in a much more clear and interesting and memorable fashion than the current Batman comics seem to be capable of. If the writing doesn't seem to be particularly groundbreakiing, it's because Frank Miller is writing it using the same voice he uses for all his Batman comics, and that's a voice that everyone else has been ripping off since The Dark Knight Returns premiered back in 1986 or whenever. But he still does it better than anyone.

Still, there's no excuse for the full-page shot of Bruce Wayne's love interest Vicki Vale to be hanging around her apartment in a lacy bra, panties, and high-heeled shoes. It's gratuitous, silly-looking, and it happens so early on, it's hard for the book to recover from it. Still, one misstep isn't enough to ruin the comic for me. (It's not like anyone is possessed by a yellow fear alien or anything.) So it lived up to my expectations just fine.

Gun Candy #1 from Image Comics:
Okay, the lead story about an 18-year-old assassin dressed as a cute schoolgirl is probably just as gratuituous as the cheesecake shots in All-Star Batman and Robin, but it fits in with the style of the rest of the comic, so I'm okay with it. Lots of cute chicks, guns, and explosions, it's completely a male fantasy comic, and I'm okay with that. (And nice art by Brian Stelfreeze.) The second half of this flip-book features a story by Chuck Dixon, Sanford Greene, and personal fave Jason Pearson, another installment in The Ride, the anthology series that introduced the characters in Gun Candy. The series features a bunch of different stories, all based around a '68 Camero, and this story brings the car and some kids to New Orleans for Mardi Gras... and some unexpected mayhem. Again, nice art, an okay adventure story, and it doesn't work too hard trying to be any more than it needs to be.

Zombie King #0 from Image Comics.
Featuring an opening sequence with a zombie fucking a cow up the ass. Pretty much every review I've seen online fixates on that point, as if somehow that cheapens a medium where the yellow fear alien story is due to be reprinted in hardcover. Zombie cow-lovin aside, I thought the book was hilarious. Looking foward to more from the always-reliable Frank Cho, creator of the comic strip Liberty Meadows.

And that's all I feel like writing today. I haven't read most of the smart comics yet, anyway, except for Smoke #2 from IDW. Every bit as good as the first issue. A nifty political action-thriller story, with fantastic art.

Later.

Haven't written anything the past few days, because I feel like if I'm going to talk about anything, it ought to be about the bombings in London and Egypt, and the police shooting the wrong suspect in London, and Karl Rove, and Bush's Supreme Court nominee, and walking about that stuff is just going to get me upset and depressed and angry.

So I'm just going to write about comic books after all. But tomorrow, probably. Because I want to get dinner now.

Penelope in repose

Fox cooks with 'Hell's Kitchen' on Monday - Yahoo! News: "The cook-off reality show averaged 6.4 million total
viewers and a 3.2 rating/8 share in the adults 18-49
demographic at 9 p.m. Monday, according to preliminary ratings
estimates from Nielsen Media Research. That was enough to win
the time period in the key demo, although a repeat of CBS's
'Two and a Half Men' at 9 p.m. averaged 9.5 million viewers and
a 3.3/9 in the demo."

NEWSARAMA - SDCC WINDING UP: IDW PANEL REPORT: "November will see the publication of a new Maze Agency miniseries by writer Mike W. Barr and artist Ariell Padilla. "

And with this news, IDW officially becomes my favorite comics publisher. (Still no official announcement of a Maze Agency trade paperback, but considering the first four or five issues featured the first professional work of superstar Adam Hughes, I wouldn't be surprised...) Sadly coincidentally, Mike W. Barr was the writer on those great issues of Batman and the Outsiders that the departed Jim Aparo drew so well.

Also in the report: new Mars stories by Mark Wheatley, following a reprint of the original, fantastic series, a book called Adventures in Oz by Eric Shanower, which probably just reprints his earlier graphic novels, but that's fine, and a 12-issue adaptation of Clive Barker's novel, The Great and Secret Show. This, and the continuing reprints, and hopefully new stories, of Grimjack and Jon Sable, Freelance.

Seen it confirmed in two places: Jim Aparo has, indeed, passed away. Very sad.

Got this from a friend (thanks, Lisa!)

Dear Red States:.
We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and
we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast.
We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially
to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.We get
stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer.You get Ken
Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.

We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs.
You get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states
pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the
Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of
single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and
anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once.
If
you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're
apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they
don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets
coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn
up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80
percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the
pineapple and
lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of
America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90
percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the
U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the
Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and
MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with
88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care
costs),
92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the
tornadoes,
90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists,
virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob
Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah
was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred
unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that
evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in
9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with
higher morals then we lefties.
By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt
weed they grow in Mexico.

Sincerely,
Author Unknown in New California

LAIKA

Some new work from Henry Selick, director of Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and the upcoming Corpse Bride (I think). And it showcases the sort of work he's planning on using in his adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Coraline.

Byrne Robotics: Jim Aparo R.I.P

Haven't seen this confirmed anywhere else, but... damn. Jim Aparo was a favorite artist of mine. I first encountered his work on Batman and the Outsiders, a team book far removed from the current incarnation of The Outsiders, in that it was actually good. Easily my second-favorite DC team book of the period, after New Teen Titans. He drew characters who looked like individuals, who communicated action and emotion and personality through body language. Not as flashy and sparkly as a George Perez or (later) Jim Lee or Todd McFarlane or whoever, Aparo was probably a better storyteller than all of them combined. His work, when he was inking himself, as he did for most of his career, always made me think of what it would look like if Milt Canniff (of Terry & the Pirates and Steve Canyon fame) were drawing superhero comics.

As time wore on, he stopped inking himself, and his art didn't look quite as good (he always seemed to be inked by Mike DeCarlo, who inked with a much finer line than Aparo used on himself). And, eventually, he retired from comics. But it's still a shame he's passed on.

Sadly, I had just emailed DC about a month ago asking them to reprint more of his stuff. In Batman in the Seventies and Batman in the Eighties, they describe him as the second most prominent Batman artist of the period, after Neal Adams, but he's represented with some shrunken reproductions of covers, a pin-up, and a three-page Outsiders sampler story that isn't even comics, it's illustrated prose. (He's the cover artist of the 80s book, but still, none of his stories...) DC did reprint his classic run on the Spectre in Wrath of the Spectre, including some follow-up stories he did in the 90s that pale in comparison (Mike DeCarlo's inking again). Those stories are great, and show why his work ought to be showcased. And it still ought to be, but it's a shame he won't be around to see it.

Over the rainbow: HappyNews.com | News.blog | CNET News.com: "People say life is all in how you see it. And by that measure, anyone paying detailed attention to the top news headlines in recent times could find themselves into a major depression.

At least that's the angle of Happynews.com, a newly launched site urging visitors to 'find some good news for a change.' "

Think I may have to actually check this site out myself...

Bush Raises Threshold for Firing Aides In Leak Probe: "President Bush said yesterday that he will fire anyone in the administration found to have committed a crime in the leaking of a CIA operative's name, creating a higher threshold than he did one year ago for holding aides accountable in the unmasking of Valerie Plame.After originally saying anyone involved in leaking the name of the covert CIA operative would be fired, Bush told reporters: 'If somebody committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration.'"

The president? Changing his tune? Say it ain't so, Joe!

Black Canary Action Figure

I love the character of Black Canary just fine, I even have the Black Canary Archives reprinting all the crappy 1940s and 50s stories she appeared in, and I have an action figure of her in her "Classic" costume somewhere. But I won't be adding this to my collection. Just look at those legs! Creepy....

Harry Potter update: Read the first chapter last night, and five more tonight. About 130 pages in, and the bookmark looks like it's just a few pages from the front cover. This is going to take forever.

Enjoyed the first chapter quite a bit. Liked the acknowledgment that the war going on in the wizard world is being noticed by the "normal" world. It's reminiscent of the Doctor's comment in the first episode of Doctor Who, about how all humans do is eat chips, sleep, and watch TV, while they fail to notice the war going on beneath their feet. If the magical world is supposed to secretly coexist with the "Muggle" world, then the books ought to occasionally acknowledge the existence of that world. And, finally, six books in, they do.

The next five chapters feature the now-traditional JK Rowling slow build. You can't accuse the woman of not laying her groundwork! I know critics (you know, the folks who post things on Amazon.com like their opinions matter) consider these chapters to be unnecessary padding, and want her to get to the action faster, but I kind of like them. I like the little hints of things going on, the laying-out of clues that all make sense when the pieces come together later. But those nuggets need to be included off to the sides of other stuff going on, or they end up being spotlighted too prominently. Part of what makes the series work for me is the sense that everyone has real lives and everyday concerns. Leave out the scenes of Harry and his friends just talking, or going shopping, or going to class, and it's suddenly all about the plot and the quest and the battle or whatever, and it becomes Lord of the bloody Rings.

Going to bed now. It's two in the morning, and it's 100 freaking degrees out.

Boondocks: Sneak
Sneak peek of the look of the new Boondocks cartoon coming this fall...

Just finished watching last night's episode of The 4400, which handles the creation of a believable love interest/relationship for the main character without us having to watch it build slowly over a bunch of episodes. (They spend 10 years together in an artificial reality, created specifically to bond the two of them together so that Tom would have someone to support him through the trials which lie ahead. Considering that last episode featured his son assassinating high profile 4400 spokesperson Jordan Collier, it's probably best that he has someone to lean on...)

I may be generalizing here, but it seems like, when Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled, it brought out the usual flurry of complaints that TV just won't support science fiction programming. Well, not counting the new shows premiering this fall, off the top of my head, here are some sci-fi shows that have already made it beyond their first seasons, and are still on the air: The 4400, Lost, The Dead Zone, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, Smallville, Medium, and Missing. And that's actually more science fiction shows than there are Law & Order and CSI shows. So what I think the so-called fans really mean is that there isn't support for shows with space ships and lasers. Whatever; those can be found a-plenty on SciFi, so shut up.

Speaking of which, going to go watch last night's Dead Zone now...

ban comic sans :: Putting the Sans in Comic Sans

And still more proof...

This is the ORIGINAL Comic Sans Appreciation Society

Oh, look! It turns out I actually don't have too much time on my hands after all...

Oh, I also watched this week's episode of Into the West, another casualty of Friday's power outage. I'm enjoying the heck out of the series, but I'm sure it's getting some negative reaction somewhere, now that the focus has become clearer and clearer. It isn't a happy tale of the brave pioneers setting out West to expand this great land of ours. It's about the human cost of westward expansion, particularly focusing on how miserably the Native Americans were treated. Every episode is awash in pain and blood and misery, and, quite honestly, I think it's about time someone made a big old fictional movie about the suffering moving into the west caused. The only way to avoid repeating our mistakes is to be reminded of them, and this is a series of cruelties that hasn't been showcased in the same way that, say, the Holocaust has been. So good for Steven Spielberg, for delivering something gripping and thought-provoking, instead of a typical feel-good traditional Western.

Just some catching up today...

Finished Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment last night, as planned. I enjoyed it, enough to want to read the next installment. And a quick check of the book's web site indicates that this series does not continue from similarly-themed Paterson novels Where the Wind Blows, and The Lake House, so I don't have to add those onto the "to read" list.

I also finished reading the first of the Spirit Archives books I had dilligently collected up until volume 8. I'd loved the Spirit stories by Will Eisner I'd read as a kid, and when the complete reprinting of the series in nice hardcover volumes was announced, I declared that a must-purchase. However, when it became apparent that I wasn't getting them read as fast as they were coming out, I stopped. New of the Darwyn Cooke-penned new series has gotten me excited again, but I don't want to start buying the books again if I'm not reading them. So, the rule is, as I finish reading one, I can buy another one. I want to say it's incredible how well these stories hold up, compared to other comics from the 1940s, but then, if they didn't, then they probably wouldn't have their place in comics history, would they?

Other news from the San Diego Comics Con International: Two new series from Brian Wood, one from Vertigo, an ongoing, and a twelve issue series from Oni. (Plus he has a miniseries coming from IDW later this year, I think.) Manga spinning off from Jim Henson films that I either love or hope to love. More information about the Disney/Slave Labor comics that I'm looking foward to, including art that even makes Wonderland look cool. A spin-off from Bill Willingham's Fables series, which is cool because I like Fables, although it mainly gives me more of an opportunity to tease a friend who Willingham hit on a few weeks back. And a bunch of other cool-sounding stuff from Oni Press, including new ongoing series from Chynna Clugston and Anthony Johnston, plus a bunch of cool sounding graphic novels. And a new Elfquest miniseries.

Nothing particularly exciting from the big superhero lines, but that may be as much me as them. I did receive some reassurance that I'll still be able to read Batman comics on a fairly regular basis without having to buy the monthly books, which now suck. (Seriously, I just read the new issue of Batman last night, and it was just sad. This, from the Pulitzer-prize winning (or nominated) creator of Pedro & Me.) There are two six-issue miniseries on the horizon from Matt Wagner, a graphic novel by Tom Fontana (creator of TV series Oz and Homicide: Life on the Street) and Cliff Chiang, and a miniseries by Paul Pope. And there's still that twelve-issue series by Andy Helfer starting next month, I think, plus a miniseries by Steve Niles and Scott Hampton in the fall.

I've come to the conclusion that the way the Batman comics are being written today, there's no particular advantage in reading the ongoing monthly comics. There isn't going to be any character development of the Batman, because he's pretty much been perfectly defined for the last forty years or so. There's no supporting cast to speak of, and what supporting cast there is all have their own comics anyway. So, better to read self-contained cool stories by top creators, than the run of the mill stuff appearing in the monthly books. And it looks like I'll totally have that option for the forseeable future.

Follow the Uranium - New York Times

Here's a great editorial about the Karl Rove thing...

Crap! The new Harry Potter book arrived in the mail today, and I'm not done with the book I'm currently reading (Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson). I had ordered the Potter book from Amazon.com, and had received an email from them warning me that I might not receive the book exactly on the release date, which suited me just fine. So I didn't rush to finish the Patterson book. And then it just shows up! So, plan is to finish the Patterson one tonight, and then move on to Harry Potter. (And never mind all the books on the on-deck circle--sorry, Mags--that just got pushed back one slot again.)

Last night saw the season premiere of SciFi Friday's season premiere. It also saw a power outage here from 9:15 to 11:05 or so, and I was concerned I wouldn't actually be able to see the premieres of Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica. But, thanks to SciFi reruning their whole lineup twice, and the power coming back on just in time, it all worked out. (Still pretty miserable, though. Couldn't read or watch TV or anything, because it was dark, didn't want to leave the house because that would have meant disengaging the garage door opener... Fortunately, didn't have much in the refrigerator. Still, the loss of air conditioning meant for some discomfort. Thank goodness it was less than two hours, and at night!)

Stargate SG-1 felt pretty much the same, familiar show, considering the major cast changes. Richard Dean Anderson gone, Amanda Tapping taking a break, Ben Browder joining as the lead and Claudia Black (both from Farscape) as a long-term guest star, Beau Bridges joining... It was all handled pretty well, all things considered. Best decision the producers could have made was using flashbacks to establish an existing relationship between Browder's new character and the old characters, so there's none of that stupid "Let's be wary of the new guy until he proves that his different, foreign ways are actually useful and valuable to the team, no matter how strange they may seem to us" crap that completely turned me off of TNT's The Closer. The actual story--learning that the legends of King Arthur and Merlin are somehow tied into the greater Stargate background mythology, and investigating that--was familiar enough territory for the show, so while we were getting to know the new characters, it was clear that they were appearing in the same show that's been running for the past eight years.

Stargate Atlantis continued right on from where last season's cliffhanger ended, so fewer surprises there. This week, Mitch Pileggi joined the cast as a recurring guest (I think), and, as usual, he brings the right sort of mix of charm and sleaze to give the character some sort of edge without seeming like a complete jerk. (At least, advance word from the Stargate magazine is that he's there to create some tension; this episode, he's a pretty straightforward soldier-boy.) The other new regular character for the season hasn't shown up yet--he's played by a Baywatch pretty-boy--so I can't comment. I do think the choices they've made for Rainbow Sun Francks' character, Lt. Aiden Ford, are positive moves. He's now some sort of unpredictable human-Wraith hybrid, with an as-yet-unrevealed agenda. Previously, he was a nondescript soldier-boy. This is an improvement.

And then there's Battlestar Galactica. Again, picking up directly from last season's shock cliffhanger--although that apparently wasn't the original plan, according to producer Ron Moore's podcast commentary--this is more of the same, really. Which is just fine; if it ain't broke, don't fix it. There are some fantastic sequences this time around: the scenes where Cally, Tyrrol and some third soldier are pinned down in the forest by sniper fire, played without any sort of Hollywood/TV crutches or glamorization is just harrowing, and the effects of the battle to defend the Galactica as it attempts to plot the course of the missing fleet are phenomenal. My personal favorite moment, however, comes in the middle of the battle. We cut to the ship's brig, where President Roslyn is being held, and you can hear the sounds of explosions and everything all around, and the guard asks her if she'll pray with him. Now, Moore points out that he wanted this bit to remind the audience of Laura's growing importance as a religious figure in the overall storyline, but I like it because it's just such a human thing. There's this big fight going on, and this guy, who would just be a nonspeaking extra on almost any other series, is scared shitless and the only thing he can think to do is pray. And it just brings it all down to an identifiable scale.

I swear, it's almost a shame the show is about people in spaceships fighting robots, because that just blinds too many people who can't see past that to recognize that this is one of the best, most affecting human dramas on the air.

And it's way better than Summerland.

And I also watched Two Brothers, a movie about tigers in India in the last century, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, who made The Bear. And I'm a sucker for animal movies--I own Buddy, for crying out loud--but I thought this was great. And what I've been saying all along about reviewers being useless? Let me double that for Amazon.com customer reviews, and let there be a law stating that anyone who doesn't understand that "I expected it to be something else" isn't a useful opinion should be smacked.

And while we're making laws like that, let me include people who park in front of other people's driveways when they go to yard sales, and people who sit at a drive-through ATM doing whatever it is that they're doing after they're finished with their transaction, forcing other people to go to the ATM further away where it's harder to turn around and get back onto the road.

Thank you.

NEWSARAMA.COM: SDCC DAY 1 - WILL EISNER's SPIRIT LIVES IN NEW ONGOING DC SERIES: "First up in December 2005 is a project designed to introduce the character to DC audiences a Batman/The Spirit stand-alone special written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Darwyn Cooke (for much more on this, click on the link for our conversation with Loeb), which will be joined by The Best Of The Spirit, an affordably-priced trade paperback collecting almost two dozen stories by Eisner, with a new introduction by Neil Gaiman.

Following that in 2006 will be an all-new ongoing The Spirit series written and drawn by Cooke."

Love Batman, love the Spirit, love Darwyn Cooke, love Jeph Loeb when he's trying... Guess I'll be buying a new, ongoing DC superhero comic next year after all.

Okay, so I read this online column (and listen to the podcast) from this aging nerd, Augie DeBliek. To be honest, it just kind of makes me feel better about myself. Anyway, in today's column, he describes his travel woes as his flight from New Jersey to San Diego for the big comics convention, originally scheduled to take off at 11:50 am, finally left the ground at 6:30 pm. And at the end, he says:

"Of course, none of this might have been necessary if they had just kept the original departure time of 11:50 a.m. that everyone on the plane had purchased their ticket for. I think it's kind of sleazy for an airliner to change a flight's schedule like that. If they pull that trick next year, they're not getting my business again."

And the thing is, if you're that dissatisfied with a product or service that you're going to make some sort of ultimatum-type statement like that, then what you really need to do--I think--is just take that final step and just not fly that airline again. Because what I'm hearing is a problem worth complaining about, but worth putting up with. Well, if it's worth putting up with, because you--or Augie--believe that the problems are an anomaly, a result of circumstances beyond anyone's control, then it's not worth complaining about, because that's just the way things are. And if you don't believe it's an anomaly or unavoidable, but is actually the fault of the airline, then just use another one next time. Fool me once and all that. Am I saying I'm not for second chances? Well, yeah, I suppose I am, but what I'm really saying is that I'm for people just not assuming that they'll get a second chance, thus giving them a stronger incentive to get it right the first time. And I'm for people recognizing when it's worth complaining about something without doing something about it, which would be never. If it's worth talking about in negative terms, then you need to follow up with action. Otherwise, shut up.

Which is a really long way for me to explain why I'm not complaining too much about the DC Comics miniseries leading up to their big Infinite Crisis event crossover miniseries spectacle shebang hullabaloo, even though they are turning out to be some pretty pedestrian, dull comics indeed. (I'm not including Rann/Thanagar War in that, because I like Dave Gibbons too much, but I could have included it... Okay, I guess I just did.) As a kid, I used to love these sorts of big crossover things, and I don't know if this one isn't appealing to me because I'm an adult and my tastes have changed, or because it's just not particularly good. Probably both.

But I've been reading them, because they all lead into this Infinite Crisis thing that's supposed to affect all the DC comics, and I wanted to be on board with that. However, now I find myself questioning whether I really want to read it after all. It's going to be written by Geoff Johns, who almost single-handedly drove me away from superhero comics with his atrocious Green Lantern: Regurgitated miniseries. (Yes, I was already teetering; that comic drove me over the edge.) But it'll be drawn by Phil Jimenez, which means it'll be really pretty. On the other hand, so's Otherworld, the Vertigo comic he's writing and drawing, which isn't superheroes, and which he's taking a break from to do Infinite Crisis. But I thought I'd gotten past the days when I'd buy a book just for the art.

But here's the rub: the events of Infinite Crisis are supposed to affect all the DC universe comics, and I don't want to be lost when the DC comics I read are affected. On the other hand, the only DC universe comics I'm currently getting, as of my current order, would be Birds of Prey, Supergirl (and who knows if I'll still be reading that by the time Infinite Crisis comes out), Gotham Central, and Plastic Man. And Plastic Man probably won't be too heavily affected at all.

So, that's not many books to worry about. But I just read that Gotham Central, the comic that focuses on the police in Batman's world, and thus doesn't leave the bad taste in my mouth that the other Batman comics do these days, will be crossing over with Infinite Crisis. And, as part of the tie-in, Captain Marvel, perhaps one of my most favorite superheroes, more so than even Superman, almost on a level with Batman, will be guest-starring in Gotham Central. So... I don't know. But until I decide not to get Infinite Crisis, I can't really bitch about the whole thing, because that would be hypocritical.

Okay, so far, the winner for most irritating podcast from a professional organization is TV Guide. (I don't think I could pick a winner for the most irritating amateur podcast.) It's bad enough that the presenters and their commentary are about as sharp and insightful as a bag of wet cement. But it's 40 minutes each week. Who has that kind of time?

New on eBay: 18-foot, flame-fisted 'mech' | CNET News.com: "The 18-foot-tall giant in steelworker Carlos Owens' Alaska backyard isn't quite up to smashing Volkswagens--or taking the kind of pounding footsteps that might strike fear into the heart of an enemy."

Forgot to mention the trailers I saw yesterday:

The Transporter 2: The first one looked pretty cool in the trailers, and then turned out to be kind of stupid and empty. This one looks kind of stupid and empty in the trailer. Waiting for cable...

King Kong in Color: I had suspected my excitement level about the new King King movie might rise when I saw the trailer on the big screen. It didn't, for all the reasons previously stated, but I'll still see the movie when it comes out, because I suspect the thrill of actually seeing a good remake of this story I love will be more satisfying than seeing a bunch of familiar clips redone with a bigger budget.

Sky High: Actually looks like fun, and it's written by the creators of Kim Possible. If I thought the theater would be empty, I'd consider seeing this in the theater.

And that's actually all I can remember.

Genocide is news | Be A Witness: "Genocide is the ultimate crime against humanity. And a government-backed genocide is unfolding in the Darfur region of the Sudan. As the horror in Darfur continues, our major television news networks are largely missing in action."

Okay, back to politics, briefly... Cynically, I know campaigns like this probably won't make any progress, because people just don't want to hear bad news, particularly if it's happening to someone else somewhere else. But I'm all for anything that might result in the American public being just that little bit less ignorant...

James Bond 007 - CommanderBond.net - James Bond At Its Best - 2006 - BloodFever - Young Bond Book 2 is 'BloodFever': "Following the huge success of the first Young Bond book, SilverFin, Puffin Books and Ian Fleming Publications are delighted to reveal the title and jacket image for the second book in the series, BloodFever, which will be published on Thursday 5th January 2006. The book is by the much-acclaimed author of SilverFin, Charlie Higson."

So, Fantastic Four. Saw it, enjoyed it. It's apparently getting some lousy reviews, but since I don't read reviews, I don't know what the complaints are. (Nor do I care, really; what, am I supposed to read them and then go, "Oh, I guess I shouldn't have enjoyed this or that after all?" Or do I give a damn about debating them? No, don't think so.) Here, then, are my thoughts--my review, as it were--if anyone cares.

I really liked the main characters. They felt true to the spirit of the original comic book characters while feeling like a fresh interpretation. Chris Evans was great as the Human Torch, Ioan Griffud brought the right amounts of charm and brainy awkwardness to Reed Richards, and Michael Chiklis came across quite well as the Thing, making him seem more than just a guy in a suit. (And looking much less like a big, orange turd than he had in the photos I'd seen.) And Jessica Alba as Sue Storm... Well, when isn't Jessica Alba great?

The dynamics between the characters also felt true to the original. And the movie had enough sense to realize that the Fantastic Four is a family, instead of a super-group. Also, the film got to the origin quickly enough that it didn't feel like we were waiting forever to get to the point.

However, what the movie gets wrong, and it's a pretty big failure, is there isn't very much of the fantastic going on. The movie feels small and empty and cheap. In the beginning, Victor von Doom apparently has this big, sophisticated space station orbiting the Earth, but apparently, there isn't anybody actually on board running it, because we don't see anyone else (that I can recall), and certainly nobody else gets zapped by the cosmic rays. Much of the movie involves the cast sitting in rooms talking to each other. They don't get out, they don't have adventures, and they don't really use their powers for most of the film. Until the big battle with Doctor Doom (who is never called that), which brings me to another problem. But overall, it feels more like a TV movie than a big-screen adventure.

Doctor Doom is, arguably, the number one Fantastic Four villain. But, in the context of this movie, it just didn't quite work for me. For one thing, when the Fantastic Four comic is good--which isn't as often as you might think, for the self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Comic Magazine"--it's not about these superpowered folks fighting crime or beating villains. It's about them having adventures, which do bring them into conflict with others, but not exactly the same as in a Spider-Man or Daredevil story. So, when the only thing we see the FF doing in this movie is fighting Doctor Doom, it just doesn't feel quite right. Particularly since, in this story, he's played as a failed businessman trying to revive his company's fortunes, who then finds himself with superpowers. Not only is this pretty close to the Spider-Man movies' Norman Osborne, but when you pit one guy against the Fantastic Four, he's just going to look outnumbered. Which is indeed how the fight at the end of this movie feels. There isn't a real sense of threat or jeopardy. Maybe they should have fought some sort of giant mole monster or something.

Having said that, despite its flaws, Jessica Alba isn't in the movie any less, so I'm ultimately okay with the whole thing. But it's no Batman Begins.

And seeing it in a crowded theater with a bunch of screaming monkey-children, and sitting right in front of Darth Vader (okay, a guy stuck breathing out of an oxygen tank, but a loud oxygen tank), I have decided I never want to see a movie in a theater with other people ever again. Seriously, it was like sitting in the middle of the fucking zoo. So my enthusiasm for seeing War of the Worlds or The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D in the theater has dropped off almost completely. I can watch them on DVD, even smaller, if it means I don't have to listen to monkey-children screeching.

Things that helped make today suck:

Came in to work late because I had to wait for an appliance repair guy to come repair my clothes washer, and it turned out I could have done it myself.

Discovered that my hot water heater is leaking, so I need to get that fixed. (Actually discovered that last night, but it's not leaking any less today...)

A co-worker told a joke today, and I absolutely could not tell.

And, thanks to the Monday holiday, comics came out late, so they got mailed to me late, so they didn't come in the mail today.

And I tried to watch the first episode of Camp Lazlo on Cartoon Network, because it's the new show from Rocko's Modern Life creator Joe Murray, and I really liked that show. And I really couldn't get into Lazlo, so I gave up after, like, five minutes.

On the plus side, I've been watching the first season of Drop the Dead Donkey on DVD, and I'm loving it as much as I did the episodes that aired on Comedy Central back in the '90s. And Green Wing continues to be great as well, but there's only one episode left, and I don't think they've even started making a second season in the UK.

(On the other hand, BBC America has yanked the anthology series I enjoyed, Murder in Mind, and replaced it with the more traditional cop show, Murder in Suburbia. Bastards.)

From Warren Ellis' Bad Signal mailing list, on the London bombing:

My American friends have noted
that four bombs have been met
with stark indifference by the
British public, and have asked if this
is some stiff-upper-lip thing. Listen,
Christmas bombing campaigns
used to turn up with the same
regularity as the Queen's speech.
We've done this before, and,
frankly, the IRA were better at it.

This 7/7, 070705 shit is bugging the
fuck out of me. Especially when it's
coming from Americans. It's an
insult to the genuine disaster
suffered in New York, and it goes
against the general feeling here.
This isn't something to be enshrined.
It's something to leave behind. It's
happened before, and it'll happen
again. Don't expect us all to go
insane. Most of us went to the pub.

For those following the details of
the thing: this was a real low-rent
operation. The attacks were on the
most indefensible part of London --
the public transport. The bus bomb
is indicative of small-scale devices
-- London buses are basically tin
and sellotape, and yet most of the
seats on the top deck, where the
bomb went off, were left intact.
There's photography of the upstairs
passengers standing up and looking
at the new hole in the bus. The
pressure wave of the blast blew out
the sides and took the top off --
tin and sellotape meant that the
pressure wasn't contained in the bus,
which probably saved a few lives.
If you want to kill everyone on a
bus, you put the device on the
lower deck, not the top. This was
crap terrorism, using devices they
obviously were not confident of
smuggling into Live 8 or even the
crowds that gathered for the
Olympic win.

Most people are still joking that
it was the work of the French.

Hell, probably so are the French.

Bombings Rewrite G-8 Agenda - New York Times: "The bombings in London on Thursday knocked the meeting of major industrial nations off its carefully scripted focus on global warming and African poverty and turned it into a forum for President Bush and other world leaders to pledge unity in confronting terrorism."

That son of a bitch.

So, today, I decided to stop watching The Inside on Fox. Part of it is that I never really found myself getting excited about the show. It never really turned me off, the way TNT's The Closer did, but it never really turned me on, either.

What pushed me over the edge, though, would be the London bombings. Once again, the darkness of the real world has made a dimly-lit, melodramatic, overwrought drama about serial killers seem that much more pointless. Everything about The Inside always seemed so heightened, so determined to really drive home the notion that it's a dark, dark, nasty world using manipulative filmmaking techniques. And then something horrible happens in the sunlight, and affects people who talk with real words using normal voices. And the rest of it all seems so unnecessary.

On the flipside, I'm sort of sorry that this season of Beauty and the Geek. There's a reunion/"Aftermath" episode on next Wednesday, and they're apparently looking for a cast for a second season (I'm planning on sending a tape), but that's it for this bunch. (If you missed the show, check your local listings; some WB affiliates are apparently showing a marathon this Sunday.) And the next paragraph has some spoilers for the ending, so if you plan on watching the reruns and don't want to know who wins, stop reading now.



I wasn't surprised at all to see Chuck and Caitilin in the final two, considering that they had won almost every single challenge throughout the show. Richard and Mindy were less certain, but since the show ended up being shaped into a battle between Richard and Chuck, that made for some nice closure. In the final episode, I particularly liked that the teams got to go out and show each other things that were really personally important to them. We've seen them working so hard outside of their comfort zones these past few weeks, it was nice to see them take the time to relax for a change. Richard seemed particularly at ease, until he started getting all worked up over the final elimination.

I was also pleased to see things get so close and down to the wire at the end. It proved that these were both teams who deserved to be in the finals, and it didn't seem so cheesy. In the end, though, I'm glad that Chuck and Caitilin ended up winning, because they did seem to be the two who had learned and grown the most over the course of the show.

Bring on season two (hopefully starring ME!)

The Sun Online - TV: A Shameless return: "MANCHESTER'S finest The Gallagher family are set to return for a third series of Shameless - packed full of more sex and drama."

Loved the first season on BBC America, bought the DVD (surprise!), looking forward to seeing the second season ... somehow, so this is good news.

How's this for irritating? Last night's episode of Fire Me... Please! was half-rerun and half-new. The first half reused the opening segment from the first episode, while the second half was new. WTF?!?

This may be the final episode (Big Brother airs in that time slot next Tueday), but that's a bunch of crap. Either the episode is new or not. I shouldn't have to fast-forward through every episode to see if it's really a rerun or not.

Okay, this is another post for my comics-reading friends. Everyone else can skip this one.

So, as another prompt to post something with some regularity, here's the new stuff I'm ordering from Previews this month:

Curse of Dracula collection from Dark Horse:
I actually have the original miniseries, by Tomb of Dracula creators Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. But I really liked this attempt on their part to revive the magic of that series as a creator-owned book, and hopefully, if sales are good on this collection, we may see more.

Fog trade paperback:
I've never seeen the original movie, and I'm not sure I'm particularly excited about the remake. But the script is by Scott Allie, who I always try to support, unless he's doing something I'm really not interested in, like Titan AE comics or something. And the art looks nice.

Chosen trade paperback:
This collects the miniseries by Mark Millar and Peter Gross that really impressed me with the first issue. I really like the energy in Millar's work, and had been waiting for this for a long time. Hopefully, it'll really come out this time...

Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle from DC:
Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers mega-series hasn't disappointed me yet, and I'll be sticking with it to the end. How nice to see someone who understands that you can create a new superhero series, even one based on an existing characters, and it doesn't have to disappear up its own backside in continuity references.

The Authority: The Magnificent Kevin from Wildstorm:
The Authority, as a series and concept, has long since lost my interest. Garth Ennis' Kev stories, however, are so hilarious and do such a fantastic job at poking fun at these characters, I can't resist. And this one is drawn by Carlos Ezquerra!

Fell from Image Comics.
It's a new creator-owned Warren Ellis series, and it's drawn by Ben Templesmith, and it's only $1.99 an issue. I was already sold, and the fact that it's a detective series, sort of, and that the preview pages I've seen are so great is just icing on the cake.

Black Forest 2: Castle of Shadows from Image:
The first Black Forest graphic novel was great. One of my favorite artists, a WWI setting, and a story that shows that you could do a concept like Van Helsing well. I also liked the creative team's follow-up graphic novel, The Wicked West. Well, here we have a sequel to the first one, with a backup story following up on Wicked West, and at a very nice price.

Long Hot Summer from Image:
Written by the guy who put together Four Letter Worlds, a collection of stories I've raved about previously, nice art, and it sounds like a nice, gentle, romance story, but not too sappy. And, again, under ten bucks.

Sherman's Room (can't be arsed to look up the publisher):
Chris Eliopolous, one of Marvel's number one letterers, has been trying to publish his comic strip about twentysomethings, Desperate Times, for years. A couple of years ago, he announced he was giving up to try to focus on something more commercial. Jimmy Gownley did the same thing, and it resulted in Amelia Rules, and that's not a bad thing. And I like Eliopolous' work, so I'll try this one, too.

Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror from Bongo:
It's got a story by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan (see above) and a story by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson, creators of Swamp Thing. What's not to like?

Giant Monsters from Boom Studios (I think):
I don't get everything he writes, because he writes a lot, but I like most of the stuff I read from Steve Niles. Now he's doing a giant monster comic, and it's only two issues.

Digital Webbing Presents #25:
Only getting this for the Jay Faerber Firebirds story. A friend of mine can't see past the Electrawoman/Dynagirl influence, but I like Jay Faerber's creator-owned projects enough that I'll support almost anything he does for himself. (Less so when he writes for Marvel or DC, but as long as he's doing such a good job doing his own superheroes in Noble Causes, why bother reading anything else?)

Shadowplay from IDW:
It's a horror comic featuring two serials, one written by Buffy actress Amber Benson, the other by original Witchblade writer Christina Z. Benson's not a bad writer, although I haven't read too much that she's written on her own. And the early, Z-penned issues of Witchblade were pretty cool. Even better, the stories are drawn by Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith, who I like. So...

Keep from IDW:
F. Paul Wilson adapts his own WWII horror story, drawn by Mike Mignola clone Matt Smith. I like period horror stories, I like what I've read of Wilson's work, but I haven't read this. A friend of mine raves about it, so I'm going to order it.

Complete Jon Sable Freelance Trade Paperback Volume 3 from IDW:
I love Mike Grell's Jon Sable series. And I want it on my bookshelf. 'Nuff said.

Grimjack: Killer Instinct trade paperback from IDW:
Yes, I bought the miniseries. I still want the book, because I'm getting all the other Grimjack books, and I want them all together on the shelf. (But it's more important to me that there be Grimjack comics at all, which is why I'll keep buying the individual issues, too.)

Complete Clive Barker's Thief of Always Trade Paperback from IDW:
The Thief of Always is probably my absolute favorite Clive Barker book. The art on this adaptation looked really nice. But I had decided to wait for the collection, and here it is.

Lai Wan from Moonstone:
This was sort of a gut-level decision, but the art looked nice on the web site, and the story sounded interesting. And I like CJ Henderson's original stuff.

Vengeance of the Mummy from Moonstone:
It was pretty much the cover art that sold me, although the interior art isn't too bad. (Well, the art, and the fact that Justin Gray, who co-wrote Monolity, 21 Down, The Resistance, and other stuff is writing it.)

McCandles & Company: Insecurities:
I had another McCandles and Company one-shot, which I'm pretty sure was different from this one. I love detective stories--please let it be true that IDW is reprinting Mike Barr's Maze Agency--and this is drawn by Gene Gonzales, who is a particular favorite of mine.

Lost Official Magazine from Titan:
Will it be good like the Alias and Stargate magazines Titan publishes? Or will it be crap like Smallville? Only one way to find out...

Feast of the Seven Fishes:
Another book from the guys who wrote Black Forest (see above). And this one is drawn by Alex Saviuk, who I remember fondly from my youth.

Okay, so I tried to watch Troy on HBO last night, and I made it maybe 40 minutes in before I just gave up. Maybe it got better when people stopped talking and started killing each other more, and I still kind of want to see the big horse... but not that bad. It was pretty and all--and, ooh! look at the finely oiled muscles of the male cast, nothing homoerotic going on there--but the actual script written in that formal, serious Hollywood-pretentious-historical-speak, and delivered with such straight faces, I just got bored.

Finally saw Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, thanks to HBO. This would be the edited version, but it was pretty good. Now I want to see the "director's cut" version, which means buying another DVD. Which isn't really a problem. And, surprise, surprise, it's a better, more gripping, more emotionally satisfying story than the regular Batman comics seem to be telling these days... Go figure.

Also watched Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which premiered this weekend on... Can't remember, either Skinimax or Starz!. (I recorded it, didn't watch it live, so I couldn't tell you.) The first one turned out to be more fun than I had expected, and this one did, too. Not great movies, not by any stretch of the imagination, and certainly no Shaun of the Dead when it comes to zombie movies, but now I'm looking forward to the third one. (And probably a fourth one, apparently.)

Okay, going to try to start something new, partly because some of my comics-reading friends read this blog, and partly to force myself to write something with some sort of regularity. So I'm going to talk a bit about the comics I've read this week, so far:

Shaun of the Dead #1 from IDW.
Pretty much what it says on the tin, it's a straightforward adaptation of the fantastic movie from last year. (Last year? I think last year.) I pretty much got it to bump up sales for them, which would hopefully increase the chances of IDW publishing original movie creator Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's proposed graphic novel sequel, From Dusk Till Shaun. The adaptation had a couple of bumpy spots where it didn't seem to really capture the feel of the scenes it was adaptating, but for the most part was okay. And the art was nice.

Angel: The Curse #1, also from IDW.
This one is a sequel to the TV series, which I loved. Wisely, it doesn't follow directly on from the fantastic ending of the TV series, but picks up some time later. It's written by Jeff Mariotte, who does fabulous work on the horror Western series Desperadoes (the most recent miniseries from IDW, where he used to be editor-in-chief) and decent work on CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations, a sort of vampire commando comic. He's also written Angel novels that I haven't read. His script here feels like it fits naturally with the tone of the TV series, but is definitely a story tailored for comics (unlike the Shaun adaptation). The art, by David Messina, is very nice. Angel--the only character from the series--is clearly recognizable, but doesn't look like he was traced from photographs. Overall, the art is somewhat reminiscent of Mike Mignola, but not too derivative of him. Dark and moody, and totally in keeping with the feel of the series, if this first issue is indicative of the tone of the Angel comics to come from IDW, I think I'll be sticking around.

Planetary #23 from Wildstorm.
By Warren Ellis and John Cassiday, this has been a personal favorite since it premiered, I don't know, at least five or six years ago. Very much sort of an X-Files type story set in a comic-book universe, it's become this really fascinating science-fiction story. Things are definitely coming to a head, with the end apparently in sight, but the book comes out on a pretty irregular schedule, so who knows how long it'll be until we see that last issue? However, we're finally getting some of the blanks filled in for the main characters, and the mysteries behind the entire series look to be gradually revealed. And the art, by Cassiday, continues to be stunning, and proof--as if more were needed--of how wasted he is on a book like Astonishing X-Men.

Albion #1 from Wildstorm.
Alan Moore plots and his daughter and her boyfriend write the revival of some of the greatest British comics heroes of the 20th century. Britain has never really had much of a superhero tradition, so I'm looking forward to the revival of all of these oddball characters who, quite honestly, I've never actually heard of. My first impression is it's Paul Grist's comic Jack Staff crossed with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen. This first issue is an intriquing set-up that provides very little hard information, but definitely makes me want to come back for more. And the art is gorgeous. Of course, there is the slightest bitter taste knowing that this is one of the last projects Moore will be working on for DC, but it's not like he created these characters anyway, so that's not too bad.

Billy the Kid's Old Timey Oddities #4 from Dark Horse.
Written by creator of The Goon, Eric Powell, and drawn by Kyle Hotz (whose art makes him appear to be the bastard offspring of Kelley Jones and Berni Wrightson), this comic is almost but not quite as completely mad as The Goon. Worth the price of admission to witness the exchange between old-world Hammer Horror style Dr Frankenstein and Billy the Kid, who lets loose a stream of accusations of pedophelia, homosexuality, and bestiality reminescent of classic Joe Lansdale.

Nat Turner #1, created and published by Kyle Baker.
48 page of gorgeous Kyle Baker art telling the early life of Nat Turner, almost entirely wordless. Fantastic!

So I saw the trailer for the new King Kong remake, which--from the way NBC was running commercials for the commercial--appears to be the latest geek holy grail or something. I mean, it's Peter Jackson's first post-Lord of the Rings movie, and god knows how fantastic everyone thought those were, so this must just be fantastic. And, I have to say, I'm not too excited. I mean, the movie looks great and everything. Slick, expensive, good effects, really pretty actors who have talent, the whole nine yards. But the thing is, it's King Kong. The second remake of King Kong. And King Kong--the original--is one of my favorite movies. And as slick as this one looks, it looks like a really slick remake of something I've already seen and am so familiar with, I could put every clip from the trailer in context.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying that remakes are necessarily evil. But sometimes they're just unnecessary. Like this one. I mean, yes, the budget is bigger, and the special effects are more sophisticated. But they're still being used to bring to life an island populated by dinosaurs and a giant ape. I mean, no matter how realistic, is anyone going to be sitting in this movie going, "Fuck me, this is a documentary shot in the 1930s and they really went to an island populated by dinosaurs and a giant ape?" So, for me, there's no excitement about seeing this new trailer, because there isn't really anything new in it.

Having said that, I'm sure I'll feel differently when I'm sitting in the theater in December watching the whole movie. Which I will be, because this is a story that I love, and this looks close enough to the original that it'll be as much fun for me to watch. But getting excited about the trailer? Not so much, no.

BBC America broadens schedule with populist fare - Yahoo! News

Yes, in a startling turn of events BBC America acknowledges that perhaps the key to attracting an audience would be by showing programs. (Who knew?) I'm familiar with most of the titles, but haven't seen any of them. And, of course, no Doctor Who.

:: ABC Family :: Wildfire

Okay, new must-see-TV for me. And yes, it's a teen drama focusing on a girl who loves horses. Bite me. It's also from the creators/producers of USA's The Dead Zone, and proves that they can do straight drama as well as sci-fi. (And I still love Deadwood and Rescue Me, if I need to maintain my street cred.)

So I'm watching the 12th episode of Doctor Who Confidential free and legally on the web, and it's the episode focusing on fandom (as much as any Doctor Who Confidential episode has any sort of focus). Well, at the Doctor Who convention I was at in February, the series crew was filming, and my new fan-friend Brian can clearly be seen in at least two shots. How cool is that?

(Not quite as cool as it would have been if it had been me, but still...)

Started reading Gil's All-Fright Diner today at lunch. I'm up to the bit with the zombie cows. Highly recommended, at least for the first few chapters.

Do I feel like posting anything today? No, I do not.

But I really liked Batman Begins, in case anyone was wondering.

Amnews.com - Top 10 questions I have about comic books

As Neil Gaiman points out, someone actually got paid for writing this. (Indeed, is a staff writer for a newspaper, writing stuff like this...)

MirrorMask - Yahoo! Movies Exclusive Trailer

Elektra - Shiny Shelf: "The martial arts action clips by well enough, but unfortunately the actors just keep having to open their mouths and reading words from the lame, lame script. "

NEWSARAMA.COM - DAN VADO ON SLG'S DISNEY DEAL

Okay, as a comics fan and a Disney nut, this interests me quite a bit. The idea of new Gargoyles stories by their creator has obvious appeal, and I'm a big enough fan of Dan Vado's writing, the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland, and his concept for this comic that I'm totally intrigued. Tron was another childhood fave (I watched the movie and played the arcade game over and over and over again). Wonderland... Well, we'll see. But certainly worth checking out.

NEWSARAMA - PETER DAVID & CHRIS RYALL ON FALLEN ANGEL @ IDW
Fallen Angel is easily my favorite Peter David comic, so official news of it's return (pending some final legal wrangling, according to the article) is great to hear.

Still feel like crap...

Feeling like crap today, so much so I called in sick (a fairly rare occurance).

On the plus side, a coworker explained to me how to email photos from my phone. So now I have to figure out how to do some photo blogging...

Here's a nice article about The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, the new show on Cartoon Network createdy by Judd Winick. As I've said before, it's probably the best adventure-comedy cartoon since Kim Possible (as opposed to out-and-out comedy brilliance with a veneer of adventure, as seen in The Venture Bros.). And it's perhaps the only proof we have that Pulitzer-prize nominated comics creator Winick hasn't turned into a complete superhero hack.

Senate panel votes to expand Patriot Act | Senate panel votes to expand Patriot Act | News.blog | CNET News.com

So today has been filled with a--quite franly--insane amount of television, starting with the two-hour season premiere of The 4400 from last night, followed by this week's episode of Green Wing, and rounding up with the spring finale of Summerland (which, according to TV Guide, returns this week). My quick comments:

The 4400 continues the quality established by last year's miniseries. It's weird, creepy, unpredictable, and shot in Vancouver (set in Seattle) starring actors most people will never have heard of. This episode guest-starred Summer Glau from Firefly/Serenity and Jeffrey Combs from everything. It should be a nice companion to The Dead Zone, which returns next week, and is considerably less crap than The Comeback on HBO.

Green Wing continues to be completely mad, and continues to feature Sarah Alexander and Tamsin Grieg. And I continue to love it.

And Summerland is still too sweet, too sentimental, and too full of Jesse Mc... hell, I'm going to have to look this one up... Jesse McCartney. (Oh, and it doesn't come back until next Monday, so that's one less show I have to worry about this week.) And I still kinda like it, for reasons I can't quite articulate. (Okay, I can: Lori Loughlin.)

In addition to watching all this Gruddamned TV (plus whatever I watched yesterday; probably episodes of Monarch of the Glen and Gilmore Girls and the new episode of The Life and Times of Juniper Lee), I listened to the first new Big Finish CD bringing back the classic creepy-as-anything late 70s British telefantasy series, Sapphire and Steel. When I was maybe 9 or 10, when we were living in New Zealand, S&S was one of the four British telefantasy series that left a lasting mark. (The other three were, of course, Doctor Who, The Tomorrow People, and Blakes 7. And then there were Basil Brush and Dick Turpin, but that's another genre...) At the time, I saw one whole episode of S&S, the first, and it scared the crap out of me. Seriously. Couldn't crap for months, so bereft of crap was I. Now, as an adult, viewing the show on DVD, I can actually get through it, but it is every bit as weird and creepy as I remember.

And now it's back on CD! The original leads (David (Man from UNCLE/NCIS) McCallum and Joanna (New Avengers/Absolutely Fabulous) Lovely ... er, I mean Lumley) have been recast, because McCallum is too busy in the US, and reportedly no longer able to travel quite as easily as he used to, and Lumley isn't interested in reprising the role. But the new cast features Susannah Harker, from Ultraviolet and House of Cards, and who absolutely glows in person, and David Warner, from even more genre movies and TV shows than Jeffrey Combs. And they're great. And the story is moody and atmospheric, and takes place on a train (a childhood passion, inherited from my father, which has waned considerably but still elicits a bit of a thrill), and just when you think it can't get any better, Mark Gatiss shows up playing Gold. Fantastic!

And I want to write about this week's episode of Doctor Who, but I find I have no remaining energy.

Oh, I mentioned watching Juniper Lee yesterday. Highly recommended. Best new comedy/action cartoon since Disney's Kim Possible.

So, I watched the final minutes of The Comeback. No improvement.

Okay, so I watched the first episode of the new Lisa Kudrow "comedy" on HBO, Comeback. And I want to say something positive about it, but after about 20 minutes or so, I was starting to think the best thing I could say about it was that it ended after half an hour. But, after a half hour, my DVR recording of the show just ended, and it was still going on! (It was rerun later, like at 1:30 in the morning or something, so I did record the final minutes, possibly, just to see.) Apparently the season finale of Gilmore Girls ran over unnanounced as well. So I downloaded a copy of that episode off the internet, just to get the final bit. And if someone wants to make an issue of my downloading the episode, let me point out that I wouldn't have done it if the WB had fit the whole thing into its assigned time block.

Now, I know that networks are troubled by folks like me recording their TV and watching it later, skipping the commercials. To which I say, "Boo hoo." There's a lot of TV on, and I'm going to be recording quite a bit of it instead of watching it live. If a network wants to somehow force me into watching it live, they're more likely to make me just decide to skip it altogether.

Of course, making a show like Comeback is another way to keep me from watching, because it really isn't very good. The concept is, Kudrow plays an actress who once had a brief moment in the sitcom fame sun. Now, she's the subject of a reality TV series following a former star who ends up in a new series, hoping to recapture her moment of glory, all in front of the cameras. The thing is, it just isn't very funny. At all. So it's just watching this fairly clueless egotist talk about herself for half an hour (or more) with no payoff. It's painful and irritating in a way that the British faux-docu-sitcom The Office wasn't. I mean, I get that, as an actress, the character is always performing in front of the cameras, but there isn't enough of a juxtaposition where we see a sympathetic human side to her, so there's nothing to really grab hold of. And the idea of a documentary-style show about acting was done so much better by HBO in Unscripted, so it's hardly new ground... I don't know, I feel like I should give it a second week to be sure, but we'll see.

Oh, and at the end of this week's Doctor Who Confidential, they showed a commercial for the American version of The Office on BBC Three. This would be the dull American remake of the British show, and it's called The Office: An American Workplace. Their tag line: "The same, only different." Good lord...

So, as we head into the summer season, here are the shows I'm planning on checking out (because the alternative is going outside in 100+ degree weather...)

Hell's Kitchen, the American cooking contest show with bad boy Brit chef Gordon Ramsay as host. Because the first episode was fun.
Beauty & the Geek, because the first episode was a lot more interesting and a lot less "make fun of the freaks" crap than I expected. (And they get points for picking the president of the Dukes of Hazard Fan Club as one of the geeks, instead of going the more obvious sci-fi or comics fan route.)
The Inside, because there are no other crime drama shows for me to watch right now. (Except for the ones I've recorded and haven't watched yet. Or the ones I have on DVD and haven't watched yet.)
Fire Me... Please, because the commercials make it look funny.
Into the West, because I've enjoyed the other Spielberg-produced TV miniseries I've seen (Band of Brothers, Taken...)
The 4400, because the first miniseries was surprisingly good, for a made-for-USA sci-fi show. (I shouldn't make fun; I love The Dead Zone, too.)

And... That's it for this week, I think.

Okay, not feeling the desire to do a whole lot of work right now...

 

So, against my better judgment, I watched the first episode of Beauty and the Geek on Wednesday.  It sounded like the sort of thing that just depresses me, like Average Joe or whatever.  But a review in TV Guide (yeah, I know) insisted that it was a lot more sensitive and intelligent, and wasn't just a "look at the brainy freaks in glasses" show.  And that turned out to be true.  I mean, they didn't really try to hide the more pathetic aspects of the "geeks," but considering that one of them is the president of the Dukes of Hazzard fan club, well... what are you going to do?  But they didn't gloss over the attractive women's shortcomings, either.  It actually looks like each side will be learning and growing from the experience (as opposed to, say, Amish in the City).  So I'll keep watching.

 

(It does still depress me a little to see guys who are essentially me and my friends being showcased as "geeks," but, you know, I'll survive.)

WONKA -- What's New? -- The Newest WONKA Golden Ticket Game

Okay, there's just something irrestistably cool about the idea of buying a Wonka bar and possibly finding a golden ticket inside...

Just finished watching the Cartoon Network Summer Preview Kickoff show, and the bit that has me truly excited(ish) is a new show called Camp Lazlo. It's a wacky comedy about animals at a summer camp, and its created by Joe Murray, who created Rocko's Modern Life, one of my personal favorite Nickelodeon cartoons.

How much did today suck? I locked myself out of my house, which I've never, ever done before. (I had taken the spare key from its hiding place when I needed to have someone come feed Penelope when I went to visit Dad last month, and hadn't put it back yet.) So, I called for a locksmith, and paid to get back into my own house. All the while, waiting in the garage, I could hear Penelope meowing for me. I swear, if it was so upsetting for her to hear me outside in the garage, then she could have opened the door for me.

As it happened, the lock-out occured as I was just about to leave to Borders to use a 25% off coupon. I had hoped to buy the second League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book in hardcover, prompted by Alan Moore's recent decision to take the series from DC to Top Shelf Press. Since the locksmith was going to take over an hour to come, I decided to run to the bookstore, because that way, I'd at least have something to read while I waited. Of course, they didn't have the book in hardcover. (They had it in paperback, but I had the first in hardcover, and wanted a matched set.)

This morning, I had seen a special about Robert Rodriguez's new kids movie, The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D. I've been a fan of his since El Mariachi, and I really liked the first two Spy Kids movies. (The third just didn't feel like part of the same series, although technically, it was pretty keen.) Shark Boy and Lava Girl looks like it'll harness the effects developments from Spy Kids 3-D, but with a story designed to take advantage of the effects properly. So I'm looking forward to it. So, when I saw a pair of Shark Boy and Lava Girl kids books, both co-written and published(!) by Robert Rodriguez, and I happened to have a coupon expiring today, and still an hour's wait for the locksmith, I decided to take the plunge.

I got most of the first book read while waiting for the guy, and it was pretty entertaining. Not perfect, but a lot of fun. I finished it this evening. It's an adaptation of the movie, only told from the point of view of Shark Boy and Lava Girl (I think the movie is told from the POV of Max, the regular human boy). Now, ordinarily, I wouldn't read the novelization of a movie before seeing the film, but, well, extraordinary circumstances. Plus, it was slightly different from what appears on the screen, apparently, plus it's actually (co)written by the writer of the movie. And now, having read it, I have to say, I'm looking forward to the movie that little bit more. It's very much a kid's movie, and fans of Rodriguez's El Mariachi movies, or his more recent Sin City will be upset that it's not aimed at them. But I'll see it, and now I feel confident that I'll enjoy the story.

(Of course, I enjoyed the recent Around the World in 80 Days, starring Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan, which premiered on cable this weekend, so what do I know? I believe I'm supposed to hate that movie, and, well, didn't. So there.)

Other TV stuff: Gordon Ramsey's first American TV series, Hell's Kitchen, premieres in about 15 minutes on Fox. I've enjoyed his British stuff, so I'm looking forward to that. Judd Winick's Cartoon Network series, The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, about a young girl who maintains the balance between the ordinary world and the magic world premiered this afternoon. Haven't watched it yet (I was locked out), but I recorded it. I'm a huge fan of Winick's comics like The Adventures of Barry Ween and the Pulitzer-prize winning (or at least nominated) Pedro and Me. I'm less enamored of his recent work on DC superhero comics, but that's partly because I'm less enamored of those sorts of comics altogether. Hopefully, Juniper Lee will have more of the spark I find in his own work.

Judge: Parents can't teach pagan beliefs: "An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge's unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to 'non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals.'"

Would these be the "activist judges" that criminal Tom DeLay is always railing about?

PostSecret

BBC America - Green Wing

Latest must-watch show on BBC America. (I'd recommend Shameless as well, but it's over for the time being.) As usual, the review at ShinyShelf says it better than I could, so there you go.

Just finished watching this week's episode of Doctor Who, "The Empty Child," a WWII-era horror story written by creator of the award-winning relationship sitcom, Steven Moffatt. And, with all due respect to Mark Gatiss' Victorian ghost story episode, "The Unquiet Dead," this is the one that's going to screw up an entire generation of kids.

Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Library porn? For children?

So, how was your work this weekend?

So, today is my birthday (and I guiltily point out my Amazon Wish List to family members), and in about 2 1/2 hours, I'm heading out to see the new Star Wars movie. Which I might not have gone to see opening day, except that it did happen to fall on my birthday, so I figure that's a sign. So expect a nerd-tastic post later in the day.

Already, all signs point to a good day. I got the three new Doctor Who novels based on the new series in the mail yesterday--they were scheduled to be released today--so that's a nice birthday present, albeit one I paid for. Ditto the DVDs of the first season of the wonderfully surreal Nickelodeon The Adventures of Pete and Pete. Classic stuff.

And speaking of classics on DVD (or, well, stuff I like) I found a site selling DVDs of 80s and 90s TV shows I like that haven't been officially released on DVD. It's someone I had ordered a set of Tales of the Gold Monkey from in the past, and the quality was okay, considering that the source were VHS recordings of episodes off someone's TV. Apparently, she's branched out, and theoretically, I now have on the way The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr, a weird western comedy adventure starring Bruce Campbell, Bring 'Em Back Alive, which premiered the same year as Gold Monkey, also capitalizing on the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark, not as good as Gold Monkey, but co-starring Cindy Morgan, who I had a crush on at the time, and, finally, the holy grail of lost TV for me: QED. This was a very short-lived series about a wacky inventor in pre-WWI Europe, starring a fairly young Sam Waterson, now on Law & Order.

What to write about... Well, I finished Silverfin, the first Young James Bond novel. Most of the reviews I had read agreed that it was a well-written book, but "wasn't James Bond." Well, I can now say that they're absolutely right, but it's not James Bond, it's Young James Bond. He isn't a spy yet, he isn't a womanizer yet, he's just this kid. I thought it was a good, tense, thrilling adventure story, and the character did feel like he could plausibly grow up into the hero I knew and loved from the Ian Fleming books. So, you know, mission accomplished. Reviews from the hardcore Bond fans seem to indicate that they'd rather have something closer to the originals, which is fine, but those need to be taken for what they are.

Now, I'm reading Zorro, a literary novel by bestselling novelist Isabelle Allende telling the story of the classic pulp adventurer. Not too far into it yet (just into Diego de la Vega's teen years, a la Young James Bond), but it's pretty good so far. According to what little I can find online, the Zorro folks asked her to write the novel, and will use her fleshing-out of Diego's childhood as the basis for a trilogy of Young Adult novels coming out next year (coincidentally around the same time as the new Antonio Banderas movie...). So, we'll see. (Me, I've always liked Zorro and James Bond, so new books about them--as long as they're well-written--are definitely of interest.)

The final issue of Green Lantern: Rebirth came out last week, and I finally have something good to say about the series: it's over. Oh, and the art was nice all the way through. Shame about the story. I don't even want to complain about it any more. I'm just glad it's finished.

Speaking of appalling ends, I also watched the final epsiode of Star Trek: Enterprise. Now, I realize it's just TV, and just Star Trek, but that's no reason to screw it all up at the end. Especially since the series had managed to become so improved by this season, it was challenging Deep Space Nine for the title of my favorite Trek series. But the final episode... It's not just that the story was a fairly pedestrian hour, as opposed to the two-hour conclusions the other shows all got, which gave them all a certain sense of closure. No, this was just another Enterprise adventure, distinguished only by setting it on the day Enterprise was due to be decommissioned.

But what really screwed it up was the conceit that, instead of showing us the final voyage of Enterprise, we saw it in the guise of a holodeck story being watched by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis as their characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation, set during an episode of that series. How pathetic, and somewhat condescending, that the cast of Enterprise didn't even get to star in their own finale. The drama was constantly being undercut by the intrusion of the Next Gen characters into otherwise tense scenes. But by far, the greatest slap in the face to those of us who will miss Enterprise and--speaking for me, anyway--who don't care about Star Trek: The Next Generation, would be allowing the Next Generation characters to cut off an emotional moment at the end of the episode, and giving them the final words. I understand that the producers wanted to give the whole broad spectrum of Star Trek a farewell, as this is the last TV episode of any series for the forseeable future. However, to do so at the expense of drama is just sad. (And, by setting this framing story inside an existing episode of Next Generation, and making constant references to it without explaining the whole story, just shows that the producers expect that the viewers of this episode to be completely familiar with that one. Which, really, would be one of the problems with Star Trek reaching a larger audience these days, wouldn't it?)

Meanwhile, the new episode of Doctor Who, Father's Day, written by nicest man in the universe Paul Cornell, was fabulous. And I've already read one comment, posted on David Howe's web site complaining that the episode is too much soap-opera and not enough sci-fi/fantasy. And it's an episode about Rose Tyler going back in time, saving her father, and the creatures from beyond time who are unleashed and devour the planet as a result of her time-altering actions, and if that's not sci-fi/fantasy, I'm not sure what is. Once again, I think what we're seeing is the need for fans (Doctor Who fans, in this case) to put things in neat, specific boxes, and a desire for only specific elements. Science fiction fans seem to be much more interested in plots filled with artificial twists and bullshit technobable, and less in stories that deal with an emotional core (hence the popularity of the soulless Star Trek: The Next Generation over it's considerably more complex and interesting spin-off, Deep Space Nine. So, to have an episode of Doctor Who that deals with the emotions of the characters... it must be soap opera. (Never mind that, if the show didn't deal with fully fleshed-out emotional characters, it probably would only be attracting an audience of hardcore nerds, instead of the mass popularity it has achieved. Never mind that, as Russell Davies points out, there's a difference between a story that deals with the emotions of the characters, and soap opera. No, it's obviously either/or in some people's minds. Thank goodness they're in the minority.)