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Saturday, April 13, 2002 ( 4/13/2002 08:46:00 AM ) Bill S. BLACK TAXES – Took a day off to TurboTax earlier this week, so I was primed last night to watch Lewis Black (Taxed Beyond Belief) take on the tax code. I’ve found the apoplectic comedian’s “Back in Black” segments on The Daily Show to be hit or miss, but given the time to stretch out, he’s a funny guy. The short DShow segments don’t always give him room to rev up his rants, but here – pondering the incomprehensibility of tax forms (best caught in a laff-out-loud riff on “non-farm” earnings) – Black’s in his element. Well worth catching when Comedy Central runs it again (and you know they will). # | Friday, April 12, 2002 ( 4/12/2002 03:57:00 PM ) Bill S. DEAR BRIDGET – Watched the movie version of Bridget Jones’ Diary on Starz the other day, and while I found it to be an altogether amusing Britcom, I still couldn’t help doing a big wha-a-a? every time that one of the characters referred to Rene Zellweger’s Bridget as “fat.” I’ll admit a size acceptance bias here, but, c’mon, the woman is maybe thirty pounds over so-called “ideal weight”! Plump, maybe; zaftig, sure. But if that’s fat, then we’ve literally lost all sense of proportion in this culture. Now Gwyneth Paltrow’s Rosemary in Shallow Hal - her, I’ll accept as fat! # | ( 4/12/2002 03:53:00 PM ) Bill S. ONCE MORE INTO THE BIRTH, DEAR FRIENDS! – Issue #54 of Fantastic Four is a “100 Page Monster” (so, naturally, we’re given a dramatic shot of Ben Grimm on its cover): the conclusion of a four-part series that climaxes with the birth of Sue “Invisible Girl/Woman” Richards’ second child (the infant died in childbirth once, back in ish #49, the past was re-shuffled). The blessed event was anti-dramatic (arch-villain Dr. Doom aids in the delivery while Reed Richards and Ben are being held prisoner by a vaguely menacing group of mind-controlling aliens). And it particularly lost luster when held up alongside Kirby and Lee’s depiction of Number One Son Franklin’s birth that’s reprinted in this Monster Issue. In “Let There Be Life,” (originally seen back in ’68), we get all of the patented big-panel pleasure that made sixties Marvels so great: an extended trip through the Negative Zone with all manner of Kirby monsters (the story introduces Annihilus, the insectoid master conqueror) and lotsa cosmic vistas – our heroes have entered the zone in search of an anti-matter element that’ll save both wife and child. Sometimes I wonder if Marvel is doing itself a favor by tacking these great oldies alongside the current storylines, but I’m not gonna complain when I no longer own copies of the original books. And speaking of goofy reprints, the issue concludes with an even more eccentric performance: a Roy Thomas/George Perez outing from the seventies featuring one of my favorite stoopid characters, the Impossible Man. This intergalactic version of Mr. Mxyzptlk (Roger Stern once made a joke about the characters’ similarities in a Superman continuity) was trotted out sporadically whenever Marvel’s writers wanted to be wacky, and this appearance has the added advantage of mainly being set in the offices of Marvel Comics. (Way back in issue #10, Lee and Kirby “established” that the comic line existed in the Marvel Universe, too, and that the adventures they were printing were “authorized” by the heroes themselves. Even as a twelve-year-old, I thought that was dopey conceit!) As a bonus, we get Perez renditions of the mid-seventies Marvel Bullpen alongside scripter Thomas’ kidding characterizations of the comics crew. I don’t know how much this’ll mean to newer, younger readers, but it made me grin. # | ( 4/12/2002 10:10:00 AM ) Bill S. DOOK DOOK DOOK - Been reading Tony Millionaire’s Maakies (Fantagraphics Books, 2000) collection in dribs & drabs over the last few weeks. I love Millionaire’s artwork (also in good display in his more kid-like Sock Monkey books) but find I can only read about ten pages of strips before I start to grow irritated with its relentless celebration of boozy asshole-ism. Could be that weekly publication in an urban paper is the best platform for the antics of Drinky Crow and Gabby – or perhaps I just indulged in too many drunken pissing contests in my wasted youth to find ‘em as consistently amusing these days. Still, when the second collection comes out, I know I’ll be even more judicious in sampling Millionaire’s elegantly rendered misanthropy. # | ( 4/12/2002 05:09:00 AM ) Bill S. THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG-DISTANCE MUTANT - Now in its 3rd issue, Marvel’s Muties is an entertaining exception: a stand-alone X-book that doesn’t require an Associate’s Degree in Marvel Mythology to appreciate it. A comic book version of Unbreakable, itself a movie attempt at a “realistic” take on superheroes, Muties has held my attention far more effectively than anything featuring the more traditionally costumed Children of Xavier. Its sideways approach to the subject puts it way ahead of the pack. I realize that for a lot of comic book readers that’s not saying much: Marvel mainstays, the X-Men have become so established and ubiquitous that they’re easy targets for the anti-superhero crowd. But Muties is closer in tone to, say, EC’s Shock Suspenstories or one of the Kurtzman war books than the usual costumed mutant fare – and is better for it. It certainly is the grimmest of the X-comics: each of the first three stories ends with its mutant character either dead or critically injured. Issue three’s “Arrested Development” (series writer Karl Bollers; issue artist Dean Haspiel) is the strongest entry in the series to date. The story of a Ugandan youth who is kidnapped and forced to serve in the rebel army, “Development” effectively conveys both its hero’s isolation and the evil of political fanatics who exploit children as weapons of war (definitely a relevant storyline). While in captivity, thirteen-year-old Riek Bukenya discovers that he's developing the ability to see and move through a slowed-down world. He resists using his burgeoning powers against his oppressor (since the tale is entirely from his perspective, we’re never quite sure of the full nature of his abilities), but we know that this is a resolution that he won’t be able to keep. Haspiel’s simple brushwork catches the story’s third world setting evocatively and convincingly. Each issue of Muties has had a different artist, and in each case their art’s been well suited to the individual story setting. I like this utilitarian approach, though I don’t know if it’ll help or hinder the book’s commercial chances. Which is more important for mainstream comic book success, I wonder: a regular writer or a regular artist? (Or are X-books immune from such considerations?) In a way, titles like Muties and, to a lesser extent, Spider-Man: Tangled Web, are close to the tone that Jim Shooter and co. tried to create when Marvel was developing its New Universe: small-scale stories of super-folks that “could happen in the real world.” The New Universe never really fulfilled that early statement of purpose (few of its creative staff at the time seemed inclined to actually “write small,”) but perhaps that core concept has finally found its niche in the House of Ideas. If that’s the case, then Shooter was twenty years ahead of his time. # | Thursday, April 11, 2002 ( 4/11/2002 02:52:00 PM ) Bill S. ROCKWELL THAT ENDS WELL - Picking up issue #19 of DC’s motley-grrl comic, Harley Quinn, I was amuse to see its cover parodying Norman Rockwell. (Superman, obliviously reading a paper while sitting in a barbershop, is about to be “clipped” by a chainsaw-wielding Harley.) Last month, Marvel put a Rockwell homage on The Hulk’s front cover, going so far as to replicate the Saturday Evening Post logo at the top. What’ll get Norman-ized next? I vote for a Garth Ennis title! # | Wednesday, April 10, 2002 ( 4/10/2002 03:51:00 AM ) Bill S. AIN'T NO CURE FOR THE MID-SEASON BLUES - Noting the presence of the 3rd (or is it the 4th?) rerun of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on UPN, it suddenly occurred to me that one of the cool things about Fox's 24 is the fact that the show's mock "real-time" structure commits its producers to a full twenty-four episodes a season. So how many eps do the other hour-long shows have to produce annually now, anyway? Ten? Thirteen? Damn, you'd think this was the BBC. . . I know (sigh): quality over quantity. # | Monday, April 08, 2002 ( 4/08/2002 02:53:00 PM ) Bill S. ONE TOKE OVER THE LINE - It had to happen sooner or later, though I wish it’d happened sooner when the show was more consistently cutting: last night's Simpsons tackled the topic of medical marijuana. The episode started out promisingly – with one of the series’ patented convoluted openings (Marge’s desire to grow some backyard vegetables leads to an invasion by crows that leads to Homer’s getting pecked in the bulbous eyes by a murder of ‘em). All pretty funny, as were Homer’s initial reactions to being prescribed medicinal marijuana by Dr. Hibbert. (One ingenious twist had stoned Homer getting promoted for being the only employee at the plant looped enough to laugh at his boss’ jokes.) But once the set-up was established, the show quickly degenerated into a series of sub-Cheech-&-Chong jokes (hey, isn’t this That Seventies Show’s terrain?) around pothead spaciness and distractibility. I knew we were in trouble once Otto showed up in the Simpsons’ attic. I liked the bit where Phish snuck the Simpsons’ theme song into the trail-end of an extensive jam, though. Not my favorite Pop Muzick Moment from the series (that’d be a toss-up between the Ramones singing “Happy Birthday” to Mr. Burns and the Moody Blues reciting doggerel in a Las Vegas casino), but still kind of cool. Shoot, I didn’t know that Phish were still touring . . . # | ( 4/08/2002 02:52:00 PM ) Bill S. “BECAUSE HE USED THOSE SPECIAL PARTS TO MAKE HIS ROBOT FRIENDS!” – Just picked up a copy of Rhino’s DVD reissue of Mystery Science Theater’s take on Coleman Francis’ excruciatingly bad Red Zone Cuba (an MST outing I initially avoided when it was released on VHS, but now that the pickings have gotten so much slimmer, I felt compelled to buy it). I’m a fan of the show in all its incarnations, so I’m hooked on collecting these releases. But that still doesn’t mean I won’t grouse about the current packaging. When Rhino began their MST3K DVD releases, they were more than disc versions of the shows they’d already released on tape: the first discs (Eegah!, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die) included both the edited wisecrack-laden version of the films and unedited versions of the movies being victimized – a good buy for fans of grade-z cinema who might infrequently wish to view the full unvarnished item. But recent Rhino DVDs have eliminated this feature (I was hoping for a chance to see the full Mitchell – just once – to get a better idea of what the hell happens to all the characters) to the DVDs’ detriment. Surely there are more minutes of dull drive time in the uncensored Manos, The Hands of Fate, aren’t there? According to the Mystery Science Theater info site, Rhino has already announced its next two DVD releases: The Crawling Hand and Hellcats. I’m not expecting either release to have any additional features – even though the first is currently available straight & uncut as a budget DVD from Rhino. So who put Clayton Forrester in charge of Rhino DVD releases, anyway? # | Sunday, April 07, 2002 ( 4/07/2002 10:52:00 AM ) Bill S. “WE HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD” – This week’s West Wing had a moment in it that I couldn’t resist backtracking to discuss. In “Shaken,” presidential personal aide Charlie Young (Dule Hill) is finishing his income tax return and anticipating buying a DVD player. His choice for his first DVD is the James Bond pic On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, a selection that smartyboots prexy Josiah Bartlett predictably ridicules. (The ep title, in fact, refers back to Bond’s habit of ordering martinis “shaken but not stirred” – a method that most serious drink connoisseurs agree ruins the mixture; me, I don’t know how you can ruin such an appalling concoction.) Shoving Bartlett’s cultural elitism aside, I like Charlie’s choice for his virgin DVD player. Service is the first Bond flick that we bought when we were getting VHS tapes, and I suspect it’ll also be the first one we get for DVD. While flawed (yeah, one-shot George Lazenby is not Sean Connery, no matter how many times the movie tries to remind us that the flick is part of the Bond continuity) and sometimes flattened by later series repetition (how many ski chases has Bond participated in by now, anyway?), it remains one of the best encapsulations of all things Bond. Telly Savalas’s Blofeld is the most enjoyably vicious incarnation of that character – plus, it’s got Diana Rigg. (A Sentimental Confession: my wife and I used the romantic theme that’s sung in the movie by Louis Armstrong, “We Have All the Time In the World,” as part of our wedding ceremony. Fortunately, nobody tried to shoot us on our way to our honeymoon.) So: Good Pick, Charlie! # | ( 4/07/2002 10:50:00 AM ) Bill S. WE GO POGO - An on-the-mark appreciation of Walt Kelly’s “Pogo” was recently posted on the New York Review of Books site. While some of the writer’s political points are debatable (after reading 26 volumes of Kitchen Sink’s “Li’l Abner” reprints, for instance, I personally doubt that Al Capp was ever really a liberal), his praise of Kelly’s unique comic strip catches much that was great about it. Well worth a read . . . LINKA-DINKA-DOO - Just put up two new blog links on my link page. I’m reluctant to delve too deeply into this whole blog world – I’ve got a feeling it could easily suck up my entire life. But these are two good ‘uns. # | |
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