The Johnny Bacardi Show

I've received several interesting news items and links from friends today.

From Chris Tabor, this sobering op-ed piece from William Safire. You have to register with the NY Times to read it, but it's free and the spam boxes aren't on by default, which is nice. Also, Chris passed along this article on George Harrison's new album. Haven't heard it yet, but the cover is atrocious.

From my co worker Mike Cary, this hilarious link, which came from a blog which I think I'll be adding to the list pretty soon. It's a Salon.com page which features another link to a clip showing a unbelieveable screw-up some news guy made recently.

Also, here's one I found all by myself, on Yahoo, about the new Democratic House leader, Nancy Pelosi. She sounds intriguing, but I'll expect the worse so I'll only be mildly disappointed when she shows her true colors.

Segueing awkwardly, I said I would comment on last night's Birds of Prey show, and by God, I'm going to. Again, the law of diminishing returns holds true with yet another half-assed attempt to do comics on TV. Like the Tick, which was Seinfeld in spandex, we get Dawson's Creek in black leather with super powers. Let's face it, the decisionmakers behind this project have no respect for the source material, so they feel like they have to strip it down and make it conform to what they think people (read: non-comics buyers) will accept, hence the imitative-ness of it all. But so many of the decisions made about BoP are just dumb...the most obvious being re-imagining Black Canary as a perpetually pucker-faced teenage girl, and Huntress as the adult, just the opposite of the comics. The costume (and the goofy animal noise/eye-change thing as well) they stuck the Huntress in is just plain ridiculous. I just wonder what group exactly this show is targeted for. However, before I slag it too much more, I will say that I like Dina Meyer as Oracle. The actress who plays Huntress is extremely sexy, and she does a lot with the often ridiculous dialogue they give her. I like the tie-ins with the Batman legend. I think the actor that plays Alfred is great. So despite the fact that I hate what they've done to the concept, which wasn't that far-fetched to begin with, I find Birds of Prey somewhat watchable, a guilty pleasure that I'll watch if I have nothing better to do, but I won't cry over when it's gone.

Speaking of comics, I bought a few yesterday-and here's (to borrow a catchy phrase form the DCMB Y: The Last Man board) "what I bought and what I thought!"

1. TOM STRONG'S TERRIFIC TALES 5: The very fact that this is #1 gives you a clue about what I thought of my haul this week. Great art by Jason Pearson in the first "story", Really nice Sergio Aragones second story, which vaulted this to the top, and the usual lackluster Alan Weiss Young Tom Strong feature. A-

2. JSA 42: Guess somebody must have lit a fire under Leonard Kirk's ass, because this is the best art he's turned in during his lackluster tenure. Out of the multiple storylines that are going on right now, I find the Doc Fate in Gemworld most compelling, and it's also the reason I'm continuing to buy. A-

3. KILLRAVEN 2: *Sigh*. If you remember back to my review of the last issue, you probably remember that the 1970s Amazing Adventures slash War of the Worlds featuring Killraven is one of my all time favorite comics, and I have been very apprehensive about its return under the aegis of the well meaning Alan Davis. Last month my fears were mostly realized with a shallow, unsatisfactory script that featured very objectionable characterization choices. Of course, Davis is not Don McGregor, but essential to the appreciation of the entire concept is to understand that the strength of the original was characterization, and not rayguns and explosions. To Davis, what made the book special to me is just not important. Still, it's well drawn in his flooby Adams-ish style, and it features the return of favorite characters Mint Julep (we never really got to know her in the old series) and KR's lost love Volcana Ash. So if I try really hard to accept this on its own terms, it's OK, if a bit derivative of Mad Max. But again, this isn't any old series to me, so I'm trying to deal but it isn't easy. B+

4. JINGLE BELLE'S WINTER WINGDING: Now, to the disappointment of the year. The usually reliable Dini strikes out with some heavy handed and obvious satire in the poorly drawn lead story, and the somewhat amusing second story gets rushed-looking art by the also usually reliable Stephen DeStefano. I didn't buy the accompanying trade this time either, simply because a couple of pinups and some color pages are not enough of an inducement to make me want to buy material I already own. Hopefully they'll do better next year...and they deserve a lump of coal for this year. C

I also bought FABLES 7, which like #6 I haven't read yet because I'm waiting on the trade and don't want to read any spoilers.

Honorable mention goes to the 4 issue mini series from '99-'00, Jim Mahfood's GRRL SCOUTS, which I picked up in anticipation of the upcoming new series. It's a fun concept, but it's a little heavy handed and broad...the best way I can think of to describe this series is a punk-ska-hip hop cross between Charlie's Angels, Super Fly and the Fabulous Furry Freak Bros. And Mahfood has an odd, expressionistic but interesting style. So I would give the series as a whole a B+.

That's all for right now...guess I need to get to work.

Music today so far: Miles Davis-Kind of Blue, Beatles-Past Masters V2, Stone Temple Pilots-Purple, and Los Lobos-Kiko. I would link to them, but I don't have time...