And now...without warning...that long awaited and oft-threatened Special Solo Beatles edition of Johnny B's Mondo Vinyl-O! in which I take twelve long-playing vinyl recorded albums and write a paragraph or so about them. This was precipitated by my acquisition of a new turntable several months ago after about two years without a functioning one, and the subsequent vinyl playing orgy that ensued. I figured I might as well write about it, and I did. This time out, I've decided to hold forth about solo Beatles records, of which I have several and of which several find their way onto the rotating platter quite often. So roll up, roll up...

Paul McCartney

RAM (1971)
This was the first proper solo Fabs record I ever owned, and at this point I should send out a shout out to my then-neighbors Grant and Greg Elliott, in whose basement I heard this for the first time. Paulie, a bit taken aback by what he perceived as harsh critical treatment of his first (and probably, after all is said and done, best) solo effort, 1970's homemade McCartney and the slight 45-only follow-up "Another Day", (even though I have personally never seen a review that was less than kind, and I believe that any critical backlash was out of anguish over the dissolution of the Beatles and Macca's role in same) decided to pull out all the stops and really deliver something that would wow the music press and restore his somewhat tarnished rep. Well, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say, and what Paulie delivered out of his newfound convictions was one odd, patchwork record, both slapdash and overproduced at the same time. Ram is made up partially of song fragments, some stitched together Frankenstein-like with the seams still showing, such as "Long Haired Lady", with nice BVs by Mrs. McCartney and the oddball mega hit single "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", surely one of the most unlikely hits ever-which rest beside Big Production Songs like his bloated, overlong, but nicely scored Beach Boys homage "The Back Seat of My Car", the rocking opener "Too Many People", with a great, nasty guitar sound; and the Buddy Holly love letter "Eat at Home". I like the slight but pleasant acoustic ditty "Heart of the Country", the bluesy rockers "Three Legs" and doo-wopish "Smile Away" (with its vulgar lyric)- among the few times Macca really rocked convincingly on his own. "Monkberry Moon Delight" is catchy despite the utter lyrical inanity. "Dear Boy" is a lovely, forlorn and brief song that alternately pokes fun at and expresses regret to his former songwriting partner in the Fabs. Lennon didn't appreciate all the namechecking, both explicit and imagined on his part, that he received- upon noticing that Paul had attached a picture of two beetles fucking on Ram's collage sleeve, he responded by having a photo made with him standing in a pigpen, holding some unsuspecting swine by its ears which made its way, in postcard format, into the first printings of his subsequent Imagine album, and you probably are aware of his vicious swipe at McC via Imagine's "How Do You Sleep". Nasty letters column exchanges ensued between both parties, and the Lennon-McCartney feud dragged on for over a year before both parties wised up and reconciled. History lesson aside, Ram remains a puzzling, schizo listen. I like its offhand, sloppy feel, and many of the songs are beautiful...but as a whole it becomes too much sometimes because it's produced to distraction and the songs don't always hold up. Still, and maybe because I get a pleasant nostalgia rush when I hear the unintelligible opening lyric and guitar lick of "People", I pull this one out quite often.

VENUS AND MARS (ARE ALL RIGHT TONIGHT) (1975)
Here's another waay overproduced album, but unlike Ram, the songs are constructed in letter-perfect fashion. Every note and lyric in its proper place and right, veddy good, carry on, soldier. This was the follow-up to 1973's Band on the Run, the record which proved to many critics that Macca still had a little left in the tank. It was also the album debut of Wings mark III, probably to this day the most fondly-remembered version of that group, with Jimmy McCulloch on guitar and Joe English on drums. McCullouch, in particular, had set Beatlefans abuzz with his stinging guitar solo in 1974's single "Junior's Farm" and his nice work on the album Paul did with his brother, McGear. Compared to Band, it's almost as tuneful, but not as engaging. It starts out just fine with the demure acoustic title track (reprised on side two), which segues into the big crashing rocksong opener "Rock Show" (a minor hit), which namedrops Jimmy Page and has some eyebrow-raising lyrics about "scoring an ounce" from pothead Paulie. When all the cymbals stop crashing and the pianos stop glissandoing, next up is another pleasant but unremarkable love song called, well, "Love in Song", which illustrated as well as anything what the problem is with this record- there are some high highs, but there's also a lot of derivative tedium as well. "You Gave Me The Answer", for example, finds Paul dipping once more in the same retro well from whence came "Your Mother Should Know", "Honey Pie", and "Gotta Sing Gotta Dance", with about the same unimpressive result. "Magneto and Titanium Man" is catchy, but features some truly dumb lyrics which namedrop Marvel Comics characters and makes me wonder whether Paulie really ever read any of those funnybooks. "Letting Go", for some reason, never fails to remind me of Band's "Let Me Roll It", although the two songs are very different and only share track positioning. Both are said to be written as conciliatory gestures to John. "Letting Go" is definitely the second best song on side one, though. And we get more dullness on side two, including the tedious McCullough composition "Medicine Jar", whose own advice Jimmy, who died of drug and alcohol abuse about three years later, should have heeded; an attempt to redo "Oh Darling", this time titled "Call Me Back Again". It's passable but pointless. "Spirits of Ancient Egypt" is catchy and fast paced, and even rocks a bit, but the overall effect is unremarkable. The highlight of side two has to be the Big Hit Single "Listen to What the Man Said", which features Allen Touissaint somewhere in the mix playing sax (this album was mostly recorded in New Orleans) and is one of my favorite Macca solo songs period. It's somewhat wistful and very likeable. All this music was wrapped in a cleverly realized Hipgnosis studio (you know, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin) sleeve which featured posters galore and illustrations by the great George Hardie NTA, who I would link to in a heartbeat if he had a web site. If I had a scan of everything he's done, I'd create one, I love his illustrations that much.

PRESS TO PLAY (1986)
By 1986, Paul was again hearing about how wretched his recent output had been, such as the soundtrack to the excruciatingly pointless 1984 vanity flick Give My Regards to Broad Street and his good in places but mostly unsatisfying 1982 opus Pipes of Peace, so he, by all appearances, seemed to really make an effort to wow his critics with this record. He enlisted an outside (non-Beatle extended family, cf. George Martin) producer, Chris Thomas, and sacked longtime songwriting partner Denny Laine in favor of 10cc's own "cute one" Eric Stewart, and appeared to take special care with the arrangements and lyrics for each song, even trying to write imaginative nonsensical words a la Lennon in "However Absurd". And for my money, he really succeeded. In fact, I think Press To Play is a very underrated album, and one of the best of any of the solo Beatles' efforts. Well, OK, if that was a 25-album list, perhaps. Songs like the rockish opener "Stranglehold", "Talk More Talk" (another patchwork song, but this time the seams don't show); the title cut (somewhat reggae-ish), "Angry", a hard-edged and punky (well, as "punky" as Macca can be, anyway) workout; "Move Over Busker", which sports funny lyrics and a great melody; and the gorgeous side one closer "Only Love Remains", a nicely produced strings-and-piano thing which could have been bombastic and unbearable in some hands (and indeed, if it had been on Ram or Red Rose Speedway it would have been unlistenable, I'll bet) but gets just the right touch here and should be a more fondly-remembered track than it is. I think that by 1986, people had simply had enough of Paul McCartney and his erstwhile surviving bandmates, and Play's reception was proof of that. Pity, because I think this is a really strong album and well worth rediscovering.

John Lennon

SOME TIME IN NEW YORK CITY (1972)
Known in some circles as "How To Kill Your Career and Get Kicked Out of the Country". By '72 John had traveled over to the US of A and had taken up residence here, ostensibly so Yoko could search for her missing daughter Kyoko, but also because he was tired of living in and being taxed to death by his native country. As soon as he got here, because of his aggressive peace propaganda campaigning, he became a magnet for every radical, Yippie, free-thinking, anarchistic headcase with an agenda to push and a cause to endorse, and John, as open-minded and eager to please as always, fell right in- endorsing many controversial causes and backing many less-than-desirable fringe dwellers slash pseudo celebrities who were more than happy to have a Beatle in their corner. Some of the causes he espoused were worthy, some less so. Anyway, at some point in the interval after the release of his Imagine album he realized that he was going to have to deliver something to the record company eventually...and hit upon a then-novel idea: he would quickly write and record songs in tandem with Yoko and NYC band Elephant's Memory which addressed the relevant topics of the day, and issue them quickly, newspaper-style, on his presumably receptive mass Beatle audience and anyone else who was enlightened enough to listen. Not the worst of ideas, but he got off on the wrong foot when the initial single, "Woman is the Nigger of the World" dropped the N-word on aghast 1972 radio programmers (even though the word was used in its literal sense, and not as a racial epithet) and barely got played- thus dooming this album, complete with faux-newspaper cover, to die a quick and decisive chart death and ensuring that no one but the hardcore faithful would get the message. This is far from a total disaster, though- Lennon correctly assumed that the crude, bluesy Elephant's Memory Band would add a little roughage to his recipe, Phil Spector is on board to make sure the mix doesn't get too muddy, and while many of the songs have dated badly ("Attica State", "Angela", about Angela Davis) and suffer from näive lyrical sentiment (Yoko's songs in particular have this problem) and heavy-handedness, there are some gems, such as the folky, dobro-driven "John Sinclair", Yoko's berserko "We're All Water", and the album's only masterpiece, John's valentine to his adopted home, the Chuck Berry-ish "New York City". Not long after this came out and bombed, faced with deportation by the hostile Nixon administration, John distanced himself from his radical politics, told the sycophants to get lost, and promptly seperated with Yoko. He then recorded the professional, tuneful, but reserved and lackluster Mind Games, then promptly embarked upon the legendary "Lost Weekend". Also part of the package was a live record that documented an evening which featured John and Yoko and Elephant's Memory playing with Frank Zappa and what was left of the Flo & Eddie verion of the Mothers of Invention, for only a buck more than the standard list price. This particular record is pretty hit and miss, mostly miss, and at least half of it, in this version, features Yoko's trademark avant-garde free-form yowling and screeching, which must have amused Zappa to no end. Roll eyes here. Zappa bitched a lot about this particular record release, in fact...for years after he claimed that J & Y butchered the master tapes, remixing and arranging them to feature the pair at FZ's expense, extending even to the innersleeve in which it came- which was the reproduced cover to the Mothers' 1971 Fillmore East live album on which J & Y scrawled their own graffiti and drew pictures, and so on. If I'm not mistaken, the Zappa people eventually released restored tapes of these sessions on one of the multitudes of posthumous live releases that came out in the 90s. For a buck, the record wasn't bad, but it didn't add much to this album as a complete package.

ROCK AND ROLL (1975)
It was during that Lost Weekend, when he was living in LA, shacked up with Yoko's personal secretary May Pang (at Yoko's insistence- whatta gal) and scarfing down a million and a half gallons of alcohol with Harry Nilsson, Ringo, Keith Moon and anyone else who happened to show up, that John decided to record an oldies album. This was prompted by at least two things- first, a lawsuit by the publishers of Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me", who sued John because someone thought "Come Together" plagiarized it...as part of a settlement, John agreed to record that song and two others from that publisher. Also, a record was due to the company, and John had hardly been busy writing new songs. Plus, at the time it seemed like everyone and their grandmother was recording albums of songs from the 50s and early 60s, like David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, the Band, and others. "Happy Days" fever had just gripped the country, and 50s nostalgia was the thing. So John went in (at the height of his mania) with Phil Spector at the height of his, and between fighting, bickering, drawn pistols, drunkeness, drug abuse and God only knows what else managed to cut maybe a half dozen songs before Spector took off with the tapes and the whole crew was politely asked to vacate the studio premises. Lennon eventually sobered up long enough to record another album, Walls and Bridges, co-produce Harry Nilsson's Pussy Cats and not long after, John and Yoko reconciled. Happy about this, and happy abut having survived the Lost Weekend but not especially keen to write an elpee's worth of toons (househusbandry was beckoning, you know), he decided to track down the tapes Spector ripped off and see if there was anything to salvage. There wasn't much. Some of the tracks from those ill-starred sessions did survive and were included though, and it's easy to tell which ones they are because they're easily the dullest on the album! John took these, and recorded newer covers, and released the whole thing in 1975...and this was his last non-greatest hits type record until his big 1980 comeback Double Fantasy. This album is often brilliant, and often pretty humdrum, too. He leads off with a fine cover of Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop a Lula", follows that with his magnificent version of "Stand By Me" (he really sings the hell out of that one), then goes right into a Little Richard/Elvis medley of "Rip It Up/Ready Teddy". He stumbles next on one of the survivors from the Spector sessions, the song which got the ball rolling in the first place, "You Can't Catch Me" which gets a too-long and plodding rearrangement, but quickly redeems himself with a sly and low-key funky horn-driven cover of Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame". Those are the highlights of side one, for me. Side two starts out strong with "Slippin' and Slidin'", which I remember seeing him perform on some awards show...it was set to be the next single after "Stand", but got pulled at the last minute. The rest of side two is fair-to-dull, and one would think that John would have done better by the likes of Buddy Holly ("Peggy Sue") and Larry Williams, who he used to cover excellently in the early Beatles days. I just don't think John's heart was really in this, and the Spector sessions cuts should have probably stayed in the can- but this is really a fine, listenable record, often brilliant. One just wishes it could have had a less troubled birth and had been recorded with a bit more commitment.

MILK AND HONEY (1982)
John Lennon's murder in 1980 made this record more poignant than it was ever intended to be, but it's also a more enjoyable record than its predecessor in my ears, anyway. John wasn't able to help produce it to distraction like he did Double Fantasy, and that keeps the songs honest and even a bit rough around the edges, very unusual for an 80s-produced record. Like Fantasy and Some Time in New York City, it's half Yoko and half John, but by 1980 Yoko had grown as an accessible songwriter and many listeners had grown more acclimated to her quirks. Her stuff is well-crafted and often catchy in its singsongy way (I myself prefer the 70s stuff), but it's John's contributions, as usual, that make or break the record, and it's got some wonderful tunes like "Nobody Told Me", "I'm Stepping Out", and a version of an old Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem, intended as a valentine to Yoko and presented here in little better than a demo version titled "Grow Old With Me" which sounds fragile and so emotionally unguarded that the listener can't help but be moved. There's another demo of this track on the Lennon Anthology set which is even rougher, and I prefer it. It's a heartbreaker. I remember being quite disappointed by Fantasy, then of course shocked and devastated at his murder, then the whole rotten shame of it all was driven home by this collection, which gave us a glimpse of what John had left to offer.

George Harrison

LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD (1973)
After his resounding opening solo career salvo All Things Must Pass, George got sidetracked by the Bangladesh concert and other things before finally releasing this, the follow-up, three years later. Living suffers in comparison with its predecessor, simply because it's not as big and ornate and hyperproduced. The songs are all low-key mid-tempo exercises, even the nominal rockers "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" and the title track, and there's nothing which really sticks in the ear. But...each and every song boasts strong melodies and excellent playing, and after repeated listens becomes very enjoyable. Ya just gotta make the commitment first. If you've heard nothing else from LitMW, you've heard its only hit single "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth", a pleasant enough Dylanish ditty with some nice slide work. Other faves of mine include the droning, "Long Long Long"-ish "Be Here Now", which is quite lovely if a little like listening to a meditation lesson; the aforementioned title track, which romps along at about five minutes, has some clever lyrics, and features a couple of sitar passages- which he didn't get around to using again until 1987's Cloud Nine. "That Is All" is a sweet, understated ballady thing with a great melody- and was covered by Harry Nilsson a couple of years later; "Try Some Buy Some", a lecture on the evils of greed and covetousness, was originally written for and recorded by Ronnie Spector, but George decided to recycle it and created a very distinctive swirling calliope-mixed-with-Spector (Phil)-is wall-of-sound ambience. This track, as well as any other, demonstrated the biggest problem with LitMW: every song is immaculately crafted and always listenable, but almost every cut has a dour, scolding, didactic tone- especially on out-and-out sermons such as "The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)" (kinda know right off the bat what you're getting there, dont'cha) with its ridiculous lyric about "The leaders of nations/They act like big girls", The Light That Has Lighted the World", and "The Day the World Gets Round". How much tolerance you have for this sort of thing will directly impact how much you enjoy this album. Me, I suppose I got used to that sort of thing a long time ago- I mean, this sort of thing has been running through Harrison's music as far back as "Don't Bother Me" and "Think For Yourself", so I just concentrate on the melodies and the general sentiment and let all the rest go out the other ear. Kinda like when I used to go to church, heh... Anyway, this record did pretty well, sales-wise, most likely on the good will engendered by Pass...but many regard this as the first in a series of disappointing efforts by the Quiet One.

EXTRA TEXTURE (Read All About It) (1975)
This album, which has the distinction of being the last one released on the Apple records label (and appropriately enough, the Apple is now depicted as an eaten-away core), was recorded during a low point, both creatively and personally for George and it's pretty obvious- the Dark Horse album and tour debacle, plus a bout with laryngitis and hepatitis, had taken a lot out of him. The perkiest cut and would-be hit single, "You", was originally intended for Ronnie Spector; when that failed to materialize, George re-recorded the vocals (in a much higher key than one which befits his voice, so it has a very noticable speeded-up effect) and released it himself. It's catchy, but slight. This whole album has a diffuse, murky, shabby quality to it, and although cuts like "Can't Stop Thinking About You" (which, to be fair, could have fit very well on All Things Must Pass) and "The Answer's At The End" have strong melodies, they get bogged down in the malaise that permiates everything here. "His Name Is Legs" (Larry Smith, of Bonzo Dog Doo Dah fame) is kinda clever in a cutesy way, and "Tired Of Midnight Blue" boogies along agreeably if not energetically, but the overall effect of a complete listen to this album is quite enervating, preachy sometimes and depressing. He would go on to do much better eventually, but Extra Texture was a record that probably should have remained in the can. One would be better off looking for the original vinyl issue...it featured a cool die-cut cover which was practically the highlight of this lackluster effort. I cannot tell a lie- I took my Amazon.com review of this album and rewrote it a bit to save a little time. So sue me.

GEORGE HARRISON (1979)
After the career low points of Dark Horse (even though I really like that record) and Extra Texture, George rebounded somewhat with 1976's more upbeat 33 and 1/3, then took three years to deliver this, the enjoyable, if somewhat slight, follow-up. There's a good-vibes feeling throughout the record, probably the result of kindler, gentler George having decided to stop playing the rock star game and concentrate on his home and family. He still can't resist telling us how he feels we should live our lives, but now just shrugs off our skepticism where before it seemed to get under his skin. Everything on this album is a celebration of simple pleasures of his life- his wife, Olivia ("Love Comes to Everyone", "Dark Sweet Lady", "Your Love is Forever"), son Dhani ("Soft Touch"), new hobby auto racing ("Faster"), the Moon on a tropical beach ("Here Comes the Moon", not exactly a sequel to the more well-known Abbey Road song, and probably the most elaborate and lovely track on the record- really overlooked, in my opinion), even the joys of fungal sensory enhancement ("Soft Hearted Hana", a clever 'shroomy soft-shoe). George also reworks the rejected White Album track "Not Guilty", toning down its crashing rock into more of a gentle shuffle more in line with the feel of the rest of the album. There was only one hit single, the cheerful and sprightly "Blow Away", the video of which showed George in all his curly permed glory. Honestly, this will never be an album which goes down in the annals of Beatle history as a landmark or anything- but it is a surprisingly fun listen.

Ringo Starr

BEAUCOUPS OF BLUES (1971)
After doing an album of standards "for his Mum", which I've still never heard, Ringo followed it up with an album of country/western music, featuring some of the cream of Nashville sessionmen at the time like Elvis' drummer D.J. Fontana and the Jordanaires, Charlie Daniels, Jerry Reed, Neil Young stalwart Ben Keith, and others and indulged himself in the same spirit which led to Beatle tracks like "What Goes On" and "Act Naturally". This is not a bad record by any stretch, but it just doesn't leave much of an impression because there's just not a lot of spark in any of the tracks. They're all competently played and sung (Ringo is in pretty good voice, for Ringo) but for some reason the tracks are lifeless. Hard to say exactly why. But still, there is a lot of listenable stuff here including the title track, the more uptempo "$15 Draw", a great honky-tonk workout titled "I'd Be Talking All The Time", and a downbeat anti-Vietnam War song called "Silent Homecoming".

GOODNIGHT VIENNA (1974)
In 1973 producer Richard Perry and all of Ringo's musician friends, including his ex-bandmates, got together and pitched in on a record with Ritchie which wound up being a monster smash hit with critics and the buying public alike, and thirty years later Ringo remains a solid, clever album which hasn't dated badly at all. When it came time to follow it up, Ringo once again turned to Perry and most of the same cast that enlivened Ringo...but sadly, the law of diminishing returns was in full effect and the resulting Goodnight Vienna falls way short of the standard of its predecessor. Plain and simple, the songs aren't quite as good. Which is not to say that this is a bad album, far from it- there's still a definite bonhomie in effect and the fun spirit comes across in nearly every track. John Lennon again contributes a winner, with the rocking title track; Hoyt Axton's "No No Song" is funny and clever, and has great BVs by Harry Nilsson; Ringo covers not only Harry on the string drenched "Easier For Me", but also does very well by Roger Miller on "Husbands and Wives", an example of (in my opinion, anyway) good country-rock as strong as any Gram Parsons or Mike Nesmith song at the time. "Occa Pella" is a horn-driven duet with Dr. John. A pleasant reworking of the old chestnut "Only You (and You Alone)", with more smooth Nilssonian BVs, was the biggest hit, and really the only clunkers were a muddy-sounding collaboration with the then-hot Bernie Taupin-Elton John team, "Snookeroo", and the plodding "Call Me", which pointed to the direction of the next three Ringo releases, which pretty much killed his solo career momentum.

STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES (1981)
Nobody cared anymore when this came out, even Ringo really (a lyric sample: "I'm going crazy with this record business/I want to stop it/You want me to stop it/Everybody wants it to stop"). Crafted from a host of songs that were given to him by his former bandmates, along with Harry Nilsson (his last new songs to see release in his lifetime) Ron Wood, and Steve Stills. Originally titled Can't Fight Lightning, it came out on the fledgling Boardwalk Records (the major labels having long ago passed on any further Starr product), which went belly up soon after this came out, ensuring a quick chart death. But- all things considered, this is a surprisingly good album, featuring great contributions from Paul in particular ("Attention", "Private Property") and Nilsson, who pretty much defines the sound and feel of the record with his reggae-and-steel-drum flavored "Drumming is my Madness" and the charming, if a bit negative title track, along with a reworked "Back Off Boogaloo" done in the style of Harry's long-ago cover of "You Can't Do That", with lots of lines from Beatle songs floating in and out and around the melody. George's "Wrack My Brain" was a minor hit single, which troubled the top 100 if I recall correctly and spawned a video I remember seeing. There's a cover of a Carl Perkins song which Paul produces, probably one that was suggested by Macca's earlier duet with Perkins on his Tug of War album. I don't think this is in print anymore, but if you see it in a used vinyl bin somewhere I strongly suggest you take a flyer on it- it's a very entertaining record and deserved a wider audience than it got. Ringo didn't do another album until he seized upon the All-Starr Band conceit towards the end of the decade.

Whew! That's gonna do it for now. I love to write about the Fabs and all aspects of their careers, and have gotten a lot of pleasure from their solo records, which often get short shrift from critics and writers, so any chance I get to hold forth about them, I take.

But I am done, and so I will Back Off, Boogaloo until a later time. Coming soon- horror comics I have known and loved.

I was restlessly flipping through the channels one day last week, when I was actually moved to stop and check out a scene from one of those multitudes of military-themed crime investigation shows by the sight of one young lady, all made up in Hollywood standard Gothgirl style and attitude (except for the white lab coat), who was this particular organization's forensics expert/computer whiz. Just the type, I'm sure, that's encouraged in the Naval Armed Forces. Anyway, I was, well...impressed (for lack of a nicer word) by her as she wisecracked with Mark Harmon and clicked away, doing remarkable things on her computer using only the keyboards. Have you ever noticed that in the movies and on TV, you can do anything by keyboard shortcuts and nobody ever uses a mouse? Anyway, her name is Pauley Perette, the show's called Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigation Service, on CBS, her character's name is Abby Sciuto, I may watch again...who knows, and this concludes my little lovestruck observation post.

10/28/03 Note to Sean Collins: she apparently plays Beth, assistant (and girlfriend) to the male lead's character, in The Ring. Small world, huh.

No, more right now!

Big Sunny D, that ras-cule, loves Mike Mignola's Hellboy, as does your humble scribe...the difference being that he's gone and written a great appreciation of the series and I haven't. I think you should go read it right this very minute.

Or as soon as you can...

And you know what? I, too, am a little apprehensive about the upcoming film version, despite Guillermo Del Toro's involvement.

Oh, and I'd like to say one more thing, for the record- the new season of Cartoon Network's Justice League, scripts and (especially) animation, has been pretty darn good so far and 110% better than its inaugural season.

That is all.

More tomorrow.

I've been following Sean Collins' scholarly and interesting 13 Days of Halloween list of (mostly) horror films he likes, and I had once written some of my reactions in a post but decided I didn't like it, and deleted it. Having heard a couple of dissenting opinions on my decision, I have decided to have another go at it, which is now going to take longer because he's written about four more films since my original post! And please bear in mind that these are just my opinions, and I have been known to be wrong before. Anyway, here goes nothing:

First up, as sort of an honorable mention he wrote about the pre-LotR Peter Jackson film Heavenly Creatures, which I've only seen once, a couple of years ago, at the insistence of the Bacardi Show Political Correspondent, who raved about it constantly to me and eventually loaned me a VHS copy. I wish that I could say that I was as blown away by it as the BSPC, but I just had a hard time caring about the unlikeable characters we were given throughout. I did think the fantasy sequences were imaginatively staged, and it was well acted, but the lack of sympathetic characters really did it in for me.

Next, the list proper began, and it was a flick that I had left off my list, causing me no little amount of dismay when I realized that I had forgotten it. Oh- it was Hitchcock's The Birds. At the risk of refuting the statements I made in my own horror movie list a week or so ago, I will admit that if there's ever a movie that made me uneasy, it was this one. It's given me the willies since I saw it long ago as a kid- don't know what my parents were thinking letting me watch this film in my impressionable youth. Probably that I'd seen everything else, why not this too. Anyway, there are many scenes that have made an indelible mark on my memory- especially Tippi Hedren trapped in that phone booth, the bird attack in the attic which was apparently as harrowing in real life as it was onscreen, and (especially) the playground scene, which creates tension so thick you could, as they say, cut it with one of Mrs. Bates' butcher knives. A big part of the feel is, I think, the way Hitchcock directs it with cool precision and a minimum of bravura moves, but not so much that he smothers the paranoia and fear inherent in the script. This one was, as Sean T. says, personal- and it shows.

The Wicker Man was next, and it's one I read about in magazines like The Monster Times for many years before I actually got a chance to see it in some sort of uncut version. That's been over twenty years ago, I think, and perhaps I should try to view it again (with older eyes) because I really wasn't all that impressed with it. As I recall, I was a bit bored by it because it was so determinedly stolid and slow moving, and I suppose that was to create a sense of impending dread or some such but it just didn't grab me where I felt it. The ending, as I recall, livened things up a bit but Edward Woodward's character came across as such an obstinate prig for the most part that I didn't feel too sorry for him when he met his fate. Again, I'm probably being a bit unfair to this movie, and I really should try to see it once more, but I gots ta call 'em like I sees (or saws) 'em.

Number eleven on the Attentiondeficitdisorderly horror hit parade is Night of the Living Dead, the original of course, and I'm in complete agreement with Mr. Collins on this one. It's every bit as effective now as it was thirty plus years ago.

At ten is a film that I would have never thought to put on a horror film list, the Coen Brothers' Barton Fink. I dearly love the works of the Bros., but Fink is perhaps my least favorite of their oeuvre, and I wish I had a really good reason why. It's full of typically odd Coen-ish characters and dialogue, and the direction, photography, and performances are all first-rate...but it just didn't connect with me for some reason. I suppose that I just didn't really sympathise with the protagonist, or maybe the flaming finale struck me as a little too over-the-top, I don't know. This is another one I think I need to watch again, having done so only once, and lots of people with much more informed opinions than I love this film, placing me squarely in the minority, it seems. Sean makes a great case for its inclusion on his list, and highlights several things I didn't see in the same (fire) light.

Even odder, to me, is the inclusion of film #9, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut- which I certainly regarded as a horror, but not in the same way Sean intends it. I will say that again, Sean makes a great case for this movie, but I've sat through it twice, finding it plodding and uninvolving, full of unpleasant characters doing unpleasant things to each other, and really don't want to do it again. Kubrick was a great filmmaker, no doubt about it, but even the great ones stumble occasionally, and I've always regarded this and his muddled adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining as his career worsts.

And finally, #8 today, Clive Barker's Hellraiser, a movie I remember seeing as soon as it came out because I was such a huge Barker fan (and stoked at getting the chance to see The Hellbound Heart visualized) at the time. I'm not so much of a Barker fan anymore, but this remains the best film version of any of his works, and still holds up as a truly imaginative gore/horror film. Again, Sean makes some trenchant observations.

And that's all he's got so far! I'll try to comment on the other seven, whenever he gets them posted. So far, fascinating reading.

Congrats to the Florida Marlins and all that...but boy I'd like to bitch-slap whoever the genius was at Fox that decided to use the Coldplay song "The Scientist" during the post-game highlight clip. That beautiful song has no business playing over scenes of grown men jumping around on each other. Then I'd bitch-slap them again, just for Firefly and Futurama. General principles, you know.

And now, just because I can, here are my Fearless NFL Pigskin Prognostications!

St. Louis over Pittsburgh- I know, the Steelers are at home, but the Rams have been pretty darn hot lately, bringing back memories of the "Greatest Show on Turf". Pittsburgh has kinda been in disarray lately as well. I think this will be close, but the Rams have more firepower.

Seattle over Cincinnati- I was tempted to make this my upset special of the week, and some have, but I think Corey Dillon's latest pop-off will cause some morale damage, and with the Bungles, morale is very important.

Tampa Bay over Dallas- this is another one that will be close, but I just can't see banged-up Tampa Bay losing to the Cowboys at home.

New England over Cleveland- the Pats seem to be in a groove right now, and Cleveland has looked good in fits and starts but can't get any consistency on either side of the ball. I like overacheiving New England.

Tennessee over Jacksonville- the Jags have been pretty bad all year so far, and the Titans have been very strong. I thinks Jacksonville will play them tough at home, but the Flaming Thumbtacks have just got too much.

Carolina over New Orleans- The Saints fooled some people with their lopsided victory over Atlanta last weekend, but right now the Falcons couldn't shut down a good division 1-A college team. The Panthers will be a tougher nut to crack.

Baltimore over Denver- the Habitual Liars won't be able to worm their way out of having absolutely no one at quarterback. Nominal starter Kanell, even if he gets over the flu, was cut by the Falcons, for chrissakes. Unless Shanahan is lying about the health of his signal callers yet again, this could be a long day for the visitors.

Chicago over Detroit- boy, will this be a fun game to watch. Not. I'm going with the home team, simply because they're the home team, and that's more than the Lions have going for them.

Minnesota over the New York Giants- I see no reason why the on-a-roll Vikes can't prevail over the disappointing G-men, especially at home.

San Fransisco over Arizona- the Cards, Lions, Falcons, Bears and on some days others are disproving that "parity" nonsense that so many stuffed-shirt traditionalists like to whine about so much. Most of the SST's, I think, were 49ers and Cowboys fans. Anyway, the Cards are bad. Real bad. And the 49ers still have enough left to walk all over them, even though against most teams they'd be down from the big victory over Tampa.

New York Jets over Philadelphia- here's a hunch game. The Jets seem to have worked some things out, and the Iggles are still working their problems out, so I'm goin' with the Jets in a game which should be played on St. Patrick's Day cause there will be so much green everywhere...

Indianapolis over Houston- you never know about the Texans, but I think the Colts will be too much for them.

Kansas City over Buffalo- I like the Chiefs defense better than I like Buffalo's defense. I can't believe I'm typing these words.

San Diego over Miami- once in a while, you just have to step up and pick an upset, and here's mine for this week. Miami is up-and-down, and the 'Bolts seem to be getting better, plus they're on the road. Take SD and the points.

That's it! Please don't bet on these picks, or if you do, don't come cryin' to me when you lose your rent money...

BEST OF THE WEEK

COMICS REVIEWS!
What I bought and what I thought, week of October 22

HELLBLAZER 189
Mike Carey's formula for this, the first chapter of the latest continuation of the storyline he's been setting up for months now, is to put five magicians (some familiar, some not so) in a run-down house at the summons of John Constantine (he wants to warn them about the evil to come), and sit back and watch the fireworks. Carey, in just a few months, has already created more interesting characters than the last three JC:HB writers combined, and fortunately for the reader of this issue in particular, they're all well defined and interesting, with sharp, often amusing dialogue. This old Swamp Thing fan appreciated the inclusion of a relative of Anton Arcane, who's the black sheep of the family because he's not insane. Marcelo Frusin is back on art chores and is typically excellent despite the Loughridge Murk. A

PLANETARY 17
In which we get Edgar Rice Burroughs' most famous creation reworked, with a dollop of Marvel's late 60s-early 70s Ka-Zar for good measure ostensibly in service of giving Elijah Snow a love story- but come to find out, at the end, that what we're actually reading is a main character's origin tale. Warren Ellis is positively verbose this time out for some reason, and John Cassaday is typically stellar. Nice pulp magazine swipe/tribute on the cover...and this issue actually came out on time! Will wonders never cease... A

SLEEPER 10
No real appreciable drop-off in quality here; Brubaker and Phillips give us surprising revelations (with requisite complications) in the Miss Misery (does anybody else think of that Nazareth song when they scan her name?)-Holden Carver romance, passive/malevolent string puller Tao has an amusing/fascinating exchange with the ruler of modern-day Egypt, and Carver suffers a grisly injury that we have to wait until the end to find out what happened. Big problem for me: the apparent predictibilty of one thing- you can bet your ass that if someone tells their origin story to Carver, they'll be dead before the last page. It's happened at least once already, and it happens again here, and while it (and who it happens to) is pretty surprising, it adds a dimension of predictability that I don't particularly want to see again in this otherwise excellent book. A-

CINNAMON: EL CICLO 3
Well, I do like the idea of reimagining the DC Implosion casualty character Cinnamon as Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead, and it's a passable plotline that's been set up by neophyte (to me, anyway) writer Jen Van Meter, in which the revenge seeker is confronted with someone that seeks revenge on her. It's a bit too self-consciously 100 Bullets-like, but I blame that on the amateur hour Risso-ish stylings of artists Fransisco Paronzini and Rob Campanella, who never seem to rise above their fanzine-level abilities. Maybe in a couple of years, they'll be something to watch, but right now they're not adding a thing to a comic that needs more of a spark than they can provide. B

AVENGERS/JLA 2
The occasional funny quip and clever situation just doesn't compensate for the tedium engendered by this old school Spandex throwdown slash video game-ish quest tale. Script-wise, this is so disappointingly by-the-numbers that you pretty much know what's going to happen before it actually happens. The dialogue is overblown and melodramatic, unless it's Plastic Man. I gotta admit, though, that I liked the way the Batman/Captain America team was portayed, especially when they realized that they were being manipulated and immediately tried to find out the cause, which is still small beer in my book. Busiek must have been in a bad mood when he wrote this, because every character seems to be pissed off at everybody else, and some of the characters' attitudes (Superman, Cap, Thor) are so out of, well, character that it becomes a major annoyance. Also, again, artist George Perez equates quantity with quality and gives us page after claustrophobic page crammed full of tiny panels and Kirby dots and contorted figures clad in skin-tight uniforms, and wide open, gaping mouths and flying rubble and...well, you get the picture. It makes an already enervating script even more tiresome. And there are two more issues to go, oh happy day. I know, I know, I don't have to buy them, but geez- I've already bought the first two and the faint, tiny voice of the 12 year old fanboy in me wants to know what happens next! C+

DC ARCHIVE SAMPLER: WORLD'S BEST COMICS
I didn't pick this up when it came out a week or so ago, but my curiosity was aroused by all the internet grousing I read as well as the 99¢ price tag. I don't know what the braintrust at DC was thinking when it chose these particular stories- none of them, even the Jack Cole Plastic Man tale, is indicative of what made those old stories so appealing and fun. The Superman tale is fast-paced enough, but talky and is saddled with an uninteresting plot, and Wayne Boring (who did better stuff, in his stiff style, in the 50s) was certainly no Joe Shuster back then. The Batman tale has a high pedigree, with a Bill Finger script and Jerry Robinson inks, but is even more talky than the Superman story and that becomes a huge distraction. Even so, it's the best of show here. I've never been all that crazy about the Moulston/Peter Wonder Woman stuff, and this one didn't change that. Again, there's just too damn much expository dialogue and long-winded captions- but there's just so much screwiness and soft-core B&D within it that it's fun in spite of itself. Finally, I always loved reading Jack Cole Plastic Man reprints whenever I ran across them (DC was really good about running them in their 25¢ 70s Super-Spectaculars), but good lord- this has such a convoluted, far-fetched (yes, even with a man who can stretch like a rubber band) plot that it really tried my patience. Even Cole's art wasn't up to snuff, looking rushed and cluttered. Myself, I'm a bit more acclimated to these Golden Age tales, having read many of them in reprint format back in the 60s and 70s. One can only guess what newer comics readers would think about it. DC should really consider doing this again, but using more care in the selection process- it seems that once again, we get what we pay for. C+

Here's something for Shawn Fumo...

Gimme a "T"! Gimme a "J"! Gimme a "B"! Gimme an "S"! What'cha got? The first anniversary of the Johnny Bacardi Show, that's what! So happy blogiversary to me! Yaaay!

Image courtesy of Tack-O-Rama.

Sendin' out a quickie BSBdG to Dale "Buffin" Griffin, diminutive drummer for one of the best bands ever to walk the face of the Earth, Mott The Hoople. He's 55 today.

Link restoration shall begin soon. I did want to take the opportunity, though, to send out BSBdG's to good ol' Weird Al Yankovic, 44 today.

Also, appropriately enough, today would have been the 110th birthday of the non-performing Marx brother, Gummo, real name Milton.



Finally, another posthumous BSBdG for 50s, 60s and 70s British pinup queen/singer/actress Diana Dors, who would have been 72 today. She starred in many films, but the one I'm most familiar with is 1973's Theatre of Blood, the clever Vincent Price Shakespeare revenge movie.

It's been one of those days.

I received word from the recruiter that Cabela's has decided to go with someone else to fill their opening. My Great Nebraska Adventure seems to be over, in disappointing fashion. Downright disheartening, it is- I thought I would have been a great fit, and could have adjusted quite well to living in the Plains. They felt differently.

John Jakala's linked to DC's January solictiations at ToonZone, and has reproduced the cover of the new Midnight, Mass miniseries. Nice to see that cover artist Tomer Hanuka has curbed his tendency to render all his figures as emaciated zombies. But seriously, folks, I thought the first MM series was a hoot, albeit a drably illustrated hoot, and I'm looking forward to this one.

Another interesting-looking title is My Faith in Frankie, from Mike (Lucifer) Carey. Marc Hempel does the covers and interior inks.

I'm also eagerly anticipating New Frontier, another DC revisionist history series involving the DC stable as they were in the early 60s, when Fox and Broome and Infantino and Sekowsky walked the earth. Should be interesting, and for the love of God I hope it's fun at $6.95. By January I may be chopping up furniture for use as firewood...

Dave Fiore has written a nice overview/commentary on one of the Grant Morrison issues of Animal Man. Animal Man is a title that I've never read in any significant measure, despite my admiration for Morrison's scripting, because the artist that they got to illustrate the majority of it was one Chas Truog, whose work is, in my own unworthy opinion, some of the worst to ever grace any works of sequential fiction. Flat, unimaginatively laid out, awkwardly posed, poor perspective shots, you name it. Maybe I just got off on the wrong foot with the guy because he was the artist they chose to follow Steve Leialoha in Epic's long-ago Coyote ongoing, and he stunk on ice...and I've never seen anything from him since that has changed my opinion. I'm sure he's a nice fella, and is loved by his friends and family, tithes often, and is a pillar of his community...but Jesus Mary and Joseph I hated his artwork. And it inspired such distaste in me that I only picked up one issue of AM in the entire run, the one in which Dolphin (a fave obscure character of mine before Peter David had his way with her in Aquaman) appeared. I've never heard anything but good stuff about the AM book, though, apparently from people who just don't get too worked up about the pictures that illustrate all those words...so you never know, I might get a trade one of these days and try to slog through it.

There's been a whole bunch of comics related stuff I've been wanting to write, like my opinion of the Gone and Forgotten-slagged Marvels, my favorite horror comics, and more. I just haven't had the wherewithal lately to get them out of my brain and through my fingers as of yet. Hang on, though, there's always hope...or so they keep telling me...

BSBdG's go out today to the Mouseketeer that launched a million wet dreams, Annette Funicello, 61 today.

Sorry to read about the death of Elliott Smith. I wasn't so much of a fan that I had all his records or anything like that, but I had XO and I liked it very much.

Update: Apparently Smith's death has been ruled a suicide. Boy oh boy. Sad news.

Hello.

I was at a state car and truck auction all today- bought a Dodge Ram 1500 pickup for my son, who is kinda hard on vehicles (he's had three, and he's only 21)...we'll see how "ram tough" they are now! He's gonna be paying for it, in case you were wondering how I was gonna pull that bit off. Plus I haven't been feeling well the last few days, and haven't felt like concentrating long enough to write anything legible...so that's my lame attempt at justifying my lack of content over the last couple of days. I'll try to do more better tomorrow.

Finished 8-6 in football predictions over the weekend, making my record 66-35, .653.

Comics on my pull list tomorrow, according to the new Diamond shipping list:

AVENGERS JLA #2 Yeah, yeah, I know...it's got to get better, right?
CINNAMON: EL CICLO #3
HELLBLAZER #189
PLANETARY #17
SLEEPER #10

Mostly good stuff, and a well-deserved break for my dwindling bank account.

Thinking pretty hard about going to see Eels on Saturday night in Nashville, at a venue to which I've never been...if I have any money and feel like it after yet another (property) auction with which I've agreed to help Saturday morning. Rhonda, they're gonna be in Louisville this Friday night. In other musical newsicals, against my better judgement I bid on a Posies CD, the one critics generally agree is their best, Frosting on the Beater on eBay and paid a staggering $3.25 for it- shipping and everything! If it hadn't been so cheap I wouldn't have done it. Of course, I'm a firm believer that you get what you pay for, so stay tuned...

Just got finished watching Boris Karloff play another evil Oriental type in the 1930s flick West of Shanghai...not especially PC, but still a fun adventure yarn with Boris hamming it up and helping a very logic-defying script. He was much better, and the film was a lot livelier (albeit even less PC- offensive, even) in The Mask of Fu Manchu, which I watched a few nights ago. Man, what a totally nutball adventure yarn, so over the top- especially for the Thirties! I think that Doug Moench, Jim Starlin and Paul Gulacy must have viewed this before they did Master of Kung Fu for Marvel in the 70s. I'm really enjoying all the old Karloff films they've been airing on TCM lately, many of which I haven't seen before like The Walking Dead, a Twilight Zone-ish tale of a wronged man who is executed but is brought back to life and extracts revenge on the gangsters who framed him. Directed by Michael (Casablanca) Curtiz, no less!

Whenever I see those 30s films, dealing with adventure and danger and high-concept thrills in remote (usually Oriental) spots, it makes me wish someone had the wherewithal to make a Doc Savage film in this vein, full of adventure and fun, located in Tibet or Mongolia and in heated battle with John Sunlight or some other suitably megamanaical villain, but not played with smirky condescension and lowbrow camp hijinks like the horrible 1975 Doc movie was. Hell, film it in black and white, and get Roy Wood to write the score. I know, I know...what? When I first started reading the paperback reprints of the old Doc Savage pulp novels, I was also listening to the first two Electric Light Orchestra LPs and Roy's own solo Boulders a lot. I still think of Doc whenever I hear No Answer's Woody instrumental "First Movement (Jumpin' Biz)".

Speaking of movies, don't miss a day of Sean (Barnabas) Collins' 13 days of Halloween, in which he writes about some of his favorite horror films, and does a darn fine job of it too. I had written some of my impressions on his first three choices, but I wasn't happy with what I wrote so I deleted it. Maybe I was hasty- I've already had someone ask me what happened to it! I didn't think anybody had time to see it... Perhaps I'll rewrite later.

OK, that's all the damage I'm gonna do for now. Got a lot to keep me busy tomorrow as well, so I don't know how much I'll be able to post but you never know.

Oyasumi Nasai, ya'll.

People helping people...a million billion thanks to Laura for providing me with the code that enabled me to have that lovely lovely streamlined Google search function in my links column at right. She has my undying gratitude.

BSBdG's go out today to Be'la Ferenc Dezso Blasko, better known to most as Bela Lugosi, who would have been 121 today.

Other noteworthy birthdays today: Tom Petty, 53, and the late Mickey Mantle, 72.

As Chuck Brown would say, "good grief".

I just read over at A Small Victory that Gregg Easterbrook, he of the wonderful Tuesday Morning Quarterback column and the wrongheaded anti-Tarantino (and unintentionally anti-Semitic) commentary has been fired by ESPN!

ESPN is totally overreacting, and you just know that the Rush Limbaugh debacle is at the root of it. Easterbrook made a mistake, but he has apologized and should at least be given another chance. ESPN didn't get rid of Bob Ryan, who still appears regularly on The Sports Reporters, did so just this morning as a matter of fact, and said something equally as mistaken and wrong about Jason Kidd and his wife. He got some probation time from both his paper, the Boston Globe, and ESPN, which was sufficient. To just fire Easterbrook like that is stupid and wrongheaded, and I intend to email them about it, for all the good that'll do. The email link is in Michelle's post above.

I'm sure gonna miss reading TMQ...

Ran up on an interesting Salon article about R.E.M. this morning.

The article mostly deals with the perception that perhaps R.E.M. has run out of things to say and interesting ways to say them, and the fear within the band that they will become stale and irrelevant like a Chicago or the Beach Boys, for example. And after repeated listens to their most recent album Reveal I'd say those fears were certainly justified. Here's hoping that the Athens group can find a way out of their creative rut, but it's apparently not gonna happen anytime soon- their upcoming CD release is a best-of package.

BSBdG's go out today to ol' Emilio Lizardo himself, John Lithgow, who's 58 today. John's been in some great films, and some not-so-great ones, and I have never warmed to his most recent project, the silly TV series Third Rock From the Sun...but he'll always have a special place in my movie pantheon for his performance as the mad dictator from Planet Ten, Lord John Whorfin, in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai.

That's OK for you, monkey boy!

Well, heck. I was gonna let the comics reviews be my last post until Monday, but I ran across this site courtesy MetaPop: the Paul's Boutique Samples and References List!

I'm sure many of you will agree with me when I state unequivically that the Beasties' 1989 effort is one of the greatest albums in the history of ever, and we will never see the likes of it again, sampling costs and laws being what they are these days. This site attempts to catalogue all the samples and lyric references, as well as other nuggets of info about that record, and is very thorough.

Girls with curls and big long locks
And beatnik chicks just wearing their smocks
Walking high and mighty like she's #1 and
*She thinks she's the passionate one*


Check it, boy-eee!

BEST OF THE WEEK

From all of me to all of you...COMICS REVIEWS!
What I bought and what I thought, week of August 13

GOTHAM CENTRAL 12
Taut, gripping GCPD-vs.-unidentified-sniper story with outstanding Brubakerian use of the largish cast, especially Josie Mac, who is really beginnning to grow on me (I should go back and read her backup feature in those Detectives from a couple of years ago) and that fellow who runs around at night with the bat cowl on. Michael Lark's newer, looser style, which really shines in a couple of places (especially in the cliffhanger ending) is beginning to remind me of John Paul Leon, or Tony DeZuniga. Or maybe Leon inked by DeZuniga. Whatever. If Ed doesn't botch the ending, never a given, this is gonna be a real good one. And I didn't forget to pretend that there was snow falling while reading! A

HUMAN TARGET 3
Excellent until the copout ending, this finale to last issue's tale of an accountant who used the events of 9/11 as a way to escape from his crooked bosses still shows that Pete Milligan has more than one note to play when it comes to the title character. Javier Pulido also does another excellent job on art- his style may be simple, but his composition and pacing are second to none. You've gotta be good (like Pulido and Mike Lark) to shine over Lee Loughridge's colors. A

LUCIFER 43
Part two of "Brothers in Arms", (God I hope Carey didn't intentionally swipe that from Dire Straits) in which a couple of Titans (not from Tennessee) with a lot more ambition than brains cause a lot more trouble for the title character and his cast, which includes the former hatcheck girl at Lucifer's piano bar...and I have no idea what's going on with her. The ending says one thing, but earlier events in the story suggest otherwise. Typically solid Mike Carey scripting, doing wondrous things with the various characters that's he's inherited and extrapolated from Neil Gaiman's long-ago blueprint. Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly sometimes seem to be aping the style of alternate artist Dean Ormston, and the result is sometimes a bit distracting. A-

JSA 53
Well, kiddies, here's my guilty pleasure book for the time being. Oddly enough, I was on the verge of dropping this a couple of months ago, after two bloated, convoluted, far-fetched and tedious multi-dimensional, time-spanning, spandex-laden slugfest epics, but for the time being anyway we're back to what attracted me to this book in the first place: the quiet stuff, favoring character interaction over all that other junk. I like the mix between the older characters and the newer ones that have sprung up in their place, and three pages of exchanges between Power Girl and Wildcat or Alan Scott and Jesse Quick are a hundred times more fascinating to me, in this setting, than a dozen issues of what we've had previously. We also get some extended face time with this new Crimson Avenger character that someone at DC really wants us to like- she's OK, but nothing special, and I found myself wishing the Spectre would show up and give her a beatdown- and more glimpses of the beginning of what may turn out to be another bloated, convoluted, far-fetched and tedious multi-dimensional, time-spanning, spandex-laden slugfest epic. Guilty pleasures, like I said. B+

SMAX 3
Most of this reads like a Mad magazine-type parody of Lord of the Rings, but it's entertaining enough, with lotsa cutesy easter-eggs courtesy of artist Zander Cannon. Favorite cameo: Jonny Quest in the line to get permission to go on a...well, quest, and Stewie from Family Guy holding Maggie Simpson hostage in an alley. Favorite joke this issue: Toybox: "Jeff, you have to. Maybe it would be like, y'know, closure. Smax: "I don't need closure. You know what needs closure? Your mouth needs closure". Ba-da-bump...ching!Thankewverymuch! You've been a great audience! Don't forget to tip your bartender! B+

HELLBOY: WEIRD TALES 5
As is the nature of most anthologies, again a mixed bag, albeit better than last month's mixed bag. Great lead story by J.H. (Promethea) Williams and one Haden Blackman, which deals with the underdeveloped notion of Hellboy's sexuality and charisma. Mignola's always downplayed it in the past, but you just know that HB could be a chick magnet if he wanted to be. Next up is a typically well drawn C. Scott Morse tale about an encounter with a mysterious old man who hums jazz and bathes in an icy stream. I love Morse's art a lot, but this one has a ending that doesn't make a lot of sense. Third up is a better-than-you'd-think Jim Starlin-illo'd and Ron Marz-scripted story which is nothing earth-shatteringly different; the chief pleasure is in seeing Jim Starlin draw Hellboy, and he does a pretty darn good job, the best I've seen from him on anything in a good long while. A nifty Cam Stewart pinup is next, then another chapter in John Cassaday's retro, and somewhat pointless Lobster Johnson story. Where's Sammy Clay when you need him? B+

HULK:GRAY 1
I was so underwhelmed by the Loeb/Sale team's previous go at revisionist history, Spider-Man: Blue, that I was gonna pass on this...but there was something about the cover graphics and interior art that made me decide to give it a go...and I'm not sorry I did, despite some dodgy character moments. Sale apes Jack Kirby as slavishly as he did Ditko and Romita Sr. in Blue, and this time the result comes across as clever, rather than falling short of the mark. A little overpriced, but not bad. Not all that good either. B

DAREDEVIL 53
The first issue of David Mack's superhero story slash art lesson, with a healthy dollop of Native American studies to boot was exciting. Issue number two was as well illustrated as number one, but too much space was devoted to what we already knew about Mack's creation Echo and not enough space was devoted to advancing the story. We get more story advancement here as well, but the busy, painterly affectations of the artist have begun to distract more than delight, and that's not good. Nice to look at, and God knows I wish I could do it, but it's kinda like drinking tequila. A shot or two is fine, but if you try to drink a whole bottle you're gonna regret it. Mr. Mack, you've made your point. You're an excellent artist. Now will you please get on with it and wrap this up now? C+

Here's what I believe will be my final word on baseball for this year.

For those morons who are actually blaming "that f*ckin' guy" for that foul ball that maybe, maybe not could have been caught by Moises Alou- that would have only been two outs, you fricking idiots! That guy was only doing what you, or I, or anyone would have done, and if he had the mental faculty to immediately size up all the ramifications of what could happen if that foul ball came at him, then perhaps he should be in the dugout, rather than Dusty Baker, who seems to be a good old boy player's manager and all that...but has a terrible blind spot when it comes to gauging how much his pitchers have left. Dusty. If this had been a game in July, sure. Leave Prior or Wood in there. Wood had nothing, and Prior was obviusly flustered after Alou's temper tantrum. But in October, with the Series and 95 years of crushed expectations on the line, you manage differently. You give Prior one more hitter (which he did, and Alex Gonzalez made an error, which seemed to me far more harmful than what happened with "that f*ckin' guy"), and you get Wood's ass out of there first runner that gets on base after you take the lead. I know, hindsight is 20/20...but I'm not the only one that feels this way. Baker has a lot to prove, and I hope he realizes the gravity of what he's allowed to happen. I seriously doubt it- he seems to be just as aw-shucks-laconic, with a goofy smile on his face as ever in post-meltdown interviews. He's been paid- what the hell does he care? He never played for the Cubbies anyway.

At least the Red Sox can narrow their debacle down to one culprit, and it's once again their not-the-sharpest-knife-in-the-drawer manager Grady Little. He, like Baker, is apparently incapable of sensing when his starter's had enough, as was the case with Pedro in the 7th the other night. At least Baker can say he didn't have faith in his inconsistent bullpen- Little's guys had been pitching very well in the series so far! It's mind-blowing that he either couldn't tell Pedro had had enough, or was afraid to go get him- either way, this is terrible managing and I would hope the Red Sox are looking around for someone with a bit more on the ball.

I couldn't care less who wins the killjoy series between the Yankees and the Marlins. I suppose I hope the Marlins win, because I just can't warm to the Yanks, despite the fact that they have a number of players (and a manager) that are actually class acts, Roger Clemens notwithstanding. Actually, I think it would be cool to have an alternate Series between the Sox and the Cubs...I wonder what the TV ratings would be like?

Time now for another breathless installment of Johnny B's Fearless NFL Pigskin Prognostications. As always, for entertainment purposes only- bet at your own risk.

Last week: 9-5. Year to date: 58-29, a .667 winning percentage.

New Orleans over Atlanta- a battle of terrible defenses and one terrible offense. Guess which one. Dan Reeves thinks green Kurt Kittner will give my guys a "spark". Dan, better double up on your Zocor.

Philadelphia over the New York Giants- the Giants have a lot of weapons, but can't figure out a way to use them, plus they're not stopping anyone defensively either. I think this will be close, because Philly has problems of their own, but I like the Eagles if they rush the ball effectively.

Minnesota over Denver- a battle of rusty quarterbacks, with Steve Beuerlein filling in again for Jake Plummer and Dante Culpepper coming back from injury for the Vikes. These are two pretty darn good teams, but the Vikings are playing unbelieveably well plus they're at home, so I see a close defeat for the Habitual Liars.

Cleveland over San Diego- I'm a bit surprised the Chargers have been so bad so far this year. Cleveland has been up-and-down as well, but I think Tim Couch is playing like he wants to keep his job and the Chargers' defense isn't too great, so I go with Cleveland at home.

Baltimore over Cincinnati- the Ravens have been winning with defense and the ground game, two areas which traditionally give the Bengals problems. I'm kinda feeling an upset here, but not strongly enough to actually take Cincinnati. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if this is close and the Bengals begin to heat up as the season goes on. Take the Bengals and the points, if you're betting.

Dallas over Detroit- the Lions tend to play the Cowboys tough at home, but with Joey Harrington's shaky confidence being battered by losing his best receiver, and a non-existent ground game, I just can't see Detroit pulling off an upset. Take the points here, too.

St. Louis over Green Bay- it seems as if strutting martinet coach Mike Martz has finally got his Rams clicking on all cylinders again, but usually a game against my beloved Falcons will do that for you. They'll get a sterner test against the Pack, and I see a shootout brewing.

Carolina over Tennessee- McNair will get his, but I seriously doubt he'll get in the end zone as much as he did last week which makes the Panthers and their solid D and good-enough O winners at home, as I see it. Panthers by a field goal or less. The Panthers 6-0. My God.

Miami over New England- New England's been playing good football lately, but Miami always gives them fits at Pro Player.

New York Jets over Houston- I would have thought that they would have had some momentum after the exciting win over Jacksonville, but the Texans looked flat against Tennessee. I don't think the Jets are as bad as they've shown, either, so I take Jersey/B in a another game with shootout potential. You might want to take the Texans and the points.

Seattle over Chicago- the Bears surprised OAkland a couple of weeks ago, but Seattle is a hell of a lot better than the toothless Bears, who actually think Chris Chandler will provide a spark. I'd rather have Kurt Kittner at this stage of the game.

Washington over Buffalo- the Bills' woes will continue, until they get better play-calling from their offensive coaching staff. This will be close, but I like the Skinnies.

Tampa Bay over San Fransisco- if I didn't despise the Niners so much, I'd almost feel sorry for them. Terrell Owens looked (and played) like he was on heroin last Sunday night, sitting staring into space with his mouth open. I hope John Lynch lays him out.

Kansas City over Oakland- the Raiders will be up for this game against the hated Chiefs, but I think KC can take whatever they want to dish out.

That's it- remember, these predictions are for entertainment purposes only. If you bet based on my predictions, then you're stupider than I gave you credit for and you deserve to lose. In other words, I warned ya- so don't come crying to me!

Gonna take a minute to send out more of those ever-lovin' Bacardi Show Birthday Greetings to:

That Brown-Eyed Handsome Man himself, the great Chuck Berry, who's 77 today. Mr. Berry has written some of the best songs in the history of recorded music.

Also, posthumously, Laura Nyro, who would have been 56 today. Laura also wrote a whole bunch of great songs (most of which were hits for other people) like "Stoned Soul Picnic", "And When I Die", and "Wedding Bell Blues". Todd Rundgren, on his first solo LP Runt, recorded a great tribute song to her as part of a medley called "Baby Let's Swing/The Last Thing You Said/Don't Tie My Hands", which doesn't really have a damn thing to do with Nyro, I just really like that medley.

Found a great new comics blog via John Jakala: Graeme McMillan's Fanboy Rampage!. Faster than a speeding building in a single bound, I have added it to by burgeoning bloglist at right. I suggest you do the same.

Welcome to the comics blogospheriverse, Graeme!

I noted Alan David Doane's championing of Tony Isabella and the Black Lightning character he co-created with interest earlier today.

That's right, I said co-created. Trevor Von Eeden was the artist who came up with the visual appearance of BL when he helped develop the character for the 70s series- in fact, Black Lightning was Von Eeden's first professional job (as a teenager!) and ongoing series as well. And DC's corporate screwing extends to him as well as Isabella- I'm not sure, but I don't think TVE gets any co-creator credit, and when DC decided to relaunch Lightning in the mid-90s Von Eeden lobbied long and hard to be allowed to do the art chores (and he was doing work for DC at the time, mostly for its Milestone imprint), but was never seriously considered, he told me once. Which, he said, is not intended as a slam towards the guy they got to do the art...but he said that BL was his favorite of the characters he's worked on and would have hoped to get more consideration for a part in his revival, given his history with the character. I agree, but since the book stiffed pretty quickly, it's kinda beside the point, I suppose. Von Eeden certainly doesn't seem to be holding any grudges, he was just disappointed.

Update 10/17: ADD has already followed up on this entry, checking with Isabella about its veracity. Man, lemme tell ya- if you want the hot comics news, straight from the creators themselves, then head straight for the comics blogosphereiverse! Considering that the only two comics pros I have any sort of relationship with at all are Von Eeden and his former collaborator Robert Loren Fleming (who hasn't written a comics script in about four years, to my knowledge), maybe you'd better look elsewhere first...anyway, all seriousness aside, at the risk of seeming totally unreliable, I'd like to take the opportunity to step back a little from one of my earlier statements, in which I claimed that Trevor claimed to be a co-creator of Black Lightning, which Isabella denies, even though DC has, apparently, been co-crediting Von Eeden. All I have to go by is my recollection of a telephone conversation which took place several months ago, and I may have misunderstood or misheard him. I probably should have sent TVE an email asking him if this was the case before I wrote, but my eagerness to comment led me to throw caution to the wind and get in on the discussion. So if I've misquoted anyone, I apologize. I certainly don't want to cause any disputes between anyone. I'll try to remember, next time I speak with him, to ask him about it.

Well, I'm always quick to praise Gregg Easterbrook for his wonderful Tuesday Morning Quarterback column at ESPN.com, but via Franklin Harris I've found his blog at the New Republic's site, and the most recent entry is a disappointing can't-see-the-forest-for-the-trees lambasting of Quentin Tarantino and his latest flick Kill Bill, which I haven't seen yet.

I'll bookmark that site, though, and see what else he writes. We all fall short of the goal from time to time, some of us more so than others...

Oh, by the way, I just received my first email newsletter from Cameron (Catwoman) Stewart, who includes a link to a spiffy Kill Bill illo he has done. Go forth and viddy.

I applied online yesterday for this job. Of course, I don't have a chance in hell of getting it, let alone getting an interview since it would involve relocation and I don't see anything there where it says they'll do it...but you never know! I'm qualified...

What you see here is the vaguely controversial cover for the first collection of Peanuts. Me, I like it. It's very classy looking, and I like the clean typography (not an admirer of the Raygun school of typesetting here) and understated colors, which (unconsciously, I'm sure) apes the color scheme of Linda Ronstadt's 1976 Greatest Hits Vol. 1 album. And, like someone said in the comments at Pulse, that drawing of Charlie Brown makes him look like he just got out of prison. Cracked me up.

And I do believe, conversely, that it might not catch the eye of the casual browser. It doesn't scream at anyone, nor is it garish and attention-getting. It's a low-key, almost reverent presentation, and while it does evoke a little bit of nostalgia for the time period, I do agree that it might not have been the best approach. But you know what? I don't care. I'm not gonna buy it anyway, mostly because I couldn't afford even when I had a job and sure as hell can't now, and I also ceased to care about the Peanuts daily strip at about, roughly, the year I got out of junior high. I think from the mid-70s on the strip became stale, formulaic, and shakily drawn, especially at the end. Even though I won't be purchasing, I think it will still sell in sufficient numbers to attract attention, thus ensuring shelf space at the Barnes and Nobleses and Borders of the world, and by extension attention for Fantagraphics as well as comics in general, which is what I believe most of us who care about these sorts of things care about in the first place- because, hellfire and damnation- it's still fricking Peanuts! People have heard of Peanuts! They know Peanuts! They love and fondly remember Peanuts, even though I'd bet it's more from the Halloween and Christmas TV specials that any particular set of strips. It's what they call in the biz a "pre-sold audience". Only if the Fantagraphics people are complete marketing incompetents, and I don't think they are, will this not be a success.

Well, that's what I think, anyway. Hey, I'm a graphic designer, or so my diploma says anyway, so I got an opinion too! And if people want something brighter, maybe they can still find some of those old Gospel According To... and Happiness Is... paperbacks somewhere.

Everyone sing along with me:

"Mr. Doane, you've got a lovely logo..."

Speaking of logos, I've been playing around with creating some link buttons of my own. You can see a couple of examples at right: the button which takes you to a Gil Elvgren fan site, and on which links to Scary-Go-Round, kind of a Friends meets the Addams Family type daily webcomic by one John Allison. I'm still waiting for my missing person drunken crack whore muse to visit me so I can create one of my own, not that the one Alvaro created for me isn't swellio enough...

Geez, I hope the Marlins are happy and pleased with themselves. Don't they know that everyone in the civilized world, with the exception of Jeffrey Lurie and a few thousand retirees in South Florida wanted the Cubs to finally get to the Series, thus shedding the 9500 pound gorilla from their collective backs once and for all? What the heck were they thinking, outhustling, outpitching and outplaying the Cubbies four out of seven times?

Gee, I didn't post a bloody thing today, did I?

I'll try to do better tomorrow.

I bought Hulk:Grey after all, and was relieved to see that he hadn't been retconned into Jean's brother. Ha. Just like comedy!

Also, at the risk of turning this into a "Johnny B responds to Sean C" blog, I was under the impression that when it comes to religious symbols and their effect on vampires, I thought that faith in the sacred icon or symbol was what made it work, not faith in the object, whatever it may be. Otherwise, if one could convince oneself that a pair of sugar tongs or a baseball bat (for example) was a holy conduit of faith, then one could fend off a vampire with them. I'm aware of what you're saying, though, having seen a dozen or three vamp movies in which items like 'Salem's Lot's popsicle sticks were used...still, I can remember where the ineffectiveness of a cross in the hands of an unbeliever was the filmmaker's (or writer's- I remember this was used often in Tomb of Dracula) way of making a statement of skepticism about religious faith. I kinda like it better that way, and am skeptical when anyone can pick up any sort of rectangular shape, form an X, and keep a vampire at bay because they believe it's a holy object. But, it's true that there have been a thousand different permutations and variations on vampire lore used in a thousand different stories, films, plays, and so on, so I suppose anything's fair.

God, what a geeky conversation! *grin*

Anyway, gotta get back to the Angels, werewolves, Marlins and Cubs. I'm flipping back and forth between the big playoff game and the show featuring everyone's favorite philanthropic vampire, just like I did last night with the game and Carnivale. Fun.

Whilst sitting around waiting for the Karloff film Mask of Fu Manchu to come on, I discovered a link at Shawn Fumo's to a new addition to the comics blogosphere, a group blog called Comicopolis. Promises to be interesting. I have linked to it, you may wish to do the same.

And on a totally unrelated subject, God has no love for the Cubs. The Supreme Being, that Exalted Diety, whoever or whatever he/her/it is, and in his/her/its divine wisdom has seen fit to punish the North Side Chicago sports fans yet again- of course, he/she/it has already had his/her/its way with the White Sox. I have rarely in my life (and usually only on Monday night Falcons football games) seen a turn of events so demoralizing. We will, I'm afraid, be treated to a thouroghly repulsive Yankees-Marlins Series. Joy. Wake me when it's over, OK?

Here's something else, speaking of the Diety- the website of Dr. Gene Scott, the oddball Biblical scholar whose show I used to catch on sleepless nights back in the mid-to-late 80s and early 90s. His knowledge of Bible history is only surpassed by his shameless hucksterism and goofy onscreen persona. I haven't seen his program in years, but his site says that a Nashville TV station which I receive as part of my cable package carries it early Sunday morning. My onscreen listing says "paid programming" for that hour, but I think I'll set my VCR timer anyway and see if I can catch it.

Who says you don't get variety of topics here at the Show?

And by the way, thanks to Elayne Riggs for the very kind words about this here blog and your humble scribe. I think hers is pretty darn spiffy as well, and is always worth checking out for any number of reasons.

Just finished reading the new Tuesday Morning Quarterback column by the most eloquent second-guesser in the history of sports journalism, Gregg Easterbrook. He links to a fun and interesting site called Intuitor: Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics, which cleverly points out physics mistakes in recent films. Read at your own risk- it's already changed my opinion of the Matrix movies...

Another long, rambling post. I might accidentally say something important, so please pay attention.

Gloomy, rainy, and blustery outside, and I'm feeling a bit down and (in the words of that immortal Traffic song) "so uninspired". I'm tired of being unemployed, tired of having to mess with the unemployment compensation system, and just plain tired of being tired. My concentration is suffering a bit as a result, as well, which really sucks and is partial explanation why I haven't written too much of substance lately.

But fret not for me, I've been to worse places and have allegedly survived.

On the NFL prediction front, I had an acceptable 9-5 week, which now places my record at a respectable 58-29, a .667 winning percentage. The less said about last night's debacle for my hapless Falcons, the better- that team just has no confidence, especially on offense. The defense wasn't bad, but wore down early in the second half. Things may change, and they have been known to do so quickly in the parity-laden League, but right now it's looking mighty doubtful the Falcons will manage to pull off back-to-back winning seasons, something they've never done. All I know is Monday Night + Atlanta Falcons is always a recipe for disaster for long suffering fans of the Dirty Birds. In baseball, I don't want to talk about the Cubbies for fear of jinxing them. I'd say they were the team I was rooting for to win it all, but that's another one of those recipes for disaster, so lets just say go Wood and Prior and let it go at that. I'm hoping that the Red Sox can get past the Yankees, too, and won't that create an angst-laden scenario if the Cubbies and the Sox wind up in the fall classic? I'd still pull for Chicago, because the Sox have been there most recently. Psychiatrists in both cities are licking their chops and making down payments even as I type.

Watched a movie or two over the last few days, mostly oldies on TCM. Horror of Dracula, the 1958 Hammer film which kicked off the entire Hammer Dracula series, aired on Sunday night, and I found myself sucked in (as I tend to be by that Hammer product). HoD is a good film, with fine performances, especially by Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, and a somewhat clever rearrangement of Bram Stoker's novel. I'm also a fan of the ominous score, reused in many Hammer flicks of the period- especially the surging, charging action theme used whenever someone or something is chasing someone or something. I've been watching this film for a little over thirty years, I reckon, and for the first time two things jumped out at me: first, why the hell does Dracula keep his coffin in a storage room on the lower left front side of his castle, easily accessible to any old person who wants to wander in- especially since the door always seems to be open? He might as well hang a big neon sign shaped like an arrow, that says "Here I am!- Drac". Also, Jonathan Harker, in the opening sequence, is a real dumbass. He easily finds his way to the coffin room, convieniently just before sundown, and what does he do? He decides to stake the girl vamp that put the bite on him the evening before first! No, Jonathan! Stake DRACULA first! Then she will be destroyed as well, and everything will be cake from then on! But no. He stakes the girl, swoons for a while since as we all know it's hard work to drive a stake through someone, then by the time he recovers the sun (quickly) goes down and Drac's awake...and of course it goes badly. Dumbass, like I said. Still, this film has an exciting finale that's worth the price of admission. You remember- Van Helsing runs across a table, pulls off the curtains, and Drac is caught in the sunlight, as Van H grabs a pair of candlesticks, forms a cross, and keeps him there. But even that raises another couple of questions- by film's end, Drac has put the bite on Mina Holmwood, and has taken her back to his castle with Van Helsing and Arthur Holmwood in hot pursuit. Does Drac take her deep into the labrynthine walls of his terrible castle? Nope. He digs a frigging grave and buries Mina in it, with Mina screaming all the while (in between mouthfuls of dirt)! Did Drac think VH and Holmwood wouldn't notice the freshly dug hole right in front of the castle? And what was to be gained by burying her in a hole, like a bone? Also, how the heck can a pair of crossed candlesticks suddenly be transformed into a religious icon? Sigh. Anyway, glaring odd stuff notwithstanding, this is a fave from my formative years, and I still recommend it. Just don't think about it too much.

I also caught another movie featuring my Forties inamorata Priscilla Lane, Blues in the Night, in which Pris plays a character named "Character" (no kidding, "Character" Powell) who sings lead in a forties big band. The down-on-its-luck band, which consists of several Warner Bros. contract players and a young Elia Kazan, gets involved with a mobster and his psycho ex-girlfriend, who naturally takes a shine to the bandleader and seduces him away from the group. Lots of 40s-style soap operatics, and some unusual musical set pieces (songs by Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen) are the main distinguishing features of this pic, which was pretty entertaining for the most part. The title song I knew from a Bugs Bunny cartoon in which a Elmer Fudd-ish doofus vulture would go around singing "My mama done told me...bring home something for dinner". I had no idea that this was a real song (and a very successful one at that) till I saw this film, my knowledge of Forties hits being somewhat incomplete.

Another interesting flick I watched over the weekend was a documentary on the Sundance Channel about legendary record producer Tom Dowd, titled Tom Dowd and the Language of Music. Lotsa cool old clips, photos, and guest interviews from the likes of Ray Charles and Eric Clapton. Well worth catching if you can.

Also, (to abruptly segue somewhere else completely different) I watched the finale to the two-part Teen Titans animated series, in which Slade, or Deathstroke the Terminator as I remember him from the comics, (he hasn't been referred to by that name in the show so far) essentially blackmails Robin into becoming his partner/sidekick/successor. It was pretty good, for the most part- not as much fun as the Mad Mod episode, but good. One thing bugs me though- none of the other characters have parent figures, besides Robin. Starfire, Cyborg, and Raven were never teen sidekicks of established characters, and the Doom Patrol (Beast Boy) and Aquaman (Aqualad, in his one and only appearance so far) have not been mentioned...nor has the Batman, and it bugs me that they've set up all these teenish characters, living in their own HQ, and no mention anywhere about how they came to be in this situation. It drove me nuts that all this happened to Robin in the last two episodes, and Batman was nowehere to be found, even though some of the action took place on the rooftop of Wayne Enterprises and at one point Robin defiantly tells Slade "I already have a father", accompanied by a visual of bats flying into the sky! What the @#$!?

Looking around at other blogs:

Happy blogiversary to Dirk Deppey and his indispensable ¡Journalista! site. Dirk, if you bothered to look at my links list from time to time you would have seen a link to Ted Rall's website, which has been there almost since I started this.

Speaking of which, my blogiversary is coming up in a little over a week.

Good ol' Bill Sherman, the lucky dog, has bought some of the new Direct Stream Digital Bob Dylan discs, and writes about them. Between this and the Steely Dan piece he also wrote about the other day, he's been listening to almost as much dinosaur music as I have! I'm supposed to be getting a dubbed copy of that Dan CD soon, and I definitely want a couple of those Dylan discs, like Highway 61 Revisited, Bringing It All Back Home, and my favorite Zimmy album, Blood on the Tracks.

Memo to Sean Collins: My recent fave horror movie list read that way because, to be honest, that's what I get out of horror films. They don't "scare" me, and rarely even give me the creeps. For me, there is no "fright factor", and if that's a liability, well, mea culpa. I think perhaps it's because, as a child, I got a glimpse behind the curtain via Famous Monsters and Monster Times, among other publications, and as a result the onscreen goings-on lost all the glamour for me. When I view a horror film, I'm looking to be engaged visually or have my imagination enhanced, not for a rollercoaster experience or to be startled or scared shitless. Maybe that's why I don't get a charge out of the majority of modern horror movies, and tend to prefer the more genteel classics.

Interlude- regarding Bill Jemas' upcoming ouster at Marvel, I think Jemas had some definite positives at the beginning of his tenure (in fact, I read more Marvel comics right now that I have in nigh 20 years), but it seems to my far-from-an-insider position that he let himself get carried away with his self-percieved power and ability. I'll keep my fingers crossed for future Marvel, but since I haven't been what you could call a real Marvel fan since, oh, 1976, it doesn't matter much to me about what kind of product the erstwhile House of Ideas churns out in the future. My two cents worth.

Laura "Tegan" Gjovaag has been dealing with some serious issues lately, between her husband's teachers strike situation and some serious-sounding depression on her part, and all I can do is hope for the best for her and hers.

Jim Henley seems to be giving me a bit more credit for Dirk Deppey's Captain America quote than I'm comfortable with, but he writes some interesting stuff about the Star-Spangled Avenger and his potential as a cash cow for Marvelcorp. And while I still say I agree with Dirk on that score, I will hedge my position somewhat and say that an Ultimates style costume would work.

This just in: Big Sunny D really, really likes Outkast's new twofer CD! Without having heard it, except for one cut ("Hey Ya", a nifty if somewhat longish Principarlimentadelicish thang), I wish I could look at it and not be reminded of Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Works Volume One or the Kiss solo albums.

J.W. Hastings, aka Forager 23, has a nice summing-up of the whole Marvel/Jemas/Grant Morrison situation, about which I've already held forth. It's always seemed weird for me, though, to see Morrison at Marvel. I never warmed to New X-Men (even though I haven't ruled out getting more trade collections down the road), but I loved Marvel Boy.

Dave Fiore chips in with a column which continues his warmup to writing about the now-mostly-forgotten 80s miniseries Sword of the Atom, which I bought then (having always been something of a fan of the Mighty Mite), read, and while I liked it I must not have liked it all that much since I let it go when I sold 3/4 of my original collection back in 1987. Anyway, this particular column takes a look at a couple of 60s issues of Atom, and also comments on the perceived eventual "Marvelization" of DC as well as Ant-Man and the Avengers from that same period. I used to have a complete run of those Golden Age Atoms. I miss 'em. Snif.

Happy belated birthdays to Shawn Fumo and Teresa Ortega. She's a Libra. Also happy birthday, today, to my good friend Vicki Morrison, who probably won't read this anyway.

Brendan, that most excellent of Leptards, writes about a clutch of records he's listened to lately, including one of my fave LPs (and yes, that top 25 list will come someday), Todd Rundgren's 1973 effort A Wizard/A True Star. He also writes about a chance encounter with Van's daughter Shana Morrison.

I click on my link for Sugar 'n' Spicy, and all I get is one of those annoying "domain park" link list pages! Ilana! What has happened? And here she had finally linked to me, too! Stay tuned...

All right, that's enough for right now. Guess I managed to ramble enough to stretch this out nicely, eh! If I don't mention your blog, please don't be offended. I just got tired of listing stuff and have to wind this up. Nothing personal, I swear.

Music listened to this morning: Minus 5-Down With Wilco, George Harrison-Living in the Material World, Eels-Souljacker, Joni Mitchell-Court and Spark, Fleetwood Mac-Heroes are Hard to Find, R.E.M.-Green, and Lennon Anthology-discs 3 and 4, the cuts "Grow Old With Me" and "Rip it Up/Ready Teddy".

Sayonara, for now.

Taking a look at the new Diamond shipping list, here's what I'll be getting tomorrow:

HELLBOY: WEIRD TALES #5
GOTHAM CENTRAL #12
HUMAN TARGET #3
JSA #53
LUCIFER #43
SMAX #3
DAREDEVIL #53

Sorry to read where Steven Wintle's discontinuing his Flat Earth comics blog. Earth was one of the first blogs to link to yours truly, and vice versa, and I'll miss stopping by there occasionally. Hopefully he'll be back soon.

Posthumous BSBdG's go out today to Lenny Bruce, who would have been 78.

My Nebraska Adventure, part deux:



Here I am, at the state line, scanning the horizon for something...anything...

BEST OF THE WEEK

COMICS REVIEWS!
What I bought and what I thought, week of October 1

H-E-R-O 9
The H-dial ends up in the hands of a perpetually behind-the-eightball Gotham City second story man this time out, and it's a well-written and illustrated study of a fellow who's been given a golden ticket and is determined not to foul up again. Whether or not he manages to pull this off remains to be seen, but I really enjoyed the character interaction that was the core of this particular issue of this recently underachieving series. A

JLA 88
You know, Joe Kelly writes a damn good Plastic Man. If I was in charge of DC, I think I'd just pay Kyle Baker to do a one-shot special and turn the ongoing Plas book over to Joe K. Formerly Known as the Justice League has all the laughs, but those guys don't have anything on Kelly, Doug Mahnke and Tom Nguyen, especially on page 16. I dare say that this title, right now, is about as good as it gets for mainstream superheroics these days, and am gratified to see my faith in Kelly through several lackluster story arcs has not gone unrequited. I've always had the utmost faith in Mahnke and Nguyen. A

100 BULLETS 47
In which we catch up with the homicidal heroin addict from a year or so ago, and find out what he's been up to with his briefcase full of the titular ammo. After a long Batman-assignment inspired wait, what we have here is the introductory chapter of another longish arc, and a somewhat confusing ending, which I'm sure will be cleared up eventually. Still first rate, but the jury's out until the story's farther along. A-

ULTIMATE SIX 3
Hey, I didn't know this was a weekly! But it's OK, because despite my unfamiliarity with Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man (Pete's not so much of a genius there, I take it?) I'm really enjoying the dramatics. Great back-and-forth between Nick Fury and Pete, and Tony Stark cracks me up (himself, too). Hairsine and Miki are getting more comfortable with their Hitch-isms. All good so far. A-

FABLES 18
The story meanders, and perhaps it was a bit soon to go back to the flashback well after The Last Castle...but Linda Medley was born to do this sort of thing and she brings her Castle Waiting style to great effect. I wouldn't mind seeing her do more fill-ins in the future, for sure, and the cover by James Jean is one of the best I've seen in a while. B+

TOM STRONG 22
This ambitious, but convoluted and dull multi-issue multi-dimensional multi-time period extravaganza is finally, and thankfully, over. Actually, this chapter was a bit livelier than the previous ones, mostly thanks to Jerry Ordway- who's not a favorite of mine but did a solid job for the most part in his stolid, competent style. As with last issue, the Chris Sprouse cover homage, this time a swipe of Crisis On Infinite Earths, is the highlight. C+

1602 3
I just don't think Gaiman has his heart in this, which only partially explains how this can be so overwritten and underwritten at the same time. Maybe he just doesn't get the same thrill poking around in Marvel's trash pile as he did when it came to his own creations in Sandman... anyway, this, to me, comes across as journeyman and uninspired, almost like someone's ghosting it for him, and Andy Kubert's trying really hard to animate it all, but that Isanove fella's relentless Photoshopping saps all the life out of his art- making it blurry and hard to focus upon. A perfect example of a C grade comic if I ever saw one. Not a complete disaster, though- I liked this issue's cover. C

My baloney has a first name, it's

Johnny B's Fearless Pigskin Prognostications!

Tampa Bay over Washington- even though the banged up Bucs are coming off a Monday night, and even though the game is on the road, I still believe they have enough to beat the not-bad Skinnies. This is the first of many hard-to-predict games this week.

Indianapolis over Carolina- I don't think the Colts will put up 30 plus on another tough defense this week, but I like the Colts at home in a low scoring squeaker. And you didn't think Carolina was going to go 5-0, did you?

New England over the New York Giants- The Giants just haven't looked all that solid over the last couple of weeks, and the Pats have gotten better since week one. I like the Patsies in a close one.

Tennessee over Houston- again, I gotta go with the home team in what I think will be a high scoring game, with the Flaming Thumbtacks winning by a field goal.

Green Bay over Kansas City- you know, almost every game this weekend could be decided by a FG or less. Here's another one. The Pack has been getting slowly better, and I just can't see KC going 6-0.

Cleveland over Oakland- boy, will Al Davis be pissed when the inconsistent Raiders lose this one. Cleveland appears to be jellin'. Like a felon. (sorry)

Philadelphia over Dallas- Philly's got it together now, and c'mon- you didn't think the Cowboys were that good, didja? This one will be close, though, and could go either way.

Miami over Jacksonville- I've been picking against the Dolphins a lot lately, and have regretted it each time, so here. Miami will win this, but it won't be a blowout, even though (Leftwich aside) the Jag-wires don't have much on the ball on either side.

New Orleans over Chicago- this battle of the wretched will be a hard fought contest (bet you can still get good tickets in NO), but the Aints will pull it out, since they allegedly have more firepower on offense. Besides, a Aints win will put my beloved Falcons in last place, and you just know that's gonna happen.

Denver over Pittsburgh- The Steelers should be better than they've showed so far, but they aren't, thanks to their inability to run the football. I don't think they're gonna get better at the Habitual Liars' expense.

Buffalo over the New York Jets- the Bills have just got too much for the sorry Jets to deal with. We always used to say "your chances are skinny when you go with Vinny"...

Arizona over Baltimore- look, I have no logical reason for making this pick. None whatsoever. There's just a little voice in my head telling me the Ravens will wilt in the desert, so I'm gonna take a chance here.

Seattle over San Franscisco- I look for the Seahawks, who totally collapsed in Green Bay last weekend, to snap back big over the disorganized 49ers. When the perpetually clueless Dennis Erickson (and you 'Hawks fans know all about him, don'tcha) claims that he thinks their problems will be solved by emphasizing the running game, then you just know that dark days are ahead for the Niner faithful. Heh heh.

St. Louis over Atlanta- that same little voice was telling me that my hapless Birds will pull one out in St. L., but I refuse to listen to him twice in one week. Doesn't mean I won't be rooting for it to happen, though...actually, I'm just rooting for my guys to avoid yet another Monday night humiliation.

Last week: 8-6. Overall: 49-24, a .671 winning percentage.

Time now for a couple of significant BSBdG's! First up, that purveyor of craptacular cinema Edward D. Wood, Jr., who would have been 79 if he hadn't woke up early the day he died, and



John Prine, 57 today. There are few people on the face of the planet that can write songs better than our boy John.

I was a bit surprised when I got so much reaction to my recent mention of John Cale's Paris 1919 album, so when Mrs. B was taking a round of pictures to finish up a roll so we could take them to get developed, I grabbed my copy of that record, and now we are forever immortalized for posterity. Or something like that.