Truth in Advertising.

Written by PAUL DINI • Art and cover by GUILLEM MARCH

Poison Ivy's new job as a research technician may have her working undercover, but that doesn't mean a new threat to Gotham City will stay secret! Dr. Pamela Isley is spotlighted in this special issue of GOTHAM CITY SIRENS.

Got some new posts in the pipeline, including more Thor, so stay tuned for that. But I was looking at the solicitation copy for some DC Comics that came out yesterday, and noticed the above.

Now, maybe I'm crazy, but if you're spotlighting a character in a "special issue", wouldn't it be in everyone's best interests to have that character on the cover? And yes, I see the ivy at the bottom left. That may be a subtle way to suggest said featured character, but does anybody think it's effective? Besides the artist and editor, that is? But wait- perhaps this is suggesting that hey- Ivy's undercover, and she's so undercover that she couldn't be there to pose seductively for the cover artist! Yeah, that's it! Genius! Also, the cover creator credits don't match the solicitation creator credits. Really- WTF is going on at DC these days?

Nitpicky, I know, and I don't even buy this comic. But I wanted to post something, OK?

ETA: d. has the skinny on this in the comments. Still, that's mighty shoddy marketing there.

Stephen Perry, RIP.

I don't know exactly where this will go, but I know I have to write something, and the words are coming even harder than usual. I sincerely hope this is premature, and if that turns out to be the case I'll gladly take it down. It's gonna ramble, too, so please forgive.

In 2003, I wrote a longish blog post extolling the virtues of the short-lived mid-1980's Epic Comics series Timespirits. At some point a few months later, I had become part of a collective comics blog called "Four Color Hell" (I had completely forgotten about that blog!), and re-posted the Timespirits piece there, where it came to the attention somehow of the series' co-creator and scripter, Stephen Perry. He sent me an email on April 5, 2004:

To the 4 color hell guy: thanks for the kind words. I should like very much to bring back Timespirits, first as a reprint for the generation that has come since I left comics, and then as the continuing series I had always envisioned. The Timespirits graphic novel "Doot Lives" never was published, and the script remains in a drawer, along with many other adventures of Cusick. I've tried to contact Tom (Yeates) but this is only the third week I have entered into the world of the internet -- surprised anyone remembers. After whoring on Thundercats and Silverhawks, and losing a major motion picture deal, I bummed and, while writing all these years, have published nothing since 1991.

Well, of course, I was excited to hear from him like that, so I replied, and we exchanged a couple of emails back and forth afterwards. Mostly just small talk type stuff, a little about the series and so on. I didn't hear from him again until February of 2006, when out of the blue he emailed me to let me know that things were looking good for Timespirits to be collected and published again, and to ask me if I'd mention it here, which I did. Another couple of emails went back and forth, and that was it. About a year later, after seeing no TS collection, I asked him how it was coming along, and he told me that they had had issues with the printing, among other things, and didn't know if it would happen or not. Disappointing, but that stuff happens. After that, I heard little else from him save for an occasional forwarding of some political-type email or somesuch, no more than a couple...and thought nothing of it until I saw Steve Bissette's urgent update and appeal in his behalf with its dismaying news. I wanted to try and do something, anything, and eventually I sent along a small amount, nowhere near what I would like to have sent, thinking that something was better than nothing. After the first contribution I made, he emailed me expressing gratitude and filling me in on what had happened since the last time we exchanged emails, and his tale was horrifying. Shocking. I was heartsick for days after reading it. It was worse than Bissette had let on in his post. I briefly considered doing some sort of illustration, perhaps to auction on eBay and raise some money for him, but alas as so often is the case the plan came to naught. While I didn't have a lot of money to contribute, I did remember that the Hero Initiative was around to look out for comics creators who had fallen down on their luck, and I emailed Gail Simone, who I knew had worked with them before and might be able to tell me how I could get the HI involved. After I had sent her one of Perry's emails so she could read for herself how bad it was, she contacted them herself and got Perry a little assistance. May she be blessed for getting involved. I was very happy to hear this and hoped that perhaps things might be looking up for him and his little boy...but that turned out to not be the case. After that, I continued to get the occasional email from Steve, updating me on his status and occasionally asking for money; I did send a little more, just a drop in the bucket. Eventually, it looked like he was going to get the medical treatment he needed, and he sounded optimistic and ready to write again. But, the surgery and its aftermath went horribly wrong, and his life devolved into what surely sounded like a living hell, which culminated in the terrible news reported over the weekend. His last email, with the subject line of "Farewell" (the preceding one was named "Death"), was so depressing I couldn't reply. I didn't know what to say or do, and I regret not trying to come up with something now. Who knows- he might not have been able to have read it anyway, but at least I would have tried.

I don't want to come across as self-serving. Perry and I were only acquaintances, and Internet acquaintances at that. We all have them here, some of us more than others- people we interact with frequently and in a friendly manner in chat rooms and Twitter and whatnot, but have never met, and most likely never will. My admiration for his work began and ended with Timespirits, a comics work which moved me more that I can reasonably explain (and I know that Thomas Yeates probably had a lot to do with that as well). I'll come out right up front and admit that while I did read, and promptly forgot, a lot of his other Marvel stories in publications like Bizarre Adventures and Epic Illustrated, I freely ignored other work like the Thundercats and Silverhawks stuff, based on cartoons my son watched and not especially interesting to me. Figured he was paying the bills by doing that; little did I know back then. But there was just something about the 'Spirits comic that grabbed my imagination and emotion like few others have. All this said, I was delighted to have known Perry as well as I did, and was honored to help in the insignificant way that I did. I always hoped that I'd be able to buy new comics that he had scripted, and perhaps someday attend a convention in which he would be a guest. After this past weekend, though, this is unlikely to ever happen. Until the grisly remains are identified as his, there's always a slim chance he'll be found or will turn up...but since the police are already treating this as a homicide case, I'd say that's very unlikely. I worry about his young son going forward; from his emails, (and I want to be diplomatic and not make insinuations I can't prove or back up) I'm not sure that his situation is the best for him right now. I hope that concerned parties keep an eye on this. I also hope that Stephen, if he is indeed gone, is in a better place now, free from pain, where he can write to his heart's content. I am, and was, proud to have been his "Internet friend".

Two more things: first, when I sent a money order to him last year, I also enclosed the original to the quick pencil sketch I did of the Timespirits, link above, since it looked like I was never going to do it up right. In return, after complimenting the drawing (he said "Not Yeates, for sure, but not too awful"- high praise to me!), he asked if I'd be willing to draw a 2-3 page TS story if hr wrote one for me. I told him that I didn't want to make promises I couldn't keep, but I would try. For the first time anywhere, here is the story he wrote (and I've cleaned up the spelling and such just a bit):

Tentative Title: The Arrow Heard Round The World

Cusick is at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean at a thermal vent collect a weird sea animal that lives in the extreme water heated by magma. He needs this critter to finish a potion that will save the planet ...

We go into flashback panels here to tell what has happened, to tell the bulk of the story:
Doot is practicing with a bow and arrow, shooting at a target of some sort. (George Bush photo? Cheny? Osama? Something funny.) He has shot a lot of arrows and is reaching for another one in a quiver.
Cusick is appearing, to shout: NOT THAT ONE!
But he is too late, Doot has let the arrow fly.

The arrow will not stop at the target. In fact ... it WILL NOT STOP AT ALL ...FOR ANYTHING!
(This arrow is, in effect, an idea stolen from the first Men in Black movie. In MiB Will Smith is brought to HQ for the first time and he knocks that little ball from it's mooring, and the little ball, over the next twenty seconds, careens around HQ smashing through everything and bouncing all around until Tommy Lee Jones stops it. That thing, Jones explained in the movie, caused the Eastern Seaboard blackout in 1979.)

Our arrow is the same concept. Once released ... it will not stop, smashing through everything -- targets, walls, cars, bridges, buildings, mountains ... as Cusick and Doot chase it, Cusick trying to throw a potion on it that will stop it -- which he does and the potion does not work, at which point he remembers he needed one final ingredient for the potion -- which is a little critter found only at the thermal vents at the bottom of the pacific.

We've wrapped to the thermal vent by now, and the potion is complete, but Cusick and Doot still can't catch the arrow -- it has gone right through the center of the earth and Cusick picks up Doot and the chase at the point of its emerging.
It should cause tons more damage before Cusick and Doot finally are just about to catch it as it heads toward some famous theater or arena or something like Madison Square Garden or the Hollywood Bowl or something ... a name is on the marquee.
Cusick manages to throw the potion on the arrow just before it zooms into the theater ...
to hit ...
STEVE MARTIN
in the head.
The last panel is, yes, Steve Martin, with his banjo and the stupid "arrow through the head" as he performs, with Doot and Cusick in the wings.

That's it.

sp

How cool is that, anyway? I laughed out loud when I read the revelation at the end. I'm not sure exactly who owns the copyright to these characters, so I'll just say they're © Thomas Yeates and let it go at that. Perhaps this falls under the Creative Commons thing (which I've ever understood all that well). I tried to be true to my word, but except for a couple of hastily scribbled attempts at laying out the opening scene, I did not live up to my promise, sorry to say.

Finally, I want to post some Timespirits pages that came to mind, months ago, when I first heard of Perry's plight, and echo somewhat the hopes of those (this may be presumptive of me, but I hope anyway) who knew him and loved him. In these pages, we see the aftermath of their final battle with the Spirit Eater on a mountain in Tibet; an unfortunate result is the death of Doot, Cusick's young companion and fellow Timespirit. Something must be done with all the souls the Eater captured, including Doot's, and the High Lama knows what to do. Apologies if I spoil. Click to view them bigger, of course.

The last page, below, of not only this issue but (as it turned out) the series as a whole, and one of the absolute best endings I've ever read in a comics series, never fails to move me, and I find it hard to express exactly why. Each character featured in the previous seven issues- Three Birds and the Bloodless Ghebe, Princess Pey and Tubal Carrin, the human/dinosaur spaceship captain and her prehistoric ancestor, which Doot encountered on a trip to the past (long story); Thorneypaws and her manager (no Hendrix, though), the High Lama and the Yeti Spirit Eater, all come out and take a bow. Then, they turn (and it's implied that the applause is louder and louder) back to the curtain, expecting someone else (again, implied, Doot and Cusick and perhaps the Talking Fish, last seen in Cusick's frying pan) to come out and take their turn...but no one comes. It's left for Three Birds, Doot's unfortunate brother from the very first issue, to have the final word: a shrug. I thought this was absolutely brilliant.

Goodbye, Mr. Perry, if such this is. I hope you have found peace.

For more: Steve Bissette, part one and part two. Also, Nat Gertler, Rich Johnston, and Mark Evanier.

"Still I am Mightiest of Them All!" Part 2: Mighty Thor #'s 144-168 (1967-69)

Continuing to look back at some 1967-1969 issues of The Mighty Thor that I recently read.

#145 picks up where last issue left off, with the aftermath of Thor's battle with the Enchanters (two of them anyway), and dealing with being stuck on Earth with Sif and Balder, powerless
and unable to return to Asgard to aid Odin in his battle with the third member of the terrible trio.

Recap: Having bested Brona and Magnir in battle, Thor turns the equally powerless pair over to the police. We then abruptly head back to Asgard, and witness Odin, last seen rocketing through the cosmos in a fireball with Forsung, the third Enchanter, standing over his vanquished foe, just like that, and loudly proclaiming "you better recognize", or at least what passes for that in Asgard. I mean really- check these pages out for some truly epic chest beating:

Now that is some cold blooded shit right there. Having dispensed righteous godly justice, Odin turns his attention to his son and his entourage, restoring their powers and summoning them home. But.

Thor isn't so sure that he should go back home, because he has grown attached to Earth and believes (rightly so) that he can do much good as Dr. Donald Blake, and says as much to Odin, which pisses Odin off no end because he's just got done kicking Enchanter butt and doesn't want any lip from his wuss of a son. In another ongoing theme that was happening before this run and probably continued for a long time after, Odin decides to teach Thor yet another lesson and says "OK, fine, you want to stay on Earth? Then you can stay- but without your powers! Because I don't want any more of your lip!" And that's just what happens. Now, I don't really understand why Thor just couldn't get a haircut and continue to practice medicine as Dr. Blake, but apparently that's out of the question so he decides to go out and find a job, no easy task for a long-haired young man in 1967. But look who Thor winds up running into:

Yep, the freaking Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime! Small world, isn't it? Thor is apparently unaware that the Circus of Crime and its slimy Ringmaster have battled the Hulk and Spider-Man, this being the Marvel Universe of 1967 and not the Marvel Universe of 2010 (crossovers were more limited, even then), so when they ask him to try out for the vacant strongman position, he is more than happy to oblige and demonstrates his might for them:

The Ringmaster, slimy bastard that he is, returns the favor by hypnotizing Thor with his hat, and instructs him to carry a giant bull made out of lead (colored brown by the colorist- oops) for fifty paces before setting it down. Thor succeeds, of course, and Ringy reveals his true plot- they want to steal a giant calf made of solid gold, and need someone strong enough to lift it, then carry it to a waiting conveyance. More on the actual heist next issue, next time.

The Arabian Nights-inspired "Tales of Asgard" backfeature concludes this issue, as Thor and the Warriors Three, with the help of Prince Aladdin, I mean Alibar, use magic and might to defeat the evil wizard Mogul and rescue Hogun's people in the land of Zanadu. Volstagg gets to carry his big-ass cannon around for a while too. Ya gotta love Volstagg- check out the page at right, and the aftermath of the abrupt defeat of Mogul:











Comments: I'm a father, I understand a little about parenting, but the constant "gotta teach Thor humility" events that were a hallmark of this comics' golden era kinda strained the old disbelief meter a bit. Still, this was 1967, and the Generation Gap, with parents and their difficulties with their kids (and vice versa) was very much on everyone's minds at that time- and of definite interest to the Counterculture crowd that Marvel was aiming at in those days. So Thor kept getting "bugged at his old man" for a long, long time.

Boy, talk about odd dramatics- the sudden end of the Odin/Forsung battle came across almost as an afterthought. I would have thought it would have been stretched out for more drama, but I guess that wasn't the case. I wonder if Kirby drew a battle, but they decided to leave it out because of space considerations?

It shows how used to today's comics I am, I suppose, that I find it hard to believe that Thor didn't recognize the Ringmaster and his outfit...I mean, he was in the Avengers, for heaven's sake, and I know it was early on but surely they had files on all the costumed creeps, even then!

Kirby's art is often very powerful in places this issue; I was especially impressed by the staging and the bulky, strong figures of Odin and the fallen Enchanter on page 3. I liked his Ringmaster, as well- Kirby drew him fiddling with his gloves a lot, and generally made him look as unctuous as he could be. I usually associate the character with Steve Ditko, since they were regular Spidey foes for a while there, but I guess Kirby was first, when they appeared in an early issue of The Hulk.

Next time, will Thor help the Ringmaster get his golden calf, and what will replace the Tales of Asgard?

My Movie Year, the conclusion.

OK, now to finish what I should have finished a long time ago, a look back at the films I watched in 2009.

OCTOBER

Jumpers
Blood Simple
The Blood Waters of Dr. Z aka Zaat

I though Jumpers was fast-paced and fun; no classic by any stretch but a good time-waster with a decent cast and few dead spots. Blood Simple was the only Coen Bros. film I hadn't seen, and I'm sorry I waited so long. It isn't as polished and quirky as their subsequent films would be, but it's no less well written and full of memorable characters. Blood Waters, also known as Zaat!, aired as part of Turner Classic Movies' Underground late night showcase for Psychotronic cinema; it's a dull grade-z dud that I had been curious about for a long time. Now I can check it off the list and happily live the rest of my life without seeing it again! October, especially on the 31st, is usually a big movie-watching month for me, but the usual cable network suspects didn't air the expected Halloween marathons and the films they did screen I'd already seen many times. Hopefully 2010 will be better. I also held on to Blood Simple for a long time before I finally watched it.

NOVEMBER

Johnny Mercer: The Dream's on Me
Milk
Taken
Run, Fatboy, Run
Role Models
American Scary
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
It Takes a Thief
The Devil and Daniel Webster aka All That Money Can Buy

I kinda picked up the pace in November; the Mercer documentary aired on TCM, and was an interesting look at the legendary songwriter who wrote such standards as "Moon River" and two longtime favorite songs of mine, "Skylark" and "Drinking Again". Milk told the story of slain San Francisco political figure Harvey Milk; the period detail looked good and Sean Penn was excellent in the title role. Taken had Liam Neeson giving a typically solid performance in a often ludicrous kidnap rescue action thriller. It was fun as long as you didn't think about it too hard. Fatboy was the Simon Pegg vehicle in which he trains for a marathon to impress the girl he loves; not top-flight Pegg, but he was likeable as ever in the role and there were a few laughs here and there. Role Models surprised me a lot; I expected another lame comedy with Hollywood life lessons and/or juvenile fart and tit jokes, but it turned out to be a good, and often very funny, little account of two slackers who wind up having to mentor two misfit kids. American Scary was a documentary on TV horror movie show hosts; I rented it hoping to see some footage of Sir Cecil Creape, the fondly remembered (by me, anyway) 70's horror host that I watched faithfully on Nashville's NBC Channel 4 in my teenage years. Sure enough, Sir Cecil got some screen time, but not as much as others- some of which, like Zacherley and Ghoulardi, I had heard of and many I hadn't. Worth a look if you're interested in the subject. Keanu Reeves sleepwalked through the unnecessary remake of Day the Earth Stood Still, no big surprise but at least he was playing an alien. Don't know what the rest of the cast's excuse was, including one annoying kid with big hair. Thief was some classic Hitchcock I hadn't seen, very enjoyable. Finally, one of my favorite films- the excellent 1941 version of Devil and Daniel Webster, imaginatively staged and featuring excellent turns by Walter Huston as Mr. Scratch, and the stunning Simone Simon as a literal nanny from Hell.


DECEMBER

Breaker Morant
Semi-Pro
A Christmas Carol (aka Scrooge)
Drag Me to Hell
Gran Torino
Four Wives
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Indestructible Man

The death of Edward Woodward prompted me to finally get around to screening Breaker Morant; it was a gripping drama with a fine perf by Woodward as the lead. Usually, a little Will Farrell goes a long way with me, and so I was fully prepared to ignore Semi-Pro, even though it was a film that was loosely based on the real-life American Basketball Association, which I loved as a kid. Happened to catch it on HBO one afternoon, and wound up liking it a lot more than I expected- sure, Farrell was doing his usual clueless buffoon schtick, but the supporting cast was great and the situations, many based on ABA stunts I recall, were very funny. Every year at Christmas, I watch 1951's Scrooge, which is one of my favorite films period and features what I consider to be one of the best performances in the history of cinema, Alastair Sim's portrayal of the title character. The supporting cast is excellent as well, featuring many vets of British stage and screen at the time (including young Patrick MacNee, who appears (as an older man, in the 1990s) on my DVD in a completely pointless color introduction) as well as gorgeously oppressive and gloomy black and white photography. When Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday one year in the 70's, Sir Cecil Creape (see above) screened this on "Creature Features", it was so gothic; I saw it for the first time, and I've made it a point to watch it pretty much every year since. Drag Me to Hell was a bit of a disappointment; Sam Raimi's energetic return to horror was sabotaged by an unlikable heroine and some (admittedly typical for Raimi) scenes that came across as a bit more goofy than I think they were intended. I liked Gran Torino; Clint Eastwood's grouchy, bigoted old man who gradually comes to accept his foreign neighbors was a very good role for him, and was often touching without overdoing it. Four Wives was the sequel to Four Daughters, which starred my Forties inamorata Priscilla Lane and her sisters, along with Claude Rains as their dad and John Garfield as a bad-boy love interest. Wives brought most of the cast back (sans Garfield) and caught us up on what they were doing later; it was an enjoyable soapy time-waster, and of course you all know I can watch Priscilla in pretty much anything. Finally, the last thing I watched in 2009, on Netflix's "watch it now" on New Year's Eve, was the MST3K episode that spotlighted an old el cheapo Lon Chaney thriller called The Indestrucible Man. I had seen that film many times growing up on Nashville Channel 5's afternoon Big Show, but I thought it would be fun to see what Crow, Tom Servo and Joel brought to it, and I wasn't disappointed- much fun.


And that's all, folks! I'm keeping a movie diary this year, too, so perhaps I'll do this again in 2011.

"Still I am Mightiest of Them All!" Part 1: Mighty Thor #'s 144-168 (1967-69)

Recently, while scrolling through my Google Reader feeds, I came across a site which features pics of a lot of original artwork from various publishers and years of comics. This particular post had several examples of original Jack Kirby art, specifically pages from his run on The Mighty Thor. This made me realize that it has been ages since I read any of this stuff (and to be honest, I didn't always buy Thor on a regular basis back then, when I was a preteen), and I didn't recall what happened in a great deal of it. So, I decided to go track some down and see what I thought about it now. Thanks to the magic of the Internet, I found a run of mid-late '60s Thors from 1967-1969, the waning days of what we've all come to understand as the Classic Period of Marvel- and after having read them, I thought it might be interesting to recap them. So, shall we begin?

#144: As it turned out, #144 was the conclusion (of sorts, more on that later) of a multi-issue account of Thor and Odin's battle (aided by Lady Sif and Balder) with a trio of typically weird-ass Kirby godlike badguys called the Enchanters, one of which was in the possession of something called the Living Talisman.

Recap: As we join Thor, Balder, and Sif on Earth, apparently the lady and her escort have found Thor (or perhaps Don Blake, he was still changing back and forth at this time) in what I assume is Blake's apartment, and have informed him of the threat. As they converse in flowery Stan Lee pseudo-biblical godspeak, they're startled to see a green blotch of Kirby Krackle in the window, in which a face soon appears, Wizard of Oz-like- it's the Living Talisman! Basically, the Talisman just wants to tell them that they can't hide, and throws in a few pithy "thou art stupid fools"-type remarks before he's done, as you can see below. We meet Brona and Magnir for the first time this ish, the Larry and Curly of the trio. Dig those Kirby-designed masks:

And yea verily, this battle is joined! Thor, noble as ever, chooses to fight the pair alone, and Balder and Sif are left behind as the fighters ascend on a hunk of rock into the air, and do battle- the Enchanters' science tricks against Thor's hammer and his godlike strength, bragging and boasting about how powerful each of them are the whole while. Pay attention, kids, this is a reoccurring thing for the whole of this run. Meanwhile, Odin's up in Asgard, hosting/judging some sort of Great Outdoor Fight-type event, when the festivities are interrupted by the Moe of the trio, Forsung. After more bragging and declarations, they decide to have a fight to the death, a la Cole Younger and Belle Starr's would-be lover in The Long Riders, except instead of Bowie knives and a sash tying their wrists together, they both grasp a phallic symbol, I mean a scepter, and zoom off into space in a big fireball.

Unbeknownst to Thor and Co., still battling on Earth, Odin agrees to take away the powers of the other Asgardians (I guess to prevent unwanted interventions), and Forsung promises not to avail himself of the Talisman- and that makes things a wee bit more difficult. But feareth not, Thor prevails due to his righteous might or something like that, applying a royal butt kicking to Brona and Magnir, and the trio are left on Earth, unable to return to Asgard, and must anxiously await the outcome of the "All-Father"'s conflict.

There's a back feature in this issue, more of the "Tales of Asgard" feature that ran in the book and allowed Kirby to stretch his imagination a bit more. This one seems to be an Arabian Nights inspired arc, in which Thor and the Warriors Three strive to defeat a wizard named "Mogul", who is able to summon demon riders in the service of Satan, no less (and exactly why again did they have to call the obviously Satan-like character in Silver Surfer "Mephisto"?) on a flying carpet, with the help of a "Prince Alibar". At the end, we are rewarded by this sight:

BAD ASS VOLSTAGG WITH A BIG BAD ASS GUN.

Comments: One of the biggest hurdles I've had to overcome, reading not just this but any of the classic 1963-1970 Marvel output is just how awfully florid and stilted much of the dialogue is- not like DC's from the period, mind you, which was often even worse in its own way. I notice this more when it's Lee writing comic/magic characters like Doc Strange and Thor; his FF and Spider-Man had a more naturalistic "sound", and the humor and wit he could bring stood out because of it. Of course, the bad guys postured and pontificated just like here, but when the good guys are doing it too it gets tiresome- I can only take so much "I can't believe you dare challenge me because I am all-powerful and mighty and so on".

There's also a little soap-opera subplot going on in which Thor's bud Balder is secretly crushing on the Lady Sif, who of course has eyes only for ol' Blondie. I suppose Lee and Kirby were going for a Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot thing, and I'm not far enough along in my rereading to know if it was explored any further.

The Kirby art is, of course, full of action and energy, and it shines through despite the typically grubby-looking Vince Colletta inks. I don't intend to let this series of posts turn into a Vinnie-bashing exercise, but one can't help but wish he'd done romance comics or something else all his career and never got to touch a single Kirby page, not only here but on New Gods and other projects. He was a skilled craftsman, and was great with deadlines, I understand that...but his scratchy line and penchant for omitting background (and often foreground) details are just hard to take. I don't think the Enchanters' costumes will go down in the annals of Great Kirby Costume Design...they're a slapdash, mix-and-match set of togs, with a half a dozen different things going on with each part of the body. Brona's helmet has a weird-ass looking expression, with the eye slits so far apart. The manifestation of the Living Talisman on the chest plate of their armor is interesting- reminds of the little holograms that were placed on some of the toys from my kids' childhoods- Transformers or M.A.S.K., perhaps?

In a lot of ways, the "Tales" feature gave us more of the high myth-based adventure that you'd think you'd get with a Thor-based property- at this time, the main stories were full of the cosmic epics that readers had come to expect from Stan and jack since the Galactus trilogy. I think those are collected now; I think they might be fun to read someday.

Coming eventually (you know how I am...I won't make promises I can't keep): #145, and the fate of Odin!

The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back.

I used to review comics on this blog, you know. But I kept getting more and more behind, and the amount of new comics I was getting and reading was directly inversely proportioned to my desire to write about them...so I finally said "enough". I needed to stop for a while. And thusly, I left the below post in draft status since about a week before Thanksgiving of last year.

Until now.

Frankly, I'm tired of seeing it in the draft queue. So, I thought I could either finish the darn thing, or post it as is for all to see and shake their heads at. Typically, I chose the latter. So here's the post, in all its incomplete glory, and now I only have 3 posts in my draft queue! Hooray! Listed at the end is the insurmountable mountain of comics I had yet to review.

Yes, here's another CONFESSIONS OF A SPINNER RACK JUNKIE, in which I opine in shortish fashion about comics that I have bought and/or received and/or read in the interval between October 29th and November 12th, some of which may even still be on sale at finer comics selling establishments worldwide if you're lucky. Or not, as the case may be.

And, yeah, I'm still way behind, so please bear with me as I look at comics you read and most likely forgot about three weeks ago...

ABE SAPIEN: THE HAUNTED BOY: Poor Abe just can't seem to keep from getting the short straw when it comes to one-shots, can he? A recycled Twilight Zone plot combined with grubby Patric Reynolds art might yank someone's crank, but not mine. D+

AMBUSH BUG: YEAR NONE #6: God only knows what happened to the real #6, but I guess it doesn't really matter. While this series certainly had its share of fun and yuks, (and a fair amount of rambling aimlessness as well, let's be fair) it was defeated mostly because no matter how hard Giffen and Fleming tried to poke fun, nothing is sillier than what's being presented as canon in the ongoings this sought to ridicule. The battle was lost before the war was waged. If this leads to Fleming getting a regular gig somewhere again (assuming he wants one), though, it will have been a success. B-

ASSAULT ON NEW OLYMPUS #1: Basically, this is Incredible Hercules Annual #1, what with the same writers and one of the artists currently doing the ongoing, so I guess it's just Herc's perpetually anemic sales figures that prompted this stand-alone, which fits right between epics in Herc's own book. While there's no tittie-twisting this time out, it's an enjoyable bridge to not only the ongoing but, I assume, another of Marvel's multi-title crossover events I really have no desire to follow. A-

BEASTS OF BURDEN #2: In which the WE3 effect comes into play once more; if you don't want to hug your pets after reading this, especially if you have dogs, well, you're a more cynical, heartless bastard than I (or Dorkin, for that matter), Gunga Din. As always, Jill Thompson's watercolor art is sensational. A-

BLACK WIDOW: DEADLY ORIGIN #1: Fairly routine update/rejiggering of the Widow's origins, marred by the jarring transition between xxx's slick, modern-comics art on the modern-day events and J.P. Leon's more aesthetically pleasing, illustrator-ish work on the flashbacks. What's more logical than to have the Winter Men's artist on a tale of an ambiguously timed old Mother Russia? If this only had some of Winter Men's style, this would be worth your time. C+

DETECTIVE COMICS #858
DOMINIC FORTUNE #3
FINAL CRISIS AFTERMATH: RUN #6
GHOST RIDERS: HEAVEN'S ON FIRE #4
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #19
HELLBLAZER #260
IMMORTAL WEAPONS #4
INCREDIBLE HERCULES #137
MADAME XANADU #16
MARVEL DIVAS #4
POWER GIRL #6
THUNDERBOLTS #137
UNDERGROUND #2

xxx= didn't know the artists' name when I wrote it, and I'm too lazy to look it up now.

R.I.P. Frank Frazetta

Word has gone out that the great Frank Frazetta is dead of a stroke at 82.

I first became aware of him primarily as the guy who did those dynamic and evocative Warren magazine covers when they hit the magazine racks in the mid-1960's; although, ironically enough, the first one I ever bought (well, OK, had bought for me) didn't sport one of his paintings on the front, I know without a doubt the second one did, and I loved looking at the others in house ads, and as they came out on new releases. Eventually, as a teen, I discovered the many paperback covers he did, most notably the Conan series, and began to find out how he fit in with his contemporaries and the influence he had on some of my favorites of the time, most notably Berni Wrightson. He was one of the greats, and almost more of a larger-than-life figure than many of the characters he brought to life.

If you haven't seen the documentary Frazetta: Painting with Fire, that's a good place to start, and I'm sure many of the usual suspects will be posting links to many places where you can get an idea of the legacy he's leaving.

It's like someone wrote a comic just for me.

The esteemed Bill Doughty of Trusty Plinko Stick renown left me a message on Facebook the other day, asking me if I knew about the above, and since I am not a regular reader of the newish Batman: The Brave and the Bold Johnny DC book, I did not. But when I found out the news, I had to check it out...and OH. MY. GOD. Not only do we have the first appearance (of which I'm aware anyway) of Johnny Bacardi Show Official Mascot Super-Hip! (always gotta have that exclamation point, you know) since the Elasti-Girl/Mento wedding in Doom Patrol #104, but we also get Mad Mod (whom I've devoted a post or two to in the past...Google it) and Brother Power the Geek, another longtime favorite character of mine! And all three (especially Brother Power) are handled very nicely- Moddie is done in Teen Titans style, unsurprisingly, and Super-Hip! could have stepped straight out of the pages of Adventures of Bob Hope. I do think, after further reflection, that he could have used his shapeshifting powers to get out of that jam...but I also think I'm way too geeky about it, and at least he got to save Batman's butt on the second page. From Go-Go Checks, no less...heh heh. It's just a good thing he didn't change back into Tad Jutefruice.

Many thanks to Bill, and writer Sholly Fisch as well as artists Robert Pope and Scott McRae. Well done, fellas.

This is just a small part of the whole comic, so I hope no one gets their knickers in a twist, me duckies, by me posting these pages.

R.I.P. Dick Giordano.

For those who may be unaware, the artist and editor Dick Giordano died yesterday. Giordano was one of the most important figures in comics in the 60's through the 80's, first at Charlton Comics and later at DC. For a quite thorough career overview, I'll refer you to Tom Spurgeon's typically eloquent bio/obit; Mark Evanier's is, as usual, well done too.

For me personally, it's hard for me to recall when I first became aware of his work...I just didn't buy or read very many Charltons in the 60's, so I figure it had to be in an issue of Batman or Detective, where he inked Neal Adams (I think Giordano was arguably Adams' most sympathetic delineator) or perhaps some of the Len Wein/Dick Dillin circa 1972-73 issues of Justice League which he inked over Dillin's pencils. Perhaps the first time I saw his full art was in the Human Target series he did with Wein, which appeared as a back feature in Action Comics at about this time. I couldn't care less about the Bates/Swan stodgy (but admittedly weird and all-over-the-place) Superman stories, but the Target feature was something I didn't see too much in comics in the day- a TV-style action thriller which played to Giordano's strengths- he was firmly in the late 50's-early 60's advertising art-inspired tradition rather that one which lent itself well to superheroics (although his inking work was fine on these endeavors). I've seen a lot of it over the years, but I'm not sure if he ever did better work on his own. I've posted a couple of pages from one such story, in Action #423. This is the art I think of when I think of Giordano. Oh, and as an editor, he was the man who gave Bob Fleming and Trevor Von Eeden the green light to do Thriller, so I owe him for that. He also was the one who had some pages of the original art that he had inked in that series (#'s 5 and 6), which enabled Von Eeden to help me acquire a page for my own collection. That's my absurdly tiny connection to the man.



He was definitely one of the greats of the field, and he'll be, already is, I'd imagine, be missed.

My Movie Year, Part 3.

Continuing my look back on the films I watched via various venues in 2009.

*- viewed in theater.

JULY
X-Files: I Want to Believe
* Up
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Wanted
Dodge City
Sex and the City
Thunder Road
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Coraline
The Most Dangerous Game
Green Lantern: First Flight

There was a time, my friends, when I was a big fan of the X-Files TV series. Witty and fresh, with an appealing pair of leads and a gnarly mystery lurking in the background, it was appointment TV for me in the mid-late 90's. Then, a funny thing happened about four seasons and one feature film in; I first realized that the one-off episodes with monsters and freaks and stuff were a lot more satisfying and just plain fun than the episodes that supposedly advanced the increasingly-becoming-more-obscure alien abduction/invasion storyline that was ostensibly the spine of the entire show. Finally, in 1999 sometime it occurred to me that the writers didn't really have an ending in mind, and they were dangling all these -shocking!- revelations in front of us viewers like a carrot in front of a horse...and I bailed. I no longer cared what happened to Mulder's sister, or how Scully got impregnated by aliens, or what the fuck was up with the Smoking Man, or any of that. I stopped watching and never looked back. By then, it all began to fray at the edges anyway as it barreled into confusion and tedium; David Duchovny left, only making cameo appearances, and new agents were introduced, Tara Kings all of them. The show was mercifully killed in 2002. Then, in 2005, for some reason, someone thought a sequel/update feature film was a good idea, even though only the hardcore X-Files junkies cared...and I Want to Believe was the result. Wisely eschewing the whole dead-end alien conspiracy theory crap, it was back in the "paranormal investigators" mode, and honestly, I didn't think it was all that bad. It felt padded and overlong, but it was good, after all that time, seeing Mulder and Scully again, and Billy Connolly was interesting as a pedophile psychic priest. It had the misfortune of coming out the week after Dark Knight premiered, which sure didn't help the box office...so even though there has been some discussion of a third feature film, it sure seems like we've seen the end of the franchise as we know it, for now, anyway. Mrs. B and I went to see Up on the Fourth of July; it's a tremendously entertaining flick that 1), played terribly on my fear of heights; and 2) moved me to tears at least twice thanks to a couple of highly emotional flashbacks. Heck of a good movie, but I don't know if I'm ever going to watch it again! The third Mummy flick was that rarest of rare things, a third sequel that was actually more fun than its predecessor. Of course, it helps that it starred Brendan Fraser, and was partially set in Tibet. Wanted was another comic book based film that was hamstrung by the arbitrary and mostly unnecessary changes they made to the source material. Still, it had some decent effects and action sequences, and the cast was good. Dodge City, another classic Western that aired on TCM; I am always up for an Errol Flynn pic, especially when Olivia De Havilland plays opposite. I pretty much ignored Sex and the City when it aired on HBO as a regular series; just wasn't my Voutton bag, baby. This is another one I sat and watched on a slow afternoon; the sight of Kim Cattrall naked save for a bare-minimum sushi covering was a plus, but everything else was kinda dull. Thunder Road featured Bob and Jim Mitchum as shine-running brothers; it was a fun and diverting little Fifties flick. I liked the first Narnia movie just fine, as I did the book when I read it as a kid. Somehow, I never got around to reading the sequels. This one wasn't particularly memorable, even though most of the original's cast returned. Still, if they ever put out Voyage of the Dawn Treader, I'll probably check it out too. Coraline was visually beautiful, but the script, adapted from Neil Gaiman's book, held few surprises and was more than a little cloying. Most Dangerous Game was another TCM viewing; it starred the stunning Fay Wray as one of a group of people who have the misfortune of shipwrecking on a remote island and being hunted as game by the nutjob occupant. It's a familiar story, but this was one of the first attempts to film it. Finally, First Flight was an animated Green Lantern movie, which gave us an account of how Hal Jordan of Earth came to get the power of the Power Ring, and join the outer-space peacekeeping Green Lantern Corps. It had its moments, and I didn't think it was terrible, but it didn't blow me away either.

Whew! July was probably my heaviest movie watching month for some reason.

AUGUST
Punisher: War Zone
Transporter 3
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
The Big Heat
Max Payne

War Zone was very violent and over-the-top, and was ridiculous fun because of it. I think I preferred Thomas Jane in its predecessor, but Ray Stevenson looked a bit more like Tim Bradstreet's comics covers. Speaking of over the top and silly, Jason Statham (whom I will apparently watch in anything) returned with another Transporter sequel; it was also good fun, especially if you didn't pay too much attention to the script. My grandson, who was very much into the latest Star Trek film, noticed we had STVI on VHS, and wanted to watch it. I've always thought it was one of the best of the Shatner/Nimoy flicks, and Nevan liked it too. The Big Heat was a Fritz Lang noir classic, with Glenn Ford as a driven cop determined to take down a crime syndicate boss. Being able to see movies like this is just one reason why I love TCM so much. Finally, Max Payne was a clumsy attempt to mix the supernatural and cop drama genres; it was pretty bad.

SEPTEMBER
Southland Tales
* Inglourious Basterds

For some reason, as summer made its way into fall, I didn't watch too many movies, especially in September. Part of the reason was that I held on to Southland Tales for several weeks, hoping to get in the mood to finish it and failing. It was a mess, despite an interesting cast. Maybe someday I'll get around to finishing it, but it won't be anytime soon. I did go out and see Basterds, Tarantino's latest, a sly and clever attempt by the movie junkie auteur to demonstrate how film can change and reflect our perceptions of the world around us, all dressed up in Dirty Dozen clothing. Great cast, especially Christoph Waltz as Lanza, the hissable, yet devious and crafty "Jew Hunter", and Brad Pitt, channeling Clark Gable as a Sgt. York-type who heads a group that hunts Nazis. For a far better examination of this film than I can provide, I refer you to Todd Alcott.

I will conclude soon with October through December!

My Movie Year, part 2.

Resuming my look back on the films I watched via various venues in 2009.

*- viewed in theater.

APRIL
Kung Fu Panda
Daywatch
Quantum of Solace
Grey Gardens (HBO, 2009)
In the Valley of Elah
The Kingdom
The Spirit
Journey to the Center of the Earth (3D)

I found Panda to be a hugely (pun only slightly intended) entertaining martial arts adventure romp that featured some excellent character and background design, as well as several outstanding action setpieces. I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed it. 2006's Day Watch was the sequel to 2004's Night Watch; both are highly imaginative, if somewhat chaotic and disjointed, films about a struggle between groups of supernatural beings, separated into "Light" versus "Darkness" camps. I don't know if there are plans for more, but if they make any, I will watch them. Quantum, the second Daniel Craig Bond film, didn't impress quite as much as its predecessor Casino Royale did, but was still entertaining although the action-thriller mindset these flicks are crafted with becomes tiresome after a while. Still, I like Craig and I like his take on 007. Gardens, HBO's take on the life of the Big Edie and Little Edie Beale, was very well acted by Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange (I thought Lange was better, but so far Drew has gotten most of the accolades) and kept me interested throughout; I was unfamiliar with their story, and I hadn't seen the 1975 documentary that made them notorious/famous for a while. Elah was one of a multitude of well-meaning but dramatically inert films that came out in the wake of the Iraq conflict; Tommy Lee Jones is low-key and very good, but on the whole the movie wasn't particularly memorable. The Kingdom, another Middle East conflict flick, was the opposite of low-key, taking an action-thriller stance that was often ludicrous. It was diverting, and I didn't get bored, but I don't recommend it. I finally caved and watched Frank Miller's wretched Spirit; it was every bit as excessive, condescending and sour as I expected. Won't do that again. Finally, Brendan Fraser is back doing his lovable lug schtick in yet another take on Verne's novel; it was no classic but did a credible job of creating an epic atmosphere with lots of CGI effects and I liked it OK, but I'm inclined to like Fraser. It originally played in theatres in 3D; I wonder if that made it more of an immersive experience...

MAY
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Brian Wilson- That Lucky Old Sun
* Star Trek
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Fred Claus
Bride Wars

I liked, didn't love, Ang Lee's Hulk plus I've never really been a fan of the character, not even as a kid, so I wasn't particularly interested in the do-over remake with Ed Norton. This one emphasized action over the family psychodrama that hamstrung its predecessor, a wise approach I think, and featured a more interesting cast overall. Still nothing to write home about, but I give the newer one a slight edge. Lucky Old Sun was a documentary about the making of Wilson's 2008 solo album of the same name; as I am in the bag for all things Beach Boy, I had to screen it. Wilson is a slightly pitiful, but still fascinating, fella...especially when he's working in the studio, where he suddenly becomes focused and aware like you just don't expect when you see him interact with interviewers and people outside the studio. Saw the new Trek in the theater with my son and his son...I liked the cast, that updated the old very nicely, and the nonstop action was exciting. That said, I could have lived without all the time travel bullshit, apparently conceived in order to provide a way to get Nimoy his cameo, and there are more than a few inconsistencies in a script that expects us to believe that the Grand Canyon is a short drive away from Iowa. Fred Claus had some good actors flailing away in a silly script, pretty much what you'd expect. Sometimes you watch stuff just because there's nothing else on and you don't want to get up and go outside, y'know? Which also kinda explains why I subjected myself to the horrible Bride Wars, too. I blame my daughter; she was home watching it, I was probably sitting there doing something on the laptop, and watched it too. Any movie that can cause me to be repulsed by both Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson probably should never have been made.

JUNE
Stagecoach
Rocknrolla
Space Chimps
Captain Beefheart: Under Review
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in the 60's
Tropic Thunder
Citizen Kane
Bolt
Spellbound
Repo! The Genetic Opera

Stagecoach is, of course, the venerable old John Wayne/John Ford oater; it's definitely a classic and made a star of Wayne. Rocknrolla, a Guy Ritchie effort, was much, much better than his previous film Revolver, but only sporadically recaptured the spark that made Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch so good. Chimps? Well, I guess it was a slow day or something because I recall very little about watching it. I must not have hated it, I guess...I rented a couple of documentaries from Netflix about similar subjects: Captain Beefheart (aka Don Van Vliet) and his childhood buddy Frank Zappa, both of which went on to make some strange and wonderful music. I know the stories behind each pretty well, but I still will watch anything I can get my hands on about not only them but many artists whose work fascinates me- you never know when you'll see a performance clip or interview excerpt that you haven't seen before. A lot of fine people praised Thunder upon its release; I found it occasionally amusing but not particularly wow- inspiring. Tom Cruise's manic film exec was memorable. Kane is one of my all-time favorite films, perhaps the favorite, and I watch it at least once a year. Bolt was a real surprise, entertaining and clever throughout, and I even got a little something in my eye at the end. Or something like that. Spellbound- another classic Hitchcock film. I will always watch a Hitchcock movie if nothing else is on, he's a favorite filmmaker of mine. Finally, another surprise: I found the Gothed-up and bloody Repo! to be a hoot and a half, with some imaginative concepts and scenes, and some not-bad music as well. Wrote a bit more about it here (scroll down a bit).

Coming eventually, July through September!

A brief announcement.

Hey! I fully intend to get back to My Movie Year pretty soon, so fear not, assuming you were wondering. Just wanted to let you know, if you're reading this and have missed my opinions on comics, that I have been asked to review comics for the pop culture-focused site Popdose.com, and I did indeed accept with the utmost humility. My first review column has gone live today, and I wanted to let you know.

I've been reading Popdose for some time now, and there are a lot of very talented writers there, especially when it comes to music. They've had little, if any, comics-related writing, however, and that's the niche I will strive to fill. All I can do is hope I don't drag down the overall quality too much! I may eventually get back to reviewing here as well, but for now I think my comics reviewing will be found there, as well as the occasional Trouble With Comics post as time permits.

Which is not to say I'm done with comics over here...I've got a few ideas that I hope to take a stab at eventually. Stay tuned!

My Movie Year, part 1.

In the year 2009, I decided just for the heck of it to maintain a movie diary. When I'd watch a film in its entirety, I'd write it down in a spiral notebook, noting if I saw it on cable, Turner Classic Movies, home video (DVD, usually from Netflix) or in the theater. I thought it would make good blogfodder. Let's put that theory to the test, shall we?

*-viewed in theater

JANUARY

Burn After Reading
Neverwhere (TV)
The Apartment
The Golden Compass
Death Race (2008)
* Wall-E

Burn was an amusing Coen Bros. farce with a good cast, but it never really achieved liftoff. I really enjoyed the novelization, as well as the Vertigo comics adaptation, of Neverwhere, but I had not seen the original British TV production. It was enjoyable enough, done on the cheap but the cast was committed and it was fine. Still prefer the comic. The Apartment was the Best Picture Oscar winner for the year I was born, but I had not seen it until catching it on TCM. It's an excellent, often hilarious, pic with good perfs by Jack Lemmon and the smokin' hot Shirley MacLaine. Compass had its moments, and the effects were good, but it moved at a snail's pace, as if it was struggling with its heavy ambitions. Hard to beat the cast. Death Race was cast well, too- any flick with both Ian McShane and Jason Statham has an advantage already. But this souped-up remake was no patch on the much-lower-budgeted original. Finally, Wall-E was another triumph for Pixar, questionable science aside, and is especially affecting early on.

FEBRUARY

Appaloosa
Sahara (1943)
The Bank Job
Fool's Gold
Dead Like Me- Life After Death
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins
Collision Course
Shine a Light

Appaloosa was a pretty good western buddy drama, featuring good perfs from the always reliable Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen. Also featuring Renee Zellweger at her most squinty and annoying. I liked the desert war drama Sahara; I have a weakness for old Bogie movies. What can I say. Watched Fool's Gold on a slow day, if I recall; it's mostly terrible- Matthew McConaughey's character was interesting, and Kate Hudson's cute as usual, but the uneasy mix of rom-com and Raiders of the Lost Ark-style adventure just didn't gel. It was no Romancing the Stone, that's for sure. Bank Job is a not-bad Jason Statham heist movie; I enjoyed it quite a bit. The long-awaited straight-to-video Dead Like Me sequel was a dud, missing Mandy Patinkin sorely and saddled with a script that had very little of the magic of the sadly missed Showtime series, despite bringing back some of the original cast. Spiderwick was yet another attempt to strike Potter gold; it was OK, with good effects, but didn't really cach fire. Roscoe Jenkins gave us Martin Lawrence as a talk-show host who returns home for a family reunion. Lots of Hollywood life lessons were learned, but it was sporadically amusing. Curiosity, nothing more, led me to view Collison Course, a truly awful Beverly Hills Cop-style buddy pic that paired Pat Morita and Jay Leno (!) as a smartass Detroit cop who has to work with a Japanese policeman (guess who played what). It was done much better (well, not much better) in the Rush Hour series, or the Sean Connery/Wesley Snipes actioner Rising Sun. Fiascos like that are one reason why Leno went back to standup, and then late-night talk shows, and now the current mess on NBC. Shine a Light was a Rolling Stones concert film, directed with flair by Martin Scorcese a la the Band's Last Waltz. The Stones are in good form, and the guest stars aren't bad either- Christina Aguilera was surprisingly good.

MARCH

The Hurricane
That Hagan Girl
Willie Dynamite
Taking Chance
Fort Apache
Blue Hawaii
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Iron Man
The Mindscape of Alan Moore
The Brain That Wouldn't Die
* Watchmen
Leatherheads
Lou Reed's Berlin Live at St. Anne's Warehouse

Lotta movies this month, as I was off work for a few days with the flu. Hurricane was a pretty good 1930's disaster flick of sorts; a tale of a young sailor's strugle with authority and oppression on a South Pacific island that climaxes with the titular calamity, done with pretty good effects for 1937. That Hagan Girl is the notorious soaper that starred Ronald Reagan as an older man involved with a grownup (but still portrayed as a teen) Shirley Temple, who is the victim of rumors and innuendo in a small town due to her questionable parentage. Is Ronnie her dad? Is it squicky until the reveal at the end? Yep to one and no to the other. Dynamite was a blaxploitation flick from the mid-70s that aired on TCM's Underground series; low budget and poorly acted, it was still fun. Taking Chance, starring Kevin Bacon as a volunteer military escort officer who accompanies the body of 19-year-old Marine Chance Phelps back to his hometown, was an unexpected pleasure- it features an outstanding perf by Bacon, as well as nuanced, deliberate direction that really evokes mood. It may have been the best film I saw in 2009, and I highly recommend it. Fort Apache, a classic western, Blue Hawaii, not one of Elvis' best, were two more flicks I screened on TCM as I fought the influenza. I wasn't expecting to like Sarah Marshall all that much, but the cast was good, the script was often very funny, and the finale, in which one character stages his long-in-the-works mock-serious puppet vampire saga, was incredible- it made the movie as far as I was concerned. I also came away liking Russell Brand in his role as well, surprising because I really couldn't stand him when I saw him hosting something, probably the video awards, on MTV. Rented Iron Man for Mrs. B; I saw it in '08 in the theater but she hadn't seen it. Mindscape was a fair-to-middling Alan Moore interview/biodoc that kept my attention, mostly, but the Man himself is not an engaging interview subject, with his doleful demeanor. The Brain That Wouldn't Die was a flick I came to like watching it as a kid on the Big Show on Nashville Channel 5 in the 60s and 70s; usually the really bloody parts were edited out but I distinctly remember one glorious late 60s afternoon when they slipped up and showed it uncut; the poor lab assistant who had his arm ripped off by the pinhead geek monster in the locked room was probably my first exposure to filmed gore. It's one of those low-budget, poorly acted and ludicrously written but still highly enjoyable b-movies of the 50s that I'll always have a soft spot for. You may be familiar with Watchmen; one thing I'll always remember about it was that I threw out a rod in my engine as I drove to see it one weekend afternoon. My truck was in the shop for a month, as I had a new engine put in. I think it was a mostly pretty good attempt at filming something that is probably unfilmable; I'd give it a B+ if I was rating it. Leatherheads was a laugh-free "comedy", wasting George Clooney in an excruciatingly bad take on pro football in the early 1900's. Ol' Squinty, Renee Zellwegger, is in it too, trying to channel Kate Hepburn and failing completely. I closed out the month with the DVD of Lou Reed's return to his ambitious and often depressing 1973 album Berlin; as a fan of the album, I was curious to see how he'd treat it (he's been ambivalent towards it in the past, but there's always been an air of "unfinished business" surrounding it), and I'm pleased to report that he and his band performed it very well. Well worth checking out if you're a fan of Uncle Lou.

Coming eventually, April through June.