Time now for yet another edition of Johnny B's Fearless NFL Pigskin Prognostications!

Standard disclaimer: For entertainment purposes only. Please don't bet your rent money using these picks. The JBS waives all responsibility for financial disaster, other than his own.

GREEN BAY over the NY Giants
PHILADELPHIA over Chicago
CLEVELAND over Washington
NEW ENGLAND over Buffalo (I know Buffalo's the trendy pick here, but I take the Patsies until they give me a reason not to.)
OAKLAND over Houston
INDIANAPOLIS over Jacksonville
PITTSBURGH over Cincinnati
ATLANTA over Carolina
NEW ORLEANS over Arizona
NY JETS over Miami
TAMPA BAY over Denver
TENNESSEE over San Diego (for some irrational reason, I really want to go with the Chargers here)
ST.LOUIS over San Fransisco
KANSAS CITY over Baltimore (I always underestimate Baltimore...but I gotta believe KC will be up for playing on Monday night at home)

Last week: 9-5. Year to date: 28-18,.609.
Fantasy: Money league, lost 40-14, record 0-3. Ouch. Gonna make a bunch of pickups (hopefully- we have a bid system when it comes to pickups) and try to get this thing jumpstarted. Freebie league: won 85-49, record 2-1. That's more like it.

I'm sure most of you are aware that this most prodigal of albums, which no sane person ever thought we'd ever get to hear as a fully realized collection of songs or piece of music or whatever was released yesterday. Do any of you have it yet? And what do you think?

Here's what Robert Christgau thinks, in the (web) pages of Rolling Stone. Here's Edna Gunderson's take in USA Today.

I really do not have the money, but I'm thinking if there ever was an album to make a foolish, imprudent purchase of, Smile is it. Stay tuned...

It's late, I have to get up early tomorrow and go to my underpaying and unrewarding job, and I really should be in bed...but I can't make myself go to sleep so I blog.

First things first: the image above is one by Hope Larson. I like her style, with its fat ink lines. preoccupation with twisted, rubbery limbs (you'll see) and interesting color choices. I also think that if Kyle Baker ever gets bored doing Plastic Man, DC could do worse than to tab her to fill in. Be careful, kiddies- they's nudity on some of them there pages on that website, so exercise caution where you open them. I meant to put this in the linkblogging post I posted earlier today, but I couldn't remember her name or website addy. This, obviously, has been rectified.

In other developments on Planet Dave, tonight I have become "one of them"...that's right, I've become an eBay SELLER rather than a BUYER. Back in December, at one of my father-in-law's auction sales, I bid on and won several stacks of old Time magazines, thinking I'd sell them somewhere, perhaps on eBay, something I'd planned to try for a long time. So, naturally, it's taken me 9 months to finally get around to putting one lot on, to stick my toe in the water and see how it turns out. Keep your fingers crossed! Here's the listing, if you wanna check it out!

Great season premiere of NCIS neé Navy NCIS tonight, tense and involving all the way through..and even though the scriptwriters couldn't help but tack an unnecessary twist on at the end, I still enjoyed it. Looking forward to season two.

We're going to try to have a yard sale this Saturday, to get rid of some of the mountains of clothes we've accumulated over the last decade or so. While we were pricing, I tuned in one of the internet radio stations at Live365.com, called "Musical Justice", which plays a lot of great Americana, Indie, some Punk, and just a lotta interesting music...and I heard the greatest song ever: "Tiger Woods" by Dan Bern. Words cannot adequately express how much that song kicked my ass through my eardrums. Guess I'll have to keep an eye out (not literally) for the CD from whence it came, Fifty Eggs.

All right, that's enough. I gotta get to bed. Oyasumi nasai.

Here's your Vera Brosgol art for today, first posted over at The Pants Press Sketchblog. Ain't it cool? Reproduced without permission, but I'm hoping she doesn't mind...

Gotta love those white thigh-highs.

How about we make this a grab-bag link-post?

While I'm linking to LiveJournal spots, here's a LJ dedicated to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across The Eighth Dimension.

Here's a link to a message board sporting images from an upcoming with David Bowie as the main character, written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by someone named Yoshitaka Amano. Looks kinda interesting.

Yea, verily, the Football Gods hath smiled down upon us and hath given us a new Tuesday Morning Quarterback column to read. Yea, verily, I wish they would smile down upon my poor struggling money league fantasy football team- I'm off to a putrid 0-3 start, and have scored an average of 17 points a game. Folks, that don't get it done.

Guess that's all I got for now. I'll be back with more later, with any luck.

BEST OF THE WEEK

COMICS COMMENTARY!
What I bought and what I thought, week of September 22

SLEEPER V2 4
Hey, kids, look! Ed and Sean have put a big, ugly robot dude on the cover so maybe you'll pay attention to their excellent comic book! Aaah, I know better so once again I'll preach to the choir: great, nuanced, layered storytelling by Ed Brubaker, especially when it comes to the increasingly complicated Carver/Lynch/Tao relationship, and the usual solid storytelling by Sean Phillips. Sleeper: the Dr. Pepper of comic books. A

WARLOCK 1
I know, this came out a couple of weeks ago, and I swear I meant to pick it up then but it wasn't on my pull list and I just plain old overlooked it on the rack. Don't know how I managed that trick- the J.H. Williams cover is beautiful and eye-catching. You all should know by now that I've been a long-time admirer of this character, especially when written by Jim Starlin; however, I think perhaps he (and Marvel) had gone just about as far as they could go with his version of the Being Formerly Known as Him. So it seems to me that the time has never been righter for an imaginative, efficient re-thinking of the Warlock character, and I was very impressed with how writer Greg Pak laid out new ideas even as he paid tribute to the past- plus I'm a sucker for a story with a comic that has a cute painter/animator/designer as its lead. And make no mistake- it's through her eyes that we'll get to see what kind of effect, good or bad, this new Adam W will have. Charlie Adlard does yet another fine art job- I think it must be his goal to illustrate every comic book from every publisher. And y'know, that might not be so bad. A great start to a promising series, but I understand sales weren't all that hot so guess we better enjoy it while we can. A

PLASTIC MAN 10
Plas and friends, while on vacation, get stuck in a house occupied by a vampire family. Pretty simple premise, and Kyle Baker makes the most of it, giving us a Mad magazine-style romp with several funny jokes (including a good one aimed at the Bush administration), some of which work, some of which don't. This is pretty much what Baker's been doing for a long time now, and I guess either you like it or you don't. I kinda like. The art? Well...I suppose Baker's slovenliness is growing on me, 'cause I'm finding myself admiring the odd pose here or the odd facial expression there. Another title to be enjoyed, while we can. A-

H-E-R-O 20
This has been an up-and-down story arc for me, for the most part- I was bored silly by the one or two issues of non-stop fighting, but in between throwdowns we get issues which actually advance the plot and introduce interesting ideas. I like how Pfiefer's connecting all the characters he introduced over his run- it promises to give his readers a sense of closure, something you don't always get with lame-duck titles. It's got me interested, anyway. Also, I'm liking the not-bad art of Dale Eaglesham; it's a bit awkward in its proportions sometimes, but he has a nice sense of dramatics and visual flair. This issue also has the best Michael Golden cover he never did, by one Kelsey Shannon. B+

WALKING DEAD 11
Solid and involving as always, but I hate to admit that I'm kinda glad that Kirkman seems to be narrowing down his burgeoning cast a bit- this issue, I was struggling to figure out who were the bite-rs and who were the bite-ees, and I was having to dig a bit to remember who was who among the survivors. Some of this is Adlard's fault, I suppose...but he's pretty damn good on everything else so I'll give him a mulligan. B+

LUCIFER 54
Big disappointment this time out with a less-than-satisfying ending to what, at the beginning, promised to be a grand story arc. Nothing much gets resolved, a major character gets a "death" that he's actually come back from at least once, if memory serves, and even though a big red "end" is placed on the last page nothing is resolved and almost everything is left open-ended. Sure, I know that this is an ongoing, and usually I like how Mike Carey strings his plots along, but I felt a little cheated when this one was over. Oh well, it's not like I'm gonna drop the book or anything- I'm in too deep to bail now! One thing's always constant- the good-to-pretty good Peter Gross/Ryan Kelly art is always there to depict the proceedings in their almost not not exceptional fashion. B

EX MACHINA 4
This book continues to keep me at arm's length, although I did manage to stay interested through the at-first intriguing mystery of who's killing the snow-plow drivers, through the usual banter between Mayor Hundred and the Police Commissioner (bet they'll be snogging by issue #7), through one of the stiffest and most contrived ideological exchanges I've read in a while (Hundred's intern and the artist, who should be careful with blowtorches) and a reveal at the end which came as absolutely no surprise, and ruined the snow-plow killer mystery. Art-wise, very good, although I wish I didn't get the impression that Tony Harris keeps facial expressions as clip-art, and pastes them on when he needs them. Two more issues to win me over. B-

Soon- Atomeka reviews.

ADAM STRANGE #1
DC: THE NEW FRONTIER #6
HELLBLAZER #200
LOSERS #16
DAREDEVIL #65 ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

Here's my haul Wednesday, accoding to the Diamond shipping list. Looks like a light one, doesn't it? WELL...not so fast: 3 of the 5 cost between $3.99 and $6.95. Feh.

Well, here it is, late Sunday evening...and I've written nothing. Nothing! The TV has pretty much had me in its sway (your Stones reference for today), so the comics reviews and the Vinyl-O will have to wait a little while longer.

One quick note- Mrs. B, the Halloween enthusiast, picked up the Scary Godmother Halloween Spooktacular DVD yesterday on a shopping excursion to Walmart. Its early relase couldn't have pleased the folks at Cartoon Network. Anyway, we watched it as soon as we got home and it's pretty entertaining. Not quite as charming or clever as the source, because let's face it- 3-D animation is no substitute for Jill Thompson's whimsical line work, and the script seems to have been written down a bit, presumably for the wee folks out there and not the 40-year-old fanboys-and-girls who buy it for their admiration for Mrs. Azzurello. Still, much of it is lifted straight from the first book and the various characters, especially Skully and Count Max and family, are nicely realized by the voice actors.

Hopefully see you tomorrow, cats and kittens!

Think I'll take a crack now at the "Favorite Comics Moments" meme that I first saw over at Will Pfiefer's place.

As I think of them:

"The Strange Death of Adam Warlock" from Warlock#11 (1976), by Jim Starlin (script/art) and Alan Weiss (inks). Poor Adam Warlock was, at least as written by Starlin in the series I think was the pinnacle of his career, the most powerful screwup in the universe- I mean, the guy couldn't do anything right. No matter how hard he fought and how noble his intentions were, he was constantly seeing friends and comrades die and all his plans go for naught as he battled against the galaxy-conquering menace of what turned out to be a twisted future version of himself named The Magus and his "Universal Church of Truth". A being called the In-Betweener convinced Adam that the only way to defeat the Magus was to commit a sort of suicide, and that leads Adam (through a bizarre set of circumstances) to confront his future self before he was corrupted. The once and future Warlocks have a conversation- and the bitter, defeated future Warlock's strangely poignant final words have always stuck with me, even 28 years later. You can find most of it reproduced here and here, in a couple of nicely written commentaries on Starlin's saga.

Last two pages of Flex Mentallo#4 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
Will cited this series in his list, too. I always get a little shiver at that panel in which our protagonist realizes what is happening, after he's written the "magic word" SHAMAN, as the heroes prepare to invade reality- and he looks at the reader in a closeup panel, saying simply "heh" with an crazed but elated grin on his face. I don't think Grant's ever topped Flex Mentallo, and I have been known to cite it to those who wonder how and why a 44-year old man can still read and enjoy comics. What a shame that it's not out in trade format.

Amazing Spider-Man #16 (1964)
Guest star Daredevil is forced to fight not only the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime, but a hypnotized Spidey as well- and the jokes flow fast, furious and funny as only Stan Lee could write 'em in his prime. Four-year-old me about busted a gut laughing as first DD, then Spidey wisecrack incessantly as they scrap, and damned if 44-year-old me still doesn't do the same in the all-too-infrequent opportunities he gets to read it.

"The Bouncing Ball of Doom", Strange Tales#131, 1965
The Mad Thinker has created a remote-controlled ball, which flies around destroying buildings, dams and such and generally wreaking havoc and the Human Torch and the Thing strive to stop it. One scene which stuck with me out of many in this, a guilty-pleasure comic for me if there ever was one, is a scene where the ball causes support cables on the George Washington Bridge to snap, and the Thing bravely holds the cables together as the Torch welds them. I remembered it just recently, on my trip to New York City, as I drove over the Bridge.

"I said-- get your ASS-- off this TRAIN!", Thriller #4, Robert Loren Fleming (script), Trevor Von Eeden (art)
Marietta, the matriarch of the Salvotini family, is dying from a head wound inflicted in a train crash. Her supernatural daughter, the ethereal Angie Thriller, can save her- but only if she can merge with nine-foot-tall artificially born priest Beaker Parish, whose artificial body can handle what Angie plans to do. Her brother, marksman Tony aka Salvo, objects and wants to stay with his Ma- but Beaker puts his foot down (something the generally pacifistic Father doesn't do often), slams Tony up against the wall, and persuades him to leave. One of the many scenes which made Thriller special- that sense of family ties that was strong between the members of the Seven Seconds.

Killraven exacts revenge from Skar for the death of Hawk, Amazing Adventures#34 (1974)
Killraven, of course, is the escaped gladiator title character from Don McGregor & Craig Russell's extrapolation of H.G. Wells'' original story. Hawk was the Native American member of Killraven's Freemen, a surly fellow who went along with KR because he believed in the cause, but not necessarily his leader; and Skar was a killer that the Martians sent to track KR and his group. This particular issue was the final showdown; it was almost entirely sans dialogue, carried along with minimal (for McGregor) narration. Skar happens upon the group as they were separated, and fires a blast at some rocks which were perched over the heads of some of the group. As they flee to avoid being crushed, Hawk realizes that one of the members, who was mortally wounded a few issues prior and had to be carried along on a sled, was in the path of the rockslide. He goes back, can't drag his fellow out in time, and is crushed under the rocks. When KR hears the noise, he rushes back and has a wordless, savage battle with the Martian killer, and his wrath is yea, verily, most righteous and savage. This issue has always stood as a high point among those who were fans of this series, because of this scene.

The death of Shebaba O'Neil, Ironwolf: Fires of the Revolution one shot (1992)
Lord Ironwolf's back story is a complicated one; I'll leave it at that for now. As I wrote a while back, there were three issues published featuring the Chaykin creation in the early-mid 70s, and the character was revived for an excellent one-shot in the early 90's. In the 70's Weird Worlds issues, Shebaba O'Neil (named after dialogue writer Dennis) was Ironwolf's Number One, his friend, confidant and sharp-tongued comrade-in-arms, and a favorite of mine. Flash forward 18 years, and we find that Chaykin means business when he revisited the concept- she gets her head blown off by enemy fire about six pages in! Y'know, I didn't see that coming at all (neither did she!), and while on the one hand it made me a bit angry, on the other I was impressed and surprisingly delighted (after I had cooled off a bit) to be taken by surprise like that. And y'know what? She stayed dead. Wow. It's like Garth Ennis had killed Nat the Hat stone dead in Hitman issue #6 or some such. I've said it before- if you haven't read this, and are even remotely familiar with the character, then you should order it ASAP. It's apparently still in print, as a click on the link above will show...! I liked that book a lot after I had finished it, and my estimation of it has grown substantially over the succeeding years.

OK, this is it for right now- I'm sure I'll think of others eventually so stay tuned for the sequel!

Bad Mojo, the latest publication from AiT/PlanetLar to grace my mailbox, is a Stephen King-ish horror story which owes a debt to the Bard of Maine's own Thinner. Written by Abel's William Harms, and ably illustrated by Steve Morris, it tells the tale of a minor-league prospect who, with a couple of his friends in along as he drives all night to Florida for spring training, accidentally has a late-night sleepy-eyed fender bender with probably the last person he should have run into- a middle-aged, recently divorced and downright cranky witch, who (naturally) doesn't appreciate her car getting banged up- and, instead of suing the poor schnook, lays a curse on the guy which causes him to die each day at dawn (now there's a movie title for ya) and come back to life at nightfall. Of course, this isn't a pleasant experience (they even do an wince-inducing when you think about it autopsy on the fellow at one point), and eventually they go to the witch to get her to lift the curse. Of course ('cause let's face it- it wouldn't be much of a story if she actually listened to reason, now would it?), she refuses, but then dangles some slim hope in the form of a request for a grim errand, and in return she might reverse her spell. This leads to conflicts with the local law enforcement officers and the townspeople, all narrow-minded religious jingoistic nutcases apparently...and eventually the fellows are forced to make a unpleasant, and ambiguous decision at the end.

Bad Mojo does indeed make the reader uncomfortable- we kinda-sorta sympathize with the unfortunate would-be baseball player, especially since he finds himself in a no-win, Chinese-finger-puzzle-type predicament. This sort of thing always makes me squirm, anyway. I'm a little at a loss to understand why his buddies stuck with him as long as they did, given the extremity of the situation, but it's explained pretty well, I suppose. It took them a lot longer to call his agent than I would have figured, and I'm also a little surprised that they didn't call for help from anyone back home. I was most unhappy with the ending, though- it's way too open-ended, and one wishes for more of a resolution. I know, I know, life's like that sometimes- but you know how I am about ambiguous endings.

I was very impressed by Steve Morris' art- he has a nice style, realistic, but not too realistic- and by that I mean stiff and posed-looking- a bit reminsicent of Geoff Darrow, perhaps, or even someone like Steven (JSA) Sadowski or J.H. Williams. A couple of the sequences that are done in shades of grey (to depict twilight or early-morning, I suppose) were a bit hard to follow (and this is probably intentional), and that was a bit annoying, but otherwise he does an excellent job, and really enhances Harms' script- something which his Abel collaborator failed miserably to do. I hope to see more from Mr. Morris in the future.

Bad Mojo succeeds in generating some discomfort and horror, almost in spite of itself, and is worth a look if you're in the mood for something to read around Halloween. If nothing else, I'm more aware that if I'm even driving late at night and get really sleepy, I'll pull over rather than risk sideswiping a witch! B+

Update: After that sharp-eyed Bill Sherman pointed out something pretty important (but easily overlooked) that I had missed (and which help certain events make a lot more sense), I corrected a couple of things in the above review. Muchas gracias, Bill!

Now for the third of the three publications that Mad Yak Press sent me, The Supernaturalists. As with Texarkana, this serves as an introduction for the upcoming ongoing series. Artist/writer duties are handled by the Subatomic team of the late Jorge Heufemann and the ever-present (at least at the Yak) Patrick Neighly. Set in Prohibition-era New York, the Supernaturalists the title refers to are police detective Edward Drake and his vampire companion Esme, who find themselves unlikely allies as Drake tries to get to the bottom of mysterious vampire-style killings plaguing the city.

Supernaturalists doesn't really function as a mystery story per se; you know about halfway in whodunit and what's at stake, if you'll excuse the pun. You also know, even earlier on, that Drake and Esme will become romantically attached. After the nature of the situation is revealed, really what we get is a basic adventure story, with the only suspense coming from wondering how they'll get through all the trouble going on around them. Once again, I gotta give Neighly a lot of credit for at least trying to come up with something a bit different, or at least trying to put a few creases in. I like the basic concept- a supernatural detective story, set in the 1920's...but as so often seems to be the case I like the idea a lot more than the execution. Part of the problem is that Neighly is trying a bit too hard to give us hard-boiled, terse dialogue, and in the absence of any sort of narration to help me out, this whole story had a kind of disjointed feel about it. The events just didn't progress all that smoothly as I read, and I was often forced to backtrack to refresh my admittedly tenuous memory. Neighly plays a bit fast and loose with vampiric lore here as well- the bitten turn extremely quickly here, contrary to most previously established accounts. I think much of the blame, though, has to fall on Heufemann; while his art is competent and often above average in places- often reminding me of Miller without all the heavy blacks or Sean Phillips (with Romeo Tanghal inks?) even- sometimes his staging within the panels was arbitrary and confusing, and his figure drawings had a samey-ness (now there's a professional-sounding word) about them, something which wasn't so much of a problem with his work on Subatomic. Perhaps color would have helped me here, who knows. I've no doubt that he would have improved this with experience, and it's a shame we won't get to see how much. In all fairness, I'll admit that I read this in about three sittings over the space of around two weeks, hardly conducive to the ideal reading experience, and that contributed to my problems as well.

Supernaturalists is a interesting concept, and while I found it a bit more challenging to read than I usually like, I am kinda interested in where Neighly takes his odd couple from here so I might just find myself taking a look at the first issue of the ongoing when it comes out. B

I'm pleased to announce that the book I illustrated for Mrs. B, Pumpkins On The Vine, is now available for you to purchase if you so desire. It costs $7.99 plus shipping and handling. You can buy it through Trafford Publishing's web site by clicking here. We are supposed to be getting copies of our own to sell, so if you'd rather order one from me personally that's fine- but we just ordered them yesterday so if you want to be sure to get them before Halloween you might want to go through Trafford. When we get our copies, I'll post an update.

Boy, the last couple of days have been a straight up bitch. Busy, busy, busy. Lots of stuff going on. Hopefully I'll get to make some blog hay today and tomorrow, and right now I'll make time for...

JOHNNY B'S FEARLESS NFL PIGSKIN PROGNOSTICATIONS!

Standard disclaimer: For entertainment purposes only. Please do not be stupid and take your hard-earned money and bet it illegally using my picks. You don't know me- I may be insane, or pulling your leg. Also, don't do drugs, m'kay?

ATLANTA over Arizona (This would appear to be a stone cold lock, and that's why it scares me. But SURELY Atlanta can beat the banged-up Cards at the Georgia Dome!3-0! Amazing!)
CINCINNATI over Baltimore
MINNESOTA over Chicago
The NEW YORK football GIANTS over Cleveland
HOUSTON over Kansas City (And boy, will this get the shit stirred up in KC)
TENNESSEE over Jacksonville (but you might want to take the Jags and the points- not that you should wager illegaly or anything)
ST.LOUIS over New Orleans
PHILADELPHIA over Detroit (But for some reason, I think this will be close)
MIAMI over Pittsburgh
DENVER over San Diego
INDIANAPOLIS over Green Bay (Again, you may want to take GB and the points)
SEATTLE over San Fransisco (Sorry, Mik)
OAKLAND over Tampa Bay
WASHINGTON over Dallas

Last week: 11-5. Year to date: 19-13. Fantasy: Money league, lost 35-23, 0-2. Sad, sad. Freebie Yahoo league, lost 53-52. Ouch. 1-1.

Late for the party (or the wake, perhaps)as usual, I still want to send along an RIP Russ Meyer, maker of some of the best trash cinema ever, who died Saturday.

I am long overdue for a re-screening of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!...

Like I said before, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is everything that everyone says it is. It's a marvelous entertainment and visual experience, but the script leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm sure you know the story by now, but I'll try to run through it as quickly as I can: Scientists are mysteriously disappearing, giant robots are invading Manhattan objective unknown, and intrepid reporter Polly Perkins has to call in dashing superhero aviator "Sky Captain" (real name Joe Sullivan), with whom she has a history of sorts. Sky Cap manages to cripple one of the 'bots and take it back to his base of operations, but is then quickly invaded by flying (with flapping wings, yet!) ships sent by a Dr. Totenkampf. They ships, with SC hot in pursuit, bomb and seriously damage his base and manage to kidnap his right-hand man and gadget inventor Dex. Complicating things is the presence of a mysterious woman dressed in what seems to be a manta ray inspired black leather costume, who is aiding in the search for whatever it is Dr. T is looking for. SC and Polly track Dex (with the help of Franky Cook, who operates a secret flying base with a full compliment of soldiers) through Tibet, eventually winding up on a tropical island full of giant creatures, and it's there that they eventually discover what exactly the Doctor's mad plan is and are determined to prevent it.

Sky Captain is, more than anything, a film made by a film geek for film geeks, especially those who are geekish about 30's and 40's adventure movies and serials. References and tributes abound; at one point, as Wil Pfiefer points out, they run across a big log spanning a chasm that is exactly like the one that Carl Denham and Jack Driscoll's ill-fated crew got stuck on in the original King Kong. Godzilla makes a cameo appearance in a Tokyo newspaper. Totenkampf's giant robots are tributes to the "Mechanical Monsters" from the Fleischer Bros.'s Superman cartoons. Totenkampf himself is brought to life in a clever, surprising fashion. Besides Kong, we also get homages to Metropolis, Buck Rogers, Things To Come, Raiders of the Lost Ark, of course, and probably a whole lot more stuff- pulp magazines, comic books, etc., that I didn't pick up on. This film is a tribute of style over substance if ever there was one. Everything is sepia-toned, soft-focus, and mesmerizing, like a dream- even when they're in the sunlight, everything seems indistinct and foggy. The effect is a lot like watching a silent film, or looking at old postcards. Sky Captain, no doubt thanks in large part to its CGI backdrops, looks like no film I've ever seen (with the possible exception of The Lady and the Duke, another CGI-heavy film), and that (if nothing else) gets it over the top. More than just eye candy, I think this film is an amazing visual achievement.

Problem is, the script is all surface and expects the viewer to take a lot at face value- Kerry Conran seems to be hoping that we'll be so distracted and entertained by what we're seeing that we don't take the time to question the logic of it all. Totenkampf's master plan, for example- it makes very little sense when you stop and think about it. Or if one wants to know more about Sky Captain as a character...how exactly his whole operation works or how he earned his particular status in this hazy world he lives in. I'm sure Conran didn't want to bog down the flow of the story with constant explanations, which would have indeed been tedious...but still, things just keep popping up which don't make a lot of sense.

The lead performances are all top-notch, especially considering that they were acting in front of a blue screen 99% of the time- Jude Law has just the right amount of panache and rakish charm in the title role- no Errol Flynn (or even Harrison Ford) he but he does just fine; Gwyneth Paltrow certainly looks the part with her relentlessly brown dresses and 1940's coiffure, but she underplays her role a bit too much- odd choice, especially when you'd think a bit more snap would be called for, but it's not that big a problem in the big picture; Giovanni Ribisi is fun as Dex, but doesn't have a lot of screen time. I liked the look and the off-and-on appearances of Bai Ling's "Mysterious Woman in Black", but the actress really didn't get to do much with the character...she could have been a CGI effect for all she was asked to do. Still, it was fun to watch her shoot beams with her staff and kick SC's ass once or twice. Angelina Jolie may have made amends for what seems like a decade of rotten film choices with her nicely done portrayal of SC's comrade-in-arms-and who-knows-what-else Cook; she underplays, but there's always a wink and a eye-twinkle in her no-nonsense demeanor.

In fact, one of my favorite lines in the whole flick comes courtesy of Jolie: as they approach Totenkampf's island and are confronted with an attack, she snaps off a terse "Alert Amphibian Squadron!" command, but does so with a hint of a smile on her face, like she's sharing a joke with you, and it's infectious- you can't help but smile right back. And that's pretty much my reaction to Sky Captain: I'm so charmed by the sheer imagination and spectacle of the thing, that I enjoy being in on the joke even though I know that if I think about it I won't like it nearly as much. Like a magic trick, almost.

Sure, go see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, the experience will definitely be better on the large screen than at home on DVD. Unless you have a large screen TV at home. I think the visuals will win you over, especially if you love offbeat genre films, the older the better...but if you're one that has to have everything in its proper place and every plot point and character detail in order and fully logical, you'll be doomed to disappointment. I strongly suggest bringing your disbelief suspension gear along.

Well, once again dat ol' debbil TV has conspired to keep me from sitting down and writing stuff I need to write about. This time, you can blame it on TCM for airing the 1943 film The Song of Bernadette. Bernadette stars Jennifer Jones as the title character, a French peasant girl who sees a vision of the Virgin Mary in a grotto near the town of Lourdes, and has to endure the unbelieving town officals as well as the fanatical devotion of the downtrodden who are desperate to experience something bigger than they are- and things get even more complicated when Bernadette, under direction of the "Beautiful Lady", uncovers a spring with miraculous healing powers. Also on hand is a young Vincent Price, as oily and suave as ever, as a skeptical prosecuting attorney. The film manages the neat trick of being reverent in regards to its very religious subject matter, but thankfully doesn't take sides vis-a-vis the skeptical vs. the believers. While the town officials are certainly shown in an unflattering light, the filmmakers don't spare those on the side of the angels either: Gladys Cooper gives a downright creepy performance as a Sister who lets her jealousy and hatred of Bernadette drive her to behave very badly. As someone who isn't the most religious person you'll ever want to meet, I appreciated this balance, which is something you wouldn't see very often these days. The cinematography is excellent, with a lot of beautiful scenery and some nicely contrasting dark/light scenes.

Regarded as something of a classic, Song of Bernadette is an engrossing, even moving film, and was a pleasant surprise to this hard-hearted old sinner.

Didn't know about this until earlier this evening: RIP Skeeter Davis, best known for the supernaturally beautiful 1963 song "The End of the World"- which made a strong impression on impressionable 3-going-on-4-year-old me, died on Sunday.

Here's a good bio.

Cat Stevens, threat to freedom and homeland security. The mind reels.

Just in case someone cares, here's what I'll be getting Wednesday according to the new Diamond shipping list.

EX MACHINA #4
H-E-R-O #20
LUCIFER #54
PLASTIC MAN #10
SLEEPER SEASON TWO #4
WALKING DEAD #11

This week's official "Powers: I Can't Believe ANOTHER New Issue's Coming Out" award goes to Walking Dead, which I swear just came out a week or so ago. Plastic Man has my attention now, so I'm looking forward to seeing what Baker does next. I would have already dropped H-E-R-O if they hadn't announced its impending cancellation, and the underwhelming Ex Machina has another issue to justify my continued patronage.

In other news on Planet Dave, I went to see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow this afternoon, and while driving home, with the golden afternoon sunlight of this beautiful day creating Maxfield Parrish scenarios everywhere I looked, I had quite a few thoughts about the film- but right now all I can say is that it's everything everyone says it is. And yes, I know that's mighty vague but I will write more about it later, I promise.

Also on the "hope-to-post-sometime-this-week" list are reviews of three Atomeka Press books: Brick Top, the Dave Johnson Sketchbook, and A1: Atomeka Big Issue 0, a few thoughts on the first seven issues of Kyle Baker's Plastic Man, which will not consist solely of me bitching about his art...much...; plus the long-delayed piece on Mad Yak's The Supernaturalists and the latest from AiT/PlanetLar, Bad Mojo. I'm also thinking I'd like to take a shot at the "favorite comics moments" meme that Will Pfiefer started (but that's gonna take some serious thinking, something which just isn't coming naturally to me right now). And for those of you who would like to see me write more about music (surely there must be somebody out there), a Johnny B's Mondo Vinyl-O is in the draft stage.

I know, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and I'm beginning to break a sweat. But I'll try to get this stuff done soon, so you don't have to endure any more posts of this nature from me for a while...

Spent most of my day Saturday helping out at an estate auction for my father-in-law, who's a realtor and auctioneer. Why? Well, he pays me. Also, I keep hoping that someday, there will be a box or two of old comics, records, movie magazines, or something rare and collectible...or heck, I'd even settle for just something kinda cool! Anyway, I've been in the family 25 years now, and the only thing that has come to light was a beat-up old issue of Batman from the 1940s, the number of which escapes me. Either nobody around here ever bought comics or listened to records, or perhaps they got left to friends and relatives. Anyway, as I'm so fond of saying, hope springs eternal.

However, the lady whose estate was being auctioned was apparently a bit eccentric, and bought a lot of, well, junk with a generous sum of money she had been given (or so I'm told), and there were tons of toys, Christmas decorations, nicknacks and trinkets to be had. I found the above Justice League Hawkgirl doll in one of the boxes (which someone else had already bid on) and bought it from her for a buck. I probably overpaid, but what the heck, I thought it would be an interesting thing to have in my tiny collection of toy-type comics-related merchandise.

Just thought I'd share.

Sorry I had to repeat an image, but do you have any idea how hard it is to find good shots of Geena Davis as Morgan the pirate queen in Cutthroat Island, my favorite bad pirate movie?

All of which to point out that somebody somewhere hath decreed that this be "Talk Like A Pirate Day"- and although the day's almost over, better late than never, matey!

Yar. Too bad those scurvy Buccaneers got beat today. At least the Raiders won, and the Pittsburgh Pirates swept a doubleheader from the Mets in baseball.