Inspired by Mark Evanier here's my tribute to The King. I think characters like Ego the Living Planet and Galactus are great examples of the imagination he had. I try to revisit a book by Kirby every month or so just to remind why I find comics so appealing in the first place. Just a few days ago I found a copy of the 1989 book Monster Masterworks featuring lots of great pre-FF Marvel monster stuff. It started with an introduction by Kirby, one of those great Kirby text pages that I wish could all be collected just as further proof of the man's enthusiasm and creativity.
This is apparently the pilot for Cartoon Network's Plastic Man, which is similar to the original Jack Cole comics, Kyle Baker's version and John K.'s Ren & Stimpy stuff. It's pretty good, filled with all types of animated zaniness. Stephen DeStefano from 'Mazing Man and Instant Piano worked on the show, too.
The highlights of Darrick Robertson's in store at The Isotope. If you look carefully you can see my giant head popping out of a grey SF State sweatshirt but I think you're better served checking out the dance moves of one Mr. Sean Maher.
Without me:
Why not celebrate the 40th anniversary of Star Trek by watching the alternate beginning to "Where No Man Has Gone Before," the second pilot for the show (and the first with The Shat)? You get less 3-D chess but more of Lt. Gary Mitchell...observing the female crew members of the Enterprise. The credits are very different, too (would we really have seen "Act 1" at the start of every episode?). Permanent Link: 8:28 PM |
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Friday, August 18, 2006
A flying circus, with pythons
Think of the times when you and a couple of friends will gather around a computer to watch some silly video on YouTube or MySpace. Now, multiply that by about one hundred. That was the scene at San Francisco's Metreon when this goofaround, his roommate Jenny and I saw The Snakes on a Plane Chronicles Vol 1: The Triumph of Viral Marketing. It shouldn't be a surprised that in a fairly plugged-in place like the Bay Area there that a fairly large theatre would be filled with people already excited for this film. It often times felt more like a party than movie night.
Before the movie started laptops were open with screensavers counting down the minutes to when the film would be released. Many people brought toy snakes of all shapes and sizes to throw at the right time. Hisses and snarky jokes were already going strong by the time the trailers rolled around. The audience had no time for these films that featured neither snakes nor planes, with the exception being this trailer for Borat which got a lot of laughs. I worried that with all the tomfoolery going on we wouldn't be able to actually hear the film, including of course the line. Instead as the movie started and the initial applause died down the hissing and Mystery Science Theatre 3000-eque quips were manageable enough that everyone could get what was going on. When the snake-timer counts down and the snakes were free on Pacific Air Flight 121 those who brought their own snake toys threw them into the air for what seemed like a solid two minutes. I can't imagine what being an usher at the Metereon was like was after both the 10:00 p.m. and Midnight crowds left. There was certainly a Rocky Horror aspect to all of this.
I don't know if I could provide a real review of this film. The best praise I can give is that what was being projected on to the giant screen in front of us perfectly complimented the social phenomenon going on in the seats. I had read the novelization of the film and hoped that all the time spent on humanizing what were basically walking cliches would be thrown out for more snake carnage. The film did not disappoint on that level. These weren't uncreative characters spouting witty dialogue and telling us about their lives, these were uncreative character getting killed by snakes. The many snakes deaths led to many happy cheers from the audience, too. The much noted fan service reshoots were not hard to spot, although I didn't feel like they were all over the place. This film already knew where it was going before the websites and video parodies started. The movies promised us snakes killing people and we got it. The movie promised us Samuel L. Jackson being a bad-ass and we got it. It's a fun bad movie and nothing more. Seeing it with people who were ready for such a thing was a lot of fun.
Before the film Nathan and I were discussing how watching so many bad movies, to the point where it's not about enjoying something bad ironically but sincerely enjoying a film for what it does that good and mediocre films don't, can kind of screw up your critical facilities for enjoying actually good films. I don't like to think that Nathan and I are at that point now but we are certainly able to put our minds in a particular state so a plot device such as "the leis were doused in pheromones so the snakes would be abnormally aggressive" registers as "cool" and not "cheesy" when it is really both. It's certainly not an experience I would like to repeat every month or so but for this one time I had a movie-going night that will remain fairly memorable. Permanent Link: 12:06 PM |
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Wednesday, August 16, 2006
I hate being bored and I can punch suns!
One of my favorite filmmakers is David Lynch, whose film Inland Empire should be coming out this year. He's not Terrence Malick slow but Lynch is not exactly the most prolific director out there. How does he pay the bills in between making films and pursuing French backers? Like a lot of directors he does commercials. He's a versatile filmmaker but throughout all these commercials that certain sense of Lynch weirdness is present.
David Lynch + Michael Jackson. Oh yes.
This might be the most insane PSA ever.
There was a whole series of Japanese coffee ads featuring the cast of Twin Peaks. If you ever watched Twin Peaks and wondered what it would be like as a thirty second commercials for Japanese coffee that comes in a can then wonder no more. The link will lead you to the third and fourth ads and yes, the Black Lodge shows up in the fourth.
Lynch did a few ads for the PS2. I think this is the best and it's actually one of my favorite pieces by Lynch.
EDIT (8/18/06): Hey, turns out that ad isn't by Lynch at all but by Tim Hope. Silly me, and thanks to reader Aaron Humphrey for pointing that out.
I'm pretty sure Lynch did this Playstation ad. It's notable because he returns to Eraserhead territory, only now with color and computer effects.
Before I even read this read this book I felt bewildered by it. The cover and interior selections I’d read in Fantagraphics’s catalog featured Anders Nilsen’s simple doodles of figures that looked like something a bored student would scribble away in his/her notebook. Others I knew scoffed at the title when they saw the same images. It was when I started reading Nilsen’s contributions to Mome and I saw that Tom Spurgeon enjoyed the book that I became curious about reading it for myself. I’m sure there are still plenty of people who would look at this book with some skepticism but to quote Spurgeon “it's hard to believe that in 2006 people get caught up in thinking that all art has to be of a certain type to be effective.”
Reading Monolouges for the first time felt both stimulating and frustrating. The back cover informs us that amongst “items included in this kit” there are “automatic writing” and “stream of consciousness image generations.” When I was reading the early chapter “semiotics” I didn’t know if Nilsen’s experiments were going to payoff. There certainly seemed to be interesting ideas going on. I was intrigued by the first chapter where an act of bird feeding turned into a comment on the twisted dynamics in many modern relationships (there’s a reveal near the end that’s perfect). But soon I worried that Nilsen would provide plenty of absurdity but with no reason to consider or to absorb it.
Fortunately about half-way through it (Monolouges is a quick read) the chapter entitled “the wilderness” makes things a lot more interesting. One of Nilen’s simplest creations, the man with a head of pen scratches (whose name is in fact a flurry of scratches), gives a monologue from the point of view of a god-like creature that offers real existential cynicism. It’s not from someone who is living in an absurd world but from someone who is partly responsible for it, which is both more chilling and funnier. Here Nilsen’s art choices reveal themselves to be deliberate and successful. The man with a head of pen scratches has his opposite in the other person on the book’s cover, the man with a simple face. The former is someone who is so powerful and knowledgeable he can barely register. Whereas the other man is a naïve earthbound creature who harbors earthly concerns like employment oppurtunities and is willing to listen to all of his heavenly pal’s advice. He has a face that so basic he is everyman. Nilsen’s choices work as he sustains them throughout the book. The only real change happens as he builds on them or rather further deconstructs them. The man with a simple face gives way to the man with no face and a man whose body is a complete blank. The last one appropriately enough gives a monologue on committing himself to mediocrity in what is of the best chapters of the book.
The book balances this dark outlook on humanity with dry wit. A lot of this is thanks to the dead simple pacing, really so primitive it’s immediately recognizable. For most of the book Nilsen has every page be used for one image in a continuing narrative. Ever page is a panel and soon chapters of the book feel like giant comic strips. It makes the stories feel both big but it also creates a rhythm so straight the sensation is like taking a steady walk through the stories. If the pace of the narratives resemble a comfortable stroll the text becomes a conversation spoken in hushed “library voices.” One of the strengths of Nislen’s “doodling” is that the speech bubbles and the drawn characters have the same amount of durability to them, there’s absolutely no contrast. It makes the long speeches and ponderings that these characters make inviting when they could be tedious.
One of the things to enjoy about Monologues is seeing how it could go so wrong but doesn’t. Nislen’s commitment to spontaneity is potent enough so he can work out many ideas at once. As challenging as it can be the book leaves readers with something worth thinking about, whether it be the mechanism of the comics medium or how an individual reacts to an out-of-control society. Everything looks simple at the start but Monolouges is one of the most complicated and engrossing books I’ve read in a while. There are not many types of art like this being used to make comics but this is the type of art that is very effective. Permanent Link: 9:20 PM |
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You might have noticed the spiffy new design here. It's all thanks to super-talented and super-nice web designer Kate McMillan. I just played my guitar while she did the hard work. Maybe some of my rockin' shows off but it is she that is owed the most credit for the look of Brill Building now, a look that is far classier than any of my posts could be. Thank you Kate. Permanent Link: 5:01 PM |
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Wednesday, August 02, 2006
More timewasting
How does a visit to the Doctor Who Museum sound? One British Livejournalist has photographic proof that the such a thing exists. Includes appearacnes by K-9, Daleks and and at the very end the creepiest gathering of The Doctors you'll ever see. Permanent Link: 12:21 PM |
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Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Delta Quadrant Follies
Man, these video posts are good way to cover the fact that I don't have much to say on comics lately (don't worry, I might have some meaty reviews coming up). Let's watch Geneviève Bujold (Dead Ringers, Obsession) film part of the pilot of Star Trek: Voyager before she was replaced by Kate Mulgrew. She's not exactly...enthusiastic about all the techno-babble she's given. Watch for her expression when the director says "cut!"
