Michael Hutchison: November 2005 Archives
Scott Kurtz? Aaron Williams? A salute to the "great" television of the late 1970s and early 1980s like Knight Rider, A-Team and Greatest American Hero? I am so there.
"Truth, Justin and the American Way" just went on my pull list! (If it's no longer on the main page of PVP, then click here.) Scott Kurtz just confirmed the news at PVP since it was broken at Lying in the Gutters.
Now, is it just me or does this Justin's face look exactly like Luke Skywalker's?
The Comics Review Forums has a nice interview with comic legend Chuck Dixon. Always good to hear from Chuck. He doesn't plug his two upcoming books from Shooting Star, but they're coming out in 2006 so perhaps it's too early to mention them.
When I got married in 1999, I had some things I wanted to do in the ceremony. I wanted to perform "Come Live With Me and Be My Love" (which really is so beautiful you may not realize it's a P.D.Q. Bach song from his "Liebslieder Polkas"), and I even got the sheet music, but I just couldn't get it organized with my friends. And I really wanted to switch from our processional music right to the blasting horns part of "The Imperial March" when the groom (me) entered, but I chickened out. (I'm looping it in for the DVD, though.) All in all, we had a nice normal beautiful ceremony, aside from the M&M characters on one of our wedding cakes (and not the official cake). I just wish I'd gotten a little more inventive.
Like THIS GUY. What a cool ceremony. Of course, what would you expect from a guy with a Comic Book Advent Calendar?
I found Scott at Polite Dissent amongst our registered TypeKey commenters and checked out his site. I remember linking to one of his posts a long time ago, but I'd forgotten to keep Polite Dissent in my bookmarks.
So, he's into comics and politics and medicine, and especially likes nitpicking medical science in comic books? Now I'm scared. This is exactly the kind of guy who's going to haunt me when I am doing a superhero medical book. (I already know that I glossed over a medical point in the first Metro Med story, but there's only so much you can do in the space of one word balloon.)
(Yes, I'm just teasing him. Actually, I need to get a copy of MM #0 off to him in the mail.)
Okay, I watched Tom Cruise killing Oprah again and then watched Bananaphone. Then a quick visit to Khaaan and I'm better.
Look, anyone who peruses my Amazon wish list or picks up on subtle indicators here or there in my posts can probably detect my political stance by what I read, and there is the occasional post where I may talk about politics. But for the most part, I leave it off this particular site because I want to welcome all readers. Well, most readers, Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian and good ol' non-voters, all are welcome, but if you're an SUV-vandalizing Earth First domestic terrorist or a flag-burning commie member of International A.N.S.W.E.R. I really don't care if I say something to drive you away. That probably goes without saying.
My point is, sometimes politics come up in the course of doing a site even when I'm centering it on comics and sci-fi, and I'm not going to avoid it. And in this case, while posting about comic strips, there's no divorcing politics.
Two words: Ted Rall
And if you would rather have a good day, just skip this one and read on. I'm going to be doing an interview with Phil Farrand of "The Nitpicker's Guide to Star Trek" and that will be enjoyable.
I've signed up for a new Amazon Associates beta test, as you may (or may not) see if you hover your cursor over this link for the movie Ray (I'm using that one just because I've seen it work in the beta test). 1/2 of the visitors to the site will see a special floating popup, the others will see a normal link. As part of the test, they do a coin toss and you may be part of the control group where it just shows a regular link. If you don't see it and would like to check it out, clear your cookies and visit the site again.
If anyone buys something from Amazon using one of these, I get $5. So, someone help me buy my Christmas presents and use that floating link if you see it!
NOTE: This may take another hour before they start working.
Peter Chung actually sounds disappointed with the live action movie, since Charlize Theron doesn't resemble Aeon, doesn't have the trademarked hairstyle, doesn't wear the Aeon costume and the movie was made without his involvement. The only thing he likes is that if the movie widens the brand name he can push for the full-length animated Aeon feature that he's always wanted to do.
Chung also talks about the oddities of his show, such as how he'd kill Aeon off at the end of every short film. When the show went to full-length TV episodes and the characters started talking, fans were split on whether it was better or worse. (I've got two of the tapes which I bought off of Scott McCullar years ago and the full episodes are even more incomprehensible than the shorts!)
I'm glad that the DVD compilation is finally out.
The director of the first two Shrek features reveals the plot of Shrek 3, which he will executive produce but not write or direct. I'm putting this in an extended entry so that anyone who would rather be surprised can avoid spoilers. (Don't worry, this is just the basic idea of the plot.)
My buddy Bob Lipski's comic book Uptown Girl #31 was declared Newsarama's Indy comic of the week. Way to go!
Jonah Golberg states what a lot of us have been wondering about the new King Kong movie:
But explain to me one thing. A bunch of explorers go to an island. They find a giant gorilla. That's cool. But they also find dinosaurs. They go crazy for the giant gorilla -- which is totally legit. But they're completely nonchalant about the dinosaurs. "Ho, hum, found a T-rex zzzzzz....But did you see that monkey!?!"
Frankly, even bringing back a dead insect the size of a great dane would cause a sensation. I hope the movie explains why King Kong is so much more interesting than everything else on the island.
A few weeks ago I posted about the Amazon wishlists, getting some of the other MonitorDuty posters and commenters to share theirs. I thought I'd pass on a site I've found useful, now that it's holiday shopping season.
My Amazon wishlist is six pages long because it's mostly for self-reference. I'll read an article about, say, the Venona Decrypts and go wishlist several books about it, but I don't really want all of them and I may just someday get them from the public library. Amazon doesn't have any other way to bookmark the books you want without putting them in the wishlist. Amazon does allow you to rank your items from high to low in desirability, but that can be a hassle and your gifters may not even notice this if you do take the time to mark them.
So I have started using the AllIWantForChristmas wishlist service to highlight the favorite items I really want. The nice thing is that you can spotlight items from any and all online services. That helps because I can find DVDs far cheaper than Amazon at DVDPacific, a videocamera deal that's way better than Amazon's or Best Buy at an unheard-of place called Buydig.com, the pans I want from Cooking.com, etc. If my friends and family were buying them from Amazon they'd be overpaying.
Now I just need to get other people to use it so I can find things for them. (I don't think I'll ever get my parents to use this, no matter how hard I try. Their Amazon membership actually expired from disuse.) So if you have one, please tell us all by replying!
Oscar-Nominated Actor Pat Morita Dies
One of Pat's final roles was voicing "himself" for the Karate Kid parody "Enter The Fat One" on the "S&M Present" episode of Cartoon Network's Robot Chicken. In it, Pat Morita counsels Joey Fatone in martial arts so that he may avenge the deaths of his bandmates.
One past Thanksgiving, my wife's coworkers had a fun competition where they all took a coloring book picture of a turkey and each was supposed to submit a finished colored pic for judging. As a joke, Melinda had me send it to digital colorist Roz Terrill, who did this version with leaf patterns, shadows, highlights and drop shadows, and then submitted it as a joke. (Nobody would believe it was my wife's work, obviously.)
Since I still have that image on my site, here it is. Enjoy! If you'd like a larger, printable version, you can get it here.
Holidays usually mean a lean time for postings due to visiting relatives and limited computer access, so I want to leave you with this. (Having written that, I'll probably post a dozen times now.) Here's my list of things for which I'm thankful. Well, Monitor Duty-related things, or we'd be here all night.
I'm not saving the best for last, I'm going to list this one right off the bat: I'm thankful for you, this site's visitors. That isn't just a cheap bid for appeal, a "Nobody Rocks Like OSHKOSH!" I'm serious, it is thrilling to look at the number of unique visitors this site gets. Some days I forget that and grow disheartened because few people use the comments field and our new forum has a small number of regulars, but then a post will get people riled up and there will be a slew of comments from people we've never heard from before. I have to remind myself that lurkers always outnumber the known visitors and even I don't say anything at the sites I enjoy on a daily basis. I know you guys are out there, reading and hopefully enjoying, and I'm very grateful.
Now, in no particular order...
The Lady In The Water movie looks interesting, but I have no clue what it's going to be about.
This really makes my day:
Sidekick K9 returns to Doctor Who!
Robot dog K9 will be reunited with Doctor Who in the new series after 24 years apart, say the show's producers.
K9 and Sarah Jane Smith will return for one episode. K9 will be voiced by John Leeson again.
I wonder whether they'll improve the model of the dog after all this time. Certainly the mechanics underneath it should be better.
In other Who News, Billie Piper will leave as assistant "Rose" at the end of the second season. No big deal, she's only the latest in the long line of assistants, and it bugs me that the show has essentially made her the main character. And here's the countdown clock to the new show.
Now...would somebody PLEASE carry this program in the states, now that it's a collosal success?
Recently Best Buy approached me to run an ad for their new online trailer for the movie "Soar." I watched the trailer and found it entertaining (I hope you've all clicked on it and seen the trailer; it is hilarious), so I agreed.
Up til now, I hadn't ever run ads to pay for this site. I do link to Fanzing's T-shirts, and run some Amazon links to comic trades and movies that I'm talking about anyway. I think it's better than running crap banners and those annoying Gooooogle ads all over the site.
Best Buy tells me they'll have a new campaign after Soar and I'm welcome to just keep the ad placement running. The money's good, provided people are clicking on it, so I'm hoping they'll do another fun trailer like this one. (I know people won't be clicking on banners for a boring camera ad.)
Anyway, your opinions? Did you check out the trailer? Would you rather I just did Amazon links and hyped my own books more to pay for the site?
Libertas points out that King Kong will be on Turner Classic Movies.
I think this will give me the proper motivation to hook up my cable box tonight. I've been paying extra for the expanded range of movies on my cable, except that it requires the use of this box that I really don't want to hook up. (Once I do, I lose all the flexibility in programming my VCR because it has to be on "3" and you have to use the box.) The only channel I really wanted to see was Turner Classic Movies, because ever since American Movie Classics changed its format and started showing stuff like "Turner and Hooch", TCM is the only classic channel out there.
Here is the video which CNN is running that covers the recent controversial anti-Scientology episode of South Park.
You have to love that CNN cites Madonna for a quote because she practices Kabbalah...which, by the way, is nothing like Scientology. (I'm guessing it's because no Scientologist would give them a quote.) Madonna says that, "I don't really know what Scientology is, and because I don't know, I'm not in a position to have an opinion about it...but I don't think anybody else knows either." Huh? Lots of people know what Scientology is.
The Uptown Girl movie on DVD which I covered two weeks ago is now available for purchase Bob Lipski's online store.
I covered the Uptown Girl movie and gave it a brief review in my FallCon 2005 update.
I see you can also get an Uptown Girl short story for free just by e-mailing Bob. (It's right below the DVD in his shop.) For those of you buying the movie but who haven't read the comic, that could be a bonus.
Shooting Star Comics has redesigned their web site and opened their online store. According to Scott McCullar, they moved the site to a new host in order to get the store working and allow space for upcoming online comics which will start in 2006.
I've been waiting for this for a while, which is why I haven't been talking too much about Metro Med #0 since it's debut. Until now, the only way to get a copy was at conventions or via my comics-for-sale site (and I only have a small stack on hand). Now you can get it from Shooting Star's new online store.
Here's the cool part: Shooting Star is going to throw in a copy of Metro Med #0 for free with any purchase from the online store! You can find the previous works by artist Phil Meadows and yours truly in Job Wanted #1 and Shooting Star Comics Anthology #4.
Now, Monitor Duty gets new visitors all the time, including many who probably don't even know I'm a comic book writer, so I'll give a quick recap in the extended entry.
QUIZ: Superhero or Household Cleaner?
Can you tell which of these is a superhero and which is a household cleaner?
Thanks to Ethan Colchamiro for bringing this to our attention over on the Dixonverse board. Ethan scored 16 out of 20. Our R.B. Propst got 15. Chuck Dixon scored 19 out of 20.
Can anyone find out how well Mark Waid does at this quiz?
Oh, and yours truly scored 18 out of 20.
They've fought against the intolerance of the politically correct establishment time and again. They've been willing to shout epithets against steroid users while Mark McGwire grins. They've portrayed global warming environmentalists as brain-washers. They've screamed "CONFESS! LIAR!" to O.J. Simpson and the Ramseys. They've even pointed out some of the... less-believable elements of Mormonism in one of their riskiest episodes.
Of course, the Mormons don't have quite the history of suing anybody and everybody who takes issue with their beliefs. Not like the Church of Scientology, which the guys from South Park took on in this week's episode, "Trapped in the Closet." I just watched the episode and it is amazingly hilarious...but what's even more amazing is the bravery it must have taken to do it. Scientologists have been notoriously prickly, suing any and all critics faster than you can say, "Welcome to MindHead." The show truly tempts fate by revealing the "real secrets" of Scientology, a long story about alien bodies frozen by an alien dictator and shipped to Earth to be dropped in a volcano releasing their spirits which now possess humans and cause unhappiness, all displayed with a big legend which reads "This is what Scientologists actually believe!" the entire time.
As if that wasn't tweaking the nose of the Body Thetans, the episode rips on Tom Cruise. Tom, upon hearing Stan Marsh say that he's not as good an actor as that Napoleon Dynamite guy, locks himself in Stan's closet. This is followed by friends pleading with him to come out of the closet, which he insists he's not even in, while the media keeps a watch on Tom's refusal to come out of the closet.
The real risk here is that Tom is connected to Paramount, which is part of Viacom, which owns Comedy Central, which owns South Park, which is written by Trey Parker, who was in Baseketball with Ernest Borgnine, who was in McHale's Navy with David Allen Grier, who was in The Woodsman with KEVIN BACON! (Ta-da!) It is because of Tom's connections that they've been leery of doing this episode, according to RADAR Online.
Don't miss the repeats of this episode. Particularly, watch the credits.
British Idiots In Space! A new reality show filming in England will choose contestants from amongst some sequestered candidates and tell them that they are going to be space travelers, then film them during their "travels" while faking the whole thing.
I dunno how they could fake weightlessness so I imagine they'll just tell these gullible people that the Russian space agency has invented gravity plating.
Scott Beatty is selling boxes of comic books. He just wants to get rid of them, so he's selling a full assortment of books for $1 per comic and $5 per trade paperback (plus half off of the DK books that he's written) with flat shipping price of $7.70.
Watch the Dixonverse board for updates, as he posts revised lists every day or so.
As long as we're talking about Scott Beatty, I just finished reading Son of Vulcan #6 (I get them a few days early because, in the interest of full disclosure, I manage his web site). All I can say is that this mini-series has been a great read and you're all going to like the ending. Let's hope that DC collects this mini for all those who missed it the first time.
This Badger song is stupid. Goes on forever and makes no sense.
The Banana Phone song is better and makes for a better badger video. But beware...the song is too catchy and there's a danger that you can get it going through your head. Then what happens?
Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring BANANA PHONE!!! (Warning: Explicit)
I managed to get leaves raked last night, but there's still one last lawnmowing, winterizer to spread, landscaping plastic to put down...I'm not ready for six inches of snow tonight. Fortunately, I found this homemade snow-clearing device.
I don't know what's worse...the paranoids who discuss the effectiveness of Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanies (AFDB) in great scientific detail or that someone actually did an MIT study to show that they don't work. But I must admit, just seeing the pictures from the MIT test is worth the study.
You also have to love the MIT study's willingness to play along and point out a whole new conspiracy possibility for the paranoids to debate, since the helmets actually amplify the government's signals.
When "Mystery Science Theater 3000" went off the air, SciFi.com threw some other work the Best Brains' way and had them do a sort of online radio theater series entitled Edward The Less. It's a blatant parody of Lord of the Rings, which was somewhat popular at the time, I forget why.
Just linking it your way because I didn't even know it was still to be found online and it may be new to some of you. If so, enjoy.
I liked it, but it cannot replace MST3K. Jeez, I miss that show.
Okay, to the guy who whined about my Amazon links, I have to say: I wish I'd linked to this earlier!
I'd had this six-CD set, "Topics Presents:The Stand-Up Comedy Collection" in my Amazon wish list for ages, because I really only wanted to get the Richard Jeni album. Then the price went to $12.88 and I thought, "What the heck? That's like $2 an album!" After I've ordered it, I find out it's coming from a third-party vendor...and learn they have another set in the same series. If I'd gotten both I could have saved on shipping, but oh well.
The set arrives, packaged like it's software (because it's from a software vendor), and I've been enjoying them for weeks. Curious that the vendor is named NothingButSoftware but this isn't software. Let this be a lesson to anyone starting a business. Learn from Midas Muffler, Best Buy and NothingButSoftware: you don't want to pick a name which limits you. Midas does more than mufflers, Nothing But Software sells stuff besides software, and when was the last time Best Buy had anywhere near the lowest price on anything?
This was totally worth it just for the albums by Brian Regan, Richard Jeni and John Pinette. If the names don't ring a bell, you can find soundbits on their individual albums. And that's what interesting: each of these albums is still selling for about $16 each on Amazon.
Then I ordered the "Stars of Stand-Up Comedy"...for only $7.13! Got that one last week and love it...especially Jeff Wayne's "It's OK To Be A White Male." I'd never heard of the guy before but both of his albums are hilarious.
I was going to link you all to this last week. I wish I had, because the prices just shot up. Honestly, I wonder if these were languishing in obscurity until I ordered them and NothingButSoftware realized how cheap they had them marked!
Of course, even if the set costs $30, that's only $5 an album. You can also get them cheaper from third party dealers. I recommend these albums and hope you can find a deal on them...or just put them on your wish list for when NothingButSoftware gets absent-minded again.
Each of these has six albums:
Richard Jeni - Greatest Bits
Jeff Wayne - The Jeff Comedy Jam
John Pinette - Show Me the Buffet
Brian Regan - LIVE
Bobby Collins - On the Inside
Pablo Francisco - Knee to the Groin
Jeff Wayne - It's OK To Be A White Male
Bobby Collins - Out of Bounds
Steve McGrew - Too Much Man For Just One Woman...And Other Lies
Alonzo Bodden - Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time
Clinton Jackson - 'Nuff Said
Gilbert Esquivel - Just Representin'
'Chicken Little' Remains Top Movie
The box office is down compared to last year, but "Chicken Little" isn't "The Incredibles." Plus, people are probably saving their money for "Harry Potter", "King Kong" and "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe".
Arnold will not be back.
Coming Soon! reports that there will be a Sarah Conner TV series chronicling events happening between T2 and T3.
Josh Elder, writer of "Mail Order Ninja", needs ot raise money to pay his rent. Thus, a trove of treasures from his collection are going up on eBay.
Last night I watched "Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein" in my brand new A&C 8-pack. I would like to assume that everyone reading this has seen it, but I'm sure many of you still need to, so here:
(You can get all three sets, 24 movies in all, for under $50!)
The title is actually too short, because in addition to featuring a Frankenstein's monster it stars Bela Lugosi as Dracula AND Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolfman, with an uncredited cameo by Vincent Price. It was Universal's second biggest hit of 1948 and it was the only other time Lugosi played Dracula. The beauty of this movie is that the horror characters are played straight while Abbot and Costello interact with them; had the monsters been played for laughs it couldn't work.
You know what I'd like to see? "Abbot and Costello Meet Alien Vs. Predator"! Erik Burnham, you have your assignment. Can you draw that up before MicroCon?
The Drawing Board (an artist messageboard) is currently discussing Rob Liefeld, who is back in the spotlight due to his recent work on Teen Titans. And I mean, they're really discussing it; the thread is now fifty-seven pages long!
It's easy for art-lovers to pick on Liefeld's anatomy, like the small heads with Minbari ears, thumbs that move like fingers and hand-optional swordsmen, but there's no denying that Liefeld is still very popular and has a devoted following. Why is that?
Consider this analysis by Christopher Knowles as to the strength of Rob Liefeld's art: (registration is not required to view board but is to post):
"I think the massive size of this thread speaks somewhat to Rob's hypnotic powers. I mean, you have to admit that it's a lot of fun deconstructing his work. If you want my take on it, I've always felt that the reason he and Todd and Michael Turner and the rest were/are so popular is that they draw like fans. They draw like precocious high school kids. Betty Edwards has said that adolescent boys are fascinated by intricate surface detail and complexity. It's part of the way their brains process visual information. I think you see in Comics that slick artists who have weak basic drawing skills but have a knack for decorative detail are usually the fan favorites. I think the fact that the superhero audience is getting older accounts for the growing popularity of photo-tracing and "widescreen" artists- older fans are more sophisticated in their visual tastes and want the patina of film and photography (and perhaps "maturity") in their comics. Younger readers are drawn to Manga, which of course the Image crowd borrowed heavily from. Perhaps if there were more younger ( and I mean 13-20 yo) readers for superhero books, Rob Liefeld would still be very highly in demand. Carmine Infantino had said that Neal Adams never had any big sellers in comics because his style appealed to older readers, and it was the younger kids (7-12 yo) who were still the overwhelming bulk of the audience. The Adams style mutated a bit when Byrne synthesized it with Kirby and Ditko and made it popular with teens."
This thread may be very long, but it is quite educational. (At least, it is to me because I'm not an artist. Listening to practicing artists as they are analyzing art can be illuminating.)
"Comics Should Be Good" reviews Nick Landime and compares it to Archie Andrews!
This Comic Is Good - Nick Landime Versus the World Crime League #1
On the heels of the transparent aluminum, now there are phaser rifles.
I still miss CrossGen. The CrossGen Implosion occurred just when numerous trade compilations were due to be published.
Now here's an interesting thing: the third Ruse traveler paperback is still available from Amazon. Does this mean that, if I throw it in my shopping cart, they'll somehow send me one?
I think I'm going to try it. What's the worst that can happen?
Alan Kistler now has a wish list but for some reason it isn't search-able in their system the way mine is. Odd. Alan's trying to fix that.
It appears that Amazon has just restructured their Wish List system this weekend, with a new look and better functionality.
If you don't have a wish list, just go to Amazon using this box and start one. I will permit HTML links to wish lists in comments, by the way. As I said earlier, reading other people's wish lists is a great way to find out about their interests, and when reading lists of people who share your likes and dislikes you'll sometimes find goodies you didn't even know existed. A few of Alan's items may get added to my list.
It's been almost half a decade since her last album, so it's about time! And yes, I like Enya. I know plenty of people like to sneer her name with the same loathing they reserve for Wal-Mart. I don't care. I have never courted popularity.
Comics Continuum has updates for the DC animated shows, including a Chuck Dixon villain getting adapted for the first time on "The Batman" and the rest of the season for "Teen Titans". They also have a wallpaper for Teen Titans showing the extended cast for this season (with a few exceptions like Kid Flash missing).
One of the Teen Titans episodes, called "Go", will finally tell the origin for the group.
Check this out:
That is a beautiful collection right there, just released last month. I bet this goes on a LOT of comic book fans' Christmas lists! (And all you non-Christian comic book fans can just go ahead and order this right now.)
UPDATE: You could also get a companion volume: the complete Far Side!
King Kong has a new trailer.
Other good trailers include "The Producers" and "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World."