Michael Hutchison: May 2008 Archives

There's no topping this one.

I've just heard that Harvey Korman passed away. Harvey was a comedic genius and brought much joy to my childhood. I've loved him in everything from Blazing Saddles to The Carol Burnett Show to his short-lived "The Nutt House" tv series.

Oooooh...he was even on that slice of nerd heaven, "The Star Wars Christmas Special"!

R.I.P. Now go do that voodoo that you do so well, Mr. Hedley Lamarr.

A great movie trailer from when I was 18. I'm not saying it's a great movie, but this is a great trailer!

I finally saw the first Phantasm when I was in my mid-twenties. Man, it sucked and it didn't make any sense, though it did feature some genuinely well-done thrills. I can't imagine why it's such a phenomenon. It's probably the kind of movie made for groups of teens to watch while making out at drive-ins or when you're totally baked (neither of which I'd have any knowledge of).

Does getting the reference "Bizarro World" render one unfit for commenting on current events?

Give it a listen. If you want to jump ahead (but why, when Steyn is on?), go to 24:00 in the podcast.

Of course, sports and comics should be able to coexist.

I had no idea they were even redoing Andromeda Strain, let alone that it was being done by Ridley Scott and Tony Scott and starring Andre Braugher, Ricky Schroder and Daniel Dae Kim! Man, this sounds good.

I saw the original movie and it was...okay. Frankly, it's computer graphics were so crude that they were laughable at a point where the story called for intense drama. (There's a scene where computer-guided lasers are shooting at a guy climbing a ladder, and it's so crude that it makes Crazy Climber look like Super Mario Galaxies.

The trailer:

And a clip just premiered today:

Here's an awesome movie idea from the scribe of "Batman Begins" and it may actually make it to the big screen: "Super Max", in which Green Arrow is imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit and must then escape from a facility designed for holding super criminals... and it includes a list of B and C-level villains that comic fans will recognize (though none are in their costumes).

I'm not a big Green Arrow fan, but this sounds like an awesome idea for a movie. And maybe that's the key to this: instead of an overwrought and formulaic two hour origin tale, the origin and establishing of Green Arrow is done in the first few minutes, and by 10 minutes in he's already been captured for the murders. The rest of the movie is focused on an exciting plot that would be a good story no matter who the main character is.

(Hat tip to Condiment King!)

Metropolis, IL, is holding a contest to pick their Superman for their annual festival.

So, I write this long post finally venting about PvP always always always being late...

...and Scott posts that his dad ripped him a new one about always being late ON THAT VERY SAME DAY! Scott's making an extra effort to get organized, and acquainting himself with some new hardware which may make it easier to draw, and he is trying hard to work ahead.

Bad timing on my part, I guess.

UPDATED: In case you're wondering why I called that post "FAIL!!!", it was a reference to this animated GIF that I like of Luke Skywalker kicking a guy and totally missing him. Unfortunately, I cannot find the original GIF no matter how hard I try (images are tough to search for unless they're tagged or described in text, and most aren't). But check out 1:45 in the following video:

Scott Kurtz decided that PvP would go to a Monday through Friday comic in order for him to do justice to the title and keep it on time.

It is now 10:15PM central time and still no Monday PvP.

Look, I'm not some Scott Kurtz hater. (And I'm amazed how many haters there are. Mention his name in any crowd and someone will call him a donkey opening.) I mean, anyone who works so hard to keep his comic going for ten years, who develops a gargantuan following and is supportive of his friends deserves some respect.

Time for the inevitable "however". If I have one criticism of Scott, it's that he never, ever has managed to work one day ahead of schedule. He's got a comic book, TPBs, a book about webcomics, a cartoon, an upcoming DVD of that cartoon, shirts, skull plushes, other merchandise, podcasts, MMORPG guilds, Blank Label Comics, HalfPixel, convention appearances, comic store appearances and who knows how many other ventures. It's a FULL SCHEDULE. I understand that. I'm amazed he can get anything done, frankly. All of it, however, is based on one thing: his daily web comic. And ever since he started doing more than just drawing the web comic, it has meant that that day's comic gets launched in the afternoon, the evening, that night, or retroactively the next day.

I know, it's that whole "how dare we demand something he gives away free" thing. But it's not free! Look, his web site makes an exorbitant amount of money in advertising based on our checking the web site for that day's comic. We're stopping by in order to see one thing: the webcomic. It would be nice if that comic was actually there.

Now, I could follow the conspiracy rule established by leftists ever since Bush took office ("Any possible conspiracy theory that would result in profit automatically means that theory is the truth.") and conclude that Scott has realized that if a cartoon was on his web site in the morning we wouldn't return to his web site five more times looking to see if it's up yet, and thus his hit count would plummet and he'd lose money.

I said that just to see how easily some people will now tout that theory as the absolutely true reason that Scott Kurtz posts comics late. It couldn't possibly be that he's a well-meaning guy who has a bad habit of never getting caught up on his comic and working a day or two ahead of time.

So, Scott, should you ever see this, here is my advice. Take a week off and have another week of guest strips. Not because you need to go to a big con. Not because you're sick, or your dog is sick. No...use it just to draw and get a week ahead of yourself. We're your fans, and if you took some time to fix the biggest flaw in your strip, we'd love you for it. Besides, if all the guest strips were as funny as this one, it would be well worth it.

Signed... the guy who never worked ahead of schedule on anything.

Fantasy bodies tend toward the ideal. Go figure.

Wow.

Still not excited about the new Star Trek prequel, but that's a cool image.

Wow. Never let it be said that Scott Kurtz doesn't know how to write a powerful moment. Jade Fontaine and Brent Sienna have tied the knot. No interruptions, no plot twists, no fleeing the ceremony. They're married.

Weird.

I distinctly remember Kurtz swearing ages ago that he would never have Brent and Jade get married because that would ruin it.

I guess he changed his mind.

Or he decided to ruin it.

I was at Jimmy Jams in Rochester, MN, today, along with Tom Nguyen, Gordon Purcell, Bob Lipski, Brian Bastian and Zach Miller. I sold three copies of Job Wanted; grossed $9. Then I went over to Gordon's table and saw two amazing comic pages with Batman, Elongated Man and Detective Chimp. Spent a lot more than $9 adding those to my collection.

I also got this from Bob Lipski for all of you Killer Moth fans:

I'll post my Iron Man review tomorrow. Short version: most painless $8 I've paid for a movie in ages. SO worth it...and if you go, you sit through all the credits, understand?

First off: I should have a review of Iron Man tomorrow, if my day pans out. Plans are to spend Free Comic Book Day appearing at Jimmy Jams alongside my buddies Tom Nguyen and Gordon Purcell, then head out with everybody who's willing to see the movie on Saturday night. (Tommy and Gordy are heading off to another convention for Sunday, so they'll miss out.)

I'm trying to avoid the reviews until I can make up my own mind, though I've encountered a few. "Dirty Harry" gives it 3 stars and some high praise, though he says that the film becomes a bit ideologically unfocused after 40 minutes. I've also been hearing nothing but good things about Robert Downey Jr's performance, about his age and personal history lending well towards personifying Tony Stark.

Here's looking forward to tomorrow!