Eric San Juan, 11/18/2008

Call them reviews. Call them my semi-random musings. Call them whatever you like. This is I Am Reading... This week I am reading … DMZ. Garth Ennis’ Hellblazer run. And Ultimate X-men.

DMZ Vol. 2 – Body of a Journalist

DMZ Vol. 2 – Body of a Journalist

Though still not living up to the promise of the premise, Volume 2 of the Brian Wood/Riccardo Burchielli Vertigo series DMZ is a step up from the first, offering a clearer focus, better stories and a stronger exploration of the series’ premise.

But I’m not yet totally sold. I still can’t help but feel that Wood & Co aren’t quite there. The characters are shallower than an inflatable kiddie pool – I’ve spent 12 issues with Matty Roth and Zee, and feel like I barely know them – and the dialogue lacks life and punch. It’s a string of profanities without character or personality. Sorry, but “fuck!” and “aww fuck!” and “fuck this shit!” does not make for good characterization. Fine if you’re playing a Grand Theft Auto game, not so fine if you’re reading a work that attempts to say something larger than, “Fuck!” Matty is frustrated with the war, but I don’t feel any real humanity or emotion there, just F bombs.

Robert J. Sodaro, 11/12/2008

Appaloosa>: Rated “R” (108 Minutes)

Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Renée Zellweger, Ed Harris, Jeremy Irons, Timothy Spall

Directed by: Ed Harris

Time to Cowboy Up!

If anyone were to tell you that the great American Western is dead, or (at the very least) no longer relevant, all you need do is point them in the direction of Appaloosa. This is a modern-day take on the classic Western themes of loyalty, friendship, trust, betrayal, honor and honesty. All played out on the picturesque canvas of the great American West.

Virgil Cole (Harris) and Everett Hitch (Mortensen) are a pair of lawmen for hire who have sold their guns to the city of Appaloosa to protect them from the nasty local land owner — Randall Bragg (Irons) who feels that his wealth and influence (he knows President Cleveland) not only protects him from everything, but puts him above the law.

So when the local sheriff comes to arrest a pair of Bragg’s ranch hands for murdering a local man and raping and murdering the man’s wife, he not only refuses to turn the men over, but he murderers the sheriff and his two deputies. This is the scenario that the two hired lawmen arrive.

Kurt Wilcken, 10/31/2008

The first thing you notice is the moon; a cartoon paper crescent with a psychotic smile leering down at the streets below. Right there that tells you that this is no mundane normal town. It is Death City, where apprentice reapers harvest the souls of corrupted mortals, and where every day is Halloween.

Soul Eater is an anime series currently airing in Japan which my wife and daughter have been enjoying. The original manga for the series has been translated and is being serialized in the magazine Yen Plus. It’s a fun series; weird and surreal and very Halloween-y.

The series is set at Shibusen, the Shinigami Weapon Meister Vocational School; an institute of higher learning run by none other than the Grim Reaper: Shinigami, the God of Death. Long ago, Shinigami destroyed the Demon God, a malevolent being of evil which caused great destruction and suffering in the world. When individuals stray from the path of humanity, particularly when they eat the soul of another human, their souls become corrupted into demon eggs, with the potential for maturing into a new Demon God. Shinigami established his school to train living weapons, capable of destroying these demon eggs before they become a greater threat.

Alex Ness, 10/29/2008

HALLOWEEN AND HORROR THROUGH THE MEDIUMS OF CULTURE

First off, not everyone seems to understand what Halloween is and isn’t. A very excellent account of this is HALLOWEEN GOOD by my comrade Michael May. I am less a fan of the holiday as he is but ultimately whatever you think of Halloween, it is better to understand what it is and then decide if it is good or not. Michael did a great job in the article.

FILMS

Horror versus Monsters: The question at hand. I have come to understand why I like monster movies but not as much purely horror movies. Monster movies are not predicated upon scaring you, but might hope to do so. Therefore they play much more like a normal story that has creepy components. But horror movies are meant to scare you, so utilize all sorts of tricks and ideas to make you, the viewer, feel fear. The result is that you know people in the film, if it is called a horror film are meant to die, and so you never attach to them like you do, in say, a monster movie. I have spoken about it prior, but, The MUMMY with Boris Karloff is the spookiest monster movie there is, and there is precious little of a man in old cloth rags wrapped for eternity in it. The mummy is a man doomed to be eternal and seeks out his queen, as played by Karloff and is one scary mofo.

MUSIC

Alex Ness: Reviews, 10/29/2008

A couple of friends in the comic book industry pointed out that many of my polls and commentaries are focused upon the artists, despite the fact that my taste is more centered about good writing than great art. And I agree with that. Sometimes you do things without a decent perspective towards the world at large or even, the field you cover. So I decided to find out who is considered the best writer of all time in comics. I’d asked in the past about who was the most important, and now, I tried to divorce the facts of popularity or importance from quality. Who wrote the best work in comics? I started with no list, but I made sure to ask only people who’d ever been paid for work, somehow in the industry of comics. I asked many different people, but only 30 responded with their five best of all time writers of comics.

Rich Chapell, 10/23/2008

The best, and worst thing about going to a comic con is walking through Artists’ Alley. It’s how you find the Next Big Thing when it’s still just Some Guy’s Book. On the other hand, you have to avoid the eyes of all the guys selling hand-stapled Witchblade knock-offs or copyright-infringing pin-up girls. Once I actually start talking to an artist, I start to feel obligated to buy a book from him, so I only have a few seconds to eliminate the blatantly derivative and the pathetically untalented. It can be tricky, too. Lewis Helfand’s Wasted Minute is the worst-drawn book I’ve ever seen, at least in the initial issues, but I love the writing.

Marc N. Kleinhenz, 10/11/2008

Hollywood isn’t renowned for nuanced, even realistic portrayals of – well, anything. The mundane drabness of everyday life is given a sheer of excitement, a glean of sexiness. Hell, even doing one’s taxes is somehow svelter up on the silver screen.

Barry Keller, 9/28/2008

Teen Titans #18 (On Sale: September 24, 1968) proves once again that all experimentations with logos do not result in winners. Cover by the wonderful Nick Cardy.

Joe Hilliard, 7/24/2008

Since Comicon 2008 is taking place in San Diego even as I type this, I figured what better time to do a column about … hockey. It's been awhile since I've wrote about my one real sports obsession; a few years ago I opined on Cam Neely's election to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Oddly enough, we are going to talk about the Boston Bruins again. I'm not a particular Bruins fan, but there is no denying their place as one of the preeminent franchises in the sport. And one of the enduring legacies of the team is the play of defenseman Bobby Orr.

Alex Ness: Interviews, 7/15/2008

SIX PRAYERS GOD ALWAYS ANSWERS

I do not personally know Jennifer Schuchmann but she has been important to me for a number of reasons, not the least of which was her connecting me through Mark Herringshaw to writer Jim Krueger, who is an absolute gem of a human being. She was involved in at least one of my mass interviews, (upon Myth) and she is a very bright talented writer.

Mark Herringshaw I know well. He was pastor of my church, but more, we connect upon a level that is rather rare, and very powerful. I consider him a friend, a mentor, and the best speaker of big idea subjects I’ve ever heard. His sermons always have/had meat for the thoughtful as well as motivation for those needing it.