Today’s Webcomic of the day is GRAVEDIGGER, beautifully drawn noir tinged crime webcomic, starring a character that bears more than a passing resemblance to movie heist hardman Lee Marvin.
Well drawn and engagingly written. Check it out here!
Here’s a pretty nifty selection of unique foam core posters! The convenience of a frame without the weight and the mounting hassles. View them here!
If like me you’re a fan of owning classic 1950s scifi and fantasy pulps, this is a great weekend on Ebay. Check out the selection here!
It’s a good weekend to pick up David Mack Kabuki posters and prints. You can find a great selection here!
And for Simpson’s TREE-HOUSE OF HORROR fanatics this is a great weekend to pick up the excellent comics. Check out the various offerings of goodness here!
And finally if steam-punk fob style pocket watches are your thing, then this is a great weekend to be surfing Ebay. Check them out here!
Check back next installment for more selections!
BATMAN AND ROBIN BORN TO KILL by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason- After reading one disappointing ‘NEW 52′ book after another (ACTION COMICS by Grant Morrison comes to mind) I went into this read with some trepidation, but it was unwarranted. Tomasi crafts a solidly engaging read that is good from first page to last and complimented by great art by Gleason and Gray. Strongly Recommended! B+.
Batman & Robin, Vol. 1: Born to Kill (The New 52)
SUPERMAN BATMAN SORCERER KINGS- Is a hodge-podge of four different stories, none of which really ever rises to become anything more than tedious. D.
What I’m watching:
Just finished watching Michael Moore’s SICKO and CAPITALISM A LOVE STORY back to back, and they are both powerful, essential, if not always easy viewing.
CAPITALISM A LOVE STORY is particularly brilliant, has been called Moore’s Magnum-Opus and I concur. It’s a courageous, informative, and well put together film. Sometimes Moore has a way of perhaps working a theme into the ground, and beating us over the head, and I felt that in SICKO, acutely. ‘Yeah, okay I get it, other countries have better healthcare than the US, how many examples are you going to show me? Move on to solutions.’.
Somewhere in most of Moore’s films that thought process rears up, however it didn’t in CAPITALISM A LOVE STORY. Potentially Moore’s last film it is undeniably his best. And both films, will make you want to make real, hard changes in your life. As it makes clear that the people you entrust with your well being… don’t care about that… at all. Both films should really be seen, and CAPITALISM must be seen.
Capitalism: A Love Story
This is a special Wednesday Words Review as opposed to our normal coverage. Enjoy:
SUPERMAN ACTION COMICS by Grant Morrison- Starts off impressively, but true to just about everything I’ve tried by Grant Morrison it loses its way in the middle, and completely falls apart into uninteresting storytelling by the end. The first chapter is very strong. The second chapter is strong till the last few pages. The third chapter, again strong, but loses it in the last few pages as Morrison tries to build his overarching story, which I’ve come to the conclusion he’s not really good at. He’s a great idea guy, but going from imaginative idea to compelling and satisfying storyline/wrap-up is a leap Morrison has always, in my estimation, failed at doing. He’s the X-FILES of comics.
From issue #4 up is all the over-arching, high-idea storyline, and the problem with it is… it is incredibly uninteresting. And it stays uninteresting till it limps to what has come to be a norm for Grant Morrison, a poorly told, to the point of near incoherence ending. And it is not a point of not getting Grant Morrison, as his cult is quick to jump to, it’s a point of his writing stops being in anyway a compelling and fun story, and feels like a chore and dissertation that the writer himself has long lost any interest in. And the variable art quality doesn’t help. Another Morrison D-. The only real saving grace of the series is the enjoyable, exquisitely written and beautifully drawn backup strips by writer Sholly Fisch and artists Brad Walker and ChrisCross. The backup strips are an easy B+. I wish Sholly Fisch had written the main story rather than Grant Morrison.
Final Grade: D- for the main Grant Morrison storyline. B+ for the Sholly Fisch back up stories. So can’t recommend buying the book but if you can get it for free from a friend or the library, the backup strips are worth a look.
Superman – Action Comics Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel (The New 52)
That said I can see why it failed at the box office when released in 2004. The main issue is pacing. There is too much movie to comfortably sit through from beginning to end, and not feel the fat.
True to Conran’s initial impulse, the movie is very much a serial, and works better broken up in chunks, or perhaps enlivened by Chapter Breaks. Which makes it the perfect film for DVD, but not so much for the theatrical experience.
However in terms of visuals it very much deserves to be seen on the big screen. This is seemingly Conran’s first and only film, and what a film it is. One that shall only increase I think in import and prestige, much as the closing song says, ‘As time goes by’.
If you have never watched the film before, or watched it only once, I would say revisit it. I picked up the DVD for less than rental price, and around the third attempt I finally made it all the way through the film, including special features.
In a word… impressive. Try it for yourself!
