The New Comic Book Movies

For many years now, the comics community--creators, retailers and fans--has striven to spread to the American cultural mainstream the gospel that comics can be, and are, more than superheroes with their testosterone driven mindless violence and depictions of women with boobs that would make Dolly Parton say "That's just too much, girl!" Hollywood, which is endlessly questing for new sources of material so that none of these so called "artists" ever actually has to have an original idea, seems to have gotten that message. In addition to the "usual suspects" such as Batman Begins, Spider-Man, and X-Men, "comic book movies" of recent years have included such non-genre titles as Road To Perdition, Sin City, Ghost World, A History of Violence and From Hell. Of the major comics based films on the horizon for the next few months, only Superman Returns and X-Men: The Last Stand fit the traditional stereotype of the "comic book movie." The other major comics making their way to the silver screen soon are Frank Miller's 300, a tale of ancient Spartan warriors, and the dystopian Science Fiction thriller V For Vendetta, which opens on Friday, if the March issue of Playboy is to be believed, may be the first decent film to be made from the works of Alan Moore.

While I'm looking forward as much as anyone to Spider-Man 3, I most definitely would like to see this trend toward non-superhero "comic book movies" continue and fervently (though, most likely futilely) hope that it leads a few more people to check out the source material and give some respect to the comics medium's true literary potential.

Classic My..er..I Mean "Yeah, Right."

The word "classic" is much abused in our society.

Take cable TV channel American Movie Classics, for instance. Does anyone really think that Child's Play 2 is a "classic"?

Special note to "Classic Rock" radio programmers: Just because a song is by a "classic" artist does not necessarily mean that the song is a "classic." Bob Seger's Shame On The Moon is a good example of this principle. Seger has recorded many classic tunes in his long career: Old Time Rock n' Roll, Turn The Page, Katmandu, Fire Lake, and The Hoizontal Bop to name just a few, but Shame On The Moon is most emphatically not one of them. The song is an overly sentimental collection of maudlin cliches, and when I hear it presented as "Classic Rock" I want to pick my radio up and toss it out, or through, a window.

I'm Sure This Would Be Really Interesting If I Could Read It(or not)

Before signing on to Blogger to update The Word, I clicked on a link on the homepage for Gerhard's Blog, thinking that maybe it might be the weblog of the former Cerebus background artist and all around cool guy known to the world only as Gerhard. Of course, that turned out not to be the case. It appears instead to be some old Swedish guys poetry. So maybe I should be glad I can't read it.

Hurry The Hell Up, Already!!

I am not, by nature, a patient man and while I keep hearing about how the pace of modern life has supposedly sped up so much in the 21st century, you wouldn't know it by some of the slowpokes and timewasters, who must be carrying some turtle DNA in their genes, that I inevitably get stuck behind, especially when I'm late or pressed for time.

Why, for instance, do some people take so blasted long at ATMs? One time I was waiting to use the cash machine at my bank and waited for five minutes with just one person in front of me using the machine. If the operation he needed to perform was so complex and time-consuming he should have waited until the bank was open and gone inside so that the rest of us who actually know how to use an ATM could get out cash and get on with our business. After this guy finally finished or gave up and left and it was my turn, I timed myself. I was in and out with my money and on my way to the BP to buy cigarettes in about a minute and a half, which is as it should be. Anyone who takes longer than three minutes at an ATM should have their card shredded into razor-sharp shards which would be spit back at him at high speed, causing severe bleeding and permanent, ugly scarring. That would teach them a lesson. Pain is the only thing these morons understand.

My Cousin The Movie Star

Today is Sharon Stone's birthday. You know, I can remember a time a couple of decades ago when the only newspaper you could read about Stone in was the Meadville Tribune, the daily rag of Meadville, Pennsylvania, her hometown. I'm from Linesville, which is about twenty miles west of Meadville on the border with Ohio.

I followed a link on Stone's Internet Movie Data Base page and found a list of other actors born in Meadville; a list that did include a familiar name: Josh Janiak. Now, I really only barely know him, and, in fact, have not seen him since he was about three years old and I haven't even spoken to his mom, Judy, since 1994, but nonetheless, Josh Janiak is my cousin. I'm not telling you this so you'll think I'm cool or special or anything like that (if you're a regular Word reader you already know that I'm all those things), but just as an example of some of the unexpected stuff you can find on the web if you're not looking for anything in particular.

I wonder what he and his mom been up to recently, after all the only film credit on Josh's page is a decade old... I suppose I could ask his grandmother, my aunt Ann, that is if I where still talking to her.

(Now, That's Trivia! No. 5) Trivia and Candy

Trivia time again! Yee-freakin'-Haw!!

This week's question once again concerns a bit of trivia that is so trivial that even I sort of wonder why the hell such a useless piece of information is taking up precious space in my brain.

Q: In 48 Hours, when Eddy Murphy complains of being hungry and Nick Nolte buys him a candy bar from the police precinct house's vending machine, what kind of candy bar is it?

As always, the answer, and a fairly sane explanation of why I know something like that are at The Answer Blog.

My Favorite Comic Book

So, I was scanning some other blogs to try and find something to write about and I came across a recent entry from Mark Evanier's News From ME in which Mark reminisces about the over-sized "Treasury Edition" comics of the 70's. Y'know, I loved those books, mainly because they were BIG, just like the pages of the newspaper Sunday comics sections that first sparked my love for the comics medium. Plus, being mostly reprints, they gave me a chance to see classic comics stories that I was too young to have seen the first time out, such as the origin of the Earth-2 Flash, Batman's first clashes with arch-foe Ra's Al Ghul, Superman's races with the Flash, and my all-time favorite tale of Marvel's super-team The Avengers, issue #58's "Even An Android Can Cry."

My favorite book in this format, however, was a Gold Key adaptation of the original King Kong. I came home from school one day to find it lying on my bed. My dad, despite his frequent bitching that I spent too much time reading comics, had bought it for me, and for that reason, along with my inexplicable affection for giant ape stories, it was one of my favorite comics.

Unortunately, I left most of my comics at home in the care of my brother when I went off to pursue my short-lived radio career in Kane, Pennsylvania,and when I retrieved my collection I discovered that almost half of them were missing; lost or stolen--we never found out which. I've since purchased new copies of most of the lost comics.

But not Kong. That book was irreplaceable.

Here's another recent blog entry you might find interesting

Gaiman On Comic Book Movies

Belated Oscar Thoughts

Since I went and made a few pre-Oscar predictions on Saturday, you've probably been waiting breathlessly these past few days for a post show wrap-up. If so, please--for your own sake as well as mine--GET A FREAKIN' LIFE FOR THE LUVVA GOD!!! I haven't written anything on the awards because there has been plenty written about it by other people and I really don't have any fresh or original insights to add. Now, isn't it refreshing for a media pundit to actually admit something like that? Yeah, you'd never hear anyone on The McLaughlin Group admitting they had nothing relevant to say, even though most of the time they just don't.

Besides, I didn't watch the show. Well, actually, I started to, but fell asleep after the first hour. I'd been up 'til after two in the morning playing poker and just couldn't keep my eyes open.

It does appear that the "trend" I spoke of on Saturday held up. I went to sleep before the show was over and the awards for Best Picture and Best Director were split between two different films. Of course, it wasn't a total surprise, not as if they went totally off the menu to give the honor to Land Before Time 19: Teenage Dinosaur Biker Sluts On Crack. After all, Crash was the film people expected to win if Brokeback Mountain didn't. Despite what I theorized, it's really hard to know if Crash won because the Academy voters honestly thought it was a better movie than Brokeback or because, as I conjectured, they just weren't ready to honor a "gay cowboy movie."

John Stewart seemed a little less sure of himself in his monlogue than he usually does on The Daily Show, but still had some good lines. My favorites were when he greeted the crowd with "Ladies, Gentlemen, Felicity," referring to Felicity Huffman's role as a transgendered person inTransamerica, and when he conflated a well remembered event from recent Oscar history (Bjork's swan dress) and a story from the news of recent weeks (Dick Cheney's "hunting accident") for a particularly well-crafted punch line. (Wow! Did I overthink that joke or WHAT? I mean, did I really just use the word "conflated?" The question is: Did I use it correctly?)

Dolly Parton's performance--along with an infomercial for a CD collection called Superstars of Country that I'd seen earlier that evening--served as a reminder of how much today's crop of Country "music" artists really, really suck.

And King Kong did win the Visual Effects award. Score one for Giant Apes, baby!!!

Spider-Man 3 Speculation

The Movie Blog recently put up a pic of Spider-man in a black costume, along with much idle speculation about whether this means that Venom will be challenging the webbed wonder either in this installment or a future chapter of the Spidey saga.

I've done a little research and I don't think that Venom will not be popping up in Spider-Man 3. The announced villain for the film is The Sandman, to be played by Thomas Haden Church of Wings and Sideways fame, and, so far at least, director Sam Raimi has avoided the multiple villain, throw in everything including the kitchen sink mentality that made every Batman film after the first one such a bloody mess. There is, however, an article on the official Spidey movie site quotes Raimi as saying,"Spider-Man will face double the trouble in our next film..." so it's just possible he might find himself facing two super-crooks.

The real mystery is the addition of That 70's Show star Topher Grace to the cast in an as yet unspecified role. The above quote is from the article announcing his casting, so maybe he will be another villain.

Well, all of this just guess work until May 4 of next year, the scheduled release date.

(STRAY THOUGHTS) Topic:Music

A couple of days ago, I was listening to Blue Oyster Cult's 1981 album Fire of Unknown Origin for the first time in years, and I found it kind of funny, in a bittersweet sort of way, how songs that I thought were just the coolest thing I'd ever heard when I was 15 now strike me as laughably pretentious crap twenty-five years on. (Y'know, I feel the same way now about Styx's The Grand Illusion, which was the first album I ever owned.)

Today, I heard BOC's Godzilla, which I still think is incredibly cool and always will no matter how old I get, and it occurred to me how relevant the song's refrain was to certain recent events. Perhaps it could be updated to reflect this, like so:

"History's shown again and again

How nature points out the folly of men--

KATRINA!"

That sentiment perfectly sums up the whole situation, from the failure of FEMA to the folly of building a city below sea level in an area vulnerable to hurricanes in the first place.

The Curse of Bonanza

Yesterday, I wrote about the so-called "Superman Curse" which supposedly dooms anyone foolish enough to agree to appear in a Superman movie or TV show. This, however, isn't the only "Hollywood Curse": I have heard that the cast of Bewitched (the TV series) was cursed, and a few years ago Access Hollywood, or maybe it was Entertainment Tonight, devoted an entire episode of their expanded weekend edition to the curse of the Little Rascals. (A bunch of 80+ year old former child actors were "mysteriously" dying--must be a "curse")

But what about the curse of Bonanza? Never heard of it? Of course not, I just made it up. However, there must be a "Bonanza curse." After all, of the original four actors who played Ben Cartwright and his sons, only Pernell Roberts is still alive, and probably only because he had the good sense to bolt after six seasons, presumably before the "curse" kicked in.

And what about poor Michael Landon? Boy, if ever anyone was cursed it was that guy. I mean, he was only the most successful TV star in the history of the medium, with only a handful of TV seasons going by between Bonanza's 1959 debut and his death in 1991 that he didn't have a hit show on NBC, all of which ran a minimum of five years.

Yeah, man, if that's a "curse," where do I sign up?

Y'know, it just occured to me--what if someone reads this and takes me seriously? Suddenly, the Bonanza curse becomes part of entertainment folklore and Leonard Nimoy is narrating a special about it on E!

Actually, that would be kind of cool.

What's Wrong With This Statement?

The following is a quote from Marvel Comics Assistant Editor Aubrey Sitterson from Comic Shop News #972 describing a book entitled Marvel Ai, one of the "super-hero" romance comics in Marvel's Valentine's Day stunt I (Heart) Marvel:

"(Marvel Ai)...is our shojo Manga issue of I (Heart) Marvel. All three stories are written by manga connoisseur C.B. Cebulskiwith art by Tomoko Taniguchi, Kei Kobayashi, and toga; three Japanese artists who, while unknown on these shores, have been doing fantastic work across the Atlantic."

Now, can you, my astute and non-geographically-challenged readers, spot just what is wrong with that statement?

Curse You, Superman!

With a new movie in production, that ridiculous old urban legend about the so-called "Superman curse" has reared its ugly head again. According to proponents of this theory anyone working on a Superman film, especially those playing the lead roles of Supes and Lois Lane, are doomed from the moment they sign on to the project. The supposed evidence for the curse is as follows: George Reeves (apparently) killed himself in 1959; Christopher Reeve was paralyzed after being thrown from a horse and Margot Kidder suffered a nervous breakdown and was, I believe, found confusedly wandering around Hollywood in her nightgown.

While all these events are tragic, that they all happened to people who had been involved with Superman films is simply coincidence. No, I don't believe in curses. If I did, I'd have to believe my life was cursed. Besides, if it were a curse, wouldn't everyone who's ever played Clark or Lois have suffered some horrible fate. But, of course, that's hardly the case.

Bud Collyer, the first actor to play Superman, on radio and in the Fleischer studios cartoons, played the part the longest, continuing to lend his voice to the Man of Steel in TV cartoons until shortly before his 1969 death. Kirk Alyn survived for nearly fifty years pretty much unscathed after being the first person to actually put on the big S on screen in the serials Superman and Atom Man vs. Superman. Nothing bad has happened to Dean Cain so far, unless you count his career kind of fizzling since Lois & Clark ended.

Now, to be fair, Collyer's story could used to make the case for the curse. According to his bio on the Internet Movie Data Base, Collyer "died of a circulatory ailiment at age 61." I will admit that, by today's standards, 61 is a relatively young age to shuffle off this mortal coil, but if there is a "Superman Curse," why did it take thirty years from the time he began doing the radio series in 1939 to catch up with him?

As for the Lois Lanes, things since Lois & Clark have only gotten better for Teri Hatcher, since she's currently enjoying great success as one of the Desperate Houswives. Phyllis Coates, the Lois from the first year of Adventures of Superman, is apparently still alive and healthy. The first, best and, to me at least, "real" Lois Lane, Noel Neill, certainly appeared to be at the peak of both physical and mental health when I met her a couple of years ago at Mid-Ohio Con. She even has a small role in the new film, Superman Returns.

No, there's no "Superman Curse"--unless you count people back in 1983 cursing as they left the theater after paying good money to see Superman III.

(STRAY THOUGHTS) Topic: Influence

David Brooks used the word "kerfluffle" in his analysis on the Newshour Friday night, which is not a word a lot of people use, or even know, these days. In fact, the only other time that I know of it being used by anyone in a public forum is by me in a post on the "Cartoon Controversy" a week or so ago.

Say, do you think David Brooks reads this blog? If you're out there, David, leave a comment and let us know.

Do The Research, Morons!

Just about every damned week in The Other Paper, Columbus, Ohio's free weekly rag for people who want to think that they are "alternative", there is fresh evidence that the majority of TOP's writers have no bloody idea what the hell they're writing about, as if they somehow believe that a cynical, snarky display of "attitude" will make up for utter lack of accuracy. This week's gem of poor research and just not paying attention comes from the regular Media Morsels columns:

"If Ohio State football is a religion, the writer of the blog Tressel's World had better go hide somewhere with Salman Rushdie and those Dutch cartoonists."(emphasis added)

Interestingly, there's no byline on this column, allowing the idiot who writes this crap to go on practicing his stupidity in blessed anonymity.

Anyone who's paid even cursory attention to the firestorm in Europe and the Middle East over the cartoons lampooning the Muslim prophet knows that the cartoonists responsible, or at least the newspaper that commissioned their work, are Danish.

It is unforgivable for the writer, whoever it may be, of a MEDIA column not to know even the most rudimentary details of the biggest international story of the year so far, which dominated the news media for the better part of two months. It's like a Washington correspondent listing the address of the White House as 1700 Pennsylvania.

Honestly, there is just no damned excuse for such ignorance of current events from someone whose job is to watch the freakin' news.

Y'know, if it weren't for Tom the Dancing Bug, I wouldn't even bother with that lame waste of paper.

The Word's Oscar Picks (Sort of)

The Oscars are tomorrow and everyone has an opinion on who will or should win, even people who haven't seen any of the nominated films, people such as, to pick an example totally at random, me. Of course, in my capacity as a self-appointed non-professional pop culture pundit, it is my sworn and solemn duty to have, and to share you, my panting public, opinions on such matters of earth shattering import, regardless of whether or not I have any idea what I'm talking about. So, I quickly scanned a list of nominees, formed a few opinions on the fly, and I am now ready to make an ass of myself in front of the entire world, or at least the half dozen people who read this thing.

Since I've already admitted that I haven't seen any of the films up for best pictures, I cannot say which one deserves to win, however; despite the "buzz", the other awards, and the fervent wishes of critics everywhere, I don't think Brokeback Mountain will take the award. I may end up being proven wrong tomorrow night, but I think a "gay cowboy movie," as it Brokeback has been called, is still a bit too radical for the Academy to give its top honor.

In the Supporting Actor category, I would like to see the statue go to William Hurt for his work in A History of Violence. As a longtime supporter of, and practitioner in, the comics medium, it would warm the cockles of my shriveled little heart to see a film based on a "graphic novel" (a.k.a. "comic book") take one of the major awards.

Actually, there is one nominated film that I have seen: King Kong (I'm a sucker for giant ape stories) The film is nominated for Sound Editing and Visual Effects. The effects are spectacular and I'll be pulling for Kong to win.

Most years the Best Picture and Best Director awards go to the same film, but twice in the past decade they've gone to separate films. Oddly enough, those were the years that I decided to go to bed a few minutes early, after the Director statuette was handed out, figuring that Best picture was a foregone conclusion. So, this year I'm in for the long haul.

Now That's Trivia No. 4--Relativity

Back on Tuesday, I waxed eloquently (at least I think so) nostalgic about comedian/actor Wally Cox and the old Hollywood Squares. Now, Cox is a pretty common surname, so its no surprise that Wally is no apparent relation to former Friends (and Misfits of Science) star Courtney Cox. However, Wally's fellow former Hollywood Square Charlie Weaver is. So this week's question is: How are Courtney Cox and Charlie Weaver related?

For the answer head over to The Answer Blog.

Here's A Good Spot for a Picture

Since's there's nothing else to look at on the Word From On High main page at the moment other than that stunningly sexy portrait of me over to the right there, I thought I'd throw up another of the pics I took at various festivals around the city of Columbus, OH last summer. This is just what it looks like: A guy standing on a bridge downtown playing a tuba. It was taken at Jazz & Ribs Fest in July. I was just so struck by this sight that I had to get a picture.

Waiting for Will & Grace

The worst thing about NBC wasting five hours of primetime air on the execrable Deal or No Deal is that it will be one more week before Will & Grace returns. Frankly, it was a pretty sleazy thing to do to run an episode that ended in "To Be Continued.." just before preempting the show for three weeks of "event" programming that nobody gives half a crap about. I admit I've been kind of indifferent to the show so far this season, but Grace's liitle bombshell at the end of the last episode really got my attention.

To review: Grace had just married Will's boyfriend, James, so that he could get his Green Card, but nearly fainted during the ceremony. The next morning she announced that she's pregnant. Then: GOTCHA! See you in a MONTH, suckers!!

NBC is making no effort to build up any suspense over who the father is, since its pretty obvious. The only man that Grace has been with for months is ex-husband Leo, who returns in next week's episode.

I can't say where this storyline is headed, but I'm pretty sure that as W&G marches toward its finale, we'll see some serious changes in the lives of all four major characters, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's another live episode along the way.

Deal or No Deal: The Ultimate Game Show

Y'know, I wanted to write something about NBC's Deal or No Deal, but I just can't figure out what to say. The thing is so damned lame it's hard to work up a decent rant about it. It's just not worth the effort.

If you've somewhat more sense than me and have avoided this bloody trainwreck, this description from the show's official site sums it up:

"The rules are simple. Choose a briefcase. Then as each round progresses, you must either stay with your original briefcase choice or make a 'deal' with the bank to accept its cash offer in exchange for whatever dollar amount is in your chosen case. Once you decide to accept or decline the bank's offer, the decision is final."

Put another way, it is the game show genre boiled down to its bare essence: unadulterated greed combined with pure dumb luck. They'd have called it Greed, I bet, except that title had already been used for a Chuck Woolery hosted piece of crap on Fox a few years back. That show, though, at least had the contestants answer questions. Most game shows, in fact, even Wheel of Fortune, require some some modicum of skill or knowledge (Wheel does require its contestants to know the alphabet at the very least), but not Deal. You just pick a number and hope the case you picked has a little sign in it that says $1,000,000. It is either the peak or the nadir of the form, depending on your point of view.

What it really is, though, is not really very interesting.

Finally, what's up with this new look for the show's host Howie Mandel? With the shaved head and stupid looking goatee, he seems to be going for some sort of comic book mad scientist kind of vibe, sort of like Lex Luthor's idiot younger brother. "Hi! I'm Howie Luthor and I'm gonna rule the world someday--just as soon as I figure out how to make this deathray work."

Hey, looks like I could work up a half-way decent rant, after all. Still wasn't really worth the effort, though.