There are No Endings – A Watchmen Mini-Review

What else can be said about Watchmen (the film)? It is perhaps one of the most scrutinized films of its kind and anticipated adaptations in the last couple of decades. I initially read Watchmen in its single issue format and have re-read it numerous times in the past decade or so, having poured over the Absolute Edition a couple of times, including a re-read the week prior to the film’s release. With that in mind, I don’t think the film could have been translated from page to screen any better than it was by Snyder. The overall theme, character arcs (with some modifications) are in place. The feel of the film is very much a mirror of the comic, with a little more blood and broken bones. On to some more thoughts…

One of the most logical decisions Snyder made is perhaps the one that has given rise to the most outcry – the ending. Whereas the Giant Squid in the graphic novel is effective and built up rather well over the course of the 300+ pages of the novel, the re-written ending of the film is more organic to the story and is a more contextually logical ending for the film. It is a more tight and convincing ending to the story.

Even though Jackie Earle Haley’s performance as Rorshach is the one everyone’s talking about, I think Jeffrey Dean Morgan was superb as the Comedian. I’m surprised at how much I liked Patrick Wilson as Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II and Crudup and CGI were terrific as Dr. Manhattan. Akerman works well in the physical scenes as Silk Specter but isn’t as convincing in the emotional scenes. Matthew Goode was more than OK as Ozymandius if a bit foppish, but I would like to see more of his character which I suspect will be the case for the extended cut of the DVD. In short, the cast is nearly perfect. Nearly.

A few other things, and they are minor, didn’t quite work for me. I liked some of the slow motion scenes that mirrored their exact counterpart in the comic, but felt many of the fight scenes were bloodier than the comic, particularly when Dreiberg and Laurie fight the Topknots in the alley. Their bated breath and exhilaration at getting back in the game upon the fight's conclusion; however, was displayed very well by Akerman and Wilson. This was perhaps Akerman at her most convincing in her role. I didn’t quite like Ozymandius’s costume and didn’t like that they called themselves Watchmen – in the comic the heroes are only referred to as this in a graffiti scene and never really refer to themselves in any kind of collective manner outside of the meeting where the Comedian burns the map. Granted, those are comic-geek quibbles that may not bother other folks and considering just how much detail from the comic Zack was able to put into the film, the minor quibbles really are negligible.

As for how the film worked for non-comic fans Mrs. Blog o’ Stuff, her brother, and his girlfriend didn’t read the comic and liked it. Mrs. Blog o’ Stuff even said it was better than she expected it would be. Their only real complaints was that there was too much blue penis; I can’t argue that one even if Manhattan was brought to life very well in the film

So, Zack Snyder has done it – he’s crafted an intelligent superhero mystery that is very true to the roots of its source material. At times some of the lingering shots lingered too long, but creating a film under three hours was an achievement in and of itself. The fact that the film was excellent and just under the greatness of the two new Batman films is an even greater achievement.

On a side note, our little group noticed a young boy, who couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 years old leaving the film. Call me crazy but that is complete irresponsibility on the side of the parents of this child, who left more than 2/3 into the film so he got to see the rape scene, a lot of blue penis, and bones breaking the surface of the skin.

Erasing Death

Regular readers should know the drill by now. Sunday I post what I received the previous week, some Monday’s I’ll post randomly, and Tuesdays I post the link and an excerpt to the Book Review I posted the previous night. In this case, the book review I posted last night was Charlie Huston’s The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death.

Huston tells the story completely from Web’s eyes, the dialogue is real, raw and puts the reader into the narrative of the story in a very effective manner. All of the characters Huston brought to life in Mystic Arts are vibrant (Po Sin, Chev, Web’s father – a former screenwriter and script-doctor), Web is the lynchpin and sun around which they all rotate. Initially, Web’s arrogant and off-putting manners are questionable. A dark event in his past is alluded to and through the course of the narrative, Huston illuminates two life-shattering events which have led Web to be the person he is. It’s a wonder Web hasn’t taken his own life because of the events, but he’s basically too stubborn to give in.

Prior to the novel’s events, Web was a teacher, which doesn’t come out immediately, which begs the question: how did a guy who once taught young kids become trauma scene cleaner? Huston answers the question in brief passages peppered through out the “current” plot of Web’s involvement with Soledad’s (and her brother Jamie) problem. This is where Huston’s storytelling skill really shines – he intricately weaves the past and present into a seamless story that by novel’s end you wonder how he packed so much into such a relatively thin novel 336 pages, many of which comprise single line dialogue. The dialogue is another strong point of the novel, Huston conveys character, setting, and plot so well with the dialogue. The story seems like it would transition very well to the screen maybe through the help of a director like Quentin Tarantino.

Mrs. Blog o’ Stuff and I made to to movie theaters two weeks in a row. This weekend it was Taken which was pretty entertaining. I had a tough time reconciling the fact that the daughter, portrayed by Maggie Grace, was only 17. After all, this is the same actress who was on Lost as Shannnon; a character that was at the very youngest 20 years old and in real life is in her mid-twenties, so I had a tough time buying the fact that she was only 17 in the film. Her scenes were pretty much set up for Neeson going over to Europe and destroying everything in his way to finding her so it didn’t really spoil the good parts of the film. There were some awesome fighting scenes in the movie and it ended rather predictably, but still a solid adventure/ass-kicking movie.

I've a feeling the next movie we see in theaters will be this little film:

Comics and Beer

I haven’t been hitting the comic shop nearly as regularly lately, at least for the past couple of months. Holiday shopping and all sorts of things for the house have precluded any extra comics spending. However, I did acquire a few trades/graphic novels for Christmas. I’m slowly making my way through the ones on my sidebar. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago on my last visit to the store, I picked up Testament #1 by Douglas Rushkoff and Liam Sharp. I’d seen the preview for this in a recent issue of Fables and liked the art. Liam has taken to hanging out in the sffworld forums, too. Well, what did I think? As first issues go, I think they did a good job of setting up the story and the characters. The opening pages of a flashback, of sorts, segueing into the present storyline was effective. The world they lay out is familiar and eerie – religious overtones mixed with PKD-paranoia – is reminiscent of a Big Brother controlled world. Sharp’s art is quite effective and his art really shines on the closing pages of this issue. I liked his art on the Possessed mini-series from a couple of years ago and his high quality pencils, seemingly inspired by HP Lovecraft imagery is equally suited here. I’ll definitely be picking up the second issue, and chances are, I’ll be adding it to my pull-list.

Under the tree were some choice goodies. In addition to the books on the sidebar (Hellboy, Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams), I also received the first volume of George Perez’s run on Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals. I have always liked his art, especially his rendition of Wonder Woman. I didn’t pick up these issues when they first came out nearly 20 years ago, but since getting into Rucka’s Wonder Woman (ease up perverts), I wanted to see where it all started. Of course, the art is great – George draws Olympus and its gods with the greatness they deserve. Some of the plot elements in the first issue reminded me of Gladiator, which is odd considering the book predated the film. Anyway, if Joss Whedon is still looking for a great hook on his movie, he need look no further than this volume. The story nicely captures the mythic feel inherent in Wonder Woman’s character, and firmly establishes a status quo for the character as superhero in the modern world of the late 80s. With this in mind, I’m hoping the new Wonder Woman series that starts up after Infinite Crisis isn’t a clusterfuck. On a side note, here is a nice overview of Rucka’s Wonder Woman.

Over the weekend, I finished my chapter/issue a day re-read of Watchmen. I don’t think I can add to what many, many, many, many, others have already said, save for a couple of thought-bits. Even after reading it a number of times, Moore and Gibbons still surprised me with certain things. I was also able to appreciate the synchronicity of recurring images in each of the chapters and characters, particularly the look of awed involvement on Doc Manhattan’s face early when Laurie is talking to him, Dan’s similar look again in the company of Laurie as he is trying to deduce the mystery behind the masked killer, and the same look on Veidt’s face as he views the monitors showing the world and the world reacting to his master joke. One of my favorite lines from the book:

Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago.

Lastly, Mrs. Blog o’ Stuff and I went out to dinner with my parents just over the border in Pennsylvania at the Porterhouse Restaurant and Brew Pub. The have River Horse on tap, a microbrewery out of Lambertville, NJ. One of the beers I had, their award-winning Triple Horse had to be one of the best beers I’ve ever had on tap, it was smooth and delicious. However, it is 10% alcohol, which is more than double the normal beer. With two of those in my belly, a third beer and a huge burger, my stomach was ready to explode, but it was worth it.

Fall Readings, Viewings, & Listenings

There are quite a bit of good things coming out this fall, in terms of books, movies and music. I figured I'd give a rundown of some things I'm looking forward to distracting me from reality...

September will see the release of Son of a Witch, Gregory Maguire's sequel to the wonderful Wicked. Robert Buettner's second novel, Orphan's Destiny will be publishing as well. I really enjoyed his debut, Orphanage, which reminded me of Ender's Game. Joss Whedon's Serenity hits the big screen in September. Disturbed's new album, Ten Thousand Fists, hits shelves at the end of September. Mrs. Blog o' Stuff will probably be pleased that Bon Jovi's new album, Have a Nice Day, comes out in September too. DC publishes an Absolute edition of the year-long Hush storyline from 2003.

In October, the NHL resumes play and BantamSpectra publishesa re-issue of M. John Harrison's seminal Viriconium, something I've been wanting to read for a long time. Alexander Irvine's new novel, In the Narrows, comes out in October, too. Mrs. Blog 'o Stuff will be pleased again since the new, as of yet untitled, Lemony Snicket book comes out in October. Batman Begins comes to DVD on October 18th, and DC is publishing Watchmen: The Absolute Edition in October, as well. DC's huge "earth-shattering-mega-super-duper-balls-out-for-glory" crossover kicks off - Infinite Crisis. In music, Shinedown's second album, Us and Them comes out October 4th. Their first album, Leave a Whisper, is amazing and the songs I've heard from this one are very good. I wasn't sure what to make of the cast of Elizabethtown, but once I discovered Cameron Crow was helming it, I mentally added to the list. Two sequels will probably wait until cable, though: Saw II and The Legend of Zorro. Also in October, Robert Jordan's 11th Wheel of Time novel, Knife of Dreams, publishes. The last WOT book I read was probably Winter's Heart. I will likely eventually finish out the series, but that is becoming a lower and lower reading priority with each passing day.

November, of course, is when George R. R. Martin's A Feast for Crows comes out. Stephen Erikson's third Malazan novel, Memories of Ice, comes to the US in November, too. Some little indepent film about a guy who gets burned and starts wearing black armor comes out on DVD in November. The film Zathura looks interesting if only because Jon Favreau is directing it. The fourth Potter movie comes out in November, too.

I've likely forgotten at least a book or two, a movie and some other stuff, but these are the ones that piqued my interest the most.

Words, Music & Verse

Here's an interesting post/rant about series books. Sounds like a minor case of idiocy on the part of publishers, but they know best, right? The point Wen Spencer raises is confounding, to both writers of these books and potential readers of these books. Readers of Fantasy and Science fiction often like their books in series, and when a writer publishes book 3 in a series, new readers who are considering trying the writer would naturally like to start with book 1, logical right? Speaking from my limited publishing experience and with print-on-demand technology, I don't think it would be too difficult to reprint, say 1 or 2 copies of book 1 for every 5 to 7 copies of book three, when the proverbial book three publishes. Then again, what the hell do I really know. This is something I've bitched about before.

As for Wen Spencer herself, I know of her books, and I've seen some relatively favorable things about them. I think she won the John W. Campbell award a couple of years ago. Her books look interesting, aside from the somewhat garish cover for Tinker. I keep meaning to give her writing a shot. I should really keep a running list of books and writers I want to try in my wallet.

On musical related note, I know I'm one of the few people in New Jersey that doesn't really care for Springsteen and his newest song is just painful to my ears. I actually prefer Bon Jovi, at least their more recent music. Again, I think I'm in the minority on this one, too, but why is everybody loving Green Day's latest musical effort? I never cared for them very much, but every song I've heard from this new album is really, really annoying and is like an ice pick in my ears. Not to mention the fact that the local rock station seems to play them at least once an hour. Ugh. At least, musically speaking, I have Friday to look forward to, I will be seeing Judas Priest.

Yet again, production on a movie of Watchmen ceases, which is a good thing.

The Flash movie looks to be based on the Golden Age character. I don't know if this is a good thing, though I suppose if successful, the Flash is a very generational character with several men as the Flash, and could be a franchise. This also makes some sense since script-writer David Goyer wrote the early issues of the relaunch of JSA a few years ago, so he does have a familiarity with the character.

More good press for Pal Scott.

Lastly, a little dark bit of verse I conjured up today:

Life in Darkness
We create fictions
To assuage the reality that bombards us
A veil of unreality
More comforting than the harsh truth
Below the surface
A life simmers unsuspected
Shadows belie the truth of darkness
Amorphous and oblong
Are the shapes of reality
Not the clear lines of fiction
We seek truth and understanding
Of something we can never completely comprehend
Lives and understanding are placed in clean lines of context
The lies we convince ourselves are the truth
These are the realities we choose to live in
Who do we seek for the real truth?
What is the real truth?
Belief is subjective
Faith is powerful
Absolutes though sought
Are ultimately are unwanted
The best of both worlds
Is the amalgamation we create
To live in solace everyday
- (c) 2005 R.H. Bedford

Books & Comics

There are two books, well actually probably more, but two right now that are really piquing my interest. One of the books is on the shelves in the US right now, the other will hit UK shelves in August, with a US release late '05 or early '06. The first is Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. The book is generating good buzz and some positive reviews. It is an Epic Fantasy in one volume, something relatively rare in the Epic Fantasy market nowadays. The requisite book blurbs are from writers like Orson Scott Card and David Farland, and good reviews from Publisher's Weekly and the usually anti-fantasy Kirkus. Here's a breif blurb of what the book is about:

Elantris was the capital of Arelon: gigantic, beautiful, literally radiant, filled with benevolent beings who used their powerful magical abilities for the benefit of all. Yet each of these demigods was once an ordinary person until touched by the mysterious transforming power of the Shaod. Ten years ago, without warning, the magic failed. Elantrians became wizened, leper-like, powerless creatures, and Elantris itself dark, filthy, and crumbling.

The other book is Vellum, by Hal Duncan. On his Night Shade Books Message Board he describes the book thusly:

It's 2017 and angels walk the earth, beings that were human once, now unkin, remade by the ancient machine-code language of reality itself. Now, with the very book in which reality is written lost somewhere in the Vellum - the vast realm of eternity on which our world is just a scratch - the unkin are gathering for war.

On one side there's Metatron and his Covenant of angels, out to create Heaven on Earth even if it means an apocalypse to clear the way. On the other, there's the splinter-groups of ancient gods still hungry for the power that was once theirs, bitter enough to destroy the world if they can't rule it. And caught in the middle of it all are a handful of refuseniks still young enough to remember what it's like to be human... and to want to stay that way.

Again, Rick Kleffel has interesting things to say about the book. Squid enthusiast and fantastic writer Jeff VanDerMeer thinks highly of the book as well. Vellum is the first of a duology, available now in the UK through PanMacmillan and sometime in the future from Del Rey.

It is the middle of the month, so as always, DC Comics lets the world know what they are offering in a few months, specifically in August and some later. CBR has the full rundown and cover images. Aside from my normal pull, here's what caught my eye:

• I am mildly interested in the inter-Bat crossover between Detective Comics and Batman, I liked what Andersen Gabrych was doing in Detective Comics before the War Games mess. However, this is strange since it cuts David Lapham's 12 part saga in Detective 3/4 into the story. This makes very little sense to me, and I haven't seen any kind of explanation from DC.
• DC's Greatest Imaginary Stories looks like a bunch of Silver-Age fun. I've got the original Superman Red/Superman Blue in a Superman compilation.
• At one point, I was interested in the Alex Ross/Jim Kreuger Justice mini-series, but my interest has waned. I thought their Earth X series for Marvel was OK, if overrated. Justice, on one hand, looks like Super Friends fan fiction, on the other, it could by plain old superhero fun.
• Great Ozymandius! Watchmen: The Absolute Edition ain't cheap at $75, but I'll probably still pick it up. This is actually not shipping until October
• A hardcover of V for Vendetta is also being solicited now for sale in September, with a couple of extras.
• DC Direct gives another excuse for uber-hype machine Mark Millar to espouse how great he is and how much better he could make Superman by putting out a Elseworlds/Red Son figure.

On the Marvel side of things, Peter David and Mike Wieringo really seem to get Spider-man, something that may not be said of the other people handling his comic book adventures as of late.

Last, but not least, I'm probably one of the last people to post this one, Darth Vader's Blog. I actually got caught up in the thing for too much time yesterday.

Watching absolutely

ABSOLUTE WATCHMEN

I need to have this. I have the single issues, but I was planning on the trade to re-read the story for about the 8th time. This new edition sounds amazing and well worth the $100, it is being recolored and contains rarely seen supplemental material with scripts and out-of-print. I recently saw the slipcased DC Graphitti edition selling for about $300. No doubt this new edition will sell well especially considering the film is under production.

I have mixed feelings about the forthcoming film. Hollywood's track record for adapting Alan Moore's work is underwhelming, at best. I've said it on message boards before, so I will say it here: The only way to do this thing justice is to turn it into an HBO limited/mini series, film each issue as an episode, make it 12 episodes.

One of the greatest television shows of all time may finally be getting the proper DVD treatment: The Muppets.

Watched Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real last night on the Animal Planet, and for the most part, I thought it was well done. Like most of these Animal Planet specials (Walking with Dinosaurs, The Future is Wild), they repeated a good amount of the information and scenes throughout the show. For Example, after each commercial break, they recapped what they showed for the previous 10 minutes or so before they jumped to commercial. The special effects are always good on these things, and as in the specials I mention above, I enjoyed how they wove a story around the "science" of the creatures. Patrick Stewart's narration was spot-on.

I watched it thinking it would be 2 hours, it really wasn't. At the 1:30 mark, they started a behind the scenes of how they made the special. It seems everything these days has to have a behind the scenes or "how they did that." This really bothered Mrs. Blog o' Stuff, and she made a good point - the behind the scenes stuff really removed the enjoyable suspension of disbelief from the show. When you are watching the special, the creators make everything seem as if it was genuine - they put it together with the mindset that Dragons, were in fact, real. The "How they did that" threw whole spirit right out the window and ran counter to the spirit of the actual special. Like I said, I was more annoyed by the fact that I felt cheated out of 2 hours of the special.

Beer, writers, comics

It’s been a while since I did a beer of the week and a writer of the week. Perhaps they will now be on monthly basis. My beer of the week is a new one from Sam Adams, or at least one that’s new to me: Samuel Adams Black Lager. A pretty smooth beer with a pleasant after-taste, not the best one from Samuel Adams, but one I’d definitely partake in again. Though I really wish they would bring back their Honey Porter, loved that beer.


Writer of the month is Gene Wolfe, one of the finest living writers. Period. I finished The Wizard Knight about two weeks ago, and like all of his work that I’ve read, it continues to float in my senses and in my head. One of his greatest strengths is that his writing gets better with multiple readings, and he packs so much into what he writers, that multiple readings are a necessary joy. His Book of the New Sun is one of the acknowledged masterpieces of the SF genre, often mentioned in the same breath as Tolkien’s work, Herbert’s work, Heinlein’s work, and Vance’s work.

Sad sad news as the NHL season is cancelled. Let’s hope, as some are speculating, that when things are settled, their hopes of changing some of the rules, and what not will draw more fans. Probably the best would be the shoot-out to break ties – a no-brainer for SportsCenter highlights.

The Nebula awards have been announced:

· Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
· Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Cory Doctorow
· The Knight, Gene Wolfe
· Omega, Jack McDevitt
· Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold
· Perfect Circle, Sean Stewart

The only one I’ve read is The Knight, so I’d like to see that win. I have read and enjoyed a good handful of books by McDevitt (Moonfall, The Engines of God, Ancient Shores, and Infinity Beach), Sean Stewart’s wonderful Galveston and right now I’m reading Bujold’s Young Miles and enjoying that quite a bit.

DC Comics recently told us what they are publishing in May, and there are some interesting things. The bad news is that Fallen Angel #20 is the final issue of the series. Aside from my normal haul, I'll give Action Comics shot to see how Byrne & Simone work together, JSA since it’s touting the return of Captain Marvel and Morrison’s Seven Soldiers . I’m a sucker for big crossovers so I’ll at least try The Rann/Thanagar War & Villains United. I’m probably most looking forward to Green Lantern #1 since Pacheco’s art is amazing and I like what Johns is doing in Green Lantern: Rebirth. I may try out Desolation Jones, too. No new collections from Vertigo in May to look forward to.

And lastly, as one who blogs about comics, I’m sort of obliged to post The 100 things I love about comics:

1. 80-page and 100-page Giants
2. Alan Davis
3. Alan Moore
4. Alan Scott
5. All the Marvel comics my friend John lent me
6. back issue bins
7. Batman
8. Bizarro - not just the character, but the idea of Bizarro things in life
9. Bizarro Justice League
10. Booster Gold - not just the character but all 25 issues
11. Calvin & Hobbes
12. Captain America by Waid/Garney
13. Captain Marvel's rogue's gallery - Mr. Mind, Black Adam, etc
14. Comic Book catch-phrases "Great Hera!" "Merciful Rao!" "I SAY THEE NAY" "HOLY MOLEY!" "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!" "HULK SMASH!"
15. Comic book conventions
16. Comic book "science and logic"
17. Crisis on Infinte Earths
18. Darkseid
19. DC Comics Presents
20. Definitive Runs
21. Discovering new titles and hunting down the back issues
22. Dr. Doom
23. Dressing up like Superman, Spider-man and Captain America for Halloween
24. Earth-2, Earth-S, Earth-X, Pre-Crisis DC
25. Elseworlds - before it was over-used
26. Evil Dopplegangers
27. For the Man Who Has Everything by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
28. Galactus
29. George Perez
30. Gil Kane - one of the first artists whose style I instantly recognized
31. Gorillas, especially talking telepathic gorillas
32. Grant Morrison
33. Great creative teams with Synchronicity in storytelling - Waid/Wieringo, Morrison/Quietly, Kirby/Lee, Claremont/Byrne, O'Neill/Adams
34. Green Lantern
35. Green Lantern/Green Arrow by O'neill and Adams
36. GrimJack
37. http://fanboyrampage.blogspot.com, http://www.progressiveruin.com and the rest of the comics blogo-verse
38. "Imaginary Stories"
39. In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight, let those who worship EVIL's might...beware my power..GREEN LANTERN'S LIGHT
40. Jack Kirby
41. Jack Kirby's DC Super Powers miniseries
42. JLA/Avengers
43. John Byrne's work in the 80s
44. Julius Schwartz
45. Keeping Ma & Pa Kent alive
46. King Kirby
47. Kingdom Come
48. Krypto
49. Kurt Busiek
50. Letter columns
51. Mark Waid's run on The Flash
52. Martha Washington Goes to War by Miller/Gibbons
53. Marvel's 25th anniversary covers
54. Marvel v. DC - not so much the limited series but the years of fans bickering that inspired it
55. Marvels by Busiek & Ross
56. Morrison's JLA
57. Nazis - the ultimate comic book villians
58. Neal Adams' Batman
59. 
    
60. 
    
61. Nightcrawler Limited series from the '80s
62. Parallel Universes
63. Peter David's The Incredible Hulk
64. Preacher
65. Rogues Galleries
66. Secret Wars
67. Spider-man
68. Spider-man and his Amazing Friends
69. Stan the Man
70. Superfriends
71. Superhero Records
72. Superman/Captain Marvel battles
73. Superman/Flash Races
74. Superman: Secret Identity
75. The Adventures of Kavalier and Klay
76. The Amalgam Age of Comics
77. The Big Red Cheese - the original Captain Marvel SHAZAM!
78. The Crime Syndicate of Amerika of Earth-2 and Earth-3
79. The Crow
80. The Dark Knight Returns
81. The Fantastic Four
82. The Far Side
83. The Flash - all incarnations and the handling of the legacy of the character
84. The Tribute to the death of Barry Allen in Quasar
85. The Golden Age by Robinson & Smith
86. The Killing Joke
87. The old comics and electronics shop I visited in my youth to get $.25 & $.50 back issues
88. The Rainbow Bridge to Asgard
89. The Rogues
90. Trade Paperbacks
91. Treasury Editions from the '70s
92. Underoos - lets face they wouldn't be around without comics & superheroes - and who DIDN'T own a pair?
93. Walt Simonson's Thor
94. Watchmen
95. Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
96. Wonder Woman
97. X-Men annual #11
98. Y: The Last Man
99. You will believe a man can fly - The first Superman movie
100. 12.95 Marvel Masterworks at Barnes & Noble

FSF Publishers

SciFi Wire starts of the year on a good foot with a great review of the seminal Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons masterpiece Watchmen. Most of the people who read my blog have read Watchmen, so this review will probably not be something new, but its good to see the Graphic Novel reviewed again in a prominent FSF Webzine.

Over the past few months and the coming months, US publisher BantamSpectra is doing some very cool things. They are publishing acclaimed novels previously unavailable to the larger US readership. Last summer, they released M. John Harrison’s Hard SF Space Opera Light, published in 2002 in the UK. This past November, they published The Etched City by K.J. Bishop, published in 2003 by Prime Books, a small press publisher. Early this year two novels previously only available overseas, Natural History by Justina Robson and Pashazade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood will be published and in April they are publishing the acclaimed collection, The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases edited by Jeff VanDerMeer and Mark Roberts. The Lambshead book features contributions by Alan Moore, K.J. Bishop, Kage Baker, Michael Moorcock, and China Miéville.

What does all this mean? It seems as BantamSpectra has a good editor running the FSF line and is responding by producing a diverse group of books people want to see. They probably have one of the better web presences considering they actually update their site every month with a newsletter. Daw and Ace haven’t updated since May, Roc hasn’t updated since October....of2003! Tor, probably the largest publisher in the genre, updates their Web site about every 16 months. In this day and age (to be clichéd) it is pretty sad that these publishers don’t pay better attention to their Web presences and how effective a tool this could be for them. It’s not like the Internet is new.

This is not to say each of these big publishers aren't publishing a good to great diverse set of books, because they certainly are. Tor publishes Gene Wolfe, Walter Hunt, Jacqueline Carey, Juliet Marillier, and Steven Brust, just to name a few. Daw's got Tad Williams, John Marco, and CJ Cherryh. Ace has Charles Stross, Alastair Reynolds, Patricia McKillip, and Brian Jacques. Roc has E.E. Knight, Carol Berg, and Jim Burns' Harry Dresden series.

The only two other big name publihsers with as good a web presence as BantamSpectra is their sister imprint Del Rey and Eos books (an imprint of HarperCollins). These other two publishers update every month and have a similar level of Web presence.

I can't speak too well about the smaller presses, like Prime Books, Night Shade, and Golden Grypon, but what I've seen these publishers put out is pretty impressive. But that's a different topic.

I suppose that's enough soapboxing about the publishing industry for now.

The Incredibles

Well, just got back from The Incredibles, and I was very impressed. For the most part it did live up to the hype. Of course, there are obvious comparisons to be made to the Fantastic Four comic, but I think Brad Bird did in a way that was not a total rip-off. This movie also tackled a lot of the themes from the seminal Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons masterpiece Watchmen. My single line praise for the movie would be to say it does not poke fun at the super-hero genre, it takes the cliches, plays with them and tells a great story.

This is a movie I cannot wait to own on DVD.

Got some cool stuff from the in-laws for my b-day over the weekend, Spider-Man 2 for the PlayStation 2 and the complete Season 1 boxed set of FarScape.

Not much else for today.