“Speaking of trees dying for no reason…”: I know I’ve linked to Christopher Butcher’s liveblogging his reading and ordering-from the Previews catalog a few times before, but I’m going to do it again. I always enjoy reading what a smart, funny retailer has to say about the mysterious process of acquiring funny books for their shelves and, in Butcher’s case, what one who knows a thing or two about designs has to say about the catalog itself. Here’s part one and here’s part two.
What’s this? Comics need not have their own lists when talking about books?: Writing for Cleveland’s Plain Dealer, Anne Trubek tries to sum up the decade in books, and particular graphic novels get a couple of mentions. Go ahead and see if you can guess which ones they are before clicking.
Wow, 200 issues of Sonic the Hedgehog…: Caleb Goellner, a rival Guy Named Caleb Who Writes About Comics, revisits and old issue of Archie’s long-lived comic based on the video game character in which our hero battles robot parody versions of your favorite superheroes. Can Sonic stand before the mechanical might of Spawnmower?!
I don’t know…No Evil Shall Escape My Sight?: Blogger and Green Lantern fan Sally considers “What Happens AFTER Blackest Night?” and, to illustrate the post, she uncovers perhaps the best Black Hand panel ever drawn. That should be the cover of the Blackest Night trade.
Fantagraphics gets a Clue…: …board game.
But IMDb.com already said Anne Hathaway would be playing The Vultress…: According to a rumor on this site, Spider-Man 4 is being held up because director Sam Raimi and the studio are in disagreement over who the villain should be. He wants The Vulture, they want someone from the current comic books. Does that mean it has to be Menace or Anti-Venom? Quick Marvel, start publishng Mysterio or Lizard comics like crazy!
Well, I guess any movie is conservative or liberal if you squint hard enough…: This Telegraph blog post purports to run down the “Top 10 Conservative Movies of the Decade,” including two based on comic books. One of those two is 300, a movie often talked about in terms of Gerard Butler = George W. Bush, Xerxes = Osama bin Laden or whatever. Yeah, the Spartans seem kinda sorta American-ish here and there, but they’re also a tiny band of warriors trying to defend their homeland from the overwhelming invading force of the largest, most powerful military in the world at the time…which also happens to be a decadent, world-wide empire. In just about any conflict since the Revolutionary War, isn’t the U.S. more like Persia than Sparta…?
December 30th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
“In just about any conflict since the Revolutionary War, isn’t the U.S. more like Persia than Sparta…?” I would change Revolutionary War to World War II, but otherwise your point is quite right. Art can often be perceived in many ways, so I suppose George W. Bush and Osama Bin Ladin could both see 300 as supporting himself.
December 30th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
How about Mr. Negative for the next film? The jokes you can get from that in bad reviews would be endless.
December 30th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Sony did not learn from Spidey 3 and sought to meddle with the next one.
What’s the line I’ve heard that describes this… “uncreative people making creative decisions”.
January 4th, 2010 at 11:31 am
I love how Gardiner lauds The Dark Knight for showing that Batman will do whatever it takes (i.e. massive, intrusive surveillance) to defeat the terrorists (I mean the Joker), but condemns the Stasi for doing the same thing in The Lives of Others.