(part one of until I get sick of writing about it)

I’m not going to be one of the pretentious folks slagging off the Twilight books until I’ve read all of them. Since I’m two down right now, you’ll be getting plenty of thoughts on the subject later on.

For now, I’ll talk about the movie, which I have seen (and thoroughly, girlishly, insensibly loved).

Once upon a time I was a regular film critic. Even contemplated film school. One of the films that made me think I could do it was Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen. She (and co-writer Nikki Reed, herself thirteen at the time and now one of Twilight’s vampires) managed to capture all the terror of being a teenager.
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Batman Begins writer David Goyer has found two new recruits for his latest project, Fast Forward.

Jack Davenport (the love-sick liutenant from Pirates of the Caribbean) and Courtney Vance (the by-the-book ADA from Law & Order: Criminal Intent) have signed on for the ABC pilot, which some believe will be a “companion show” for the mega-hit Lost.

Fast Forward is based on the 2000 book by Robert J. Sawyer, in which everyone in the world blacks out for two minutes — and in that two minutes, sees a horrifying fast-forward vision from twenty years in the future. While Vance will be playing the FBI bureau chief Stan Wedeck, Davenport will play Lloyd Simcoe, a man struggling to find his son before — at least as his vision predicts — he dies in an accident.

[Via Hollywood Reporter.]

I haven’t seen the movie yet, and I don’t plan on it happening any time soon. However, curious as to what all the hype was about and with a holiday weekend ahead of me, I decided to borrow my friends copies of the four Twilight novels by Stephenie Meyer and see what the hype was all about.

I think I have it all figured out. Meyer’s novels appeal to their mostly tween audience, intellectually, in about the same way that a Snickers bar appeals to the sweet tooth. Sure, it’s not particularly nourishing, but it’s desirable all the same.

For the three people who’ve managed to avoid the ridiculous amount of hype surrounding the Twilight franchise, the story centers around one Bella Swan, a pale, shy creature whose parents are divorced, who is more intelligent than most of her classmates, and who has an alarming propensity for attracting life-threatening situations. The only reason she manages to stay alive past the first couple of weeks in town is that she has attracted the attention of one Edward Cullen.

Cullen is a member of a family of vampires who have given up feeding on humans because they have consciences, or fluffy nougat centers, or something. I forget which. Meyer’s vampires, however, offer a twist on the traditional mythology: instead of burning up in the sunlight, they simply sparkle. The reason for this is lost to the ravages of time, but I have this theory. There was a stripper, see, and it was prom night…

Anyway, Edward and Bella love the improbable love that has never been loved by any lovers before. Like all Mary Sue characters, Bella falls desperately in love with Edward the very first time she lays eyes on him, and the attraction is mutual. There’s nothing original there – every romance story of all time starts and ends with the heroine in love with the hero.

The appeal of these books, just like the aforementioned candy bar, lies not in their ability to offer anything new. Nothing has changed at all except for perhaps a few insignificant details: the names, the setting, and the bizarre iteration of what it means to be a vampire.

Also like a chocolate bar, these books start out appealing and then, as you work your way through them, they begin to get subtly sweeter and sweeter, until they finish on a note that leaves a strange taste and sensation in your mouth that sticks around until you brush your teeth.

In terms of nourishment, I’d be hard pressed to find something with less value and more empty calories than a Snickers bar, or the Twilight series, but I still love them both – something, in both cases, that I occasionally find myself being a little ashamed of.

– Tom Spurgeon interviews James Kochalka.

– The Chicago Tribune talks to the guy who models as Superman for Alex Ross.

– S. Clay Wilson is now out of the ICU.

– Tintin made Herge “sick” according to recently discovered letters.

– I enjoyed this LA Times piece on the legal battles surrounding the Watchmen film.

– Buy a copy of Stan’s Soapbox and get it signed by John Romita Sr.

– If you can read Polish, here’s an interview with Milo Manara where he talks about his X-Men project he’s working on with Chris Claremont.

– Finally, here’s Watchmen, the Condensed Version.

– Alison Bechdel and Harvey Pekar, together at last.

– Steve Duin has some good news about underground cartoonist S. Clay Wilson, who has been in ICU for the past several days.

– Ada Price talks to Dave Gibbons about his new book, Watching the Watchmen.

– Looks like it’s official: Naruto Nation 2009 is totally a go.

– Sam Thielman looks at the significance of Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing in light of the new super-fancy collection coming out soon.

– Over at Stars and Stripes, Gary Trudeau answers some of his critics.

– Van Jensen talks to Mike Allred about the revamped Red Rocket collection.

– Here’s my idea of a fun time: Dan Nadel, Gary Panter and CF sitting around, talking about art and comics.

– Did you know About Comics is 10 years old this year? I didn’t. Chris Murphy has a recollection.

– Sandy Bilus is giving away a copy of Alan’s War over at his blog.

– Oscar Pedro Musibay looks at the Comics Galaxy event that was held at last weekend’s Miami Book Fair.

– Frank Santoro considers the new Popeye collection.

Holy Shi*T! The World’s Weirdest Comic Books
by Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury
St. Martin’s Press
$12.85.

This is the comic book fan’s equivalent of the novelty gift book, the kind of slender tome you see lying by the cashier counter or near the coffee line at your local big-box corporate book store. If you have a family member who knows about your comics hobby, there’s a good chance (assuming you celebrate the holiday of course) you might get this as a Christmas present (“I saw the title and immediately thought of you.”) (more…)

Man, no one did rique humor better than Arno. He made the smuttiest joke look classy.

HBO has approved production of a pilot for A Game of Thrones, a drama based on George R.R. Martin’s best-selling fantasy epic A Song of Ice and Fire.

“It’s just the pilot so far,” Martin writes on his blog. “They’ll need to see that before they decide whether to proceed with a full season’s episodes. So let’s all hope the pilot will kick serious ass. …  It should. David Benioff and Dan Weiss did a terrific job with the script. And yes, all of you can relax, it’s very faithful. Dan and David will be the executive producers for the pilot and (we hope) the eventual series.”

The cable network acquired the rights to the property nearly two years ago. Plans are for each novel in the planned seven-book cycle to provide a season’s worth of episodes. A Game of Thrones is the title of the first book, which was published in 1996.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that if Thrones receives an episodic order, it would represent the rarerest of TV genres: the full-fledged fantasy series. They’re just too expensive.

Set primarily on a sprawling continent called Westeros, A Song of Ice and Fire centers on a dynastic civil war for the Iron Throne, the threat of creatures from the north known as the Others, and the journey of the exiled daughter of the rightful king.

The fifth book in the series, A Dance with Dragons, is tentatively set for release in April.

Or rather, he illustrated one. Gallery Ghost, from Birdcage Press, and written by Anna Nilsen, offers a decidedly supernatural take through the halls of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

The idea is that at night in the museum, all the ghosts of dead painters like Paul Gauguin and Lyonel Feininger (hey, he did comics too!) come out and put details from their own work into other people’s paintings, a Rousseau cow inserted in van Ostade’s “The Cottage Dooryard” for example.

The reader’s job is to help intern and art student Sarah out and figure out who added to whose painting and which one added the most (just for clarification’s sake, Sala only illustrated the opening and closing pages, plus the portraits of the painters — he didn’t attempt to replicate Mary Cassatt or anything). To help you in your quest, the book comes with its own magnifying glass. How cool is that?

Sala’s art is much softer and friendlier than longtime fans of his work may be used to, but they’ll still want to track it down, if for no other reason than to his rendition of a ghostly Gustav Klmit, something I’m sure readers of Delphine have long wanted to see.

– Harry N. Abrams plans to publish Barry Deutsch’s acclaimed Webcomic Hereville in book form. Brigid Alverson has details.

– Steve Duin provides an update on S. Clay Wilson’s health. Short answer: “His condition has not improved significantly.”

– “There’s an exotica Americans find in my stories that’s lost on Israeli readers:” Nisha Gopalan interviews Israeli cartoonist Rutu Modan about her new book Jamilti.

– Colleen Doran is looking for a few good cartoonists to help her review data for the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines.

– Kai-Ming Cha has a great interview with editor Sean Michael Wilson about Top Shelf’s upcoming AX anthology. “We’re selecting it from the 10 year archive so we’re talking about some 20,000 pages. That’s a lot of stuff to choose from.”

– Peter Sanderson celebrates the 20th anniversary of Sandman with a look back.

– Sanderson also looks at the new Vertigo Encyclopedia.

– The Daily Cartoonist reports that editorial cartoonists Steve Greenberg and Lee Judge are being laid off from their respective newspapers.

– Things to do: David B and Igort will be at the Beguiling in Toronto this Saturday.

– Other things to do: Kim Deitch will be doing a Q&A event with Bill Kartalopoulos at MoCCA tomorrow night. From the pr: “In a unique and wide-ranging conversation, the two will discuss Deitch’s work and
career to date.  Deitch will preview images from his current works in progress and field questions from the audience.”

– Joe Sacco offers an insightful review of Guy Delisle’s Burma Chronicles.

A too-brief article in the San Diego Union-Tribune suggests that, with the election of Democrat Barack Obama, we may be due for another wave of vampire fiction. Specifically, movies and TV series.

The writer, Peter Rowe, points to True Blood, Twilight and Let the Right One In as harbingers of “a new cycle of vampire films and television shows,” and finds a handful of experts to prop up a theory that a Republican administration provides a breeding ground for zombie flicks, while a Democratic White House spawns bloodsucker movies.

Or maybe they’re simply socio-political indicators: Annalee Newitz of io9.com points to the uptick in zombie movies that coincided with the election of President George W. Bush in 2000. Rowe continues along that line with a laundry list of zombie films released in the Reagan and Bush eras, and vampire movies released during the Carter and Clinton administrations.

What’s the correlation? The assembled experts theorize vampires are less-threatening monsters that signal “hopefulness,” while zombies may represent fears of “a revolt of the poor and disenfranchised.” (Those don’t sit well with the article’s pitchfork-wielding commenters, some of whom still may be smarting from last week’s election.)

While there’s obviously a connection between political climate and horror fiction, Rowe’s argument is a little unconvincing.

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While the release of the new Bat-Manga! book has largely met with strong publicity and good reviews, there’s been a bit of controversy recently, as some reviewers and bloggers have noted that manga-ka Jiro Kuwata, whose Batman stories make up the bulk of the book, is not credited on the cover or title page of the book. His name only appears on the inside flap initially, though Kidd does credit him in the introduction, includes a one-page interview with him and dedicates the book to him as well. Laura Hudson has a round-up of comments and offers her own thoughts on the matter:

even if we accept that Kidd et al. played a very important role in designing and presenting this book to an American audience, I’m not sure how that justifies the de facto usurping of authorship here, or the diminishment of the role played by the actual creator of these materials, without whom Kidd and friends would have had nothing to compile, edit, and claim as their own.

I had interviewed Kidd last week about the new book and decided to email him to see if he had anything to say about the controversy. Here is his response:

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Stan Lee does what he does best — promotes his latest book, this one a collection of his old Marvel Soapbox columns, in the video below. The book benefits the Hero Initiative.

• Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons talks about catching Alan Moore’s typos, the miniseries’ colors, the movie adaptation, and audience reaction to seeing a naked Dr. Manhattan on the big screen: “He’s somebody who, by the force of his will, has reconstructed his body, so you’re not looking really at a naked man; you’re looking at a model of a naked man. I know that’s a rather fine distinction.” [Vulture]

• Cairo and Air writer G. Willow Wilson discusses those titles, superheroes, the Standard Attrition message board and group blog, and guerilla marketing. [Heavy Ink]

• The Dresden Files author Jim Butcher chats about bringing wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden to comics. [Sci Fi Wire]

• Best-selling author Stephenie Meyer rattles off some of the inspirations for her insanely popular Twilight vampire epic. Who would’ve guessed X-Men cartoons and and the Iron Man movie would be on the list alongside Jane Eyre and Anne of Green Gables? [EW.com]

• Ned Beauman celebrates Garth Ennis’ reinvention of Marvel’s Punisher. [Guardian]

• FEARnet profiles Devil’s Due Publishing, focusing on the company’s horror titles. [FEARnet]

Michael Crichton, the prolific techno-thriller author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, Sphere and The Andromeda Strain, died Tuesday after a private battle against cancer, according to a statement released by his family and posted on his website. He was 66.

Crichton’s first novel, Odds On, was published under the pen name John Lange in 1966. He published several books under other aliases, including Jeffrey Hudson and, ironically, Michael Douglas (the actor Michael Douglas later starred in the movie adaptation of Disclosure). The Andromeda Strain, his first book published under his real name, came out in 1971, followed by The Terminal Man, The Great Train Robbery and Eaters of the Dead.

In 1990, Juarassic Park captured the hearts and imaginations of dinosaur and action fans worldwide; in 1993, he co-wrote the screenplay for the film, which would go on to make about $900 million worldwide. It currently ranks as the 11th highest-grossing film of all time worldwide. Many of his other novels, including Disclosure, Congo and Rising Sun, were also made into films.

Crichton also created and executive produced the NBC television show ER, whcih is currently in its last season.

“Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand,” said the statement from his family.

Ah, Election Day, when a citizenry whose collective brain has been scrambled by 24-hour news channels and poll-tracking websites finally stumbles, zombie-like, into the voting booth.

What’s that have to do with this week’s comics shipping list? Nothing, really. But as “Can’t Wait for Wednesday” is a couple of hours late, I’m pointing to the election as an excuse.

If you’re not as election-obsessed as I am, your attention may be turned to what titles are hitting comics shops tomorrow.

From DC Comics, we’ll see the final volumes of New Teen Titans Archives and The Absolute Sandman, as well as Final Crisis: Resist and the first issue of The Sandman: The Dream Hunters adaptation. Marvel rolls out the Daredevil & Captain America: Dead on Arrival and Wolverine: Chop Shop one-shots, and the first issue of the big Ultimatum event. Dark Horse, meanwhile, collects Dean Motter’s Mister X sci-fi saga.

Elsewhere, IDW Publishing releases Kevin Colden’s Xeric-winning Fishtown, Macmillan publishes the autobiographical Alan’s War, and … Chris Mautner recommends porn. Really.

To see what other titles Chris and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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The Fog Mound, Book 1: The Travels of Thelonious
Written by Susan Schade; Illustrated by Jon Buller
Aladdin Paperbacks; $8.99

The first thing you notice about The Fog Mound is that it’s an interesting mix of chapter book and graphic novel. Chapters alternate between being told first with illustrated text and next with comics. I’m halfway through the second volume now and I’m still not sure why they chose to do it that way, but I like it for a couple of reasons.

First, it breaks up the visual monotony that comes with any 200-plus-page book. Maybe it’s just me, but unless the story is the greatest thing I’ve ever read, I always find myself counting how many pages I’ve got left when I’m reading longer material. There’s just something about seeing page after page of text or comics panels that makes my eyes glaze over. I also set my DVD display to show me how much time I’ve got left when I’m watching movies, so like I said, maybe it’s me.

I didn’t have that problem with Thelonious though. Each chapter felt new and interesting because it was a different format from the one I’d just read.

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To close out the day, here are 13 fun & frightening links — some comic related, some not — to enjoy …

• Splash Page has a preview of Dark Horse Comics’ upcoming Creepy archive.

• Great Caesar’s Post has been running horror posts for the past couple of weeks, including Iron Man pumpkins and Hellboy stories.

• The Beat has the complete “Teratoid Cystoma” from Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack Volume 1 as a Halloween treat.

• Bruce Springsteen has a free song about the Jersey Devil up on his site for Halloween.

• World record zombie walk.

• Check out one of the special features from the upcoming Hellboy II DVD release.

• Marvel.com talks to various creators about terrifying moments in comics.

• Character Design looks at various characters from Nightmare Before Christmas.

• Neil Gaiman shows the one-sheet poster for the upcoming adaptation of his book Coraline.

• They Crawl By Night!

• Freddy Krueger, registered offender.

• I’ve had this nightmare before.

• And finally, Halloween is a good time to check out Necessary Monsters if you haven’t yet.

Happy Halloween!

A mother in Halsey, Ore., has filed paperwork to have Andy Riley’s popular The Book of Bunny Suicides removed from the Central Linn High School library.

But Taffey Anderson, whose 13-year-old son borrowed the book from the library, refuses to return it so a school district committee can review her complaint. Instead, she reportedly plans to burn the graphic novel.

“I understand her feeling very strongly about her rights, values and responsibility as a parent,” Principal Julie Knoedler told The Oregonian. “But I’m disappointed that she is forcing us to buy another copy before we can review the book.”

Published in 2003, the darkly humorous book is a mix of single-image gags and multi-panel strips depicting, as the title suggests, cute little bunnies committing suicide in imaginative ways.

“I saw poor bunnies going through meat grinders; people, like, throwing them in there and they’re getting shot out,” Anderson told the Albany Democrat-Herald. “People in Nazi helmets, and there’s a bunny, and they’re shooting him.”

In her complaint to the school district, she wrote, “This book has absolutely no curriculum value to anybody.”

Anderson pledges not to return the book. And if the library were to replace it, “I’ll have somebody else check it out and keep that one. I’m just disgusted by the whole ordeal.”

I am, too. Just not about the book.

(Via Examiner.com)

Update: As a reader points out in the comments, Bunny Crisis appears to be over, at least mostly. According to an item posted Tuesday on American Libraries, Anderson has returned the book and, after numerous negative articles, has softened her stance.

She nows says she’d be satisfied if The Book of Bunny Suicides is kept behind the circulation desk and restricted to high-school students. The Central Linn High School Library serves both high-school and junior-high students.

I’ve written enough about Halloween-appropriate books over the past couple of weeks, so I won’t highlight titles like Bernie Wrightson’s Frankenstein, or Screamland, or Cthulhu Tales #7, or Hellboy: The Chapel of Moloch.

Instead, I’ll focus on a Batman manga twofer: the collection of Yoshinori Natsume’s Batman: Death Mask, and the much-anticipated Bat-Manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan.

If Batman, or manga, isn’t your cup of tea, there’s Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns, which further lays the groundwork for DC’s next big events. For those in a more political mood, there’s American Presidents and more biographies of John McCain and Barack Obama.

Or, while we’re on the subject of biographies, there’s always Bill Schelly’s Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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