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06.28.08 by Widge @ 11:57 pm An ongoing attempt to make sense of the onslaught of new swag that people want you to buy. Should you? I'll try and help.
The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch is the tale of an underground circus, and some friends who, with Miss Finch in tow, attend. And what happens next, which you can guess has something to do with the title and leaving. There's something to be said for Gaiman's story, which as the book explains hasn't exactly been made widely available on this side of the pond (and has shades of Gaiman's work on Alice Cooper's Last Temptation--no surprise, as Zulli provided art for that as well). Any Gaiman is better than a lot of other fiction writers working today. There's something to be said for Todd Klein adapting the thing for this Dark Horse edition (and I've seen a lot of people attributing the whole thing to Michael Zulli, so...). But the thing that I was most looking forward to was seeing the aforementioned Mr. Zulli do smilodons. I'm not giving anything away--there's one on the cover. An excellent addition to anyone's Gaiman shelf, unless like me, yours is spilling onto a second shelf. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.) It's not secret we're big proponents of Pixar around here. Even now that they've merged with Disney into a Skynet-like animation deity called Dixar. But if you want to pull back the curtain to see the little man behind it (or in this case, the cadre of animators), then The Pixar Touch from Knopf by David A. Price is the ticket. Seriously though, what do we, the pop culture nerds, know about Pixar beyond the fact that we want to work there and that John Lasseter has been accepted by many of us as their lord and personal savior? Price lets us know how a company went from zero to being the leading animation house of our time in a relatively short amount of time. And it's not like it's a wart-free story--it's fairly treated. For Pixar fans, you're going to want to check this out. Recommended. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.) Categorized as: Headsup
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06.24.08 by Widge @ 11:54 pm An ongoing attempt to make sense of the onslaught of new swag that people want you to buy. Should you? I'll try and help.
There are lots of people out there who can draw and are very talented at it. I am not one of those people and harbor a secret hatred for anyone who has that talent. Well, it was secret until I just revealed it in this post. But think of it as a respect wearing the trappings of hatred. So the most frustrating thing for me about a book like TwoMorrows' The Best of Draw!, Vol. 3 is that when I read through it, I can't use any of this stuff. Honest. I can barely draw a straight line if armed with a ruler. But if I had a lick of talent in the field, I would be on this like kung pao chicken on rice. This book collects stuff from issues five through seven of the mag with some bonus bits from issues three and four. Interviews, how-tos, and plenty of examples are on hand from the late great Mike Wieringo, Bret Blevins and Dan Brereton, among scads more. If you want to get into illustration, whether comic or otherwise, you could hardly do better than to grab this. It can't help me, though. Even TwoMorrows has limits. (Click here to buy it from TwoMorrows.) Bad Blood is a film about a guy named Stan Graham who finds himself backed into a corner by economic problems (and a bit of paranoia), and then responds with violence when they come to conscript his rifle for the war effort. Then it's a manhunt after the guy, played by Jack Thompson. This is an interesting release from Umbrella Entertainment, not just because it's a true story, but also because it's an early film from director Mike Newell. Yes, the Four Weddings and a Funeral director. A mass murderer seems like a perfect fit, doesn't it? This release is an all-region release, and comes with a interview with Thompson. This is an improvement over a previous Region 1 release which, from what I can tell anyway, was bare bones. (Click here to buy it from Umbrella.) Categorized as: Headsup
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06.15.08 by Widge @ 3:46 pm An ongoing attempt to make sense of the onslaught of new swag that people want you to buy. Should you? I'll try and help.
Hiroshima Mon Amour is a film I reviewed in its capacity as a Region 1 Criterion release. And it's really quite excellent. The story of a Japanese man and a French woman who meet in Hiroshima and have a love affair, while haunted by the past. Excellent film with excellent performances. If you haven't seen it, do so no matter what the region. What I find interesting about this particular release, Region 4 from Umbrella Entertainment, is that it has a featurette that was not on the Criterion release, "A Brilliant Career: The films of Alain Resnais." It's a fifty minute convo with film tutor Peter Hourigan. And you know I'm a sucker for features on DVDs. So if you're a Region 4 user, at least rent this. It's worthwhile for the film. (Click here to buy it from Umbrella.) For you belated Father's Day gifters, there's something very dadly about mechanical stuff. Top Gear, you know. Or any of those reality shows where they have to build things in very little time. But perhaps there's something to be said for armchair quarterbacking the work of engineers over the years. And even if they're not like that, the Modern Marvel: Engineering Disasters set is positively fascinating. The two incidents on the cover are probably the most infamous of the titular incidents in modern memory: the Exxon Valdez and Katrina. But this isn't just a parade of shit breaking where we're just revisiting an array of Bad Events. No, there's some crazy bits like a fire in an abandoned mine, a fascinating look at Skylab, and some smaller problems like vehicles rolling over. Not small to the people who rolled over in them, I'm sure, but you know what I mean. And there's a crapload of content here: five discs, fourteen hours, eighteen episodes. If there's a downside, besides the lack of additional content (surely there must have been some additional footage or something that could have been tapped), it's the fact that you're just scratching the surface of each incident. But if you understand this truly is a running overview of the events, then I think you'll have the right attitude for it. Again, probably a good gift for a Dad or anyone who finds the subject of interest. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.) Categorized as: Headsup
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06.10.08 by Widge @ 11:53 pm An ongoing attempt to make sense of the onslaught of new swag that people want you to buy. Should you? I'll try and help.
So here's the deal. When I was a kid, I used to write superhero stories featuring myself and my friends as characters in the stories. So it makes perfect sense to me that Calvin Ayre would have a graphic novel created where he's the head of a cross between SHIELD and G.I. Joe and his team is made up of the real people who are part of his Bodog group. Which means that you get the musical artist Bif Naked, for example, being outed as a uber-soldier. And there's the obligatory bad guy with a big pharma spin. But again, I can't fault that because I would potentially have done the same thing. Especially if I was rich. If I was rich, Siege would get funding to do the mad Needcoffee movie he has a pitch for. Anyway, I can't even get too terribly bent out of shape about the fact that all of these poker players and fighters and musicians have very little in the way of character development and could potentially be interchangeable; Ayre and his assistant get the most screen time that amounts to anything. Mostly because the proceeds of the book go to support stopping the harvesting of bear bile, which when you read up on it, is even more unpleasant and mental than how it sounds. So Ayre Force is pretty much the closest thing to a bulletproof graphic novel I'm going to see around here. (Click here to buy it from Bodog.) Categorized as: Headsup
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06.07.08 by Widge @ 11:44 pm      Well, we've spoken before about the wonderment of the Indiana Jones hat being sold at ThinkGeek. Not only are we talking a 100% fur felt hat but damn--this thing looks really well made for $99. And believe me when I tell you that I'm a cheap bastard: something's got to be pretty damn sweet for me to be willing to drop that much dime on it. The inside says that it's hand made, and the inside brim of the hat--which is leather--sports the Indiana Jones logo. There's also a Indiana Jones coat of arms of some sort in there as well--a nice touch. There is another small Indiana Jones attached to the outside but it looks like you could take it off if you really wanted to make this look a bit more accurate. Now granted, I'm no hat expert. But I know cool stuff when I see it--and this is it. In fact, sad to say, the hat's of better quality than the fourth film. All seriousness aside, if you're a serious Indy junkie, then this is right up your alley. Or better yet--is your Dad? Remember, Father's Day is almost upon us. (Buy it from ThinkGeek.) Categorized as: Headsup
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