COMICS: San Diego Comic-Con 2006 Day 1

I just got back this morning from a very fun trip to San Diego for their annual Comic-Con. This was my first time to the San Diego Con and I have to say it was quite the experience drooling over all the beautiful and cool celebrities that were there, as well as the little toys and grab bags handed to me throughout the weekend.
I arrived in San Diego on Wednesday night late; I was tired and hungry so I decided to join a few friends in the Gas Lamp district to scavenge for food. I had to settle for a slice of bread and some ham from Ralph's grocery. At that point I didn't really care what I was eating cause they didn't feed me on the plane, which was a first for a five hour trip--You would think they would feed you more than some crackers, a cheese spread and a box of raisins. -- But I digress--back to the really important stuff--COMIC-CON 2006!

Thursday July 20

So we arrived early, about 9:00 AM or so to pick up our badges and wait to get onto the main floor of the Comic-Con. Once we made it inside I was bombarded instantly with a hoary host of imagery. Signs, posters, flashing lights, the flickering of monitors--it was intense. I didn't know where to start, luckily the night before I had planned out my day with the various panels scheduled, so I revolved my time on the floor around that. I followed my friends Ori and Dezi as they worked the room talking to various artists from different books and getting a few original sketches to boot. I was looking forward to my first panel it was a Comic Art Conference Session called the Great Leap: Adapting Comics into Film with Kate McClancy from Duke University. Honestly I did not read the description below describing what this panel was really about, I thought they would be discussing the details of how to take a comic book and make it into a film. It turned out to be a group of speeches or lectures about how certain comic book films do not depict the themes of the books very well. Of course these --very educated people-- decided to tell us why. There was a panel of about four of them and after the second one, I could take no more. It reminded me of an essay class in my freshman year of College, no real information just a lot of over analysis. The first lady, Kate McClancy, took her shots at the V for Vendetta film and how it was different from the comic, she was trite and she blah, blah blahed about the anarchy of V in the book and the, as she put it, fascist nature of the hero in the film (She was stretching a bit when she got to this part). To put it mildly I was bored, plus I personally liked the comic and the film so she wasn't winning any points with me. So to put it simply I left, and it's a good thing too, it gave me more time to explore the great hall and try to slow my brain down long enough to figure out where the hell I wanted to go and what the hell I wanted to see.

At three I decided to go and check out the Grant Morrison (All Star Superman, Batman, X-Men) and Deepak Chopra (How to Know God) panel about the Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes. Personally I was intrigued as to why a spiritual novelist would be at a Comic-Con. Apparently Grant Morrison is a deeply spiritual person and was inspired by Chopra, not a real shock if you've read any of Morrison's work. Actually the real reason I believe he was there to support his son Gotham (I'm not kidding) Chopra, who is a comic book writer for the newly founded Virgin Comics. It was an interesting panel; the two men discussed their lives and what they believe. Chopra seemed very interested in working with Morrison at some future date as they discussed the new evolution of the superhero and how they create a new idea of being. Chopra suggested that the seven spiritual laws were very similar to the seven chakras, which is a conduit between consciousness and reality. I don't know if it was enlightening per-say but it was very interesting. I do believe in the continuing evolution of super heroes, it's how they stay fresh and inventive. Otherwise you have golden age Superman, which in this day and age would just put the reader to sleep. Speaking of sleep, I was a bit tired cause I didn't get much sleep the night before so I kind of dozed here and there, it must have been the calm and soothing voice of Deepak Chopra I felt at peace and since I was tired I slept, price of being a spiritual guru I guess.

So my last panel of the afternoon was about Webcomics and how to get started. It was an interesting panel chaired by Bill Barnes (Unshelved) with panelists Dave Kellett (Sheldon),
Jon Rosenberg (Goats), Brian Fies (Mom's Cancer) and Phil Foglio (Girl Genius). I didn't get a lot of concrete info from this panel but I did feel that this panel did give hope to my fellow colleagues and I in our uphill battle to self publish and build an audience. They talked about merchandising and about just getting out there and creating buzz for your comic. Hopefully this weekend our little company, Cave Drawing Inc., will also have its own site where readers can come and enjoy free comics. Also click on the blue highlights in this article if you are interested in seeing some of these webcomics.

Overall I had a good first day of Comic-Con; I got a dose of comic elitism, some spiritual healing from the guy who writes All Star Superman and some good old fashioned inspiration. I can't wait for tomorrow. It's Stan Lee, J. Michael Straczynski, Joe Quesada and the Romitas, kick ass!

MOVIE REVIEW: My Super Ex-Girlfriend

So before I get into the events of Comic-Con I ended up with a free day on Monday because I had a late flight home from San Diego. I had a couple passes given to me by a friend and I decided what the hell it's free I'll go check out the latest comedy by the genius behind Ghostbusters, Mr. Ivan Reitman. Before I go much further let me just say that I'm glad I didn't have to pay for a ticket.

Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) meets a shy art dealer, Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman) on the subway and decides to ask her out. When he finds out that Jenny is extremely needy and a psycho to boot he gets a little nervous. It doesn't help when he finds out she has a side job as a superhero named G-Girl. When they came up with this movie they must have sat around a table and thought of every way they could satire the Super Hero genre, the only problem was the jokes were not funny, they were stupid, insipid and honestly I can't believe that Ivan Reitman directed this movie. I guess the Hollywood story is true, once you've reached a certain old-age in Tinsel town you lose the pulse of the average movie goer. At least it's true with this film, plus it's another strike against Reitman because of that terrible comedy Evoulution. So back to the trainwreck--Matt ends up having sex in mid-air with his G-Girl friend, she breaks his bed and then she clings to him so badly that he decides to break it off. This is the part we have been waiting thirty to forty minutes ---For the shit to go down like the title promised. So G-Girl screws with him a bit writes DICK on his forehead with her heat vision, snatches his clothes in front of his clients and gets him fired. Maybe it sounded funny on paper--I don't know, all I know is that if this movie was rated R it might have been funny, but they decided on cute. G-Girl tosses a great white shark into Matt's bed, um okay. Maybe it's Luke Wilson; he's not as funny as his brother Owen and the hang dog look of his gets annoying as the movie barrels on. I mean what's the deal here you have Anna Faris from Scary Movie as the other female in the story-- not funny. You have Rainn Wilson as Matt's buddy Vaughn, and this guy normally is hilarious on Office Space. I got a chuckle from his antics, not a guffaw or a really good blubbery laugh. It's pathetic; WANDA SYKES was in this movie for Christ Sake! Why was she in this movie? Her scenes were paltry and the most important reason to have Wanda Sykes in any movie is--Cause she's F***in Funny! Did I also mention that Eddie Izzard is in this movie as the supposed Heavy, yeah you know what's coming next--not funny.

So unless you get free passes to this movie or you're bored out of your mind and need to see something --anything, on the big screen. Then see this movie but don't say I didn't warn you there are other far better films out there for you to see, like Pirates of the Caribbean, Lady in the Water and of course Superman Returns. I'm betting Monster House is funnier than this piece of garbage. I think it's time for Ivan to retire before he does anymore damage to his almost sterling career.

Grade: 1 Bucket

MOVIE REVIEW: Little Man

Yesterday I saw a film from the makers of I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and Scary Movie, The Wayans Brother's, Little Man. These are also the same guys who did that incredibly bad movie a year ago called White Chicks (albeit the film did fairly well). So I went into Little Man with much skepticism and discovered that my intuition was right on almost all levels-- to put it plainly this film sucked.

The film follows, of course, Little Man Calvin with Marlon Wayan's face plastered on a little person's body, which raises the question why not actually get a little person to play this role, why waste all the money on CGI? Anyway they play up the fact that Calvin is a tiny person and that he is also a fierce criminal who works out, he has serious daddy issues and he has a bit of a Napoleon complex. So he gets out of jail accompanied by his idiot partner Percy, (Tracy Morgan) who should be a lot funnier because of his former SNLer status, but unfortunately he falls prey to the stupid sidekick shenanigans. So these two knuckleheads steal a diamond and allow a young married couple, Darryl and Vanessa(Shawn Wayans and Kerry Washington) to take the diamond home unknowingly. So as Calvin is plotting his scheme on how to get the diamond back he overhears Darryl's over the top almost psychotic rant about how much he wants children, and decides to dress himself as a baby at their front doorstep. There are a few funny moments as Calvin impersonates an infant with the mind and body of a thirty year old, but the jokes get old and the fact that it takes the whole movie for anyone to realize he's not a baby makes them seem even more idiotic than ever. The CGI was impressive though, I only hope they didn't spend too much money on it since I can't imagine the box office numbers for this movie to be very big. I was also disappointed with the supporting cast; they had the very funny John Witherspoon as Pops from the movie Friday and I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, and did not allow him enough screen time to really get going. Also there was a really great moment at the beginning with David Allen Grier, who unfortunately is not in the rest of the movie. Why the hell was Chazz Palminteri in this movie, he's so much better than this. He plays another Italian esque Mafioso, who really isn't very funny. So I ask the question again, why was he in this movie? Who knows? Anyway, if you like overused jokes, abused in a not-so clever way, then you will love this movie, if not then I suggest everyone let the Wayans brothers know that they need to go back to the drawing board and start making good comedies again, cause I know and you know --they can do better.

Grade: 2 Buckets

COMICS: What You Should Be Reading This Summer!

Hello all, I'm just giving you the skinny on what main stream titles you should be reading. Now I'm not alienating the Indies, they are going to have a special article on their own very soon after I return from the San Diego Comic Con next week. In this week's comics review we'll look at the best titles from the House of Ideas, Marvel comics and their cross town rival DC.

Marvel

Civil War: Frontline issue #3 written by Paul Jenkins and illustrated by Ramon Bachs, Steve Lieber and Lee Weeks. The deadline for the Hero Registration Act has passed and the line has been drawn. Captain America and Falcon have started their resistance against the government and we get our first hero against hero tragedy. The Front Line focuses mainly from the press point of view caught in the middle of this war. There are three mini-stories within this issue; the first delves into the two sides of the conflict. Reporter Sally Floyd gets the scoop on Cap and the rebels while Ben Urich of the Daily Bugle gets a story from Fantastic Four leader Reed Richards. There are many questions posed about the righteousness of democracy as well as the foolishness of tyranny and how both are being manipulated by the Rebels and the registered heroes. I personally enjoyed the second story dealing with the remaining hero from the group New Warriors, Speedball. He's stuck in prison, charged with the murder of innocents and the worst part for him he's lost his powers. You really feel bad for the guy. The third story is a little more confusing but it gauges the reaction of a terrorist bombing in a residential area, but the title is Sleeper Cell and it is the first ish so we'll have to see. Frontline is worth a read especially if you're up to par on your current events, it pushes the character's story's along well and we get to focus on smaller tier heroes and ordinary folk.

Squadron Supreme issue #5 written by J. Michael Straczynski and penciled by Gary Frank. Personally I liked this whole series when it was R rated, it was visceral and real and most importantly Gary Frank draws the female form real well. In this issue the Squad led by Hyperion takes on an army in the desert of the Middle East somewhere, most likely of Arabic descent. The story focuses mainly on team member named Inertia, who has invulnerable skin and super strength, mostly about her abusive childhood and how this very different country brings her old feelings back to the surface. This country they are attacking is supposed to be I assume a mini Iraq led by a Saddam like person who commits a form of genocide on his own people. You get to see a lot of action in this as well as develop a sense of this group's dynamic and how they probably will be sparring with each other very soon. It's not bad, but it took a long time to get to this action. Hopefully we'll be seeing some more ass whuping as we continue to issue #6.

Sensational Spider-Man issue #28 written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and penciled by Clayton Crain. Spider-Man has been unmasked and we've seen some of the reactions from various people from Jonah Jameson to Norman Osborn. Now we get to see what Peter Parker's pupils think of their unmasked Science teacher. We follow a young student of Peter's who is a bit of a nerd just like his teacher and he loves science. It's an interesting set up which mirrors Peter's own upbringing--nerdy guy gets teased at school for having a big brain. It's a nice issue with Doc Ock flipping out about the revelation and how he should have known all of these years. He now has mental scarring because he realizes now that he had his ass handed to him by a fifteen year old.

DC

The Green Lantern issue #12 written by Geoff Johns and penciled by Ivan Reis. Hal Jordan's past has come back to haunt him in this episode, Geoff Johns weaves a great tapestry as GL has trouble with a group of Manhunters controlled by the psycho Cyborg-Superman and he has about a dozen Green Lantern rings to F*** up Hal's lunch box. Luckily Hal's got Guy Gardner watching his ass. Personally I never knew you could get Superman to look so damn creepy, I mean I know he's a cyborg Superman but--damn!

Superman issue #654 written by Kurt Busiek and penciled by Carlos Pachecho. I thought this issue was a little standard. Basically Supes has been recovering for the past year as he had previously retired the tights, he's back now and he's trying to get his balance back. His old rival Intergang is back in town led by a slightly larger Manheim. Something is brewing with Manheim and this story is obviously just the beginning, but we get a glimpse of Supes trying to tackle his reporting duties while remaining the boy in blue, nuthin' fancy. Nuff said.

Green Arrow issue #64 written by Judd Winick and penciled by Scott McDaniel. I love Green Arrow he's fun, he's a smart ass and he's bringing new game. After being out of action for the past year he's been in training as well as running the city as its new Mayor. Mayor Ollie Queen just put Slade in the big house using a little muscle, mostly the one upstairs and is now showing off his new skills downtown against a bunch of hopped up zombies who have taken over the slums. Green Arrow gets a little help from a local villain, Brick, who has turned over a new leaf, at least temporarily. The issue is fast and cool and Slade kills a guy with a wooden table. Nuff said.

MOVIE REVIEW: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Jack Sparrow is back and I am a sucker for swashbuckler films. Films like Mutiny on the Bounty, Treasure Island, Master and Commander and even though it wasn't filmed on the open sea, The Goonies--come on it's about Pirates--And of course I loved the original Pirates film. I read a few early reviews on this one and it wasn't sounding very good. Entertainment Weekly, Variety and Salon.com seemed to be bored by the film, personally I thought it was everything a summer popcorn movie should be.

It starts off dark enough with poor Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) and her betrothed Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) being arrested for aiding the wobbly footed pirate we all love, on the eve of their wedding, by a very sinister Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) of the East India Trading Company. Beckett releases Will on the condition that he brings back Captain Jack Sparrow's (Johnny Depp) north challenged compass for the pardon of Elizabeth. This movie is chock full of plot, between cannibal natives, voodoo witchdoctors, a father/son reunion, and a soul taking squid man. The infamous Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) wants Jack Sparrow's soul and he uses all manner of creature above and below the sea to do just that. I loved all the various crustaceous creatures that Davy Jones has aboard his ship the Flying Dutchman. They all seem to have pieces of corral reef, conch shells, crabs, and shrimp falling off or attaching on to each and every crewmember of the Dutchman, but my favorite was the first mate who has the head of a hammerhead shark, very cool. It was great to see pretty much all of the supporting cast from the previous film all ready to hoist the main sail on the Black Pearl once more. Like the surly crewmate Gibbs (Kevin McNally), who does more than enough arghhs to prove this is an official pirate film. You also see the return of the comic relief pirates Pintel (Lee Arenberg) and Ragetti (Mackenzie Crook) as well as Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport) who makes an almost unrecognizable return. Of course what trilogy would be complete without the Father Son dynamic and a little bit of Star Wars referencing, if you didn't see the film I would suggest you not read any further.***SPOILER**** Bootstrap Bill Turner (Stellan Skarsgard) gets his chance to play a variation of Darth Vader to Will's Luke Skywalker. His face looks about as pretty as Darth's.

Overall the film was a little long and the sword fight sequence with the water wheel went on a bit longer than it should have but other than that I enjoyed this film greatly. Gore Verbinski has outdone himself visually from the first film; the effects were spectacular as well as the cinematography. This film continued the legacy of the first film adding a wider more worldly expansion to the story and to the characters themselves. I won't give it away but you will get a nice surprise at the end of the film, and of course do not expect a complete ending this is after all The Empire Strikes Back of this trilogy, so it will end with a pretty big cliffhanger. It was so fun it made me want to go rent a boat on the Hudson and hit the High seas--I can't wait for Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World's End.

Grade: 4 Buckets