Alan Moore: Comics Won’t Save You, but Dodgem Logic Might.
Alan Moore, the influential comics visionary who wrote Watchmen and V for Vendetta, has taken up a new mission for our age of global depression: Bringing back the underground fanzine.
Archive for the 'Comic Books' Category
Tim Burton – The Good, The Bad And The Batman.
The prospect of slow-walking through the major exhibition celebrating the film career of director Tim Burton when it hits Melbourne next June should have every self-respecting cineaste foaming at the gills with anticipation. For there is plenty to celebrate.
Ledger’s Joker ‘Adds To Mental Health Prejudice’.
Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning role as The Joker in the latest Batman film has been criticised for promoting a misleading and prejudiced view of schizophrenics.
Anthrax Guitarist Scott Ian Shreds DC Comics Hellraiser Lobo.
Talk about your matches made in hell. DC Comics’ interstellar maestro of mayhem Lobo — who never saw a planet or person he didn’t like (to annihilate) — will rip it up in a two-issue miniseries written by Anthrax guitarist and co-founder Scott Ian.
Filming the Unfilmable: Behind the Scenes of the Watchmen Movie.
It was a groundbreaking superhero comic, but not something you could ever turn into a movie. Everyone said so. Then Zack Snyder came along.
God! How does one even begin to review this. I’m blown away! I’m in geekboy/fanboy ubergeek nirvana! I saw Watchmen last night. Watchmen!!! I first read the graphic novel back in the late 80’s. It was a time in my life where in terms of comic-book reading, I was looking to move on from the standard Marvel/DC superhero-fare.
The comic book industry was about to be turned upside down. The birth of the internet was about to hit and many of the leading artists and writers from the big two (Marvel & DC) were about to split and form their own companies. Comic books became more about multiple covers and gimmicks. Fellow fanboys were being sucked in to buying a bazillion copies of each issue no matter how dire and crap the stories were. (I know this first hand. Anyone wanna buy a copy of the 5 different versions of X-Men that were released? I have 30 copies! Howzabout Todd McFarlane’s Spiderman title? Several available!)
I digress.
In short, I was growing up and needed more than the normal superhero schlock that was being offered.
Titles such as V For Vendetta, The Dark Knight Returns, Killing Joke were books I was beginning to gravitate to, and later the brilliant Vertigo imprint hit me hard with titles such as Preacher, Sandman, Swamp Thing, and of course Hellblazer becoming my constant companion.
But the title that turned it all upside down for me, the title that left me with my mouth agape and blew me to hell and back – was Watchmen. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I digested each page as if my life depended on it. I was hooked beyond belief.
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever expect that masterpiece to ever translate on screen.
Last night, from beginning to end, I witnessed an adaption of the Watchmen that reminded me so much of the first time I read it. I was transfixed at the beauty and majesty before me. Each character was so beautifully portrayed by by their respective actors. Scenes from the comic book were perfectly translated to film and many times throughout the movie, I had flashbacks to twenty years ago when I first laid eyes on it all.
So is it as masterful as the Alan Moore’s graphic novel? (Moore who has publicly and vocally disassociated himself from the film) – well, yes and no. There is no way one can totally and faithfully recreate such a vastly dense and intricate tale. Impossible. But it comes close in a ‘edited’ ‘outline’ kinda way. I would have liked to have seen the characters fleshed out more, but with a running time of two hours and forty one minutes… how much longer can one make a commercial release these days?
It is a visual treat but please, please, please – grab a copy of the graphic novel and see for yourself – just how amazingly good the medium can be.
Five Graphic Novels Hollywood Needs to Stay Away From.
I think I agree with this. Would suck to see shitty adaptions of Sandman or Preacher – two of my all-time faves!
First Superman Comic Book Up For Bid.
Tomorrow, the holy grail of comic book collectors will go up for auction. An “unrestored” copy of Action Comics #1 (1938), the first appearance of Superman, is expected to sell for $400,000.
About my only interest in the Oscars today was seeing if Heath Ledger wins for ‘Best Supporting Actor’.
And indeed he did.
An incredible performance from a fantastic young actor cut in his prime…
Congrats Heath!
His father Kim Ledger and mother Sally Bell and sister Kate accepted the award.
“This award tonight would have humbly validated Heath’s quiet determination to be truly accepted by you all here – his peers – within an industry he so loved. Thank you,” Kim Ledger said.
Batgirl Is A Lesbian.
The female superhero is returning to comic book life as a red-haired, crime-fighting lesbian.
Alan Moore’s Seminal Swamp Thing Resurfaces.
When Alan Moore took charge of DC Comics’ failing Swamp Thing in the early ’80s, the writer revitalized several of the monster series’ moribund characters while flipping the bird to the Comics Code.
I’m in the process or re-reading the Watchmen. With the movie about to launch… (hopefully seeing as it is tied up in all sorts of legal conflict between Warners & Fox!)
Regardless…
Going back to this incredible graphic novel has been such a rewarding reading experience. I realized that the last time I read it, was nearly 20 years ago. God! How time just passes you by when you least expect it.
Watchmen totally and utterly blew me away when I first read its pages. It opened up a whole new world of comics for me and took me away from the standard fare ’super hero’ books of Marvel and DC and introduced me to more mature titles such as ‘Hellblazer’, ‘Swamp Thing’, ‘Sandman’, ‘V For Vendetta’, ‘Preacher’ et al.
I distinctly remember reading through this baby with suchconcentration and overwhelming joy. It was one of the best comic book experiences I had ever had.
Re-reading it has just reminded me again why Time magazine has gone so far as to name it in its top 100 best novels of all time. Yeah, it is that good!
So, with all the recent press about this movie, and there’s only more to come… there is a really cool new featurette that has been posted on the Apple Quicktime site.
Check it out here and look for the awesome Minutemen footage which looks like it has come directly from the pages of the comic book! Awesome stuff abounds!
Meanwhile… check out the Japanese trailer below…
The bar has been raised with ‘The Dark Knight’. So much so that it is going to take a Herculean effort for any comic-book genre film to compare from here on. The X-Men movies, for the most part, were pretty good efforts. The first two in particular were grand. The stand-out was always Hugh Jackman and his effortless portrayal of Wolverine. He nailed the role perfectly.
I still remember the chills I got up my spine when he first appears on screen in the first X-Men movie.
A Wolverine flick was inevitable. It was a mere rumour for several years, but now it is indeed reality and the HD trailer is now out.
As far as trailers go, it certainly teases a lot. There’s Gambit (played by Taylor Kitsch), Sabretooth, Storm, Deadpool et al. There’s action. (natch!) There’s Jackman constantly crouching and with claws ready to strike… and there’s a whole origin film to unfold – cue Weapon X for all you fanboys & girls out there.
When all is said and done, I for one am looking forward to this one!
Continue reading ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’
