John Lennon

Today John Lennon would have been 67 years old.

I first started listening to the Beatles in 1975 and instantly became a rapid fan. While I've always liked all of the members of the Beatles and a lot of their solo work, I'd say my favorite Beatle was John Lennon because his songs seemed more intospective and intelligent.

My favorite Beatles song is Across the Universe, just look at this first verse:

Words are flying out like
endless rain into a paper cup
They slither while they pass
They slip across the universe
Pools of sorrow waves of joy
are drifting thorough my open mind
Possessing and caressing me

My favorite song of all time is John Lennon's Imagine, here's the first two verses:

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

I was a senior in high school (San Antonio, Texas) in 1980 when John Lennon was killed. I remember that night I was watching the Johnny Carson show when they broke in with the news that Lenon had been shot (most of the country was watching Howard Cosell Monday Night Football) and I was in shock. John Lennon had just returned to music after a hiatus with his newly released Double Fantasy album with his wife Yoko Ono. On Double Fantasy, John Lennon was singing about the happy place he finally viewed his life to be and the songs were odes to Yoko and his son Sean (and Yoko's odes to John and Sean). I remember going to school the next day and to me it seemed that none of my fellow students cared (I'd only gone to that school during my senior year so I didn't really know that many people as my other three years of high school was in Germany), so that made the day even worse because I had no one to share this huge loss with until I got home and turned on the radio where several stations were playing John Lennon / Beatles songs around the clock. Still today, whenever I hear a song from Double Fantasy, especially (Just like) Starting Over, a well of sad emotions will sweep over me as I think about what a huge loss John Lennon's death is and what could have been.

Check out www.beatlesradio.com to listen to great Beatles music around the clock. Amnesty International recently released a benefit double cd called Instant Karma The Campaign To Save Darfur which has 23 John Lennon songs covered by artists such as Regina Spektor, Corinne Bailey Rae, R.E.M., Ben Harper, Lenny Kravitz, Jackson Browne, Snow Patrol, Flaming Lips, and many others.

36 days - Black Dossier!

Well it's only thirteen months late, but League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Black Dossier is arriving in stores Wednesday, November 14th. Black Dossier will be a 208 page hardcover (all new story, not serialized like the previous two Leagues). Alan Moore has said that Black Dossier isn't the third League book (that's next years Century, being told in three graphic albums taking place over the course of a century), but rather a look at the various other characters that were in different Leagues throughout history with Mina Murray and Allan Quartermain acting as our tour guides. Alan Moore has said that Black Dossier started as a sourcebook, but since all sourcebooks are crap, Black Dossier will actually have a narrative structure (but I'm going to guess a not very conventional narrative structure). In a Wizard interview Moore gave about a year ago, he stated that: "The Black Dossier isn't the best comic I've ever written, not the best comic ever, it's the best THING ever." In another recent London Telegraph interview, Moore said: "Black Dossier is better than the Roman civilization, penicillin...creation. Better than the Big Bang. It's quite good." Now usually I'm concerned when a creative person says this about something they've got coming out (and saying stuff like this creates unrealistic expectations that the work usually can't live up to), but Alan Moore hasn't ever hyped up a project of his like this before its release, so I'm going to guess that Black Dossier will truely be all that. To say I can't wait is an understatement.

I've never seen the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie, nor do I plan to after hearing it's just a loud action film that has nothing to do with the books. As a sidebar for those wondering why the League movie is so different: Alan Moore and artist Kevin O'Neill sold the movie rights to League while they where still working on the first story. The studio was attracted to the title and the concept and just went their own direction working with an alleged plagarized screenplay script (Alan Moore actually had to go to court to address this even though of course he didn't have anything to do with the movie script which had nothing to do with his League comic), so ultimately he regretted selling the movie rights to League and this incident became another in a long line of reasons for why he distances himself from Hollywood, especially any "adaptations" of his books.

So while waiting for the Black Dossier, I thought it'd be a good time to reread the first two League of Extraordinary Gentlemens (well it's always a good time to read Moore books!). For the three people reading this post that don't know what League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is about, it's a gathering of Victorian fictional characters brought together to help out London in times of crisis, kind of a Justice League of America, except these characters haven't worked together except maybe in some alternate reality (grin) or fan fiction stories (speaking of fan fiction, the only negative things I've heard about League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Lost Girls is that they are glorified fan fiction and that the original creators wouldn't be happy about their characters being used in this fashion - I, of course disagree, but that's a post unto itself for the future).

The first League volume is mostly an introduction of the characters who make up the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and as much as I enjoyed it, it's really not until volume two where our familiarity with what Moore and O'Neill are doing with these characters gets into overdrive (with H.G. Wells War of the Worlds martian invasion being the big threat and is foreshadowed in volume one several times) and we see how these characters, all with very colorful pasts of their own, clash and work with and against each other. Kevin O'Neill's art is perfect for this series and it would be hard to imagine anyone else drawing League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I understand that for some people O'Neill's art could be considered an aquired taste (like Mignola, Kirby, and to some degree Quitely, other artists with distinctive styles that can divide people), but I'd say that anyone who'd read a good block of League of Extraordinary Gentleman, would come to see that O'Neill is indeed perfect for this series. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is one of those concepts that people are amazed hasn't been thought of earlier (just as it's amazing that no one's has ever thought of vampires in Alaska before 30 Days of Night) because it's rich with so many possiblities especially when idea man and wordsmith extraordinaire Alan Moore is at the helm. Like Moore's other great works, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen defintely rewards the reader each time they reread these volumes because you can appreciate how multi-layered each volume is unto themselves and to each other.

Postscript: As I'm finishing up this post a young couple comes in from Dallas, Texas (he said he goes to Zeus Comics there and that it's a great store - I told him I know, as my wife is good friends with the owners and they won the Eisner comic retailer of the year in 2006), looks around the store, stops by my Alan Moore section, looks at the first volume of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and wonders outloud if it's like the movie. So of course I go over and talk to him and tell him that the book and movie are two entirely different creatures (I also asked him if he'd read any Alan Moore before and he said yes). I told him that it's a money back guarantee book and asked him if he lived here in Vegas and that's when I found out that he was from Texas. I always get a warm fuzzy feeling when I sell an Alan Moore book because I know that the person who reads said book will totally be getting their moneys worth as well as getting the finest this artform has to offer (and don't let my warm fuzzy feelings scare any of you out there away from picking up an Alan Moore book here at my store or anywhere else!).

kids love Eastern Promises!

Kate and myself went to see David Cronenberg's new movie Eastern Promises yesterday and loved everything about it especially the smart story and the cast led by Viggo Mortenson, Naomi Watts, and Vincent Cassell.

Sitting behind us was a mother and her ten year old son. I told Kate that they'd probably last 20 minutes tops before they left. Well they didn't leave and although the son and mother made some gasps of shock at some of what was going on in Eastern Promises, actually they weren't as annoying as I thought they'd be. Still, you'd think that anyone with half a brain would know not to bring a kid (under twelve at least, but I realize that some kids are more advanced then others) to a Cronenberg movie (and in this day and age it's quite easy to do a search on an R rated movie to get a sense of whether it's a good idea to bring a ten year old to - again who knows, maybe she did do this). I'm actually surprised that this movie didn't get an NC 17 rating. After the movie, I told Kate that now the kid is ready for Blue Velvet! Actually this reminded me of when I went to see Pan's Labyrinth with a friend and a father had brought his 8-10 year old son with him, but with that movie I can understand a little because some of the previews made it look like the Jim Henson movie Dark Crystal - they ended up leaving about 20 minutes into the movie. So who knew that Eastern Promises would be the feel good movie of the year for the whole family?

Pushing Daisies

Pushing Daisies is a new ABC show that just started last Wednesday and is my new favorite show (I actually don't watch a lot of tv, not to be a tv snob, rather watching tv requires too much commitment and it gets in the way of my comic reading, anime watching, and trying to solve quadratic equations).

Basically Pushing Daisies is about Ned, who has this ability to make dead things (people, animals, plants, etc.) come back to life by touching them. If he touches them again, they'll stay dead and if he reanimates someone who was dead for more then one minute then someone else will die in their place. Like my friend Joel commented when he was first told me about Pushing Daisies, it really seems like a Showtime or HBO show and not something the networks would do. It's probably the best reviewed show of the season so far but it does seem to be one of those dividing shows that you'll either love or hate (if you don't like the first episode I'm going to guess that you probably won't like this series). All the actors are good and I was especially pleased to see that Ellen Green (from Little Shop of Horrors) is going to be a regular.

I liked Pushing Daisies within the first five minutes of the first episode and can tell that this is going to be one of those odd, quirky shows that has likeable characters and is funny in a left of center way. Pushing Daisies was created by Bryan Fueller, who also created the short-lived (but also much loved in smaller circles) series Wonderfalls for Fox a few years ago. I've heard that Pushing Daisies won its time slot last Wednesday and that it's not up against any real heavy hitters so that encourages me that maybe Pushing Daisies will stick around for a while. It'll be interesting to see how many people that watched the first episode will be back to watch the show this week. Part of me thinks that maybe Pushing Daisies should have been a mini series though because as much as I liked the first episode, I wonder how long Pushing Daisies can substain its smartness and charm. Anyway, as long as the quality of Pushing Daisies lives up to its first episode, I'll be happy to put aside my comics for an hour Wednesday nights at 8pm on ABC.

On the ABC website there's also an online Pushing Daisies comic with the two artists being Cameron Stewart (Seaguy and The Other Side) and Zack Howard.

Eww, Robin was a girl

So about a couple of years ago or so, DC had Stephanie Brown, aka Spoiler (Tim Drake / Robin's flame) become Robin - how dare they!? Actually, this move wasn't met with much disapproval from the fan base that I can recall and everyone knew that Tim Drake would be back as Robin at some point. What people didn't expect was that Stephanie would just be Robin for such a short time, that her stint as Robin wouldn't really be explored, and that she'd end up having a stupid death and get no tribute in the Batcave as Jason Todd did (the second Robin).

It was Bill Willingham's (Fables) idea to have Stephanie become Robin as he was writing the title at the time. Due to circumstances beyond his control, Robin and all of the Bat titles around that same time were involved in a dumb crossover and it appeared that Willingham had to scrap his original plans with where he was going with Stephanie as Robin, to fit this new editorially driven storyline.

One of the reasons companies such as DC or Marvel will have character and title crossovers is to create a more unified impression that those characters and titles exist in the same universe and or that those events will have long reaching ramifications (another reason for crossover events is the hope that people will pick up titles that they normally wouldn't). I generally don't like when titles are "forced" to participate in these events because too often they seem forced and we end up with bad story arcs like Batman: War Crimes, a storyline which in addition to being where Stephanie received one of the worst treatments a comic character has received in recent memory, it's also where long time strong Batman supporting character Leslie Thompkins received her character assassination.

I think if DC hadn't shoe horned the Batman: War Crimes crossover into the Bat titles at the same time that Willingham had decided to make Stephanie Robin, that we could have been treated to at least a couple of years of fun storylines where we saw Stehanie grow into her Robin tights (no pun intended) and that there could have been an interesting dynamic going on within the Bat titles where how Batman related to having a female Robin was explored. Instead we have a scenario now in the Bat titles in which just the existence of Stephanie isn't even acknowledged (let alone given tribute to) and Leslie Thompkins isn't used, so her character that was strongly established for years is wasted. I think all of Batman: War Crimes was badly planned (was it planned at all?) and this story arc will be viewed for years to come as the story fans and DC wished didn't happen and they'll probably somehow retcon what they did to Leslie Thompkins anyway. Batman: War Crimes ranks (pun intended) with what Marvel did with Aunt May post Amazing Spider-Man #400 (where she "really" died) and the non mentioning of whatever happened to Peter and MJ's baby. DC could make a lot of people very happy by simply placing a Stephanie Brown memorial in the Batcave. Presently there a good amount of DC fans that have been ringing in on this for years and will continue to do so, so DC doing this would be an acknowledgement by them that they listen to their fans and that they do care about their character's legacies (and I know they do, contrary to what some of their storylines suggest).

This illustration is by Mike Maihack and appeared on Project Rooftop where different artists redesign superhero costumes. The above illustration is by Dean Trippe. Check out Project Rooftop for more on how the character of Stephanie Brown was wasted. Another long running site, Girl Wonder, also has excellent continuing in depth coverage of Stephanie Brown, aka Spoiler, aka Robin.

Invincible - the comic!

Invincible was created by Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead, Marvel Zombies) and Cory Walker. Cory Walker was the artist on the first seven issues, but is still involved with the title on a design / consultant basis, with Ryan Ottley joining Kirkman as the Invincible artist since issue #8 (the title is on issue #42 presently). Ryan Ottley hasn't missed a beat since he became the Invincible artist and his style was an easy transition from Cory Walker's. There's eight trade paperbacks collecting Invincible with each volume titled after tv shows from yesteryear, such as Three's Company, Perfect Strangers, and Head of the Class.

I just finished reading Invincible volume 5 The Facts of Life and this is a refreshing super hero book, with great characters, humor (although when it gets dark, it's fairly dark, but without leaving a tone to the series that is just grim and gritty), and actual plot and character progressions. There's quite a twist that happens, but I'm not going to say what that is or when it happens because it's best discovered while reading (and I feel a little bad about just mentioning a twist because now people who haven't read Invincible will be looking for it and trying to guess - but I think mentioning this lets people know that there's something else going on in Invincible and it's not just a standard super hero book). I like the names of some of the other super heroes that Invincible works with from time to time such as Dupli-Kate, Rex Splode, and Atom Eve. Invincible reminds me of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's run on Amazing Spider-Man (#1-#38).

Doctor 13

Doctor 13 Architecture & Mortality, written by Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets) and drawn by Cliff Chiang (Human Target, Beware the Creeper), published by DC Comics, collects the eight part series from Tales of the Unexpected. Doctor 13 is the world's biggest skeptic who investigates things of paranormal origin and in this volume he runs into other old DC B or C list characters such as I...Vampire, Anthro, Haunted Tank, and Infectious Lass. No prior knowledge of these characters is required to enjoy Doctor 13. If you like comic books that have that nudge, nudge, wink, wink quality written by a writer unafraid to in essence bite the hand that feeds him (including not so thinly veiled shots at four prominent DC writers and jabs at "event" storytelling), well Doctor 13 is the book for you.

Actually, Doctor 13 isn't really mean-spirited because a love of the wacky fun that only comics can do (especially DC Comics from the 1950's and 1960's) is evident as is Doctor 13's love, concern, and care for his daughter, Traci Thirteen. Artist Cliff Chiang always makes for good eye candy (with wonderful colors by Patricia Mulvihill), go to www.cliffchiang.com to sample more of his clean line, fun style (and he'll be the artist on the upcoming new Green Arrow / Black Canary comic)!