YTrek's Reading/Viewing Blog

Funny Picture Stories #4 (1937)

2010-04-25T16:36:00.003-04:00

Funny Picture Stories v1#4 [Grand Comics Database links: 4; Comic Book Database: 4]
(February 1937)
Comics Magazine Co., Inc.
(Version read: Will Eisner: Edge of Genius trade paperback edition (2007) [LibraryThing])

"Brothers 3" story
Credits:
Writer: Will Eisner
Penciller: Will Eisner
Inker: Will Eisner

(See Comics Index Blog entry.)

The Comics Magazine #1 (1936)

2010-04-23T13:09:00.002-04:00

The Comics Magazine #1 [Grand Comics Database links: 1; Comic Book Database: 1]
(May 1936)
Comics Magazine Co., Inc.
(Version read: Supermen!: The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941 trade paperback edition (2009) [LibraryThing] [Amazon])

"Dr. Mystic" story
Credits:
Writer: Jerry ("Jerome") Siegel
Penciller: Joe Shuster
Inker: Joe Shuster

(See Comics Index Blog entry.)

Star Wars #81-82 (1984)

2010-04-17T22:34:00.001-04:00

Star Wars #81-82 [Grand Comics Database 81, 82; Comic Book Database 81, 82]
(March 1984, April 1984)
Marvel Comics

(#81) "Jawas of Doom!"
Credits:
Writer: [Mary] Jo Duffy
Penciller: Ron Frenz ("breakdowns")
Inker: Tom Palmer, Tom Mandrake ("finishes")

(#82) "Diplomacy"
Credits:
Writer: [Mary] Jo Duffy
Penciller: Ron Frenz ("breakdowns")
Inker: "M. Hands" (as in, "Many Hands"; i.e., multiple, uncredited inkers) ("finishes")

(See Star Wars Blog entry.)

Star Wars Tales (stories from #15, 12, 10, and 23) (2001-2003, 2005)

2010-04-17T10:29:00.008-04:00

Star Wars Tales #15 [Grand Comics Database 15; Comic Book Database 15, 15 (photo cover)]
(March 2003)
Dark Horse Comics

"Do Or Do Not"
Credits:
Writer: Jay Laird
Penciller: Timothy II
Inker: Timothy II

Star Wars Tales #12 [Grand Comics Database 12 (photo cover); Comic Book Database 12, 12 (photo cover)]
(June 2002)
Dark Horse Comics

"A Day in the Life"
Credits:
Writer: Brett Matthews
Penciller: Adrian Sibar
Inker: Adrian Sibar

Star Wars Tales #10 [Grand Comics Database 10; Comic Book Database 10, 10 (photo cover)]
(December 2001)
Dark Horse Comics

"Free Memory"
Credits:
Writer: Brett Matthews
Penciller: Vatche Mavlian
Inker: Vatche Mavlian

Star Wars Tales #23 [Grand Comics Database 23; Comic Book Database 23, 23 (photo cover)]
(March 2005)
Dark Horse Comics

"Lucky"
Credits:
Writer: Rob Williams
Penciller: Michel Lacombe
Inker: Serge LaPointe, Andrew Pepoy

Star Wars Tales #10 [Grand Comics Database #10; Comic Book Database 10, 10 (photo cover)]
(December 2001)
Dark Horse Comics

"A Wookie Scorned"
Credits:
Writer: Jason Hall
Penciller: Christina Chen
Inker: Christina Chen

(See Star Wars Blog entry.)

Captain America: The Great Gold Steal (1968)

2010-04-16T11:19:00.003-04:00

Captain America: The Great Gold Steal (1968)
Ted White
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Introduction by Stan Lee. Second novel based on Marvel Comics characters ever published (following The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker). At the point when The Great Gold Steal first came out, the Marvel era--which began with the release of Fantastic Four #1 in August 1961 (cover dated November)--was only seven years old. To give those familiar with Marvel's publishing history an idea, STEAL has a July 1968 publishing date. According to Mike's Amazing World of DC website (the "Amazing World of Marvel" part of it), these are some of the comics that were coming out in July 1968: Amazing Spider-Man #68, Avengers #56, Captain America #106, Iron Man #6, Mighty Marvel Western #1, Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #5, Silver Surfer #2, Tales of Asgard #1, Avengers Annual #2, Incredible Hulk Annual #1, and Fantastic Four #79.

As regarding novels based on comics characters in general, there were still very few of them at this point based on comic book characters. There had been a full length Superman novel for younger readers back in 1942 (just four years after he'd first shown up in Action Comics #1). Then, over twenty years later, the "Batmania" craze produced by the 1960s BATMAN television series led to a couple TV series tie-in novels (Winston Lyon's Batman Versus Three Villains of Doom and Batman Versus the Fearsome Foursome, both 1966). And that was pretty much it before the Avengers and Captain America novels I talk about here came out in 1967 and 1968. (For more info, see Wikipedia list page I put together on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_novels_based_on_comics .)

As for The Great Gold Steal, overall, I enjoyed it. I have to say right from the start that it is a *MUCH* better novel than The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker. In that one, the author, Otto Binder, tried to emulate the then current style of the Avengers comic books in both plot and the "hip" dialogue. The end product was a novel that was at times a bit painful to get through.

The Great Gold Steal, however, is written by science fiction author, Ted White. By the time Steal came out, White had already had published seven or eight other novels, so he was much more experienced than Binder (which wasn't really a novel writer; he came primarily out of the comic book writing field, I believe). White wrote Steal as a much more "adult" novel (for instance, people--police and bank security officers mostly, but also some of the crooks--actually get shot and killed in this one). The plot deals with Captain America uncovering a plot to steal billions of dollars' worth of gold from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. White starts the novel off with just enough of the main plot to get you hooked, then jumps back in time for a few short chapters to World War II to introduce new readers to Captain America's origins, before returning again to the gold stealing plot.

The Captain America we read about here is a *bit* different from the one in the comic books (the World War II experiment that gave him his powers in the novel also included steel reinforced bones and the ability to completely control his body's various processes, like slowing down his own heartbeat or channeling all of his energies into healing from wounds faster), but not so much as to be a distraction for those familiar with the comics, I don't think. There is still that "fish out of water" element here--1940s Captain America adjusting to his new life in the 1960s; the Avengers are discussed but are all away so we don't see them--prevalent in the Captain America comics of the time.

The first two thirds or so of the novel (getting us into the plot and seeing Cap's origins) is better than the last part. Once it is time for the novel's climax, it starts to be a bit more predictable what's going to happen next. Still, I found it to be a pretty enjoyable novel. Enough so that at some point I might try to hunt up some of White's science fiction novels..)

The Great Gold Steal would turn out to be the last Marvel based novel for ten years. It wouldn't be followed by another Marvel novel until 1978's The Amazing Spider-Man: Mayhem in Manhattan by Len Wein and Marv Wolfman (which was the start of an eleven book series of Marvel books--ten novels and one short story collection--published by Pocket Books from 1978 to 1979). (Finished reading 4/16/10)

Siegel and Shuster: Dateline 1930's #1-2 (1984-1985)

2010-04-14T23:24:00.004-04:00

Siegel and Shuster: Dateline 1930's #1-2 [Grand Comics Database links 1, 2; Comic Book Database: 1]
(November 1984, [no month] 1985)
Eclipse Comics

Credits:
Writer: Jerry Siegel
Penciller: Joe Shuster
Inker: Joe Shuster

(See Comics Index Blog entry.)

How Few Remain (1997)

2010-04-11T15:12:00.003-04:00

How Few Remain (1997)
Harry Turtledove
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Finished reading How Few Remain today. It took me a while but that wasn't because I wasn't enjoying it. Quite the contrary. This is the second of Harry Turtledove's alternate history novels that I've read (the first also being Civil War based, The Guns of the South) and I love just how historically authentic feeling Turtledove is able to make the various characters and period settings while at the same time spinning them off into completely different directions from what actually occured in "real life".

How Few Remain is about (another) alternate history in which the Confederate States won the Civil War. The "point of divergence" (as alternate history fans call the exact historical point at which the work diverges from actual history) is covered briefly in the book's prelude, which shows a Confederate courier *not* accidentally losing General Robert E. Lee's Special Order 191 which detailed Lee's plans for the invasion of the North. In reality, this order was recovered by Union forces allowing them to defeat the Army of Northern Virginia at the Battle of Antietam. In How Few, the order is not compromised and Lee's forces succeed in capturing Philadelphia, which convinces Britain and France to side with the Confederate States and effectively ended the war.

Aside from the prelude (which takes place in 1862), the novel takes place entirely in 1881. After nearly twenty years of having to share the North American continent with the Confederate States of America (and also twenty years of Democratic presidents following Abraham Lincoln's electoral defeat in 1864), the United States of America, at the order of Republican President James G. Blaine, launches a second war with the CSA after the Confederate States purchase from Mexico two key territories (Sonora and Chihuahua) which expands the CSA's overall territory all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Turtledove's novels are especially rich in the amount of characters he includes. In this one we have Lincoln, much older than he lived in real life and now a man general disdained or outright hated by most as the man largely responsible for the USA's losing the "War of Secession". Lincoln by this point has turned the focus of his attention to crusading for the working man against the powers of big business.

Military figures include U.S. Lt. General George Armstrong Custer, Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (head of the Confederate General Staff), General John Pope (commander of U.S. forces in Utah), Confederate General James Ewell "Jeb" Stuart, and a young Theodore Roosevelt, who leads a U.S. volunteer cavalry unit (Roosevelt and Samuel Clemens are especially fun characters in this novel).

Other key characters include the President of the Confederate States James Longstreet, Frederick Douglass, Geronimo (who first works with Jeb Stuart's forces to ambush U.S. troops in Mexico but after which Stuart must somehow keep from waging war with the local Mexican people in what is now Confederate territory), Colonel Alfred von Schlieffen (here, the German military attache to the U.S.), Mormon leader John Taylor (the Mormons decide to take advantage of the war between the USA and CSA to attempt to break away from the U.S.; Custer and his men are sent into Utah to put down the Mormon rebellion), and Samuel Clemens (who never went on to write under the pen name, Mark Twain; instead, Clemens is a San Francisco newspaper editor).

How Few Remain is a stand alone novel but it establishes what fans have come to refer to as the "Timeline-191" series, of which Turtledove went on to write nine more novels (three separate trilogies) in. Following How Few Remain is The Great War: American Front, which picks up in 1914 and the start of World War I (which, in this timeline, will include the additional plot element of there still being *two* American nations in existence: the United States of America and the Confederate States of America). (Finished reading 4/11/2010)

New Comics Index Blog

2010-03-31T00:08:00.003-04:00

Decided to reconfigure things here a bit (hopefully to make things a bit clearer.)

I've created an entirely new blog I'm calling my "Comics Index Blog". It is here that I'll include month-by-month labels in order to more specifically index what I've read by original release (and, potentially, other factors, although I'll still be limited by the maximum number of text characters Blogger allows me to put in each blog entry's label's field).

I've started off by carrying over portions of the posts I made about comics that I posted in 2009 to this new blog (specifically, the posts about Watchmen and Star Trek: Countdown). I've included links back to the original posts on the main Reading/Viewing blog page.

The only changes I made to the original blog entries was removing the month-by-month labels ("1986-09 (Comics)", "1986-10 (Comics)", etc., and replacing them with the more general, by the decade style that I use for novels, nonfiction, movies, etc. ("1980s Comics").

As with Star Trek related entries, I still intend on posting at least brief entries to the main page about everything that I read, but the comics ones will become less detailed, referring one over to the Comics Index Blog page.

Avatar

2010-03-15T09:19:00.003-04:00

Avatar (2009) (Movie)
(Opened in the U.S. 12/18/09; seen 3/14/10).

It's been nearly a year since I last posted a blog entry about a movie I've seen. Partially that's because I haven't been out to see very many movies lately. Also, I've been very busy with various other things (moving again in November of '09 and some pretty big work changes coming up are just two of those; plus, I've gotten pretty active on Facebook which is where I've shifted a lot of my internet time).

Here's something I wrote about Avatar over on my Facebook page:

Avatar was good. ...[I]t "rocked" in all the areas where one would expect it to. Everything looked awesome. Cameron really raised things up another notch in terms of creating an incredibly exotic looking alien world. The action scenes were exciting and some of the best I've seen, both the ground and air based combat.

If you're looking for a really deep plot you might be a bit disappointed as it's pretty predictable (the old "natives being persecuted and driven off their own land by technologically superior invaders" theme) and it follows a lot of the standard action movie conventions, as well. The lead two or three characters are *just* developed enough to keep one interested in what was happening (aside from the pretty stereotypical tough guy drill sergeant bad guy, and even he "works" in the context of keeping things moving along and providing the necessary danger/conflict).

But I think for most people going in to see Avatar, they don't mind those relatively minor quibbles. It's obviously marketed as a big action/sci-fi "blockbuster" type movie so people should realize what type of movie they are going to see. (I have to admit that, aside from visual effects wise, I'm a bit surprised that it got so much Oscar notice. It didn't seem like an "Oscars type" movie to me. Then, again, what it actually won was in the areas of art direction, cinematography, and visual effects.)... See More

I saw the 3D version (which costs me an additional $3 on top of the matinee price for a regular movie). It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust. (Just a few minutes into the movie they do one of these cool looking shots where you are inside the space ship and the interior walls seem to recede back many miles into the distance. My eyes hadn't adjusted quite yet so it had a brief vertigo-like effect on me. And near the end of the movie during the big, climactic battle things got a bit fast, action wise, which I had a little trouble following every now and then with the 3D effect. But, otherwise, it was an enjoyable experience, one that I wasn't going to be able experience unless I went out and saw it at the theater. (I will find it interesting to watch the standard "2D" version when it comes out on DVD to compare.)

Warning, Avatar's running time is 162 minutes. So over 2 1/2 hours long. Plan your day accordingly. :) (Not quite as long as Titanic--which I'm actually one of the seemingly few people who actually enjoyed, at least going by most of the people I talk to--which was 194 minutes long. But, don't worry, I heard on the radio that Fox is thinking about re-releasing Avatar with additional scenes this summer. They wanted to keep the movie in the digital 3D and IMAX theaters longer but it got bumped from them when Alice in Wonderland came out in 3D on March 5. One source said that there could be as much as 40 more minutes of additional material, but IMAX movies can only be 170 minutes long, so that only about 8 additional minutes if IMAX theaters are one of their primary concerns.)

Oh, and sequels are pretty much a sure thing as Avatar is currently the highest grossing movie ever (and Cameron already had plans for a couple of sequels when he was making it should it do well enough.)

Vulcan's Soul Book 3: Epiphany (2007)

2010-02-03T14:32:00.003-05:00

Vulcan's Soul Book 3: Epiphany (2007)
("Star Trek" novel)
Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Third book in the "Vulcan's Soul" trilogy (follows Exodus and Exiles). In this final novel in the Vulcan's Soul trilogy, we see the fate of Karatek and his people stranded and enslaved on the frozen half of the Romulan twin world, Remus, and also the origins of both the Remans and the Watraii. In the present, post-Dominion War Next Generation time frame, Ambassador Spock, Captain Saavik, and the others aboard the U.S.S. Alliance face a confrontation with not only the Watraii but also the Romulans over the ancient Romulan relic stolen by the Watraii and recovered by Spock and company. Adding to the situation is the kidnapping of the Romulan Praetor by the Watraii, to which Starfleet sends in Captain Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E to assist. Over the course of the novel, the connections between the various sub-plots (the "Memory" sections from the time of the Sundering and those in the present) become apparent. Opinion: best of the three (then, again, I'm a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan in general, so my interest picked up even more when Picard and company came into the story. The Karatek storyline gets better here, too, however, as it nears it's inevitable conclusion. There are even some somewhat interesting side chapters delving into the minds of the various high ranking Romulan and Federation political figures. However, there are also a few parts where it is not entirely clear just what is being referred to if one has not already read Sherman and Shwartz's earlier novels, Vulcan's Forge and Vulcan's Heart. (Finished reading 2/2/10)

Work Related Reading (Children's Books)

2010-01-21T17:45:00.005-05:00

A Book (2009)
Mordicai Gerstein
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Children's picture book. (Finished reading 1/20/2010)

*****
How Oliver Olson Changed the World
Claudia Mills; pictures by Heather Maione
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Children's chapter book. (Finished reading 1/20/2010)

(Quick blog entry. May go back and add more details at a later date.)

The Texas Run (1985)

2010-01-13T13:50:00.002-05:00

The Texas Run (1985)
("V" novel)
Geo. W. Proctor
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Tenth original "V" novel (eleventh overall). California resistance member, Rick Hurley, unexpectedly finds himself drawn into the middle of a medical supply run into Visitor occupied Dallas/Fort Worth. Meanwhile, the Houston Visitor mothership commander has ambitions not only to further his own career status but also to capture resistance member, Sheryl Lee Darcy (whom Rick has fallen for). His goal: to force her to conceive another "star child" (like Elizabeth from the television series). When Sheryl Lee's mother, whom the commander is obsessed with, turns out to have died, the commander turns his sights on her daughter, Sheryl Lee. An okay enough "V" novel. Nothing special though. (Only television character in the book is Mike Donovan, in the first chapter.) Next book in my chronological "V" reading/viewing: The New England Resistance. (Finished reading 1/13/10)

The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker

2010-01-06T11:31:00.004-05:00

The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker (1967)
Otto Binder
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Introduction by Stan Lee. First novel based on Marvel Comics characters. The Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Goliath/Ant-Man, and the Wasp) must defeat "Karzz, the Conqueror" (an alien time traveller from the 70th century) who threatens to set in place "four world-doom catastrophes" to destroy the Earth out of revenge for humanity's stepping in the way of his complete rule over the galaxy in his own, future, time. By destroying the Earth in the 20th century, he plans to create an entirely different timeline where he is ruler of all. Notable for being the first novel based on Marvel Comics characters more than anything else. Very campy. (Makes Batman Versus Three Villains of Doom--see below--downright serious, in comparison.) Doubtlessly, Binder was trying to emulate the then "hip" writing style Stan Lee was using in the Marvel Comics of the time, but an entire novel of said style can be rather difficult to take, to put it lightly. For collectors/completists only, I'm afraid. (Oh, and by the way, while Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch appear on the book's cover, they are not actually present in the novel itself. However they and Thor are described as "former members" early on in the novel, and are represented by statues dedicated to each of them during an Avengers themed telecast.) (Finished reading 1/6/10)

Vulcan's Soul Book 2: Exiles (2006)

2010-01-03T17:41:00.005-05:00

Vulcan's Soul Book 2: Exiles (2006)
("Star Trek" novel)
Josepha Sherman and Susan Schwartz
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Second book in the "Vulcan's Soul" trilogy (follows Exodus and continues in Epiphany). The two separate (but presumably related) stories begun in book one continue onward. The first, that of Karatek, his family, and contemporaries aboard the ships that thousands of years ago left their homeworld of Vulcan behind in what would later be referred to as "the Sundering". They eventually arrive at their new home. But, after surviving the many trials of the long voyage, Karatek and his family have one last betrayal to face upon their arrival. The second storyline, which takes place in the Star Trek: The Next Generation/Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 24th century time frame, follows Ambassador Spock, Captain Saavik, Captain Montgomery Scott, Lt. Commander Data, and Romulan expatrate Ruanek's attempt to rescue Admiral Chekov from the Watraii. (Finished reading 12/26/09)

Vulcan's Soul Book 1: Exodus (2004)

2009-10-11T13:38:00.004-04:00

Vulcan's Soul Book 1: Exodus (2004)
("Star Trek" novel)
Josepha Sherman and Susan Schwartz
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

First book in the "Vulcan's Soul" trilogy (is followed by Exiles and Epiphany). In the present day scenes, which take place within the Next Generation/Deep Space Nine time period just one year following the end of the Dominion War, the Romulan Empire is attacked by a mysterious race calling themselves the Watraii, who claim that the Romulan home planets of Romulus and Remus rightfully belong to them and not the Romulans. Ambassador Spock, Captain Saavik, Admiral Uhura, and Admiral Chekov work to resolve the situation, ultimately leading a fleet of vessels from various races confronting the Watraii before the latter can attack Romulus. The larger portion of the novel, however, follows events on Vulcan two thousand years earlier, just prior to the exodus of a segment of the greater population leaving their home planet in hopes of finding a planet to colonize so that at least some small portion of the Vulcan race might survive. Prominent characters in the flashback portions include a former physicist at the Vulcan Science Academy named Karatek who comes into contact with Surak--the radical philosopher and pacifist and father of the Vulcan logic movement--and who eventually becomes the reluctant leader of the Vulcans in exile (who eventually become the Romulans). The flashback portions take place from 280 A.D. to 380 A.D., while the present day scenes take place in the year 2377 (the Dominion War ended in late 2375), with a brief prologue that takes place soon following the Next Generation episode, "The Neutral Zone", in 2364, and a chapter showing Admiral Chekov's reaction to the start of the Dominion War in 2373. (Finished reading 9/14/09)

Five Weeks in a Balloon

2009-09-05T20:07:00.004-04:00

Five Weeks in a Balloon [via Project Gutenberg] (1863; English translation, 1869)
Jules Verne
([LibraryThing])

Originally released in French in 1863; first published in English in 1890 (English translation by William Lackland). First in Verne's Extraordinary Voyages series. Full title: Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Gentlemen. In this first of Verne's adventure novels, you can start to see the mix of ingredients which would later make him so popular: adventure, exotic locations, entertaining dialogue between the principal characters, and a pinch of science (or pseudoscience) tossed in. In Five Weeks in a Balloon, there are just three principal characters: Dr. Samuel Ferguson, his man servant Joe, and his friend, sportsman, Richard "Dick" Kennedy. Dr. Ferguson and his companions launch upon an unprecedented journey across the continent of Africa in a hot-air balloon filled with hydrogen of Ferguson's design. The three characters face many trials and dangers on their journey, from threats of starvation, less than cooperative weather and wind currents, capture by dangerous African tribes, and even condors threatening to rip their balloon apart. Verne's writing style overall is a nice and easy one to follow, although at times he tosses in historical details which some might find themselves skipping over. Interest in Africa was still high at the time Five Weeks came out as the continent had not yet fully been explored and Verne's novel fully demonstrates this. Most disconcerting (and at times outright uncomfortable) is the very negative stereotypes of the African natives, which would be completely unacceptable by today's standards. For a work written in the early 1860s, while the Civil War was raging over in the U.S., it probably should not be all that surprising, but that realization does not make it any the more pleasant. Outside of this aspect, however, I found Five Weeks to be an enjoyable read. While certainly not his best, I imagine (this is the first Verne novel I've read, I believe), it was worthwhile to go back and start reading his works from the beginning in order to see how they developed as he went along. (Read as part of my "1860s to 1920s" project.) (Finished reading 8/31/09)

Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962) (Movie)
(Internet Movie Database entry)
While this brightly colored film directed by Irwin Allen (who had just Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961), and would later go on to create television series such as Lost in Space and Time Tunnel) and starring Red Buttons, Fabian, Barbara Eden, Cedric Hardwicke, Peter Lorre, Richard Haydn, and Barbara Luna is an enjoyable enough--if at times silly--movie for it's time period, it certainly makes little to no effort to anything more than very loosely based upon Verne's novel.

Right from the start, let's look at the cast of characters. In the novel there were just three, all male, feature characters (Ferguson, Kennedy, and Joe). Well, of the three, only Ferguson survives for the most part intact in the film adaptation. Joe has been transformed into "Jacques" (Fergusson's Canadian servant, played by Fabian). Kennedy's character is absent, although Richard Haydn's character of Sir Henry Vining (a bumbling military commander who initially scoffs at Ferguson's helium balloon) does share at least a few of Kennedy's traits, if lampoonishly so.

The rest of the cast is created specially for the movie. There were no women characters in Verne's novel, so Barbara Luna's slave girl character, Makia, and Barbara Eden's captured school marm, Susan Gale, both rescued from slave peddlers, are written in. As is Red Button's character, Donald O'Shay, the son of a prominent American newspaper publisher sent along on the expedition (by his father, largely so to keep O'Shay out of trouble and out of the limelight for awhile).

There is also Peter Lorre's character of Ahmed--the slave peddler who turns up along with Barbara Eden's character--who has the tables turned and is captured by Ferguson and his companions in order to stand trial once they return to England.

There is also a chimpanzee. The less said about that, the better...

The basic motivation for the trip itself is changed in the film. Instead of seeking to be the first cross Africa in the balloon, Ferguson and company find themselves in a map to beat a party of slavers to a distant part of Africa in order to plant the British flag there ahead of the slavers.

There are one or two scenes that can be seen to have been derived from Verne's version (in particular the sequence where the balloon and its passengers are believed by a native tribe to be the "moon god"; they must make a hasty retreat when the real moon rises and the natives realize that they have been tricked; this is also in Verne's novel).

But by far most of the movie is geared around the characters who are not in Verne's novel. That, plus the comedic-adventure-romance style of the movie makes it pretty much an entirely different story.

Taken by itself, it's an enjoyable enough movie (although there will inevitably be part of it which will elicit groans and rolled eyes, especially the stuff with the chimpanzee). It has that wonderful bright Technicolor look to it and at times one can see that this was a big movie production for the day. Barbara Eden (here three years before I Dream of Jeannie) is gorgeous, as one would expect, as is Barbara Luna. Suprisingly enough, I wasn't as annoyed by the presence of Fabian as I thought I might be (although by the third or so time he was sitting around singing the movie's theme song, I wanted to yell, "Doesn't he know any other songs??!!!") Red Buttons does a decent job portraying the American, O'Shay, although it's pretty obvious from the start that the path that his character would take.

(Viewed 9/1/09 on DVD)

The Adventures of Superman (Lowther, 1942)

2009-08-21T00:11:00.007-04:00

The Adventures of Superman (1942; 2005 reprint/facsimile edition)
George Lowther
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Originally published in 1942 (first reprinted in an unauthorized paperback edition in 1979 and again--this time, authorized--in a 1995 hardcover facsimile edition. As detailed in the new introduction written by Roger Stern (who had just recently written the novelization of the Death of Superman storyline), by 1942 Superman had already moved the comic books (introduced in Action Comics #1, June 1938 cover date) to the newspaper comic strips (daily strip starting on January 16, 1939), a radio program (premiering February 12, 1940), and animated theatrical cartoons (September 1941). So when this novel clearly aimed at younger readers (although a special "Armed Services Edition" was also sent overseas to military personnel), Superman was clearly still riding a rather large wave of popularity. This novel is well known to die-hard Superman afficionados/historians as being the source of several key elements of what eventually became the standard Superman mythos, amongst them being Superman's Kryptonian parents' names being given as "Jor-el" and "Lara" for the first time--building upon the earlier names of "Kal-L" and "Lora" given in the Superman newspaper strips; "Jor-el" would eventually come to be written as "Jor-El". (He also gave us the names "Sarah" and "Eben Kent" for Clark's adoptive parents. As Stern describes, the names for these characters changed several times over the years before settling upon "Jonathan" and "Martha Kent".)

The novel itself follows the a pretty standard pattern. It begins with Jor-el warning his fellow members of the "Council of One Hundred" at "Krypton's magnificent Temple of Wisdom" of the planet's impending destruction. They, of course, do not believe him. Jor-el and Lara barely are able to get their infant son, Kal-el, into the model rocket ship Jor-el had been building (prior to building a much larger one) and send him on to the planet Earth. There, he is found by a poor farmer and his wife. (The material up to this point is probably the least interesting as it's been done over and over again; the 1948 Superman movie serial and first episode of the George Reeves The Adventures of Superman television series both use many of the same names as Lowther does, here.) We then skip ahead a bit to Clark's thirteenth year, when he begins to discover his unique abilities (first spotting an award ribbon stuck at the back of the teacher's desk drawer with his x-ray vision; his teacher's name is "Miss Lang"(!), no relation to Lana Lang, I presume). We then get a rather detailed scene in which Eben enters an anvil lifting contest at the state fair (the family is greatly in debt and the award for the winner is $500). Long story short, Eben puts up a good effort but can't beat the much younger man known as "The Bull". Clark gets upset when his father is laughed at and walks right up and easily lifts the anvil high over his head. Later, however, it turns out that Eben had strained his heart past the point of recovery and later dies.

Soon after this (skipping ahead a bit), Clark leaves and attempts to get a job as a newspaper reporter at The Daily Planet in Metropolis. He had briefly met Perry White at the state fair (White was a reporter looking for a story). By this point, White is the editor of the Planet. He can't guarantee Clark a job as Clark has no newspaper experience, but he sends Clark up to Maine to look into reported sightings of a phantom clipper ship with a skeleton crew. From this point forward, the novel very much takes on the feeling of the classic Superman radio shows, which is natural as George Lowther wrote many of those. The writing style is simple yet engaging. Joe Shuster, the original Superman comic book and comic strip artist and co-creator of the character (along with writer Jerry Siegel), along with the artists in his studio, provides ten full page illustrations (four in color), plus many more sketches of Superman as heading off each chapter. While hardly "great writing", this first ever novel based on a comic book superhero is still an enjoyable read (and a "must read" for diehard Superman afficionados interested in the early development of the character). (Finished reading 8/18/09)

The Complete Making of Indiana Jones

2009-08-16T00:27:00.007-04:00

The Complete Making of Indiana Jones: The Definitive Story Behind All Four Films (2008)
Laurent Bouzereau and J. W. Rinzler
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

A treasure trove for Indiana Jones fans! First off, the "credits": new interviews by Laurent Bouzereau; written by J.W. Rinzler; foreword by Steven Spielberg; preface by George Lucas. This book goes takes you from the earliest discussions between Lucas and Spielberg while vacationing in Hawaii--at the same time Star Wars was opening in theaters in the U.S.--in 1977 about this notion Lucas had for a series of movies about an "adventurer-archaeologist" in the style of the old 1930s/40s "B-movies", through the four year development and production (pre-production, shooting, and post-production) of the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and onwards through the making of the following three sequels. In addition to newly conducted interviews with all of the principal figures, much of the information gathered here is from film shooting logs, meeting transcript, and media publications of the time. And there is a wealth of beautiful color and black and white photographs direct from the Lucasfilm archives. I can not recommend this book enough to fans of the series. Buy this book! (Or, at least, try to check it out from your local library and give it a serious skimming through, taking in all of the gorgeous photos and picking out your own favorite moments to read about.) (Finished reading 8/15/09.)

Augustus Green in the Lair of the Pye-a-Saw

2009-08-15T23:58:00.010-04:00

Augustus Green in the Lair of the Pye-a-Saw (2009)
Thomas G. Lammers
([LibraryThing] [Missouri Botanical Garden Press])

A self-published, first novel (actually, more of a "novella" in length) by Lammers, an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. The author, a fervent botanist who has been to many exotic locales over the years, collecting samples, brings this wealth of knowledge and experience in his chosen field to good use in this tale of "Augustus Green", another botanist living at the very end of the 18th century in the still young United States. He and his guide, a French-Canadian named Jacques Blondin, venture into the then Spanish held territory which is now southeastern Iowa--then known as "northern Louisiana"--against the wishes of the Spanish Lieutenant-Governor over that area, Zenon Trudeau. Green makes many interesting botanical discoveries in the region, but soon finds himself more enthralled by the tale of the "Pye-a-Saw", a giant predatory bird which once menaced the Native Americans living there. Furthermore, rumors have spread that the Pye-a-Saw has actually returned. Green and Blondin become resolute to discover if this is indeed the case, and, if so, to bring down this monster before it can kill again. This entire tale is told via Green's journal of the expedition, discovered in the attic of a college administration building about to be demolished in 1948 (the novella's framing sequence). This first work of fiction by Dr. Lammers is an enjoyable read. Occasionally the botanical verbiage (the various scientific names of the various plants Green encounters) can become a bit distracting to someone not used to them (although they do add to the feeling of authenticity, that one is reading an actual journal kept recording such an expedition), and I couldn't help but wish that we could have seen an additional scene or two of Green and Blondin avoiding discovery by the Spanish authorities, however those are minor quibbles. I very much look forward to whatever future tales Dr. Lammers comes up with. (Note, being a self-published book, Augustus Green is not on Amazon, so I have put a link here to Missouri Botanical Garden Press instead, as they currently carry it.) (Finished reading 8/9/09)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2009-08-15T22:17:00.006-04:00

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)
J.K. Rowling
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Seventh (and final) book in the Harry Potter series. (I broke with my usual routine--which is to wait to read in the next book in the Harry Potter series right before going out and seeing the movie version--and went ahead and read Deathly Hallows immediately after finishing Half-Blood Prince. After all, this is the last of the series, and I didn't want to wait another year!) All I can say is that Rowling did a wonderful job finishing things up. Half-Blood Prince is a perfect tease, leading into this book, and Deathly Hallows definitely meets the expectations resulting from this. My favorite thing about Deathly Hallows is that it breaks the pattern Rowling has established in the first six books of how each book starts out. As indicated at the end of Half-Blood Prince, Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione do not go back to Hogwarts to attend their seventh year of studies. Instead, they embark upon a dangerous quest in order to bring down the defeat of Lord Voldemort, who has largely taken over things in the wizarding world (albeit behind the scenes). There are many exciting adventures (including infiltrating both the Ministry of Magic and Gringott's Wizarding Bank). Harry also visits, amongst other places, the house where he lived as a baby and where his parents were murdered by Voldemort, and his parents' graves. And, fear not, as one would expect, Hogwarts and the familiar professors do eventually appear in a significant section of the novel. This is a really meaty book--759 pages--with a lot going on and lots of characters, but Rowling manages to keep the reader engaged and wanting to know what will come next. I couldn't help but feel conflicted at times, both wanting to get to the big final battle while at the same time realizing that once I did then it would be all over. I can't remember the last novel series which kept me so enthralled right to the end of the final book like this. (Perhaps Timonthy Zahn's first Star Wars "Thrawn" trilogy of books: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command. No, more recently it probably be the Lord of the Rings trilogy, although I don't know if my excitement level for either of these was quite that as mine was while reading the final two Harry Potter books. (Finished reading 8/5/09)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2009-07-28T17:14:00.010-04:00

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)
J.K. Rowling
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Sixth book in the Harry Potter series. (Read just prior to watching the movie version, as has been my custom with the previous Harry Potter books.) Harry and his friends return to Hogwarts for their sixth year. However, things are becoming very dire as Voldemore continues to work behind the scenes to reestablish his power base. Dumbledore takes a direct role in Harry instruction this year, sharing with Harry what is known of the dark lord's past. These flashbacks via the the magical device of Dumbledore's called the Pensieve are a focal part of this novel. At the same time, Ron and Hermione experience another rather sizable "bump in the road" in their relationship, while Harry starts to develop feelings for Ron's sister, Ginny. The pace of the book can seem a bit slow at times, especially with all of the Pensieve flashbacks, but once Voldemort's biggest, darkest secret is discovered and it is revealed what Dumbledore and Harry must do to defeat him, things really pick up fast. From a dangerous mission of just the two of them away from the school and back to the school again where the forces of Voldemort have infiltrated the school's defenses and are on the attack. Significant things happen in this installment in the series (including the death of a major character), and present an almost irresistible lead-in to the final, seventh, volume in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (Finished reading 7/19/09)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) (Movie) (Opened in the U.S. 7/15/09; seen 7/19/09).

As the Harry Potter movies continue to come out, the directors and other movie makers seem to take more and more liberties with the novels in adapting them to film. This statement is not intended as a criticism, necessarily. After all, Rowlings Harry Potter novels (starting with the fourth one, in particular) are very long and some material obviously has to be omitted and/or reconfigured in order to work it all into standard length movies. The cast is once again very good in their roles, and the key elements of the novel are all there. However, I couldn't help but wonder at a few of the changes. For instance, the director chose to omit an entire sequence where Dumbledore comes to Harry's uncle and aunt's house in the beginning of the novel and discusses with them just how disappointed he is in that they have not treated Harry well over the years since Harry was first left in their care as a baby. Instead, in the movie we discover that Harry has been hanging around subways for most of the summer break, taking the trains from place to place. It is here that Dumbledore finds him. The movie also omits a good portion of the climax of the novel (a battle at Hogwarts involving many of the characters besides Harry and Dumbledore which is almost entirely omitted in the movie), and the funeral scene from the end of the novel that is very moving (and in which Harry also makes a decision regarding his newly burgeoning relationship with Ginny). It is questionable as to just why the director decided to leave these scenes out. (Well, the battle and funeral scenes would have taken a good deal of time and additional money to shoot as each has a lot of characters in it, but the movie would have been stronger with those scenes than without, in my opinion. And the introductory scene with Harry's aunt and uncle wouldn't have been all that much additional time, I don't believe.) Still, a very enjoyable movie, overall. As with the novel, the movie really whets one's appetite for the remaining installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which the movie makers have decided to split into two separate movies in order to cover the novel more completely, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One (due to be released in November 2010), and Part Two (July 2011).

TV round up (part three) (animated series)

2009-07-28T15:29:00.003-04:00

(Sigh... I'm really hating that limit on entry labels right now. Gotta split what I intended for "part two" into yet a third entry to get it all in.)

Speaking of Disney XD, I've been taking advantage of their airing late at night the short-lived Silver Surfer (1998) and Spider-Man Unlimited (1999-2000) animated series to get better quality recordings of those programs.

TV round up (part two) (animated series)

2009-07-28T15:21:00.010-04:00

(Splitting this entry up to be able to get all of my desired "labels" in; I wish that maximum character thing for tags wasn't there.)

Other series I've been watching in the meantime:

Batman: The Brave and the Bold (Cartoon Network): Excellent animated series. Has quickly become one of my favorites (although I have to admit that I'm several episodes behind in my watching).

Wolverine and the X-Men (NickToons): Third regular animated series based on the X-Men. Not bad, so far. Enjoyable most of the time but at the same time, nothing out of the ordinary. Voice casting is pretty good, and they took an interesting turn in starting the series after a period in which the X-Men have been out of action for awhile. Wolverine reforms the team but several members are still whereabouts unknown. Some of them have been reintroduced as we've gone along while others are still a mystery. And, again, I've got several episodes to catch up on at the time of this blog entry.

Iron Man: Armored Adventures (NickToons): Interesting take on Iron Man. Visually, a bit of a mixed bag. I like the CGI type look on the Iron Man armor and villains, but a bit less so on the normal faces. Voice casting is good, though, especially the woman they got to play Petter Potts.

Spectacular Spider-Man (Disney XD): Second season of animated series. First season was awesome. Haven't yet sat down to watch the second season episodes that I've been recording, though. (This series moved to cable station, Disney XD, as of the second season as there no longer is a "Kids WB"/"CW4Kids" network block to air it under.)

(Having to continue this in "part three" entry once again due to too many "labels" to fit it all in one blog entry...)

TV round up (part one)

2009-07-28T14:29:00.008-04:00

My last "TV round up" entry was way back on April 20, 2009. In all honesty, my television show based entries may the fewest and farthest between as I don't always feel like doing them at the time that I've watched the stuff, and as time goes on I'm even less likely to sit down to type something up.

Picking up from last entry, though (warning: spoilers below):

Heroes (NBC): "I Am Sylar" (Monday, April 20) and "An Invisible Thread" (Monday, April 27) finished off the show's third season. At this point, I don't recall enough about the episodes to really do into any long discussion about them, aside from certain memories of the season finale. I have to say that I'm rather ambivalent about how the writers left things. In general, I have enjoyed this third season of the series. It's had it's up and downs, of course, but still, as a whole, it's been enjoyable and definitely better than the previous, strike shortened, second season. My gut reaction is that I don't really like what they did with Nathan Petrelli. At times they haven't really know what to do with his character, it seems, leading to some pretty widely varying characterizations. However, I still find the Nathan-Peter-Angela Petrelli (plus sometimes Claire Bennett) family dynamic to be one of the most interesting aspects of the show and now an important "cog" in that has been lost. Plus, I have to wonder just how long they can really keep Sylar looking like Nathan (it's not like they are going to get rid of actor Zachary Quinto, so, now that Nathan's dead, I guess that means that Adrian Pasdar is the one to eventually go). And I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed at just how Nathan met his end. But, then, again, just how much chance would Nathan really have against Sylar by himself? He probably did well to keep fighting as long as he did (albeitly, most of the fighting was off screen). And the fact that Peter flew into the room and took off with Claire just seconds before Nathan and Sylar did strain credibility a bit, I have to admit. Anyway, I am looking foward to the show's fourth (and probably final) season. It's going to be a slighly shortened season, just eighteen to twenty episodes. But's that's okay. I just hope that if it is the final season that they will write it as such, leaving no significant plot threads or cliffhangers unresolved.

Smallville (CW): Last episode I talked about was "Eternal" (Thursday, April 2). There were four more episodes of the then current eighth season ("Stiletto", April 23; "Beast", April 30; "Injustice", May 7; and "Doomsday", May 14). Too much time has passed for me to discuss these episodes individually, either. But I did, for the most part, enjoy this season of Smallville. They took the series in some interesting new directions. I do have to say that I found the season finale to be a bit of a mixed experience. A lot of build up for only a few seconds of confrontation between Clark and Doomsday. And Clark's declaration that "Clark Kent is dead" or whatever, well, I'm sure that that will be resolved quite quickly. I do, however, have to admit that I in no way saw Jimmy Olsen's death coming, nor their revelation that the character we've been seeing has not been the Jimmy Olsen ("Superman's Pal", etc., etc.) but rather his older brother. The "real" Jimmy Olsen is seen briefly at his older brother's funeral near the end of the episode. Apparently the actor playing the part of elder Jimmy was quite surprised to discover this, too, from what I read, finding out quite late that his character was being written out of the series. It does, however, help explain how Jimmy could be so much older in the Smallville continuity as, obviously, he's supposed to be so much younger in traditional Superman lore. I'll also be interested to see how they'll pick up the Lois situation, what with her accidentally putting on the time travel ring that the Legion gave Clark. Will we see Lois (and perhaps Clark, too) in the Legion's future time period next season? That'd be cool.

American Idol (Fox): Well, too much time has passed for me to really say much about the remainder of the American Idol season, other than that (as everyone knows) Kris Allen won. I was for most of the season a big Danny Gokey fan. Once Gokey was eliminated, I started rooting for Kris. Nothing against Adam Lambert. Truthfully speaking, Adam is probably the better singer (he definitey has a much wider range than Kris does). But Kris is just more my personal style, both musically and personality wise. Plus, Kris was the underdog up until the very end. So I'm happy that Kris won.

(I'm going to have to split this entry into two separate ones due to Blogger's maximum number of 200 characters in the "labels" per blog entry. I'll talk about animated series I've been following in part two.)

Movies round up

2009-07-28T13:51:00.003-04:00

Ooops, I've got some catching up to do, obviously. (It's been over a month since my last entry.)

Movies I've seen since my last "Movies round up" entry (May 13, 2009):

Terminator: Salvation (2009) (Saw this one opening weekend, ca. May 21, 2009)
I thought it was good but not great. Lots of cool action stuff, of course, but by the end I sort of was feeling a sense of fatigue from the overriding grimness of the picture. The movie takes place entirely in the future, post-apocalyptic world in which the Terminators are at war with pockets of human resistance. John Connor is a soldier in said war but not leading the resistance yet (although some do see him as the spiritual leader of sorts; Connor uses radio broadcasts to rally the troops everywhere and to provide them with intelligence against the machines). Where it gets a bit confusing is in trying to figure out just how much this version of Connor knows about the Terminators and their goals based on what happened in the first three movies (which this movie supposedly recognizes; adding to possible confusion is that it does not recognize the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles television series). And some of what happens is pretty obvious the way it is set up (such as the true nature of Marcus Wright, Sam Worthington's character). It is obvious that this movie is set-up to lead into a sequel. Presumably, that one will take us to the point where John Connor sends Kyle Reese back in time to protect Sarah Connor from the Arnold Schwarzenegger played Terminator. (There is some pretty good stuff in this movie when John Connor is confronted by one of the Schwarzenegger models. Schwarzenegger isn't actually in the movie but they are so good at visual effects by this point that you can't tell that this isn't a younger version of now current governor of California.)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) (Saw this one about three weeks after opening, ca. May 29, 2009)
I enjoyed this one, too. Probably more so than Terminator Salvation but not quite as much as Star Trek (which I talk about in my last "movie round up" entry). Unfortunately, two months after having seen it, I really can't think of anything else to say about it. Hugh Jackman is, as usual, very good as Logan/Wolverine. The movie fills in a lot of his back story, including his past relationship with Sabretooth and how he got his adamantium laced skeleton and claws. You also see some other noteworthy characters, some from the earlier X-Men movies and some from the comics making their movie debuts.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) (Saw this one Sunday of opening weekend, July 19, 2009)
I'll do a separate entry for this one, discussing the book and the movie in the same entry.

Batman vs. Three Villains of Doom

2009-06-20T22:58:00.010-04:00

Batman vs. Three Villains of Doom (1966)
Winston Lyon
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Original novel based on Batman television series (1966-1968) (Cover blurb: "Now a spectacular new ABC-TV network series starring Adam West and Burt Ward." Cover title given as "Batman vs. 3 Villains of Doom".) The Joker, Penguin, and Catwoman all vie for the "Tommy" award, given once every ten years by the heads of the underworld to "the man or woman who has done the most for CRIME". The mission each has to succeed at: the outwit or destroy Batman and Robin.

Okay, for what it is, a tie-in to the television series. Interesting more for being an early such tie-in (coming out while the show was still riding it's peak of success) than for the story told itself. Lyon (who also wrote a novelization of the Batman movie released in theaters later that same year, also starring Adam West, Burt Ward, and company) does an serviceable enough job. At times one can picture the television actors in one's mind's eye while reading Three Villains of Doom--and Lyon does at times capture the "feel" of the campy 1960s show--while at the same time Lyon takes advantage of being able to place parts of his book in locations and situations which would have been difficult to film on a television show budget.

The downsides are 1) an increasing sense of predictability that increases as one continues through the novel due to the nature of the story being told (villains get their challenge followed by each individually attempting to outwit or destroy Batman and Robin), and 2) a style of writing (rather common of the comics based superhero novels of this early period, I believe) that's pretty shallow, character wise. What I mean is very little (if any) room given to looking in on the primary characters' thoughts or motivations. All that matters here is plot, plot, plot (and a pretty simple plot, at that). And at times the narration is pretty clunky, especially with constant references to the characters by their "superhero" and "super-villain" names ("Batman and Robin did this", "Catwoman did that") and, when referring to the two leads, constantly referring to them in their secret identities by their full names ("Bruce Wayne turned to Dick Grayson"; two paragraphs later, "Dick Grayson replied").

Still, an interesting book for Batman (the comics character), the 1960s Batman television show, and/or superhero prose fiction fans. (As far as I can tell, this is only the second novel ever released based on a DC Comics character, following the much earlier Adventures of Superman novel by George Lowther in 1942. That'll be the next superhero novel on my reading list.*) Definitely worth taking a look, if you can find an inexpensive used copy somewhere. (Finished reading 6/10/09)

(* Please take a look at a project I've been working on the past three weeks or so. I'd been surprised that no one had put together a complete list of novels based on comics over on Wikipedia, so I finally decided to go ahead and put one together myself. At the time that I'm writing this blog, the list includes 312 separate novel and prose short story collection listings. This project has inspired me to read through my superhero novels, only a relatively few of which I've actually read prior to this point. Of course, this is in addition to everything else I'm reading at the time! So I'm sure that it will be an on-and-off sort of thing, as usual.)

Terminator: Salvation Movie Prequel #1-4

2009-06-15T23:16:00.004-04:00

Terminator: Salvation Movie Prequel #1-4, Terminator: Salvation Movie Adaptation Teaser #0 [Grand Comics Database links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 0; Comic Book Database: 1, 1(a), 2, 3, 3(a), 4, 4(a), 0]
(February through March 2009, April 2009)
IDW Publishing
(Version read: Terminator: Salvation Movie Prequel trade paperback edition (2009) [LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Credits:
Writers: (Prequel #1-4) Dara Naraghi; (Teaser #0) Jeff Mariotte
(Teaser: "Based on the motion picture written by": John Brancato and Michael Ferris)
Penciller: (Prequel #1-4) Alan Robinson; (Teaser #0) Don Figueroa
Inker: (Prequel #1-4) Alan Robinson; (Teaser #0) Don Figueroa

Series Notes: Terminator: Salvation Movie Prequel: Numbers 1-4 of a 4-issue limited series. Most (if not all) issues originally released with both regular and variant covers (primary cover artist: Nick Runge); Terminator: Salvation Movie Adaptation Teaser: One-shot.

Comments: Terminator: Salvation Movie Prequel (story arc titled, "Sand in the Gears") focuses on human resistance fighters, primarily in the locations of Detroit, Michigan, and Arlit, Niger. Leads into Terminator: Salvation movie (2009), but only in an indirect way. John Connor is heard broadcasting via radio to his fellow resistance fighers in this series (as he does in the movie), and is also seen in a few flashback scenes with one of the characters here, but otherwise is not present. Several of the models of Terminators introduced in the movie are also seen here.

Average enough (actually, "okay", at best), but hardly essential reading. Basically just fleshes out what others in the resistance are doing during this period. Art wise, perhaps not surprisingly, the artist (Robinson) does a better job of drawing the various Terminators and associated technology than he does the human characters.

Trade paperback edition also includes Terminator: Salvation Movie Adaptation Teaser #0, a one-shot apparently reprinting just the first part of the movie (which is what makes it a "teaser", I suppose). Didn't read this as I initially thought that it was a preview for a longer movie adaptation mini-series and I don't usually read such previews. Glancing through it, the art does look better than that of the prequel mini, though.

(Finished reading 5/31/09)

Star Trek: Countdown #1-4 (2009)

2009-05-26T21:08:00.009-04:00

Star Trek: Countdown #1-4 [Grand Comics Database links: 1, 2, 3, 4 ; Comic Book Database: 1, 1(a), 2, 2(a), 3, 3(a), 4, 4(a)]
(January through April 2009)
IDW Publishing
(Version read: Star Trek: Countdown trade paperback edition (2009) [LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Credits:
Writers: Mike Johnson, Tim Jones
Based On a Story By: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman
Penciller: David Messina
Inker: David Messina

Series Notes: Numbers 1-4 of a 4-issue limited series. Each issue originally released with both regular (drawn by Messina) and photo variant covers.

Comments: In this limited series from IDW Publishing, we get a prequel story to this year's big Star Trek movie. Focuses heavily on Ambassador Spock and Captain Nero, how they initially agree to work together to try to save Romulus and many other planets from a star about to super nova and how their plan goes awry, ending in them all traveling through a singularity into the past and Nero seeking revenge against Spock.

In many ways, this is a Star Trek: The Next Generation story. Taking place eight years following the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, the final ST:TNG movie, we get to see what has become of Captain (now Ambassador) Jean-Luc Picard, Lt. Commander (now Enterprise captain) Data, Geordi La Forge, and Worf (now a general in the Klingon fleet). Data's presence in this story, eight years after his "death" in Nemesis, is briefly addressed.

Not a bad lead in to this summer's movie. In essence a swan song for The Next Generation as well as a prequel for the new movie with its resultant brand new Star Trek timeline (although the original timeline will doubtlessly continue to be featured in various novels and comic books for many years to come).

This story is originated by the writers of the Star Trek movie, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who speak of their admiration for Star Trek: The Next Generation ("This book has had particular meaning for us in that we fell in love with Star Trek through the characters of The Next Generation").

(Note: This also has an entry on my Star Trek Blog.)

Shelby Foote, The Civil War, A Narrative Volume 1

2009-05-24T20:38:00.009-04:00

Shelby Foote, The Civil War, A Narrative: 40th Anniversary Edition: Volume 1: Secession to Fort Henry (1958, 1998)
Shelby Foote
([LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Text first published in 1958 as part of Volume I of The Civil War, A Narrative: Fort Sumter to Perryville by Shelby Foote. A nice, gradually paced, accounting of the years leading up to the Civil War (especially focusing on Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis) and the first year of fighting (the election of President Lincoln in November 1860 through the Union forces taking of Fort Henry--a Confederate held fort on the Tennesse River--in February 1862). In addition to the in-depth looks at the personalities and daily difficulties Lincoln and Davis faced, plus those of the many other notable figures (largely composed of high ranking officers on both sides of the fight), I also enjoyed especially the parts dealing with the political situations back in Washington, D.C., and the Confederate capitals of Mobile, Alabama, and, later, Richmond, Virginia, the attempts made by the Confederacy to elicit official recognition by European powers (which nearly led to war between the North and Britain over of the "Trent affair"), and the engagements which involved the North's much superior naval powers and river "ironclad" gun-boats. Lots of really nice pictures and graphics (maps, engravings, etc.) from the period in this "40th Anniversary Edition" printing from Time-Life Books. Chapter titles: (1) Secession: Davis and Lincoln; (2) Sumter; Early Maneuvers; (3) Statistics North and South; (4) Manassas--Southern Triumph; (5) Anderson, Frémont, McClellon; (6) Scott's Anaconda: The Navy; (7) Diplomacy; The Build-up; (8) The West: Grant, Fort Henry. (Finished reading 5/24/09)

Movies round up

2009-05-13T06:48:00.007-04:00

Seen the following movies since my last post:

Night at the Museum (2006)
Didn't see this one when it first came out but decided to check the DVD out from the library because I've been finding the current ads for the soon-to-be-released sequel, Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian, interesting so I decided to go back and give the original a try. While it had some weak moments, overall, I enjoyed it. A nice, family movie which most members of the family should be able to enjoy, to one extent or another. The best parts, of course, are those where we get to see all of the various museum exhibits coming to life. Also, it is a real kick to see Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, and Bill Cobbs in their roles as the three elder, soon to be retired, night guards.

Star Trek (2009)
Saw this one Friday night. Don't have the time to go into a long review here. I'll just say that I did really enjoy it. But, being a long time "Trekkie"/"Trekker", I will have to see it a second time in theaters to be able to completely absorb it. The first viewing for me of a movie like this is one of seeing just what's going to happen and to mentally put it into context with what has come before it. A second viewing will allow me to get a more all around feeling for the movie as a work in and of itself. I will say that I thought that the casting was good for the most part. I especially liked how young Kirk, McCoy, Scott, and Uhura were portrayed, although I have no real complaints with any of the performances. Quinto was good as young Spock but he, due to his higher recognition status for his role as "Sylar" on Heroes, it was a bit hard for me to come to a clear appraisal of his performance here on my first viewing. (There was a time or two when I felt that just a bit too much humor was poking its way through his stoic demeanor. Something about the mischievous look Quinto can sometimes get in his eyes and his almost-but-not-quite smile.) The humorous parts all worked, for the most part, and the special effects were very good. The rather massive changes to the timeline (creating a new, completely separate timeline from everything that's come out prior to this, apparently) are indeed significant, but that's all I'll say about that here, for the time being. Summing things up, this new Star Trek movie succeeded in it's primary goal, in my opinion, that of giving the venerable franchise a shot in the arm and spinning it off into a bold, new direction. While I will always prefer the universe created and developed over the decades from 1966 through 2009 and beyond (via the continuing novels and comics featuring those versions of the characters), and likewise am interested in seeing just where this new version of Trek will lead in the following sequel movies and other possible spin-offs (future TV series?) and tie-ins (novels and comics).

Total Access: A Journey to the Center of the NFL Universe

2009-05-03T01:02:00.005-04:00

I just finished reading the following book last night.

Total Access: A Journey to the Center of the NFL Universe (2007)
Rich Eisen
[LibraryThing] [Amazon])

NFL Network host takes the reader through what a year of covering various NFL events is like, starting with the Super Bowl and culminating in "the eight game package" (eight regular season games shown on NFL network at season's end). I enjoyed this one a lot, thanks to Eisen's oftentimes witty and interesting style. Ironically, I was finishing reading the book right about the time I was also losing my "access" to NFL Network thanks to the situation between them and Comcast Cable. (Finished reading 5/2/09)

TV round up

2009-04-20T00:13:00.007-04:00

Ack. It's been nearly two weeks since my last post. Well, I was out of town part of that time (about four days of it).

Well, I certainly have been watching TV during that time. Let's see if I can remember the more significant ones. (Note: Spoilers below.)

Heroes (NBC): "Turn and Face the Strange" (Monday, April 6), and "1961" (Monday, April 13). Can't remember enough about "Turn and Face the Strange" at the moment to make comments about it, aside from recalling that it did feature Matt Parkman going after Danko in revenge for Daphne's death. And more fun stuff with Hiro, Ando, and Matt's baby son. "1961" was interesting, seeing Angela Patrelli as a young girl. I thought the episode was largely well done, especially in the casting of young Angela. (They really need to work on making the flying effects for Nathan and Peter a bit more consistent, though. Sometimes they are good, sometimes they are weak, such as when they just jump off camera or land unconvincingly.) Only two more episodes from this season remain to be aired.

Smallville (CW): "Eternal" (Thursday, April 2). Episode that finally moves the Davis Bloome/Doomsday storyline forward. The scenes interwoven with the series pilot are a bit uneven in terms of convincing they are (it would be hard not to be, probably), but it sure was good seeing John Schneider as Jonathan Kent and Annette O'Toole as Martha, again. Overall, I liked this one, just as I have most of the episodes of Smallville this, eighth, season. Four more episodes of this one to go.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox): "Adam Raised a Cain" (Friday, April 3), and "Born to Run" (Friday, April 10). The series really decided to turn things on their head with the final two episodes of the season (and, unfortunately, very likely the series in general; no official word yet on whether the series will be back for a third season but things don't look good, ratings wise). In "Adam", we have a new Terminator show up, a battle between the principal characters and said Terminator to save the life of young Savannah Weaver, and the death of a primary character (Derek Reese). Sarah is later captured by the police while attempting to meet with "Catherine Weaver".

In "Born to Run", among other things happening, Sarah is broken out of jail, and she and John confront "Catherine Weaver", discovering that she is a liquid metal Terminator. But "Weaver" acts as if she is actually attempting to destroy SkyNet, too, and protects Sarah, John, and Ellison from an attack drone that suddenly crashes into the room. Meanwhile, Cameron's chip is taken by "John Henry", who has traveled with it into the future. John and "Weaver" go after them, leaving Sarah and Ellison in the present. John finds himself in a future with a living Derek and Kyle Reese (the latter, John's father), someone who looks like Cameron but is apparently human (whom the audience would recognize as Allison, the human Cameron's form was based upon), and no one knowing who "John Conner" is supposed to be. To be continued (hopefully)...

(I was in Mississippi visiting relatives when "Born to Run" aired. Fortunately I happened to notice that it was on and was able to watch it then because when I got back to Atlanta I discovered that my machine had not recorded it, and that it was mostly pre-empted in the Atlanta area anyway for local tornado warning storm coverage/reports. Needless to say, I would have been quite "irked" to have missed the finale and had to watch it via computer, as I had to earlier with "To the Lighthouse".)

And, finally, American Idol (Fox): Last "TV round up" I posted, I talked about the performance episode on March 31, where the theme was iTunes top 100 downloads. Well, the following night (April 1), Megan Joy got let go. Can't say that I was too disturbed about that. Megan has a nice if rather unusual tone to her voice. I could never completely reconcile it with contemporary songs (not that she sang very many of those in her time on Idol). Her voice was an odd combination of old jazz/"cabaret" plus something else that I could never quite place. At first I thought that I'd be disappointed when she was voted off (which I knew she would be, relatively soon), but I think that she eventually got to where she couldn't take the negative comments from the judges (especially Simon) anymore, to the point where she was putting up a "don't care" attitude by the end, which I started to find rather annoying myself by her final appearance.

The next week (April 7 and 8), the theme was "Songs from the Year The Contestants Were Born". Which makes a good number of us feel old when the oldest contestant (Danny Gokey) sings a song from 1980. The rest of the contestants were born in 1982 (Adam Lambert), 1984 (Lil Rounds), 1985 (Matt Giraud, Kris Allen, Scott McIntyre), 1986 (Anoop Desai), and 1992(!) (Allison Iraheta). Danny sang well, I remember that (he also was the first to sing that night). I really don't remember most of the rest of them at the moment. Anyway, Scott McIntyre was eliminated the following night. Nice guy but it was inevitable that he was be going somewhere around this point. I couldn't see him progressing into, say the top four or five.

Last week (April 14 and 15), the theme was "Songs from the Cinema". This blog entry is getting longish so suffice it so say that I thought most of the candiates sang okay, with few really standing out to me. This was probably at least partially due to most of them singing the same sort of movie love ballads, which gave the entire episodes a sort of "sameness". Matt Giraud got the lowest number of votes but the judges finally used their one-time "Judges' Save" to keep him around until next week. However, that means that two will be eliminated next week, and next week (according to Simon as the show was finishing up) will be "Disco Week". Wonderful. :)

Watchmen #10-12 (1987) and Watchmen movie (2009)

2009-04-08T05:29:00.005-04:00

Watchmen #10-12 [Grand Comics Database links: 10, 11, 12; Comic Book Database: 10, 11, 12 ]
(July 1987, August 1987, October 1987)
DC Comics
(Version read: Watchmen trade paperback edition (1987) [LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Credits:
Writer: Alan Moore
Penciller: Dave Gibbons
Inker: Dave Gibbons

Series Notes: Numbers 10-12 of a 12 issue limited series. Each issue has a primary story (#10: "Two Riders Were Approaching...", #11: "Look on My Works, Ye Mighty...", ) and secondary back up text features (#10: an assortment of various memos to and from Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias) to others in his company; #11: "After the Masquerade: Superstyle and the art of humanoid watching", a supposed interview article with Veidt); with the exception of issue #12, which has only one story ("A Stronger Loving World") and no back-up text feature.

Comments: (Note: I go into spoilers, here.) Issue number ten focuses entirely on Nite Owl and Rorschach's investigation into the true identity of the "mask killer, and on Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias) in his facility in Antarctica (plus, running in the background, the continuation of the grisly Tales of the Black Freighter horror/pirate comic book story). By two-thirds through the issue, Nite Owl and Rorschach realize that their trail leads to Ozymandias and the travel to Antarctica to confront him. Issue eleven gives us that confrontation (and the conclusion of the Tales of the Black Freighter comic book story). Nite Owl and Rorschach are unable to defeat Ozymandias, who is more than happy to explain his plan to destroy most of New York City (making it look like an attempted alien invasion in the process) in order to engineer peace talks between the United States and the Soviet Union. A plan which, as he explains, he'd already initiated thirty-five minutes before Nite Owl and Rorschach had even arrived. Cue big white explosions in NYC. Issue twelve brings Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre 2 back into things as they return to Earth to find NYC destroyed. Dr. Manhattan quickly surmises what has happened and the two of them join Nite Owl and Rorschach in confronting Ozymandias. At first, they do battle with Ozymandias. But, soon, Dr. Manhattan realizes that Ozymandias is correct and that, as horrific as his methods were, Ozymandias had indeed engineered a peace between the world's nuclear superpowers, who had reached near critical zero and were seconds away from launching nuclear bombs at each other. Nite Owl (Dan) and Silk Spectre (Laurie) reluctantly agree to keep the secret of what exactly has happened. Rorschach, however, is unable to compromise in his convictions and leaves to tell the world what Ozymandias has done. Dr. Manhattan cannot allow him to do this so he kills Rorschach out in the Antarctic snow. Dr. Manhattan then leaves Earth seemingly for good, and Dan and Laurie begin a new life together under new identities.

After reading the entire series, I can appreciate the intricate world Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created here. Watchmen is much more than just a homage or knock-off of the Charlton superheroes which Moore had originally wanted to feature in this story. Moore's created a generational look at superheroes, something that other comics titles had touched upon in the past but rarely to this extent. He patterned the history of this world in some ways on how comic book heroes developed in the real world (a grouping of normal, human, characters in the 1940s who decide to put on costumes and fight crime for various reasons, indicative of the "Golden Age" of comics; the coming of Dr. Manhattan in the 1960s indicative of the more science fiction based superheroes of the "Silver Age" of comics). Furthermore, he placed these costumed heroes in a world darker than any seen before. This is violent world where heroes die and the threat of nuclear armageddon is ever present. Every character has some flaw or sense of inner conflict, some deeper than others. But, for the most part, Moore has crafted interesting characters to focus on throughout this twelve issue epic.

I have to say, however, that I think I enjoyed the middle chapters the best, the ones where we found out each of the primary characters' back stories, and their relationships with each other in the present. I particularly enjoyed the scenes with Dan (Nite Owl 2) and Laurie (Silk Spectre 2), and Dan and Rorschach. By the last couple of issues, some elements of the conclusion had already become obvious (although Moore and Gibbons still manage to makes those events compelling to experience). (I will admit that the eleventh issue, in the scenes detailing Ozymandias' background and goals, does get a bit bogged down with excessive exposition. Fortunately, this rectifies itself when Dan and Rorschach arrive to confront him.)

Overall, I am pleased with Watchmen and can see why it made the impact that it did upon the comics industry. What I cannot experience, however, is what it must have felt like to read this back in 1986-87 which such a "dark" depiction of the world of superheroes would have been seen as something new and innovative. By the 1990s and 2000s, however, such stories are pretty much the norm.

And, while I'm at it, let's go ahead and talk about Watchmen the movie (2009). I saw it this evening. I was amazed at how much of the original twelve issue comic book series they were able to squeeze into a 162 minute movie. Yes, they made some changes. But for the most part, they remained extremely faithful to the comic, to the point of framing many of the scenes exactly as they'd been framed in the comics. And the casting in this movie is brilliant in regards to the actors resembling their comic book counterparts (especially the man who plays Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl 2). My only real negative I have about this is that it really almost is too much to put into one movie. By the last thirty minutes or so, I have to admit it, I was starting to get mentally tired. And I had the benefit of having just read the comic book series. I have to wonder just how much of the movie was lost upon those who had not read the comics?

But I am glad that I took the time to finally take the Watchmen trade paperback off of my shelf to read it after all these years of hearing about it, and to go see the movie it inspired. I'm thinking that I will most likely be buying the DVD at some point to add to my collection. (Note: The movie, like the comic, is decidedly not for children. They both feature pretty explicit violence, language, and some nudity/sexual situations. The movie is rated R because of it. So, this one is for the grown-ups, not the kiddies!)

An overview of what else was coming out from DC at the same time as Watchmen (part two)

2009-04-05T13:45:00.004-04:00

(Second part of overview of what else was coming out from DC Comics at the same time that they were releasing the Watchmen twelve issue limited series. Taken from something I wrote up today for one of the internet groups I'm on. Thanks, again, to Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics.)

December 1986 (cover date: "March 1987"): Watchmen #7; also, Legends #5, "Batman: Year One" Part 2 (Batman #405), Star Trek was wrapping up its storyline and setting things up for where the Star Trek III: The Search for Spock film would begin, Star Trek: Movie Special #2 (adapting said film), Who's Who in Star Trek #1 (this whole time the regular Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe was also coming out), All-Star Squadron had its final issue (#67) following several months of flashback origin stories of individual characters, DC's Captain Atom began (#1; only bought the first issue of this, I think), Detective Comics had it's big 50th anniversary special where Batman met Sherlock Holmes (#572); also, http://dcindexes.com/timemachine/releasedate.php?year=1986&month=12

January 1987 (cover date: "April 1987"): Watchmen #8; also, last issue of Legends mini-series (#6), "Batman: Year One" Part 3 (Batman #406), final issue of original Justice League of America series (#261) following a four issue story arc tying into Legends and dismantling the then current "Detroit League" team, second of two-issue Who's Who in Star Trek, much maligned Shazam!: The New Beginning four issue mini-series begins (#1), new The Spectre series begins (#1); also, http://dcindexes.com/timemachine/releasedate.php?year=1987&month=1

February 1987 (cover date: "May 1987"): Watchmen #9; also, "Batman: Year One" Part 4 (Batman #407), new Giffen-DeMatteis Justice League title begins (#1), new Suicide Squad series begins (#1); also, http://dcindexes.com/timemachine/releasedate.php?year=1987&month=2

March 1987 (cover date: "June 1987"): Watchmen skips a month; notable DC issues that month: new Flash series begins starring former Kid Flash Wally West (#1), revised post-Crisis origin of Jason Todd/Robin 2 begins in Batman (#408), successor to All-Star Squadron title The Young All-Stars begins (#1), "Batman: Year Two" four-parter begins in Detective Comics #575 (Alan Davis draws the first part but then some new guy named Todd McFarlane takes over the following issue); also, http://dcindexes.com/timemachine/releasedate.php?year=1987&month=3

April 1987 (cover date: "July 1987"): Watchmen #10; also, "Batman: Year Two" part 2 (Detective Comics #576), Dr. Fate got his own series (#1); also, http://dcindexes.com/timemachine/releasedate.php?year=1987&month=4

May 1987 (cover date: "August 1987"): WATCHMEN #11; also, "Batman: Year Two" part 3 (Detective Comics #577), "pocket universe" Superboy story in Legion of Super-Heroes #37, Superman #8, and Action Comics #591, The Shadow got his own DC series (don't think I bought this one, though), post-Crisis Titano in Superman Annual #1, Mike Grell's three issue Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters begins (#1), John Byrne also does a really nice origin of Doom Patrol story in Secret Origins Annual #1 (in addition to his usual Superman and Action Comics duties); also, http://dcindexes.com/timemachine/releasedate.php?year=1987&month=5

June 1987 (cover date: "September 1987"): Watchmen skips another month before the final issue; notable DC issues that month: "Batman: Year Two" part 4 (Detective Comics #578), Perez's Wonder Woman interacts with the other DC super-heroes for the first time (aside from in the Legends mini-series) in Wonder Woman #8, "pocket universe" Superboy story concludes in Legion of Super-Heroes #38, a really nice (if largely forgotten) non-DC Universe twelve issue series titled Silverblade by Dennis O'Neil and Gene Colan begins (#1), the Joker guest-stars ("guest-villains"?) in Superman #9 (one of the more memorable issues of Byrne's run, IMO), Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters #2; also, http://dcindexes.com/timemachine/releasedate.php?year=1987&month=6 (actually, Mike's puts Watchmen #12 at the end of this month, so I guess I'll stop there)

So, it should be obvious that a LOT was going on at DC at that time. [...] *I* was majorly into it. I was picking up at the very least half of all of those DC titles you see on those Mike's "Time Machine" pages (maybe more like two thirds of them)! And that doesn't even count all of the stuff from Marvel I was picking up then, too!

An overview of what else was coming out from DC at the same time as Watchmen

2009-04-05T13:25:00.006-04:00

I just wrote this up for one of the internet groups that I'm on. Thought that it'd make for an interesting sidebar, showing what else was coming out from DC at the same time that Watchmen was:

Also, things at DC were pretty busy that twelve plus months that Watchmen was coming out. Crisis on Infinite Earths had just finished and the birth of the new post-Crisis "DC Universe" were just beginning.

Here's a look at selected DC titles, month-to-month (thanks to Mike's Amazing World of DC website's "Time Machine"):

June 1986 (cover date "September 1986): Watchmen #1; also, the last issue of DC Comics Presents (#97), the "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" two-parter in Superman #423 and Action Comics #583, the last issue of the Batman: The Dark Knight mini-series (#4); others: http://dcindexes.com/timemachine/releasedate.php?year=1986&month=6

July 1986 (cover date: "October 1986"): Watchmen #2; also, Batman #400, John Byrne's Man of Steel begins (#1 and 2); others: http://dcindexes.com/timemachine/releasedate.php?year=1986&month=7

August 1986 (cover date: "November 1986"): Watchmen #3; also, Men of Steel #3 and 4, Legends mini-series begins (#1) and Legends crossovers in many of DC other titles; others: http://dcindexes.com/timemachine/releasedate.php?year=1986&month=8

September 1986 (cover date: "December 1986") : Watchmen #4; also, Man of Steel #5 and 6, Legends #2, DC's Star Trek title celebrated the 20th anniversary of the original television series in its 33rd issue, DC spun Cosmic Boy off into his own mini-series (Cosmic Boy #1), Alan Davis was drawing Detective Comics (#569); others: http://dcindexes.com/timemachine/releasedate.php?year=1986&month=9

October 1986 (cover date: "January 1987"): Watchmen #5; also, Legends #3, the Superman "revamp" titles all began (Superman #1, Adventures of Superman #424, Action Comics #584), the History of the DC Universe two-part mini-series began (#1); also, http://dcindexes.com/timemachine/releasedate.php?year=1986&month=10

November 1986 (cover date: "February 1987"): Watchmen #6; also, Legends #4, Perez's Wonder Woman revamp begins (#1), "Batman: Year One" begins in Batman (#404), History of the DC Universe #2, Denny O'Neil and Denys Cowan's The Question series begins (#1; only bought a couple issues of this one, though); also, http://dcindexes.com/timemachine/releasedate.php?year=1986&month=11

(I'm going to have to split this into two entries as Blogger is saying that I can't put as many labels as I want to here ("1986-09 (Comics)", "1986-10 (Comics)", etc.).)

Watchmen #4-9 (1986-1987)

2009-04-05T02:04:00.005-04:00

Watchmen #4-9 [Grand Comics Database links: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; Comic Book Database: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
(December 1986, January through May 1987)
DC Comics
(Version read: Watchmen trade paperback edition (1987) [LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Credits:
Writer: Alan Moore
Penciller: Dave Gibbons
Inker: Dave Gibbons

Series Notes: Numbers 4-9 of a 12 issue limited series. Each issue has a primary story (#4: "Watchmaker", #5: "Fearful Symmetry", #6: "The Abyss Gazes Also", #7: "A Brother to Dragons", #8: "Old Ghosts", #9: "The Darkness of Mere Being") and secondary back up text features (#4: a supposed article or book introduction addressing Dr. Manhattan's impact on political events; #5: a faux history of the comic book, Tales of the Black Freighter, seen in the Watchmen lead stories; #6: Rorschach's police report; #7: an article supposedly written by Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl 2) for an ornithological society journal; #8: an editorial in the right wing New Frontiersman newspaper; #9: Sally Jupiter's (Silk Spectre 1) scrapbook).

Comments: Series continues to grow more interesting as I make my way through the middle chapters. Chapter (and issue number) four gives us an indepth look at the origin and background of Dr. Manhattan. Chapter five continues the present day plot lines forward, including an attack on Ozymandias, Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl 2) and Laurie Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre 2) getting together, and Rorschach being ambushed and captured by the police. Chapter six is all about Rorschach and his background while Rorschach is in prison. Chapter seven (one of my favorites so far) focuses entirely on Dan and Laurie and their growing relationship. Chapter eight gives us Dan and Laurie (as Nite Owl and Silk Spectre) leading a jail break to spring Rorschach from prison. It also features the apparent death of one of the older generation former masked heroes. And chapter nine reunites Laurie and Dr. Manhattan on the surface of Mars where Dr. Manhattan has been since issue number four. Particularly memorable is the moment he transports her there with his powers. She immediately begins to asphyxiate as he has forgotten that she will not be able to breath (and he apparently does not need to breath, himself). After a moment of her falling down an inbankment and flailing around, he says, "Oh. Of course. Please forgive me..." and creates an aura of oxygen around her. Laurie spends the issue imploring Dr. Manhattan to intercede into the growing threat of nuclear war back on Earth, but he remains largely unmoved by her pleas. In the meantime, we learn more about Laurie's background via flashbacks.

That brings me where I last left off. Three more issues/chapters to go. (Dang, I just looked ahead a bit to see when we'll see Dr. Manhattan again and I think I accidentally caught a glimpse of them figuring out who the one killing masked heroes is. I hate it when I do that. Oh, well, I hope to finish with Watchmen in the next day or two so that I can catch the movie version while it's still in theaters.

TV round up

2009-04-01T00:03:00.005-04:00

What I've been watching the past few days:

Monday, Heroes, "Into Asylum" (NBC). I like the direction Heroes has taken this season, especially since the midseason mark when they started their "Volume IV: Fugitives" story arc. In this episode, while it did not entirely work, I did enjoy seeing Claire and Nathan together for an extended period of time. Better was the stuff with Danko and Sylar, and also the Peter and Angela's seeking refuge in the church. I'm looking forward to how this season will finish up, and I hope that it can reclaim some of those ratings that the show has lost over the past couple of seasons to make next season (which has already been confirmed) not necessarily the show's last.

Last week through Monday: I've been watching the Smallville: The Complete Fourth Season DVD set (season four ran from 2004 to 2005, and was on the WB Network), specifically the episodes with commentary tracks. (I actually started this with last season's DVD set, season seven, watching the episodes I had missed seeing the first time around through to the end of the season, and rewatching the ones with commentary. I had already watched the episodes with commentary tracks on the season one and two sets awhile back, I think, so when I finished with season seven, I jumped back to season four.) Anyway, these commentary tracks are pretty fun. The episodes on the season four set with commentary tracks are "Crusade" (with commentary by Erica Durance ("Lois Lane"), Annette O'Toole ("Martha Kent"), and show executive producers Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Ken Horton), "Transference" (commentary by John Glover ("Lionel Luthor"), Gough, Millar, and Horton), and "Spell" (commentary by Kristin Kreuk ("Lana Lang"), Allison Mack ("Chloe Sullivan"), Durance, and episode director Jeannot Szwarc). Especially entertaining are Durance's comments on "Crusade" (her first episode on the series, introducing the Smallville version of Lois Lane), Glover's on playing Clark in Lionel's body in the body-switching episode, "Transference", and all three of the "girls" having a lot of fun going back and revisting the episode in which they got to play their characters possessed by witches from the past. Lots of cracking up by all involved with that particular commentary track.

Finally, tonight (Tuesday) as usual I watched American Idol. Yes, I admit it. Guilty pleasure, I suppose. Tonight they had a very broad theme, they could sing anything from the iTunes "Top 100". Most of them were good (as in "okay"). A few really stood out. I have to say at this point that my front runners are Danny Gokey (who I've liked from the start), Kris Allen (who has really jumped ahead of most of the others in the past few weeks), and either Lil Rounds or Allison Iraheta. If I had to predict the top three right now I'd have to say Gokey, Allen, and Rounds. (I missed last week's results show, by the way. Totally forgot about it once the time came. Watched Smallville from 8 to 9 and then turned the TV off or left it on one of the sports cable channels or something. Of course, Idol is usually on Tuesday and Wednesday, so that might have been part of it.)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, "To the Lighthouse"

2009-03-29T00:02:00.009-04:00

Watched Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode, "To the Lighthouse", tonight. Originally aired Friday, March 27th.

Due to a cable setting issue, my DVR recorded at the right time Friday night but the cable box didn't switch to the correct channel. (Long story short, I have Comcast digital cable and a separately bought Philips DVR/DVD recorder. To record something by the timer, I have to set both devices. The Comcast cable box sets up recording times by the onscreen programming guide. Works fine except for a couple of things. One being that if you try to change the channel prior to the cable boxes pre-set recording time is completed, it will ask if you wish to cancel your recording. Which would be fine except that, if you are recording something that you have set to record every week on the same day, it cancels the entire setting. Meaning, sometime prior to the following week you have to remember to go back in and re-set your cable box timer. This happened to me last week when Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was running right up the start of the series finale of Battlestar Galactica. I had to cut away at the end of Sarah Connor to change the channel to Battlestar. I then forgot about it. Flash forward to last night and, sigh, no Sarah Connor episode recorded. Instead, ESPN.

So, I had to watch this episode on my computer screen via Zulu. Not the best way but sufficient so as not to fall behind. (This is the second episode of Sarah Connor this season that I've somehow failed to record. So I'll most likely be buying the official season two DVD set at some point unless I can manage to get these two episodes via reruns.)

This episode had some interesting moments. It was nice to see Charley again. The stuff with Derek and Cameron wasn't quite as interesting as the previews made it seem it would be. (Typical of such previews, emphasizing seemingly dramatic moments which when you actually watch the episode turn out not to be quite as significant.) And the scenes with "John Henry", Ellison, and "Catherine Weaver" provided some interesting steps forward in that particular sub-plot.

I really liked the first season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and also the first half or so of the current, second, season. The show really bogged down for the episodes which focused on Sarah's searching for the source of the three dots, the mystery of what was going on at that warehouse out in the middle of nowhere, and her later kidnapping by the man from the warehouse. It's taken several episodes to get the show moving back in the right direction. Hopefully, we'll get an exciting season finale in a few weeks (and also that the ratings will be high enough for Fox to renew it for a third season).

Watchmen #1-3 (1986)

2009-03-28T01:29:00.009-04:00

Watchmen #1-3 [Grand Comics Database links: 1, 2, 3 ; Comic Book Database: 1, 2, 3]
(September 1986, October 1986, November 1986)
DC Comics
(Version read: Watchmen trade paperback edition (1987) [LibraryThing] [Amazon])

Credits:
Writer: Alan Moore
Penciller: Dave Gibbons
Inker: Dave Gibbons

Series Notes: Numbers 1-3 of a 12 issue limited series. Each issue has a primary story (#1: "At Midnight, All the Agents...", #2: "Absent Friends", #3: "The Judge of All the Earth") and a secondary, back up, text piece (all supposed excerpt chapters from the original "Nite Owl's" (Hollis Mason) book, Under the Hood).

Comments: As this is the first actual comics entry in my new blog, it will not be immediately apparent that I'm reading Watchmen out of my usual sequence. I intend on most of my comics reading for the near future to be a chronological reading through my entire collection, from the earliest newspaper comic strips that I have reprint collections of through to the present (the bulk of my collection pre-1970s is in various trade paperback and hardcover reprint collections, while most of my actual comics run from mid or late 1970s to a few years ago when I finally started to have to cut back a bit on my comics buying; for most of 1982 to 2004 I was picking up nearly all of the major DC and Marvel superhero comics).

Anyway, the reason I'm reading Watchmen first is because of the movie adaptation that's in theaters currently. Believe it or not, while the time frame I was most into reading comics was the 1980s and 90s, and I've always been a big DC fan (although I love Marvel comics, too), I never got around to reading Watchmen when it first came out. I didn't even buy it back then. Why? I don't know. I certainly heard a lot about it. But, I suppose because it didn't feature any of DC's usual characters, taking place in a universe/continuity of its own, I just never made it a priority. I finally picked up a copy of the 1987 trade paperback (ninth printing) a few years back pretty cheap. It's been sitting on my shelf up to this point, still unread.

However, the movie came out and I've been torn about going out to see it. I really didn't want to see it prior to having read the comics. (I prefer to read or watch a piece in its original form/medium first, followed by the later adaptation. As such, I've been reading the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Chronicles of Narnia books prior to seeing the movie versions.) To do this with Watchmen, that meant digging out the trade paperback and finally getting around to reading it.

So, that's where I am right now. I've been pretty busy, so I've only read the first three issues so far, roughly one per night before going to bed. I've been enjoying them well enough, so far. I mean, it's not knocking me over yet, but the characters are somewhat interesting. (I'm not going to go into the whole history of the project here. There are enough websites out there already where folks who don't know the history can catch themselves up. Suffice it say, the characters Moore created here are variations on the 1960s Charlton characters--Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, Peacemaker, The Question, etc.--which DC had just purchased the rights to. Moore had originally intended on using the Charlton characters but was asked by DC to modify his story idea to feature original characters instead because DC felt that Moore's story would hurt their chances to continue to use the Charlton characters they had just paid for in future publications.)

What I like most so far is probably the flashbacks to the 1940s and 1960s. In the 1940s, there was a team of superheroes called the "Minutemen". Some of these same characters, now retired, are seen also in the present day (1980s) scenes. Then, in the 1960s, we see a new group of superheroes (Captain Metropolis, Nite Owl (2), Ozymandias, Silk Spectre (2), Rorschach, and the Comedian.

As I said, the "present day" is the same as that of when the comics were originally released, the mid-1980s, so twenty years have passed since the 1960s flashbacks. Most of the heroes have either retired or been killed in the ensuing years. Rorschach and the Comedian are still active. The first issue of the series begins with the murder of the Comedian. Rorschach is convinced that someone is hunting down superheroes. His warnings largely fall upon deaf ears, at least at first.

The first three issues tend to jump from the investigation into the murder of the Comedian, showing us how the other current superheroes are now living their lives, and flashbacks to the aforementioned 1940s and 1960s time periods. Moore's characters are by no means idealized. They all have their own personal problems and hang-ups, some serious and some less so. Watchmen is definitely not a comic book (or "graphic novel") for younger children.

Intro

2009-03-28T01:00:00.003-04:00

First off, this is obviously my first post on this new blog I'm trying out. A little about me. I'm a long time comic book collector/fan, going back to when first started "collecting" comics at age ten in 1982 (if not even earlier). I also like to read science fiction, biographies, history, and books about sports and other forms of pop culture that I happen to have an interest in (vaudeville, old time radio, early/"classic" TV, etc.).

I have lived in Florida (born in Tampa, raised in Brandon; also Port Charlotte and Arcadia) and Georgia (four years up in the north part of the state in Cleveland, Georgia--wonderful mountain scenery up there!--and a year plus now in the Atlanta area).

I'm a librarian. I've been a high school media specialist, a college reference librarian, and, currently, a public library children's librarian.

The purpose of this blog is to keep a running journal of what I've been reading and/or viewing. Entries will probably vary in regards to length and detail. Some might simply be a set list of details (title, author/s, dates, etc.). Others might go into a bit more detail, discussing the plot, things I liked or didn't care for about the comic/book/TV show/whatever.

For the past few years I've had my own personal website over on Yahoo/GeoCities. For most of that time, it has served my purposes well enough. (Note: It was a paid web hosting service.) However, the past week has been very frustrating for me as I've had an incident where I could not (still can not as of the time of this writing) access my own Yahoo account (most likely due to unauthorized tampering by unknown parties, I presume), and Yahoo's customer service has been some of the worst I've ever experienced. Not the actual customer service reps, per se, but the way Yahoo handles these situations. You can call up and talk to their billing and ID verification departments, but the department that I really need to talk to that can resolve the situation is their "account security" department and they communicate via email (and, when requesting certain information from you, via fax).

Long story short, at the time that I am writing this I have been without access to my own email account for five days and don't really know just when this situation will be rectified. If this was purely a free email account, that'd be one thing. But I'm a paying subscriber to their web hosting service and therefore I believe that I deserve speedier and more helpful service than I have been receiving.

So, I have decided that even once this current situation has been resolved, Yahoo will be getting no more of my money. Therefore, I am trying out new things. A Gmail account, this blog, etc.

One of the pages I had been keeping on my Yahoo website was a comics reading blog, complete with a sidebar index link by title (so that one could browse which titles and issues I'd already read and commented on and click on the links, bringing them right to that particular entry). I also had a "Star Trek Chronological Reading" page (which is probably self explanatory; my attempt to read/watch all of the various Star Trek novels, short stories, TV episodes, movies, etc. in their proper chronological order, or something close to it. Both of those pages fell way off of my radar the past year or so, though, as I switched jobs, moved, and had other things going on. I'm hoping that the "labels" system will allow me to move these projects over here.

Well, that's all I'll write for now. Thanks for taking the time to read this blog and, if you like, please feel free to post comments if something sparks your interest enough to wish to do so.

Regards,
David Young
("YoungTrek")

P.S.: Blog address would have been "YoungTrek" but it seems that someone else already has that address here at blogger. So, I went with the abbreviated, "YTrek".