John Ostrander: That Shiny Nude Dude With The Sword!

John Ostrander

John Ostrander started his career as a professional writer as a playwright. His best known effort, Bloody Bess, was directed by Stuart Gordon, and starred Dennis Franz, Joe Mantegna, William J. Norris, Meshach Taylor and Joe Mantegna. He has written some of the most important influential comic books of the past 25 years, including Batman, The Spectre, Manhunter, Firestorm, Hawkman, Suicide Squad, Wasteland, X-Men, and The Punisher, as well as Star Wars comics for Dark Horse. New episodes of his creator-owned series, GrimJack, which was first published by First Comics in the 1980s, appear every week on ComicMix.

You may also like...

8 Responses

  1. Martha Thomases says:

    I watch the Oscars to see the clothes (much less interesting since everyone got stylists and designers started sending free stuff) and because nothing puts me to sleep more peacefully.

  2. Martha Thomases says:

    Also, unlike absolutely everyone else, I get choked up watching the technical awards, where people we don’t usually see get recognized for their work. Costumers, lighting people, etc. are so much more human in these moments than professional actors (who should be able to handle an awards speech).

  3. Mike Gold says:

    Do you really think Andrew Garfield deserved something (other than a nice, competitive paycheck) for his work on the totally-needless Amazing Spider-Man? If the guy’s got chops, I didn’t see it in this waste of two hours. He wasn’t bad, but he hardly had me leaving the theater humming the theme song.

    Maybe Clark Gregg will get his due for the SHIELD series. He’s a very talented actor, and is the main reason I’m looking forward to the series.

    As for Sam Jackson — you’re absolutely on the money here. He deserves an Oscar for being Sam Jackson. His performance in Django was among the strongest I’ve seen from anybody in any movie, and he put a lot on the line accepting that role.

    • John Ostrander says:

      I liked TAS-M more than you (and certainly more than the previous S-M flick) but it’s in the mix simply to add volume.

  4. Emily S. Whitten says:

    Excellent points, John. I strongly agree (except, perhaps, for Spider-man, where I rather agree with Mike). But why DON’T these movies get the recognition they deserve? It’s pretty ridiculous.

  5. Mindy Newell says:

    Like Martha, I watch the Oscars mostly for the fashion. Mostly because I also watch them for the ad libs by the presenters and winners, which are usually very funny and give us poor slobs a peek into their “real” personalties.

  6. mike weber says:

    I just don’t watch the Oscars. Completely irrelevant to me.

    Except when i can use them to annoy some pompous twit.

  7. Cliven says:

    On the topic of Mr. Jackson. .

    He oft gets ribbed for being one-note, but his portrayal of Stephan was so well done, I d/n even recognize him in the trailers until it was pointed out that it was him.

    Normally associated with being either loud or unemotional, here his character was equally constrained, enfeebled, subservient, and petty, yet still managed to be powerful and quietly menacing as all hell when the time came to it. Shows range, indeed!

    As to the rest of the show. . I may look in on the announcers for jokes here and there if someone else has it on, but the Oscars are not my cup of tea, otherwise, as they do indeed have their own agendas which seem to include snubbing sci-fi/fantasy.

    That Joss wasn’t in the running for anything says it all. Then again, he is used to getting snubbed from all angles.