Tagged: Star Wars

This Is Not My Column, by John Ostrander

This Is Not My Column, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • January 25, 2008

Editor’s note: Due to a completely unrelated attack from the Ether Bunny, this column was supposed to run yesterday. It’s just as swell today, but if you’re looking for Michael Davis’s column, well, it was run yesterday. However, when you’re done reading this, go read Michael by clicking here. Thank you.
 
There are days when I hate writing, just hate it, and this day and this moment is one of them.
 
Why? Because nothing is working. Absolutely nothing. I have, as of this moment, five different versions of this column in the works including this one. I don’t like any of them. I’m presently reduced to writing about how the writing is not going well. Sad, Isn’t it? Not something in which I’m likely to get a lot of sympathy for, though. I mean, a lot of people have to get up and go into jobs that they may not care for. They do it day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out and so on. Maybe they don’t ever get to love their job. I mean, I make my living writing comics. That should be fun, right?
 
Not today. Today I’m in hell.
 
Most days I really do love what I do. I get paid pretty nice for it. I have a really quick commute, from the kitchen into the back bedroom, which serves as the office. We had friends who lived with us for awhile and, in the morning, I’d wave to them as they went to work and announce I was beginning my commute, too. And then I amble away. They recently allowed how they wanted to kill me at those moments. I knew that. It was part of the smug job satisfaction.
 

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Hooray For Ray Harryhausen, by Ric Meyers

Hooray For Ray Harryhausen, by Ric Meyers

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  • January 20, 2008

What a relief! Fellow audio-blogging ComicMixer Mike Raub put it in perspective for me as soon the credits ended on Cloverfield: “What ever happened to science?” he asked. “Remember the good old days when movie characters would actually think about why something was happening rather than immediately whip out the heavy artillery?”

Well, Mike, my friend, I do, I really do, because this week I got two new, colorized, long-delayed, two-disc special editions from the “Ray Harryhausen Presents” line: It Came From Beneath the Sea and, especially, Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers. In the latter film, particularly, smart people do courageous things to foil an attack from the stars, and the literate, logical, talk – so absent in Cloverfield – would do Mr. Spock proud.

But first things first. It Came from Beneath the Sea arrived first, in 1955, with a Godzilla-esque tale of a nuclear-radiated giant octosquid attacking San Francisco. The following year saw the release of Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers, which was succinct and accurate in its title. Both are being re-released on DVD now because Ray supervised their colorization, and Sony has done a nice job of presenting them in both their original B&W as well as colorized forms, with a “ChromaChoice” toggle so you can go from one to the other with ease.

Only one problem with Ray supervising the coloring: the monsters look great … but the people often also look like they’re made of clay … or used a scoonch too much liquid tanner. All in all, however, it’s one of the more successful colorization jobs, and rarely too distracting. Besides, what with Ray’s Dynamationalized characters, the whole thing has a nice sheen of artificiality anyway, which the colorization folds nicely into.

 

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Our Declining Years, by John Ostrander

Our Declining Years, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • January 17, 2008
And every fair from fair sometime declines
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d
 
That’s Shakespeare. Sonnet XVIII – or 18 to those of us who don’t want to bother with Roman numerals.
 
Will is talking about the inevitable decay and decline of beauty in the person to whom the sonnet is addressed. For me, however, it is a reminder that everything – EVERYTHING – declines. It’s the power of entropy, folks – everything that is fair and/or beautiful, that is strong, must inevitably lose what is fair, strong, beautiful. It arrives sooner – by chance, as Will says, by accident – or later – by the accumulation of days but it must arrive.
 
That includes nations and brings me to a principle consideration of mine about all the candidates, Democrat and Republican, now vying for the post of Chief Executive of these Unites States. Which one is best equipped to deal with its decline? 
 
Decline is inevitable, to begin with. Every nation, every empire, on top of the heap has fallen off that pinnacle. Every. Single. One. It is a historic inevitability that we will also slide as well. I’m betting on sooner rather than later. Here are my reasons.
 

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Family Guy and Iron Man!!!

Family Guy and Iron Man!!!

It’s the first broadcast of the week and that means ComicMix Radio gets to dig through the new comics and DVDs tempting us from inside our favorite stores, including the special edition of the Family Guy Blue Harvest Star Wars parody!

Plus:

• The Writers Strike might put a stake through the heart of the JLA movie

• Get ready for cool Iron Man fast food toys… and we’ll tell you where to get them!

• Sinbad – the guy with the sword, not the 80s actor – comes to comics
 
Remember – every time you Press The Button there is one less Britney Spears story on the news!

Or subscribe to our podcasts via iTunes or RSS!

Oh God, if there is a god… by John Ostrander

Oh God, if there is a god… by John Ostrander

  • News
  • January 10, 2008
Every once in a while, when I disclose or discuss my agnosticism, I get pointed little messages and jokes along the lines of “Agnostics are atheists who like bingo.” I hear that more often from atheists than theists, interestingly enough. Some folks consider agnostics to be the bisexuals of religion – like we’re trying to have the best of both worlds. “They should stop straddling the Theological fence,” seems to be the attitude. Shit or get off the metaphysical pot. Pick a side, damn it! This is America and we pick sides.
 
The suggestion seems to be that I haven’t thought this through because, if I had, I’d be one thing or the other. Charlie Brown probably grew up to be an agnostic. Good ol’ wishy washy Charlie Brown. Or maybe it’s Hamlet – forever philosophizing and never really doing until it’s way too late. The thing is, I have thought about. I continue to think about it, to question it all, including my questioning.
 
I don’t usually get into discussions about what I believe/disbelieve. These things almost never end well. However, I need a column for this week and this topic comes to mind so…off we go! We’ll start with the usual caveats that one must issue in this civil discourse-challenged era. When I state my position, I’m not attacking your beliefs or unbeliefs, whatever they may be. I’m not trying to insult you, Jesus, Yahweh, Allah, Buddha, Odin, Jupiter or whatever church you may belong to or shun. I’m not trying to convince, convert, or proselytize. I’m just stating my position.
 

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Solitary Pleasures, by John Ostrander

Solitary Pleasures, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • January 3, 2008
Well, foo.
 
I was working on this great C.O.M. (Cranky Old Man) rant for this week’s column about how technology was making us all more isolated. It was a nice rant, too – it started with the Luddite vision of how, in the old days, people sang together or told stories in order to entertain themselves. It was a group thing and it bound people together. The rant then traced how technology – movies to begin with – changed us from participants to observers and then radio changed it into small family sized units until it was replaced by TV. The rant went on – oh, how it went on – about how the dawning of iPods and cell phones and texting and the Internet was further fracturing us into isolated units and blah blah blah. Really, I was working up a nice head of steam. 
 
Then I looked at what I was doing. At this. At words such as these on the screen or printed on a page. Usually written by one person and then read by one person. What we’re doing, right now, you and I. Reading, in general, is an isolated act, a solitary pleasure. It made mincemeat of my rant.
 

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Zeus, In Passing, by John Ostrander

Zeus, In Passing, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • December 27, 2007
Having celebrated Christmas, we all now stagger towards the New Year. There’s no inherent meaning or importance to the fates of December 31 and January 1; nothing save what we invest in it. Part of the meaning is to look forward, to imagine what will be. The other is to look back and to remember what has happened in the past year especially if someone you know has died.
 
I experienced that late this year. On Saturday, November 17th, I received word from Phillip Grant that his father, Paul, has suffered a major heart attack and was not expected to live. Paul Grant died the following Tuesday.
 
I’d gotten to know Paul in my early Internet days online at the old Compuserve Information Services site, in their Comics and Animation Forum. I knew him at the time by his handle, Zeus, and his were the first online reviews that I read – Notes from Olympus, if I recall correctly. Paul, as Zeus, covered a wide range of comics and, while economical in length, each review was well written and well thought out. Paul could write. He was also an early and vocal supporter of GrimJack, for which I was and am extremely grateful.
 

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An Agnostic’s Christmas, by John Ostrander

An Agnostic’s Christmas, by John Ostrander

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  • December 20, 2007

It’s an odd time of year if you’re an agnostic. It’s especially odd if you’re a church-going agnostic like myself. Oh, I suppose it could be said that Christmas is an odd time of year for everyone one way or another. We rush around spending money we don’t really have buying gifts for people, some of whom we don’t really like. Amidst the desperate scurry, we try to convince ourselves that it really is the happiest time of year and, for some, perhaps it is.

Christmas isn’t just a “holiday” in the sense that the Fourth of July is a holiday. It’s a holiday in the sense of being a “holi-day” – a holy day. It celebrates the day Jahweh became Jesus; the day that, according to the story told, God came off His (Her) mountain and incarnated as a mortal child, a baby boy. That’s what underlines the whole Christmas concept. The mythology has that at its root.

The existence of Jesus (as a mortal) I can buy; the existence of Yahweh (or any other god), not so much.

Aside: before anyone starts chiming in about the pagan roots of Christmas, I know all about that. I don’t believe in your gods, either. And few if any folks are celebrating the pagan rituals; if they still have meaning, it’s only because the majority of people see them in a Christian or quasi-Christian context. Yes, the Church swiped your ideas and co-opted them. Get over it.

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More of My Favorite Things, by Elayne Riggs

More of My Favorite Things, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • December 19, 2007

The combination of my temporary unemployment and inclement weather has enabled me to catch up on my DC comp box reading, so I can finally pick up where I left off a few weeks back. Mind you, I was looking at October books at the time and since then the November box came in. Still, a couple of the same caveats apply as last time — I haven’t seen the comics from the last few weeks, which gives me a bit of a headache when Robin gets his Suicide Squad advance comps and the issue in question (#4, in stores now) cross-references an important plot point in a Checkmate issue I’ve yet to see. So a lot of these observations will be about the issue prior to the one most comic fans have already seen, but in most cases the artists are the same.

Also, as before, I won’t cover every artist who did a good or serviceable job, just the ones I considered my very favorites of this most recent batch. Any omissions are not to be taken as an assumption that I didn’t like other stuff. And yes, I’m still talking more about how the art affected me viscerally than using technical vocabulary, which makes these more overviews than reviews per se. I miss full-on reviewing, but I just don’t seem to have the time any more.

While I stopped at the letter "F" last time, I wanted to mention a couple books which hadn’t come out at the time. Onward, then:

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I’m Dreaming of a Celluloid Christmas Part Deux, by John Ostrander

I’m Dreaming of a Celluloid Christmas Part Deux, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • December 13, 2007

We now return to my list of Christmas movies, begun last week. And thanks to all of you for your responses and your own suggestions.

How better to begin this round than with How the Grinch Stole Christmas – the cartoon TV special, not the bloated movie that was a vehicle for Jim Carrey. I mean, do I really have to say that? Dr. Seuss, Chuck Jones, and Boris Karloff, Thurl Ravenscroft – the voice of Tony the Tiger – singing “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” which is one of the great modern Christmas songs. All in twenty-two minutes. Perfect.

Actually, let’s spend a moment’s meditation on both the Grinch and Scrooge. They are certainly cousins. And I think we not only identify with them at their curmudgeonly worst but we are meant to do so, especially these days. Yes, they are both monsters in some fashion – but we also identify with a good monster, do we not? They act out what we feel about the holiday season – Humbug! Oh the noise, noise, noise, noise! – and the gaiety that is being forced upon us, especially these days in the over-commercialization of the holiday.

Maybe we feel locked out of Christmas – by choice, by belief, by our own religion – and we rightfully feel resentful. Christmas time is also a time of depression for many people, especially if we think we should be feeling like something out of Norman Rockwell – and don’t. The Grinch and Scrooge both give voice to our inner misanthrope and God love ‘em for it. Even if they do change by the end.

Since we’re talking about TV specials at the moment, let’s add A Charlie Brown Christmas – the first Peanuts TV Special and the best one. The story is true to classic Peanuts which also makes it true to kids. Other Peanuts TV specials would be tied to other holiday times of the year and would twice more, as my memory recalls, return to Christmas itself. The later Christmas Peanuts stories, however, never seemed to have a central story as this first one does. At it’s heart in the original is Charlie Brown’s choice of a Christmas tree – a forlorn little twig that he thinks has character and the rest of the gang thinks is awful. By the end, however, with some love and kindness, it turns out to be a fine Christmas tree after all.

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