Comic-Con International: San Diego -- A Retrospective

I am still feeling the lingering exhaustion of our annual trip to what used to be known as the San Diego Comic-Con; but is now Comic-Con: San Diego. But most of my photos are up now on Photobucket.

I had ambitions of posting blog entries and photos during the con; but the wrinkle in that plan was the meltdown of the con hotel reservation system, which resulted in every room in the convention block being reported as reserved within minutes of reservations going on-line. As a result, we ended up at the Holiday Inn on Hotel Circle, about eight miles from the convention center. Fortunately, despite the dire warnings on the con Website about nonexistent downtown parking, we got to town early every day and found covered parking at a building a block from Petco Park. It was a fair walk (seven blocks) from the convention center -- a trek complicated by the freight train that passed in front of the center every morning and night -- but it beat relying on public transportation to get to the center.

Here are some highlights -- and low-lights -- from this year's convention:



--As the above photo shows, Hollywood's love affair with Comic-Con (which waxed with the evolution of the Web, which allows thousands of attendees to rave or rant online as soon as they've seen the latest film preview) continues unabated. One of the best-looking previews I saw was the one at the Warner Brothers panel for the movie remake of GET SMART. Generally I think little of movie remakes of TV series -- particularly comedies -- but this one, starring Steve Carrell as Maxwell Smart, The Rock as his mentor, Anne Hathaway as 99, Alan Arkin as The Chief, Terence Stamp as Siegfried, and Masi Oka from HEROES as an armorer, looks delightful. Reportedly, Mel Brooks and Buck Henry are giving their blessing to this one (especially since it will likely make them a few more sheckels).



--Another highlight of the Warner Brothers panel was the presentation for the upcoming WATCHMEN movie. This project has been in and out of several film creators' hands for over twenty years; but if anyone can get it made, it's Zack Snyder. Snyder showed his adaptation chops this year by making a version of Frank Miller's 300 that had no stars, and yet grossed huge amounts of dinars. Here he poses with the poster WATCHMEN artist Dave Gibbons drew for the film project.



-- But the most exciting film project for me was the preview at the Marvel Studios panel for Jon Favreau's IRON MAN film.

The flick wrapped principle photography last month; and according to Favreau, because he prefers "practical" special effects (i.e., those done on-camera and in the camera) to CGI, the film will not require huge amounts of post-production. Favreau showed four minutes of footage, selected, he said, not to sell the movie to those unfamiliar with the character, but to convince comics fans that he was doing Shellhead right. And, speaking as someone who's been a Marvel fan for over 30 years, he nailed it.

In the footage, Robert Downey, Jr. portrayed IM's alter ego, Tony Stark, as a character reminiscent of Joe Gideon in ALL THAT JAZZ: an arrogant jerk who is so charismatic that people love him despite themselves. He's the sort who will pose for a photo with a soldier; but when the soldier flashes a peace sign, Stark snaps, "No gang signs." And the scenes with the armor. My goodness, people. The scenes with Stark clunking around in the early "Mark I" armor, battling a squad of soldiers, looked taken straight out of Shellhead's first appearance in TALES OF SUSPENSE. And the closing scenes in the trailer, where IM's red-and-gold armor is rocketing through the air, out-running F-16's . . . well, I was suddenly 12 years old again, buying comics at the 7-11 on a warm summer night.

Above is a photo with Favreau, Downey, and co-stars Terence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow.

I was not among those who were lucky enough to see the Mark I armor in all its glory at the Marvel booth; but I did get to see the massive crate in which it was housed -- and to snap a picture when the handler cracked open the crate to give us a glimpse of the gleaming cargo inside.





More photos and con reminisces later. For now, I'll leave you with a photo of Willy Wonka, who's beside himself.

Irony Alert!

Jenna Jameson will be lending her likeness to a new comic book: "Shadow Hunter." The publisher? Uh . . . Virgin Comics.

Finished It!

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, that is. Now no one can spoil it for me!

Fastest 759 pages I've ever read.

No spoilers, but I do think it's the best of all the books. And if the eventual movie version (slated for 2009 or 2010) stays faithful to the book, they're going to drain the investors dry paying for it.

Same Bat-Pillow, Same Bat-Case

Of all the Batman collectibles in my collection, this is definitely the one that I've owned (or that has at least been in the family) the longest: a pillowcase with a print made up of Batman characters, sound effects, and the Batmobile.




Although, like most 1960's Batman collectibles, the pillowcase is copyrighted 1966 and was released as a piece of merchandising for the TV show, the artwork is done more or less in the style of the comic book, rather than the show. At ;east some of the art is traced from comic-book art; the shot of the Riddler holding a crossword puzzle as a shield, for instance, is a poorly-done trace of a splash page published in Batman # 179.



I don't know if this pillowcase was purchased for me or for (more likely) my brother Michael, but it graced my pillow many times when I was in single digits. Who knows how many dreams it influenced

Shhh!

I'm reading it.



No spoilers.

The Stars Beckon

According to Mark Evanier's blog, Stan Lee is slated to get a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. 'Nuff said.

"I Must Not Tell Lies"

This past weekend I (like a good chunk of the world's population)went to see HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. As anyone who has read the book knows, Harry's world darkens considerably in this story. It comes off the climax of the previous book (and movie), which featured murder, graverobbing, dismemberment, mayhem, and torture of a child -- pretty much in that order. This story takes that atmosphere of joy and pretty much spreads it through the whole installment.

Voldemort and his power-hungry sycophants loom large in the story, of course, but the central villains are exponentially scarier --because they are so realistic. Those blackguards would be, of course, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge (who proves full of "fudge" indeed) and his toady, Delores Umbridge. Umbridge -- played to perfection by Imelda Staunton -- is the treacle-voice Ministry bigwig who arrives at Hogwarts ostensibly as the latest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher (a job akin to drummer for Spinal Tap), but in fact as the political officer meant to keep Hogwarts, Dumbledore, and especially Harry in step with the Ministry's party line.

Yes, it's the first post-9/11 Harry Potter novel, and the one that brings political satire to the fore. The plot hints of Britain under Blair and America under Cheney -- er, Bush; but Rowling did not tie it to any particular time or government -- it also contains elements of pre-World War II England under Chamberlain.

Meanwhile, Harry himself is dealing not only with the normal adolescent moodiness, but also his Dickensian history: his abusive upbringing; the horrors he's encountered; and in particular, big doses of survivor's guilt and post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from the end of the previous installment. All that makes for one tense magic-boy. Daniel Radcliffe,who's grown tremendously as an actor, gives life to a Harry who's increasingly deep -- who goes to school and takes exams, but is plainly not just a kid anymore.

The movie adaptation of this story is perhaps the most economic of all of the HP movies. One of the benefits of constantly changing directors after the first two movies is that no one installment (again, after the first two) looks or feels like any other. Chapters one and two were brightly-colored jewelry boxes; chapter three was a painting; chapter four was a transition from light to dark. This one shows Potter's magical universe cracking around him, as nearly all of his adult support systems either distance themselves from him or are taken away. Director David Yates (who, incredibly, reportedly makes his feature debut with this $250 million movie) establishes the mood with the first, brilliant scene: Harry sitting in a nearly-deserted playground, clearly smack-dab in our world, drenched in late-summer sun, watching with quiet envy as a mother plays with her young child. Along the way, Yates and screenwriter Michael Goldenberg manage to shove in major adult characters from all of the previous movies -- plus a passel of new characters -- build suspense, show some spectacular action and set pieces, and yet devote lots of quality time to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and even their pubescent supporting cast. None of the character scenes with the kids seem rushed, even as the plot moves inexorably forward.

I don't want to give the impression that it's all doom and gloom. There's lots of visual fun too. I may be jaded by watching decades of special effects, but I still watched amazed as Harry and a passel of wizards (each on a broom reflecting that character's personality) zoom low over the Thames, dodging ships; or when a yuppie apartment building in downtown London telescopes out to reveal Sirius Black's family manse. Then there's the slam-bang finale -- perhaps the best of all the novels published so far -- in which everybody throws down heavy and goes to wand city.

Although the movie, like the previous two, slices out huge gobbets of the book's plot in a Procrustean effort to fit a fat book into a thin playing time, it adds to the story as well. In the hands of gifted actor Alan Rickman, Snape -- who often comes across in the novels as a one-note mustache twirler -- is lent depth; even as he verbally tears into Harry, and commits the unforgivable crime of visiting Harry's fathers sins upon the son, there is a weird sense of paternal caring when Snape tutors Harry in blocking mind-probes. When he tells Harry, "Life -- is -- unfair," he's not taunting the boy; he's giving him sound advice. Similarly, first-time actress Evanna Lynch gives Rowling's "wise fool," the moon-eyed Luna Lovegood, a caring and affection (and attraction) for Harry that is at most implied in the books.

This is a terrific installment in the series. It deserves the success it's receiving.

Comic-Con Sells Out!

I've attended Comic-con International:San Diego (formerly the San Diego Comic-Con) every year since 1989; and also attended the '87 and '80 cons. To my knowledge, this is unprecedented: The four-day memberships to the con are sold out.

I should have foreseen this when we tried to get a hotel room several months ago. Although we hit the hotel Website as soon as con-rate hotels became available, those rooms were booked immediately. We ended up with a reservation at a Holiday Inn in Mission Valley, eight miles from the convention center. That leaves the issue of traveling to the con every day, since parking around the center is almost impossible to get. Our current plan is to park near one of the hotels on the convention shuttle route and then take the shuttle in. We can pretty much write off any early-morning programs we might otherwise have attended.

Wi-Fi Watering Holes: The Funnel Mill

My bike ride today brought me to the recently-opened Funnel Mill Rare Coffee and Tea at 930 Broadway, Suite A, in Santa Monica.



This place is like no other coffee house I've ever seen. It's in a large, airy room, with tastefully chosen art, strategically-placed coffee and tea apparatus, and eclectic furniture. Unlike the normal coffee house's thrift-store-chic furnishings, the furniture here is upscale; the front room has comfy saddle-leather sofas and chairs. New-agey Asian music plays softly in the background.

The main attraction, however, is the coffee and tea selection. Funnel Mill features siphon brewing, like nearby Cafe Balcony; but unlike Balcony, it has over 200 varieties of coffee available. These range from the $3 a cup house blend (which I had -- it was terrific) to the Moet & Chandon of coffee: Kopi Luwak from Indonesia, which retails for $60 a cup or $450 a pound! Kopi Luwak is infamous for its origin (bizarre enough to rate mention on an episode of CSI): It is processed through the digestive system of a civit-like animal called a Paradoxurus. That's right, the felines eat coffee berries and, er, excrete them whole. The resulting coffee is said to be magnificent. If you've got a stray $60, maybe you'd like to try it.



The service is also excellent. When the owner saw that I was stacking my backpack and the material on which I was working on the table next to my chair, he brought over another chair to stack my stuff on so that the table would be free for my beverage.

Another bonus is the bike lane that runs on Broadway from about Ocean to Centinela --allowing easy access by bike.

The only criticism I have is the paltry baked goods selection -- seemingly only an afterthought for those who demand pastry with their coffee. I advise folks to first get breakfast at the nearby Swingers or Jinky's, and then settle down at Funnel Mill for an apres-breakfast beverage treat.

Beach Blogging: The North End of the Trail

This morning found me bicycling out to Venice Beach and then north on the coastal bike path. For the first time, I rode the path all the way to its northern terminus, at the intersection of Temescal Canyon Boulevard and PCH in Pacific Palisades.





As these photos (taken at 10:20 am) show, Will Rogers State Beach was amazingly deserted for a Socal morning in July. By contrast, parts of Santa Monica beach were fairly crowded at 9:20 am.

Wonder Woman's Scissor Kick

From Colleen Doran's blog: A particularly ill-thought-out piece of superhero merchandising. It's a pair of Wonder Woman scissors. The handles are her feet, and the hinge is at her throat. Open the blades, and, well . . . .

What I did at Anime Expo

If you click on the link below to my Anime Expo 2007 photos, you'll see lots of pictures of people in costume. That does not mean that everyone who attended the Expo wore a costume. I, for instance, did not. Here are some photos to prove it.




I am, however, wearing a motorcycle and a big fancy Hellsing chair. I don't use either in real life. But those aren't costumes. They're props. There's a qualitative difference.

Video: Hellsing Photo Shoots at Anime Expo 2007

Here's a video I compiled yesterday of the Hellsing Photoshoots from June 30 and July 1. The video confirms my theory that when you set footage of people dancing (or even play-fighting) to rhythmic music, it will almost invariably look like the people are dancing to the music.

Rats in the Kitchen

RATATOUILLE, the second collaboration between writer/director Brad Bird and computer-animation powerhouse Pixar, confirms Bird's status as the greatest American director of animated features alive. John Lassiter's works for Pixar may have pulled in more money, and the Shrek directors (I forget their names) may make crowd pleasers, but no one grabs hearts and minds with binary numbers like Bird.

Bird's first feature, THE IRON GIANT, was a fantastic cell/cgi film that got great reviews but did poor box office. His second (and first with Pixar), THE INCREDIBLES, garnered both the critical acclaim and the big bucks -- not to mention the all-important merchandising success. Now, having conquered the boy-and-his-robot and superhero-satire genres, he has progressed to Disney's (Pixar's current owner) bread and butter: funny-animal comedy. With rodents, yet.

But Bird dares to deal with a much less cute and cuddly critter than Disney's flagship mouse: a rat. Riskier still, in telling the story of a rat named Remi who seeks to become a French chef, he dares to show a rat in the kitchen. Several rats, actually. Uncomfortably lifelike rats, especially when they swarm. At one point, one of the cooks in the film enters the kitchen, sees rats everywhere, and nearly pukes. We know how she feels.

Yet Bird pulls it off. The main reason is his characters. They are three-dimensional, both visually and psychologically. It's inaccurate, for instance, to say that Remi wants to be a chef. He truly cannot help it. With his intellect, and his discerning sense of smell, he is essentially doomed to be a gourmet. In one brillliant scene, he tries to escape from the kitchen of a restaurant where a stockpot of soup is being ruined. But he can't help himself. He tosses a handful of spices into the soup. As he runs, he compulsively turns back and throws in some wedges of garlic. Still he cannot escape, until he adds creme fraiche and cheese. And so on.

How he ends up teaming with a hapless young man, Linguini, as a front (especially difficult, because while the rats in the movie can talk to each other, they can't speak to humans), makes a fun, sometimes silly, and often touching movie.

Even one of the villians of the piece, restaurant critic Anton Ego (a cadaverous sort, voiced by Peter O'Toole, who gleefully types scathing reviews on a typewriter that looks like a skull, in a study shaped like a coffin), turns out to have hidden depths, leading to the most emotional scene in the movie.

One of the few recent animated movies to receive the now-reviled "G" rating (even though one of the plotlines revolves around a development that may be difficult to explain to kiddies), RATATOUILLE should delight and please kids and adults alike. Just, um, try to maintain during those rat-swarming scenes.

Alu-Coffee

Here's the first of two compilations of video clips I made at Anime Expo Hellsing costume photoshoots. This one is of the "Beverage Bash of Doom" held at the Renaissance Hotel on Sunday, July 1. And yes, I was trying out a bunch of transition effects on Windows Moviemaker.

Benoit Tragedy -- a Perspective

My brother Steve has some insights into the startling murder-suicide committed by pro wrestler Chris Benoit.

My AX Photos are Up on Photobucket

Three hundred and fifty images! Shows you what happens when I have a 2 gigabyte SD card in my camera. The camera battery gave out (several times) long before the card filled.

Anime Expo: This Year in Long Beach; Next Year in LA

From Friday through Monday, I took off time from work and participated in Anime Expo, the largest anime convention in America (44,000 attendees this year!) and the main one here in California. After a few years in Anaheim, the Expo returned to the Long Beach Convention Center, where it was last held in 2002.

I have bad memories of that 2002 Expo. We went one day -- the last day of the event -- and only went to the dealer's room (which they call the "Exhibit Hall." I miss the days when a convention's dealer's room was called the "huckster's room."). We waited in the hot sun for an hour to get into the room, then could only spend a few hours before the Expo closed.

This time was much more fun. The Expo had the entire convention center, including the outbuildings -- the Terrace Theatre, and the 6,000-seat Arena (the big round building with the whales painted on it). There were numerous restaurants around, particularly across the street at The Pike shopping center. I even found cheap open-air parking ($5 all day).

Another fun part was that this was the first Expo where we knew several attendees. Amy has been contacting fellow fans of her favorite anime/manga, Hellsing, on the Cosplay.com forum; and some of them have even come to LA and visited our house. We therefore had pals (in addition to our old friends Don and Pam) to go to events and meals with. Shout outs go to Christie, Natalie, Laurid, Logan, Brandy, Sarah, and a bunch of other people.

Amy's activities (and thus to a great extent mine) centered on various costuming events concerning Hellsing. There were photo shoot gatherings of folks in Hellsing costumes on Friday and Sunday. Amy was particularly instrumental in setting up a morning gathering on Sunday, held at the Starbucks in the Renaissance Hotel. There is an outdoor patio there, so Amy brought her Kawasaki Motorcycle for people to pose on; and several of the costumes, including Amy's that morning, revolved around a "Hellsing's Angels" theme. As my photos show, the motorcycle was a big hit.

Geneon, which is releasing the Hellsing Ultimate OVA DVDs in Japan and the US, helped the festivities with a marathon showing of the three OVAs which have been released (including a subtitled version of Volume III, which was released in Japan just three months before); a panel of the American voice actors; and a fantastic booth, made up with the giant chair the main Hellsing character, Alucard, lounges in during the second OVA's opening scenes.

Another nice part of the Long Beach location was its proximity to the Queen Mary and its hotel. Amy and I stayed two nights in a stateroom at the QM, which was okay as a hotel but terrific as an historical location.

Problems with the change in venue included unfamiliarity among the staff on the convention center's layout; often uncooperative hired security; delays in events that sometimes lasted several hours; and a terrible screw up with the anime music videos event that resulted in only seven out of 35 AMVs being shown -- after people waited over two hours to get in. (The remainder were purportedly purloined from the MC's laptop bag. Backups would have been a good idea.)

Next year's Anime Expo will be held at the LA Convention Center. That's great for us, since it's just a clear shot down the freeway. But it won't be so good for out of towners, who'll have a choice of the somewhat run-down Holiday Inn across the street from the center; the Wilshire Grand, four blocks away (posh, but one hopes they will have a convention rate); and other hotels that aren't within driving distance.

A link to my other photos will be up shortly.

This is Batman! He Will Catch All Baddy!!

From a storefront on the Venice Beach Boardwalk. Gee, do you think these might be bootleg action figures?

Happy Fourth of July from Southern California!

)



I started off the holiday with a morning ride to Venice Beach, and then up the bike path to the Santa Monica Pier and back. Sights included beach volleyball, a 4th of July parade by the beach, and the Governator bicycling by, both ways. (No photos of him. I don't have likeness rights.

Wi-Fi Watering Holes: Point Moorea, Wilshire Grand Hotel

Last week, I attended the LegalTech trade show at the LA Convention Center -- a fortuitously timed junket, as I would attend the Police Concert that night at the Staples Center, right next door to the Convention Center. The only issue was where to spend the hours inbetween doing work -- which required an Internet connection. I paid for and used the wi-fi at the Convention Center for awhile -- but it was spotty, and cut out entirely after a few hours.

I therefore grabbed up my laptop and hoofed it north a few blocks through downtown LA, until I got to the Wilshire Grand -- which, I had found out on another occasion, has free wi-fi in its public areas. I settled down in Point Moorea, a true watering hole -- a bar. WFWH etiquette demanded that I buy something, so I got a ginger ale -- for a measly $3.50. (At least I got to keep the can of Canada Dry after the bartender poured the golden liquid into a pilsner.) I managed to locate the single table that abutted an electrical outlet, and went to town. The Wi-fi signal was satisfyingly strong; and the waitstaff left me alone.

When I initially arrived, around 2:30 pm, the place was empty. As the afternoon wore on, and the neighboring high-rises released their wage-slaves, the joint filled up with 20-something proto-yuppies -- the kind who bounced Nerf footballs off of the pool tables while their pals were playing. I left for the concert just about the time when, I'm sure, the waitstaff were eyeing my table for customers who would actually buy booze.

Maybe next time I'll try the coffee bar there.

Ay-yi-yi Phone

Leave it to The Onion to take a slice out of Apple's Iphone, to be released Friday.

Lawyers in Trouble

The California Section of today's LA Times seemed to be the special "L.A. Lawyers in Trouble" edition. In the space of a few pages, we had articles reporting that:

-- The City Attorney's wife is having further problems.

-- A jury has convicted Police Brutality Bar star Steve Yagman on multiple counts of tax evasion and fraud. And:

-- Phil Spector's former defense attorney has only temporarily avoided imprisonment for refusing to testify against her client before a jury.

The Vacation Places of My Youth

According to their blogs (see the links on the right hand side of this page, possibly some distance above or below this post), my brothers both recently visited spots where my family vacationed when I was a kid.



Mike and his wife Deb went to Penticton, British Columbia, Canada.



Meanwhile, Steve, his significant other Dawn, and their dog went to Seaside, Oregon.

Every Post, He Writes the Book

My mother, Jean Barer, was seriously ill from the early '70's until she passed away in January 1997. On his blog, my father has begun to post reminisces of some of her harrowing experiences with the medical profession. He describes these as, essentially, the book Mom always intended to write but never did.

The first post was painful for me to read; and I suspect that the future ones will be too. But I will read them. They are not only crucial pieces of my families past; they are a plea for medical care that does not punish the spirit as it heals the body.

Da Doo Doo Doo, De Da Da Da, Byo, Byeh, Byeh-Ho

Amy and I have been having tremendous luck lately in attending stellar rock concerts. In the last couple of years, we've seen Cheap Trick, U2, The Who, and, last Wednesday, the reunion of The Police at Staples Center. We were part of a crowd of 20,000 -- reportedly the largest audience the arena had ever housed.

We had nosebleed seats, but they were directly above and to the left of the stage. We were in a perfect position to look down into the drum set and watch Stewart Copeland commit exquisite and brutal assault by blunt force upon the taut-skinned tools of his trade.

I saw Sting in concert at the Greek back in 1993, and he did several Police numbers during that show, but that could not match the experience of seeing and hearing him perform -- indeed, re-engineer and re-imagine -- them with his original accomplices, Copeland and Andy Summers. The interaction of Copeland's athletic, Protean drums and percussion, and Summers's guitar (one of those guitars that seems to be singing solos all by itself), along with Sting's throbbing bass lines, is what made these songs compulsive listening back in the '70's and '80's, and what kept them on turntables, cassette players, cd players, and Ipods in the years between then and now.

Sting looked like every gram of body fat had been boiled from his body, leaving a thing of blond sinew and muscle. Copeland, his grey 'fro confined by a MacEnroe-like sweat band, resembled Jeff Conaway on TAXI. Summers's face was a bit chubby; he at least showed the effect of the two decades since the Police had last toured together.

The playing and showmanship was dazzling. The band created new versions of some songs -- like "Wrapped Around Your Finger" and "Walking in Your Footsteps" -- that I liked better than the album originals. In particular, during "Wrapped," Copeland got out racks of wind chimes, metal bits, and other fantastic pieces of percussion that he wove together into a mesmerizing rhythm track. As for "Walking in Your Footsteps," it had always annoyed me as a preachy specimen of one of Sting's "Hey Mister" songs -- I just can't take seriously lyrics like, "Hey, Mister Dinosaur, you really couldn't ask for more." But the band broke into a serious rock version of the tune that alleviated the, er, sting of the lyrics.

The cherry on the sundae was the big smile I saw on Sting's face (via the big-screen monitors -- faces were blobs from the stands). If there's anything better than seeing a master rock musician at work, it's seeing a master rock musician playing with sheer glee.

Ay!

Weird things you find when you backtrack links to your blog: The Barercave in Spanish.

The Surfer Rises

[Mild spoilers about FANTASTIC FOUR 2 are contained in this post.]

The Silver Surfer and I are almost the same age.

The Surfer debuted in the

March 1966 issue of the FANTASTIC FOUR, which would have been released in December 1965 or January 1966. I made my debut in April 1965. So ol' Norrin Radd's a few years younger than myself.

The Galactus story, like most memorable superhero stories, tied into a legend deeply ingrained in western legends and mythology: The destruction of the world. The world sees all sorts of Revelations-type phenomena, such as the skies turning to flame, before the herald The Silver Surfer floats to earth and summons Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds -- a cosmic being (who appears, at least to human eyes, as a giant in purple armor) who feeds on entire worlds to survive.

The theme of the story is a recurring one in Lee/Kirby works: that mankind is a primitive race with the potential to either become magnificent, or to destroy itself. That was a particularly powerful concept in the sixties, which saw the proliferation of nuclear weapons simultaneous with the space race. In the story [mild spoiler warning for an over forty year old story], the Four and their pals win the day by impressing first the Surfer, then Galactus with humanity's potential, so that they cease to see people as merely ants crawling on the picnic spread that is Earth. They impress the Surfer when the Thing's girlfriend, Alicia Masters, persuades him that humans possess spirit and courage. They impress Galactus in a rather thuggish manner: Reed Richards holds a gun (a really, really, powerful gun) to the Big G's head and makes him an offer he can't refuse.

Over forty years later, the movie FANTASTIC FOUR 2: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER combines that story has combined with two other Lee/Kirby FF epics (the FF Annual in which Reed Richards and Sue Storm get married; and a later multi-issue story in which Doctor Doom steals the Surfer's power). Last night, we saw it in the Cinerama Dome -- a Hollywood theater that is older than either the stories adapted or me.

My opinion: Fun! Much more fun than the first FF movie (which I enjoyed, though it did not greatly impress me). The story benefits from not containing an origin. The first movie was too consumed with explaining how the Four get their powers and become world-saving heroes, which takes time away from the real attraction: Seeing them act like world-saving heroes. With that out of the way, this one is all hero-action, all the time.

It also benefits from far better performances from the weak points in the previous movie, Ioan Griffud as Richards and Jessica Alba as Sue Storm. (Since the actors are probably at the same level as before, I would credit the direction -- by Tim Story, who also directed the first movie -- with the improvement.)

Moreover, by drawing on the Galactus story, the movie expands the scope of the film beyond that of any previous Marvel adaptation -- or, indeed, beyond that of any previous superhero movie. While comic books think nothing of throwing in other planets and dimensions, movies have been more cautious about going there, concerned that they will ask the movie-going populace to believe too many impossible things before breakfast. Here, the movie postures the Four as heroes dealing with threats on a galactic -- indeed, universal -- level.

The movie's biggest asset, however, is the guy in the title: the Silver Surfer. Although Hollywood has tried to adapt the Surfer to movies before (in the early '80's, a Surfer movie was in development as an Olivia Newton-John project, believe it or not), it really took modern motion-capture technology to create a Surfer who truly lives up to those Kirby drawings from the mid-sixties. And the movie really does show us the Silver Surfer of the comics. This Surfer does not speak as much as his four-color counterpart -- and, mercifully, he does not whine like him -- but he is, truly, The Surfer. And the combination of Doug Jones's physical acting, Lawrence Fishburn's voice acting, and millions in technology make us believe that a Silver man can surf the cosmos.

As an adaptation of the comic book story, the movie does not really work. It does not follow the themes outlined above -- except to the extent that the Four impress the Surfer with humanity's potential. (Meanwhile, the military do much to teach him humanity's darker side. Think "extraordinary rendition.") In particular, Galactus comes off far differently than in the comic -- not only in physical form (giants in purple armor theoretically won't work as well in movies as in comics) but also in general attitude. The movie works best if those who know the original story forget it.

The bottom line: This is a terrifc movies for those who want to step out of the summer heat and watch cinematic simulicrums of Lee and Kirby creations slug it out on the silver screen.

All of the images are copyrighted by Marvel Comics.

Zombie Spartans?

I'm sure you'll forgive me if I express some healthy skepticism concerning a q & a in the Walter Scott's Personality Parade in today's Parade Magazine.

A purported reader who goes by the mysterious moniker "M.I., San Antonio, Tex." (I believe the use of initials indicates that the letter was actually written by the column's staff) asks whether Gerard Butler has "plans to do a sequel to his smash hit 300, the movie about Greek warriors based on Frank Miller's graphic novel of the same name?"

Responds Edward Klein, or whichever of his staff is masquerading as Walter Scott: "Miller says he'd be more than happy to write future installments of his popular creation."

One has to question not only whether the column's staff actually talked to Miller (the lack of quotation marks makes me suspect that even if they did, this is more a paraphrase than a quote) but whether the staffers know that 300 is (a) not Miller's "creation," but a retelling of an historical event; and (b) ends with [spoiler warning?] Butler's character, and his warriors, dying!

I suppose we could have "future installments" featuring the gradual decomposition of their remains, or perhaps zombie Spartans rising from the wine-dark sea to seek their revenge (damn, those guys are hard to kill!). But I somehow doubt Frank Miller -- who, after all, wrote and drew 300 back in the 1990's -- will be writing or drawing future installments.

Working at Cross Purposes on the Spector Trial

While one of Phil Spector's former defense attorneys is reluctant to testify against her client, even under pain of contempt, another, Bruce Cutler, is only too happy to talk to the press during the trial about his fellow attorneys' defense strategy.

Now, Mr. Cutler is a successful trial attorney, and he's been at it a lot longer than I have. So he presumably has a reason for revealing confidential conversations with his client's defense team, and seemingly undercutting their efforts in the court of public opinion. He also presumably has reason to believe a savage cross-examination of a woman relating an experience where a gun was thrust in her face -- a cross-examination which draws a rebuke from the trial judge -- will not only win over an LA jury, but is so essential to his client's defense that he must be allowed to "Brucify," as he has put it, other witnesses.

My experience is that LA juries don't like to see sympathetic witnesses treated roughly on the stand. Perhaps New York juries are different.

More Beach Bike Blogging

This morning, I rolled out on my bike at about 8:40 a.m., and rode over to Venice for a haircut. After the trim, I headed over to the beach, with the intention of riding the coastal bike path southward. Little did I know that the beach path ended just south of Venice Boulevard, at Washington. I then rode around several streets in downtown Marina del Rey before I picked up the path again at Admiralty park.

After Admiralty park swings around Fiji Way (and Fisherman's Village); then crosses a bridge over to the beach.


After all the time I spent trying to get to the beach, I only rode on the thing a short distance. That day Heal the Bay was holding a beach clean-up; which was fine except for all the pedestrians who loathed walking on sand, and preferred instead to walk on the "bikes only" bike path.


After my beach adventure, I gave Amy a call. She had been picking up her own bike -- her Kawasaki Specter motorcycle -- from the shop. I invited her to lunch at Fisherman's Village. The village is a collection of restaurants (including, purportedly, the original El Torito), hamburger stands, and a little mall with a tchotcke shop, a bicycle rental/sale/repair place, and booking offices for charter cruises. Besides the restaurants and shops, the primary attractions are the slips and docks for such commercial lines as Horblower Dinner Cruises and the ferry to Catalina Island. (Not to mention fishing charters.)

The village takes full advantage of its position at the crossroads of the Ballona Creek Bike Path and the South Bay Coastal Bike Path. A sign at the entrance welcomes bicyclists; and in front of the restaurants are several of the finest bike racks -- the ones on which you hang your bike up like a jacket.

We at at The Angler's Choice -- a seafood restaurant, with an upper-class menu but lower-class nautical decor, complete with plastic lobsters and sharks on the walls.

A Class Act

Graphic novelist Colleen Doran is, beyond doubt, a classy purveyor of panelology. After purchasing the first three compilations of her signature series, A DISTANT SOIL, in signed-and-numbered hardbound editions, I was having trouble getting the fourth. Amazon.com was selling it; but I tried ordering it twice from the mouth of that mighty river, and got dammed both times -- they sent me library editions instead of the signed/numbered ones. I whined about my plight to Colleen; and she dug into her limited stash of s/n editions, invited me to send my library edition to her, and exchanged it for one that had the signature, the numbering, the art print, and the certificate of authenticity. That is truly going above and beyond the duties of an author. (Plus, on her blog she has photos of herself carrying a chainsaw.) Please buy all the books by her that you can.

A Movie Made for Me?

I'm still not sure whether I'm going to like FANTASTIC FOUR 2, which debuts in a few minutes in theaters (I'll probably see it Saturday), but the writer-director may have taken my opinions about it into consideration. Sunday's LA Times Calendar describes writer-director Tim Story hanging out incognito in our favorite comics store, Comics Ink in Culver City, and listening to the fans' opinions about the first FF movie. That's not as unusual as it sounds. The store is in close proximity to Sony Studios, and Industry types are often found wandering the aisles picking up comics.

Story tells the Times he's concerned about what the guys at Comics Ink will think of his movie. As one of those guys, I'll find out when I see it.

And Now, a Review of the Final Episode of the Sopranos from Guest Blogger, The Incredible Hulk

[Stupid SPOILER WARNING]:

Bah! Stupid black screen! Stupid Journey song go away! Hulk hate ending. Subtlety make Hulk's head hurt.

Hulk want to smash Fat Duck Man. He want to smash whiney Duck Man's son, Duck Man Junior. He want to smash Walnut Man. (His hair remind Hulk of Stupid Magician.)

Hulk want to smash stupid Phil Leo --

Wait.

Phil WAS smashed.

That quality television.

Hulk renew subscription to HBO.

He's Comin' At You So You Better Look Alive

Back in the 1960's, the Japanese animated racing series MACHGOGOGO was brought to the US. The Japanese title was a multi-layered pun: "Go" in Japanese is "Five"; the car the lead character drove was called the "Mach 5"; and in English, "go" meant to, well, go, and "gogo" was a style of dancing. Once the American distributors got their hands on it, producer, head writer and lead voice actor Peter Fernandez threw out all of the original writing for the series, and made up new stories to match the animation for each episode. So was born one of the seminal anime experiences for my generation, the TV series SPEED RACER.

Now, with ideas in Hollywood at a premium, the Wachowski Brothers (of "Matrix" fame) are bringing SPEED RACER to the big screen -- an adaptation of an adaptation. The producers have put up a Website featuring photos and statements from the Berlin press conference for the movie, along with other goodies. The movie is being shot in Berlin.

The photos that most impressed me were of John Goodman, who was perfectly made up as Pops Racer; and the updated Mach 5. I want one. I suspect there will be lots of males (and quite a few females) who will too.

By coincidence, my cousin Lee Goldberg is producing a racing-based TV movie, FAST TRACK, which is also currently shooting in Berlin . Lee has run into crew members from the Wachowski production. No word on whether any chimps or rotund little boys have stowed away in his trunk.

Licensed Coincidence

My Cousin Tod Goldberg, the literary novelist, critic, and man-about-town, was reading another author's debut novel, when he read a passage about a strangely familiar license plate. You can read the story here. He tells the tale much better than I could. After all, people pay him to tell stories.

Power Anime to the People

Our local Anime shop, Power Anime, continues to evolve.

Just three years ago it was a cart at the Westside Pavillion shopping center. Since then, it has gone through two storefronts; and has now taken over the primo position in the mall once occupied by Suncoast.

Today was the store's second day in its new location, which looks enormous. (And several of the displays have not yet been set up!)

Convention Survival Guide

Conventions happen year-round these days, but summer is still the big convention season. That's when the major cons happen (Anime Expo, Otakon, San Diego, and Worldcon or its North American equivalent when it's out of the country). I therefore offer this survival guide from a guy who's been to many conventions, Mark Evanier. He's the writer who essentially takes over Room 8 at Comic-Con International: San Diego and then moderates seemingly dozens of panels.

One word of advice I'd add -- or make that two: Peanut butter. If you bring a sack lunch with some non-perishable food, you won't go hungry if you're stuck at a panel or in a line for hours; and you won't have to settle for high-priced, low-quality convention center food. I favor peanut butter and honey, or sometimes Nutella, on multi-grain bread, with some dried fruit. That provides protein, grains, and vegetable matter. (Plus lots and lots of sodium and fat. That's why you should walk around the convention location as much as possible.)

Full of Ballona

This morning, I had the two flat tires (the front one had a slower leak, so I didn't discover it was flat until today) on my bike fixed -- and thorn-resistant inner tubes installed. I celebrated by riding my bike over to Duquense Street in Culver City, and then taking the Ballona Creek bike path for about five-six miles, all the way over to Playa Del Rey just north of Loyola Marymount University and south of the LAX courthouse. As you can see, the scenery (captured on my Treo's camera) is not quite as nice as that seen from the beach bike path (bodies of water always look better when they're surrounded by concrete, don't they?), but it is a pleasant ride (with lots of rises and dips), and it cuts across Culver City and Playa Del Rey. I could have taken it all the way to Marina Del Rey, but I wanted to get home to Amy.

I saw lots of bikers on the path, along with pedestrians, joggers, baby walkers, and lots of ducks.

If there were more bike paths in LA (and the general plan indicates that more will be put in), I could see them being used for general commuting all over the city. The miles definitely fly by when you're on one -- even when the headwind picks up as you near the ocean.

Yet Another Cat's Eye Post

Today, I suffered my first flat tire on my bike. Luckily I was in a situation where Amy could come and pick me up. Luckier still, I wasn't in traffic when it happened.

And still luckier, the first episode of CAT's EYE was waiting for me on the DVR when I came home.

It provided the delights of old-school (circa 1983) Japanese animation, which is far less slick than today's computer-ink-and-paint anime, yet had soul in every line and brushstroke. And I was delighted to see that it was well-subtitled -- a definite improvement over the awful Hong Kong unlicensed dvd set I bought a few years ago. (One quibble: The script repeatedly referred to a full-of-himself museum curator as a "tanuki" -- a mythological Japanese raccoon-like creature -- yet the subtitles translated this as "old fox." That made ideomatic sense, except that a plot point in the episode involves a statuette of a Tanuki that the curator owns.)

Something I found amusing: Imaginasian TV's Website for CAT's EYE promotes the series by noting that its theme song is featured in the DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION videogame.

Naruto Viz-sion

Last night, we took part in an event that would have been nearly impossible before the advent of digital projection. Viz Entertainment released its American version of the first NARUTO movie --NINJA CLASH IN THE LAND OF SNOW -- in theaters across America for one night only, before the company releases it on DVD. Had the company struck that many prints of the 35mm film, it would have spent umpteen amounts of moolah for a single showing. But with digital projection, the movie just had to be downloaded (or perhaps DVD'd) to theaters nationwide.

Before-and-after promo pieces featured both the Japanese voice actors and the American ones. We could see that several of the younger Naruto fans were startled to see that the title character, a rambunctious 13-year-old boy, is played by a woman in Japan; and by Maile Flanagan, another woman, in the US of A. Believe it!

TMS Update

More on Imaginasian TV's broadcast plans for two of my favorite '80's anime series, CAT'S EYE and ORGUSS:

-- Iatv has started running commercials for each individual series, and also for the TMS programming block.

-- Iatv has also posted broadcast schedules for the TMS block. One series, "Nobody's Boy Remi" (which looks sort of like a male version of HEIDI) started broadcasting today. CAT'S EYE starts at 9:30 a.m. Thursday; and ORGUSS starts on June 11.

-- Right Stuf has preorders available for the first and second volumes of the DVDs of each series -- at the ridiculously low price of $12.99 for the first volume/case and $9.99 for subsequent volumes.

Looks like it'll be a fun summer in front of the tube.

The picture on the case is probably copyright TMS, Tsukasa Hojo, and maybe IATV.

Con Job

Over at the LA Times, Calendar Section columnist Patrick Goldstein has discovered a new adjective: "Comic-Con." So capitalized. And like a kid with a new Transformer, he can't resist playing with it. In his column in today's paper, which discusses horror goremeister Eli Roth, Mr. Goldstein writes about "Comic-Con fan boys"; "Comic-Con festivals"; and -- rather redundantly -- "Comic-Con conventions."

Given that "Comic-Con," as capitalized, generally refers to Comic-Con International: San Diego, and there is just one of those a year, one is left to wonder what Goldstein means by "Comic-Con festivals" and "Comic-Con conventions." Has he decided that Comic-Con is so publicized -- particularly in Hollywood, which has increasingly turned to the convention as a way to start viral campaigns for movies via Web-augmented word of mouth -- that he thinks that there are several a year? Is he referring to all comic book conventions with the label "Comic-Con" because it's the one he thinks his readers will recognize?

Or perhaps he just needs a thesaurus.

On the Daywatch

What are the odds? On Sunday, one day after we went with friends from out of town to watch PAPRIKA at the new Landmark theater, another friend called us from out of the blue asking us to come watch DAYWATCH with him at the selfsame theater. And once called, how can we help but respond?

Responding was actually a bit of an adventure. We had said goodbye to our Utah friends a little after noon; and a couple hours later I took a bike ride south. I was hanging around a store in Fox Hills (about 4.5 miles from home) when I got a call from Amy at around 3:15 telling me the movie would be at 4:10. I hopped on my bike and navigated the oft-treacherous street and sidewalks of Sawtelle (why do so many people park their SUVs in driveways, blocking the sidewalk?) and managed to make it to the Westside Pavilion at about 4:05.

DAYWATCH is the sequel to NIGHTWATCH, the hyperkinetic anything-goes urban fantasy from Russia, in which good and evil "Others" (witches, vampires, shapechangers, etc.) are engaged in a millenium-long cold war with each other -- the truce being kept by sets of cops on each side, the Daywatch for the evil folk and the Nightwatch for the good. Of course, the whole apple cart gets massively upset (otherwise you wouldn't have a story). As with the first film, DAYWATCH throws all sorts of concepts at you without much concern over whether you'll understand it -- you have to just grab what you can and hang on. It's an exhilarating and exhausting experience.

After the movie, our friend asked about one of the high-end goodies at the concession stand -- coconut candy bars dipped in dark chocolate. He wondered how it compared to a Mounds bar. I said that if it saw a Mounds bar in the street, it might toss a dollar at it. He bought his wife one of the high-end bars.

When Everything Seems Like the Movies

Have movies shaped our dreams as much as dreams have shaped the movies? Before movies came out, did people dream as cinematically as they do now?

Satoshi Kon's new film, Paprika, brings these questions to mind. In this science fiction movie, researchers have developed psychotherapy machines, the most advanced of which enables them to not only visually record dreams, but to enter them. The repressed scientist Dr. Atsko dives into other people's dreams, where she becomes her alter ego, Paprika, who is as adventurous, uninhibited and flirtatious as Atsko is reserved. The problems start when the technology is misused -- threatening reality itself.






Among the many themes this smart movie explores is the connection between movies and dreams -- particularly for one of Dr. Atsko's clients, a police detective who professes to hate movies, yet has recurring dreams that conjure images from "Roman Holiday," "The Greatest Show on Earth," "Tarzan," and "From Russia With Love." It's an apt subject for Kon, who showed his fascination for movies in the Hitchcockian psychological thriller "Perfect Blue" and the John Ford tribute "Tokyo Godfathers," among other movies.

The art style of the lush animation also played into the theme. The characters were rendered in a stylized-realism form, incorporating slight caricature, reminiscent of American comic books -- themselves highly influenced by (and in turn influencing) cinematic storytelling.

The Internet also plays a strong part in the movie. The film points out that the Web often serves the same purposes as dreams -- providing us with an emotional outlet, or a place where we can become other people in a dreamscape.

I don't want to give the impression that "Paprika" is a philosophical snore-fest. Instead, it's a fast-paced action film, which uses animation to play with shifting perspectives and fantastic visuals, to illustrate dreams and what happens when dreams and reality collide.

We saw "Paprika" with friends in the new Landmark cinema, which had just opened the day before. It turned out an apt venue. Several of the scenes in "Paprika" take place in movie theatres, and the characters are often shown in darkened theatres watching other scenes unfolding on the screen. At moments like those, the line between reality and the animated world on the other side of the screen seemed to blur.

"Paprika," like several of Kon's films, is a perfect answer to those who believe that intelligent, mature stories cannot be told in animation -- or that Japanese anime consists solely of game merchandising, giant robots and porn.