Friday, January 26, 2007

Comics on TV

So I can't talk too much about Smallville in detail, because Dani hasn't watched "Justice" yet, but I know she wants to. I've been screening episodes for her because she still hasn't forgiven me for letting her watch the one with Batista and the Scooby Gang vs Static Man.

But Lois is back. Big bonus. Lana's not in it at all. Even bigger bonus. Though Lana was ten times less obnoxious in the episode two weeks ago than she has been previously this season, even with the Dawson's Creek-like plotlines being that were tied up that show.

As for the "Justice League", I hope the episode tested well, because I'd love to see this spinoff. I like the way all the characters were translated to the Smallville universe, even A.C. the surfer dude. Well... after having seen the little trailer for the Green Arrow "wireless show", I'm kind of disappointed. He'd always seemed a little too much like Batman with a bow, but the revised origin story sinches it. At least it's a really kick ass bow.

And Heroes is back! We actually cancelled the Tivo's season pass to RAW because wrestling has been that weak lately, and we don't want to wait for the Friday reruns on Sci-Fi.

This series is easily the best new thing to hit television this year. Like the movie Unbreakable, it's a brilliant way to package a superhero story for a mainstream audience without losing the best elements of the genre. It's a great touch the way each episode's title is shown like the opening page of a comic and the season is broken into chapters like trade paperbacks.

I saw on Dixonverse that Hayden Panettiere, the 17 year old actress who plays Claire, is going to be at FX in Orlando. I wonder if this is her first con, or if she's been sufficiently braced for what she's about to experience. My heart goes out to the poor girl when she sees a 300 lb middle aged man in a cheerleader outfit.

There's a lot that I want to talk about, regarding why I'm still going over a week between updates. But I can't, really. Suffice to say I'm about to have a change in employment, or at least my employment status, depending on how things go the next few weeks.

We're going to be at the Inter-Fan Jam in Portage Indiana on March 10th. God willing, we'll have new stuff to sell. True to form, we face a crisis with every new convention. So it goes.

Monday, January 15, 2007

My Tivo has stuff to do again!

Something unprecedented happened last week. Dani blogged TWICE since my last update. We'll see if that happens again now that she's back in school.

As it turned out, I was staring at the posting screen last night trying to come up with something witty to say. I had nothin. I don't want to use this as a soapbox or get political. I hadn't been to the comic shop in awhile. I got Final Fantasy XII, but I'm only like 3 hours into it. Woohoo. It looks cool so far. Uhm... yeah.

Did you really want to read about the doldrums of my job and business as usual with webcomic updates? Me either. But I finally found some stuff to talk about. Go me.

From Dani's blog, I found out that I have more experience with raising kids than she does. I haven't changed a diaper, but I've held babies and bottle fed my cousin Sydney when she was just a few months old. Not a resume to be a nanny, but it counts right? The role reversals in our relationship are scary sometimes. No fear of getting my guy card revoked here. It's been on suspension for years.

I finally saw Phone Booth, one of the movies we skipped because we were sick of the Colin Farrell overdose that summer.

It was much better than I thought it would be. Farrell and Forrest Whitaker (my favorite underrated actor) gave great performances. The camera work and "inset panels" did a great job of keeping the audience engaged even though the tension was centered on a stationary spot. It's hard to believe it was directed by the same guy who killed the Batman franchise.

Part of why I was inspired to watch this movie finally was to get warmed up for Kiefer's return in 24 (His part in Phone Booth rocked, btw).

We watched the season premier tonight. In the opening ten minutes, we're caught up on who the new players are, where the old players have gone and how they've changed, and thrown head first into the action.

The creators have not lost their touch one bit. The storytelling is brilliant and the pace is insane. It continues to deliver eye bugging "Holy$&*# they did not just do that!" moments without being contrived. Jack Bauer is still superhuman and everything in L.A. is still located within 2 and a half minutes of everything else, but hey... the plot moves so fast and furious you don't really have time to quibble.

Turkey subplot of the series warning; whatever is going to revolve around the third Palmer sibling, Sandra. I don't know if she's supposed to be the conscience of the show or the unsympathetic whiner who just doesn't get it. Either way, she's already been the catalyst for left field drama (that I am sure will come back to haunt us by mid-day). Expect her to be the obligatory civilian who screws something else up for CTU.

That's it. No more or I'll spoil one of the other 99 good moments.

Next week... Smallville