Colors

I might be playing around with the colors on the blog for a couple of days. The black is left over from when I was writing mostly horror and I'm not sure that I like it any more, but I'm not sure that I don't either.

None of the other blogger templates are jumping out at me, so I'll probably need to experiment a little.

Question for you guys...

I've gotten some great feedback about the Links du Jour format for news-sharing, but I'm curious about something. Is it helpful to you that I break the news links into genre sections? I mean, do you find yourself skipping to the sections for genres that particularly interest you? Or do you pretty much read all the news anyway? Can I get rid of those section titles?

The reason I'm asking is that I think it would be a good idea to further refine the blog's focus. Instead of general genre-talk, I'd like to just talk about adventure stories. That's still a wide range and includes elements of mystery, horror, fantasy, and science fiction, but it'll let me ignore other elements of those things that I don't care about. So, when it comes to scifi, I can keep talking about Flash Gordon and Star Wars, but I won't feel compelled to discuss Asimov. Where mystery is concerned, I'll mention private eyes, but leave police procedurals alone. With horror, it'll be all about the monsters and nothing about splatter and gore.

It's really where I've been headed with this for a while, but I'm wanting to formalize it. And part of that would be to get rid of the genre headings on the links posts. Unless you guys tell me that you love them and need them to stick around.

What do you say?

Links du Jour: RIP Kurt Vonnegut, Mummy 3, and a Life on Mars sequel

Adventure

• Geek Monthly has a nice interview with Jerry Bruckheimer on Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Not a ton of new info, but there's a bit of explanation there about why the four pirate factions are coming together.
• Today is Tom Clancy's 60th birthday.
• Brendan Fraser has signed on for Mummy 3, but Rachel Weisz hasn't. Miles Millar and Alfred Gough (Smallville) are re-writing the script to explain Weisz's absence.
• Tom Hanks and Ron Howard are getting close to signing up for a movie version of Angels & Demons, the prequel to The DaVinci Code.

Mystery

• While we wait for the American version of the BBC's Life on Mars, a British sequel is already in the works. I didn't want to read the article too closely for fear of spoilers (the series finale of Life on Mars just aired this week), but the new show will be called Ashes to Ashes and will feature Philip Glenister's returning as DCI Gene Hunt to be paired with another 21st century detective -- a woman this time -- in 1981. The character of Gene Hunt is arguably the best thing about Life on Mars, so I'm way more excited about this than about the American remake of the first series. (Thanks to SF Signal for the link.)

Horror

• Principle photography has wrapped on the 30 Days of Night movie.

Science Fiction

• Kurt Vonnegut is dead. Lots of people are talking about it today, but the nicest eulogy I've seen so far has been by Warren Ellis on his email newsletter: "14 novels in 84 years. 30 when he published his first novel. Two years older than I am now when he did Cat's Cradle. 46 or thereabouts when he wrote Slaughterhouse-5. Still in his early 20s, working as a POW in an underground factory, when we firebombed Dresden, an act he later described as 'a work of art.' 1984, and Vonnegut attempts suicide with booze and pills, ruefully noting later that 'I botched it.' May 1944, and his mother Edith gets it right. Six months later Vonnegut is captured by the German army after days wandering alone in the countryside. 'Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — "God damn it, you’ve got to be kind."'"

Links du Jour: Gorey movie, sharks and wolfmen, and ninjas aren't Chinese

Adventure

• I've been avoiding talking about the rumors around David Goyer's Green Arrow/supervillains-in-prison pitch, because I don't like speculating on rumors. But Variety has picked up the story now and is apparently reporting it as a done deal between Goyer and Warner Brothers. Not that Variety's never been wrong before. Anyway, I don't get the title Super Max. After Green Arrow's successful appearances on Smallville, why not just call it Green Arrow? Or would Hollywood automatically want to force in an origin story if it was named after the hero?
• At first glance, Moonstone's new superhero book CLASH sounded a bit familiar for my tastes. I don't want to read yet another book where the superheroes think they know what's best for the world and begin imposing their will on it. But, looking closer, CLASH has got a cool twist on the idea: humanity rebels. I'd like to see what they do with that.

Horror

• Coming to the Ultrascreen on Thursday, April 19th: Ghostbusters.
• Walden Media and the Jim Henson Company are planning a live-action movie adaptation of Edward Gorey's The Doubtful Guest. As a Gorey fan, I'm very curious to see how this turns out. (Though I agree with whoever it was who said that the story's not long enough for a feature movie and we're likely to see a lot of Grinch/Cat in the Hat-ish padding.)
• Oh, man! Check out Guy Davis' Night of the Living Dead drawings for TCM Underground! *swoon*

Science Fiction

• I like Marvel's Killraven character thanks to fond childhood memories of this comic. If you don't know him, he lives in a post-War of the Worlds Earth where the Martians took over the planet and enslaved humanity. Killraven decided to fight back. Not groundbreaking stuff by any stretch, but fun enough for a nine-year-old. Anyway, I'm reminded of it because apparently Rob Kirkman and Rob Liefeld are reviving the character for a project next year. As much as I like Liefeld as a person (and I really do), I'm not a fan of his artwork and this will be no exception. So I guess it's a good thing that he's working on a character I just kinda have nice memories of and not one I'm still attached to like Alpha Flight or Shang Chi.
• As long as I'm linking to Rich Johnston and talking about Shang Chi, read further down in Rich's column for an entry called "Blast from the Past File" about how Jim Shooter almost had Doug Moench turn Shang Chi into a ninja until Moench explained, "Mr. Shooter, perhaps you're not aware. Ninjas are Japanese; kung-fu is Chinese."
• According to The Hollywood Reporter, progress has been made on the Sci Fi Channel's Flash Gordon series. Eric Johnson (who played Lana's boyfriend Whitney in the first season of Smallville) will play Flash. They're still looking for people to play Dale, Dr. Zarkov, and the rest.

Other Comics

• Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, Making Comics) will be at Dream Haven Books here in Minneapolis tonight at 7:30. It's part of his 50-state tour of the US.
• Top Shelf has announced their 2008 releases including the third volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the long-awaited (by me) trade paperback collection of Kagan McLeod's Infinite Kung Fu. Wormwood sounds pretty interesting too, and so do the new graphic novels by Brian Wood (DMZ, Local) and Alex Robinson (Box Office Poison).

Writing is Hard

• Evil Editor has a great quote about the difference between literary and genre fiction: "Literary doesn't mean it's literature; it just means it's boring. My advice: add some sharks and a wolfman, and call it commercial fiction."

Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me

• According to the Disney blog, Epcot is tweaking its Mexico pavilion by having it feature Donald Duck, Panchito, and Jose Carioca (aka the Three Caballeros). The Mexico pavilion's always been one of my favorite of the Epcot countries to visit (I really need to eat in that amazingly atmospheric restaurant one of these trips), but that doesn't mean I think it's perfect just the way it is. A little Caballero action added to it might be cool.

Couple of comics links

Easter weekend got me behind in reading the news, so I spent most of the day today catching up on that and have left myself no time to link to any of it. So, tomorrow I'll have a nice, long list of links for you.

But I don't want to send you away completely empty handed, so here are the comics I'm looking forward to this month (at least the non-DC/Marvel ones), and here are my reviews of what came out last week.

New Adventures of Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and the Undersea Kingdom: Part I

I'm currently in the middle of three movie serials: The New Adventures of Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and The Undersea Kingdom. Consider this my first check-in on each of them. I'll do another one when I'm nearly done with them and a third once they're all finished.

The New Adventures of Tarzan is different because it takes Tarzan out of Africa and into South America. His old pal D'Arnot from the novels has gone to Guatemala looking for a statue of a goddess that apparently has some kind of formula for a super-explosive encoded on it. When D'Arnot disappears, Tarzan hooks up with a second group of explorers who go looking for it. And of course, to keep things interesting, there's a bad guy trying to get his hands on the formula too.

I can't make myself believe that an ancient statue contains the formula for a super-explosive, but I have to give love to whoever decided to combine the hunt for an ancient artifact with trying to keep a deadly scientific discovery out of the wrong hands. It may not be two great tastes that go great together, but it's not inedible.

Putting Tarzan in South America, on the other hand, is an awesome idea. He still has plenty of jungle animals to fight, but it's unfamiliar territory for him. I also like that his animal companion is named Nkima, like in the books. Unfortunately, Nkima is still a chimp like Cheetah instead of a monkey like the literary Nkima, but it's a step in the right direction. And as I'm watching these old movies, I'm warming to the deviation from the novels. Chimps are undeniably funny.

I don't care so much for D'Arnot in this serial. Tarzan does find and rescue him, but D'Arnot spends most of the time (so far) stumbling around looking like he's just been beat up. Which he has, but the literary D'Arnot went through worse and with a lot more dignity. New Adventures' D'Arnot is rather pathetic.

Something I'm finding refreshing though is another character who's looking for the statue, a woman named Ula Vale (played by Ula Holt, which I can't believe is a coincidence). When she was introduced, I fully expected Ula to quickly get in trouble and need rescuing by Tarzan, 'cause that's what usually happens to women in Tarzan movies. To my surprise, Ula's proven very capable on her own and have even rescued Tarzan's group on a couple of occasions.

So, I'm enjoying the story so far, even if the acting isn't all that great. Everyone, including Herman Brix (Tarzan), sadly, talks like they're reading off cue cards. It's pretty awful. The only one I part-way like is Ashton Dearholt who plays the bad guy. He's not as wooden as some of the other actors and it's especially nice that he doesn't over-act his part. He ends up coming across as a normal guy who just so happens to be selfish and evil rather than a stereotypical, mad villain.

Flash Gordon so far has Flash avoiding giant iguanas, befriending lion-men, trying to survive a giant lobster-creature and an octopus, and fighting beast-men and shark-men. And that's all while trying to keep Dale safe from Ming's hot, but evil daughter, who wants Flash to herself. It's a cornucopia of fantastic scifi-pulp ideas. No wonder it was such a hit.

The special effects blow by today's standards, but that's really part of it's charm because it's so much fun otherwise. This is easily my favorite of the three.

Undersea Kingdom is another fun one, but it's nowhere near being in the same class as Flash Gordon. Flash is actually good, even though it's got dated effects. Undersea Kingdom is absolutely terrible, but hilariously so. If memory serves, Mystery Science Theater 3000 may have done their magic on an edited version of it.

It's all about Ray "Crash" Corrigan -- whom I've always heard of, but didn't know anything about -- and his friends, all of whom are cheesy stereotypes. Crash is a flawless hero and his pals are a brilliant scientist who's developed a world-threatening technology that has to be kept safe from the wrong hands, a scrappy boy-sidekick, a plucky girl-reporter, and a couple of cowardly, comic-relief sailors. All of them hop in the scientist's sub to check out strange goings on in the Atlantic and wind up discovering Atlantis.

The plot and setting aren't that bad actually. Atlantis is a mixture of societies and technologies. The good guys ride horses and are led by a high priest who looks like King Vitamin. Their culture is kinda Roman-esque with their chariots, trials by arena-fight, and whatnot. The bad guys -- led by a Asian-looking tyrant named Unga Khan -- also ride horses, but are supported by robots in hovercars. Fun stuff.

What makes it laughable are the designs. I'll show pictures in one of the future posts, but between the clunky robots and everyone's goofy headwear, it's hard to take any of it seriously. I keep imagining what it might look like with updated effects, cooler designs, and better actors, though and I like it a lot more.

Links du Jour: Die Hard trailer, Gentleman-Thief, and Forever stamps

Adventure

• Seen the new Die Hard trailer yet?

Mystery

• I've always loved the "gentleman bandit" concept, whether it's Robin Hood, or V from V for Vendetta, or any number of dashing highwaymen in film and literature. The juxtaposition of a guy who can charm you while taking all your stuff is strangely appealing. Which is why I'm thankful for Bookgasm's reminder that Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief (along with other French pulp novels) has been re-released and is ready for my enjoyment.

Other Comics News

• Top Shelf is holding a massive sale on its graphic novels. You have spend at least $30 to get the deal, but you can get tons of great books for $1 or $3 each. Even the titles that don't get those discounts are cut back significantly, like 20% off of books like Lost Girls and From Hell.

Writing is Hard

• With the new postage increases coming up, writers may be confused about how much postage to put on their submission SASEs. The post office has the solution: Forever stamps.

No update today

My day job is closed for Good Friday today, so I'm spending the day running errands with my boy and catching up on comics.

Happy Easter, if you celebrate it. See you Monday!

Links du Jour: Stoker winners, Mary Sue, and a Kill All Monsters! shout out

Adventure

• I haven't heard this reported anywhere else yet, but comiXtreme claims that Gail Simone is leaving Birds of Prey and being replaced by Sean McKeever. I'd heard that she was being considered for the new writer on Wonder Woman (though I don't remember where and Google isn't helping me find it), which would be an answer to my complaint from yesterday, but I'm considering all of this rumor for now. (Update: It's not rumor and I just remember where I read it: Dad Didio's "DC Nation" column this week.)

Horror

• This year's Stoker Award winners have been announced. (Found via SFScope.)

Other Comics

• Jason Rodriguez is promoting his new anthology Postcards all this week on the Newsarama blog. It's a great concept and from the talent involved, it's going to be a great book. Yesterday, Rodriguez interviewed a couple of contributors including Kill All Monsters!' Jason Copland, and he was kind enough to mention KAM! too.

Writing is Hard

• I like to think I'm Mary Sue-proof, but here's a funny litmus test to determine if your main character needs some more thought. Fortunately, my characters all pass, but it's pretty hilarious that Bono from U2 doesn't.

Links du Jour: The trouble with Wonder Woman, KITT for sale, and no love for Star Wars

Sorry. Busy day yesterday. Catching up today.

Adventure

• Wonder Woman is a character who've I've always wanted to be interested in, but whose comic I've never been able to stick with for very long. I've got a longer post in me about why that is, but apparently, I'm not alone. The Roar of Comics expresses some of the same feelings I have, and Fortress of Fortitude offers a sound suggestion for how to fix the problem.
• Speaking of Wonder Woman, TV's Wonder Woman Lynda Carter is going to be on Smallville on April 19th, playing Chloe's mom. Now if they'd only get Adam West for an episode or twenty.
• More Draw Mary Marvel goodness.
• I could've sworn I mentioned the Rex Libris movie before, but I'm not finding it in my archives. Anyway, it has a scriptwriter now. Rex Libris is one of my favorite comics. It's about how a librarian/secret agent who routinely has to track down overdue books from alien warlords and the like.
• KITT for sale.
• I've been scratching my head over why DC wants to publish another Green Arrow: Year One mini-series when they've already got a perfectly good one. I wasn't planning on getting the new one until I just learned that Andy Diggle is writing it. I'm curioius though. In the interview behind that last link, neither Diggle nor the interviewer so much as mentions Green Arrow: The Wonder Year and that seems like a huge elephant in the room that they're ignoring.
• Man, I love Jeff Parker. He's doing everything he possibly can to get a second Agents of Atlas series going. First he's got the team appearing in an upcoming story in Marvel Adventures: Avengers, and after that they'll show up in Spider-Man Family.

Science Fiction

• SFX magazine just ran a poll to determine its readers' favorite scifi movie. Surprisingly, Serenity came in at Number One, beating out Star Wars. In response, Geek Monthly lists 12 scifi films that are better than Serenity, but also leaves off Star Wars. Are fans getting tired of Star Wars? If so, why?

Other Comics

• If you've been wanting to try a new graphic novel, but didn't know where to start, Tom Spurgeon's Top 50 Comics from 2006 is the perfect place. It's an amazing list. Some of them (like The Ticking and Kampung Boy) I've read and completely agree that they need to be on the list. Others (Absolute DC: The New Frontier and The Complete Peanuts, for example) have been on my wish list for a while now and Tom only strengthens my resolve to buy and enjoy them. But best of all are books like Elmer and The Mourning Star that I'd never heard of and can't wait to read now.

Writing is Hard

• Paperback Writer is becoming an indespensable site for me. Now she's got a killer list of online dictionaries to bookmark, including the Gun Dictionary, the Knife Glossary, and the Japanese Sword Visual Glossary.
• Illustrator Jesse Hamm has a useful article about things that comics writers have to keep in mind when writing scripts. Though he has a lot to learn about the art of collaboration (he seems to see it as a battle), he makes some great points about thinking visually and sequentially.

Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me

• This is roundabout news, but I trust the source. According to Warren Ellis' email newsletter, word from Aaron Sorkin's office is that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is pretty much dead. It was "temporarily" replaced by Black Donnellys to see how that show would do in the time slot, but now that Donnellys has been cancelled, the slot's going to a reality show about wedding crashers. That sucks. I liked Studio 60 a lot, and I loved seeing Matthew Perry on TV again.

Links du Jour: Zorro anthology, a bratty pirate, and Holmes meets Lovecraft

Adventure

• Hot on the heels of Dynamite's announcement of a new Zorro comic comes Moonstone's announcement of a new Zorro prose anthology. It's planned for a Christmas 2007 release.
• Here's a story about a stupid, entitled kid who thought he could exploit freedom-of-religion in order to dress up like a pirate and disrupt his class at school. I'm all for dressing up like a pirate, but claiming to truly believe in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? The kid says, "If this is what I believe in, no matter how stupid it might sound, I should be able to express myself however I want to." To which I agree in concept, but how stupid does he think people are? I hate how much this makes me sound like an old fart, but the kid's arrogance really cheeses me off.

Mystery

• This is as much horror as it is mystery. I'm not a video gamer because I'd never get anything else done if I played them. But if I was, I'd really want to be playing Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened right now, which combines Holmes with Lovecraftian horror.

Horror

• Sam Raimi isn't only producing the current 30 Days of Night film; he's also working on a prequel.
• Dark Horse has released info about the next B.P.R.D. series, called "Killing Ground": "Abe’s encounter in Indonesia has brought a new member to the Bureau, and Johann finds himself in possession of a very valuable commodity. The B.P.R.D. will need all of its resources to handle the sinister forces that have wormed their way into the heart of the Bureau itself, blurring the lines between the hunters and their prey!"

Fantasy

• Today would've been Hans Christian Anderson's 202nd birthday.

Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me

• In honor of yesterday, the Top 100 April Fool's Hoaxes of All Time.
• Zach Braff has a trailer from his and Jason Bateman's new movie The Ex up on his blog. He says, "My easy sell for the movie is this: if you laugh at Arrested Development and Scrubs and prefer your comedy a little on the dark side and always loved it when shows would crossover each other like when Mrs. Garrett left Arnold to run a girls school or when the Globetrotters ended up on both Gilligan’s Island and Scooby Doo, then this is the movie for you." It's definitely the movie for me, then.