 | |
| |
Friday, July 31st, 2009 • Horrorthon Posts
1) What if Ghostbusters had been made in 1954? here’s one man’s answer to that burning question:
2) The first official trailer to the Coen Brothers’ new movie A Serious Man is here. I think it looks amazing beyond words. Even if the movie doesn’t live up, the trailer is a masterpiece (in the loved/hated Emmerich/Bay tradition).
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 • Horrorthon Posts
It’s 25 minutes longer, 186 minutes total. It was supposed to be released in theaters in July; I don’t know anything about that (and I think we all probably missed it). The DVD and the Blu-Ray come out today (July 21).
Anyway I just watched it…and it’s good. I’d say it’s a lot like the Lord of the Rings “Extended Editions;” if you liked the theatrical movie, you’ll like the longer version and if you didn’t you won’t. There’s nothing particularly earth-shattering about the new material, but (as with the LOTR example) it’s not just the additions that make it worthwhile; it’s the cumulative effect of being immersed in the crazy story for that much longer. The sensation of “coming up for air”—returning to reality after three hours and ten minutes in Alan Moore’s dark, parallel world—is much more noticeable and interesting. If you haven’t seen Watchmen, you should probably see the shorter, original version first, just so you know what you’re getting yourself into and you’re not constantly looking at your watch and asking, “Is there much more of this?” (which is exactly how I just endured Transformers).
I have to say that the whole Watchmen cinematic experience is definitely growing on me. I’ve seen it a few more times, and (expecially after slogging painfully through Transformers, which was execrable, and Hellboy, which was merely bad) I’m finding that I really admire what they did here. It’s not just about the satisfaction of seeing something adapted properly (although that’s a large part of it); it’s also a fresh opportunity to appreciate the imaginative leap, the strangely-earnest step beyond comic books and into satirical pop surrealism that this project represents. (And the Dr. Manhattan effect is a trip.) Anyway, get your Watchmen on if you haven’t already. If you read this site, you’ll probably dig it. And the Leonard Cohen song halfway through is sublime.
Monday, July 6th, 2009 • Horrorthon Posts
Trolling through the wilderness of bittorrent, what did I happen upon but an 11.58 GB archive containing 168 issues of Heavy Metal magazine, beginning with its debut in September 1977 and extending (sporadically) thirty years to March 2007 (comprising about half the total run). The collection also includes 9 “related publications” (like the 1979 Alien comic adaptation) and 41 special editions. Heewack! A five-day download, but so what! (My computers had to do something while I was in the Berkshires for the long weekend.)
Anyway, it’s Heavy Metal, starting right at the beginning with the stories that made it into the movie (including “Den” and “So Beautiful, So Dangerous”) and going on to include tons of work by Moebius, Royo, Bisley, Corben, Frazetta, Bissette, Sienkiewicz, Vallejo, Darrow, etc. etc., not to mention fiction by Ellison, Bloch, Silverberg etc. etc. in between ads for turntables and rolling papers and Journey albums (and cassettes!) and illustrated features on upcoming movies like Blade Runner and Videodrome.
A treasure trove! It’s all just amazing, amazing stuff. (Click on the vintage Luiz Royo cover above for a closer view of this fine example of what octopunk’s and my friend Sam described as the Heavy Metal vibe: “Lots of machines, and sex, all the time.”)
Here’s “The Devil Burns a Sick Day”, just one nearly-randomly-selected strip comic from a nearly-bottomless well of thirty years of geek brilliance.
(NOTE:As with all online-traded comics and magazines, these Heavy Metal issues are compiled into “industry-standard” .cbr and .cbz archive files. There are many freeware “comic book reader” programs available for Mac and Windows. “Pirate!”)
