June 19, 2007
Sorry I haven't written...

   Well, I planned on blogging last week, but deadlines wouldn't let me, so there's some catching up to do.

   First of all, I've just made my reservations to attend the WizardWorld Chicago convention August 10-12 and I've got to wrap up all my outstanding commissions before then (and by outstanding, I mean overdue, not spectacular, although I do put all my energy into commissions!) I've been jonesing for a show and I plan on staying busy with Gen13 and other projects before then.

   Three consecutive issues of Gen13 are in the can and Carlo Barberi and I are wrapping up the forth. This week, I'll be inking #13 & 14's covers. If you caught the Wildstorm panel in Philly, you've already gotten a preview of The Authori-teens! Lovable plush kid versions of The Authority! Carlo and I dig working together and our styles seem to be jelling more with each issue. Carlo's English is far better than my Spanish, but despite that, we seem to get along just fine. Maybe I'm a pain in the ass to work with up close, because it seems that my best collaborations are long-distant relationships! Carlo's in Mexico City, I'm in Florida. Part of what broke up the Greg Land/Drew Geraci team was sitting next to each other in cubicles at Crossgen. When Greg was in Indiana, and I was in Georgia, we'd be in touch once a week over the phone, just long enough to not get on each other's nerves! But seeing each other daily was awkward, then increasingly uncomfortable, as he and I have differing attitudes and opinions on just about everything under the sun and of course, we both believed we were each in the right!

   Another thing I'm enjoying is how Editor Ben Abernathy keeps me involved in the creative process. He doesn't have to, but he keeps me happy and vice versa. I get to scan all my inked pages and tweak them in photoshop now, which gives me more control over the reproduction quality. And since Wildstorm is West Coast, I get a three-hour 'extention' on my deadlines! I can scan as late as 8PM Eastern and it's still on time in La Jolla! Btw, working in photoshop is fun, now that I've overcome my puritanical resistance to computer enhancing of line art! I used to marvel at the colorists at Crossgen, manipulating images and watching some random lines get blown up several hundred degrees-in some stages, an enlarged background image would look like crude pop art! I love seeing my work all blown up big! It's nutty, I know...

   Anyway, I Saw Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer last weekend (NO SPOILERS), and I've come to the conclusion that one's enjoyment of either of the FF movies depends mostly on your love of the characters. I happened to love the first movie, and the first half of FF2, but the second half fell flat for me. I don't see every comic book movie (for example, I haven't seen Hellboy, Ghost Rider, or X-Men 3...yet.) but I will make the trip to the theaters for old favorites like Batman, Superman, Spidey and the FF.

   This recent viewing experience reminded me why I don't go to the theater often. Several times, people would get up from one side of the room to exit the opposite side, shuffling along at a glacial pace, with no regard to blocking the screen. Mind you, there's exits on both sides, but I guess some folks are too lazy to walk the presumably extra eight feet around the outside area to go to the bathroom or concession stand. These were adults, tall ones at that, not kids for whom I could excuse such inconsideration. Speaking of kids, some little -ah...child next to me kicked his feet through the entirety of the movie to watch his sneakers light up. I've got a lot of patience for kids, even though I don't have any, but still, his mom never thought to calm him down... *fume*

   The Silver Surfer was handled extremely well, but I wished the climax of the movie wasn't so ambiguous (and not interestingly so, as the Sopranos' final episode-more on that later). There was a lot of missed opportunity to set up a third movie, which I would've welcomed, as I thought Spidey 3 was proof that the third part of a trilogy can be done well. Instead, despite the higher budget, it almost appears that the Powers That Be didn't have much faith in FF2 being a huge hit that would have fans clamoring for a third. When I buy it on DVD, I'm sure I'll enjoy it a lot more in the privacy of my home.

   Back to the Sopranos Finale last week: In hindsight, it WAS a great ending, but the 50 minutes preceeding it was a huge disappointment. As one newspaper reviewer stated, this last season focused entirely too much on the most annoying character, Anthony Jr. Also, a lot of plot threads got wrapped up too neatly for my taste. Pauly Walnuts is one of the series' most compellng characters, second only to Tony Soprano, and I kept watching the clock, hoping to see one last great scene with him. Pauly was low key and appeared haunted, which would be great if there were more episodes remaining, but I wanted the scary Pauly. Oh, well.. The main hangup I have is that one would have had to religiously watched the previous seasons just prior to the final eight episodes to keep up with the seemingly secondary characters like Carlo. But...we audience members had 16-month gaps between seasons, so I don't think it would be considered too condescending to pepper in a little more expository dialogue, hah? Well, it was a great ride, but wow, I'm bummed about what I feel was a non-payoff to longtime viewers like me.

   On a more chipper note, I've been reading Action Heroes Archives Vol. 2, which reprints the remainder of Steve Ditko's contributions to the Charlton "Action Heroes" line. If you've enjoyed the recently-printed Spidey Omnibus, also chock-fulla Ditko goodness, I guarantee you will be thrilled by the whirling-dervish action of the Blue Beetle stories! Not to mention some of Ditko's finest inking, reminescent of the late Wally Wood. Where the contained Captain Atom stories appear as perfunctory paycheck work (others occasionally ink and script his work), Ditko obviously enjoyed the nuts-and-bolts of BB's suit, weapons, and flying bug! Wow, this is why I read comics! Call it naivete', but there's something so pure about a character who devotes his free time to fight crime for no other reason than it's the right thing to do! Special bonus in this Archives Edition: The original Question plus previously-unreprinted stories from Charlton Bullseye, a Charlton-approved labor-of-love fanzine created by Roger Stern, Bob Layton and John Byrne (I understand those plucky young firebrands went on and eventually broke in the comics industry themselves)! The Charlton Bullseye segment includes yet MORE Ditko work and a delicious Alex Toth Question story! I'm very pleased to have all this rare material now collected in two volumes!

   Also, on a whim, I picked up the first Manga-style comic from DC's new Minx line (great name, that): The Plain Janes. It's written "for girls", but I wanted to see how this new experiment looked. It's good readin'! If you ever felt like an outcast in High School, and as I suspect most comicbook folk like me, were, you'll have a hard time putting it down once you've started. My wife Karen even read it, and she NEVER reads comics!

   My final "attaboy" goes to Marvel's Bullet Points trade paperback by Michael Straczynski and Tommy Lee Edwards. It's a brilliantly eerie "What If" with some familiar faces in different situations. Hmm, that doesn't do it justice... Just pick up everything I've recommended! Including Gen13 #9! Trust me!

   See ya next month!
 
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