Month: February 2002

It’s been about 18 months since I had a holiday. It would be nice to have a couple of weeks off work and go somewhere really cool. I’m young, I’m well paid and now is the time to go and do it. Unfortunately it’s not that simple. A holiday would take money and time off work. And more importantly that someone to go with, and unfortunately that’s just not an option.

To steal a word from Iain. gah (on AOL UK only)

I am really getting fed up of not sleeping. I feel like shit this morning. Which is not surprising seen as I didn’t manage to get to sleep until after 6am and was up before 9am. It’s not helping get rid of my flu being unable to sleep 🙁

“Casualties of War” has just started on on C4. That’s the next couple of hours for me anyway. It’s a good war movie with a really great performance from Michael J. Fox

It is becoming an accepted fact that my computer is fucked and I need to do a fresh install. I think some weekend soon I will borrow the cd burner, backup everything and then format and begin again *sigh*

Right, a follow up to yesterday’s post about Training Day and the Oscar nominations for Denzel Washington as Best Actor and Ethan Hawke as Best Supporting Actor. What’s the difference? In this case I can’t see one at all. I would have said Ethan Hawke had more screen time and that the movie was actually about his character. At the very least they had equal screen time and both their characters told their stories. I don’t get it.

Major major kudos to CrossGen comics for a pretty spectacular web initiative. On Friday they revealed Comics On The Web site with their entire range of comics available to read. What’s the catch? Well, it’s gonna cost you. That’s a shock to you I’m sure. The price however is the shock. It’s a whole $1 a month. Yes, you did read that right. For one dollar a month. There are no ads in the comics, there are popups when requested with character bios, stories so far and other *usefull* items. The subscription options are simple enough you can pay $8 for 8 months or $75 for a lifetime subscription. These prices are set and are not going to change.

CrossGen are relatively new, they have been around for about 3 years and I will admit I have not read much of their stuff. I read the first “Sigil” TPB a while ago and I will pick up the next one, I have just not gotten around to picking up the rest. There is a two month free trial of the entire site going on so I think I am gonna go have a look at what they have available and maybe pick myself up some new comics 🙂

James O’Barr’s “The Crow” is probably best known for being the 1994 movie of the same name especially as the movie set was the setting for the unfortunate death of Brandon Lee. There was a couple of sequels to the movie and a tv series, but only the original movie does a good job of standing tall. Anyway I picked up the original “The Crow” comic the other day. I read it late last night. The story was originally between the early 80’s and early 90’s and was written as a result of the authors loss of his fiancée. It was in a drunk driving incident and was an unpunished crime.

John Bergin does warn you of this fact in his introduction;
One day you are going to lose everything you have. Nothing will prepare you for that day. Not faith. Not religion. Nothing. When someone you love dies, you will know complete emptiness. You will know what it is to be completely and utterly alone.

What he does not warn you about is how wrenching the tale actually is. Armed with the knowledge that the author has experienced everything that you see the protagonist go through and for the same reasons really drives this home. The art is entirely black and white and is an appropriately stark companion to the tale. It is certainly one of the most emotionally impacting comics I have ever read.

So it’s late and I’m bored. I don’t want to read, I don’t want to watch tv and there is no-one on that I really want to have a conversation with. Not even in the mood for any of the MP3’s on the ‘puter. So realising that the masterpiece that is “OK Computer” is within reach I am now feeling a little better 🙂

Other comics I picked up today are Greg Rucka’s “Whiteout“. I liked his work on the various Batman titles and other recent stuff and this is I believe his first comic work so I’m looking forward to reading it. Also I picked up Art Spiegelman’s “Maus“. Alongside “Watchmen” and “The Dark Knight Returns” this is one of the most acclaimed comics of the 80’s and indeed of all time. Mark Waid went as far once as to state they are the only comics you need to read.
The author interviewed his father, a Holocaust survivor and turned that interview into a comic. In 1992 a special Pulitzer catagory was created to honour Spiegelman and “Maus”. I doubt I will get into this tonight, but when I do you can be sure there will be a post or two in it.

oh and for the record the term “list-mom” is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard.

The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius. I picked up the first collection of this yesterday. I had heard a buzz about it a few times recently, Garth Ennis gave it a good review on the back of the collection and it was pretty cheap. Today I picked up the second volume. It’s written and illustrated by Judd Winick. I had not realised it but he was one of the cast members in MTV’s The Real World (season 3 in 93) and that was actually at the time I watched it. I use to watch the show on and off, but the third season stands out to a number of people, it was the season with Pedro. Anyways I really enjoyed the comic. It’s a fun story of what a 10 year old kid who happens to be the smartest person in the world. I will be going looking for the third volume sometime early next week 🙂