[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: You don’t want to know, and I don’t want to tell you. ]
So this book is a collection of the colums, which also went on to inspire a TV series, which itself lead to a movie.

All I have to say is, I don’t see how.

This is a book about some very shallow, self-absorbed people. It is hard to find anyone worth liking. Not to mention the rampant drug use gets really old, really fast.

Not worth it.

“When a fresh-faced guy in a Chevy offered him a lift, Parker told him to go to hell.” –The Hunter, Richard Stark opening line

From PW Comics Week on July 26, 2008:

Richard Stark’s antihero stories influenced an entire generation of crime writers and filmmakers including Elmore Leonard, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Price, Brian Bendis, David Laptham, Dennis Lehane, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese.

Stark fans often refer to the Parker adventures as the crack of crime fiction. After reading one book, you’re hooked and before you know it you’ve devoured, like so many boxes of Milanos, some twenty books. The junkie you’ve become begins to sweat and shiver waiting for the next hit!

The perfect artistic choice for these adaptations, Cooke should offer the perfect methadone to tide you over until the latest Stark stuff hits the streets.

Darwyn Cooke to Adapt Parker Novels! was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

“My universe is lying within my fingers, he realized. If I can just figure out how the damn thing works."– "The Electric Ant,” Philip K. Dick

This is from PhilipKDick.com:

About time publishers got around to publishing PKD adaptations. I imagine many more are to follow.

Pascal Alixe art

A short film version of the “Electric Ant” titled All Gates Open was produced in 2006.

MARVEL BRINGS PHILIP K DICK’S ELECTRIC ANT TO LIFE was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Fed Up WIth Life ]
So over the last few days, I have noticed a trend. Every site, and their mother’s too, is producing lists of who they think the villains in the next Batman movie should be.

No, really! Even though the current movie just came out, the blogosphere is all atwitter about whether Catwoman or Penguin should be in the third Nolan Batman movie. Which hasn’t been announced yet and may not even happen.

Think I’m kidding? Among the ones I have stumbled across in the last few days:

8 Great Villains We Want in the Next Batman Movie – From OMG Lists – This one got Dugg recently.

Who should be the next Batman villain? – From MSNBC

The Dark Knight: Bring on the Bad Guys – From TWOP

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Out of idle curiosity, I Googled "batman villains next movie" and got 168,000 results. Now I know not all of them are articles about who should be the next Batman villain, but a lot are. Heck I even got Ten Batman Villains Who Should Never Be On Film.

What is clear is that the Dark Knight is big right now, which leads to Internet chatter. Unfortunately, instead of discussing the movie, a significant number of commentators are choosing to speculate about what will come.

What a waste.

[  Mood: Happy ]
Barak Obama is the great black hope of the current US election. But before this year, he had a pretty interesting life. This book is a memoir of his coming to grips with the absence of a father in his life.

The work spans his childhood to his time as an organizer in Chicago to his visit to his father’s famiuly in Kenya. In it, he is very blunt about his own shortcomings as well as his successes.

While it is a memoir, this book is also a snap shot of race in America. Barak grows up one of the few black people in Hawaii. And while he experienced some racism and challenges because of this, it was not a typical childhood. His time in Chicago showed him what might be termed "the typical black experience", opening Barak’s eyes to what most blacks went through.

This book was written long before Barak became a politician, yet is interesting to see some familiar themes that keep popping up. The imortance of fathers and the impact of not having one on young men’s lives reoccures again and again, both in the US and in Africa. Now I understand where a lot of the passion from his recent Father’s Day speech came from.

This was a worthwhile read. I am waiting for The Audacity of Hope to come in from the library.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Guess ]
When you first start this book, it feels like a fantasy novel. But as you get deeper into the work, you realize that this is not a fantsy, but rather historical fiction.

The book tells the tail of Octavian, the son of a African princess who finds himself growing up as the subject of a scientific experiment. As the book unfolds, Octavian finds himself caught up in the beginnings of the American Revolution, while questioning his own slavehood.

This is not an easy book to read. The reality of Octavian’s situation unfolds slowly. The reader discovers the real state of affairs alongside the main character. The author uses the lanugage of the times, especially in the latter part of the book when the story is told through letters. Given the level of inferencing skill required, this book is meant for the late junior high or high school crowd.

Very gripping.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son ]
This is the fifth entry in the Queen Betsy series, and it is beginning to lag. This installment sees Betsy moaning about her upcoming 31st birthday, which is also the first anniversary of her death and ressurection as a vampire. Add to that the arrival of European vampires to pay their respects and you have a stress filled time for Betsy.

Unfortunately this book does not live up to the earlier part of the series. The momentum appears to have stalled. Author Davidson needs to make a decision and move this series forward with some character development. Here’s hoping that the sixth book, with the wedding leads to better things.

In the Sunday, July 20 New York Times, Dave Itzkoff latest Across the Universe column features Michael Moorcock’s seminal creation Elric and the recent repackaging Elric: The Stealer of Souls (Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melniboné, Volume I).

Three things leaped out at me from the piece.

1) Itzkoff clearly has done some reading about Moorcock and of his work. Knowing that, it’s very shocking that he writes “also C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien — titans of fantasy who seemed to be obvious influences on him.” Moorcock was influenced by the works that originally influenced the two authors as well as the writings of Mervyn Peake and Robert E. Howard.

2) What the hell is that hideous image in the article?

Why would any one choose that objectively inferior piece over John Picacio‘s beautiful cover or incredible interior art? (Picacio is NOT mentioned in the article.)

3) The overall poor quality of Dave Itzkoff’s writing in this piece.

I probably should stop there as both Michael Moorcock and Elric both deserve the attention and respect.

Elric in the New York Times was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

The Watchmen trailer is out and boy is it ugly. Very sterile and everything looks computer generated. Basically, exactly as I feared.

The strength of Watchmen as a comic is that it embraces stereotypical super-hero stories and turns them on its head with some unconventional storytelling and nihilistic elements while retaining the traditional look of the genre. That is why Dave Gibbons was the perfect artistic choice. This trailer offers none of that and much like Wanted looks like your typical lets blow things up, derivative Hollywood movie.

Watchmen trailer was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

There is a lengthy interview with Alan Moore in of all places Entertainment Weekly. Turns out The Wire and South Park are his favorite shows, we agree on the potential of The Watchmen movie, and he reveals the plot of the forthcoming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen installment.

WOW! I can’t wait.

Alan Moore interview in Entertainment Weekly! was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon