Sunday, August 31, 2003

Same Difference and Other Stories:
There's never enough time to review everything I want to. Right now, I've got stacks of comics and graphic novels to review on The Fourth Rail, and sometimes in order to keep going, I have to let something slip by that I just don't have time to review. Same Difference and Other Stories, by Derek Kim, is one of those things. I picked this up after getting recommendations from Chris Butcher at Previewsreview and my friend Dave, and I loved it. I agree with pretty much everything in Greg McElhatton's review, which was posted on Friday.

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

SoBig... SoGoddamBig...
I'm not certain, because I haven't really been counting every time, but I think I'm receiving in the neighborhood of a 1,000 messages a day courtesy of our good friend the SoBig virus. Even with spam-killing filters, this thing is an enormous pain in the ass. It is my hope that they will catch whoever created this pox on our modern society and send them to (in the parlance of Mike Judge's Office Space) "federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison."

Monday, August 25, 2003

Comic Book Idol: Round Two
All of the contenders for Round Two of Comic Book Idol are in now. To me, it looks like a race between Patrick Scherberger and L. Frank Weber, and I'm not sure where my vote in the poll is going to go. I do know that I've finally signed up on the CBR forums as a member specifically so I can vote in these polls. I'm hooked!
Dead Like Me:
Though I don't have any pay channels, it's hard to resist when they keep coming up with such great original series. A friend recently loaned me the first eight episodes of Dead Like Me, Showtime's new comedy/drama about "Reapers," undead folks who take the souls of the living right before they die. I had caught episodes two and three a little while back when staying with my in-laws in Dallas, and was intrigued, and by the end of episode four on the tapes I was completely hooked. It's just gotten better from there, and while I'm not yet sold on new character Daisy Adair (loved the actress in 24, though, and her character here is starting to grow on me) I *love* the work that Mandy Patinkin and star Ellen Muth are doing, not to mention all the work of the mom and sister of lead character George. I've missed Jasmine Guy's wonderfully acerbic Roxy in the last couple episodes, but the show is really sweet and growing funnier. I'll definitely be picking this one up on DVD.

Thursday, August 21, 2003

If you haven't checked out J. Torres's Comic Book Idol over at CBR, you're missing some interesting artwork and fun commentary, and just a well-executed neat idea. I wasn't so sure at first, given my absolute hatred for American Idol, but I'm digging Comic Book Idol so far.

Monday, August 04, 2003

NEWSARAMA - SUPREME COURT REFUSES TO HEAR CASTILLO CASE - There are so many frustrating things about this decision to me. First and foremost is that I can relate very much to Jesus Castillo's position, given my own job and locale, and I can't even imagine what he's been put through. It makes me angry to think that because he did his job, sold adult material to an adult, he suffered financial and legal hardships.

Second is, of course, that this sets a legal precedent whereby "comics are for kids, despite any evidence or testimony you might here." Not only is this stupid and insulting to a medium that I have devoted a lot of my time to, it's chilling and dangerous from a legal standpoint.

Third, I live in Texas (OK, Austin, but still...) and I know that this just reinforces the view that Texans are a bunch of inbred hillbillies with values from the 18th century. Sure, the people who hold this view tend to come off as judgmental idiots who don't know what they're talking about, but when something like this comes down, it's really hard to argue with them, and I *live* in fucking Texas and know better.

Probably most frustrating, though, is that this is a victory for the small-minded. And there have been way too many of those lately, in the world arena, in national politics, everywhere I look, and it's depressing as hell.