Movies:
In the past few weeks, I've been to one movie in the theatre (Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which I quite enjoyed, although Desperado remains my favorite of the trilogy) and seen lots more on DVD. I watched Chicago last night, and while I expected to like it, I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed it. So much, in fact, that it graduated from Netflix rental to a place on my Amazon wish list, because I can definitely see re-watching it several times. Not as re-watchable to me, but also entertaining, was Catch Me If You Can, and I'm looking forward to diving into Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (the third in my recent rentals) soon.

Comic Book Idol - Round Five:
The final entries in Comic Book Idol, a three-page sequential sequence plotted by J. Torres, are in, and wow... they look really good. Both Hickman and Scherberger did a great job, and if there's any justice, we'll see both of them (as well as L. Frank Weber, and maybe some of the other contenders) doing work in comics soon. I'm honestly not sure who I'll wind up voting for.

Comic Book Idol - Round Four:
Well, with L. Frank Weber eliminated (and Flores remains in?), my enthusiasm for the contest has dampened considerably, as I thought Weber was easily the best of the bunch. I even voted for him instead of Hickman, who was probably my favorite cover of the last round, because I thought Hickman relied a little too much on his beautiful color work and because it looked like he was going to make it through OK without my vote. This week is a bit disappointing, actually... none of the pieces really blow me away. Even Scherberger, who I really like, has some inconsistency and the "raccoon eyes," which I could have written off as a stylistic quirk for Queen & Country, indicating black marks for cover work, have gotten a bit annoying. Still, I'd vote for Scherberger if it wasn't for Hickman. His work has a couple minor flaws, and again it feels like his work relies as much on a great color sense as it does on actual pencilling/inking (or painting, as it were) skills, but it's a strong piece. I could easily see Hickman on a Vertigo book with this style, or doing something really different with some of the Marvel and DC characters. Hell, if this were the art style on Iron Man, and he were matched with a good enough writer, I think I'd be pretty interested.

Comic Book Idol - Round Three:
I had an easy time voting last week, because there were really only two pieces that impressed me in the Queen & Country round, but I'm going to have a lot tougher time voting for Comic Book Idol this time out. All six entries are now up, and I'm leaning toward Jonathan Hickman as my favorite, but L. Frank Weber and Patrick Scherberger have done it again as well, and while Martin Redmond's cover looks a little too busy for me, I really do love his style.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

Finding Nemo:
Saw this about a week ago and, no surprise, loved it. Pixar Studios gets my money anytime they put a movie out (in theatres or on DVD) and it's always, always worth it. Finding Nemo had a special resonance for me as a new dad, because the notion of being able to protect my daughter from everything is one that weighs on my mind, and I like that Nemo had a message for kids (Your parents may not seem cool, but they'll do *anything* for you) and adults (you can't protect your kids by hiding them from the world). It also had, as always, great actors doing voice work and funny bits (loved Crush, the turtle voiced by director Stanton).

Shadowrun Duels:
This action figure game is completely addictive, just as Wizkids' Heroclix line has been. I swore I was going to avoid taking the budget hit, what with so many good comics coming out in June and DC: Cosmic Justice besides, but I couldn't resist once I saw the figures. Amazing sculpts, pretty solid articulation and nifty gear made them fun for a toy collector, and the game system is simple enough but tailored to the action figure size, not just a retrofit of the Clix rules. I've played but one game so far, but the potential is there for big fun and big multi-player run and gun fests. So far I've picked up half: Kyushi the Yakuza sniper, Lothan the troll mage (by far the best plastic/money ratio of the bunch) and G-Dogg the ork bouncer, and I can easily see buying the other three before Wave 2 hits. Wave 2 and 3, btw, look even better than most of the figures in this first wave. Fun stuff.

The Hulk:
Went and saw this Saturday night with low expectations, and still walked away disappointed. It's not the FX... in fact, the Hulk just rocks, and the best scenes in the movie are the ones where he's fighting tanks, leaping through the desert or tearing up San Francisco. No, it's the fact that the FX crew delivered on the damn-near impossible task of creating the Hulk for live-action and Ang Lee and company dropped the ball with a slow, disjointed, emotionless and dull story. It never comes together, and I'm at a loss as to why it was necessary to spend a good hour or so of the film trying to convince us of the scientific plausibility of the Hulk... it's a guy who turns green and throws tanks around... how plausible can you really get? Throw in other minor-league complaints (would it have killed them to have the Hulk talk, or at least thrown us a "Hulk Smash!") and you've got a comic-book movie that sits right below Daredevil in the disappointing-but-not-really-unexpected failures.

And The Award for Most Colossal Fuck-Up in Comics Management Goes to:
Graphitti Designs Presents... NEWSARAMA: WAID FIRED FROM FF WITH #508 - This rumor surfaced on the Bendis board and seemed completely ridiculous. I mean, under Waid's guidance the Fantastic Four is enjoying a creative resurgence (whether I'm a big fan of his take on Doom or not, the book is still good to great) and a sales resurgence... so they take him off the book? And replace him with President of Marvel Bill Jemas, who has gone to great lengths to prove that he can't write? (Update: Jemas is, according to Marvel, not the new writer on the book. That part may have been Waid repeating the rumors from the Bendis board poster, or (to be less charitable to Marvel) Marvel may have back-tracked on that when they saw how much heat that part of the announcement was stirring up.)

I'm just boggled by this decision. It strikes me as the kind of bone-headed move Marvel would have made during the 90s, right around the period where I (and many others) dropped all of their books in frustration.

Proof of God Found on IMDB:
Thanks to a tipoff from a message-board poster at the Pulse, I went over to IMDB and discovered that it is true: Brad Bird, creator of the underappreciated work of genius Iron Giant, is the writer and director of The Incredibles, a super-hero film by the "haven't had a miss yet" Pixar Studios.

I was already looking forward to The Incredibles because of the teaser trailer and my slavish devotion to the work of Pixar... now I absolutely can't wait for November 2004.

The Animatrix:
Picked this up today (the 2-disc set with CD, naturally) and *LOVED* it. I'd already seen 5 of the shorts and liked all of them (Flight of the Osiris was a favorite, with Second Renaissance a close second and Detective Story a pretty close third... and if you ask me tomorrow, I might rearrange the order of those, and put Program in the mix as well). The last four on the disc are also anywhere from good to exceptional. Matriculated got a little too weird for me, but is still intriguing, but the rest are fantastic. I particularly loved the fast-paced "A Kid's Story," although the lyrical and strange "Beyond" and the hopeful and powerful story "World Record" are also great.

This has had the side-effect of interesting me more in some anime, and I've put Blue Submarine on my Netflix list as a result... the last thing in the world I need is a new addiction, but these features, and the well-done documentary about anime that accompanies them, has stirred my interest a little more. I also got a kick out of seeing local professor, Dr. Susan Napier, on the documentary, given that she's a professor that a friend of mine talks about constantly and absolutely adores.

I liked Matrix Reloaded, but in just about every way, The Animatrix is the superior product. I can see myself watching it over and over again, in whole and in part.

Tax Law Omits Child Credit in Low-Income Brackets - While they found room for cutting taxes on high-income taxpayers on their stock dividends, it seems that the majority who passed the new budget couldn't find a way to make the tax credit of $400 extend to families who need it, those making under about $27,000.

To those who worked this bit of political skullduggery... you are Scum. Absolute, total scum. When people talk about politicians in the same warm tone that they use to describe child molestors and rapists, you are the one who earned your colleagues this reputation.

Good Reading on the Web:
Steven Grant has turned his column over to some of his readers for a commentary on the "state of the industry" for this week. The result? Some really interesting stuff. In particular, Chris Todd's piece really spoke to me. This paragraph pretty much makes a point that I absolutely believe in:

"The point is this: that while comics are a rich, inventive art form, they are also a marginal one and always will be. Like opera, Shakespeare, James Joyce, jazz, "The Saragossa Manuscript," and Laurie Anderson, even the laziest of comics requires not only a certain amount of dedication on the part of the reader to learn how to read it in the first place (panel transitions, different fonts, motion lines, all the Scott McCloud stuff), but also an interest in seeing stories told in that fashion at all. And in the same way that a lot of people -- a lot of the mainstream, in fact -- don't enjoy classical music, a lot of people simply don't like to experience stories in comic form. It's not a matter of "if they only knew," it's that they just don't like it."

But it's all really interesting. Go read it, it's worth the time.

San Diego Here I Come:
With Suzanne deciding to take another couple of months off with the baby, I finally decided that I have the time to go to San Diego, and I'm stupid enough to try it even though I probably shouldn't spend the money... so I'm going. This marks the first time in a couple years that both Don and I will be in San Diego, which should be a lot of fun. I had pretty much resigned myself to not going to San Diego this year, so I'm pretty excited that I managed to talk myself into spending the money and going.

Bye Bye Buffy:
The final episode of Buffy, written and directed by Joss Whedon, has pretty much guaranteed that I will, in fact, buy season seven on DVD despite hating a good 90% of it. It was a great finale, everyone was very much in character, there was the balance between dark and moody and light and funny that has made the show successful, it opened the mythology up so that a Slayers spinoff could easily have been done...

Basically, the only thing that could have made this finale better was to have Joss Whedon write the rest of the season, because I can only think of how much stronger the episode would have been with better lead-up and less filler. There were plenty of questions that could have been answered, build-up that could have made it feel more important and certainly characters who were ignored while other, lesser characters were pushed to the front. But really, those are mostly still complaints about this season, which has been an absolute disaster. In the final episode, my only complaints are that one of the characters I really wanted to die didn't and that Spike got to play the big important hero, which is still a role I don't think he's earned.