Wednesday, September 24, 2003

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.

Monday, September 15, 2003

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.

Monday, September 08, 2003

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.

Monday, September 01, 2003

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.