'Best of TBH Politoons'
Cory!! Strode
Super Heroes
One problem with Super-hero comics that I have lately is that they all take themselves WAY too seriously. In a quest to appeal to older readers, and to keep their aging fans, a lot of super-hero comics pile on the angst and drama, making every story attempt to be The Most Important Epic Ever. While this is good once in a while, and can make for good reading, a steady diet of it makes it all seem a bit silly and over the top. Luckily, there are some creators who feel that it's gone a bit too far, and remember than it's OK for a story to be fun once in a while. One of those creators is writer Warren Ellis, who has written his share of "sturm und drang" stories in the past, but his new comic "Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E." is a perfect antidote to the overly serious Big Event comics filling the stands currently and has had its first 6 issues collected in a hardcover called Nextwave: This Is What They Want.
The comic features a group of grade C Marvel heroes made up of the female Captain Marvel (who starts every conversation with "When I led the Avengers..."), Meltdown (a mutant whose powers are blowing things up and used to be called "Boom Boom" of all things), Machine Man (who calls humans "flashy ones"), Moonstone (a relatively new character who is best described as a monster hunter with big...guns) and The Captain (who's first name of Captain F$@k got his mouth washed out with soap by Captain America), none of whom are taken seriously. They were brought together to fight Big Monsters by the "Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort" (H.A.T.E.), and turned against H.A.T.E. during their first adventure when they discovered the organization was actually setting the monsters loose in order to get more funding from the federal government and other nefarious reasons.
The first collection is now out, and brings together the first 6 issues which contain two stories, the first featuring a Big Monster fight against Fin Fang Foom, a dragon-like monster created in the early 60's when Marvel's output was mostly monster comics. The second story features Nextwave's fight against H.A.T.E, and both stories are basically Big Fight Scenes filled with jokes. And it works, both as a parody of the way super-hero comics all devolve into fight scenes, but also to as a set up for character based humor. The book is fast-paced, funny and by the end of it, the entire situation is set up about as well as it needs to be for future stories.
Ellis piles on the jokes, but none of it would work if not for the smooth and clear artwork of Stuart Immonen, who is probably best known for his work on other super-hero comics and did not show this level of skill in his previous work. Ellis himself says that the series is a pure distillation of the super-hero genre, getting rid of everything that isn't either a fight or an explosion, but he seems to have snuck in some great subversive humor and sharp characterization amidst all of the scenes of super-heroes posing in the street and things blowing up for no good reason.
The comic has a number of taglines, but the best description I have found of the comic is what was used in an early ad: Nextwave: Healing America By Beating People Up. Nextwave: This Is What They Want gets a 4 out of 5.
Cory!! Strode (The Best Dressed Man In Comics) has written comic books, novels, jokes for comedians, Op Ed columns, the on-line comic strip
www.Asylumon5thstreet.com and has all kinds of things on his website, www.solitairerose.com
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Gavyn Davies: Is America headed into recession? (guardian.co.uk)
Is the American economy about to collapse into a recession? This is one of the most important questions that macro-economists might be expected to answer, but it is not one they find very easy.
Arianna Huffington: Bill Clinton's Bipartisan Love-In Blows Up in His Face
Taking the 'high road' has a nice ring to it, but Clinton shouldn't fool himself.
Evan Derkacz: Fundamentalist Camp Trains God's Little Army (AlterNet.org)
The directors of the new documentary 'Jesus Camp' discuss the good, the bad, and the disharmony in the evangelical community.
Beatles behaving badly: what John and I got up to, by the drummer who was booted out (telegraph.co.uk)
Andrew Perry talks to the fifth Beatle about what could have been.
Virginia Postrel: Superhero Worship (theatlantic.com)
Once the province of Garbo and Astaire, movie glamour now comes from Superman, Spider-Man, and Storm.
RACHEL DONADIO: Dumbing Up (nytimes.com)
John Wiley & Sons, which bought the Dummies brand in 2001, cranks out 200 new Dummies titles a year. At that rate, there may soon be more Dummies books out there than dummies to read them. ... Amiable and nonthreatening, the books are informed less by populist anti-intellectualism than by a bedrock belief that knowledge is democratic, that you too can master things - especially by ignoring those highfalutin experts who make you feel inadequate.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny & brisk.
Finds Unfriendly White House
Borat
Borat, the fictional TV reporter from Kazakhstan, may have gotten under the skin of Kazakh officials but on Thursday he couldn't get past the gates of the White House.
Secret Service agents turned away British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, in character as the boorish, anti-Semitic journalist, when he tried to invite "Premier George Walter Bush" to a screening of his upcoming movie, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."
Cohen's stunt was timed to coincide with an official visit by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is scheduled to meet with Bush on Friday.
Cohen's "Borat" comedy routine has drawn legal threats from the Kazakh government, which keeps a tight lid on criticism in its news media.
Borat
Inducted Into RockWalk
Miles Davis
The King of Cool, Miles Davis, was posthumously inducted into Hollywood's RockWalk on Thursday. The event was attended by musicians and members of the Davis family, including his son, Erin, and daughter, Cheryl.
While living icons have had their handprints immortalized on the sidewalk gallery outside the Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard, a bronze bust of Davis will be put on display outside the store instead. Davis died in 1991 at age 65.
Recently, a DVD, a movie, a Smithsonian museum exhibit and induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have all renewed Davis' popularity in what would have been his 80th-birthday year.Don Cheadle has agreed to play Davis in an upcoming biopic and a new Davis CD will be released this fall called "Evolution of the Groove" featuring guitarist Santana and rapper Nas.
Miles Davis
Blasts Chimpy
Oliver Stone
Filmmaker Oliver Stone blasted resident George W. Bush Thursday, saying he has "set America back 10 years."
Stone added that he is "ashamed for my country" over the war in Iraq and the U.S. policies in response to the attacks of Sept. 11.
"We have destroyed the world in the name of security," Stone told journalists at the San Sebastian International Film Festival prior to a screening of his latest movie, "World Trade Center."
"From Sept. 12 on, the incident (the attacks) was politicized and it has polarized the entire world," said Stone. "It is a shame because it is a waste of energy to see that the entire world five years later is still convulsed in the grip of 9/11.
Oliver Stone
Bush Lies, Troops Die
Bob Woodward
The US government is hiding the true extent of violence against its military in Iraq, veteran correspondent Bob Woodward has alleged, saying US troops are attacked on average every 15 minutes.
Woodward, whose 2004 book "Plan of Attack" said that hawks within resident George W. Bush's administration had decided to invade Iraq before the September 11, 2001 attacks, accuses the regime of hiding the facts from the public.
Woodward says Bush is certain that Iraq is on the right course and quotes the president as saying: "I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney (Bush's dog) are the only ones supporting me."
He further alleges that Bush is taking advice on the strategy for Iraq from Henry Kissinger, the controversial Vietnam war-era national security adviser turned secretary of state.
Bob Woodward
Thanks, Hubert!
Thinks It's Worth More Money
Fox News
A financial struggle is looming between Fox News Channel and the cable and satellite providers who carry the network, with the risk of Bill O'Reilly, Shepard Smith and Sean Hannity being yanked from TV screens if talks go sour.
One of the first battlegrounds is in the suburban ring around New York, the nation's largest and most influential media market.
With Fox's 10th anniversary next week, a series of 10-year contracts with providers will begin expiring. Fox says the systems pay roughly 25 cents per subscriber each month to carry its programming. Given the network's success in the ratings, Fox is asking that these fees jump to $1.
Fox claims its rival CNN frequently gets around 50 cents per subscriber, and that Fox's fee is a bargain since Fox's ratings have eclipsed CNN's for five years.
Fox News
Landmark Sold
Capitol Records Tower
EMI has agreed to sell its historic Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood to a New York-based commercial property firm, but the label will remain housed in the building under a long-term lease.
EMI said the sale of the 50-year-old Vine Street landmark to Argent Ventures was part of its strategy to divest non-core real estate assets.
Designed by architect Welton Becket as "the office of tomorrow," the futuristic Capitol Tower opened its office doors on April 6, 1956. Styled to resemble a stack of records and capped by a towering "spindle" (topped by a light that blinked the word "Hollywood" in Morse code), the dramatic circular building became an immediate tourist attraction, and went on to be a Hollywood icon featured in dozens of films and TV shows.
Capitol Records Tower
Scam Exposed
JT LeRoy
Laura Albert, 40, a New York City native, is acknowledging that she is JT LeRoy, the supposed male author of gritty, graphic, best-selling novels like "Sarah" and "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things," which was made into a film.
In a story in The Paris Review's fall issue, Albert admits that she invented the character in therapy. Her psychiatrist encouraged her to write down her stories.
LeRoy is a purported 25-year-old former male prostitute and drug addict born in 1980 who drew from his own experiences hustling, living on the streets and selling sex for his literary work.
Albert is a tall, slender woman with dainty features and auburn curls. She wore a Renaissance-style gown with black leather gloves and a corset at the soiree, where about 30 friends had gathered.
JT LeRoy
Boston's Museum of Fine Arts
13 Italian Artifacts
Boston's Museum of Fine Arts returned 13 disputed ancient artifacts to Italy on Thursday, a deal that Italian officials hope will pave the way for others to give back antiquities they say were smuggled out of the country.
Among the artifacts turned over were a statue and a bas-relief believed to have decorated Hadrian's Villa.
The agreement promises loans of other Italian treasures to the MFA, and marks the latest victory for Italy in its quest to regain antiquities that were dug up illegally and sold to museums worldwide.
13 Italian Artifacts
Highest-Paid Sitcom Star
Charlie Sheen
After two months of negotiations, "Two and a Half Men" star Charlie Sheen is close to finalizing a new salary pact that would make him the highest-paid comedy star in television today.
Sources said Sheen will earn about $350,000 per episode this season from producer of the CBS powerhouse, Warner Bros. Television. This represents a hefty increase from his previous payday in the low six figures.
Sheen also is known to have a significant profit-participation stake in the series, now in its fourth season. The top of the sitcom actor pay scale remains the nearly $2 million per episode Ray Romano pulled in for the final season of CBS' "Everybody Loves Raymond" in 2004-05.
Charlie Sheen
'Showbiz Show' Gets 3rd Season
David Spade
Comedy Central has picked up "The Showbiz Show With David Spade" for a third season.
Additionally, Spade has joined the cast of CBS' midseason comedy series "Rules of Engagement."
Comedy Central has ordered 13 new episodes of "Showbiz Show." The half-hour weekly comedic parody of the entertainment industry is slated to launch its third season in February.
David Spade
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