I've been asked quite a few times for me to recommend a Superman story for people who don't normally read comics. The problem with recommending a Superman story is that since the "reboot" of Superman in 1986, the series has been a soap opera, much like the X-Men comics. Through the 90's, Superman would be long continued stories interrupted by different "events" like "The Death Of Superman", "Our Worlds At War" and other stories that appeal to comics fans, but are confusing at best to non comics fans.
There's a similar problem with the reprints of older Superman stories, they just don't appeal to modern readers. The earliest Superman stories were exciting, but crude, and haven't aged well, reading like old comic strips. By the 50's, Superman stories had fallen into a formula of designing the cover first and then coming up with the story, leading to a lot of stories about "How did Superman get stranded on an alien world with Samson? Read this story to find out!" They were stories for kids, and like a lot of older kid's stories, they haven't aged well.
However, recently, DC decided to piggyback off of the interest in "V For Vendetta" by releasing "The DC Universe Stories Of Alan Moore." Aside from the awkward title, this is one of the best books for a non-comics reader to come out from DC in a long time. Alan Moore is one of the best writers to ever work in comics, and in many ways is the person who brought adult storytelling to the mainstream comics companies with his books like "Swamp Thing", "Watchmen", "From Hell" and "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen", and while he was working on Swamp Thing, he did a number of shorter works for DC that are reprinted in this trade paperback.
There are a few short stories (6 - 8 pages), and a couple of fill-in stories for comics like "Vigilante", but the highlights of the book are "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow", "The Killing Joke" and "For The Man Who Has Everything".
"Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow" was a two part story published in the last two issues of the Superman comics before DC revamped the character, and in it, Moore brings back everything from the 50's and 60's Superman that seemed silly and goofy and puts it in a context that makes you see it all in a new light, while making it interesting all over again. Curt Swan, who drew hundreds of Superman stories from the 50's to the 80's, turns in some of his best work, but Moore is the one who makes Superman seem magical and interesting without having to rewrite any of the character's past history. In the story, Superman's enemies suddenly become violent murderers in a way they hadn't been before. Much like the stories of the past, it has a "solution" that explains it all, fulfilling the old way of telling a Superman story without falling back on hokey plot twists. A fitting end to that era of Superman, and one that showed a good writer could have made Superman great without having to rewrite his past.
"For The Man Who Has Everything" is another Superman story, this one an annual from the early 80's, and it shows Moore's use of the well-established history of Superman's home planet Krypton. It's a touching story that gives a look at Superman's character without ignoring the fact that it's a super-hero story and has to have action for the reader. It also gives Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman more personality in cameo roles than most writers did in year's of stories. This story is drawn by Dave Gibbons, who also drew Watchmen, and highlights his ability to draw normal people in a way that makes them as interesting as costumed characters, and shows his skill at drawing Science Fiction settings.
The final story in this book is good enough to be printed on it's own, and until this collection, was a 48 page comic that had gone through over 15 printings. "The Killing Joke" was Moore's last work for DC, and is a tale of The Joker's possible origin. Moore originally intended it to be Batman annual, but with Brian Bolland's photo-realistic art, DC printed it in a more permanent form, and here, it is easy to see why. The plot hinges of how lives can changes because of "one bad day" and delves deep into just how dangerously insane The Joker is. This story doesn't just work because it is a solid Batman story, but because Moore and Bolland put so much work into the thematic details, having every small part of a background be as important as the main part of panels, making this story one of the most carefully constructed in comics since Watchmen. There are better Batman stories, but I'm hard pressed to think of a better story involving The Joker, and its inclusion in this book makes it highly recommended.
Garrison Keillor: It's spring, sweet spring, so keep on the grass
The robins and finches are singing here on the frozen tundra and the crocuses are popping up, yellow and purple bunches among the winter crud, and the heart is struck by one dumb idea after another, such as the urge to open a bookstore.
Joel Stein: Straight men need an excuse to feel OK about shopping
I haven't gone shopping for a piece of non-underwear clothing in nearly two years. If it weren't for gifts from my parents, I'd still be wearing clothes from the 1980s. This is why when men get old, they wear Members Only jackets.
Steve Martin: THE NEW PAGE SIX (newyorker.com)
Jared's a Jolie Good Fellow. Tongues are wagging that va-va-voom vixen Angelina Jolie's new baby looks remarkably like Page Six's own Jared Paul Stern. Could it be that the lovelier half of Brangelina traded some power canoodling for honorable mentions? (Full disclosure: Yes.)
Rabbi David Aaron: Wonder Bread (jewishworldreview.com)
During the seven days of Passover we are required to eat only Matza- unleavened bread that looks somewhat like a cracker and is made of just water and flour. The Matza reminds us that we were slaves to the Egyptians who treated us as if we were subhuman and fed us brittle and tasteless unleavened bread. The Matza is therefore referred to as the "bread of affliction." However, Matza also reminds us of how we left Egypt in an astounding record time, faster than it takes dough to leaven into bread. How can Matza be both a sign of our painful affliction and our joyous freedom?
The secrets of Scientology (independent.co.uk)
Tom Cruise says Katie Holmes is now a fully-fledged follower of L Ron Hubbard. So what is it about the sci-fi writer's 'religion' that exerts such a hold? Sara Lawrence goes undercover to find out
Iran's Nuclear Ambitions it really isn't that surprising When Bush says you're on evil's axis To try A-bombs to manufacture As invasion prophylaxis.
Berlusconi's Consolation Prize Silvio, Silvio, don't feel bad That Prodi has defeated ya He took away your PM job But you still own the mediya.
More States Approve Casinos Gambling's neither sin nor vice Once you know the proper naming Playing cards and dice sound nice When you call them fam'ly gaming.
Skilling On The Stand When prosecuted by the feds Here's your operating dictum Don¹t admit .that you caused pain Claim instead that you're the victim.
Rumsfeld Confronts His Critics Though generals think he should resign Their views he will ignore After all, do generals Know how to fight a war?
Does anyone else find it hilarious that TomKat and Brook Shields had their babies on the same day??? Remember the prescription drug/postpartum depression controversy? Perhaps their daughters will grow to become best friends....
Michelle A reader from South Dakota (yes, there are a few of us progressives here in this extremely conservative state--please send help!)
Thanks, Michelle!
Not only did they deliver their daughters on the same day, but they had them in the same hospital (St. Johns in Santa Monica), and stayed on the
same floor.
Yep, enough irony to open a mine.
Let's see how the post-partum portion goes...
CBS opens the night with a FRESH'Survivor: Panama', followed by a RERUN'CSI: The Original One', then a RERUN'Without A Trace'.
On a RERUNDave (from 3/21/06) are Martin Short, Marcia Cross, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins.
On a RERUNCraig (from 3/21/06) are Howie Mandel and Rosanne Cash.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'Celebrity Cooking Showdown', followed by a RERUN'My Name Is Earl', then a RERUN'The Office', followed by a RERUN'ER' (starts 1 minute before the top of the hour).
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Tom Green and David Gilmour.
On a RERUNConan (from 10/21/05) are The Rock, Andrea Mitchell, and Ric Ocasek.
On a RERUNCarson Daly (from 3/9/06) are Flavor Flav and The Academy Is.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'American Inventor', followed by another FRESHAmerican Inventor', then a FRESH'Commander In Chief'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel (from 3/24/06) are Kiefer Sutherland, "American Idol" castoff Kevin Covais, and Rocco DeLuca.
The WB offers a FRESH'Smallville', followed by a FRESH'Supernatural'.
Faux has a RERUN'That 70s Show', followed by another RERUN'That 70s Show', then a FRESH'The O.C.'.
UPN has a FRESH'Everybody Hates Chris', followed by a FRESH'Love, Inc.', then a FRESH'Eve', followed by a FRESH'Cuts'.
A&E has 'American Justice', 'Cold Case Files', 'The First 48', and 'Dallas SWAT'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Comancheros', followed by the movie 'The High And The Mighty', then the movie 'Island In The Sky'.
BBC -
[2pm] 'As Time Goes By' - Episode 1;
[2:40pm] 'Are You Being Served' - Oh What a Tangled Web;
[3:20pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 7;
[4pm] 'My Hero' - Wedding;
[4:40pm] 'My Family' - Of Mice and Ben;
[5:20pm] 'My Family' - Imperfect Strangers;
[6pm] 'BBC World News';
[6:30pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - May;
[7pm] 'The Benny Hill Show' - Episode 1;
[8pm] 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' - Episode 9;
[8:30pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - May;
[9pm] 'Wire in the Blood' - Episode 1;
[11pm] 'Ed vs Spencer' - Ep 5 Who Can Make The Best Porn Film?;
[11:30pm] 'Bromwell High' - Ep 5 Fire Drill;
[12am] 'Look Around You' - Ep 5 Computers;
[12:30am] 'Creature Comforts' - Episode 8;
[1am] 'Wire in the Blood' - Episode 1;
[3am] 'Trust' - Episode 4;
[4am] 'Trust' - Episode 5;
[5am] 'Trust' - Episode 6;
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'West Wing', 'Inside The Actors Studio', 'Real Housewives', and another 'Real Housewives'.
Comedy Central has 'Reno 911!', another 'Reno 911!', last night's 'Jon Stewart', last night's 'Colbert Report', 'Chappelle's Show', 'South Park', another 'South Park', and a FRESH'Show Biz Show With David Spade'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Sen. Ted Kennedy.
Scheduled on a FRESHColbert Report is Ralph Nader.
History has 'Engineering Disasters 5', 'Rome: Empire', 'Decoding The Past', and 'Declassified'.
IFC -
[6AM] sex, lies and videotape;
[7:45AM] Hoop Dreams (1994);
[10:45AM] Passion In The Desert (1998);
[12:30PM] A Room For Romeo Brass (1999);
[2:05PM] Trust (1990);
[4PM] Short: Band Camp;
[4:15PM] Passion In The Desert (1998);
[6PM] A Room For Romeo Brass (1999);
[7:35PM] The Station Agent (2003);
[9:15PM] Waterland (1992);
[11PM] The Henry Rollins Show #3 (2006);
[11:30PM] Samurai 7 Episode #3 (2006);
[12AM] Piranha 2: We Shall Leave No Flesh (1981);
[1:45AM] April Media Lab Results (2006);
[2AM] The Henry Rollins Show #3 (2006);
[2:30AM] Samurai 7 Episode #3 (2006);
[3AM] Piranha 2: We Shall Leave No Flesh (1981);
[3:45AM] April Media Lab Results (2006);
[4:35AM] Document Of The Dead (1989). (ALL TIMES EDT)
Sundance -
[6AM] Drinking for England;
[6:50AM] The Other Side of the Street;
[8:25AM] Raggedy Man;
[10AM] Dame La Mano;
[12PM] Play It As It Lays;
[1:45PM] Three Seasons;
[3:45PM] Drinking for England;
[4:45PM] The White Balloon;
[6:15PM] Millennium Mambo;
[8PM] Sugar Town;
[9:35PM] In the Sun;
[10PM] It's All Gone;
[11:30PM] Monkey Dust: Episode 6;
[12AM] Beckett on Film: Beckett on Film: Happy Days;
[1:20AM] Beckett on Film: Beckett on Film: Krapp's Last Tape;
[2:15AM] Fahrenheit 9/11;
[4:30AM] La Repetition. (ALL TIMES EDT)
James Lipton arrives for the opening of the Broadway play 'Three Days of Rain', starring Julia Roberts, Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper, in New York April 19, 2006.
Photo by Chip East
If the snippets Neil Young is posting on his Web site are any indication, his upcoming album, "Living With War," will be a serious musical broadside against the Bush administration and the Iraq war.
Young isn't alone in his feelings of discontent.
Pink, known more for her slams against bubble-headed pop stars than political figures, assails resident Bush in the searing attack "Dear Mr. President" on her album "I'm Not Dead Yet," released this month. And the new single from Pearl Jam - always politically minded - is titled "World Wide Suicide," about a soldier's death.
All represent a steady, if not increasing anti-war sentiment since the war began in 2003. Whereas even superstar acts like the Dixie Chicks and Madonna faced backlash when they uttered opposition to the war in comments or song, more mainstream acts are more comfortable these days expressing critical thoughts.
A novelist from Turkmenistan, barred from leaving his home country for more than two years, traveled to the United States for the first time to accept an award for his work defending freedom of expression.
Rakhim Esenov, 78, a writer and freelance correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was allowed to leave Turkmenistan to attend Tuesday evening's PEN American Center Gala in New York, after the U.S. Embassy and others protested the Turkmen foreign minister's refusal to let him make the trip.
An award also went to Algerian newspaper publisher Mohammed Benchicou, who has been jailed since 2003. Benchicou published Le Matin, an independent French-language newspaper critical of the Algerian government. He is serving a sentence on a money transfer charge, viewed by many international press advocates as trumped-up.
Also honored Tuesday was Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator who was fired from her job in March 2002 after she complained about the quality of translations of terrorism-related wiretaps and reported that another translator was leaking information to targets of investigations.
A page from John Lennon's 1952 schoolbook entitled 'My Anthology' from when he was 12-years old, is seen during an auction in central London, late Wednesday April 19, 2006. Beatles' John Lennon's schoolbook containing his earliest thoughts, drawings and poems giving unprecedented insight into the mind of the then 12-year old future music legend, was finally sold for 110,000 british pounds. (some 159,010 euros, some $195,051 US dollars).
Photo by Lefteris Pitarakis
The family of the late investigative newspaper columnist Jack Anderson rejected an FBI request for agents to search his files for any classified government documents, according to a letter made available on Wednesday.
"The family has concluded that were Mr. Anderson alive today, he would not cooperate with the government on this matter," the family said in a letter sent this week by Washington lawyer Michael Sullivan.
"To honor both his memory and his wishes, the family feels duty bound to do no less," the family said. "He would resist the government's efforts with all the energy he could muster."
Moved by a plea from a class that watched a film Hugh Hefner produced - no, not one of THOSE films - on a 17-year-old television, the founder of the Playboy empire, who turned 80 on April 9, gave a 32-inch color TV to Rockingham County High School.
English teacher Angela Wilson said the idea sprouted in early March as her class studied Shakespeare. Part of the plan was to view the 1971 film "The Tragedy of Macbeth."
"We read the play and they wrote essays about it, and when we watched the video, they noticed that the executive producer was Hugh Hefner," she said Tuesday.
The students joked about asking Hefner to spruce up their audiovisual experience. While they watched the movie, Wilson drafted a note to the original playboy, asking for his help "so our viewing experience can be as wonderfully unforgettable as the film itself."
Britain's best-selling newspaper apologized Wednesday to "Desperate Housewives" star Teri Hatcher for a story that claimed she had sex with men in a van outside her home.
The Sun tabloid acknowledged the article, which it ran last August, was "totally incorrect" and apologized to Hatcher "for the embarrassment caused."
Her legal firm, Schillings, said the newspaper had agreed to pay undisclosed damages and Hatcher's costs. It said the celebrity magazine Heat also had agreed to apologize for printing the same allegations in August.
A vendor displays a violin made of glass at a shopping center in Beijing April 18, 2006. The handmade violin, which is valued at about 170,000 yuan (21,000 USD) and has a better timbre than normal wood-made violin, took ten Japanese workers one month to make it, according to China Daily. Picture taken April 18, 2006.
On Tuesday, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong got a piece of the moon rock he brought back to Earth.
"I get to keep it myself only so long as I speak today. So I'm going to be talking longer than usual," Armstrong joked at a ceremony in which NASA presented him with the rock.
The rock - about 2 grams of medium light gray, fine-grained basalt encased in clear plastic - was part of NASA's Ambassadors of Exploration award. It was created to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the July 20, 1969, moon walk by Armstrong and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
Armstrong accepted the award at the Cincinnati Museum Center, where it will be on permanent display. About 200 guests attended.
The sentencing of original "Survivor" winner Richard Hatch has been delayed until May 16. Hatch, 45, won $1 million in the debut season of the CBS reality series. He was found guilty in January of failing to pay taxes on his winnings and other income.
Hatch, who has been in a jail in Plymouth, Mass., since his conviction, was supposed to be sentenced this month. U.S. District Court Judge Ernest Torres, however, granted a delay after Hatch's lawyers asked for more time to rebut a government memo asking the judge to give Hatch extra prison time for allegedly obstructing justice.
When Hatch was convicted, prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's office accused him of lying on the stand.
The Rojtman Diamond sits on display at Sotheby's auction house in New York April 19, 2006. Weighing 107.47 carats, the cushion-shaped diamond of fancy yellow color is estimated to sell for $1.5 to $2 million.
Photo by Shannon Stapleton
NFL Hall of Famer Larry Csonka was fined $5,000 Wednesday for filming a cable television show in a national forest without obtaining the required permit.
Magistrate John Roberts also ordered Csonka to pay $3,887 in restitution.
Csonka is host of "NAPA's North to Alaska," a cable television show that appears weekly on the Outdoor Life Network and features fishing, hunting, history and customs from around the state.
Csonka reached an agreement in January to plead guilty to two counts of filming on national forest land without proper permits, once on Mitkoff Island and once near Cordova.
A 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare's plays is on display at Sotheby's in New York, Wednesday, April 19, 2006. Published seven years after Shakespeare's death this volume contains a total of 36 plays, 18 of which had never been previously printed. The book will be offered for sale in Sotheby's sale of English Literature and History in London on Thursday, July 13, 2006.
Photo by Mary Altaffer
Colin Farrell can breathe easy - his private parts will remain out of public view.
Farrell and ex-girlfriend Nicole Narain reached an amicable settlement in their legal battle over a sex tape they filmed three years ago, her attorney said Tuesday.
"We worked out our differences and settled. The terms are confidential, and both parties are happy," said Narain's attorney, Leodis Matthews.
In this photo provided by Mary Sage, Aluiqsi Gerke of the Akootchook Whaling Crew, climbs a ladder from an ice cellar after cleaning it, Saturday, April 15, 2006, in Barrow, Alaska, as it is prepared for the upcoming whaling season. Gerke and other members of the whaling crew clean the cellar so it can be used to store whales being harvested. The spring whaling season on the North Slope of Alaska, which lasts about a month, is to begin in early May.
Photo by Joseph Sage
A former Japanese World War Two soldier who recently turned up living in Ukraine set foot in his motherland Wednesday for the first time in more than six decades for emotional reunions with surviving relatives.
Ishinosuke Uwano, 83, was officially registered as dead by the Japanese government in 2000, as he had not been heard from since 1958 when he was last reported seen on Russia's Sakhalin Island.
It was unclear why and how Uwano, who served in the Japanese Imperial Army on Sakhalin until the war's end in 1945, ended up in Ukraine.
Japanese media said Uwano moved to Ukraine in 1965 and married a Ukrainian woman. Uwano, who has three children, lives in Zhitomyr west of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.
South African author, women's rights and anti-apartheid champion Ellen Kuzwayo died early Wednesday after a long illness, family said. She was 91.
Kuzwayo was the first black writer to win South Africa's premier CNA Literary Prize for her 1985 autobiography, Call Me Woman, a book that made her a spokeswoman for the suffering and triumphs of black women under apartheid.
Born in rural Free State, Kuzwayo inherited the family farm, only to lose it soon after when the area was declared for whites only.
Trained as a teacher and social worker, she moved to the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto, where she became an active opponent of the brutal white-minority regime after police gunned down students in 1976 protests against the introduction of Afrikaans as the language of instruction in black schools.
Arrested for her political activities, she spent five months in detention in 1977.
Kuzwayo was elected to Parliament in South Africa's first all-race elections in 1994, serving five years. She was also active in projects to educate women and improve living conditions in Soweto, becoming an institution in the township, where her advice was sought by schools, church groups, welfare agencies and many others.
Kuzwayo is survived by two sons, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Kimani, a 17 month-old gorilla baby, eats some lettuce during a party for her mom, Kiki, who was declared Zoo New England's Animal President at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, Wednesday, April 19, 2006.
Photo by Elise Amendola
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
Make yourself home, take your shoes off...
Go ahead, scratch it if it itches.
The idea is to have fun.
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Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better,
amused or entertained?
Do you have a great album no one's heard?
How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
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Just plain vile, filthy rumors?
This is your place.
