'Best of TBH Politoons'
Cory!! Strode On Graphic Novels
'The Walking Dead'
The new year has started, and thankfully, the avalanche of comics for the Giftmas season has slowed enough that I can read a few while not looking for a job or filling shifts at work. I've also been reading that a lot of people are looking at comics and thinking that there is money to be made there, so over the last week, both actress Rosario Dawson and Virgin Books have announced that they are going to be leading up new comic book ventures. Virgin's initial lineup sounds interesting, with Director John Woo and Deepak Chopra the first names being dropped as creators.
On top of that, Marvel and DC have both announced big "company crossover" events that will be trying to sop up all of the hard-core fan's extra dollars, so we are starting to see some major interest in comics again. Hopefully it will be an "rising tide raises all boats", as there are a lot of smaller companies with great work that isn't getting a lot of notice currently. The winter months are usually when comic book companies slow down their output and prepare for the busy summer season, but there are still a lot of books coming out that are worth a look.
One of the better books from Image over the last two years has been the horror comic "The Walking Dead", which is now up to four volumes (reprinting 6 issues each) and a big hardcover reprinting the first 24 issues. Over the past few years, there has been a resurgence in zombie movies, and comics haven't been much different, but "Walking Dead" is the most successful of the bunch for a reason: it's a damn good book.
The story starts with a small town police officer waking up from a coma after civilization has fallen to a George Romero-like "zombie apocalypse". Yeah, it sounds like the beginning of "28 Days After", but the comic was in the works before the movie came out, and other than that opening gambit, the two stories have nothing in common. We quickly meet up with a band of survivors who are looking for a place of safety while trying to figure out what their lives are going to be now that everything they have known has fallen apart.
The story avoids the problems that plague most in this genre by focusing on the characters and making them interesting and complex. There is an element of soap opera in the horror setting, but as the story unfolds, it deftly avoids melodrama by never appearing to make the kinds of leaps in logic that soap operas (and most comic book series) make. As the story progresses, you will be drawn in by the dialog and character interaction which make the quiet moments between the horror moments more important than the shocks, which is different from most horror stories where characters exist only to be killed. When a character does die, it comes off as shocking because you care about them, but also gives the book a feeling of dread, reminding you that the people you are reading about are in a dangerous and possibly unsurvivable situation.
The first book "Days Gone Bye" is the cheapest of the batch, and sells for $9.95, which strikes me as the same as a drug dealer giving you your first taste free in order to get you hooked. Artist Tony Moore does a solid job on the early issues, but the other volumes are by Charlie Adlard, who is best known for his excellent work on the "X-Files" comics of the mid 90's, and he is able to capture the mundane and the horrific better than any artist I have seen. Writer Robert Kirkman burst on to the scene with this comic, and while he is now doing a lot of comics, this is the one that stands out, and reads as if it is the one he cares about the most.
It's rare that a comic horror story can be more than a gore fest or an excuse for a twist ending, but "Walking Dead" goes beyond to be something more, and all four volumes get 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
G. Pascal Zachary: Bush's Unlikely Co-conspirators (AlterNet.org)
At least seven House Democrats learned about the NSA's secret spying program four years ago. So why didn't anyone blow the whistle?
Beverly C. Lucey: Kids Today (irascibleprofessor.com)
First, let's get one boneheaded perception out of the way. Kids today are not worse than ever. There. I said it. I'll stick by it.
James Surowiecki: LIFERS (newyorker.com)
The underlying problem is that workers are not being compensated with higher wages for taking on all this new risk. Real wages for the eighty per cent of Americans whom the government labels "production and nonsupervisory workers" have actually fallen since 2001, and, even after a burst of growth in the late nineties, the average household income is only slightly above where it was in 1973. This, and not rates of lifetime employment, is the true difference between employment today and in the sixties. Back then, real wages grew steadily year after year, rising roughly in tandem with productivity. Today, real wages are stagnant, and most of the economy's gains in productivity are going to shareholders or to people at the top of the corporate pyramid. More risk, less reward: now, that's something to worry about.
Will Durst: My 2006 Predictions
I predict that the 2007 Freshman Congressional class will be known as the Abramoff Babies.
NANCY FRANKLIN: AMERICAN IDIOTS, Seth MacFarlane's animated empire (newyorker.com)
Currently, the blue ribbon for pull-my-finger comedy goes to Fox's "Family Guy," on the basis of both ribaldry and popularity; it's the most watched show among teen-age boys and college-age men. It can't be said-not by me, anyway-that "Family Guy" has surpassed "The Simpsons" in terms of quality and reach, but the show is definitely having a moment in the sun. And it isn't only a fartfest, of course.
NANCY FRANKLIN: LADY WITH A PENCIL (newyorker.com)
... it's not easy to convey a yes while you're saying no-which is what an editor has to say most of the time. ... In a self-critical letter that she wrote to a friend who had praised one of her gardening columns-a piece that frowned on certain schools of flower arranging-Katharine [White] conveyed this, and also managed to tip her hat, with characteristic generosity, to one of her writers. The piece, she wrote, "had the great disadvantage of being an attack or knocking down and, as Marianne Moore once wisely said in a lecture to students, it's too easy to be against and much harder and more useful to be for-only she said it much better."
Umbra Fisk: Alarming Prate, On hyped-up verbiage (grist.org)
We can all endeavor to use more descriptive techniques, replacing "global warming is occurring at an alarming rate" with "Pacific islanders have had to relocate because of rising sea levels. If we ever needed a sign that global warming is happening, I feel satisfied with this one." Then we can plan a specific response: "I am going to get my personal carbon emissions down by 10 percent this year, and see what I can do to support wind power. We are in too much danger for me to sit around and gripe." The house is on fire, people. Stop talking about it and do something.
Some Very Excellent Books: 15 writers share their must-reads (laweekly.com)
DANIEL HANDLER (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events): Peter Rock's The Bewildered (MacAdam/Cage) is a book that took me for a walk around my neighborhood, pointed out nineteen things I'd never noticed, led me to a bar with a great jukebox, listened while I blabbed all my secrets, got me into a fight, let me sleep it off on the lawn, put a slab of meat on my black eye, made me a big, greasy breakfast and sent me on my merry, bleary way. If you want anything more from a writer than Peter Rock gives you, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
LONG, WET AND STICKY
SOME MEN FUMBLE AROUND PUTTING IT IN, AND SOME MEN FUMBLE AROUND TAKING IT OUT!
Purple Gene Reviews
'Rollergirls'
Purple Gene's review of the A&E premiere of "Rollergirls":
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny & breezy.
No new flags.
Britney Tops 'Worst Dressed' List
Mr. Blackwell
Britney Spears topped Mr. Blackwell's 46th annual "Worst Dressed" list for wearing clothes that he said made her look like an "over-the-hill Lolita."
Bohemian teen tycoon Mary-Kate Olsen was the next target of the acid-tongued fashion critic. He called her clothes "bag lady rags" and "depressingly decayed."
Jessica Simpson followed Olsen. Though her Daisy Dukes shorts landed her on the pages of numerous magazines, Mr. Blackwell said she "resembles a cut-rate Rapunzel - slingin' hash in a Vegas diner."
The other offenders on Blackwell's list of fashion flops were Eva Longoria, Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Shakira, Anna Nicole Smith and Renee Zellweger.
Mr. Blackwell
Surprises Returning U.S. Troops
Bill Clinton
Former President Bill Clinton surprised U.S. troops arriving from Iraq when his refueling stop at the Bangor International Airport coincided with the arrival of two flights carrying soldiers.
Clinton was returning Monday night from Paris where he had met with French President Jacques Chirac to discuss plans for his charitable organization, the Clinton Foundation.
His plans for a quick departure were waylaid when a problem was discovered with the aircraft, allowing him to join a line of local troop greeters who meet each plane carrying soldiers returning from overseas or leaving for duty.
"Thank you for your service," Clinton said as he shook hands and hugged many of the soldiers. He autographed hats, cards and other items.
Bill Clinton
Bugged About Berlusconi
Roberto Benigni
He may play a love-drunk poet in his latest film, "The Tiger and the Snow," but in real life actor-director Roberto Benigni has resumed his role as political dissident.
The Oscar-winning comedian's renewed political zeal is part of a growing movement in Italy's left-leaning artistic community that has galvanized against the center-right Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ahead of a general election due in spring.
The uprising in the arts includes a string of movies explicitly targeting Berlusconi, whose tight grip on the country's media through his Mediaset empire provides plenty of ammunition to opponents with concerns about free speech.
Opposition to Italy's backing for the invasion of Iraq is also high on the artists' agenda. Just days after leading thousands at a star-studded rally in Rome to protest yet another massive cut to Italy's cultural budget, Benigni took to the airwaves to denounce his country's role: "On television (the war in) Iraq is continually represented with these scenes of horror to which we've become indifferent," Benigni said. "But cinema is another means to elaborate on this huge mourning that is going on in Iraq," he added, referring to his latest film, which is partially set in that country during the war.
Roberto Benigni
Lifetime Achievement Honors Announced
Grammy Awards
David Bowie, blues pioneer Robert Johnson and the late comedian Richard Pryor are among the recording artists slated to receive lifetime achievement honors during next month's Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy said Tuesday.
Eric Clapton's `60s rock group Cream, country singer-songwriter Merle Haggard, opera vocalist Jessye Norman and '50s folk quartet the Weavers, are also due to be honored.
Grammy Awards
Not Decided on Senate Run
Al Franken
Al Franken has moved his radio show from New York City to his home state of Minnesota, but he still isn't ready to announce a U.S. Senate run for 2008.
The comedian and host of "The Al Franken Show" on Air America radio, began broadcasting his show from Minneapolis last week. He says he made the move because, "I just always consider myself a Minnesotan."
Should he seek an elected office, Franken says his key issues would include developing alternative fuel sources, universal health care and dealing with corruption in Iraq. Franken recently returned from his third USO trip, making stops in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Al Franken
Writes Memoir
Cindy Sheehan
U.S. peace activist Cindy Sheehan, who won wide attention with an anti-war vigil outside resident George W. Bush's Texas ranch after her soldier son was killed in Iraq, is writing a memoir, to be published in September.
Simon & Schuster imprint Atria Books said in a statement the book would tell the "wrenching, yet profoundly inspiring story" of how she got over her despair after her son's death in April 2004 by launching her peace campaign.
Sheehan is the subject of a new play, "Peace Mom," by Nobel laureate Dario Fo which had its premiere in London last month.
Cindy Sheehan
Live West Coast News
ABC
Last week, ABC News made television history when it began what will likely be the first regular, live broadcasts of the evening news to the West Coast.
For decades, most of the nightly evening newscasts offered to West Coast viewers have often been as much as three hours old. It's not true when there's breaking news, and the networks plan for that with anchors, reporters and producers standing by. But most of the time there isn't a need for an update, at least for breaking news.
ABC
Sued Over Right To Film In Public
New York City
An award-winning Indian documentary-maker sued New York City on Tuesday because police ordered him to stop filming in public in 2005 and held him for four hours, apparently suspecting he was plotting an attack.
The New York Civil Liberties Union, acting as lawyers for filmmaker Rakesh Sharma, believes it is the first suit to challenge police restrictions on taking pictures in public following the September 11 attacks.
Sharma has won numerous international film awards for the documentaries "Final Solution," on the killing of Muslims in the northwest Indian state of Gujarat in 2002 and 2003, and for "Aftershocks," on the 2001 earthquake in Kutch, Gujarat.
He was taking video with a hand-held camera in midtown Manhattan for a project about New York taxi drivers last May when he was stopped by a plainclothes officer, questioned on the sidewalk, taken in for more questioning and had his camera damaged, the federal lawsuit alleges.
New York City
Hosting CGOP Show
Michael Eisner
Michael Eisner, former chief of the Walt Disney Co., will become host of his own CNBC interview program that will be seen once every two months, the network said Tuesday.
"Conversations with Michael Eisner" will be an hour-long, prime-time show where Eisner speaks with business, entertainment or political leaders. His focus will be on creativity and innovation, he said.
Eisner warmed up for his role last October when he filled in as guest interviewer for Charlie Rose one night on PBS. Media executive Barry Diller and actor John Travolta were his subjects.
Michael Eisner
On The Rise
Unhappiness
There's more misery in people's lives today than a decade ago - at least among those who will tell you their troubles.
So says a new study on life's negatives from the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, which conducts social science research for government agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations and private corporations.
The researchers surveyed 1,340 people about negative life events and found that the 2004 respondents had more troubles than those who were surveyed in 1991, the last time the study was done.
Overall, the percentage who reported at least one significant negative life event increased from 88% to 92%. Most of the problems were related to increased incidents of illness and the inability to afford medical care; mounting bills; unemployment; and troubled romantic relationships.
Unhappiness
No Licence, No Problem
$chwarzenegger
California Gov. Arnold $chwarzenegger, a Harley Davidson owner who rides regularly along the California coast, said Tuesday he never bothered to obtain a motorcycle licence because he "never thought about it."
$chwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson said the governor's driver's licence allows him to drive a motorcycle with a sidecar. But she conceded he probably took years of illegal motorcycle rides because he lacked an endorsement on his licence that would permit him to drive a motorcycle without a sidecar.
California Highway Patrol officers accompanied $chwarzenegger on Sunday's ride but police spokesman Steve Kohler declined to discuss if officers had checked, or would check in the future, whether the governor had a proper licence. Kohler said he could not disclose such information because it involved $chwarzenegger's protective detail.
$chwarzenegger
Died in '03, Left in Front of TV
Johannas Pope
The mummified body of a woman who didn't want to be buried was found in a chair in front of her television set 2 1/2 years after her death, authorities said.
Johannas Pope had told her live-in caregiver that she didn't want to be buried and planned on returning after she died, Hamilton County Coroner O'Dell Owens said Monday.
Pope died in August 2003 at age 61. Her body was found last week in the upstairs of her home on a quiet street. Some family members continued to live downstairs, authorities said.
An air conditioner had been left running upstairs, and that allowed the body to slowly mummify, he said. The machine apparently stopped working about a month ago, and the body began to smell.
Johannas Pope
Ken Keney's Bus
'Furthur'
Zane Kesey picked at moss competing with swirls of brightly colored paint and patches of rust to cover the 1939 International school bus that his father, the late author Ken Kesey, rode cross-country with a refrigerator stocked with LSD-laced drinks in pursuit of a new art form.
For some 15 years, the bus dubbed "Furthur" has rusted away in a swamp on the Kesey family's Willamette Valley farm, out of sight if not out of mind, more memory than monument.
That is where Ken Kesey - author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and hero of a generation that vowed to drop out and tune in with the help of LSD - intended it to stay after firing up a new version.
But four years after his death, Hollywood restaurateur, David Houston, owner of the roadhouse Barney's Beanery, has persuaded the family to resurrect the old bus so it can help tell the story of Kesey, the Merry Pranksters and the psychedelic 1960s.
'Furthur'
Prime-Time Nielsen
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Jan. 2-8. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. (X) "Rose Bowl: Southern California vs. Texas," ABC, 35.6 million viewers.
2. (1) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 27.2 million viewers.
3. (X) "Rose Bowl Pregame," ABC, 24.5 million viewers.
4. (2) "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 23.7 million viewers.
5. (X) "NFL Playoff: Jacksonville vs. New England," ABC, 22.6 million viewers.
6. (X) "NFL Postgame Show," CBS, 22.3 million viewers.
7. (X) "NFL Pregame Show," ABC, 22 million viewers.
8. (3) "Without a Trace," CBS, 20.9 million viewers.
9. (X) "Fiesta Bowl: Notre Dame vs. Ohio State," ABC, 20.6 million viewers.
10. (X) " Orange Bowl: Penn State vs. FSU," ABC, 18.6 million viewers.
11. (16) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 17.5 million viewers.
12. (9) "60 Minutes," CBS, 17.5 million viewers.
13. (X) "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 17.5 million viewers.
14. (5) "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 16.3 million viewers.
15. (8) "Cold Case," CBS, 16 million viewers.
16. (13) "Law & Order: SVU," NBC, 15.2 million viewers.
17. (X) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (Thursday, 8 p.m.), CBS, 14.5 million viewers.
18. (19) "ER," NBC, 14 million viewers.
19. (28) "Numb3rs," CBS, 13.9 million viewers.
20. (X) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 13.9 million viewers.
Ratings
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