'Best of TBH Politoons'
Cory!! Strode On Graphic Novels
Clyde Fans
One of the reasons I started writing this column was to bring comics to the attention of people who don't normally read comics. Comics are pretty much thought of as super-hero or fantasy stuff, and most weeks, if you go in to a comic shop, that's what you are going to find.
But, if you dig a bit deeper and look a bit harder, you can find things that not only don't fit into those genres, but also couldn't be done in any other medium. One of those books is "Clyde Fans"; the first collected volume of which is currently available. The cartoonist, Seth, is best known outside the comic book world as being the designed of the new "Complete Peanuts" series of books. His style is very understated, with muted coloring, simple lines, and an overall tone of New Yorker cartoons of the 1950's and 1960's.
Clyde Fans Volume One a simple story, really, and collects what would be considered two connected short stories. The first half is set near the present day, as the owner of a small fan distribution company is telling the story of his company to the reader. Seth has the character tell the story while going about an evening in his home. The technique is odd at first, but as the readers keeps going, the artist's storytelling choices sink in. It gives the story a slow, deliberate mood that fits the finality of what the character is talking about. Seth's other work has been slowly paced, using silent panels and single "mood drawings" to set tone, but "Clyde Fans" does it in such a way that the reader gets the mood and tone without noticing.
The second half of the book flashes back to the 1950's, when the character from the first half is sending his brother on his first sales trip. We already know that the brother fails from reading the first half, but it's here that Seth shows a mastery of character. With no narration, we follow the character through his trip, seeing who is as instead of being told who he is. Framing a simple sales trip as an allegory for something more important is nothing new in literature, but here, it is done with slow deliberation in a way that a movie wouldn't be able to do, and a novel would be overburdened with description by.
Clyde Fans is a comic that deserves at least two readings, once to grasp the story, and a second time to see the detail and care that Seth puts in to telling the story, with characterization and attention to detail done with deceptively simple looking artwork. I wasn't expecting much when I bought "Clyde Fans", thinking I would be getting a history lesson or another "Old things were better" nostalgia piece, but Seth surprised me by giving two of the most interesting characters in literature I have discovered in a long time.
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
Monthly Link
Modern Mirth
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
TIM DICKINSON: The Return of the Draft (Rolling Stone)
Evan Derkacz: Voice of America (AlterNet)
How to Talk to a Conservative About Social Security (Think Progress)
Maya Keyes ends speculation about her sexuality (The Advocate)
Ella Taylor: Deep Throat Doc (LA Weekly)
Terry Smith: Road-savvy Texas troubadour plays on former crony's home turf (Athens NEWS)
David Bruce: Kisses (Athens News)
The Wall Street Poet
The Medicare Drug Poem
©2005
Purple Gene Reviews
'The Third Man'
Purple Genes' review of the movie "
The Third Man" (1949) Directed by Carol Reed:
From the opening credits of "The Third Man", with the mesmerizing zither music of Anton Karas permeating the sound track and the actual zither strings super-imposed over the credits themselves - vibrating with each plucking - you know you are in for a memorable, magnificent movie experience……… Shot brilliantly in black and white and mostly at night in a bleak but beautiful bombed out post war Vienna, Robert Krasker received an Academy award for Cinematography….. And the direction and editing is simply flawless….
It's 1949 in a divided Vienna. American, British, Russian and French Zones separate the city from itself and black market activities thrive….
Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton "Citizen Kane" - "Shadow of a Doubt" - "Niagara") writes pulp westerns and loves Zane Grey and has come to Vienna at the behest of his old buddy Harry Lime (Orson Welles "Citizen Kane" - "Lady from Shanghai" - "Touch of Evil") but it seems that Harry has been run over by a truck and so we find Holly at the graveyard where he runs into a beautiful mysterious woman who happens to have been Harrys' girlfriend….Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli "Paradine Case" - "The Miracle of the Bells" - "The Stranger's Hand") we find out had been rescued from Russia with the help of Harry Lime…and she still loves the guy…..Holly falls in love with Anna at the funeral and the plot thickens…….
The official story about Harry's death says that two men brought him to the hospital….but Holly finds out that there was a THIRD MAN at the scene and he's determined to get to the bottom of it……What was Harry up to? Where is Harry now? Who was the Third Man?
Major Calloway (Trevor Howard "Brief Encounter" - "Passionate Friends" - "Mutiny on the Bounty") is the British officer in charge and when he runs into Holly Martins he tells Holly to go HOME…..But Holly presses on about Harry and finally finds out that Harry was involved in a sinister smuggling enterprise that brought much needed Penicillin into the Hospitals of Vienna….but Harry ended up watering down the medicine for profit …. killing and maiming thousands of infected children. Holly also finds out that Harry was in the passport forging business and that's why Anna is still in love with him…….but something is wrong with the story and Holly, in a spectacular scene, finds out that Harry is still alive …and running…that the whole accident was staged and here Harry is in the doorway across from Holly…….acting as if nothing at all was wrong.
Holly and Harry have a heart to heart in the car on a Ferris wheel and Holly realizes what a fool he's been for all these years thinking Harry had a heart…..Harry is actually evil and enterprising and dangerous…..and he disappears…..Holly decides to help Major Calloway catch Harry and at the same time Holly still wants to get the girl…but Anna is still stubbornly in love with Harry and won't leave….then the chase begins….
The chase scenes are in the elaborate underground sewers of Vienna…backlit with moving shadows and showers of effluent flowing to the Danube through elaborate waterways and canals…and Harry running like a rat……with everyone after him until the final gut wrenching, agonizing SHOT…
The final scene is long and slow and beautiful - with the Zither playing that hypnotic tune - Anna walks down a long tree lined street….right past Holly…end of movie!
Purple Gene gives "The Third Man" 10 romantically plucked zither strings out of 10 for being an absolutely perfect combination of movie, mystery and music
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Gray & overcast - more rain on the way.
Egg Boy Tries To Make Trouble
Chris Rock
Producers of the upcoming Academy Awards are getting what they paid for when they hired sharp-tongued comic Chris Rock to host the Oscars -- a bit of pre-show controversy that could boost TV ratings.
Internet gossip columnist Matt 'Egg Boy' Drudge posted an item on his Web site over the weekend quoting unnamed members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expressing outrage at some Oscar-bashing comments by Rock in an Entertainment Weekly interview. Rock said he had rarely watched the Oscars, and called award shows "idiotic."
Drudge, whose item ran under the headline, "Host Chris Rock Shock: Only Gays Watch Oscars," cited unnamed sources as saying angry academy members were privately calling for Rock to be removed as host.
But Oscar producer Gil Cates issued a statement on Monday saying he and the academy stand behind Rock, and denying that anyone at the academy had taken offense.
Likewise, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation issued a statement in defense of Rock. "Chris Rock isn't making fun of gays -- he's poking fun at the Oscars," GLAAD executive director Joan Garry said. "It's shtick ..."
Chris Rock
British Papers Pay Damages
Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)
Two British newspapers said Tuesday they had paid unspecified damages to the singer once known as Cat Stevens over articles suggesting the Muslim convert had links to terrorists.
The musician, now known as Yusuf Islam, said The Sunday Times and The Sun had promised not to repeat the allegation and agreed to pay his legal costs and "substantial damages."
Islam said he planned to use the settlement money to help children orphaned by the tsunami in Asia.
Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)
No Longer Talking to Press
'Jeff Gannon'
James D. Guckert, the former White House reporter who's been accused of everything from asking partisan questions to being a male prostitute, is no longer speaking to the press, claiming it does not help his cause, he told E&P this morning.
That approach is a shift from Guckert's activities in the past week, when he has appeared on CNN and National Public Radio and allowed several other news organizations, including E&P, to interview him.
The controversial reporter resigned last week from his job with obscure conservative Web site Talon News, which is operated by a Texas Republican activist, after revelations that he had changed his name and allegations that he had set up sexually oriented Web sites.
In addition, evidence emerged on the site Americablog yesterday suggesting that Guckert not only set up sex sites but also offered his services as a male prostitute. When asked by E&P today about such accusations, Gannon declined to confirm or deny. "I am not going to talk about that," he said.
'Jeff Gannon'
Yoko and Meryl Made It In
Women's Dictionary
For Meryl Streep and Yoko Ono, it is recognition at last. For J.K. Rowling and Condoleezza Rice, it is time to join the front ranks.
The latest update of the authoritative "Dictionary of Women's Biography" gives an intriguing glimpse into how female high achievers have fought for recognition in a man's world over the past five years.
From pilots to poisoners and queens to cooks, more than 2,000 women are listed in a book that gave authors Maggy Hendry and Jenny Uglow a chance to rectify some glaring omissions.
In the dictionary's first update for five years, Hollywood veteran Meryl Streep makes her debut as does sitcom pioneer Lucille Ball, the first person to have her own TV production company under her own control.
For the rest, Women's Dictionary
Baby News
Alice & Nicolas Cage
Oscar winner Nicolas Cage and his wife of nearly seven months are expecting a child, the actor's publicist said on Tuesday.
It would be the first child for Cage, 41, and his wife, the former Alice Kim, his spokeswoman told Reuters. No due date was given.
The actor and his wife, whose pregnancy was first reported by the syndicated TV show "Access Hollywood," met at a nightclub last year before marrying on July 30, 2004. She is a former waitress about 20 years his junior.
Alice & Nicolas Cage
Set To Resume Concerts In May
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot and Massey Hall in Toronto are a familiar pair - the singer-songwriter has made the most solo performances at the Hall of any performer. Lightfoot took a break for a few years as he fought a life-threatening illness, but now he's poised to return to his old haunt.
The legendary folk singer will give four performances May 18-21, it was announced this week. Tickets go on sale Feb. 17 (call 416-872-4255 or go to www.masseyhall.com).
Gordon Lightfoot
Boxer Kills Self
'The Contender'
One of the aspiring young boxers featured in the upcoming reality show "The Contender" has committed suicide three weeks before the heavily promoted show is slated to debut on NBC, the network said on Tuesday.
Najai Turpin, 23, a middleweight from Philadelphia known as Nitro, shot himself to death early Monday while sitting in front of his girlfriend's house, police said.
An NBC spokeswoman said the show would premiere as planned on March 7 and would contain previously filmed segments about Turpin. A source close to the show said there was no evidence to suggest that the series was a factor in his death.
'The Contender'
Reality Show Hunts for Next Janis Joplin
'Search for the Pearl'
If Joss Stone isn't busy, here's something she could probably win. Janis Joplin's estate has announced "Search for the Pearl," a reality TV talent search to find the next Joplin.
According to a statement, vocalists across the country will audition to recreate the vocal styling of Joplin, who died in 1970 at age 27. Five finalists will be flown to San Francisco to perform for a panel of judges. The selected Janis-a-like will then headline a world concert tour, performing with bands that played with Joplin including Big Brother & The Holding Company, the Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie Band. The tour will culminate in a star-studded tribute concert in 2006.
The estate also announced that Joplin's life will be the subject of a biopic starring pop singer Pink and directed by Penelope Spheeris.
'Search for the Pearl'
Woman Sentenced
Drunk on Listerine
A woman who pleaded guilty to driving while drunk on three glasses of Listerine was sentenced Tuesday to two years of probation.
Officials suspected Carol Ries, 50, was intoxicated after she rear-ended another vehicle at a red light in January. Police found a bottle of the mouthwash in her car.
She passed one breath test, but failed another that used different equipment. Her blood alcohol level was .30 percent, more than three times the legal limit.
According to Listerine manufacturer Pfizer Inc.'s Web site, original formula Listerine contains 26.9 percent alcohol, more than four times that of many malt liquors, while other varieties contain 21.6 percent alcohol.
Drunk on Listerine
Australian Museum Drops Bid To Clone
Thylacine
The Australian Museum has abandoned an ambitious attempt to clone an extinct marsupial known as the "Tasmanian tiger", or thylacine.
The project to clone the animal using DNA recovered from a pickled thylacine pup was started in 1999 by the museum's then-director, Mike Archer.
The last known thylacine, a striped, dog-like marsupial -- animals which keep their young in a pouch -- died in captivity in Hobart in 1936 and was believed to have been extinct on the Australian mainland for 2,000 years.
Thylacine
