The Week That Was

Courtesy of ADD, some fascinating pics of an abandoned Russian city. Pretty haunting.

On a much less haunting note, I've been getting into the Roger Corman adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe work, most of which starred the great Vincent Price. Corman really has a rap as a shlockmeister, and I wouldn't call him a great visionary, but he's a competent director in the films I've seen so far. The Masque of the Red Death is a highlight, with a bigger budget than usual and some great sets, particularly the palace rooms where one room is all yellow, one all purple, one all white, etc. This movie also is heavily influenced by Ingmar Bergman, but in a fun, pop way that just appropriates some visuals without their symbolic meanings in most cases. Price is great, and kudos to the writers for working the Poe story Hop-Frog in as a subplot.

On the same disc, retailing for about $12.99, is another Corman Poe adaptation, The Premature Burial, though for contractual reasons it featured Ray Milland as the lead (Corman went to make the film for Pathe' due to a dispute with his usual studio AIP, and on the first day of shooting learned that AIP had bought Pathe', so nothing changed for him except technically Price was under contract to AIP and so unavailable, at least up to the point that Milland was cast and the sale was final). It doesn't matter much--Milland is good as the man obsessed with being buried alive like he believed his father was. The reveal defies belief, but it's an enjoyable movie, particularly the customized mausoleum with half a dozen means of escape, including the ultimate escape, poison. Small role by the late, great character actor Dick Miller as a gravedigger.

I also watched one half of another twofer dvd, The Raven, which came with The Comedy of Terrors, both films featuring the horror trio of Price, Karloff and Peter Lorre. The Comedy of Terrors is not a Corman film, I don't think, but The Raven is, and is unique among his Poe adaptations for 1) adapting a poem rather than short story, 2) being a comedy, and 3) featuring a young, thin Jack Nicholson playing second-rate sorceror Lorre's son. Richard Matheson wrote the script, dispensing with the poem quickly and moving onto the ridiculous but sublime tale of the battle between good magician Erasmus Craven (Price) and evil magician Dr. Scarabus (Karloff). The creepiest part is really just seeing Karloff descending a staircase with his bad legs; mostly the film is a hoot and pretty much all-ages. The magical duel is silly by the standards of current special effects, but still pretty effective, and a good example of what Corman could do on a low budget with his imagination. All the dvds in this set contain interviews with Corman about the film in particular, along with other features like interviews with Matheson for the ones he wrote. The Raven also has the audio (along with stills from the film and promotional material) for a promotional record that came out for the movie back in the '60s. Orson Welles camps it up wonderfully, really making the plot of the film sound like it's going to be a terrifying horror classic rather than humorous fluff, and this is interspersed with a reading of the poem by Lorre and some promotional shilling by Karloff--no Price on this. Corman and Matheson both praised Price highly for his talent and generosity.

I also continued to catch up on some TV shows, including the final season of Arrested Development, which went out strong; the second disc of the first season of the revamped Battlestar Galactica--Netflix sent me disc two by mistake but I watched it anyway and it doesn't really seem like I need to go back to see the first few episodes now. Good show. Not great but good. I also watched all of the underrated Lisa Kudrow series The Comeback, which starts off a little too painful to laugh at but finds its groove by the third or fourth episode and ends up right up there with Curb and The Office for classic comedy of discomfort. Kudrow is a fantastic actress and there are some really moving scenes in here as her character has to suffer one indignity after another with a frozen smile for the reality TV cameras always recording her.

I also got some work done, or at least did some work in order to get some work. The writing gig for the upcoming graphic novel series is not finalized yet, and part of that has to do with my lack of published work. So I threw out the idea of getting an artist to pencil an original three-pager related to the project, and the powers that be liked the idea. Wrote the script Monday over several cups of coffee and sent it off to a studio a friend hooked me up with. Turns out I need to provide some photo reference as well, so that's going out tomorrow. Obviously, one would rather not shell out money in order to get a job, but I think it's worth a shot in this case. I kind of liked the story, too, for what it is, as well as just liking the fact I was able to come up with it so quickly.

Sorry to see that Steve (The Crocodile Hunter) Irwin died. I know John Byrne called him an asshole (and near-psychotic and other things) on his forum, but I dunno, I try not to reduce people to "asshole" when they've got other good qualities. I'm sure Byrne wouldn't like others to do the same to him, and he's much less likeable, publicly at least, than Irwin was. Irwin's wife knew what she was getting into when she married the guy; if she was okay with the danger, why is he an asshole? Because he left her and a little daughter behind? I guess it's better for near-psychotics to hang around to raise kids. Makes sense.

Two of the best books you'll ever read are Found (there are two volumes), which collects the best from the magazine of the same name, devoted to lost and tossed scraps of people's lives, from Post-Its to greeting cards to notes (love, suicide, etc.) to receipts to photos to ads...as others have pointed out, each piece is like a little short story, especially the ones that are hard to figure out. Often funny, sometimes surprisingly touching. I also loved Vice Magazine's 10 Years of Do's and Don'ts (or something similarly titled), which is the brilliantly vicious and strange comments of Gavin McInnes on hundreds of cool and bizarre people photographed on the street (including a dozen or so celebrities, mostly unnamed). It's a lot more satisfying than "real" fashion critiques, as the "Do's" are usually those who have a personal sense of style and don't try too hard rather than those fitted head to toe in the hippest, most expensive styles, and the "Don'ts" are freaks and losers wholly deserving of derision, often due to their arrogance rather than being "unhip." You may already know McInnes from being the writer of the same magazine's Completely Pip and Norton, illustrated by Dave (Weasel) Cooper and collected, I think, by Dark Horse a few years ago. I might warn you that his comments are far from PC; he does his mightiest to reclaim "fag" though the word itself was never used as a punchline nor homosexuality itself scorned, aside from one picture where a hetero couple are having sex on a couch and a gay guy is apparently farting on them to get them to stop or to express his disgust, and I think you've got to give McInnes slack on that one. I'd call those both party fouls.

Oh shit! I forgot to say anything about last week's sixth year anniversary for Comic Book Galaxy. The site will always be my first love, though I admit I'm happy not really worrying about it on a daily basis these days. The guys who are still associated with us are there because they're good and they're reliable and they're not pains in our asses. There are many reasons multi-contributor sites blow up. Often there's some ego involved--somebody wants to be the only boss. That wasn't really our problem as ADD was always boss except once or twice when he just didn't want to be. Mostly, I think our problem has usually been unreliable contributors, either unreliable in providing regular content or unreliable in providing GOOD content. It's hard to do! I think the way the site is now, there may be less variety, but at least readers know pretty much what they're getting. As for myself, I don't know how long I'll keep at it. I like it as much as ever, but I don't have the same need to review everything that comes across my path. I mean, I'm sure I can do a fine job on the Nextwave: Agents of Hate hardcover that just came out, but is there really a need for my review of it? Who wants to be 40 and saying, "I always meant to read Tintin/Asterix/Barefoot Gen/Arzach, but I just had to keep up with Wildcats/Avengers/Teen Titans," you know? I'll cover what I want to, but in a lot of cases I really want to keep it short, so I can move onto the next thing. Anyway, happy birthday to Comic Book Galaxy, which has really been a haven and an environment where I've been able to stretch out and find my own style and voice. And as always, thanks to ADD for the opportunity. Later.