'TBH Politoons'
Cory!! Strode On Graphic Novels
Alan Moore
One of the best writers in comics is Alan Moore. Even if you don't read comics, you've heard of his works that have been made into (mostly vastly inferior) movies like From Hell, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V For Vendetta. He is credited for being the writer who brought adult writing to comics after years of it being strongly pulp influenced, and has been imitated by so many writers that his early works don't seem as shocking as they once were.
Luckily, he's still writing comics, and his line called "America's Best Comics" just concluded. All of the books from that line are well worth reading, and have been collected into hardcover or trade paperback format, but I have been re-reading the two book mini-series "Top 10" and thought it would be a good book to recommend for summer reading.
"Top 10" is a simple concept: Hill Street Blues in a Super-Hero city, but it takes that idea much further than any other "police based" super-hero comic book has ever done. It starts with a normal story conceit, a new cop coming on the force. It's a simple way to start a story and makes it easy for a reader to be given information, but it quickly veers off from the expected path, and instead does a solid job of mixing humor and drama, much like how "Hill Street Blues" did at it's peak.
Unlike most comics put out today, the pages are thick with detail, and filled with dialog, making this a substantial read. Each character is interesting enough for their own series, and even what the reader thinks would be throw away characters are interesting and well drawn. Even the cabbie who drives the initial character to her first day of work has a fascinating twist to his powers and a background that leaves you wanting to know more about his past. Moore has always excelled at deep characterization on top of inventive ideas, and this series shows that skill better than most of his other recent works, but never once pointing out its own cleverness.
The only way a series like this can work if the artist involved is good enough to keep everything going on clear enough for the reader to follow while adding enough background detail that the readers gets the idea that we are only seeing part of the story. Gene Ha is a great artist, and his ability to draw a city filled with super-heroes who seem like real people casually going through their lives in gaudy costumes makes the book work. Every panel is brimming with detail that adds to the atmosphere of the story, as well as tells tiny stories going on the background of the main story.
While the "Promethia" series under Moore's "America' Best Comics" imprint is more literary (and I'll be reviewing it soon), "Top 10" is a fun comic that wouldn't work in any other medium. It takes the idea of super-heroes and turns it on its head which Moore often does when working the genre, and shows that there is a LOT more that can be done with the genre if someone just takes the time to think of a new idea.
Both of the "Top 10" trade paperbacks get a 5 out of 5 and are highly recommended for casual readers.
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
Nat Hentoff: Europe Shames U.S. Congress
CIA war crimes in Europe are now under official investigation there, but not here (villagevoice.com)
Mischa Gaus: Hey Millennials, Debt Becomes You (inthesetimes.com)
Twenty-somethings face a life of looming loans.
Shelly R. Fredman: Howard Zinn on Fixing What's Wrong (Tikkun. Posted on Alternet.com)
'People think there must be some magical tactic, beyond the traditional ones -- protests, demonstrations, vigils, civil disobedience -- but there is no magical panacea, only persistence.'
Annalee Newitz: Porn 2.0 (AlterNet.org)
Everyone asks what porn has done for the Web, but they never ask what the Web has done for porn. In one San Francisco office, I found out.
David Plotz: Blogging the Bible (slate.com)
What happens when an ignoramus reads the Good Book?
Steven Barrie-Anthony: Take a number, pal (calendarlive.com)
Web etiquette goes wacky when ranking friends becomes an exercise in lifeboat ethics.
'Dying to Be Published'
Literary Beggar's
Reader Suggestion
How Gay is Vito?
Here's an interesting read - How Gay is Vito on the Sopranos?
Jim
Thanks, Jim!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another lovely overcast morning.
The Angelides/Westly campaign has taken a turn to the nasty. Hate seeing dems fling monkey shit at each other.
No new flags.
Finally Returning Money Involved In Scam
Dana Rohrabacher
A California Congressman said on Wednesday he would return $23,000 paid for a screenplay by a Hollywood producer involved in scam, but said he still had hopes his script might make its way to the screen.
Republican Dana Rohrabacher (R-Taliban), a former speechwriter for the late President Ronald Reagan, updated a 30-year-old script about a Vietnam War veteran to the Iraq War for Joseph Medawar, who claimed in 2004 and 2005 that he was developing a TV show about the Department of Homeland Security.
Medawar pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court on Tuesday to swindling about 50 investors out of $3.4 million he raised for the purported TV series. Prosecutors said he spent most of it on a Beverly Hills mansion and luxury cars.
Dana Rohrabacher
Writing New Book
Bill Clinton
After writing an autobiography that sold millions of copies and earned him a hefty advance, former President Clinton has struck a deal to write another book.
Alfred A. Knopf will publish the new work, in which Clinton will focus on public service and individual citizen activism, telling a story that he hopes will "lift spirits" and "touch hearts," the former president said in a statement Wednesday.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Clinton is said to have received a staggering advance of $10 million to $12 million for writing "My Life," the 957-page memoir that Knopf published in 2004.
Bill Clinton
Awards Provide Spotlight
Unseen Songwriters
The Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel ballroom was filled with some of pop's biggest hitmakers, but even the most ardent music fans would have had a hard time finding a familiar face.
They know the songs: "Hollaback Girl," "Soldier" and "Disco Inferno." They know the artists: Gwen Stefani, Destiny's Child and 50 Cent. But most don't know the writers behind the music.
These often unseen artists were honored Tuesday at the BMI Pop Music Awards. The ASCAP Pop Awards next week also pay tribute to the writers who put hit songs into the mouths of pop's hottest stars.
Unseen Songwriters
Cancels Sunday Movie
CBS
CBS is cancelling its Sunday movie in favour of two successful crime procedurals and will add a new Thursday series next fall with James Woods portraying a defence attorney who becomes a prosecutor.
The end of CBS's Sunday movie means that none of the major broadcast networks will have a regularly scheduled movie night. CBS has aired a movie on Sundays since the 1986-87 television season.
After 60 Minutes, CBS's reconfigured Sunday lineup has The Amazing Race, Cold Case and Without a Trace - a top 10 hit that's moving from 10 p.m. Thursdays. Sundays will be transformed next fall when NBC begins airing football games and ABC moves Grey's Anatomy to Thursdays.
CBS
New Album
Yusuf Islam
Yusuf Islam, the pop star formerly known as Cat Stevens who left the wild world of the music business in the 1970s, is returning with a new album that he hopes will bridge the divide between Islam and the west.
The as-yet untitled album, due for release this autumn on Universal Music's Polydor label, was produced by Rick Nowels, who has also worked with artists such as Madonna and Dido.
Yusuf Islam
Splitsville
McCartneys
Former Beatle Paul McCartney and his second wife, Heather Mills McCartney, said Wednesday that they are separating after nearly four years of marriage, blaming intrusion from the media and insisting their split is amicable.
McCartney, 63, and Mills, 38, married in June 2002, four years after his former wife, Linda McCartney, died of breast cancer. McCartney and Mills had a daughter, Beatrice, in October 2003.
McCartney
Baby News
Nana Kwadjo Hayes
Isaac Hayes and his wife are the parents of a baby boy, the couple announced Tuesday.
Nana Kwadjo Hayes was born April 10 and weighed 8 pounds, 5 ounces, spokesman Rob Moore said.
In the Ghanaian language, Nana means "King," and Kwadjo (pronounced "Kwo-Jo") means "boy born on Monday."
Kwadjo is Hayes' fourth son and the first with wife Adjowa.
Nana Kwadjo Hayes
Hearing Postponed
CBS vs Howard Stern
A court hearing on Wednesday regarding CBS Radio's breach of contract lawsuit against former radio host Howard Stern was postponed until next week, a court clerk said.
The delay suggests the parties are still working toward a settlement.
At a hearing last week, a CBS lawyer told the court the two sides were close to settling the suit, in which CBS is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for breach of contract, fraud, unjust enrichment and misuse of CBS broadcast time.
CBS vs Howard Stern
New Schedule
The CW
The CW network will look like the sum of its parts when the successor of the soon-to-be-defunct UPN and WB launches in the fall with a mix of holdovers and just two new offerings.
UPN's "Veronica Mars" and the WB's "One Tree Hill" made the cut at the CW, but the WB's family drama "Everwood" did not.
Also moving to the new network are UPN comedies "Girlfriends," "Everybody Hates Chris" and "All of Us," and WB dramas "Smallville," "Supernatural" and "Gilmore Girls," with veteran "7th Heaven" expected to join the group pending the completion of new deals with the cast.
On the reality side, UPN's hit "America's Next Top Model" and WB's "Beauty and the Geek" are rumored for a possible pairing on the schedule, with Wednesday considered a logical place.
The CW
Portugal Launches Online Radio Station
Mozart
Portugal's state-owned public broadcaster RDP has launched a new Internet-based station dedicated exclusively to the music of Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in honour of his 250th birthday.
The station began broadcasting on Tuesday on http://radiomozart.rtp.pt and will operate until the end of the year. It will broadcast more than 70 different works by the composer as well as panel discussions about his work.
Mozart
Honda Wins Top Honor
Clio Awards
Memorable ads for Honda, Viagra, Bud Light and Pampers dominated the television and radio categories at the 47th annual Clio Awards Tuesday.
Honda's "Impossible Dream" campaign won the coveted Grand Clio, besting nearly 19,000 entries from 40 countries in the process. The award went -- for the third consecutive year -- to the London office of ad agency Wieden + Kennedy.
Other honorees included Bud Light's "Real Men of Genius" radio spots, featuring humorous characters such as Mr. Backyard Bug Zapper Inventor, Mr. 80 SPF Wearer and Mr. Nosebleed Section Fan.
Clio Awards
Elvis Told Him...
Uri Geller
Uri Geller said he got a sign from Elvis Presley, and the message was loud and clear: "Don't worry, you'll have my house."
The psychic, who had the winning bid of $905,100 US for a house Presley lived in as his career was taking off, said he was travelling to London in the closing moments of the EBay auction Sunday when the radio began playing, Love Me Tender.
Geller, who lives outside London, is buying the house with two partners: Peter Gleason, a New York lawyer and retired firefighter, and Lisbeth Silvandersson, a jewelry maker in England.
Uri Geller
Two Fans Commission Statue
Don Knotts
Two fans of the The Andy Griffith Show have commissioned a life-sized bronze statue of Barney Fife that they plan to donate to Mount Airy, N.C., the model for the show's fictional town of Mayberry.
Tom Hellebrand and Neal Shelton are raising money for the $35,000 US project as a tribute to Don Knotts, the late actor who portrayed the bumbling Fife on the popular show. Knotts died on Feb. 24 at the age of 81 from pulmonary and respiratory complications.
Hellebrand and Shelton will raffle off one of Shelton's restored cars along with a golf cart built to look like a squad car. They are accepting donations and have agreed to donate any money over the $35,000 they need to a charity in Knotts' name.
Don Knotts
Bad News For Monkeys
Bananas
Go bananas while you still can. The world's most popular fruit and the fourth most important food crop of any sort is in deep trouble. Its genetic base, the wild bananas and traditional varieties cultivated in India, has collapsed.
Virtually all bananas traded internationally are of a single variety, the Cavendish, the genetic roots of which lie in India. Three years ago, New Scientist revealed that the world Cavendish crop was threatened by pandemics of diseases such as that caused by the black sigatoka fungus. The main hope for survival of the Cavendish lies in developing new hybrids resistant to the fungus, but this is a difficult and time-consuming task because the seedless modern fruit does not reproduce sexually and has to be bred from cuttings.
Now the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that wild banana species are rapidly going extinct as Indian forests are destroyed, while many traditional farmers' varieties are also disappearing. It could take a global effort to save the bananas' gene pool.
Bananas
In Memory
Frankie Thomas
Frankie Thomas, who became famous in the 1950s for his starring role in the TV children's show "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet," has died. He was 85.
Thomas began acting on Broadway in the early 1930s and soon ventured west to Hollywood, where he appeared in films including "A Dog of Flanders," "Boys Town" and "The Major and the Minor," as well as four Nancy Drew movies.
In 1950, he beat out actors including Jack Lemmon to win the title role of Tom Corbett, a Space Academy cadet who was training to become a member of the elite Solar Guard, 400 years in the future.
The show aired on CBS, ABC, NBC and the DuMont network and spawned popular phrases including "Blast your jets," "Don't fuse your tubes" and "Spaceman's luck."
He is survived by his stepdaughter Julie Alexander, and a stepson, James Aicholtz. At his request, Thomas was buried Tuesday in his "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" costume.
Frankie Thomas
In Memory
Lew Anderson
Lew Anderson, who captivated young baby boomers as the Howdy Doody Show's final Clarabell the Clown, has died at the age of 84.
Long mute as Clarabell, Anderson broke the clown's silence in the show's final episode in 1960. With trembling lips and a visible tear in his eye, he spoke the show's final words: "Goodbye, kids."
Though Anderson was not the only man to play "Buffalo Bob" Smith's mute sidekick, he was the best, Smith said in his memoir.
Though his fame as Clarabell followed him throughout his life, Anderson was also a success as a musician and bandleader. In recent years, his All-American Big Band appeared on Friday nights at New York's Birdland jazz club.
Anderson followed Bobby Nicholson, who later played Doodyville's J. Cornelius Cobb, into the role. The first to play the mute clown was Bob Keeshan, who later became known as Captain Kangaroo.
Anderson, who lived in South Salem, is survived by his wife, Peggy, two sons and five grandchildren.
Lew Anderson
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