Monday, 31 August 2009: Work, food, and Ponyo

On Tuesday, 18 August 2009, I received a minor promotion from assistant site editor to associate site editor at TT. In addition to my existing duties at the technology journalism company, I’m helping to coordinate coverage of this week’s VMworld conference in San Francisco and taking on more Web page management responsibilities.

On the bright side, I’ve already been treated out to sushi lunches at Fuji in Needham,
Massachusetts, twice by current and future managers! I’m flattered that they’ve had such confidence in my organizational abilities after only three months, and I hope to earn their trust.

On Monday, Aug. 24, Janice and I met with former CW co-workers Michele D. and Bob R. for a pleasant dinner at the Watch City Brewery on Moody Street in Waltham, Mass. I still hope to get together with other former colleagues, including Monica S., Donna S., and Brian F.

On Saturday, Aug. 29, I met Ken G. for lunch at Rawbert’s Vegan Café before going to an exhibit on comic book history at the Wenham Museum. The big news in the world of superheroes is that Disney is buying Marvel. I don’t expect any immediate changes in the comics or movies, but the move puts more pressure on DC Comics and Warner Brothers to try to catch up.

On Sunday, Janice and I had brunch at the ’50s Diner in Dedham, Mass., and went to the Dedham Community Theater to screen Ponyo. A few months ago, I saw and liked the subtitled version of the latest Miyazaki anime, and I found the English-dubbed
version to be better paced. I’d still give this PG-rated variation on The Little Mermaid an 8 out of 10, or a B+.

Although I’ve had to cancel this coming week’s games, I did catch the first-season finale of BBC America’s supernatural melodrama Being Human, which may not have the popularity of True Bloodor Twilight, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. The regular autumn genre television season begins in the next few weeks, but first, I’ve got lots of work to do!

Monday, 3 August 2009: Comic-Con and graphical entertainment

It’s too bad that in all the news media coverage of last week’s San Diego Comic-Con and costumed fans, the source material for television shows, movies, and games was often overlooked. My hat goes off to the writers, pencillers, inkers, letterers, colorists, and editors who work on comic books. The Eisner Awards, named after the creator of The Spirit,
recognizes each year’s outstanding achievements in graphical entertainment.

As I’ve mentioned before, I mostly read monthly superhero comic books, but I appreciate other genres, independent publishers besides DC and Marvel, and longer graphic novels. As the average reader gets older, we’ve been increasingly targeted by titles around licensed
properties and nostalgia, but as long as new readers are brought in, the hobby should stay healthy.

I’ve been a fan of the colorful, iconic superheroes of the DC Comics universe since college in the late 1980s. The “event“-driven crossovers of the past few years have been dark in tone, and Green Lantern: Blackest Night is no exception. However, it does look like it will address
the revolving door of death necessitated by the need to keep characters forever young while also respecting long continuities. Speaking of Green Lantern, Janice and I enjoyed the direct-to-DVD Green Lantern: First Flight this past weekend. It covers some of the same territory as the recent Justice League: New Frontier but is more of a police procedural in space.

I’ve blogged before about the often-confusing or lackluster storylines in DC’s team books, but I hope that the latest roster updates of the Justice League, Justice Society, and Teen Titans will get them back to being the world’s finest superheroes. Over at Marvel, I’ve
stopped following the three Avengers teams and numerous X-Men, but Spider-Man 600 did a good job of merging Silver Age nostalgia with an update on what’s going on in Peter Parker’s life now. Captain America is still my favorite Marvel title right now, as Steve Rogers returns to wear the red, white, and blue.

The Batman family of titles has been among my favorites lately, with strong art and
writing on Detective Comics, even without Bruce Wayne as the Dark Knight. I haven’t been following Superman as closely, but I’m glad to see epic storylines and art inspired by the late Christopher Reeve. I’ve also been watching the Kirk Alyn serials from the late 1940s on DVD. DC’s Wednesday Comics have continued to impress me, even though, as with any anthology, some features (Teen Titans, Wonder Woman) are weaker than others (Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Kamandi). On balance, I’ve been enjoying the experiment.

Speaking of avant-garde storytelling, I look forward to Volume 3 of Umbrella Academy, Gerard Way‘s postmodern fever dream that turns the conventions of costumed vigilantes on
their heads. A dysfunctional family of foundlings, raised by an alien and a
robot, fights itself and reality. The latest ongoing Doctor Who title got off to a decent start.

Manga (originally Japanese comics, in a more compact format) seems to have peaked in
popularity, with bookstores across the U.S. tightening their shelf space offering it. However, that’s still a wider distribution network than the direct market of specialty comic book shops, and manga did draw many younger, female readers. I hope that, like the upcoming live-action adaptation, the Avatar: the Last Airbender manga does justice
to Nickelodeon’s fantasy television series.

Coming soon: Games and travel!

Wednesday, 29 July 2009: SFTV and Comic-Con

As my last blog post noted, comic books have inspired several successful movies in the past several years, so it’s no surprise that Hollywood had a major presence at the 40th annual San Diego Comic-Con last week. “Beautiful downtown Burbank,” or the television industry, was also well-represented, with actors rubbing shoulders with costumed fans.

I’ve been a fan of slacker comedies such as Reaper, partly because popular directors such as Kevin Smith and Judd Apatow represent my generation (if not necessarily its work ethic or supposed lack thereof). Espionage spoof Chuck and sleuth homage Psych have been consistently entertaining, but I think The Middleman has the best mix of fanboy allusions, witty writing, and empathetic acting. I would have liked to have been at the live reading of the “lost script,” which will eventually come out in comic book form, completing Middleman‘s life cycle.

As with their graphical origins, TV metahuman melodramas have continued, despite mixed reviews. I think Heroes has room for improvement, but many disillusioned viewers may forget that most genre programs have their ups and downs in terms of story and quality. We’ll also see whether Smallville‘s slow approach to the Superman mythos, including a Justice Society episode, will help it overcome its dependence on tired tropes. The latest version of Human Target has a narrow premise, but I like its cast.

G4 had extensive coverage of the Star Wars panel at Comic-Con, marred somewhat by the forced hijinks of usually appealing hosts Kevin Perreira and Olivia Munn. Many of my friends stopped following George Lucas’ space opera franchise after realizing that the prequel films were aimed at a younger audience than us, but I’m looking forward to Season 2 of the computer-animated Star Wars: Clone Wars on the Cartoon Network. I may also try to get tickets to the upcoming musical concert tour if it comes to Boston.

Speaking of cartoons, Batman and the Brave and the Bold, like Spectacular Spider–Man, revels in Silver Age goofiness rather than Bronze Age funk. A musical episode, classic voice casting (including a bombastic Aquaman), and clever use of obscure characters from across the DC universe make Brave and the Bold worth watching.

Marvel Comics has been more successful in print and movies than DC, but it’s only now catching up to the latest wave in animation. Wolverine and the X-Men and Iron
Man have been decent, but Marvel Superhero Squad (premiering 19 September 2009) might capture more of the old-school, child-friendly humor and action of comics’ Silver Age. The anime-style Iron Man and Wolverine might also be good.

More serious is the just-released direct-to-DVD Green Lantern: First Flight, continuing DC/Warner Brothers’ strong lineup of Justice League: New Frontier, Batman: Gotham Knight, Wonder Woman, and the upcoming Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. Andrea Romano is a voice-casting genius, and I’ll review Green Lantern‘s first cosmic foray (and other recent DVD acquisitions) separately.

Speaking of interstellar adventures, but back to live action, the Doctor Who panel didn’t reveal many new tidbits about David Tennant‘s final outings (for now) as the Gallifreyan Time Lord, but I wish his successor Matt Smith luck in taking on a role inhabited by 10 predecessors. I don’t think a remake of alien invasion series “V” is necessary, but it does sport decent production values and casting.

I’m among those who have criticized the rebranding of the SciFi Channel as “SyFy,” but I’ll keep watching what few genre shows it has left rather than wrestling, schlock horror, or so-called reality programming. Cryptozoology series Sanctuary has room to grow, but the promotion of Stargate: Universe as being more like the revisionist Battlestar Galactica or even Joss Whedon’s prematurely canceled Firefly/Serenity than the solid Stargate SG1 is a turnoff to me.

Admittedly, I have lower standards for Smallville or the syndicated fantasy Legend of the Seeker, but I’ve already spent a few years following them instead of other popular arc-driven shows such as Lost. Sword-and-sandals fans may also enjoy Spartacus, which may not match the adult content of HBO’s Rome, but it won’t be Xena: Warrior Princess, either (for better or for worse), despite Lucy Lawless’ participation.

AMC‘s upcoming miniseries remake of Patrick McGoohan‘s paranoid Prisoner has a combination of the things I like about genre television: nostalgia with a modern twist,
solid casting and production value, and (I hope) good writing. I’ve also just started watching Being Human, a drama about a vampire, a ghost, and a werewolf as roommates, on BBC America.

Coming soon: Last but not least, comic books and games!

Comic-Con movie news

While I would like to experience the San Diego Comic-Con sometime, I may have been able to follow more news from assorted media than if I had to deal with the more than 100,000 people at the genre entertainment convention last week (23 to 26 July 2009). I was disappointed that so much coverage still seemed to be snickering at the attendees, characterizing them as geeks, nerds, or worse.

Yes, most of the fanboys at such events are young men, but we don’t all live in our parents’
basements, have questionable personal hygiene, fear women, or lack productive jobs. In fact, most of my peers who are fans of fantasy, science fiction, horror, anime, and superheroes are well-adjusted professionals, often with families. People who play videogames, gamble, or are avid sports fans are still more socially acceptable than the millions of us who read comics, play role-playing games, and make the movies adapted from them profitable.

Speaking of genre film, the big Hollywood studios have all but taken over Comic-Con,
using it to preview and promote their upcoming releases. With the average price of tickets at $10 and climbing, studios are trying to find ways to compete with home theaters, online file-sharing, and ever-more-fragmented audiences and attention spans. As a result, they’re playing it safe, adapting known intellectual properties; using gimmicks like 3-D, computer imagery, and IMAX for more and more flicks; and relying on big-budget “tentpole” summer fare to boost their box office.

Still, for all of the conservatism of producers, good films are still being made. We’re still
riding the latest wave of movies with costumed superheroes, as second-stringers such as Western antihero Jonah Hex are portrayed in live action, often for the first time. I thought the previews of Iron Man 2 looked promising, even if they and the cast didn’t inspire
fans as much as when director Jon Favreau brought the first movie to Comic-Con.

As for Tony Stark, star Robert Downey Jr. can soon also be seen in Guy Ritchie’s action-oriented take on Sherlock Holmes. I’ll probably enjoy it as a steampunk/alternate
Victorian-era history rather than a faithful rendition of one of my favorite fictional characters.

Nostalgia is also behind Seth Rogen’s upcoming Green Hornet. I’ve seen reruns of the 1960s television show featuring Bruce Lee, and the “Black Beauty” was a contemporary of the classic Adam West Batmobile. I was a fan of the early 1980s Tron — not only did I play the videogame in arcades, but I have fond memories of using bicycles and Frisbees for “light cycles and deadly discs” with neighborhood kids! Thus, the trailer with genre vet Jeff Bridges looked exciting to me, even if I had to explain to Janice why.

Fantasy enthusiasts can look forward to the whimsical (and surprisingly melancholy,
from the preview) Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jonzes’ live-action rendition of the Maurice Sendak book. I reviewed Hayao Miyazaki‘s Ponyo a few months ago, and the American English-dubbed version of the animated fable should be worth screening in a cinema. The animated Mr. Fox could also be good, since Coraline recently demonstrated that stop-motion is still a good fit for fantasy. I may not be the biggest fan of Tim Burton’s quirky style, but it does seem well-suited to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Fantasist Terry Gilliam’s Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus should be able to overcome the untimely death of actor Heath Ledger.

In addition, The Chronicles of Narnia [3]: Voyage of the Dawn Treader has started filming. Let’s hope that Guillermo Del Toro and Peter Jackson can make their two-picture Hobbit continue to do justice to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth as the Lord of the Rings trilogy did.

In terms of literature, science fiction was my first love before I discovered other subgenres. District 9 looks like an explicit parable about apartheid, and like last week’s Torchwood: Children of Earth, it shows that ordinary humans can be as villainous as any alien menace. If you take classic space opera, add dollops of the ever-popular cyberpunk, and use state-of-the-art visual effects, you might have something resembling James Cameron’s Avatar (not to be confused with M. Night Shyamalan’s Last Airbender). Somewhere between Burton‘s fantasy and postapocalyptic dystopia is the upcoming stop-motion “9,” which also looks interesting.

I’m less optimistic about Roland Emmerich adapting Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, a
speculation about future history and the rise and fall of galactic civilization. Asimov‘s intellectual stories aren’t a good fit for Emmerich’s usual pyrotechnics. Many more announcements were made at Comic-Con, but I’ve only mentioned the ones I found interesting.

Coming soon: Comic-Con TV, comics, and game news!

Summer SFTV

The summer 2009 genre television season has picked up, including SyFy’s lighter conspiracy series Warehouse 13, TNT’s returning capers on Leverage, and Disney XD’s Silver Age-style Spectacular Spider-Man. Because of time constraints, I’ve dropped the computer-animated Iron Man and Bible-inspired Kings from my viewing schedule, and although several friends have recommended Lost, I’m leery of making a commitment to yet another continuity-driven show.

This week promises an embarrassment of riches, with BBC America showing the well–received Torchwood: Children of Earth science fiction/horror miniseries and the beginning of the end of David Tennant as the eponymous time traveler in Doctor
Who: Planet of the Dead. I’ve been a fan of that long-running franchise since high school and look forward to the good doctor’s next incarnation.

In addition, G4 will be covering the annual San Diego Comic-Con, which has become more noteworthy lately for film previews than for comic books and graphic novels. On DVD, I’m looking forward to the releases of Watchmen, The Middleman, Coraline, Pushing Daisies
Season 2, and Green Lantern: First Flight. I have yet to see Hulk vs., Quantum of Solace, and Tale of Desperaux.