Will Pfeifer's Blog, page 22

Books I vow to read in 2015

Here's the thing: I read a lot of books, but I buy even more. This year, my resolution is to cut that "to be read" pile down a bit (while, of course, adding to it with many new volumes). In that spirit, here are some of the books I already own and plan -- nay, vow! -- to read in 2015. When I do, in fact, complete one, I'll let you know on Facebook and Twitter. And if, at this time next year, I don't have this list checked off completely, feel free to give me grief. After all, as a wise PSA once said, Reading is Fundamental...


This is what I'm reading right now. David Carr is a New York Times reporter who spent much of his earlier life high, trying to get high or recovering from the effects of being high. In this memoir, Carr recounts those grim times, but instead of relying on his own memories, he treats the story like a reporter: He interviews the other people involved, follows a paper trail of police reports and other items and, in general, tries to see where he's been lying to himself all these years. Powerful stuff, and definitely not your average addiction memoir. I just finished the part where he stopped by a house to score coke and left his infant daughters in the car for hours. In November. In Minneapolis. In other words, it gets pretty grim.

Having loved Perlstein's last epic volume of history, "Nixonland," I bought this one the week it arrived last year and dove right in -- and it's great, too, a fascinating history of the post-Nixon era that doubles as a revealing biography of Ronald Reagan. But, shorter works, both comic and otherwise, stole my attention. I'm going to finish this one soon -- then maybe give "Nixonland" a re-read. (Once I finish all the other books in this post, of course.)

I've had this one for awhile, started it at least three times, and always got distracted by something else. But seeing as director Ben Wheatley (the guy behind the excellent "Kill List" has an adaptation due out this year, I'm going to finish the book. No reason not to. It's short, it's great (at least what I've read) and it has this opening sentence: "Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr. Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months."

And, as long as I'm reading the J.G. Ballard section of my library, I might as well read this one, right?

And, hell, this one, too.

Got a free advance reader's copy of this one (thanks, Amy!) at about the same time I bought "The Invisible Bridge," and though I started it, too, and loved what I read, the combination of those two massive historical works (one fiction, one non) resulted in me finishing neither. So, in other words, I'll be taking on Ellroy's take on Pearl Harbor and its aftermath sometime in early 2015.

With "Inherent Vice" playing in local theaters (and me hopefully seeing it this weekend), I figure it's high time I delve into the one Pynchon work I already own, which is supposed to be his most accessible. I love conspiracy theories, so I'm actually surprised I haven't read this one by now.


I've seen the movie it inspired multiple times (it's one of my favorites, even though you can sense the desperate studio efforts to lend a respectable sheen to a defiantly disreputable story), and I read the graphic novel adaptation by Spain years ago. But it wasn't until last year that I got my hands on the original novel, and I was amazed, while reading the first few chapters, how sordid and downright adult it was willing to get. The world of carnival sleaze fascinates me, so this is one I hear calling from the bookshelves fairly often. Time to finally finish it.

And last but not least, it's clearly time for me to read this great American classic that, by all rights, I should have finished 30 years ago back in high school. There's a copy (belonging to my wife, the English major) that's been staring down at me from our bookshelves for more than a decade now, so it's about time I actually read the damn thing. And I will. I promise. (By the way, did you ever notice that the shapes inside those eyes on the cover are actually nude women? Because they are.)

Movies I Watched in December, Part 2

Here you go, film fans, the final movies of 2014...

Saw all three of the “Night at the Museum” movies this month, believe it or not, kicking things off, logically enough, with the third one. I took Allie to it the day, thus continuing the Pfeifer Father Tradition of getting the kid(s) out of the house on a day before Christmas so mom could actually get something done. Call that intro boring if you must, but it’s arguably more interesting than anything in these movies, which is odd when you consider the premise of these movies is that (a) all the exhibits in a museum magically come to life at night and (b) with each sequel, the scope expands to include another museum (the Smithsonian in Part Two, the British Museum in Part Three). If forced at gunpoint to choose my favorite, I’d go with Part Two, mostly thanks to the energetic performances of Amy Adams (who plays Amelia Earhart with a combination of genuine moxie and the tightest pants in the history of the world) and Hank Azaria (who channels a vintage Boris Karloff imitation, lisp and all, toplay an evil pharaoh). I will say this: Though I didn’t get much enjoyment from these movies, Allie loved them, which is why after paying to see the third in the theater, I DVR’ed parts one and two. And her favorite parts? The seemingly endless slap fights between Ben Stiller and that monkey. If it weren’t for the fact that she loves vintage Marx Brothers, I’d be worrying about that girl's sense of humor...

This one deserves to be more well-known, especially around the holidays. Years before they were at each others’ throats in “Double Indemnity,” Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray co-starred in this touching comedy about a D.A. (MacMurray) who takes a shoplifter (Stanwyck) to his Indiana home so she won’t have to spend Christmas in jail. Written by the legendary Preston Sturges right before he sat down in the director’s chair, “Remember the Night” foreshadows his better-known movies by giving supporting characters their moments in the spotlight, including Sterling Holloway (aka the voice of Winnie the Pooh) singing a solo and a defense attorney delivering a very funny speech trying to blame Stanwyck’s crime on hypnotism. "Remember the Night" is also a very old-fashioned movie in ways both bad (MacMurray has a black valet named, ahem, “Snowflake”) and good (the barn dance near the end is almost impossibly evocative of a simpler, more romantic time.) Plus, though she’s best known for playing George Bailey’s mom in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Beulah Bondi does an every better job in this Christmas movie, showing genuine warmth to Stanwyck while, at the same time, not wanting her son to sacrifice all he’s worked for just to fall in love with the wrong woman. A great movie, in other words. Check it on Turner Classic Movies next Christmas – or, if you can’t wait, pick up the brand-new Blu-ray. After Allie hit the hay and we were waiting for Santa to show up, Amy and I watched this creaky old 1935 version of “A Christmas Carol” on (where else?) TCM. I’m not sure if the film's low-budget or the poor condition of the print was too blame, but this was one dark interpretation of Dickens, visually speaking. It also wasn’t very good, with Scrooge himself (Sir Seymour Hicks) the only noteworthy character. Otherwise, it was too cheap, too choppy and too damn dark to make much of an impression. Like a certain familiar Christmas character, the producers should’ve loosened their purse strings a bit.

If you don’t mind the fact that it completely changes everything about the story of Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” (and, to be honest, I didn’t), this one winds up being better than you might think. In this version, Maleficent was once a kindhearted fairy who had her wings ripped off by a former friend who was told to kill her if he wanted to be king. (The fact that he merely maimed her doesn’t make it any less gruesome, but it does make the rest of the movie possible.) When she grows up (into Angelina Jolie, of course), she takes revenge on the king’s newborn daughter, Aurora, (just like in the cartoon), but this time around, she takes a shine to Aurora and realizes that she’s taking revenge on the wrong person. The rest of the movie is a riot of CGI battles and tearful close-ups of Jolie’s (admittedly striking) cheekbones, but “Maleficent” is refreshing in the way that the handsome prince is not the one who saves the day. Also, the twist on “true love’s kiss” is a nice touch. 

Despite the fact that it airs around-the-clock every year on TBS, this was the first time I’d seen “A Christmas Story” straight through since the late 1980s . And, just like when “It’s A Wonderful Life” played 24-7 on every low-budget channel , you hear a lot of carping about how “A Christmas Story” isn’t very good after all. Allow me to dissuade those rumors: It’s a fine film, nicely evocative of its 1940 time frame and, incidentally, one of the most accurate portrayals of childhood on the big screen – mostly because, like all kids, Ralphie isn’t a bad boy, but he gets into plenty of trouble, and he’s more than willing to weasel out of it whenever he can – just like you, me and everyone else who was once a kid. Plus, I think we can all agree that Darrin McGavin’s portrayal of The Old Man is one for the ages, and Melinda Dillion (despite, as my wife points out, her anachronistic hairdo) is just as good. I especially like the scene at the end, where the parentssit on the couch and watch the snow fall, bathed in the light of the tree. It’s a nice, quiet moment in a fairly crazy – and very funny – comedy. (Speaking of Melinda Dillon, I think we can all agree that her likeness on the poster above ranks with the least flattering in Hollywood history, right?)

Finally, with Allie at her grandparents’ house, Amy and I rang out the year with a  viewing of “Big Eyes,” and it was … OK. Not bad, by any means, and anchored by a strong performance fromAmy Adams as painter Margaret Keane. Thankfully, this was Tim Burton more in "Ed Wood" mode than, say, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” mode, so the story took place on something resembling Planet Earth and the performances were, for the most part, in the ballpark of restrained. (Though Christoph Waltz, bless his hammy little heart, pushed it.) In the end, it’s a good story, but one with the dramatic urgency of a TV movie more than a big-screen drama. Still, that big screen did showcase the beautiful ‘60s San Francisco locations. Hell, I’d spend decades stuck in a room painting big-eyed waifs if it would get me a house like the Keanes wound up with at the end of Act II. 

Movies I Watched in December, Part 1

Last month's movie recap was more than a little delayed, so this time around I'm kicking off the New Year with a quick rundown of what I saw in December. Here's the first part; the second will follow quickly -- bet you can hardly wait.

Though it’s only a good movie, and not a great movie, Jake Gyllenhaal gives a great performance in it, and that elevates the whole enterprise. Playing a sociopath looking for some way – any way, really – to focus his energies and ambitions, Gyllenhaal stumbles into the sleazy, late-night world of guerrilla news gathering and finds success bringing increasingly gory and morally questionable material to a struggling L.A. TV station. Those scenes are exciting, to be sure, and writer/director Dan Gilroy brings a sense of seductive danger to after-hours Los Angeles, but the movie’s real thrills come from watching Gyllenhall’s mind work behind those (too) wide open eyes and (too) friendly smile. He spouts the sort of bland aphorisms that made books like “Who Moved My Cheese” million-sellers, but he manages to give the clichés a nasty bite, revealing the dark tendencies lurking behind the go-getter attitudes and inspirational success stories.


Saw this one with Allie at the Coronado Theatre, a gaudy (in the best possible sense of the word) restored venue located in the heart of downtown Rockford. The movie itself is fine, a feel-good Christmas tale with some amusing bits and the strange sight of a blond Zooey Deschanel. (As with all Will Ferrell movies, your level of enjoyment will depend on how much you like Ferrell, but he’s OK with me and Allie, so we had a good time.) But the real fun of this viewing was the fact that we saw it with a fairly full (and enthusiastic) house in a genuine classic movie theater, which added immeasurably to the experience. (For me, at least – I don’t know if Allie appreciated the historical angle.) Plus, it was free!


Interesting pre-Coder that I’d somehow never seen before. Edward G. Robinson plays a gambler who falls in love with a straight-laced woman (Genevieve Tobin) but can’t leave his past behind him – including semi-platonic old pal Glenda Farrell. Like a lot of Warner Bros. pre-Code movies, this short film (a mere 73 minutes) gets off to a busy start, meanders for a while in the middle, then wraps things up in a rush at the last minute. Still, it’s a lot of fun, with Robinson going from riches to rags to riches a couple of times, with some fast-talking and punch-throwing tossed in between. The title, by the way, comes from a racing dog that Robinson becomes obsessed with, finally buying him as a pet near the end in a plot twist that seems oddly similar to how Homer Simpson acquired Santa’s Little Helper in the very first “Simpsons” episode. If only Edward G. knew that, someday, his voice would live on in the form of Chief Clancy Wiggums…


There’s no telling what Turner Classics will air as part of its  TCM Underground, and since I’d already seen (ahem) “Roller Boogie,” I set the DVR for the follow-up feature, “Heavenly Bodies,” a Canadian aerobics-ploitation epic released in 1984. It’s terrible, it’s boring and no one of any note stars in it, but it does show how much studios thought audiences wanted to see endless aerobic dance routines in the mid 1980s.


Now this, this is the sort of movie I love – a low budget drama about a group of high-tech (well, for 1961) car strippers led by cult movie fave Arch Hall Jr. (His dad wrote the movie and co-stars as a radio reporter.) It’s not a great piece of cinema – and it was never meant to be – but it’s a lot of fun, and it has a real energy driven by its youthful cast and sunny California locations. Plus, as is often the case in movies like this, the by-the-numbers plot is spiced up with some imaginative touches. Hall’s gang, for instance, goes around in a pickup truck filled with chicken cages to avoid detection. Each member of the gang has some specialty, like wielding a blowtorch or removing wheels, that makes them more like a team of extremely low-rent supervillains than just a collection of goofy kids. And, best of all, the junk dealer who buys all these stolen parts is played by none other than Bruno VeSota, a very entertaining cult-film actor whose resume includes “Dementia,” “Daddy-O,” “The Wasp Woman,” “A Bucket of Blood,” “Attack of the Giant Leeches” and tons of TV shows. (He played “Angry Neighbor” on an episode of “Leave it to Beaver,” for instance.) Guys like VeSota are the reason I love movies like “The Choppers” – they’re not great actors, not exactly, but they bring enthusiasm and brio to their performances unlike anything in the bigger budget Hollywood product. Plus, as a character named “Moose McGill,” VeSota gets to be immortalized thusly…


Up next: Not one, not two, but three (three!) "Night at the Museum" movies. Ugh

Movies I Watched In November, Part 3

December is just about over, so I'd better finish up this recap of movies I saw in November...


I'm a big fan of the "Whistler" movies, a series of B pictures released in the mid to late 1940s. Based on a radio show and introduced by "The Whistler," a never-seen narrator, they featured different characters in sort of proto-noir storylines, and most of the films starred actor Richard Dix in the lead role. In this movie, released in 1945 and directed by the legendary William Castle, the plot focuses on a wealthy industrialist who discovers he's dying and decides to leave the rat race, marries a nurse for companionship and live peacefully in a lighthouse. Things go wrong, of course, mostly because the nurse turns out to be money hungry, the industrialist discovers he's not dying and, to top things off, the nurse's old fiance shows up at the lighthouse. It's all a little crazy and nonsensical, but the low budget adds some interesting atmosphere (especially at the free clinic where the doctor and nurse work), and Dix, as always, brings an interesting sense of desperation to the role. Plus, it's only about an hour long, meaning it moves quickly and won't take up much of your time. They run frequently on TCM, so check one out the next time you get a chance -- it beats watching another hour of some goddamn reality show.

I wrote more than once about how much I was anticipating this movie, and I definitely was not disappointed. I also wasn't expecting the movie I got, which, more than anything, is a backstage drama. Michael Keaton plays the has-been actor (and former super-hero star) trying to jump-start his career with an ultra-serious Broadway play based on the works of Raymond Carver. That synopsis only begins to scratch the surface of "Birdman," though. For one thing, there's the usual backstage intrigue, with a possibly pregnant lover/co-star (Andrea Riseborough), an arrogant co-star (Edward Norton, great), a nervous co-star making her Broadway debut (Naomi Watts) and a troubled daughter (Emma Stone). Plus, the Birdman character becomes an actual presence in the film, giving Keaton powers (maybe) and appearing in the flesh toward the end (again, maybe). But despite all that -- and it's a lot, I'll admit -- what's the most memorable about "Birdman" is the way director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki make the theater itself a character in the movie (arguably the man character) by constantly swooping and gliding the camera through the hallways, staircases, dressing rooms and backstage areas. (The entire movie is designed to look like a single take, even though the story takes place over about a week's time.) It's an amazing, visually stunning experience, and one best seen on the big screen.


Here's the first in the "Whistler" series, which I wrote about back in October 2012. The plot this time around involves a man (Richard Dix again) who hires a hitman to murder him, then changes his mind but can't contact the hitman to call off the job. Lots of fun, like the others in the series, with an interesting performance by J. Carroll Naish as an unusually introspective (bordering on existential) killer. Again, I highly recommend checking it out the next time it (inevitably) airs on TCM.


All three prequels are bad, but this one is the worst. The terrible dialogue. The asinine plot. The boring political intrigue. The gasp-inducing romance. The scene where Threepio's head gets stuck on another robot's body. The scene set in a 1950s diner. The confusing battles. Yoda embarrassing himself with a lightsaber. The unconvincing digital everything. It's all so, so bad. But my daughter enjoys it, so I watch it -- and keep my comments to a minimum. But she doesn't read this blog, so...

Be sure to watch Letterman Friday night...

... because it's your last chance -- ever -- to enjoy one of the best Christmas traditions in the history of television. For more than the past quarter century, on both his NBC and CBS shows, Dave has invited the same two very special guests to help celebrate the holiday.

First off, comedian/actor Jay Thomas stops by to do things: He tells the very funny story of a time, many years ago, when he and a buddy were (a) a couple of hippies and (b) tasked with driving Clayton Moore, aka the Lone Ranger, to an event. I won't spoil the ending, but suffice to say that the cop who stops by when the get in an accident winds up being very, very surprised. And then, after that, Jay and Dave toss a football, trying to knock a meatball off the top of the Late Show Christmas tree. It all sounds very silly -- and it is -- but somehow, the fact that these two old friends have been doing this for years, and Jay doesn't have anything he's trying to promote, it somehow winds up being oddly touching, too.

And then, at the end of the show, the legendary Darlene Love stops by to sing "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," which she first brought to vibrant life way back in 1963 on the equally legendary pop masterpiece, "A Christmas Gift to You from Phil Spector." Darlene gives it her all every year, blowing the roof off the place with the help of the Late Show Orchestra and an army of guest performers. In case you've never had the pleasure of seeing it, here's a video compilation the Late Show gang put together to honor Darlene's 28 (!) years of service...


It's a truly great hour of television, funny and heartwarming in equal measures. But, like I said, tune in Friday and enjoy it while you can, because David Letterman leaves the air in May, meaning this will be his last December -- and last Christmas -- behind the desk. I'm sure Stephen Colbert is going to do a great job as Dave's successor, but I'm also sure he's not going to continue this tradition -- nor should he. Some things should be allowed to come to a final, fitting end.

Buy My Comics, Make Me Rich: TEEN TITANS #5

The latest issue of TEEN TITANS hits the stands today (that is, Dec. 17), and it's part one of a two-parter that acts as a sort of bridge for what's come before (i.e., killer robots) and what's to come (i.e., something much worse.) For this issue and the next, the art duties are being handled by Scott Hepburn, and I think you'll like the action-packed style he brings to our young heroes. I know I do.


If you want a sneak peek at what's coming, including the thrilling scene (above) where Red Robin praises the virtues of the S.T.A.R. Labs dental plan, click here. And if you have any comments about the issue itself, as always, you're welcome to share them on this blog.

Plus, there's a variant cover (featuring variant -- and vintage -- Titans) by the legendary Darwyn Cooke. Check it out...

Movies I Watched in November, Part 2

Continuing the rambling recap of movies I watched last month...

Christopher Nolan's science fiction epic wasn't perfect by any means, but it's always nice to see someone actually swinging for the fences as opposed to filling in the same old blanks, and every so often, "Interstellar" managed to deliver that sense of wonder you get so rarely in movies. At the end, I thought Nolan had lost his way and was going to deliver some sort of corny "love finds a way" rationalization for the whole time tripping factor, but thankfully there was a sort of scientific explanation for the twists, and though it might be complete nonsense (I can't tell -- it's pretty high science, in every sense of the word) in a case like this, effort counts for a lot. In my non-Batman Nolan ranking, I'd stick it under "Memento," "Inception" and "The Prestige," but it's in the same ballpark and definitely worth a look -- just be sure to see it on the biggest screen you can possibly find.

The highest compliment I can give this movie is that, about halfway through, I honestly had no idea where it was going next, much less how it was going to end. Based (extremely loosely) on the X-Men two-parter of the same name, it managed to live up to my fond memories of those Byrne/Claremont/Austin issues while added several wrinkles of its own. (By the way, here's how fondly those issues are remembered -- I know, without checking online or having read them in a quarter century, that they appeared in issues 141 and 142*) I have no idea how this movie would play to a civilian, but as a longtime X-Men fan who hasn't read an issue since the 1980s, I thought it was top-notch. My one complaint? Quicksilver was such an interesting character, and so well used, effects-wise, that it couldn't help but be disappointing when I realized he wasn't coming back for the rest of the movie. I'm curious to see if he'll be as compelling in the next Avengers movie, with a different design and different actor bringing him to life.

The final extra-long wrap-up episode of an HBO series probably only counts as a "movie" in the loosest possible sense of the word, but I wanted to take this space to recognize what an excellent series "Hello Ladies" was and how nicely the final installment wrapped everything up in a neat little bow. Stephen Merchant used to be the behind-the-scenes collaborator with whom Ricky Gervais brought "The Office" and "Extras" to life, but in view of this series' excellence it's apparent he was -- at the very least -- a full partner. "Hello Ladies" combined the cringe humor that made "The Office" a landmark series with the sort of unabashed heart that made the characters more than just jokes. Merchant was just right as the lovelorn coder trying to find a gorgeous girlfriend in modern L.A., and Christine Woods matched him perfectly as the friend you (spoilers for anyone not expecting this) knew he'd eventually hook up with. Strange to see her here, so friendly and fun, at the same time she was appearing on "The Walking Dead" as the creepy cop at the end of her rope. Acting!

It's hard for me to review a movie like this. On the one hand, there's certainly nothing wrong with it -- it looks great, the vocal talent is strong, the action is well-staged and the animation is flawless. But on the other hand, it doesn't break any new ground, it hits all the usual family-oriented superhero beats and even the big twist isn't hard to predict. I suppose it's the inevitable result of the success of modern animation -- the bar has been raised so high that for anything to stand out, it's going to have to really be amazing. Still, there are worse ways to pass 102 minutes, and it'll keep your kids out of trouble. 
This, on the other hand, remains a pretty amazing movie, mostly for the way it manages to walk the very fine line between spilling the beans on the guy in the red suit and treating the characters in the movie like sensible adults who live in something resembling the real world. At it's heart, "Miracle on 34th Street" is a sharp screwball comedy spoofing big music, commercialism, politics and bureaucracy. Surprising that Edmund Gwenn doesn't get top billing on the poster above, considering he's just about the best screen Santa in the history of film, but you can see how 20th Century Fox was pushing this as a romantic comedy rather than a Christmas movie. (It originally opened on May 2, 1947, believe it or not.) My two favorite scenes? Naturally, the moment when Santa speaks to the little war orphan girl in her own language gets me every time, but one I like even better is near the end, when the hearing has ended and Kris Kringle has been ruled to officially be the real Santa Claus. He and Maureen O'Hara meet on the steps of the courthouse, and she invites him over for dinner. He begs off politely, reminding her that it's Christmas Eve, and she apologizes for forgetting that he might be busy. It's a small scene, but it illustrates how well the movie never comes right out and says whether Santa is real -- but by the end of the movie, everyone, including the characters and the viewers, are willing to believe that's the case.

Up next: The end of the November recap, with yet another theatrical release, two movies from the long-forgotten "Whistler" series and a genuinely terrible blockbuster.

*Nerd!

Movies I Watched in November, Part 1

Once again pushing right up against the limits of "better late then never," here's part one (of three, believe it or not) of my recap of the movies I watched in November...


Interesting, low-key (and low-budget) documentary about the comic book scare of the 1950s, which led to the development of the (now defunct) Comics Code Authority. I knew pretty much all of this stuff already, having read David Hadju’s excellent “The Ten-Cent Plague” and other histories of the era, but it’s a fascinating subject and always worth revisiting. Two things people always forget: One, the Comics Code wasn’t government censorship – it was industry self-censorship provoked by (a) fear of possible government censorship and (b) a desire to thin the herd a bit by getting rid of some of the smaller publishers (including the late, great E.C. Comics. And two, Frederic Wertham, who started the whole mess, was a dedicated, lifelong liberal and not some censorship-happy conservative.

I’m not sure why I never watched this Roger Corman Poe adaptation before, but TCM (bless their hearts) ran it during Halloween and I finally caught what’s definitely Corman’s best Poe movie – and one of his best movies, period. Blessed with bee-yoo-ti-ful cinematography courtesy of the great Nicolas Roeg, “Masque” is a riot of colors, with the costume balls thrown by evil Prince Prospero (Vincent Price, at the top of his game) looking especially good. Roeg and production designer Daniel Haller also color-coordinate rooms of the castle in a striking way that predates a similar effect in Peter Greenaways’ “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Love” by a few decades. Best of all, “Masque of the Red Death” isn’t just a visual feast – it’s a dark, ominous movie about plague, decadence and the power of evil. It’s genuinely creepy in the best possible way.

I’ve written about this one several times in these blog postings, and it’s great. Holds up to repeated viewings, manages to be hilarious, suspenseful and heartbreaking, and I maintain that sequence when the toys face death in the scrap yard ranks among the best movie scenes of the 21st century.

Allie’s been crazy about Greek myths lately, so we watched this 1997 movie, which came at the end of the 1990s Disney renaissance and just as Pixar was starting to take over screen animation. It’s not bad, not exactly, but it showcases all the worst excesses of that particular Disney formular: celebrity voices, “hip” references and endless, pointless musical numbers. I mean, as a decades-long Letterman fan, I love Paul Shaffer, but having Hermes not only act like him but look like him, too, makes no sense, story-wise. Also, as Meg, Susan Egan is so bored-with-life and seen-it-all that you can’t believe any man would fall in love with her, much less Hercules, the sort of guy who could get any woman in the world. Allie liked it more than me, but her favorite movie remains the 1981 “Clash of the Titans,” which makes me deliriously happy. Next we need to check out that 2015 "Hercules" starring the Rock and Ian McShane, which got surprisingly good reviews. 

Interesting documentary about Tim Jenison, a wealthy tech inventor who spends the kind of money and time you and I can only dream about studying – and eventually replicating – the painting techniques of Dutch master Jonannes Vermeer. If you’re fascinated by the artistic process – like me – you’ll want to check this one out, if only to see how Jenison takes something that seems unexplainable and unreproducible (Vermeer’s painting style) and figures out how it was done. (Spoiler alert: It involves mirrors and patience.) The whole reveal-the-secret-behind-the-magic theme of the film makes sense when you realize it was directed by Teller (as in “Penn and…”) and written by both of them. Penn shows up onscreen, of course, but the highlight of the movie comes when actor Martin Mull  shows up to watch Jenison’s technique. Jenison tells Mull that he was delayed because it took him a half an hour “to learn how to operate a paintbrush,” and Mull (no slouch as an artist himself) replies “Good for you. It took me 40 years.”
Up next: Not one but two (two!) theatrical releases, including a science fiction epic.

Buy My Comics, Make Me Rich: HELLBOY WEIRD TALES

Somehow, I missed the fact that this was arriving this week, but yesterday a package from Dark Horse arrived on my doorstep, and when I opened it, I found this beautiful hardcover volume that reprints the (previously released) two paperback volumes of HELLBOY WEIRD TALES, which reprinted the Dark Horse mini-series where dozens of writers and artists (including yours truly) were given the chance to play in Mike Mignola's Hellboy universe.

The story I wrote is "Command Performance," beautifully drawn by my pal Craig Russell (who invited me into this party -- thanks again, Craig), but the credits page of this book reads like a Murderer's Row of modern comics -- Jill Thompson, Eric Powell, Evan Dorkin, John Cassaday, Michael Kaluta, Galen Showman, Mark Ricketts, J.H. Williams III, Craig Thompson, Dave Stewart, Guy Davis, Frank Cho, Gene Colan, the late (and great) Dave Stevens and many, many more, Plus, it's a mere $24.99 cover price. Wotta bargain!

If you're a fan of Hellboy (who isn't), great comics (likewise) or just looking for a single volume to carry to conventions and get many, many signatures, I can't recommend this one highly enough -- and not just because I'm in it.

Buy My Comics, Make Me Rich: TEEN TITANS #4

The new issue of TEEN TITANS hits the stands (do they make stands anymore?), and this one wraps up the initial arc,"BLINDED BY THE LIGHT." The Titans all make an appearance here, but if you're a fan of the one who doesn't happen to have any powers, this is your lucky day -- Red Robin takes center stage against the unnervingly more powerful Algorithm (she's the robot who's been giving our heroes so much trouble over the page few issues.)

As before, besides my script, you've got art by Kenneth Rocafort (that's his cover above), colors by Dan Brown, letters by John J. Hill and editing by Mike Cotton, Rickey Purdin and Eddie Berganza.


Plus, if you're a fan of snap-together blocks and the figures that fit them, there's also this variant cover featuring an especially adorable Beast Boy minifig. Not, alas, available in stores.

Also, if you want a preview of what's inside the issue, click here. And, as always let me know what you thought of the comic, either here, on Facebook or on Twitter.