Utterly Awesome News

I probably haven't mentioned it before but I'm a real big fan of comic book writer and novelist Peter David. So I was pleased that he was co-writing a book called "Year of the Black Rainbow", a prequel to the Armory Wars fantasy series.
To clarify why this is totalyl awsome, I must tell you about the Armory Series itrself. It is a series that boasts a complex narrative about -- Well , it involves aliens, the end of the universe, and a Godlike entity called the Writer who is implied to be the author of the story, visting misery on the protagonists in his work because his personal life sucks. As you can imagine the whole story is kind of --- complicated.
What make is all the more amazing is that the Armory Wars is not a series of novels. Instead, it is a series of conept albums by the band Coheed & Cambria telling an orginal epic fantsy story. The albums that tell the story include The Second Stage Turbine Blade, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, and The Three Happy Bunneys go to Smiletown. (One of those albums may exist only in my head).
The reason that this is so cool is that the band is really embracing the idea of a multi-media expereince. There story is told both in the albums and though side-projcts like the afforementioned novelization. It is a truly unique way to write a fantasy story for the twenty-first century. Add one of my favorite wristers to the mix and there's absolutely nothing about this that I don't love.

Super Short Reviews: Hero Alliance

Back in the late 80s and early 90s, independent publishing was having a minor boom. One of the products of this boom was Hero Alliance. The idea was a sound one. What if instead of banding together as a traditional super-hero team, the heroes instead worked together as an informal union, helping and training each other as needed. There would still be team ups and battles but the series would have more of a focus on the personal lives of the central heroes.
This was fine in theory. Unfortunately, none of the characters were all that interesting. The team a was led by Victor, the book's main star, a pretty bland Superman pastiche. The only real twist brought to the character was that he had a secret identity the made Clark Kent look comparatively discreet. For God's sakes, the man's real name was Vic Torrance, everyone kept commenting about how he never seemed to age, and he ran a gym that catered to superheroes. Yet every single person would be surprised when they found out that he was really Victor. Keep in mind that this comic was supposed to be more realistic then its mainstream counterparts.
Then there was the Sentry. He was the team's version of Batman. I would talk more about him but that would imply that the character was in any way distinguishable from Batman.
Then there was the Golden Guard, Victor's girlfriend and daughter of the world's first superhero. Of course, she was a fully developed character and not an excuse for gratuitous T&A. Yeah, right.
This is all especially frustrating when you realize that the series had good ideas . For example, the Guardsmen, the worlds foremost hero team is murdered by the super villain, Sepulcher. The twist is that Sepulcher is not their arch-enemy but a third-rate villain who wears a rubber zombie mask. Instead of engaging the heroes in fight he knows he'll lose, he simply blows up their big ostentatious public headquarters. No one even know it was him until he boasts about it after the heroes make fun of him when he gets captured during a convenience store robbery. Remember, kids, if a supervillain robs a convenience store, it means that he's not very good at his job.
If this sounds like an enjoyable read, keep in mind that none of the events I just described are shown to us. No, since comic books are a visual medium, the writer decided that it would be a good idea to never show the death of the Guardsmen on panel. Instead, we get other characters talking about it and captions filling in the details. Keep in mind this event leads to the formation of the titular super team. So you know, it's a great idea that we never see it. We wouldn't want the audience that something into get the mistaken idea that interesting things happen in this comic.
Because, with rare exceptions, they really don't. Most of the characters just sit around talking in expository dialog. The comic has great ideas but fails to put them forth in an interesting way. This is, by far, Hero Alliance's unforgivable sin.

How Not to Name a Dog

This post will telly you why it is to name your pet dog after a religious figure. Especially when the dog is an aggressive Pit Bull like dog. Otherwise, when the police have to put it down when it attacks some one we get real-life headlines like this one.

Rockville Police Shoot Jesus.

It's just embarssing.

Ellison-Mania

All right, I'm back from Thanksgiving break and ready to share opinions no one cares about.
In my web-surfing today, I ran across an article on science-fiction writer, Harlan Ellison. This goes me thinking about why I like Ellison so much. It occurred to me that I would be a fan even if his writing was terrible.
This is not to say that Ellison's writing is terrible. In fact, its quite good. Even his more bizarre works are great reads. I feel less like Ellison is being incomprehensible for the sake of being incomprehensible and more that his works simply require further reading and analysis. That's a rarity I find only in really engaging writers.
However, the reason I would like Harlan Ellison, even if he was a bad writer, is because he is such a larger than life character. His public persona as angry, curmudgeonly man has taken on mythic proportions. Loads of stories revolve around the man, many of them apocryphal. For example, there are allegations of his throwing a fan down an elevator shaft or setting a rude smoker's purse on fire. His disputes with Hollywood personalities like Gene Roddenberry and James Cameron are legendary.
These stories have taken on such a life of their own that they will endure long after the man himself has gone. Any random anecdote about Harlan Ellison is guaranteed to be at least as interesting as some of his lesser writing. Ellison is a talented writer and I am the first to sing his praises. However, in a lot of ways, Harlan Ellison's greatest and most enduring creation is Harlan Ellison.

Tom Wait's Thursday: Spacious Thoughts with Kool Keith

I was going to make a joke about how Tom Waits looks like he sounds. but Boingboing.con beet me to it.

Film Reviews I Should've Done Last Month Part 2

Tonight's review: Morgue Story: Blood, Blowfish and Comics
Quick confession time. When I saw this movie, it was midnight, I was very tired, and I was coming down with a cold. As a result, large portions of this movie may have taken place entirely in my head. It's strange enough that you wouldn't notice.
The best way to describe this film is as Crash meets The Serpent and the Rainbow. The plot is essentally this. A mad coroner runs around poising young girls with blowfish venom , turning them into old-school voodoo style zombies before disposing of them. And "zombies" I mean sex slaves.
The heroine, Ana Argento, a comic book writer, is the doctor's next target. In fact, the mad doctor does get her in his clutches within the first half hour. Unfortunately, his attempts to get some hot zombie loving in the local morgue are inadvertently thwarted by Tom, a cataleptic who wasn't quite as dead as he seemed when they dropped him of at the morgue. Tom manages to frustrate the doctor's sexual ambitions through sheer obnoxiousness, despite having no clue that anything unseemly is going on. As the movie progresses, the bizarre ways that all three characters have unknowingly impacted on one another's life, despite never having met before, are revealed in flashback.
I wound up enjoying this movie quite a bit. If you ignore some lame in jokes (Ana shares a last name in common with a famous horror director) and forced references to real comic books, it's a fun little film. However, it is overly ambitious and does tend to drag a bit in the middle. In addition, for the squeamish, there are a few gratuitous rape scenes. However, it makes up for this with one of the best bittersweet endings to a horror movie that I can remember. If it doesn't make you cry a little, you don't have a heart.