andy

I saw the panel of this film at SDCC and from what they showed of the film, it looks like it should be popular. It's VERY stylized with lots of slow motion and lots and lots of blood. It looks more like a sci-fi film than a historical. As promised many of the scenes were lifted directly from the comic. It appears like it will be twice the film that Sin City was. I'm really looking forward to seeing this film now.

the Vertigo panel mentioned a new series set during the Vietnam war called The Otherside.

 

Yeah not much was said about it except that Karen Berger thinks it's "great" (but she says that about almost everything). The writer was on hand and basically just mentioned how he went to Vietnam for research purposes which is great to get the details of the landscape correct but probably not all that helpfull for historical purposes.

 

I gave a quick look through of a B&W preview of "Pride of Bagdad" and wasn't all that impressed, but then I didn't really give it my full attention.

 

As I said before, some of the new titles could be good, but I've been disappointed too many times before by Vertigo to get too excited about any new project.

Sorry no pictures from me today.

 

I did check out the Hellboy annimation preview with Mignola, Del Toro, etc. Looks pretty cool. It's not exactly the comic book animated but I think it'll be somewhat similar to the recent Batman/Superman/JLA cartoons, that is being its own thing but still recognizably the same characters.

 

As for the Vertigo panel, well for me this was the most disappointing Vertigo panel I've seen in the last five years. Of the upcoming books only the two new Mike Carey offerings piqued my interest. One is a fantasy book set in modern-day Japan about twins born in different years and the other is a more horror-type book about college kids in Minnesota where things are not what they seem. There's was also a new comic called Cairo which could be interesting but the way it was described seemed to hit every cliche in the book about supposedly "exotic" cities. None of the other new titles mentioned made much of an impression on me regrettably.

 

As for Hellblazer Jon Vankin gave a little speech about what Denise Mina has been doing in the book and claimed that he doesn't know how it ends as she hasn't finished writing it yet (?) There was no mention about its future but the way Karen Berger talked about it made me wonder if it'll be around much longer. She did the "how many here read Hellblazer" question which she's asked in past years about titles that were soon to be cancelled. I'm not going to jump to conclusions but it did make me question if Hellblazer isn't seen as something of a relic in the current Vertigo administration.

 

That's my impressions anyway.

Map is pretty much the central character of #223 which may or may not prove the theory that supporting characters are ruined when they become fleshed out more.

The Passenger is one of my favorite films. It's one of those films that might seem underwhelming upon first viewing but will stay with you afterwards. Of course I don't want to build it up so much that it turns out to be a disappointment.

As for the buried alive bit, I just assumed that this "Third Place" works almost the opposite way Hell does--just as each minute of real time is an eternity in Hell, perhaps two weeks of real time is akin to a few minutes in the Third Place. That's why John had no adverse affects from being underground for so long--from his perspective it was only a few minutes. Otherwise I doubt he'd be as flippant upon his release from the grave if he was just lying there watching bugs crawl around in the ground for two weeks.

Even though it comes out at the end of 2006, I'm very much interested in seeing how Casino Royale turns out.

Thursday at the SDCC wasn't much for me, just kind of walking around checking things out. I read the next issue of Hellblazer which should be more popular as it's a more traditional single-issue story featuring Map. :) Cocina's art isn't in the same league as Manco's though.

 

Oh and I took this photo of ACX Chan and friend reinacting a scene from Ennis' Hellblazer in the middle of the convention room floor.

 

You happen to know anything about that attendees only access thing on the SDCC site? Been trying to access their filming schedule and so far all I know for sure is Neil Gaiman will be sticking around for Stardust panel but that's it.

 

I've no idea, sorry. I would think all the films would be listed in the official programme, unless there's some secret film showings that only those "in the know" attend.

Even though it was the only episode of Angel I ever saw and I didn't know who any of the characters were, the final scene of the last episode of that show was a great way to end a series of that sort.

I'll keep an eye out for you and your friends. It should be quite a sight to behold.

Between these and all those Marvel Comics Movies that were announced last year I'm wondering how many of these films will actually get made.

The former sounds best. What color will your hair be? Remember it's gonna be friggin hot in that building.

Mark Kozelek usually does interesting cover songs either as a solo artist or singing with Red House Painters or Sun Kil Moon. I loved how with RHP he re-did McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" as an 11-minute desperate cry for affection.

I wonder if they will just make up a totally new plot this new Bourne movie like they did the last one.

 

They'll pretty much have to as the third Bourne novel had him teaching languages at a University and living with the girl from the first book only to have to come out of retirerment to fight his nemesis Carlos the Jackyl.

 

For the film perhaps it could begin with Matt Damon teaching in some inner-city school while keeping a low profile and trying to lead a normal life only to get lured back into the game with perhaps some vague promise about finally knowing who he is and then the shit can start blowing up.

 

The first two were good films so I have some degree of faith that the third will be worthy as well.

Since we're talking about specifics was it Constantine who released all those souls or was it Azaz'el who released them into Glasgow so that the residents would all kill themselves so that he can obtain more souls?

 

Was that why John spent two weeks magically buried alive so that the souls could wreak havoc on Glasgow? I hope this gets some sort of explaniation somewhere down the line.

 

As for the three demons, perhaps Constantine's memory loss included everything that happened after "Dangerous Habits" and the demons can only represent what John projects onto them? Or perhaps it's just a minor continunity error. Anyway I wasn't all that thrilled at how the appearence of the Three Lords of Hell brought about a rather sudden end to the whole arc.

 

I wonder how satisfying this will be as a trade or if DC should have waited and collected Mina's entire run in one big trade.

The only thing i could grumble about that theyre not connected to the stories, right?

 

Well they are somewhat connected to the stories, albeit tangentialy. DC obviously wants the covers to prominently feature Constantine, otherwise we'd be getting covers of Monks getting buried or council flat meetings.

but DC knows what they want and how they want to sell each issue.

Two words: Greg Lauren.

 

Well we never found out why Greg Lauren suddenly left. I think the few covers he did were alright. Clearly DC were attempting to do something totally different than what Bradstreet did. Bermejo is a more traditional cover artist which is perfectly fine but after a year or two of Lee's covers, DC might need to shake things up again. (That is if Hellblazer is still being published of course)

I wake up each morning and start drinking Mountain Dew. It's one of the most un-healthy things I can do but I'm addicted to the caffeine so much so that when I occasionaly go on a fast, it's the caffeine withdrawls that I feel the most.

Well after over 200 issues there's going to be a bit more difficulty creating totally original covers. The last few Bermejo covers have been excellent in my opinion. At some point I wouldn't mind seeing the covers return to a more Dave McKean style with less emphasis on the iconic image of Constantine smoking while surrounded by dead people but DC knows what they want and how they want to sell each issue.

Well that was somewhat of a conclusion. It wasn't tied up in a pretty bow but most things were explained. Although it did seem like the last few pages were crammed with information overload. I'm not totally sure what was happening at the end with all the souls. Nor did I understand why Evens didn't kill himself along with the rest of the order (If I read that correctly). I'll sit down and re-read the entire arc and see if it flows any better.

 

Manco's art was great, but then I always say that.

I couldn't resist:

 

I doubt it. Right now it's just another little war between the Israeli Government and Hezbollah with the residents of Eliat and Beirut bearing the brunt of it. There are plenty of other more horrific little wars goings on that for whatever reason don't get the media coverage.

 

Even if Iran and Syria and the U.S. gets sucked into a protracted war, which is probably unlikely, it still won't really be enough to be classified "World War Three". Unless somehow this leads to a series of nuclear wars betwen India and Pakistan as well as North Korea vs. South Korea and Japan with a little China vs. Russia thrown in for good measure.

 

Without sounding flippant, it's just the usual bullshit. I don't think getting overly fearful is justified at this point.

I think when I sit down and re-read Mina's entire run in one sitting, I'll appreciate it more. But now it feels like I'm watching one of those British horror movies from the early 70s in 15-minute intervals once a month.

 

It looks like her entire run will be one long story chopped into two arcs to make them more managable in trade form. So I'm not expecting total satisfaction anytime soon.

 

The fact that I'm not gagging for each next issue might have more to do with Mina thinking of each issue as a chapter in a novel, which is fine if you can immediatly start reading the next chapter but not as effective when there's a month-long wait.

I'm of the opinion that each writer should create their own supporting cast and they should be pretty much retired at the end of their respective runs. Excluding Chas of course.

 

I don't particularly want to see Zed, Mercury, Marge, Kit, Rich the Punk and family, Claire, Haine, or Angie every again. I don't have a problem when Ennis or Carey reuses the odd old supporting character but it's not something I would prefer to have done regularly.

 

I did like Map as a character but re-using him too much would probably destroy the character. Which is probably what some people were saying about Constantine after Swamp Thing's "American Gothic" arc.