Selkie

I see. I must seek this item out.

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Gah. It's awful. Truly awful. See my comments in the Ellis thread.

The art's gorgeous, though not enough to save Warren Ellis from himself.

I just shattered a piece of expensive pottery as I was photographing it for eBay. This comes about a week after a shelving unit collapsed and took out some truly irreplaceable items from my own collection.

Stamp collecting looks more appealing all the time.

Note: I am not, I repeat not, responsible should you need to replace a keyboard, monitor, or other computer equipment after reading this:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showth...51&page=1&pp=50

Why did you hate it Selkie?

With the twin caveats that I read it only once, and that was a few years ago...

When I read Ruins, the first word that came to my mind was "juvenile." I thought it displayed all the subtlety of a child breaking another child's toy solely because he knew it was the other kid's favorite. The book didn't even try to grapple with a darkly realistic treatment of life in the Marvel universe - it was too relentlessly gross out for the sake of gross out. The sole point of the exercise appeared to be giving Ellis an excuse to piss on the MU solely out of contempt for the fans. I have ZERO love for shared universes, especially for the Marvel Universe, and the in-bred fan community that feeds off of it, but reading a book seemingly designed for no higher purposes than pissing off existing readers struck me as a colossal waste of good art, a good-when-he-wants-to-be writer, and my time. By all means, write a book about the dark side of superpowers and the horrors that would exist in a world that had them (is there a bigger fan of Sleeper than I?) but without character and setting development it becomes nothing more interesting than watching a kid wreck a sandcastle.

Not yet, but man-o-man-o-man, it's not for lack of desire. My "cat of many colors" was the ultimate predator in her day, despite being a frustrated indoor only housecat in a house full of pet mice. (All escapees, from mice to boa constrictors, fell to her claws within heartbeats). It's quite something to see how sharp her instincts and desire remain. The weather's been wreaking havoc on all of us arthritics, and she's been limping noticeably - which for her means she's in mortal agony - but the INSTANT she smelled that mouse, WHAM - Ultimate Predator Cat was unleashed. No limping, no sleeping in her warm cat bed, nothing. Even when she's crunching her food, which I notice she's doing with more ferocity than usual, she's keeping an eye on the corner where we both think the mouse is hiding.

I put out non-poison glue traps, but my money's still on the old cat nailing that mouse before the traps or either of the greyhounds do. It's going to be a bad year for mice here, because the kestrel seems to have moved on and the three foot local snake died during hibernation this year (we found his skeleton, perfectly intact, while spring cleaning the garden). I just hope no more make it into the house.

How to breathe new life into a seventeen year old cat:

1. Accidentally let a field mouse into the house.

2. Watch cat's eyes widen, arthritic joints loosen, and old instincts rise to the surface as cat endlessly circles the china cabinet under which mouse darted.

3. See frustrated cat go to scratching post, sharpen her already needle-like talons, and repeat step 2 above.

Hours of entertainment!

I blog. I don't particularly know or care whether other people read it (and good luck finding it). It's for me. There's nothing terribly private there, but it's a useful archive of memories for someone who is losing hers thanks to medication. I don't have to worry about whether my HDD is going to fry and wipe out all my entries. It's more useful for relating little personal thoughts that amuse me, and probably only me, and are therefore not suitable for a MB. That's all.

1. Transmetropolitan (if a gun were held to my head for my facorite, I'd pick either Filth of the City or Lust for Life, but having to select would make my head explode all by itself)

2. Planetary 1- 12

3. The Authority.

4. Stormwatch: Change or Die

5. I suspect this slot's going to be filled by Iron Man, god forbid, but the arc's not over so for now I'll have to go with the three issue Pryde & Wisdom.

Am I the only person here who loathed Ruins?!

"One thing is for certain: none of us will see heaven."

"Michael could."

We say the same thing here in Chi-town, which is living up to the moniker "The Windy City," Cold, too, but no snow yet. You Michiganites don't get any ideas about sending us any, get it?

It seems the hardcovers are back in print, probably temporarily, while the film is out, as that they are orderable in my book store's inventory system, which only accesses in print books.

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Would you mind checking to see whether the Dame to Kill For HC is among those (back) in print? I can't seem to find a copy, other than the mucho expensive signed version, on-line, but can easily find Big Fat Kill. Want to know whether I'm chasing a snipe before I invest too much time hunting.

I've been looking forward to The Interpreter....it looked intriguing.

It could be worse. I was hoping for a great film, but got a good one instead. All the "grown-up" stuff worked. Almost all the "it's a popcorn movie so we must introduce stock elements" aspects didn't. Note to Sean penn's handlers: yes, he's excellent at looking sad, but audiences are willing to accept one that smiles occasionally. Really, they are.

I did spot a mistake at the end, or at least what I think is a mistake. Anyone else who's seen the film care to comment?

We're told that Nicole Kidman's character is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Matobo. If she's a U.S. citizen, how can she be deported back to Matobo as a threat at the end? Imprisoned, yes. but deported?

Aha! That would explain a lot. Muchas gracias.

Caught the latest Amityville Horror remake. Go and see this shit as soon as you can. If you like scary movies, it made all the hair on my body stand up. Freaky shit.

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Glad to hear it. Have been wavering about whether to wait for video (oops, almost typed "wait for the trade") or see it in the theater.

Saw "The Interpreter" today. There's a good movie struggling to free itself from the popcorn genre conventions like The Hulk from Bruce Banner, but it doesn't quite make it. The scenes in and around the U.N. do a lot to breath life into the film. Worth seeing, but probably just as good if rented.

I know the second Sin City books are printed on a smaller page size than the earlier edition(s). I absolutely hate those, and want to pick up the earlier, larger version I used to see - preferably in HC.

Does anyone know whether any of the hardcovers are the smaller size? I see some supposed HCs listed used on Amazon for suspiciously inexpensive prices (well, "suspiciously inexpensive" relative to what the HCs sell for on eBay) and although the listing data lists them as 1995 editions I don't know whether I trust the sellers to list the books correctly. They should, I would hope, be able to determine whether a book is HC or SC.

Help!

Ruse

Rex Mundi

Skizz

Yuppies from Hell

Names of Magic

Teknophage

Nevermen: Streets of Blood

Nathaniel Dusk, Private Investigator

Nowheresville

I want every last bit of meat, tissue, and organs used for something productive. If all it's good for is catfish bait and someone can use it, that's fine by me. I won't be using it anymore, after all.

DonnyRover, my best wishes for your uncle's complete and swift recovery.