Confessions of a Pop Fan - Jamie S. Rich

PAYDAY, YOU'RE A WINNER! SWEEPSTAKES!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 01:55:00 +0000

WIN THIS ORIGINAL SPELL CHECKERS DRAWING FROM NICOLAS HITORI DE!

Nico is giving away this piece of art. All you have to do is be a fan of the book and create your own art about it. It can be anything. An illustration, a photo, a video, an original piece of writing, or a song. It just has to be Spell Checkers themed, feature the characters, however you want to express yourself.

Mail you submission to hitoride.nicolas[at]gmail[dot] before March 31. Nico will choose the winner shortly after.

Spell Checkers is published by Oni Press: www.onipress.com/series/spellcheckers

Current Soundtrack: The Mary Onettes, "Love's Taking Strange Ways"

PEOPLE'S INSTINCTIVE TRAVELS

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:03:00 +0000

NEW TO THEATRES...

* Le Havre, Aki Kauirsmäki's newest has a familiar quirkiness, and not necessarily in a nourishing way.

* The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of my Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby, a documentary as unwieldy as its title. Colby remains as much a mystery in the end as he was at the start.

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

Two by Luis Bunuel...

* Belle de Jour, a classic with Catherine Deneuve is now on Blu-Ray. (Also at DVD Talk.)

* The Exterminating Angel, a surreal critique of blind faith and class-based hubris.

* Sid and Nancy, Alex Cox's punk-rock biopic. (Also at DVD Talk.)

* Traffic, Steven Soderbergh's complex, entertaining drug drama. (Also at DVD Talk.)

THIS WEEK IN DVD/BD REVIEWS...

* The Big Country, a uniquely masculine western with Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston.

* The English Patient, a sweeping epic spanning two timelines, though the one with Juliette Binoche is better than the more famous romantic storyline.

* Film Socialisme, Godard's most recent intellectual puzzler.

* Love Story: If love is never having to say you're sorry, but I hated this movie, doesn't someone still owe me an apology?

* Outrage: Way of the Yakuza, Takeshi Kitano enacting a bloody chess game with all the boredom of real chess.

* The Piano, Jane Campion's literary romance, starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, and a young Anna Paquin. (Get prepared to feel a little creepy, True Blood fans!)

Current Soundtrack: The Colbert Report, special guest Terry Gross

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Live Journal Syndication * ComicSpace * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2012 Jamie S. Rich

LEARN TO LOVE ME AND ASSEMBLE THE WAYS

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:33:00 +0000

The folks over at SpazDog Press are doing a second Unite and Take Over anthology, collecting comic book stories inspired by Smiths lyrics.

For this volume, I have written a script suggested by the song "Well I Wonder," and the amazingly talented Christopher Mitten has drawn it.

Here is a sample page:

The publisher has a Kickstarter campaign going to help support the book. Here is the page. Please look it over and, if any of the rewards offered strike your fancy, consider donating to get this comic off the ground. There is also a full list of contributors and the songs they are tackling, and plenty of good people are involved.

Current Soundtrack: Teenage Fanclub, Shadows

FELT AS FRESH AS THE PAINT IN THIS NEW FLAT

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:11:00 +0000

As 2012 progresses, there will be many announcements to come, but I am stoked to get started here with the revelation that the short story Megan Levens and I have been working on for quite some time, "Two Wheels, Two Feet," will be seeing the light of day via the Double Feature comics app.

Double Feature is an exciting platform created by Tim Seeley alongside Mike Norton and others. For the past year or so, they have been presenting themed-issues featuring their own characters and contributions from other like-minded creators. They sell the comics via the iPad app or you can buy the pdf direct at a mere $0.99. Turns out that February is going to have a special "Romance Issue" for Valentine's Day, and when Mike asked me if I wanted to contribute, it was as if the perfect opportunity presented itself.

Megan and I originally started this story for a print anthology that never happened. We had intended to finish it eventually and find either an online venue or print it ourselves. In the meantime, we have been circling the idea of doing something more.

Now both are happening. We're developing other ideas, looking ahead to see what we can bring together.

In the meantime, check Megan's take on the same subject over at her blog, and make sure to check out her own webcomic Somewhere in Between while you're there.

Current Soundtrack: The Vaccines, Tuck and Roll; Rose Elinor Dougall, The Distractions EP [free download]

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Live Journal Syndication * ComicSpace * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2012 Jamie S. Rich

THREE HEARTS, SEVEN SEAS, TWELVE MONTHS OF MOVIES

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:04:00 +0000

The Online Film Critics Society posted the results of our annual awards voting today.

You can read all of our picks here. I think the only ones I actually voted for myself were the wins for The Tree of Life (including Jessica Chastain as Best Supporting Actress) and also Cave of Forgotten Dreams (which I reviewed for the Mercury). Which isn't a gripe, I don't have any problem with any of the choices here. Had I seen We Need to Talk about Kevin earlier than yesterday, I might have debated voting Tilda Swinton over my personal choice for best actress, Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia. Rango is really the only film I didn't like as much as my colleagues, but it wasn't a knock-out year for animation, honestly. (I voted for The Adventurs of Tintin.)

Since in one stage of voting I had to organize my top 3 favorite films, I thought I'd go ahead and list them here, with links to my original reviews:

1. The Tree of Life: A film that only grows more glorious the more time you spend with it. My second viewing was actually on an iPad while traveling, and it lost none of its power. In fact, the second time, what seemed hard to grasp on first look gels and it becomes even more obvious that Malick is 100% clear in his intent. It's a powerful movie that reaches back through the dawn of the ages and connects man and his condition to the very spark of life before taking us beyond our own petty concerns into something far more majestic.

2. Melancholia: Lars von Trier's movie is as dour as Malick's is hopeful, yet both recognize the lesser impulses that mar human existence. Both films see life as being full of pain, but whereas Malick encourages us to struggle against the tide, von Trier's end of the world scenario suggests we should discard our delusions and embrace the emptiness. Oddly, there is as much comfort in his finish as Malick's, it just depends on what kind of oblivion you prefer.

3. Drive: This one is just bad ass. I can layer on my existential philosophy and argue about its deeper themes of pure love, but screw it, it's just bad ass. Nicolas Winding Refn channels Jean-Pierre Melville into a Paul Schader script, and builds his nasty little crime drama with an exceptional cast. Ryan Gosling, Albert Brooks, Carey Mulligan, and Christina Hendricks are all great and fit perfectly into Drive's desolate pulp world. Tough-minded and yet, like all the films here, desperately human.

Films still not seen this year: Carnage, Corialanus, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Le Havre, The Iron Lady, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Pariah, A Separation, War Horse, Young Adult.

Current Soundtrack: Common People are People at Turntable.fm

LOOK OUT, HERE COMES TOMORROW

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:16:00 +0000

Robot 6 asked me for my most anticipated comics of 2012, as well as to share a little of what I have going. That means sneak peeks of art from upcoming comics.

Natalie Nourigat!
Megan Levens!
And what's this...Mike Norton?! Why yes. Mike Norton.

You didn't know that, did you? In fact, the last script I wrote in 2011, finished on Thursday night, has charged Mike with drawing pink smoke and, essentially, a big fart. And they aren't the same thing!

Click over to CBR and scroll down; it's a huge list and I am a bit down the way.

And for all you people, how about a little snippet of 2013. Here is Dan Christensen:

And don't forget Nico Hitori de! Spell Checkers vol. 3 is deep into production.

And there will be some all-new work with Joëlle Jones, too, but that's still way undercover...and it's easily going the best thing she and I have ever done together, so you really can't wait. Trust me.

Current Soundtrack: The Who, Quadrophenia deluxe version disc 4

POLICE & THIEVES

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:29:00 +0000

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

* Hunger, Michael Fassbender stars in Steve McQueen's harrowing portrait of the IRA prisoners' hunger strike in the early 1980s.

Three gonzo crime films from the uniquely crazy Japanese filmmaker Seijun Suzuki:
* Take Aim at the Police Van (1960)
* Tokyo Drifter (1966)
* Branded to Kill (1967)

THIS WEEK IN DVD/BD REVIEWS...

* The Art of Getting By, a predictable but solid Young Adult story, with fine performances by Emma Roberts and Freddie Highmore.

* Behind the Mask, a mid-40s misfire that attempts to turn the popular Shadow radio serials into...light comedy?!

* Crime Story: The Complete Series, the Michael Mann police drama set in the 1960s but made in the 1980s.

* A Farewell to Arms, Frank Borzage's masterfully melodramatic adaptation of Ernest Hemingway.

* Incident in an Alley, a middling early 1960s crime film based on a Rod Serling short story.

* Seven Chances, an hilarious Buster Keaton short where the great comedian plays a man in desperate need for a wife.

Current Soundtrack: The Cowboy Junkies, The Trinity Sessions; NME's Best of 2011 playlist on Spotify

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Live Journal Syndication * ComicSpace * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2011 Jamie S. Rich

MAKE SOME NOISE: 2011 MUSIC

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 01:54:00 +0000

This year's music for me was dominated by reissues and reunions, if my LastFM scrobble list is anything to go by.

My top 15 bands, judged by the amount of listens from January 1 to December 31, 2011 are as follows:

1. Suede
2. Nicki Minaj
3. Radiohead
4. Brett Anderson
5. Elbow
6. Asobi Seksu
7. Morrissey
8. Beastie Boys
9. Alex Turner
10. Christina Perri
11. Duran Duran
12. Pet Shop Boys
13. Duffy
14. The Raveonettes
15. Arctic Monkeys
16. The Beatles
17. Underworld
18. DJ Shadow
19. Low
20. The Horrors

The Suede posting was definitely the double-disc reissues of all five of their albums, while the Duran Duran listing was a combo of All You Need is Now being released and getting my hands on their double-disc reissues for the early albums, as well. Morrissey flooded the market with compilations and dredged-up rarities, and The Beatles had the Anthology series come out again. New efforts from both the Beastie Boys and Pet Shop Boys also sent me into their back catalogue a little.

Alex Turner gets a special note since the Submarine EP was just an EP, and so it took more dedicatied listening on my part to get those numbers. If it came down to it, that soundtrack would easily be my album of the year, and "Piledriver Waltz" was my favorite song. It showed up in a different form on the Arctic Monkeys album Suck It and See, which narrowly missed this list, giving Turner another boost.

I quite like this solo performance of the song from French radio:

Other notable songs in terms of how many times they got spun around here (a couple obvious holdovers from 2010):

Elbow - "The Night Will Always Win"
Christina Perri - "Jar of Hearts"
Brett Anderson - "Brittle Heart"
Kanye West, Rick Ross, Jay-Z, & Nicki Minaj - "Monster"
Nicki Minaj - "Right Thru Me"
Asobi Seksu - "Trails"
Beastie Boys - "Make Some Noise"
Mogwai - "Rano Pano"
Duffy - "My Boy"
Beady Eye - "Four Letter Word"
The Strokes - "Under Cover of Darness"
The Horrors - "Still Life"
The Joy Formidable - "Austere"
Little Dragon - "Ritual Union"
Desire - "Under Your Spell"
Miles Kane - "Come Closer"
Cults - "You Know What I Mean"

SPECIAL NEW YEAR'S INCANTATION FROM NICO AND THE REST OF US ON TEAM SPELL CHECKERS

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:07:00 +0000

ANIMALS STRIKE CURIOUS POSES

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:38:00 +0000

NEW IN THEATRES...

* The Adventures of Tintin, a surprisingly fun 3D adventure from Steven Spielberg with all the appropriate nods to Hergé.

* The Artist, a loving and entirely accurate tribute to the silent era of cinema.

* A Dangerous Method, Jung and Freud meet David Cronenberg.

* We Bought a Zoo, an effective new feature from Cameron Crowe...but is it any good?

THIS WEEK IN DVD/BD REVIEWS...

* The Birth of a Nation: Deluxe 3-Disc Edition, D.W. Griffith's historically inaccurate epic is an important piece of cinema, but that doesn't stop it from being racist and boring.

* Nothing Sacred, a slight bit of entertainment from 1937, directed by William Wellmen and starring Carole Lombard and Frederic March.

Current Soundtrack: Drowned in Sound's Top 120 Singles of 2011 list on Spotify

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Live Journal Syndication * ComicSpace * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2011 Jamie S. Rich

SUNDAY, MONDAY, WE LIE AROUND BUT IT'S NOT EASY

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 03:57:00 +0000

This is a bit crazy to even consider, but wow, "I Don't Know Why," the first Suede track since 2003.

Just live now, and clearly rough since Brett is still not even sure of the lyrics (not the first time I've seen a singer with a lyric sheet; Michael Stipe has one for every song, so not sure why some people are freaking out). The song is solid, sort of a mix of latter day Suede and Brett Anderson solo; not epic, in other words, but still exciting.

I'll admit to having high expectations, but the general thrill of a mention of "I Don't Know Why" landing in my inbox was pretty amazing. New Suede singles were always something I used to build to and get geared up for, so even in the old days, it was rare to get surprised with no warning like this.

The band are clearly using this Russian tour to sort out some new material. In addition to "I Don't Know Why," there is a snippet of something allegedly called "Falling Planes," a video here connecting the end of a song called "The Only" to one called "Someone Better," and a slower song called "Sabotage."

The band keeps playing coy about the prospect of a new album, and probably smartly so--it gives them the option of walking away if it never gels--but these leaks give us new hope.

I also quite like this audio of Brett covering the Horrors on the radio.

I've been a bit frustrated lately at not being able to get my hands on the B-sides to "Crash About to Happen," since they are UK-only downloads and have not been physically released. Anyone got the hook-up?

EDUARDO BARRETO, 1954-2011

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:20:00 +0000

Comics artist Eduardo Barreto died yesterday, December 15, 2011. He was 57.

Despite a pretty nasty bout with meningitis that he had recently, this was still quite a shock. Anyone who ever knew Eduardo would have trouble picturing him as anything but a vivacious personality full of joy and love. He was kind to everyone he met and I never knew him to work on any art job with anything less than passionate gusto.

And trust me, I worked with him on maybe one of the worst gigs he ever had. I first got to know Eduardo in the mid-1990s. I was an assistant editor for Diana Schutz at Dark Horse Comics. At the time, Eduardo was drawing a book called Aliens/Predator: The Deadliest of the Species. I was the third editor on the book. Diana had actually been the original editor, but she had passed the series on to someone else, who then left the company, and she had to take it back. Since I was still green and hadn’t had to deal with this nightmare prior, she told me I was responsible for it.

Eduardo wasn’t the first artist on the 12-issue miniseries either. The thing with this book was that it was being written by a superstar comics writer, one of the biggest there has ever been. You might note that it was called Aliens/Predator, and not Aliens vs. Predator, a franchise that actually originated in the comics. That’s what a big deal this writer was. He didn’t have to use the same title as everyone else.

This writer--I won’t name him, even though it will take you all of two seconds to figure it out--would be my first encounter with a big creative ego. Aliens/Predator: The Deadliest of the Species was meant to be a bimonthly book, but it had already been running for two years and it still wasn’t done. This was entirely the fault of the writer. Things were so bad, the original artist basically disappeared off the face of the earth while he was drawing the series. He later resurfaced and is still drawing comics. I never found out what happened to him. Has anyone ever faked his or her own death just to get out of finishing drawing a crappy comic?

Eduardo, who was an industry veteran of more than 15 years at this point, was hired to replace this particular Houdini and finish the series out. Looking at the collected version on my shelf, it looks like he took over at issue #4. So, the bulk of this tour of duty really was undertaken by Eduardo. I think I joined the team midway through. It was pretty amazing for me. I had read books by all of the members of the team when I was a teen. Even cover artist John Bolton was known to me as the artist of Black Dragon from Epic Comics. Eduardo Barreto had drawn New Teen Titans, and I still had the issues in a long box in my apartment. Holy crap!

Anyway, I am not throwing around the phrase “tour of duty” lightly. The art team and I definitely felt like we were in the trenches. We were hunkered down with all of our tools, and somewhere out there in No Man’s Land was the writer, sneaking around with the remnants of the script, withholding the material and threatening our livelihood. If this were about that gentleman, I would tell you the most outlandish lie a freelancer ever told me in my ten years of editing comics, a story so elaborate that the time it took to concoct it could have just as easily been spent writing the script. The son of a bitch even had the audacity to tell me he owed me a drink after it was all done. Guess what? I’m still waiting.

But no, it’s not about him. It’s about Eduardo. Who I spoke to regularly over a crackly phone line, spending a big chunk of Dark Horse coin to talk to my artist down in Uruguay, who was sitting on his hands and waiting for script pages, cheerful as can be, never letting on how much of his time was being wasted or how desperately his bank account might have been hanging in the balance. Eduardo and I formed a friendship in those empty days. I suppose it partially came out of that war mentality, that we were embattled under a common threat...but that really sells short the bond we established. Judging by Eduardo’s gregarious personality, I believe this was a bond he forged with everyone, I wasn’t necessarily special. Except to him. Eduardo was a fellow with hundreds of friends, and by my assessment, we were all exceptional in his eyes. No one human connection was more or less important than another. This was a guy who met you on an even playing field and would grab a shovel and start digging himself a hole if he thought somehow the earth would shift and he’d end up standing above you.

Ironically, the writer, for all the havoc he wreaked upon us, eventually provided us with one of my fondest memories of working with Eduardo. One of the scripts he finally turned in featured the main character going through two distinct virtual reality scenarios. One was in the old west, the other was on a faraway planet, in a science-fiction setting meant to mimic classic Flash Gordon comic strips. Eduardo was tickled pink by this opportunity. Though most comics readers know him for his work on Superman and Batman and the Teen Titans, what Eduardo really loved was genre fiction. To pay homage to Alex Raymond and Al Williamson was a dream come true for him, and even while 20th Century Fox was freaking out over Ed’s rendition of the Predator in a school marm’s dress in a saloon, Eduardo was enthusing about drawing gunslingers and rocket ships. These two short scenes were an oasis for him. Somehow, those few pages made all that time wandering in the creative desert worth it.

Eduardo and I worked together one more time before I left Dark Horse. He completed an Indiana Jones series that had been abandoned for various reasons and needed a good artist to step in and finish it up. It was a comic meant to, once again, evoke an older style. It had the look and the strict layout of classic newspaper strips. Eduardo used zip patterns to give it the appropriate retro feel, and he worked on a rigid grid-based panel structure. The series was Indiana Jones and the Sargasso Pirates. You should track it down if you can, if just to look at what Eduardo accomplished.

Of course, I left Dark Horse in 1998 and went to Oni Press. I didn’t talk to Ed much then. I never really imagined him working at Oni, he was kind of too big for us--at least in my mind. I had finally met him face to face at some point, he had made the trek up to Comic Con and it was an absolute pleasure to hang out. Sometimes I would meet freelancers with whom I had a solid editorial relationship and we’d find that it didn’t work in person, ours was a kinship meant for the phone. Not so with Eduardo. He was a man you knew would always be happy to see you, regardless of what kind of day you were having. Hell, regardless of the year you were having. To him, it was always good times.

Much to my surprise, sometime around 2002, I got a call from Eduardo. He was looking for work and wondered if I had anything he might draw. Are you kidding me? It just so happened that I had a project called Union Station that was being written by this guy that was until then known only as an inker, but it was shaping up pretty well. It was a true crime piece set in 1933. It had gangsters and G-men and a legendary shootout. The time period and the general feel of the book would be right up Eduardo’s alley. It was the kind of thing that would benefit from a journeyman of his skills.

Union Station couldn’t have been more opposite to that Aliens/Predator series. It was the kind of project where everything went right. Ande Parks writing and Eduardo Barreto drawing? It was a dream team! As an editor, I could put my feet up on the desk and watch the pages roll in. (Ande also has a nice write-up of the experience, along with some art, at his blog.)

It’s still a book I am enormously proud of, and I am glad it came along, because it gave my friend and I a chance to do a book that wasn’t embattled, to have a genuine good time together rather than gritting our teeth and smiling in the face of adversity. In fact, it went so smooth, I have no anecdote to share from it. The good ones often don’t have stories to go with them. It’s all there on the page.

I left Oni a year after Union Station was published and started writing. I still saw Eduardo at the occasional show, and we sent messages through various channels. Our communication wasn’t often--and not even close to being often enough--but whenever we did see each other, it was as if no time had passed. We never talked about collaborating, though, damn, I’d have loved to write for him. In fact, he never knew, but I imagined him on one of my books once.

This has been mentioned once or twice, but there was a period before I met Joëlle Jones when I was about to give up on ever finding a single artist for 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, and so I proposed turning it into an anthology. 12 different artists, one drawing each reason. I would call in some favors and do some pleading, and I had a pretty good line-up planned. The idea was to mix and match a bunch of different styles, picking the artist depending on what the particular chapter demanded. I had Eduardo slated for Reason 6, the one where Evan accidentally proposes to Gwen and she freaks out. I envisioned Eduardo Barreto drawing it in the style of a 1950s romance comic. It was the center of the book and, no lie, getting Ed to do it would be the lynchpin, the whole justification for doing 12 Reasons in this manner.

Because to have him draw this section in his way would be proof of concept. He would provide the bonafide classic element that would offset all the young turks like Sean Murphy and Chris Mitten and Debbie Huey who I had slated for other chapters. For me, he would quite literally be the heart of that book.

Alas, it wasn’t to be. My editor and friend James Lucas Jones smartly talked me out of it and made me wait, reasoning that I didn’t want my first full-length graphic novel to be a mishmash like that. Clearly, that paid off.

Even so, to this day, if I am telling the story about how I almost did 12 Reasons Why I Love Her as a group piece, it’s Eduardo who I am thinking of, the one I can’t help but imagine as a “What if...?”

What if, pal. You make me wish I believed in something that said we could be together again and maybe make a comic with each other at long last. Or even just share another drink. What if.

Rest easy, my friend. I miss you like crazy already.

My thanks to the individual collectors who shared their Barreto pieces online so I could also share them here. Take some time exploring the Eduardo Barreto tag on Comics Art Fans to see more of his wonderful work.

HERE I GO IMPOSSIBLE AGAIN

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 19:16:00 +0000

NEW IN THEATRES...

* Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, is an absolute corker. Brad Bird delivers the best in the series.

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

* 12 Angry Men, the 1957 Sidney Lumet courtroom drama still has the power to inspire and incite. (Also at DVD Talk.)

* Sabu!: The Drum/Jungle Book, the last two entries in the Eclipse Boxed set starring the young Indian actor.

* Three Colors: Blue, White, Red, Krzysztof Kieslowski's masterpiece. A trilogy of exceptional literary weight and emotional resonance. (Also at DVD Talk.)

THIS WEEK IN DVD/BD REVIEWS...

* Friends with Benefits, not even Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis can make this sex comedy misfire come off as either sexy or funny.

* Thundercats: Season One, Book One, a reboot that doesn't have much kick. Nice animation, though.

Current Soundtrack: Los Campesinos!, Hello Sadness

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:56:00 +0000

REVEALED IN THE THAW

I did an interview with Marvel.com, discussing my origins as a Marvel reader, the path to writing the Thing, and how Joëlle Jones is really the brains in this whole operation. Read it here.

Current Soundtrack: Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 02:44:00 +0000

THE GIANT DAY

The Marvel Holiday Magazine 2011 (as I believe it's now officially called) is going on sale next week, but you can read my story with Paco Diaz now!

Read it on the Comixology site, or download it through their app or the Marvel app on you iPad.

Enjoy!

Current Soundtrack: Young the Giant, Remix EP ...or download their complete album for only $2.99

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 05:11:00 +0000

A CERTAIN SADNESS

NEW IN THEATRES...

* The Descendants, George Clooney starring in a new film from Alexander Payne.

* Into the Abyss, Werner Herzog's documentary on the death penalty in Texas. Very human, very scary.

* Melancholia, Kirsten Dunst at the end of the world, courtesy of Lars von Trier.

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

* Aki Kaurismaki's Leningrad Cowboys, a boxed set of some late '80s/early '90s rock movies stuck in time. (Also at DVD Talk.)

* Elephant Boy, my first review of the movies from the Eclipse set starring Indian child actor Sabu.

* Fanny & Alexander, Ingmar Bergman's semi-autobiographical classic about two children in early-20th-Century Sweden. It should be a holiday classic. (Also at DVD Talk.)

THIS WEEK IN DVD/BD REVIEWS...

* Miss Nobody, an indie black comedy starring Leslie Bibb.

* My Fair Lady, another Audrey Hepburn movie comes to Blu-Ray. (What is that? Three now? Hurry up, Hollywood!)

* The White Bus, a short film written by the recently deceased Shelagh Delaney and directed by Lindsay Anderson.

Current Soundtrack: I had given up on The Office, but come on, Maura Tierney is guest starring.

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Live Journal Syndication * ComicSpace * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2011 Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:16:00 +0000

NOVEMBER LINKS!

Apologies for the radio silence. It's been one of those months. Lots of traveling, lots of personal responsibility, and a general lack of anything of great import to say.

A bit cheap, then, to throw out a post full of nothing but links, but here it is, a post with nothing but links:

* I participated in Robot 6's annual gift giving guide. My picks for the top 3 gifts everyone should give this year, and the 3 things I wish someone would give me are right here.

* Michel Fiffe shares the process on an epic party scene he drew with Mike Allred for one of my gift picks, the forthcoming Madman 20th Anniversary Monster, due December 14 (though it may get bumped to December 21). It's a massive collection, 11 X 17, full of new stories and tons of pin-ups. I wrote the two-page framing sequence, which Jim Valentino pencilled and Mike inked. MIchel's page caps the whole book, and it features characters from 12 Reasons Why I Love Her and Love the Way You Love.

Panel from my story with Valentino & Allred

A detail from Michel's drawing.

The book is currently 48% off at Amazon!

* Dan Christensen teases more from our forthcoming book. His blog, and the image here:

* Natalie Nourigat has her comics diary Between Gears collected this coming February, in one giant volume from Image Comics. I believe I have a blurb on the back cover. Find out more on her blog.

Natalie is going to be done with our comic by Christmas. I can't wait for everyone to read it. We really have something going on here, if I do say so myself.

* Joëlle Jones has a new book coming in April. She illustrated an adaptation of O.T. Nelson's The Girl Who Owned a City. I have seen the pages, and they are amazing, some of her best work yet. You can read a review of the book here, or just go ahead and order it from Amazon (The Girl Who Owned a City: The Graphic Novel (Single Titles)) and earn me a couple of pennies for each sale made through the link. :)

* Marc Ellerby has brought back his Polar Opposites web comic for the month of December. The details.

* December 14 will also see the release of the Marvel Holiday Comic 2011, an anthology of holiday-themed shorts. I wrote a Thing story, illustrated by Paco Diaz. It was pretty fun. Here is a link to Marvel's site, and the solicitation.

MARVEL HOLIDAY SPECIAL 2011
Written & Penciled by VARIOUS
Cover by TIM SEELEY
• Four new holiday adventures featuring your favorite
Marvel super heroes!
• Wolverine finally learns the Canadian art of ice hockey.
• Written and illustrated by some of Marvel’s hottest talent!
• Collecting MARVEL DIGITAL HOLIDAY SPECIAL 2011 #1-4
from Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited.
40 PGS./One-Shot/Rated T+... $3.99

And the cover:

Current Soundtrack: Tiger Boy starring Sabu

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Live Journal Syndication * ComicSpace * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2011 Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:28:00 +0000

THE ONLY HOPE FOR ME IS YOU

NEW IN THEATRES...

* J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood continues his trend of almost delivering in this biopic with Leonardo DiCaprio as the legendary lawman.

* Like Crazy, love a la modern cinema verite. Starring Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones.

THIS WEEK IN DVD/BD REVIEWS...

* Water for Elephants, a film even a pachyderm would endeavor to forget.

Current Soundtrack: My Chemical Romance, Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys, Depeche Mode, "So Cruel"

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Live Journal Syndication * ComicSpace * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2011 Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 22:09:00 +0000

SOUL MINING

NEW IN THEATRES...

* The Mill and the Cross, Rutger Hauer stars as Pieter Bruegel preparing his painting The Procession to Calvary in Lech Majewski's deconstruction of the masterpiece.

* The Skin I Live In, the disturbing new horror drama from Pedro Almodovar.

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

* Island of Lost Souls, featuring Charles Laughton as the original Dr. Moreau. (Also at DVD Talk.)

* Kuroneko, revisiting the Japanese ghost story on Blu-Ray.

THIS WEEK IN DVD/BD REVIEWS...

* Bellflower, the cult indie strikes me as empty for all the wrong reasons.

* Young Justice - Season One, Volume Two, continuing the animated team adventures of DC's superhero sidekicks.

Current Soundtrack: When in Rome and Foster the People in Martin Q. Blank's Hideout on TT.fm

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Live Journal Syndication * ComicSpace * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2011 Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:41:00 +0000

EXTRAORDINARY MACHINE

Natalie Nourigat is finishing the last two chapters of our Oni Press graphic novel. It's been an absolute joy to do, from our early discussion stages about what kind of story we wanted to tell, to watching her crank out pages like some kind of art-making robot, growing in skill and expanding her perception with each successive deadline met.

She posted several teaser panels to her blog. Click on the one below to see the rest.

Expect an announcement of this one in the near future. It'll probably be my next published book, just based on the amount of work already done on it.

Current Soundtrack: various, (Ǎhk-to͝ong Bay-bi) Covered

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:34:00 +0000

VICTORY FOR THE COMIC MUSE: The Portland Comic Book Show, November 13

Can't make it to Boise, but you're near Portland?

Come see Nico Hitori de and I at the Portland Comic Book Show the day after on November 13. We'll be selling Spell Checkers, he'll be sketching, and I'm on a panel for writers alongside several other fine authors.

How To Break Into Comics As A Writer
1:30 pm in the south end of the Exhibit Hall

Anina Bennett, Heartbreakers writer and former Dark Horse Editor, will moderate writers Kurt Busiek, Brandon Jerwa, Adam Gallardo, Jamie S. Rich and Dan Berman in this panel discussion.

Current Soundtrack: Protomen, Act II - The Father of Death

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:56:00 +0000

MUSEUM MILE: Comics Art Mob, November 12 in Boise, Idaho

Joëlle Jones and I are heading out to Boise, Idaho, with our friend Erik Henriksen to participate in the Comics Art Mob event they are having at the Boise Art Museum on November 12. This is connected to the "Comics at the Crossroads" art show that the Maryhill Museum in Washington had earlier this year. It's been in Boise for a while, and amongst the collected art is Joëlle's cover for Spell Checkers vol. 1 and also a page from You Have Killed Me.

You can see a full rundown of all the events at the BAM page, but of particular note:

noon – 1 p.m.
Meet the Artists Book-signing
Meet artists Joelle Jones and Jamie S. Rich and have your copy of the recently released Spell Checkers 2, Vol. 2 signed.
Regular BAM admission

2 – 5 p.m.
Make It A Career: 3-Hour Master Session

(for participants 17 and older)
Hear from collaborative team Joelle Jones and Jamie S. Rich and learn more about drawing, writing, publishing and pursuing a career in comics.
$15 (BAM members and BSU students w/ ID)
$25 (non-members)

All three of us will be part of other activities, but if you can make any, those are the ones!

Come by and say hello.

Current Soundtrack: The Beach Boys, The Smile Sessions [much better than the Brian Wilson version, which I find cold and unengaging]

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 04:42:00 +0000

THE WINTER OF MIXED DRINKS

NEW IN THEATRES...

* The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, a documentary showing a certain portion of history through a different lens.

* The Rum Diary, Bruce Robinson returns to moviemaking for a somewhat disappointing Hunter S. Thompson movie with Johnny Depp.

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

* The Four Feathers, classic adventure from the Kordas. (Also at DVD Talk.)

Also, a second look at these movies on Blu-Ray:
* Dazed & Confused
* Kuroneko

THIS WEEK IN DVD/BD REVIEWS...

* Cape Fear, Scorsese's potent remake with Robert De Niro and Nick Nolte.

* Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, a black action comedy. The true Santa Claus returns!

* Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless, the three-part TV show is one-half concert, one-half promo documentary.

Current Soundtrack: Project Runway finale

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Live Journal Syndication * ComicSpace * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2011 Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:15:00 +0000

YOU'RE THE ONE WHO MADE MY DREAMS COME TRUE

Dan Christensen has put together two collages of random images from the first third of our Oni Press graphic novel. We've been working on this together for a while now, and while official news is still a ways off, we're too enthusiastic to hold it all in.

Check Dan's blog for the rest of the tease. We're both super stoked with how this is turning out, and I think it's really going to surprise people when they start seeing it sometime next year. If you're wondering what to expect, just go listen to some Bobby Vinton and you'll start to get an idea!

Current Soundtrack: The Kinks and My Life Story in the "Common People are People" room on Turntable FM

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:38:00 +0000

HEY, DON'T FALTER

NEW IN THEATRES...

* Take Shelter, the movie where Michael Shannon goes crazy and the world seemingly follows his lead.

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

* Harakiri, Masaki Kobayashi's stunning 1962 film starring Tatsuya Nakadai as a samurai with a dark plan.

* Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Pasolini's notorious ode to human cruelty and degradation. (Also at DVD Talk.)

THIS WEEK IN DVD/BD REVIEWS...

* Bad Teacher: Unrated Edition, a superb cast can't prevent this from being one of the least funny movies you'll see this (or any) year.

* Buster Keaton - Short Films Collection: 1920-1923, 19 comedy gems on three discs.

* His Way, a breezy documentary about music promoter/movie producer Jerry Weintraub.

* Great Italian Directors Collection, a boxed set of three films, including the first by Antonioni, a mid-60s Monicelli, and the anthology film Boccaccio '70.

Current Soundtrack: The Joy Formidable, The Big More

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Live Journal Syndication * ComicSpace * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2011 Jamie S. Rich