Confessions of a Pop Fan - Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:07:00 +0000

MAGIC DOORS

Spell Checkers was picked as one of the books to watch out for in April by the blog Comics-and-More.

9. Spell Checkers (Volume 1) - This series in the teenage witch genre from Jamie S. Rich looks pretty cute, and I love that title!

Thanks, Dave! See all of their choices in this link.

Oni Press has also set up a Spell Checkers page at their site. Hopefully we'll have some preview pages up very soon.

Nico actually posted a photo this week of all the art from the book stacked up in one pile, sitting atop some of his thumbnails. Crazy!

Current Soundtrack: Massive Attack, Collected (can't wait for the new album!)

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:07:00 +0000

SCUM! SCUM! SHITLICKER, USER, SELF-ABUSER, JIGGER JIGGER!

The Death of Bunny Munro: A Novel by Nick Cave

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

In 1994, I was unemployed, had moved back in with my father, and was pondering the imponderable: going back to school. Trapped in the mountains of California, I spent my days pretending to look for a job, usually hiding out at my dad’s house reading books. That was when I read Nick Cave’s first novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel. I remember being enthralled by his lush, complex sentences and his stark imagery. Looking back, perhaps it was the right time for me to read a tale of a strange boy stuck in a private, angry world. (In some ways, it reminds me now of Iain Banks’s The Wasp Factory.) I enjoyed the novel so much that when I met Nick Cave, I had him sign the paperback rather than any of my CDs.

Fifteen years later, Cave’s second novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, is so bad it makes me scared to ever look at And the Ass Saw the Angel again for fear I might find out I was wrong. Bunny Munro is as short on plot as Angel was full, and the once complicated language has replaced its David Milch-style cadence and vocabulary for a pastiche of detective novels, riddled with clichés and lazy verbiage. Cave’s Bunny is an oily salesman who travels the road selling feminine beauty products and screwing his customers. His every moment is given over to some lurid fantasy, and as Cave quickly runs out of metaphors for his hero’s cock, they grow more and more tedious and loathsome. It’s no surprise that the book was a candidate for this year's Bad Sex in Fiction prize. I would be truly frightened to read the prose that beat it.

At the start of the book, Bunny’s wife, sick of his infidelity and fearing a killer that is plowing through England carrying a plastic pitchfork and wearing devil horns will come to her town, commits suicide, leaving Bunny alone with his 9-year-old son, Bunny Jr. He is a dreamy boy, with an affliction that makes his eyelids sting so that the very act of looking at the world hurts him. Obviously, this is a book that deals in heavy-handed metaphors. Is it any surprise that the killer’s horns turn out to be real? Boy and father go on the road, with Bunny showing Jr. the ropes while descending deeper into his personal, often surreal hell. I suppose it was Cave’s intention to drag us into hell with him; in that, he succeeds. Reading the book becomes an eternity of punishment.

The book was only made bearable thanks to the audio. For one, there is a some fantastic original music by Cave and his regular composing partner, Warren Ellis. Two, Cave is a fantastic reader, and his deep tones are wonderful to listen to. I’d love to hear him reading a better book than this one. If he can’t write it, I’d be fine if he read from the work of someone else.

View all my reviews >>

Current Soundtrack: Grizzly Bear, "Deep Blue Sea" and Verkatimest

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:26:00 +0000

HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY

Anyone know who did this drawing? I took it from here.

It was by some strange coincidence that, earlier this week, just days before the news came out that J.D. Salinger had died, I was contacted on Facebook by an old friend who I hadn't talked to since probably 1992 or thereabouts. She had starred with me in a senior project I had done in high school, playing Franny opposite my Zooey in a video adaptation of the back half of my favorite of Salinger's four books, Franny and Zooey. It was an effort as ambitious as it was amateur. Filming two people talking on the phone is more complicated than you think. Particularly if you consider that my Franny had broken her leg or sprained her ankle or something similar, and we had to shoot her scenes with her sitting in bed, the offending corrective wardrobe buried under her mother's bedspread. We were both in drama and at that time were preparing for a production of Inherit the Wind. I was growing my dyed black hair out to go back to my natural color to play the lawyer Henry Drummond, and I was sporting a tiny ponytail that I tried to tell myself was a samurai-style topknot--something I desperately wanted to hide. In the school play, fittingly enough, Franny played the little girl who, at the end of the first act of Inherit the Wind, sees my character and runs away screaming, "Eeeek! The devil!" Life and its coincidences, life and its ironies.

Finishing the project took a sad turn worthy of Salinger. It took me something like 24 hours to edit the twenty-minute movie, working with my video camera and two VCRs. Even if we'd had a computer at my house, this was well before iMovie, and it was labor intensive, fast forwarding and rewinding to find the right clip, hoping to properly time the jump from pause to record and not get a rough, shaky cut. When I finally emerged from my room, which was tucked away in the garage, I was eager to show someone, and so I grabbed my father. He watched it patiently, and when it was all through, I eagerly looked to him for some kind of approval. He paused, and then spoke in sober, gruff tones. "Do you have to say ‘goddamn' so much?'"

"Well, yes," I whined, "that's the way it is in the book, those aren't my words, those are his words."

He didn't see why I couldn't have censored the language, I couldn't see why he couldn't see how hard I worked. The damage was done. Fittingly, at some point in the future, I had a vivid dream where my father tore up a copy of Catcher in the Rye, ripping it in half like a strongman attacking a phone book. I cried and argued and tried to make him understand that the book was me, he was tearing me in half. As one-sided as the dream was, it led to a teenage epiphany: he and I were so worried about the other guy not understanding us, we never bothered to try to understand one another. We were too caught up in our own junk to realize we were on common ground.

I first read Catcher in the Rye when I was sixteen. I was waiting for a then unrequited girlfriend to get out of some after-school activity she was involved in. I was going to drive her home. A beat-up copy of Salinger's novel, with its all-too-familiar burgundy cover, had been dropped in the school parking lot. I retrieved it from the asphalt and sat on the trunk of my car and read at least half the book before the girl arrived. There was no looking back after that. Like countless other adolescents, I was immediately a best friend of Holden Caulfield. Hell, the book even had a fart joke, that bit about Marsalla ripping one in chapel and really blowing the roof of. Nothing my English teachers ever assigned me had fart jokes.

Portrait by Scott Morse for "Hey Oscar Wilde!"

For all the talk of Fitzgerald and Hemingway that dominated my college experience, the way they were the polar opposites, the two styles of writing, the lyrical and the manly, with Faulkner in the arty middle (the lit version of the Beatles, the Stones, and the Who; or more currently, Blur, Oasis, and Pulp), I would actually argue that no 20th Century American Author had a more profound and ubiquitous influence than J.D. Salinger. I learned a great deal from him, developed my love for italics and for hyperactive speech from reading his books. Every author whose debut novel is a first-person narrative about a transition out of innocence is really just covering Catcher in the Rye the way other kids sat in their garage and tried to learn how to play "Satisfaction." Without Holden Caulfield, let's be honest, there would be no Cut My Hair.

When you know Salinger's work you will begin to see it everywhere. It's like a secret language. Fans lay coded messages for other fans to find. Nick Hornby owes a pretty obvious debt, for instance. Wes Anderson is the most notorious admirer, his Tenenbaums being his own version of the Glass family, the child prodigies that run through all of his post-Catcher stories. I've also always suspected that William H. Macy's Donnie the Whiz Kid in Magnolia was Paul Thomas Anderson's nod to Zooey's talk about how the Glass children were quiz show regulars. Of course, I've never made a secret of my own reverence of those tales. It's what gave birth to the shared universe of my novels.

That's actually one aspect of Salinger's writing that I don't think gets enough consideration: his creation of a complete world. Much is always made of his conversational prose and his acute understanding of existential angst, but people don't talk as much about the way his books come as a complete, immersive, insular environment. The Glasses and Holden exist in a real, recognizable world, but it's one they've terraformed to fit their peculiarities. It's as if they occupy a definite spot on a map, and within their personal perimeter, everything is molded to their philosophy and their aesthetics, and beyond those lines lies the rest of society, with their screwed-up ideas and bad taste. This is probably the main thing Wes Anderson has taken from Salinger. It's the way that the Tenenbaums live in New York, but how New York seems to regress in time all around them. Or consider Max Fischer's journey in Rushmore, from a private domain he can control to the inner city where the rest of life grows unruly and wild, with no concern to how he sees things.

Portrait by Mike Allred, also for "Hey Oscar Wilde!"

It's been said that Salinger has been more famous in recent years for not writing than he has for what he'd already wrote. He abandoned the publishing world and polite society in general in 1965, preferring to live a secluded life away from the glare of the public eye. He never published again, though there have been rumors that he has been working the whole time. We don't really know. There has been much said about the legendary old crank and none of it is really verifiable--though I am sure now that the vaults are left unguarded, we will find out. There is even a comprehensive book/documentary project about to be unveiled that, had J.D. not already died, well, the scope of this would kill him. (And if it didn't, the prospect of a Catcher in the Rye movie would. How stupid is Hollywood? Plenty stupid.)

Naturally, I am pretty sympathetic to the man in exile. My own work is full of men who try to run away, to escape, and find some peace alone. It's a theme partially inspired by Salinger, but more of a common ground that I found between him and I (and, to a degree, my own father) than something that I developed because of his work. It would still be there without Salinger's example, but it wouldn't be the same. (Particularly not Have You Seen the Horizon Lately?.) Most people don't believe me, but the truth is, I'd be perfectly content to recede into my armchair and fade completely away, never to be seen again. It makes me more than a little sad to see the final photo of Salinger (I won't link to it), a snooping photographer capturing the author in mid-angry protest. He looks like something out of a horror movie, like an extra from Carnival of Souls or the crazy old man in Equinox. If Salinger knew anything about current technology and the very un-private state of the modern world, I am sure he counted his lucky stars that he got out when he did. If he had any inkling that his time was short, it's probably not too far-fetched to think he burned any unpublished manuscripts himself, well in advance of the literary grave robbers coming to sift through the ashes. I can't pretend I won't read any books that may be published posthumously; when it comes down to it, I'm a phony and my high horse is a pony. I wish I could prove to my hero that he should have had more faith in humanity, but I can't. He was right about us.

And say what you want about his self-chosen banishment, but I think unlike any other author, even moreso than Hemingway's big game hunting and knuckle-dusting or Jay McInerney and Bret Easton Ellis' excesses, J.D. Salinger really did live out his work. Like any number of his characters, he chose to get out of it rather than let the world outside tell him who to be. If I had to pick one theory, I'd say he was a man who saw that his audience and the people who made money off of him were never going to let him grow up. They were never going to allow him to mature, not if they could keep him as the same rebellious adolescent. I'm sure he was asked "When are you going to write another Catcher in the Rye?" more times than there are numbers to count them. Hell, I'm nobody and I've had serious people tell me I needed to write another Cut My Hair and then have no idea why I am offended. As if they'd like to get in a time machine and return to whatever fast food counter they worked behind in the 1990s.*

J.D. Salinger was a man who would not be owned. Think about that before you get too eager to see what he had hidden under his bed. Think about that idiot boss you had once upon a time who demanded more of you than you wanted to give, and then realize that we were all J.D. Salinger's idiot boss and that he told us to get bent. And then remember that he did amazing work, everything we could have asked from him, and it still sits on our bookshelves, ready to be endlessly revisited, always offering more to be discovered. Because when you get to the heart of it, J.D. Salinger never stopped giving, the books never stopped offering up their treasures, we were just too selfish to be content with that. In literary heaven, Holden and Seymour and Franny, they all look at us and despair at how little we learned from their example.

* The analogy is intended as disrespect to the people making the suggestion, not to my book.

This image was one I hadn't used in a recent review, and it seemed apropos for some reason. Bart Simpson is the more obvious choice for a Holden Caulfield doppelganger, but Bart is not misunderstood, nor does he see through the world's false promises. It's Lisa who no one understands, who has a clear idea of how the world really is, and who sees things in her own way. This image shows not just how she sees things, but her actively trying to impose her sense of order on her environment.

For further reading, here are some never-reprinted short stories from Salinger:
* "Slight Rebellion Off Madison" (1946)
* "Hapworth 16, 1924" (1965)
(Or just jump straight to their full Salinger archive.)

Also, Kim Morgan's "Six Stories: Salinger Inspired Cinema"

And, of course, Catcher in the Rye as pop music:

Current Soundtrack: Radiohead; Bat for Lashes, "Pearl's Dream;" A Camp, "Stronger than Jesus;" The Verve, "Never Wanna See You Cry;" Sister Vanilla, "TOTP;" Brett Anderson, "The Big Time (Live in London);" and too many more to keep track of

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

All text (c) 2010 Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:50:00 +0000

...ON THE EDGE OF TOWN

NEW IN THEATRES...

* Edge of Darkness, Martin Campbell's violent revenge fantasy wastes good performances by Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, and a craggy Mel Gibson with poor pacing and a meandering plot.

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* Chantal Akerman in the Seventies - Eclipse Series 19, a collection of the feminist director's work, tracking the emergence of her unique voice. (Also at Criterion Confessions)

NSFW!

* Aziz Ansari: Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, a hilarious stand-up special by the Parks & Recreation star.

* Louis Armstrong: Good Evening Ev'rybody, a fantastic documentary/concert film of the performer near the end of his life.

* The Drummer, a solid Chinese drama from Kenneth Bi. Plus, a short Swedish animated film called Love & War.

* Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy, a wondrous three-disc set from the birth of Neorealism. (Also at Criterion Confessions)

* Weeds: Season 5, the ongoing dramedy with Mary-Louise Parker starts to regain its footing. But just barely.

Current Soundtrack: Team B, The Lost Son free download

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:34:00 +0000

I'LL STAND BY YOU

The "I Just Read About That" blog complete their reviews of Love the Way You Love by covering the Side B collection today.

Some great bits from the end (and then more in the link):

"One thing that I didn’t mention in the first book, but which is here too: the front pages of the stories feature either the super silly and amusingly self-referential Penguin comic Polar Opposites (I enjoyed the one that jokes about the Oni Press rock band book (oh, Hopeless Savages? No. Oh, Scott Pilgrim? NO!) or wonderfully Kitten Stomp Future Dream biographies of the cast. They’re clever and funny.

Oh, and there’s a very positive gay romance in the story as well.

This was a great romantic story. And I enjoyed it from start to finish."

The same nice folks reviewed Side A just at the end of the last year.

Current Soundtrack: Shakira, "I'll Stand by You (feat. The Roots)" & "Loba;" Gorillaz, "Stylo (Feat. Mos Def & Bobby Womack)"

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:52:00 +0000

FOR REAL THIS TIME...YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE WE ARE MAGIC

Jumped the gun when I posted this thinking it was in the previous catalogue, but this time these pages are serious in the new Diamond Previews that came out yesterday. Also out yesterday, Joëlle's Madame Xanadu #19! And Mike Allred's band, The Gear, has their new album, Left Of Center Of The Universe. Cool space-age psychedelia!

Anyway, to the repost:

* * *

Solicited for April 2010 from Oni Press, Spell Checkers vol. 1, written by Jamie S. Rich and illustrated by Nicolas Hitori de & Joëlle Jones.

Now is the time to tell your comic book shop owner that this is the book you want, that they should preorder a copy for you.

[click images for larger views]

Oni is also resoliciting my other books with Joëlle. You can get everything in one fell swoop.

Current plan is for us all three to attend Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo April 16 through 18. I'll keep you posted as that gets closer.

Joëlle and I are also scheduled for Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle on March 13 and 14 and want to do Stumptown here in Portland on April 24 and 25.

Current Soundtrack: Brett Anderson, Live at Queen Elizabeth Hall

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

All text (c) 2010 Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:06:00 +0000

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are many things that Stieg Larsson does well in this book. One is handling a massive plot, with all kinds of tangents and tributaries, and never becoming overly encumbered by any of it. I never once felt like he was doing something because it was required to advance the story or taking me too far away from the central conflict. This is rather surprising when you consider how didactic his writing style can be. There is a scene in the book where Lisbeth Salander, his altogether unique semi-private investigator, prepares to send an e-mail, and he details the make of her computer, the programs she uses, and just about every other technical element that goes into this action. It makes sense for Lisbeth Salander, though, the way it made sense for the scientific specificity Ian McEwan used in Enduring Love, but oh what a difference it makes when you like the character.

The central mystery is fairly intriguing, with enough twists and turns and red herrings to warrant one's interest, but the character of Salander is the real attraction of the book. She is one of the stranger protagonists you'll find, She's cold, asocial, and morally ambiguous. Her whole persona is "stay the fuck away from me," and yet you somehow adore her at the end and even feel sorry for her. To be honest, I didn't expect her to survive the novel, for some reason the plot description I read once upon a time made me think she was going to be the murder victim, but I'm glad now to know that she's in the other books (not sure if she's the titular girl in all of them).

There is a movie version on the way, Cinema 21 has it booked for the coming months. It'll be interesting to see how they contain the plot...and how they contain the main character. That's going to be a tall order.

View all my reviews >>

Current Soundtrack:, The Magic Numbers, "There is a Light That Never Goes Out"

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 04:13:00 +0000

Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was drawn to read this book after seeing Tom Ford's film adaptation. The movie was so good, the narrative so personal and the images singularly beautiful, it made me want to know what kind of prose had inspired it. In that, Christopher Isherwood's way with words does not disappoint. His descriptions are vivid and poetic, telling us as much about the person who is viewing the surroundings as they do the surroundings themselves. The setting is actually pretty interesting: Southern California in the 1960s, a world in the midst of change, the very land being transformed by modernity. The main character, an aging professor, is of a different age, his obsolescence growing more pronounced by the paragraph. The world is passing him by.

Making it all the more interesting is that he is a man who was never part of the world, anyway. As a gay man, he was always outside whatever was normal or modern. A Single Man essentially chronicles a day in his life. George is lonely, grieving for his dead lover, enraged at the life that trundles on around. The pettiness of the inconsequential existences society chooses to accept as "regular" is not lost at him, and Isherwood lets George's interior invective flow. Interestingly enough, Ford teased a whole other story out of this, one that is more about the grief and also more sexual. Isherwood, who published this book in 1964, does nothing to hide George's gayness, but in the movie, it's like someone has struck the professor's libido with a tuning fork. No one is deaf to his desire. Ford also decides to make the day he depicts the one where George has decided to die, giving the film and otherworldy gravitas the book does not have. Instead, what makes the novel vibrant is George's incisive dissection of social drives and mores, and in the climax, when he declares his own somewhat tragic, some might say pathetic, position within those strictures, his acceptance opens the door hope and healing. It's interesting to note that though they take very different paths, both the original novel and the movie end up in the same place. The one distinct difference is that Tom Ford makes literal what is metaphor in Christopher Isherwood's ending, and Isherwood's images here resonate with much more strength than the movie's final scene.

View all my reviews >>

Current Soundtrack: The Complete Motown Singles Vol.8 : 1968

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

All text (c) 2010 Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:00:00 +0000

THE WAR ON LOVE SONG

NEW IN THEATRES...

* The Book of Eli, a pleasantly surprising, entertaining action movie with Denzel Washington as the last holy warrior in a world burnt by the sun.

* Crazy Heart, with Jeff Bridges starring alongside Maggie Gyllenhaal, playing grizzled country singer Bad Blake.

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

* Che, Steven Soderbergh's ambitious biography of the Cuban revolutionary, played by Bencio Del Toro.

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* Across the Hall, one of Britney Murphy's last films was this poor excuse for a twisted crime movie.

* Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures - The Complete Series, the animated cult series from the 1980s finally comes to DVD.

Current Soundtrack: Clint Mansell, score for Moon; Vampire Weekend, Contra

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

All text (c) 2010 Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:51:00 +0000

BLAH BLAH BLAH

I've got a new interview with Tim O'Shea, this time at his Talking with Tim blog. You may recall, he interviewed me for Robot 6 once upon a time. In this go-around, we talk about movies and movie criticism, from Harlan Ellison to Wim Wenders and many points in between.

I thought about pulling out a quote to entice you, but it all works as one piece, so srew it. Just go and read my Talk with Tim here.

By the way, in reference to the last question Tim asked me, if you want to know how good The Human Target comic is and why the TV show looks so bad, you can download the first issue of the Peter Milligan book here for free.

Current Soundtrack: Jane Birkin, Fictions

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:51:00 +0000

TAKING INVENTORY

Currently Unpublished:

- 2 complete prose novels, another half complete
- 3 complete graphic novels, another half written, one 1/4 written
- 1 additional graphic novel set for publication in 2011 (Spell Checkers vol. 2)

Assignments Waiting to Be Done:

- Two comic book short stories for two different venues
- 10 movies on DVD to watch and review (as of this moment...)

Current Freelancing:

- Regular assignments from three manga/manhwa publishers; regular assignments from one client not related to any kind of entertainment; possible future work for one local news-style blog

* * *

Either I'm really using my time well, or I'm wasting a ton of it. (This is not a democracy, so please refrain from voting on either option in the comments section; I'm easily annoyed.)

Current Soundtrack: The Verge, Voyager 1 EP, M.I.A. vs. A-Team theme, One Republic/Timbaland vs. Bronski Beat

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 23:39:00 +0000

TEARDROPS ON YOUR GUITAR

NEW IN THEATRES...

* The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, the resurrected script from Tennessee Williams raises some questions as to its completion, though Bryce Dallas Howard is mesmerizing.

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

* Umberto D., Vittorio De Sica's 1952 tale of an old man and his dog. I bring in personal reminiscences, comic books, whatever floats my boat.

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* Attraction, Tinto Brass' 1969 exercise in psychedelic over-indulgence. Yawn.

* Big Love: The Complete Third Season, the series about plural marriage chugs along with varying results.

* The Brigitte Bardot Classic Collection, three films of varying quality starring the beautiful icon of French cinema.

* In the Loop, Armando Iannucci's blistering political satire. Peter Capaldi and James Gandolfini let the profanity fly!

* 20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End, the first part of three in a live-action adaptation of the Naoki Urasawa manga.

* The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle (Revisited): The 40th Anniversary Concert, the surprisingly potent reunion of one of the most underrated bands of the '60s.

Current Soundtrack: Timbaland, Presents: Shock Value II

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

All text (c) 2010 Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:20:00 +0000

YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE WE ARE MAGIC

Solicited for April 2010 from Oni Press, Spell Checkers vol. 1, written by Jamie S. Rich and illustrated by Nicolas Hitori de & Joëlle Jones.

Now is the time to tell your comic book shop owner that this is the book you want, that they should preorder a copy for you.

[click images for larger views]

Oni is also resoliciting my other books with Joëlle. You can get everything in one fell swoop. [NOTE: Turns out, this is in the catalogue coming out in early February. These pages got sent to me early.]

Current plan is for us all three to attend Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo April 16 through 18. I'll keep you posted as that gets closer.

Joëlle and I are also scheduled for Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle on March 13 and 14 and want to do Stumptown here in Portland on April 24 and 25.

Current Soundtrack: NPR's Fresh Air, "TV 2009: David Bianculli On The Best ... And The Rest" (as recommended to me by Joëlle)

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

All text (c) 2010 Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:21:00 +0000

BREAKIN' DOWN THE WALLS OF HEARTACHE

All About Book-Reviews has posted a new review of an old favorite, 12 Reasons Why I Love Her.

Here is a snippet, with the full review in the link:

"The book is made up of twelve vignettes illustrating Gwen and Evan’s relationship. It’s not overly-complex, it’s not new, but that might be why it’s enjoyable, in a way. You can guess what’s going to happen as soon as you meet the characters, but it’s watching the story unfold that is appealing.

Not that I know a ton about art, but the art is as simple as the story, and refreshingly so. The book is black and white, and Joelle Jones denotes the requisite sentimental flashbacks with rougher sketch-like panels which, again, is simple but effective."

Current Soundtrack: The Band, Greatest Hits

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:03:00 +0000

TOMORROW, AND WHAT MUST COME BEFORE...

A couple of links today.

* First, as part of a Robot 6 survey, I pick my most anticipated book of 2010 and show off three new pages from Spell Checkers Volume 1.

Click the image to read the article.

Robot 6 also gives a shout-out to Joëlle's book Token at the top of their weekly "What Are You Reading?" column.

* Second, the fourth installment of "Talking Out of Frame," my collection of art house DVD reviews posted to DVD Talk in the last month, is now live. Read it here.

While you're in the movie mood, also check out Jason Bailey's picks for "The Best Films of the Decade." Since Jason and A.O. Scott both picked it for their selections from the last ten years, I finally watched 25th Hour last night, and it was amazing. Much more than I thought it was at the time it came out, and I'm sorry I missed it back in 2003. Sometimes I feel like you can see right through an Edward Norton performance, we can see the actor making his choices and getting out in front of the work, that is not at all the case in this movie. Plus, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anna Paquin, Rosario Dawson, and Barry Pepper in really great roles, with Spike Lee's towering visual sense giving the whole thing a great energy. His surprising touches add to the feeling and mood of the story, aiding the telling in ways that are beyond just showing off. His hand is steady, the narrative touch is masterful.

Current Soundtrack: Patti Smith, Horses

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 02:34:00 +0000

WARM LIGHTS FROM THE GRAND HOUSES BLIND ME

Our friends at the Stumptown Trade Review have chosen You Have Killed Me as one of their Top 5 graphic novels of 2009!

Brian lists it as his #5, and they discuss the book at about the 9:50 mark, and then again at the end, where they say some very nice things.

Listen to their whole rundown here.

It's a good list. I'm going to have to go out and get Ball-Peen Hammer now, it's the one I haven't read.

Current Soundtrack: Neil Diamond, "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon;" Morrissey, "I'll Never Be Anybody's Hero Now"

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 08:01:00 +0000

I'VE HAD ENOUGH...

...of 2009. Bring on 2010.

"You were under the impression
That when you were walking forwards
You'd end up further onward
But things aren't quite that simple"

"I'm finished with the fashions
And acting like I'm tough
I'm bored with hate and passion
I've had enough of trying to love."

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:53:00 +0000

OH, I BURIED YOU TODAY II

* Tim O'Shea included You Have Killed Me on his top 10 of the year list, alongside books I also really liked, such as Roger Langridge's The Muppet Show, Greg Rucka's run on Detective Comics, Matt Kindt's 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man, and Evan Dorkin and Jill Thomspon's Beasts of Burden.

See Tim's list, alongside the rest of the lists from the Robot 6 crew, here.

By the by, I think it's all kinds of wrong that Joëlle Jones' amazing cover for You Have Killed Me, designed up nice by Keith Wood, hasn't been making the lists of the best covers of the year. That's all kinds of wrong.

And speaking of wrong...

* Depeche Mode should maybe be awarded the song of the year, as this more than any other summed up the zeitgeist of 2009 for most of the people I know:

According to my LastFM account, the band was my third most played of the year, too.

1. The Beatles
2. Morrissey
3. Depeche Mode
4. Lily Allen
5. Leonard Cohen
6. Brett Anderson
7. Dot Allison
8. Asobi Seksu
9. Pet Shop Boys
10. Elbow
11. Scott Walker
12. The Trash Can Sinatras
13. Franz Ferdinand
14. Moby
15. Mareva Galanter

Current Soundtrack: Depeche Mode, Sounds of the Universe

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:40:00 +0000

OH, I BURIED YOU TODAY

A couple of things for the last day of the year.

* First up, a new review of the Love the Way You Love: Side A trade paperback over at the "I Just Read About That..." blog.

"I’ve always liked Jamie Rich’s stories. He’s written some full-on fiction in addition to his comics. And they’re both solid, romantic works. Ellerby’s drawing style is rather cartoony (big eyes and often outlandish hair, but it works in context). This is especially so since this story is about teens/post-teens and rock bands....

Rich makes his characters full, with a wide emotional range. The secondary characters are also quite good, especially Lance, Tristan’s younger brother, who wears a cool hat and has some of the best lines in the book."

Not bad! I'll take it. (More, obviously, in the link.)

* Second, in case you're not sick of best-of lists yet (I've avoided most, and it's still like a lot of white noise to me), here are a few more after someone's ingenious mash-up of the movies of 2009. It's like a trailer for the whole year.

* DVD Talk's writers voted on their Top 20 DVDs of 2009, and this is what we came up with. I wrote the blurbs for Wings of Desire, Up, and The Human Condition. I should've staged a walk-out, though, when Watchmen's name even came up.

* Jason Bailey posted his Top 10 Theatrical Releases of 2009 on his Fourth Row Center blog. Note how great his first 3 are, though a little backwards. (Compare to my list, in other words.)

* Christopher McQuain has added his Best Films of the Decade to Facebook. (Why not your own blog, hepcat?)

Current Soundtrack: The Raveonettes, In & Out of Control

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

All text (c) 2009 Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:56:00 +0000

HOLLYWOOD GIRL ON THE FIRE ESCAPE: BLUE CHRISTMAS

This lovely Audrey Hepburn drawing showed up in my inbox today:

It's by my talented friend Kimball Gray Davis, who did the awesome colors on the cover for the first volume of Spell Checkers.

Check out Kimball's other work over at Deviantart.

Thanks a ton, Kimball!

Current Soundtrack: Alicia Keys, Unplugged

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:16:00 +0000

CHRISTMAS WRAPPING

More Christmas art.

I commissioned this Notorious-themed bottle from Kelley Seda to give to Joëlle. It's tough to give a talented artist artwork, you have to find an equally talented artist. Kelley did such a phenomenal job on this, it would be a crime not to share and show it off. Also, check out Kelley's adorable Christmas card at her blog.

In return, Joëlle gave me these super awesome cuff links!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, ALL!

Current Soundtrack: Venture Bros. Xmas songs

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:48:00 +0000

HOLLYWOOD GIRL ON THE FIRE ESCAPE: XMAS 2009

The super-talented and way-too-adorable Natalie Nourigat gave me this awesome Audrey Hepburn drawing for Christmas. It's good to know cartoonists!

See more of Tally:
Her blog
Deviant Art
He webcomic "Between Gears" (a.k.a. "Between Updates")

Current Soundtrack: PSB & Rufus Wainwright, "Casanova in Hell"

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:03:00 +0000

THE BEST DAYS WE USED TO HAVE: MY TOP 15 MOVIES OF 2009

I had every intention of avoiding the list-making impulse again this year. Every time I see one of those lists of lists, the ones that bloggers like Largehearted Boy make gathering together every "best of" they can find in one place, I disappear to some kind of quiet happy place. There are just too many. What does it all matter anymore? And this year it goes double, since we're also getting decade round-ups.

But then I was out the other night having a drink with Joëlle and she noted that based on the Golden Globes, it seemed like a bad year for movies. I said I didn't think this was true, and she challenged me to come up with my top 3. I vacillated a little, came up with a basic top 3, but said I really needed to look at everything I saw. Which I did, confirming that the guesses I made at the bar were, in fact, my faves. Once I started looking, though, it was all downhill, I couldn't stop.

There are a few movies I haven't seen. Crazy Heart, for instance, has not shown up in Portland yet (though, check Jason Bailey's review). It's one of the few I can think of that might have a slight chance of cracking this block, but I feel pretty confident that I've got a solid list here. All of the links go to my reviews of the films, so no real need to write short blurbs.

Okay, without further ado...

Jamie S. Rich's Top 15 Theatrical Releases of 2009

1. Where the Wild Things Are

2. Up
3. Up in the Air
4. An Education
5. The Informant!
6. Inglourious Basterds
7. A Single Man

8. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
9. The Hurt Locker
10. A Serious Man
11. Moon
12. The Messenger
13. The Brothers Bloom
14. Star Trek
15. Treeless Mountain

If I had to give out a special award this year, it would be to Steven Soderbergh, who entertained me not once, but three times. Though Che was technically a 2008 starter, I saw it in 2009, and alongside The Informant! and The Girlfriend Experience, the filmmaker delivered a lot of entertainment this year.

Then again, Sandra Bullock also made three movies this year, none of which I saw. What happened to you, Sandy?! I used to love you!

For a fantastic summation of 2009, I recommend A.O. Scott's intro to his own list over at the NY Times. He finds the common themes of the year, and I think is very astute. His picks are pretty good, especially his #1. Great minds...

DVD Talk is also currently working on their list rounding up our reviewers' opinions on the best DVDs of the year. This means the best packages of the best movies, not just the quality of the film itself. Below is essentially what I voted for, though I hadn't watched Tora-san yet when I voted. I swapped it with Up, since it had already made the theatrical list.

Jamie S. Rich's Top 10 DVD Releases of 2009

1. Wings of Desire - Criterion Collection

2. Mad Men - Season 2
3. Wendy & Lucy
4. Magnificent Obsession - Criterion Collection
5. The Human Condition - Criterion Collection
6. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Criterion Collection
7. Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
8. Harlan Ellison: Dreams with Sharp Teeth
9. Funny People - 2-Disc Unrated Collector's Edition
10. Tora-san: Collector Set 1

I believe the full results of the DVD Talk poll will be posted sometime next week.

Current Soundtrack: Pet Shop Boys, Yes: Special Edition

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

All text (c) 2009 Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:37:00 +0000

SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS? AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE...?

It's the big holiday weekend, and I can finally post the reviews of all the movies I have been seeing, most of which go wide for Christmas.

NEW IN THEATRES...

* Broken Embraces, the new Pedro Almodovar is the movie for Penelope Cruz fans to see this weekend. Forget the one with the music.

* Nine, the musical remake of Fellini's 8 1/2 lacks the original's creative spark and is really just a snoozer. Second appearance by Penelope Cruz, first by Marion Cotillard this week, both of whom make this at least passable. See my link to a review of the Fellini a couple of spaces down.

* The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Rebecca Miller's new film. It falls apart in the final third, but the strong start and performances are enough to keep it as a recommended feature. Portlanders, this opens at Cinema 21 on Friday.

* Sherlock Holmes, Guy Ritchie's movie is the worst thing you can do to yourself this Christmas.

* A Single Man, Tom Ford's movie is the best thing you can do to yourself this Christmas.

* The Young Victoria, a lovely historical drama with Emily Blunt as the titular Queen.

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

* 8 1/2, Fellini's masterpiece on artistic frustration. And how frustrating that they turned this into Nine!

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* Public Enemies: 2-Disc Special Edition, Michael Mann's gangster movie is the prettiest nap you can ever take. The second appearance of Marion Cotillard in this week's list of reviews. Between this and Nine, she deserves better.

* Tora-san: Collector's Set 1, the first four movies in the extensive Japanese film series, featuring a charismatic drifter in increasingly addictive romantic adventures.

Current Soundtrack: Rihanna, Rated R ($5.00 download!)

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

All text (c) 2009 Jamie S. Rich

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie S. Rich) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:16:00 +0000

KEEP ME IN MIND, SWEETHEART

Andrea Speed over at Comixtreme recommends as part of Captain Andy's Graphic Novel Funkapus #3.

You Have Killed Me (Oni Press)
By Jamie S. Rich & Joëlle Jones

This is a piece of '30's style noir mystery, with private eye Mercer hired by the sister of an old flame to find her. It seems she was about to get married and disappeared in an improbable, suspicious manner. Although reluctant to do so, he takes the case, and discovers that his ex-flame's fiance was an inveterate gambler and had ties to a mobster named Memory. There's also a black jazz trumpeter that his ex-flame, Julie, might have been having a clandestine affair with, and may have a very wicked temper. But the more he looks, the more complicated things get, and the more suspicious the sister, Jennie, acts. Mercer could be a relative of Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe, which is both a good and a bad thing. Good because you can instantly grasp the character and his motives, but bad because he never stands out as his own character very much. Also, Jennie was suspicious right away; she pours on the whole sexy femme fatale thing too much way too early, and by the end I honestly hadn't grasped a single of her motives. Oh, Mercer explains them, but they don't make much sense. Still, it's a solid genre story, and the art by Jones is fantastic. Lots of bold lines and delicate penciling, with a good use of space and artful shading. It's so good that I'd like to see more of her work more often. Anybody hankering for an atmospheric crime noir tale between releases of Criminal will find this a satisfying treat to tide you over. Rating: 4/5 --Andrea Speed

Current Soundtrack: A Camp, "Bear on the Beach"