At Last, Re\Visioned: Activision

I am pleased to announce that at long last, after spending a little more than a year in the can, Re\Visioned: Activision, the last web series I produced for GameTap.com, is available for your viewing pleasure. Apparently, the fine people at GameTap uploaded the six episode series - presenting new and original takes on the classic Activision games Pitfall, Cosmic Ark, Pressure Cooker, Kaboom, Freeway, and H.E.R.O. - on Thursday, which just happened to be my birthday. I don't think it was an intentional birthday gift, but after waiting for a year for this thing to be released, it certainly feels like a gift. I will write a more in-depth post about this project on Monday, but until then, please enjoy (all six episodes are available in the embedded player below, or you can view them bigger here):


-EB

Comics, Big Stack Of

Went to the comic shop yesterday with some birthday cash in hand and bought a big stack, which is always fun. But before I get into what I bought, I want to relate a little story about the store itself. While I was browsing the new releases, the manager and a staffer came over with the new order book and started trying to figure out what they should be ordering, by looking at what was on the shelves and counting what was left over. The manager actually said, "I wonder how many of those we actually sold?" This store is regarded as the best in Atlanta - possibly because it's the only one I can find inside the perimeter - and the manager didn't have any idea how much they were selling, which means that they were ordering in the dark. Before yesterday, I had not noticed the absence of a POS (point of sale) system, which means they're not using the bar codes on the comics, GN's, and various merchandise they sell to track their inventory. I am not a retailer, but I'm the son of one, and, really, you don't have to be the son of a retailer to realize this is a really bad way to manage your business. Comics retailer Brian Hibbs writes extensively about the benefits and insights gained from using a POS system in his column Tilting at Windmills, so if you're at all interested in this, it's worth checking out.

Now, to the fun stuff - here's what I bought:

• Captain America #48 - Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America has been outstanding, and the Butch Guice art on this arc is the best I've ever seen from him. Really great stuff. Killing off Steve Rogers and bringing back Bucky could have been hokey, but Brubaker's mastery of character has made this a compelling read every month for four years now, and that's quite an accomplishment.
• Daredevil #117 - Another great run on a book by Ed Brubaker, who for my money is one of the top three writers in comics. The Kingpin made his return last issue, and Brubaker, along with artist David Aja, showed us a side of Wilson Fisk that we've never seen. The great runs on Daredevil have always been less about the costume and more about the man inside it, and there's no character in comics with more drama in his life than Matt Murdock. Bad for him, but good reading for us, which is what it's all about.
• Black Lightning #6 - A good updating of the characters origin. I usually buy a comic for the writing, but this one was all about the art, and I don't think I've seen anything finer from Cully Hamner. (Who, in the interest of full disclosure, is a friend.)
• Fantastic Four #565 - I've really enjoyed Millar & Hitch's FF - it's no Ultimates, but it's been entertaining and typically full of big Millar ideas.
• Scalped #26 - One of the best comics currently being published, by writer Jason Aaron and artist R.M. Guera (although this issue is drawn by Davide Furno). Crime stories at their most brutal. I wrote about Scalped extensively here.
• Ex Machina Special #4 - Lost writer/producer Brian K. Vaughn's political fable set in New York, following the exploits of its mayor, the world's first and only superhero.
• Potter's Field: Stone Cold - A follow up to last year's Potter's Field miniseries by creators Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta. Solid crime/mystery comic.
• Batman: Battle for the Cowl #1 - I have to admit I was skeptical about this effort from writer/artist Tony Daniel, which is about the struggle to succeed Batman, who seemed to have perished at the end of Final Crisis. Not the best comics writing I've ever come across, but nevertheless, this was a lot of fun. If you're a longtime reader of superhero comics, it's easy to predict who's going to wind up as the next Batman, even when it's not accidentally leaked (all indications point to Dick Grayson), but the comics geek in me wants to see how it unfolds.
• Wolverine #71 - A continuation of the "Old Man Logan" storyline by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. I've enjoyed it. It's nice to see Marvel do a story which is clearly a stand-alone, non-continuity piece, as part of the monthly series rather than a mini. Of course, there's plenty of in-continuity Wolverine to go around on a monthly basis...
• Wolverine Saga - A free offering from Marvel that appears to be a linear explanation of Wolvie's convoluted history.

A couple of comics fell off my list of regular titles I'm following, including New Avengers and Dark Avengers. I generally really like Brian Bendis' writing, but I'm burned out on these books. I don't really buy the Norman Osborn Dark Reign thing (I've explained why here), and I'm feeling like I've had enough of the Marvel U status quo-changing storylines, which is part of what has made Captain America and Daredevil really appealing. They may touch on this stuff, but they're not about it - they're about the characters, and that's why I keep buying them.

-EB

Goodbye 38, Hello 39

A somewhat self-indulgent post today. But this is my blog, so aren't they all self-indulgent?

Anyway, it's my birthday, it's gray and rainy outside, and so I thought why not take a few moments to reflect on the last year - which, in many ways, was not what I expected it to be. First, a year ago I was gainfully employed, nominated for several southeast region Emmy awards, and, while I had pretty good idea that the end was coming at GameTap, I also thought I'd pick up something new pretty quick. Boy, did I call that one wrong. Two months later, my unit was shown the door; three weeks after that, I won two of those Emmy awards:
That's me with the statue I took home (the other went with my co-winner Greg Taylor, who really deserves most of the credit for crafting the promo we won for) - it sits on my dresser, a glorious golden paperweight. I'd say that was the highlight of Elliot Year 38, but the truth is, for all the unanticipated difficulty I've had with re-inventing myself as a freelance producer of content - it's a longer process than I thought it would be, and the sorry state of the economy hasn't helped me or anyone - the real highlights are far less complicated and much more profound, and they greet me with a smile every single day...

...my daughter Hannah and my son Sam, who also has a birthday today, turning six, and who will always be the best birthday present I could ever get. Not pictured - because as good a job as we do taking pictures of the kids, we almost never take pictures of ourselves - is my lovely wife, Laura, who really is the most supportive person in the world. Daily reminders that I while I'm going through a period of professional re-adjustment that isn't the most fun I've had on a bun, I have it pretty damn great, and that I'm actually pretty damn lucky.

So, here's to hoping that Elliot Year 39 will see some of the professional things I set in motion during E.Y. 38 come to fruition, including:
-my comic book trailer business, starting with the release of the trailer I produced for Wildstorm.
-some motion comics work; I have some solid ideas for advancing the medium I'd like to put into action.
-Jeffrey Brown's Sketchbook
-a potential non-fiction comic book guide to a casual activity that people enjoy but which shall remain nameless at this juncture, as I don't want to give it away.
-The Package, my webcomic crime novella with artist Alexis Ziritt.
-Mekano Turbo, a comic I'm writing for Alexis.
-Sword-Maiden, a project I conceived of as a comic, but which I'm considering writing as a screenplay.
-a documentary project; we shot the footage for the pilot, featuring comics artist Cully Hamner, now we just need to get down to writing and putting the thing together.

A lot of stuff, all potentially fun, some potentially revenue producing - which would be nice. Most importantly, I have my family backing me up and keeping me hopeful.

-EB
p.s. Just had a birthday phone call with one of my oldest and closest friends from high school, David Sachs. Always great to speak with him - I think life for everyone would be better with a daily dose of David Sachs.

UPDATE: 9:35PM, 3/26/09 - I meant to mention this when composing the above, but forgot, I would guess because my neurons probably aren't firing like they were when I was 29, but other than that, I don't feel like I'm 39. I look in the mirror and I don't see a guy a year away from 40, so it's really hard for me to believe that I've reached the end of my thirties. I know this is a cliche, I know I'm not the first person to say this, think this, write this, but it's the truth. I still feel like a kid. Now I'm going to go read some comics.

I Watched the Watchmen

I wanted to call this post "I Watches the Watchmen," as a jokey kind of answer to the "Who Watches the Watchmen" graffiti tag featured prominently in the Watchmen comics and its movie adaptation, but I figured everyone would I assume I had just made a typo. Anyway...

I finally saw Watchmen last night, and I'm still processing it. But here are some quick thoughts on the subject, because I'm sure you've all been just dying to hear my opinion:

• Jackie Earle Haley makes a great Rorshach. I always thought he was a great actor - remember him in Breaking Away? - and it's nice to see him make a comeback.
• Also thought Patrick Wilson was good as Dan/Nite Owl II, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was good as the Comedian, and Billy Crudup was good as Dr. Manhattan. And while a lot of people thought Malin Akerman was bad as Laurie/Silk Spectre II, I thought she was perfectly fine. I could not stand the guy playing Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, though - he had the weirdest accent and affectation, and every time he spoke, it pulled me right out of the movie.
  
• Seeing Malin Akerman naked is never a bad thing, but the sex scene aboard the owl ship was really laughable. Setting the scene, where Dan is finally able to get an erection thanks to finally putting on his Nite Owl costume and doing some good, to Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is just too on the nose.
• SPOILER! I get the logic of not using the squid, and the new story device works. I just liked the overall absurdity of the squid. That was the real joke that finally broke the Comedian.
• Too gory. I re-read the comic last year, and while it has it's violent moments, I don't remember this much graphic blood-letting, some of which made me turn my head.
  
• If I start working out really hard right now, by the time Halloween comes around, I should be able to pull off a Dr. Manhattan "costume" pretty well. You can read into that whatever you like.
  

Overall, I don't think the movie was bad; it was certainly faithful to the source material in a lot of ways, particularly visually, but really missed the point of the book in other, really important ways. In the book, writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons did a really good job of taking the sexy out of the violence of superheroing - it wasn't sexy, and it wasn't heroic. Director Zack Snyder, however, makes it really sexy and cool-looking with all the slow-mo and super-thrilling fight scenes, and that just goes against the message of the book, in my opinion. It was like those subtleties - although, in the book, they're anything but - went over Snyder's head.

Also, and I know I'm not the first person to say this, but I think the whole story could have been better served with more time. Like about 12 hours worth of time. This just would have worked better, and could have captured some of the depth of the source material, if it had been a series on HBO, perhaps produced by Ron Howard and Tom Hanks, like From The Earth to the Moon and Band of Brothers (which was actually co-produced by Spielberg, but you get my point).

Finally, I don't know that it was really necessary to keep the original setting of the book, which is 1985, with a world on the brink of nuclear war. I get that retaining the setting was being faithful, but watching the movie, I couldn't help but wonder what a more nuanced director could have done to update the material and make it more relevant to the times we live in now. It would have been interesting to see an adaptation of Watchmen that honored the spirit and themes of the original, but that was not so slavishly devoted to it, so that it could stand on its own merits.

So, to distill all this down into a handy rating: it's not quite a thumbs up, and not quite a thumbs down - I give it a sideways thumb. Glad I saw it, not sure if I'll need to see the expanded "definitive" version when it comes out on DVD later in the year.


-EB

p.s. Hey, guess what? Thanks to writing this blog post, I'm no longer processing how I feel about the movie! Thanks, blog!

Great Ribs

Over the last couple of days, two people I follow on Twitter have mentioned Memphis and asked about good restaurants. Now, I've only been to Memphis twice, but both times I was sure to eat at one place: Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous, known for their legendary dry-rub Memphis ribs. That's good eatin'.

I learned about the Rendezvous back in 1987, thanks to a John Hiatt song called Memphis in the Meantime, which has a line that goes "At least we can get a decent meal, down at the Rendez-vous." As I was seventeen at the time, and far less knowledgeable in the ways of barbecue than I am now, I had no idea that the Rendezvous mentioned in the song was an actual place - until my dad mentioned he had eaten there while on a business trip to Memphis.

I never expected to actually eat there - I couldn't think of a reason I would be in Memphis - but I in 1990, while on a cross-country trip with my high school friends, our last stop found us in Memphis in order to hit Sun Records and, of course, Graceland. And, because I insisted, the Rendezvous. We had a great meal, and from there headed back to Baltimore.

The Rendezvous took on mythic proportions for me the following year, while I was once again driving across the country with a couple of college buddies after completing an internship at a production company in Los Angeles. We were taking three or four days to head back east, and on the third day, we decided we would make Memphis by dinner, and if we were going to be in Memphis for dinner, we were going to eat at the Rendezvous. I can't remember exactly where we started the day, but as we pushed on, we realized Memphis was a lot further out than we realized. It was probably 9:30 at night when we finally reached Memphis, and after securing a room at a Motel 6, we headed downtown for ribs, hoping they'd still be open.

One of the charming things about the Rendezvous is that it's down an alley, so after walking down a dark alley that seemed vaguely threatening at what must have been 10:30pm, we arrived at the restaurant, walked in to the tremendous aroma of charcoal and barbecue rub, and found out they were no longer seating, and that they kitchen was done taking orders for the night. We were crestfallen. But my buddy Steve wasn't going to just give up - he pleaded with one of the waiters, explaining that we had driven halfway across the country that day, just for the ribs. This seemed to have made an impression on the waiter, because he called the manager over, and Steve really turned on the charm; moments later, "Mr. Tom", as the waiter called him, was seating us, sending in an order for three full racks of ribs, and offering us some drinks on the house. He said if we had spent all day driving for Rendezvous ribs, than we were going to have Rendezvous ribs. Never in my life did a plate of food look more delicious:
Here's the icing on the cake, or I suppose more appropriately, the rub on the ribs: we thought Mr. Tom was just buying us drinks for being enterprising young men on a mission for ribs, but when we got the bill, he picked up the whole tab. I guess he admired our moxie. We left the waiter a $30 tip, which for three 20-year-olds in 1991 seemed like big money, and he certainly seemed to appreciate it. To this day, it was one of the best meals I have ever had.

-EB
Photos from Roadfood.com

Jeffrey Brown's Sketchbook

Cartoonist Jeffrey Brown is blogging, and today he's posted about an animated project we're collaborating on called Jeffrey Brown's Sketchbook. Check it out, won't you?

Just about four years ago, I approached Jeffrey about the possibility of adapting his superhero parody/homage Bighead into a cartoon. But over time, the idea of doing something completely original became appealing, which resulted in Sketchbook. Here's an excerpt from the exclusive mini-comic drawn by Jeffrey for the pitch:
Now, we could tell you here on the blog how "we've found a way to reduce litigation while also increasing entertainment," but that would be kind of like giving away the farm. However, if you're an entertainment and/or animation network and/or internet video website executive with discerning taste in indie comics, we'd be happy to send you a package including the full mini-comic containing the answer to this age-old dilemma, so succinctly laid out by Jeffrey above in panel number 6. Just shoot me an email care of info@9panelgrid.com.

(I'd also recommend this animated trailer for Jeffrey's book Little Things, from Touchstone Books.)

-EB

Mekano Turbo!

Above is the character line-up from Mekano Turbo (click for full image), a full-on crazy pastiche of post-apocalyptic road movies, Japanese robot cartoons, and Venezuelan mythology, created by my collaborator on The Package, Alexis Ziritt. Alexis recruited me Tuesday night to help him out with a story for the Image Comics anthology book Popgun, which he needed to pitch today. So after mainlining a bunch of reference material and ideas Alexis sent me last night, this morning I sat down at the old iBook G4 and, completely inspired by the notion of doing something altogether different, banged out an outline for an 8-page story. And by 3:00 today, I found out our story pitch was accepted by the guys at Popgun. Next on the list: a script so Alexis can start drawing. This is going to be fun.

-EB

AIG AAAAAGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

The debacle that is AIG is just stunning in its size and scope. But until today, I don't think I really had a grip on just what AIG was up to or why the government keeps bailing them out with our taxpayer dollars. After all, aren't they just an insurance company? The answer to that is NO. AIG is much, much more, and it's looking like if AIG were allowed to collapse, the rest of the world financial system would get sucked down the black hole with it. A really great article by Joe Nocera in Saturday's New York Times lays out the reasons why that is in infuriating detail. The number of bad decisions made, the sheer delusion under which this company was operating, and the pure, naked, greed that led them to make these bad, delusional decisions are shocking enough to make your head spin. Alan Greenspan is on record as saying he believed that the financial companies could regulate themselves out of a sense of self-preservation - it's now beyond clear that this was not the case, and in the case of AIG, that hubris rather than self-preservation is what allowed them to wind up in hole they're dragging us into. I'm not going to get into specifics, as I'm not an expert on this, and they're all in the article. Please read the article. It's important.

And then ask yourself: If the European banks are as badly tied up in the AIG mess as our own banks are, why isn't the European Union footing some of the $150 billion bailout bill that's going to keep them from going under? (And if any nation in Europe is kicking in for the AIG bailout, please comment below - I'd love to be corrected on this count.)

-EB

Once Again, I Am Blog Delinquent

So I looked up and suddenly a week had gone by without a blog update. Bad blogger. BAD BLOGGER!

Busy week last week. Busy week this week. But I will endeavour (yes, I spell it British-style) to be more topical this week. Hopefully, I'll have a link to post for the trailer I produced for Wildstorm, an imprint of DC Comics. That would be cool.

Here's something I'm excited about: one of my favorite comics writers, Ed Brubaker, has a made for the web movie debuting today on Sony's video site Crackle. It's called Angel of Death, and it stars Zoe Bell, Doug Jones, Ted Raimi, and Lucy Lawless. Very Cool. Can't wait to watch it.

-EB