the happy mania

Straight from DC's The Source:



Dodgy Denny. Unf, I love it :D

The First Wave mini-series will be a sort of noir-ish AU that starts with the Batman/Doc Savage book and will include stories featuring The Spirit, Black Canary, Batman, the Avenger, and other characters. In 2010 we'll see ongoing titles for The Spirit and Doc Savage that will be directly tied in to the events of First Wave. If you're as excited as I am with the resurrections of such famous and cult figures as Doc Savage and the Avenger, The Source has been posting Brian Azzarello notes and such drool-worthy Rags Morales art (here).

As for Azzarello's note about making Ebony a 'sassy' girl? Could work, I guess. Right now my focus is on sussing out whether we'll see a Doc Savage/The Spirit crossover take place in First Wave. Uh, for the simple selfish reason that I may have to write that slash fic.

What? You take a look at this and not think bara. Oh, just me then?

BWAHAHAHA! I finally finished that Spirit/Question kink fic. It only took like, two weeks or summat. This calls for cake! *shuffles off to kitchen*

Oh, and I posted a request on page 16. Guess which one. No, not the Metal Men porn. Something obscure, as per usual.

South Asia: The first anniversary of Benazir Bhutto's assassination amidst growing tensions between India and Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks (BBC | LA Times).

Middle East: Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip kill 225 people (BBC | Guardian | Times UK | WA Post).

Entertainment: The Spirit debuted in 2,509 theaters and was pulled from theaters only 2 1/2 weeks after (Newsarama).

Haha, oh man, am I glad to have missed this the first time round. Ever since I sat in on The Spirit panel at SDCC I have been embarrassed for LA Times' Geoff Boucher and his ass-kissing of Frank Miller. Seriously dude, enough with the man-crush. Calling Miller visionary is a bit like calling toaster strudels the greatest thing since sliced bread. Nice try, but we're not buying it.

Thankfully, someone who shares the sentiment has written a rebuttal to the article (here if you dare) on Miller's upcoming Spirit movie:

There was a gentle human touch to the Spirit stories, with real humanistic connections, none of which shows up in any of Miller's writings over the past 20 years. If Miller has any humor, I would love to see the evidence.

Please do not hold All Star Batman and Robin as evidence, or you will make me cry.

The prime motivation in any Miller story is always revenge. The prime human emotion is always misfit anger leading to revenge. Not Eisner at all.

A-FREAKIN-MEN. Mr Letter-Writer, you are now my homeboy.

Anyway, I'm so over the Spirit movie. Thanks to the Eisner documentary I'm no longer tormented by whatever drivel Miller is planning to put out, and can zen out with the knowledge it will never be comparable to the original.

Frank Miller is a creepy old man. Sh'yeah, like this is no big surprise. See, I tend to think the best of people even after they've proved me wrong countless times. It's this weird tic I have. So when Miller says all the right things about making Ellen Dolan a strong female character and how much he's learned since then, I think 'Finally'. Then he has to ruin it all by doing something icky like this ad.

From io9.com: Scariest movie marketing ever: Frank Miller brings together his gaggle of gals from The Spirit and has each of them give a little soundbite when you mouse over her poster. Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, Jaime King, and Sarah Paulson lay the verbal cheesecake on thick, moaning and purring a sexy innuendo or pick-up line.

Here's the ad. Part of me thought, maybe it wasn't his idea. Maybe it's the studio, right? But then I figure surely the studio's giving Miller full reins on the movie; he'd probably signed off on the marketing himself. Is this the best way to sell this movie? Maybe to a demographic of 14 year old boys.

Look at how the new Batman's being marketed. Joker, Two-Face, Batman's toys, using guerilla marketing tactics to create buzz... Now that's innovative. Spirit's B&W pinups of women moaning? Trashy, yo.

Posted this on scans_daily, and am a bit conflicted about the new role. Ahhh, it'll work out in the end, won't it? *hyperventilates into a paper bag*

In other news, Chelsea lost the European Championship. My supervisor at new job rubbed it in, made me laugh with his impression of Rooney, and then we both commiserated on the state of the English Premiership (he's a Liverpool fan, haha!). Stupid penalties. Stupid Man U. Grr.

I haven't had dinner yet, having returned at 8pm before diving into preparing the SD post (yeah, my priorities are messed up). I still have a bagful of comics to catch up on, as well as newslinks. The one I'm most interested in at the moment is this International Herald Tribune article on Finding The Best Way to Cook All Those Vegetables. No, it's not a cooking column. It reports next month's findings in The British Journal of Nutrition of raw and plain vegetables not being 'the best'. Hey, maybe that means I won't have to succumb to the raw food diet to allay my allergies after all.

And finally, I'm posting this pic so's Sal can finally figure out my costume for this year's San Diego Comic-Con. A farthing for those who can guess correctly the character!


Now if you'll excuse me, Law & Order Season Finale awaits!

Saw this on scans_daily and it made me cry. It's one thing to make Sin City into a movie, but quite another to turn Will Eisner's The Spirit into Sin City. I know this will sound like a petulant fan whining about how the comics is better than a movie that's hardly completed, but we're talking about Frank 'whores whores whores' Miller here.

Someone said the trailer had a trace of humour in it and I bleakly noted he's hardly ever made anything intentionally funny (unless you count All Star Batman And Robin, and I don't). It takes a good storyteller to balance the humour, the action, and the heavy stuff -- can Miller pull it off?

Judging from what we have so far and being fair, it's too early to tell. At the same time, the tone of the trailer SUCKS. Well, there's a bunch (clowder?) of cats in the first few seconds. For a second I thought maybe we're watching Catwoman instead. Nope wait, there's Denny. And cue some lame voiceover where the city is both mother and lover to our guy (hahaha, motherlover!). This is exactly when my heart broke in two.

It looks like Sin City, sounds like Sin City, and oh dear god we're going to see whores aren't we? There's not a glimpse of the Denny Colt/Spirit I recognise other than the superficial stuff (hat, tie, suit). Just the generic Frank Miller 'hardboiled' protagonist who hangs out with cats and jumps on power lines.

What did we do to deserve this tripe? Wait, wait, I shouldn't say that just yet. There's still loads of time until the film is actually released. Maybe it won't be so bad. Right? I mean, it can still be salvaged. Right?

*whimpers*