TV

Funnybooks on Film: It’s Crazy, But It Just Might Work!

March 12, 2019 // 2 Comments

So I don’t know if you guys were aware of this, but there are people out there who actually adapt funnybooks into movies and TV shows. I know, right? I was shocked, too, when I heard. Now, the whole idea sounds crazy to me. But comics are a visual medium by nature, so you never know. Maybe it’ll work. And that’s why I decided to sample a couple: that new Captain Marvel movie that’s out in theaters, and the TV adaptation of Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba’s Umbrella [...]

So… Very… Tired…

December 27, 2018 // 1 Comment

Apologies for the recent dearth of posts. We were having some trouble with the frammistat converter on that Doomsday Clock skewering we promised, then Christmas happened (hope everyone reading has enjoyed the holiday of their choice, by the way), and now the day job’s keeping me from tending the nerd farm in the usual manner. Oy! I’m feeling like Bill Shatner in Star Trek XII… But we’ll be back soon, I promise. Hopefully, before the New Year. Thank you for your [...]

Something to Believe In

August 14, 2018 // 2 Comments

So this week’s column will be a bit of a departure for the nerd farm. But we are dorks about a great many things around here, and this is where I work those dorky thoughts out of my head. So I hope our regular readers will indulge me, and we’ll get back to the funnybooks next time… New Japan Pro Wrestling: G1 Climax 28 I’ve been a pro wrestling fan, off and on, for most of my life. I know it’s dumb, but what can I say? I don’t enjoy most real sports, but add [...]

NOT A NUMBER: Jack Kirby vs. The Prisoner

July 24, 2018 // 3 Comments

So last week, I indulged in a rare splurge on an objet d’art: The Original Art Edition of Jack Kirby’s adaptation of The Prisoner, which reproduces his pencils at the size he drew them. I’ve bought a few of these art board reproductions over the years (Kirby’s Mister Miracle, a collection of Wally Wood stories for EC Comics), and I’d sworn I’d never buy another one. Not because they’re not nice; they are, especially for a comics historian and process [...]

Twin Peaks Re-Watch, Flash-Forward: The Man With the Grey Elevated Hair

December 26, 2017 // 1 Comment

So did I say that we’d be getting to Part Two of Alan Moore’s Twilight of the Super Heroes this week? I did? Oh. Well, uhm… There was this holiday thing, see, and… I caught a cold, and… I wanted to spend time with my family, and… Yeah. Yeah, that ain’t happening now. But, so as not to leave you with nothing for the holidays… Here’s another installment of Twin Peaks Re-Watch! (Which, yes, I already had written because I was sharing it with [...]

Back to the Beginning: Random Observations on Twin Peaks, Season One

November 21, 2017 // 2 Comments

So I decided to undertake a re-watch of Twin Peaks a few weeks ago, starting with the 1991 pilot episode and moving forward through the recent season three. Most people did this in preparation for the new season, of course, but I never quite got around to it. I loved season three so much, however, that when it was over, I felt a great urge to fill the Twin-Peaks-shaped hole in my life. Plus, that new season was so… DENSE …that a return to the original seems necessary to a better [...]

Fewer Secrets, More Mysteries: A Look at Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier

November 7, 2017 // 1 Comment

So I had kind of stopped thinking about Twin Peaks for a while. I mean, I’m doing a slow re-watch of the original series, and plan to watch season three again after I’m done with that. So I’m not so much done thinking as I am wool-gathering. But either way, I’ve been giving my brain a rest. I had come to enough of an understanding of the various mysteries to satisfy myself, and had decided that I wasn’t going to come up with anything better until I’d had time [...]

Trapped at the Crossroads of Joy and Despair: Twin Peaks Ends, And Takes My Soul With It

September 5, 2017 // 0 Comments

So Twin Peaks came to an end this past weekend, and… Hoo boy. It was a difficult end to a difficult season, one that simultaneously enraged and delighted series fans. I, personally, was left speechless by it. The first hour was rollicking fun, filled with danger and action and terror, and good triumphing over evil. But there was a creeping dread underneath it all, a sense that something… wasn’t quite right. That sense carried over into the second hour, and only increased as things crept [...]

Something Old, Something New: DuckTales Gets Rebooted in Style

August 20, 2017 // 0 Comments

So I discovered this weekend that the first episode of the new DuckTales cartoon has been made officially available for free on the YouTubes. And while kidvid isn’t our usual subject matter here on the nerd farm, DuckTales has a funnybook pedigree that brings it under our purview. The series is based, after all, on the comics of Carl Barks, who created most of the characters and concepts in the show. Barks established the “high adventure” tone, created Scrooge McDuck and Duckburg, [...]

Isn’t It Too Dreamy? Twin Peaks, Quantum Ghosts, and the Magic of Arm Wrestling

August 15, 2017 // 0 Comments

So it’s been a while since my last Twin Peaks update, and… Wow. Just, wow. Where do I begin to discuss where the show’s been in recent weeks? Okay, sure. Why not? Last week, we were treated to David Lynch’s Over the Top! Well, okay. Not exactly. Except pretty much exactly. The scene is just as ridiculous as it looks, one of those moments where the series departs from reality not with red rooms and backwards-talking midgets, but with behavior from (ostensibly) normal [...]