High hopes for the coming year

It's the last day of 2006, so I might as well spend some time looking forward to 2007, pop culture-wise. Here's a short list of some of the things I'm anticipating in the coming 12 months. Tune in when they actually arrive to see if my hopes are crushed.

1. ZODIAC -- It's been a long time since David Fincher released his last movie, PANIC ROOM. Seeing him tackle the Zodiac murders -- considering what he did with the fictional killings in SEVEN -- should be something pretty impressive. (And, with FIGHT CLUB being one of my all-time favorite films, I'd go see anything he directed.) Was supposed to be out this year for Oscar consideration, but apparently now the release date is March 2. Whet your appetite by checking out the trailer here. (And, incidentally, I'm amazed that FIGHT CLUB site is still up -- it's more than seven years old by now!)

2. ALL-STAR SUPERMAN -- Five issues of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's love letter to comic books arrived last year, and the final seven should appear sometime in the next 12 months. But you know what? I don't care when they come out -- just so they do. It'll be done when it's done, and it'll be great. I'm already saving my pennies for the inevitable Absolute edition of this series. Plus, just check out the next issue, which supposedly arrives this week: It's Krypto!

3. IDIOCRACY on DVD -- With BEAVIS & BUTT-HEAD, OFFICE SPACE and the still-running (and still excellent) KING OF THE HILL under his belt, Mike Judge has established himself as some sort of twisted comic genius (the only worthwhile kind, if you ask me). This movie, about a not-too-bright guy who wakes up 500 years later in a future so dumb he's the smartest man on Earth, was barely released in theaters and is getting a bare-bones DVD treatment. I'm still dying to see it -- the premise has loads of potential and the dumb-as-hell future (where the top-rated TV show is called "Ow! My Balls!") sounds like a slightly exagerrated version of our own stupid world. Emphasis on "slightly." The DVD hits the streets next Tuesday, Jan. 9. (Trivia note: Did you know Judge supplied the voice of Kenny in SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT? It's true.)

4. JAMES ELLROY'S NEXT NOVEL -- Not sure what it's going to be called (the rumor was POLICE GAZETTE, but Ellroy seems to squelch that in this interview) or when exactly it's going to hit the shelves, but it extends the epic tale begun in AMERICAN TABLOID and continued in THE COLD SIX THOUSAND. If you haven't read those books yet, start now so you'll be all caught up. Ellroy's my favorite writer, bar none.

5. THERE WILL BE BLOOD -- Caught the last third or so of MAGNOLIA on cable last night, which reminded me that there's supposed to be a new Paul Thomas Anderson movie arriving sometime this year. Based on the Upton Sinclair novel OIL! and starring Daniel Day Lewis, this movie should be something to remember -- and a million miles from MAGNOLA, BOOGIE NIGHTS, PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE or HARD EIGHT. Anderson's one of the most exciting filmmakers working today, so it's bound to be worth seeing.


6. THE DARJEELING LIMITED -- Speaking of directors with the last name "Anderson," Wes Anderson's next movie stars Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman playing three brothers traveling through India on a "spiritual journey" after the death of their father. With that cast, the father theme that Anderson mines so richly and the fact that I'm a big fan of all his movies -- especially THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU, which looks better every time I see it -- this is one of my most-anticipated movies of the year. Then again, since production was slated to start in December 2006, it might not arrive this year. 2008 maybe?

7. BE KIND, REWIND -- The latest from Michel Gondry, this eccentric (to put it mildly) comedy stars Jack Black as a guy whose magetized brain (?) erases all the videotapes in his friend's store. To hang onto the store's only loyal customer, a demented old woman (played, apparently, by Mia Farrow), they recreate several movies, including THE LION KING, RUSH HOUR, BACK TO THE FUTURE and ROBOCOP. Sounds suitably trippy to me, and Gondry's ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND is one of the best movies of the last 10 years. (I had a chance to see his SCIENCE OF SLEEP in New York but caught THE FOUNTAIN instead. My mistake.) BE KIND was apparently shot in the fall, but there's no release date yet. Read more about it here.

8. RANT -- Though I wasn't blown away by HAUNTED (the framing sequences bogged the book down, if you ask me), I'm always on the lookout for new stuff from Chuck Palaniuk. His upcoming novel, RANT: AN ORAL BIOGRAPHY OF BUSTER CASEY, sounds promising . Told in the form of a many-voiced "oral history," it has friends, enemies and other folks commenting on the life of a serial killer. Hardcover hits the stores in May. You can read more about it here.

9. THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED DVD -- As a fan of the First Amendment and an enemy of censorship, I've been dying to see this movie about the convoluted, biased process by which movies get rated -- but naturally, it never came to my lil' city of Rockford. Thankfully, the DVD arrives on Jan. 23, with plenty of extras. There's a blog inspired by the movie here, by the way.

10. GRINDHOUSE -- This might be the single pop culture item I'm most jazzed about: Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez' tribute to the gritty, gory, grimy days of grindhouse cinema. Two movies -- Quentin's DEATH PROOF, about a killer (Kurt Russell -- yes!) who uses his car as a weapon, and Robert's PLANET TERROR, a zombie tale with Rose McGowan as a woman with a gun mounted onto her leg stump. Plus! There are fake trailers in between the movies. Plus! There's a book about the movie and grindhouse cinema itself. I posted a trailer earlier on this blog that was yanked from You Tube, but here's the official one. Check it out, then tell me you're not dying to see this movie.

I give thee ... the gift of the Kinks!

Here you go, gang, your holiday present from the folks here at X-Ray Spex (namely, your's truly). It's what I'd consider one of the all-time greatest Christmas pop songs ever, the Kinks' classic "Father Christmas." The video's a little lo-res, but just pretend you're watching through a snowstorm...



Happy Christmas!

Buy my comics, make me rich: CATWOMAN #62

This one, which hits the stores Wednesday, is a little different. Sure, it has the usual amount of action, violence and smart-alecky dialogue, but there's also (as you might have guessed from the shadowy figures on that Adam Hughes cover below) a healthy helping of romance between those covers.


For all of you wondering why Sam Bradley (aka the Son of Slam) is the father of Selina's child (pictured above playing with mom's toys), hopefully these 22 pages will answer your questions. Otherwise, you'll always free to post them here, along with any other comments, criticisms, etc. All I ask is that you keep things civil and sensible. OK? OK!

Before there was MAUS, there was...

This ...

Really, what the hell was Stan thinking? This was 1967 after all, long after we all knew that Treblinka wasn't some wacky HOGAN'S HEROES-type prisoner of war camp, right? The story itself is the usual slam-bang Sgt. Fury fightfest, with the Howling Commandos stealing some prison garb off a barb wire fence and impersonating concentration camp inmates. Pretty husky-looking inmates, if you ask me. There's a whole lotta "WAA-HOOing" before the end of the story, and Fury seems pretty happy in the last panel, though he wonders if, any day now, his luck might run out. That's about as existential as ol' Fury gets, even after spending a few pulse-pounding hours in one of the worst places on Earth.

Then again, if Art Spiegelman's dad had been lucky enough to have "Happy Sam Sawyer" with him, MAUS might've been a much lighter read! Face front, true believers!

How could the same thing happen to the same guy so many times?

Here, for those of you who (like me) prefer to miss THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS or ERAGON this weekend, but would still like to see the trailer for next year's eagerly anticipated and awfully named DIE HARD sequel, LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD...



And here, for comparison's sake, is the excellent parody trailer for DIE HARD 12: DIE HUNGRY from THE BEN STILLER SHOW, circa 1992, back when there were only two DIE HARD movies (though, truth be told, I'm a big fan of DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE. Seriously -- it's a damn good movie.)

Here comes the FUZZ

The more I think about it, one of my favorite films of the past few years is SHAUN OF THE DEAD, the British rom-zom-com that managed to be smart, suspenseful and slyly hilarious. Good thing for me, then, that the guys who brought us SHAUN have another film in the works. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you HOT FUZZ...


Here, to whet your appetite, is a link to the trailer.

The plot apparently concerns a tough-as-nails cop (Simon Pegg, aka Shaun) who gets re-assigned to a sleepy little town only to stumble onto a murder spree. Joining him from the cast of SHAUN are Nick Frost, the great Bill Nighy and -- unless I miss my guess -- that's Stephen Merchant as the guy describing the goose. (I realize he wasn't in SHAUN OF THE DEAD, but he's co-creator of THE OFFICE, and that's good enough for me.) It hits the British theaters in February, so god only knows when it'll end up here. Hopefully soon.

And if you liked SHAUN but can't wait until whenever HOT FUZZ comes out, check out SPACED, the sitcom Pegg and SHAUN co-creator Edgar Wright did for British TV a few years back. It's very funny and full of smart pop culture fun in the same vein as SHAUN. The complete run is available here in a snazzy three-DVD edition. Sure, it's region 2, which means you'll need an all-region DVD player to watch it, but isn't it time you went all-region anyway? It's a big world out there, and there are a lot of great DVDs to watch.

And we're back...

Returned from my whirlwind weekend in NYC Sunday night, with only a slight flight delay thanks to the usual intangibles that cause slight flight delays. Could've been a lot worse -- while I was strolling the streets of Manhattan, leaving my jacket off because it was a (believe it or not) balmy 70 degress, my wife and family back home in Rockford were dealing with a blizzard that dumped almost a foot of snow on the city. It's like they say, timing is everything.

If you do have to travel to New York, I highly recommend doing it on someone else's dime, like I did. Free airfare, free hotel, free food, free car service. DC Comics picked up the tab, so the next time you complain about the high cost of funnybooks, now you know why you're complaining. (Actually, I'm pretty sure big ol' Warner Communications picks up these tabs, which means it's just contributing to the high cost of everything.) And what was the purpose of my trip? Mostly something I can't talk about just yet, but it's gonna be pretty big, I promise. My CATWOMAN editor Nachie Castro and I did chat about our gal Selina and what's coming her way (nothing pleasant, I assure you) and he showed me a wonderful fan letter (in pencil) from some guy that makes me miss the days of letter pages. Not sure when it arrived -- probably before my run on the book -- but the writer went on for several paragraphs about how Catwoman should be drawn with bigger breasts, then finally just came out and said what he'd been trying to say all along: "Please show Catwoman topless. I would like to see that."

I'll bet you would, buddy. I'll bet you would.

Speaking of such things, I haven't been to New York for almost 10 years, and it's amazing how much has changed. And the city is really different from when I made my first trip, way back in the mid '80s, when Times Square hadn't yet become a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney Corp. and it still had a bit of that TAXI DRIVER ambience. Still, as I strolled the Times Square region last week, marvelling at all the big-budget shows and theme restaurants, it was nice to see at least one distinctive New York landmark was still standing:


Listen, gang -- when this quaint little emporium of dreams closes its doors, that's when the terrorists have finally won. God Bless America.