More movies, ...And comics!

Movies:

Lady in the Water- Well, it's not the worst movie that I've ever seen in a theater... M. Night Shaymalayan's little homage to fairy tales falls apart on so many levels it's not even entertaining in a 'MSt3k' way. A water sprite comes to Earth to inspire a writer (M. Night Shaymalayan-ho,ho,ho) to publish his masterwork. She then has to rely on the help of several different denizens of an apartment complex to return her to her world.
The whole film is a homage to Shaymalayan's self-indulgence. (Note the blatant rip on film critics...) Shaymalayan's shallow well of ideas is starting to run dry. Surely actors aren't such a rare breed that he had to cast himself in a pivotal role?

Clerks II- Kevin's Smith's saving grace is that he just doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve, he builds a giant costume of a heart and climbs inside. The question is, where does he go from here? Degrassi High: the movie? For what it's worth, the story's pretty solid, his stock cast does their job well enough,(Rosario Dawson blows everyone else out of the water, truthfully) and his gags are pretty funny. What's a little 'inter-species erotica' between friends, anyway?

Comics:

Acme Novelty Library #16 and The Acme Novelty Library Compendium - Given the glacial pace of his output, I'll probably be coming up on fifty by the time Chris Ware finished this little epic. On the other hand, it's Chris Ware, so you can count on me lining up for each and every one. I'd have to say that Ware's the flat-out best pure cartoonist working today, and I can prove it on a slide rule and a tablet of graph paper. Right now, it appears to be the prologue as to how the two geeky characters, Rusty Brown and Chalky White came to meet and be friends. Like all social outcasts, their friendship probably won't be based on mutual interests as much as that there's no one else to hang out with. Friendship by default, as it were. Chris Ware is possibly the most ANAL artist in history, so much so that I was concerned his sense of draftmanship would overwhelm the story. Not so, in the Rusty/Chalky prologue. The 'building stories' piece near the end, however, may diagram into incoherence. Like I said, however, I'm in for the long haul.

The Compendium is a collection of all the ephemera from his 'Jimmy Corrigan' stuff in the previous Acme Library issues, and I'd have to say it's literally impossible to read in one sitting. (I had to buy a magnifying glass, so's to enjoy it more fully.) I'm being facetious here, but I'm starting to get worried that Ware might wind up the 21st century equivalent of that 19th century cat artist, Louis Wain. (After Wain was committed to an asylum, his cat portraits became more and more geometric and abstract as to become indecipherable.)

Rocco Vargas - Spanish cartoonist Daniel Torres does a pastiche of the 'Terry and the Pirates'-style adventure genre, and it comes out good. If Torres had done it tongue-in-cheek, it would've been unbearable. In playing it straight, he reminds me that the old-fashioned adventure serial was a genre I didn't realize I missed. In this day and age, the only way you can pull it off without appearing too hokey is by putting an 'ironic' spin on it. (Like the Incredibles, Venture Brothers, the Tick...) My understanding is that Torres is an illustrator dabbling in comics. When commercial illustrators get into the comics medium, you get a terminal case of 'inventing the wheel'. By learning more from Milt Caniff then Will Eisner, Torres makes a solid, enjoyable yarn.

Ego and Hubris: The story of Michael Malice -The appropriately named Malice was a peripheral influence in Harvey Pekar's 'Our Movie Year'. After getting to know the guy, Pekar decided he deserved his own book. He's a self-involved near sociopath who proudly brags about the petty acts of revenge he's enacted against bosses or co-workers who've wronged him. During the course of the book, we learn about Malice's personal philosophy. (is there any doubt Ayn Rand figures heavily into his values?) We also get the subplot of Malice writing a screenplay about a semi-obscure rockabilly band from the 80's. I don't think Malice is evil, just really self-involved. (Malice's reaction to 9/11 was a little shocking to me, though) Here's the thing: Being witness to all of Malice's acts of corporate vengeance, I got the impression that this is par for the course in contemporary American business culture. It's taken as a given nowadays that anyone in business who's even moderately successful has gotten to where he is by being under-handed, scheming, and engaging in outright criminal behavior. I suspect Pekar's picked up on this as well, which is why Malice's corporate behavior is played up so prominently.

Johnny Ryan's output-Ca-ca and Poo-poo humor done well, if such a thing is possible. It's hard to go away offended, since Ryan saves his most savage beatings for the 'comics-as-art' elite. Case in point: one panel of Art Speigleman saying, 'It's not boring enough! I have to borify it even more!'

Schitzo #4 - In the released-ages-and-ages-ago Schitzo #2, Ivan Brunetti prints a letter from comic shaman Jim Woodring, where Woodring predicts that once Brunetti burns off the bitterness, self-hatred and nihilism from his work, Brunetti will be a force to be reckoned with. Woodring was right, except for one thing. Brunetti's mindset would've literally killed him if he didn't seek professional help, which he did. The price Brunetti pays for survival is an infrequent output. In the grand scheme of things, it's not a big tragedy. And in the case of a major talent like Brunetti, some art is better than no art at all, and a little goes a long way.