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Shocker, I know.
This weekend, for the first time in a long time, I took some time to relax. Danica and I had gone up to a place near Hinton called “Black Cat Guest Ranch”, which is a wonderfully peaceful BnB with great mountain views and a ton of books. After convincing me that I shouldn’t do “work” over the weekend (which I have a hard time doing), I spent most of my time away from the phone (although the shop called very little – for which I am currently grateful. We’ll see how I feel about that when I return to work in the morning….) and stayed away from any word processors. Instead of going at my usual ever-spinning pace, I just sat around and read. As a result, I finally got around to reading a trio of classic Batman tales – Year One, The Long Halloween, and Dark Victory. All are books I’ve been told are “required reading” for any serious comic book fan (which is BS – the only rule to reading and enjoying comics is to approach books and series as and when they appeal to you), so I’m quite glad I finally had the chance to experience them. The trio actually work quite well together, drawing from each other as they explore the early days of Batman. I’ll inevitably be discussing the books in much more detail on at C!TB in the coming days, but the most interesting thing to see was just how much these books influenced Christopher Nolan’s trilogy. Bits and pieces were definitely pulled as needed, but for the most part, the stories are completely separate from what Nolan accomplished – which is great. The more I see superheroes pull out into other media, I always find myself drawn towards the different flavours and stories that translation brings. The very best are recognizable, but function as their own thing. Anyway, more on that later in the week.
In which Danica is a pirate.
During this week’s episode, your intrepid hosts delve deeper into Torchwood with the Series One episodes “Small Worlds” and “Greeks Bearing Gifts”, skipping “Countryside” for Brandon to experience another day. Also, Danica punches Brandon a few times, and things start happening that probably involve neighbours, and not ghosts. Probably. Hopefully.
“A lot of collectors lost their collections in the Calgary flood. I saw it happen, you know? Laaaaaaaht of people lost their lives. John Byrne died in it, I think. I saw it, I think.”
-A random walk-in customer. The same guy who lays claim to having murdered Frank Frazetta. But that’s another story.
Tuesday’s tip from Danica takes something small, and tells you to do the most with it.
- My first pick of the week went to The Auteur, a twisted series that deserves quite a few eyeballs. The cover has Justice Godzilla on it, which you’ll need to click through to see. (Seriously, it’s rad.)
- Our Monday Um, Actually features some quick thoughts on why Superman is the best, and who is comics’ greatest drunk.
Admittedly, I’m arriving to this show quite late. My initial disconnect came from how much the series seemed to resemble Fables, a particular favourite comic series of mine. The fact that ABC had put a version of Fables into pilot production the year before, only to pass upon it and pick up this series from their production umbrella the year later stunk a little, so I judged it before taking in a single scene.
Within a month of Once Upon a Time first airing, Fables creator Bill Willingham spoke with the creators of the show and later wrote a great piece imploring people to give the show a second… or rather a first chance. I didn’t, because I was behind and you guys there are so many comics and television shows and movies out there you guys and I let things sit like that for quite some time. Then, this past week, when I got sick, Danica and I decided to pass the time by finally checking out the show on Netflix.
We devoured the first season in little over a week. It’s really good, you guys. Really good. Danica once described it as “Lost meets fairy tales”, and that’s exactly it. The plotting is tight and the back story is fascinating. Almost every episode leaves you on a cliffhanger that you leaves you clawing for more. Also, there’s smooching. I mean, the entire show is built around smooching – or rather, the idea of love, and the inherent power it contains both intact and fractured. It’s pretty much my jam right now. If you’ve yet to see it, give the first episode a go and get back to me. And hey, if you’ve been watching the show all along, can we talk about the season one stuff? Because damn. Damn.
Danica has a rundown of her week in and around the internet over at her wonderful blog!
In which Brandon and Danica are both kinda’ sick. So. There’s that.
In this week’s episode, your awesome hosts are feeling not-so-awesome, but a love of Doctor Who conquers all! With hooch in hand, we explored “Pyramids of Mars” – a fourth Doctor serial that was… whelp, interesting. Weird stuff happened, and the Doctor was a bit of a jerk, but hey, there were explosions and running! Which was nice.
Outro music is “Cold Hands and Chapped Lips” by Hot Panda
Podcast picture is by GIRL NAMED SHIRL PHOTOGRAPHY.
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