Movie Mondays!

One of the best sitcoms in the last twenty years, Malcolm in the Middle was family entertainment and unquestionably funny. The show was one of the few successes of the genre in recent memory and went out of its way to skewer cliched portrayals of family life on television. Lois and Hal (the parents) are a very much in love couple who struggle to raise a herd of rebellious boys barely maintaining their sanity all the while. Frankie Muniz made a splash as the gifted Malcolm who serves as narrator and observer (breaking the fourth wall) for much of the first season. It’s a shame the rest of the series is unlikely to make it to DVD because of music clearance issues but this first season is proof of the series greatness as it hits the ground laugh out loud running and doesn’t give the viewer a chance to catch their breath. Family entertainment the whole family can enjoy and riotously funny!

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective — Reader Mailbag Edition

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

An afternoon at the gallery.

Darkhold_i05_p19_Case_McKenna

The Darkhold is a written record of all of the Elder God Chthon's knowledge about evil and dark magic and contains a vast and varied number of spells. These spells, when cast by a magically skilled person behave the way spells do for most any other source of arcane energies. When the mystical barriers are thin enough and the Dwarf distributes pages of the Darkhold to people, usually unskilled in the mystic arts, they can still somehow chant the incantation that summons the Other and allows them to ask the demon to perform the spell contained on that page. In addition, the Darkhold parchment is completely indestructible. The binding of the book is not, but all the pages within can not be destroyed.


This page shows the battle between Ghost Rider and The Punisher.

This is an interesting page in that it has both the Punisher and the Ghost Rider on it. When the whole Midnight Sons thing came about and horror titles were once again in vogue I was a bit at a loss truth be told. I had enjoyed a certain heyday back in the early seventies when Marvel was putting out the first run of Ghost Rider and other title such as Werewolf by Night, The Living Mummy, Dracula and Man-Thing but when it all came around again I was just left cold.

I happen to like Richard Case’s work but I would much rather have a Doom Patrol page of his than this page, maybe someone will trade?

Check out my Comic Art Fans Galleries! © All scans copyright PJ Mungiole 2011 - may not be reproduced, reused, reposted without permission.

Movie Mondays!

As others have observed it is without a doubt one of the most poorly edited films I have even seen. The filmmakers have taken an interesting and meaty subject and turned it into a plodding, boring diatribe. The main reason for this is just the way the film is structured, television snippets from the then administration contrasted against interview snippets from people voicing their views on what they feel actually happened. It’s far too choppy and therein lies the biggest problem. As a viewer you want to hear more of what each person has to say and the choppiness just ruins the structure of the film. The best way to describe it is as a film school dropout’s D-graded final project.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Birth Control

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

An afternoon at the gallery.

Deadpool_i25_p20_WMcDaniel_Others

In the desert sands of Egypt, Deadpool does what even Captain America in a Landau, Luckman and Lake battle suit can’t—he accepts his destiny as a hero, steps up to the plate and saves the universe from a cosmic messiah who offers peace at the price of giving up free will and change; Dixon goes nuts in the aftermath and Zoe takes over LL & L as she writes Deadpool off as a loss.

I’m not really crazy abbout this page truth be told and it violates that key tenet of ‘Buy What You Like.’ I was going through a period where I was buying original art and this page came available and I got a very good deal on it. You always wonder though about these things and whether or not they’re important or just another forgotten page.

Check out my Comic Art Fans Galleries! © All scans copyright PJ Mungiole 2011 - may not be reproduced, reused, reposted without permission.

Movie Mondays!

Barrett’s film pointedly notes Giuliani grew up in a neighborhood once known as Pigtown (Crown Heights), it says everything about the agenda of this film. There is an irony watching former mayors take measure of Rudy Giuliani’s two terms: Ed Koch speaks about Rudy Giuliani’s heavy-handedness but the words sound hollow issuing from the lips of imperial Koch whose 3 terms as mayor saw regular “Days of Rage” demonstrations. Koch forgets names like Michael Stewart and Eleanor Bumpers while opining on Rudy Giuliani’s relations with the minority community but, laughably Koch presided over one of the most corrupt mayoral administrations in NYC’s history. Better yet is David Dinkins grousing yet, as mayor he sat idle during the Crown Heights riots and Korean grocer boycott. Giuliani far from perfect did take a city people thought unmanageable and restored order, improving the lives of all NYers and though many would paint him as a power mad racist, an interesting footnote is Bloomberg changed term limits laws without approval by NYC voters. Surprisingly, during Bloomberg’s tenure NYers have seen the shootings of Ousmane Zongo and Sean Bell but somehow Bloomberg escapes the racist tag? Simply not much to expect of a film which implies one of the best mayors New York had during the 20th century is connected or influenced by the Mob because of vague family ties, must be the Italian surname. Painting a Catholic school education as a hallmark of privilege (although middle class families in NYC have and continue to use this option to public schools) is a joke. Again, Giuliani is far from perfect and suffers many personality flaws but he deserves better treatment than he gets in this 118 minute long piece of propaganda. Don't waste your time on this biased garbage that masks itself as factual.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on One-Night Stands

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

An afternoon at the gallery.

Fantastic_Four_v02_i13_p15_Wieringo-Case

Great page from the amazing crossover between WildStorm and Marvel that appeared between Heroes Reborn and Heroes Return. World War III had mixed teams of characters in this instance a hybrid Fantastic Four with WildC.A.T.s Spartan and Gen¹³’s Burnout as members.

You know I cannot tell you how much of a fan I was of the late Mike Wieringo’s work. Here was another artist whose work I sought out and art which would compel me to buy a book on the basis of looking at that art alone.

Mike Wieringo was taken far too soon, he was only in his forties when he passed away and the truth of it was he was a guy who ate right and exercised but he still died an early death. And that’s a shame really because he was a wonderfully talented artist and if you read any of his blogs you would come to find he was also a really nice guy.

He leaves behind a very respectable body of work but that doesn’t soften the blow of not being able to see any new work because of his tragic death. I’m just happy I was able to snag this piece which has him drawing characters which he left his mark on, The Fantastic Four.

Check out my Comic Art Fans Galleries! © All scans copyright PJ Mungiole 2011 - may not be reproduced, reused, reposted without permission.

Movie Mondays!

I don’t think there is anyone in this country or the world for that matter who hasn’t already formed an opinion about George W. Bush. Consequently, there are no surprises here. The performances are for the most part spot on but of course, Oliver Stone brings an agenda of his own to the table meaning there is a bias. Overall I enjoyed the movie, it’s a well-made film and entertaining to boot. The question with any Stone film though is how much of what you see is truly rooted in fact. The danger lies in the viewing public walking away believing all they see down to the language of the characters.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Fighting

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

There’s a bit of strum and drang.

The video below has stirred up quite a bit of controversy...

Aviation security experts who have seen the video say it doesn’t show any major security concerns because the two guys were ticketed passengers who had already been screened by the TSA.

DFW airport board member Betty Culbreath says while it may have been a prank, it sent the wrong message. “It’s not funny. It’s not going to happen again as far as I’m concerned. It should not have happened because it gives the perception the airport is sitting out there unguarded and that’s why I was concerned, and am still concerned.”

You know what‘s funny about this?

It ignores the fact that these guys were locked in the airport all night because they missed their connecting flight. Instead of making the airport more secure, how about treating passengers better so they aren’t locked in an airport terminal like a bunch of animals without a bed to sleep in?

Funny, isn’t it, how they don’t make mention of that?

Now get off the train and shut the f up.

You know, I commute to work every day. What sometimes amazes me is just how rude and insensitive other riders can be at times. Every time the train pulls out of Grand Central and infrequently during the journey itself, conductors will make an announcement about keeping your feet off the seats, making all seats available and keeping your voice down out of respect for the people around you.

Unfortunately there are quite a few people in this world who don’t think they’re talking into a cell phone rather they seem to imagine they are talking into a tin can connected by a string to whomever it is they are talking to.

Plainly put, they’re loud and obnoxious.

So, I give a big cheer to the conductor in the video below for maintaining her calm in the face of a passenger’s ill-mannered indignity over being asked to keep it down. Instead of calmly and politely acknowledging the conductor, it just gave her an excuse to raise her voice even more.

So again, let’s here it for the conductor because I actually want her to do that when I’m riding the train. So I can read, so I can sleep, so I can enjoy the view out the window, simply put, so I can enjoy the ride.

Meet the bicyclist douchebag.

File this under I am both stupid and feel uber-privileged. Here’s the thing about this video, there’s something douchebag can do in each instance but you’ll note he chooses again and again not to.



What is that.

Stop.

In other words simply: stop. your. bike.

You’ll notice there are pedestrians in a crosswalk when douchebag goes rolling through. The only thing that’s really unfortunate is douchebag didn’t get well and truly hurt in his attempt to make his point.

Let‘s follow his logic...

Sometimes the bike line isn’t the best place for a bicyclist, because there are impediments to his forward momentum. Let’s apply that logic to cars and have them drive on sidewalks. You’re in a city where you share the road with trucks, cars, buses, taxis and pedestrians. If you want to ride your bike learn how to SHARE the road and every once in awhile put on your f$%#ing brakes even though you‘ve built up a good head of steam.

That’s the one thing you never hear bicyclists talk about, putting on the brakes or stopping.

Also note douchebag doesn’t wear a helmet. I imagine that contrasts with the hipster douchbag cool look he’s going for. And finally douchebag you are not doing any one a favor but yourself. Stop holding yourself out as some valiant eco-warrior, you may believe your own hype but, I’m not buying it. Start following all the traffic laws to the letter.

And if you get a ticket because you’re a douchebag, suck it up.

Movie Mondays!

Crank 2 is a cartoon but what a wonderful cartoon it is! Full of violence, gore and sex, it uses every trick available to take its assault of the senses up a notch. Think of it as a B-movie with incredible production values, it doesn’t give you time to think about the plausibility of anything until after it’s over but what a great ride! Also, it goes by soooo fast you’ll undoubtedly miss the many little touches thrown into the film. I have rarely seen a movie that gets it as well as Crank. It is a perfect visual ballet and worth watching if only as a textbook on how to use quick cuts and camera effects right.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Ex-Girlfriends

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

Why doesn’t stuff like this get more press?

“It’s not one of your major rights. But we tell them that even if you give us all the basic and big rights, that you are claiming are more important than driving, we can’t enjoy practising those rights because the mobility is not there.”

“We can’t move around without a male.”

The motoring ban is not enforced by law, but is a religious fatwa imposed by conservative Muslim clerics. It is one of a number of severe restrictions on women in the country.

Supporters of the ban say it protects women and relieves them of the obligation to drive, while also preventing them from leaving home unescorted or traveling with an unrelated male.

Just in case you were wondering...

I know there are people at work who sometimes read the blog and for their benefit I think I should point out that I prepackage content and schedule the time it goes live. Meaning I usually write a lot of stuff in my off hours and set it to come up at certain times on certain days so the blog has a steady stream of new content. As a matter of fact, in some instances I already have material set to go live through 2012.

An afternoon at the gallery.

Impulse_i54_p12_EVS-Rollins-McCarthy

Bart Allen (Impulse) and his friends spend a night in the woods camping. Some amazing detail seen here in some of Ethan Van Sciver’s earliest work for DC.

Again, more Impulse work, more Ethan Van Sciver work. The thing that I find so very impressive about Van Sciver’s work is the amazing amount of detail that goes into his pages. The unfortunate thing about his work is how the wrong colorist can truly screw the pooch working on his stuff by doing things EVS has already done in ink.

Colorists today are just horrible and I’m speaking as someone who worked as a colorist (although how good of one I was is subject to debate). I think sometimes that some of the colorists out there are really frustrated pencillers taking out their frustrations over the work of the pencillers of the books they’re working on.

There are a couple of people who ‘get it’ but they are far and few between.

All too often instead what you find is someone who thinks coloring means showing off all the great tricks they’ve learned in Photoshop and putting far, far too much detail into a panel the measures 1" X 3". Photoshop may well be the single worst thing to happen to comics over the last three decades (one of the other things being Frank Miller’s run on Daredevil).

But more on those another day.


Check out my Comic Art Fans Galleries! © All scans copyright PJ Mungiole 2011 - may not be reproduced, reused, reposted without permission.

Hey Man, Nice Shot.

My friend Steve is a hiker, not only that but he’s a great retoucher too and a pretty damn good photographer as well. Since I’m always scrounging around for content, I figured I would post some beautiful shots he forwarded to me recently:

Chaos = New York
There’s something about being a lifelong New Yorker that allows you to embrace the chaos that is getting around Manhattan. Whether you are walking down the sidewalk or crossing the street basically everyone is trying to get where they are going or get around the tourists that are gawking at their surroundings.

The other thing is, the city has become something of a weird Disneyland lately with the addition of all the bike lanes. The bike lanes while well-intended, do nothing to restrain the mentality of most bicyclists who believe traffic laws do not apply to them and the rest of us are merely an obstacle to their momentum.

So, when I came across this film I found it somewhat ingenious and also I wouldn’t at all be surprised if it doesn’t manage to get increasing attention over the coming weeks:

3-Way Street from ronconcocacola on Vimeo.

Movie Mondays!

Fantastic Four 2, not a great movie but an entertaining popcorn fest. On the ten scale it would log in at a 6 or a 7 falling solidly into the upper end of the spectrum. The biggest problems these movies have (films based on beloved Marvel franchises) are the expectations of fans, movies will never mirror a comic precisely. Film is a different medium and the quality can vary widely from a high water mark as in the Dark Knight to the ultimate of stinkers exemplified by the Dolph Lundgren Punisher. Fantastic Four 2 has enough to enjoy. The performances are decent enough and stay true to the original characters, the story has some touches that may be off-putting to true fans but are there to make it accessible to a wider audience and the effects are exceptional well done. It’s a bit of a mindless diversion, not great art but still entertaining.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Younger Men

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

I’m glad this f***er is dead!

Nothing is as twisted or as self indulgent as this story:

While Trouble hit the jackpot, Helmsley also unceremoniously cut two of her grandchildren out of her will. They sued, arguing that their grandmother wasn’t of sound mind when she signed the document in 2005. Disgruntled grown grandchildren Craig Panzirer and Meegan Panzirer Wesolko each received several million in the ensuing deal, and a judge knocked $10 million off Trouble’s inheritance, putting the sum back in the $8 billion Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

And anyone who thinks the statement above is about cruelty to animals should unscrew their head from their *ss, this is about moronic ***holes, vindictive people who reach out with their last breath to hurt the people closest to them. There is a special place in hell for someone like Leona Helmsley, known as The queen of Mean during the course of her lifetime one can only hope she burns in hell for an eternity.

An afternoon at the gallery.

Impulse_i52_p19_EVS-Rollins

Some of Ethan Van Sciver's earliest work for DC as this beautiful splash shows Bart and friends confronting a monster.

Now we’re getting into some meat here!

Again, the theme of “Buying What You Like” comes to the fore. Here, a page from Impulse. As I said earlier, Impulse was a favorite of mine (although given the circulation numbers for the book, I was in a minority). I believe I have the complete run of the book, I never missed an issue. When Ethan Van Sciver came onto the title, I liked his work a great deal. At the time, it was some of Van Sciver’s first work for DC and he was nowhere near as popular or had even remotely the fan following that he has today.

I can remember championing his work to friends who were (or at one time had been) comic’s pros and I clearly remember them being a bit dismissive of Van Sciver’s work deeming it to be both too cartoony and having too much of a manga influence. So, Van Sciver’s later success while something of a hollow vindication, is still quite a pleasing turn of events.

I’ve met EVS and truthfully, he was a bit standoffish. I used to follow the blogs he and Rags Morales had over at ComicBloc but they stopped posting over there years ago. His work though is simply amazing to look at as this page readily proves.

Check out my Comic Art Fans Galleries! © All scans copyright PJ Mungiole 2011 - may not be reproduced, reused, reposted without permission.

Movie Mondays!

I’m still trying to figure out why NBC gave up on this series. While there are a plethora of procedural police shows (CSI, NCIS) and innumerable Wolfe productions (L&O franchises), BOOMTOWN was unique in the way it told stories – each show gave viewers several different vantage points into the episode’s story. It was one of the most well-acted and well-written shows of the season (’02). There are only 24 episodes in total of the series but they are some of the best television of the last decade. If Boomtown had been on USA or TBS it more than likely would have been had a longer run but the skewed standards of network broadcast television killed a very good series on the vine.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Chick Flicks

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

An afternoon at the gallery.

Hulk_v01_a18_p26_Maguire-Vancata

A writer named Lucien Aster has published a book entitled “Spelling Made Easy.” Inside are actual mystical incantations. Whosoever reads the incantations is transformed into a demon. Aster is holding a book signing at a mall outlet in Reno, Nevada. Rick Jones and Marlo Chandler are present.Suddenly a demon appears and begins wreaking havoc. Although nobody realizes it, the demon is actually Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner (as well as a human woman named Jill Walker). The demon instinctively dives into a fountain in order to get some water. Rick Jones throws an electric guitar into the fountain. The electric jolt shocks Namor’s essence from the demon’s consciousness, and it is forced to merge with Rick Jones’ body. The demon turns back into Jill Walker. Hulk finds the Namor possessed Jones and takes him to New York to see Doctor Strange. Strange is concerned about this new book as it is placing great mystic power into the hands of the general public.

More Maguire work from the same job (see last week).

You know when I was first doing the research on who had worked on this job, Joe Rubinstein was listed as an inker on it and it turned out the website listing him was in fact wrong. And I found out because Joe tracked me down to let me know it wasn’t a job her worked on!

Great stuff and also you got to love how Maguire’s Hulk has the bowl cut haircut and looks more like the Kirby Hulk, no?

Check out my Comic Art Fans Galleries! © All scans copyright PJ Mungiole 2011 - may not be reproduced, reused, reposted without permission.

Movie Mondays!

As the years pass, I find myself rediscovering some of the great loves of my youth, returning to them with fresh eyes and basking in enjoyment of them all over again. This documentary about Wings is as much about the band and the music as it is about Paul McCartney's life in the decade after the breakup of the Beatles. Wings for a period in the 70’s enjoyed a great deal of success and plenty of airplay on radio - for good reason, a lot of Wings music was (and still is) terrific. Old fans will enjoy the nostalgia of reliving the Wings catalog chronologically and finding out the backstory of the group. New fans will find it an entry into some of the best music the seventies has to offer. Through it all, viewers are treated to the intimate portrait of the romance between Paul and Linda McCartney. It turns out to be a very touching story too and one I find at times moved me to tears. It’s really one of the best music documentaries I’ve seen in quite some time, just excellent.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

And now, for something completely different...

A Woman’s Perspective on Penis Size Part 2

With the thought that as a man, it’s always good to hear a woman’s viewpoint if only to try and understand them better.

An afternoon at the gallery.

Hulk_v01_a18_p22_Maguire-Vancata

A writer named Lucien Aster has published a book entitled “Spelling Made Easy.” Inside are actual mystical incantations. Whosoever reads the incantations is transformed into a demon. Aster is holding a book signing at a mall outlet in Reno, Nevada. Rick Jones and Marlo Chandler are present.Suddenly a demon appears and begins wreaking havoc. Although nobody realizes it, the demon is actually Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner (as well as a human woman named Jill Walker). The demon instinctively dives into a fountain in order to get some water. Rick Jones throws an electric guitar into the fountain. The electric jolt shocks Namor’s essence from the demon’s consciousness, and it is forced to merge with Rick Jones’ body. The demon turns back into Jill Walker. Hulk finds the Namor possessed Jones and takes him to New York to see Doctor Strange. Strange is concerned about this new book as it is placing great mystic power into the hands of the general public.

I love Kevin Maguire, really! Well, not so much the guy (who I’ve met and who actually is a pretty nice guy) but I really do go gaga over his work.

Kevin Maguire to me will forever be associated with well drawn characters who always seem to have the most expressive and fitting facial expression of just about any artist out there. Maguire’s characters are actor’s in their own right as they can really sell a writer’s story in a way other artists can’t manage to pull off.

I first found Maguire’s art in Justice League and Justice League of the time was one of my favorite books. It was funny and exciting all at the same time and every single character in the book had their own distinctive and unique personality. Maguire is one of those guys whose work would make me buy a book.

Also, a friend of mine used to draw in the exact same style (it’s really too bad he gave up drawing).

Check out my Comic Art Fans Galleries! © All scans copyright PJ Mungiole 2011 - may not be reproduced, reused, reposted without permission.