Meanwhile…

Some time back I linked to the LA Times Homicide map, which I thought might be a fascinating source for story ideas. I haven’t gotten around to using it. But that’s neither here nor there. Now there is one for New York.

The lesson I take from this is that you should not live in Brooklyn if you are black.

Speaking of homicide, you really should read this. Fantastic, especially if you like reading about crime scenes. I love writing crime scenes. You get to really dwell on details, and everything can be important. The more obscure or seemingly insignificant, the better. And of course, detectives are a great character archetype to play with. Seriously, I have like fifteen or twenty crime scenes I’ve written, with no story written after them. They’re fun. And horrible.

Managed to sneak out and see Captain America: The First Avenger this weekend. Loved it. They nailed the characters, the mood, everything. The performances were spot on. The action is fun. And if you’ve been paying attention to the Iron Man and Thor movies, there are lots of little tie-ins to neatly place these movies all in the same universe.

Not that it’s perfect. It could have used another trip through the editing room – some of the action scenes could have been trimmed, and the USO tour was way too long. I would have liked more Bucky, and a more epic…destiny for him.

I also would have liked them to push the Nazi superscience a little more – a huge robot for Steve to bring down would have been a blast, and would have probably helped a general audience believe that this is a man who can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with guys like Iron Man and Thor. I think when the Avengers movie comes out, Cap is going to have to prove himself in a way he never had to in the comics.

But, overall, I really enjoyed the flick. Looking forward to seeing it at least once or twice more.

A while back, I picked this up for my wife, a bit of original art (not a print, but the actual pen-and-ink) crafted by the incomparable Skottie Young, whose work you can find in the fantastic Wizard of Oz adaptations Marvel is putting out. (And also a lot of awesome covers – seriously, just do a Google image search and spend an hour in slack-jawed wonder.) Finally got around to framing it tonight. It also seemed appropriate because of the release of the last movie this weekend.

He refers to this sort of thing as a warm-up sketch. Had I any talent with a pencil, I’d quietly keep it to myself from now on.

I’ve finished up the robot story I posted a bit of last time. I’ll let you know when (and if) it sells. I like it, and I wouldn’t mind writing more adventures for this pair of characters.

In slightly less ridiculous news, I have just this evening (or last night, rather, as it is after midnight now) finished a new story. I have particular spot in mind for it, but if they don’t want it I’ll start shopping it around. I rather like it. Here is a piece.

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I was going to write an elaborate, scene-by-scene savaging of this weekend’s Green Lantern, but then the A/C on our house died late Saturday. This unit is, I’m guessing, as old as the house, which by coincidence makes it about as old as I am.

Some of us in the business might call that foreshadowing.

But, yeah. Green Lantern. Yeesh. The Tomatometer has it at 26%, which if you ask me is being generous. The editing is choppy, the characterization off mark, and the script is a laundry list of amateur screenwriting mistakes that would make a first year semester day RTVF major blush. A full third of the movie and several of the major characters should have been cut entirely.

And the villain looks like big pile of poop.

When I get a chance I may pull up the script online somewhere and go through it in more detail, but for now, suffice to say it should be avoided if you at all value your opinion of Hal Jordan.

It was a delight to see the alien Green Lanterns – Kilowog, Tomar Re, and a bunch of the obscure ones (they even had this guy and her). And Mark Strong was great as the completely underused Sinestro.

Otherwise, though, this thing pretty much stunk on every level. I dearly wanted it to be good, but they just didn’t pull this one off.

Possibly the worst part of this failure is that, if the movie isn’t financially successful – I haven’t looked at the numbers yet – the studio will probably come to the wrong conclusion as to why it failed. As bad as it is, the movie is actually quite brave in not pulling its punches and making the story as cosmic and out there as it does. Most of the comic book movies hold back a little – bringing the costumes down to earth, cutting out the more bizarre aspects, etc. Green Lantern really didn’t do that, which is admirable. And that’s far from why the movie is bad. I just hope its failure doesn’t hinder future DC properties.

Managed to get out and see X-Men: First Class this weekend, the third in the X-Men franchise and a prequel to the original.

It’s pretty good. It’s a giant Bond movie – like an original Sean Connery jetpacks and mad scientists trying to blow up the moon ’60s Bond – but with super powers.

There are about a million things I could nitpick, little flaws throughout that could have been fixed with another draft or two of the script. I’m gonna pick on the most glaring weakness, though, which was Emma Frost. January Jones looked the part, but, aside from her lackluster acting skills, the movie really didn’t give her anything to work with. None of Emma’s ruthless cunning came across at all. She’s a great manipulator, that’s her thing, but in this she was just another minion. (And this is excluding the heroic aspects of her character, which obviously wouldn’t have worked for the story in this movie.) It didn’t help that there was no Kitty Pryde-type character for her to bounce off of. It made me sad.

It also annoyed me that her clothes turned to diamond along with her skin. Maybe that was just a limitation of the special effects. But that’s just one of the million nit-picks.

Anyway, I guess it can’t be helped. The first couple X-films messed up Storm just as badly, so they have a track record for this sort of thing.

Just so I don’t end on a bad note – Magneto and Xavier were perfect, flawlessly executed (well, mostly – nearly everything between Xavier and Mystique was odd). The rest of the movie is there primarily to make them look good. It was fun seeing Magneto be a bad-ass and being morally ambiguous, which is always how I liked him in the comics (his moments of pure evil, trying to massacre millions of people, always struck me as out of character). And Xavier was great – we got to see him using his powers, training people to use theirs, healing people, and displaying some genuinely moving moments of compassion and empathy. You could definitely see this man going on to inspire others to follow his dream.

Anyway, there it is. Fun, but flawed. Just don’t think about it too hard while you’re watching.

So someone decided this was the official month of the Short Story. You should go read some!

But where to start, you ask? You can start here.

Watching The Last Starfighter, with commentary, on Blu Ray. It looks fantastic. It’s interesting hearing the director and production designer talk about some of their frustrations butting up against territory that had been tread so well by guys like Spielberg and Lucas. Love this movie.

Anyway. Watched the BBC’s new Sherlock, an updating of the classic detective set in modern day London. Another home run by the BBC. The villains are a little weak, but Holmes and Watson are so perfectly executed that I don’t really care. The ending of the third episode…well, I don’t want to spoil anything. It is exquisite. Can’t wait for more.

First up, my Buffy sketch from Cal Slayton. I’m a fan of Slayton’s style, and at every show I intend to get a piece from him, but never seem to get around to it. So I made a point (hah!) to do it this time.

Next is a piece I got from David Marquez. He recently had his first work for Marvel with the excellent Secret Warriors series, so I got a Nick Fury from him. It is awesome.

As I mentioned before, meeting Amanda Conner was one of the highlights of the show for me. Her line was ridiculously long all weekend, and I got to her literally in the last minute of the show. Totally worth it.

What a weekend.

My car’s radiator exploded. Sources close to my baby report that she seems to be having her first “wittle cowd.”

But I went to the Dallas Comic-Con, and it was a blast. Met Stan Lee. John Romita, Jr. Two creators who’ve probably influenced my life more anyone else, and seeing them banter on stage was immensely fun. Getting them to sign my first issues of Spider-Man and Daredevil, respectively, was a deep honor. Those are going on the wall.

I avoided buying books and collectible stuff in favor of supporting the artists directly. I picked up a couple of commissions that I will post here as soon as I get a chance to scan them in. After Stan and Romita, the highlight of the show was meeting Amanda Conner, whose art on Power Girl and other things is a delight. I snagged a quick sketch from her and this awesome print for my daughter’s room. Amanda agreed: the girl is doomed.