Doctor Who - "The Christmas Invasion"

...or, for Canadians, "The Boxing Day Invasion". This slightly longer than usual episode (it ran in a 90-minute timeslot, with commercials, but didn't fill it) introduces the latest Doctor, who'll be headlining the next season in a few months. He and Rose return to modern day Earth, just in time for a massive alien invasion. We also get a hint of the new spin-off series TORCHWOOD.

I was pretty unimpressed with it, unfortunately. While there were a few clever bits, they were few and far between, and a lot of the stuff between them wasn't worth watching. Overall ranks close to the bottom of new series episodes.

The good news is that this doesn't mean much for the upcoming season, since the new Doctor spends most of this lying around doing nothing. The actor didn't seem to bad in the few bits he had, and maybe if they have him doing more it'll pick up some. The end of the episode had a few clips from the upcoming season, and while some of them don't seem too promising (as I've said before, I think DW should avoid Victorian England, so actually having Queen Victoria herself can't be good news), there are a few bits for the long time fan that I'm looking forward to, already leaked in rumours, but I won't mention them here.

I also just got the first tape of the original series from my library in a while, "Terror of the Zygons", from the Tom Baker years, with Sarah Jane Smith and Harry and the Brigadier, so that'll be a good way to get this latest thing out of my mind.

EC - Upheaval (Williamson)

Upheaval!
art by Al Williamson, story by Al Feldstein & Harlan Ellison
Weird Science-Fantasy #24[#2] (1954)

Some sources seem to indicate that this was an unauthorized adaptation (a la the first few Bradbury adaptations) of an early Ellison short story, "Mealtime", others seem to indicate that it was authorized. In any case, it was the only Ellison story published by EC. The story concerns an exploration mission, looking (so far in vain) for signs of intelligence on other worlds. The captain is convinced that humanity is the pinnacle of evolution and they won't find anything, until they come onto a seemingly empty world, which swallows up their spaceship and the crew. After barely getting out with their lives, the skeptical captain is now convinced that he was wrong, and the world they just left is an evolved intelligent world, far superior to the parasite based evolutionary model of Earth.

 

Cute story, but more interesting for some really nice Williamson artwork (with some possible assist by Roy Krenkel). In addition to the usual great space-men there's a nice sequence of flash-backs to the evolution of life on earth, and any chance to see Williamson drawing battling dinosaurs and cavemen (separately, of course), even for just one panel each, is well worth reading.

My Collection - CRITTERS [1986 Series]

Critters [1986 series]
40 issues [1986 - 1990]
1 - 38, 40, 50

A very entertaining funny animal book from Fantagraphics, CRITTERS ran as an anthology with up to #38, then ran various full issue stories from #39 to #49, returning to the anthology format for a big finale for #50.

I didn't start reading it until after it was cancelled, soon after I started reading USAGI YOJIMBO and looking for all the earlier stories. I liked the rest of those issues enough to start picking up the non-Usagi issues (Sakai has work in about a third of the issues).

Of course some were harder to find than others, and I only finally finished my collection of the anthology issues earlier this year. I still haven't read all the continued stories that appeared in it, as I was waiting to have all the chapters. And you hardly ever see the non-anthology issues around (I suspect they might sometimes be filed by the feature name, like "Fission Chicken" or "Birthright").

Still worth keeping, even with all the Usagi stuff available in tradepaperbacks. The "Gnuff" series by Freddy Milton (a heavily Carl Barks inspired series about a dinosaur family) appears in about half the issues, and is always worth reading. A good mix of single issue stories and serialized stories throughout. Also notable, #23 has a flexidisc with Ty Templeton's "Teddy Payne" on one side and Alan Moore's "Sinister Ducks" on the other.

Random TV stuff

Yeah, haven't been posting much lately. Don't know why, it's not like I get a lot else done. I'm not sure this weblog has found the voice i wanted yet, so it's easier to post on one of the more focused ones. I'll have to get on that soon.

I have been watching a lot of TV recently. I was able to borrow an almost complete set of NEWSRADIO tapes, so I watched those. I loved that show when it was on, but missed a handful of episodes both originally and on syndication, so it was great to revisit the old favourites and get the occasional new shot. I can't believe how good that show was. I'm going to have to pick up the full season DVDs at some point (first two seasons are out, third apparently out next year). I hear the commentary tracks are really good.

I also just recently got into ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. I'm not sure why, but the show managed to fly completely under my radar for the first two seasons. I knew it existed, I knew Jeffrey Tambor, who I liked from the LARRY SANDERS days, was on it, but not much else. Fortunately that's been corrected now, just in time for the series to be cancelled, it seems. Ah well. Anyway, one nice thing about catching on to a series late is that I got to watch almost fifty episodes in just a few months, which really works for a show like this, which has a lot of running jokes and references to past episodes.

The news that John Spencer passed away prompted me to dig out some videos I kept of the first few seasons of THE WEST WING. For a while there, from the middle of the first season to early in the fourth, it was my favourite show on TV, so I still have tapes of most of those (those were the days before DVD box sets became inevitable for most shows. I probably should look into buying the early ones for WEST WING). I still watch the show, mostly out of habit and affection for the characters, but I forgot just how good it was when all the pieces were in place early on. And of course John Spencer's character, Leo McGarry, was an integral part of that, especially early on, I think it was his presence which held the show together long enough for the rest of the cast to catch up. Really not sure if I'll be able to watch the show without him, especially if it continues past this season.

Mod and Mad

I've always liked this 1968 cover by Curt Swan and Neal Adams, especially the unique integration of the logo into the action, but seeing it with this extra promotional dress from a period house ad makes me absolutely love it. "Mod and Mad"? So, so, hip...

THE QUESTION by O'Neil/Cowan #31 - #36

 

Bit late on this, as I had misplaced one of the issues. Finishing up the "monthly" run of the book, with Malcolm Jones III still the regular inker.

#31 - "Boom. The End." sees some old housing projects, where Vic once lived, scheduled for demolition. Unfortunately some street gang squatters have other ideas, and take Myra hostage in there. A very simple but effective issue, with a lot of nice touches that point towards the eventual end of the series, the importance of Vic's childhood experiences to his current place.

This issue also has a pin-up of Vic and Tot in a library where Vic peruses a printout of the Recommended Reading List to date, which is cute.

#32 - "The Peacemaker" is a bit of an oddity as the main characters don't really figure into the main story. Vic and Myra appear in a few pages in the middle, furthering his own inner conflicts, but the main story is about a Vietnam vet who is brought into a neighbourhood watch program, and his own flashbacks and reactions. Not a totally successful departure, but it had its moments, including a rather depressing ending.

#33 - "Harold" is the last of this stretch of single issue stories, and introduces a character who would eventually go on to a regular supporting gig in the Batman books, the mute mechanical genius hunchback of the title. The main story this time revolves around a psycho killer being hired by a judge to kill Myra, forcing her and her daughter on the run where they're fortunately helped by Harold while Vic is mostly ineffective.

#34 - "were it not that I have bad dreams" begins the final story arc for the series, with Carlos Garzon guest inking. The city spirals into even worse chaos, and Vic is unable to handle it, finally cracking amidst exhaustion and hallucinations about his mother. Myra handles her problems a bit better, and Richard Dragon finally comes to town to help. I like bits of this issue a lot, but overall not one of my favourites, especially with the art looking very rushed.

#35 - "Let Nothing You Dismay" brings Izzy into the crisis-of-confidence party, as he pursues a Question impersonator, while Myra and Richard continue the search for Vic. A good issue, but mostly just a warm-up for the grand finale...

#36 - "Or Maybe Gomorrah" brings it all to a close, with several brilliant bits, Richard's revelation being on the top of that list. Don't want to spoil that for anyone who hasn't read it, but it took me by surprise. Anyway, it's a good resolution to the series, as Vic finally decides he has to leave Hub City, and Myra decides she can't. A fitting end to a great series, sometimes I think they should have stopped here, as some of the subsequent stuff, while entertaining, detracts from the ending as Vic keeps returning to the Hub.

Still to come, a GREEN ARROW Annual, some QUARTERLY issues, the RETURN and a few other appearances of Vic Sage.

My Collection - GRIMJACK [1984 Series]

Grimjack [1984 series]
47 issues [1984 - 1990]
1 - 27, 37 - 46, 50, 52 - 53, 60, 63 - 64, 68 - 70, 74 

Long running science fiction series created by John Ostrander and Tim Truman, first showing up as a back-up in STARSLAYER. Truman was aboard as artist for the first little while, until he started up SCOUT at Eclipse, and then various artists continued with Ostrander until #81. Recently revived in a mini-series by Ostrander/Truman and reprint collections at IDW. The title character is John Gaunt, a mercenary operating in the transdimensional city of Cynosure.

I didn't start reading the book until around the time it was cancelled, originally picking up a few based on the back-up stories done by various guest artists ("Munden's Bar" stories, set in a bar owned by Grimjack and allowing for guest characters from any dimension). I liked those enough, and liked Truman's work in other books, that when I saw a good run of the early issues for sale I picked those up, and since then have picked up the rest I have. I haven't actually read the main story in all of them yet, partly because I have a lot of single chapters of larger stories, and partly because I have some trouble with a few of the post-Truman regular artists (I like Tom Mandrake's run in the middle a lot, but Tom Sutton and Flint Henry don't quite do it for me on first glance. I might change my mind when I actually read more of the stories).

Noteworthy issues:

#1 is a good intro story, with lots of hints for the future and character establishing bits

#12 - #15 had some good single issue lead stories, and backups by John Totleben, Phil Foglio and Bill Messner-Loebs

#42 is a nice example of Tom Mandrake's run, and the first issue I ever read thanks to the really weird back-up drawn by Larry Marder