TV - The Good Place - Chapter 2 - Flying

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The Good Place
Chapter 2 - Flying
Season 1, Episode 2
September 19, 2016
It occurs to me re-watching this now that it may have been a mistake for them to air the first two episodes as a one-hour block. I think they work much better if you have some time to sit with the first episode in your head for at least a day, maybe ideally a week, before getting some more. Of course, now that it's going to live forever mostly on either on-demand streaming or physical media, instead of scheduled broadcasting, most people will probably watch the first few episodes without even so much as a commercial break between them.

So I didn't like this quite as much as the premiere, but still enjoyed it.  It's mostly elaborating and expanding on the premise, and then moving it quickly forward with the cliffhanger of the mysterious note.

After hearing later podcast episodes, I do have a greater appreciation for some of the visual touches, like the yellow and blue outfits all being specially tailored to match the styles of the normal clothing of the characters, just made of the custom fabric they had made.

We see the beginnings of Tahani's name dropping in this episode, with her godmother Diana. Doesn't really matter what she's the princess of, not really important.

Still can't believe they had Ted Danson kick a dog into the sun...

It's always kind of weird on re-watch to see the other Good Place residents and their cartoon cheeriness now knowing that they were demons putting on an act.

Podcast episode for this chapter is Marc Evan Jackson (he plays Shawn) speaking with casting directors Allison Jones & Ben Harris and writer Alan Yang. Some good stuff about how the actors were chosen that would get elaborated on in later episodes, and about how Michael Schur explains the concept of the show to people. Also the first hints that Schur could start a cult if he was of a mind to, given how the loyalty and admiration he inspires in his people.

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TV - The Good Place - Chapter 1 - Everything Is Fine

As I write this, THE GOOD PLACE is on a hiatus, leading up to the final four episodes starting early next year. There's just enough time for a more-or-less daily re-watch of the series to date (with the holidays in there I'm sure there'll be some skip days and catch-up days). So why not? Normal posts will probably be shorter than this one, maybe there'll be a post every few days covering multiple episodes. Note, there will be spoilers as far the the most recent episode ("The Answer"), and maybe eventually up to the series finale.

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The Good Place
Chapter 1 - Everything Is Fine
Season 1, Episode 1
September 19, 2016

I have to admit, I watched this the week it came out and wasn't sold on the show. I liked a lot in it, but I don't think I saw how the concept could sustain a series. So initially I didn't continue past the second episode (broadcast the same night as this). But it stayed in my head, and a few weeks later, as every other new series of the season failed to impress me even more I went back to it (fortunately I kept it on my DVR schedule), liked the later episodes a lot and went back to catch up and wondered why I wasn't all-in from the start.

It's pretty impressive, in retrospect, how much is in the first 23 minutes. We get a lot of Eleanor, of course, and that makes sense since we now know that she is the answer. All the selfishness and arrogance and ability to cover it up with endless charm, scheming and quick thinking. I love some of the facial expressions Bell pulls off. For Michael, it's impossible not to see it now with the knowledge that he's putting on an act, and how it informs the choices that Danson makes in subtle ways. We get enough of Chidi, with the stomachaches and everything, though it would take a few episodes to flesh him out. The rest do enough to be interesting, although they'd have to wait for their focus episodes to really come together.

Some other things.

Once you find out (from the podcast) that Ted Danson pronounces it "Eleaner", but didn't know he did, it's hard to un-hear it. It's very obvious in these early episodes.

Eleanor on her parents: "Maybe they're being used to torture each other. It would work." Wow, talk about telegraphing the ending...

The jokes that need freeze-frame start early, with Michael's film about the points system. Which we now know he was just making up.  I'm sure in the real system using "Facebook" as a verb costs way more than -5.55 points. And the substitute swear words are there from the start. And the audaciousness of the absolutely insane chaos sequence at the end is a good declaration that this isn't a normal network show. It's hard for me to believe that I didn't love it from the start.

Podcast episode for this chapter was Marc Evan Jackson (he plays Shawn) interviewing creator Michael Schur for almost an hour, released June 1, 2018, so from the perspective of having finished filming most or all of season 3. Lots of fascinating stuff on the genesis of the series and evolution of the characters.

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Gahan Wilson, R.I.P.

Just wanted to note the passing of Gahan Wilson at age 89. Not sure where I first starting seeing his work, probably some of his magazine illustrations back in the 1980s. He was a long-time regular cartoonist for PLAYBOY, NATIONAL LAMPOON and THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, as well as a lot of book covers. Below are samples from all of those, plus a few other interesting bits. There are a few pin-ups he did for DC's SANDMAN related books, bringing his style to the characters created by Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg. When First Comics revived the CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED line in 1990, the book they chose to open with was Wilson illustrating the selected poems of Edgar Allan Poe, starting with "The Raven". Wilson also did a lot of writing and art for the Paradox Press line of "Factoid Books" that DC published for a few years, including writing all of THE BIG BOOK OF FREAKS (drawing a few chapters himself but mostly with other artists, including Frank Quitely, Russ Heath, Bryan Talbot, Rick Geary and dozens more) and drawing short chapters for many of the other books.

 

Newly acquired books 2019.11.18

And another batch of old paper, new to me.  This time courtesy of Mile High Comics of Denver.

Looked back at some of Tom Veitch's other prestige format mini-series at DC, THE NAZZ and MY NAME IS CHAOS, and I liked those, so picked up the first issue of the middle one, THE CLASH recently. Seemed interesting enough, so finishing up the run.

Not usually into stray Wildstorm books, but picked up a few issues of the Barbara Kesel written SAVANT GARDE and it seemed fun, so now I have the rest of it.

ADVENTURE ILLUSTRATED was a 1981 anthology meant to be on-going but only lasting one issue. But look at that roster. Don Heck. Pat Boyette. Mike Sekowsky. Bill Sienkiewicz. Mark Evanier. Ditko's Mocker would have been in #2.

Last issue of ACTION COMICS WEEKLY I needed to finish the 42 issue run. Some great stuff in there. Lots of really good. Quite a bit of not so much. But let's focus on the good...

Last CBLDF benefit LIBERTY ANNUAL I needed. I think this one was briefly hot because of the WALKING DEAD story.

One more CRITTERS non-anthology issue, four more to go. Although the "Birthright" issues I don't hold out much hope for finding, so really one more to go.

I don't think I even realized for a long time that these last few issues of TROLLORDS existed, but they did. Surprisingly long running indy comic by Scott Beaderstadt and Paul Fricke.

Handful of Mike W. Barr comics. Original OUTSIDERS run finally complete. DOC SAVAGE series complete. Need one more MAZE AGENCY.

Didn't like the Kurt Busiek / James Fry SHADOWHAWK series enough to keep getting it back in 1995, but I picked up a few more recently and kind of liked it. So now I have a full run.

Handful of early BACCHUS issues from Eddie Campbell. I have most of the comics in one form or another, but I do like the covers and back up material, so I figured I might try to get a full run of this. Only 47 more to go!

I somehow missed that Dwayne McDuffie finished up this run of FIRESTORM, with a Fourth World related story. Well, better late than never.

The first issue of the long-running MS. TREE. I had the early stories in a black and white reprint, but recently found a few of the original colour issues and figured I might as well finish up the set.

Yeah, I have another edition of the DeMatteis / Williams BLOOD: A TALE, but this Vertigo series has different covers, and some things I just don't mind having multiple editions of...

A few issues of CYBERNARY, a comic Steve Gerber wrote for Wildstorm/Image in the 1990s. Never really heard much about it, but I was on a Gerber kick a few months back and threw just about everything he wrote I didn't already have on my wantlist. One more on the way and I'll read it then.

Another Jerry Ordway / Peter Krause SHAZAM issue I thought I had but couldn't find. Now to read them and decide if I want to get the last 30 issues of the series.

Somehow missed these last two issues of Eric Shanower's AGE OF BRONZE a decade ago. Hope he comes back to the series someday, either in the original form or the new colour editions he's doing.

Never cared much about CrossGen, except ABADAZAD, but I picked up a stack of them I was mildly interested in really cheap last year, and these three are a few random holes in those sets.

A few more BORIS THE BEAR issues, closing up the holes in my collection. When I get around to reading them I'll decide if I want the last six issues of the series I still need.

The first issue of Ty Templeton's STIG'S INFERNO. And yeah, I have the collection, but this has some back-ups not reprinted. Stop looking at me like that!

Been seeing BOZZ CHRONICLES ads in Epic books of the mid-1980s for years, and it seemed like it might be interesting. Found #1 recently, it was interesting enough, picked up a few more but couldn't find these two. So there's another one for the never-ending reading pile.

"..and meet the sun" (reprise) (reprise)

Just to update a recent post, the latest reprint of the 1980s SWAMP THING series is out now, in DC's deluxiest format, so let's see how one particular page looks...

Well, that's definitely one way to go...

So the words are there, moved around a bit, and they added a hard border to the previously free-floating caption. I might quibble that since the caption is Alec Holland narration, it should be in the iconic crusty format, not a rectangle. Or just leave it as and where John Costanza lettered it. Though I don't mind the correction of the opening ellipsis to the proper three dots.

Now, about that new colouring... oops, outta time, gotta go.

Tom Spurgeon, R.I.P.

Very sad to hear about the sudden and far-too-young death of Tom Spurgeon at age 50. Spurgeon is best known as the proprietor of The Comics Reporter, a long-running indispensable site for comic book news and information. He was also the editor of THE COMICS JOURNAL for several years in the 1990s.

I only had a few minor on-line interactions with Spurgeon over the years, but he was always pleasant and helpful, even in the face of sometimes sarcastic corrections (the only kind I know how to give). It was also very flattering to occasionally be able to answer a question or request he had on my peculiar fields of “expertise”.

A few of the many interviews on his site I enjoyed over the years
Stan Sakai
Stephen Bissette
James Vance
Jaime Hernandez
Kim Thompson

Spurgeon also wrote a comic strip for a few years, WILDWOOD, with creator Dan Wright. You can read a 2001 Christmas story over here.

Newly acquired books 2019.11.13

I'm still on my long-standing moratorium on acquiring newly published comics, with some random exceptions, but I do get older stuff, and did some mail ordering recently to fill in some holes in the collection and a few stray wants that I haven’t been able to find locally (mostly at the bimonthly Toronto Comic Book Show). This batch courtesy of My Comic Shop of Texas.

Been on a Jon J Muth kick recently, with the reprint of MOONSHADOW and his recent adaptation of THE SEVENTH VOYAGE, so I'm looking forward to his adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "The April Witch". Also, Jean Giraud pinup and a few other interesting stories. I've gradually picked up most of the Bradbury comics that Topps did in the 1990s, and usually enjoy them, so I might go ahead and finish the run soon.

One-shot reprinting the three issue introduction of the Stephen Murphy / Ryan Brown created Turtles spin-off THE MIGHTY MUTANIMALS by Murphy (as Dean Clarrain), Ken Mitchroney and various inkers. This also includes a great pin-up gallery by Stephen Bissette, which has the oddity of an Archie comic plugging SWAMP THING and TABOO

And the final Charton I needed to have every Ditko original story they published from 1968-1978. For those curious, that’s 238 Ditko stories in 215 different comics totaling 1811 pages, plus 84 covers.  Busy decade for Mr. D, especially when you add in his DC and independent work from that period. Still missing some Charlton original covers by Ditko for issues with no interior work by Ditko, but not as interested in those. This issue has proven elusive for two reasons. First, it looks like a Doctor Strange story, so tends to be overpriced compared to other Ditko Charltons (it was actually originally a rejected Spectre story by Steve Skeates that he rewrote for Doctor Graves). Second, there was a Modern Comics reprint in the 1970s, and every previous time I ordered this issue I wound up with the Modern version (all the sellers were very apologetic and offered refunds).

Finally picking up the non-anthology year of CRITTERS, the funny animal title published by Kim Thompson at Fantagraphics from 1986 to 1990. Still need a few more, but I don’t hold out hope of finding the three “Birthright” issues (#47 - #49), which seen scarce and very expensive when available. I'm going to have to go back and re-read some of the shorts that lead up to these full issues

The CBLDF LIBERTY ANNUAL anthologies that Image published from 2008 to 2016 are always a mixed bag, but there’s always something great in them. Some Evan Dorkin and Richard Corben to look forward to in these two. One more to go, coming in an in-transit shipment

Mike W. Barr’s MAZE AGENCY is an amusing light mystery series. These two issues are drawn by Adam Hughes and Rick Magyar and have been hard to find, as have some later issues. After one more in-trasit order is in I'll have all but one issue of the original series, might go looking for some of the short-lived revivals after that.

I will soon finally have every issue of the Jim Aparo / Mike W. Barr OUTSIDERS runs. I love what I've read of it, looking forward to getting the full picture. I especially love Aparo on a team book, and inking his own pencils (and even doing the lettering) on most of this run, which he didn't do as much after this.

And there's the last Gene Conan / Don McGregor NATHANIAL DUSK issue I needed, a real pain to find. Looking forward to reading it, though DC’s early attempt at printing from Colan's pencils doesn’t quite work.

Re-reading some J. M. DeMatteis Batman stories recently made me want more, so got this Two-Face one I was missing. Seems like a very good subject matter fit for DeMatteis. I do wish that DC and Marvel would get there act together and reprint their various cross-company books, including two DeMatteis Batman / Spider-Man team-ups. Those are hard to find and pricey.

Of course I have Evan Dorkin's ELTINGVILLE collection, as well as this individual issue digitally, but I have to have the individual print issue. Does this make me a candidate for joining the club?

The last two of Paul Grist’s 40 issue JACK STAFF series (through various restarts and title changes and specials) I needed. I have these two digitally, but you know, only paper counts. Wonder if that’s ever coming back? Grist always seems to plan to come back to his books like KANE or BURGLAR BILL, but never does.

Mark Badger’s crazy little Batman style is fun. I’ve probably seen a hundred copies of the first two issues of this RIDDLER series without finding the finale. Maybe I'll take a look at the follow-up BATMAN: JAZZ series later.

This damn LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES issue. Not only hard to find, but because it was a Crisis crossover it was skipped in the misguided hardcover/softcover reprint scheme of the time. Anyway, last issue of the second Paul Levitz Legion run (1981-1989) I needed. It's a pretty uneven run in my experience, but has some great highpoints, looking forward to reading it all to see if it hangs together better. Also I think most of his first run (1977-1979) is now available in collections and digitally, so I may take a look at that. And maybe just continue to pretend his third run (2010-2013) never happened...

Pretty sure I had this Jerry Ordway / Peter Krause / Mike Manley issue of POWER OF SHAZAM before, but a few were missing when I pulled them out to re-read a while back.  So here it is again.  One other missing one I still need coming in the mail and I'll have the series from the Ordway "grapic novel" up to #20 and will re-read and decide if I want to get #21 - #50. I liked the book at the time, but pretty much stopped buying all monthly mainstream comics for a while there for various reasons.

This 1992 Wolverine one-shot by Bill Sienkiewicz and Dan Chichester looks crazy.  Didn’t even know it existed until a few years ago. During this decade most of Sienkiewicz's "mainstream" (DC/Marvel) work was inking or short stories. I think this is his only full-art mainstream job longer than ten pages between 1988 and 2001.

And finally one of a few BORIS THE BEAR  issues by James Dean Smith I needed to have a solid run.  That’ll be an interesting read/re-read when I get a few more. By coincidence, the book came up recently at Progressive Ruin almost exactly halfway between when I place my order and it arrived here.

So it’ll be a relief not to have to go through many of those sections of the dealer bins at local shows anymore looking for that one elusive issue. Of course, that just means some other stuff moves up the priority list.