Sunday, March 06, 2005

Ichi the Killer and Constantine

I'll be reviewing these two movies asap

Dark Water, Electric Girl and Meridian

Placing a marker here for three titles I've recently finished and will review

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Holes

Just finished reading Louis Sachar's Holes to the kids last night.

I found it to be very enjoyable. It reminded me strongly in sensibility to Joe R. Lansdale's work, particularly in the situations the characters found themselves in and in the ways the characters reacted to the awful people they had to deal with (could the fact that they're both from Texas have anything to do with it?).

Stanley Yelnats finds himself through a series of mishaps, or perhaps bad luck, at a juvenile detention facility called "Camp Green Lake", which is actually a dried up, baking hot lake bed, in which all the inmates must dig one hole every day, five feet deep by five feet in diameter. The warden and the counselors there, though seemingly normal at first, slowly begin to reveal their true natures to Stanley as he finds his place among the residents.

Combining a parrallel story line that gives some background to Stanley's family's history, the story weaves together a plot that finishes with a satisfying ending. With a great cast of characters, a trip across the desert, a climb to a magic onion field, and a buried treasure waiting to be found, Holes is a highly recommended read, especially if done so out loud to your kids.

Go check it out from your local library!

Supreme

I've been reading Alan Moore's Supreme: The Story of the Year collected edition of the comic book.

It's a typical Moore retelling of the superhero trope, self-aware, self-critical, but also rich with ideas and language, while not afraid to poke fun at itself.

As always with Moore's work, there are levels of complexity beneath the prose and art work. It's been an enjoyable work, especially as Supreme goes through his many incarnations from the 20's to the 90's, with appropriate art work for each decade.

The artwork is great, especially as it is used to showcase the different comic art styles of those decades. I'm looking forward to reading the next collected volume, Supreme: The Return.