Saturday, March 22, 2008

Watching The Watchmen

I've made it no secret over the last couple of months that I like comic books. All the cool kids do, after all. And if there's one comic that fans and non-fans should read, it's Alan Moore's Watchmen. First released in 1986 as a twelve-issue series, Watchmen is one of those books that just blows you away as soon as you open it up.

So of course, it was only a matter of time before somebody got the bright idea to turn it into a movie. It was in developmental hell for years, but hey, at least it got made. Anyway, about two and a half weeks ago, they released pictures of all but one of the main characters in their costumes. Go check out those pictures here, if you have yet to see them. I've read different opinions from different people around the Internet, so I guess I might as well throw in my two cents as well.

What do I think about them? I think they look good. They'll probably look better in action on the big screen, but I dig them already. I've heard some people complaining that the costumes look too modern, considering that the comics and the movie take place in 1985. And those people do make a good point. The costumes look like leftovers from the wardrobe department of the four Burton/Schumacher Batman movies. But could there be deeper reasons behind that? Watchmen was a well-noted satire of '80s society, so maybe Zack Snyder and everyone else involved with the movie are trying to poke fun at the costumes in other cinematic superhero movies? That could totally be a possibility, couldn't it?

But I must say that the pictures have gotten me excited. I can't wait to see a Watchmen movie. Heck, I can't wait until the first preview for it gets released. (Since DC published the Watchmen comics, I wouldn't be surprised if they debuted the preview in front of The Dark Knight this summer.) Having seen and liked Zack Snyder's other two movies, I have full confidence that Watchmen will be great. But I guess we won't know just how it will turn out until next year.

Man, it's going to be a long year.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Burning Down The House

Believe it or not, I've actually been doing things besides purchasing comic books. (Though I did do a little of that yesterday, to be totally honest.) But what, you ask, have I been up to? I've been working on a new review for S@TM. Just because I have a new hobby doesn't mean I can't still tend to the old one, after all.

In this new review, I take a look at a slasher movie, the 1981 cult classic The Burning. This is a movie I've been wanting to see for a long time, so I figured that I might as well take the time to review it while I had the DVD from Netflix. Speaking of Netflix, there's a few more horror movies in my Netflix queue that I'd like to review when they arrive at Sutton HQ. So I'm sure you can look forward to those sometime within the next few weeks.

But for now, enjoy the review of The Burning. I'm going to jump back into the comics I bought yesterday.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Adding To The Hobby

I swear, one day soon, I'm just going to have to rename this blog "Matt's Weekly Comic Book Purchases." Because little ol' me went out and bought a bunch more comics today. I guess I need to start cutting back to only once or twice a month, because I've made some relatively big (for me, anyway) purchases over the last two or three weeks, and I don't want to get burned out on my new hobby too quickly.

Anyway, comics were purchased today. Added to the ever-growing collection: a second printing of Captain America #25, Detective Comics #823, the first two issues of Dark Horse's Evil Dead adaptation, Spectacular Spider-Man #76, and a free comic called Secret Invasion Saga. I guess that free comic is supposed to be some promotional material to hype an upcoming storyline that Marvel is doing with the Skrull, but I'm a bit out of the loop on this one. Either way, I think I made a pretty decent haul today.

Though I have to say that my shopping experience today was a bit different than what I'm usually used to. I've been frequenting a particular shop in Frankfort lately, and I split my purchases today between that shop and one in Lexington that I'd never been to before. I was blown away by the sheer amount of inventory that the shop in Lexington had, especially the huge rack of Masters of the Universe action figures they had. If the clerks had looked the other way, I'd have snatched the whole rack and made off like a bandit, but I digress. So yeah, the store gets an A+ for inventory, but my big gripe? The place is tiny. I mean, really tiny. It's like someone converted a broom closet into a comic book shop. Go crawl into your refrigerator, and that's how cramped it was in there. I had to sit in the floor to go through half of their back issue boxes, which is inconvenient enough without having other customers stepping over over me because there's no room to maneuver around me. Trying to get around was like playing Human Tetris. It was unbelievable.

They might as well rename the store "Claustrophobic Comics," because that would be some truth in advertising. Not to bash the store or anything, but I like having room to walk around when I'm perusing through my literature of choice. At least I know of two shops that have plenty of floor space in order to accomplish that.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Growing In Numbers

Welcome, everyone, to the month of March. Me, I'm having a great time so far. I say that because I made another addition to my slowly growing comic book collection this afternoon. The issues I picked up:
  1. Booster Gold #5 (because I love Batman: The Killing Joke)
  2. Batman #674
  3. What If...? #10 ("What if The Punisher's family hadn't been killed in Central Park?")
  4. all five issues of Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness
It's too bad I only had a certain amount of money to work with, because there were at least ten more individual issues I'd have bought had been able to afford them.

Though there isn't much to my collection right now, it's growing steadily, so I can't complain too badly. I could probably stand to go buy some bags and boards in bulk, just in case. You never know when they might come in handy. Am I right? Of course I am. Besides, I could stand to get some new ones, since a few of the bags and boards I have are too big for the comics I'm keeping in them. I'd like to keep everything one uniform size, so maybe getting some new stuff to fix that is an idea I should entertain. Call it OCD, I guess.

Wow... for somebody relatively new to the hobby, it sure feels like I've jumped into it pretty heavily. I'm surprised, myself.