Author Archives: W. Blaine Dowler

As you may be able to tell, my formal training is not as a writer. My degrees are in physics and education. In my day job, I work in supplemental education, which is why my productivity is lowest when report card season hits.

Movie Discussion – “2046”

With only four theaters running this film, I don’t
know how much discussion we’re going to get. However,
since I love the director (Kar Wai Wong), but my local
theaters aren’t among the illustrious four, I thought
I’d point the movie out and try to get some feedback
from anyone I can.

Weekly Comics Discussion – August 3, 2005

This
week’s shipping list includes a few items of note,
such as Serenity #2 (which will get its own
review, but I’ll be out of town for the weekend, so it
won’t be right away), and New Avengers #8
(which continues the Sentry arc.) Also
shipping today are the first issue of the
1602 sequel (which Gaiman is not involved in;
I’m waiting for reviews before I decide if I’ll get
the TPB), some House of M tie-in material,
Ultimate Spider-Man #81, Marvel
Visionaries: John Romita Sr., and New
Avengers Vol. 1: Breakout (which I also need to
review; shaky start to the arc, but it pulls itself
together as a means to launch the series). DC is
offering The Return of Donna Troy #3 (of 4),
DC’s Greatest Imaginary Stories TPB,
Justice #1 (of 12), and Sandman Presents
Thessaly: Witch for Hire in TPB form.

Weekly Comics Discussion – July 27, 2005

This
week’s shipping list has a few items of note that
I’ll be taking home, including Exiles Vol. 10: Age
of Apocalypse, Fantastic Four #529,
Pulse #10, Pules: House of M Special
Edition (which was solicited with a cover price
of $0.50), and Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 13:
Hobgoblin. Also, those of you who have noticed
that the Essential reviews aren’t coming on the most
recently promised schedule may be happy to know that
that’s because I’m working through 40
Years of the Amazing Spider-Man on CD-ROM, which
will take some time. (It’s an 11 CD-ROM set including
Amazing Fantasy #15 and Amazing
Spider-Man #1-500, scanned from the original
comics, so it includes all the ads, letters columns,
and so on. The issue of Previews that ships today
includes a 40 Years of the Uncanny X-Men
DVD-ROM with similar offerings which I didn’t mention
this
weekend as I hadn’t noticed it yet.)

New Serenity trailer

Anonymous Coward writes, It’s already been on slashdot last week, but I
thought I’d mention the new Serenity international
trailer was posted online. Points to ponder, one
of the taglines is “6 rebels on the run”. Six? what
happened to the other 3? and I have yet to see Book in
any of the trailers – anybody hear any news on him? IMDB still
lists Ron Glass as being in the movie… Note
that answering those questions means moving into
spoiler territory. Those of us who wish to remain
unspoiled should choose not to read any comments which
appear in this article.