Harvey Pekar, surly nerd and creator of the brilliant American Splendor (adapted into a film, which we reviewed here) and other works, has died today at the age of seventy in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. He had been suffering from cancer for some time.
Author Archives: JD DeLuzio
The Gates Discussion: “What Lies Beneath” and “The Breach”
In order to catch up, we’re doing a discussion this week of the second and third episodes of The Gates, a new supernatural thriller about a gated community with some dark secrets.
“This Movie Sucks” Discussion
Ed the Sock and Liana K., no strangers to being ripped off1, have ripped off Mystery Science Theater 3000 for their comeback. It had a rocky start last month and continues with an uneven mix of movies (from different genres), quips, and sketches.
With an episode due to be filmed at Polaris SF Con next weekend, we thought we’d post a discussion.
Is anyone watching? Does anyone plan to watch?
Clip below the cut.
Polaris SF Con: July 16-18
We’re one week away from Polaris (formerly Toronto Trek), which falls somewhere between Toronto’s author-heavy Ad Astra and the media-saturated interconnected conventions hosted at the end of the summer.
Guests include Robert Sawyer, Kelley Armstrong, Julie E. Czerneda, Karl Schroeder, Ed the Sock, Voyager‘s Ethan Phillips, Torchwood‘s Kai Owens, Galactica‘s Mark Sheppard, and the original Bionic Woman, Lindsay Wagner, among many others.
I’m on four panels (see below), and hope to hang with some Bureau-crats….
The Gates: “Pilot”
The latest entry into the suburban fantasy market features a new cop who moves with his family into the ultimate gated community, unaware that his neighbours include a vampire family (of the non-sparkly, killing variety), an indefinite number of teenage werewolves, and a couple of feuding witches.
I’m hoping for a mad doctor and Cousin Itt before they shut the gates on this thing.
Comic Review: Superman #700
The landmark issue features a Silver-Agesque cover, three stories, and several promotional items for other titles. In contrast with the recent fan-film, “City of Scars,” which captures Batman at his darkest moments, this issue re-presents Superman as the embodiment of hope and light.
Batman: City of Scars
See this fan-made film now, before DC’s lawyers stop it.
And before Hollywood (hopefully) puts the Shoenkes to work with a real budget.
Youtube Round-up
We’ve got a round-up of some genre-related Youtube videos: the World Cup goes to Middle Earth, Marvel/DC stage a musical, Iron Baby takes on killer bunnies, and a Bureau-crat directs an educational Ninja movie.
Movie Review: Splice
This Canadian SF/horror would be the best of its cross-genre in this century. It has strong acting, a clever script, a memorable, sympathetic monster, several truly disturbing scenes– and a rather unfortunate finale that undercuts the first two-thirds.
Novel Review: The City and the City
The always-original China Miéville has won a number of awards and been nominated several times for the Hugo. His latest Hugo nominated-novel, a Kafkaesque fantasy/SF police procedural, takes a hardboiled cop deep into his home city of Besźel, somewhere in Eastern Europe—and into Ul Qoma, which occupies approximately the same geographical space.
He also encounters the secretive forces that maintain the separation between the city and the city.