Best of 2007: Comic

This is a tough one. I read a lot of comics. My gut is going with Peter Bagge's Apocalypse Nerd, and I think I need to stick with that. With this title, Pete took the angst, social-phobia and darkness that permeated Hate, and shoved it into a post-apocalyptic setting. The results were fantastic.
I can't remember exactly which issues came out in 2007, but I know for certain the final two did, at least. What a fucked issue that number five was... some really twisted shit went down. I don't want to ruin it for you, but basically Apocalypse Nerd was a pretty straightforward look at what life would really be like after a nuclear war. I don't mean in a scientifically-accurate type of way; this is pretty much about the mental breakdown of all of the characters when martial law kicks in after North Korea bombs the Pacific Northwest.
This six issue series is probably already out in trade paperback, but if not, try and track down the issues. It might be tough to do; I never see them around (but then again I don't hit up too many shops that would carry them in the first place).
Runnerup: Runoff. The final collection came out this year. Man, this was a great series. Towards the end it got a little too 'Hollywoody,' but I guess the recent news that it's going to be made into a movie by the guy that did Hellboy will do that to you. Still, it had some fantastic moments.

Best of 2007: Television

This was another no-brainer. The previous summer, I purchased a video ipod and watched seasons one and two of Lost. I really hadn't watched any television shows of any sort for about ten years at least, other than the Simpsons and Futurama. It was probably way longer than that, actually. Anyway, I wanted to try out the new iPod, so I acquired digital copies of season one. It floored me, and I watched both seasons. As such, I was psyched for the debut of season three.
And man, they didn't let down. Well, they did a little bit, since that whole deal at the beginning with the Mexican standoff was dragged out a little thin. Other than that, though, this show kicked ass. There were a few duds in the mix (like the one where those two characters got buried alive), but even those were pretty great episodes. The overall storyline is so great, though, that anything that doesn't propel it along can be seen as tiresome.
And talk about cliffhangers! Shit on a shingle, if the last two minutes of that final episode didn't have me crapping in my pants. The best thing about it all was that I was entirely 'spoiler-free' throughout the whole series. I recommend avoiding commercials and gossip sites. What a great fucking show.

Best of 2007: Food

This one was a no-brainer. I like to cook, and usually we make some pretty good meals at home, but there's one dish I just can't get enough of. It's kimchee, and since my beloved Hanabi closed its doors a few years ago, I have been woefully low in the kimtake department. There's a Korean place in Pleasantville that serves up kimchee jigae, but it's not really all that great.
Thankfully, there is a place to get a great dish of kimchee in the area. It's Noodles of the World (or, as it's more commonly know as, "NOW") and it's located inside the Borgata casino right in Atlantic City. The Borgata recently added an entire new 'wing' of restaurants, most of which are a little too fancy for you and me. Not so with NOW. It's basically a little row of tables and two counters, and the food is great. It's also not too expensive, which is nice for a casino restaurant in AC.
The only bad thing about the kimchee is that it's only an appetizer. The dish is relatively large for a pre-meal treat, but I wish they would have a larger, meal-sized variety.
Someone who works with my wife gave us a package of kimchee seasoning, which makes about 10 pounds of the stuff. I haven't mustered up the energy to make it yet, but I think I may have to. That shit is just outta site.

RUNNER UP: The Asahi Roll at Ginza II

Best of 2007: Album

For the foreseeable future, I'm going to devote a few posts to my own personal "Best Of" list for the year 2007. I'll be spotlighting different categories, and writing about the best entry of the previous year for each. This is a novel, exciting concept which I think might catch on with some others. To my knowledge, no one has as yet undergone such a task.
The obligatory "Best Album" goes to They Might Be Giants' "The Else," which came out last spring. I have been a huge TMBG fan for many, many years, but was very disappointed with their previous release, "The Spine." Quite frankly, it sucked. As such, I was a little hesitant when this latest disc came out, but after the initial spin all worries went out the window. This is prime TMBG, and it's their best album since 1994's "John Henry."
Only now do I realize how retarded it is to write about this disc. I'm reminded of Theolonious Monk's famous quote, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." Well, I won't be dancing to the Louvre any time soon, but I may as well churn out a few more sentences about this collection of songs.
One thing that struck me regarding the Else was how Linnell-heavy it is. On most Giants albums, the two Johns pretty much trade songs back and forth. Off the top of my head I don't remember how many songs feature John Linnell on lead vocals this go-round, but I know I counted a few months ago, and it seemed like he did way more than half. I've always enjoyed his stuff more than Flansburgh's, but Flansy is no slouch in the writing department, either. I will definitely be sad when these guys finally break up the band.
Another interesting aspect of this disc is that it was released on iTunes a few months before the physical copy hit stores. I didn't buy it from Apple, and I'm certainly glad I chose to wait. (Technically I didn't really wait, since I downloaded it elsewhere prior to its official release). The initial pressing of the album came with a bonus disc of songs culled from the TMBG podcast, a total of 21 more tracks that are, while not as tight as the album itself, a worthy companion and well worth the price of admission. This was a much better way to treat the fans than the aforementioned Spine, which clocked in at just over a half hour, and was accompanied by a download-only EP that cost an extra ten bucks or so. Fuck the Spine, but long live the Else!

Outland

Long before Berke Breathed produce the shit-streaked comic, "Outland," Sean Connery produced a shit-fueled motion picture called "Outland." I am not a huge Connery fan, though I have enjoyed a few of his flicks. On a whim, I decided to get this vintage sci-fi flick from Netflix. I thought it might be on a par with Bladerunner, one of the greatest movies ever, but it was more like Shitrunner, a fictional movie that was never produced but does conjure up imagery of a horrible disaster.
To be honest, I didn't make it through the entire film. Most everyone I know knows that I have a tough time staying awake through movies, unless I'm actually watching them at the theater. If it's at home, I usually fall asleep. Starting this one late at night probably didn't help. Writing some boring-ass script most likely didn't help much, either. I would say this movie's fans can be filed under two categories: 1. People who loved it when it came out twenty five years ago and have since gone retarded. 2. Retards.
Don't rent Outland.

BBCTV

In the past few years, it seems like there's been a resurgence of great programming from the BBC. I have always been a fan of shows like Monty Python, Red Dwarf, Black Adder and the like, but a new crop of 'edgy' shows seem to have sprung up, almost overnight. Well, 'overnight' might be stretching it a little bit, unless it's one of those three-month long "nights," like in that creepy town where the vampires live. Even that would be used only with extremely liberal licensing.
The point is, there's a lot of great television shows coming from the UK these days. My favorite is probably Peep Show, which stars two extremely socially inept roommates and their cadre of equally disturbed 'friends.' The entire show (with very, very few exceptions) is filmed in first person perspective, which means you only see what one of the characters is seeing. Once in a blue moon there's an establishing shot from outside a building, but that's the exception rather than the rule. The other neat trick is that the show is comprised of an endless stream of inner dialogue, presented as a series of voice-overs. The characters innermost thoughts are constantly on display, and they are always extremely fucked up. I can't recommend this show highly enough; I think at least one season is out on DVD in the USA. All four seasons are currently available on bittorrent sites.
Another brand new show I've been enjoying is Angelo's. It just finished up its first six-episode season a few weeks ago, though I have yet to see the finale. It's a more 'traditional' britcom, in that it centers around a common meeting place filled with zany characters. In this case, it's Angelo's cafe, or (as he calls it) the "Caf." Though it bares strong resemblance to the older shows, it maintains that dark, fucked up quality that permeates many modern programs. There's a guy in it who dresses like C3-PO and stands in the town square all day, for starters. It really is a great show, and I hope it comes back for more. The guy who plays Angelo had a bit part in the recent Extras Christmas Special, as the landlord who tried to rent out a real shithole to Ricky Gervais' ugly friend.

Basil Wolverton, Naked!

For Christmas, my wife hooked me up with a classy Basil Wolverton art-book. It basically traces his career from the earliest stuff he published, back in the 30s or 40s, up through his 'peak' years of the 50s and 60s. I haven't really had a chance to read much of it yet, other than the few pages I flipped across on Christmas Day. I was really excited to get it, and seeing his stuff collected like that was a real treat. I had never even heard of this book, and really only know Wolverton's work from the different reprints, and one collection from the 80s.
Having said that, I am not a huge Woverton fan. I mean, I really enjoy his work and appreciate it much more than the average comic fan probably does, but he never really reached that "upper tier" with me. I think the fact that, at least in my mind, he's primarily known for spot-illustrations (as opposed to sequential stories) somehow lessons his value to me. His pictures of grotesque humans really are great, though.
Glancing through the book a second time (it's called "The Original Art of Basil Wolverton), I notice there is quite a bit of sequential stuff, but most are six panel gag strips or the like. Some of the full-page illustrations are completely surreal, and are far more reminiscent of Dali or Picasso than Kirby and Lee. Wolverton seems to have much more in common with the underground movement of the sixties than Kurtzman, but Harvey always seems to get all the credit. I recommend getting this book. I even more strongly having your wife get it for you. It's available right from the publisher, Last Gasp.

MW by OT

MW is a long-form work by Osamu Tezuka, the Godfather of Manga. In simple terms, he was the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the Lion ("Jungle Emperor," I think it was called) and several thousand pages of manga throughout his lifetime. I've always thought of him as a Japanese combination of Jack Kirby and Will Eisner. Anyway, the guy was very influential and did a million different styles, themes, and approaches throughout his life. This book, titled simply "MW," was (according to the blurb) "Tezuka's darkest work."
I can see that being the case, because it is pretty fucked up. It's tough to really summarize the plot, but let's just say it deals with a really fucked-up relationship, a super-psychotic guy, and lots of insane plot angles. I'm not saying it's the greatest work of the comics medium, but it was exactly what I wanted from a Tezuka book. I hope there's more like this coming.
A few of Tezuka's other more adult-themed (that doesn't only mean it shows people bonin') titles have come out recently. One was Ode to Kirihito, which was about a doctor facing a bizarre disease that turns humans into animal-human hybrids. It wasn't an action book at all; it was just bizarre 70s manga. Apollo's Song, yet another recent translation, was also a little too stream of conscious for my tastes. MW stuck very tightly to the plot, and seemed much more planned out (and better paced) than the other two books.
The website is http://www.vertical-inc.com/. You can order all of these books there, as well as Buddha. See the Comic Book Haters episode for our review on that one. I picked up ME at the local Borders, so it shouldn't be too tough to find. They're all worth reading.

We's for Me

It just now struck my mind, but the novel I'm currently reading shares its name (at least, a homonym of) with the country's hottest-selling holiday item. The book is called We, by Soviet author Yevgeny Zamyatin. Written in the early 1920s, it was the main inspiration (at least from a literary point of view) for Orwell's 1984.
Anyone who knows me knows I'm pretty obsessed with 1984, so naturally I was interested in checking out this precursor. In fact, I am a big 'fan' of Dystopian futures in general, (especially those visions from the past) and Alan Moore's recent League of Extraordinary Gentlemen's release, "The Black Dossier," has rekindled my interest.
There certainly are a lot of similarities between We and 1984. An overtly-regimented society; a lone male trying to deal with his socially unacceptable rebellions; a female 'operative' who leads him towards temptation; ultimate punishment for what basically amounts to 'thought crime.'
In many ways, We is a much more 'desirable' dystopia, though they all pretty much suck when you get down and think about it. The people live in glass houses (literally), and a massive clock controls what every citizen does at every minute of the day. They're given a 'personal hour' at the end of the day, but even that is a little shady. On the plus side, they get these little pink tickets , which can be 'cashed in' to nail a chick whenever they want.
The main difference is that Orwell's vision is so very, very bleak. There doesn't seem to be much pollution, destruction, or other ecological disasters in OneState, the Zamyatin city-state. In fact, OneState exists in a sort of dome, with a continuous jungle existing everywhere else on the planet (except for several other city-states, which seem to have little interaction with OneState, at least so far in the novel).
The overall tone of the original is much lighter, and actually reminds me more of Huxley's Brave New World. I guess living through World War II in Europe certainly had a much bigger impact on Orwell's darker voice.

The Straight Take on Kerry Drake

Well, one of the advantages of being an early-to-mid 20th century comic strip enthusiast is that one is constantly discovering new series to peruse. Pardon me, as I take a sip of British tea and extend my pinky-finger into the air.
One such recent discovery for me is Kerry Drake, by Alfred Andriola. I recently purchased the first two volumes of this reprint series, which picks up mid-storyline from the late 1940s. At first, it seemed like a pedestrian Dick Tracy with less-polished artwork. The first few pages were a drag, but eventually I started to really get into it.
The key is focusing on the dialogue, which manages to out-Spillane Spillane. The lead character, Kerry Drake, is a hard-boiled detective who knows how to get dirty, and everyone speaks like a grizzled hipster. One plot centered around a cocaine smuggling operation down in the Keys, which is followed by an intricate crime web orchestrated by a popular radio DJ.
Apart from this edition from SPEC Productions, I have never seen Kerry Drake reprinted anywhere. Unlike Joe Palooka, this is a series well worth investigating. Fuck Ham Fisher.