Sometimes I shouldn't use words

I finally finished remastering my TSCC vid Nobody Loves You. You can download the new shiny by right clicking here or streaming (YouTube allowing):


I still really miss the show and rewatching the vid only makes it more so but there’s some potential good news on that front. Josh Friedman (show runner for TSCC) has written a pilot, which Fox have picked up with a decision to be made on it in May 2011. Originally he was going to produce, he may still be show running but now it has Spielberg and some guys who produced the New Star trek Movie and Fringe as executive producers whatever that means. It’s based on a comic book (sorry, graphic novel) series called Locke and Key about a family (the eponymous Locke’s) moving back to their ancestral spooky mansion in the aftermath of the father’s murder and horrible wackiness ensuing. I haven’t read the books, they say the art is interesting, but they seem to focus on the 6 year old boy, his teenage brother and occasionally their sister Kinsey while the mother hangs around in the background in a haze alcohol-fuelled grief. But that the book. When Friedman did Terminator it was supposed to be all about John but he brought back the Sarah of it and added Cameron and Weaver and Ellison and that Derek guy. And the first character they’ve cast is the mother, Nina - Miranda Otto (Eowyn) and then the daughter, Kinsey ( Sarah Bolger). It could be good. Or never happen. Whatever. Happy New Year!

My Heroes dvds arrived! Together with a copy of Paper Dolls (issues in Brian K Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man), which I’d ordered in September and almost given up hope on. Sufficiently to have bought the two subsequent trades already but I liked this one better than either of them.

( Spoilers make headlines down under )

The books are very different from any others I’ve been dipping into. they’re about ordinary people albeit in a strange situation, no superheroes, magic or (intentionally) weird science, it’s like genreless genre. Apparently Vaughan deliberately aimed to make them accessible to non-comics readers, the panels are extremely regular, the order clear and the art simple and unobtrusive. Separated from the text you wouldn’t give it a second glance but without it the text, being mostly dialogue, would be quite indigestible. Interestingly, while neither art nor text stands out, together they tell the story with an almost unnatural efficiency.

There’s a Noel Streatfield YA novel (not Ballet Shoes but one of the follow ups) in which the stage school heroine is feeling overshadowed by her movie star-like cousin taking over her part in a production of The Tempest. Her mentor reassures her that although the cousin is more charismatic she’s only able to play herself and our heroine’s Ariel was much closer to the famous director’s vision. Or to use a dance metaphor, musicality can be more important than virtuosity even though it’s difficult to break down for praise or condemnation.

( Spoilers for something completely different – Angel: After the Fall #2 )
( Women and comics: spoilers for AtF, Buffy S8, AXM and Y )

Big comics Thursday, as well as Buffy 8.6 I picked up another two parts of Brian Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man.

( Spoilers for Y. And Heroes. Sort of. )

( Rather more detailed spoilers for Buffy 8.6 )

I’ve been wondering what this Golden Compass soon-to-be–movie was that’s been inspiring all the memes. Rather bafflingly it turns out to be the American title for the first book in Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. While it’s almost understandable why publishers with a low opinion of the American audience’s erudition might have changed the title of the first Harry Potter book from The Philosopher’s to The Sorcerer’s Stone how on earth is The Golden Compass less obscure or off-putting than Northern Lights?

It’s tempting to re-read the book but reading is so hard on the eyes these days. Really ought to suck it up and test for a new prescription or, segue alert, try sticking to comic books. Since, on the strength of the second Buffy S8 instalment, I went and ordered the Astonishing X-Men trades.

( comicy spoilers )