Beautiful Balloons with Maggie Thompson - Tuesday, August 21, 2007

In promotional material (copyright 2007 BBC Worldwide) for the new series Torchwood , creator, lead writer, and executive producer Russell T Davies provided this view [reproduced here as provided] of the series, which will begin Sept. 8 on BBC America:

The Torchwood team is a small group of cops and investigators who use alien technology in a very real world. All the bits of future technology that fall to Earth are captured, scavenged, plundered by the Government, and Torchwood finds ways to use them. A very British operation, away from the prying eyes of America and the UN.

Everyone who works for Torchwood is young, under 35. Some say that's because it's a new science. Others say it's because they die young.

It's bleak, brutally funny, full of all the sex and swearing that usually gets cut from sci-fi. And the sci-fi is very 'real'. Few alien creatures in themselves - though if they appear, they're not the Moxx of Balhoon, they're nightmarish and savage and profoundly strange.

There's minimal CGI, with the occasional blow-out to take people by surprise. But it should feel different to the usual sci-fi stuff - this show doesn't need gorgeous spaceships, it needs to manipulate the texture of the picture, as Jacob's Ladder once did, to frighten in all sorts of new ways.

The whole show picks up that feel - rough, wild, with a hefty dose of Shameless. And with that show's sense of humor! Reflected in the scripts as well - The X Files meets This Life.

The series consists of one-off stories - using alien tech to investigate human crimes; to investigate alien happenings amongst ordinary people; and to research new alien devices in themselves. But stories about the central characters are continuous throughout - affairs between team members, traitors, sinister bosses, the misuse of their powers, and then even more affairs - so that the 13 episodes have a shape and an arc.

The Torchwood team first appear in Doctor Who, and spin off into this series - though the link isn't too heavy, since this is for a very different audience.

A dark, clever, wild, crime/sci-fi paranoid thriller cop-show. What else is television for?!

8/22/2007 12:02:09 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

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Happy Birthday, Ray Bradbury!
Posted by maggie

Ray Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Ill., Aug. 22 in 1920, and he became one of the earliest modern literary figures to pay tribute to comic books as a legitimate art form. When E.C. comics began to adapt his stories into comic-book form without acknowledging their source, he responded with a cheery letter of support as he reminded the publisher that he was owed royalties.

There followed issues in which Bradbury's name was featured on the cover in a cross-promotion that led comics fans to magazine science fiction and science-fiction fans to comic books.

A happy tip of the Thompson topper to Ray Bradbury -- with many thanks!

8/22/2007 11:04:48 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

With Rain Predicted for the Next Few Days ...
Posted by maggie

... it occurs to me to recall that we're in a flood plain here.

As I understand it, flood insurance (which you get through an insurance agent but which comes from the government) really doesn't cover much, if all you get is a couple feet of water in the basement. You're covered to the extent which you could be expected to have items (yes) in the basement. So your furnace is covered; your water heater is covered. But your comic books? No, you could have stored them somewhere else. I seem to recall that even your washer and dryer wouldn't be covered, if you were just talking about 24 inches of wet.

Which is why we gave up on flood insurance after the first couple of years here. Furnaces and water heaters just aren't that expensive. And, though we had lots of items in the basement, it didn't seem likely that the loss of any of them would have been covered.

Now, however, we're hearing stories about nasty floods in communities way to the south. And they're talking about houses being moved off their foundations. I've got to think flood insurance in those cases would cover more than what was in the basement. Maybe it's time to rethink things.

(Mind you, different solutions to collection threats raise many questions. If there's a tornado, things are safer in the basement; if there's a flood (or a broken water pipe), things are safer on the first or second floor; if there's a fire, the most vital things should be in ... um, the freezer? By the back door for fast evacuation?)

Moannn.

8/21/2007 4:51:33 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

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Torchwood Is Coming
Posted by maggie

Last night, I was finally able to grab a couple of hours to watch the first two on a DVD of the first four episodes of Torchwood. The nice public-relations person of BBC in America had handed it to me at San Diego, following my interviews with the folks who had just presided over a panel devoted to the show: a panel conducted while I was attending a business meeting in another room of the convention facilities.

I'll post material I gathered from those interviews, once I've had a chance to transcribe them. In the meantime, I've enjoyed the first two episodes of the show itself. Episode One, "Everything Changes," was broadcast in England the same day as Episode Two, "Day One": Oct. 22, 2006. In a strange twist that has to do with which channel is running what, David Tennant's second season on Doctor Who began in England on March 31, 2007, following Torchwood, but is now showing in America [on Sci-Fi] preceding Torchwood [on BBC America starting Sept. 9].

While Doctor Who is still viewed in the U.K. as being designed for all-ages viewing and there are countless links between the two series, there's clearly a determination that Torchwood is for an adult crowd, with "Everything Changes" being mostly in the DW mode (albeit with a bar scene that's for an older audience and blood spurting in a monster attack) but "Day One" involving an alien whose menacing methods are not for kids. More later, folks.

8/21/2007 11:27:09 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

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E.B. White Nailed It
Posted by maggie

E.B. White wrote more than Charlotte's Web and an updating of William Strunk's Elements of Style. He was a brilliant writer and was a vital part of the sparkling magazine that was The New Yorker. At the moment, I'm on the lookout for a cheap (read beat-up, since ordinary copies fetch $60 or more) copy of his Ho Hum, New Yorker fillers that displayed his keen eye for absurdity and the problems inherent in clumsy phrasing.

In the meantime, I've been dipping into a copy of the Rebecca M. Dale-edited Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976 by White and came across the following, published March 4, 1944, in response to a statement by George Seldes in Saturday Review that he "has never known of an editorial writer who wrote as he pleased." White said, "This makes us a kept man. We often wonder about our life in our bordello, whether such an existence erodes one's character or builds it."

White said he'd evolved "a system for the smooth operation of a literary bordello."

"The system is this: We write as we please, and the magazine publishes as it pleases. When the two pleasures coincide, something gets into print. When they don't, the reader draws a blank. It is a system we recommend -- the only one, in fact, under which we are willing to be kept."

White did note that it depended on a publication's aims. "As far as we have been able to discover, the keepers of this house have two aims: the first is to make money, the second is to make sense. We have watched for other motives, but we have never turned up any. That makes for good working conditions, and we write this as a sort of small, delayed tribute to our house."

What he said strikes me as providing insight into the business of much publishing in general. Fans should keep in mind that the first aim of publishers who want to stay in business is to make money. And making sense? Well, making no sense is seldom a good plan for an ongoing publisher. The point here is that it's my guess that the majority of comic-book publishers probably have these goals in mind -- and that it's a good idea to keep those aims in mind when evaluating what they produce.

8/21/2007 10:55:51 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

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Monday, August 20, 2007

What Do You Mean, 998 Posts?
Posted by maggie

So I've been blogging my li'l heart out, logging in during conventions, while sitting in restaurants, before I eat breakfast, whenever -- but none of it counts as posts at the CBGXtra website? I'm stuck at 998 posts until I formally join in discussions elsewhere on the site? What is this? Dang!

Oh, well, life is good. Gemstone's Two-Fisted Tales Vol. 2 in its The EC Archives set looks gorgeous, and a Day with Kurtzman is a Day of Artistic Delight.

And a friend just called, having uncovered an Ella Cinders pinback involved with something about a Lucky Number and the New York Evening Journal. If the number on the pin was in the paper, there'd be delightful prizes. Couldn't find anything on it in the 5th edition of Hake's Price Guide to Character Toys, for starters. The strip ran from 1925 to 1961, and I remember reading it in The Pittsburgh Press in the 1950s -- though never involving pinbacks. Does anyone out there have information for my friend? My status as an expert may be in jeopardy. (Mind you, an expert is just a person who knows whom to ask. And I'm asking you.)

And now it's time to fix dinner. Still stuck at 998 posts.

8/20/2007 5:11:53 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

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One Down, One to Go ...
Posted by maggie

My Aug. 18 post regarding those Chicago Tribune tumblers said I'd need to be looking for glasses featuring Gasoline Alley and Broom Hilda.

Today, I find my bid for the Gasoline Alley design purchased the eBay lot that included it (with three others). Woo hoo! Just Broom Hilda left to go -- though I'm informed that that is the design that's most difficult to find. Life as a completist is challenging.

8/20/2007 5:03:04 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

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Saturday, August 18, 2007

Catching Up
Posted by maggie

Yesterday was spent in hours of catch-up, following weeks at conventions, trips, and the like.

Following a much-needed haircut, I continued my expedition with a shopping excursion with one of the goals being replacing broken hardware -- and another goal being to catch up on recent comics-associated projects: Stardust and The Simpsons Movie. The films were dissimilar, except for the fact that, come to think of it, both were satisfying action-adventure features with comedic moments. I'll certainly buy both when they land on DVD -- I hope in time for Christmas. The audience for each was relatively small; in fact, the guy at the ticket booth asked me if I needed open captioning for the Simpsons feature, and it was apparently some sort of catch-up for the hearing-impared. If anyone in the audience had requested open captioning, it would have been shown that way. In any case, the audience at both features was obviously pleased at what they saw; I was.

On the other hand, no other audience member in the Simpsons feature stayed through the credits -- which means they missed the closing gag. Moral: Always stay through the credits, folks.

Regarding the hardware: I was in the midst of trying to replace two items. A thunderstorm had taken out a bottom-of-the-line VCR, and it should have been simple enough to find a replacement. But I couldn't find what had been all over the place not long ago: a bottom-of-the-line VCR. I was already prepared for the fact that I might not be able to find one that had two of the most basic features I look for: LP speed and a control that manually adjusts the tracking. What I wasn't prepared for was that none of the bottom-of-the-line VCRs I could find had a built-in tuner. Who'd have thunk it?

And replacing a deceased printer for my Windows 98 computer? Not as easy as I'd hoped.

I ended up with a not-so-bottom-of-the-line Panasonic VCR-DVD-recorder DRM-EZ37V for the VCR. (I remember when a DVD recorder was a rarity in the universe.) And an HP Officejet 5610xi for the printer (with hopes Brent can help me figure out how to hook it up; it already warns that all its stupendous features may not be operational "for all operating systems").

Geez. People wonder why so many today are always buying the latest thing. Well, sometimes it's because you can't find some minor component of the older thing that worked just fine, thanks, until a bolt broke. What if you had to buy a new car because the tire on your old one blew out?

8/18/2007 11:33:29 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

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Hallows and Snape SPOILER
Posted by maggie

Please don't read this discussion of the Harry Potter series, unless you've finished the final book.

I postulate that Severus Snape, "probably the bravest man [Harry] ever knew," is one of the great characters of fiction: a development over seven volumes that inspires rereading. And the problem with that is that the discussion can only begin, if the people with whom it is discussed have read all umpty-bump pages. So Spoiler Warning.

I think that, beyond the plotting details, Rowling was concerned with establishing certain "lessons" in the course of the seven books. These include:

Death is a concern but not to be feared.

It's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game.

Every individual should be regarded as valuable.

Every individual, no matter how wise or good, can make mistakes.

When you make a mistake, you need to acknowledge it, feel remorse, and do what you can to correct it. If that is done, you need to be forgiven for the mistake.

You will always have to cope with the fact that others' opinions of you may be wrong. And that your opinion of others may also be wrong.

No matter whether you recognize the preceding six concepts, you will have to cope with living among people who do not recognize them.

That's off the top of my head.

I wept too much to continue reading at several points through the novel. Especially affecting (much to my surprise) was the death of Dobby – which hit me much harder than the death of Sirius Black. And I thought the death of Snape and the following chapter was incredible. I've already reread it multiple times.

And that took me to: Just how the hell much did Rowling plan in advance? I know she spoke at one point of having to rip up some material a few books back because the plotting didn't work. But did she really plan the snitch-in-the-mouth gambit as far back as Book One? Wow.

What happens next to the assorted Baddies, we don't know. Azkaban no longer has guards. The impact on the entire Wizarding World remains to be seen. Which is one of the forces that will keep this series a topic of conversation for years and years to come; Rowling is (big surprise) a smart lady.

Finally, I'm finding it interesting that readers are divided, when I ask the following question: In the ongoing story (as opposed to the flashback), what are Snape's last words? A few nod eagerly and say, "Yes!" Most pause and make an effort to recall. Which means the impact of the scene didn't strike them in retrospect, and they didn't go back to reread it.

First, of course, Snape tells Harry, "Take ... it. ... Take ... it. ..."

And that's what those who try to remember do remember. But that's not what Snape's last words are. After giving his memories to Harry (which has some impact, too, considering that removing the memories removes them from Snape's own mind, as he dies), the scene of Snape's last moments reads:

"Look ... at ... me. ..." he whispered.

The green eyes found the black, but after a second, something in the depths of the dark pair seemed to vanish, leaving them fixed, blank, and empty. The hand holding Harry thudded to the floor, and Snape moved no more.

And that's Snape's final reward.

The last thing Snape sees is: Lily's eyes.

8/18/2007 8:42:59 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

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Thursday, August 16, 2007

Charity Plans Are in Play for Geppi's Entertainment Museum
Posted by maggie

I talked today with Geppi's Entertainment Museum Executive Vice President Melissa Geppi-Bowersox, and she told me that the museum is working to benefit the Cool Kids Campaign. That's a charity to help pediatric oncology patients, and, among other events, there will be a Baltimore Celebrity Golf Classic Sept. 7-9 to bring in more funds to help the program.

She added that the Cool Kids Campaign would be an ongoing focus of the museum in the upcoming year, with continuing events designed to reach out to families.

8/16/2007 5:19:40 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

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Yay! I'm Going to the Baltimore Con!
Posted by maggie

I can start making plans on things to see and do (and caution others that they must not miss the Geppi Museum at Camden Yards)!

Will I see you there? Have you seen the museum yet? (I lost track of how many people told me they'd gone to the convention but didn't get around to seeing the museum. Let me just tell any comics fan reading this: Budget the time to go to the museum at some point during your stay in Baltimore. If you plan ahead, you won't be sorry -- and it's in easy walking distance from the convention hall.)

8/16/2007 4:15:52 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

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In Any Case, Tomorrow Is Comics Movie Day
Posted by maggie

According to the movie theater's website, I can watch a double feature of Stardust and The Simpsons Movie tomorrow. Con-going has interfered with seeing either till now, and I've been yearning to see either.

I note on Neil Gaiman's blog (See "More Links" on the left) that Stardust hasn't yet done huge box office in the U.S. but still looks to be doing OK on an international basis. Time to add my money to the only acclaim some business folks recognize. Besides, I don't want to wait for either until the DVD comes out.

8/16/2007 3:40:06 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

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