Double treat for CSI fans

Via the indispensable TV Tattle comes a lengthy interview with CSI producer Carol Mendelsohn about the last few minutes of this season's finale as well as the show in general. It's a fascinating look behind the scenes of a show that's aging nicely into its upcoming seventh season and how the folks who write the show look at the series and the characters in general.

And as an added bonus, there are dozens of comments from obsessive fans who believe that the aforementioned few minutes have retroactively destroyed everything good about the show, that the producers and male lead of the show are liars, and that a bare handful of scenes showing or mentioning characters' private lives have turned the show into a soap opera.

God, I love the Internets.

Fug. LEE.

Michael Turner draws women like Rob Liefeld draws feet.

Six degrees of Tommy Westphall

Silly Desmond. If the world were really just a snowglobe, it would be much, much bigger.

Words fail me.

So just go here now. (Via Talking Points Memo.)

Bob Casey blog

Bob Casey is the man who will end Rick Santorum's Congressional career this fall, and now you can read his campaign's blog. I'm looking forward to this since I'm originally from Pennsylvania, and Santorum has never been anything but an embarassment to my home state.

Best. Wife. EVER.

Why? Because as we were watching TV last night, She Who Must Be Obeyed said this:

"I bet Jaime Pressly would be lots of fun in bed."

Oh, I chose very well...

RIP, Lloyd Bentsen

In honor of the late Senator and Treasury Secretary, we bring you a clip of the only memorable thing that has ever happened in a Vice-Presidential debate.

Great moments in headline writing

The Washington Post blows the lid off of this one:

Elections Are Crux Of GOP's Strategy

That's right -- a political party is going to try to -- wait for it -- win an election! The audacity! It's crazy enough that it just might work! Why hasn't anyone else ever tried this?

Bertie!

Four Weddings and a Funeral is one of those movies that She Who Must Be Obeyed and I have seen dozens and dozens of time, less because of any affection for it than because it is always on cable, and is a good background entertainment while doing whatever it is we do on the weekends. So you'd think that it would, twelve years after its original release, have nothing suprising to offer.

You'd be wrong.

We were watching it yesterday afternoon while waiting for friends to come by and take in some surplus funiture that had been living in the garage. And as I watched Hugh Grant's character stammer through his toast at the first of the titular weddings, it hit me:

"He's Bertie Wooster! He's playing Bertie Wooster!"

She Who Must Be Obeyed thought about it for a millisecond, "He IS Bertie Wooster!"

"That's what I said! He's Bertie Wooster!"

"Bertie!"

How did we miss that? How? It's one of those things that's so obvious in retrospect it's hard to imagine not seeing it in the first place.

Last night's CSI

Well, good for them.

The third Monday in May

May you all gave a happy Miracle Monday.

JLU: Curtain Call

Via Fortress of Fortitude, the Justice League -- and by extension, the wonderful animated DC Universe that began with Batman: The Animated Series all those years ago -- takes its final bow, with the best curtain call I've seen since The Life Aquatic gleefully ripped off Buckaroo Banzai:

Damn your black heart, DC Comics

As unpleasant as I find DC's editorial direction, I have to admit that their collected editions folks keep putting out some occational gems that, in a perfect world, I'd buy the second they came out. Here's what I like from their latest announcement of reprint books:

BATMAN AND THE MONSTER MEN TP
Writer/Artist: Matt Wagner
Collects BATMAN AND THE MONSTER MEN #1-6
$19.99, 144 pages

I keep hearing good things about this, so it goes on the wish list.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: BATMAN VOL. 1 TP
Writers: John Broome, Ed "France" Herron and Bill Finger
Artists: Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Bob Kane, Sheldon Moldoff, Murphy Anderson and Sid Greene
Collects stories from DETECTIVE COMICS #327-342 and BATMAN #164-174
$16.99, 552 pages

If this continues to the O'Neil/Adams stuff, I'll be picking it up then.

SUPERMAN: UP, UP AND AWAY TP
Writers: Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek
Artists: Pete Woods and Renato Guedes; original cover artists: Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson
Collects SUPERMAN #650-653 and ACTION COMICS #837-840
$14.99, 192 pages

I will probably read this at Barnes & Noble. I am a bad person.

ABSOLUTE DC: THE NEW FRONTIER HC
Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
Collects DC: THE NEW FRONTIER #1-6, plus a pinup gallery, deleted story pages and more
$75.00, 464 pages

Darwyn Cooke's terrific spin on the DC Universe is one of the most fun comics I've ever read. I really wish this had become the new template for DC's line, as opposed to its recent run of slaughter comics.

ALL STAR SUPERMAN VOL. 1 HC
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Frank Quitely; original cover artists: Frank Quitely and Neal Adams
Collects ALL STAR SUPERMAN #1-6
$19.99, 160 pages

It's great to see DC collecting this, but I'm holding out for the inevitable Absolute Edition.

GREEN LANTERN: REVENGE OF THE GREEN LANTERNS TP
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artists: Carlos Pacheco, Ivan Reis, Ethan Van Sciver, Marc Campos Jesus Merino and Prentis Rollins; original cover artists: Carlos Pacheco, Ethan Van Sciver, Simone Bianchi and Neal Adams
Collects GREEN LANTERN #7-13
$12.99, 168 pages

This is another one to read at the store. For some reason, I enjoy Geoff Johns' work on Green Lantern even though most of his stuff leaves me cold.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: THE PHANTOM STRANGER VOL. 1 TP
Writers: Mike Friedrich, John Broome, Ed "France" Herron, Robert Kanigher, Jack Oleck, Len Wein and Gerry Conway
Artists: Neal Adams, Jerry Grandenetti, Leonard Starr, Bill Draut, Carmine Infantino, Frank Giacoia, Murphy Anderson, Wayne, Howard, Vince Colletta, Jim Aparo, Tony DeZuñiga and Jack Sparling
Collects SHOWCASE #80 and THE PHANTOM STRANGER #1-21
$16.99, 544 pages

This intrigues me. I love the obscure stuff we're seeing released under the Showcase line, and I'd love to have more Jim Aparo stuff on my bookshelves.

AQUAMAN: SWORD OF ATLANTIS - ONCE AND FUTURE TP
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artist: Jackson Guice; original cover artists: Jackson Guice, Ian Churchill, Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino
Collects AQUAMAN: SWORD OF ATLANTIS #40-45
$12.99, 144 pages

Store. Just to see what everyone's talking about.

SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL VOL. 5 TP
Writers: John Byrne and Marv Wolfman
Artists: John Byrne and Jerry Ordway
Collects ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #432-435, ACTION COMICS #592-593 and SUPERMAN #9-11
$19.99, 208 pages

I don't actually plan on buying this, but at the rate this series is going they could collect the entire Byrne run on Superman in four or five more volumes. I wonder if they'll keep it going after that?

THE HUNTRESS: THE DARKNIGHT DAUGHTER TP
Writer: Paul Levitz
Artists: Joe Staton, Steve Mitchell, Bob Layton, Bob Smith, Bruce Patterson, Jerry Ordway and Mike DeCarlo
Collects DC SUPER STARS #17 and stories from BATMAN FAMILY #18-20, WONDER WOMAN #271-287, 289-290 and 294-295
$19.99, 224 pages

That was the sound of me blinking. I've read about these stories for years and I loved Levitz' run on Legion of Super-Heroes, so I'll probably pick this up eventually.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER VOL. 1 TP
Writers: Joe Kubert, Bob Haney, Robert Kanigher, Frank Robbins, Archie Goodwin and David Michelinie
Artists: Joe Kubert, Irv Novick, Doug Wildey, Dan Spiegle and Jack Sparling
Collects stories from STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES #151-204
$16.99, 560 pages

See my Phantom Stranger comments. Repeat.

And if you'd like to contribute to the "Help Matter-Eater Lad buy Absolute New Frontier Fund," please click on the Amazon links on this site next time you need to buy something...

Showcase Presents Green Lantern

I recently got around to buying DC's Showcase collection of Green Lantern's earliest two dozen or so issues, and they're some of the most fun comics I've read in a while. There's always been something about the character that's appealed to me, even though my only stint as a regular reader was the Green Lantern Corps series that spun out of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Maybe the idea of getting a magic ring from a dying alien seemed more likely to happen to me than getting doused by chemicals or finding out I was an adopted alien, or maybe the almost literal wish-fulfillment aspect of the character got to me; I can't really say. And these stories are terrific -- short puzzle and action stories with really nice art from Gil Kane as he evolved into the style we all remember him for, and featuring an amusing spin on the secret identity concept in that the already-cool Hal Jordan can't measure up to the coolness of his alter ego. I know it's unlikely, but I'd really like to see this volume continue all the way up to the end of the series with issue #225. It would only take, oh, eleven or twelve volumes...

Go here now, even though it doesn't do Katee Sackhoff justice.

I present to thee...Battlestar Galactsimpsons.

We're back...with more STUFF!

Mark Evanier shares the miracle that was Gene, Gene the Dancing Machine:

Then I went down to the floor to watch the next episode being taped...and something happened during it which I still remember with a tiny tingle. It was a regular bit they did involving a stagehand named Gene Patton who'd come on and dance under the name, "Gene Gene the Dancing Machine."

The minute they started playing his music -- "Jumpin' at the Woodside," I think the tune's called -- the studio positively erupted. Barris started dancing and the panelists jumped up and started dancing...and you could feel how much Gene Gene enjoyed what he was doing. Okay, fine, they're performers. It's part of the act. But the crew also started dancing -- people not on screen. The guy operating Camera 1 was operating Camera 1 and dancing at the same time. Grips were dancing, lighting guys were dancing, the members of the band were dancing as much as they could and still play their instruments. And of course, the audience -- an odd mix of younger Gong Show fans intermingled with old ladies who couldn't get in to the Hollywood Squares taping down the hall -- simply had to leap up and boogie. Some of the show's performers and staffers were a little (shall we say) under the influence of something...but the crew wasn't and the audience wasn't. It was just an honest "high" of excitement.

I've been on many TV stages in my life. I've seen big stars, huge stars -- Johnny, Frank, Sammy, Dino, Bob, you name 'em. I've seen great acts and great joy, and if you asked me to name the most thrilling moment I've witnessed in person, I might just opt for two minutes of the Gong Show electrifying Stage 3 for all of 120 seconds. Maybe it was because it came so totally out of nowhere that it stunned me but everyone, including the stone-cold sober people, was suddenly just so...happy. There was something very, very invigorating and enjoyable about being in the midst of all that sudden happiness, however frivolous it may have been.

The thing about the inevitable is that it always winds up happening sooner or later

The original, theatrical cuts of the Star Wars trilogy are finally coming to DVD:

In response to overwhelming demand, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release attractively priced individual two-disc releases of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Each release includes the 2004 digitally remastered version of the movie and, as bonus material, the theatrical edition of the film. That means you'll be able to enjoy Star Wars as it first appeared in 1977, Empire in 1980, and Jedi in 1983.

This release will only be available for a limited time: from September 12th to December 31st. International release will follow on or about the same day. Each original theatrical version will feature Dolby 2.0 Surround sound, close-captioning, and subtitles in English, French and Spanish for their U.S. release. International sound and subtitling vary by territory.

I'm very, very glad that I never got around to buying the previous DVD release. Or the old VHS copies I keep seeing at Half-Price Books.

You may remember that I pretty much called this one:

...for all of George Lucas' protestations to the contrary, that a DVD release of the theatrical cuts of the original Star Wars trilogy will probably come in 2007. That year will be the 30th anniversary of the first movie's release and provides a perfect opportunity for a "because you demanded it..." non-apology.

Of course, I was off a year, since this comes in 2006 rather than 2007. My guess is that 2007 will instead see an omnibus DVD set of all six movies.

John Doe

It's nice to see another Gorilla Comics series -- albeit one that never actually saw print -- returning. I really liked what the guys at Gorilla were trying to do, and I suspect I'd have a lot more monthly comics on my pull list if their imprint had taken off. Now, if someone would just revive Section Zero and take a chance on Stellarwoman's Boyfriend, Bob Jones...

Why?

Why would anyone set up MS Word to use smart quotes instead of straight quotes? Why? Smart quotes look ugly, they take up too much room, and they don't have any friends. So why do people use them? Why?

"Lousy Smarch weather…"

There really is a Simpsons quote for every occasion.