New interview up today with Brian Lynch, writer of the new ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL comic. The story officially picks up where the TV series left off. No, seriously, it does. Joss Whedon co-wrote the plot. So, it's all Buffyverse canon and all that.
The interview is jam packed with art and also features the first five pages of Lynch's original hilarious frat zombie comic EVERYBODY'S DEAD, which you can pre-order now.
And if you're not familiar with BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER or ANGEL, now may be the perfect time -- what with the strike and lack of good, fun TV for the moment -- to get acquainted via DVD.
It's New Year's Day and I haven't eaten cabbage or turnips yet, but I have resolved to weigh less, read more and get approximately the same number of haircuts.
Nonetheless, if you are interested in looking back at 2007 and are a sucker for lists of what others consider were the "best" of this or that, you may want to check out THIS SITE.
Filmoculous collects all of the year-end best-of lists into one neat and tidy one-stop location, separating them into categories from advertising to comics to movies to music to words (for example, New York Times includes "Ninja loan" as one of the year's best buzzwords).
Arcade Fire's NEON BIBLE was the best album of the year, in my opinion. Not sure about best film. There were a lot of good ones this year, but I think I need to see more in order to make a better-informed judgment call.
As for 2008, off the top of my head...
This year marks the 10th anniversary of my college graduation and my contributions to AICN.
Traveling Wilburys VOL. 1 turns 20 in October.
Superman turns 70 in April.
And it's an election year. So, make it a good one.
Big Ol' "Happy Holidays" to you. Thanks so much for reading. Now, drink some nog and subscribe to my blog... or, damn it, I'll continue to rhyme. Go on, it's all I want for Christmas.
Moriarty at AICN asked me several months ago if I would contribute a piece to their series "The Best Genre Year Ever," commemorating genre films from 1982 (E.T., TRON, CONAN) since they were all turning 25 this year. He suggested I take THE DARK CRYSTAL, which was either thoughtful because he knew of my affection for Jim Henson through other things I've written, just a nice coincidence or he has spyware in my brain. Nonetheless, I was happy to be asked to do it.
My original plan was to include an interview or two with persons involved with the production, but it simply fell through. That might have been cheating anyway as the other contributors to the series wrote from a more personal perspective and I think that was the idea. So, I scribbled up something over the weekend because yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the release date of THE DARK CRYSTAL. If you haven't seen it, there aren't really any big spoilers in the essay, but do check the movie out. It's somethin' else -- especially within the context of this Digital Age.
Doing this made me mourn for Jim Henson all over again. What a loss. Anyway... you can read it here.
Out of the blue this week I was asked to interview Adam Sandler cohort Allen Covert (GRANDMA'S BOY) and Broken Lizard member Kevin Heffernan, who are both starring in the new comedy STRANGE WILDERNESS. The movie comes out in February but the trailer is out now as is my aforementioned interview. The guys were affable, funny and gave me some good answers despite my lack of time and preparation. Check it out here!
I'll also be revisiting a 25-year-old film in an AICN piece in the next few days, so look out for that. That should be fun. And look out for ice storms this weekend in different parts of the country. Those things aren't fun. Unless you're Mr. Freeze. But he isn't fun as a person. Kind of as a supervillain. But not in the movie.
Director Jay Russell (MY DOG SKIP, LADDER 49) was kind enough to provide some thoughtful answers for an AICN interview to help promote his new film THE WATER HORSE: LEGEND OF THE DEEP. You've probably already seen ads for the movie for a couple of weeks. It opens Christmas Day. Check out the piece here.
If you're an aspiring director or just curious how they pull off what they do, it's interesting to get some honest practical advice from one who does it. Jay, a humble Arkansas native, was hesitant to shed his modesty and talk about himself, but ultimately gave the interview some of that Southern no-b.s. panache.
May have some more stuff to read in the coming days. Thanks!
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