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REVIEW: Schindler’s List
History is far more than facts and figures, especially since the text books tend to get watered down by committee or skew to a particular point of view. Instead, history is really the stories of mankind. Who did what, and what drove them to commit those acts? Every era has its known heroes and as historians do their work, it’s also clear there are the lesser known players whose efforts remain equally valuable and their stories worthy of being told.
Few events have spawned more tales of heroism than perhaps World War II. We know of the Axis and Allied generals who made bold moves to change the tide of the conflict and of the American scientists who raced their German counterparts to split the atom and harness their power. Since the 1970s or so, more and more stories have been discovered and told, many about those who endured the war and survived to tell their stories. There’s Elie Weisel and Night, Anne Frank and her diary, and Oskar Schindler and his list. The latter’s story didn’t really come out until Australian writer Thomas Keneally released Schindler’s Ark in 1982 (retitled List for America). Almost immediately, Steven Spielberg snapped up the rights and then spent a decade trying to find the time and approach to honor the work and the man that inspired it.
Hard to believe it’s been 20 years since we sat mesmerized for three hours and sixteen, watching this black and white drama, which won numerous accolades, earning Best Picture and Best Director Academy Awards. Now Universal is releasing Schindler’s List a 20th Anniversary Limited Edition which comes in a combo slipcase with Blu-ray, DVD, Ultraviolet digital. Right up front, it should be noted that Spielberg wanted little attention drawn to the film and it’s making so the special features here are the same ones from the DVD release. But, the director oversaw the high definition transfer and did a masterful job so the film, with Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography, looks wonderful and John Williams’ score sounds even better. It’s nice to have the movie on a single disc so it can be enjoyed uninterrupted.
The story of German industrialist Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) and his efforts to rescue one thousand Jews from death in a concentration camp run by the cruel and psychotic Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes). Yes, Schindler made a profit and could be considered a war profiteer but he did use that money and influence wealth provided him to see to it that people did not die. He worked closely with accountant Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) in crafting the typewritten list of names that became the symbol of survival.
The special features that do reappear here are worthwhile, starting with Voices From the List (77 minutes) as Spielberg hosts a series of interviews with Holocaust survivors and witnesses; USC Shoah Foundation Story with Steven Spielberg (5 minutes); About IWitness (4 minutes), an online application allowing educators and students to access more than 1,000 video testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses.
Time has not diminished the film’s power nor has its message been obscured by the director and performers’ other works. Nor has the deluge of Holocaust and WW II memoirs changed that each is a piece of a tapestry telling a story of when a world teetered on the tip of a pyramid, plunging one way towards peace and another towards unspeakable horror. While the stakes were never higher, the stories of people from both sides need to be heard and understood, seeing who had the courage of their convictions to do what was right despite the odds and personal dangers. Oskar Schindler wasn’t the only one, but saving some 1200 people is an accomplishment few other German civilians could claim.
For those who saw it when they were younger should see it again. For those with children in the intervening 20 years, should show it to them to understand what it means to be a Good Person. Its important film making and a powerful testament to the global outreach of the movies.
John Ostrander: Revamp, Reinterpret, Regenerate, Reinvigorate
There’s been a lot of pushing the reset button in pop culture recently and I find the results interesting. J.J. Abrams rebooted the Star Trek franchise a few years back and, while some fans complained, I think it was successful. Certainly it was financially successful, which is what the Hollywood moguls really care about.
At the start of Daniel Craig’s run, the James Bond movies were also rebooted, culminating in the recent spectacular Skyfall, which – again this may be heresy to some – was the best Bond film ever. It’s visually stunning and takes Bond himself to greater depths and heights than I’ve seen up until now.
Sherlock Holmes has been reinterpreted into the modern age with two versions, the BBC’s magnificent Sherlock and Elementary on CBS. Both are true to the basics and it’s amazing how well the classic fictional detective gibes with modern times.
Of course, we’ve witnessed DC’s rebirth with the New 52. Again, you can argue as to whether it is artistically successful but I don’t think you can argue that it hasn’t been financially successful thus far. This summer will see a movie rebooting of Superman with Man of Steel. The Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy rebooted that cinematic history as The Amazing Spider-man did with that character’s movie version. X-Men: First Class reimagined Marvel’s mutants and so on. The next Star Wars chapter and the announced Star Wars solo films, while they will undoubtedly respect the previous movies, will probably play hob with what is known as the Extended Universe, the complex continuity that has sprung up around the films via novels, comics, games and more. Depending on how they turn out, that may not be a bad idea.
All my professional comic book writing career, I’ve played with and enjoyed continuity. I respect it but I don’t worship it and I don’t think it is cast in stone. Sometimes, continuity becomes like barnacles on the bottom of a boat and need to be scraped off in order to make the boat (or the franchise) sea/see worthy again.
One of the most successful franchises is the BBC’s Doctor Who and part of its longevity (it celebrates 50 years this year) is its ability to change the actor who is playing the Doctor. It’s built into the series; the Doctor is an alien being who regenerates from time to time into virtually a new character, played by a different actor. The new Doctor doesn’t look, act, dress or sound like any of the other incarnations. The re-invention is a part of the continuity and that’s very clever.
I think this is very healthy; characters and concepts can and should be re-examined and re-imagined for the times in which they appear. They have to speak to and reflect concerns that its current public has if they are going to remain vital and alive.
Can it be overdone or badly done? Absolutely. Some remakes get so far from what the character is about that they might as well be a different character altogether. You want to take a look at the essence of the character, what defines them, and then see how you get back to that, interpreting it for current audiences. Some folks revamp something for the sake of revamping or to put their stamp on the character. I don’t think that usually works very well. Change what needs changing, certainly, but be true to the essentials of the character or concept.
Have I always done that? I don’t think so; when I was given Suicide Squad, I didn’t go back to the few stories that were originally published and work from that. I created a new concept for the title. However, I did reference the old stories and kept them a part of continuity, albeit re-interpreting them. I think we played fair with the old stories.
On The Spectre, Tom Mandrake and I took elements from as many past versions of the character as we could while getting down to what we felt were the essentials. Really, our biggest change was not the Spectre himself but his alter-ego, Jim Corrigan. Originally, he was plainclothes detective in the 30s and our version reflected that. I think that was a key to our success.
Even with my own character GrimJack, after a certain point I drop kicked the character at least 100 years down his own timeline into (shades of the Doctor) a new incarnation. I gave him a new supporting cast and the setting changed as well. It made the book and the character fresh again and made me look at it with new eyes.
The old stories will continue to exist somewhere; they just won’t be part of the new continuity. At some point, that new continuity will be changed as well as the concepts and characters are re-interpreted for a newer audience. That way they’ll remain fresh and alive. Otherwise, they’ll just become fossilized and dead. Who wants that?
MONDAY MORNING: Mindy Newell
TUESDAY MORNING: Emily S. Whitten
From The Muppets to Richard Parker, Animated Animals in Film
It’s been a very good week for Ang Lee and novelist Yann Martel. Lee, of course, won the Best Director Oscar for The Life of Pi, adapting Martel’s magical novel. The film itself was warmly received, earning it admiration from the Academy. The film is being released by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD on March 12.
Based on the acclaimed best-selling novel from Yann Martel that has been published in 40 languages, and brought to life by visionary Academy Award winning director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), this magical adventure of hope, wonder, survival, and the power of the human spirit has been celebrated by critics all over the world.
Much was made of the animals brought to life through digital legerdemain but the film was far from the first to bring artificial animals to the screen, dating all the way back to Windsor McCay’s Gertie the Dinosaur. In more recent times, puppetry was the way to go, pioneered in numerous ways. The first commercially successful film to use puppets, of course, was from Jim Henson.
THE MUPPETS
The first Muppet movie came to our screens in 1979 and these lovable characters were created without the use of CGI. Each Muppet character was carved out of various types of foam, and then covered with fleece, fur, or other felt-like material. Muppets represented a multitude of species including animals, humans and aliens. Even in this modern age, when interacting with Muppets, children still tend to act as though the Muppets were living creatures, even when they can see the puppeteers.
STAR WARS
The original Star Wars trilogy contained over 100 alien animals spanning a multitude of planets without using CGI. The first film in this epic saga provided audiences with a multitude of film-firsts, including the first ever animated 3D wireframe graphic. Star Wars: A New Hope was made with a relatively small budget by today’s standards and many of the animals and aliens looked surprisingly familiar, check out the very Wolfman-like alien from the iconic Mos Eisley Cantina scene below. This character was changed using CGI for the special edition re-release in 1997.
LABRYNTH
Blink and you will miss the first use of a realistic CGI animal in a feature film. The 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth showed off a flying digital owl in the opening credits. The opening sequence of Labyrinth was created by animators Laryy Yaeger and Bill Kroyer and won its animators the NCGA Best Computer Animation award of 1986.
JURASSIC PARK
Lucasfilm’s ILM division provided the Oscar-winning visual effects wizardry in this classic film. The studio used CGI along with animatronics and stop-motion miniatures to create the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. The iconic first glimpse of those Brachiosauri was voted in the top 30 most magical moments in film by Empire magazine and broke new ground in CGI animation of animals on the big screen.
RISE OF PLANET OF THE APES
The latest addition to the Planet of the Apes franchise did not use a single real-life ape during filming. Working with WETA Digital the studio created lifelike apes through revolutionary motion-capture technology and visual effects. The film highlights the journey of an ape named Caesar, a fully CGI creation realized through a brilliant motion-capture performance by Andy Serkis, who used body suits and cameras to create the realistic movement we see in the film. This is the same technology Serkis used to play Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
LIFE OF PI
Ang Lee’s award winning adaptation Life of Pi relied on the use of CGI to create the Bengal tiger “Richard Parker” which shares the lifeboat with Pi. This was a tough task and so Lee brought in James Cameron and his team from the blockbuster Avatar to make sure that the CGI was the best it could be. To put this into context, the production team employed 15 artists to work only on Richard Parker’s fur, combing and placing all 10 million hairs on the tiger’s body to create the beautiful creature pacing across the screen.
Marc Alan Fishman: The Tabernacle of Technobabble
I love psuedo-science. More than anything else, the âhowâ of super-heroes and science fiction is what initially draws me in. My first real memories of my impending nerd-dom stemmed from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; where I learned that radioactive interplanetary ooze, when liberally applied to animals, created anthropomorphic heroes and villains. And where most of my friends were just happy to have new action figures, I was always perplexed as to how a rhino and warthog, when exposed to said ooze, ended up a mutated state of similar weight and stature. But I digress.
When my attention made way towards comic books, the same curiosity drew me first towards the Marvel universe. Taken against the âcrap fell outta the sky, and now youâre super-poweredâ methodology so many of the DC heroes, Marvel seemed to celebrate the polar opposite. Hulk, Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man… all products of science. And let us never forget those pesky mutants. Stan Lee, in the multitude of interviews heâs given over the years always laughed off his choices in the origins of his characters. Iâd like to believe though, that there was a bit more to it than heâd let on. The majority of his heroes and villains share science as a passion, and profession. Their powers, results of experiments gone awry. Taken in context of the age in which they were born? Itâs fairly easy to see the dots connecting; in the age of the atom, of course scientists would end up mutating themselves and the world at large!
After my recent converting toward Trekdom, I can now say without a shred of sarcasm that I hold Trek above Wars because of the technical bedrock beneath the naked green chicks. At their cores, both universes celebrate journeys. But only Trek dares to boldly go where no man has gone before. Not that Star Wars is without some awesome psuedo-science of its own… but in my mind, it came well after Lucas opened his universe to other collaborators. Men and women who sought to better the mythos with a little less Kurosawa, and a bit more Kelvin.
But what is it that appeals to me so? Itâs that shred of plausibility that helps endear me towards creations that embrace it. In contrast, those worlds made of pure fantasy never caught my heart. Where my wife canât wait for the next Hobbit or Harry Potter, I could honestly care less. Sure, I appreciate the characters themselves, and the plot and structure presented in their various forms. But at their core? They celebrate worlds without reason. Where a kid can ride a broom not because heâs found a way to displace gravity fields, but because his parents loved him a whole ton. Meh.
A cursory look at my bookshelf shows a plethora of writers whose work encompasses these similar feelings. Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Jonathan Hickman, Warren Ellis, and the like all celebrate the art of technobabble. Their stories, as grand as they may become, still root themselves in panes of logic and reason. Their heroes and villains operate less on threads of sheer will, hope, or love. While their ultimate deus ex machinas may very well encompass those indefinable qualities in order to reach catharsis or conclusion… the worlds built around them all contain some form of believability that allows me to enjoy the work just a bit more than those who simply âwish hardâ.
Remember when [[[The Matrix]]] first came about? Long before Neo was wearing his digital crown of thorns, the Wachowski brothers first tried to provide a foundation with which to build upon. And by the end of their first flick, I could enjoy Neoâs triumph over the machines not because of his amazing will to win the day, but because of his understanding of the laws of the program he was an avatar of. His triumph was one of science, not faith.
In Geoff Johns’s expansion of the Green Lantern universe, I celebrated the psuedo-science of the emotional spectrum. Certainly if we could believe that will was somehow a measurable source of energy, so too could be anger, avarice, love, compassion, hope, and fear.
But when Kronos, back with a vengeance, waged war on the Guardians who banished him so very long ago… what defeated him? A big Photoshopped beam from Hal Jordan. Sheer will. Used against a guy who had the weight of the entire emotional spectrum behind him. The scientist inside me screamed with righteous indignation. Based on even small amounts of actual logic, I was left aghast. One emotion, no matter how large (and Photoshoppy), should trump seven. Especially when the shooter of said super beam is merely a mortal man, and his opponent a crazy-assed demi-god. Johns failed to follow the laws of science he himself previously designed (so-to-speak). Simply put? Geoff wrote himself into a corner, and asked for a pass out of it. He flunked the exam. Of course given his captain of the football team status at DC, he slid right past the failing grade. Psuedo-science be damned.
In the universes we fictioneers build, there is an understanding between our words and our audience. To each creation comes a set of laws we play in and around. Those who do it best, gain my attention, respect, and money. Those who disregard it get my furrowed eyebrow and shaking fist. Consider this experiment open-ended. Where there is plausibility, thereâs potential. And where there is potential… thereâs the possibility of endless wonder. And where there is no need for that? Well, fuck it. Let it fall out of the sky. I mean, why not?
SUNDAY: John Ostrander
MONDAY: Mindy Newell
Richard E. Grant returning to Doctor Who in second half of seventh season
In BBC America’s press release discussing the second half of the seventh season of Doctor Who (premiering March 30th), a number of guest stars were listed, including Dougray Scott, Warwick Davis, Dame Diana Rigg and her daughter Rachel Stirling. But one name listed may be a big clue to the season’s Big Bad.
Richard E. Grant, who appeared in the Christmas episode,ÃÂ The Snowmen, will be returning in the season’s eight episode run. ÃÂ Grant playedÃÂ Dr. Walter Simeon, head of the GreatÃÂ IntelligenceÃÂ Institute and mastermind behind a plan to take over the world with an army of animated ice creatures. ÃÂ The Great Intelligence, the disembodied life force ÃÂ who allied with Simeon (and voiced by Sir Ian McKellen), was a Who villain from the Troughton days, with appearances in many of the other media adventures, and a cameo in the 20th anniversary adventure The Five Doctors.
BBC America would not confirm the character Grant will play in his return, but the rumors that the Great Intelligence would make a further appearance in the series certainly gives one reason to suspect that we’ve not seen the last of Dr. Simeon.
The Teaser photo, released yesterday by the BBC, offers numerous teasers about the new series, including our first look at The Spoonheads, the monster from the premiere episode,ÃÂ The Bells of St John,ÃÂ the first to be broadcast in 3-D.. Also featured are the Ice Warriors, returning via a story by Mark Gatiss, and the redesigned Cybermen from Neil Gaiman’s second DW adventure.
The series will also feature Jenna-Louise Coleman, and hopefully provide more information how the same woman with the same name could appear in three different times; the far future of Asylum of the Daleks, the Victorian age in The Snowmen, and modern day Britain.
Doctor Who premieres March 30th on the BBC, and on BBC America, as part of their “Supernatural Saturday” lineup.
Baseball Season Brings 20th Anniversary Edition of “The Sandlot”
It’s almost spring and we’re suckers for the promise Spring Training brings, so we were thrilled to see that The Sandlot¸ starring genre faves James Earl Jones, Karen Allen, and a bunch of kids, is finally coming out on Blu-ray. Here are the details:
LOS ANGELES, (February 27, 2013) – “You’re Killing Me Smalls!” A film that still captures the hearts of baseball fans young and old, THE SANDLOT debuts on Blu-ray/DVD combo pack March 26 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment in celebration of the beloved film’s 20th anniversary. “A charming and whimsical comedy about boys and baseball and a GREAT BIGDOG” (“Siskel & Ebert”), THE SANDLOT ranked in the Top 40 as one of the best sports movies ever.
With memorable performances from nine terrific young actors and supporting appearances from Honorary Academy Award® winner James Earl Jones (Field of Dreams, Star Wars Franchise), Denis Leary (Rescue Me, The Ref) and Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Starman), The Sandlot 20th Anniversary Blu-ray and DVD Combo Pack includes limited edition packaging and 10 collectible cast baseball cards.
It’s early 1960s and fifth-grader Scotty Smalls has just moved into town with his folks. Kids call him a dork – he can’t even throw a baseball! But that changes when the leader of the neighborhood gang recruits him to play on the nearby sandlot field. It’s the beginning of a magical summer of baseball, wild adventures, first kisses, and fun!
In connection with the release, FHE will embark on a partnership with Benny the Jet’s favorite shoe brand PF Flyers, for a special one-of-a-kind promotion. Beginning March 26, a limited run of The Secret Weapon, will be made available inside a vintage 1960’s shoe box, along with a $3 SANDLOT coupon inside. Additionally, all Blu-ray and DVD combo packs will feature a 10% PF Flyer discount coupon inside the packaging. Further information on this exclusive purchase can be found at www.pfflyers.com.
Additionally, The “Sandlot Baseball Field Program” will be comprised of partnerships with Major League Baseball teams nationwide in connection with the FOX Sports Networks. Notable teams such as the St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers and Minnesota Twins will coordinate baseball field renovations across the Unites States so that loyal fans and baseball lovers everywhere will get the chance to enjoy their own “Sandlot” field in their backyards. Furthermore, screenings of THE SANDLOT will be hosted at several Major and Minor League ballparks across the country with Director, Writer and Narrator, David Mickey Evans. So lace up your mitt and get ready for a season full of baseball fun!
SCREENING LOCATIONS/DATES
(*Subject to Change)
ARM & HAMMER Park, home of the Trenton Thunder (Trenton, New Jersey) – 4/13/13
Fluor Field at the West End, home of the Greenville Drive (Greenville, South Carolina) – 4/19/13
Arvest Ballpark, home of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (Springdale, Arkansas) – 4/21/13
Rangers Ballpark, home of the Texas Rangers (Arlington, Texas) – 5/11/13
Tucson Padres at Kino Stadium (Tucson, Arizona) – 5/18/13
Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals (St. Louis, Missouri) – Date to be announced
Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins (Minneapolis, Minnesota) – Date to be announced
Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, home of the Oklahoma City RedHawks (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) – 6/1/13
AutoZone Park, home of the Memphis Redbirds (Memphis, Tennessee) – 6/15/13
Steinbrenner Field, home of the Tampa Yankees (Tampa, Florida) – 6/22/13
Dell Diamond, home of the Round Rock Express (Round Rock, Texas) – 6/25/13
Whataburger Field, home of the Corpus Christi Hooks (Corpus Christi, Texas) – 6/29/13
Fifth Third Field, home of the Toledo Mud Hens (Toledo, Ohio) – 7/5/13
Classic Park, home of the Lake County Captains (Eastlake, Ohio) – 7/12/13
CommunityAmerica Ballpark, home of the Kansas City T-Bones (Kansas City, Kansas) – 7/26/13
Security Service Field, home of the Colorado Springs Sky Sox (Colorado Springs, Colorado) – 8/2/13
Fifth Third Field, home of the Dayton Dragons (Dayton, Ohio) – 8/10/13
Werner Park, home of the Omaha Storm Chasers (Omaha, Nebraska) – 8/17/13
The Epicenter, home of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (Rancho Cucamonga, California) – 8/30/13
Coolray Field, home of the Gwinnett Braves (Lawrenceville, Georgia) – 9/21/13
THE SANDLOT Blu-ray and DVD Combo Pack Special Features:
● Featurette
● Theatrical Trailer
● TV Spots
The Point Radio: Weather Channel Shows Us How To HACK THE PLANET
It’s not only super villains who want to control the weather – scientists do as well, and now they have the technology. It’s all explained in a cool new series on The Weather Channel called HACKING THE PLANET with John Keener and Cara Santa Maria (from TALK NERDY TO ME) and they give us all the details – plus have you seen that WONDER WOMAN fan film? Somebody finally got it right!
Take us ANYWHERE! The Point Radio App is now in the iTunes App store – and it’s FREE! Just search under “pop culture The Point”. The Point Radio – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or on any other mobile device with the Tune In Radio app – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.
STEAMFUNK, ARMADILLOS, AND HOLMES-OH MY! ALL PULP EBOOK BEST SELLER LIST FOR MARCH 1, 2013
Welcome to All PulpâÂÂs New Pulp EBook Best Seller List, inspired by the work of Barry Reese! Before we get to what youâÂÂre all waiting for, here are the rules by which this little list comes together.
1)ÃÂ This list only tracks Kindle sales through AMAZON. It does not keep track of sales through Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, or anything else!
2)àThis list only tracks DIGITAL sales. Exactly how Amazon calculates these things is mostly a trade secret and they vary wildly from day to day. If I checked this tomorrow, the list could be very different. This list reflects sales ranks as of Friday morning, March 1, 2013. â¨
3)àIn order to keep the focus on new releases, eligible works must have been published within the last three months. So, since this list is being done on March 1, 2013, we are only looking at books published since November 29, 2012 (Yeah, February sort of makes the monthly thing a bit different.). Please keep that in mind before complaining that Title X is not listed. Also, keep in mind that for the most part, we are tracking sales from smaller and mid level press publishers who actively publish New Pulp material. We wonâÂÂt generally track sales from Simon and Schuster or places like that â they have the New York Times Bestseller List for that. If one of the major publishers starts doing The Shadow or something, weâÂÂll track that, but some publishers will not be listed here in order to keep the focus on the publishers actively working to produce and promote New Pulp.
4)ààâ¨Like the name suggests, weâÂÂre tracking âÂÂNewâ pulp âÂÂnot sales rankings for reprints of classic material. In order for something to qualify for this list, it has to be at least 50% new material that has not been printed in book form before.â¨
5)àWe are human. If you are aware of a title that should be listed below (keeping in mind all the rules above), please let us know and we will make sure to remedy the situation.â¨
6)àThis information is garnered mostly from All Pulp, New Pulp, the Pulp Factory mailing list and a few other sites. If you think we might miss your release, let us know in advance â drop All Pulp a line and tell us when itâÂÂs being released.
Without further ado, hereâÂÂs the completely and totally unofficial New Pulp Ebook Bestseller List as of right now (title, then publisher, then release date, then sales rank):
1) The Cestus Concern by Mat Nastos (Nifty Entertainment, December 28,2012) 4,328
2) Fourteen Western Stories by Lloyd Fonvielle (Lloyd Fonvielle, December 18, 2012) â 23,982
3) Steamfunk by Various (MVMedia, February 20, 2013) – 51,839
4) Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective, Volume 4 by Various (Airship 27 Productions, January 19, 2013) â 52,161
5) FinnâÂÂs Golem by Gregg Taylor (Autogyro, January 10, 2013) -60,014
6) NefertitiâÂÂs Heart by A. W. Exley (Curiosity Quills Press, February 13, 2013) â 66,807
7) The Detective, The Woman and the Winking Tree byAmy Thomas (MX Publishing, January 22, 2013) â 68,731
8) Tier Zero by Henry Brown (Virtual Pulp, January 13, 2013) â 112,275
9) Prohibition by Terrence McCauley (Airship 27 Productions, December 15, 2012) – 112,352
10) City of Smoke and Mirrors by Nick C. Piers (Pro Se Productions, February 21, 2013) – 129,314
Just missing the list were Ghost Boy by Various, (Airship 27 Productions, February 16, 2013) 129,421 and SherlockàHolmes and Young Winston: The Jubilee Plot by Mike Hogan (MX Publishing, February 18, 2013) â 186,860.
A little bit of flow and motion within this weekâÂÂs list.àTwo titles break into the top ten, while Holmes continues to keep a steady foothold.àThe list is a tad softer this week, but not tremendously so.àUpcoming releases from various companies make the next few weeks for this list and the print list as well interesting mysteries of what is to come.
Airship 27 Productions chalks up two in the Best Seller List this week and Nifty Entertainment, Autogyro, MVMedia, Pro Se Productions, MX Publishing, Virtual Pulp, Curiosity Quills Press, and Lloyd Fonvielle all make it with one title each.ààEnjoy your weekend and donâÂÂt forget that All Pulp recommends you take your weekly dose of this list with a grain of salt!
Martha Thomases Makes Her Own Apologies
According to this story, which is a rumor on a rumor-mongering site (which I love!), Dan DiDio recently apologized to DC creative talent at an editorial retreat. He admitted that there had been problems in the communication between editorial and talent, including editorial demanding changes to work that had already been approved.
Since, on my other soapbox, I have recently complained that men rarely apologize, it feels like I should do something to acknowledge this.
I should make my own apologies.
For the purposes of this column, weâre going to limit my apologies to the field of comics. Even the Internet doesnât have enough space for everything else.
- Kevin Smith, Iâm sorry it feels like Iâm stalking you. About 20 years ago, we met at an exhibit of original comic book art. I liked Clerks. Later, when your movies made more money, I would point to you at conventions and tell people I knew you. That must have been creepy for you, some strange old woman pointing and staring.
- And, while I donât know Dave Sim (nor do I wish to), Iâm sorry that Friends of Lulu contributed to pushing him over the edge. I donât think it will make him feel any better to know that we considered neither him nor his feelings one little bit.
- When I would meet booksellers at Book Expo America who said they didnât read comics because they didnât like superheroes, I would ask them to tell me a movie they liked, and then recommend the appropriate title for them. This is fine in a sales environment, but not great at parties in my real life. Iâm so sorry, and completely understand why you walked away as quickly as you could, Patti Smith. Still, I thing you would like Rogan Gosh.
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At the same time, there are books that were everything I ever wanted between two covers, like Leave It to Chance, and, despite buying at least 20 copies of each issue to give away, plus multiple copies of the trade, I did not do enough to keep them alive. I wish it was still around so I could do more to make amends.
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Despite Alan Mooreâs objections to the projects even existing, I went to see From Hell, V for Vendetta and Watchmen in movie theaters. And, to varying degrees, liked them. I feel like Iâve betrayed one of my favorite writers.
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And, by going to see Watchman, I inadvertently encouraged Zach Snyder. His sense of production design is admirable, but he has no sense of pacing, much less, you know, character or story. I tremble in fear about what heâs going to do to Superman.
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Neil Gaiman always drew a long line when he was signing things at the DC booth during convention season, even way back in the 1990s. It was often my job to be âthe bitch at the end of the line,â meaning I had to tell people that there would be no more books signed. It was necessary so Neil could do other things besides sign books (eat, pee, sleep), so Iâm not sorry that I was looking out for him. Rather, Iâm sorry I performed my duties with so much glee.
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And while weâre on the subject, it was my fault, and I regret that I caused you such anxiety, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, when I didnât provide adequate information to you or your driver to get to that morning interview on the FX Network back when DC published Mr. Punch. Iâm sure it was really nerve-wracking to be driving around Manhattan at six in the morning, lost. On the other hand, Tom Bergeron was really nice. And a fanboy.
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The biggest story of my time at DC was the Death of Superman. People remember that he died, then came back. They donât remember that the narrative point was the next storyline, âWorld Without a Superman.â DC wanted to show how important Superman was, and how we responded to his absence. And now theyâve killed off Damien Wayne, just when I was starting to like him. This is no legacy for a pacifist.
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When Image Comics started, I admired their defense of creator rights, but didnât particularly like the books they published at the time. As a result, I didnât pay enough attention to their work as the company matured. Iâve missed a lot of good stuff, and itâs my own damn fault. Please forgive me, and please keep releasing complete runs digitally so I can catch up.
SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman On Technobabble
SUNDAY: John Ostrander On Revamp
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