Personal blog - and temporary home page until new website is finished - of writer, editor and graphic artist Christopher Mills


Monday, February 09, 2009

Another Monday, More Miscellany

• I want to express my gratitude to those who posted encouraging comments to my last post. It is greatly appreciated. Like I said, if I can actually make myself sit down and write it, Ravenwulf will be mostly an exercise in long-form prose. Posting it online is simply a motivational stratagem, something I've seen numerous other writers do of late. If it turns out halfway decent, that'll be an improbable bonus.

• Watched The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian over the weekend. Personally, I liked it vastly more than the first film in the series. It was darker, more violent, and more dramatically satisfying. It was considerably less "cute" than the first, as well, with the young protagonists actually getting their hands – and swords – dirty. The sword fighting was very well staged, and the CGI effect were much more consistent and well-designed than in the previous installment. (Probably the best centaurs I've seen realized for a fantasy film yet.)

I'm not a fan of the Narnia books (of course, I haven't read them since I was in grade school), and found the first film tepid, but this one was an entertaining couple of hours. Good, if not great, stuff.

• My Femme Noir publishers, Ape Entertainment, sent me a few of their other titles this week, maybe as a consolation prize since I wasn't able to attend the big New York Comic Con. I was able to finally read the complete White Picket Fences miniseries (& one-shot Special), and catch up with The Black Coat Special, too. WPF tells of three young boys living in the small-town world of 1950's sci-fi films, with Martian invasions, giant insects, and mad scientists, while The Black Coat chronicles the adventures of a masked crusader operating in pre-Revolutionary America. Fun stuff, very well executed. Gabriel Hardman's art on The Black Coat one-shot is especially awesome.

You really should buy some of this stuff.

• If anyone reading this blog is a fan of vintage horror and genre films, has either an extensive DVD collection or mastery of their Netflix queue, and is looking for a good excuse to spin some classic discs once a week... drop me a line. Especially if you're frustrated that you can't find anyone to hang out and watch them with you. I've got something brewing that you might be interested in....

3 comments:

El Vox said...

Yeah, I'd be up for a Netflix queue exchange thing, although I can be a bit slow, and my taste are all over the map, plus I work a lot, enough excuses already :0 If that's what you are thinking about. Lately I've cued up some classic westerns, as I've pretty much exhausted the SF titles. I did watch one on hulu.com the other day I'd not seen: The People That Time Forgot, and though low budget, enjoyed it.

I haven't seen the second installment of Narnia, but felt like you that it was a bit lackluster after the Potter films. It's hard to say how they could have achieved a better film, but enjoyed the set pieces and such.

Michael May said...

How do I not have you in my email contacts? I don't know how that's possible?

When I get home tonight I'll contact you on Facebook. I can't access it from here.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the Ape love!
David