The Comics and the Movies

‘Tis the season for Comic-Con 2009 in my home town of San Diego as the ultra-geeks storm the halls of the downtown convention center alongside the ultra-chic Hollywood stars that are out to promote their latest crap they call “films” or television shows. Okay, that does sound pretty harsh to blanket all of the shameless promotions under the rather generic description as crap, but some of the material may not always worthwhile for the audiences to be spending their hard earned money on watching. There is always an opportunity for a cool film to be promoted at the convention, but the original intention for the convention was to bring a bunch of comic geeks together and socially enjoy comic book material. Hence the point of origin for the convention's namesake Comic-Con! I may be extremely behind on the whole realm of the love for reading comics. I must admit that I perused through them when I was a kid, but never really delved into reading them. At this point in my life as a fully-grown adult, it is with a particularly relevant desire that I wish to have entertained during my childhood by reading more comic books. Why I did not delve into the fantastical realm of the printed art form with fictional story lines and worlds beyond any imagination that I could have conceived at such a young age would be an answer that I would never be able to find. I have always been fascinated with the character of Batman, because he has always carried the cool gadgets and did not have a super hero power to separate him from the rest of the world. He was a human being just like the rest of us, only he was able to afford the price of designing and building all of those super awesome super hero gadgets that he used to save Gotham from utter destruction by those who have been withheld in the Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane.

The convention wrapped up a four-day weekend on Sunday evening with its last day usually reserved for family related events. However, my own personal curiosity had nagged at me like a little troll for not considering the chance of actually going to this year's convention. I am ashamed in a way to have spent a large portion of my life living in San Diego County and before last year have ever considered attending. Last summer I thought I would play it smart by volunteering my time to work a few booths or whatever work they would need a volunteer to attend to handle, but my paying job served as a sad reminder that I had some bills to pay. That should not stop me next year when I can use my vacation time to go to the 2010 Comic-Con!

As anyone who has been following the ups and downs of movie trends may notice that in recent years Hollywood has been adapting a lot of comic books and graphic novels into the medium of cinematic storytelling. Much to the further embarrassment of self-declaration I must admit that my childhood experiences of reading comic books were at a minimum that pales in comparison with some of the comic book nerds that I have met over the years. It appears that I have a late start in the game with gaining an interest in wanting to read more and more comic books. Ever since the film adaptation of a couple of Alan Moore’s graphic novels such as V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and From Hell have I started paying more attention to the interesting stories that have been coming out from Vertigo, DC Comics, and Marvel.

Since I have missed out last year’s event and the 2009 convention there must be another way that I could start brushing up my knowledge of comic book stories. I have already purchased a few graphic novels that I am planning on reading soon. In addition to the rather small collection that I have already obtained I thought I should perform a little search of the local comic book stores in my area. I was able to find one particular store simplistically titled Southern California Comics According to several reviews from Google members the store was highly recommended for its selection of back issues. I thought it would be worth a try to stop by to check out what they have available as I was driving in to work.

The first thing I noticed about the store was one of the storage rooms filled with boxes of comic books for a dollar a piece (and a deal of twelve issues for ten dollars). I was thrilled to thumb through several boxes of Batman comics for a good forty-five minutes. Without a doubt I am planning on a return trip to the store so that I can shuffle through their collection of Jonah Hex issues. My inner geek is thrilled to the bone right now.

Bragging Rights: Freddy Krueger

This is going to be a rather short blog entry, but I just thought I would like take a moment to brag about meeting Robert Englund at my work this morning. He's visiting San Diego to swing by Comic-Con to promote his new mini-series Fear Clinic which will be available on FEARnet's website. I did not ask him about it, but I am sure he does not mind being typecast as a horror icon because it means he would receive a rather steady flow of work being offered to him. He was a very nice guy when he was at my work. He was super cool with everybody who wanted to get a picture with him and was very animated as you can see in the photo to the left. Posted below is the photo of him and I together in the waiting room at my work. The scariest part of his entire visit would be the fact that he is holding one a paper coffee cup from our coffee stash. I did not bother to see if it was water or coffee he was drinking, but it is scary for anyone willing to try and drink our cheap office coffee!

Frank McCourt: 1930-2009

He was 78 years old when he passed away on Sunday, July 19, 2009. He was one of my favorite biographers who have ever penned his own life stories. I do not want to list him solely as a writer, since every book that he has written was an autobiography. Frank McCourt is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Angela's Ashes, which was adapted into the 1999 film starring Emily Watson as his mother. He once mentioned in one of his books that he was prompted to sit down and write a book about his life by a few of his students who were enthralled by listening to the stories about his childhood. For years he had procrastinated the opportunity to actually sit down and start writing the chronological retelling of his life. However, once he was able to publish the first installment of a three-part biography he earned a Pulitzer Prize for writing and sold the movie rights to a major production studio. The movie adaptation is how I personally heard about Frank McCourt, but I was fortunate enough to pick up the book prior to seeing the film. I immediately fell in love with his writing.

His other book titles include the Angela's Ashes sequel 'Tis: A Memoir, and a third book about his professional career as a teacher simply titled Teacher Man. I was able to read the first two books nearly back to back, but was not able to read the third one until it was published a good amount of time later. It was with good intention that I plan to sit down to read all three of them again in one solid sweep. They are an intriguing trilogy of stories that begins with the first book written about his childhood, the second book about his years as a young adult who emigrates from Ireland to America, and the third book about his thirty-plus year career as a creative writing teacher in the state of New York.

Angela's Ashes is a depressing story of his poverty-stricken childhood in Ireland where his mother worked endlessly to support the well-being of her family. In later years, Frank summed up the early years of his life with the following statement. "...I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." Source: CNN obituary.

It is the most sorrowful experiences of a person that entail the most emotionally enriched stories that enrapture all of us to listen closely to what the storyteller has to say. The stories of Frank McCourt's early childhood and emigration to America are sad in nature, but so intriguing for me to hear. For my own personal perspective, it is a reminder of our own humanity by defining how we are able to survive even the roughest of moments in our own lives and can walk away a better person. May he rest in peace.

At the current moment, there is a listing on IMDb suggesting an adaptation of Teacher Man.

Review: 500 Days of Summer (2009)

What a surprising response that I have experienced after viewing (500) Days of Summer. The movie has been directed by feature film newcomer Marc Webb who has built his professional experience on directing music videos. At that start of this review, I must claim that (500) Days is the best movie that has been released for the year of 2009, so far. The film has been released at the halfway point of the calendar year, which would mean there is an opportunity for several more high quality and enjoyable films yet to be released. Despite the chance of seeing another great movie before the year is over, I will guarantee that this film would have to be listed in my top three favorite films of the entire year.

Although the film would conveniently fit into the genre of romantic comedy in comparison with all the films that have preceded it. However, with the inherit humor that appears in the film there is a bit of a difference with how this story is told in comparison with the other stories. In lieu of the gushy romanticism and boorishly overused happy ending that appears in the other stories the audience is left laughing with the humor in (500) Days instead of laughing at it. I might have lost you here, but let me explain. The audience is able to relate with the experiences of the main characters in (500) Days instead of laughing at the formulaic predicaments in which the characters of those “other films” would consistently find themselves trying to avoid, but are unable escape the inevitable.

The key ingredient that separates the main characters of this film with all the other romantic comedies is the rather simplistic idea of role reversals. The male figure ends up being a hopeless romantic who is searching for the one perfect woman who will be his lifelong soul mate. Much to his demise, he discovers that his ideal woman manifests in the form of a commitment phobic personality who wants to avoid using such relationship associative labels such as boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife. Merely stated she wants to remain as friends with benefits and completely ignore the existence of anything that would even suggest that the pair is romantically involved with each other, which would imply a long-term commitment between the two. This terrifies her to the core, because she does not want to become another relational failure as she has witnessed the marital divorce of her parents when she was younger.

What works for the success of retelling the story of their failed relationship, through the perspective of the hopeless romantic as in any other romantic comedy, is the unordered structure in which the events unfold by a collection of themes and correlations in lieu of being told in chronological order. Tom is relating the events of his relationship to his younger and wise sister who seems to rely less on emotional instability and more upon a logical standpoint. These two siblings offer the structure of telling his story through the point of a logical figure, an emotional figure, and even the appearance of his two best friends who serve as the chorus in a classic performance of a Greek tragedy. He is the emotional figure who tells the retells the story to the logical figure who asks the curiously inquiring and emotionally unattached questions while the chorus of friends helps push the story through its natural progression from start to finish.

The irony of Tom’s persona would be his career choices in relation to his personality. He desires to be an architect, but he remains in a stagnant position as a copywriter at a greeting card company. My own personal interpretation of the two careers would place architecture as a purely logical and mental career that requires more math and practicality than it would require emotional flair. This does not mean that architecture lacks any sense of creativity. After all, there are plenty of beautiful buildings and structures throughout the world demonstrating the personal creativity of the designer. It is with the implication of having to rely on the use of math and engineering that would suggest that the profession of architecture holds more weight in the realm of logic than it would in the instability of emotional creativity. Tom is an emotional character who does not appear to rely upon logical first hand when approaching life. After all, he describes the architecture of Los Angeles as something beautiful to be admired. I might be under a complete misunderstanding of the profession, but it is the way that I have perceived the industry, and it is with this perception that I can draw upon the irony that Tom would ever desire to begin a career in such a profession.

The contradiction of Tom’s hopeless romanticism and his desire for a logically driven career, much to the lack of complete recognition he may have for the two, he is still an interesting person in which the audience is able to evaluate contemporary relationships. With the intentional use of role reversal, whereas the guy is the hopeless romantic and the woman is the casual, commitment-phobic personality, the audience is ruffled up a bit to rethink how to view a relationship unfold in a cinematic story. In addition to switch the personality traits of the two main figures of a romantic story would allow for plenty of room for comedy to ensue as the case in point would be for this film.

What makes this film fall into place as a perfect summer film for the audience to enjoy watching it? It could be any number of contributions that were utilized during its production, but I would imagine that a key factor would be the amount of truth that it holds with contemporary relationships. People have changed over the last few generations, and I think this film is a perfect demonstration of how real life roles have evolved into what the younger generations are keener on experiencing. Men are no longer the sole moneymakers of the family, and the women are no longer required to be dedicated housewives. Not only have their social roles in the workplace and homestead has changed, but their personality traits have been altered as well. Thus allowing Tom to be more feminine as a hopeless romantic while Summer allows herself to be more carefree in approaching the purpose of a romantic and sexual relationship.

My own personal enjoyment of a comedy film is increased by the amount of truth that resides behind the jokes. The truth is funny for each audience member when there is a connection between the story and the real world. When the situation is presented in such a way that we cannot help but laugh at the predicaments that we could imagine hilariously occurring in our own lives we then can enjoy the pleasure of the story a lot more. (500) Days of Summer is a film that can be enjoyed by anyone who has ever experienced the predicament of a failed contemporary relationship. I must say that this film well deserves a very high review rating of 5(00) points out of 5(00) possible. Numerical pun intended, of course.