Wolverine on DVD

Wolverine is out on DVD! Go buy it.

I saw the movie in the theater (a rare feat these days with work and family obligations - fortunately this was one I could see with my boys and call it "quality time"). I thought it was great. I like Wolverine a lot. Of course I am old enough to remember when a "superhero" that smoked, drank beer and killed people was "way out there". So to me, he is still a classic anti-hero while heroes like Cyclops (of the X-men), Superman, Mr. Fantastic and Iron Man (of course Iron Man drank heavily - his "fatal flaw") are more in line with the typical hero archetype. Having said that, this is a great take on Wolverine's origin and there are lots of super-powered clashes and it is just too darn cool!

So, beside seeing a cool-as-hell movie, you should also buy it to support the industry we love so much. That being "speculative fiction" whether it is science fiction, fantasy, horror, super heroes or what have you, most of you who visit this blog are "geeks" in the traditional sense and Wolverine represents everything we like in our movies. If we support them with out $$$ then we are likely to see more.

So...go buy Wolverine! You won't be disappointed! If you are...then we aren't as close as I thought!

Watchmen on DVD!!!

Watchmen is coming on DVD on July 21st. I love Watchmen because it is superheroes for grown-ups (note - don't let the kiddies see Watchmen unless you routinely let your kids see graphic sex scenes and intense violence). But for those fanboys among us who grew up loving the superheroes but now find ourselves a bit jaded with some of the adolescent nature of comic book writing (not saying all comics books - some are a definite exception) along comes Watchmen.
Of course the graphic novel is "old". Old enough that I read it at a pretty scandalous age and was shock by the content.
Now, as an adult, I love seeing superheroes for adults. Another great example is the Wild Cards series of novels editted by George RR Martin.
I am sure that some convetional wisdom told both Alan Moore (author of Watchmen) and George RR Martin (Master of Wild Cards) that superheroes were for kids and it was not a good idea to make stories with adult content using superheroes, metahumans, whatever.
Well, Watchmen is one of the most highly acclaimed graphic novels of all times and Wild Cards has been going for two decades so I think the authors were right.
The key - Know your target audience and write for them. If you put together great content, targeted specifically for what your audience wants. Don't try and please everyone. Just give your target audience what they want. They WILL find you. And they will bring their friends.

The Wrestler

"An amateur artist imitates, but a mature artist steals" - I was told that by another artist at one point. Of course, I don't view it as stealing often more as an homage. For example, the movies "Fistful of Dollars", "The Sword and the Sorceror", and "Last Man Standing" are all the same story. A lone drifter bad-ass wanders into a podunk town where there are two factions warring over a single resource (in 2 cases the town's only source of water). The lone drifter gets involved playing both sides against one another and ends up the victor and gets the girl and all that. Of course all three are set in 3 different genres. One is a Western, one is sword and sorcery and one is set in a depression era Texas town. The point is, it is hard to find an original story anyway so if you want to use a storyline seen previously, dust it off, make it your own, pay homage to the original but put a new spin on it.
Why do I go into all of this? I just watched "The Wrestler" this weekend. Loved it. Loved everything about it from the acting, cinematography, the Springsteen soundtrack. Anyway, if someone were to take that storyline, substitute a broken down superhero for the wrestler and craft a really solid "world" around the characters were superheroes existed (like the world in Watchmen or Wild Cards) then it could be a great speculative fiction story.

Comic Books

Anybody read any good comic books lately? Me either. That's not to say that there aren't good comics. Nor am I saying that I don't like comics. I think we all do. I mean look at the success of comic-related franchises like Batman, Superman, Spiderman, X-men, etc.
So what's the deal? Comic Books used to sell millions of copies every month and that has just decreased over time.
Comics have, unfortunately clung to the old model. So the cost of comic books have gone up and up and up so now, one comic costs as much as a novel. Not many kids can afford that and not many adults are willing to. I don't know the answer. It may be that something online would be the answer. I know there has been some success with graphic novels. Personally I won't pay the bucks for comic books, but I will pick up a graphic novel ocasionally. I can get the whole story in one fell swoop and not have to wait month to month.
Have you noticed new superheroes aren't really introduced in anyway other than comics? Of course there is the rare Hancock-type movie, but Hancock doesn't become a franchise. Stuff launched in comics becomes franchises.
Comics should do something before they are really hurting. We all love the superhero stories, but maybe we need new ways to deliver them. I want to introduce new franchises, but as the comic audience continues to shrink, what's the best method?

Riddick

Is it just me or is Riddick, the anti hero featured in "Pitch Black" and "The Chronicles of Riddick", just a great example of a superhero set in a sci-fi setting? He has speed and strength, but he also has the ability to dislocate his joints upon command and (of course) see perfectly in the dark. He makes the best use of these abilities and really kicks butt. As I may have mentioned before, GGE loves mixed genres and the Chronicles of Riddick really pull it off well. I still need to see Dark Fury, and I haven't played any of the video games but if the storytelling is of the same high quality (and I expect that it is) then David Twohy has really put together something great here.
Check it out!

A list of cool metahuman movies with no spandex anywhere

I love superhero movies. I collect superhero movies. Some of my favorite movies about superheroes are not really about "superheroes". What the heck does that mean? Well, obvious superhero movies are Batman, Fantastic Four, X-men, Spiderman, Blade, Iron Man, Superman, Hancock, Watchmen...all of these are awesome, in my opinion, but there is another genre of superhero movie. I'll let the list be my example.
Here we go...
Jumper (Teleportation)
Push (Telekinesis)
The Matrix (The awakened people have all kinds of superpowers)
Next (PRecognition)
My Super Ex-Girlfriend (Kind of a standard superhero movie...cool nonetheless)
Star Wars (Jedi Knights are like Knights, Wizards and Superheroes all rolled into one)
The Transporter Movies (Martial arts and mad driving skills. Almost seems like hyper reflexes)
Fire Starters (Pyrokinesis)
The Shining (Telepathy)
Eragon (Dragon Riders are like super heroes in a fantasy setting)
Harry Potter (Magic and superpowers seem pretty similar sometimes)
Terminator (Terminators are like superheroes gone bad)
Dracula (Same comment as Terminator)
Frankenstein (The monster has mega superpowers)
Van Helsing (He's like an older version of Batman)
Underworld (All of them)
Resident Evil
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

I could probably come up with more by going to my movie cabinet, but my point is this: For those of us who love the superhero/metahuman genre, we don't always have to wait for the next comic-inspired film to find superheroes. Sometimes they are right in front of us just disguised as something a bit different.

Peace!

Wild Cards

In my opinion, any fan of superheroes has to read The Wild Cards series. It is a set of books written, primarily, by a group of authors all editted by George R.R. Martin. This book series is a great example of everything GGE aspires to. It has the formulaic pieces of superhero fiction, but it is written for adults, no doubt about it. These stories are about "real" people. The characters are very deep and well characterized. The powers are not the focus of the story really. The powers are more the setting. It's a bit hard to explain, but it is so well done throughout the series. The first book came out in the 80's. I read it and was hooked immediately. The newest volume was released in December 2009. I have already devoured it and the series just continues to get better and better. A new book is coming out soon ("Busted Flush"). The books are basically written as "triads". Any one of the books is a good jumping on point. It makes it a richer universe if you start at the first and read all the way through, but all of them are just darn cool!
Now is a great time to get onboard.

Why is Watchmen so important?

Why is Watchmen so important? There are storytellers just like me who long for just that sort of story. We are fanboys (and girls) who love Star Wars and comic books but who need a more updated fix. Something that speaks to us now the way these heroes spoke to us as kids. We are older now and understand adult issues and we want to see heroes that face the same issues we do, but manage to overcome them (or sometimes can't overcome them so we can see how they deal with them). It's a matter of taking our lives now and letting us see something heroic in them.
That's why Watchmen is so important. It is the sort of story an adult fan boy can really enjoy.
We need more of them and that's what GGE is all about. Of course, the beauty of the creative world is that there is no real competition if you have a great story! So let's all write something great! Then our niche becomes mainstream! Why not get started?

Later
JG