Tony's Column Twenty-Six

Tony’s Column

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Mar 7, 2009

Who Watches the Watchmen?

Hi Everyone, I saw Watchmen last night and overall it was a good movie, true to most of the graphic novel. I say most of the Graphic Novel because there were parts cut out of the movie, some parts amalgamated into a few scenes and the change in endings. That part stuck with me. I like the ending in the comic where the end of war was because a Giant Alien had landed in New York. The ending they had in the movie worked but I just have been wondering why when it comes to comic movies lately and using large characters and Monsters. Galactus, Sentinels, now this. The Rorschach character was dead on (expect for the Batman voice which seems to be the tone for DC Menacing characters). Lots of the small elements were placed in the movie which was nice touch. I think that some people who see the movie first and then read the Graphic Novel might go, HUH!. I think a proposal I had once heard about Terry Gillam being asked to do Watchman, and He said he would rather do it as a 5 part 2 hour mini series would have probably been better because you could have kept a lot of the key elements of the Graphic novel in. Not that they did a bad job of this, but I have talked to a few comic people who haven’t read the Graphic Novel and saw the movie and felt it bounce all over the place too much. Unfortunately for most people, this is the case. I am glad they did the movie and the way it was done was great but it was more of a reader’s digest version, all the good elements of the story, some of the back story and sub plots, but after reading it you still know that something is missing. 3 out of 5 stars. Go see it and judge for yourself. Until Next Time. Tony

Feb 28, 2009

Weather, man!

Hey Everyone, Well the Temperature today was supposed to be –6 Celsius when they did the long range forecast. Well it is more like –36 Celsius with the wind chill. How can we have all this weather tracking technology and have it only be right maybe 10% of the time. The Meteorologist’s are only people who can have this bad of a record in a job and still hold on to their job. If any of us was doing 10% in our jobs (outside of Union work) we would be out of work. Most people in these parts are tired of the sub 30 temps that we have had for most of the days since mid November. Well it looks like March is coming in like a Cold Lion lets hope it goes out like a warm Lamb. Till Next Time. Tony

Feb 21, 2009

Nothing to Say

Hi Everyone, Not really up to giving a rant this week. Lots of stuff going through the mind but nothing that is worth putting to the computer. So I will leave it at this. Have a good one. Till Next Time. Tony

Feb 14, 2009

Media, Man

Hi Everyone, Well it’s Friday the 13th and it’s also Valentines Weekend. There not a lot of love for Mr. Alex Rodriguez lately now that he has admitted to steroid use. Paul Shaffer wasn’t feeling the love this week when Jaquin Phoenix went off on a “possible” drug induced tirade on the David Letterman show. Michael Phelps definitely wasn’t feeling the love when Kellogg let him go as a spokes person and the police are thinking of charging him after the picture of him smoking pot from a bong surfaced. It seems that the stars are being bad on purpose, apologizing and the public eats it up. We build these people up, wait for them to fall or tear them down. I feel sad because the golden age of stars has finally faded. The stars of yesterday had people who protected their secrets, now these same people (or even the stars themselves) leak stuff to the media, just for the publicity. We have shows that spend hours on what so and so did to someone (or themselves) outside some restaurant. Emenin was right about if someone got in his face, he assaults them and then he has to buy them a new wardrobe to shut them up. The problem is that people want things easy so if you work at something and you get to a point were you are successful, the next course is to bring them down to your level. Sometimes people can’t even be themselves or relax for fear someone has a camera phone or recorder, picturing their every move. Well I hope that the rest of this weekend everyone feels the love and spreads the love, and I hope those picture of me are taken off Facebook by now, so much for getting drunk at the lake. Till next time. Tony

Feb 7, 2009

Jingle bell Schlock or Hell will freeze over before I pay to see the Eagles

Hey Everyone, Originally I was going to write about giving Joe Quesada and Bill Jemas there dues on doing something right, but then I woke up. I am going to do this week column in honor of the Grammy awards. Well it will be on music. I used to say how much I hate my generation for the great debacles they have done with music. Then lately I have been listen to songs that I recognize from new artist and wondering were I have heard most of them before. It was in a jingle for some product. It seems that now if you want to promote a new group or someone with a new album, instead of playing them on the radio they put 30 seconds of the song into product and play it repeatedly. So by the time the album is released you already know the song. I used to blame my generation for taking good old songs and turning them into product hawking jingles, but I see that this is even deeper seeded than I thought. Which brings me to the Grammy’s and I wonder how many of the songs that are nominated came out or have been commercial jingles this year. If it’s even one percent then that’s just wrong. The other thing I am going to write on is that The Eagles are doing 1 show in Winnipeg and 3 in Saskatoon which I find incredible. Not that they are doing 3 shows is that people are willing to shell out the up to $256.00 to go see them. I like the Eagles, I have all their Albums (and CD’s) up until Hell Freezes Over and I didn’t even try to buy a ticket. Do you want to know why. Just after Hell Freezes Over was released, I had purchased the album the first week it was released, The Eagles announced that they were going back on tour and that they would be charging $115 U.S. a ticket (at the time that was a lot because I had purchased Paul McCartney Floor Tickets for only $79 CND) and when they were asked by reporters why they would charge that much way more than other bands, Mr. Henley replied “because our fans will pay the price to see us live”. Well this is one fan that didn’t when they played Minneapolis or Fargo all those years ago and this is one fan that won’t pay it now. Sure I would go if I got a free ticket or I won one of the radio but I didn’t even buy the last album they released (the one exclusively through Wally World AKA Walmart). I drew a line in the sand and stuck with it. However once again I am a lone ship in the water, because I know if they add a second Winnipeg show it will sell out in less than 16 minutes this time. But the money won’t be coming from me. Till Next time. Tony

Jan 31, 2009

Marvels 2 Promotions 0

Hi, Everyone I just wanted to take the time to point out to all you comic fans out their that the sequel to Marvels has been out for 3 months now and it been done under pretty much no fanfare. As we go through the last CivilSecretDarkAnnihaltionDestiny title, Marvel has pretty much ignored a story that is a continuation of probably their most popular mini series of the last 15 years. Written by Kurt Busiek (the original writer of Marvels) and wonderfully drawn by Jay Anacleto (who drew Aria) this takes up through the 70 and 80’s Marvels from the common man’s prespective. What is wonderful about this is the way Kurt gives you a different version of the stories you already know. This is one of the projects that Marvel should have put the hype machine behind. They probably figured because Marvels sold so well that no fanfare was need or that retailers would point it out to customers. Well I guess that’s what I’m doing her. Instead of getting caught up in the latest crossover fad. Pick up what could be the sleeper of the year or just wait until it’s collected in either Hardcover or TPB. Maybe Marvel is counting on this, to sell more in these formats, make a big push to sell more through the book trades or maybe this will be another Marvel Zombies were people will catch on after the series is over. I hope so because we need more quality books like this. Till Next Time. Tony

Jan 24, 2009

Spider-Bama 2

Hi Everyone, Well the Spiderbama comic is going to a fourth printing and we still have people daily coming in or phoning for the comic. The question I have to ask: Did anyone read the Spiderman story that proceed the one with President Obama in it. I read the back up story but I couldn’t tell you what happened in the main story. Seeing as we keep selling out of the issue and I stopped collecting it, I think I will have to ask one of the regular Spiderman readers. It would be ashamed if Marvel sold this many comics and nobody read the first story (or the issue at all). Yep it would be a darn shame. Until Next Time, Tony.

Jan 17, 2009

Spider-Bama

Hi Everyone, I have held myself back for a couple of days now but I am going to write about the Spider-man 583 fiasco as many retailers are calling it. Most retailers were under the impression that the comic was going to be a 50/50 split or a 1 in 10 split. What it turned out that you had to exceed your order for Amazing Spiderman 575. Not Match but exceed. We were one of the unfortunate ones to match our orders not exceed them. So Imagine my surprise when I opened the boxes for both stores and find that we didn’t get even 1 Obama cover. Well I guess that what we get for not reading the fine print. If there was fine print. I read one retailer’s reaction on this and he had what would have been a great suggestion. He suggested that what they should have done was print the comic like they do for free comic day, let retailers purchase them for cost and have us give them out for free. This would have fostered not only good will but it would have given a big exposure to Marvel. They could have done the 6 pages of stories and 6 pages of in house Ads. Instead we have upset retailers and regular Spider-man fans. Of Course the retailers that did get them and put the copies on their websites for upwards of $100 US or the enterprising customers who happened to snag one and call every retailer in town and offer it up for sale to the highest bidder. Well once again Marvel has done something without really thinking it through, If you don’t believe me, you obviously didn’t read Civil War or Secret Invasion. Till Next Time. Tony

Jan 10, 2009

Shoot the (Text) Messinger

Hi Everyone, I was too sure about what I wanted to talk about vigilantes or text messaging. I think I will talk about both. First off in Winnipeg last week so people took the law into their own hands and allegedly assault a person they suspected of wanting to steal one of their cars and posted the photos on the internet. The big debate of the last couple of days was whether or not to charge the men with assault. Most people have been saying no. I think this is more out of frustration with our justice system. People are tired of the criminals getting away with their crimes. However Vigilantism can’t be condoned and we really have to let the law do it’s job. I think that we should put more pressure on the politicians to change the laws because the situation is getting worse and people are getting to the boiling point. Speaking of Boiling points, I have reached mine with people who are texting and driving. This has got to be the most dangerous thing to do. People are not only sitting at red lights and sending messages they are also driving and doing it. How do I know, well when you are almost hit by someone who is texting and making a turn when you have the walk signal. Or when you are waiting for a car to go on the green and then as you go around them you see the phone out and they are still pushing buttons, you know. I have seen people crossing at cross walks, without pushing the button cross, just walking and texting oblivious to what’s around them. People walking in malls not paying any attention to were they are going texting away. Maybe it’s just me but I think that this has gone too far. We already have kids who can’t spell and are getting marks for text spelling. We are slowly losing the art of conversation. Maybe I’m just starting to get like those grumpy old guys you hear on radio talk shows. I like to think I have a valid point. Till Next Time. Tony

Jan 3, 2009

Hello ‘09

Hi Everyone, the New Year is here and this is the first time that when the Old year left I didn’t do any reflections on the past year or take a few minutes out to think about the coming year. I don’t make resolutions but I do like to ponder. I think this year that maybe it was good for me to not reflect and to just go into the new year. It doesn’t mean that I won’t be doing any thing to change myself or any situations that may come up but I think it means that I came into the year not dwelling on the past or thinking about the future but being in the present. Even though by the news 2009 has not started off great, I think that everyday will get better and better. I hope you feel this way too. Because with the record snow falls, War in Isreal and the sagging economy, I think we all need some good and positive news and thoughts this year. So until next time. Tony.

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