Month: November 2004

“The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” – Review

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I have to admit, I was prepared to not like (OK, hate) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The commercials looked lame and centered on Sean Connery’s Schwarzeneggerian bon mots and special effects. Even the title, later acronymed to “LXG”, cried out poseur.

When Connery’s Alan Quartermain boasted “I’m waiting to be impressed” during the exposition I was sure I had my opening line for this review. Perhaps it was my low expectations, or maybe some unexpectedly decent filmmaking (or, to quote Grandpa Simpson, it was possibly “a little from column A, a little from column B”), but I kind of liked this movie.

Although it is based on comics deity Alan Moore’s book of the same name, the story is sort of screwy at points. And the plot hole involving (no pun intended) the Invisible Man’s disappearance was deeper than the Chunnel. But, having checked my disbelief at the door, I sat back on my old blue plaid sofa and enjoyed 110 minutes of goofy fun.

It is 1899 and a crazed mask-clad villain is wreaking havoc in Europe. Quartermain is asked by the English government to lead a group of odd heroes to save the day.

Odd indeed. Dorain Gray, The Invisible Man, Mina Harker, Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde and Tom Sawyer all join forces to foil The Phantom’s plot.

It turns out in the end that The Phantom, later revealed as Holmes’ archenemy Dr. Moriarty, was the very person that had assembled the League for his own nefarious purposes.

Pretty standard superhero stuff, but the look of the film is really what elevates the material. The design of Nemo’s Nautilus is stunning. Every time it was on screen I found myself marveling at it. The costumes were wonderful too. I especially liked The Invisible Man’s somewhat pointy hat.

The special effects are also very nice. The Invisible Man’s face painting was a wonder, and the flashy jump cut transformations back and forth between Jekyll and Hyde were simple but elegantly effective.

Even some of the trite writing eventually appealed to me. Nemo’s first mate introduces himself to the group by asking them to “call me Ishmael.” How fun is that?!

I think perhaps this is one of the first movies I’ve seen wherein the art direction takes such a load off the rest of the film. And somehow that was enough for me.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen isn’t a great movie. It isn’t even a great superhero film. But as an excuse for filling the cracks of that old blue plaid sofa with more of Jiffy Pop’s slightly sweet kettle corn, it performs extraordinarily.

Battle of the Cartoon Papers

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I currently subscribe to two different cartoon publications, Comic News Weekly and Funny Times, and I thought it might be interesting to compare the two and help those on limited cartoon budgets get the most for their cartoon dollar.

(Note – I’m going to try to be fair here, but I should note that Funny Times publishes my cartoons on a regular basis. I have never submitted to Comic News Weekly. I’m comparing the November 2004 issue of Funny Times and issue #501 of Comic News Weekly, also published in November 2004. I’ll be presenting the two publications alphabetically.)

Comic News Weekly –

This Oregon based humor weekly bills itself as “Wit, Whimsy and Wide-Mindedness” and includes many of my favorite cartoonists including Gary Trudeau, Berkeley Breathed, Dan Piraro and Tom Tomorrow.

Weighing in at 24 magazine-sized pages this issue boasts 69 cartoons including full pages of Joe Martin’s Mr. Boffo, Piraro’s Bizarro, and Tom the Dancing Bug. The magazine also includes full color pages of Opus and Doonesbury.

Editorial cartoons abound here with full pages dedicated to the NRA, the Florida hurricanes, and Dan Rather’s election news gaffe.

Comic News Weekly also includes humorous writing including Chuck Shepard’s News of the Weird, The Straight Dope by Cecil Adams, and Mr. Cranky at the Movies (my personal favorite).

The magazine does indeed arrive weekly and has a cover price of $2.95. Subscriptions are available at Amazon for $39.00 for a year ($0.78 per issue).

Funny Times –

Based in Ohio, Funny Times’ monthly “Humor, Politics & Fun” publication includes such cartoon luminaries as Matt Groening, Ted Rall, David Sipress, P.S. Mueller and Tom Toles.

Printed more in a newspaper format, Funny Times also clocks in at 24 pages, but it should be noted that they’re roughly twice the size as its competitor. I counted 97 cartoons in total with color cartoons on both the front and back covers and large cartoon offerings from Keith Knight, Carol Lay and Alison Bechdel.

The paper includes plenty of great editorial cartoons with the upcoming election given a full four pages.

Funny Times prints loads of humorous writing as well including News of the Weird, Harper’s Index, and Ask Dr. Science.

At $2.95 on the cover, monthly subscriptions are also available at Amazon for $21.00 per year ($1.75 an issue).

Comparison –

OK let’s look at the numbers:

Judging by this issue, Comic News Weekly is averaging 2.875 cartoons per page. Because Funny Times is roughly twice the size, we’re going to say that it’s actually 48 pages for the sake of an even comparison. So, with that logic, Funny Times averages 2.021 cartoons per page.

If we agree that 69 cartoons is about an average issue of Comics News Weekly, that means 3588 cartoons per year at a price of approximately $.01 per cartoon. Funny Times would clock in at 1164 cartoons per year at a price of approximately $.02 per cartoon.

By looking at the numbers, Comic News Weekly has more cartoons per “page,” is about half the cost per cartoon and it arrives weekly. So, by the numbers, Comic News Weekly wins. But judging humor via spreadsheet really doesn’t work in the long run.

If we judge each magazine by how many times they made this cartoonist smirk, giggle and laugh out loud, Funny Times comes out the clear winner. Are the laughs worth twice as much fewer times per year? I think so.

Comic News Weekly feels like its put together by a staff that’s looking to fill its pages with as much stuff as possible. In this issue there were two and a half pages of Doonesbury alone. If you add Opus, Mr. Boffo and Bizarro (all good material mind you), then almost a quarter of the publication is stuff you can get in your paper or online relatively easily.

Funny Times, while running a smattering of syndicated material, feels more like a hand-picked offering by people who really love cartoons. Sometimes the material is odd, obtuse, even confusing, but it always feels like someone at Funny Times said “Oh yeah, this one’s going in for sure.”

Both publications run scads of good editorial material, but, again, Funny Times’ just seems funnier to me. Often I’m showing the editorial cartoons to my wife in bed to watch her gasp at the cartoonists not so much poking fun as stabbing it.

OK, I’m in Funny Times a lot. And I’m not going to pretend that that probably doesn’t enter into this at some unconscious level (I really really tried to be fair!), but I can’t get past the simple fact that, in my cartoon opinion, Funny Times is just plain funnier and a better laugh value for your cartoon dollar.

“Garfield – The Movie” – Review

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OK, I think we all knew Garfield was going to be a lame movie, and, thanks to years of fostering and meeting low comic expectations, Jim Davis delivered.

The story begins its gradual descent when Garfield’s owner, Jon (played with Guttenbergian blandness by Breckin Meyer) gets a dog thanks to veterinarian/love interest Liz (Jennifer Love Hewitt). A jealous Garfield (voiced by Bill Murray) kicks Odie out and the dog runs away only to be picked up by unscrupulous TV personality, Happy Chapman (Stephen Tobolowsky), who needs Odie’s dancing skills in order to secure a place on a national morning show.

No, seriously, that’s the plot. Bad TV guy steals boogie-ing dog.

You can imagine where it goes from there and, in an effort to consciously block the remainder of the movie out of my memory, I won’t divulge any more (except to say that Billy Joel must be preparing to roll over in his grave thanks to a certain musical number).

Even Murray’s Herculean vocal efforts can’t help this hairball. He gives it his not inconsiderable comedic all, but the material is so poor that even he can’t get Garfield’s fur flying. (And to think – he went from an Oscar nomination for Lost in Translation to this?! I’m starting a collection to help hire him a new agent.)

Surprisingly the animation on Garfield himself is actually quite good. There must be some cat owners at the computers because they captured a lot of housecat movements and poses I recognize from my own tubby felines.

And Hewitt, although basically a wooden performance, at least lends some serious eye candy to an otherwise wasted 82 minutes. (What kind of vet wears short skirts and tight, chest showcasing tops?! Answer – my favorite kind.)

So, if you’re like lots of animal dancing, poorly conceived childish humor, and lining Jim Davis’ pockets, by all means rent/buy Garfield. Otherwise, steer clear.

Election Day Political Cartoons

andertoons

Well, today’s the big day!

No matter who you’re voting for, I think we can all agree that politics lends itself to some good cartoons (well, maybe in a few months it’ll be funnier again…). Anyway, here some of my cartoons with a political bent:

This is one of my favorite political cartoons not only because I like the gag, but because of the politician running.

I’m not sure when ‘youthful indiscretions’ became part of political jargon, but this political cartoon has fun with it.

Although this isn’t one of my favorite political cartoons, my father-in-law likes it a lot, so here it is.

OK, enough cartoons – please, go vote! And here’s hoping that we know who’s won before January.

The Duck Stops Here

andertoons

Just in time for the election we get this civics lessons from the good folks at Warner Brothers: “Daffy Duck for President”

Honestly, it’s not bad. The voices are spot on, the animation is nice and the writing, while a little lame, is serviceable.

The cartoon is also going to be on the upcoming “Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two.”

Here’s the official Daffy for President site, and a note from the “candidate”:

“In a country divided between right wing and left wing, we need somebody with BOTH wings as President. And, Ladies and Gentlemen, I HAVE THESE WINGS.”

Vote Daffy!