When I was traveling in Northern Italy in ‘04, I came across a great used bookstore in Venice. There were all sorts of prints and small press comics among the books displayed on tables spilling out into the piazza. Typical of the city, the “courtyard” was entirely in stone - lots of marble and slate, this one centered around a church. But such a contrast between the events going on inside those walls and those depicted in these cheaply printed pages! Since they were used and fairly inexpensive, I picked up several to give away as gifts.

The stories were simplistically drawn, and while my lack of understanding Italian prevented me from really judging the quality, there was no doubt I was in possession of smut. But a style of smut one finds themselves challenged to find elsewhere - sexy horror, boobs with zombies and vampires. I have since learned the genre to be referred to as fumetti neri. The French and Spanish have their own versions of such books, but the Italians seem most over the top.
Though the artists often shamelessly steal source material and images, it is the covers of these little gems that are the most intriguing. The Groovy Age of Horror has done some great analysis and archiving of various examples, including more Zora La Vampira and so I will refer you there.

This is an engrossing, but long, French psychological thriller adapted from the Harlan Coben novel. The many twists and turns keep the pacing taught, and though you may get lost once or twice, everything is essentially wound up at the end. The was one shot with a “shaky cam” that nearly made me nauseous, but it was quickly followed by one of the greatest multi-car pile ups I’ve seen in film. If that was CG, consider me completely fooled. I also loved the sympathetic gangster thug angle, a homely organ grabbing interrogator, and soundtrack with included 60’s soul, ambiance and Sigur Ros style instrumental drama ballads. A great foreign film to see!

The best part was when they destroyed everybody in sections A through F.
Special thanx to Kafkaesq.

It’s the 51st anniversary of the Sputnik I launch, setting off the space race, and America’s eventual walk on the moon, certainly one of the greatest achievements of humankind. These days America focuses on it’s sickly economy and “fighting terror”, leaving the space race to other nations.

Although it didn’t happen on that first flight, I also want to take a moment for Laika, who was the first terran being into space. I am a dog lover and she was a good looking dog, it makes me sick to imagine how stressful her final hours must have been. What I don’t get, even if you suspend all ethics, is why you would send a dog into space in such a way that you had no hope of studying the effects of the voyage upon it? Why include any organism, destined only to burn up?
The USA, USSR, France and Argentina also tortured several kinds of monkeys over the years in the name of their space programs. It seems doubly insulting now that the focus has been greatly reduced on these sorts of projects, expensive though they may be.

Copped this great Polish animation from Who Killed Bambi? (over there in the blogroll - under visual art).

Interview about the piece.

I haven’t actually read Palahniuk yet, but in this film he delves in the same “self-help recovery” culture as the first half of ‘Fight Club’. And that’s the amusing part. But Norton is far more likable than Sam Rockwell - sort of the point here. And instead of just Helena Bohnam Carter as the “psycho fantasy girl” we have several, including Kelly Macdonald - who after this and ‘No Country for Old Men’ I would like to officially declare my crush on.

It’s an eyebrow thing, not so much her figure, though I just realized she was the schoolgirl in ‘Trainspotting’ so I’m not gonna complain about any part her - a fine actress.
Angelica Huston doesn’t really work for me, and I don’t get why she seems so loved by others. Not in the Wes Anderson stuff, can’t think of anything I’ve seen and liked her in. And maybe it was seeing her do such a similar “crazy but lovable mom” role in ‘Darjeeling Limited’ that made that schtick seem especially tired here. It was like they shot all of the childhood flashback scenes in a single day. Overall the film does seem quickly thrown together, the soundtrack is plain sad (the same lame tune is playing on two different days in the strip club, and if you can’t come up with stripper music in this day and age - either as it is or as it should be - you really are lost), but there are some laughs. My review in one word: meh…

I’ve invested all of my “moneys” in comic books! No, but I have entered the ebay world to try and move comics I’ve been sitting on for a few decades. They mostly come from two collections I inherited, and also some I collected in my teens. No great fortunes so far, but I’m still building my rating before I attempt to let go of the more high-end stuff.

So the first step is research - see what things go for. It is interesting to note that everything up until ‘82 is considered “Bronze Age”. So take that geezer. But I’m really not complaining. I also have some “Silver Age” titles as well. Then comes the strategic game of pricing and seeing how the bidders react. The best case, of course, is to get a bidding war going, and watch your sale go up and up. But it’s difficult to list something for 99 cents to get those initial nibbles, when you saw the same title just sell for $20. But I’ve had plenty of listings expire with no interest at all, so one wants to list low and get at least two buyers drooling. A high price is useless if no one bids. Then comes the building of multi-book “lots” to gain attention. Offer a gem or two and make them take some lemons in the mix. Of course, one geek’s gem is another geek’s lemon. Then there is the professional grading system, but I’m not obsessing on that too much, just trying to be honest in my descriptions.
And finally, as I attempt to widdle three long boxes down to one of keepers and some paypal cash, there is the challenge of my own changing taste. Much of this stuff was someone else’s collection and I have no attachment to certain titles, but now suddenly, a huge run of early Dr. Strange does seems cool. Maybe I should keep these early 70’s Conans when he meets up with Elric… What’s wrong with Werewolf by Night? And hell, if I unload these Ms. Marvel and Captain America’s (squares) I could even buy the issues I’m missing for a complete run… So you see: Overstreet is just as complicated as Wall Street.