THE POWER OF NEGATIVE THINKING

Well, it had to happen.

You Have Killed Me gets its first outright negative review. Steve Duin at The Oregonian has posted his thoughts here, lumping us in with his impressions of Gran Torino, and ending with this quote:

"At this stage in his storied career, Clint Eastwood is delighted to exploit the familiar so that he can engage and entertain us in ways we might not expect. Rich is not similarly inspired. Almost everything in You Have Killed Me has been done before and done better, including the title shtick, and I'm not convinced Rich cares. He seems content to prove he and Jones could deliver a graphic novel that fit the superficial requirements of the genre, then move on to their next challenge. I think they're better than that."

There you go. As always, fair enough. Negative reviews run with the territory (hell, I write them, too). Though, personally, I find the closing disingenuous in that Steve's review of 12 Reasons Why I Love Her ran along similar territory, and I don't believe he actually believes I can do better. :) <--- emoticon added in order to make sure the internet knows I type this all with a laugh. Hell, even Darwyn Cooke is taking his lumps today.

And for the record, I thought Gran Torino wasn't all that hot. My biggest gripes with the movie are that, despite a powerful ending, the build-up is banal, the acting consistently poor, and I think Eastwood preached to the converted to such a degree that segments of the audience accepted Walt's racism as justified. So, to each our own.

On a different note, Taklin Bout Comics has a nice blurb about one of my favorite things, "The Jailhouse Swing," the story Joëlle Jones and I did for Popgun, Volume 3

"'The Jailhouse Swing' - Jamie S. Rich, Joelle Jones - I particularly like the style of this 8 page narrated piece about a down on his luck palooka and the Angel that loves him regardless. The art goes heavy on the lines in some places, and uses a very sketchy style when showing bits of his fights. His girl seems always drawn with a bit of delicacy. It has a little bit of the feel of something you might see related in Ed Brubaker's Criminal (not the only piece in this review that made me think of that)."

Weirdly, putting the two together, I think we get this:

Current Soundtrack: Muse, Haarp CD/DVD Set; Jack White, "Fly Farm Blues;" the Jesus and Mary Chain




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All text (c) 2009 Jamie S. Rich