THIS IS HALLOWEEN [Image Fantome]

Happy Halloween everybody!

Nico continues his tradition of drawing a new Spell Checkers pin-up for the holiday. This should tide you over while we all anxiously await vol. 3's release. (It's in the can, we're just waiting for Oni Press to schedule it -- you have the first two, yes?)

You can also listen to my "Haunted Jukebox 2012" mix on Spotify. Get yourself in the mood.

Also, check out the costume Joëlle and I wore for a Halloween party this past weekend, in a little photo I like to call "Death Comes to Ned Flanders." (picture by Jeremy Pool)

Current Soundtrack: The Sonics, "The Witch"

(I'M) THE END OF THE FAMILY LINE

It's been a little slow around here in terms of theatrical releases, but I've been keeping up with my home viewing. Here is what I've covered in the last two weeks:

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

* The Forgiveness of Blood, this Albania-set drama is the second feature from the director of Maria Full of Grace. (Also at DVD Talk.)

* Rosemary's Baby, Roman Polasnki's spooky nightmare about a child from hell.

THIS WEEK IN BD/DVD REVIEWS...

* Chained, Jennifer Lynch's psychological horror movie doesn't quite link up.

* Mad Men: Season Five, the best show on television keeps getting better.

* The Penalty, a potent silent film starring Lon Chaney as a double-amputee bent on revenge.

* Shut Up and Play the Hits, the documentary about LCD Soundsystem's last gig; features the full three-hour concert.

* Three Secrets, Robert Wise's 1950 melodrama about a trio of women who may or may not be the mother of a young boy stranded on a mountain.

* The Woodmans, a moving documentary about late photographer Francesca Woodman and the effect her suicide has had on her family.

Current Soundtrack: The Daily Show from October 24, 2012

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2012 Jamie S. Rich

MAKE ME A MIRACLE MAN

It's Sunday, and Mike Norton has performed all kinds of miracles in finishing up It Girl and the Atomics #7!

Current Soundtrack: Kendrick Lamar & Dr. Dre, "Compton," Orbital, "Wonky (Japanese Popstars Mix)"

DO YA THING: It Girl & the Atomics #3 reviews

A few reviews of It Girl and the Atomics #3 have surfaced. Here is what I have seen so far:

* Blue Raven Comics

* Every Day is Like Wednesday <--- not very positive

* Interested in Sophisticated Fun? <--- lives up to the name!

* Multiversity

* Unleash the Fanboy

Third issues are always kind of a hump, so it's good to read that, for the most part, people think we have gotten over it and settled into what we came here to do. Mike Norton has been turning in the last pages for #7, and I'm beyond excited for what comes next.

Speaking of Norton, he also had another book out this way, the pug horror comedy The Curse. Check out this preview.

Current Soundtrack: Placebo, B3 EP


 

HIS SPACE HOLIDAY: IT GIRL & THE ATOMICS #6

Image Comics have released their January solicitations, and I am excited to have the official announcement of our first fill-in on It Girl and the Atomics, and to have that artist be my old nemesis Chynna Clugston Flores!

We have put together a fun issue for you guys, and I am arranging with Image to release the first five pages to give folks a taste of what's to come. In the meantime, here is the cover and info...

IT GIRL & THE ATOMICS #6
story JAMIE S. RICH
art CHYNNA CLUGSTON FLORES
cover MICHAEL & LAURA ALLRED
JANUARY 23
32 PAGES / FC / E
$2.99

“HIS SPACE HOLIDAY”
It’s a solo Mr. Gum adventure! The rubbery Atomic has the day off on a distant planet. He’s met a cute alien girl and is about to get a glimpse of the local wildlife. Prepare for giant space-monster action with guest art by Blue Monday creator CHYNNA CLUGSTON FLORES!

*** 

And what the hell. Here's a tease of the interiors.

Current Soundtrack: the concert discs from the LCD Soundsystem DVD, Shut Up and Play the Hits.

ON SALE TODAY: IT GIRL & THE ATOMICS #3

Both in comic book stores as a physical comic and on Comixology as a digital download.

In this one, the story ramps up, with big action and even bigger revelations.

"DARK STREETS, SNAP CITY," Part Three

The Skunk's old gang is up to trouble, and It Girl has a few choice words for the man who killed her sister. But who's the shadowy presence that follows her wherever she goes, and can she and the rest of the Atomics stop a crime spree before it starts?

Cover by Michael & Laura Allred
Art by Mike Norton, Colors by Allen Passalaqua, lettering by Crank!
Published by Image Comics

Current Soundtrack: A Place to Bury Strangers, "And I'm Up b/w Don't Stop"

IN A FUTURE WORLD, WITH AN ASTROGIRL

Today at New York Comic Con, Oni Press held a panel to present details on upcoming projects. In amongst the announcements were new specifics regarding the company's online comic initiative and the book Natalie Nourigat and I are doing for it, A Boy and a Girl.

Read all the details here at Robot 6 and check out all the previews. There's new Sixth Gun material, and comics by Wook Jin-Clark and the team of Ananth Panagariya and Tessa Stone, and lots more.

The new OniPress.com
The publisher also announced the January debut of a totally new OniPress.com that’ll be loaded up with webcomics by a host of creators.

“We saw the transformation of the music industry over the last decade, and we see comics experiencing a comparable metamorphosis,” said Oni Publisher Joe Nozemack. “We believe there’s opportunities for new models to emerge alongside the existing ones giving both established and new readers comics that engage and entertain.” 

The new OniPress.com will initially offer two new serials a week, along side three additional serials pulled from the publisher’s 15-years worth of backlist material. The first of these new series, A Boy & A Girl by Jamie S. Rich and Natalie Nourigat and Buzz by Ananth Panagariya and Tessa Stone, were initially teased at Comic-Con International in July.

Per the release, A Boy & A Girl explores a future where real people are rapidly being supplanted by life-like androids, the need for that emotional connection can become even more desperate, and Travis will go to great lengths to find out where that amazing girl he met last night, Charley, lives, so that he can convince her to go on a date with him. What Travis doesn’t know yet is that it’s Charley’s last night in town, and she’s in a mood to really tear things up. If they’re going to go on a date, it’s almost guaranteed to be one that neither of them will ever forget.

That describes it pretty well, I think. The comic will go online starting in January. It's been in the can for a while, so Natalie and I are both very excited to see it emerging into the light of day.

Lettering was done by Ed Brisson, who is also a writer. Check out Murder Book and the rest of his website.

By the way, did you also see this wicked Joëlle Jones page from Helheim in the preview material? Day-um!

Current Soundtrack: The Divine Fits, A Thing Called Divine Fits

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2012 Jamie S. Rich

THE HAUNTED MAN

NEW IN THEATRES...

* Argo, Ben Affleck takes a true story about a fake movie and turns it into genuine cinema.

* Seven Pyschopaths, the comedy is dark and funny, the action appropriately visceral, but the second film from the director of In Bruges isn't as smart as it thinks it is.

* Sinister, half a good horror movie, half a bad one, and the better half doesn't make it worth the time.

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

* In the Mood for Love, the beautiful tribute to unfulfilled romance by Wong Kar-Wai is now on Blu-Ray. (Also at DVD Talk.)

* Street of Shame, the final film in Kenji Mizoguchi's Lost Women also happens to be the Japanese director's last.

THIS WEEK IN BD/DVD REVIEWS:

* Confessions of an Opium Eater, in which Vincent Price goes on a trip through Chinatown.

* Detachment, an arty drama about teachers overstuffs the lesson plan, but Adrien Brody and thre rest of the cast are great.

* The English Beat: Live at the US Festival '82 & '83, two concert from the band's classic line-up

* Fear and Desire, the "lost" first film of Stanley Kubrick.

Current Soundtrack: How to Destroy Angels, "Keep it Together;" INXS, Kick (25 Anniversary Deluxe Edition) CD2

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2012 Jamie S. Rich

I STAND RIGHT UP IN THE HEART OF HEL

My best friend and valued collaborator Joëlle Jones has a new Oni Press series on the horizon, a grisly horror comic called Helheim, written by Sixth Gun-scribe Cullen Bunn, colored by Nick Filardi, and lettered by Ed Brisson (who also lettered A Boy and a Girl, my comic with Natalie Nourigat).

Comic Book Resources has the exclusive lowdown on the March 6 release of the book.

Joëlle and I have been working on our next project while she has been drawing Helheim, and it's going to be good to go shortly after she completes this series. 2013 is going to be massive!

Also, it's my understanding that if you attend the Oni Press panel at NYCC this weekend, or stop by their booth, you should be able to see more of the first issue.

And hey, if you aren't at NYCC (or even if you are), you still have time to order signed books and sketches from us this weekend. Details right here.

Current Soundtrack: Solange, "Losing You"

WITHOUT WORDS, YOU HAVE NOTHING

While New York hosts their Comic Con this weekend, Portland is having its annual literary festival.

I have done previous Wordstock events, and it's always cool to see a different crowd then one is used to. This year I am setting up at the Oni Press Booth alongside creators Brendan Hay, writer of Rascal Raccoon's Raging Revenge, and Sketch Monsters artist Vinny Navarete.

Here is the Wordstock site so you can see everything they've got going on.

I'll be there both Saturday and Sunday from 2pm to 4pm.

Oni is bringing books to sell and I'll also have the first two issues of It Girl and the Atomics. Swing by if you're coming to the show.

And don't forget, you can still participate in my "Virtual Con" with Joëlle Jones from wherever you are! Sketch slots still available...

Current Soundtrack: Mogwai, "George Square Thatcher Death Party (Justin K Broadrick Reshape);" Christina Aguilera, "Too Beautiful for Words"

WRITING DOODLE: THIS JOKE SPORT SEVERED

The "Daily Doodle" concept is intended to warm up my creative engines, and is essentially free writing, poetry or prose, usually accomplished in under an hour with a minimum of corrections. From time to time, I will post the results here.

In some cases, the piece will also be a special commission, prompted by a particular buyer. Readers can still custom order their own quick short-short stories: details here.

Today's piece was based off of two suggestions offered on Twitter: the word "parody" and the photo below.

*

When he was 15, this would have been considered "the dream." Back then, he could maybe afford to buy an album a week, and maybe some blank cassettes so he could trade with his friends and get more music. It was always a difficult selection process. What tape would he shell out his cash for? He was still on allowance, so he had to make that money stretch. He had to pay for movies and food if he wanted to go out with anyone but his dad. Back then, he knew each record he owned backwards and forwards. You listened to them a lot when they were all you had. He imagined a day where he could make enough money to buy whatever music he wanted.

Now he was past 40 and it was time to move house, and the dream had become a nightmare. There he sat amongst piles of CDs, taken from his shelving and stacked on the floor, on their way to boxes. He had a couple of thousand now. If he did the math, averaging each disc as an hour, it would take him 5,000 days to play them all back to back. That was no joke. The next thirteen years of his life.

And this move would probably take at least as many off of his actual lifespan. What a load of junk he had. Even in the last few years when his friends were all going digital and making fun of him for still buying CDs, he didn't listen. He knew at least one guy who had a hard drive crash and lost all his tunes, and he didn't feel so smart now. For the sake of argument, had he wanted to rip all of these discs to a hard drive, forgetting the sheer memory it might require, if he averaged 10 minutes per disc ripping them to mp3, he was looking at 833 days of sitting at the computer, taking one disc out, putting the next one in.

The sheer amount of memory that would require. He'd always believed that cliché that the music he owned provided the soundtrack of his life. Oh, how he'd marveled at the scene in High Fidelity when John Cusack reorganized his vinyl by chronological order of when he had acquired it! Beyond drooling over what looked like a mint copy of Before and After Science that lingered in every shot, he had imagined doing that himself one day. Looking at the stack now, he didn't remember getting the first Velvet Underground on compact disc, but he did remember finding the cassette of it on the ground in high school. It still played, and he thought the music sounded really weird at first, but he recognized "Heroin" from being in The Doors. He bought The Queen is Dead around the same time, it was actually the last Smiths album he'd gotten, and he lay in his room and listened to "I Know It's Over" in the dark, pining for a girl who never gave him the time of day. "It never really began, but it my heart it was so real..."

Top of the next stack was that first Raconteurs album, which he really liked, but he couldn't come up with any remote recollection of when he'd bought it. The purchase had been meaningless. He probably bought it online. And that Yo La Tengo, it was a gift. He didn't even like Yo La Tengo, but that's how bad his habit was. He wasn't going to sell it, a friend gave it to him. (Plus, he could always change his mind, you never know.) How many records in this stack were equally as uneventful? How deep would he have to dig to find one that he had forgotten he owned?

And what about this Ian McCulloch record? He had gotten it in the mail just this morning. Would he listen to it years from now and remember sitting here realizing that he'd become a joke? For decades now, no one had bothered to tell him that Rob Gordon was not the kind of guy you wanted to identify with or emulate. He had become the kind of sad obsessive they made fun of in alternative weeklies and on snooty music websites. Hell, he had become the sort of geezer he made fun of at concerts when he was fifteen years younger. "If I ever get that old, I hope I have the good graces to die. Or at least stay at home," he had sneered.

Dutifully, he lifted the stacks of discs, bit by bit, and put them in the cardboard boxes, careful to maintain the order--alphabetical by band, each band's discography chronological by release--not wanting to have to put them back together later. Stack by stack, disc by disc, his face reflected in the plastic jewel case of each and every one, a frowning facsimile of the 15 year old boy who scrimped and saved and who, if he could walk through the door now, would think he had found the coolest place on earth. 

Current Soundtrack: Ian McCulloch, Pro Patria Mori <--- that part, at least, was true :)

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2012 Jamie S. Rich

VIRTUAL CON: Special Weekend Sale on Sketches and Books, 10/13-14

A note from Jamie S. Rich, from the Joëlle Jones art blog...

Since we won’t be going to New York Comic Con, Joëlle and I have decided to run a “virtual convention” here at home. The idea came to us when we had tell people who had contacted us about booking commissions that we would were going to have to cancel.

So, for the weekend of the show, October 13 and 14, Joëlle will do con sketches at home. What’s that mean? It means that she will do one sketch an hour, the way she would at the show: black-and-white drawings on standard sized paper. Con prices will apply. Note: You do not have to be an NYCC attendee to participate.

There are eight slots for Saturday, six for Sunday, so fourteen people in all can get a con sketch. One per person!

$50 for the first character, $10 for each additional character, plus $6 for postage. Payment upon signing up. Examples of the kind of sketch you can expect are here and here.

Contact joellejonesart[a]gmail.com and/or golightly[a]gmail.com

In addition to the sketches, we will be selling autographed books:

·      12 Reasons Why I Love Her - $15

·      Spell Checkers vol. 1 - $12

·      Spell Checkers vol. 2 - $12

·      Have You Seen the Horizon Lately? 

       (prose novel by Jamie, cover/two spot illos by Joëlle) - $20

Joëlle Solo Books

·      House of Night #1 - $1

·      House of Night #4 - $3

·      House of Night #5 - $3

·      House of Night hardcover - $15

·      Madame Xanadu #19 - $3

·      Madame Xanadu #20 - $3

·      Token (last copy) - $10

·      Troublemaker HC, vol. 2 - $18

·      Ultimate Spider-Man #150* - $6

Joëlle’s vintage ad prints are also available. See here for pricing.

Jamie Solo Books

·      “Chevelu” self-published prose short story - $3

·     Cut My Hair (last copy; discounted for condition) - $10 [sold!]

·      It Girl and the Atomics #1 (first print) - $3

·      It Girl and the Atomics #2 - Allred cover - $3

·      It Girl and the Atomics #2 - Cooke cover - $3

·      It Girl and the Atomics #3 - $3

·      I Was Someone Dead - $10

·      Love The Way You Love: Side A (only two copies left) - $12

·      Love The Way You Love: Side B - $12

·      Put the Book Back on the Shelf: A Belle & Sebastian Anthology* (last copy) - $20

·      Unite & Take Over: Stories Inspired by the Songs of the Smiths, vol. 2* - $12

Book orders come with a $6 shipping charge, as well, which means a book and a sketch has a $12 shipping charge.

Jamie is also available for writing commissions. Find out more... 

Note: Books marked with * indicate an anthology, and so Jamie or Joëlle only contributed a story to the book, they did not do the whole thing.

____

TEARS ON FRESH FRUIT

NEW IN THEATRES...

* Bill W., a documentary about the man behind Alcoholics Anonymous

* Chicken with Plums, Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi's disappointing follow-up to Persepolis. 

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

* Eating Raoul, the cult comedy of the 1980s is a tepid retro pick for the 2010s. (Also posted at DVD Talk.)

* Women of the Night, Kenji Mizoguchi's tragedy of post-War Japan.

THIS WEEK IN BD/DVD REVIEWS...

* Bird of Paradise, a pre-Code picture from King Vidor, indulging in island fantasy cliches.

* Black Sunday, Mario Bava's 1960 horror debut is spooky and sexy.

* Cinderella, Disney's animated fairy tale comes to Blu-Ray. It looks marvelous, even if it is one of the studio's more middling efforts.

Current Soundtrack: Extended versions of Prince & the Revolution songs

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Midi-Confessions123 * Criterion Confessions * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2012 Jamie S. Rich