Ray Harryhausen passed away last week. This has been noted by people more qualified than I to discuss the master of stop-motion magic—Rick Baker, Adam Savage, Todd Masters, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and more. The superhuman talent and perseverance evident in a Harryhausen effects sequence can easily be seen in countless visual effects artists since he first brought his creations to frame-by-frame life on the big screen. That makes sense. So how can I really say anything of worth when I say that I was also profoundly influenced by the artistry of Ray Harryhausen? With modesty, and a story about Clash of the Titans. Continue reading…
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Recent Features
Ray Harryhausen and Me: A Life of High Adventure and Escapism
Things That Change You Forever
I have a ghost story of my own. At least, I have a ghost-cat story.
My final year as an undergraduate was spent in relative splendor. My friends and I lucked into tenancy in the house of a professor on sabbatical. Twelve foot ceilings! Built in bookshelves! Three cats! Real, grown-up furniture! Wait… let’s get back to the cats. The professorial family had three cats and a dog, though the dog was sent to a friend with a farm (later, they told us later that we clinched the lease when they told us that cat care was part of the deal and our response was, “Aw, we don’t get the dog?”).
So. Three housemates, three cats. One morning around the (solid oak!) table, we were chatting about the cats’ sleeping habits. Two of the cats routinely slept in my room, the third with one of the others. Feeling a little left out, the third roommate said, “That’s okay, because Ghost Cat slept on my bed last night.” Continue reading…
Secret Agent, Detective, Genius, Jerk: Modernizing Sherlock Holmes
A man with dark wavy hair wakes up in an iron-framed bed in the middle of a windowless room. He leaps out from under the white sheets and stares intently at a corner of the white ceiling. Suddenly, gracefully, he spins to defeat an invisible opponent in four swift motions, finally falling to his knees in front of an empty chair, hands outstretched.
There’s something about the way Benedict Cumberbatch plays the lead role in the BBC series Sherlock that seems like it could be Holmes’ fantasy version of how a brilliant detective behaves. Continue reading…
My New Weapon of Choice
In April, the Guttersnipes like to mix it up a little. This month, Comics Editor Carol Borden writes about romance.
“You hit him with a frying pan,” he said to her. “How come you didn’t grab a knife?”
“The frying pan was closer.” Her eyes slid away. “It’s not like I had time to pick a weapon. It’s not like the frying pan is my weapon of choice.” –Agnes And The Hitman (27)
Growing up in a town where Elvis was sighted post mortem, I despised and mocked The King. Now, I have held wakes in his honor. I used to only like punk. Then I used to say I liked everything but country. Now I don’t even bother arguing that I’m listening to “Americana,” not country. It is a truth universally acknowledged that something I once despised I will come to appreciate and, often, love. So when both Chris and alex recommended Jennifer Crusie, the author of many romance novels, and in particular her collaboration with Bob Mayer, Agnes And The Hitman, I knew I needed to read it. Continue reading…
“Remember, You are the Future that Nobody Wanted!”
Professor Xavier answers all your questions about your changing body in The “What’s Happening to My Body?” Book for Mutants. (via Comics Alliance)
Rohrshach vs. Alan Moore
Rohrshach has discovered a new conspiracy, a plan to ensure that no one watches The Watchmen. (Via Forbidden Planet International)
“Fare Thee Well, Infant!”
Ah, the internet, what would we do for time-wasting/movie-geekery without you? Famous Movie Quotes as if Spoken by a Proper Englishman includes such gems as “Toodeloo, you ghastly miscreant!” and “I grow impatient with these malevolent slithering reptiles on this bloody aircraft…”
More Tin-Tin and Lovecraft
We posted some of these before, but here’s an expanded gallery of Lovecraftian Tin-Tin book covers by Murray Groat. (via Forbidden Planet International).
Black Dynamite
Adult Swim has posted the pilot episode of Black Dynamite, its new animated series based on the Michael Jai White Blaxploitation parody/homage film. (Via It’s Komplicated and @World_Of_Hurt)
The History and Art of the Title Sequence
A couple of looks at the art and history of film title sequences.
My Pretty Pony: Remixing is Magic
Variety has a piece on how Hasbro allows fans to use footage from My Pretty Pony: Friendship is Magic, while other media copyright holders continue to try and squash fan use of media properties. “Really it all comes down to a question of control for big media companies….They can either attempt to clamp down on [...]
Summer Fun Time Reading ’11
It’s summer time and instead of beer bottles exploding out of coolers in a shower of refreshing ice, bikini-clad hotties and fireworks as we know it should be, everything is wilting and perhaps even melting. As far as I can tell there are only two possible explanations—Hot Lava Monsters have readjusted the earth’s thermostat to [...]
“Hi, I’m Twilight. And I’m True Blood.”
Twilight and True Blood have an animated Barbie off. (via Cinema Junkie)
Piracy’s Double-Edged Cutlass
The power of piracy and viral success of Go The Fuck To Sleep (a children’s book for adults): “Piracy, it seems, is what has driven the book’s real-world, money-making, flying-off-the-shelves success. The bootleg copy hasn’t replaced the actual artifact. It has only served as a sort of free advertising. Piracy can hurt publishers, but it [...]
Minoru Kawasaki: Look Back in Fun Fur
Every April at the Gutter, the editors write about something outside their usual domains. This month Comics Editor Carol Borden writes about movies. This is not even close to a full retrospective, because while Minoru Kawasaki doesn’t have a huge number of films, many of them are not available with English subtitles and I don’t [...]
The People’s Mario
Mario is a hero of the Proletariat.
Die Hipster!
Be the hipster in the excellent and free platform game, Die Hipster! (Thanks, Todd!)
“Darkseid IS”
Have you accepted that Darkseid will eventually discover the Anti-Life Equation and render the entire universe in to a desolate hellscape of firepits and despair? This Darkseid Chick Tract could help you realize the inevitability of his triumph. (Thanks, houseinrlyeh!)
If Superheroes were Hipsters
Caldwell Tanner’s vision of superheroes as hipsters. (via Lost At E Minor)
Avengers Assemble!
Earth’s mightiest heroes in their own webseries–holding meetings!
RIP, Leslie Nielsen
Leslie Nielsen has died. There would be no William Shatner without Leslie Nielsen. He was a hilarious comedic actor in films like Airplane!, The Naked Gun and Police Squad! He also played it straight in the forerunner to Star Trek, The Forbidden Planet. The L.A. Times has an obituary.
Have You Had, “The Talk?”
Have you talked to your child about Star Wars? This edutational video can help parents guide their children to make the right choices.
Tintin and Lovecraft.
Tintin in R’lyeh. Really. And Innsmouth. And The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward.
Teddypocalypse
Misery Bear encounters a zombie apocalypse.
« go back — keep looking »Of Note Elsewhere
“It’s easier to tell the same stories everyone else does. There’s no particular shame in it.
It’s just that it’s lazy, which is just about the worst possible thing a spec fic writer can be.
Oh, and it’s not true.”
Kameron Hurley writes about lazy writing, cannibal llamas, female soldiers, and women here. (Thanks, James!)
Patton Oswalt’s multi-franchise super-movie described in his Star Wars filibuster from Parks and Recreation, animated.
Corrigan Vaughan writes an open letter to “Fans of Geek Things“: “I appreciate that you think I have a nice rack and that some of you even find my friends and I to be pretty. That’s very kind. I’m not, however, super in love with the fact that having a rack at all seems to preclude me from being considered a ‘real’ fan.”
The Hollywood Reporter interviews director Takashi Miike about his new film, Shield of Straw: ” In Japan now, films are very safe. When I was young and went to old cinemas, they had a distinctive feel, an adult smell about them. As you got in your seat and the lights went down, there was a feeling of excitement: What if the film is scarier than I thought it’s going to be? You’re taken into that world. Nowadays, you can sit in the theater and know it’s going to be safe. That’s good for business, but not for filmmaking.”
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