...and various other assorted sundries.
The pic is from my birthday, the big 48, nearly a month ago. Time flies during the holidays around here. The shield was a gift from my eldest daughter, Super Drama Teen, who, being twenty years old now, should probably just be called Super Drama Daughter or some such.
I got other cool stuff -- a nifty Silver Age JLA and Flash t-shirts from Nate, the two FF movies from Super Adorable Kid, some magic cards and an awesome Silver Surfer glass from Super Dependable Teen, a copy of a very useful and avidly sought after, long out of print, roleplaying resource book from SuperWife, and... hrm... probably a few other things I can't remember. But the shield, which Super Drama Daughter found on vacation in Gatlinsburg and hid out for me for months, was the highlight.
I have such great kids.
Last summer, I started up another blogspot page, all about this pulp hero RPG scenario I came up with set in the fabulous 1930s. Check it out, if you've a mind to.
Last summer, I started up another blogspot page, all about this pulp hero RPG scenario I came up with set in the fabulous 1930s. Check it out, if you've a mind to.
In other random bits of geek blather, I've been watching the first season of THE VENTURE BROTHERS on DVD over the last couple of mornings before I leave for work. Remember THE TICK cartoon? Remember how unbelievably hilariously hysterically bust-a-gut nearly laugh yourself into an aneurysm it was, pretty much constantly, in every single episode?
Well, if you're looking for another pulp hero parody/pastiche cartoon series that is consistently about half as funny as THE TICK, and that occasionally gets up to being nearly 2/3s as funny as THE TICK, then this is your show.
That may seem like damning with faint praise, but I can't think of anything else on that's even half as funny as THE TICK used to be, so, whatever. THE VENTURE BROTHERS is cool, mind you, and I'm enjoying it. It's just, kind of, THE TICK-lite.
Continuing the random, I think it's time. Time for Joss Whedon to just admit it. However much he hates it, he needs to stop running away from it, stop living in denial, and just embrace it: the only thing he can do right is BUFFY. (DR. HORRIBLE was cool, but it's not going to work as an open ended series.) He needs to stop wasting years and years and years that we and Eliza Dushku and Anthony Stewart Head are never going to get back, buckle down, gear up, and do a goddam FAITH series.
And if he'd honestly rather die than re immerse himself in the BUFFY verse, well, I'll write the fucker. I'm easily as fat as Whedon. And I have the same kind of whiny voice he does. Plus, I have a cool Captain America shield. What more could anyone ask for?
Venture Brothers provides more of a sense late in that first season of what it will become. It's more layered, nuanced and generally excellent in the second, third and (half-completed) fourth seasons.
ReplyDeleteFor me, there was only one clinker note episode in the second season (well... maybe two) - of course, your mileage may vary. I have many fond memories of THE TICK, but halfway through season four I can say that VENTURE has long since surpassed my once upon a time TICK enjoyment. Fortunately, we're free to enjoy both.
Christopher McCulloch (going by the pseudonym Jackson Publick these days) who was one of the writers on THE TICK is the creator of THE VENTURE BROTHERS, btw., so many of the same sensibilities are there. I forget what info was in the mix with the DVD set, so it's not clear if you knew this already.
With the 8th episode of season four having hit a week ago and fans now left to wait until some point in the summer of 2010 when we'll get the other half (season four will ultimately give us 16 episodes instead of the 13 from the other seasons at the expense of a long mid-season break) I'm considering going back and re-watching the series so far sometime soon.
I've only so far seen the first seven eps of Season 1, and a few other glimpses of future eps on YouTube and such. Certainly there seem to be backstories remaining to be told -- Dr. Girlfriend is an especially intriguing character - but while I'm enjoying the show to date, I have to say, it doesn't seem worthy of the enormous reputation it seems to have acquired. But perhaps it will grow into something more over time, as you say.
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