Movies

A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

PSA: Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

[Support a worthy cause this holiday season. Plus, do it by Christmas Eve and get your $25 donation matched!] The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund was officially incorporated as a non-profit charitable organization in January of 1990 from the money left over from donations raised to defend Friendly Frank's arrest for selling "obscene comics" in Lansing, IL in 1986. Since then, the CBLDF has helped over a dozen comic book retailers and professionals fend off the censors, some successfully, some not. The CBLDF exists to fight censorship and defend the first amendment rights of comic book professionals throughout the United…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Comment: Comic Book Superheros Unmasked (2003)

Comic Book Superheros Unmasked (CBSU) is a History Channel documentary that has aired numerous times over the last few months. Released in 2003, the film was directed by Steve Kroopnick and he takes us on a tour of the comic book industry from its Depression Era-beginnings through its modern-day multi-million dollar enterprises. Our guides are some of the industries greatest legends, and current innovators, names like Stan Lee, Frank Miller, Joe Quesada, Neil Gaiman, and Will Eisner. I've seen CBSU three times, and I'd watch it a fourth time if it were playing right now. What struck me the most…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Paul Berman rips apart The Motorcycle Diaries, the cult of Che and so-called "American intellectuals" in a blistering article on Slate. The Cult of Che Don't applaud The Motorcycle Diaries. By Paul Berman The cult of Ernesto Che Guevara is an episode in the moral callousness of our time. Che was a totalitarian. He achieved nothing but disaster. Many of the early leaders of the Cuban Revolution favored a democratic or democratic-socialist direction for the new Cuba. But Che was a mainstay of the hardline pro-Soviet faction, and his faction won... I wonder if people who stand up to cheer…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Comic Book Wednesday is like an oasis in the middle of the drudgery that is Monday-Friday. Picked up more than I expected to this week, including bags, and am nearly halfway to another Midtown Comics rebate! As it is, I need to pick up another longbox as the collection is nearing 1,000 comics. Damn Omar for rekindling this particular fire! Between what I spend on comics and D&D, it's a good thing I don't smoke anymore. Recent additions to my ever-evolving pull list include Ezra, Powers, Secret Skull, Ex Machina and Sleeper - the latter two with new issues out…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

The Village: Better Than the Reviews

The Village, much-maligned for not living up to M. Night Shyamalan's media-manufactured reputation for shocking twists, was actually a pretty good movie when judged on its own merits. An interesting, well-told story - not quite the allegory of a post-9/11 world some critics have suggested - it features what is arguably one of the most amazing debut performances by a young actress in Bryce Dallas Howard. There is no way in the world Kirsten Dunst, the original actress cast in the role, could have handled the part as the movie would have sunk on her frail, one-note shoulders. The twists,…

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