Originally published July 9, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1338
It’s depressing not being a target audience. It’s disconcerting feeling one’s age. And it’s particularly uncomfortable when one feels that way when lots of other people are around, as was the case when I saw Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
Continue Reading “Movie review: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me”
Originally published July 2, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1337
Assorted observations and ramblings:
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Continue Reading “Darth Maul’s Lament, and some Wishful Thinking”
Originally published June 25, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1336
When I was nine or ten years old, something like that, my dad—who was a reporter at the time—did a lot of reviews of local theater. Road companies and such like came through places in North Jersey, and if there was something that my father thought would be appropriate for me (and presumably if my mother wasn’t interested) then he’d bring me along.
Knowing how much I was into comics, it seemed a natural fit as far as my dad was concerned when the musical Li’l Abner rolled into town.
Originally published June 18, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1335
Would you like to go to your very own private screening of Trekkies?
It shouldn’t be all that difficult. All you had to do was go this past weekend, the very first weekend that The Phantom Menace was playing. Because while other studios did everything they could to clear any other film the hëll out of the way of Star Wars‘ path, Paramount Pictures—boldly going where no intelligent distribution would go—released a documentary called Trekkies the exact same weekend. They did so with virtually no promotion at all, on an extremely limited number of screens, with a film whose target audience was off seeing possibly the most anticipated movie of the century.
Originally published June 11, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1334
Peter’s Star Wars Journal
WEDNESDAY, MAY 12: I make a rare trip into Manhattan. There is a weekly get together of people in the science fiction writing community which has been held every Wednesday at the same restaurant for nearly a decade, if not longer. I decide to show up for once. Much discussion is made of various people being “on line.” I assume they’re discussing the Internet. It is only after some minutes that I realize they mean that the aforementioned folks were actually on line for Star Wars Episode I. There is much talk of the multiple-block-long queues that await anyone determined/foolish enough to try to score tickets.
Continue Reading “Movie review: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace”
Originally published June 4, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1333
Now it can be revealed.
In an exclusive But I Digress scoop, we have learned the true origins of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
Despite whatever the Lucasfilm party line may be now, the truth appears to be this: George Lucas originally had no intention of continuing the story with live action films. Instead, due to the wide-spread popularity of the classic animation in the now-legendary Star Wars Christmas Special—to say nothing of the widely acclaimed, sumptuously and fluidly rendered Star Trek: The Animated Series—George Lucas had originally planned to continue the saga via the Saturday morning cartoon route. Such series as Droids and Ewoks were merely the testing grounds for his greatest, most ambitious project.
Intended to put a new, fresh slant on the Star Wars universe, Lucas, in conjunction with King Features Studios, developed the aborted series entitled:
Star Wars: Dennis the Phantom Menace
Originally published May 28, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1332
And so it starts.
Actually, its beginnings go all the way to the beginning. There was Adam in the Garden of Eden, and he had nothing in particular to do. So God gave him what could be considered busy work: name stuff.
As was mentioned in the recent issue of Aria, naming is powerful magic, for to name something is to define it, and to define it is to control it. There is one overwhelming impulse hardwired into mankind’s mainframe: Survival. From survival stems the sex drive, necessary for man to survive as a species. That’s why it feels so good; to make it an attractive pastime in order to heighten the likelihood of perpetuating mankind. It’s sure not because it’s the most dignified looking thing a person can engage in to kill an hour or three. Or a minute or three. From survival stems the Second Amendment, and the defiant NRA war-cry about getting their guns when they are pried from their cold, dead fingers (to which the obvious response seems to be, “Sounds like a plan”). And, on a fairly global scale, from survival stems the need to control the environment in which man lives.
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