To Your Planet, Welcome
I believe that's my line, mister.
I here am new, but you are known as being Ayers of Forbidden Planet.
So my name is Jeff Ayers and, by way of introduction, I ‘ve worked for Forbidden Planet for the last fourteen(ish) years. Capacity: buyer, manager, salesperson, schill. I would have posted sooner, but I’ve been working like a dog on helping develop FP’s Daily Planet AND this:
… a new webstore featuring all the comics, books, toys, manga, DVDs, etcetera, etcetera, that FP is known for worldwide. Amazon of geekdom. Well… it will be. We ain’t sleepin’ at night. The site just launched, and while it’s still a little raw, it’s functioning and ready to go! The Daily Planet’s actually an extension of that, so be sure to check both often, folks.
As for the Daily Planet, I’d like to use this space to thank Heidi MacDonald of The Beat for giving us a shout yesterday. Her comic culture blog is superb, and first on my Bookmark drop-down list on every internet browser I work from.
Also, special thanks to managing and contributing editor David Press for being the lone voice in the Daily Planet night so far. His stalwart dedication to writing for this new blog has been admirable, his posts most enjoyable, and will continue to be so, providing news and insight in the world of comics and such. There’ll also be a regular group of contributors, and guests galore. As for me I dig a lot of geeky stuff (mostly books) and that’ll be the majority of my focus here.
Keep your eye on this space, as things are just ramping up!
Its that time again: Wednesday.
I’m really, really trying to not go into a “Shining” reference here, so please thank me for that. Since our new online store has gone live (hint, hint its at the right or click here), we’re going to do a weekly feature of all the great stuff coming out this week in terms of comics.
The couple of things that I’m looking forward to this week is “Pixu: The Mark of Evil“. Handled by Indie darlings Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, and “Casanova” and “Umbrella Academy” twin brother artists Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon.
From DC Comics the obvious highlight of the week is “Wednesday Comics”. The first issue of this newspaper-sized comic that will run every week for the next 12 weeks is just bound to be gorgeous. With stories by “100 Bullets” team Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso doing Batman, and Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred doing a “Metamorpho” story.
Other highlights includes the first issue of “Dark X-Men #1″, the second printing of “Chew #1″ which people are throwing up their hands in expressing how awesome it is. I haven’t read it, but its important to try new things. Also is yet another Blackest Night prequel in “Green Lantern”.
However, what I am really pumped to check out is Jeff Lemire’s “The Nobody” which is an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic “The Invisible Man.” A number of people have expressed to me to check out his Indie classic “The Essex County”.
As always, for a complete listing of the new comics out today, head to our brandy new, fresh and user friendly online store at ForbiddenPlanetUSA.com.
Thoughts on “Warehouse 13″.
Last night, I tried to make sense out of “Warehouse 13″ but didn’t get very far. I watched in fits and starts and in between passes of a football that seemingly circles the globe. As far as I can I tell this show is about two Secret Service agents, one a fuck-up (Peter Lattimer played by Eddie McClintock) and the other is an overachiever (Myra Berring played by Joanne Kelly), who save the President’s life. After being on two sides of the conflict with the President they both end up getting transferred to this strange warehouse in the Badlands of South Dakota. McClintock’s character, because of his fuck-up, has been suspended so he finds himself glad he’s been reassigned rather than sitting around on his couch. Whereas Kelly’s character is upset that she didn’t get promoted and is saddled with McClintock.
They are brought in by Saul Rubinek’s odd little character named Artie Nielsen who is essentially a supernatural hunter/gatherer who looks like he lives in a box. He’s in charge of this Warehouse, to which he describes as “America’s attic.” There is all kinds of strange shit in this thing. Like a tea kettle, that operates as a Genie granting you a wish but if that wish is impossible it produces a ferret, and Harry Houdini’s wallet that somehow falls into Myra’s bag and does something nonsensical.
Rubinek’s character is essentially the weird Mad Scientist sort played much better by “Fringe” actor John Noble and his latest charges are essentially his field agents. They work the Mulder/Scully archetype quite well with a bit of a refreshing taste as McClintock’s Peter is not nearly as droll as Mulder, but is clearly enjoying himself immensely with this weird stuff and that shines through his performance. Kelly’s Myra (like Scully) is clearly not enjoying any aspect of her character, or that character’s circumstances. Myra spends most of the two hours bitching and moaning about wanting to be re-assigned and getting blown off by her boss. She left me not caring about her at all. McClintock is clearly the voice you come in on, his enthusiasm and enjoyment of all the weird shit happening around him makes you smile as you, like him, are a part of this new playhouse. Its tough not to like him.
The plot only gets going into the second hour of the pilot, and I’m not entirely sure what went on. There was a car crash, a box they had to capture that caged some kind of woman that can make men do whatever she wants. I don’t know, I think I dozed off.
In the end, as with most pilots, its a touch and go kind of thing where the writers and actors are still trying to make their way around the characters, the story, and that alot of the time leaves the audience a little short. That was the case here. I feel like there is a ton of fun to be had with this idea but Pilots are generally not distinctive of an overall show. You hope you’ve done enough as creators to get people to tune back in, but, for me I liked McClintock enough to go back, but I won’t be upset if I miss an episode.
I feel like SyFy needs a Big Lights really innovative show, and I feel like their best shot is reviving the cancelled “Kings” because I don’t think this show or “Eureka” is interesting enough to get people to pay attention to the channel post-”Battlestar Galactica.” Though, from what I hear the reboot of “Alien Nation” with “Firefly” producer Tim Minear could be just what the channel needs.
