Frank Miller, you’re no Will Eisner (and other thoughts on the comics biz)

I’ve had a little-worn copy of Eisner/Miller on my shelf for years. Published in 2005 by Dark Horse Comics, and to my knowledge never reprinted, it offers a dialogue between two respected cartoonists in the mold of François Truffaut’s celebrated conversations with Alfred Hitchcock. In this case, the pairing is of Will Eisner (best known for The Spirit) and Frank Miller (of Dark Knight Returns and Sin City fame).

I’d only read the book once since I bought it, 15 years ago. Considering later developments in both men’s lives, and in the American comic book business in general, I thought it deserved a second look. » More... »

Edward Snowden talks state secrets in a book that’s short on surprises

Edward SnowdenI don’t read a lot of memoirs. None, really. I can get behind a good biography, and maybe even an autobiography, sometimes. But the idea of slogging through a few hundred pages of the self-important reminisces of someone gazing through the lens of their own nostalgia appeals to me about as much as being FedExed the plates from whatever they ate for dinner last night. But when I heard famous NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden had published such a book, my curiosity got the better of me and I picked up a copy. For the most part, it was worth it. » More... »

Is Rambo getting to old for this, or is it just the movies that are getting old?

What an odd bird is Rambo: Last Blood. I had to watch it—I’m an American male of a certain age, and I grew up with the Rambo character. But what this movie was, I’m not quite sure. (Also, I was one of three people in the theater, on opening Friday night at 7pm.)

In a film by Balboa Productions, Sylvester Stallone returns to his other signature role as John Rambo. Even more so than the last outing, he lumbers into this fifth film in the series, looking chiseled but stiff at the ripe old age of 72 (at the time of filming). Yvette Monreal plays a damsel in distress who must eventually be avenged. Paz Vega plays a character who is unimportant. And the rest of the cast are basically indistinguishable, cardboard demon-men who must be shot, stabbed, dismembered, tortured, or blown up. » More... »

Wow! I saw Glenn Danzig’s ‘Verotika’ and trust me, you don’t have to

DanzigIf you stumbled across this article because of a web search, chances are you already know that Glenn Danzig (he of Misfits, Samhain, and his eponymous band) has made a movie. You probably know it’s called Verotika, and that it’s based on various works published by his comic book company of the same name. And you’ve probably heard it’s bad. Like, really bad. All these things are true.

But on the last part, let’s be fair. It wasn’t any movie studio that greenlit Danzig’s passion project, nor even a schlock direct-to-VOD outfit. Rather, it was his friends at Cleopatra Records who put up the cash and gave Glenn their blessing to make the movie he wanted to make. So out of the gate, we have two handicaps: First, a budget the size of Jeff Bezos’s lunch bill. Second, the fact that Glenn Danzig’s personal aesthetic is, um, unique. » More... »

‘Suspiria’ remake deserves its own place on the screen

Suspiria (2018)I’ve long been a fan of Dario Argento’s 1977 horror flick Suspiria, and I’m certainly not alone. Among horror film aficionados, Suspiria is revered as much for its memorable cinematography and score as its ability to remain compelling despite having an almost nonsensical plot. So when the news came that a remake of this seminal Italian film was in the works, the natural question was, “Why?” » More... »

Thoughts on public relations (Part 2)

This post is the second in a series of thoughts on my recent experiences as a journalist “embedded” within a tech-centric public relations agency. You can find Part One here.

In that first installment, I talked a lot about how reporters and PR pros often find themselves at odds because they don’t really understand each other. This time around, I’d like to turn to how companies interact with external PR agencies and the media, and why they don’t always get the results they want.

Now … I don’t really expect companies to take my advice. There’s very little a PR agency can do to change corporate culture. A reporter might have a better chance, provided the barrage of negative press is big enough. But companies, especially large ones, tend to be set in their ways. Still, it’s worth pondering some of the things that, in theory, should be easy to change, but that I’ve encountered again and again. » More... »

Thoughts on public relations (Part 1)

So here we are again. Last time I tried to knock the dust off this blog, it was to announce that I’d parted ways with The Register and would be moving on to my next chapter, whatever that would be. And then … silence.

Mea culpa. What happened was things got busy again fairly quickly. I decided to accept a new position, one that was different from anything I’d done before. I took a job at a public relations firm.

It certainly was a change. I’ve never had a company issue a press release about hiring me before, and nobody has ever interviewed me about my new job – although I suppose neither should have surprised me, given the industry in question.

I ended up staying in the role for 12 months, almost to the day. Now I’m on my own again, and itching to get back into editorial writing. I do expect to continue to do some communications work, albeit in a consulting capacity. The most interesting part of the experience for me, though, was the inside look it gave me at the other side of the tech media circus, a side I’d never investigated before. » More... »

Tough times ahead for Google?

Seven years after its IPO, Google is entering the next phase of its growth as a company. It’s impressively large by anyone’s standards, with $29.3 billion in revenue in 2010, nearly 30,000 full-time employees, and offices in 42 countries. And yet Larry Page, now Google’s CEO for the first time since 2001, still seems to view the company as a cross between a startup and his old Stanford University grad project. It’s neither, and it faces difficult challenges. The legal environment around Google is tightening even as it goes head-to-head with the industry’s largest companies, and the changes it must make to remain competitive may mean tomorrow’s Google little resembles the fun-loving Silicon Valley darling of yesteryear. Read on for the rest of my analysis of Google and the road it must travel, this week at InfoWorld.com.

Google gWater: By invitation only

Google gWater glassGoogle’s Mountain View headquarters — the Googleplex, as it is known — is a wondrous place. The various little perks and bennies enjoyed by Google employees are legendary. Whether it’s free laundry service, a loaner umbrella when it’s raining, a loaner bicycle to get from building to building, or a help-yourself bucket of gummi worms, Google provides everything for you.

Visitors to the Googleplex are invariably stunned by these displays of Larry and Sergey’s nigh-prodigal largess. At most of their own offices, they’re lucky to score a free newspaper for the train ride home.

But there is one thing Google is less willing to provide, as I learned this week while covering the Chrome OS announcement. Next time you have a chance to visit the Google campus, just you try getting a drink of water. » More... »

My take on EW’s top 100 books

The Road, Cormac McCarthyEntertainment Weekly is running their “EW1000” feature, celebrating what they call the “new classics” — the best that the various fields of entertainment have had to offer since 1983. Now, normally I don’t think EW is someplace I would turn for literary recommendations, but since they have gone ahead and included a list of their Top 100 favorite books of the last 25 years, I figured, why not take a look and see what they came up with?

OK, so let’s see … best read of the last 25 years?

1.) The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.
OK, well, 25 years makes for an awfully crowded field, but I did enjoy this book thoroughly. Off to a decent start. Let’s see what else they’ve got, shall we? Just a few picks, at random… » More... »