This weekend I picked up a copy of “OZ F5: Gale Force,” in which a super-heroic Dorothy teams up with the equally super-heroic Tin Woodsman, Scarecrow, and Lion to dispatch the Wicked Witch of the West.

I haven’t had this much fun reading a comic book in a LONG time. It’s published by Alias comics, and you can probably order it at your comic book store for $5.00 or so. The 48-page, full-color graphic novel has the whole story in there, from the crash-landing atop the East Witch to the undoing of the West Witch. And there’s nary an advertisement to be seen, either.

One of my favorite lines: “Umm, Dorothy, if the monkeys where you come from don’t have rocket packs, how do they fly?”

Giggle.

–Howard

I’m feeling a little better. After writing my last entry I wandered around outside for a bit, picked a fresh red jalapeno, ate it, and then picked up my car from the dealer (bad ignition coil, 100% covered by warranty). Outside, plus PTrans depletion, plus endorphins, plus not having to spend money was kind of a boost.

And I HAVE gotten some work done today. My “Rule of Ten” seems to be working. At a minimum, every weekday, I must take 10 rows of Schlock Mercenary through one of the four stages of creation (script, pencil, ink, color). Adherence to this will mean 50 row-stages of work each week, which is 14 more row-stages than a week of comics actually takes.

So far I’ve colored 3 rows, pencilled 3 rows, and inked 3 rows so I’m at 9. And I’m gonna keep working, even if I do feel a little doldrummish.

–Howard

Mood swings, oh how I hate them.

Right now I’ve swung to the bottom of one. Working on the comic is difficult, and planning the work for next week and next month is oppressive. Contemplating financial matters is horrifying. I have a long list of recent personal failures, and each of them stands as if a member of some dark choir. Together they chant something that sounds a lot like “you can’t do it.”

For whatever reason the choir of my personal successes can’t seem to get its collective act together. Maybe the mood swing has scored them into forty measures of lacuna. It’s all I can do to remember they’re there. The lights are off where they’re sitting, so I can’t even look over at them for moral support.

*sigh*

“Appleseed” = bad Sci-Fi

Okay, I’ve got the attention of the Anime fans, now.

I just watched the first half of Appleseed. It’s a beautiful film. Some of the character animations are a little wooden, but it’s still very, very PRETTY. (Okay, regarding the wooden animations: In a few places it is so bad it’s only a step or two above Barbie: Rapunzel. Which I have seen. Twice. Go ahead, become a parent. Have daughters. I dare you.)

Back on topic: Appleseed is pretty. It’s also horrible sci-fi.

Oh, it’s got lots of neat pieces: robots, artificial people, a false utopia, shiny cities, ruined cities, and stuff blowing up. The setting is a fascinating one. Apparently the writers thought so too, because characters spend endless minutes of screen time “cabbaging” about this and that aspect of the setting. In particular, the dark-haired, burgundy-eyed bioroid chick did that, and did so in a voice I can’t believe the dub producers paid money for.

Here’s the problem: not one of the characters was even remotely interesting. Oh, I could tell which characters I was SUPPOSED to be identifying with, rooting for, or otherwise emotionally investing in — that’s what the audio cues and soft lighting is for — but there wasn’t a single one of them I would have stood up for and said “please, mister screenwriter, don’t kill him/her/it off.” Not the heroine. Not her half-machine friend. And certainly not the burgundy-eyed cabbage-head.

Oh, the irony: when the film finally gets around to the “quest” bit (“go find this piece of lost and mysterious technology so we can save our society”) one of the motivating factors for the heroine is that cabbage-head is now dying. Me, I couldn’t have cheered louder, seeing her collapse in a ruined heap. If this film had been “Peter Pan” and she’d been Tinkerbell, I would have run through the audience attempting to keep people from clapping. I would have invented anti-applause, and applied it liberally, not-clapping intently enough to kill the fairies for the next three nights’ showings.

(Thinking about it… in this case, shouting “I DO NOT BELIEVE IN FAIRIES” is all I’d have to do, right? Now… is there a version of that sentence that works on Anime chicks?)

Yeah, I’ll go back and watch the end of the movie. There’s a lot I can learn from it about line and color. Shots are well framed, and the action is enjoyable. But whoever it was who recommended Appleseed to me needs to raise the bar a little bit. Appleseed is beautiful, and it’s sci-fi, and it’s great animation, but that doesn’t make it great sci-fi.

Maybe if I’d watched it BEFORE watching Serenity.