Rasetsu's Mom

I finished reading Rasetsu, Vol. 3

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin.

The Return of Nora's True Form

I finished reading NORA: The Last Chronicle of Devildom, Vol. 8 (Nora (Viz))

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin.

Madea's 10 Rules for Thanksgiving Dinner at Her House

The following was a chain email purportedly from Tyler Perry's beloved character Mabel "Madea" Simmons:

10 RULES FOR THANKSGIVING DINNER AT MY HOUSE

1. Don't get in line asking questions about the food. 'Who made the potato salad? Is it egg in there? Are the greens fresh? Is the meat in the greens turkey or pork? Who made the macaroni and cheese? What kind of pie is that; who made it? Ask one more question and I will punch you in your mouth, knocking out all your fronts so you won't be able to eat anything.

2. If you can't walk, or are missing any limbs, sit your ass down until someone makes your plate for you. Dinner time is not the time for you to be independent. Nibble on them damn peanuts and walnuts to hold you over until someone makes you a plate.

3. If you have kids under the age of twelve, I will escort their little asses down to the basement and bring their food down to them. They are not going to tear up my damn house this year. Tell them that they are not allowed upstairs until it's time for Uncle Butchie to start telling family stories about their mommas and papas. If they come upstairs for any reason except that they are bleeding to death, I will break a foot off in their asses.

4. There is going to be one prayer for Thanksgiving dinner! JUST ONE! We do not care that you are thankful that your thirteen year old daughter gave birth to a healthy baby or your nephew just got out of jail. Save the talk for someone that gives a damn. The time limit for the prayer is one minute. If you are still talking after that one minute is up, you will feel something hard come across your lips and they will be swollen for approximately 20 minutes.

5. Finish everything on your plate before you go for seconds! If you don't, you will be cursed out and asked to stay your greedy ass home next year.

6. BRING YOUR OWN TUPPERWARE!! Don't let me catch you fixing yourself a plate in my good tupperware knowing damn well that I will never see it again! Furthermore, if you didn't bring anything over, don't let me catch you making a plate period or it will be a misunderstanding.

7. What you came with is what you should leave with! Do not leave my house with anything that doesn't belong to you. EVERYBODY WILL BE SUBJECTED TO A BODY SEARCH COMING AND GOING OUT OF MY DOMAIN!!!

8. Do not leave your kids so you can go hopping from house to house. This is not a DAYCARE CENTER. There will be a kid parent roll call every ten minutes. Any parent that is not present at the time of roll call, your child will be put outside until you come and get him or her. After 24 hours, I will call ACS on you ignorant ass!!

9. BOOK YOUR HOTEL ROOM BEFORE YOU COME INTO TOWN!! There will be no sleeping over at my house! You are to come and eat your dinner then take your ass home or to your hotel room. EVERYBODY GETS KICKED OUT AT 11:00 pm. You will get a 15 minute warning bell ring.

10. Last but not least; ONE PLATE PER PERSON!! This is not a soup kitchen. I am not trying to feed your family until Christmas dinner. You will be supervised when you fix your plate. Anything over the appropriate amount will be charged to you before you leave. There will be a cash register at the door. Thanks to Cousin Alfred and his greedy ass family, we now have a credit card machine. So Visa and Mastercard are now being accepted.

Happy Thanksgiving! [END]

Muhyo Begins the Fusion

I finished reading Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation, Vol. 14 (Muhyo and Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation)

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin. Gets better with each volume.

Fantagraphics Books to Publish Stephen Dixon Collection

Press release from Fantagraphics Books:

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS ANNOUNCES THE ACQUISITION OF STEPHEN DIXON’S WHAT IS ALL THIS?, A COLLECTION OF MODERN FICTION

Fantagraphics Books is proud to announce the acquisition of What Is All This?, a 900-page collection of previously uncollected short fiction by two-time National Book Award Nominee (1991, 1995) Stephen Dixon. The collection will be published in May, 2010 and mark the third entry in Fantagraphics burgeoning line of literary fiction, following Alexander Theroux’s Laura Warholic (2007) and Monte Schulz’s This Side of Jordan (2009). Along with Theroux, Dixon is the second National Book Award nominated-author to publish new fiction through Fantagraphics.

“Stephen Dixon is one of the great secret masters — too secret. I return again and again to his stories for writerly inspiration, moral support and comic relief at moments of personal misery, and, several times, in a spirit of outright plagiaristic necessity: borrowing a jumpstart from a few lines of Dixon has been a real problem-solver in my own short fiction. Please read him, you.” — Jonathan Lethem

Dixon is one of the most acclaimed authors of short stories in the history of American letters. He has published previously through acclaimed independent literary presses like McSweeney’s and Melville House, as well as corporate houses like Henry Holt. His work, characterized by mordant humor and a frank attention to human sexuality, has earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters Prize for Fiction, the O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize. Fantagraphics Books is proud to present his latest volume of short stories, a massive collection of vintage Dixon, eschewing the modernism and quasi-autobiography of his I-trilogy and instead treating readers to a pared-down, crystalline style more reminiscent of Hemingway.

“Dixon is one of the few writers whose new work I will put everything aside to read, which is to say he is in the company of Alice Munro, Lorrie Moore, and Lydia Davis…. Put aside whatever you're reading, and read him.” — J. Robert Lennon

“This is our third book of prose fiction —after Alex Theroux’s Laura Warholic and Monte Schulz’s This Side of Jordan— and readers may notice that the common denominator among these books is that language itself serves as the animating literary force,” says acquiring editor and Fantagraphics co-publisher Gary Groth. “Dixon’s finely chiseled sentences cut to the quick of people’s lives. None of these stories have been collected in any book; they have appeared in a wide variety of literary journals over almost 40 years and Dixon has entirely rewritten all of them. Dixon admirers will be cheered to learn that these stories comprise a wholly original work.”

Centrally concerning himself with the American condition, Dixon explores in What Is All This? obsessions of body image, the increasingly polarized political landscape, sex —in all its incarnations— and the gloriously pointless minutiae of modern life, from bus rides to tying shoelaces. Using the canvas of his native New York (with one significant exception that affords Dixon the opportunity to create a furiously political fable) he astutely captures the edgy madness that infects the city through the neuroses of his narrators with a style that owes as much to Neo-Reaist cinema as it does to modern literature. What Is All This? will be published in hardcover, designed by Fantagraphics award-winning Art Director Jacob Covey. “Stephen Dixon is one of the few writers who completely challenged, then changed how I think about writing and reading,” says Covey. “He was the first writer I recognized as making Art that was as viscerally relevant as painting or music. Designing a book for someone who was so formative to me is one of the rarest and most intimidating opportunities I can imagine.”

“I have read a lot of Dixon’s writing. If I didn’t like his writing I would not have read so many things of his.” — Tao Lin

Stephen Dixon was born in 1936 in New York City. He graduated from the City College of New York in 1958 and is a former faculty member of Johns Hopkins University. In his early 20s, he worked as a journalist in radio, interviewing such monumental figures as John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Nikita Khrushchev. His witty, keenly observed narratives and sharply hewn prose have appeared in every major market magazine from Harper’s to Playboy and have earned him two National Book Award nominations —for his novels Frog and Interstate. He still hammers out his fiction on a vintage typewriter.

Fantagraphics Books (www.fantagraphics.com ) has been the world’s leading publisher of comics and graphic novels since 1976, with titles by Robert Crumb, Charles M. Schulz, Joe Sacco, Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware and many others. In 2007, the company launched its prose division, beginning with novels by Alexander Theroux (Laura Warholic) and Jules Feiffer (a reissue of the noted artist’s 1963 novel, Harry, the Rat with Women). [END]

Dark Horse Announces Creative Team for New Terminator Comics

Press release from Dark Horse Comics:

ZACK WHEDON BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO TERMINATOR

DARK HORSE ANNOUNCES CREATIVE TEAM ON HIGHLY ANTICIPATED NEW SERIES

In 2029, Kyle Reese will be sent to 1984 to stop a T-800 from killing the mother of the resistance, Sarah Conner. But before his future son will send him back in time, Kyle Reese was simply another survivor in a desolate future.

In a brand-new series, Zack Whedon (Dr. Horrible, Deadwood, Fringe, Rubicon) brings his sharp writing skills to one of the most celebrated sci-fi properties in history to tell the story of a man struggling to live in a world with little food, water, or hope.

Never before has the iconic character from James Cameron’s first Terminator film been explored with such depth and humanity. Readers will have the opportunity to follow Kyle Reese and his closest allies as they face insurmountable odds in a world run by cold, calculating machines bent on destroying the last memory of what it means to be a human being.

In a world wrought with Hunter Killer Drones, T-600s, T-800s, H-K’s and a host of other terrifying technology, a small band of friends must find a way to keep the Resistance breathing amidst an eviscerated landscape devoid of nearly all life. Kyle Reese, the father of the future, leads these rebels with only the slightest promise of peace and the most basic of mortal codes – never give up.

The two, three-issue arcs will be drawn by Andy MacDonald (NYC Mech, Punisher War Journal) with covers by renowned illustrator Massimo Carnevale (Y: The Last Man).

“It’s an honor to be a part of the on-going Terminator saga, and to have the talents of Andy MacDonald and Massimo Carnevale helping me in bringing this story to life,” said writer Zack Whedon.

The much-anticipated first issue from the dynamic creative team will be released from Dark Horse Comics in March 2010.

Dark Horse’s successful Termintor Omnibus Vol. 1 & 2 are currently available at a retail price of $24.95.

T1, THE TERMINATOR, ENDOSKELETON, and any depiction of Endoskeleton are trademarks of StudioCanal. ©2009 StudioCanal. All Rights Reserved. [END]

Paranormal Activity on DVD at Year's End

Press release from Paramount Pictures:

THE CHILLING SURPRISE HIT THAT HAD FANS EVERYWHERE “DEMANDING IT” MANIFESTS ON DVD AND BLU-RAY

The Supernatural Thriller Comes Home December 29, 2009 Including an Unrated Version with a Shocking Alternate Ending Not Seen in Theaters

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – The “truly scary” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times), edge-of-your-seat horror film PARANORMAL ACTIVITY will make its presence known on DVD and two-disc Blu-ray December 29, 2009 from Paramount Home Entertainment. Hailed as “a horror phenomenon” (Richard Corliss, Time) and “one of the scariest movies of all time” (BloodyDisgusting.com) the hypnotic and harrowing film drove filmgoers to demand that it play in their cities, ultimately earning over $100 million at the domestic box office. Loaded with suspense and punctuated by moments of sudden and unexpected horror right up to the shocking ending, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is more frightening to watch at home, even with the lights on.

Written and directed by Oren Peli, the intense and chilling story follows a young, middle-class couple who become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be demonic, but is certainly most active in the middle of the night. Especially while they sleep. The DVD and two-disc Blu-ray include the original theatrical version of the film, plus an unrated version with a shocking alternate ending not seen in theaters. The Blu-ray also includes a digital copy of the theatrical version.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY DVD & Blu-ray:
The PARANORMAL ACTIVITY DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 televisions with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround and Spanish 5.1 Surround (theatrical version only) and English, French and Spanish subtitles. The two-disc Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital (theatrical version only) and English, English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles. Special features include:
o Unrated version with alternate ending not seen in theaters
o Digital copy of theatrical version (Blu-ray only)

PARANORMAL ACTIVITYStreet Date: December 29, 2009
S.R.P.: $29.99 U.S (DVD); $40.99 U.S. (Blu-ray)
Runtime: 86 minutes
U.S. Rating: R for language
Canadian Rating: 14A for frightening scenes and coarse language; not recommended for children [END]