A Sunday Review

I started the week with The Arrival by Shaun Tan. If you have not read this book, find a copy and read it. Really, it's fantastic. It successfully manages to evoke the confusion and fear of someone leaving home and arriving in a strange country. And the artwork is simply amazing. The details make the book wonderful. Seriously, get yourself a copy through the library (like I did) or buy one. It's worth the read. Heck, this is probably the first book I ever opened, stopped on the endpapers, and had to study them for some time.

Ghosts, Critters & Sacred Places of Washington And Oregon II by Jefferson Davis is much like the previous volume. It's a collection of ghost tales with a few sacred places and strange critters thrown in. Again, a good book for kids interested in the paranormal. And this volume read much better than the previous one, now I know what to expect.

TV watching: Smallville: "Siren" (Justin Hartley is hot, otherwise boring), Classic Doctor Who: "The Horror of Fang Rock" (I love this story! Creepy tale set on a lighthouse), UFO Hunters (nah, not my thing), The Daily Show and the Colbert Report (return of the writers REALLY helped), American Gladiators (fun!), Ghost Hunters International: "Headless Haunting" (Fantastic locations! I want to visit that first citadel), Torchwood: "Adam" (that was intense, poor Ianto), Supernanny: "Daniels Family" (six kids is at least four too many, in my opinion (as the fifth child of seven)), Dinner: Impossible: "Robert & the Chocolate Factory" (mmm, chocolate), Ace of Cakes: "Mascots and Mice" (mmm, cake), and Torchwood: "Reset" (oh my, kicking it up a notch).

This week's library movie was Dreamgirls. You hardly have to watch this movie, just sit back and enjoy the music. In between the music, the movie itself is a good look at the music industry with all its up and downs. It runs a little long, but the music makes it seem a lot shorter. Definitely worth listening... er, watching. Especially if you want to see some incredible musical performances.

Hubby-Eric and I finished watching Sapphire and Steel: "The Railway Station". If nothing else, this makes me not want to go ghost hunting. Steel is really quite nasty, isn't he?

A note on Sapphire and Steel. Do not watch ANY of the episode commentaries until you've watched the whole series. They talk about future episodes and end up spoiling them. Argh!

For a Valentine treat, hubby-Eric put on the DVD of the Muppet Show Valentine special. It's on the Season Two DVD set. It was actually the first pilot for the Muppet Show, and shows some familiar characters mixed with ones who didn't pop up again. Crazy Harry appears as Crazy Donald (?!) and Kermit isn't the main man. Er, frog. I notice that Season Three of the Muppet Show is coming out in May. Gotta put that on my wish list!

This week's comic books! I read D's copy of Superman #673 and found it... well... normal. I like Chris, but I'm not sure what to think of his addition to the mythos. Moving on to Green Lantern Corps #21... I still don't like space adventures, and none of the Lanterns I like were in this one. It's a miss.

Another one that hasn't caught me yet is Wonder Woman #17. Again, it just hasn't got hooks into me. I want to like it. I'm giving it a couple more issues to convince me, but I just can't get excited about the character. JLA Classified #52 had lots of fighting and a little thinking. I'm more interested in the next issue, as the tiny preview cover seems to have an Aquaman in it.

A comic with not enough Aqualad in it was Tiny Titans #1. Even so, what I saw of Aqualad in this comic was WAY better than the ugly portrayal in Year One. I saw Astro City Special #2: Beautie described as Kurt Busiek's Barbie Fan Fiction, and giggled about that right up until I read it. At which point I was startled and pleased. It's good stuff. Note the dedication on the inside front cover, by the way.

Doctor Who Classics #3 was exactly what I expected, because I have read this story multiple times before. Again, the coloring is a great improvement over previous versions. And the story is still fun. I'm just impatient for the new stories, due at the end of the month now, according to a note I found on IDW's website. And lastly for this week, DMZ #28 was a bit of a letdown. I'm not sure what it was trying to say. I guess I need to reread it, but not right now. Too many other things going on this week.

I liked The Arrival by Shaun Tan so much I went to the library and picked up every other Shaun Tan book I could find. Memorial by Gary Crew and Shaun Tan is a sad little picture book about the fate of a tree planted in memory of soldiers who fought in WWI. The Viewer by Gary Crew and Shaun Tan is a frightening little tale of a viewmaster. Yes, a viewmaster. The Rabbits by John Marsden and Shaun Tan is a tale that pounds you over the head with the idea that invasive species are bad and destroy everything. The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan is a sweet little tale of how we lose our innocence. None of the four books live up to the sheer power of The Arrival, but they all have their high points. I think I probably liked The Lost Thing the most.