Author: Ruben Bolling

This week’s comic.

Who is that guy on the right side of the blog’s screen, below the link to “Tom the Dancing Bug on Salon” and above “Subscribe to this blog’s feed”? He’s wearing a purple shirt and a bemused smile.

It’s not me, and I have no idea who he is, or why he’s there. Seriously. I’ve asked the blog’s administrator.

In the meantime, please enjoy the photo. He seems like a nice guy.

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UPDATE: Turns out the photo is of John McPherson, creator of the comic “Close to Home.” I still have no idea why his picture is there, but he is a nice guy.

UPDATE UPDATE: The picture has been changed to a drawing of Garfield standing in front of a wacky building. Fascinating.

So last night, I attended a screening of various scenes from the upcoming "Watchmen" movie, including a talk with director Zack Snyder and the artist of the original comic book, Dave Gibbons.

I came to the Watchmen comic very late — I read it for the first time only a couple of years ago — but I of course loved it instantly.  So I was very interested in how they could turn that rich, complex, sophisticated, downbeat, political, epic comic book into a superhero movie.

And after seeing these scenes, I’m convinced the answer is:  very, very faithfully, and very, very well.  It seems that it was the success of director Snyder’s "300" that gave him the clout to reject the studio’s re-imagining of Watchmen as a War on Terror shoot-’em-up, and go back to the source material.  Based on what I saw, it’s hard to imagine a fan of the comic book being angry or disappointed that the movie strayed from the comic.  It captures the tone and feel of the comic (often panel for panel) perfectly, yet translates it cinematically in a visually witty way.  (The fight scenes I saw — The Comedian vs. Shadowy Assailant, and Nite Owl and Silk Spectre vs. Prison Rioters — seem to have gone on longer than the comic would indicate, but come on… did you see "300"?  You’ve got to give Snyder that.)

To keep the film down to a watchable length, Snyder said he had to cut or modify certain sequences and characters, but he seems to have made up for that by making allusions to what there isn’t time to explicitly include.  Every frame just about burst with references and snippets that even Gibbons said he catches only after multiple viewings.

After listening to Gibbons speak on stage, and talking to him afterwards, to say he’s enthusiastic about this film is an understatement.  He made the excellent point that movie audiences may be ready for a deconstruction of the superhero genre in a way that they weren’t only a few years ago, when they weren’t quite as familiar with the conventions of the form.  I also think there are political connections that can be made between "Watchmen"’s mid-1980s world and our post-9/11, financial apocalyptic time that will be very interesting.

This movie looked beautiful, unbelievably well-crafted, and every bit as exciting and provocative as the comic.

And who knows — maybe with the success of "Watchmen," Warner Bros. will make another movie adaptation of a comic that originally appeared in the mid-1980s.  (Stay tuned, folks!)

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Update:  Much more info about the screening here.

The critics say:

This looks like a lame attempt by Ruben Bolling to enodrse O-BUM-a by slamming McCain.
Well, Bolling, you brainless meathead sleazeball, let me tell you something: I would much rather vote for John McCain than that terrorist-sympathizer O-BUM-a any time! Consider this: if Obama gets elected, how soon do you think terrorist attacks on this country will increase? Obama could pull enough strings to let groups like Al-Qaeda and perhaps the Taliban to infiltrate this country. Before long, you’ll be seeing reports of bin Laden sightings right here in the U. S. of A., pal! and forget about the Constitution: Obama will have it abolished and NO ONE will have any rights! He may deny it now, but it wouldn’t be the first time a candidate lied through his gutless teeth. Don’t fall for Obama’s lies–don’t let him become an American “Hitler”! Vote for John McCain!

Apparently, the Orphan Works Act was killed in the House.

The senate somehow found time to pass S. 2913, the Shaw Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 (“Orphan Works Act”) on Friday.

I’ve written about my opposition to this bill.

The critics say:

“to compare the u.s.s.r. to the united states is without a doubt the dumbest,innacurate,and most desperate comparason I,v ever seen in my life”

This Sunday, October 5, I will be at the SPX Cartooning and Comics Arts Festival, at the Marriott Bethesda North Hotel and Conference Center, 5701 Marinelli Road, North Bethesda, Md., participating in a panel entitled “Drawing the Election,” from 2:30 – 3:30 pm, moderated by Marc Singer, and also including Jen Sorenson, Mikhaela Reid and Keith Knight.

Here is Part 2 of the 1993 Tom the Dancing Bug series, Pliocene Park.

I really haven’t been posting enough to link to Part 1 — it’s just a quick scroll, two posts down (one of which is a video embed that I did moments ago) — but I’ll make believe that many, many posts ago I presented the first part of this ongoing series, and the only way to remind you is to provide this link.