Kovaleski (the blog of a cartoonist named John)

Thursday is the new Sunday – Minty fresh

KOVALESKI — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:14:15 +0000

Here’s the little-seen drop panel for the Sunday strip rerunning on Gocomics.com today. And it’s one of the few Sundays that the Hot Dog Guy shows up in. And HDG is not showing his usual distain for Bo, except in a silent, surly, stare-y way.

Dadding Badly – Playing catch

KOVALESKI — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:52:39 +0000

In this week’s Dadding Badly, urine trouble…which also sounds like “you’re in trouble.”

Comics go to the movies…kind of

KOVALESKI — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:22:45 +0000

I do have a weakness for odd movies about people trying to be superheroes. While I was picking at the carcass of an almost-closed Blockbuster I luckily found these.

I had seen Defendor (yep, that is the spelling) on the shelves before and was curious because of Woody Harrelson. Super was on my radar because it was written and directed by James Gunn who made great funny horror movie Slither (think Tremors). Unfortunatley, neither was showing up on Netflix streaming. (With a toddler, our primary way of watching movies is in bed on our iPhones.)

I don’t want to give too much away, so let be just say this: I would recommend both but Super is certainly more challenging, so it’s not for all tastes.

Thursday is the new Sunday – Anger Management

KOVALESKI — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:34:12 +0000

Not sure what to say about the Sunday comic rerunning on Gocomics.com today. except that the fellow Bo is talking to has, well, issues.

Dadding Badly – Happy New Fear

KOVALESKI — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:16:44 +0000

You might think a running comic now about New Year’s Eve, is pointless.

What would you think if I told you it’s about the previous New Year’s Eve?

Bow to my infinite powers of procrastintion…in this week’s Dadding Badly.

Bargains

KOVALESKI — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:55:22 +0000

I bought this DVD for $3.

If it was about WonderMAN it would probably be $5.

Thursday is the new Sunday – The kindest cut

KOVALESKI — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:28:44 +0000

A tail-peek drop panel from the Sunday strip rerunning on Go comics.com today. It’s one of the philosophical ones.

Comics go to the movies – TV specials

KOVALESKI — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:13:58 +0000

The AV Club has a nice write-up on comic strips that were turned into obscure TV specials.

Certainly the most interesting, yet not very succesful, is the pilot for a Wizard of Id series done not in animation, not with human actors, but with Muppets. I got to see this over a decade ago at a Johnny Hart exhibit in Binghamton NY. Johnny himself was our guide and said the coming of Sesame Street stopped the process from going further.

The one that you’d think would be the hardest to adapt – The Far Side – because of its lack of characters and plot, is the best of the ones I’ve seen. Surreally fun. (I still have it on ye ol’ video tape from when it first appeared on TV.)

They don’t give much love to the Cathy special. But take a look at the clip there. I happen to think it’s well written and acted. Take that, h8trs.

I wouldn’t normally suggest that anyone read the comments on the AV Club – they often have little to do with the subject and are just people wanting to hear themselves talk (or, type). This time there are some interesting tidbits in the discussions as well as links to other clips. I think one of them was a Slovenia-produced Hagar the Horrible.

Dadding Badly – Stamp of disapproval

KOVALESKI — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:10:22 +0000

A look back at the “Shopping Season of Christmas Past” in this post-holiday comic.

Comics go to the movies – Kick-ass

KOVALESKI — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:15:59 +0000

I was surprised that I hadn’t written anything about the movie Kick-ass when it came out in theaters. And I’m not going to write much now either. I was expecting “more” when I saw it at the multiplex especially after all the hype and the awesome trailers. Although it was trying to shake up the superhero mythos with violence, it didn’t seem it go far enough in terms of depth of characters. Watching it again on DVD, and with lowered expectations, it’s more entertaining as a parody of the genre. (But in both viewings Nicholas Cage is scenery-chewingly awful.)

Th real reason I’m writing this now is to point out something completely inconsequential I noticed. Early in the film the main character and his friends are shown coming out of a movie theater and seen on the marquee very briefly is “The Spirit 3.”

At first I thought it was wishful thinking on the part of the movie studio for both films, Lionsgate. But then I realized that Kick-ass was produced independently with Lionsgate just picking up the distribution afterwards In other words, I think Kick-ass was taking a shot at cartoonist/director Frank “Sin City” Miller’s spectacularly gonzo misfire adaptation of Will Eisner’s classic 1940s crime fighter.