Man, this Spirit Movie is one helluva a train wreck. And I still can't decide if I hate it or love it. Acting's about Showtime Porn quality. Visuals don't know if they should be hyper-real or b-movie cheese. Characters look super dull and monochromatic.

But I keep going back to watching bits of it. And the leaked fight scene from SDCC is so ridiculous that I like it.

Jerry accurately mentioned that comic book movies try to over compensate the silliness of the medium of inspiration by doing this pseudo-sophisticated look. Spirit feels like it's trying to embrace the comic-book wacky that other films fear... but is still holding onto some weird pretentious sense of sophistication.

Check out the youtube video soon, 'cause I'm sure they'll take it down in the next 24 hours.

You can also see a quicktime version of the new trailer HERE.

The latest issue of Lucha Libre 5 is now officially in finer comic shops across the US. Below are my comic purchases of the week. Best comic of the week? Lucha Libre Comics 5, of course!

Kirby's work looked like the renderings of a neanderthal who'd been displaced in 1970s America, took way more acid than any homosapien could handle and draw by gunpoint.

If pencils were penises, Jack Kirby's would be a 'roided out monster cock. It'd look like ManDingo on 10 viagra pills after staying celibate for 20 years. The tip of his pencil was the "Dirk Diggler" of American Superhero comics. He left his spunky finish on the industry and no matter how many times the industry tries to wash it out with the harshest of bleaches the residue and smell of his spunk can still be seen all. But only the true fan can recognize it's look and odor...

Here are some Kirby books from my personal collection:

I'm sad to see Casanova go on hiatus. It was my second favorite book at Image (our Lucha Libre Comics will ALWAYS be #1!) while it's run lasted.

Fraction's stories were dense with a manic energy that Gabriel Ba gave a sexy steely cool energy to. After the first story arc was complete, Ba left to do big things with Gerard Way on Dark Horse's "Umbrella Academy". And just as I was ready to proclaim the magic was all over, Ba's twin bother Fabio Moon came in and won me over with his suave brush work.

Now that Moon's story arc is complete, I've decided to accept that the magic on Casanova struck twice. Ba's art is fucking. Moon's is making love. And, damn it, I love them both!

I adore this video because it brings to light the contrasts in the Brazilian twins work. One's right handed. The other is left handed. One prefers inking in pens. The other prefers inking with brush. Ones grungy. The other's clean cut.

Brilliant artists on a brilliant series. Now, go out there, get famous... and come back to doing more Casanova!!!

I'm sorry for being so out of commission for so long. I'm just beginning to recuperate from a cold I had for the majority of this week. Tuesday was spent sleeping for near 24 hours straight. The remaining time was spent keeping things up on the business end with a box of kleenex permanently by my side.

As a word of warning, I wanted to let you know that we're moving servers this weekend. If the website is acting a little wonky, it's probably because of the move. As such, I'm not going to post anything new until the website is back to it's normal working conditions early next week.

Okay, back on topic! Jack Kirby.

My passion and interests tend to go in phases. I'm a man of many interests... but at different periods of my life I immerse myself in one of many passions. These last few weeks it's happened to be American Comic Creators.

For about two weeks now I read through the amazing "Kirby: King Of Comics" biography/artbook by Mark Evanier, the "Eisner/Milller" Conversation book published by Dark Horse comics and I'm halfway through the wonderful reprint collection DC is doing of "Jack Kirby's Fourth World".

I'm in comic book heaven.

As a good friend and assistant to Jack Kirby during the 1970s, Mark Evanier's "Kirby: King of Comics" is a wonderful encapsulation of what makes Kirby the genius that every comic artists attests. You can feel the love and admiration for Kirby's work on every page. As a friend, Evanier is able to bring a level of intimacy to the legend of Jack Kirby that a sincere fan couldn't.

It took me a long time to "get" Kirby's work. I remember my friends in elementary school used to make fun of Jack Kirby's work. At the time I wasn't really into comics but my best friend and neighbor Josh was. Keep in mind, this was the late 1980s/early 1990s when guys like Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld and Todd McFarlane were all the rage. Josh and his comic book friends were into the typical favorites like Wolverine (who just began a solo series) and Ghost Rider. And even as a naive kid with no interest in comics, I remember Josh and his buddies being very animated and colorful in expressing their hatred towards Kirby's art. The theory these 12 year-olds concocted was that Kirby got a job at Marvel because he was Stan Lee's cousin. At the time I hadn't seen a panel of Kirby's work... but the hatred piqued my interest.

At the age of 14 I began to fall in love with comics. I sought an excuse to collect comic and found it in Peter David and Rick Leonardi's Spider-man 2099. It didn't take much time for me to move on to the sexier Image books.

By that time I still hadn't seen any of Kirby's work. I think the only time I read anything about him through high school was in one of Frank Miller's regular rants in the "Blam!" Letters Pages of an issue of Sin City. Frank was making a big deal about how Marvel wasn't treating Kirby fairly by denying the return of his original artwork. I thought it was typical Frank: quick to get angry at just about anything in the name of creator freedom.

Flash forward to college. I was attending UC Berkeley and had the fortune of discovering the amazing Comic Relief comic shop run by Rory Root and his gang of misfits. As a total Comic Geek, I would be in the store every Wednesday around Lunch time to see what the newest comics were. By chance, I started to realize that that was the same time the cartoonist trio of Dan Clowes, Adrian Tomine, and Richard Sala would make their regular visit to the store.

These guys are masters at cartooning (as can be seen in their critically awarded books: Eightball, Optic Nerve, and Evil Eye). I had no clue why they would even visit because they never bought a thing. Their typical visit went like this: they'd come in together, say a cordial "hello" to the clerk, look at the various New Releases, converse amongst themselves to wryly comment on all the crap the was on the shelves, and walk out of the store a mere 5 minutes after entering. Yes, a little arrogant... but this was Clowes, Tomine, and Sala!

But ONE DAY there was a dramatic change in their routine. Marvel had just released "Captain America: The Classic Years" volume 1. This was a reprint of the first Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Captain America comics from the 1940s. Clowes, Tomine, and Sala each quickly grabbed at copy of the book, started flipping through them and began GUSHING outloud about Kirby's art. "Look at this perspective!" "It's all so RAW!" "Even in the 1940s, Kirby's page explode!" "There's a purity and ignorance that allows him to break all conventions and make it work!". Gushing. From a group of professional comic "snobs" that know how to create damned good comics.

And they politely put the books back on the shelves and walked out of the store.

After they were out of viewing distance, I walked up to that Captain America comic and flipped through the pages searching for the brilliance they praised. I couldn't see it. It looked juvenile. There was a panel with some missles that looked okay... but I couldn't see what the big hoopla was about.

But I didn't give up. I soon purchased an Essential Fantastic Four Vol. 1 and, slowly but surely, started to see what everyone else saw. Kirby's pages explode.

Lionsgate and Frank Miller debuted Eisner's "The Spirit" trailer at NYCC this past weekend. What was shown was closer to "Sin City" than Eisner's pulp masked adventurer stories, but I loved it nonetheless.

Will Eisner and Frank Miller both have a passion for cartooning, the City, and women. As Eisner matured as an artist, he began to explore more sophisticated concepts like City life and comic narrative. Miller's maturing process was short-lived. After doing seminal works like "Dark Knight Returns" and "Daredevil: Born Again", Miller said, "to hell with it" and commited to elevating the sex and violence of American comics flirted with to sophisticated levels of style. His evolution was polarizing. Ironically it was his embracement of these more juvenile trappings that brought him success in Hollywood.

The teaser hints that what Miller's developed for Eisner's "The Spirit" is a nice mix of the purest elements of modern Miller and early Eisner. Too bad we're going to have to wait until 2009 to see the final product.

Here's the teaser (in HD, so please be patient!):