Dream of following the path of the setting sun that leads to El Dorado and the Mysterious Cities of Gold.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold is a show I remember seeing bits and pieces of when it was broadcast on Nickleodeon. The series was released on DVD and I ordered it based on my nostaligia and boy I'm glad I did!

A unique show, a French-written, Japanese animated story about a young Spanish boy brought to the New World by a group of conquistadors trying to find El Dorado. It feels sort of like an Indiana Jones story set in the 1500's with mild science fiction elements.

I'm happy and surprised at how well it holds up. The Spanish are portrayed as greedy and brutal, the Inca are portrayed in a sympathetic light. Tao, who looks like he would normally be the comedy relief is actually the smartest of the group, a descendant of the lost race of Hiva. The complicated feelings Esteban has for Mendoza (who is both a father-figure and a villain) is deeper than you would normally find in a kids show. I also appreciated that the children in the show were voiced by actual children, rather than adults. And the music is to die for.

The discs have a few extras. Nothing outstanding. I wish the video had been remastered. A couple of the episodes were noticeably darker than the rest. But really, the fact that the show has been released on DVD at all is a miracle. Highly, highly recommended. They don't make kids shows like this anymore.

Too cool to live, too hip to read?

So I’ve decided to reread Kid Eternity. Both the Grant Morrison miniseries and the follow-up Vertigo series by Ann Nocenti and Sean Phillips.

The Morrison miniseries holds up pretty well. The first half of the first issue (I have a feeling it was originally intended to be a six issue miniseries, because each issue has two chapters, split exactly evenly. Did DC lack faith in the mini?) was kind of a confused jumble. Things don’t start shaping up until the second half of the first issue. But as a whole, the series comes together and is still well worth reading. And Duncan Fegredo’s art is beautiful, though sometimes a little too dark for its own good.

I have good memories of the ongoing series from when it was originally released. One of the first wave of original ongoing Vertigo titles, along with the Black Orchid series, if memory serves.

My reread was not pleasant. The art is still very good. I like Sean Phillips style, though at some points it seems rushed. But Ann Nocenti's writing… The first issue's story is interesting, though it could have served a little better as an introduction. The series was released two years after the miniseries and that mini never exactly set the world on fire. Still, the storyline was interesting. There were lots of likeable bits and characters, gossipy clergy and philosophical hobos.

But oh goodness, friends and neighbors. There was this all-pervading layer of hipness laid over the top that wasn’t just cheesy, it distracted from the book. I could practically feel Ann’s elbow in my ribs, pointing out how 'edgy' and with it the book was. The characters are so hip they become unrealistic in their actions. And they aren’t as likeable as they should be. I was rooting for Dog’s painful death within a page of his introduction.

Honestly, the series was terrible. It rambles on with no clear goal,. That doesn't have be bad. I enjoy a good day in the surreal life series, like Peter Milligan's Shade the Changing Man became. But Kid Eternity reads like Ann pulled a bunch of philosophical quotes and then used William Burroughs cut-up technique to write the comic. None of the posturing felt natural to the story that was (in theory) being told. Instead it was so intrusive, it wrecked the series. Threads are started, meander and never go anywhere. Characters just disappear (Dog was maddening, but he then vanishes without explanation). The series noodles on like this for the first eight or nine issues (what would be over half of the series run).

Somewhere around issue 10, the series finds it's feet. There is actually a coherent tale being told. There are still philosophical discussions, but they don't overwhelm. But by then, the writing was on the wall. I wonder how the series would have fared had Ann written it this way from the beginning.

The pleasure/pain of the Cenobites and the law of diminishing returns...

Cursed to spend eternity as an obsolete format

I try to avoid horror movie series, or any movie series, really. An enjoyable and original movie is milked and repeated until every last remnant of what made the original good has been drained. But a friend has challenged me to watch all the Hellraiser films since they are currently available streaming on Netflix. Since I'm a glutton for punishment, I've watched the first three. I'll watch the rest,

The first one (aka: 'the good one') is a genuine classic that I've seen numerous times and will watch again. I didn't bother watching it again for this run through.

The sequel, Hellbound, was a shadow of the first. But at least it retained some of the pretentious artiness of the first one.

But the third one, Hell on Earth was just awful, The movie was just bad. Also, Pinhead talks way too damn much and is emotional. He loses a lot of his menace. Honestly, he comes off like Freddy Kruger's brother. I don't think the people that made this one really 'got' what Clive Barker was trying to do with his movie.

Introductions

I'll write something more interesting here later.