Martha Stewart meets Indy meets Zack the Lego Maniac

The kiddo decided he wanted a Lego Indy themed birthday party this year. Building off the inspiration she found on the fabulous system of wires and tubes we call the InterWeb, my amazing and creative wife produced a cake like no other for the big day. And here are the results...

Pretty cool, eh?

Lost but not Forgotten, from the Dark Heart of a Dream

Generally speaking, I don't read a lot of fiction. I find non-fiction just so much more entertaining most of the time, but I do burn through a handful of novels each year. And back in 2006, I picked up The Book of Fate from the library. I didn't know who Brad Meltzer was at the time, but I had heard something about the book online and ended up devouring it. I even wrote down a quote from the book I really liked to remember and keep on hand ("'Haven't you ever played Uno?' he asks calmly. 'Sometimes you have to lose all your cards to win.'")

In the past couple of years, I've come to know who Meltzer is and understand the orbit he moves in. And I am excited to read Meltzer's new book, The Book of Lies. I mean, how many novels explore the most famous murder of all time, the mystery behind the never-identified weapon, and the genesis of the Man of Steel? Not to meniton the book's trailer boasts both Joss Whedon and Brian K. Vaughan. The book even has a companion soundtrack that includes R.E.M. And although it should also include Springsteen's "Adam Raised a Cain", that's still good stuff!

The first chapter is up on his site. That'll have to tide me over for the next few weeks until the book is released.

Breakfast at Padmé's

I loved the Original Trilogy as a kid. It caught me at that perfect age to be swept up in the fantasy adventure. But after Return of the Jedi, my interest in the movies was almost completely extinguished. Unbeknownst to me, the pilot light was still burning, and my son's love of all things "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" reignited the blaze.

Our fantastic main library has a great auditorium where they show movies on the big screen each Thursday night. And I've taken the kiddo to movies there regularly over the years. It's where he saw things like Disney's original The Shaggy Dog and E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial for the first time. A few years ago, they ran all six Star Wars movies over six consecutive Thursdays. We caught a few of them there. But seeing already released movies on the library's big screen is far different from seeing a first-run new release in a real movie theater.

Despite the bad (horrible, really) press the latest Star Wars installment has been getting, I wasn't going to deny my son the chance to see a new Star Wars movie in the theater... opening weekend... the week of his birthday. So John, his daughter, my kiddo, and I headed out to experience Star Wars: The Clone Wars first-hand.

I had not actually read anything about the movie before seeing it. But my wife had told me Entertainment Weekly gave it an "F" and other friends had said they'd seen headlines promising the visual equivalent of flushing my $12 down the toilet. I had my own reservations going into this movie: I really loved the TV Clone Wars art, but wasn't sure about this new movie's renderings, and I don't really like the prequel trilogy or its characters. So I went into this thing with appropriately lowered expectations and was pleasantly surprised.

The kiddo forgot his glasses, so we sat in the third row. This helped with the experience I think. I haven't sat so close that I had to actually turn my head from side-to-side to take in all the action on the big screen in a long, long time. And the art was surprisingly not distracting.

But two things really stand out about this movie for me: First, they somehow successfully wrung tension out of characters whose fate we already know. Something they supremely failed to do in all three live-action prequels. Second (and, in my mind, their greatest achievement), for the first time I actually found myself able to invest in the character of Anakin. For once he wasn't a whiny kid or an even whinier young adult. He was a sympathetic character who was able to grow. I don't think I've ever actually rooted for Anakin before, but here I did.

It wasn't all roses, of course. I was originally intrigued by the Hutt kidnapping storyline as it began to unfold, but the introduction of Jabba the Hutt's Uncle Ziro, Truman Capote in slug form, went a long way in destroying that element of the movie for me.

Regardless, though, I don't think the movie deserves the harsh press it's received. It has problems, but it makes the most of what it has to work with and even surprises in reaching its potential at times. It also helped that I saw the movie with a seven year-old certified Star Wars nut. I find that I appreciate these things more now that I'm seeing them through his eyes and supplemented by his enthusiasm. And I'll take that any day of the week over just about any other experience.

The Creator is Everywhere

We were watching the Olympic 3-Meter Diving Finals last night and NBC showed Christina Loukas' parents after her dive. The commentator mentioned that Patty and George Loukas were in the crowd and cheering their daughter on, at which point the kiddo could barely contain his excitement that George Lucas -- "the creator of all things Star Wars!" -- was on TV! At the Olympics!

Marvel Unbound - The Transformers: Classic, Volume 1

You can hear an audio version of this blog entry in the latest episode of the Marvel Noise podcast (sadly, no, I do not sing the Springsteen knockoffs) and join the conversation in the "Marvel Unbound" thread on the Marvel Noise forum.

Much to my friend Aaron's dismay, I was never a big fan of Transformers. As far as Marvel/Hasbro partnership franchises went, I was strictly a G.I. Joe kind of guy. In fact, until I picked up IDW's trade paperback reprints of the Marvel comics, I don't think I'd ever read a Transformers book before. So The Transformers: Classic, Volume 1 seemed like a great place to start.

I saw last summer's Michael Bay blockbuster movie based on the franchise. It was big, loud, dumb fun that I completely enjoyed. And my son loves the Transformers Animated television show on Cartoon Network, and the Easter Bunny brought him volume one of the digest-sized trade paperback based on that series. (I have watched a few episodes with him, and I like the art, but the stories aren't as strong as the new Spectacular Spider-Man series on Kids' WB!/The CW4Kids.)

As someone with only the same residual Transformers knowledge that any other fan of pop culture would have picked up over the last 23 years, I still enjoyed The Transformers: Classic, Volume 1, and didn't feel awkward just jumping right in. Coming of age in the '80s, I'm sure, has something to do with it. I appreciated the nostalgia in the same way I envision someone who was a huge Transformers fan back in the day might view the trade paperbacks of Marvel's G.I. Joe run. There are elements of storytelling convention that were inherent and indelible to the era that provided a familiarity to the book that made me feel right at home.

Although it grew into a very successful 80-issue ongoing series with far-reaching and complicated back-stories and spin-offs, the franchise began as a four-issue limited series in 1984. This solid, enjoyable foundation laid the groundwork for all kinds of '80s cheese -- from the dialog to the renderings. But it's all good.

The first half of this collection was thoroughly entertaining, providing a good basis for the Transformers legend by exploring the Autobots' and Decepticons' origins and establishing the Autobots' human allies and major players. Along with the original limited series, the Dinobots are introduced in issue #8, another issue I really enjoyed.

The last half of the collection is a real hoot. Issue #13 is a unique stand-alone story about a low-level hoodlum who stumbles on Megatron in his gun form (something I never understood in any of the Transformers mythos -- Decepticons transforming into weapons and how the logically get around), uses it to try and get ahead, and learns a lesson in the process.

The laughably thinly-veiled pseudo-Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the center of issue #14 cracked me up! It seems Bruce (here named "Brick") and the band (operating under the nom de plume "The Tenth Avenue Band") are putting on a show at Municipal Stadium, and the Decepticons see that as an opportunity to capture massive amounts of sound energy to convert to fuel. Brick's last name alternates between "Springstern" to "Springhorn," but the Clarence Clemons look-alike is referred to by his well-know real-life nickname, "The Big Man," throughout.

Marvel pulled out all the stops in coming up with songs for Brick: The lyrics to "Dancing in the Dark" become "Can't start a fire without a light / Even if we're just dancing in the night." Brilliant! "Born to Run" is rejiggered into "'Cause humps like us / Baby, we were born to ride!" And "Born in the U.S.A." gets remade into the instant classic... "Booorn in America." Genius.

Issue #15 has a great cover-on-cover art and a goofy storyline to go along with it. Comic book writer Donny Finkleberg (seriously!) is hired by the government to play the role of Robot Master (no, really, I'm serious!). The reasoning is that the public is freaking out about all these giant robot battles taking place around them, so the government believes that if they can put a single face on the problem then it will help the public deal with their fear and anxiety. Surprisingly, after doing some extra-curricular reading on the series, it seems Donny's role continues through much of the second year of the title. What's even more interesting, though, is that this quasi-featured character is regularly -- and prominently -- shown smoking cigarettes.

There are some quirks to the storytelling and the art sometimes felt disjointed. There were eight different pencilers across these first 16 issues, which leads to some drastic physical changes in some of the characters. Buster Witwicky somehow transforms from a high-school kid to a rather mature-looking young adult between issues #6 and #7. And G.B. Blackrock shifts from having a "Tony Stark"-type look to a more awkward Patrick Duffy kind of sheen. It's disconcerting, to the point that after the changes in appearance took place I often found myself flipping back and forth to earlier issues to compare them through the rest of the read.

It's obvious that, unlike Dark Horse's Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... reprint collections of Marvel's original series, IDW didn't restore or recolor any of these Transformers issues. But instead of detracting from the experience, it adds to the quaint nostalgia of the compilation. IDW also scores with the overall presentation. There are a couple issues that feature Marvel characters and, because of licensing, were unable to be reprinted here. But instead of excising those two issues altogether, IDW has provided cover shots and multi-page written summaries of the issues (#3 and #9) so you don't miss out entirely.

In all, The Transformers: Classic, Volume 1 is a quirky, fun read that I enjoyed, and because of the cliffhanger ending in issue #16, I'm actually looking forward to picking up Volume 2 at some point down the road.

Statler and Waldorf Explore the InterWeb

Daredevil: The Honu Without Fear!

We were over at Diane and Ivan's this weekend for our godson's birthday party, and my parents were there too. At one point, my mom and dad, Ivan, and I were all out at a picnic table in the backyard, enjoying the spectacular view of Lake Erie. Somehow we ended up talking about the local comic book shop, Comic Heaven. Brian Michael Bendis is good friends with Jim, the owner, and the shop used to be a frequent hangout of Bendis'. Ivan was explaining who Brian Michael Bendis is to my mom and ended up in a long, winding description of Daredevil -- both the character and the book. While in the middle of this word sketch he's laying on my mom, he turns to her and asks, "You know what ninjas are, right?" And my mom perfectly deadpans, "Yeah, they're turtles."