TheFranciscos.Net

The NBA Playoffs Round 1 Update

So did anybody catch that great game 5 between the Nets and the Pacers? The shots made by Reggie Miller were unbelievable, especially that impossible 3-pointer to send it into overtime. Does anybody still doubt Miller’s place as one of the league’s best-ever clutch players? Not me. Unfortunately though, despite his heroics, New Jersey outlasted them in the second OT session to go on to the second round (as expected). Indiana certainly has nothing to be ashamed of, nobody expected anything from them. Most people actually thought that they were lucky to make it into the playoffs at all. They’re also a very young team (with the exception of Reggie Miller) and if anything, this series will only prepare them for a better year next season.

In other news, the Pistons overcame the Raptors – barely. This Raptor team really had a lot of heart, and even thought they lost the series, they should still be treated like winners. After all, who really gave them a chance to go this far after their franchise player, Vince Carter, got injured and couldn’t play for the rest of the season?

For tonight, I strongly believe that the 76ers will be victors against the Celtics. They’ve regained their winning ways after coming home to Philly and the momentum has cretainly swung to their side. With everybody playing their best, I think the boys from Philly will be playing the Pistons in the next round. Also, do you even need to ask? The Spurs will handily beat the Sonics in their own deciding game.

The first review of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones can be found here. The two week wait for the release is almost unbearable!

Everything’s set for the home and pest inspection this Saturday. The inspectors are coming by at 9AM to check out the house. I’ve also started my loan application with Cendant, and since we’re pre-approved, everything should be smooth sailing on that end. Wish us luck!

Added new pictures to the photo gallery. Some pictures from our dinner-cruise on the Gateway Clipper in Pittsburgh. Click here for the pictures.

Zoe was really fussy this morning. I had a hard time getting her dressed up for daycare. She even kept on removing her shoes so I had to carry her to the car without them. I just put them on once we were inside ACCA. Just wanted to let you know how our morning went.

BTW, the phone I use to call out is working now. Remind me to pick up a phone card when we go to Sam’s next time.

Do you feel better today? I hope so. I love you and I hope you’re having a good day.

Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon

One of my all-time favorite series is Garth Ennis’ and Steve Dillon’s “Preacher”. This is a great story about a man’s quest to find God (literally) and his struggle against a secret religious organization that threatens to take over the world. Along the way, he is joined by a vampire who becomes his best friend and his girlfriend who is tougher than Rambo. It’s a romantic, religious, and funny tale that’s guaranteed to take you along for the ride. Garth Ennis isn’t afraid to pull any punches, and it shows in the dialogue and subject matter. It deals with things such as religion, friendship, love, and even bestiality/s&m all from a very fresh point-of-view. As Kevin Smith says in the foreward of the second book, controversial is just another word for intelligent and interesting.

The series was originally published in Preacher #1-66, and various mini-series and one-shots. It was then collected into 9 books, 8 actually since 1 book is composed purely of background information.

The duo of Garth & Steve have since gone on to reimagine Marvel’s The Punisher, but Preacher still remains their masterpiece.

Randy Lander from TheFourthRail had this to say about Preacher:

“If profanity, bestiality, sacrilege, or things of that ilk offend you, you probably won’t like Preacher. But if you can tolerate those things, or even find them mildly amusing, you’ll love Preacher, a western/comedy/romance/road story that has interesting things to say about what it means to be a friend and to love someone “until the end of the world.” It also has something to say about what to do when your voice must be obeyed, your best friend is an Irish vampire, and your enemies include an unkillable murderous saint, a fanatic in control of a powerful and old secret order and God himself. “

Preacher gets the highest rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

The State Of Comics

It’s really sad that the comics industry is still a “niche” market. The business has never had a better time, in terms of great stories and imaginative writers. Now, more than ever, comics are writer-driven. Gone are the days when comics would be popular because of the hot new artist or because of the character. Now comic fans follow WRITERS because they write damn-good stories. You’ll see comic fans eagerly awaiting for the next Frank Miller or Neil Gaiman book the same way that people look for the next Stephen King book.

There’s also never been as much variety of genres like today. Want crime stories? There are loads of good ones – 100 Bullets, Sin City, Powers, and Stray Bullets are just a few. Drama? Strangers In Paradise is for you. Mythology? Try out Joe Linsner’s Dawn. Epic with a cartoonish touch? Bone is definitely your thing. Horror? Preacher, John Constantine: Hellblazer and Swamp Thing are just a few of the great horror books that DC/Vertigo produces. If you like sci-fi and an apocalyptic view of the future, Transmetropolitan may be the perfect fit.

And then there’s the superhero line, which in recent years have been given an energetic kick by the great writers that are on them. Grant Morrison on New X-Men, Brian Michael Bendis on Ultimate Spider-Man and Daredevil, Garth Ennis on The Punisher, Jeph Loeb on Batman, Frank Miller on The Dark Knight Strikes Again and Peter Milligan and Mike Allred on my favorite superhero series at the moment – X-Force.

One of the things that have blessed comics in recent years are the cross-media writers that have attracted some mainstream attention – Kevin Smith on Daredevil and Green Arrow and J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5 creator) on Amazing Spider-Man. They’ve given those books a much needed injection of fresh and innovative ideas.

There’s never ever been a better time to get into comics, and I guess Hollywood has started to realize that with the huge number of comic-book related projects at an all-time high. We’ve got Spider-Man in a few days, and on the horizon is “The Road To Perdition” starring Tom Hanks. “Ghost World” just came out on DVD. In production is “Daredevil” and “The Hulk”.

Hopefully, all this attention will give a jump-start for people to start trying out comic books. It’s high time that they hit the mainstream and be accepted as a legitimate form of art.

Listening to: “You Gotta Be” by Des’ree

After a little shopping around, I’ve setup the home and pest inspections for this Saturday at 9 AM. Hopefully, they’ll find nothing wrong with the house. Next up is setting up the mortgage. I’m probably going to go with Cendant, but need to get some good quotes and Good Faith Estimates from DCU and FFIG.

Kitty sent me a link to a real funny website – check it out here.

Green Arrow: Quiver by Kevin Smith, Ande Parks, and Guy Major

“Hero coming back from the dead” type of stories are lame. They did that with Jean Grey, they did that with Superman, and they did it to whole other bunch of characters that it just gets plain boring. When somebody dies in the superhero world, they should stay dead. The one exception to this is Green Arrow and only when it’s done by the great Kevin Smith.

I gave up collecting comics on a monthly basis almost 2 years ago and go the trade paperback route. While this was a good move (storage-wise at least), it always pained me when a comic I’m dying to read is out on the market and I just refuse to buy it until the collected version comes out. Garth Ennis’ “The Punisher” was one of these, and when it was announced that Mr.Smith would be doing arrowhead’s adventures, I knew it was going to be a looooooong wait for a collected edition to arrive.

Well, my eternity of waiting is finally over. I received the “Green Arrow:Quiver” hardcover edition last week. It is in a handsome green hardbound edition with no outer jacket.

My thoughts on the book: This series is a testament to Kevin Smith’s love for comics. It shows that he has a great knowledge of DC continuity, referring to events that happened in The Final Night, Zero Hour and other DC events. If one had doubts about Kevin being a good comic writer (even after the excellent Daredevil storyline he did), this will change their mind. This resurrection would have been a disaster if it wasn’t handled in the right way, and he handled it perfectly. The reason why he came back to life doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense (at least in a spritual-physical point of view), but it was still very entertaining. Oliver Queen’s interaction with the other heroes in the DC Universe was very natural. The reunion with the JLA, the rekindling of old flames with Black Canary, and the first meeting with his son, the new Green Arrow – they were all great moments filled with a true sense of human emotion. My favorite part was Batman and GA’s banter in the batplane:

(from memory, so it might not be a word for word quote)

GA: “Great Batplane, I used to have a plane called the Arrowjet just like it. I also miss the Arrowcar. You know being in your batcave reminds me of my own digs – the Arrowcave.”

Batman – “Don’t you ever have an original idea?”

That exchange was so classic – people always say that arrowhead is a rip-off of Batman, and admittedly he is. The trick arrows, the millionaire playboy alter-ego. The main difference is their personality. While Batman is a dark character that deals mainly with crime, GA is more of a political activist and targets the bigger fish.

The art is decent, but not breathtaking. It serves well enough to get the point of the story across, but I really don’t see this art team becoming one of the premier art teams.

If there’s one thing that will make non-comic readers shy away from this book, it’s the deep references to DC continuity. Several of the sequences in the book make a lot of reference to past DC events, most notably Final Night and Zero Hour. If you’re a non-comic reader, the book is still very readable, but you’ll be missing some background information.

I never really cared too much for Green Arrow, except during the Neal Adams-pencilled team-ups with Green Lantern. I tried reading Mike Grell’s “The Longbow Hunters”, but found that boring. Kevin Smith though has made this book about a second-rate character into a must-read. The wait for the collected book was definitely worth it.

Green Arrow: Quiver – 4 out of 5 stars.