Movie Review: Batman & Bill (2017)

 

Life is unfair and a lot of times, not everyone gets the credit or recognition they deserve. Ask anyone at a comic convention the question, "Who created Spider-Man" most people are going to give the name "Stan Lee" as the only answer. If you prompted them to name anyone else, chances are they would draw a blank, unaware of this brilliant artist named Steve Ditko.

Bill Finger was in his own way very similar to Ditko; there aren't many photographs of him, few interviews and chances are most people are unaware that Bill Finger is co-creator of one of the most iconic heroes in all of fiction: Batman

Animation Observation: Batman: The Animated Series-On Leather Wings

    In September of 1992, I was preparing to enter the first grade. That June I had turned six years old and the one thing I probably asked my parents for the most was their permission to go see one of the biggest movies of the year: Batman Returns. 

    I was pretty Batman crazy as a kid. The first Halloween I can remember, I went as Batman. For my fifth birthday I got two Batman videos on tape (One being the 1989 film and the other being the 1966 movie starring Adam West and Burt Ward) and some Batman toys. However even though I had gotten colouring books, action figures and story books based on the movie I wanted to see, my parents were steadfast in their denial. What made it worse was that at the time, all over my bedroom I had newspaper clippings about the movie all over my room despite the fact I didn't know how to read them.

    But...there was hope. On the local FOX station, their weekday afternoon line-up showed commercials for a new animated series starring none other than Batman. I knew that while my parents wouldn't let me see Keaton, Pffeifer and DeVito, there was no way that they would deny me the chance to see the greatest hero of all time on TV. NO WAY!!!

    Around Labour Day we were visiting my Tante Kim in Toronto. We were watching TV in her apartment when my dad announced that it was time to go. All of a sudden, a cartoon I hadn't seen before had started it's opening theme.

I knew what I was watching and suddenly realized that I could not miss out on this opportunity.
"We have to stay!" I insisted to my folks. 

Looking at the adorable six year old in front of them, they both shrugged and relented.
"But only for a half-hour," my father told me. "Is this a half-hour?"
"Yeah, yeah!" I said, even though I had no idea how to tell time. 

The episode we watched was On Leather Wings.

Character Damage Control: Commander Chakotay

 Oh, Star Trek: Voyager, like my parents' attitude in regards to myself, I do love you for what you are, but I also know you were capable of so much more.

You know my story, I'm a huge fan of the TNG Trek era (That's pretty much from 1987 to 2005) but Voyager was special because it was the first one I was going to properly watch from the beginning. And I was hyped from first episode to the last. But in the more than 20 years since the final episode aired, me and a friend have always thought of ways that we would improve things.

So I'm back again, this time to maybe build on a character who had a lot of potential but sadly they never reached their full potential with and that would the show's First Officer, Commander Chakotay, played by Robert Beltran.

That touch of gray in his hair will be gone by the end of season 3...

Me and Tom Grummett

Around a year ago, it really felt like the world was slowly-but surely-getting back to normal. People were allowed to eat out at restaurants, go to the movies, visit bars, breweries, attend concerts and even...comic book conventions.

Despite the show normally being held in April, in September of last year, the Calgary Expo returned in a slightly limited capacity. But I have to honest...I really enjoyed it. It felt a lot more organized and I thought it was great having all of the convention in one building instead of having vendors in the BMO Center and all the comic pros and Artists Alley (Along with other, smaller, vendors) in the Big Four Building.

Plus, I got a lot of cool things, a whole bunch of comics autographed, I picked up some art from new artists...and I also got COVID.

The Comics Conundrum: Batman Adventures #18

 As I mentioned last time, an early issue of the series Robin was one of the first comics I ever bought with my own money. But along with that issue there was another comic I bought that day as well.
My family was on a little road trip to visit my Tante who lived in Toronto and on the way to her apartment, I remember we stopped at a Coles book store and there was a rack full of comic books. Naturally I picked up Robin but I also picked up a comic I hadn't seen before. It turns out that the hit show Batman: The Animated Series had it's own tie-in comic and I had found it's latest issue and decided to buy it.

The Batman Adventures...sans Batman

The Comics Conundrum: Robin #156

I can remember moving to the city of Waterloo in 2007 and discovering a comic store within blocks of where I lived. In that first visit (The first of many during the summer months I lived there), I remember passing a rack of DC comics back issues and I saw a title that I had been familiar with in the past but hadn’t read for a long time: Robin.

In Response to Martin Scorsese...

It goes without saying that David Lean's classic, Lawrence of Arabia, is my favorite film of all time. I first discovered the movie when I was 15 and became obsessed with it, renting it weekend after weekend and it was the first DVD I ever bought.

I've always wanted to put together a list of my favorite films but I know for certain that at the very top is Lawrence and I know a lot of filmmakers who would do so as well.

Steven Spielberg has spoken about the influence it had on him when he first saw it as a teenager and how he goes back and revisits it before starting his next film. Another great filmmaker who recognizes its brilliance is Martin Scorsese.

Eulogy

    Many of you here today knew what it was like to have Stephanie in your life but very few of you know what it was like to have her in all of your life. One of the earliest memories of my life was, I’m in my parent’s basement, Stephanie’s sitting on a chair watching TV, I’m well more than arm’s length away from her and as I’m walking in front of the TV screen, she screams, “OW!” and called for my parents because apparently, I had bit her. 

 

    Even though I was about…probably two years old at time and not really aware of my surroundings (I wasn’t the smartest toddler), I did know that I wasn’t anywhere near close to biting her and I just found the whole thing a bit strange. 

    It wasn’t until I got older that I found out this would happen a lot; Stephanie would insist that I had pinched her and when they asked me about it, I would just smile and nod my head, yes, that I had pinched her, even though in reality I hadn’t. Later on, my Mom found Stephanie pinching herself to leave marks and was able to put two and two together and figure out that Stephanie was faking and that her only son was so gullible that he’d probably admit to the Kennedy assassination if you asked him at the time.

    As I got older, when I was going through grade school & high school, I found that it was easy to get out of pinching accusations but it was much, much harder to escape the shadow she cast with her reputation. On the first day of class, the teacher would be doing the roll call and when they got to me, they’d say my name, I’d say that I was “Here” and then the teacher would immediately follow it up with, “Are you related to Stephanie Schweitzer?” 

    “Do you have an older sister?” 
 
    “Oh you’re Stephanie’s brother?” 
 
    “Do you know Stephanie?” 
 
    Know her? I was constantly being compared to her and to be fair, I should have given warning to those teachers that I was not like Stephanie in an academic sense. Those poor souls were setting themselves up for disappointment.  

 

    But looking back at her life, I can see why the expectations were so high to begin with. Stephanie was someone who looked at the expectations and would then try to exceed them. She was always thinking big picture, she was always getting the better grades, always the better athlete, always the better worker and always more prepared to take on the world in front of her. 

 

    This didn’t mean she couldn’t be above some real petty stuff; one summer I decided to live with her in Waterloo and when I came home from my midnight shift at 7-Eleven, she was somewhat aghast that for breakfast, all I was having was a bowl of Frosted Flakes and a doughnut. When my parents told her that there was nothing that she or they could do about it, she accepted it, but did not probably didn’t like it.

    However, I think she got the last laugh as even today, the dentist will remind me that I probably don’t need to have a cheesecake with every meal as he fills my cavities.  

    But the dominating and domineering side of her isn’t what I’m going to remember about her. I’m going to remember a young woman who like her literary hero, Anne Shirley, wasn’t afraid to take on challenge that others thought might be too great for her, never afraid to say something that might not be popular with those around her and wouldn’t be opposed to smashing someone over the head with a slate if they pissed her off enough. 

    I’m going to remember someone who on my last birthday, was in Calgary for a business meeting and insisted on taking me out for dinner and encouraging me to try real Ahi Tuna for the first time, which I really enjoyed. I’ll remember her encouraging me, telling me that she was proud of how well I was doing out West and that one day she could see being a general manager of a Shoppers Drug Mart of my own. 

    I’m going to remember a young woman with her whole life in front of her, telling me how much she loved her husband and how incredible her two step-daughters were to her and how accepting they had become of her and truly making her feel like part of the family. 

    I would like to end by thanking God for the small mercies He’s shown us at this dreadful time; for taking Stephanie at her most beautiful and radiant and when she had joy in her private life. Above all, we give thanks for the life of a woman I will always be proud to call my Big Sister. The unique, the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceable Stephanie, who’s beauty-both internal and external-will never be extinguished from our minds. 

Character Damage Control: Kes

If you know me or if you've read this blog for long enough, you know that I love Star Trek. I have since I was a little kid and even though most of what the franchise has crapped out lately has been...well, crap-I still enjoy the older series nonetheless.

I have a friend who also is a big fan of the franchise and at least once a day will send me a text message with a question or comment about an episode or something from the franchise because he knows I'm big enough of a savant that without context, I'll know precisely what he's talking about.

"Star Trek: Voyager premiered on January 16, 1995 and ran until May 23, 2001 across seven seasons and 168 episodes, four of which are feature-lengthed."

Book Review: The Accidental Billionaires-The Founding of Facebook

I remember an airplane ride from Calgary to Las Vegas back in 2011 where I first watched the movie, The Social Network. It didn't take long for me to enjoy it & in the years since it's probably one of my favorite movies of all time. 

But I wanted to know if there was more to the story than what was in David Fincher's film and chances are there was. Hence, I was very glad when this past Christmas I got as a gift the nonfiction novel which the screenplay for the movie was adapted from, The Accidental Billionaires.

Movie Review: Klaus

When it comes to Christmas movies, I find myself sticking with the classics. It’s A Wonderful Life, Home Alone, A Christmas Story, The Santa Clause, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

On a recent plane ride I did check out the 1994 remake of Miracle on 34^th Street and found it a bit…bland. I don’t know what it was but a lot of it felt very forced and artificial.

By no means was it bad but I’m not overly fond of remakes and Mara Wilson’s character being wise-beyond-her-years got tiring very quickly. However, I’ll give high marks to Richard Attenborough as Kris Kringle in the film. The man made a remarkable Santa Claus.

 But last night after we finished dinner and my Dad decided to go to bed early, my Mom & I turned on Netflix searching for something holiday-themed that we could watch. Now I might have been tempted to see if Home Alone was available (It wasn’t) but then I remembered a Christmas film that came out last year that I had missed but told myself to catch the following year. That movie was Klaus.