COMICS: Jay's Day Giveaway winners!

COMICS: Jay's Day Giveaway winners!

Yes sir and madams, I survived my work week of hell and at long last it's time to announce the winners of the Jay's Day Giveaway Contest! Thanks to all the folks who took the time to submit, I didn't get a ton of entries but enough to feel it was worthwhile to introduce folks to the great toons of my old pal Jason Marcy. Thanks also to the folks at Landwaster Books and Jay himself for donating cool swag to the winners.

So, to recap, in the spirit of Jay's hilarious and naked autobiographical comics, I asked folks to send in a title for what they'd call their own autobiography. Had some wicked funny (wicked? Am I in 1989?) entries, including a couple of honorable mentions...

From that nogoodnik Will Pfeifer, star of stage, screen and writer of the Catwoman comic book...
It's not in very good taste, but I think my autobiography should be called....
"Triumph of the Will"
Really, what else am I gonna call it? It's not my fault Leni Riefenstahl used it first.

Another honorable mention goes to Dave Lartigue:
I would call the story of my life:
"What Didn't Happen"
There's a long story as to why, but that's what I'd call it.

Now we get to the top three! Third place honors go to old college nemesis Lain Hughes, who wins the award for sheer quantity with his nine (!) entries, including such works as "Ham: The Definitive Treatise," "All My Pancakes" and "When Wheatfields Are In Bloom: A Lain Hughes Romance." But this one tickled me the most:
"The Manly Art of Self-Collapse"

I don't know what it means, but I like it. Lain wins five cool rare Jason Marcy minicomics and digests, including "Days With Jay: The Daily Journal" volume 1 and 2, "Aaargh!" #3 and #4, and "Marcy Musings" #2, a nice sampler of Jay's Days.

Second place goes to Andy Thornton, with this title:
"Raised On Mildew: The Story Of A Sensitive Boy And A Poorly Ventilated Home."

Andy wins two rare Jay Marcy minicomics, plus a signed copy of Jay's first graphic novel: "Jay's Days Volume 1"! Three cheers for Andy!

And finally, we come to first place. Need it be said that all entries were picked entirely on the fantastical and possibly misbalanced whims of myself with assistance from intrepid wife and random babbling from Baby Peter. Sponsors of today's presentation include the accounting firm of Price-Waterhouse and the letter "K."

Drum roll please, for the winner of the contest -- Gary Esposito of Brooklyn, New York, with this life story title that somehow sums it all up, doesn't it:
The catchy title for my autobiography?
What my parents would say when they screamed at me as a little kid:
"I Should've Drowned You In The Tub When I Had A Chance."

Gary wins not only "Jay's Days Volume 1" but Jay's most recent work, "Jay's Days Volume 3: Rise And Fall of the Pasta Lothario," plus magazines of the first two years of Jay's daily Internet strip! Holy smokes!

Thanks to everyone again for paying attention, and maybe one fine day I'll have recovered enough to do another contest. Cheers!

MOVIES: Can you 'DiG' it?

MOVIES: Can you 'DiG' it?

Have you entered my Jay's Days Giveaway contest? Tomorrow is the deadline, and I'll announce winners tomorrow evening sometime. Here's the scoop! This is the last plea I'll make for entries, so come on aboard!

Anyway, here's a Thursday Video Review of a great new documentary -- ‘DiG!’

Want to be a rock ‘n’ roll star? After seeing the new documentary “DiG!”, you might change your mind.

Raw, uncensored and shocking, it ranks up there with the best rock ‘n’ roll documentaries I’ve ever seen.

“DiG!” focuses on seven years of friendship and rivalry between two small-scale, up-and-coming alternative pop/rock bands, Portland-based The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

The Dandies, led by the mellow Courtney Taylor, are amiable, professional and moderately successful (they’re huge in Europe). The Massacre, masterminded by mercurial Anton Newcombe, are a fluid mess, constantly sabotaging any chance at success with their terrible behavior. Taylor and Newcombe start out as friends, but as the Dandy Warhols rise and the Massacre flames out, anger and jealousy come to the fore.

For people who love reality TV shows, this is “Rock Star: The Real World.” It’s the messy side of rock — long nights, endless road trips to lousy clubs and uninterested audiences, scraping along for success. Frankly, it doesn’t feel like a lot of fun to live this life, but it’s a blast to watch.

Director Ondi Timoner achieved amazing access to the bands, shooting more than 1,500 hours of footage from 1995-2003. She captures incredibly unguarded moments, such as Newcombe assaulting members of the audience or even his own band during concerts, a police bust in Georgia, fights, break-ups and partying galore.

And then there’s Anton Newcombe. A self-proclaimed “musical genius,” Newcombe, frankly, comes off as a total sociopath. He dominates the film, ranting about the “revolution” his mildly appealing rock is supposed to kick off, treating everyone around him terribly, succumbing to drug addiction, driving away his bandmates and eventually ending up a bloated, raving loner. And you can’t take your eyes off him.

What’s missing from “DiG!” is more exploration of the creative side of music — you get the passion these guys have for rock, but you’re left wondering if they really have any talent.

Newcombe’s missionary fire is the engine that drives “DiG,” a cautionary tale of where rock stardom dreams can lead. Watching people behave so badly has rarely been so entertaining.
***1/2 of four

MOVIES: Do the hustle!

MOVIES: Do the hustle!

Well, this week is shaping up much like last week, with deadlines and an unexpected chaotic situation at work to deal with. And Baby Rampage!!! to deal with when I get home. Been meaning to post of a variety of subjects but unable to find time to get in-depth, piecemeal it shall be.


Anyway, a buddy from work loaned me the Hong Kong DVD of "Kung Fu Hustle" over the weekend, and I can't say enough cool stuff about this ultra-wacky, butt-kicking flick, which just opened in fairly wide release in the U.S. Roger Ebert's review refers to it as "like Jackie Chan and Buster Keaton meet Quentin Tarantino and Bugs Bunny," which sums it up better than I can. Writer/director/star Stephen Chow hits a home run -- It's like vintage Bruce Lee crossed with a bit of "Crouching Tiger" and finished off with an adrenaline shot of pure gonzo over-the-top superheroics. It starts off oddball, and proceeds gradually into its own realm of kung-fu glory that's hard to describe ("Toad Fighting Style"?!). It may not be entirely original, but it takes what's come before and puts a fine spin on it. Check your sense of logic at the door and geek out. Anybody who loves a bit of the ol' kicking, leaping and chopping, rush to the theater and check it out. I liked it so much I think I'll have to watch the DVD again before I give it back.

In other news, my Jay's Days Giveaway ends Friday! Enter the contest while you still can!

COMICS: Jay's Days Giveaway contest ends Friday!

COMICS: Jay's Days Giveaway contest ends Friday!

If you haven't entered the Spatula Forum Jay's Days Giveaway contest, your time is running out! Deadline is Friday to enter and win some great some by autobio comic artist Jason Marcy -- his first and third "Jay's Days" trade paperbacks, collections of his daily Internet strip and rare minicomics galore!

Full details in this post, but all you need to do is make up a title for your autobiography, what you'd call the story of your life, and e-mail to me at nikdirga @ hotmail .com -- and you're in! Five more days, folks, the more the merrier!

TOYS: The force is cute in this one

TOYS: The force is cute in this one

Oh man, they're so freakin' cute. I have a new addiction - the Star Wars Galactic Heroes toys, which are about 2"-2 1/2" high miniature action figures of the Star Wars characters, done in a somewhat cutesy style with exaggerated features. They're different than the standard Kenner figures, with less articulation, and a smaller line of about 10-20 figures I think. And at the age of 33, I am buying them every chance I get. The first one, of C-3P0 and Chewbacca, I convinced myself I was buying for Baby Peter (sure, they say ages 3-8 on the package, but he'll appreciate them later). But somehow or another I ended up finding the ultra-cute ruthless killer bounty hunters Bossk and 4-LOM in the mini-figure format, and well I do like my bounty hunters, and anyway that's how I've come to have several jaunty cute-ified Star Wars figures around the computer at work. Their tiny size makes them quite compelling to touch. I like to fondle them during particularly stressful periods. I do this covertly. Frankly, I love how they make bounty hunting mercenaries and intergalactic despots like Darth Vader adorable - it's kind of like finding a Barbie doll of Osama Bin Laden, when you think about it.



Like pretty much every red-blooded American lad in my generation, I had a fine collection of Star Wars action figures in my day, back when "somewhat disappointing prequels" wasn't even a conceivable thought. It wasn't the biggest collection on the block but it was decent, at least until in a momentary lapse of sanity I sold half of them in a yard sale circa 1982. Aaarrgh! Anyway, while I still pick up an occasional action figure now, there's too danged many to collect and maintain that you're only doing it for ironic kitsch value rather than, say, because a small glowing piece of your soul is forever trapped back in the toy aisle of Rascoe Drugs circa 1981 or so, searching for that brand-new Imperial Snowtrooper figure.

The mini-figures are a perfect solution. Cheap - $5 per package of two - and small and portable, without little teeny-tiny accessory guns and such that end up in the vacuum cleaner, and really, there's nothing wrong with having a few toys in one's life, is there? Is there?

ETC.: Still alive

ETC.: Still alive

• Still swamped with my 80-page Visitors Guide project this week, but I did get nifty spoils of war -- the new work computer I'd been promised for a good year or two finally came in. Behold the glory of my new flat-panel iMac!

She is a beauty, with an enormous screen that is so wide I feel like I'm at the movie theater. Actually it will take some getting used to, I'm likely to get crosseyed until I adjust. This fine computing machine definitely makes our now-aged 1999 iMac at home look even more poky, though. Replacing that bad boy will have to wait until we win the lottery or something, alas...

• Sad to note in the news today that actress Ruth Hussey died at age 93. Who? What? You say? Admittedly I wasn't sure where I knew the name either, but then I realized she is the last of the four stars of one of the all-time greats, "The Philadelphia Story."

While not as legendary as her co-stars Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart, Hussey did shine in a nice cynical turn as Stewart's reporter character's wisecracking girlfriend and photographer. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for it. Curiously "The Philadelphia Story" was on TV just last week so I watched some of it again. The fast-talking, loud and dramatic style of golden age farces like this don't work for everyone, and I'll admit not all of 'em work for me, but you can't go wrong with this one. Everyone's firing on all cylinders, and 70 years on or so, it still crackles. Rest in peace, Ms. Hussey.

• Hey, my Jay's Days Giveaway contest entries have slowed down. Don't forget the deadline for it is coming up in a week or so -- April 29 is the last day to e-mail me with what you would call your imaginary autobiography. The most original, funny, wacko titles get a shot at prizes of great autobiographical comix by my pal Jay Marcy. Step up, people!

BOOKS: 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'

BOOKS: 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'

What happened on Sept. 11, 2001 has been the subject of countless reams of reporting, analysis and debate, on what it meant for Americans and the rest of the world. Eventually life trickles down into art, and so it is that author Jonathan Safron Foer's new novel, 'Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close' takes on the tough topic of 9/11. Is it too soon? Maybe for some, but overall it's an original, tragic and dryly humorous look at loss and coming to grips with it.

Foer, who's only 28, made a splash a few years back with "Everything Is Illuminated," which was a very interesting debut novel that was a bit too clever and experimental for its own good. "Close" is more cohesive, but still daring and takes chances. The central character and the novel's beating heart is 9-year-old Oskar Schnell, a would-be inventor, precocious and filled with trivia but woefully clumsy socially. Oskar's father was killed on 9/11, and the hole that event leaves in Oskar's life can't be easily filled. Oskar discovers a mysterious key in his dead father's closet, and decides to search all of New York for whatever it unlocks.

In between Oskar's quixotic quest, Foer tosses in lots of tricks -- typographical art, photographs and shifting perspectives. The bells and whistles distract some from the main story, although the use of photos is often very effective, especially at the devastating conclusion. What makes "Close" work for me is Oskar, who is indelibly given life by Foer. He's a totally believable, too-smart-for-his-own-good boy, one who uses all the tricks of his mind to escape the horror of his dad's death. Foer makes him often funny, but never a joke, as he travels New York, searching for the "Black" whose name is on the envelope his father's key was in.

Where "Close" falters some is in lengthy digressions featuring Oskar's grandparents, who tell their own stories in journal and letter excerpts. Survivors of the Dresden firebombing of World War II, Foer is obviously trying to tie that holocaust in with 9/11. But he makes these two characters so willfully eccentric and mannered in their behavior (Oskar's traumatized grandfather doesn't speak, and writes all his conversation; his grandmother's bizarre relationship with her husband), that you're thrown out of the story. Their quirks overwhelm the message. When "Close" focuses on Oskar's powerful voice, it's a great book, and says something sensitive and respectful about a real-life tragedy. I wouldn't toss all of the stylistic experiments of "Close" - the photos work well, as I mentioned, and one point when the type blurs and compresses into a wall of words is very effective.

At 28, Foer's got a lot of books in him, I hope - I just would like to see him get the showboating out of his system and settle down to tell his story more in the next one. Grade: B+

LIFE: Happy 14 Months, Peter

LIFE: Happy 14 Months, Peter

At 14 months old today, Baby Peter is developing his vocabulary. He's had words for a while but they make sense only to him. Cracking the code is where our parenting brains are focused lately. Words so far:
Tat = cat. First official word, we think.
Cah = car.
Ma ma = Mom, or, pay attention to me now.
Da = me
Ohhhh = extreme interest
Eh? = curiosity
nighnigh = good night (may be imagined on dad's part)
Gahwheeeeeeeeeeee = I'm going to jump on Daddy's groin now. (Oddly enough, same noise Daddy makes in response.)

Posting will be light this week as I'm deep in an annual 80-page project I head up. In the meantime consider entering our Jay's Days Giveaway contest (details in post immediately below). I got the package of prize stuff from that Canadian goof this weekend and there's some swell things, including collections of Jay's daily Internet strip, for the winners! So enter away!

COMICS: Jay's Days Giveaway!

COMICS: Jay's Days Giveaway!

Yeah, it's Friday and I have little to say but before you begin your weekend debauchery, consider entering the Jay's Days Giveaway contest I'm running here at Spatula Forum. Entries are inching in, but the more the merrier!


I'm an old pal and big fan of Jason Marcy and his autobiographical comix, and you should be to. For a chance at some cool swag, I want you to pretend you've written your own life story, and come up with a catchy title for it that'll get those books moving off the shelves. Then, e-mail me your autobiography's title to nikdirga @ hotmail.com. You'll have a shot at winning Jay's latest book "Jay's Days Vol. 3: Rise and Fall of the Pasta Shop Lothario" plus even more rare and early work by this great cartoonist. Jay's Days 3 is as funny as ever, and his most mature, heartfelt and accomplished work yet, taking on Jay and his wife Kris' leap into parenthood. Take a few seconds and jot off an e-mail, help support this fine toonmaker. The new deadline for entries is April 29, two weeks and counting!

COMICS: Troy Hickman, A God Among Men*

COMICS: Troy Hickman, A God Among Men*

A huge big' old slap of the golden spatula congratulations to my old buddy Troy Hickman, who picked two Eisner Award nominations in the announcement today for comics' most prestigious awards, named after the late great Will Eisner.

Troy nabbed nominations for "Best Anthology" for his "Common Grounds" superhero slice-of-life series from Image comics (and where's the sequel, Image?) and "Best Short Story" nomination for “Where Monsters Dine,” by himself, Angel Medina and Jon Holdredge, in Common Grounds #5. Way to go, buckaroo!

I've known Troy since 1992 or so and had the joy of having him do some writing for my late, not-that-lamented "Amoeba Adventures" small press comic. He was absolutely the finest guest writer I ever had, and my most faithful critic/letter hound/obsessive fan to boot. Not one but two Eisner nods is the least the man deserves. (To give you some perspective, that's the same amount of nominations as Dan Clowes, Warren Ellis and Art Spiegelman.) Now, in manners of hygiene and breeding, he may be an unspeakable abomination from the pits, but the man can wield a pen. Now let's see some more projects from you, boyo!

* The terms "God," "Among" and "Men" may not necessarily be true.