EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT...

Welcome to the SpiderBaby Reviews page. I'll be posting reviews, interviews, and more here, so check in often!

With the essential help of comicon.com wizard Steve Conley, I will be constructing and expanding this section throughout the month of April. It will go through a number of changes throughout the month of April. Your patience is appreciated.

Right now, recommendations and reviews of magazines, zines, and books are just a click away. I'll be adding a comics and graphic novels section as soon as possible, and a special interview page dedicated to some of the authors and creators of the work I'm particularly taken with.

If you would like a preview of the graphic novels reviews section while this section is under construction, permit me to direct you to my recent review of one of my favorite comics thus far this year, Elseworlds: BATMAN: NOSFERATU (DC Comics, 1999). You can read this lengthy critique now at:

http://www.starwatcher.org/nosferatureview.html

Please, check it out!

I've also listed my favorite films of 1998 at the bottom of this page; I'll be posting this years favorites, too. These will remain listings -- only comics, graphic novels, books, and zines will earn full reviews.

The material you can read here (and at the starwatcher posting listed above) represents the kind of in-depth criticism I intent to offer here on a regular basis, in hopes of opening your eyes to some of the best comics, books, and magazines I've had the pleasure to discover.

It is also my hope that this will provoke discussion, debate, and elevate the comicon.com environment beyond the parameters of shameless self-promotion and hucksterism many of us indulge in hopes of making a living.

These pages are just about sharing my passion for comics and books, and hopefully turning you on to some fine reading.

Read on...

CURRENT REVIEWS:

THE SPIDERBABY RECOMMENDS...

MAGAZINES and BOOKS
Zines: THE IMP #1 and 2; JACK CHICK; COMIC BOOK HEAVEN
Books: SEAL OF APPROVAL: THE HISTORY OF THE COMICS CODE by Amy Kiste Nyberg

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SpiderBaby Pix: Best Movies of 1998

My tastes are pretty eclectic, as you might expect. I'm listing them alphabetically, no preferential order implied. This is posted F.Y.I. only -- your opinion is as valid as mine, but I'm not going to get into any arguments over something as silly as a "Best Movie" list. If I turn one or two of you on to something you wouldn't have otherwise seen, this has served its purpose. Enjoy!

Top Fifteen of '98:

Robert Duvall's The Apostle; Artemisia; The Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski; Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy; Dark City; Gods & Monsters; Todd Solondz's Happiness (best of the year!); The Ice Storm; Lars Von Triers' The Kingdom 2 (best horror of the year); Pi (best science fiction of the year); Smoke Signals; Suicide Kings; the restoration of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil; Guy Maddin's Twilight of the Ice Nymphs; The Zero Effect (best detective film since Penn's Night Moves and Roeg's Bad Timing).

Honarary mentions:

American History X; Can't You Hear the Wind Howl? (great documentary on blues legend Robert Johnson); Clockwatchers; The Eye of God; Errol Morris' Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control; Habit (great urban vampire tale); Spike Lee's He Got Game and Four Little Girls; The House of Yes; Martin Scorsese's Kundun; John Sayles' Men With Guns; Mighty Joe Young; The Negotiator (best action flick of the year); Nightwatch (nastiest mainstream of the year); The Opposite of Sex; John Waters' Pecker (Waters in top form); The Slums of Beverly Hills; Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine.

Pop Picks and Guilty Pleasures: The Big Hit; Bleeders (best Lovecraftian horror since The Resurrected); Disturbing Behavior (would love to see the director's cut prior to MGM's tampering); Godzilla (forget the Toho icon, this is a fine remake of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, which inspired the original Gojira); Bill Plympton's I Married a Strange Person; Trey Parker's Orgazmo (great fun, ignore assholes like Ebert -- by the way, THIS got an NC-17 while Boogie Nights, 8MM, and There's Something About Mary got R ratings? The MPAA is shameless!); John Frankenheimer's Ronin; Joe Dante's Small Soldiers; Brian DePalma's Snake Eyes (slight script with DePalma in top form); Species 2 (absolute bottom-of-the-barrel, most fun I had with friends in a theater this year); There's Something About Mary; Wild Things.

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