Schlock Mercenary

It’s that time of year again, when our family room is full of boxes and the game table is covered with books.

The 2019 Writing Excuses Retreat is setting sail from the port of Houston this September, and you’re invited! I’ll be there with other Writing Excuses hosts, and some amazing guest instructors. The event begins on Friday, September 13, 2019 at 2:00 PM, and runs through Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 11:00 AM (Central Daylight Time). The button above has all the details. This is one of my very favorite events ever, which is probably why I keep doing it. Hanging out for a week with people who like to create worlds and tell stories in them is fun. Doing that on a cruise ship in the Caribbean is unforgettable. On January 31st the posted prices will go up, so now is a good time to make your late summer plans.

I survived 2018 and at the end of the ride there wasn’t even a kiosk selling “I survived 2018 and all I got was a t-shirt.” Happy New Year, everyone. I hope 2019 is good to you, but my hope is couched in counsel: 2019 can’t be good to you if you’re not good to it. Sandra and I have lots of big goals for the next twelve months, but they’re not resolutions we’ve arrived at in the last twelve hours. They’re things that we have been planning for, and on, and toward, for almost eighteen months now. And this post is not where I’ll trouble you with them. You’ve got your own plans for this year, and to that end I hope that the entertainment you find here helps lighten the load in some way. It’s January 1st. Time for me to go to work.

I saw three movies in twenty-four hours. It’s possible I’m on vacation. Of course, I just spent an hour reviewing all three of them, so it’s also possible I’m actually working. My job is weird. In the interest of not pushing anybody below the fold, here are links to all three.

Filmmakers, especially those working on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, have done a fine job of showing us what super-hero movies can be. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, shows us what a comic-book movie can be. Also, it demonstrates the difference. A super-hero movie might be based on stories told in comics, but a comic-book movie tells its story the way a comic-book tells it, using tools that movies don’t often use. Marvelously, no, miraculously, it did that without being silly, or looking down its nose at the art form in the way the 1960’s Batman TV series seems to. I could say more, and do so at great length, but to my mind this film expands the very syntax of cinematography, making it difficult for me to describe the experience to anyone who hasn’t experienced something like it. As I can’t think of anything else like it for you to experience, I guess you’ll just have to go see it. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse clears my Threshold of Awesome, and additionally clears my “let’s spend enough money so all four kids can see it in the theater” threshold.