I’ve been watching a 1961 black & white movie “Return of the Shadow” on Prime. The show is full of glib comebacks, snappy one-liners, and rapid-fire dialogue. It’s very much like watching a Silver Age Marvel Comic.
I’ve convinced myself that I don’t need a medieval style harp-lyre. I saw one played on Time Team, and I suddenly wanted one. The madness has passed, happily, and I will refrain. I don’t even know how they were tuned, or how many strings a medieval one was supposed to have.
I watched the Owen Wilson movie “Paint.” It’s loosely based on a Bob Ross kind of painter, but in a non-Bob Ross kind of plot. Wilson was delightful, the movie felt resonant to me, and I enjoyed it a lot. I’ve actually considered re-watching it, which is weird for me.
There is no logical reason for me to be so excited about the forthcoming Godzilla x Kong, or Godzilla Minus One. Science and reality take a big back seat for this kind of movie, and plot holes the size of Kansas are cast aside so we can watch giant Kaiju romp around. I guess it’s the little boy in me.
When I was little, maybe 5 or 6, it seemed like we spent most weekends at my grandparents house in Fortville. That, of course, meant that we had to go to church. I had seen Godzilla in a famous monsters magazine, and I was so primed to see a Godzilla movie in person. Then, I discovered that that every Sunday on a local station there were one or two monster movies run, and the next Sunday was Godzilla! And I had to go to church. I remember being so upset about this that I broke out crying. No luck. It was off to church for me. The drama of it all!
I consoled myself by making all these little hand drawn, ashcan comics about movies I couldn’t watch. Godzilla, Land Before Time, and Jaws all go the comic treatment. They covered what I believed probably happened in those movies, since I couldn’t see them. Imagine frustrated lil’ Scott dashing out comics.
Did I mention that I was a little behind as a kid. You know, because of “reasons.” I figure emotionally I was about two years behind all my classmates. This persisted through my teen years, and I don’t think I really caught up til I was in my later 20’s.
All the art is done for the coffee table art book, and I feel a little hollow. This is definitely a keystone moment for me. More about this as it develops.