comics recs?

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Looking to get back into the picking up of new comics in physical form, pull lists and such, as I can't justify spending $120 a year to read one title on one company's digital platform and would rather broaden horizons and hold actual paper.

So, as the title of this post would suggest, what are you reading and what do you recommend? Tell me in the comments below...

LA PISCINE (Jacques Deray, 1969)

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(Directed by Jacques Deray from a script by Deray, Jean-Claude Carrière, and Alain Page; starring Romy Schneider, Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet, and Jane Birkin. Released 31 January 1969; watched 2023w35 via Criterion Channel)

Romy Schneider swims in LA PISCINE

I love a good smoldery slow burn as much as the next guy who loves a good smoldery slow burn, but Deray's tapestry of insanely sexy people having insanely sexy people problems and sex along the Riviera with (more than) a dash of borderline personality disorder – especially on Delon's part – thrown in for good measure, was too much smolder and not enough burn.

That being said, all of the insanely sexy people bounding in and out of the eponymous pool turned in great performances (RIP Jane Birkin), especially Delon and Schneider (whose dynamic did, thanks in no small part to their offscreen history, remind me of Cruise and Kidman's in EYES WIDE SHUT (or rather, the other way 'round) – itself a not-dissimilar take on jealousy's devastation which I've been meaning to revisit), and I particularly enjoyed seeing Delon play someone with a (sexy) screw loose, given that my primary exposure to his work has, thus far, been via his more composed and effortless cool performances for Jean-Pierre Melville (mem: need to rewatch LE SAMURAI and LE CERCLE ROUGE – been far too long).

TLDR: Glad I saw it, but not one whose not-insignificant legacy I care to proselytize or revisit anytime soon.

unsolicited dcu casting advice

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With Giancarlo Esposito's admission that he has spoken with James Gunn about appearing in a DCU project (a movie, so my hopes may be shattered but hey)- and in full knowledge that popular reckoning is that it's for Luthor (and he'd be an undeniably great Luthor - he's perfect as his voice in HARLEY QUINN) - what I really hope is that it’s for Sinestro in the LANTERNS series. Perfect pairing: combo of all of his great villainous roles – and the opportunity for a major turn of loyalties, from hero to villain to hero again to villain to…

(anti)climactic

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Running behind on Sunday's newsletter (or feeling like I'm running behind on Sunday's newsletter) but that's usually the case: the addition of audio, while a welcome feature and a great writing aid, has added a bit more rush to the deadline than I had anticipated though most of that sensation's probably from my own pre-performance mental fuckeries. Once I sit with the thing and write it and record it, I'm fine and the dread reveals itself as more than a little anticlimactic. Though I can't deny a growing desire to make it more than a recap of this weekly unfurling. Heading there, certainly, hopefully, perhaps.

In other news, I leaned my head too far back and snapped the headrest of my office chair / shit fuck etc etc.

wonder flower trip

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SMW looks like lots of fun. Can’t wait:

Power-ups aren’t the only way players can transform. Super Mario Bros. Wonder also introduces eponymous plants that make things a little … trippy. A Wonder Flower might make Mario really, really big, or it might transform him into a Goomba. Sometimes they shift the very world itself, making pipes bend and slinky along. Mouri says that with so many Mario games behind them, they realized creating new things that surprise players was a challenge. They first played with the idea of items that warped you into different areas, until Tezuka offered some poignant criticism: “If you’re still just going to warp to a different area, it’s still the same. Why don’t you just change where you are right now?”