comix month, take ii joe matt’s “spent”

I don’t care who you are, what you do, where you’re at, where you’ve been, or where you’re going — reading the?disarmingly?confessional comics presented in Joe Matt’s fourth volume of work collected from his late (and lamented) Drawn & Quarterly-published solo series?Peep Show, a volume fittingly titled?Spent, will leave you feeling pretty damn good both about yourself and your lot in life.

Not because Matt is a master of “self-help” motivational pablum, mind you — just the opposite. In fact, I can pretty much?guarantee that unless you’re living under a bridge and slowly, painfully, starving to death, your life is better than Matt’s was at the time he wrote and drew the material that eventually became this book. He lived in a shit rooming house, worked very little, had almost no money (and clung to what little he did have like a miser), saw almost nothing of his friends, was obsessing over a particularly nasty breakup with his ex-girlfriend, and his “hobbies” were collecting old?Gasoline Alley comic strips, editing together the “best” scenes from various porn flicks into eight-and ten-hour VHS compilation tapes, and jerking off, quite literally,?all the goddamn time (there’s a reason there’s toilet paper all over the floor on the cover).

See? You’re not such a loser after all, are you? All that being said, while Spent?isn’t exactly an enjoyable?book to work your way through, it’s definitely an?engrossing one — in the same way, I suppose, that train wrecks are. And while it helps that Matt’s clean, cartoonish art style is very pleasing to the eye and that the author seems to be not only fully aware of, but ?as downright repulsed by, his own numerous personal shortcomings as we are, make no mistake — this is a grim record of a guy who’s hit rock bottom and is too disinterested at this point to even lift himself back up. It’s a heady stew of depression, immaturity, egocentrism, and inertia, all wrapped up in a toxic bundle of self-loathing that’s enough to make Robert Crumb look like “Mr. Positive” in comparison, and when you consider that Matt’s best friends, legendary Canadian cartoonists Chester Brown and Seth, have actually said that he lets himself off pretty?easy in his own work — well, the mind just plain boggles.

So, while it’s tempting to congratulate Matt for his fearlessness in airing out his own dirty laundry here, it’s also worth considering the very real possibility that he obsessively catalogues the mundanities of his own dead-end life for no other reason than that he’s simply so fucking lazy that he can’t be bothered to do the?work? that would be required to write and draw about anything else! All of which might make it sound like I’m being pretty hard on the poor guy — unless and until you read this book and realize that, if anything, I’m being rather generous with my assessment here.

Autobiographical material has always been something that appeals to a very small “niche market” in comics readership, most of whom would rather read about guys wearing tights and beating each other up (and yet Matt is considered a loser? Figure that one out), but even folks who are into autobio work will by and large find our guy Joe’s stuff to be, at the very least, thematically off-putting. I admit that it’s phrasing things very kindly indeed to simply say that his work is an “acquired taste,” and the fact that, God help me, I?enjoy this stuff probably says a lot of things about my own psychology that would bear close examination and analysis if I had the time, money, or guts to pursue them — but like it I do, and quite a bit, at that. Maybe it’s the juxtaposition of such solidly-rendered, highly-accessible art (and I find mixing ?some greys and greens into the black-and-white mix, as D&Q have done in this handsome hardbound collection, really works even though it sure?sounds like it shouldn’t) with such off-putting, inaccessible material that keeps me coming back to Matt’s work. ?Maybe I’m looking for someone to feel superior to and just chose an easy target. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment. Or maybe I just like looking at train wrecks. Whatever the case may be, I’m definitely a Joe Matt fan — but I’d feel uneasy about shaking his hand if I ever met the guy, knowing where it’s been.

Postscript : Matt has moved on with his life, thankfully. He headed for LA some years back to pursue a possible HBO production deal for a TV show based on his work, and while it ultimately came to nothing, he has managed (somehow) to find himself a girlfriend and do some much-needed growing up. I’m friends with him on facebook (full disclosure) and he actually seems to be settling into middle age quite comfortably, even if it means (sadly) leaving comics behind (at least for the time being) and moving into freelance commissioned painting and illustration work. Hey — maybe there really is hope for any of us.

ASUS's Prototype 40-phase Z77 Motherboard - Wolverine!

The prototype ASUS motherboard codenamed Wolverine as pictured below shares an uncanny resemblance to the P8Z77-V series, with the obvious exception of the 40-phase power design. Annoyingly, silkscreen markings of the drivers and PWM controllers used were blacked out but it is certainly a radical departure from the usualDIGI+ VRM design. Time will tell if ASUS will (re-)adopt the marketing friendly "MOAR PHASES IS BETTER" metric approach, which is silly as there will be a diminishing point of return really.

For example, the ROG Maximus V Gene implements just 8+4 beefy phases, but that didnt hinder its prowness in claiming most subzero overclocking records.

believe the hype “district 9″ is at least as good as everyone is saying, maybe even better

Once in awhile, a movie comes along that proves everybody can, indeed, be right. It’s a rare occasion, to be sure, especially in a country where “Titanic” is the reigning all-time box office champion, but it does happen, on occasion, and your humble host is pleased to announce that one of those occasions is right now.

Over the past few months, the buzz around “District 9,” the debut feature from South African writer-director Neill Blomkamp and produced by the king of all geekdom himself, Peter Jackson, has been palpable, especially in sci-fi circles. The premise looked intriguing, to say the least : an alien spacecraft of enormous proportions ( a true “mothership” in every sense of the word) is hanging lifeless over Johannesburg, South Africa, for 20 years, and in that time its inhabitants, a mollusk/insectoid-type biped race referred to derisively as “prawns” by Joburg’s citizens have taken up “refuge” in a makeshift slum known as “District 9,” an improvised shantytown that’s a blatantly obvious metaphor for apartheid-era conditions for black South Africans under apartheid. While there are obvious parallels to be drawn here to the film (and later TV series) “Alien Nation,” which featured an ominous “mothership” that, like the freighter in “District 9,” proves to be a type of slave transport for alien “drone workers,” any similarities end there — not just because the locale is changed from Los Angeles to Johannesburg,, and the aliens in “D9″ are—well, a lot more alien,? but because Blomkamp’s film shows how the human race would probably deal with a sudden infusion of immigrants from space in a much more realistic fashion. Gone are the attempts to gradually assimilate the newly-arrived species into “proper” human society that formed the raison d’etre of “Alien Nation,” and in their place stands cold, brutal, unforgiving segregation, portrayed here in all its less-than-glory.

At the start of our story we’re introduced to Wikus (pronounced VEE-kus) Van Der Werwe(played by South African newcomer Sharlto Copley), a high-level bureaucratic functionary of MNE,? the Multi- National United corporation, a type of Blackwater-on-steroids private corporation tasked with administering the squalid ghetto that is District 9, who has been tasked with moving the alien population en masse under a flimsy legal cover to a new, even worse, concentration camp-style setting for the “prawns” further outside of town since Joburg’s? citizens have grown tired of their scavenging ways —not that they have much choice but to resort to bottom-feeding, of course, since they aren’t exactly being hired to work anywhere or offered any type of path towards assimilation into human society.

From the moment he enters the alien slum, teeming with rotting meat, every type of vice imaginable (and some you hadn’t imagined), unconscionable squalor, bad- ass Nigerian gangsters, and even-more-bad-ass alien weaponry and makeshift bioengineering, Wikus’ life undergoes a harrowing and literally gut-wrenching transformation that will? see him betrayed by members of his own family, made the object of a worldwide smear campaign, turned into a guinea pig for sadistic weapons experimentation and genetic manipulation, and eventually seek sanctuary among the ranks of those who, only hours before, he was in charge of evicting by any means necessary. For a guy with literally no discernible conscience to speak of, whose highest moral value seems to be the pursuit of expediency for the sake of his own career prospects, it’s on hell of a ride, and Copley is absolutely brilliant at conveying the inner transformation his character goes through as his physical reality changes so drastically and quickly. There’s Oscar talk about his performance already, and rest? assured, it’s entirely warranted. We have not heard anywhere near the last of Sharlto Copley.

The other great “acting” performance, such as it is, comes from Blomkamp’s CGI aliens themselves, especially Wikus’ makeshift “protector” and uneasy ally, a “prawn” named Christopher Johnson, and his young son. The facial “expressions”, subtle ticks, eye movements, and physical dexterity of Blomkamp’s aliens are a sight to behold, and even if there weren’t subtitles (apparently the humans and aliens can understand each other, though “speaking” the same language is physically impossible), the amazing range displayed by the CGI wizardry on display here would be enough to let audiences know what was happening with the “prawns” much of the time. I’ve been critical of CGI in a general sense in the past, and you know what? I’m probably going to be even more critical of it in the future, because “District 9″ sets the bar for any future endeavors so high that I frankly just don’t see how it can be matched. If the Academy doesn’t shower Blomkamp’s effects team with every technical award under the sun, there ought to be an investigation.

The CGI, though—impressive as it is—finds itself outdone by the actual physical setting of the film itself. I’ve never been to Johannesburg, but the arid and oppressive feel to the city that Blomkamp conveys on- screen makes the viewer believe that this is the type of town a giant alien spacecraft would be right at home hovering over. It just seems to fit right in with the heat, the degradation, the feeling of being watched everywhere.? This is a story every bot as much about the city it takes place in (and around) as it is about aliens, corporate scheming, the brutality of neglect, and social division. Johannesburg itself is a character in this film every bit as much as Wikus van der Werwe and Christopher Johnson.

If I’m giving the impression here that “District 9″ is more or less a flawless science fiction film, that’s because it is. Too often the idea of sci-fi as social allegory turns out to be a road to hell (or at least mediocrity) paved with good intentions, as whatever moral points being made either end up coming across as being heavy-handed or, alternatively, remain frustratingly oblique as the story pays more attention to the type of tech-heavy shoot-’em-ups we’ve seen a thousand times before at the expense truly exploring the often-interesting ideas underpinning the events on screen with anything resembling any definition of depth. “District 9″ walks a tightrope act in this regard from start to finish and succeeds brilliantly at realizing its tremendous potential as a comprehensive and intricate study of a displaced alien civilization, an admittedly obvious yet still tremendously powerful social fable,? an intense and provocative character study, and a frenetic, no-holds-barred, action-and-effects extravaganza.

People are going to be talking about “District 9″ for a long time. It’s already being discussed as a seminal work in the sci-fi genre along with films like “Blade Runner” and “2001:A Space Odyssey.” It’s a demanding, complex, intricate, and thoroughly realized work , a uniquely singular cinematic vision approached with tremendous confidence and not an ounce of hesitation. And it’s a a hell of a thrill ride, to boot. Sure to be among the year’s best and not to be missed under any circumstances.

Asus to launch Atom D2500 mini-ITX motherboard

Weve managed to dig out a few details of an upcoming mini-ITX motherboard from Asus featuring Intels Atom D2500 processor and although this isnt the most exciting platform in the world, Asus has created something a little bit different. In fact, anyone looking at building a home server with some fancy features might just want to consider this board.

The model name is D25NM10-I/CSM and its quite different from the boards weve seen from ASRock, as Asus is targeting quite a different market segment. In reality this ought to be an industrial PC motherboard judging by the fact that it has an LVDS connector, five serial ports (of which two are RS422/485 compatible) and even a pin header for a parallel port. However, Asus has also included a PCI Express x1 and a mini PCI Express expansion slot, a DVI port and a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports making this an interesting solution for a home server.

Other features include an on-board DC-DC converter, 5.1-channel audio, a pair of SATA ports, a total of eight USB 2.0 ports (four via two headers), a PS/2 port, a D-sub connector and a pin header for S/PDIF out. Sadly we dont have a picture of the board, but we can imagine it being a fairly cramped board considering the amount of features Asus has squeezed in. Intel has finally allowed for up to 4GB of 1066MHz DDR3 RAM to be supported by its Atom processors and this further makes this a decent little server board.

The CPU is passively cooled and with an external power adapter theres no noise from the PSU either. The only limitation as far as a server is concerned is the two SATA ports, but at least a PCI Express RAID card could be connected to the PCI Express slot if need be. The question is how much Asus is planning on charging for this board, as we have a feeling itll be quite expensive due to all the industrial PC features, but we might be wrong here. No word on when itll be available, but wed expect it to arrive shortly.

ASUS to Launch 2nd Gen. Eee PCs in April 2008

DigiTimesreported that ASUS plans to ship 200,000-300,000 Eee PCs by the end of this yearand annual shipments for next year will grow to more than three million units atleast. The first batch of Eee PCs, which will hit the market in the second halfof September, will feature a 4GB SSD and 512MB memory. ASUS plans to introducesecond-generation Eee PCs in April 2008 which will feature Intel's Meromprocessors. The power consumption of the next-generation notebooks will reduceto 7W TDP, down from 11W TDP adding that it may remove the fan to save morepower and reduce noise. Apart from the ultra low-cost notebook, ASUS stressedthat the company is not ruling out the possibility of introducing a second brandfor its low-end notebook products in the future.

christmas with the psychopaths “silent night, deadly night 5 the toy maker”

And we wrap up the Silent Night, Deadly Night series in 1991, when Brian Yuzna returns (this time in the producer’s chair, with co-writer Martin Kitrosser directing) to again take the series in a seriously different direction.

This time around, Christmas is central to the story, which makes fora welcome change from the last installment, and the psycho-in-a-Santa-suit theme is back as well (sort of, it’s not really central to things, as you’ll see), but there any similarities to what has gone before end. Let me just whet your appetite for this flick by saying this much — it starts with a killer toy making mincemeat of some hapless stepdad and ends with a dickless robot humping away at the erstwhile heroine of the story and screaming “I love you mommy!!!!!!!”

Interested yet? I figured you would be, you sick fuck (takes one to know one). In between all that we’ve got a pretty bizarre little story, too — the dead guy’s stepkid, Derek, is understandably traumatized due to having witnessed his replacement father’s murder, and to cheer him up, his clueless mother, Sarah, offers to buy him a toy. She’s not just taking him to any toy store, though, she’s taking him to Joe Petto’s shop. Petto is something of an anachronism — in a world filled with Cabbage Patch Dolls and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, he still makes the toys he sells himself, in the workshop in the back of his store. Problem is, Petto’s gone off the deep end and is building toys specifically designed to kill their owners (namely, children) — there’s just one hitch : grown-ups seem to be stumbling across all his toys first and getting the deadly surprises he’s actually intended for the tots. Joe’s got an (apparently) unwitting accomplice in all this mayhem, too — his (again, apparently) teenage son, Pino, who doesn’t seem to age —

Okay, it’s painfully obvious what we’ve got going on here — a psycho version of Pinocchio. And while that’s a fun enough idea in and of itself, it’s the casting that makes this straight-to-video curiosity really stand out. First off, we’ve got a visibly autistic guy named Brian Bremer playing Pino. It’s hard to tell if he even knows what he’s really doing here. And as if that’s not enough, portraying his “dad,” Joe Petto, is none other than old-time Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney! Now, Rooney is scary enough in the film’s less lurid scenes, but as the full extent of his depravity becomes known (alcoholic, abusive father, child killer — you know the drill), he really pulls out all the stops and delivers a performance that is, if this doesn’t sound too contradictory, blood-curdlingly hilarious. And just to digress here for a brief moment, it’s worth considering that Rooney is one of the celebrities who was so shocked and appalled — just shocked and appalled, I tell you! — by the first Silent Night film that he added his voice to the coterie of busybodies who eventually succeeded in getting it pulled from theaters prematurely. I guess their money’s as good as anyone’s, though, and seeing how Rooney’s got something like eight or nine ex-wives to pay, he’s more than willing to put his high-and-mighty principles aside when the rubber hits the road.

There are a couple of tangential links to the series’ fourth cinematic chapter on hand here — Neith Hunter is back as Sarah, this time in a much-reduced role (she’s just shown as being the mom of a teenage kid), and Clint Howard returns as Ricky, who’s apparently moved up a bit in the world given that he’s no longer homeless and has a gig as one of Santa’s helpers at a local mall. That’s about it as far as connections to anything that’s happened previously, though, until Rooney/Petto puts on a Santa costume for his crazed finale, thus establishing a thematic link with the franchise’s beginnings (and given that this installment proved to be the end of the series, that ends up bookending things rather nicely).

On the technical front, Silent Night, Deadly Night 5 : The Toy Maker is, once again, available as part of the three-DVD Silent Night, Deadly Night Collection from Lionsgate. The digitally-remastered full-frame transfer again looks very nice, the Dolby Digital 2.0 sound mix is perfectly acceptable, and there are no extras included on the disc to speak of. Don’t let the bare-bones presentation scare you off from seeing this one, though —The Toy Maker isn’t the cream of the SNDN crop (that would be part 3), but it’s definitely the most surreal of the bunch, and your humble host recommends it very highly indeed.