He’s self-sure, and convinced of himself. Demanding, and controlling, a modern-day Napoleon. Tweaking and primping, and doing anything to make sure he’s still in charge. He is not a big man.

She never smiles, though she would be beautiful if she did. The daily grind, it seems, has her down. Her hair never teased, her clothes always a little wrinkled, with a few stains from her children scattered about. But she shows up every day, and works hard. Is that the American Dream?

Hunched over, white beard reaching halfway down his chest. He hobbles along, determined to get through the day. He doesn’t have anyone else, but he manages all the same. No electric help, no wheels, nothing but his own locomotion. He is a big man.

Her hair is a different color nearly every day. She’s young, and she could be beautiful, but her lack of confidence shows through every pore. She’s struggling; her eyes tell a hard, bitter story. Angry and confused, she’s just doing what she knows, and that’s to survive.

Any of you who follow me on twitter know that I recently received a number of comic books for my birthday. I shared this knowledge with a few coworkers, and was generally met with indifference.

While I didn’t really expect anyone to just drool over them, it struck me as how little people care about the world of comic books, and I think I know why: comic book movies.

By and large, they’re terrible! Taking any major comic franchise and turning it into a movie is incredibly vogue these days, but so few hollywood types really get it right. Christopher Nolan has just recently done some good things with the Batman franchise, but apart from that? The X-Men? Started okay, ended in disaster. Spiderman? Ugh. Superman? The older ones were okay, but nothing special.

What I don’t understand is why most directors are so afraid to use some of the excellent story lines. I’m currently reading the Green Lantern “Blackest Night” series, and it’s amazing. Suspense, drama, action: everything that makes a traditional novel or movie good is there, but these get overlooked. The movies play it safe, they are afraid to move the audience to fear or tears.

I’m hoping that with Christopher Nolan, The Watchmen (which had its problems, I know) and the new Walking Dead series on AMC, the tide will turn, and some of the true grit and great stories will finally come to the big screen. Let’s get some Earth-X or Justice type movies going!

What are your favorite and least favorite comic films? Which ones would you like to see made?

Here’s a list of things she’s forced me to do (In no particular order):

1. Friend her on Facebook
2. Blog more often
3. Comment on ALL of her new entries
4. Get on Pownce
5. Get Twitter
6. Blog more (again)
7. Get Grand Central (You can find my number in my About Page.)
8. Use Twitter
9. Get Griddlers
10. Use Flickr (she even bought my a pro account for my birthday to guilt me into it)
11. Get involved in NaBloPoMo
12. Create a “Rachelskirts made me do it” category
13. Apply all relevant posts to that category (I haven’t done that one yet)
14. Read Devil in the White City (It was great.)
15. Read The Awakening (It was also great.)

I think that’s most of it. I can’t really be sure. I mean, after all that, who can really keep count? So, thank her or hate her for my new online presence because she’s a big part of the reason.

NaBloPoMo post #4.

Update (7:56 PM): 16. Fix the RSS feed image over in the sidebar.

Click to go to slightly larger image.

Thanks to (you guessed it) Rachelskirts I’ve finally done something with my blog. Hopefully you all like the new header, background, etc etc.

Maybe, now that I actually like the way my blog looks, I’ll post more often since I won’t be embarrassed for people to see it. . . . We’ll see about that one.