"Post No. 539"

Notes on a couple of recent flicks I've seen...
Hancock (2008, Approx: 90 minutes, Will Smith, PG-13) was a real surprize and much better than I figured. This movie is about a disfuctional super being named "John Hancock", whose heart is in the right place, but he has a drinking problem and the public's opinion of him rates from hero to bum. This all changes when he saves the life of a P.R. agent who, with the help of his wife and young son, help turn Hancock's life around and he takes responcibility for his actions and great powers, and make him an acceptable hero to the city. It's not overly sentimental, but enough that the whole family would enjoy it.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008, Approx. 2 hrs., Ron Perlman, PG-13); after two HB flicks I can't think of anyone I'd imagine other than Ron Perlman playing the part of this Mike Mignola character, and, even though it's not an exact adaptation of the style and characteristics portrayed by him in the various comic book series, this is still an excellant flick. Selma Blair who plays "Liz Sherman", is not as whinney this time around and comes across as a strong member of the B.P.R.D..

There's some pretty funny scenes, especially with HB and "Abe Sapien", and the special effects are, as usual, excellant. In this tale, HB & Crew battle an evil faerie prince who is hell-bent on breaking an ancient treaty between faeriedom and humans. In this conflict the B.P.R.D. is aided by the faerie's twin sister, and there's some tender moments between her and Abe. A bit sad at the end, there's a great surpize for HB in store and will make any further installments of this series interesting.

And now...a few more words of clarification on the eBay matter on which I previously posted.

The new rules and regulations from that auction site will begin to take affect towards late October of this year (just a couple of months away). Besides using the option of Paypal (which eBay prefers since they own that site and want their "kickback"), they also will let the sellers use ProPay, debit or any of a variety of credit cards.

When I first began selling on eBay, it was before the higher fees, eBay stores or their owning Paypal. Over the time I've been a registered eBay user (9 years), between what I have personally sold thru them, or what other people have sold for me (on which I paid all of the fees), they've received thousands of dollars. Multiply that times the hundreds of thousands of other "small time" sellers, and they've gotten millions from us.


It was this starting capital which gave eBay the ability to become the multi-corporative giant they are today. But now, we "smaller" sellers feel very betrayed by this company simply because:



1) We don't have a choice in the matter.



2) They didn't ask us IF we wanted these new regulations (in fact, they've never asked us if we wanted ANY of their revived regulations).



I've bought and sold using personal checks and money orders for years. Some of us just do not want to use Paypal. We don't like the idea that if we sell something for $20., all we get is $17. We don't want to rise our starting bids because lower starting bids make items sell better.



3) We want to give our buyers some sort of choice in payment options, and not a demand.



And, yes. If there's another auction site that starts up that we think is worthwhile, many of us will be heading that way.


I feel like there's way too many corporations in this country which makes demands upon us as it is, and when choices are taken away, it sparks from some of the philosophies of fascism and communism.

But...that's just my opinions....and you know what they say about opinions.

Moving right along here---

Went down by the local flea market today. One guy had a dozen or so mid-bronze-age comics, all Marvel. Titles such as Master of Kung Fu, Ms. Marvel, etc. Wanted a buck each for them. Passed on any of them. Not that I don't thing there's certainly "some" bronze-age comics that are worth that to me (for instance, I would have jumped on that era Hulks, Warlocks and some other titles).

Stopped by the nursing home on the way back and visited with mom for a good hour. They've started putting those patches on her wrist now to help relieve some of the arthritic pain. She's doing much better and in high spirits, though bored from her long stay (now three weeks+), and I rolled her outside to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine for quite a while. She really enjoyed that.

I've read just a boo-koo of comics here of late. Many of them from the 2004 period, such as Batman, 'Tecs, Batman Gothic Knights, Aquaman, Hawkman, Ultimate FF, Ultimate Spider-man, and others. No individual opinions on any of these save that everything I read was indeed readable, and some it it outright excellant. I enjoyed the DC stuff, in general, better than the Marvel, especially such titles as Marvel Knights 4 and Ultimate Fantastic Four (but perhaps that's because I've always been a big fan of the "F.F."). One comic in particular that stood out from the stack was Batman Gothic Knights (DC) #54 (08/2004) which contained a modern version of "The Joker's" origin and tied in the aspect of his being "The Red Hood".

I also read most of Volumes 2 & 3 of the Joe Kubert newspaper reprints of "The Green Beret", published by Blackthorne some years ago. Kubert has never disapointed me with his work.

I still have close to 50 comics I need to read before I begin on the Warren Ellis DC-Helix-Vertigo set of Transmetropolitan. Actually, I've already read the two specials as well as the one-shot stories, and just as soon as I wade thru this other stuff, I'll begin one storyline at a time on those.