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Burb)n bio sheds new, reflective light on dark director E00.woo, f!lm brin00
they did provide him• long pause in his film making af- For Burton, it was a surreal expe- fine film
When he got the go ahead ter the success of Pee-Wee. But rience, befriending the man !
Cover art for Burton On Burton
by ,Sarah Hedlund
lIAR VEST MUSE EDITOR
Burton on Burton is a collec-
tion of interviews with director
Tim Burton retelling his experi-
ences with actors, producers, and
film companies. This book also has
Burton's sketches and different
pieces of artwork, from movies to
his time with Disney.
Burton went to art school in
California and ended up working
for Disney, but the clean-cut ani-
mation studio was not Burton's
style, despite the small freedom
] - [
Cover art for Automatic Kafka # I
by Sarah Hedlund
HARVEST MUSE EDITOR
Automatic Kafka stood out
from the crowd at first glance.
The book is a twisted version
of American pride and honor, de-
picting war as a violent game and
the U.S a country bloodthirsty for
freedom.
Opening with two men talk-
ing and then flashing over to a
commander hyping up his troops
for an invasion with the help of his
cheerleader sidekick girl, that is the
bill of rights. The gas masked man
is America, a robot-like man that
runs (ironically) on oil, and will
stop at nothing to defend his honor.
The artwork in this book is
awesome. It isn't really detailed at
times, then very simple but still full
of expression. It's mostly black and
grays; it looks like it was colored
with charcoal. The only true color
is red here and there from the
wounded during the fighting scene.
But it's hard at times to really
understand what's going on and
who is on whose side, but the point
still gets across with the last page
of the gas masked man With blood
on his cloths with an American flag
wrapped around himself.
from Disney, Burton made
Vincent, a story of a little boy
that fantasizes that he is Vincent
Price, which wasn't far from
Burton's childhood dreams• In a
way, he was filming himself; he
was filming his inner child in a
clay world•
Burton himself grew up in a
suburban neighborhood where
everything seemed to be so ba-
sic, so plain• But when Burton
watched movies like Godzilla,
Jason and the Argonauts, and
The Raven, he saw the magic that
life could hold and the magic that
movies possessed•
Burton's first few short films
were not entirely well-received•
But Burton broke into mainstream
film, making with his first full
length film, Pee- Wee's Big Adven-
ture, starring the infamous Paul
Reuben, and based on the hit show.
Burton was asked to direct a hit
movie• Incorporating stop-motion
animation, Burton made Pee-
Wee's world seem magical and
crazy, all while trying to find his
little red bicycle.
The movie was a hit. It wasn't
long before Burton was looked at
as a "hitmaker," but there was a
when he got the screenplay for
Beetlejuice, he knew that is was
time to get back to work.
For some time Burton was
looking at making a movie about
Batman, but the studio was hesi-
tant to give such a large project to
a still unrecognized director. When
Beetlejuice was a hit, Batman was
his.
Burton mentions countless
times in the book how he has to
find some connection with the
main character, whether it's the
two-faced personality of Batman,
or the misunderstood Jack the
Pumpkin King of The Nightmare
Before Christmas.
But the one film that was more
Burton's soul than any other was
Edward Scissorhands, the story of
a gentle man perceived as danger-
ous and violent because of his ap-
pearance. Reffing to the movie as
one that he had always wanted to
make, Burton created the charac-
ter when he was a teenager; Ed-
ward was a metaphor for Burton's
own feelings of being an outsider•
During the making of Edward
Scissorhands, Burton even got to
meet his idol, Vincent Price• Bur-
ton and Price became good friends.
that he grew up looking at as
a hero.
Yet The Nightmare Before
Christmas was Burton's baby,
an idea that came to him when
he was working at Disney.
During the making of Batman
Returns, Burton decided to
start Nightmare. This all stop-
motion animated film was
based on a poem that Burton
had written. But he found that
an entire script couldn't come
from the poem, so the movie
became a musical•
This book is a great jour-
nal-like account of Button's
point of view on directing and
his artistic work. Burton writes
about his many battles with pro-
ducers and companies, to being
able to make his movies the way
that he wanted to make them. Bur-
ton is a magnificent director, and
he seems to be able to take the au-
dience to any world that he chooses
to create for them.
If you are a fan of any of
Burton's works, or interested in
filmmaking, Burton on Burton is a
great read. It shows a behind the
scenes look at the life and work of
this magical artist.
©ayd00oams Comics & Coll@ctibl@s
is located at 114 E. College Street, Iowa City, IA 354'6632
Freakish offerings of "alternative heroes" comic
books break molds, baffle readers
I think that it's a visually in-,.
teresting and sometimes shocking
depiction of America and how we
interact with people. But the con-
fusion caused by the dialogue and
the lack of character definition re-
ally hurts this storyline.
Automatic Kafka is published
by DC Comics & Wildstorm Stu-
dios, and is priced at $2.95. It is
strongly suggested for mature read-
ers.
B-Sides is the story of three
friends. Each has super powers,
and all are trying to learn how to
use them for good.
Fastball is a pink-haired girl
that carries a truthful 8 ball onher
wrist, and can fight like Bruce Lee.
Mize is a scruffy guy whose hand
begins to glow yellow when he's
provoked and angered. And
Jughandle can make himself invis-
ible.
During the story, each charac-
ter receives a letter from an un-
known person, known only as
"CH". The letter asks them to at-
tend a meeting about their powers
and putting them to use. When they
arrive, they're asked by the mys-
terious man if they want to start
their own league of superheroes.
They agree to become the B-Sides,-
This team doesn't fit into your
prefabricated version of heroes;
they are teenagers in street clothes,
which is cool. Jughandle is black,
which also doesn't happen a lot in
comic books as heroes, while Mize
is poor. Fastball, typically teen, al-
ready shows a great degree of sus-
picion toward other people.
The artwork in this comic
is really choppy; faces are
crudely drawn and figures from
a distance are mostly just the
outline of their bodies and a few
dots for eyes and a mouth.
For being the first issue of
this comic book, B-Sides was
pretty good• It could us a little
work on the dialogue, which
gets kind of cheesy here and
there, but overall the book was
entertaining.
B-Sides is published by
Marvel Comics, and is priced at
$3 •50.
Z, :.%z': #.t ='.
Batgirl, alongside Batman,
cracks the case and learn les-
sons about being a hero• This
black caped duo picks apart crime
scenes and always seems to be a
step ahead of the bad guys•
Batgirl's cool attitude of be-
ing an up and coming detective is
backed up by her cool looks. This
all black outfit is unlike Batman's
mask in that it shows absolutely no
skin. It's sewn together, exposing
stitchmarks all over the suit, her
eyes nothing but black circles•
Batgirl #34 is the story Of a
young boy and his father getting
killed due to the father's involve-
ment with the wrong people. But
it's the little details within this
comic that make this title stand out.
If it's the dialogue or the art-
work, there are things that you
don't notice with the first read
through, like reflections in glasses,
and other tiny details that make
each character seem more realistic
with each interaction.
Cover art for Batgirl #35
The mood and tone of the en-
tire comic is very dark. The idea
of heroes operating only at night
is an interesting one. They hide be-
hind their masks of black to get the
bad guy; it's a twist on the classic
theme of light and dark, good and
bad.
I love the fact that Batman
doesn't steal focus from the Batgirl
character; it would be easy for the
creator to do so since Batman is
such a strong personality.
Beyond that, even, Batgirl is
not your typical superohero. Be-
side the fact that she's a woman and
not half-naked, she's an interesting
character, and (like many of the
very real readers that pick up her
magazine) seems to have a lot to
hide.
Batgirl is published by DC
Comics, and is priced at $2.50.
Promotional art for Ed Wood
by Sarah Hedlund (I1"
HA R VEST MUSE EDITOR l)e k
Ed Wood, directed by "r t
Burton, is a funny look at Warn,
f'
could be a sad, sad story o ,t sl
Orson Welles wannabe. Edwardd
Wood, Jr 7 was a misfit directOter
the 1950 s who just wanted to[eVel
the next big thmg' like every° sitarn
else in Hollywood• ,,.
The film is the story of the? ''t'
Gol ten
rector awarded the "The _%.1 ke
Turkey Award" for Plan 9gro.
Outer Space, voted the
movie of all time. f tii
The entire film is in black ari
white, giving it that old movie !ti 'n"
which sets the mood from sc_A. E
one. Wood is played by Jolfo
Depp, who played the character tn
d in ri<
perbly. Depp portrays Woo 'L.
his optimistic" enthusiasm, a dir";', anA
tor who bbelieved he was ma, a•
the greatest movies m hlst01''|'!vt
when they were actually ch
B mo tes.
• . ;:
A great friendship is st:*
lighted in the plot between W;
and his favorite actor, Bela Lug
(Martin Landau), the star[-"
Dracula. This relationship inter;
ingly adds insight into filmma
Burton's own history as a direc T
wannabe.
Meanwhile, Wood surrou
himself with, among others, a p:
fessional wrestler turned a¢
(George "the Animal" Steele), !
the host of a late-night televis
horror revue (Lisa-Marie). Eac
these co-stars believes in Wo
talent, but no one as strongb
Wood himself•
And just like any good ch
acter, Wood has two sides tol
personality, and Wood's fetish
for angora sweaters. Wearin
that is. Couple this with the
vative and singular filmmakin
Wood's, and you have all the
gredients of a bizarre bic
The realism in this movie
great if you look up Ed
movies. Burton recreated
and sets perfectly. The
film is also great; you laugh,
it's sad at the same time that
people were trying so hard to
great but weren't even close•
1 love this movie. I
Depp is great in it, and
performance as Lugosi was
ishing. He seemed to brin
back from the dead.
And in the end, Burton's
tistic eye for filmmaking make
for Wood's lifetime of failures. |
Ed Wood is rated R for adt
themes and humor.