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The Lone Tree Reporter
Lone Tree, Iowa
January 23, 2003     The Lone Tree Reporter
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January 23, 2003
 
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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&apos;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.