frank miller

DVD Review: Batman – Year One

Based on the 1987 four-issue story arc by Frank Miller, Batman: Year One is a stylishly animated retelling of Batman’s origins. Viewers unfamiliar with the print version may recognize similarities between this and 2005’s live-action Batman Begins. Bruce Wayne has returned to Gotham City after training overseas. He soon becomes inspired to fight crime dressed as a bat. but Year One is just as much the story of Lieutenant Jim Gordon, new to Gotham PD. while the rest of the department views Batman as a criminal, Gordon sees his true intentions and an alliance is slowly formed.

Complicating matters somewhat is Selina Kyle, a prostitute who develops her own alter ego: Catwoman. actually, Catwoman is incorporated awkwardly into the story. We’re already seeing the beginnings of Batman as well as the future Commissioner Gordon. Though competently voiced by Eliza Dushku, throwing in the origins of the morally ambiguous Catwoman is a bit more than this film can handle. Year One boasts a rather insubstantial running time of 64 minutes. the adaptation of Miller’s story is faithful, but the storytelling buckles under the weight of the various plot elements it stuffs into a short duration. in the end, the film feels like a pilot episode for a new series rather than a stand-alone feature.

Not helping at all is the seriously uninspired voice work of Benjamin McKenzie as Bruce Wayne/Batman. McKenzie isn’t really acting so much as just reading lines, especially during the painfully dull narration. He sounds so disengaged with the material that it makes Batman a total bore. much more effective is Bryan Cranston’s voicing of Lt. Gordon. Cranston brings significantly more gravity to his performance as Gordon, elevating him above the title character in terms of interest and sympathy. Batman: Year One is an attractively animated film with some excitingly staged action sequences but ultimately feels incomplete.

Batman: Year One is available in several configurations. for the budget conscious, the single-disc DVD is the best choice. the only significant extra feature it contains is a 15-minute DC Showcase short, Catwoman. Though unrelated to the events of Year One, this is a better use of Selina Kyle (voiced again by Eliza Dushku). Besides that, there are several lengthy sneak peeks at upcoming DC Comics animated films. the double-disc DVD edition contains significantly more special features. Batman: Year One is also available on Blu-ray.

Newly Designed IBM Express LTO-5 TS2350 Tape Drive

Due to the rapid growth and development of internet and E-business activities, the data storage needs are increasing at an astounding rate. The world has now become more intelligent and instrumented. The enterprises need more reliable, smarter and economical backup solution that can deliver increased storage capacity and higher output at a reasonable price.

LTO is an intelligent, cost effective and high speed tape technology that has enabled the companies to drive down their IT costs. The major factor that contributes to the huge success of LTO format is its open standard. Interoperability of LTO media tapes among different brands of tape drives makes it the most preferred storage technology.

Fifth generation IBM LTO-5 tape products protect and secure your sensitive data for longer time period and make it available when you need it. IBM TS2350 system Storage tape drive has leveraged the latest LTO-5 tape version to enable the data managers to cost effectively meet the growing backup storage needs. TS2350 LTO-5 drive is most reliable choice for handling the increased pressure of high volume backups and high density recordings.

IBM LTO5 drive is developed to satisfy the backup needs of small & medium businesses, departmental servers, workstations, network servers, remote offices and data centers. IBM LTO 5 tape cartridges are more durable and have the capacity to store 3TB information in compressed mode. now you can also create partitions on the LTO-5 tape cartridges, which allows better and efficient data management. IBM TS2350 drive features 2:1 compression. The IBM LTO5 drive supports high transfer speed, and its durable tape head assures excellent performance and unmatched data integrity in all demanding environments.

IBM has increased the data performance of TS2350 LTO-5 tape drive to 140 MB/s (native). The drive has a 6 GB/s SAS connectivity and one Ethernet port for offer broader connectivity to open system servers. IBM LTO5 technology continues to support the 256-bit hardware based encryption and write-once read-many techniques.

Backward media compatibility is a cost saving feature that secures your previous investments. TS2350 drive provides backward compatibility with the previous 2 generations. LTO-3 media is read-compatible and LTO4 tape media is read/write compatible. IBM TS2350 drive is engineered to address the needs of high volume backups, long term protection and rapid access to the stored files.
IBM ultrium LTO-5 tape (46X1290)

IBM LTO-5 drive supports dynamic channel calibration which results in greater output frequency and data throughput. IBM LTO5 tapes require less shelf space. their robust medium provides resistance against extreme temperatures and unfavorable environmental conditions.

Exclusive technologies of IBM help to reduce the operational and maintenance costs. Power consumption of IBM TS2350 drive is less as compared to other drives. IBM LTO5 drive assures rock solid reliability, faster backup speed and extremely low error rate during high density recordings. now you can meet the storage needs and demands of the data rich environments at lowest cost with IBM LTO 5 technology.

Crisis On Infinite Midlives – Myopia, or: Frank Miller Serves The Assbug

Hey, didja know Frank Miller has a blog? me neither! I bet it’s just chock full of little tidbits about Frank’s creative process, how he works, what he’s working on next, and a million other juicy insights that would excite the comics enthusiast! Let’s tune in, shall we?

The “Occupy” movement, whether displaying itself on Wall Street or in the streets of Oakland (which has, with unspeakable cowardice, embraced it) is anything but an exercise of our blessed first Amendment.

Wow! I feel like I have an insider’s view into… Wait, what?

This is no popular uprising. This is garbage. And goodness knows they’re spewing their garbage – both politically and physically – every which way they can find.

Oh, Frank. Who hurt you? Grab a glass, pour a drink, and tell your Uncle Rob -

Maybe, between bouts of self-pity and all the other tasty tidbits of narcissism you’ve been served up in your sheltered, comfy little worlds, you’ve heard terms like al-Qaeda and Islamicism.

Well, maybe we caught Frank on a bad day. maybe the good stuff about comics is in the earlier entries. Let’s take a look-see at the last post…

I wish all those responsible for the Atrocity of 9/11 to burn in hell.

Um… hey! Here’s some art! It’s called “A Nice Thought”!

*sigh* Here’s some art back atcha, Frank:

Look, I’m a firm believer in separating the artist from the art, otherwise I’d never be able to enjoy the music of Charles Manson or my extensive collection of Hitler paintings. But as a comics fan, my concern, based on nothing but pure speculation, is that Frank might be getting himself a one-track mind here. Which really is no concern of mine – what Frank Miller believes and does is his own Goddamned business, and God knows that Frank isn’t worried about, say, whether my drinking will affect mY RIiting stIle no YOUR the gy thats drunk!!!1!

But when an artist gets a bug up their ass about a particular subject, I become concerned that we’re only going to be seeing art that serves the assbug. And the fact that Miller apparently cut and run on All-Star Batman and Robin to do Holy Terror – a book about nothing but killing Islamic terrorists – certainly isn’t helping me to believe I’m wrong.

Here’s the part of Frank’s post that really concerns me:

Wake up, pond scum. America is at war against a ruthless enemy.

Okay… which has to do with Occupy Wall Street… what exactly? I get that you’ve picked up a thing against terrorism, Frank – and God knows that no one is for terrorism – but a bunch of crunchy granola college kids on an urban campout has absolutely fuck-all to do with it. these kids aren’t exactly stopping the war against terror, Frank; I pass the Occupy Boston kids on the way to the bar every night. if they’re not stopping a terminal drunkard from going about his evening, I doubt they’re gonna step on Seal Team Six’s dicks.

Look, it’s Frank’s life, and if he wants to spend it filtering everything through a haze of anti-terrorist fervor, that’s his business. But the way I see it, Steve Ditko wanted to filter everything through a filter of moral objectivism, which meant by the 1990′s, he would only work on books with clear good guys and bad guys, with no shade of gray at all… which meant the co-creator of Spider-man would only work on fucking wrestling comics.

Nobody likes terrorists, Frank, but they’re not the only thing I want to read about. I’m a long time Frank Miller fan, which means I want more Sin City stories. I want more Robocop and Martha Washington stories. Hell, I want more Batman stories… but the last time you sat down to write one of those, you decided that Batman didn’t fit with the propoganda you admittedly were trying to write… so you chucked Batman so you could keep the propaganda.

Let that sink in, Frank: you chose a message over character. I don’t give a fuck what you believe; that’s just not a choice I want my storytellers making.

So why don’t you quit frittering away your time and get back to work, Frank. Wake up: America is at war against a ruthless enemy. maybe, between bouts of jingoism and all the other tasty tidbits of Arab Panic you’ve been served up in your sheltered, comfy little art studio, you’ve heard terms like bad comics and stilted, boring, Chick-Tract storytelling.