Arts & Entertainment | September 15, 2008 What the hell is Panelology anyway? 3, xis vic even a copy in very poor condition very valuable. The movie industry has helped to boost comic book popularity to astronomical levels. Never has this been more apparent than this past summer. Blockbusters such as Jron Man, Hulk, Hellboy and The Dark Knight all graced the silver screen in 2008 (fingers crossed for another Conan movie; Santa has already received four or five letters detailing this request). Nicolas Cage legally changed his last name from Coppolla to avoid obvious relation to Francis Ford Copolla. The pseudonym Cage comes from 1970s hero Luke Cage. In 2002, Nicolas Cage sold his personal comic collection for $1.6 million, with individual pieces Kris | Watrich “what the hell?” Is official: wasted youth is no longer wasted. All the brightly coloured pictures of muscled men and well endowed women in metal bikinis that crazy kids have amassed in their teenage, *cough*, adult years have been given a subtle dose of culture. The study of comics as a medium and art form is called panelology and comic collectors, such as Chloé Bach, are called pannapictagraphists. Comics rise to popularity has been long and arduous. The first “comics” were about cowboys, Indians and world wars, but who really wants to read about that? On June 30", 1938, American Jerry Siegel and Canadian Joe Shuster created the prototypal superhero with the very original name of “Superman,” and an underground cultural revolution began. Modern comics are still based on Siegel and Shuster’s basic model and continue to fascinate society. All heroes have an iconic costume, most have a unique symbol and some sort of power that differentiates them from regular homo sapiens (that’s dork for regular people). Powers can vary from invulnerability to super strength to heat vision to communication with undersea creatures. Yes, Aquaman, you are the weakest superhero. eBay is ripe with the fruit of comic-dom to be plucked by the chosen few. Look no further than your laptop to get your favorite character’s delicious first appearance. Juicy Journey Into Mystery 83, the first appearance of Thor, will only run you $9000 U.S. Tangy Tales of Suspense 39, the first appearance of Iron Man, will cost around $3000 U.S. Values are based on popularity of the character, as well as the rarity of the issue. There are only eight known graded copies of All-American Comics 25, one of the first Joker yarns, making going for many thousands of dollars. Samuel L. Jackson has in interviews as recent as 2006 admitted that he purchases modern comic books on a regular basis. In homage to this, Marvel Comics has based newly renovated Ultimate Nick Fury on Mr. L. Jackson’s steamy good looks and winning personality. The Vancouver Art Gallery recognized the artistic value of panelology, making it the focus of their main exhibit this summer. Comics, anime, video games as well as American animated movies were enjoyed by the cream of the Vancouver art crust. In fact, the largest comic collections are held by world famous libraries such as The New York Public Library, The U.S. Library of Congress and The British Library. I’ve been telling my mom for years that all those wonderful stories will be worth something, and now they are. I got a call from the Louvre, and yes, they are interested in my copy of Next Men 21; hey, the French love Hellboy! POP CULTURE PURCHASES ie toe Bat df 1 eM KAaAda Elise Estrada (self-titled) Elise Estrada Babe-licious singer Elise Estrada got her big break when local radio station The Beat 94.5 had a talent search and she won. And unlike most radio talent search winners, she actually had talent. And looks, have I mentioned her looks yet? Producers quickly signed her and started releasing songs and videos, and damn, those videos are something else. The songs? Not so much. Elise’s self-titled debut album suffers the common flaw faced by first time pop-stars; their labels don’t spend enough hiring people to write songs for her, and the result is an album like this one: derivative shlop that is painful to listen to for more than 10 minutes. Unfortunately, this just leaves Elise with her good looks and passable singing voice to separate her from the pack. Try as she might, she’s no Rihanna. Help her out by buying this album so she can afford better writers next time. —Mark Fisher The Quilt Gym Class Heroes The Gym Class Heroes made it big on 2006’s As Cruel as Schoolchildren, an album that would probably fall into the genre of “nerd-rap,” or at the very least “alternative rap.” The thing that I really didn’t like about the songs on that album was that they overplayed how the band was nothing but nerds and losers. Their new album, The Quilt, does away with almost all of the nerd/loser theme and is much closer to a mainstream rap album. And now I don’t like the songs because they sound like something by any other rap group. I suppose I’m being unfair, I should probably give them more credit because they have the guts to not stay in the mold that made them popular, but I’m used to thinking of these guys and nerds and losers, so dammit, that’s how I’m going to treat them. Although I will admit (somewhat grudgingly) that they are talented enough not to need a gimmick to make a decent album. —Mark Fisher Ss ig Death Magentic Metallica Millions of young men woke up this week and for no apparent reason, cut the sleeves off their black t-shirts and re-sewed the patches on their jean vests. Some even started drawing pictures of wizards, dragons and valkyries on anything they could get their hands on. On Tuesday September 9", Metallica released Death Magnetic, their first since the confusing and therapy session- addled St. Anger, and arguably their best since 1991’s The Black Album. During the 1980s, no one played harder, faster and louder than Metallica. No one. As metal turned to glam, the boys in Metallica shunned eyeliner, hairspray and three-minute, radio-friendly songs, instead choosing to churn out epic eight-minute masterpieces that rivaled Bach and Grieg in their complexity. Death Magnetic is a return to the values that made pre-Jason Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth great. —Kris Watrich Sharkwater DVD Freestyle Releasing Just this year, the enticing, must-see documentary Sharkwater came out on DVD. The Canadian-made film came out in 2007, and has continued to garner recognition since its release. The film is written, directed and stars shark lover and activist Rob Stewart. His fascinating and informative journey explores the actual nature of the shark, demonstrating how relatively un- dangerous it really is and instead how peaceful and vital it is. Stewart explains the endangerment and inhumane treatment of the sharks, which are caught, finned and thrown back in the ocean to bleed to death and sink as they are too severely mutilated to swim. He also showcases the scandal surrounding the highly profitable but completely unsustainable industry, scandal that runs deep within government officials and is destroying an extremely important part of our ecosystem. The movie is touching, alarming and educational, and something that we all need to see. —Chloé Bach 15