Slide

a film by Bill Plympton

Ah, if only they’ve made it four times shorter, this film would have been just perfect. Never mind the ridiculous plot or a yawning absence of likeable characters (maybe apart from some moles sticking out of the ground). It’s 80 minutes of country and western music that will destroy your faith in humanity, if you still have one.

La balada del mar salado

by Hugo Pratt
afterword by Gianni Brunoro
translated by Miguel Sánchez and Gema Moraleda

I knew about Hugo Pratt and his most famous creation but, until now, I’ve never read any Corto Maltese comic. I guess I was intrigued by Trazo de tiza whose author, Miguelanxo Prado, cited Pratt as one of his major influences. So I decided to start from the beginning: The Ballad of the Salty Sea.

There is a whole shelf of Corto Maltese (Corto Maltés in Spanish) comics in the library, but this one wasn’t there.

Primavera para Madrid

by Magius

Oh, the shining. “Take me!”, it called to me from the library shelf. “Take me with you!” This book just couldn’t be ignored. “Take me and read me!” I had to obey. That’s how, I suppose, it won the 2021 National Comic Award.

Of course, any resemblance to actual persons, companies or events is purely coincidental. It’s Banka, not Bankia. It’s Prince of Cantabria Award, not Prince of Asturias Award. It’s not the Emeritus, just some other guy killing elephants somewhere in Africa. And all these corrupt politicians are the other corrupt politicians, not those you thought. (Madrid is still Madrid though, right?)

In words of its publisher, Autsaider Cómics: “Impreso íntegramente sobre papel oro para reflejar el obsceno derroche de nuestros amados líderes” (“Printed entirely on gold paper to reflect the obscene squandering by our beloved leaders”).

The Martian

a film by Ridley Scott

How come I never watched this film until yesterday? Well, it’s not exactly true: I caught its less-than-convincing happy end some years ago on the telly and wasn’t impressed. Now that I saw The Martian in its entirety, I have to confess I quite enjoyed it. It’s got a sense of humour. It’s got ABBA, David Bowie and Donna Summer. And The Green Morning moment: “Hey there”. Hell, I even liked Matt Damon’s (ABBA, David Bowie and Donna Summer-hating) Mark Watney — he’s not as much Robinson Crusoe as Cyrus Smith. Science is cool. Be like Mark, and they’ll name a new potato species after you [see Martine (!) et al. (2016) Solanum watneyi, a new bush tomato species from the Northern Territory, Australia named for Mark Watney of the book and film “The Martian”. PhytoKeys 61, 1—13].

I doubt I’ll be using Watney’s life hacks any time soon, except for this one:

“If you can’t fix it with duct tape, then you ain’t using enough duct tape.”

Wait, that’s from a different movie.