Friday, April 16, 2010

CUT TO: Attic, part 1

For some reason, I was curious to see how many films used "attic" in the title. I was dumbfounded to learn how many there are! Who knew? And this is a condensed list. I'm thinking a film festival is in order.

Flowers in the Attic (1987)

Aliens in the Attic (2009)

The Attic Expeditions (2001)

Toys in the Attic (1963)

Angels in the Attic (1998)

Man in the Attic (1953)

The Attic Door (2009)

Music in the Attic (1950)

The Attic (1980)

The Attic (2008)

Watcher in the Attic (1976)

Rachel's Attic (2002)

Three in the Attic (1968)

Voices from the Attic (1988)

Na pude aneb Kdo má dneska narozeniny? Translation: "In the Attic or Who Has a Birthday
Today?" (2009) -

Alice's Attic (2009)

A Man in the Attic (2007)

Attic Man (2004)

Dreams in the Attic (2000)

Don’t Look in the Attic (1982)

Monkeys in the Attic (1974)

Notes from the Attic (1993)

The Axe in the Attic (2007)

Attic of Terror (1937)

The House with an Attic (1960)

Glass from the Attic (1986)

In the Old Attic (1914)

L'attico (1962)

Love in an Attic (1923)

Our Attic (2008)

The Secret in the Attic (2005)

Static in the Attic (1939) - not to be confused with the line "Static in my attic" from B-52's Channel Z.

The Angel of the Attic (1916)

The Attic (2009)

The Attic Above (1914)

The Attic Princess (1916)

The Haunted Attic (1915)

The Little Girl of the Attic (1915)

The Man in the Attic (1914)

The Man in the Attic (1915)

The Portrait in the Attic (1915)

There's a Werewolf in My Attic! (2008)

They Came from the Attic (2009)

Up in Mary's Attic (1920) - this just sounds like porno.

Up in the Attic (2009)

Woman in the Attic (2003)

I didn't even bother to include TV shows with "attic" in the title, though I did come across a 2003 show from the Philippines called Oktapbang goyangi (Attic Cat) described as a show about "a rich lost-in-life college boy who wants the sexy rich girl who wants the successful business man who wants the poor but responsible girl who wants the rich lost-in-life college boy."

Friday, April 9, 2010

Graphic Content

I can’t have a blog about the attic without mentioning my comics….or as some would say, my “graphic novels”.

To begin, let me just say that I’m on the fence about that nom de plume for what most know of as a “comic book.” True, not all are funny or comical, and, in fact, the vast majority of them are not…still, “graphic novel”—as an alternative—just sounds like you’re trying to put a $10 whore in a $1,000 gown. They aren’t novels. If it were up to me, I’d call them “Illustrated Stories,” but that has no ring to it whatsoever. So for the purposes of “The Olive Attic,” I’ll just simply call them “comics.”

It’s true. I confess. I read comics. Go ahead, say what you need to. Call me what you will. I want us to get all the standard insults onto the table and out of the way. I know what images pop into your head when you hear that phrase. And, to be fair, I tend to think the same when I imagine the “type” of person who reads comics. Yes, as a recent attendee of Wondercon, you would actually be correct in that assumption and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why that is. Maybe it’s the sci-fi fan crossover. I don’t know. But there are a lot of us, though not enough, that don’t fit that mold. Still, in high school, and to a lesser extent now, I feel like I have to hide the fact that I read comics. It’s one of those topics you steer clear of in meeting people, like politics, religion, or being gay. And much like those hot topics, you have to read your audience before making that declaration.

Let’s turn back to how this all relates to the attic. In sorting through what’s there, I decided, much to my boyfriend’s chagrin, to catalogue my comics. My six long boxes worth of comics. I admit now, 500+ in with three and a half boxes left to go, that I may have taken on a bigger project than I initially thought it would be. Nic (boyfriend) doesn’t quite understand my interest in comics in the first place, and understands even less why I would want to spend hours inputting them into a spreadsheet, especially when it’s mirroring the database nature of my 9-5 job. But I think there’s some benefit to it. Amidst some fairly standard comic titles, I’ve come across weird comics that I forgot I bought like “Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew in the Oz/Wonderland War;” more issues than I care to admit of "Alf," "Bill and Ted's Excellent Comic Book," and, a comic called “Dead Clown,” which is just as creepy as it sounds.

I like to think of this process of archiving my comics much like someone would archive art for a museum. Though, that said, I don’t necessarily treat my comics like they are some sort of relics that can’t be touched at or read or exposed to the elements. Too many who collect them see it as a way to offset their income in their retirement. To them I say; “It’s not gonna happen.” There’s really not money to made in re-sale, no matter what condition you keep them in, unless of course you’re one of the 100 or so people in the world who still own Detective Comics #27 (first appearance of Batman) or something like that, which recently sold for $1,075,500. So why do I keep them, you ask? It’s most likely a nostalgia thing. But beyond that, I genuinely like them. I like the aesthetic of them. I like interesting panel layouts, I like the collaborative nature of writers & artists, and I like the soap opera nature of the stories. They’re immediately gratifying, and their short, 20-40 page temperament make for a quick escape when you’ve got a million or so other things going on in your life.