Comments on: Friday Nestled Under an Old Quilt (Comfort Zone, part 2)

By: Robo

Robo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:58:15 +0000

I feel the need to go on a Matt Helm binge now.

By: Saturday’s Comfort Zone Wrapup | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:22:46 +0000

[...] part one, part two, and part three. I really had intended, when I first outlined this, to keep it to one or at most two [...]

By: Edo Bosnar

Edo Bosnar — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:46:45 +0000

Mary, I think “The Princess Bride” would be the definition of a ‘comfort food’ movie. Heck, the whole storytelling device underlying the film is a grandfather reading a fairy tale to a little boy sick in bed – the whole ‘sick at home’ situation is basically what prompted Greg to pick this topic for his column. By the way, I’ve read the book – it’s not bad, but this is one case where the movie is much, much better.

By: garbonzo

garbonzo — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:12:17 +0000

Global Frequency is, hands down, nothing but fun! I loved the pilot (flawed though it was) and shove the comics on anyone and everyone i can. Glad to see that someone else shares my love of this adventure!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:24:35 +0000

One can find the Iron Giant on DVD for less than ten bucks at many supermarkets, these days.

Great film, that.

By: Mary Warner

Mary Warner — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:33:47 +0000

I’m wondering how those Matt Helm stories you described could possibly get warped into the movie versions. I wonder sometimes why Hollywood even bothers to pretend that some of their movies are based on books.

You guys seem to all have wildly different tastes than I do. I guess my idea of ‘comfort-food fiction’ (if I understand the term correctly– I’ve never been all that certain about the concept of comfort-food. I’ve never eaten to feel better; only if I’m hungry) would be something like ‘The Princess Bride’ (the movie, I haven’t read the book) or ‘One Two Three’ (a Billy Wilder film with Cagney– not widely known, but one of the funniest movies ever). And of course, Marvel super-hero books, if they’re not too dark and depressing (Spider-Man is usually good).
As for regular books.. I’m not sure. I haven’t really read any novels lately. But history is always good, and biology. I just read a really good book called ‘The American Future’ by Simon Schama, and a great book about Darwin and slavery, called ‘Darwin’s Sacred Cause’.

By: Edo Bosnar

Edo Bosnar — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:35:46 +0000

Interesting that some people would call “Casablanca” a comfort-food film, or something like “Citizen Kane” or “Taxi Driver” for that matter. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of those films, and have watched them many times, but they are such emotional downers for the most part. My idea of a comfort-film, or comfort anything, would seem to imply a more uplifting conclusion (if only because we know the bad guy gets his just desserts in the end). By the same token, I don’t really consider “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” a comfort film, but I agree with Lt. Clutch in that I think it is the absolutely best Western. Ever.
Anyway, sticking to the genre you cover in this week’s column, my personal favorite writer of detective/crime fiction is Dashiell Hammett by far. “The Glass Key” especially, but also “Red Harvest” and more of his short stories than I can list. I was also recently introduced rather by accident to Tony Hillerman’s Navajo police mysteries (I found some of his stuff in a gift box at a local library…), and found them really enjoyable. Great light reading that still conveys some deeper social observations.
As for other media, I guess here is where I should have mentioned the Fletch movies, instead of last week. Also, I’m kind of ashamed to admit that I used to really, really like “Magnum P.I.” – another thing that set me apart in high school was that I preferred that show to the then oh-so-hip “Miami Vice”. Sad to say, “Magnum” doesn’t seem to have aged well – I recently watched a rerun one weekday afternoon when home sick and it left me pretty flat. In other words, not very satisfying comfort food. By the way, it seems to me like Tom Selleck, kind of like Sam Elliot, is ideally suited for comfort entertainment of any genre, i.e. Westerns, mystery/detective, even light comedy.

By: Lt. Clutch

Lt. Clutch — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:39:42 +0000

Excellent blog! I’m going to check out those Matt Helm and Travis McGee novels now. Those excerpts and cover art have me hooked!

As mentioned above, John Carpenter’s THE THING, and Paul Verhoeven’s ROBOCOP are two of my favorite comfort films ever. Agreed on MAGNUM FORCE as well, I never grow tired of watching it and consider it the best of Eastwood’s Dirty Harry series. Hal Holbrook’s performance is priceless here.

But everything else is topped by THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY.

Eastwood, Van Cleef, and Wallach.

Over 100 viewings during my 37 years.

Cannot be matched.

By: Michael Mayket

Michael Mayket — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:50:46 +0000

Your Travis McGee talk just made me think, “Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series rules. I should reread those”.

By: dhole

dhole — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:20:29 +0000

I just had a recent urge for comfort-food movies and found myself watching John Carpenter’s The Thing and Robocop. They were both quite filling.

For comics, I just re-read a trade of Queen and Country, and that was pretty good, too. Not frivolous material, by any means, but still a smooth read and very engrossing.

By: Alan Coil

Alan Coil — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:45:51 +0000

“I would say that they teach you what it is to be a man, but men don’t talk about such things.”

The first rule of Man Club…

By: Penny

Penny — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:46:14 +0000

I just bought a dozen Matt Helms and while I enjoy the movies, I like the books much better. I like the fact that there’s not a lot of mental anguish, just a professional doing his job. I’m also rather fond of curling up with an Alistair MacLean – preferably Ice Station Zero, Guns of Navarone, or Golden Gate Bridge (yeah, a lesser quality book but still fun) – when I’m under the weather. Again, not a lot of emotionalism, just a thrilling page-turner than engages you.

By: The Mutt

The Mutt — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:53:03 +0000

My comfort food is Spenser. Both the books by Robert B. Parker and the TV show with Robert Urich.

I would say that they teach you what it is to be a man, but men don’t talk about such things.

By: Bright-Raven

Bright-Raven — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:45:26 +0000

“My short-list of comfort-food movies, books, and comics all tend to be violent, it’s true — for some reason, fictional mayhem is tremendously relaxing to me…”

The fictional violence is comforting because it’s what one would like to do to those who antagonize us, but because of one’s own physical limitations, moral code or because of the legal consequences, one can’t / doesn’t. With fictional violence, they always ‘get away with it’, so to speak. (I mean c’mon, Travis McGee, Harry Callahan, Dalton, and these other characters would all be locked up with the other criminals in the real world). It speaks to that primality of violence we all share and acts as a release valve for internal angst / anger.

By: agent_torpor

agent_torpor — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:04:35 +0000

Ew, Miranda Zero? More Aleph instead!

By: Cei-U!

Cei-U! — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:04:20 +0000

My comfort food action fiction are the novels of Joseph Wambaugh (The New Centurians, The Blue Knight, The Choirboys, etc). Not quite police procedurals but more than murder mysteries, cynical to the point of parody, heartfelt in their empathy and sympathy for their casts of flawed and fragile cops. I also find myself re-reading my Complete Sherlock Holmes volume and two Stephen King classics, It and The Stand, on or near a yearly basis.

And Treasure Island. Treasure Island roolz!

By: Perry Holley

Perry Holley — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:02:46 +0000

Although I haven’t read it yet, I recently picked up a copy of Death of a Citizen for a steal (after store credit, I paid a measly $1.50).

Never read the Global Frequency comics or seen the DVD, but perhaps it’s time that I change that.

Although it’s only seasonal comfort food, every Halloween after the trick-or-treaters have finished showing up, Dawn and I watch The Haunted Palace with Vincent Price. I just adore that movie so damned much.

By: Tom Fitzpatrick

Tom Fitzpatrick — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:18:37 +0000

My all-time comfort movie is SE7EN. One hard-hitting gut-wrenching piece of cinimetic film noir. I honestly did not see that ending coming. I must have seen this classic at least 5 times.

My all-time comfort modern-day hard-boiled pulp-fiction writer is Andrew H. Vachss of the Burke series.

I’ll SPARE you my all-time comfort horror series.

By: Matt Bird

Matt Bird — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:17:01 +0000

Comfort-food novels: Ed McBain
Comfort-food movies: James Bond
Comfort-food comics: Anything written and drawn by Jim Starlin or Mike Grell

By: stealthwise

stealthwise — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:13:26 +0000

It’s funny, but until you mentioned it, I never thought of Global Frequency as an action series, but more of a science-fiction series with a ton of action in it. I certainly remember a few of the brutally violent issues within it, but now that you mention it, pretty much every issue seemed to have a ton of kinetic movement (even if it wasn’t solely focused on punching and shooting, etc). Now I need to go re-read those again.