Fantastic Metropolis

This leaves me with “A Colder War” by Charles Stross, a brilliant story of Lovecraftian horror where the Cold War is fought over the arcane secrets of the Elder Gods, and eldritch monstrosities from beyond the stars amass on both sides of the Iron Curtain, primed to destroy Humanity in a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions.

I didn’t read many comics in 2003, but enjoyed those I did, especially Alan Moore’s very funny Top 10, Book 2 and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume 2 (although I confess I don’t care for the gentlemanly treatment given to Hyde), and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novel A Game of You.

As for nonfiction, most of what I read came from online sources, however two genre-related books I liked were Brian Aldiss’ The Detached Retina (Liverpool University Press, 1994), whose opinions I share very closely, and Science Fiction/Horror: A Sight & Sound Reader, edited by Kim Newman from a pool of movie reviews and essays that originally appeared in the British Film Institute’s magazine.

The movies themselves were remarkably disastrous this year, and I only got to watch the better stuff thanks to DVD. The exceptions to this were Hayao Miyazaki’s wonderful Spirited Away, Wolfgang Becker’s tragicomedy Good Bye, Lenin!, and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s Intacto (which deservedly won best movie award at Fantasporto, but that distributors, in their infinite wisdom, saw fit to keep away from the vast majority of theatres in Portugal). I haven’t yet seen some of the stuff everyone’s raving about, like Kill Bill Vol. 1 or Mystic River, I was so pooped after a year of terrible theatrical releases that I didn’t (and still don’t) feel any urgency to watch them.

On DVD I saw Porco Rosso, now my second-favourite Miyazaki movie (after Spirited Away). There’s a short review of Porco Rosso at my site here, in case you’re interested.

I also watched Jin Roh, directed by Mamoru Oshii, a sinister retelling of Little Red Riding Hood where Fuse, a member of the secretive Wolf Brigade, falls in love with one of the terrorists he’s supposed to stamp out. A wolf in sheep’s clothes may still be a wolf, though…

Finally, May, by director Lucky McKee, which was another of my, well, lucky finds in the past year. It’s a modern version of Frankenstein with gory, gory Dario Argento influences, as the socially inept protagonist decides to follow her mother’s advice and literally make a friend for herself. It’s also a comedy, if you happen to like it dark. Nothing terribly original, but the title character is so deliciously unbalanced I couldn’t help loving this movie.

In music, I liked Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips, Namaste by Blasted Mechanism, Black Cherry by Goldfrapp (a startling departure from the melancholy tracks of Felt Mountain, another great album), If You’re Feeling Sinister by Belle & Sebastian, Elastica by Elastica, and several CDs with Yoko Kanno’s Cowboy Bebop soundtrack. Not really music, but brilliant nonetheless, are Alan Moore’s The Birth Caul and his homage to William Blake, Angel Passage.

I would have written more about these, but (1) I don’t know the least thing about reviewing music (furthermore, I may have no musical taste whatsoever), and (2) I don’t have much time anyway.

I wish I could have gone through this list more calmly and provided more than just a few off-the-cuff remarks for each entry, but hopefully this will do.

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Luís Rodrigues acts as managing editor and webmaster at Fantastic Metropolis, and is the editor of Breaking Windows, an anthology which collects some of his favourite material found at the site. Recently, he’s been kept busy by book cover design and the Portuguese translation of Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné, while his occasional reviews appeared by accident in such places as Ler and E-nigma. In the middle of all this, he sometimes remembers he still has a college degree to complete.