Do you think that farts are the funniest thing people can do? I count myself among the legions of those who will laugh at almost anything involving farts. So, when the chance to review Fartacular featuring Le Petomane arose, I immediately jumped at the opportunity. What lies within this DVD could possibly be the largest collection of fart jokes ever assembled on DVD. However, it's not at all the greatest collection of fart jokes ever assembled.

The main attraction is the 30-minute short film, Le Petomane: Parti Avec le Vent, written and directed by comedian Steve Ochs. The story is based on the real life of Moulin Rouge entertainer Joseph Pujol (Ben Wise) who was better known as Le Petomane. As a kid, Joseph Pujol discovers that he can suck up water through his butt when he falls into...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:

Hero Video Productions has started to carve themselves a niche in the documentary film market, putting together lovingly crafted programs about comic book creators and the art of creation. Their first two features, Paradise Found, focusing on Strangers in Paradise creator Terry Moore and Telling Stories, a collection of writers from different eras, were good, but they also showed the bumps in the road one could expect for a new company trying to establish themselves. Their third DVD, The Alchemy of Art: David Mack, is proof positive that the work and the learning have paid off, as ...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:

Terry Moore has been writing, drawing, and publishing his own comic book, Strangers in Paradise, for over ten years. Available in eight different languages and drawing a legion of fans, his story of two very different women and their life together has become its own cottage industry. Yet, it's still somewhat of a cult phenomenon, and one that documentary filmmaker Greg Jurls tries to open up in his film Terry Moore: Paradise Found.

As a film about one subject, Paradise Found starts off a bit strangely, tossing its viewer in the deep end and not even bringing up the comic book for a good while. Assuming a familiarity with what Terry Moore does, the documentary instead begins with who he is--or more precisely, where he's come from. Sitting in...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:

I've worked in comic books for a while, first as an editor and now as a writer.* From my experience, it is an occupation that most people outside of the field find terribly perplexing. If I am at a social gathering and the topic of jobs comes up, the other person is always extremely curious how comics are put together. As Howard Chaykin explains in the documentary Telling Stories: The Comic Book Creators, his mother never understood the difference between what it meant to read a comic book and make a comic book, and he is one of the mavericks of modern graphic literature. If his mother can't figure it out, what chance do any of you have?

So, a documentary like Telling Stories is a good step in the right direction. There aren't a lot of movies abou...Read the entire review