The Week the Theme Songs Died

Two days ago, Earle Hagen passed on. He wrote the themes for such TV series as the Dick Van Dyke and Andy Griffith shows. He was also the whistler in the latter. I bet you are hearing one of those songs in your head right now.

Yesterday, Alexander Courage died. He wrote the theme for Star Trek. And now that classic theme, used so many times in so many versions of Trek, is in your head as well.

RIP, gentlemen.

ETA: I've now also seen that Joseph Pevney, a noted TV director whose credits include 17 episodes of Star Trek, died on May 18. Tis a sad day for Trek fandom, alas.

This Week's Morrison Comics: Final Crisis, Batman, All-Star Superman

No time to really say much today.

In short? Final Crisis is a mess. It borders on the incoherent, it doesn't feel like a Morrison comic at all, and all the pretty artwork by JG Jones can't save it. I will try the second issue in hopes that things make more sense, or that at least we get some Morrisonian weirdness. But all my hopes are on the verge of being dashed.

Batman, part two of "Batman RIP" is a bit scattered as well, but the art and power of the narrative do wonders to keep me reading. Things are coming together, even as they are falling apart for Batman. I am not sure I love what Morrison is trying to do, or how he's doing it, but I can see that he is giving this his all and in a very gripping way.

All-Star Superman brings us the penultimate issue of this series, and after the brilliance of the last issue, this one seems a bit flat, and adds a new character who doesn't add much to the tale. (ETA: the character did appear before, I recalled, but still doesn't add much.) But it still reads very well, and Morrison continues to write a nearly perfect Superman. I suspect that the final issue will bring everything together in a way that makes me happy.