Top Sunday Comic Strips from the Roanoke Times: The Satan Gag Works!

Greetings to our blog readers in Wales, Estonia and Thailand.

Today, we once again look at our favorite Sunday comic strips, and this week, we focus on the comic strips found in Sunday, Sept. 21st edition of "The Roanoke Times," the daily newspaper for Roanoke, Va. The Sunday strips include strips aimed mostly at children ("Garfield," "Family Circus"), adults ("Dilbert" and "For Better or For Worse") and people who are 112 years old and living in a nursing home in Christiansburg, Va. ("Hi and Lois" and "Pickles").

We imagine "Pearls of Swine" may have received the wrath from Rev. Johnny Robertson from Martinsville, Va., which is just barely in the Roanoke newspaper's circulation area in which a woman who is dressed like the devil convinces the devil character rat to engage in mischief. "Pearls" is our strip of the week. (Yes, it is the reason for our poster from "The Devil," an amusing Turkish remake of "The Exorcist," no Linda Blair in the remake though).

Other strips in our top five include "Speed Bump" which has a take on what it would be like to be Icarus (center image) and visit a tanning salon, "Doonesbury" which has an American 'helping out' against radicals in the island national nation of The Maldives, and "Funky Winkerbean" which takes on a high school stage production of "Macbeth," aka 'The Scottish play.' Since, Criterion Classics announced it was releasing the vintage Roman Polanski film version of the Shaekespeare play, we though we'd include a poster from the film here.

Here is the top ten:

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Speed Bump

3) Doonesbury

4) Funky Winkerbean

5) Non-Sequitur

6) Zits

7) Agnes

8) Get Fuzzy

9) Dilbert

10) Mutts

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.criterion.com

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com

http://www.doonesbury.com

For our look at Sunday comics from "The Washington Post," be sure to visit our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" at: http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

A Random Top Ten List of English-Language Films I've Seen Multiple Times..........(except "The Godfather)

As one might expect, not too many four-hour epics like "Ben Hur," "Giant" and "Titanic" (the only one of these three films I've actually seen makes this list!).... :

1. "A Clockwork Orange" (1971)

2. "Five Easy Pieces" (pictured, 1970)

3. "The French Connection" (1971)

4. "Apocalypse Now" (1979)

5. "The Landlord" (1970, a film I had not seen until last year!)

6. "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946)

7. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975)

8. "On the Waterfront" (1954)

9. "The Exorcist" (1973)

10. "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962)

SIDEBAR: Earlier today, an article I wrote about the political turmoil in Turkey was published on a high volume blog based in Washington, DC:

http://www.dcmiccheck.org/2013/06/06/gezi-park/

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Jack-O-Lantern

Of course, October is a great time of the year to visit a nice country town like Abingdon, Va., where the Barter Theatre is currently performing the stage version of "The Full Monty" (admitedly not my cup of tea, but my 70-year-old mom would probably enjoy it).

However, if one is staying home because they are overwhelmed with cleaning house, grading papers or awaiting a call from an All-State agent, they can watch lots of horror films.

Even many fellow film fanatics are a bit surprised when I tell them there is a Turkish version of "The Exorcist!"

The film called "Seytan/Satan/The Devil" was made in 1974 a year after Linda Blair shocked cinema audiences around the world. The director Metin Erksan was actually one of Turkey's most accomplished filmmakers at the time!

The plotline from the film which is available from Netflix (which is how I saw it on dvd) revolves around a troubled girl named Gul, played by Canan Perver, who becomes possessed by the devil.

Perhaps, the most singular cultural difference between the two versions is that Gul is saved by a shrink rather than a priest which seems appropriate given that Turkey is a Muslim country!

Top Ten Horror Films of All Time

Since it is October, we thought we'd post an entry about the supposed Greatest Horror Films of All-Time. The Internet Movie Database in Seattle came up with this list based on member voting.

It's an interesting list (actually included 50 films with "Saw" taking the last spot), and we do agree with the Number One selection of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," though I was surprised that solid horror films like "Carrie" (well, ok it's a bit kitschy) and "Poltergeist" didn't make the full list.

But, here is the Top Ten.....perhaps not surprisingly, most of these films have been remade- some several times over:

1. "Psycho" (pictured with Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates) (1960 version)
2. "Alien" (1979)
3. "The Shining" (1980 film version)
4. "Diabolique" (France, 1955 version)
5. "The Thing" (1982 version)
6. "King Kong" (1933 version)
7. "Rosemary's Baby" (1968)
8. "The Exorcist" (1973, there was actually a remake in Turkey!)
9. "The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari" (Germany, 1920)
10. "Frankenstein" (1931 version)

Joe Scott will be presenting "Silence of the Lambs" as part of the horror film segment of his Mixed Tape Series at the Carousel Luxury Cinemas in Greensboro, NC, on Oct. 21. At last report, showtimes were 7:00 and 10:00 p.m.

In Roanoke, Va., my friend Jason Garnett screens "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (of course we known the 1975 campy muscial cult classic with Susan Sarandon is not a horror movie!) on Oct. 30th at the Shadowbox Cinema at 10 p.m.