July 29, 2004: I Am A Beautiful Animal! I Am A Destroyer Of Worlds! I Am Harry *AHEM* Potter!

Friday night I went to a packed showing of Wizard People, Dear Reader. Austin comic-book artist Brad Neely has created his own narration for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, narration which is hysterical, warped, and somehow abusive and respectful of the material at the same time. (It is, essentially, a DVD commentary track . . . as recorded by someone who isn't quite as familiar with the movie as he ought to be, and is a bit overfond of onomatopoeia to boot.) Such characters as Hagar the Horrible, Prof. Hardcastle McCormick, and the lovable Ronny "The Bear" Weasel populate this narrative. It was definitely something to be experienced -- especially with Brad reading (and elaborating on, and sometimes mistiming) his commentary live.

Lest y'all feel left out, the Wizard People, Dear Reader soundtrack can be downloaded. Fair warning: these are BIG files, and should be converted to audio CDs before use. Read the directions at the bottom of the page.

Neely's work is very, very funny, and highly commended to your attention if you are at all a fan of the original book or movie.

WARNING: These audio files contain many uses of certain Anglo-Saxon four-letter monosyllables and variants thereof. Parents should probably try this out for themselves before showing this to your children, who won't get a lot of the jokes anyway.

-- Andrew Hackard, Managing Editor