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Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Ahh...The Name Is Green Lantern, Baby!
I got it from this guy
Permanent Link: 6:31 PM |
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Monday, August 30, 2004
I Probably Sound Waaaay Too Nuts Here
I like comics, I really do. I spent today and most of my weekend reading four Marvel Essential books (Dr. Strange, Thor, Captain America and the second Tomb of Dracula volume). I'm going through Roger Stern and John Byrne's Captain America run. I'm almost done with Walt Simosn's Orion. I just started the Duck Feet part of Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar. I've been going through my back issues of The Comics Journal. Believe me when I tell you I love comic books.
Still, when I see someone who is not interested in comic books (and they're not hard to find) I recognize that, at least in one way, their life will be far easier than mine. They probably don't have a perfect life, but there's a whole set of worries like "how much will I spend on Wednesday," "do I spend too much time on eBay looking for back issues," "is it even right to support a company like Marvel" "is there even going to be a comic book industry by the time I'm 30" and more that they don’t have to deal with. Millions of people around this world don't waste their time with such nonsense; they've got better things to deal with. Not me though. Comic books are just another thing, and ultimately an unnecessary thing, for me to worry about.
I don't regret becoming a comic book reader, but I'm not always going to look at the pretty side of it either.
Permanent Link: 5:47 PM |
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Sunday, August 29, 2004
Friday, August 27, 2004
He’s King Midas in Reverse
This may be a depressing post, but at least I’ll be able to say I made a Hollies reference.
Looking at the month-to-month sales and analysis that The Pulse provides for DC and Marvel I noticed something. If I buy a book you better watch out because that book will get a beating in sales. Could my interest in a title truly spark a type of “curse” upon it? Let’s look at the facts.
Here are the on-going books I currently buy from the top two (all are DC except one):
Ex Machina
The Losers
Plastic Man
She-Hulk (that’s the Marvel one!)
Sleeper
Superman
Y: The Last Man
Of those only Superman is a big seller, but at least Y: The Last Man is one of Vertigo’s best selling books.
Let’s look at what’s going on with them and all the other books I enjoy from The Big Ones (commentary by Marc-Oliver Frisch on DC books and by Paul O’Brien on Marvel books):
Ex Machina
“If you like a book, then this is the stage where writing letters of support or helping to spread good word of mouth will do the most good. If you wait until impending cancellation is obvious or spelled out, it's going to be too late already more often than not.”
The Losers
“That's the old standard decline reeking its ugly head again over here.”
Plastic Man
“I suspect the reason why this is still around is the collection that's scheduled for September. These numbers are positively terrible, though, so unless the trade paperback sells like crack, I doubt it's going to make a difference.
She-Hulk
“Reportedly safe through to issue #12, but the drops remain worryingly high. Unless things turn around soon, it's hard to see Marvel extending it beyond that.”
Sleeper
“It's nice to hear that trade paperback sales are better, but this relaunch has been a disaster for the monthly, so far.”
Even the best selling book I buy has its troubles:
Superman
“Still plummeting, and, unless there's been a hold-up or an error in the system somewhere, it appears that reorder activity for SUPERMAN has come to a complete halt as well.”
Y gets off easy with the old “business as usual.”
In terms of what sells in the direct market I am, as Ian MacKaye sang, out of step with the world. The fact that I am thinking of picking up Human Target now that Cliff Chiang is drawing it and perhaps following Gotham Central in trades just further builds my case.
Granted, I am going to pick up titles like Captain America, Iron Man and JLA with the creative changes on those books. Those books will probably not face what books like Sleeper do, even though Sleeper and Gotham Central will have the same writer as Captain America. That might be because Sleeper is trying to sell readers something new while many readers are already comfortable with ol' Cap.
Maybe that’s it. I follow creators more than I do characters. DC and Marvel can pump out as many X-Men and Batman books they want because there are thousands of fans who will buy every single one of those books simply because they are X-Men or Batman books. There are only so many books that Brian K. Vaughn can write or Kyle Baker can draw (funny enough the Brain K. Vaughn book I’m not following is Ultimate X-Men, although I do plan on reading it in trades).
How many of my favorite titles will be cancelled or go through hideous “re-workings” before I finally give up and get a new hobby like, I don’t know, knife making?
I love comics, I just don’t know if comics love me back.
Permanent Link: 3:54 PM |
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Thursday, August 26, 2004
Ponder, If You Will...
I wonder if being a comic book fan, a really big fan, isn’t just being dangerously materialistic. There are fans that pride themselves on owning all the issues of a particular artists’ run on Dr. Strange or owning all of the collected editions of a Vertigo title. There are some whose knowledge of Spider-Man trivia knows no bounds. But in all this rush to amass these artifacts of popular culture, is something getting loss? Isn’t there a worry that one could lose oneself in a mania and end up disregarding friends and family in favor of owning every comic Grant Morrison ever wrote? At the very least, isn’t it sad that there are those among us who will decline the opportunity to enjoy an autumn sunset, one of the natural world’s greatest gifts to us, in favor indulging in some rare Alex Toth crime comics? Is the world of comics just another entertainment machine that is so good at distracting the human race from finding themselves, except that comics have that extra-kick of having perhaps some of the most obsessive fans of all, as if the product is filling some dark hole in the fan’s soul?
Wait, what…Warren Ellis is writing Iron Man? Holy good gosh, I gots to read me some funnybooks!!
Permanent Link: 7:30 PM |
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Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Time For Bed
I would like to thank Mike for coming up with the germ of this idea.
Somewhere in this world, especially if you count Europe and Japan, some parent is probably reading his or her child to sleep by reading them a comic book. During that same night, especially if you count Europe, Japan and the United States, someone is probably masturbating madly to a comic book. Might not be the same one, but you never know.
Sweet dreams.
Permanent Link: 8:10 PM |
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Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Mini-comic Review
Oh hey, remember when I talked about comics.
A few weeks ago I bought a bunch of comics cheap from David King off of the Comics Marketplace part of The Comics Journal Message Board. Along with the full run of Walt Simonson's Orion King threw in his comic Horse & Rider #1 from Summer 2003. Nothing wrong with a free comic, so decided to take a look.
The first thing to notice in this comic is King's 50's styled artwork. The characters look like little sprites one would find pimping cocktails at some semi-swinging restaurant. Here's page 1:
That's the main character, who isn't really given a name so I'll just call him sardonically Our Hero. It seems Our Hero has a bit of fetish. That fetish is stealing pies that are cooling off window sills and stuffing them in his trusty sack he call his Piebag. Indulging in this activity gives Our Hero a sense of real happiness, unfortunately that happiness wanes when he finds his pie fetish shames his parents. His elderly mother is beside herself in sorrow when her boy brings home some piping hot pies, bless her heart. Soon enough our hero is a pariah about town as townspeople jeer at him and call him names such as "Pie Fag." Coming home to his wife only to find her in bed with another man just tops off an already crushing day.
Our Hero comes to a realization, this Piebag of his is his only friend. A new day starts and Our Hero decides to walk through life unashamed. He'll be out and proud with his love of stealing delicious pies off of window sills like some sexually liberated Yogi Bear. The fact is, people will just have to live with it. He starts by confronting his old man. I won't ruin the ending for you, but Our Hero and his Piebag do find that everything's going to be alright.
Rick Bradford at Poopsheet likens Horse & Rider to the humor found in Mr. Show. I felt that way too, particular the humor of Mr. Show cast member and writer Paul F. Tompkins (screw that Best Week Ever crap, Tompkins is a great stand-up). King treats the bizarreness of his creation in just the right way for comic effect, he takes it very seriously. There's never a wink at the audience we just get a very well done story of a man who steals pies and stuffs them in his Piebag. I say it's about time.
David King's comics and art can be found at http://www.sweaterthieves.com/
Permanent Link: 1:08 PM |
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Better Than That Addams Family
I've got reviews of some comics coming up, but for right now I just want to share my happiness that this is coming out:
This was back when it was no big deal to have a sitcom starring a Frankenstein father and vampire mother. I was born in the wrong decade.
Permanent Link: 10:03 AM |
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Sunday, August 22, 2004
Pain of the Gods
I've got no observations or reflections on the world of sequential art today. Here's a bunch of covers of the same thing (edited so you're not bombared with giant cover pics):
Thor!
Phoenix!
Supergirl!
Mighty Mouses' Girlfriend (I guess)!
Some Image character!
Major Bummer!
Er...Supergirl again!
Permanent Link: 1:24 PM |
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Saturday, August 21, 2004
It's a Living
This is a post for Mike, Dorian, Brian Hibbs and all the other comic book store retailers.
I think I figured out what makes working at a comic book store so special. Some people have jobs where they have to deal with bratty kids running around, disrupting any displays or such that the establishment’s hard-working employees worked so hard to set up. Others have jobs where they often end up selling creepy material to even creepier individuals. Pretty soon the staff there realizes it is best not to think about what happens to the magazines and DVDs they vend.
This brings us to the comic book store employee. There’s a person who gets the best of both worlds! He/She is someone who finds him or herself having to quiet down a pack of 10-year-olds who might knock over the shelf of Batman trades. Yet while they’re disciplining wayward children whose parents have somehow disappeared, they’re also searching for that one Olivia comic for that old, skinny fisherman-type guy who is sure to come in early on a weekday morning. Oh well, I suppose it's funny where life takes a person.
Permanent Link: 8:47 PM |
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Friday, August 20, 2004
If They Were Candy, They'd be The Inta-mints!
That's a horrible title.
Anyway, DC's website has put up a whole Intimates preview site. There's a pretty good video interview with Jim Lee that goes over his whole career but the real attraction, for me, is the preview art. It's not just that the art and writing looks good, it's something more.
Look at that cover on the preview .pdf, not the little picture they give you in the solicitation. Look at the guy on the front.
He uses a hand puppet!
A comic that stars a guy who uses one of those punching-nun hand puppets? This is going to be damn good. Damn, damn good.
Permanent Link: 7:11 PM |
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Continuity Streatched To Its Limits
Alright, I promised more content in the posts so here we go with a look at the last two issues of Plastic Man.
BUT WAIT!
First I've got to get some stuff out of the way.
I want to say thank you to Mike and Neilalien for linking to the Batman squirt gun picture. Truly it is a sight to behold.
Congrats to Sean T. Collins on landing a new job. We'll all miss your blog, it was one of the finest.
Courtesy of artist Brick Mickasso here's a Kirby drawing of Mr. T probably done during the Ruby-Spears years. Is it against the law if I don't put an "I pity the fool" line here?
Now, on to the plastic:
I was real excited when I heard that Kyle Baker will be doing a Plastic Man book, and without any collaborators to boot. There really seemed to be no Plas stories that took full advantage of the character since the original Jack Cole stories. While I enjoyed Grant Morrison and Mark Waid's respective runs on JLA, the idea of Plas being a funny character in a very serious world didn't seem as satisfying as the original incarnation of the character. In the Cole stories the former Eel O'Brian was no wackier than your average superhero (although he could never be the type to turn real grim like Batman). Instead, it was the world around him and the powers that he used to catch these insane criminals that were strange and weird. Plas just reacted to that environment. From R.C. Harvey’s essay on Cole from The Comics Journal #216:
”Everyone says Platic Man was wacky. And that was the secret to Cole’s success. But Cole’s Plastic Man wasn’t wacky. In fact, he wasn’t wacky at all. Not Ever. Not even in the dim recesses of his beginnings in Police Comics #1”
The spirit of that strange and often times dangerous world Cole first presented us is found in the first issues of the Baker series as we find a comic book that is unafraid to look like something Tex Avery would have created. Plas himself is not short on wisecracks, but the dynamic of those JLA issues where this smiling jester pals around with the grimacing likes of Batman and Martian Manhunter is gone. In fact, instead of a Howard Porter-drawn slugfest, so much of those early issues felt like animation cells and storyboards for a cartoon that will never be made. It didn’t feel like the same quality work Baker has done in the past, it seemed like the man was spending too much time with Photoshop. Combined with the fact that it followed the trend of inaugurating its run with a six-issue storyline (I often time wait for the trades but I don’t like it when the trades wait for me) and I felt the book was just not worth my time.
Other people were buying the book though, such as Tom, Mike (linked above) and Tim O'Neil. They all wrote great raves of the book, and Tim especially seemed disappointed in the book's low sales (Plastic Man is item number 150 and is the DC book with the largest drop in sales in a 6-month comparisons chart). Well, I've always felt for the underdog so I decided to try the last two issues of the book, encompassing the story Continuity Bandit.
Plastic Man #8 starts us off with a parody of those oversized Alex Ross/Paul Dini books. Right off the bat Baker is telling what this book is not. That being, it is not a book that looks at superheroes like mythic gods (I am really tired of people saying that) but instead something creators and readers can have a lot more fun with. To me, it sounds like the "more fun" way of doing superheroes leads to more quality stories so count me in.
The plot soon kicks in when a woman and child claiming to be Plastic Msn's wife and son barge in. This is Baker's glorious way of thumbing his nose to the continuity nerds. Many times we find those with encyclopedic knowledge of comic book minutia try to demean quality work by bringing up much more mundane books only because the former seems to be created by ones who have the same knowledge of such trivia. As much as I don’t appreciate the fact that so many comic book discussions seem to be in the shadows of these fanboys, we can’t help but recognize the stranglehold they have on Marvel and DC (or the stranglehold those companies have on them, it’s a horrible chicken and egg thing).
Plas, Woozy Winks and the FBI agent introduced in the first storyline, Morgan, soon find out that the Time Trapper is causing all this trouble with continuity. What’s more, that villain has kidnapped the woman claiming to be Plas’ wife and has left the gang with Abraham Lincoln!
A trip to the JLA satellite follows where we get a very funny sight gag (Plas and his “son” playing rock-paper-scissor with their own malleable bodies) and a very funny line from Woozy about Dick Grayson aging while Bruce Wayne stays the same age. Looking around the JLA satellite the reader finds that things have to regress back to the early days of the super-team as Wonder Woman is nothing more than a maid with super strength and the all the heroes are as white as a Friends marathon. Even worse, it turns out the Time Trapper left Plas and his friends with John Wilkes Booth, who was only disguised as Lincoln. Plas, Woozy and Morgan deduce that the Time Trapper must be stopped else the timeline of the DC Universe will be too hard to follow! Back in time they go to set thing right. That includes killing Abraham Lincoln.
Issue number 9 starts with a little mishap with the time machine the group uses to get back to 1865. If you longed for a comic where Moses runs into a cowboy, this book is for you.
The payoff from Baker giving Plas this madcap world to adventure in shows up when he gives us gag after gag based around how Plas and Woozy are going to kill Lincoln. They treat the assassination of The Great Emancipator as if it was a Scooby-Doo mystery, and that’s ok. The whole concept and execution (no pun intended) was so audacious that I couldn’t help but laugh.
Soon enough, the Time Trapper is found, Lincoln is killed off and the mystery of who the people pretending to be Plas’ son and wife are all solved in the last two pages. As Tom points out the ending does seem rushed.
Did Baker plan for the story to be much more complex and longer and had to cut it short? Looking at the sales figures linked above it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if this book is cancelled in the next few months. Perhaps Baker needs the few issues he has to come up with a story that will be even more of a scathing attack on DC and the mainstream comics world.
There seems to be no room for a superhero book, even one about Plastic Man, which features bigfoot-style artwork and the ability to actually poke fun at the genre while making some points about it at the same time. It’s called satire and I doubt if most fanboys, again they show up even when we talk of excellent superhero comics, would recognize it. Hell, if they hated it when Frank Miller did it (and I’m not trying to start another DK2 debate) what hope does Kyle Baker and Plastic Man have?
Let’s have Mr. Baker have the final word:
“Working on superheroes is interesting, because it’s a different audience. It’s an audience that seems to be only interested in superheroes, and nothing else seems to work. I’m not making any value judgments on fans by saying that – I see messageboards all around where fans think pros don’t like them or are picking on them. I’m not picking on them at all – I want their money. But I’m just trying to figure out what’s going to work as a monthly book. If anything, Plastic Man will be a re-learning experience for me, because superhero comics have really changed. Let’s see if I still got what it takes.”
Permanent Link: 12:41 PM |
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Thursday, August 19, 2004
Turtle Power!
School has been kicking my ass, so the posts haven't been high on content and for this I am sorry. Over the weekend and for most of next week (depending on how things go) I'll have posts that feature my thoughts and opinions on all kinds of funnybooks.
For right now, though, let me point you in the direction of something very cool. Jack Kirby draws the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Found via the Oddball Comics forum.
Permanent Link: 5:47 PM |
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Wednesday, August 18, 2004
This is Creepy...and Perfect
Ann Coulter at Joe McCarthy's grave. I love this stuff (although probably not for the same reason people at Free Republic would).
I'll be back with some more comic posts, tomorrow. Promise.
Permanent Link: 10:30 PM |
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My Little Justice League
Did the picture from yesterday's post show up? I think I might be having problems with my photo hosting. Well, let's hope the pics work today.
My Little Pony dolls done up as the 80's Justice League.
Here's Batman:
My favorite's Blue Beetle:
On the webpage you can read how these were made. You can join in on the obsession!
Permanent Link: 10:21 AM |
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Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Batman is Such a Bad-ass
I just came back from a long day at school. I don't really have anything interesting to say about the new DC or Marvel solicits other than I'm glad Superman: Secret Identity is getting a trade, I'm looking forward to The Intimates and I'll probably buy the Ed Brubaker Captain America. I will leave with this, because I love you all:
Thanks, Dino.
Permanent Link: 6:16 PM |
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Monday, August 16, 2004
A Bunch of Links
This isn't a link-blog like the ones Shane Bailey and Kevin Melrose run, but I just want to share a few things worth looking at.
First, there's news that Lynda Carter, Bruce Campbell, Dave Foley and Kurt Russel are going to be in a show about a high school for superheroes. I think that might be the perfect cast for such a show. I mean, Campbell and Foley in the same show is enough to make me watch.
Remember when there was going to be a superhero reality show featuring Stan Lee? Well, MTV wants you to be a part of it. What does the winner get? Let's see:
The winner will then be eligible to have his or her idea developed and expanded by Stan Lee's team, possibly for a comic book spin-off, AND maybe a television show.
If that's not a recipe for success what is?
And finally, thank you Tim O'Neil. Thank you for the phrase "I make stabby." Thank you for the entire remixed IC fight scene. It made my morning comic blog run very fun.
Do you think that between Tim's piece, Something Awful's remixed Watchmen and the random remixed Spider-Man generator we are in the Golden Age of remixed comics? The answer is of course "who worries about such things?"
Have a great evening, chums!
EDIT: One last thing. Peter Bagge has a new strip up on Reason's website. Here he takes on the fine arts. I think it might be his angriest strip for the magazine yet. Not coincidentally, I also think it's one of his best.
Permanent Link: 5:02 PM |
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Love & Boondocks
Did I go to the Aaron McGruder and Reggie Hudlin signing at Golden Apple? No, but I did want to. I missed McGruder at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival and I loved his panel at SDCC. But guess who did show up at the signing:
That's right, Gilbert Hernandez and family! Funny enough, the Newsarama story didn't even mention the veteran alternative cartoonist showing up, they just ran the picture. Oh well, pretty neat if you ask me.
Permanent Link: 9:27 AM |
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Sunday, August 15, 2004
Nerd Lust, There Is No Grander Thing
Forget Daredevil/Batman, the Demon reboot and everything else that you've heard from Wizard World Chicago.
This is the greatest story to come out of the ol' WWC. WARNING: It contains a lot of semen.
Permanent Link: 11:45 AM |
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Saturday, August 14, 2004
Deppey Strikes Again!
The Comic Weblog Update site isn't working for me, so if this has been covered to death already I apologize.
The Comics Journal has updated their site for the first issue fully under Dirk Deppey's new role as Managing Editor. Folks, it's a doozy.
Besides a great Alex Toth cover (and Toth comics are inside!) there's a reprint of a comic many of us thought we would never see. Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's Goodman Goes Playboy will be in the magazine accompanied by an introduction by R. Fiore. Will TCJ be taken to court by the Archie people? Will Fantagraphics survive? Stay tuned!
Also we get a preview of Deppey's ¡Journalista! column. We get Deppey's take on the X-Men Reloaded shake-up Marvel has brought us. He hates all the books except Astonishing X-Men. Deppey also boils down what the X-Men franchise is all about in this prediction:
One of these days, advances in artificial intelligence will lead to the existence of a proper Chris Claremont Storytelling Generator, and then fans will be able to sit hang out with their imaginary best friends, Kitty and Storm and Gambit and Rogue and all the others, well into their dotage -- safe in the womb-like security of an environment as consistent as their favorite meal.
That's as funny as it is sad. And it's very sad. I mean, we see it all the time. There are so many people buying comics for one reason and one reason only: the comics they like are their comfort food. There's nothing wrong with that in small doses, but when Marvel Comics plans the big "change" for their biggest franchise around this ideal, we are no longer dealing with small doses.
Why is it, when I think of comics, that I sometimes feel one could completely drop off the face of the planet for a decade only to come back and find the industry in the exact same place except smaller?
Permanent Link: 4:01 PM |
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Crossing Over With B.M. Bendis
Empowered by the announcment of the Batman/Daredevil crossover not happening even though, according to Bendis, "these are all of our characters" bloggers have been coming up with their own vetoed crossovers.
Grotesque Anatomy has announced the Power Man/Iron Fist/Blue Beetle/Booster Gold crossover. Jog has announced Alf vs. Black Panther. So, I've been thinking what my vetoed crossover is.
There are so many, but my favorite vetoed crossover of mine is the Fantagraphics/DC book Jimmy Corrigan Meets Jim Corrigan. The adventures of the most neurotic man on Earth and the angriest ghost on (and off) Earth will no doubt delight and confuse fans of all types.
It was going to be written by Chris Ware and John Ostrander with art by Ivan Brunetti. Paul Levitz put the kaibosh on the project, though. He said he didn't like the behavior of Fanatagrpahics employee Eric Reynolds towards DC. I tried to tell Levitz that Reynolds' The Great Darkness Saga starring I Believe In a Thing Called Love Lad was just a parody, but nothing going. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
Permanent Link: 9:31 AM |
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Friday, August 13, 2004
And Please Let Franklin Richards Be In the Book As Well!
I don't have much time to write about comics today, so I'll just share with you all this observation:
I hope Young Avengers is a hit. I hope it is a hit for one reason. That reason is that there is a chance we might then see Young Power Pack. Finally, yes finally, that vacuum that is all-fetus superhero comics will be at least somewhat filled. Please Marvel, if you are reading (and probably being bored) by this post, give the nice people Young Power Pack to read and enjoy. It would be an oh so kind thing to do.
Permanent Link: 2:58 PM |
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Thursday, August 12, 2004
This Man Doesn't Like Comics. This Man is an IMPOSTOR!!
I bought one new book yesterday. Some people bought 20, 30, 40 or more but I just bought one. I'm enjoying Howard Chaykin's Challenger's of the Unknown so I purchased and very much enjoyed the third issue. I also bought the two issues of the Batman/Hellboy/Starman crossover from the back-issue bins. That's all I got on Wednesday. No Identity Crisis #3, no DC Presents: Flash, no books contains a CD-ROM for Sky Captain, no Avengers: Disassembled tie-ins. I feel so...inadequate.
Don't worry, things will pick up (no pun intended) next week. I'm thinking about buying the Superman titles and Plastic Man again. I dropped them because I liked them but didn't really like them a lot. Still, the way things are going I can afford to read those titles again.
Of course, instead of those books I could expand my horizons a little. I could purchase something I don't usually read, perhaps something from Oni, AIT/Planet Lar or even a manga book.
Oh forget it, Superman needs my support!
Permanent Link: 7:22 PM |
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Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Apparently I'm the World's Biggest Fan of Writing Boring Posts
Looking at Tom's Aug. 10 post, I just realized I could never be the World's Biggest Fan of something. Looking at his post about various weblogger's fandom about Swamp Thing, Dr. Strange and more something occured to me. It seems to become the World's Biggest Fan of a character you need to sift through a lot of crap just because it features, say, Deathlok or Bat Lash or some other comic book character.
I follow creators more than characters but I could never feel comfortable saying I'm the Worlds Biggest Fan of Grant Morrison even though I own such works as a his stuff for Scottish Sci-Fi magazine Near Myths. Even if I did procure everything Morrison worked on there could still be someone out there who owns everything by Morrison and has slept with him and licked his bald head clean. That's just too much competition for me.
I can say I am the world's biggest fan of Sleeper, Ex Machina or Mr. Majestic but have those been around long enough for some kid like me to go around calling himself the World's Biggest Fan of, say, Mitchell Hundred? Maybe the time is right for me to start down the path of World's Biggest Fan of Ex Machina, Sleeper, Mr. Majestic or something else relatively new. Do you I dare take the step? Only time and how much money I can spend on comics will tell.
Permanent Link: 10:16 AM |
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Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Existential Funnies
Oh hey, I’m back. Thanks to everyone you answered my question before I left, including Joanna.
One more question, but a different one. Is anybody having trouble viewing this site? Whenever I click on the normal address for this site I just get a blank page. I have to go through blogger’s main page to view anything here. I’m just wondering if it’s happening to anyone else.
I’m sure I’ll have something to say about comics tomorrow but I just spent the past four days not doing a damn thing to do with comics. I highly recommend it. Coming back from my trip and reading all my favorite comic blogs (most you’ll find to your right on my profile) I came to one conclusion: comics are a waste of time. I’ll never kick the habit of reading them or talking about them. I can only hope I will keep some kind of perspective on things if I just never forget that everything that deals with comics is a waste of time. Alright, maybe not everything but most certainly most of comics is a waste. What the Hell have I been doing with my life?
Permanent Link: 8:12 PM |
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Friday, August 06, 2004
Vacation, all I ever wanted
I'm going to San Francisco and won't be back until Tuesday, so don't expect any posts until then. Maybe I'll get to visit that Isotope store that Jamie Sime manages, but I'll probably shackled to the rest of my family and be forced to do whatever they want to do. On the other hand, maybe four straight days without dealing with the world of comics is a good idea. I can certainly see some positive aspects to it.
I will leave you with this question; feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section found just below this post. I wonder, what are some good comics that get across sex and sensuality, but not in an outright "hardcore" or "pornographic" manner? There's no doubt that most comics seem to be written by and for the post-pubescent of this world, yet it seems like a mature, intelligent take on romance and the physical expression of it is a rare thing to find among the comic books of today.
I was glad to see that Catwoman #32 by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips and Stefano Gaudiano had Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle act somewhat like real people on their date. I preferred it to seeing another comic with some brooding, dark Batman (which at this point I find very, very boring). Still, I doubt I will find any smart and sexy content in most superhero books. I like Howard Chaykin’s way of injecting sex into everything, but he admits that his work is meant to be over-the-top (and that’s why I like it). I think that most of the work of the Hernandez Bros. fits what I’m looking for.
Anything else?
Permanent Link: 11:38 AM |
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Thursday, August 05, 2004
Comics for free
Well, one comic anyway. If you've already read this please forgive me. Neil Gaiman (scroll down a bit) writes about an offer Dave Sim has. Send a letter to him at the address provided and he will send you the Cerebus issue that parodies Sandman for free. You don't have to pay shipping and handling and he will sign it if you ask.
Sim predicts that many will pass on the offer simply because writing a letter and mailing it requires more energy than your average internet surfer wants to exert. That may be true but I spend a lot (too much) time on the internet and I still managed to send a letter. Not to mention, getting something for nothing is a pretty good motivator for my cheap self. I just hope Sim can get through my awful handwriting.
Permanent Link: 8:04 PM |
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A day I shall never forget
I might have a few big posts coming up, but for now I want to share with one of the most extreme things I've done that deals with the funnybooks.
I once read every issue of Grant Morrison's Invisibles in one day.
It was about a few months ago. Once I finally procured every trade paperback in the series I decided to start around 11:00 a.m. with volume one Say You Want a Revolution. I ended my journey around midnight with the final volume The Invisible Kingdom. A lot of ideas went through my head that day and I want to share with you some of the oddest of them.
Near the end of Kissing Mister Quimper I was convinced I had superpowers. Please believe that I'm not lying to you for any type of comic effect (I will share with you that perhaps the lack of any meals during the day might have contributed to my state). My mind was convinced that I had Plastic Man-like stretchy powers and Jean Grey-like mind powers. After I was through with the whole series it wasn't even about comics-induced superpowers. I felt like my brain was trying to escape from my head, as if it had somewhere better to be. I didn't want it to escape, though. I was too busy relishing in the fact that I had just realized everything in the universe there is to realize. This is what I wrote in my Livejournal immediately after I accomplished my goal:
I'm understanding the idea of the past, present and future existing at the same time. I feel like there are multiple versions of me and of you and of all of us and we're all existing on different planes of reality. While we are in jail we can also be free. While we are dead we can also be alive. Existence is realties converging in different minds. Isn't it great?
I returned to (relatively) normal when I woke up the next morning. Still, my mind doesn’t completely discount the epiphanies from that night.
Also, if you have never read Bloody Hell in America while in the bath I heartily recommend it.
P.S. This was not the original plan. The original plan was to rent a room in cheap motel in the San Fernando Valley and just lock myself in reading Morrison’s complete runs on Animal Man, Doom Patrol, Flex Mentallo, The Filth, Sebastian O, Invisibles and St. Switihins’ Day. Come to think of it, I would probably add Seaguy to that list now.
Sounds dangerous? Perhaps, but what is life without a little risk (and/or psychotic obsessive behavior)?
Permanent Link: 12:04 PM |
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Wednesday, August 04, 2004
I was dreamin' when I wrote this/Forgive me if it goes astray
Bet no one's ever used that for a title of a post. I am freestyling here, so if this whole thing sucks...whatever.
A) I picked up the Superman Julie Schwartz tribute book today. I've got them all except the Hawkman one, mainly because I heard it sucked.
The Stan Lee/Darwyn Cooke/J. Bone story was really fun. I haven't read anything this man has written that wasn't made 40 years ago, but this was pretty good. The story felt like a lost Superman Adventures book, and feels like a fitting tribute to one of the crafters of the Silver Age of superhero comics. The Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen story is not as good. They take the idea of a Phantom Quaterback and put it into a story that's seems very serious and humorless. In every way it is the opposite of the first story, which is not a good thing.
In fact, this book seems to follow the trend of all the Schwartz tribute books I've read: one good story, one not-as-good story. I think I would have preferred it if these books just contained one single story. I did like the Alan Moore obituary. That, and the Grant Morrison/Jerry Ordway story, will probably be remembered as the high points of this whole project. Adam Hughes did a good job on the cover taking after Nick Cardy's original drawing.
1) What else came out? Oh, The Milkman Murders #2 I liked. It took the psychotic family stuff from issue #1 and now gives us a Mother who isn't going to take any crap anymore, abetted by a foul-mouthed June Cleaver-like spirit. There doesn't seem to be much of a presence of a Milkman in this series (only the last page in #1 and the first page here) but I like the take on the family. In fact, before I read this issue I thought it would be cool if there was no murder plot, just a depiction of this insane family and they're inevitable implosion. Maybe that's what Joe Casey and Steve Parkhouse are going for here.
Also, Parkhouse draws just some wonderfully ugly people. He should win some type of honor for that.
I) Majestic #1 has a good story and art in it. I don’t really have much more to say about it than that.
!) This month’s Y the Last Man #25 was pretty weak. Still, it’s a great series and we get to find out what happens to Yorrick’s girlfriend Beth. I liked the Amazon characters in the first appearances, here I don’t think they were used here that well. The factoid about Magdalene Asylums seems a bit forced, which is a shame because that’s what Brian K. Vaughn is good at avoiding most of the time (see: Ex Machina). Ah what am I talking about? I can’t hate a book that opens with a post-coital scene in a graveyard.
In other news, the trailer for Closer is up. I really liked the play; hopefully the movie won’t fuck anything up. I like Mike Nichols’ directing and it’s good to see original cast member Clive Owen is in the film. Having Julia Roberts in the film, though, is enough for me to worry that the studio will take most, if not all, of the cynicism of the original story out. Of course if everything stays the same (and playwright Patrick Marber is writing the screenplay) we’ll get to hear Ms. Roberts compare the taste of Owen and Jude Law’s semen and watch Owen and Law have cybersex. That is, if we’re lucky.
Oh, and the super-hot Natalie Portman plays a stripper in the film. I’ll be honest with you, that alone is going to get me to see the film.
If you read this post over again this isn’t the end.
Permanent Link: 9:08 PM |
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Tuesday, August 03, 2004
The Sin City line on Comic-Con Saturday
Obviously, this is by the time it got way outside the actual convention center. Look closely at the right side of the picture and you'll see the line goes back very far. While in the line I wondered if everyone who has ever read a Sin City comic was in that line.
Thanks to Mark Anthony. And yeah, the pic does kind of look weird in this layout. Maybe I should change it (the layout I mean).
Permanent Link: 7:41 PM |
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A review of Pope & Pig #2 and then some other stuff
Before I review Pope & Pig #2 from Load World Comics I'm just going to write a little bit about the argument going on at Fanboy Rampage about Michael Chabon's keynote speech to the Eisners calling for more comics for kids (I wrote a bit about the speech itself in my report about the Eisners).
First off, don't read all the comments in the comments box. You will want nothing to do with the whole world of comics for the rest of your life (and trust me that would be a bad thing). The only one you really need to read is the response from Heidi MacDonald. I will add to her statement by saying one of my earliest exposures to comics was in the pages of Disney Adventures and here I am today, still reading them. I fear that many of Chabon's critics (including Mark Millar, who has done many books I have enjoyed but whose internet presence I find more and more unpleasant) fall victim to possessing a narrow mind in thinking that kids reading comics is a phenomenon of the past. I am of the opinion that the occurrence of more people, of any type, reading more comics is always a good thing and never an impossible or improbable one. But then again, I’m not one of those marketing whiz-kids running Marvel or DC. I suppose no one’s perfect.
But never mind all that stuff, it’s time for a review of a comic I picked up in the Small Press Area of Comic-Con.
I went to their site and that’s the largest picture of their cover I could find. I even tried Googling for a larger picture but I couldn’t. It’s a simple cover, though, you’re not missing much.
Pope & Pig #2 by Sam Tannen is the only book in the series I have read. You can imagine I was quite happy finding out that it contains one self-contained story, entitled “I’m Gonna Git You, Fucka,” along with another story on the back cover. The plot deals with Pig’s anger and eventual jealousy over losing a woman named Jabjab. After a hot date Ms. Jabjab dumps Pig cold for some musician named Rick, another pig. After confessing his anger to his roommate Pope (who, according to Load World’s site linked above, “happens to be named ‘Pope’ and also happens to enjoy dressing in gowns and large hats”) decides to stalk his ex-flame and this Rick guy. Pig spies them all over the place, even witnessing Rick perform cunnlingus on Jabjab in the same room (and to think, I was just pontificating about kids reading comics). I won’t ruin the surprised ending, but I will share that even one of the characters in the book remarks on its unexpectedness. It’s just that absurd, but in a good way.
Tennan’s art is very simple (unlettered samples of the book and other issues are found here). It reminded me of the work of Sam Henderson and Tom Hart in its effectiveness in crudeness. The dialogue has a fun, quick pace to it that lends itself well to the comedy. The scenes of Pig’s stalking developed a great rhythm that made it all the more amusing. Tennan is a cartoonist that works well, very well, within his limits. The book reminded me of a cross between the animated show Home Movies and its fellow Adult Swim shows from the Williams Street studio. There is plenty of bizarreness in the book, but it still finds room to feature some appealing characterization.
The only real problem I have with the book is the computer lettering Tennan employs. It never looks good but here, among the simplistic artwork, it seems especially out of place. Eventually I got past it to enjoyed the rest of the book, but others may not be so forgiving.
So far there are only three issues of Pope & Pig, as well as the weekly strip Load. I hope the comic books get a wider audience; I could see it being quite popular with the Jhonen Vasquez and/or Adult Swim crowds.
Look at that, I started my post with a large audience the mainstream comic world ignores and end it with another. Funny how things work out that way.
Permanent Link: 4:41 PM |
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Monday, August 02, 2004
Don't Mess With The 'Mont
Ladies and gentlemen, I try to keep a happy-go-lucky spirit here on my modest blog. But sometimes I read something on this Information Superhighway that just makes my blood boil. You might have already seen other comic bloggers talk about this piece but now I must have my say. I am of course talking about the travesty that Ninth Art has committed.
Read that article. I mean, really read it. It gets something I hold very dear to me completely wrong. I am of course talking about the character Mr. Majestic.
After a simply uproarious preamble dealing with Ninth Art's image
of being "snobs" (take that people who care about such things) John Fellows confesses his fondness for the Kherubim warlord Majestros. This proves Fellows' excellent taste in comics, but I soon wondered what the taste of Fellows' truly was when I saw this mockery of a recollection:
But I just can't stop buying anything he appears in. Those original Alan Moore WILDCATS appearances. His doomed-to-failure ongoing with Joe Casey (Featuring the funniest single comic in existence, his date with raging cyborg psychopath Ladytron).
Those original Alan Moore WILDCATS appearances!!?? I’m sorry to repeat such things but such a horror must not be forgotten. Does this Fellows fellow truly not know the first appearance of Mr. Majestic, a character he at least claims to be a fan of?
I love Alan Moore’s run on Wildcats (I prefer spelling it that way) but Moore did not give us Majestros. Nay, we owe that to Wildcats co-creator Jim Lee and Chris Claremont, or as I call him, The ‘Mont.
As you will clearly see in the link provided above, Mr. Majestic first appeared in Wildcats #11 during the Gathering of Eagles arc. Alan Moore did not write the book until issue #21.
Look, there he is on the cover of issue #12:
I’m sorry Ninth Art and Mr. Fellows, but in your gross misstatement of the facts about Mr. Majestic’s first appearances, you have made me angry. You have made literally thousands, well, hundreds of Mr. Majestic fans angry. You have made Jim Lee angry (maybe). And you have made The ‘Mont angry. For that, I pity you sir. I truly do.
Also, did you know that Mr. Majestic is also the name of a dildo? If that doesn’t speak to the creativity and marketing ability of The ‘Mont, what does?
Permanent Link: 11:39 AM |
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Sunday, August 01, 2004
The Gay Agenda has its own comic book. Look out!
Found via the Mike Allred message board:
X-Men comics will make your kids gay!
If those gays can invade such an omnipotent medium like comics, who knows where they can strike next!?
Permanent Link: 11:30 AM |
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