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thehefnerCrimminy, but I do not care for working Wednesdays. I thank my lucky stars that I don't, usually. Not today, though. Um. Which is to say, today. I do. Work. Yes.
Wednesday, for those not in the know, is New Comics Day. This means it's an hour longer, and the most hardcore of readers come in by the nerdload, which means that I hardly get a chance to do much needed writing work, not to mention dicking around on the internet and LJ. Other writers probably understand what it's like to get into the creative mindset, only to be ripped out of it by someone talking to you.
Yes. This is the day where I'm expected to actually work. How dare they.
But seriously. Living out of a van down by the river as I tour THE HEFNER MONOLOGUES and eat ramen noodles is becoming increasingly attractive. At least that would hopefully mean I wouldn't have to deal with the scary six-foot-tall guy with crooked teeth who angrily talks to himself, with a fixed facial expression that constantly seems to say, "I'm going to kill the motherfucker who farted."
But at least I'm surrounded by comics to read. Here are some things that took my attention lately.
CRÉCY: Several of you here will know about the Battle of Crécy, and how important it was to both English history and the history of warfare. I'm sad to say that I didn't, but I certainly do now. I like Warren Ellis' writing a whole lot, but I do think he's crazy overrated (no, he's really not the new Alan Moore, thank you very much) and I seriously dislike his whole cult-of-personality Internet-Jesus persona wherein he encourages his fawning fanbase of hairy men and Suicide Girl rejects to suck his literary cock. I find his work often times too simplistic, which is because the majority of his work reads like the stories of a talented work-for-hire guy who can spit out a cool, serviceable comic without much beyond entertainment value for the paycheck. There's often little substance beyond his attractively cynical and admittedly fun "fuck you all, watch as I kick ass, and possibly your own" style.
That said, I think CRÉCY is one of the best damn things he's ever written. I'm tempted to say it's the greatest single short work of his to date.
I'd be interested to run it by some of my history-buff know-it-all friends here, as I know there are several. One customer here gave it to his father, a professor of history at Cambridge, who approved. If it's all true, then wow, that's all I can say. It's like a thinking-man's 300 (that's not saying much, mind you) with a "happier" ending, and that "fuck you all" style works very well here, I thought.
Some scans of CRÉCY can be seen here, for those interested.
STEPHEN KING'S DARK TOWER--THE GUNSLINGER BORN: I desperately loved the books (even with the parts that sucked or fell flat), and was so super crazy into this comic series when it started. Sadly, they increasingly fell to adaptationitis, where the stories felt forced and crammed and rushed. Kind of hard to retell a Stephen King time in six issues. Still, I loved seeing these characters brought to life (particularly Lee's versions of The Crimson King and The Good Man John Farson, both of whom he actually made scary, and I rather loved the smarmy cool of Roy DePape). Still I have high hopes for the next DARK TOWER comics, which will be all-new material, and thus hopefully Peter David will have a bit more freedom and a better pace.
Also, the art was gorgeous, although it could really have used more emotion in places. Say, for example, when a character is being burned to death on a bonfire and defiantly shouting out their last declaration of undying love, call me crazy, I think they should look a little more expressive than a glazed zombie would in that same situation.
THE PUNISHER: The only Garth Ennis book worth reading is still awesome. How can this, of all frickin' comics, be the most humane and fragile work Ennis has perhaps ever done? While THE BOYS and WORMWOOD continue to be juvenile, petty, and obnoxiously hateful books (yes, we get it, Garth, you hate religious and authority figures, and you love dick and fag jokes, good for you), PUNISHER continues to be one of the more powerful and sad books out there.
Okay, this entry took me two hours to write, with all the customers coming in. I suppose I'd better get back to work. Oh god, the scary huge crazy guy is coming back in. I can already hear him yelling at nobody outside.
Wednesday, for those not in the know, is New Comics Day. This means it's an hour longer, and the most hardcore of readers come in by the nerdload, which means that I hardly get a chance to do much needed writing work, not to mention dicking around on the internet and LJ. Other writers probably understand what it's like to get into the creative mindset, only to be ripped out of it by someone talking to you.
Yes. This is the day where I'm expected to actually work. How dare they.
But seriously. Living out of a van down by the river as I tour THE HEFNER MONOLOGUES and eat ramen noodles is becoming increasingly attractive. At least that would hopefully mean I wouldn't have to deal with the scary six-foot-tall guy with crooked teeth who angrily talks to himself, with a fixed facial expression that constantly seems to say, "I'm going to kill the motherfucker who farted."
But at least I'm surrounded by comics to read. Here are some things that took my attention lately.
CRÉCY: Several of you here will know about the Battle of Crécy, and how important it was to both English history and the history of warfare. I'm sad to say that I didn't, but I certainly do now. I like Warren Ellis' writing a whole lot, but I do think he's crazy overrated (no, he's really not the new Alan Moore, thank you very much) and I seriously dislike his whole cult-of-personality Internet-Jesus persona wherein he encourages his fawning fanbase of hairy men and Suicide Girl rejects to suck his literary cock. I find his work often times too simplistic, which is because the majority of his work reads like the stories of a talented work-for-hire guy who can spit out a cool, serviceable comic without much beyond entertainment value for the paycheck. There's often little substance beyond his attractively cynical and admittedly fun "fuck you all, watch as I kick ass, and possibly your own" style.
That said, I think CRÉCY is one of the best damn things he's ever written. I'm tempted to say it's the greatest single short work of his to date.
I'd be interested to run it by some of my history-buff know-it-all friends here, as I know there are several. One customer here gave it to his father, a professor of history at Cambridge, who approved. If it's all true, then wow, that's all I can say. It's like a thinking-man's 300 (that's not saying much, mind you) with a "happier" ending, and that "fuck you all" style works very well here, I thought.
Some scans of CRÉCY can be seen here, for those interested.
STEPHEN KING'S DARK TOWER--THE GUNSLINGER BORN: I desperately loved the books (even with the parts that sucked or fell flat), and was so super crazy into this comic series when it started. Sadly, they increasingly fell to adaptationitis, where the stories felt forced and crammed and rushed. Kind of hard to retell a Stephen King time in six issues. Still, I loved seeing these characters brought to life (particularly Lee's versions of The Crimson King and The Good Man John Farson, both of whom he actually made scary, and I rather loved the smarmy cool of Roy DePape). Still I have high hopes for the next DARK TOWER comics, which will be all-new material, and thus hopefully Peter David will have a bit more freedom and a better pace.
Also, the art was gorgeous, although it could really have used more emotion in places. Say, for example, when a character is being burned to death on a bonfire and defiantly shouting out their last declaration of undying love, call me crazy, I think they should look a little more expressive than a glazed zombie would in that same situation.
THE PUNISHER: The only Garth Ennis book worth reading is still awesome. How can this, of all frickin' comics, be the most humane and fragile work Ennis has perhaps ever done? While THE BOYS and WORMWOOD continue to be juvenile, petty, and obnoxiously hateful books (yes, we get it, Garth, you hate religious and authority figures, and you love dick and fag jokes, good for you), PUNISHER continues to be one of the more powerful and sad books out there.
Okay, this entry took me two hours to write, with all the customers coming in. I suppose I'd better get back to work. Oh god, the scary huge crazy guy is coming back in. I can already hear him yelling at nobody outside.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 05:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 06:28 pm (UTC)I like the guy's work too, I do! I mean, I'll take lazy Ellis over average Ennis any day. But really, how much of his work as real emotional and literary substance beyond the awesome and cool and fun stories? Which is to say, how often does he really try?
Just wait, this will be the one time when he actually reads my LJ.
More.
Date: 2007-08-01 07:04 pm (UTC)oftenoccasionally act like a total prick on the internet? You know, the whole "Wagner was an anti-Semite but Flight of the Valkyries is some damn fine overblown bombastic-yet-glorious opera" dilemma. Ellis sometimes shines (Nextwave, newuniversal, Excalibur, Desolation Jones), and sometimes he seems to phone it in (Ellisbolts, Ultimate Whatever).There's also the eternal divide with writers in sequential literature: when the writer's voice supercedes the individual characters, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I can always, always tell when Ellis writes a comic for Marvel (at least, over the last four years or so) - as you put it, his superficially cynical dialog always sounds the same. On the other hand, you have Mike Carey, who seems to really vary from title to title in terms of distinctive voice; his X-Men reads SO drastically differently than his Ultimate Vision (and if you haven't read Ultimate Vision #4, that's criminally negligent of you, dear, because it's POETRY).
I can't even believe it's the same writer on both X-Men and Ult!Vision, actually, because the narrative and dialog is so drastically different in quality.
By the way, Mike Carey was at my LCS two Fridays ago! I walked in, and there was this intense looking British guy with grey hair hanging out in back, and lo and behold it was Mike Carey! I would have said something, but I knew if I'd gone up to him, I would have started with "sir, your Ultimate Vision read like William Blake, it's beautiful work BUT WHY DOES YOUR SAM GUTHRIE SUCK SO BAD, YOU CAN'T WRITE AMERICAN CHARACTERS FROM THE SOUTH WORTH A SHIT, SO PLEASE STOP."
Re: More.
Date: 2007-08-01 07:15 pm (UTC)(Desolation Jones, yeah, that's an example of a very, very good Ellis book)
And speaking of writers with distinctive voices, I was sick of Bendis five years ago. But I'm a minority there, of course. We've had that rant before.
Mike Carey was here too! It was a very last-minute thing, I wasn't even working here when he visited. He must be on tour to promote his novel.
Re: More.
Date: 2007-08-01 09:36 pm (UTC)Re: More.
Date: 2007-08-02 05:41 am (UTC)It's fine if you write Spidey as quipy, but all of the Marvelverse? Not so much.
I also hate on Alex Ross, but that's pretty trendy now.
Re: More.
Date: 2007-08-02 03:48 pm (UTC)Hating on Alex Ross is indeed trendy, and I'd be joining in, except I think that his painting over Doug Braithwite's (sp) pencils has really reinvigorated his art. His work in JUSTICE was, I thought, his best in many a year of WIZARD covers, KINGDOM COME parodies, and commemorative plates.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-02 03:18 pm (UTC)I'll still look at his stuff to see if it's worth buying, and occasionally I'll pick up something; I liked Nextwave quite a lot--I think that he's the only one who's really gotten Machine Man's personality right since Kirby's original run. And Crécy also looks to be worth a glance.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 07:38 pm (UTC)ah, guilt-tripping! the best kind of marketing!
Date: 2007-08-01 07:52 pm (UTC)Re: ah, guilt-tripping! the best kind of marketing!
Date: 2007-08-01 07:53 pm (UTC)Re: ah, guilt-tripping! the best kind of marketing!
Date: 2007-08-01 08:01 pm (UTC)Re: ah, guilt-tripping! the best kind of marketing!
Date: 2007-08-01 08:03 pm (UTC)Re: ah, guilt-tripping! the best kind of marketing!
Date: 2007-08-01 08:09 pm (UTC)Re: ah, guilt-tripping! the best kind of marketing!
Date: 2007-08-01 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-02 07:58 am (UTC)You see I actually like the Cult of personality that Ellis surrounds himself with, mainly cos I think he uses it to take the piss out of it.
Then again I also like Grant Morrison and his work, bizarre and sometimes incomprehensible as it can be.
You are spot on about CRECY, best thing I read last week and that includes Starlord (damn you Sir for persuading me to give Annihilation a go...I will have no money left after this crossover!!)
no subject
Date: 2007-08-02 03:10 pm (UTC)Glad you're digging Annihilation! Huzzah! If you get the chance, check out GREEN LANTERN: SINESTRO CORPS SPECIAL and see if that does anything for you!
no subject
Date: 2007-08-03 08:05 am (UTC)How I love that word!
I actually preferred the Sinestro Special to Annihilations prologue. Both are good rip-roaring stories though and that is a good thing. The spin offs from both titles are a bit annoying but at least Marvel is giving you 4 different stories (liked Nova and loved Starlord, the other two not so much) and Dc is going the crossover route, this is not a good thing for my wallet but if i ever wanted a decent reason to quit smoking (apart from, you know health!) then my reinvigorated love of comics is a decent one.
Oh and I put "Sunday in the park with George" onto my DVD rental list, will let you know what I think of it.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-03 02:00 pm (UTC)Don't worry for the Sinestro Corps "crossover" angle. The only titles it's crossing over with are GL and GLC, plus BLUE BEETLE, but who knows how important that'll really be. Plus there'll be like four or five stand alone specials focusing on the villains. All in all, I think it might cost less than Annihilation with all its mini-series!
Oh shit, you're gonna watch SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. Um... okay, dude, just know, I make no promises. It's... different. And it's certainly not for everyone. But it's also very close to my own heart. So, um... well, all I can say is, I hope you like it!
Sunday in the Park with George
Date: 2007-08-21 11:20 am (UTC)Musical Theatre is not my cup of tea and I must admit I wasnt looking forward to the disc. However I have decided to try things I would otherwise miss, just to expand my horizons.
So I seetled down on a wet Sunday Afternoon and pressed play.
The acting and the singing are as good as I expected and it was nice to see Brent Spiner. Not that I am a Trekkie (or Trekker or whatever) but its always good to see actors that are familiar.
The story was pretty good too. Well the first half anyway. I like the fact that Georgey boy was so focused on what he created that everything else HAD to take second place. The description of why he painted that way "to make the brain become the palette" (apologies if I have mis-quoted) was so evocative.
Then it hit me
In Aberdeen Art Gallery, we have a painting in that Style. No idea who painted it but after I type this I am going for a look.
Back to the film. The stage effects were amazing. Loved the way parts of paintings just fell into place aas he worked (the beginning was incredibly well done) and the couple of times when the live action became the paintings. That takes a lot of artistic vision to pull off and the fact this was done waaaaay back in '86 makes it even more impressive.
The second half set in modern day didnt really work for me. To be honest I watched the first half on Sunday and the second half last night (monday), that may have diluted the experience. Again there were a couple of bits that stood out (the party after the presentation and Mandy P ducking out of the real world conversations and being replaced by his picture).
So all in all I enjoyed it, certainly more than I thought I would. The fact that I talked about it to my other half for the past two days made me realise how glad I am trying new things.
So thank you sir for talking about the film in your journal and giving me the idea to watch it. If you ever make it over to Scotland on tour, I will buy you a beer and you can tell me why it has a special place in your heart.
Right off to the Art Gallery I go
Huzzah!!
Re: Sunday in the Park with George
Date: 2007-08-21 03:25 pm (UTC)You see what I mean when I say it's not for everyone?
As for the second half, I can imagine a number of reasons why that might not have worked as well for you. For me, well, it was helped by the fact that I have a real love for 80's-tastic things. Give me synth music, I am there. It's another reason why MANHUNTER is one of my all-time favorite films, besides it actually being a great film.
Well, I'm really glad you got into it, because really, I just cannot gauge how anyone might react to that film. Because shit, it's not even like your average musical, is it? You don't exactly come out of the theatre tapping your toe to "Finishing the Hat."
Grand, man, I look forward to accepting that beer and trying, perhaps in vain, to explain my attraction to that movie. I don't know if I'm gonna have the balls to do Edinburgh next year, but who knows.
Re: Sunday in the Park with George
Date: 2007-08-22 08:10 am (UTC)DAMN YOU SUPERBOY PRIME
Manhunter is one of my favourite films too. I suppose the 80's vibe is right through it, I just hadnt noticed it.
Personally I think Brian Cox was a better (and more restrained) Lecktor too.
As for Edinburgh, trust me, when you do come, you will go down a storm.
I was watching a programme on the festival last night and even though there are more and more acts on at the fringe, the quality is low (although I did like the sound of Macbeth on a bouncy castle - they showed a clip of the three witches, on broomsticks, bouncing up and down. To a bloke like me, thats almost perfect!).
So based on your writing in your posts, you will have no problems shining through.
I, Friend of Criswell, predict great things.
Re: Sunday in the Park with George
Date: 2007-08-22 01:24 pm (UTC)A number of people I know just can't get into MANHUNTER either. Bizarre how that and SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE can have something in common! They're not for everyone. Honestly, I like it better than SILENCE, mainly because I think Michael Mann is a better director all-around, and I find William Petersen's Will Graham a FAR more interesting protagonist than Clarice Starling.
I totally agree about Brian Cox being better and more restrained than Hopkins. I actually say so in THE HEFNER MONOLOGUES, and challenge audience members to meet me in the lobby downstairs if they disagree.
Maybe I will give Edinburgh a shot, then. Hell, that production of the... erm, cough cough "Scottish Play" sounds fantastic! (I'm only superstitious insofar as I'm surrounded by OTHERS who are superstitious, and don't wanna get ugly looks. Also, all it would take to sabotage that production is a needle. Or an actor forgetting to take off his cleats before a performance.)
PULL THE STRING!