Ann Nocenti and Arthur Adams, September 1985 - February 1986, Marvel
I didn't read this back in '86. I just got it from mycomicshop.com along with a few holes i was filling in. And this thing was FULL of surprises!
ok, where to start? firstly, Nocenti has over written it quite a bit. It is so packed with ideas that they all get a little washed out by each other. It just made for a pretty hard read. tons of exposition. a lot of tell and not enough show. but despite all of this, it's actually pretty good.
i admit that i bought it for the Adams art, which is oh so pretty. but Nocenti packed in some very cool ideas. Longshot pops onto Earth by way of a inter-dimensional portal and has no memory of who he is or why he's running form a buncha demons. eventually he learns that he is a rebel leader, trying to free the slaves of Mojo and the Spineless Ones in a media-saturated dimension. now that's the whole plot, but DAMN there are some sweet little existential ideas peppered through the whole thing. Ideas like the true meaning of freedom, individuality, the inter-connectedness of all things. seriously, it's worth checking out. and there is quite a bit on magic and will. changing oneself by force of will. being whatever you want to be, simply by believing that you are such a thing. really a commentary on the creative process. and here i was just looking for pretty pictures.
which by the way are very pretty. Adams' highly detailed work is energetic and textured. full of information, but clean and sharp. inked by Whilce Portacio by the way.
so i guess i just want someone else to read this and tell me they see these things too. maybe i'm just exhausted.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Powers 1-6
by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, Image 2000
I loving Bendis right now in new avengers. and i just got the last daredevil hardcover from his run. i loving his voice right now so i'm going back and re-reading my powers.
this stuff is good. the police procedural with capes. and image lets bendis get away with all sorts of things that he cant do over at marvel.
Bendis' strength is naturalistic dialog. people talk to each other instead of just reading a script. This gives his characters a nice shot in the arm and all of this superhero stuff seems kinda new. there's no new ground broken, mind you, but the heart that is so often missing from Marvel books is all over this thing. and that's why i'll keep reading it. again, i mean.
And Oeming's art is a very cool noir cartoon. Light is always important. Tone is not at all subtle. Lines are minimal.
I also want to say something about Bendis' use of beats. Fuck is he good at 'em. Now i'm not sure if he's just following the formula with which i have been programmed by cinema. but i dont suppose that matters. it works. i like it. it makes the pages flow and gives the whole thing a cool sense of time.
ok, away with u.
I loving Bendis right now in new avengers. and i just got the last daredevil hardcover from his run. i loving his voice right now so i'm going back and re-reading my powers.
this stuff is good. the police procedural with capes. and image lets bendis get away with all sorts of things that he cant do over at marvel.
Bendis' strength is naturalistic dialog. people talk to each other instead of just reading a script. This gives his characters a nice shot in the arm and all of this superhero stuff seems kinda new. there's no new ground broken, mind you, but the heart that is so often missing from Marvel books is all over this thing. and that's why i'll keep reading it. again, i mean.
And Oeming's art is a very cool noir cartoon. Light is always important. Tone is not at all subtle. Lines are minimal.
I also want to say something about Bendis' use of beats. Fuck is he good at 'em. Now i'm not sure if he's just following the formula with which i have been programmed by cinema. but i dont suppose that matters. it works. i like it. it makes the pages flow and gives the whole thing a cool sense of time.
ok, away with u.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Lost Girls review
Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie, Top Shelf, 2006
So, Lost Girls. Oh my. i actually finished this a few days ago and i am pretty sure that i have shied away from reviewing it. I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to come anywhere near a proper review simply because, like all of Uncle Alan's work, it is incredibly dense. nevertheless, here we go.
i've seen a lot of pornography. probably too much. it's all over the interweb, sure. but i'd seen a good bit long before it was downloadable. i suppose i say this just so that i can make the distinction between smut (everything out there today) and pornography (as a genre). now as soon as i typed that i felt pretentious but there it is.
Lost Girls is an stunningly beautiful book. Beautiful. it just happens to be filled to the gills with naughty bits. very naughty bits. i don't think it leaves a legitimate fetish or fantasy behind. it is pretty thorough in its titillation. i will quickly admit that it is more arousing than anything that passes for mainstream pornography (if there is such a thing). The fact is, that none of that stuff we're beating off to, is art. Lost Girls is an art book.
Moore uses the device of public domain characters from literature brought together in a shared universe. the same device he uses in his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books. and if there is a literary term for this device i'd love to know it so please send that along to me. our "lost girls" are Alice, Wendy, and Dorothy, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and The Wizard of Oz respectively.
I don't think i will go into the actual plot of the story as this is covered in many other places better than i would be able to do. What i would like to talk about is the brilliant way that Moore weaves the source material into something that seems so very natural to the characters, that one must wonder which story is the original. which is "real"? Moore's genius is his ability to make fiction, marvelous fiction, seem so very possible, so tangible. the voices of his characters sound like people we know. the emotions scripted across the page feel so...obvious. His greatest talent is imagining a character so completely, that they may actually exist. albeit in his mind, his "ideaspace" as he calls it, but they absolutely exist there. and there, they are perfect.
Characters and key plot points form the source material become lovers and secret rendezvous' for our girls. Dorothy's twister brings her into sexual maturity. the scarecrow, tin man, lion and Oz himself, are sexual partners along her "golden-bricked road".
Alice becomes involved in a nonsense world of exploitation and abuse. while all the while she becomes the queen of her own realm.
And motherly Wendy nourishes her lost boys, out grows Peter, and swallows The Captain.
The book is structured, as most Moore books are, with unending symmetry and resonating themes. Each of the girls tells her stories to the others. In these stories-within-the-story there styles that define character and mood with intimate subtlety.
Gebbie's art is dazzling. line and color choices are as powerful as Moore's words. it is obvious that these two know each other as intimately as their characters.
i might return to Lost Girls later. but for now it's late and i think i've written a sweet enough love letter to this beautiful book. so if u don't have it, go out and get it. and let me know what u think.
So, Lost Girls. Oh my. i actually finished this a few days ago and i am pretty sure that i have shied away from reviewing it. I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to come anywhere near a proper review simply because, like all of Uncle Alan's work, it is incredibly dense. nevertheless, here we go.
i've seen a lot of pornography. probably too much. it's all over the interweb, sure. but i'd seen a good bit long before it was downloadable. i suppose i say this just so that i can make the distinction between smut (everything out there today) and pornography (as a genre). now as soon as i typed that i felt pretentious but there it is.
Lost Girls is an stunningly beautiful book. Beautiful. it just happens to be filled to the gills with naughty bits. very naughty bits. i don't think it leaves a legitimate fetish or fantasy behind. it is pretty thorough in its titillation. i will quickly admit that it is more arousing than anything that passes for mainstream pornography (if there is such a thing). The fact is, that none of that stuff we're beating off to, is art. Lost Girls is an art book.
Moore uses the device of public domain characters from literature brought together in a shared universe. the same device he uses in his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books. and if there is a literary term for this device i'd love to know it so please send that along to me. our "lost girls" are Alice, Wendy, and Dorothy, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and The Wizard of Oz respectively.
I don't think i will go into the actual plot of the story as this is covered in many other places better than i would be able to do. What i would like to talk about is the brilliant way that Moore weaves the source material into something that seems so very natural to the characters, that one must wonder which story is the original. which is "real"? Moore's genius is his ability to make fiction, marvelous fiction, seem so very possible, so tangible. the voices of his characters sound like people we know. the emotions scripted across the page feel so...obvious. His greatest talent is imagining a character so completely, that they may actually exist. albeit in his mind, his "ideaspace" as he calls it, but they absolutely exist there. and there, they are perfect.
Characters and key plot points form the source material become lovers and secret rendezvous' for our girls. Dorothy's twister brings her into sexual maturity. the scarecrow, tin man, lion and Oz himself, are sexual partners along her "golden-bricked road".
Alice becomes involved in a nonsense world of exploitation and abuse. while all the while she becomes the queen of her own realm.
And motherly Wendy nourishes her lost boys, out grows Peter, and swallows The Captain.
The book is structured, as most Moore books are, with unending symmetry and resonating themes. Each of the girls tells her stories to the others. In these stories-within-the-story there styles that define character and mood with intimate subtlety.
Gebbie's art is dazzling. line and color choices are as powerful as Moore's words. it is obvious that these two know each other as intimately as their characters.
i might return to Lost Girls later. but for now it's late and i think i've written a sweet enough love letter to this beautiful book. so if u don't have it, go out and get it. and let me know what u think.
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