Hungry Robot

Yeah, I'm still here.

2011-07-12T22:33:00.000-07:00

Busy quarter. Articles resume soon after I sort some work out and also figure out if I need to re-configure some bits due to DC's sudden, drastic marketing revamp, though that's also brought up some excllent points to use for other articles I had planned.

Also, I've finally decided what this blog is for. This is my blog for (mostly) comics-related things. I said earlier on in this blog's life that it was going to be for whatever I wanted it to be, and that was true. And now I want it more focused. So yeah.

There are a couple more projects of mine in the works that I don't want to say much about yet, because I find when I talk about these sorts of things before I execute them I tend to not go through with them. So why did I even write that last sentence at all? Just to let you know of a possibility of new things. They will be linked here should they arise.

Speaking of new things, though, there are a couple blog-related announcements. One, I've deleted the long-dead Blog of a Hundred Faces and the practically-flatlining Foodpeople. They were neat ideas, ones I might revisit again someday (especially Foodpeople), but I wasn't doing anything much with that space, certainly not enough to warrant an entire blog. The Gamelass tumblr will be kept up but unlinked to, mostly because I've forgotten my password and realized I prefer browsing tumblr more than actually trying to figure out how to use it. The pictures from that blog in particular are very likely to resurface later on the announcement below.

In the wake of these other blogs, I have made a new one. It's called Holden Has A Sketchbook, and it's where I'll be posting bits of artwork. I hope you enjoy it.

[Holden Out.]

A small disappointment

2011-05-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

My "On Superheroes" series is on temporary hiatus due to a schoolwork influx.

That is all.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: On Superheroes, Part 1

2011-05-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

Article 1: Setting the tone.

(Sorry for the wall of text--images forthcoming. Wanted to be sure I got this up first. --HC)

So for the next few weeks, Sunday Comics is going to be a little different. I’m
branching out again. I’ve decided, more or less on a whim, to do a series of posts on my various beefs with the present state of superhero comics; especially various types of stagnation I think it’s time the genre got over, and possibly extrapolate from that (possibly) what this might be doing to the advancement of comics as a whole; if not the whole than at least what potential growth it could be inhibiting in its own genre.

However, before I launch into all that and subject you to several weeks’ worth of argument, I thought it would be in good taste to lay out more of what I’m trying to do with this and diffuse some of the potential nerd-rage that this sort of thing could spark.

Point one: I’m doing this for fun. I’m not out to ruin someone else’s fun, I’m not out to utterly decry the superhero genre, and I’m certainly not doing this to bash superhero fans. I’m just making my own observations on why I, personally, think the genre needs some work if it’s going to continue to survive. There are things about it, common tropes within it, that bug me. I recognize that some of these things might even be reasons that other folks enjoy the genre, and more power to ‘em. Tropes Are Not Bad.

Point two: I’m not trying to assert some sort of superiority. I recognize that the sorts of comics I usually like, if my usual Sunday Comics entries are anything to go by, often involve a distinct lack of superhuman individuals in bright shiny costumes. I’m not an expert on superheroes. Certainly I know a lot more about them than Average Joe—whenever a hero flick looks interesting to a non-comics-familiar friend of mine, I’m often the person they go to in order to ask, “okay, so what’s this character all about”—but I read comparatively few actual superhero comics. Much of what I know about them comes from a weird sort of osmosis developed from being a comics geek in general. I’m not saying the comics I typically enjoy are better than these—that, I would define through actual quality rather than genre. (And one of the most revered graphic novels in Western comics—Watchmen—is itself a superhero story.) And yeah, I recognize I’ll be using a lot of generalities in this. I recognize not all superhero comics are like what I’ll be discussing, and I’m sure many of you can think of subversions to the complaints that will be brought forward (if you can, I’d still love to hear them!), in fact, I know I’ll probably be able to myself. But it’s such a hugely prominent genre within comics (at least Western comics) with such firmly established clichés and expectations and tropes, plus the convenience of being put out in the most volume by a mere two companies, that I think I’m entitled to bring out a broader brush for the sake of these articles.

Point three: I’m not anti-superhero. I promise, I’m not. While I’m not a hugely enthusiastic fan of them, I do like a good Spider-Man or Batman or X-Men story, and I do enjoy some of current wave of superhero movies, when they look interesting to me (I admit as of late I’m rather burnt out on and jaded by most of them). I have friends who are superhero fans. I go to comics conventions, where superhero fans and costumers run rampant, and I bear them no ill will at all. The point of these entries is not “Superhero comics are bad and you should feel bad.” It’s a fun genre that still has lots of potential to tell interesting stories and if anything, I’m trying to do it a bit of service through this. Again, not that I’m some sort of authority or anything.

Beyond these points, I feel I should also define my terms here—specifically, what I think a “superhero” even is, and henceforth what we’re going to use the term “superhero comics” to stand for. Let’s start with that celebrated old resource, the dictionary. While the dictionary I use here (Oxford American Desk Dictionary, Second Edition) doesn’t have an entry for “superhero,” it does contain entries for the words from which the term is derived—“superhuman” and “hero.” Let’s examine those.

Superhuman:
1.) Beyond normal human capability.
2.) Above what is human.

Hero:
1.) A person admired for nobility, courage, or outstanding achievements.
2.) A great warrior.
3.) The chief male character of a poem, play, or story.
4.) A submarine sandwich.

When I think of a superhero, I think predominantly of the first definition of the former combined with the first definition of the latter, with some supplemental conditions. Many people believe superheroes must have explicitly non-human abilities, but I prefer Oxford’s definition here—“beyond normal human capability,” which lets us allow for figures such as Batman or others whose abilities are not other than human, but merely extraordinary for a human. The “hero” portion of the definition is more flexible these days, thanks to concepts like Byronic heroes, anti-heroes, and even outright villain protagonists proving viable in superhuman adventure stories. So rather than claiming a superhero, as a generalized term, must be classically heroic, I’d say instead that a superhero must fit a slightly modified version of the earlier definition—that they must have some noteworthy accomplishments under their belt, be they good or bad. Now, this alone still does not define a “superhero.” I can think of other characters that are distinctly not superheroes that still fit the description we have so far—as an example, Dream, of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, comes to mind. There is another piece of the puzzle, and that is the idea of an alter ego.

Not necessarily a secret identity—not all superheroes’ identities are secret—but the idea of a duality, of either their fantastical or mundane selves being less of their identity than the other, or even of there simply being a divide at all. Even if Superman stopped being Clark Kent, he still has the duality of being a Kryptonian trying to live amongst humans. Even though Iron Man’s identity is publicly known, that doesn’t mean he still doesn’t have to deal with issues unique to just Tony Stark. Doctor Manhattan may be permanently stuck as a superhuman being, but he will never forget that he used to be human. This component comes about necessarily via the nature of a superhero’s other requirements—if they were constantly surrounded by other superhumans that also accomplished noteworthy things, there would be no basis for comparison. A superhero must be somehow special within their own story, set apart somehow—they can be part of larger teams, but there is always someone to have them compared to, always citizens or victims or what-have-you. If their alter ego is the superhero figure, then they will be special because they rise up out of their mundanity to become something greater, some sort of walking symbol. If their alter ego is their “ordinary” self and they consider their superhuman self truer, than the experience of having to live among those who will always be, in some capacity, strangers provides the duality.

So, to recap, when we talk about superhero comics here, for maximum clarity, we’re talking about comics concerning the adventures of individuals with abilities beyond average human capacity that have, likely using these abilities, accomplished notable things, and must deal to at least some extent with some sort of duality concerning themselves. We good? Good.

Join me next week for the first part of this series proper, where I’ll talk about the current “events” system for superhero comic plot arcs, and why I think making it your main way of doing things is neither sustainable nor a good way to attract fresh readers.

Before I close this off, I’d like to also introduce my friend Ciandi, also known as Ciandimus, Queen Didactica, The Philosigoth, Ciandi Mandy Bo Bandy, and a couple others I may have made up. She presently runs a historical-cliché-dissection blog called Let Me Ruin That For You and will be graciously writing supplementary articles concurrently with these, as she loves her comics almost as much as she loves her discourse, and I wanted to give her a chance to argue or agree. Look for ‘em at the end of these!

Next Week, Then.

[Holden Out.]

(PS. Thanks to Brunhilde of Unicorn's Perspective for being my editor. <3)

More Fanart, You Guys

2011-05-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

The last few days I've been working on something for Mr. Ross Campbell, who is by and large these days one of my big ol' comics heroes.
Here are the scribbly, nocturnal fruits of that labor.

It still could be better, but I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out. Shadoweyes is ludicrously fun to draw, and I think I was able to at least hint at the beautifully twisty, crumbling mess that is Dranac. I also haven't done a coloured pencil piece in quite a while, so neat to see I still had an idea of what I was doing. Still, I had to do some tweaks in Photoshop to really impart the feel I wanted.

For comparison purposes, here's the unaltered image, straight from the sketchbook.

Keep on making quality comics and blog posts, Mr. Campbell.

[Holden Out.]

Glorified Fanart, You Guys

2011-04-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna try and facilitate a couple art-dumps here soon. Here's an appetizer--three bits from my current sketchbook, all recent. And all comics-related. And all technically fanart. Bluh.

Transmetropolitan's own Spider Jerusalem. Pretty happy with how this one came out, I think I nailed his mad, crooked, "I'm about to do something you're gonna hate" grin.


Ross Campbell's Shadoweyes, as the picture says. I was drawing this one entirely from memory, so lots of details are off. Blargh. I want to draw Shadoweyes again, and this time do it proper, with reference. Props to Campbell regardless.

The twelve trolls from Andrew Hussie's Homestuck. I hate how Feferi came out (chin too huge, derpy face, waaaaugh) and I royally screwed up Tavros' nose, but everyone else I think looks decent. Particularly proud of Kanaya.

[Holden Out.]

Quick Comics News!

2011-04-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

You guys! YOU GUYS!

Paul Chadwick is making more Concrete!

AND

Ross Campbell has a tumblr!

That is all.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: Wonton Soup...Again!

2011-04-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Wonton Soup Volume 2: Hyper Wonton Soup 2 Two Ton Soup: The Quickening 2: ...Soup, by James Stokoe

Format: Graphic Novel

Content Rating: Definitely R. Keep this one away from your kids. For reasons of language, a prominent plot point involving some hefty drug use, and getting a terrifying glimpse into the twisted madness that is Deacon's sex life.

Plot: Picking up more-or-less where the first volume did, Wonton Soup volume 2 focuses less on Johnny Boyo's past as a master chef and far more on his and Deacon's on-the-job antics. When Deacon orders some legendary drugs from a duty-free at a spaceport, he and Johnny wake up two weeks later coming down off an absolutely ludicrous high, having crash-landed in a forest on an unknown planet. As they scour the area for a civilization that might have some fuel for their ship, several stories unfold in various ways, including the (possible) origin of Deacon's skeazy behavior, a trip to a shady bar, and a story that takes place entirely inside Johnny's stomach.

Thoughts: I hate to say it. But this second volume, in my opinion, isn't quite as good as the one that preceded it. It feels a bit too loosely knit, like James Stokoe wasn't quite sure what direction he wanted to take it in. If it's meant to be more of a collection of Wonton Soup-universe vignettes, that's great, and they actually transition pretty smoothly for that, but it feels uncertain, as said. I can't tell if it was meant to be that, or a story that just went a few too many directions. It feels a teense distracted. Luckily, the art stays at the same high-caliber, crazy-detailed quality the first volume has made me expect from Stokoe and the writing, my previous commentary aside, feels a bit tighter taken on its own. His mostly-raunchy--but well-done--sense of humor is still totally present, and the dialogue still sounds like actual conversation, something I always appreciate. My complaint about the alien language appears to have possibly been that of others as well, and addressed--it is still thankfully there but not as heavily. I have to admit, though, that I was also a little sad that the cooking element of Wonton Soup wasn't present as frequently here...the comic itself seems to recognize this, though. So, overall, a small step down but my hopes for this series remain high. If there's a third volume you can bet I'll still check it out. Sail on, Stokoe. Regale us with further Space Trucker Cooking Opera.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: Shadoweyes

2011-04-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

Shadoweyes, by Ross Campbell

Format: Graphic Novel

Content Rating: PG bordering on PG-13, for violence and a few generally disturbing moments/images.

Plot: Somewhere in a vast future city, subtly implied to be after some great disaster, a high-school girl named Scout has a dream of being a vigilante. Taking the name Shadoweyes, she sets out on stopping her first mugging...and fails miserably. After taking a brick to the face, she suddenly finds that at night time, she now mutates into an incredibly strong, resiliant creature, at the cost of extremely photosensitive eyes. After only a few nights of shifting back and forth, however, the transformation becomes permanent, and she's stuck in her superhuman-but-inhuman form seemingly forever. What follows is as much about getting used to her new identity and body as it is about any sort of vigilante work.

Thoughts: After lots of Wet Moon (still eagerly awaiting volume 6!), it's interesting to see Ross Campbell do a superhero story. It has a lot of the recognizable elements of one, while still being unmistakably his. It is a little breath of fresh air for me for that genre, especially as Marvel and DC continue to jade me more and more each year in their race to see who can top each other in the next year's wave of (impermanent, tangled, sensationalistic) "event arcs" that have now become the bland norm for them. Shadoweyes, from a superhero standpoint, especially takes me back to the early days of Spider-Man, when the hero still didn't really know what they were capable of, made mistakes, were new to the whole heroing business. Except Shadoweyes also has the convenience of a little bit of self-awareness--the characters are fully aware of superhero tropes, and many of the things that now stand out as kind of odd about classic superheroes (such as making a costume almost immediately after recieving their powers) are much less so in the context of someone who already knows about superheroes. (Shadoweyes' costume is very simple and practical, designed seemingly to be easily replaced as it gets torn up in fights, but the why of it still remains as "I guess I should have a costume, since I'm kind of a superhero." And it works.)
The "secret identity" trope common to these stories is for now, still intact, but it appears to be breaking down slowly--a few people close to Scout have found out by this volume's end. What strikes me as odd in that regard is how calm they are about it--particularly Scout's best friend Kyisha, who appears entirely unfazed by the whole thing. Personally if my best friend had just inexplicably turned into something that looked like a small, chubby Xenomorph, I would kind of freak out a little. In fact, if I can recall correctly, not a single person in the story really reacts to her new appearance beyond "wow, that must be weird." Maybe Dranac (the city) is just filled with that much oddity already and we haven't seen it yet? Although surreal elements are certainly no stranger at all to Campbell's work (see: the strong supernatural elements and jarring symbolism moments of Wet Moon and every single daydream/hallucination scene in Water Baby).
The other thing here that seems to work for Campbell's other comics but not as much here is how many questions he leaves unanswered. Wet Moon in particular often leaves unanswered questions in individual volumes but has such a strong sense of continuity that you know these will be addressed (and have been) at later points. Here, though Shadoweyes is set up as a series as well (I hear the second volume drops soon), the fact that there's so little we know hurts it a bit predominantly because it's the first volume of something that's tonally much less connected to the prior work of his I'm familiar with, and because a superhero story in particular has certain things it really should establish within its first issue or volume or whatever format you're working in. Though Shadoweyes entertained and intrigued me, by the end of volume one we still don't know much about Scout as a character, we have no hints as to the origin of her powers or why she has them, and we don't know the villain's true origin, motives, or even name. Now, having all of these answered would spoil things and provide too much of a clash to Campbell's preference to tell a story slowly, but I feel like a couple of them being answered--or even just subtly implied--would have helped me forge just a bit more connection to the story and possibly provide further analysis. Perhaps we'll see if any are brought up in the next volume, now that it seems like a lot of other major pieces are in place. The first one was definitely still interesting enough that I'll be looking forward to more.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: Pepper Penwell

2011-04-03T13:00:00.000-07:00

Pepper Penwell and the Land Creature of Monster Lake, by Steph Cherrywell

Format: Graphic Novel

Content Rating: PG, mostly for the bits of inneuendo native to Cherrywell's work.

Plot: A brilliant teen detective, Pepper Penwell has been cracking cases both mundane and extraordinary since she was but a child. But when what seems like a fairly routine missing-person case leads her to the town of Monster Lake, she finds far more than she bargained for. Between the legend of the namesake monster being more than it seems, the mysterious tribe in the nearby woods, a mad scientist, and an all-too-shifty head of the chamber of commerce, Monster Lake is about to become a very messed-up place...and Pepper, along with the missing person she seeks, is about to find herself at the center of it all.

Thoughts: Though Widgey Q. Butterfluff was her first published comics work, it was a series of vignettes rather than a single continuous story, and thus Pepper Penwell represents her first "graphic novel" work, in a purer sense of the term. And while Widgey was by no means bad, improvement is definitely evident in Pepper. It feels like an evolution of Cherrywell's art, writing, and style. It feels tighter than Widgey, with a bit better pacing to the writing and the comedy hitting a more consistent stride (though it is also slightly less of an overtly comedic work than Widgey). Also like its predecessor, it's a parody work--this time of young-adult detective novel series (such as Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, et al) and like what came before it, does this excellently, with a well-honed sense of snark that still has lingering tinges of affection. Pepper's various deductions strike a good line between crazy Adam West Batman-logic and actual logic and evidence, and the answer to the mystery is thankfully still a bit complicated--there wasn't a single perpetrator, I'll say that much. And will say no more. I don't want to spoil anything. The story has definite structure, too--characters that are introduced once continue to stay in the loop, places are revisited, and I never felt lost. It's exciting to see Cherrywell's skills grow as she continues to shimmy deeper into the published world, and I look forward to further work. At present, Pepper Penwell would probably serve as my introduction to Cherrywell if I wanted to get someone into her larger body of work.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: Koko Be Good

2011-03-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

Koko Be Good, by Jen Wang

Format: Graphic Novel

Content Rating: PG, for very occasional mild language.

Plot: Koko Be Good follows the intertwined stories of Jon, a college grad hoping to join his girlfriend for charity work in Peru; Faron, a miserable but talented young boy who lives with his older sister and her boyfriend; and the titular Koko, a mischievous, free-spirited psuedo-hobo who acts as a surrogate sister to the latter and becomes an important friend of the former. Together, they explore various avenues by which a person might be considered "good." For all three, this involves a question of what they want to really do with their lives, but it also has a different facet for each--with Jon, it calls into question the practice of doing volunteer work simply because it's something good to do or makes one feel good, without questioning their larger motives and desires. With Faron, it's more a question of doing what's right and standing up for oneself. And with Koko, it is a battle over one's inherent character...how can she fulfill her desire to be "good" when she knows full well she's a snarky, rebellious iconoclast by nature?

Thoughts: Before saying anything else about Koko Be Good, I have to talk about the artwork first. Koko Be Good is visually unlike any comic I've ever read. Wang chose to colour it with what appears to be thin watercolour paints or ink washes (mostly sepia tones with occasional subtle greens and oranges), and the richness it lends to the illustratons is really quite pleasing to the eye. I found myself taking a second look over the panels long after I'd read their content. She has a great knack for bodies that are full of motion and facial expressions that somehow manage to be relatable/believable and wonderfully rubbery/cartoony at the same time. At first I was unsure of Faron's inclusion in the story--Jon and Koko get equal time as main characters, and while I liked Faron, he didn't seem necessary. It's only now, on reflection, that I see why he's there--and really, it's through him that a very subtle answer to a question Koko has about herself is given. Without him, Koko herself would lose some very important development--really, it's through the other two characters, be it directly or indirectly, that we learn most of what we do about Koko. That's some nifty writing, there. I love characters that feel real but are still somehow "larger than life," and I wasn't disappointed here--good rhythm/cadence to all the dialogue, too, which I know from experience can be tough to do.
Are graphic novels art? Not all of them. But this one is. Jen Wang, you have thoroughly impressed me. I'm looking forward to any comics work you have coming up. My eye is on you.

[Holden Out.]

PS: (Warning: Spoiler!) Also to Ms. Wang: thank you for not having Jon and Koko end up romantically involved. It would have felt predictable and it's nice to see a guy-girl relationship that's just a close friendship in a comic. I feel like I haven't seen enough of those lately.

Sunday Comics: Egg Story

2011-03-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

Egg Story, by J. Marc Schmidt

Format: Single comics-form short story (longer than most things I stick with that term, but too short for me to call it a graphic novella)

Content Rating: G. Man, how often does that happen around here?

Plot: Egg Story is a story about eggs. The end.
Just kidding. Sort of. That's far from the end of it. One one level, it explores the life of eggs through the eyes of anthropomorphized eggs--most prominently a brother-and-sister pair named Feather and Five-Spots--starting right from their birth out of a hen, into a carton, at a supermarket and into someone's fridge. From there, things take a more fantastical turn as they decide to escape the fridge with the fellow eggs they've been packaged with (Shelly, Bumply, Connor, and Cloud). The life of an egg is one filled with shock and horror; they could be eaten or easily end up smashed on the floor if they're not careful. Most of the now-freed eggs are content to explore the house, learning things about both the human world and themselves, but Feather, unable to completely cope with the egg-related violence he's seen since he was laid, has higher aspirations.
He wants to become a ninja.

Thoughts: On the surface, Egg Story looks a lot simpler than it is. That's not to say it's a particularly deep story, merely that it has more depth than what the immediate premise and art style would suggest. It's my old friend minimalism again--Schmidt, especially artwise, does a lot with a little. Though they're all plain white eggs with similar, simple, cartoony facial features, he does an excellent job at distinguishing each egg from each other through minor but effective differences. Some, like Five-Spots and Connor, have more obvious ones, with the former having her namesake right there on her shell and the latter developing a distinguishing crack early on in the story, but even apart from these each egg makes a different set of facial expressions and has a different overall personality, ensuring telling them apart remains easy and making them feel like legit characters. I bought it, funnily enough, on accident (I had confused it with a collaborative comic I was looking for called Strange Eggs), but I don't regret my purchase. It's a cute, intriguing little tale with a lot of thought behind it, and I applaud seeing its kind of creativity and sense of whimsy in my comics.

[Holden Out.]

Con pics...only a week and a half late!

2011-03-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

Without really much further explanation (and really, no apologies--it's finals week), some images from this year's 2011 Emerald City Comicon. There were a few costumes I loved that I didn't get to capture, due to my camera being old and exceedingly slow (as well as being a battery-muncher, om nom nom), but I have some cosplay highlights regardless, followed by a few non-comics pickups.

Sunday Comics returns this coming Sunday, the 20th.

First, from the darkest depths of the internet, it seems Pedobear had ambled his way to Geek Heaven this year. I caught him just as an enthusiastic Harley Quinn was giving him a big ol' tackle-hug. She is obviously unaware of his sinister nature. Or is just, y'know, being Harley.

And here's a VERY impressive Dream (of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series)--I had attempted a Dream costume myself some time back, but it didn't look nearly as good as this guy's. He even sprung for blackout contacts! Kept a good stiff regal posture too. Very nice guy, I had a little chat with him after snapping this.

Scott Pilgrim characters were understandably popular this year--I saw several Ramonas, a Stephen Stills, and a very well-done female version of Todd--but this was the only Roxie, and as my favourite villain from that series, I had to get her picture. For bonus points, she was traveling around with one of the more convincing Ramonas.

When this magnificent Luke & Layton duo (of the Professor Layton series of excellent puzzle games) learned I wanted to take their picture, Luke pointed and went, "Professor! That camera reminds me of a puzzle!" without missing a beat.

An excellent Agatha Heterodyne (of Girl Genius). There were actually a few Agathas there this year, which I was very pleased to see, but this girl definitely looked the most spot-on--she even had what looked to be functional versions of Aggie's exaggerated glasses!

Who knew Chun Li and Dr. McNinja would make such a cute couple? Certainly not I.

Moving on from costumes, here's one of two sketches Spike, creator of the webcomic Templar, Arizona, did for me. Both of them involve Reigan, my favourite character from it. Here she is on her lonesome...

...and here she is kicking yours truly out of the High Heaven, the establishment she works at. Reigan's interesting in that most of the reasons I'd find her abhorrent as a real person are what make her such an amusing character.

And lastly, here is the (AWESOME) painting by Sean Dietrich that I won in a raffle. This picture really doesn't do it justice--the blacks are very rich and the yellows and oranges are really bright and vibrant. At present, I don't have the wall space for it (it's pretty darn big!) but I sure can't wait till I do. This thing's gonna look great on a future wall.

[Holden Out.]

Updatin' [Emerald City Con Report!...Sorta]

2011-03-07T20:42:00.000-08:00

It's been quieter than a mute tumbleweed here, and yet watchers showed up. ...Come to think of it, that seems to mostly happen when I go long periods without updating. Maybe I should do that more often.
...Nah.

Anyway, an event very near and dear to my heart occurred this past weekend...Emerald City Comicon 2011! As defined in previous reports for those unfamiliar, Emerald City Con is Seattle's own comics convention, and an event that would be difficult for me to miss, as it seems to just add fuel to my comics-love fire every year. I didn't get any interviews like last year, and I was only able to attend one day (Saturday) due to monetary reasons this year, but I still had a great time.

Pictured: How I actually am at ECCC.

It's crazy to see how much ECCC has grown over the years. I say that to myself almost every year, but it was especially evident this year. When I first started going, the con took up about about half the floor space of the small Qwest Field Event Center. It's now a three-day event that's beginning to encroach onto a second floor of the gigantic Washington State Convention Center and draws an equally massive crowd. The difference was most stark when the areas for the costume contest are compared. My first year going, I remember a tiny stage area--not even an actual stage--up in an equally small balcony, with maybe fifteen participants. The costume contest area alone this year felt cathedralesque in its size, with a true stage, large display screens, a DJ, and over seventy contestants. That's quite a shift.

However, even in the midst of this expansion, Emerald City Con has very clearly remained all about the comics. There are plenty of things available related to other channels of geek culture--most of the special guests tend to be from television and movies (this year, for example, it was able to draw the presence of William Shatner among others), there's always a small but devoted gaming area, and a few websites unrelated to comics set up booths--but the focus remains squarely on comics. The comics are still the center of it all, and that's another one of the many reasons I really respect this convention. I've begun to hear reports from San Diego's mighty juggernaut of a convention that the comics themselves are being increasingly shunted to the side more each year in favor of other media. That begins to make me ponder whether or not I truly do want to go there someday. Rock on, Emerald Con.

I didn't attend any panels this year, so I can't really comment on those. As always, there was a wonderful bounty of comics to be had (traditional swag list to follow) and I think I felt a lot freer about communicating with creators this year, which is a plus. I hung out with some friends that happened to be there, another plus. There were some impressive costumes this year (a few photos to come in next post), but most of the ones I liked didn't bother entering this year's costume contest, which was...really disappointing. In fact, the costume contest was the only downside to this year. After starting much later than usual (the contest starting later than scheduled is a yearly thing, but this one was delayed by an entire hour--several people gave up and left before it even began), it was disappointing to see that, while I'm no costume expert, most of this year's entries weren't very impressive. I didn't even stick around to find out who won what. On top of it all, the emcee for it, which was the same one they've had in past years, found himself being incredibly annoying this year--spouting non-sequitur memes and movie references in a possible attempt to seem relevant and throwing in occasional creepy innuenndo about the racier female costumers for a bit of extra frown inspiration.

Still. The bottom line: FUN.

And since I now have several shiny new comics in my possession, expect to see Sunday Comics revving back up again, since my issue there was mostly running out of comics to review. I wasn't out, but I was getting there rapidly. As for Holden's Bookshelf entries...I have no such excuse. Those just need to get done.

And now, this year's Con loot.

- Five Very Good Reasons To Punch A Dolphin In The Mouth, Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal (technically obtained at his book signing a few days prior, but I'm counting it here)
- A heart-gear pin from Phil and Kaja Foglio, the fine minds behind Girl Genius, now proudly worn on the lapel of my beloved tailcoat
- A "Book Club" (Fight Club for literature enthusiasts) shirt, via Unshelved
- 2 sketches from the very kind and talented Spike, of Templar, Arizona, which I need to start reading again(scans of these to show up in the next post with the costume photos)
- A print of one of David Willis' (of Shortpacked!) hilarious Batman comics, to be given to a Bat-enthusiast friend of mine who has been going through a rough patch
- The first volume of Ross Campbell's Shadoweyes, his take on a superhero story
- I Cut My Hair issues 1 and 2, by Lisa Rosalie Eisenburg
- Wonton Soup Volume 2, by James Stokoe
- Do Anything: Thoughts on Comics and Things: Volume 1, Jack Kirby Ripped My Flesh, by Warren Ellis
- Wondermark: Beards of our Forefathers, by David Malki! (the exclamation point is mandatory)
- Chainsawsuit books 1 and 2, by Kris Straub
- Koko be Good, by Jen Wang
- The annual Doodle/Sketch Inc. giveaway comic (an after-school comics program done by a pair of local middle schools)
- Industriacide, by Sean Dietrich
- I also won a painting of Sean's in a raffle! (Photo to follow when I get it)
- Pepper Penwell and the Land Creature of Monster Lake, by Steph Cherrywell (I was relieved to find this! Last I had heard there had been shipping difficulties)
- And Egg Story, by J. Marc Schmidt.

Look for my thoughts coming to a screen near you as I dig into these!

[Holden Out.]

Another announcement? Why yes.

2011-02-07T19:30:00.000-08:00

Clicky-clicky, foos.

Main body of announcement in that thing up there.
Sooooo yeah. While the majority of these things probably won't be the greatest quality (again, like the above), the important thing is that I'm doing SOMETHING comics-related.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: Bear

2011-02-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

Bear, by Jamie Smart

Format: Comics-form...they're not quite short stories, more like brief vignettes or episodes, ranging from single-pagers to five-or-six-page stories. Bear was originally published as ten single issues, then collected into a pair of volumes, respectively titled Bear: Immortal and Bear: Demons.

Content Rating: R...ish. Swears get dropped, the violence varies between cartoony and goretastic depending on the mood (and frequently blends the two), and a good chunk of the jokes run on "dead baby" humor (at a couple points, literally).

Plot: While the actual plot of Bear varies wildly (there is closure at the end, and how Karl and Bear met is very briefly brought up, but apart from that anything goes), the basic setup involves three central characters: first, the titular Bear, a somehow sentient foot-high teddy bear (how Bear walks and talks is never addressed, and few characters seem questioning of it) who claims to have seen action in every major war of the last century. He is almost invariably the straight man of the group; the long-suffering, sardonic victim. Second is Karl, a British everyman and Bear's flatmate. Whether Karl is of reasonable intelligence, unusually insightful, or phenominally stupid depends on what would be funniest at the moment. Finally, there is Looshkin, Karl's cat, who like Bear is somehow capable of speech and walking upright (though this, at least, is given some consistency--every cat we see in the Bear universe can do this). Looshkin suffers from violent bouts of schizophrenia and a rather advanced case of ADD, though even when he's not having one of his fits is still quite an abhorrent, violent, and often outright evil individual. Usually, the plot involves or is triggered by a sort of Tom-and-Jerry setup between Bear and Looshkin, Bear just wanting some time alone and Looshkin insisting on tormenting him. Every so often the plot takes a break from that to visit Bear at a different point in history, or just have a different story with the same characters. Some of the one-page stories don't visit the main cast at all, instead focusing on special side-characters like Elliott the Dunk (a tiny wizard who dispenses nonsensical advice) and Justin (a young boy whose brain is a seperate entity from his body and often gets into arguments with him).

Thoughts: Though there are plenty of things with Bear's sense of humor, I don't think I've come across anything with the same delivery. Its sheer Britishness is a palpable thing, and sets it apart. There's so much fun British slang injected into the dialogue sometimes I can't even tell if Mr. Smart just made it up. (If he did, he has an ear for words.) Bear's goals aren't lofty, but it achieves what it sets out to do 100%. Is it intellectually stimulating? Not usually. Does it have great moral value? No. Is it a great work of art that will be remembered for generations? Unlikely. But what it is, is fun. Well-crafted, super-British, dark, cranky fun. I'd share some gin with Bear anytime, were he real.

PS. Bear has now also been collected online for your perusal here.

[Holden Out.]

ARGH

2011-02-01T13:32:00.001-08:00

I FORGOT TODAY WAS 24 HOUR COMICS DAY

...AGAIN

THAT'S THE THIRD YEAR IN A ROW

Sunday Comics: Transmetropolitan

2011-01-30T21:17:00.000-08:00

Transmetropolitan, by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson

Format: Originally an issued series, now being printed in its second run of collected graphic-novel volumes (ten volumes in total, eight of which have been released in the current print run)

Content Rating: A strong and solid R, for, not unlike The Filth, pretty much anything you could expect to cause that and a few things you couldn't. In fact, this goes far beyond the usual language-violence-drugs bit...let's just say the future's a messed-up place.

Plot: The year is...we don't know what the year is. No one does. No one cares. We just know it's (bum bum bum) THE FUTURE. And in the future, there's only one journalist truly worth his salt: Spider Jerusalem. Vulgar, violent, and a tad insane, but utterly devoted to reporting the ever-important Truth (essential in the time period's exceedingly skewed media), Spider is a rarity...and a loved rarity to boot. But it was his popularity that had, originally, caused him to leave his city in search of a reclusive life. He claims celebrity got in the way of his preference for unfiltered gonzo reporting, He'll have to contend with that once more as a forgotten book deal leads him straight back to his hometown, but an even greater danger awaits him--the upcoming presidential election. When he left, he left the then-current prez looking like a fool...and it looks like the new guy is going to need a bit more than ridiculing.

Thoughts: Transmetropolitan is...crazy. But it's a good sort of crazy. It speaks to a lot of creativity on the part of the writer and the artist, and it's one of the more unique science fiction universes I'd been to, for sure. It also speaks to some considerable talent that for as legitimately terrible of a person as Spider is, we're still able to care about him, even--though we'd never admit it aloud--like him. He is a true anti-hero. Even if you don't agree with everything he says and does (and honestly? You shouldn't...not everything), you'll at least gain a respect for who he is and what he does. This series is also, I feel I should note, one of the better uses of pitch-dark humor that I've seen. Not everyone can turn a line about killing a puppy into comedy gold.

[Holden Out.]

Holden's Bookshelf: Agatha H and the Airship City

2011-01-26T23:46:00.000-08:00

I think this time around, I'll actually ditch the format in favor of something more brief and straightforward. This is gonna be difficult, though, because I'm such a fan of the graphic novels this book is based on. I'm afraid that will provide a more biased review than I'd like, but I'll try to be as objective as I can.

Right, then.

So as mentioned in my earlier notation, Professors Foglio and Foglio have begun to branch out from just graphic novels and began an endeavour of making text novels based upon them as well, for myriad reasons (at least, that I can imagine): to draw in new readers that might be hesitant to read comics, to write in extra bits that they may not have been able to work into the comic for flow or time reasons, or it was something they thought of later, and because text novels are kickin' rad. (That is, in fact, a technical term.)

Agatha H and the Airship City is the first of these, covering Girl Genius volumes 1-3. For the most part, it's what you'd expect if you're familiar with the parent series--the dialogue is transferred nearly verbatim, and the visuals are instead accounts of actions and expressions and settings and so forth. However, the extra leeway and space provided by text has also allowed them to slip in some additional bits not found in the books that will be a treat to preexisting fans--a special (revealing!) prologue the first among them, as well as a few small additional subplots and extra flavour bits regarding characters. Thus, the experience of the novels does indeed differ from their comics kin, and provides additional buying incentive. Think of it as sort of Girl Genius: Director's Cut.

My main concern with Agatha H, really, lies in the attracting-new-readers bit. Firstly, Girl Genius is a series that's always had a lot of humor in it. That's great, and I don't want to see that diminished. It's a key part of how that universe feels. But the humor doesn't feel like it carries over as well to pure text, and I feel like newcomers may find it a bit jarring at first. That's due mostly to the medium shift--in a comic, the art style can have a big part in dictating the tone, and Girl Genius is cartoony enough that the wackier moments don't feel out of place. With novels, on the other hand, unless given explicit impressions by the cover (or familiarity with an author or series), a reader will automatically assume a more serious-toned story. I think Agatha H, for new readers, could have benefited from a drier wit at first, and eased into the sillier things, rather than just dropping the army of flying badgers on them. I could be wrong, just an impression.
Secondly, the Jagermonster accents. The Jagers are an important part of the Girl Genius universe, and appear to be even more important here in Agatha H. They also talk with a thick, very distinct sort of Germanic accent that gives them a lot of character as a species, which is usually spelled phonetically ("vot" for "what" and so forth). I never minded this in the comics, probably because comics are a more visual medium, but I think the Jager accent's phonetic spelling should have been toned down for the novel--when instead it appears to have even been increased. As a general writing rule, phonetic spelling for thick accents should be used sparingly in a text-only work. A little goes a long way, and a new reader could get tired having to continually read aloud every time a Jager is speaking. (That said? It was nothing less than glorious hearing Mr. Foglio read aloud in his own impression of the Jagergenerals' voices.)

Apart from those two issues, however, I find little fault with the Girl Genius story's transition to text. I eagerly await the next novel to see what new things will be learned, and do hope it will encourage even further readership of this fun, fun mad science tale. At this point, if I were recommending the series to a friend, I would still hand them the graphic novels first, even if they were opposed to comics, but we'll see if my opinion changes over the course of the novels' appearances.
In any event, Foglio and Foglio, I recognize the large effort this is, and commend you for it. Please do keep going!

[Holden Out.]

Here are some new things I guess

2011-01-25T16:11:00.000-08:00

I have begun another semi-interactive art project type thing, called GameLass. You can find it aaat:

http://gamelass.tumblr.com/

Yay.

In addition, um, here's some recent schooltime doodles.

I really like putting the word "SPACE" on things from space.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: Epileptic

2011-01-17T00:07:00.000-08:00

Epileptic, by David B.

Format: Graphic Novel

Content Rating: R, for language, violence, and some generally disturbing moments.

Plot: Chronicles the author growing up in France with his epileptic older brother, Jean-Christophe, and his family's continued attempts to try and lessen the symptoms, trying everything from medication to surgery to dietary changes and more. At the same time, the author traces back his intial growth as an artist and the beginnings of his fascination with the macabre. We see how his experiences with his brother has affected his life's outlook even in young adulthood, to boot.

Thoughts: While not one of my absolute favourite graphic novels, I can't deny Epileptic is still skillfully crafted and feels unflinchingly honest--we see a lot of the negatives and positives in David and his brother's relationship. I also like the art style the author chose--the lines are deliberately expressive and shifting, allowing his fantasy narratives to blend in with his slice-of-life ones, allowing Jean-Christophe to turn from a brother to a monster and back again, and allowing for a wealth of clever visual metaphors. Definitely a work that, as good comics do, needs both the images and words to function as a whole.

[Holden Out.]

Holden's Bookshelf: I Haven't Even Read It But I Know It Will Be Good

2011-01-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

Today on Holden's Bookshelf, I'd actually like to do a plug instead. A sort of interactive one, because while I don't yet have the book I'll be plugging, I do fully intend to review it here upon its completion, because not doing so after bringing it up here would be kind of silly.

So, as some of you who know me are aware, I'm quite a fan of the webcomic Girl Genius. It earned the distinction of being my first Sunday Comics entry (and now, sometime soon, I'd like to revisit it using the subtle tweaks I've done to the format and having a little "how's it doing now?" re-review), and it had a big part in kick-starting my interest in Steampunk couture and aesthetic.

And now, it seems, while staying a comic, it is also making the transition to text novels. Yes, there is now a Girl Genius book, the first of many it seems. Needless to say, I was shocked, intrigued, and very, very happy. Oh ho ho, but that's not all. (That can't be all.) Phil and Kaja, the minds behind Girl Genius, are doing book signings all this week, all over Seattle! So please, give them some love.

- Today, Kaja's birthday, is the first signing. It will be taking place at Ravenna Third Place Books.

- Tomorrow, the thirteenth, there's one at The Night Kitchen, a specifically late-night eating venue down by historic Pike Place Market.

- The fourteenth sees a signing at the UW's own University Bookstore, starting at 7 PM. This is the signing I will be attending! If you read this blog and are in the area, stop by and help support one of my favourite author/artist pairs. I'll likely be decked out in something steampunky, in celebration of the occasion.

- Finally, from 3-4 PM on Saturday the fifteenth, they'll be doing a signing at RustyCon, a science fiction convention. Registration for RustyCon has closed, but there are still tickets available at the door.

Please, if you have the spare cash and want to support good, fun sci-fi, pick a venue and go! I have great anticipation for this foray into the world of pure text for this series.

...I friggin' love Seattle.

[Holden Out.]

A Little Rundown and Reflection of the Year Gone By.

2011-01-01T15:58:00.000-08:00

Inspired by longtime internet buddy Adri, who done did a similar thing on her tumblr. And because it's good to go back and revisit these things briefly.

So, it's the twenty-'leven. Let's pause and briefly look at the twenty-ten just before we move on to the new hotness.

2010, for me, started off more craptastically than I think any year of my life ever has. I was a couple months out of a relationship and the breakup was still hitting me hard. I was about a year out of college and was starting to really feel it--I was missing campus life in a big way and my college friends felt further away than ever. I had yet to start truly disliking my little retail job, but I was still less than thrilled with it, especially given that at this point, I had no direction beyond it. I knew I wouldn't be working there forever (at least, I hoped not), but what lay ahead jobwise was completely uncertain. I was doing absolutely nothing with my English degree, that was for sure, since I had decided not to become a teacher and hadn't really pursued any options beyond that. Not knowing how I was going to get out of the temporary job--that was the scary bit.

Spring brought Emerald City Con--the best Emerald City Con, in fact, that I'd ever been to. I got to interview some web comic artists I appreciate, and while E-triple-C always rekindles my love of comics, whethere its been dimmed that year or not, this year I felt was especially potent for really reminding me why I love that medium so dearly. Taking my best friend along helped immensely too.

Towards the end of spring was the tiny epiphany that would ultimately make the second act of this year turn out substantially better than the first--deciding to continue my education with a second degree, specifically one in graphic design. After substantial research of the colleges offering programs in my state, I found that one of the best programs happened to also be the closest one to me--offered by the same place I got my Associate's from, no less, adding a sort of poignant returning-to-a-prior-time feel. The time window between deciding to validate graphic design as a career path for me and signing up for my first round of courses was very brief, almost impulsive, and I would be starting late summer. Things were starting, overall, to look up a little.

Summer brought my second trip to London, which I think was very good for me--as a means to relax, to experience some new scenery...I really felt on vacation there; it was soothing to my mental state and the first time that year I felt really, truly relaxed for any significant length of time. London worked its magic to unwind me a bit. It was also post-London that I grew a small beard, a good way to achieve a slightly different look without altering much; something else I think I needed.

The real turnaround from the year's sucky beginnings, though, was the start of the classes. I'm someone that actually enjoys being in school if the subject is interesting me, and this time around was no different. I actually felt like I was supposed to be there--I was provided with insightful teachers and a big sense of hope about my future. My art's been steadily improving again. I know not to repeat a lot of the networking and knowledge mistakes I made back in University--I'm going to keep good solid connections with my instructors and use whatever resources I can, towards the end, to try and land myself a job in a related field.

So, things have been going uphill from there. There's still plenty to improve--for example, I'm still working retail, and would like to live in an apartment somewhere as opposed to my current situation--but I'm learning things, I have direction, I'm building valuable skills, I've finally grown comfortable being single once more, and, most importantly, I really, truly feel like I can do this. I can finally move forward again. I've got a lot of help and support from friends old and new, a head full of ideas, and perhaps now, the audacity to actually execute said ideas.
Get over here 2011, and give me a hug. I think you're gonna be a good one.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: Drinking At The Movies

2010-12-26T15:07:00.000-08:00

Drinking at the Movies, by Julia Wertz

Format: Graphic Novel composed of brief, journal-ish entries, ranging from single-page reflections to few-page short stories.

Content Rating: PG-13, for language, drug use, and looooots of alcohol.

Plot: An autobiographical comic following Ms. Wertz through her first year in New York City, outlining four apartments of varying quality, seven crappy and quickly-lost jobs, and lots of creative development and frustration. And whiskey. A lot of whiskey. While she maintains that she didn't want to end up writing a confused-adult-encounters-lots-of-adversity-in-the-big-city-before-things-start-looking-up story, that's still what happens, but the book isn't any worse for it.

Thoughts: There isn't tons to say about Drinking at the Movies, but I almost always love me some autobiography comics. It's one of my favourite graphic novel genres. I was first introduced to Julia Wertz's work through her stint as the editor of I Saw You, and it's nice to see her stuff expanded to a fuller length. She has a lot of the qualities of a talented observational comedian--her stories are at once frank, filled with a well-captured "feel" that only experience can give, slightly sad, and of course hilarious. Her cartoony style really only enhances all the little details she works in, both visually and verbally. If you don't care for autobio comics, this one probably isn't going to change your mind, but if you do, then this is a great (and recent!) little romp filled with smiles and frowns in equal measure.

[Holden Out.]

Holden's Bookshelf: Unwind

2010-12-22T23:46:00.000-08:00

Unwind, by Neal Shusterman

Genre: Science Fiction with horror elements.

Content Rating: PG, mostly for said horror elements and for some violence.

Synopsis: It was called the Bill Of Life. Meant as a dark joke to silence the growing noise of the pro-life/pro-choice debate, the darker joke was that it was taken seriously. The Bill Of Life set forth the process known as Unwinding, which is thus:
Though abortion was we know it is illegal, at any time between a child's birth and their 18th birthday, they may, with the proper paperwork from their parents or legal guardians, be "unwound." The child/infant/teenager being unwound has no say in the matter, and once the paperwork is signed the decision cannot be changed. Unwinding is a surgical procedure wherein the body is systematically disassembled, with the resulting pieces and elements to be used as donor material. No part is wasted--blood, skin, hair, bone, and organs are all harvested. By law, the patient being unwound must remain awake and conscious for as long as is medically possible during the procedure (right up until the dissection of the brain, in fact), so that in this way, there is no definite point at which they are able to be declared "dead." Once they have turned 18, however, and are recognized as an adult by the state, performing an unwinding procedure on someone becomes illegal.
Connor is a problem child whose parents have grown sick of dealing with him. Risa is a ward of the state whose home has decided to do some unwindings in response to large budget cuts. Lev was born into a sort of cult whose large families tradtionally have one of their children unwound as an act of charity to those that would need the donor parts. All three have escaped, and by happenstance found each other. If they can learn to get along and dodge the police, all they have to do is survive to age 18...

Characters: The three disparate characters are based in ages-old archetypes, but Mr. Shusterman manages to write them extremely well, proving that this can still be a useful characterization device. Connor for example is brawny, impulsive, and extremely hotheaded--as a result, he's useful as the group's fighter but needs to learn more self-control. Risa forms the heart and voice of reason, and Lev initially seems near-useless, someone they're all but dragging around, but eventually comes unto his own in a shocking but very satisfying way. It's also good to note that the voices for the characters are well-penned. These are teenagers and they think and sound like such, which can be very tricky to write. They are not miniature adults, but they're not treated as kids either.
One minor character, however, I have to call out. Cyrus Finch--who goes by the nickname CyFi--broke my suspension of disbelief with his condition. He has part of an unwound kid's brain, and as a result has sort of a split personality in which he occasionally takes on aspects of that kid. Somehow I just couldn't buy that.
Cyrus aside, though, very well-done.
Character Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Story: Fitting for a plot that's basically a very extended chase, the action keeps up a steady pace. There's kind of a lull about halfway through in which the chase comes to a temporary halt and the group's been seperated a bit, and it does take a bit of time to recover from that. But apart from that it's pretty well-paced and the character development is slow enough to feel organic.
Story Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Handling of Themes: Obviously, the pro-life/pro-choice topic is a delicate issue, and is an especially weighty subject for a young-adult novel (yep, this is more young adult fiction right here. Don't worry, the novels are coming soon), so a misstep will leave a very bad taste in one's mouth. Fortunately, I can't see that Mr. Shusterman misstepped, which would have happened if he tried to voice a particular side strongly. While the book does maintain a very slight pro-life bent, he does an admirable job at keeping it balanced and not trying to act as a megaphone on the issue--appropriate since the Bill Of Life itself was meant to satisfy both sides on frightening terms. The book is less about trying to champion a specific view on the issue anyway, and is more about getting the reader to think about it as a whole.
Theme-Handling Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Overall: Unwind gets another 4.5 out of 5, overall. I said back when I reviewed Feed that the quality of thought-provoking young adult lit out there has been skyrocketing in the last few years, and this is definitely more proof of that.

[Holden Out.]

I'm not reviewing Tron Legacy.

2010-12-22T19:40:00.000-08:00

...At least not at length. Why? Because as frequently happens with these, I put it off for too long. Movie reviews in particular need to be put up more or less within the first two days of the movie's being in theaters, because a late moview review becomes kind of irrelevant when there's already then a vast network of opinions on it out there (I am aware of the hipocrisy in this statement, considering most of the books and comics I talk about around here are at least a couple years old by the time I get to them). Aaaand more time than that has now passed because I put it off. So instead, I'll just give you the very basics. The core of what I thought, some loose comments that I want to get out, and we'll be done with it. Kay? Kay.

Verdict: Tron Legacy is good. Merely good, however, not great, but it certainly isn't bad. Definitely do see it if you were a fan of the original. And if you didn't like the original, well, this probably isn't going to change your opinion. If you're coming into it brand new, definitely do give the first film a look--it's a fun little romp that's aged surprisingly well for something that relied so much on special effects.

Pros:
- Gorgeous visuals, which was to be expected. The new suits are nifty, the action is slick, and the new lightcycles make the old ones almost look silly.
- Quorra, a character I was worried about being cast as a generic hollywood Xena-type, subverted my expectations wonderfully in actually being a decent character.
- Jeff Bridges brings a lot to the table with how he plays Flynn, both recalling the character as we remembering him and putting new twists on him that make sense.
- Prominent henchvillain Rinzler is delightfully menacing, particularly for what is technically a Disney character, aided in part by the fact that he's eerily silent except for a perpetual engine-like growl that seems to emanate from his helmet. (Except they can't decide how to pronounce his name. Both "rin-zler" and "ryne-zler" are used.)
- On the Rinzler note, the fact that this is a slightly darker work than the original is used to its advantage, rather than its embarassment. (Not that the original didn't have its moments--at the end of that one we saw Sark's freaking brain leaking out of his head!)
- The programs are more believable as computer-based life forms this time around, thanks to lots of nice little touches--a mechanical quality in their voices, the fact that they bleed pixels, et cetera.
- The soundtrack. Daft Punk does not disappoint.

Cons:
- Seems at times a little too afraid to explore new territory, spending most of its first act reliving scenes from the first film.
- Subplot involving the programs called "ISOs" is rushed through and should have been explained in more detail to avoid confusion on what they're supposed to be (since they form a significant part of some of the underlying plot).
- Very weak ending, would have benefited from a denouement but instead cuts off right when the last couple threads are tied up.
- One rather glaring deus ex machina moment involving a character switching sides that bugged me quite a bit.
- May as well not have been in 3D...I went to go see it in 3D (despite my stance that the recent cinematic re-obsession with 3D is nothing more than an expensive fad) and found it to make the opposite mistake 3D movies typically do. Usually, a 3D film makes its 3D too obvious, having things pop out at the viewer. Here, it's far too subtle. They should have pushed themselves on it more, because...well, you can barely tell at most points. Which is a shame, really, they had a neat thing going for it--the scenes in the real world were 2D, the scenes on The Grid were 3D to make it feel different and more computery.
Letter Grade: B.

[Holden Out.]

FoodPeople is back.

2010-12-20T17:36:00.000-08:00

Yes it is.

I've wanted to bring it back for a while, and now...well, I have. Suggest away!

I don't know yet whether I should operate it on a schedule, or just sort of dash one or two off when I feel like it...what do you guys think?

Also, the old order-up list was cleared, just for ease.

Also also, if anyone out there who reads this knows their way around Blogger templates/CSS, could we maybe talk about putting together something that'd make it look more like a menu or something? That'd be nifty.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: Heavy Liquid

2010-12-19T00:29:00.000-08:00

Heavy Liquid, by Paul Pope

Format: Graphic novel originally published as ten issues.

Content Rating: PG, for drug use and rare mild language.

Plot: What is heavy liquid? That depends on who you ask. At the most basic definition, it's a viscous metal of unknown origin, similar to but denser than mercury. But what do you do with such a material? Some see it as a potentially beautiful medium for unique metallurgy. Some see it as simply a mysterious object of value. If you ask the government about it, they'll claim it doesn't exist at all. To the man known only as S, when treated right, it is the best drug around. S has just come into a particularly large amount of heavy liquid...which he's stolen. Now four thugs and a government agent are after him, and all five are willing to kill him just to get the strange compound back in their hands. But the more heavy liquid S does, the more he seems to discover about it and about himself...

Thoughts: Despite being published by Vertigo (the adult/alternative label for DC Comics) I haven't met many people who've heard of or talk about Paul Pope's work, and the one lead I have had has simply stated that his stuff is "very odd, and probably not for most people." I'd disagree--I found his work to be very accessable and while there's definitely an oddity about it, I've certainly read stranger things (Grant Morrison comes immediately to mind). I like his art style--it's reminiscent of a grittier-looking Hernandez Brothers (a pair whos comics I also keep meaning to read--at least, their Palomar and Love and Rockets series), though the story still does unfortunately leave a bit to be desired--most prominently in the ending. It ends far too soon--right when we get the book's key plot twist, in fact. It just cuts off at the discovery of it, and that discovery, sadly, isn't enough for an ending. Heavy Liquid is still good, but it needed an epilogue. It needed one more issue, to at least explore that twist we'd been building up to and bring about a more satisfying conclusion. Still, I liked it enough to get interested in Paul Pope's other major graphic novel, 100%. Look for a Sunday Comics on that one sometime down the road.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: The Filth

2010-12-12T16:02:00.000-08:00

The Filth, by Grant Morrison, Chris Weston, And Gary Erskine

Format: Graphic Novel originally published as 12 issues.

Content Rating: R, for...well, everything. Seriously, anything you can imagine affecting a work's content rating? Probably here. Keep this far, far out of reach of children.

Plot: Greg Feely isn't sure that he's Greg Feely. The Hand, also known as The Filth, keep insisting he's Agent Ned Slade, who works for them--a group of dimension-hopping technicolor garbage men. The Filth works in the background of our consciousnesses to eliminate "unpersons"--people that, by all accounts, should not exist, and if they are allowed to continue to will disrupt reality more than is good for humanity. As Greg/Ned gets involved deeper in his work and the questions about his seeming dual identity grow more persistent, many surprising facts about the nature of The Filth as an organization are revealed...and Greg/Ned isn't all that sure he's comfortable with either side of the war he's fighting.
At the same time, the entire story/universe/plot is also a metaphor for the human body going about its daily unseen business.

Thoughts: Remember back in my Joker special, when I said that pretty much Grant Morrison was going to be involved in was going to be weird? This book makes that seem like an understatement. This is one of the weirdest anythings I've ever read, let alone graphic novels, but it's precisely that weirdness that keeps me coming back to it every so often. It's very creative and stands alone, wearing its oddity like a big purple hat. I'm not entirely sure I understand all of it, and there's something in there to make pretty much anyone uncomfortable at some point, but (and I realize this will sound rather upturned-nose film-school-student, so forgive me) I'm not sure it's something that's meant to be understood in a full entireity and discomfort/disorientation is one of its prominent themes. So really, what we're dealing with here is a prime (perhaps the current primest) example of comics-form metafiction (at least in terms of metafiction that doesn't deal with comics itself all that much. For that we have Animal Man, which, surprise surprise, was also a Grant Morrison thing). So if you want something that will confuse you in what is perhaps a good way but you're not entirely sure, and don't mind being a little discomforted, go take a peek at The Filth.

[Holden Out.]

Holden's Bookshelf: Feed

2010-12-09T00:12:00.000-08:00

So, I had wanted to make this a regular thing, rather than just something I did once and then forgot about. Let's remedy that. If you need to refresh yourselves on that history, you can find what is currently the only other Holden's Bookshelf entry here. I had intended to start doing these on Wednesdays, so...er...let's start that.

Also, as a side note, watch this space for a soon-arriving large undertaking on my part--the scanning of lots of artwork from this quarter. Anyway.

Remember, the "Overall" rating is not cumulative.

Feed, by M.T. Anderson

Genre: Science Fiction, specifically the dystopian variety.

Content Rating: PG-13, mostly just for language--unsurprising as it's meant for a high school audience and has similarly-aged protagonists. The occasional slightly disturbing image (well, described image) as well.

Synopsis: The life and times of a teenager named Titus, his friends, and the future world he lives in, where a special surgically-implanted chip called a "feed" beams the internet directly into your head. Feeds appear to be a uniquely American phenomenon, but while having one installed isn't technically necessary it is highly encouraged--public schools no longer cater to students that lack them, stores will expect you have one, et cetera. Titus eventually happens across Violet, a friend and then girlfriend who shows surprising resistance to the feed-centric culture. And all the while, though the feed's constant drone, something shapeless and horrible lurks on the future's horizon.

Characters: There are two main characters, similar in age but with vastly different ways of seeing the world, and this contrast sets up a lot of the book's themes and its general feel. Titus, the narrator and main main character, is very much a product of his time...impulsive, impatient, and lost in his electronic world. Like his peers, he tends to speak in vague terms and generalizations, yet the writing (while very easy to read) never seems to suffer for this--a sign to me of good storytelling. Violet, on the other hand, actively shuns the trends of her time, and speaks more eloquently and has appreciation for simpler things. She balances Titus to brilliant effect as a rebellious influence for good. As this work has some definite cyberpunk elements, you could almost break the duo down by that label--Titus provides most of the "cyber" element and Violet the "punk." The secondaries are composed almost entirely of Titus' friends and family (we get very occasional glimpses of Violet's father), and they serve their roles for what it's worth--mainly to flesh out details of the culture they live in--but the focus is strongly on Titus and Violet and the ancillary characters aren't really necessary to those two's actions, they're more like talking background pieces. The story still wouldn't work without them, though...it'd feel too empty.
Character Rating: 4 out of 5 Victory Points

Story: Mr. Anderson (I only just realized how glorious of an author name that is for a cyberpunk work) isn't afraid to work in some risks and twists. This is, in many ways, a sort of love story gone horribly awry (in ways that I can't reveal...spoilers!). The setting is very well-realized and accomplished mainly through character actions and dialogue (showing rather than telling!), including future slang that we're able to slowly pick up the meanings of (even better? It doesn't sound quite as cheesy as future slang is often wont to be). It can at times actually be a very subtle larger story for one that's so simply narrated.
Story Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Victory Points. The craft is evident here.

Handling of Themes: Feed will raise a lot of good questions--its an excellent book for discussion, especially regarding technology ethics. It's appropriately frightening, being a cautionary tale, but never really felt heavy-handed to me. It excels at its warnings by presenting its horrors in a rather casual manner.
Theme-Handling Rating: 5 out of 5 Victory Points. A 5 does not imply perfection, merely excellence.

Overall: Feed gets an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 possible Victory Points. I'm always excited to recommend it to people, especially if they already have a love of dystopian fiction. I also think it's evident of very good signs for young adult literature--as recently as when I was in high school I remember much of the fiction available for that age group still being kind of bland, but in the last few years the market has seen an absolute explosion of really amazing writers for this demographic--many of them sadly flying under the radar regardless! And don't think you need to be a teenager to enjoy this, by any means. Adults can get plenty out of it too.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: Fervor

2010-11-21T20:44:00.000-08:00

Fervor, by Sean Dietrich

Format: Single issue (colloquially known in some comics circles as a "one-shot")

Content Rating: R, for language, prominent drug use and abuse, and sexual discussion.

Plot: Okay, let's talk for a second. Though I've said before I wouldn't spotlight comics I didn't care for (as I've also said, I like to usually reserve that job for the eloquent Linkara), but...well, I'm retracting that, for a change of pace. This won't become a regular thing--Sunday Comics is not meant as a criticism corner--but know that it is now capable of happening. I'll put some sort of little notice in like this when it's one of those, though, just so y'know. We good? Alright, we good.
So the plot is...um...well, that's my problem with Fervor. I can't quite figure out what the plot is supposed to be. And that's, as you can gather, quite a big problem when you're trying to tell a story, especially a story that's stated to have a message in it somewhere. But, I'll give you what of the plot I can at least figure out: it's the story of a reckless, wealthy corporate fatcat who's given up on life and resigned himself to the hedonism his paycheck affords; a cocaine-addicted prostitute-slash-dancer who the previous character ends up taking home one night; and a shy, depressed, exceedingly heavyset young woman whose connection to the other two I'm still trying to figure out. I think I might have finally gotten it after my sixth reading or so, but it's still shaky and I'm of the opinion that it shouldn't take a single issue of comic that many readings to wrap your brain around the basic plot (and since it might be considered a twist, and therefore a spoiler--sorry, no divulging what I think it is). If it were about subtle nuances, things that would be missed on the first or second time through, that'd be fine. In fact, several readings later I'm still discovering new details I missed in Jimmy Corrigan, one of my favourite graphic novels ever. But I understood the plot just fine the first time through, unlike this. And I don't think (and don't hope) that it's just that I'm somehow dense for this occasion--I have a Bachelor's in literature and I'm still not "getting it."

Thoughts: I want to like Sean Dietrich's comics work. I really do. I like the crazy, visual-metaphor-heavy, dark-surrealist art style he uses for them. It's his writing that screws it up and even that could be fixed if he just handed it off to a few everyman for some proofreading--the issue's not that he's necessarily a bad writer, but that he's trying waaay too hard to sound flowy and poetic, enough so that you get lost. He'd benefit from narrating a bit more simply at times, particularly at key plot points. Also, he has an unfortunate affinity for pretentious, self-absorbed ramblings about how awesome he is at the beginning of most of his works. That kinda spoils things too. Just so it doesn't seem like I'm making a blanket statement about all his work based off a single issue, I've also read his graphic novel Industriacide and had the exact same issues with it. I'd like to reread that at some point, too, to see if my opinion still holds.

[Holden Out.]

Afterword: Hey! It's been a while. Sorry. I've been busy. And lazy. But mostly busy. Here's to more frequent updates as a more relaxed period of time approaches. I see I've gained some new followers in my absence, so to those folks especially: sorry about the lack of new content! Let's fix that for you guys. And for everyone else.
For America.

The Sketch-Spring is trickling again.

2010-09-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hola, kids. Holden's back in school again, and you know what that means--more in-class doodles.

Here, have a space explorer girl in lieu of a Sunday Comics entry.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: Xombie Reanimated

2010-09-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

Xombie Reanimated, by James Farr

Format: Six issues collected into a trade paperback/graphic novella. There's an expressed desire in the afterword to make it a series, but I won't classify it as such yet since that hasn't happened yet.

Content Rating: A soft PG-13, for zombie violence (though not as much as you'd probably think for a series that's, y'know, about zombies), and very occasional mild language.

Plot: Picking up several years after the events of the original Xombie (a series of flash cartoons released on the internet, until they were put into a DVD compilation--now you can only find the occasional scattered episode on video sites like YouTube), our story kicks off with the world still feeling the wake of an absolutely catastrophic zombie apocalypse. The undead vastly outnumber the living, and have for some time now. Trouble comes when one of the largest remaining human settlements, known as The Acropolis, fails to recieve a new power cell for its electrical generator on time. Without the power supply, The Acropolis' impressive anti-zombie defense systems will slowly power down, including special devices that mask the smell of living bodies, and one of the world's finest defenses against the undead will suddenly find itself as an oversized lunch box. Enter Zoe, the heroine from the cartoons, now grown into a teenager, who was considered delerious as a child when she raved about being rescued and brought home by a group of undead who were completely sentient, made no effort to eat her, and were relatively friendly to her (the titular "Xombie" concept). The Acropolis' army, having recently experienced some encounters with a similar zombie, are ready to believe her and recruit this mystery "talker" to get the power cell back to the settlement, since a zombie won't attack one of their own unless provoked. While they do find the creatures from Zoe's stories: Dirge, Nephthys, Cerberus, and Chimeara--the clock keeps ticking on how long The Acropolis can hold out, everyone other than Zoe is wary of how long these intelligent walking corpses will remain loyal, and the appearance of another sentient zombie with substantially less charitable views towards humanity may cause even larger problems...

Thoughts: Unfortunately, this is a hard series to get into if you haven't watched the original cartoons. There is some effort made towards getting new readers on the level with who the characters are, but I feel it was made with the existing fans in mind first. And yes, if the picture didn't clue you in, it's a slightly ridiculous series--you have to accept that there's a zombie mummy (wrapped in electrical tape no less) that's better-preserved than the lead, as well as the entire concept of a trained zombie attack velociraptor. And I do have a few other complaints--the writing does lag in a couple places (Dirge sounds slightly...off somehow in a lot of his dialogue, and Nephthys' is downright atrocious--she was quite eloquent in the cartoon, but here they felt some odd need to try and give her a sort of "mystical" speaking style filled with various references to Egypt. It's pretty painful), and there's a couple characters that just weren't needed. Chimeara, the aforementioned raptor, seems there mostly for fanservice as she doesn't actually do anything in her brief panel time and newcomers will just be confused at why she even accompanies Nephthys. There's also this priest figure within the human colony that...really has no purpose other than to show up every so often and remind us that zombies are evil and we shouldn't trust them, an idea that was already pretty well carried by the settlers themselves and could have been communicated exclusively through them. New readers will also be utterly perplexed when the Xar Gothua (a race of Lovecraftian...things) show up, which is upsetting since they're a significant part of both stories. And as long as I'm complaining...why, oh why, James, did you have to give Zoe booty shorts? It's just kind of creepy, considering we spent the cartoon with her as a child, and the situations she finds herself in would probably find longer pants more helpful. It's unneeded.
All that aside, though, it's a very fun follow-up to the cartoons and I do hope James continues it, it's a universe with some interesting concepts and there are still some plot threads that were left (intentionally) dangling. The villain, Gallows, also works exceedingly well as a dark counterpart to the whole xombie concept. If you were a fan of the cartoons, I recommend picking it up to continue the story. If you never saw them, but are still curious about the book, give it a go, you may just need a Xombified friend to explain some bits to you (there's also the DVD compilation, but I haven't personally seen it, so I don't know how substantial the touted animation-quality updates are). Zombie aficianados of any stripe, though, may appreciate this as a very different, fun approach to the now-cliche "zombie apocalypse" setting.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: Wonton Soup

2010-09-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

Wonton Soup (volume 1), by James Stokoe

Format: Volumed graphic novel series. 2 volumes available at time of this writing.

Content Rating: PG-13. A fair bit of language and Deacon's constant (but surprisingly not that explicit) references to all the sex he's having, but not much else for a parent to worry about leaving around their kid.

Plot: Where do I begin? The comic bills itself as a "Space Trucker Cooking Opera," and this designation is actually pretty accurate. Johnny Boyo, our hero, is a lowly space trucker...essentially a driver for an interplanetary freight service, along with his sleazy-but-still-likeable copilot and friend Deacon. (Boyo is one of the few human characters in the story...Deacon may be as well but seems open to interpretation.) But Johnny comes from quite the interesting background for a trucker--he used to be one of the finest students at one of the most famous cooking schools in the galaxy, before he dropped out. Now, it seems, he spends most of his off-time seeking out some of the best cuisine he can and doing amazing cooking for just himself...until he and Deacon end up forced to head to the planet where his cooking school is, as well as the girl he left behind there. In order to get off-world, Johnny might just have to whip out his chopping knives once more and show the new stars on the block what cooking's all about...

Thoughts: Oni Press is rapidly becoming one of my new favourite comics publishers (they already publish Wet Moon, one of my favourite volumed series ever). This comic is helping Oni's case.
I was familiar with Wonton Soup beforehand, so I was surprised (and pleased!) to see it had made the jump to an actual series. It began life, at least insofar as I'm familiar with it, as a short story entry in the second volume of Void Pulpo. (See the "Indie Comics Compilation Triple Play" entries for more on that volume as a whole.) It was definitely one of my favourite stories in that compilation, and in fact that short story returns here and functions as the very first chapter, with updated artwork (mostly zip-tones added, and a few subtly redrawn bits). The concepts for this story seem sporadic, like they shouldn't work, but like an exciting recipe, Mr. Stokoe manages to blend them together into a wholly unique and entertaining beast, combining elements of space operas like Star Wars and Firefly with large elements of Iron Chef and a definite influence from action-heavy anime and manga (especially in the grand finale cooking battle, where the contestants start busting out various secret cooking techniques...ha!). I had to read it all in one go...every time I reached the end of a chapter, I found myself automatically thinking "just one more chapter tonight," a very good sign to me. My only real complaint is the author's love for sticking all sorts of alien loanwords into the dialogue. I understand completely why they're there--we are dealing with a mind-bogglingly vast cultural melting pot (there are so many alien species around that you rarely see the same type twice), so it follows that a lot of names for people and ingredients would sound pretty odd, I think it's more the penchant for some of the words being ridiculously hard to pronounce. Which may be to add to the atmosphere to begin with. In either case, it does tone down a little towards the later chapters, and the comic wouldn't feel the same if it were completely absent. Takes me back to my childhood, actually, when you could name aliens whatever you liked. And that, ultimately, is the sort of raw creativity and spontanaeity that Wonton Soup is about celebrating. Congratulations on making it this far, James Stokoe. I look forward to more.

[Holden Out.]

Neglecting a Blaugh

2010-09-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

My artbuddy Kii over at Rakugaki has been getting on me to put some of this stuff in here, so here we go!
After the main course, I have some propositions, as well, so stay tuned to the end for those, please.

This one is purely for my friend Rin, who's a huge Bat-fan and just feels so bad for poor little Bruce Wayne's parents. The results, I think, are suitably adorable. I almost want to do this with other prominent comics characters (one with Spider-Man going "Uncle Ben is dead..." seems an obvious next step).

On a relatedly superheroish note, I decided to have a little self-assignment fun and draw myself as a superhero, so here's that identity: The Cricket. The mechanical legs I guess make him jump incredibly high/far? It goes without saying that that antenna is his connection to his awesome and helpful butler and/or precocious and computer-savvy childhood friend. I started on a supervillain version of the assignment too, but it didn't work out in the end. I might retry later. He was called The Tiktokman, and was basically an incredibly dapper, steampunk Dr. Octopus.

I started to colour Vitriol, from way back when I started doing a lot of entries like these. It doesn't look bad, but I dunno if I'll necessarily finish.

And speaking of the punk-girl-of-the-week, here was the last one for that quarter, Celeste. Anatomical errors abound, but another close friend, Mich, managed to very helpfully pick them all out so I can learn for next time! Hooray! The idea here was just to pretty much go crazy with the X's and uneccessary zippers and I think I succeeded in that regard.

And speaking of Mich, here's one of her characters that I drew for her as part of an art trade! His name is Corbin. He used to be an accountant but now is a streetwise artsy ruffian who loves himself a good beer. I kinda want that shirt. In return, she's doing a digital painting of my character Seamstress.

Here's another old leftover from my days on the MS Paint Adventure forums (I haven't hung out there in several weeks now), a picture of the Homestuck character Vriska from when people were still speculating about the placement of her other seven eyes. It turns out I wasn't too far off the mark--she's been shown now in flashbacks to have had her other eye be normally-shaped but have seven individual pupils. (Present-day Vriska only has one eye.) The text refers to her sort of randomly becoming the comics' sex symbol among much of the fandom after her introduction (despite her single eye, bionic arm, and being an absolutely terrible person), the "8" is due to the way she types (she replaces her all her b's with them).

Here's just a small piece (only a quarter or so!) of an extremely ambitious piece of fanart still in development. This is still pretty rough, and there's some line cleanup that needs to be done, but I was just so excited that I had to share at least a tiny snippet of it. Props if you can name all the characters in this section (at least the ones that are more than half-done.) At the very end of this post I'll put up a list of every single character I want to put in this thing.

My final project for a Photoshop class was to make a mock-up of an art portfolio webpage. I think it came out really well!

Oh hey this mask is finally done. I've only added a few more lines since last we saw it, but decided it looked good enough and spray-fixed it so it may smudge no more. It's now mounted on my wall in-between Guy Fawkes and that orange thing.

Lastly, I'm making a prop steampunk gun! This is exciting! I started with a cheap squirt gun I got for a dollar. I liked the shape of it, with the short muzzle and the little tubes along the sides, plus squirt guns are already hollow-bodied and lightweight. Now, as squirt guns often are, it was done up in all this garish neon orange and green, so I and my friend Ben gave it a good (if thin) coat of grey primer. Eventually I'll paint it, I think I want to do it mostly in bronze with some pearl and gold accents. The nifty cracked pressure gauge in the back we found in a junk shop, and Ben helped me gut out the water resevoir and epoxy the gauge into place (no, it's not functional, in fact, due to this alteration alone the squirt gun itself is no longer functional, but that's okay, because it's a prop). I also found some thick black industrial tubing and old metal couplings, I'll stick a few short lengths of that throughout the gun but have most of it trailing down to a prop "battery pack" thing that's worn on the hip. I need to start looking for other fiddly bits to add to this...rivets, vaccuum tubes?
Even already, when you hold this pistol at arm's length, you feel like a sky pirate.

Now that you've waited so patiently, here's a few questions...first, since I'm starting to get more comments coming in these days, what should be next for Sunday Comics? I'll let you guys pick:
The Filth, Grant Morrison
Transmetropolitan (volumes 1-3), Warren Ellis
Funny Misshapen Body, Jeffery Brown
Xombie Reanimated, James Farr
Wonton Soup (volume 1), James Stokoe
Or should I go back and spotlight even more of Concrete, Girl Genius, or Wet Moon since those have had additional volumes out and read since the initial featuring?

Question the second is, should I bring the webcomic I had over on the MS Paint Adventure forums over to this blog? Or at least, a linked and related blog? I stopped continuing the comic (called Lass Roam) over there once they changed board hosts, which made some of the formatting I was using much harder to attempt, but I was having so much fun with the project, I want to give it life somewhere, or at least preserve it somewhere other than on my hard drive...the thing is, its content is driven by audience participation, so commenters would need to be guaranteed if it were going to continue.

[Holden Out.]

[And now, the comprehensive list of characters destined to be in that ridiculous fanart.]
Concrete (Concrete), Spider-Man (Spider-Man), Bone (Bone), Bear (Bear), Paul Who Is A Ghost (Pictures for Sad Children), Jimmy Corrigan (Jimmy Corrigan), Max (Sam & Max: Freelance Police), Weapon Brown (Deep Fried), Agatha Heterodyne (Girl Genius), Steve the Robot (Here There Be Robots), Ogami Itto (Lone Wolf & Cub), Calvin (Calvin & Hobbes), Jason Fox (Foxtrot), Linus Van Pelt(Peanuts), Edda (9 Chickweed Lane), Batman (Batman), Rorschach (Watchmen), V (V for Vendetta), Enid Coleslaw (Ghost World), Cleo Lovedrop (Wet Moon), Death (Sandman), Craig Thompson (Blankets), Spider Jerusalem (Transmetropolitan), Cameron Spector (The Filth), Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics), Joe Sacco (Safe Area Gorazde), Chester Brown (I Never Liked You), 3 (WE3), T-Rex (Dinosaur Comics), Jeff Brown (Funny Misshapen Body), Jamie McJack (Girls With Slingshots), Robin DeSanto (Shortpacked!), Tycho Brahe (Penny Arcade), Rose LeLonde (Homestuck), Pickle Inspector (Problem Sleuth), Benjamin Glee (Intragalactic), Angry Little Robot (Bohda Te), Devi D (I Feel Sick), Axe Cop (Axe Cop), Will Eisner (Dropsie Avenue), Purple (A Comic For Girls!), David B (Epileptic), Wonderella (The Non-Adventures of Wonderella), Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant), Jughead Jones (Archie), Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis), Frank (Frank), Jim Bloggs (When The Wind Blows), Kaput (Kaput & Zosky), Frazz (Frazz), Lemont Brown (Candorville), Pierce (Zits), Iron Man (Iron Man), Lobo (Lobo), Nightcrawler (X-Men), Charlie (The Four Immigrants Manga), Black Jack (Black Jack), Mr. Gallows (Xombie Reanimated), Ramona Flowers (Scott Pilgrim), Johnny Boyo (Wonton Soup).

Sunday Comics: I Feel Sick

2010-08-15T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hello! Well, it's been a while since we've seen one of these. Various reasons for that.
Either way, it's a little funny that I'm writing on a comic with such a title when I actually am sick at the moment, a rarity for me.
I also admit I feel a little bit late to the party spotlighting a Jhonen Vasquez work (his big-time popularity trickled out what, three years ago?) but I also think this is a very commonly overlooked comic of his. It didn't get nearly the publicity that his other titles from the same time (JtHM and Squee) did, which is sad because I think it's definitely one of his better works. Hence its spot here. Right then, off we go.

I Feel Sick, by Jhonen Vasquez and Rikki Simons

Format: Two comic issues. (Originally it was going to be a one-shot, but it was realized to tell all the story they wanted, it would have to be two issues.)

Content Rating: R. Main character Devi's frequent resorting to f-bombs when frustrated is actually remarked on and mocked by another character a couple times, and though there are only two particularly violent moments, they're both pretty graphic when they happen. And of course, Jhonen being Jhonen, the humor can be pretty off-kilter at times.

Plot: Devi's been having creative problems lately. Big ones. Ever since she got a job as a freelance artist, It seems like ideas just won't come, and her drive to make things keeps draining. Worse still, a personal painting she started just before she got the job has begun...talking to her. Whispering. Saying some rather upsetting things, and now Devi's worried she might be losing her grip a little. Can she figure out what's going on in her head, regain control of her art life, and retain her sanity...before the voice in the painting eats her creative energy entirely?

Thoughts: Though it still definitely has its flaws (some of which will be addressed), I think this is some of Vasquez's best writing work--predominantly because it does away with a lot of the mindless non-sequitur humor that came to unfortunately define some of his later stuff. It's still there, of course (it wouldn't really feel like he wrote it without at least a little of that), but it's relegated mostly to background gags. This is more of a two-issue character study, with the focus squarely on the situation occuring. It also covers a lot of similar thematic ground as his earlier graphic novel, JtHM (which I don't recommend as highly--but I Feel Sick is technically a spin-off from it and does help make a lot more sense of some of that novel's confusing bits), but does it in a far more concise, accessable way. The colour also helps things a lot--this was made while Vasquez was still working on the ill-fated Invader Zim cartoon (or perhaps just afterward), and it shows. The artwork here could have easily been pulled straight from the show, but that's definitely not a bad thing. The climactic pages of the second issue, in particular, have a lot of neat things going on with the colouring to really add a sense of mood. The only thing that really makes me twist my lip a little is the time at which this was written--this was when Invader Zim was on shaky legs, in danger of imminent cancellation, and a lot of arguments were being had between him and network executives over creative differences, so it's all too easy to see some of this as Jhonen boo-hooing about being a poor artist that The Man's squeezing a little too tightly, especially with how he demonizes the company Devi ends up working for. However, if you are unaware of that context or choose to ignore it, it mostly works fine and has some decent symbology for what intense creative struggles can feel like.

[Holden Out.]

How many titles can I come up with for these sorts of entries?

2010-08-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

Gather round the campfire, kids, it's that time again! Time for me to share little snitchings of art...things. Probably shorter than previous entries. BUT. I do have some good news.
Good bit number one: I have come across and read some new comics. You know what that means...new Sunday Comics entries! Yum yum fresh comics in bloodstream.
Good bit number two: I've started an endeavour to do some small bit of creative work every day, which will hopefully result in more stuff to show. So far it's working. I was kind of stressing myself out trying to plan out these days in which I would have some grand swoop of working on a project for hours, when really those only seem to come when you don't plan them. A more moderate approach is good for where I'm at mentally right now.

Onwards!

"Jubilee Haskins," yet another random punkish girl. I seem to draw at least one of these per week. Maybe I have some sort of invisible quota. I like what I came up with for her shirt, but her mohawk is so bleeeaaah that it hurts to look at, that thing came out ridiculous.

Very, very definitely subconsciously inspired by the character designs of Ross Campbell.

And a photoshop thing for photography class. He didn't expect professional-level work but this still feels sorta ham-fisted--if I had had the time I would do more with the circuitry and make the camera-lens pupil less obvious. At least I had the right idea, with a lot of minor touches...if you'll look closely you'll see I superimposed a data stream on the iris, and added some circuits to the white in the same colour as the veins. Less obvious is that I pulled most of the reds, pinks, and magentas out of the skin to make a much deader flesh tone for a "Borg" feel.

That's really about it for now, but as mentioned prior, more is forthcoming. I've been on sort of an emotional roller coaster lately regarding my art but that's for another time and too exhausting to go into now. Sail boldly!

[Holden Out.]

O what a whimsical entry~

2010-07-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

Another Holden's Bookshelf entry today? Pfft, nah. At least probably not. You may have noticed that hasn't popped up with any more entries since the first one, and Sunday Comics has been absent as well. The reasons for this are entirely divergent: in the case of Sunday Comics, I've begun to feel like I'm running out of comics to spotlight. As big a comics nerd as I can be, I only personally own so many, so the output for those entries may see a decrease in frequency. Holden's Bookshelf has the opposite problem: I have too many books to choose from (I recently bought a second bookshelf, and a third one becoming necessary could easily only be a couple years away). I feel overwhelmed, and I didn't bother to set many rules, moreover, for what sorts of books I'd review. Maybe I shouldn't have as much ruling, and it can be Sunday Comics' freer cousin.

In any case, that's not what today's focus is about. Today's post comes entirely courtesy of Cineris, a talented gal who in addition to her main blog (The Infinite Contradiction Of Endless Hope), has recently launched an intriguing sci-fi/philosophy experiment one called Sidereal Stilus. Over in Infinite Contradiction, she recently posted an entry that I just had to take my own stab at (the exercise itself being derived originally from none other than prominent author Neil Gaiman). This exercise is simply called "I Believe."

An "I Believe" entry is, simply, a list of truths you hold. They need not necessarily be religious or philosophic truths, though that can certainly play into it. They can be serious, they can be silly, and honestly it seems best for the whimsy of the exercise when a degree of both are present. Do it all in one go if you can, and if you don't, try to avoid breaks in the text. It should feel like a lengthy but seamless block.

So, I crack my knuckles and here I go, my own take on this, unfiltered and originally scrawled in one of my too-many half-full notebooks.

I believe that reality is a book, both metaphorically and, in an odd cosmic ethereal sense, literally, and it exists in a simultaneous state of having already been fully written and in being actively written each second, and each human being that lives and dies is a character whose life forms a subplot so tiny yet so intrinsic to the whole that the overall plot could very well be fractal. I believe that due to this, the answer to the age-old question of why "bad things happen to good people" is character development, as there never was an interesting plot that arose without some degree of conflict present. It is the nature of stories themselves, as a form, to contain it, and as much as most of us loathe adversity we cannot refute that it keeps life some kind of interesting. Incidentally, this also blows away whether art imitates life or vice versa: indeed, under the Book Assumption life IS art, the two are equal, with life as the greatest work of art, existing in a medium unto its own, its layers so numerous that we have not analyzed a fraction of it after milennia of intent gazing, and it in fact brilliantly doubles as its own museum to showcase itself. It also, I believe, cannot be truly copied, only crudely imitated and, perhaps later down the line, at least somewhat convincingly imitated, but the original will always shine brightest, for as long as human beings are imperfect by nature and insist on creating things with our clumsy meat hands, or with machines created by said hands, or machines created by machines created by said hands; all down the line an inescapable imprint of imperfection yet the very attempt at creating still makes us gloriously unique out of all that moves.
I believe in the old adage that something worth having is also worth waiting for. Patience is an increasingly rarer virtue. I believe the solution to ridding pop culture and public attitudes of the Male Gaze is NOT, in fact, to introduce a greater influx of Female Gaze; this only makes the issues of accepted sexism twofold. I believe my words have more power when I write them than when I speak them. I believe in the importance of breaks from routine. I believe in the importance of routine. I believe human chipping is a bad idea, for the same reasons we have a sense of privacy. I believe Monsanto is a bad company, at the very least their produce/farming division. I believe in proper and thorough sex education for anyone mature enough to need to know. I do not believe that nudity is automatically pornography, and believe that the line between the two is to some extent (but not fully) a subjective one. I believe black licorice tastes of the whimsy and spices of the old world and red licorice tastes of the dull affronting plastic of a bitter future. I believe the current Western beauty ideal of the tall, curveless, wheedling, glamour-hungry girly-girl is one of the least attractive archetypes we could have chosen for the job. I believe infants are more intelligent than we give them credit for, they just don't have a means of communicating back yet, and are brand new to the concept of being. I believe that for every product concept, no matter how inane, will have someone out there who will buy it, provided it's advertised right. I believe life requires a degree of pessimism but cannot be enjoyed if one identifies wholly as a pessimist. I believe there are few musical devices more potent to one's adrenaline than a chugging bass riff traveling straight through your body. I believe animals do not have souls, but do not believe that this justifies killing them wantonly. I believe if you take up hunting as a sport you should intend to eat what you kill. I believe that human beings are born capable of willingly perpetrating wrong, and that ideas of human beings being "born good/innocent" or of humanity being "basically good" are, very frankly, bullshit. I believe evil is dependent on the existence of good, but believe good is not dependent on the existence of evil--they are not codependent. I believe that the two most important qualities of food are how nourishing it is and how it tastes, and believe there are appropriate times for sacrificing one of the sake of the other, for both factors. I believe that an ugly personality will totally negate the physical beauty of even the world's most gorgeous person.
I believe that graffiti isn't always a bad thing, even if it is illegal. I believe that as much as we may hope, flying cars will never happen, but robot butlers will. I believe in the distinct possibility of sentient alien life, but do not believe it is a given. I believe television is a great entertainment medium but a terrible educational medium, not because of content but in the very way it operates. I believe in wearing scarves in the winter. I believe in dancing when you feel like it. I believe in going shirtless when you're home all alone in the summer. I believe tea and cheese should always be high-quality when possible. I believe moths are actually melevolent undead butterflies. I believe I have more of these and I'll type them out in a later entry.

[Holden Out.]

Yep, it's another pile of art.

2010-07-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

Yep. This is becoming a regular thing, it seems. If it becomes a regular enough thing it may get its own categorization and become some weird lumpy little deformity of a feature.

Let's get this rolling with some Homestuck fanart, for starters (Homestuck is, once again, an excellent webcomic). I drew the antagonist Spades Slick, alias Jack Noir, a little while ago and stuck it up here last post, and in the interim period have drawn the remainder of Spades' friends/minions/partners in crime, who like him are themed after the suits in a deck of cards and are collectively known as The Midnight Crew. These are my visual interpretations of the characters--the ones in the comic are drawn more simplistically, but are consistently described as having "carapaces," so I aimed for sort of a jointed-plate insectoid feel.

Clubs Deuce, the smallest member of the group, who tends to be sort of easily distracted and slightly more innocent (slightly) than his fellow crew members. He's also the only one who is never drawn with a mouth, so I gave him a smallish set of mandibles. I imagine he'd make little chittering noises with them.

Hearts Boxcars, the group muscle. Much larger than the others. Far from the standard "dumb muscle" stereotype, though he still doesn't appear to think things through entirely. His face had to be sort of complicated, as I was trying to allow for the necessary range of motion that was present in a darkly comedic scene where he swallowed and ate someone's head, whole. This unfortunately had the effect, for this drawing, of making him look like some sort of basketball robot, althought there is an unintentional bit of stag beetle in there too, which works.

Diamonds Droog is the brains of the outfit, a careful deducer and planner who seems most likely to backstab Spades (sort of a Megatron-Starscream relationship if you'll forgive the incredibly geeky analogy), and has a predilection for finely tailored suits. I deviated the most from his character design, to provide more of a shout-out to his last name (a Clockwork Orange reference), giving him a bowler derby and eye marking (Droog as Homestuck depicts him wears an odd sort of cowboy hat, or some sort of tall, lumpy fedora).

Moving on, some more photos from photography class.

I just really like how this picture came out. The angle, the lines, that little splotch of maroon on the ground from a nearby piece of sculpture--this is one of my favourite pictures that I've taken this year. It's of a bike rack.

Kind of silly, but I had fun with this one. Made possible with a combination of a good steady tripod and Photoshop. It's not perfect--I noticed too late that I still didn't line up where I had cut and pasted one photo quite right, so if you look very closely, there's still a little bit of a seam; and my instructor pointed out that there's too much dead space between the two mes. Still, I'd like to do something similar to this again sometime.

Finally, another school notepage doodle. Random punk-ish girl, possibly from Korea, (nick?)named Vitriol because I love ridiculous names. I like this one enough that I might colour it, in spite of the wonky right elbow and the misplaced bit of hair on the other side of her head (I realized it suggests her other ear must be somehow further back...unless maybe it's draped behind that ear?). Also, the neckline for the fishnet thing is a little weird because I temporarily forgot about the existence of breasts. Tried to compensate for this by just making said neckline look stretched/worn (as though someone had at some point given it a hard tug and it never completely reshaped).

[Holden Out.]

I guess...I guess we'll do some more of this now.

2010-07-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

More art-related-things posting, that is. I aim to be getting back on top of keeping up with the Sunday Comics and Holden's Bookshelf entries again this week as well, these past couple weeks have just been busy.

Anyway. Yes. Things what I drew and made.

First up, more back-of-school-papers pen doodles. Lexa, Vanessa, and Faye, my three most commonly-drawn characters. I've got complaints about how each turned out, present in their own comments--Lexa's forehead turned out huge, Vanessa's hand is wonky, and Faye overall just doesn't look right. Still, this was a fun one.

Pen-rendered fanart of Spades Slick, aka Jack Noir, the villain of the webcomic Homestuck. At least, this is how I envision him. Planning to do the rest of his posse in a similar style soon. He belongs to some sort of species with an exoskeleton.

Part of a project for a photography class, we were supposed to find "faces that aren't faces." This was one of the two I ended up submitting...it's a part of a boardwalk down at the local harbor. Doesn't it look adorably confused? For those familiar with the expression "derp," I think this face fits it to a tee.

Here is the other submission I had for that assignment, a piece of driftwood from a nearby beach park. Upon seeing it, friends have dubbed this "the anger log."

This was done for another class project, this time the theme being "revealing, unusual self-portraits." I've done the words-on-the-tongue thing in several other photos, but I just love it so much! I couldn't resist using it again for this.

Another one for the self-portrait. Again, based on an earlier work of mine (the "Zampano's Legacy" collage I did for a metafiction class...I think I posted that here somewhere, if not I should), but that time it was photoshopped, whereas here I decided to use actual prop labels, and a bookshelf in the background to drive the point home.

GASP I'M LETTING PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET SEE MY ACTUAL FACE and this will be one of very few times on this blog that that happens. I didn't end up submitting this portrait because I felt it didn't say enough and was too cliched, but I still really like it. Mostly the angle.

[Holden Out.]

I tend to doodle on my notes.

2010-06-22T13:33:00.000-07:00

Just some fun scribbles, because really, where else am I going to put them? All of these were done with one of those cheap ballpoint pens you get at Staples in hundred-packs.

A self-portrait...thing from the corner of a shopping list. I tend to caricaturize myself like this. Not really sure why.

Doodled on an index card during a long wait at an office. Sorry about the random writing in her hair, they were the notes the card originally contained. Not supposed to be anyone specific, I just like short hair. And stars. And Eyes.

Weird fish-eyed depiction of my character Tar, from the back of the same index card. Getting closer to what I actually want him to look like but still not quite there. One of his better gas mask designs though (he wears that thing because of some very special breathing issues).

Unfinished picture of characters Didi and Natasha arguing, done on the back of a class syllabus. I probably will add to it later. There's a lot I like AND dislike about this...this is pretty much the first time I've absolutely nailed what I envision Didi looking like (especially her hair...big fluffy tangled dreadlock pigtails), but I botched Natasha pretty hard...she's got a slightly too-small head and way too long of a neck. She's also supposed to be a lot shorter than Didi, though you could argue she's slightly in the foreground. Poses are a little stiff too, but I'm trying to work on that. For the record, since her hand's unfinished, Didi's eating a microwavable Hostess Fruit Pie-type thing. I imagine they get into bicker-sessions like this a lot, but wouldn't you know it, they're best friends.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: The Four Immigrants Manga

2010-06-20T19:11:00.000-07:00

The Four Immigrants Manga, by Henry Kiyama (Yoshitaki Kiyama pre-Ellis Island), translated by Frederick L. Schodt

Format: Bound collection of related, comics-form short stories. Notably, though technically a "manga," the panels read in the Western (left-to-right) order rather than the typical Eastern (right-to-left) one common even with translated manga. I am unsure whether it was always this way (as a means of the author trying to inject more of an American feel into his comic) or whether the panel order was altered for easier reading by a Western audience when the translation was done.

Content Rating: G-to-PG. Some very mild language every once in a blue moon, and a few jokes that rely on product-of-the-time racism (there's a single-panel depiction of a black woman that's a little shocking for this day and age, and all the Chinese characters, to reflect Japan's resentment towards China, speak in an exaggerated and stereotyped manner) but overall this is something you could leave around a kid's reach and not worry too much.

Plot: The intertwined tales and lives of four friends, Japanese immigrants to America, specifically early 1900s San Francisco. Taking on new American names--Fred, Frank, Charlie, and Henry (the author, self-inserted) seek--with mostly limited success--to make some sort of name for themselves in this strange new country. Frank wants to accrue wealth, Charlie wants to study how American government works, Fred desires to find a farm and become a potato baron, and Henry wishes to study art, intrigued by Western painting and drawing styles of the time. These dreams will sort of co-mingle a lot (Frank and Charlie become the two main characters, and go off on various moneymaking ventures--in fact, Charlie's mention of wanting to study American government is largely forgotten after he brings it up), and there are few happy endings--in fact, through the course of the book many dreams are given up on in pursuit of simpler lives. However, most of the characters' failures, slip-ups and misfortunes are played for comedy, in a sort of Charlie Brown manner.

Personal Thoughts: Given the way manga absolutely exploded onto the mainstream US comics shelf about a decade ago, I tend to be very, very cautious regarding it...probably overly so, and barely read any (I mean, just look at Sunday Comics so far--this is the 29th one, and out of those 29 this is only the second entry written by someone from Japan, after Tezuka's Black Jack). With such a huge market glut of the stuff and publishers of it continually rushing to get more of it onto shelves since it's "what the kids are into these days," it seems like it's often safer to assume that most of it will be bland and samey. This isn't to paint manga with a broad brush, as I love comics as an art, literary, and entertainment form first and foremost regardless of whatever its country of origin is.
That said, Four Immigrants Manga is refreshingly different from the vast majority of comics I've read (from any nation), owing largely to just how old it is--it was written roughly within the same time period it takes place in. And (if you don't mind a brief comics history lesson), since the modern-day manga scene was heavily influenced by Post-World War II Japan assimilating more Western culture (for manga in particular, taking some cues from American and European comics), you could say this is perhaps more distinctively "Older Japan," or at the very least see it as the beginning of the back-and-forth influencing in the comics of these two hemispheres since it's written by someone who was an immigrant themselves--a true fusion of Eastern and Western comics. The immigration angle also makes this comic very immersive, in a very special way, particularly in its dialogue. Kiyama originally wrote most of the dialogue in his native Japanese (which makes sense, since they are Japanese characters speaking their language to each other or thinking in it to themselves), with the bits that would actually be spoken in English (Americans and the titular immigrants when communicating with them) written in the best English Kiyama could manage at the time. For the translation, the Japanese is converted to English, which would seem like it might spoil the effect, but actually (brilliantly) works for it just as well. The dialogue originally in Japanese is typed and italicized, crisp and grammatically proper, whereas the bits in English are kept as they were--written in a rougher hand (ALL CAPS as well) and laden with grammar and spelling hiccups. This is great for really helping get the newness and discomfort of immigration across, as it illustrates exactly what it's like for trying to converse in a language you're not used to--you catch the basic words, but the larger nuances are lost. Really, the only complaint for this book/collection is that some of the joke punchlines are completely lost in the translation, leading to an occasional very odd chapter ending. The Four Immigrants Manga is recommended for those interested in comics history, history in general, and just exploring older works. I've yet to find anything else quite like it.

[Holden Out.]

Holden's Bookshelf: Hairstyles of the Damned

2010-06-16T18:31:00.000-07:00

"Holden's Bookshelf" is one of a few new features I'm test-driving...in this case, book reviews. I've had a lot of fun on here with Sunday Comics, and intend to continue that fully, but comics are by no means all I read: I love books. A lot. To the point where I have to resist bookstores because I know if I go in, there's somewhere around a 90% chance of me buying something, whether I had intended to or not. I even hold a BA in literature, which is a fancy, officially notarized way of saying "I read a huge stack o' books for college credit."

So it only makes sense that I should do something involving plain old text-type books here too. However, these will be reviews--good and ill and in-between will be found here (though still, probably, mostly good). If you go back to look at Sunday Comics entries, you'll note I'm pretty insistent on calling them spotlightings rather than reviews, because with that particular feature I wanted to focus exclusively on comics I had enjoyed and would recommend. (Mocking terrible comics, on the other hand...well, no one does it better than Linkara, and I'm happy to leave him to it.)

Also, just as I'm hesitant to include comics "staples" in Sunday Comics (popular superheroes and the like), I want to shy away from well-known literary classics here, because heaps of things have already been said about these. So as much as I do totally love, say, Orwell's 1984 or Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing or Salinger's Catcher In The Rye (responsible for part of my namesake), they're very unlikely to show up here, for two reasons. A, I don't think I'd have much to say about a time-tested "classic" that hasn't already been said over several decades by several other people, and B, from a reader's perspective, I myself know I'd want to read more about something I might not have heard of before, something new to me.

Also, before we move on to how the categories will work, I should note that this need not necessarily be just about novels--I'm sure short stories and plays will find their way in here too, albeit more rarely.

There are many methods to tackling how to review and discuss the merits of a work of literature. I'm going to use a system not unlike the fairly simple one I've already got in place for Sunday Comics. The categories, after covering basics like genre, content rating, and a synopsis, will be:

Characters: How interesting and engaging are the characters? Is their dialogue well-written? Do they feel "whole" in accordance with their role in the story?

Story: Was the plot itself of interest? Did the characters function well within it? Could I figure out what the plot was? (In the case of metafiction, heavy postmodernism, and very theme-heavy "commentary" works, did it matter what the plot was?) Were there any gaping holes or loose ends that needed to be tied for full comprehension?

Handling of Themes: Every story, no matter how simple, has at least one or two themes. Whatever the author was trying to write about, did it seem like they succeeded in some way?

Each of these categories will get their own rating, with an "overall" rating at the end. The "overall" rating is not cumulative.

Good. Let's begin.

Hairstyles of the Damned, by Joe Meno

Genre: General slice-of-life fictional narrative, with strong undertones of a coming-of-age story.

Content Rating: R, as most more believable (or cynical, depending on who you ask) depictions of high schoolers are wont to be.

Synopsis: Follows the exploits of Brian Oswald, a discontented-but-outwardly-obedient Catholic-high-school kid, and his best friend and secret crush, Gretchen; a loud, coarse, violent punk girl (and the head of pink hair pictured on the cover), during the very early 90s. Much like Catcher in the Rye, from which it draws some obvious inspiration, the whole of the narrative is Brian's own inner monologue, occasionally blended with notes he scribbles on the backs of his school papers. Predominantly, this is Brian figuring out who he is, and trying to find a way to communicate his feelings to Gretchen without jeopardizing the friendship between them he's come to enjoy so much (or earning scorn from her, since such an admission would be just as likely to recieve her mockery as her discomfort).

Characters: Honestly, my first time reading this, I had a lot of difficulty with Brian in particular. He has a habit of constantly namedropping bands and lyrics throughout the book, and while that's relevant to aspects of the plot it was very distracting initially. Part of it was being entirely new to this author--for some reason, it came off as a desperate attempt by the author to prove how musically knowledgeable he was. However, after reading more of Mr. Meno's work, and rereading a second time, I see it more in the context of a narrator that music happens to be very important to, not some projection of the author's. That said, Brian isn't someone you're rooting for the entire time, which can be a good or bad thing depending on how you like your stories--he does have some moments of being a definite jerk.

Gretchen, on the other hand, makes a more believable troubled high schooler--some might see her badass posturing as a bit over-the-top, but it's fairly true to some people I've known, and provides a good contrast against her more tender, vulnerable moments when she's not such a tough little punkette. Other, more minor roles, such as Rod (an oldies enthusiast and semi-friend to Brian), Bobby B. (the greasy yet inexplicably popular guy all of us have known at some point), and Kim (Gretchen's more promiscuous counterpart) are fun, varied, and well-fleshed-out for the amount of page time they're given.

Character Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Victory Points

Story: From what Joe Meno stories I've read, he has a knack for taking relatively simple plots that could be condensed into shorter works if he really wanted to--and expanding them without making them feel overly stretched or fluffy. Switching up the straight narrative with occasional asides into Brian's school notes or relevant music playlists he's made also helps (and while not providing much further insight into the character, does lend him more of an air of "authenticity" as a high schooler). Still, this was, from what I understand, one of Meno's earlier novels, and it shows. (If I can say that, being that I've yet to publish a full novel myself.) I can't quite pinpoint exactly what causes it, but the story could still work slightly better, even if it's mostly just a vehicle for the character relations. I feel like there were still aspects of the majority of the relationships that could have been touched on. Maybe I'm just being picky. Either way, it still lacks just a little unidentifiable something.

Story Rating: 3 out of 5 Victory Points

Handling of Themes: While a coming-of-age story, Hairstyles of the Damned is also in some ways a bit of a subversion of the standard tale (intentionally, I believe, due to patterns in some of Meno's other work)--while Brian does undoubtedly mature in some ways, he's still got a ways to go, and the story does try to at least present a harsher, more cynical world than these stories typically contain, even after Brian's maturity has begun to settle onto him. The "discovery of oneself" theme usually goes hand-in-hand with this genre as well, and this is no different as far as containing aspects of that theme, but it's debatable how much of a true sense of unique self Brian really has gained by the end. Just because he's a "newer person" doesn't mean it's all good changes. Once again, however, I'm sure this is intentional on the author's part, and therefore does fine for it.

Theme-Handling Rating: 4 out of 5 Victory Points

Overall: Hairstyles of the Damned, overall, earns a 3 out of 5 Victory Points. It's definitely not something I'd recommend to everyone, but it also certainly isn't something I'd tell someone to stay away from. It depends largely on your cup of tea--if you are a fan of adolescent maturity tales, and like to see some of the conventions of them tossed aside for fun, then give this a whirl--it's not perfect but should be properly satisfying. If you have mostly fond memories of high school this is definitely not recommended, however. Leave it for those of us who remember it with fewer smiles. Some degree of musical knowledge (mostly related to rock, particularly punk) is also recommended to bring on board for the sheer number of band and song references Brian tends to make.

[Holden Out.]

It's time to inject more art up in this piece.

2010-06-15T23:20:00.000-07:00

Done partly as a sort of proof that yes, I really do mean it when I say I'm working on art projects. Except when I don't mean it. I have a terrible habit of starting things I don't finish, especially art-related things. Especially art-related things times roughly a thousand.

Here's a trio of photos dedicated to the project I've been working on the most, recently...a mask. I apologize for the slapdash photo quality, but this isn't the finished product anyway.

Why am I making a mask? For fun. Because I can. I've got a little section of wall in my bedroom devoted to masks, mostly ones I made, and the "newest" one had been up there for years. After a failed attempt to do one with construction paper, I went out and got one of those cheap plastic masquerade mask bases from a craft store, and figured I could just add on to it. I started by drawing on it with a marker, and then...well, kept drawing on it with a marker. There's a few nice themes going on here that were all originally unintentional, but once they popped up I started to actively work towards them: the classic comedy and tragedy masks (note how one half appears to be crying, while the other looks amused) dark and light (the "sad" half uses much thicker lines, and more of them, than the other) and a definite clockwork theme versus a more vague lace/ocean theme.

The ink has been tricky to work with...the plastic doesn't accept it very well and it's very prone to smudging, so I have to be extremely careful where I place my fingers or everything smudges up terribly. Hopefully some spray fixative when it's finally done will solve that if the spray itself doesn't just melt the ink. I've been working on this very slowly over the course of about a month, adding a small patch/area/cluster of lines every night before I fall asleep.

As far as projects that aren't yet even begun...

This is a blank white Mighty Mugg--one brand of a growing trend of customizable vinyl figurines (currently, Mighty Muggs and a brand called Munny seem to be the most popular--Munnys are similar but have ears, more head-shaped heads, and much squatter, smaller, nubbier bodies). I picked up a pair of these fellows during my to-be-reported-on stay in London...I've wanted one for some time now. I just thought the ability to make a chunky little plastic representation of one of my personal characters would be so cool. And here's a canvas to do it on. Trouble is, I don't know which of my characters to go for! The ever-present Lexa has already been decided on for one--I've already started to pencil in features, trying to figure a general "feel" that will look like her but work with the chunky, cartoony quality the shape imparts. But who to do for the second? Most likely is Natasha, but I'm not entirely sure. Those of you who are more familiar with some of my large cast-I-do-nothing-with from the other sites I've been part of (I know many of you current watchers are, having known me first from those places), do you have any suggestions?

Pictures of Natasha and Lexa, respectively, for reference. These are both a bit old. Sorry for Natasha's lack of shading. I was also apparently in some weird "bare midriff" phase.

And finally, I'd like to leave you with something else Natasha-related: I stuck her and her BFF Didi in an homage to the amazingly quality webcomic Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff.

[Holden Out.]

Textual Teatime

2010-06-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

I feel sort of guilty, I've been making an effort to spread the knowledge of this place's existence a little bit more, now that I'm a bit prouder of it, but then I go and just cease updates for a while. Although I could just stop apologizing whenever this sort of thing happens and just roll with "it updates when it updates." I'll employ that in the future, I guess. Attempting to do so in the middle of an apology would make me look like a jerk.

Anyway.

There's a lot of ground to cover that I'd like to--not the least of which is at least one entry (possibly two) on my recent trip to London, because the wider the time gap between the actual trip and my post on it grows, the less relevent it becomes to my time there and the less interested I become in writing about it. It's already been a week. I've just got to gather together some photos, mostly, and take one last set of related ones. So look for that hopefully very soon. I also, as previously mentioned, want to start introducing more article "features" again--I really should start sticking up some test-drives.

As for the missing Sunday Comics this week, I was working on an art project. One which I'm very close to completing and hope to finish very soon so I can just snap photos of the thing and hang it on my wall. I really hope the spray fixative doesn't ruin the ink, but I need to spray it with something when I finish, because the surface I'm working with isn't very ink-friendly and I need to keep being very aware of where my fingers are when I'm adding in details...even when the ink's dry it has a terrible tendency to smudge the instant my greasy little digits touch it on this surface.

And now, so this isn't just me whining about how I'm not getting anything done, another transcription of a dream, because I haven't done that in quite a long while here.

Today I had a succinct but vivid nightmare that a mountain I live near exploded.
I was sitting in my current residence's dining room where said mountain is quite visible from the windows. I was eating something. Probably cereal, but I don’t know for sure. I looked up to admire the mountain for a moment, and right on cue, with a loud and sudden bang and rumble, a vast part of the mountain face blew out in a mushroom-cloud explosion that was, oddly, bright slurpee blue and crackling with traces of electricity. I stared in horror and confusion and just before an oh crap was able to fully make its way through my mind, a second charge blew, this one a horizontal ring. The windows slowly filled with blinding white light that obscured everything being flattened and blown apart in the ring’s wake, and I was closing my eyes and silently screaming just as the windows flexed inward and started pelting my face with tiny glass bits.

I woke up with no air in my lungs and a racing heart.

Comforting, huh? At least I was glad the mountain's been obscured by clouds for all of today. Seeing it after something like that would make it feel ominous.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics (With Special Host Munchor!): Here There Be Robots

2010-06-06T12:30:00.000-07:00

init.commandseq_run

IF keyboard= y AND monitor= y THEN goto "SundayComics"

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HELLO AGAIN, EYE-HAVERS. MUNCHOR MAKES A TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO SHARING RECIPES FOR DELICIOUS COMICS FOR YOUR BENEFIT. MUCHOR REGRETS HE WILL NOT HAVE THIS FREEDOM AGAIN FOR A WHILE, AS HIS OWNER RETURNS TODAY. SUCH IS THE PRICE OF BEING MUNCHOR. AS RETRIBUTION, MUNCHOR HAS CHEWED A SIZABLE HOLE IN HIS OWNER'S COPIES OF VARIOUS WORKS OF THE HU-MAN PLAYWRIGHT "SHAKE-SPEARE."

MUNCHOR WILL NOW CONTINUE WITH NO FURTHER INTERRUPTIONS.

_run "HoldenVoice.exe"

_run "SundayComics_StandardFormat.exe"

The Comic: Here There Be Robots

By: Jeremy and Jonah Gregory

Type: Issue series (currently 4 regular-size issues and a "half-issue" set between issues 1 and 2)

Content Rating: G.

Plot: Oscar and Rob are a pair of aliens sent on a diplomatic mission to Earth, to land, make first contact, and hopefully establish peaceful relations. Adam, Steve, and Lackey are a trio of robots bent on world domination (what else, right?). Naturally, the robots happen to be the first people Oscar and Rob come across...which through a complex series of accidents leads to an explosion so large it transports all five of them back in time to the golden age of piracy. Adam decides to use this to instead take over the world ahead of schedule, as a robo-buccaneer, while Oscar and Rob puzzle out a way to fix this whole mess. Yes, this whole thing is a fusion of aliens, robots and pirates, and while that sounds like a setup for a terrible internet joke (all we're missing are ninjas and zombies), believe me when I say it actually works.

Personal Thoughts: I'm actually kind of ashamed that this comics feature has gone on for this long without me bringing up Here There Be Robots. I've been behind Jonah and Jeremy since they started on this comic, and their history at Emerald City Con is about as long as mine (I still have the xeroxed promo comic they were handing out at what I think was the first ECCC I went to). I especially love the amount of texture work that's put into the inking, art-wise. Yeah, yeah, this is another loose and light, fun humor comic, and I know I've been featuring a lot of those (for sure this time), but there's nothing wrong with that. Regardless I promise that next Sunday Comics will have something more brain-heavy. But for the now, if you have any inkling of fondness for aliens, robots, pirates or all three, give this a go. That goes double if you live in Seattle, where the creators hail from. Get out there and support you some art!

_end "HoldenVoice.exe"

MUNCHOR APPRECIATED THE UNIQUE SPICES OF THIS DISH BUT DISLIKED HOW THE ROBOTS WERE PORTRAYED AS THE ANTAGONISTS. WANTING TO DESTROY AND/OR ENSLAVE AND/OR GENTLY HIT ALL HU-MANS IS NOT ALWAYS A BAD THING.

MUNCHOR WILL NOW CONTINUE HIS BACKGROUND ROLE OF APPEARING IN THE WRITING BOX'S TITLE BANNER. SQUISHY MEAT UPDATES WILL RESUME THEREAFTER.

[MUNCHOR IS LOGGING OFF.]
_end

Sunday Comics (With Special Host Munchor!): Sam & Max

2010-05-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

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HELLO, EYE-HAVERS. TODAY MUNCHOR THE AMAZING ROBOT HAS BEEN ALLOWED TO RUN THE "SUNDAY COMICS" POST IN LIEU OF HIS SQUISHY HU-MAN OWNER AS AN EXPERIMENT, SINCE HE IS CURRENTLY GONE ELSEWHERE. MUNCHOR IS HONORED BUT WISHES HE HAD BREAKABLE YET FLEXIBLE HU-MAN FINGERS. IT IS HARD TO TYPE WITH FEARSOME GRABBING CLAWS. WEEP FOR MUNCHOR, WHO IS INEFFICIENT WITH KEYBOARDS!

MUCHOR FOUND THIS VOLUME OF SEQUENTIAL PICTURES AND TEXT TO BE ESPECIALLY DELICIOUS. MUNCHOR REALIZES HE HAS NO TASTEBUDS. BEAR WITH MUNCHOR.

...
PERHAPS YOU WOULD PREFER MUNCHOR CONTINUING IN A MORE FAMILIAR VOICE.
_run "HoldenVoice.exe"
_run "SundayComics_StandardFormat.exe"
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The Comic: Sam & Max: Surfin' The Highway

By: Steve Purcell

Type: Compilation of variable-length comics short stories (anywhere from one page to several--one multi-parter actually takes up roughly a third of the book). The specific book being spotlighted (spotlit?) here is a collection of every Sam & Max comic published up to that point.

Content Rating: PG-13, for mild but frequent language and dark humor.

Plot: At its most basic, Sam & Max follows the exploits of the titular duo--a large, verbose cartoon dog and his best friend, a manic, violent rabbitlike creature, respectively. Together, they form an organization called the Freelance Police, in which they fight assumed crimes and investigate conspiracies, aided by their own warped and cartoony sense of justice. Often their investigations leave more injuries and confusion in their wake than answered questions, though they do have their moments. The plots are as varied as they are head-scrunchingly bizarre, from investigating a carnival's "counterfeit corn dogs" to saving a colony of mouse-people from 50-foot moon roaches. Yes, 50-foot moon roaches. The longest story in the collection is a bit calmer (though not by much) and deals primarily with them taking a break from Freelance Policework to take a road trip across the United States. Some of the more dangerous situations they wind up in will have a deus ex machina ending, but this is always played for laughs ("Why look, Max! It's the commandos that have always lived above us!").

Personal Thoughts: Like Bear, Sam & Max is primarily meant to be a fun, silly teen/adult humor comic (is it just me or have I had a lot of those here lately? Maybe it's just because this is in the wake of Kaput & Zosky). It is, however, slightly more than that, if only slightly. The well-written dialogue, especially the near-constant back-and-forth between the title characters, has a cadence and witty snap all its own, and there's a very pleasing layer of satire under the surface, mainly of classic American pop culture. Do note the rating though--don't give this to your small child, cute cartoon animals though the main characters may be. (Your high schooler, on the other hand, may love it.) Max in particular is quite the violent little guy. (Anything particularly heinous is committed off-screen or alluded to in dialogue, but even among these, there are some "wow...that was dark" moments.) He has that crazed, toothy grin for a reason. Still, if you appreciate classic comedy-duo chemistry, gloriously B-Movie plots, and constant jabs at the chemical content of breakfast cereals and sodas, perhaps it's time to consider tracking down yourself some Sam & Max--be it this comic or the more-famous (and for the most part, just as well-written) video game series that came out of it.

_end "HoldenVoice.exe"

MUNCHOR IS RELISHING THE AFTERTASTE OF THE TALKING DOG AND RABBIT MONSTER ADVENTURE. IT LEFT A TASTE ON MUNCHOR'S HIGH-TECH METAL PALATE NOT UNLIKE HU-MAN SYNTHESIZED GRAPE-ESTER FIZZING DRINK. PRAISE MUNCHOR FOR A JOB WELL DONE!

...

MUNCHOR WILL RETURN THE FOLLOWING SUNDAY AND THEN RELINQUISH CONTROL OF THIS WRITING BOX BACK TO HIS MEAT-FILLED OWNER. KEEP WARMTH IN YOUR BLOOD-PUMPS FOR MUNCHOR!

[MUNCHOR IS LOGGING OFF.]

_end

A Tiny Graphic Novel Victory

2010-05-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

There's usually an issue of Entertainment Weekly lying around the house, and occasionally, if the cover grabs me, I'll thumb through it, because it can be, for lack of a better descriptor, entertaining; and I do like to keep at least sort of abreast of the goings-on of modern pop culture. This week's (I think it's this week's, I didn't look at the date) proclaimed it was a double-sized issue regarding "The 100 Greatest Characters Of The Last 20 Years!"

Well, I had to take a peek at that. Characters, no matter what medium, are very important to me because it is so frequently characters that truly drive a story and interesting characters that have such a large hand in shaping the pop culture landscape of their times. It was a fun read and I was pleased to see that the characters they selected did indeed span from all points in those 20 years, and that they plucked from a wide variety of entertainment media: characters from movies and TV series, yes, but also from books and even a couple plays...and one surprise entry from a graphic novel that made me grin in absolute delight.

Jimmy Corrigan was their number 62. The number, to me, isn't even important. It's that something like Jimmy Corrigan even made it onto that list, no less as the only purely comic-book entry (Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark and Heath Ledger's Joker also made it on there, but the entries were for the movies rather than the books. Understandable). Jimmy Corrigan is one of my favourite graphic novels ever. If I were to make a list of all the ones I've read and rank them, it would consistently be in the top 3, and I still don't think the Sunday Comics entry of it I did a while back does it true justice. I know hardly anyone who's read it and even fewer people who liked it. Yet there it is, nestled in the pages of a major national entertainment magazine, being hailed as containing one of the greatest characters of the 90s and 00s. They even describe the titular Jimmy as I often have when trying to explain the character to people...that he's sort of like a late-30s Charlie Brown.

Congratulations, Chris Ware, on having your artful novel recognized for something like this!

[Holden Out.]

PS. Also, there will not be a Sunday Comics entry tomorrow, or possibly even the following Sunday. I will be unavoidably distracted.

Skull Hat! SKULL HAT!

2010-05-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

I was hesitant to post this intially, because really, I don't much care for "HEY GUYS LOOK WHAT I FOUND" posts. But this lil' guy was so cute that I just couldn't resist.

Above: The warm, fleecy embrace of the cutest death ever descending upon my noggin.

For a little background, I love skull stuff. It's not meant to be a macabre fascination, it's not me trying to be somehow edgy or gothy or whatever you want to claim, I just like skulls. They're neat-looking and structurally fascinating. I have a skull shirt that's among my favourites, I sleep in skull pajama pants...and now I have a skull hat.

I picked up this little cutie at Seattle's historic Pike Place Market a couple days back...they're made by a local crafty gal (Lynn Rosskamp) out of recycled/repurposed fleece, which is awesome, and she has hojillions of designs, all equally adorable--pandas, monsters, unicorns, cats, cows, zombies, pirates, orcas, elephants...the spectrum is wide. If you're ever in the area, pick one up, or at least stop by the booth. Lynn's company, PingiHats, currently has a website but no shopping cart functionality...yet. They're working on it. In the meantime, this little guy will definitely be warming my head come wintertime.

I think I will call him Yorick.

[Holden Out.]

There's gonna be some changes round here! (Plus: ICBIC Week!)

2010-05-26T23:27:00.000-07:00

So you may have noticed my blog is looking a little...different. That's right, you squiggly nutters, I'm in the middle of an overhaul. I'm power-mad cruising down the information autobahn like Mad Max and I like it. Lost track of what I was saying. Changes. Yes.
So in addition the layout, you'll notice the title has changed. Again. Hopefully permanently this time. OverReactor is now Hungry Robot. Why the name change? Well, several reasons. I never really liked "OverReactor" much, and its connotations are still sort of a product of a bygone time when I thought this would mostly be an opinion blog. Plus it's self-depricating, which isn't always a bad thing but I didn't like it for the title of something.
"Hungry Robot," on the other hand, takes its name and shiny new mascot (woo, I have a mascot now I guess!) from a failed art experiment of mine--an attempt on a college campus to get a multi-student comics compilation effort going (much in the manner of Fat Chunk or Void Pulpo). It seems that will not see the day, so Hungry Robot can live on instead as the name of a blog.
I'm making genuine effort to really learn the tools this blogware has for me, so expect continued changes as I muck with formats, retrofit old entries, switch around the names of categories/tags and try, generally, to make this place look a bit prettier and more professional. The design now is happy and fresh but still a bit plain...it can be worked. I do appreciate the extra column width though.
Also, I'm intending to do more articles. A lot more. It's not just Sunday Comics anymore, if I can help it. I really want this to be a thing that I do. Just for fun, but a thing that I do nonetheless. It may take a while before these new articles start to pop up, since I'm mostly brainstorming about what directions to take this place in at the moment. I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I'm sure I will.

Also, I'm considering deleting the anemic, crumbling "Hundred Faces" blog. It was a fun idea for an experiment but has lain untouched for a year now. FoodPeople will remain, and eventually probably get a facelift of its own.

More after the jump. (Yep, I'm using jumps now, like a real blogger! Teehee!)

So Rook, an e-buddy of mine, has this thing going over on her blog, "A Fork In The Socket," (content warning! not for the underage!) that she asked me to plug. And I will do it gladly because it is a neat idea. This thing is called "I'm Crazy But It's Cool' Week," or as I have chosen to abbreviate it, "ICBIC Week" (Ick-bick week!). The basic idea? To celebrate your eccentricities and quirks. She's got a whole week of it going on with a juicy trio of posts, while I, for my part, have opted just do her day one exercise: 25 things about myself that, in her words, "make me crazy." I urge you to do the same. It's a fun exercise.
ONWARDS. Prepare to learn more about me than you wanted.

25. I hate cutesy words. Even if a child is using them. It is not a “froggie.” It is a frog. It is not your “tummy.” It is your stomach. Or your abdomen. I don’t know why it bothers me so much, but it really does grate on me. I make a single exception for “kitty.” Why “kitty?” No idea. Probably because I like cats (in spite of being allergic to them).

24. As long as we’re on petty annoyances, it seriously irks me when this happens:
- I call someone.
- They’re not there.
- I leave a clear, concise message.
- They call back later in a way that is clear they have no idea why I called, and therefore did not listen to the message at all.
Now, I get when someone, say, texts me with that sort of response, if they’re somewhere where they need to be discreet about their phone. That’s cool. And I know that message boxes can be a hassle to access on some phones. But people leave messages for a reason. It facilitates efficiency in conversations. By the time you call back up, you already know what we needed to discuss and I’m not repeating myself, so we all win. Not listening to your messages makes us both lose. And makes America lose. If you do not listen to your messages whoever The Bad Guys are right now win and they will take away our apple pie and guns and cowboy hats and now I’m getting sidetracked. Listen to your messages.

23. I have peanut senses. They’re frighteningly similar to Spider-Sense except kind of lame and with much more specific usages. Peanut allergies are very common these days, and I’m no exception. Mine are pretty severe (though not as severe as some people…I hear there are those out there that can’t even eat something that’s been near a peanut. Yowch)…I have to physically ingest it for any reaction (well, okay, touching peanut products gives me a nasty rash) but even a small amount, swallowed, is potentially lethal to me. To my body it is deadly poison. Anyway, yes, Peanut Senses. My body has apparently found a mechanism I don’t know about for ensuring my peanut-related survival. There have been occasions now where I have instinctively avoided a food based solely on a very nebulous reaction from my body when I have approached it, despite no obvious presence of peanut ingredients, and many times this has happened I’ve turned out to be right. Peanut Senses. As another facet, if someone has peanut breath, it will cause my adrenaline to spike. Nothing will actually be wrong with me, but my heart rate will shoot up for a few moments as my body’s way of ringing alarm bells that say “I SMELL POISON, DO NOT EAT IT.”

22. As many friends and family members know of me, I have extremely double-jointed thumbs. I can realistically feign breaking my thumb and it doesn’t hurt at all. Apparently my elbows have a bit of this too, I’ve found people freaking out when I’ve been in a pose that finds my elbows bending backward to a notable degree, and I wasn’t aware of it.

21. I am pretty much constantly stretching. I have never stretched enough. If I’m standing in a line, I’ll balance on one leg and stretch the upraised leg all around. If I’m sitting somewhere, I’ll take a moment every so often to stretch my arms over my head or roll my shoulders back a couple times. When I’m about to start walking somewhere I’ll pull my arms back behind me for a moment. When I wake up in the morning I’ll do a couple weird lunge things or some cat stretches. When I’m walking around, I’ll crane my neck from side to side every so often. Why do I do this? No idea. Tense, maybe. Interestingly, though I have tons of stretch marks on one of my shoulders, this isn’t where those come from. They are from a time when I dislocated it.

20. I used to chew on pencils when I was thinking hard. This often made me feel kinda sick as I probably ingested way more paint and wood and graphite than is even remotely healthy for a kid. Then I switched to pens. This led to my pens quickly becoming unusable. Then I switched to the side of the pointer finger of my left hand, which is kind of gross and probably counts as some sort of self-abuse but is at least probably less poisonous than pencils and pens. Because of said chewing I have a callous in that area. It’s involuntary, but I am trying to cut back on even that. Hopefully one day I’ll eliminate it and replace my thinking-hard action with something else, like fiddling with my hands or bouncing my leg. Both of which I do a lot anyway. Wow, looking at these things so far I guess I’m kind of twitchy.

19. When I was a young kid (probably…Kindergarten through 3rd grade) I had some definite behavioral issues. Specifically, I would absolutely freak out when I got frustrated. Cry, make odd noises, hit my desk, run. Didn’t matter what the source of the frustration was, whether I couldn’t figure out a math problem and therefore felt stupid, or was being made fun of, or felt left out of something, any sort of frustration. This made me an absolutely prime bullying target during my grade-school years because I was so easy to provoke. Thankfully, with the help of some very patient teachers and parents, I grew out of this. I still, of course, get frustrated, and my reactions to my frustrations are probably more violent than average Joe’s, but I’m much better able to internalize it and process it.

18. When I’m in an especially good mood, I will half-dance/bop my way down the sidewalk and I will do what I call “jazz humming,” wherein to a nonspecific tune I will make little jazz noises—“bam de bam bow,” etc, in a way that is very much like humming. And I do not care if anyone watches me while I do because I’ll be in that good of a mood. If I’m ecstatic, finger-snapping will be added in as well.

17. I enjoy dancing but I have to be in this really weird very specific mood to do it. If I’m not feelin’ it I just can’t make myself, and oddly, trying to fuel it with requests (“why don’t you dance?”) will just make me want to dance less. I’m still not really sure how it works. When I do actually get in the mood to dance, though, man is it fun.

16. Porcelain dolls terrify me and are probably the most irrational of my irrational fears. Plenty of people will admit they’re creepy, sure, but I feel really uncomfortable even just being in the same room as one. If I had to sleep in the same room as one I wouldn’t be able to. They evoke a really big Uncanny Valley response in me, something about the combination of those dead eyes with that insincere little smile and those vile little outstretched arms. Sometimes when I see one I have an urge to just smash it to bits but I know I could never do that because the only thing creepier than a porcelain doll is a broken porcelain doll.

15. My childhood monsters were odd. A lot of us, as kids, invent monsters that will come after us in certain situations, but the only one I can really remember now strikes me as especially strange for a kid. I believed in a witchlike entity called The Roach Queen, who at night would send a vast, huge, army of roaches to cover every inch of my walls and floor once I had fallen asleep. They wouldn’t do anything, oddly, just watch me, but it was creepy all the same. Maybe they reported back to her on my dreaming activities.

14. I was a pretty sick child (medically, I mean. Not, like…twisted or bad) and have been on some form of medication (usually multiple ones) throughout my life until very recently, when I just decided to quit my allergy meds on a whim and free myself utterly from daily pills. Really, I’ve grown to hate pills a lot, and ironically my allergies have been better since I stopped taking the meds. I recommend being med-free if you can help it, I find my mind’s a lot clearer. A lot of times I’d even rather wait out a headache then take some ibuprofen.

13. I wore sweatpants all the time as a kid up until…I think fourth grade. All the time. Granted, they’re comfortable, but looking back that’s really kind of odd. I remember I thought jeans were too stiff and uncomfortable. I even sort of coordinated some of them…I wore red ones on Valentine’s for example.

12. I have big old mutton-chop sideburns mostly because I think it gives me a bit more of a Victorian-era aesthetic. Seriously, I love the 19th century’s visuals.

11. Condiments, especially ketchup and mustard, gross me out to the point of triggering my gag reflex, yet I’m okay with mustard as a flavour in stuff. It’s a key ingredient to good egg salad, and there are these mustard-flavoured pretzel snack things I’m really fond of. But apart from that, condiments are usually eww. Something that especially has ketchup on it I consider “contaminated.”

10. I once was actually sleep-deprived to the point of hallucinations, as part of a brutal finals week in college. Mostly it was just seeing odd sparkles, but I remember one particularly vivid one where out of the corner of my eye, I just missed a huge purple-and-black worm slithering under someone’s car. At 3 in the morning on a dark street with no one around, that freaked me out a lot.

9. I’ve mentioned this one before, but it bears repeating: for a brief time in my childhood I wanted to grow up to be a mime. Yes, a mime. A mime troupe put on a performance at my school and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I can still do a decent “trapped in an invisible box” and “leaning on an invisible table.”

8. Again, have mentioned this one before, but it’s odd enough. I’m missing half my thyroid gland. And apparently always have been. Like, half of it just doesn’t exist. So far, though, this hasn’t had any problems—the remaining half has been compensating just fine and producing the proper levels of thyroidy chemicals I need.

7. I’m ashamed to say that I sort of waste paper when I’m artistically frustrated. Some days, if the lines don’t turn out right, rather than trying to fix it or erase it and start over I’ll just crumple the page and grab a fresh one. I’m trying to get better about that and am mostly succeeding.

6. I like a lot of old-fashioned candies, ones that a lot of people don’t seem to anymore, and did even when I was a kid: I genuinely like Necco wafers and horehound drops, and have always preferred black licorice over red. Don’t get me wrong, I totally like other newer ones too. But that’s not what we’re writing about today.

5. I can only whistle inhaling.

4. When I was in high school I kept an angst journal. You know, typical high school stuff—self-indulgent and depressing rants, terrible poetry and the like. That’s not unusual. What is unusual is that the cover was rainbow with a big fat happy face, and the pages were pink and lined with floral patterns. The cover I didn’t care about—but it had been given to me shrink-wrapped, so I didn’t know about the pages until later and for some reason it didn’t occur to me to just buy a different journal. In hindsight, that incongruity is really hilarious to me—teenage vitriol on pink flowery pages. Some time in community college I ripped all those pages out and threw them away. The then-blank journal was appropriately lost.

3. I used to make cartoon shorts with PowerPoint. There is a surprising level of animation complexity you can pull off with it if you’re patient enough. Naturally, the file sizes were massive and they relied on a lot of carefully timed spacebar presses to work right, so I never really went anywhere with them aside from showing people that happened to be over at the time.

2. Again from when I was pretty young (I must have been quite an odd child), I would often stuff clothing with blankets and set them up in places around the house as sort of cloth mannequins. I’d even pose them. I’d use gloves for hands and things like balloons and buckets for heads. I called them “Snertles.” One of these days I should try my hand at making a Snertle again, for fun.

1. I once had pet crickets. Which is where the whole cricket fixation comes from. (Said fixation isn’t as obvious here, but I’ve used it as a motif for all sorts of things for years. I’m even planning to get a cricket tattoo sometime.)

Celebrate. It is a command.

[Holden Out.]

Sunday Comics: Kaput & Zosky

2010-05-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

The Comic: Kaput & Zosky

By: Lewis Trondheim (translated from its original French by Edward Gauvin)

Type: Bound collection of several brief (six-page) "episodes," with a few one-pagers thrown in for good measure

Content Rating: G, teetering on PG at times but it's still pretty tame (this might be the first book I've ever spotlighted here that is actually meant for children). Lots of laser gun blasts but any injury or "death" is very cartoony, a bit of body humor here or there.

Plot: The episodes vary, of course, but the general overall plot is pretty much the same for most of them--Kaput and Zosky, a pair of alien buddies who fancy themselves great and feared conquerors, will attempt to invade a planet and subjugate the locals. In some way or another this will go all wrong. (Examples: In one story, they find a race that actually WANTS to be conquered and oppressed, and they leave in disgust, as they would have no satisfaction in such an easy victory. In another, they find a populus who are so obsessed with games and contests that they'll only even say so much as "hi" after engaging in one, and the pair decide taking it over won't be worth the trouble and time.) The characters themselves also have a classic Laurel-and-Hardy-ish chemistry that works to good effect, having them bounce off each other in their conversations--Kaput is short, impulsive, and the more violent and angry of the two, while the taller Zosky tends to be a bit more reflective, strategic and collected. The "regular" comics are broken up at regular points by a simple, wordless one-pager called "The Cosmonaut," about the continuing adventures of a little spaceman figure.

Personal Thoughts: I make a lot of noise about "comics as art" and I still believe sincerely in that potential, but you can't forget where comics came from when you're doing that. Sometimes you just want to sit down with a simple but fun brightly-coloured entertainment comic, and Kaput & Zosky delivers that just fine. I ran across this originally via my comics-loving little cousin, who had checked it out of his local library. Hey Max--I dunno if you'll ever read this, but thanks for letting me flip through your copy!

Holden Out.

Cricket Movie Review: Iron Man 2

2010-05-12T14:25:00.000-07:00

DAA DAAAA DADADA, DUDDLE DUDDLE LUDDA LA DA DA DAAA~
(That, um, that was me humming/singing "Iron Man." In text.)

So, so far for 2010, there are only two movies I was really excited about. This is one of them. (The other is Sands of Time, which I know probably won't be anything special given video game movies' track record, but dangit I loved that game and I need to see how the silver-screen version compares. Ahem. Anyway. Moving on.)

I'll come out and say it straight away: In my opinion, Iron Man 2 is not as good as the first film.

However, it's still certainly not bad. I've seen worse sequels, and IM2 is entertaining in its own right--worth seeing once, doubly so if you were a fan of the first film, but it still lacks a lot of the magic of its predecessor. Iron Man himself has, in spite of my love of comics, never really been a character I knew much about (and what knowledge I do have of him mostly comes from research I did prior to the first film), so that also makes this movie series in particular more "new" to me, which is exciting.

A large part of the film is driven by an underlying subplot--Tony is dying. It turns out he never really considered the consequences of having an arc reactor in his body long-term, and the palladium batteries it runs on are poisoning him due to constant exposure. He's been researching possibilities for an alternate power source, but seems to keep hitting dead ends, and is coping with the possibility that he could die very soon. Meanwhile, his company's still in a bit of a dive, the public is divided as to whether Iron Man is awesome or dangerous, and the US Government is demanding Tony hand over the suit for military application rather than private use. Meanwhile, far off in Siberia, a man with some interesting connections to the Stark family is watching Tony's fame grow...and he's not happy. Not at all.

For this little overview, I'd actually like to start with the negatives, then move on to the positives so we can hit this on a high note. Ready, annnd go.

My biggest complaint here, the thing I had the most trouble with and which I've seen pointed out in several other reviews, is the content of the movie that specifically pertains to Avengers rather than Iron Man. (For those not in the know, The Avengers are Marvel Comics' equivalent of DC's Justice League, and Iron Man happens to be a member. If you're not familiar with the Justice League, they're kind of like the Super Friends.) Once Marvel got its' own movie studio, it got excited at the possibility of creating a "Marvel Movieverse," using film as another medium to recreate all their classic characters, and a big idea contained within this was to eventually release an Avengers movie. I feel pretty "eh" regarding it myself, the Avengers were never something I really got into, and I think a movie with that many main characters would just end up being too convoluted. And, unfortunately, the fact that Marvel is actively building towards this now means that we can expect there to be specifically Avengers-related subplots in all the movies it generates up to that point. The Avengers material in IM2 is...annoying. The scenes dealing with it are few, but jarring and feel uncomfortably like the filmic equivalent of a pop-up ad. Virtually all the movie's fanservice in this installment relates to it as well, and it too is blunt and out-of-place enough to verge on annoying (at one point, Captain America's shield shows up, and the actors stop just short of waving it in front of the camera going "HEY FANBOYS LOOK").
Samuel L. Jackson's role as Nick Fury has also been upgraded from an after-credits cameo to a full-fledged minor character, with varying success. His stuff involving his own agency, SHIELD (essentially a superhero-watchdog group) mostly works, as far as having another group that's watching Tony's activities with interest. The cap on all this is an entirely lackluster (and yes, once more, Avengers-related) after-credits easter egg. I was expecting more Iron Man-related goodness, but instead it's just the first teaser for Marvel's next project, and it's not even a particularly effective teaser--it's a long buildup, then a shot of Mjolnir (Thor's battle hammer). That's it. My main problem with all this Avengers product-placement is I think it limits the accessability. For many people, the movies now being put out are their first experience with these characters, while a manuever like this seems to have had only the preexisting fanbase in mind. Perhaps I'm wrong and they'll take an interesting turn with it, we'll see, but for the most part it currently felt like a distraction.

Second, let's talk about a couple bits of plot. For the most part, IM2, like its predecessor, has relatively few plot holes, at least within its own containment. (As far as links to the previous film go, there is an out-standing one--whatever happened to the Ten Rings terrorist group that was so prevalent in the first film? I didn't think that one excursion to the desert meant Tony had gotten all of them!) There are, however, a couple cases of what could be either slightly rushed writing or things that were cut for time. Most of note is the resolving of the whole "oh no, Tony's dying" subplot that had overshadowed most of the movie. While the solution in of itself is neat, and how he discovers it is neat, it arrives all at once as an "a-ha" moment that...he figures out all too quickly. I know Tony Stark is supposed to be a genius, and for the most part I buy it, but the speed at which he suddenly arrived to his solution failed to suspend my disbelief for that scene and felt like a quick-fix. There's also (very slight spoiler alert) a very, very brief romantic suplot with Tony and Pepper (seriously, we're talking all of three minutes devoted to it) that just feels arbitrarily shoehorned in and kind of wrecks the banter-tastic relationship they had for the last 1-and-three-quarters movies.

Finally, of the large negative categories, some nitpicks with the characters. Let's start with the villains. Like the previous film, there are two, a major one and a minor one. The primary one, played by Mickey Rourke, is Ivan Vanko, a Russian physicist and mechanical genius rivaling Tony. For the most part, his performance and characterization are decent-to-pretty-good (something I'll get into a bit more later), but there was one aspect of him that I just refused to buy--in addition to being good at building robots, suits, and weaponry, he's apparently a very accomplished hacker. I think I didn't accept it mainly because, even though he utilizes it at several points through the film, it's an aspect of him introduced very suddenly and without much previous setup. You could argue that it's an offshoot of his being able to program robots, but then I would have liked to see that first so the whole "oh, he's also a hacker" didn't come as an eyebrow-quirking surprise.
Justin Hammer, the secondary/minor villain (the CEO of a rival weapons manufacturer to Stark Industries), also makes some moronically bad choices through the course of the film (which I'd prefer not to spoil)--how'd this guy get to run a company? He also has very little in the way of motivation aside from just sort of generally being a prick. Again, like the whole Vanko/Robots/Hacking thing, you could argue that he's a sort of naive person who doesn't know what he's getting into (not a lot of actual villainy is perpetrated by him), but then I think we should have seen more of that side of him, make him seem more innocent. Though it's a nitpick, I also prefer Vanko's initial design (that you've seen in previews--the simple metal framework) to his "final battle" design--that one seems uninspired, as more or less just another guy in a big metal suit.
I was also mostly unimpressed by Scarlett Johannson's role as Black Widow, a Marvel-universe secret agent. For all her tough-gal posturing (and decent fight sequence), she seemed relegated to a mostly cheesecake role. Shame.

As a last, final nitpick (truly something minor, but I must address it!) before moving on to the praise...where's the Iron Man song?! That song was an aural high point for the first film, and was even used in some of the trailers for this one, but not even a bar of it was present for this outing. Laaaaame.

And now, the good.

We'll start with characters again. One of my main complaints about the first movie is that while Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) made a threatening and relatively competant villain, he didn't make a particularly interesting one, having little motivation other than simple greed. While Ivan Vanko's motivations still don't seem to be given quite enough writing attention, he at least has more in the way of them, something I greatly appreciated and something that made him feel much more like a character rather than just someone propped up for the hero to fight. Something in me also liked that he was after Tony specifically. While he was an obstacle in Obadiah's larger quest for power, Vanko isn't after that, at least not as a primary concern. First and foremost, he just wants Tony Stark to die, and that to me is more threatening.
In addition, Don Cheadle replacing the prior actor as Colonel Rhodes was a remarkably good choice. Rhodes, too, was a bit of a bland character in the first film--Cheadle's Rhodes is a much more likeable character and I found myself far more interested in him than I had been. He also feels distinctly more like the military figure he's supposed to be, and you get a much more believable sense of he and Tony actually being friends, rather than people that just sort of tolerate each other.

As for the movie that encases the characters, it's--well, fun. There's a lot of big, actiony scenes, and most of them are well-done, well-shot, and properly engaging. There's lots of nifty science-fiction technology to show off (highlights: a few new Iron Man and Iron-Man-derived suits, with some new equipment to boot, as well as Vanko's makeshift harness from the first fight scene), plenty of snappy one-liners from that lovable jerk Tony, and apart from my complaints with its resolution the "Tony's slowly dying" subplot was actually pretty-well handled with regards to his character.
As another point to the writing, it seemed slightly self-aware in some ways I liked--firstly, a lot of people have pointed out Tony as a hypocrite from the first movie, in that he declared Stark Industries would not be making weapons anymore, then goes and makes what is in many ways a big fancy wearable weapon. Guess what another large plot catalyst involves? The United States military pointing out exactly that. Props for listening to people, writers. Tony also showcases a new weapon during the final fight that takes out the remaining baddies rather handily. While it was cool, I found myself asking "wait, why didn't he just do that at the start of the fight?"--and then Rhodes asked him the same thing. (Even better? Tony then explains why. And it makes sense.) It's this sort of thing that leads me to want to believe some of the plot oversights and shortcuts were just things that were cut for time.

So, once again I find myself in the slightly awkward position of having said more negative than positive about a movie I overall liked. I hope it doesn't seem like a cop-out, then, that I still feel mostly positive about it. Iron Man 2, due to lots of small issues and larger looming issue of the misaimed focus on building towards an Avengers movie, can't reclaim everything that made Iron Man a supremely enjoyable superhero flick, and just generally isn't quite as good. But that doesn't stop it from still being a worthy opening action film to herald the summer movie season, and a decent sequel as sequels are wont to go. I give Iron Man 2 Two and two-thirds out of four crickets.

Holden Out.

Sunday Comics: I Never Liked You

2010-05-10T00:11:00.001-07:00

The Comic: I Never Liked You: A Comic-Strip Narrative

By: Chester Brown

Type: Though called a "Comic-Strip Narrative" in its subtitle, I'd classify this one more as a long comics-form short story.

Content Rating: PG-13, for continual language and a brief, somewhat random moment of nudity.

Plot: Follows the author through a period in high school involving his relationship with two female friends. One has an obvious crush on him that only grows over time (to the point of, eventually, being slightly scary), which he does not return, but neither does he push away her advances. Conversely, he himself has quite a crush on the other girl, but cannot bring himself to express those feelings towards her and indeed seems to have no intention of doing so, at least not in any sort of direct way. As a subplot, it also follows Chester's dealings with his mother--she has a truckload of personal issues, and he, in return, finds it somehow impossible to tell her he loves her, which brings her great worry.

Personal Thoughts: I Never Liked You isn't trying to do anything fancy--in fact, in many ways, it's very prettily minimalistic. The art style is very open, done in simple, thin lines, and Chester himself is relatable to pretty much anyone that went through any sort of quiet, brooding, awkward adolescent phase. The writing is very blunt and honest-feeling--in his narration, nothing mean is apologized for and nothing sweet is saccharined, it's simply...told. (This is a good thing in this book's case.) It's also sort of an anti-coming-of-age story, in a way that's difficult to describe without plot spoilers. If you're looking for a quick and simple read studying unrequited love from a couple different angles, I Never Liked You does this with poignant efficiency. It is an illustration of a young man simultaneously trapped and bemused by just how little he's able to make himself say to those that most need to hear something from him.

Holden Out.

Sunday Comics: The Joker Special

2010-05-02T18:12:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, two weeks since the last Sunday Comics. But, I'm back. And it's Sunday. And...comics. And another "special" article as a break from the pattern.

Many of you have noticed I don't usually cover too much Marvel/DC here--not a whole lot of superhero stuff. So today, I'll honor a bit of that with a covering of three DC graphic novels, two of which are focused prominently on their most mutable and arguably most enduring villain--The Joker. (And the third still has him as a prominent player.)

I picked up all three of these in a relatively small window of time, and was fascinated particularly at how Joker himself was portrayed--he's very, very different in each one, yet still quite himself, if that makes sense. They're more like different interpretations of the character. (The vastly differing art styles for each also helps.) So! Here's how today is going to work: a condensed plot synopsis, and then an additional section for talking about Joker within that book's context.

Hang on, despite my best efforts this could still be a long one. That said, let's begin.

Oh, and to cover my usual "content rating" portion under one sentence, I'd say all of these would garner an R. This is not the wacky Adam West TV Joker, these are all turns at the scarier, more serious Joker. He's crazy, he's frightening, people are killed, et cetera.

The Killing Joke, by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland

The Book: The Killing Joke is really two intertwining stories--one happening in the present, the other told in the past through flashbacks as the present happens. The flashbacks are what are usually most remembered about this story--Alan Moore (most known these days for his graphic novel-influence giants Watchmen and V for Vendetta) presents a possibility for the Joker's origin, and one that has remained the most commonly referenced since its introduction. It's played off quite well--he even still refrains from giving the man who became Joker an actual name, and the Joker himself admits it might still not be how it actually happens, keeping his identity still technically shrouded and ensuring he stays more of a living concept. ("Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another...if I'm going to have a past, I'd prefer it to be multiple choice!") This concept of Joker as an unreliable storyteller will grow expanded on in one of the other books that will be covered--watch for it. From this recollection, however real or false, Joker comes to a hypothesis--that all it takes to make a sane man mad is a single incredibly bad day. He intends to prove this by putting poor Commissioner Gordon through the worst day he's ever had, in an attempt to break him. If he does this, he feels he'll be proving a point--a point many incarnations of Joker love to prove: if he's crazy at all, society at large is mere inches behind.

The Joker: Visually, this version of the Joker is the closest to the "classic" Joker, the one we see most commonly depicted--frozen grin, white skin, long chin, a flair for purple suits. As far as the elements of Joker's own persona, this one definitely pulls up his "clown" aspect most strongly. A circus theme runs prominently throughout--most of Gordon's torture session takes place at an abandoned carnival, and Joker takes to doling it out with a lot of elaborate showmanship. At one point, he even sings a cheery little song about how terrible life is. But more intriguing, though, is that this version of The Joker may not be entirely crazy--simply because he is fully aware that he is. (Although, in a headache-inducing loop, the fact that he recognizes that and continues on his way anyway might mean he just exhibits some sort of double insanity.) He acknowledges at several points throughout that he's crazy, and at one point, in a very rare somber moment, Batman even genuinely asks him if he wants psychiatric help. Joker considers, but ultimately refuses, claiming himself as too far gone. This moment, on its own merits alone, would have made this the closest of these three to a sympathetic Joker if he hadn't spent the last hundred pages mostly doing terrible things. (The "close to sympathetic" label still might stick for some, though, considering the tragic origin story.) His remarkable perception also extends to Batman--this was the first major known example of Joker pointing out that Batman's not exactly a stable guy himself, what with his reaction to his parents' deaths being to run around in a bat costume and punch people and his origin being a mirror of Joker's possible one ("You had a bad day too, once, am I right? Why else would you dress up as a flying rat?").

Joker, by Brian Azarello and Lee Bormejo

The Book: Joker's been released from Arkham Asylum. No one knows why. But released he is. This incarnation of Joker is more like a crazy, terrifying mob boss...and in his absense, he's very unhappy with the people he left to run his operations. A young man named Johnny Frost (likely a reference to Joe Chill, the usual given name of Bruce's parents' murderer) is hired as Joker's chauffuer and odd job assistant, and we see the book through his eyes. With Johnny's narration, then, Joker is essentially the story of a couple weeks in the life of Joker through a henchmen's-eye-view. Brian Azarello's best known for his work on 100 Bullets, a sort of crime-noir series, and that influence definitely trickles down into here--for the better, too. Johnny's shift in mood over the course of the story is a logical one--initial excitement to be working for such a powerful and feared figure, followed slowly into uncertainty and ultimately fear as he comes to realize just how crazy his boss really is.

The Joker: Visually, this Joker will be instantly familiar to anyone who's seen Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Aiming, like Nolan was, for a more believable, realistic world, this version of Joker has the Glasgow-Smile scars Heath Ledger also sported, rather than a simple frozen grin, and dresses more akin to him too--mussed hair, rumpled suits. Joker's humor here is actually fairly rare--he comes across more as dangerously eccentric in that department. However, the similarities to the Joker Ledger famously portrayed end mostly at the appearance--this Joker is not an "agent of chaos" out to simply cause panic and disorder. The Joker here is, as described earlier, basically a crazy mob boss with an inflated sense of entitlement. He believes Gotham City rightfully his to do whatever he wants with. This also makes his connection to Batman less thematic and more resentful, more of a relationship between a bratty (homicidal, gun-toting) child and a very stern parent. The Batman-Joker relationship here is also interesting in another dimension: while many incarnations of Joker have been not very frightened of, or even altogether defiant towards, Batman, Azarello's version is actually paranoid about him (at one point, just thinking about him makes him uncomfortable enough that he feels the need to get out of his car and fire some shots randomly into the space around him). Batman appears to be the one thing this Joker actually does fear. To play off of this further, Batman is rarely if ever mentioned by name (one whole conversation about him just calls him "him") and doesn't even show up physically until the last few pages, during which he's portrayed as more of a hulking black mass than a person. Joker himself is shown showcasing a lot more emotion than is typical, as well--in one scene he even cries.For the most part, what I got out of this particular portrayal was trying to get a sense of a more "minimalistic" Joker, a less overtly and garishly crazy one and more of a sociopath with a lot of bullets and a lot of backers, an emotionally unstable king on a crime throne he won through brute fear.

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean

The Book: There's a rule with Grant Morrison. If he wrote it, it's gonna be weird. This is no exception. This book also involves the Joker far less directly than the other two, but he is the catalyst that sets the events of it in motion, and parts of his portrayal have almost certainly been influenced by The Killing Joke. (Oh, and this book also was the kernel of the story for the recent and very well-recieved Batman video game, Arkham Asylum.) This story begins with Batman and Commissioner Gordon recieving a classic call of distress down at the police station--the inmates of Arkham Asylum, led by Joker, have orchestrated a forced evacuation of the majority of the personnel, leaving the inmates to run free throughout the building. They have, however, left a few staff behind, keeping them as hostages for leverage--Joker wants so very much for Batman to pay him a visit. Not wanting any death on his hands, Batman has no choice but to comply, and upon his arrival is put through an extremely trippy sort of funhouse the worst of his rogues' gallery have set up for him--one that will challenge his sanity, force him to confront the fear he usually turns on others, and in a strange, symbolic way, unintentional on their part, to force him to ask if Batman himself is not in some way a direct contributor to the madness of his enemies, perhaps even an avatar of it. We also get some insight into the troubled history of Jeremiah Arkham, the Asylum's founder, who infamously went mad himself slowly throughout his life.
The Joker: In terms of appearance, this is most definitely the least human Joker, though many of the characters in this book, Batman included, are warped to sort of caricatured abstractions to preserve the nightmarish-drug-trip feel. He's a hideous deformed clown-monster with an impossibly huge grin. His relationship to Batman, at least in terms of fear, is also the complete opposite of that seen in Joker. Arkham Asylum's Joker openly mocks Batman, not fearing him at all. As for his insanity, it's not seen particularly overtly (mostly, he's just very malicious) though there is an interesting theory put forth that is an extrapolation of his "multiple-choice past" musings from Killing Joke. One of his psychologists reasons that perhaps The Joker is not insane, but exhibiting a new type of sanity brought forward to adapt to an increasingly fast-paced world--wherein he actually "reinvents" himself with each passing day, as a harmless (if scary) clown one day and a serial killer the next. It's an interesting take, to be sure, and for that reason it's a shame it wasn't really explored in this book (just mentioned), although the Dr. Wolper character from Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns would later touch on it a bit more. This is Joker, most prominently, in his direct antagonist facet. He serves here to have almost singular purpose in aggravating Batman, both through simple taunts (he makes a few scathing remarks in particular involving Robin) and through, as the Asylum funhouse trip suggests, showing that his efforts as Batman may actually be making things worse, not better.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Holden Out.

PS. I'm going to add an afterword and summation to this at a later point.

Sunday Comics: Whistles

2010-04-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday Comics is a weekly feature where I spotlight nifty comics that you may want to take a peek at.

The Comic: Whistles, Volume 1: The Starlight Calliope

By: Andrew Hussie

Type: Graphic Novella

Content Rating: PG-13, for a couple moments of wince-worthy violence and some instances of being generally disturbing.

Plot: Following on from our spotlighting of a comic about pixies, here's a comic about clowns. Also, yes, it's by Andrew Hussie, who's certainly been praised on this site before--in prior spotlightings of his most prominent webcomics, Problem Sleuth and Homestuck, and in a recent interview. Anyway. Whistles is an interesting blend of dystopian sci-fi, horror, and humor. In a bizarre future (or perhaps a parallel timeline) filled with lots of tall, twisty buildings, circuses appear to have become one of the most dominant forms of entertainment, and one of the tops of the tops in the area is the Starlight Calliope, whose headlining clown and show-stopping star Whistles is beloved by all who see his antics. One unfortunate night, however, sets Whistles up to be executed--in the brutal byways of the day, clowns' entertainment has become a sort of noble duty, clowns themselves becoming a sort of caste, and when a clown fails to express joy or to amuse, or has a serious moment, their career is over and they are mercy-killed...and eventually processed into food for the circus-goers. (Even more horrifying? This is all public knowledge.) However, through a series of accidents, Whistles is spared this grisly fate and let out into the world at large. While he is content to explore, his fellow clowns believe him ideally placed to overthrow their ringmasters, and so begins a plot to free all clowndom...

Personal Thoughts: Whistles is an odd book. But overall, it's a good kind of odd. It blends comedy and horror a lot better than you'd expect from two such disparate genres. Really, it needs both to function--a lot of the comedy is innate from most of the characters being clowns, and it prevents the story from taking itself too seriously--otherwise it would come off as needlessly gritty. Likewise, I don't think it could carry itself on pure comedy with the sort of story scope it seems to be aiming for. Whistles himself is also an interesting protagonist: he's completely naive and innocent. He's so brainwashed by the system he's in, in fact, that he continues to sympathize with his ringmaster even after he's been shown every possible bit of evidence to convince someone that this is a horrible monster of a man, and is half-tricked into the fight to save his caste. Whistles was originally going to be a series (hence "Volume 1," and the ending is definitely open), but according to my interview with Mr. Hussie a few posts back whether he'll necessarily return to the project remains unknown. In spite of this, it can still be considered a mostly self-contained story (save for the introduction of Sugarshoe, an evil foil to the main clowns, who gets roughly three pages of screen time and was clearly meant to show up in greater capacity later). Yes, Sugarshoe. The clown names in this are hilarious in of themselves. My personal favourite? Doodlebean. Clowns aren't usually my thing, but Whistles is a performer I'd love to see more of.

Holden Out.

Sunday Comics: Widgey Q. Butterfluff

2010-04-04T19:49:00.000-07:00

Sunday Comics is a weekly feature where I spotlight nifty comics that you may want to take a peek at.The Comic: Widgey Q. Butterfluff

By: Steph Cherrywell

Type: Graphic Novella/Collection of short stories with loose continuity.

Content Rating: PG-13, almost solely for innuendo.

Plot: Widgifer Butterfluff, "Widgey" for short, is your average smiling pixie living harmoniously in the ever-cute Snugglepump Valley. But it's hard to keep the status quo so saccharine with the continual interruptions of the joy-spoiling, fishbowl-headed Lord Meanskull and his duo of hench-witches. In this collection, among other things, Widgey and her cast of various pixie, animal, and insect allies stop pollution, help a girl cope with her parents leaving her, discover the true face of Santa Claus, survive a harrowing candy shortage, foil an illicit substances dealer, attempt to learn a lesson about reproduction, learn about each others' pasts, and get into shape.

Personal Thoughts: I've actually been following the author's earlier works for some time now, and it was neat to hear they've moved into the realm of print--under one of my favourite comics publishers, no less (SLG). Even more surprising, Steph visited this very blog to express hopes that I liked it. After that, how could I not feature it in my long-overdue return to this feature? Cherrywell's work has always included a lot of satire, but it's pulled off consistently well (at the very least, certainly with more finesse than Seth "Hey Lois, Remember When Pop Culture Reference?" McFarlane, eugh)--in these pages alone winks and nods are made to everything from old Public Service Announcements to Care Bears to Reefer Madness to Captain Planet. Don't be fooled by the sugar-sweet facade: Widgey isn't quite a kids' book. There's a big fat knowing smirk running underneath the giggles and candy, and from this author I wouldn't have it any other way. Their continual flair for unusual, fun character designs is no less diminished here either, especially in Lord Meanskull with his seaweed hair and impossible biology (his teenage form seen in flashbacks is especially a hoot--ever seen a skull with a fuzzstache?). In short, if you take your humor with a couple lumps of sarcasm, like to support quality small-time black and white comics, and were around in the 90's, Widgey Q. Butterfluff is worth a bit of perusal. Whether Cherrywell continues with further adventures from this character or goes off on a new tangent, I look forward to seeing what more is in store.

Holden Out.

PS: The Author currently does a sci-fi webcomic called Intragalactic, which riffs predominantly on Star Trek. It can be found at: www.intragalacticcomic.com. It also has a preview of Widgey on it, if you want to get a little taste.

Spring Cleaning.

2010-03-22T15:32:00.001-07:00

So I deleted a few older posts, ones that seemed like good ideas at the time but are kind of whiny/embarassing now, and a couple that just didn't really have any reason to be around. Hoorah!

Beginning to give thought once more to prettying this place up, though I don't know where to begin. A different template might be nice, but I've no idea how to craft one. I'm also considering a name change yet again. This place was originally known as "Overreactionary" until I learned that the term "reactionary" has political connotations, and I think the wordplay with "OverReactor" is lost and...doesn't make enough sense. So an entirely new name may be in order. Suggestions, anyone? "The Whimsy Pile" is the first one that comes to my mind but I'm not sure about it yet.

Some nifty new Sunday Comics entries are forthcoming, because I've been reading comics like a madman lately.

In other news, art news, more FoodPeople are on the way very soon, so watch for those. Seriously guys, check that place out and suggest something.

I'll close with an art project I presented to my father yesterday, as one of my gifts to him for his 56th birthday...presently just called "The R":

"R" being my Dad's first initial, I decided to do this after some inspiration from my sister's room (she has a similar giant first initial that she displays on her bookshelf). A craft supply store near where I work sells these papier mache letters in various sizes, so using coloured pencils, markers, india ink, paint, and a ballpoint pen, I made this conundrum. All the images and objects pictured in it are references to him in some way--things he likes, family inside jokes, that sort of thing. He liked it a lot, so mission accomplished; keeps it by the table where he sorts bills now. If I had thought of it further ahead, I would have liked to fill up more of that brown space, but I definitely did what I could in the time I had. It's hard to tell from the lighting in the picture but I painted all the other faces of the R black. I was set to write some sort of birthday message, like you would have on an award or something, on one side in silver, but the paint pen I bought turned out to be broken. Lame.

Happy 56th, R!

Holden Out.

Emerald City Con 2010--Interview with Andrew Hussie!

2010-03-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

Andrew Hussie currently hosts some unique interactive webcomics on his site MS Paint Adventures (www.mspaintadventures.com), one of which, Problem Sleuth, concluded last year, and another of which, Homestuck, is presently ongoing (both of the previous have also been spotlighted in this blog's Sunday Comics feature). He is also the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Whistles and the Starlight Calliope, and used to do a smaller webcomic called Inappropriate Time For Ham. Andrew, thank you for your interview, please keep creating!

1) A lot of the content on MS Paint Adventures has pretty direct ties to video games--with the reader input being styles after a text-based adventure game. Is there any particular reason for the game overtones? I hadn't really seen anything like it before.

- Well, the whole thing started out as part of a forum, also called MS Paint Adventures, the idea with it being sort of a forum game where people could add onto it and take it in different directions, but...no, it was pretty spontaneous. The "game" aspect of it just worked for what it was, but it wasn't specifically planned that way.

2) Any plans on returning to Whistles? Any other print-comics projects in the works?

- Maybe. Making a full graphic novel is very time-consuming and I couldn't balance that out very well with the other work I was doing. But I wouldn't say I'd never go back to something like that, maybe sometime in the future.

3) When you update, it's usually in batches of several panels at a time. Obviously the really detailed panels and the big animation sequences take much longer, but how long, on average, would you say it takes you to just do a basic panel?

- Not too long...though that varies a lot too depending on what's in it. At the shortest it'll only take about ten seconds, occasionally it might take me up to an hour...on average, though, it's about five minutes a panel.

4) Briefly on the topic of Homestuck's comic-within-a-comic, Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, how do you get the images to look that...bad? What's your secret there? I look at those I don't know if I could get an image to artifact that much.

- Ha, it actually takes a lot of effort, you have to sort of trick Photoshop...I save it at the lowest possible quality, then screencap it, then just do things like that over and over in this sort of horrible loop.

5) What are some other comics, both in print and on the web, that have inspired you?

- I actually don't read too many print comics, but on the web, I really enjoyed Perry Bible Fellowship, and I like Kazu and Quantz.

6) Though most of the content on the site is done with Photoshop now, any reason why you started off with MS Paint in particular?

- Actually, the only thing that was done in MS Paint is the first panel of Jailbreak. I decided working with Paint sucked too much and just went straight to Photoshop from there, but the name MS Paint Adventures had already just kind of stuck, so I kept that.

7) A lot of the stuff on MSPA, especially Problem Sleuth and Homestuck, are really natively digital, they do things that just couldn't be duplicated if you tried to print it--was this intentional, or did it also just sort of grow to be that way?

- It wasn't really intentional either, no, but I just figured since I was putting it on the web, why not make it for that. I don't have any plans to print any of the comics on there.

8) Lastly, just for fun...if they were in a battle of wits, who do you think would win, Pickle Inspector or Rose?

- Pickle Inspector's not really that witty, he just has a big imagination. If it were based solely on that, he'd win, but if it's a battle of wits...Rose all the way.

Thank you for your time!

MS Paint Adventures doesn't update on a set schedule, but does update fairly regularly, at www.mspaintadventures.com.

Holden Out.

Emerald City Con 2010--Interview with Danielle Corsetto!

2010-03-15T14:58:00.001-07:00

As an admittedly last-minute step forward this year, I decided I would ask a couple of artists I was very excited about seeing at 2010's Emerald City Comicon (www.emeraldcitycomicon.com) if they would be willing to undergo brief interviews. To my joy, both accepted!

First is Danielle Corsetto, of the webcomic Girls with Slingshots (www.gwscomic.com), a tale of a two girls, Jamie and Hazel, a bar they frequent, and a hallucinated talking cactus. Thanks, Danielle, and long may you continue!

1) So, you've probably been asked this several times, but--is there anything specific that led to Girls with Slingshots' creation? How long had the characters been floating around in your head?

- Well, I've always liked girls with red hair [laughs]. And Jamie...Jamie's kind of like the imaginary friend I never had. She's the sort of person I would want to hang out with if I could completely invent a best friend. I also just wanted to sort of...do something about healthy relationships, which is a large part of what Girls with Slingshots is about.

2) On a related note, what are some other comics that have inspired you, both in print and on the web?

- Oh, gosh, what hasn't? But let's see...I love comic strips, and with those, some big favorites are Zits, For Better or For Worse, and Liberty Meadows. For Better or For Worse especially, that was the first time I'd seen a comic with a female creator, at least one that involved something more than the line, "AACK!" I like a lot of webcomics too, I'm a fan of PVP and Questionable Content.

3) I know it isn't fair to ask you to play favorites, but...who's your favorite GWS character, and why?

- Definitely Hazel. I relate to her so much...which is damn unfortunate. [laughs again]

4) Are there any other comics projects in the works for you? If you already have more I'm unaware of, I apologize!

- I've done various small things outside of it, including some illustration for books. I'm also working on a graphic novel, actually...I can't say much about it now but it should be ready by around 2013, and I have a potential new online project I'm planning out. I've also recently handed a lot of the back end of the website management to a company, which will free up some more time for me to work on Girls with Slingshots.

5) In the world of print comics, it seems like female creators are still a big rarity, as well as female characters that are more than just token or relegated to "cheesecake" roles. But webcomics seem to have a lot fewer gender-politics issues--the walls are more broken down on that. Any ideas on why the web enjoys a much more equal balance of strong female characters and creators? And do you think this will eventually have a sronger impact on the world of print comics?

- Wow. Let me think about that for a second...I think part of the issue for a lot of the big publishers, like Marvel, is that when there started being more demand for female readers, they just sort of hired women for the sake of hiring women, without really stopping to think about it much, and we got a lot of cute romance comics, like Mary Jane Loves Spider-Man, but nothing really beyond that--not that there's nothing wrong with cute romance comics, I mean, I kind of write a cute romance comic too. But there was definitely not a lot behind it. On the web, the audience has more ability to pick for themselves, more variety to go off of. They'll read what they want, and it seems to show that that variety is what they really want.

6) Any bits of wisdom you've learned over the course of making GWS that you'd like to pass on for others interested in starting up a webcomic?

- Ohhhh yes. Number one, promise people nice things in exchange for donations! I ran into a lot of trouble with that early on. I kept wondering over whether I should give someone something if they donated a few cents versus someone who donated a few dollars, and I think I made a lot of people mad because I got so delayed on the whole thing. Number two, make sure your website navigation is good. The site framing your comic is just as important as the comic itself, and if you can't get pretty much anywhere on the site in just a couple clicks, people are going to leave and not read your stuff. Third, don't burn any bridges. Webcomics in particular are kind of relient on social networking, with readers and with other creators.

7) Lastly, just for fun...if Hazel and Jamie became a dynamic superhero tag-team, what would their powers be?

- Ha! Well, Jamie's would probably have something to do with diverting attention to her boobs. Hazel...I think she would carry around a magic beer bottle to smack people with. It doesn't sound very inventive to me but it just works so well. Oooh! Ooh! Jamie could carry around a small trampoline!

Thank you so much for all your time!

Girls with Slingshots updates once a day, Monday through Friday, at www.gwscomic.com.

Holden Out.

Con Report! Emerald City Comicon 2010

2010-03-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

Oh.
My.
Gosh.

So, I could probably gush about this year's Emerald City Comicon for paragraphs. I will attempt to restrain myself.

Firstly, a little history.

Emerald City Comicon is a comics convention (technically, a "comics and pop culture" convention) located in beautiful Seattle, Washington. Though certainly much smaller than, say, the massive festivals that are San Diego Comicon or New York Comicon, it's still quite reasonably sized and it's notability has grown in past years within the larger convention circle. Unlike the former two 'cons mentioned, it also tends toward having a focus on smaller and more independent publishers, one of the reasons I'm so drawn to it (though don't fret, classics fans--Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse still have plenty of presence there). It originally was truly a small thing, covering about half the floor of Qwest Field Event Center, but has now grown to cover a vast chunk of the top floor of the much-larger Washington State Convention Center, and shows few signs of stopping that growth. This was my fifth year attending (would have been sixth but I missed last year).

There are usually also some particularly prominent guests of note each year--this year saw some of the biggest names yet as Stan Lee and Leonard Nimoy entered the scene. I wasn't able to spot either of them--they were in their own seperate rooms apart from the convention floor proper, and always surrounded by a huge cloud of people. The lines/crowds were such that really, it seemed if you were there to see Stan or Leonard, it would be your day's primary activity. But neat to have them there all the same, and definite proof, I would say, of Emerald City Con becoming more important/known in the larger comics-convention network.

A couple other large names there this year included Lou Ferrigno, most well-know for his role as The Incredible Hulk in the 1970s live-action TV show, and Jhonen Vasquez, a comics cult hero whose most famous works include the graphic novel Johnny The Homicidal Maniac and the short-lived cartoon Invader Zim. Ferrigno was happily shaking hands and autographing photo enlargements of himself in the old Hulk makeup; Jhonen had a steady stream of fans but seemed much more relaxed than I last remember him, having been basically mobbed his one other time appearing (when his work was at its height of popularity). Some of the actors in the popular web-TV series The Guild were also present.

This year also saw a big upswing in the number of webcomics artists present, which was a delight in its' own way--to see all this net content enter a room as something more tangible, and in that also give its' audiences and creators more distinct faces. Webcomics as a medium have become one of the most dynamic newer forces in the comics industry, and that vitality was shimmeringly evident here. I actually got to interview a couple of my favourite webcomickers--those will be in entries following.

I wish I could write more distinctly about all the convention had to offer past this point, but it just sort of runs together for me in a big happy nerdy blur. I had meant to attend a few panels, and had I, I would provide rundowns of them, but I never actually got to them--I was just having too much darn fun browsing through rows of comics, goggling at costumes, and chatting with the wonderful, quirky people who make this stuff. It also helps that I attended this year with one of my best friends (shout-out to Cranston!). This was one of my most happily-spent weekends in recent memory.

(www.emeraldcitycomicon.com)

A semi-obligatory list of scored swag, with relevant links!

- Concrete Vol. 6, by Paul Chadwick
- Girl Genius Volumes 4-8, by Phil and Kaja Foglio (www.girlgeniusonline.com)
- Wet Moon Volumes 3-5, by Ross Campbell (http://mooncalfe.deviantart.com)
- Widgey Q. Butterfluff by Steph Cherrywell (www.intragalacticcomic.com)
- Whistles And The Starlight Calliope by Andrew Hussie (www.mspaintadventures.com)
- Kaput And Zosky by Lewis Trondheim and Eric Cartier, translated by Edward Gauvin
- Space Raoul and Bear Vol. 2, both by Jamie Smart (www.bearfoo.com)
- Fat Chunk Vol. 2, also edited by Jamie Smart
- The annual giveaway comic from Doodle Inc., a local after-school art program designed for kids interested in comics
- A nifty packet of buttons from Danielle Corsetto, of Girls with Slingshots (www.gwscomic.com)
- A poster of Bob The Angry Flower's guide to using apostrophes (www.angryflower.com)
- A print of Problem Sleuth's final epic panel, by Andrew Hussie again
- And mini-prints of Lackey dressed as Batman and the ever-popular Pandorca, both from Here There Be Robots by Jeremy and Jonah Gregory (www.herethereberobots.com)

Whew! I've a lot of reading (and potential reviewing!) to do!

Holden Out (and starting his own read-a-thon)

He Speaks!

2010-02-24T13:46:00.000-08:00

Hello, friends and well-wishers. It has been well over five months now since last post--almost half a year. And ever since I left this particular corner of the internet I've wanted to go back, so today is the day I suppose I figured, "why not?" I liked blogging then and I want to maintain it. A lot has happened to me in those five silent months, but I plan to move forward here once more. I've got some fun ideas and changes in the works, so keep those eyes open.

Firstly, Sunday Comics isn't going away, though it will be less frequent (I think I had mentioned that in an earlier post? Forgive me if I repeat myself), and I'll be opening things up to full-on book reviews as well, because hey, I love books of all types, not just ones with pictures. I'll also likely be posting a bit more artwork and writing snippets, partly in an effort to slowly wean myself off of deviantArt.

I only check my inbox there about once a week now, and while I've been able to keep up with some great artists through that site I can't deny that the site itself has been getting steadily less secure over the years, and with my computer running the best it has in almost a year I kind of want to avoid any further malware by whatever means I can. Shame there really isn't anything else truly like it on the web--yet, anyway. It's also too easy to feel pressured to create just for the sake of an audience with a site like that, and while that's not necessarily always a bad thing, I think it's become detrimental to my own creative process. I need to draw because I enjoy it, not because I feel like someone expects me to (unless I get a job that involves it, but that's entirely different!).
The Monthly Magnetic Poem, however, WILL be going away, as the year is over and I wasn't really keeping up with it.

In addition, I'd like to return to the Hundred Faces Blog again as well--that was a great stretching exercise and I won't feel truly comfortable with its name till I hit that triple digit. This place could probably do with yet another name overhaul as well. In relation to Hundred Faces, I might open up still a third blog, a sister project to the sister project, to house a series of suggestion-based drawings I've started called FoodPeople. They are, put simply, personifications of foods and beverages. Not just anthropomorphized pizza slices or something like that, but literally "if this food weren't a food, but a person, what would they look and behave like?" You'll see, maybe. I do worry about having too many blogs. Two seems extravagant already.

As I look at the metaphorical horizon I'm beginning to see a glint of sun, so let's hope it continues to slowly rise.

I'll leave you, in keeping with the "more art/writing" promise, with a snippet from a story I recently began that I'm having a lot of fun with. It kind of popped out of nowhere during a trip to the library. This is all that's been written so far but I've got the skeleton of a plot and know some basic big points to cover, and that's more than I can say for the better chunk of my stories.
The tentative title is "Thoroughly Wretched People."

We were supposed to be doing a research project, but it was hard to focus with Molly Harper's rotten breath puffing in my face. The problem with Molly Harper's breath was that it was never just bad, like she didn't brush her teeth or something, but always seemed instead like it was trying to be something good but got mangled on the way out of her flapping clumsy mouth. Today it was trying to smell like chocolate. Sour, clotted, awful chocolate that had been in a heating duct for a year. But if I hadn't been distracted by her Hershey's-dumpster breath, it would have been something else, because Molly Harper is a distracting person, and almost never in a good way.
Now that I've gotten on the subject of her mouth, for example, I can't look away from it, because I just see her teeth. Her teeth aren't bad or anything--not bright yellow or even orange like some kids I know--they were just huge and awkward, like they weren't really hers or something. They didn't seem to move at the same pace as the rest of her mouth, either. But I'd still rather be there than--great. My eyes are drifting again. To somewhere entirely more pleasant and probably the only reason, sad as it is to say, that some guys even tolerate Molly Harper: the girl's chest is absolutely ridiculous. Ask anyone, regardless of gender, about her three most defining characteristics and every single one of them will list off, without fail: breath like a yak, teeth like a horse, and breasts that will be giving her back problems by the age of twenty-five. I hate mentioning them for two reasons: one, because it's such a stereotypically guy thing to notice like that and makes me sound like I have all the depth of a spoon, and two, she already thinks I have some sort of thing for her, so if she catches my eyes there...
"Hey Meat! I'm up here!"
Wonderful.
"It's Beef." I muttered. "If you're gonna use my dumb nickname, at least use the right one." My name is Angus. So guess what everyone calls me? Yep. Beef. Since like fifth grade. Blame my Mom for giving me such a redneck name. (I walked into the house just yesterday and there was Mom in her Snuggie and curlers, her third Coors Light of the afternoon in her hand, watching NASCAR, and all I could say was, "you're a hick." She didn't miss a beat in snapping back, "yeah, and you're the son of a hick.")
"Whatever. You paying attention, or just drooling over me?"
"Sorry. I was thinking about something."
"I bet."
It's not like she had really been contributing to the project either. Before I had tuned out she was blathering to me about some guy named Jim she knew who had apparently quit school to be a mime or something. She had this fixation with meeting people in strange careers.

That's all I've got for today...but I think I'll definitely be back.
Holden Out.

Cricket Movie Review: 9 (Also Up and District 9)

2009-09-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

So, 9 came out a couple days ago. It's a movie I've been fairly excited about, for a few reasons--

1) I like sci-fi.
2) In addition liking sci-fi, I like the specific niches of dystopian and post-apocalypse sci-fi.
3) I'm a fan of (good) animation, and this certainly didn't look disappointing in that regard.
4) The character designs seemed interesting.
5) A really, really well-put-together trailer is usually a good sign.

So, I wasn't expecting anything earth-shaking--just a good, quality, for-a-slightly-older-audience piece of post-apocalyptic animation.

I'm going to be pretty frank and brief, because I haven't been keeping up on my movie reviews.

9 is a movie with a lot of potential, but it fails to act on a lot of that potential. Firstly, it's actually very short (just a few minutes over an hour), and I think a little extra time to tell its story would have benefited it greatly. As a result, it feels sort of..rushed. We're introduced to the characters, given the bare basics of what we need to know plotwise, then there's a string of fights with monsters and an ending.

The story itself is really nothing new--scientist creates AI capable of designing and building complex battle machines, AI goes rogue, AI attacks humanity, humans vs. robots scenario. It's very much like The Matrix in this regard, except its one twist--that instead of the machines having mercy on their former human masters and plugging them into a false reality, they just go ahead and wipe the human beings out, and then shut down themselves, leaving a crumbly and lifeless void of a world. As the world was ending, the scientist responsible for originally creating the rouge AI transfers his own life into a series of nine rag doll/robot hybrids, tasking them with "protecting the future," an odd wish since there is exactly zero organic life left on the planet by the time the machines are satisfied. This is also nearly all the plot given (I've left out a few minor details to avoid spoilage, but seriously, that's 95% of the plot right there). There are glimpses of a promise of more elaboration on the scenario, which would have even itself been great to have, but it was apparently not to be.

The characters are interesting from a design standpoint, but many of them fall flat when it comes to character development--most are essentially just archetypes, and ones we've seen plenty of times. 1 is the classic grumpy old man, 2 a timid inventor, 6 the misunderstood, tormented visionary everyone thinks is crazy until the appropriate moment, 7 a generic tough-gal figure, and 8 a lumbering brute. This creates the problem of there being nothing more to learn--archetypes are predictable, and once you've met them, you know all about them. The ones I've left out (3, 4, 5, and 9 himself) are a touch more interesting. 9 & 5 especially are the only ones that see much development, unsurprising for 9 given that he's the protagonist, with 5 being the secondary (the other seven puppets are relegated to more tertiary roles). But even then, I feel like there's precious little time spent actually getting to know the other characters. More depth would have provided more interesting team chemistry (though there is plenty of tension and arguing between them to be had). And given the already thin plot, more character development could have saved that lack of plot by making it entirely character-driven.

I'd also like to dedicate some special venom for the ending. While the movie as a whole certainly wasn't bad, the ending was nothing short of terrible. It smacks of deus ex machina, it doesn't feel like a true conclusion, and worst of all, it doesn't entirely make sense. It's even perhaps a bit silly. And when I say it "doesn't feel like a true conclusion," I don't mean it leaves the ending open to set up for a sequel like Hollywood loves to do. I mean it literally doesn't feel like a conclusion. It's weak. It's dissatisfying, especially for a movie with so much action, and again, so much unused potential. It feels like the writer wrote themselves into a tight spot and decided to wrap up right there in the space of a few sentences.

However. It does have one merit-- it's total eye candy. Shane Acker and Tim Burton have created a very pretty world (in a dark and burnt-out way), and the atmosphere does suck you in. The animation is silky-smooth, the textures are well-realized--from a visual standpoint this is something that could easily stand up to Pixar in terms of quality.

If only the writing had been better.

9 gets a 2.5 out of four possible crickets. The visuals go a long way, and though the plot is a patchwork of post-apocalypse cliches, it still works as a backdrop...it's just not enough to make this movie what it could have been. See it once for the experience, then forget about it.
I should also note, even though its ad campaign and PG-13 rating has tried to make this clear, that this is not a kid's movie. If I saw this as a kid I would have been terrified. There are many moments here that would definitely frighten those in the single-digit range, and the world overall is very much not a friendly one. Without wishing to spoil, it also has a high body count--over half the protagonists die, and it's not an "oh, they might be sleeping--" these are distinct, definitive deaths. I saw a lot of kids at the theater, and more than a couple were clinging to their parents through a good chunk of it.

A pair of other, brief reviews, since it's been so long since I've done a movie review:

Up: Pixar delivers the goods again. Would you expect anything else from them? I liked especially how even given the fantastical, even ridiculous situation, the characters are very believable. Nice to see them starting to push the feature exaggeration on their human characters too. Though it didn't make me cry (as many have claimed it will) it is distinctly more emotional than usual Disney fare. My eyes did well up a couple times. Up gets a 3.8 out of 4 crickets. It stops just shy of a perfect 4, due to lacking just a pinch of some sort of je ne se quois, but it's definitely worth your money.

District 9: Words are superfluous. See this one. This was my favourite movie of the summer, hands down. I want to go see it again. After one viewing, I've already decided to buy it when it comes out on video. It's by no means perfect--I've got a few nitpicks about it--but they're mainly that, just nitpicks. The large whole is great. It's a few different styles of film mishmashed into one, but it's made to work, mostly. It starts off as a mockumentary and then in its second act becomes a hybrid of science fiction war movie and buddy cop flick. Either way, it's a refreshingly original work of science fiction. Do be warned though if you're squeamish that it is very, very violent. District 9 gets a 4. A 4 doesn't mean perfection, but it does mean "exceptional."

Ta for now, readers.

Holden Out.

Sunday Comics: Calvin and Hobbes

2009-08-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

I regret my recent inconsistencies with the “Sunday Comics” feature, which were for a long time the one consistent feature of this blog at all. I think what I need to do is inject a little change into it, as has been evident in all the recent sort of “special” Sunday Comicses that have occurred, to keep things interesting both for myself as the writer and for you as the readers. Henceforth, “Sunday Comics” on OverReactor will no longer simply be “spotlightings” of great examples of comicdom. It will be, more broadly, a weekly post on just about anything so long as it deals with comics. The “spotlightings” of the sort that have made up the last twenty-something entries will still provide the bulk of the content, I’m sure, but this way I can provide myself with more flexibility while still working in the same basic theme. For this particular one, I’d like to revisit the classic comic strip Calvin and Hobbes and yap about that a bit in a sort of impromptu, brief, meandering essay.

Comic strips have long been a part of me, and were a large contributor to my eventual, present-day love of the comics form in general. They’ve been there for such a long time in my memory, and are still even to my adult mind one of the best things about newspapers. Historically, they are the direct parents of the comic book, at least in America—the first American comic books were simply bound reprints of popular comic strips of the time. The comic strip in of itself has been around in US newspapers for over a century now, and the comic book will have its own centennial in a little over another decade. And in that time, comic books have diversified immensely, while comic strips have changed little apart from printed size and picture detail.

But that lack of change also breeds familiarity, which breeds comfort and habit. I enthusiastically read the comics as a kid and though I no longer read them every morning, I still feel like some small extra bonus has been added to my morning routine when I do stop to explore these little four-panel adventures over my cereal. For a good stretch of time, roughly from fourth grade to about tenth, I thought I myself might want to eventually join the comic strip industry. That interest eventually morphed and blossomed into my present-day desire to do a few comic book/graphic novel-format projects. Whether they’re books or strips, I still love comics.

At the forefront of my initial love of comics as a kid was Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes. Even then I could just tell there was something different about it, something that made it special. The writing appealed to what had to then be the seed of the language-geek side of me, and I know I was using some of Calvin’s words before I actually knew what they all meant (don’t nobody tell you comics ain’t no good for the vocabulary). I’ve been rereading all my old collections of the strip lately, and looking back on it with a now-adult perspective, it’s even better than ever.

Now that I can fully comprehend the dialogue, its wit becomes that much more clear, and as I’ve recently begun at last to make a greater return to practicing my drawing skills, I’ve also taken note of Watterson’s craftsmanship in his illustration—his brush-and-pen linework had a unique style even then and would only stand out more as Photoshop becomes a prominent comics ingredient. Some of his backgrounds and scenery pieces, especially in outdoor scenes, are downright pretty, and are done with few lines to boot. His Sunday strips were all sure to take advantage of the larger size and number of panels with the art and/or story. If Bill Watterson made a return to comicking I think it’d be interesting to see him try a longer work in a non-serialized format. He also preferred the humor in the writing to be character-based rather than joke-based, something I’ve grown to have a great appreciation of, in large part due to this comic strip’s reliance on it. Character-driven humor is much harder to write than situational humor, but it’s almost always better for it. Even better, he managed to be distinctly satirical most of the time while avoiding specific politics or social issues, thus keeping it widely accessible and to an extent, timeless.

All the more tragic, then, when the strip ended at the peak of a successful ten-year run. I can only vaguely remember its cancellation. These days I can only look at the books and sort of note that this used to be in a newspaper, newspapers I read as a kid. But later, upon doing more reading about Mr. Watterson, I understood why he did it, though it was a reason odd to the comic strip industry in particular—ideas of artistic integrity. Though he recognized comic strips' commercial art origins (it’s clear from reading things he’s written that the man knows his comics history), he grew to view Calvin and Hobbes as more of an art project. The more his syndicate pressured him to license the strip due to its immense popularity, the less he liked the idea of it, and he fought a long, long fight against merchandising that he eventually figured he could not win. At this realization, he wrote a goodbye/thank-you letter to the folks in charge. Watterson felt merchandise, while potentially worth millions with the readership he had, would have compromised the “spirit” of his strip.

I must admit that Bill Watterson and I differ slightly on this point—I would not be against some minor merchandising of any of my own creations (it would be hard to resist designing a t-shirt or two), though I am still staunchly opposed to the overmerchandising suffered by many popular cartoons: the gross excesses of the likes of Garfield and Spongebob now make me faintly ill with the sights of their faces stamped on every product imaginable, and even Charles Schulz’s classic comics pillar Peanuts loses some of its heartwarming qualities when one is confronted by a wall of greeting cards. I think the subtlety here lies in the difference between products as a means of generating support for and awareness of its parent work, and works that become products themselves. It is knowing when to say no. However, I don’t admire Watterson’s own stance on marketing any less in the light of my own perspective. I fully respect his wishes to have Calvin and Hobbes remain just a comic strip, especially given that it in fact wasn’t “just a comic strip.”

Bill Watterson made legitimate art out of a form long maligned and treated with cynicism by even its own creators. Looking back at the strips now, as I have recently done, I can see that art so clearly. He carefully chose his colors and palettes, and the characters’ voices are all made to sound unique. In its absence, it has left many an echo on that brightly-coloured newspaper page—from the clearly-influenced art style and witticisms of Frazz to the joy of character interplay utilized in 9 Chickweed Lane, but of course its core magic has never been duplicated, nor do I think it ever will be. Watterson, it seems, was trying to do with comic strips what comic book lovers have tried for years and only in the last two or three decades begun to truly accomplish to any large capacity with the graphic novel. Slightly sadly, I’m inclined to believe that comic strips will remain primarily as they are still and have been for a long time now—that is, few if any will elevate themselves to a Calvin and Hobbes level of writing especially. I’m mostly okay with that, because the goals of the comic strip as a whole have always been modest ones, and if everything was as outstanding, the overall effect would be less impressive because there would be no basis for comparison. But there will always be that hope that someone will come along and do something similar yet different, because a post-Calvin and Hobbes comics page will always feel very different to many of us who grew up with that misunderstood spiky-haired kid and his philosophical tiger. This is not to diminish other really awesome comic strips. This is simply a tribute to one of the greats. Bill Watterson, if you ever read this somehow, thank you for your impact on me and on so many other cartoonists, artists, comickers and even prose writers. Thank you for games of Calvinball, for daydreams of dinosaurs, Spaceman Spiff expeditions, Tracer Bullet mysteries, and for Stupendous Man battles. Thank you for bringing words like “transmogrified” into more frequent usage. Thank you for Calvin and Hobbes.

Holden Out.

Sunday Comics: Safe Area Gorazde

2009-08-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

Sunday Comics is a weekly feature where I spotlight awesome comic s that you may want to check out .

The Comic: Safe Area Gorazde: The War In Eastern Bosnia 1992-95

By: Joe Sacco

Type: Graphic novel

Content Rating: PG-13, for war violence and occasional language.

Plot: A work entirely of nonfiction, Safe Area Gorazde follows the author, Mr. Sacco, around in his four different trips to Bosnia during the Bosnian War. The narrative is a combination of Joe's own observations and anecdotes mingled with those of his friends and several interviewees, essentially making this a sort of graphic-novel-form War Journal. It tries to incorporate perspectives of all three fighting groups (the Bosnians, Serbians, and Croatians), but leans heavier towards Bosnian-Croatian, having less to say from the Serbian perspective. He includes some narrative that recounts prewar conditions, to give a better scope of the war as whole, and also includes a segment where he visits postwar Bosnia to comment on the changes brought about. Perhaps to make his self-as-narrator more iconic or to emphasize his "otherness" in the land, Sacco draws himself unflatteringly exaggerated and cartoony, sort of a caricature, while most other people are drawn more realistically.

Personal thoughts: This is one of those "probably never would have picked it up if it hadn't been assigned for a class" books, but I'm glad to have a copy. People who enjoy historical accounts should like this especially, people who dislike them may find it a bit dry in spots but nonetheless compelling. It was especially interesting to me given my age--this war took place while I was alive, but I have no recollection of hearing anything about it, possibly because I was too young to take notice while it did happen.

Holden Out.

Another very special Sunday Comics: The fall of Penny & Aggie

2009-07-26T22:05:00.000-07:00

Sunday Comics is a weekly feature where I spotlight awes ome comic s that you may want to check out .

Some of you may remember way back in only my third-ever Sunday Comics when I spotlighted a little bit of awesomeness called Penny & Aggie. It was shiny goodness, a sort of modern-day, more-complex Archie, and I read it with joy and comfort, savoring especially the well-done characterization and layered character-building. This thing lived on how its characters were written.

Sadly, it has now been long enough that I think I can declare this wonderfullity no more.

It began fairly early this year--P&A wrapped up its longest, most serious, most story-impacting arc ever, called "The Popsicle War." It was well-staged, necessary to the large undercurrent plot, and changed the very nature of several key character relationships. Very soon after the "Popsicle War" arc had wrapped up (satisfyingly but still on some small "what now?" cliffhangers regarding characters who got the short end of the stick), it was announced that after five years, Giselle Lagace, their artist, was leaving the comic to work on some other comics/art projects. Though Giselle did good work, I wasn't initially too concerned--after all, the art was strong, but the comic's bigger strength had always been its writing. The new artist, whose name currently eludes me, actually draws fairly similarly to Giselle--the difference is there, but isn't jarring. So it seemed like things would continue more or less as normal.

I and a couple of friends who also read it quickly started to notice that the writing was feeling a bit off with the new artist. I shrugged it off--it's not like the comic was ever flawless, there was certainly the odd page here or there that fell a little flatter than others. Perhaps T. Campbell was simply having an off day, or as it were, off several days. Maybe Giselle was missed to an extent that it was briefly affecting the writing.

A few months later, I think I can say that whatever it is, Penny & Aggie has not been the same comic since that last arc finished, and the transition was sudden. The characters are caricatures of themselves, some, for no reason, even acting bluntly out of character. Characters revealing motivations and thinking has become clunky and as subtle as a train. Characters we should be checking up on have been ignored completely.

I do not write this to retract or rescind my spotlight--no no, at the time I did so it was a wonderful comic, and I will remember it for that. I write simply to ask what went wrong. To note. To, in a sense, warn.

I don't know what happened, but it's upsetting. Clearly, T. Campbell and G. Lagace had chemistry together...let's hope that they realize this as well...perhaps it's not silly to wonder if she might come back. Perhaps this is simply a bad new arc we find ourselves in for whatever reason. Or perhaps Penny & Aggie ended with The Popsicle War.

~Holden Out.