Tuesday, May 15, 2007
And for the teen movie meets comics....
...try Blue Monday (This Kids Are alright, vol 1. or Absolute Beginners). I guess you would say that these crazy teen exploites have a John Hughes feel. Not too surprising as the writer (Chynna Clugston-Major) is just about the right age for healthy serving of Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. Although those movies where all missing the feisty Irish chick who gets away with swearing because it's all in Irish slang. Oh yeah, to make the package complete, all of this comes with a bit of a manga feel.
High octane action film meets comics.
It's my first experience with Warren Ellis - Global Frequency. There are crazy action sequence with shot outs and races to save bombs. Plus, it's a diverse cast of 1001. Okay, so we don't see all 1001 Global Frequency operatives in the first tpb, but we do see a smattering of folks from all over the globe. Miranda Zero is a kick-ass woman who heads the group that can solve things when other people can't. The agents aren't just super strong or good with weapons, many are on the team because they are super smart. Oh, it's nice to see that it is cool to be super smart and you might just be able to save the world. Plus, the center of all communication is spunky punk girl with a mohawk and ear full of piercings name Aleph. In case you hadn't noticed, I am excited to see the strong women and diverse characters. If only are blockbuster movies looked more like that.
Monday, May 14, 2007
True-to-life comics & writers my age
It feels like a lot of comic book writers are about me age and/or they live in the Bay Area. What's the deal with that?
I just finished "Sleepwalk" by Adrian Tomine in which a lot of the stories take place in Berkeley. Turns out he is exactly my age and living just across the bay from me. Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) is about 5 years my senior. Chynna Clugston-Major (Blue Monday) is one year younger than I am and Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man & Ex Machina) is two. I have only read the first 25 pages of so of Phoebe Gloeckner's illustrated novle ("The Diary of a Teenage Girl"), but I was sure she gerw up in San Francisco. The details where just so specific. Looking her up on wikipedia, she is about 15 years older than I am. she and I did attend the same high school (at least for a year or two) and she attended the a rival grade school. Does all of this mean anything? Not really, just something that seems to connect me to the authors and their work.
This genre of the true to life comic is an interesting one. There are the autobiographies that I talked about the other day and the other ones that just feel like slices of life. In that category I would put Ghost World, Sleepwalker, and The Diary of a Teenage Girl. They don't reach out and drag me into the story the way Fables or Y do, but they are oddly compelling. They don't have the same flow as the novelist comics have, they are more like moments as a fly on the wall. Or pieces of memory told in what may or may not be a linear way.
I figured that I would enjoy reading Ghost World because I enjoyed the movie. The book has the teenage feel of awkwardness, angst, and randomness. It isn't pretty or shiny like disney cartoons. It doesn't have superheroes or supervillans who are on some path or good or evil. It just has two girls, kind of meandering. And that meandering has a familiarity to it.
Sleepwalker is more of little snippets of people's lives. In this collection, the charaters don't seem to reoccur from story to story. Each piece is more of a random story from each of thier lives. What unites them all seems to be a sadness in all of their stories, many of them love-lorn. As I read many of the chapters, I wasn't sure if I liked it or not, but sure enough when I got to the end of one, I would continue on to the next one. Perhaps I was a bit uncomfortable because they had the familiar air of stories that can't exactly be categorized or explained, but these same stories make up who we are as people.
I just finished "Sleepwalk" by Adrian Tomine in which a lot of the stories take place in Berkeley. Turns out he is exactly my age and living just across the bay from me. Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) is about 5 years my senior. Chynna Clugston-Major (Blue Monday) is one year younger than I am and Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man & Ex Machina) is two. I have only read the first 25 pages of so of Phoebe Gloeckner's illustrated novle ("The Diary of a Teenage Girl"), but I was sure she gerw up in San Francisco. The details where just so specific. Looking her up on wikipedia, she is about 15 years older than I am. she and I did attend the same high school (at least for a year or two) and she attended the a rival grade school. Does all of this mean anything? Not really, just something that seems to connect me to the authors and their work.
This genre of the true to life comic is an interesting one. There are the autobiographies that I talked about the other day and the other ones that just feel like slices of life. In that category I would put Ghost World, Sleepwalker, and The Diary of a Teenage Girl. They don't reach out and drag me into the story the way Fables or Y do, but they are oddly compelling. They don't have the same flow as the novelist comics have, they are more like moments as a fly on the wall. Or pieces of memory told in what may or may not be a linear way.
I figured that I would enjoy reading Ghost World because I enjoyed the movie. The book has the teenage feel of awkwardness, angst, and randomness. It isn't pretty or shiny like disney cartoons. It doesn't have superheroes or supervillans who are on some path or good or evil. It just has two girls, kind of meandering. And that meandering has a familiarity to it.
Sleepwalker is more of little snippets of people's lives. In this collection, the charaters don't seem to reoccur from story to story. Each piece is more of a random story from each of thier lives. What unites them all seems to be a sadness in all of their stories, many of them love-lorn. As I read many of the chapters, I wasn't sure if I liked it or not, but sure enough when I got to the end of one, I would continue on to the next one. Perhaps I was a bit uncomfortable because they had the familiar air of stories that can't exactly be categorized or explained, but these same stories make up who we are as people.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Comics can make you cry.
All these lists that I have been reading have recommendations for non-superhero comic books, many of them autobiographical. I have just read a few of them so far:
- Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
- Mom's Cancer by Brian Fies
- Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
I resisted reading Persepolis for quite awhile. It is one of those books that seemed to end up on the recommended reading list/shelves where ever I looked. Perhaps I thought I might not like it because it was a comic book or because it looked like it was written for kids. Well, until recently, the first arguement held some water. The second one, just utter silliness. I love kid's books, the ones that are well written. What was the problem then? Maybe it just felt over-hyped. Since this time of year is the lull in the work cycle for my job, I headed over to the school library to see if they had a copy available. Indeed they did & once I started I couldn't put the book down. In fact, I closed the door to my office and spent my day reading. The story of the author's life growing up in Iran was just stunning. She must be about my age (based on the dates in the book), yet her childhood was so drastically different from mine. And I cried. Not because I am a sap, but because the story was told with such warth and humor that I couldn't help but care about these characters. Not that long ago I wouldn't have guessed that little stark, black and white drawings would be able to tell me story that is so emotionally rich. Well, they can.
But Persepolis wasn't the only thing that made me cry. There was also Mom's Cancer, recommended by E. This was one I thought might bring about some tears as my mom is a cancer surviver. Even more so because I am not sure I have fully processed my mom's struggle with cancer. Several years ago some abnormalities where found during routine testing and with in a few days she was in the hospital having part of her colon removed. My mom never had cancer symptoms, but she did have surgery, followed by chemotherapy to make sure that any pesky cancer cells that remained didn't gert any ideas to make a home in her body. I know my mom's journey wasn't as fast as it seemed to me. The chemo drained her and the time it look to complete all the chemo sessions streched out longer than origianlly planned because they where such a strain on her body. I guess I was really lucky that I got to live in a bit of denial since her cancer was detected so early and it hadn't spread. But all of that meant that "Mom' Cancer" hit close to home. Originally publised as web comic, I read the story in a small sized hardback book. This is another fabulous story told with warmth despite it's difficult subject matter.
In case any one was worried that I cry at any autobiographical graphic novel, not to worry. I did not cry reading Fun House, but it was still a compelling story of a woman examining her childhood and coming to terms with her relationship with her father and his death. Death is part of the story, she grew up in a family that ran a morturary. Through out the book I wasn't sure if I hate the father or was drawn to him because of hie quirks. I guess the author was working out that part too. Does unconditional love really exist? Can our families cross a line to a place where we can't love them any more? Can you really hate the sinner and still love the sinner?
- Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
- Mom's Cancer by Brian Fies
- Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
I resisted reading Persepolis for quite awhile. It is one of those books that seemed to end up on the recommended reading list/shelves where ever I looked. Perhaps I thought I might not like it because it was a comic book or because it looked like it was written for kids. Well, until recently, the first arguement held some water. The second one, just utter silliness. I love kid's books, the ones that are well written. What was the problem then? Maybe it just felt over-hyped. Since this time of year is the lull in the work cycle for my job, I headed over to the school library to see if they had a copy available. Indeed they did & once I started I couldn't put the book down. In fact, I closed the door to my office and spent my day reading. The story of the author's life growing up in Iran was just stunning. She must be about my age (based on the dates in the book), yet her childhood was so drastically different from mine. And I cried. Not because I am a sap, but because the story was told with such warth and humor that I couldn't help but care about these characters. Not that long ago I wouldn't have guessed that little stark, black and white drawings would be able to tell me story that is so emotionally rich. Well, they can.
But Persepolis wasn't the only thing that made me cry. There was also Mom's Cancer, recommended by E. This was one I thought might bring about some tears as my mom is a cancer surviver. Even more so because I am not sure I have fully processed my mom's struggle with cancer. Several years ago some abnormalities where found during routine testing and with in a few days she was in the hospital having part of her colon removed. My mom never had cancer symptoms, but she did have surgery, followed by chemotherapy to make sure that any pesky cancer cells that remained didn't gert any ideas to make a home in her body. I know my mom's journey wasn't as fast as it seemed to me. The chemo drained her and the time it look to complete all the chemo sessions streched out longer than origianlly planned because they where such a strain on her body. I guess I was really lucky that I got to live in a bit of denial since her cancer was detected so early and it hadn't spread. But all of that meant that "Mom' Cancer" hit close to home. Originally publised as web comic, I read the story in a small sized hardback book. This is another fabulous story told with warmth despite it's difficult subject matter.
In case any one was worried that I cry at any autobiographical graphic novel, not to worry. I did not cry reading Fun House, but it was still a compelling story of a woman examining her childhood and coming to terms with her relationship with her father and his death. Death is part of the story, she grew up in a family that ran a morturary. Through out the book I wasn't sure if I hate the father or was drawn to him because of hie quirks. I guess the author was working out that part too. Does unconditional love really exist? Can our families cross a line to a place where we can't love them any more? Can you really hate the sinner and still love the sinner?
Spidey vs. The Hulk.....Adventures with Marvel Superheroes
There is no real battle here. In fact, there is room for everyone. But I do have a hurdle, the DC & Marvel universes are so huge and all the characters seem to run into each other. Not terrible, except when you are new to the world and everything you read references something else. In fact, it gets infuriating.
So I tried out She-Hulk (it was recommended by E.) The first trade paperback was okay, even though they played little games and intentially didn't tell her origin story. But, by the time I got to the second trade paperback major plot points effecting the She-Hulk story line where happening in other comic books. I am not even sure what other comic books. (Would that be the Avengers?) Very major things they need to tell us in the She-Hulk books, but only slipped in with passing comments. I think might have accidentally she killed her best friend, or some such thing and I think she got much stronger, but that all happened somewhere else. Somewhere else that I was supposed to have read so that I could understand the character's motivation in the book I was reading. That is a pretty quick way to get me to stop reading a story. I don't mind cameos from other characters or the lack of origin stories, but I don't like gapping holes in my storylines because I am supposed to be reading something else. So She-Hulk, with her struggles of how to have stregth and self confidence without being big and green, will have to go on without me.
Tonight I read Hulk Grey. An origin story, told in flashback. It was interesting. Iron-Man made an apperance, but I didn't need to know anything about him to understand the story. The book had a nice feel to it. I am not sure if I would run out and buy more, but it was a nice read. (Another lead from E.)
Then there is the Ultimate Spider-Man series that I have been borrowing from the library. I stumbled onto it. I was looking up Brian Michael Bendis for something else (probably something from the Nerve.com list). I saw the library had volume 1 of both Ultimate Fantastic Four & Ultimate Spider-Man, so I thought I would check them out. I guess this "ulitmate" series are a restart of sorts on the classic series. These two are decidedly modern day. Like Hulk Grey, I enjoyed the read, but they didn't blow my socks off. Well, the library has lots more Spidey, so I've continuted to read. I finished vol. 5 tonight. I am somehat fascinated by the illustrations with the extra big heads and eyes, but I am not sure if I would say that I like them. But, I have gotten sucked in. My excuse has been that I wanted to read up to the part where they introduce all the bad guys we meet in the movie that just opened. But that seems like a silly justification, I should just own up to wanting to read more. Plus, so far, the references to other characters have been limited and I follow all of the story with out reading something else.
(Side note: I have made friends with wikipedia. Seems like the legions of fanboys (& girls) have been good about filling the entries on various comic book characters with lots of good infomation. So when Avenger types showed up in Ultimate Super-Man and The Runaways I was able to get the cliffnotes backgrounds. This set-up only works well if the comics are written in such a way that I don't NEED to know lots of character history. But I am a curious girl, I like to be in on the joke.)
(Other side note: The San Francisco library only has vol. 1 of the Ultimate Fantastic Four, so that is where I stopped. It also looks like Brian Michael Bendis only wrote for issues included in the first tpb. Not that I will only read Benis, just an observation.)
So I tried out She-Hulk (it was recommended by E.) The first trade paperback was okay, even though they played little games and intentially didn't tell her origin story. But, by the time I got to the second trade paperback major plot points effecting the She-Hulk story line where happening in other comic books. I am not even sure what other comic books. (Would that be the Avengers?) Very major things they need to tell us in the She-Hulk books, but only slipped in with passing comments. I think might have accidentally she killed her best friend, or some such thing and I think she got much stronger, but that all happened somewhere else. Somewhere else that I was supposed to have read so that I could understand the character's motivation in the book I was reading. That is a pretty quick way to get me to stop reading a story. I don't mind cameos from other characters or the lack of origin stories, but I don't like gapping holes in my storylines because I am supposed to be reading something else. So She-Hulk, with her struggles of how to have stregth and self confidence without being big and green, will have to go on without me.
Tonight I read Hulk Grey. An origin story, told in flashback. It was interesting. Iron-Man made an apperance, but I didn't need to know anything about him to understand the story. The book had a nice feel to it. I am not sure if I would run out and buy more, but it was a nice read. (Another lead from E.)
Then there is the Ultimate Spider-Man series that I have been borrowing from the library. I stumbled onto it. I was looking up Brian Michael Bendis for something else (probably something from the Nerve.com list). I saw the library had volume 1 of both Ultimate Fantastic Four & Ultimate Spider-Man, so I thought I would check them out. I guess this "ulitmate" series are a restart of sorts on the classic series. These two are decidedly modern day. Like Hulk Grey, I enjoyed the read, but they didn't blow my socks off. Well, the library has lots more Spidey, so I've continuted to read. I finished vol. 5 tonight. I am somehat fascinated by the illustrations with the extra big heads and eyes, but I am not sure if I would say that I like them. But, I have gotten sucked in. My excuse has been that I wanted to read up to the part where they introduce all the bad guys we meet in the movie that just opened. But that seems like a silly justification, I should just own up to wanting to read more. Plus, so far, the references to other characters have been limited and I follow all of the story with out reading something else.
(Side note: I have made friends with wikipedia. Seems like the legions of fanboys (& girls) have been good about filling the entries on various comic book characters with lots of good infomation. So when Avenger types showed up in Ultimate Super-Man and The Runaways I was able to get the cliffnotes backgrounds. This set-up only works well if the comics are written in such a way that I don't NEED to know lots of character history. But I am a curious girl, I like to be in on the joke.)
(Other side note: The San Francisco library only has vol. 1 of the Ultimate Fantastic Four, so that is where I stopped. It also looks like Brian Michael Bendis only wrote for issues included in the first tpb. Not that I will only read Benis, just an observation.)
Brian K. Vaughan Recmmends....
If the Nerve.com list of comics wasn't enough, I stubbled onto a list from Brian K. Vaughan. This one is full of non-superhero comics:
http://bkv.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3999
1. A SMALL KILLING by Alan Moore and Oscar Zarate
2. THE POOR BASTARD by Joe Matt
3. PALESTINE by Joe Sacco
4. DOMU by Katsuhiro Otomo
5. IT’S A GOOD LIFE, IF YOU DON’T WEAKEN by Seth
6. PERSEPOLIS: THE STORY OF A CHILDHOOD by Marjane Satrapi
7. JIMMY CORRIGAN: THE SMARTEST KID ON EARTH by Chris Ware
8. WAR STORY: D-DAY DODGERS by Garth Ennis and many others
9. CARICATURE by Daniel Clowes
10. SLEEPWALK AND OTHER STORIES by Adrian Tomine
"There are many more graphic novels that I love just as much those ten (QUEEN AND COUNTRY by Rucka & Rolston, FORTUNE AND GLORY by Bendis, GLOBAL FREQUENCY by Ellis & Co., BERLIN by Jason Lutes, USAGI YOJIMBO, LONE WOLF AND CUB…)."
http://bkv.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3999
1. A SMALL KILLING by Alan Moore and Oscar Zarate
2. THE POOR BASTARD by Joe Matt
3. PALESTINE by Joe Sacco
4. DOMU by Katsuhiro Otomo
5. IT’S A GOOD LIFE, IF YOU DON’T WEAKEN by Seth
6. PERSEPOLIS: THE STORY OF A CHILDHOOD by Marjane Satrapi
7. JIMMY CORRIGAN: THE SMARTEST KID ON EARTH by Chris Ware
8. WAR STORY: D-DAY DODGERS by Garth Ennis and many others
9. CARICATURE by Daniel Clowes
10. SLEEPWALK AND OTHER STORIES by Adrian Tomine
"There are many more graphic novels that I love just as much those ten (QUEEN AND COUNTRY by Rucka & Rolston, FORTUNE AND GLORY by Bendis, GLOBAL FREQUENCY by Ellis & Co., BERLIN by Jason Lutes, USAGI YOJIMBO, LONE WOLF AND CUB…)."
20 Comics That Can Change Your Life
My friend J. sent me this link to a list of 20 Comics that the folks over at Nerve think can change your life. Whether they can or not, the list seemed a good place to start if I wanted to dive into the world of comic books.
http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/nerveeditors/20comics/index.asp?page=1
1. Alias by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos
2. Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
3. "Bomb Scare," Optic Nerve #8 by Adrian Tomine
4. Hate by Peter Bagge
5. Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis
6. Heavy Liquid/100% by Paul Pope
7. Diary of a Teenage Girl by Phoebe Gloeckner
8. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
9. Blue Monday by Chynna Clugston
10. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
11. Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Daniel Clowes
12. Fortune and Glory by Brian Michael Bendis
13. Kabuki by David Mack
14. Love and Rockets by Los Bros Hernandez
15. Sandman by Neil Gaiman, et. al.
16. Miracleman by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, et al.
17. Zippy the Pinhead by Bill Griffith
18. Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai
19. Fantastic Four Issues #1-#102 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
20. Planetary by Warren Ellis
Most of the list (aside from Zippy) seem like something that would intruige me. Plus the library has at least half of them in their collection. But so far I have only read a few.
http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/nerveeditors/20comics/index.asp?page=1
1. Alias by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos
2. Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
3. "Bomb Scare," Optic Nerve #8 by Adrian Tomine
4. Hate by Peter Bagge
5. Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis
6. Heavy Liquid/100% by Paul Pope
7. Diary of a Teenage Girl by Phoebe Gloeckner
8. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
9. Blue Monday by Chynna Clugston
10. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
11. Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Daniel Clowes
12. Fortune and Glory by Brian Michael Bendis
13. Kabuki by David Mack
14. Love and Rockets by Los Bros Hernandez
15. Sandman by Neil Gaiman, et. al.
16. Miracleman by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, et al.
17. Zippy the Pinhead by Bill Griffith
18. Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai
19. Fantastic Four Issues #1-#102 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
20. Planetary by Warren Ellis
Most of the list (aside from Zippy) seem like something that would intruige me. Plus the library has at least half of them in their collection. But so far I have only read a few.
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