Hatgirl says "Hi"

Eeep!

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:04:06 GMT

I've just spent the week packing, unpacking and packing again. Also watched 2 seasons of Bones. Good grief, to think I nearly went to Comic Con without knowing about the "Zack-lash"

The plane awaits.

"The Contract With God Trilogy" - Will Eisner

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:06:00 GMT

I just finished Will Eisner's The Contract with God Trilogy. It collects his three Dropsie Avenue graphic novels - A Contract with God (containing 4 short stories), A Life Force and Dropsie Avenue. The A Contract with God short stories collection was a major milestone in comic book history, as it popularised the phrase "graphic novel" when it was published in 1978.

Unlike the majority of comics, The Contract with God Trilogy doesn't involve superheroes, spaceships, monsters or crimefighters of any sort. It chronicles the lives of the very ordinary inhabitants of a Bronx neighbourhood, Dropsie Avenue. The art manages to both simple and complex at the same time - take a look at the excerpt available at Amazon.com to see what I mean.

Personally, I think it is an amazing artistic work and I'm very glad I read it. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it, though. Descriptions of the day-to-day lives of ordinary people don't hold much interest for me. I don't feel that way just about comics, I've never enjoyed that style of book, film or TV show (and my friends might say, that style of conversation). But just because I don't like reading Maeve Binchy doesn't mean I think her novels should be eradicated from the bookshelves. I'm very glad something of this quality exists for those want something other than tights 'n capes in their comics.

Sparkles!

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:42:31 GMT

Hah! I actually have a purple D20 with sparkles.

Marvel Pocketbooks

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:17:33 GMT

Along with standard graphic novels, my local library has many of the Marvel Pocketbooks. These are are small, paperback-sized reprints of about a half-dozen classic Marvel comics. They're just perfect for throwing in a bag and reading on public transport. Through them I've been able to read classic Marvel storylines for the first time - Stan Lee and John Romita's Spider-man run, Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men and Stan Lee/Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four. As a recovering Marvel-aholic I already knew the gist of the stories, but actually reading the dialogue and seeing the artwork is something special. Plus, I like laughing hollowly whenever Peter says he couldn't imagine life without Gwen Stacey. Mwahahahaha...

The one bad thing about the Marvel Pocketbook range is that often poor typesetting means the edge is cut off the panels. As dialogue bubbles are usually at the edge of a panel, this results in missing letters and it can be tricky to decipher the text. If I had bought these I'd be furious, but as I got them from the library I'm merely peeved. Still, I much prefer these smaller colour reprints to the usual black-and-white option, and they're a lot more portable than a scan.

Eisner Awards: Best Cover Artist

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:00:18 GMT

Thanks to my amazing googling skills, I was able to check out all of the Eisner 2009 nominees for Best Cover Artist.

Gabriel Bá: Casanova (Image), The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse) ~ His style doesn't particularly appeal to me, but I can certainly see why he was nominated. These comics really stand out from the crowd. Umbrella Academy #4 , Casanova #1
Jo Chen: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity (Dark Horse), Runaways (Marvel) ~ Ooh, pretty. So very pretty. I want them. Oh wait, I already have them. It seems I always pick the Jo Chen cover if I have the option. Buffy #20 , Serenity #2
Amy Reeder Hadley: Madame Xanadu (Vertigo/DC) ~ I hadn't heard of this comic before. The covers are rather appealing, and make me consider flipping through the book itself. Madame Xanadu #2 , Madame Xanadu #3
James Jean: Fables (Vertigo/DC), The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse) ~ Interesting style! Although I haven't read the comics, I did recognize some of these covers. Umbrella Academy #5 , Fables #76
Matt Wagner: Zorro (Dynamite), Grendel: Behold the Devil (Dark Horse) ~ Oooh, spiffy. Clear and elegant. Exactly what I like. Zorro #6 , Grendel: Behold the Devil #2

My favourite by a mile is Jo Chen. But I would give an approving nod if Matt Wagner won.

Dammit, the pretty images have done their job. Now I want to read them all.

WE3

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:30:43 GMT

It turns out that my local library is full of comics. And whoever is choosing the stock has great taste - Sandman, The Dark Knight Returns, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen... all my favourite angsty greats. Fortunately for my wallet they also have many of the comics I intended to read as part of my pre-ComicCon Education Program. Thanks to this treasure-trove I have been able to form many new Opinions - I don't like Preacher, The Ballad of Halo Jones was great and Y: The Last Man is the best thing since sliced bread. And I'll be able to start up conversations at Comic-Con with "So, do you think there'll ever be another issue of Fell?"

Last time I was at the library I picked up WE3, written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quitely. It's the story of three animals that have been turned into cyborg weapons systems by a government agency. Think of it as a cross between Homeward Bound and Universal Soldier. It was fantastic. Of course, the problem with stories that are done well is that the upsetting scenes get stuck in your brain and won't get out. This certainly falls into that brilliant/traumatic category. But I'm surprised I liked it so much, considering how much I loathed their run on X-Men (if a Marvel representative uses the phrase "radical new direction" at Comic-Con, I'll be the one tossing a shoe at him).

Anyway, WE3 - two thumbs up. Just don't blame me if someone catches you sniffling.

"The Broken Sword" - Poul Anderson

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:59:18 GMT

Among a long list of Comic-Con "Oh, no. What if...?" concerns is "What if I had to admit that I didn't know about a well-known book/comic/film/TV show/blog/thing-I-don't-even-know-the-name-of-because-I-am-so-clueless?" It's like that nightmare where you're sitting an exam that you haven't studied for, except in my case the examiner is Wil Wheaton and he is politely appalled that I haven't read any Lovecraft.

To ensure this nightmare doesn't come true, I have decided to read and watch everything Fandom-related before Comic-Con. Some have suggested this is an unachievable goal. To them I say "pah!"

As part of this education program, I just finished Poul Anderson's "The Broken Sword". It was published in 1954, the same year as Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings", and was such an early example of the Fantasy novel that Anderson felt he needed to start it with an explanation about why he was mixing elves and Vikings (awww....). He did a re-write of the book in 1971, but I read the original version thanks to Orion's Fantasy Masterworks series.

I wasn't crazy about the book. It was well written, well paced and groundbreaking for its time. But it was like a Shakespearean tragedy or a slasher film - I wasn't wondering if someone would die, I was wondering if anyone would live. From the very start, Anderson let you know that the best any of the characters could hope for would be a quick death. This seems to be what devotees find appealing about the novel, compared to Tolkien's slightly cheerier (and therefore less "realistic") outlook. What can I say, I like cheery.

I was curious about the differences between the 1954 and the 1971 version and found a great review and analysis of the differences at Black Gate. It has tables!

I'm glad I read it, though. It's certainly not the worst book I've read this year (I'm looking at you, "Dandelion Wine").

Eisner Awards: Best Digital Comic

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:36:50 GMT

One of my missions at Comic-Con is to Dress Up Fancy And Go To The Eisner Awards. It will combine the opportunity to gawk at the folks whose names I see scribbled in the corner of my favourite comics with the opportunity to wear a fancy dress. Perfect, you might think. But the event is usually about 3 hours long and both the announcers and prizewinners are mainly people who could legitimately use the phrase "Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking..." Moments like this will be few and far between. To stop myself being bored silly, I have decided to have an Opinion about every category. There are 26 categories, but fortunately I am very opinionated.

I'm not going to try to predict who'll win, or who should win. I am notoriously bad at judging things objectively. I'm more likely to give the rosette to the dog with the happy face and an inside-out ear than actual best-of-breed. But that won't stop me from having an opinion, no sir-ee Bob.

Naturally enough, one of the categories I could quickly check off my list was that of "Best Digital Comic". The 2009 nominees are:

Bodyworld, by Dash Shaw ~ Eh. I couldn't connect to the characters, wasn't interested in what would happen next and didn't read past chapter 4. The art didn't grab me, but I did like the way he randomly stuck in maps and game rules and so on. The presentation of the comic on the website was fine - it didn't take too long to load and didn't detract from the story. On the plus side, I've just realized how cool a name "Dash" is. Must name something Dash.

Finder, by Carla Speed McNeil ~ This is an odd one. The comic at the link seems to be one story from an ongoing saga - not that this is immediately obvious from the site. As a stand-alone story it is confusing and, worst of all, not actually finished. But I liked the art, and the world-building was interesting enough that I certainly intend to track down the dead-tree collections. Of course, I enjoyed Marvel's Onslaught plot-line and have never had a problem following the story in Lost, so that probably means most people will find the confusion off-putting (wusses). The presentation of the strip was nice - it loaded fast and page-turning was intuitive. There was a fair bit of scrolling needed to view the whole page, though.

The Lady's Murder, by Eliza Frye ~ Oh, I did like this one. A great story, told in a great way, with great art. And the presentation of the strip was simple but effective.

Speak No Evil, by Elan Trinidad ~ My favourite of the lot. This is why I love science-fiction. Images from this comic are still creeping me out 24hrs after reading it, which is always a good sign. The art was as much a part of the story as the dialogue. And the presentation was perfect - no scrolling required to see the whole "page", simple clicks anywhere on the image "turned the page" and it had a clear navigation bar underneath. Pretty much perfect.

Vs. by Alexis Sottile & Joe Infurnari ~ Uh. Not sure what was going on here. Rhyming is cool, I guess. As is "breaking the 4th wall"-style art. But I'm still a bit confused about what was going on. He had bad neighbours? The presentation was awkward, as it takes a bit of poking about to find the navigation bar.

So I have my official Opinion - "Speak No Evil" was my favourite, followed by "The Lady's Murder". Two thumbs up for both.

My Comic-Con Pilgrimage

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:34:48 GMT

I'm going to the San Diego Comic-Con this year.

As a general rule, I love living in Ireland. There are no poisonous animals and death-by-weather is very uncommon. Whatever problems are caused by a lack of vision from Irish shopkeepers (why does no-one stock bamboo clothes?) can be easily solved through a combination of the Internet, my credit card and the post office. But I must admit, we don't have much in the way of SF&F Fandom conventions.

Sure, we get the occasional Big Name dropping by - authors might add us on as part of a European signing tour or universities persuade guest speakers to turn up in exchange for a "Thank you for Visiting Us" award. There's Octocon and a fair few gaming cons. But these are small, intermittent events, and it is getting to the point where I recognise most of the attendees.

So I'm going to the San Diego Comic-Con, the ultimate Fandom experience. Over five glorious days, I will attend panels on every topic under the sun, see everyone who is anyone and queue, queue, queue. I can't wait!

As it is possible Interesting Things may happen to me, I shall be blogging for a bit.