Luke Arnott's Blog
Posted by Luke Arnott
Last week's Feature Article, The Best Christmas Comics to Give to Collectors, just got an Editor's Choice Award. I've posted about some of my other ECs as they've been awarded, but here's the complete list (don't worry, most are on comics topics):
How To Write an Academic Statement of Intent
The Visual Parts of a Comic Book Page
An Introduction to Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar
Peter Bagge – The Neat Stuff Years
Nintendo Power's Mario, Zelda, and Metroid Manga
Six Classics of Comic Book Theory
Comic Book Copyrights in Gaiman v. McFarlane
Needless to say, check them out – I'm not the only one who thinks they're good.
Posted by Luke Arnott
This week's Feature Article, The Best Christmas Comics to Give to Collectors, profiles some classic issues and stories that have a holiday or gift-giving theme.
Christmas comics are actually rather rare. A dedicated Christmas issue every year is pretty silly when, like most comics, a title comes out monthly – one-twelfth of all the stories have to be holiday stories. And it's hard to keep finding excuses to have, say, the X-Men running around on Christmas Eve.
However, the comics herein have a holiday angle without getting too gimmicky, and are all excellent stories in their own right. As they say, makes a great gift...
Speaking of great gifts, I'll send out a big ol' caveat emptor regarding the controllers for the Guitar Hero games (read on in Guitar Hero World Tour's Drum Kit Problems). I've seen some friends go through return after return of their Guitar Hero instruments. It's a case of love the game, hate the tech. (Not unlike the red ring of death on the XBox 360.)
And even I think the original drum kit looks pretty lame when compared with something like the pro-quality Ion Drum Rocker, pictured below. Those aforementioned friends are so frustrated that they are seriously considering spending more on the high-end replacement drums than they had on the original game set.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
Out recently: Star Wars: Purge – Seconds to Die. This one-shot is written by prolific Star Wars comics scribe John Ostrander, with pencils by Jim Hall and inks by Alex Lei and Mark McKenna.
It's a serviceable tale of how Plo Koon's niece (also a Jedi) gets done in by Darth Vader in the aftermath of Order 66. The art is a bit tepid, which is unfortunate. Since there isn't much meat to the script – it should have been called Seconds to Read – some exceptional drafting would have helped with the pacing and overall effect.
Seconds to Die is a sequel of sorts to Star Wars: Purge from 2006, another one-shot by Ostrander. The original Purge had a better story, as well as outstanding art from Doug Wheatley. Wheatley is also the artist behind Star Wars: Dark Times, probably the best current Star Wars title, and easily on the short list of my all-time favorites from a galaxy far, far away.
For more Star Wars comics, check out Star Wars Comics for the Apple iPhone and The Star Wars: Dark Empire Trilogy.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
Today's Feature Article is on the adult comics of Wallace Wood. Wood's career suffered a decline, but it wasn't from drawing naughty pictures: rather, depression, alcoholism, and illness took a toll on his professional powers until he took his own life.
But it shouldn't be forgotten that when he was at the top of his game, Wallace Wood was a master: he worked with such greats as Will Eisner and Jack Kirby (making it into the halls of fame named after both of them, incidentally) and was one of the leading lights of the short-lived but brilliant EC comics line.
Likewise, his best adult comics stand out as genuinely funny; at the same time, his talent for creating alluring cheesecake pin-up style heroines can't be denied. But his last works remain pretty bad, thanks not to their content, but to Wood's declining powers. Unlike, say, Serpieri's Druuna, we can't overlook their one-dimensional situations on account of superior draftsmanship.
Still, Wood's legacy of technical skill, wry humor, and iconoclasm continue to inspire contemporary artists – check out Frank Miller's EC homage one-shot Tales to Offend (1997) for just one example.
For more racy comics, see Adult Comics for Fans of Literature and History and Adult Comics for Fans of Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
Today's Feature Article is on How the Value of Comic Books is Determined. It's the latest in our unofficial series on comic book collecting, preservation, grading, and similar topics.
In case you missed them, here's a list of the other articles to date:
What is the CGC or Certified Guaranty Company?
Comic Book Subscriptions – The Pros and Cons
What to Look For When Grading Comic Books
Comic Book Grading Systems and Terms
Comic Book Supplies for Collectors and Novices
On an unrelated note, the next article will be on The Adult Comics of Wallace Wood, so stay tuned!
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Posted by Luke Arnott
This week's Feature Article is on the brilliant Calvin and Hobbes strip, and some of its resultant merchandising troubles. Its creator, Bill Watterson, is a notorious recluse – the J. D. Salinger of comic strips. (Though Calvin and Hobbes is a lot better than Catcher in the Rye.)
I don't get into it in the article (aside from one throwaway line), but it's interesting to compare Calvin and Hobbes with its contemporary Garfield, which, already not in the same class artistically, totally went the merchandising-sell-out route. Even the idea of a Garfield CGI movie puts me off my lunch.
Of the time (1980s-1990s), I think only Gary Larson's The Far Side comes close to Calvin and Hobbes, and Larson also had the good sense to quit while he was ahead.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
ame across a nifty typographic source yesterday, the Daily Drop Cap blog (via Harper's). You can use and download initial capitals for giving blog posts a little extra kick, as here.
It's also a great place to see lorem ipsum placeholder text at work – nonsensical text based on a section of Cicero. From a distance, the text block looks like English, but since there are no real words, the meaning of text doesn't distract from how it looks on the page.
For more letter-related shenanigans, check out The Alphabet and The Devil's Dictionary.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
This week's Feature Article is on The Fantasy Art of Charles Vess. In addition to being a sought-after fantasy artist, Vess is a noted comics illustrator (in the fantasy genre, for the most part – though he did a little Spider-Man back in the '80s). He's won World Fantasy Awards for his Neil Gaiman collaborations (Sandman and Stardust), and his latest Eisner Award was for Jeff Smith's Rose.
Charles Vess fans should check out Drawing Down the Moon: The Art of Charles Vess, the upcoming retrospective from Dark Horse Comics. Dark Horse is releasing Drawing Down the Moon on December 23, 2009 – yes, just in time for Christmas. But you can preview the book before its release at the Dark Horse Comics website, just to make sure it's perfect for the fantasy art fans on your Christmas list before it's too late to find a different gift.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
As the latest Feature Articles in the Graphic Novelists section, we've got a two-part bio of comics legend Will Eisner:
The Spirit and Will Eisner's Early Comics
and
Will Eisner's Later Career and Legacy
Those who only know of The Spirit through the 2007 Frank Miller movie should definitely read up on the real thing. (Though I didn't find Miller's adaptation as bad as everyone said – it just felt way more like Sin City than anything Eisner ever did, with the good humor of the original characters replaced with Miller-esque ultra-violence.)
Those more interested in the technical side of comics, from Eisner's perspective (and others), should check out these Six Classics of Comic Book Theory.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
I'm usually not a huge fan of comics spun-off from big sci-fi franchises, whether they're "non-canon" or part of an official "expanded universe." The writing and art tends to be sub-par. But the folks at IDW have been cranking out some pretty good Star Trek limited series lately, and I've been following a few:
First, there's John Byrne's Romulans: Schism, picking up some story threads from previous Star Trek comics by Byrne. The Klingon-Romulan Alliance continues, with all its back-stabbing and subterfuge, and Byrne even manages to work the ever-anonymous Number One into the action (she's a Commodore now).
Spock Reflections, written by Scott and David Tipton, is a great flashbacky trip through the highs and lows of Spock's life, with a lot of well-realized moments. Trekkies will appreciate the nuances, though those with only a casual familiarity with Spock's long Trek history might find the story a bit slow. The art, by David Messina, Federica Manfredi, Arianna Florean, and Ilaria Traversi, is also quite good.
Finally, Star Trek: Nero tries to flesh out the motivations of Trek's latest space loon. I thought Eric Bana's character in Star Trek was badly underwritten, and Star Trek's writers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, weren't able to get all the stuff into the movie which perhaps they should have. They do get story credit on the Nero script by Mike Johnson and Tim Jones, which explains where Nero comes from a little more convincingly. More solid art by David Messina, with coloring by Giovanna Niro (no relation).
On an unrelated note, check out my review of Wii Fit Plus – just picked it up the other day, and it's lots of fun.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
The latest comics feature article: What are Digital Comics? Title's pretty self-explanatory, folks, though I hope it's helpful for those confused about the wide variety of digitally-distributed sequential art. Those looking to buy digital comics might be interested to read the earlier review of Star Wars comics for the iPhone.
Didn't have room in the article to give a blow-by-blow review of the differences between the Spider-Woman comic and motion comic versions, but there are some interesting things to note, while I'm on the subject.
There's a montage about two-thirds of the way through Spider-Woman #1 where Jessica Drew reminisces about her origins. The motion comic is interesting, in that Alex Maleev's art is replaced with that of other artists, from previous Spider-Woman comics. On the other hand, the original comic contains some extra narration, giving added background for the uninitiated, which the motion comic leaves out.
So buyers of either version get something special. Though I found the story a bit blah – there wasn't really enough there to get me excited about the upcoming installments.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
There's been a slight slowdown in Feature Article output these last two weeks (other commitments, I'm afraid), but thankfully, there has been an uptick in Contributing Articles to the Comics section. Check 'em out.
Also, last week I put up an article on The Pros and Cons of Comic Book Subscriptions, since subscriptions are sometimes the only way to stay on top of one's favorite storyline. And this week, I've got some info on the CGC, aka Certified Guaranty Company, as part of the semi-continuing series on Comic Book Grading.
If you haven't heard of CGC grading, but collect comic books, you may want to read up on it. There's been some controversy about grading criteria and the odd restoration that the CGC missed, but overall, it's good to have a standardized way to evaluate and seal up rare comics for good.
Though I do think it takes some of the fun out of collecting (and reading) comics, making them like oversized trading cards. Slabbing puts comics in the realm of other collectibles which can never be used or even touched for fear of lowering their value.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
Now that the kids are back in school, it's time to start worrying about grades. Serious comics collectors, on the other hand, should be worrying about their (comics) grades all year round. And there's doubtless more than a few youngsters out there more concerned about getting a 9.4 Near Mint on their back issues of Spawn than they are about making a B+ on their next math test.
In that spirit, we've got two new Feature Articles on grading comics:
Comic Book Grading Systems and Terms
and
Posted by Luke Arnott
As part of my ongoing effort to fill out the Comic Book Conventions sub-category, there are two new Feature Articles about wearing costumes and other dress-up tips for attending big fan gatherings.
The first, Entering Costume Contests at Comics Conventions, has tips for the more ambitious cosplayer, looking to win big at the con masquerade.
The second is Comfortable Costume Ideas for Comics Conventions, aimed at the more casual convention-goer.
The good news is that a lot of this great advice (if I say so myself) also applies to Halloween costumes – start planning now, folks! The bad news is that there's more alliteration in those article titles than I would normally like. Oh well.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
Thursday's Politico Playback (9/3/09) has a clip about Eliot Spitzer and Bill Clinton. Amid the laughs, nerds will recognize the ominous music playing behind the Spitzer footage.
It's the Borg-battling music from the late, great Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek: First Contact score. (Specifically, the "Red Alert" cue.) Re-election is futile?
Click for more funny Star Trek videos.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
This year's Fan Expo looks to be having another massive turnout – even with my press pass, it's been tough to get around. Today (Sunday) might not be as busy, especially since the costume contest was yesterday. But it's hard to say.
But this can have its advantages. When the celebs go across the convention floor, staffers have to make way; so if someone's shooing you aside, look fast! You just might have Bruce Campbell mosey on by you, like I did. The only downside is that my picture-snapping companions were too busy trying to get a shot of Leonard Nimoy to notice.
In other news: read the review of Marvel's Strange Tales #1, out next week.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
Time keeps slipping by these days – meaning more delays between blog posts. Anyway, here are the latest Graphic Novels/Comics feature articles:
Cultural Stereotyping in Tintin in the Congo
The Story of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1
Comic Book Supplies for Collectors and Novices
And also, fanboys might also be interested in this piece on Star Trek YouTube videos. Some very funny stuff there, especially those well-versed in the Trek mythos.
Posted by Luke Arnott
Funny how a blog post's theme can come together ... your faithful comics correspondent has been effectively bedridden this last week, and hasn't had a chance to post in some time. But I should note that there have been four new feature articles since the last post:
The first two are on Osamu Tezuka and his most famous manga creation, Astro Boy (or Mighty Atom). Although only Tezuka's early stuff is geared toward kids, he's had the reputation of being kid-friendly. It's much like his idol Walt Disney, who wasn't all that wholesome himself; and some of Disney's earlier masterpieces, like Dumbo or Fantasia, have some pretty trippy stuff for "kids' cartoons." But later generations (like those in the "Air Pirates" case) came to see Disney as treacle.
Doing a complete one-eighty, the newest feature articles are on comics for mature audiences. My Druuna censorship article from a few months back is still one of the most popular, so I thought I'd follow up with a guide to some of the more interesting (or, less sleazy and amateurish) examples of racy picture books. Since there was too much for one article, I divided them up into grown-up comics for the art-house crowd, and for the science-fiction and fantasy set.
Posted by Luke Arnott
Okay, so it doesn't have much to do with comic books. But with many comics fans heading back to school (the back-to-school commercials are already running, folks!), I thought I'd post about my essay writing articles. Like I used to tell my students, it's never too early to seek term paper help!
These are from an unofficial series on how to write an essay for literature courses, but much of the tips and info applies to other subjects. These articles can also help anyone writing essays about comic books, by the way.
How To Avoid Unintentional Plagiarism on Essays
How To Find Topics for Literature Term Papers
Asking Research Questions for Literature Essays
Finding a Research Problem for Literature Essays
Electronic Resources for Literature Essays
Doing Library Research for Literature Essays
Each in the series is self-contained, but you can read them in order, too. As I crank out more, I'll add them to the list here.
Posted by Luke Arnott
A rather heavy work week has made me remiss in my blog posts – my apologies ... or appy polly loggies, as they say in A Clockwork Orange. Why the cult movie nerd-speak? Well, just finished the latest feature article on Fan Expo Canada, which is on in about a month – will likely have some more on it after the fact. (If anyone has a particular facet they'd like to hear about, drop me a line.)
Also, some chatter on the Suite101.com writer's forums in the wake of the San Diego Comic-Con shows that there may be more comics convention-related articles appearing in the coming weeks. I can't make any promises, however ...
On the subject of conventions and whatnot, Marvel's 70th anniversary is August 11th, and there will be events at local comic shops, as well as comics creator appearances (and guys in costumes, too) at select Barnes & Noble stores in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Portland, and Seattle.
Finally, some other feature articles here on new comics from the past little while: I took a look at Jeff Smith's RASL, an excellent continuing series, and the beginning of Emily the Strange: The 13th Hour, which isn't quite in the same league, alas. You'll just have to click the links above, then read the reviews to find out why.
Posted by Luke Arnott
Here's an interesting piece comparing James Thurber and Charles Addams by John R. MacArthur, an editor at Harper's magazine. In addition to writing such high-school-English-class-required-reading as "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," Thurber, like Addams, was one of the iconic cartoonists for The New Yorker.
MacArthur's focus is on how each depicts the "beleaguered everyman" in his cartoons. He ultimately finds Addams, despite his macabre sensibilities, to be the warmer and more humane of the two (seems that way to me, too). If you haven't already, be sure to read up on the New Yorker cartoons of Charles Addams.
Posted by Luke Arnott
With the San Diego Comic-Con International this weekend, I thought I'd rummage through my old back issues to get some perspective on how comics artists and writers have satirized Fan Culture and Comics Conventions over the years. Enjoy!
(Also, I have to admit it's a good way to fill out the category here on Suite – when they were setting up the comics sub-categories before my FW tenure, it got put in, but alas, no one writes for it. A rather narrow topic, I think. It may be a while before categories can – if ever – be rearranged, for technical reasons. We'll just have to deal with it.)
But, we do have an article on the Comic-Con's background, so check it out. Reminisce about the old days, before Comic-Con was sold out months in advance, or before you had to enter a draw to stand in line to meet Stan Lee (like there will be this year).
Posted by Luke Arnott
This week, I've put up a little retrospective on the neo-classic miniseries Batman: Black and White. If you haven't read the stories from the original run, pick it up – especially if you can get your hands on the gorgeous hardcover edition (it even has a little ribbon bookmark, like a real tome!).
I think the concept got a little old, and by the third edition (out last year in paperback for the first time), the name talent wasn't quite as impressive as in the early days. Still, more interesting than three-quarters of the Bat-crap that gets churned out. Not a knock against the Dark Knight at all – it's just when there are so many Bat-titles continuously coming out, they can't all be gems...
Also, in the spirit of interesting superhero anthologies, just heard that Marvel's Strange Tales #2, coming in October, will have two covers by Peter Bagge, as well as a story by the cartoon master as well (The uninitiated can learn about him starting with Peter Bagge – The Neat Stuff Years).
Haven't had a preview of the book itself yet, but if it's half as good as Bagge's hilarious send-up in Star Wars Tales #20 a few years back (in which Jar-Jar Binks takes over the galaxy) it should be fun.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
The double-whammy of feature articles is a little late this week, but here they are: we've got a pair of technical pieces on the Visual and Written Parts of Comic Book Pages. Just as you wouldn't talk about poetry without learning the difference between a couplet and a quatrain, it's good to know your speech bubbles from your thought balloons.
Up next, Batman: Black and White (volume one, at least – as for two and three, we'll see how it goes). Also, possibly a history of TMNT.
Update: The Visual Parts of a Comic Book Page just snagged an Editor's Choice (that makes six!).
Posted by Luke Arnott
So, my unofficial goal has been to put out two new articles in the comics section per week, and the way things have been working out lately, it looks like they tend to go up on Sundays. This week is no different, folks.
The three-part series on Akira (starting with the Introduction to Akira) ends today with a wrap up of the last two volumes with a little bit of historical perspective thrown in. Find out what William Gibson, Star Trek, Transformers, and Star Wars have (tangentially, at least) in common with Otomo's landmark manga.
Speaking of Star Wars – how's that for a segue – the other comics feature article is on Star Wars: Dark Empire. It's sometimes hard to believe, after the gazillions of Star Wars comics that have been churned out by Dark Horse over the last two decades, that it all started there. Dark Empire came out at a simpler time, before the Star Wars expanded universe got all clogged with countless Secret Apprentices/Dark-side, Light-side flip-flops/ultimate Imperial weapons....
Posted by Luke Arnott
Recently up is the next feature article on Akira – hopefully, it'll be helpful for those who only know the Akira anime version, as Volume 3 is where the manga takes off on another tack completely. It's getting to be a real challenge to condense a few hundred pages of comics into a few hundred words of plot synopsis without losing all the details.
Check back soon for the conclusion of Akira, Volumes 5 & 6!
Speaking of conclusions, the feature series on Peter Bagge's Hate wraps up today. A retrospective of the Hate Annuals which followed the Hate regular series may be in the works, but a) your humble writer-blogger could use a break from these article series (especially with one more Akira to go), and b) he hasn't read all the Hate Annuals yet. But he'd like to, obviously.
What's ever lacking is, to quote Moby Dick, "Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience!"
Posted by Luke Arnott
Read about the fun (for scholars!) International Journal of Comic Art in my latest feature article. As with the piece on the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée, I'm trying to beef up the conventions section, which isn't getting a lot of articles written for it.
I admit to some personal bias, since IJOCA published an article of mine last year. But it's not like I get royalties. A (very) small part of the published paper can be found in a recent feature article here on Sin City.
Also in comics news: got a look at issue #1 of the new IDW adaptation of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Why Khan? Why now?
Well, IDW, current makers of Trek comics, is putting together a collection of all the comics adaptations of Star Trek movies. Thanks to licensing problems, Khan was the only one not to get the comics treatment at the time of release (back in 1982), so they've commissioned it to complete the set.
Alas, the art by Chee Yang Ong is a rather sketchy-looking and static. And Andy Schmidt's adaptation lifts most of the dialogue verbatim, which doesn't quite work, especially given the compression of the scenes.
It's a shame, since the kind of comic-book style adventure of the film itself ("KHAAAAN!") was one of the reasons it saved the franchise. But you wouldn't know it from this adaptation.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
The Graphic Novels/Comics Peter Bagge retrospective continues with part one on Hate: Buddy Does Seattle. While I'm a huge fan of all Bagge's stuff, and Hate in particular, I think this period is my favorite. Maybe it's because I've had my own share of deranged roommates over the years.
I'm also most partial to Bagge's art in the early-to-mid-Hate era. As I mention in the article, it's more refined than Neat Stuff, but still very expressionistic and at times surreal. The only possible downside is that non-comics fans might not see past the wild cartooning and appreciate the truly outstanding writing of the series. Hate is typical of "underground" or "alternative" comics (loaded terms) of the time, in that it's based on "relationships" (more loaded terminology) – but it's nothing like the work of, say, Adrian Tomine.
Anyone who thinks that comic books aren't capable of dealing with such interpersonal stuff realistically should read Hate, then remember that, at the same time, Friends was really big on TV. Six people that get along fine living together for years? Yeah, right. Then again, if I could afford a huge Manhattan apartment while waiting tables at a coffee shop, I'd be a lot more cheerful too...
Posted by Luke Arnott
As promised, the multi-part look at Akira begins today. Check back in the coming days and weeks as I take a look at Volumes 3 & 4, and later 5 & 6 of this whopping great manga.
If you haven't seen the movie, make sure you get the 2001 Pioneer version, which has vastly superior dubbing compared with the original English-language version from the '80s. The DVD also has helpful bonus features, such as graffiti translation – which was done in the English manga version. It will definitely help the uninitiated follow along (well, to a point...)
I remember watching the first video version back in the early 1990s, and not knowing what the hell was going on at all. This was, mind you, before the manga was available in English – in fact, Akira was largely responsible for the surge in interest in manga in North America at the time. Intelligible or not, the film was still a revelation for any kid hitting puberty in that pre-CGI era. And it's a shame that mature animation still isn't a mainstream reality outside of Japan.
In defense of the old Akira video, the guy who did the voice of Kaneda was the same guy who did the voice of Leonardo on the original Ninja Turtles cartoon. Pretty cool. Also goes to show how insular the voice-acting industry was at the time. Even as a kid, I remember thinking, "Hmmm... Starscream sounds an awful lot like Cobra Commander..."
Posted by Luke Arnott
Just a quick update – my latest article (for Graphic Novels/Comics, anyway) got an Editor's Choice award! It's about Peter Bagge's Neat Stuff.
This is the fourth such award I've received in this section, the others being, in reverse chronological order:
Nintendo Power's Mario, Zelda, and Metroid Manga
Six Classics of Comic Book Theory
Comic Book Copyrights in Gaiman v. McFarlane
So check 'em out, if you haven't already. Of course, that's not to say that the rest of the articles in Graphic Novels/Comics are bad – far from it! The contributing writers section also has fourteen Editor's Choice articles at last count. Just scroll down and look for the green checkmarks.
Also: Part One of a new series on Katsuhiro Otomo's classic manga Akira should be up in the next few days, followed by more on Peter Bagge's Hate. Stay tuned!
Update (July 7): The Visual Parts of a Comic Book Page just snagged an Editor's Choice (that makes six, including the non-comics-related Introduction to Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar. But don't worry, comics fans, Viking sagas have plenty of sex and violence – just like your favorite superhero rags – so you can go click on that one too!).
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Posted by Luke Arnott
So today's feature article is on Peter Bagge's early work in Neat Stuff – the beginning of a Bagge series which I'll follow up with a two-parter on Hate (the black and white Seattle years and the full-color New Jersey years). Perhaps even a follow-up on the Hate Annuals, time permitting.
Other sections of Graphic Novels/Comics need filling out too, so it may be a few weeks before all this gets up.
Anyway, if you're looking to find Bagge's old material (and you should be), the re-publication history of Neat Stuff is a bit confusing. As I mentioned in the article, most of Neat Stuff was collected in a number of books, with each collection based on a character or theme: Stupid Comics, Junior and Other Losers, Studs Kirby, and The Bradleys. Some, like The Bradleys, went on to new editions, while others, like Junior and Other Losers, went out of print.
Later, though, Fantagraphics re-re-released some of the material, this time in limited series form. The Bradleys and Junior got this treatment. So there are a number of sources for Bagge's early stuff, but there's plenty of overlap too. Don't get suckered into buying the same comics more than once!
PS: The Economist is publishing more comics-related articles lately; last week, it was the new Hergé museum, and now a bit on Stan Lee and superhero movies.
Posted by Luke Arnott
It's funny how research, or even just casual reading, leads us to new things. I was looking to do a short review of Icaro, a collaboration between Moebius and Jiro Taniguchi, as part of my ongoing efforts to beef up the manga section here. (Akira should be next, though it's a biggie...)
While doing some background on that, I discovered The Halo Graphic Novel – never knew there was one – which Moebius had a hand in as well. While Icaro was interesting, if not wholly satisfying, Halo felt like a cobbled-together cash grab. You can read about it in The Halo Graphic Novel review.
Now, the first time I played the original Halo, I was very impressed. But not by the story – after all, high-tech badass running through weird environments blowing away icky aliens is a trope as old as Doom, if not Metroid or even Space Invaders. It was the level design, music, and the fluidity of the combat that made the game stand out for me.
These are precisely the kinds of attributes which cannot be translated into the comic book medium; there has to be something else brought to the table. This can be done with some success – look at how the Alien movies (character driven, mind you! And the original was briefly co-designed by Moebius!) turned into a whole whack of solid, if not revolutionary, comics in its expanded universe.
Translation between media can work the other way, too: the first time I played Alien vs. Predator was the only time I was actually scared during a video game. Of course, Alien vs. Predator was turned back into not one, but two, crappy movies – they didn't cut out the parts that work in a video game (illogical re-spawns, avatars instead of dramatic characters), but are stupid in a movie.
But thankfully Moebius didn't have anything to do with that.
Also in the news: This week, a new Hergé museum opens in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, apparently even more high-minded than the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée. Read about it here.
Posted by Luke Arnott
Just posted a new article, this time on Krazy Kat's influence – alas, not nearly enough room to do the strip justice. It's a bit frustrating that Krazy Kat isn't as available as you'd expect, considering its importance (and, oh yeah, its quality). Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman, one of the better collections available on the subject, is a bit old and far from complete.
There was an excellent show at the Vancouver Art Gallery last year which highlighted Krazy Kat very well, called KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art. It's touring in truncated form in New York now, but they apparently dropped the comics angle (though "KRAZY" is still the title). If you get a chance to see the full show in the future, take it.
Anyway, it's been a few days since I posted any comics stuff: was busy with other writing, including this little model-making spin-off from my Star Trek researches of last week. Next up in the comics section should be a piece on the great Charles Addams.
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Posted by Luke Arnott
Today's new feature article is on John Byrne's recent Star Trek comics. I just saw the new Star Trek movie the other day, and had been reading Star Trek: Crew around the same time, so I thought it was pretty appropriate.
(Spoiler Alert!)
As for the film itself, I'm split: it's great to have a re-booted Trek after Enterprise got canceled, the new cast was better than I had hoped, and I can live with an "alternate universe" Star Trek. And Christopher Pike still ends up in a wheelchair.
(Those nerds out there with the Collector's Edition First Contact DVD can listen to the commentary track where Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore – who need no introduction if you're a Trekkie – essentially say that Star Trek had run out of steam by 2005, and needed some down time before someone else took a fresh crack at the franchise.)
There are some "buts" coming, though: I was disappointed that the philosophizing and moral dilemmas were scaled way back in the movie. (As a friend told me, "It was fun, but I'm not sure it was Star Trek") The villain was pretty lame – didn't we have renegade Romulans in the last mediocre film? When will they get the Romulans right? And (here's the biggest beef of all) with a big budget movie, why couldn't they hire some of the scientific advisors they used to have on the show? A supernova that destroys the galaxy, flying through a black hole – from the point of view of scientific plausibility, even a high school physics student can tell you that stuff is ridiculous, especially for a (once) well-researched series like Star Trek.
Anyway, getting back to Trek comics, you can read about IDW's prequel series to the movie, Star Trek: Countdown, on Suite101 starting here. I haven't read the comic yet myself, so I'm hoping it explains some details a little better....
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Posted by Luke Arnott
Yes, today's the day when we honor Mom – after all, if it weren't for Moms throwing out crappy comic books without asking us, the market for rare comics wouldn't be nearly as big! (But seriously, Happy Mother's Day!)
On a mostly unrelated note, check out my new write-up of the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée. Even Mom might like it. It's posted in the Comics Conventions section for two reasons: first, though it's not an ideal fit, it seems more appropriate than our other categories; and second, that section is looking pretty thin, and until we can get some reorganization going on the sub-categories, I thought I should do my best to get Conventions fleshed out a bit.
I also had an idea about doing a piece on fandom/conventions as satirized in comics and related media which I might get around to soon. And if any of you have any ideas, don't be shy...
Posted by Luke Arnott
I was just reliving the glory days of reading the amusing (if shamelessly self-promoting) Nintendo manga of the 1990s: you can read about it here.
Had a little conundrum along the way. The artist who created the Super Metroid manga in Nintendo Power was Benimaru Itoh (he also, incidentally, drew the Star Fox manga adaptation around the same time, but I didn't have room to get into that in the article).
Now, there's an Ashura Benimaru Itoh listed as a performer on the Mario & Zelda Big Band Live CD (2003). I suspect it's the same guy, but couldn't find any reliable confirmation. If anyone knows of a credible source one way or the other, please let me know – it'd be quite the nerdy piece of trivia, if true.
Posted by Luke Arnott
Greetings Comics Fans!
I've just been made Feature Writer for Comics and Graphic Novels here at Suite, and as part of that, I'll be reviving the comics blog and trying to widen the scope of the comics articles on the site. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any comments or requests for where we can go from here.
For the time being, I'll let you know what's on my comics reading agenda: I just finished off Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls (a bit talky in parts, I'm afraid), and I'm planning on taking a look at Frank Miller's Robocop, my interest in it being piqued after doing a little digging on Miller and Hollywood here. After that, who knows?
My next article will likely be on Nintendo Manga, followed by censorship in Heavy Metal, so check back soon!
Cheers,
Luke