(More to come)

Maus as directed by Julie Taymor.  Maus is a masterpiece.  It’s the only comic to win the Pulitzer for literature.  And it’s probably unfilmable.  But if it ever is, Taumor is probably the only director who could pull it off.  I know her last comic adaptation, the Spider-man musical, didn’t work out so well, but Maus is far more in her wheelhouse.  Most of her work both on screen and stage has dealt with death and or tragedy.  She often uses masks and puppets to create moving and effective imagery, dealing with some of the darkest aspects of the human experience.  Maus is a holocaust survivor’s story as told by his son.  The Jews are depicted as anthropomorphized mice and the Nazis are cats.  Masks are a running motif throughout the comic.  Maus isn’t really a project I see movie producers clambering to make happen, but I’d be fascinated to see it.

Y the Last Man as directed by JJ Abrams.  In YLM a mysterious plague kills every male person and animal on Earth except for one man and his pet monkey.  The comic follows the last man on earth as he and a few companions travel through the ruins of society (the loss of half the world’s population overnight, caused some serious chaos) trying to figure out what happened.  This is complicated by the fact that he is the most valuable commodity on the planet, and is pursued by numerous governments and organizations.  JJ Abrams is one of the most successful television creators in recent memories.  He has a hand in such diverse projects as Lost, Felicity, Alias, and Fringe.  He’s recently had big screen success with Super 8 and the Star Trek reboot.  He’s got the chops when it comes to action, as well as suspenseful conspiracies (aside from pretty much all of the later seasons of Alias).  What he’s really good at is getting you really invested in characters in the midst of some crazy circumstances, and while the premise of YLM was great, what made it a must read were Yorick, Agent 355 and Dr. Mann.

Death as directed by Neil Gaiman.  Technically I’m cheating here.  At one time Neil was set to direct an adaptation of his comic Death the Time of Your Life.  But it seems to have fallen by the wayside.  I would love to see it revived.  Gaiman’s Death is one of the most original and compelling characters to come out of comics in the last twenty years.  And if anyone can get an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s work right, it’s Neil Gaiman.

Fables as directed by Peter Jackson.  Fables is a big story, it’s been running for over a decade and more than a hundred issues.  There are hundreds of major characters and thousands of secondary characters.  I actually don’t want to see a direct adaptation (although I think Jackson could handle it).  The Fables universe is expansive.  I’d like to see an original story set in the Fables universe, featuring some of the less used characters (like what creator Bill Willingham did in the Fables novel Peter and Max).  Jackson have proven that he can create fully realized fantasy worlds.  And he’s done darker stories.  I think he can balance humor, magical elements of the series, while not shying away from it’s creepy side.  I know he’d give us a fairy tale that didn’t reek of Disney.

Runaways as directed by Joss Whedon.  What?  You didn’t think I’d let Joss get away with directing only one comic book movie, did you?  Runaways is one of my all time favorite super hero comics (though the kids in Runaways aren’t traditional super heroes).  With a bunch of sarcastic, smart, angsty, pop culture reference making teenagers with superpowers at its center, Runaways felt like a spiritual successor to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Whedon was such a fan that he wrote an arc of the series after creator Brian K. Vaughan left.  Joss is the only choice to direct in my opinion.  It must happen.  But I’ll be generous and let Joss finish up promoting the Avengers, film  the next two films in the Big Damn Serenity Trilogy, and the Dr. Horrible sequel, and and Goners, and finally give us the long promised Ripper tv series, before he starts work on Runaways.  I’m nothing if not considerate.

I really like Milhouse, he’s utterly pathetic yet often misguidedly optimistic.  I find him really lovable (This is the same reason I harbor a deep affection for Butters on South Park and Andy Bernard on the Office).  I don’t yet love Theon in that manner, but if he keeps being so adorably pitiful, I might.

And to help that along, here are pictures of Theon accompanied by some of my favorite Milhouse quotes.

Milhouse: This is where I come to cry

Milhouse Van Houten: Well, I used a rhyming dictionary, but it only gives you options. The job of the poet is to say, “this one, I guess.” 

Milhouse Van Houten: Ow! It’s stuck! Now I’ll have a quizzical expression all day. 

Milhouse: Remember the time he ate my goldfish? And you lied and said I never had goldfish. Then why did I have the bowl, Bart? Why did I have the bowl?

Milhouse: I like being under your shadow! It’s nice and cool! 

Theon: Unchain me, and I will serve you.

(I did a search for Theon quotes and that was the very first thing to pop up.  I think that about sums it up, don’t you?)

Now I’m wondering, if Theon is Milhouse, which GoT character is Ralph Wiggum?

I bring this up not to malign a well beloved book (I’m not going to name the book, since it has a devoted fan base and I don’t want them to come after me.  Besides I’m not that far in, they could get more complex later, I don’t want to judge too early), but because I fear crafting well rounded villains is one of my biggest weaknesses as a writer.  I ended up getting into a fascinating discussion on a messages board for writers about what makes a well written villain.

Everyone had a different answer, but a few things came up most often.  Motivation, a compelling villain should do their villainous deeds for clear reasons, other than they’re EVIL, and or because the writer needs them to do it to move the plot along.  Villains that think of themselves as the hero of the story, was also mentioned.  Though others said they enjoyed a villain that enjoys being evil.

It got me thinking about the villains that stand out for me, the villains that I’ll never forget.  So me being me, I made a list!

1) Scorpius from Farscape, both the television series and comics. 
Scorpi has a lot going for him as far as villainy.  He is the product of a interspecies rape.  Tortured for being an abomination by his father’s species, his incompatible DNA made him weak and in constant unbearable pain.  He learns to overcome his weaknesses, and tolerate the pain, with one goal in mind, destroying the species that made his life hell.  And he’ll do anything to accomplish it.  Clear motivation, check.
He also sees himself as the hero of the story, ridding the universe of the violent, oppressive Scarrans.  Yet he also obviously relishes his scheming and backstabbing.  To top it all off he has one of the scariest appearances ever put on screen, an emaciated corpse like body clad in S&M style leather, made all the more creepy by his patrician accent.

2) Pobadiah Unkshuss from Moonshadow.

I don’t know how many people will have heard of him, or the comic he appears in, but he is one of the most memorable villains of all time for me.  His full title is the Pious Rabbi Pobadiah Unkshuss.  Though he calls himself a rabbi and wears the robes of a Cardinal, it’s all an act to make him appear powerful and respectable.  Looking like a cross between the Grinch and a lizard, everything about him oozes evil, and I was screaming for him to get his comeuppance.

3) Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter.

Bellatrix came up a lot in the discussion.  She’s just crazy, and a zealot, and scary as all get out.

4) Iago from Othello.

He taps into everyone’s fear that someone close to you might be secretly out to get you.  He is the ultimate manipulator.  He manages to get his enemy to kill his innocent wife and then himself, all while keeping his own hands clean.  And why?  Because the guy got the promotion he wanted.  In other words, Iago is slightly disappointed, cue utter decimation of rival.  That is a bad dude.
(By the way, murder is not an okay response to adultery, real or faked.  Ahem–Othello.)

5) Vizzini from the Princess Bride.

Never go against a Scillian when death is on the line!  Nuff said.

6) Jack Chili from the Bones of the Moon.
If very few people will have heard of Pobadiah, almost no one will have heard of Jack Chili, the main antagonist of one of my favorite books.  Of all the names on this list, he is the one that gives me nightmares.  He is basically a boogie man, hunting the protagonist, Cullen, in her dreams. There is no real explanation for why he is after her, and he has the power to do or be anything.  That sounds like a pretty flat, cliched character, but the execution is terrifying.  He is literally inside her head, and can access everything she is afraid of.  I’m really scared of Jack Chili, you guys.

7) The Joker, from Batman.

Clowns are scary anyway, but make one violent, unpredictable, and psychotic, and you’ve got one of the most iconic villains of all time.

Honorable mentions form the board: Maleficent, Darth Vader, Voldemort, and the Captain from Pan’s Labyrinth.

So who makes you want to hide under the covers?

batman

superman

spider-man

You can see details of each one here.

It’s available in paperback here:

Horror, Humor, and Heroes Vol. 3: New Faces of Science Fiction [paperback]

And on kindle here:

Horror, Humor, and Heroes Vol. 3: New Faces of Science Fiction [kindle]

The kindle edition is only $2.99, which is a pretty good deal for 24  stories.  Please note, I’m not making a dime off the sales of the anthology, I just want as many people that might want to read it to know about it.

We will return to our (not) regularly scheduled comics rambling, ranting, and spoofing in the next post.

In order for the post not be enormous I put in the pages as thumbnails.  You’ll have to click on each one to read it.

Poor Giles.  I hope it made someone smile (other than me).

I’m not trying to besmirch Liza Minelli in any way, she seems perfectly nice, if a bit eccentric.  I just can’t think of an instance in a sci fi film or tv show where a female character with extremely short black hair was benevolent, can you?

Part of the cast was on hand at the Disney Expo thingy this weekend, where they showed four minutes of footage from the upcoming Avengers movie. I haven’t been able to find a video of it online, but here is a good description of it, as well as an article about the event.

I’m excited for the movie, mainly because it’s being written and directed by Joss Whedon. I don’t think it’s a secret that I love just about everything he’s done and it feels like there hasn’t been much output from other than a few issues of Buffy season eight, since Dollhouse went off the air. That would be because he’s been busy prepping a major tentpole motion picture. I think it has the potential to be fantastic. In his one previous big screen work Serenity, he delivered exciting action sequences that furthered the plot,while not losing sight of the characters, while also giving them strong emotional arcs and some really fun dialog. That is exactly what I want out of the Avengers.

I havent seen any of the movies introducing the individual team members, except the first Iron Man. Which I quite enjoyed. I think it’s a shame that the core of the team has been established and cast already, I would have liked some Whedon regulars in the cast. As it is the closest we’ve got to a Whedon connection is Cobie Smulders, whose How I Met Your Mother castmate Neil Patrick Harris starred in Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. At least as far as we know. Maybe he’ll find places for Nathan Fillion, Amber Benson, James Marsters, Summer Glau, Alyson Hannigan, Adam Baldwin, and Felicia Day. Yeah, that’s a super team I would get behind.

(the poster is most definitely not an official poster, but it the best of the fan made ones I saw.  I could not find an artist to credit it to.  If anyone knows, leave it in the comments and I’ll include it.)

That, if you can’t tell (and OMG how could you?) is supposed to be Harley Quinn!
My reaction was something like the title of this post but less articulate.
I love Harley Quinn! Love her! This isn’t her!
I don’t object to the idea of character redesigns. In fact I’ve liked quite a few of the ones I’ve seen for the new DC so far. But this is to put it mildly an abomination!

The redesigns were supposed to update the look, but stick to the essence of the character. What about this is Harley?
As a refresher this is what Harley has more or less looked like for about two decades.

Isn’t she cute? She’s spunky, kooky, violent, and yes sexy. She is dressed very much like the clown archetype that inspired her name.

She isn’t a skank! She doesn’t look like she is about to eat your liver. She might, but she wouldn’t telegraph it like that. She isn’t in danger of contracting a venerial disease anytime she sits down.
I wouldn’t have cared if DC introduced this thing as a new character. I probably wouldn’t have bought the book she appears in, but to each their own. If they want to publish this character then fine, just don’t call her Harley Quinn! Call her Lady Wetdream vonTrollop derGonerrhea and be done with it. And leave my Harley alone, you bastards!!!!!!!

This is apparently a picture of Theodore Roosevelt, taken when he was attending Harvard.   I’ll take the internet’s word for it, but all I can see is Wolverine.

I never went to college, let alone Harvard, so I’ll leave it to someone else to determine if this is evidence that it has changed a lot, or not at all since then.

On the Day Batman’s Parents Died

A poem by me

On the day Batman’s parents died

It was Christmas

It was New Year’s Eve

It was Halloween

It was Bruce’s birthday

They went to the movies (it was Zorro)

They went to the opera

They went to the ballet

They went to the movies (it was not Zorro)

Little Bruce’s mother scolded him

Little Bruce told his father he hated him

His father hit his mother

His mother told his father she was pregnant again

Bruce pretended to be the Lone Ranger

Bruce’s mother read to him from Alice in Wonderland

Bruce’s father dressed up like a bat

Bruce’s butler stayed home with a cold

A black cat crossed their path

A clown juggled for pennies

A crow died

A criminal got away

There was a full moon

There was no moon

It was everyday

It was the only day

This was inspired by the fact that every Batman comic I’ve read  or movie or tv show I’ve seen, has set every flashback to Bruce Wayne’s childhood on the day his parents were murdered.  Of course each one contradicts the last.  But why not?  It all happened.  It is the only day that matters.

Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #051 (47.3 MB, 98 minutes)

Marty grills Jason’s encyclopedic knowledge of Doctor Who for details and history of Doctor Who comics, and then we discuss The Ten Doctors and the Torchwood Babiez. Jason mentions in passing that there is a podcast about Doctor Who comics. Maybe he’ll post a link in the comments, or you could start your search for it at the Doctor Who Podcast Alliance. We make sure Jason plugs his daily doctor who blog over at Doctor Who Every Day.

Much ado is made about the forthcoming Wonder Woman TV atrocity.

Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #050 (35 MB, 75 minutes)

I picked this book up at the event I attended last week.  I have been very eager to read it for several reasons.  The first being that Niffengger is one of my favorite authors.  Second, this is her first comic, and as you know if you read this blog, I love comics!  Lastly, it is about books and the role they play in in a person’s life.  And I love books too, of all kinds, pure prose, illustrated, memoir, essays, fantasy, humor, children’s, ebooks, and countless others.

The Night Bookmobile is unlike Niffenegger’s two previously published graphic pieces.  The Three Incestuous Sisters and The Adventuress were both stories told in brief poetic sentences accompanied by equally dreamlike, evocative illustrations.  The Night Bookmoblie is different to the point that if you did not know who the author of each was and put them next to each other, you probably would not guess they were done by the same person.

The story shares the magic realism themes of the other two, but is told in a far more straight forward manner, and the art is much more precise and grounded.  I don’t consider that a bad thing, I think this is the strongest of her three graphic works.  The other two are lovely to look at, and to muse on the narrative, but the Night Bookmobile pulls you into the story in a way the other two don’t.

The story is that of a young women who while on a late night walk, after a fight with her boyfriend, stumbles upon an RV calling itself the Night Bookmoblie.  She steps inside to discover it is bigger than it appeared and is filled with books.  But they are not just any books, these are every book she has read over the course of her life.  Not just books she owns, but everything she had ever borrowed from a library or friend, everything read for school, or read and discarded.  The Bookmoblie also has a catalog of every magazine, newspaper, pamphlet, road sign or cereal box she ever read as well.  It’s not mentioned, but I am sure it also has a database of every email and webpage also.  The discovery changes the way she reads, always aware that she is adding to the library each time she opens the book.  She becomes obsessed with finding the  Bookmobile again.

The art is incredibly detailed and true to life.  It compliments the story perfectly.  One particular panel, a close up of the a shelf of books in the Bookmoblie was particularly compelling.  She recreates the spines of a collection of children’s books with nearly impossible accuracy, it is clear it was done by hand and it is a wonder to behold.  I was drawn to examine each one and felt the same tingles of recognition when I spotted one I had read as a child that the protagonist was experiencing.

The story was originally published as a prose story for an anthology.  She later interpreted it into a comic for the UK’s  the Guardian.  I think it is especially suited to the medium, since the imagery is so vivid.  The book was published by Abrams, with as much attention to detail and artistry as the material deserves.  If you can’t tell by now, I really liked it and highly recommend picking it up

You can listen to it here,

http://www.wbez.org/sites/default/files/story/audio/2011-April/2011-04-16/amp110412cplneil-gaiman-and-audrey-niffenegger.mp3

Or if you would rather enter yourself (and why wouldn’t you?) you can do that here.

I was one of six hundred people who showed up at the Cindy Pritzker auditorium for the chance to see them. While in line, and later in the auditorium waiting for the talk to start I was pleased to see many people were passing the time with real, honest to goodness paper books, rather than phones or ereaders (I saw several of those as well).  Most people either had Neverwhere or another of Gaiman’s books, or one of Niffenegger’s.  I was severely tempted to get up and do a survey of the audience to find out what they were reading, in order to get recommendations.  Instead I began reading Lev Grossman’s the Magicians, and was thoroughly engrossed in it, by the time the guests of honor took the stage.

When they were introduced, the mention of the upcoming episode of Doctor Who written by Neil got its own round of applause.  Incidently, for the first time ever I noticed billboards advertising the new season on BBCamerica, up at train stations on my way to the event.

Before the talk began I bought a signed copy of Neil’s poem, Instructions, illustrated by frequent collaborator Charles Vess.  I also bought the Night Bookmobile, a short story of Audrey’s that she adapted into a comic.  I will probably write a review once I have read it.

The talk was very interesting.  Below I will list what I thought were the highlights.  I intended to ask them a question, but when the time came I was struck with the sudden doubt that I could project my voice well enough to be heard.  I can be rather soft spoken.  Eventually I rose my hand anyway (people much further back in the room were being heard just fine) but I didn’t get called on.  I sent my question into Neil’s blog, maybe he will answer it.

Highlights as I remember them:

*Neil detailed the origins of Neverwhere.  He said he had read a book by Gene Wolfe (I forgot to write down the title) that featured Chicago in a way that made the city feel like a character.  Similarly he read Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin, that did the same for early twentieth century New York.  He suggested to an editor of his that someone should do book like that about London.  The editor said “why don’t you do it?”  He was taken aback, he thought he was giving the editor an idea to give to a “real writer” He didn’t say when this happened but it was either when he was still a journalist or just beginning to write comics.  He didn’t do anything with the idea at that point, but it was planted in his brain.

A few years later he ran into his friend, English actor/comedian, Lenny Henry, who mentioned that he had spoken to the BBC about doing a fantasy miniseries, possibly about warring tribes of homeless people in London.  He asked Neil if he wanted to write it.  Neil said yes, then went home and wrote a letter to Lenny saying that he didn’t want to write about tribes of homeless people in London.  Because he said he could make being homeless seem really cool, and he didn’t want to be responsible for a kid in Dorset (I don’t remember if that was the exact example he gave) running away from home, to be a “cool” homeless person.   Instead he wrote an outline of what became the BBC version of Neverwhere.

*He said that he usually uses a working title until he thinks of something better.  But that he usually doesn’t come up with anything better and so one day he winds up with a book in his hands called Neverwhere, and he thinks “why?”

*When asked how he came up with Coraline, he said when his daughter Holly was around four, she would come home from nursery school, find him at his type writer, and dictate stories to him.  They were about little girls who got locked in cellars, or whose mothers got replaced by witches that looked exactly like them.  He thought he should buy some ghost stories for her.  He went to his local book shop, and asked if they had anything really scary for little kids.  They had nothing of the kind.  And so he decided to write that kind of book himself.

*Asked about why he wrote Neverwhere as an all ages book.  Neil said he doesn’t know what age group a book will appeal to until after it is published and he finds out who is reading it.  He said that when he sent Coraline to his agent, she called him asking, “Do you honestly want me to send this to Harper Collins as a children’s book?” He asked why not, and she said it gave her nightmares.  He asked her to read it to her two young daughters, if they liked it then send it as a children’s book.  If they were turned into gibbering messes then–(he sort of shrugged there).  His agent read it to her her daughters, at the time seven and five.  They liked it, and so it went ahead as planned.  A few years ago, he attended a stage musical addaptation of Coraline.  He happened to be seated next to his agent’s younger daughter, by then fourteen.  He told her that Coraline got published because she wasn’t scared by it.  Her response was that she was terrified, but knew if she let on she wouldnt get to find out what happened next.

*Someone asked something to do with both Audrey and Neil working in visual mediums, as well as prose.  Sorry don’t remember what the exact question was.  Audrey said she often comes up with an image first, then writes as a way of figuring out what the story behind it is.  For example with the Time Traveler’s Wife, she thought of the title, then the image of an old woman sitting on a porch with a cup of tea, waiting for something.
Neil said that writing comics made him much better at describing things, because if he could not adequately describe an image, the artist couldn’t draw it.

*An audience member said she was in an American literature class in which a faction of the students were studying American Gods as non-canonical literature.  She asked him what he thought of the possibility of American Gods becoming part of the accepted curriculum.  He said he thinks authors should have the safety of being dead for a good amount of time before their books start being taught.

*On the topic of American Gods.  He said that the are places in Europe that are ancient and feel sacred.  And on them people built things like Stone Henge.  There are also places like that in America, but here we build giant balls of twine, or replicas of the worlds biggest wheel of cheese circa 1977.  And people visit, and get their pictures taken in front of them, and leave shaking their heads wondering what the hell that was all about.  And that was part to of the impetus to write American Gods, to explain it.

*He said that he has been working on a short story set in the Neverwhere universe called How the Marquis Got His Coat Back.  In which we meet the Marquis’ brother, who is exactly like the Marquis only worse.

*He isn’t planning on writing a sequel to Neverwhere anytime in the foreseeable future.  But if he does, he knows that a brass bed will be involved.  Sometime back, he read an article about workers finding an antique brass bed in the London sewers.  It could not have been brought done there whole, so someone must have brought it down piece by piece, and assembled it.  No one could figure out what it was doing there.  He read the article, and thought “I know.”

*He revealed that Terry Jones is working on an television miniseries version of Good Omens.  He did not say what channel would be producing it, or how far along it was.

*On collaborating with Terry Pratchett, he said it was great, because he was writing for an audience of one.  He would write with purpose of making Terry laugh.  And vice versa.

*Someone asked what upcoming books they recommended.  Audrey said she had read a book called the Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern.  She described it as the an amazing, creepy story about the best circus you could possibly imagine.  Neil recommended a graphic novel called Anya’s Ghost, by Vera Brosgol.

So that is my best recollection of what was discussed.  If anyone else was there and has a favorite bit I didn’t include, please leave it in the comments.  And they mentioned at the beginning that it was being recorded for Chicago Public Radio, but the did not say when it will air.  If and when I find out I will link to it here.

Updated: the Gene Wolfe book is Free Live Free.

Disclaimer: All of these guys are infinitely talented, and are worthy of admiration regardless of their appearance.  And frankly comics creator is a title that is just sort of inherently sexy to me.  But I’m being superficial today, so this post’s deepness level is skin.

First up the aforementioned twins Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon.

Look at them!  They are such cute little hipster boys!  This could be an indie label album cover.  Oh and their credits include doing the writing and art for Umbrella Academy, and Daytrippers, among others.

Keeping with the theme of up and coming brother teams, Jonathan and Joshua Luna.

How hot are they?  Points for being able to work the camera.  They are responsible for the Sword, Girls, and Ultra.

How about David Mack?

I’ve met him twice at conventions, and was utterly charmed by him both times.  He totally recognized me the second time, even though two years had passed, and our first encounter had to be pretty similar to hundreds he had had with fans at conventions.  (I’m not implying anything here.  I just mean that I walked up to his table.  Told him his art was cool, and that I liked it.)  During that first meeting, I had not read any Kabuki though I had heard of it, and had really liked his Daredevil work.  He was incredibly gracious, and gave me the first trade and the, at that time, most recent hardcover collection for half price, and just flat out gave both me and my sister all the uncollected issues for free, as well as two limited prints of his Kabuki work, also for free.  And he signed it all!  It was just such a classy move, that of course the next time we saw him at a convention we bought every new item he had for sale, and we had already bought all the intervening Kabuki volumes.  (By the way Kabuki is amazing!)  Anyway that might have bought him a place on this list, but it was unnecessary because he is undeniably cute.

And this is the only other person on this list that I have spoken to, Neil Gaiman.

The conversation went like this:

Neil: Hello.

Me: Hi.  (blushes and hands over books)

Neil:  What is your name?

Me:  Susan (he writes personalized signature in my books, while I stammer incoherently)

Me: Thank you! (he smiles pleasantly, before turning to the next blushing, stammering person in line.)

Imagine how many times that has happened to him.  He probably has the highest ratio of  swooning to nonswooning fans in comicdom.  It could be because he is a super-genius-writer-guy, or that he is quite nice to look at, but I blame the voice.  He has the best story reading voice ever.  Just listen to one of his self narrated audiobooks for the proof.

Next we have Read Comics favorite Brian K. Vaughan.

Got to like a guy who can work a shaved head, raised eyebrow combo.  He is the writer behind Y: the Last Man, Runaways, and Ex Machina.

As I was compiling this list I was lamenting the fact that none of these guys had any calendar worthy beefcake photos that I could put up.  You would think they didn’t take their sex symbol status seriously.  (That was a whole lot of unplanned alliteration, sorry.)

But thank god for Grant Morrison!  Always planning ahead.  Here is a young Grant (almost demurely compared to later shots) showing off his bum in tight white pants.

Warning next pic may be NOT SAFE for WORK!  For real, I am not kidding.  Don’t let your boss catch you looking.  In fact I’m going to hide it under the jump.

And here is a more mature Grant really giving us a view!  I mean of his interesting belly scar of course.

So who gets the title?  I’m going with David Mack, just because he was so cool.  I mean he has the clout at the big conventions to merely do signings once a day at the Marvel booth.  Instead, he mans his own booth all day for the duration, and makes sure each person he meets has a memorable experience. (Again I am not implying anything untoward.  What has gotten into you people today?)

That is just my opinion.   Does yours differ?  Do tell.  Did I overlook your favoritest and sexiest comic book guy? (or even Comic Book Guy?)

Second disclaimer: I hope I did not offend anyone with today’s subject matter.  It was done with tongue firmly in cheek.

Buffy season 8 came to an end last month, with issue 40.  I have some thoughts on both the final issue, and the series as a whole.  I plan on going into detail about the plot, so anyone who has not read the whole thing, and is wary of spoilers, should not read beyond the jump.

Buffy the TV show meant a lot to me.  I connected to it from the moment it came on the air, and for the entire seven years it was on the air, I looked forward to every new episode.  I think I only missed seeing two episodes the night they aired, that whole time.  It is the reason I follow every project Joss Whedon works on with great interest.  Somewhere around season two, I became an unabashed fangirl, and haven’t looked back since.  And it’s fair to say my own writing has been heavily influenced by it.  In that I think a hero (or even more so, a heroine) should not be infallible, that they can make mistakes and fall down, and still remain a hero.

So when it was announced that Joss would be resuming the series as a comic, I was thrilled.  I could not wait for my friends to return, and find out what he had in store for them next.  The first twenty issues or so were pretty spectacular, beautiful art, and brilliantly written.  Having Joss write many, and oversee the rest, assured that the tone of the show carried over to the comics, and that the characters felt true to how they had been previously portrayed.  Those issues did a really good job bringing the audience up to speed with what the Scooby gang had been doing since the end of the series.  And also establishing new characters to root for, such as Renee and Satsu.

Spoilers from here on.  You have been warned, don’t whine to me if you read something you don’t want to.

Some of the highlights of the first half for me were: Xander growing into the role of strategic leader to the slayer army.  A great bit of growth, but not one that felt unnatural for him.  Buffy getting into a relationship with Satsu.  A move that brought a lot publicity and controversy.  A lot of people declared that it was totally out of character for Buffy to suddenly become a lesbian.  But I think those people were missing the point.  It wasn’t played as Buffy discovering a new sexual identity, but rather as her experimenting within the one she already had established.  And I thought it was very nicely portrayed.  I also quite enjoyed the return of Dracula.  A character that actually was more well rounded and interesting in the comics, than in his single episode of the series.  Another stand out was the arc Brian K. Vaughan wrote, focusing on Faith.  I felt it really got inside her head, and moved me.  And I am not even that into Faith as a character.  I did love the Fray cross over, and its implications for Willow.  And the issue about the Buffy stand in, was sublime.  And those gorgeous Jo Chen covers!  I want all of them framed on my wall.

The second half of the season however had some flaws.  The plot seemed to peter out, and go in circles.  First the slayers had to give up their power, to keep Twilight from finding them.  Then they needed to get it back to win the battle with the Twilight led army.  Then Buffy was inadvertently leaching the power from all the other slayers, and turning into to uber slayer.  Then they all had to band together to get rid of the source of magic in the world.  It just felt convoluted, and I lost interest in the major plot.

Then there was the fact that they brought back Oz, one of my favorite characters, and one that had been gone since season four.  I was really excited when I heard he was coming back.  However it turns out that Oz is such a stoic character, that without Seth Green’s subtle performance, he feels pretty flat on the page.  It didn’t help that one of his defining traits was his deep connection with Willow, but so much had happened in their lives, and they had changed so much in the intervening years, that that simpatico had all but vanished.  I’m not saying I expected them to rush back into each-other’s arms, that would have rung false.  But there wasn’t really any moments of shared history between them, that I can recall.  Without that, his presence felt pretty incidental.  Like he was only there, because Joss knew that the fans wanted that, and not because it served the story.  Really, how much difference did Oz’s band of wolves make to the battle?

And there were some out of character moments in the back half.  One that stuck out particularly for me, was an issue where Buffy is pulled back to her life circa season one.  There is a moment when Cordelia says something mean to Willow, and Buffy jokes to Willow something along the lines of “One day she will be dead.”

I know Buffy and Cordy weren’t bff’s, but they were friends.  For her to be so glib about Cordy’s untimely, and ignominious death, really rubbed me the wrong way.

And Xander getting into a relationship with Dawn feels off to me as well.  I’m not one of the faction of Buffy fans that dislikes Dawn.  Being a little sister myself, I usually felt pretty sympathetic to her.  So it’s not that I hate anything that has to do with Dawn.  It’s just that while Dawn had long had an on-off crush on Xander, his feeling toward her, always seemed to be brotherly.  To have that morph into a romance, feels kinda squicky to me.  I know that he isn’t her brother, and they aren’t genetically related, and she is not a child anymore, but it still feels weird.  And there is also a part of me that feels like Xander is just using her as a more obtainable Buffy substitute.  One that would return his feelings.

(That being said, I applaud his calling Buffy out on her only showing interest in him, after he is taken by someone close to her)

Which brings me to the biggest WTF, of the series for me.  Having Twilight turn out to be Angel, was a very unexpected and shocking reveal.  Definitely a jaw dropper.  But the reasons that were given for him going there, just don’t work to me.  We have seen time and again that he is not the type to chase a destiny, with no regard for what it would do to the world.  In fact we saw him twice sacrifice things that would benefit him and his possible future with Buffy, because it would mean that innocents would suffer.  So to have him go to extremes, and become essentially a supervillian, so that he and Buffy can create a new universe, which just happens to mean the current universe will be destroyed, along with everyone in it.  That feels so out of character!

Even after it was revealed that he was manipulated, by primal powers, or something, (did I mention I had a hard time following this?) I still didn’t buy that he would go along with it.  And I’m saying this as someone who isn’t a huge Angel fan.  He is probably somewhere around twenty on my list of Buffyverse characters that I care about.  Nevertheless, the Angel that had been established since his exit from the Buffy series, is one that has a lot of priorities beyond Buffy.  His team, his son, the thousands of innocent lives that he feels responsible for.  I just don’t believe he would under any circumstances, decide to throw them over, because he has been told he has a greater purpose.

I’m not going to even go into the sex in the sky thing.  In my opinion, that was the least of that story arc’s problems.

Alright, so I just complained an awful lot.  I feel bad for unleashing that,  because I think there was a lot to like over the forty issues.  Just less in the last twenty.  The writing just wasn’t as tight in the back half.

It was not by all bad.  I liked the idea of public opinion tipping in favor of the vampires.  And Harmony becoming a reality tv star was a really fun idea.  And Spike’s return, in a completely unexplained dirigible, crewed by giant spacebugs!  That is a random plot element I can absolutely get behind.

Here’s the thing, despite the issues I had with the last half of the season, I thought the final issue was really good.   I like what it sets up for season nine.  And I am still super happy that there will be a season nine.

I like that the slayer army is no more.  While it was a cool concept, it quickly became unweildy, and drew focus from our central characters.  I am looking forward to seeing how Buffy handles once again being a free agent, after having been a general.  And I am eager to see how she deals with the many very powerful girls who feel betrayed by her.  Though I’m not quite sure why they feel like she wronged them, since they still have all they’re power.  It’s the rest of the magic community that she stole something from.  (Are there still demons?  Or did Clem and Lorne go poof, along with the egg?)

I do think that she made the right choice, and did what she had to, to keep the world from going boom.  But nobody else is going to get that, since they weren’t forced to make the decision.  Spike was right about that.

Speaking of Blondie Bear, I’m glad he is once again a regular part of her life.  Playing the part of supporter and truth teller.  I’m even okay if they don’t end up in a romantic relationship again.  In fact if they do, I think it needs to be taken slowly, after events are not so raw.  And it isn’t just a reaction to what happened.

Giles being dead, I mean.  That hurt.  For several days after I read that scene, the words “Giles is dead,” would interrupt my train of thought.  I love Giles!  I don’t want him to be dead.  However I don’t see Joss bringing him back to life.  Because Joss is mean and likes to make me cry.  And he likes to make Buffy cry too, and this is going to keep her in a shakey place for quite a while.  (One thing that really does bug me about Giles being dead, other than you know dead Giles, is that it means that when Buffy returns to an audiovisual medium.  I do believe it will someday.  It means that Anthony Head won’t be in it.  Unless Joss does something Jossy, and he is).

As for Willow, I am really interested to see what happens with her.  On the one hand, yay!  No more annoying Kennedy!  On the other, dear god!  She is going down a dark path!  It really looks like she is going to do something dangerous and destructive to get her magic back.  And what did she mean that she broke up with Kennedy, because there was someone else, that she will never see again?  For a minute there I thought she was referring to Giles, since she used to have a crush on him.  Then I thought she might mean her snake lady teacher, who is also cut off from her now.  But I actually think she meant Tara.  I think some part of her always believed that if she got enough power, she would be able to bring her back.  And I think we will have to deal with the fact that she decided that it was better for the world to burn, than to lose her magic.  Honestly I don’t know if there is any way to bring her back from this.  Except maybe actually bringing Tara back (although it couldn’t be through her actions).  That might be the only thing that would make her let go of the bitterness, that is eating her alive.  So yikes, Willow!  Just embrace the computer nerd, you were awesome  pre-magic too, sweetheart.

Alright, if anyone managed to make it through this novella of a post, I would be interested in hearing what you thought about season eight, the last issue, and what you want to see in season nine.

Well blogger/TV critic Jace Lacob, has had a look at the script, and it is worse than I had imagined.  You can see his summary here, but it does not bode well at all.  Some things that stick out for me as not just inconsistent to the character, but really bad writing in general are: that Diana is given three identities.  One is Wonder Woman, crime fighter.  Another is as Diana Themyscira, the CEO of an international corporation, who collects transforming aircraft (the hell?).  And finally  as Diana Prince, a mousy assistant.  I don’t get this conceit at all.  It is traditional for super-hero’s to have a super-hero identity, and a separate civilian identity (in fact in the comics she does sort of have three, wonder woman, Diana Prince, and the Princess of the Amazons.  But the princess/wonder woman identities are publicly acknowledged as the same).  But why have two civilian identities?  with two separate residences?  Especially when at least one of the identities, the CEO, sounds to be very recognizable as a public figure.  What is the point of the third identity?  This just makes the character sound a bit psycho.

Anaother red flag, that this is not a Wonder Woman I want to watch is this that as the CEO, she has  in her employ a gaggle of “nerds” whose function seems to be to make sexual inneundo about her.  For example when she instructs them to bone up on something, one replies the he would, “Bone you up right now, boss.”  That she tolerates this is makes her not just unbelievable as Wonder Woman, but as a successful business woman, as well.

Lacob says it best here, about what sounds likely to be one of the worst scenes to ever be filmed;

In the script’s most painful sequence, Diana is subpoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Committee and forced to give testimony about the events in Hollywood. She ends up filibustering about everything under the sun for several pages: the politics of the LAPD (name checking ex-police chiefs Daryl Gates and William Bratton), the economy, stimulus funds, pharmaceutical companies, Roger Clemens, the FDA and the FCC, and how networks will air commercials about erectile dysfunction but not for condoms. It’s clearly meant to be a showcase scene for the actress playing Diana, a calculated bid at awards and social relevance. Congratulations, David E. Kelley, the transformation of Wonder Woman from superhero to personal mouthpiece is now complete. Adding further insult to injury: real-life California Senator Dianne Feinstein is described as giving Diana a thumbs-up.

Pages of rambling about anything that crosses Kelley’s mind, is the big triumphant moment?  In a show about a super-hero?  What?

And apparently the episode ends with her weeping over her romantic woes!  DO NOT WANT!

Yeah it sounds horrible, and I do not get what NBC was thinking.  Are Harry’s Law, and the Cape doing that well?

Anyway here are the original concept sketches for Wonder Woman, way back in the forties.

Yes, she is wearing a bustier, but she was a warrior damnit!

And just because I think it’s awesome, here is Project Runway’s Chris March as Wonder Woman.

Nicola Scott v. Amy Reeder

Alison Bechdel v. Posy Simmonds

Kate Beaton v. Megan Rose Gedris

Laura Martin v. Christina Strain

They are now on round two:

Kathryn Immonen v. Devin Grayson

Emma Rios v. Sara Pichelli

Marjane Satrapi v. Faith Erin Hicks

Elena “Yamino” Barbarich v. Meredith Gran

Adrienne Roy v. Lynn Varley

I really feel bad, that I only recognized 5 names out of 20. It made me wonder how many female comics creators I could come up with off the top of my head, that haven’t turned up in the tournie yet.

Here is who I could come up with, with out double checking the spelling of their names ( just to see if I know them well enough without having to research):

Lynda Berry (Ernie Pook’s Comeek, 100 Demons)

Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother, Lil’ Endless)

Dianne Dimassa (Hothead Paisan: Homocidal Lesbian Terrorist)

Rene Engstrom (Anders Loves Maria)

Jennifer Camper (Bitchy Bitch)

Jessica Abel (Art Babe, Life Sucks)

Amanda Conner (Power Girl)

Jenny Breadon (the Devil’s Panties)

Amber Benson (Shadowplay, Willow and Tara)

Jane Espenson (Buffy season

Ellen Forney (I Was Seven in Seventy-five)

And a few I’m not certain about:

Pia Guerra (Y: the Last Man)  Not entirely positive that this person is female.  I think so again was avoiding research

the creator or Girls with Slingshots, ( might be a guy, I don’t know)

Alan Moore’s daughter (not sure what her credits are, but I think she has done some comics work).

So with the five I recognized from the tournament, that means there are 16 female comics creators I am aware of, and three others I may need to research.  That seems pretty pathetic, I know I could at the very least double that, if asked to name male creators.  I guess it’s a good thing their is a blog out there highlighting the works of others.

So go out there and vote!

Post Script:  I came across the the tournament, through a link on Yamino’s blog.  She is the writer/artist, of Sister Claire.  If you haven’t read Sister Claire yet, you should, it’s adorable (there is a martial art in it, known as Nun fu)!

You should be able to click on the following image to be taken to the first page of the Ten Doctors on Rich’s website.  If you are anything like me, you will spend the next few days reading the whole thing.

This November, Dark Horse put out a the graphic novel the Shepherd’s Tale.  It provided us Browncoats with the long awaited back story of Shepherd Book.  While it was interesting to finally find out what he was hiding, and it was a well written story, it didn’t really feel like an installment of Firefly, since most of the crew only appeared in a couple of pages.  When I think of Firefly, the first thing I think of is the fun of spending time with the nine, very distinct, people living aboard Serenity.  Well Shepherd’s Tale writer, Zack Whedon, has given us just, that in an online only, eight page comic called Serenity: Downtime.

Surprisingly it is available on USA Today’s website, along with a brief introductory article about Firefly/Serenity.  It is awesome!  It feels very much like an episode of Firefly.  It even has close ups of River’s feet!  Here is a little blurb about the comic.

Whedon has tried to create an atmosphere resembling a scene from Firefly. “I wanted to reward those fans by showing these characters like it was a part of the show,” he says.

Downtime follows crewmembers snowed in on a planet filled with, as Whedon puts it, “a bunch of people you don’t want to run into.” Though the whole crew is included, the focus is on the mysterious (and fan-favorite) character known as River.

Check it out here!  Serenity:Downtime

In the Marvel universe Luke is the hero known as Power Man.  In Alias, while he is still Power Man, he mainly plays the part of Jess’ occasional ally, and hookup.

I’ll let Florence put it in her words, whom she would cast.

Luke Cage= Tyr from Andromeda. My favorite gorgeous deadpan Nietzschian must return to the screen. I’m sure the actor could portray some genuine emotion in his relationship with Jessica, but his default badassitude would be perfect.

I could not agree more.  The The actor in question, is Keith Hamilton Cobb.   He definitely can play a total badass, and he can smolder to boot.   And he has the superhero physique, as well.   This pick is so good, that I am not offering any alternative.  Though I would love to hear anyone else’s suggestion, in the comments