Comics Roundup/Book Rec, 8/24/08
Sunday, August 24th, 2008 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retsukoComic Book Store ahoy! I'd forgotten the simple, giddy joy of picking up a pile of interesting titles to read and going through them one after another.
Air: The blurb from Neil Gaiman reads: "I read the first half dozen issues of AIR and enjoyed them to no end--It starts out as Rushdie and then parachutes off into Pynchon." I didn't entirely get the Rushdie vibe from this, but I definitely got the Pynchon flavor, especially as the narrative starts to unravel from its simplistic beginnings of "acrophobic flight attendant in distress uncovers highjacking plot" and morphs into an international spy thriller that combines elements of The Bourne Identity series, Brazil, and several graduate theses on the cultural diaspora of the airport/airline travel. The artwork is fairly to the point, as is the dialogue, but there's something intriguing in this story that makes me eagerly await the next issue, something just on the right side of original. Stories set in airports and on planes are at once eerily familiar and foreign, and the image of our heroine, Blythe, plummeting through the sky as the jet falls to pieces behind her is a potent one. I feel like the story's at a leaping off point, and I can't wait to see where the leap leads. (Leap leads. Say that 5 times fast.)
Rasl: How to follow up on a work like Bone? With something completely different, answers Jeff Smith. As near as I can make out from the first issues, Rasl is a dimension-hopping quantum physicist/thief, who is pursued by a lizard-faced government agent. Why and how he (Rasl) ended up with this life will no doubt be revealed through the course of the story, which is revealed in painfully short little chunks in each issue of the comic. (I already wish this were in trade paperback form, so I wouldn't have to wait to find out what was happening next.) Smith's wonderful sense of composition and page layout is perfect for this dense story, and the tight close-ups of the characters' faces lend a great urgency to the narrative. I love the amount of black ink that went into this story, and the shadows hide secrets and details just awaiting discovery. Rasl himself looks a little bit like Wolverine, but already he's his own character, layered and complicated. I have no idea where the story's going, but I'm excited to be along for the ride.
Madame Xanadu: I admit that I picked this up at first because of the gorgeous cover art by the story's artist, Amy Reeder Hadley. Hadley's art is consistently gorgeous and dynamic throughout the two issues--I like the way she incorporates the Western comic style of page layout and panel composition, but isn't afraid to have huge swathes of color, depending on the mood of the page. Her character designs are fabulous as well (her re-imagining of Morgan LaFey at first made me smile, then made me annoyed at my lack of sewing ability because I would really like to have that costume for myself, and finally made me angry in Issue 2 as her plots with Mordred were fully revealed.) The story, which seems to be a retelling of the later Arthurian legends from Nimue's point of view, is tricky to pin down. I'm not sure if the author's going for humans vs. nature story, or an entirely supernatural take on the whole thing. Also somewhat tricky is the inclusion of a character, a cloaked stranger who claims he's traveled through time to tell Nimue of Merlin's fate and Morgana's plots. I would recommend this comic to high fantasy fans, and I'm pleased (of course) to see another really talented female artist in the comics world.
Assorted Dr. Who Comics: I know these are glorified fanfiction. I know. But they're really entertaining fanfiction! (Plus, Martha and a human from the 51st century arguing about who the coolest character on "ER" is? Brilliant!) Oh, they're like candy. Well worth reading and sharing with others.
And one book rec:
What It Is, by Lynda Barry: If you've been saying to yourself, I wish I could write, but I don't know what to write about, this is the book for you. If you've been saying to yourself, I've got this great idea, but I don't know how to articulate it, then this is also the book for you. And if you've been saying to yourself, why should I write, when it won't make me any money?!, then this is really the book for you. I'm so happy I read it. I'll be doing some of the exercises very soon.
Air: The blurb from Neil Gaiman reads: "I read the first half dozen issues of AIR and enjoyed them to no end--It starts out as Rushdie and then parachutes off into Pynchon." I didn't entirely get the Rushdie vibe from this, but I definitely got the Pynchon flavor, especially as the narrative starts to unravel from its simplistic beginnings of "acrophobic flight attendant in distress uncovers highjacking plot" and morphs into an international spy thriller that combines elements of The Bourne Identity series, Brazil, and several graduate theses on the cultural diaspora of the airport/airline travel. The artwork is fairly to the point, as is the dialogue, but there's something intriguing in this story that makes me eagerly await the next issue, something just on the right side of original. Stories set in airports and on planes are at once eerily familiar and foreign, and the image of our heroine, Blythe, plummeting through the sky as the jet falls to pieces behind her is a potent one. I feel like the story's at a leaping off point, and I can't wait to see where the leap leads. (Leap leads. Say that 5 times fast.)
Rasl: How to follow up on a work like Bone? With something completely different, answers Jeff Smith. As near as I can make out from the first issues, Rasl is a dimension-hopping quantum physicist/thief, who is pursued by a lizard-faced government agent. Why and how he (Rasl) ended up with this life will no doubt be revealed through the course of the story, which is revealed in painfully short little chunks in each issue of the comic. (I already wish this were in trade paperback form, so I wouldn't have to wait to find out what was happening next.) Smith's wonderful sense of composition and page layout is perfect for this dense story, and the tight close-ups of the characters' faces lend a great urgency to the narrative. I love the amount of black ink that went into this story, and the shadows hide secrets and details just awaiting discovery. Rasl himself looks a little bit like Wolverine, but already he's his own character, layered and complicated. I have no idea where the story's going, but I'm excited to be along for the ride.
Madame Xanadu: I admit that I picked this up at first because of the gorgeous cover art by the story's artist, Amy Reeder Hadley. Hadley's art is consistently gorgeous and dynamic throughout the two issues--I like the way she incorporates the Western comic style of page layout and panel composition, but isn't afraid to have huge swathes of color, depending on the mood of the page. Her character designs are fabulous as well (her re-imagining of Morgan LaFey at first made me smile, then made me annoyed at my lack of sewing ability because I would really like to have that costume for myself, and finally made me angry in Issue 2 as her plots with Mordred were fully revealed.) The story, which seems to be a retelling of the later Arthurian legends from Nimue's point of view, is tricky to pin down. I'm not sure if the author's going for humans vs. nature story, or an entirely supernatural take on the whole thing. Also somewhat tricky is the inclusion of a character, a cloaked stranger who claims he's traveled through time to tell Nimue of Merlin's fate and Morgana's plots. I would recommend this comic to high fantasy fans, and I'm pleased (of course) to see another really talented female artist in the comics world.
Assorted Dr. Who Comics: I know these are glorified fanfiction. I know. But they're really entertaining fanfiction! (Plus, Martha and a human from the 51st century arguing about who the coolest character on "ER" is? Brilliant!) Oh, they're like candy. Well worth reading and sharing with others.
And one book rec:
What It Is, by Lynda Barry: If you've been saying to yourself, I wish I could write, but I don't know what to write about, this is the book for you. If you've been saying to yourself, I've got this great idea, but I don't know how to articulate it, then this is also the book for you. And if you've been saying to yourself, why should I write, when it won't make me any money?!, then this is really the book for you. I'm so happy I read it. I'll be doing some of the exercises very soon.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-08-24 09:45 pm (UTC)(Did the pony $ arrive, btw?)
no subject
Date: 2008-08-24 09:57 pm (UTC)I'm reading the new line from IDW Publishing, which were written by Gary Russell. There's also a new mini-series, Dr Who: The Forgotten, which features Ten and Martha trapped in a museum of the Doctors and a nefarious villain attempting to erase the Doctor's memory of his pasts. The story (by Tony Lee) looks promising and the art (by Pia Guerra) is very good.