Comics I Bought: August 30, 2007

I'm back from the comic shop again this week and I got 4 new comics:

Walking Dead 41

Local 10

Usagi Yojimbo 105

Th 99 First Light Preview

I bought no hardcover books this week. I had to buy a new pair of shoes plus there was nothing that caught my eye. Meanwhile here are a couple of reviews of recent comics.

"Chance in Hell" by Gilbert Hernandez (HC)

This is another of the gifts I received for my birthday and it's a good one. Gilbert Hernandez (one of the "Love and Rockets" guys) tells us the story of a woman who is born in the worst of circumstances and escapes into other supposedly better circumstances. That's as close as I can get to describing this book in a sentence because it really is an interesting and far out story. Gilbert is an excellent storyteller who doesn't miss a beat. I like his drawing and his layouts a lot. It's a well crafted story.

The story itself is a strange one. It's filled with bizarre and horrible everyday circumstances yet there is a strange air of fantasy to it all. The world of "Chance in Hell" is recognizable as our own but it isn't organized quite like ours. It's like an alternate dimension but it's really just the dimension of fiction. That's all I'll say about the plot because I wouldn't want to give anything away.

So if you like stories that are not like everything else that's out there check this book out. Recommended.

The Immortal Iron Fist: The Last Iron Fist Story (HC)

I haven't read any new Iron Fist comics in many years. I did read a bunch of the old Claremont and Byrne issues when the Essential Iron Fist collection came out a couple years ago. That stuff is still pretty good.

This new Iron Fist book is written by Ed Brubaker ("with" Matt Fraction whatever that means). He's a writer who, though I like his crime comics, I've never really gotten into his super hero work. I've never heard of the artist (David Aja) but he does a good job. They also had Russ Heath and Sal Buscema draw some flash back sequences. I found this worked exceptionally well.

The story heavily involves Iron Fist's past and gives us a little history of others who were gifted with the Iron Fist over the centuries. It's a pretty cool story but there are a couple of things that bothered me about it. These things are to be found in other stories too.

First, why send a Kung Fu guy up against a thousand armed men? How did they not shoot him? Iron Fist fights about a million Hydra agents armed with automatic weapons and never gets shot. It's never explained how he doesn't get shot they just say his Kung Fu is really good. Huh? I'm sorry, knowing martial arts doesn't mean you can dodge bullets. And he wasn't dodging much anyway. Not a major thing but when ever that happened it took me out of the story.

Power creep. A lot super hero books are guilty of this. When a writer wants to make a character more "interesting" he gives him new power. Before you know it a super hero has fifteen new powers and is hard to beat in a fight. So then some new writer has to strip the character back to basics and remove some of his power. That's the super hero cycle. In this book Iron Fist learns he will be able to do all sorts of magical things with his Iron Fist. Power leap in this case.

Overall the book is well done. The story is interesting and moves along well, the art is good and the artist can tell a story, plus you get a little of Luke Cage to be nostalgic about. I'll be along for the second volume. Give it a read.

Waiting for Paint to Dry

I'm waiting for some paint to dry. Literally. That's no euphemism about boredom or the tedium of life. I need some paint to dry before I can go on with the painting. So meanwhile here I am conveying all this excitement to you. That and whatever enters my mind.

I got a DVD in the mail yesterday. It's the movie "Prime Gig" (2002) with Vince Vaughn. It's a movie that I hadn't heard of until I caught it on cable a couple of months ago. Imagine that, a Vince Vaughn movie without a ton of advertising. I saw it for sale on Amazon marketplace for 99¢ plus three bucks shipping. What the hell. I ordered it.

One of the reasons I like the movie is its downer of an ending. Usually every movie ending is a happy little thing. Not this one. Even a lot of sad endings have that ray of hope to take the edge off. Not this one. It's also not a real tragic, tear jerker of an ending. There is no "Sophie's Choice". It just has a bit of a hopeless ending. No ray of hope is to be found. But that's okay. To me the movie says that hopelessness is a part of life and we have to deal with it. It's not the end of the world. Anyway, it's one of those movies that's all dialogue. I like 'em that way but most people prefer explosions and gunfights so watch this one at your own risk.

I've been drawing in charcoal lately. I haven't done that since my school days. I bought some Pitt Pressed Charcoal and man is that some good stuff. It's the blackest, densest, sweetest charcoal I've ever used. It flows onto the paper smooth and dark. It's hittin' the spot in a project I'm working on and it's fun to be using some charcoal again. It's even a bit nostalgic. Give it a try.

I read mostly non-fiction these days. Besides comic books that is. I finished Christopher Hitchen's book "God is not Great" which I enjoyed. It's a collection of arguments pointing out how religious BS gets us all into trouble. After that I tried to read some fiction, Phillip Roth's "The Plot Against America". Being that it got great reviews (including some NY Times book award) and was historical fiction I thought it would be right up my alley. It wasn't. Seventy pages in I was bored and gave up on it. A disappointment all around. Now i need a new book to read.

I pre-ordered a Halo Special Edition XBox 360 this week. I've been wanting to get a 360 but the whole "red ring of death" thing has kept me away. For those not in the know Microsoft has been having problems with the 360 because they were built poorly. They say it was only one plant in China that was having problems but I read too many horror stories on the internet. This Halo one should be the latest build model and have all the problems worked out of it. Now they come with a three year warranty so I should be okay. It doesn't ship until mid September though. Then I gotta get "All Pro Football".

Now I just have to go out and get a new pair of shoes.

Comics I Bought This Week: August 23, 2007

I'm back from the comic shop again this week and I got 1 new comic plus a hard cover collection:

Walking Dead 40

The Immortal Iron Fist: The Last Iron Fist Story (HC)

I haven't read any Iron Fist in years but I heard this was good. It's written by Ed Brubaker and I like some of his stuff so I'll give this a chance. I'll let you know how it is. And now for the one GN I read this week.

Notes for a War Story by Gipi

One of the graphic novels that I got for my birthday. This book was originally published in Italy, the home country of the author/artist. It takes place on the fringes of an unnamed war and introduces us to three young male characters and shows us how the war affects them.

I didn't like the small size the book is printed at. I think if the art was bigger it would have read better. It's printed at around the Manga 6x9 inch size that I don't much care for. Things seemed small and cramped at times and the lettering was tiny. Format counts.

It's well done but there is really nothing new throughout most of the book. All stories that show how war affects people are quite similar. War affects people negatively. But near the end of the tale there are some interesting twists and it redeemed the rest of the book for me. Overall it was okay but didn't blow me away. I'd say it was worth a read.

Tired and Wired

Sometimes I have the opposite problem that other people have. It's when I can't concentrate on anything but work. I can't sit and relax with a comic or a book or a movie because my mind won't focus on any of them. Of course by work I don't mean what people generally think of as work such as digging a ditch or consulting tax tables. I mean my own artwork. My drawing or painting or any other creative pool I dip my toe in.

This is really not a problem when I have the time and energy to indulge my compulsions. But when it's getting late at night and I have already worked all day that I get tired and wired. My mind is still going at a million miles a minute but my concentration has dissolved into the fatigue of the day. But still I persevere and do more work. Or pace back and forth. That doesn't take much concentration.

The problem is that if I'm not careful I will tire myself to the point of collapse. Not dramatic English drama fainting in a heap of "Ohhhsss..." collapse. Just, "I think I better lie down, now I can't seem to get up, maybe I'll just nap for a bit" collapse. It's not a regular nap; it's a warning to take it easy nap.

I am a morning person and am up and working early so late at night comes early for me. Usually around ten o'clock. Post meridian. That's when tired and wired can set in. Nothing to do but sit and twitch. It doesn't help that I stand and work. My drawing table, easel and desktop computer are all at standing height. I find it much more comfortable and less tiring to stand than to sit. Easier on the back too. Of course after eight or ten hours of standing when I'm tired and wired working is much more of a challenge. This laptop I'm typing on helps. I've taken up sitting and writing when I can stand no more.

It's not the worst problem to have and it beats when I have no time or energy for my own work and I can feel my life slipping away in the service of others who have no greater goal than to enrich themselves at who-ever's expense. Mine included. Tuppence for you time, sir? That is pain and waste.

I'm tired and wired right now, as I'm writing this.

And there is a glimpse into being me.

Comics I Bought: August 16, 2007

I'm back from the comic shop this week and I got 2 new comics plus a hard cover collection:

Rex Mundi (v2) -7

Zed- 8

>Conan (Vol 2) The God in the Bowl and Other Stories

Yes, I add another of Dark Horse's Conan HCs to my collection. I need just the first volume now. And as for last weeks number one issues I bought:

Bad Planet - 1

Nicely drawn but nothing happened in this first issue! We were treated to scientists bickering over what this giant thing coming toward Earth was. For twenty pages or so. Finally on the last page we get to see what the thing is. That should have been the first page. I'll pass not because it was bad but because it pissed me off.

Ghosting - 1

I think this supposed to be a horror book but I'm not sure. It's about college frats that aren't allowed to physically haze their pledges anymore so they scare them instead. The art and writing were okay but it didn't wow me and I have no idea where the story is going. I might pick up the second issue if I see it and its a slow week (most are for me).

Drafted - 99¢ Preview

Again not much happens here but it's a preview issue. Earth is about to be invaded and we will all have to hang together. Nothing to write home about but I'll check out the actual first issue when it appears.

And here's a review of one of my birthday presents

Planet Hulk - Hardcover Collection.

When I was a kid the Incredible Hulk was my favorite super hero. I grew up with the Sal Buscema drawn Hulk but managed to get quite a few issues of the older Herb Trimpe drawn Hulk. Back in those days the Hulk had a child like personality but was constantly treated like a monster. That was his story for many years. That Hulk is now referred to as "The Dumb Hulk".

I lost interest in the Hulk as I grew older. He was a hard character for writers to come up with ideas for being that he was so strong but stupid. The Hulk was really a kid's character but as comics began to be written for a slightly older audience writers had to reinvent him. I wasn't much of a fan of that reinvention.

A lot of people like Peter David's years of writing the Hulk. He added a bunch of psychological mumbo jumbo (my perspective), some humor, and smartened the Hulk up. This period left me cold though. I didn't read much Hulk anymore.

I checked out a little of Bruce Jones' run on the Hulk a few years ago. It was generally pretty good but it centered mostly on Bruce Banner. The Hulk's presence was felt but not often seen. A Hulk comic without the Hulk? It didn't sustain my interest for long. I needed more "Hulk Smash".

So now we come to "Planet Hulk". The basic concept is the same as Harlan Elison's "Jarella" story line from the 1970's. The Hulk gets shot into space (in Ellison's story Hulk was shrunk down to a microscopic world) and lands on a planet where he is forced to be a gladiator and then lead a rebellion. Sci-fi, barbarian Hulk. A fun idea that got me to check out this book. It helped that I was nostalgic for the 1970's story too.

I can describe "Planet Hulk" in three words: sloppy but fun. The fun refers to the balls out giant monster and military fights that happen constantly as the story moves along. There are lots of crazy aliens and beasts who are both allies and enemies of the Hulk. And they are always killing one another. Yes, since this is a story that doesn't use regular Marvel characters the writer is free to kill off whatever characters he wants to (except the Hulk of course). So the violence has consequences in this story. A nice change of pace in a super hero book. The writer and artist were having fun with this story and it shows.

The sloppy comment refers to the story telling. The artist can draw well enough but is not a very good story teller. The storytelling was clumsy and confusing at times and drawing aliens don't seem to be his thing. That's tough in a book full of aliens. And plot is driven by convenient coincidence and things happening out of nowhere. I went "Huh? What?" a few times. They cover some of this with a bunch of "prophecy" nonsense. I hate when writers use that as a crutch to explain characters' motivations. They are just following prophecy. Yawn.

The main problem I had was the Hulk. He was the least interesting character in the book when he was not fighting. He's the "Smart Hulk" now but he didn't do many smart things. He wasn't even very heroic. The Hulk mostly was just angry at the world and seemed to be motivated by nothing until the plot needed him to do something and then he just did it. He was boring a lot. Baffled me.

Overall I did like this book but it is flawed. I'm glad they came up with a fun idea for the Hulk even if it was based on an old idea. Check it out if you haven't read any Hulk in a while.

Cheesy Snapshots Are Back

Way back in my freshman year of college I had a typography teacher, Tom, who had a running joke with the photo teacher about how Tom hated photography. He treated photography with no respect. I found this a bit extreme so one day I brought up the subject with Tom. It turned out he really did like photography. And he hated it. More precisely he hated that fact that cameras were so easy to operate, this was 1984, that everyone who had one thought they were a photographer. After being forced to endure endless piles of bad snapshots from friends and acquaintances he just couldn't take it anymore. It was an offense to his senses.

Tom's solution was to start saying he dislikes photography in general. He took this tact because of its blanket immunity. You see, if you tell someone their snapshots are boring and badly taken they get insulted. Plus they get mad at you for your "rudeness". After all, they've got a camera and think they're photographers.

Tell a person their cooking isn't very good and they will usually admit that they are not much of a cook. People know cooking takes practice and skill. Tell someone that their quadratic equations are bad and they'll tell you that they're not a mathematician. But everyone with a camera thinks they're a photographer. And can be oblivious to the fact they aren't. These are the same people who see the photos of a photographer who has some skill and say, "You have a really good camera". In many peoples' minds it's the camera that takes the picture and not the person behind the camera.

Enter the age of digital photography. I see more digital cameras around than I ever did film cameras. No film to load, buy, or process so you can get instant results. People love instant gratification. But unlike almost all snapshots taken with film most digital pictures only exist on computer screens. With film getting snapshots printed was part of the developing process. With digital it's an extra step. So how do you to show people your digital snapshots? With photo sharing services such as Flickr.com.

A photo sharing service is a web site that lets you upload your photos to their servers and invite friends, family, and even strangers to come view them. Not a bad thing in and of itself but now everyone with a digital camera invites you to go see their photos online. Their uncropped, unedited, untouched-up, snapshots. They're as painful to look at as as pile of film snapshots. Here are a few of the usual suspects:

Peoples' heads in the middle of the photo instead of at the top. These are by people who really don't know what they're doing. This is the first thing you learn. There is a lot of bad composition in snapshots and this is where it starts.

The "snapshot lean". Most cameras have pretty wide lenses these days but a lot people don't know that so when asked to pose for a photo they lean in to the person next to them. People stacked like teepee poles. The photographer has to tell them to straighten up. Not always easy task for the casual photographer though. I too have plenty of teepee people but I edit them out.

Bad composition is the most common thing in mediocre snapshots. I could go on and on about it. But I'll spare you.

Pictures taken two seconds apart posted right next to each other. Edit one out. We don't need nearly identical pictures except someone's head is turned three degrees in the second one. Pick the best one and go with it.

Every picture taken from the exact same angle. Camera at head level from about six to eight feet away. Mix it up. Drop to a knee and then take the picture. Shoot from waist level. Shot from ground level. Shoot from over head. Anything would be a change from big headed, little legged, barrel distorted people.

I could ramble on even more about the faults I find but instead here are a few simple tips.

Only post two out of three of your pictures. This will teach you to look at them closer and edit out the mediocre ones.

I do find it odd that the first thing everyone brags about is how many megapixels their camera has and then they are perfectly happy posting the pics on a site that uses a tiny fraction of those pixels. So anyway: crop. Everybody's camera has at least three megapixels and most sites only post them at about half a megapixel so try using the cropping tool to create a better composition.

And when you crop use whatever aspect ratio you want. Don't stick with what the camera gives you. If you think it looks better as a tall skinny photo then make it so. Free yourself from the HD and SD aspect ratios. Play around. Make your own "panoramas" just by cropping out the top and bottom. You have plenty of pixels. Get rid of some.

Anyway, hardly anyone will listen to these tips because most people just want their pictures to be easy. Not win awards. Doing nothing but uploading unedited photos is the easy thing.

I know, you're saying, "Simple solution. If somebody send you a link to their photos just don't look at 'em". That's solid advice and I usually follow it. But then sometimes people what to discuss their photos and know where mine are posted (nowhere, I hate the usability of these sites, but that's another rant) so occasionally I gotta look. But if I don't please do not get insulted. I don't get insulted when you don't want to hear my bad singing.

Comics I Bought This Week: August 9, 2007

I'm back from the comic shop again this week and I got 4 new comics plus a hard cover collection:

StormWatch Post Human Division - 10

Bad Planet - 1

Ghosting - 1

Drifted - 99¢ Preview

Conan (Vol 3) The Tower of the Elephant and Other Stories

Since it was my birthday this week I got a few more things as gifts:

Devil Dinosaur Omnibus

Planet Hulk Hardcover

The Girls' Guide To Guys' Stuff

Notes for a War Story

Chance in Hell

Whew! I've got a lot of cool stuff to read. Now here's a couple of reviews:

The Annotated Northwest Passage by Scott Chantler

I'm a fan of history books and I'm a fan of comic books. This book is a mixture of them so I hoped it would be good. And it was. I like it when what I hope for happens. Even the little things.

"Northwest Passage" tells a historical fiction tale of the English and French fighting it out in Canada in 1755. Plus some Cree are in on the action too. The story takes place in and around a Hudson Bay Company fort and the fort's Governor. This governor is a man who is a hero in England for his exploits as an explorer and all around mountain man. He's about to be tested again.

If I were to guess I would say that Scott Chantler comes out of the animation industry. I notice that comic book artists who come out of that industry do one thing that peeves me. They use model sheets for characters' faces that they simply scale up. What I mean by this is that they figure out a bunch of expressions for a character and use these expressions over and over regardless of the size of the face they are drawing. A normal comic book artist changes how he draws an expression as the size of the drawing changes. I find that more effective. But that's just a stylistic pet peeve of mine.

Another thing I notice is that guys who come out of animation are very good storytellers. That is the case here. Scott Chantler paces the story really well in both writing and drawing. The book is in black and white with grey tones and the tones are done well too. It's all around well drawn and a smashing read. It's more of an action filled romp than a staid history piece (though I like those too) and is not about everyday life but the drama of crisis and war. Lots of blood, death, and violence on the frontier.

It's been a while since I read a historical fiction graphic novel (Age of Bronze rocks! So does Berlin!) and this was one of the good ones. Check it out. Recommended.

Grendel Archives by Matt Wagner

I first read a Grendel story when the "Devil by The Deed" graphic novel came out in 1988. I dug it and bought the Grendel ongoing series that came out afterwards. A lot of good stuff. But this collection is from before then. This is the first Grendel stuff that appeared in the anthology book "Comico Primer" and B/W Grendel 1-3 from 1982-1984.

These issues have never been reprinted before and the original issues are hard to come by and expensive so I've never read them. According to the intro they've never been reprinted because Matt Wagner says they are an incomplete and abandoned story that he eventually reworked into "Devil by The Deed". I can see his point.

This is the work of a young artist just starting out but you can see his strengths already. The drawing is a bit crude and stubby but he throws black around well and experiments with storytelling in an interesting way. All in all a good start.

If you've never read a Grendel story before than it is prudent to note that he's a villain. A charming and educated man who's secret identity is that of a best selling author who is part of high society. But make no mistake, he is a villain. The hero of the piece is a werewolf named Argent. He's not a pleasant fellow as he constantly struggles to keep his wild side in check. The hero is bestial and the villain charming. That's the strange dance of Grendel.

The first part of the book sets this up and is interesting but the second half starts to tell the unfinished part of the story. It's an uninteresting high society murder tale and I can see why Matt Wagner deserted and then reworked Grendel.

If you want to read some Grendel don't start with this. Grab "Devil by The Deed" and whatever else you can find that came after 1988 especially the stuff by Matt Wagner himself or Bernie Mireault. Come back to this archive if you get curious. I liked it.

The Fantasy Football Groove

It's almost football season. The NFL back in action. And that means it's almost fantasy football season. For those of you not in the know, fantasy football is when a bunch of guys get together and divide up the players in the NFL via a draft. After you've drafted your team a player's performance for the week counts as happening on your fantasy football team. That is: if I have Peyton Manning on my fantasy football team and he throws a touchdown pass on Sunday that TD is scored by my fantasy football team. Score more points than your opponent for the week and you win the game. It's a lot of fun.

Right now I'm preparing for my leagues draft by analyzing all the players performances from last year and trying to figure out how they will do this year. It's a bit of a fool's errand, as is most sports prognosticating, but I find it fun. I made a bunch of charts of players and how they scored last year and how they compare to everyone else from last year. Now I'll try to rank them in what order I want to draft them in. It's a tall task because, with a few exceptions, there is little difference between the stats. Sure the number two guy is way better than the number twenty guy but the difference between numbers thirty and thirty one is minimal. It's easy to pick the stars but most of the league is just regular players. The key to winning is finding some regular players who will play like stars. That's easier said then done.

There are endless magazines and websites devoted to fantasy football drafts and tons of "experts" giving out advice in said mags and sites. These guys love going out on limbs and trying to pick the regular players who are about to turn into stars. They are hardly ever right but it's only fantasy football so no one holds it against them. After all no one ever looks at who they picked last year. It seems like every year there is a consensus "breakout player" before the season. Last year it was Dolphin running back Ronnie Brown. He didn't break out. Maybe this year. I'd say the experts are about one out of three with their consensus breakout players. The year before it was Bengals QB Carlson Palmer. They were right about that but I didn't pay attention and draft him because they got it wrong the year before that. I'm not even sure who that three year ago player was. Might have been Matt Hasselbeck (solid QB but a miss fantasy wise).

Just as with real NFL team injuries can kill a fantasy football team. If your number one draft pick goes down you are in serious trouble. Two years ago, for a couple of games, my top five draft picks were all out with injury. I didn't do much winning that season. It was quite a challenge to even field a team for a couple of weeks. Yet it was still fun to try. After all I don't have millions of dollars at stake.

Luck is a huge part of fantasy football. I'd say 60% skill and 40% luck. You need the skills to spot players on the rise, know when to play them, and most importantly know when to give up on a player even though you like him. But that 40% luck is huge. League winners usually end up with a couple of players that were picked up in the middle to late rounds of the draft who played like first rounders for a year. Guys it was impossible to predict would do so well. Still, you fell like a genius when you've got those guys on your team. Hey, not everyone can be Einstein. I'll take what I can get.

Comics I Bought This Week: August 2, 2007

I'm back from the comic shop again this week and I got two new comics:

Berlin 13

Supernatural Origins 4

I also was back on my hardcover kick and picked up:

The Annotated Northwest Passage

That's a collection of the series of the same name published by Oni Press. I've never even heard of it but it's a comic about history. I love history and I love comics so this one is right up my alley. I had to get it.

"Berlin", by Jason Lutes, is another comic that is about history. It takes place in the early 1930's in, of all places, Berlin Germany. It's about a varied group of people who live there. It's further about their day to day lives in one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities as Germany changes around them. You only get an issue a year but it is still a favorite of mine. You can find a very nice trade of the first eight issues or so. Well worth tracking down.

I haven't been able to read and review and comics this week so you'll have to wait another week for more of my blinding insights.