Comics I Bought: May 29, 2008

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

Supernatural - Rising Son - 2

Usagi Yojimbo - 112

The Immortal Iron Fist Vol 2 - "The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven" (HC)

And now for a review of something I've read recently.

"Stagger Lee" by Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix

One of my favorite songs is "Stagger Lee" by the bluesman Taj Mahal. My interest in this song lead me to discover that it is a folk song with many different versions that have been written and performed for over a hundred years. The song tells the story of "Stag" Lee Shelton who shot and killed Billy Lyons in a dispute over a hat. Both of the parties were black and the song is firmly tied to race in America. Sometimes it's sung by whites as a cautionary tale about the dangerous nature of black men, sometimes is sung by blacks so that Stagger Lee is such a bad ass that whites better respect him, sometimes it's sung as a white western story, sometimes it's a classic folk tragedy tale, and sometimes it's just sung.

"Stagger Lee" a big book weighing in at about two hundred pages. No decompressed storytelling so there is plenty to see and read. It tells a historical fiction story about the trial of the actual Stagger Lee (Lee Shelton) intertwined with an examination of some of the various "Stagger Lee" song variations and their narratives. It mixes well.

The book does a real good job of taking us back to the St. Louis of 1895 and makes a lot of the local characters involved in politics and the trial come alive. We get glimpses of people interacting and going through their lives as they deal with a murder trial. Some want Stagger Lee hanged and some want him aquitted. Either way it is made clear that it's more attention than black on black crime got at the time. Something special was going on. With scant historical records to go on the author (Derek McCulloch) reminds us that this is fiction but it has a ring of reality to it.

Since the real Stagger Lee and Billy Lyons were black men in 1895 Missouri this book also delves into the politics and racism of the time. It's not always pretty and sometimes down right ugly but is integral to the story.

The art by Shepherd Hendrix is good stuff. I haven't seen any of his work before but the man can draw, tell a story, and spot blacks really well. He has a large cast of characters to draw and manages to keep most of them distinctive looking. That's no easy task and really helps the storytelling in a tale such as this.

I am a big fan of history and historical fiction and this is the best comic I've read in a while in that genre. It's one of the best I've read in a while in any genre so track it down if you want a good read. Talking 'bout the bad man - that mean ol' Stack-o-Lee.

Worried Song

I had to have some dental work done last week. It was the first time I had been to the dentist in a lot of years. It got me thinking about my general health and how I've been pretty lucky in that area. I've had no major health crises or broken bones across my adulthood. I don't have allergies, catch many colds, or many flu-like whatevers. There was one strange sickness years ago that stands above the rest though for it's sheer weirdness. At least to me.

It was the morning and I was heading in to work. I was riding in the car with my friend Bill on my way to the Tarrytown train station. It was a day like any other except I was feeling a little run down as if I was getting a cold. You know that feeling. You're just trucking along and hoping it won't get any worse and you can make it through the day and then get some rest.

As we reached the parking lot I was a little worn out and wistful not wanting to go into Manhattan to start my work day. I stepped out of the car and, oh boy, the world wouldn't stop moving. I've been dizzy before but it usually consisted of being unable to focus as the world moved around a bit. This was a whole different ball game. It was like if you move your head an inch and instead it moves a foot all on its own. And then moves back and forth with no end in sight. I'd look one place and my eyes would be in another. I had to take a knee.

Of course my buddy Bill was concerned as I was kneeling with my eyes closed. Having my eyes closed made it all better. I wasn't going to make Bill turn around and drive me home so I knew I had to make it to the train platform. There was a covered staircase that went over the tracks and to the platform. I slowly made my way up and across and took a knee again as I waited for the train. I wasn't feeling any worse than I did in the car but the crazy way the world was spinning was intense.

I was glad to get on the train and grab a seat. That is when the second scary symptom happened. As I was sitting there began a burning sensation in my chest. I can only describe it as a little ball of heat that started growing. It grew in intensity until it seemed to burst and then the heat expanded all through my body until it hit my skin. As the heat hit my skin I broke into a complete cold sweat that was a relief. This whole incident probably lasted thirty seconds. It was not fun.

As we pulled into Grand Central Station I knew I wasn't going to be able to work that day but I figured it was just as easy to stop by and let them know I was heading home as not. I was still crazy dizzy but discovered if I focused on something way ahead of me then the dizziness was alleviated and I could walk fairly well. It was the same technique as looking at one of those "Magic Eye" photos that you can only see when you don't focus on it.

I took the 6 train down to Park Avenue South and told my boss that I was heading home. I then took the N train up to the Port Authority bus station and got on a bus home. They are locals at that time of day so it took nearly two hours to get to my stop and then I had a twenty minute walk to reach home. Still it was a relief to get on the bus and know I was on my way home.

That's it. Nothing else weird about that illness. I was in bed for a while. I probably missed the rest of the week at work but it was a standard fever, stuffed head, runny nose, flu-like symptoms good time. Thankfully it was not a dread disease and didn't have any lasting effect. Except for the fact that sometimes when I'm under stress my body will replicate symptoms of that illness. Nothing special about that it's just the same thing that happens to everybody else. You're under stress so you get a headache, stomachache, or whatever. It's just that for a few years instead of felling bad in the pit of my stomach or some such I would start to feel a burning in my chest. I'd have to calm down and tell myself I wasn't really getting sick like that again. Weird.

It's not much of a health crisis story, and once again I'm glad for that, but that is what I was thinking about this week as my imagination was running wild with worry for my teeth. There is no telling what is going to run through my head. And as a post script to that story I once had someone tell me that what I experienced were symptoms of the London Flu. I have no idea if that is true or not but it's the only explanation I've ever heard.

Comics I Bought: May 22, 2008

I'm back from the comic shop this week and I got no new comics. Nothing for me at all this week so I looked around and found hard cover collection to get. John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson are the artists so even if I don't like the book it will be nice to look at:

"Black Panther: Who Is the Black Panther"

And now for a review of something I've read recently.

"Kickback" by David Lloyd

"Kickback" is a 96 page hardcover graphic novel written and drawn by the artist of "V for Vendetta" David Lloyd. 96 pages isn't a lot by today's "decompressed" comics standard but this is a big cup o' comics filled to the brim. And you better to pay attention because a lot of things are happening in it.

"Kickback" is the story of a corrupt cop in a corrupt city trying to get a grip on things as the corruption gets out of hand. Criminals are killed, cops are killed, and the balance of corruption is about to come tumbling down. Not a happy-peppy story but Lloyd gives us some hope.

First of all, that art in this book is really first rate. In this day and age of inkers who can't spot blacks or lay down an interesting line it's great to see an artist (David Lloyd) who can do both masterfully. The art has an old school illustration look mixed with some German Expressionism. And also in this day and age of bland photo illustrative coloring it's nice to see someone use color in a comic to evoke a mood. One of the best drawn books I've seen in a while.

I'm not sure if a new comic book reader would understand this book easily because there is a lot going on in the storytelling. Lloyd sometimes switches scenes in the middle of the page and uses subtle visual hints rather than words to clue us in. I had to pay close attention, especially in the beginning, and I am a veteran comics reader. I'm not saying the storytelling is bad or confusing. I'm saying it's advanced. Don't expect your hand to be held too much.

Though the cops are on the take they are not evil. It's not one of those "everyone is bad" stories where the reader has no one to cheer for (Brubaker's "Criminal" comes to mind). The cops are relatable as human beings because they are not corrupt because of greed or any such. They are corrupt because it seemed like the best thing to do at the time. Afterwards they regret it but that's the way the show runs. Of course the show can't go on like that but most of them don't realize that.

All in all "Kickback" was a good read with some impressive artwork. If you're looking for some film noir type stuff or a good crime comic check this one out. I liked it.

Leave the Home Alone

I'm cranky tonight and flipping around the television. And y'know what I'm tired of? Home makeover, home buying, and house flipping shows. You know the ones. You can't escape them. There are on that block of channels that used to show documentaries about history, travel, or gizmos. Now it's all about redoing, buying, flipping, or "modernizing" your home.

The amount of vanity in home shows is staggering. It drives me to distraction. I understand them and know where they are coming from. For a lot of people redoing their home is the only means of expression they have. It's a creative outlet. They don't paint, write, play music, or make pottery. Making over their home gives them something to do and something to care about. And pretty things generally make people feel better. That's basic humanity.

Redoing your home is also a completely socially acceptable way to spend your money and time. Tell somebody you're spending ten grand on a new guitar and a year of your spare time playing it and there is a good chance they'll think you are crazy. Tell them you're spending the same money and time on a kitchen and they won't bat an eye. That's what people are supposed to do.

It's also socially accepted because any money you spend on your home is allegedly an "investment". We use that word a little loosely these days but any work on a home is supposed to increase its market value. Of course I would venture a guess that a nice looking house that is in good shape will sell easier that a falling down crappy looking house. Yet as the real estate market has shown us this past year there are forces at work much more powerful that whether someone has redone their kitchen or not. The real value of a home is that it gives you a place to live. Still it's usually the one thing that an average person might own that can make him some real money if he's lucky.

Then again even with all of the work being done on these television homes the old rule of "Location, location, location" still applies to real estate. You can't escape it with all the recessed lighting in the world. An old crappy falling down building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan will always be worth more than any of our houses no matter how many shiny new faucets we put in.

This whole trend started with "This Old House" back in the 1990s but I don't mind that show. It is pretty cool. They are trying to teach things. I like that. They take houses that are falling apart and restore them. It's not about vanity and it's not about taste. "This Old House" deals with many different styles and tastes. They make decisions about what works and what doesn't but they don't poo poo something just because it's currently out of fashion.

That's what disturbs me most about all of these home flipping, redoing, buying shows too. They are all about taste yet they don't acknowledge that. It's annoying to watch vain people talk as if their taste was the be all end all of style. They don't even tip their hat to the fact that tastes and trends come and go. Everybody on these shows walks into some house and decries it's style as if the person coming ten years after them won't decry their style. I don't care if you think the accent pillows are outdated you annoying person.

And granite countertops don't even get me started. They are the wood paneling of our time. Everybody wants granite countertops. I love that one of the reasons always given is that they "last forever". That especially makes me laugh as I've heard every type of counter top sold as "lasting forever" since I was a kid. The granite counter tops will last just as long as the others. Until the next owner in 2023 walks in and says "Granite counter tops! Ughh... how ugly. We have got to replace those".

Comics I Bought: May 15, 2008

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

True Story Swear To God - 11

Walking Dead - 49

Red Sonja She-Devil With a Sword Volume 3 (HC)

And now for a review of something I've read recently.

"Good Girls" Issues 1-6 by Carol Lay

Here is another series that has been sitting on my shelf for a long while. All except one issue. "Good Girls" number one came out in 1987 but number six didn't hit the stands until 1991. Somehow during that time I managed to pick up every issue as it came out except for number three. I've kept my eye out for that issue ever since and hadn't re-read any of the others. Why re-read a story with a missing part? Last month I finally tracked down issue number three and decided to read the whole thing for the first time in 16-20 years.

"Good Girls" starts out split between two different stories. The first is about a woman who gets a job writing a lonely hearts column at a sleazy tabloid newspaper. This job and her coworkers hijinks are the start of a couple of weird adventures for her including meeting a mother and son duo who think they are super heroes. Some fun stuff but this character is abandoned after a three page story in issue four.

The second story line in the book involves a woman (Irene) who was orphaned when her family was on vacation in Africa. She was raised by a tribe that modifies their women's faces and so as our lead character grew up her face was modified in that fashion. She has a plate in her lip, a weird round nose, and bumps on her cheeks and forehead. She is then motivated to leave the tribe so she finds here way back to the USA where she discovers she is the heir to a billion dollar business. Also she's an ugly outcast in the USA.

This is one weird story. It starts out kind of straight forward as Irene tries to adjust to her new life but soon we get a blind boyfriend, an artificial floating island of outcasts, a con man, an new friend who has her neck stretched by rings, and a new enemy who is a woman with three breasts. And some nudity to show off said breasts.

The second is definitely the stronger of the two tales as it gets more attention and development in the final two issues. Overall the artwork is pretty good for all six issues. The women are generally more interestingly drawn than the men but the storytelling is solid. After waiting fifteen years to read the whole thing all together it was a good read. Clearly in the first few issues Carol Lay was searching for what she wanted the book to be but as the billionaire Irene story progressed it got tighter and more interesting. I like it but that is no big surprise since I like it when I read it way back.

If you're looking for something different than your usual comic book tale track this series down. It might take a little work because even in this day and age not everything is easily available. Just most things.

Making Playlists

I made three playlists this week in iTunes. They were made remarkably fast compare to other playlists I've made. Playlist is a pretty generic term but what I'm talking about is along the lines of a mix tape. I pick a bunch of songs out of my vast library of music and put them in an order which is pleasing to me. I'm programing my own virtual radio station we me as the only listener. I'll tell you how I make a playlist. Not the physical part, which is choosing "New Playlist" from the iTunes menu and dragging and dropping songs, nor the creative part, which is figuring out which songs go best together, but the methodology. How to go about putting together a playlist so it's an easy task.

The first thing I do is put together a master playlist of tracks that I want to use for playlists of the future. This is the most time consuming part. You have to go through your whole music library and pick out a few hundred songs. Pick songs where you only like a couple of songs on an album. Pick songs you don't get tired off. Don't just pick you "greatest hits" pick some deep tracks. If you don't remember all the songs in your reservoir play a few seconds of them. Make some snap decisions. It's not life or death. You can always drop a song off of your playlist later.

I put all of these songs in a playlist named "Songs for Playlists". Make a copy of that playlist. I can't emphasize that enough. You see, in iTunes, you highlight a playlist and then highlight a song in that playlist in order to interact with that song. The problem comes if that interaction is to delete the song. If you highlight the playlist, highlight a song, and then highlight the playlist again the song remains grayed out. Low-lighted for lack of a better word. This happens all the time when I'm adding and subtracting songs from that playlist. The problem happens when I think the song is highlighted but it's really low-lighted and the master playlist is highlighted. Hit deleted then and the whole master playlist is deleted. Gone. And there is no command Z or any other way to get it back. You'd have to have saved your entire ITunes library in order to get it back. Usually that's not done in the middle of collecting songs for a playlist.

I learned this the hard way once. I went through my whole library, picked out a bunch of songs, made a couple of playlists, went to delete a song from the master playlist, and deleted the whole master playlist. Ouch. I couldn't look at the thing for a week. I had to gather all those songs again. I made a duplicate master playlist after I gathered up the songs and next time I made the same mistake I was ready for it. I just copied my copy. So I had two again.

I also added another back up plan to that one which works well. I use iTunes rating system that allows you to add one to five stars next to each song. I certainly don't go through all my music and rate each song as I don't have the time or inclination for that. So the iTunes rating system was lying there fallow. Now any song that I put into my master playlist gets three stars. That way if I somehow delete both my master playlist and the copy of it I can find the songs that were on it quickly. They're the three starred ones. Any song that makes it onto one of my programed playlists gets five stars. Then I just delete the five star ones from the master playlist leaving the unused three star ones. It also helps when I periodically add more songs to the playlist master. I know not to add the three and five star songs.

The next thing you have to do is decide how long the playlist should be. I usually go under an hour and twenty minutes. That is about the length of a music CD and it seems a comfortable length. I find an hour too short and I always found a ninety minute mix tape being a little too long. Plus I can always burn a copy onto CD to give out as mix CDs to those that are still into such things.

What songs you put onto your playlist is up to you. I usually like variety. My attempt at an early Eighties "Forgotten Rock" mix ended up with too many songs that sounded similar. I nixed the playlist and added the songs back to the master playlist. My "Dance Fool Dance" playlist is successful because of the wide variety of dance music on it. Just be sure to give the mix a good listen. Drop songs out that don't work and replace them with other ones. It's all drag and drop goodness.

I like to come up with strange names for my mix playlists. Some are descriptive like "Old School Goodness" and "Mash-up and Remix Mania". Some have weird but they came from somewhere names like "One Wolf". That is a varied collection of songs about loneliness and the title refers to a 'Laverne and Shirley" episode. Extra credit to anyone who knows that obscure reference. I'm not sure why I know it. But most of the playlists have names that I just kinda liked the sound of. Like "Glorious Fortification", "Blond and Bleary", and "Shadow Grain".

So there you have it. Make a big master list, protect it, and the rest is easy. Whenever you feel like it or an idea pops into your head you can make a new playlist. It'll save you from the tyranny of the album and the tedium of randomness. Sure both have their place but sometimes I want someone to have thought about the mix. No one in the radio business cares about me so I'll have to do it myself. "Dance Fool Dance".

Comics I Bought: May 8, 2008

I'm back from the comic shop this week and I got 3 new comics plus a hard cover collection:

American Splendor Vol 2 - 2

Buffy Season Eight - 14

Jack Staff - 16

Iron Man - "Demon in a Bottle" (HC)

And now for a review of something I've read recently.

"Red Prophet: Tales of Alvin Maker Vol. 2" by Roland Bernard Brown, Rodney Buchemi, and Miguel Montenegro

This book finishes up the story begun in volume one. It's an alternate history/fantasy story adapted from an Orson Scott Card novel. I've never read the novel but it's about American Indians trying to hold onto their land and way of life as American Europeans expand westward. And magic is real so it's not a straight historical fiction tale.

I like this better than the first volume which I was ambivalent about. I enjoy the historical stuff more than the magic mumbo jumbo but I even liked the magic stuff better in this volume. The title character, Alvin Maker, is white kid (ten years old?) who has some magic powers that whites don't usually have. He tries to aid a and Indian warrior, Ta-Kumsaw, who wants to unite all of the tribes to drive the white men back to Europe. It all seems kind of hopeless to both of them and neither really wants war but they see no other option.

White people don't come off too well in this story (except for their military prowess) and I can certainly understand why since a lot of it is told from Ta-Kumsaw's point of view but sometimes it's a little heavy handed.

This book also dealt with a lot more big events, such as the climax, than did the first volume so I found it moved along more quickly and was generally more interesting.

The only real problem I had with this book was the art. The inking to be specific. The credits are unclear as to which artist inked this book or if it was inked at all. In recent years the craft of comic book inking has been on the decline and illustrative coloring has taken over some of it's responsibility for clarity and finish but the inking in this volume is an embarrassment. Some pages and chapters are okay and others look amateurish. This is a hardcover book from Marvel comics and some pages look like they were inked by a kid in high school art class. It takes a lot to ignore that. The art wasn't much better in the first volume and I know this is a licensed book so the profit margin may be smaller but c'mon hire some professionals.

Overall I enjoyed the story but was distracted in places by bad art. That's my final call on this one.

Paint by Numbers

Numbers. I've been into numbers lately. Numbers of paintings that is. You always have to remember that numbers impress. I had been working on my web comic for a while but I re-drew the first page so many times that I burnt out on the whole affair. I did finally finish the first page. At least I think so. After all I was so tired of looking at it that I never printed it out to give it a good once over on paper. That's when I'll know it's done for sure. When it looks good on paper. I went on to the second page and worked that pretty far along before I decided to put the thing down for a while and paint. There is a more immediate reality to painting than to digital art.

Doing a web comic involves a large amount of computer work. Since that is also how I earn my living I was tired of looking at a computer screen. There is much less of that when painting. There is still some since I do all of my basic color sketches on the computer but that's only about ten percent of my process. Counting the time spent coloring, lettering, writing, and laying out my web comic I'd say at least fifty percent of the process is on the computer. That's a fair amount of time. I'm working on methods of speeding things up but the time payoff on that isn't for a while. I'm in the "doing extra work now to save work down the line" period. No wonder I'm tired of looking at the thing.

So I started doing some small paintings. I like to paint big but that also takes a lot of time and I am tired of things taking a lot of time. Sometimes more immediate gratification is needed. I dug into one of my books of small drawings that are the basis for most of my art and picked out five drawings to work up into eight inch by ten inch paintings. That's my small acrylic painting size.

I usually do four of these small paintings at a time. Since I paint them in water based acrylic paint I can wait for one to dry as I work up another. With four going at once I can concentrate easier and keep things moving. Otherwise the waiting would destroy my concentration. I work up five images and after I do color sketches I pick four of them to work on. One in the batch is usually a clunker. The law of averages says so. That's why I work up an extra. Always work up more images than you need. It saves time in the long run because trying to work the weakest image in a bunch (there always is one) into a strong image can be a colossal waste of time. Drop the weak one and move on. Come back to it some other day if you want but leave it alone for now.

It takes about three eight hour days to make four eight by ten paintings and that is a bit of time but it is still less time than it takes to make a large one. Or the time it takes to make my web comic. So starting last weekend I finished four such paintings as I alternated my paying graphics work with my painting. When I finished the four of them didn't seem like much. That number wasn't high enough. I needed to finish more. So by the end of the week I painted four more. The days have been long but still that number wasn't big enough. I put four more on my easel that I worked on all weekend.

The thing I like about the small paintings is the variety of images that I can make. I love to make images far out and colorful. Images from the back of my brain somewhere that live on their own and I'm not even sure where they came from. I do an Impressionist stacking thing (hang them close beside and atop one and other) when I'm done with them so I can see them all at a glance and look how they all play off of one and other. That's where the numbers come in. Four all together is okay, eight is more impressive, and with twelve it gets to be a lot. I've never painted twelve paintings in such a short time before. I hope its enough to satisfy my restlessness with not having finished my endlessly time consuming and maybe never to be finalized web comic. Time will tell.

I've used up the dozen pre-streched eight by ten canvases that I had on my shelf. If twelve isn't enough and I want to do more of these painting I'll have to order some more canvases real soon. Maybe. They sure are fun. But I sure am tired. Maybe twelve is enough.

Comics I Bought: May 1, 2008

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

Local - 11

Usagi Yojimbo - 111

Ex Machina - 36

Grendel: Behold the Devil - 6 of 8

The Facts in the case of the Departure of Miss Finch (HC)

And now for a review of something I've read recently.

Spider-Man and the Black Cat - "The Evil That Men Do" by Kevin Smith and Terry Dodson

I'm not a fan of writing bad reviews. Especially for comic books. Sometimes reading bad reviews can be fun because there is generally more entertainment in trashing something rather than praising it. But I don't like to waste my time dwelling on bad work. I'd rather dwell on the good stuff.

Usually I don't have to write bad reviews because I'm only doing this for fun and all the stuff I reviewed lately has been comics that I bought. I'm pretty discriminating so most of the comics I get are okay at worst. Not this book.

I like Kevin Smith's writing in general. I've enjoyed his movies and some of the comics he's written but not this one. It's a boring mess. The art is fine. It's the writing that's a mess. Spider-Man and the Black Cat as detectives? What? And somebody tell the writers over at Marvel comics that mutants are not a separate species from humans. That stupid notion has always driven me crazy. They are a mutation of humans. Hence the word "Mutants". A person with six fingers is still a human. They just had a mutation that made them grow an extra finger. Now Smith is writing about "Human mutant hybrids"? What? He's taking a nonsensical idea one step further.

And another annoying Marvel writer thing: Daredevil is not going to clutch his ears in pain when he hears a warning siren go off any more than a normal person would. Cats don't. Bats don't. Nor would any other animal that can hear better than us.

Some Daredevil writers have, for decades, mixed up two different definitions of the word "sensitive". Definition one: "Quick to detect or respond to slight changes, signals, or influences". Which does not mean definition two, "Easily damaged, injured, or distressed by slight changes".

Just because a dog can smell a thousand times better than us doesn't mean it's easily hurt by odors. Quite the opposite. A dog is better equipped to handle them. Yet writers love to use noise against Daredevil because his ears are "sensitive". Yeah. sensitive in the first definition not the second. He would have a normal human tolerance to noise if not better. That has always annoyed me.

But anyway enough dwelling on the bad stuff. Stay away from this disappointment of a Spider-Book.