Section 244 Website: still functioning

2012-01-25T17:13:00.001-07:00

As of yesterday, my webpage is back online after being down for more than half a year. I hope to have new content added soon - I've prepared more than 200 new entries for the story index since the last update.

Nick Spencer, Comicdom's Answer to Ingmar Bergman, part 4

2012-01-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

Iron Man 2.0#12, page 2; This time, Spencer is joined by writer Will Pfeifer; artists listed for this issue were Carmine di Giandomenico, Andy Troy, Ariel Olivetti and Mirco Pierfederci. It's a Choose Your Own Artist Adventure! I can only be certain this page wasn't produced by Olivetti: Yep, another splash page turned over to a single action: the action of War Machine rescuing a falling woman in mid-air. This is rendered with the hero and damsel in distress at the centre of the page at a wide angle, emphasizing depth, I suppose. And yet, the artist has angled this tripod shot so War Machine's back is to the tripod, with the fire from his jetboots so intense it almost completely covers up his figure. Good thing there's a speech balloon saying "gotcha" in a War Machine font, lest we think she was being rescued by, I dunno, Mothman? Fatman, the Human Flying Saucer? If this action required a full page, why couldn't it have zoomed in on the action of War Machine rescuing the woman? So long as the distance between them and the pavement was still established the peril would have been kept clear. How about framing this from the worm's eye viewing, looking up at the characters from the ground level?

I'm not even going to start discussing the standard comic book physics problems of rescuing falling people mid-air; death of Gwen Stacy aside, comics almost always get it wrong. It is a pity, though, to note the damsel in distress here is Suzi Endo, a superhuman woman who doesn't normally require someone else to save her. Happy 2012, strong female characters!

Fu Manchu at Paramount

2012-01-23T16:35:00.003-07:00

One thing I've learned from talking to people about Fu Manchu is that people aren't interested in talking about Fu Manchu. Even within the ranks of Fu Manchu enthusiasts, there's a lot to do with the character and property which isn't brought up because there are so many stories and adaptations existing and they almost all require a bit of work to obtain.

In many ways, I'm sure contemporary culture would like to just leave Fu Manchu where he is - in the past. Forget about the Sax Rohmer novels, forget about the film adaptations, keep looking forward and don't bring up the racial issues surrounding the character. I'd be willing to oblige, except that I keep finding nuggets of real value in Rohmer's fiction. Which brings me to the Fu Manchu films.

Of the Devil Doctor's many entries into cinema, he's probably best known for MGM's 1932 picture the Mask of Fu Manchu starring Boris Karloff, which still has a following because Karloff still has a following; the Harry Alan Towers series of pictures starring Christopher Lee still have a following, as does the still-living Lee; even the Republic serial Drums of Fu Manchu is considered one of the better serials.

But what of Fu Manchu's first foray into the talkies? He figured in three Paramount movies from 1929-1931 (one per year), each starring Warner Oland and with a surprising amount of continuity for the time in which they were made. To the best of my knowledge, Paramount hasn't rereleased these pictures for modern audiences. Perhaps it's their old shame.

And it is a shame - because these movies aren't too bad and not quite in the same tone as the later Fu Manchu pictures. Thanks to the wonders of Youtube I've finally seen all three movies; follow along as I guide you through the saga...

The series begins with the Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu. It's interesting to note how the first two films include "Dr.," just as the titles for the first two US editions of the Fu Manchu novels were the Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu and the Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu, while later novels omitted his title (ie, Hand of Fu Manchu, Island of Fu Manchu, President Fu Manchu, Wrath of Fu Manchu, etc.). Our director is Rowland V. Lee and the part of Fu Manchu is played by Warner Oland, who would later come to fame as Charlie Chan. Although Oland claimed to be part-Asian, it seems he would wear a mustache to help him appear "oriental." Thus, by adding a mustache in these films, he permanently branded the character with one, even though he was clean-shaven in the novels.

We open in China during the Boxer Rebellion. Dr. Fu Manchu is a practicing physician and friend to the Caucasians, using his skill with hypnosis to help treat patients. However, in the midst of the fighting, the British/Russian/French/German forces wind up shelling Fu Manchu's home while trying to strike down enemy forces. Fu Manchu's wife and son are slain by the blast and he vows revenge upon the white race - but specifically, he vows revenge on the officers who ordered the attack, determining to one day claim their lives and lives of their male heirs, to balance the scales for the loss of his family.

In the novels, Fu Manchu had no particular origin; it wasn't even clear how many years he'd been active as his life-prolonging Elixir Vitae could have kept him alive for hundreds of years. Fu Manchu of the novels was out to conquer the world, not simply obtain revenge. I think it's interesting to note how the filmmakers believed it was important to give Fu Manchu a motivation for being the figure of evil he was. Up to a point, Fu could have been the hero of his story - exacting revenge on the officers who killed his family is a very sympathetic motivation. It's only when he decides to kill the officers' offspring too that he loses the audience's sympathy.

Even as Fu is vowing his vengeance, his servant Fai Lu presents him with Lia, a tiny white child whose family have just died but wanted Fu raise their daughter. Fu Manchu honours the request, using her to supplant his lost family. And so, nearly 30 years pass in which Fu Manchu evidently spent a lot of time pooling together his servants, perfecting his chemical weapons, raising his foster daughter and obtaining the identities of the men who ordered the attack on his house. I say "evidently" because after nearly 30 years, he's only just finished off his second-last target; as we rejoin the story, Fu is after the last officer, General Petrie, plus his son Sir John Petrie and grandson Dr. Jack Petrie. However, Fu hasn't counted on Scotland Yard's Nayland Smith, who comes to the Petrie family's defense, nor could he have expected Lia would fall in love with young Dr. Petrie.

Here are some more departures from the canon: in the novels, Fu Manchu admired Dr. Petrie and would always try to spare him from death, believing Petrie was an honoured colleague who would be fascinated by his experiments; as for Smith, Fu had nothing but contempt for him as an unintelligent lout. In these movies, Fu expresses regard for Smith's intelligence but has an unreasoning hatred for Petrie due to his vow of vengeance.

For fans of the novels, this depiction of Fu Manchu falls a little short; his instruments of death aren't the terrifically visual sort famously described in the novels such as his wailing Dacoit assassins or horrific insects like the "Zayat Kiss." Instead, Oland's Fu Manchu uses potions, hypnosis and a quicklime pit (the latter off-camera); his servants have nothing more interesting than throwing daggers. This interpretation of Fu lacks the exotic flair of the novels, reducing him to just another "mad scientist" or "man-out-for-revenge" the type of which movies like Doctor X and Mystery of the Wax Museum were based upon.

Fu works his way through the Petrie family, killing General Petrie and his son. Finally, by hypnotizing, he captures Dr. Petrie and prepares to throw him into his quicklime pit. Petrie is certain Smith will come to rescue, prompting a rather dry response from the Devil Doctor, dripping with sarcasm:

"I humbly apologize. I'm afraid my somewhat weird and Oriental methods may have misled your Occidental mind into believing that, uh, this is nothing but a gigantic melodrama in which the detective's arrival at the last moment produces the happy ending. Don't deny it! I can see by your face it is so."

Having said this, Fu reveals he's already captured Smith! Fu Manchu comes within a hair's breadth of winning the day, but Fai Lu betrays him for love of her charge and Fu is seemingly poisoned to death.

Also of note: Smith cooperates with the Chinese government in this picture, reporting to a Chinese official in one scene; it may seem like an obvious gesture to you and I, but the early Sax Rohmer novels had a raging paranoia where any Asian characters were concerned; if this were a Rohmer book, the official would have either been killed or revealed as one of Fu's servants. Further, the paranoia about Asians was often expressed by Smith himself - it's hard to imagine the Nayland Smith of the early novels cooperating with the Chinese government (although eventually Rohmer introduced benevolent and heroic Asians and took some pains to make it clear Fu Manchu was as much an enemy of China as he was the "white race").

Let's move along to the second film, the Return of Dr. Fu Manchu, again directed by Rowland V. Lee and with virtually every actor from the previous film reprising their parts.

We open at Fu Manchu's funeral as the survivors from the previous film hope to carry on with their lives and Lia and Dr. Petrie begin planning their wedding. However, Fu Manchu's poison simply placed him into suspended animation. Rising from his coffin, he kills Fai Lu for betraying him, then prepares for revenge on Petrie, the last of his designated targets.

In a cute moment, Fu explains how the formula which only "temporarily" killed him was inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet! At one point Fu pilots an airplane which would seems weirdly out-of-character for the novel's version (who would surely have a servant take the controls), yet fits this economy-size Fu well:

Again Fu menaces Petrie, Smith and, again he's halted at the last moment. This time he falls into a river with a bomb which explodes, seemingly killing him... but who'd believe that? We actually saw his dead body last film and it sure didn't stop him!

Sure enough, 1931 saw the grand finale to Paramount's Fu Manchu saga with Daughter of the Dragon, directed by Lloyd Corrigan, who had helped write the screen treatment for the previous two pictures. Oland reprises Fu Manchu again, but only for the first few scenes of the picture. The real star is Anna May Wong, the best-known Asian actress of the 1930s.

Startlingly, the movie opens twenty years after the previous picture! So this is, what, 1950? Dr. Petrie has grown old and raised a son, Ronald Petrie; said son is in love with Ling Moy, a Chinese woman who's been trying to locate her long-lost father.

As misfortune would have it, Ling Moy's father is the nefarious Fu Manchu, back from the dead and still intent on killing Dr. Petrie. And after twenty years, he finally makes his mark, killing Dr. Petrie. Now only Ronald remains, but Scotland Yard officer Sir Basil Courtney renders a fatal wound to Fu Manchu. Slowly dying, Fu is reunited with Ling Moy and tells her the story of how his wife and child died, causing him to vow revenge; Fu laments how without a son to be his heir, his vendetta will never be completed. Ling Moy offers to be like a son to her father, claiming she'll finish his work; Fu accepts this and as the authorities close in on him, he pretends to attack Ling Moy, knowing the police will kill him to save her - and thus she'll remain above suspicion as his heir.

So it is we take our leave of Dr. Fu Manchu... yet his legacy lives on. It soon becomes clear Ling Moy only promised to be his heir so she could bond with the father she never knew in his last moments; she truly loves Ronald and doesn't want to kill him, but her late father's servants keep demanding she fulfill her promise. It's interesting to note how Ling Moy & Ronald's romance keeps from breaking Hollywood's miscegenation rules as their attempted kisses are interrupted.

However, Ronald is also being pursued by white woman Joan Marshall; to complete our romantic rhombus, inspector Ah Kee loves Ling Moy... and boy, is he made to suffer for it! Ah Kee is the one man convinced Fu Manchu has cheated death yet again, but for not realizing Ling Moy is the real criminal mastermind he winds up walking right into her hands and bound up in an attic. When he tries to get the attention of the police on the ground below, he tumbles out of the window and nearly dies! In the chaotic finale, it's Ah Kee who delivers the fatal gunshot which kills our reluctant villain Ling Moy; Ah Kee then succumbs to the wounds from his fall and dies at her side.

Despite having very little Fu Manchu, Daughter of the Dragon is probably the best of the trio - Warner Oland stepped up his game for Fu's final scenes and Anna May Wong was simply a terrific actress; it's also interesting to see an Asian leading man (Sessue Hayakawa as Ah Kee) in 30s cinema. Corrigan had some fine touches as a director, notably in an above shot when Ronald Petrie is trapped in a tiny room, fumbling to find his way out:

If you're a Fu Manchu enthusiast, I definitely recommend seeking out the three films; if you're an Anna May Wong aficionado then the third film is required viewing!

Let's talk about modern comics storytelling again...

2012-01-22T23:14:00.004-07:00

Here I am again, criticizing the storytelling decisions creative people make while producing comic books. Those who can't do, teach.

This is Six Guns#4, page 11, by writer Andy Diggle and artist Davide Gianfelice; three characters have just stolen an APC vehicle from a mercenary army and are trying to evade pursuit while traversing a mountainous road:

When I first read this page, I was confused and it took me a moment to realize where my problem lay. It's the third panel where the APC is trying to bring itself to a halt while swerving to its left. Because the artist framed the image with another cliff in the foreground, I couldn't tell that the APC was headed directly to a steep drop; since the vehicle was veering to its left into a piece of scenery which wasn't visible to my eye, my mind didn't process this panel as "vehicle unable to stop driving over cliff" and instead translated "vehicle following a road with a hard left turn."

Elsewhere in the same issue we get a second look at this cliff:

Why the nature of the cliff couldn't be made clear on page 11 is beyond my understanding.

I'm Michael Hoskin and if you learned something from this example... then that's more than I hoped for. Ciao.

Great moments in off-panel storytelling

2012-01-14T11:57:00.003-07:00

It's not just contemporary comics which have this problem; check out Don Heck in Tales of Suspense#1 (1959):

Boy, that was a close one! You almost had an action scene on your hands, to say nothing of depicting an world inhabited by mechanical men! I wonder if the scripter (Stan Lee?) was trying to make the pages seem more exciting by hinting at greater perils we hadn't witnessed. Regardless, the writer and artist were clearly living worlds apart.

Comic books of 2011: the good

2012-01-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

In the 1990s, I was an avid fan of Siskel & Ebert's television program, watching every broadcast. I'd hoped to open this post with a particular clip, but sadly, I can't locate it on Youtube.

This moment has always stuck with me: the duo were reviewing the film Gamera: Guardian of the Universe; Ebert liked it, Siskel did not. Siskel covered the film first and closed off his review by saying he couldn't recommend the movie and instead suggested viewers seek out the original Godzilla, King of the Monsters from 1956. Ebert was almost livid in his reaction, asking Siskel (words to this effect) "If we're just going to recommend old movies, why don't you and I stay home all year rewatching Citizen Kane?"

In several of my discussions about the current state of comic books over at Colin Smith's blog, he and I have bandied words to the effect of "Kirby knew how to do this," "Toth would have done it right," "Wood forgot more than most artists have ever known," etc. I think all we mean to do is point to ready examples of clean, inventive comic book storytelling. The danger of such statements is you begin to imply comic books of the past are inherantly superior to what's being produced today.

It would be very easy to stop reading new comic books. If I spent the rest of my life just reading old stories by Kirby, Toth, Wood, Colan, Williamson, Krigstein, Maneely, Kurtzmann, Cole, Eisner, Barks, Kelly, Frazetta and Everett, I think I would be reasonably happy (and would have plenty to enjoy, even at the pace I take in comics). However, I'd be allowing my tastes to stagnate, denying myself the pleasures found in contemporary works which communicate how people living today feel about the world around them.

Thus, I've remained with contemporary comic books. I've taken some risks on new material and untested talent which haven't paid off, but I've also happened across new works which are really meaningful to me, entertaining me, bolstering my imagination, encouraging me to open my mind.

Therefore, here are the contemporary comic books of 2011 which I'm pleased to recommend:

Given how I complained about storytelling in comics yesterday, I feel I should begin with a series which wears brilliant storytelling like a glove: Usagi Yojimbo. The advantage Usagi has, of course, is that Stan Sakai is responsible for everything on the page - plot, script, art and letters. I'm very nearly completely caught up with Usagi now and it's a rewarding book, telling stories today which are as solid as those 20 years ago. It's particularly great to see how the cast of characters develop over time, revealing new layers and altering their connections to each other.

On a very similar wavelength is Sergio Aragones Funnies, which is likewise the brainchild of one man, Sergio Aragones. As I've said before, while I enjoy Sergio's gag cartoons and humorous stories (even the occasional dramatic tale), what I most enjoy are his biographical pieces. The most recent issue (#6) recalled an episode from his childhood and even though it's not life-altering or momentous (he and a friend once accidentally boarded a moving freight train), it's easy to see why it's remained etched in his memory; now it's etched on paper. I suppose what I really enjoy in Sergio is his openess and honesty.

Comic Book Comics completed its 6-issue run in 2011, but it could have easily kept going another 6 issues. Or 12. Or 18. It amazes me whenever I find a piece of information on comic book history I was previously unaware of. I wish Comic Book Comics had found the space to cover other turning points like the foundation of Image Comics, the Marvel bankruptcy or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles saga, but I'll treasure all of what they did deliver. Learning about comics history with Comic Book Comics is like having the stories told to you by a close friend.

Although I'm an all-around Marvel Comics guru, I don't care much for Daredevil. It's a serious blindspot in my mastery of Marvel - there are huge chunks of Daredevil I've never read (not even all of Miller), even though there are five Daredevil comics I'd place on my all-time favourite list. I've never really warmed up to protagonist Matt Murdock and the deeply depressing life he leads, but Mark Waid may yet change my way of thinking. Thanks to his collaborators, Marcos Martin and Paolo Rivera, he's turned in one of the most beautiful super hero comics I've seen in years; the amount of love and craft on every page is invigorating, especially in how Murdock's radar senses are brought to life by sound effects. In most super hero comics, sound effects seem to be workmanlike at best; Daredevil uses sound effects in ways I normally only find in indie comics, such as Matt Murdock dodging bullets represented by sound effects (above). Daredevil is the super hero book I most anticipate - quite a reversal!

Speaking of Daredevil, someone had the bright idea to have the Black Panther take over Daredevil's job as defender of Hell's Kitchen in Black Panther: the Man Without Fear/Most Dangerous Man Alive. I haven't put any real stock into Black Panther since Christopher Priest left the franchise and this series was saddled with depriving the hero of his supporting cast, setting and special weapons while putting him into Daredevil's setting. To top it off, writer David Liss is a newcomer to comic books, being an import from the world of prose. You wouldn't expect Black Panther to work, and yet... it's both true and liberating to the character. Removing the Black Panther's special weapons, army of loyal allies and political power scales him back down to a point where he can actually lose; what's great then is that he gets to display new strengths, relying on his initiative and reflexes to get past problems. To top it off, it's hopeful.

In Black Panther's Fear Itself tie-in, the Hate-Monger uses his emotion-altering powers to inflame locals, fanning racism to turn them against the Black Panther. However, the Hate-Monger's most ardently racist supporter - Chambliss - isn't even under the man's power. When the crisis is averted, Chambliss goes to the Panther asking to make amends; he's then made a janitor in the Panther's diner. So yes, we all get a good laugh at the racist, but at the same time, the Panther is extending a second chance to him; very cool and all too rare. Finally, most of the series has boasted the art of Francesco Francavilla, who's just been exploding on the scene at various titles (Detective Comics, Captain America & Bucky); he's one to watch, for sure.

It probably also helps David Liss that his mini-series Mystery Men was illustrated by Patrick Zircher. It flew under most people's radar, but as a 1930s super hero tale it was well-crafted and told at a breakneck pace. Virtually every character in Mystery Men was created by Liss for the series, but in just five issues he makes his characters come to life, including some of the background characters met along the way. Somehow Liss and Zircher managed to tell an alternate history epic where Ayn Rand helped conspire in the Lindbergh baby kidnapping; that's chutzpah, there.

Xombi lasted a mere six issues; six issues of glorious insanity. Big, bold imaginative ideas by John Rozum with art to match by Frazer Irving. Everyone reading Xombi realized it couldn't last, but I for one was glad they made the effort. Even with no experience of the original 1990s version of the comic and despite the dense text, I accepted Xombi on its terms and its bizarre ideas were as much charming as usettling. More about Xombi here.

Finally, who would have thought Journey into Mystery would work its way into our hearts? It became a darling of comic book fans almost immediately, with its adventures of a child-sized Loki trying to save Asgard and his brother Thor by playing tricks on everyone. Every issue has held so much deft plotting and characterization by Kieron Gillen, it's a joy to behold. Young Loki's desire to good by committing little evils creates an interesting balance in the book, where we readers don't want Loki to fail, but fear his solutions will only increase the misery of others.

Comic books of 2011: the bad

2012-01-12T22:10:00.002-07:00

Theodore Sturgeon opined "Ninety percent of everything is crap." Some days I look at the state of contemporary comic books and think, "he needn't have been so optimistic."

As I consider the "bad" side to comic books in 2011, let me assure you now, I'm not going to hold up any particular book as the "worst" of its ilk. I am, however, going to cite two recent examples of poor storytelling which are representative of my problems with present-day comic books. If I held up every example which bothered me, this blog post would take about 72 hours of non-stop composition. The two which I have chosen are not the worst offenders of their kind, they are not even necessarily comic books I dislike; they are simply convenient.

I try to be an optimistic sort; circa 2007, I often told friends I believed the time we lived in was the best possible time for comic books. I felt that way because we'd (seemingly) learned so much from our past and even though Marvel & DC's super hero comics comprised most of the marketplace, there were plenty of alternatives riding on their coattails. Improvements in technology and communication made it easier for average Joes and Josephines to create their comic books from home. Comicdom was practically Leibniz-like.

Have I really become so cynical within four years?

I try to hold back my cynicism and express it in humorous ways, such as my occasional series Nick Spencer, comicdom's answer to Ingmar Bergman. But even behind those posts is my unspoken fear...

I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. $3.99 buys a $0.99 comic book, publishers are going bust, shopkeepers keep variant covers under the counter. Zombie memes are running wild in the web and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know Tarot Witch of the Black Rose is unfit to breathe and Hawk and Dove is unfit to eat, and we sit watching the CBR feed while some press release tells us that last month we bought 100,000 event comics and 1,000 art comics, as if that's the way it's supposed to be! We know things are bad - worse than bad, They're crazy! It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone at our laptops. Let me have my Batman and my Justice League and my Fourth World Omnibus and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone!' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone! I want you to get MAD! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to e-mail your local comic shop because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Grand Theft Auto and the digital comics price parity. All I know is that first you've got to get mad! You've got to say, "I'm a human being! My life has value!" So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now, and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the widescreen proliferation. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!

Where is all of this fear and anger coming from? Strangely enough... storytelling. This is the truth everyone says yet no one wants to believe: quality storytelling wins out in the end. My friend Colin Smith could probably blog about all 12 issues of All Star Superman for 365 days straight and not run out of complimentary things to say (his essays on All Star Superman led to my discovering his blog). But the more Colin challenged me to think, "what could be," the more I felt, "why isn't it so?"

Another major influence upon me is Miguel, whose articles on the diminishing quality of comic book storytelling expressed much of what I had been musing (I had been planning a similar post the very day I first read Miguel's work; read those articles here and here).

I read comic books from across its history and over time I've been putting out feelers to more international and "art" titles. Because I read so many books in the course of a year, I see a lot of a different styles... and then I see a lot of similar styles. It's hard to escape noticing the trends in mainstream publications. As Miguel notes, thought balloons, speed lines and other narrative tools are gone; when this trend began, it seemed as though comic books were becoming movie pitches... now they've simply become movie storyboards. Circa 1999, Dwayne McDuffie opined comic books were like a movie with an infinite special effects budget. Now it seems as though comic books are afraid to spend those infinite dollars because it might scare away film investors!

There, I think that's long-winded enough... now, on to my first example:

In this panel taken from Near Death#4, the protagonist (far right) has just reunited a man with his wife (left), having bargained to release the wife from the clutches of the Triads. This panel is the husband and wife's reunion. What I hope you've noticed is the body language of the couple; they're standing apart from each other, arms at their sides, faces unreadable. How is this couple's reunion supposed to make us feel? Do we like them? Are we glad they're reunited? Do they like each other? Are they glad they're reunited? Why can't there be some passion in this panel, a warm embrace? Why should the dialogue have to carry all of the information?

If I were to be charitable with this panel, I would take it the artist didn't have time for these concerns; he's no doubt trying desperately to make deadlines, provide for himself or his family, there aren't enough hours in the day for artists to contemplate panel composition or body language, they need to stay on autopilot just to survive. That's my charitable view.

However... if this is how it has to be - storytelling sacrificed for expediency - then why show up to play? Comic books are not a charity case; the answer to "how does this story make you feel" should never be: "how sorry I am that the creators couldn't spend more time on it." This is where Colin's Pop Manifesto comes to mind; to some extent, comic books are still a disposable medium, but they shouldn't be knowingly created as such.

On to the second example; Avengers Annual#1 concludes a lengthy Wonder Man versus the Avengers story which had been teased since 2010 with this dust-up between Wonder Man and Iron Man:

A two-page spread of two men throwing punches at each other, with Iron Man catching Wonder Man's swing; this is where you think, "Kirby would've done it in one panel; and he would've had one guy dodge out of the way while the other one smashes something like a brick wall to show us how strong he was." So what happens next in this tussle of the titans?

Ab-so-lutely nothing. Wonder Man is beaten off-panel by the energy doohickey visible on Iron Man's gauntlet in the two-page spread. Evidently, there was enough room in the book for a two-page spread of men swinging their fists at each other (what a paradigm shift! we've never seen that before!), but no space for even a single panel depicting a strange, sci-fi device grabbing a full-grown man and vacuuming him into its sphere (old hat! we see that all the time!). The pay-off to a long-teased fight - and the single most interesting visual in a story which is in an, oh yes, visual medium - didn't make it to the page.

This is what I'm afraid of: comics choose to be this way... and most people think it's swell.

Tomorrow: why I still loved comic books in 2011.

Texts of 2011: reconsidered champions and new landscapes

2012-01-11T22:27:00.004-07:00

So much of my spare time in 2011 was spent on films and comic books that I don't believe I read as many books as I do in a typical year. However, a few things stand out:

I continued my fascination with author Sax Rohmer, reading his books the Sins of Sumuru, Return of Sumuru, Slaves of Sumuru, Dope, Fire-Tongue, the Orchard of Tears, Bimbashi Baruk of Egypt, the Sins of Severec Bablon (more about it here), Tales of Chinatown, the Haunting of Low Fennel and Wulfheim. I'm just about done with Rohmer - in two senses; first, I've read very nearly all of his books, which is no mean feat since when I first began hunting for him in second-hand bookstores circa 1999, his books were nowhere to be found; second, the more I read of his lesser-known works, the less respect I have for his fiction. I used to be quite the Rohmer apologist, but when I hit Fire-Tongue and found it racist even by his own culture's reckoning, it was a turning point for me in terms of how far I'm willing to defend him. Also, while working my way through the Fu Manchu books way back in 1998, I noted how by the 1940s, Fu Manchu had lost a lot of his exotic flavour, becoming what I felt was a more generic criminal mastermind. The more I read of Rohmer's 40s fiction, the more I see how generic his villains had become - his 40s Fu Manchu could've been swapped with any of them and the villains are usually the best part of his early novels. Indeed, the early novel Dope was one of the few highlights of last year's readings. Who knows, perhaps 2012 will be the year where I finish reading all of his novels and short stories?

The only other piece of fiction worth noting was John Buchan's Witch Wood, primarily because it was the last remaining work of Buchan's fiction I hadn't read. It didn't strike me as being quite as good as it was made out to be in Buchan fan circles, but it was an interesting book, very similar to the Blanket of the Dark.

The real winners for me in 2011 were two pieces of non-fiction I pulled from my uncle's home in Angola: King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild and the State of Africa by Martin Meredith. It may seem silly to you that I spent a portion of my time in Africa reading about Africa when I might've done it from home before I departed. It wasn't lost on me, to be sure, but feeling "better late than never" and being instantly fascinated with both books, I delved straight in; several of my nights in Angola were spent sitting up reading in the living room with family and guests, so why not spend the time learning a little more about the continent?

King Leopold's Ghost told the story of the Belgian Congo and the shrewd, underhanded means King Leopold used to seize a second kingdom for himself. I think like many, I was unaware of the early 1900s human rights campaign to end the sufferings of the Congo, which is exactly what drew Hochschild into unearthing the story for his book. What it really impressed upon me is that while slavery was supposedly abolished in the western world, colonial powers in Africa could run their territories as slave states, which was even worse than buying and trading human lives.

The State of Africa attempts to recount the stories of every African nation in chronological order as they obtained independence in the 20th century. Although it's a massive tome, the chronological order makes the "story" of Africa difficult to follow because so many major leaders are introduced, then disappear while others are added to the cast, sometimes leaving behind earlier characters at a "dramatic" episode (I was quite convinced Kwame Nkrumah died in Vietnam in 1966 when his story was abruptly cut short at the end of a chapter; perhaps a chapter later his story continued, much to my surprise). It's sprawling, but immensely rewarding. After reading this book, I had a much better picture in my mind of the continent, the major turning points in recent history. It also helped me to see many of the (sadly) recurring patterns in independent countries, which would seem to either descend straight into civil conflict or, if they were politically stable, drive their economy down so that civil conflict erupted about a decade later. Points of history which I knew of on a superficial level such as the Ethiopian famine were explained succinctly and memorably. Before leaving to Angola, my African geography was simply terrible - I could identify perhaps six nations without reading their names off a map. I'm much, much better now and that's partly due to this book for granting me a "big picture" view of the land.

Tomorrow: The bad side of comics books; when they hurt, I hurt.

Movies of 2011, day five: it's good to be surprised!

2012-01-06T17:18:00.000-07:00

Today I'm ending my five day look back at the movies I watched in 2011 to consider a few movies from off the beaten path. As I recounted in the second installment, I was working through a list of films which interested me, but in the course of checking libraries, Youtube, Netflix and their ilk, from time-to-time I dug up something I hadn't heard of, but found fascinating; in other cases, I dug up a movie with a certain reputation and found it stronger than I'd been lead to believe. Here's the best surprises of 2011:

In 2011 I went through the few remaining Alfred Hitchcock movies I hadn't seen, including Torn Curtain. Every Hitchcock book I've read came down hard on this movie, describing how wrong Paul Newman and Julie Andrews were for a Hitchcock movie and so forth. Finally watching it for myself, I have to say: it's not bad. I wouldn't call it great Hitchcock, but it isn't the trainwreck the critics led me to believe it to be. Newman is scientist who defects to the Soviets, but only so he can uncover one of their secrets. The espionage elements fit pretty well with other Hitchcock films in the genre and the scene where Newman has to kill an enemy agent - yet finds it takes a lot of work to kill a man is a nice reversal of the usually simplistic Hollywood death scenes; the dying agent fights back to the very end and Newman needs a woman to rescue him! Near the end, the scenes of Newman and Andrews trying to get out from behind the Iron Curtain with the aid of resistance agents are pretty good too, reminding me of the circus people who sheltered Hitchcock's heroes in Saboteur. I tell you, never dismiss a Hitchcock film out of hand!

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde should be utter trash. It's a Hammer film where Jekyll transforms into an evil woman, primarily so the filmmakers could flash some skin on the screen. It's also not content to be simply be a gender-swapped Jekyll-Hyde story - no, it becomes a Jack the Ripper and Burke & Hare picture, too! Hey, why not throw in Spring-Heeled Jack while we're at it? Jekyll isn't particularly likable either as he performs a few evil acts; usually it's Hyde who embodies the character's evil side. Splitting the role between two actors seems like a bad idea too, since presumably one of the reasons actors like the part is so they can play two versions of the same person. And yet... Ralph Bates and Martine Beswick do share an uncanny resemblance (not much of a compliment to Beswick, I suppose). For all the problems that being a 1970s Hammer picture entail, this a pretty good horror movie, even if the similarities to Robert Louis Stevenson's story end with (during?) the title.

After returning from Angola, I went through Netflix to find films about Africa and happened across the Devil Came on Horseback, a documentary which relates Brian Steidle's tale of witnessing genocide in Darfur and attempting to rally the world to the cause of ending the conflict, yet finding while people were vocally opposed to the genocide, they weren't particularly in favour of action. It's a pretty sad tale and all too familiar - Romeo Dallaire expressed many of the same frustrations about the Rwandan genocide in Shake Hands With the Devil.

I assumed Danny Kaye's Wonder Man was one of his lesser films, having only heard of it via various jokes Jack Benny made about it on his radio program during an episode where Kaye visited. My family watched quite a few Kaye movies as I was growing up, so I (wrongly) believed I had a pretty good grasp of his career. Wrong! It turns out Wonder Man was a smash hit in its day, won an Academy Award and still holds up even now, with Kaye playing twin brothers, one a meek bookworm, the other a show-stealing entertainer. I would have enjoyed this movie even more if I had seen it as a kid.

I sought out Ken Burns' Empire of the Air because it was a documentary about radio, so I assumed it would feed my hobby pretty well. However, it isn't about aspect of radio I'm interested in - the networks, the cultural impact, the rise and fall of comedy and drama - it's the story of the men who made the radio device viable, particularly Lee DeForest and Edwin Armstrong. It's a fascinating recount of two intelligent men with strong personalities and the surprising amount of politics which came to figure in the development of radio.

I don't see much love for the 1935 version of Crime and Punishment, evidently because it took some liberties with the source material. However, I found this to be an astounding movie; I haven't read the novel myself, but it seems to me even watered-down Dostoevsky is fantastic. Peter Lorre has the lead role in this picture (I'd heard him in a radio adaptation of the story too) and he's magnificent; this has to be Lorre's best English film of the 30s. This film dearly needs reevaluation by scholars - scholars other than Dostoevsky fanatics.

Next week: moving on to literature!

Movies of 2011, day four: poor choices

2012-01-05T17:35:00.003-07:00

Thus far in my look back at films I watched in 2011, I reflected on movies I watched at the cinema, older films I rather enjoyed and films which didn't quite click. Today, I'm looking at those films which I actively disliked. One of them may earn a reprieve (see below), but I feel I'm well rid of the rest; agree or disagree if you will, just meet me below...

It's strange to me how for more than a decade I've been close friends to a dinosaur fan, yet I hadn't watched Jurassic Park. My friend Craig likes dinosaurs; really, really, really likes dinosaurs. He also knows his dinosaur movies incredibly well, from the b-pictures of the past to the CGI fests of the present. It was only when he moved to Hong Kong in 2011 that I inherited his copies of the first two Jurassic Park pictures and decided I might as well give them a whirl. I did find a lot to like about the first film, but as to the Lost World: Jurassic Park? This movie has serious flaws. You may already be familiar with some of them: Vince Vaughn, Goldblum as a leading man, Vince Vaughn, the girl using gymnastics to defeat dinosaurs, Vince Vaughn, the cliched evil businessman plot, Vince Vaughn... It looks nice, but it's big, dumb and too predictable.

On the first night of my vacation trip to Angola, I noticed Sucker Punch in the video-on-demand list. I was only barely aware of the film's existence and knew nothing about the plot or even premise of the picture. However, having enjoyed other Zack Snyder films, I thought it would be a good choice, even though it was getting late for me and I really should have been settling down to try and sleep on the plane. The movie concerns a young woman in a mental institution who concocts a false reality where she's in a brothel who concocts a false reality where she's a video game-style action hero. I gradually realized the fight scenes in the latter reality existed just to indulge Snyder and had nothing to do with the plot - I might as well skip those scenes so I can sleep sooner! But then, the second reality had nothing to do with the plot either - I might as well skip those, too! And the first reality is so by-the-numbers... hey, look, I've skipped ahead to the end! Now I can sleep.

On the way back from Angola, one of the in-flight movies was Water for Elephants. I should have slept through it, but I didn't feel tired. It wasn't objectionable the way Sucker Punch was, but the protagonist in this film is such a lunkhead. Things happen to him, never because of his own actions. After he drops out of med school because his parents are dead, that's pretty well the last time he makes a choice. After that, he chances upon a circus and they chance to welcome him with a job, and they chance to need a veternarian, but the evil ringmaster's not-evil wife chances to have feelings for the med student and the other employees chance to have a growing ill will towards their boss... so the "protagonist" wanders around vacantly while everyone else drives the action. You want your high concept? This film is Toby Tyler meets the Brother From Another Planet.

I shouldn't have watched the Cat People. I rather like the 1940s Val Lewton Cat People, the film praised by many for daring to keep its monster mostly off-screen. I knew from reviews that the 1980s remake had none of the original's sense of subtlety when it came to the monster, violence or eroticism, yet I gave it a try when I found it on Netflix. This movie is just unpleasant, delving into incest and beastiality. What a bad idea.

During a family get-together, we turned up the Black Swan on Netflix and started watching it. However, we knew nothing about how explicitly sexual the movie was and we gave up about halfway through; I might go back to it later, but boy, it ain't one I want to watch with other people in the room.

I knew Jet Li's the One would be a stupid movie; that's why I chose it out of Netflix, I felt like watching something dumb (and none of the Jackie Chan films were loading). Oh my, this movie is dumb. The most interesting thing about it is seeing Jason Statham before he was famous and Space: Above & Beyond's James Morrison (who's never been that famous). What killed the film for me was seeing Li's CGI stunts; a martial artist as great as Jet Li doesn't need CGI to impress audiences. Argh.

when I found the Vanishing on Netflix I really should have opened my Leonard Maltin guide before proceeding any further. I recalled there were two versions of the movie, but I couldn't recall whether the Kiefer Sutherland/Jeff Bridges version was the original or the remake, nor did I recall if the remake was supposed to be any good. Well, this is the remake and no, it's not very good. Bridges' lispy Capote-like delivery made him a pretty poor villain in my estimation. This movie is also very confused about how the characters relate to one another, with one supposedly-pivotal moment between Sutherland and his girlfriend being instantly contradicted by the following scene. The original may be a great picture; this wasn't worth the $0 I paid for it.

Tomorrow, it ends on a positive note: pleasant surprises.

Movies of 2011, day three: disappointments

2012-01-04T17:34:00.004-07:00

As I worked through my aforementioned list of films I'd been curious about watching, there were a few films which didn't live up to my expectations. For a film to be disappointing, I have to have held some belief at the outset that the personal recommendations, glowing reviews and/or familiar stars & directors were going to turn out something I'd find interesting, perhaps even outstanding. So, here's the films I watched in 2011 which I didn't really take to; I wouldn't call them bad, but I don't imagine I'll grant them a second chance.

I only recently began watching films by Martin Scorcese and I'm finding his filmography to be hit-or-miss, though I've never out-and-out disliked his movies. Gangs of New York is a good example of what I mean by "miss." I never connected to the historical setting, the characters or the conflict, so the lengthy running time surely didn't endear me either.

I passed up a chance to see Hero in the theatres during its original release so that a friend could use the free tickets I'd been given. I felt a minor regret at giving away the tickets, but now having seen the film for myself... no more regrets. I have a lot of time for good martial arts movies, but I just can't stand wire stunts, which is where this film goes to at every fight scene. The film was otherwise inoffensive.

I've mentioned before how westerns are one of the film genres I'm trying to make myself appreciate, so I tracked down one of the supposed greats: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. However, I never took to this film, in spite of a few scenes I did enjoy. It's very long and languid and I found it a struggle to stay invested in the slow-moving story.

Mission to Moscow is an odd footnote in film history, being a pro-USSR film made at the behest of FDR to help US citizens accept the Russians as their allies in World War II. In terms of fostering good relations between two peoples, it's a laudable goal. However, the execution in this film is simply terrible. By creating such a Hollywood-ized depiction of the USSR (and not Hollywood in the same way the earlier film Ninotchka played the USSR for laughs), it does a real disservice to history and to the then-current suffering in the Soviet Union when it was released. It essentially reduces purges into "people getting what they deserve" and repeatedly bending over backwards to claim the USSR isn't as bad as people claim, while the bad reports must all be propaganda. Don't believe their propaganda, believe ours! It's a pity to see Walter Huston - such a great actor - in this movie.

I saw the Towering Inferno despite having heard it was a big, dumb, loud disaster movie because I was curious to see what Paul Newman and Steve McQueen achieved in the picture. Answer: not enough to make up for Irwin Allen's excesses.

On the flight back from Angola last summer, I gave Megamind a chance; it's a story about a super villain who suffers an identity crisis when his nemesis is seemingly killed. As a time-killer, this was a great picture - there was no point at which I was bored of this movie. On the other hand, it was supposed to be a comedy... and there was no point at which I was amused by this movie.

Knight and Day comes so close to working. In retrospect, the trailer was the best part, but it used up all the really great moments. The concept of a violent anti-hero appearing in the midst of a romantic comedy is a terrific one - but the movie doesn't take any chances with the idea; all the creativity was used up in the film's pitch.

I blogged before about Star Trek. As I said then: it's a decent time-killer, if you don't think of it as Star Trek.

I had seen part of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World on television before and didn't think much of it, but after noticing it on Netflix I decided to give it a chance. I was curious about the immense cast, containing dozens of great comedians (not counting Milton Berle). The end result is that my first impression hadn't changed - this movie is too much of a broad, slapstick farce for my tastes.

I had barely heard of Extract, but it turned up on Netflix too; given how much I enjoyed Mike Judge's films Office Space and Idiocracy, I hoped I'd found another brilliant film which snuck beneath the radar. well, not so much. The characters and premise are fine, but there's something really lacking in the execution of this film.

Speaking of a fine premise, Capricorn One has a great one: during the faked first manned mission to Mars, the flight crew are declared dead and must run for their lives. That sounds like a great picture, but the movie is actually about a reporter trying to uncover the secret of the faked mission, not the desperate struggle of the astronauts to stay alive and tell the world the truth. Pity.

Having seen most of John Carpenter's films recently, I decided to try Prince of Darkness, even though it's reputation isn't stellar. Seeing so many familiar Carpenter actors (quite a few from Big Trouble in Little China) and opening with what seemed to be a science fiction-style take on horror movie tropes, this movie never came together for me; the nature of the threat seems so unclear and contradictory... like, Satan was an alien? But the supernatural exists anyway? And if the antichrist is creating a body for itself out of a vat of goo, why does it wind up possessing someone else's body instead?

I'm somewhat intrigued by the years when the Walt Disney company was in decline, the era when Don Bluth created a rival studio, the movies had inferior animation and struggled at the box office until Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg turned the company around... so, Waking Sleeping Beauty seemed like it would be an interesting documentary of that era, even though it was produced by Disney themselves. However, by the end of the film I realized what I'd seen was simply a celebration of Katzenberg and nothing more. It opens by describing the state of Disney in the early 80s, it ends with the release of the Lion King and Katzenberg quitting. No mention is made of how Disney fared without Katzenberg (answer: just fine) or how Katzenberg fared without Disney (answer: just fine), nor whatever happened to Eisner (answer: outlasted Katzenberg by a decade), not even the fates of the other Disney films Katzenberg had put into production when he left. The filmmaker/narrator also has a sense of protectiveness about Disney (hurtfully describing Bluth as "kicking us when we were down") which interferes with objectivity. This film is just a love letter to Katzenberg's years at Disney; it assumes you're already one of the fawning faithful.

I keep saying I like Christopher Nolan films, but I guess what I mean to say is "I like his Batman pictures." Memento was worth watching once; the Prestige is the only movie I've ever taken out of my personal movie library (Reefer Madness and Star Trek 5 remain in). Inception developed a strong reputation in 2010 so I felt open to it, but ultimately, the fact that it's about characters in a dream world did a lot to diffuse the supposed tension of the story; it's all dreams within dreams and if reality is a dream... why am I bothering?

A clip of All That Jazz in Martin Scorcese's Journey Through... special really caught my attention; a musical director at death's door whose personal issues are brought to life as a muscical? That sounds like a great picture! Sadly, that's actually the plot of about 15 minutes near the end of the movie; leading up to that, there's a repellant, unlikeable protagonist who made me seriously grapple with the delayed pleasure of reaching the musical portion versus the immediate pleasure of not watching him on film any longer.

I'd also long known how Scorcese loved Duel in the Sun, David O. Selznick's attempt to out-Gone With the Wind Gone With the Wind via an epic western of two brothers whose different values turn them into enemies, especially as they both love the same woman. I do like a lot of the film's visuals, but Gregory Peck's villainous brother is so instantly unlikable (the most likeable thing about him is that he's played by Gregory Peck) that it's hard to get through 2.5 hours of him being villainous before his comeuppance. I wish it had been a little more subtle, but there I go, looking for subtlety in a Selznick picture...

Scorcese also presented a clip of Some Came Running, showing a gunman chasing two people through a carnival. It was a tense scene with unusual filming angles and instantly caught my attention. However, I never actually looked to see what Some Came Running was, assuming from the clip that it was a thriller. It's actually about 2 hours of Frank Sinatra being a self-loathing writer with the carnival scene arriving at the climax. I guess I should have done a little research here.

Finally, Pan's Labyrinth which is a lot like director Guillermo del Toro's Devil's Backbone, only with a big CGI budget, wider public acceptance and a downbeat ending. Personally, I'll stick to the Devil's Backbone; the child protagonist is so incapable of achieving any goals or of making anything better for herself or others that the entire experience rubbed me the wrong way. The children in the Devil's Backbone were similarly ill-equipped for the dangers they found themselves placed in, but at least they didn't exacerbate the situation.

Tomorrow: the movies I really didn't like.

Movies of 2011, day two: the best of what's been

2012-01-03T16:51:00.000-07:00

Back in 2010, I sat down and composed a very lengthy list of movies I wanted to see. It was no hasty effort - I wrote down films which had intrigued me for years and films by directors (Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Carol Reed, Orson Welles) or stars (Humphrey Bogart, Jack Benny, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff) who were my personal favourites. I drew some items from critic's lists, but others were recommendations from trusted friends. I took note of genres which I didn't usually watch (ie, musical, western, documentary) and decided I would seek out the films considered to be the best of their ilk. Watching Hollywood granted me a list of silent films I was eager to see while a Personal Journey With Martin Scorcese Through American Movies drew me to a number of lesser-known titles.

Although I began going through the list in 2010, it was during 2011 that I watched most of the 200-some titles (about 30 remain; I've already watched one in 2012 as I write this). At the same time, I remained open to all sorts of films which weren't on my list as I watched movies with friends or family and from what I unearthed on Netflix.

Below are my favourite films of the many I watched during 2011. Films are described in the order of which I viewed them.

In terms of documentaries, Errol Morris' the Thin Blue Line was the best-regarded film I had heard of. Having seen it, it's become my go-to recommendation to friends. I felt I had seen enough of Michael Moore-style documentaries, but Morris' style was instantly arresting - the way in which he holds back from commenting, instead letting the camera run and allow his subjects to say what's on their mind has changed how I feel about documentaries. I followed this film up with as many other Morris pictures as I could, including Standard Operating Procedure, his picture about the Abu Ghraib scandal. I watched all but one of his films within the last year and they all come highly recommended!

My friends are sometimes amazed by what I haven't seen, namely the many well-known commercial films I haven't watched. For instance, I hadn't seen Chicken Run until it came up for viewing at my friend Tom's movie night; similarly, I borrowed his copy of Field of Dreams. You probably don't need my recommendation for these films, but I will say they're great for viewing in friendly company.

L.A. Confidential came recommended by my cousin; despite the accolades it received from critics and the Academy Awards (which I knew well, being from the era when I read the entertainment section of two newspapers and watched Siskel & Ebert every day), it was my cousin's championing this film which convinced me to watch it - otherwise, I think I would have dismissed it as "film noir pastiche." It was strangely less dark than I expected to be, even becoming rather life-affirming by the climax.. not genuine noir, then!

The Petrified Forest was of interest to me because it was Humphrey Bogart's big breakout role; I had heard a few radio adaptations of the story, so the plot held no surprises, but Bogart's performance was indeed the tentpole of this picture; I was also fascinated by the racial attitudes, as I blogged about here.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (this being the 1939 version with Robert Donat) is another picture whose story I had heard dramatized via old-time radio programs, but the picture was quite moving; I also happened to realize how despite Donat being a favourite Hitchcock hero (the 39 Steps), I hadn't really considered the rest of his film career.

The French film Les Diaboliques had a very simple plot, but oh so oh so much style; the story of a wife who murders her husband with the help and guidance of her husband's mistress just ticks along, making the viewer wonder where the complications will arise and how frayed the killers' alliance will become.

Getting back to documentaries, I watched Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man, not entirely certain what I was in for. Herzog is certainly more of an editorialist than Morris, but when the film steps back and allows its subject - passionate yet foolish bear-lover Timothy Treadwell - express his thoughts, it's quite a show; to some extent, perhaps Herzog's heavy-handed narration and summation was needed to comment on Treadwell's behaviour, yet I wish Treadwell's footage could have stood on its own.

Beau Geste is from that interesting span of years in the late 30s when Hollywood would create big, rousing, exotic adventure pictures. Beau Geste still holds up, especially when it moves to the big set piece - the Foreign Legion outpost in the desert, divided by revolt within, beset by adversaries without. Everything after the battle for the outpost feels anti-climatic.

After all the serious documentaries I watched the Dark Side of the Moon was a hilarious change of pace; purporting to relate the story of how Stanley Kubrick faked the moon landing, replete with testimony from major NASA and US government officials, this is a brilliant joke; it does a fantastic job of encouraging viewers to be inquisitive and questioning of the "facts" people tell them, especially those told by filmmakers (who can edit "testimony" out of its context), but it doesn't stoop to lecturing; it isn't until the closing credits that the film exposes itself as a hoax, but hopefully anyone who watches the film would catch on much sooner; many of the early scenes are off-putting, making you doubt what you're being told; by the end, the story of the faked moon landing has become so absurd (yet delivered straight-faced) that it becomes very funny.

A couple of years ago, I read the book version of the One That Got Away, yet the film adaptation was a little elusive. I was amazed at how faithful the film was to its source material, relating the tale of how German pilot Franz von Werra repeatedly attempted escape from the British, until finally winning his freedom by leaping from a prison train in Canada. The book is the superior way of experiencing this story, but I have no complaints about the movie!

I've never really warmed up Billy Wilder's pictures, yet because of the aforementioned Martin Scorcese... special, I felt One, Two, Three with Jimmy Cagney would be worth seeing. And how! I'm surprised I hadn't heard of this film until seeing Scorcese's special, it's a very well-played Cold War farce which is still funny in a post-Cold War world.

Of the many movies I watched aboard various planes during my trip to/from Angola, POM Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold was easily my favourite experience. I had previously enjoyed Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me, so I was willing to indulge in this gentle mockery of movie product placement. I wish a little more time in the picture had been spent discussing product placement with the briefly-interviewed Hollywood directors, but many of the gags - especially the Mane & Tail shampoo - are quite funny.

Thanks to Netflix, I was finally able to see two top-rated pictures: Gandhi and Kagemusha. I was recently rewatching Richard Attenborough's picture Chaplin and wishing he'd filmed it in a style nearer to that of Gandhi.

Netflix also had Charade, a pretty good thriller in the Hitchcock vein; I think it's often been mistaken for a Hitchcock film because Cary Grant was the leading man (at least, my father seems to think it was a Hitchcock picture).

I wish Black Hawk Down had been a little more ambitious. It's a very well-done depiction of modern warfare and the comradery of soldiers which you'd expect, but it stops short of being about something other than an andrenaline-fueled reenactment of a historical event and that held me back just a titch.

I often watch comic book-related pictures even when I haven't experienced the comics themselves, simply to be supportive. If Netflix hadn't had Persepolis available for streaming, I don't know when I would have made time for the film or comics; it does such a fine job of what Mark Gruenwald claimed comics were meant for: "to help people connect with life experiences of people other than themselves, thereby expanding upon their concept of humanness." That's Persepolis and now I know I need to make time for the original comic.

Netflix also lead me to films of various reputations: Seven Years in Tibet, Blues Brothers, 1984, Marty... funny thing about 1984: the novel was a huge influence on me in high school, but I always balked at seeing R-rated films in my teen years. Now having seen the 80s adaptation, I realize it had always been a mature, adult piece of fiction - the R rating is all I should have expected.

I don't know why I should be surprised I enjoyed Pixar's Up; I haven't seen a Pixar film I didn't like (ie, I haven't seen a Bug's Life or Cars) but this film's concept wasn't easy to get a handle on from the trailer (as opposed to "toys," "monsters," "super heroes," or "robots"). I'm glad it allowed the creators to be a little more offbeat and imaginative than usual. This is a letter-perfect all-ages film.

Having seen Throne of Blood I'm down to just a few remaining Kurosawa pictures; this was his adaptation of Macbeth into a samurai film and it fits together perfectly, from the supernatural elements, to the "Lady Macbeth" treachery and especially in the climax as the forest moves and "Macbeth"'s soldiers revolt.

I think I heard mixed reviews of District 9, but one friend I confronted about this claims he never talked down about the movie; well, there was no need to put this off, was there? The most common criticism of the picture seems to be the lack of a happy ending, but I have to appreciate how the film on a hopeful note; at various times, it seemed to be heading to a tragic ending where nothing was learned and nothing was changed, so I'm simply pleased at how some things change and some hope exists.

Tomorrow: the letdowns.

Movies of 2011, day one: cinematic films

2012-01-02T16:32:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure why so many best/worst lists appear on the internet during December; aren't the authors afraid they might miss something of real significance during the last few weeks?

Now that it's 2012, I feel confident sharing my thoughts on the various media I encountered in 2011, whether they were originally released in 2011 or earlier. I'm going to delve into films, books and comics and my goal is to maintain a fairly positive attitude, even when I'm discussing the items I didn't care for.

All this week I'll be looking back at films I watched in 2011. It was a fairly significant year in terms of what, why and how I was watching older movies, but I'll get into that tomorrow. Today's topic: theatrical films.

I made only five trips to the cinema in 2011, albeit I might taken in even fewer films if circumstances had been different.

First, there was the Eagle, a film about a Roman soldier who wanders around early England searching for an eagle figure his father left behind. My brother Matthew could probably speak to whether this film was historically reliable at all. I wouldn't have imagined going to see the Eagle myself, but a friend wanted to see a movie with me and the other option handed to me was Battle: Los Angeles; I'd like to think I made the right choice. The Eagle was an okay adventure flick.

I was concerned that Thor would be somewhat disconnected from the other Marvel super hero movies which have been produced in the lead-up to 2012's Avengers, what with the vast cosmic/godly locales and characters required by Thor's mythos and their being rather removed from the relatively down-to-Earth Iron Man (and so forth). I felt my concerns were pretty well borne out - the movie worked well when it struck a little closer to the familiar (Earth scenes) and was just a bit off when it ventured into Asgard. Still, the movie works just fine, it's only serious misstep is the disjointed "romance" between Thor and Jane Foster, which feels as though at least one scene were omitted.

X-Men: First Class, on the other hand, was better than I thought it would be...probably because I've come to expect so little from the X-Men's movie franchise. It was a little too cute and self-knowing (Xavier's jokes about being a professor and going bald were at least one too many; gratuitous Wolverine cameo, so forth), but I felt its version of Magneto was actually the most formidable film version thus far. I'm not clamouring for more (nor does anyone else, it seems), but this was a great diversion.

Captain America: the First Avenger is the super hero movie I was most looking forward to; Avengers is a postscript in comparison. Cap has long been my favourite super hero and I felt the film did a great job at giving the character the attributes which make him likeable, particularly by emphasizing how his sense of courage and morality existed before he became a hero. I feel the film loses its way a little once he dons the final version of his costume (the pace of the story suddenly jerks forward) and the final ending doesn't quite fit (I'm assuming it was originally meant to appear post-credits), but overall I am very pleased with this movie

My family often takes in a movie over the Christmas holidays and 2011's feature was the Adventures of Tintin, which we of the younger generation paid for on our parents' behalf. I wasn't sure about the film in advance since the CGI style seemed so unlike the visuals of the original comics, but Tintin turned out out to be a great bit of fun, the right sort of movie to see with your family at Christmas. It did a lot to remind me about the Tintin comics, which I hadn't really thought of for some 20 years.

Tomorrow: great film discoveries of 2011!

Joe Simon, RIP

2011-12-15T16:37:00.004-07:00

This is shaping up to be a bad week for comic book professionals. Not only did we lose Jerry Robinson earlier this week, today we lost Joe Simon.

Joe Simon was a writer/artist/editor whose early efforts at Marvel included the Fiery Mask...but we're bound to remember him for ages to come because, with Jack Kirby, he created Captain America! The Simon-Kirby partnership went on for more than a decade, through just about every genre of comics (even creating a new genre - romance comics - together). When they parted ways in the 50s, Kirby went on to bigger and brighter things. Simon? Well, he was still out there, but never really an equal to Kirby again.

Personally, I'm very fond of Simon's 1970s DC comic Prez, which told the story of the USA's first teenaged president and his trials against chess-playing robots and vampires. Even by 70s standards, it was too bizarre to last.

We were fortunate to have Simon around as late as we did (he was 98). The giants of the Golden Age of comic books are slowly passing on...show your appreciation while you still can!

Today's riddle

2011-12-14T16:48:00.000-07:00

Q: What do you get when you cross Triton...

...With the Eel...?

A: I don't know either, but he's on the cover of Deathstroke#7!

I Love Atlas Comics#17: "the Brain Trap!"

2011-12-13T08:38:00.002-07:00

This story, this... man alive, this story. I can't do it justice my mere words, you must experience it for yourself; courtesy of George Roussos and World of Suspense#5 (1956):

At times I've been so disparaging to contemporary comics that I feel I have to point this out: Sturgeon's Law applies to every point of history in popular culture. Atlas Comics really suffered under the Comics Code Authority; even though they had some terrific talents who could make the most of the situation - Jack Davis, Joe Maneely, John Severin, Russ Heath - I frequently find post-code Atlas to be some of the dullest comic books ever written. World of Suspense#5 is tremendously dull, not even the Bill Everett story is worth consideration.

Here then we have a story about a man trying to invent a new "skin cure," instead cures baldness, then - nearing the end of the story - discovers he's also become telepathic! The page 4 action sequence has some of the most awkward fight choreography I've ever seen, as the attacker goes from throwing a stool over his head to banging his head against a cabinet which springs out of nowhere. I realize the Code occasionally restricted fight scenes, but that's no excuse for such a poor set-up and follow-through. Even with the caption explaining the scientist has stepped aside (to dodge the stool, not the following lunge), there's no sense of how the attacker is suddenly trying to tackle him, nor where the cabinet came from.

I feel this was being made up as they went along; I feel Roussos needed the money; I feel a regular diet of stories like these helped urge Stan Lee to give up on the comics industry.

In a better world, this would be a delightfully funny piece of unintentional comedy. The closing line "To grow hair would be a good thing... but the other things the formula can produce could be EVIL!" offers a glimpse at what might have been.

Nick Spencer, comicdom's answer to Ingmar Bergman, part 3

2011-12-12T23:33:00.001-07:00

From Secret Avengers#13, page 5, art by Scot Eaton:

In the above: Washington DC is besieged by Nazis in giant robot suits in an all-out Blitzkrieg attack; the Beast races to the US Capitol to confront a congressman who refuses to evacuate.

Not seen here: Washington DC; Nazis in giant robot suits in an all-out Blitzkrieg attack; the US Capitol.

Net result: The Beast races past some bodies into some building for some reason.

A gun-based exercise regimen? Must be made in the USA.

2011-12-11T23:28:00.003-07:00

An advertisement from Combat#8 (1953):

So this is how Hoppy built his muscles? He must've had a bad case of trigger-finger. Build big arthritis as "Hoppy" does!

The films of Jack Benny

2011-12-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

Some time ago, I read Joan Benny's biography of her father, Sunday Nights at Seven: the Jack Benny Story. Helpfully, the book contains extensive passages which Jack intended to run in an autobiography he never completed. At one point, Jack discussed his film career and wrote happily about his one picture, To Be Or Not to Be, but advised fans interested in his work to avoid the rest of his filmography.

It was a fine thing for Jack to ask his fans to forget about his film career, it's another for us to obey. I had already seen To Be or Not to Be by the time I read the biography, but I went on to see two more of his pictures. The Meanest Man in the World was undistinguished, but not too bad and at least had some choice lines for Eddie Anderson. On the other hand, Buck Benny Rides Again was about as close as a movie could come to Jack's radio program, with almost every cast member and even an audio-only Fred Allen putting in appearances; and yet, Buck Benny didn't quite satisfy me. It's a neat curio, but felt "off," just as I find his television programs don't entirely click with me.

Perhaps I should have stopped questing for Jack's films then and there, but within the last week I watched three more of them. Having done so, I feel compelled to share what I learned; hey, you don't have anything better to read, right?

Charley's Aunt (1941) came up in scattered references via Jack's radio show, even post-war. It's just one of several film adaptations of a then-popular play, but as I have familiarity with the play, it was as good as new to me. Jack is an English university lad (who's spent 10 years in school) whose roommate Charley asks to pose as his wealthy aunt so Charley and another friend have a chaperone for their dates on the day they each intend to propose. Charley's real aunt turns up as well, using a false identity for her own reasons. So, it's a farce, basically looking for an excuse to get a man to wear drag. It also features Edmund Gwenn as the guardian of the two young ladies; Gwenn needs to give his consent for them to marry, so Jack's character is encouraged to woo him into writing his consent. It brings to mind Gwenn's alleged deathbed quote, "Dying is hard; but not as hard as comedy."

Because Jack's character spends most of the picture in drag, he's given very masculine characteristics, notably being a boozer and womanizer. This is very odd for a Jack Benny fan, as I'm used to the set-up where Phil Harris is the local drinker and skirt-chaser to contrast against Benny. Just as the radio program realized it was occasionally very funny to have Harris play against his type by taking a feminine role, the film takes the not-very-masculine Benny and places him in a role meant for a stronger, alpha male type, except the latter doesn't fit.

Of course, Benny isn't English either, which is the other odd part about him being cast in the film. Jack uses an exaggerated accent on the word "can't" (ie, "cawn't") throughout the picture, but that's about as much effort as he makes to sound English. Once you start to notice the accent, it actually becomes very funny, so much so that I wonder if Jack was doing it intentionally, much like his broad attempts at caricatured accents on the radio...and I wonder if the director knew what Jack was doing.

Charley's Aunt isn't terrible, probably because of the original source material. It's odd, but it isn't Jack's worst film.

George Washington Slept Here (1942) is a frustrating picture - frustrating because it comes so close to working. The film features Benny and Ann Sheridan as a couple who purchase a dilapadated old New England manor with supposed ties to the Revolutionary War and attempted to fix the place up until it's fit to live in, but along the way they suffer monetary troubles, family growing pains and accusations of infidelity. So, it's Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House then, isn't it?

Unfortunately, just about everything Blandings did right, George Washington gets wrong. Too many of the jokes are delivered in an episodic manner, instead of being tied to the overall narrative, as in Blandings. A sub-plot about Benny's cousin joining an acting troupe goes a long way for a very slight payoff. A bratty kid is introduced who is so bratty that he drives you to distraction (ie, "why am I watching this film? can't I find a better distraction?). The family's rich uncle leads to a few good comedy routines, particularly as he tells an old anecdote with Benny correcting him on various details, yet claiming he hasn't heard the story before.

Probably the biggest misstep is in the climax; facing foreclosure, the family is saved when they unearth an old boot which contains a long-lost speech written by George Washington, validating the old claims about the house. Reciting the speech stops the comedy dead in its tracks and while the speech gives the family the capital they need to keep the house, it's not as strong as the resolution to Blandings, where the family solve their problems through their own ingenuity rather than a deus ex machina. George Washington Slept Here is my least-favourite of Benny's pictures.

Of course, the most infamous picture Benny ever made was the Horn Blows at Midnight (1945), a movie he mocked for so many years (decades?) that you would suppose it were something truly terrible. It's a picture with some serious troubles, but it's not that bad. Jack plays a musician who dreams he's an angel who's been charged with going to Earth and playing four notes on a celestial trumpet at the stroke of midnight which will usher in the end of the world; unfortunately/fortunately, various parties get in his way, including a pair of fallen angels who have taken up residence on Earth and don't want to see it go away.

The Horn Blows at Midnight was allegedly a box office bomb, hence Jack's many jokes about the film's quality. I can believe this film would have had trouble during its release. The movie's entire premise is that the protagonist is having a dream; how are you supposed to entertain an audience who know dreams "don't matter?" Unlike, say, Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr., it isn't fanciful enough to make the dream worthwhile, despite the director's efforts. Raoul Walsh was the film's director and he was a top-drawer talent; early scenes set in heaven with thousands of angels playing instruments are gorgeous, particularly one shot which flies over the orchestra. Walsh clearly made the film with a bit of love, so there are some things worth seeing in the picture. The other really fine bit in the picture is a waiter played by John Brown who is a typically entertaining John Brown character.

Outside of the visuals and the performances by Benny and Brown, I can't say much in favour of the Horn Blows at Midnight. Even moreso than George Washington, it feels like a collection of sketches. There's a thief, his ladyfriend and strongarm clinging to the edges of the story, along with the fallen angels, Benny's love interest, Benny's boss, a hotel detective, a wealthy dowager and about a dozen even less important characters. Strangely, the radio adaptation works in about every way this picture doesn't; the radio version dispenses with the business about the dream and instead of coming up with humourous reasons why Jack is distracted from blowing his trumpet, has characters argue for humanity's survival, until Jack himself is convinced. The Horn Blows at Midnight shouldn't have been a Warner Bros. picture - it really belonged at Columbia, where Frank Capra could've had a chance at making it cohesive.

At any rate, the radio version is keen. You can download a copy via the Internet Archive.

RIP Jerry Robinson.

2011-12-08T10:19:00.002-07:00

Dang.

The word is that comic book legend Jerry Robinson died earlier today at an unbelieveable 89 years old. I say "unbelieveable" because I didn't think he carried himself like he was 89. When I saw him at San Diego Comic-Con in 2009, I marveled at how quick-witted and spry he appeared - he had a real presence at the microphone, moreso than some creators in their 60s!

As one of the most important men to shape the Batman mythos - including the creation of Robin & the Joker - I'm sure his name will be remembered long into the future. However, I feel his greatest legacy is his work in creator's rights, how he pulled himself out of Bob Kane's shadow and told the truth about how Kane had suppressed recognition for the Batman creative team. Taking that a step further, he helped Superman's creators Siegel & Shuster earn some of what they were due.

As a fan of Atlas Comics, it's sad to think how since I went to San Diego in 2009, two of the best remaining Atlas artists who were still with us then - Gene Colan & Jerry Robinson - are not with us now. It's great that Robinson's career at DC has become legendary, but I wish more people were aware of his work at Marvel in the 50s. If anything, I suppose Marvel fans will remember him as the man who mentored Steve Ditko.

A balanced diet of reading

2011-12-07T23:55:00.001-07:00

Recently I was thinking about the comic books I read and considered how so many of them have a consistent tone or style - that is, I know what tone to expect in the Punisher, I know what style to expect in a Roger Langridge title. I found myself wishing there were at least one comic book in 2011 which delivered a wide range of tones, from serious to irreverent, from action to drama, from meticulous world-building to turning points, from intellectualism to bawdy humour. Boy, I'd love a comic book like that.

"Oh yeah." I recollected. "I'm already reading Usagi Yojimbo."

I've blogged about Usagi Yojimbo a few times already, but I feel like I can't stress enough just how fine this series - in no small part because it goes unmentioned by virtually every comic book review site & blog on the web. Here's a book which has survived three publishers, driven on by a single creator's vision, telling a variety of small stories which fit together into a larger ongoing story with no end in sight...but as much as readers claim they want self-contained stories, they never seem to prove it with numbers.

Camouflaged by the funny animal trappings, Usagi Yojimbo has shocked me:

Usagi Yojimbo has educated me:

Usagi Yojimbo has amazed me:

Usagi Yojimbo has made me somber:

Usagi Yojimbo has made me laugh:

Usagi Yojimbo has thrilled me:

Usagi Yojimbo has warmed my heart:

Usagi Yojimbo has kept me guessing:

Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai is a full course meal. I think you should treat yourself to a generous portion.

When War Was Wonderful!

2011-11-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

From Davy Berg's Boot-Camp Brady story "DMZ Marines!" in Marines in Action#13 (1957):

Can North Korea really be all bad if their patrol units are manned by chorus girls?

I've taken this panel out of context, but just barely...the chorus girls have nothing to do with any of the preceding or succeeding panels in this story.

Nick Spencer, comicdom's answer to Ingmar Bergman, part 2

2011-11-29T23:05:00.003-07:00

Back by popular demand...

From Iron Man 2.0#3 (2011), page 2, art by Carmine Di Giandomenico:

Iron Man 2.0! The cutting edge in comics about old men sitting in desks -- and getting up from them!

Here we see some cinematic technique, but not comics storytelling. Please read Miguel's post on comics storytelling for some cogent thoughts on these trends.

Obviously, this page is taken out of context; in context, this is the 2nd of 5 pages rendered without captions, dialogue or sound effects. War Machine has just been caught in a nuclear explosion and the general (above) is reacting to the news (the following two pages show different characters reacting). Since the pills he takes have no apparent purpose here (or in future issues), this could have been easily summarized in just one panel, rather than a full page. Also, note how three panels depict the General's computer screen, but nothing is really visible on the monitor. In this age of hot-to-trot Photoshop effects, surely this was a missed opportunity to convey something to the reader, such as exposition? (ie, a newsfeed crawl along the bottom of the screen declaring "War Machine hit by nuclear blast -- Emergency crews respond")

Kâramanèh: an uncommon creature

2011-11-08T20:53:00.003-07:00

From time to time here on the blog and in real life, I bring up author Sax Rohmer; when I do start to speak of him, I often open with an apologetic statement. There was a time when I was very defensive about Rohmer, feeling he was judged a racist by modern critics strictly for his Fu Manchu novels, which I had found weren't as bad as their reputation suggested. However, the more I've read of Rohmer's non-Fu Manchu career, the more...objectionable material I've encountered.

Apologetics aside, I'd like to speak a bit about why exactly I became a staunch Rohmer supporter; I can chalk it up to one of his Fu Manchu creations, the slave girl Kâramanèh.

Kâramanèh was introduced in the first novel (the Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu or the Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu, depending on your edition), as narrated by the character of Dr. Petrie:

I thought that I never had seen a face so seductively lovely nor of so unusual a type. With the skin of perfect blonde, she had eyes and lashes as black as a Creole's, which, together with her full red lips, told me that this beautiful stranger, whose touch had so startled me, was not a child of our northern shores.

By the time Kâramanèh has been introduced, we've yet to meet her master, Fu Manchu, nor even heard the famous "brow like Shakespeare..." description Petrie's friend Nayland Smith relates. Petrie is quite taken with Kâramanèh and it's mutual as she winds up saving he and Smith's lives a few times. In one encounter, Petrie begins to realize just how strange her loyalty to Fu Manchu is:

"But if you will carry me off" - she clutched me nervously - "so that I am helpless, lock me up so that I cannot escape, beat me, if you like, I will tell you all I do know. While he is my master I will never betray him. Tear me from him - by force, do you understand, by force, and my lips will be sealed no longer. Ah! but you do not understand, with your 'proper authorities' - your police. Police! Ah, I have said enough."

Kâramanèh's terms are so startling to Petrie that he repeatedly lets her out of his grasp. It's a good thing he did, because being on the inside of Fu Manchu's operation, she's in a perfect position to save him! At one point, Petrie and Smith are chased through darkened streets by four of Fu Manchu's Dacoit assassins, but Kâramanèh comes to their rescue - executing the Dacoits herself with a revolver! For a piece of 1913 fiction, Kâramanèh is a pretty formidable woman and, against the expectations of the times, it's the men who are in distress and need to be rescued!

But who is Kâramanèh? And why does she remain with Fu Manchu? It seems she's from Egypt and a Bedouin...

"You may call me Kâramanèh," she said. "As Kâramanèh I was sold to Dr. Fu-Manchu, and my brother also he purchased. We were cheap at the price he paid." She laughed shortly, wildly.
"But he has spent a lot of money to educate me. My brother is all that is left to me in the world to love, and he is in the power of Dr. Fu-Manchu. You understand? It is upon him the blow will fall."

Kâramanèh's brother Aziz is being kept alive through a serum which only Fu Manchu can supply. Thankfully, Petrie is a doctor and, guided by Kâramanèh, eventually steals both Aziz and the serum and finds a way to set Aziz free. The first book ends with Fu Manchu seemingly dead and Kâramanèh reunited with Aziz, setting home to Egypt, leaving a heartbroken Petrie behind.

Much changes in the second book from 1916 (either the Devil Doctor or the Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu, take your pick). Petrie and Smith quickly learn Fu Manchu is still alive and still bent on destruction. To their considerable surprise, Kâramanèh is back - and in Fu Manchu's thrall! And she has no idea who Petrie is! We eventually learn Kâramanèh has been brainwashed back into Fu Manchu's service. This brainwashed version of Kâramanèh shows no consideration for Smith & Petrie, depriving them of a valued resource and generally throwing Petrie off his game. However, the brainwashing isn't permanent and it's a good thing since by the end of the novel, Smith & Petrie are in Fu Manchu's clutches, with Smith in a death trap so terrible the Devil Doctor has given Petrie the opportunity to kill his friend to spare his suffering. As Fu Manchu begins to unleash rats to gnaw Smith to death, Kâramanèh enters the scene!

She looked, not at the tortured man, not at me, but fully at Dr. Fu-Manchu. One hand clutched the trembling draperies; now she suddenly raised the other, so that the jewels on her white arm glittered in the light of the lamp above the door. She held my Browning pistol! Fu-Manchu sprang upright, inhaling sibilantly, as Kâramanèh pointed the pistol point blank at his high skull and fired...

Isn't that amazing? Fu Manchu's first "definitive" death comes at the hands of a woman who puts a bullet in his skull! It's certainly a well-earned triumph for Kâramanèh after being a brainwashed thrall for the rest of the novel. The book ends happily with Petrie, Kâramanèh (and Aziz) together again.

Unfortunately, in some ways this was the last we saw of Kâramanèh. She reappeared in 1917's the Hand of Fu Manchu/Si-Fan Mysteries, but had barely any dialogue, spending almost the entire novel as Fu Manchu's prisoner. The fourth novel didn't arrive until 1931 and by then Rohmer had begun changing the formula (Fu Manchu is barely in the 4th novel!). Petrie was retired from the series and the narrator duties fell to other characters (until Rohmer finally adopted the third person narrator). Petrie and Kâramanèh were married during the publishing gap and their daughter, Fleurette, became the subject of two novels: the Bride of Fu Manchu (1933) and the Trail of Fu Manchu (1934). In those books, Fu Manchu tries to make Fleurette his bride (which was pretty skeevy of him), even threatening to kill Fleurette if he can't have her; it's finally Petrie who bargains for her life by saving Fu's and with that Petrie is forever removed from the narrative as Fu gives his word to never trouble him or his family again.

Personally, I wish the Kâramanèh from the first two novels had played a larger role in those two latter books. Instead of making Fleurette's peril a matter for either her lover (Alan Sterling) or her father. Man alive, I would have really enjoyed reading about a Kâramanèh who plays the part of a tigress, hunting Fu Manchu down and thrashing him until he vows to leave her cub alone.

Because she played such a prominent role in the early novels, Kâramanèh has been well-represented in every media. There were Fu Manchu serials in 1923 & 1924; Kâramanèh was played by Joan Clarkson in the former, Dorina Shirley in the latter.

In 1931 a Fu Manchu comic strip began by adapting the first novel, thus dramatizing a great deal of Kâramanèh's story.

A 1932 Fu Manchu radio program featured Sunda Loe and Charlotte Manson as Kâramanèh; in 1939, the terrific serial show the Shadow of Fu Manchu featured Paula Winslowe as Kâramanèh, again adapting the first two novels. This latter radio program was my introduction to the Fu Manchu universe, sparking off an obsession which has lasted me some 15 years.

The 1956 television program the Adventures of Fu Manchu cast Laurette Luez as Kâramanèh; perhaps one of these days I'll watch the show.

Marvel's Master of Kung Fu series made extensive use of Fu Manchu, Nayland Smith and Fah Lo Suee, with occasional use of Dr. Petrie; issues #83-87 included appearances by Kâramanèh, revealed to have been kept eternally young by Fu's Elixir Vitae, while Petrie had continued to age; Kâramanèh couldn't bear to be reunited with Petrie, despite her love for him. These stories by Doug Moench & Mike Zeck showed Kâramanèh in fine form, once again coming to Nayland's rescue.

If there had been no Kâramanèh in Rohmer's stories, I wonder if I'd bother thinking about them today? There are certainly some fine adventure tales in Rohmer's fiction - particularly his earlier fiction - but nothing especially remarkable. As with so much of the genre fiction I enjoy, it's the emotions of the characters which draw me in and the genuine relationship which develops between Petrie and Kâramanèh was the heart of the program; Nayland Smith, whom most consider the proper protagonist of the series (he's the only character to appear alongside Fu throughout), is rather dull; he often berates Petrie's feelings for Kâramanèh, even after all she had done to save both their skins. I feel Petrie's faith in her - and how she repeatedly came through for them - is to Rohmer's credit. I'm not going to claim he was a champion of civil rights, but for a man of his time and means, Rohmer wrote a terrific heroine.

Numbers to Marvel at

2011-11-07T18:03:00.001-07:00

During 2011, Marvel published a lot of comic books. The comics blogsophere has been reacting to a lot of recent cancellations and firings; these are obvious changes to the publishing regime, the "hard" side of the business which is presumably a reaction to the burden of too much merchandise at the market. The "soft" side - and something I'll be interested to follow in 2012 - is the number of titles which have been double-shipping lately.

There are only two comics which have been promoted as twice-a-month: Amazing Spider-Man and Incredible Hulks. 2011 was also the introduction of the "Point One" initiative, which meant virtually every title shipped one extra issue in 2011. And yet, the number of books running extra issues in 2011 was really quite high and I wonder A) how it effects buying habits, perhaps causing readers to spend less on other titles to afford the extra issues and B) if monthly titles which have been double-shipping will quietly revert to single-shipping in 2012.

I put together some numbers based on the average number of issues the premiere monthly super hero titles shipped in 2011. Bear in mind the caveats I mentioned about Amazing Spider-Man & Incredible Hulks (anything up to 2 per month is expected) and the Point One initiative (1.083 is acceptable). 0.666 Average Per Month: Astonishing X-Men
0.833 Average Per Month: Daredevil
1 Average per Month: Captain America, Heroes for Hire
1.083 Average Per Month: Avengers, Invincible Iron Man, New Avengers, Secret Avengers, Thor, X-23
1.111 Average Per Month: Iron Man 2.0
1.166 Average Per Month: New Mutants, Ultimate Spider-Man
1.181 Average Per Month: Black Panther
1.25 Average Per Month: Daken
1.333 Average Per Month: Avengers Academy, Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts, Uncanny X-Force, Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine, X-Men, X-Men: Legacy
1.416 Average Per Month: X-Factor
1.428 Average Per Month: Herc, Journey into Mystery
1.5 Average Per Month: Deadpool, Hulk
1.75 Average Per Month: Incredible Hulks
2.166 Average Per Month: Amazing Spider-Man

As I said, the "soft" side; I never heard announcements about Deadpool and Hulk going 18 issues per year, but if they go back to 12 per year in 2012, I don't expect there to be announcements then either.

Just for fun, here's the 2011 numbers on how many comics are published each month per character/franchise (not counting handbooks, saga, indexes, spotlights, reprints, promotional material or digital comics): Ghost Rider: 0.416 per month
Alpha Flight: 0.5 per month
Anita Blake: 0.5 per month
Moon Knight: 0.5 per month
SHIELD: 0.5 per month
Venom: 0.666 per month
Daredevil: 0.75 per month
The Stand: 0.75 per month
Sub-Mariner: 0.75 per month
Dark Tower: 0.833 per month
Oz: 0.833 per month
Spider-Girl: 0.916 per month
Heroes for Hire: 1.083 per month
Loki: 1.083 per month
Ultimates: 1.083 per month
X-23: 1.083 per month
Hercules: 1.166 per month
Black Panther: 1.25 per month
Daken: 1.25 per month
Fantastic Four: 1.333 per month
New Mutants: 1.333 per month
Thunderbolts: 1.416 per month
X-Factor: 1.416 per month
Punisher: 1.5 per month
X-Force: 1.583 per month
Iron Man: 3.083 per month
Thor: 3.666 per month
Hulk: 3.75 per month
Deadpool: 4.083 per month
Wolverine: 4.25 per month
Captain America: 4.5 per month or 1.038 per week
Spider-Man: 6.416 per month or 1.48 per week
Avengers: 7.666 per month or 1.769 per week
X-Men: 8.833 per month or 2.038 per week

At this point, why not simply launch Captain America Weekly, Amazing Spider-Man Weekly, Avengers Weekly, New Avengers Weekly, Wolverine Weekly, X-Men Weekly and Uncanny X-Men Weekly? The content's already there.

Unearthed: Uncanny X-Men#161

2011-11-04T23:12:00.000-06:00

Halloween caught me thinking about comic books which gave me a fright in the past. There are certainly some obvious books I could drag out for an entry in Unearthed...my first Tomb of Dracula or I, Vampire for instance. But no, I've decided to unearth the first comic book which scared me, the comic book I was often afraid to look at: my first issue of Uncanny X-Men.

I was not a Marvelite growing up. My favourite comic books were Superman, Action Comics starring Superman, Justice League of America featuring Superman and perhaps something with Superman. However, a family friend who read nothing but Marvel comic books would occasionally divest himself of recent titles and they would wind up in our house; until my younger brothers came of age, they were usually my comics de facto. I kept them in a little brown suitcase.

So it was in 1982 at the tender age of four (I'm dating myself; no one else will) that Marvel's Uncanny X-Men#161 introduced me to the Holocaust. Hey kids! Comics!

It only seems fair to open with the cover, although I don't recall ever seeing it on my copy; young as I was, I would trash comics very quickly; I was lucky to retain all of the story pages, the cover was a small loss. Perhaps for that reason, the cover doesn't impress me now; it establishes the two principals of this story (Xavier & Magneto), supporting character Gabrielle Haller and the villains, Hydra.

We open on a nightmarish splash page which etched itself into my brain:

Xavier is in this state because of a recent story where the alien Brood kidnapped and did Stan-knows-what to him (spoiler: he's carrying a growing Brood inside his body). The X-Men (Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler & Wolverine) have gathered at Xavier's bedside; with them his one-time lover Moira MacTaggert, current lover and alien princess Lilandra, Corsair of the space pirate team the Starjammers and the Starjammers' medic, Sikorsky.

At this time, the X-Men were living around the Bermuda Triangle in a base which Magneto had been utilizing in a storyline which wrapped up in issue #150 (I'll refer to that issue a few more times to come); the team's Westchester manor was recently destroyed and reconstruction would take a few more months of issues. Among the team is Cyclops, who had left the X-Men after Jean Grey's death (#137), handing the reigns of leadership over to Storm. It's interesting to note that while Cyclops is frequently considered the X-Men leader, he'd reunited with the team in #150 and was now almost a year back in the saddle without reclaiming the leader's position; he wouldn't lead the X-Men again 'til X-Men#1 (1991).

Cyclops is upset by Xavier's condition, particularly hearing how when the X-Men tried to use the alien psychic Oracle to wake him up, Xavier tried to commit suicide in response. This, of course, brings back Jean's suicide and Cyclops leaves to torment himself in private. Of the X-Men, Wolverine correctly guesses what's ailing Cyclops, noting their need for privacy is one of the few things they hold in common. Corsair, having recently revealed himself to be Cyclops' father, attempts to step in, but as team leader, it behooves Storm to deal with Cyclops.

Against a beautiful sunset, Cyclops questions Storm about her recent decisions, noting how she had recently led the X-Men to raid the Pentagon and destroy government files. Storm stands up for herself, but stung by his criticism tells him he be the leader again if he'd prefer; Cyclops apologizes and lowers his guard, telling Storm how much Xavier means to him as a surrogate father and how Jean's suicide still eats at him. Storm supports Cyclops for showing his vulnerable side and they reconcile rather nicely. Back at Xavier's bedside, Lilandra tries to reach Xavier, to no avail.

We now journey inside Xavier's mind, where the real story begins!

Some 20 years earlier - back when Xavier could use his legs - he was traveling through Haifa, Israel to see a friend, psychiatrist Daniel Shomron. A footnote helpfully explains this entire story occurs after the flashback story from issue #117 (which depicted Xavier's first meeting with Storm and first battle with an evil mutant). Daniel is working on Holocaust survivors and one the volunteers at the hospital - Magnus - is himself a Holocaust survivor.

And so we have the first meeting of Charles Xavier and the man who would be Magneto. This was only the second time Magneto had been referenced as a Holocaust survivor (it first came up in #150, the first comic to treat him as a sympathetic character). Here, Magnus displays a tattoo on his forearm from Auschwitz and mentions having lost his family there. Xavier is fascinated to sense how powerful Magnus' will is - his mind can't be read.

Xavier helps treat one of Shomron's patients, Gabrielle Haller, a Dachau survivor. Shomron describes her condition as "catatonic schizophrenia" and he's just about out of ideas.

Of course, Xavier has resources Shomron couldn't imagine; namely his psychic powers! He projects his mind into Gabrielle to try to unearth the source of the trauma which placed her in this state.

This page was the second moment to terrify me as a youngster. It depicts Gabrielle's memories as seen on the astral plane in which the Nazis at Dachau are depicted as frightening monsters, menacing Gabrielle and finally encasing her in gold. At four years old, I certainly didn't understand World War II, Nazis or the Holocaust, but in retrospect this page does a fine job of impressing something about the Holocaust on a young mind - you couldn't show what really went on in the death camps in reading material suitable for a child, but I understood what Xavier was seeing was a figurative representation of what happened to Gabrielle - so what really happened had to be even scarier.

Xavier's psychic treatment works and Gabrielle wakes up from her catatonic state. Xavier discusses what he saw in her mind with Daniel and Magnus but they don't understand what the gold meant; however, a spy eavesdropping on them is very interested in this information.

In the time which follows, Xavier, Magnus and Gabrielle form a tight bond. Xavier and Magnus find themselves discussing mutants and Magnus expresses his belief that "Homo Superior" will have to "hold the rings of power." (Power Rings?) Gabrielle starts to fall in love with Charles, but the peaceful times are shattered by the arrival of a band of heavily-armed men wearing green.

These fellows are agents of Hydra; although Hydra were supposed to be a band of terrorists introduced in 1960s continuity, a story from - of all things - Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders established Hydra as having been founded during the latter days of World War II; I believe this was the first comic book to make use of that little retcon*.

The Hydra agents kidnap Gabrielle and make their escape, but during the tumult Xavier sees Magnus from afar, wielding his powers of magnetism to destroy a Hydra vessel. Xavier realizes he's met another fellow mutant. One Hydra agent is captured and Xavier reads his mind to learn where the rest are located.

Hydra is currently in Kenya, trying to dig up long-lost Nazi gold; Hydra's founder Baron Strucker is overseeing the operation; although Hydra have plenty of guns, airships and spiffy uniforms, one assumes Strucker's blown through his budget and needs the surplus funds. It seems Gabrielle learned about the gold's location in Dachau, which is what Hydra needed her for. Thanks to the reliable nature of torture to provide intelligence, they find the underground chamber which conceals the gold.

However, it's Xavier & Magnus to the rescue, even putting on Hydra uniforms to steal into the dig site! While Xavier tends to Gabrielle, Magnus does most of the fighting. By this time Magnus is no longer worried about hiding his true nature and has even figured out Xavier is a mutant like him.

Strucker attacks Magneto with his chief weapon, the Satan Claw**, but being a metal weapon Magnus easily crushes it with his powers. He winds up tunneling passage back to the surface for himself, Xavier, Gabrielle and all of the gold, but leaves Strucker buried alive. Having obtained a massive wealth of gold, Magnus sets off to ensure mutantkind's survival, determined they "won't go to the gas chambers." As Gabrielle wakes up from her ordeal, Xavier himself wakes up back in the Bermuda Triangle.

There's a happy moment as Xavier is met by all the well-wishers who kept him company while he was comatose.

Later, the X-Men visit Lilandra's yacht for a celebration, everyone decked out in bizarre, alien party clothes (this said, Nightcrawler looks great in a cape). Kitty Pryde and Colossus engage in flirting banter, while Corsair has to depart, feeling at odds with attending a Shi'ar party when officially the Starjammers are enemies of the Shi'ar Empire. In fact, his hasty departure seemed suspicious to me as a child, given what transpired next...

Lilandra delivers a toast to the X-Men as she prepares to return home, when suddenly she pauses out in mid-sentence. At this, Lilandra's evil sister Deathbird appears, having evidently drugged Lilandra. The X-Men attack Deathbird, but a force field protect her from harm; a bomb explodes, knocking the X-Men unconscious.

And now, the third image which terrified me! The vicious-looking Brood arrive as Deathbird's allies, hovering over the unconscious X-Men. Deathbird tells them they're welcome to use the X-Men as hosts for their young. To be continued...

When this story was reprinted in X-Men Classic#65 I bought it again, replacing my well-worn copy and getting a pretty nifty Mike Mignola cover in the bargain!

In fact, since I hadn't obtained any of the issues following Uncanny X-Men#161, I followed X-Men Classic regularly for a few months so I could finally see how the story of the X-Men against the Brood resolved itself (it has my vote for the all-time best "X-Men in space" story).

It's amazing how influential this comic book was; it was the introduction of the idea Xavier & Magneto were close friends before becoming enemies; this has informed every Xavier/Magneto story since, including those in animated programs and live action films. It also introduced Magneto's tattoo, which would be prominently displayed in the first X-Men movie. This would also be the first example of Magneto fighting leftover Nazis, which Claremont and others would revisit a few times across Magneto's appearances, until it became a major focus of this year's X-Men: First Class film.

Magneto's "Magnus" alias here would eventually prove to be just that - an alias. In the 1990s, Erik Lehnsherr was promoted by some as his actual name, while others tried to dismiss it as another forged identity; once it became his name in 2000's X-Men film you'd have thought that was final...only for it to be given as Max Eisenhardt in 2008. It's gone over about as well as revealing Wolverine's real name is James Howlett.

This story also continued the gradual softening of Magneto which had begun in issue #150; after this, Magneto would soon ally himself with the team in the Secret Wars mini-series, then start helping Xavier run the school after Charles was nearly beaten to death and finally become headmaster in #200. #200 would also feature Baron Strucker's children Fenris attack Xavier & Magneto as revenge for their humiliating the Baron back in #161. Fenris would periodically turn up in Claremont's X-Men material, but after #200 seldom did anything of importance.

Also of note is the introduction of Gabrielle Haller, who would eventually prove to be the mother of Xavier's son, Legion.

*=Of course, Hydra being founded by Baron Strucker was yet another retcon - Stan Lee introduced Hydra as being founded by evil industrialist Arnold Brown, but Jim Steranko apparently felt tying them to the Nazi regime was a better fit - and apparently he was right, to the extent that last summer's film Captain America: the First Avenger dispensed with Nazis almost entirely in favour of Hydra!

**=Used by writers to prove their "street cred," as if to say, "look, I read Steranko's Nick Fury!" As I discovered while writing a profile for the Satan Claw, Magneto crushing Strucker's hand would later be spiritually succeeded by scenes of people cutting off Strucker's hand.

Nick Spencer: comicdom's answer to Ingmar Bergman

2011-11-01T20:28:00.002-06:00

Iron Man 2.0#7.1 (2011), page 3; by Nick Spencer & Kano:

Ha-ha-ha I don't get it.

Celebrate Halloween with OTR!

2011-10-31T08:09:00.001-06:00

As a fan of old-time radio, one of my favourite ways to observe Halloween is through listening to great OTR shows. As a young teenager when I first became a fan, there were some programs which gave me a few thrills and scares, listening to them late at night in the dark, my mind half-asleep. Below are the best scary shows I've ever heard; the links lead to archive.org and you can download them by right-clicking the link and choosing to save the file.

Happy Halloween!

Dimension X: There Will Come Soft Rains/Zero Hour; Mars is Heaven

Escape: A Shipment of Mute Fate; Pollack and the Porrah Man; Evening Primrose; Casting the Runes; Taboo; An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge; Confession; Papa Benjamin; Snake Doctor; Ancient Sorceries; The Grove of Ashtaroth; The Log of the Evening Star; Three Skeleton Key; Present Tense

Inner Sanctum: The Judas Clock; The Devil's Workshop; Terror by Night

Lights Out: Spider; Little Old Lady; Murder Castle

Mystery in the Air: The Horla

Quiet, Please: Whence Came You?; The Thing on the Fourble Board; My Son John

Suspense: The Hitchhiker; Fugue in C Minor; Drive-In; To Find Help; August Heat; The Furnished Floor; The Pasteboard Box; The House in Cypress Canyon; Hitchhike Poker; The Ten Years; The Lunch Kit; Mission Completed; Never Steal a Butcher's Wife; Too Hot to Live; On a Country Road; Track of the Cat; The Death of Me; The Whole Town's Sleeping; The Waxwork

Weird Circle: A Terrible Night; The Curse of the Mantle; The Trial for Murder

I Love Atlas Comics#16: "The Dinner Guest!"

2011-10-30T20:55:00.002-06:00

From the mixed-up files of artist Don Perlin comes Astonishing#35 (1954)'s "the Dinner Guest!" Sounds elegant!

Somewhere in the USSR, poor old Sasha welcomes a Soviet commissar into his home and insists he take the best chair in his shack.

The commissar has come to review Sasha's claim that he needs more money to live on. Sasha quickly explains why: his son Ivan is a zombie! On the evening after Ivan's funeral, Sasha was shocked to find Ivan at his door, now a zombie!

Sasha explains how his son was a criminal and murderer in life, much to the disinterest of the commissar. Sasha says since Ivan's return he's been cold and rotting. This is why he needs more money - to afford more food and clothing for Ivan. Since Ivan is legally dead, however, the commissar doesn't believe anything can be done and suspects he's being fed a pack of lies.

Sasha reacts violently, pulling a knife on the commissar and forcing him into the chair as manacles are placed over his arms and legs.

You see, Ivan has a special diet since becoming a zombie...and that's what they really need the commissar for!

I hope you've enjoyed these seven days of "I Love Atlas Comics;" I may return to the feature again from time to time, likely to visit the other Atlas genres like crime, war and western. Enjoy your Halloween tomorrow!

I Love Atlas Comics#15: "Out of My Life!"

2011-10-29T21:43:00.003-06:00

Today we head back to 1953 and Bob Fujitani's "Out of My Life!" from Adventures into Weird Worlds#22, a tale well calculated to keep you in...confusion!

We open on a young woman meeting an older man at a restaurant. The woman, Lise, has just told the man about her lover, Ralph. He's having an oddly muted reaction to hte news.

As she asks him how he feels about her and Ralph he acts like nothing is trouble him, but she suspects he's planning something. Sure enough, the man has something on his mind.

Still, he doesn't give away his secret, offering a creepy toast.

Lise asks what he'll do with himself now; he says he'll travel to Europe, while thinking he needs to take care of Ralph first.

Lise seems upset by the idea of the man being alone and it pleases him to think she'll miss him. Just then, Ralph arrives and the man's horrible secret is revealed!

Wait a minute. WHAT? The surprise ending is the older man is the woman's father? That's...that's not a twist! At least, not a twist worthy of a comic called Adventures Into Weird Worlds. This would have been acceptable fare in Young Love or Love Romances.

It's only a three-page story, but that's about four pages too many. The writer probably thought he was being very clever, hinting toward some dark secret where none actually exists. The author is uncredited, but if he's still alive, he'd be at home with today's dozens of comics-which-hint-towards-things-happening-but-nothing-ever-does. "Out of My Life" fascinates me for being so absolutely out of place.

I Love Atlas Comics#14: "Double Feature"

2011-10-28T20:49:00.003-06:00

From 1954's Mystic#30 we have a single feature called "Double Feature," courtesy of Al Eadeh.

We look in on one Warren Koster, museum employee.

He's very upset with his boss Mr. Blackton and assumes the quickest way to the top is to murder his superior. However, before bringing down the axe he realizes he'd be easily caught and convicted. That evening, Koster goes to see a double feature at the theatre: "Marked for Murder" and "Trapped."

The movies give him an idea. He memorizes the plot, then the following evening he goes to the same show again, but walks away from the theatre with his ticket stubs.

This is a pretty familiar alibi in fiction of the time - the murderer claims to be at the theatre while a movie he'd seen earlier is playing. The stubs will hopefully clinch his alibi, leaving him free to murder Mr. Blackton...and that's exactly what Koster does.

He's done it! The perfect crime! ...Uh, assuming the police don't try to match his fingerprints to the axe. Early the next morning the police come to see Koster and ask for his alibi when Blackton was killed. He produces the ticket stubs and starts to describe the double feature, only to be handcuffed. Koster slipped up in a way he couldn't have foreseen:

Minutes after he bought his second ticket! Extremely lucky and yet unlucky at the same time!

I Love Atlas Comics#13: "Burton's Blood"

2011-10-27T22:38:00.002-06:00

Lucky#13 of "I Love Atlas Comics" brings us a tale by Stan Lee and Wild Bill Everett; "Burton's Blood" from Menace#2, 1953; but don't get too cozy in the 50s, we're traveling to that far flung future world of...1998!

During the worldwide atomic war of 1998 (remember that?), John Burton is one of the few beings on Earth to prosper; that's because he's a vampire!

While humanity suffers and dies, Burton feasts on the corpses and easily evades efforts by humans to destroy him. Having eaten to his full, he decides to sleep in a vacant crypt. His sleep is so sound he winds up napping for an untold number of years. When Burton awakens, the world looks quite different to him.

Clearly, humanity has rebuilt itself from the ruins of atomic war so he can't rely upon corpses littering the streets; he'll have to hunt for his food again, so out come the fangs!

Burton soon finds a suitable victim - a man who appears quite corpulent. Burton stalks him until he can isolate him on his own. Burton attacks the large man, but the intended victim shows no fear in the face of the vampire. Burton sinks his fangs into the man's neck, to no effect. It seems Burton slept far, far too long. The atomic war wound up eliminating all human life on the planet:

Robots:1 Vampires: 0

Vampires: the Marvel Undead#1 is in stores today

2011-10-26T22:47:00.003-06:00

Vampires: the Marvel Undead is the most recent entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and I know what you're thinking, "Vampires? In the week before Halloween? Must be a coincidence." Maybe you're also wondering why there's a stripper on the cover (it's Lilith, daughter of Dracula).

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself credited as a writer (under "with") for this issue. I mean...obviously I knew I had contributed to the comic. Still, I didn't know if I'd be with the writers or the special thanks. Both, as it turns out.

Anyway, with more than any sane human being should want to know about Marvel Comics' vampires...I approve this publication. Buy a copy.

I Love Atlas Comics#12: "Hammer Horror"

2011-10-26T17:15:00.001-06:00

Today's "I Love Atlas Comics" takes up to the realm of crime comics with 1951's Justice Comics#19. Our story is "Hammer Horror," not to be confused with the British filmmakers. Sadly, the artist of this tale isn't identified.

Now, I said this series was going to cover horror comics, yet here I am looking at a crime comic, one purportedly drawn from a real life case. Although this story appeared in Justice Comics, it could have easily been printed in Mystery Tales or Suspense.

A string of murders committed by a man wielding a hammer unnerve the city; police detective John Murray notes the killer only strikes on night when rain is falling and makes this information public, upsetting the public when another rainfall occurs; however, no hammer murders follow the rain. It's only while looking at his son's book on mythology that Murray realizes what's really going on:

Murray missed a vital piece of information about the killings: they occur on nights with thunder & lightning. The killer has modeled himself after the Norse god of thunder, Thor! On the next storm night, Murray manages to save a policeman from being the next victim!

Murray shoots the hammer from "Thor's" hand, but the killer escapes. Finally, Murray has some concrete evidence and studies the murder weapon:

These leads Murray to a barrel-making factory, where there just happens to be a red-bearded barrel maker called...Thorson! Murray waits for another storm to burst out before he makes his move; sure enough, Thorson is the man they're looking for; he believes Thor is his father!

In fact, Thorson's strength is rather prodigious and he escapes Murray.

When the police catch up to Thorson, he's atop a skyscraper, trying to summon his father's help and command the thunder & lightning.

And that's just what happens - his hammer-waving antics draw the lightning to him.

Thorson is dead, bringing an end to the hammer murders. Murray is left to wonder whether the lightning strike was a coincidence or godly intervention.

Like most crime comics, "Hammer Horror" claims to be based on a real life case. I've tried to ascertain if this is true, but I haven't had any luck; supposedly, this is from the casebook of "John Murray" of the "Black Daisy" case. These seem to be references to famed serial killer-catcher John St. John and the Black Dahlia case, but I haven't found any internet sources connecting St. John to this case; if you can identify the real world case, please let me know.

On the other hand, there's an old-time radio program which follows this same story! It's the October 11, 1949 episode of Casey, Crime Photographer dubbed "Thunderbolt." Just like "Hammer Horror," a man named Thorson kills men with a hammer on stormy evenings. This suggests that either the 1949 radio play and 1951 comic script both drew from the same historical sources, or the comic swiped the radio story and tried to pass it off as a "real case" to conceal the matter (50s comics are full of swipes from radio and short stories). Anyway, you can download "Thunderbolt" from the Internet Archive here (right-click to save the file); the surviving copy of this episode is missing the commercial and music bridges (being an AFRS broadcast), which makes it seem more intense than the typical episode of Casey. Also of interest, up until 1950 Atlas had been publishing a Casey, Crime Photographer comic book.

I Love Atlas Comics#11: "Dance of Death"

2011-10-25T22:41:00.004-06:00

Today's Atlas tale is 1951's "Dance of Death" from Suspense#10, drawn by Russ Heath...which means beautiful, utterly gorgeous artwork!

Our protagonist is one Eddie Baxter, an ambitious competitive dancer who hopes to win a contest on Broadway which would kickstart his Hollywood career. Unfortunately, he can't find a female dancer partner who meets his exacting standards. Finally, he notices an advertisement in the newspaper:

Thus, Eddie seeks out Marla and she proves to be quite the looker.

In fact, Marla has more than looks - she has moves too! But she seems to be hiding some sort of mysterious secret...

Eddie feels he's found more than just a winning dance partner - as days of rehearsing commence he tries to strike up social encounters with Marla as well. However, while Marla is happy to spend the day with him, she always parts ways before evening.

Eddie happens to notice Marla doesn't sunburn; she claims she has a very good skin lotion.

As the day of the contest nears, another dancer suggests Marla has a boyfriend and she'll stand him up. However, Marla comes through for Eddie, arriving on time for the contest, marking the first time Eddie has seen Marla in the evening. They go on to win the contest, just as Eddie hoped. However, Marla won't stop dancing! She dances Eddie right out of the theater and into the darkness. Her secret finally comes out...

Marla finally explains she was killed by Ando, who claimed she was full of "intrigue." Marla doesn't believe this, maintaining she's an innocent woman who just wants a dance partner...someone she can dance with for an eternity. She's chosen Eddie as that partner.

It's interesting to note Marla moves about during daylight hours with no ill effects, which is contrary to most vampire stories, but wasn't exactly "codified" back in '51. Protagonists in early Atlas horror stories usually possess a flaw which causes them to "earn" their deaths (because the protagonists nearly always die); in Eddie's case, his being picky about dance partners is the flaw...otherwise, he's an innocent victim. Or, despite his declaration of "doomed!" perhaps he made out all right by becoming a dancing vampire. In which case...it's a happy ending!

I Love Atlas Comics#10: The Man Who Steals Gravestones!

2011-10-24T20:33:00.005-06:00

In the spirit of Halloween, I've dug up an old blog feature and jolt it back to life; for the week leading up to the holiday, I'll be writing up new entries in my old "I Love Atlas Comics" series!

Today, let's look at 1953's Adventures into Weird Worlds#14 (reprinted from Crypt of Shadows#5) and Sol Brodsky's story "The Man Who Steals Gravestones!"

He's actually using a modest winch, but when I first saw this splash page years ago I thought the gravestone-nabber had an elaborate removal device.

We open in a cemetery with Josiah Creech, the man who steals gravestones. After loading the old gravestone into his wheelbarrow, then into his truck, Creech brings the stone back to his shop and chisels the names off the slab, then places it in his display window; you see, Josiah is in the business of gravestone sales.

One day an older gentleman purchases a gravestone from Josiah for $100 and Josiah carries the stone to the cemetary himself, intending to plant it lightly in the ground so it will be easier to re-steal. However, once the gravestone is planted the purchaser disappears without having paid Josiah. Josiah wonders what's going on, when suddenly he's pulled through the ground itself!

Josiah finds himself within a coffin beside the man who purchased the gravestone. He believes since Josiah seems to want his gravestone so badly...

Creech already has such a look of death about him (the tight skin on his skull, the sunken eyes), he actually looks less lively than the dead man.

Be back tomorrow for another "I Love Atlas Comics!"

The perils of reading Michael Kupperman

2011-10-23T13:45:00.002-06:00

I'm really getting into Michael Kupperman's work, I enjoy how his comics present absurd situations which characters underplay for humourous effect. As I worked my way through my stack of new comics last week, I began reading Tales Designed to Thrizzle#6:

Tee-hee.

Ha-ha-ha!

Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

Then I picked up a copy of Jay Faerber & Simone Guglielmini's Near Death#2, the new series about a hitman who tries to turn his life around and save lives:

*chuckle*

Ha-ha- wait a minute, that's not funny.

I had to set Near Death#2 down for about 5 minutes then start reading again. It seems that after a little bit of Kupperman, you start seeing jokes everywhere.

I meant to post this...about two years ago...

2011-10-20T17:39:00.001-06:00

I only just stumbled upon an interview at Comixtreme from 2009 where I was sitting next to Riley Rossmo at the Another Dimension signing table as he was being interviewed; because it was being taped, after I interjected one line, I suddenly found myself being asked for my credentials and found the subject matter shifting over to my work. You can read it here.

Looking at it now, I'm surprised at how well I come across; I felt a bit cheap for intruding on Riley's spotlight with what was supposed to be a single off-the-record remark (about Riley's work, no less). I especially love this:

RR: He was buying $20 worth of Force Works and I asked him, “Are you sure?”
MH: It’s research.
RR: I think only half the time, it’s actually research - I think most of them are just guilty pleasures.

Oh, the things I own from years of handbook writing; I had to pay through the nose to get a set of Terry Kavanagh's Marc Spector: Moon Knight.

Unearthed: Steve Ditko's Static

2011-10-19T23:58:00.001-06:00

Until now, I've been using Unearthed to look back on comic books I read in my youth. Today's example does dip back into 1983, but I didn't acquire my copies until a couple of years ago. The subject is the Static serial which ran in issues #1-3 of Eclipse Monthly.

Eclipse Monthly was an anthology title run by editor/publisher Dean Mullaney and featuring work by notable creators like Doug Wildey, Marshall Rogers and Gene Colan. It had been preceded by Eclipse, a black & white magazine-format series. I collected Eclipse and the first three of Eclipse Monthly because they contained a serialized adaptation of Sax Rohmer's Dope by Trina Robbins. I started thinking about these two series again while I was reading Dave Sim's Cerebus Archive#6, wherein he discussed the mistakes Orb made, noting:

"Changing the format is a bad idea -- going from magazine size to comic book and then back again was just confusing."

And:

"Continued stories don't work in erratically published titles or anthology titles. 5- and 6- page installments are too short to "hook" the average reader. A continued story has to be book-length and anthologized stories have to be self-contained.

I don't know the full story behind Ditko's Static, but one senses editor Mullaney wanted to give Ditko a free hand in developing his own super heroes, a way of setting right the assumed indignity of being scripted by Stan Lee in the 1960s. Static was plotted, scripted, penciled and inked by Ditko, much like his Mr. A. In fact, it is very much like Mr. A...

We meet our cast in Eclipse Monthly#1; they consist of scientist Ed Serch, his assistant Mac Rey and Serch's daughter Fera (unusual names are a trademark of the series). While Rey is testing Serch's new experimental space environmental suit within a special environmental simulator, two men break in and steal the Enego device from Serch, attempting to kill Rey in the process. Instead, Rey's suit absorbs electricity and they soon discover he can use the suit's power to increase his strength.

As Serch, Rey and Fera discuss the theft of the Enego device, the series demonstrates its fatal flaw; Serch recalls how rival doctors Pety, Ems and Rale were all interested in the Enego and he's convinced Ems is behind the theft. Rey, learning quickly how to control his suit's unexpected powers, believes he can pursue the Enego thieves and stop Ems. Fera is upset with Serch and Rey, saying it isn't their responsbility, they should notify the police.

By the fourth page of Static, a lot of speechifying has set in and it's quite deflating. Arguments loop around the same issues again and again but worse, aren't even logical. Serch and Rey's decision to pursue Ems for the missing Enego is based on Serch's belief Ems is the thief. Because Fera is the series' straw (wo)man, she fails to point this out when she argues for contacting the police. I mean, there's been a theft at the laboratory and an attempt on Rey's life. Serch and Rey, how ever responsible they feel, are not qualified to solve crimes. Shouldn't they at least bring the facts to the police, even their suspicions? Serch and Rey act as though their suspicions are both a) correct and b) unpresentable to the authorities, thus justifying vigilante behaviour. Static and Fera follow the criminals in a van, because apparently the thieves didn't have enough time to get out of visual range while Rey was discovering his powers, exhibiting his powers, arguing about using his powers and convincing Fera to help him pursue the criminals. It's weak storytelling.

This isn't the first time in the series a criminal announces hearing "static" while Static sneaks around. It really doesn't work because no one talks like that. An exclamation like "hey, what's that weird static-y noise?" might pass muster, but remarking "I hear static" as though it's something you occasionally notice on the highway draws too much attention to the contrived effort at inserting the hero's name into the villains' mouths.

So, Rey goes into battle as Static to retrieve the Enego, much to Fera's dismay. As it turns out, Dr. Ems didn't steal the Enego, the other two scientists - Dr. Pety and Dr. Rale were behind the theft. Static fights Rale, who dons a nifty-looking suit with giant fists and finally electrocutes Rale by using himself as a conduit through a light socket. Static reclaims the Enego and returns to Fera, who hopes Rey "learned a lesson" from all of this, but he clearly intends to keep being Static (or we'd have no story).

Eclipse Monthly#2 continues the tale as the villain Boron tries to kidnap Dr. Otto Cern, only to accidentally kill him. Serch, Rey and Fera attend Cern's funeral and get into a two-page argument on the matter, with Serch and Rey jumping to the conclusion Cern was murdered and Fera wailing at them to let the police do their jobs. The argument runs through 14 very crowded panels, one so badly mangled that Rey is all but obscured. It was over this panel that editor Dean Mullaney argued with Ditko, ultimately driving him away from Eclipse when Ditko refused to accept Mullaney's criticism.

So, Static investigates Cern's murder and luckily Boron returns to the scene of the crime, enabling Static to defeat him and his master. However, Fera steals the Static costume and refuses to let Rey wear it again.

The third and final Static story run by Eclipse appeared in Eclipse Monthly#3. Here, Dr. Serch is kidnapped by the General to build a super weapon for him and Static has to rescue him, forcing Fera to give the suit back (strangely, this happens off-panel! Fera is seen resisting his demands for the suit, then he's Static again on the following page). Serch becomes most upset at how he agreed to build the weapon for the General, trusting in Static to rescue him; he feels he let himself down by pretending to assist the General.

It seems as though Ditko intended for the arguments between Serch, Rey and Fera to be the core of this series, given how much time he devotes to them. The problem is he runs over the same material every story, the characters unchanging in their viewpoint (although it's suggested in the third story that Serch may be reconsidering allowing Rey to use the Static suit; Rey, a true objectivist, simply notes that's Serch's right). The conflict between Serch, Rey and Fera is one note, played again and again. The series would have been stronger as a whole if Ditko had run part of his screed in each story, rather than the full argument each time. If the argument in the first story had been restricted to "is it right to become a vigilante?" it might have been readable. Instead, that argument is played in each story, along with digressions on personal responsibility, not trusting the authorities and whether power corrupts.

Through it all, I never get a good sense of who Static is. I have a pretty good understanding of Fera from the arguments she loses. Static wins every argument and every fight, taking it with the ease of shopping for groceries. I never felt Static was challenged by anything - he masters his powers, he talks circles around Fera and he beats the bad guys. And so, despite having a fight scene and at least one argument in every story, Static feels like a strip devoid of conflict; the villains and Fera are the only ones being put at risk - the hero is up on a pedestal. Ditko's Spider-Man is one of the all-time greatest super heroes in part because of how the hero would react to failure; Static's seeming inability to fail makes him rather bland.

Ditko eventually self-published the rest of Static. His Static work in Eclipse Monthly is absolutely gorgeous, so far as the artwork is concerned. Unfortunately, the unrelatable characters drag the concept down.

The Marvelous Non-Marvels

2011-10-18T20:46:00.002-06:00

The comic book marketplace introduces nearly a hundred new products every week; something always slips under the radar, even the super hero comics from the big two publishers (Marvel & DC). In that spirit, I think it's interesting to look at the non-super hero comics Marvel has published over the last year because I don't believe I've read any reviews of them on the internet. In some ways, it strikes me that a non-super hero Marvel comic has a more difficult time gaining attention than such material found at Boom!, IDW, Dark Horse or Image.

ANITA BLAKE

ADAPTED FROM: The series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. Adapted by Jessica Ruffner and Ron Lim.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Anita Blake is a professional reanimator (much as the Great Gildersleeve was a water commissioner) who keeps running into vampires in the course of her work, sometimes using her talents to assist the police, but always menaced by the seductive Jean-Claude, who wants to make her his servant.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: I read the first Blake novel Guilty Pleasures when I was a co-writer on the Guilty Pleasures Handbook for Marvel; what can I say, I was young, humble and wanted to see my name on something other than super heroes.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: Anita runs into vampires who posture at her; she postures back; they go their separate ways. The story is firmly in the Daishell Hammett school of detective tales, concerned more with characters' dialogue and suggesting at menace rather than action driving the plot. People in Anita's world are very casual about the supernatural; at one point, a young reanimator Anita is helping to train is attacked by two vampires who bite him; does Anita charge to the rescue, teaching the vampires a lesson in pain? No, she more or less shoos them away and their master scolds them. One cover depicts some vampiric snake creatures which seems promising; the creatures become snakes for only one panel in the story itself and don't actually start a fight. In that Hammett vein, Anita doesn't play detective so much as she's constantly thrown into events beyond her control and triumphs by outliving her enemies. I always feel sorry for the innocent bystanders, though.

As a long-time fan of Ron Lim, there are two ways to consider his art in this series; on the one hand, Lim is aping the style of Brett Booth (Anita Blake's original artist); on the other hand, Lim is working without an inker, making this the purest Lim I'll probably ever see published. I do admit some disappointment with Lim's work in one issue where he depicts Anita having a telephone conversation over the course of a page. Isn't it comics 101 to switch out at least one panel to show us the person on the other end of the conversation? Special props to the colorist, Laura Villari, whose work is all the more vital without an inker present.

DARK TOWER

ADAPTED FROM: The series of novels by Stephen King. Adapted by Peter David, Sean Phillips, Luke Ross and Michael Lark.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Roland the gunslinger pursues the mysterious Man in Black across a wasteland of mutants and monsters, confronting supernatural horrors with a western flavour.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: Nil.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: This is genuinely great material which I found easy to slip into despite my lack of familiarity with the Dark Tower novels and comics. I think anyone could drop in on Dark Tower at the start of any story and find their way without difficulty; it's a simple premise and the stories keep moving forward with cracking good dialogue and playful narration.

Richard Isanove's colouring keeps a uniformity to the series, which is no small feat; Sean Phillips, Luke Ross and Michael Lark each have styles of their own, but Isanove could fool you into thinking the series has only one artist. Special props to Luke Ross, whose storytelling skills are utterly magnificent in a way so few comics today are; in the Little Sisters of Eluria#2, he has one page with 21 panels! That issue contains 180 panels total, twice as many as the average comic book! And he does this for artistic effect, using the smaller panels in #2 to increase the sense of claustrophobia and menace, switching in issue #3 to larger panels (92 total) for a flashback sequence. Give this man more work, please!

ENDER'S GAME

ADAPTED FROM: The series of novels by Orson Scott Card. Adapted by Aaron Johnston, Pop Mhan and Giancarlo Caracuzzo.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: In Ender in Exile and Speaker for the Dead, having committed xenocide against the Formic race, Ender seeks redemption; in the prequel Formic Wars, the early days of Earth's war with the Formics is depicted.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: Nil, although my sister always spoke highly of the novels.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: Again, I came into Ender in Exile with no familiarity with the source material or the comics which had come before, yet I was suddenly drawn in mid-story thanks to sharply-defined characters, fine dialogue and an easy-to-grasp storyline. The Formic Wars were difficult to get into because of the larger cast and different setting, but Speaker for the Dead was much more involving. Kudos to Pop Mhan, whose talents have grown since I last recall seeing his art.

15 LOVE

ADAPTED FROM: Marvel Comics' own Millie the Model. Rebranded by Andi Watson and Tommy Ohtsuka.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Mill Collins is a struggling young tennis player who takes on a new coach in the hopes of avoiding expulsion from a prestigious academy.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: I've read Millie the Model. Stop judging me! I write handbooks!

WHAT IT'S LIKE: I suppose this occurs in the Marvel Universe, since Millie the Model is Mill's aunt; I doubt making the connection more explicit would have helped this book garner attention, but it's worth noting this is the one comic in the feature bound to turn up in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. It's actually an excellent piece of work! It's clear to see how it was meant to surface around 2002 based on the manga-esque art of Ohtsuka and the lower-case lettering from Russ Wooton; it's also difficult to see it ever finding the teenage girl audience who would most appreciate it. But it's an engaging read, focusing on the dramas of Mill and her coach trying to establish mutual trust. Mill has an adversarial tennis player nemesis from the start of the series, but their big showdown is actually the second-last match of the series - the real drama comes between Mill and her coach during the final match. I've heard tennis comics are popular in Japan and based on 15 Love I can see why.

HALO

ADAPTED FROM: The video game series and Eric Nyland's novel the Fall of Reach. Adapted by Brian Reed and Felix Ruiz.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: John-117 is a Spartan II super-soldier trained from childhood to put down insurrection on Earth's colony worlds, but when the extraterrestrial Covenant appear, the Spartans' new job is to ensure humanity's survival.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: I'm actually a huge Halo fan, having played all of the first-person shooter games up to the present; I don't read the novels, however.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: Yet another series which I can't judge based on its strengths as an adaptation! However, based on my overall familiarity with the Halo universe, the Fall of Reach comics do a fine job with John-117's personality (not easy to get across because he doesn't emote) and Ruiz, who I didn't think was well-suited to Marvel's super hero comics, does an excellent job with the spaceships, aliens and weapons, keeping consistency with the source material.

JOHN CARTER

ADAPTED FROM: The series of novels by Edgard Rice Burroughs. Adapted by Roger Langridge and Filipe Andrade.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: John Carter finds himself on the planet Mars, where the indigenous Tharks treat him like a pet; then he discovers there are human-like residents on Mars.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: Nil.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: Andrade is another artist who I'd had some doubts about based on his super hero work, but even though all I've read is the first issue of A Princess of Mars, it's clear his gifts are in science fiction environs. I enjoyed the first issue quite a bit, thanks to some fun dialogue and how the Tharks are portrayed as uninterested in Carter, rather than hostile.

ADAPTED FROM: The series of novels by L. Frank Baum. Adapted by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Various adventures in the magical land of Oz, including the Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz and Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: I read most of Baum's Oz work when I was in junior high. I read everything the local libraries had in stock, at any rate.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: These are beautiful comic books! Although I would never have imagined Oz under Young's visuals, his designs are so different from what I'm used to that I look forward to each new character introduction; he did a smashing job with my personal favourite, the Very Hungry Tiger. Fun dialogue, fun stories, fun art...what's not to love?

THE STAND

ADAPTED FROM: The series of novels by Stephen King. Adapted by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Mike Perkins.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: After a catastrophic plague reduces Earth's population, various survivors gather together to confront the supernatural horror of the Dark Man.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: Nil.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: I've heard a lot of good things about the Stand, but coming in mid-point I have to say, I think I need to have read the novels to appreciate this material. The cast is bloody huge and the stakes aren't quite clear to me. I don't even get a sense of this series depicting a world where 99% of the population is dead - thanks to the largely rural settings, it seems about as densely populated as the real world. I'm glad to see Perkins sticking with this series for consistency's sake, yet I wonder if it'll hurt his recognition amongst comics fandom when he'd been building a pretty good name for himself on Captain America. Ah, but maybe people will be reading the collected editions of the Stand comics for decades to come.

ZOMBIES CHRISTMAS CAROL

ADAPTED FROM: The novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Repurposed by Jim McCann and David Baldeon.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: As a zombie plague ravages London, Ebenezer Scrooge learns from three spirits how he's been the unwitting carrier of the disease and only he can set the world right.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: I've read A Christmas Carol and experienced various radio/film adaptations.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: I think Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has much to answer for. This book is an odd duck, being a rather faithful adaptation of A Christmas Carol except for how scenes are altered to admit zombies into them. By attempting to adhere to the structure of Dickens' book, it makes for an atypical zombie story...for one thing, the zombies lose!

Star Trek: the Star Trek - but is it Star Trek? A Star Trek review about Star Trek.

2011-10-17T17:07:00.002-06:00

I don't believe my friends have ever called me to account for myself for not having seen Marty, Brokeback Mountain or the Hurt Locker. But when certain friends learned I hadn't seen 2009's Star Trek*? Oh mercy, I was called on the carpet. From the aghast faces my friends made, you would think I had confessed to consuming human flesh, not that I hadn't watched some high-grossing sci-fi action epic.

Truth be told, I did turn down an offer to watch the film in theatres with a friend. Later, when a friend suggested it as an option during a group movie night, I vetoed it, receiving some comment. Later still, I had the film only a few paces away from the checkout counter at a video store when I was planning to watch the film accompanied by Rifftrax with a group of friends, until one member of the group suggested we watch the Rifftrax of Twilight: New Moon instead (she had cause to regret this and wound up angrily complaining that we were stuck watching Twilight: New Moon). It's only because Star Trek turned up on Netflix that I finally gave in and watched it.

I avoided the film for a couple of reasons. First, because I used to be a Star Trek fan, but my love for the franchise had been ground down from years of Star Trek: Voyager and Enterprise until I just wanted to put it all behind me. Second, I suspected that Star Trek was best enjoyed by new (or casual) audiences, not an old warhorse like me (similar to how my parents could never adopt Star Trek: the Next Generation as their own).

Having seen the film, my original impressions were justified. It's not for me. I wouldn't call Star Trek a bad movie (no matter how much it overdoes lens flare), it's a pretty good movie on its own terms. The film's real problem is that it isn't willing to stand on its own terms.

Had the film made a clean break from Star Trek lore I could have respected that, but so much screen time is spent inserting references to the previous iteration of Star Trek. It's a problem I've seen before in comic books when super hero universes are supposedly rebooted, yet the creators can't help remarking on what's come before and revisiting familiar plots & characters.

The references to earlier Star Trek continuity are also puzzling, used without a sense of the original context. For instance, in Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country, there's a scene where Spock quotes Sherlock Holmes; this is repeated in Star Trek. However, while in the former the Holmes quote was inserted as a piece of warm comedy which humanized Spock, in the latter the quote comes during a scene designed to make the audience dislike Spock and side against him. Star Trek also revisits the Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario story from Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan, but while in the earlier film it was an example of how Kirk had always cheated death, in the newer film we learn Kirk took the Kobayashi Maru test three times before passing it, which undermines the point of the story in its original form.

There's also a running theme of the cast being bad at their jobs, which I think is meant to indicate their youth and inexperience, but should probably have been stopped after the second instance. Instead, we wind up with a Spock who's bad at being a Vulcan, a Kirk who's bad at being a leader, a Sulu who's bad at piloting, a Chekov who's bad at the transporter and a Scotty who needs Spock to be the Miracle Worker; only Uhura & McCoy remain unscathed and consistently portrayed as competent professionals (Uhura taking her clothes off and McCoy being a drunk notwithstanding).

I'd forgive all these creative decisions if the plot were up to snuff. It isn't. It's a bog standard illogical-villain-seeks-revenge plot with nothing original to make it stand out. There's no sense of scope, wonder or anything at all unearthly, which the Star Trek franchise - even at its worst - usually attempts to achieve. Heck, I'll make a token defense of Star Trek: Generations for trying to tell a story about something cosmic and awe-inspiring.

The film is well cast; Bruce Greenwood dominates every scene he's in and should've had a larger part. The sets look great. The special effects are what you'd expect. Shame about the story... If only the film had been called "Space Guys" I wouldn't have had to spend so much time thinking about it...and no one would have demanded I go see it.

For my favourite review of this film, please read Priest's.

*= aka "Star Trek: the Star Trek," so as not to be confused with Star Trek: the Motion Picture or Star Trek: the Original Series.

Indulge me as I talk about radio transcription

2011-10-14T16:44:00.001-06:00

I don't discuss my old-time radio hobby very often, but it's probably the most substantial of all my hobbies; I may watch two classic films and read 50 comic books average per week, but in the last 20 years I've listened to old-time radio programs on every single night spent under my own roof. In my unemployed or student days, I sometimes listened from 10 AM to 1 AM, thanks to the internet.

Thus: transcription. One of the problems in radio archiving is that so much old-time radio programming has been lost to the mists of time; most programs from the 30s & 40s were performed live once and then forgotten; not recorded, not rebroadcast. For instance, the serial program I Love a Mystery gained a reputation as one of the media's all-time greatest adventure shows, but very little still exists (especially from the program's first run) so it's difficult for latter-day listeners to judge the merits of the series.

Various programs were recorded - Amos N' Andy was an early example, having been recorded in advance so its episodes could be distributed to non-affiliate stations. Information Please began recording their shows in advance because it depended on the quick-witted responses of its panel of experts to answer questions in an entertaining manner. Transcription enabled the editors to cull the program down to it's best material. The show's network at the time were quick to deny transcription would overwhelm radio; "Would you rather kiss a girl or her picture?" as NBC put it. However, after World War II transcription arrived in full force, thanks in part to recording technology captured from the Germans. By the 1950s, most radio comedy and drama was transcribed.

Why was radio transcription controversial in the 1940s? For those of you who don't know much about old-time radio, allow me to summarize the good and the bad of radio transcription:

The Good

Availability of cast Programs no longer needed to fear the absence of a scheduled guest star or the sudden illness of a lead performer because the show could already be in the can before it was even advertised. It also freed up film actors who didn't normally have time to commit to a weekly program, allowing them to record their episodes whenever it was most convenient for them.
Production values Small-time programs which formerly had to rely on organ music and no sound effects could now afford to insert canned music & sound effects into their shows.
Archiving Thanks to transcription, we have much more old-time radio preserved from the post-WW2 era than we do the pre-WW2 era. Further, the post-WW2 shows tend to have very crisp, clean audio.

The Bad

The laugh track As canned laughter replaced live audience reactions, phoniness crept into the comedy shows. Editing canned laughter was not a seemless process and resulted in some shows having painfully-obvious reused audience laughter (as in some latter-day Edgar Bergen shows I've heard).
Musical arrangements Too many programs borrowed from the same tiny music library. It's disappointing to hear one show which uses the same musical bridges & backgrounds every episode...it's even more disappointing to hear another show drawing from the same pool (ie, Rocky Fortune, Barrie Craig, That Hammer Guy). The days of live studio orchestras were gone, but no one wanted to admit it.
Loss of spontaneity Actors fluffing their lines or ad-libbing may have been undesirable in dramatic shows (Sam Spade being an obvious exception; Howard Duff's ad-libs are frequently the best moments), but they're just about as crucial to comedy as the live audience. Too many comedy programs fell into predictable routines; Jack Benny is my favourite of the old-time radio comedians, but even I have difficulty with his last few years on the air as his cast had shrunk, no longer went on remote broadcasts, fell into reusing old scripts/gags and were well-past the days when a cast member fluffing a line could provide unexpected hilarity (ie, the famous "chiss swease sandwich," "Drear Pooson" and "grass reek" fluffs).
Assembly line production It was great that transcription meant Humphrey Bogart could have his own weekly radio show (Bold Venture), but because he recorded his shows together as quickly as possible, listening to one episode means you've heard just about every episode.

To put it most simply, the transcription era was too clean. I'm sure it was wonderful for writers and producers to have their programs transpire exactly as envisioned, but it was done at the cost of the human element. Pre-transcription shows feel as though they have stronger emotions because the performers are acting out in front of a live audience with live co-stars, a producer pointing at the clock on the wall, a script which could fall out of your hands (as once happened to Peter Lorre on Mystery in the Air) and musicians and sound effects men who need to hit the right cues.

Additionally, the transcription era arrived just as television was coming in; television started out as live broadcasts which weren't archived so they held the same intensity radio formerly prided itself on. As television eroded radio's influence, an additional problem crept into radio broadcasts: the pool of performers was shrinking. That is, when a performer like Howard Duff was blacklisted there was no one new coming up in the ranks who could replace him; when Jeff Chandler died, there was no new Jeff Chandler to fill his shoes. Some radio performers stuck in to the bitter end - William Conrad, John Dehner, Ben Wright - but most dropped out and the latter-day performers weren't up to snuff (YMMV). Variety suffered as well - the movie adaptation, horror-themed programs, high adventure and comedy stars went away, leaving little more than detectives, cowboys, soap operas and the occasional sciece-fiction show.

As budgets were slashed, programs had difficulty coming to terms with reduced cast lists. I find it aggravating to hear 1950s detective programs where the lead actor narrates about 75% of all dialogue heard in the show (often with canned music and almost no sound effects). Few low-budget shows can thrive on the force of a single personality (Nelson Olmstead being a rare exception), fewer still had any dynamic personalities to speak of.

With slashed budgets and diminished verve, 1950s radio transcriptions are, generally, my least favourite shows to delve into. That said, CBS held some standards: Suspense, Gunsmoke and the Jack Benny Program kept their quality up for some time and their latter-day shows Escape and the Stan Freberg Show are definite highlights from the dying years of radio.

Yesterday I began following Cerebus

2011-10-13T23:49:00.004-06:00

There was a time when I knew of Dave Sim's Cerebus as "one of those artsy-fartsy comic books only those Comics Journal-types read." Then I connected to the internet during the age when the series was "derided by all, especially those Comics Journal-types."

Strangely, I became a fan of Dave Sim's work through his post-Cerebus output, which certainly isn't discussed in as much volume or detail as any of his 300 Cerebus issues. I bought his 2008 graphic novel Judenhass, quite enjoyed it and soon became an infrequent follower of his book glamourpuss which started at about the same time. Recently, I began buying up the Cerebus Archive, where he discusses his attempts to break into the comic book market and the many mistakes he made as a young cartoonist; I've found the latter series to be so fascinating as a portrait of the rim of 1970s comic book culture that it suddenly struck me...why don't I read that Cerebus book which is ultimately responsible for all of these other projects?

Even though I've been attempting for years to better educate myself in the world of comics (having been a super hero-only type for far too long), Cerebus carries a lot of baggge based on the cursory information I've learned at internet columns and blogs over the last 13 years. I understand that the latter years of Cerebus become a soapbox for Sim's editorializing, but...being that I enjoy Judenhass, glamourpuss and Cerebus Archive, clearly I already enjoy his editorializing. Therefore, my decision is to start working my way through Cerebus one volume at a time until I decide I've had enough (or run out of volumes).

In fact, one of the amazing things about Cerebus is that I can easily obtain the entire series - I think every shop in town carries a set. It caused me to reflect that outside of Dave Sim and Stan Sakai, just about any highly-regarded independent comic book creator's output from the 70s & 80s is nigh-difficult to acquire. Thanks to the shifting interests of audiences, self-destructed publishers, dead creators and retired creators, you won't find many indie hits of times past on your local comic store's shelves. Heck, even a bigwig like Scott McCloud hasn't kept his colour issues of Zot! in-print.

I'm barely into the first volume of Cerebus and so far I'm enjoying it. Already I've seen a remarkable evolution in Sim's style. Early issues of Cerebus play out as something of a Conan parody, which is interesting because in Cerebus Archive Sim expresses how he had little interest in Conan, yet the parody itself is so gentle he could have run the material in Marvel's Savage Sword of Conan with only minor alterations (that the protagonist is a talking aardvark is sometimes the only "funny" part of this "funny animal" book).

Thus far the Elrod character (Elric by way of Senator Claghorn) has been a fun, broad addition to the series and in general the series' dialogue is playful and diverting, helping to steer the stories out of familiar tropes by having characters respond to outrageous situations in a realistic, comedic manner.

Cerebus: I'm reading it.

Unearthed: All-Star Squadron#48

2011-10-06T22:09:00.011-06:00

Last time in Unearthed I looked at All-Star Comics#62 and briefly discussed how it began my interest in comics history, Earth-2 and Hourman. Appropriately, I'm continuing this theme with All-Star Squadron#48 (1985), which I first read shortly after All-Star Comics#62.

Just like All-Star Comics#62, this book appeared without explanation. One summer while visiting my grandfather, it turned up in his house. It was suggested my cousins James & Andrew had left the comic behind during an earlier visit, but it's origins weren't definite.

Checking the cover, we have the Shining Knight pit against Dr. Fate, Robotman & Firebrand while a caption helpfully informs us "The Shining Knight is BACK! Only this time he's on the OTHER SIDE!" Another blurb reads "Camelot 1942!" which turns out to be the title of the story inside. Finally, a blurb promises us "Special Guest Star Blackhawk." Following up on some ideas Colin Smith has been considering, this cover brings up a few things:

With the exception of Hourman, Winston Churchill and our surprise villain, all the major players of this comic are presented on the cover.
Further, the cover sets out the problem: the Shining Knight has turned against the heroes (just like Wildcat on the cover of the previous Unearthed).
The caption explaining the problem is probably necessary; without it, the Shining Knight might as well be a contestant on the Dating Game choosing his match.
The Blackhawk blurb was actually exciting to me - I had exactly one issue of Blackhawk back then and it was always thrilling to realize I was up to speed with the story (since I had no idea who the Shining Knight, Robotman or Firebrand were; I did wonder if Robotman was connected to the more famous Robotman).
Do note that for this comic, Dr. Fate is wearing the half-mask version of his helmet. I think it was originally introduced in the 1940s to give artists a wider range of expressions for the character or perhaps to make him look more like other conventional super heroes; of course, comics being what they are, we were eventually treated to an explanation about him trying to overcome the possibly-sinister machinations of his patron wizard Nabu by exposing his mouth. Let me tell you, those comic books have serious Daddy issues.

A banner atop the opening splash page gives us an introduction to the series concept: "1942 - a world at war! And against the forces of Axis darkness, the mightiest heroes of Earth-Two have banded together, under direct orders of the President, as the All-Star Squadron." This was the 1985 equivalent of today's recap pages; many comics had to explain their concepts within two lines of text because back then you could actually sell your pages as advertising space. It's true! Even so, two lines aren't enough to explain what Earth-2 might be...or about World War II, in case you didn't learn it at school...or which country's President they're referring to, I suppose. Note that the All-Star Squadron's name is derived from All-Star Comics.

Creator credits go to writer Roy Thomas, fan turned writer; Mike Harris, listed as "guest penciler" and not a name I'm familiar with; and inker Vince Colletta, infamous amongst fandom for erasing Jack Kirby's pencil lines to save time and thus possibly the least-liked inker in comics history. That's no reflection on Colletta's prowess as an inker, simply his notoriety.

We open on the Shining Knight riding his flying horse Winged Victory (a pretty good name for a WW2-era horse...but isn't it from Camelot?). The Knight investigates a crumbling castle and finds a silent knight (not the Silent Knight; he turned up in a later issue of All-Star Squadron because...I digress). The Shining Knight attacks the interloper and is startled to find his liege King Arthur behind the helmet. He lowers his guard, overjoyed to see his lord and master, but "King Arthur" knocks him out with a sock to the jaw.

Over the Atlantic Ocean on page six, Firebrand, Robotman, Hourman & Dr. Fate are mid-flight to London. During the flight, Firebrand uses her flame powers to perform some spot-welding on Robotman, who's trying to improve his rockets and armor plating. It seems British PM Winston Churchill requested the All-Star Squadron's aid, although Hourman notes Dr. Fate is the only one asked for by name. Even though Hourman does possess super powers (for an hour at a time), we'll see throughout this issue that he feels unequal amongst his peers; as I stated in my last Unearthed, Hourman was an early favourite of mine and it's mostly due to this issue - I really emphasized with characters who felt a little out of sorts. Come to think of it, I don't believe I ever read an issue of All-Star Squadron where Hourman was the key hero who saved the day, but I recall several where he was stuck on the sidelines just trying to stay alive and keep his confidence up.

Anyway, the All-Stars' plane arrives in London just in time for the Battle of Britain. The Blackhawks join the fight and Hourman starts to gush about them, having heard what great pilots they're supposed to be (we both like the Blackhawks? Hourman and I were separated at birth). As Hourman's powers don't include flight, he's stuck aboard the plane while the other three bail out to engage in aerial combat against the Germans.

So, while the other three All-Stars can fly, Robotman soon discovers those last-minute modifications he made to his body on the plane really should have been tested first; his jets can't manage the new weight from his added armor and he begins to plummet out of the sky. The following four panel sequence is worth examining:

In just four panels with a fixed "camera" (no close-ups), we go from: 1) Robotman in peril; 2) Robotman's humorously desperate attempt at a solution; 3) Robotman's seeming doom; 4) Robotman triumphant. Take particular note of Robotman's face, which isn't a particularly emotive one, yet his open jaw in panel one demonstrates his terror and his wide grin in panel four delivers his sense of accomplishment. I'm not saying Mike Harris & Vince Colletta were a two-headed Alex Toth, but in an age where blank-faced photorealistic models recite the farmer's almanac to each other, it's nice to find a super hero comic with peril, emotion, humour and triumph in just four panels, no matter where you have to look to seek it.

There's also a nice moment during the fight where Firebrand hopes the pilots whose planes she just wrecked manage to save themselves via parachute. It's becoming increasingly accepted for super heroes to kill faceless "lackeys," especially in stories set during World War II, so it's refreshing to see the opposite attitude expressed - she even notes how she used to be all right with killing soldiers, but at some point had an epiphany.

There's also an interesting moment where Dr. Fate smashes through a German plane and Hourman compares him to Superman. Honestly, given the sort of power Dr. Fate displayed back then and that as a member of the Justice Society he was a public figure, it would have been neat to see people favourably refer to Superman as "a regular Dr. Fate!"

With the skirmish over, the All-Stars meet the Blackhawks; Blackhawk himself aside, the others just fade into the background (excepting the ostentatious garb of Chop-Chop). Winston Churchill arrives and ushers Blackhawk and the All-Stars into a meeting (the rest of the Blackhawks depart, lest they clutter up the story) and Winnie explains how the Shining Knight went to explore the site where Camelot once stood, based on reports of strange happenings. The Shining Knight hasn't reported back to Churchill (and he's supposed to be Churchill's bodyguard!), so it's up to the All-Stars (and Blackhawk) to investigate.

As the heroes fly to their ally's last known location (Hourman riding aboard Blackhawk's plane) a bit of exposition creeps out: Fate isn't as powerful as he used to be, but can sense something mystical; Robotman, however, is picking up something unusual as well; Firebrand is a little distracted by the Shining Knight's peril, having earlier held an attraction to him. To their surprise, the trail leads to a very well-kept castle, staffed with knights, King Arthur and Merlin the Magician.

Without speaking a word, Merlin attacks Firebrand & Robotman, but Dr. Fate gets physical with the sordid sorcerer and knocks him apart - "Merlin" is nothing more than a robot. Ah, then King Arthur must be as well, you'd suppose? Not quite. "Arthur" removes his mask to reveal himself as...

Wotan? Not that I'd ever heard of Wotan before, but he dumps a lot of exposition in that panel to bring first-time readers up to speed. Suffice to say, he's one of Fate's personal enemies, although the exact nature of the threat he poses isn't made clear. Anyway, whatever danger Wotan himself poses is beside the point when he can simply make the Shining Knight fight in his stead:

And so, once again we end a story with a couple of Earth-2 heroes taken out of the fight and another placed under the control of a villain and forced to attack his comrade.

I still haven't read All-Star Squadron#49. Somehow resolving cliffhangers doesn't seem that important when you're a child, you accept that you're going to be in the middle of the story just about all the time - you learn to enjoy the middle, find entertainment in the unit of story you're presented with. I did, however, become a big fan of the All-Star Squadron and did my best to collect it at second-hand stores over the years (I never saw a copy on the news stand, which was the only place I could buy new comics until '88). Sadly, All-Star Squadron was just about to hit Crisis on Infinite Earths when this issue came out and the elimination of Earth-2 was, understandably, a blow the series couldn't recover from.

If there's one thing I remember about this comic from my first reading to now (other than the cover), it's the panel of the Shining Knight crying when he thinks he's been reunited with King Arthur:

Perhaps it's because I hadn't seen a hero cry before. Again, kudos to Harris & Colletta for the emotion on display. There are some places where details are lacking, notably backgrounds; there's no way for me know, but I can assume Colletta has a lot to do with the sparse details.

It was fun for me to be exposed to characters like Firebrand & Robotman, heroes who clearly had backstories behind them but whom I hadn't so much as heard of before; to this day, those two aren't the type to get action figures or animated programs. Dr. Fate won me over with the visual of his action figure so I was excited to see him in action during this issue (as opposed to being hospitalized in All-Star Comics#62). Hourman continued to grow on me as I saw him as little more than a normal person in extraordinary circumstances. I feel it's a pity that Hourman has become defined by his Miraclo powers over the last couple decades because I rather like the All-Star Squadron depiction of him as the least-impressive man in the room.

Following this story is a three page portfolio by Mike Clark of Dr. Mid-Nite, Wonder Woman & Green Lantern. The Mid-Nite pin-up really struck me at the time:

Looking at it now, I have some problems with Mid-Nite's body posture and Hooty (the owl)'s proportions, but back in 1985 I was seriously awestruck by this image. I hadn't seen Mid-Nite in costume before (he was in civilian garb in All-Star Comics#62) and I thought the grim, shadowy depiction of him perched on the tree branch was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I know that many comic book fans develop an early love for Batman the shadowy coolness he's supposed to project, yet Batman hadn't made an impression on me (I didn't come around to Batman until the mid 90s when I began regularly watching his animated series). Mid-Nite was my Batman. To this day, he and Hourman remain my pet favourites of the "Earth-2" heroes.

Also of note: on the letters page there's a very small advertisement for Roy Thomas' other Earth-2 series of the time, Infinity Inc.:

You can just barely recognize the signature of Toddy Mac himself; not that I was ever a tremendous fan of McFarlane, but this would have been my first exposure to his art. Little did anyone in 1985 guess he'd become a revolutionary force in the industry, stand as the most successful creator in the business, spend his money on balls, become mired in shameful litigation and end up in bankruptcy. 'Tis a tangled web.

You are listening to me speak

2011-10-02T22:47:00.002-06:00

Or, you could be.

I presented a talk on Angola at my church (Holy Trinity Anglican, Calgary) this morning; thanks to the quick-footed Rob Petkau, it's already available for download at the church website on the download page. Hop on over and give it a listen, yeah?

I've listened to the first few minutes and I think once you get over the terrifying sound of my voice, you may enjoy it.

I see Slave Labor is in the news...

2011-09-26T17:14:00.002-06:00

Comic book publisher Slave Labor Graphics (SLG) recently announced they would no longer be publishing comic books in their traditional format, instead selling electronic copies or bound trade paperbacks/graphic novels.

It's certainly sad news for fans of indepedent comic books as that already-small market is drying up even further. I know I enjoy reading something other than super hero stories and movie pitches, which is the alternative SLG offered.

I began reading SLG with Jim Rugg's hilarious Street Angel, which enjoyed only six issues despite massive acclaim on the internet. Shortly after Street Angel's end, SLG began publishing James Turner's Rex Libris, which offered a similar sense of humour which was right in my wheelhouse; it wasn't until Rex finished its 13 issue run that I began to have concerns about SLG - Turner's follow-up book, Warlord of Io, printed only one issue thanks to the comic book marketplace's indifference to its existence. Io became an electronic comic book, then a trade paperback, but the trade was the only place to get the entire story - a little frustrating for fans like me, who were trying to collect it as it came out (and so wound up with anywhere from 2-3 copies of the installments in separate formats).

Sadly, SLG doesn't seem to be making waves in the electronic format - evidently their best-selling ecomic has sold only 200 copies! I've tried to support other SLG books, but independent comics are, by their nature, against the grain. Comic fans complain about how homogenous Marvel/DC/Archie content can be, but it at least locks in an audience who are willing to sample multiple titles - that is, if you can sell Avengers to a reader, you might induce him to try Herc, Deadpool or X-23.

So, despite my goodwill toward SLG and a concerted effort at buying SLG material, I haven't gone far beyond Rugg & Turner's works - I read a decent trade called Midnight Sun and tried to collect Captain Blood: Odyssey (I still don't know if I have all the issues which were published) and the Royal Historian of Oz (the last issue was cancelled but made available electronically; I'm still smarting over the Io matter, but I'll get to it eventually).

I wish SLG well and hope they hang in there, but retreating from the single issue format makes it even less likely that I'll be paying attention to their publications - it means I'll have to go browse their less-than-ideal online store, when I much prefer getting my comic books from a shop.

Unearthed: All-Star Comics#62

2011-09-20T19:34:00.000-06:00

What makes a comic book stand out in your memory? If you, like me, read hundreds (or thousands) of comics books each year, how can any particular single issue make its mark? I recently posted about the titles I'm currently reading and hinted at how difficult it is to remain a fan when I'm taking in so much content that I've begun to detect repetition from one comic to another and nothing will kill your love for the comics medium faster than perceiving most of what you consume as dross.

It's in that spirit that I'm looking back on one of the first comic books I ever read (it ranks somewhere within my first 100 reads) to remind myself where my love of the medium came from. Recently, I've really taken to the blogging styles of Colin Smith and his blog Too Busy Thinking About Comics; I appreciate how carefully Colin considers comic books of the past and present, so I'm going to make a similar attempt at pondering All-Star Comics#62.

I don't know how All-Star Comics#62 (published 1976) found its way into my family's house; it seemed to simply appear one day in the family room. None of my siblings ever took it away to their room (as we normally kept our own comics separated), so it we evidently believed it was "family" property. I believe it first appeared in the house the same weekend we had held a rummage sale at the church and its my belief that my father bought it as a present and I missed the announcement. The comic was about 10 years old when it appeared in our house and it was missing its front cover; I don't know what ultimately became of it, but I'm composing this post using a copy I bought from Mile High Comics (it didn't cost me much, but I would've actually sprung for a coverless copy if Mile High had one to offer).

So while I didn't have the cover originally, I do want to consider it ever-so-briefly. It's very busy, isn't it? "The Justice Society of America in All-Star Comics With the Super Squad!" The amount of copy on this cover tells you this was published in a post-Stan Lee world. The cover also gives away this issue's special guest star and the last page's surprise reveal (so I'm glad I didn't have the cover growing up; let's have a few surprises, yes?).

The issue is credited to writers Gerry Conway & Paul Levitz (Conway was apparently on his way out) and artists Keith Giffen & Wally Wood. This is well before Giffen developed his signature style; it's not even Giffen in faux-Kirby as in his 70s Defenders work; I see a lot of Wood in these pages, but little of Giffen. Not that creator names meant anything to me growing up; I knew the name Stan Lee because it appeared as a stylized signature with the word "presents" at the top of each Marvel Comics title page (also, he narrated Spider-Man & Hulk's Saturday morning cartoons). Outside of Stan Lee, I couldn't have told you the names of any comic book creators (not until John Byrne began drawing Superman).

I don't think Crisis on Infinite Earths had transpired when I read this book. That series was predicated on the notion that multiple Earths were too confusing to new readers (or possibly that multiple Earths were a too non-Marvel concept, why not be more like Marvel?), but I don't recall ever being confused by it; I had already met the Justice Society of America in an issue of Justice League of America (#219), but I recall that story kept away from the idea of alternate Earth counterparts - like, I grokked that there were two Earths, each with a Flash, but the two Flashes were distinctly different characters. But now I risk getting ahead of myself...

Let's start with the splash page; since the aforementioned family copy was coverless, this page really stands out in my memory. Here, we're introduced to seven super heroes; only three are going to stick through the issue. At the far left, Dr. Mid-Nite can be seen in his civilian guise; I had no clue he was supposed to be a super hero. Next to him is Wildcat, about whom...more in a moment. The Star-Spangled Kid is hooked up to some contraption and is thus indisposed for the rest of the issue. Hawkman, Green Lantern & Power Girl complete the circle around the apparatus which contains Dr. Fate. Green Lantern is helpfully carrying Fate's helmet, enabling me to recognize Fate as a child (I knew of Fate & Hawkman thanks to the Super Powers action figures). Green Lantern is upset because someone called Vulcan nearly killed Fate and Lantern blames himself because there's no angst like super hero angst.

Wildcat responds to his friend's agitated state with "Aw, shuddup, Greenie...Mid-Nite's got work ta do!" A gentleman, this one. Technobabble ensues as Mid-Nite & the Star-Spangled Kid explain how they're trying to keep Fate alive and Power Girl wonders why an ankh appears on a computer monitor. This gets them talking about how Fate originated in Egypt and Lantern decides to visit Egypt in the slim hope of somehow finding something to save Fate's life. Hawkman, the team leader, agrees to this and mentions he has something else to handle. To which Wildcat moans, "Oh, man, Doc -- listen to that! Hawky's gotta go home and feed his widdle parakeet! It might starve without him...and wouldn't that be a cryin' shame!" So, thus far Wildcat has established himself as the team's resident sarcastic whiner. Keep it up Wildcat, you need something to compensate for being more useless to the team than the blind man (Mid-Nite), don't you? Although I came to love the Justice Society over the years, I've never liked Wildcat and now that I've returned to this issue, I can see why; with just two lines of dialogue so far, Wildcat has managed to offer no reassurance, planning or intelligent thought, instead choosing to mock the rest of the team for taking action in the midst of a crisis. Wildcat was an internet troll before there was an internet to troll.

The Flash & Hourman arrive, bringing our super hero count up to nine; however, we won't be seeing Mid-Nite, Fate or the Star-Spangled Kid again, and after a brief catch up, Flash takes off with Lantern to Egypt, so despite the large cast Conway and/or Levitz are doing a fine job of telling a story so clear a child could (and did) follow it. Hawkman nominates Hourman for monitor duty with Power Girl, whom he hasn't met until now. This prompts Hawkman to note Hourman is "still young enough to appreciate her." I don't know when it was decided Hourman was married and had a grown-up son, but I do know his son debuted just a decade later and was within a few years of Power Girl's age. In retrospect, Hawkman is a bit of a creep for suggesting Hourman might enjoy a craddle-robbing affair. Come to think of it, Hawkman is also supposed to be married with a grown-up son by this time...I'm overthinking this.

Hawkman decides to check in on said wife, Shiera. She's better known as Hawkgirl in the comics, but doesn't appear in costume for this story, which again keeps the amount of costumes on display under control. I have to say, I do appreciate this - Mid-Nite is here to be a doctor, not a super hero, so he's out of costume; Fate is a patient, not a super hero, no costume; Hawkgirl is a damsel in distress, not a super hero, no costume; all the characters dressed as super heroes are actually going to behave like super heroes. We cut briefly to Wildcat, Hourman & Power Girl on monitor duty as Wildcat utters his third line, this time telling Power Girl she'd "better not hog all the action" the next time they get into a fight (Wildcat is a normal man who dresses like a cat, period; Power Girl has all the powers of Superman; who do you think contributes more to a fight?). Power Girl observes she just saved the city. Hourman, voicing my thoughts, says "isn't it enought that the job got done?" Wildcat: poster boy of the insecure male ego. Meanwhile, I'm starting to figure out why Hourman became one of my favourite heroes...

Someone called Dr. Arthur Kliburn goes poking through some artifacts, only to be killed by a monstrous creation called Xanadu.

Sorry, that's Zanadu.

Shiera shows ups (Kliburn was poking through the Hawk family's artifacts) and Zanadu captures her, teleporting away. Hawkman arrives too late and sends out a distress call to the Justice Society.

Perhaps this is a good moment to bring up Power Girl. Much has been made of the anecdote that Wally Wood - one of the greats at drawing voluptuous female bodies - intentionally expanded Power Girl's chest size for a lark. The problem is, fandom became too conscious of what Wood was doing and it became the number one thing Power Girl was about. Not that "Supergirl on Labour Day" was a brilliant concept on its own, but now that the fans who grew up on these stories are the ones making the decisions in modern DC comics, we've gone from the rather reasonably-proportioned chest Wood drew (above) to catastrophes like this:

But that's what happens when comic book characters are run by the fans - they become parodies of themselves, sketched out by a single defining trait or story and not allowed to deviate from fandom's perception of their character (see also: Hank Pym the wife-beater, Tony Stark the drunk, Hourman the druggie, Arsenal the druggie and Green Arrow the red Commie Pinko Liberal Batman wannabe). Wood's Power Girl may have been subversive for its time, but what does the above image tell you about today's comic book culture? Rhetorical question, don't answer.

Anyway, Hawkman's signal is also received by our very special guest star, whom Wood introduces to the story with genuine class:

Even in these early days of comic book reading, I knew enough to recognize the silhouette. Oh boy, now things were gonna get good!

We cut away to Egypt where a purple robed man tries to barter for a potion, but refuses to trade his horse. Knowing that the Green Lantern & Flash were headed to Egypt (and that Lantern wore a purple cape), I confusedly thought this robed man was Green Lantern (perhaps I thought Flash had become a horse?). In retrospect, this is probably the Shining Knight. Anyway, that's as far as the sub-plot goes.

So, the Justice Society have gathered to hear their leader complain "what good is a Justice Society if it can't protect its own members?" As usual, Wildcat has a pearl of wisdom to offer, glaring at Power Girl as he notes "how crummy things have gotten since ya let the kids in." Power Girl is sometimes characterized as short-tempered, but I have to say...she clearly has plenty of willpower to keep from swatting Wildcat into the next county.

Anyway, up until now Wildcat has been the most unreasonable man in the room. So, time for Power Girl to get torqued off! Superman arrives and by now it had become clear to me that this Superman was older than the one I knew (note the white hair at his temples); this was fine by me, since, like so many kids, I thought of Superman as "Superdad." Power Girl, appropriately, reacts to "Superdad" by behaving like a spoiled teenager, demanding she be given her turn in the spotlight. Superman seems more confused by her than anything, noting he hasn't stopped her from being a super hero up until then (although apparently he didn't want her to join the Justice Society) and he hasn't come to interfere, he simply wants to help in this crisis. Frankly, in a single page Superman shows more support for Power Girl than the entire Justice Society; I guess she's just hyper-sensitive when it comes to family.

Hawkman angrily puts on his best Reed Richards face and reminds everyone that his wife is in mortal danger (Face front true believers! The Merry DC Marching Society wants you!) and they depart to find Hawkgirl, leaving Hourman on monitor duty on the grounds that...well, he's clearly too intelligent and competent for this mission and wouldn't be anywhere near as much a hindrance as the non-powered belly-aching Sourpuss or the squabbling Kryptonian cousins.

So, Zanadu is in Tokyo, talking to Hawkgirl in funny dialogue balloons to remind you that he's a baddie. Superman & Power Girl launch into battle with some more of their patented bickering, so Zanadu defeats them by encasing them within lava.

Hawkman & Wildcat are on the ground, looking at all the people Zanadu has rendered unconscious with his powers. Suddenly, Wildcat hears some music and attacks Hawkman, declaring himself a member of the Injustice Gang!

True confession: in retrospect, Wildcat is probably under the mental control of the Fiddler, a member of the Injustice Gang and likely source of the music Wildcat heard. However, when I read this as a child, not knowing who the Fiddler or Injustice Gang were and having witnessed Wildcat's behaviour across the length and breadth of All-Star Comics#62 I believed he had been evil all along and for some reason the team hadn't realized what his sarcastic put-downs and complaints really meant. Again I wondered why Hourman was left on monitor duty.

I have only one other issue of the 1970s All-Star Comics revival in my collection and it's the last issue, nowhere close to matching up with #62. I still don't know a lot of the details surrounding the attack on Dr. Fate, Zanadu, the Shining Knight or the Injustice Gang plots, but none of that bothered me as a child. I grasped that Zanadu was evil (he murdered a man! and took Hawkman's wife hostage!) and the Justice Society were good. I grasped that Power Girl meant well, but was a little brash. I grasped that this Superman was older than the other versions I had seen, but was essentially the same man. I guess my only misstep was believing Wildcat was the team's traitor. In retrospect, I see that Conway and/or Levitz were trying to write Wildcat as the team's Thing (with Power Girl as the Human Torch), giving him a gutter-level dialect and lots to complain about. The thing is, Wildcat is an old man in a kitty suit, whereas the Thing is the super-strong backbone of the Fantastic Four; the Fantastic Four can't do without the Thing, but one feels the Justice Society would function much more smoothly without the whiny old man who has no powers.

Looking back on this comic book now, what I appreciate the most is the Wally Wood artwork; Superman's silhouetted entrance and other inventive page layouts (like the Zanadu page above) really liven up the story.

I still have a lot of fondness for the Justice Society and their related books; within a year of reading this comic I found my first issue of All-Star Squadron and it did a lot to fuel my growing interest in super heroes and their histories. I was particularly taken with the Justice Society's Green Lantern; there's something about the red, green & purple colour combination that shouldn't work, and yet it does; maybe the blond hair ties it all together. Hourman and Dr. Mid-Nite would become fast favourites while Wildcat...well, to me he'll always be Sourpuss.

Wildcat fans...and I assume you must exist, you can't have all died post-1950...you like this character...why?

State of comics: today

2011-09-14T23:53:00.007-06:00

"If your hobby becomes your profession, find a new hobby." - Mark Gruenwald

I always feared there was some truth to the above quote. For most of the last decade I've been toiling on projects about Marvel Comics and it gradually transforms my hobby into a chore. It becomes increasingly difficult to approach a Marvel comic - or any other super hero comic - with a genuine fascination in the narrative of the fictional universe. I can't bring myself to care about where any particular stories are going...but I can still appreciate the craft displayed in a good story which is well told.

Since I have this problem with super hero universes, it's really up to the non-super hero books to keep me going as a hobbyist; today I brought home five new comics, all them from non-super hero publishers (five different publishers too). It's been a very long time since I've shared my thoughts on what I'm buying, so why not join me? Thank you.

Sergio Aragones Funnies#3 contains various features by Aragones, some of them the type of gag cartoons he publishes in Mad, but there's also an interesting story about a feature Aragones spent some time sketching up, only to learn it had all been done before. My favourite part of this series, however, are Sergio's autobiographical features; he's lived an interesting life and this issue's tale relates how he met a famous cellist. Sergio's biographical stories are always modest and genuinely human; I hope Funnies carries on for years to come.

Of all the stories which have been told about Lewis Carroll's fiction, Snarked#0 is definitely one of them. It's written/drawn by Roger Langridge, whom I only discovered as of his Muppet Show comics, but he's quickly becoming a favourite writer of mine. Because this is a $1 preview issue, Snarked doesn't do much more than establish the setting and cast of characters for the series, which stars the Walrus and the Carpenter of Through the Looking Glass fame; the Walrus is a grifter and the Carpenter is his dim-witted accomplice. Looks good!

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero#170 continues Larry Hama's return to the franchise he made world famous. This issue carries on various running stories about the return of Sneak Peek (and what he's been up to), Roadblock, Lady Jaye & Flint preparing for a mission (allowing Hama an opportunity to discuss handgun maintenance), Cobra Commander walking through his wax museum (a wonderfully absurd moment typical of Hama), Jane defeating Crystal Ball & Firefly (Crystal Ball being reduced to a joke) and Storm Shadow learning how his family's ninja clan wound up with a Russian branch. So far this series has been heavy on plot and I don't think it's broken out the sort of excellence I know Hama is capable of...but the plot, characters, quips and insights into the armed forces are enough to entertain me until then. Interestingly, Hama's G.I. Joe was the only book in this stack with a writer-artist collaborating team.

I picked up Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo#140 despite having missed #139 while in Angola; #139 was the first of a two-part tale, so I've spoiled myself on the resolution. This story bring back Inspector Ishida, a brilliant detective who's one of the series' best recurring characters. Part of why I enjoy seeing Ishida appear in a Usagi tale is that he's uncommonly good at catching criminals. After years and years of reading super hero comics where criminals are almost never punished, it's cathartic to read the opposite now and then.

Digging back a little ways, I bought Dave Sim's Cerebus Archive#5 as I've been gradually working my way through the series. I've never read Cerebus or much else of Sim's work, but reading Sim's account of how he attempted to break into the comic book industry in the 1970s is utterly fascinating. Of particular note in this issue is a 5-page story Sim had to fluff up to 8 pages and it did suffer from the transition. There's a lot to learn in Cerebus Archive, even if only as a series of cautionary tales.

Over all, this was a good day for me as a comic book hobbyist - humour, action, adventure, biography and a history lesson; while books such as these are being published, I shouldn't want for lack of entertainment!

Angolan blackouts

2011-09-13T18:01:00.000-06:00

Apologies for the considerable lack of blogging; having spent most of August in Angola, I've been mulling, musing and meandering over how to express my experiences in a way people can appreciate.

The problem I have with trying to summarize my Angolan trip is that while explaining how I perceived Angola, I might in haste fall into making generalizations about the people or country. Generalizations are my number one pet peeve (ask anyone who knows me); so, I'm going to record one observation I made which I think (hope) will give you a small view of how Angola differs from Canada.

Almost every day in Angola, there would be at least one blackout. The anticipation amongst locals was for the power to go off in the evening, usually between six and seven PM. It would happen suddenly and without warning; if I was at work on a computer which didn't have its own generator, I would lose whatever I was working on. Although the power usually went out in the evening, it sometimes went out during the day as well, all because of work being done on the nearby dam, work (and thus blackouts) expected to continue for two more years. The places I frequented had fuel-burning generators to supplement the city power, so power could always be restored; power outages primarily delayed people, more than inconvenienced.

The way locals dealt with the power outages typlified the attitude I often saw toward problems - what you might call a "laid back" attitude. It seemed to me that over time, people had become accustomed to the frequent power losses so they didn't grow upset at it. I couldn't imagine my co-workers in Calgary managing multiple power losses per day every day anywhere near as gracefully. I certainly don't like giving up control over my situation, but after a few days of power outages I had to let go of my expectations and work as hard as I could with the resources I had while I had them.

So, that was life in Angola - problems were always arising, some of them anticipated and familiar. It seemed to me that people made the most of their situation; when a blackout hit on my last full day in Angola, just as I was preparing to teach my students how to perform some work which we needed light to accomplish, we were left counting the minutes until I would have to leave, hoping the generator would kick in before my time expired. And yet, I didn't feel the stress of the situation because it turned out to be an opportunity to chat with my students and learn more about them. They quizzed me about my reactions to Angola, they asked about Calgary (and after hearing how much snowfall we receive suggested I remain in Angola) and I made some careful remarks about politics. I'm grateful to that last blackout because it enhanced my rapport to the students. That's one way I think of Angola and I brought back a candlestick to remind me.

Happy birthday Halle Berry!

2011-08-14T00:05:00.002-06:00

You were Storm of the X-Men; you followed up an Academy Award win with a Golden Raspberry; you weren't the worst thing about Die Another Day. But why do I really like you? You have great taste in birthdays.

In other news, happy birthday to me.

Angola awaits!

2011-07-25T15:00:00.003-06:00

By the time this publishes, I will be boarding a plane bound for Scotland, kicking off a month-long holiday! This will be the first holiday I've taken which lasted longer than two weeks in the last six years.

After a week in Scotland visiting relations, I'll be taking three weeks in Angola, helping to organize a library in Lubango. Considering this is my first trip overseas, I'd say it's pretty ambitious. You may still see some blogging done during this period, but probably of a brief variety.

Adeus!

Mark Gruenwald's Captain America: a recommended reading list

2011-07-24T23:59:00.000-06:00

Mark Gruenwald wrote Captain America for a decade, spanning issues #307 (1985) to #443 (1995). I became a fan of the character during Gruenwald's tenure (more about it here) and retain a lot of fondness for his stories and how he characterized Cap.

Having delved into a general recommended reading list elsewhere, here's my overview of the Gruenwald years.

When Gruenwald assumed control of the series, the Red Skull was dead (from issue #300) and he felt Cap lacked a strong rogue's gallery. Attempting to bolster up the ranks of villains, Gruenwald looked to the world around him to see what threats menaced the USA then. His first villain, Madcap (#307), embodied the USA's own disaffected youth; his most frequently-used villains the Serpent Society (#310) were a take on the evils of unions (ie, what if the super villains unionized?); finally, Flag-Smasher (#312) was an anti-nationalist, a man who rejected everything Cap believed in.

Flag-Smasher works well as a zealot, someone whose political (or anti-political?) convictions were firm and honest, but whose means (the violent overthrow of all nations to establish a one world government) put him squarely in the villain camp.

Gruenwald sent a surprising number of villains to their deaths in his first year and a half on the series. In #315, he dispatched the Porcupine, giving the somewhat-goofy villain a sad end; the Porcupine wants out of crime and hopes to make some quick cash by selling his equipment, but no one in the underworld is interested. When Cap finds out the Porcupine has a lead on the Serpent Society, he offers to buy the Porcupine gear if he'll help trap the Serpents. It all ends badly for the Porcupine, but Cap is true to his word.

The greatest massacre of villains went down in #319-320; for the previous year (mostly in titles which Gruenwald edited), a figure would step out of a crowd, shoot a super villain in the chest and declare, "Justice is served." In Cap#319, we learn this figure is the Scourge of the Underworld, who massacres an entire room full of criminals. Cap tries to catch the killer in #320, but is denied any real satisfaction; the Scourge's explanation for his behaviour is almost immediately discredited and he escapes capture...the hard way.

In a rematch with Flag-Smasher in #321-322, Cap is forced to take the life of one of Flag-Smasher's operatives. This caused a major stir in the series - one which actually lasted for decades! In these issues, Cap states plainly that he doesn't kill. Many fans objected to this interpretation of Cap, declaring he "surely" killed people during World War II. Gruenwald stuck by his guns and his interpretation remained with the character until the advent of Ed Brubaker in 2004.

Issues #323 & #327 introduced John Walker, the Super-Patriot, another choice antagonist for Cap. The Super-Patriot was a gung-ho, Oliver North-meets-Ronald Reagan-meets-Bruce Springsteen-meets-New Coke 1980s American. At least, that's what he seemed to be on the surface. While draping himself in the flag to promote himself like a rock star for public appearances, the Super-Patriot would hire his own enemies to beat up for the cameras! Although Walker claimed to be every bit the patriot Captain America was, it was a false patriotism, nothing but jingoism. Unfortunately for Cap, the Super-Patriot was his superior in physical power; he fought Cap to a standstill while barely trying, with Cap unable to find an advantage. Surprisingly, Walker was being set up to become a fascinating hero in his own right.

In #332, the Commission on Superhuman Activities - a body of US government officials - having realized Captain America is the same Steve Rogers who entered government service in 1981, demand he resume working directly under their supervision. In this, the era of the Iran-Contra scandal, Steve isn't certain he can surrender his own destiny...so he quits. The government owns the Captain America costume and shield, but by the end of #332 that's all they have.

In #333, the Commission hires John Walker to become the new Captain America and he employs one his hirelings to be his Bucky (later taking the less-insulting name Battlestar). For a time, the series splits between following the new Cap & Battlestar as they learn how to fight and begin taking on missions for the government, while Steve adopts his new identity ("the Captain") and joins his ex-sidekicks in fighting crime with much-reduced resources.

The storyline hits a major turning point after Walker's secret identity is made public by two of his ex-hirelings (now dubbing themselves Left-Winger & Right-Winger). By then, Walker had already made enemies for himself and in #345 one group, the fundamentalist Watchdogs, took Walker's parents hostage to trap him; Walker tried to save his parents, but failed. At seeing his parents' death, Walker's mind snapped and he killed and maimed several watchdogs, then settled down with his parents' bodies, chatting to them as though they were still alive.

In #347, Walker went after Left-Winger & Right-Winger, leaving the duo in a death-trap (more on that in #383). He was clearly coming unglued and matters finally came to a head in #350 when the Red Skull returned, revealed as having been manipulating the Commission from behind-the-scenes. The Skull tricks Walker and Steve into a fight, but this time Steve proves himself superior.

The Commission gives up trying to control Captain America, having learned their lesson; they offer to let Steve have his costume & shield back, but Steve's learned he doesn't need them to be a hero. It's only when Walker confronts Steve directly about how he carries the identity better than anyone that Steve relents; it's a great moment for Walker, having learned his lesson about who Cap is. Walker and Steve's relationship going forward has remained an interesting one, because Walker is one of the only people who can understand what it means to be Captain America...but he still doesn't see eye-to-eye with Steve and won't hesitate to disagree with him. He's found his own path as the U.S. Agent, usually in the government's employ.

The Bloodstone Hunt (#357-362) was just good fun. The Serpent Society's Diamondback had been an unusual love interest for Cap: he hadn't had to deal with a criminal falling for him before. In this globe-spanning epic, Cap works with Diamondback to stop Baron Zemo and Batroc's Brigade from reassembling the Bloodstone, an alien gem of vast power. Diamondback keeps trying to prove herself to Cap and this ultimately sets her up to reform for good. In addition to the many Indiana Jones-style locales and death-traps, Batroc brings some fine levity to the proceedings, particularly in the finale when he has to point out to his own men how unlikely it is they'd win in a fight with Cap.

The "Acts of Vengeance" crossover set up most of Marvel's top super villains to collaborate against the heroes. Consequently, the X-Men's top villain - Magneto - was working alongside Cap's top villain - the Red Skull. In #367, Magneto finally confronts the Skull; being a Holocaust survivor, Magneto has just one question: is the Red Skull the same man from World War II? Once Magneto has his answer, he goes into full-on revenge mode and...hey, it's the Red Skull...you never feel sorry for him.

Cap and Diamondback formally began a relationship in #371, despite Cap's many protestations that he couldn't make a romance work (Diamondback proposes "friendship" instead, then asks her "friend" what he's doing that evening). Gruenwald had done away with Cap's attempted secret identity around #318, having him be Captain America full-time. Here, Steve is forced back into the real world and finds he's really out of touch. While he and Diamondback try to have a peaceful night, Diamondback's friends hang on the outskirts to make sure no one interrupts the evening. A funny and welcome change of pace for the series.

Gruenwald's next great epic was "Streets of Poison" in #372-378, drawn by my favourite Cap artist, Ron Lim. Cap goes up against the drug trade, putting him in the path of the Kingpin and Bullseye...plus the Red Skull for good measure. Unfortunately, Cap winds up being exposed to drugs and they bond to his own Super-Soldier formula, meaning his body can't expel their effects. Cap goes completely off the deep end, leaving it up to Diamondback to reel him back in. Because of the nature of Cap's origin - particularly as Kirby first depicted it in 1941 - it had often been noted how Cap owed his powers to drugs, drugs which were essentially "super steroids." It proved to be a strong jumping-off point for Gruenwald to tackle and ended with Cap losing the formula, helping Gruenwald make his point that Cap is exceptional even without his powers (just as in the Walker epic he showed Cap didn't need his costume or shield).

In the midst of celebrating Cap's 50th birthday in #383, Gruenwald included a back-up tale where the U.S. Agent goes looking for Left-Winger & Right-Winger...only to find them six feet under. In horrible, graphic detail, we learn how the death-trap Walker left his ex-friends in didn't kill them...but left them so mutiliated that they took their own lives. It's a great turning point for Walker as he confronts his personal demons and vows to become better.

I never grew bored with Gruenwald's Cap, but the years following Lim's departure weren't quite as interesting. Still, as a fan of the Cap-Diamondback romance, there was always that developing relationship. At one point, Diamondback had been almost drowned to death and wound up tracking down her assailant and drowning her in return. After keeping this murder a secret from Cap for more than a year, in #424 Diamondback finally confessed it all to him; Cap's reaction? Unconditional support, whatever happens. I love ya, Cap.

Gruenwald brought his run to a close in #443. Cap eventually regained his Super-Soldier formula, but the drug was now working against his body, causing him to become weaker the more he exerted himself. Of course, this is Cap we're talking about...he refused to retire, instead pushing himself closer to his grave. In this, Gruenwald's final issue, Steve is told he has one day to live. He tries to find a friend to spend it with, but no one seems available. Ultimately, Cap winds up having a heart-to-heart with Batroc, sharing all of his trauma with one of his enemies. Cap even asks Batroc to reform, which I wish had happened.

Mark Gruenwald died only a year after leaving Captain America. I wonder if he'd have enjoyed Captain America: the First Avenger? He'd surely have been pleased to see Cap on the big screen, finally receiving some dues from the world at large.

Captain America recommended reading list

2011-07-24T23:13:00.000-06:00

As is custom for me when a Marvel Comics character receives their own motion picture, I'm going to dig through the publishing history of Captain America and compile a recommended reading list to honour the release of Captain America: the First Avenger, which I watched earlier today.

Captain America was first published in 1941 in Captain America Comics via Jack Kirby & Joe Simon; after super heroes fell out of favour post-World War II, the series struggled, vanished for a while, tried to make a comeback in the early 50s, then folded for good in 1954 after 78 issues; during that time, Captain America was frequently a featured player in other Marvel titles such as All Select Comics, All Winners Comics, Marvel Mystery Comics and USA Comics. He became one of Marvel's flagship characters, often sharing covers with the other two big Marvel heroes of the time (the Human Torch & Sub-Mariner). In the midst of World War II a red, white & blue hero who took the fight to the Nazis - before the USA had even declared war! - he was pretty evocative. His sidekick Bucky even scored his own super hero team in Young Allies Comics.

Stan Lee & Jack Kirby brought Captain America back in 1964's Avengers#4, rendering Cap an indelible part of the Avengers franchise; Lee & Kirby threw out all of the Captain America stories published from '46-54, preferring to have Cap spend the intervening years in suspended animation; thus, Cap has remained "the living legend of World War II." Having retroactively killed off Bucky, Cap was depicted as a man out of time, haunted by his sidekick's death and uneasy about the world he lived in. Starting with Tales of Suspense#59, Lee & Kirby began delivering half-length Captain America solo stories (the other half of Tales of Suspense was held by Iron Man) until the series became Captain America with issue #100; Captain America has been published by Marvel ever since, despite a serious rumour mill claiming he'd be cancelled in the 1980s.

If you want my recommendation in brief, there are two great eras of Captain America: the Lee-Kirby years (Tales of Suspense#59-Captain America#109) and the era of writer Mark Gruenwald (Captain America#307-443). The first three volumes of Marvel Masterworks: Captain America collect the Lee-Kirby years, but there is no definitive series of Gruenwald volumes, just a few representative trades (Scourge of the Underworld, the Captain, the Bloodstone Hunt, Man and Wolf and Fighting Chance vols. 1-2).

I'm going to discuss Gruenwald's body of work in a separate blog post; for now, here's my favourite stories from the rest:

Tales of Suspense#79-81 by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby. Of all the Lee-Kirby tales, this is easily the most frequently referenced. The Red Skull - Cap's most repeated enemy in the 40s - returns in modern times, still worshiping evil in spite of the Nazis' defeat. Having obtained the Cosmic Cube, a veritable Aladdin's Lamp of power, the Skull becomes all-powerful...but that doesn't mean Cap can't stop him. There have been many (too many) Red Skull/Cosmic Cube stories since this one, but the original frames it properly; it doesn't matter how superior the Red Skull or any opponent is, Captain America will find a way to stop them.

Captain America#110-111 & 113 were the only three issues written/drawn by Jim Steranko. The plot isn't too remarkable, with Cap fighting the forces of Hydra, led by the memorable new villain Madame Hydra, but the style Steranko brought to these issues have kept them firmly entrenched in people's minds as what a great Captain America story looks like.

However, after Steranko the series fell into the doldrums, despite some nice art by Gene Colan and a great new sidekick for Cap in the person of the Falcon. Captain America#168 was a fill-in story by Tony Isabella and Sal Buscema and delivered a fine tale with Cap meeting the son of Baron Zemo, the man who slew Bucky; just as Cap is haunted by Bucky's death, the younger Zemo has a vendetta with Cap for ruining his father's life. Helmut Zemo had a modest introduction here, but would go on to become an interesting character, not entirely unlikeable and a skewed perspective on what kind of man Captain America was.

I know I couldn't go without mentioning Steve Englehart & Sal Buscema's Captain America#175, the climax to Englehart's lengthy Secret Empire epic, where Cap brings down the Secret Empire on the White House lawn...only to find the Empire's leader is the President! The President commits suicide rather than face humiliation and Cap is stunned, finding his faith in his own nation faltering. He gives up being Captain America, leading us to...

Captain America#180-183 by Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema & Frank Robbins. In these issues, Steve Rogers adopts a new costumed alias: Nomad, the Man Without a County! However, his cape doesn't last very long.

When a young man named Roscoe takes on Captain America's identity, only to be killed by the Red Skull, Steve realizes he has to reclaim his identity.

Roger Stern & John Byrne's run on Captain America lasted only from issues #247-255. Regardless, it turned out to be one of the most memorable turns on the series, similar to Steranko in being well-remembered despite its brevity. Captain America#250 addresses the idea of Captain America running for President. It's an outstanding issue because of how it portrays the public reaction; the people want Cap to be their President. They don't care that he knows nothing about politics; they just want somebody they can trust. This story hits on all the angles about the idea of Cap running for President (the Democrats & Republicans both want him on their ticket!), but finally brings it down to Steve Rogers and his personal conviction that his work as Cap is more important than becoming a figurehead.

Stern & Byrne's best multi-part story was Captain America#253-254; Cap looks up some of his old World War II allies, the British hero Union Jack and his daughter Spitfire, now both quite old and Union Jack nearing death's door. However, Jack is convinced their old vampire foe Baron Blood is still alive; unable to slay his foe alone, he brings in Cap. The showdown between Captain America and Baron Blood was notable for how violent it was for the time, with Cap beheading Blood in the climax; this story also helped keep the Union Jack identity alive as young Joe Chapman assumes the role (which he bears to this day), giving England a pretty cool-looking super hero.

Captain America#255 was Stern & Byrne's farewell; appropriately, they took the series back to its beginnings with a retelling of Captain America's origin. Kirby himself had told the origin on three separate occasions, incorporating different names and details each time. Stern & Byrne put everything together in way which made all three versions accurate, which is a pretty neat feat. It also filled in little details like how Cap went from his triangular shield to the rounded shield and how the Red Skull helped inspire his costumed identity. This remains the best single-issue adaptation of Cap's origin.

To explain the Captain America stories from '46-54, it had been decided by various writers that three different replacement Captains America had taken up the role while Steve Rogers was thought dead. In Captain America Annual#6, J.M. DeMatteis and Ron Wilson told an offbeat story where all four Captains America are united. The 3rd Captain America, Jeff Mace, formerly the hero Patriot, is dying of cancer; all he wants is one last challenge and he wants to face it at the side of his idol, the original Captain America. Thanks to a cosmic being, Mace gets his wish, but it's not everything he'd hoped for. It's a bittersweet story and made me an instant fan of poor Jeff Mace, the replacement Cap who never seemed to have his moment to shine.

For J.M. DeMatteis' farewell to the series in Captain America#292-300, he set up a "final fight" between Cap and the Red Skull. With the Skull nearing his end from old age, he's decided how he wants to die: at Captain America's hands. Of course, he doesn't want Cap to live too much longer after him, either. In the issues building up to this, the Skull does all he can to tear Cap down, hoping to drive him into a murderous rage, while poisoning him so they'll die together. Cap keeps trying to reason with the Skull, but the Skull is fundamentally incapable of caring. In the outstanding issue #298, the Skull narrates his full origin to Cap, demonstrating how throughout his life he's been thoroughly horrible.

So, the best revenge against the Red Skull turns out to be...denying him what he wants. Cap refuses to take the Skull's life, pitying him to the end. In a truly memorable moment, the Skull dies, cursing Cap for his pity.

The Adventures of Captain America was a four-issue mini-series by Fabian Nicieza and Kevin Maguire which retold Captain America's origin with some cinematic flourishes. It was instantly forgotten and remains so, for reasons I'm not clear about. It didn't quite square with earlier versions of Cap's origin, but did a fine job of characterizing Bucky into someone who was a believeable sidekick for Cap. It even wound up influencing a lot of decisions on how Cap's origin was depicted in the movie.

Marvel Holiday Special#1 features a sweet Christmas tale of Captain America by Len Kaminski & Ron Lim. Steve happens to encounter Bucky's sister, who was never told the truth about what her brother did during the War. Cap tells her everything and, to his surprise, discovers he's found a new family.

Captain America Annual#13 by Roy Thomas and Arvell Jones, told a lengthy tale from the Red Skull's perspective, again refusing to make him sympathetic (I think if the Red Skull is ever made relateable it's time to board-up the windows at Marvel and go home). This concerns the Skull's decades-long quest for the long-lost secrets of Adolf Hitler. Amusingly, it turns out to be something akin to Geraldo's quest for Al Capone's vault!

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty#7 contains a back-up tale by Brian K. Vaughn (then a novice) and Steve Harris. It looks in on Steve Rogers at various points in his life during the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, transcribing FDR's "fireside chats" from the radio. It does an excellent job of bringing to light who Steve was as a person prior to becoming a super hero, particularly in depicting his mother's death (which had been referenced but not seen). It leads up to Cap meeting FDR for the first time and how FDR's struggle with polio inspired Cap in his mission; it climaxes just before Cap and Bucky's final World War II mission as they hear FDR has died. This is an obscure tale, but find it if you can.

The Young Allies Comics 70th Anniversary Special#1 by Roger Stern and Paolo Rivera takes up in recent continuity where Bucky (back from the dead) has become Captain America. When Bucky goes looking for the graves of his old Young Allies comrades, he's stunned to learn two of them are still alive. This leads to a brilliant scene of Bucky reconnecting with his old friends and finally honouring a 70-old promise the Young Allies made together. Given that the Young Allies were treated as a forgotten piece of Captain America backstory for most of the previous 60 years, this draws an incredible sense of pathos for these people who, in the absence of Cap and Bucky, just went on with their lives.

The four-issue mini-series Captain America: Patriot by Karl Kesel & Mitch Breitweiser picks up Jeff Mace's story, so obviously I was stoked. This follows Mace's life from when he first sees Captain America, to adopting his own identity as the Patriot, to taking Cap's place in '46...only to find the US government isn't too keen at this "outsider" taking over when he hasn't been vetted. The story is mostly concerned with how Mace was just a hair's breadth from greatness, but manages to give him a sense of accomplishment in the conclusion; he loses the Captain America identity, but becomes satisfied with being Jeff Mace.

Captain America and Batroc by Kieron Gillen and Renato Arlem was an odd one-shot which came out recently. Told from the perspective of Cap's foe Batroc the Leaper, it does an excellent job of getting into Batroc's head. Because of Batroc's outrageous French accent (and, heck, that he calls himself "the Leaper") he's been a target of ridicule for decades; obviously, that means we're primed to like him now! There's a great piece about Batroc meeting parkour runners who idolize him and it does a lot to flesh out Batroc as a person; it also brings up Batroc's most memorable quality, his determination to defeat Captain America in a fair fight. Batroc's never been evil, just a crass mercenary and this story understands him perfectly.

There you go; look elsewhere for the Gruenwald recommendations!

Racism in the Sins of Séverac Bablon?

2011-07-19T17:15:00.004-06:00

"Jews control all the money."

When did you first hear that little chestnut? I know I didn't learn of it from my day-to-day life; I first saw that phrase some time after I began using the internet in 1998...probably on the same day I learned what "anti-semitism" is.

Dear internet: thank you.

Seriously, it is better for you to know the messed-up things people think so you're better equipped to guard yourself against it. On the internet, everything is hyperbole* but in the real world someone who wants to convince you that, say, the Jews control the wealth of the world, would use guarded, subtle language (assuming they aim to be persuasive) to sway your thinking.

The internet has taught me so much about the terrible things people believe that I've become sensitive to phrases loaded with bias and ignorance. One of my personal pet peeves is our tendency to paint groups of people with the same brush. I believe in the uniqueness of individuals and hate to think of the characteristics of "groups;" it's dehumanizing. For instance, as someone deeply involved in the world of comics, it irks me to find references to comic book fans as a group (or "geek culture"); whether those references are meant as an insult or a compliment, "we" don't like the same things and the things we do like we do to varying degrees.

So. I've been reading Sax Rohmer's Sins of Séverac Bablon, one of his earliest novels, originally serialized in 1912. I'm something of a Rohmer apologist when it comes to matters of race because I have a theory that, in spite of how you feel about the popular conception of Fu Manchu, Rohmer's stories were a little more clever about race than you'd assume**. However, I had recently finished his book Fire-Tongue which was...needlessly racist***. So, Séverac Bablon deals with Jews; I was prepared for something pretty painful, especially when it turns out Séverac is a "gentleman thief" who preys upon wealthy Jews. Ah, this is where years of preparation for such racism pays off, right?

Having broken the ice, Sheard found his enforced task not altogether distasteful. It seemed wrong to him, unjust, and in strict disaccordance with the views of the Gleaner, that these thousands should be locked up for one man's pleasure, while starvation levied its toll upon the many. Moreover, he nurtured a temperamental distaste for the whole Semitic race -- a Western resentment of that insidious Eastern power.

After reading that paragraph, I was about ready to be done with the book, but I kept going. Moving forward, it became much more positive: not all of the wealthy Jews in the story are bad people, it's just a matter of how the story defines a "bad" wealthy Jew:

"Why do you make a victim of me?" he gasped. "Antony Elschild is--"
"Mr. Antony Elschild is a member of one of the greatest Jewish families in Europe, you would say? And his interests are wholly British? He has recognised that, Baron. I have his cheque for fifty thousand pounds!"

We gradually learn Bablon is himself Jewish and the (self-proclaimed) heir to the lineage of Israel's kings; as such, he's able to summon up allies at a moment's notice, which...come to think of it, that's not unlike some of the "Elders of Zion" conspiracy theories, is it?

"Gott im Himmel!" he said hoarsely. "Who are you? Why do you persecute those who are Jewish?"
"You are found guilty, Israel Hagar," resumed the merciless voice, "of dragging through the mire of greed -- through the sloughs of lust of gold -- a name once honoured among nations. It is such as you that have earned for the Jewish people a repute it ill deserves. Save for such as Mr. Antony Elschild, you and your like must have blotted out for ever all that is glorious in the Jewish name. Despite all, you have succeeded in staining it -- and darkly. I have a mission. It is to erase that stain. Therefore, when the list appears of those who wish to preserve intact the British Empire, your name shall figure amongst the rest!"

Bablon doesn't resort to physical violence, instead using clever extortion/blackmail plots to force the wealthy Jews into donating their money either to the poor or to fund England in World War I. Either way, this causes the supposedly patriotic/benevolent money masters to be viewed as solid citizens, thus repairing the reputation of Jewish people, as Bablon hoped.

I'm willing to cut Rohmer a lot of slack for this book because his Jews aren't all alike; some are British patriots, some are not; some use their wealth to help others, some are hoarders. Some of the hoarders aren't even that bad, they simply feel entitled to their money in a rather Libertarian way.

Part of what fascinates me about Séverac Bablon is how similar yet different he is from other leading characters in Rohmer's novels. By which I mean, Rohmer's heroes aren't normally Jewish. However, Rohmer was fascinated by all things "Eastern."

"The Jews are an Eastern people," replied Haredale. "That is the fact which is generally overlooked. They are, excepting one, the most remarkable people in the modern world."

After reading that line, I understood Rohmer's intentions much better. Rohmer's fascination with Séverac as a hero was much like that of Bimbashi Baruk (Bimbashi Baruk of Egypt), Moris Klaw (the Dream Detective) or Karamaneh (Fu Manchu). Rohmer especially loved Egyptian protagonists, which probably rank second next to Englishmen as the most common heroes of Rohmer's fiction. Séverac Bablon is, essentially, written like one of Rohmer's Egyptians. He even leads an entourage of Arab underlings at one point...I'm still not clear whether those were his Jewish followers in disguise or actual Arabs paying him homage (Bablon dons a lot of disguises in the course of the story).

At its heart, Séverac Bablon is much like E.W. Hornung's Raffles, with a few differences. In fact, the ways in which Bablon differs from Raffles point to what I believe are the weaknesses of Rohmer's story and the strengths of Hornung's:

A.J. Raffles has his friend Bunny Manders, a normal man introduced to a world of crime; Séverac Bablon has his friend Tom Sheard, a normal man introduced to a world of crime.
Raffles' adventures are narrated first-person by Bunny Manders; Bablon's adventures are narrated third-person.
Raffles has some minor allies, but must usually rely upon himself & Bunny; Bablon claims eight millions subjects and is never at a loss for assistance.
By following Bunny & Raffles through their schemes, we understand the dangers involved and are thrilled when Raffles' carefully-laid robberies go awry; we do not follow Bablon as he commits his crimes, instead viewing his activities through the perspective of his victims, who always fail to upset his carefully-laid plans.

The Sins of Séverac Bablon is not Raffles is what I'm trying to say, I think.

It's interesting how not knowing what Bablon's plans are make his activities less involving to read about. After the third or fourth time Bablon outwits the aristrocrats, police and private detectives you begin to see the patterns in how the victims-to-be prepare for Bablon's capture, only to fail each time and blunder into Bablon's trap. This was probably fine when the novel was first serialized, but taken as a whole, you could stop reading the Sins of Séverac Bablon halfway through and be assured you missed nothing extraordinary in the other half. Once Bablon's identity and purpose have been cleanly established, he becomes an unstoppable yet remote protagonist, usually absent from the narrative until it's time for him to outfox his enemies. I do wish the footing between Bablon and his foes were a touch more even. Again, like Raffles.

Ultimately, the Sins of Séverac Bablon wasn't as troubling as I feared early in the book; it's not altogether great either, but nowadays only a Sax Rohmer enthusiast would crack this one open; if you are a fellow enthusiast, you may find it a nice change of pace from the quasi-supernatural tales Rohmer usually wrote. It's not up there with Fu Manchu, Sumuru or Dope, mind you.

*= Including this.

**= I might have to write up my full essay on this one, but it would require a lot of preparation.

***= "If a man of colour paid his heathen attentions to my daughter--" Yeah, terrific. The "man of colour" in question does turn out to be the villain of the piece, but the first clue that's he's a suspicious character is when he makes respectful overtures to a white woman? Get off my plane!

Appending the Appendix

2011-07-18T16:34:00.000-06:00

This past weekend I made my first update on the Marvel Appendix website in many years; it includes a profile for Jim Hudson, patrolman, who starred in his own Marvel comic back in the Atlas days, lasting all of...one issue.

The Appendix hasn't been as up-to-date as it once was, primarily because of me and how my Marvel Comics workload ate up my personal time. I hope to get back to regular editing duties before too long and hopefully bring some of the characters' histories up to the present.

Comics and tactiles

2011-07-12T17:43:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I received a new batch of comics from Marvel. Digging through the latest releases, I found an ashcan comic amongst the wares. The ashcan is printed in a format smaller than a normal comic book, on cheap, pulpy paper and in black & white. Because this ashcan hasn't been made available to the public yet (it's for a convention) I won't discuss the title or contents.

After opening my Marvel packages, I thumb through the entire pile to see exactly what I've received. On the second pass through, I begin arranging them in the order I'd like to read them in. Sometimes, I read a book more than once when I'm particularly impressed. After reading them, I sort them out so I can take a few notes, then sort them again to be filed into my collection.

The ashcan sat atop the pile of books when they came out from the package and arrested my progress instantly, simply because it looked and felt differently from everything else. And every time I came across that book in the act of sorting, I stopped for a few seconds to rub my hands over the cover.

You see, everything else from Marvel Comics - and most comic book publishers at present - comes in a slick, glossy package, printed on paper much like a magazine's. The ashcan really stood out for being on supposedly "poorer" quality printing materials. It really gave me pause to consider what comics may have lost in the advancement of paper quality. While reading another comic in the pile, I was struck by how garish the colouring seemed and reflected if it had been printed on duller paper - essentially running it through a gray filter - it would be more pleasantly subdued for my eyes.

I know every time someone brings up the question of which paper comics are printed on, the publishers consistently champion the paper they're using right now, pointing out switching to rougher paper wouldn't affect the cost of their books (since fans usually bring up paper quality while asking "why are comics so expensive?"). I wonder: could we set aside the question of price for a moment? Rough, "cheap" paper feels cool. How about printing more books on that quality - books which would benefit from a rougher tactile experience and faded colours? Would it suit a "retro" pulp thriller like Ed Brubaker's Criminal?

The comic itself was pretty good too, but I won't say more for about two weeks...

Because Matthew demanded it!

2011-07-06T17:58:00.001-06:00

It seems Monday's post dashed my brother's hopes that I would be sharing a list of my favourite movie mustaches with you. Actually, no such list exists. But now that Matthew's given me the idea, well, let's see...

Charlie Chaplin (publicity); probably the best part of the Tramp's outfit.

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (The Black Pirate); thus establishing the standard of thin mustaches for swashbuckling heroes.

Ronald Colman (publicity); the epitome of suave.

Clark Gable (publicity); most people's epitome of suave.

C. Aubrey Smith (Little Lord Fauntleroy); the classic British walrus, even moreso when you hear him speak.

Errol Flynn (The Adventures of Robin Hood); carrying his Fairbanks brand mustache well!

Orson Welles (Journey Into Fear); in retrospect, dressing up like Josef Stalin probably didn't help his relations with the FBI.

Sir Alec Guinness (The Bridge on the River Kwai); a useful prop here, doing something to establish his character as being classicly British and rigid.

Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride); the Fairbanks pastiche!

Christopher Plummer (Star Trek VI); making the "Fu Manchu" hip.

Avery Brooks (publicity); convinced me that mustaches with goatees were cool.

Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man); convinced me Tony Stark would wear a goatee for the next decade's worth of Iron Man comics.

Famous Mustaches of the Movies

2011-07-04T17:29:00.001-06:00

From 1944, here's an image of little-known actor Alan King from the movie Phantom Lady.

It's good to know that more than 60 years later, his mustache (and furrowed brow) are still able to find employment in Hollywood, having grafted themselves to the face of Leonardo DiCaprio.

There is no question in my mind that you needed to think about this as much as I have.

Thor and Hellboy: Not Speaking to Each Other

2011-06-29T17:05:00.002-06:00