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daily journal
New Face for the Tribune? Sam Zell and Team are working up redesigns for many of the Tribune Company's newspapers to combat sagging sales. The Orlando Sentinel was the first paper to go under the knife, and apparently also acted as a guinea pig for trying out some unconventional design approaches for a daily newspaper. Now it looks like it might be flagship paper, The Chicago Tribune, to get a new face. Editor & Publisher leaked this design today as one of many new designs being considered for the Trib.  I'm trying to reserve judgment until I can see a larger version of the mock-up and possibly some interior pages, but my initial reaction is "ugh." This design seems to put the Trib more in line with tabloid papers like the Chicago Sun-Times or the New York Daily News with their flashy graphics and large fonts. To me this sort of presentation is about making a newspaper more interested in style and getting noticed than on the quality and substance of the stories. If the quality of the content remains but the packaging is spruced up, then I really won't care too much about what they do to the Trib. But if the new design/style starts to cramp on the quality, then Heather and I might be ending our subscription. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. We need to give the Trib some time to finalize a design posted by Brendan | 12:38 PM | permanent link |
Dr. Horrible Isn't If you haven't watched Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Joss Whedon's web-only three-act show starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day, you are doing yourself a disservice. In the weeks leading up to the web debut of episode 1, plenty of people were talking about Whedon's project like it was the second coming of entertainment media. I played things more cautious and waited to actually watch the episodes - which I have done a couple of times now. It is very funny - very entertaining. Neil Patrick Harris is my new favorite actor. I'm not sure if Dr. Horrible revolutionizes how televisions shows will be produced and distributed, but Whedon's show is more entertaining then anything I've found on conventional TV in a long time.  posted by Brendan | 10:00 PM | permanent link |
The Dark Knight  While I hadn’t planned on it originally – historically I’m not much of an opening weekend sort of movie watching guy – Friday I found myself sitting in our nearby theater with Heather to watch The Dark Knight.We realized that we had time to take in a movie before driving to Ohio where we would be picking up Ian, Emma, and Zoe after they had spent a full week at Heather’s parent’s house along with their 8 cousins. (Yes, Heather’s parents house and entertain 11 children, aged 4 through 12, all by themselves for six days straight. Voluntarily. Every year. ) Heather and I talked about seeing something other than The Dark Knight to avoid crowds and save some bucks, but in the end I think Heather couldn’t bring herself to deny me an opportunity to see a Batman flick in the theater. I’m glad she’s nice that way. I won’t bother you with a drawn out review of the movie when there are pages and pages of glowing reviews for The Dark Knight published all over the web. Close your eyes and throw a dart and you’re bound to hit one. Here is one of my favorites. Suffice it to say I loved the film. It possessed an intensity and maturity that I have never experienced from a movie based on superhero characters. The Dark Knight isn’t just a great superhero movie or extraordinary summer blockbuster; it’s just a flat out superb piece of film. I don’t know if I’m ready to vote it as the top film of all time, as some of the more enthusiastic visitors to the IMDB website have done, but I was extremely impressed by director Christopher Nolan’s ability to use the characters of Batman’s universe to explore universal themes of heroism, sacrifice, and justice in an intelligent and engaging manner. All the while still blowing things up every twenty minutes or so. A great film. I am so glad we went to see it Friday morning. Now I can’t wait to see it five more times. Labels: Batman, movies, Review posted by Brendan | 9:49 PM | permanent link |
POTC: At World’s End – Review I know the movie bowed on theaters over a year ago and was released on DVD six months ago, but I finally saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End last weekend so you get my thoughts on the film now. Last summer I had read the lukewarm reviews and heard the less than flattering plot points, but the first two films were so much fun to watch that I figured number three would still deliver some reliable, if superficial, entertainment for me. After all, it still had Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, Geoffrey Rush was back as Barbossa, Keith Richards makes a cameo as Sparrow Sr., and the whole damn movie is about pirates (or pirate wannabes).  I guess I was asking for too much.While the stories of Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead’s Man Chest were fast and frantic, including plenty of exciting pirate action like sword fights and at-sea battles, At World’s End lumbered on for most of the movie like a foreign espionage film. The film was scene after scene of talking heads scheming and planning on how they can double cross someone else in the movie. Blah, blah, blah, blah! It’s a movie about pirates and we have them sitting around a table debating if they should go to war and then voting on the proposal. Pirates! Sitting at a table! Discussing in committee! Voting! That is not what I signed up to see. What happened to, "Take all you can and give nothing back!" Yes, the end of the film with the whirlpool and the ships and the fighting and the stabbing – that’s all good. But it comes too late in the movie. By then I had become bored with trying to keep up with all of the double-crosses and a list of characters that would make Tolstoy squirm. Really, the only time I felt At World’s End captured the spirit of fun and adventure that I enjoyed so much in the first two films was the very last scene. Captain Sparrow, with a girl on each arm, is walking down the dock and stumbles upon Mr. Gibbs asleep on a pile of rope while the Black Pearl sails off into the horizon. That hit the spot. That felt like a pirate movie wit Captain Jack Sparrow in it. Too bad there were more scenes with that sort of spirit throughout At World’s End, I could haven't written a nicer review. posted by Brendan | 10:01 PM | permanent link |
Reviews, Reviews, Reviews Once, it was my intention to write a review of something every Friday. In my head I put together a loose writing schedule that went something along the lines of Monday - sports, Wednesday - family stuff, and Friday – reviews. Tuesday, Thursday, and the weekends were freebie days; times when I could just post goofy photos or previews of comics or movies that I found interesting. I haven’t kept to that schedule as well as I would have liked, but I am always trying to recalibrate my habits to fit that sort of writing regiment in. So let’s play a little catch-up on the reviews (on a Monday no less) with a scatter shot of capsule comments on some of the movies and books I have experienced over the last month or so.  Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – Knowing almost nothing about the stage production, earlier film versions, or even the story, my interest in seeing this film sprung solely from two names: Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. Separately these two create wonderful work. Together, the film art is extraordinary.I enjoyed the songs and lyrics considerably, and the performances were all top notch (with the exception of Helena Bonham Carter, who didn’t seem to have the same singing chops of the other actors). I thought Depp did exceptionally well with his singing. He successfully reinvented himself as an actor who portrayed his character through song, in contrast to Ms. Carter, who appeared more like an actor who would sing from time to time. There is a big difference when you are performing in a musical, and Depp nails it. As is customary with a Burton film, the production design – the sets, the costumes, the make-up – was pitch perfect in creating the creepy world of Sweeny Todd. Highly recommended if you don’t mind a lot of singing in your movies. - - - - - - - The Fifth Elephant, by Terry Pratchett – For Christmas, my mom gave me this book and gave Heather Hogfather, also by Pratchett. Both books are from his Discworld series of fantasy/humor novels. Apparently my mother had read a novel by Pratchett and really enjoyed it. I don’t know if either of the books she gave to us was the one she read, but no matter. A few years back I had read Good Omens, a collaborative effort between Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett about the bungling of Armageddon, so I had someone what of an idea of what to expect. True to form, The Fifth Elephant is dense with British humor – which means I either laugh heartily at the jokes or feel stupid for not understanding the jokes. (Sometimes I think British humor can be too subtle for its own good.) It took a while for me to find the groove of the narrative and the many characters and subplots, but once Pratchett stopped jumping around from location to location, storyline to storyline and spent more than 20 contiguous pages focusing on the main plot and characters, the book settled down for me and was quite entertaining. I particularly liked the main character, Samuel Vimes, Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. He is equal parts introspective idealist and bruising realist, which makes any scene he appears in crackle with anticipation of how he will respond. Terry Pratchett said of the character, “He fears he may be a bad person because he knows what he thinks rather than just what he says and does. He chokes off those little reactions and impulses, but he knows what they are. So he tries to act like a good person, often in situations where the map is unclear”, which I think gets to the root of the character’s appeal for me. Unfortunately Pratchett has written 36 Discworld novels (which this book is number 24) and Commander Vines only appears as the main character in 6 of those books (not counting The Fifth Elephant). On the other hand, maybe that’s a good thing. Instead of hunting down thirty-five other books to read, I’d only have to find six other ones if I wanted to explore more of Vines’ adventures. - - - - - -  3:10 to Yuma – Just saw this movie this past weekend. It popped up for Heather in the library reserve lottery. We might have to wait a bit to see films when we reserve them through our library, but it sure makes things more fun. We never know when the movies in our queue will sudden become ready for pick-up.3:10 to Yuma is a solid old fashioned Western movie; light on action overall, but with a slow-cooking morality play story that delivers the big shoot-out to close the movie out. Christian Bale is good, Russell Crowe is good – hell, all of the performances were top notch in this film. The more I contemplate the film, the more I consider it one I might like to add to my home collection of DVDs. Highly recommended - - - - - - Superman / Batman: Saga of the Super Sons, by Bob Haney (writer) and Dick Dillin (artist) – Bob Haney wrote almost every sort of comic story imaginable during his time at DC Comics, and is credited with creating the Teen Titans, the Doom Patrol, Metamorpho, and few other the publisher’s lasting characters. He is known for his fantastically warped story ideas (Batman dies and the Atom shrinks down to enter Batman’s brain and reanimate him) and his bizarre dialogue. By far his grooviest creation was Bruce Wayne, Jr. and Clark Kent, Jr. – the Super Sons. They were Batman’s and Superman’s sons (we never learn or see who their mothers are) who wanted to strike out and make a name for themselves outside of their famous fathers’ shadows.  The stories are quintessential Haney with everything from Superman flying faster than the speed of light to create a parallel version of the existing world so Bruce Jr. and Clark Jr. can practice being superheroes in a controlled environment, to Bruce Jr. and Clark Jr. imprisoning their famous fathers on the charge of being heroes simply because their dads crave the public’s attention, to Superman faking his own death so he convince Clark Jr. that he shouldn’t give up the “family business” of superhero-ing. The man could not write a boring story.All through-out the stories we are treated to classic Haney dialogue and over-the-top late-1960’s slang while Bruce Jr. and Clark Jr. travel across America on Bruce Jr.’s orange motorcycle. It’s one goofy, warped story after another and it’s pure bliss. Saga of the Super Sons was great fun to read, but I don’t think it would appeal to anyone who wasn’t already a comic book fan and didn’t enjoyed some kitschy/campy super heroics in the same vein of the 1960’s Batman T.V. show. - - - - - - Enchanted – we reserved it from the library because both Emma and Ian asked Heather to, but in the end I think Heather and I enjoyed this film more than the kids did. The story is thin, but the performances from the leads are earnest and fun. Disney shows that they aren’t afraid to poke fun at themselves, even creating parody Disney songs that are as strong as any they have created in the past.  Amy Adams wonderfully creates the live-action personification of a Disney princess. The bubbly personality, wide-eyed innocence, helium-stretched voice – she delivers them all. Plus, the makers of the film loaded up the movie with subtle riffs on scenes from previous Disney movies. So for a movie trivia buff, the film is a treasure hunt to find the little references to Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and more.The kids didn’t necessarily get all the jokes, but they enjoyed the story and the music. Heather and I enjoyed it as well. Enchanted is a quality family movie that doesn’t insult the intelligence of the adults (or kids) watching it. - - - - - - The Red Blot – A couple months ago I got another Shadow 2-for book - two novels in one book. The first story is The Red Blot. A mysterious criminal mastermind seems to have found a way to allude not only the New York City police, but the Shadow as well, as he stages crimes progressively more daring then the previous one. His calling card is a piece of paper with a red blot of ink on it. The story isn’t anything particularly new to the Shadow mythology. I’ve read similar sorts of plot setups. What made this one unique is that Walter Gibson was able to keep me fooled on the identify of the Red Blot until the end. Besides stopping the bad guy, there were two mysteries to the story: who was the mole within the police department tipping off the Red Blot and who was the Red Blot. It was painfully obvious that the police mole was Detective Hembroke, who from the very beginning of the story has the stink of a character being set up for a fall later on, but Grant successfully provided enough misdirection and red herrings to keep the identity of the Red Blot hidden until the very end. I appreciated that. It made reading this Shadow story just a little more enjoyable. Labels: Books, Comics, DC, movies, Pulps, Review posted by Brendan | 11:21 PM | permanent link |
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Yesterday morning Ian and I went to go see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Despite (or maybe in defiance of) a phone call from my father the night before warning me about two scenes in the movie that he thought might be too much for Ian to handle, I figured the opportunity to see the Indiana Jones on the big screen with Ian out-weighed any concerns my dad might harbor. So we loaded ourselves into the car to catch the 10:20am showing on Memorial Day.  For most of the kids of my generation, the Indiana Jones films are one of the cultural touch points that provide us with a shared modern mythology to reference and be inspired by. Naturally as we grew up and had children of our own, we would want to share these movies with our kids. Just like my Dad shared the Westerns he watched as a boy with my brother, sister, and me; I have enjoyed screening movies I grew up on with for Ian, Emma, and Zoe. I’ve had to hold back and wait on some of my favorite movies until they were old enough to handle the content, but now my kids are hitting the age that I can start sharing more than just cartoons with them.Even before the official film rating was announced, I knew that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull would end up tagged PG-13. Considering the sorts of stories George Lucas and Steven Spielberg like to tell with Indy, and considering Temple of Doom was one of the films that helped usher in the new rating category back in the mid-1980s, the PG-13 rating was a foregone conclusion. Ian is still only 8 years-old (only about two months from hitting 9), putting him outside of the “recommended” film viewing age. However, a couple of weeks ago, while talking about Indiana Jones with Ian, I realized that I was exactly his age when I went to go see Raiders of the Lost Ark. Raiders had guys being impaled on hidden spears and dudes’ faces melting. If I could handle that when I was Ian’s age, then I figured Ian could handle anything Lucas/Spielberg threw at us in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, MPAA rating system be damned. So that’s where we were Memorial Day morning – about 10 rows up, dead center, waiting for Indy to show up and entertain us and the 60 or so other dads my age who had brought their kids as well. Ian and I both really enjoyed the movie. Ian because it was big action film up on the big screen and he was sucked into the sort of movie watching experience he can’t get at home: a monstrous wall of image and sound that transports him to another world for two hours of entertainment. I enjoyed seeing Harrison Ford in the familiar fedora again - making things up as he went along, but always managing to end up on top of some spectacular situation even when you couldn’t quite figure out how he was going to do it. We both thought it was just a flat out fun movie to watch. That’s not to say that the film was a perfect Indiana Jones movie. It never felt like the story provided a compelling reason why Jones would be hunting for the crystal skull. The motivation to get the plot rolling was flimsy and felt sloppily thrown together. At times Dr. Jones did things just because, well, the story needed him to do that particular thing. I guess I saw some artificial pushes in the plot that bothered me. Plus, it was always fairly obvious that the first three Indy movies were adventure films in the spirit of the Saturday morning serials of the 1940s. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was supposed to draw its inspiration from the sci-fi flicks of the 1950s, or at least according to interviews with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg I read. The problem was that the film makers didn’t take Indy far enough into that ‘50’s sci-fi genre in my opinion. It was like they tried to bridge between Indy the adventurer from the 1940’s with saucer men from Mars. Instead of a blend, the film came off – at least genre-wise - muddied. It didn’t seem full out adventure like the earlier Indy films, but not quite 1950’s/Red Scare sci-fi.  But those are minor complaints when I consider the experience of the film as a whole. The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a lot of fun, like any good Indiana Jones movie should be. Great action sequences packed around funny moments and character moments, and I was pleasantly surprised by Shia LaBeouf'’s performance and his character – both of which I was expecting to dislike. I don’t know if I can accept Mutt as the heir apparent to the Indy film franchise – as is hinted at towards the end of the film, but Indy and Mutt teamed up together were fun to watch.I enjoyed the return of Marion Ravenwood, though I felt the script didn’t give Karen Allen quite enough to do. Yes, her smile lit up the screen – and that was much appreciated. I just wish they had worked her into the story a little more. Hell, they should have dropped Mac from the story to make more room for Marion. I was often asking myself why Mac was even in the last thirty minutes of the movie. He did do or say anything. (Incidentally, Ian wasn’t scared by the scenes my dad warned us about. He was, however, spooked by a completely different scene. But it was just one, and he seems to have handled it just fine.) All in all it was a great time. We both enjoyed the movie, and if Ian’s behavior after the film is any indication – asking about getting the movie when it comes out on DVD, spending half an hour on the Indiana Jones website, and telling everyone he saw on Monday about the movie – I think I created another Indiana Jones fan. Labels: Family, Indiana Jones, movies, Review posted by Brendan | 11:12 PM | permanent link |
Jason Bourne and Car Chases After watching and enjoying the Bourne Identity back in January, Heather worked on borrowing the final two movies in the Bourne movie trilogy this spring from our library. Her efforts (and mad intra-Library reserve skills) were fruitful. We were able to watch the Bourne Supremacy and the Bourne Ultimatum within a few weeks of each other.  Looking back on all three films, I prefer Paul Greengrass’ work on the second two films over Doug Liman’s direction of the introductory Bourne Identity. Liman made a smart, exciting action film, but Greengrass’ engrossing hand-held camera work brought a sense of intimacy and immediacy to the story of Supremacy and Ultimatum that really make these the standout films in the series. (Not to mention Greengrass’ inventive interweaving of the stories from Supremacy and Ultimatum) Bourne Identity was a great movie to watch, but Greengrass’ Bourne films were movies that I wanted to watch over and over.(A quick tangent: even as much as I enjoyed Supremacy and Ultimatum, they still can’t convince me Bourne is better than Bond. Bourne is great, but Bond still holds the edge with his overall coolness factor) One thing sticks with me after watching the Bourne films; the car chase at the end of Supremacy. I’ve watched my fair share of chase scenes over the years. Seen plenty of fantastically shot sequences with completely mind blowing stunts and plenty of “how the hell did they do that!” moments, but I can’t imagine any chase scene topping what was achieved on the streets of Moscow in The Bourne Supremacy.  Granted, I’ve never seen Bullitt, which is suppose to have the granddaddy of all car chase scenes, so maybe my praise isn’t fully informed. What I do know is that Jason Bourne in a stolen taxi cab against the Moscow police and paid killer provided me with more suspense, intensity and action than I’ve ever encountered in a chase on screen, plus the chase actually served a purpose in the story.Bourne darting in and out of city buses and leaving a wake of twisted metal wasn’t put in the film just because they could; it provides insight into his character and a metaphor for his overall journey through the film. Sure, putting the camera inside the car and seeing Bourne bounce around as vehicles smash was an exciting new movie watching experience for me, but action without purpose can have a short shelf life and fail to keep my attention. Through-out the entire film Bourne is on the run, chased by authorities who misunderstand his motive, while at the same time pursued by a killer trying to wipe out Bourne because of his past. At the same time, Bourne is struggling to leave the life of murder that he led before, but that those pursuing him make it difficult to do. At the end of chase we see Bourne walking up the ramp out of the underground tunnel where the final scenes took place. He is walking into the light, away from the darkness and the smashed vehicle holding his final pursuer clinging to the final gasps of life. I remember that imagine impressing on me the significance of the scene; Bourne turning his back on the underground, covert activities and killing of his former life, and conscience decision to live a new life in the light.  In fact, the events at the end of the Moscow chase are even more poignant when compared to the similarly ending New York City chase scene in The Bourne Ultimatum. The Moscow chase concludes with a dead assassin, and that is directly because of Bourne’s actions. At the end of the New York City chase the CIA assassin is not dead, but in a condition where Bourne could easily finish the job but doesn’t. His evolution as a character is apparent. He is building off the experiences of his past and holding to the decisions that he makes about what sort of person he wants to be.Even after the shock value of the car crashes and stunts subside, the overall impact of that scene to define Bourne will remain as an important part of his story. That’s what makes this car chase and nearly all of the other action in the Bourne movies so fantastic. They contribute to either define the character or tell the story. No over-the-top stunt or spectacular fight sequence is done in the films just because the film makers could. That’s intelligent action movie making, and I’m glad director Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass have lent their talents to this film genre. posted by Brendan | 9:52 PM | permanent link |
Rediscovering Breyfogle One of the benefits of not buying any new monthly comics is that it frees me up to spend time re-visiting my comic collection. I started buying/reading/collecting comics regularly in 1991, in the aftermath of Tim Burton's Batman movie blockbuster, the debut of the Flash television show, and reading a copy of Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns that my brother inexplicably brought home on day. I stopped my regular visits to the comic shop this past January. That's seventeen years of continual comic book buying spanning dozens of different titles. Not an extraordinary feat by no means, but it does provide me with plenty to read through.  I've started my trip back through my collection by going to the very earliest Batman comics that I own. I have some older comics from the 60's and 70's, and few from the 80's which I've read over the last few months, but I am just now getting to the issues of Detective Comics and Batman that I was buying December/January of my senior year of high school. This means I'm re-discovering how much I enjoyed the artwork of Jim Aparo and Norm Breyfogle on the Batman titles.Yesterday I finished reading Batman #464, the final part of a three part story title "Spirit Of The Beast" by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle. Grant and Breyfogle were a hugely popular creative team on Batman in the late 1908's to mid 1990s. They started out on ‘Tec, moved to Batman, and eventually launched a new Batman title, Shadow of the Bat, before going to separate projects. "Spirit Of The Beast" showcases Grant's propensity for creating interesting characters, his use of mythology/philosophy/mysticism in his storylines, and a Batman character who is driven but still mentally balanced. What starts out as a routine investigation into a robbery/murder quickly takes Batman out of Gotham and into the desert outside of Las Vegas. On the trail of stolen American Indian shaman artifacts, he finds an ancient blind shaman named Black Wolf and the dog that helps him. Eventually Batman is wrapped up in an Indian conflict hundreds of years old and which threatens to kill dozens of innocent people in the present.  The story moves quickly and efficiently, with just the right mix of action, detective work, character moments, and comedy relief. On paper the "Spirit Of The Beast" is simply a solid, Batman tale from start to finish. That I appreciate every time. What makes the story more than just a good story is Norm Breyfogle's dynamic pencils.Breyfogle always brought buckets of energy to his work on Batman. There are no stilted staging of scenes or lackluster layouts. A Breyfogle page is a page in motion. Even when it's just a shot of Batman with arm raised commanding some ne'er-do-wells to give up, the page crackles with excitement. His Batman can be demonic looking at time, but in a stylized way that still retains his humanity. And Breyfogle's art certainly doesn't demonize the character. On the contrary, I think Breyfogle's depiction gets at the essence of why Bruce Wayne chose the Bat as inspiration for his costume – to strike fear into the cowardly lot of criminals he would fight against every night. When appropriate for the story, Breyfogle draws the Batman how the criminals probably see him – as threatening force of vengeance. A demonic deliverer of justice. I had forgotten that reading a comic drawn by Norm Breyfogle means never being bored. Now that I'm back at the beginning of my comic collection, I'm a little more excited about moving forward through time with the books. There is plenty more Breyfogle to be found and I'm anxious to read those issues again. Labels: Batman, Comics, Review posted by Brendan | 4:44 PM | permanent link |
Howl's Moving Castle - The Book, Not the Movie Heather and I are both fans of Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki. We have watched a number of his films and enjoyed them immensely. There is a level design, sophistication, and refined storytelling skills in Miyazaki’s work that you just don’t find in most animation today; though Brad Bird would probably come close in comparison. During one of Heather’s recent weekly trips to the library, she stumbled upon Howl’s Moving Castle. The book, by British author Diana Wynne Jones, was adapted by Miyazaki into an Academy Award-nominated animated movie of the same name. Because of the connection to Miyazaki, Heather decided to borrow the book from the library. However, before she could read it (she had started on another book she had checked out), I saw the novel and decided to take it for a spin.  Technically the book is intended for younger readers, so it was a fast read for me. But fortunately Howl’s Moving Castle rises to the level of young adult fiction like the Harry Potter books or the Chronicles of Prydain.The story stars Sophie Hatter, the eldest of the three girls living in the town of Market Chipping in the magical kingdom of Ingary. Sophie is convinced that as the eldest she is resigned to a dull life working in the family hat shop. However, an encounter with the evil Witch of the Waste ends with Sophie magically aged fifty years. Afraid to face her family in such a state, she searches for the mysterious Wizard Howl. He is notorious for eating the souls of beautiful young girls, but Sophia believes that Howl may be able to break the Witch of the Waste’s spell. Finagling her way into Howl’s magical moving castle under the pretense of being a new cleaning lady, Sophia becomes a permanent fixture within Howl’s life and embarks on a number of adventures on her way to breaking the Witch’s spell and discovering who she is. The novel’s intricate plot does not pander to the reader or lead them by the nose. In fact, at times the action in the story is so frenzied that you will have to re-read certain passages to make sure you understand everything that is going on. Ms. Jones expects the reader to pay attention and participate in her story. There is no time for idle readers in Howls’ Moving Castle. While the plot is winding and the characters colorful, Ms. Jones’ prose is conventional. She does not elaborate on the scenes or the nature of her characters. There is no flowing prose to stir up an emotional response or sweep the reader away into the magical land that Ms. Jones places her story in. Rather, she lets the straightforward writing and her ample imagination lead the reader into her fictional world. But that proves to be more than enough. Throughout the entire novel I continually marveled at the strange and mystical twists she put into her story and her characters. Ms. Jones not only understands that magic can have no bounds, but she’s able to translate to her writing that by filling her story with remarkable ideas and magical concepts. After finishing Howl’s Moving Castle I could understand how an animator like Miyazaki would find inspiration from Ms. Jones’ text. I’m anxious to revisit Miyazaki’s animated film now to compare and contrast the differences. Both pieces of art start off the same, and I recognized particular story beats in the novel that showed up in the film. But I Miyazaki’s second act was simpler than Ms. Jones (and I guess that’s what leads to a hectic third act in Ms. Jones’ book). I don’t recall the third act of Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle film, but I don’t think it was nearly as whirl-wind of an affair as Ms. Jones’ novel. In the final forty pages she packs in more action, more trippy ideas, and more sub-plot resolutions than I have ever encountered in a book. Despite the frantic pace of the final chapters, Ms. Jones does provide a fulfilling finish to her story. Straightforward without pandering, she provides the resolutions fitting for her characters and her story. After reading Diana Wynne Jones' Howl’s Moving Castle and calling on my memory Miyazaki's animated film, I can strongly recommend both the novel and the film interpretation of the novel. In either case you will be thoroughly entertained. posted by Brendan | 4:45 PM | permanent link |
Review: Bane of the Demon Batman: Bane of the Demon is a four-issue mini-series originally published in 1998. The series was written with usual bombast style by Chuck Dixon and illustrated by one of my favorite Batman pencilers, Graham Nolan.  Now the only time Batman shows up is on the cover to the fourth issue, but because the story stars two of Batman’s biggest foes: Ra’s al Ghul and Bane, Bat’s get’s his name in the title. No problem. Ra’s is my favorite Batman villain to read about, and in the hands of the men who created the character, Bane can be interesting as well.Quick Batman comic book history lesson: back in the mid-to-late 1990’s, the Batman books jumped from one big event story to another. It started with "Knighfall", where the villain, Bane, broke Batman's back, and led up to "No Man's Land", which chronicled Gotham City being sealed off by the Federal government only to have the city re-opened on January 1, 2000. Two of the event stories that occured during that time were called "Contagion", which had Gotham City being over-run by a horrific plague, and "Legacy", which featured Ra’s al Ghul’s attempt to wipe out the majority of the world’s population. Bane of the Demon served to tie together some minor storylines between events in Contagion and Legacy. Problem was that the "Contagion" and "Legacy" storylines played out in 1996. Bane of the Demon wasn’t published until 1998. (Don’t know what happened in the editor’s office to create that publishing gaff.)  The plot is straight forward. While trying to determine who his father was; Bane crosses paths with Talia, daughter of Ra’s al Ghul. Talia captures Bane and brings him before her father, who recognizes the advantages of having someone with the skill and power of Bane within his organization. There are some attempts at double-crosses, plenty of action, a little hint at sex, and in the end Bane emerges as Ra’s right-hand man and personal bodyguard.I still remember enough about "Contagion" and "Legacy" to pick up on the plot points this mini-series was intended to tie together, and frankly I really don’t see the necessity in publishing a story to explain these minor points. I’d rather just take the four issues as their own story and not as some continuity tool. The story is still fun to read if you’ve never heard of "Contagion" and "Legacy." The book is classic Dixon. Each issue opens with an action sequence already in progress. That is followed by some character building scenes, another big action sequence, and it all leads up to a cliffhanger. While it may see formulaic, Dixon works the formula with great skill. He had been employing this formula before Bane of the Demon, and he still uses it today. The formula flat out works as a way to structure an adventure comic. And as long as he is accompanied by an equally skilled artist, the reader is treated to a solid and fulfilling 22 pages of entertainment.  Luckily for us, the artist paired up with Dixon on Bane of the Demon is Graham Nolan. I can’t recall right now, but Nolan may have been on his way out of the Bat books around 1998. (He’s currently the artist for The Phantom and Rex Morgan comic strips) Nolan’s art is clean and classic in presentation. His work is very much in the same style as artists like Eduardo Barreto and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. What I particularly enjoyed about Nolan’s run on Detective Comics back in the 90’s was his depiction of Batman. Nolan’s Batman had a physical presence that was powerful without being bulky. When Nolan draws Batman, he puts the "knight" in the Dark Knight. His Batman is power and confident.As I mentioned early, there is no Batman in the pages of Bane of the Demon, but that really doesn’t matter. Nolan does a wonderful job with all of the other characters to provide a fitting visual compliment to Dixon’s story. The action sequences are skillfully choreographed, the panel constructions are done for the best dramatic effect, and his Talia looks like a woman men would gladly die for. Bane of the Demon is not great art, but it is great pop art. A fun, fast-past adventure story told and illustrated with skill and flair. Can’t wait to see what other comics are waiting for me in the basement. Labels: Batman, Comics, Review posted by Brendan | 4:30 PM | permanent link |
Review: The Bourne Identity For the last few years I heard all about how great the Bourne movies are supposed to be - intelligent action movies that balance character and plot while delivering an entertaining spy thriller that a James Bond movie used to aspire to. This weekend I finally had the opportunity to see if all this praise was true. On Sunday night Heather and I sat down and watched The Bourne Identity, the first of the three Bourne movies that have been released to date.  (A quick tangent: Heather borrowed the movie from our library. In the last three years our public library has dramatically increased the number of DVD titles that they have available. So much that they even purchase multiple copies of some new releases. What’s even better is that our library has an online reservation system which can be used for books, movies, pretty much anything that you can borrow for the library. Slap you name on a book or movie that you want to borrow, and when your turn comes up the library staff sets it aside and you receive an automated phone call letting you know you that your item is there to be picked up. For movies it’s sorta like a low-rent Netflix, except the movies are absolutely free. Heather works the lists like a pro and we’ve been getting some great movies to watch - Thank You For Smoking, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, 300.)Being a long time James Bond fan and considering the amount of comparisons others have made between the Bond and Bourne franchises, I watched with The Bourne Identity with a critical eye. I knew that one of the reasons that the producers behind the Bond movies re-launched and re-imagined the 007 with Daniel Craig in Casino Royale was because of the success and positive response to The Bourne Identity/ Supremacy. I absolutely loved Casino Royale, so I was anxious to see how Bourne matched up. True to the hype, The Bourne Identity delivered with a solid character driven story that mixed in action at all the right times to keep things moving and exciting. I thought Matt Damon did an excellent job bring to life a man who can remember nothing of his life before waking up on a fishing boat but inhabiting a body that remembers everything about being the U.S. Governments ultimate Black Ops agent. The choreography for the fight scenes was top notch. Fast, furious, and just stylized enough that the fights still seem real (no wire-fu in this movie). Bourne gets cut. Bourne gets bloody. Bourne walks with a limp after taking a nasty fall down a flight of stairs. Great stuff. Overall I really enjoyed the film and look forward to the kinetic / frantic filming director Paul Greengrass brought to the second and third installments to the trilogy (Doug Liman directed The Bourne Identity). Heather already has our name on The Bourne Supremacy. We will probably get to watch it in the next few weeks. But how does Jason Bourne match up with James Bond?  I will still take Bond over Bourne. I didn’t think it’s fair to compare any of the 20 Bond films that came before Casino Royale and Daniel Craig to the Bourne movies. Those 007 films are such different types of movies. They are over-the-top escapism full of puffed up villains, magnificent gadgets, and beautiful women. Casino Royale brought the Bond franchise out of the clouds and down to earth, giving movie goers a version of 007 that could conceivably exist in the real world (much like Jason Bourne).When I hold Casino Royale up against The Bourne Identity, 007 wins out because despite the grounding and scaling back, Bond still provides a sense of coolness that Bourne fails to achieve. Bourne has two more movies to prove me wrong, but that coolness factor is an intangible that will be difficult to capture with a character that is brooding over his lost memory. I appreciate the depth and complexity of character and story that the Bourne movies will offer, but when it comes to super-agent action movies, I want a healthy dose of coolness layered throughout. That’s were Bond delivers and that’s why I’m excited to see how Bond 22 turns out this November. posted by Brendan | 12:32 PM | permanent link |
Review: Gentlemen of the Road Gentlemen of the Road is why I am so enamored with writer Michael Chabon. He understands that genre fiction does not have to be bad fiction or throw-away fiction. That you can take the trappings of a story genre – detective, horror, crime – and use it to build artfully constructed literature that is also fun to read. Chabon’s romp through genre fiction seems like a mission of his since finishing The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. It’s all he seems to, but I’m glad that he is. Whether it’s been editing anthologies of genre stories published by McSweeney’s or producing works of his own that rely on a particular genre for their framework (Summerland – children’s fantasy, The Final Solution: A Story of Detection - Sherlock Holmes/detective, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union: A Novel – crime), Chabon has spent the last five years starting low in a genre and building it up into something bigger.  Which brings me to Gentlemen of the Road. Published just this past fall, this short novel is an adventure set in Kingdom of Arran around AD 950. It stars two horse thieves/con-men. An African Jew named Amram, who is a giant of a man who brandishes a Norse battle axe named “Mother Defiler” and a Frankish Jew named Zelikman, who appears more like a 1st Century goth-doctor. Dressed entirely in black, with ghost-white skin, Zelikman is the moody physician to Amram’s thoughtful strongman.The plot is simple. Through some interesting turn of events, Amram and Zelikman become part of a rebellion to return a displaced prince to throne of his kingdom. Along the way they meet a cast of strange characters and even run into to a few Vikings. I found the initial reading of the novel slightly difficult. Not because of the story or the writing – Chabon is at his usual artful self. Rather, it felt like there were odd jumps between chapters. Like there was something missing with the continuity from chapter to chapter. It was only after finishing the book that I learned that Gentlemen of the Road was originally serialized in the New York Times in the spring of 2007. Each chapter was written to stand on its own. Obviously the full fifteen parts add up to a larger story, but when you write a piece to be serialized over a number of weeks you have to consider the fact that readers may miss an installment. Therefore the individual chapters have to function as a complete entity of their own. Despite this awkwardness between chapters, Chabon’s novel shines at reveling in the genre – historical adventure – like the works of Alexandre Dumas or Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories; but still demonstrates Chabon talent for crafting engaging prose and extending beyond the trappings of the genre. Among the sword fights, horse stealing, painted elephants, and copious amounts of blood-letting, Chabon deftly weaves in exploration of his characters and their motivations. In typical Chabon fashion, the characters of focus are on a search to understand or come to terms with their identity. Amram, Zelikman, even the prince they are assisting, all question or struggle to understand how they fit in the world that they find themselves. At the end of the novel the characters have arrived at some answers, some new questions have been uncovered, and life moves on. Keeping true to the genre and time period of the story, Chabon works in some of the most archaic terminology; which does make the book a challenging read at times. So I wouldn’t recommend this book for the first time Michael Chabon reader. For that I would point to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay or Summerland. Then, if you are the adventurous type, Gentlemen of the Road would be a great place to go. posted by Brendan | 1:28 PM | permanent link |
Review: Doctor 13: Architecture & Mortality  Doctor 13: Architecture & Mortality, by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Cliff Chiang, was originally published in serial format as a back-up story part in DC Comics’ eight-issue Tales of the Unexpected miniseries. It stars Doctor 13, a character who hasn’t been seen much since the old Phantom Stranger comics of the 1970’s, who is devote skeptic and paranormal investigator. By way of some extraordinary means (i.e. plot devices), Doctor 13 is thrown together with a collection of the DC Comics’ most obscure characters in order to thwart the destruction of their universe.Doctor 13 is joined by his daughter, Traci, Captain Fear, leader of a ghost flying pirate ship, Genius Jones, a kid who has read every book in existence, Anthro, a cave-boy who speaks modern French, I…Vampire, a very ‘80s vampire, Infectious Lass, a minor member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the ghost of General J.E.B. Stuart from the “Haunted Tank” stories of the ‘60s, and the leader of the Primate Patrol, a talking Nazi gorilla. As motley a crew as I’ve ever encountered in comics. One its surface, Doctor 13: Architecture & Mortality, is a fun adventure comic making the most of its eccentric cast of characters. The story moves as quickly as the one-liners and goofy situations. There is no drippy melodrama and hang-wringing angst. Azzarello and Chiang are having too much fun reveling in the fun you can have with a character who’s only superpower is to make other people sick (Infectious Lass) or an over-sexed pirate ghost. For these creators, the story is at first a celebration of the bizarre and goofy in comic books. However, as the involvement of the mysterious antagonists to the tale, the Architects, is revealed, the story develops a second – and decidedly more meta-fictional – level. The Architects appear and state that they need to re-build the fictional universe Doctor 13 and his crew inhabit so that their universe can remain relevant and interesting, and only contain those characters deemed worthy or necessary for achieving this newly architected relevancy. This motive is a clear analogy for the superhero comic book publishers’ practice of re-inventing their comic book universe every decade or so. They eliminate characters that the editorial team believes are no longer needed and re-start keystone characters (i.e. Superman, Batman, etc) to keep them “fresh” and in line with the newly imagined Universe.  With the arrival of the Architects (reported to represent comic writers Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Mark Waid), Doctor 13 and his bunch become the conduit for Azzarello and Chiang to provide their editorial on these universe re-writing events and editorial-driven character deaths. Team Doctor 13’s (if you will) fight against the Architects is a plea to leave these oddball characters alone. Just because a character might not fit in the newly constructed universe (and how a character like Infectious Lass is beyond me) doesn’t mean they have to be killed off. Just leave them alone, and when their time for a story comes along they will be ready.Doctor 13: Architecture & Mortality was one of my favorite comic book reads of 2007, mostly because I could appreciate and enjoy the story on both levels. Azzarello handles the team cleverly and writes some laugh-out-loud scenes. Chiang’s artwork is clean and expressive. It was fun from start to finish. However, I have to wonder if a non-comic book aficionado would enjoy the book as much as I. The third act is fairly over-whelmed with the struggle against the Architects, their re-working of reality, and the analogies to how the comic book industry is run. But I could be wrong. Someone not familiar with DC’s and Marvel’s love of the reality re-writing event stories just might not take the metaphor of the Architects as deep as DC/Marvel reader would. They would understand the struggle for existence against the threat of non-existence, even in a fictional aspect. In the end, highly recommended. posted by Brendan | 4:45 PM | permanent link |
300 - A Review I finally got to watch 300 two weekends ago. Heather and I never got out to the theaters to catch it on the big screen this past spring, so Heather put our name on the waiting list when our local library received a copy for lending out. It was a popular movie at the library, so the wait was long; but our name came up about two weeks ago. Heather usually goes to the library every Monday to get new books, so that’s when she picked it up.  That following weekend I watched the film twice. Once on Friday after Heather had fallen asleep and a second time on Saturday night when Heather watched it with me. Both times I was left with underwhelming since of “Ehhh.”For all the press and excited write-ups I had read back in the spring, and being familiar with the Frank Miller’s graphic novel source material, I was expecting a lot more. Usually I do a good job of tempering my expectations for popular shows, movies, books, etc. I walk in with expecting one thing and the material either meets or in more pleasant situations exceeds them. But in this case I managed to fail myself. I was expecting big, bold, and bombastic but ended up with a fairly-entertaining film lacking an emotional punch. To be certain, 300 is a visual feast. The film looks fantastic, especially when the influences from Miller’s book are obvious. The scenes of the young king battling the wolf, the Persian soldiers being pushed off the cliff, or of the remaining Spartan men hunkered down, forming a dome of shields as Xerxes comes for Leonidas’ surrender are spectacularly realized on the screen. But that’s all I was left with at the end of viewing the film both times – how great it looked. Not how great the actors were, or the dynamic storytelling, or the staging of the action sequences. I was impressed with how Director Jack Snyder had captured the look of Frank Miller’s book. However I can’t help but wonder what my impression would have been if I hadn’t already read Miller’s original 300 three or four times. Would I have been more impressed with the movie? Would I have found the characters and story more compelling? Would I have noticed (as I did in Miller’s comic) that Leonidas and Xerxes have a tendency to talk to one another like New Jersey mobsters? These are questions I can never answer because I am familiar with the source material. So comparisons are inevitable. Try as I might to judge the film on its own merits, I can’t help but think back to Miller’s book and automatically set up a mental checklist to figure out where the film and the book match or diverge.  Ultimately to understand where I stand on this movie, I have to compare my viewing experience of 300 with another recent adaptation of a Frank Miller comic, Sin City. Like Snyder, Director Robert Rodriguez did a beautiful job of capturing the look of Miller’s Sin City books. However, Rodriguez went further than just recreating a comic book; he brings cinematic life to Miller’s characters and stories. Even though I already knew the stories of Sin City, like I did with 300, I felt like I was seeing something new in the film version of Sin City. Rodriguez didn’t just re-create the comic for the silver screen; he adapted the comic for film.This is where I think Snyder fails with 300. Ironically, for the movie version of 300 Snyder and his writers created a new subplot involving King Leonidas’ wife, Queen Gorgo, and her struggle with the Spartan Senate that did not exist in Miller’s book. And yet, the movie felt like a rehash of Miller’s comic book lacking an original voice. I didn’t see a fresh viewing point for approaching the source material. It was as if Snyder used Miller’s 300 comic as a storyboard for his film. I expected more. Any successful artistic endeavor is created with the medium of delivery in mind. TV shows are developed and executed with the constraints of the medium in mind, the same for novels, movies, or comics. The creator works to express themselves through the medium and the success of that piece of art can be a result of the chosen medium as much as it is the artist’s vision and talent. 300 was originally developed as a comic. If you want to take that comic book and translate it to another medium, then you need to study the intent of the artist, find their motivation, and adapt it to the new medium you are recreating within. Robert Rodriguez was successful with the re-interpretation with Sin City, Zack Snyder falls short with 300. posted by Brendan | 12:23 PM | permanent link |
Best American Comics 2006 - A Review While my personal collection of comics contains stories of all sorts – crime, slice of life, action, romance, auto-biographical, historical fiction, the majority of the comic books I read star super heroes. It’s not a conscious decision, more the circumstance of familiarity and availability. I know more about super hero books and books featuring super heroes are easier to find/buy, so that’s where I gravitate. I’m always up for the lesser-known independent or small press comics; but it is difficult to learn about their existence. Despite these barriers, I always try to make an effort to search out some indie or alternative comics each year to read and I almost always find them enjoyable. In the end I’m looking for quality. If that’s with super heroes or small press, it doesn’t matter to me.  However, thanks to Houghton Mifflin, my search is now a little easier. In 2006 Houghton Mifflin added The Best American Comics to their The Best American annual series of books. The Best American series gathers together the best, or at least a representative best, of a kind of literature for the previous year into one collection. Houghton Mifflin publishes the collections of the best American poetry, best nonrequired reading, best short story fiction, and now, the best American comics. The inaugural edition of the comic entry into The Best American series is guest edited by Harvey Pekar, one of the most influential voices in the alt-comic scene, and includes comics from 30 different creators. Heather bought the book for me as a Christmas present last year and I just got around to reading it this fall.The stories in this collection provided a refreshing change from the super hero fare I had been ingesting most of the summer. There were names I recognized, like Robert Crumb, Chris Ware, Alison Bechel, Jamie Hernandez, and Joe Sacco, but most of the creators were new to me. All of the comics were new to me. The comics run in topic from light-hearted super hero parody in “The Amazing Life of Onion Jack” to deadly seriousness in “Nakedness and Power”, which addresses the evils of an economy – and by extension a society – with its root in oil. In between all of this there are simple, slice of life fun comics, thought-provoking artistic works, and flat out funny gags. Of course, there is a fair share of navel gazing. Sometimes it’s handled well, like in Jonathan Bennett’s so-sad it’s funny “Dance With The Ventures” – which even with its navel gazing still delivers a real story - and other times it’s painfully dull, like in the sleep-inducing “Missing” by Jessica Abel. But that is something I expect when I’m picking up a book or collection that features comics not cut from the major publishers. A little navel gazing can be enjoyable to read. “Thirteen Cats of My Childhood”, by Jesse Reklaw, I found surprisingly enjoyable. Going in I expected plenty of childhood angst played out over some contrived structure of cat ownership. Instead Reklaw delivers a touching story about growing up – structured around the different cats he owned – but not nearly in the too artsy-for-it’s-own-good execution that I was expecting. His art work is light and fun, which infuses his story and characters with real life but retaining a layer of artifice that allows the reader to enjoy the story. I also loved Joe Sacco’s “Complacency Kills”, which he created while being the first cartoonist embedded within a U.S. military unit in Iraq. Sacco’s work is very powerful. There are no super hero comics provided here. I don’t know if that’s because editor Pekar didn’t feel any super hero stories were worthy, didn’t think the publisher could spare the space to include a twenty two-page comic, or simply didn’t think a comic starring people in tights with super powers could rise up to be declared one of the “Best American Comics of 2006.” Hopefully it wasn’t that last reason. I’d like to think that Pekar evaluated the works that were submitted fairly and chose what he believed to be a fair representation of the best that comics have to offer. Though, after reading Heidi Macdonald’s review of The Best American Comics 2007, edited by Chris Ware – not Harvey Pekar, I fear that might not be the case. If Heidi’s review is to be believed, the 2007 edition is nearly all navel gazing with nary any storytelling to be found. At least Pekar provided some good fiction in his class of 2006 comics. If that is the case, and the make-up of the Best American Comics anthology will vary greatly each year based on the guest editor’s whims, then I might not be able to rely on the Best American Comics annual publication to give me a small-press/ independent comic fix. I enjoyed the mix that Harvey Pekar brought to the collection. It felt like the comics Pekar included under his editing provided a balanced and entertaining look at the best of what comics have to offer an educated reader. I would gladly purchase the book regularly if I was confident that cross section each year would be as representative as the 2006 edition. But that’s okay. I’ve made it this long without the benefit of this book; I can certainly live without it in the future. While I can’t say what the future holds for the series, I still highly recommend the 2006 edition of The Best American Comics to anyone interested in getting a taste of what makes comics such an exciting form of literature. posted by Brendan | 12:12 PM | permanent link |
Some Friday Afternoon Reviews I used to review on this blog practically everything I read, but I’ve sort of fallen out of practice of doing so. This is my attempt to return to that practice. Crossing California by Adam Langer – I stumbled upon a review of this novelist’s first book in the Chicago Tribune Book section almost a year ago and thought the it sounded like an interesting read. Then I found the book on sale for $5 at a book store that was going out of business. It was a well spent $5.  Langer’s novel is set between November 1979 and January 1981 in the West Rogers Park area of Chicago. There he follows the lives of a few characters who are struggling to figure out who they are and what their place is in the world. The title of the book comes from California Avenue, which splits West Rogers Park in half and also provides the dividing line between the “haves” and the “have nots” of the mostly-Jewish neighborhood. West of California is for the upper-middle class, well-to-do families and serves as the desired destination for those living East of California.Langer structures his novel as a series of vignettes, rotating around to feature different characters, or collection of characters, each time. This way we not only see one specific character’s view of how events unfolded, but later we gain insight into how others saw those same events. It makes for a fun and interesting read. While we are given a less traditional narrative, there is enough continuity built between the vignettes that the larger story becomes apparent. The stories are full of cultural references, and at times rely on them to make the point of the vignette. Given the timeframe the story takes place in and my own age, I had a passing familiarity to most of what Langer’s characters were referring to. Even though some references escaped my knowledge, it didn’t prevent my enjoyment of the novel. Langer doesn’t rely on the setting to find the voice of the novel. Rather it is the characters’ lives, and the honest handling of them in this book that makes it so enjoyable. Langer deftly handles switches between light-hearted moments and scenes of more gravity with grace and wit, which fully sells the reality of the fiction. As in real life, a journey of discovery never really ends, so we aren’t provided a clean wrap up at the end of Crossing California. However, we do see how these characters have changed, what they have learned about themselves, and can imagine where they might go next. Langer’s characters are engaging and his writing is smooth, although slightly over-wrought at times. A recommend read. Animal Man (book 1) by writer Grant Morrison and pencilers Chas Truog and Doug Hazelwood – There are certain comic books or series that are held with higher regard within comic book reading circles. Grant Morrison’s run on Animal Man is one of those series. Not only did his work on the book make a name for newcomer Morrison, his work challenged and pushed comic book writing into a whole new area.  Morrison was a virtual unknown – at least to American comic book readers – when the Scottish writer was given the opportunity by DC Comics to launch a new title here in the States. The main character of the series was Buddy Baker, Animal Man, whose super power was the ability to absorb the abilities and skills from nearby animals. The character wasn’t currently being used and DC wanted to see what this young writer from the UK could do with him.Morrison transformed Buddy into a super hero concerned as much with animal rights as he is with saving the world. Originally conceived as a four-issue mini-series, DC convinced Morrison to stay on and develop the book into an ongoing series – which he did. This first Animal Man trade paperback collects the first nine issues of what became a historic comic book run. The first four issues in the trade read like a four-issue mini-series that was planned to have a definite end. The story is simple and straight forward. We get introduced to Buddy, his powers, and his family. The plot of the story involved Animal Man uncovering immoral testing on animals being conducted by scientists struggling to find a cure for the HIV virus (these comics were written back in 1988). Everything is nicely wrapped up at the end of issue four. However, in issue number five, “The Coyote Bible”, Morrison tells a story that lays down some of the basic themes and concepts the series eventually explores. What might seem like a story about a man going out into the desert to kill some wolf-demon who he believes is the source of all suffering in the world, really is the beginnings of a post-modern exploration of the relationship between artistic creator and their creation. Morrison has to detour a bit to incorporate aspects of the “Invasion” mega-cross over DC was had running through all of their titles, but by the end of this first book he is working in more hints as to where he plans on taking the series. I was already a fan of Morrison’s before reading Animal Man, but it was fascinating to go back and see where he had come from. Already Morrison was displaying a great knack for dialogue and trippy storylines. But he keeps the metaphysical nicely in check against the narrative, and still spins entertaining comic book yarns. I’ve read enough essays and reports on the significance of Morrison’s run on Animal Man to know that I wanted to experience it for myself, but I didn’t expect to enjoy it quite as much as I am so far. I expected to be impressed with the post-modernism of the writing, not wowed with the straightforward entertainment of the book. Now I am anxiously looking forward to picking up books two and three so that I can continue exploring Morrison’s vision. posted by Brendan | 12:08 PM | permanent link | |
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