owlmoose | Entries tagged with comics

Better Call Saul, Season 6.5: Possibly the best prequel ever made. It can be a tall order to tell a story whose ending is known from the very beginning, where the ultimate fate of most of the characters is known, and everyone is set on a downward trajectory. But this show confounded my expectations at every turn: in many ways it was the story I expected, but I could never have imagined how it got there. ( Spoilers for the last few episodes )

I thought Breaking Bad was brilliant, but Better Call Saul was so much better. Jimmy/Saul/Gene is a more compelling lead than Walt by far, Rhea Seehorn is brilliant as Kim, and I found the details we learned about the characters and the world fascinating.

Oklahoma!: I've never seen any performance of this classic musical, and since I've found that many such shows haven't aged particularly well (as I've discussed before in my comments about My Fair Lady; other revivals that left me cold included Hello Dolly!, Miss Saigon, and An American in Paris), I wasn't particularly excited by the prospect, until I talked to a couple of coworkers who saw different instances of this same touring production -- one in Washington DC, the other in Nashville -- and they told me how interested it was, how the staging completely changed the meaning of the show without altering a word of the text or a single song lyric. So I approached it with curiosity instead, and while I'm not sure I could say I "enjoyed" it -- it's dark and disturbing in many ways, and some of its more experimental aspects were a bit lost on me -- it was a worthwhile and thought-provoking experience. Instead of a frothy costume period piece, this performance is done in a bare-bones style, set entirely on a stage that looks like a high school gym or the rec room of a community center, but for the shotguns that line the walls. There's no chorus, all the actors and the band are on stage most of the time, and every choice helps highlights the darker aspects of the original story. Dark as it was, I think I would find the traditional light and fluffy version much harder to watch -- presenting some of the things that happen in this story (e.g. bullying, murder, treating women as prizes to be won, show trials) as perfectly find and normal is far more disturbing to me.

Supergirl: Since we resubscribed to Netflix specifically for The Sandman, then canceled it again, and I had never gotten around to finishing this series, I decided I had better wrap it up while I still had access. I had four more episodes to go, and I watched them all today. The pacing of this season was really weird, to the point that I wonder when the cast and crew were told that this would be the final one. Lena's plotline, in particular, felt rushed and out of place, and I wasn't really a fan of it. ( Spoilers for Lena's final arc, and also mentions of Brainy's. )

I did enjoy the final episode overall -- quickly dispensing with the big bads to focus on what Kara and her found family will be up to was the best choice this show could have made. ( Spoiler for the finale. ) But I really think they either could have used one more season if these were really the stories they wanted to tell.

The Sandman, Episode 11: Surprise extra episode! This was kind of a genius move on the part of Netflix and Gaiman's team, to drop a special episode just as the initial buzz for the show was starting to wear off. I had been wondering whether they would adapt any of the anthology stories; it seems the answer is yes, and I think this is a good way of going about it. "Dream of a Thousand Cats" is a fun little self-contained story; "Calliope" is disturbing and difficult, and I'm not sure it's the one I would have chosen to end on, although I suppose it makes sense to set up Orpheus for the next arc. Anyway, given that this is the story they decided to tell, I think they did a good job with it.

Like many fannish folk of my approximate age, I've been waiting 30 years for this adaptation, with a mix of gleeful excitement and terror that Netflix would somehow mess it up. I am pleased to report that they did not, in my opinion, mess it up; certainly I have my quibbles with it, but in the main I enjoyed it a lot, had many moments of fangirl glee, and even really liked some of the changes.

Probably my most serious -- not complaint, really, but comment -- that's specific to the adaptation rather than being grounded in the original text (for an example of the latter, see the depiction of Despair) is the pacing. ( Spoilers for both comics and show. )

It's not a major issue, though, and there are so many more things I was happy with.

The casting was A++ throughout -- not a single person felt off to me, and most of them are brilliant. Much of the imagery was spot-on, with several shots that leapt directly from the page, and even when they made changes it always felt right, like they were evoking the right mood. And there were a number of more substantial changes I liked a lot: ( More spoilers )

I re-read the first two volumes for the first time in ages after finishing the season, just to remind myself of how everything happened in the comics, and I found almost nothing that gave me a twinge of nostalgia, of "oh I missed that, I wish they'd done that instead." I guess the other thing I'm not entirely on board with is the change to The Corinthian: ( spoilers of course )

If you haven't read the comic and are thinking of watching the show, or have started watching it and are unsure about it, because the main character has such a flat affect and/or if you think he comes off as a bit of a dick -- you're not wrong. That's the character; that's who he is. Even in the comics, you weren't always supposed to sympathize with him, and I think that aspect comes through even more clearly here. (If Tom Sturridge were playing Dream as exuberant, emotive, kindly, or warm, he would be doing it wrong.) But he does grow and become a bit more likable, sometimes, and when he's not likable, that's the point. So I encourage you to give it a chance. And if you're a worried fan, like I was, I hope my thoughts here can help assuage your fears. I don't guarantee that you're going to like it -- maybe your tastes or your reasons for loving it are different than mine. But it's worth at least a try.

Current Mood: happy

Watchmen (2009 movie): I saw this back when it first came out, but T had never seen it nor read the comic, and I thought it would be helpful for him to have the backstory in mind before we start finally watching the TV series (we've now seen the first two episodes, which I'll write about later). I had forgotten how faithful this adaptation was to the original, except for a significant difference in the final plot twist. I think it's easy to underestimate just how big a deal the comic was when it first came out, just how influential it was; now, of course, and even in 2009, this sort of superhero deconstruction is very familiar to us. I will say this: when I first read the comic (in the early '00s, I think), I didn't really buy Adrian's theory ( Do we really care about 35-year-old spoilers? I guess we do. )

To All The Boys I've Loved Before: Another rewatch, this one to discuss at our weekly TV night with friends. T and I had both seen this one before, but it had been awhile and we decided to refresh our memory. Sex and dating and drama in high school was fraught enough before the mobile internet, so I can't even imagine how much having a video camera with you everywhere you go, and the existence of social media, complicates things. Anyway, the movie was still cute and heartwarming on a rewatch, although the final confrontation between Lara Jean and Jen felt less satisfying than I remembered. Also, why didn't Lara Jean ask Peter about the scrunchie earlier? One of those weird plot holes that you don't notice the first time around. I'd forgotten how long it takes for the truth about how the letters got out to be revealed. I also found myself wondering: is there ever a fake dating story where they don't end up real dating by the end? Nothing against fake dating, it's a trope I enjoy (and have written!), but I'd be curious to get recs for stories where the reversal is pulled off well.

Batwoman, S2 premiere: I totally missed that Batwoman was back until I got an alert about the new episode from the CW app on my iPad this morning. (Of the other new and returning CW DCU shows, The Flash and Superman & Lois have their premieres in late February; the rest are being held until later in the spring or summer.) Ryan Wilder is promising as the new Batwoman, and I enjoy Mary and Luke as a team. But I'm still tired of Alice as the antagonist ( cutting for episode spoilers. )

Current Mood: calm

Alita: Battle Angel: The previews for this movie put me off seeing it, because the protagonist fell into the uncanny valley for me, with her over-sized eyes and slightly off way of moving. But T watched it on a plane a few months ago and wanted to check it out on a larger screen, so we got it from Netflix. It was better than I expected, and I got used to Alita's cyborgian nature fairly quickly, but my overall reaction is still mixed. My main issue is too much plot -- it feels like half a dozen movies stuffed into one, and they could have trimmed it down, easy. Also we have the perennial issue of casting a film based on a manga with almost no Asian actors, and no main characters at all. Finally, the movie didn't have a proper ending, just a plot hook for a sequel; I suppose that's okay, but it's not my favorite thing. All that said, the visual effects were stunning and there were some great fight scenes, and Alita herself is a great character. So if there's a sequel I'll probably watch it.

Star Wars prequel trilogy: We finally got around to starting our long-planned YouTube TV trial this week. Since most of the shows we watch regularly are on hiatus right now, the jury is out on how well it will work as a total cable replacement (although I did go ahead and cancel cable, with minimum fuss -- I'd heard horror stories about how you have to lie about moving overseas or something in order to keep them from haranguing you to stay, but I didn't have to do anything so drastic, I just told them it wasn't about the cost and the agent let it go at that) but one interesting thing we discovered is that some networks (not all) keep a backlog of content on demand. One of those networks is TNT, so there's a pretty extensive catalog of movies in there, including all the Star Wars movies except Solo. I've meant to do a complete rewatch for awhile, so I took the opportunity of my holiday break to watch all three prequel films, roughly in the space of two days. I had hoped that a watch with fresher eyes, and with the full sequel trilogy behind me, would help me to see the same things that so many of my friends love in these movies, but I'm afraid it didn't really happen. The racisn of The Phantom Menace, the awful and awkward romance in Attack of the Clones, and Anakin's rushed character development in Revenge of the Sith were all just as bad or even worse than I remembered. That said, I'm glad I did it, and I'd do it again -- for Obi-Wan, for the reveal on the true history of the clones, and for two movies of Padme Amidala being a badass political leader (forever bitter that Lucas cut her political subplot from RotS). Next up, Rogue One.

Darths & Droids: I discovered this Star Wars screencap comic many years ago, but got out of the habit of reading it. The premise is that a group of roleplayers, in a world where Star Wars doesn't exist, are in a long-running table top campaign based on the events of Star Wars... sort of. The images are all screencaps from the movies, more or less in order, but the writers have felt very free to reinterpret characters and events to tell a whole new story, and the whole thing is quite brilliant. The comic started with The Phantom Menace back in 2007; I first discovered it about halfway through the original trilogy and read it regularly for awhile, then stopped sometime early in The Return of the Jedi. My rewatch of the prequel movies inspired me to go back -- I was really curious about their take on the new trilogy -- but I discovered that, after finishing the original trilogy and writing up Rogue One as a flashback, they had planned to wait until Episode IX was released before screencapping any of the sequels. Right now they're publishing an interlude based on Mark Hamill's episode of The Muppet Show, which is pretty freaking hilarious. But it's getting toward the end, so I have to think that they'll be starting with The Force Awakens sometime in the next few months. It's a fun and original mode of storytelling, filled with tropes familiar to anyone who's ever done tabletop roleplaying, and I definitely recommend checking it out (from the beginning, if you never have before).

Current Mood: good

Just a cold, but a bad enough one that I missed three days of work and didn't have energy for much beyond lounging around the house. So what did I do? Consumed a bunch of media!

1. Read comics: Nimona, the latest Captain Marvel collection (Chewie!), and the first three volumes of Matt Fraction's Hawkeye. I've had the Hawkeye books for awhile, and I actually bought and read the first one when it first came out. But then I put off getting the second, and then when I did get it I wanted to re-read the first one before reading it, and then I didn't get around to doing that either. So I read them all in one fell swoop yesterday. And they were great, although predictably I liked the Kate Bishop volume the best. Is the next one out yet? I know it's ending soon, or maybe already has, but there must be at least one more (that was quite a cliffhanger). Nimona was delightful. I don't know whether its initial publication as a web comic messes up its Hugo eligibility, but if not, it's definitely in my first round of nomination picks for next year.

2. Caught up on the last few months of PBS Idea Channel, which I hadn't watched since March or so. Or almost caught up, anyway -- I decided to take a break after the video that discussed Lewis's Law. One of the things I've always appreciated about the host, Mike Rugnetta, is how unapologetically feminist he is, and how he refuses to debate the validity of feminism as a philosophy. So when he spent his entire comment response to that episode pandering to "egalitarians" whose poor feelings were hurt when he compared them to MRAs, I was pretty disappointed. (I don't think egalitarianism, in and of itself, is necessarily a bad philosophy, but those egalitarians who set themselves up in direct opposition to feminism are 1. missing the point of feminism, especially intersectional feminism, and 2. not taking privilege into account.) I get wanting to keep your community open to a wide range of viewpoints, and I concede he may have worded his comparison clumsily, but there's nothing wrong with setting the terms of the debate. I hope this doesn't mean that he either avoids feminist topics in the future, or starts treating them all with kid gloves in order not to offend. Honestly, I'm not sure which would be worse.

3. Picked up my Dragon Age: Inquisition replay. I left my Trevalyen warrior stranded in Halamshiral for months, so I started by finishing up there, and then I played through the remaining Grey Warden quests (as well as a bunch of sidequests in the Western Approach, a few in the Hinterlands, and Varric's companion quest). ( Some spoilers. )

4. Watched a good chunk of Season 2 of Star Trek: Voyager. I never watched all of Voyager, and not long ago I was struck with the idea of revisiting it. I had remembered watching it for a few years, then getting bored when it became The Seven of Nine show, and most of the first season episodes were familiar, but the second season has been almost entirely new to me. I vaguely remember the business with Seska, and a couple of other things, but either I actually didn't watch it regularly or have blocked the whole thing out. It's been enjoyable to rediscover how much I loved Captain Janeway and B'lanna and Harry and the Doctor, and there's no one I dislike (although I prefer Neelix in small doses). It'll be interesting to see when it starts getting familiar again -- I know I was watching when Seven joined the cast, but I don't remember exactly what season that was, and not much about what was happening before that.

5. With T, watched Jupiter Ascending (which was bananas, but a fun kind of bananas, but I didn't fall in love with it as deeply as many of you did -- probably my expectations were dialed way too high), the Roger Ebert documentary Life Itself (which was lovely, and if you have any interest in Ebert -- and can handle watching a man in slow decline, since it was filmed over the last few weeks of his life -- I recommend it), and the first episode of Sense8 (promising, although I don't think I'll be able to binge on it).

Back to work today -- I don't usually work my part-time gig on Mondays, but I fell far enough behind this week that I want to at least start catching up. Fortunately I think I'm up for it, although I am a bit sad to end my mini media feast.

Current Mood: tired
Crossposts: http://owlmoose.livejournal.com/713290.html

Despite being a fan of the superheroes in general, and a long-time reader of graphic stories, I've never gotten into reading mainstream superhero comic books. The canons are gigantic and in some cases go back for decades, which makes them intimidating for a newbie, and I don't like the way that canon is treated as a moving target: endless retcons, the fact that new writers can take the characters in new directions and completely rework a character's personality. So I've always been content to consume my superhero media in the form of movies and occasionally television shows, because they're much more likely to tell a coherent story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. But being even peripherally in the Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom has exposed me to a lot of comics talk, and between that and a number of strong recommendations from outside fandoms, I recently picked up two Marvel TPB collections: Captain Marvel Vol. 1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Black Widow: Name of the Rose by Marjorie Liu. And I really enjoyed them both.

Of the two, I'd have to say I liked Captain Marvel better. ( Spoilers. )

Name of the Rose was also really well done, and I loved Natasha, but I had a harder time connecting with the story. In comparison, Captain Marvel is fairly self-contained, whereas Name of the Rose feels more like an episode in the continuing tales of the Marvelverse. ( More spoilers. )

So, is this my gateway into the world of superhero comics? Particularly the Marvelverse, which I'm finding more compelling all the time? Well, I certainly will get the next Captain Marvel collection when it comes out. And I'm game for more Natasha Romanoff stories, too, especially if they are as good as this one. And then there's this all-female X-Men book that's supposed to be out soon, and I keep hearing good things about Hawkeye, and... is this where the slippery slope begins? Um, maybe. I guess we'll see! But more than anything, these two great books have made me even more disappointed that there are no female headliners scheduled for MCU yet. Come on, Marvel, you could make a fantastic Carol Danvers movie, and I don't think I need to tell you how badly I want a Black Widow film. Let's make this happen.

Current Mood: good
Current Music: "Your Ghost" - Tori Amos
Crossposts: http://owlmoose.livejournal.com/625651.html

My place of work, in its infinite wisdom, closed on Friday to give us all a four-day weekend for Labor Day. I have been looking forward to this for ages, and it did not disappoint. I left my schedule open on purpose, half-thinking of taking a writing day, but after finishing breakfast I was seized by the urge to catch a matinee of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I have been a fan of the comic for several years now, after buying the first two issues at APE 2007; I had been a bit nervous when the film was first announced, mostly because I recoiled at the idea of Michael Cera in the lead role. But then the trailers came out, and they were so true to the look and feel of the book that I became officially excited.

Short, spoiler-free reaction: I am happy. I can honestly say that I can't think of another comic book adaptation that comes this true to recreating the original, both visually and in spirit. I recently re-read the entire series, in preparation for the release of the final volume back in July, so the books are fresh in my mind, and I recognized so much. Entire scenes are word-for-word, frame-for-frame the same as the original, but in a way that works. Compare this trailer made up of stills from the comic to the trailer I linked above -- it's all there, although some of it re-imagined, and it all works. If the trailer appeals to you at all, if you're a gamer (even a casual one), if you read the comics and liked them, then I highly recommended the film. So much of the experience of this movie is like playing a game: the way it builds through levels, the fighting style, the boss battles. The use of game tropes is one of the things I loved about the comic, and I was glad to see it translated so well to film.

( More commentary, with spoilers for both the comic and the movie, behind the cut. )

Now, about this whole idea that Scott Pilgrim is a "hipster movie". True, the cast is a crew of young people without much apparent direction; they play in bands and work in coffee shops and wear thrift-shop clothes and live in ratty apartments. But that doesn't make them "hipsters" in the way we currently understand the word. Not a trucker cap or a can of PBR in sight, and when Scott wears logo t-shirts, he's not wearing them ironically. There is, in fact, nothing ironic about this movie -- its love of games, music, comics, and cheesy action is purely in earnest. This isn't a Gen-Y hipster movie. It's a Gen-X slacker movie. The video game references are pure early Nintendo, starting from the 8-bit rendering of the Universal logo that opens the film, a style carries through the whole film. The music was by Beck. But for the number of characters who carry cellphones, this movie could just as easily have been set in, say, 1996. Sneering reviews about the presumed target audience aside, these are not references that 12-year-olds are going to get. Scott Pilgrim aims at the heart of the late-20s through early-40s set, and as far as I was concerned, it hits square on. You don't need to know every reference to enjoy the movie -- I wasn't a gamer in the 8-bit era, so I'm sure some of the subtleties got by me -- but they surely add to the pleasure of it.

Last but certainly not least, I present to you: official fake posters for Lucas Lee movies. Hilarious, and also proof of the attention to detail in creating the world of this film. Awesome stuff.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: "The Stage is Set" - FFVIII Soundtrack

Just finished the final volume of Scott Pilgrim. A satisfying wrap-up, for me. Hey, the movie is out next week; anyone one else want to see it?

And now it seems appropriate to segue into the next writing question:

24. How willing are you to kill your characters if the plot so demands it? What's the most interesting way you've killed someone?

I am willing, in theory, but it doesn't happen very often. Most of the character deaths in my stories -- Braska, Auron, Kinoc, Auron again... -- have been required by canon. In fact, I can't think of any on-stage character deaths I've written without force of canon besides the handful in "Death Shall Have No Dominion", and one OC in "Guardian's Legacy". Which means that I haven't written an on-stage death in over three years. (I have killed Nooj and a few others off-stage, but that's not quite the same.) Partially that's personal taste and partially it's that I don't typically write the kinds of stories where character death makes sense. None of my deaths have been particularly interesting, I fear -- in battle, almost every one, even all the off-stage ones if death by Sin counts as a battle, and I tend to think it does.

30 Days of Writing: Complete list of questions

Current Mood: content
Current Music: "Fragments of Sorrow" - Kingdom Hearts soundtrack

Ganked from

bottle_of_shine.

( 15 Things About Me, Books, and Reading )

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: "Heartbeat City" - The Cars

I can't believe I forgot A Song of Ice and Fire and the Temeraire book series. Both relatively recent finds, both reaching the pinnacles of great fannish love.

As long as I'm here, I should probably also mention The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. The first series, particularly, are among my all-time favorite books; I can re-read them essentially without limit. There's another universe I've vaguely thought about writing fic for, although no bunny has ever quite broken through to that level. Also the Narnia books, the Outlander series by Diana Gabeldon, Charles de Lint's Newford series, and Guy Gavriel Kay generally. And the Wild Cards series for awhile, although I stopped reading those around Book 7. The first three are on my re-read pile, though. And I might pick up the new one coming out soon. Another author whose books I read and re-read is Olivia Goldsmith. I know, one of these things is not like the others. But they're like popcorn, or potato chips -- I pick them up, and before I know it I've eaten the entire book. The First Wives Club and Fashionably Late, particularly.

Also The Sandman comics, and Love and Rockets, and Strangers in Paradise (which I should probably have given up long ago, but I can't bring myself to stop. I still haven't read the final volume), and Finder by Carla Speed MacNeil, which is an independent comic that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who loves stories. More recently, I've started reading manga -- I devoured Death Note whole, and am following Fruits Basket and One Piece (in print; I am resisting the world of scanlations because I don't like reading comic pages on the computer, I find it really awkward).

I'm sure I could think of more if I pushed myself and browsed my bookshelves some more, but for the sake of sparing all your Friends pages I'll stop now.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: PoTC soundtrack

Feels like forever since I've posted anything really meaningful here. Life continues on its merry way. Things happen but nothing ever really changes. That's not a complaint -- I have a pretty good life, I'm content with it for the most part. But when I sit down at the computer, none of it really seems worth writing down.

Yesterday T and I went to the Asian Art Museum to see two special exhibits on Japanese storytellers: the 19th century printmaker Yoshitoshi and the great manga-ka Tezuka Osamu, best known in the US for Astro Boy. I enjoyed both exhibits a great deal. Probably what struck me most in both exhibits was the level of detail both men lavished on their work. I certainly noticed it with Yoshitoshi, but it struck me even more in the Tezuka. Some of his drawings of rainstorms, in particular, were exquisite. I also found the breadth of subjects to be totally fascinating. Tezuka wrote a manga version of Crime and Punishment, and another on the life of Beethoven ("Ludwig B") -- the panels on that one had some of the most dynamic visual representations of music I've ever seen. But the thing that bowled me over the most was the segment on "Princess Knight (Ribon no kishi)", because I recognized it immediately. It had been made into an anime that I watched on television as a kid. I loved the show but could never for the life of me remember the title. I've been trying to recollect for years, but no one I've ever asked has recognized it. And now, 25 years later, I finally know what it is. Of course, you can't get it on video in English, but at least now I know it's out there.

The rest of the weekend has been pretty much spent around the house. We made white chili yesterday; it was good, but I ended up with "jalapeño hands" -- the oil got embedded in my fingertips and burned my skin all night. Now, 24 hours later, it still hasn't completely worn off. Taking out my contacts was an adventure. My other main project has been working on the website. Still nothing ready to present yet, although I feel like I'm at least starting to get a bit of a handle on the CSS. If only I could figure out how to make everything line up the way I want it to. Hopefully I'll have at least something to show off soon.

Wrote a little bit, too, although not as much as I'd like. The Kissing Battle got me rolling (from Monday night through this afternoon I wrote eight ficbits including, um, two for FFXII, I am really not quite sure how that happened) but then I got sidetracked by CSS and the burning fingers, which made it really hard to concentrate on much last night. Still, the kissing ficlets were a great deal of fun. I enjoyed the chance to cut loose and play with pairings and characters I don't usually touch (as well as revisit a few old friends) in a low-pressure situation. I hope to see more fic challenges like it.

Oh yeah, and I got some planning done for my upcoming trip to Chicago for

concertinette's wedding! We leave on Friday and come back on Tuesday. That should be fun -- good friends will be there, I haven't been to Chicago in ages, and T has never been, so I'm excited to show him all the exciting architecture (and of course to get a look at it myself). Definitely looking forward to that one.

Current Mood: good
Current Music: Dire Straits - "Planet of New Orleans"

T's office got a Wii last week, and so he and I snuck down there this afternoon to check it out. So far Wii Sports is the only game loaded, so we played baseball, bowling, golf, and tennis. I'm not quite ready to say that it's the greatest thing invented since the beginning of time, but it was pretty fun. I think I liked the tennis the best, because it was the most interactive; it was the only game that I felt like T and I were really playing together, instead of serially or in parallel. He kicked my ass, of course, in both tennis and bowling (golf and baseball we were about equally bad), but I don't feel too bad about that, because he bowled in college and took tennis lessons through almost all his childhood. I almost had the hang of tennis by the end, although I never did manage to win a game. And I got a real workout out of it.

So we've been planning on getting one sooner or later; this just whets our appetite. The only downside was that my shoulder was starting to complain at me by the end. But maybe that's good in a way; might force me to limit playing time to reasonable amounts!

The other fun geekiness this weekend was my trip to Alternative Press Expo (APE) with SE and SS on Saturday. My checkbook did not quite catch fire, but I think my credit card may still be smoking a little. And my to-read pile grew. A lot. So far I've read the first volume of Scott Pilgrim, which I found suitably wacky and definitely entertaining -- I'll be picking up the rest. The other comic you should all check out right away is Tea Club. Tea, martial arts, college angst, and a talking bear. What could be better?

Current Music: FFIX - "Unforgettable Sorrow"

( I saw a lot of these today... )

...at Wonder-Con, the local annual comic book convention, which SE and I attended today. I've been to Alternative Press Expo a few times, but I've never been to one of the mainstream cons before, and it was a very different experience -- tons of people in costume, lots and lots of vendors, a handful of publishers, and only a few artists. Probably the most interesting connection I made was with a bookseller, who had a volume I wanted for the library and had been unable to find easily online. Mostly, though, I wandered, browing the selection of bookstores, toy sellers, music and DVD stores... I'm lucky I walked away spending as little money as I did! A couple of science fiction books, an issue of Geek Monthly (a new magazine I'm quite curious to get a close look at), The Dream Hunters by Gaiman and Amano, and some soundtracks: Advent Children, FFVII Piano, and the score to the Death Note live action film, which I picked up totally on a whim. Listening as I type this, and it's a quite nice instrumental set, moody, very Death Note. I kind of want to see the movie now.

Afterwards, ( we decided a little refreshment was in order: )

Samovar is a local tea place with tasty sweets and savories and an excellent tea selection. So we sat outside and ate our cookies and drank our tea and read our comics and it was perfectly lovely. Later, a pack of friends joined us for dinner, then followed me home for creampuffs and Okami. Altogether a more than pleasant way to celebrate my impending birthday, and I feel fortified for the stressful week of work and rehersal that is likely to follow.

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Death Note Soundtrack

I hate losing a battle of wits with the copy machine. Shouldn't I be able to outsmart an inanimate object, even one that has evil programmed into its very soul? Apparently not.

The Architectural History instructor is giving a slide exam in the other room. Students sitting in the dark, staring at pictures of buildings, and biting their pens. Ah, memories.

I worked a long shift yesterday because I had to open the library at 8 AM and then attend a meeting that didn't end until almost 7:30. Fortunately, I knew it was coming and so was able to take an extra long lunch. I ended up running errands (parking, bus pass, music store -- more Neuroticfish whee) and walking around, and in the process walked right past the Six Apart office. I might not have noticed, except the LiveJournal logo caught my eye as I walked past. So if we ever need to storm the barricades, now we know where to go.*

So glad it's almost the weekend. Low-key party tonight, hopefully a day of sloth on Saturday, and Sunday I'm going with SE to WonderCon, a comic book convention that's in town for the weekend. Mostly I plan to just wander around and see what catches my eye, but anyone have any recommendations for artists and titles to look for?

*(P.S. for any LJ staff that might happen to be reading: This is a joke.)

Current Mood: tired

So I started Fruits Basket (just a few pages in, but it's definitely promising). I know people have explained this to me before, but I'm already getting lost with all the forms of address in Japanese. My understanding is that -san denotes respect and -chan denotes affection (and I realize I'm probably missing all sorts of nuances there), but what does -kun mean? Are there others I need to remember?

Current Mood: confused

I have suddenly found myself in the possession of large quanities of manga. First off, thanks to the incredible

bottle_of_shine, I now own the first two volumes of One Piece, which I pretty much devoured today. Pirates! Made of rubber! This so should not be my thing, and yet I'm enjoying it immensely. ( Minor spoilers here. ) It's a little daunting, knowing that there are over 400 issues out there, and the series is apparently nowhere near finished, but oh well. I knew there was a reason I had a job.

The other new acquisitions were lent to me by SE: a horror book called Uzumaki (which is fortunately complete in three volumes) and the first five volumes of Fruits Basket. Yes, the high school romance comic. But SE recommended it so strongly that I have to give it a try. Am very curious to get into that, but I haven't had time to crack it yet. Probably tomorrow. Speaking of addictions, there's also Death Note 9, which I believe comes out next week. Must have. Yes yes.

But you know, none of this holds a candle to another addiction I've developed recently. To a certain game that a certain poster (who shall remain anonymous, except it's totally

luvmoose) pointed me toward: FizzBall. If any of you remember Arkanoid or Breakout, it's a lot like that. If you don't know those games, think Pong crossed with Katamari Damacy, and you're pretty close. It is complete and total crack. I can't sit down at my computer without turning it on. I'm almost finished with my first play-through, after which I will continue to quest for perfect scores and more efficiency and so forth. T is utterly addicted as well. Not just to playing, but to watching me play -- as soon as he hears the music, I soon become aware of a presense at my shoulder. It's sort of cute, actually. And only fair, considering how much of my life I've frittered away watching him play videogames!

Current Mood: enthralled
Current Music: Kingdom Hearts II soundtrack

The Tick!

Not the late lamented live-action series. The late, even more lamented cartoon. One of my favorites shows ever. Out on DVD at long last.

As a former card-carrying member of MOAV, how can I resist?

Current Mood: geeky

I don't know which is more evil, Death Note or my newfound addiction to it. I think I need an icon of L, maybe defying the laws of physics with creamers or sugar cubes. Any one have ideas about where I can go looking?

( Spoilers for Book 7 (through issue 61) )

Current Mood: sleepy

I have read comic books for years, since college at least, but I always resisted manga. I think it's largely that I've never been into anime, and I didn't get very far in the one manga I tried to read (Nausicaa).

( For what happens next, I blame Parron. (Minor spoilers for Death Note 1-2 and X/1999 1-5.) )

Current Mood: enthralled

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Entries tagged with comics

Monday Media Musings, 08/22/22

Sandman thoughts

Monday Media Musings - 1/18/21

Monday Media Musings - 12/30/19

Things you do when you're sick for five days

Stepping into the Marvelverse

The Scott Pilgrim Post

Precious Little Life

15 Things: Books and Reading Edition

Fannish history addendum

Ramble

Wii are impressed

My geeky day

Random thoughts

Japanese question

addictive things

Spoon!

Pure evil

Friends are dangerous