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Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 3:03 pm Post subject: Current Reading.
I used to frequent another forum, where pretty much any subject is permitted and someone always has an opinion (and someone else will contradict it). No, I didn't get kicked out. But Animotions, where Poser meets comics, is my logical home. So, in a completely self-serving way, I'm trying to set up here some of my favourite threads, and see what you people think.
So, current reading, which doesn't necessarily mean newly-published:
Just finished the three-volume Kitchen Sink reprints of Superman: The Dailies, which I read straight after DC's Superman Chronicles reprinted the first year or so of Superman's appearances in Action Comics. Great, primal superhero stories, the better dramatically because Superman isn't ludicrously over-powered (although already, super-hypnotism and x-ray vision, and the unexpected - I hesitate to say ridiculous - ability to transfer his vision to a blinded person, make their first appearances), and a fantastic insight into the formula which initiated sixty years (so far) of superheroes. Is Superman the most successful fictional creation ever? I can't find any evidence that these reprints extended beyond the third volume.
Then, Alan Moore's final issues of Tom Strong and Tomorrow Stories. The ABC universe ends, as Moore's work sometimes does, in structured mysticism which doesn't seem as deep as it thinks it is, but these have been great archetypal characters and great (and in the case of Jack B. Quick, very funny) stories. Still the finest writer to have worked in comics.
Now, DC Showcase Presents The House Of Mystery: cheap classics, some neat little stories, and more interesting artists I'd never heard of. What looked to me like a loosely-inked Neal Adams is actually Jack Sparling. Who?
But there's a lot of comics out there and a lot of tastes, and as I said, the comics we're reading now might not be the comics just published. What are you people enjoying or not enjoying?
IMP. _________________ RIVER: skin on the outside. First chapter FREE from www.ianmpalmer.com
Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 9:36 pm Post subject: Re: Current Reading.
I just finished the Tom Strong and Tomorrow Stories as well. I was suprised to see ti was the last one and am quite saddened. It was one of the few things I read so I wondered why it stopped. I also finished The Goon 16, Matman and the Monster Men 5, X-Factor 4, Hellboy Makoma 2, Powers, Justice League Unlimited, Infinite Crisis 5, Batman Detective 381 or something (The one year later thing, I am still pretty confused why they are doing that). That was this weeks' issues I think ...
ABC finished, I think, because Alan Moore says he's retiring. There might still be the odd project by others, like Top 10: Beyond The Farthest Precinct and Terra Obscura (which I've really enjoyed). I loved most of ABC,
I keep looking at The Goon, and thinking about giving it a try.
One Year Later, I've heard, is an attempt to restart everything with a bit less grimness. That would be nice, but we'll have to see.
IMP. _________________ RIVER: skin on the outside. First chapter FREE from www.ianmpalmer.com
Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:15 am Post subject: Re: Current Reading.
I wasn't aware he was retiring but that might be it. I really liked Terra Obscura as well but I wasn't aware that msot of my books I read are now going away. Sad to hear.
Goon is a fun, goofy sort of Hellboy with lots of clobberin', dark humor and nice art.
I understand that it is a restart but it jsut seems liek it could have been done a bit more subtlely. Just tone it down without making it an "event." Part of that might be my dislike for event comics where I am expected to know everything and buy everything but part of it is just the fact that the "start over" mentality just disconnects me from anything I was buying and makes me want to pick up nothing.
Joined: Jun 10, 2002 Posts: 769 Location: Ontario, Canada
Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:19 am Post subject: Re: Current Reading.
I just finished reading the "Nightmerica" Hulk miniseries. Great art and an interesting story, but the ending was really weak. Still glad I read it though.
All-Star Superman has been really good so far. So has Conan, but I'm not sure how it will be once Kurt Busiek moves on.
One series I've been REALLY disappointed with is Albion. It had such an interesting premise, but I think there's only one issue left in the series and nothing has happened yet. _________________ Jim Harnock - ODS
www.OrcaDesignStudios.com
Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:23 am Post subject: Re: Current Reading.
Really like Conan as well but I am worry about it once he leaves too. I missed the others because I could find the starting book and I hate starting in the middle of something.
I know I should read Conan because it's Busiek, just haven't got around to it yet.
Surprised about Nightmerica because it didn't look interesting, so perhaps I'll try it.
All-Star Superman is nice, although Lois's paranoia needed more writing: about two pages of her standing still, barely any text, and I wasn't convinced by her behavour. Now, if Alan Moore had written it, by the time Superman came through the door (I'm trying to avoid spoilers here) we'd have been exactly in Lois's state of mind.
All-Star Batman and Robin seems, so far, to be the worst thing Frank Miller has ever done - and he's written some of the best comics ever.
I was thinking about Albion after the first couple of issues. It's supposed to be plotted by Alan Moore and written by his daughter and John Reppion, whoever he is, and you're right, nothing's happened yet. It occurred to me that Alan's plots are no more substantial, but when he scripts as well, his writing gives it substance. A bit like Stephen King: he can write someone shopping for food in the supermarket and make it gripping.
I'd been wondering whether the next issue of Albion was overdue - it seems like it - but also realising I wasn't really too bothered.
As for starting over: exactly right. If you want Batman to stop being a psycho, you don't need an event; you just stop writing him as a psycho. Even Avengers Disassembled: you have some characters leave, some decide to join, Cap wonders aloud what their team purpose ought to be, and there you are, you've got a new direction. You don't need to kill everybody.
IMP. _________________ RIVER: skin on the outside. First chapter FREE from www.ianmpalmer.com
Two-thirds of the way through House Of Mystery, I've become an Alex Toth fan. I hadn't seen much of his work before, but God, what beautiful and stylish drawing (and, frankly, not hard to reproduce in Poser: my sequel to RIVER, which you can't get yet so no accusations of self-promotion, looks like this)!
IMP. _________________ RIVER: skin on the outside. First chapter FREE from www.ianmpalmer.com
Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 7:00 am Post subject: Re: Current Reading.
Well, I just read the complete run of Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon in one 24 hour blitz... most satisfying.
I'm not really in at the most current comics lines at the moment, due to lack of funds and other projects taking my time and resources. I have a funny feeling I'll be revisiting V for Vendetta (again!!!), if only to remind myself how great the original is before seeing how it got changed for the film (not making any judgements in either direction on the film yet, but somewhat wary of the changes I've heard so far).
The other TPB on my wishlist is the second Collected Hellraiser volume. I've got the first, and at the moment, horror is big on my agenda (I'm setting up my own horror theatre company, so pulling in inspiration for a variety of sources).
Other than that, I'm too busy doing things to sit down and read much...
Preacher's well written, well drawn and has some good ideas: I like the Saint of Killers, and Jesse's Voice. It also has some appalling and unnecessary ideas, like the Good Ole Boys' unusual uses for wildlife. By unnecessary, I mean you can narrow your audience a bit too far...
That's two horror fans we've got here. Jon, do you prefer your horror atmospheric - Ring, say, which I found very effective - or gory?
IMP. _________________ RIVER: skin on the outside. First chapter FREE from www.ianmpalmer.com
I find the horror genre is a big ol' rainbow of details... gore level being just one of them. Depending on my mood, I can cope with most levels of gore - although I've yet to see what the 'new wave' of horror films such as the Hills remake and Hostel have to offer. If it's anything like Cabin Fever, I'm not going to be too impressed.
It's not a gross-out factor, though, it's a boredom thing. Each time you show something in its full visceral glory, you diminish the shock value. In Cabin Fever, there's a shot of a girl shaving her legs whilst infected with a flesh-eating bug. She drags the razor across her leg and peels of the skin - not, once, but three times!! Even once was slightly overkill in my book, and could have been acheived much more effectively with suggestion and her reaction (you already knew from the set-up what HAD to happen): each time the camera returned to the shot of her peeling off more skin, my disgust/shock grew less nad my boredom with the effect grew larger.
With my theatre company, I'm edging more towards the suggestive end. You have to show SOMETHING, in order for the audience to have their pay-off. But they should only be offered a hint of the true horror, so their imaginations fill in the rest of the blanks - and I can guarantee it, their thoughts will be a lot nastier than you could ever put on either stage or celluloid (or print, for that matter!).
As for atmosphere (which to my mind, is another separate specturm, rather than being the opposite end of the 'gore/atmosphere' scale), I think you have to achieve a certain ambience. The audience needs to know that something is amiss, and that something terrible is going to happen, even if they can't pinpoint exactly what it's going to be. That way, the climax acts as a payoff to their suspicions (granting them a release from the tension). If there was no tension before the shock moment, then the moment itself would just become a violent outburst. Horror comes from the fact that you know what is coming, but can't prevent it.
That makes sense to me. I've seen a lot of horror films, and the ones or the moments which stick are those which suggest. From recent examples, The Village was forceful with very little actual violence, and Ring was effective not because of anything bloody, but because of a simple, unsettling image: this VCR figure, wet hair over face, sometimes just standing there. One of those is worth gallons of fake blood. I've read most of Stephen King's output, and what carries weight is what goes on in the characters' and readers' heads, not so much what happens to their bodies. What was the horror film where a brother and sister fell into a well? Name escapes me: witty and stressful until the supernatural villain actually appeared, and then just stupid.
Recently I've been just starting to wonder how you might parallel the Ring effect in a comic. I mean you can do silent spooky kids easily, but that's been done now. No real solutions yet, though. Marv Wolfman's Tomb Of Dracula run is a fantastic gothic melodrama, but it's not scary.
I should check out the Silent Hill comic. That's a Hell of a spooky game.
IMP. _________________ RIVER: skin on the outside. First chapter FREE from www.ianmpalmer.com
Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 4:15 pm Post subject: Re: Current Reading.
The horror I find most unsettling, and the stuff we're focussing on as a theatre company, is the human horror stories, as opposed to supernatural horror. With supernatural horror, or monster horror, it's all to easy, once the initial shock has passed, to distance yourself from the tale - by placing it so implicitly in the fantasy genre, you can take a step back and say to yourself, "well, it's all make-believe: nothing like that would ever REALLY happen." With human horror, ie: the terrible things we do to one another, and the incredible capacity for violence, madness, vengeance and cruelty we have towards other members of our species, you can't distance yourself. The villain isn't some bloke in a rubber suit - it's just a bloke, the sort of person who could conceivably live a few doors down from yourself. I'm not talking about serial killers or homicidal 'killing spree' types here, either: but the sort of person who decides, one day, that they have been wronged for whatever reason, and it's time to get payback on the person who has treated them so badly. Whether there decision is based on rational thought or insanity, it's the kind of thing where they attack once, and only once, against a very specific target.
The horror can come from various places in a situation like this: horror that someone so 'ordinary' can become so malevolent (and thus, by inference, WE could become that 'monster'); horror from the victim's point of view, that they have been singled out to be the recipient of this person's bile, angst and retribution; and horror as the audience, that we bear witness to these events and are somehow complicit in their enactment.
It's the last one that I think theatre (and, to a certain extent, literature) have over the cinema. There is a much more interactive relationship between the central character of a book/play/graphic novel and the audience than there is with a film character and the movie-fan. The screen distances them and makes it safe - we're not in the head of the monster or victim, and we're not really witnesses.
Imagine witnessing, onstage, one character strangling another to death. As he does so, the villain looks up at the audience... and smiles at them. Suddenly, the audience are no longer hidden behind a 'fourth wall'... they are co-conspirators to the crime.
Hmm... going a little off-topic here. Can you tell this is something I've thought a lot about? (I did my undergraduate disertation on the purpose of horror as entertainment in live performance).
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