New Keyboard!

Since I never post here anymore, and because I just got a new, spiffy mechanical, extra-clicky keyboard, I am celebrating with a blog post. This keyboard is so fast, I am typing at speeds normally reserved for people who actually know how to type, but have misplaced a few fingers due to unfortunate accidents involving blenders and margarita mix.

Since I know you're curious as to my current relationship with the comic book industry, I might as well write down some thoughts:

1. Infinity: I can't hardly decipher what's going on, the art is so dense and cluttered. Sometimes, I really like the story, and other times it's like reading a novel in Greek. And I can't read Greek. 
2. Trinity War: Glarg. I am really not liking DC in general lately. It's too violent, too many mad people stomping all over the place. It's like someone took the company and sent it back in time to it's teenage goth years. 
3. Villain one-shots. I gave up on those. I didn't enjoy them and, really, I read comics for the heroes. Call me old-fashioned.
4. Fantastic Four: I'm liking both series, we'll see where the new writers take them.
5. Aquaman: See angry, violent, stomping around.
6. Iron Man in Space: I like Iron Man in Space. I hope he stays there. 
7. Guardians of the Galaxy: I liked the old series. This one isn't as fun as the old one, the relationship between the characters is broken now that Starman got retconned to be more movie friendly. 
8. Brain Boy: Found this comic a couple weeks ago. I like it.
9. Quantum and Woody: Yes I get this. I got it when it first came out. The new series isn't as funny as I remember, but then, I was a lot younger when it originally came out. It might just be me. 

Until next year!

On the Future of Fantasy --- in 2005

This is going to be a little long: my apologies.

Recently I’ve been thinking of this interview with Matthew Woodring Stover, an author whose books I thought were pretty good at the time when I read this interview. I finally took the time to track it down to see if I remembered the passages correctly.  The takeaway that I brought out, when I read this years ago, was that J.K. Rowling was growing a whole new legion of fantasy fans and, when they grew up, their tastes would grow up, too. What kind of fantasy would these newly matured Harry Potter fans want when they were looking for something to read?

In rereading the interview, I was surprised to see that it’s from April of 2001, five or six months before 9-11, so his interview’s predictions are now easily looked at in hindsight to see if they were true. In the interview, Stover comes off as sort of an arrogant and narcissistic jerk, however, his points remain fairly interesting. Here’s the first, the one I took away from the article and that has stayed with me:

“There is a HUGE tidal swell of audience -- the kids who have grown up on bubblegum fantasy are starting to look around for something more challenging, and more rewarding. Hell, all those Harry Potter fans aren't going to be satisfied with the crap crowding the bookstore shelves. If they don't find something at least that intelligent, we lose the best of them forever. They become the gray zombies who drift once in a while through the stacks in a bookstore, in bleakly melancholy reminiscence of how much they used to like this stuff...”

First, I think it’s awesome that Stover predicted that all the Harry Potter fans would turn in to zombies. Which explains the popularity of the undead in modern literature. J

Here’s a second prophecy / quote: remember---2001 

 Q: “You also once told me that you thought George R.R. Martin was the only writer now who may save the epic fantasy series. Can you tell me a bit more? What do you see in Martin's work that you don't see in... oh, David Eddings? “ 

A: “First of all, Martin is a brilliant technician; there is not a single scene in Game of Thrones that is slow or superfluous. He is also willing to highlight a lot of the brutality and twisted sexuality that most fantasies leave buried. I admire the way he manipulates the conventions of traditional epic fantasy -- he knows his audience has been reading this stuff for years, so we have certain expectations. He sets up traditional situations, then pays them off in extremely un-traditional ways. He's writing for grown-ups, and setting a high standard -- those books sell a TON, and when they're all gone, his fans are gonna start looking for something that can move them the same way. That's what I mean about saving epic fantasy: teaching the fans to insist on better books”

So, since 2001, did those Harry Potter fans grow up and demand better, higher quality books? I kind of wonder. George Martin and Patrick Rothfuss seem outliers still. The abundance of “Young Adult Fantasy Fiction” indicates to me that maybe a lot of those Potter fans never moved past reading at the 10^th grade level. There was that huge wave of “Reality Meets the Magical” fiction: witches, vampires, sorcerers, zombies appearing in modern day life as heroes, which is basically “Harry Potter, but grown up”. Currently, there’s the wave of Steampunk fiction, which kind of masquerades as intellectual though the writing isn’t all that challenging.  It’s a direction away from Potter, anyway.

Here’s the link:

http://www.sfsite.com/04a/mws101.htm

It’s worth mentioning, if you read the interview, that Stover has written a bunch of Star Wars novels since then, as well as one Magic: The Gathering Novel. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Stover

I haven't posted since 2011!

Geez. Time flies when you're having fun. Or not.

A lot has happened since the DC reboot. Not that I can remember much of it off-hand.

It's interesting that DC decided to do a sort-of soft reboot. As a long-time reader, I am continually having to figure out how much pre-reboot material is still valid and how much is not. With many of the main characters still carrying around experiences that seem pre-reboot, DC has lost a lot of direction.

Marvel NOW! is just beginning. I avoided the whole AvX event but the aftermath seems to be interesting. We'll have to see.

So, what do I like?

Currently, the comic I look forward to reading the most each month is The Hypernaturals. The team is well done, each member has a distinct character. The universe is interesting and very well thought out, using leading edge sci-fi concepts combined with familiar comic tropes to make for a great read.

That's it for this post. Hopefully, the next won't take a year to produce. I have a little more free time this year. Maybe some of it will go this way.

It's time for the 52!

You can tell because of the slew of crappy in-betweener comics that lamely tried to wrap up the old story lines in one issue. Justice League 60 was just sad.

What will they be calling this league, I wonder. Probably the "Gorilla League" or the "Aged-Out Titan League".

Well, let's see if I can post comments on the new stuff as it comes out. In the meantime, the D&D comic is still good, so at least I have that. I'm definitely hoping that the "Fear Itself" event peters out here quickly, as well. Summer 2011 was certainly a forgettable year in comics.

Two Comics

Only two comics bought this week. A Brightest Day and a Shazam #1.

Good thing: White Source started explaining what the heck was going on.
Bad thing: Deadman whining.
Bad Thing: Aquaman loses a hand. And we don't care. Maybe next week he'll spontaneously grow a beard.
Bad thing: All of Shazam #1

DC Universe: I've been playing a little of this, still. So far, it's my favorite Superhero MMO.

Sometimes, the blog posts aren't that long.

Best Comic

Here we are in a new week. I think this is kind of a slump time for DC. I can't think of anything I'm really enjoying these days from that company, though collector's inertia still has me buying books. This week, the new JLA: Generation Lost came out and that was decent. You would think that, if they brought back the team, they would bring back the style of writing, but there's no playfulness at all in the book, save for the comic relief character. Really, what made the team funny back then was the great relationships, and not so much the banter. This newest comic is so concerned with solving the big problem that it can't lay back and let the characters talk to one another in a casual way. This comic was better than most since it was mostly a huge fight with Power Girl.

Three Avengers comics came out this week: The New, The Mighty and The Secret. By far, the Secret Avengers is my favorite. New is also very good because of Bendis' writing, but he has the opposite problem as what I mentioned above: he gets so into relationships that the battles all seem incidental and boring. "Gosh, we're fighting this incredibly tough villain hand to hand, but I'd rather talk about what we should have for lunch." I like the dialogue and character development, but all the characters sound the same in my head. Mighty suffers because of the art. Bad art just fuzzes out whatever story is being told. If all the characters stand around looking grim, I can't empathize with their emotional range.

I grabbed the collectible Fantastic 4 that came out this week. Not gonna open it.

So, the big winner this week is Secret Avengers! Woot! I still like this low-powered group. Brubaker makes the comic gritty, the plots are interesting, and the relationships between characters are developing and feel real. Hope Shang-chi gets to stay on, but it's probably not meant to be. One good scene in this is Shang-chi and Captain America sparring. In an obviously cheap out, both combatants get one good hit on each other, and then Brubaker backs off, 'cause he isn't gonna inflame the nerdrage with showing one martial art master dominating the other. Transparent, but enjoyably transparent.

What it is

I'm posting! I know all three of you are excited.

This week I installed DC Universe online. I've enjoyed it more than I did Champions, so far, even if there is less of a "dress up" feature. The intro adventure makes you feel pretty powerful, and the adventure is very controlled: perfect for a single player experience. My problems thus far with superhero MMOs is that I never have a good experience playing alone in them. So far DCU is really fun.

Comic books:

For Christmas, I was given the first 14 graphic novels of Fables, and I'm enjoying those very much. I think that Fables really lends itself to the graphic novel experience.

Best comic of the week: D&D #3. Once again, I know I work for these guys, but this comic is just getting better as Rogers is fleshing out the characters. I think this is getting just as good as the Blue Beetle stuff he did a couple of years ago. The best part is how the characters interact with one another, and even the head orc the main character fights is well done.

I figure if I keep these posts short, I may make more of them as time goes by. Blog to you next time!

Link to D&D comic art!

http://www.fromthetip.blogspot.com/