Who Watches The WATCHMEN?
You. You should watch the WATCHMEN.
Entries Tagged as 'comics'
Daily Show Done Wrong
Last night, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart stole a joke from the web-comic, Penny Arcade. Jon Stewart must, for the integrity of his show, his writing staff, and himself, give credit to Penny Arcade immediately. I know it seems like I’m taking this too seriously, but this is an unnecessary blemish on The Daily Show’s stellar record.
Y: The Last Issue
I used to love comic characters. In third and fourth grade, I was obsessed with the X-Men because I loved the cartoon. Oddly, I never cared much for the comics. I liked the characters but I was more interested in collecting the character cards than the stories about those characters.
Eventually, I outgrew collecting X-Men cards and went on to more sophisticated hobbies. Like Magic: The Gathering.
But in my freshman year of college, one of my roommates (and eventually one of my best friends), re-introduced me to comics by throwing me a couple of copies of issues where he had doubles. One of those books was Y: The Last Man and it’s been a love-hate relationship with the medium ever since.
It was a fortuitous relationship. The small college town of Oberlin doesn’t have much in the way of shops. There’s a small market, a pub, a pizza place, a video store, a second-run movie house, a gas station, a couple banks, sandwich shops and cafes, and the requisite college book store (and in liberal Oberlin, the small, independent bookstore that survives because it’s in a town like Oberlin). So it’s odd and amusing that nestled in between what you’d find in most towns surrounding a small liberal arts college, is a tiny comic shop.
I didn’t much care for my time at Oberlin but I valued every moment hanging out at the counter of Matrix: Comics & Games. With a newfound addiction to comics (thanks, Eric!), I now had a place within walking distance where I could get my fix. And while the two long boxes which house my collection of comics were mostly purchased at Matrix, the most valuable thing I ever got from the store was the relationship I developed with its two owners: Erin Shiba and Josh “Schwa” Perry. While it was clear that the shop’s success was due more to the “Games” of its name rather than the “Comics”, mostly due to a rabid following of Magic: The Gathering users (an addiction on which I did not relapse as I had moved on to more sophisticated hobbies like collecting DVDs and never-getting-laid), I came originally for the comics but then just for the conversation.
Erin became like the big sister I never had. Josh became the cool boyfriend of the big sister I never had. They were engaged throughout my time at Oberlin and in fact got married soon after I graduated. I still regret that I wasn’t able to attend their wedding. I also regret that almost two years later, I still haven’t given them a wedding gift (I know exactly what I want to get them and I’ve just been that freaking broke for that freaking long). We spent hours talking about various movies and TV shows. I let them borrow stacks of my DVDs and was always happy to do so because I knew they would actually care about talking about the shows or movies when they handed the discs back to me. There’s not much I miss about Oberlin, but I miss Erin and Josh terribly.
Back in Atlanta, we have the robust Oxford Comics and Games. It became less easy for me to continue my comic collection as driving to a store for a few books seems silly. It’s about a thirty minute trip for reading material that will probably be finished in half that time. The store houses some awesome merchandise but it’s all too expensive, especially for someone like me. I just can’t justify to myself spending twenty-five bucks on a Hellboy action figure. Lord knows I want to, but I just can’t. And while Erin and Josh were warm and friendly, the tenured staff of Oxford have always kind of been overwhelming indifferent to me despite my attempts at friendliness (and for someone shy like me, those are herculean attempts). But I made a point of going in today.
Today marks the release of the 60th and final issue of Y: The Last Man. I started collecting at issue #2 back in 2002 and since I was able to find a copy of Issue #1 back at comic shop in New York City in 2005, I now have the series’ entire run. After five years of collecting single issues, I can now say that I’m done with “floppies”. It has nothing to do with Y’s last issue (it’s great), and almost everything to do with economy.
Single issues are over-priced. I paid $3 for the new issue of Astonishing X-Men and I was done with it in about ten minutes. It’s filled with ads and I have no intention of re-selling it because I’ve never been that guy. It’s a good story and well told, but it’s wiser to just wait until the trade-paperback comes out. It has zero ads and instead of stuffing it in a cardboard box, I can display it on a bookshelf.
I’ve moved on from floppies. Y: The Last Man author has now moved on to other titles as well as writing for Lost. Eric has moved on to a small publishing house in New York City. Matrix has now moved on to become Infinite Monkey Comics & Games (although it’s still in Oberlin and still owned and operated by Erin and Josh). I’ve moved on to more sophisticated interests like blogging and bitching about politics (although I’m still known to indulge my hobby of never-getting-laid from time to time). Everything ends and when it does, we look back for a fond retrospective (there really isn’t any other kind because then why bother looking back?) and we move on, thankful for the memories.
Tim Kring Watches the Watchmen
NBC’s Heroes is not a good show. It’s the TV equivalent of candy. It’s a highly manufactured flavor, it’s saccharine, it has no nutritional value, and it’s delicious. It’s bad but it’s entertaining and if you have nothing better to do, it can certainly kill an hour.
But a recent Q&A revealed a clip that will probably have me spitting out this candy in disgust if it turns out to be the wholesale theft it appears to be.
I’m gonna go into spoilers now so if you think Heroes is an edge-of-your-seat serial thriller where you can’t stand to know what happens next, then you probably never saw anything in your life because it’s an insanely predictable show. But creator Tim Kring has sprung quite a surprise in making a move to steal from one of the most seminal comics of all time, Alan Moore’s Watchmen.
If you haven’t read Watchmen, you probably don’t read comics in the first place. If you do read comics but haven’t read Watchmen, you need to BUY IT NOW
Okay, for those still with me, you have now put two and two together (hopefully). You read the link where the character Linderman reveals he has powers and he and others tried to play superheroes, but it didn’t work out. Now, Linderman will detonate a nuke in New York City to bring the world together; omelet and eggs and all that.
Now if you’ve read Watchmen, you know that the character Ozymandias was a former superhero who kills former “masks” before teleporting a giant alien creature into New York City in order to stop the Cold War and bring the world together; omelet and eggs and all that.
There’s borrowing and there’s theft and Heroes has committed the sin of the latter. The only way it could be stealing more is if Linderman was connected to the super serial-killer Sylar and I certainly wouldn’t put it past Kring to have it shake out that way. Remember, logic and common sense have very little place in the comics-dismissive-yet-wholesale-theft world of Heroes. Blob could glide through the show’s plot holes. Anyone want to explain to me why Hiro lost his powers and why he needs a magical sword to regain them? Anyone? You could argue that it’s a mystery, but the show argues that the mystery is already solved. Lose your powers for some reason? Clearly, you need a special sword! What’s not to get?
But if Watchmen is so important, then how can it be theft? Surely, people will notice! Well, Watchmen is important but it’s not necessarily popular. It’s a comic for grown-ups in a medium that is dominated by stunted men-children. Heroes on the other hand, is like comics without the shame of actually going to a comic shop and purchasing superhero comics (most of which, like Heroes, have the special ability of blowing hard). What sends a chill down my spine is if Zach Snyder’s Watchmen arrives next year, people see it, and then say “It stole from Heroes!” Then again, dumb people say stupid shit all the time. I guess what really upsets me is that Kring has such little respect for such an important book and has a show so creatively bankrupt that they’re going to steal. I suppose the only positive in this is that if you’re going to steal, steal from the best.
While some are hoping that this clip was simply an attempt to mislead fans, my hope is that within context and not as a singular scene, Watchmen will merely serve as the inspiration rather than the script. I would say I’m expecting to be disappointed, but disappointment implies hope, and ever since the second episode, I haven’t had much hope for this unhealthy guilty pleasure of a show.
Final Fox Trot
Fox Trot is my favorite still-running comic strip. Or should I say “was”. Today is Bill Amend’s last daily Fox Trot strip. He’ll continue to do Sundays, but after 19 years, the stories of the Fox family are at an end.
Some who are willing to trudge through the garbage that passes itself off as lowest common denominator fare will occasionally find a new strip worth reading. But now that Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side have long since passed, Fox Trot marks the end of an age for me. I’ve been reading the comic for 12 of its 19 years. I actually got to meet Bill Amend at a presentation/signing at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. He signed my copy of Foxtrotius Maximus.
I’ll be sad to see the comic go in its daily form because Amend had a great eye for pop culture. It kept the strip fresh, funny, and popular with a geek like myself.
It’s a great strip and when I have kids of my own, I’ll be sure to share it with them. But that’s getting way ahead of myself. For right now, I’ll just enjoy my 365-day Fox Trot calendar and continue to enjoy the humor that Jason, Paige, Peter, Andy, and Roger have provided me all these years.
Thank you, Mr. Amend and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
"You like Castlevania, don’t you…"
If you know where this post’s title comes from, we’re gonna be good friends.
A site redesign is coming very soon (the colors scheme just isn’t working for me and using frames was a big mistake…[and there was much rejoicing]), but I wanted to share this bit of awesome news I found on Kotaku: Warren Ellis is writing the animated Castlevania movie. While I think Castlevania is a great series (I’m currently playing Dawn of Sorrow while I wait for Bully to come out on Tuesday), we all know how videogame movies tend to turn out. But Warren Ellis is one of the best comic book writers working today. His series Transmetropolitan is easily my favorite comic of all-time (although for the record, I think Neil Gaiman’s Sandman is the best comic series I’ve read).
But to make it all the sweeter, check out this artwork from James Jean (the man who does the brilliant cover art for Fables):
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I Like Traffic
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I Like Stuff
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I Like XBOX 360
