Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 11, 2024 7:53:42 GMT -5
"The Super" was almost certainly inspired by The Bad Seed, a novel that became a hit Broadway drama and, later, a film abut a psychopathic little girl who commits--and gets away with--a series of murders. One of her victims is her apartment building's super. I suspect Eisner added the sexual angle to make his story edgier without considering the implications spoon is inferring. Not a defense, just an observation. Cei-U! I summon the creepy kiddo! That's fascinating, Kurt. Thanks for sharing. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 10, 2024 17:18:06 GMT -5
I borrowed A Contract With God by Will Eisner from the library and read it for the first time. It was an interesting read, especially the local color aspects, but I didn't feel reverence towards it. It was darker than I expected, although I didn't know what to expect. I guess I anticipated there would be more love for the community rather than portraying most significant characters negatively. There's a lot of awful "ordinary people" in these stories. I also didn't realize it would be a quick read. So many pages were one panel, to the extent an image without a frame is a panel. Eisner's lettering also was a big element, which is interesting as I had just finished reading some comics by Jim Aparo who also frequently lettered comics that he drew. Of the four stories, the title story was probably my least favorite. The central idea of the contract didn't make sense to me, because you need a meeting of the minds. Like at least give me a scene where Frimme Hersh imagines God giving him a sign of acceptance. It's hard to get invested without knowing why he thinks the contract exists. The Street Singer is very bleak, but I find the human stories and the ironic plot twists intriguing. The Super is emotive and tragic, but Eisner used a really conceit to push his story. It reminds me of Gone With The Wind. Lots of people think of it as a brilliant film, but to me a movie that traffics in so much Lost Cause dishonesty is fatally flawed. The Super's portrayal of a young child a seductress is fairly loathsome and reflective of the excuses predators make for their behaviors. Cookalein is interesting for the local color and how different stories are weaved together. But one of the subplots reminded me of the theory that Dinah being tortured in The Longbow Hunters reflecting Grell punishing her for (I think maybe it was for not wanting to have children IIRC). On the one hand, it should be fair game to explore how people can date people who turn out to be jerks for superficial reasons and realize it later. On the hand, I think after just having read The Super, the comeuppance part of a particular subplot in The Cookalein felt misogynistic. Personally, I like A Contract with God a whole lot, but I accept most of your points, even if I don't necessarily agree with them. The exception to that would be your criticism of "The Super" in as much as your having found its "portrayal of a young child as a seductress ... fairly loathsome". I instead see it as something of a cautionary tale. The superintendent is a disliked man of low character and paedophile tendencies, who is nonetheless the victim of a wickedly conniving little girl. The moral being that wickedness comes in many guises, some of them deceptively innocent looking. Yet the residents of the Dropsie Avenue tenement are only too happy to believe the worst in the person they loathe so much. Anyway, here are my thoughts from the last time I re-read it, in case you're interested... classiccomics.org/post/492972/thread |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 10, 2024 8:25:32 GMT -5
Purely anecdotally, it was the opinion of myself and all of my comic reading pals back in the late '70s and early '80s that Marvel comics and their characters were much cooler and grittier than DC's. That's not to say that we didn't buy DC books on occasion (I was a big fan of Superman at the time, for example), but the majority of our purchases were Marvel books because they were generally believed to be superior and cooler, particularly the likes of Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the aforementioned Star Wars. Icct and I are talking about the Silver Age and the Stan Lee age of Marvel. By the late 70s and early 80s, both companies had changed and it was a whole different ball game. Marcel had overtaken DC, the Direct Market surged and DC was adopting the MU idea of a connected Universe, rebooting many of their heroes and had a new creators, many from Marvel. Marvel was also different from the Stan era. Sure, I get that, but I think my point was related to the fact that a lot of readers in the 60s also regarded Marvel as being something a little cooler, or at least a little less formulaic, than what DC we're publishing at the time -- irrespective of whether that was necessarily true in every case. Which is why Marvel's Silver Age comics resonated more with college-age kids, the hippie counter-culture, or young draftees fighting in Vietnam. I was just pointing out that this perception of Marvel being "hipper" than DC was still present in the late 70s and early 80s, at least in my little corner of the universe. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 10, 2024 5:58:10 GMT -5
Dungeon Master's Guide standard cover  This is a cool retro illustration. So, that's Venger from the old 1980s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon in the centre, and on the right that's Warduke from the '80s D&D toy line (he also appeared in an episode or two of the cartoon), but who is that on the left? |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 10, 2024 5:48:43 GMT -5
Watched the first two episodes of The Acolyte it's definitely weaker than some of their other prior TV series. The second episode is a little better than the first. I'm actually excited for episode 3. Wookies!
I hope so.. the 1st episode was painful enough I'm not watching the 2nd one right now... ugh. I have to say that I have zero interest in watching The Acolyte. Nothing I've seen associated with it has piqued my interest at all. I kinda think I'm done with this seemingly endless procession of Star Wars TV series. I just have no enthusiasm towards them at all. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 10, 2024 5:42:39 GMT -5
True. It was those types of storytelling methods that set them apart from DC. It would eventually make DC second because they refused to change their style. Not true. I agree that the Marvel books style set them apart, and were better, IMO. But DC became second because the 70s were a rough time for comic sales, even as the comics were more appealing to many fans. But Marvel outsold DC in total comics because they were flooding the market with Silver Age reprints. Most new books were struggling and Marvel was saved by Star Wars. DC's problem was a lot of bad business decisions, not the comics themselves. They decided to blow up everything with Crisis and bring in a new era for their books. But I think the changing of the guard from the old editors had more to do with that.
Sales have so much more effecting them than the quality of the books or the appeal to fans.
Purely anecdotally, it was the opinion of myself and all of my comic reading pals back in the late '70s and early '80s that Marvel comics and their characters were much cooler and grittier than DC's. That's not to say that we didn't buy DC books on occasion (I was a big fan of Superman at the time, for example), but the majority of our purchases were Marvel books because they were generally believed to be superior and cooler, particularly the likes of Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the aforementioned Star Wars. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 10, 2024 5:17:43 GMT -5
Shamelessly re-posting this book review from the "All-Purpose Books Notes and Review Thread"... Beren and Lúthien by J. R. R. Tolkien (edited by Christopher Tolkien).  I'm a big fan of J. R. R. Tolkien's two main works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but I've always struggled with the, frankly, almost completely impenetrable The Silmarillion. An exception to that would be a chapter in The Silmarillion titled "Of Beren and Lúthien", which tells the epic love story of an immortal elven princess and a mortal man who triumph over incredible odds, only for the tale to end in tragedy. This chapter is one of the most readable parts of the book and it was also a story that was particularly close to its author's heart, due to it having been partly inspired by his love for his wife Edith and their own romance. Unfortunately, this stand-alone, full-length book version of Beren and Lúthien from 2017 isn't quite what I was expecting it to be. I thought it was going to be an attempt on Christopher Tolkien's part to incorporate as much of his father's relevant writings as possible into a cohesive novel-length re-telling. Instead, we have multiple versions of the tale in varying states accompanied by an in-depth analysis of how the story evolved over a span of 50 odd years in the author's life. While it's certainly interesting to see how the tale of Beren and Lúthien changed over time – and Christopher Tolkien's commentary between the different versions is very readable – I ultimately found this to be a little too scholarly for my tastes. I do have a passing interest in how Tolkien's key works changed and evolved prior to their publications, of course, but to me these early versions of his stories are not the "proper" versions and therefore aren't Middle-earth canon. It's why the multi-volume History of Middle-earth series, which examines the development of Tolkien's fictional realm and its key work, The Lord of the Rings, has never appealed. Furthermore, an awful lot of Beren and Lúthien is taken up with the sprawling poem, The Lay of Leithian, which I found a total slog to get through. I guess I'm just not terribly interested in the minutia of the evolution of Tolkien's works and would rather enjoy the stories as originally published. That said, I am glad that I read this once because "Of Beren and Lúthien" is one of my favourite Tolkien stories, but this isn't a book that I can imagine myself reading again and, as a result, I'm likely to donate it to a charity shop. Your mileage may vary, of course. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 10, 2024 5:01:01 GMT -5
Beren and Lúthien by J. R. R. Tolkien (edited by Christopher Tolkien). I'm a big fan of J. R. R. Tolkien's two main works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but I've always struggled with the, frankly, almost completely impenetrable The Silmarillion. An exception to that would be a chapter in The Silmarillion titled "Of Beren and Lúthien", which tells the epic love story of an immortal elven princess and a mortal man who triumph over incredible odds, only for the tale to end in tragedy. This chapter is one of the most readable parts of the book and it was also a story that was particularly close to its author's heart, due to it having been partly inspired by his love for his wife Edith and their own romance. Unfortunately, this stand-alone, full-length book version of Beren and Lúthien from 2017 isn't quite what I was expecting it to be. I thought it was going to be an attempt on Christopher Tolkien's part to incorporate as much of his father's relevant writings as possible into a cohesive novel-length re-telling. Instead, we have multiple versions of the tale in varying states accompanied by an in-depth analysis of how the story evolved over a span of 50 odd years in the author's life. While it's certainly interesting to see how the tale of Beren and Lúthien changed over time – and Christopher Tolkien's commentary between the different versions is very readable – I ultimately found this to be a little too scholarly for my tastes. I do have a passing interest in how Tolkien's key works changed and evolved prior to their publications, of course, but to me these early versions of his stories are not the "proper" versions and therefore aren't Middle-earth canon. It's why the multi-volume History of Middle-earth series, which examines the development of Tolkien's fictional realm and its key work, The Lord of the Rings, has never appealed. Furthermore, an awful lot of Beren and Lúthien is taken up with the sprawling poem, The Lay of Leithian, which I found a total slog to get through. I guess I'm just not terribly interested in the minutia of the evolution of Tolkien's works and would rather enjoy the stories as originally published. That said, I am glad that I read this once because "Of Beren and Lúthien" is one of my favourite Tolkien stories, but this isn't a book that I can imagine myself reading again and, as a result, I'm likely to donate it to a charity shop. Your mileage may vary, of course.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 5, 2024 23:09:59 GMT -5
How does everyone In forum read omnibus’s? Do you take off the dust jacket ? I don't take off the dust jacket, no. I usually either read them laying down with the book on the floor or I read them in bed, sitting up against the headboard with my knees pulled up to provide something for the book to lean on as I read. Generally omnibuses aren't terribly convenient to read though....good value, yes, convenient to read, no. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 1, 2024 8:01:54 GMT -5
I really want to get to more of these, but yet again I'm out gigging this Sunday late afternoon and early evening. Then I'm off out for dinner with my wife as it's our Wedding Anniversary. So no can do. Let me be the first to wish you a Happy Anniversary, albeit a little early!
Thanks, TP. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on May 31, 2024 21:32:01 GMT -5
I really want to get to more of these, but yet again I'm out gigging this Sunday late afternoon and early evening. Then I'm off out for dinner with my wife as it's our Wedding Anniversary. So no can do.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on May 31, 2024 21:10:26 GMT -5
Really glad to see you undertake this thread Wildfire2099...and thanks for your kind words. I'll definitely be following along and no doubt commenting, as I own a whole lot of the Dark Horse SW stuff and really enjoyed most of it.
One question: will you be reviewing each series issue-by-issue or will you do, for example, Dark Empire all in one review?
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on May 30, 2024 20:59:16 GMT -5
Sorry to hear you're under the weather, Slam_Bradley. I've had COVID twice as well and my second time was much less nasty than the first. Hope you start to feel a bit better soon, my friend. Take care of yourself. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on May 27, 2024 23:44:36 GMT -5
I’m gonna be “that” guy, at the end of the Hex Series, did he go back to his time period ? Jonah Hex returning to the 19th Century wasn't actually shown in the Hex series, but the final issue ends with Jonah discovering his own taxidermied corpse in a fun fair as a macarbe exhibition. He therefore realises that he will escape the future and get back to his own time eventually. Jonah ending his days as a stuffed carnival side-show exhibit was something that was first established in DC Special Series #16, the Jonah Hex Spectacular, from 1978. |
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Post by Confessor on May 26, 2024 20:29:01 GMT -5
Doug Ingle, lead vocalist, organist and songwriter with Iron Butterfly of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" fame, has died at age 78. Iron Butterfly were an important element in moving the '60s counter-culture's music away from the psychedelia and whimsy of 1966 and 1967 towards something much heavier and more menacing. The long version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" from the album of the same name is heavy, trippy, spooky, and really something else. www.billboard.com/music/music-news/doug-ingle-dead-iron-butterfly-singer-organist-dies-obituary-1235693242/ |
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