ohtani's jacket
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Posts posted by ohtani's jacket
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I finished Chester Brown's Yummy Fur series. Personally, I preferred the Ed the Happy Clown era to his autobiographical stories, but Brown was making up the Ed story as he went along and for some reason he grew frustrated with it. You get the sense that Chester was always a bit restless as a cartoonist, as he began experimenting heavily with panel layout as the series progressed (to the chagrin of some readers who didn't appreciate the small number of panels per page.) I enjoyed some of the autobiographical stories from his childhood. I'm sure a lot of fans our age can identify with trying to get their hands on a copy of Playboy each month and then figuring out where in the hell they're gonna hide it. I also liked his adolescent tales of dealing with coming of age and interacting with girls. The Drawn and Quarterly publisher, Chris Oliveros, convinced Chester to end Yummy Fur, which led to the ill-received Underwater series. Yummy Fur was one of the first alternative comics I was drawn to as a teenager, discovering it through the back issue boxes at my local comic shop. I was especially drawn to the Gospel adaptations where a grumpy and cantankerous Jesus spits fire at everyone. Looking back on it now, it was quite a bold choice for an alternative cartoonist to adapt the New Testament, but a natural thing to do for Brown to pursue as he was interested in alternative Gospel sources. From a comics standpoint, the Gospel adaptations represent his best cartooning work from the period, IMO, especially his Matthew.
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I finally read Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan's Night Force. It's not bad, but it's not surprising that it struggled to find an audience. It probably would have done better a few years later when the direct-sales market was more established and there was a larger audience for mature readers books, however the biggest problem was that the cast of characters simply wasn't as interesting as the Tomb of Dracula cast, especially the Baron. If Wolfman's intention was to have the Night Force itself be a rotating cast of characters, then the Baron needed to be as charismatic and interesting as Dracula, but he didn't hold anywhere near as much appeal.
The art was somewhat inconsistent. Lately, I have a hard time unseeing some of the criticisms that the likes of John Byrne made about Colan's artwork in the 80s, even if those comments stemmed from a ridiculous "us vs. them" mentality that Byrne seemed to have at the time, and later forgot about when it became one of "them." There are a lot of wonky elements to Colan's artwork at times. Some of it is no doubt intentional as Colan was always a fan of using interesting camera angles or perspectives, but sometimes there are some odd looking panels that aren't touched up or fixed by the inker.
I can't say I really missed the series once it came to an end, and I don't have much desire to read the two volumes that followed, however I will praise it as a valiant effort to try something new.
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I finished Scalped yesterday. I wasn't as thrilled with the final arc as some people seem to be, but overall I thought it was one of the best series I've read from the modern era, which, for my purposes, encompasses 2000-2023. What I liked about it most was that it dealt with a subject matter that, to the best of my knowledge, hadn't been addressed before in comics, at least not in a full blown series. That's a goal I wish more creators who strive toward instead of giving us their latest take on fascist superheroes. It's a shame that the TV series wasn't picked up, as it probably would have made an even more powerful TV show than a comic, especially if led by a full indigenous cast.
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One of the best bullet topes ever.
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Well, that's a crappy start to the year on both accounts.
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Highest ppg by a player in their 20th season:
LeBron James 28.5
Kobe Bryant 17.6
Dirk Nowitzki 12.0
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 10.1
Vince Carter 5.4
Robert Parish 3.9 -
I stumbled upon this blog site looking for information about the backstage fight between Kandori and Hokuto at Big Egg Universe. The blogger often includes excerpts from interviews and books when doing his match reviews -- http://konjyaku.blog.jp/
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I would'n't have expected LeBron to average 28.5 in his 20th season at age 37/38. Admittedly, his average is inflated because of Anthony Davis' constant injuries, but nevertheless, those are incredible numbers for LeBron's age. John Havlicek once said he wasn't completely surprised that Wilt scored 100 since every scorer has a night where they double their average. I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that LeBron scores 50 this season, and who knows how much longer he continues to play at this high level of scoring? LeBron doesn't tend to put up big scores that often, but if the Lakers are close to the play-in spot and they don't have AD, who knows?
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LeBon will break that record.
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I quite liked the early issues of Jemm, Son of Saturn, where Jemm first arrives on Earth, and Colan is being inked by Klaus Janson, but the story lost its way when it became a space epic, and I didn't think there was enough story to justify a 12 issue maxi-series. I mostly read it because I'm interested in Colan's 80s output. There seemed to be a huge difference between street level Colan and outer space Colan. I can't really claim that the Jemm character is all that interesting, either. He seems kind of redundant in a world where there's already a Martian Manhunter.
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The Hansen/Williams hoss fight was a lot of fun. Has anyone shown this to JR? He might crack a smile for the first time in 20 years. Is this the best Steve Williams singles match up until this point? It's gotta be close. Loved Williams as the aggressor, especially that part where Hansen is prone on the mat and Williams is screaming, "Come on!" at him. When Stan was willing to sell for a guy, he was one of the best sellers of all-time. He'd probably tell you he was just copying Terry Funk, but the way he stumbled and tripped over every time he tried to escape or catch a breather was sublime. He was as reckless with his own body as he was with his lariats. That bump through the ropes after he missed the lariat was something else. And the finish... Jesus, he took off Williams' head. Has there ever been a better finish than the Western lariat?
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I watched Kobashi/Williams. It was weird seeing a young Kobashi as the Kobashi I've been watching lately is from when he can barely walk and works epic main events based on charisma and strained facial expressions. It was clear that he didn't come from a wrestling background when they tried to do that amateur stuff at the beginning. The match followed a fairly typical AJPW pattern. Kobashi improved by leaps and bounds during the early 90s, and I'd have to say he wasn't that great in singles in 1990 (six-mans is another story), but interestingly, Doc also improved as a singles worker due to All Japan. His work here in '90 was a far cry from how good he'd become in '93-94. That said, they worked a decent match. Doc had to dig deep to put Kobashi away, Kobashi put up the kind of fight that Japanese fans like to see, and he grew a bit more as a wrestler and an athlete.
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I was a bit disappointed with Dan Clowe's Lloyd Llewellyn series, though suitably impressed that he went from that series to the mind-bending brilliance of Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron and the rest of Eightball.
Even more disappointing was Six from Sirius, which I'd have to classify as a dud. It's one of those sci-fi comics where the author tries to explain everything through expository dialogue instead of captions, which made it confusing and difficult to follow. There also wasn't a ton of story to fill a four issue limited series. Gulacy's art felt a bit static to me and didn't have the level of composition I've come to expect from him. I'd be interested in hearing from a fan of this series. -
Attaboy, Matty. I will try to watch some of these matches over the holidays when I have more time.
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Gotham Central = great series. Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker reimagine the Gotham Central Police Department as The Wire, or more accurately, Homicide: Life on the Streets. Spectacular ending too. Best Bat-book I've read in a long time.
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I reached the end of the line for Ms. Tree, IMO one of the best characters of the 1980s and one of the best female characters in the history of comics. I'll admit that I preferred the stories where she fought the Muerta family more than the stories taken from the lastest issue of Newsweek magazine, but it was a tremendous run right up until the end. I'm feeling a bit wistful wondering what happened to the characters in their lives after the final special.
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Maki Ueda was the other half of the Beauty Pair.
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I'm almost two years in Mike Baron's Punisher run and it's just so... episodic. There's no overarching storyline. Nothing of consequence seems to happen. Even Microchip's kid dying didn't have any long term ramifications. And for a title that was presumably hot at the time, they didn't seem to give two craps about who was drawing it, handing out assignments to young talent like Whilce Portacio and Erik Larsen. I'll tell you one other thing: Jim Shooter may have been the guy who created the mandate about characters re-introducing themselves to the reader each issue, but Tom DeFalco continued to fly the banner high. It amuses me at times the parts of the story where Baron slots it in. I do kind of dig reading a comic from 1989, though, which was my first full year of reading comics. And I laughed at the issue where the Punisher goes to Australia and Baron tries to paint King's Cross as the most deadly place on earth.
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I also finished X-Statix. The series never really lived up to that incredible first issue of X-Force, but it was still a lot of fun and a fairly daring thing for Marvel to publish. The best thing about it was that it allowed Mike Allred to play around with the Marvel characters. The series had a Giffen/DeMatteis feel to it at times, which I liked, but it was a bit too "on the nose" with its satire at times. That, and the fact that I don't really give a crap about celebrity culture, so it didn't really wow me in that respect. But mostly it was really hard to top that debut issue.
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I finished Charles Burns’ Black Hole, which was published over a lengthy period of time from 1995 to 2005, first by Kitchen Sink Press, and then when they went out of business, picked up by Fantagraphics. Darker in tone than a lot of Burns’ early work, it retains the elements of surrealism you’d expect from Burns’ work but without the quirky, offbeat humour. Set in the 70s, it tells the story of a group of teenagers who catch a mysterious STD that causes strange mutations. It’s basically a metaphor for adolescence, sexual awakening, and coming of age, and largely focused on atmospherics over plot. The most striking feature of the book is the black and white art. Burns won the Harvey Award for Best Inker several times during the book’s publication, which is impressive given the black and white work of other artists during the time frame. The story isn’t as weird as it may seem at a glance, and the topic isn’t as weighty as a lot of other graphic novels at the time, but as a feat of cartooning, it rates as a seminal work among 80s and 90s cartoonists. Definitely worth a read for people who enjoy 90s comics as much as Ido. Burns, like many of his contemporaries, shifted to graphic novels after Black Hole was completed, and thus it represents one of the last floppy series of perhaps my favorite era of alternative comics.
Paul Pope's Batman: Year 100 is okay. I prefer the projects Pope did for Vertigo (Heavy Liquid and 100%), and I actually kind of like the Batman stories he did in his issue of Solo more. Year 100 was all right as far as alternative cartoonist doing a mainstream superhero goes, but it didn't really add much to the Batman experience. Personally, I'm not that interested in seeing Batman in the future. I prefer modern reworkings of old Golden Age stories to future, Elseworlds stories. Pope draws a very distinctive Batman, though. He really plays up the bat element. He even has Batman use fake teeth to make himself look like more of a creature. I can understand why the series has its fans, but I'm far more interested in hunting down THB.
I haven't read enough from this century to tell whether Asterios Polyp is the best work that's been produced thus far, but it's a major feat in cartooning. I think I may have mentioned that I was disappointed when David Mazzucchelli ditched penciling mainstream superhero comics to become an alternative cartoonist, largely because the change in style was so drastic, but it led a masterpiece. Mazzucchelli is one of the few artists who can claim to have created important works at both ends of the spectrum.
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I may have been too hard on The Authority. I'm still not fond of late 90s superhero comics, but it's better than I gave it credit for. Hitch's art is beautiful even if it is at the forefront of the shift towards big panels and sparse dialogue.
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Crazy that it happened the same night Darius Garland became the sixth player in NBA history with 50-plus points, 10-plus 3-pointers and five-plus assists in a game. Scored 27 in the fourth.
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Crime and Punishment: Marshal Law Takes Manhattan is a 48 page one-shot that offers us Patty Mills' irreverent take on some of the most famous Marvel superheroes. Originally, Mills wanted to use the actual characters, but Marvel wouldn't let him. I think I prefer it that way as it lets O'Neill cut loose with some unhinged versions of Marvel's heroes. The story is standard "superheroes are bad" fare with a generous helping of bloods and guts. O'Neill's artwork is every bit as demented as you'd hope, and Mills provides some zingers, especially if you're a longtime fan of the Marvel supes.
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I read the original Marshal Law limited series last month. It kind of fell apart in the final two issues, but in the wake of Kevin O'Neill's passing, I'd rather emphasize the great artwork. I really liked the coloring too. I'm mostly used to reading O'Neil's work in black and white. The color made his art pop on Marshal Law. RIP, Kev. Torquemada is still one of my all-time favorite villains.
Shine On - Musicians RIP Thread
in MUSIC
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RIP Tom Verlaine. It's been a while since I listened to Television, but I spun a couple of his solo records today and boogied away.