Archive for the ‘comics’ tag
Not a twenty, I don’t think…
Mom just swung by the office, and while I know she’ll want to kill me for posting this view of her, I have to post this, my favorite of the pictures I just shot. But here’s the thing: I’m shocked at the difference in quality between the camera I just lost, and this the backup one. The ability to handle interior light conditions is vastly different. Now given, this current camera is about four or five years old. It’s just that I can really see the difference in lens quality between it and the Lumix.
I might have to start toting around my DSLR. I’m turning into one of those photographers I always used to crack wise about.
Over on The Onion’s AV Club, I see that Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson is giving a rare interview. I may have said this before here, but I don’t really care for that strip, which provokes passionate devotion among many of my friends. Some of it is beautifully drawn, but I just never thought that the writing was much more than a few stock situations reshuffled, and I was pretty much repulsed by Calvin, who struck me as a thug in training, unredeemed by his flights of fantasy. It’s Krazy Kat, where you’re mostly being asked to root for Ignatz. But then I always hated Dennis the Menace, too. Maybe I see Calvin as exemplary of the boys that used to frighten and make me nervous as a kid: boys who delighted in smashing stuff and running around. I suppose we are meant to see him as creative, and rebellious, but I just don’t get it.
Tags: Calvin and Hobbes, camera, comics, criticism, daily photo, mom, photographyRelated posts
Say your prayers, villain!
Shoulders aching. It’s been a bumbling weekend. A little sketching got done. Things interrupted other things. Saturday’s weather was simply wretched: sloppy not snow not rain, falling so slowly that it didn’t count as sleet either. But its damp and cold penetrated everywhere, especially for under-dressed me. I finished up reading The Year’s Best Science Fiction 14, but it was probably wrong to read it all at one go. I think the editors favor a kind or story that hits very predictable marks, and by then end of the anthology I was too often anticipating the plot twists to b e able to enjoy the writing.
Lately I’ve been trying to gingerly re-approach the things that were important to me as a kid: science fiction and comics and it’s a little bit rough going with both. There’s so much out there, and as in everything else, so much of it isn’t very good. I left comic fandom in part because of fatigue over drawn out punchfests that padded stories into multi issue affairs with very little actual payoff. In trying to pick them up again I’m seeing the same thing at work.
Of course genres are only as good as their individual practitioners, and my sample has been pretty small, so I shouldn’t really leap to conclusions. Still I’m much happier reading obscure kiddie comics from the fifties than today’s superhero offerings. And learning more from the drawings, too.
The new book is Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us, which is the kind of light non fiction that I love, but which always makes me faintly embarrassed, like I should know all this this stuff already, should have read the tougher science books that he is popularizing here. Truth is, it’s like a science fiction book itself, with the bones exposed: post apocalyptic, right? I’m comforted by the notion of the earth being able to continue on its way without the noisome presence of human beings, and even though artists are supposed to be in the immortality business, making things to outlast ourselves, I’m happy to contemplate the oblivion which awaits all of my works.
Tags: books, comics, daily photo, fandom, food, friends, weatherRelated posts
I saw it in Archie…
I left before the jump and Big Link Friday….
Jeff offered me a ticket to go and see the new Tosca at the Met. I caught most of the “controversial” moments that led to the opening night crowd booing the director, but was nodding out despite the lovely, stirring singing and so I made my exit at the second intermission. The production? There were definitely weird bits, but it was a pretty run of the mill “updating” in opera sense: sets were pared back and symbolic rather than illusionistic costumes the same, and there seemed to be little faith in a line of the libretto or the presence of a singer being able to tell us about the character or even hold our attention by just, you know, singing. So everyone has to act out their emotions which might be OK if it wasn’t also coupled with a strange directorial idea that people should wander back and forth across the stage at all times. Nobody seemed to have a direct idea of why they were going to a particular spot on stage or why they should stay there once they got there (unless they got killed. Then they stayed put). The parts that freaked out the Met’s audience? A guy embraces a statue of the virgin. The same guy has three chicks at his house and fondles them a bit (not even second base here). Pretty thin broth, if you ask me especially after seeing things like this, but maybe people are hungry for something to angry about.
One other little oddity about the performance: the singer playing (or the player singing?) Scarpia (statue groper), was suffering from a cold. Before the first curtain someone came out from the wings and asked us to indulge the iffy performance he anticipated giving. Then at the second curtain the same guy came out and announced that while the same person would be providing the action of the character, a second singer would be providing the voice. No understudies for the role? It was a system that actually worked fine, with the relief baritone discreetly placed stage right at a music stand. Of course this is what happens with puppet opera, which leads me to think, why not spare opera singers the trouble of having to trundle all over the stage, wrangle horses and jump off of parapets, swim in chilly polluted German Rivers, or descend into hell entirely? They could sit snugly in the pit with the rest of the orchestra, and stunt people could engage in all the arduous action, or have chimps do it. Everyone likes that, except Peta, and I’m pretty sure they already hate opera.
Instead of worrying about fictional villains engaging in mild petting, or elephants having to do eight shows weekly, maybe we should think back to a time when people were worried about Big jerks from outside of our solar system having non-consensual tentacle sex with Gaia. That’s a link to Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine, one of my other new loves. I’m finding that now that I check in with feedly so much, I’ve got a window onto all of these other amazing caches of drawing and design. I’m going to try to take some time on Fridays to point you towards them.
Like today I stumbled across this:
Which is part of a flickr set of book covers by Romek Marber. A great use of two color printing. I’m easily seduced by this sort of design. Here’s an article on his role in the redesign of Penguin’s line of paperbacks in the early Sixties.
Just typing the word “controversy” above made me unable to proceed further without listening to some early Prince. The world was better when everything was purple.
At some point the Term “Bag Lady” morphed into “Homeless Person” (“Bag Man” never had the same traction as a catchphrase, maybe because of its previous meaning as the guy who carries the loot in a heist. “Squeegee Man”, however, had the same sort of life) but if the term hadn’t fallen out of fashion the bag ladies’ union might have been interested in this invention. Insane unitasker? or ergonomic gift to the disadvantaged?
Speaking of street life: tomorrow is the Vendy Awards out in Flushing, but don’t bother going because they’re sold out. I’ll be interested to see if my current local fave The Biryani Cart can capture their second consecutive win (you can tell their energy is being put into street cooking and not web design).
Maybe you’re feeling angry and anxious and want to put hurt on somebody in general. Don’t do it! Most people don’t deserve a sock on the kisser. Except for the few that do, and I’ve found that looking over those few getting their just desserts is enough to tide me over until I calm down again so you might want to bookmark Hitler getting punched for your bit of vicarious violence.
And that’s enough for now.
Tags: big link friday, comics, daily photo, design, friends, links, music, new york in black and white, new york life, operaRelated posts
This needed to be in color…
Hell has many minions. If you were confounded by your lack of twitter, facebook and lj on Thursday, or don’t like being defriended in the mist of LiveJournal drama, think how this guy feels. It must give one pause to have enemies that devoted. And it’s interesting to note how delicate and interconnected all of this communication technology is. Imagine someone bringing the phone system to a halt because they didn’t like a conversation someone was having in another country.
Almost saw the HP movie yesterday afternoon, but bought comics instead. Now I want cute animal comics from the fifties and sixties please. If you have any lying around that you don’t want, let me know.I like a world where all of nature’s creations wear gloves with three seams up the back.
Late last night I couldn’t stop playing “Can’t Buy a Thrill” especially “Dirty Work”. I think the neighbors were at their limit. I go through phases with Steely Dan where I play them endlessly, and then find everything about them repulsive. For the most part I think that the heart trumps the mind in music, but what if your heart is so cynical and knowing that it’s just a little mind in and of itself?
Tags: comics, daily photo, lj, musicRelated posts
Gloaming or other people’s blogs are better than mine…
I’ve lived in my current place for almost seven years and last night I did something for the first time: sat on the stoop with a friend in the twilight. Chris came by for a chat, and since we’d tried to pull together a dinner date but it had fallen through, I hauled a couple of chairs down and we sat out in the midsummer warmth and watched the moon rise. It was a lovely antidote to some of the prickliness I’d been encountering earlier in the day. At one point, a little girl named Fantasia came by on her scooter with the flashing LEDs embedded in the wheels. She was out with her mom, passing out fliers for the upcoming block party.
Chris and I hung out there for about an hour and a half, and then, refreshed, I came inside and worked on some drawing.
Truth is life offers us all the respite we need, if we’re willing to look for it.
Also LJ continues to surprise: I’ve recently run across a new bunch of comic artists on here posting great stuff – you should add them to your friends list:
Finkenstein, whose strip is NSFW, but is always under a cut.
And especially this one which made me SHUMBATD (Snort Hard Under My Breath At The Desk).
Tags: comics, daily photo, friends, lj, my blockRelated posts
Rodents is rodents…
Typing at Cosi. Quiet strolling through Brooklyn has given way to the crush of post-work Union Square. Their coffee is never as good as I remember it. Spent a little time in Forbidden Planet, which has greatly expanded their independent/zine comic section. I’m struck by how much intriguing self published stuff there is out there right now.Didn’t buy a whole lot however, given what my finances are like and also the fact that while I want to support their efforts I’d also like to direct some money to smaller stores like Bergen Street Comics which provide more direct support to the artists.
I also spent the earlier part of today adding some things to the Wordpress blog including this scan and a couple of links. Of special note is the one to the blog of the Annandale Dream Gazette, an enterprise initiated by poet Lynn Behrendt. Lynn and I were roommates for a couple of years while I was a Bard, and the gazette has an illustrious list of dreamer/contributers.
Because it’s a Monday afternoon and because I’m in Union Square, it’s hard not to fall into my reflexive, post therapy frame of mind. After all, I spent some ten years coming to weekly sessions in this neighborhood. I wonder what my therapist would say if I was telling him about my current situation and frame of mind. Probably something about the extent to which I castigate myself. Ugh, this chair is very stingy with the back support. And now I have a hankering for some fruit. Maybe it’s time to head off to the greenmarket.
See how avoidance works?
Tags: Annandale Dream Gazette, comics, daily photo, my block, therapy, wordpressRelated posts
More from LA and who’s watching?
Don’t you want to be like him?
Today started so fresh and clean in the weather department. And it’s turning greyer by the minute. I’m relieved to have some time around the house. Almost every sheet I own has been been washed. Still a bunch of other clothes to work my way through and I should also do some weeding of my various outfits. Last night I had an online exchange with a friend that unexpectedly turned revealing and tender. What a gift. He talked about me becoming more myself. Is that the trajectory I’ve been on for the past few years? It’s all muddled from where I sit.
I’m trying to work up the enthusiasm for Watchmen, but it’s not forthcoming. I only found out about the books about ten years ago when people were insisting on their importance. My memory of them is that they were intriguing but not epoch-making. So I’m not a first generation fan, and I’m not sure I want to sit through three hours of something big and shiny that doesn’t really matter to me. As a result of the past year’s hoopla about the movie I’ve been trying to locate my copy of the trade paperback for the past ten weeks or so. (That should tell you something about the state of my apartment if a book could hide out in it for more than three months) I’ve been thinking about comics a lot lately though, partly through listening to the “Comic Book Queers” podcast and checking out the comic reviews on the Onion. I’m making my way through Scott McCloud’s Zot at the moment, thanks to the latter, but it isn’t doing much for me, neither on the drawing level nor that of the writing.
If there there was a 1980’s comic adaptation that I would geek out over, with all the attendant anxiety about casting and whether they could “get it right”, it would be Jaime Hernandez’ Hoppers stories from Love and Rockets. I’ve just read two recent collections of the newer books and my admiration continues unabated, as well as my massive crush on Margarita Luisa Chascarrillo. Reading those stories back to back with being in Los Angelese again puts me in a nostalgic mood.
Tags: comics, daily photo, los angeles
