Obligatory Snakes on a Plane Post!
Actually, that’s a lie, as I didn’t actually see any muthafuckin’ snakes on any muthafuckin’ planes, and so I’ll be talking about another movie entirely.
I was going to see it. Really, I was. I’d heard it was fun, and crazy, and all that it was promised to be.
But it didn’t happen. My friends and I thought about going out to see it… and instead stayed at home and played video games. Personally I’d like to think that, deep down inside, just knowing that a movie named “Snakes on a Plane” exists is enough.
Anyway,what I did recently see was “V for Vendetta.”
I know, I know, it came out months ago. But, given my usual lackadaisical nature, it took me this long to get around to watching it.
And, having done so, I must confess to being extremely glad I never read the comic book.
Not because I think the comic would be bad, no. Nor because I thought the movie was bad – the opposite, rather.
I liked the movie a hell of a lot. I thought it was fantastic. And I am grateful that I didn’t have any preconceived notions that would have detracted from the experience.
I know that it is a different story than the graphic novel of the same name. I know that, from what I’ve heard, it manages to capture some elements of the original while betraying others. I think it is safe to say that both of them are exceptional works, but also fundamentally different ones.
It is a dilemma. It is hard to appreciate something derivative in its own right when one has familiarity with the original. I’ve had it happen to me before – even with Batman Begins, a phenomenal movie, somewhere deep inside there was a tiny fanboy nitpicking over the pettiest little details.
I can’t think of any easy solution. In the case of V, I saw the derivation without seeing the original – but does that mean I should now avoid the original work itself? And if I read it, will that experience be itself affected by expectations from the movie?
I could, similarly, avoid any adaptations of books and comics and other things I am a fan of – but doesn’t that defeat the entire point of their creation? That they are created for the fans? If I do watch them, how do I toggle off that switch that obsesses over changes, and if I do so, should I truly be trying to turn off my previous appreciation for the series in order to adequately enjoy the adaptation?
Well, I seem to have a lot of questions, and a significant dearth of answers. Maybe, as usual, I’m overthinking things.
Maybe I should leave such philosophical film questions to the masters of the art, and stick with watching planes, and the snakes perched quite merrily upon them.
Some quick thoughts
And… I’m back, and mostly recovered.
I had the good fortune to have my Narbonic books arrive (the mail package had a gerbil drawn on it! How cool is that?), but since my last post was on Narbonic, I’ll refrain from excessive exaltation of them.
I’ll likely spend tomorrow catching up with all the things on my mind – for now, I noticed that Modern Tales had added a few new names to its roster. Some are new to me, but look intriguing – but the two I currently read (Anywhere but Here and Irregular Webcomic) leave me with mixed feelings.
I think it’s a good move for Irregular Webcomic, mainly because he is also staying at his old site. Giving the complexity of his archives, and the need for something more robust than the less-then-accessible system MT uses, I think losing the readability it previously had would have been a mistake. But by preserving it, and potentially attracting new readership via MT, everyone comes out ahead.
I’m less sure for Anywhere but Here, but aside from the similar downsides of a weaker archiving system, I don’t think it is a bad move. Now that I ponder it for a bit, it does feel like a strip that is certainly at home in the MT community. It will certainly be nice to see some familiar faces on Modern Tales, and I wonder if they have some more such strips up their sleave.
I suppose it was inevitable…
…but that’s still just so sad.
Continuing with the brevity…
Bad News: I am sick. (Fortunately, this is only really bad news… to me.)
Good News (for everyone!): You can now cleanse your immortal soul, you dirty heathen, with Cigarro & Cerveja!
So go – immerse yourself in the bizarre little world (which happens to be a lot like ours) of these wacky characters. I’d indulge in more exuberant recountings of the strip, but… yeah, kinda sick. Which was surprising, as while I’ve had some ups and downs, I haven’t had a standard old cold in several years now, and now was not the best time for it.
Bah. As long as it is gone by DragonCon, I won’t be angry. If it should not, however… well, I’ll probably rail in impotent anger against forces beyond my control. Oh well.
Anyway! Cigarro & Cerveja! Go! Read! Buy! Exclamation Points!
A Short Announcement
So Scott Kurtz is currently running a beta site of his new PvP webpage.
Now, see, that’s pro.
A quick rundown on my first impressions of it:
It feels a bit more busy than the previous page, but nothing feels outright unnecessary – and the clutter is below the strip, so doesn’t get in the way of plain and simple comic viewing.
The navigation of the archives looks like it will take a bit of getting used to – but seems insanely more powerful. No easy link to the first strip, sadly, though any half-motivated user can find their way to it without much trouble.
The tag feature? Awesome. Prone to abuse, but hopefully fans will be able to keep themselves in check.
Big ol’ cast page, and a little guide for new users. That’s a nice touch.
A few downsides, but overall it seems very impressive. Props to his team for a kick-ass new site!
Phoenix Rising Prologue: Slice of Evil
“Also, yes, this is the start of the next Oasis story.”
Don’t have much time to chat today, but thought this was worth pointing out. I am 96% confident that this upcoming storyline will rock my socks off, if only because an Oasis story likely means a Torg story, and that’s what the readership has been waiting for since That Which Redeems.
Abrams is a clever man. The announcement is enough to make me forgive him – this time – for subjugating us to two weeks of stick-figure torment.
Five things that merit mention on a friday.
1) After my lament yesterday that AMD hadn’t yet returned, we now discover it will be starting back up on Monday. Awesome. Also, Squidi plans to make his place on the internet on a clean slate, with the past left behind – that’s a motive I can definitely get on board with!
2) Gaming Guardians has dropped a big old plot twist on us, and is now going on hiatus for a month! Agony!
The plot twist itself really turned me off at first. We have what appears to be Radical, our heroine, turning into Tartarus, a crazy, and extremely powerful, villain.
Some hunting in the forums revealed that it is likely that Tartarus is merely possessing Radical. This is good. That other plot twist? That Radical, having been driven insane by her inability to save the life of her friends from the villains, has now become that very force which drove her to the brink?
That is a plenty fantastic plot twist, and was quite awesome when it was used last time.
So, I’ve got my fingers crossed on there being some other explanation at work here. Only time will tell – lots of time, in fact, given the hiatus coming up.
3) Penny Arcade again features the dread spectre of continuity – and this time, the normal cast and crew seem likely to be bit players in the scene. That’s kinda nifty.
4) Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal has been cranking out two comics a day. Damn. The man’s a machine.
5) Finally, Gisèle Lagacé over at P&A steered us towards No Rest for the Wicked. Given that I’m still on the fairy tale kick from the last few months, I devoured it pretty rapidly, and recommend others do the same.
Lessons Learned
Sean Howard, producer of a variety of pixelated webcomics, has recently returned to the field.
He left the webcomics field just over a year ago, due both to having a little one enter the family – and, of course, the fact that his webcomics career was plagued by dramadramadrama. I won’t go into the who, hows, or whats, since I’m sure everyone and their kid sister can dig them up from the archives of the interweb.
Instead, I’ll state that I was sad when he left, because drama aside, he produced a damn fine strip. Enjoyable and entertaining plot, combined with pixel art that wasn’t incomprehensible, made for a charmingly good strip, if not one of the web’s heavy hitters.
As such, when he announced his return, I was pretty cheered by the news. Unfortunately, A Modest Destiny hasn’t quite yet resumed – instead, we’ve been treated to the Athiest, the Agnostic and the Asshole.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not commenting on the quality of these strips. (As a matter of fact, I found quite a bit of amusement in his latest one, largely due to pondering how the Heisenberg uncertainty principle applied to Wikipedia.)
So it isn’t that they are bad comics, persay. The problem for me, rather, is that they are political comics.
I don’t know why it is, but the fact remains – I have quite a bit of trouble reading comics with heavy opinions. It doesn’t matter if I agree with the opinions or not – Sore Thumbs turns me off as much as Winger.
Is it that I can’t stand listening to an artist’s opinions? I don’t think that’s it – there have been plenty of strips I’ve seen influenced by some measure of personal interest that haven’t driven me away. It may just be that when the strip focused on a topic that I’ve seen a hundred times before, it just isn’t able to trigger any function other than disdain, no matter how valid the point or how well it is presented.
In any case, it leaves me all the more eagerly awaiting the return of AMD – and the sincere hope that he will be able to simply re-enter the webcomics world, update his strips and do his thing, and avoid any drama (real or imagined) taking away from the joy of it all.
Recognition
I lost track of Sylvan Migdal after he wrapped up Ascent, and only recently stumbled upon his current works.
Spork is just a collection of, well, random stories, and while some of them are a bit less focused, they tend to have his usual charm.
Which is to say, they have that element he is supremely good at – blending the slightly surreal with aspects we all recognize in our daily lives.
For myself? The multi-colored eating algorithm, and the acute agony of trying to ride a bus, are so damn true I couldn’t believe it.
That’s how you connect with an audience. If you want to draw them into your world, nothing does it quite so well as making them realize it is their world too.
Public Service Announcement
I think Irregular Webcomic may be in the running for the coolest webcomics auction ever.
Morgan-Mar is auctioning off a notebook in which he has recorded the scripts and planning of hundreds of strips, including some never actually seen.
It’s not a shiny piece of art you can stick on your wall. It’s not a neat little t-shirt with a slogan that may or may not be connected to the comic.
But it is a connection directly to the artist. A direct line into the thoughts that go into his work. You can’t buy that kind of connection…
…oh wait. I guess you can.
Damn Good Comics 