COMICS: Wed. 12/15/04 continued

Girl Genius: I love Phil Foglio, and have ever since the days of "What's New?" in Dragon magazine and his Myth Adventures illustrations. This comic continues his winning streak, with great humor, great adventure, and his seemingly endless parade of fantastically inventive creatures and machines. (This issue featured an excellently chilling demon horse, and some tremendously cool giant spiders.) The world in Girl Genius is huge and fascinating, and the overriding mystery of the Heterodyne family is engaging. But (there's always a but)... when the title switched over from B&W to color (about six issues ago), the artwork got a lot rougher, sketchier; it looks like the colors are being applied directly to the pencils, with no inking stage in between. Am I wrong here? And the backgrounds being used during this forest storyline are photographs, which tends to pull me out of the art. Not photographs traced with pencils or inks, as I've seen in many comics: just undoctored color photographs of forest scenes, with the characters laid over the top. It has the exact reverse desired effect on me -- it makes the art look less realistic; when the cartoony characters are contrasted with the photo backgrounds, it's jarring to the eye. But hey, if it's a time-saving device for Phil, and it means I can get a reliably on-time supply of Krosp, Emperor of the Cats, then I guess I'll take it and be glad!

Ex Machina: Love the art, love the story, love the characters. The sequence in the subway was truly disturbing (although, and I'm probably not alone on this, I could've done without the use of the term "gay-ass" -- there's such a plethora of other wonderfully vile and descriptive curse words to be used; why are there suddenly a plethora of authors resorting to using the word "gay" pejoratively?), and I loved the reaction to Hundred's zap-gun. I was a little let down with the ending of the previous storyline; this arc is shaping up to be much more intriguing.

Fantastic Four: It's a shame this is Waid's and Wieringo's final story on the FF. It's been a great run. And I never would've gotten in on it if it hadn't been for that 25 cent (whatever happened to the cent symbol on a keyboard?) issue that started it off. Excellent marketing job, Marvel! (Wow, it actually hurt me to say that.) I'm not a fan of Galactus; he's always seemed like a pretty dopey character to me. But these guys have a way of making previously unenjoyable characters extremely fun and interesting. Has there been word yet on who's taking over after they leave? (Meaning, can I safely drop this comic again?)

Madrox: I have to say, this has been a very disappointing series to me. What's happening with Jamie and his malfunctioning duplicates is interesting, and I like Rahne and Strong Guy, but the stories they're involved with are... I don't know how to say this any more nicely: lame. Totally lame. I don't give a rat's ass about the case Jamie's following, nor any of the characters he's met, and I don't give a crap about who killed who or why. As a mystery, it's completely failed to engage me, which is frankly perplexing to me, considering how much I usually enjoy Peter David's work. And the less said about the philandering astral projection Rahne has been following (who's turned out to be seeing another man!! Oh, I'm flabbergasted, I'm shaken to my very core!!! By which I mean, what a stupid, stupid twist, a twist which stopped being shocking, or even mildly surprising, about thirty years ago), the better.

Marvel Team-Up: I liked it. I was actually surprised by the reveal on the final page. I'm interested in seeing where this is headed. Which puts this comic light years ahead of the previous Marvel work Robert Kirkman has done, like Captain America or the 2099 books. (Okay, I like Jubilee, too, but don't tell anyone.)

Demo: This completely failed to interest me in any way. I shouldn't have given in and bought it. I really don't know what all the fuss was about this issue, other than the fact that it was the end of an otherwise interesting series. Two people walk around town to bad poetry. Whoop-de-doo. And the back-up story? Even worse. I've said before that I've liked, but not loved, the issues of this series that I've checked out; this final issue, I liked nothing about it, nothing at all. Bummer.

COMICS: Wed. 8/18

Taking a breather from my Olympics coverage (don't all cheer at once) to go over this week's comics haul. And it was a pretty decent-sized one.

Demo #8 & #9: I liked both issues, but I have the feeling I would've liked them better if I hadn't read them back to back. It feels like they're going over the exact same territory. Hell, the whole series may be going over the same territory; the only other issue I've read is #1. And all of the issues I've read are moving, sometimes sweet, sometimes painful, sharply observed examinations of relationships (with a little supernatural thrown in). They all feel real -- but they also all feel the same. Possibly the other issues branch out in different directions, but #8 and #9 are both about the exact same thing, a couple breaks up. Sure, one is by way of suicide -- but still, the story structure is the same: a woman explains (post-mortem in the latter case) to a man why they can't be together anymore. It's good writing, and I'll probably pick up the next issue, too; I just hope the writer has another trick up his sleeve.

Ex Machina: Brian K. Vaughan continues to keep my interest, although the bad guy is so far poorly defined and without any real sense of threat. It's the politics that make this series compelling, and I'm glad it hasn't degenerated into superhero punch-em-up yet.

She-Hulk: ...like this comic. I kind of get the feeling the writer is under pressure to make the series more reader-friendly with this two-parter, which featured new, more traditional artwork, and a big superhero punch-em-up. This one was down from the high standards set in previous issues. I hope Jen returns to the courtroom next time.

Plastic Man: Intermittently funny, but a mess overall, like Baker was just throwing out ideas as they occurred to him. The "Abraham Lincoln must die!" story crossed over from absurdly funny to kind of creepy pretty quickly, and the wrap-up was abrupt and sloppy.

Invincible: In the letter column, Kirkman calls this issue the big one, the one he's been waiting for. Really? Hm. I thought it was the worst issue of the series. Kirkman is starting to stretch himself way too thin -- like, Bendis thin. What's he writing, five comics now, counting the upcoming Marvel Team-Up? I'm afraid the quantity will make the quality suffer.

Daredevil: Speaking of which... This is in my "Why am I still buying this?" category. Why am I still buying this?

Supreme Power: See above. I can't fucking believe there are spin-offs from this series already -- and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED IN IT. Why am I still buying it?!?

Girl Genius: Decent, not great. I love that it came out so quickly after the previous issue -- by which I mean, not five months late -- and I liked that some backstory about Wulfenbach and the Heterodyne Bros. was revealed, but overall, just an average issue of a way above average series.

Fantastic Four: I've already seen some people grousing about this issue. I thought it was great, especially after the ho-hum previous story. I like that we're seeing Johnny back in the business office of FF Inc., I loved Ben's "Human Torch" costume, and the menace from above was the kind of cosmic, epic threat that often brings out the best in the Fantastic Four.

Runaways: Last week, I finally picked up the TPB of the first four issues, and I really liked it. I should've known I would, what with Vaughan's track record. I don't like the digest size of the book, though; my eyes are bad enough without having to make out the print at 60% size (or whatever it is). I love it when I finally check out a book everyone's been talking about, and, if I like it, there's a whole load of back issues I can get all at once.

POTPOURRI

COMICS: Reading the Bone one-volume collection is exhausting. It's 1300 pages long, and thick as a cinder block, and it weighs more than a Thanksgiving turkey stuffed with ball bearings. I've been getting quite a workout just from cracking it open. And the page size is slightly smaller than a regular-sized issue, which means I have to strain my eyes more than usual. This thing's gonna take forever to read. Let me put it in perspective for you: if I read one issue per year, it will take me FIFTY-FIVE YEARS to finish this book.

Yeah. You see what I mean now.

Also, even after the many years it's been since I read the original issues, I can still pick out some of the revisions Jeff Smith has made for this collection. And I'll tell you, I don't mind the odd reworked sentence or two... but all that hardcore porn he added is really jarring. I'm not sure I would've made the same choice, were I in his shoes. Well, to each his own.

Oh, no, wait, I was reading XXXenophile. My mistake.

MOVIES: Tough decision this weekend: The Village, or Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle? Possibly both, if I pull a theater-hopping double feature tomorrow. If I have to choose: White Castle wins. I love M. Night Shyamalan's films, but this one's been getting some bad reviews, and I'm just not as much in the mood for a moody, suspenseful period piece as I am for a stoner comedy.

But the one movie I can't miss this weekend is Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism. I'm not even sure how, because I thought Murdoch had gotten an injunction against this film, but it's playing at my local theater on Sunday, one show only. It's all about how Murdoch blatantly uses Fox News as a promotional tool for the Republican party, with stolen footage from Fox News illustrating exactly how they advance that right wing agenda (which is why there is/was an injunction against it). From what I hear, the documentary as a whole is fairly amateurish, but when it gets to the Fox News footage, it's stunning. I can't wait.

TV: Celebrity Poker Showdown next week features Amy Poehler. I love Amy Poehler. That is all.