My top three picks for June 8th 2011

This is the first post in what I plan to be a weekly segment type deal where I talk bout and give praise to my top three books that hit the shelves this week!  I'm gonna try my best not to give away anything else than you might get from reading a solicit. I want you to read these books, I don't want to try and retell them for you. They're so damn good at their job I would never want to impede on them.

On a kind of side note, I'm not very good about checking comments and that kind of stuff. They get pooped into my business's email and I constantly have crap in there about ordering new product and other garbage so to wade through the mess and filter out the goodies can be daunting. And because of that, I've gotten kind of shitty about checking it, but I try to do it at least once a week. I checked this morning and shit my pants when I saw that Jason Aaron left a comment on my "The comic book love of my life." post which is about his series Scalped. I don't know if this is really Jason Aaron or just like a webmaster that does his beared bidding, but I don't care. I just feel crazy honored to have maybe earned his attention to check out my shitty little blog. I'm crazy ecstatic. And this should of course come to no surprise that my number one book this week is:

Austin's number 1 book of the week: Scalped # 49  

God damn this book is so good. Scalped #49 brings the current arc "You gotta sin to get saved" to a close, and it does it with a swift kick to the junk. My stomach was reeling and my mouth agape as I scrambled to turn each page. One of the most impressive things about Scalped to me, is how the book just hit the ground running. It got started like a bullet screaming down a barrel and 48 issues it still hasn't stopped. The absolute lack of bullshit filler that comics are often plagued with says so much about this title. This is really one of those game changing arcs, much in the same way that "The Gnawing" was. The reason why this book stays as my first book to read each week it comes out is because I never know what to expect. It imitates life and all its eccentric discrepancies with such merciless tenacity. I never know what I'm gonna get and I absolutely love the surprise. Nothing is random, it's not crazy and out of character. I don't stop and say, "That's not what Bad Horse would do", because these people have built to be so believably damaged. Anything is possible and it's so easy to see the self disillusionment these characters plague themselves with, or the self delusion they convince themselves of. I love the title, straight and simple. Comic arcs often have such throw away titles, where its just a cheesey cliche tag line more than something that is suppose to embody the story as a whole. But that is never the case with Scalped. And after reading the conclusion to "You gotta sin to get saved", I'm still not quite sure who its talking about in particular. That's probably the point. I CANNOT wait for issue #50. And that is a comic's job, serialized story telling should be all about convincing the reader to check out the next installment, to reward them with gradual characterization and plot. And Scalped never misses that mark, I always cannot wait.

Austin's number 2 book of the week: New Avengers # 13

I'm a big Marvel guy, when it comes to the big two, I'm always gonna pick Marvel. It's what I grew up reading as a kid and its always been so much more appealing to me than their competition. So I recognize that I got a big old Marvel bias. Not to say you won't see DC books pop up in these, because I do got a big old thing for Grant Morrison. But just as much I got a big old thing for Brian Bendis. I just got nerd crushes all over the comic industry.

New Avengers from its original first issue to this current volume has just been plain old super hero comics fun. It's been loud and flashy and had plenty of that super hero soap drama I love with all smooching. And I suppose the biggest reason I enjoy reading it each month has to do with what I was saying earlier during my bit about Scalped. Bendis, and New Avengers especially, exceeds and making me want to read more. He has the serialized bit down great and this issue especially exemplifies that. This issue also brings a story arc to a close but in the traditional super hero way in which nothing is totally resolved it just gives way to more options, more possibilities. And I love that! It might seem like a weird way to end a story, but I think it works with this never ending medium. When I read Secret Invasion #8 I wasn't sucked in by the conclusion as a logical ending to skull shenanigans, I was sucked into the conclusion as a means to start up a whole bunch of new stories. I was excited for what was going to come next. And that's exactly what New Avengers #13 brings to mind as well. Sure we got a little big of answers about H.A.M.M.E.R. and the infinity formula, but for the most part it just leads to more story telling options, and I dig that. And this bit with Mockingbird? I'm very very intrigued. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Austin's number 3 book of the week: Black Panther # 519

I have to say when I first opened the book and saw that it wasn't Francesco Francavilla drawing the pages I was disappointed. For the first six issues of this randomly well executed book, he was drawing the shit out of it. I was pretty disappointed with Shadowland as a whole. I'm a colossal fan of Daredevil, I'd say he's probably my favorite Marvel character, and I wasn't pleased with how things ended. It seemed forced, weak, and out of character. I'm also a pretty big fan of T'challa. I absolutely love Christopher Priests run on the character and it really made me dig everything about him. So after reading the butchering of Black Panther for the last couple of years I didn't have high hopes for his sudden weird placement as the guardian of Hell's Kitchen. And when I started reading it was I was pleasantly surprised. David Liss crafted a decent intro story that as it continued only seemed to get stronger. And I was continually impressed with Francavilla's art, its dark shadowy look just oozed noir and I'm sucker for that noir, ya know? One of the things I love about super hero comics, and Marvel especially, is shared universe. I like continuity! I like the idea of this big connected sandbox where all these people interact together in crazy ways. And for the first six issues it was missing a little bit of that connectivity. I wanted some Storm in there! However forced and weird their marriage was, I wanted to at least see some acknowledgement of the fact that he is married! And with #519 we get that! And we get a little bit of fun stuff dealing with Kraven after Amazing Spider-Man's run in the gaunlet and grim hunt, so that doesn';t hurt too. Jefte Palo taking over isn't too big of a problem, cause since his work on Punisher, to Taskmaster, to this he's been impressing me. When Kraven and T'Challa tussle throughout the kitchen their is a real solid sense of fluidity where I really see the agile nature of these two. It works great and love rough straight linework. I'm certainly not on the fence anymore and I'll continue to read, especially if I keep seeing how this is suppose to work as part of a bigger piece of the Marvel universe. 

Austin

X-Men: First Class Impressions

Now I know and acknowledge that I have absolutely no real knowledge of film or cinema. And this post isn't gonna be a critique of the film so much as it's going to be my impression of the film and what it was like to watch it as a comics fan. I'm going to keep it spoiler free, just cause I don't want to ruin anyones day and get put on someone's death list.

As a whole, I have to say I did enjoy the film. It had a really neat aesthetic to it that I really dug. It captured and evoked a solid understanding that this is the 1960's. The inter splicing of historical events into the plot only further facilitated this and I definitely thought it worked. It had that same kind of feeling that AMC's Mad Men has that makes me dig on that too. Along with all that I have to say I was mostly impressed with the cast of actors, highlights being Michael Fassbender and Kevin Bacon. I did have minor problems with James McAvoy as Charles Xavier. Not with his acting per say, because I did believe him to give a solid portrayal of that youthful hopeful enthusiasm that embodies Professor X. But more with just his mannerism and looks. I honestly couldn't get over the bald thing. He lost all his hair before he was out of high school! Shave that sucker! And when he wasn't speaking, when he was communicating telepathically or deep in thought, he had this kind of puffy pouting looking face that kind of looked like he was constipated. I know its childish and minor! But its all I could think about every time he made that face! Enough of the basic shite, just move unto the comic adaption part.

Now for as much as I enjoyed the film, how did it do as an adaptation? Fucking awful! For every excellent and original idea I could get behind there were two more wholly terrible representations of characters I love. I suppose the first and most foremost example of this is the film's Moria MacTaggert. This is pretty much a brand new character created the film that they just slapped the name Moria MacTaggert on. It bares literally zero resemblance to the comics version of Moria MacTaggert other than the fact that in both versions she is a woman. That's about it. Not a scientist, not Scottish, didn't meet Xavier at graduate school. Nothing! It made my brain hurt. Now I understood her role as a character, and I enjoyed her for the most part but why stick that name on her, and label her as Moria when she has nothing to do with her! When I hear Moria I have certain expectations of who she is, from years of reading and all those expectations are disappointed. Its not a nice little head nod to the fans, its more of a slap in the face. And as a retailer, when people come in asking about X-Men stuff and that's their only perception of Moria, it makes it 100 times harder to explain that no she isn't anything like that and this is what she's really like it. It's just weird to me!

The same is true of using the name The Hellfire Club when it barely had anything to do with the real club other than Shaw was still in charge. It was a minor aspect of the film so its not a huge deal, but it is still annoying. This is just more nitpicking but it Charles Xavier was born in New York. And from my understanding he doesn't have an accent, its those minor things that make you stop and go, "Huh, wait a second"! Same is true of the idea that Hank McCoy created Cerebro and built the Blackbird. I don't think so buddy, Dr. Hank McCoy is a world leader on biochemistry and genetics not building crazy fake machines. It also boggles my mind to have Alex Summers in the film with absolutely no mention to Scott Summers. This really is a team composed completely at random. It's easy to understand that in the larger scheme of things that their target audience isn't really me. It's not the die hard fans, cause they know they will get me anyways. They need to attract the people who are familiar with the book and the characters but don't regularly go out of their way to check out comic stuff. I don't know, I'm not a marketing genius, but at least to me it seems like they went for characters that were different than those that were used in the first couple films, but were still somewhat recognizable, and had powers that were easy to understand.

It's an overall solid film and I think it's easily worth your money, but in this summer filled with comic movies it is most likely looking like the weakest of all the films.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I feel like a big old asshat cause it's been at least a month of so without a post. I really wanted to try and write this consistently but with everything else going on in the shop in May, I got crazy swamped.

May 7th was an important landmark for my store because it was the first time I was able to hold a pre-release tournament for Magic the Gathering stuff. A new set came out on May 13th and because I've been doing organized tournaments for so long now I was able to hold a special tournament a week or so before the new stuff actually came out. This special tournament let participants get the new cards a week ahead of time.

48 people showed up to play. It was a shitstorm.

I had never had that many people in the store before and we were cramped to all get out. 48 stinky nerds crammed together getting their nerd on was a proud sight to see. My dad brought me a disposable camera to take pictures so I could put them up here but none of them turned out. The flash got all messed up or something so that sucked a lot. It was a pretty damn ridiculous night and trying to manage that many people in organized play made my face want to explode.

Thor came out in May as well which has brought in a comfortable influx of people who saw the film and now want to check out the book. Marvel's post Avengers Disassembled Thor reboot written by J.M. Straczynski has been selling super sweet. So that's always great. Got to love the movies bringing in people to read the books.

Speaking of comic movies I saw X-Men: First Class last night and I'm gonna write up my personal review of it tonight and post that up tomorrow. Also coming this week, I'm gonna start doing a top 3 books of the week every Wednesday when new books hit the shelf. Just whatever stuff I think deserves your recognition. Sorry again about the delay, if I start slacking I give you permission to shoot me with laser guns.


Austin

Bad Art Extravaganza

Sorry for the week with no posts, things got really crazy with the shop, taxes, and my birthday so I didn't have the time to write anything out. Hopefully posts will not be so spread out in the future!

Disclaimer!!! Since I'm going to be talking about sexism and the objectification of women I am going to be using words like tits/boobs and there are gonna be images that Greg Land photo referenced that are of a sexual nature. No nudity, but pretty damn close.

I feel bad about this, but I really feel obligated to say something about this because it really is atrocious. And as much as I respect someone for putting themselves out there and making their living off their art, I can't respect something that is as blatantly sexist as Greg Land's art.

I'm not an artist, I have no technical skill and don't really know anything other than I know what I like and don't like. But I know I don't like Greg Land's art.

This is a fairly typical cover for Greg Land, and to me at least its obviously photo referenced off some model pose. And since I've clearly stated that I'm not an artist and I don't know anything about art I'll try not to throw out my opinion on photo referencing and how lame it is. What I'd rather talk about is what the picture says to me. First off the pose is fucking ridiculous and absurd. Every cover he does, is ass out, tits out. And I don't see or understand the point. I see no way in which "slutting" up a character adds to the storyline. Objectifying women in this manner is merely a marketing tactic to catch guy's eyes. How about covers that are actually good and interesting to catch our eyes instead of a rehash of some Maxim cover?

Different cover, different character, different universe even, and still it looks the same. Same ass out, tits out thing. Sue even has the same facial expression as Madelyne Pryor does in the cover above. Same sexy finger biting lust ridden angst face. I'm not stupid, I understand that comics are overwhelmingly read by men and with that in mind sex always sells. But it doesn't have to? What if we as readers, we as men, said stop this god damn bullshit. How does someone, who's art looks this bad, looks this boring and flat, and looks this sexist get to do interiors on Uncanny X-Men? The biggest X book there is and there he is. 

Everyone looks the same. It's just static poses layered on top of each other. Same pose, same hair! How do we as readers let him get away with this? Blog about it, bitch about it, podcast about it. Tell people you don't wanna read Uncanny X-men if it's still going to have Greg Land interiors. Or for that matter read any book with his name on it. Everyone thinks of comics as being a "for dudes" kind of thing and it doesn't have to be, it shouldn't. But it's pretty damn hard to convince my girlfriend to read X-Men when all the female characters have a waist smaller than their biceps. 

Here is one the most well known and perfect examples of shitty photo referencing, and also terribly sexist cover work.

Here Land rehashes his same stuff with his Jean Grey looking exactly like his Sue Storm (or Black Canary? It is hard to tell when every lady looks exactly the same).

One of the things about comics, and Marvel super hero comics at that, that I have always loved is that it feels progressive. It is an entertainment medium that has always seemed a step above the rest. Black Panther, The Falcon, and Luke Cage were all characters ahead of their time. The same is also true of Northstar and new characters like Wiccan and Hulking. There has always been so much potential to do great storytelling thats inclusive. That isn't based on cheap caricatures or stereotypes. But it's hard to tell that kind of story when every woman, is sexualized and objectified. I understand that it's rooted firmly in the industry but I hope by writing about this today that its made at least one person think the role sexism plays within the medium and the industry. And at the very least maybe it'll make some other geeky folks bitch about Greg Land's art and they'll stop buying books with his art.

Cheers.

It always feels like there are ten thousand things that all need to get done at once.

Monday was a shit storm. A bunch of crazy shit came up and I ended up having to close suddenly in the middle of the day to pick up a shelf I was told I'd have a weeks worth of notice to get. I was given about 5 hours notice instead. It was a bunch of stressful garbage that included driving an hour plus to get to Lynnwood, trying to find a licensed electrician on super short notice and then also some how finding some way to get this big ass shelf back down to Bonney Lake to get it into the store. I could easy regale you with the full details but I'm sure it'd be pretty damn boring. If you're really interested in hearing about it, or seeing the shelf that took so much effort just swing by the shop.

What bugged me the most about the whole thing though, was having to suddenly close. I hate it. I don't like having to close on short notice. It sucks. I feel like I'm always disappointing someone. It's one of those things that constantly pokes me in the back of the brain. It's one of the things I've found the most difficult about owning/running the shop on pretty much my own. Everything, is always on me. And it's a lot of pressure to try and take care of everything while still worrying about how my own actions and behavior is gonna reflect my business. If I show up Wednesday morning with a box of books I need to sort and put onto shelves/into boxes, and I got online bills for engery/phone/internet/whatever else to pay and I got messy high school kids trying to ask me questions about trivial bullshit and then I also got new customers off the street trying to ask where certain books are. It makes my face wanna explode. And someone is gonna get ignored. And I hate having to do that. I hate the idea of losing business to a customer cause I need to put new books out, or because I'm being swarmed by needy children who want to ask me if I think Hulk could beat Batman in a fight, or if I have any of (insert random magic card name) to trade to them for their (insert random magic card name). I need to big Dr. Manhattan and just make copies of myself so I can get some damn work done! Or Jamie Madrox for that matter.

I'm gonna take out all my stress out on my next post. I've never written a big old mean post critiquing some one. But I think it needs to happen. Get ready! Greg Land your hideous photo referenced sexiest garbage you call art is being called out!

Highlights

My mood changes with the hours of the day. I say this because my mood is mostly dependent on how the shop is doing and my hope that I'm not gonna go out of business. And every morning is slow, its not a bad thing its just a the way it goes. I've found that an outrageous amount of my business takes place from 3 to 7. It makes sense, kids after school, working folks after work. It's not hard to fathom by any means, yet every morning I get bored and stressed when I open up at 11 an don't see a single customer till after 1. Its a consistent daily trend. And as the day passes and customers start to come in right like clockwork at 3 and 5 I feel better and the stress disappears. But there are other highlights that make my whole day worth it.

Two times this week, during the morning/early afternoon this family has come in. The mom doesn't speak English very well so she always seems kind of confused when I ask her if they need any help finding anything but her kids get it and they need no help. Cause they go to town on the shelves. It's a simple kind of unadulterated joy thats impressive. They don't care about big creative teams on the books or whether or not an issue is in the middle of a story arc. They just wanna read comics. And it's super cool, and it really takes me back to when I was young. When I didn't know what the hell I was picking out at the shop and I just picked whatever had the raddest cover. Back to when everything was new and vibrant and I was just starting to get to know all these crazy fantastical characters. They fight with themselves over what book they want and I ring them up and their mom beckons its time to go. And one of the kids asks if they can stay just a second longer because they wanna get in as much as possible before they leave and all the slow mornings I've ever had are worth it.

I wish I was ten again.

The comic book love of my life.

Scalped, Scalped, Scalped, Scalped, Scalped.

I'm going to try my best to explain exactly why I think Scalped is so damn good, so damn important, why it's the book I look forward to reading the most each month, and why you should be reading it above all others.

For those of you that personally know me, whether you be friends, customers who have become friends or just customers, you've probably heard me babble on and on and on about Scalped. I'm going to try extra hard to be coherent today though and be concise with my praise. If you still haven't read this towering beast of emotion devastation, get on it! Post haste!

In my ranting and raving of praise I will remain spoiler free, because it seems kind of dumb to reveal a bunch of stuff when I'm trying to convince you to read this.

First and foremost I guess I should give a basic overview of what Scalped is for those who haven't even heard of it. Scalped is a monthly ongoing comic book written by Jason Aaron and primarily drawn by R.M. Guera. I say primarily because through the course of the series several other artists have occasionally filled in for one shots or short two issue arcs. Scalped is a crime/western set on the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The book revolves around the organized crime outfit that operates on the rez, the legacy of crime that affects the whole of the community, and lastly with the culture, history, and living condition of the Oglala Lakota who call the reservation home. 

For me to talk about Scalped, I need to talk about Peter Parker first. Now, you might not see a correlation between your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and the gritty shit storm of depravity that is Scalped, but I promise you there is. Peter Parker is me. Peter Parker is you. He's the everyman, and that is one of the timeless things about him that makes him such a great character. Peter gets nervous trying to be serious with people, he overcompensates, he fucks up, he struggles with the same kind of shit we all do. He tries his best and still disappoints people, but keeps trying. We as readers can relate to that, which makes Peter seems so much more real than he really is.

Scalped is the same but slightly different. All these fucked up characters from Scalped resonate with us just as well, but in different ways. And I may just be more angry and fucked up than others but Scalped strikes such a cord with me. When I'm reading about these terribly damaged people who are certainly not good people but at the same time not wholly bad, I just can't help but empathize with them.

That page, three characters, six panels, two per character, and no dialogue. That page says more than most books do in 26 pages. That page says more than a lot of novels have to say. That page tells me so much about all three of these characters and it's an incredible testament to the skill and talent R.M. Guera packs into each issue of Scalped. It is also an incredible testament to the reality of these characters that Jason Aaron has so deftly created. That page is a punch to the face. That's three fucked up people who can't do anything but give into themselves. 

It's the same reason I love noir. Noir seems to have many different definitions and connotations amongst fans and critics, but to me noir is always about the inevitable. The inevitability that you'll fuck up, fall habit to old vices or just make plain old bad decisions because your too damn proud and too damn stubborn to do otherwise. Noir is the inevitable badness thats a result of your wantonness. 

And that's Scalped. Terrible inevitability rushing towards all these fucked up characters you just can't seem to hate despite what bastards they are. Everybody's locked down unto their tracks, unable to do anything but stick to their set paths, and stick to their guns. Its this downward spiral, slowly getting sucked down and you just can't help but watch as they circle the drain. And you wouldn't have it any other way.

Just look at some of the titles of the story arcs Jason Aaron has written.

The Gravel in your Guts.

The Gnawing.

How fucking cool is that? The Gnawing? That's quintessential Scalped right there. Anxious nibbling picking away at you.

I love this book, I'm pretty sure that's awfully redundant at this point as I've made it blatantly obvious. I just hope I peaked your interest somewhat though. Go read Scalped. Please?

Tally Ho,

Austin