We Love the City

Author: Ryan

  • Top Superheroines of 2007

    The “Best of 2007” lists begin with one that took very little preparation or research. Since I probably owe a chunk of my meagre readership to When Fangirls Attack, I thought I’d start with the Top Five Superheroines of 2007:

    Kathryn Artemis, Black Summer
    All right, so Artemis hasn’t made a whole lot of substantive contributions to the story of Black Summerjust yet. However, she has a few points working in her favour:

    • She looks really cool. I mean, seriously – coolest looking superhero of the past few years.
    • It’s possible she falls towards the “totally batshit insane” spectrum of the Seven Guns. You know, the same end as the guy who ripped the President and all his advisors to shreds.
    • She’s capable of utterly massive carnage, wiping out a fairly large contingent of the US Army on her own.
    • She’s central to one of my favourite covers of the year.

     

    Phoebe, Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse
    Wormwood the corpse may be a clever, crafty, billionaire, but he does tend to get himself into trouble. And when he does, it usually falls to Phoebe to sort it all out, since his other bodyguard, Pendulum, is fairly slow and usually too busy complaining about his lack of genitals.

    So Phoebe gets to shoot demons, rip aliens in half with her magical tattoos, and deadpans and rolls her eyes frequently at her employer’s many quirks and eccentricities.

    Oh, and she gets peed on by leprechauns and doesn’t lose her cool. How classy is that?

    Brenda, Blue Beetle
    All right, technically she’s more of a sidekick-and-potential-love-interest than a superheroine. But still: she’s travelled across the universe in a boom tube, survived an attack by carnivorous ewoks, and helped destroy Devilance’s machinery. She launched a rocket and out-sassed most of the Teen Titans. She’s working on reforming her crimelord aunt. So frankly, I think she’s accomplished a lot. What the hell has Supergirl done lately, other than fly around in a belly shirt?

    Honourable Mention: Blue Beetle’s Mom. You know she’s awesome.

    Buffy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8
    How could we have a list without Buffy? Well, to be honest, I considered it; she was seldom my favourite character. But Willow didn’t get to do much in the Season 8 and Faith’s arc was kind of disappointing. Dawn was pretty cool, though.

    But ultimately, it all comes back to Buffy. Wise-cracking and butt kicking? Check. Running an entire army of slayers? Yep. Putting a book published by someone other than Marvel or DC in the top ten? Right on.

    It’s Buffy, you know?

    Ramona Flowers, Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together

    I think you all know that my love for Kim Pine knows no bounds. But Ramona’s just too awesome to ignore. She rollerblades. She gets your packages delivered on time. She has a multi-dimensional purse that stores a wide and useful array of weaponry. She has a dark and mysterious past that includes a sexy phase.

    If she’s good enough for Scott, she’s good enough for me.

  • Brain drain?

    In the latest “you can only write superhero comics for us” exclusivity announcement, Marvel has made a pretty smart move by signing Jason Aaron.

    This doesn’t really mean a whole lot to me. Scalped is going to continue at Vertigo, obviously, so I’m happy. I’ll be even happier if Aaron starts up another creator-owned series somewhere. I don’t know if I’ll follow Aaron over to Marvel; he’s quickly becoming one of my favourite writers, but Ghost Rider and Wolverine? I dunno. But if it means some readers are motivated to check out Scalped, or that Aaron is on more stable ground both careerwise and financially, then I’m all for it.

    But what I do find interesting is a sort of trend I’ve noticed: Vertigo writers almost always seem to go to Marvel, and do little or no work in the DCU.

    Mike Carey broke in with Sandman spinoffs and Lucifer. After a couple minor projects, Marvel gave him X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four – pretty high-profile gigs. Brian K. Vaughn rose to fame with Y The Last Man, added to it with Ex Machina at Wildstorm, then went over to Marvel to launch Runaways, play with Doctor Strange, Ultimate X-Men, and an upcoming Wolverine mini. Peter Milligan got to launch X-Statix and play with X-Men at Marvel, while at DC Proper he gets… style=”font-style:italic;”>Infinity Inc. Ed Brubaker did some Batman and Gotham Central, but generally hung around the fringes of the DCU, while Marvel gave him Uncanny X-Men and Captain America after they saw what he could do on Sleeper (A Wildstorm book, obviously, but it fits my theme) Marvel’s even snatched up Joe Casey, who only ever got cancelled at Wildstorm, and given him some major projects.

    Vertigo, and to a lesser extent Wildstorm, has done a great job of discovering new talent and getting them to produce some critically acclaimed work. So why does it seem like they always go over to Marvel to work on more commercial properties?

    There are many reasons, I’m sure. Maybe the pay is better, maybe the writers just like Marvel characters more. Every case is probably a little different. But as a trend, it doesn’t look very good for DC. If Jason Aaron is good enough to write Wolverine, why not Batman? Why did only Marvel seem to recognize that Ed Brubraker was the kind of guy who could revitalize, and then kill, a major franchise character? How is it that Mike Carey manages to do work for Vertigo, Wildstorm, Minx, and Marvel, but has never worked in the DCU?

    Considering DC’s recent lagging sales, you’d think they might be interested in taking a few more chances rather than stick with the same stable of writers. On a purely financial level, if Vertigo isn’t making a lot of money, it could at least be developing talent that can move on to more profitable work.

  • The best comic of 2008…

    … should not be judged until we hit February, at least. (Although, seriously? Scalped #13 is el grando awesome.)

    Nonetheless, I think I’ve got my Most Anticipated Comic of 2008, courtesy of Kieron Gillen, talking about the next volume of Phonogram:

    In fact, issue 5 of series 2 is based around an obsessive Long Blondes fan. It’s called “Lust, etcetera”.

    Now, I liked the first volume of Phonogram a lot. And I love the Long Blondes. So this practically a match made in heaven.

    In celebration, let’s all look at Kate Jackson for a bit:

  • Okay, I get it a little

    I’ve tried, I’ve really tried, but I just don’t get Achewood. I want to like it, I should like it, but it just seems to fall flat for me most of the time. If anyone can explain what I’m missing, please do.

    That said, the most recent strip is an utterly brilliant parody of Chris Ware. I love it, so I shall keep giving the strip a chance.

    (Maybe it just needs more mallets?)

  • You’ve gotta be kidding me

    A couple items caught my attention today and made me roll my eyes so hard I got whiplash:

    First up, the Globe and Mail’s review of Persepolis. It’s a nice review, and quite glowing – the Globe doesn’t hand out ratings that high very often. Score one for the conservative art-snob establishment.

    No, the silliness comes in a sidebar titled From storyboard to screen, a short list of recent graphic novel adaptations. It leaves out A History of Violence, but never mind that; what stands out is the description of 300: “Another Frank Miller adaptation gets bloodied by dull direction and plenty of fake gore. Like a comic book, and not in a good way.” (emphasis mine)

    I’m sorry, what? This is a list of adaptations that were surprisingly faithful, following the review of a film based on a comic book made by the creator of that book. A creator who is openly critical of the term “graphic novel”, and prefers “comic book.” It’s a medium that has been used for stories crappy and quality, mature and juvenile, intellectual and escapist. We’d never see “like a play, in a good way”, or “like a novel, in a bad way”. Get the fuck over it.

    Next up, we have this week’s installment of The Buy Pile, a weekly review roundup at CBR – though it’s far less “review” than “things I like.” It’s not very stimulating reading, but it hits a new low for cluelessness this week with a comment about the latest issue of Scalped:

    Okay, the first thing you need to know is that R.M. Guera’s art — while very good at layout and visual storytelling — is still sinfully ugly. Giulia Brusco’s muddy, moody coloring doesn’t help. Oh well. … Maybe the ugliness of the art is intentional, because the ugliness of the conditions depicted in the story seem all the more horrible when looking at them this way, instead of with the crisp lines of an Edvin Biukovic or a James Calafiore.

    Maybe it’s intentional? Maybe a story about crime, corruption, poverty, and greed is meant to have a particular visual aesthetic that’s a little different from Countdown? It doesn’t match up with the guy who draws Exiles? That there’s any question about Guera’s intent betrays some considerable ignorance about the medium and art in general. In the author’s defence, he does recommend the issue, and he’s right – it’s fucking awesome.

    The fact people are so clueless kind of annoys me, but the fact they have such great comics to do it about cheers me up more than a little.

  • Top Albums of 2007

    And here we go with the “Best Of” lists. Music is first up, with Movies soon to follow – I just need to see There Will Be Blood before I can make any final cinematic judgments. And the Best of Comics list should be more substantial, since this is a 75%-or-so comics-focused blog. First, a caveat on Music: I’m not attempting to put stuff in order, since specific ranking will change a lot depending on my mood. And another caveat: I don’t really claim to have any sort of musical expertise, so this is far more of a “stuff I liked” list than a definitive “best.”

    Liars (Self Titled): In which the band proves the last few years of messing around with weird shit was building to something. It’s a surprisingly accessible, mainstream album (“mainstream” being a relative term for a band who produced a highly artsy concept album about the Salem witch trials), and it boasts the best opening of any album, ever: The bombast and fury of Plaster Casts of Everything, followed by the funky, better-than-Beck Houseclouds; these are by the same band? There’s some creepy electronics on Sailing to Byzantium, a few Jesus & Mary Chain fuzz-outs in the middle, and a surprisingly sentimental Protection at the end. All this is by the same band? And it’s all good, if not great? Awesome.

    The Besnard Lakes: Are the Dark Horse. The Beach Boys channeled by a Montreal space-rock outfit. (In case I need to clarify: Not Surfin’ USA; more Little Surfer Girl or Warmth of the Sun) Lots of sweet, moody tunes, with occasional outbursts of sonic weirdness. If nothing else, you must hear Because Tonight, maybe the most gorgeous song of the year.

    Radiohead: In Rainbows. Let us not kid ourselves: I am a huge Radiohead fan. They’re one of my very favourite bands. So while I shall admit to some fanboyisms here, I’ll qualify it by pointing out that Hail to the Thief didn’t make my best-of when it came out. In Rainbows marks a nice return to form, but still feels like progress. With the more serious electronic noodling relegated to Thom Yorke’s solo material, this feels more like a band playing. What’s more, the emotion is back: All I Need is the most emotionally honest and straightforward song since How to Disappear Completely, and Reckoner is just gorgeous.

    Jens Lekman: Night Falls Over Kortedala. One of these days, Morrissey will die, and the battle for Greatest Lyricist will be fought by Jarvis Cocker and Jens Lekman. Jarvis will win, of course, because he’s old and wiley, but Jens Lekman will bide his time in Sweden or something until Jarv lets his guard down, or also dies of more-or-less natural causes. Until then, we shall simply admire the wonderful songs of Lekman, like Postcard to Nina, the story of a guy who meets a girl who introduces him to her parents and pretends he’s her boyfriend even though she’s actually a lesbian. Or the surprise emergency room visit chronicled in Your Arms Around Me. Or Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo, which is about… well, that one’s pretty self-explanatory. They’re nice enough songs musically, but it’s only when you really start paying attention to them that you’re struck by how totally awesome they are.

    The Long Blondes: Someone to Drive You Home. Technically, this is cheating – the album came out originally in 2006. But it got its official North American release this year, so that’s what I’m talking about here, and it’s almost certainly my favourite album I bought all year – I got my copy back around February, and I’m still loving it. Lots of pop and rock, lots of clever lyrics, lots of happy sounding songs with a great beat that are actually about people cheating on one another. Lead singer Kate Jackson deserves to be a superstar, and everyone else is pretty awesome, too. Like Pulp if Jarvis Cocker were a terribly attractive woman, and possibly a little more cynical.

  • One More Day: Brilliant Marketing Strategy

    While there’s been a slight bit of controversy over Marvel’s decision to undo Spider-Man’s marriage, it surprises me that no one is looking at the big picture.

    I’m not even talking about the fact that everyone is talking about the story. No, I’m talking the way it so perfectly sets up Marvel’s 2009 event-comic-of-the-year:

    Spider-Man gets married!


    No, really. This is gonna be big.

  • Stephen Fry Is My Hero

    And we’re back, after a busy holiday season. Family, friends, moderate (and occasionally immoderate) amounts of alcohol… Of course, we’re not really back just yet, as this is going to be a fairly insubstantial post. With a ton of boxing-week purchases, I should have some stuff to review shortly, and some best-of-2007 lists I’ve mostly got organized in my head.

    For now, though, I give you a glimpse of one of my favourite Christmas presents: The Complete A Bit of Fry & Laurie, an utterly brilliant sketch comedy show from around 1990 starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. And as much as I love Laurie – particularly on Blackadder – I must admit that it’s Fry who really shows off his brilliance. Take this bit, for example:

    There are simply no other human beings who would attempt to write and perform such a sketch in a relatively mainstream comedy show. It’s absurd, and yet it actually makes sense.

    You may see the genius, or you may just realize (if you hadn’t already) that I am a huge nerd who thinks weird and boring things that make no sense are somehow funny.

  • Ho Ho Ho (With Pretty Lights)

    Merry Christmas, loyal readership.

    Festive Lights 1
    (More photos here.)

  • SLG to publish Pure Awesome in Comic Book Form

    In what is maybe the best comic news I’ve heard in a while, SLG has announced the return to comics of Jamie Smart. Smart is the demented mastermind behind Bear, one of the funniest comics I’ve ever read – it’s like a combination of Bugs Bunny and Monty Python.

    The new book, coming out in February, is called Ubu Bubu, and there’s an awesome preview to be viewed:

    February cannot come quickly enough as far as I’m concerned.

    Also, I feel I should let you all know that I’m going to start working “Top Tits” into everyday conversations. It’s my new favourite phrase.

    (Speaking of awesome: Smart has been doing a strip called Angry Little Robot. It’s mean and funny. God, how I’ve missed him.)