Do you have it in you to like a book even when you hate the characters? Not in the sense that you hate how the characters are being portrayed but legitimately hate them ‘as people’? I don’t. I struggle with it all the time. If the main character is an unbearable, I have a tough time picking the book up. It’s like having to deal with the asshole at work. I just give myself a pep talk and mutter, “Let’s get this over with.”
Joe Hill’s The Cape is a great story. Little kid discovers that a ratty old cape seriously gives him the power of flight. He and the cape are separated and as an adult, they’re reunited. It would seem he wasn’t a good guy to begin with, he’s even worse with the extra power. Read the rest of this entry »
Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I read an Archie comic? I grew up on those things. There will always be a soft spot in my heart for Riverdale: where the teenage girls dress whorish, polygamy is socially acceptable, and you can eat hundreds of cheeseburgers and not get fat. I fell away from Archie and the gang back around the seventh grade. Little did I realize, many years later I would pick them up again when Archie Meets Kiss. Archie and Gene: together at last.
How can you say ‘no’ to that? Well, I could. And did for a the first couple of issues. Then, one day, my local comic shop had all of the Francavilla variant covers available…I do love me some Francavilla. It was the perfect storm. They came home with me that day. They aren’t good but I sure did enjoy them.
I think the most accurate description I can give this story arc is “fun”. You remember Alex Segura (former Publicity Manager at DC), well now he’s Executive Director of Publicity and Marketing at Archie Comics! And he wrote this four-part story!
There are monsters in Riverdale, right? Sure. I guess. Sabrina the Teenage Witch gets together with Archie and the Gang to cast a protection spell…which is a perfectly acceptable thing for high schoolers to be doing in a tree house. Seven teenagers in a tree house! (Holy Cow!) Things go wrong and monsters show up (Including a mopey vampire-since they’re “in” this season). They’re here to drain all the fun out of Riverdale! (Oh no!) With a necklace! (What the hell?) And then Kiss shows up. To fight them. With the power of rock. Yes. Turns out, Kiss are a bunch of dicks! They’re so mean to everyone. (That’s not fun, Kiss. Not. Fun.) Meanwhile, these fun-sucking monsters are turning everyone into mindless zombies (because no brains=no fun…their words, not mine). Our friends are about to get lame-oed, and who saves the day? THE GAY GUY! Kevin. Read the rest of this entry »
Peter Pan Syndrome. I haz it. Okay, I don’t actually know if you can have it when you’re female-but you get my point. I am also affected in that I love me some Peter Pan. You name it: Disney, Mary Martin, Robin Williams-I’ve seen it and loved it. So with the advent of the first ever Image Expo coming up next week, let’s talk about the latest incarnation of our puer aeternus: Kurtis Wiebe and Tyler Jenkins’ Peter Panzerfaust.
You have the adventurous boy that doesn’t grow up, but what if you threw him into a situation that has robbed millions of children of their childhoods? War. And maybe the Lost Boys aren’t just a rag-tag group of roughians; they’re actually orphans in France during the German attacks in the 1930s. That sounds like a perfectly reasonable situation for a Peter Pan story, right? Right? NO! But it’s awesome that someone thought it was. Read the rest of this entry »
Valentine’s Day. Just hearing the words brings an oppressive anxiety. It’s a high-pressure holiday that issues the “If I spend enough money, maybe it’ll just go away” mentality. Now, I don’t know your significant other. Maybe cash is the way to go. But maybe, just maybe, we can go for the romantic route. I am a big fan of channelling feelings through someone else’s words a la mix tape, movie, book, etc. Real feelings are overrated. So why not buy your Valentine a comic? Tell them, “This is how I feel. Read it. Maybe we’ll have something to talk about.”
Don’t actually say that. You’ll kill the mood.
Here are some of my personal favorite romantic stories that prove to the world I’m not actually dead inside: Read the rest of this entry »
Do you ever come across somebody’s work and think, “This is the ideal medium for what I’m seeing.” It could be a story, an opinion, some artwork, music-it doesn’t really matter. There are some times when you just sit back and realize that the planets have aligned and you’re experiencing the optimum experience. Well, I feel that way about Terry Moore’s Rachel Rising.
I read the first issue of Rachel Rising and did not like it. I couldn’t figure out why. And it drove me nuts. I tried to pick it apart and figure out what turned me off. Couldn’t do it. I just knew it made me uncomfortable. So I read the second. Same thing. Read the third. Read the fourth. Read the fifth. Cannot wait for the sixth. Read the rest of this entry »
