With apologies to Dave the Thune
(as well as Mike Baron & Steve Rude).
WRITING:
Every day. 1000 words.
That’s the goal.
Finally felt comfortable back in
the world of my current novel (which, I should note, will only be the second
novel I’ve completed, when I do finish this draft, and the first one I will
actively submit for publication, once revisions are complete). Passed 60,000 words on the manuscript and
worked on outlining the major landmarks for this second half. Now that there’s a rough path to follow, I’m
excited to dive right in and see where these characters take me.
READING:
Over at Comic Geek Speak, they’ve
brought back their Book of the Month Club episodes, and the next one, which
should drop on iTunes this coming week, is a discussion of the fourth Sandman
volume, “Season of Mists.” Sandman is
probably my all-time favorite long-form comic series. This was the first hardcover collection DC
published, back in the day before collected editions became typical, and I
managed to grab the final copy from my LCS owner, at the time, at the second
Nostalgia-Con he put on, up here in the Bangor, Maine area, in the early
90s. Kelley Jones was the special guest,
and I got him to sign my edition, and that was the point where I dove headfirst
into collecting Sandman – the single issues, the hardcovers, the slipcase for
the initial trade paperbacks of volumes 1-3 (which they eventually collected in
hardcover as the series was winding down), the statues, the platinum editions
of special issues, all in.
Anyway. This is probably my favorite storyline of the
series, for a number of reasons, including this memory and getting the chance
to meet Jones. I plan on posting some
thoughts on this collection later in the week.
Look for it, if you’re so inclined.
I have also begun my re-read of
Matt Wagner’s Grendel, which will eventually turn into a “first-read” when I
close in on the Grendel-Prime stories.
It’s been a few years since I read these first Grendel stories – I read
“Devil by the Deed” in its original, oversized, collected edition and have
begun the “Devil’s Legacy” storyline – and I’d forgotten how compelling they
are, while also being experiments in how to tell a comic story. In hindsight, one can see how Wagner was
approaching comics from a different point of view to the mainstream. “Devil by the Deed” is almost an illustrated
novella with its large blocks of text and art deco imagery that owes more to
magazine design than comic book pages.
It’s a wonderful melding of illustrated prose and comics that works as a
distinct work of art. With the opening
of “Devil’s Legacy,” Wagner, with the Pander Bros. on art, still utilizes broad
blocks of text, but these are the personal journals of Christine Spar, the
“author” of the previous “novel,” and it is interesting to see how Wagner will
use these bits of text to infuse confusion into the readers, through the
confusion of the narrator, juxtaposed with the imagery that helps to clarify
the muddled prose. It’s an interesting
way to circumvent the problem some run into with text-heavy comics, where the
prose explains what is obvious in the pictures.
Wagner was obviously aware of this pitfall, and, though there cannot help
but be instances where he falls into this trap of explaining what the audience
can see in the panels, he manages to fuse the words and pictures nicely into a
narrative that does not resemble the same format as his previous Grendel
tale. It’s a young artist choosing not
to sit on his laurels and, instead, making the decision to experiment and see
if he can tell a story in a new way. It’s
great, and they hold up so well, even thirty years on.
WATCHING:
Watched Pulp Fiction this
week. I had forgotten just how damn good
Quentin Tarantino is (and maybe I wrote that last week; if so, I apologize,
which does not negate its truth). The
dialogue, the scenarios, the way he shoots a scene, and the way he puts all the
pieces together – it’s pretty amazing, especially considering this was only his
second feature film. Tarantino shows you
enough, but also isn’t afraid to pull the camera away from a character while
they may be talking or to hide the scene behind an ominous door (you know what I’m
talking about), in order to evoke an emotional response that is enhanced by the
absence of the visualization but not the sound – he understands how crazy our
minds can become when forced to craft a grotesque or dramatic image (though I
also think this is a reaction to budgetary constraints – particularly in
Reservoir Dogs – and an artistic response to such fiscal realities). Looking forward to Jackie Brown next.
SIGN OFF:
As always, check out my friends – Brad& Matt and Don McMillan for their own weekly recaps on things comic-y and geeky, and we'll see what's
what in seven.
-chris
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