Tuesday 28 February 2012

Books: Love and Rockets: Heartbreak Soup

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Love and Rockets
Heartbreak Soup
By Gilbert Hernandez
2007




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


I'm gonna open with a quote from this AV Club Article here: "There are few comics in the history of the medium as universally beloved as Love And Rockets, the long-running Fantagraphics title by Los Angeles-based brothers Jaime and Gilberto (“Beto”) Hernandez, sometimes assisted by a third brother, Mario. The comic helped kick-start the alternative-comics revolution of the 1980s, it inspired the name of a well-known rock band, and has been so good for so long that it’s almost impossible to find anyone with something bad to say about it. "

*clears throat*

As far as I can tell I've covered pretty much every major 'serious' comic series on this blog (Sandman, Strangers In Paradise, Preacher, Hellboy etc etc etc) with the exception of one - Love and Rockets. The reason for that is simple - I've never read it properly. I mean - I tried dripping in a few times - but there was always something about it that seemed to resist my attempts. Everything just kinda seemed kinda bunched together and the art was just kinda - I dunno - sloopy. But as it says in the quote above this is a series that's loved by everyone - and so I just figured that there was something wrong with me - and I wasn't giving it the care and attention it obviously needed. I mean - this is a series that I think I have always been aware of - and has hung at the back of everything at the start of it all like Bob Dylan or The Beatles. If comics were arranged like people - then this is graphic novel royalty. The kind spoken of in devotional and hushed terms by it's loyal and unwavering subjects and a book that I have never heard anyone speak a bad word of - ever ever ever.

First started as a self-published affair way back in 1981 Love and Rockets is a catch-all umbrella for the work of two brothers: Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez both of who write and draw and preside over their own separate fictional universes. Jaime writes about punks and the romantic entanglements of Margarita Luisa "Maggie" Chascarrillo and Esperanza "Hopey" Leticia Glass (yes - I'm just copying and pasting this from wikipedia) while Gilbert writes about a sleepy Latin American village named Palomar inspired (apparently) by the magical realist Gabriel García Márquez classic: One Hundred Years of Solitude (which I guess is the kind of thing you would have to say in the 1980s in order to get people to take your comic book seriously).

Now before I get my knives out I wanna say this: I don't deny that Love and Rockets is a comics classic. History is important and - even tho I don't think that currently I would be much use as a comics historian - it seems evident that Love and Rockets played an important part in the evolution and development of the art-form. But (here it comes) just because something is historically important and just because it helped blazed a trail and set the scene for everything that comes after - that doesn't mean that it's going to be worth your time.

I'm gonna use the Sex Pistols as an example (bear with me):

No one can deny that the Sex Pistols are a big deal. 1977 and Punk and all the rest. And without them - we wouldn't have today my absolute favourite musical genre: loud guitars and shouting melodically about stuff. And yeah - they've got two or three good songs that I like to hear every other year or so - but - let's not pretend that you'd want to put one of their albums on and listen to it from beginning to end (or maybe that kind of thing - listening to an album and enjoying the music - wasn't really what punk was about and I'm missing the point? Oh well - whatever).

So yeah - what does it matter if something is influential and all the rest - if you can't enjoy it on it's own merits? Another example (I don't care if it's not needed) is Raging Bull. Around the time that I was trying to get to grips properly with the Love and Rockets and making a concerted effort to understand and appreciate it - my girlfriend said that she wanted to watch Raging Bull - because she'd "heard it was really good." Hell yeah - I said - I love Raging Bull - I'll get a copy from the library... (skip to the end) ...it's not as good as I remembered it being. I mean - I could see all the cool things it did - and the way it pushed things forward - and all the nice editing and camera techniques - and Robert De Niro sure does a whole lot of acting. But as a film that's still as fresh and lively as I'm sure it was when it first came out (and way before everyone from David O. Russell to Paul Thomas Anderson (to name just the first two guys to pop into my head) stole all it's best moves).

But I realise now that I'm babbling (sorry).

The point (yeah - there's a point) is that taken on it's own merits Love and Rockets isn't all that. At least - not for this reader.

The things that people mainly tend to say when they praise this - is how great it is that the characters all age. Ok - fine. That's nice. But what else is there? The art still even after reading it closely nose up against the page (and waiting for the greatness to jump out at me) isn't all that. I mean - I guess that standards were lower back in the day. But it just didn't do anything for me. And the stories don't tend to do that much with the words and pictures: the stories just kind of sit there without doing much before they decide to stop at some random point and then glare at you with a kind of "yeah - what?" The one thing it really reminded me of was All About My Mother - a Pedro Almodóvar film that I got dragged to back in 1999 (I guess people thought it would be good for my soul or something): like - yeah - people have complicated relationships and time destroys all things. But would you mind serving me up some kind of entertainment?

I know that I sound like a major philistine at this point - and maybe you're saying to yourself that I'm the kind of comic fan that only likes his heroes with capes and four colours. No. I like it when comics go further and overstep all their boundaries and all the rest: even now most of the time I end up thinking that more books should try more things. And - damnit - I wanted to like Love and Rockets - I wanted to be seduced and won over. And - who knows? - maybe in a few years I'll try again and see the light. But for now: it's not exactly a book I would recommend.

I dunno. What do you think?

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Links: Shelf Life: 25 Years of Love & Rockets, Warren Peace Sings The Blues Review, Hooded Utilitarian Roundtable.

Further reading: Love and Rockets: Maggie the Mechanic, The Essential Dykes To Watch Out ForStrangers in Paradise, Black Hole, David Boring,  Shortcomings.

All comments welcome.

Books: Captain America: Man Out of Time

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Captain America: Man Out of Time
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Jorge Molina
2011




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


I don't wanna be too judgemental or anything but: Radiohead don't look like that.

I wish that I could have found a picture on the internet that I could link to here. But - basically - there's a bit in this book where Radiohead play for Captain America - and - well - instead of looking like Radiohead - they look like a 8 year old boy's idea of what a rock band should be. And - duh - obviously - Radiohead don't look like that.

And - hey - you know what? - maybe I could have got over that - but then - in the end - there's what's supposed to this big cathartic moment - Captain America learning lessons and moving on and etc and blah - and it all rests upon - Radiohead (namely: Kid A). And it just seemed really silly - because it's supposed to be all emotional and whatever: but coming from a book that couldn't even get close to drawing Radiohead right. And - yeah - it annnoyed me. And - the reason I'm saying all this - is that the Radiohead problem is endemic of the problem of this whole book. I mean: it's written by Mark Waid - who I really like from Kingdom Come and Irredeemable - but this whole book feels massively rushed and thrown together: (so much so at one point I had to double-check to see if I had accidently skipped a couple of pages): the whole book feels like there's bits missing or it's a tie-in to some other book that doesn't exist.

I remember when I first saw this book. It was sitting on the shelves in an HMV back when the Chris Evans Captain America film had first come out. I looked up at the cover and thought: "Wow. That looks kinda cool." (Although the cover was just a tiny bit confusing: was it trying to suggest that this was a story where Captain America had a fight with all the American Presidents?" [1] )

But: basically - summing up I'd just say that: Radiohead don't look like that.

Or: (even better): Trash. And not in a good way.

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[1] Note to whoever is reading this: can we make that book happen? It could start with the same sort of conversation that they have in Fight Club (Captain America and Iron Man sitting around having a beer: "OK: any historic figure." "I'd fight Gandhi." "Good answer." "How about you?" "Lincoln." "Lincoln?" "Big guy, big reach. Skinny guys fight 'til they're burger." "Well - I have a time machine just over here: let's do this!")

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Further reading: Ultimate Captain America, Kingdom Come, IrredeemableSuperman: Birthright.

All comments welcome.

Monday 27 February 2012

Books: Ultimate Galactus Trilogy

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Ultimate Galactus Trilogy
Vol 1: Ultimate Nightmare
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Trevor Hairsine and Steve Epting
2005



Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/

Ultimate Galactus Trilogy
Vol 2: Ultimate Secret
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Steve McNiven and Tom Raney
2006



Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/

Ultimate Galactus Trilogy
Vol 3: Ultimate Extinction
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Brandon Peterson
2006



Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


I can't be certain - but I'm fairly sure that the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy (am resisting the urge to write that all in caps with several exclamation marks: ULTIMATE GALACTUS TRILOGY!!! - oops - oh well) was the very first "Ultimate" (ULTIMATE!!! - great now I can't stop) book that I ever read (it was either that or Mark Millar's The Ultimates). Looking back and re-reading it for what? the third time? I don't know if I could have chosen a better place to start. An epic retelling/rebooting of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's The Galactus Trilogy (which took place in the pages of The Fantastic Four way back in 1966) - this is Warren Ellis (whose name I reckon was the thing that made me pick it up in the first place - seeing how back then (and still now) most mainstream superhero stuff just ends up giving me a headache) doing a big superhero epic and featuring not just the Fantastic Four - but also: Captain America, Nick Fury, Captain Marvel and some of the X-Men (amongst others) all in their slightly alternative updated Ultimate Universe forms [1].

You haven't read it? Well - let me try and sell it to you: it's doesn't really start like your typical superhero book - but instead mixes in end-of-the-world stirrings (crazy transmissions from outer space!) with covert semi-spy espionage stuff - except you know: the guy leading the mission is Captain freaking America - so it all feels kinda cool (yeah - it's an over-used word - but it fits - so there). I didn't really recognize all of the characters (in fact - still don't - who's the guy with the wings? And the guy with the metal arm?) - but that doesn't really matter. There's big outlandishly over-blown concepts like nuclear land-mines, freaky Soviet Russian experiments and new crazy methods of space travel (not to mention a nice little Day The Earth Stood Still joke for all you Robert Wise fans).

So you know: because this is Ultimate Galactus and not just - erm Normal (?) Galactus - his appearance is kinda - different to what you might expect (what do you mean you don't know what Galactus looks like?) and - yeah - after all that build-up the ending is just a little anti-climatic (and the third book's computer generated art left me a little - disconnected). But all-in-all: lots of rollicking superhero hi-jinks with a Roland Emmerich vibe - and seasoned with Warren Ellis' insane ideas of fun (and sharp eye for telling details).

Woop.

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[1] I end up saying something like on practically every entry for the Ultimate books - but for those of you that don't know: The Ultimate Marvel Universe is just like the Marvel Universe - but rebooted and made more modern and *cough* cool. (with varying results).

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Links: Comics Should Be Good Review, The M0vie Blog Review, PopMatters Review

Further reading: The Ultimates, Iron Man: Extermis, The Authority, The Astonishing X-Men

Profiles: Warren Ellis.

All comments welcome.

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Events: Islington Comic Forum 2012/02

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The Islington Comic Forum is a monthly meeting for anyone interesting in graphic novels and comic books. 

The next Islington Comic Forum is on:
Tuesday the 28st of February / 6:00pm to 7:30pm.
Upstairs Hall at North Library Manor Gardens N7 6JX
Here is a map.

Meet and talk with other members. Hear recommendations. Tell us what you think. And a selection of over 100 hand-picked titles for you to borrow and take home.

The Book of the Month is:
Preacher Vol 1: Gone To Texas
By Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
If you get a chance please read it. You can reserve yourself a copy here. (For those of you that don't get the chance - don't worry - you can still come and join in with the discussions).

You can find us on facebook here.
For more information (or if you have any questions) you can email us here .
Come and join us. All welcome.
We hope to see you there.

All comments welcome.