More Talk of Comics

[hannah]

As I've said before I joined LPTJ so I could troll. People'd made fun of my brother and people needed COMEUPPANCE.

I think I hated on the Wrens once and then I felt bad.

Anyhow Almanzo is v. nice in person. If he were over 55, as all my uncles are, I would think of him as avuncular; I guess he is a drunkle but, you know, without the creepiness.

[jebreject]

saw the trailer for the watchmen movie. man is that gonna suck. of course i'll still go see it on opening day.

[YojimboMonkey]

You're probably right, but there's a lot to like in that trailer for fans of the comic.  I mean, it's obvious he's trying to adapt it as closely as he can.  I don't think it's a work that will translate well to the screen but I liked the trailer if only because it looks like a lot of stuff will make it to the screen that I did not expect.  Also, Dr. Manhattan's clockwork palace on Mars looked amazing.

[Babar]

i don't see how it's gonna suck by watching that trailer. everything looks great. i always imagined rorschach mask to always be changing shapes constantly though, but that's pretty much the only thing that's not great. but of course, it will most likely not do the book it's justice, but so long as it's good like v for vendetta and not sucky like from hell, i'll be very satisfied.

[Thermofusion]

The trailer kicks ass, imho.  I'm pleasantly surprised at how faithful the costume and production design looks.

[YojimboMonkey]

good like v for vendetta

?

good like v for vendetta

??

good like v for vendetta

WTF???

[Babar]

pleeeease. it was hella good. not EXACTLY-LIKE-THE-BOOK-PAGE-TO-PAGE-PANEL-TO-PANEL, but very well done nonetheless.

[YojimboMonkey]

It was very much like the book, up until the end, when they changed it so much it made me wonder if they'd read the same book I did.  This is not complete nerd rage, though of course it is partially fueled by nerd rage.  The end in the movie was not just a bit different than the end in the book, it was different enough to change the entire meaning of the story.  And the new meaning was complete bullshit.

[jebreject]

yeah dude, they totally gutted v for vendetta, took all the power out of it

the book has a lot of interesting things to say about anarchy and fascism and the film was just an anti-bush polemic

[Wally]

I'm glad you're back onto comics.

[Babar]

yeah dude, they totally gutted v for vendetta, took all the power out of it

the book has a lot of interesting things to say about anarchy and fascism and the film was just an anti-bush polemic

but the film format is different from the comic book format. like for one, v for vendetta had to be shortened quite a bit and a lot of second-characters got cut from the movie. i think people should just look at the movie as it's own entity. imagine there were no comic book, would you still think it was a bad movie? really?

[jebreject]

yeah dude, they totally gutted v for vendetta, took all the power out of it

the book has a lot of interesting things to say about anarchy and fascism and the film was just an anti-bush polemic

but the film format is different from the comic book format. like for one, v for vendetta had to be shortened quite a bit and a lot of second-characters got cut from the movie. i think people should just look at the movie as it's own entity. imagine there were no comic book, would you still think it was a bad movie? really?

I really can't answer that question. I certainly wouldn't think it was important. Or that it has anything particularly interesting to say. Entertaining, sure, but we've no shortage of entertaining films.

I also don't see why I should look at it separately from the graphic novel. I mean, when thinking about film adaptations of novels or comics, yeah, I try to think about it from the perspective that, you know, films and novels both have different limitations and films should be judged as films, not simply against the text they are adapting, etc. But I think it's totally fair game to look at a film adaptation and condemn it for completely changing the meaning of the text it's adapting. And I mean, I think it's actually fine to change the meaning, if you're doing it in an interesting way, maybe as a critique on the original work. But there's nothing particularly interesting about what the film version of V for Vendetta has to say.

[rockmeamadeus]

And plus, they didn't have to mess up V for Vendetta like they did... it isn't that it was shorter, or some characters were different... they just totally left out a huge over-arching theme and the ending. It's an unnecessary butchery.

[sassymcassface]

on a comic related note:

one of my friends helped write the play version of the graphic novel of mr punch by neil gaiman

here's an article on it.

http://www.latimes.com/theguide/performing-arts/la-gd-perf17-2008jul17,0,4577290.story

t_t and i are going to go see it, i dunno if anyone else is interested, but it seems really awesome.

[Anne the Man]

V for Vendetta bugged me because it was all drama drama drama with a few very contrived light spots. It felt like it just fell short of being great. But Natalie Portman looks a-mazing with a shaved head. I haven't read the book.

[Babar]

just finished reading alan moore's run on the swamp thing. the last book (of 6) was really... far out. not really something i would expect to be reading when i decided to read a comic book about a swamp monster. but all in all, his whole run is really really fucking good, i'd even call it brilliant if wasn't for the really weird last book, i postpone reading it midway through many times because it didn't really caught me. but yeah, the whole run is a real roller-coaster ride.

[Anne the Man]

Finished Y The Last Man Vol. 8

Argh!Allison! Noooooo!

[Almanzo]

just finished reading alan moore's run on the swamp thing. the last book (of 6) was really... far out. not really something i would expect to be reading when i decided to read a comic book about a swamp monster. but all in all, his whole run is really really fucking good, i'd even call it brilliant if wasn't for the really weird last book, i postpone reading it midway through many times because it didn't really caught me. but yeah, the whole run is a real roller-coaster ride.

I'm actually just reading this for the first time now in spite of having read all other Alan Moore including the Future Shocks stuff from way back; I'd been waiting for them to do Absolute Swamp Thing and then I realized that while I have Absolute Watchmen, and the Absolute Sandman volumes, that format is actually kind of a huge pain to actually hold and read. I concur with everything you said, and I'm really curious to continue on to the Rick Veitch portion, because I'm a huge fan of his stuff, too.

[Greg Nog]

Alan Moore's Swamp Thing is indeed great.  I have a tendency to pick up one of the trades, read an issue, then put it back whenever I want a quick good comic.  As a result, though, I can never keep track of what happens to Swamp Thing when.

I'm reading The Ultimates right now, and it's great.  I just got to the big Alien Conspiracy reveal in book two.  Fucking SWEET.

[Good Intentions]

[Anne the Man]

I'm not seeing Strangers in Paradise turning as crap as you said yet, GI. And I'm on Vol. 16. (Don't go into too much detail about why it's bad, please, as I stop liking things a lot easier than I keep liking 'em).

[lastclearchance]

scott pilgrim vs the universe, feb 09, can't wait.

in other comic news:
vol. 1 of monster: liked it a lot.
secret invasion: not that wonderful.
final crisis: out of control but great.
astonishing x-men: just started with the warren ellis one; i'm hopeful.

[Greg Nog]

scott pilgrim vs the universe, feb 09, can't wait.

oh man oh man

My roommate bought me Issue 1 of "Lobo's Back" as an early birhday present (he couldn't wait to give it to me) 'cause we often joke about Lobo's general shittiness.  Now I have to decide whether I actually want to subject myself to reading it.

[Almanzo]

So all of the X-men have been relocated to San Francisco as of Astonishing #25 and Uncanny #500, and the whole thing just isn't working for me. I think that, thematically and conceptually, equating mutantdom with homosexuality for the 21st century makes sense in the way that equating it with race did in the sixties, but the whole thing very quickly falls apart past the surface level, with the whole "there are only 200 mutants left alive in the world and no new ones are being born" thing. But I like the idea of the mutants holing up in SF and just announcing to the world, "San Francisco is a sanctuary. Come here and we'll protect you. Fuck the mainstream world - we've spent 30 years trying to protect them and all they've done is hate us even more for being different."

But then I realized that, like when writers take the X-men into outer space or bring horror elements into the book, putting the team on the West Coast just doesn't work. The X-men seem very East Coast-identified to me in a way that's subtle but essential - there's something about Xavier's upstate NY old money roots, the Hellfire Club in middle manhattan, or maybe Chris Claremont putting the team in the middle of the city in every other issue during the seventies that just feels right. I'm curious to see how long they'll stick out this West Coast thing, but maybe it'll rejuvenate the property somewhat, as the X-books as a whole have been in the crapper for a good solid 15 years at this point.

[coldforge]

I'll never accept it. I'm a Bard man.