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bloggerblagger · 5 years

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89) You’re in a focus group: If Brexit were A or B or C, below, what would it be?

A) A Car

Back in my day - when they were just realising that if you tied the pointy flinty bit to the stick you had an axe - one of the most favoured questions by so-called market researchers was, ‘if such and such were a car, what would it be?’

Or sometimes it would be an animal. Or a sport. Or whatever. You get the idea - these were not very subtle attempts to crystalise the respondents’ otherwise hard to articulate feelings about the ‘such and such’ in question.

I was put in mind of this pre-Cambridge Analytica, pre-algorhthym, and doubtless, by today’s standards, prehistoric, research method when walking through leafy Twickenham the other day. There I came up this fabulous Rover 100. A gorgeous beast. All wood and leather, about to 18 to the gallon - no bally litres then - when a gallon was about 6s8d. If you need a translation you’re really too young to understand, but to help you that’s 33p in new money. And at 0.22 litres to the gallon that is as near as dammit to 7.25p to the litre. Those were the days eh.

Yep, what a beauty. Weighed a ton, road holding just about okay providing you were going dead straight, 50 years old and closer to a horse and cart than a 2019 car. Almost a museum piece, and completely removed from the modern world. If I could get by without satnav and a reversing camera and if I didn’t demand music playing like I was in the Albert Hall and if I didn’t care that I was taking my nearest and dearest out in a deathtrap, I’d love one of these.

It would bowl along gaily pumping lead fumes into the air (when gaily meant what gaily was meant to mean and hadn’t been hi jacked by the Tom Robinson* brigade) and blithely poisoning schoolchildren.

No crush proof zones on this old girl, no collapsible steering wheel, no air bags, not even a bloody safety belt. You could go out and drink yourself silly and then go out and kill yourself and your passengers and anyone who happened to get in the way without anyone or anything to stop you.

Yet, as out of date as it is, it quickens my pulse when I see it like no brand new Beemer or Lexus can. Nothing conjures up my childhood and youth like the sight of a motor car of the period. (‘Motor car’ - what a lovely, quaint old fashioned term that is.) I would love to sit in it, to feel the leather seats under me, to smell the Connolly hide as all cars like this were advertised as having. And mixed in with that, doubtless, the lingering pong of ashtrays stuffed full of stubbed out Rothmans and Dunhills. Cigar lighters and ashtrays - you didn’t get much in the way of extras then but every Rover had those.

It’s a magnet for my nostalgia. If I had a choice between this Rover !00 and a straight of the box Tesla…..

If Brexit were a car, this would be it.

* Tom Robinson from ‘The Tom Robinson Band’, of ‘Glad to Be Gay’ fame, as opposed to Tommy Robinson of nothing-to-boast-of-at-all infamy. Only just spotted the extraordinary similarity. Could the choice of that name have been conscious irony on Yaxley-Lennon’s part? I think not. In which case, it is fucking hilarious.

B) A type of entertainment or cultural event

A few days after my astonishingly brilliant Rover insight, I found myself glued to the Last NIght of the Proms. Yes, I know, I really should get out more but, corny as it is, I was completely swept along.

Rule Britannia, Jerusalem, Land of Hope And Glory - irrestible to a septuagenarian who once sat in history lessons in chalky classrooms being shown maps of the world a quarter of which were proudly picked out in pink. (By the way, does anyone* know why pink was the colour designated to mark the countries of the British Empire? Seems a strange choice in retrospect.)

And this wasn’t ancient history either. When I started my whatever-the-opposite-of-illustrious-is career at Brighton Grammar School in 1959 - no false modesty I assure you - the wind of change had yet to blow through Africa. Canada and Australia and New Zealand and the sub-continent had gone, dammit, but we - WE - as in US - as in other people and I - were, we were told, still a world power. 11 years old and a world power. Not bad!

In those days, there was no suggestion - at least not one that had seeped into the salty ether of Brighton Grammar - that empire was anything else but something to be jolly proud of.

And so it was that, for the second time in a few days, a dazzling lightbulb pinged above my head: the Last Night of the Proms was the precise cultural manifestation of what the Leavers had been voting for.

This was what they ached for: A world where the certainties of the fities were never to be questioned. When this was a Christian country and its people were white. (Take a close look at any picture of the Proms and try to sport the black faces. It’s like Where’s Wally but without Wally.) A world where no ungrateful Frog - have they forgotten that we saved them from the Hun! - would dare to tell us to straighten our cucumbers. Where Jews were kept out of our golf clubs and Muslims were called Mosselmen and were only seen in the Arabian Nights.

A world in which men were men and if they liked other men they went to prison and if they killed other men they were killed too and if they beat other men’s children with sticks that was perfectly okay. (Okay, a little exaggeration to claim that this is what Leavers were voting for, but its just to make a point. And anyway, it’s not that much of a stretch. Try reading the ‘Comments’ section after any article in the Daily Telegrafarage.)

And here’s the awful thing: I kind of got it. Because, as I said, here was I, carried gleefully along by The Last Night of the Proms too. And wallowing in the nostagia.

But then I spotted the fly in the ointment. Or the N word in the woodpile as they used to say before the PC crowd ruined Leaver lives. I could suddenly hear the cab driver’s voice in my head: ‘You’re not going bleedin’ Adam and Eve it - them fuckin’ traitor Remainers have only gorn and fucking ruined The Last Night of the Proms too! Did you see all them EU flags?!!! At the bleedin’ Proms!’

And then, whilst researching this piece, I saw this Tweet. Nice.

And then I thought about the People’s Vote demo that I had been to on Spetember 7th in Parliament Square - it’s the kind of thing we Traitor Remainer types do of a Saturday - and saw the for the first time that terribly English, awfully traditional social group, the Football Lads Alliance, who just happened to have turned up at the same time. (Whether impicitly or explicitly encouraged so to do by the D.Cummings tendancy I know not, but nothing would surprise me.)

it was from here that the Press Associatation reported that 'former Conservative and Brexit opposition MP Anna Soubry cancelled her speech to Parliament Square for fear of violence. "I am a member of Parliament and I have the right to express myself and I should not be scared, but it is very, very, very disturbing and, in fact, I am really scared," she said.’

Her and me both.

And all this was before the great debate - as if there needs to be one because it it is so fucking obvious - about whether Johnson and Cummings were making it deliberate Tory policy to use the language of war to inflame Leaver passions so they can win an election.

I don’t mean to be alarmist. No, actually I do. You’d think it was a long, long way from the Albert Hall to Charlottesville but it seems to me be perilously close.

*Two possible answers to the ‘Why is the British Empire coloured pink?’ question found on Google:

i) Pink was a printer's compromise for letters overprinted to be clearly read, as the colour that was traditionally associated with the British Empire is red.

ii) Pink is supposed to be the colour of the Tudor rose of the English monarchy. Goes back to the War of the Roses, Henry Tudor reunited the houses of York, symbolized by the white rose, and Lancaster, symbolized by the red rose. The new House of Tudor was symbolized by the combination of the two, a pink rose.

C) A fruit or vegetable

I really have to take it easy. First the Rover, then the Proms, and then, taking an autumnal stroll in Queens Park, I suddenly felt my heart heart quickening yet again. There at my feet lay another shiny vehicle guaranteed to instantly transport me back to my days in the Outlaws*. (See foot notes if under 60.)

Yes, the mighty conker. You may not think of it as a fruit, but technically (I think) it qualifies. And if a conker isn’t Brexit on a string, well I don’t know what is. Instantly evocative of grazed knees, and corned beef and the Billy Cotton Band Show and Ted Dexter and dwindling white dots in the middle of televisions and a world which was blessedly free of the dreaded health and safety and all the other absurd modern contrivances that get in the way of living of proper British lives. All of which, as the Sun, Mail and Telegraph have been relentlessly telling us for the past forty years are, unquestionably, the evil doings of BRUSSELS!!!

But.

No sooner had I settled on the conker as my super stonking answer to question C, than I caught a bit of a radio show in which they were interviewing a bloke from the British Sandwich Association or some such. He was reassuring us that, in the event of a no-deal Brexit causing a shortage of rocket - the salad not the Scud type - which, apparently, is produced in Italy and might get stuck on the M2 in a tailback to Taormina, they will reformulate their recipes and subsitute good old British lettuce.

(For a moment I thought he was going to get into the Leaver’s beloved wartime spirit and suggest we grow our own watercress and try that instead. I am sure that will be official government policy soon so here is how to do it: https://www.wikihow.com/Grow-Watercress )

I really can’t see why I should have to live without rocket just to please Fathead Francois but, to be honest, I can, so the letttuce substitution thing didn’t bother me unduly. But then the British Sandwich chap said something which made me gasp. There might be a shortage of some other foreign foods too such as - wait for it - avocado pears.

“AVOCADO FUCKING PEARS !!!” I screamed at the radio. ‘Foreign? What? No avocados? Are you fucking kidding?”

Avocados are a staple to me and the rest of the oatmilk crowd. Indeed, even the people who are still on semi-skimmed would get their danders up if they couldn’t get an avocado. Avocados might actually be grown in some corner of a foreign field but as far as we Waitrosers are concerned they are as British as curvy bananas.

But the thing is, and call me a metropolitan elitist if you like - in fact please do, because I find it really flattering - I have a sneaking suspicion that, in Macclesfield and Middlesbrough, avocados don’t get dropped into shoppers’trolleys quite as often as they do in Guildford and Wandsworth.

Okay, I could be being a patrnising Southern twat - yup, guilty as charged - and guacamole could be as popular as pigeon fancying oop North, but somehow I doubt it.

And then came a deep and meaningful insight so deep and so meaningful that it made my Rover and Last Night of the Proms insights look as shallow and as obvious as they clearly are, and made my conker theory shatter into a dozen pieces just as surely as if I had whacked it with a nicely baked sixer**. (If under 60 see footnotes again.)

Whereas all of those are the basic representations of the Brexit the Leavers voted for, the avocado is the fruitandvegification of Brexit in a much subtler way.

It’s the culture war made made yellowy green flesh. To us Remainers the avocado is an essential. We have adopted it as our own and have completely forgotten there was any other way and just can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t love avocados and would ever want to be without them. To the hardened Leavers, it’s still a foreign object. Continental and unneccessary. Southern and poncey. What’s the avocado ever done for us?

In Afrikaans there are two words, ‘Verligte’ and ‘Verkrampte’. As I understand it, the former means ‘Open minded’ and the latter ‘Closed minded’. That, as a Remainer, is how the Brexit divide seems to me.

Can we ‘Verligte’ Remainers and those ‘Verkrampte’ Leavers ever be reconciled?

Can we all learn to love the avocado?

Or must I give the avocado up so that I can keep the Football Lads Alliance from smashing my face in.

*The Outlaws were William, Douglas, Henry and Ginger, a group of small boys in the ‘Just William’ novels by Richmal Crompton.

** A sixer. If a given conker was succesful in a number of battles it was referred to by the number of wins it had had. A sixer would have had six wins, a niner , nine etc. The ‘baked’ part refers to the practise of baking conkers in the oven for extra toughness and competitive advantage.

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danschkade · 7 years

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PAGE x PAGE ANALYSIS — “GANGBUSTER: SWING ANNA MISS” from THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #500 (1993)

PUBLISHED: DC Comics, June 1993

SCRIPT: Jerry Ordway

PENCILS: Tom Grummett

INKS: Doug Hazelwood

COLORS: Glenn Whitmore

LETTERS: Albert De Guzman

EDITORIAL: Mike Carlin with Jennifer Frank

A couple days ago, I took a look at a short segment of the sixty-five page ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #500 — specifically, the four-page introduction to Superboy by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett. Today, I wanted to revisit a different part of that same issue: the nine total pages of subplot that focus on the nobody’s favorite hard-hitting hero of Suicide Slum: GANGBUSTER.

Oh, Gangbuster. While many casual comic history buffs may cite 90s comic character design trends in terms of pouches and spikes, I feel like Gangbuster represents the aesthetic of that era in an equal but opposite way. His “What if Firestorm was Robocop” look is such a prime example of what straight attempts at designing new comic book characters in the classic superhero mold looked like at the time. The shoulders. The helmet. His little logo. He’s so serious. He’s just the worst. I think I might love him.

But hey, Andrew Weiss I ain’t — far better to let you see my man Gangbuster in action and let his performance speak for itself. So let’s tuck in and take a look at his subplot in ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #500, which I’ve entitled, for the purposes of discussion: “GANGBUSTER: SWING ANNA MISS.”

THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #500 and all characters contained therein are property of DC Comics, reproduced here solely for educational purposes.

***

PAGE ONE

Aww, yeah. Drink him in.

Grummett and Hazelwood create a sense of distance between the buildings by showing the foregrounded building Gangbuster’s hanging off of in full detail, while the buildings in the background are rendered in black silhouette, suggesting they’re far enough apart that light affects them differently. This has the side affect of giving Gangbuster a sense of height — if the buildings behind him feel far away, we automatically assume the ground must be equally far below. This is a great hero shot, besides. From this first image, we know what kind of superhero Gangbuster is: the weapon and helmet suggest he has no powers, the collar implies he’s kind of a squarejohn. To my eyes, his design invokes two moralistic Marvel characters: Daredevil and Cyclops.

The message is clear: the Super R.A. is here to kick some ass.

PAGE TWO

Excellent establishing shot of the alleyway — going with an over the shoulder angle concretely places Gangbuster, our audience surrogate character, relative to the other characters below. When added to the previous splash page, this gives us a very strong understanding of the space: a narrow alleyway with entrances on both sides.

Note how Grummett makes panels two and three a smaller inset of panel one, giving the feeling that what we’re seeing is a detail of the larger scene. Colorist Glenn Whitmore even makes the gutters of these panels a dark red, a color we already associate with Gangbuster, further coding the scene as being observed by him, even though panels two and three are not literally from his POV. This might be reading into things too much — this color coding might just be a happy accident. Super minor continuity issue with his nunchucks: they’re dangling free on page one, but gathered into his fist here. Personally, I’d think the clinking chain connecting them would give him away. But who knows? It’s the DC Universe. Maybe they’re hard rubber instead of metal. Moving on.

Also, that guy next to the car. Keep an eye on him.

PAGES THREE AND FOUR

These pages work together as a sort of splash in three parts. The black field floating behind the panels on page three is a great way to add depth to the layout — Grummett employs this several times over the course of the issue, always to good effect. On the big splash page, I really like the visual representation of the whipping motion of the nunchucks; it adds force and speed to a weapon the can often look sort of ineffective on a static comic book page. The slowly increasing size of Gangbuster across both pages conveys the growing intensity and brutality of his attack on these guys. This also sets up this moment as the height of Gangbuster’s evening — we’re clearly meant to be more or less on his side right now. After all, we need a hero now more than ever. Superman’s dead.

PAGE FIVE

The first three panels on this page consist of tight action shots, limiting our ability to see our environment, so we share in Gangbuster’s surprise when we pull to a wide shot in the last panel. Dropping out the border in panel four, surrounding the figures in negative space, enhances the feeling that the cops have swarmed him from out of nowhere — although note that Grummett adds enough puddles and junk on the ground to make the figures feel like they’re standing on something solid. Lastly, making all of the figures the same cool shade effectively equalizes them; Gangbuster isn’t a superhero, he’s just some schmuck that’s about to get canned.

PAGE SIX

Is the cop who calls out to Gangbuster in panel four the same one who fires at him in panel five (“Charlie”)? Logistically, It would make sense — there’s no one in front of him in panel four, and Charlie in panel five is clearly in front of the “Charlie -- No!” cop in that panel (who we’ll call “Killjoy”). Character-wise, however, it would make more sense for the panel four cop to be Killjoy — he’s even holding his gun the same way in both panels.

I point this out as an example of the pitfalls of making characters in identical outfits too physically similar. If you’re drawing a group of big city cops, there’s no reason not to make them diverse in race and gender, if for no other reason than to add easy distinguishing elements between what is otherwise a totally homogenous pack of unnamed characters (although there’s plenty of other reasons why this is a good idea).

All that said, great bit of action between panels one and two. The close-up of Gangbuster grabbing the cop in panel one, a right to left motion, leads directly into the huge left to right throw in panel two. I love the anatomy in this scene — you can really feel how much effort the decidedly non-superhuman Gangbuster has to put into the throw. Once again, Grummett and Hazelwood create a feeling of space in panel two by dropping the back two cops into black silhouettes, with their badges still visible to create a feeling overwhelming, encroaching authority.

Also, considering how ineffective small arms typically are against costumed crimefighters, our boy Charlie is one crackerjack marksman. Or maybe — just maybe — Gangbuster is a goddamn terrible superhero.

PAGE SEVEN

Here is where I point out a minor flaw in this whole sequence; now that we’ve left the alleyway, we can say conclusively that the guy in the suit standing next to the car on page two never showed up again. He’s not even in the pack of cops surrounding Gangbuster on page five — we just lose track of him entirely. It’s a small thing, but since Grummett (or possibly Ordway in the scripting process) chose to include him in that establishing shot of the alleyway, it would have been nice to see him again when the Undercover Cops twist goes down. Losing him like this adds to the hash this scene makes of the work done to establish this space on the first two pages.

Couple possible fixes: One, take the guy in the suit out entirely. The initial interaction of the undercover cop and the drug dealer is framed very tightly and personally, so just have them be there (ostensibly) alone. Then pull the reveal of the undercover cop as is, and all the uniformed cops still swarm him from — the walls? I guess? They kind of come out of nowhere.

Two, and my preferred fix, would be to have a couple of guys in suits sanding by the undercover cop’s car on page two, with one distinct guy standing next to the drug dealer — a big guy in a leather jacket, something that screams “bodyguard.” On page three, Gangbuster takes out the bodyguard in panel two instead of the drug dealer. We keep Gangbuster wailing on the drug dealer on page four — that looked great. On page five, instead of just punching out that one cop, we have Gangbuster diving into the men in suits in a more “superhero takes on a bunch of thugs” type fight. Then the men in suits reveal themselves to be undercover cops, instead of the uniformed cops just appearing out of nowhere at the end of page five— something I keep bringing up because it really does bother me, since the geography of the narrow alleyway was so well established on page two, making the sudden appearance of the uniformed cops feel a little like a cheat. Wouldn’t Gangbuster have been ideally situated to see them hiding in the alley, from his vantage point on the fire escape high above? This proposed scenario cleans all that up, and loosely preserves the extant flow of action. And even though I did ramble on about this for a goodly while, it is ultimately a minor flaw. But then, that’s the thing about minor flaws; there’s usually a pretty easy fix.

Meanwhile, this page: Really strong lettering from Albert De Guzman at play here. Look how he guides our eye down the page, helping Grummett’s already clear line of motion by creating an arrow of words pointing right to Hob’s Bay.

Grummet consistently makes Gangbuster small (I.E. less powerful) on this page, a clear contrast to how huge he was during the opening pages. Here he’s dwarfed by everything on the roof, from vent pipes to chimneys, culminating in the huge cop’s hand + gun in panel four. I personally would’ve liked to have shown a little more of the cop’s arm, enough to see an official insignia up on his shoulder, but we’ve already established that the cops’ jackets have furry cuffs, so it works fine enough as is.

PAGE EIGHT

There’s been no shortage of great layouts in this issue, but this page is a cut above. The narrow verticality of that first panel bleakly lays out the stakes at play; the cop on the roof, the three story jump, the bay below. Grummett and Hazelwood use the fog off the bay to drop the buildings beyond into the deep background, visually “clearing the path” to the bay.

The second panel eliminates everything but this huge full-figure shot of Gangbuster diving, with a couple scraps of lead paint from the roof to place him in space. We can’t see his expression, but his captioned dialogue is tremendously affecting. Note also how while Gangbuster is diving towards the bottom on the page, the lettering still leads us organically to his plunge into the bay in panel three, even though that panel is layout-wise much higher on the page.

Nice reverse shot in that last panel, reminding us how far Gangbuster has just jumped and adding tension to the idea that he might not have survived. The last line is continued in a caption on the following page: “…No way anyone could’ve survived THAT!”

Another note about the last couple pages: Grummett always has Gangbuster moving in the same direction, left to right, throughout the entire rooftop chase. For this reason, the bullet Gangbuster catches is in his right arm — the arm that’s always facing us.

Oh man! It could’ve been a cool visual dichotomy, if we had seen the official insignia on the sleeve of the cop pointing the gun at him at the end of page seven! The officer of the law has a symbol of his authority where the vigilante has a bullet wound! Ahh, well. Still a phenomenal page.

PAGE NINE

We come back to this subplot after about twenty pages with a nice, low-energy establishing shot of the docks. The wafting, flapping paper is a great way to suggest windchill and urban decay. The bay is to the left of the page — when last we saw Gangbuster, he was making a rightward dive into the bay. On a storytelling level, we’re on “the other side” of the bay. Gangbuster got away clean.

High-Pockets is immediately helpful here, despite having a crummy night. No deep analysis to be had here, I just like it. Good little character trait for a good little character. As he hauls Gangbuster out of the drink, we see he’s transferred his wine to the pocket of his coat, which he then gives to Gangbuster. High-Pockets doesn’t offer him his hooch, mind you — Gangbuster just straight jukes it. We end on a nice reverse silhouette as High-Pockets and the slumped, defeated Gangbuster lope off into the shadowed, Superman-less city of Metropolis. Gangbuster’s last line concludes in caption on the next page: “…Then I’ll be finished with this stinking place!” Our hero, kids.

Again, this is one of the first comics I even read. When I think about it, Gangbuster has to have been one of the first, say, fifteen superheroes I was ever aware of. Before Green Arrow or Daredevil or The Question or Black Canary, I knew about Gangbuster — a character who, as depicted here, just isn’t really cut out to be a superhero. He’s a washout, a bencher, a big ol’ can of coulda beans. He’d be one of the hockey pad Batmen from The Dark Knight, only they wouldn’t let him join because he’s just such a giant prick. He’s awesome. Gangbuster, man! Gangbuster.

***

You can buy the full 65-page issue of THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #500 for the surprisingly low price of $1.99 off Comixology! It’s absolutely worth the read, containing a truly emotional Pa Kent story as well as the introduction of Cyborg Superman, which is, if nothing else, exceptionally well-paced.

Meanwhile -- we’re in the final days of the Kickstarter for SECTION ZERO!

Tom Grummett reunites with writer Karl Kesel to bring back the high quality old school team-based adventure comic — one of the few types of fiction that genuinely does work better in the medium of comics than it does anywhere else, and these guys are high in the top list of creators who can pull it off. If these awesome Gangbuster pages above did anything for you, SECTION ZERO is totally on your frequency.

If you want to read some preview pages and learn more about the project, I highly encourage everybody to check out the SECTION ZERO Kickstarter — it’s entering its last week and I very much want to see this book on my shelf.

***

As always, feel free to check me on any mistakes I might have made, add your own commentary, or share similar examples of good comics done well. I’ll be back next week with a different comic to peruse.

Be well!

PREVIOUS PAGE x PAGE ANALYSES:

MINI-ANALYSIS — FIRST SIGHTING: SUPERBOY

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #69 (with Aud Koch)

THE SHADOW STRIKES! #13

PETER PARKER: SPIDER-MAN #13

BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES #17

#Gangbuster #Page x Page Analysis #comics #educational purposes #Superman #DC Comics #Tom Grummett #jerry ordway

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joementa · 5 years

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Literary References.

I’ve been spending a lot of time reading lately which has really eaten into my music listening time. I’m by no means done with music but I’ve been enjoying the written word more than music over the past few months. Of the music I am listening to, it’s a lot of what I call the “poet musicians”. This includes musicians like Dylan (obviously), Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, etc. While listening to a lot of these musicians, I’ve been noticing how frequently they include literary references in their songs – things like book titles, authors, literary characters or lines from books. It makes sense that musicians are well-read, but until recently I don’t think I noticed how much literature is referenced in music. So I decided to put together a playlist of 20 songs that contain literary references/influences in them.

This is by no means a complete list. In fact, I’m fairly certain I’ll have a few volumes of playlists like this. There’s a lot more out there than you know. Some musicians have many songs with literary references. Obviously Dylan does, but so does Patti Smith and Pet Shop Boys (go to the link right here to see all of the literary references in Pet Shop Boys’ music – there are so many!).

Songs that are simply the musician reciting/singing a poem word-for-word were not eligible for the list. So this meant songs like “Annabell Lee” by Stevie Nicks and “Nirvana” by Tom Waits were intentionally left off of this list. I don’t think these should count since they are basically like cover songs. I’m trying to show how musicians and songwriters use literature to create songs. Songs themselves are like poems. But maybe this is a good idea for another playlist! Songs that were first poems. I think we’ll have to include Dylan’s “Love Is Just A Four Letter Word” in that one!

Can someone please tell me if Jackson Browne’s “Tender Is The Night” was indeed titled after the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel?!?! I did some research on this and still haven’t been able to confirm it! Hopefully someone can let me know when it comes time to work on volume 2 of the playlist, because that song is awesome and would deserve to be on a playlist!

Also, can someone please tell me why “Killing An Arab” by The Cure isn’t available on streaming sites? I realize snowflakes are not very fond of the title, but the song is included on their great comp album Standing On A Beach and it was influenced by the incredible Albert Camus book The Stranger, which I recently read. I really wanted to include this song on the playlist, so I’m hoping there’s a good reason that it’s not available and that it’s not because it’s banned. I feel the same way about banning music as I do about banning books. I am totally against it. This means that I very much intend on putting Ryan Adams’ “Sylvia Plath”, which just sonically didn’t fit this time, on the next volume of literary-influenced songs. And this also means I’ve got a good idea for yet another playlist theme – banned music!

I do hope that you enjoy this playlist. I spent a lot of time making sure all of the songs sounded great in this specific order. So make sure you listen to the playlist in the order that I put the songs in. I also spent a lot of time on the notes for each song. Make sure you read them! And make sure you read often this summer, and in every season! Hopefully you are reading some good stuff and if you have anything that you recommend, feel free to let me know and I will do the same for you. Enjoy!

Link to playlist on Apple music: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/literary-references/pl.u-WabZ6DZcWRYe83

Link to playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/joementa/playlist/5cDzeBFpACaDbtV0Qq6x8S?si=UgmRyNLBT4OEoDFr_ou-LQ

Frank Turner – “I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous” (Love Ire & Song)

Bob Dylan – “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” (Blood On The Tracks)

The Hold Steady – “Stuck Between Stations” (Boys And Girls In America)

Better Oblivion Community Center – “Dylan Thomas” (Better Oblivion Community Center)

The Smiths – “Cemetry Gates” (The Queen Is Dead)

Jesse Malin – “Wendy” (The Fine Art Of Self Destruction)

Counting Crows – “Rain King” (August & Everything After)

The Bangles – “Bell Jar” (Everything)

Florence + The Machine – “Patricia” (High As Hope)

Lana Del Rey – “Off To The Races” (Born To Die)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – “Red Right Hand” (Let Love In)

The National – “Carin At The Liquor Store” (Sleep Well Beast)

Taylor Swift – “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” (Reputation)

Pet Shop Boys – “Inside A Dream” (Electric)

Katy Perry – “Firework” (Teenage Dream)

Tom Waits – “Shiver Me Timbers” (The Heart Of Saturday Night)

Patti Smith – “Land” (Horses)

The Gaslight Anthem – “Howl” (Handwritten)

Dire Straits – “Romeo and Juliet” (Making Movies)

Bob Dylan – “Desolation Row” (Highway 61 Revisited)

Frank Turner – “I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous” (Love Ire & Song) Reference(s): The title of this song is a reference to T.S. Eliot’s famous poem “The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock” and the theme of the song is very similar to the theme of the poem (and the poem itself has a few literary references, including Shakespeare). I have read this.

Bob Dylan – “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” (Blood On The Tracks) Reference(s): Dylan specifically mentions Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud in this song. I’ve read Rimbaud’s A Season In Hell and plan to read more soon. I haven’t read Verlaine. Yet.

The Hold Steady – “Stuck Between Stations” (Boys And Girls In America) Reference(s): The first line in this song specifically mentions Sal Paradise, the narrator of Kerouac’s On The Road. The first line of the second verse specifically mentions the poet John Berryman. Believe it or not, I haven’t read On The Road, but I will be changing that later this summer. I’ve read Berryman’s The Dream Songs and loved it. Not only did I love it, but Nick Cave did too. It’s pretty dark, but pretty amazing. I highly recommend it!

Better Oblivion Community Center – “Dylan Thomas” (Better Oblivion Community Center) Reference(s): The title of this song is named after the great poet of the same name. There is also a slight reference in the song to the poet’s death. I’ve read Dylan Thomas (and so did someone who used to go by the name Robert Zimmerman). Some of my favorite poems of his are “Do not go gentle into that good night”, “Should lanterns shine”, “My hero bares his nerves” and “Fern hill”. I’ve also read a few of his short stories. I always read “A Child’s Christmas In Wales” at Christmastime each year.

The Smiths – “Cemetry Gates” (The Queen Is Dead) Reference(s): Moz specifically references Keats, Yeats and Oscar Wilde multiple times in this song. He also references a line from Shakespeare’s Richard III. I’ve read a little bit of Keats (“La Belle Dame sans Merci” is definitely my favorite), none of Yeats, and plenty of Wilde. I’m guessing Keats and Yeats are on your side. But you lose. Because weird lover Wilde is on mine! (Get it?)

Jesse Malin – “Wendy” (The Fine Art Of Self Destruction) Reference(s): He specifically mentions Kerouac at the start of the second verse. He also mentions Tom Waits and “the poet’s hat”. I’m not sure if that means Tom Waits’ hat (I would consider him a poet) or just a general poet’s hat, but that should still count. I’ve read Kerouac. Just haven’t read On The Road (I know….)

Counting Crows – “Rain King” (August & Everything After) Reference(s): The title is a reference to Henderson The Rain King by Saul Bellow. The song isn’t really about the book, but it did influence Adam Duritz. Here’s what he had to say about it (it’s worth the read!): “I read this book in college when I was at Berkeley called “Henderson, the Rain King.” And the main character in the book was kind of this big, open-wound of a person, Eugene Henderson, he just sort of bled all over everyone around him. For better or for worse, full of joy, full of sorrow, he just made a mess of everything. And when I wrote the song years later, it didn’t really have anything to do with the book except the book had kind of become a totem for how I felt about creativity and writing–that it was just this thing where you just took everything inside of you and just sort of [funny noise] sprayed it all over everything, and not to worry too much about it. You try and craft it but not to be self-conscious about it, in any case. And, it’s sort of a song about everything that goes into writing, all the feelings, everything that makes you want to write, makes you want to maybe pick up a guitar and do it, and express yourself because it’s full of all the doubts and the fears about how I felt about my life at that time. And also the feeling that I really deserved something better than what I had accomplished up to that point. I think it *is* sort of a religious song about the sort of undefinable thing inside you or out there somewhere that makes you write, makes you create, makes you do any kind of art form, you know? And makes me the rain king, sort of." I haven’t read this book.

The Bangles – “Bell Jar” (Everything) Reference(s): The title is a reference to The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. The song is about a girl that is pretty similar to the character in the book. What is that like? Read for yourself to find out. I’ve read this book and I love it.

Florence + The Machine – “Patricia” (High As Hope) Reference(s): ‘Patricia’ is Patti Smith. Are you saying to yourself ‘but, she’s a musician and not an author’? I suggest you run, don’t walk, to your nearest book store and purchase Just Kids. The only book of Patti Smith’s that I read was Just Kids, which is an incredible book. I will definitely be reading more of hers soon.

Lana Del Rey – “Off To The Races” (Born To Die) Reference(s): This song has a few references to Nabokov’s Lolita, including “light of my life, fire of my loins” and definitely has some similarities thematically. I don’t care what Pitchfork says. I love this song. I read the book earlier this year.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – “Red Right Hand” (Let Love In) Reference(s): The title references a line from the poem “Paradise Lost” by John Milton. The liner notes to the Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album Murder Ballads confirms this, and the opening song on that album, “Song Of Joy”, includes lines that say that ‘red right hand’ is included in “Paradise Lost”. References within a reference. I like that! I haven’t read “Paradise Lost” yet but I plan to soon.

The National – “Carin At The Liquor Store” (Sleep Well Beast) Reference(s): John Cheever is specifically mentioned in a couple lines in this song. I haven’t read any John Cheever stories but I recently purchased a collection of his short stories at New Dominion Bookshop book store in Charlottesville, Virginia. I can’t wait to read it. And I can’t wait to go back to that beautiful book store – they even have a rose garden outside in the back of the store. Books and roses. You can’t go wrong with that combo!

Taylor Swift – “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” (Reputation) Reference(s): The great Taytay specifically mentions Gatsby by name in the first verse to this basically perfect song. Gatsby of course is the main character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. I of course have read this, multiple times.

Pet Shop Boys – “Inside A Dream” (Electric) Reference(s): This song has lyrics that are directly from William Blake’s poem “The Land Of Dreams”. I’ve read William Blake before. He influenced many, many musicians. He is worth reading.

Katy Perry – “Firework” (Teenage Dream) Reference(s): This fantastic song was influenced by Kerouac’s On The Road. I think we are seeing a recurring theme here. Musicians have been heavily influenced by Kerouac. And rightfully so. I think I’ll need to put together a playlist of songs influenced by/referencing Kerouac!

Tom Waits – “Shiver Me Timbers” (The Heart Of Saturday Night) Reference(s): Tom Waits mentions Captain Ahab, from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, in this beautiful, beautiful song. I haven’t read this book, but it’s obviously a classic and I obviously need to read it. A lot of musicians were influenced by this book. Dylan mentions just 3 books in his speech accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature. Moby-Dick was one of them.

Patti Smith – “Land” (Horses) Reference(s): The character Johnny in this song is based on the character Johnny from William S. Burroughs’ novel The Wild Boys. Later on the song she specifically mentions Rimbaud by name. Multiple times. I’ve read William S. Burroughs but haven’t read The Wilds Boys. I’ve read Rimbaud and definitely want to read more. Also, here’s a cool article with more info on the song: https://www.google.com/amp/s/consequenceofsound.net/2008/11/rock-history-101-patti_smith_land/amp/. ALSO! How perfect is the segue of “Land” into “Howl”?!?! I know, I know. I am pretty good at getting these segues perfect.

The Gaslight Anthem – “Howl” (Handwritten) Reference(s): The title of this song references the poem “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg. I have read this one many times and will continue to do so. I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness….

Dire Straits – “Romeo and Juliet” (Making Movies) Reference(s): This one is obvious. I went to public school in America so of course I’ve read this.

Bob Dylan – “Desolation Row” (Highway 61 Revisited) Reference(s): The title refers to Kerouac’s book Desolation Angels, which I haven’t read. Two lines at least are from the book: “her sin is her lifelessness” (“they sin by lifelessness” in the book) and “perfect image of a priest”. Dylan even said that Desolation Row is somewhere in Mexico, which is where parts of Desolation Angels takes place. Dylan also references the Hunchback of Notre Dame (which is a novel by Victor Hugo). And then at the end of the song, he specifically mentions Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot by name. I haven’t read Desolation Angels or The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, but I’m definitely going to read both. Of course I’ve read both Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot, and I recommend you do the same.

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gokinjeespot · 7 years

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off the rack #1150

Monday, February 6, 2017

What a great Super Bowl 51 last night. The New England Patriots deserved to win that one. I was cheering for the Atlanta Falcons but they just couldn't sustain their amazing first half efforts and lost. Such is sports.

Bullseye #1 - Ed Brisson (writer) Guillermo Sanna (art) Miroslav Mrva (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). He's back from the dead and back on the racks in his very own book that's heavy on the bloodshed. What else would you expect for a comic book about a psychopathic killer for hire? Bullseye kills for fun, unlike the Punisher, so that's a bit of a turn off. In part 1 of "The Columbian Connection" Bullseye is hired to retrieve a mob boss's son from a sadistic Columbian drug lord. He is also being chased by an F.B.I. agent seeking revenge for Bullseye killing her husband. These characters may not have any redeeming qualities but Ed's writing is solid and Guillermo's art is nice so I'll keep reading until the mindless mayhem and blood flow gets to be too much. There's a back up story in this giant sized issue by Marv Wolfman (writer) Alec Morgan (art) Frank Martin (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters) that shows just how tough Bullseye is. This book is targeted (har) for fans of the Punisher.

Batman #16 - Tom King (writer) David Finch (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) John Workman (letters). "I Am Bane" starts here. This new story is a direct consequence of the mission to bring back the Psycho Pirate to cure Gotham Girl. Bane wants the Pirate back and he's going to Gotham City to get him. The first few pages where Bronze Tiger ambushes Batman were a little confusing but it goes to explain why the Psycho Pirate is so important to the story. Bruce tries to keep his loved ones safe from Bane but Damian, Dick and Jason are too stubborn to listen. This sequel to "I Am Suicide" had me hooked with the last page.

Paper Girls #11 - Brian K. Vaughn (writer) Cliff Chiang (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) Jared K. Fletcher (letters). I am so happy that this book is back from its four month break. We catch up with the girls somewhere lost in time but we can't tell if it's the distant past or the future. I've said time and again that I'm not a fan of time travel stories but I have grown to care about these girls and want to see what happens to them.

Star Wars: Darth Maul #1 - Cullen Bunn (writer) Luke Ross (art) Nolan Woodward (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Whoever created the look for this villain deserved an Academy Award for make-up. Most fans would say that Darth Vader is the best Star Wars villain but Maul makes Vader look like a weenie in my opinion. Maul has a hate on for Jedis that Cullen exposes to great effect. Looks like I'm going to hang out at the Maul for a while.

Vampirella #0 - Paul Cornell (writer) Jimmy Broxton (art & colours) Travis Lanham (letters). Vampi's back on the racks but this new effort was lacking in anything interesting to make me want to keep reading. First off; Vampirella is barely in it. Then there's her waking up with amnesia to provide a clean slate for new adventures but you don't know enough about her to care what happens next. I've been a fan since the Warren Magazine days and I have been disappointed with the latest attempts at bringing her back. It's a good thing this issue only cost two bits US.

Karnak #6 - Warren Ellis (writer) Rolland Boschi (art) Dan Brown (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). This finale sees Karnak complete his mission for S.H.I.E.L.D. leaving the bad guy in a sorry state. I didn't get the part about what Karnak wanted for payment so maybe I missed something over the course of this 6-issue mini that took 16 months to complete. What kept me hanging on was that I really liked how Warren portrayed this Inhuman. I hope his new Wildstorm book doesn't drag on like this.

Superman #16 - Peter J. Tomasi & Patrick Gleason (writer) Tony S. Daniel & Clay Mann (pencils) Sandu Florea & Seth Mann (inks) Dinei Ribeiro (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). We find out why the bad guy Prophesy is draining powers from all the Supermen and women in the conclusion of "Multiplicity". He needs all that power to save his universe from doom. I really hope they don't bring Doomsday back. So now that the Multiverse has been saved again let's see what the next threat is.

Hawkeye #3 - Kelly Thompson (writer) Leonardo Romero (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). I loved the TV show Veronica Mars and this comic book reminds me of that show. I think it's how Kelly uses Kate to narrate what's going on. This is fun light reading with just a hint of menace.

Moon Knight #11 - Jeff Lemire (writer) Greg Smallwood (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Okay, part 2 of "Death and Birth" has a lot of jumping around that seems confusing at first but I'm sure it'll all make sense eventually. We are getting a lot of insights into Marc's alternate identities so I am going to trust in Jeff and keep reading.

Champions #5 - Mark Waid (writer) Humberto Ramos (pencils) Victor Olazaba (inks) Edgar Delgado (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). The teen team tackles racism. I'm glad this didn't just deteriorate into the kids beating up skinheads and white supremacists. They tried hard to do the right thing. Does Mark write Gwenpool too? I would read that book if he did based on her appearance in this issue. I just might check out her own book now.

Monsters Unleashed #2 - Cullen Bunn (writer) Greg Land (pencils) Jay Leisten (inks) David Curiel (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). It's wall to wall super heroes fighting giant monsters from space. Meanwhile, Elsa Bloodstone thinks she has found who is causing all this destruction and Moon Girl thinks she knows why. I think Marvel is using this stunt as a way to undo all the animosity created by Civil War II and Inhumans vs. X-Men.

Nova #3 - Jeff Loveness & Ramon Perez (writers) Ramon Perez (art) Ian Herring (colours) Comicraft's Albert Deschesne (letters). Hold onto your helmets folks this one's pretty intense.

Unstoppable Wasp #2 - Jeremy Whitley (writer) Elsa Charretier (art) Megan Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I like Nadia and this is a good way to find out more about the other female heroes in the Marvel U that I don't follow. Taina Miranda is totally new to me and I don't read Devil Dinosaur and Moon Girl's comic book. Plus, I think the art is really good.

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gokinjeespot · 7 years

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off the rack #1148

Monday, January 23, 2017

Squirrels, the scourge of birdfeeders. One clever rodent managed to open the cage holding a suet block for our woodpeckers and run off with the whole thing. Penny was fit to be tied. She went out and bought a squirrel bell to put on the post but I don't think it will keep the little buggers from climbing up and getting at the feed. We'll see.

I spent yesterday watching the conference playoff games. Poor Packers, sorry Steelers, better luck next year. Super Bowl 51 will feature two teams with great quarterbacks and receivers. I am hoping for a high scoring affair.

Artist extraordinaire Tom Fowler will be signing his new book Tabletop Fantasy & Comics Art at Comet Comics on Saturday, January 28 from 2 to 6 PM. Come in and commiserate and watch Tom doodle. That's also Chinese New Year of the Rooster day so you can cock-a-doodle-do too.

Monsters Unleashed #1 - Cullen Bunn (writer) Steve McNiven (pencils) Jay Leisten (inks) David Curiel (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). I didn't think I was going to read this after being disappointed by the monster fighting story in Batman and Detective Comics and the fact that Cullen isn't one of my favourite writers but I was surprised that I enjoyed this a lot. Mainly because Steve is one of my favourite artists. The story seems basic. Giant space monsters are appearing all over the world and all your favourite super heroes are fighting them. I mean ALL the super heroes. This is a story that I would not continue to read if it wasn't for the beautiful art.

Superman #15 - Peter J. Tomasi & Patrick Gleason (writers) Ryan Sook, Ed Benes, Clay Mann & Jorge Jimenez (art) Ryan Sook, Dinei Ribeiro, Ulises Arreola & Alejandro Sanchez (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). The villain's name is Prophecy and Superman comes up with a plan to beat him in part 2 of Multiplicity. Massive multi-hero stories like this seem to dominate the racks right now and I wonder when fans are going to grow tired of them.

Kill Or Be Killed #5 - Ed Brubaker (writer) Sean Phillips (art) Elizabeth Breitweiser (colours). Dylan gives us two for one this issue as two months have gone by since the last time he had to kill someone to stay alive. The coolest thing for me about this issue was the philosophical wonderings about Carl Jung and synchronicity that Dylan has. I've wondered the same things. There have been many instances in my life where I have thought about someone and then they show up soon after. Is it because I think about the people I care about a lot or is it because I can sense their presence? Sometimes I think it’s the latter because one minute I'm thinking about them and there they are the next minute. It's weird.

Black Widow #10 - Chris Samnee & Mark Waid (writers) Chris Samnee (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This issue shows us what became of Nick Fury. Not the black scar face guy but the white Howling Commando guy. I know, it's very confusing. The bad guys come to a grisly end but don't despair, there are more villains for Natasha to deal with. It will be interesting to see how she stops those little Black Widows.

Batman #15 - Tom King (writer) Mitch Gerads (art & colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). If you're looking to give your sweetie a nice romance story for Valentine's Day, the 2-part Rooftops in this and issue #14 would be the cat's meow.

Archie #16 - Mark Waid (writer) Joe Eisma (art) Andre Szymanowicz (colours) Jack Morelli (letters). This issue features Dilton Doiley and a social media app that he invented. It also shows Cheryl Blossom beginning her plot to get revenge on Veronica as she insinuates herself into the lives of the kids in Riverdale while Ronnie is still in Switzerland. I know this book is like a teenage soap opera but it's well done and good for some light entertainment.

Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #3 - Kieron Gillen (writer) Kev Walker (art) Antonio Fabela (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I like this hybrid comic book. It's part Indiana Jones and part Tank Girl. The psychopathic killer droids are fun and would be a good name for a rock band.

Justice League vs. Suicide Squad #5 - Joshua Williamson (writer) Robson Rocha (pencils) Jay Leisten, Daniel Henriques, Sandu Florea & Oclair Albert (inks) Alex Sinclair with Jeremiah Skipper (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). I did not like the sudden change of the Heart of Darkness possessed Max Lord. Yes, it made way for an even nastier villain to appear for next issue's conclusion but it was way too easy. First appearance alert: see the new Justice League of America right here folks.

Black Hammer Annual - Jeff Lemire (writer) Nate Powell, Matt Kindt, Dustin Nguyen, Ray Fawkes, Emi Lenox, Michael Allred (art) Dave Stewart & Sharlene Kindt (colours) Todd Klein (letters). I enjoyed this blast from the past featuring the young versions of the exiled heroes as the Colonel follows the flight of a mysterious alien.

Spider-Gwen #16 - Jason Latour (writer) Robbi Rodriguez (art) Rico Renzi (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles & Travis Lanham (letters). Had to read this because it crosses over with Spider-Man #12. Part 2 of "Sitting in a Tree" doesn't have any K.I.S.S.I.N.G. as Miles and Gwen search for Miles's dad. Jason made it fun to visit Earth-65 and I would consider following this book if I had more time. Robbi made it easy to recognise the major characters too. I knew instantly who Matt Murdock and Doc Ock were. When Miles finds Jefferson Davis (why don't father and son have the same last name?) is it his dad or the Jefferson Davis of Earth-65? I can't wait to find out in Spider-Man #13 which hits the racks February 15.

U.S.Avengers #2 - Al Ewing (writer) Paco Medina (pencils) Juan Vlasco (inks) Jesus Aburtov (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Time traveling and dimension hopping, my two least favourite plot devices. Captain America 20XX gives us the lowdown on the Golden Skull villain. I'm giving this story some leeway though because I love Paco's art and the subtle humour that Al puts in. A billionaire named Bryce with a manservant named Freddie. Har.

Mighty Captain Marvel #1 - Margaret Stohl (writer) Ramon Rosanas (art) Michael Garland (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I really like the art in this new book and the villain is a juicy mystery. I think I know who it is too. It will be fun to see if I'm right or wrong.

Avengers #3.1 - Mark Waid (writer) Barry Kitson (pencils) Mark Farmer with Rafael Fonteriz & Barry Kitson (inks) Jordan Boyd & Wil Quintana (colours) Ferran Delgado (letters). The mysterious Cressida, who can boost someone's powers, has helped Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch gain support from the general populace. When things look too good to be true they usually are. This story just got a lot more interesting.

Gamora #2 - Nicole Perlman (writer) Marco Checchetto (art) Andres Mossa (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Gamora isn't the only tough spacewoman in this story. She meets up with a Badoon drug dealer and I don't think that they'll get along. This is a good space adventure.

Invincible Iron Man #3 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Stefano Caselli (art) Marte Gracia (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). When are they going to start calling this book Ironheart? I like the name. I also like how Brian builds relationships in his books. All of my favourite comic books have characters that the writer has taken the time to make me care about them. Brian does this with great dialogue between people. The three major scenes in this issue illustrate that very well and it really helps that Stefano's art is so pretty and expressive.

Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy #4 - Dan Slott (writer) Jim Cheung (pencils) John Dell & Cory Smith (inks) Justin Ponsor (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This story is quite convoluted but I am sticking with it to see how everything pans out. I really liked Anna Maria's role in this issue and how she changed the way Doc Ock behaved. You go girl.

Amazing Spider-Man #23 - Dan Slott & Christos Gage (writers) Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils) Cam Smith (inks) Jason Keith (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Most of this issue made my head hurt. Here's where Peter and clone Gwen talk about how real the clones are. This conversation takes place in the middle of what was happening in Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy #4 so there is some overlap for fans who are not reading that mini. I can't wait for Clone Conspiracy to end. This story is getting tedious.

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