troublewithcomics

[troublewithcomics]

The Wakanda Files Explores The Black Panther’s Homeland

An in-world book from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Wakanda Files—compiled by request of Shuri (Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War) as part of her quest to improve the future for all people—is a collection of papers, articles, blueprints, and notes amassed throughout history by Wakanda’s War Dogs. In a nod to Wakandan technology, the pages of the book have a printed layer of UV ink with content that is visible only under the accompanying Kimoyo bead–shaped UV light. The book is published by Epic Ink, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group.

Within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Wakanda has been on the forefront of what is technologically possible. Their ability to stay ahead of the rest of the world is second only to their ability to keep themselves hidden. As the architect behind many of Wakanda’s great advancements, Shuri is constantly seeking ways to improve what has come before. To aid in her search, she researches the past for context, reference, and inspiration by compiling The Wakanda Files.

Organized into areas of study, including human enhancement, transportation, weapons, artificial intelligence, and more, The Wakanda Files trace the world’s technological achievements from the era of Howard Stark and early Hydra studies to modern discoveries in quantum tunneling and nanotechnology. Weaving together the stories, personalities, and technology that are the fabric of the MCU, The Wakanda Files offers insight into the enhancements, power, and technology behind Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Wasp, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Stark Industries, Hydra, and much more. About the author: Troy Benjamin is a Los Angeles–based book and comic book author who has written exhaustive fan-centric publications including the Haynes Ghostbusters Ectomobile Owner’s Workshop Manual, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Declassified book series, How to Paint Characters the Marvel Studios Way, and has been a contributor to the official Guidebook to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

[troublewithcomics]

ADD Reviews Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

When my son Aaron was growing up, he was mesmerized by reruns of the 1990s Spider-Man animated series that aired on Fox TV stations. For its time, it was unusually complex and entertaining as hell, and I would watch it along with him. The episodes that he enjoyed the most were the two that comprised the finale, Spider-Wars Parts 1 and 2. In these episodes, the all-powerful Beyonder sends Spider-Man on a mission through seemingly endless parallel universes, where he searches for his lost love Mary Jane and meets a plethora of alternative versions of himself. Clones, cyborgs, and many variations on good ol' Peter Parker, including one possessed by the Carnage symbiote, and another, the one Aaron was most intrigued by, the rich, armoured version of Spider-Man. So beloved were these two episodes that Aaron insisted I put them on a VHS tape for him, so using the best of my knowledge and the top technology available in the late '90s, I edited them into a movie, one which he watched again and again and again, his sense of wonder never diminishing, only growing with repeated viewings. To him, those episodes contained untold secrets about the universe, and he wore that tape out after a couple of years. There's not much that is as gratifying to a parent as seeing one's child transfixed by something as wonderful as those episodes were, and they provide pretty direct inspiration for the best Marvel movie of the year, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. That's a big statement, I know. It's not a Marvel Studios film, it's not live action, it's a freaking cartoon. All true. At the same time, it is the very apotheosis of the superhero movie era, combining next-level visuals, mind-expanding ideas (from the Many Worlds theory down to movie MacGuffins, young minds will learn a lot here), strong moral and ethical themes and incredible voice performances from a diverse and completely engaged coterie of performers. If you'd have told me I would want a Spider-Gwen movie after seeing this, I would probably not have argued; she's a great and inspiring character already, but this movie only increased the desire to see that happen. If you had told me I would be desperate for a Nicholas Cage Spider-Noir movie, on the other hand, I'd have told you to go lie down and sleep it off. And yet, there it is. The visuals of this film must be seen to be believed. The animation (watching the trailer on a laptop will not tell you a thing about how gorgeous and immersive this is) combines numerous visual styles that will be familiar to readers of the comics that inspired the movie, and yet somehow they all combine into one believable story. Though the visual aspect of the film is absolutely dazzling, at no time does it call attention to itself in a way that takes you out of the wondrous world it creates. Inside that world and all the ones existing parallel to it, we primarily focus on the journey to heroism experienced by teenage Miles Morales, who is thrust into Spider-Man's narrative orbit by a familiar accident, and whose family life is depicted with much more detail, nuance and even emotion than Lee and Ditko managed to wring out of the original Spider-Man origin. This is a story with genuine drama and stakes, and after you see it you will understand why I was so moved by it that more than once I had to wipe a tear away. Yes, there were some Stan Lee related moments that brought my feelings surprisingly to the surface, but more than that, seeing the untold easter eggs and stylizations that the movie manages somehow to magically accrete into a single, coherent and inspiring story really felt to me like the completion of a journey comics has been on throughout the entirety of its existence. There were a number of children in the theater at the showing my wife and I attended, and I could see and hear their delight at almost every moment of the film. On another day, at another movie, I might have found it annoying. On this day, watching this movie, I shared their delight and felt like I was privileged to be at the very dawn of their lifelong exploration of Spider-Man, of animation, and of great movies. I've said quite a few times in the days since we saw the movie that I think Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse will be this generation's Star Wars. Only time will tell if I am right, but I expect many sequels in the future, and I expect many young minds experiencing this story and the expansive universes of wonder it suggests to have their destinies altered by what they've seen. A wild ride and a great time at the movies are delivered here, the sort of which decades-long franchises are built. There is no end to the multiverse implied by the Many Worlds theory, and I am quite certain many new worlds will be created by the children and teens who will never see comics or film the same way after their perception has been transformed by this film. And I imagine not a few of them will someday be creating future expeditions into ever more Spider-Verses for the generations to follow. So mote it be.  -- Alan David Doane

[troublewithcomics]

Trouble With Comics is Moving

If you’ve bookmarked TWC, please update your bookmark to our new URL at http://troublewithcomics.tumblr.com. Thanks!

[troublewithcomics]

ADD Reviews Avengers: Infinity War

[Note: Contains spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War.] "We live inside a dream," Special Agent Dale Cooper once said on Twin Peaks. And so it has been for millions of people during the decade of Marvel Studios films that launched in 2008 with Jon Favreau's Iron Man.

I felt we had dodged a bullet back then, in the casting of talented but troubled actor Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, after talk of Tom Cruise taking the role, and Marvel even publishing comic books with Stark drawn to resemble Cruise (a tactic which would actually work with Samuel L. Jackson, to the delight of just about everyone). Cruise was not right for the role. At that point I had been living with Tony Stark in my life for over thirty years, and I knew Downey would embody that part like no one else could. Thankfully Favreau knew it as well and convinced the studio to bet on Downey along with him.

But despite the unlimited potential in the characters owned by Marvel Comics, mostly borne out of the imagination and visual power of the late Jack Kirby, I wasn't expecting much from Iron Man and I doubt anyone in the movie industry was, either. Marvel's characters had been licensed time and time again to film and TV and even radio shows, and the one that gained the most traction was the TV series The Incredible Hulk, which took a few elements from Jack Kirby and Stan Lee's creation and then used them to retell The Fugitive. Similarly the less-well-regarded Spider-Man TV series used almost none of the essential aspects of that comic book's mythology, instead using the character's name and costume as a small part of a generic, episodic crime drama, not even bothering to steal the plot of a successful show, like The Incredible Hulk did.

The relative success of those shows hinged on a number of factors, among them the lack of alternatives -- you had three commercial TV networks plus PBS back then. (Which reminds me that Spider-Man also regularly appeared on The Electric Company, a show aimed at 8-10 year olds and which managed to present a more faithful wall-crawler than a primetime network series could, even allowing for the fact that on The Electric Company, Spider-Man never spoke a word.)

The 1980s and 1990s brought even more mediocre-to-terrible attempts to cash in on Marvel's characters. Dolph Lundgren as The Punisher. Reb Brown as Captain America. And a truly awful Fantastic Four movie made quickly and cheaply by cult film director Roger Corman in order to allow the rights holders to maintain their license. It resulted in a film so bad that it was never widely released and was only seen by most people through the wonders of bootleg VHS tapes sold at sketchy comicons. It should be noted that this Fantastic Four film is only marginally worse than the three later released by major studios, but with four films to their names, The Fantastic Four at this moment has more movies to its name than even The Avengers franchise, even if not a single one of them is worth watching.

Speaking of The Avengers, I went to see Avengers: Infinity War yesterday in the company of my wife Lora. I think we have seen most of the Marvel Studios films at the theater, although I have my doubts about the second Thor film. It's hard to keep track now that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (as it's called) is closing in on two-dozen full-length feature films, almost all of which are at least entertaining, and some of which have proven magical in both their mass appeal and their ability to generate revenue. Narratively, financially, and especially from the perspective of pre-2008, the continuing success of the Marvel movies is a dream that millions have been living within. It has changed the lives of many, from turning around the literal and metaphorical fortunes of actors like Downey, who no one thought would even live to see 2018 never mind be one of the most popular movie stars on the planet, and Chris Evans, whose depiction of Steve Rogers/Captain America has left far behind any memories of his participation in two of those lousy Fantastic Four movies. More interestingly this dream movie franchise has inspired and brought happiness to untold numbers of people, like that time Downey gave an Iron Man-like bionic arm to a seven-year-old boy. Or the millions of African-Americans and others who found in the recent Black Panther film an inspirational culture in which they could see themselves and their own history. These films haven't solved all the world's problems, but it's undeniable that they have brought joy and comfort and more in far greater proportion than one might have thought possible before this all began.

Which isn't to say they are perfect. I am not writing a love letter to Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, or anyone else, really. Maybe Jack Kirby, because without him there would be none of this, but also Stan Lee, who wrote the words of so many of the comics these movies are based on. And Steve Ditko, whose imagination spawned the characters and worlds of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. And so many other comics creators I never thought would get their due, and yet who are credited in the long crawls at the end of these films and who, I hope, are being fairly compensated for the translation of their work into motion picture form.

Like Jim Starlin, a writer/artist whose work blew me away in 1977. That summer I was 11 years old, and Starlin wrote and illustrated a two-part crossover featuring The Avengers, Spider-Man and The Thing (from the Fantastic Four) in a galaxy-spanning battle royale against Starlin's most noted creation, the supervillain Thanos. The sprawling epic was made possible by the earlier work of Lee, Kirby, Ditko and others, but it felt like something entirely new. Recently going back and reading that story, I realized how direct an adaptation of that story Avengers: Infinity War is, and that realization made me even more eager to see how the film would play out.

It turns out that Infinity War is every bit as mind-blowing as those 1977 funnybooks that inspired it were to my 11-year-old self, and for much the same reason. It's not just the epic scale of the story, or the stunning visuals, or the huge cast of very different characters being remixed in new and interesting ways. Both the comics and the movie share all those elements. No, it's the combination of all those things, plus the charm, skill, talent and determination of the actors, writers and directors, the grand vision for these films from the producers, and other factors too numerous and mysterious to be easily tallied.

So yes, I loved it. My wife loved it. It wasn't perfect in the way Citizen Kane or Synecdoche, New York are perfect, timeless films, but that's not what the MCU movies are for. They are a commercially-produced dream, made for profit inside an increasingly dysfunctional capitalist system, and perhaps another essay could be written on the dangers of allowing such dreams to make one forget the injustices and dangers of the real world, but that's not the essay I am writing today. Today I want to just reflect on the wonder of seeing this film finally come to fruition, the bringing together of franchises-within-the-franchise, and I want to state with wonder and delight that it works.

Not just for me, lover of Spider-Man and the others since 1972. It works for my wife, who didn't know who most of these characters were before she met me, and who now loves Groot unconditionally and with profound delight. It works for millions of other people, some of whom have only the faintest idea who Jack Kirby is, although almost everyone knows who Stan Lee is. Not to diminish Lee's contribution to this mythology -- without him it almost certainly would not have existed nor endured this long -- but it cannot be said enough that Kirby gets the majority of the credit. Others took the baton and ran with it once Kirby left Marvel, but Captain America, Black Panther, Thor and many other of the most endearing and exciting characters in these movies are as popular and effective as they are precisely because of the elements Kirby baked into them: Black Panther's dignity, Thor's arrogance and innate decency, and perhaps most importantly, Captain America's dedication to people over politics, to good over greed. Let there be no doubt, these are exactly the heroes we need at this moment in history, and it is perhaps not a coincidence that many of the actors who inhabit these characters have used their popularity to give voice to those less fortunate than themselves, and to use their voices to critique the current wave of fascism and authoritarianism that threaten to destroy our culture. These movies are entertainment, yes, and they have made fortunes for many of the people involved, but some of those people see the responsibility their new prominence and success has given them, and they seem to take it seriously. I'm grateful for that.

And I'm grateful for the joy in so many of these films, which reaches an almost unreal level at various moments in Infinity War. Not just seeing Tony Stark bicker with Stephen Strange, or Groot heroically assist Thor in a way only he could at exactly the right moment. Not just seeing Mark Ruffalo's sublime Bruce Banner argue with The Hulk, and therefore himself, to hilarious effect at exactly the wrong moment, only to later see him delight in having all of the power but none of the horror such power usually brings him. It's all of these things and at least a thousand more.

Like I said, it's not perfect. How could it be? In a story this wide-ranging, I was never going to get enough of Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow to make me happy. But there'll be a movie for that soon enough. I was never going to get everything I came to this for, but then no one is, when you get really granular and start picking it apart. But that's missing the big picture, and in the larger sense, it's important to note I wasn't bored or unhappy for one nanosecond of this film, as I was for every never-ending moment of the grotesque, doomed-to-fail Justice League movie. I was uneasy and scared at the beginning of Infinity War, as intended. I was amused and laughing when Peter Parker asked for a distraction on a schoolbus to hilarious effect. I was chilled when Banner announced "Thanos is coming." As I said on Facebook, "So many moments."

I have seen some concern about plot holes, but I see none. The most specific concern centers on why Dr. Strange makes the choice he does near the end, with seemingly catastrophic results for the entire universe. Did the people voicing these criticisms forget that there's another movie coming? Did they not hear Strange tell his fellow heroes that he had seen millions of possible outcomes in which they all lose, but one, and one alone, in which they succeed in defeating Thanos? To be fair, that moment is couched in dread, no doubt to conceal the fact that it is foreshadowing the ultimate outcome of the as-yet unnamed sequel, said to be the end of the book all the MCU movies to date represent in the minds of those overseeing the franchise, before the start of the next book. But I have no doubt that Dr. Strange's decision, as agonizing as it was to see the consequences of, was the one that will somehow allow all those we lost to be returned to us in some form. Well, maybe not all.

I doubt it's a coincidence that Tony Stark was the one to see the ultimate defeat of their efforts to stop Thanos, and to watch in helpless horror as Peter Parker and others died before his eyes. Since the first Avengers movie, Tony Stark's bravado has masked his increasing trauma as one cosmic threat after another homicidal robot of his own design has taken chunks out of his soul. My guess is that by the end of 2019's Avengers movie, we'll have many if not most of the toys back in the toybox and ready to be played with another day. I watched the Falcon die, but I'm sure he'll be back. And Spider-Man, and The Vision, and Nick Fury, and everyone we watch blow away in the breeze, to our horror and despair. I'm guessing the price of their return will be Tony Stark's sacrifice in the next film, likely Downey's exit from the franchise. And that would be suitable. Downey was perfect for the role of Tony Stark because in so many ways he really already was Tony Stark. Arrogant, talented, addicted. He was, and is, our gateway into this world, the reason we have been able to feel the emotions these films create in us so viscerally and so immediately. Reversing the damage Thanos does at the end of Infinity War will require a huge payment to balance the books. I will be surprised if that isn't represented by the final end of Tony Stark's journey in these movies.

After all, the great throughline of these movies has been revelation and change, as the universe these characters live in has, in a decade, come to be as expansive and intriguing as it was after many decades of hard work and imagination from Stan and Jack and all the other writers and artists who are responsible for the comic books that launched this dream we are all now living inside. Who has had more revealed to him, and who has changed more than Tony Stark? How fitting would it be for the next film to end with him making the sacrifice, finally, that he narrowly escaped making at the end of the first Avengers film?

I could be wrong, though. And I don't care if I am. I’m just theorizing. How can you not? It's fun to speculate where this gigantic story will go next. And who could have guessed, before this all began in 2008, that so many millions of filmgoers would be so thrilled by one movie after another, a series of increasingly entertaining and even diverse films that give us worlds of wonder and delight, with shocks, horrors, laughs and even love?

No, no one could have seen this coming in 2008. No one except Jack Kirby, who, if he were still with us today, might be heard to say, "I knew it all along." -- Alan David Doane

[troublewithcomics]

ADD Reviews DC Comics Variant Covers: The Complete Visual History

The first variant cover comic book I ever bought was DC's Man of Steel #1 in 1986, and so it appeals mightily to me that that is the first cover presented in the gorgeous new coffee-table hardcover art book DC Comics Variant Covers: The Complete Visual History. When I was offered a copy for review by publisher Insight Editions, I wasn't sure if the book would hit my sweet spot, as the general trends in DC's narrative output over the last decade or so have not been at all to my taste, but I was curious what would be presented within the volume's pages, and how it would be presented. Both turned out to be mostly delightful. Thankfully, the book eschews any focus on story and sticks to what it claims to be, a visual history of DC's variant cover program. We're presented with one iconic image after another. And while some are much better than others -- honestly Neal Adams has not produced artwork that I find anything less than appalling since the 1980s -- the ones that impressed me impressed me mightily -- and many are  reproduced in a gigantic, full-page (and often full-bleed) style that arrests the eye and demands study. Most impressive to me were the variant covers by the greatest artists in relatively recent DC history, like the late Darwyn Cooke. Whatever my feelings about his participation in the regrettable Before Watchmen catastrophe, seeing images like his incredible two-page tribute to the original Teen Titans (above) serves as a poignant reminder of just how gifted an artist he was, how suited he was to work with DC's core characters, and how much was lost by his untimely death. Even latter-day Frank Miller looks better in this presentation, in the form of variant covers from Dark Knight: The Master Race. Detached from the fan-fiction style storytelling of that series, Miller's most recent style can be better appreciated as a tribute to some of DC's most well-known characters. The existence of variant covers is of debatable value. A veteran comics retailer recently spoke to me with great exasperation of his frustrations in trying to balance the demands of customers with the sometimes prohibitive ordering requirements in order for shops like his to be able to stock the issues on which these variant covers appear. But as with DC's often-troubling narrative missteps of the past decade-plus, the book sets aside the politics of variant covers to hone in, instead, on the beauty of the art created for these covers. If you're at all nostalgic for DC's better days or hold their core characters in high regard, you will likely find something to love about this book. I never went more than three or four pages without being blown away by the beauty and design of the one of the many covers presented in the pages of DC Comics Variant Covers: The Complete Visual History. As an art book and a record of DC's visual history, it's a volume I suspect I will be returning to again many times in the future. -- Alan David Doane

[troublewithcomics]

What Makes Art in Comic Books Great and Not Amateurish?

[Originally posted on Quora.] Professional comic book artists whose work “looks professional” have likely had extensive art training and experience, including thousands of hours of life drawing that has given them deep understanding of human anatomy, and the ability to depict the human form convincingly both at rest and in dynamic action.

Additionally, they are able to create visually appealing images that do not create fatigue or boredom for the reader, and they understand panel-to-panel continuity and how those transitions between images create a sense of movement on the page.

One of the best books on this subject is Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, which provides hundreds of examples of what I am talking about. I would also recommend studying the work of comic book artists who are considered masters of the artform. My personal recommendations would include Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Alex Toth, Bernard Krigstein, Gil Kane, David Mazzuchelli (see above), Robert Crumb, Rick Geary, Alison Bechdel, Barry Windsor-Smith, Jaime Hernandez, and Wallace Wood. You’ll find a wide range of genres and styles, but all share unmatched visual skill and professionalism.

If you are looking to become a professional comic book artist, just looking at comic books will never be enough. But if you are willing to put in the thousands of hours of training, life-drawing and learning to truly see the world around you and convey it in your art, you will have greatly increased your chances of success. – Alan David Doane

[troublewithcomics]

Final Thoughts on Twin Peaks: The Return

Now that Twin Peaks: The Return is over, I remain mostly disappointed in it, as expressed in my previous post on the subject. The series as a whole was badly paced and a creative misfire on par with Lynch's Dune (which holds a slight edge because it has Patrick Stewart and does NOT have Wally Brando). However, the ideas and themes of the last two episodes were intriguing, even if the bad pacing and execution were prevalent throughout. For virtually all of the 18 hours of the series, I kept hoping that there would be a moment or a revelation that would make it all come together so powerfully that I would come to understand and appreciate what I had perceived as terrible flaws. For example: * The copious focus on unknown characters * The criminal under-utilization of Robert Forster as Frank Truman * The largely pointless utilization of characters like Nadine, Jacoby, and the Horne Brothers * The Audrey Horne domestic bickering scenes, which seemed extraordinarily poorly executed within an entire series that seemed poorly executed * The endless teasing of the return of Special Agent Dale Cooper In retrospect, while I think The Return was a huge disappointment, I do think David Lynch (and Mark Frost, to whatever degree his influence was a factor) produced and delivered the series he wanted to, using the skills and creative power at his disposal. I don’t think he was trolling us, as I have seen other writers state quite confidently. I just think that whatever we all got out of the original series a quarter of a century ago, Lynch had no interest in reviving or revisiting. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing -- in fact, I think that’s the exact thing he intended with Fire Walk with Me, the theatrical prequel/sequel to the original series. But Lynch still had some youth and innocence of a kind in him back then, and I think The Return is Lynch with the experience and perspective of a man in his 70s revisiting his most famous creation the way he wanted to, while also ruminating on aging, mortality, and most crucially the ultimate nihilistic disinterest that the universe has in the lives of the insignificant specks that inhabit it, like human beings. I never would have dreamed, 19 weeks ago, that I would hope mightily that this is the end of the line for Twin Peaks on TV or in film. And yet I do. It is a profoundly powerful hope of mine that it’s well and truly over. And not for entirely negative reasons, but rather, because I think Lynch has said all he has to say about this series, and within this revival, I suspect he has said all of what he has to say about life, the universe and everything. I didn’t get what I was expecting, I certainly didn’t get what I wanted, but I got what they gave us, I loved some of it and hated a lot of it, and either way, I don’t want any more. The final scene of the final episode of The Return, which was not what I was expecting or even hoping for, is perfectly in tune with the Lovecraftian nihilism Lynch has trafficked in so skillfully in much of his other work, particularly his most recent films Mulholland Dr. and Inland Empire. Nostalgia is toxic, the universe doesn't care, the meaning of life is determined by the individual as long as they can hold off becoming worm food. In The Return, we see the value of our lives is what we decide to find in it, in the fates of Ed and Norma, Nadine, Dr. Jacoby, Bobby Briggs and the Dougie Jones family. Ultimately, though, life allots you your season in the sun and then, as R. Crumb noted, “the grave!” You cannot win in the end. In his final act, Special Agent Dale Cooper thought he was doing something good by taking Laura home, but that was hubris and sophistry. Every bad thing that ever happened to her started in that house, and as hinted throughout The Return and made manifest in the final seconds, within it lurks even more horror than we ever guessed, transcending families, small towns, time, and universes. Cooper's instincts were wrong, perhaps fatally poisoned by altering the past, but he should have known better. He failed. The uncaring horror of the universe won, as it always has, and always will. Nothing more need be said. Except perhaps, in the last words we hear from Pete Martell, who as a result of Cooper’s actions finally got to do the one thing he wanted to do on the morning that he discovered Laura Palmer’s body in another time and place, “Gone fishing.” Selah. -- Alan David Doane

[troublewithcomics]

David Letterman Reflects on Harvey Pekar

It appears that retirement and time have given groundbreaking late night TV host David Letterman a new perspective on his sometimes-contentious relationship with the late American Splendor creator Harvey Pekar. In his occasional appearances on Letterman’s late night talk shows Late Night with David Letterman (NBC) and The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS), Pekar and Letterman often seemed on different wavelengths, with Pekar wanting to discuss serious political and social issues, while Letterman frequently tried to steer Pekar, who died in 2010, into delivering a more mainstream, corporate-friendly performance. The different views the two had on how Pekar should conduct himself on Letterman’s programs often led to friction on the air, and Pekar discussed his ambivalence about his minor celebrity on Letterman’s programs in stories in his acclaimed anthology comic book American Splendor.   Speaking today (August 16th, 2017) to Howard Stern on Stern’s SiriusXM satellite radio program, Letterman, who has a Netflix deal in place for a new talk show, told Stern how he would handle someone like Pekar if he were featuring him on a TV program today: “I’m a completely different person now. And I would be so much more better equipped to view the immediate surroundings of that show now, than I was [then].”

Noting that he found Harvey Pekar very funny, Letterman reflected that “He was great. He was tremendous. He would just go after stuff. He would whine, he would go after me, he would go after the network, he would go after everything, in a very committed way. It wasn’t a gag, it wasn’t an act, he would really go to work on you.” David Letterman’s retirement from network TV and its corporate owners seems to have changed how Letterman views the iconoclastic Pekar in retrospect, saying “[Pekar] was anti-establishment in a way that you don’t see guys like that anymore. And that used to really upset me, because I just thought ‘Come on Harvey, don’t do this to us, just play the game, blah blah blah blah.’ Now, jeez, I wish I could have had Harvey on every night.” Listen to David Letterman talk to Howard Stern about Harvey Pekar at Soundcloud. -- Alan David Doane Related: Listen to an MP3 of Alan David Doane interviewing Harvey Pekar in 2005, or read the interview.

[troublewithcomics]

ADD on Twin Peaks: The Return

I have experienced such a roller coaster of emotions over this series, beginning with unbounded joy at the first rumblings of its return to almost uncontrolled delight as the first episode began, to a gamut of unexpected sensations including confusion, disappointment, and at this point, sadness.

Of the many hours of Twin Peaks: The Return that we have gotten, if I had the energy, skill and software I could easily edit down the parts of it I have enjoyed and want to rewatch to two hours or less. The Bobby Briggs, Gordon and Albert, Sheriff (Frank) Truman and Sarah Palmer scenes have been exactly what I was hoping for in a series reviving the original show, which was a landmark for me in my 20s. A couple of the Dougie scenes have amused me. The seemingly endless exposition, answering questions better left unanswered (Blue Rose, The Origin of Bob), has been some of the worst of it, as if Lynch did Eraserhead 2 solely to explain Henry's haircut and the economics of a pencil factory.

But mostly, I am so, so disappointed that almost every scene goes on too long, and there is so much that is just unnecessary, unwanted, and unfocused.

I am with TV critic Alan Sepinwall in being more and more certain that the thing that would have made this all bearable, having Agent Cooper back in recognizable form, is not going to happen until the end, if at all. I don't think it's Lynch deliberately slapping his viewers in the face (although if he said it was, I would not be shocked, either), but I do think that whatever magic he and Mark Frost captured in a bottle a quarter century ago, they have long since either lost interest in truly reviving, or are no longer capable of bringing to life.

So we have a series that is over two-thirds complete, now, and for me, almost a complete failure. I didn't want a nostalgia-fest, or a rehash, or fan fiction. But I didn't want what we're getting, either. I know people who are avidly watching every episode and enjoying it immensely, and I'm happy for them, but of late I have found myself not hate-watching, but hope-fast-forwarding through each one. It took me about twenty minutes to get through the latest episode, #13 of 18. It was nice to see Big Ed. That was the only thing that I found myself paying attention to, really, and of course we have to find out that Ed has been marginalized and pushed away, like Twin Peaks: The Return is doing to anyone who wanted this series to be a monumental moment in entertainment history, proof that a revival of this type can meet or exceed the original.

Sadly, Twin Peaks: The Return is roughly on par with the six-episode return of The X-Files. Nice to see some of the old faces back on the screen, but baffling that despite the involvement of the original creator(s), we have such an unappealing mess on our hands.

Since the original series ended, I have watched it all the way through at least three times, first on VHS tapes from the original airings, and then on DVD. It's world I never thought I could tire of. As a Lynch fan of three decades, I wanted to love this show so much, that it hurt. I never, ever could have imagined that not only would I never want to re-watch Twin Peaks: The Return, but that I am barely interested in even getting through each episode at this point, starving for a minute or two of wonder in each hour of tedium, wondering how the two men who created the original series could so fundamentally fail to follow through on its potential, having had a quarter of a century to prepare. -- Alan David Doane

[troublewithcomics]

ADD on Spider-Man: Homecoming

I liked it a lot. Tonally it felt like a mashup of the best aspects of Ultimate Spider-Man with the Lee/Romita era. There's a specific dilemma Peter faces that strongly recalled stuff from the Romita days in a very well-done way. You may know it when you see it, although it involves a different character than the comics. But the tense dynamic is there and it is note-perfect. Michael Keaton at The Vulture surprised me, as he often does. He is never as facile or smarmy as I always expect. His motivation was definitely next-level for a Marvel movie, even if the actual mechanics of his storyline ended up being fairly rote. One review I read mentioned it was a good fit for the Trump era, and I can't argue. I thought the final Peter/Toomes scene was a decent (if likely unintentional) metaphor for where we're headed. Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark seemed a little off-model, likely because we are experiencing him more from Peter's perspective than the omniscient POV we get from the Iron Man/Avengers films; I would have suggested making that part a bit more organic, but I can understand why they did it that way. A little too much Favreau in this movie, for my money. A couple of cameos by Marvel movie stalwarts really pleased me, and the second post-credits scene is the best one of those they have ever done. My biggest complaint is that the high-flying web-slinging scenes at the beginning look a little too videogamey. Six films in, I’m still waiting for the movie that convinces me this is Spider-Man leaping and swinging through Manhattan, for reals. It seems like it should be possible, but so far we're still largely stuck in Uncanny Valley, I think, It wasn't perfect, but I think it's the best Spider-Man movie so far, and definitely in the top 10 of Marvel Studios productions. It lacks only the thrill of the new that Civil War gave us with this iteration of the character. Tom Holland is just right for the role, and I would love to see him play out the life of Peter Parker over the next decade or so. -- Alan David Doane

[troublewithcomics]

Five Questions for Rick Geary by Alan David Doane

I've followed your work since the early 1980s and always been entranced by your linework, the wit and unique character of your writing, and the total commitment with which you throw yourself into everything you choose to do. But it seemed to me that your work, though there was a lot of it, was sort of scattered across the comics industry up until the Treasury of Victorian Murder series, which has now evolved into the Treasury of XXth Century Murder series. Those graphic novels are among my most cherished comics, I have to tell you. Can you tell me what your life as a cartoonist was like in your pre-NBM career, and how you came to have this long-term partnership with NBM? Before linking up with NBM in 1986, I did indeed work in many different cartooning venues.  I date the start of my career to December of 1972, when I began work at a weekly paper in Wichita, Kansas.  There I performed whatever artistic task was needed: political cartoons, caricatures and portraits, realistic illustrations, a short-lived comic strip, even lettering ads and headlines.  After moving to San Diego in 1975, I again worked for a local weekly, and had my first comic story published: the story of an unsolved murder in Wichita.  Becoming a regular contributor to the National Lampoon in 1979, I continued doing crime-oriented stories, for them as well as for various anthology  publications throughout the 80s. It was this track record, and with help from my agent at the time Dave Scroggy, that I became associated with NBM.  My first book for them, called simply "A Treasury of Victorian Murder," was a collection of three true murder cases.  It came out in 1987, but it wasn't till 1995 that I did the next in the series, Jack the Ripper, and from then on produced a book about every year or year-and-a-half. Each of your murder stories shares a similar tone and level of quality, but due to the subject matter of the individual murders, each is also unique and fascinating in its own way. What appeals to you about exploring again and again the subject of murder, and what keeps it interesting for you? Murder is interesting to me, first of all, because it is the ultimate transgression, and the complexities of human emotion and motivation are literally endless, and never become stale or repetitive.  I'm especially drawn to the unsolved cases, because the puzzle aspect appeals to my sense of mystery and unknowability. For these, accuracy and clarity and my highest goals, often with the aid of maps and overhead views.  Each case has its own "personality," with clues and characters unique to it. Other than the Victorian/XXth Century Murder series, is there a particular work of yours that you retain a special fondness for, and if so, can you tell me why? A few years ago, Terry Nantier at NBM gave me the opportunity to do a fictional graphic novel outside the Treasury series.  This is "Louise Brooks: Detective," for which I retain a fondness because of its personal connections.  I set it in Kansas in the 1940s, in Wichita and in the little town where my mother grew up, and took as its heroine the silent film actress Louise Brooks, who was a relative of my mother's. Although your aesthetic sense and storytelling styles are pretty far apart, you seem to share with your fellow cartoonist Seth an obsession for bygone days; why do you think that is? I certainly appreciate the comparison to Seth, and, yes, it seems we share an interest in the past and in the ordinary moments of life.  I'm not sure where this comes from, but I've always loved comics that take this direction, away from superheroes and sci-fi and fantasy. NBM is releasing a compendium edition of some of your Treasury of XXth Century Murder tales. Your Victorian Murder volumes have been collected similarly in the past. What is the benefit, to you, your publisher, and/or the reader, of collecting your stories in this format? It's nice to see them all collected in one place, so the dedicated reader doesn't have to search out individual books.  Makes them easier to sell at comic cons and other venues. Special thanks to Stefan Blitz and Christopher Allen. Learn more about Rick Geary’s Victorian and XXth Century Murder series of graphic novels at NBM’s website.

[troublewithcomics]

ADD Talks About Logan

So Lora and I went to see Logan Saturday night, and the critics aren't lying. It's a real step forward for non-Marvel Studios superhero movies, with a genuinely adult sensibility, and an ability to wring compelling human emotion and nuance from the characters in a way not previously seen in these licensed-by-but-not-produced-by Marvel movies. (The rights issues of movies starring Marvel characters are pretty baroque, but I won't bore you with that here.) How good is it? Let's say 20 times better than the best X-Men movie, and 200 times better than the most recent Fantastic Four. There are many, many surprises in the film, as well as a spectacularly well-constructed on-the-run narrative. Dafne Keen, the actress who plays Laura in the film, the mysterious and very young woman who Logan is charged with protecting, has a huge career ahead of her if she continues in the movies, and Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman both deliver career-best work, taking full advantage of the history of these character both on film and in the comic books (which themselves play a fun little role in the story). Above all, Logan is a passing-the-baton tale that won't surprise readers of Wolverine stories of the past few years, and with that comes some very organic and powerful observations on feminism, diversity, and the benefits of everyone working together for the common good (let's call it democratic socialism, shall we?). It's never preachy, though. It's just an amazing ride from start to finish, with a wonderful supporting role for Eriq LaSalle (from ER) as a rural father who invites Logan, Professor X and Laura into his home for dinner with his family; the sequence has some of the funniest and most touching moments of the movie, and then...well, that would be telling. Rated R, Logan features the most convincing use of adamantium claws yet seen on the big screen, and the fight scenes are visceral and convincing, no shaky-cam or obvious editing fakery to try to dazzle you into suspending your disbelief. There's also a great deal of profanity, which seemed natural coming out of Logan's mouth, but I was shocked to hear Professor X use the F word. God, Patrick Stewart is so good in this movie. If you have any love at all for the X-Men franchise in general or Jackman as Wolverine in particular, try to see this on the big screen. It is genuinely epic in scope despite its very real grounding in the concepts of family and humanity, and I was stunned again and again by how great it looked and how good a time I was having. Best time I have had at the movies since Paterson. -- Alan David Doane

[troublewithcomics]

The Lazy Sunday Reader Vol. 2, Express Update No. 5

Animosity #5 Art by Rafael De Latorre | Colours by Rob Schwager | Words by Marguerite Bennett

Horizon #8 Art by Jason Howard

The Week in Comics: Autumnlands volume 2. Belfry. Britannia sees the first mini collected. Curse Words #2. Darkness Visible #1. Descender #19. Divinity III: Stalinverse #3. Drifter #17. The Few #2. The Fix #8. Harbinger Renegade #4. Joyride #10. Lake of Fire gets collected. Loose Ends #2. Mayday #4. Monstress #10. The Old Guard #1. Optimus Prime #4. Revolutionaries #2. Rough Riders on the Storm #1. Shutter #27. Starstruck: Old Proldiers Never Die #1. TMNT Universe #7. Transformers: Lost Light #3. The Visitor: How & Why He Stayed #1. 

Next: Bread and circuses?

d. emerson eddy thinks that Joss Whedon and the cast of Firefly should do a remake of Apocalypse Now set within that universe; calling it Serenity Now!

[troublewithcomics]

The Lazy Sunday Reader Vol. 2, Express Update No. 4

Death Be Damned #1 Words by Bens Acker & Blacker with Andrew Miller | Art by Hannah Christenson | Colours by Juan Useche

Ninjak #24 Art by Ryan Bodenheim

The Week in Comics: Angel Catbird Volume 2. Animosity #5. Another Castle gets collected. Archie #17. Black-Eyed Kids #11. Dead Inside #3. The Deep #2. Dept. H #11. Ether #4. The Forevers #3. Generation Zero #7. God Country #2. Kill or be Killed #6. Manifest Destiny #26. Peepland #4. Rockstars #3. Savage concludes. Seven to Eternity sees its first collection. Star Trek Boldly Go #5. TMNT #67 starts a new arc. They’re Not Like Us #14. Violent Love #4.

Next: Barring another storm and power outages, hopefully a real column, finally.

d. emerson eddy is getting older every day.

[troublewithcomics]

The Lazy Sunday Reader Vol. 2, Express Update No. 3

Paper Girls #11 Art by Cliff Chiang | Colours by Matt Wilson | Words by Brian K. Vaughan

Old Man Logan #17 Art by Andrea Sorrentino 

The Week in Comics: Angel City #5. Birthright #22. Black Science #28. Death be Damned #1. Divinity III: Stalinverse: Shadowman & The Battle of New Stalingrad. East of West #31. Green Valley #5. Moonshine #5. Motor Crush #3. Namesake ends with #4. Ninjak #24. ROM Annual 2017. Snowfall #8. Southern Cross #11. Throwaways #5. Transformers: Till All Are One #7. Triggerman concludes with #5.

Next: Hopefully some sort of return to “normalcy”.

d. emerson eddy is neither a hamster, nor does he smell of elderberries.

[troublewithcomics]

The Lazy Sunday Reader Vol. 2, Express Update No. 2

Hulk #2 Words by Mariko Tamaki | Art by Nico Leon | Colours by Matt Milla

Dept. H #10 Art by Matt Kindt

This Week’s Soundtrack: Sia - This is Acting

The Week in Comics: A&A ends with #12. Baltimore: The Red Kingdom #1. Blood Blister #1. Deadly Class #26. Ghostbusters Annual 2017. Giant Days #23. Goldie Vance #9. Nailbiter #29. Paper Girls #11. Transformers: Lost Light #2. Vampirella #0. Will Eisner’s The Spirit: The Corpse-Makers #1. The Woods #29. Yakuza Demon Killers #4.

Next: A week from tomorrow is my birthday and I tentatively have plans for the weekend. As such, next week will probably just be an Express update as well.

d. emerson eddy is a big fan of the knitted pink pussyhats.

[troublewithcomics]

Paterson - Movie Review by Alan David Doane

Adam Driver has long impressed me as a skilled and unique actor on HBO's Girls, and when I heard the premise for director Jim Jarmusch’s new film Paterson -- his character is a bus driver named Paterson who lives and works in Paterson, New Jersey -- that was enough for me to want to see the film. I really didn't want to know any more detail going in, and since it's not a summer blockbuster or Star Wars sequel (Driver was actually in one, The Force Awakens, a couple of years ago), I easily managed to avoid any spoilers.

Paterson is a wondrous world in which to spend a couple of hours. Paterson's life is both blandly pedestrian and filled with miracles and mysteries, and in that way the film strongly evokes the best American Splendor work written by Harvey Pekar. With segments parsed out for each day of the week, there's also an episodic feel to the story not unlike Dan Clowes's Wilson or some Love and Rockets tales.

Each day begins with Paterson and his significant other Laura asleep in bed. Paterson almost always awakens first, checking his watch, and kissing Laura before getting ready for another day driving the bus for the city of Paterson. Along his route he hears the interactions of  his passengers, sometimes smiling at their exchanges, sometimes learning something new about life. After work, we see him walk home, sometimes uneventfully, sometimes with incredible moments of revelation, then he gets home, has dinner with Laura, then walks the dog, Marvin. On each night's walk, Paterson stops in for a beer at the neighbourhood bar. That's usually uneventful, but not always. We get to know the bartender and some of his customers. We feel like we'd like to have a beer there some time.

And so it goes. For (a little over) seven days, we inhabit Paterson's world in the most intimate of moments, we see his favourite stops along his daily walk to and from work, including a waterfall that adds beauty to his universe and inspires one of the film's most mysterious and profound moments, a short conversation with a young girl about poetry.

Paterson is a poet, you see. He carries with him a notebook in which he keeps his prose poetry, which he works on in his downtime during the workday. Laura calls it his “secret notebook,” and tells him he should make a copy of the notebook, maybe share the poems with the world. The first poem we hear, about a box of matches, seems at first simple and dull. Like almost everything in Paterson, it is not what it seems it first. Or rather, it is, but it is also so much more.

There is a universe of wonders to be unpacked in virtually every frame of the film. From Laura's obsession with black and white design (which seems to grow and grow over the course of the film, but to what end?) to a secret war Paterson and the dog Marvin are unknowingly waging against each other, every moment and every element is sharply observed and feels both starkly realistic and utterly magical. There is whimsy to be found in Paterson, but it is balanced by a seriousness of purpose and the ingenuity in which every day, so much the same in so many ways, is also completely unique and pregnant with the possibility of joy, or catastrophe.

There's almost no plot to be detected in Paterson, which I found to be one of the best things about it. The delight it delivers in every moment is found in how natural it feels, and in how quickly we come to understand the house Paterson lives in, the neighbourhood he walks every day to get to work, the people on the bus, the people in the bar, Marvin, Laura, all the things that make up this man's life and drive him to try to capture how that all feels in a few words jotted down in his little notebook, in his spare time. It's a small diversion anyone might indulge in, and for Paterson, the film, and Paterson, the man, it's so much more. It's everything. -- Alan David Doane