Reviews of Comics in Celebration of Comic-Con: "Understanding Comics," "Maus," and "Amulet,"

With the biggest nerd convention going on right now in San Diego without me, I thought I'd take the time to review the comics I've been reading recently. Bear with me or just skip to whichever review is the most interesting, this could be a long post.


Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud:

I like this book. But it isn't my first time reading it--try eighth or ninth. I've written two theses (an Honors and Masters) on superheroes, and both times this book served as my jumping off point.

But I want to review this book now as I've used it for another purpose: teaching Freshman Composition II. Being as how comics is my field of study, and I'm always trying to encourage new lovers of it, I decided to make my summer writing course a subjects course based around comics (that is, all their research would be based around comics). Naturally, before diving into the subject, I felt it necessary for them to read McCloud.

So how did that go? Much better than I first anticipated. Even from the first chapter they were into it--all of them! I was shocked. Those who were really glad they weren't reading from a more traditional rhetoric book and those who read or used to read comics, of course, loved it. Those who grew up loving Superman, Dragon Ball, or Avatar, loved it. But even those who thought of comics as a waste of time and were upset that their college education was being wasted on comic books liked it because it challenged their misconceptions, or demonstrated effective arguments, or talked about "high art." And having this text behind them made reading, discussing, and taking the other comics of the class seriously much easier.

But where McCloud worked more beautifully than I could have ever imagined was when it came time to learn how to deconstruct an argument. Thanks to Dylan Horrocks' critique of McCloud, Inventing Comics, they quickly learned that just because an argument sounds good it doesn't mean it is good. In his essay, Horrocks takes apart McCloud's arguments on the basis that they are theory, regardless of the fact that McCloud (very cleverly) passes them off as infallible. Granted, Horrocks is critiquing for an academic audience, for who McCloud is not writing, but my students were able to learn the importance of evidence, credibility, research, planting naysayers, and metacommentary, while learning about comics in the way that would best suit their research for the class.

Rating: 5/5

Maus: A Survivor's Tale, by Art Spiegelman:

I just finished rereading Spiegelman's Pullitzer Prize winning masterpiece. I cried at the end. Yes, it still moved me as much this time as it did the first. And it was this graphic novel that convinced me that not all good comics had to be about superheroes.

But I read it this time with a different purpose in mind. I read it to decide whether or not I want to use it as my Reading and Writing for College courses' text this fall. The idea first struck me when I saw how much my Freshman Composition II class this summer enjoyed reading only an excerpt (aside from Understanding Comics, they enjoyed it the most). Of course, when I asked them how they would have enjoyed reading Maus instead of The Autobiography of Malcolm X (the old course text) the majority agreed they would have liked it better but were concerned that (as a comic) it would not have adequately prepared them for Freshman Composition I the following semester.

But rereading it, I'm not sure they're right about the later concern. For starters, like Malcolm X, Maus is an autobiography, which leaves it open to the same kind of analysis and deeper reading ("Why do we think he did this? Was he right to do that? What's he really saying here?"). And perhaps my student's couldn't fully grasp this only reading one chapter to be discussed one day versus having spent an entire semester on Malcolm X.

Also, Maus would be a companion text to an actual course reader of essays for studying rhetoric (it sucks, I know, but I believe it's necessary). So what I think I'll do is make Maus the secondary text in one of my classes (the experiment group) and leave the other sections to follow the normal syllabus (the control group) in which they're allowed to choose their own text from a department made list (which includes Maus anyway).

Rating: 4.5/5

Amulet - Book 1: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi:

I first read about this comic on Panel Discussion. I was immediately captured by the incredible artwork. Then I happened to see it at my local book store, Tome on the Range. I picked it up and started flipping through it when an employee spied me perusing it and told me how great it is--I'd been wondering which employee had put graphic novels on the "Staff Picks" section. That did it. So I put in a request for it through my university's Interlibrary Loan, and it arrived about a week later (that's insanely fast for a comic ILL).

It's a very short read, and I finished it in a couple if hours. Let me start by saying that the art which first intrigued me did not disappoint. I can't quite explain what it is about the style that so draws me to it, but it's amazing. The splash pages (full page panels--a little comics lingo for you) are simply beautiful, and the ending, double-wide splash page definitely makes me anxious for Book 2. But that said, the book is mainly a visual marvel.

I hate to say it, but the prologue--in which a family member tragically dies--is the most intriguing part: it has the best dialogue, the best structure, and by far the best character development. And unfortunately, the character who is developed the most in the entire book is the one who dies here. That's not to say the other main characters never do anything after the prologue, just that we never get a real why for their actions. And after the prologue, the story begins almost identically to The Spiderwick Chronicles (the movie, at least; I haven't read the book). Granted, by about 10 pages in, it's clear this isn't Spiderwick, but that feeling was still there and a little disappointing.

Don't get me wrong. The story is far from bad: it's intriguing, creative, and near the end, we get some quirky, cutesy characters that fit well. But the writing isn't great: the dialogue is not on par with the beauty of the characters' drawn expressions, and the pacing is far too quick (leaving me with way too many questions, even if this is only Book 1).

Rating : 3.5/5

What Would Happen if Plato Wrote a Dialogue about the Future of Video Gaming OR Fanboys Whining

With E3 popularly declared a failure, fanboys everywhere were whining a lot this past weekend. And I tried to stay out of it ("tried" being the operative word). With Nintendo's press conference leaving much to be desired, my inner fanboy felt it necessary to defend it from other fanboys complaining that Nintendo has betrayed them with no "hardcore games" and only making kiddie games for "casual gamers"--though no one has really tried to define exactly what either of those terms mean.

Well, amidst my defense of childhood friend Nintendo, I came across what I thought was yet more crying about Nintendo's "dark con." And what started as an argument between myself and a fellow blogger, became an intelligent debate about the future of video games at The House That Stupid Built.

Mattius_Carl:
Microsoft doing what Nintendo won't?

Many of you laughed when you saw the sudden shift about halfway through the Microsoft conference. You know, the part where they pretended to be Nintendo. Some of you not only laughed, but actually scorned Microsoft. Sure, they may have borrowed a few ideas, but that's what the marketplace is all about isn't it? Nintendo broke new ground by getting the casual market on board with gaming, definitely. Microsoft naturally wants a piece of this hot casual action because it makes [expletive deleted] of money. I don't see the problem with them trying to get more casual gamers on board. Here's why:

We all threw up a little after the Nintendo conference because they didn't throw us a single bone. Reggie claimed that they still cared about the core gamer and such, but their show was directed at people who don't know what E3 is nor follow it. I know, I know, more announcements about Nintendo core titles sort of came afterwards and it seems like I'm exaggerating but bear with me. Nintendo went out, said it cared about satisfying both parties and then only showed stuff like Wii Music and Wii Sports 2. Animal Crossing does NOT count. Now Microsoft, also comes out and says that they care about core gamers and new, casual gamers alike. They say they want to satisfy both crowds, and [expletive deleted] they certainly proved it to me. They had the first half of the conference full of hardcore, highly anticipated titles for the core gamer. Then the conference deteriorated into a casual [expletive deleted] that I don't really care about but the point is is that they showed they had titles for both groups. Quality titles at that. I think the fact that they showed Resident Evil 5 and Gears of War 2 footage before later showing Scene it? and Uno footage proves that they're out Nintendo-ing Nintendo.

Yes, I know. Those titles won't sell on 360 the same way The Conduit won't sell on Wii, but the point is I took away from E3 the feeling that the 360 is a machine that can and does cater to all types of gamers, while the Wii is shoving off hardcore port and moving into the Blue Ocean of casual mayhem. Sony may have done some casual stuff as well that I just didn't pay attention to because it's Sony, so don't be alarmed if I didn't mention it. I know it's just a conference, and I know that casual games aren't bad. In fact, I don't care if Nintendo decides that they're going only casual now. It makes them money, great. I just wish they would stop saying they're catering to all types of gamers when that's an outright lie. I know people hate Microsoft, but they're certainly balancing the scale much better than Nintendo is.

Me:
I made this comment on a couple of similar blog posts:

"I've been trying to reserve commentary on E3 until it's all said and done with, but I have to chime in here. 'Nintendo has brought about casual gaming'? What are you talking about? Gaming has always been casual, whether it's been video games, sports, Monopoly, or Pick-Up-Sticks! Inherent to the word 'game' is the connotation of doing something casually, a diversion from the serious! That's like blaming high school baseball teams for taking away from the professionalism of the MLB! You can't be upset with a business for targeting the biggest market, because, guess what, 'hardcore gamers' comprise the minority of gamers. If they only did things for the minority, these would not make money, go out of business, and no longer be making any games!

Okay...angry rant over...I'm done now."

Mattius_Carl:
You're right that board games and other types of games have been around for ages and have more or less been casual. Keep in mind though (I thought this went without saying) we're talking about video games here. Board games are a totally different world and yes, Nintendo DID bring about this revolution in casual, fun, carefree centered gaming. There's always been games that were less hardcore (more casual), but it's Nintendo that is to blame, for better or worse, for really bringing casual gaming the forefront of the industry. Seriously though, you can't compare board games and video games, it's apples and oranges. Even if you DO use the board game argument, there are definitely hardcore and casual board games, so when you argue that gaming has ALWAYS had a casual side you're simultaneously proving that gaming has ALWAYS had a hardcore side. After that your point really becomes moot.

I also don't think the analogy of the baseball team is correct. It's more like one of the the MLB teams (Nintendo) is playing like a high school team, if that analogy is to be used at all. They're a big player in the league and they're bringing down the competitive level and just playing for fun. That's all well and good for some people, but I take issue with it when it's all that they're doing because you never want all your eggs in one basket.

Me:
I'm not contesting that there is a hardcore gaming audience, I'm contesting that Nintendo brought about the casual one. The guys who made Pong didn't one day decide, "Hey, let's make an electronic tennis game you play on a TV screen so that we can create a league of players like they have in professional tennis!" Video games were not initially invented for hardcore video gamers, because there were none. People didn't rush out and buy Pong because they thought it would make them akin to the next great tennis player. Video games were meant to be played casually, and that's why people bought/played them initially. That's why arcade games always appeared in places like movie theatres: "Hey, I've got 15 minutes before my movie starts, I'll kill the time with a round of Donkey Kong!" Eventually hardcore gamers came out--the guy who practiced to be better at Pong than all his buddies; the kid who wanted his initials to be at the top of Galaga. Those hardcore gamers didn't always exist. They became hardcore by first being casual gamers who just played for fun. And it was Nintendo who (originally a playing card company) decided to break into a market (video gaming, which, like their cards, were inherently meant to be played casually) which already existed. Nintendo did not bring about casual gaming in 2008; they joined it in the late 1970's/early 1980's (almost a decade after Pong and the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console, and over twenty years afterthe United States saw its first video games). One cannot make a claim that Nintendo is responsible for casual video gaming when it existed even before they were making video games.

Furthermore, why should casual gaming bother anyone in the first place? People are not born hardcore video gamers, they become them. It stands to reason that without casual video games, then, there would be no new hardcore gamers. That's what Nintendo is trying and always have tried to do: attract new gamers. And on top of that, I don't think hardcore gamers never play casually. I consider myself a serious gamer because I research, play, occasionally write about them (either on my blog or my university's newspaper), and even started competing recently. But I still pick up Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on my Virtual Console when I've got some time to kill. I go over to my friends' place and have huge Mario Party sessions. And then sometimes, I play Brawl online and really try to lay the hurt on someone. Regardless, I'm having fun, which is the point of gaming in the first place.

Mattius_Carl:
You make some good points. Casual gaming isn't bad, I just want something MORE from Nintendo, that's all. I wouldn't normally be bothered by casual gaming, I only am now because it feels like it's infringing upon Nintendo's concentration on hardcore games. I don't have a problem playing casual games on Wii, I have a problem if that's ALL I get to play though.

Me:
Not only is that fair enough, but I agree. Still, maybe Nintendo is seeing this as the time to really focus on what they do best and hand over the keys to the hardcore gaming community over to 3rd party developers (many feared that's what was happening when Capcom helped make "The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Seasons" a few years back). Thankfully, it seems that they're still working on their hardcore series like Zelda, Metroid, Mario, and Pikmin.

Meanwhile, more and more 3rd party developers are realizing the Wii's potential and actually putting effort into both their Wii exclusives (I'm sure you've already checked out The Conduit) and multi-platform games with separate teams working on the Wii versions (as opposed to what we've seen so far with the same games from PS3 and XBOX 360). After all, hardcore gamers bought their Wiis because they wanted something different. I think it's just taking everyone else a little longer to get on board.

"Persepolis," "The Dark Knight," and The End of "Avatar"

I've been pretty remiss with my reviews lately, so I thought I'd do a nice little compilation review.

The Complete Persepolis: First off, I finished Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis a couple of weeks ago, and I definitely recommend it. I'd been wanting to read it for quite some time and finally got it through Interlibrary Loan at my university. What first surprised me after a few of Sarjane's stories (the book is broken up into several small stories) is how well the simple (even cartoony) art style worked to convey the serious nature of her life growing up in Iran. Granted, after reading Spiegelman's Maus, I shouldn't have been terribly surprised, and having also read an autobiography like Brabner and Pekar's Our Cancer Year, I should have known that serious art doesn't mean an autobiographical comic is a good autobiography.

However, I should be quick to explain, Satrapi's Persepolis is no Maus. While both stories are very moving and demonstrate the atrocities of the world, Maus does it better. I think that Satrapi's use of several anecdotes to tell her life story actually work against the book as a whole. While each story is good individually, there is little to connect them to one another thematically or even plot wise other than that they are all about Satrapi.

Still, Satrapi paints a historical view of Iran (usually) very subtly described through news broadcasts in the stories' backgrounds coupled with the character's interpretation of them. I also really liked her illustration of the struggles of becoming an "intellectual"--trying to reconcile Bakunin, Sartre, Beauvoir, and the European commune at which she studied, for example.
Rating: 3/5

The Dark Knight: I'm going to try to keep my inner fanboy at bay as I review what is probably the best superhero movie ever made. So that is exactly how I'll review it: as a superhero movie. Having written my Masters thesis on superheroes, I'm constantly looking for new superhero stories that do something new with the genre. The Dark Knight--like The Incredibles, Unbreakable, and Iron Man before it--does just that. I should start by saying that while I really liked Batman Begins, it definitely relied way too much on ideas from Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One. But the sequel definitely takes some concepts from the comics and makes them its own. (Here, I'm going to try to keep as many spoilers out of my review as possible, but I'm sure a few will slip.)

First off, it's impossible to discuss The Dark Knight without mentioning the Joker (yes, Heath Ledger is very good at acting the character that was written him, but I don't think that makes him any better at playing the Joker than Jack Nicholson or Mark Hamill). This Joker takes elements of all the Joker incarnations and pushes them to the extreme. Of course, the Joker has always been mad, but the film takes this to a new (or rarely explored) level by giving a method to his madness. Yes, he's crazy, but every crazy action has a reason (unlike the more family-friendly incarnations), and this makes him all the more terrifying--just one more reason to fear clowns. Of course, the madness is also brilliant, and the Joker (despite insistence he has none) plans every detail to the point where you will be that little kid, again, wondering how Batman will ever get out of this. Lastly, this isn't the Joker who is content making people crazy with his laughing gas. The Joker is deadly, and he has no qualms not only taking the lives of innocents but those of his own employ as well. A few other characteristics of note are his many stories of why he bears scars that make-up his perpetual smile (another departure from the comics) and his constant lip-licking (my wife suggested that this could be a habit from when the cuts were still fresh--ever notice how much you lick a split lip?) really bring the Joker to life in a new way.

But the Joker wasn't the only aspect of the story to bring the film to life. While superhero comics have played with the idea that the Batman would not be a welcome hero for the last couple of decades, superhero films have always been hesitant to make their heroes fallible (this summer's The Incredible Hulk dabbled with this, but it was clear you were meant to view the military personnel after him as "bad guys"). But The Dark Knight clearly has no problems crossing that line into the Dark Knight being hunted by the very people he would protect. Taking it even further, Batman goes so far as to view this paradox as a necessary aspect of his duty--something more superhero stories need to accept if the genre is to survive.
Rating: 5/5

Avatar: The Last Airbender Series Finale--Sozin's Comet: The Final Battle: My wife and I have been big fans of this show for over a year now. When we discovered it last spring, we caught up with the series by watching every episode that came on regardless of when it took place in the series. If you're not already a fan of the series, I'm not going to try to summarize the series because it's simply too vast. I will recommend it to fans of anime (though this show is American, not Japanese), Asian philosophy and/or martial arts, and fantasy/mythology in general.

But did this epic series come to a good close? The answer is "Yes and no." My picky complaint is that the show is all about balance in a world divided by its peoples' affiliation to one of the four elements. To exemplify the theme of balance, we have Aang, the Avatar, who must master all the elements. Now, the story is broken up into books each named for an element. And I know that as there's only one Airbender left in the world, an Air book would be difficult to do. But in a series driven by balance, why are there only 3 books (Water, Earth, and Fire)? Why can we not get another book about the new Airbenders (assuming Aang passes it on to his future children)?

This brings me to my only real complaint about the series finale. Despite being 2 hours long, I was not satisfied with the denouement (which was about the last 10 minutes of the movie). There were still questions I wanted answered (besides the obvious, who will be the new Airbenders?). If peace is really to reign in the world, what will be the role of the new avatar? If Aang and Katara have kids, will they be Air or Waterbenders? What will happen to Uncle Iroh and the White Lotus? How will the nations, no longer at war, begin to coexist?

But all in all, I was happy with the way the chips fell on this show. The good guys won (in some amazing and beautiful fights that did not require the death of anyone), everyone did their part, and no minor characters from the series were left out. Lastly, the music in the show was always good, but the score for the movie was fantastic!
Rating: 4/5

Good Bye, "Sunday" OR The Death of Print Media?

Like most Sundays, I went to the local laundromat today. But unlike most Sundays, there was no Sunday for me to sit back and read. For those of you not local to New Mexico, Sunday is a weekly publication by The Santa Fe New Mexican. While I've only picked up the daily publication a couple of times, I've been a weekly reader of Sunday since I first discovered it at the laundromat almost two years ago. I think the reason why I got so attached to it was that it featured non-local stories; it was my little window outside of New Mexico. And it was free.

But last Sunday marked the last Sunday. The weekly newspaper is no more, and on top of mourning the loss of a unique compilation of journalism I wouldn't have read often otherwise, I'm forced to consider if the loss of this print publication is a foreshadowing of things to come. Granted, this was not a huge publication; it was a free, weekly newspaper that largely featured articles written by journalists not its own (hence the "window outside of New Mexico"). So it relied mostly on advertising, which was always sparse due to the high article to page count ratio. Consequently, readers saw a few changes during the last few months of publication: the addition of a huge classifieds section and cutting the book review section, most often contributed to by Terry England.

In fact, in his last issue as a contributor, England wrote about the death of print media. It was a great piece, and unfortunately, I can't find a free copy of it to cite it specifically. But it basically discussed that because advertisers are increasingly going to the internet, print media is having a harder time staying afloat. England also noted that while the numbers do not necessarily support the idea of advertisers that more readers are going to the internet as well, the fear that traditional newsprint is on a downwards spiral has been planted.

To add to this, the Wikipedia-generation has been raised on getting their information on the internet (I call them the "Wikipedia-generation" because, as a freshman composition teacher, I constantly need to remind them that Wikipedia cannot be used as a reliable source for citation). In fact, as a contributor to my university's newspaper La Mecha, I not only encouraged my students to read the paper (because none of them did) but had to inform them that the university even had one. That's to say nothing about our literary review, Picayune. Needless to say, when we discussed which print discourse communities they regularly took part in (newspapers, magazines, etc.), only a few could name some.

There are, of course, big counterarguments to these concerns. For starters, in response to my class, very few of them regularly took part in any digital discourse communities either (forums, blogs, etc.) besides MySpace and Facebook. But mainly, most who were predicting this doom and gloom were looking at one major genre to be the canary in the coal mine. With the Internet's tons of free images, most expected "men's magazines" to simply go out of business, unable to get people to buy what they could see online for free. And while I don't know the numbers of the business, I still see those magazines for sale in their shrink wrapping behind the counter at my local Borders. And speaking of Borders, Amazon.com's Kindle (like an iPod for for books) hasn't been doing terribly well, either.

Regardless, the issue has been raised, and I can only speculate that similar publications are have difficulty getting on in the digital age. And I can only hope that it isn't a precursor to the death of all print media.

Some Games I'm Looking Forward To

With the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) coming to a close after tons of new video game previews, there are a few to which I'm really looking forward (as you may have noticed from those nifty countdown clocks in the corner). First off, Spore Creatures for the DS is actually more what my wife Veronica wants. And in point of fact, she really wants the full PC version of the game (just titled Spore), but at the moment, we don't have a computer cool enough to run the game when it comes out, or the free "Creature Creator" available for download now. The DS version enables you to make creatures pretty much however you want and see them evolve and interact--just the thing for Nintendogs, Check Mii Out, and Boom Blox fans, like my wife, who loves to digitally create stuff. Hopefully, we'll be able to get a new PC- Ow! Oh, sorry, Sweetheart, *ahem* Mac this year and try out the full version (which releases the same day as it's portable, baby brother).

Spore comes from the same company that brought us the SimCity series, a big one in my family (in addition to The Legend of Zelda, my dad also used to stay up all night improving his metropolis in SimCity 2000). And while recent iterations of the game haven't done nearly as well as their The Sims counterparts (and I can attest as well to how horrible SimCity DS is), this version designed for the Wii and DS looks more and more like a good combination of something old and something new. I am, however, torn about which version to invest in as each offers such differnt features. The Wii version, for example, will allow you to place zoning tiles, roads, etc., in any pattern you want using the Wiimote to draw them--no longer will I be stuck making grid-cities! The Wii version also gives you different architectural styles to build with (the classic American plus European and Asian, as well), but also gives you tons of disasters (both new and old) to destroy it with! Meanwhile, the DS version allows you to effectively start at the beginning of time and progress through the Medieval Ages, the Renaissance, and into the future, all the while earning landmarks, to place around your city, that reflect the time period. But for me, the biggest reason for the DS version (and the main reason why I bought SimCity DS) is that it's on the DS--portable! What to buy, what to buy...

Last, but certainly not least, is Ghostbusters: The Video Game--not just a game based on the movie but a continuation of the original two movies. Now, I know what your thinking: "A video game sequel of such an amazing series is going to be horrible! How will it ever capture the original feel of the movies?" Well, I was thinking the same thing, so quit your whining and listen up: the script for the game is being written by the original scribes of the series, Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd. Not enough for you? How about this? All of the original cast members will be returning to voice their characters. So not only will you get Dr. Venkman's constant sarcastic dialogue written by the masters, but Bill Murray will be cracking them himself! I was sold from there, but here's a couple of other things to get you psyched. You'll be playing a new, rookie Ghostbuster with the appropriate hazing job to "test" new equipment--that's right, new gadgets--while helping the Ghostbusters take down some new ghosts and returning ghouls like Slimer and, of course, the StayPuft Marshmallow Man. Okay, okay, yes, I'm a nerd. I admit it. But as a kid who loved the movies and cartoon, had all the action figures (including the Ecto 1 and the Firehouse), the toy Proton Pack and light-up traps, and wore them all to dress up as a Ghostbuster for Halloween, I think I'm entitled to be majorly psyched for this one.

Of course, there are a few other games I'm looking forward to coming out, but they're mostly on PlayStation 3, which I don't have...yet!

I've Got Hellboy Fever!

So I've been reading my fair share of comics lately, and I thought I should start reviewing some of my recent reads. I think I already mentioned that in anticipation of seeing Hellboy II: The Golden Army (which I liked, thank you very much), I picked up some Hellboy and Company comics. I had no idea Mike Mignola (Hellboy's creator) was so busy writing these days: not only does he share credit for The Golden Army's screenplay with Guillero del Toro, but he has three mini-series out right now, and I picked up the first issue of each. Now, I've been reading Hellboy for a little over a year--I picked up the first volume for some vacation reading (having really liked the first movie and being curious) and loved it! I quickly moved onto the second volume, but then hit a comics lull (what with finishing my last year of grad school) and couldn't read the third until about a month ago--number four here I come! Actually, I should give props to a friend of mine who tried to get me into Hellboy with a random issue of him in Japan, but it didn't resonate just then.

Anyway, the oldest of Mignola's three series out right now is Abe Sapien:The Drowning #1. I'll be honest, I had my doubts that Abe (effectively Hellboy's sidekick) could be interesting on his own. But as it turns out, Mignola's writing is very compelling, and I got sucked in by just the opening with Martin Parks' song "You Gentlemen of England" over this sailor beating down some demon things at sea. Still, apparently, Abe's agency (the Bureau for Paranomal Research and Defense) isn't sure he can handle being alone either. But to move the plot forward, they send him out anyway to recover a sacred Hindu dagger at the bottom of the sea. Of course, as the cover shows Abe wrestling a giant squid, all does not go well. Basically, I look forward to my next visit to my Santa Fe comics store to get the next issues.

Next, I read B.P.R.D.: The Warning #1. Again, I was skeptical that the series' secondary characters could really get along without Hellboy, but again I was proven wrong. And, of course, while what happens in the story is awesome, it's the back story and development of those characters that makes it interesting. Mignola gives us just the right amount of exposition and action.

However, the gem amongst these comics is Hellboy: The Crooked Man #1. And yet again, Hellboy isn't even a main character here--he's more of a passive observer. The story follows Hellboy to some serious Deliverance country to investigate a possible witch. What he finds is a whole mess of witchcraft, the return and aid of a man who gave his soul to the devil as a teenager, and the Crooked Man (the collector of souls). And while this might sound like a typical Hellboy story, it's the characters that shape it--the man trying to come to grips with his choices as a child, a misunderstood woman who's almost as innocent as she is a victim, and a seriously creepy guy orchestrating it all. We learn a little about each of these characters and in the case of the first two, Mignola has us sympathize (the last one he just wants us to think is creepy).

But while Mignola's skill with character development is one of the reasons why I keep returning to his work, it's his ability to write horror in a way we don't see very often anymore--Gothic. I mean true Victorian Gothic, where it's just in the background enough to give you a chill like in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre with the vampiress (read it again, she's in there). That's what I liked about that first Hellboy. The art even reflects it--all shadows! In any event, if you have the opportunity to check these out, they're all good, but I'd recommend the last one over the first two, even if you're unfamiliar with Hellboy. If you like horror, but you're not sure what to make of "Big Red" (I didn't either the first time), then this issue should ease you in gradually to his unique style of monster hunting.

"You work at a comic book store! Whaddya mean 'Scott who?'" OR How I Almost Shotgunned a Comic Book Store Employee in the Face

Something happened this weekend that almost makes me lose my faith in the comics community and comics' future as a successful medium in general. I was at my local (and only) comics provider in Santa Fe this weekend: True Believers Comics & Gallery. Now I have to start by saying that as this is the only comic book store within an hour drive for me, and I love the place (even after they had to move and downsize their square-footage), I don't mean to sound insulting. But if you work at a comic book store, shouldn't you at least know about Understanding Comics, even if you don't know the author's name? But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I was in there earlier this weekend hoping to pick up "Zorro" #5 (one of very, very few serials I follow 'cause I'm so picky about which series are worth reading and which are just going to carry on endlessly like a soap opera) and maybe check out this "Umbrella Academy" I've been hearing so much about. Unfortunately, "Zorro" #5's not out yet, and they were completely sold out of "Umbrella Academy." But while I was looking around for something else (so as not to waste a precious trip to the store), a mother and her about 12-year old son came in. They looked around a bit then she went up to the clerk. Apparently, her son had just finished a comic arts summer class, and the teacher (who's name I missed!) had suggested that if his students were interested, they should read Understanding Comics. But she couldn't remember the author's full name. Rather than jump in with "It's Scott McCloud!" I decided to let the clerk field it (as it was his job and all, and since she was a new and potentially returning patron).

But imagine my shock when the clerk simply stood there looking dumbfounded! Then I sorta had to speak up. I told them who the author was and that the store had a copy "over there." The clerk took them over and picked up both Understanding and Making Comics, and the mom and her son discussed which, if either, they should get. Since the clerk made his way back to the cash register, I put in my two cents about McCloud (basically that it was good for anyone interested in comics and that I'm using it as my Freshman Composition II course's main text--look for my review of the book as a teaching text when summer school's out next week). She thanked me and bought the books for her son.

Of course, maybe I'm being a bit harsh/naive in thinking that all hardcore comics fans will have read Understanding Comics (or even that all comic book store employees read comics!). Or maybe the clerk was just having a brain-fart. But barring those, am I the only ones who sees this as a sign (or at least something that raises the issue) that comics fan-dom is it's own worst enemy? Are the hardcore fans of comics (i.e. the ones only interested in Spider-man's new costume and whether or not Batman needs to finally get together with Catwoman once and for all) so interested in the medium as one of entertainment as to be disinterested in it as an art form? As a lover of comics and believer in its potential (as even more than a medium of entertainment and art), this is pretty troublesome. And whether or not I'm taking a simple case of a clerk being caught off guard, the matter remains present--it did when McCloud wrote his book in 1992, and with the surge in superhero comic to film adaptations, it's only prevailing.

Anyway, so as not to leave you with a bad sense of True Believers Comics & Gallery, the clerk did help me by trying to find out when "Zorro" would be coming out and offering to try and order more "Umbrella Academy" and saving me a copy. And I did pick up the first issues of the "Hellboy: The Crooked Man," "Abe Sapien," and "B.P.R.D." mini-series (I was seeing "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" later that day and knew I'd be craving more--a great film and pretty good adaptation; those comics were all great by the way--Mignola is a great writer).

The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass OR The Curse of the Zelda Formula

Let me preface this post by saying that I'm a huge "Legend of Zelda" fan. In fact, the day after Christmas when I was six and got my first gaming console (the NES!) from Santa, my dad took me out to buy a game other than "Super Mario Bros." and "Duck Hunt" (I was never a big Mario fan). We picked up "The Legend of Zelda" because a friend from work had told my dad it was a great game. We were instantly hooked; as a lover of fairy tales, the little two page back story to the game printed over a model map of Hyrule in the instruction manual drew me to the quest. I'd play during the day until Dad got home around dinner time ("Dad, I got the White Sword!), then he'd take over and play well into the night ("Last night I beat the 5th Level!"). The console was plugged into the TV in my parents room just down the hall, so I could always hear it from my room. The dungeon music would lull me into Zelda inspired dreams. That game began my lifelong passion for video games.


Granted, it was a long time before any new Zelda games came out to rival my love of the original. "Zelda II: The Adventures of Link" was nearly impossible to beat. And even though I loved and replayed "Link's Awakening" for the Game Boy, I couldn't stand "A Link to the Past" for the SNES and only played it through begrudgingly to say I had beat it. But then came "The Ocarina of Time" and the series was changed forever. I was in high school when I finally played this one through, and at that point it was hardest game I'd ever played. (In many ways, it still is, but I'm getting ahead of myself.) Mention The Water Temple amongst fans of the game, and they'll roll their eyes and smile proudly at having figured out it's insane puzzle.


"Ocarina of Time" was followed up by "Majora's Mask," one of the many games in the series that doesn't even involve the title character Zelda. And while it was met with mixed reviews for not being as good as it's predecessor, I enjoyed playing in that world awhile longer. Granted, it wasn't as hard or as epic as the previous installment, but it did have a great premise: relive the same three days trying to stop the moon from crashing into the world and defeat the imp who commanded it to do so? Awesome!


Thus followed a series of games that hearkened back to that Zelda game I loathed: "A Link to the Past." I simply couldn't play "Oracle of Seasons," "Oracle of Ages," or "The Minish Cap" (though my brother constantly reminds me how good they are). But for me, they were too much of the same thing: not as fancy as the N64 iterations but with the same items and, therefore, the same puzzles that those items are used to solve. And while "The Wind Waker" certainly broke up that monotony, it was still way too easy to provide much satisfaction.

A couple days ago, I finally got around to picking up and beating "The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass" for the DS. Earlier this year, I finally got around to picking up and beating "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" on my new Wii. And I have to say that despite all my love of Nintendo and the Zelda series, I was disappointed. Don't get me wrong; they are both great games and I recommend them to everyone! But I can't help feeling like I've played these games before.


Take "Twilight Princess," for example. As soon as I started playing, I felt like I was replaying "Ocarina of Time" with better graphics. Granted, I quickly realized I wasn't once I was turned into a wolf with a little mischievous helper on my back. But that initial feeling never went away, and thus, none of the plot twists really surprised me, none of the bosses really stumped me, and when I made my way into dreaded Water Temple with flashes of being stuck for days by some brilliant puzzle, I was only disappointed to walk out a couple of hours later having beaten it.

"The Phantom Hourglass" is no better. What happened to the days when you had to search high and low for more rupees in order to buy the Blue Ring which cost as many rupees (200 I believe) as you were capable of carrying?! I ended the Phantom Hourglass with over 6000 rupees when you max out at 9999, and I did not sell a single piece of treasure, paid for help with every puzzle possible, played every losing game, and bought every item I thought might be necessary! In short, the game was way too easy.

So many gamers and developers alike have used the Zelda games as a benchmark for other games. But Nintendo has fallen into a formula rut with the Zelda series, and we need another "Ocarina of Time" not only for the series to live up to its reputation, but to raise the bar for all games. And I know the old "but these games are meant for a broader audience so they have to be easier" argument, but it's a bad excuse. My 10 year old brother beat "Wind Waker" only to jump straight into the Master Quest of "Ocarina of Time" without flinching, and he only plays on the weekend and easily gets distracted by playing a new game!

Again, I'm not saying these games are terrible. They deserve the praise they get, and I've enjoyed them much more than most other titles. They each add new elements to the game play to keep it fresh: "Twilight Princess" with wolf-Link and "Phantom Hourglass" with it's all stylus controls each offered up new elements to the game play. But even that--adding something new--has become part of the formula (you may get a brand new item in a dungeon that's never before been used in a Zelda game but you know you're gonna need it to beat the boss) because the core experiences haven't changed except to get easier. My brother made the perfect comment the other day to this effect: "We've been playing Zelda games so long that we know to place a bomb where there's a crack in the wall." But the evolution of this simple puzzle and Zelda staple has been a simplification. In the original game, there was sometimes a crack and sometimes not one--you might get lucky placing random bombs or you might just be wasting a precious resource. Later, the games added a hollow "tink" sound you could listen for when hitting walls, without cracks, with your sword. But then the necessity to "test" walls became less and less frequent because either there was a crack more often or some other obvious clue that you needed to blow up a wall--statues inexplicably form an arrow pointing to a dead end, the floor tile pattern that circles the room doesn't meet in the exact middle of a wall, there's a series of bomb flowers (which instantly regenerate so you don't even need to weigh the risk of getting lucky and wasting a bomb anymore) on one side of the room for no good reason, etc.

Yes, I'm ranting! I want to feel like a kid playing "The Legend of Zelda" on my parents bedroom floor, in awe and wonder at what challenges await me in a new level or even where it could possibly be in this brand new world. I love this world, this mythology, this story, and I want it to make me feel the way I did when I first experienced it. And maybe I'm only disappointing myself by trying to find the same experience to which I accidentally desensitized myself. But I'd rather challenge Nintendo to fix it for me. And I think that's fair. If other new games can make my heart pound during a boss battle, the way it did when I first faced Ganon to rescue the princess, then a new Zelda game should be able to do it too! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm headed home to play "The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures"!

Comic Recommendations for my Library

I don't think I've yet mentioned that I'm an English teacher at New Mexico Highlands University and that I teach comics in my composition classes as often as possible (this summer and this fall I'm teaching Freshman Comp. II classes on comics). I also wrote my Masters Thesis on superheroes last spring. It's somewhat common knowledge that I study comics.

So imagine my excitement when I arrived at my office yesterday morning to find a note from the Assistant Librarian (also a fan of comics but working in a library with only McCloud's Understanding Comics and David Kunzle's The Early Comic Strip) asking for my recommendations for graphic novels, books on comic history/theory, and/or periodicals the library should invest in! I immediately started a list.

I managed to keep the fanboy in me at bay and left off every Batman graphic novel I've ever read. That still left me with a list of about 25 things. So I narrowed that down even further to 10. They are in no particular order save for the first three--those are necessary to any collection:

1, 2, and 3) Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale, Moore's Watchmen, and Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: Aside from the fact that these are my three favorite comics of all time and I used two of them for my Masters Thesis, I firmly believe that these comics saved and shaped contemporary comics (even if they did all first appear 22 years ago). They really brought comics back into the limelight, and I probably wouldn't be into comics at all had a friend not lent me The Dark Knight Returns in 8th grade.

4) McCloud's Reinventing Comics: Granted, it's not nearly as much fun to read as Understanding Comics, but McCloud does challenge the comics community with his 12 Revolutions that comics must undergo if they're to survive.

5) The Comics Journal: This is a really great periodical that offers up tons of criticism on comics and goes way beyond how cool the last issue of Action Comics was. It's a tad pricey, but each issue is huge!

6) Comic Book Confidential: This one's actually a documentary on the history of censorship over comics. It's really interesting, and I would have loved to have shown it in my class this semester. But it's generally something you can't pick up at Blockbuster.

7) Marjane Satrapi's The Complete Persepolis: I haven't actually finished this yet, but I am absolutely loving it. The art is great, and the story is very moving. It's also on this list to support two of McCloud's Revolutions: Gender Balance and Minority Representation!

8) Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art: Since this was one of the first books to look at comics seriously and because McCloud relies so heavily on it, I figured it should also be on here...Even though I've never read it...

9) Brabner and Pekar's Our Cancer Year: Though I'm not a big Pekar fan, this book is pretty moving, and I've heard it's been circulated amongst cancer patients as a story of hope.

10) Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 and 2: I wrote a paper on this for my History of the Novel class. Any comic that comments so heavily on 19th century British literature in such an entertaining way is gold.

Okay, those are the ten I thought would be the most diverse (I didn't even want to put The League on there because I'd already put Watchmen). Like I said, the top three are the most necessary in my opinion; and the others are just fairly well rounded (six graphic novels, two books on comic theory, one periodical, and a documentary). Feel free to comment on my list!

UPDATE--SEPT. 25, 2008:
Last Friday I was very happy to get a voice mail message from my friendly neighborhood university librarian. She was calling to let me know that some of the books I'd recommended had come in, and she was going to keep them on hold for me to have first dibs. Needless to say, I was excited and hurried over there first thing Monday. But imagine my surprise when I arrived at the circulation desk to find out that they had ordered ALL of my recommendations! The ones that have come in are currently on display, and I am eagerly awaiting the rest.

My Cool Links

Well after a three-day weekend of generally just lazing about and grilling, I've returned to my computer to once again "plug in." The first thing I did was try out this cool Blog List thingy over there at the right. It's pretty nifty, as it gives me a chance to share some of the sites I regularly visit or would like to start visiting. But since those snip its of each are so short, I thought I'd take this post to explain my choices.

First off, I play this amazing table-top game called Heroscape. It combines strategy/fantasy gaming with battlefield building worthy of Lego aficionados and a pretty cool storyline--the Generals of Valhalla are warring against one another by filling their ranks with the greatest warriors of all time. This basically means you can pit samurai against aliens, Ancient Greeks against American Revolutionaries, Dragons against cyborgs from the future! Heroscapers is a great community website of fans that I check out periodically for news about the game, strategy tips, and jokes that make fun of our nerdiness.

Next, I'm on IGN.com about once a day, checking out the all the big video game, movie, comics, anime, and tech updates for the day. Of course, there are other sections I don't check out often simply because they are not high on my list of interests--cars, sports, music, etc. But if the writing (witty but generally poignant) of the sections I frequent is any indication, those other sections are probably great too.

Home of Optimus Kirby is probably one of favorite video gamer user blogs on IGN.com. Most gamer blogs are filled with mostly random news I could find on the main webpage. therollingzeppelins' blog is pretty cool when I want another fairly non-fanboy/non-professional-critic opinion of gaming in general--and my brother isn't available.

The National Association of Comics Art Educators is a great resource for anyone interested in teaching comics at any level--like me! If you're interested in attending a university with a comic arts curriculum, there's a good resource on there. And I have it on some authority that it will be revamped pretty soon to include a list of teachers in the comics arts at various universities.

Which brings me to the next blog on my list--literally, I linked to this blog from the NACAE's forum--Panel Discussion. Andy Wales (as an art teacher) posts comics exercises he's used in both his art and Sunday school class, as well as any tinkering around he's done lately.

Lastly, Prof. Robert Woods' MySpace Blog is the poetry and ramblings of one of New Mexico Highlands University's best professors. A theatre and speech teacher at the university, Prof. Woods usually directs the university's seasonal play (the last was a collection of his performance poetry featuring my wife as Rambo; really cool stuff!) and even served on my Masters Thesis committee to help me keep a superhero purists' perspective amidst all the literary theory of the two PhDs heading the project. His Top 11 Horror Films, 2007 is fantastic (though it does raise some troubling thoughts about the graphic novel that I'll have to address later). Prof. Woods also teaches The American Horror Film class which (though I'm no longer a student) I really want to take!

Well, that's it this time around. As I add more links I'll post more reasons why they're cool!

Zero Punctuation and McCloud's 12 Revolutions

Yesterday, as on every Wednesday, I checked out Zero Punctuation's new video review (for those of you unfamiliar with the series, its host Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw reviews mostly video games with generally scathing results that make gamers like me feel silly for playing whatever game he happens to be reviewing). But this week, Yahtzee makes a departure from video games to making webcomics about video games--and I'm all about readin' me some comics!


I highly recommend you check it out, and while I wanted to include it here in the blog itself, I chose not to for a couple of reasons: 1) there is (as always) some "objectionable material" in the video and 2) I couldn't figure out how to embed the stupid thing...dumb internet with its htmls and fancy toolbars...


In this week's video, Yahtzee (a webcomic producer himself) rambled on about how to make a webcomic. And while the majority of what he says is meant to be more of a stab at the droves of internet users who self-publish really bad comics, his rant also touches on the potential of webcomics to increase the status of video games as art. Now, before I get all kinds of "intellectuals" and "artists" riled up and throwing stuff at me for even using "video games" and "art" in the same sentence, let me clarify that the most important word in that sentence is "potential"! In any event, before Yahtzee can convince anyone of that, he has to convince us that webcomics have the same potential--the same thing that comics theorist, historian, and all around champion of the comic arts, Scott McCloud had been saying since he published Understanding Comics in 1992 and (more specifically) Reinventing Comics in 2000.


In his second book, McCloud lists his 12 Revolutions necessary for the future success of comics, and Yahtzee hits on several of these in his video: Comics as Literature, Comics as Art, Creators' Rights, Diversity of Genre, Digital Delivery, and (of course) Digital Comics. For the survival of the medium, McCloud calls for: comics that "can yield a body of work worthy of study and meaningfully represent the life, times and world-view of its author"; comics that have "formal artistic properties [that] might be recognized as capable of achieving the same heights as forms like painting"; "creators [that] might gain more control over the fate of their creations"; comics "capable of handling a wide variety of genres" as opposed to just superheroes; "the distribution of comics in digital form" and "the evolution of comics in a digital environment" (11, 22) (Yes, that's an MLA in-text citation. What of it?).


Yahtzee, perhaps very subtly, is calling for the same things by trashing attempts at internet popularity through crappy webcomics that are thrown together. When he basically says, "No worries if you can't draw or write, just put some crap together and someone will call it 'brilliant'," he's really calling for the revolutions of Comics as Literature and Art (And if you're wondering why I quoted McCloud but I'm only paraphrasing Yahtzee it's because Yahtzee talks at about 8 million words per minute; plus, I already introduced it at the beginning of the paraphrase, so I don't need a MLA in-text citation this time, so there!). At the same time, he's promoting the genre of video game webcomics (if only for the sake of their potential to raise the artistic status of video games) and the distribution of comics digitally, which insures that the comics' creators maintain their rights. Lastly, and most importantly, he's not just promoting the evolution of webcomics, he's demanding it by making fun of all the crap that isn't evolving.



So basically the point of this post was my revelation at deeper commentary underneath Yahtzee's cynical rants. Lastly, I encourage you to read McCloud's books in their entirety (even if you're not into comics, his first book is appropriate for any creative process--I'm currently using it in my Freshman Composition I class).

Santa Fe's International Biennial Art Show (AKA Shameless Wife-Promotion)

My wife Veronica just finished her internship for the documentary team of SITE Santa Fe's International Biennial Art Show--Lucky Number Seven. The show opened last weekend and was pretty amazing--it's not everyday you go to a contemporary art museum and get to jump off of a raised platform onto stuntman safety pads to "experience" the exhibit (mad props to Piero Golia). There are also a few off site exhibits such as Hiroshi Fuji's plastic water bottle "chandeliers" placed around the parking lot of The Santa Fe Opera.

So what does Veronica have to do with this? Well, when you click on those links you'll get to see all these great videos about the show and the artists. Veronica was on the team filming and editing those, and I'm crazy proud of her. So check out her work, and you'll get to catch a glimpse of some great art too. Or if you're in the Santa Fe area, check out the art show--it's open until January 4th.

My First Blog / My First Blog Post!

Welcome All to My Fancy New Blog,

Okay, okay, it's not quite fancy just yet. But wait! Once I figure out how to use this internet thingy, you'll be blown away...or something.

So you're probably asking yourself a ton of questions, the most pressing of which is, "Why am I reading this guy's random ramblings?" Well, with any hope my ramblings will actually touch on somewhat intelligent subjects...even if they're about video games.

"And why is he writing about random things in the first place?" Well, for one, sometimes I feel the need to rant and even just the illusion of someone listening (or in this case reading) makes me feel better. Plus, my wife's tired of hearing me complain about how stupid most movie critics seem to be. Secondly, I'm a lazy writer. My hope is that keeping a blog will force *ahem* encourage me to write more often. Practice makes perfect after all.

"Where did he come up with this stupid blog title?" you ask. Well, my wife and I were trying to come up with a title for this blog (she's still gunning for "The Disclaiminator"), and I got to thinking about superhero newspapers like "The Daily Planet" and "The Daily Bugle." Then I thought, "If I put those together, it becomes 'The Daily Pugle.' Wait, isn't that a word?" Yes, "pugilist" is an old word for a boxer, but "pugilistic" can also mean "contentious" which is exactly what I want to do with this blog (contend things I disagree with, not box)! Thus, a dumb title was born (but hopefully not a dumb blog along with it)...