![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
That was the week that was
The headline would have to come out of order, and that's my stand-up/lecture/thing at Bright Club on Tuesday, which seemed to go down pretty well. I'm sort of tempted to put the text on here, because I can't see when I'm ever likely to need to give another comedic talk about Emperor Frederick II, but you never know...
Otherwise:
- Paul Gravett giving a talk at the library about graphic novels, and slightly fluffing it. The guy is very smart, and engaging, and he knows his stuff, but he pitched this wrong. Too much of it was miserable autobiographical project after miserable autobiographical project and yes, that's exactly the way to get a reading group or broadsheet literary critic on board, but not this audience who were already reading comics. It's not the way to get the general public interested, either. Even if you don't want to talk about superheroes (and I can respect that, if only as entryism) then talk about Scott Pilgrim, Shaun Tan, The Walking Dead, the renaissance in crime comics, Bryan Talbot. Talk about the real variety in comics, not just the various settings from which people can extrude navel-gazing yawnfests.
- Runebound, which like Talisman takes place at the exact point where board games start to become simple roleplaying games. Yes, I am a geek, what of it?
- Spending more than an hour in the Camden World's End for the first time ever, and feeling very old, but strangely at home. I love that London, with all its infinitely diversified tribes, can still have somewhere that feels like The Indie Pub in a provincial town.
-![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thedavidx's Guided Missile special, with the birthday boy covering Adam Ant songs, and the Deptford Beach Babes, and Dave Barbarossa's new band (nice drumming, shame about everything else), and Black Daniel whom I still don't quite get even though I was in the mood for them this time. Plus, the return of the 18 Carat Love Affair! Now a slightly looser, rockier proposition, a little less eighties. Not a transition of which I have often approved, but it suits them.
- Realising that not only had I finally, definitely found De Beauvoir Town, but I was drinking in it. Then going home to be disappointed by Boardwalk Empire, which I will still doubtless finish sooner or later, but which I am no longer cursing Murdoch for nabbing. Not to worry, there are still plenty of other things for which to curse him.
Otherwise:
- Paul Gravett giving a talk at the library about graphic novels, and slightly fluffing it. The guy is very smart, and engaging, and he knows his stuff, but he pitched this wrong. Too much of it was miserable autobiographical project after miserable autobiographical project and yes, that's exactly the way to get a reading group or broadsheet literary critic on board, but not this audience who were already reading comics. It's not the way to get the general public interested, either. Even if you don't want to talk about superheroes (and I can respect that, if only as entryism) then talk about Scott Pilgrim, Shaun Tan, The Walking Dead, the renaissance in crime comics, Bryan Talbot. Talk about the real variety in comics, not just the various settings from which people can extrude navel-gazing yawnfests.
- Runebound, which like Talisman takes place at the exact point where board games start to become simple roleplaying games. Yes, I am a geek, what of it?
- Spending more than an hour in the Camden World's End for the first time ever, and feeling very old, but strangely at home. I love that London, with all its infinitely diversified tribes, can still have somewhere that feels like The Indie Pub in a provincial town.
-
thedavidx's Guided Missile special, with the birthday boy covering Adam Ant songs, and the Deptford Beach Babes, and Dave Barbarossa's new band (nice drumming, shame about everything else), and Black Daniel whom I still don't quite get even though I was in the mood for them this time. Plus, the return of the 18 Carat Love Affair! Now a slightly looser, rockier proposition, a little less eighties. Not a transition of which I have often approved, but it suits them. - Realising that not only had I finally, definitely found De Beauvoir Town, but I was drinking in it. Then going home to be disappointed by Boardwalk Empire, which I will still doubtless finish sooner or later, but which I am no longer cursing Murdoch for nabbing. Not to worry, there are still plenty of other things for which to curse him.
no subject
no subject
Not all autobiographical comics are ghastly. Phonogram and The Birth Caul and Alec are all autobiographical. They just refrain from also being REALLY FUCKING BORING.
no subject
I got half way through episode 2 of boardwalk empire then turned it off. Wasn't so much boredom as just a feeling of 'so what?' There was nothing particularly likeable about any of the characters, and the female ones seemed only to be there for the plot rather than as personalities.
no subject
no subject
Only going slightly off topic from Gravett's talk, I've always found superhero comics hard to get into because there is so rarely a 'starting' place that is obvious for a notice, and even when finding one, it requires so much back knoweledge to be able to fully comprehend the plotline that it is much easier to say that they're all silly than to shift through the crap to find the absolute gold. It's much easier for people looking for a starting place to go for the miserabilist autobiographies and see bad drawing as 'art' and smaltzy writing as 'emotion' because tradebacks seem confusing, in-jokey 'pulp' in comparison.
But it is a well known fact that I am a judgemental bitch, anyway.
no subject
There's a big difference between stand-alone superhero comics and something which forms part of the main, ongoing universes. Pick up one of the latter and yes, the newcomer (or even just someone who's out of practice) is probably stuffed. OK, nowadays Google will explain the 'who' and the 'what', but that doesn't address the 'why do I care?' if the big revelation is that someone you've never bloody heard of was behind some things which made no sense.
On the other hand, you've got something like All-Star Superman which explains everything you need to know about Superman's back story in eight words on the first page. Or Watchmen, odd though I do find it that that is so many people's first/only experience of superheroes. The publishers could do a lot better at marking out which comics are accessible, but they always get greedy and start blurring the boundaries and then outright lying - DC's 'After Watchmen, What's Next?' campaign was promoting stuff I wouldn't fucking touch, never mind some poor novice who will then be left thinking that yes, there is only one good (superhero) comic.
no subject
no subject
Morrison was generally a good sign that you can start with his run and - while he will reference what has gone before - you're not expected to need it. JLA was the first mainstream superhero comic I'd read in years, and I had no problems. But then you look at his current Batman, or Infinite Crisis, and anyone who dives in there is in trouble.
no subject
no subject
http://www.mediafire.com/?g4q04gr9d458e0l
no subject
no subject