Skinnerbox: Here’s a really clever way to promote a book. Like the writer below, however, I wish the filmmakers had spent some of their budget on better makeup for the villain – or maybe actually hire an actor with a mustache? Regardless, I’m jazzed about the book. How about you?
I’m not generally a fan of promotional trailers for comics and books — most rely on dull montages and even worse music — but this new spot for Seth Grahame-Smith’s upcoming novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is incredibly well done. Well, if you can ignore the really obvious wig and fake mustache on whom I presume is vampire-John Wilkes-Booth.
The novel, Grahame-Smith’s follow-up to the bestselling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, depicts Lincoln as the savior of the Union and lifelong enemy of the undead. The author has a couple of comic-book connections: He was among the genre novelists who contributed to the latest Marvel Zombies miniseries. In May, Del Rey/Villard will release a graphic-novel adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is due March 2 from Grand Central Publishing.
Manga, like most western graphic storytelling forms, must overcome a preponderance of prejudices and stereotypes among American readers. In spite of (some might say because of) manga’s success in American bookstores, the form is viewed as the exclusive territory of titles such as Naruto, Dragonball and OnePiece – male power fantasies with quirky (sometimes outright hallucinogenic) storytelling, frequent battles, and more speed lines than could ever be counted.
What a delight it is, then, when a manga publishing house as prominent as Viz Media decides to print something more than a little outside the norm, a title that seeks to educate more than titillate. That title is Oishinbo, and while it is new to America as of 2009, it has been published in Japan for over 25 years. There are literally hundreds of volumes and thousands upon thousands of pages in the Japanese Oishinbocatalogue, which no doubt created troubles for any company seeking to publish this work in America. Rather than meticulously translating, editing and reprinting each page from the very start of the Japanese series, Viz has opted for what they term the “A la Carte” approach – volumes compiled and heavily edited around a particular theme. Sometimes this approach works well, and other times it leaves a reader scratching his head. That is the price, I suppose, for attempting something ambitious and unique in the American manga market.
So, what is Oishinbo about? It’s about food – specifically, Japanese cuisine – and the obsessions and aesthetics that drive Japan’s culinary masters. But before you start thinking of this as nothing more than a heavily illustrated cookbook, you should also know that Oishinbo is about a young man and his relationship with his father, about the anger of youth and the cynicism of the aged, and about the quest for perfection. Don’t expect any “Good Guys vs. Bad Guys” simplistic motifs. As is the case in real life, none of the characters in Oishinbo fits a neatly-designed cubicle.
The protagonist of the story, Yamaoka Shiro, is grumpy, pretentious, off-putting and occasionally brilliant. His background in the culinary arts, and his refined palate, have earned him the quest for the “Ultimate Menu,” a lengthy newspaper assignment to assemble and create the most magnificent Japanese meal ever imagined. Shiro’s antagonist is his father, Kaibara Yuzan. Yuzan is explosive, verbally abusive, passionate, and, like his son, utterly brilliant. There is much to like and to dislike about each of these men, and while the culinary lessons are intriguing, the human story of a rift between father and son is what lifts this work above its genre.
If it sounds as though I am gushing about Oishinbo, it’s because I am. It’s original, it’s challenging, it’s sublime – but it is not without its flaws. The main problem with this first volume lies primarily with Viz’s decision to heavily edit this large work into discreet, bite-sized (no pun intended) chunks. While this first volume does a relatively good job of introducing some of the basics of Japanese cuisine (necessary knife skills, expected etiquette, and the tea ceremony, among others), it does so at the expense of character and conflict development. In culinary terms, Oishinbo: Japanese Cuisine is a pleasant and a somewhat unexpected appetizer, but if subsequent volumes follow the same pattern we will all be starving for a main course rather quickly.
DC Comics has a love affair with experimental formats and with bridging the past with the present. Some of their experiments have worked wondrously (most notably the Morrison/Rucka/Waid/Johns/Giffen weekly comics joint 52), some have failed miserably (the 52 follow-up Countdown to Final Crisis), and some have died of attrition and neglect (the seldom-remembered Action Comics Weekly, published WAY back in the 80s).
Fortunately, the powers that be at DC still hope to reignite the passion and wonder that kids and former kids used to have when seeing their favorite comics characters in print. It is that spirit of yesteryear that fuels the publication of Wednesday Comics, and the series looks to be a phenomenal success.
A throwback to simpler times in every way, DC’s Wednesday Comics is published on full-sized, 14”x20” newsprint and features weekly installments of 15 famous (and not so famous) DC characters. Each character has his/her own creative team in charge of producing one full page of story per week for the full 12 week run of the series. While this limits the amount of story that can be told each week, it broadens the horizons for the artists, who are free to create large, flashy splash pages using a variety of layout techniques. The art, in spite of the low quality paper, is spectacular and will immediately remind older readers of mornings spent poring over the exploits of such characters as Prince Valiant and Dick Tracy in the Sunday funnies.
Since this is only the first issue, it remains to be seen which of the 15 serialized stories will rise above the others, but early favorites include Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred’s Metamorpho: The Element Man strip, Paul Pope’s Strange Adventures featuring pulp hero Adam Strange, and artist extraordinaire Kyle Baker’s Hawkman.
As is fitting for any DC publication, Superman and Batman each have a dedicated page (the latter nearly stealing the show with its noir-inspired artwork courtesy of Eduardo Risso), and well-known characters such as Wonder Woman, Supergirl, the Flash, the Teen Titans and Green Lantern also have their own features.
For readers who already love comics, this series is a must-read. For those who have limited exposure to comic books, Wednesday Comics’ short-burst storytelling style is the perfect way to introduce the DC pantheon of characters. DC’s Wednesday Comics pushes comics forwards by looking backwards.
So… I haven’t exactly been regular about the ol’ pull picks. I’m trying to be better…honest! Still, what do you expect when we’re doing this for free!
Anyway, on to this week’s pulls. Is anyone besides me growing weary of the weekly Amazing Spider-Man schedule? The book has grown inconsistent, at best, and has begun to remind me of when there were five Superman books all with one story. In the end, none of the books were very good from a story or art perspective. I’d be much happier with one monthly Amazing issue. And I don’t know if you’ve been reading the much-hyped Star Trek: Countdown series, but it has proven to be better than I expected, though how this enormous back story is going to figure into the movie is a mystery to me at this point.
A week later than the rest of the western world, I finally got to see Watchmen. Every blog worth its salt from here to Antarctica has already posted comments, conundrums, cliches and controversies about the film, but I simply could not help but post my now-weeks-late thoughts, both pro and con. If you, like me, have waited a bit to see the film, or if you are waiting for the sure to be 10 hour director’s cut DVD, best skip what’s coming, as there be spoilers ahead!
The Good:
The opening credit sequence: A clever way to compress and cover many, many years and events without adding to the already-overloaded exposition. The use of tableaux was a nice choice, although the down side of this was that it further emphasized the static nature of the source medium.
The Voice of Dr. Manhattan: The CGI Manhattan was what it was. It looked close enough to the source material to not interfere with the audience’s willing suspension of disbelief. It was the character’s voice that really won me over. Billy Crudup has gained some deserved acclaim for his subtle performance, and a large part of that performance is due to the director who chose not to augment/deepen his voice to make him sound more “god-like.” Instead, the plaintive, high-pitched Manhattan seems even more of a paradox than he seemed on the printed page.
The Performances of Patrick Wilson and Jackie Earl Haley: So much has already been said about both of these performances, I don’t think I need to go into further detail here. Suffice it to say that they understood their characters and stayed intimately true to the intentions of the novel, and that Haley’s moment with the psychiatrist was one of the true high points of the film.
The Unforgettable Moment: Nat King Cole has never seemed quite so relevant or cool than when he was used as a soundtrack for this hyped-up fight sequence. I do not hold with the purists on this one. I understand that the death of the Comedian happens quickly in the book, but that has never made much sense to me, given his particular…ummm…skill set.
The Bad:
The Supporting Cast: Whether it was the horrendous acting of the prison inmates or the over-the-top performance of the reporter in the early Ozymandias sequence, it was obvious that many of the bit parts went to people with little or no experience acting. Maybe this was a way for someone, somewhere to repay a favor, but it certainly did the audience no favors. This, of course, leads to the next in my list, which is…
The Dick Nixon: Ok, so I GET the fact that this was a half-hearted, satiric stab at politics, but the makeup was horrible (when did Nixon become Pinnochio?) and the acting wasn’t much better. The frequent use of tricky Dick implied that Snyder REALLY LIKED this, which simply boggles my mind. Better to have used computer manipulated footage of the real Nixon (as in Contact) rather than this crude caricature.
The Songs: I applaud Snyder for staying true to the 80s-entrenched nature of the movie (and even including most of the songs referenced in Moore’s original), but could he have chosen a few less iconic songs for the remainder of the soundtrack? Ummm….Wagner has been used before and for better effect (and why try to reference a vastly superior movie? To reinforce the fact that Watchmen isn’t a classic?), and I just don’t think it was necessary to make Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah quite so…well…tawdry.
The Super Powers: I kinda thought one of the BIG points of Watchmen (the graphic novel) was that there was only ONE super-powered creature on Earth; why,then, are characters like the Comedian and Nite Owl taking huge chunks of wall, concrete and brick with them when their punches connect? Again, I get the larger-than-life nature of this world, but a human-to-human punch should not launch the bad guy yards away.
I’m sure I’ll add to this list as I think more and more about the film. Consider this a work-in-progress for a bit.
Call me a shill for Watchmen if you will, but I’m still enjoying the various graphic novel related viral marketing pieces that are trickling out on the net. Struggle on against the Keene Act!
Just in case you haven’t read Dark Avengers #1 yet, I won’t spoil the surprise. Having just read it, however, I have to say it looks like we’re in for a hell of a ride from Bendis/Deodato and company for the foreseeable future. The status quo of the Marvel Universe was less than a thrilling prospect following Civil War, but the aftermath of Secret Invasion has shaken thing up nicely, thank you.
I honestly thought Marvel would milk Civil War and its aftermath for much longer than just one year. However, I’m not complaining. Bring on the universe-altering events if this is what results.
(BTW – if you think everyone in the above photo from Dark Avengers is who they appear to be, you haven’t been reading too many comics lately.)
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I have a love/hate thing about Neil Gaiman. Well….maybe not hate exactly, but not precisely like either. I have always been a huge fan of Gaiman’s Sandman work. The tales of Morpheus filled a void left in the wake of Alan Moore’s departure from mainstream comics. His writing was intelligent, mature, challenging, and (far moreso than Moore) full of joy. Naturally, then, I was thrilled when it became clear that Gaiman was shifting his focus to novels…and then I read them.
I started with Good Omens years ago and truly enjoyed it. The sense of humor was quirky and wry and the novel hit all of the right notes. Then I fell off the Gaiman bandwagon and didn’t read much by him at all. I saw the novels on the shelves, and they seemed interesting, but for whatever reason I just didn’t follow through.
Then, about two years ago I gave in and read American Gods, expecting to be overwhelmed by a vast epic and Gaiman’s lilting prose style. Alas, it didn’t happen. It felt…stilted…and stiff…and formal…and……..well, you get the idea. The ideas were spectacular, and some of the narration was sound, but characterization and dialogue were just plain flat. It felt like reading a plot summary of a much larger work – one that quite possibly required a substantial number of illustrations. It felt empty, somehow, in a way that Gaiman’s writing for comics never had.
I’ve since only read one other novel by Neil Gaiman – the soon-to-be-released-as-animated-film Coraline – and found many of the same issues arise with that work as well, though admittedly on a smaller scale.
I say all of this, in true backhanded compliment fashion, to congratulate Neil on his recent Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book. I promise to give another novel a spin, Neil, and it will probably be this one. via Splash Page
Neil Gaiman, the prolific multimedia scribe who we’ve been mentioning quite a bit lately in reference to the upcoming 3D animated adaptation of his novel “Coraline,” has been awarded the John Newbery Medal — one of the most prestiguous awards for children literature — by the American Library Association. Gaiman received the award for his recently published story “The Graveyard Book,” about a boy raised by ghosts.
The recipient of the award, announced today by the Association for Library Service to Children (a division of the ALA), is judged to have provided the year’s “most outstanding contribution to children’s literature.”
“A child named Nobody, an assassin, a graveyard and the dead are the perfect combination in this deliciously creepy tale, which is sometimes humorous, sometimes haunting and sometimes surprising,” said Newbery Committee Chair Rose V. Treviño of “The Graveyard Book.”
The clock is ticking down towards Watchmen’s March release (that is, if the courts allow it), and we are slowly getting to see more of the final product. Watch this latest promotional video and let us know what you think. Some moments look great…. others, not so much:
