Let’s Fold Scarves

“Suck it up, Summers”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home #1

I was lucky that I could go along to Forbidden Planet in central London and get a copy of the Buffy Comic on Thursday. I walked in and there was a woman in the queue with two copies (Chen and Jeanty covers). I inwardly squealed with excitement and there was a couple in front of me who sauntered down the stairs. I’m a not a barger but I so wanted to shove them aside and get there. To cut a long and not very interesting story short I picked up the two covers and, of course, a trade paperback of Fables and the first issue of a new series of BPRD because I didn’t want to look like a Buffy geek which is madness because I am a Buffy geek.

The comic exceeded my expectations which had been lowered by Joss Whedon’s work on the Serenity comic and the Dangerous arc of Astonishing X-Men plus season 7 was, erm,… As a season opener I was very happy with it though I missed Willow and Giles. The dialogue was superb and I found the action easy to follow. Some commentators have questioned the step up from the poverty of the gang in seasons 6 and 7 to a gang with Global Frequency type communications and at least two helicopters. I say that there has been a step from two Slayers to almost five hundred and some of them must be rich and with connections. And maybe that castle belonged to the very defunct Watchers’ Council and rather like the Vatican, I suspect they were a wee bit rich.

My favourite bits were “‘cept I feel a little weird about using a crucifix to kill someone” “yeh, dinno much about religion, do yeh?” and “but she’ll tell Willow, fine, her first time and it all goes wrong which I’m totally well versed in and anyhow Willow’s the expert on boys since when now?”

Criticisms: I hate exaggerated accents, it jarred in V for Vendetta and it jars here. The view of Sunnydale suggests it was a small place without an airport or docks or even a beach though it’s a great illustration.

Who was hovering over the church? Who is Amy’s boyfriend? Why aren’t the Summers girls allowed to lose their virginity without there being huge complications?

Posted in BtVS, Buffy Season 8, Comics | 3 Comments »

Planet Karen

I suspect other than Buffy, Karen and I have very little in common but I do enjoy her work.

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More sequential art

In the outer world of the Internet there are two major discussions concerning the depiction of women in comics and getting women to read comics. These two topics are often not mutually exclusive because I guess there aren’t a huge amount of women who read Nuts and other offensive non-top shelf magazines for the same reasons they don’t read comics with covers like this.

I haven’t read and have no intention of reading comics which are likely to offend me as a woman (life is far far too short). However, I do like comics so I have been lurking and absorbing suggestions for comics that women might like (I shan’t get into discussing the notion that women en mass like anything because if that was true I would think Jamie Cullum was awfully cute). But on that note, here are some comics I have read recently:

• Strangers in Paradise (Terry Moore) I am up to #86 and this soapy ride of high drama, weepy moments and hilarity is remarkably good. It has been inconsistent but never dull.
• Ex Machina Vol 1: The First Hundred Days (Brian K. Vaughan) I raced through this and I am thoroughly impressed at the marriage of politics and super-hero but there is one sentence that made me ewww and I hope its like won’t be repeated.
• Global Frequency: Planet Ablaze (Warren Ellis) The art greatly influenced whether I liked the issue or not with the Norwegian and London ones being stand outs due to the work by Jon J. Muth (Big Sky) and David Lloyd (The Run). I hated the bionic man one (Big Wheel) because Fabry’s art is ugly.
• Serenity: Those Left Behind (Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews) What a crock. I don’t think I can emphasise just how disappointing this was in its utter feebleness. The art was inconsistent, the story weak and the dialogue so-so. It did nothing I hoped it would which in particular would have been to find out more about the enigmatic Shepherd Book.
• Astonishing X-Men #1-12 (Joss Whedon) Gifted was fine and I eagerly anticipated Dangerous which was BtVS season 7 awful and I wanted to cry because it was so lame.
• Neverwhere #1–4 (Mike Carey) This is based on Neil Gaiman’s work set in an underground London. The settings didn’t convince and I really dislike Glenn Fabry’s art so I won’t be seeking out the rest.
• Summer of Love (Debbie Drechsler) A simply drawn graphic novel of small town life which was absorbing but like most coming of age dramas it didn’t have a satisfactory ending which is like life I suppose but slightly deflating to read.
• V for Vendetta (Alan Moore) Fantastic stuff: lots to think about, strong characters and a superb ending. Plus dolls and the letter V all over the place.
• Runaways vol. 1 #1-18, Runaways vol. 2 #1-12 and Runaways vol. 2 #13-18 (Brian K. Vaughan) The first 12 issues are totally awesome with the cleverest conclusion I seen or read in a long time. Volume 2 was always going to pale in comparison and I thought the release of Karolina from her earthly bonds was weak (and the art wasn’t by Alphona!).

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Seriously?

Type pop culture heroines into Google and it asks you if you meant pop culture heroes. Which is obviously why a blog called Pop Culture Heroines is needed.

It uses the lovely Joshua Middleton cover of River from the Serenity comic books in its banner.

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Gosh, look at those

Jo (Runaways) Chen’s version of Willow for Buffy season 8 in comic book form

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A random selection of things which have depressed me lately

“Once upon a time women were empowered to vote, empowered to enter the workplace, empowered to stand up to oppression. Now pole dancing is empowering.” Mind Your Language

“The gents, meanwhile, are more willing to accommodate each other’s ambitions, or at least to swallow their pride.” Girls just want to have a massive spat

I just put together a picture to illustrate my third item but I don’t think I want that sort of thing on my blog so you’ll just have to see the images of Huntress from Idealized women, fine, but whose ideal?. What Ami misses is how much the second Huntress’s belly button resembles a vulva.

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Farewell 2006

It’s been a good year. Adam continues to be as lovable, funny, smart, sweet and gentle as ever and his achievement in passing his grade 2 piano exam with merit makes me especially proud. Andy and I have now been together for sixteen years since the Villiers House Christmas party…and, in a number of ways, I don’t think our relationship has been stronger. I like my work and I’m well paid for what I do. It’s not always inspirational but there aren’t many jobs like that that I am qualified to do (or can be bothered to do; effort and ambition not being my strong points). I have completed my sixth year of studying at the Open University and I could accept a degree if I wanted (BA/BSc Open degree). However, I think I would like to get a named degree but finding a course I want to do and finding time to do it in is getting harder. Here are some reasons that I have less inclination to study:

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - although we finished season seven in January, the rest of the year has been taken up with rewatching it (and in the case of some episodes, rewatching and rewatching)
2. Firefly and Serenity - a Western in space is no way to sell a tv series but that’s what it is and it works very well indeed - the ensemble cast is perfect but I have a soft spot for Summer Glau who played River with serious mischievousness
3. message boards
4. blogs
5. fan fiction - if I had been asked a year and a half ago what fan fiction was I would have had no idea and when told I would have snorted and sniggered with derision - however, I have surprised myself spending a lot of time reading the stuff - I admit that a great deal of it is poor (most of it isn’t even edited for spelling and punctuation) - and far too much of it has far too much sex (considering its early 70s roots as romantic fiction that isn’t surprising) but some of it is stunning; Bread by Tulipp is one of the best things I have ever read. And it doesn’t hurt to mention it again but Jet Wolf’s The Chosen which is a continuation of BtVS is an amazing body of sustained writing which is as funny and moving as the “real” thing. Jet Wolf loves Tara and brought her back and that leads to…
6. Amber Benson - “In the end, I discovered that being the nice guy - when it’s really just a front for being a coward - eventually leads to you becoming the Spawn of Satan. It’s best just to be honest and forthright from the beginning - even if it means people call you names behind your back and don’t like you as much. Just ignore them. I do.” - I wish I was ever as insightful as that (and I am a coward).
7. comics - or graphic novels to make it sound grander
8. our ever expanding DVD collection - best films this year seen on DVD include Adaptation, Fight Club, Heathers, Twelve Monkeys, Doctor X, Serenity, and Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
9. television - Ugly Betty, Life on Mars and University Challenge
10. music - Audrey, Espers and Aimee Mann
11. books - I do have time to read them, most of them unmemorable except We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The Night Watch, Case Histories, and A Darkling Plain
    
    
    

    Posted in Amber Benson, BtVS, Comics, Films, Firefly/Serenity, Music, Other people's written work, Television | 3 Comments »

Comics update

I have just finished Strangers in Paradise Pocket Books 2 and 3. They sat on a shelf for several weeks until I was ready to read them and I devoured them in two days. They are utterly compelling if a teeny-tiny tad far-fetched. I find it interesting that people who love the books don’t mention the Big Six but just talk about the triangle between Katchoo, Francine and David because that is what matters and makes these books such exciting, exhilarating and funny page turners. If I must complain then Francine is Hollywood fat like Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones’s Diary i.e. not.

I have also read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi which follows the mid-childhood of a girl at the time of the Iranian Revolution. The style is very simple but highly expressive which is not easy when nearly everyone is either dark-haired or wearing a head scarf. The final panel is heartbreaking.
Many reviews compare it with Maus which I think is a bit lazy because it implies that Maus is the only political graphic novel the reviewers have read (or heard of…) which is probably true because it is the only one I had read until Will Eisner’s The Plot. Anyway, here is one that doesn’t.

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Everybody calls me “ma’am” these days

Fantastic news: an interview with Joss Whedon about the season eight of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in comic book form. Can it be as good as The Chosen? Only if he performs the miracle Jet Wolf worked on Kennedy. And only if Anya’s death is treated more respectfully than Tara’s (like having some people other than Willow actually miss her).

An update with some of the confirmed writers including the very funny Jane Espenson (a classic entry: “My parents got a new puppy this week. She’s a teeny baby Bichon Frise whom they have named Zia. Can you believe these are the same people who came up with “Jane”? I suspect I’d've had a different life if I was named Zia Espenson. Not better, but different.”).

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Catching up with a whole new world

When I was a child I used to read The Beano, the Broons and Oor Wullie, and moved on to Tiger and Roy of The Rovers (The Safest Hands in Soccer was my favourite story: initially it was beautifully drawn and it was about a goalkeeper who was Scottish so…bliss) but as I got older I left that all behind except for a brief sojourn as a student to read Maus. In 2005, the tv showing of the film of Ghost World prompted me to get the graphic novel from the library which was absorbing but didn’t enchant me. Andy, who was a collector of Crisis as a younger man, remembered Watchmen so we read and enjoyed that but my interest had still not been excited.

As I have said before Buffy has ruined my life except what I actually meant was that Buffy has improved my life. And one of those improvements has been the encouragement to get further into the world of comics aka graphic novels aka sequential art. And it’s all Amber Benson’s fault and the fact that Ealing Libraries has a healthy collection of Buffy trade paperbacks. I slowly fell in love with Tara on BtVS and with Amber Benson: the more I know about her the more there is to admire.When I realised she had co-written a Buffy comic I had to get it. I liked it well enough but wasn’t that impressed. I have subsequently come to believe that the more sequential art you read the more you appreciate it.

However, it was Amber Benson’s afterword for WannaBlessedBe is the thing that did it for me:

“As someone unexposed to comics, I had no idea that there was such a plethora of genres out there. All I knew was the superhero. I think if I had been turned on to Promethea or Strangers in Paradise as a kid, my whole comic outlook would have been changed. Here are comics that deal with things that appeal to me as a female. As a kid, I could have so related.”

These are the comics I have read so far:

Buffy: The Death of Buffy - various (”Lost and Found” by Fabian Nicieza is excellent)
Buffy: Willow and Tara - various (the Terry Moore illustrated WannaBlessedBe has the classic line “My heart doesn’t stutter” but I thought Tara and Caitlin looked too much alike - in fact, my only criticism of Strangers in Paradise is the sameyness of some of the characters)
The Complete Ballad of Halo Jones - Alan Moore and Ian Gibson (it took a while for me to warm to this but by the time Halo got to Moab, I did not want it to end - the art work is dated which takes a bit of getting used to)

Ghost World – Daniel Clowes (I need to read this and to see the film again - “Ghost World” by Aimee Mann is one of my favourite songs)
Maus - Art Spiegelman (the subject matter is unforgettable but what I remember most distinctly is that Volume 1 just ended and it cost me a lot of money)
The Plot– Will Eisner (the story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion told superbly)
Preacher: Gone to Texas - Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon (oh my word, this is unpleasantly gruesome and, well, graphic - intriguing story but the style is just too much)
Promethea Book One/Two/Three – Alan Moore and J. H. Williams III (this started off brilliantly and then got bogged down in philosophical and metaphysical musing and, quite frankly, by Book Three I was bored - fantastic art work though, it looks gorgeous)
Shadowplay: Demon Father John’s Pinwheel Blues – Amber Benson and Ben Templesmith (this is graphic and gruesome but unlike the traditional look of Preacher it has an arty quality (you can tell I haven’t done art appreciation) which I liked - the story itself is intriguing and tantalizingly brief)

Strangers in Paradise: Pocket Book 1 - Terry Moore (wonderful - worth a post of its own)
Strangers in Paradise: Love Me Tender – Terry Moore (I read this first and I just adored it - apparently I have been Katchoo’d but I do relate more to Francine)
Stuck Rubber Baby – Howard Cruse (I liked this but I couldn’t love it - Toland was too dull)
Watchmen – Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (I need to read this again)

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