schmevil

Holy good god, the lines. THE LINES. This was a poorly run con. On Friday afternoon I waited for two and a half hours to get in. This after I'd prepurchased my ticket, and in disgusting Toronto summer heat. There were lines for the escalators. Lines for impromptu photo ops. Lines to look at artists portfolios. Everywhere lines. The con was twice closed to new attendees on Saturday, because they'd gone over capacity. Apparently they broke attendance records this year, and lord, I have NO DOUBT. Still, a good time was had by most (if not all).

I got to attend a handful of kickass talks this year:

Writing For Comics with Brian Azzarello: Can I marry this man's brain? Or at least have a good long conversation with him about the craft of writing, and writing for comics. Unf. He talked about Joker, 100 Bullets and his other work, but more importantly he talked technique, research and work ethic.

Page Construction and Composition with Darwyn Cooke: He basically took us through the first chapter of The Hunter, explaining the whys of his panels, page layouts, camera angles. Really smart talk that touched on the art of adaptations.

Watercolour Masterclass with Jill Thompson: I had to leave early but Jill sort of explained her process, expounded on her favourite tools and took questions, while painting an illustration of Dream and Death.

Breaking Into Comics: DC, with Dan Didio: This was a really good talk, you guys! And not just because he shot down some doofus who thought it was appropriate to derail a professional-oriented panel, to rant about the evils of DC. Didio laid out very clearly what it takes to break into comics, and what it means to work for DC. I could have happily sat down and talked to him about the business for hours.

I went to two Q&As, Stan Lee and William Shatner. Both of them were ridiculously, absurdly entertaining, but only The Man seems to be in on the joke. Shatner is such a hilarious mess. These were for pure geeky, entertainment value, so I've nothing else to say about them. Just - fun.

I also went to a screening of horror shorts, and... wow. One of the films was Nintas, a Brazilian cop/ghost story that's absolutely brutal, both visually and spiritually. If you get a chance to see it, do, but be prepared to cringe your way through it. The other standout for me was the animated short Lady Paranormal, about a strange girl who can hear ghosts. Creepily adorable!

And finally, swag. I managed to restrain myself to two books that were already on the To Buy list: The Fate of the Artist, by Eddie Campbell, and Haunt of Horror, by Richard Corben. Haven't had a chance to look through them yet, but hopefully I'll get up some mini-reviews when I do. I've previously read parts of Corben's Haunt of Horror, and even posted a story from it on Ye Olde Scans Daily. Campbell's book just looks like smarty-arty funtimes.

***

We're doing 30 Days of Scans over at scans_daily. I've managed to cobble something together for favourite writer. Ed Brubaker, self? Shocking! My favourite Bru books are undoubtedly Criminal and Incognito, (which I've reviewed somewhere in this journal), but I couldn't bring myself to crack the spines and scan my trades. I settled instead for scans from Captain America and Catwoman, both of them excellent books.

Brubaker is at least one of my favourite comics writers. The list keeps changing, but he consistently hangs onto a spot. He's my favourite right now because Incognito is fresh in my mind, and Sleeper is winging its way toward me as I type this. But of course I have other ~favourite writers - I'm seriously considering a Marjane Satrapi post, frex. We'll see.

So I'm really invested in the (largely imagined) epic semi-platonic friendship of Carol and Tony. Despite there being only two eras in which their friendship was given attention and weight, it clicks for me. There's plenty to hate about Brian Reed's run on Ms. Marvel, but I love the incorporation of Tony into Carol's origin. By all rights these characters should have crossed paths many times over the years. Pilot and engineer. Spy and government contractor. Ass-kicking superheroes. Washington movers and shakers. They're from different backgrounds and they have different skill sets, but they're incredibly complimentary.

Anyway, I'm thinking about doing Carol&Tony fanmixes, if only because I already have several playlists dedicated to them. I'm also thinking about using these linked drabbles (below) as a jumping off point for something biggger. I don't know, there's just something about the relationship that grabs me and I can't quite articulate it. Have to work on that.

In the meantime, the drabbles:

Shelter
Tony is Carol's sponsor, but there are miles to go before they're really friends.
500 words, Carol & Tony

I also finished the extremis story, which I previously posted here in draft form.

After H(+)spital
Tony's friends bring him home from the hospital after the events of Execute Program. They have questions.
5422 words, Steve, Tony, Happy & Pepper

I'm sort of on vacation. I went camping last week, and managed to sprain my ankle while hiking a leg of the Bruce Trail. Otherwise I've just been enjoying my fair city's parks and museums. I'm still working, but with old friends coming in and out of town for the summer, I'm in a vacay state of mind. It's kept me blissfully ignorant of fandom goings on.

I did, however, write the last paragraph of an as yet untitled story. Couldn't find a beta reader so I'll just leave this here and whoever decides to click through can be my alpha readers. *shrug*

Avengers, post Execute Program
~5500, Steve, Tony, Happy

Steve doesn't know who Tony is anymore.

( Read more... )

I don't post unfinished stories unless I've well and truly given up on them. I haven't given up on this one, but I am pretty stymied as to how it's going to play out. I figured, why not go in for some public humiliation? Maybe it'll motivate me to finish it! (Will be archived over at martianhouse when complete).

For scottyquick who wanted Steve talking about his sexuality. I haven't got to that part yet, but I hope you'll be satisfied with some cliche romcom-ness and bromance in the meantime.


Title: Big Gay American Love Story (1/2, WiP!)
Fandom: Avengers
Characters: Clint/Bobbi, Steve/Tony, Rhodey
Word Count: 5144
Summary: Steve is spending a lot of time at Tony's place. Clint thinks there's something going on.


When dinosaurs roamed the earth, Cap showed up in LA to help. That was Tuesday. On Wednesday, some joker with a freeze-ray crashed the set of Tom Cruise's latest. On Thursday the fridge broke down, and while that shouldn't rank with the antics of costumed jackasses, it absolutely did. Friday started out quiet, with him and Bobbi heading to the park for a picnic, but took a sudden turn to awesome, when a hot chick set herself on fire and challenged Bobbi to throw down. The following week there were lizard people, a time traveller, and dimension-hopping mice to deal with. ( Read more... )

I've made a resolution. I'm not allowed to buy any books until I've read 20 of the books that I've got on my shelves waiting to be read. The book backlog is a mix of comics, philosophy, memoirs, and novels, with a few short story anthologies thrown in for fun. I'm going to post mini reviews here, so as to keep myself (relatively) honest.

First up is Essential Captain Marvel. So far it's pretty awesome. Jet-belts! Wrist-blasters! Breathing potions! Carol Freaking Danvers, oh yes! Second up will likely be Kierkegaard's Purity of Heart, because I've been dying to read it, but haven't had the attention span for some time.

Other books chillin on my shelves:

Blankets (Craig Thompson), Counterrevoultion and Revolt (Marcuse), Wittgenstein's Poker, Persepolis 2 (Marjane Satrapi), Waltz With Bashir (Ari Folman and David Polonsky), Oryx and Crake (Atwood) , Late Nights on Air (Elizabeth Hay), All That Matters (Wayson Choy), Madame Bovary (Flaubert, yeah seriously, I ashamed not to have read it), The Original Accident (Paul Virilio), Graphic Witness (George A Walker), The Politics of Aesthetics (Ranciere), Hatred of Democracy (also Ranciere), My Best Stories (Alice Munroe), Say, You're One of Them (Uwem Akpam), 911 Emergency Relief, The Life of Charlotte Bronte (Elizabeth Gaskell), Lysistrata (Aristophanes), AND IT GOES ON.

Aside from the first two, I'm not going to impose a reading order, because I don't want to turn this project into a Project, if you get me.



I'm also going to try to get back into the habit of reviewing comics. As of now, the queue looks like this: Creepy, Daytripper, Choker, Fade To Black and American Vampire. I actually managed to make it through a superhero comic this month (GODDAMN EVENT COMICS GODDAMN), but I wasn't thrilled enough to be bothered writing about it. For the curious, it was Herculues: Fall of an Avenger. Big Two comics: not doing it for me right now, ladies and gentlebeings.

So, this issue is awful. Like, really and truly godawful. A cluttered mishmash of poorly plotted action, awkward wrap up, and Carol doing a S7 Buffy speech while Spidey randomly sticks to things and is marginally (if blandly) cute. I hated every last thing about this issue, save that it was the last one, and I'll never again be subjected to Sana Takeda's blurry, sexed up rendition of Carol. I'll never again be subjected to Brian Reed's complete disinterest in, and slow train-wrecking of a character I love. God, this series started out so promising, and had some great moments: Arana, Machine Man, Sleepwalker, Chewie, the whole Wonder Man drama. What the hell happened? ( Read more... )

So this is the end. RIP Ms. Marvel. May your next shot at a solo title not suck quite so heinously. D:

This Robot 6 piece returns us to the horror that is Marvel's Civil War. Well, for the record, I've always been vaguely in agreement with the idea of superhero registration. Superhuman registration is a step too far, and UN sanctioned superhero teams (like the Avengers or Justice League) are a step not-far-enough. If you transport superheros into a real world context, they're a lot harder to like. They're a lot harder to believe in. Who the fuck would want Tony Stark zipping around the world in flying, powered-armor, punching the shit out of 'bad guys'? And what about the Hulk? Man, publicly I'd be all about curing his sad, sad plight. Privately, I would be sympathizing with the Illuminati - yes, let's shoot this fucker out into space where he's no longer an unstoppable, rampaging force of id.

In the comments, Mark Waid says that "Superheroes are not about rules, they're about flying." And he's pretty much right. It's why grim-and-gritty, 'realistic' reboots of beloved superhero properties are so grating. But let's thought-experiment our way through this morass anyway. Sorry Mark, we're killing all ur fun! What if superheroes were real? Would your position on superhero registration change? ( Read more... )

Guys, we're still looking for February recers over at sequentialcrack! If there's a comics subfandom that you've got a lot of favourites in, come over and rec them. And if this month isn't good for you, there's plenty of room in the coming months.

[Not an essay! Just some things I've been thinking about.]

The USAF has prescribed amphetamines to combat pilots off and on for decades. They're called go pills, and they're supposed to improve concentration and response time. Couple this with the large numbers of military personal abusing drugs and alcohol both overseas and at home, and there's a plausible, pre-made background for Carol having a history of drug and alcohol abuse. She spent most of her adult life with people who think it's a good idea to give speed to combat pilots, and that drinking to excess is a sign of manliness.

Why then, did Busiek not draw on this for Carol's alcoholism story? It seems like such a missed opportunity, especially since Tony later became her sponsor, because he too grew up in that culture. Carol's alcoholism just pops into existence, already fully formed, and hardly anchored to anything in her history - she's drinking because she needs to take the edge off, and she's not coping well with being back on earth. Well, why is she having so much trouble? ( Read more... )