I love Cerebus. Really, I know that Dave Sim ended up a nutzo woman hating jerk, but most Cerebus is just so well done. Somehow, every time I pick up any of the Cerebus books, Sim does something that I've never seen done in comics, and it works! Its just not right...
The way that he solves the problem of conveying an echo in this story just freaks me out because its so simple of an idea but so effective and confident. Sim seems like he can just will something cool (that most people would struggle with) into existence and its no big deal. Its all so well paced and the writing and characters are so fluid, I hate it. It drives me crazy. The pages are designed really well, but dont feel gimmicky, it just adds a really cool element to the story.
*sigh
Moving on...
Talking about Vignettes will make me feel better. Jim Valentino of Image Comic land. First off, I was bothered by how, in a couple of comics toward the beginning of the book, people only have 4 fingers. I dont know... it just freaked me out. Other than that, most of the stories were really fun to read. I found myself thinking about how I can relate to a lot of moments. You can see Valentino grow and progress as an artist. When thinking about personal comics, I tend to think of comics that are a little more depressed feelings and dont really look at all of the ridiculousness that Valentino shows.
Swamp Thing: Um, yeah, Alan Moore and Steve Bissette (who a friend of mine in Vermont knows). Um yeah, this is awesome. The way that Moore tells a story is so rich and complicated. The way that he uses the end of the story to start it, and then extends the story from that spot, very cool. The art of Bissette really compliments the story too. Moore writes kind of spooky and "out there", which is what Bissett's art kind of looks like anyway. I thought that the way that Moore explains and revitalizes Swamp Thing, makes the character interesting.
The Batman comic was good because of the epilogue. I just feel like all of the other comics that we read felt more dynamic and interesting. Although, I did like the addition with some science fiction (or string theory, or whatever) added in with the extra dimensions. I just thought that how Batman and Robin traveled was really hokey and easy. It was all worth it to find out that Bruce would end up as Batman even if his parents were saved.
I agree on a lot of accounts! I have to say, though, as a first time reading Cerberus I think the selection chosen was maybe not the best? I don't know. I just found myself very confused and rather disliking the main character's personality. I did, however, completely enjoy the way the echo was depicted and I liked the rendering on the woman's face. The cover was gorgeous, though. The hatching had almost an Edward Gorey feeling to it and I am a huuuuuge fan of Gorey. But I agree, despite my difficulty reading Cerberus, Sim was effective in his visual language and it didn't feel gimmicky in the least -- it had a very cool tone to it.
ReplyDeleteI had mixed feelings on Vignettes. Part of me really enjoyed it -- the complete honesty and openness, which reminded me of some of the Beat generation works I have read (the Bohemian life style, the music…). But at the same time, I still find it somewhat difficult to really enjoy the stories about drugs. I really like the other ones, but I guess my slightly prudish nature is showing its face again and it made it difficult for me to really enjoy the more tripped out strips. (this is also why I had difficulty reading Burroughs' Naked Lunch and had to give it a rest after only thirty pages)
Swamp Thing is amazing. So awesome. I really love the mood in it and the rendering is gorgeous, of course. And, of course, Moore really has a way with story telling. I really enjoyed the sort of methodical repetition, like the rhythm of a waking beast slowly rising and then lumbering about -- which echoes the Swamp Thing's awakening. Very cool stuff.
I actually enjoyed the Batman comic. It was better than the original origin story (in my opinion) and I thought it was interesting given the fact that there are so many parallel universes in Batman now and this seemed, to me, to be the origin of that (unless I'm wrong). So it was interesting to see (what I assumed was) the start of that.