Showing posts with label fables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fables. Show all posts
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
A Phenomenal Week...Except For Countdown
After getting home from the comic shop I took a look at my stack and realized that this was a very good week for comics.
In fact, I’d have to call it a phenomenal week.
After all, any week in which I get Fables and Jack of Fables is an especially good week (especially when the cover of Jack features Jack getting kicked in the junk by one of the lovely Page Sisters. Note: D’oh! Thought I could find a cover image online, but I was wrong, and am too lazy to scan it in myself.), but beyond that bit of wonderfulness, the rest were all books that I actually look forward to reading.
Oh, and Countdown to Final Crisis.
Since I was a kid I’ve always had a particular way of determining the order in which I read a given stack of comics. It’s all about delayed gratification, which is to say that the comic I want to read most is the comic I read last. So I start with the one I want to read least at the top and then go from there, basically from worst – which is kind of a misnomer, as the one on top isn’t necessarily bad (unless, of course, it’s Countdown to Final Crisis), it’s just the one I’m least excited about – to best.
This week’s stack was difficult to put in order. Naturally Fables was at the bottom, with Jack right on top of it, but it was tricky to figure out what the order would be between those to and Countdown.
This is what I finally decided on:
1.
Countdown to Final Crisis – It’s gotten better of late, and has, in recent weeks, managed to make its way to the second position a couple of times, but it will always be far from the bottom (which, in my inverted system, is the top in terms of quality). So why do I buy it? Well, I’ve committed myself to doing so, and have managed to grit my teeth through it so far, and besides, there are only 9 issues left (it’s a weekly comic running for 52 issues).
2.
Thor - Big jump in quality compared to Countdown. I’ve really been digging what Straczynski has been doing with the character, and the series earned itself a special place in my heart several issues back when Thor totally owned Iron Man.
3.
She-Hulk – It was a tough call deciding how to order this with Thor and the comic that got the number 4 spot, but ultimately my appreciation for Peter David’s writing narrowly edged out my appreciation for Straczynski’s.
4.
Justice Society of America – I’m digging the revisit of Kingdom Come so far, which is what gave it the edge over Thor and She-Hulk.
5.
Daredevil
and
6.
Captain America – Both are written by Ed Brubaker, and both are excellent, but I’m just more into the Cap storyline than I am into the Daredevil one.
7.
Jack of Fables – Just barely – and I mean barely – loses out to…
8.
Fables – While Jack has the same level of consistent excellence, Fables has been around a while longer, so it gets extra points for seniority.
Something that has really surprised me, and which my past self would never believe if I were to travel back in time to tell myself this, is that so far on the weeks when it comes out, Booster Gold is consistently close to the bottom of my reading pile. I just need to mention this as a way of saying “Nice work” to messrs Johns, Katz, Jurgens, and Rapmund.
Okay, enough of the geekery, I guess, though I don’t have much else to talk about.
I spent most of the day at work in a “webinar,” which is basically a fancy way of saying a conference call, albeit one in which I was able to view the same slide presentation being given at the actual physical meeting.
The three things I learned in the course of the webinar were that people don’t seem to understand how to mute their phones, and that one of the participants who was among the unmuted had gotten the results of her ultrasound and blood tests back and they were positive, and she loved whoever it was that she was talking to about her ultrasound and blood test results (“I love you sweetheart!”).
And that was pretty much my day.
My new lenses are in, but this time around I have to wear them for two days and then go in for an exam, and I couldn’t get an appointment for an exam until Tuesday, so, having already had to stop at one place on the way home, I didn’t feel like having to make another stop. I’ll probably pick them up tomorrow.
And that’s pretty much it for today.
In fact, I’d have to call it a phenomenal week.
After all, any week in which I get Fables and Jack of Fables is an especially good week (especially when the cover of Jack features Jack getting kicked in the junk by one of the lovely Page Sisters. Note: D’oh! Thought I could find a cover image online, but I was wrong, and am too lazy to scan it in myself.), but beyond that bit of wonderfulness, the rest were all books that I actually look forward to reading.
Oh, and Countdown to Final Crisis.
Since I was a kid I’ve always had a particular way of determining the order in which I read a given stack of comics. It’s all about delayed gratification, which is to say that the comic I want to read most is the comic I read last. So I start with the one I want to read least at the top and then go from there, basically from worst – which is kind of a misnomer, as the one on top isn’t necessarily bad (unless, of course, it’s Countdown to Final Crisis), it’s just the one I’m least excited about – to best.
This week’s stack was difficult to put in order. Naturally Fables was at the bottom, with Jack right on top of it, but it was tricky to figure out what the order would be between those to and Countdown.
This is what I finally decided on:
1.
Countdown to Final Crisis – It’s gotten better of late, and has, in recent weeks, managed to make its way to the second position a couple of times, but it will always be far from the bottom (which, in my inverted system, is the top in terms of quality). So why do I buy it? Well, I’ve committed myself to doing so, and have managed to grit my teeth through it so far, and besides, there are only 9 issues left (it’s a weekly comic running for 52 issues).
2.
Thor - Big jump in quality compared to Countdown. I’ve really been digging what Straczynski has been doing with the character, and the series earned itself a special place in my heart several issues back when Thor totally owned Iron Man.
3.
She-Hulk – It was a tough call deciding how to order this with Thor and the comic that got the number 4 spot, but ultimately my appreciation for Peter David’s writing narrowly edged out my appreciation for Straczynski’s.
4.
Justice Society of America – I’m digging the revisit of Kingdom Come so far, which is what gave it the edge over Thor and She-Hulk.
5.
Daredevil
and
6.
Captain America – Both are written by Ed Brubaker, and both are excellent, but I’m just more into the Cap storyline than I am into the Daredevil one.
7.
Jack of Fables – Just barely – and I mean barely – loses out to…
8.
Fables – While Jack has the same level of consistent excellence, Fables has been around a while longer, so it gets extra points for seniority.
Something that has really surprised me, and which my past self would never believe if I were to travel back in time to tell myself this, is that so far on the weeks when it comes out, Booster Gold is consistently close to the bottom of my reading pile. I just need to mention this as a way of saying “Nice work” to messrs Johns, Katz, Jurgens, and Rapmund.
Okay, enough of the geekery, I guess, though I don’t have much else to talk about.
I spent most of the day at work in a “webinar,” which is basically a fancy way of saying a conference call, albeit one in which I was able to view the same slide presentation being given at the actual physical meeting.
The three things I learned in the course of the webinar were that people don’t seem to understand how to mute their phones, and that one of the participants who was among the unmuted had gotten the results of her ultrasound and blood tests back and they were positive, and she loved whoever it was that she was talking to about her ultrasound and blood test results (“I love you sweetheart!”).
And that was pretty much my day.
My new lenses are in, but this time around I have to wear them for two days and then go in for an exam, and I couldn’t get an appointment for an exam until Tuesday, so, having already had to stop at one place on the way home, I didn’t feel like having to make another stop. I’ll probably pick them up tomorrow.
And that’s pretty much it for today.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Victory On TWO Fronts Or Secretly I'm Timid
By the time I went to bed last night I had completed all of the components of the Heroic Portrait request and figured out how I was going to put them all together, meaning that all I had to do today was actually put them together and perform a few touch-ups.
As this wouldn’t require the same sort of extensive use of my eyes that drawing all of the pieces had, I decided that after a week off of them I would give my Gentle Molding lenses another shot.
The lack of searing agony and vampire/mogwai/gremlin-like aversion to bright light meant that my eyes have finally sufficiently recovered that I can get back to wearing the lenses with regularity and be done with my glasses once more.
So that meant that I had achieved success on two fronts – finishing the picture and being able to wear my lenses again.
It’s weird; I’m not used to achieving success on even one front.
Calling the Heroic Portrait a success may be a little premature, though, as I’ve yet to hear back from the customer as to whether or not it’s suitable. Still, for good or ill, I did actually complete the picture, so in that regard it is a success.
(I’ll post the picture once I get an e-mail saying “It’s great!” or “You suck!” If it’s the latter response, I’ll post it so that you can judge my level of suckitude for yourselves, and if it’s the former, to show it off.)
I woke up early on Thursday morning, so, lacking anything better to do, I left work early, and, as a result, left work a little earlier than usual.
That night I decided to check my work e-mail and saw that I had an e-mail from my boss that had come in just as I was shutting everything down.
It was an invitation to a meeting on Friday. With his boss.
Given that there was no indication of what the meeting was about, I, quite naturally, got a little anxious. I mean, a meeting with my boss’ boss with no defined agenda is a little troubling.
Still, I clicked on the “Accept” button to add it to my calendar and to send a response back saying that I’ll be there.
A few minutes later I got an e-mail from my boss saying, “FYI – this is a cover meeting,” and telling me not to tell any of the other people invited to the meeting (I hadn’t noticed that everyone else on his team was also invited. If I had, the anxiety level wouldn’t have been so high in the first place.)
It turns out that there really was no meeting with the boss’ boss; it was a ruse to get us all together so that my boss could bring in this cheesecake he sometimes makes that the other people on the team are always complaining that he never brings in to share.
So that was a relief.
Friday was actually the first morning all week on which I didn’t wake up before my alarm went off, so when I heard music as I was lying there sleeping I was wondering why. It took a couple of minutes for me to figure out that the reason I was hearing Chopsticks was that it was time to get up.
And yes, I was awoken by Chopsticks, that piano lesson standard, playing on my iPod.
Sort of.
It’s actually a song by Liz Phair, in which she sings in a low monotone to the tune of a slowed-down version of Chopsticks, with a smattering of guitar feedback.
It goes like this:
I met him at a party and he told me how to drive him home
He said he liked to do it backwards I said that’s just fine with me
That way we can fuck and watch TV
It was 4 AM and the light was gray like it always is in paperbacks
He asked if I liked playing Jacks
I told him that I was good to sixes but all hell broke loose after that
I told him that I knew Julia Roberts when I was twelve at summer camp
We didn’t say anything after that
I dropped him off and I drove on home ‘cause secretly I’m timid
Rubbing It In Department:
In the Comments on a recent post, Scott mentioned that he misses Fables.
Just to be an ass, I’m going to rub it in and say that the issue I bought last week, which saw the conclusion of the storyline entitled “The Good Prince,” was awesome. Sure, it goes without saying – it’s Fables, after all – but this issue in particular was at even higher levels of awesomeness than usual. Like, way higher.
Sorry Scott, but it had to be mentioned, and you probably read the review on Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog anyway, which, among other things, says:
Let’s be real here for a second, folks: this is probably the single best comic book on the market today, and with “The Good Prince,” Willingham, Buckingham, and Leialoha have not only given us the happiest ending that the series has seen so far, but what might just be the best story of the run. Admittedly, it’s tough to beat Homelands (my reigning favorite), but starting with the shift in last year’s Christmas issue–and 1001 Nights of Snowfall before it–they’ve given us an incredible character arc that wraps up every bit as beautifully as it looks. It’s phenomenal stuff.
(Emphasis mine)
For a while now I’ve been posting little bits about Why I Love Fables, and there’s a reason that I do it: it deserves the attention.
If you read comics and aren’t reading Fables, shame on you. If you don’t read comics, you should start just so you can read Fables.
It really is that good.
That’s going to do it for this entry. I’ll be back later with a Keyword Kraziness post. (I promise!)
Oh, and for anyone interested, the episode of The Simpsons featuring, among other comic book personalities, Alan Moore, will be re-airing tonight on Fox.
As this wouldn’t require the same sort of extensive use of my eyes that drawing all of the pieces had, I decided that after a week off of them I would give my Gentle Molding lenses another shot.
The lack of searing agony and vampire/mogwai/gremlin-like aversion to bright light meant that my eyes have finally sufficiently recovered that I can get back to wearing the lenses with regularity and be done with my glasses once more.
So that meant that I had achieved success on two fronts – finishing the picture and being able to wear my lenses again.
It’s weird; I’m not used to achieving success on even one front.
Calling the Heroic Portrait a success may be a little premature, though, as I’ve yet to hear back from the customer as to whether or not it’s suitable. Still, for good or ill, I did actually complete the picture, so in that regard it is a success.
(I’ll post the picture once I get an e-mail saying “It’s great!” or “You suck!” If it’s the latter response, I’ll post it so that you can judge my level of suckitude for yourselves, and if it’s the former, to show it off.)
I woke up early on Thursday morning, so, lacking anything better to do, I left work early, and, as a result, left work a little earlier than usual.
That night I decided to check my work e-mail and saw that I had an e-mail from my boss that had come in just as I was shutting everything down.
It was an invitation to a meeting on Friday. With his boss.
Given that there was no indication of what the meeting was about, I, quite naturally, got a little anxious. I mean, a meeting with my boss’ boss with no defined agenda is a little troubling.
Still, I clicked on the “Accept” button to add it to my calendar and to send a response back saying that I’ll be there.
A few minutes later I got an e-mail from my boss saying, “FYI – this is a cover meeting,” and telling me not to tell any of the other people invited to the meeting (I hadn’t noticed that everyone else on his team was also invited. If I had, the anxiety level wouldn’t have been so high in the first place.)
It turns out that there really was no meeting with the boss’ boss; it was a ruse to get us all together so that my boss could bring in this cheesecake he sometimes makes that the other people on the team are always complaining that he never brings in to share.
So that was a relief.
Friday was actually the first morning all week on which I didn’t wake up before my alarm went off, so when I heard music as I was lying there sleeping I was wondering why. It took a couple of minutes for me to figure out that the reason I was hearing Chopsticks was that it was time to get up.
And yes, I was awoken by Chopsticks, that piano lesson standard, playing on my iPod.
Sort of.
It’s actually a song by Liz Phair, in which she sings in a low monotone to the tune of a slowed-down version of Chopsticks, with a smattering of guitar feedback.
It goes like this:
I met him at a party and he told me how to drive him home
He said he liked to do it backwards I said that’s just fine with me
That way we can fuck and watch TV
It was 4 AM and the light was gray like it always is in paperbacks
He asked if I liked playing Jacks
I told him that I was good to sixes but all hell broke loose after that
I told him that I knew Julia Roberts when I was twelve at summer camp
We didn’t say anything after that
I dropped him off and I drove on home ‘cause secretly I’m timid
Rubbing It In Department:
In the Comments on a recent post, Scott mentioned that he misses Fables.
Just to be an ass, I’m going to rub it in and say that the issue I bought last week, which saw the conclusion of the storyline entitled “The Good Prince,” was awesome. Sure, it goes without saying – it’s Fables, after all – but this issue in particular was at even higher levels of awesomeness than usual. Like, way higher.
Sorry Scott, but it had to be mentioned, and you probably read the review on Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog anyway, which, among other things, says:
Let’s be real here for a second, folks: this is probably the single best comic book on the market today, and with “The Good Prince,” Willingham, Buckingham, and Leialoha have not only given us the happiest ending that the series has seen so far, but what might just be the best story of the run. Admittedly, it’s tough to beat Homelands (my reigning favorite), but starting with the shift in last year’s Christmas issue–and 1001 Nights of Snowfall before it–they’ve given us an incredible character arc that wraps up every bit as beautifully as it looks. It’s phenomenal stuff.
(Emphasis mine)
For a while now I’ve been posting little bits about Why I Love Fables, and there’s a reason that I do it: it deserves the attention.
If you read comics and aren’t reading Fables, shame on you. If you don’t read comics, you should start just so you can read Fables.
It really is that good.
That’s going to do it for this entry. I’ll be back later with a Keyword Kraziness post. (I promise!)
Oh, and for anyone interested, the episode of The Simpsons featuring, among other comic book personalities, Alan Moore, will be re-airing tonight on Fox.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
You Know You're Not Posting Often Enough When...
1. Even Dave Campbell himself is posting with greater frequency than you.
2. Your mom calls you and complains about your lack of posts.
(Actually, my mom was wondering if my eyes were giving me more trouble, leading me to not post. Nope; my laziness is giving me trouble.)
Not much of note has actually been happening anyway, but I do feel guilty about the irregularity of my posts (it's just so hard to get off the couch once I've settled in).
The most notable thing today was that it was a good week for comics, as my stack had both Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight and Fables in it (I was also pleased to see Justice Society of America, which has a been a consistently good series so far, though not at Buffy or Fables levels).
As I sifted through the stack I said, "It's a good week."
When I got my total, I said to the guy at the register, "Huh. A good week and a cheap week."
In response, he said, "Yeah, it's not a really big week, but there's a lot of good stuff out."
I said, "It's always a good week when you get Fables."
Work has been work, and I've been getting steadily busier, though today was thankfully light on conference calls (only one). I thought that I had another conference call, and was putting on my headset and pulling up the meeting information from my calendar to get the dial-in info when I noticed that it was an actual face-to-face meeting. I don't really have too many of those.
In any case, tomorrow night I should probably start work on that Heroic Portrait request, so I may not get a post in before the weekend, and I can't promise that I'll try to post, but I will promise that I'll try to try.
2. Your mom calls you and complains about your lack of posts.
(Actually, my mom was wondering if my eyes were giving me more trouble, leading me to not post. Nope; my laziness is giving me trouble.)
Not much of note has actually been happening anyway, but I do feel guilty about the irregularity of my posts (it's just so hard to get off the couch once I've settled in).
The most notable thing today was that it was a good week for comics, as my stack had both Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight and Fables in it (I was also pleased to see Justice Society of America, which has a been a consistently good series so far, though not at Buffy or Fables levels).
As I sifted through the stack I said, "It's a good week."
When I got my total, I said to the guy at the register, "Huh. A good week and a cheap week."
In response, he said, "Yeah, it's not a really big week, but there's a lot of good stuff out."
I said, "It's always a good week when you get Fables."
Work has been work, and I've been getting steadily busier, though today was thankfully light on conference calls (only one). I thought that I had another conference call, and was putting on my headset and pulling up the meeting information from my calendar to get the dial-in info when I noticed that it was an actual face-to-face meeting. I don't really have too many of those.
In any case, tomorrow night I should probably start work on that Heroic Portrait request, so I may not get a post in before the weekend, and I can't promise that I'll try to post, but I will promise that I'll try to try.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
The League of Extra-Hairy Gentlemen
Last night for the second time in as many weeks I had a dream in which Alan Moore (this time with special guest Neil Gaiman) made an appearance. I don't recall much about it, other than that Alan was extremely clever and I was jealous of his friendship with Neil. However, Alan did give me an extra-special copy of Watchmen that was in some indescribable way infinitely more fabulous than my mere Absolute Edition.
In the earlier dream, Alan appeared as someone providing me with guidance through a difficult and dangerous situation, and he had the ability to manipulate reality as easily as he constructs a story.
Sometime after that dream I had one in which a bearded hermit, looking rather like Will Ferrell as The Unabomber, played a central role.
Given that Alan himself looks rather a lot like someone who should live in a secluded shack and spend his time writing manifestos (which is, perhaps, not so different from how he does live), I have to wonder about the preponderance of hirsute men in my dreams of late.
In any case, on his blog, Neil linked to this scan of a two-page comic he and Mark Buckingham did in honor of Alan's 50th birthday.
(Readers of Fables will note the uncanny resemblance of the boy asking his fortune to Buckingham's version of Pinocchio)
In the earlier dream, Alan appeared as someone providing me with guidance through a difficult and dangerous situation, and he had the ability to manipulate reality as easily as he constructs a story.
Sometime after that dream I had one in which a bearded hermit, looking rather like Will Ferrell as The Unabomber, played a central role.
Given that Alan himself looks rather a lot like someone who should live in a secluded shack and spend his time writing manifestos (which is, perhaps, not so different from how he does live), I have to wonder about the preponderance of hirsute men in my dreams of late.
In any case, on his blog, Neil linked to this scan of a two-page comic he and Mark Buckingham did in honor of Alan's 50th birthday.
(Readers of Fables will note the uncanny resemblance of the boy asking his fortune to Buckingham's version of Pinocchio)
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Power Goes Out, Light Bulb Comes On
The other day, randomly, whenever I launched Media Center it would come up with a message shortly thereafter informing me that my battery is low and that I should plug my computer into an external power source or else any current work may be lost.
That would be interesting, and something to act on, if my computer were a laptop.
I’ve checked all of my settings to try to figure out why Media Center thinks my already-plugged-in desktop is an unplugged laptop with a totally drained battery, and there’s no obvious answer there.
And given that, when you most need it to not suck the Internet will suck, I haven’t found a solution there, either.
Then today there was a power surge, and rather than failing over to UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) power, like Munin did in the kitchen, Hugin simply shut down.Ironically, it was when the power went out that the light bulb came on and I thought, “Aha! Media Center means the battery in my UPS.”
The UPS was pretty old, and I did get a message over a year ago – I think it was when I was still in Ashburn – advising me that I might want to replace the battery in my UPS.
So after going to the comic shop, I stopped at Best Buy and picked up a new UPS. I thought about getting one of the big fancy (and pricey) ones, but opted for a solid mid-priced one that was comparable to my existing UPS.
So I came home, hooked it up, installed the new Vista-enabled power management software. All systems appeared to be go, so I launched Media Center and learned that my battery is low and that I should plug my computer into an external power source or else any current work may be lost.
So, $60 later, I still don’t know WTF it’s talking about.
Not too big of a deal, as it’s just a matter of clicking “OK,” and I really did need a new UPS anyway, but still annoying.
Last week the new season of Big Love started, and I’d watched the second episode of the season this morning before heading out into the world.
I think the show’s focus – polygamy – may have been coloring my view, as when I was at Best Buy I saw a group of women who were all roughly the same age getting into the same van together and I wondered if they were “sister-wives.”
At the comic shop I picked up Fables: Sons of Empire, the latest trade collection of the series, which actually brings me fully up-to-date on the series. I now have, in trade form, everything that came before the first regular issue of the series that I bought.
I’ve mentioned Fables often – and will do so again in the future – and I could easily write at length about why I love the book so much and why I think that people who don’t read it might just have something wrong with their so-called brains, but I’ve decided to keep it simple, and a little less insulting.
So, starting now, I will periodically post entries titled “Why I Love Fables,” designating each entry with a random reason number, that have some small bit of dialogue or an image from the series that in some way demonstrates why I love the book so much.
The numbering isn’t any sort of ranking, and won’t be done in order. Basically it will just be there for the sake of having a number there.
In celebration of my latest Fables purchase, here is the first in the “Why I Love Fables” series, an exchange between members of a hypothetical U.S. military force invading the Fables Homelands in theoretical retaliation to a proposed attack by the Empire, taken from one of the stories collected in the trade:
Why I Love Fables Reason Number 134:
“So who’s the enemy anyway?”
“Any stinking Meevil you find.”
“Meevil?”
“Short for Medieval People. I heard someone over at Division HQ call them that.”
“I heard the rules of engagement are wide open this time. Anyone not fully and convincingly prostrate in total surrender is a qualified target.”
“That’s true – even if they don’t seem to have weapons. Because some of them can do magic.”
“How can we fight magic guys, Sarge?”
“Simple. Drop them from 300 meters away with a five-point-six-two round traveling at 3282 feet per second. I ‘spect that’ll interrupt their mumbo jumbo just fine.”
“But nobody shoot the giant wolf. He’s with us. ‘sides, I heard all you’d do is just make him really mad.”
--From "Over There," Chapter Four of Sons of Empire
That would be interesting, and something to act on, if my computer were a laptop.
I’ve checked all of my settings to try to figure out why Media Center thinks my already-plugged-in desktop is an unplugged laptop with a totally drained battery, and there’s no obvious answer there.
And given that, when you most need it to not suck the Internet will suck, I haven’t found a solution there, either.
Then today there was a power surge, and rather than failing over to UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) power, like Munin did in the kitchen, Hugin simply shut down.Ironically, it was when the power went out that the light bulb came on and I thought, “Aha! Media Center means the battery in my UPS.”
The UPS was pretty old, and I did get a message over a year ago – I think it was when I was still in Ashburn – advising me that I might want to replace the battery in my UPS.
So after going to the comic shop, I stopped at Best Buy and picked up a new UPS. I thought about getting one of the big fancy (and pricey) ones, but opted for a solid mid-priced one that was comparable to my existing UPS.
So I came home, hooked it up, installed the new Vista-enabled power management software. All systems appeared to be go, so I launched Media Center and learned that my battery is low and that I should plug my computer into an external power source or else any current work may be lost.
So, $60 later, I still don’t know WTF it’s talking about.
Not too big of a deal, as it’s just a matter of clicking “OK,” and I really did need a new UPS anyway, but still annoying.
Last week the new season of Big Love started, and I’d watched the second episode of the season this morning before heading out into the world.
I think the show’s focus – polygamy – may have been coloring my view, as when I was at Best Buy I saw a group of women who were all roughly the same age getting into the same van together and I wondered if they were “sister-wives.”
At the comic shop I picked up Fables: Sons of Empire, the latest trade collection of the series, which actually brings me fully up-to-date on the series. I now have, in trade form, everything that came before the first regular issue of the series that I bought.
I’ve mentioned Fables often – and will do so again in the future – and I could easily write at length about why I love the book so much and why I think that people who don’t read it might just have something wrong with their so-called brains, but I’ve decided to keep it simple, and a little less insulting.
So, starting now, I will periodically post entries titled “Why I Love Fables,” designating each entry with a random reason number, that have some small bit of dialogue or an image from the series that in some way demonstrates why I love the book so much.
The numbering isn’t any sort of ranking, and won’t be done in order. Basically it will just be there for the sake of having a number there.
In celebration of my latest Fables purchase, here is the first in the “Why I Love Fables” series, an exchange between members of a hypothetical U.S. military force invading the Fables Homelands in theoretical retaliation to a proposed attack by the Empire, taken from one of the stories collected in the trade:
Why I Love Fables Reason Number 134:
“So who’s the enemy anyway?”
“Any stinking Meevil you find.”
“Meevil?”
“Short for Medieval People. I heard someone over at Division HQ call them that.”
“I heard the rules of engagement are wide open this time. Anyone not fully and convincingly prostrate in total surrender is a qualified target.”
“That’s true – even if they don’t seem to have weapons. Because some of them can do magic.”
“How can we fight magic guys, Sarge?”
“Simple. Drop them from 300 meters away with a five-point-six-two round traveling at 3282 feet per second. I ‘spect that’ll interrupt their mumbo jumbo just fine.”
“But nobody shoot the giant wolf. He’s with us. ‘sides, I heard all you’d do is just make him really mad.”
--From "Over There," Chapter Four of Sons of Empire
Monday, June 11, 2007
A Thing Of Beauty
Last week I ordered all of the available trade paperback collections of Fables.
Today they arrived, and, collectively, they are a thing of beauty.
See?
I still need to pick up one more trade to have everything up to the point at which I started buying the monthly comic, but if it's available now (it wasn't when I ordered), I'll pick it up on Wednesday when I go to the comic shop.
I also got a letter today informing me that the buy-back of my condo will be going through a lot sooner than anticipated - at the end of this month.
That means I have to start moving a lot faster on the purchase of a new place, though I will apparently be able to rent my place on a month to month basis from the new owners.
Even paying the higher price for month to month, I'll still be saving over $600 a month with not having to pay the mortgages and condo fees.
Today they arrived, and, collectively, they are a thing of beauty.
See?
I still need to pick up one more trade to have everything up to the point at which I started buying the monthly comic, but if it's available now (it wasn't when I ordered), I'll pick it up on Wednesday when I go to the comic shop.
I also got a letter today informing me that the buy-back of my condo will be going through a lot sooner than anticipated - at the end of this month.
That means I have to start moving a lot faster on the purchase of a new place, though I will apparently be able to rent my place on a month to month basis from the new owners.
Even paying the higher price for month to month, I'll still be saving over $600 a month with not having to pay the mortgages and condo fees.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Excellent Timing, Extra Expenses, Exceptionally Creepy, And I'm Out of Words That Start With Ex
I woke up a bit after 8 this morning, thinking that I should get up, as my Wednesdays are always abbreviated due to my ridiculously early bedtime.
Of course, I also thought, “Fuck that,” and managed to stay in bed until a bit before 9.
In an unusual bit of motivation, I made my way to the kitchen and began making some breakfast. I hadn’t eaten a proper meal yesterday, opting for a sandwich for lunch and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, so hunger was the source of my motivation.
I had just finished making my bacon and eggs and was in the process of setting my plate down on the table when my phone rang.
It was my mother. I opted to eat the eggs, figuring I could do that quietly enough so that she wouldn’t have to listen to me chewing, but decided that the bacon was just going to have to wait.
After talking to my mother – and eating my bacon – I did the whole shower and shave thing, got dressed, and headed off to the comic shop.
I spent quite a bit there, as I picked up a copy of the trade collecting the first five issues of Jack of Fables, as well as a copy of the Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall hardcover.
Beyond that I also paid for Scott’s comics (though he will, of course, pay me back), which was pricier than normal, as he’s opted to begin collecting Jack of Fables and Buffy: Season Eight and had requested that I grab whatever back issues of those I could find there, so that added some extra comics, and I grabbed a copy of the Jack of Fables trade for him as well, as it only made sense.
From there it was off to Super Target where, based on the wary looks most of the women present were giving me and their general skittishness around me, I learned that I must have been looking especially creepy today. Not sure what made today so special. Maybe there’s just something inherently disturbing about a guy buying toilet paper and paper towels.
Anyway, that’s been my day so far. It’s not likely to get any more interesting.
I’ve often mentioned that there are certain movies that, when they’re on, I feel compelled to watch. One such movie is Tim Burton’s black and white cult classic Ed Wood, which was on IFC the other night, and which I watched.
(As an aside, people think that, because of my feelings about his Batman movies, I don’t like Tim Burton. It’s not true. With the exception of the aforementioned Batman movies and the complete waste of two hours of my life – time that I will never be able to recover – that was his Planet of the Apes remake, I’ve liked most of what I’ve seen.)
I really enjoy Ed Wood in large part because of the performances of Martin Landau and Johnny Depp, but also because the real Ed Wood was an utterly fascinating man in so many respects.
As terrible as his movies were, you just have to love the cockeyed optimism of the man, and his total commitment to bringing his singular vision to life. Sure, his movies sucked ass, but he put everything he had into making those shitty, shitty movies. Nothing could deter him from following his dreams.
His awful, tacky dreams.
How can you not admire someone like that?
In the Burton movie much time is spent focusing on the making of his movie Bride of the Monster (originally titled Bride of the Atom), and in reading the Wikipedia entry on Wood I learned that, unsurprisingly, Bride of the Monster had been featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
So naturally I hit the MST3K newsgroup and downloaded the episode.
It was kind of interesting to watch the movie after having seen the fictionalized version of its making so many times. Seeing an actual scene rather than Burton’s version of the scene often made it rather jarring, particularly if there was a big difference between the two, though conversely it was interesting to see the scenes that Burton had really nailed.
The casting difference were also kind of jarring. I was watching it and thinking, “But that’s not Juliet Landau playing the part of Loretta King playing the part of Janet Lawton, it’s actually Loretta King playing the part of Janet Lawton!” or “Hey, that’s not Sarah Jessica Parker.”
Knowing at least some of the backstory – or at least some version of it – surrounding the making of the movie also added to the experience.
And of course it all made the comments of Joel and the gang that much funnier.
Oh, and the movie itself? Absolutely terrible, but then, how could it be otherwise?
Of course, I also thought, “Fuck that,” and managed to stay in bed until a bit before 9.
In an unusual bit of motivation, I made my way to the kitchen and began making some breakfast. I hadn’t eaten a proper meal yesterday, opting for a sandwich for lunch and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, so hunger was the source of my motivation.
I had just finished making my bacon and eggs and was in the process of setting my plate down on the table when my phone rang.
It was my mother. I opted to eat the eggs, figuring I could do that quietly enough so that she wouldn’t have to listen to me chewing, but decided that the bacon was just going to have to wait.
After talking to my mother – and eating my bacon – I did the whole shower and shave thing, got dressed, and headed off to the comic shop.
I spent quite a bit there, as I picked up a copy of the trade collecting the first five issues of Jack of Fables, as well as a copy of the Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall hardcover.
Beyond that I also paid for Scott’s comics (though he will, of course, pay me back), which was pricier than normal, as he’s opted to begin collecting Jack of Fables and Buffy: Season Eight and had requested that I grab whatever back issues of those I could find there, so that added some extra comics, and I grabbed a copy of the Jack of Fables trade for him as well, as it only made sense.
From there it was off to Super Target where, based on the wary looks most of the women present were giving me and their general skittishness around me, I learned that I must have been looking especially creepy today. Not sure what made today so special. Maybe there’s just something inherently disturbing about a guy buying toilet paper and paper towels.
Anyway, that’s been my day so far. It’s not likely to get any more interesting.
I’ve often mentioned that there are certain movies that, when they’re on, I feel compelled to watch. One such movie is Tim Burton’s black and white cult classic Ed Wood, which was on IFC the other night, and which I watched.
(As an aside, people think that, because of my feelings about his Batman movies, I don’t like Tim Burton. It’s not true. With the exception of the aforementioned Batman movies and the complete waste of two hours of my life – time that I will never be able to recover – that was his Planet of the Apes remake, I’ve liked most of what I’ve seen.)
I really enjoy Ed Wood in large part because of the performances of Martin Landau and Johnny Depp, but also because the real Ed Wood was an utterly fascinating man in so many respects.
As terrible as his movies were, you just have to love the cockeyed optimism of the man, and his total commitment to bringing his singular vision to life. Sure, his movies sucked ass, but he put everything he had into making those shitty, shitty movies. Nothing could deter him from following his dreams.
His awful, tacky dreams.
How can you not admire someone like that?
In the Burton movie much time is spent focusing on the making of his movie Bride of the Monster (originally titled Bride of the Atom), and in reading the Wikipedia entry on Wood I learned that, unsurprisingly, Bride of the Monster had been featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
So naturally I hit the MST3K newsgroup and downloaded the episode.
It was kind of interesting to watch the movie after having seen the fictionalized version of its making so many times. Seeing an actual scene rather than Burton’s version of the scene often made it rather jarring, particularly if there was a big difference between the two, though conversely it was interesting to see the scenes that Burton had really nailed.
The casting difference were also kind of jarring. I was watching it and thinking, “But that’s not Juliet Landau playing the part of Loretta King playing the part of Janet Lawton, it’s actually Loretta King playing the part of Janet Lawton!” or “Hey, that’s not Sarah Jessica Parker.”
Knowing at least some of the backstory – or at least some version of it – surrounding the making of the movie also added to the experience.
And of course it all made the comments of Joel and the gang that much funnier.
Oh, and the movie itself? Absolutely terrible, but then, how could it be otherwise?
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Cover Me
So far today, beyond talking to my mother, I haven’t done much but mess with comics.
Bagging some, adding others to the database.
I wanted to break the 800 mark for total comics in the database, so I figured that adding my X-Men comics would do it. I had been at 763 before. I was at 820 after.
That’s not counting the X-Men issues that I have that are missing covers and which I am, as a consequence, going to toss.
I decided that it’s just not worth holding onto them, though in some cases I will, if it’s affordable, attempt to replace them.
That’s what I did for some old Superman comics in my recent order of back issues.
Were they valuable comics? No. Were they especially good comics? Not really. Certainly not by today’s standards.
However, I did have a particular sense of nostalgia for them, so it just seemed appropriate to replace them with copies that were in better shape before simply tossing out the old ones.
I’ve actually got quite a pile of coverless and near-coverless comics. They’re in such deplorable shape for a variety of reasons. Up until I got to college I didn’t really have easy access to proper archiving supplies, but beyond that, I was generally just sort of careless about them. I mean, I was more interested in reading them than sealing them up and hiding them away from light and moisture.
Of course, in fairness to me, a lot of them came to me already damaged, as hand-me-downs, rummage sale purchases, or comics bought in those “4 for 49 cents” packs that had the covers partially or completely torn off.
This was an unscrupulous trick in which (as I understand it) distributors would rip the covers off of new comics that they had a surplus of and report them to the publisher as damaged, sending the tattered remains of the cover in as proof, and get a refund. They would then turn around and package the damaged comics together and dump them on retailers at a dirt-cheap price, which was, at that point, all profit.
(I may be off on exactly how this worked. This stub of an article at Wikipedia has a little information about the process with paperbacks.)
As a kid I got a lot of comics this way, as the local store sold the multi-packs, which were actually 11 cents cheaper than one new comic.
I’ll most likely sift through the whole pile of coverless and near-coverless comics that are destined to be discarded to see if there’s anything else I’m feeling nostalgic about, which means lots of itching and sneezing and dry skin, as I seem to be extremely sensitive to the dust and acid.
When I told my mother that the only thing I had planned for the week was a trip to the comic book store (at its new location), she said, “You’ve been spending a lot of money on comic books.”
I responded, “Gotta do something.”
The weekend at work was largely uneventful. I spent pretty much all day yesterday reading comics online, which was cool because someone had posted a bunch of Fables – one of the comics I’ve begun buying – which allowed me to fill in some of the blanks between what I’d last read and where I am now.
Fables is one of those books that makes me sad that most people are too narrow-minded to give comics a try because of their preconceived notions about the form, because people who don’t read Fables are really missing out.
Oh well.
I’m looking forward to getting my new graphics tablet, though I doubt that it will arrive by Wednesday.
Will it make me a better artist? No.
Is there anything wrong with my current tablet? Not really.
Still, I’ll be glad to have something bigger (insert dick joke here), and there are some useful features that my old tablet doesn’t have.
In any case, there’s not much else going on here, though I’ve got one of those turkey roast things n the oven for dinner and hundreds more comics to add to my database, so honestly, what more could I want?
Bagging some, adding others to the database.
I wanted to break the 800 mark for total comics in the database, so I figured that adding my X-Men comics would do it. I had been at 763 before. I was at 820 after.
That’s not counting the X-Men issues that I have that are missing covers and which I am, as a consequence, going to toss.
I decided that it’s just not worth holding onto them, though in some cases I will, if it’s affordable, attempt to replace them.
That’s what I did for some old Superman comics in my recent order of back issues.
Were they valuable comics? No. Were they especially good comics? Not really. Certainly not by today’s standards.
However, I did have a particular sense of nostalgia for them, so it just seemed appropriate to replace them with copies that were in better shape before simply tossing out the old ones.
I’ve actually got quite a pile of coverless and near-coverless comics. They’re in such deplorable shape for a variety of reasons. Up until I got to college I didn’t really have easy access to proper archiving supplies, but beyond that, I was generally just sort of careless about them. I mean, I was more interested in reading them than sealing them up and hiding them away from light and moisture.
Of course, in fairness to me, a lot of them came to me already damaged, as hand-me-downs, rummage sale purchases, or comics bought in those “4 for 49 cents” packs that had the covers partially or completely torn off.
This was an unscrupulous trick in which (as I understand it) distributors would rip the covers off of new comics that they had a surplus of and report them to the publisher as damaged, sending the tattered remains of the cover in as proof, and get a refund. They would then turn around and package the damaged comics together and dump them on retailers at a dirt-cheap price, which was, at that point, all profit.
(I may be off on exactly how this worked. This stub of an article at Wikipedia has a little information about the process with paperbacks.)
As a kid I got a lot of comics this way, as the local store sold the multi-packs, which were actually 11 cents cheaper than one new comic.
I’ll most likely sift through the whole pile of coverless and near-coverless comics that are destined to be discarded to see if there’s anything else I’m feeling nostalgic about, which means lots of itching and sneezing and dry skin, as I seem to be extremely sensitive to the dust and acid.
When I told my mother that the only thing I had planned for the week was a trip to the comic book store (at its new location), she said, “You’ve been spending a lot of money on comic books.”
I responded, “Gotta do something.”
The weekend at work was largely uneventful. I spent pretty much all day yesterday reading comics online, which was cool because someone had posted a bunch of Fables – one of the comics I’ve begun buying – which allowed me to fill in some of the blanks between what I’d last read and where I am now.
Fables is one of those books that makes me sad that most people are too narrow-minded to give comics a try because of their preconceived notions about the form, because people who don’t read Fables are really missing out.
Oh well.
I’m looking forward to getting my new graphics tablet, though I doubt that it will arrive by Wednesday.
Will it make me a better artist? No.
Is there anything wrong with my current tablet? Not really.
Still, I’ll be glad to have something bigger (insert dick joke here), and there are some useful features that my old tablet doesn’t have.
In any case, there’s not much else going on here, though I’ve got one of those turkey roast things n the oven for dinner and hundreds more comics to add to my database, so honestly, what more could I want?
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