The Rack: The War At Home
No Comments | Posted: November 30th, 2007 | Filed under: Uncategorized
The internet gods have been appeased and the new strip is up. It is a good strip, I think. Maybe you will, too.
The internet gods have been appeased and the new strip is up. It is a good strip, I think. Maybe you will, too.
Let Us Mock Bad X-Men Art.
No Comments | Posted: November 30th, 2007 | Filed under: Uncategorized
- I didn’t know Scott Summers’s mom was Squirrel Girl. Was there a time machine involved in some Starjammers miniseries I never read?
- Is this the first in-continuity appearance of Trout Pout?
- The credits for this issue of X-Men state that “Adequate Art” was provided by Jay Glavin. It looks like Stan had been huffing the hyperbole glue again.
The Rack: The Problem With A Webcomic…
No Comments | Posted: November 30th, 2007 | Filed under: Uncategorized…is that the artist’s internet connectivity needs to be available. Birdie actually finished today’s strip early but went to bed last night without having uploaded it, thinking he may want to tweak it slightly in the AM. Sadly, Verizon or whoever had an entirely different idea with how he’d spend his morning.
Yes, we’re aware this has happened before. No, we don’t like it either.
Offered Without Comment
No Comments | Posted: November 29th, 2007 | Filed under: Uncategorized
Via AdRants.
The Rack: Staff Picks for the Week of November 29, 2007
No Comments | Posted: November 29th, 2007 | Filed under: UncategorizedI’m actually at a real computer just as the strip goes up for once. Check out the staff suggestions from Yavin IV and get threatened with physical violence by one of the strip’s creators.
"Surely you’re not trying to wreck three of Marvel’s characters?"
No Comments | Posted: November 29th, 2007 | Filed under: Uncategorized
Pixie?!?
No Comments | Posted: November 28th, 2007 | Filed under: Uncategorized
From Crime and Punishment Illustories #36
In this post, I talk a lot about Astonishing X-Men.
No Comments | Posted: November 27th, 2007 | Filed under: Uncategorized
I suppose if you’ve spent the past couple of decades deeply mired in X-Men lore, then Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men most likely comes very close to the platonic ideal of a comic featuring that much-ballyhooed and heavily-licensed superhero team. It’s hard to deny the attractiveness of the package: a big name TV writer teaming up with a fan-favorite artist working on a group of characters hand picked specifically for the title, operating free and clear of the rest of the X-titles and the editorially-driven mandates that keeps them in a constant state of crossover. For the die-hard X-Men fans and those who lost their way during the many shifts made since the team’s Claremont-driven heydey, Astonishing X-Men must seem like a bit of a dream come true.
I’ve been sold this series by so many fans that I finally decided to dive in feet first, picking up the first three arcs in trade paperback, and immediately found myself sorely disappointed. There’s a problem on both ends of the equation, though.
I am, by my own admission, not an easy sell when it comes to the X-Men. I love Morrison’s run for its upping the ante with a deadline on homo sapiens as well as his use of Xavier’s academy as more than just a set. Outside of Morrison (who I am a fan of anyway,) I do think a lot of Chris Claremont’s work on the title, particularly with Paul Smith as artist, captures a very competent soap-opera tone that manages to keep me interested in what’s going to happen next without feeling especially showy over overwrought. These are the exceptions. The rest of the time, the X-books are a morass of characters I don’t care about doing things I can’t be bothered to deciper.
Despite all this, I wanted to give this title a fair shot. Whedon, despite his too-cute tendencies as a dialogue writer, is usually more-than-competent with diverse casts of characters and John Cassaday’s art is rarely less than stellar. These talents, combined with the launch of a new title, seemed to me a perfect place to start fresh with these characters, to invigorate them for new audiences that would be lured in by Whedon’s name and the high-quality gloss Cassaday’s art provides. Disappointingly, Whedon and his editors seemed to think otherwise, instead retreating to the comfortable womb of wish fulfillment immediately and giving the newcomer very little impetus to continue reading past the first issue.
Key elements used by Whedon in the series – Kitty Pryde and the return of Colossus, Emma Frost assuming the place of Jean Grey in Scott Summers’s life – depend heavily on the reader knowing the past and caring about is as much as the creators obviously do. I’ve a passing familiarity with the first element – Kitty and Peter go back to the Claremont/Byrne material, and the second was a key portion of the Morrison run, but I was still left cold by the fact these were so heavily leaned upon as bait for longtime fans while new elements good (some of the students are quite wonderful) and bad (the jaw-droppingly bad design and generic nature of Ord) are apparently given short shrift.
For the first two arcs – Gifted and Dangerous, we are treated to an X-Men’s Greatest Hits take on things. Wolverine fights Cyclops over gettin’ it on with Emma! Kitty and Peter have a make-out party! Professor Xavier is revealed to have a secret agenda when it comes to the X-Men! To be fair, there’s lots of moments that genuinely pleased me in these stories – the giant monster fight that kicks off Dangerous and subsequent Fantastic Four appearance, the appearance of SWORD (you know, like SHIELD, but not,) and Beast’s struggle with the mutant “cure” that serves as the main motivator for Gifted – these are all handled very nicely and are rewarding to readers new and old, but they seem buried under Whedon’s heavy nostalgia for times past.
That is, until the third arc, Torn. Suddenly, Whedon seems interested in doing something more with the title and the dominoes set up from the beginning of the series begin to fall. Secrets are revealed, motivations are laid bare, and the world gets much less safe for the team. While, yes, a great deal of the plot is justly tied into the long and convoluted past that the X-Men have had, Whedon’s use of backstory as combined with his new elements means that the book transforms for the better. The left turn taken by the title, going from patting fans on the back for sharing his taste to suddenly moving forward in leaps and bounds, is refreshing in the extreme.
I’m sure the slow build to reveals and plot explosion was Whedon’s plan from the beginning but even in trade paperback, impatience with navel-gazing nearly caused me to stop reading at the end of Dangerous. While I’m eager to read the forthcoming Unstoppable collection, I still feel that Astonishing X-Men represents a bit of a squandered opportunity. I’m curious to see if Warren Ellis’s relaunch of the series veers in the direction I think represents its best hope or if editorial will require that the title be a bit too closely-hewn to the past again.
And now you know!
No Comments | Posted: November 27th, 2007 | Filed under: Uncategorized
From Crime Detective Comics (Nov-Dec 1952).
The Rack: All Ashore
No Comments | Posted: November 27th, 2007 | Filed under: UncategorizedStuck in a parking lot, waiting for MicroCenter to open. That’s why I’m just gonna repeat yesterday’s just-link-to-the-site technique. Go, read.
Yes, Yoshie Imanami is very pretty.
No Comments | Posted: November 26th, 2007 | Filed under: Uncategorized
Click to view it super-sized!
The Rack: Go Read It
No Comments | Posted: November 26th, 2007 | Filed under: UncategorizedI’m tapping this out on my handheld as I sit in a conference, so no direct link to the strip. Just go visit The Rack, mmmkay? Thanks!
"If Marvel Girl doesn’t stop insulting the Beast, he may give her a dearly needed spanking! And I hope he does!"
No Comments | Posted: November 25th, 2007 | Filed under: Uncategorized
Kirby Saturday: "The Origin of King Kirby"
No Comments | Posted: November 24th, 2007 | Filed under: UncategorizedThe below was originally presented in issue 11 of Marvel’s FOOM! fan magazine, which served as a tribute to Kirby, who had recently returned to the company. Cartoonist Charley Parker is responsible for Argon Zark, one of the very first webcomics.
Friday Night Fights: What?!? Yeah!
No Comments | Posted: November 23rd, 2007 | Filed under: Uncategorized
Transformin on stage like a Decepticon
But I’m not animated like a cartoon
I’m for real, shootin lyrics like a harpoon
Across the crowd, the listeners, the spectators
So let’s groove with the smooth operator.
$500 Graphics Software, and this is what I do with it.
No Comments | Posted: November 23rd, 2007 | Filed under: Uncategorized
What else can we learn from Box 426?!?
No Comments | Posted: November 21st, 2007 | Filed under: Uncategorized
The Rack: Staff Picks
No Comments | Posted: November 21st, 2007 | Filed under: UncategorizedBefore heading out to visit your relatives this week, swing by your local comics shop and pick up something to make the time pass by more quickly. The Staff at Yavin IV have some suggestions.
