The Public Library!

Elektra: Assassin kind of uses a substitute form of narration -- rather than newscasts, he has people giving Powerpoint presentations.

I'm interested to see how he treats more prominant female characters...

Err, touchy Miller point. Simply put, he doesn't. Elektra is obv. his most notable female character, and he's written one mini series and one graphic novel focusing on her. In the latter, it's told from Murdock's POV. In the former, the series starts out with the first 1.5 issues from Elektra's POV (and they happen to be marvelously written), but then it switches to another man's for the remainder of the series. Mix in boring/flat Sin City women, and his female trackrecord isn't exemplary. (Though maybe Martha Washington, I never stuck around long enough to read all of them, and the woman in Ronin, balance things out.)

Promethea book 1 and Bendis's Fortune and Glory! Score.

They also have book 2 of Phoenix (the manga, there's a thread around somewhere, I think), so I assume they have book 1 and it's just out.

Weirdly, my girlfriend -- who is a big fan of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and much of Moore's current stuff -- was bored by Watchmen. She didn't grow up reading superhero comics the way I did, but came to them after getting interested in comics in general through Preacher and Transmetropolitan, so even though she reads them now, I wonder if that's part of it.

x-post x-post sorry

There are probably all manner of things here and there, and there are annotations out there somewhere (did Jess Nevins do them, maybe?).

SPOILER ALERT: I can't believe how obvious Rorshach's identity is from the very first panel even. I remember being very surprised the first time I read it. Mind you, I was 12.

(x-post, in the first couple pages I thought, "Oh, so Rorshach's that guy...nah, too obvious.")

It parallels the story of Ozymandias. Ozymandias is the shipwrecked dude, that's why in the end he says something like "I dream of swimming towards a huge black ship", just like the protagonist of the pirate story does.

Here's how it goes: the shipwrecked guy wants to help those he loves, just like Ozymandias wants to help the humanity. He's floating on the back of dead men, just like Ozymandias is, after all those killings to make his plot work. The shipwreck dude uses a white, spotted shark to reach his goal, just like Ozymandias uses Rorschach to muddle his trails. But, despite all his good intentions, the dude doesn't do any good for his loved ones, and instead causes only death and suffering. Just like Ozymandias. This, I think, is rather clever way for Moore to end the story. Though the ending of Watchmen is seemingly open, and the reader is free to judge whether or not Ozymandias did the right thing ("I leave it entirely to your hands."), Moore's own judgement is hidden in the pirate story. In the end, the shipwreck guy realizes he's made a horrible mistake, and swims to the Black Freighter (=Hell).

Of course, there's a meta-version. In a world which actually has super-heroes in it, it's unlikely comics would ever have progressed beyond EC type lines (in the mainstream, at least) and it's questionable whether somebody like Frederick Wertham could actually have had as much influence in the Watchmen world as he did in the real world (given, as he was, a product of US isolationism and Red Fear - which doesn't exist in a world where Dr Manhattan lives. At least not before he gives up on humanity, as shown in the Dr M/Comedian sequence in Vietnam.) therefore why would they ever have fallen out of favour? If they never progressed from EC lines, then Joe Orlando would probably have been still drawing them till his death.

A dagger in mine heart! I'm pulling rank and excommunicating you, Huck.

The Authority, much as I loved it during the initial Ellis/Hitch and Millar/Quitely runs, is a standard superhero comic. With more violence, brasher ideas, widescreen imagery, sex and a good energy to it all....I always got the feeling that Ellis had said everything he really wanted to say about superheroes on Stormwatch and was basically just repeating himself with the Authority. But it was still better than 99% of superhero stuff being done at the time.

The coloring-the-woman image is striking. I'm picturing him sticking his tongue out as he does it, you know, like to the corner of his mouth, the way comic strip characters do when they're concentrating -- and beads of sweat on his forehead as he hunches over the drawing table, squinting through his Coke bottles.

Anyway, today I got Justice League: A New Beginning, some animated Batman thing and something else that's totally slipped my mind. Damn.
Anyway, I followed that JL series from issue #3 to not quite #50. So I had never read the first two issues in the collection, so that was extremely cool for me. But I'm most impressed at how well those issues hold up. When I read the FKNATJL mini last year, I kept thinking it was so 80s, esp. with Kevin Maguire's slightly Schnabel-esque style. BUt the original stuff (aside from a few of the women's hair-do's, I still can't believe they ever thought taking Black Canary out of fishnets was a good idea) still reads good, it's still funny now that I'm a grown up and I'm pretty sure that a lot of my current sense of humour finds its secret origin in those comics.

Hmm, maybe I'll do that, check on Ebay. I picked up the first two TNF, and they're wonderful, but I'm really trying to curb my spending, esp. on comics, lately.

LOEB: "So there's this new Supergirl, and, like, Superman's all on her because she's from Krypton SUPPOSEDLY, and Batman's all jealous like 'Hell no she's a freak!' so he contacts Wonder Woman to whisk her away to Amazonia or whatever, but then Darkseid wants some of that too, yeah? So he raids the place, kills that blue-helmet chick from Crisis, and takes her away."

ED: "OK, so what happens in the next issue?"

LOEB: "Next? Dude, that's the plot for the first THREE issues!"

Why I made Jeph Loeb sound like a Yale Repetory reject auditioning for the O.C., I dunno.

Anyway.

Went to the library last night and scored some Greg Rucka NOVELS. Turns out there's this huge section behind the Graphic Novel shelf that has books without pictures.

I also got:
Batman: As the Crow Flies - Wow. Dustin Nguyen is awesome. Now I have a much better idea of how much he brings to the Mahnke awesomeness (a lot).
Avengers: Supreme Power - I haven't had much luck getting into the Avengers, but what the fuck. It's free.
Scene of the Crime - Brubaker & Lark! Together again for the first time! Or something.

Borrowed Perez's "Gods & Monsters" Wonder Woman book, the latest Y trade (with THE EXPLANATION), Rucka's Superman "Unconventional Warfare" (which looked great, skimming it - seemed like they've done a good job modernizing the characters), a Way of the Rat trade (also looks great), the two Green Lantern & Green Arrow trades (the pointing, the pointing!), and a pile of others. All freeeeeeeeeeeee.

The Nguyen that inks Doug Mahnke is the one whose first name is "Tom", I believe.

Is "As the crow flies" good? It's like 20 bucks down here in argentina, and I wasn't planning to get it, but I've been interested in the few stuff I've seen from Dustin Nguyen, and I happen to have that money, which would sure be much more useful if spent in other, more important and truly needed stuff, but now I'm starting to feel this irrepressible urge to waste it in some generic Batman comic that will make me feel very guilty after I have bought it (i get this feeling, like, once or twice a year)

The Nguyen that inks Doug Mahnke is the one whose first name is "Tom", I believe.

You are correct, sir, and I am a giant asshole.
It's okay. The art is great, the story is so-so. I'm not sure where I stand on Winnick. I've read some really great stuff by him (the "Red Hood" business) and a lot of mediocre stuff (Green Arrow).

i like this place. mine has giant windows that look out over an old cemetery.

http://yearlongphotos.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/october-17-2012-boise-library.jpg?w=600

today they told me i qualify for a free membership even though i'm not a borough resident because i work for the school district.

!!!

The reading room at the ny pubic library is closed.

My old library in Round Rock had "The Death Ray" and "Locas Vol 2," making me very, very happy indeed.

QBPL has changed their logo, color scheme and website.

What comics did you get, though?

Ha, sorry, realized that later.

"Well, I'll be glad to help - on one condition. Give me a chance to show you that the library isn't some kind of prison or torture chamber."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35pSI-HOirM