I'm at work on my lunch break so you'll have to forgive the lack of illustrations, you will, you will!!
Saw Scott Pilgrim vs the World last night. I've only read the first graphic novel, which was OK despite Scott being a royal git. Michael Cera managed to instill the character with a vulnerability that made the character more sympathetic than the print version. Most of the cast are great, especially Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans and Brandon Routh and the film is tirelessly inventive, lifting computer game iconography to transform cinematic visual storytelling. Of course, the whole thing is fantasy and bears less and less resemblance to real life as the film progresses.
Quirky and certainly unique, the film is great fun but may date itself fairly quickly...
The other piece of triumphant fiction I've devoured lately was the Blackest Night hardcover. This is the exact treatment I like to see in collections: a consistent creative team throughout and with the titles and credits removed from the individual issues to create a greater sense of a cohesive story rather than a staggered grab bag of issues. Following the disastrous Infinite Crisis series, I was cautious about this but the buzz and leaked news around BN made me hopeful and that chance really paid off.
Characters were wiped out, other popular ones resurrected (why bring Captain Boomerang and Osiris back but not Ted Kord or Tempest?) and an overpowering menace to defeat. The characterisations were spot on, the art atmospheric and spectacular (double page followed awesome double page spread filled with bazillions of characters) and there were a few nice extras at the back, although the commentary wasn't as informative as I'd expected, resorting to backslapping self congratulations at any given moment. Still, as superhero epics go, this one really does live up to the hype and tells a great redemptive story...
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2 comments:
Couldn't agree more about Scott.
Couldn't care less about BN.
However, I do disagree about removing credits from trade collections - a personal bugbear of mine. I suppose it's OK if the whole book is written and drawn by the same creative team, but otherwise it's very annoying trying to work out who drew what.
But that's why I like collections by a consistent creative team, something like Watchmen, Ex Machina or even Spider-Man Loves MaryJane rather than the average Marvel collection featuring umpteen different artists, that really throws me out of the story.
Similarly, credits and Coming Next Issue boxes also throw me out, I like the removal of these in the BN collection as it results in a far stronger complete unit, though still separated by cover art to break into chapters.
Similarly, I've never read an issue of the Walking Dead but I love the collections as they really hold ogether as good solid chunks of story (though Kirkman could do more to create an arc for each collection).
Credits on a title page are fine (especially if you are trying to pin down a creator of a specific sequence!)but distract me personally...
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