crockpotcauldron | Entries tagged with comics

Found out at the last minute that a hangout I was looking forward to wasn't gonna work out, so I hit up the comic shop instead. My rule is, I have to do something fun when plans with a friend fall through, so I don't mope. Got myself another copy of an excellent Riddler comic (it is a crime and a tragedy that there were so few issues of The Batman Adventures). Stopped at the vending machines on the way out, and wound up with a $5 coupon to the comic shop and a tiny hollow tiger big enough to keep painkillers in, which I have named Tiger Pudding.

On the way home, I stopped at the fabric store. Guess who owns fusible webbing again? It's me. Gonna get up to some dragon-related nonsense, if all proceeds according to plan. I also bought a couple Halloween magazines I had been looking at longingly for a while and was glad to stumble across in the store. The selection of orange is really bad here, though. There are literally two bolts of orange quilting cotton prints in the store - a flat orange with black polka dots, and a violently bright marbled print. I had thought Halloween would provide more orange, but apparently the polka dot one is all we get. It's just not in fashion right now, I guess, despite the variety of really cute orange prints in those Halloween magazines. I did pick up a nice orange fat quarter with a constellation print, though.

The fire alarm went off while I was browsing. I dutifully headed out the door, taking my purse and leaving my cart behind. A few people went out as well, but when the fire failed to manifest itself, they went back in and continued shopping. That poor cashier. The firefighters came and went, and electricians came and went. They had tripped the alarm doing construction next door. It took about half an hour before the piercing shrieks stopped. I seriously can't believe people went back in there.

If anyone ever wonders where I got my dime cart proclivities, my parents stumbled across 21 quilt books on the dime cart and bought them for me. Most of them are really good, actually! I enjoy traditional quilt blocks and historical books and scrap quilts. This was a delightful treasure trove for me.

I'm currently at two paper pieced dwarves - I'm refining my design, and figure I might as well do it using Tolkien colors, so that's Dwalin and Balin done. I've streamlined the piecing and changed little details like the pointiness of the hood, the width of the belt, and the size of the beard. Might get all the way to Thorin before I'm satisfied with it. I'm using the wrong scale and background fabric for this to be the mountain dwarf quilt I had planned, and I've overshot the Balin solo quilt design I was noodling around with, so I guess we will just see what happens.

Alright, here we go! A big old pile of cheap woofs. I have, technically, twelve of em, so that works out to four bucks. Let's see how well I spent it.

First out of the gate is Moonstruck, which is very adorable. Big fluffy lesbian werewolf barista protagonist. I'm not gonna bother giving star ratings to these, so let's just say I found it very enjoyable, but am not passionate about it.

Next, some sort of Marvel Who's Who or Encyclopedia, with the cover ripped off. It ranges from Molecule Man to Owl, but I bought it purely for the one page containing Deadly Nightshade. I just really enjoy having snoopy little insider details like her height (5'4") and strength level (Nightshade has the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height, and guild who engages in moderate regular exercise). There are technically probably no actual werewolves involved in this comic, since Nightshade just makes em, and is not one herself. There's an outside possibility Marvel has some sort of werewolf character whose name starts with something from Mo to Ow, I guess?

I picked up Legend for its talking dogs, which I consider close enough to werewolves to add this to the pile. I mean, it's not like werewolf literature is famous for its accurate depictions of wolf anatomy or psychology in the first place. This one's a bit grim, though! Postapocalyptic and full of murder and weird cat mysticism. This one might not be a keeper. I did like Animal Rites: Beasts of Burden, though.

Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre just barely squeaks in with some Wolfmen. I mean, they're all werewolves, but the plot is mostly about Dracula and a copyright infringement suit. Lots of lawyer shop talk, no woofing. I am not particularly the audience for urban fantasy: courtroom edition.

The Boogieman looks like someone's first indie scribbles. Not particularly good, I'm afraid. Does feature an actual werewolf, at least, though he seems to be set up to be the protagonist's sidekick in future issues. Can't promise I'll read em.

Cat Claw technically features the leg of a werewolf cameo on the last page, so I feel obliged to mention it here, though his actual introduction is in the next issue. He's one of those anthro wolf types, not a flat-faced Wolfman, and he does transform (as I learned from reading the following issues I found online), but he's a mad science whoopsie like Cat Claw, and has no further connections to werewolf mythology.

Speaking of werewolf mythology, I gotta look into Hellboy or something. I have the feeling there's gonna be at least one werewolf involved. Jim Henson's Storyteller series has that feeling too.

Back to werewolves, Jughead: the Hunger seems to be about the entire cast of Archie turning into werewolves in a horrible bloodbath? I have no idea why this comic happened, but it's really gross.

The Astounding Wolf-Man looks cute, and features a fresh werewolf rampaging around, but there isn't much in the copy I got, just a quick origin story. Free comic book day issue, you know how it goes. I'm going to check out the next issue.

Someone at the comic book sale recommended X-Force to me for werewolf content, but warned me about the thick eye-dialect Scottish accent on the werewolf, and the fact that she's a homophobe who swore revenge on her gay ex. I didn't get it, and I don't think I'm gonna give that one a shot.

I did get Rise of Magic: Possesses Megalith, which is a lovingly drawn werewolf punch-em-up involving a group of werewolf demon spirits trying to take over a superhero. Points for originality! I'm gonna read the next one to see how it goes.

3 Devils has the hilarious problem of someone rescuing a Wolfman-looking gentle werewolf from enslavement in a freak show, only to find out he also turns into a full moon rampage werewolf! I've never seen a double werewolf before, but I love this. Totally reading the next one.

I picked up a couple Mad-Dog comics. They have a gimmick where half is a tongue in cheek goofy superhero like early Batman, and the other half is a tortured vigilante with the same name. I checked the Wiki, and it's some sort of confusing matryoshka of references. Anyway, there's some gorgeous Ty Templeton art, and I like both halves of the comic, though they have absolutely nothing to do with each other and are very confusing to read together.

So, out of twelve comics, I only got a couple stinkers, and I'm happy with the majority of them. Good job, past me. I've got an early morning, so I needed to stop reading werewolf comics and go to bed fifteen minutes ago. Ah well! Some things are worth staying up for.

Oh shit, it's been a week! I intended to make this a regular thing, and lost track of it. Time flies when you're not desperately unhappy, I guess. Also haven't felt the urge to make postcards, or anything, really. I'm in a much better place, but also a much less productive place right now. I've been reading and slowly dragging my room into order. Mostly reading. I've made my way through all the non-werewolf comics (I saved the woofs for last).

Highlights:

Phil Foglio! I've got Angel and the Ape, and a couple issues of Myth Adventures, and I really like seeing how his art style and humor has developed over the years. I can see Agatha Heterodyne's face in Angel O'Day, and the early cluttered scenes and heavy inking in the bazaar scenes of Myth Adventures - not to mention the Jägermonsters! I'm not saying I'd obsessively buy everything Phil has ever written, but I do own a bunch of Dragon Magazines purely for What's New With Phil & Dixie, and I always gasp in delight when I find his stuff at the comic book sales.

Astro City! Not my favorite issues - the Blue Knight storyline with the lawyer, and the Roustabout story with the city kid learning Valuable Lessons about how Smallville works - but I actually appreciate them a lot more outside their TPBs, since I'm not spoiled by all the other fantastic stories crammed in with them. (My favorites are Jack-in-the-Box and Steeljack. You'd think I would go for the Furst Family, since I really like the Fantastic Four, but there are too many of them, and they just don't get compelling plotlines or emotional arcs. Kurt Busiek is the master of character studies via AUs and What Ifs, and there's a lot more Astro City to go, so there's still hope for the Fursts, but The Tarnished Angel and Family Album are so damn good.)

I was initially disappointed I only found the last half of Huck, but turns out it is actually waaaaay more tolerable than reading the whole thing - I had forgotten how queasily conservative the beginning actually is. Thanks, Mark Millar. It's got that unpleasant aura of nostalgic wholesomeness that Shazam has to it, where you are in no doubt about the author's worldviews and where someone like you would rate. Once it drags itself past the smug politics (do NOT use real life tragedies to grandstand, you motherfucker) and gets into the action, it is a fairly enjoyable spinoff of those Superman In Russia plotlines. Man, I shouldn't have borrowed the first half from the library.

Anyway, onwards to better comics. Jim Henson's The Storyteller is beautiful and fuckin wild. So much dragon bullshit, it's great. I was already familiar with The Worm of Lambton, but Albina was unexpectedly gay and delightful. Such great art, too.

I was pleasantly surprised to find Brave Chef Brianna and Moonstruck at the sale. Soft urban fantasy leads are such a good take - chefs and baristas and cities full of diverse monsters. Same warm queer vibe as Les Normaux. I have a soft spot for reclaiming monsters.

I enjoyed the Fantastic Four fluff I picked up - a wedding special, a Marvel Age reboot for the kiddos, a Doom origin story, and a grim What If. Also, what seems to be a parody - a FF-like team called Mystery Incorporated. The hothead younger brother has flight and electricity powers - and he's the younger brother of the Thing parallel, who can freely transform into a crater-faced moon-headed super-strong monster. Mr. Fantastic's replacement can turn into a Sandman-like swarm of pink crystals, and has a few intriguing tricks, while Invisible Woman's replacement is way less interesting, just turning into gas clouds while keeping all the limp uselessness of early-continuity Sue Storm. While it's interesting to look at the shaken-up power dynamics and relationships a bit of power-swapping and family-rearranging does, goddamn does the sexism grate my cheese. I hate it when they deliberately reproduce the bad bits of an era while making parodies. Oh man, it's Alan Moore. Well, that explains it.

There was an intriguing Lynda Barry comic that has the feeling of a zine, but I like her actual comics much better than her writing-about-writing-comics book. I didn't like Scott McCloud's try either. Just not a fan of the narrative framing. Ah well, I still like Lynda Barry, and should chase down 1000 Demons again.

I picked up Dragonfly vs Stardust purely because it had two women having a superpowers fight on the cover. There are in fact more women inside, passing the Bechdel Test, but it's still a fairly lukewarm comic. I feel like some people just don't know what makes superheroes interesting besides Cool Powers.

Cat Claw, meanwhile, is hilarious. It's like if Spider-Man got his powers the usual way, and had his constant classes-vs-heroism struggle, and his rogues gallery, but also ripped his costume so his dick showed every few pages. There's no sex and very little sexy posing - mostly she just bolts into a fight half naked or gets a strap ripped off her inadequate little swimsuit costume. In a way, the willingness to go tits-out makes the fanservice easier to tolerate - she is simply half naked and kicking men in the face, and there's no coy smugness about how much objectification the creative team can sneak in. The fishnet stockings are lovingly contoured, but I'm just not sure what to make of this comic - are you supposed to jerk off to it? It's just not sexy. It would be like trying to jerk off to a Spider-Man comic where the plot continues as normal, but every now and then Spidey's costume rides low enough to show his pubes, or his roommate Harry strips naked and wanders past to brush his teeth and nobody ever acts like that's weird.

The last notable story is Solar: Man of the Atom, a Valiant superhero I've never heard of, but who has a hilarious cover featuring him in full costume trying to explain himself to his angry wife, while a pissy-faced supervillain sits tied up by their Christmas tree. What a cover. I have a small collection of comics I bring out every Christmas, and this is gonna be one of them.

Well, it's late and that was nowhere near as brief as I thought it was gonna be, but I had fun chattering about comics. I have many opinions! And the nice thing about Dreamwidth is, it's so quiet that nobody's gonna jump up my ass with 2,000 of their friends because I talked shit about Their Faves. There are many things I don't miss about Tumblr. I say, having opened Tumblr twenty minutes ago. Anyway, goodnight!

Went to the comic book sale! Arrived early, got a fantastic parking spot, and plunged into the longboxes. Nine hours later, came out with not quite enough comics to make getting a shortbox cost-efficient. Half of the comics were for friends with very easy wishlists, and the rest were glorious garbage for me. I've got ten new werewolf comics, some Fantastic Four, THREE Phil Foglios I've never seen before, a copy of a Hitman comic I regretted giving away years ago, a couple Astro City issues, and a bunch of stuff that caught my eye.

I have a warm glow of satisfaction (and a quiver of regret for the fish that got away in previous years) but I will not be attending the sale tomorrow, or trying to complete a tour of the longboxes again. That was an ordeal! The temperature was okay, and I packed a little cooler of sandwiches and ice water, but I kinda got tunnel vision and didn't take breaks or eat a proper lunch because I wanted to keep going. (Don't do that, kids. I had to eat my sandwiches in the car before I drove home because I was dizzy.)

Anyway, I think I got it out of my system, and in the future I will spend a more moderate amount of time at comic book sales. I didn't even look at the comics bundles, the toys, DVDs, graphic novels, or the back issues in the store. One human being simply cannot accomplish all that in one day, and though the sale runs two days, I have had my fill, and will quietly digest my prey and wait six months for the next sale.