Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Am I still killing comics?

* I have yet to finish Alice in Sunderland. I got it, what, nearly two months ago? Yeah, still haven't finished it. I've tried, but, you know what? It's not doing a whole lot for me. Sure, Talbot does some interesting stuff with genre, form, narrative voice, etc., but, really, that only takes you so far before pages upon pages of historical facts bog things down.

Now, I plan to finish it at some point, but I can't right now. I know it's supposed to be brilliant and all, but I'm not going to fake loving something I'm not just to fit in with the comic book elite (and I do say that in the most joking way possible, just so you know).

* Can't seem to attempt the rereading of Superman: For Tomorrow. It's been sitting atop my pile of stuff for a few days now and every time I open it, I see that Jim Lee art and every aethetic bone in my body screams. I really don't get the attraction to his work beyond thinking back to those days of the early '90s when that style was all the vogue and "Writing? What writing?" was yelled by fanboys from coast-to-coast.

* I did reread Warren Ellis' JLA Classified story and have decided that one of the reasons why DC is failing so much is that this is not the voice they are using. My god, do you know how refreshing it is to read a comic where these people actually talk like fucking adults? The scenes involving Lois and Clark are pure gold--imagine that, journalists being snarky, sarcastic and competitive, but not in a cutesy Grant/Hepburn way? There are a couple of spots where the Ellisisms become a bit too much, but, for the most part, you can see why Marvel has tapped the guy to write superhero books for them.