Graphic Novel review #34

Cinema Panopticum

Written and illustrated by: Thomas Ott

Published: 2005

My Thoughts: I first came across Thomas Ott through his illustrated cover for Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I love his scratchboard art style, it adds an enormous amount of visual complexity to his stories, which is necessary since they are entirely wordless. Cinema Panopticum follows a girl at a fair who can't take part in any of the activities on offer because she doesn't have enough money. She finally finds the Cinema Panopticum tent, which has 5 movie boxes that are cheap enough for her to afford. Each movie is another short chapter, and the stories are all fairly dark and foreboding, although some are laced with a wicked wit while others are just downright heartbreaking. It's only a short little book but it packs one hell of a wallop.

Birds of Prey: The Death of Oracle (volume 2)

Written by: Gail Simone; Illustrated by: Adrian Syaf

Published: 2011

My Thoughts: I picked this up thinking it was the first volume (I hate when they don't number the spine!) but even so, it clearly sets out all of the major players and recent events at the start of each issue, so that presented no real issue. The story is interesting enough, Oracle (Barbara Gordon, now in a wheelchair) has garnered a little too much attention as a tech-genius and her enemies are now doubling-down on trying to eliminate her. Not only is Oracle a credible threat in her own right, but as Oracle she monitors and supports countless of other heroes so any threat on her life has a knock on effect. The rest of the Birds of Prey are tasked with trying to save Oracle while also having to come to grips with their own dark pasts. This is my, to my knowledge, first Gail Simone and ... I didn't love it? It's a solid story and the characters are well-developed but it didn't wow me. But an (almost) all female team of heroes, some of whom began as anti-heroes or dabbled with villainy, is too good a concept for me to give up on after one middling edition. I'll give it at least one more edition and make my mind up then.

Lady Justice (volume 1)

Written and illustrated by: C.J Henderson; Fred Harper; Daniel Brereton

Published: 2008 (though the collected comics are from the 90s)

My Thoughts: Ugh, this is a good example of making sure you read the fine print. In case you can't see in the cover image, Neil Gaiman's name is written above the title. Awesome!, I thought. Turns out it's not written by Gaiman but merely based on a character of his, and loosely, so very loosely. The concept itself is kinda awesome (kudos to Gaiman). Lady Justice appears to women who have been wronged and implants them with her powers, making them her physical avatar. They then have the power to gain justice for the wrongs they've experienced. The first issue is very violent and very bloody, but when Lady Justice leaves her avatar and the woman cries for her to stay saying she "did everything L.J asked of her," Lady Justice replies that she didn't say how the justice should be meted out and that "the blood and violence was entirely her choice, and she should beware that she isn't revisted in the future by another Lady Justice avatar"*. This I actually really dug, but this story was completely destroyed by the following two or three stories which were equally as bloody and equally as violent. What happened to choosing how to deliver justice? Or that the justice should be proportionate to the crime? I think there was one which actually had the bad guys going to jail instead of dying, but plenty of other people had died by this point. It's just all so pointless. The art is also very '90s pornographic superhero style. Huge gravity defying boobs, tiny waists and the women are always walking on tip-toes. Pass if you ever see this guys, HARD pass.



*my paraphrasing

Graphic Novel Mini-reviews #33

Chew: International Flavor (Volume 2)

Written by: John Layman; illustrated by: Rob Guillory

Published: 2014

My Thoughts: I read the first volume of Chew aaaaaaages ago, but I never got around to buying the second volume. God knows why because these comics are side-achingly funny. To recap a bit, Tony Chu is a cop who is cibopathic - meaning that he can get the "history" of something by tasting it. Yes that means he can tell whether that black market chicken soup is made with real chicken, yes that means he also takes the occasional bite out of a dead person. It makes for some disgusting moments (especially when you factor in a boss who hates him) but they're always hilarious. In this volume Tony finds himself on a little island renowned for its lax chicken laws, something which attracts everyone from his chicken-chef brother and a host of tourists and chefs to the island. But it turns out the chicken isn't actually chicken, and perhaps some of the chefs aren't here of their own volition. Throw in a vampire, a bionic partner, a host of cibopathic-style specialties and you've got the best cop comic written about illegal chicken ever. EVER.

Thor: Goddess of Thunder (volume 1)

Written by: Jason Aaron; illustrated by: Russell Dauterman

Published: 2015

My Thoughts: Lady Thor!! YES! I put off reading this run until the first volume came out because I instinctively knew that it'd be one that would make me sad if I couldn't just read through a big chunk of it. Basically, male Thor has become unworthy of wielding Mjolnir and a secret female has picked it up and been transformed into the female incarnation of Thor. Who she is out of Asgardian armour we don't know (yet) but what we do know is that she knows male Thor to some degree. There's a really interesting discussion about what makes a person Thor, is it a mantle that can be adopted by whoever holds Mjolnir or is it intrinsically tied to the man who originally held that name. And are you worthy of the name just because you can hold the hammer, or does the name hold another measure of worthiness? The comic subtly plays with male vs female expectations within the comics world, weaving it into the broader story while never making it the story. I'm not familar with Russell Dauterman's other work, but his illustrations in this volume (all but one issue) are really evocative and beautiful. 

Cat Person

Written and illustrated by: Seo Kim

Published: 2014

My thoughts: A few weeks ago Tom and I headed down to the Gold Coast to attend the final weekend of their film festival. We had some time to spare before seeing a movie, so we ended up popping into a library and having some reading down time. I picked up Cat Person because, duh. OF COURSE I picked up a book that was clearly written for me. It's a short collection of 1-4 panel comics created by Seo Kim. In direct contradiction to the title, the cat comics are only actually a small part of the book. The comics are broken into 4 autobiographical sections about her love life, her cat (I want to say Jimmy?) and her life as an illustrator. It's really cute and relateable, but it's probably not made to be read front to back in one sitting like I did. It's the kind of book that you flick through and read a couple of comics every now and then.

Monday Links

*Anyone else got the Game of Thrones blues? Well this blog looks at the relationship between Norse mythology and the Game of Thrones world and it is AWESOME. (Via Game of Throne and Norse Mythology)

*I find Taylor Swift boring and her "don't call me a feminist" stance mind-boggling (seriously, how is any woman not a feminist?) but the Feminist Taylor Swift twitter account is awesome. I would probably listen to her songs if these were the lyrics. (Via Twitter)

*I'm still too scared to read any James Joyce, but even I can appreciate the awesomeness of this recording of Joyce reading Ulysses. (Via Flavorwire)

*I wish I was artistic. Tatsuo Horiuchi makes art using excel spreadsheets. I still don't exactly know how that's possible. (Via Spoon Tamago)

*There's a documentary on J.D. Salinger coming out later this year. Follow the link for the trailer and a bit of info about the project. The trailer's a little questionable but the subject matter is wicked. (Via Slashfilm)

*Here are some fancy ladies dressing up as different iterations of Doctor Who (Via Buzzfeed)

*Been looking to get into comics or experimental novels? Why not combine the two? By the way, if anyone wants to buy me a copy of Building Stories, please and thank you. (Via Flavorwire)

Monday Links

*The latest in Mean Girls mash ups - Mad Men/Mean Girls. LOVE. (Via Mean Mad Men)

*Because Harry Potter is on (most of) our minds - here's an article that questions why Hermione is the only one who ever gets revenge. Thoughts guys? (Via MuggleNet)

*I have a friend. She is a wonderfully talented illustrator. She just created a series of three illustrations titled "togetherness" showing three different couples sleeping. It's adorable, and wonderful and you should go shower her with praise. (Via Lauren Carney Art)

*Here are some of film's best break up lines. These Super beat the "Welcome to Dumpsville, population You" line one of the boys in year 8 used on his girlfriend. Boys, amirite? (Via Flavorwire)

*These bookplates are so amazing. I would love to have a personalised set of bookplates, and if that means becoming famous then look out world famous I will be. (Einstein's are definitely the best) (Via Buzzfeed)

*Like comics? Course you do. Here's Brian K Vaughan's (Y: The Last Man) newest digital comic, The Private Eye, which you are free to pay as little (or as much) as you like (Via Panel Syndicate)

*Tilda Swinton is sleeping in a box. For art. At MoMA. (Via Uproxx)

*These camoflage/wallflowers portraits are awesome, and I want to do one. It seems...right. (Via Flavorwire)

*Stay tuned tomorrow, I'm giving away a copy of Ready Player One plus *something*. You are all welcome.

My Whirlwind trip in Sydney: Harlequin, Kinokuniya and Anish Kapoor

Last week was pretty rocking. Or two days were anyway. On Wednesday I hopped on a plane and flew down to Sydney for the Harlequin blogger summit, and I extended my trip to spend Thursday with a friend checking out some of the galleries and museums.

I flew in early so that I'd have a chance to check out Sydney and man, I landed on the most gorgeous day possible. The sun was shining, and I had the best time walking from Central Station down to Darling Harbour, popping into book stores and clothing stores that Brisbane could only dream of having. Number one stop along the way was the most wonderful book store ever, Kinokuniya. I must have spent an hour and a half in there easy. Amazingly I made it out with only Ready Player One, but believe me when I tell you how hard it was not to spend several hundreds of my cashesh on all the amazing books, comics and toys they had.

At Darling Harbour I checked out the bridge and the Opera House, (it really was nice of the town planners to situate the two biggest tourist destinations next to one another) and even though I've seen each of them countless times before it's hard not to get caught up in the excitement of all the tourists hanging around the harbour.

Darling Harbour

A quick trip to my hotel to drop off all my stuff and then it was Summit time! Harlequin were nice enough to invite me, along with about 30 other bloggers to their offices in Chatswood for an afternoon of drinks, books and gossip. When I walked in I was met with a room of chairs covered with red bags. The Harlequin team had collected together a gift bag that excited us bloggers a whole bunch. Thanks to Harlequin I now am the owner of;

The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa
With All My Souls by Rachel Vincent
Wicked Kiss by Michelle Rowen
Saving Grace by Fiona McCallum

and a flash drive filled with the romance e-book titles for the whole month of March. And not so bookish, but equally great, was an umbrella - because the weather in Sydney had been less that sunny for the week or two previous.

Harlequin gifts. 

But the afternoon wasn't just about gifts. The team took us through the titles that were being released over the next few months, and introduced us to the new Community page that they've started up. Then author Rachel Vincent regaled us with talk on her books series, her less than smooth trip in Australia and a few teasers about what we can expect from her in the near future. She was very talkative, personable and funny, and wonderfully honest about the difficulties and problems that writing entails. While Rachel signed books, answered questions and posed for photos the rest of us mingled and got to know the people behind the blogs. It was a little awkward at first, mostly because so many of us don't go by our actual names or use photos as our icons - but once the conversations started (thanks to some wine and tasty treats) it was great to talk blog designs, new books, awkward author interactions and a bunch of other blogger topics.

After the afternoon wrapped up, we continued the conversation up at the Chelsea Hotel over more drinks and dinner. Rachel Vincent joined us for a brief spell, and I had a great time speaking to Belle (Belle's Bookshelf), Michelle (Maree's Musings ), Bree (All the Books I Can Read ) and Shelleyrae (Book'd Out) amongst others. I don't know anyone in Brisbane who blogs (about books or anything) so it was nice to finally have people to talk to face to face about blog related issues, but it was nice to also discuss weddings, degrees, living in the city and all the other things that go on in the lives of 20/30 somethings girls.

After the evening it was back to the hotel for a good night's sleep before day 2 of my super-short adventure. It really was a darling hotel, there are a few pictures on my instagram account, but they don't really do it justice. It was a preserved house from the turn of the century filled with creature comforts, personal balconies and the warmest welcome I've received at a hotel for quite a while. If you like the white sterility of Hiltons and Co you'd probably hate it, but I love how much character it had. It was also situated in leafy Chatswood, so it was like leaving the city - while only being a 10 minute train ride away.

The view from the seat on my balcony

Thursday my friend Ollie came up from Newcastle and we spent the day wandering around the city, and visiting the Powerhouse Museum (a must visit if you're ever in Sydney, it was my FAVOURITE place as a kid) which is a science and design museum housed in a huge old warehouse, and the Museum of Contemporary Art to see the Anish Kapoor exhibit. If you haven't heard of Anish Kapoor, he's an artist that like to make your head hurt. Or that might not be his goal, but it's certainly the result! He creates amazing installations and pieces which play with your idea of perspective and make it impossible to know if what you're seeing is, in fact, what you're seeing. There is a lot of work with mirrors and I had a wonderful time snapping the weird reflections of Ollie and I in these pieces. Two of my favourites were a large round mirror that was fragmented and showed a fly's perspective of people around/in front of it. But when you found the sweet spot, you were roughly recreated with these fragments of yourself, and the ambient sounds around you were dampened while your voice was amplified.

My next favourite was a HUGE mirror outside the museum. And when I say huge I mean mind-bogglingly huge and I still can't process exactly how it would have been transported there. It both completely fit in its surroundings and completely at odds with it - I'd love to see it in even more of an odd location, like a park or nature reserve, I'm sure the effect would be amplified even more.

That's me reflected in the big mirror on the right.

And that just about wraps it up. I said goodbye to Ollie and to Sydney and trekked it out to the airport once again. And aside from a brief freak out at the airport when I tried to plug in the wrong code into the self-service desk and thought I'd accidentally booked for the wrong day it was a pretty smooth trip home.

It was super fun to spend two whirl wind days in Sydney, and I must thank Harlequin for giving me an excuse for taking the trip! The summit was amazing, and I'd be the first to put my hand up if they were to host another. Thanks Harlequin!

Fanart Friday: Revised book covers

I know the saying is "don't judge a book by it's cover" but I really can't help it, I'm attracted to books with good looking covers. For me this typically means minimal artistic renderings with an absence of any photographs of people. (Actually, if you'd like to, you can check out the series of posts where I wax lyrical about my favourite covers). Anyway. I often look at book covers and think "what the hell is this piece of crap?!" Some covers are so repellent that it's hard to believe there could possibly be a quality book between the cover art, and I'm sure that more than once (or 10 times) I've missed out on a book purely because I can't bare to look at the glossy cover with the amateur photoshop job on the front. So in the spirit of pretty book covers that make you wish you had a copy right there in front of you, here are a bunch of fantastic artistic pieces that recreate or revise books covers with their own creative spin. I should add, none of these are books I think have shite covers normally, these covers just kick extra ass. I think The Shining and the series of Harry Potters are probably my favourites. Minimalistic design... FUCK YEAH!

It by Blaze-01

It by WhiteKnight222

The Shining by Traumatron

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by Shinigami1289

Neverwhere by AnirBrokenear

Good Omens by Chisaru-Chen

Harry Potter Covers by Missunderstood

Fanart Friday: Randall Flagg from The Stand

There are a few characters, both in film and literature, that just stick around. Some are like Dumbledore, physical and emotional embodiments of the words on the page that are strong and fixed in my mind. Others are more ambiguous, they're a pervasive reminder of an emotion that was evoked when I read the book or watched the film. Randall Flagg, the dark man, is one such character. If you've read Stephen King's phenomenal book The Stand you'll know what I mean. If you haven't, well, it might be hard to explain. Randall Flagg may have a corporeal form but he's far more insidious than that. He's like black smoke, a chill on the wind, the shadows that stir in your bedroom. He's everything you fear and hate and despair of. He's terrifying and one of the single most evocative characters I've ever read. These artists have done amazings jobs capturing the darkness and shiftiness of his character, be sure to check out the full size pictures at the link, as well as the rest of their work.

The Dark Man by LynxGriffin

Randall Flagg by Clayman 84

The Stand by Chris (Mooneyham)

Fanart Friday: The Doctors Who

I've discussed my personal favourite doctors, but really, like Harry Potter books, how can I truly pick one over another? They're all so charming and intellectual and complex and witty. They all have their own unique humour that is unlike anything on any other TV show. Next year marks 50 years since the series began. 50 years! Sure there have been gaps during that time, but it's still impressive. So in honour of the lengthy line of gents who have played the grandiose role of extra-terrestrial doctor, here are some ridiculously good artistic renderings of them. Make sure to click through the links, these pictures are only the tip of the iceberg in a myriad selection of gorgeous artwork.

The New Doctors by Osmosis8

Doctor Hoo by Pu-Sama

The Penultimate Supper by Raisegrate

Ten and Eleven by Angela-T

The Doctor With Eleven Faces by Myku

Fanart Friday: The TARDIS

"That's okay. We're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? 'Cause it was, you know. It was the best. The daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away. Did I ever tell you that I stole it? Well, I borrowed it. I was always going to take it back. Oh that box. Amy, you'll dream about that box. It'll never leave you. Big and little at the same time. Brand new and ancient and the bluest blue ever." -The Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) in The Big Bang (episode 13, season 5).

Doctor Who TARDIS keys by Police-Box-Traveler

TARDIS by Awkwardalpaca

Steampunk TARDIS by Promus-Kaa

The TARDIS in the Time Vortex by Thousand-Knights

Tardis by thedecay

Chameleon Circuit by Geodex

TARDIS by GirlofMelacholy

TARDIS by thegreatperhapss

Tardis by Stormkeeper

Fanart Friday: Good Omens

Fanart Friday is back! Now that my thesis is all done and dusted I could spend hours on Deviant Art looking for the greatest pictures of the greatest characters from the greatest books! For my first week back in six odd weeks I had to make sure it was with something special, and what is more special than depicting characters from the wonderful world created by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett? Though this is a Good Omens post, I probably should have called it Crowley and Aziraphale, because they feature pretty heavily. Can you blame me though? They're such fantastic characters who bounce off against each other perfectly. Black and white, yin and yang, light and dark, good and evil and all those binary opposites! Below are some of the best renderings of the Good Omens characters out in the interwebs. Make sure you click through the links to see them full size and the full range of the artists' incredible work. Especially the character profiles by JDillon82, squeezing them into my small blog frame really doesn't do them justice. Enjoy, and don't forget to let me know of any fanart requests you may have!

Good Omens by Mick347

Good Omens Armageddon by Himlayan

Good Omens- Humans by JDillon82

Good Omens - Supernaturals by JDillon82

Good Omens- Rain by Knaicha

Good Omens by Ankaris

Fallen superheroes

I came across this artist on the Society 6 website and just had to share his work with you all. Known as Boneface, this artist has created an extraordinary series of pictures that show the infallible, superior superheroes we all know and love looking a little worse for wear.