"Adlard's art is much better this time out..."
You know the first chapter of ONE SHOT, ONE BEER was published four months before the first chapter of 1959, yes? And you must not have read the interstitials, or you'd have seen the skintight military uniforms and the climb up the rocket for what they are...
I've got half a mind to start reviewing reviewers... "While Johnny B obviously has a love of comics that doesn't stop him from telling the world about the books he reads (and his rough-hewn enthusiasm really is quite charming), one could hope he'd just slow down and experience the stories he reads instead of just careening haphazardly through them.
"Quoting an ongoing SCURV gag 'the goat says... TRUE' incorrectly (it's a cow, JB, not a goat; missing that Col. Macadam in 1959 is a commentary on the superhero (when it says so plainly in the intro to the story); and decrying the lack of specifics in an issue of DEMO when the specifics are clearly not part of the story reveal Johhny B to be heartfelt and earnest but not exactly detail-oriented. A valiant effort this time out from the respected blogger, but we've seen so much better from him in the past. One hopes for a quick return-to-form. Three out of five."
I'm a Capricorn, hence the "goat" reference.
And my factual errors, I suppose, stem from the amount of time between reading and getting around to writing about. The ol' memory isn't what it used to be. I could go back and correct my mistakes, but I suppose that would be beside the point.
My fuckups aside, I had a terrible time getting through 1959, and enjoyed the other two stories, irregardless of when they were published, a lot more. Better?
Good thing I don't get paid for writing comics commentary, isn't it! Sorry if I stepped on any toes.
Man, I was just goofin' around. It's all good. Hence those smilies.
Thanks for the attention, and seriously, keep them reviews coming!
Dude, are you trying to go all Captain Kirk vs. computers on me!?!
You correctly say I erred here and erred there...then you say it's all good but I still messed up but it's OK and that's NOT good but you don't mind and *bzzt* *Sprrrzzz* *Urrrrrrrrrr.......*
Macadam clinging to that rocket is just about the closest thing we've had, in the last 150 years, to Ahab riding that whale into hell! I really liked it!
Dave
I suppose the visual, as usual, overwhelms the metaphorical with me. My eye just saw a bland portrayal of what I assumed to be Fifties-style humans, and not metaphors or anything like that.
It's telling that I completely missed the point, again, on another Youngian superhero commentary,.
I can see the Ahab comparison, though...but I still had a hard time accepting him climbing up that ladder! I can only accept so much in the pursuit of a point!
And now that I'm home, and have access to the book, I did read the introduction and see where Larry plainly says that the second half is supposed to be a comment on the superhero...problem is, I generally tend to skip introductions! Character flaw, I suppose, but I kinda like to judge the story on its own merits, and put intros on the back burner until much later. Chances are I would have gotten around to reading that intro months later, and a little blinking light bulb would have appeared over my head. "Oh yeah! That's what that was all about!"
"It's telling that I completely missed the point, again, on another Youngian superhero commentary."
At least I've got ya thinking now that there might be something going on in one of my comics besides the first-blush impressions.
" I can see the Ahab comparison, though...but I still had a hard time accepting him climbing up that ladder! I can only accept so much in the pursuit of a point!"
...aaand Augie De Blieck, Jr. can't stand the MacGuyver-esque machinations that Annie does to Heck's radio transmitter at the end of LIVE FROM THE MOON top ward off the missiles.
Everyone's suspension-of-deisbelief gets tripped over at different places. Whaddaya gonna do?
I fully expect that the next thing you write that I read will have me looking for commentary on the state of something...superheroes, comics publishers, whatever- and of course there will be nothing of the sort there.
Then I'll be fitted for one of those stylish white jackets with the long, long arms, and I'll go away for a while.
"I fully expect that the next thing you write that I read will have me looking for commentary on the state of something...superheroes, comics publishers, whatever- and of course there will be nothing of the sort there."
I'M BUSTED!
On the other hand, a writer has to be careful not to count on those reference-darts hitting their targets...my first novel just begs to be considered in juxtaposition with a host of classic Hollywood movies, and Frank Capra's works in particular, but if people haven't seen the films, or (worse!) find my prompts weak, then most of the point will be lost and that's on me--not the reader! And, of course, you don't want to "referencing-for-referencing's" sake either, that kind of in-group winking just drives people away!
(cont'd)
But the Macadam/Ahab thing really works for me because Larry doesn't just reshoot the final scene of Moby Dick in modern dress (as, for instance, Raoul Walsh did in White Heat--the whiteness of the womb?--"made it ma! top a' tha world!"), he actually contrives to present us with a wonderful (off-the-record) look at what the mad captain's last moments on that whale's back might have been like (a sequence which Melville neglects to give us in the original!)
Dave
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