Trenches

Trenches is another comic by Scott Mills. I may have noted that I didn't like his artwork much previously. I suppose it works a little better for a wartime story, but I still don't much like it.



As might be imagined, this is a WWI story. The story passes though many events, but with very little detail, much like the artwork. It's nice, but unsatisfying for me. It feels too leisurely and almost empty even though much story is covered because of the lack of detail. I seem to prefer detail to the point of clutter.

The characters have distinctive visual traits and there are only a few main characters, but it can still be difficult to figure out who is who. This one also has a character who has been bald since he was a child. I wonder why this is a common factor.

(The image included above is copyright 2002 by Scott Mills.)

Heat Guy J

Heat Guy J is a fun anime with a great soundtrack set it what is perhaps a future. It builds up a fairly interesting world as the backdrop for a story that is too complicated to fit all the details into 25 episodes. Also, I don't actually own it (and saw it quite a while ago) so I can't refer back to it as I look at the manga, which is what I've got here.

Whereas most anime is derived from manga source, this one is the other way around. If one didn't already know that, the list of four names on the cover might give a big hint. So as a derivative work, and having seen the original, the question "What does this add?" seems valid. After all there was plenty to try to fill in with the original story and surely many new stories that could have been written. So, what does this add?

Unfortunately, the answer is "absolutely nothing". What you get in the manga is a choppy retelling of 4 early episodes with foreshadowing of the overall story thrown in here and there to try to get the reader hooked into wanting to read more. Clearly there was a plan to continue on and maybe eventually add something but, well, there is a reason this book doesn't have the expected volume number on it. It just doesn't carry. What was dramatic in the anime is not dramatic placed in a single panel, at least not the way this was carried off. However, since the treatment isn't changed any, all the visual elements have to work the same way when they are shown panel by panel as when they are shown animated. It just isn't the same. The result is generally blah.

Also, it's totally missing that great soundtrack.

Thud!

Finally got around to reading Thud! by Terry Pratchett. Well, actually in May.

Once upon a time there was a guard who didn't really feel like lining up for convenient slashing by the Hero in the book. But now the once-was-city-guard Hero slashes through the guards all lined up with little thought...

And that's all I'm going to say about that. The guards books aren't really my favorite anyway. Well, there's Jingo... and anything with time travel... Er, where's that Johnny Maxwell book that keeps being mentioned?

groceries

Apparently there is now a local Tesco, but someone's decided to call it "Fresh & Easy" instead. Maybe, just maybe, they carry a Maya Gold. This would be important to know, especially with Wild Oats closing in favor of a new Whole Foods. Sure the new Whole Foods has fresh doughnuts on the hour, but it isn't within walking distance and the interior portions of a Whole Foods tend to be full of extremely tempting and expensive luxuries. Even the edges have exotic cheeses.

Lurking deep in the shadows

A piece at the Savage Critic traces the influences that led to the hero who lurks deep in the shadows best known today, Batman. Of course the Shadow is mentioned, he who knows what evil llllurks in the hearts of men. Zorro is not mentioned, for some reason, even though he was a movie in 1920 and serials before that and also an obvious influence. Mostly the post is given over to telling of the French silent serial Judex, which sounds like an interesting series as does the other work by the same maker described.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that archive.org has any of the Judex serials. It has got The Shadow for your listening pleasure and the classic Zorro movie (and some serials).

Maybe it sounds particularly interesting since I've been getting out the old radio serial mp3s and listening to The Shadow and The Third Man and as well as some shows not starring Orson Wells and some new stuff off the BBC for entertainment while knitting.

Speaking of Orson Wells and today being All Hallows' Eve, here's one more thing in the archive for your listening pleasure.

Oh, yeah. 100!

Creator owned is better

One of the actual reasons manga can be better than certain American comics is that it is creator owned.

Once I picked up Death: At Death's Door and asked about it. My comic guy explained how popular Jill Thompson's other efforts with the Endless were and that this was a new story for that audience, etc. "Ah," say I, going on to summarize, "sanctioned fanfic." It has finally percolated through my thick head why the answer to that was pretty much a grumble. Also why this is a particularly ironic title to say that about.

A great part (it's a good store and I couldn't say if this is over or under half) of the content of the store could be summed up as "sanctioned fanfic" or, worse, "solicited fanfic". The characters in so many books are corporate properties written and illustrated by the page by someone who did not originally create the world or the character. All too often by someone who would rather be working on something else.

The stories add on year after year until there is far too much life lived for one character and something happens (cue Superboy!) so that everything can start over again. Besides, the inconsistencies from having so many cooks were probably starting to add up.

Creating something new seems to be anathema. If a new character is needed, often an old character is recycled instead. Pick one off a back shelf and give it a makeover. Or, better yet, find one that is still active enough to have a following so there's a built in audience! There's a laziness about it on both sides. The publisher doesn't have to pay a new creator and the audience doesn't have to go looking for new interesting characters because the stories about the ones they've found already never end.

There can be good stuff to come from this. The Sandman series, from which the book I'd picked up derives, is, I am given to understand, work for hire. A long forgotten character completely reinvented for a pitch and the publisher had the good sense to agree. (That other guy who wrote Good Omens is really a rather good writer whatever he goes after.)

There is plenty of chaff as well. Personally, I find the sudden appearance of a character who just happens to be owned by the same company but doesn't usually seem to be in the same sort of world stomach turning. Your average creator can tell which sets of characters should be interacting and doesn't mix them up, your average company full of corporate owned characters sees a quick buck in giant crossovers between groups and no one can stop them because they own all the trademarks. (I don't know how this gets them the bucks, but apparently people buy it.)

Of course it all ultimately comes down to the writing. A bad writer may have a better chance of it if handed the ready made setting and populous, but there really is no need to coddle bad writers. Meanwhile a good writer can be susceptible to all the world crossing, cameos of favorite characters not involved, and whatever else that is the mark of fanfic and not of good stories.

Longer is not better

Apparently one of the reasons "manga is better" than American comics is because it is longer. How so? Almost all of the manga that makes it to this country is serialized in weekly or monthly anthology magazines. There's only 16-18 pages of story in a weekly magazine and usually less than twice that for a monthly. Then 10 weekly or 5-6 monthly chapters get collected into a book that is usually a little under 200 pages, the form we see it. If people only ever picked up the collections of American comics, they would get a nice long story too. Usually one that is a complete arc, too, rather than an arbitrary collection.

I especially love when someone claiming manga is "longer" goes on to extol the virtues of some weekly Jump title that is selling like hotcakes. For me, these embody why longer is not always better. Quite a lot of these start off with some overall plot to frame the story in, but this quickly becomes merely a frame for a repetitive story by some author who has found it very nice to have a consistent paycheck and will milk it for as many years as possible.

You can get the same thin frame with an American comic. You don't even have to look past the superheros to find it. Is "This is the life of Super-X, to whom life has thrown a curve ball and now s/he wants to do good for the world!" any less substantial than "This is the life of a rubbery boy who, inspired by his pirate hero, is trying to be the pirate king!"? Well, I suppose the second one has a goal and thus an ending is promised. Judging by the talk, that end is even in sight. (But how many times has it been in sight before?) I don't actually know because I never got past the first volume.

And, for the record, manga is full of superheros.