Almost Like Firefly
So, my favorite new comic this week? (Not to be confused with a new favorite comic, though this is so far excellent and right up with my faves...)
The Lone Ranger.
No, seriously. And not just 'cause horses rock, and we just got a white Silver-like stallion on the farm.
Brett Matthews, who wrote the Firefly epi "Heart of Gold" (the one with the brothel and Mal tearing off on a horse to kick the eema of Kate's old nemesis from Lost) and co-wrote the Serenity comics with Joss, is now retelling the legend of the Lone Ranger in comic book form. I'd heard some cool things, and seen some gorgeous art in a preview, but what really sold me was this interview with Matthews (wherein he also talks a bit about 'Better Days', the new Firefly comic miniseries he in Joss are working on now, woot!). Sounded like a really neat approach to a totally Old Skool hero.
And the first issue? Totally lived up to it, and to his Firefly work. It focuses on the very beginning of the Lone Ranger's origin, pretty much one scene, but interspersed with flashbacks of the Ranger's childhood and adolescence. And the first flashback? Young John, maybe 4 or 5 years old, comes running up to his dad, who's just ridden home. "Did ya get him? Did ya get the bad man? Did ya kill him?!" And his dad smacks him, and tells him to go wash up for dinner. But after dinner he takes him outside, and they sit down on this huge tree stump next to the house. Dad tells John, "Yes, I caught him, and yes, I killed him. But that's nothing to be proud of. Do you know why, son?" And John thinks.
And then dad goes inside, and we get one of those pages we can only get in comic books. John sits alone on the big old tree stump, and in the course of three panels, the sun goes down behind him, and the stars come out. It's gorgeous. Sure, a movie could show you a time lapse of the sun setting behind the boy...but you wouldn't get the same feeling of stillness and time. It's gorgeous.
Then we see John slipping into his dad's room in the dark, where dad's trying to sleep. "The stump," John says. "You cut the tree down to build the house, but you still miss its shade."
That one line at the end there...that line alone was worth the whole $3 for the comic, for me. It says so much.
I do love great writing. *g*
The Lone Ranger.
No, seriously. And not just 'cause horses rock, and we just got a white Silver-like stallion on the farm.
Brett Matthews, who wrote the Firefly epi "Heart of Gold" (the one with the brothel and Mal tearing off on a horse to kick the eema of Kate's old nemesis from Lost) and co-wrote the Serenity comics with Joss, is now retelling the legend of the Lone Ranger in comic book form. I'd heard some cool things, and seen some gorgeous art in a preview, but what really sold me was this interview with Matthews (wherein he also talks a bit about 'Better Days', the new Firefly comic miniseries he in Joss are working on now, woot!). Sounded like a really neat approach to a totally Old Skool hero.
And the first issue? Totally lived up to it, and to his Firefly work. It focuses on the very beginning of the Lone Ranger's origin, pretty much one scene, but interspersed with flashbacks of the Ranger's childhood and adolescence. And the first flashback? Young John, maybe 4 or 5 years old, comes running up to his dad, who's just ridden home. "Did ya get him? Did ya get the bad man? Did ya kill him?!" And his dad smacks him, and tells him to go wash up for dinner. But after dinner he takes him outside, and they sit down on this huge tree stump next to the house. Dad tells John, "Yes, I caught him, and yes, I killed him. But that's nothing to be proud of. Do you know why, son?" And John thinks.
And then dad goes inside, and we get one of those pages we can only get in comic books. John sits alone on the big old tree stump, and in the course of three panels, the sun goes down behind him, and the stars come out. It's gorgeous. Sure, a movie could show you a time lapse of the sun setting behind the boy...but you wouldn't get the same feeling of stillness and time. It's gorgeous.
Then we see John slipping into his dad's room in the dark, where dad's trying to sleep. "The stump," John says. "You cut the tree down to build the house, but you still miss its shade."
That one line at the end there...that line alone was worth the whole $3 for the comic, for me. It says so much.
I do love great writing. *g*