no wikipedia, not asteroid polly... though that sounds neat, too
It's going to be moments like this that I hate myself for when it's day 12 of 14 and I have 30 pages to go, I know, but I just couldn't brain anymore tonight, knowing I am getting up at 8am to have breakfast and attend my first acting class, and so I finished a graphic novel I'd been working through over the past week.
This makes twice in the last month that I've finished a book to say, "That was one of the best books in comic form I have ever read."
The first, Low Moon by Norwegian artist Jason, uses a deceptively simple style to tell a series of great, absurd, sad little stories. (I also read Jason's I Killed Adolf Hitler, which was great but not as good as the newer, sharper Low Moon.) I loved it in the way I love a Tao Lin story. There's something deeper beneath the deadpan madness at work, and it's magical.
But the second really blew me away. The first graphic novel by longtime artist David Mazzucchelli, known to me only for collaborating on my two favorite Frank Miller works (Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One), Asterios Polyp feels sprawly, like a novel or a European film from the 60s or something, and it very openly but cleverly uses the style of the art, that whole "visual language of comics" thing, to explore deeper levels in its characterization and world. As I read it I was most struck by the technical aspects more than its storytelling, but when I got to the end, I'm not going to lie to you: I had tears all running down my cheek like a bastard. How do you like that? The characters really got to me. And maybe it's just me, or maybe -- and this is a fear I'm starting to actually develop -- there is a common trope here, the arrogant fiercely-intellectual/cold-fish White Dude who has and loses the love of his life, a relaxed wall-flower/shy-artist Asian Chick, and my life so far and one of the biggest pains in it is nothing more than a tacky stereotype of my generation. (I am far too dead-brained tonight to go back and reparse that sentence for you. You're on your own.)
Anyway, man oh man, Asterios Polyp does for comics a lot of the stuff Alan Moore famously complains comics don't do anymore. Everyone should read it. Especially artists or storytellers. Everything in it is what it needs to be, and nothing is accidental or incidental. All aspects of the medium are united to tell the story he wants to tell, and on top of that, as I said, the story moved me to wet-eyes. Low Moon is a vastly different approach, more minimalism that allows for some delicate and bizarre storytelling that I love. Both are stories that resonated with me in that "I-could-have-written-this-well-not-really-but-I-wish-I-had" kind of way.
Please read these and know, 2009 is a good year for comics.
Now: I hope I can be a little inspired and make it a good year for screenwriting. I'll give a progress report later. I cheated (writing filler-descriptions in for 1/3 of the scenes) and got to my goal of the End of Act One. I have so far to go still. I really just can't see the other side of this mountain of work ahead of me. I can't imagine completing it.
Won't stop me from trying, by gum.
This makes twice in the last month that I've finished a book to say, "That was one of the best books in comic form I have ever read."
The first, Low Moon by Norwegian artist Jason, uses a deceptively simple style to tell a series of great, absurd, sad little stories. (I also read Jason's I Killed Adolf Hitler, which was great but not as good as the newer, sharper Low Moon.) I loved it in the way I love a Tao Lin story. There's something deeper beneath the deadpan madness at work, and it's magical.
But the second really blew me away. The first graphic novel by longtime artist David Mazzucchelli, known to me only for collaborating on my two favorite Frank Miller works (Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One), Asterios Polyp feels sprawly, like a novel or a European film from the 60s or something, and it very openly but cleverly uses the style of the art, that whole "visual language of comics" thing, to explore deeper levels in its characterization and world. As I read it I was most struck by the technical aspects more than its storytelling, but when I got to the end, I'm not going to lie to you: I had tears all running down my cheek like a bastard. How do you like that? The characters really got to me. And maybe it's just me, or maybe -- and this is a fear I'm starting to actually develop -- there is a common trope here, the arrogant fiercely-intellectual/cold-fish White Dude who has and loses the love of his life, a relaxed wall-flower/shy-artist Asian Chick, and my life so far and one of the biggest pains in it is nothing more than a tacky stereotype of my generation. (I am far too dead-brained tonight to go back and reparse that sentence for you. You're on your own.)
Anyway, man oh man, Asterios Polyp does for comics a lot of the stuff Alan Moore famously complains comics don't do anymore. Everyone should read it. Especially artists or storytellers. Everything in it is what it needs to be, and nothing is accidental or incidental. All aspects of the medium are united to tell the story he wants to tell, and on top of that, as I said, the story moved me to wet-eyes. Low Moon is a vastly different approach, more minimalism that allows for some delicate and bizarre storytelling that I love. Both are stories that resonated with me in that "I-could-have-written-this-well-not-really-but-I-wish-I-had" kind of way.
Please read these and know, 2009 is a good year for comics.
Now: I hope I can be a little inspired and make it a good year for screenwriting. I'll give a progress report later. I cheated (writing filler-descriptions in for 1/3 of the scenes) and got to my goal of the End of Act One. I have so far to go still. I really just can't see the other side of this mountain of work ahead of me. I can't imagine completing it.
Won't stop me from trying, by gum.