Articles by elayne-riggs
Wed Dec 26, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
'Zat You, Santy Claus?, by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #45
"Childhood is the time of man's greatest content," said Ak, following the youth's thoughts. "'Tis during these years of innocent pleasure that the little ones are most free from care."
One of the promises I made to myself during my temporary unemployment period was to finally read and reread all of the Oz books that I own. It's a pleasurable if somewhat daunting goal, as L. Frank Baum wrote 14 volumes in all, then Ruth Plumly Thompson carried on with 19 more, and although I had my period of fanatic Oz collecting and I did make it through all of Baum's volumes I believe I stopped somewhere after the third or fourth Thompson book.
[As you might be able to discern from the photo above, my last four Thompson volumes aren't even out of shrink-wrapping yet (hence the glare from the flash), and that out of many, many other "official" Oz books I also own tomes by Eric Shanower (Giant Garden, Salt Sorcerer and all his Oz graphic novels which are shelved elsewhere), Eloise and Lynn McGraw (Rundlestone), Edward Einhorn (Paradox) and Rachel Cosgrove Payes (Wicked Witch). Of those I've only read Eric's comics, so I have a lot of great reading still to come!]
But I digress; for now I'm still working my way through Baum, and I've just started his seventh book. Despite the fact that he was hardly what you'd call ahead of his time (he advocated the extermination of American Indians, his work contains a fair amount of assumptions about gender roles), I'm finding his Oz books a real comfort, not only because he wrote of a time and place with which I have absolutely no first- or even second-hand experience (my grandparents were all immigrants and I've never lived in the middle of the country), but because he understood what it meant to write for children.
Sun Dec 23, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Tidings of comfort and joy
ComicMix columns burst with holiday spirit
On the off-chance that anyone else out there is spending their Christmas holiday engaged in online reading rather than in more traditional pursuits (eating, opening pressies, eating, singing carols, eating, watching heartwarming holiday specials on TV, and eating), we herewith present this past week's ComicMix columns:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #45: The Variant Question
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer #45: Driving The Big Boat
- Me - It's All Good #44: More of My Favorite Things
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #45: An Agnostic's Christmas
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #45: Because It's Christmas
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #36: The Sweetest Gift
- Michael A. Price - Forgotten Horrors #36: Conversations with Roy Rogers
- Ric Meyers - DVD XTra #29: Ultimate Complete Final Cut Collection (Volume 1)
Have a safe and peaceful Christmas, everyone!
Fri Dec 21, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Torchwood Two Trailer
Fans get a Freema peek
Over at Freema Agyeman's eponymous site, she's posted a trailer for an episode of Torchwood's second series (or season, as they call it on this side of the pond) in which she appears. Here's a portion of a still from that episode:
Agyeman's site also links to what she calls "the TARDIS Friends Network," consisting so far of the eponymous sites of David Tennant and Billie Piper.
In other Torchwood news, Series Two will also be airing specially-edited repeats of each episode which will be deemed more suitable for families and kids and, well, me. Honestly, all this bed-hopping is driving me dizzy. In further news, BBC America is still not available on our cable system, so it's rather a moot point from this end.
Wed Dec 19, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
More of My Favorite Things, by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #44
The combination of my temporary unemployment and inclement weather has enabled me to catch up on my DC comp box reading, so I can finally pick up where I left off a few weeks back. Mind you, I was looking at October books at the time and since then the November box came in. Still, a couple of the same caveats apply as last time -- I haven't seen the comics from the last few weeks, which gives me a bit of a headache when Robin gets his Suicide Squad advance comps and the issue in question (#4, in stores now) cross-references an important plot point in a Checkmate issue I've yet to see. So a lot of these observations will be about the issue prior to the one most comic fans have already seen, but in most cases the artists are the same.
Also, as before, I won't cover every artist who did a good or serviceable job, just the ones I considered my very favorites of this most recent batch. Any omissions are not to be taken as an assumption that I didn’t like other stuff. And yes, I'm still talking more about how the art affected me viscerally than using technical vocabulary, which makes these more overviews than reviews per se. I miss full-on reviewing, but I just don't seem to have the time any more.
While I stopped at the letter "F" last time, I wanted to mention a couple books which hadn't come out at the time. Onward, then:
Continue reading More of My Favorite Things, by Elayne Riggs ›
Sun Dec 16, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
A Spacious Odyssey
ComicMix salutes Sir Arthur
On this occasion of the 90th birthday of Sir Arthur C. Clarke, why not curl up in the capsule with a good ComicMix column or three? After all, any sufficiently advanced ComicMix column is indistinguishable from magic! Here's a bunch from which to choose from this past week:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #44: Let's Go Burn Some Books
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer #44: The Evolution of the Superhero
- Me - It's All Good #43: Things to come
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #44: I'm Dreaming of a Celluloid Christmas Part Deux
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #44: Superman #2 - A Christmas Story
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #35: We Are Family
- Michael A. Price - Forgotten Horrors #35: The Poshumous Persistence of George E. Turner
- Ric Meyers - DVD XTra #29 -- Still to come!
Now it's time to leave that capsule, if you dare... Dave? Dave? ("Dave's not here, man!")
Sat Dec 15, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Calls for artists
Cozy up to that drawing board!
Rich Watson passes along an invitation from Alex Simmons regarding an exhibition he's putting together at the Bronx Community College, entitled THE COLOR OF COMICS: Reflections of Images Behind and Within the Pages. Says Simmons, "this will be an exhibition comprised of characters of color in comics and the people behind them. Though the characters will be African, African American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, etc., the creators may not be. Who, why, and how well it works -- for the most part -- is a story unto itself, and one we'll let you and the viewers decide. The show opens the first week of February and runs through mid-March, 2008. It will contain images from a number of artist and publications, as well as works from the OTHER HEROES comic art exhibit, and the Africa Comics exhibition." More information and submission guidelines here; the deadline is the end of this month.
As many have already noted, the installation of Val D'Orazio as Friends of Lulu National President has really revitalized the organization, which is currently holding a "Design-A-Lulu Initiative, a fundraising and increased public awareness effort in which we ask artists to dream up their own interpretation of our Lulu mascot." Details can be found at Val's Occasional Superheroine blog as well as the FoL site and, at last count, at least a dozen other places. The preferred deadline for this is the end of January. We're also quite pleased that Val has also undertaken a massive updating of the Women Doing Comics and Industrial Strength Women lists we originated on the national site.
Lastly, Upper Deck editor Mark Irwin has put out a call on his deviantART journal for artists for the Marvel Masterpieces 2 card sets; please click on the link for information on how to submit sample jpgs. He's planning to ship out the card blanks on January 24.
Thu Dec 13, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
The Advent of Who?
Countdown to Christmas ep
Have you been to the Beeb's Doctor Who site lately? Worth checking out not only for the nifty countdown to the upcoming Voyage of the Damned episode guest-starring Kylie Minogue (just run your cursor over Kylie) but for its advent(ure) calendar filled with lots of fun interactive stuff, behind the scenes looks, etc. Love the jigsaw puzzle!
The special is set to run for 71 minutes instead of the usual 60, so you lucky Brits should tune to BBC1 at 6.50 pm on Christmas Day instead of 7. That ought to mean the special will start hitting YouTube 'round about 5 PM Eastern US time.
And of course you can click here for all your Steampunk Dalek needs.
Thu Dec 13, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Terry Pratchett's Embuggerance
Update on author's health
Author Terry Pratchett posted a message on Paul Kidby's Discworld News website revealing that "I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's, which lay behind this year's phantom 'stroke.' We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism... All other things being equal, I expect to meet most current and, as far as possible, future commitments but will discuss things with the various organisers. Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there's time for at least a few more books yet :o)"
Pratchett went on to reassure readers that any serious consequences of this diagnosis "maybe further off than you think - it's too soon to tell. I know it's a very human thing to say 'Is there anything I can do,' but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry."
Having been enthralled by a TV movie of Pratchett's novel Hogfather the last couple days (actually our first exposure to the author's Discworld), we have held him very much in the forefront of our minds, and wish him and his family the best during this difficult time.
Wed Dec 12, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Things to come, by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #43
This is the time of year when people usually start to compile "best of" lists and recaps. But as 2007 has been more "the worst of times" for me than "the best of times," I prefer to look forward. After all, as Criswell once "predicted" in a hardly-memorable Ed Wood film, "We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives!"
Crystal ball gazing also helps if you have the retention level of a hyperactive gnat, which I'm afraid is the case for me. I don't tend to get worked up over details in comic books or TV shows or movies because most entertainment is ephemeral to me; I just don't feel I need to keep all the minutiae in my head. It carries the added advantage of making rereading the same book a lot more fun to me, a constant surprise as I encounter things again that I didn't remember from the last time I read them.
In the land of graphic literature, at least in this country, Diamond's magazine Previews is the only consumer choice in terms of moving from baseless speculation about what may or may not happen in monthly story installments months down the line (that's more the realm of comics "news" sites, which often busy themselves in breathlessly extolling events yet to happen to the detriment of examining current comics) to actually planning out and ordering one's reading of choice for the foreseeable future (say, two months down the line). Time was, order forms were the sole purview of retailers. Of course, time was when Previews wasn't the only game in town. Not that the disappearance of competitors like Capital City and Heroes World constitutes anything like a monopoly for Diamond! At least not according to the antitrust investigation, which didn't consider comics as separate from other literature. In any case, with all the major companies sewn up with exclusives and treated as Premier customers (some pigs being more equal than other pigs), Previews is the only choice now for readers who wish to support their local retailers, as well as for publishers who want to reach audiences they can't afford to grow on their own (even in this age of online ordering). Unfortunately, Diamond doesn't accept every comic published into the hallowed pages of Previews, so now more than ever it pays to see what's out there in the virtual world, but online content distribution is another column entirely.
Tue Dec 11, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Round yon donuts, mother and child
ComicMixers celebrate the season
Much thanks to Media Goddess Martha Thomases for inviting me and fellow ComicMixers to her annual Chanukah donut party on Sunday. Here are a couple of happy guests, Liz Glass and Madeleine Grace Baker.
More pictures (expandable to larger sizes, yet) on my blog.
Sun Dec 9, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
ComicMix columns burn brightly
Tasty literary latkes for everyone!
As some of us celebrate the Festival of Lights, it's time once again to catch up with our ComicMix luminaries and see what they've brought us this past week:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #43: Speaking Ill Of The Dead
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer #43: Nudity and the Editorial Process
- Me - It's All Good #42: Burning the candle
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #43: I'm Dreaming of a Celluloid Christmas, Part 1
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #43: Jasmine
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #34: I Pity the Poor Immigrant
- Michael A. Price - Forgotten Horrors #34: Tippy Tacker's Yuletide Travails
- Ric Meyers - DVD XTra #28: Bourne Potter
Remember, don't fill up on too many latkes and donuts!
Wed Dec 5, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Burning the candle, by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #42
This column is finally up to installment #42. As you well know, that's said to be the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything. And now that I'm 50 years old, I'm supposed to be ever much smarter than I used to be, and ever so much closer to achieving the enlightenment that's supposed to help me understand the questions to that answer.
Don't you believe it. It's a good thing life is a constant learning experience, although it's a bit disheartening that the more I live the more there remains for me to learn. I can't be the only one who constantly feels like I'm treading water, or running in place just to keep up.
Last night many Jews began the annual commemoration of Chanukah (or Hanukkah or Channukah or Throat-Warbler Mangrove), the Festival of Lights, not to be confused with Diwali, the Festival of Light marking the victory of good over evil, and uplifting of spiritual darkness, which seems to predate it by a good many centuries. Chanukah marks the rededication of the Second Temple (after it was desecrated by Antiochus IV Epiphanes at the time of the Maccabee rebellion, a couple hundred years before that Jesus guy came along) and the miracle that one day's worth of consecrated olive oil wound up burning for eight (the length of time it took to process a new batch). So instead of celebrating something cool like the uplifting of spiritual darkness, in the hands of the Jews the festival became the glorification of frugality, of making a little go a long way.
Then the Christians came along and, within another few centuries, had converted massive populations and co-opted their festivals so that Midwinter (the winter solstice) practices became part of Christmas, which grew and grew into a general celebration of plenty and excess and cheer (except for those people who insist on missing the point by suggesting Santa is a "bad role model" because he's fat and jolly; no no, can't have any happy large people around during the months when it's customary to fatten up to stave off cold and hunger!). And you know, given the choice between a whooping it up over how fortunate one is to have enough to eat and how dire one's circumstances are that one has to burn the midnight oil for a week -- well, let's just say it's easy to see how one can become so popular it's no longer solely Christian or even pagan but practically secular, where the other is forever relegated in the public consciousness to second-place status and an excuse to teach lessons in multicultural inclusion.
Sun Dec 2, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Oh, the weather outside is frightful...
But ComicMix colums are delightful!
It's snowing, albeit gently, here in the Northeast, and the temperatures are definitely of the stay-indoors variety, so why not do what I'll be doing, catching up on ComicMix columns from this past week?:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #42: Raiders of Lost Knowledge
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer #42: Is Iron Man Mike Hammer?
- Me - It's All Good #41: Comics, community and The 99
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #42: Medium Rare
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #42: Is it me, or are they just stupid?
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #33: Baby, It's Cold Outside
- Michael A. Price - Forgotten Horrors #33: My Cousin Vinnie vs. the Vampires
- Ric Meyers - DVD XTra #27: Superbad Tiger Gate
May all your hot chocolates be filled to the brim with peppermint schnapps!
Wed Nov 28, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Comics, community and The 99
It's All Good #41
One of the things I mentioned in a previous column is how frustrating it is to many readers that reviewers have so many negative things to say about comics and so few positive ones -- one of the reasons being, of course, that it's simply easier (and, for many, more fun) to slag on someone else's hard work than to praise it, to pick at the missteps rather than examining the story as a whole. I still suspect this ties in with why so relatively few reviewers discuss the art in a comic book; as they're writers, it's easier to concentrate on just the writing, which one can then proceed to negatively nitpick to one's own standard of personal amusement, rather than learning about how to talk about the main thing that separates comics from prose work, from movies, from just about any other form of entertainment. But I digress.
I've had the first four issues of a comic book series in front of me for months, wanting to talk about them. This was before the series even debuted in the US, and now the first two issues have already appeared in stores. And with one thing and another in my crazy life, I haven't had the time nor the wherewithall to actually sit down and review anything. And it's become, as these things do, rather an albatross 'round my neck that I haven't gotten to it. After all, a wonderfully talented, amazing woman who happens to edit the books sent them to me in good faith that I'd get to reviewing them sooner or later. And after all, wasn't I the one who did over four years' worth of weekly reviews on Usenet, covering at least a dozen comics during some of those weeks? What, besides life's vicissitudes, was preventing me from sitting down and doing this review?
Sooner or later we all have to face our own procrastinating natures. For me, the approach of the year's close and the feeling of community that means so much to me in this industry prompted me to finally get down to it. After three introductory paragraphs, naturally. Has the time finally come for me to say a few words about The 99 from Teshkeel Comics? Well, yes and no. I'm not going to do a structured, formal review per se, but discuss the series more in terms of its inspiration and ideas.
Mon Nov 26, 2007 — by Elayne Riggs
Comics gives back
'Tis the season to help our own
Comics folk are known for their generosity year-round but, as the seasons turn and the nights turn colder, the spirit of giving seems to kick into overdrive.
Out in Portland, OR, Floating World Comics is all set to hold their Spacenight tribute to Bill Mantlo on Friday, December 6 (coincidentally, the birthdays of at least four comic book creators of which I know). As many people are aware, in 1992 the longtime Marvel mainstay was struck by a hit-and-run driver and suffered a closed-head traumatic brain injury from which he has never recovered, so as you can imagine the medical bills are formidable. If you can't make it out to Oregon, you can always donate to the Spacenite - Bill Mantlo Fund via the above link. The Oregonian has more information about the event. And of course you can still order Mantlo: A Life in Comics from David Yurkovich's Sleeping Giant Comics.
And the Hero Initiative blog features a very touching story about the latest recipients of that organization's largesse. As Laura Gjovaag says, read the whole thing including the comments, "Then go to CBGXtra.com and click on the banner ad to donate a dime to HERO." Or more, if you can spare it!
