Tagged: Chicago

Review: ‘French Milk’

Review: ‘French Milk’

French Milk
Lucy Knisley
Touchstone Books, October 2008, $15

These days, people record their every inner thought and deed via Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook and other social networking sites.  It’s a fast and easy way to tell the multitudes what you’re up to.  This is especially true for people who travel far from friends and family.

As a result, Lucy Knisley is a throwback.  The 23-year old grew up on comic books and has studied art in Chicago and New York, developing a distinctive style and voice that earned her a small but dedicated following. She recorded her six week sojourn in France by using pen and paper, recording a graphic diary of her trip to celebrate her 22nd birthday and her mother’s 50th.   Upon her return, she gathered up her dozens and dozens of pages and self-published through Monkfish Book Publishing.

While showing [[[French Milk]]] to people at a MoCCA event, she was discovered by Amanda Patten, senior editor at Fireside/Touchstone.  Now, the book is receiving a big PR push and is on sale as today and has already been receiving positive notices.

Knisley has a keen eye for atmosphere and detail, finding joy in the simplicity of a baguette or a rude American tourist. Her observations are sharp and we can share her delight in fresh, unadulterated whole milk, from which the book takes its name.  We follow mother and daughter as they sightsee, shop, dine and relax together.  She does a nice job recording the details to bring their flat to life along with shops, Laundromats and restaurants.

The book’s publicity tells us of the changing relationship between moth and daughter but the book barely scratches the topic.  There’s one sequence when mother tries to discuss financial planning to Lucy but that’s about it.  They share the flat and bed and seem to get along without any tension, quarrel or serious issue.  Lucy Knisley, it seems, missed having sex but remained faithful to her boyfriend, whom she stills has a relationship with. But she seemed content to be a homebody and never craved going out to experience Paris nightlife on her own with people her age. If anything, the relationship seemed very close and stable.

The pair had been to Paris before and her observations about seeing things after a few more years’ growth and maturity is interesting.  But her diary is all surface.  We did this, ate that and went to sleep.  There’s precious little about the culture or differences with her life back in the states.  Her observations are all micro with no attention paid to the larger issues facing a young woman on the cusp of adult independence.

The book benefitted from the occasional photograph so we can compare the real people with Knisley’s fun drawings.  It could have benefitted from some summing up beyond a one-pager at the end.

Knisley has great potential and she’s working hard to achieve her place in the comics field.  This is a terrific, albeit flawed, first major effort. Her current material at Knisley’s website show continued development.

Classic ‘R.U.R.’ Restaged in Chicago

Classic ‘R.U.R.’ Restaged in Chicago

  • News
  • October 9, 2008

Chicago’s Strawdog Theatre Company has mounted a new production of Karel Capek’s 1920 play R.U.R.  The seminal science fiction play gave the world the word “robot” (based on the Czech word for laborer) and this will run through October 25.

The play stars Ryan Bollettino, Brennan Buhl, Zachary Clark, Andrew Gebhart, Joe Goldammer, Sara Gorsky, Carmine Grisolia, Jocelyn Kelvin, Nick Lake, Anderson Lawfer, Michaela Petro, Henry Riggs, John Henry Roberts, Noah Simon, and Rebekah Ward-Hays.

The initials stand for Rossum’s Universal Robots. The theatre company’s site says, “Forget clunky metal boxes, these robots are genetically engineered humans with the troublesome parts, like needs and desires, omitted. The men of R.U.R. live alongside their constructs on a remote island, closely guarding their secret formula while supplying the world with all the cheap labor it can stand. It runs like clockwork until a beautiful young robot rights activist arrives via her father’s private boat.

“Shade Murray, director of Strawdog’s Jeff Award-winning Detective Story and Marathon ’33 once again breathes new life into a forgotten gem, a funny and fast-paced character piece that happens to blow the lid off a whole mess of deep metaphysical questions. What is life? What is love? You won’t find out on the web site.”

Tickets cost $20 and performances are Friday & Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 7 p.m.
 

Review: ‘The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle’ by Jim Butcher and Adrian Syaf

Review: ‘The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle’ by Jim Butcher and Adrian Syaf

The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle
Written by Jim Butcher; Pencils by Adrian Syaf
Del Rey, October 2008, $19.95

Jim Butcher’s [[[Dresden Files]]] series is something of an anomaly in the world of contemporary fantasy – a hugely successful, bestselling series of novels set in the modern world, featuring vampires, werewolves, elves, and other beasties that go bump in the night…but also featuring a main character who isn’t an attractive young woman embroiled in love and/or sex entanglements with two or more of those aforementioned beasties.

Butcher’s hero is Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only consulting wizard – and Harry’s literary background is more from the hardboiled mystery (Always Having Bad Luck With Dames Division, rather than the racier Always Falling Into Bed With Dames Division) than from the romance novel, like so many of his high-heeled and back-tattooed fellow explorers of the supernatural. Harry’s the hard-luck kind of mystery hero: he saves the day, but doesn’t usually get the girl, or much in the way of monetary reward, either. (But that’s OK, since his heart is pure – or as pure as anyone’s heart can be, these days.)

Dresden gets called in – usually by Chicago PD’s Lt. Karrin Murphy, head of Special Investigations (which gets all of the woo-woo cases) – when something seems to be “weird.” No one but Harry actually really believes in the supernatural, of course, but he does get results, most of the time.

Welcome to the Jungle is a prequel to the Dresden Files novels, taking place just before the events of [[[Storm Front]]], the first novel. It’s written by Jim Butcher himself, and penciled by “rising talent” (which here means “someone I haven’t heard of – not that there’s anything wrong with that”) Ardian Syaf, an Indonesian artist.

The Dresden Files is like [[[The X-Files]]] (and many other series of stories about supernatural beasties, like Hellboy) in that there are “mythos” stories – ones that move forward the larger plot – and stories that are one-offs. [[[Jungle]]] is a one-off, concerning some unpleasant doings at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo.

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Review: Learn Spanish With Batman

Review: Learn Spanish With Batman

So there I was at the supermarket maintaining a half-century long tradition: hanging out by the magazine racks looking for treasure. Or at least something interesting to read. Nada. As usual.

But there was a dump next to the racks with a trade paperback titled [[[Learn Spanish With Batman]]]. Well, that seemed interesting. I picked one up, flipped though it and found that the stories were reprints from DC’s sundry Batman cartoon tie-ins. Top-rank stuff by top-tier people: Terry Beatty, Rick Burchett, Tim Levins, Scott Peterson, Dan Slott, and Ty Templeton. What the hell; I picked it up.

Truth be told, I took a couple years of high school Spanish. My first teacher would have done better as a guard at Guantanamo Bay. My second, Ron Manger, was vastly superior but it was probably too late. I picked up a lot more Spanish on the Chicago streets. So I approached Learn Spanish With Batman with my typical cynicism.

They reprinted the stories but certain key words in Spanish, lettered in a red color hold. The translation was off to the side in the appreciable borders. The whole thing was done by Berlitz, who have quite a track record when it comes to the foreign language racket.

Reading the 110 pages, I felt a few ancient memory cells being brought out of a coma. I don’t know how effective this process would be for someone without my slight Spanish language background but – to be fair – the book is obviously targeted to kids and pre-adolescents. I only fall into that category for a living.

It was a pleasurable experience; the stories were great fun and some actual knowledge got hammered into my leaden brainpan. There’s two volumes of Superman and another of Batman in the series thus far, and I’ll probably pick up the latter.

If you’re only interested in the stories, DC’s many trade paperback reprints are a better deal. But if you’d like to try a little experiment, or you’ve got kids or young siblings, I’d give this a try.

Grand Theft Auto IV: Less NYC, More Chicago’s South Side?

Grand Theft Auto IV: Less NYC, More Chicago’s South Side?

The hub-bub over the recent release of Grand Theft Auto IV is finally starting to die down, but of all the stories popping up around the InterWebs about the controversial videogame, one really caught my eye.

Slate recently posted an analysis of the real-world dynamics of life on the wrong side of the law – and those who are forced to live and work with that dynamic every day – as echoed in GTA IV. While the landscape of the videogame is based on the New York City Metro area, the author contends that the true real-world equivalent of life in the GTA IV universe can be found in Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods.

The last time I visited Chicago, I stopped by 59th Street, near Washington Park (and only a few short blocks from the picturesque University of Chicago). Two of the local gangs were fighting each other in full view for control of a prime sales spot, a hotel. For a monthly fee, the proprietor had promised to allow one gang to turn the place into a bordello—drugs, prostitution, stolen merchandise. For the gangs, winning meant more than simply getting rid of their enemy. Neither controlled the area surrounding the hotel. Anyone bringing drugs (or women, or guns, etc.) to the hotel would have to run the gantlet formed by other enemy gangs, who would be at the ready to shoot down the transporter.

Author Sudhir Venkatesh goes on to compare the decisions GTA IV’s protagonist must make over the course of the game, and compares those choices to many of those made by residents of South Side streets where the criminal element provides the only semblance of structure.

Read the full article on Slate.com.

Review: ‘Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front’

In many ways, Bill Mauldin lived out the American Dream, starting out as a physically unimposing ‘desert rat’ in the southwest, then joining the army and becoming a star soldier-cartoonist, and retiring as one of the best known editorial cartoonists in the country. He died in 2003.

In his new biography, Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front, author Todd DePastino takes that famous life and digs out all the strange truths, the contradictions, the unknown motivations. Mauldin was a deeply conflicted man, DePastino finds, alternatively successful and unhappy because of his deep drive for acceptance.

Born in 1921 to a rough and tumble family, Mauldin had little going for him as a child besides an aptitude for art. In his teens, he went to Chicago to study, but despite a prodigious output he had little success landing his cartoons.

With no other options (like many other enlistees), Mauldin signed up for the army and started cartooning for a service newsletter. From the start, his work focused on the lives of the grunts, who trudged through mud and faced the disrespect of superiors.

Using Mauldin’s writings, interviews and those cartoons, DePastino follows the young, driven man as he developed as a person and illustrator. And, soon enough, followed him over the Atlantic into the hell of World War II.

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The Holy See in NYC, by Dennis O’Neil

The Holy See in NYC, by Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • April 22, 2008

Well, the Holy Father has certainly been all over the media this past week, hasn’t he? Just a while ago, I looked, briefly, at Benedict celebrating Mass in no less a venue than Yankee Stadium – lots bigger than the biggest cathedral – and judging from the shots of the stands, it was a sellout crowd; I wonder if the Yankees themselves attract so many spectators, even when they’re against the Red Sox.

Shall we seek meaning here? Dare we posit that a) this pope is super-beloved or b) the church he leads is making a comeback or c) both of the above?

I’m reminded of an evening in Chicago, about 20 years ago, that I shared with a comic book artist and an actor. I don’t remember exactly why we were thrown together, but it probably had something to do with a convention. The actor was featured in a movie I’d recently seen and kind of liked, though I don’t recall having any strong reaction to this particular man’s performance, which probably means that I thought it was all right. As a dinner companion, sitting across he table at a Chinese restaurant, he was nice enough – chatty and just a bit gossipy, without any hint of malice. Not a stupid man, but he didn’t dazzle us with his intellect or wit, either. An okay guy. And, midway through the evening, I found myself trying to make him like me. It seemed important that he like me. Why? The only answer I have is that he was a celebrity. His image was on thousands of screen. Passersby recognized him. He was privy to really big, major-honkin’ celebrities.

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On This Day: Ned Buntline, Dime Novelist

On This Day: Ned Buntline, Dime Novelist

Edward Zane Carroll Judson was born on March 20, 1886 in Stamford, Delaware County, New York. He ran away from home as a boy and took to the sea, taking on the name Ned Buntline, which he would use for the rest of his life—a “buntline” is the rope at the bottom of a square sail.

Buntline stayed at sea several years, fighting in the Seminole Wars and achieving the rank of midshipman, before retiring and creating various eastern newspapers, including Ned Buntline’s Own. While in Fort McPherson on a lecture tour, Buntline crossed paths with Wild Bill Hickock and tried to interview him for a dime novel. Hickock refused and ordered Buntline out of town at gunpoint. Instead, the reporter located Hickock’s friend William Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, and decided to write about him instead.

The Buffalo Bill Cody-King of the Border Men dime novel series was an enormous success and Buntline followed it with a play, Scouts of the Prairie, which opened in Chicago in December 1872. The two men had severe differences of opinion and temperament, however. As a result, the show closed in June of the following year, and Buntline and Cody went their separate ways.

Buntline continued to write dime novels, but none matched his earlier success—he was close to penniless by the time he died of congestive heart failure in 1886.

Broadway gets its click-click on

Broadway gets its click-click on

In a neighborhood largely berift of new ideas or courage, those creepy. kookie, mysterious and spooky folks from The Addams Family are going to set up house on Times Square, courtesy of  Chicago-based production company Elephant Eye Theatrical.

The Addams Family will be coming to Broadway – in a musical of course, courtesy of writers Marshall Brickman (Sleeper, Annie Hall, The Muppet Show) and Rick Elice (Jersey Boys) and songster Andrew Lippa. The show is expected to open on Times Square in 2009 after debuting in Chicago.

Artwork copyright The Charles and Tee Addams Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Hat tip: Lisa Sullivan, who pointed us to Variety.

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