It’s Day 2 of National Graphic Novel Writing Month– and we haven’t even started writing yet!
Good!
“Good?” I hear you cry. “How can that be good? I see all those novel writers who have started posting their word counts! Some of them are thousands of words ahead of us!”
Big deal. Writing a novel is easier. We have to know things first. Novel writers can just put one word after the other after the other, and keep going until they run out of steam or story. If it runs short, it’s a novella; if it runs long, it’s a trilogy. What if they had to write to an exact length?
I’m not just talking about the length of the novel. I mean writing to the exact length of each page– each page has a maximum 210 words, no more. And every scene has to end at the end of a page. And each chapter has to be exactly 22 pages long. And…
You get the idea. Even when a prose book is heavily reformatted, as with this new tiny book format, the text itself barely changes. With comics, that’s not going to be the case.
That’s why the most important thing to know before you start writing your graphic novel is the format– how your book will end up being initially published. Comics are a very regimented format— so much so that large comic book companies will produce art boards of a specific size for artists to use— and knowing those formats will inform how you create your work.
Take a look at these books.
Notice that every single one of these are a different page size than a “regular” comic book, and as a result, each one of them will have different storytelling challenges. Only so many words will fit on a page, only so many panels, only so much action and detail, and you’ll have to plan accordingly.
Length of the book matters too– is it 22 pages? 48? 120? 300? Are you reading it all at once, or is it spread out over months? Reintroducing your characters and setting in a monthly comic is one thing– it’s been a while between issues for your regular readers, and there’s a chance that this comic is the first issue a new reader may pick up, so it makes sense to introduce them. But if you read them in a collected omnibus format, being reminded every 22 pages or so that his claws cut through steel plate as easily as rice paper gets tired quick.
Similarly, if most people are going to be reading it in a collected format, you’ll have to accept that those 4-page digressions you put in the back of the monthly edition are going to be skipped over by a lot of people when they read it now.
Bear in mind that there are also technical and practical limitations to what you can actually print. If you decide that your graphic novel is going to be, say, 8″ by 9″, you’re going to be hard pressed to find a printer that can produce your books in that size and it’s likely to cost more. And while we’re talking about price, remember that every page you add is going to cost more to print, and unlike prose books you can’t use a smaller typeface to make it fit in fewer pages. In addition, your printer may be able to offer you a discount if your page count is a multiple of 16 or 32…
So that’s your first challenge: what do you think your graphic novel is going to look like? What’s your format?
Universal City, California, October 30, 2018 – Enjoy the delightfully thrilling tale of a mysterious house where things, including the inhabitants, are not what they seem to be. The House With a Clock in its Walls arrives on Digital and via the digital movie app MOVIES ANYWHERE on November 27, 2018, as well as on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-rayTM, DVD and On Demand on December 18, 2018. Based on the classic children’s book and praised as “creaky, freaky haunted-mansion fun” (LA Times), The House With a Clock in its Walls features over 60 minutes of bonus content including an alternate beginning and ending, stunning featurettes, deleted scenes, a hilarious gag reel, and feature commentary. Enchanting from start to finish, it’s the perfect adventure for families during the holidays.
Full of wonder and adventure, The House With a Clock in its Walls mesmerizes audiences of all ages and keeps the magic alive when stars Jack Black (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Kung Fu Panda), Cate Blanchett (Ocean’s 8, Thor: Ragnarok) and Owen Vaccaro (Daddy’s Home, Mother’s Day) arrive as Uncle Jonathan, Mrs. Zimmerman and Lewis Barnavelt. In the most unexpected places, fantastical events, miraculous twists and suspense filled moments ensue in this “zany kids adventure” (The Hollywood Reporter) that soon captivates adults as well. In the tradition of Amblin classics, master frightener and director Eli Roth’s The House With a Clock in its Walls is a family-friendly fantasy film that “stands alongside the ‘just for kids’ classics of the 1980’s and 1990’s” (Forbes).
In The House With a Clock in its Walls directed by Eli Roth (The Green Inferno, Cabin Fever), Lewis Barnavelt (Vaccaro) goes to live with his Uncle Jonathan (Black) in a creaky and creepy mansion with an eerie tick-tocking heart. But when Lewis soon finds out he’s in the presence of magic practiced by his uncle and neighbor Mrs. Zimmerman (Blanchett), his new town’s dreary aura boosts to life in an exciting and dangerous way. Based on the beloved children’s classic book written by John Bellairs and illustrated by Edward Gorey, The House With a Clock in its Walls is written by Eric Kripke (creator of TV’s “Supernatural”) and co-stars Kyle MacLachlan (“Twin Peaks,” Inside Out), Colleen Camp (Clue), Renée Elise Goldsberry (“One Life to Live”), and Sunny Suljic (Mid90s, The Killing of a Sacred Deer). It is produced by Mythology Entertainment’s Brad Fischer (Shutter Island) and James Vanderbilt (Zodiac), as well as Kripke.
BONUS FEATURES EXCLUSIVE TO BLU-RAYTM, DVD & DIGITAL:
Warlocks and Witches – Go behind the scenes with the enchanting cast of The House with a Clock in Its Walls
Finding Lewis – A look at the casting of Owen Vaccaro
Jack’s Magical Journey – A look at the unique dynamism and magic that Jack Black brings to the character of Jonathan Barnavelt
The Great Cate – The cast discuss Cate Blanchett’s wonderful performance as Florence Zimmerman
The Terrifying Isaac Izard – Watch Kyle MacLachlan’s creepy evolution from living icon to undead-warlock
Movie Magic
The Ultimate Haunted House – Join filmmakers for a guided tour through the incredible house at the center of the film
Automatons Attack – A behind-the-scenes look at the mechanical horrors involved in this chilling sequence
Pumpkin Puke – Behind the scenes with the cast and an army of spooky, snarling, vomiting pumpkins
Moving Pieces – Filmmakers and cast discuss the amazing clock room set
Baby Jack – A behind-the-scenes look at the creepy Baby Jack sequence
Tick Tock: Bringing the Book to Life – Filmmakers discuss how they adapted the book for the big screen
Eli Roth: Director’s Journals – Director Eli Roth takes viewers behind the scenes
Candler Mansion
Newnan, GA
The Chair
Comrade Ivan
New Zebedee Elementary
Wrap Day
Owen Goes Behind the Scenes – Armed with his own camera, Owen guides viewers on his own journey behind-the-scenes of the movie
Around the Set
Behind the Camera
The Big Interview
Downtime on Set
Theme Song Challenge – Eli Roth and the cast are challenged to come up with a theme song for the film
Do You Know Jack Black? – The cast compete with each other to see who knows Jack Black the best
Abracadabra! – Eli Roth performs a magic trick for Owen Vaccaro
Jack Black’s Greatest Fear – Eli Roth and Owen Vaccaro play a prank on Jack Black
The Mighty Wurlitzer – Composer Nathan Barr discusses how he created the film’s unique and distinct score
BONUS FEATURES ON 4K ULTRA HD, BLU-RAYTM DVD & DIGITAL:
Alternate Opening and Ending with Commentary by Director Eli Roth and Actor Jack Black available
Alternate Opening
Alternate Ending
Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Director Eli Roth and Actor Jack Black available
More Books, Please
A Horrible Practical Joke
Tarby Ditches Lewis
Eat Up
Play for Him
Get Out of the Way
Time Is of the Essence
The Clock That Never Breaks
12 Minutes to Go
Gag Reel
Feature Commentary with Director Eli Roth and Actor Jack Black
The film will be available on 4K Ultra HD in a combo pack which includes 4K Ultra HD Blu-rayTM, Blu-rayTM and Digital. The 4K Ultra HD disc will include the same bonus features as the Blu-rayTM version, all in stunning 4K resolution.
4K Ultra HD is the ultimate movie watching experience. 4K Ultra HD features the combination of 4K resolution for four times sharper picture than HD, the color brilliance of High Dynamic Range (HDR) with immersive audio delivering a multidimensional sound experience.
Blu-rayTM unleashes the power of your HDTV and is the best way to watch movies at home, featuring 6X the picture resolution of DVD, exclusive extras and theater-quality surround sound.
Digital lets fans watch movies anywhere on their favorite devices. Users can instantly stream or download.
MOVIES ANYWHERE is the digital app that simplifies and enhances the digital movie collection and viewing experience by allowing consumers to access their favorite digital movies in one place when purchased or redeemed through participating digital retailers. Consumers can also redeem digital copy codes found in eligible Blu-rayTM and DVD disc packages from participating studios and stream or download them through Movies Anywhere. MOVIES ANYWHERE is only available in the United States. For more information, visit https://moviesanywhere.com.
FILMMAKERS: Cast: Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sunny Suljic, Kyle MacLachlan Visual Effects Supervisor: Louis Morin Music By: Nathan Barr Costume Designer: Marlene Stewart Edited By: Fred Raskin ACE Production Designer: Jon Hutman Director of Photography: Roger Stoffers ASC, NSC Executive Producers: William Sherak, Tracey Nyberg, Laeta Kalogridis, Mark McNair Produced By: Bradley J. Fischer p.g.a., James Vanderbilt p.g.a., Eric Kripke p.g.a. Based on the Novel By: John Bellairs Screenplay By: Eric Kripke Directed By: Eli Roth
TECHNICAL INFORMATION 4K ULTRA HD: Street Date: December 18, 2018 Selection Number: 61201229 (US) / 61201252 (CDN) Layers: BD-66 Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 16:9 2.39:1 Rating: PG for thematic elements including sorcery, some action, scary images, rude humor and language. Video: 2160p UHD / HDR 10 Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish and French Subtitles Languages/Sound: English Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital 2.0, Spanish and French DTS-HD High Resolution Audio 7.1 Run Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
DOLBY ATMOS® SOUNDTRACK The House With a Clock in its Walls Blu-ray™ and 4K Ultra HD will feature a Dolby Atmos® soundtrack remixed specifically for the home theater environment to place and move audio anywhere in the room, including overhead. To experience Dolby Atmos at home, a Dolby Atmos enabled AV receiver and additional speakers are required, or a Dolby Atmos enabled sound bar.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION BLU-RAYTM:
Street Date: December 18, 2018 Selection Number: 61198236 (US) / 61199978 (CDN) Layers: BD-50 Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 16:9 2.39:1 Rating: PG for thematic elements including sorcery, some action, scary images, rude humor and language. Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish and French Subtitles Languages/Sound: English Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital 2.0, Spanish and French DTS-HD High Resolution Audio 7.1 Run Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
TECHNICAL INFORMATION DVD: Street Date: December 18, 2018 Selection Number: 61198234 (US) / 61199979 (CDN) Layers: DVD 9 Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen 16:9 2.39:1 Rating: PG for thematic elements including sorcery, some action, scary images, rude humor and language. Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish and French Subtitles Languages/Sound: English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0, Spanish and French Dolby Digital 5.1 Run Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
I’m pretty sure this has been published in one volume, at least once. But the current edition is two volumes, and that’s what I read. (Long before that, it was published as fifteen comic book issues, and I had those as well, before my 2011 flood. But all things must pass.)
“This” is the first volume of Matt Wagner’s epic transmuting-his-life-into-heroic-adventure trilogy Mage. Mage: The Hero Discovered was one of Wagner’s first major comics projects in the 1980s and was followed by The Hero Defined at the end of the ’90s and, eventually, by The Hero Denied, planned to wrap up by the end of this year.
Since that third volume is about to finish up, and I expect to read it, I thought I might as well go back for the first two: when a creator takes 15-20 years between installments, you can do him the favor of reminding yourself of the old pieces before coming to the new ones. So I re-read Hero Discovered this month (Volume One, Volume Two), plan to hit Hero Defined next month, which should get me ready for the first Hero Denied collection…which I see was published a few days ago. (I doubt I’ll be able to hold off until the second half of Denied is published as a book in February, but I did skip buying all of the floppies, so maybe I will. As I get older, the appeal of story-pieces has gone down precipitously.)
Very early in the life of this blog, I had a breathless review of Defined, which I’m linking here for completeness’s sake — I really hope you don’t go back and read those burblings, which I am now embarrassed by. Otherwise, I’ve mentioned it, but not gotten into any depth.
It starts with overwriting two guys meeting on a city street — one may be drunk, and pretends to be happy, and one may be a bum, or pretends to be one. (Their dialogue is wince-inducing: if you decide to read Mage, you need to remember that it was nearly the first thing Wagner did in comics, and that he got better quickly — though ponderous unbelievable dialogue is an occasional hazard throughout the Mage stories.)
The not-drunk guy is Kevin Matchstick, who is so sad because he’s all alone. The not-bum calls himself Mirth, and he’s the mage of the title — there will be a different one for each series. Right after their conversation, Kevin sees a man attacking an actual bum in an alley, and surprises himself by running to intervene. He’s even more surprised to find the assailant is a hairless pale-skinned humanoid with sharp points on his elbows and that Kevin suddenly has super-strength and speed. The bum dies; the humanoid gets away.
And Kevin goes back to his apartment, confused, to find Mirth, who starts the official Hero’s Journey by explaining (well, a little) who he and Kevin are. Mirth is the World-Mage, opposed to the evil Umbra Sprite and his sons, the Grackleflints (the humanoids), who do the usual evil thing of corruption and destruction. Kevin has another fight with three (of five) of the Grackleflints in a subway car before he gets the next round of explanations from Mirth.
I’ll be blunt here, though Kevin doesn’t find this out for a long time: he’s The Eternal ChampionKing Arthurkind-of King Arthur, in that he’s the latest incarnation of a mythic hero and was once little Wart. He will gather allies — a teenage girl with a bat and a dead public defender — and, together, they will help him battle the Umbra Sprite and all of the supernatural creatures that the Sprite can summon and throw at him. The Sprite is searching for the Fisher King — another reincarnation, though not a hero — and if his Grackleflints can kill the Fisher King, it will bring a new era of death and destruction to earth.
And that’s the story of Discovered: this is explicitly a Hero’s Journey book, so Kevin learns bits and pieces of the setup over about four hundred pages, punctuated with fights against dragons and giants and redcaps and other mythical beasties, and occasionally broken up by attempts to actually figure out what the forces of evil are doing, where they’re headquartered, and how to stop them.
Before the end, there are major sacrifices so the Hero can stand alone, quite a lot of epic fight scenes, and a surprisingly nuanced view of the relationships among the forces of evil. Wagner started this series a little shakily, but it had great bones right from the beginning, and both his drawing and writing skills got stronger very quickly. It’s unfortunate that the two very worst pages in the whole Mage saga are the first two, but at least you can know that going in.
Somewhere along the line, the original 1980s-era coloring disappeared and was replaced by a more modern treatment by Jeromy Cox and James Rochelle — I think this is from the Defined era, but don’t quote me. I should also note that Wagner is inked by Sam Kieth, starting with the sixth (of fifteen) chapters, and that lines up with one of several leaps forward in the strength of the art. (So it’s not all Wagner, as the cover makes it seem — very few comics are that much of an auteur medium; there’s always some collaboration going on.)
Mage is a strong urban fantasy story in comics form, clearly in a mythic vein but with a lot of individual touches. It’s classy enough to have titles from Hamlet (and never say so, or explain them), and street enough to be about the reincarnation of King Arthur beating up monsters to save the world. And, if you’ve been waiting for the whole Mage saga to be done, you are nearly in luck.
LOS ANGELES, CA – The hunt for the perfect holiday gift is over. The universe’s greatest hunter returns in The Predator on Digital and Movies Anywhere November 27 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray™ and DVD December 18. Fans can bring home a special edition Predator 4-Movie Collection, which includes Predator, Predator 2, Predators and The Predator on 4K Ultra HD™ and Blu-ray.
The hunt has evolved – and so has the explosive action – in the next chapter of the Predator series, from director Shane Black (Iron Man 3). Now, the most lethal hunters in the universe are stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever before….and only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and an evolutionary biology professor can prevent the end of the human race.
With the special edition Predator 4-Movie Collection, fans can experience four times the terror with a killer collection of action-packed Predator movies, plus four collector cards of the original film poster re-issue with some of the franchises most iconic quotes on the back. In Predator, Arnold Schwarzenegger wages an all-out war against an extraterrestrial that hunts humans for sport. Then in Predator 2, Danny Glover battles the fearsome creature in the urban jungle of Los Angeles. In Predators Adrien Brody leads a group of elite warriors on an alien planet targeted by a new Predator breed. Finally, in The Predator, Boyd Holbrook discovers that the most lethal hunters in the universe are stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever.
The Predator Digital, 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™ & DVD SPECIAL FEATURES
Deleted Scenes
A Touch of Black
Predator Evolution
The Takedown Team
Predator Catch-Up
Gallery
The Predator 4K Ultra HD™ Disc Specification
Street Date: December 18, 2018
Prebook Date: October 30, 2018
Screen Format: Widescreen 16:9 (2.39:1)
Audio: English Dolby Atmos / English AD DD 5.1 / Spanish DD 5.1 /
French DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH / Spanish / French
Total Run Time: Approximately 107 minutes
U.S. Rating: R
Closed Captioned: No
The Predator Blu-ray™ Disc Specification
Street Date: December 18, 2018
Prebook Date: October 30, 2018
Screen Format: Widescreen 16:9 (2.39:1)
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1,
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
Total Run Time: Approximately 107 minutes
U.S. Rating: R
Closed Captioned: No
The Predator DVD Disc Specification
Street Date: December 18, 2018
Prebook Date: October 30, 2018
Screen Format: Widescreen 16:9 (2.39:1)
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1,
Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0, French Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
Total Run Time: Approximately 107 minutes
U.S. Rating: R
Closed Captioned: Yes
PREDATOR 4 Movie Collection 4K Ultra HD™ & Blu-ray™ 8-Disc Specifications:
Street Date: December 18, 2018
Screen Format: 4K UHD™: Predator & Predator 2: Widescreen 1.85:1 Predators: Widescreen 2.40:1 The Predator: Widescreen 2.39:1
Audio: 4K UHD™: Predator: English DTS-HD, Master Audio 5.1, English DTS Master
Audio 4.0, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French DTS 5.1 Predator 2: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby
Digital 5.1, French DTS 5.1 Predators: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Descriptive
Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French DTS 5.1 The Predator: English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio 5.1,
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
Blu-ray™: Predator: English DTS-HD Master, Audio 5.1, English Dolby
Surround 4.0, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French DTS 5.1 Predator 2: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Dolby
Surround, Spanish Stereo, French Dolby Digital 5.1 Predators: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital
5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1 The Predator: English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, English Descriptive
Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: 4K UHD™ & Blu-Ray™: Predator: English SDH, Spanish, French Predator 2: English SDH, Spanish Predators: English SDH, Spanish The Predator: English SDH, Spanish, French
Total Run Time: 429 Minutes
U.S. Rating: R
Closed Captioned: No
PREDATOR 4 Movie Collection Blu-ray™ 4-Disc Specifications:
Street Date: December 18, 2018
Screen Format: Predator & Predator 2: Widescreen 1.85:1 Predators: Widescreen 2.35:1 The Predator: Widescreen 2.39:1
Audio: Predator: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Dolby
Surround 4.0, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French DTS 5.1 Predator 2: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Dolby
Surround, Spanish Stereo, French Dolby Digital 5.1 Predators: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital
5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1 The Predator: English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, English
Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby
Digital 5.1
Subtitles: Predator: English SDH, Spanish, French Predator 2: English SDH, Spanish Predators: English SDH, Spanish The Predator: English SDH, Spanish, French
Total Run Time: 429 Minutes
U.S. Rating: R
Closed Captioned: No
Yes, we got enough demand from you that we’re doing it again! For the month of November, we’re going to help you learn how to write a graphic novel! Stick with us for 30 days, and we’ll go over just about everything you need to know about writing for the specific requirements of comics!
It is our hope that by the time we’re done, you’re going to be well on your way to being able to show us your work, and be able to guide you to the next steps of creation. We also hope you’ll share these lessons with other folks far and wide.
First: let’s pull out some of the textbooks you’re going to want to read. Your first homework assignment is to get some of these from the library or the store.
We’ll recommend others as we go.
Second, let me tell you what this is NOT going to be.
This is not going to help you create your idea for a graphic novel. We’re starting with the assumption that you already have an idea for a graphic novel, and need help trying to write it.
This is not going to require you to be an artist. While there is a place for the person who can both write and draw, this is intended for the person who is going to be working with a collaborator or two. As such, you’re going to learn the best ways to write in order to make it easy for a collaborator– even it you don’t even know who’s going to draw it.
This is not even going to require you to have any drawing skills. If you can make stick figures, you’re qualified. Yes, you will have to draw stick figures.
This is not going to be genre-specific. Comics contain multitudes– superheroes, mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, humor, porn, educational materials, biography and autobiography, on and on and on. We’re not teaching you how to write Batman, we’re teaching you how to write comics.
And finally: This is not going to be a rah-rah confidence builder. There are plenty of places where you can get the types of affirmations to help during long nights staring at your wall, and you should make use of them if they help you– but this is for the nuts and bolts of writing for comics, and the only way to really learn that is to sit down and write them. These lessons are not to help you power through the creation of a comic, giving you “waytogos!” as you hit particular word counts during the month. In fact, there will be no word count goal in your creation process.
Why? Because it’s impossible to quantify how many words are needed to make a graphic novel. It could take 5000 words– or 500,000.
Now, I know that I tend to focus on the negative, even when the positive is much larger and objectively more interesting. I usually blame that on “editor brain” — when you spend years pulling apart stories for a living, it forms a habit that you just can’t break.
So let me say up front that Finder is pretty damn awesome, a smart series of graphic novels with real character depth, a quirky and involving world, tricky plots, and sharp people-oriented art. But it’s got some elements in its SFnal setup that people like me obsess about and complain about more than they deserve.
I’ll try to keep those quibbles minor, since they are minor. This is a great world that basically hangs together; it just has a central flaw that’s very common, very understandable, and yet often very annoying (to people like me who can’t just let it go).
Finder is supposedly set a few thousand years in the future, on an Earth hugely depopulated, devoid of any obvious larger governments than pseudo-zaibatsu “clans,” with people either living crammed into domed cities or roaming the outside wastes as nomads very much modeled on the American Indian in ways that are deeply unlikely. It’s not clear if massive numbers of people left the planet in the meantime, if there was at least one apocalypse to kill billions, or if population just dwindled for a long time. (The current society seems to above replacement rate, and so growing, but maybe only slowly.) And popular culture is, as far as we see, primarily devoted to digging up ephemera of the 20th century.
So, yes, to tick off the obvious SF-geek issues: that feels like much too far in the future for the focus on modern pop-culture; there’s no clear path from here to get to this world; there doesn’t seem to be any infrastructure to feed those people, let alone provide them with industrial goods; and the lack of any structure to society outside/above/between the clans seems unlikely at best — how do clans resolve conflicts, living together in their tight little cities?
Let me stipulate all that: those are issues with the world-building, and maybe creator Carla Speed McNeiltackles them eventually. In the first three storylines of Finder, collected as the 2011 omnibus The Finder Library, Vol. 1, though, she doesn’t. This book has what was the first 22 issues of Finder the print comic — sometime later it turned into a webcomic — originally published between 1996 and 2001 and then collected into the first four trade paperbacks. (Sin-Eater, the first storyline, took up two books.)
Sin-Eater introduces the world through Jaeger, a roguish “finder” from one of the many tribal “Ascian” cultures that live nomadic lives in the Empty Lands between those domed cities. He has a lot of strangeness of his own, for a 20th century reader, but he’s an outsider in the city of Anvard, so he’s our viewpoint for the strangeness there.
Jaeger is the on-and-off lover of Emma Lockhart Grosvenor, a married woman in Anvard. That is to say: she lets him live with her when he’s in town, but he’s only in town randomly, at long intervals, and utterly without notice. McNeil does not show Jaeger having similar arrangements in other cities — and I think she finds him more appealing than I do — but I see no reason why a man like him wouldn’t have a semi-regular fuck-buddy in all of the places he wanders through.
Emma is part of a mixed marriage that went bad. She’s from the artistic, ultra-feminine Llaverac clan; her husband Brigham Grosvenor is from the military/police clan Medawar. [1] Brigham was a military leader who took his family to the frontier outpost where he was stationed (and where Jaeger was something like a native scout and Brigham’s aide/pet) and there descended into what Finder doesn’t actually call paranoid schizophrenia. Emma got away with her three “daughters” — all members of Llaverac are referred to by feminine pronouns and tend to present as female in public, even if they are biologically male — Rachel, Lynne (who is male), and Marcie (Marcella) with Jaeger’s aid a few years ago, and has been hiding from Brigham since then.
Sin-Eater is the story of how that hiding eventually falls apart, how Brig finds his family again, and how it affects all of them. Jaeger, in what I think is his usual style, is both too clever by half and has a a strong restless tropism to do stupid random things, so it’s all mostly his fault. It’s also the story that introduces the world and explains, as much as McNeil wanted, how it works and what these people do.
The second story here, King of the Cats, is more self-contained and focused more tightly on Jaeger. He’s worked his way to another city as an armed guard on a giant armored bus — the wilderness is quite dangerous, with all of those native tribes and no farmlands — carrying members of the Steinehan clan to an amusement-park city (unnamed, as far as I can find), and wants to get inside mostly because they won’t hire him or let him inside. Jaeger is motivated, as always, but spite and whim as much as anything else.
Camping nearby is a large group of Nyima, an intelligent non-human race with pretty serious sexual dimorphism — the females are lion-headed humanoids and the males a a big question mark. (We learn that most males are semi-intelligence quadrupedal lion-types, but each group has a King, whom all of the females are “married” to, and who has bipedalism and increased intelligence because of a specific intervention by the females. This seems unlikely to be stable or natural, but I can only shrug.) They have an onerous contract with the unseen owners of the amusement park, which they can’t fulfill without destroying their culture and becoming essentially slaves there for the rest of their lives, and which they can’t break without incurring massive financial penalties. (Again: this is a warlike group of nomads in a world with no apparent larger government. McNeil makes the dilemma plausible, but the heavily armed and well-positioned Nyima appear to have a much stronger hand than the weak, unarmed locals.)
Jaeger, in his meddling way, solves the Nyimas’ problem, answers his own curiosity, causes a larger amount of trouble than usual even for him, and leaves at the end, happy and ready for another opportunity to meddle somewhere else.
And last in Volume 1 is Talisman, which I read before a few years back
. This is Marcie’s story: she’s growing up from the little girl we saw in Sin-Eater, and I won’t repeat what I said then. (This post is long enough already.) The background details do make more sense if you come to Talisman in series order, though. Talisman is a story about the youth of an artist, which many artists are compelled to tell — McNeil does a good job of it, and her quirky world makes it specific and individual.
The most important thing for me to note at the end here is that I’m going to be actively seeking out Finder Library, Vol. 2. Some of the world-building might annoy me, but that always happens. McNeil’s people are real and have complicated flaws, her world is big and intricate and clearly is full of details she already knows that might never make it into a story, and her drawing is crisp and evocative and sophisticated. It’s good, real SF in comics form, which is rare, and it’s SF focused on people (often women) in a complex world, which is even rarer.
[1] How can there be a clan that specializes in “police” if there’s no government above them? They’d just be the street gang that runs the town, from their monopoly on violence. I’m hoping McNeil eventually explains the governance of this world, because so far I see nothing to keep one clan from eliminating another, or any mechanisms other than violence to solve inter-clan disputes.
A few years back, the idea was that every new comic publisher would establish a cohesive interconnected universe. Every one of their comic series would be just one part of a larger grand tapestry.
Times have changed.
Since it burst onto the scene, AHOY Comics has boldly said they want to make every comic different and surprising. They certainly deliver on that promise with Edgar Allen Poe’s Snifter of Terror #1, available today in stores right on time for Halloween.
This comic is witty, creepy, gross …and so much fun. It’s packed full of content that, like a rotting corpse, it seems a little bloated. But in a good way.
The first story- and adaptation of Poe’s “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” – is grim stuff. Tom Peyer opens the story with Poe serving as our horror host. But there’s so much fear and self-loathing. Just when you think it’s too far over the top, it goes over the top again. This chilling story is also an excellent tool for those dieting and seeking appetite suppression tools.
And no sooner is it finished that Edgar Allen Poe again takes center stage to introduce, again in a very unpleasant manner, the second story.
This is the one that really shines for me. At first glance, “Dark Chocolate” looks like a straightforward vampire story. But in reality, it’s a satirical farce of everything that’s near and dear to every kid who grew up watching Hammer monster movies and eating cereal for breakfast.
Mark Russell, who’s recent Flintstones series for DC Comics has been an unexpected, breakout hit, delivers a story that’s sweetly surprising on so many levels at the same time. It’s been too long since I’ve read a comic story by artist Peter Snejbjerg, and I worry I’ve forgotten just how talented he is.
The comics are rounded out by other features. Included is a short gag comic featuring Poe and a humorous Interview with Mark Russell. However, the poem “The Scallop and the Barnacle” by Celia Madrid is the one not be missed. It’s a grisly tale told with a dash of gallows humor and inappropriate language. Not what I was expecting, but so happy to have read it.
Next issue looks great too. The cover is very much in the lines of the “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman”, but starring Edgar Allen Poe in that iconic pose, of course. It’s nutty, silly and kooky – so it makes all the sense of the world for this comic.
Some historical moments date much faster than others, and that can be deeply amusing if you lived through them. Y2K is the great recent example: it was a huge deal before it happened, and was forgotten and ignored almost immediately afterward when the popularized apocalypse failed to actually happen.
Kyle Baker’s graphic novel I Die at Midnight is one of the small breed of Millennial Thrillers, set on New Year’s Eve of 1999. Amusingly, it was even published in a Y2K style, with a big “V2K Vertigo” imprint at the top left that everyone has since forgotten that DC’s Vertigo ever used at all. Interestingly, it has a copyright date of 2000, which makes it a late entry in this derby: most of your Millennial Thrillers came out in 1997-1999 to capitalize on the hype beforehand and promise horrible world-ending terrors on that fateful night.
Baker, though, is working on a smaller canvas: I Die is the story of one man, one evening, and the race to get an antidote to the overdose he just took.
Larry is that man: Muriel left him recently, and so he’s going to end it all on New Year’s Eve. But then she returns to him, right after he swallows the whole bottle of pills. And since nothing can go right in a comic thriller — which is definitely what I Die at Midnight is — he can’t get those pills out of his system until it’s too late, and his only hope is to meet up with a doctor acquaintance with that antidote before midnight, when it will be too late to save him. Midnight, of course, is only forty minutes away. And the only way they can meet in time is right in between where they are…which is, coincidentally, Times Square.
There are other complications, of course. There have to be. They are funny, and at least plausible, and they keep this story barreling forward exactly the way they need to. And the story ends the way it needs to.
I Die at Midnight is not a major Baker work. But it’s fast and funny and full of amusing moments and Easter eggs in the art. (Times Square in particular is awash in billboards for various Baker properties, mostly but not all in their imagined movie versions — I wished the book was physically larger so I could get a better look at all of the goofy stuff there.) And it will be funnier the more you remember the Y2K hoopla.
BURBANK, CA (October 25, 2018) – Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has increased its run of Batman: The Complete Animated Series Deluxe Limited Edition to 70,000 to accommodate overwhelming demand for the most anticipated Blu-ray box set release of 2018. Remastered for the first time since its broadcast airing from 1992-1995, the stunning box set for $112.99 SRP will be available on October 30, 2018.
“As many fans and media have noticed, Amazon and other notable retailers were forced to suspend sales of Batman: The Complete Animated Series Deluxe Limited Edition due to unprecedented demand for this beloved series,” explained Jeff Brown, General Manager and Executive Vice President, Television, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. “Sales surpassed our initial run of 30,000 limited edition box sets about four weeks ago and, rather than leave so many fans wanting, we implemented new production orders to accommodate the requests for this prized collection. A significant portion of those increased numbers have already sold, and all sites are accepting orders again.”
The impressive Batman: The Complete Animated Series Deluxe Limited Edition package features approximately 2,700 minutes of entertainment spread over 10 Blu-ray discs, plus the two bonus discs – not counting 11 specially-selected episodes with audio commentaries by cast and crew. In addition, Batman: The Complete Animated Series Deluxe Limited Edition includes an exclusive ensemble of collectibles highlighted by three Funko mini-figurines (Batman, Joker, Harley Quinn) and seven beautifully-designed lenticular art cards. The entire box set is housed in a stunning layflat-book with a dazzling slipcase. And a digital copy of all 109 episodes is included in the box set.
Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, the Emmy Award-winning series captured the imaginations of generations, setting the standard for super hero storytelling for the past quarter-century with its innovative designs, near-perfect voice cast and landmark approach to DC’s iconic characters and stories. Batman: The Complete Animated Series Deluxe Limited Edition box set includes all 109 thrilling episodes, plus two bonus disks containing the recently-remastered, fan favorite animated films Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero, The box set’s premiere bonus feature is, The Heart of Batman, an impressive 90-minute documentary on the making of Batman: The Animated Series that includes interviews with nearly three dozen members of the cast and crew, detailing the intricacies of production behind the landmark animated show.
Here’s a lesson I could stand to learn: if I pick up a book in a field I’ve been following reasonably closely for my entire adult life, and that book came out during my adult life, and I can’t remember hearing anything in particular about it, it’s very likely that’s because the book is not actually all that good.
But let me pretend to change the subject!
Today I’m here to talk about American Century, a Vertigo series from around the turn of the millennium, written by Howard Chaykin and David Tischman and with art by Marc Laming and John Stokes. I found the first two collections of this series randomly a couple of months ago, and, since I’m reading everything I can get my hands on for this Book-A-Day run, they went into the hopper before too long.
I had, as far as I could remember, never heard of American Century. Now I know why.
Our Standard Chaykin Asshole this time is named Harry Block, and he’s the usual mid-career Chaykin hero: unsatisfied with his quiet suburban life in 1949, cheated on obviously by his mouthy, demanding, hot-to-trot wife [1], and called up for the growing conflict in Korea. So he bugs out, and American Century sets up to be the story of how he wanders through various unpleasant episodes in history over the next however-many years. In the end — I see from looking it up on the Comic Book DB
— there were twenty-seven issues, but only the first nine were collected into these two books.
And that’s probably because this is dull, difficult-to-follow, and boring. Harry Block should have been the American Harry Flashman
, but Chaykin-and-Tischman aren’t Fraser, and even pure Chaykin would probably have gone in the same direction.
In the first one, Harry changes his last name to Kraft and flies planes for smugglers in Guatemala during a simmering civil war between the American-backed government and Communist insurgents, with a side order of the evil profiteering US Fruit Company. Chaykin and Tischman make this boring, and Laming and Stokes manage to make a naked woman look unrealistic, which I thought was impossible for a mainstream comics team.
Hollywood Babylon brings Harry back to the states, to LA obviously, and to more Chaykinesque intrigue, this time among movie stars and a US Senator and a gossip columnist. This is also dull, and Harry only peripherally involved in any of it. (He also doesn’t narrate the stories as strongly as I think he’s supposed to: his voice isn’t distinctive and it isn’t pervasive.)
You’ve probably never heard of American Century. There’s a reason for that. I recommend you let it be forgotten once again.
[1] Remember that all of those things are bad in Chaykin-land: women should do what men tell them to do, and only be sexpot with the hero when he demands it.
