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Comics Today, Signing and Glee
Black Widow: Deadly Origin #3 and Dark X-Men #3 are both in your (US) comic stores today, and your (UK) comic shops tomorrow, assuming the lorries delivering them can get through the snow. I imagine Danie Ware standing at the door of Forbidden Planet, looking out into the blizzard, as a burly man in furs tramps towards her, a box of comics in his frozen hands. 'The comics must get through!' he gasps, as she makes him sip brandy.
If you remain undecided about your purchases, here is the first six pages of Black Widow, alongside a very kind review. The preview pages for the X-Men can be found a couple of blog entries down.
If you remain undecided about your purchases, here is the first six pages of Black Widow, alongside a very kind review. The preview pages for the X-Men can be found a couple of blog entries down.
And speaking of Danie Ware, through her kind offices, I'll be doing a signing at Forbidden Planet in London on Thursday 28th January, from 6pm. It's chiefly of the Panini Captain Britain and MI-13: Vampire State collection and the Dark Reign: Young Avengers volume, but, you know, I'll sign whatever you bring. Apart from certain body parts. (I don't know though, give it a try.)
I wanted to say a few words about Glee, which has just arrived in Britain, and has been heartily embraced by pop culture (with a track from the cast currently at number three on ITunes' hit parade, and thus about to appear in the earthly singles chart on Sunday). It's one of those shows that seems made for fans, in that, while no fantastical elements appear, it's about us, or us as we'd like to have been: the alienated freaks and geeks who have to form an alternative society of their own. It joins shows like Veronica Mars and movies like Heathers in being a story of sweet, sweet high school revenge. But at the same time, through its representation of the well sung show tune as being the epitomy of talent, it also fits right in with British society's current vision of pop music, as represented by The X-Factor and its ilk. Rather wonderfully, because this is a show which delights in reversing expectations (the young woman who prissily has a phobia about keeping clean is our heroine, that's not a metaphor for inner darkness this time), the evil bitchy bully girls show up for an audition... and do really well. So our geeks are going to have to live with them inside their world, not build utopia without them. Which makes the Joss Whedon/mainstream talent show collision all the more apt. Most interesting is the show's fight (because it is a fight), to put genuine outsiders front and centre. The gay lad, black girl and kid in a wheelchair are right at the front of the musical numbers, they're definitely what 'we're' fighting for... but they're not 'we', in that, as yet, they've had moments, rather than plots of their own. We aren't asked to identify with them. The kid in the wheelchair (Artie Abrams, played by Kevin McHale) is fascinating, in that when he's given a guitar solo or a rap, we're asked to gaze at how odd that as, a gaze that might be on the edge of being asked to laugh at him, but the gaze goes on so long it makes us ask why we haven't been asked to look like that before, and if there's laughter, it's for him. The lack of plots for these folk (after two whole episodes, so I have, like, a huge sample to draw from), if I talked Internet language, would lead me to yell about racism, sexism, wheelchairism and the like, but instead I think it may be a rather Brechtian moment of the audience being forced to confront the world. And I suspect they'll get plots next week. I love the notion, shared by all musicals, that just starting to sing gives you perfect acoustics and choreography, I love the hard route to mass popularity the series has chosen for itself, and so far, I love this show.
Incidentally, I loved the new Being Human too, and will comment as part of Ten Things this weekend. Cheerio!
Labels:
Black Widow,
Captain Britain,
Dark X-Men,
Forbidden Planet,
Glee,
Young Avengers
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The kid in the wheelchair (Artie Abrams, played by Kevin McHale) is fascinating, in that when he's given a guitar solo or a rap, we're asked to gaze at how odd that as, a gaze that might be on the edge of being asked to laugh at him, but the gaze goes on so long it makes us ask why we haven't been asked to look like that before, and if there's laughter, it's for him
Puzzled: Michael Flanders? I grw up watching a man in a wheelchair entertain. I realise this is a different generation, but there are lots of clips on youtube and they were fairly popular in the US.
Haven't seen the show yet. I have to wait for the DVDs.
Watched just the pilot of Glee last night. Some funny bits, some jokes that definitely worked, but I didn't love it. The writing's good, but it's no Skins, and I think to really love it you have to be into that whole 'school musical' genre. That way you appreciate on a personal level the irony that I can only see technically.
My favourite musical is Return to the Forbidden Planet. Now that needs a movie version.
I love Glee. I like that it doesn't divide the kids into a simple division of Evil Jocks and Noble Outsiders. As Finn points out in the pilot, they're in a broke school in a backwoods town, even the popular kids aren't going anywhere.
While the jocks and cheerleaders have the upper hand for nastiness, Will and his glee kids aren't above being arrogant, manipulative, snappish, cowardly and generally adolescent. I love that the show is so upbeat and happy, but also has this constant onslaught of minor cruelties and venomous one-liners.
I compltely agree with Mark Clapham up there - It's great that the division between Freaks and Jocks in Glee isn't all that black-and-white, that makes everyone that much more human. Even the uber-bitch-we-love-to-hate Sue Sylvester has her moments of fragility.
Also, Mr. Cornell, I'm LOVING your Dark X-Men series!
GLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! :)
I'm so glad you're finally getting it over yonder. It's a great show. And yes, the first couple of episodes are a bit shaky, as first episodes are wont to be. I was kind of "meh" at first, too. But around episode 5-ish you start to realize "Hey! This show's going to be about CHARACTERS! And they're going to have actual DEPTH!" :) Stick with it. It will all be worth it!
Also, SINGING AND DANCING! That can never be wrong. Case in point, I finally got around to watching this week's How I Met Your Mother, its 100th episode, and it features Neil Patrick Harris and the cast doing an amazing musical number about suits. :)
And I'll be scoring my Black Widow and Dark X-Men at lunch today! :)
I wish the part of my brain responsible for keeping track of plots in things I only watch once a week could disentangle Glee from Friday Night Lights.
OK so I've had friends tell me I need to listen to Kate Bush for years and I said I would but she was always one of those musicians "on my list" that I never seem to get around to and then all of a sudden today I'm reading Dark X-Men and I realize that everyone is being described by song titles again and then I see that they're all Kate Bush songs and I'm all 'Holy crap, it's like the Universe is trying to tell me something!' and it's crazy that I can't even read a comic book without...
*sigh* I'm going to have to listen to Kate Bush, aren't I?
FINE! OK, UNIVERSE! YOU WIN! JESUS HAROLD TAPDANCING CHRIST! I GET IT! I'LL LISTEN TO KATE BUSH!
Paul, all the Glee kids get a plot or two in the first thirteen episodes - though the bulk to the stories do lean toward the straight, white, able-bodied cast. Still, I think such a diverse cast is good to see - and with all high school shows, the wheel will turn and they will all get their chances to shine again and again.
Assuming it gets to my comic shop, I'll be picking up Black Widow tonight. Incidentally, I've been assuming 'icepick' is a nod to Trotsky, but does it have some deeper significance?
- Rob Hansen
Farah: there is, I think, a conceptual gap between Flanders and Swann and the rap on 'Push It'. SK: I think would add something, but I don't follow that genre either, so the mileage does vary. Mark: indeed, that's what I like too. James: ta! Teresa: but I love it already! And ta for the X-Men pimpage on Twitter. And yes, you need Kate Bush. I'll be repeating my presentation about her at Eastercon this year. Hamp: could be worse, could be Fringe. Cross: so I suspected, good to hear. Rob: no, it's just that, hope you like it.
Paul - do you still use your owlservice email? Sent you details of this years Edinburgh Book Festival. They want you! Keith
No, I don't use that anymore. Find me on Twitter, or drop a message here. Cheers.
Hi Paul
Belated Happy New Year from north of the border! Hope the house hunting is going well - I would imagine the weather has slowed that down though...
Remember last year I "nominated" you for the 2010 Edinburgh Book Festival? Probably not, but they've got back to me with these details:
"Generally, the best means of approaching us for consideration is to have Paul’s publisher propose an event during October and November, which is when ideas are initially out forward. There may still be some time for us to consider an event proposal from Paul’s publisher – we would need an extract or proof of his latest work and any information that was available on it, such as a press release. Unfortunately due to the number of books and manuscripts we receive, we are unable to return anything sent to us. Due to the possible costs to his publisher such as travel etc, it is up to Paul or his publisher to propose an idea to us."
I'm not sure what they mean "October and November" as the Festival takes place from 14th to the 30th August! Are you interested, though, Paul? I could forward contact details if you are keen.
Best
Keith Miller
Father of Fandom lol
I wouldn't worry, Keith. They can always find me through my agent. Cheers.
Wow, having read everything here. I think i'm going to have to give glee a look. Just hope the sky plus box doesn't let me down though. Because I'll have to record it while viewing something else:)
@Paul. Just to check. Is your Black Widow hardcover going to be the same story as whats in your current dark origins story?
Reason I ask is because after royal mail botched the MI13 stuff for me. As in that last Vampire Nation story arc. Which I loved btw. It be nice to know that I can get the Hard Cover should anything go wrong with the delivery of the collective comics.
Thanks
Friday Night Lights! Yes, that's what Glee reminds me of a less-good version of. I'd almost forgotten it, as ITV never showed any more than the first series.
Is it still good, or did it descend into the 'we're parsimoniously hoarding our few remaining idea for sweeps weeks' torpor of pointlessness and every-week-the-same-ness that most American series adopt in their second year (I think it's a result of such stupidly long series) and never arouse themselves from?
Just read Black Widow on my morning commute in to work.
Way to work in girl-on-girl! "Nanites." Uh-huh. ;)
But seriously, great issue! The story's coming together really well! Except I have to ask - that page where Widow is talking to Daredevil on the roof and touching his shoulder to give him the counter-nanites...is she also cupping his package? Cause seriously, from the artwork, it kind of looks like she is. I mean, I know they have a history, and I'm all for spreading counter-nanites, but damn!
Anyway, I feel like I'll have a strong need to write a feministy essay about Black Widow as soon as this story's over. Something about a guy wanting to possess a woman so much that when she doesn't want him he punishes her by punishing everyone she's ever slept with or cared about really busts my buttons! Thanks for giving me oodles to think about.
Also: "Why do we wear these costumes if not for the theater?" Priceless! :)
Ian: yes, it's the same four issues. SK: I think these mid-season breaks are a useful way to combat viewer tiredness. Teresa: that bit with DD isn't in the script, and I must say I hadn't noticed it until you pointed it out! I doubt it's intentional. Indeed, said villain (not named here for spoilerishness) makes my skin crawl. He's really pretty damn hideous.
It's not viewer tiredness that concerns me, so much as how so many US series seem to have, every year, enough good ideas that really get to the heart of the programme's premise for about, oh, six episodes. So in order to bulk it up to the required twenty-two or so they add a lot of filler episodes which are basically the character doing the same things week after week.
Quite often the first year is better than this because they don't know if they will get to make a second year, so they throw in all the ideas they have. It's like first-novel-syndrome but with the difference that there's room for it.
But for the second and subsequent years, they don't have the ideas (because they threw them all in series one, and the ones they have they are hoarding for series finales etc) so all the episodes become similar and formulaic. It's very rare I keep watching a US series after the second or third year because I get so few up with the feeling that I'm not seeing anything new or interesting.
And that's not me being tired: they aren't actually showing anything new or interesting.
Just imagine what a great six-episode serial about identity and fantasy Dollhouse would have made, stripped of all that tedious espionage stuff and with the boring assignments cut down to the bare essentials (you could fit at least three 'jobs' in one episode, if your storytelling was tight enough, and seeing as most of the jobs are going over the same ground as others, that'd definitely be enough).
(Some US channels seem to have realised this and now their series are six to thirteen episodes long: programmes like The Wire and Rome. I think this is definitely a step in the right direction, but there is room to go even farther.)
I really enjoy Glee, although it does make me remember high school. Fortunately I never got a slushie to the face.
OK I was reading dark Xmen (In the Store, Yeah. I know you are supposed to buy it and take it home but there was no one looking and I liked to cover). Didn't notice it was by you,So I'm half way through and someone goes crazy and starts yelling Spike Milligan material from the late fifties! So yeah, I bought it. Had to walk home because it ate my Bus fare, but I had to have that. Cheers
I just had a thought about that final panel in Black Widow. I now want to write a country song called "I Have A Brain In My Chest And A Hole In My Heart."
That is all.
SK: interesting stuff. About which... no, I have no opinion worth mentioning. Garpu: it makes me wince every time! Kevin: good to know. I'll do that more often in the future! Teresa: someone should record that.