Superman & Fables

I picked up a few graphic novels this week, All Star Superman (Vol. 1), Fables: Homelands (Vol. 6), and Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days) (Vol. 7). Grant Morrison's writing is growing on me... I didn't grow up reading Animal Man, Doom Patrol, or The Invisibles, but I did read his Marvel Boy, The Filth, & New X-Men. His take on Superman is good -- I think he identifies too much with Lex Luthor -- but the stories have been solid & good, if not mind-altering with a touch of subversion (that I've come to expect from Grant). I will pick up the 2nd volume when it's released.

I guess what really surprised me was Fables... A few months ago, I went through this funk trying to find a good graphic novel to get into. I've been tossing around the idea of reading through Sandman again, but decided to give Fables another go. I had picked up the first few issues when they first came out -- the story was okay, the concept behind it was kind of cool, but it didn't strike a cord with me. But friends heaped praise after praise about how good Fables was. Now I've read some of Bill Willingham's other works and to some degree or another, they were cute stories, but I wouldn't seriously consider following them for a long time -- a little trite and predictable, not the epic story to hold my attention. And to be honest, the first few Fables graphic novels still didn't do it for me, until about March of the Wooden Soldiers (Vol. 4)... up until that point, the stories where ok, just not great, but each time, it grew on me a little bit -- either I connected a little more with the characters (Boy Blue), or he adds a little background mythos that adds a little more depth to the story, or slow moving away from just pitching the story idea, to (doing research and) actually telling the story. Whatever it is, I'm growing fond of it.

I don't know what it was, at first if felt like Willingham picked a few characters from fairy tales/nursery rhymes and threw them into a Fabletown. It's not like picking up an issue of Top 10 where every page had some sort of subtle homage to superheroes; there could have been more nods to other fables in the background... or fable artifacts. And maybe this is a failing of the story artist, and not of Bill's. But with following novels, Bill seems to be adding more to the over all background, with nods to other fables (either directly in text or in directions to the comic artist) that are adding layers to make the story better.

Evil Dead meets Tarzan

So my 10 Word Plot from April 22, 2007 was this:

10 Word Sci-Fi Plot: Scientist creates worm-hole, unleashes elder-gods; man, gun, and monkey save world. Think Evil Dead meets Tarazan.

Hmm... This could be the plot of the next Hell Boy movie; substitute man and monkey with Hell Boy and you almost have the plot of the first movie...

Or you can set the story in a steam-punk world, full of mad-scientist, blitzkrieg-bots, and blimps (or airships built using Cavorite). Areas on earth still untouched and unexplored by men. Primitive cultures living nearby lost civilizations (maybe long descendants). World political tension building towards a world war; each country trying to build armies or the next super-weapon. Then from out of the jungle, a half naked man & his monkey emerge with a monster from the ancient world -- elephant gigantus -- a elephant twice the size of any ordinary elephant, with two trunks.

Or hero, Jack Howard, was orphaned in the African jungle until the age of 12. Jack was rescued by local natives & turned over to the US embassy. From there, he was adopted by Nathan & Martha Howard, former ambassadors to Africa. Jack was a bright boy, curious, with a strong affinity for science. The Howards sent Jack off to Yale, where he majored in anthropology, girls, and football. After college, Jack was quickly recruited by the US government as a kind of exploratory anthropologist -- which gave Jack an opportunity to return to the jungles of Africa, where he met his monkey companion, Kima. Unknown by Jack, this gigantic elephant was the weapon the US government was looking for.

Meanwhile in Bavaria, scientist Josef Fuchs is performing an ancient Thule blood ritual, which he thought was to bestow more savage strength on to warriors, but they were swallowed up by a portal into another universe... and an ancient evil was released, the lesser of the ancient gods...

Quick Wrap Up:

Whatever creature the lesser god is based on, begins to reproduce and spread out from Bavaria... to the point where other nations are taking notice & Bavaria is asking for help. The US government calls in all "exploratory adventurers" to form a plan. Jack recognizes symbols on a picture taken from ground zero & realizes from African folklore what evil has been unleashed... the elephant gigantus is the key to earth's salvation... and of course, Jack's 50 cal pistol, Bess.

Bone: One Volume Edition (revisited)

Went to Ohio last weekend to visit family between the holidays.  Got my one volume edition of Bone back from my brother-in-law... it didn't thrill him.  Can't blame him, it's a big book and (since I started to re-read it) slow at the beginning.  We have similar tastes on somethings, but I don't expect him to like everything that I like.

During our visit, he downloaded the Watchmen animated comic to his X-Box, we watched the first chapter.  It looked one part South Park, one part comic, and I guess they only hired one voice actor to do all the speaking bits.  On one hand, it was kind of cool, the editing was good.  The story followed the comic pretty closely (if not 100%).  But the amount of time and talent put into the production, couldn't Warner Brothers/DC hire a few more voice actors?  I mean I like Tom Stechschulte, and looking on IMDB, he hasn't been in much that I recognize his voice from -- in the back of my mind, I though he's done some other voice acting work in animation, like Super-Friends, or newer shows like animated Batman -- but to make him do both male and female voices???  And just read on another blog about the author wanting more ambient noises; I agree.

Saw a post about Top 10 over on Gene Ha's blog; sad to say, I've stopped reading it since Alan Moore left the book.  I'm thinking it's about time to start re-reading Alan's run on the series.