I had to clean out my room and bookcase last week, put all the Sandman comics and his various novels in the crate before anything else. It sucks but I can’t see ever getting any enjoyment out of them again, fucking creep.
8 Likes
I’m still at a point where I’m trying to think about what he’s written that has value to me. I think I’m safe just cutting it all. Ultimately the appeal of his work was that it wasn’t embarrassed to include fantasy, but it never really did anything with fantasy either. It was safe work, and I remember someone saying once that Gaiman should have existed in a time when you could sell epic poetry, but his work never sounded like poetry to me.
2 Likes
the closest I’ve come to reading him is an ex leaving a copy of sandman in my army chest illustrated by amano that I thumbed through for the pictures, and like, the sandman parodies in cerebus. I just wrote him and amanda palmer off as fucking lameoids, but I didn’t realize how much people worshipped them and how much they abused that power. I am sick of famous people and their awful paraphilias that they write off as consensual BDSM. yes I went back to finish the article, like a fool
just in case frank discussion of sexual assault bugs you
but it’s so true how no one ever thinks their rape was a rape at first. like obviously the hand over mouth dragged into an alley doesn’t get misconstrued very often if at all, but most sexual assaults that happen (this is anecdotal or whatever , I’m only speaking from what I’ve witnessed, experienced and conversations I’ve had) aren’t like that. there’s always coercion, gaslighting, and doubt. theres always room for an excuse or a story or some dumb loophole to make the victim look like the assailant. I’m just so sick of it. I’m not over my own shit, it hurts to see vulnerable people continue to suffer, to get paid off to suffer in silence, to convince themselves they wanted it. it just stings a little, my feelings are hurt. I hope these people get revenge, and this intense feeling I’m having right now is bound to change but in the moment I’m like what kind of pain can you even inflict on a rapist that compares to the anguish they inflict on others. I wish I could drain the liquid suffering from all these people and waterboard niel gaiman with it
13 Likes
The only Gaiman I read was Miracleman the Golden Age and I found it unbearably smug meta for the most part. Not really doing enough with the groundwork.
3 Likes
I didn’t read a lot of Disney comics as a kid. I guess they just didn’t happen to have them at the libraries I frequented. But I often hear Carl Barks and Don Rosa praised and I’ve long thought I should give them a try to see whether they might be worth reading as an adult without any nostalgia (other than I guess watching some DuckTales in the 1990s).
I started with The Universal Solvent by Don Rosa, and it’s a pretty creative story.
16 Likes
I can’t imagine Donald Duck saying the word “stipend” out loud
4 Likes
I read somewhere that, especially with Rosa, you shouldn’t read too quickly but should pay attention to details in the panels. Even just in the process of cropping and pasting the above, I noticed several new things (such as the doily in panel 2 and the arm of the armchair between 2 and 3).
2 Likes
I’m practicing learning Spanish these days and tracked down some of these comics in Spanish to read when I get to that point. The art is really nice, and I honestly think the Duck Tales characters are nicely balanced against each other and really expressive themselves. And that’s no small accomplishment!
4 Likes
I will recommend the Ducktales reboot again, it was so good
2 Likes
Personally, Gaiman for me was the bridge writer who got me into reading as an adult, as I picked up copies of Good Omens and American Gods on discount when I think Borders was going out of business. Not that I’m the most voracious reader in the world, or that I’ve even really read much of his stuff in a number of years now, but as silly as it sounds he really sorta did open up a new world for me and it sucks when that person ends up being… this.
5 Likes
I’ve read a few more of these, and I like how thoroughly Rosa explores the implications of a concept, even if it’s within a throwaway story.
I mentioned The Universal Solvent above, but it’s the same sort of thing with A Matter of Some Gravity and On Stolen Time. I would have loved these as a kid.
10 Likes
– Amazing Fantasy #15
4 Likes
reading early Valerian & Laureline comics and thinking again about how much the french possession of algeria really fucked all those guys up. also very funny that the postscript to one of the books pointedly puts a bunch of star wars imagery next to earlier panels from the comic to show influence, which in one case extends to wanting to take credit for Watto. i think you can have that one, guys. good work.
8 Likes
To be fair watto is like if the valerian design was mixed in with a cartoon from stormfront
5 Likes
love how pleased with himself he is for this. supreme hydra get on linkedin
17 Likes
two cool things in this month’s judge dredd megazine
first: an interview with josemaria casanovas about his late father’s work, followed by reprints of a couple of standalone stories drawn by casanovas sr in the early 80s. cool because these article + reprint sections are usually to promote an upcoming book release. there was nothing being sold here, just a nice article about a creator and some of his work.
second: the lastest installment of lawless. lawless is set in the judge dredd universe, on a distant frontier planet, specifically in a town called badrock. it’s impactical to enforce full mega city law so far out for many reasons, so law enforcement in such places is done by “colonial marshalls”, who are more like wild west sherriffs with lives outside the job, and not the devoted cultists that judges are.
anyway, for various reasons, a couple of sjs judges, who are special elite judges with powers to investigate and prosecute regular judges had been stationed in badrock. one died a traitor (iirc), and this episode centered on the other. he’s doing his rounds, checking in on the people living on the outskirts of badrock: ranchers, a religious cult, and someone he hadn’t met before, a xenobiologist looking to research the planet’s indigenous species. while he’s doing this he’s contemplating whether he should return to mega city one, or stay in badrock as a colonial marshall. specifically, he also thinks about whether he should be “a judge or a person”. it’s pretty clear that he wants to stay in badrock as a marshall from the start, and by the end of the story, his mind is made up to do that.
i just thought that was an interesting look at the internal life of a judge, something they’re not really supposed to have, but obviously they must. even if they’re not permitted to act as people, they still are.
(as i write this, there’s an episode of xena playing on the amazon prime rolling xena channel where joxer is dealing with the guilt of accidentally killing an evil bandit to protect some people. it’s very different, but still kind of similar. in this case, it’s the comic relief character dealing with a serious internal problem, though)
7 Likes
the steranko nick fury comics are fun bc sometimes he’ll just start throwing weird CF locations in there but there’ll still be a little muscle guy running around on them speaking stanleese like “jumpin’ jephosostat! who does yer laundry - - soupy sales?!”
16 Likes
super ball girls
it’s drawn by the prison school guy. written by someone else. it is gremlins if the gremlins were girls. it’s about what if you like girls but also girls are scary. it is super gremlins. it’s so increasingly the gremlins the more you read. but then the fights get kinda like, shonen super power level type stuff. very body horror. melting, chopping, twisting breaking. it’s still a comedy.
extremely not kidding about the gremlins comparison
5 Likes
the rules for taking care of super ball girls btw are no kissing and no chocolate
3 Likes