There are a lot of excellent Daredevil graphic novels out there, and this is one of them. The first volume from writer Chip Zdarsky, it has the perfecThere are a lot of excellent Daredevil graphic novels out there, and this is one of them. The first volume from writer Chip Zdarsky, it has the perfect tone with gorgeous art. Readers who are fans of the streaming series can also see some influence, such as the part when he debates over morality with the Punisher...
One of the most interesting storylines of the recent era was having Wilson Fisk as mayor of NYC, which is a major factor from the start. That's just one of the many angles in which Matt Murdock's life is ruined and he further suffers, as the character goes. This is how it should be, and there are original takes herein, so one can see why Zdarsky is such a fan-favorite writer. ...more
Honestly the frantic energy of this series works better in the anime adaptation, with movement and vibrant chaos, it is a straight adaptation and all Honestly the frantic energy of this series works better in the anime adaptation, with movement and vibrant chaos, it is a straight adaptation and all the weird ideas and direct images come from this manga first. So I'll give a good review ...more
Refreshing for Marvel to try something new with Star Wars, focusing on an original character with an Indian Jones-esque sense of comedy. Kieron GillenRefreshing for Marvel to try something new with Star Wars, focusing on an original character with an Indian Jones-esque sense of comedy. Kieron Gillen is a smart writer, and although this work isn't as great as his say recent X-Men, it's been fun to read while browsing this new SW canon ~...more
Jonathan Hickman's Ultimate universe reboot had a mixed start, but his continuation by focusing on Peter Parker is just plain excellent.
It's like the Jonathan Hickman's Ultimate universe reboot had a mixed start, but his continuation by focusing on Peter Parker is just plain excellent.
It's like the opposition of most Spider-Man stories, he's an adult with kids and it totally works.
Not only that, the action is slow-building with a cerebral take on the iconic Marvel hero. It's always been about the cast of characters with him, and works ever better as a family man.
It is Hickman, so there's a secret conspiracy looming the while time. Makes for Kingpin being a good initial villain.
I miss Peter being married to Mary Jane, so this is especially for my generation. The Uncle Ben as journalist is an intriguing subplot, as is the growing relationship with Harry Osborne. I anxiously await reading more...more
A fine novella from a writer of my generation (recalling the 2000s), about getting older and trying to keep up with the glory days. As much as the maiA fine novella from a writer of my generation (recalling the 2000s), about getting older and trying to keep up with the glory days. As much as the main character tries to stay fit, there's a big contrast with others who get out of shape and descend into loserdom.
For those who peaked in high school, for sports fans missing the old days, this tight short book expresses those feelings of those of us who aren't even that old realizing that time goes so fast before you know it......more
I have never encountered anything—any book or movie or series—that has aged so badly and so fast as White by Bret Easton Ellis.
Ellis was one of my favI have never encountered anything—any book or movie or series—that has aged so badly and so fast as White by Bret Easton Ellis.
Ellis was one of my favorite writers, who frankly peaked at a very young age. There was the numbing Less Than Zero when he was a teenager, and then of course American Psycho which was absolutely brilliant and defining and somehow was written in his twenties.
He wrote some other pretty good novels and short stories as well, but his 21st century output just hasn’t been the same. Lunar Park and The Shards, which both star fictional versions of himself, are too self-centered to ever be considered classics.
Still, I thought I’d be a completist and check out his controversial nonfiction book of essays. I have to say, I wish I hadn't.
White really starts out so promising. Ellis spends a lot of time reviewing movies and music, especially from the 80s, which seems to be among his favorite topics. He says some interesting things about being queer as well, especially in the context of film and Hollywood's evolving norms. Most of all, the background on writing Less Than Zero and then American Psycho are excellent. Very much worth reading for fans. Even the backstory of the latter’s film and yes its musical adaptation are great reads. Plenty of celebrity name-dropping for good measure.
But that’s not really the point of White. The point of this book, is to complain about the kids these days.
He doesn’t use the word woke, which wasn’t quite in fashion yet, but it’s an incredibly familiar list of complaints. Couldn’t be more cliched.
Basically, 2017 and the subsequent years since then were an annoying time and some people went overboard. We all know. And yet, this was written right before 2020 when sh*t got so much more serious. And it could not have aged more badly.
His premise more or less is that the MAGA movement isn’t that bad, people complained too much about the president which annoyed him (the greatest sin there is apparently), and just generally trying to normalize that awful administration.
He devotes thousands and thousands of words to this. Having read a few political books in my time, what's frustrating is how much Ellis talks about ‘aesthetics’ without actually caring about the policy aspects of politics whatsoever. He doesn’t have anything to say about immigration, or women’s rights, or even gay marriage or anything like that. He seems to think presidents and governments don’t do much of anything, and so all the fears the winey libs had are overblown.
Wow this aged badly after January 6. Like, he reveals how his boyfriend is a Millennial and acts like he deserves points for that—which is kind of problematic with the age gap actually, since when was it progressive to be 20 years older than your partner, not that I really care. He calls him a member of Generation Wuss, and has nothing to say about substantial LGBTQ+ issues of which that administration was extremely hostile.
Sure, he makes the perfunctory statements how he’s not right-wing and didn't vote for that. But the both side-ism doesn’t work, when he uses almost all his energies to complain about “the left.”
He keeps saying he has friends who voted Republican, how amazingly diverse his social group is, but he never says why they voted that way. There's no real argument. Politics is all an abstraction which doesn’t apparently affect anyone in real life.
Ellis mocks the term, but there’s really not other way to say it but this: He’s incredibly privileged.
Who cares that dinner parties were awkward for him because people freaked out too much? So what? There were real human beings affected by family separations at the border, and the Muslim ban, the hurricane response in Puerto Rico, trying to overturn the ACA, etc., etc.
Not to mention COVID!
And since then, Roe vs. Wade has been overturned and Project 2025 is now a viable threat and democracy is being undermined and there's a host of other serious issues. Sorry, but it turned out that his hyperventilating friends were completely correct.
Remarkably, the book ends on a note with defending Kanye West of all people. It’s nuts reading this in 2024. Like the whole “dragon energy” take Kanye had, it’s all about the vibe, and zero about how the government functions in a way would help anyone.
And then it gets worse. He says Kanye can’t support white supremacy if he's Black, and then he defends Candace Owens and Roseanne Barr. The worst examples you could come up with. Somehow he throws James Gunn in there, without mentioning or even understanding that Gunn’s cancel moment was a right-wing smear job, and of course a lot has happened since then with the director’s resurgence because it fundamentally wasn’t the same as those other bigoted celebrities who went off the deep end and have turned out to deserve every criticism.
Bret Easton Ellis has always been an incredibly talented writer, but he should never have gotten into politics. Especially this kind of petty grievances-style blogging.
He’s become exactly what he used to satirize.
Take this quote: “However, my socialist boyfriend, whom I often accused of liberal fascism, now believed that my obsession with aesthetics had become, by the summer of 2018, essentially fascist as well.”
So if you follow that, it’s so bad that his boyfriend believed Ellis essentially a fascist. Even though he accuses his boyfriend of being a liberal fascist in the same sentence.
Which is it? Is it lame overreacting to call anyone fascists, or is it that the libs are the real fascists and that makes it okay to call them fascists?
If you haven’t noticed, this writing actually isn’t any good at all…
Lastly, there’s this term ‘Empire’ and ‘Post-Empire’ that Ellis is fond of. I simply don’t get what the point is ultimately, what's supposed to be so great about post-Empire. What he’s really talking about is being anti-establishment, but where’s the value of being contrarian for its own sake? He never explains. All these essays and he has nothing actually political to say in the sense that politics is about policies that effect the lives of millions. And the only thing that’s a big deal, in the end, is people on Twitter vaguely making him uncomfortable sometimes.
For Bret Easton Ellis, what really matters is but the surface-level, with nothing fundamentally there, an empty tirade all focused on only… the aesthetics....more
Springs Behaving Badly defies genres, it's kind of a children's-style comedic book, but it's also very much for MillenniWhat an original short novel.
Springs Behaving Badly defies genres, it's kind of a children's-style comedic book, but it's also very much for Millennials who grew up on 80s and 90s cartoons more than for modern kids.
It's silly, in a good way, as mischievous cartoon characters team up with a precocious child (whose tragic circumstances are almost fairy tale-esque archetype already) and cause havoc. Full of imagination, zany adventures, and there's even a racist villain so that's something of a deeper message.
It reads quickly and feels familiar to anyone of this generation. In fact, if it could be time traveled to 90s kids who would read it while still a child, that's ultimately the perfect audience. Still, it's sure to be entertaining to readers of all ages. ...more
Bret Easton Ellis was, of course, one of the great young American authors of the 80s and every early 90s. However, his 21st century output has been veBret Easton Ellis was, of course, one of the great young American authors of the 80s and every early 90s. However, his 21st century output has been very sparse and honestly he is not the writer he once was.
From the beginning, there have been certain themes that have arisen in Ellis's works: the overlap of privilege and violence. Along with metafictional writing, in which 2005's Lunar Park the protagonist was the author himself (and his breakout Less Than Zero was always considered semi-autobiographical), and we have the formula for his new novel: The Shards.
It's an overwritten tome about his life as an upper-crust teenager in Los Angeles in 1981, full of queer experiences as well as high school drama that unfolded for the aspiring writer navigating as he navigated the adult world for the first time. It was a time at the private school Buckley, when apparently everyone constantly took copious amounts of drugs and had almost no consequences. Parents were basically nonexistant. And the parts about the process writing of writing his first novel are genuinely interesting. Then, after hundreds of pages about him cheating on his girlfriend with men--including with his girlfriend's film producer father, which was rather proto-Me Too--a subplot about a serial killer and a mysterious troubled new student eventually takes over the narrative. By the climax, with much unreliable narration herein, there's so much death and it's a complete bloody and intense horrorshow.
Ellis writes with excellent precision, he's an experienced author in total control of his voice and has always been a master of prose in this sense. He also drags on too much, a common problem with older established writers who don't get edited anymore, and the book did not need to be at that length.
It doesn't have the power of American Psycho, it won't be remembered as an iconic novel. It is a pretty good read for fans of Bret Easton Ellis who have waited a long time to read something new. He writes about what he knows, himself, and his descriptions of Southern California go on for quite a while. When he gets into driving from this road to that road, comparisons to the SNL skit 'The Californians' are inevitable.
No literary masterpiece. Like it or not, that era is over for Ellis. But I am glad to read his new works and for me as a fan it was worth getting into his world again. And one for such a personal, memoir-eque book, one does wonder which parts are true and which are embellished... and we can only hope that the violent murdering sections are but imagination......more
Excellent memoir by the great George Takei, about his childhood growing up in internment camps during WWII, about tGeorge Takei is a national treasure
Excellent memoir by the great George Takei, about his childhood growing up in internment camps during WWII, about the Asian American experience and overcoming prejudice to find the best in life.
It's a specific story of American history that hasn't been told enough, and it is told very well here. Full of humanity in the face of discrimination, and doesn't shy away from the complex legacy of Roosevelt and of America. Takei is no radical, he takes in the good as well as the bad, but presents what happened to him as something that needs to be dealt with while still embracing America.
It's also not about his life in the closet, nor as an actor, as the majority of the story focuses on childhood and Star Trek etc. is only glanced over briefly. I wouldn't mind another graphic novel about his adult life, if he should ever decide to do it. ...more
Gender Queer is a fairly simple comic memoir, just the story of an artist's youthful journey through gender and A simple comic about a complex subject
Gender Queer is a fairly simple comic memoir, just the story of an artist's youthful journey through gender and identity. The big controversy is only that it's a comic sometimes in the YA section of libraries, but there's no grand reason this needed to be the "most banned book in America" as reviews can't help but mention.
Comic readers of indie autobiographies will enjoy Maia Kobabe's book, which communicates well albeit in a straightforward and direct manor. That's often the strength of the comics medium, as opposed to the more cerebral medium of prose.
For LGBT+ teens, there's a lot more value in being able to relate to this story. They should all absolutely have the opportunity to read Gender Queer. And for others, allies etc., it's always good to learn about different communities and thus empathize with the diversity of human experiences out there.
Of course, it's deeply personal and somewhat graphic. What else could the book be? That may be considered self-centered and not for everyone, and that's okay too. Again, what's to everyone's tastes shouldn't be so controversial.
On every level, it's a successful book illustrated with care that expresses with purpose. Really not the deepest academic queer theory book or anything like that, just a nice introduction told through the purity of words and pictures......more
Mark Waid has still got it, although I must admit I'm a little lost on current DC continuity (has there been a Doom Patrol reboot, is the Robin in thiMark Waid has still got it, although I must admit I'm a little lost on current DC continuity (has there been a Doom Patrol reboot, is the Robin in this Damien? Or wait, does this take place in the past?)
And I generally don't love a magic-based villain, with mind control. That being said, Waid crafts a good introduction to this series by using the plot to guest star many famous heroes and villains. The art by Dan MOra, by the way, is cool as hell reminiscent of Greg Capullo.
As usual with these teamup books, it's more of a Superman story fighting end of the world threats while having Batman gets the sales. That is not a criticism at all...more
Not a restart of Hulk as horror genre, following up some chaos of the previous run and trying to recreate the magic of Ewing's Immortal Hulk. Will takNot a restart of Hulk as horror genre, following up some chaos of the previous run and trying to recreate the magic of Ewing's Immortal Hulk. Will take some time to see if it's a success tho...more
A fun comic intro to the new Star Wars High Republic era. The art is good, vibe is fun, and it's full of imagination as Star Wars should be. ApparentlA fun comic intro to the new Star Wars High Republic era. The art is good, vibe is fun, and it's full of imagination as Star Wars should be. Apparently there's a lot of High Republic to catch up on, multiple 'phases' and YA novels as well as three volumes of comics.
Not sure how much this will be connected to the Acolyte series coming out later this year, but in any case it's worth a free read while catching up on Marvel Unlimited :) ...more
Venom is not really my thing, but I've decided to start reading everything Al Ewing because he's so great (who co-wrote this book).
I'll continue to gVenom is not really my thing, but I've decided to start reading everything Al Ewing because he's so great (who co-wrote this book).
I'll continue to give the series a chance. Interestingly, so far the story is more about an earthbound conspiracy involving Eddie Brock's kid than it is space aliens. There is the horror element, and Bryan Hitch's art as always is great. ...more
What an interesting graphic novel. "The Star Wars", as opposed to Star Wars, is an adaptation of the first draft screenplay George Lucas wrote years bWhat an interesting graphic novel. "The Star Wars", as opposed to Star Wars, is an adaptation of the first draft screenplay George Lucas wrote years before the iconic film was ever made (with illustrations based off the earliest concept art).
It's kind of an alternate universe story, not a multiverse thing but another version of our world, in which this other movie came out. There are familiar names, but they belong to different characters, and with spaceship designs just slightly off. So many fascinating deviations; there's the Jedi-Bendu order, Annikin Starkiller mentored by old Luke Skywalker, who teams up with the alien Han Solo fighting General Darth Vader who calls on a Sith villain Valorum, a pair of droids including a feminine one ala Metropolis and an Artwo that talks, weird Wookies on their forest moon, and everybody from lowly trooper to padawan gets a lazersword...
It's also a testament to why writers need to multiple drafts to get it right. There's a lot in there that needed to be cut, plenty that really doesn't work. For some reason there are little kids in the story who are mostly forgotten about, an awful and problematic love story with Princess Leia, and a plot that seems to be missing a MacGuffin and I frankly don't understand why the evil empire is chasing these heroes. Meanwhile, they sure do crash on planets a lot.
Let's be honest, George Lucas has a great imagination but he was never that good a writer. He always needed editors to fix his works and turn them into coherent stories. This book probably needed less deference to the original screenplay, and it could have turned into something that was good on its own merits.
Still, the flaws are besides the point. The well-crafted art of the comic is there to show what might have been, but was simply impossible due to budget constraints anyways. The grand landscapes of alien planets reflects the science fiction of the 1960s and 70s, almost like Dune but less serious, or Heavy Metal but less adult, still something that fans of that bygone genre would appreciate. If the names were changed, it almost would work as a pretty decent scifi epic in itself.
I'd recommend this book to anyone familiar with Star Wars, which basically is everyone. It's not just for the hardcore fanboys. Definitely a fun experiment, and one day I'd even like to see a sequel returning to this timeline....more