On my often obscure taste

I'm often the subject of ridicule by my friends for going out of my way to read/listen/watch things that are off the beaten path. I champion these things with the knowledge that none of my friends will see what I see in the objects of my fetishism.

As near as I can tell, the reason I prefer many of these things to what they like is that the obscure offers a greater potential to personalize the art. The best explanation I can give is this:

Say that any time a book, album, or movie comes out, it has a numerical value. Let's say 100. Anytime someone actively likes something, they get a piece of that number. If twenty people like something, each person likes it by a degree of five. If 2000 people like it, each person likes it by a degree of .05.

The degree constitutes ownership, knowledge, a connection with the art's creator. By my reasoning, a higher number is better. A higher number constitutes a greater stake in the secret club of the Knowing.

I have fun knowing that I went out of my way to find something knew. I have fun staking a claim in unknown territory. I have fun defending and proselytizing.

There are a few downsides to this kind of obscurity-worship. Being the only one around to like something can be very lonely. It can be very frustrating to explain why I think something is great and worth someone's time, especially if others are in no mood for something new. Finally, when I am part of a small fan base, I tend to get lumped in with the snobs and the people who think that their ownership degree gives them license to be cruel and insulting to those that arrive late to the party. "You just don't get it," they say. "You are completely missing the point." Then the fanboy discussions of author interviews and canon ensue.

I am not like that. While I reject the things I don't like, actively and bitterly, I would never deny a person a stake in something I enjoy. As I see it, more interpretations add richness to any art. If the artist did not want his/her art to be consumed and discussed, s/he would not have released it into the wild. Keeping people out, trying to prevent their enjoyment of any kind of artistic endeavor, is the worst thing I could do.

This has been a rambling post, but I feel closer to a coherent viewpoint, having written it.

American Flagg gets the Uber-Ultra-Mega-Deluxe Treatment

This week, Image Comics and Dynamic Forces team up to release the first volume of Howard Chaykin's classic, American Flagg!. I wish I could say more about this book, but I haven't read it. I am still very confident recommending it. In the last few years I've become a great fan of Chaykin, through his work on DC's iteration of The Shadow, Black Kiss, and Power and Glory. His work exudes the cynicism and vitriol of the best muckrakers, in any medium. I had planned on catching up on American Flagg! through back issues, but decided to wait for this edition, when I heard about it. I'm very excited. Comic Book Resources has a nice interview/article on the book here. Buy it from Amazon, or better yet, walk down the street and buy it from your local comic book store.

Haiku Review: The Dark Knight

Heroes must maintain
balance of mayhem and calm
in fighting crazies

image by Bill Sienkiewicz, www.billsienkiewiczart.com

haiku review: an explanation of the premise

I promise not to get (too) high minded in this post. I just wanted to attempt an explanation at what I am trying to do with these haiku reviews that I've been posting, in review of the block busters of this summer.

Upon organizing my comics in these last few weeks, it's occurred to me that I have a lot of stuff. Not just comics, but stuff in general. If I hear about a book, or an album, or anything I think I'd like, I often head over to Amazon or eBay and buy it, without a second thought. These items arrive and I read them, or listen to them, or watch them; whatever the case maybe. After that though, unless these items touch me deeply, I let them fall by the wayside, accumulating dust, forgotten.

When I really thought about this, I felt a little bit of guilt. For one, if I am going to buy something, I should appreciate to its fullest, as I am lucky to have been born in a prosperous country where speech is free, mostly. Further, I am lucky that I can afford such frivolities when there are those who can't. Finally, each item that I buy, consume, and (sometimes) forget is the culmination of someone's effort.

I came to think that it may not be worth writing an entire treatise on the worth of any given piece of art or writing, but it may be of some value to distill the basic impressions made upon me by it.

Haiku, in my limited understanding of it, seems to be an effective vehicle to serve this purpose. So, I will make an attempt to 'tag' the comics I read (because this is a blog about comics) with a haiku, conveying the impressions that the comic leaves upon me.

Granted, not everything I read will touch me deeply. I think that by doing this, though, I will get more out of the comics I read, like a deeper understanding of underlying themes and a greater appreciation for the effort it takes to make them.

Sick Pic watch: Israel Cruz

I'm loving this cutesy (kinda Super Deformed, but not) rendition of Batman fighting Punisher from artist Israel Cruz. Check out Israel's other "Deviations" here.

Sad-urday Night "Fun"

If, like me, you're a pathetic nerd, then you spend some Saturday nights avoiding social interaction, talking to your cat, and waiting for your roommate to get home from work. Also, you look for clips of cancelled Saturday morning cartoon clips on YouTube.

Stumbled on this: Frank Miller and Geof Darrow's Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot. I'm not sure if this is the whole run, but there seems to be quite a few episodes uploaded. While the cartoon doesn't have the beautifully destroyed cityscapes (sorry, I couldn't find an example online) that Geof Darrow did so well in the comic, it is still pretty entertaining.

Unknown Soldier preview via Newsarama

Newsarama has a preview of the new Unknown Soldier series from Vertigo, written by Joshua Dysart, with art by Alberto Ponticelli. Read the press release article here. Billed as an "all new interpretation," I assume this iteration of Unknown Soldier will be closer to the Unknown Soldier of the 80's (revisited a few years back by Garth Ennis) than the Unknown Soldier that was originally conceived by Joe Kubert for Star Spangled War Stories. See wikipedia article.

I am quite looking forward to this book, as I thoroughly enjoyed the cynicism and vitriol of Ennis' version of the character. The story, centering on the political strife in Uganda circa 2002, looks like it has a lot of potential.

Here is the 5 page preview.

This preview sets the stage for what could be a very ambitious, engaging story, capable of bringing a number of very important issues to light in an entertaining way. However, I do take some issue with the script. Take a look at page two, panel two, where the translator says "The child, he say he walk to look for jack fruit in the bush. He say he find rebels, but he got away." I can tell the writer was going for a modest, but dignified, type of dialogue, but the incorrect subject verb agreement gives a connotation of ignorance that doesn't do much to authenticate the setting for me. Also, shouldn't the "Doctors!" (in panel one of the same page) be to indicate that another language is being spoken? An oversight like that creates the illusion of an even wider social divide between the Doctor and the people she is helping.

Script issues, or no, I'll be taking a closer look at this series.