I changed my mind about how I’m going to name my posts. As much as I love song lyrics, I feel that funny quotes are more my style. Especially if they’re totally fucked up <3
Today’s title brought to you by “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”, while today’s post is brought to you by Nat-attack’s frequent, affectionate reminders such as, “Update your fucking blog!”.
…I’ve been meaning to make another post anyway. No one tells me what to do. (Really!)
I think I should talk about comics. Manga aside, because man-gay belongs to a completely different universe and I no longer believe comics and manga should ever be compared–yes, anyway, manga aside, I have never read a comic book in my life. Shameful, is it not? I’m not sure how I missed out for so long, but I will make up for lost time.
I suppose I should thank Joss Whedon, in a strange way, because if it weren’t for the fact that Buffy’s season 8 came out in comic form, I might not have ever gotten started. But I did; I tasted the fruit of warmblooded American comics and it was good.
Better yet was Transmet. I might not have read Transmet if not for Warren Ellis’s book “Crooked Little Vein” which I spent 20 bucks on, for a teeny bastard hardcover, and I did not look back for a second. In Nat’s words, Ellis is a batshit god. While on the one hand, I might kill to have his talent or be in his presence, I wouldn’t really want to meet him, since he seems kind of insane and is probably an asshole. Not that I hold it against him.
Transmet is amazing, and although I’m getting started on volume 2 sometime this week, I’d like to talk about Fell. I fucking loved Fell. Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith can take my heart and give it to wild dogs to ravage for all I care, because I. Loved. Fell.
I loved the art, even though it looks like Ben Templesmith has mostly just mastered scribbling wildly until things resemble people—there’s just something about his use of color, of movement, composition, my God, I could go on and on. Is it weird to say I loved the art while, at the same time, it’s not that great? It is, but it’s not—damnit, I don’t know how to put it. I love how bad everything looks sometimes. There are some panels that are so beautiful and detailed and then there are others that look like they may have been draw in ten seconds while he was half asleep and even so, they all just fit together so perfectly.
I think I should buy 30 Days of Night and Wormwood. According to Amazon, Wormwood is kind of like Constantine if Constantine were a zombie. I can dig that. Seriously though, talent. He has it, and he is not the only one.
Where do I begin with writing like Warren Ellis’s? Oh right, batshit god. That about sums it up. He’s so obviously insane and drowning in his own head. It must be a scary place; tangled and dark, but also beautiful. I’m trying to think of other things to say and my mind comes up blank. He’s just great. Really, really great, and completely fucking nuts.
I’m kind of okay with that, you know?
I think my favorite panel of the whole book was near the end: “We cleverly negotiate with the king of Yakistan,” writes Fell. Meanwhile, in the background, they are beating the shit out of a hobo.
Maybe I’m a twisted son of a bitch, but I think that’s fucking hilarious.
As a parting note, this would be my favorite call of the day:
“Hi, I’m calling about the Austen Burroughs reading?”
“The Augusten Burroughs reading?”
“Uh, yeah, that’s what I meant. August Burroughs.”
“Augusten.”
“Yeah.”
“Hold, please.”
Normally I wouldn’t really care how people pronounce the names of authors—except when it’s an author I really like, goddamnit. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. It’s really great to listen to people try and say “Palahniuk”, mostly because I can’t fucking pronounce it so I kind of like listening to all the variations. It’s not like I’d know which was the right one.
Okay, I’ve now been writing this post for almost an hour and for some reason I can smell bacon, so I need to stop writing now.
I should totally track down that bacon smell, though.