ASS, JLA
May 27Or, random thoughts on two random comic book collections I recently read.
All-Star Superman holds up incredibly well when read collected, in a single slab, in a single sitting. In fact, it reads BETTER than the individual issues taken one at a time, and that’s pretty amazing considering that the single issues are still pretty damn good, and that they actually each stand up alone as satisfying one-off nuggets of story.
This is a gorgeous, whimsical, romantic, bittersweet, almost ELEGAIC take on the Man of Steel. It gets praised to the high heavens, but it still doesn’t get praised ENOUGH. Re-reading it in hardcover form made crazy thoughts like “greatest superhero comic book ever” float thru my brain.
Here, Superman is all-powerful…but he’s dying. Lois Lane is head over heels for Superman…but still pissed that he hid his “secret identity” for so long. Jimmy Olsen is a goofball AND far cooler than his “real” DCU counterpart will ever be.
There are contradictions here, people. Complexity. The waning days of a wondrous Metropolis where there are many problems, each more flamboyant than the last, but one constant solution: The Man of Steel. And through it all, Grant Morrison tosses off brilliant whacked-out ideas like pennies in a fountain, and Frank Quitely marries Curt Swan to Jack Kirby, and somehow, it works beyond working.
It is such good shit.
JLA: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, on the other hand, is just a chilling little look into the mind of Dan Didio. I’ve been interested in picking up these collections on the cheap because I’m a sucker for these kind of tribute-esque books. But this trade reads more like a “primer to the rape of Sue Dibny and the murder of the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League” than anything else. (And I say this as someone who overall LIKES DC’s current direction, minus the raping and murder, of course.)
Seriously. They should have just called it “Brad Meltzer’s Essential JLA Reading Collection” and been done with it. They’re not BAD stories, per se, but the choices are so transparent that it’s enough to drive a reader batty.
Geek CV: Jon Collins
May 23Have you ever had one of those D&D games? You know the ones. Someone refers to someone else as “just a stupid elf” and suddenly the character sheets are awash in sensitive elven tears. Or a particularly temperamental druid gets all pissed off at the DM for hogging the last piece of pizza (because the DM always gets the last piece of pizza) and it ends with everyone cursing everyone else’s immortal souls to eternal damnation (ie, “As long as we both shall live, you will never be invited to my apartment for Farscape night EVER AGAIN”).
Not that those things have ever happened to me or anything. Ahem.
But for those of you who have intimately experienced the glorious highs and excruciating lows of all things RPG, well, Jon Collins feels your pain. Jon is an awesome geek actor who executive produced and stars in the nerd-friendly flick Fellowship of the Dice. The film is shot mockumentary-style, a la Christopher Guest and The Office, and it follows a cynical young lady (Aimee Graham) looking for a new group of friends. Gamer guy Sanford (Alastair Surprise) invites her to participate in a session of his favorite RPG, Wizards, Warriors and Wyrms, and the experience opens her eyes to a whole new world.
The film is a funny and affectionate look at nerd life and features Jon as Larry, a talkative gamer/aspiring actor with a penchant for yoga. Jon and the other filmmakers will be screening Fellowship at various conventions throughout the summer, so definitely go see it if you can. In honor of this Saturday’s screening at the Gamex Convention in L.A., we asked Jon to respond to a few burning nerdly questions…
Please share your geek CV.
Gamed when I was younger. Had a ton of action figures — still do. I have every season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD, but for the longest time, I taped them when they aired and I had them in specially-made boxes that a friend of ours put together. [My partner and Fellowship of the Dice writer-executive producer] Tom surprised me [with that] as a birthday present one year. They were labeled and had different pictures of the cast on them. My older brother lives in Italy and he’s a huge Buffy fan, so last year for his birthday, I shipped all the tapes out to him and I kept all the DVDs for myself. I have the Buffy the Vampire Slayer board game. I play the Buffy the Vampire Slayer role-playing game. And I have the Angel role-playing game as well. I’m a huge fan of Heroes. I have 150 comic books at home. We have a lot of different types of role-playing game books at home. We have Dungeons & Dragons, Champions, Silver Age Sentinels, Aberrant, Trinity, Tunnels and Trolls. We have a ton of board games. My idea of an ideal New Year’s Eve is having a bunch of people over with some drinks and we play board games all night and have a bunch of movies playing, usually with a theme — one year we did superheroes, one year we did all the Lord of the Rings movies, including the animated Hobbit. So, total nerd and proud of it.
Which Fellowship character’s gaming style most resembles your own?
Oh, the character I play. The character I play in the movie, I’m making fun of myself the entire time. I tend to play the flamboyant bard or singer or the very social one of the group. The joke amongst my gaming friends is, “Have Jon do it, because Jon likes to talk to people.” So I tend to play the really social one with the quippy one-liners and that kind of thing.
When you game, are you a pure stats sheet kind of guy, or do you like to have a picture of your character to go with it?
It depends. I just started playing this superhero role-playing game and one of the guys who plays in the game found a website where you can design your own superhero, so I designed my own superhero. I usually don’t do that. I usually don’t have a drawing. [Sometimes] I’ll find a picture online, like, “Oh, this is maybe what the character looks like.” I’ll come up with a character history and a little bit of a background. When you’re young and you’re role-playing, a lot of it is, “Kill monster, take treasure, kill monster, take treasure.” But as you get older, it’s more the interaction and the improv of it that tends to be why we play now. It’s not just the killing the bad guy, which is always fun – [it’s] combining that with some other things as well.
Go here for more screening dates and info (or to buy a copy of the flick!). Netflixers, it’s also available for you to rent.
Dallas, TX: Great Comics City
May 22I’m in Dallas for a business trip, and my buddy Bryan and I are making time to visit any and all comics emporiums here in the Lone Star State, within driving distance of our hotel.
May I just say that this city has some FINE shops? In addition to a full chain of Half-Price Books stores, which have (that’s right) half-price books, including current and older trade paperbacks.
This is a great city to be a comics fan. Not such a great place to be a Democrat, but whatever. I can’t have everything.
Braaaaaaaaaaain surgeons
May 22I love a good science debate and I love a good zombie discussion. Now, I can have both, with a side helping of Philosophy thrown in. Yay!
I can’t tell who’s serious, who’s being snarky, and who’s just having yuks. All I know is that there’s no need for a zombie test if you’re willing to shoot at anything that shambles.
Like, Bittorrent, eh?
May 18
So, like, this Sunday the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will be showing Strange Brew, ok? And, uh, Bob and Doug McKenzie will be on after, with a one-hour special. Beauty.
Those of you in the not-Great White North, you might wanna check out Bittorrent or something. Not that we promote crime, eh? I’m just sayin’.
