Watchman Casting News: Matt Frewer is Moloch

It was announced a little while ago, but I'll mention it anyway, but Matt Frewer has been cast as Moloch the Mystic, the once proud super villain now a feeble old man living alone. I think this is a great casting choice, and not one I would have expected. I'm a big fan of Matt Frewer and his work, and shamefully thought he retired from acting. He's really well known for his role in a short lived but popular ABC sci-fi show called "Max Headroom." I never heard of it, but know of Frewer's great voice acting roles such as Panic, one of Hades' henchmen in Disney's "Hercules" and he did the voice of the Leader, in the 90's Hulk cartoon, so he's no stranger to comics.

Fables 2: Animal Farm

This of course was the second arc of Fables I had read, and I gotta say, I'm really enjoying the title as I read more and more. While the story for "Animal Farm" was more exciting and gripping to me than the first storyline, I still had some problems with it. Nevertheless it was a really enjoyable read, and will probably follow up on Fables, since like so many of other titles from Vertigo, it's nearing its end.

I too appreciated the greater depth into characters' backstories and liked how the creators 'up-ed' the stakes as it were, broadening the events to affect not only this small cast of characters, but the entire world of Fables that has yet to be seen. And of course that dark twisted humor that I'm sure is a huge part of the entire series is always great to read. There are so many instances where both words and images used in different and varied combinations make for some hilarious scenes. One of my favorites was the first page of the last issue when Snow and Colin the pig (now a head on stake) are both standing in front of a white page in a limbo like state, and have great conversation that esentailly summarizes the previous issues for readers, but not in a way you expect, and is actually fun to read.

My one complaint is that the story seemed a bit simplisitic, at least compared to the first arc. It just seemed like issues #2-4 was essentially one really long chase scene and didn't seem to have any major character or story developments to the larger scheme of things until the very end.

All in all though, "Animal Farm" was a great read, and I'm glad we were able to read this before the semester ended.

Fables

This was the first arc of Fables I'd ever read, though I had heard of it before, and read some of Jack of Fables and one-shots whenever someone in the club brought it in, but I have to say it was a really enjoyable read.

I was familiar with the basic concept of fairy tale characters living in an underground community, but was amazed at how many genres Willingham touched upon, especially in this first arc. We get action, adventure, mystery, romance, fantasy (of course), and probably others as the series progresses. I think an obvious comparison is to the world of Harry Potter and the whole underground magic community, hidden in plain sight of muggles, or with the case of Fables mundies. But it's amazing how much of the world of Fabletown is set up in these 5 short issues.

The first story arc with the murder mystery of Rose Red, reminds me a lot both visually and a little bit storywise with Watchmen. We get tinted panels for the flashback sequences (somtimes red to emphasize the supposed violence), and the story does come full circle, at least with the Prince Charming plot.
And since we're always looking for anything different the artist does, I noticed and liked how he used different panel frames for flashback sequences, portrait like, usually for remembering what life was like before the Fable characters were forced out.

Characterwise, I liked how Willingham humanizes these familiar fairy tale characters for a modern audience, like making the Big Bad Wolf a gritty detective, etc. It makes for a great contrast between the real and the fantastical, which is the basic theme of an upcoming Disney live action/animated movie called "Enchanted" which is basically like Fables except for a PG audience.

It's really hard to do a good mystery story, especially in comics, but I think this arc really pulled it off. I liked the "parlor scene" which basically shows the readers panel by panel that the clues were all there, and even we could have figured it out if we used the right deduction. Very Sherlock Homlsy of them.

Ex Machina

I had heard of Brian K. Vaughan's "Ex Machina" series, but wasn't initially interested in reading it because it was already praised by fans and critics, and didn't want to have all that praise on my head if I got into it. Now that I've read the first trade, I was really blown away by not only the story and the dialogue, but Harris' art as well.

I've read other of Vaughan's works besides his mainstream superhero titles, like "Pride of Baghdad", so the politcal nature of the Ex Machina is no surprise. The concept of superheroes functioning in the real world is nothing new, Watchmen being the obvious example, and applying it in a post 9/11 world might be something really hard to do, but Vaughan really pulls it off. I just remember a few weeks ago at one of our smaller Comic Club meetings we had our usual comic chats, and I just remember I brought up Frank Miller's upcoming Batman vs. Al Queada project which lead to a fun conversation how terrorists exist in comics worlds, especially DC when you have godlike characters like Superman. Mitchell is a great character with his positive and negative qualities. I especially liked the flashback sequences to him as a young kid reading comics and his dream of working for DC. In some ways, he's kind of a template for Nathan Pettreli from Heroes, maybe not completely, but the basic idea of a politician with super powers.

Visually, the artist Tony Harris does an amazing job capturing the look and feel of the varous eras from the past to the present. I love the design of the Great Machine costume, very reminicent of those old pulp serials of the 1930's. I noticed in the flashback sequences the coloring was more desaturated, like we were looking at something old from a long time ago, compared to the present day sequences where the colors are darker, bolder, and stand out more. I also liked the dialogue balloons he used for when Mitchell talks to the machines, the green font color, boxy word balloons, and computerish font.
Not suprisingly, Harris worked on the last few issues of the last Iron Man series, and has an upcoming project at Marvel involving Spider-Man's early days after getting his powers but before his uncle died. It should be interesting to see how his style differs from what he does with Ex Machina. It's supposed to be released this January.

And on a comics sidenote, I'm reading Persepolis 2 for another class, and in one chapter, Satrapi mentions that tulips were signs to honor the sacrifice of the martyrs. So now the mystery behind why the tulip is on the cover has now become a little clearer. Just thought you'd liked to know.

Superman Movie News

It's just been reported that the writers for "Superman Returns" Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris won't be returning for the sequel. Apparently Warner Bros. has rejected all their story pitches and are now looking for someone else to begin write the script. Mark Millar from the Ultimates, Civl War, Authority, etc., is supposedly very eager to work on the project and start from scratch.

To be honest, I was not really wowed by "Superman Returns" but thought their work on the first 2 X-Men films were two of the best comic book adaptations of all time. Strange, it seems like other than Batman, DC has had the hardest time having their characters leap from comics to the big screen. Joss Whedon was attached to Wonder Woman for some time, which seemed like an awesome match since he's played in both the sandboxes of comics and Hollywood and knows how to write female characters, but now he's off the project, meaning the only other major DC superhero picture that may be going anywhere is the Justice League movie.

Uncle Sam Reaction

Uncle Sam- WOW! Before going in, it should have been obvious to any reader just by looking at the title and the cover that it was going to be very political and deep, but man, was it completely different than anything I've read in the past.

Alex Ross really is one of the best artists working in American comics today, and has a real talent for capturing that 'classic' look for the modern age. I think in past interviews he's said that his favorite comic character to draw is Superman, not only because it's the easiest for him, but it's a character and icon he truly loves. I'm not surprised that he would want to do something like Uncle Sam, who like Superman represents the American spirit/dream/etc. but the book goes down a darker/more complex path that you would never have seen in the early 20th century and all those timeless jingoistic comics like Captain America punching Hitler in the jaw. I think it's also noteworthy to mention that if you haven't already heard, but Alex Ross has designed the new Captain America costume for the next Marvel character taking up the mantle, which will debut this January.

It was definately a 'trippy' experience, reading 'Uncle Sam', maybe not as much as 'City of Glass", but definately trippy. I'm not a big fan of the 'edutainment' genre that some programs force feed children to learn about history but make it history, but 'Sam' managed to shock/entertain and inform at the same time. Steve Darnell makes a mention of Howard Zinn and his famous book "A People's History of the United States" which I remember reading some of in a High School American History course, so there were moments in 'Sam' that I was able to recall reading about at some point in the past.

And looking at panel arrangements, font, placement, etc. it seems to change depending on where Sam is. Like when he's in Valley Forge in Washington and writing to Bea/his wife/or whoever the woman is at the time, the captions go to a handwritten cursive font like from an old journal. I was really like the scene at the campaign with the Senator's dialogue two contrasting dialogue balloons, one bold and highlighted saying what he really feels and the other light/faded away one that represents what the people are hearing him say. I thought that was really inventive.

As opposed to 'Persepolis' and 'City of Glass', which are on the other side of the art spectrum, the art in 'Uncle Sam' is in no way similar to that simplification style we saw in the last two works, but incredibly detailed. The scenes in the antique store, for instance, all the items seem to have some sort of signifigance and it takes more than a passing glance to take it all in. I did really enjoy that look back into America's history and noticed the Smiley Face button from 'Watchmen' in the scene. It may just be a coincidence, but Steve Darnell thanks Dave Gibbons at the end, so it may have been intended.

City of Glass

"City of Glass" was like no comic I'd ever read before, and just as Brad predicted last year when he mentioned it, I was really amazed by it. It's a really quick read with 'stripped down' art, but really complex in its story and meaning.

I've never read the original Auster story on which it's based, but have glanced at it a few times working at Barnes&Noble, but reading it, it's hard to imagine it wasn't originally intended for a the comic format to begin with. Karasik and Mazzucchelli, really used different types of word/picture combinations that you usually don't see in mainstream comics, and the result is quite effective. In fact, McCloud references "City of Glass" on p.137 in "Making Comics" with the Inderpendent panels such as the scene with the Auster family inviting Quin to dinner and his internal tormoil portrayed through pictures.
I think we can also see some Parallel combinations where the words and pictures don't seem to connect at all, like that entire sequence with Peter Stillman talking to Quinn and all the random images that have their own thought balloons.

Additionally, "City of Glass" uses many of the transitions McCloud mentions, not often utilized in American comics. We don't see too much action-to-action transitions associated with the superhero genre, but we do see a lot Subject-to-Subject, Scenes-to-Scenes, and even some Aspect-to-Aspect, and Non Sequiturs, like with Peter's Stillman's speech for the latter.

Going back to the idea that what appears a simple style actually contains complexity was something I was really impressed with. The scene where Quinn goes back to his apartment and sees that someone else now lives there, he later asks a series of questions, one of which is that girl the same one he met at Grand Central? Flipping back to those pages, sure enough, both girls are the same, or at least drawn to look similar to each other.

I had difficulty finding where Auster got his title from, the closest thing I could find was a 1952 Jazz composition called City of Glass, which may or may not have connection.

As for Ur-Lanauge and Ikonologosplatt, I had trouble finding those as well, except in relation to Spiegelman's introduction. But from what he wrote, I think he was talking about the language of comics before two of its basic building blocks (words and images) became separted, the proto or pure language of comics. Then Ikonologsplatt could be the pure collaboration between the two, since Spiegelman calls "City of Glass" modern Ikonologosplatt.

Persepolis

Persepolis is unlike any comic in my life, in that Satrapi is utilizing a medium in a completely different way that you don't often see in America. I really enjoyed reading it, partially because it was so different from the usual comics I read, and also because she touched on themes and subjects that I was able to relate to.

Of all the works we've read, I think this is the easiest to connect to all the things McCloud mentions in his books. At first glance, the style seems simplistic and cartoony, a bit like Peanuts or any of the Sunday morning funnies. But since this is told from the POV of a child it only makes sense that it not be too photo realistic because then it would be difficult for the readers to identify with the main protagonist, in this case, Satrapi herself. Also, by stripping away these characters and making them look as simple as possible, we don't associate the charaacters as Arabs, Iranians, Iraqis, white, black, or any other ethnicity whatsoever. We just see human beings and it's why it's so easy to sympathize with these stripped out and black and white.
characters.

Satrapi also uses a lot of the universal symbols McCloud talks about such as the lightning coming out of character eyes, you automatically know that they're angry at someone.

I also thought it was a great story and liked the episodic format of it. I obviosuly haven't seen the film yet (and I hope we can see it in theatres very soon) but I wonder how it translates into cinema. The comic's story format reminded me of a Japanese animated film from Studio Ghibli (Hayao Miyazaki's company) called "My Neighbors the Yamadas" by his colleague Isao Takahata, which also had a similiar story format of showing the family's life in various short episodic stories, but having one overall story going on.

I know last year when we met for the first time I told you briefly about my own family's history livng in Pakistan and coming to America. I was born in New York and visited Pakistan twice in my life, but some of its culture and values still persist in my extended family and I could really identify with some of the things Satrap mentions. Her maid, Mehri, for instance, was given to her family at the age of 8 because her parents could no longer afford to keep her. My grandparents, when they lived in Pakistan, found a boy who had run away from home because his parents were cruel and so adopted him into their household as a housekeeper, and he continues to live in their home to this day in the city. My grandparents are kind people and have a lot of respect towards people of different classes and so give him freedoms which would be deemed unthinkable in other households.
I think more than anyone I know, my other will probably get the most out of reading this book, because whenever we do have family gatherings, etc. I usually almost always hear stories of her living in Pakistan and during the whole India/Pakistan conflict, where there was fear of being bombed and losing everything you have.

But like my mother/family has a lot of, Satrapi infuses much humor into the book to balance some of the serious subjects, which are always enjoyable. I love that scene when she's accosted by the Guardians about wearing a Michael Jackson button and she says, "No it's Malcolm X, the leader of the black muslims in America" and in a thought caption to the audience says "Bakc when Michale Jackson was still black." A little pop culture nod to the audience, giving another emotion besides fear into the situation.

Going back to style and simplification, most of the layouts of the scenes are pretty basic and much of the backgrounds of the panels are just white or black screens. I think this was really effective in getting the readers attention straight to the words or the subject in the panel instead of letting our eyes wander. For character designs, as McCloud discusses heavily in "Making Comics" many of the characters look very alike, and i thought it was a reflection of the idea of the Iranian people being sheep and following what was told to them by the government, the title in fact of one chapter.

Aditionally, I think comics or cartoons was the only way Satrapi could tell this story because of all the horrible things that happe in it. We see people being lashed, shot, cut in piece, and various other horrific things. If this was made into a life action film, I don't think many people could take it. It's like something Roger Ebert said about anothe Isao Takahata film "Grave of the Fireflies" which you've probably seen. Basically Ebert said that "Fireflies" that you couldn't, or at least it would be very diffiuclt, to make it as a live action film. The things these 2 children go through, and seeing someone starve to death on screen is a hard experience, but animation can alleviate some of it, or at least make it more bearable for an audience.

So I think you can assume that overall I got a lot out of reading "Persepolis." On a sidenote, I'm actually going to be reading the sequel for another course, and doing a presentation later on, so it will be interesting to see how reading the first one adds to my reading expereince and my presentation to my class.

Comics to Look out for: Dan Slott's She-Hulk

I think we were also encouraged to write blogs about comics in our lives we think are of some worth. If that' true, then I want to recommend Marvel's current She-Hulk title.

Yeah, I know She-Hulk has often been seen as a silly character and as Frank Tieri says "Hulk with boobs" but I think the current run with writer Dan Slott who has just finished his last issue his one of the best ever not just for the character, but for comics in general.

The basic concept for Slott's She-Hulk is that Bruce Banner's cousin doesn't just fight super villains in the battlefield, she fights them in the court of law. I know it sounds just like a ripoff of Harvey Birdman, but it's distinct enough in style, and in some cases, Harvey Birdman stole some ideas from Slott, such as a villain suing a hero for damages.

In general, She-Hulk is a light-hearted books that takes a look at some of the most absurd concepts at Marvel and comics in general and brings it to the reader's attention. It's kinda like an earlier Slott mini Great Lakes Avengers: Misassembled (which I highly recommend you read if you haven't already) in which Slott totally lampooned the whole notion of character deaths and resurrection in a time where it's so prevalent and considering the two big stories that were happening at the time ie Avengers: Disassembled and Identity Crisis.

But Slott's She-Hulk does have its serious side and is great book with a feminist message. Much of character arcs stem from She-Hulk's internal conflict about who she is and whether the She-Hulk is a seperate entity or an extension herself. It's actually really deep stuff and I know I can't do it justice with a blogg, so you have to read it for yourself. I've actually met Dan Slott on many occassions (he's a great guy by the way) and you'd never think of him as the writer of She-Hulk from your first impression. He's a HUGE comics fanboy, but very funny, smart, and approachable, many of the qualities that attract me to his books.

Making/Understanding Comics Differences

After reading both McCloud books, it's clear that both touch upon the same ideas, quite a few new things came up when I read "Making Comics".

For instance, McCloud brings back the smiley face idea, and how we humans always try to see ourselves in everything. He also brings introduces a new concept to the 'smiley face' idea, symmetry. There's something natural about it that instantly differentiates living things from non-living things. I thought it was also interesting later in the same section, when McCloud talks about character designs to evoke certain feelings and emotions, that he pointed out some comic characters are drawn to ressemble animals. I thought it was a great contrast to the 'smiley face' idea and kind of reminded me of the saggitarius idea that the traits of both man and animal are present in us and so we should learn to accept it. I think the style is prevalently seen in cartoony books, most certainly in Bone. A well-known comics example I guess would be some of characters in superhero genre. The Spider-Man villain, The Vulture for instance, even without his wings, the image of a vulture still comes to your mind the instant you see him with his wrinkly face, hooked/beaked nose, gangly neck, and menacing facial expression.

Both the Smiley Face idea and much of "Making" touch upon the theme that less is more and that unless you have clarity, your message will be lost to the reader. One of the most inciteful and humorous parts I loved was when McCloud showed us a picture of Mark Twain and Albert Einstein and asked us which was which.

The panel-panel transitions resurface again, and McCloud elaborates further when and why each one is used. McCloud's explanation of panel arrangement, flow, etc. reminded me of a summer film course I took once when I was in High School and touched upon many of the same things. One thing was flowing the story from left to right and keeping your angle consistent when apropriate as to not confuse to the reader. But a break in the flow like that mock story McCloud does, such as having a character move from right to left, signals in the reader something has happened or stopped. I usually don't think about the movement of characters within and from panel to panel, but I think if we go back to Watchmen or even Bone and keep it in mind for future books, we'll see how some of the techniques add to the story, and make them more "cinematic" so to speak.

Bone

Switching from analyzing something like Watchmen to Bone was a bit jarring at first, simply because the two are at the opposite end of the spectrum. Unlike Moore who was working on something tight and finite, Jeff Smith didn't have the entire overall story of Bone in his head when he was writing/drawing it, but nevertheless he still manages to do a lot with what's traditionally perceived as a cartoony or silly style. I actually saw Smith do a Bone reading, and before that, he talked about some of the inspirations for some of the later parts in the book from his travels around the world to his youth in the outdoors of Ohio. I actually have some of the pictures from that reading, and I can post some if you want to see them.

In rereading "Understanding Comics" Bone's style really reminded me of p.134, the way Smith incorporates all the various balloons and sounds to convey the invisible. One of my favorite things about Bone is the lettering in that without even reading the words, you can automatically get a sense of what the character is feeling or trying to convey. Also, unlike "Watchmen" which was representing a certain style of comics, almost anything goes for Bone. So it can be like an old fashioned critter cartoon to a sword and sorcery epic.

You told us to look out for any different or unique word balloons and there are a lot throughout the book. The broken word balloons in one panel in the first chapter indicate a character is whipsering, the ghostly/blurry ones of the Hooded One and the rat creatures, etc. And as McCloud mentions in "Understanding Comics" Smith really knows how to invoke sensations and intangibles in a visual medium. We get smell lines, hears, sweat, smoke, and numerous other icons and symbols.

As Nate pointed out, Bone can be enjoyed by all without alienating kids or adults with juvenile humor or violence and sex. First reading it, I think I was actually reminded of Tolkien's The Hobbit, and since this is a fantasy, Smith does touch on the same archetypes and basic plot points that are prevalent in so many. Fone Bone himself can be seen as a Frodo/Bilbo Baggins character, and greatness comes from the most unexpected things. Besides the Bones, Thorn and Grandma Ben the common farmers are in fact royalty, much like Aragorn, a dirty scruffy ranger is the King of Gondor. But in the unversality of it, I'm also reminded of some modern day examples in television and film, probably by Pixar's most recent film "Ratatouille". Unlike other CGI movies that come at you with big action scenes or one pop culture reference after another, the humor in Ratatouille reminded me a lot of older classic Disney cartoons and even classic life action comedies like Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and all those other great stars.

Watchmen Reaction Week 2

think the circles like the Smiley Face, besides being constant reminders of the Comedians death, also has a meaning itself. If look at the shape, it forms a 0 (zero) showing the insignifigance of humanity when compared to the larger schemes of things, a major theme of Watchmen, and one echoed constantly by Dr. Manhatten. The circles themselves could also be the idea of fullfilment/completeness, especially when we consider the costant watch imagery we see through the work. Going furthur with that idea, when a circle is fully formed, you get back to your starting point, just as with Watchmen's ending ie Extreme Closeup of a Smiley Face. I think there was only one sequence with red tinted panels that wasn't a flashback, which was Rosharch's prison scene with Big Figure near the end of that chapter. I think as Nate said, it underscores the upcoming violence of the scene, and especially that one when compared to Blake's gruesome death, we never see Big Figure die, except the toilet water/blood overflowing through the door. That kinda reminds me of Hitchcock's Psycho shower scene, how the violence is in the audience's heads, another idea presented by mcCloud about comics, we are in control of what happens outside the panels. Watchmen seems to let the reader be in control of the comic. I mentioned last week about the lack of sound effects, but also motion lines, so we can never tell how fast a character moves, or hard they hit, etc. Best examples are probably the action scenes like when Adrian Veidt catches a bullet, Blake's death, etc. As for the quotes at the end, I think Nate already said it best as a way to reiterate themes, ideas, etc. and essentially sum up the chapter in a short but memorable sentence. The Appendices like "Under the Hood", etc. Give us the chronology and history of characters and events that lead up the book, but I think they also give us a different POV of the characters. One in particular, the last one that interviews Adrian Veidt, really sees a different side of him, especially after killing millions of people. We learn a bit more about his 3 servants (who are barely in the book) and that Veidt in fact rescued them from Vietnam and gave them a home, so you give him a bit more sympathy, of course there's a limit when you consider his actions. And on a sidenote, you told us to think about if other comics used this device, Nate thought of Jimmy Corrigon, which I haven't read. Well I thinking about it, and then I suddenly realized that the various "Escapist" series from Dark Horse do the same thing. If you haven't read or heard of it, you definately know the source material the series is based on, Michael Chabon's "Kavalier and Clay". The first issues were various anthologies of "Escapist stories through history" and in between they had an article or something commenting on the era on which it came from. Brian K. Vaughn wrote an Escapist limited series last year, this time this a linear narrative storyline (and the appendices at the end) and it was quite good. So I though i'd mention it. I think the last panel of Watchmen is one of the best endings for this time of work that touches on the mood/feel/politics of its time. It brought me back to what Scott McCloud said about cartoons and that we relate more to more abstract/cartoony things (like Smiley faces) rather than photo realistic things. We put ourselves in them, we become the cartoons. Therefore, at the end, that's us being addressed by the editor, it's us with the decision in our hands to publish the journal or not. On a similar note, I was reading an article in Time about the video game's Halo Master Chief character, and one thing they noted was that because of his mirror visor, the gamers see themselves as the character, which of course reminded me of the McCloud thing.

Watchmen Reaction Week 1

It's been a while since I read it, and like Nate I haven't looked at it with a critical eye before. But now that I'm older since the first time I ever read it and learned more about the comic making process I can appreciate Watchmen for the truly groundbreaking work it really is. One thing I love about it, is how it uses all the old school comic book storytelling devices, but at the same time manages to add something new to the medium. Like with the sheets you gave us, it didn't occurr to me before but there are absolutely no sound effects words like POW, ZAP, etc. you know all those sound effects that were always on the old Adam West batman show. The assigned pages of the McCloud were also on my mind as I was rereading, particuarily the section about the Gutters between panels, closures, and scene transitions. Moore and Gibbons utilize a wide variety of transitions throughout each issue, I'm sure they're all used at some point, and each serves a unique purpose and point. The first time I heard about Watchmen was through a great documentary that aired on the history channel a few years ago called "Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked" which gives a great in-depth history lesson on the origins of American comics from the early 20th century up till today. I think Watchmen is captures the divisions in the eras of the comic book industry with the Minuteman representing the bright and enthusiast golden age characters and the subsequent Crime Busters taking their place as the Silver Age. I also liked how Moore modeled his characters on many past or current superheroes of the time. Some of the obvious ones are Nite Owl II and the various Blue Beetle characters including a flying ship, Rosarch and The Question, and Silk Spectre and Black Canary. Another thing about Watchmen I really appreciate is that it's not something you can sit down and flip through and still get the whole picture. It requires reader involvment which was one of the things McCloud noted in "Understanding Comics" that makes comics unique from other mediums like television and film. That was one of the sections of "Understanding Comics" that really resonated with me and was constantly on my mind as I was rereading Watchmen. Moore and Gibbons utilize this concept to its fullest and really allow the reader to become the director of the comic, so to speak. When the Comedian is beaten and thrown out a window, it's us who fill in all the gaps and decide how hard the fall was, etc. etc. Same thing with the Rosharch capture sequence, another one of my favorites. I think my favorite part of the series is Issue #6, with the origin of Rosharch and Malcolm Long. It's really disturbing to see the transformation of both Kovacs and even Long into their dark worldview of humanity. I also love Nite Owl's dream sequence in which he strips off his skin into his costume, and that small panel of him embracing Laurie as skeletons. Really chilling and yet I can't look away. I really hope they keep that for the film adaptation.