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.