The last book I read last year was Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and The Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones, a splendidly written, very unbiased look at the foundations of the Comic book industry in America. It’s the perfect real-life counterpart to the world Michael Chabon wrote about in Adventures of Kavalier and Klay.
The first book I read this year was Andrew Vachss’s Batman: The Ultimate Evil – and I must say I did not enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would. Personally, I found it very hard to equate Vachss’s morally bleak, take-no-prisoners-and-shoot-to-kill attitude with Batman’s black-and-white world.
[A lot of people might think that Batman is this tortured character with shades of gray, but I disagree. Bruce Wayne might be a driven individual,obsessed with his crusade against crime, but sixty years of corporate emasculation (It’s DC Comics I am referring to, folks, not Wayne enterprises. A corporate entity that refuses to tamper with the status quo, and paints anything controversial and un-Batmanlike as an Elseworlds story) has finally convinced me that there cannot be anything grey about a character who refuses to kill, regardless of the ramifications his coda brings to the people around him. Batman, unless something radically different is done to the character’s personality, is the embodiment of a man who spends his life hitting his head against a brick wall. ]Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s Superman, and Frank Miller and Jim Lee’s Batman and Robin.
I adore Frank Quitely’s artwork.I don’t want to blather on about the mechanics of good artwork and why I find some artists uninteresting, but Quitely’s work, which I sampled the first time in this standalone graphic novel called “JLA: Earth 2”, is just so elegant – the kind of dignified aloofness he grants to his superheroes ( observe Lex Luthor in this sample on the left). Over the past year, I have been trying to get my hands on Quitely’s works. His work on New X-Men ( again, written by Morrison, part of it was reprinted in India by Gotham) was good, though much of the impact was taken away by the rotating art-teams on the series. Getting Flex Mentallo was out of the question – the four-issue miniseries is now a very high-priced eBay item because of DC not reprinting the series ( added to the fact that there was a small controversy associated with it).The Authority redefined cool – Quitely’s rendering of Jacob Kurtzberg, the pseudo-Avengers blew me away, seriously.
He also drew a small segment of Endless Nights, Gaiman’s hardcover collection of short stories related to the Sandman mythos.
Undoubtedly, the best example of Quitely’s work is to be found in the three-issue miniseries WE3, again written by Morrison, and the last issue of which is due to be released on January 19th.
So I find out that he’s doing Superman, I say “celebration time, buddies!”
The Sin City movie by Robert Rodriguez, which seems to be coming out quite well, as the trailer shows. I did an inventory check a couple of weeks ago, and I seem to have all the Sin City miniseries ( the original comicbooks, I mean, not the scans) except for Family Values and A Dame to Kill For. Ah well. Getting them should not be too much of a problem, right?
Package from Carthik in the mail.
Package of 5 Cerebus Graphic novels in the mail. ( three of them signed by Dave Sim, heh) This should be here in the next ten days.
The Collected Bone One-Volume Edition in the mail, hopefully by the end of the week.
Maximum City
Currently reading Maximum City by Sukethu Mehta, and recommending it to all and sundry. It’s about… well Bombay. And it is fantastic. Please get this one, if you haven’t already.
Re: Maximum City
I have been hearing about ( and of course, seeing ) the book everywhere. Haven’t really thought about getting it because (a) Backlist too long and (b) figured someone I know would buy it before I do, and I could borrow later. :-)
(c) Wait for the slashed-down-price version in Hyd bookshops.
I am also undecided over which would be the better buy – Shantaram or Maximum City.
Re: Maximum City
I dithered for a while, thinking about the costly hardback version, but after close to a hundred pages, it has been TOTALLY worth it. Haven’t heard of Shantaram… what’s it about?
Re: Maximum City
From amazon.com:
Shantaram is the name given Mr. Lindsay, or Linbaba, the larger-than-life hero. It means “man of God’s peace,” which is what the Indian people know of Lin. What they do not know is that prior to his arrival in Bombay he escaped from an Australian prison where he had begun serving a 19-year sentence. He served two years and leaped over the wall. He was imprisoned for a string of armed robberies peformed to support his heroin addiction, which started when his marriage fell apart and he lost custody of his daughter. All of that is enough for several lifetimes, but for Greg Roberts, that’s only the beginning.
He arrives in Bombay with little money, an assumed name, false papers, an untellable past, and no plans for the future. Fortunately, he meets Prabaker right away, a sweet, smiling man who is a street guide. He takes to Lin immediately, eventually introducing him to his home village, where they end up living for six months. When they return to Bombay, they take up residence in a sprawling illegal slum of 25,000 people and Linbaba becomes the resident “doctor.” With a prison knowledge of first aid and whatever medicines he can cadge from doing trades with the local Mafia, he sets up a practice and is regarded as heaven-sent by these poor people who have nothing but illness, rat bites, dysentery, and anemia. He also meets Karla, an enigmatic Swiss-American woman, with whom he falls in love. Theirs is a complicated relationship, and Karla’s connections are murky from the outset.
Re: Maximum City
Sounds fantastic, will try and pick it up after Maximum City. Thanks for the recommendation.
Re: Maximum City
Hello brother. How’s life?
I’m waiting for the paperback edition, myself. Read the first hundred pages at my cousin’s place and was blown away.
Re: Maximum City
I’m doing really well, enjoying unemployment. Are you back in Bangalore?! We’re doing a show at Zero G on the 16th, and I would like you to consider this as a personal invitation from my side. Please try and make it. It will be lovely to finally meet you IRL.
And Maximum City! What can I say?! It is AMAZING!
Re: Maximum City
Thanks a lot for the invite, but I’m unlikely to make it to Zero G. We can probably meet up some other day.
Re: Maximum City
That’s cool, we shall catch up some other day then. I will give you a call.
Superb post! I need ‘JLA: Earth 2’ now! Of all the comics I read in the past six months, I liked the artwork of ‘The Ultimates’ the most. Then, I picked up ‘JLA: Kingdom Come’. Man! Alex Ross is a class apart.
I saw JLA:Earth 2 at Midland today. Along with Miller’s Ronin Wanna go see more graphic novles this weekend? :P
Oh yes! You owe me a few books as it is. ;)
Save yourself some money (and get Sam to splurge on other books :) ). JLA Earth 2 has been reprinted by Gotham as a superspecial. They have this super offer, and you might as well buy it for less than 45 INR.
I’m quite(ly?) looking forward to Miller and Lee’s All star Bats. He may be a unidimensional character as you pointed out, but the myhtos does tend to bring the best out of writers and artists. I have known a lot of people who don’t like Lees artwork, labeling it “too pretty” for serious comic books, or otherwise antiseptic. I still remain a fan, though.
I have known a lot of people who don’t like Lees artwork, labeling it “too pretty” for serious comic books, or otherwise antiseptic.
I used to be one of those latter people, I am afraid. All the Top Cow Artists – Silvestri, Brett Booth, Batt, and Jim Lee – seemed the same to me. Hush increased my opinion of JL’s art, but the Superman run he’s working on – aaargh!
I am looking forward to Batman and get my kicks out of watching Miller play around with the DC Universe. I love the guy.
You gotta love Miller, man.
I get what you mean by aaargh too, there’s nothing wrong with the artwork, its just plain. Hush, though is a case in point that artists and writers do some of their best work on Batman.
GOD!!! Sandman!!! Quitely’s hands work like god’s!!!
If you ever get your hands on this issue (hardcopy) or if you already have, you know who to pass it on to :P
I am doing my best to get my hands on the hardcover version. Have the digital thing with me, though.
Pass it on pleaes :D :D :D
It’s there on “your” comp. Hyuk hyuk.
eeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
(Your comp, you mean) :P