Friday, March 26, 2010

Talkin Bout Talkin Bout

Lately I have been extremely motivated to type something here, but sadly not motivated to say anything. Contrary to what this very blog indicates, Axe Cop is not the last comics related thing I have thought about.

Since my last post here I have watched two comics based movie trailers about a dozen times each. The Hit Girl specific trailer for Kick-Ass and the Scott Pilgrim trailer are both amazing looking. I was unsure about Scott Pilgrim to some degree prior to seeing this. I love the series like crazy, but wasn't sure how it would translate. I also love Edgar Wright's work, and am a big fan of Michael Cera. Scott Pilgrim plus those guys should be a guaranteed hit for me, but I hate to get my hopes up too high. Everything that was shown in the trailer looks perfect. Look, feel, characters, settings. It is a little tough when you go from a comic with the style of SP to a movie with real people in it, but I think a good job was done making the characters feel like you expect them too.

The Hit Girl Kick-Ass trailer is fast and awesome and features the Banana Splits theme. Unlike with Scott Pilgrim, you know exactly what everyone is supposed to look like and it is recreated perfectly. I liked Kick-Ass. I especially liked how it ended. If the movie is able to stay true to the comic, I think it will be pretty good. I don't think it counts as literature, or that the movie will be fine cinema, but I think I will like it.

The semi abusive comic store I visit when I am at my parents house does a few things to keep me coming back. One thing is that they stock Chew and Cowboy Ninja Viking, and titles like that to a greater degree than my almost exclusively mainstream only LCS. The other is that their front counter is usually overflowing with Marvel Essentials for 5 bucks each, and sometimes a few graphic novels for the same price. I have picked up a handful of titles that I think will work just fine in that format, and look forward to reading them soon. I am most excited about the Power Man v2 and the Power Man and Iron Fist v1 that I picked up, as well as Marvel Monsters v1. When I was a kid, our library had a big bin of comics that were in various degrees of being shredded, but Power Man and Iron Fist, as well as Dracula, Batman and Daredevel were well represented there. I have a deep seated love for those characters as a result I think.

I have a lot of individual issues that I will work on reading and commenting on soon, but I have also done fairly well recently with my local used book store. I have picked up a number of interesting volumes in the past few weeks, including a SCAD anthology, a book by Rick Geary, and a collection of Fairy Tales. I used inter-Branch loan at my local Library to get a copy of Asterios Polyp, and have just started on that as well.

Recently I made a comment on a post by a big named blogger that writes a sort of biting comedy/stinging satire/amazing comics criticism blog who referred to Atomic Robo as being basically just a ripoff of Mignola. If you have read Robo and BPRD or Hellboy, you will know that Robo only sounds somewhat similar in theory when you are giving a brief synopsis, but in practice is just not even similar. I commented as such and had another commenter look at this site and post that of course I like Robo if I love Tiny Titans... I imagine that was meant as some sort of swipe at me, but my real response is.. of course! They are both awesome! The latest Tiny Titans is no exception to the awesomeness. It isn't mindless pap for small children. It is a very well written and extremely well drawn cute and nice take on a lot of characters that don't get to be cute and nice very often. It is a sincere comic for kids, but there is also satire and sly jokes that be enjoyed by older folks as well. There is nothing wrong with cute and fun and nice.

2 comments:

John said...

I'm not sure about Kick-Ass, but Scott Pilgrim looks almost perfect. The only thing I wish would be a little better is Michael Cera as Scott, but part of the blame for that falls on (what I assume is) an unimaginative casting director. Sure, Michael Cera is age-appropriate and of similar physique, but nothing about his previous performances suggests to me that he can show enthusiasm to the degree that befits Scott Pilgrim. Scott is often a passionate character, and he frequently gets very excited about things, but Cera's performances all seem to be based on deadpan and subtle humor. Jesse (Zombieland) Eisenberg would probably have been the stronger choice, but he won't be able to pack a theater until after he stars as Mark Zuckerberg in the upcoming Facebook movie.

In spite of all that, the trailer does look awesome and I'm absolutely going to see it on opening day.

Talkin Bout Comics said...

I think SP will still be great, and that Cera will be good in the part. I agree that what we have seen of him, and what seems to be his single speed, doesn't exactly fit with what we have seen of Scott and the energy level that he brings in almost every situation he is in, but I like Cera a lot and imagine that they will have made it work with him in the role.

When I watch the Kick-Ass trailers, I think I edit out Nick Cage from every scene they show of him. I think the movie looks like it can be pretty great, if you are of the opinion that anything related to that title could be great in any way. I didn't want to like the comic. I have a list of reasons not to, but it still got me on at least some level where I thought it worked and was pretty entertaining.