The Nipple Whisperer

Among the small pile of comics I recently purchased through itunes that use the iverse browser, two of them are Ghost Whisperer. The Ghost Whisperer comic is written by Becca Smith and Carrie Smith The art is provided by Elena Casagrande. My daughters and I love the Ghost Whisperer TV show, and I thoroughly enjoyed the comics. Seriously, I enjoyed it. It captures the feel of the show pretty well.

In this story line, Melinda is encountering the earthbound spirits that are full of anger and vengeance based on the circumstances of their deaths. In the first two issues at least, neither were actually killed by the people they have sworn vengeance upon, but both were victimized to some degree by peers, and met their deaths through accidents facilitated by their being picked on.

In each of these cases, the spirits are goaded on by another earthbound who believes himself to be the egyption god Osiris. When Melinda ultimately helps the girls to the light, Osiris is angry and lashes out at her. The art isn't phenomenal, but it's certainly not bad. The stories aren't earthshattering, but they are good, and have the tone and framework of the show for the most part.

My issue with this, and reason behind the title of this entry is a sort of bizarre and out of place series of nipples poking through shirts in both of the issues. I have no problem with nipples,I'm something of a fan even. Put them in a genre where it makes sense to show that sort of thing, and don't use high school kids, etc., and I probably won't feel weird about it. In the Ghost Whisperer, Even Melinda isn't presented in an overly sexual way, and Jennifer Love Hewitt is a looker by some people's standards (mine included). Generally, she dresses somewhat frumpy in the show, with layers, etc. When she does dress up, it's usually in sort of old fashioned seeming timeless or classic type outfits.

In the second issue, a girl died by falling into a swimming pool and getting tangled in the cover, and drowning. The first time we see her her nipples are prominently drawn in. Yes... I guess you could say there is some realism to that, but is it necessary, and does it really make sense or seem right in the context. I don't think so. In the first issue, The nipples pop up on the high school girls who pulled a mean prank on a classmate that lead her to run without looking where she was going and get hit by a car. In this same issue is a series of panels of the girls in a variety of bizarre poses for the circumstances. I will go with the idea that the girls might have a sleepover, but this is skinemax fare, one on her hands and knees on the bed, another is arching her back sitting on the edge, leaning back on her hands.... oh did I mention the lolipop the hands and knees girl is posing with... This just struck me as bizarre. I really didn't think that GHOST WHISPERER was really a show that relied on that sort of crap, and it was just out of place to see it in a comic. Yes they are all high school girls, but no I don't have tons of outrage, I just wonder why it was necessary. This isn't an ultra visible mainstream comic marketed at kids, etc. I mean, this is a comic offered on itunes, but the GW property may not be as attractive to most kids as it is to my girls.

People have nipples... as I pointed out earlier. I realize that, but generally they aren't flashed around quite as much in tv and movies as they seem to be in this comic that has no real use for sexuality in it. Does that mean it is just thrown in to spice up a fairly dull title? Were those details actually written into the script, or is this the solely the artists vision? Kind of strange, kind of unnecessary detail. I would like to read the rest of the series, though.

2009, the year in which Rob tries 2 new things at once

I received an ITunes gift card for Christmas. Yesterday I used it to purchase a small handful of 99 cent IVerse Comic Reader comics, and downloaded all the free ones as well. I wasn't sure what to expect. Frankly, I had figured that it would be a clunky affair that involved upsizing and downsizing constantly. They get around the need to do that by cutting the page up into custom panels, and making each of those panels a separate page. It is an interesting effect, and I think you can both lose and gain a good bit through that presentation.

The really cool part about viewing these custom panels separately is that you really get to focus on the panels apart from the whole page. That in turn creates an effect that could be good or bad depending on the comic. You can't see where it is heading, you have no greater context, and anything that would have been conveyed by the whole page layout is lost. There is also a good bit of cropping, so you are not seeing the entire page as printed. In the comics I have read so far (all of them for the first time) I see the presentation of these single chunks as a pretty cool and effective thing. You really get a chance to appreciate the skill of the artist this way. It really allows you to pull a great deal of emotion from the individual panels, as well as creating a bit of suspense by having to view it bites.

Neozoic #1,2 - Ens, Korim & Lam (Red5 Comics) - I have been trying to get this comic for a while to no avail. I was thrilled to see the first two issues offered through ITunes. I have an IPhone for work, and now it has comics on it. It is quite a happy IPhone now.

The idea behind the comic is good solid science fiction stuff. In the Neozoic world, the moon was hit by an asteroid 65 million years ago. It has a giant bite taken out of it (I am forced to think about the Tick at this point and giggle, although in Neozoic it isn't done in a funny way.) Mess with the moon and a lot of things change. Dinosaurs and giant beasts share the planet with humans and other humanoid creatures. People live in walled cities and have a mixture of modern and archaic technology. The society is built up around a religion, etc.

So far I love this. I have only read the two issues, but it is awesome. There is a sort of military, or military like structure, a monarchy, a rabid media, a society that is at odds on a number of issues, with it's share of protestors and dissenters . There is another race or offshoot of people that live outside of the walled city, possibly underground. There is a lot to build upon.

I am not always a fan of things that mix dinosaurs and people, but this was really good stuff. I am genuinely interested in continuing to read this. It has action and political overtones, and perhaps the single most attractive female character ever. You want honesty from me... right? Well, you get it anyway. The character Lilli, who seems to be one of the primary characters, if not the main character, is absolutely stunning. The art in this is pretty amazing. Many of the characters, male and female alike, give off that vibe. (See the cover art above, which is not from either of the issues I read, but it is lovely so I used it.)

In addition to the amazing illustration is the color. Red5 comics, at least Atomic Robo and Neozoic, really seem to value color. The color in both of those titles is really like another player in the game. It isn't so much that color themes are used to convey specific things as it is the color is so perfect that you notice it's quality on equal footing with the art it is embelishing.

I took a sample page from the publisher's site I then cut it up in photoshop to pretty much match what you get on the iphone. That is them running down the left side of this pasge. I think it works really well. I know that for me there was a greater sense of immersion with viewing this way. It sort of takes the comic and presents it to you like storyboards for a film. I don't have an issue with reading comics like this if they are all done as well as this one is, and offered for free or at a very reasonable price (99 cents is a good price for a comic. Getting the issues in this way also gives a bit of the sense that you are owning something you can keep. I think there is room for improvement, and we will probably see this develop over time. I don't love the fact that every issue is installed as a separate application on my phone. I would prefer to launch the app and pick issues from a library for example.

The only other comic I have read so far is the first issue of David Hutchison's OZ the manga. I think this may really be a format that the manga style really just shines in. There is a lot of movement in the panels, and a lot of reaction and expression shots, and getting those isolated in their own screen has a great effect. If I can find some sample pages of that I will chop it up similarly and post one to show how well it works.

I am happy so far, but I will keep you posted.