Comic Books – Page 2 – the coffee philosopher

I hope the estate got a good deal. Count me on the side that felt that Jack Kirby got a bum deal for all his work for Marvel (and also DC Comics, but especially Marvel). He created or creatively reinvented some of the most iconic characters (Spiderman, Captain America, Iron Man and more; his early runs of Captain America and especially the Fantastic Four are awesome and, of course, he was responsible for my all time favorite comic – Devil Dinosaur!) and his action oriented style is still the gold standard.

The image is from Devil Dinosaur (a sadly short-lived comic, whose titular, flame colored tyrannosaurus rex is only occasionally trotted out these days, as he was for a recent, two issue, Spiderman crossover). The style is classic Kirby, who would do this big, horizontal panels, densely packed and giving it real ‘oomph’ and velocity by placing the hero at that angle, leaning right (forward, towards the next page), often almost parallel to the horizontal floor of the frame.

Posted on July 27, 2014July 25, 2014 by the coffee philosopher

Posted on May 7, 2014May 5, 2014 by the coffee philosopher

Midweek Staff Meeting – I Don’t Like Him Either

It’s true – it’s hard to like Cyclops.

You can deny workers raises and give that money to CEOs instead, but in Cali, that could cost you.

Fools! Children do not need to know poetry!

In case you had no idea what I did for a living, I worked on these two organizing campaigns.

Pretty cool, right?

Paper is still the best (for in depth comprehension, anyway).

Posted on May 1, 2014April 29, 2014 by the coffee philosopher

It Sucks That Amazon Bought Comixology

I like Comixology. And I read comic books. Three to be precise (Aquaman, Action Comics, and Batman, to be precise). If you’re not familiar with Comixology, the are basically a great platform for reading comic books on a tablet or computer (but especially on tablet).

When I first went back to comics, I used Comixology to catch up on the first half dozen issues of what DC Comics has called the ‘New 52,’ essentially, a reboot of its universe, before buying new copies at the comic book store or book store, as they came out.

Even better, I went back and read some famous story arcs from back in the day (actually, not that far back; mostly from the 80s and 90s): X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Infinity Gauntlet, Civil War, and the first couple story arcs of Alan Moore’s time writing for Swamp Thing, to name a few (to name a few more, that story arc where Wolverine goes to Japan, which I still love).

But I won’t buy anything from them now that they are part of the Amazon evil empire. And it’ll probably mean that I’ll buy a lot fewer comic books. Especially since they’ve already started their evil empire thing, but closing up the eco-system and making it impossible to make in-app purchases (which is a fancy way of saying the ability, while reading a comic on my iPad Comixology app, to simply press a button and purchase the next issue after I’ve finished the previous issue).

For example, I was super excited when Marvel rebooted Moon Knight. I used to seek out his comics as a child and it seemed like a great opportunity to see a new take on him that would not require catching up on five years of back story. But the first issue sold out quickly and my local comic book stores haven’t been able to restock it. Before, I might have gotten it on Comixology and then bought the later issues at the comic book store. Ain’t gonna happen now.

Probably for the best. If I were only thirty-eight, it would be different, but I’m about to turn forty and I think that reading three monthly comic book titles is enough.

Addendum: Since writing the above, I bought a (traditional) copy of Moon Knight #1. It’s pretty cool. That is all.

Posted on April 19, 2014April 17, 2014 by the coffee philosopher

The Scarlett Johansson Trilogy

Coincidentally, the last three movies have all featured Scarlett Johansson (or at least her voice) and have all been pretty good. Neither of those are statements I ever expected to write.

First of was Her. Johansson played the voice of the OS (operating system) that Joaquin Phoenix’s character fell in love with. She was very good in that, I have to admit. Having her performance separated from her famous body enabled one to get a better appreciation of her qualities as an actor. And speaking of acting, the movie also drove home the fact that while Phoenix was going through his crazy period, we were missing out on all the great movie performances we could have had during that time. He really is that good. And the movie, at its best, was a moving and realistic depiction of how a relationship grows, develops, and the breaks apart as two people find themselves drifting further away their shared spaces and experiences. That being said… I’m not sure what the point of the movie was. I mean, I know… relationships, technology, singularity, blah, blah, blah. But… I don’t know. It wasn’t that it was cold or passionless, but the passion came from the great acting. Why did director Spike Jonze make this film? I don’t know, because I felt no passion from behind the camera and it left me feeling a little let down and betrayed. It made the whole less than the sum of its parts.

Spoiler alerts coming, by the way.

Captain America: Winter Soldier was, as the reviews have often noted, the best of the recent spate of Marvel universe films (which is to say, excluding the Spiderman movies). I’m also biased because I liked the first Captain America movie better than any but the first Iron Man movie. The unironic, straightforwardness of it appealed to me.

This one is more convoluted but solves, or at least, works around, what has always been the character’s conundrum. Captain America was created during World War II and makes the most sense in the (relative) black and white world of that conflict. Like most of the best comic book story arc around the Captain, this one plays on the boy scout being thrust into a complex situation and trying to still be a boy scout. Chris Evans is suitably boyish and charismatic. Scarlett Johansson looks good in Diana Riggs’ old skin tight catsuit from her Avengers days (not the Marvel Avengers, but the old British tv show). And Robert Redford should play more villains. Never one to overact, he drips menace, without raising his voice and with boyish, rakish twinkle in eye.

I have some qualms (the Winter Soldier looks too boyishly handsome not menacing enough when he’s not wearing a mask), but it’s got a nice, though imperfect combo of action and conspiracy flick.

Under the Skin is deeply alien. In an awesome way. Johansson plays an alien wearing the ‘skin’ of a human being to lure other humans to her lair for… some kind of harvesting. The harvesting isn’t Cronenberg-seque, really, but there’s a definite element of body horror.

The movie is from Johansson’s (she’s never given a name) point of view. How to make relatable an alien who is deeply alienated in her reactions to and understanding of our world? Easy. The movie takes place in Scotland and the other characters (Johansson speaks with a decent, but not great, generic British accent) have heavy, sometimes nearly incomprehensible Glaswegian accents. The landscapes are deliberately alien looking. They’re clearly earth landscapes, but it would no surprise to learn that everyone of them had been used as stand in for an alien planet in a long ago episode of Doctor Who.

When she’s scared, we feel and empathize with her fear, even though, in another movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger would be hunting her down before she kills again.

And yes, there’s nudity. She gets naked. But if that’s your reason for seeing it, you’ll be a little disappointed. Not just because her body is good, but not great, but also because there are far more shots of unobstructed full front nudity by men in various stages of tumescence. She draws them onto a reflective black floor, leading them on by slowly taking off her clothes (most of the time, just bra and panties are enough to get them men to drop their pants) and once the men are full naked, the floor turns into thick black sludge that they blithely walk into and finally under, while it remains firm beneath her feet. It’s very yonic (when they walk into the place where that black floor exists – the room and building changing over the course of the movie – the walk into a lightless black opening), but the alien lacks a true vagina. Her sex organs are literally only skin deep (as she finds out when trying to have sex).

The whole thing is mysterious and strange and resists easy meaning or interpretation, but it’s an amazing piece of film making and Johansson does very, very well. Partly, she is called upon to be a siren, who leads men happily to their death via the irresistible lure of the promise of her body, but she’s also a cipher, trying to figure out what it means to be human. She is never human, but wearing the skin affects her and she does embark on an exploration of what the human skin means.

Go see it.