8
Sep
ISBN: 9780061649691
Coraline Jones, ignored, unappreciated and outright bored, lives in a house with a crazy old man who trains rats in the flat above her, and a pair of retired actresses and their dog in the flat below her. In her flat there is a most wondrous door, which leads to nowhere, except at night, when it leads to a whole other world built just for her.
By now between the book and the movie, you’ve probably heard of it, if not seen or read it. But for those who haven’t met Coraline and her creepy, button-eyed other mother there’s a few things they should know.
Coraline isn’t Gaiman’s best work, or the prettiest as far as story or prose goes. What it is is incredibly imaginative and unlike any other scary kids book out there. The stand out element isn’t the true bizarreness, but Coraline herself, strong, courageous and most importantly a very smart little girl.
This book is as much about how a child deals with the bad things in life as it is about parental abandonment or the scary things that go bump in the night. Like the Harry Potter series faces themes of losing the people you love, Coraline contains a subtle, encouraging message about being strong, fierce and bringing your own bravery into all the challenges you face.
For this reason alone it’s a must-have addition to any child or child-oriented library. The other elements just add to the experience, making Coraline a potential children’s classic for years to come.
“Big” Sized paperback: 1569712018, $14.95
In a modern (for the 90s) Tokyo, scientists, foolish with power, successfully recreate primordial ooze, only to discover it’s the perfect host body for an evil, Cthulhu-like (in mindset and motive at least) creature who breaks free and follows the trend of giant monsters rampaging on Tokyo. What’s worse, citizens discover after they’ve thrown everything at it from missiles and tanks to helicopters and super (prototype) boy robots, the creature isn’t just out to destroy humanity, it can infect them, turning them into mutant dinosaur creatures that can further spread the disease, destruction and chaos. In a last ditch effort commanders beg for help from the good old U.S.A. and from the sea comes the Iron-Giant-ish hero, The Big Guy.
All American, a true blue hero, the Big Guy is determined to defeat the evil creature, save the innocents mutated into monsters and uphold decency standards all the while. The prose is a bit pretentious at times, and a bit old fashioned other times, but both reinforce the character of the Big Guy and heroic feel of the tale.
The only bad thing to say is that this two part series went nowhere as a comic, introducing dynamic characters but going no further, and, while the Fox Kids TV show (a mere 26 episodes) was a hilarious, spot on blend of tongue-in-cheek jabs at mechs, robotechnology, speculations on the future, Godzilla-inspired disasters and superhero comics, reading this book is a reminder that the Big Guy and Rusty still hasn’t seen DVD release. Oh well, there’s Youtube.
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Click to Buy
Warning, this review will contain spoilers.
Trade Paperback: 978-0-930289-23-2, $19.99
Let’s get right to the point with this one; I just didn’t connect with this story. I found it slow, with more than half the book being world set up and a series of convoluted flashbacks. I found none of the characters sympathetic, save for Jon (and possibly Night Owl), and in fact greatly disliked many of them. I had to wonder why the whole book was spawned off the death of The Comedian, who was a rather atrocious person, and centered on Rorschach whom I strongly suspect is related to Jesse Custer.
Furthermore, I found all the stories within stories (newspaper clippings, book excerpts, the overlapping comic-within-a-comic etc.) quite distracting and mood breaking. And I admit I had a real problem with the constant reminder of the world’s prejudice and concern with Jon, spun from the fact that no other supernatural creatures existed at all and all the “masked adventurers” were merely human, when the entire climax of the story is dependent on psychics (who didn’t exist up until that point in the story.)
I also found a lot of little gripes, like Veidt’s superiority complex (specifically the idea that even though he was highly educated and raised quite privileged that by giving all his inheritance money away he somehow started his adult life on an even playing field as the rest of us), the original Silk Specter’s confusion about her near rape (okay, I’ll be honest, next to the Comedian I hated this character the most) and the second generation Silk Specter’s complete forgiveness of her mother’s constant manipulations and disapproval. While the tension of a nuclear war added to the over all world building and tension Veidt’s political and environmental psychobabble felt clichéd and, in the end, the story was not at all about politics, human evil or environmentalism, but instead was about what it means to be God and what it costs to play God.
So, all the bad stuff aside, I can see why people have been draw to this story. The sheer unlikeability and humanity of the characters is a draw (and if you’ve read my essay on Superhero Psychology you’ll know that I am draw to very flawed, very human heroes who fight to become something more). The world feel, which I would argue could have been sacrificed for more character building of the Watchmen, however I admit something would have been lost, is full and unique, stark and trying (but failing) to be beautiful. There are some striking images, but far less than in modern comics, and none as impacting as the smiley button with a drop of blood that graces the cover.
And finally I have to give the book props because it was revolutionary when it came out and it’s highly likely that part of my failure to connect was because I’ve read a lot of comics likely influenced by Watchmen and am unfairly used to many of the storytelling tools used to make Watchmen stick out.
In the end, Watchmen is a piece of classic comic culture. It’s a genre-specific equivalent to reading Shakespeare or To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Even if you don’t enjoy it, it does help build a wider view of where the genre came from and how it’s evolved.
21
Jan
You can read Coraline for free online for a limited time, here.
15
Jan
All indications are that a settlement has been reached in the Fox lawsuit over the Watchmen movie. Details c/o G4. We’re pretty much just waiting for a public affirmation at this point.
25
Dec
According to ReelComix.com a judge has ruled that the rights to The Watchmen belong to Fox and not Warner Brothers (who just made the movie). Why this is all coming out today, while much of the world is drunk on either revelry or depression, I’m not sure, but rumor says that Fox wants to shelf the project, killing the movie and the buzz in one fail swoop.
To me, this makes no sense. Why wouldn’t you want to put out a product that’s going to be a blockbuster when you didn’t have to do any of the work? So are The Watchmen trailers doomed to be the greatest what if in 2008 geekdom? Or will some kind soul leak bootleg copies to the hungry masses?
25
Oct
ETA: Wordpress keeps stripping the code. You can see it on my website here.