9 posts tagged “vertigo”

After watching the movie adaptation, I obviously went back to the source and listened to the audio version of Stardust written by Neil Gaiman. At the same time I also looked at the illustrated book.
 
This is a really good fantasy/fairy tale for adults. There are many scary scenes in this book, but it also contained many light hearted scenes. The style in which this is written is very poetic. I usually don't care much about that style, I am not a literary guy, but in this book it really works.
 
I think listening to it read by Neil Gaiman made it even better, it jus

t sounds really nice. There are so many characters in this story, all of them memorable. However many of them have a very small role, sometimes they are introduced and never seen again. I do wish that they would either have a bigger role, or just not introduced at all. Their presence wasn't really needed for the plot.
 
Another little problem at the end, I though it was weird the way Tristran dealt with his real mother, Gaiman didn't go into that at all, not even a brief mention.
 
Other than that, I thought this was a very good story, and the illustrations by Charles Vess were also excellent. His style is the quintessential fantasy art in my mind.

 

I started reading John Bolton with the Classic X-men issues, I loved both the character bits by Claremont and the Bolton art. This new GN written by Mike Carey really wasn't that interesting to me, both because it's been done before and because it's just not for me.
 
It tried to be realistic and dramatic with the drug storyline, but it didn't really go anywhere. On the other hand it also tried to integrate the fantasy world with the real one, which is the part that we've seen so many times before.

The art is sure worth the read though. I feet familiar with Bolton's work, however looking at his checklist I haven't read much of his painted comics work. I think Batman: Man-bat and Books of Magic are the only ones I can remember. His art here is definitely familiar, but I could also see how much he evolved. His photo-realistic painting is even more realistic, much less abstract than before. But his fantasy world keeps his love for weird abstract surreal imagery. 

This is definitely a book I will go back to just to look at the pretty art.
 

This is a 32 issues series of a spy-action political intrigue. It stars a group of rogue secret agents that uncover some dirty secrets inside the government itself.

The plot is very tight, each story arc reveals a new piece of the puzzle, each building on top of the previous one, in the end bringing us to a very satisfying ending.

It reminded me a little of Alias (TV), where each episode reveals something about the big picture. The difference is that Alias never paid that off, instead trying to keep on going with the format of the show.

The creators of this series are Andy Diggle and Jock (who alternates story arc with guess artists). I am not a big fan of Jock, but his style works well with action scenes.

The main characters are interesting, some more than others, but the most intriguing was Aisha, who has an unknown past and agenda.

The main attraction for me is the limited run of the series, with a clear beginning, middle and end. I thought the big plan by Max was a clever idea. This is a very well written series which I recommend to anyone. 

The Fountain was created as a screenplay by director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream). The production of the movie version was very problematic and had been shut down for budget reasons.

Fearing that this story would not be seen by the public, Aronofsky decided to publish it as a graphic novel. He went to DC/Vertigo where he was paired with Kent Williams. This is the result of their collaboration.

I read this GN soon after watching the film. You can read my review of the movie here.

The script is almost identical to that of the movie, with some minor differences and one noticable addition. The storyline taking place in the past in Spain is more fleshed out, there is more action and character development. I don't think it was necessary to the overall message of the movie though. It was probably cut from the screenplay in order to reduce the budget.

The art by Kent Williams gives a different feel compared to the movie, which is inevitable. The visuals in the movie are at times almost surreal, ethereal. Especially the sequences in the future. But the present and past storylines have a more realistic and conventional look.

Williams's style gives a fantasy/surreal look to the whole story, sometimes darker sometimes lighter. I think it was appropriate for this story, and it certainly makes this GN look a legitimate work of art.

If you've never heard of The Fountain, you should probably check out the movie first, and then come back to the GN and enjoy Williams art.

Before reading this book I had the impression that this was a crime story. But I was totally wrong. This is mainly a romance story, or more precisely a number of romance stories loosely tied together. However these are not the typical "Prince charming/princess" love story. These are gritty, adult, mature, dramatic, difficult and touching relationships.

There are 3 storylines featuring 3 couples:

1) Haitous and Strel struggle with his career as a boxer.
2) John seems to meet the girl of his dreams, but Daisy turns out to be a girl with a lot of problems.
3) Eloy is an aspiring artist who has the opportunity to make it big, but at the cost of his art.

All these stories are interesting, even though I don't have personal experience as an artist, or a boxer, they are all very compelling to me. These are well developed characters, trying to live life the best way they can. I particularly liked Daisy and the fact that she had a disturbing past, which causes her to fear attachment to any human being. John even figured this all out, so he seemed to be the perfect guy.

This story takes place in the future, with a much more advanced technology. So there are clearly sci-fi elements, however it still retains an urban feeling to it. Nightclubs are still more or less the same, except that instead of simply stripping, the girls bare their insides. Yes, this is a very mature story.

Paul Pope's style is very dynamic, even though at times I had difficulty understanding the scenes featuring future technology. This is a gritty style, perfectly suited for this kind of story.

Even though this book is more than 200 pages long, it reads very fast. There are no action scenes, there are many dialogs but they read very real and authentic. I really liked this story, it really surprised me in a very good way.

Pride of Baghdad is a beautiful graphic novel illustrated by Niko Henrichon and written by Brian K. Vaughn. The story is inspired by events that happened in the spring of 2003, when a pride of lions escaped from the Baghdad Zoo during an American bombing raid.

The story follows the 4 lions going through the ruins of the city, and the many encounters awaiting them. In this story the animals have balloons, but this is not a funny story about animals. It is actually a very adult story about the meaning of freedom, versus the "comforts" of captivity.

During the story we get to know these lions and we start to care about them. That is why I was quite shocked by the ending of the story, even though it is a logical conclusion.

The art by Henrichon is gorgeous, his colors are both brilliant and very dark and moody, based on the type of scene. His style is very realistic, which is perfect for this kind of story. Yes, even though it is about animals, this is a very realistic story. Both the lions and the environment are totally realistic, and yet his lines feel almost abstract. Just beautiful art. I can't wait to see his future projects.

This graphic novel reads very quickly, but it is not a light story. I highly recommend this to anyone.

DMZ is written by Brian Wood, and it is about war, and its depiction by the news. Manhattan is stuck between USA and the Free States, a demilitarized zone which doesn't belong to either side.

In the first arc (#1-5, On the Ground), Matty Roth has been sent by Liberty News to report about the DMZ conditions, but he finds himself stuck there, and actually becoming one of them. He learns how people in DMZ deal with the situation, how they survive and what they think about the war.

In the second arc (#6-10) Matty learns that everything theyve been told about the war, and about Manhattan is false. America does not care about the people in DMZ, so they create misinformation for the public to see.

This series is obviously political, and inspired by events in the last few years. Reading it, I feel like I was watching news channels reporting on a war, but this time I get the truth, I can see what really happens. And I wonder how much of what we see on TV is real, and how much is fabricated.
Brian Wood analyzed media in Channel Zero, in DMZ it is media in the context of a war. For this he needed the art to be realitic, and he found the perfect match in Riccardo Burchielli. This italian artist delivers a high level of realism, which helps identify with the characters and the environment they live in. In particular he made Manhattan a character by itself. Even though he's never been to US, with the help of Wood he creates a believable and realistic Manhattan.

I am not very interested in politics, but this story is more than that. This is about a boy growing up and becoming a man, this is about the people living in the middle of a war that they didn't start. This is a very human story. Get it.

I finally finished reading Watchmen. I read many years ago in Italian, so I couldn't remember every detail. All I remembered was that I loved it. And this time I pretty much felt the same way.

I don't think there's much I can say that everybody else hasn't said already, but this is truly a masterpiece by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. This book works on so many levels, and I don't even understand half of them. But that's what makes it a good re-read. Every time you can pick up something new.

For instance, there are so many allusions to so many of the heroes being gay, things that I didn't catch in previous readings, not being mature enough to know about them.

I also enjoy the text at the end of each chapter, especially at the end of chapter one, which introduces the heroes past events. Some other articles were not as interesting, but I read them all.

One thing that I didn't get at all are the pirate comic scenes. Yes, I get that they're supposed to have meaning not only within the pirate comic, but also in the Watchmen world. And I did enjoy it. But after a while, I really didn't see the point to telling that story.

The art by Dave Gibbons is perfect. The line is so clean, the details are so precise, and there is a lot happening in each panel, much more than you'd think at first. That's also why it's such a better experience on subsequent reads.

This is the Absolute edition, which is a gorgeous oversized book. Colors are remastered, so this is the best edition of this book. At the end of the book they published the original treatment from Alan Moore, and many sketches by Dave Gibbons. They also included parts of Moore's script, which are famously detailed. These extras are the same as Graffiti Designs HC published in 1988, which I found disappointing. I would have liked an updated intro or text piece by either Moore or Gibbons (though I guess Moore would not have accepted), or even someone else to aknowledge that this edition is published 20 years after the original series.

If you are comic fan and have not read this, this is a must. Go get it NOW!!

 

The Filth is a book written by Grant Morrison. That should be enough to know what type of story this is. This is one of Morrison's more extreme work, where he lets loose of his creativity and gives birth to a completely unique world.

Surprisingly, even though I didn't really "get it", I enjoyed it a lot. Obviously everything in this book has a deeper meaning, a metaphor. But there is also the more straightforward story of Greg Feely, a solitary middle age man who lives with his cats and watches porn. It turns out he is Ned Slade, an agent of The Hand, an organization whose purpose is to ‘Wipe the arse of the world’.

Ned goes on a series of missions to do just that, fighting against mad villains (Spartacus Hughes, Max Thunderstone etc...). My favorite mission is the one with Doctor Arno Von Vermin, which is basically a self-contained story.

Towards the end though, Greg/Ned discovers something that changes everything we knew about him. And I won't spoil it for you.

There are so many mad ideas in this book, and Chris Weston does an incredible job at depicting them visually. I'd appreciated his art in his previous works, but I think this is his best work. So many details, so many stunning visuals (co-created with Morrison I imagine).

As I said I didn't comprehend the main message of this story, but then again this is a book that is open to interpretation. Luckily there are many sites trying to help understand at least the plot of this book, check out the Wikipedia entry.

After reading these sites, I feel the need to read it again and I am sure I will get even more out of it. This is a book that can be read many times during our lifetime, and new things can be extracted from it.

This is NOT a book for kids, it presents adult themes and images. But it is well worth your time if you want something that challenges your brain.