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snurriBooks 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
71. Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley.
72. Defenders: Indefensible by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire.
73. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
74. Fear of the Dark by Walter Mosley.
75. Criminal Volume 4: Bad Night by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. I love Brubaker's work, and when it comes to contemporary noir comics, Criminal and Azzarello/Risso's 100 Bullets are about all that needs be said. Having said it, though, I feel a small rant coming on, one that has more to do with noir tradition in general than it does Brubaker and Phillips. Here's my problem: I love noir, but I don't get the femme fatale. It's something that has never made sense to me. It's always, first and foremost, transparently a device, one with little realism attached; beyond that, the concept is insulting to men and women alike. (Undoubtedly this is related to my difficulties with infidelity narratives, but that's another rant.) When the story has other things going on I can usually get past the femme fatale's omnipresence, and some of my favorite authors use some version of it regularly--Chandler and Mosley, certainly, although Mosley's "irresistible" ladies almost always have something more going on. When the story hinges on a femme fatale, though, I get thrown out. I stop believing, and worse, I stop caring. So although this story has some interesting stuff going on, notably with the cartoonist's detective character/alter ego, I didn't enjoy it all that much. The art is gorgeous and the tale is twisty; it just hit one of my bad buttons and wouldn't let it go.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
71. Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley.
72. Defenders: Indefensible by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire.
73. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
74. Fear of the Dark by Walter Mosley.
75. Criminal Volume 4: Bad Night by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. I love Brubaker's work, and when it comes to contemporary noir comics, Criminal and Azzarello/Risso's 100 Bullets are about all that needs be said. Having said it, though, I feel a small rant coming on, one that has more to do with noir tradition in general than it does Brubaker and Phillips. Here's my problem: I love noir, but I don't get the femme fatale. It's something that has never made sense to me. It's always, first and foremost, transparently a device, one with little realism attached; beyond that, the concept is insulting to men and women alike. (Undoubtedly this is related to my difficulties with infidelity narratives, but that's another rant.) When the story has other things going on I can usually get past the femme fatale's omnipresence, and some of my favorite authors use some version of it regularly--Chandler and Mosley, certainly, although Mosley's "irresistible" ladies almost always have something more going on. When the story hinges on a femme fatale, though, I get thrown out. I stop believing, and worse, I stop caring. So although this story has some interesting stuff going on, notably with the cartoonist's detective character/alter ego, I didn't enjoy it all that much. The art is gorgeous and the tale is twisty; it just hit one of my bad buttons and wouldn't let it go.
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edited for typos
Date: 2010-08-29 03:04 pm (UTC)Re: edited for typos
Date: 2010-08-29 04:12 pm (UTC)