Comics Wrap-Up - Grit, a God Killer, and Logan's Son

My reading this week, as far as my beloved comics and graphic novels are concerned, has been heavily verging on the gritty.

Bloodhound #1 from the publisher Dark Horse (which is, as far as I'm concerned, and quite aptly, the dark horse of comic book publishing,) is a rough-tough and bloody issue. It's set in a prison. And things get rougher from there really. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed it, it's well-drawn, the dialogue is tight, and the cover is like a beautiful piece of pop-art that I would willingly hang on a wall.

Thor: God of Thunder #1 deals with the prospect of a serial killer whose victims are gods. It's interesting - and the artwork is beautiful. Honestly, the depictions of Thor on the inside are far better than the (albeit decent,) cover. His hair looks like gold-dust. It's amazing. My only issue (ha, issue,) with the series moving forward is the potential for everything to end up in that confusing, time-travel, time-line, time-is-messed-up trap. Stories dealing with such a large span of time need to be plotted so tightly that I always get a little concerned. The first issue though, is great.

As far as graphic novels go, they don't come much grittier than the Dark Wolverine series. Please, don't make the obvious mistake. Dark Wolverine is not Wolverine. No, the main character here is Daken, Wolverine's troubled son. Daken is a seriously under-appreciated character, adding moral ambiguity, and diversity both in terms of ethnicity (he is half-Japanese, and the word 'Daken' is a slur term meaning 'mongrel,' or 'b*****d dog,') and sexuality (Daken is bisexual,) to the Marvel pantheon. Daken however, is most definitely not his father. He's not a hero - he's an anti-hero; a killer, and possibly a psychopath. But that's part of what makes him so interesting. He has all of Wolverine's broken nature, with little of the light to guide him on his way; he is cruel, merciless, and you still end up on his side.

What my main criticism of Dark Wolverine, Vol 2: My Hero, (US Link,) would be that there is unnecessary levels of faffing about in bras-and-panties. Yes, that curse of 'mature' graphic novels - i.e. the immature need to stick skimpy clothing and boobs in everyone's face, is present here. To me, this is lazy. The rest of the graphic novel is excellent; and, honestly, I don't mind women being objects of sexual desire in some circumstances - for example, when it serves a purpose for the story, or when it's making a point, or when it's done subtly and artfully - but this just tips over into boys drawing boobs for the sake of it to me. It was unnecessary - and that's what annoys me. Granted, we also get some very nice panels of Daken half-clothed, but at least there seems to be some reason behind this - for example, it's hard to keep your clothes in one piece when you've just been beaten up - rather than, 'we need to fill these panels with something - ooh! Soft porn!" Sorry if this seems a bit rant-y, but to me this detracted from the book. But I still love this book, and the Dark Wolverine series as a whole. It's excellent, if probably a bit gory, violent, and sexy, for some tastes.

Nerd Church! - 5 Things Characters Do That You Shouldn't

Characters can be awesome inspirations - leading the way through the dark into the light. But they're flawed - and while we love them for it, there's some things they do which you just shouldn't.

1. He wants to kill me? How sexy!

If a dude admits that he is actually fantasising, or having serious thoughts about killing you, you get the hell away from him. No excuses. No 'Oh he's so troubled, he needs me,'  (Nancy in Oliver Twist had that attitude, and look how that turned out,) and no offering yourself up like a sacrificial virgin a la Bella Swan.

You leave him, and possibly consider a restraining order. That way your ass stays alive and you don't have to survive on blood smoothies for all of eternity. And if a dude ever physically hurts you, you up and leave. I mean it - you get out of there: go to a shelter, a friend's, a family member's, a hotel - just leave. Obviously, this also applies to gender reversal, same-sex couples, and any other relationship under the sun. If your partner is abusive, you leave. Your safety comes first guys, and unfortunately there are a lot of YA heroines (in particular,) that you really shouldn't look up to when it comes to healthy relationships.

2. I did the thing

Sometimes there is a reason why people are telling you not to do the thing. Fans of Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle will know my pain; I love you, Eragon, but you were told - repeatedly - that you shouldn't do whatever it is that you just did. That is essentially four big books worth of cleaning up your sh**. The lesson here is that doing the thing is not always a good plan.

That's not to say that none of your ideas are any good - a lot of them sure as hell will be! But you need to take advice into consideration, think about the consequences, and weigh up the pros and cons. Then, if you still want to do the thing, do it - but at least you'll have thought it through and not made a decision based on poor information, heat of the moment emotion, and plain stupidity.

3. What we have here is a failure to communicate

So many characters are guilty of this that it actually hurts (Shakespeare, anyone?) Honestly, the amount of crossed-wires leading to tragic results is painful. Talk to each other. Before I bash your freaking heads in. Explain things. And do try not to keep secrets, especially if it's something that effects the person you're keeping it from.

4. I'll let someone else fix it

This is something that adults in YA novels are the most guilty of. There's a war against (delete as appropriate:) evil wizards/demons/the government/another nation? Get some teenagers to deal with it! Like dude, really?!?!

This reminds me of the original (Mighty Morphin') Power Rangers series (which I'm old enough to remember the first time round - albeit I was very, very, small at the time,) where Zordon's response to an evil alien chick trying to take over the world is to assemble a team of 'teenagers... with attitude!' It sounds about as impressive as you think it would.

Dumbledore is very much of the Zordon school of saving the world. Evil army? Deadly mission? I'll get this emotionally unstable teenage boy to do it!


5. Jumping to conclusions

This is not dissimilar to some of my other points. If you leap in willie-nillie then you're going to make mistakes (Eragon, Harry Potter, I'm lookin' at you!) Jumping to conclusions might mean you end up getting someone hurt or worse. And, if you're a book character, you jump to conclusions a lot. You don't trust people you should trust, and trust people you shouldn't, all while your poor, long-suffering, reader is screaming "No! You dipstick!!!!" You've done this, you know you have.

A lot of the jumping to conclusions in books tends to avoid trust in some capacity - and, let's face it, it's not easy sometimes to figure out who's on your side. My advice? Slow down, think things through. At the very least you're less likely to make a horrendous mistake, and that has to be a good thing.

Sherlock trailer!

...And, in case you haven't seen it, and because I love you all, here is the trailer for the Victorian special of BBC's Sherlock...

Friday Fics Fix! (In Which There is Much Loki)

Sometimes you need much Loki. Maybe it's just me, but, judging by the amount of fics out there, I'd say not. So, this week, for Friday Fics Fix, there is much Loki. More specifically, there are three Loki-centric drabbles/ficlets (these are ultra-short one part fics which usually have less than 1000 words, sometimes less than 500. They comprise a scene, monologue, musing, conversation, or snapshot, and are great for a quick fix of the characters you love.)

LOKI: Fear by TheNativeAce - I would say this is 18 + because of what it infers (which, as we all know, is often worse that what's actually depicted) this is a Loki & Thanos drabble with Captain America in pain to boot. There are many feels (intense fangirl feelings that provoke bizarre noises.)

Loki and the Toy Store by Lokiismylife - this is sweet and sort of FrostIron (which, all together now, is: where Tony Stark and Loki have a little romantic something going on,) and is quite funny. For when you need a quick mood lightener.

Of Fanfiction vs Reality by EllyZeller - this is what I like to refer to as Fic-ception. The characters read fanfiction and start to get ideas... This is definitely FrostIron, but isn't too explicit (for once!)

Happy reading :)

Comics Wrap-Up

This is the wrap-up of my week in comics (because comics and graphic novels deserve more recognition than they get):


This week in my comic-reading habit (and yes, it's pretty much as bad as my novel-reading habit,) I've been reading horror comics from indie producer Double Take via Comixology - these comics are based around an event that turns the dead into zombies/ghouls. I have to say that the most disturbing was Home 1: Lighter Than Air, due to the demented swearing child that no-one seems to think is weird. The covers of these are really stand-out, and (despite the obvious sexism) I can't deny that the cover to Rise 1: Sister's Keeper, from an artistic point of view, is stunning.

In terms of the big boys (which, to the terminally uninformed are, obviously, Marvel and DC,) I read Hulk #1 (I know, there are a million Hulk #1's by now) of Marvel's Marvel Now! releases, subtitled 'Who Shot Bruce Banner?' this is the first issue in the Bruce Banner DOA storyline. And it was freaking awesome. It is woefully easy for Hulk comics to slip into caricature, parody, and needless complex messes, but this avoids that and stays instead to measured story, affecting art, and emotional heart. And look at the cover! That, my dearest readers, is how you make an excellent and effective Hulk cover.

The Writer Diaries (or How to Destroy a Blank Page)

I'm going to be honest. I'm usually honest. I don't lie to you nice people. Particularly not when you take the trouble to read my blog-posts. Anyway, back on-topic; I'm going to be honest - as a writer, I have absolutely no freaking idea where I'm headed. But I need to ignore that. I need to ignore the deep and painful bite of uncertainty, and concentrate on the words.

But, how do you do that? Well, do what works for you guys - honestly - anything to destroy that blank page. But what I find is that writing prompts give you something to write (and it's ok if it goes completely off-topic and/or is crap, and/or batsh** crazy.) And that keeps your imaginination (ok spelling police - imagination,) going and stops all of the words that are inside you from rotting you out from the inside :) (Never underestimate the power of the smiley face.)

Some people like to work on word quotas, page quotas, or time quotas. I'm a time quota kind of girl myself - never worry about how much you're writing, just take at least 10 minutes a day to write it.

I also personally like to keep a list of prompts, and cross off as I complete. If you don't want to do a prompt, and you find yourself consistently ignoring or avoiding it, scribble it out, and move on to another one. There are zillions of prompts out there, so there's no need to get hung up on one that clearly isn't working for you.

Writing prompt websites and generators range from the awesome to the crap to the preachy (I seriously dislike the preachy - writing is something you should not be guilted into unless it's by a meme of Tom Hiddleston/Loki - just type 'you should be writing Loki' into Google images and you'll see what I mean.)

I find the following sites generally useful when searching for prompts:

Writing Exercises - there are loads of generators here, including dialogue, scenario, and title. Occasionally this tosses you a prompt that's pretty lame. But overall, these are usable and creative and will make you think of different things (and allow you to kill the blasted blank page! Mwaha! :P )

The Pantomime Pony Writer's Den - also has a bunch of random generators (see the links on the side of the page) which have a variety of subjects to get the creative juices flowing. I find that some of their prompts are pretty darn random (which can be fun!) and can also be so long that you can sometimes split them into two prompts (BOGOF anyone? Haha. Sorry, I'm now wondering what was in that chocolate bar I had at lunch.)

Chaotic Shiny generates multiple prompts at a time. Use the drop-down to pick the number of prompts, then click Write! The prompts have variations on time and word count criteria, but don't feel too constrained - use as desired.

Tumblr and Pinterest also have dozens (and probably hundreds or even thousands) of users who provide a constant stream of writing prompts - these are pretty easy to find if you use the search box.

Happy writing (and reading, of course!)

Time to Review the Evidence (Classics Edition!) - Dracula by Bram Stoker

Title: Dracula (US Link)
Author: Bram Stoker
Genre: Classics, Horror, Paranormal, Vampire

A few starting notes:

I've read 'Dracula' several times now - it really is the godfather of vampire fiction. What Mr Stoker would have thought of Twilight et al is anybody's guess, but this was considered terrifying and risqué when it was first published.

Premise:

Jonathan Harker (one of the most under-appreciated characters in literary history, in my humble opinion,) a young solicitor's clerk, is engaged in work that takes him to Transylvania and one Count Dracula. He soon finds that things are not as they first appear.

Back home in Britain, Jonathan's fiancée, Mina Murray, is planning a break in Whitby with her friend, Lucy Westenra. Soon, Mina is worried about Lucy's health - what could be causing her illness?

Meanwhile, Lucy's jilted lover, Dr John Seward, continues his work at the lunatic asylum. His patient, Renfield, is acting very strangely...

Best bits:

This still has the power to draw you in to its atmospheric Gothicism and delectable prose. Perhaps we now consider it less frightening than our Victorian forebears did, but then, we have been de-sensitised by shocking films, books, TV shows, and video games. It's a wonder that anything frightens us, really.

The characters (with some notable exceptions) are vivid and intriguing. I personally favour Jonathan Harker - a man who fights his way through the darkest of situations.

The epistolary (look at me with my shiny literary terms - that means it's written in letters, diaries, etc.) form is used fantastically to highlight portions of plot with pin-prick precision, and to document the passing of time without getting in too much of an ever-loving muddle.

Not so great bits:

OK, don't yell at me, but I can't stand Lucy Westenra. She, to me, is the most awful stereotype. She is contradictorily pure and tainted at the same time - a symbol of Victorian sexual politics if ever there was one. She faffs about like a wet rag for most of her screen-time (I know there's no screen, but you know what I mean.)

The casual sexism is what bothers me the most about this book. The urge to scream at statements about thanking God for brave men is quite high. Unfortunately, I think this is largely a by-product of the time in which it was written.

Some may find it a very slow read - Victorian English, and not exactly short - but please don't let it put you off.

Verdict:

This is, and ever will remain, a classic. The book that popularised the vampire still has the power to entrance, absorb, and delight.