Tag: comics and graphic novels

1,822 words

What I had actually wanted to review was Edwin Black’s The Transfer Agreement. One hears a lot about the agreement itself, but not much about the book. I guess that should have been a clue. I never got past Chapter Four, what with Jewish author Edwin Black ranting and raving, in his Introduction to the 25th anniversary edition, about how he had been going and would continue to go after all those “special villains” of the “fiscal Holocaust”: “Hate cannot function in a vacuum. Hate needs money to prevail.” You don’t say, pal. (more…)

3,645 words

Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)

What, then, of Craig Russell’s graphic art? Enthusiasts of either opera or graphic art will probably find great pleasure in Russell’s Ring. The book — some muddled scenes such as the discovery of the sword excepted — is easier to follow than Wagner’s 16-hour cycle of music-dramas. Admirers of Craig Russell have a 448-page feast before them, while opera lovers are likely to be intrigued to discover how a comic artist presents one of the most famous of all operatic works. (more…)

2,546 words

Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)

P. Craig Russell, illustrator
Richard Wagners Der Ring der Nibelungen
Vienna: Cross Cult, 2023
(originally published in English by Dark Horse)

Opera and comic book art have in common that they attract large and dedicated followings, but enthusiasts of the one are probably seldom found among enthusiasts of the other. Most people are either enthusiasts or indifferent to them. (more…)

277 words / 1:40:58

Greg Johnson held an impromptu afterparty and Ask Me Anything following his debate on the Ukraine war with Mark Collett on Saturday, and the recording is now available for download and online listening. (more…)

Guy Mouminoux

2,512 words

Guy Mouminoux, who died on January 11, 2022, is remembered for his only novel, the autobiographical war story The Forgotten Soldier (under the pseudonym of Guy Sajer) as well as for his humorous or historical comic strips (under the pseudonym of Dimitri).

Mouminoux was born in Paris on January 13, 1927. In 1916 his father, an infantryman who had been taken prisoner in Verdun, met his mother during his detention in Germany. Guy spent his youth in Alsace and was passionate about reading children’s comic books. (more…)

4,239 slov

English original here

Strážci (Watchmen) patří k těm nejpravicovějším – dokonce s fašismem flirtujícím – dílům popkultury posledních let, a to vše i navzdory řádně a plně v souladu s duchem doby levicovému smýšlení tvůrců původního komiksu: autora příběhu Alana Moorea, ilustrátora Davea Gibbonse i Zacka Snydera, autora filmové adaptace, již osobně považuji za ten vůbec nejlepší snímek o superhrdinech, který své předloze nejen že dělá čest, ale dokonce ji v mnoha důležitých ohledech vylepšuje. (more…)

2,125 words

It’s a rare thing to discover a work of art transposed impeccably across genres. How this can be accomplished has always fascinated me. Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is a great example because it captures not just the substance of Tolkien’s story but its spirit as well. Comic book writer Chuck Dixon and illustrator Gary Kwapisz have recently accomplished a similar feat, transitioning literature into the graphic novel format. (more…)

1,489 words

Richard Corben, Robert Ervin Howard, & John Jakes
Bloodstar
Leawood, Kan.: Morning Star Press, 1976

Bloodstar is a post-apocalyptic sword-and-sorcery graphic novel based on a short story by Robert E. Howard (“The Valley of the Worm,” from the February 1934 issue of Weird Tales) about a warrior who must defeat a giant worm-like creature that threatens to destroy his race. (more…)

Alejandro Jodorowsky

4,467 words

Best known for his surreal, avant-garde films – El Topo (1970), The Holy Mountain (1973), and Santa Sangre (1989) – Alejandro Jodorowsky is also a prolific comic book author whose collaborations with artists such as Jean Giraud (Moebius), Zoran Janjetov, and Juan Giménez have exerted a lasting influence on the comics industry and science fiction in general.

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1,037 words

The novel-memoirs of Louis-Ferdinand Céline have a peculiarly cinematic texture, like that of rough drafts for projected screenplays. He flashes sense-impressions and side-thoughts at the reader. For the neophyte, this can make for some hard going.

On the other hand, these impressionistic prose-sketches can provide a series of clear visuals for anyone attempting to hammer a Céline tale into a script. This is particularly true of his Exile Trilogy  (more…)

3,185 words

Sometime in the near future, in an America crippled by degeneracy and stifling bureaucracy, two men of stature fight in the streets. One, an aging billionaire fed up with his society’s imminent collapse, has become a polarizing threat to the governing establishment. The other, a compromised but well-meaning foreigner wrapped in an American flag, bringing a false and used-up patriotism to a disenfranchised population.  (more…)

611 words

Valerian? Isn’t that a root one chews to fall asleep?

I saw Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element near the end of its run in the theaters, and it was love at first frame. I loved its Manichean/ancient astronauts plot, unique and dazzling visual style (imagine the Coen brothers remaking Barbarella), the madcap action, blond Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman’s Zorg (an evil Ross Perot with slightly displaced Hitler hair and Fu Manchu’s wardrobe), (more…)

4,703 words

Czech version here

Watchmen is one of the most thoroughly Right-wing, even fascistic works of recent popular culture, despite the right-thinking Leftism of the creators of the original graphic novel, Alan Moore, who wrote the story, and Dave Gibbons, who illustrated it—and of Zack Snyder, who directed the movie adaptation, which to my mind is the greatest superhero movie of all time, a movie that not only does justice to the original novel but actually improves upon it in fundamental ways.

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