cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
I am amused and perfectly unsorry that this discussion doesn't really encompass superhero comics. Shaenon Garrity assembles a crack panel to identify which American cartoonists draw really hot men.

Of the ones mentioned, I can firmly endorse Carla Speed McNeil (who draws sexy, sexy people of both genders, but who is also talented and imaginative enough to draw a variety of physical types, including unsexy people--do not take this sort of thing for granted!) and Mike Mignola (I never got anywhere in Hellboy, but both the male protagonists and the poor women who got eaten by rats were extremely sexy in Migola's adaptation of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser), Wendy Pini (I agree about wanting to bone the elves. Hello, Rayek! Pini also gets props for that coveted ability to draw different physical types), Los Bros Hernandez (the mustaches of Palomar are not my thing, but the male characters have the same vibrant sexuality as the female characters; that extraordinary ability to convey the power and presence of sex and sexuality is one of the magnetic qualities of Love and Rockets), and Kyle Baker (you know the protagonist in You Are Here? The one who looks like a young Cary Grant? That's my type, and how).

I would also like to add Phil Foglio to this list. You can go look at the canon of Foglio's cheerful, sexy, funny, sci-fi porn comic XXXenophile if you don't believe me, but you really need look no further than his current work, Girl Genius, which contains two of the most smoulderingly hot men around in comics: Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, and his son, Gilgamesh. You know, Gil, the one I said I wanted to clone a thousand times so I could marry all the clones. In the context of Girl Genius, that's slightly less bizarre than it sounds. Really.)

Oh, and Adam Warren. It's easy to get distracted by Emp in Empowered, but Thugboy--wow.


Looking over this list, it occurs to me that with all of these artists--I think all or all but one of whom are both artists and writers--the sexy characters they've created aren't just physically good-looking, but are also dynamic, memorable, interesting personalities. It's that synthesis of a well-shaped physical form and a lively personality that makes them stand out as sexy. Superhero comics are filled with cookie-cutter character designs of ideal male and female bodies (sometimes idealized to the absurd or even to the point of being grotesque); it's all quite dull. I find some superhero characters very sexy, but only when they have such interesting personalities that they begin to stand out as people. For a variety of reasons, that doesn't happen much.

Anyway. Anybody else know of any American cartoonists who draw really hot men? Inquiring minds want to know, preferably before my next visit to Hub.
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
Several of these books are really excellent, thought-provoking works, and I kept putting off this post in the hopes of being able to do them justice, but with the semester in full swing, I just don't have time. Anything marked with a star is a stand-out work deserving of critical attention.


Novels/prose books:

Heyer, Georgette: Arabella.

Heyer, Georgette: Penhallow*
(this is something a departure for Heyer: a truly grim murder myster. The ending is brooding and unoptimistic; the mood is oppressive, and there are no sympathetic characters at all. Heyer novels always contain Austen-esque, sharp-edged observations of human foibles, vanities, and failings, but those observations are normally softened with a good-humored, laughing sense of acceptance. Here, they stand as bleak, hopeless summaries of the way people destroy themselves and fail each other. It's probably the best novel she wrote).


Graphic novels:

Abel, Jessica: La Perdita.*

Baker, Kyle: Nat Turner.*

Robinson, Alex: Box Office Poison.*


Manga:

Mori Kaoru: Shirley vol. 1.

Kanari Yozaburo, story, Sato Fumiya, art: Kindaichi Case Files: The Undying Butterflies.

Ohtsuka Eiji, story, Yamazaki Hosui, art: The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service vol. 7.
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
Graphic novels:

Carey, Mike and Louise Carey, authors, Aaron Alexovitch, artist: Confessions of a Blabbermouth
(Minx. It's awfully silly, but I liked it, although I think I liked Carey's other Minx title, The Re-Gifters, more. Alexovitch's style is growing on me).


Kim, Derek Kirk: Same Difference and Other Stories
(I enjoyed the title story; the others, not so much. I have never been interested in detailed discussions of people's bowel movements, and the wheres and hows of those. I think this is because I am a woman.

On the whole, I liked his Minx title Good as Lily more, probably because the protagonist was female and not very jerky. And that book spent--if I recall properly--no time whatsoever discussing bowel movements).


Baker, Kyle: Undercover Genie
(this is a hodge-podge of stuff from the Kyle Baker filing cabinet--sketches, character designs, shorts, caricatures, jokes. Fun, although not the same degree of awesome as Baker genius focused on a single narrative.

I hope Kyle Baker never gets ticked off at me. If he made fun of me, I'd have to go sit in a corner and cry).
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
It's 90 degrees and humid, and when I try to go out and get exercise, it's dreadful. So I went to the library, which is air-conditioned--not particularly well--and read until they closed, then swung past the liquor store to buy beer so I can make shandy. The liquor store had much better air-conditioning. I should have spent the day there.


Graphic novels/comics:

Baker, Kyle: Why I Hate Saturn
(one of the back cover blurbs was a quote from a magazine or something: "Kyle Baker is God!" I'm inclined to agree.

I was so sure we were going to get through this book with a lower body count than in You Are Here or I Die at Midnight. Nope! Should I be warning people about that? Kyle Baker comics are more violent than you'd think? The deaths can be sad or shocking, more than you'd think when you're on the first page, chucking at Baker's witty dialogue and absurd, sitcom scenarios. I would not want to give the impression, however, that the surprising violence and deaths are any excuse for not reading Kyle Baker comics, because they're just too good not to read).


Peeters, Frederik: Blue Pills: a positive love story
(comics can be good? Hell, comics are good. This one, right here, this is good. What else do you want from me?)

Moore, Alan, author: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
(maybe it's not fair to say I've read this, since I first skimmed, and then outright skipped all the text bits. The text bits in Moore comics are usually very rewarding if you take the time to read them, but the library was near closing when I started.

It's really clever--it's Moore, what did you expect?--and fun, and funny, and of course very dirty; Alan Moore disses James Bond and then everything goes all Promethea at the end. I wish I'd had 3D glasses).


Seto, Andy, credited as author and presumably also artist, Wang Du Li, credited for "story" and the author of the original novel?, So Man Sing, credited for script. I'm not reading any more of these damned kung fu comics; they take too long to credit!: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
(the art is really lovely--good linework, good layouts, very dynamic, exquisite coloring, which would frankly put a lot of the American color comics to shame, although who knows, that might not be a coloring issue so much as it is an issue of what's being colored. Either the script/dialogue/writing what-have-you was a little spotty or the translation was. Also, I didn't really care. But it's nice to try something new every now and again).


Manga:

Miekura Kazuya: Wild Adapter vol. 1
(I've held off on reading this for ages because I wanted to buy it, and the bookstore never had it when I had money, and I always bought other things. I was afraid I'd read volume 1 and freak out because I don't have volume 2. I was right; I should have waited. I WANT VOLUME 2. NOW. Minekura work is oh god, always so very sexy and fine).

Nishiyama Yuriko: Harlem Beat vol. 1
(I find I have no desire to revisit the early 90s in the form of the world of Japanese street basketball).

Kizuki Hakase: The Demon Ororon vol. 1
(everybody is drawn like a broom. I was quite sure the main character was a boy until she was identified as female. It doesn't make anything more interesting).

Koike Kazuo, author, Kojima Goseki, artist: Lone Wolf and Cub vol. 1
(it's a Koike Kazuo comic, so the men are stoic, the women are whores, and severed limbs go flyin' everywhere in a spray of blood. Despite this, I am tempted to read more. I liked Lady Snowblood more--I like that art better, and somehow, it actually helps that the assassin protagonist is a woman in that--but this is an engaging read.
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (so badass)
Graphic novels/comics:

Eisner, Will: The Will Eisner Reader
(this stuff never gets old).

Brennan, Michael: Electric Girl vol. 2
(Bugaloo! C'mon, someone had to say it. This was kinda only okay; I might have liked it better if I started with volume 1, but since the stories are all stand-alones, it seems like I shouldn't have to? It was sort of cute, occasionally rising to "mildly interesting"; the writing just passes muster; art's solid, cartoony, good stuff, but nothing earthshaking. I welcome the diversity of material in the field; I don't think I'd buy this for myself. On the plus side, it's always interesting to see superhero tropes handled outside of a superhero universe).

Alexovich, Aaron: Kimmie66
(another Minx offering, for anyone keeping track. I enjoyed this. I don't really dig the Nick-cartoon-style art, but Alexovich knows how to work it. The writing is solid, sometimes clever, and he's got a lovely ear for narrative voice; it's a lot of fun to read the words he writes. It's a good book, and worth picking up, and a treatment of futuristic virtual reality, net society, net identity, and artificial intelligence that did not at any point make me want to shake the author until their head snapped back. That's always refreshing).

Baker, Kyle: I Die At Midnight
(Jesus fucking christ I love Kyle Baker. I'd propose to him, but I'm fairly certain he's happily married and has a lovely daughter and also it would be weird for him. But he's just that good. And he's so cool! He has a dazzling signature style; his comics look completely amazing and not like anyone else's, he's clever, he can put together a solid story, and the madcap hijinks! And the wry, in-passing social commentary! And the in media res character sketches that plunge you into a brilliant, colorful, energetic story! Have I mentioned that he's frequently hilarious? My preference in comics art is for clean-ish black and white art, but brilliant Kyle Baker may yet seduce me into color).

Gaiman, Neil, author, and Clive Barker, artist: Violent Cases
(cool to look at, cool to read, ultimately probably pointless. It was a disservice to zip through this at the library, although I feel I gleaned the essentials. I will say that it likely deserves its praise; it is awfully readable for a style that can easily descend into irritating meandering (this danger exists for art and writing both, and god help you if they don't gel), and that that narrator looks suspiciously like Neil Gaiman. And I would take this over any of Gaiman's prose novels).


Manga:

Tatsumi Yoshihiro: The Push Man and other stories
(I'm not sorry I read this, despite it being depressing in a nasty, profane sort of way, and with no sense of redeeming importance, but boy am I ever glad I borrowed it from the library instead of buying it for $20.

I think it's good comics, and an interesting example of the variety possible within the medium. But unlike Will Eisner, this stuff gets old).

Hirano Kohta: Hellsing vol. 1
(I can see the appeal. It's silly and way too violent, but against my better judgement, I will probably read more; I like the ridiculous characters).

Tanaka Masashi: Gon Swimmin'
(containing: Gon Becomes a Turtle, Gon in the Desert or something to that effect, and Gon and His Posse or something to that effect. The word "posse" was definitely in the title. I didn't have pencil and paper at the library, sorry.

Please don't think less of me for this, but OMG OMG OMG HOW CUTE AND AWESOME. This is my first-ever Gon book, but I assure you it will not be my last, because this is brilliant and hilarious. TINY CUTE T-REX. AND SOMETIMES HE HAS A POSSE OF ASSORTED FELINE PREDATORS. WHY NOT? HE'S GON. HE CAN DO THAT IF HE WANTS. And the art, oh wow, what amazing art!

When Chuck Norris goes to bed at night, he checks under his bed for TOPH. When Toph goes to bed at night, she checks under her bed for GON. And when she finds him there, they cuddle up and go to sleep like Gon snuggling with an emu in the desert, because they are essentially the same soul split into different bodies. And species. And families).
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
Novels/prose books:

Heyer, Georgette: The Grand Sophy
(oh my. Now I know why this book is written of in the typed equivalent of hushed tones of reverence and awe; it's just wonderful. Sophy's a freakin' force of nature, a natural law, an accurate predictor of your fortune in life. Trust in the wisdom of Sophy: if she likes you and she is laughing, your life will be happy; if it is otherwise, you are doomed.

Heyer at her best. Highly recommended as pure, delicious fun).


Graphic novels:

Eisner, Will: A Life Force
(in this book, human beings are metaphorically equated with cockroaches, in all their skittling glory. This is neither as depressing nor as disgusting as it sounds. Eisner is a humanist. He is very intelligent and very aware, and very willing to plunge into the dark side of human existence, but he also fervently believes and convincingly argues that we're worth it, and life is worth it, and that somewhere in the profane mess that is life is meaning.

I really like reading his books, because I believe that, too).


Tan, Shaun: The Arrival
(human kindness and generosity do not stop an alien world from being terrifying, but they help you learn to survive long enough for the strangeness to stop being so frightening.

I kinda like to think I would have picked up on this being a visual metaphor of the immigrant experience without having being told so before I ever saw the book, but you never know. I don't know how to praise this work without repeating myself, but it deserves great praise and to belong in every graphic novel collection).


Baker, Kyle: You Are Here
(both the author and the work are recommended! My introduction to Kyle Baker was his take on Plastic Man, which gave me sort of a warm fuzzy predisposition towards him that has been well-rewarded by his other works. I really enjoyed this book. It's an unusual variant on comics art: panels of art accompanied by captions of dialogue (unusual in the sense that it's not commonly employed, not that it's unprecedented). Anyway, it reads very smoothly, like Prince Valiant if you increased the panel count by a factor of ten and allowed for a lot more to be conveyed by the art. Baker's a wonderful artist, very skilled at cartooning and narrative art, and a clever, insightful writer besides.

The ending is really not what I expected, but it was honest, and I appreciated it. I think I trust him, in the sense that I feel that I can cast myself on his artistic whim without fear of being disappointed, or needing to qualify what I'm reading).


Clugston-Major, Chunna: Scooter Girl
(I didn't finish this, but I did read enough to determine that I didn't like this any better than Blue Monday, and it's probably better for both Clugston-Major and myself if I stop trying to force myself to read her books, which for whatever reason make me want to throw up).

September 2012

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