This is an excellent article I’m pushing on everyone today. It dates back to February 2004, but it’s still quite relevant today, if not more so.

We Are the Majority, a speech by Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

Our struggle, the struggle of millions of people for 150 years, has been for basic human dignity. It has been a struggle to create a country that belongs to all of us and not just the people on top, and that is our struggle of today.

Sometimes progressives say, well, you know, we’re right, but we’re really kind of fringe. Our views are not reflective of a vast majority of the people. After all, Bush, well, was almost elected, and there is rightwing control of the House of Representatives, led by a gentleman named Tom DeLay. There is rightwing control of the United States Senate. Very few people in the media reflect our point of view. So they must be representing the majority of the people, and we’re just a smart minority of the people.

I want you to disabuse yourselves of that notion. You represent mainstream America. We are the majority.

Go out on Main Street, stand at the corner, and ask people a simple question. Tell them you’re doing an informal poll, and ask them if they want 40 percent of the tax breaks, hundreds of billions of dollars, to go to the top 1 percent, or whether those breaks should be spread around more fairly and be used for education or lowering the deficit. Then tell me who is “fringe.” Ask them if we should maintain our disintegrating health care nonsystem or establish a universal health care system that guarantees health care for all. Then tell me who is “fringe.” Ask them if we should continue to let polluters destroy our environment, or move to safe, sustainable energy. Then tell me who is “fringe.”

So how do the rightwingers get elected if they have nothing to say about the most important issues facing the American people? That is the central question of modern American politics. And the answer is that they work day and night to divide the American people against each other so that they end up voting against their own best interests. That is what the Republican Party is all about.

Go read. In 2006 there will be a test.

I don’t know where I first heard of this book, but it was a few years ago. I looked in vain for it in used book stores and finally checked it out of the library. Halfway through I decided I wanted my own copy.

PSS fits in no obvious genre. It has elements of fantasy, of science fiction, of horror, and of steampunk. It is set in sprawling city called New Crobuzon, which is in a state of decay. We know this because Mieville doesn’t spare any opportunity to let us know how dirty and decrepit New Crobuzon is. Indeed, the city becomes a character in and of itself, its intricacies working as much as any of the other characters to further the story.

The city is populated by humans, khepri (beings with female bodies and the heads of insects — not heads like those of insects, heads that are insects), cactacae (cactus people), vodyanoi (amphibious froglike beings that can shape water), garuda (bird-people), remade (criminals that have been “reconstructed” in bizarre ways), automatons, and others. Our protagonist, Isaac, is a renegade scientist in a secret relationship with a khepri artist named Lin. When a de-winged garuda criminal named Yagharek comes to Isaac for help, it sets in motion a chain of events that will eventually threaten the entire city.

I enjoyed PSS more for parts of it than the whole. The setting was interesting. Elements that were introduced were interesting. There’s a lot of promise in the races and their interactions. The weird science and peeks at the world outside of New Crobuzon were intriguing. And yet, the whole was somewhat disappointing, largely because the pieces themselves were so interesting. There are a lot of elements that are dropped into the book in passing, but before much else is said about them, you’re hurried away in pursuit of the plot.

And the plot is, ultimately, what disappointed me the most. In Isaac’s flight research he inadvertently releases a threat upon the city, and at this point the book becomes about fighting the monsters. That idea, killing the monsters, just seemed very run-of-the-mill and pedestrian to me, coming from a book that seemed to aspire to more. Segments of the plot were like a particularly uninspired RPG adventure, and at one point we even get “adventurers” straight out of a gaming session. Mieville may be trying to sharpen a dull blade through self-mockery, but it doesn’t change the fact that the proceedings are pretty tired. To be fair though, I’m not sure what I would have preferred instead.

Without revealing any spoilers, there’s also a lot that happens towards the end that comes straight out of nowhere. There’s a deus ex machina character who saves the day, and a last-minute twist in the plot that both drops in out of the blue and causes a character to act in a completely unbelievable way.

I also have to admit a bias that was introduced about halfway through. When I went to the bookstore to pick up my own copy, the owner remarked that there were other books in the series. This immediately triggered a reaction in me. Part of the reason I don’t read a lot of SF and Fantasy is because there’s no such thing as a book in those genres, everything’s got to be a series. And that usually implies that you’re only ever getting a piece of the story. I don’t really feel that that is the case with PSS — the book is self-contained — but I can’t say that this revelation didn’t sour me a little.

However, I don’t regret having read the book. Ultimately I think I liked more about it than I didn’t like, but plot is such an important element for me that having one I found kind of dull affected the rest of it for me. If you find the plot more compelling, your experience may well be very different. And even so, the world itself is a really interesting place to visit.

Serenity is the upcoming movie based on the great series, Firefly. And at last the trailer is out! Click on the image above to watch it.

O man o man o man!

I’m still high off of my victory at 24-Hour Comic Book Day, so be prepared for a lot of comics-oriented content from me over the next few days. In this post, I want to talk about some books of note I’ve recently read.

Reviewed below, for those who don’t want to sift through:

• Shutterbug Follies (Jason Little, Doubleday)
• Palomar (Gilbert Hernandez, Fantagraphics)
• Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron (Dan Clowes, Fantagraphics)
• Caricature (Dan Clowes, Fantagraphics)
• Doc Frankenstein (The Wachowski Brothers, Burlyman Entertainment)
• Shaolin Cowboy (Geof Darrow, Burlyman Entertainment)
• Dungeon! Volume Two (Lewis Trondheim & Joann Sfar, NBM)
• Stray Bullets Volume One (David Lapham, El Capitan)
• The New Frontier (Darwyn Cooke, DC)
• Nil (James Turner, Slave Labor Graphics)
• Action Philosophers! #1 (Fred Van Lente & Ryan Dunlavey, Evil Twin Comics)
• The Atheist #1 (Phil Hester, Image)
• Scarlet Traces (Ian Edginton & D’Israeli, Dark Horse)

Shutterbug Follies - this is an original graphic novel by Jason Little (preview available on that site). It concerns a young woman named “Bee” who works in a photo-processing lab and enjoys making duplicates of peoples’ photos. One day, though, someone has photos developed of a crime scene. He claims to be a journalist, but more details come out, and soon Bee becomes entrenched in a mystery. I’d been wanting to get this for some time, and when I saw it used, I couldn’t resist. I love the bold, bright artwork and the charming lettering…very much like Tintin. I really enjoyed this book. Bee is a fun character, and the plot is pretty gripping, with more than one pretty intense moments. Definitely worth a look!

Palomar - I ordered this collection of Love and Rockets stories along with Locas, as a buy-both-and-save deal through Amazon. I had read some L&R in the past, but never in large enough portions for my tastes, and I thought this was finally a chance to roll up my sleeves and immerse myself in Los Bros Hernandez. I’m the kind of guy who makes sure the last gummy bear is an orange one, since that’s my favorite flavor, so I went with Palomar first, assuming I wouldn’t get as much into it as I would Locas. I still haven’t read Locas yet, so I don’t know if that prediction remains true, but Palomar blew me away. This hardback collects stories set in Palomar, a fictional small Central American town with an eclectic population. It’s an amazing collection of stories, showing an incredible range of moods, themes, and styles. Whenever anyone wants to start talking about how great comics can be, they trot out Maus and Watchmen, and I would put Palomar right up there with them. I am not exaggerating when I say it is a masterpiece of the medium and worth every penny. I knew the Hernandez Brothers were talented, and I knew lots of praise had been heaped on this work already, and I still was not prepared for it.

Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron and Caricature - I re-read Eightball #23 recently, and I still find it to be an excellent piece. While it’s true that it plays with a lot of the conventions of superhero comics, I thought that ultimately it was a very human tale. Sometimes people get power that they don’t use wisely. Sometimes it’s the guy at the DMV, sometimes it’s a guy with a Death Ray. The power itself isn’t what’s important, it’s the use, or in this case, mis-use of it. At any rate, it inspired me to check out more Daniel Clowes stuff (I’d already read Ghost World), so I picked up these two. The former is a sort of surrealistic mystery tale, though I don’t recommend picking it up to try and unravel the plot. Clowes defies attempts at that, and the result is that the protagonist seems to skirt around some kind of bizarre conspiracy, but never quite uncovers it. The latter contains short pieces, some of which tread the same bizarre waters as Velvet Glove, and some of which are more straightforward, but there’s a constant theme of people on the outside making fleeting movements towards something bigger than themselves, but not quite connecting. Clowes’ characters are constantly faced with choices they have no idea how to make, choices that always have very real consequences. Even at his most unearthly his characters display a humanity that can’t help but make them sympathetic, no matter how repugnant they may turn out to be. I’m looking forward to reading more of his work, especially his new graphic novel, Ice Haven, coming out in a month or so.

Doc Frankenstein and Shaolin Cowboy - I apologize if I snap your brain shifting from the likes of Palomar and Dan Clowes to these two books from Burlyman Entertainment, a new company formed by Los Bros Wachowski. They’re a complete 180 from the subtle and layered previous books. The former is the continuing adventures of Frankenstein’s monster, now a freak Messiah in a world dominated by a fighter-jet packing clergy. The latter concerns a kung-fu cowboy in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Both are goofy as hell, and both have been nominated for the Eisner award for Best New Series, which seems odd to me, since both have had exactly two issues come out. They’re exactly what you’d expect from the source. Doc Frankenstein is full of laughably pompous dialogue and “deep” imagery (the table the monster is created on looks like — wait for it — a cross!) Shaolin Cowboy is pretty much non-stop violence from start to finish. Doc Frank is rather dismissable, as far as I’m concerned. There’s a neat idea there, but I have no confidence that it will be handled well by any of the players involved. The Cowboy, on the other hand, is a hoot. I love Geof Darrow’s art, and the book is gorgeous. Issue one features a single, twelve-page panel crafted in Darrow’s exquisite detail. Once you stop drooling at the pictures, you then get to the part where a crab is challenging the protagonist to hand-to-claw combat, and things just get better. It’s great fun, though I’m still not sure it’s one of the best new series of the year.

Dungeon! vol 2 picks up where volume one left off. Herbert, the duck hero, is still in the employ of the Dungeon, and still making do without his heart. This time there’s a lost princess, trolls with a fascination for peeing, a guy with a detachable head, and a mischievous wizard. It’s hilarious good fun. You can see a preview here, and hey, if it made Time Magazine then you know it MUST be good!

Stray Bullets volume 1 - I’d heard a lot about this series by David Lapham, and last year I bought and enjoyed the Amy Racecar special. So having caught up on a couple of series’ trades, and seeing a new 10th anniversary edition of the first volume solicited, I decided to try out this crime series. It’s hard to really talk about it much from this first taste. Although there are seven stories in it, and they’re all very good, the stories intertwine and connect to a point where it’s unclear as of yet if this is one large story being told in small, self-contained slices, or just what it appears to be — a series of stories that, as a result of being set in the same general location, happen to intersect. The distinction is important, because sometimes the connections don’t always work. That is, there’s someone who is definitely from a previous story, but you’re not sure exactly who she was there, so it’s not clear what she’s doing here. These are things which may, eventually, work themselves out. In the meantime, I’m on-board and ready for volume two.

The New Frontier - This prestige format miniseries got a lot of press last year and seemed to appeal to people who normally didn’t care much for the current crop of superhero comics, so when the overprices trades were solicited, I decided to bite. While I certainly did like the retro art style of newcomer Darwyn Cooke, the story didn’t much impress me. I’ve found that I’m really not as interested in looking back at entities like the Challengers of the Unknown or the Losers as I am in, say, actually reading the damn comics, which DC will only release in expensive chunks. I’m not as interested in yet another angle on Green Lantern’s origin as I would be in just plain buying the Green Lantern archives. And beyond that, the plot involving the living island and the flight to Mars and such, well, it’s just not that interesting. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some really nice set-pieces in here, and as I said, the art style is very nice. But it’s not worth the hefty price tag which could instead go towards simply buying some of the comics it praises.

Nil - Nil is had to describe. Nil is a country, a country on our Earth, it would seem, despite its fantastic trappings. It’s a country devoted to Nothing, in that belief is itself a crime, leading as it does to hypocrisy, the major sin. Our “hero” is Proun Nul, who works on the vessel Derrida, destroying beliefs and memes. He gets involved in a murder, a love story, a conspiracy, a war, and a genocide. Nil is (or at least wants to seem to be) steeped in the language of philosophy, both in semi-earnest and in parody. It certainly has some very funny moments, and it gets very close to some points, but, like the citizens of Nil, it ultimately suffers from its lack of conviction. For example, early on in the book, there’s an interesting bit of business where background characters have little notations by them revealing some secret of that individual: “cheats on taxes,” “mean,” that sort of thing. But without warning, at some point, this just stops, as though the author, James Turner, just got tired of it. There’s a side plot involving one of Nul’s former friend receiving a bizarre promotion that never goes anywhere. In a country that despises belief, an elevator to Hell exists that everyone knows about (and people protest). The allegory isn’t consistent, and instead of being a coherent investigation on belief and the lack thereof, it instead comes off as a mishmash of disconnected ideas. Of course, you have to at least give credit for trying, and if nothing else, the book is a fun read, but it seems like it’s aspiring to be more. Maybe I’m wrong in that and I totally missed the point. At any rate, here’s another review, and here’s a sample of the book.

Action Philosophers! #1 - When I saw this solicited in Previews, I thought enough of it to point it out to a friend of mine who is a philosophy major. And yet, for some reason, I didn’t order it then. However, when issue #2 was solicited, I not only put in an order for that, but went ahead and made sure I got #1 as well. I’m glad I did. This is a book in the tradition of A Cartoon History of the Universe, Clan Apis, and the various GT Labs books, an educational funnybook. I don’t know enough “true facts” to say how accurate these biographies of Plato, Bodhidharma, and Nietzsche are, but I’ve no reason to believe any of it is made up. This is great fun, with charming art highlighting very funny writing, and suitable for all ages. The publisher’s website is here, and there’s a preview there. I’m really looking forward to issue #2, the All-Sex Special!

The Atheist #1 - “I only press your dread digits when I’ve got a very real problem that’s too weird to pass the giggle test at any other agency.” Dialogue like that is only one of the problems here. I dig Phil Hester, I really do. I liked his work on The Wretch a lot. But this book, about a Samuel L. Mulder character who investigates weird mysteries that ultimately have a very mundane explanation, well, it’s kind of a mess. I’m going to give it another issue or two to find its legs, because in theory I like the creator and I like the subject matter (I’m not crazy about the art, which used so many photostats I thought I it may as well have just used clip-art), but it needs to get a lot better faster. This first issue was slooooooooooooooow. You know how you throw me into a book about investigating strange happenings? Hint: you don’t have the investigator stay in a building and talk to people the entire time. And as long as I’m here, let me say this: Phil, shame on you for apologizing for calling your character “The Atheist”. Good grief, has the new political correctness come to this?

Scarlet Traces - It’s been ten years since the Martians attempted to invade England, as chronicled in H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. Her Majesty’s Government has reverse-engineered the Martian technology and used it to establish itself for good as the Earth’s premier superpower. But when bodies start showing up in the Thames drained of blood, will the Empire be facing the return of Varney the Vampire, or something more deadly? I’m not sure I can talk about this book objectively. It hits every single right note for me, from the steampunk setting to the Wells pastiche to the gorgeously brilliant art. This was my reward to me for finishing 24 Hour Comic Book Day, and it certainly was a nice treat. The sequel is coming out in a month or so from Dark Horse, but here’s an old preview of this book, featuring some sample pages. Check it out!

So there’s a bunch of what I’ve been reading lately. Coming up soon I’m going to do a rundown of a bunch of anthology books I’ve also read.

Becky and I used to be huge fans of The X-Files and watched regularly. In fact, it was “social TV” for us, and we often got together with friends to watch it. Eventually, though, I gave up on the show, stopped watching in disgust, walked away, and never looked back. Becky followed not long afterwards. The reason? The damned “Mythology Arc”.

Here’s the deal. In season two Gillian Anderson, the actress who played Scully, got pregnant. The show made use of her expanded tummy and need to be gone for an episode or two to say that she’d been abducted, possibly by aliens! She came back non-pregnant, with some kind of chip in her neck, and thus was really born the Mythology Arc. It was an over-arching storyline that promised to get to the very heart of the series’ questions regarding aliens, the government, and the personal toll of Agents Mulder and Scully.

Fans ate it up, thinking that at last we were seeing the true genius of the show. Each new “Mytharc” episode teased with a little more information. Except it didn’t take long to realize that the information never added up. None of the pieces fit together, and things didn’t make a whole lot of sense. As I expressed my doubts, mainly to the denizens of the alt.fan.tv.x-files newsgroup, I was assured by others that eventually it would all fall into place.

Gradually I began to dread the mytharc episodes. Seeing William B. Davis’ (The Cigarette-Smoking Man) or Nicholas Lea’s (Krycek) name listed as a guest star made me sigh with despair as I knew I’d have to go through another pointless meandering on this endless path. The part that started to aggravate me the most was that the non-mytharc episodes, known as “monster of the week” (MOTW) episodes started to suck as well. And even if they didn’t, my reaction to the mytharc episodes seemed to be the same as the reaction of other fans to the MOTW ones. On alt.fan.tv.x-files, people complained loudly when the mytharc was interrupted for an MOTW episode.

I wasn’t enjoying the show anymore, but I seemed like an aberration. The other fans were eating up the mytharc. This was the height of X-Files Mania, when it was on every other cover of TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly. The movie (which I haven’t seen) was announced. This was season five. I decided to bail.

Eventually I would be exonerated. As the mytharc devolved more and more into ridiculousness, others also realized what I had been trying to point out: that Chris Carter, the creator of the show, was just making it up as he went along, that none of it made any sense, and that only through ludicrous leaps of logic and picking and choosing elements of the “mythology” for inclusion and omission could any kind of resolution come out of it. All of that apparently happened. From what I understand the mytharc was finally resolved in a half-ass manner and then quickly shoved aside out of embarrassment. Try reading an article about this season’s hit mystery show, Lost, without it mentioning The X-Files as one of the two examples (the other being Twin Peaks) of a continuing mystery serial gone horribly wrong.

I bring this up because of an item in this month’s Previews, on page 535. Ahem:

The X-Files Mythology: “Abduction” DVD Set - For the first time, viewers can follow every twist and turn of the complete mythology story arc beginning with The X-Files Mythology: Abduction. Abduction consists of 15 episodes from seasons 1-3 and presents the government conspiracy episodes in order, beginning with the series pilot.

Of course, this is ridiculous. The entire series is available on DVD. Anyone interested in this can already watch these episodes, plus more, in whatever order they choose. But wait:

The set also features commentary on selected episodes and part one of Chris Carter’s all-new documentary “Threads of Mythology” which explains the meaning of The X-Files and how all lies lead to the truth.

Let me repeat that for the irony-impaired:

The set also features commentary on selected episodes and part one of Chris Carter’s all-new documentary “Threads of Mythology” which explains the meaning of The X-Files and how all lies lead to the truth.

Jesus, what stones this guy has! Talk about polishing a turd! Chris Carter went from being a “mastermind” to a joke, from being a wunderkind to the poster child for show-destroying, and he’s going to trot us out a documentary on how he all did it AND include it in a special “Buy them again!” DVD set.

I realize that, in a world where anything and everything must be preserved in digital quality, asking this is kind of stupid, but, who is this for? Are there even die-hard X-Files fans anymore? Are there especially die-hard fans that want to re-live the glory days of watching their favorite show plummet in a death spiral of stupidity? If these fans do exist, are they going to be willing to re-buy these shows on DVD just to drink from the well of Chris Carter’s storytelling wisdom? I can maybe see a game in this, where a bunch of different people watch it and they each try to pinpoint the exact moment it becomes irredeemably idiotic. Bonus points are awarded for each “important fact” that is completely ignored afterwards (or inexplicably changed.)

In Texas there’s a saying most people don’t have trouble remembering: “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” How many people are going to be willing to be fooled again by Chris Carter, and what number fooling will this be? Does it count if it’s the exact same fooling they fell for the first time?

This weekend I took the 24 Hour Comics challenge…

…and I succeeded!

Let me tell you, it is tough. I went in with a foolproof plan: (1) Do an anthology and (2) be a crappy artist. Both tactics worked like a charm and it was still tough.

There were ten people at the store, young and old, male and female. Out of those ten, at least four and possibly a fifth finished. Two people came very close (one chose the Gaiman variation of noble failure, submitting her unfinished work.) I didn’t see a lot of the other folks’ work, though the guy next to me had a nice book going on that looked very professional (he does a self-published book).

So anyway, yes, I was successful! I produced a 24-page complete inked anthology comic called, wittily, “Dave Lartigue’s 24-Hour Comics Anthology.” I finished it at 10:15 Sunday morning. The stories in it are:

• Introduction (and a discussion of other comics I’ve done)
• The Computer of the Future!
• Skepticomics
• Dreamtime
• The Monosyllabic History of Comics
• Decision 2008

Right now my book is still at Modern Myths (who were great hosts for the event.) where it will be photocopied and sent to Scott McCloud. I’ll get it back probably later this week. Then I’ll have it scanned and post it up on this site somewhere.

The things I learned:

• Inking is hard. It just about killed me. My middle finger and thumb (I hold writing implements in a weird way) are still numb and sore from the inking.
• I need a lot of practice drawing people. My lack of skill there really prevented me from tackling more serious topics.
• The Thing (from the Fantastic Four) is really freakin’ hard to draw.
• Although my art talents are questionable, I could be a damn fine letterer if I put my mind to it.
• I am really interested in improving my cartooning chops.

It was a lotta lotta fun, and I’m already planning on doing it again next year, My goal is to do a full 24-page story with a plot and everything.

Thanks to Jim and Mike at Modern Myths for a great time, to people who wished me luck, and congrats to everyone who succeeded or even just made the attempt!

You know, now that I’ve succeeded at NaNoWriMo and 24HCBD, I think I’m gonna take a crack at the “Neurosurgeon For a Week” event in August…

OH! I forgot to mention! At the tail end of the event, as I was getting ready to go home and crash, I got to meet fellow comics blogger and Springfieldian, Shawn Fumo! Unfortunately I was semi-conscious at the time, so it was a brief meeting, but it was nice to finally see him live and in person!

Considering my Christmas wish lists look very much now like they did when I was a kid — all Legos and games — I’ve never really worried much about getting older. But yesterday Becky and I had an encounter which immediately made us feel quite old indeed.

We were coming out of Panera and walking across the parking lot to our car. Now, here in Springfield, one of the popular forms of entertainment is jaywalking. People love nothing more than to stroll into a busy street in front of oncoming cars and act surprised to find the street in use. So there was this group of teenagers who apparently had just gotten finished with a round of this sport. From what I can gather, they had run across North Main, and someone had honked at them or flipped them off or something, and they were upset about this. So one of them was standing by the side of the road screaming at the car that had the audacity to do such a thing.

That part of the show over, they then proceeded away from the road and discussed the event. The discussion went like this: “Can you fishing believe that? What the fish? Get flipped off for just fishing walking across the fishing street? Fish-itty fish fish!” (Of course, instead of the word “fish” they employed a different four-letter word beginning with “f”.)

This exchange of course happened VERY LOUDLY, and one of the main participants in the dialogue kept looking at Becky and me to make sure we were appropriately shocked and offended at their outrageously iconoclastic behavior.

When we finally got into the car, Becky said, “Man, do we look that old? Did they really think we were going to be shocked by that little display?” And I had to admit that what I was mostly thinking the entire time was, “Get the hell away from my car, you dumbasses.”

09:45:17 [legomancer] Got my supplies for making my comic book on Saturday

09:46:30 [legomancer] .5 leads for my pencil? check. big eraser? check. brand new spiral-bound notebook? check. I’m playing with power. I’m working like the Pros.

09:54:08 [shasticon] Spiral-bound, eh?

09:54:53 [legomancer] nod

09:55:03 [legomancer] keeps the pages organized

09:55:39 [legomancer] I thought about loose-leaf, but I have to consider the crinkle factor

09:55:58 [shasticon] Plus the little ragged bits when you tear out a page make for good spitballs.

09:57:22 [legomancer] also I went with college-ruled. I know Kirby and Infantino used wide-ruled, but I prefer a tighter page