Comics update and more

I finally made it to the comic bookstore to pick up my stash for the past few weeks and, I have to say, it was a pretty haul (in content, although there actually was quite a number of comics.)

Before anything else though, I have to make a confession: I spent $25.00 on a single comic. Yes, TWENTY-FIVE. No, you don't have to tell me what other things I could've done with that money, because I already know and I already calculated it with light speed when I saw the actual price and only hesitated a fraction of a second before adding it to the pile.

It's the Mike Perkins variant cover which is the first part of the five part tableau I mentioned before, specific to the Captain Tripps arc.

That's right part one of FIVE. That means I get to cough up $125 before all is said and done for this arc's variant (and variants for the remainder of The Stand, in general. Least, that's my story for now.)

I honestly did not know it was going to cost that much, when I saw I had the regular cover in my pull bin, and asked for it to be added. Apparently, my talent for sniffing out the most coveted (and, therefore naturally, the most expensive) items did not fail me even in my so called amateur foray into the world of comics. Maybe I should make a job out of that: Wanted-position that requires ability to suss out what is coveted and will get top price. I think they call that target marketing.

You know what is funny? I never even read The Stand completely! And if I had, I doubt very much doubt it would beat the Stephen King books I prefer out of all the ones I've ever read (Rose Madder and Skeleton Crew, by the way). Something about the artwork, though, is just mesmerizing. The variant cover did live up to the sketchbook expectation, and what I really want to do, once I have all five covers, is to frame them for my future reading room.

Anyway, now that that confession is done with, on to the remaining comics. There was actually another surprise in this lot--although a MUCH cheaper one. Apparently at some point, possibly because I was asking to have the Ultimate Origins pulled and also the X-Men Origins one shots, E. (the owner) must've mentioned something about an Ultimates X-Men/Fantastic Four short arc and I must've said yes, because there was a two-parter in my haul. It was pretty interesting and it was self-contained so whether I'd asked for it, or they'd mistaken my bin for someone else's, I didn't' mind getting it.

Oh, there was a new Fables, and it's a completely new arc but even though I haven't caught up with all the back issues/trades, I did read enough of the last arc to know what the new setup is and can read from hereon out and catch up simultaneously, although I am obviously spoiled for any foreshadowing in the old issues. It was an interesting season opener, as it were.

Okay, so we get to Air, and oh my god, I am really, really, really loving this. For one thing, a suspicion I had appears to be playing out: that the lead male is Iranian or of Iranian descent. The name he is given--which may not be his real name, of course, given his character--Javad Aryanpour immediately caught my eye. "Wait a sec," I thought, "that's interesting; his name or alias is Iranian."

[For the non-initiated, even though the first name Javad is Arabic, there are two dead giveaways that the name is actually Iranian. First, that the first name is written as Javad and not Jawad and second that the last name, even if you did not understand the meaning (which is another hint), has a "p" in it. Arabs do not pronounce "v" the hard way, but rather as a soft "w" and, more importantly, there is no letter "p" in Arabic. (A "P" from a word in another language is usually replaced by a "B", so Portugal become "B"ortaghal, for example. There are also three additional letters that are unique for Farsi and not found in Arabic: the hard "g" like gate; "ch" like chair; and the soft, vibrating "j" like the French "j" in "J"e t'aime or "j"eune). ]

In addition to the name, the very last panel in the second issue makes mention of Javad's unknown/supposedly dubious past in relation to Tehran, which seems to solidify my hypothesis as to his origins. Now, given that the whole premise of Air is about terrorism, but with a twist , one could argue that the writers are potentially setting up Javad to be associated with the 'Axis of Evil' in a less than savory manner...but since he is clearly being targeted as the lead male/love interest of the main character, I am hoping the twist is that he is an Iranian good guy. I really hope the writers don't take the low road and feed into the common-denominator perception of Iran and Iranians. Comic readers happen to be actually fairly intelligent folk, especially those who are over 30 (ehem!) and I think they deserve better than to have their intelligence insulted this way.

If they do go that route, I will be EXTREMELY disappointed and will, of course, immediately stop buying the comic, as well as possibly buying anything printed by Vertigo, in general--al after sending a stern;y worded letter to the writers/publishers, of course. (Which I will then print out and pin up right next to my letter to Ben and Jerry's that explains why I have refused to eat their product or allow anyone in my family/house to do so, for the past 11 years. It won't make a damn difference to the publishers, just as the previous didn't to B&Js--though I did get a answer back--but it makes me feel good.)

In the meantime, though, I'm content that the second issue was every bit as good as the first and held up to the high expectation set in the first issue. Which is why I sincerely hope they don't fuck it up with stupidity.

***

I completely forgot, until now, that I actually had gone to the comic store the very first week of September, for the 4th anniversary of their opening. They had 40% off all trades and novels, and 40-50% off all comics, and so in addition to my usual pulls for the beginning of the month (Buffy, Angel, House of Mystery), I also bought Spike-Asylum, which had been highly rated in the comic Buffyverse, a nice new edition of V for Vendetta, and then a graphic book , which was more novel than graphic (i.e. actual chapters and paragraphs, accentuated by black and white lithograph type drawings) called Quixote. I'm always intrigued by variations and updates on classics I like (see: Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene although, to be fair, Graham Greene could write a variation on the phone book and I would embrace it), which was actually quite interesting, and I think very much in line with the "noire" aspect of the original Quixote plot, if you stop and think about it.

Before I forget, the House of Mystery finished its current arc and damn, was it was good and damn, was it not what I was expecting, except that it totally was, because HoM has never been about pretty, happy endings. It was a little heartbreaking and I think if I'd been a teenager reading it, I'd probably would've been a lee-tle upset. (Maybe.) That's why I loved HoM in its previous carnation, and do so now: despite being fantasy and requiring a suspension of reality, which is as all comics are, HoM has special kind of bizzare suspension of reality that interestingly enough ends up being the most realistic that tells it like it really. I love allegories that are just so perfectly in tune with how it actually goes down, in the regular world.

(Damn, I am really becoming a comic fangirl, aren't I? I obviously have a lot to say about it all!)

***

Of course, I figure I can't provide a comics update without giving an update on the whole E. situation alluded to previously, (that's the owner, again, for all of you playing along at home), which is his supposedly being drawn to my irresistible self.

Sooooo...yeah, I guess he is kind of attracted to me, but not in the romantic way, obviously--more in the 'hey, chick who likes what I like' way. Apparently, this is also not lost on his wife--who runs the store with him and his brother--because even I had to finally concede that when I go in there and they are both there, she immediately directs him away from me or completely breaks up our conversation with such speed and insistence that it's beyond mere coincidence. (Even though she knows perfectly well I am married, with a kid AND both L. and the kid come in with me, at least half the time. Also, for the record, I almost never initiate conversation unless he is manning the register, because I like to browse for a a good bit when I first go in. He comes up to me, to say hi, etc. and then shoot the breeze not just about comics, but books and movies in general.)

L. actually witnessed one of these descend and break up efforts and could not stop laughing afterward, saying he was surprised E. didn't get whiplash at the speed his wife turned his attention to the farthest corner of the store from where I was standing. I'm neither offended nor amused, and pretty much ambivalent when that happens--I know, as a woman, trying to convince another woman that you have absolutely no interest in their significant other is a futile effort, because it does absolutely nothing except to make her feel even more sure that something is afoot. Over the years, with situations like this coming my way now and then, I've learned to maintain a neutral attitude which seems to be the best approach.

Which means that while I definitely won't fan the flames such as they may be (and I never do, by the way, no matter how provoked) and while I am not going to go out of my way to either ignore him or seek him out when I go to the store (since I have no intention of not going over something so silly), I'll still talk to him if it happens as the natural course of events. That is, if we happen to talk, we will, much like how it happened this weekend this past weekend, while L. and the kid were walking around the store, checking out the displays (the kid loves doing that), E. and I chatted. When he commented on how I looked rather sad and worried the last couple of times, I talked a little bit about what was going on and he was really nice about it--expressed regret and then totally changed the conversations to books and secondhand books, where I told him about a couple places that he didn't know of (like me, he'd been bummed out about the secondhand bookstore near us closing down two years ago) and we traded info on the best library sales around us.

After which I paid for my comics, we said goodbye, and I came home with my husband and child, having had a nice conversation with another guy with no ulterior motives whatsoever. Why is that so frigging hard for a lot of people to understand and accept? Sigh.

(Upon rereading, this makes me seem like some sort of geeky femme fatale, which is only half true. It's actually quite funny, if you know me/see me in person, because I am so far from the femme fatale/sexpot who drives men crazy type, in both looks and demeanor, that it makes the humor in this and similar situations even more obvious.)

Okay, enough of that. I agree it had been bugging me a bit (so, okay, maybe not quite ambivalent about it), but it's all good and I know, from previous experience, things have a way of settling now, after the first few months.

***

Oh, to wrap things up, the noire reference way back up reminded me that Marvel is doing a noire take on three of their most popular characters--X-Men (central role TBD), Spiderman, and Daredevil. I'm going to get all three (sigh...well, I suppose it can count as helping the economy?!), but I am mostly excited about how they do Daredevil, because I totally agree with the general articles I've read on the proposed series that if ever a Marvel character screamed of noire overtures, it is Daredevil. I've also never read any Daredevil in comic format except consistently, so I'm looking forward to it, since I have no attachment to any arc/depiction from previous issues coming into this version.

Well, that is all for now. Tune in, same bat time, same bat channel for the next update.