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Tuesday Runaround – Claws, Tattoos And Diaries

Published Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:40:03 -0600

ClawsWatch: As Mike Perkins joins Astonishing X-Men, Marvel releases a few X-sketches…

BlackWatch: For Martin Luther King day, ScienceFiction.com goes for the top ten black comic book superheroes. What, no Spider-Man?

ADDWatch: Copies of Douglas Rushkoff's Vertigo graphic novel Adolescent Demo Division appear to have escaped into the wild…

TattooWatch: Comics Should Be Good and Jezebel worry about the Vertigo Girl With A Dragon Tattoo and lost opportunities for marketing to women.

Though I don't want to dwell on it as it's not the point of this piece, I do think this first image from 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' is a misfire for the graphic novel. It's far too sexualized for the Lisbeth Salander of the novel and strikes the wrong tone right out of the gate. Though Salander is a sexual (and sexy) character, this image does not synch up with the character well at all, and I suspect runs a high risk of turning off fans of the book, much like the Fincher movie supposedly has. Though I think the Fincher movie is excellent, I agree that the super sexual and aggressive Craig/Mara teaser image released for the movie was a similar mistake that may have turned off many female fans looking for a more nuanced look at this controversially feminist work.

FogWatch: USA Today covers the release of new graphic novel, Billy Fog.

A witty, quirky book that would appeal to those who fancy the works of Lemony Snicket or Tim Burton, Billy Fog follows the title character, who has the gift of "trouble sight" — the little boy naturally sees monsters, ghosts and the most interesting supernatural creatures unless he puts on his glasses, which return his vision to what most people would consider "normal."

SpaghettiWatch: The London Free Press looks at not so much a graphic novel, but a graphic diary.

Muted tones of black, green and brown dominate. These lend a dream-like and haunting quality to the pre-war pages when the young Law Chantler is dancing at Port Stanley and romancing Elgin County beauty Margaret Edith Russ. The two marry in November, 1942, parting for the duration of the war the following March.

Red pages and images were used sparingly to show such scenes as the fatal wounds of war. Chantler's Canadian understatement in depicting these tragedies matches the tone he discovered in his grandfather's diary.

"He was a very practical man," Chantler told the Times-Journal. "A lot is: 'I was duty officer today. I had spaghetti for supper.' "

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