Reading anything?

[BoyScoutKevin]

Marvel's 70th Anniversary Collection

As I said in my last post at this thread, the collection does bring out problems. Not so much problems from past days, but problems from the present day.

In the past, superheroes were clearly defined, so you could tell one from the other. Today, while some superheroes are still clearly defined, such as Spiderman, and others can be recognized from their names, such as Antman, who is no bigger than an ant, and the Scarlet Witch, who wears, scarlet apparel, what with . . .

The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Heroes for Hire, the Junior League, the New Avengers, the New Warriors, X-Force, X-Men, the Young Avengers, etc.

They are not as clearly defined as they once were, so it is becoming harder and harder to tell one superhero from another.

Nor does it help, that superheros often have two names, one a superhero name and one a non-superhero name, such as Spiderman and Peter Parker, which are often used interchangablely, which only adds to the confusion.

Then, for many years, basically from the '30's to the mid-'80's, the stories were clear and concise, but after the mid-'80's, when there started to be major changes in the artwork, the stories started becoming less clear and concise. So, now you not only have confusing characters, but confusing stories as well.

It is as if, where once the artwork served the story, now the story started serving the artwork.

And where the illustrations once served to clarify any minor confusion in the story, now the illustrations only increased the confusion.

Next time: Zombies, Zombies, Zombies, edited by Otto Penzler.

[Mofo Rising]

Truman commented later on that he "never lost a night's sleep" over his decision to use the bomb.  I don't know if that is true or not, but he wasn't noted for his falsehoods.  We were in a war where over 50 million had already died, and they brought him a way to end it.  It was a horrible way.  But war is horrible.  So he used it.  It couldn't have been easy, but I'm glad he did.  Because one of the American boys preparing to storm ashore on the beaches of Japan that fall was my Dad.  He was supposed to hit the beach with the second wave - and they were told that their survival rate would be about 1 out of 132.  I'm just glad it never came to that.

I didn't mean to reduce Truman to the decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan. I kind of view that now as a fact of history that happened. We can debate morality and the consequences, but it was a decision that was made, and now here we are.

Do I think it saved lives? Yes. More importantly, I think the sole use of a nuclear weapon during wartime was so traumatic to the entire world that nuclear weapons have not been used since. We are approaching 70 years where nuclear weapons have not been used again during wartime.

I hope to hell we can keep that up for as long as possible.

[Vik]

Rereading Story Structure by Larry Brooks as I prepare my new screenplay, and also reading Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov.

[theblooblob]

Currently reading The Dark Tower Series (currently Wizard & Glass). Second time around which must mean I like them as I never normally re-read books (I'm good at remembering the story's well). Halfway through Woman in Black too. An okay book. There is something wrong about the book which stops it from being brilliant, but I really can't put my finger on what it is....

[Andrew]

"The Thirty Years War:  Europe's Tragedy"

[indianasmith]

That looks very interesting - I don't know much about that conflict.

[Flick James]

Black & Decker's The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair.

I like books with lots of pictures.

[Andrew]

That looks very interesting - I don't know much about that conflict.

1618-1648.  It was a political and religious war that savaged most of the Habsburg empire, meaning quite a bit of Germany.  France, Spain, Sweden, Bavaria, Denmark, and other countries all deployed armies that ravaged the countryside.  Quite a lot of progression in military tactics, including artillery and pike and shot.  It's estimated that about the same number of people died as died in Germany during WWII - and this was centuries earlier.  The best guess is that about 33% of Germany's population was killed.  The area that became Prussia was largely spared, setting it up to become what it did (passing a lot of itself onto Germany).

This book goes into a lot of the political, personal, and religious background.  There are two other books that cover the battles in depth, which are amazing resources.

[Flick James]

That looks very interesting - I don't know much about that conflict.

I'm surprised, as the Thirty Years' War represents a lengthy and significant step in the progression of Protestant/Catholic adversity. For a short time, the Peace of Augsburg was looking like it might work to provide a peaceful coexistence between Protestants and Catholics. The rise of Calvinism is an important aspect of that time, as it lent to the growing tensions that cut that peace short.

[lester1/2jr]

[InformationGeek]

Reading my comic picks for the week...

Animal Man #7: After a quick filler issue, we get back to the main plot as Buddy and his family travel the country to find Alec Holland, Swamp Thing, the one person or plant to help them defeat the Rot.

Not much happens this issue and we have a new artist start to take over as main artist for the series, Steve Pugh (An artist who use to draw for the original Animal Man back in the 90's).  While the plot is slow, the character interaction and development is just as great as always.

Swamp Thing #7: It's official.  Swamp Thing by Scott Snyder is now going to become one of the best runs for the character ever.

The Rot as cornered Alec and all seems to be lost.  All that is left now is for the Parliment of Trees to finish burning and Alec to go down with them.  However, is that really it?

The writing is as sharp as ever, the artwork is just utterly beautiful as ever, the scope of it continues to grow, and it has one of the more chilling and strong endings I have seen in a long time.  Read this book.  Read it now!

[alandhopewell]

[InformationGeek]

iZombie Vol. 3: Six Feet Under and Rising



As Gwen continues unliving as a zombie and trying to hide her real self from her monster hunter boyfriend, a new threat rises: a plague of zombies that start appearing all over the city.  Why are they there and what secret is wrapped around them?

Meanwhile, a secret government group called The Dead Presidents, a super agent monsters, hunts down a Russian doctor whose brain is inside of a coffee pot and is guarded by a gigantic solider zombie.  Their trail leads them to the same town where Gwen and her friends are at.  What will happen when everyone collides?

iZombie is a very enjoyable series, have a rich mythology and history while also having really fun and well written characters to boot.  This latest volume is brings new characters and starts woving in different plot threads, bringing in, easily, the best volume of the series yet.  The art is also enjoyable with a nice guest artist for a filler issue that dives into one of the side characters and expanding on who they are.

This series started off to me as a random book I just grabbed off the shelf to see what it was like.  After two solid volumes of build up and expanding everything, the series has hit a very highpoint and I cannot recommend this series enough.  You got to give it a try if you like monsters and fun characters.

[AndyC]

Great follow-up to Headhunter. Have you read many other Slade books?

[Frank81]

I'm  always  reading, sometimes several  books  at the same time. I'm a  huge book collector. I reading  these  two books, at this moment,  in the evening.  Iommi is a new one, the other  one I'm reading again.