The Best of the Year in Media 2016 part 1 - Television

The Best of the year in Media 2016

Televison:

1.    Game of Thrones: Season Six (HBO) – This season of GoT started out slow, with them teasing out the resurrection of Jon Snow, but by the time the show gut punched the viewers with the “The Door” episode we knew we were within this shows creative grasps again. Then they raised the bar again for a television show with the “Battle of the Bastards” maybe the greatest warfare scene ever done for television and coming scary close to Saving Private Ryan level and for the first time in the shows history left the viewers feeling hopeful with the “ The Winds of Winter” episode that finally featured Daenerys’ sailing for Westeros. GoT continues to be the best show on television and as the last two seasons are prepared to air we will have to see if it finishes strong enough to be considered in the same conversation as the David Simon masterpiece The Wire. 

2.    Fargo: Season Two (FX) – I don’t think a show could be anymore different from GoT then Fargo is. The crime anthology show shares its location and tone with the Coen brothers movie of the same name, but that’s it. The writing team that Noah Hawley put together in the second season was brilliant, funny, quirky and smart. The show made you think, laugh and cry and maybe all at once. The multitude of ways that this season tied into the first season was genius as to pay off that privileged viewer that had watched and paid attention to the first season, but not confuse a new viewer if they hadn’t scene the first season. This season also featured a number of outstanding acting performances; the best was put in by Kirsten Dunst. I still get chills from her soliloquy from the last episode. I can’t wait to see what the writers of this show have for the next season. 

3.    Mr. Robot: Season Two (USA Network) – I’ll be honest I was not sure where Sam Esmail could take his series after its brilliant first season. I thought the story might have worked itself into a corner and possibly should have ended the story after one season. I could not have been more wrong. The second season might have been even better then the first with series twists being way less obvious then in the first season. The writers behind the series have fully embraced the limitless potential of an unreliable narrator and this series has turned into a post modernist journey of self discovery and what that looks like in our technology riddled society. The episode titled “EPS2.4_M4STER-S1AVE.AES” was the best hour of television I watched this year and perfectly defined what this show has to offer, introspective, humorist and asked a lot from the viewer as the show kept pushing back against them reminding them that they were watching a television show, just not the 90s family sit-com Alf. If you haven’t seen it, you just need to watch.

4.    Black Mirror: Season Three (Netflix) - I was a fan of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror show way before it came to Netflix, but I was super happy to here its addition to the platform. Therefore more people could embrace its brilliance. The first six episodes of this new partnership offered up more of the same complex thought provoking science fiction that I had known the series for. Booker’s voice as a creator will be an important one as we navigate our relationship with technology as a society. He offers up a critical thoughtful lens for us about technology taking the time to ask the questions that we don’t seem to ask enough about technology and how it’s changing our world.

5.    Westworld: Season One (HBO) – I’ve never anticipated a show more then I did Westworld. I had read stories about it coming watched the preview videos and was in aw of the talent involved: Michael Crichton, J.J. Abrams, Jonathan Nolan, Ed Brubaker, Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, and Jeffrey Wright to name a few. I loved the concept of robots searching for consciousness in a wild west theme park. It would seemingly touch on a popular science fiction troupe of what is it to be human? The show was highly successful in weaving a complex narrative structure that aloud for multiple “reveals” that kept the audience coming back right to seasons end. The next trick will be trying to do that again for a second season and going forward in general. Certainly the show seems to be rich with talent in the writers room and HBO seems willing to spend the money to make this show the next GoT. So lets just enjoy the ride.

The honorable mentions –    6. House of Cards: Season Four (Netflix)

      7. Daredevil: Season Two (Netflix)

      8. The Night of…Mini-series (HBO)

      9. Orange is the New Black: Season Four (Netflix)

      10. Vinyl: Season One (HBO).

Upcoming posts will feature the best in movies, music and comics. Cheers!

Review: The Man Who Grew Young

The Man Who Grew Young by Daniel Quinn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What happens when the universe ends? Well, in The Man Who Grew Young by Daniel Quinn and Tim Eldred, the universe starts winding up like a giant yo-yo and everything that has ever lived and died lives again, but in reverse order. Basically, the history of the world begins at the end and moves towards what we know as the beginning. This is the basic concept of the graphic novel, but not nearly where it stops. Like in all Quinn books, the author dissects our culture and society like a surgeon with a scalpel, peeling back the layers of skin to reveal the veins and bones inside.
I was somewhat nervous when I first decided to read this graphic novel. For one thing, Quinn has written some of the best novels I’ve ever read, but sequential art is a different beast and not all prose writers are able to make the successful leap from writing to paint a picture to writing about a painted picture. Second, I wasn’t sure if he could come up with an interesting enough plot for a book that relies on visuals. Afterall, Quinn’s first novel Ishmael was on the surface a series of conversions between a man and an ape. Third, I had never heard of Tim Eldred, the man who did the art for the book. All of these worries plagued me as I sat down to read The Man Who Grew Young.
But Quinn quickly put my worries to rest with his opening scene, which introduced the protagonist, Adam Taylor, who, along with his son and a bunch of other people, are gathered in a cemetery. We normally associate cemeteries with death, sadness and mourning, but Quinn does an excellent job of reversing this experience. The use of superb dialogue helps reveal the jubilant mood of the scene.
“At the party somebody said we were “waking” my mom, is she awake already?” a young boy says to his grandmother. This is a beautiful use of language, because it puts such a unique twist on the concept of death: the dead can be woken.
With insightful, internal dialogue we are sucked into the story like lint into a vacuum. We soon learn that Adam Taylor is someone special as he travels back through the years without rejoining with his mother. We see him move back from the Manhattan project, through the discovery of America, back to the first native people of Africa.
Tim Eldred, who we learn in the introduction is from the PBS animated television show Dragon Tales, provides the art for the graphic novel. His art is functional and doesn’t hurt the story, which perhaps is highly suited to the subject matter in this graphic novel, because it makes the primary focus the story and allows it to shine through. I would have preferred more panels in some instances, because the panel to panel flow was really jumpy and he was asking the reader on some occasions to do too much work in between panels. Other than that, however, Eldred did a nice job and his full-page spreads were spectacular.
The Man who Grew Young is an imaginative, creative and poignant graphic novel that elevates sequential art to an all-time high and raises the bar for every other writer in the field. Quinn’s original concept is so simple it’s genius; it has you wondering, why didn’t I think of that? Most importantly, he doesn’t abandon the concept prematurely, but explores it thoroughly until the reader is exhilarated and left with the need to once again pass on Quinn’s inspirational message to others. Quinn is one of the most brilliant contemporary writers, and The Man Who Grew Young is a wondrous achievement that should win him great acclaim in the comic industry.


View all my reviews

What's Interesting in Previews Feb. 2017

What’s Interesting in Previews for December 2016 .

Of Books Mostly coming out in February 2017 or Later 

DC Comics

Deathstroke Vol.1: The Professional TPB by Christopher Priest and Various – I’ve never read a Deathstoke book, until DC announced that they had hired Christopher Priest to write the book and I have not been disappointed. Deathstoke under Priest is just as complex a narrative as his work on Black Panther over a decade ago. 

JSA: The Golden Age Deluxe Edition HC by James Robinson and Paul Smith – One of my all time favourite stories. The Golden Age is an alternate history story of the Justice Society, which had me sitting on the age of my seat the entire way. I’m happy it’s finally getting the deluxe treatment by DC. It’s certainly an Evergreen title for them, as the original story came out in 1995.   

The Flintstones Vol. 1 TPB by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh – The Flintstones has been a surprise hit. Writer Mark Russell has proven the political satire skills he showed on Prez was no fluke and he has continued his thoughtful punchy stories here with the Flintstones.

The Wild Storm #1 by Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt – In the late 90s the Wildstorm line of books was still at Image comics and was being reinvented by Alan Moore, James Robinson and Warren Ellis. Under their pens the line became some of the best books being published and I’m sure was one of the main selling points for DC to purchase the IP’s from Jim Lee. The line and IP’s as of late have not been very strong sales wise or creatively, so I find it interesting that DC has turned back to Warren Ellis, who all things considered was the main creative force of quality comics under the Wildstorm banner in the past. Ellis also has his demons, for as many times Ellis has produced work like Authority or Planetary he has also done books like Desolation Jones, which just cease publication. Marvel has also tapped Ellis in the past to spear head a line of their X-Books. And I would say that the Marvel Counter–X books are closer to Desolation Jones then Authority. So, I think the Wild Storm will be super interesting to see if DC has a new hit or if fans will be wondering what ever happened to that book?   

Justice league of America: Rebirth #1 by Steve Orlando and Ivan Reis – Can you say Synergy? I know DC wants to, with this terrible offering of mixed and matched characters that only have one thing in common. They are all characters on DC television shows. A team of Black Canary and Vixen from Green Arrow, The Ray, and the Atom from DC Legends of Tomorrow, Killer Frost from The Flash and add Lobo who rumour has it will be a DC movie soon and then to make sure you can call it a Justice League book and to boost sales Batman. I feel bad for Steve Orlando who is being rewarded with stellar writing on his Midnighter book with this flaming pile of forced narrative garbage. It will be interesting if he can polish this piece of coal into a diamond? I’m not sure how he could?  

Marvel Comics

Kingpin #1 Matthew Rosenberg and Ben Torres – Rosenberg’s body of work is not very large yet, but it is impressive. His stories at Black Mask have all been very original and his work on the Kingpin: Civil War II tie in book was great. I look forward to his new fresh voice in the industry and especially in crime comics. 

Spider-man’s Tangled Web Omnibus HC by Various – I’m not sure there’s a Spider-man book I can recommend more then this. Back in the Bill Jemas era at Marvel comics they took risks and did books not for sales but for quality stories. There was no finer example of this then Tangled Web. It features Spidey stories from Garth Ennis, Greg Rucka (who won the Eisner for his), Peter Milligan, Bruce Jones, Kaare Andrews, Darwyn Cooke (some of his very rare Marvel work), Brian Azarello, Paul Pope, Ted McKeever, John McCrea, Eduardo Risso, Duncan Fregredo, Lee Weeks, Sean Phillips, and Jim Mahfood. Ok if there’s not a creator there you like, then you don’t like comics. I can’t wait to get this book.

  

Night Raven: From the marvel UK vaults TPB by Various – So Marvel is pulling stories from their Marvel UK imprint featuring stories by Alan Moore, Steve Parkhouse, David Lloyd and John Bolton. Hell Yes. I’m a big fan of most of Moore’s work, so to find new stories from back in the early to mid eighties when these stories must be from is something I find very interesting. 

Image Comics

The Old Guard #1 by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez – What Greg Rucka has a new monthly comic? Done. Sign me up. Ok ok it’s awesome to see him work with Leandro Fernandez again. After all it’s been awhile since they were working on Queen & Country together.

Velvet Deluxe HC by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting – I admit I pretty much love everything Ed Brubaker writes, but his teaming with Steve Epting on this political spy thriller is just special. The series featured the best art of Epting’s career so far. And the spy thriller seemed to be in the same vein as something John Le Carre would have written.

Dynamite

John Carter The End by Brian Wood and Alex Cox – I’ll be honest I thought the John Carter movie was pretty fun, but I’m a sucker for the old Pulp characters. I’m also a fan of these “The End” type stories that Marvel brought to the forefront. So a mix of the two plus Brian Wood who is one of my favourite writers and who is currently in a great groove with books like Briggs Landing and The Black Road makes this title a lock for me to check out.

Too Smart for SNL?

Too Smart for SNL?

When a friend mentioned to me that Dave Chappelle would be the host on Saturday Night Live this past week I knew for sure I would see the show, after all Chappelle’s humour which often comments on race relation, I find is the right kind of dangerous and pushes all kinds of boundaries.

Unfortunately, for Chappelle I found that even though he did have some funny skits with his brand of humour, even re-invoking characters from his old comedy skit show. But it was Kate McKinnon’s cold open skit that really stole the show.

Traditionally the cold open for SNL is an over the top attention grabber, but instead the viewer is met with a somber melancholy tone as McKinnon dressed as Hilary Clinton sat at the piano and belted out Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. In this skit McKinnon perfectly captured the zeitgeist. Not only did the song pay tribute to Cohen who had died recently, but also the irony of having Clinton perform his song Hallelujah was brilliant. McKinnon herself broke character momentarily to wink at the viewers, her wink speaking to the irony of her as Clinton singing the Cohen classic.

The song Hallelujah speaks of a person that has worked for some time at a goal that they now realize is unattainable. For Clinton in this instance it is the presidency of America. The song also seemed to be some form of catharsis for McKinnon herself, who finished the skit breaking character again saying “I’m not giving up and neither should you.”  

Here's a link to the performance:

Kate McKinnon as Hilary Clinton performs Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen

What's interesting in the December Previews

Marvel

Rocket Raccoon #1 – After reading Matthew Rosenberg’s work at Black Mask and his Civil War II: Kingpin series I’m thinking that this book could really be a fun crime book. I’m curious to see what can be done with Rocket in his own series.

U.S. Avengers #1 – Al Ewing is on such an amazing run of super entertaining stories, that I’ll try anything he writes. I’m not a huge fan of super-hero humour books, as I tend to find that they are to silly for me, but I’m willing to give this book a try because of Ewing. Also, Paco Medina is a solid artist that should be a good fit for this type of story.

Image

Motor Crush #1- With the great creative team from Batgirl of Brendan Fletcher, Cameron Stewart and Babs Tarr behind this new image book it’s a must read. Not sure if the market really needs another sci-fi book from image, but if the book is good then I don’t think genre matters as much.

DC

Checkmate by Greg Rucka TP Vol. 1 – I’m really curious to see how DC collects this series. They did such a horrible job the first time they collected it. Rucka’s 25 issue run was collected in 6 trades. Which came out as Checkmate: A King’s Game, Checkmate: A Pawn Breaks, then goes to an Outsiders/Checkmate crossover trade, then back to Checkmate: Fall of the wall and lastly the final three issues of the series by Rucka were collected in a trade called Kobra Resurrected. Add to that if you really want to read the end of the series it’s in a Final Crisis Companion trade. What a nightmare. So, I’m hoping DC fan fix this problem with new collected editions.  

Supergirl: Being Super #1 – No surprise DC wants to take advantage of the success they are having with a Supergirl television show by pumping the market full with as many Supergirl books as possible. Despite that the creative team on this book makes it very interesting. Mariko Tamaki (Skim, This One Summer) and Joelle Jones (Ultimate Spider-man, Lady Killer) have both handled stories of female maturation in their past, so this story seems to be right in line for them to be able to do something special with.

Boom/Archaia

Killer Vol. 5 HC – Finally translated to English is the final volume of the great crime comic by Matz and Luc Jacamon. The story of a hired killer, who at the start of the series Matz and Jacamon juxtaposed him constantly with a reptile or at least his thought process.  It’s been some years since we got a volume of the series and I’m hoping Matz and Jacamon bring the series to a satisfying close.  

Waiting for Capullo.... Part two.

Waiting for Capullo… Part Two.

            For Friday at Fan Expo I set my sights on signatures from Tim Sale, Joe Quesada, Greg Capullo and sketches for my other daughters. Tim Sale proved to be easy enough due to the fact that he communicated so clearly to every one at the con the times he would be at his table doing signings. That left some time to explore the convention floor a bit before having to get in line for either Joe Quesada or Greg Capullo, who for some reason the convention had planned them to have signing times only an hour apart, meaning if you got in line for one then you would not get the other that day. During my walk about I tasked myself with finding artists for sketches and was happy to find Ron Salas, who drew an amazing Supergirl for my daughter Avery and Scott Caple, who drew an awesome Wonder Woman for my daughter Skyler.

            As I talked to the artists sketching for my daughters I noticed that Greg Capullo had amassed a very long line at his table and Greg was their signing away, an hour before he was scheduled to be signing in the signing area, providing each person with a quick memory and interaction with him.

            It was then that I decided to wait in the line for Joe Quesada. My thinking was that if Capullo was willing to put that much time and effort in to signings then he will not be as hard to get signed as the head guy at Marvel Comics.  After getting Joe Quesada’s signature I walked by Capullo’s table again and he was there again signing almost an hour after his signing time, but with only a half hour of time left at the con I decided to just head over to the other hall that I hadn’t seen yet.

            I started Saturday at the con with a mission to get signatures of Frank Miller and Greg Capullo. I had bought a pass, which gave me access to Miller’s panels on Saturday and Sunday as well as a signature on Sunday. Miller was the main reason I had even traveled to Fan Expo this year, so I wanted to get as many things as I could get signed from him and also see his panels if I could.

            So, my plan was to go to Capullo’s table in the morning hoping that he shows up in time for me to get a signature and then head off to Miller’s panel that day. Unfortunately, I waited about 30 minutes in line for Capullo before another guy in the line who was thinking to do the same thing I was noticed that Capullo had tweeted out that he wouldn’t be at his table until after his signing time in the afternoon. It was then that I decided to head off to the Miller panel.

            The Miller panel was great. Despite the visual appearance of his physical health being very poor, Miller is as smart as ever. He’s still the man that traded discourse with Will Eisner and held his own. After the panel I went back to the line at Capullo’s table. My hope this time was that Capullo would finish his signing over in the signature area and come to his table and sign in time for me to get in line for Miller’s signing time. Again I waited for about 30 to 45 minutes before I decided to bail on the line, as I didn’t want to risk missing out on Miller’s signature. Though I did return to Capullo’s table later after getting Miller’s signature. As I returned to the area I noticed Capullo was not signing anymore for the day but again he had been signing for hours on end. I was able to witness Capullo doing on interview for a U-tube video channel, which was super entertaining, but yet again I had to leave the convention without Capullo’s signature and only one day left at the con.

            I entered the last day of the convention with a clear plan and funny enough it was my same plan from the day before. Get in line for Capullo then try to see the Miller panel and then in line for a Miller signature. On this day unlike the previous day though Capullo had a planned signing time, it was just a matter of me waiting in the line and hopefully making it though in time to go to the Miller panel that day, which unfortunately did not happen, but I finally had my Capullo signature, after three days of trying and many hours of signing by him I had my Capullo signature. It felt good to finally accomplish my tasks that I had set out to complete, so I rewarded myself and went around with some friends there and had fun doing activities at the convention.          

Waiting for Capullo...

Waiting for Capullo…

This past weekend I attended Fan Expo Canada in Toronto. Fan Expo is a comic con, or more precisely it started out years ago as a comic convention. Now it is the third largest gathering of popular fan culture in North America: Comics, Horror, Manga, Movies, Television, and Video Games. I was there to be apart of the comic community that had gathered; to get books signed, look at some original art, and add to my daughters’ sketchbooks.

Getting books and posters signed is what usually encompasses most of my time at comic conventions, but what I really enjoy is the chance for discourse with the writer or artist of some of my favourite IPs. My targets for signatures at this particular show were: Tim Sale, Klaus Janson, Andy Kubert, Brian Azzarello, Kevin Smith, Joe Quesada, Frank Miller and Greg Capullo and this is were my difficulties started.

                  Over the years the plan I have developed for getting signatures at comic conventions is I load up as many hardcovers I can in my backpack and my rolling suitcase the first day in order to free myself up for the later days of the convention when my energy will be lower. The Thursday of Fan Expo was no different.

                  I quickly checked my Guidebook app for the show which would tell me who was there what day and if they had a table or not. The App told me that Kevin Smith was out because he was just doing photo ops and had no table to do signings and Capullo, Miller, Quesada, would not be there until Friday or Saturday. So I loaded my bag up with Solo and Captain America White for Tim Sale, Daredevil Omnibus, Absolute Dark Knight and Daredevil: End of days for Klaus Janson, Origin for Andy Kubert, and Before Watchman for Brian Azzarello. 

                  It was a fairly heavy haul and the bus and subway ride before going in just added to the weight of the books by the time the doors opened at 2pm on the Thursday. I calmly made my way to artist alley where the comic pros were located.   

                  I quickly became disappointed, as none of the pros I had brought books for were present. Ok this would take some investigation. Often times at conventions professionals are not at their tables, but the more respectful ones will find a way to communicate with the con goers somehow, so that people are not wasting their time waiting for them for hours.

To this end, Tim Sale had posted a sign saying he would be at his table Friday to Sunday and would be signing the first and last hour of the show each day. He also stated that the first three raw signatures were free, but anything after that would be $5. To me this was great, Sale communicated clearly when to get his signature and I prefer when the professionals put limits on the signatures as I usually never bring much more then a few things for each person and I’ve been stuck behind people at cons who think the artist is there to sign 100 issues of some comic just for them.                 

With Sale crossed off the list for today I moved my attention to the Dark Knight III team of Kubert, Azzarello and Janson. The only signs that I saw for them told me their rates. I was discouraged to read that they were all being handled by some sort of art management group and each of them were asking $15 a signature. I decided then that since I already had Kubert and Azzarello signatures on books that I felt were better works that I would keep my $30 and not try to get signatures from them, but I’d never got the opportunity to get Janson’s signature before and he’s been a large part of some of my favourite books. As much as I hate paying for signatures I decided I would in Janson’s case. I asked one of the art management guys standing behind Janson’s table if he knew whether he would be here or not today. He told me that Janson would be there in about an hour. An hour at a comic con, no problem.

In recent years I’ve bought my daughters each a sketchbook for them to take around at each convention they go. They have really taken to it more then I would have ever hoped and they each said it would be ok for me to get them each one at Fan Expo even though they weren’t there. To this end I had researched potential artists that might do a sketch that the girls would like and also that wouldn’t cost me an insane amount of money.

One such artist was Genevieve Ft and after talking to her for a bit I commissioned her for a sketch of Poison Ivy, which my daughter Mea had asked for. Ft did a great sketch and even added some colour to the sketch with no extra charge, she helped renew my faith in comic pros after being down because so many of them were charging for signatures.                 

After getting that beautiful sketch from Ft, I got the signatures that I wanted from Janson and decided to explore the rest of the convention before calling it a day.

My Fan Expo adventure Waiting for Capullo…will continue.

What's interesting in the DC October 2016 Solicitiations

DC Universe Titles

Batman Annual #1 – This book features writing from Tom King, Scott Snyder, Paul Dini and Steve Orlando, all of which I have really enjoyed their writing. So I expect big things from this one shot that has a nice around Gotham city one night set up.

Catwoman: Election Night #1 – This one shot features a continuing of the Prez story by Mark Russell and Ben Caldwell. I’m hoping the rumours aren’t true that this is the last time we will see Beth Ross and her crazy satirical universe. Prez was by far the smartest book DC published last year and I hope to see it added back to their publication schedule.

Beyond the DC Universe

Super Powers #1 – I’ve been a big fan of Art and Franco’s work and bought every thing that they have been involved in and to have them work back in the DCU and on the Trinity is just awesome. Oh Yeah great comics!

Collections

Sandman Mystery Theatre Book Two – I was very frustrated when Vertigo stopped collecting Sandman Mystery Theatre the first time around, specially since they were less then 20 issues from the end. This time feels different as Vertigo has been recollecting most of their titles in new large trades. I know I can’t wait to have all of Matt Wagner, Steven Seagle’s and eventually Guy Davis’s great crime book on my shelf.

The Flash by Mark Waid Book One – The clear positive in the publishing world of the Flash having a television show is that DC is finally collecting Mark Waid’s great Flash run. Only Geoff Johns has had as much effect on the flash mythos as Waid and for anyone looking for solid Flash stories this would be a great source.

Batman and Robin Adventures vol. 1 – I love the Timmverse! And this collection features some great issues. The Joker driving Harvey Dent crazy because its Tuesday was one of my favorite Batman stories for quite some time and a collection that features stories by Paul Dini is a good thing.  I love that DC has decided to collect all their Timmverse comics.