The Fractal Hall Journal

So, the condensed version of last week’s Fractal Furlough: we walked up and up and up until there was no more Up left in the nation. That’s an obscure way of saying we went to the top of Snowdon, Wales’ tallest mountain, and returned to tell the (abbreviated) tale.

But you don’t want to hear about fresh air and clambering over things. It’s Indoor Nerd time, and here’s the comic-based entertainment enjoyed on holiday:

Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.’s Kick-Ass: I’ve seen a fair bit of negative response to this online, but to be honest it seems a little like people objecting to Millar’s over-enthusiastic marketing and his past sins rather than the work in question. The premise of real-world vigilantism and the incredibly fucked-up things that inevitably follow is exactly as promised, and exactly as expected. I really enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to the next issue in a way that I don’t for most other super-hero comics these days.

I think a lot of people don’t like Millar’s writing style, which is fair enough. But while I don’t like his brand of fucked-upedness as applied to, say, Captain America, I’m more than happy to see him play around when he’s off on his own thing. All-in-all, much like Rambo (or Cloverfield, for that matter) the title’s exactly as promised so I don’t see what the controversy is, and I think a dislike of Millar’s self-promotion and his treatment of mainstream characters is the subtext to some of the bad reviews. And needless to say the art is brilliant.

The only other thing I will say is that sometimes, as with Wanted, some of Millar’s stuff starts off strongly and then runs out of steam. So there’s always a chance of a cock-up, but I hope not.

The Punisher: Saw about half of the film before I switched off. It wasn’t like it was a massive Batman and Robin level stinker, it was just that so much of what makes Ennis’ run interesting is removed to make an absolutely non-dangerous film. I thought Thomas Jane would actually have been pretty good if they’d let him be the merciless stone-cold killer of the Max title, and some of the visual touches echoed Tim Bradstreet’s art pretty well.

But if you’re watching a Punisher film, you want super-violent gunplay. Deeply, deeply evil bastards and bastardesses eating a hail of hot lead. Not Frank Castle nicking cars and taking incriminating photographs. The film should have covered mindless violence and pitch-black humour. Anything else would be a bonus, hopefully taken from the character-study touches Ennis writes into the series. That said, maybe it was building up to a big ending and I switched off too early, but that’s the film-maker’s cock-up. Ultimately, Castle didn’t appear to be an unstoppable force of nature, and that’s all the Punisher is. If he isn’t, then you’ve just made a mediocre vigilante movie.

And before I forget, and just incase you miss me, tomorrow’s post will be up a little later than usual too.

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And we’ll finish the week with some films, listed by (and why the hell not) creature.

Aliens!

Well, let’s face it, it’s the obvious one in this slot. But I’m also going to acknowledge the pluralicious sequel for being the finest military SF film ever made, and the first really scary scary movie I ever saw. Not quite making the top spot is Signs. I like M. Night Shyamalan’s films a lot, and this one terrified the life out of me in the cinema, although I’ll have to own up to being easily terrified.

Alien

Best cast of any film on this list. Best creature design. Best director. And in all honesty, more a haunted house flick than anything else.

Ghosts!

No Patrick Swayze on this list. Going to have to acknowledge another M. Night one, as The Sixth Sense probably came closest to giving me a heart attack than a truckfull of doughnuts. Also, Below, a story about a haunted submarine. Directed by Pitch Black’s David Twohy and co-written by Darren Aronofsky, it’s a brilliantly creepy flick that didn’t get a wide release because, I think, the studio was put off by the proximity to the fucking dire Ghost Ship. The best horror film I ever picked up randomly at Blockbuster.

The Haunting

A close adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, legendary director Robert Wise proves without a doubt that the scariest things ever put on film are, well, not actually there at all. It’s the perfect Christmas Eve ghost story.

Sea Monsters!

Not an incredibly crowded category, really, so 1998’s Deep Rising doesn’t have much competition to make it on this list. It was a fun little creature feature in its time, but I suspect it’s dated a hell of a lot.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon

And speaking of dated, while this film is undoubtably crude and somewhat tame compared to, well, practically every other horror film ever made, it’s fascinating, not least due to the influence it had on horror as a genre, the ground-breaking creature suit, and the creature’s status as a true horror icon. On an artistic level, the film does actually have an odd, engaging dream-like quality. Also, I remember watching the video of this loads when I was a kid.

Vampires!

Damn, there’s a lot in this category, not least the one reviewed earlier this week. In terms of overall significance, I’ve got to mention Nosferatu, Universal’s Dracula, and the Hammer stuff, all of which set the tone. Interview With The Vampire took a different perspective on the myth, and Steven Norrington’s Blade pumped the undead into an action flick. For a different take again, Willem Defoe is extraordinary in Shadow of the Vampire.

Near Dark

Oh, I can’t be doing with the erotic undertones of the romantic children of the night. Monstrous superhuman killing machines is more like it. And Lance Henriksen as the head of a redneck vampire clan? Hells yes. Action, gore, black humour; this is essentially an undead western, expanding considerably the explosive violence that characterised Hammer’s take on this kind of monster.

Werewolves!

Werewolves as teenage metaphor? Ginger Snaps. Werewolves as dark, gruesome comedy? An American Werewolf in London. Really shit werewolves? The sequel to the latter.

Dog Soldiers

Talk about a film that has it all. It’s a squad-on-a-mission action film, it’s a claustrophobic thriller, it’s a gore-fest, and on top of everything it’s very, very funny. Stupidly impressive for a debut film, with a great cast and creature effects. The disturbing, creepy movements of the wolves were achieved by sticking ballet dancers on stilts and in fur suits, which is just the kind of crazy we like round here.

Zombies!

Done to, erm, death in both fil-ums and comics recently, the living dead have always been of more interest to my buddies than to me. So take the following recommendations as coming from someone with only a passing interest in the genre, who’s only really seen the modern stuff, and as such is inevitably blasphemous.

28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead (the remake). Both on the list for being way, way better than I could’ve expected. While the connoiseur may like her zombies slow, I liked the frantic energy of speeding the suckers up.

Shaun of the Dead

Simon Pegg is one of the funniest writers alive, but the revelation of this film wasn’t just that it was hilarious, but that it was a really, really good horror film. Along with Spaced and Hot Fuzz, this film sets up Pegg, Wright and Frost as England’s greatest contribution to world culture.

Bonus: Much discussed elsewhere on the internet so you probably don’t need me to point them out to you, but nevertheless the Fractal Hall recommends the following zombie-related goodies:

Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead

You may have noticed a whole lot of undead titles clogging up your comic shop like a shopping centre full of stinking, shuffling corpses. Well, this is the best of them, helped in no small way by a couple of crazy awesome artists working in black and white: Tony Moore on the early issues, Charlie Adlard more recently. Adlard, of course, worked on the excellent (and overlooked) first year of the X-Files tie-in comic about twelve years ago, fondly remembered at the Hall.

Jonathan Coulton’s Re: Your Brains

No comment. Just bask in the genius, people.

Honourable Mention:

The Hall’s No. 1 Spanish Civil War Based Dark Fantasy:

Pan’s Labyrinth

Doesn’t really fit into any of the other categories here, but I needed to put it somewhere. One of the best films of last year, never mind horror films. Guillermo Del Toro’s masterpiece (and yes, I took Blade II into consideration), there’s no way I could do it justice in a couple of sentences. If you only watch one film on this list, make it this one.

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So, to follow on from last time, the main thing that got me to buy a recent Vertigo title was (i) a previously established character and (ii) a creator I really like. Interesting, because I’m sure I was reading somewhere that it’s this formula that contributes to Vertigo’s hits, i.e. a creator or a character with a strong fanbase. I’m not sure how true this is, mind, and certainly wouldn’t account for Fables‘ success.

Essentially, there is nothing that engages me in Vertigo’s recent crop of new titles. There have been a few other titles recently that I could see fitting in very well at Vertigo, ones that I’ve really enjoyed and started picking up after buying the first issue to try, but actually get published by Image: Phonogram, The Nightly News and The Walking Dead.

Un-Men, another Swamp Thing spin-off, recently hobbled out into the world. I didn’t get this one because I wasn’t interested in the theme-park freak premise, wasn’t familiar with the talent involved, and thought the sample pages in Hellblazer were unengaging. Crossing Midnight: Like some of Mike Carey’s work, dislike some. Not particularly interested in the Japanese/fantasy setting, so I passed.

Next, two Brian Wood titles: DMZ and Northlanders. I’ve heard good things about DMZ, but not to the point that I want to buy the first collection to see if I like it. I think I saw the first issue online somewhere, but the interface was so shitty I gave up. I’ll probably give this a try sooner or later. The viking-based story of the latter title, however, doesn’t interest me, so I’ll pass on that.

100 Bullets: Read a couple of collections, and a few individual issues, and just cannot get into it. Not for me. American Virgin: Really not interested in right-wing American teenagers. Army@Love: I think Rick Veitch is a very good writer, but at this point I’m too sickened by the Iraq occupation to be entertained by it.

In fact, the Vertigo titles I rate the highest that I’m in the process of buying regularly are actually in collection form: Absolute Sandman, Y: The Last Man and Fables. The latter title actually confirms something Christopher Butcher mentions in his article: I was happy to pay a chunk of money for the first collection off the back of exceptionally good word-of-mouth, as well as a first impression that this was the kind of thing that would interest me. What’s even more significant is that the first and second volumes aren’t even incredibly strong: they’re good, but it’s only with the third volume that I felt it started to justify the hype. So I must have spent almost £20 before I got well and truly hooked.

The best thing Vertigo ever did was offer up the first issue of Y: The Last Man for free online. Both my cohort Marcel and I were immediately engaged, and I know a number of people who had the same reaction. From my friendship group alone, that one free issue has guaranteed Vertigo around £180 worth of business (probably more) once all the collections have been published. I can’t imagine our experience has been unique. Of course, what helps is an incredibly intriguing premise and probably the best premier issue of any series I’ve ever read; certainly the most striking. How can you not want to find out what happens next? Not everything works out as well, of course. Their free first issue of Testament also convinced me to get the title, but before I could I found out it had been cancelled and decided against picking it up.

Whatever happens, next year will be an interesting one for the imprint.

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I don’t doubt that writers of everlasting comics can learn from these new fangled moving pictures, but ultimately they are two distinct media types that need a different approach, not just in execution but in the very heart of their story structure. For example, just look at the amount of times a costumed adventurer is umasked in a film, and the amount of outings that have occurred in recent comics.

A film maker, as a standard part of her job, would ask herself what could be worse thing to happen to her protagonist? Problem is, if the character’s a cape, there’s one obvious answer. Because of this, as well as an actor wanting more face time, they can’t seem to keep their masks on.

This strikes me as the approach taken by many comics writers of late. Unmasking is rife, which annoys me for three reasons:

1) All we get are dozens of outed heroes, all going through the same stories over and over. Yes, I know superheroes are just like celebrities. I know it must be horrible for your enemies to know where your family lives. I have read all of these before, and it isn’t cutting edge if I read it over and over in a 90s Image comic.

2) Ongoing, endless comic series need a different story telling technique to a done-in-one movie. Once the worst has happened, there is nowhere else to go, and frankly I just don’t trust the current crop of writers to show me something new or interesting. In fact, I think secret identities create more story possibilities.

3) Personally, I really like secret identities, and when I handed my cash over it was to see Spider-man, not bloody Peter Parker.

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