Saturday, February 05, 2005
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
untitled
Since I was completely incapable of falling asleep last night--can't stay awake during the day, can't fall asleep at night--I finished reading Gentleman's Game by Greg Rucka. This would be the prose novel continuing on from his Queen & Country graphic novel series about a female British secret agent. Lest this sound like yet another crappy media spin-off, like the 2000AD and Doctor Who novels I love so much, I should point out that Rucka was writing prose suspense novels before he ever started writing comics. Then he wrote a pair of really good suspense comics miniseries about a US Marshall in Antarctica, which is where I first encountered his work, which led me to his novels. After that, he started writing company-owned superhero characters (mostly Batman-related comics), which are good, but not as good as Queen & Country. (Right now, he's still writing Adventures of Superman, which I no longer read, and Wonder Woman and Gotham Central, which I do read.)
Anyway, the book was great. Obviously very much in keeping with the tone of the comics, very true to the characters, and telling an important chapter in the lives of Tara Chase and her friends, but taking full advantage of the prose format. The Queen & Country comics are great for what they are, but this particular story couldn't have been told in that format. It'll be interesting to see where the story goes next, first in another prose novel, and then back to the comics.
And the third and final issue of WE 3, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, came out. As I expected, I did tear up at the end, but not for the reasons expected. And you've got to admire a comic that presents a cyborg cat as the greatest threat in the story. Wonderful stuff, but that's not really any surprise. Morrison has another miniseries coming out starting next month, I think: Vinamarama, some sort of sci-fi Bollywood romance, which looks just great, although it'll have a ways to go to top WE 3. Plus he's got a bunch of superhero stuff coming out, including a year's worth of Superman stories with Frank Quitely. While I'm dropping superhero comics left, right and center for reasons to be discussed in a future entry, I'll almost certainly keep getting the ones Morrison writes, because he's earned my trust. He seems interested in not just duplicating what's come before, but also has the sense and skill to not just twist everything all out of shape for the sake of being different.