Following the adventures of Booster Gold
Random Blurb of the Moment: Thanks to the webmaster of Boosterrific.com for linking me!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Sidebar

First, I will be doing my review of JL:GL 5 tomorrow. Since we now have 4 Booster issues a month for the next little while, I'll be planning on one a week. For now, that means I'll put off JL:GL. Who knows for the future?

In other news, as someone who is doing reviews, this caught my eye.

The Nostalgia Critic recently did a review of the truly terrible movie "The Room." The production company of The Room's director, Tommy Wiseau, forced him to take it down by threatening legal action.

Except that reviews are protected under fair use guidelines. It isn't a violation of copyright. It is patently ridiculous. If anything, the Nostalgia Critic is helping him - he encouraged people to check out the film at the end of his review!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tommy-Wiseau/22835463449?filter=2

This is Tommy Wiseau's Facebook page. Let him have it.

Also, theroom@theroommovie.com is the e-mail for the production company. The guy's name there is John.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Booster Gold #34 - Anger, Fun, and then Anger Again

I apologize for my lateness; I've been busy with job interviews this week, and that does have a way of taking precedence. Anyway...

Boy oh boy did they get this one wrong.

If you were thinking of asking, "O Greatest Blogger (whom I have never heard of), is it possible for 5 pages of bad artwork to negate another 17 pages of otherwise acceptable artwork?" you are in luck, as that is exactly the question that this review will answer. For those of you who would like a hint, the answer is "yes."

This issue serves little purpose other than for Giffen and DeMatteis to go and relive their JLI days. As others have pointed out, this isn't even particularly their GOOD JLI days, more like the parody driven "ICBINTJL." But at least those pages LOOK good...

OK, let's get to it...

The Cover:

In Booster Gold #34, Maxwell Lord is something of a red herring. So why is he on the cover? And what happened to anything resembling detail? This is an uber close-up, Booster's face is roughly the size of mine. And ANOTHER speech balloon? I HATE those on covers. I don't think it's TERRIBLE, it just isn't my cup of tea.

The Story:

I can't even treat this like it is one book. There are two distinct sections to this book: Anger, Fun, and then Anger again. Normally I'd praise a book for ending the way that it began - symmetry to a story helps with closure - but NOT this time. Keith Giffen drew the sections that I labeled "Anger," and the writers especially forced humor into those sections rather than let it happen naturally. Chris Batista drew the section labeled "Fun." I'll examine "Anger" and "Fun" separately, as there is such an enormous disconnect between the two that it barely qualifies as anything.

Anger:

I will summarize this through the voice of Michelle Carter.

"Oh, hi, remember me? I went away for a while, but now I'm back looking totally different. Michael has a little girl running around whom I've never met before, but Michael should totally keep her because she's like, so cute, y'know? And that'd be totally more responsible of him. I know a lot about responsibility, like that time when I disappeared and traveled through time and hooked up with this guy and traveled and nearly died in Coast City. Hey, and check out my costume, it is ENTIRELY gold now instead of white with gold accents like it was in every other appearance from me. Isn't that totally hawt? Anyway, I'm gonna go and take this girl that I've only just met and travel through time. Kthanxbai."

I could complain about the "humor" used in that section, but Erin_Starlight does a much better job than I would do. Check out her livejournal. My issue comes from a completely far out take on Michelle, totally different than anything we have seen from her.

The Fun Part:

Ok, now I get to relax a little bit before I trash Keith Giffen for drawing like a three year old.

Booster travels back in time and immediately encounters the Blue Beetle. I don't have any problem with this exchange. I nearly cringed when he mentioned a "repo job," but the Book of Destiny thing isn't a bad MacGuffin for this. You could see a reason for some urgency with this.

The setup of the story is promising. I really don't like Beetle's improvisation - a Kirboid from Quatloo - but I suppose that's somewhat in character with Beetle.

I suppose the problem I have with a journey back in time like this is that it puts Booster's status from that time period in the DCU front and center. We get an issue of folks who have low expectations of Booster Gold. We know through his role as a Time Master that his disguise is a buffoon, but we see enough of the heroic things that he does to know better. Those who aren't as familiar with the character already think that enough. I'd hate to see the great work that Geoff Jones and Dan Jurgens have done at establishing Booster as a real player who is on the ball disintegrate because two guys want to relive their glory days.

So anyway, they team up with Big Barda and Mr. M and follow the trail of the robber. Barda punches out a dragon. Pretty ho-hum stuff, but fairly effective filler - if this is a JLI book and not a Booster Gold book, but more on that in a second.

We finally meet our villain - Hieronymous the Underachiever. If you hated Brigadoom, you'll absolutely loathe this. The premise of this character is ridiculous, as is the demon who serves him (apparently a "grow your own demon" ad on a magazine). What the crap?

Next, we have the obligatory inner thoughts of Booster Gold - his talk about how he has changed, and how this isn't right, and how he should have listened to Skeets because he isn't the moron that he was back then. I said in the first Giffen/DeMatteis issue that this felt forced and I argue it again. If they think that they can send him through all the goofy bull crap that they want, but apologize for it by talking about how much he has changed once an issue, they are sorely mistaken.

Still, this is just one issue. Breathe, TGB, breathe!

Finally, Booster saves them from a rain of arrows with his force field, and an angry mob runs at them. Then, the issue kind of ...ends. This is the most questionable cliffhanger that I've ever seen. I'm not interested in the next part, nor do I feel that there is an insurmountable conflict coming up because of the lack of any closure to the issue.

The bigger problem is that Booster has very little to do in this issue. Last time I checked, this is called "Booster Gold," not "Super Buddies" or "Justice League International." Beetle has the plan, Mr. Miracle zaps them to the universe, Big Barda punches out the dragon... all Booster does is zap the arrows with his force field, and he does that by standing still. Troubling to me. The book was fun, and I enjoyed reading this middle material, but it just wasn't Booster Gold.

Ok, get ready. Let's move on to...

The Artwork:

I'm not the only one to take note of the issues here. Erin_Starlight mentions many of the same issues that I have in her blog, which I have already linked. Clearly something is amiss here. Walter of Boosteriffic asks:

"All of this outcry has to raise the question: how strong a role does art style play in the success of Booster Gold? Traditionally all super hero comics have been presented in naturalistic detail, and Booster Gold is no exception. Is Giffen's use of caricature such a dramatic departure from the norm as to be offensive to his audience? Or is it just too hard to maintain suspension of disbelief for a costumed melodrama when the adventures are rendered in a cartoonish style?"

I have two things to say to that: The first is that caricature, as I understand it, is when the drawing focuses on a particularly noticeable part of a character and exaggerates it. I don't recall anything about Rani resembling a young Rosie O'donnell with bad hair, about Michelle looking like a skinny whore, about Rip hunter looking different in every panel - and looking like a Geico commercial (time travel - so easy a caveman can do it!), or about Booster's eyes being able to move up and down his head at will. Though, that would be a rather astounding yet completely useless characteristic.

The second point that he poses - "is it just too hard to maintain suspension of disbelief for a costumed melodrama when the adventures are rendered in a cartoonish style?" - this is, I think, the answer.

I'm 24, and I don't think I'm anything like the stereotypical comic book reader. If I want cartoons, I'll wake up on Saturdays; I'm looking for something a little less mindless that looks a lot better. I'm already reading about people in tight, form fitting costumes that are colored like a bag of Skittles. Of COURSE what I'm reading is fantastical, but it maintains a degree of grounding by making the characters look familiar and relatable. If comic readers didn't value that, the days of Rob Liefeld's ammo pouches and impossible body proportions wouldn't be looked back upon with scorn. There is so much disbelief to suspend in a super hero yarn as it is without the artwork looking cartoony and inconsistent.

How bad was it? I've read everything Booster gold that I can find - all of Volume 1, all of Volume 2, poured over everything I can get my hands on for JLI (I was only 3 or 4 when it started)... and still, for all of that fandom, I was ready to stop reading this issue. I couldn't even focus on the words it was so distracting.

Over the first 31 issues, Booster has been established as a more serious character - though obviously one where humor is not a foreign object - who is doing serious work. Now, its like he's doing things just for the hell of it. I was pleased with the first two issues of this run, but I'm worried for the future after this issue.

Keith Giffen, stick to breakdowns. And both authors, please remember that the name of the book is BOOSTER GOLD, and we're reading it to watch him do stuff, not everyone else BUT him.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

A Quick New Comic Day Post:

Just wanted to give a few notes in prep for my in-depth reviews in the coming days. I read these a little faster than usual - I try to savor them - so I'll have to take a little more time.

JL:GL was a transitional issue, and I thought a necessary one after the events of the previous. Positioning the pieces, a little character development, etc. Also, I LOVED the way that they bookended it with Booster's monologue and flashbacks.

Max Lord's explanation was a total cop-out. Clearly he's manipulating them (again), and I find it difficult to believe that they're doing anything other than exactly what he wants them to do.

Booster Gold 34 had me worried for the first several pages. Keith Giffen needs to stick to breakdowns if he must draw anything at all. I would have skipped it had the artwork looked like that the whole issue. Thank GOD that was not the case. I nearly stopped reading in disgust. I would rip the fact that Michelle doesn't look a thing like her prior appearances, but I would have to rip the fact too that NOBODY looked like ANYONE that they were supposed to, except perhaps for Skeets.

Rip Hunter looked like a caveman, Rani looked like a boy, and everything was too cartoonish. Booster looked like five or six different versions of himself.

Luckily, the majority of the issue was Chris Batista, and a solid effort from him.

I sincerely hope that we don't see this again. It's the kind of garbage that will hurt a book's numbers, and I don't want Booster Gold to go anywhere. If something negative happens to Booster Gold Volume 2 before Dan Jurgens can take it back, I will point to this specific instance of Keith Giffen artwork as the reason.

If anyone knows editor Mike Siglain's e-mail, make sure he knows how terrible the first and last 2-3 pages of this issue look. You better believe I will be talking about this in my review.


/rant.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Booster's Schedule // Small Tweaks

This is going to be a GREAT month for Booster Gold. Next week, we have both BG#34 and JL:GL 5 to look forward to. In the first, Booster will continue his trip back to the JLI - I'm sure we'll finally get Booster and Beetle together this time! In the second, we're sure to find some more intrigue in the wake of Max's reveal.

Then, we don't have to take a week off - Time Masters: Vanishing Point begins. This will kick off a 6-month cycle wherein we will have 4 Booster appearances each month, guaranteed. Craziness!

The following week is, of course JL:GL 6.

Finally, I'm making some minor tweaks - mainly, I'm making it so that the two most recent posts will display on this main page of the blog.

Otherwise, enjoy! I know at least the guy from Boosteriffic is reading, I hope others are as well. Feel free to comment or e-mail, I do my best to respond to all.

greatestblog@gmail.com

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Digital DC Comics

The voice behind Boosteriffic was asking for thoughts on the new DC/ComiXology partnership - how the books look and the like. He is (and you are) in luck, as I purchased JL:GL #1 on the iPhone version of the app.

Now, why did I do that? Well, as a Booster fanatic, I added JL:GL 1 to a frame that includes Booster Gold Vol 1 #1 and Vol 2 #1. I'd like to keep it there, mostly because it was a pain in the butt to get them positioned correctly rather than out of a desire to preserve the integrity of the comic book.

Of course, purchasing on ComiXology also grants me access via their webpage, so I will review my experiences with both versions.

ComiXology: The iPhone App:

Buying the comic:

Browsing and purchasing are a snap; everything works through the app store and it is a very natural and intuitive process. Nothing much else needs to be said!

Browsing your collection:

This app gives you several options in this way; you can sort by series, creator, imprint, and genre. As I have only one comic, this is not an issue for me. Others who end up amassing many will be happy to find a similar alphabetical browsing system as on the iPhone contacts list. You can scroll through the titles, or you can use the alphabet on the side to snap to a specific letter.

The only complaint I have for this part is that when you select the comic that you wish to read, the next screen summarizes the issue, has user ratings, talks about buying it in print, has an option for a preview... all of these buttons are larger and more centralized than the button to read the issue. This button is stuck up in the top right corner of the screen, which is not the first place one looks when all of the other information pops up.

Reading the comic:

This is what's really important, now, isn't it? Luckily, they get this right.

Turning the pages is done by tapping the bottom left or right of the screen or using a sweeping gesture in that direction. Intuitive enough. Actually, while I say "pages," I suppose it would be more accurate to say "panels." Luckily, load times are rarely present as you move from panel to panel, creating a fairly fluid reading experience.

Many panels are better read in landscape. This is fine, as the app is quick to respond to the accelerometer. There is also an option to allow you to rotate the panel automatically based on how the specific scene was drawn.

Splash pages are not a problem either. The app will zoom itself in so that characters and conversation can be seen and will also be presented in a full view so that the reader can get an idea of the scope of the page. They also thought ahead and made sure that the text would be presented in story order.

Take, for example, the page in JL:GL 1 where Captian Atom is introduced. First, the bubble at the top as well as the text boxes introducing the character are featured. Next, the app zooms to the two text boxes near his left arm. After that, we see the radio broadcast bubble in the bottom left of the panel. Finally, we zoom out so that we can see the entire page.

Whether you like to peripherally notice other panels as you read or feel that it would be a distraction in this type of setting, you are also in luck. you can either view the comic "letterboxed," whiting out everything that is not the current panel, or without letterboxing, allowing you to see the corners of other panels.

To wrap it up:

I am pleased to say that reading comics is easy and intuitive on this iPhone app!

The Browser-Based Version:

After logging in, I click "My Comics" and there it is. I click on the series, I click on the issue, and we're off to reading.

First let me say that graphically, they are trying to play on familiarity with the iPhone OS. The X in a circle on the top right of the screen, the little italic I for information, it all screams iOS motif.

This is, unfortunately, less exciting than reading on the iPhone. My laptop has a 15 inch widescreen monitor - which has never been inadequate for anything else - and the website just doesn't do it right. Everything is tiny, a good 2/3s the size of a comic book even in full screen mode. You can zoom in and out easily with the space bar and then scroll around, but this is just like reading a PDF document in Acrobat. You can't use the arrows to scroll around the page, it must be the mouse. It is just far less interactive.

However, they do have a saving grace: You can access "Guided View," which opens a smaller frame and allows you to view the comic in much the same way as on the app. I think that this should be the default. Everything is readable and you need nothing more than the left and right arrows to navigate it. The mouse also works, either by clicking the left or right side of the panel.

I suppose that it isn't ultimately TOO dissimilar from the iPhone version, but there's something far less organic about it. Maybe it is the keyboard/mouse interface rather than the touchscreen. Maybe it is just the fact that I'm on a computer rather than a sexy little pocket sized device. I mean, part of the fun of a comic book is that it is slim and easy to take most places, fit in a folder and pack in a suitcase, etc. While reading it on an iPhone is different, it's still the same benefit of a small package. Reading it on a bigger and heavier computer is just odd.

Well, whatever the reason, it's just not as 'fun' to read on the computer. The ComiXology website is functional and easy to use, but it isn't my favorite.

The Overall Verdict:

ComiXology works, no doubt about it. Whether comics fans will forgo their print purchasing in favor of the digital medium has yet to be seen. I'm a completest, so I'll likely continue to buy in print. What do you think? Will you make the switch?

Friday, July 2, 2010

Happy 4th (In Advance)



Ah, nothing like a quality ensemble! Not many people seem to actually do this, but when the National Anthem is played, EVERYONE is supposed to sing along! It's true - there's an entire set of rules of decorum dealing with the playing of the piece. Another little-practiced fact is that the National Anthem is not to be applauded regardless of how moving the performance. There are also very specific guidelines regarding how the piece is to be played. Jimmy Hendrix's solo at Woodstock - though impressive - was nonetheless against the rules. Trust me - I'm a musician and have conducted the piece enough times.

Well now, happy Fourth of July! As I will likely be busy with model rockets, grilling out, badminton, and family this weekend, I felt that a post recognizing America's "Birthday" would be best served coming this evening.

See, you must remember, without America's freedom and attitude, we couldn't have Booster Gold. As Independence Day approaches, I've decided to wax poetic about Booster's heroic role in our country.

Is there a more American character than Booster? I submit that there is not. Superman gets a patriotic reputation, but let's face it, he's simply an illegal alien trying to fit in to a foreign world. Wonder Woman? Puh-leeze. Olympians - or whatever it is that she's going to be from nowadays, I dislike the costume and story change, for the record - need not apply. No, Booster Gold's story reads like the following of the American Dream, if the American Dream includes lots of lasers and people in spandex.

In all seriousness, you have to face it - Booster Gold is a true American success story. He was a star in his own time playing what must have become America's pastime by the 25th century (sorry, baseball). His golden boy status was shattered by scandal, something we've seen with many celebrities lately - Brittney Spears, Tiger Woods, Ben Roethlisberger, Pac Man Jones... man, was Dan Jurgens ahead of his time! Yet, the scandal was not due to his own selfishness, but his desire to help his family out of a terrible situation. This was Booster's first major sacrifice, and he wasn't even a superhero yet!

Sure, Booster acquired his powers by somewhat dishonest means (ok, OUTRIGHT dishonest means) but we know from Skeets' conversation with Superman from way back when that he is SUPPOSED to be here doing what he is doing. Is that fate, negating the issue of his theft of materials from the museum? That may be another issue for another conversation. We'll spare the moralistic side of this for now.

A media darling nearly from the get-go, he built his career based upon capitalism and the almighty dollar. Sound familiar? It seems to be the current American Dream. In the beginning, his fame was based upon hype. He was almost the Paris Hilton of super heroes - doing very little, but gaining much acclaim. Yet again, Dan Jurgens was ahead of his time! He garnered the ire of other heroes and struggled to find respect, but in the beginning, the money was enough for him. That began to change slowly (despite some writers giving him fluff roles), but no change was more significant than the death of his best friend. This woke him up once and for all and he came to realize that he needed to do the right thing because it was right, not because of the pay day that it could bring.

He's been through his share of ups and downs, no doubt. His fortune has been lost and remade many times over, his reputation shattered, his credibility ruined over and over again - - but ultimately he salvages his situation. Really, that's Booster's life - salvaging the situation and finding a way to come out better, or at least the same. Even if he is he only one who knows it, as is the case with his work with Rip Hunter, Booster manages to come out a little wiser and a little better off.

This perseverance has even carried over in to the real world. His first run was canceled, but he found his way in to the Justice League. Those days came and went, but he found his role in other places. Then, the big break - just as he was about to give up when in the hospital, he ended up playing a crucial role in Infinite Crisis, broke through in 52 with a key story arc, and has now risen to a place that perhaps was impossible to envision when Booster Gold Volume 1 Issue 1 came out. Sure, that's a ridiculously cursory glance at a 25 year history, but I'm a man on a schedule.

Booster Gold represents many things, good and bad, about America - rampant consumerism, yet a desire to do good; failure, yet perseverance; overconfidence, yet moments of humility. If one only saw Booster on the Brave and the Bold cartoon, or only knows of him in a cursory sense, they may think that he is a very one-dimensional character. We know better.

All hail Booster Gold, a true American Hero!