Hmpf
-
Posts
298 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by Hmpf
-
-
Caitlin R Kiernan swears in made up television language... Farscape I think.
Now ~that~ is foreign swearing!
So do I. Frelling good vocabulary for swearing. Drenloads of great words for wishing people to hezmana.
*wears geek hat proudly*
-
*looks at cover*
What the...??
-
Yeah well it's true that Rich the Punk had idiosyncratic speech so it could be that, but it was a deliberate character trait rather than a fuck up in the attempt to do English slang by Jenkins.
I know, but someone who only reads two issues or so might not. ;-)
-
I'm wondering if perhaps my friends meant Rich the Punk's use of slang, which is more of an idiolect, really (i.e. a personal dialect spoken only by him)...
-
So cute! So *tiny*!! Congrats to all the family & welcome to the world, Lydia!
And never mind about the delay, this is just about the best reason for a delay I could imagine. :-)
-
A couple of British friends of mine recently read a few of my HB issues and objected to the 'Englishness', especially in the Jenkins issues. That is to say, they didn't object to the Englishness itself, but rather, they thought Jenkins' use of slang was less than convincing. As a non-native speaker I obviously can't judge that, so I'm asking you... Did you notice any particular mistakes in the use of slang by Jenkins (or the other writers, for that matter)? Who do you think handled slang best, who did it worst, etc.?
-
yeah i did write that- but there are trades not translated. and i would do it.
Sure, I would, too. I love translating, and I love Hellblazer, and I know English pretty well, and my first language is German. But the point is, there is a publisher already, and they have a translator already, and they're busy publishing the series (no Jenkins in Germany either, though - seems like *nobody* wants to publish Jenkins, no matter where you look, grrrr), so Germany is pretty much taken care of as far as translations of Hellblazer are concerned. It's a small publishing house, so they're somewhat slow at putting out new volumes, but they still manage a couple or so per year; they haven't given up on it or anything.
Here's their Hellblazer page:
http://www.schreiberundleser.de/hellblazer/index.html
@pooka: I want the smoking hobo monkey! *g*
Other than that, I agree with everyone that a more consistent TPB policy would be the way forward for Hellblazer... *sigh*
-
and i would gladly translate some hb into german, because thats what im studying and i could select that subject later on. and if i really end to be a translator, it would be a cool thing to do.
Hellblazer has been / is being translated into German - there are quite a few volumes out. In fact, some stories are available in German that aren't available in English in trade paperback form (Royal Blood, possibly others, as well).
I buy the original versions, though, because I don't really trust translations.
-
Arrgh... I'm stupid. I somehow managed to overlook the payment post. I found it just now. Sent the money immediately, but it may take a few days for the money to arrive (says my experience from similar transactions).
Also... I'm a bit confused now... I think I initially wanted the print sent to a friend in Britain who was going to visit me soon. However, that visit is *today*, so obviously she can't bring me the print anymore. She could still send it on to me, of course, but perhaps it would be easier to send it directly to me and add a few pounds to my bill? I can still paypal you a few more pounds/dollars/euros if you agree that this is the best method. Just let me know. :-)
Again, sorry I'm so late.
-
There we differ, I think. I'd infer (and do tell me if I'm wrong :) ) that, in a world where nobody asks for/expects/demands excellence, you would expect those being expected to purvey said excellence to stop trying to excel - from my view, at least in artistic fields, excellence is its own reward, and would be sought regardless of whether it were demanded.
In an ideal world I would agree with your position. However, we live in a capitalist world where demand influences production, and comics are produced for profit, not artistic satisfaction. In this kind of world I feel we need to keep producers (read: publishers. I don't doubt that artists will always have an urge to produce stuff that's 'different'.) aware that there is not just the 'lowest common denominator' crowd of easily amused readers out there, or they will happily produce *only* stuff for that type of reader (because lowest common denominator stuff that appeals to the largest amount of people will always be the most profitable), and disregard the 'small' minority of people who want something a bit more demanding.
-
You can't ask for any more than satisfaction from comics - or indeed any other art form. Sure, you can be pleased when you get more than you'd hoped for, but you can't expect it.
The idea I was questioning here was not satisfaction but entertainment. I (flippantly, so don't take this too seriously - I'm not trying to start a war here! *g*) objected to the statement that you couldn't ask more than *to be kept reading* from a comic. For me that is not the definition of satisfaction. Satisfaction is *not* simply synonymous with entertainment. Entertainment is only one facet of it.
Sorry for splitting hairs here... It's just fairly central to my attitude towards cultural consumption and production to not settle for 'just being entertained'. I think asking for and expecting excellence (of some sort - there are different kinds) is very important because if you don't, you'll eventually end up with the desert of the lowest common denominator in which nothing exceptional can grow anymore.
(Sorry... random fit of philosophising... *g*)
-
Loved this issue. Especially the page with the burning lockup and the 'I really loved this' line.
*shudder*
-
True, but you'll frequently be disappointed. As a minimum requirement, at least, it's a pretty reasonable one.
Maybe.
I don't like the idea of minimum requirements much, though. I try to find as many things as possible that fulfill maximum requirements. ;-)
-
but overall, the stories kept me reading, and I didn't feel my time had been wasted in doing so, which is really all one can ask of a comic.
I think you can ask a great deal more than that of a comic.
-
How on earth did you manage having to manage from one month to the next with one small issue (with cliffhangers) which you probably read in like, half an hour?!! :
Half an hour? Try ten to fifteen minutes!
As for how we manage... you'll see... soon enough. *eg*
-
Yesterday, dinner: risotto with asparagus. About to cook a vegetable bouillon with noodles now.
-
BTW, I didn't want to be 'ripping on people' in general to have fun or anything. My post was just the result of ten years of sharing a variety of student-type accommodation and flats with a very varied group of people, some of whom, well, lacked some understanding of simple household tasks. It gets annoying after a few years, even if it's trivial stuff - especially if you notice that you are always the one to remove the *really* heavy-duty dirt from the bathtub or the toilet. You know, I'm not the cleanliest person in the world - I'm perfectly fine with only cleaning the flat once a week, although it gets *very* dirty by the end of that week if you share it with several people. Hell, I hate cleaning as much as the next girl or guy! But at least I know *how* to clean when I do it.
And no, none of the people I lived with had any mental or physical conditions that made it impossible for them to cope with household tasks and stuff. They were just inexperienced and, in some cases, unwilling to learn. (Presumably because there would always be someone - parents, roommates, girlfriends? - who would clean up their mess.)
I'm not sure if shame is the issue here, though. Though it's probably part of it. But I think this is just one facet of the larger culture of egotism we live in. Putting your own pleasure and convenience first is the cool thing to do. Household chores aren't fun, so why bother?
I don't know if the statistics are the same in other countries, but in Germany there has, in recent years, been a very high number of people who go on living with their parents (because it's cheap and mom's doing the laundry and cooking etc.) well into their twenties or even sometimes their thirties. Same thing, I think. It' s so convenient - reduces the strain on your budget, gives you more time to spend doing fun things, etc. (The phenomenon's called 'Hotel Mama' in German. *g*)
-
The good thing is, that we have all Ennis and Jenkins completed, and I think Ellis' run is published too.
You have *Jenkins* trades in Spain? Wow. How's the translation? I understand some Spanish, maybe I should get them in Spanish? I prefer the original versions to translations by far, but if the original version is permanently unavailable....
-
I remember the utter astonishment of some of my university friends when they saw me preparing actual homemade tomato sauce. Because, you know, that's such an amazing skill... :-D
I have quite a few friends - mostly younger friends - who claim they 'can't cook at all'. Me, I think they're just lazy and using their 'genetic inability to cook' as an excuse. Cooking - at least preparing basic dishes, like a simple tomato sauce - is not a complex, complicated activity. The basic principles can be picked up very quickly. I wasn't *born* knowing how to cook, I just sort of picked it up when watching my mom in the kitchen as a child. All you need to do is keep your eyes open! And switch your brain on, I suppose...
It's odd; when I was the age of my friends (18, 19), I used to meet with friends to cook, occasionally. We thought it was a fun thing to do, make dinner and watch a video or something. Were we that unusual? Or is this a generation gap thing?
I'm also often amazed at many younger people's (and also: not-so-young men's!) inability to do simple cleaning tasks like cleaning a bathtub. There's a common misconception that all you need to do is spray some miracle spray on the tub, then rinse with some water, and it will be clean. Not so. You have to actually get down on your knees and scrub a bit if you really want to remove those ugly dirt stains at the bottom. Guess what: despite what tv advertising wants to make you believe, tubs *don't* clean themselves! Neither do toilets, for that matter. Yes, you actually have to touch the porcelaine contraption and scrub it, too, and if you find disgusting remnants under the seat, guess what, you have to remove them! They're not going to go away if you don't *do* anything about it! It's *not* enough to just wipe at the dirt cursorily with an antiseptic tissue!
I mean, I didn't even have to help with the cleaning when I was still living with my parents 'cause we had a cleaning woman - but even so, it didn't take me more than maybe one or two tries to figure out how to best clean the loo or the tub when I moved out! It's not rocket science!!!
Hah. I like this thread. I didn't realise how much I needed to vent...
[EDITED to add this and that...]
-
Vertigo was developed to house DC's mature readers comics. The Sandman was one of them, yes, but also Swamp Thing and Hellblazer, neither of which could be classified as "gothy".
I didn't mean the 'gothy' very seriously. Just as a way to contrast what I know of the Vertigo titles with what I know about Wildstorm. Many Vertigo titles are borderline 'gothy', there's a 'dark fantasy' approach there that many goths, in my experience, find appealing. EDIT: Sandman, of course, being the main 'offender' in that respect. *g*
-
I'm fairly tolerant of it, if I'm enjoying where the creator is going with the comic. Jane's World has fairly rough, simple art, but I get a lot of enjoyment out of that strip, and two women I"ve turned on to it are really happy that I did, one so much that she made an effort to seek out its creator, Paige Braddock. But while I'm tolerant, I figured that most would be less so, and a fair number of my favorites that I didn't put into my post above had funky art.
Oh, rough and simple doesn't equal 'bad'. Rough and simple can be done really well. It's just that with many webcomics, you can really see that the artist has little talent for drawing. Of course, it's kind of hard to define what's 'good' and what's 'bad' in art, yet I would still claim to be able to distinguish 'good' from 'bad' comic art fairly well, even if I can't articulate the criteria.
Trying to list some criteria:
- internal consistency of the artwork in general and the depiction of recurring characters and elements in particular. This includes things like the varying degrees of anatomical correctness, or let's say anatomical believabilty, required by different styles of drawing.
- variety: is the artist able to render his or her characters and settings from different perspectives, in different positions, in motion, with different facial expressions etc.? Though lack of variety can be a deliberate decision, of course.
- 'ease' of linework: This may be the most important point, but also the most elusive. I don't know how to phrase this better, but there's something about some artists' linework that really suggests 'amateur' to me, whereas in the work of others you get the impression that the lines were drawn with a certain... ease... suggesting the artists knew what they were doing
[EDIT] Just thought of another one: composition. Very important. Does the artist know how to use the space of the page or not?
There's one strip that has really good art (the creator is a college-level art instructor in Austria), but I just don't think what he does with it was interesting enough to subject you all to it.There are some creators who are good artists but who have nothing to say ongoingly. They have little or no story in them, and they can't do something humorous regularly. Their strips probably never really go many days. But I think they're a minority. The world of web comics are bursting with people who really do have something to say but who have marginal art skills. So one is more likely to run into a possibly interesting story with bad art than a faltering, beautifully illustrated strip, though I've seen those as well.
There are quite a few of those beautiful but boring strips. There's something to be said for the American comic industry's separation of the jobs of comic writer and artist... not everyone is equally good at writing *and* drawing. And yeah, I prefer a well-written, funny, exciting, moving, original strip with bad art to one with gorgeous art but no story/characters I can care about. But ideally, I'd like both at least competent art *and* good writing.
Needless to say, most of the strips I linked above I consider to be pretty good on both counts (with the possible exceptions of Alice and Paper Eleven. Alice is... very simple, and Paper Eleven is just confusing, although in an interesting way.)
-
I actually see Vertigo turning in Paradox Press in the not too distant future.
There are many books that DC should be launching under the Vertigo banner that they are keeping within DC npw, due to the series starring DCU characters (the new "Vigilante" series is another example).
Plus, a "mature readers" book like "Hard Time" not being a Vertigo book, and DC is reaching out to a new market by having non-DCU books like Ellis' "Jack Cross" under the DC banner.
Add to that the fact that WildStorm seems to be attracting more writer/books all that time that would normally appeal to the Vertigo market.
This is as good a place as any to ask this: What was the initial difference between Wildstorm and Vertigo? What were their respective profiles as planned by DC? I've been a bit confused by this for a while now... Vertigo = sort of goth-y stuff, Wildstorm = the hipper superheroes and some crime/thriller?
-
No, but I do follow that one [shortpacked].
Yes, so do I.
I casually follow that one as well. [College Roomies From Hell]Me too. Really casually. Casually to the point that I've sort of lost the plot. *g*
One of my favorite story arcs in that was the evil Harry Potter one. Which is funny because I'm a Harry Potter fan.Yes, the MagiNet was my favourite arc, as well. I just love the idea of Jack-the-slacker turning into a 'real' wizard. And 'Jack the Plaid' is the coolest wizard name ever. *g* I really loved the Gandalf parody in that arc, too.
I should really try to write a Hellblazer/Zebra Girl crossover sometime. Hehe...
Out of the other comics you listed I read Alien Loves Predator (because the idea's just so strange, even if it isn't always all that funny). Oh, and I've read a part of the Devil's Panties, and will perhaps go back and read more. The comic endeared itself to me by having a Finder reference.
-
The thing with most webcomics is that they start off rubbish, go really funny for a bit and then make the mistake of thinking that the characters are more important than the jokes. This leaves me with a brief window of funniness in which I can recommend them, before people start clicking through and getting crappy strips.
Well... to some people character is more interesting than humour. Most of the webcomics I recommended above aren't humour comics, and those that do incorporate humour aren't all *about* the humour. I think 'just jokes' gets very boring very fast. Besides, there's no reason character exploration can't be funny. It's Walky, one of my favourites, does both very well. Yeah, it got darker - but it never really stopped being funny, and in its best moments it was both at the same time.
Also, most of the comics I recommended above have above average art. In fact, most have very good art. Of course, two of them are print comics gone web. The rest, I'd say, are good enough to *be* print comics, at least in the independent field.
Ah heck, here's a few examples, just because I feel like it:
Zebra Girl:
http://zebragirl.keenspot.com/d/20021205.html
It's Walky:
http://www.itswalky.com/d/20030914.html (great example for a 'dark' character exploring strip that's actually funny - though you have to know Mike, the bandaged guy, to really get the joke.)
girly:
http://go-girly.com/?strip=3 (probably the most humour-centred comic I read)
Demonology 101:
http://faith.razornetwork.com/episode5/page147.html
No Rest for the Wicked:
http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/02-15.html
Girl Genius:
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/cgi-bin/gg...i?date=20051019
Paper Eleven:
http://manga.clone-army.org/pxi.php?page=68
Dicebox:
http://www.dicebox.net/chap2/images/1.2_FW_pg16.jpg
Irrational Fears:
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/memberimages/irrational5.jpg
Alice:
http://www.frozenreality.co.uk/comic/alice2/index.php?id=3
Peter Pan:
http://www.thegreencrow.com/pages/page29.html
Finder:
http://www.lightspeedpress.com/index.php?m...issue=38&page=6
I have very little tolerance for bad art. The story has to be really, really gripping for me to tolerate it, or the comic has to come highly recommended, if the story doesn't kick in immediately. Roomies/It's Walky was a borderline case in the beginning, though the art was never 'bad' per se, just not quite in a style I liked, but it evolved a lot.
(Nope, I didn't find all of these just now - I stole the links from another webcomic thread I made in another forum. :-))
Hellblazer #216
in Hellblazer
Posted
Glad I'm not the only one confused by that bit.
Other than that bit of confusion, I rather liked the issue. Though I'm a bit confused by the ending, as well, but I'm sort of hoping the next issue will explain that to some degree.