grim fin-headed arserape

WARREN ELLIS rides again to our dark wednesday's rescue in today's bad signal.

The New York Times' arts section today has a large feature on the new DC, home of Grim Fin-Headed Arserape. Rather than Mark Waid's happy shiny take on it -- which is essentially that once they get through all this Dark Stuff things will be lovely again -- grim fin-headed Greg Rucka is heard to say that when the fans call it too dark, it means they're scared.

(And I'm sorry, Greg, but I cannot resist the comedy of applying the prefix "grim fin-headed" now.)

They're an odd mix, the four DC guiding lights of the moment. Grant's superhero stuff operates on what he *thought* Silver Age comics were like, not what they were *actually* like. Waid talks a good happy shiny game, but his work is often remarkably bitter. Geoff Johns comes off as the classic DC "respectful" guy. Greg, as a storyteller, is incredibly egoless -- it's almost impossible to find a signature to his writing. It's a far weirder mix than it looks at first glance.

i don't write about comices much, o my henrys and em'lys, but you might have gathered from my froth-mouthed adoration of señor "happy" ellis' writing that i am, in fact, a crazed fan of the modern comic. that it to say, i have read no batman outside of arkham asylum and i have read no other "klassik komik" titles at all, i am a wild enthusiast of y: the last man, carla speed mcneil's ginormously brilliant finder (w00t! she's working with warren ellis on his next project!), our homegrown hero james kochalka (of peanut butter & jeremy and monkey versus robot fame), the original sin of preacher, global frequency - the list runs on.

brian wood is one of my favourites: his creepily predictive bush-jr.-crossed-with-atwood channel zero is one of the best. evar. and i mustn't forget that most inspirational of works, transmetropolitan, neither.

so i don't talk about the comices much. but i reads them, o yes. every month or two, i go to the (in)famous million year picnic and go on a rampage. i only like perfect-bound works, not individual comices; i can't keep the individual ones, they make me mad. (the only exception i've made to that rule is during the tortured period when joss whedon's "future slayer" series fray had one issue out every five months and i couldn't wait five years to read it. and i might buy the perfectbound now that it's out so i can lose the individual ones from Long Ago.)

yes, comices are the bomb. they make me happy. they let me escape. they are of fine quality; they catch your breath something between a television series and a good work of fiction. visuals with actual writing?!? qué milagro! in these days of shit-ass movies and rarely well-written shows, a good comic will make your smart brain happy and keep your looking-at-pritty-things brain sated as well.

oh, for more fray. joss, o joss! write me some more fray!