thirty-seven things tagged “comics”

Black Hole by Charles Burns A

'Black Hole' by Charles Burns

About five minutes in, I felt like I was reading a masterpiece even though I know very little about the graphic novel/comic genre. This is some mesmerizing inking (Burns won a lot of “Best Inker” awards for this work). The panels almost look like woodcuts. It’s about teenagers and adolescence and how we see our bodies during those important formative years, as simultaneously beautiful and grotesque. The world of Black Hole is bleak, boring, and pretty horrifying. And we’re talking moody teenagers so you get to witness a lot of terrible decisions, angst, ennui, despair, friendship, love, sex, camaraderie, depression, grief, humor, violence, acceptance, and hope in a very short span of pages. Lots of yonic imagery. The author published this over a ten-year period starting in 1995 and it looks like these are almost exclusively what he worked on during that timespan. Amazing.

Sample panel from the book 1

Sample panel from the book 1

When Does It End?

COVID Theater has become a sad thing to behold these days. Do we still wear masks? If transmission is mostly airborne, why do we get to take them off at restaurants to eat our food when droplets from a sneeze can travel in excess of 25 feet? What’s all this talk about a second booster? Is Omicron something to worry about? How bad is it really?

“We should all be concerned about omicron, but not panicked,” Biden said, emphasizing that vaccinated individuals, especially those with a booster shot, are “highly protected” against the virus.

Biden preaches concern, not panic on omicron”, The Hill

I see. Well this is very practical and actionable advice, for I was planning on being distressed myself before I read that.

Mike Dawson expresses the mood I’ve picked up from most of my friends and family (all of whom, I’m happy to say, are vaccinated because they are responsible adults and not selfish, stupid, and insolent bloody children who are determined to make this nightmare last as long as possible because of their expertise in infectious diseases.)

COVID comic by Mike Dawson

Aaron Rodgers

The sentiment inside The Orange Sphere of Shit, by this genius (who is treating himself with Ivermectin.)

Aaron Rodgers by Ben Garrison

QL made some observations:

  1. This is an incomplete pass.
  2. It’s probably unsportsmanlike conduct penalty
  3. It’s at least intentional grounding.
  4. It does no good, only hurts the rest of the team.
  5. The vaxxed player would be wearing a cup (you know, because they’re actually protected).
  6. What makes it “accurate” is that the whole point is to hurt another person.

That’ll show 'em.

Ice Haven by Daniel Clowes B+

'Ice Haven' by Daniel Clowes

Birthday gift from TK. Sharp, vibrant, funny, and dark. The characters’ philosophical ruminations are self-indulgent and sophomoric and tedious. Don’t know if that was the point.

WandaVision (2021) IMDb B+

Wonderful, wonderful stuff with the TV Eras. So creative! Slightly disappointing in how an intriguing and promising Twilight Zone-like plot was resolved via a good old Marvel laser shootout1. Can’t wait to read an analysis of how it was a ‘triumphant exploration of Grief’ (which it really was.)

  1. Or whatever. Energy Beam. Aura Projection. I don’t know. ↩︎

A Conservative Plan

By Amii James (Instagram). Context was the Tories but applies to our fine people stateside as well.

The Compassionate Conservative Plan

Tory ministers saying “we owe it to children to keep schools open” might want to explain to me why they closed my youth centre, cut mental health services, underfunded my secondary school, stripped free school meals from my peers, tripled uni fees, demonised climate strikers…

Hasan Patel