The Hobbit Hole VIII - Still round the corner we may meet...

My Amazon package came! Rurouni Kenshin manga! I called in sick for choir, so I'll just do my homework, read one volumn, and go to bed early. Maybe by 10, even.

1,561 posted on 04/13/2004 1:26:51 PM PDT by JenB

Woo-hoo! :) Sounds like a plan! How many issues did you get?

Speaking of which, I will confess that in high school, there were a few days when I happened to get sick on the same day my mail-order comics happened to arrive :) But do your homework first! :)

1,562 posted on 04/13/2004 1:34:20 PM PDT by Fedora

All four that are translated so far - at only $8 each, it was a steal.

I called home to tell my sis to call choir and cancel, and then she told me the Amazon package had come. She is threatening to open it - I made the mistake of telling her what was inside - if I don't come home soon.

I will almost certainly complete at least half my homework before reading the last page. Which is the first page, the books are printed backwards.

1,563 posted on 04/13/2004 1:36:26 PM PDT by JenB

Sounds like your sister is anxious to read them, too!

Interesting that the comics are printed backwards--traditionally, Japanese reads vertically right to left. I wonder if that means the panels are supposed to be followed backwards, too?

I will believe that you'll complete half your homework before reading the last page when I see it :)

1,564 posted on 04/13/2004 1:47:17 PM PDT by Fedora

Mad Mardigan was probably the only redeeming thing about that movie!

What about Lenny and Squiggy?

1,565 posted on 04/13/2004 1:48:31 PM PDT by 300winmag (FR's Hobbit Hole supports America's troops)

Yes, some manga is flipped, and some is printed Japanese-style. Kenshin is done Japanese style. It takes a little more work to follow, but not much. Though it did confuse me at first to figure out that if there are multiple dialog bubbles, they're all read right to left, too.

1,566 posted on 04/13/2004 1:51:13 PM PDT by JenB

LOL! I forgot about that :)

1,567 posted on 04/13/2004 1:55:11 PM PDT by Fedora

Do you get used to reading it backwards after a while? Incidentally, I used to read British versions of Marvel Comics and it was always funny seeing "pence" instead of "cents" on the cover. I've also seen some Spanish Marvels; I bet it'd be fun to read Japanese comics. I wonder if they have ads like American ones.

1,568 posted on 04/13/2004 2:03:30 PM PDT by Fedora

To: 300winmag; g'nad; osagebowman; HairOfTheDog; JenB; SuziQ; RosieCotton; Corin Stormhands; ...

Article about Maj. Wes!

This is one of the soldiers that the Hobbit Hole has sent a knife and pair of snips to...

1,569 posted on 04/13/2004 2:17:34 PM PDT by 2Jedismom (Expect me when you see me!)

Oops! I forgot, it is the weekend of May 15-16.

1,570 posted on 04/13/2004 2:22:23 PM PDT by SuziQ

What about Lenny and Squiggy?

"Brownies?! I hate brownies!" ;o)

1,571 posted on 04/13/2004 2:24:57 PM PDT by SuziQ

Great article! Love that story about the guide. Good man to have watching out for the Major!

1,572 posted on 04/13/2004 2:34:45 PM PDT by SuziQ

Morning!

I know its a little late, but I missed saying it to y'all this morning. :(

Been busy, no letup in sight.

Gotta go make dinner. *sigh*

1,573 posted on 04/13/2004 2:40:23 PM PDT by Lil'freeper (By all that we hold dear on this good Earth I bid you stand, men of the West!)

I saw that article--didn't realize it was our guy! Whew!--prayers for his safety! But glad to hear he's sticking it to the Taliban! Give 'em one for the Shire, Maj. Wes.

1,574 posted on 04/13/2004 2:49:22 PM PDT by Fedora

I'll start looking around! I don't go downtown much, but I know a lot of people like going to the Waterfront to eat... that's not downtown, it's some distance off, and I don't actually know how to get there. But I will definitely reserve that weekend.

1,575 posted on 04/13/2004 2:55:10 PM PDT by JenB

Yes, I got used to reading it backwards pretty quickly. It took a little longer to get used to the way action was drawn - I'm not sure that makes sense, but at first my eyes just tried to 'skip over' big panels, instead of really look at them and read the pictures.

Oh, I'm so tired I came home and collapsed onto a chair for forty-five minutes. Now I'm attacking one of the idiotic stories my idiotic writing partners got to me. Out of three, two are so lousy I'd like to burn them. This one has a 'theme' of racism, how on Earth am I supposed to criticize a story whose message is 'racism is bad' - even if it's also implying that white people are evil?

1,576 posted on 04/13/2004 3:21:01 PM PDT by JenB

To: JenB; Bear_in_RoseBear; Rose in RoseBear

I know what you mean about getting used to the way the action was drawn. Occasionally a US comic artist will try experimenting with new ways of doing panel layouts and it has a similar effect. Jim Steranko is one example:

The Drawings of Steranko

Under that link, this is especially interesting:

O'Ryann: Steranko produced a concept for a science fiction series for Marvel Comics to be called O'Ryanns Odyssey. Marvel rejected the series as too far-out. Here are some of the character sketches.

On the idiotic story, you could try ignoring the PC theme and aim your critique at the mechanics of the style, etc. Do they use the active voice or do they slip into the passive? Do they focus on a single narrative perspective or do they wander around? Do they describe by showing or do they fall into "telling" by explication? With most undergraduate writing you can find enough stuff like that to give them something to think about without even getting into the content of the story.

Incidentally while looking up that link on Jim Steranko I discovered Steranko had an interesting reaction to 9/11:

STERANKO WAGES WAR ON COMIX TERRORISM!

You're in danger! We all are. We've watched as our beliefs, our work, our way of life, our country, and our very existence has become increasingly corrupted. The 9/11 attack on America has pushed me and probably most of you to the razor's edge of endurance for the destructive forces around us--and the people behind them. Those who know me can confirm that I've never thought of myself as one of the good guys. But the malevolence I've seen in the recent past, culminating in the WTC tragedy, has put that perception in a different perspective. Like many others, I'm repulsed by the plague of violence and death ravaging our nation and feel frustrated, even helpless, to combat it. I find it particularly disturbing that the artistic form with which I'm most closely identified has seemed to turn its back on the virtues upon which it was built. Today's comics are possessed by brutality, destruction, depravity, cynicism, and obscenity. . .

If this is supposed to be funny, I'm not laughing. Are some of the most-publicized talents in the field so desperate they've turned to celebrating evil? Apparently so. They obviously think of themselves as cultural terrorists and want the world to know they've allied themselves with evil. They're welcome to it.

Personally, I'm sick of evil, particularly the psychotic, nihilistic garbage that's pitched as entertainment and has signalled the twilight of the comics era. All I have to do to witness evil in its highest form is to look out any window--it's FREE! I don't have to pay $2.95 to know that I'm surrounded by hatred, fear, destruction, and death. And I'll be damned if I'll endure having it thrown in my face by those who clothe their contempt for the rest of us with tragically-cool posing and bubble-gum arrogance.

Well, gang, if you fancy yourselves as terrorists, there are those among us who'll treat you as terrorists.

I felt like my creative soul was crushed as I saw the Twin Towers collapse. At that moment, most people realized the time for equivocation was over. Now, it's a MATTER OF SURVIVAL! Our families, our friends, our lives are at stake and it's time to take action, to take a stand AGAINST evil and all those who ally themselves with it.

A few years ago, I asked Stan Lee about the bleak direction comics had taken. It was easy to see that he wasn't pleased with it, but he said, "It's what the readers want." I don't believe it. I do believe we want well-developed characters, compelling dialogue, interesting plots, and our money's worth of solid entertainment--God forbid, something that suggests an atom of virtuosity or a new age of awareness.

Instead, we are confronted with an avalanche of over-priced booklets in which it's no longer possible to distinguish between the heroes and the villains because of panels choked with numbingly repetitive fangs and claws, blood and gore, fan-boy rage and T&A chaos. Instead of social mythology, the lillipop esthetic has produced a monument of intellectual and moral poverty. It would be laughable if it wasn't so damned pathetic. Am I being too subtle?

I'm alive, but I'm not all right. I'm in the same position as you and all Americans are at the moment. We've let the world around us get out of hand because we've been too complacent, too careless, too politically correct. The everyday tradition of simply civility, gratitude, courtesy, and thoughtfulness has been replaced by scowling indignation, virulent language, towering disrespect, and open hostility. Our nation is being crushed by evil. I don't know what you're doing about it, but I can no longer turn my back on what I call the Kervorkian Age of Comics. I'm ready to fight it using every resource I can muster. If there's enough of us, we can put the irresponsible bastards out of business and out of our lives with terminal efficiency--and if that doesn't work, I'll personally provide tickets to the caves of the Taliban.

Is there anyone out there who's had it with devil-worshipping heroes who aren't content unless they're picking shrapnel out of their skulls? Stand up now and fight for the kind of ethics, values, and ideals you believe in. If you don't, you deserve everything you get--and it won't be pleasant!

I'd like to know what side YOU're on.

Jim Steranko

I think I may have a new favorite artist. . .

1,577 posted on 04/13/2004 3:50:11 PM PDT by Fedora

1,578 posted on 04/13/2004 3:58:41 PM PDT by Wneighbor (Texas. Land of opportunity. If you don't like our attitude you have the opportunity to shut up.)

Interesting. Very interesting. Shall look at the information provided by those links, sounds like he's a good guy.

I ripped this idiot's story to shreds over the mechanics. Slipping in and out of tenses... comma confusion... scene changes so abrupt they'd leave Superman in the dust... But I got the rough draft of the critique done. So I started in on my manga.

Apparently there are at least two different translators. One spells rurouni 'ruroni', with an accent over the o. The same one also spells 'battousai' and 'sakabatou' with a single 'o' rather than an 'ou'. I'd be ok with it if it were consistent! I think one guy translated the left side and one guy translated the right.

1,579 posted on 04/13/2004 3:58:43 PM PDT by JenB

I ripped this idiot's story to shreds over the mechanics. Slipping in and out of tenses... comma confusion... scene changes so abrupt they'd leave Superman in the dust...

ROFL! "Great Krypton! These scene changes are so fast even I can't match their speed! Only--chance--to use--heat--vision. . ."

Those manga translations sound like the printed equivalent of Kung Fu movie dubbing! The accent on the "o" is how I was saying it spontaneously, though I have no idea if that's right.

BTW, still working on my superheroine idea--will send you more on that as it develops.

1,580 posted on 04/13/2004 4:11:23 PM PDT by Fedora

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794