(People may wonder why I make Mr F go to the library if he dislikes it so much. Fair question. I make him go because it's important that he be exposed to things like that. For the most part, Mr F and Mr Bunches have to go to the things one likes but the other dislikes -- although Mr Bunches likes everything, more or less -- and only get excused when there's a very good reason, such as when we go down to the spot on the lake by the University where Mr Bunches can jump off a pier into the lake, which is about 10' deep there. Mr F won't jump, and the lake around the pier is no good for swimming or wading, so when Mr Bunches wants to go there we don't make Mr F go, as he would just sit there with no real chance to participate. At the library, it's different. Whenever we go, I make Mr F read a book with me, and then we do a puzzle or toy thing in the playroom, so he gets some benefit from it.)
Anyway, Wednesday Comics was an interesting idea DC had a while back, publishing comics in a Sunday-comic style format, each story 16 pages long and made to fold out into one large comic page when opened up. This book collects up all the stories, and it's a fun one. Not only is the book huge -- I placed it on our table for a sense of scale in that photo; that's a regular-sized laptop Mr F is sitting behind -- but it's huge in a way that makes sense for comics. As a big e-reader guy who regrets having to read physical books (mostly), I have to say that sometimes they still make sense, and comics are one of those times. Comics are hard to read on an ereader, and I've tried on several different-sized screens, only to find the experience always less than thrilling. Part of the fun of comics is the layout of the page and that's hard to convey on a small screen. Shrinking comics has never been a good idea.
The stories in the collection are mostly good; a few times I had a bit of trouble following along, but that's mostly due to the sometimes-weird layouts the comics use. A few of the stories fell back on short-story conventions: twist endings and the like. The Teen Titans story was particularly hard to follow, but again that just may be me not getting comics like I used to.
The art is far more interesting than you see in many comics. There were some traditional comic drawings, but the better ones (for this format anyway) used more stylized, comic-y drawings. I particularly liked Wonder Woman:
I have to say, Wonder Woman has been growing on me as a character for the last couple years. As a kid, she was blah, but in Infinite Crisis she was somewhat interesting. She was good in the movie Batman vs. Superman (which I liked, and like more in retrospect) and the preview for her upcoming feature seems pretty good. I might take a look at some Wonder Woman comics in the future.
There were a few characters I'd only vaguely heard of, like Deadman and Kamandi, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the comics that featured them. Probably my least favorite was the one with Catwoman and The Demon; it was The Demon fighting Morgan Le Fay, and I've never been all that interested in Catwoman, let alone yet another rehashing of the trope of an old witch trying to grab a new young body.
(OH. Spoiler alert I guess.)
Anyway, it was a fun read. At $49.99 for the actual hard copy book I can't imagine ever buying it but if I found it in a used bookstore for ten bucks I'd probably buy it just as a neat coffee-table book to have around.
3 comments:
I did used to really like The Demon.
I kind of miss old Etrigan.
I was never a fan, like I said. He had a minor role I think in one of the Crises but he's never seemed very interesting to me.
I did like Blue Beetle, who featured in this collection as a Teen Titan for some reason.
Agreed. Ereaders for most everything, but comics need to be on the page.
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