Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Comics Out 16 August 2006

Mark Millar's Ultimate Fantastic Four run ends this week. Having read Marvel Zombies -- which was amazing and about which I will be blogging soon -- I am extra excited. The new Testament is also out. All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #5 has been pushed back to November, according to Newsarama. If anyone has anything to add, suggest or talk about, comics-wise, this is the place to do it.

And as a prelude to thinking about Marvel Zombies, let's try to generate a list of genre-hybrids. I am thinking of Brick, Serenity, Dark City, A History of Violence, Kill Bill, Samurai Jack, From Dusk Till Dawn. Let's hear others, if ya got em.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. In comics land it seems like a MASSIVE DELAY in Marvel's Civil War and its tributary tie-ins has created a Civil War among the comic book Internet community. Half are appalled; half think the wait is better than suffering through fill-in artists.

2. Genre hybrids, just off the top of my head and certainly debatable: Team America World Police (Thunderbirds Puppets meets Jerry Bruckheimer) and Smallville (Superman meets the WB).

Well, I won’t delete these, but now that I think of it they are really just iterations of the same Genres. Any issue of Superboy was probably as close to the WB as they could get back in the day. And most of Jerry Bruckheimer’s movies were just Thunderbirds adventures with non-puppet actors. Whether or not the actors in Bruckheimer movies are puppets or not might be a discussion for another day.

You took all the good ones, Geoff.

Ha! Got one... I haven't read it yet, but Alan Moore's upcoming Lost Girls is sure to be a genre hybrid of fantasy fairy tales and erotica.

Anonymous said...

What are the parameters for genre-hybrids? Would Cast a Deadly Spell count? It's a Private Eye story set in a magical 1930's world, but the story follows the pattern of a classic pulp private dick story. A counterexample is From Dusk Till Dawn, where the narrative logic changes halfway through. Do these two movies belong in the same venn diagram?

Anonymous said...

Charlie Huston's Already Dead deffinatly falls into a Noir/Horror hybrid.

Geoff Klock said...

Kari: I have not seen Cast a Deadly Spell, but it sounds right. In the case of From Dusk Till Dawn, I think the change in logic is a genre change -- suddenly a Mexican Road Movie (break your brother out of prison and get to Mexico) becomes, without warning, a vampire flick. I guess the thing that makes this not quite match is that the genres are not fused, but hit one after the other. Still, it's one of my favorite horror films, so I want to keep it in good company.

Anonymous said...

1) New Casanova (#3) today so I should remind you to pick that up.
2) Mike Norton pinch hits the art duties in the new Runaways arc which starts this week.
3) Two Ultimate Fantastic Four books this week Whoohoo! I like Mike Carry's (sp?) Vertigo stuff so I hold out hope for the UFFuture which is previewed in this week's annual.
Cross Genera stuff: The first things which come to mind are actually both Music: The Fiery Furnaces, a brother and sister duo from Chicago come at you like a weird mix of Syd Barrett and Gilbert and Sullivan. Their best record is Blueberry Boat and features long story songs about everything from a lost dog to fighting pirates to save the titular vessel. I also am reminded of the DJ Shadow mixtape Funky Skunk which effortlessly fuses psychedelic rock with hyphy hip-hop as well as funk and soul... it is a really remarkable recording and I always find new stuff in its murky 50minutes.

Anonymous said...

What about Joss Whedons Firefly, the "law of the west" meets spaceships meets smokey and the bandit meets psychics.

seems to cross a few genres there...

-Mike Rowlett

James said...

Sorry to nitpick mike, but Geoff already mentioned Firefly's movie spin-off/sequel/remake, Serenity.

The only other genre hybrid I can think of is Shaun of the Dead, though that seems a little obvious, given that it was marketed as a "romzomcom". Kung Fu Hustle kinda plays like a kung fu musical, only without any songs. That probably doesn't count.

ping - Assuming it was you who first mentioned Casanova in these comments, I'd just like to say thanks. I've picked up the first two issues, and it's my new favourite comic. I'll definitely be getting #3 this week. Come to think of it, was it also you who recommended Manifest Eternity? I'm loving that too; issue 3 was the best yet.

Anonymous said...

Guilty on both counts... I have impeccable taste.

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