Comic Book Men Season 2

The Boys are back. After a little self-doubting first season, CBM returns with its set of comic book pawn deals, doses of trivia and general geek-gasms.

I liked a first episode (Stash Bashes) but it had way too many kids to spoil my fun. I don't particularly enjoy the sight of a bunch of unruly kids having a go at racks of vintage comic books. The good parts of the episode were a deal of Megos and everyone losing their shit on a Legion of Super Heroes geektalk. Any attention that the LOSH get is good, I feel they deserve all that and more.
And then there was the giant Darth Vader helmet. You couldn't possibly not like that.

Coming to Episode 2, My Big Fat Geek Wedding, this was pure fun! Lots of fun tales, a smooth flow of deals, and a hilarious finale. These guys are getting better at their game. The jokes flow freely now, the deals look neat and swift and the comic book portions are satisfying. Though there was no specific geek-out this time on a classic comic book per se except for a little Punisher talk, the nod to FF at the end was more than a twinkle in the eye moment, and the details(X Men #1 turned into wedding flowers, Legion flight ring etc) was the stuff only these guys could manage. And yeah, Don't Mix Cigars & Comic Books!

I already can't wait enough for the Stan Lee appearance. Great going, Stash!

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Comic Book Men: Kevin Smith Strikes Again

Kevin Smith inspires extreme reactions to whatever he does. The same goes for this new whatchamakallit part-fabricated-part-reality show on AMC. A bunch of ‘dudes’ go ‘watch their lives pass by’,(in the words of a store un-clerk Bryan), in the comic store and the show switches between their inconsequential musings and a collective elaborate musing session(more like a collective reassurance that this may actually be far from the worst job in the world) back in the apparent radio station where the gang discusses everything they do on the job. Once you get over the obvious distractions (why the fuck are they smiling so much, what’s with all the slo-mo’s and soft-porn nods, what do they know that I don’t, why is Smith the center of this limited universe etc.) you sub-consciously take in the trivia thrown at you and take this gang as another bunch of self-obsessed dudes you have seen hanging around in a neighborhood café and wouldn’t actually care much about them lest they should pick on your indifferent ass.




It’s interesting how Smith underplays some of his more recently exhibited outrageous behavior mostly media paranoia, and brings out miles of trivia in a little less pretentious manner to this bunch. However, you do realize he can’t stay sober for long, sadly and eventually. For a ex-character called Silent Bob he surely goes too far! Walt Flanagan is quite a reveal. I like it that he plays his businessman handle well above his comic book artist one and comfortably leads this pack of losers, if you will. Bryan offers some great dramatic moments, his wit borders on a Ricky Gervais-type sarcasm, deriving fun from other people’s misery. Schadenfraude, it’s called I believe. And he doesn’t let you go until you acknowledge you have been victimized. Nice and edgy angle to this mutual admiration sausage fest I would say.
Having seen 4 episodes, I have reached a certain comfort level with the cast. The show fills the spot of a nerdier, more approachable Big Bang Theory. The bargains may be doctored, but the stuff they haggle on is real. Same goes for the racism and offensive humor. It’s really in good taste, if good taste for you means unjustified oppression and uncontrolled gasps of paranoid behavior, may be a couple peculiar cases of repetitive narcissistic acts too. I kinda like the show.

Batman: The Widening Gyre (DC, 2009)

The Widening Gyre(TWG) is Kevin Smith’s oft-struggling Batman story. Having read Cacophony, I had no mood to approach TWG. Cacophony was outright bad comic book writing, uninspired, exploitative, repetitive, unoriginal. I could go on. TWG however is better fortunately(anything would be!) in a sense that it does spend some time on things comic books usually don’t (things like Batman introspecting on overdrive, Batman going soft-porn/trashy soap opera(almost), a new sidekick who is mostly a bag of nerves when he is around Batman etc.). It has Smith’s characteristic tone throughout, in the way characters are very now(whatwith Twitter, which is a scary thing IMO) and streetsmart and all that. If these facts don’t offend you enough, there is the so bold it’s disturbing elements, which for some reason Smith mistakes for an adult graphic novel, present throughout here. I would just suggest some Grant Morrison doubled up with some Alan Moore as a quick remedy to start with.

A comic does not get adult by show of blood or amputated limbs or frequent tough-guy-speak. The boldness, if you will, comes through the voice of narrative and characters, the panic in the town(comic universe) pervades your thoughts and takes your reception to a different level, as opposed to build on a provocation , much what Smith does here and few of his other initiatives(films, blogs etc.)

Reading TWG is almost like someone took a C grade pulp novel and spliced in Batman characters, while consciously leaving out a possibility of unintentional fun.

A good thing in this book? The Covers.