consume

From The Beginning: WildStorm Universe – WildCATs #0-4

November 1, 2016 by krisis

[Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug][/Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug]WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams was the first book released from Jim Lee’s WildStorm imprint of Image Comics, and it has remained one of the most memorable thanks to his dynamic art and enduring characters like Grifter and Voodoo.

wildcats-v01-0002 Was it any good?

My answer is a qualified, “sorta?”

At the time, there wasn’t a better-looking book on the stands, aside from perhaps Todd McFarlane’s beautiful early issues of Spawn. Plus, WildC.A.T.s came equipped with an epic, centuries-long good versus evil plot coming to a head in the modern day – a story much deeper than much of what Marvel was fielding at the time.

So why the hedging on if it was any good? Of all the many awesome aspects of WildC.A.T.s, the actual plot and script of the book aren’t especially one of them.

WildC.A.T.s opens with a messy arc built on simple dual-missions – locate a newly discovered Gifted One while trying to wrest control of a powerful Orb away from their enemies, The Cabal, who are about to bring their hellish demon planet to Earth.

Jim Lee and his BFF and co-writer Brandon Choi play things very close to a Claremontian gameplan here, complete with an undefeatable warrior woman, a budding ingenue who saves the day, an indestructible boy scout, and several last-minute reversals. What makes the arc messy is no less than four total factions in the finale, which gives as much panel time to Liefield’s Youngblood as to the WildC.A.T.s.

As a result, we don’t get any real character moments – just slow moments between fight scenes. The good guys are good (if a little violent), the bad guys are bad (and also a little violent), and everyone wants the girl who can see Daemonites and the orb that crashed onto earth from space.

Luckily, some of these characters have enough cool implied that you’ll let it slide. Grifter and Zealot quickly steal the show as both the most-interesting and most visually-arresting characters – when they’re not on panel it feels like the book is running low on oxygen. This is especially true when Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood invades issues #3-4, as they’re just one big interchangeable lump of extreme costume designs.

wildcats-v01-0004 My distinct impression has always been that Choi and Lee were superior storytellers without a good story. I know that sounds contradictory. What I mean is that they clearly made up an amazing universe and some compelling characters, but when it comes to plotting them through an arc there’s not a lot that’s memorable. I feel as though if someone just told them what situation to put the characters in (as Chris Claremont would do on his arc), the book would be great.

Should you re-read this run to prepare for the WildStorm relaunch?

Despite nitpicks at the story, there’s no denying the impact of Lee’s bold artwork at the height of his early-90s powers. Plus, it’s clear that Lee and Choi have put a lot of effort into the world-building of the WildStorm Universe. That’s ultimately the saving grace of the lumpy introduction: the promise of the wider conflicts to come.

It’s terrific if you can’t get enough of Lee in his early prime, but storywise I’d say the “Killer Instinct” crossover with Cyberforce or Chris Claremont’s Huntsman arc pack more wallop.

Want the play-by-play? Keep reading for a summary of this introductory story. Here’s the schedule for the rest of this month’s WildStorm re-read – tomorrow I tackle Stormwatch #1-3 & 0

Need the issues? WildC.A.T.s #1-4 were collected way back in 1993 bagged along with #0 (so if you buy an unbagged copy, it might not include #0). Otherwise, you’ll need to purchase single issues – try eBay or Amazon (#0, 1, 2, 3, 4)

35-for-35: 1981 – “Message of Love” by The Pretenders

November 1, 2016 by krisis

[Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug][/Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug]In the vast expanse of my music library, I have curiously few songs from the year of my birth.

I can’t imagine what 1981 must have been like for a music fan of the time. Disco was over and 80s hair metal had yet to arrive. The top LPs were mostly 70s rock holdovers, with songs like Olivia Newton John’s #1 single “Physical” and Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” hinting at the future of 80s synth pop and New Wave.

The Pretenders didn’t exactly fit into either paradigm. Though bandleader Chrissie Hynde was heavily influenced by British Invasion bands like The Kinks, their debut didn’t hit until 1980 – and it was relatively synth-free. It was also a big hit, which lead the band to rush out a second LP the next year.

I tend to think of Pretenders II as the weakest point of The Pretenders stunning initial three-LP sprint (so: still stunning). It’s hard to be charitable to a record less singular than their debut and less hit-laden than Learning To Crawl. Really, “I Go To Sleep” and “Talk of the Town” would be the only two memorable tracks on it, if not for the bomb blast of “Message of Love” – one of the Pretenders’ best and most sparse songs.

As with many listeners of my generation, I was turned on to this song much later in life by a commercial in the 90s (though the internet seems to have no recollection of such a thing). It was the tipping point that finally sent me out to buy all three of the Pretenders first records at HMV in Center City on New Year’s Eve 1999 (the CD purchase was pretty memorable, yet also the least of all the reasons that day was memorable).

The song opens with two guitars competing for attention, shouting a pair of chords back and forth over a bounding tom drum rhythm from Martin Chambers stolen from an old swing tune (I’m a sucker for any big tom drum fill reminiscent of Gene Krupa). Chrissie Hynde inserts herself between the guitars like she’s breaking up a fight, reminding them “The reason we’re here, as man and woman” (literally, as it’s she and original guitarist dueling), sending the second guitar off into hiding.

When Chrissie Hynde croons, “When love walks into the room, everybody stand up! Oh, it’s good good good … like Brigdet Bardot!” all of those “o” and “oo” sounds just pour out of the speakers like syrup. I humbly submit that it is the best she has ever sounded on any song. She winks playfully through the second verse, casually tossing in a famous Oscar Wilde quote as James Honeyman-Scott finally sneaks back in to break up the guitar shouting match with a riff that duets with the vocal: “We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

All of the pieces are disconnected in the seemingly endless two-chord verse that stretches to the 1:25 mark – nearly halfway through the song. Guitars arrive in stabs and quickly evacuate; the bass quickly jaunts across the stage while the rest of the band is tacit.

Finally, the band comes together at once, all the prior elements pasted together with a churning electric guitar riff spinning past like a card in the spokes of a bike and underpinned by an unusually kittenish Hynde oo-ing and ah-ing beneath the band.

Is this a chorus? Again, it almost goes for a minute before dissolving back into the disparate parts of the verse, nearly verbatim to the first. Yet, this time we feel something different as listeners: anticipation. We know everything will come back together … or, we think we do. We never get another one of those choruses. Instead, all the musical elements circle, swinging past each other like flotsam spinning around the drain of the fade-out.

And then it’s over.

Enjoy this beautiful live version from ABC’s live music show Fridays, with the added bonus of it being introduced by Andy Kaufman: [Read more…] about 35-for-35: 1981 – “Message of Love” by The Pretenders

From The Beginning: Reading The Wildstorm Universe

November 1, 2016 by krisis

[Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug][/Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug]DC Comics recently announced that they were bringing back the WildStorm characters as an imprint of DC curated by non other than Warren Ellis, who basically is always great and also who got his start on several WildStorm properties.

That makes this the perfect time to re-read the original WildStorm Universe! I’ll be doing that every day this month for my first ever “From The Beginning” comic read-along event – here’s the schedule, if you’d like to join in!

Not sure what WildStorm is or why this is such a great time to re-read it? I’ve got the scoop for you right here in my first ever edited video project for CK (plus, below in text).

WildStorm was Jim Lee’s imprint amongst the Image founders and WildC.A.T.s and StormWatch were his pair of flagship titles. WildC.A.T.s began in August 1992, literally in the same month as Jim Lee exited his universally acclaimed run on X-Men.

wildcats-v01-0001 Lee was one of six Image founders. The other 1992 launches were:

Spawn from Todd McFarlane Productions, owned by Todd McFarlane
Savage Dragon from Highbrow Entertainment, owned by Erik Larsen
Shadowhawk ShadowLine, owned by Jim Valentino
CyberForce from Top Cow Productions, owned by Marc Silvestri
YoungBlood from Extreme Studios, owned by Rob Liefeld

While I read a few books from each launch, it was Lee’s that stuck – probably because they were a therapeutic alternative to X-Men.

As luck would have it, news of the Warren Ellis relaunch coincided with me grabbing the last few books I need to do a complete WildStorm Reading Order binding project that includes literally every in-universe book they released from 1992 to the reboot of their continuity in 2006 (plus some TopCow, with whom WildStorm would frequently intersect).

I had been despairing about when I’d have the time or inclination to read all of those books to prep them for binding, but the announcement gave me a perfect excuse! Reading the first three years of WildStorm will be a great refresher on Lee’s original characters and concepts, plus it will give me the chance to get my comic binding maps in order.

I’ll be back later today with my first read – WildC.A.T.s #0-4!

Music Monday: “Thriller” – Michael Jackson

October 31, 2016 by krisis

I am raising a third-generation Michael Jackson fan.

My mother loved Michael from his Motown days, and his Off The Wall hit when she was working in a hip Philly dance club, where I’m sure it was unavoidable. She passed that love to me via many, many spins of Thriller and its videos, which I obsessed over for years after its release.

I’ve always assumed that my love for MJ was a habit I learned from my mother, but having watched EV obsess over him for over a year now with no special coaching on my part I’m beginning to think it’s a genetic predisposition. Either that, or his voice was truly so magical that it can enrapture any child’s imagination, no matter when they first hear it.

Maybe both.

For the second year in a row, I tried to teach EV the “Thriller” dance for Halloween. Last year it was more that I was trying to finally learn it and EV liked to shuffle around like a zombie. This year we both tried, but the appeal of a glowing rectangle held too much sway and EV spent more time watching the dance instructors than doing the dance. She only got as far as the head nods.

Now that I’m older and a musician, I can’t help but dissect “Thriller” in a different way.

There’s no possible way to overstate just how truly and deeply weird it was as a song on a Michael Jackson album, let alone as the title track. There’s really not anything else remotely campy on the LP, aside from perhaps “Beat It.”

In fact, the song started out its life not as “Thriller,” but as a Rod Temperton demo called “Starlight.” You can even listen to a completed version of the track with virtually the same production. Free of the creepy lyrics and the Vincent Price cameo, there’s nothing remotely ooky about the song. It sounds like more of the same disco/funk blend from Off the Wall. It’s a near neighbor to “Turn This Disco Out.” [Read more…] about Music Monday: “Thriller” – Michael Jackson

Track-by-Track: Lady Gaga’s Joanne – “Grigiot Girls” and “Just Another Day” (Bonus Tracks)

October 30, 2016 by krisis

lady-gaga-in-the-studio It’s the last of song-by-song essays on Joanne, which means we’re also only a days away from an explosion of music and comics content in November!

I’m in unexplored territory here – the only time I heard this pair of bonus tunes was on Lady Gaga’s release night concert, so I don’t have a week of them seeping into my brain to speak from.

“Grigiot Girls” lies squarely in the pop/country sound, and could have helped anchor the acoustic urges of the LP.

It’s also… a little silly? I mean, pop/country songs tend to be a little silly in their over-earnestness, and this nails it, singing about “tough girls on the mend” who “toss that cork” and call each other up to pour their hearts out over a glass of wine.

(It helps that it comes from such an emotional place – at her launch concert, Gaga introduced it as a song for her friend who is living with cancer.)

On one hand, it’s by far Gaga’s most embarrassing song. On the other, she nailed the sound and sentiment of a country radio tune. You can just feel a stadium full of drunk fans singing along to the chorus of “All the pinot, pinot grigiot girls” while waving their hands in the air.

Part of that is a full-on commitment to the genre; the production here pushes a lot farther than Gaga dared on “Joanne” and “Million Reasons” with its process acoustic guitar sound on the verse and the generic drum loop and accents of piano on the chorus.

I think it was a good idea to leave this song as a bonus track. Delivering anything so squarely country on the LP would have opened up a whole new range of criticisms to be hurled at it. As it is, Gaga uses the genre more as an inspiration than a touchtone.

The real story here is “Just Another Day.”

Holy glamorous Bowie, how is this song not on the mother-loving album?

It’s wonderful! It hits the clanging piano spot of “Come To Mama,” is rife with sonic references to Elton Join like “Hey Girl,” an even adds in a serious McCartney-at-the-piano and Queen aesthetic to the proceedings (it’s a serious soundalike to “Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy”).

It’s also one of the best sets of casual, not-trying-too-hard lyrics Gaga delivers on the disc – which is perfect, because it’s a song about being casual and not trying too hard.

Just another way to prove I love you, and it’s hard today
I’ll lay back in my chair and find a way
And when you say that thing that you say that makes me mad
I’ll turn away, I’ll turn away, I’ll turn away

And think of different ways to keep my spirits up
And choreograph hours with playful, joyous thoughts

We both know I could learn a thing or two
About relaxing. Hey, I love you
And after all, it’s just another day

Despite all of those classic sound-checks, the song doesn’t feel trapped in a bygone era the way “Come to Mama” does thanks to some clever flourishes of synthesizer that add to the keys and horns.

How did this song get left off the LP? Sometimes with bonus tracks it’s that the song was sonically too close to another tune or that it would have pulled the album in the wrong direction. I just don’t see that here – this is the perfect one-to-one replacement to “Come to Mama,” and it could have been added before or after “Angel Down” to give the back half of the disc some much-needed pep.