Pixel Scroll 10/15 Trial by Filers

(1) Martin Morse Wooster opened my eyes to a previously unrealized fact — Wil Wheaton is a celebrity homebrewer.

On November 7, 2015, the American Homebrewers Association hosts Learn to Homebrew Day across the country. This year, celebrity homebrewers Wil Wheaton and Kyle Hollingsworth have teamed up with the AHA to promote the celebration! Kyle and the AHA created a video together, which can be viewed here.

Wheaton even has a dedicated blog for his homebrew activities – Devils Gate Brewing. He’s also appeared on Brewing TV.

(2) While researching the homebrew story, I observed Wheaton deliver this absolute home truth —

(3) Crowdfunding conventions doesn’t always work. The fans who’d like to hold Phoenix Sci-Fi Con 2016 have only managed to raise $50 of the $12,500 goal in 13 days. The last donation was almost a week ago.

(4) “Neiman” has launched a new science-fiction and fantasy news aggregator, Madab, which is the word for “sci-fi” in Hebrew. (Says Neiman: “It fits, since I’m an Israeli in origin.”) The website focuses on books and written stuff, and follows more than a hundred sources.

(5) Zoë Heller, in “How Does an Author’s Reputation Shape Your Response to a Book?” for the New York Times Sunday Book Review, said about her experience as a slush pile reader:

The important thing was to send back manuscripts at a steady rate and to keep the slush pile low. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. Under my supervision, the slush pile grew and grew until it became several tottering ziggurats of slush. I’d like to say that it was the thought of dashing writers’ hopes that paralyzed me. But I was quite heartless about that. What stopped me in my tracks was the dread of having to make independent literary judgments. I had never before been asked to evaluate writing that was utterly ­reputation-less and imprimatur-less. In college I had read I.A. Richards’s famous study, ‘Practical Criticism,’ in which Richards asked Cambridge undergraduates to assess poems without telling the students who had written them. The point of the experiment was to show how, when deprived of contextual clues, students ended up making embarrassingly ‘wrong’ judgments about what was good and bad. I was convinced that the slush pile was my own ‘Practical Criticism’ challenge and that I was going to be revealed as a fraud, with no real powers of literary discrimination.

Andrew Porter made a comment about his own experiences, which the Times published:

I read the slush pile at “The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction” for 8 years, from 1966 to 1974, going in once a week to sort through anywhere from 100 to 140 unsolicited manuscripts. The ultra-short stories of under 500 words were usually rejected—none of the writers measured up to Fredric Brown, master of the short-short—while poetry, seldom published, also got the boot. Holiday stories sent in during the holidays were also rejected; most authors have no idea what sort of lead time magazines require. Then there were so many stories with punchline endings: “We’ll go to the third planet: the natives call it ‘Earth'” or “Eve? Gosh, my name’s Adam!” Some of those were 25,000 words, and most ended badly.

Occasionally there was a gem among the dross; I pulled Suzette Haden Elgin’s first published story from the piles, and it went on to be published and anthologized many times.

I was paid a pittance, yes ($25 a week), but did my best by the magazine and the authors. We sent them rejection forms, with sometimes a note encouraging more submissions—which was usually a mistake; they sent in their vast files of unpublishable stories. But sometimes…

All life is a is a judgement call, whether of unpublished stories, where to live, who to marry, or what to have for dinner. Heller failed the writers and her employers. I hope her subsequent life judgements have been wiser.

(6) Aaron Pound’s well-written CapClave report on Dreaming About Other Worlds ends with this insight:

After the convention, I spoke with my mother on the phone. She had traveled to New York to visit my sister for the weekend, and she was somewhat perplexed that the redhead and I had gone to CapClave rather than New York ComicCon. While the redhead and I enjoy big conventions with tens of thousands of attendees every now and then – we have been to DragonCon once, and we go to GenCon every year – there is simply no substitute for the congenial and friendly atmosphere of the smaller fan run conventions like CapClave, Balticon, Chessiecon, and the hundreds of other small conventions that take place every year. The blunt truth is that the large professionally run media conventions like New York ComicCon are simply exhausting. New York ComicCon had about 170,000 attendees this year. CapClave had about 400. To attend almost any panel at New York ComicCon, you have to wait in line, often for hours. You might be able to see stars like Chris Evans, George Takei, or Carrie Fischer, but you’ll likely see them from the back of an auditorium as they speak to a couple of thousand people. Or if you want a personal interaction you’ll pay for the privilege, and you will likely only be able to interact with them for a minute or two. At CapClave, on the other hand, the panels are small and interactive. I have never had to spend any appreciable time waiting in line for anything. Most of the authors who attend are more than happy to sit down and talk with you, whether after a panel, sitting in the con suite, or simply while hanging out at the hotel bar. An event like New York ComicCon is a spectacle, while CapClave, by contrast, is a conversation. There is room for both in the genre fiction world, but as for myself, I prefer the conversation.

(7) A Brian K. Vaughn comic may be made into a TV series.

After years of trying, Hollywood finally threw in the towel last year and stopped trying to make a movie version of Y: The Last Man. Brian K. Vaughan’s epic 60-issue series recounts the adventures of Yorick Brown, his pet monkey Ampersand, and all the ladies on Earth who want a piece of him because he is—spoiler alert—the last man, after a mysterious plague kills everything with a Y chromosome except for him. After the rights were returned to Vaughan following New Line dropping the ball on the films, it was unclear if anything would ever happen with it, given the creator had left television and was concentrating on comics once more.

But much like astronauts returning to Earth from the International Space Station, Y: The Last Man has returned to the world of filmed adaptations. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the sci-fi comic is being developed into a series for cable channel FX. Along with producers Nina Jacobsen and Brad Simpson, the network is looking for a writer to develop the show with Vaughan.

(8) Ross Andersen reports on “The Most Mysterious Star in Our Galaxy” for The Atlantic.

Between these constellations sits an unusual star, invisible to the naked eye, but visible to the Kepler Space Telescope, which stared at it for more than four years, beginning in 2009…..

The light pattern suggests there is a big mess of matter circling the star, in tight formation. That would be expected if the star were young. When our solar system first formed, four and a half billion years ago, a messy disk of dust and debris surrounded the sun, before gravity organized it into planets, and rings of rock and ice.

But this unusual star isn’t young. If it were young, it would be surrounded by dust that would give off extra infrared light. There doesn’t seem to be an excess of infrared light around this star.

It appears to be mature….

Jason Wright, an astronomer from Penn State University, is set to publish an alternative interpretation of the light pattern. SETI researchers have long suggested that we might be able to detect distant extraterrestrial civilizations, by looking for enormous technological artifacts orbiting other stars. Wright and his co-authors say the unusual star’s light pattern is consistent with a “swarm of megastructures,” perhaps stellar-light collectors, technology designed to catch energy from the star.

“When [Boyajian] showed me the data, I was fascinated by how crazy it looked,” Wright told me. “Aliens should always be the very last hypothesis you consider, but this looked like something you would expect an alien civilization to build.”

Boyajian is now working with Wright and Andrew Siemion, the Director of the SETI Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. The three of them are writing up a proposal. They want to point a massive radio dish at the unusual star, to see if it emits radio waves at frequencies associated with technological activity.

If they see a sizable amount of radio waves, they’ll follow up with the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, which may be able to say whether the radio waves were emitted by a technological source, like those that waft out into the universe from Earth’s network of radio stations.

(9) George R.R. Martin announces that Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive…

…is Emilia Clarke, our own Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea.

The Esquire magazine article is here..

(10) Tom Knighton reviews the novel The Martian:

I’d heard all about the science, how it was supposed to be so accurate.  I’d heard that Weir wrote a pretty compelling story.  While I’m not sure about the former, I do agree with the latter, they left out one key piece of commentary on The Martian.  It’s actually funny!

Mark Watney, the main character, is a natural smart ass and an independent spirit…in addition to a mechanical engineer and botanist.  Honest, if you’re going to strand a guy on Mars, it might have been the perfect choice, which some may perceive as a chink in Watney’s armor on this story, but I disagree.

(11) SFFWorld interviews Seanan McGuire:

SFFWorld: With so many interesting universes that you create, you have fans who like them all. But do you ever have fans getting mad at you because you are working on one series and they want a new book in their favorite series?

McGuire: Fans are people, and people sometimes get mad at air.  I know I do.  So I have people huff at me because I’m not doing what they want, but I also have people get mad because I use profanity, or because I exist in material space, or because I was at Disneyland when they thought I should be writing.  I just keep swimming.  I need to switch between projects to keep from burning myself out, and I like to think that my true fans would rather have me writing for a long time than get exactly what they want the second that they want it.  Unless what they want is a puppy.

(12) “Most of the story team for the next Star Wars film is female” reports Fortune.

Today, Kennedy is president of Lucasfilm, producer of the next installment in the Star Wars series, The Force Awakens. Still, she believes the challenges for women have remained much the same since the late 1970s. “I don’t think things have changed much for women for jobs in the entertainment industry, especially in technical roles,” she said. Kennedy added that at a recent Saturday Night Live taping she attended, she saw no women operating the cameras….

“People in powerful positions are not trying hard enough [to bring women into the industry] and there are an alarming number of women who are not able to get those jobs,” she explained.

And — “Kathleen Kennedy Promises She’ll Hire A Female Director For A Star Wars Movie” reports GeekTyrant

“I feel it is going to happen — we are going to hire a woman who’s going to direct a Star Wars movie. I have no doubt. On the other hand, I want to make sure we put somebody in that position who’s set up for success. It’s not just a token job to look out and try to find a woman that we can put into a position of directing Star Wars.”

(13) No matter what William Shatner told the Australians, Justin Lin is directing Star Trek Beyond — and people are leaking photos of the aliens from Lin’s movie.

(14) “One step closer to Star Trek: New 3-D printer builds with 10 materials at once” from Christian Science Monitor.

It’s built from off-the-shelf parts that cost about $7,000 in total, and is capable of printing in full color with up to 10 materials at a time, including fabrics, fiber-optics, and lenses.

Traditional multi-material printers use a mechanical system to sweep each layer of the printed object after it’s laid down to ensure that it’s flat and correctly aligned. The extreme precision of such a system is a big part of the reason that printers are so expensive. But the MultiFab uses a machine-vision system instead of a mechanical one, which allows for precise scanning – down to 40 microns – without the need for so many pricey components, project engineer Javier Ramos told Wired.

(15) All six Bonds together, that is, at Madame Tussaud’s!

(16) Frock Flicks: The Costume Movie Review Podcast, does a serious, in-depth study of historical costuming in Monty Python and the Holy Grail – which gets high marks despite having been done cheap, cheap, cheap!

The Historical Setting of Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The movie is supposedly set in 932 A.D., and, of course, the story is King Arthur, which is quasi-fictitious anyway. The person who might be the historical basis for the Arthurian legends could have lived in the 5th to 7th century, and 932 is right around the reign of Æthelstan, who was a king of the Anglo-Saxons and the first to proclaim himself King of the English in 927. But hey, whatever this is a comedy, who pays attention to the title cards, right? Other than all those moose and llamas…

In a way, it doesn’t matter because medieval clothing, at least for men, is somewhat vaguely defined from the 5th though 12th centuries, being mostly belted tunics and such. But for reference, here are a few examples of how ruling men were depicted in documents of the period in England. The garment shapes are simple, and the higher up in status a man was, the more decorative trims and jewelry he got. It’s also interesting to note the hair and beard styles.

(17) John Hertz offers a piece he entitles, “Do you, Mister Jones?” —

All this throwing round of the word “geek” recalls a handy little acronym I had published a while ago in The MT Void 1279 (or you may have seen it later in Vanamonde 956, where I added “Among reasons to form one’s own opinions, people can be vigorous in accusing one of one’s virtues”; not to burden the File 770 Reference Director, I allude to Aesop, H. Andersen, B. Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man”, and “The Marching Morons”).

Grapes are sour.
Emperor has no clothes.
Each put-down of you means I win.
Kornbluth didn’t tell the half of it.

[Thanks to James H. Burns, John Hertz, Martin Morse Wooster, David K.M. Klaus, John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Brian Z.]

219 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 10/15 Trial by Filers

  1. @ junego

    Ah well, sounds like it’s been done already, then! I was almost on the verge of popping off a short story, but it was basically a one-trick pony of a story idea.

  2. @Heather Rose Jones

    Aww, I’m sure yours would have been really good, though, and it isn’t as if thought-out alien squid monsters are all that common. I’d still read it. 🙂

  3. Meredith on October 17, 2015 at 1:35 pm said:

    @Heather Rose Jones

    Aww, I’m sure yours would have been really good, though, and it isn’t as if thought-out alien squid monsters are all that common. I’d still read it.

    Indeed, and the lack of such stories is definitely not because squid monster disguised as humans have infiltrated human society and are suppressing such stories so that the puny humans don’t suspect their coming demise at the hands of the victorious squid monster army. That is definitely not what is happening.

  4. Rory Root Memorial Comics Bracket: THE FINAL ROUND.

    1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING

    Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson
    XKCD, Randall Munroe

    2. BONUS QUESTION

    What’s your favorite comic that didn’t make the bracket at all?

    3. SPECIAL BONUS QUESTION ONLY FOR HAMPUS ECKERMAN

    Other than A Contract with God, what’s your favorite comic that didn’t make the bracket at all?

  5. Rory Root Memorial Comics Bracket: THE FINAL ROUND.

    1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING

    Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson
    XKCD, Randall Munroe

    Calvin speaks more to the heart and XKCD to the mind, but as in a previous bracket, the deciding factor was the greater inclusion of female characters.

    2. BONUS QUESTION

    What’s your favorite comic that didn’t make the bracket at all?

    Hmm. I need to think about that.

  6. Ack! I can actually vote in this, having read both of them!

    It’s funny that this is an, as it were, Old-Timey vs. New-Timey matchup–dead trees (Calvin) against pixels (XKCD). I like XKCD well enough, and the stick figures give hope to those who, like me, can’t draw their way out of a paper bag.

    But I gotta give this one to Calvin.

    Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson

    Bonus Question: I really like Pearls Before Swine, by Stephan Pastis. I didn’t see it mentioned in any of the brackets. And Rat Queens.

  7. I didn’t follow the bracket after glancing at the first round, I’m afraid, due to reasons. Did Love & Rockets make it onto the list? (Though really I’d separate out the Palomar and Locas storylines for preference.)

  8. 1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING
    Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson
    XKCD, Randall Munroe

    2. BONUS QUESTION
    What’s your favorite comic that didn’t make the bracket at all?
    (1) Kevin and Kell
    (2) userfriendly

  9. 1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING

    Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson
    XKCD, Randall Munroe

    2. BONUS QUESTION

    Transmetropolitan. Or Narbonic.

  10. I just wanted to say how proud I am of you all, fearlessly striding forward to that horizon, and to urge you onwards, notwithstanding the fact that I haven’t a clue about any comic other than the Silver Surfer…

  11. I’m going to vote for Calvin and Hobbes on the grounds that I think Randall Munroe would probably vote for it above XKCD.

    Best comic not in a bracket: Logicomix if only for demonstrating the range of topics that graphic novels can encompass.

  12. Calvin and Hobbes.

    For influencing so many others, for stopping before it could jump the shark, Dad’s clever plans, the snowmen, Tracer Bullet, and most especially for Spaceman Spiff and the Transmogrifier.

    Let’s go exploring!

    2. Kinda surprised Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal didn’t show up.

  13. Bracket: xkcd.

    Bonus: Oh, so many options. Empowered. Questionable Content. Something Positive. Oglaf. The trio of comics in the Ménage à 3 universe, which I’m sure is just a coincidence. Afterlife With Archie. The special award I’d like to give Super-Team Family, which doesn’t do more than the cover, but does so every day, blending at least two actual covers from different publishers to make one for a team-up story that really needs to exist. (Of course Wonder Woman and Captain America are a couple!) Order of the Stick. Schlock Mercenary. Heck, I’m tempted to ask if “Murphy’s Rules” qualifies; it’s a page-a-month feature dedicated to illustrating weird rules in games. What’s New With Phil and Dixie. Xxxenophile!

    Too many choices.

  14. 1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING
    XKCD, Randall Munroe

    A lot of my favourites went out early and nothing I loved made it to this round. Ouch!

    2. BONUS QUESTION
    What’s your favorite comic that didn’t make the bracket at all?
    The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage is up there – so are Oglaf and Welcome to Tranquility.

  15. 1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING

    XKCD, Randall Munroe

    2. BONUS QUESTION – What’s your favorite comic that didn’t make the bracket at all?

    Trad Comics: Global Frequency, by Ellis. A comic (and an adaptation), that like many Ellis works, was well ahead of the curve.

    Comic strip: Dilbert – yes, Scott Adams frequently goes to Thomas Friedman-levels in his blog posts and commentaries. But Dilbert remains ridiculously on the nose for the regular dose of insanity that happens in corporations.

    Webcomics: JL8 / Oglaf / Order of the Stick– 3 very different comics, and 3 very good ones.

  16. You know, it’s funny. Spider-Man is, hands down, my favorite “comic book” character – but at no point did one of his storylines come to mind as The Best. I mean, yes, that clump of early issues got knocked out in an early round, but I wonder if Kraven’s Last Hunt or The Other or even the saga of the alien costume and the creation of Venom might have done better due to the benefit of a tighter focus. Then there’s the Superior storyline, where Doc Ock is on his deathbed and takes over Peter’s body, leaving Peter to die as Otto Octavius as Ock brings his own style to revamping Peter’s life and Spidey’s style…

    Again, loads of good choices, and I wonder if I discounted them too quickly in my drive to suggest “hidden gems” over the tried and true.

  17. @Heather Rose Jones
    “Ah well, sounds like it’s been done already, then! I was almost on the verge of popping off a short story, but it was basically a one-trick pony of a story idea.”

    re: intelligent squid

    No, no, no! I didn’t mean to suggest you (or anyone) shouldn’t explore similar ideas! It was just a brain cramp that jiggled the memory of a probably 5 year old, fairly obscure plot point. The squid weren’t even the central alien species in the book and the secretion thing was just a mention, not explored in detail.

    If you have a niggle of an idea, work with it. A one-trick device can make for really good stories sometimes.

  18. Rory Root Memorial Comics Bracket: THE FINAL ROUND.

    1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING

    Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson

    2. BONUS QUESTION

    What’s your favorite comic that didn’t make the bracket at all?

    Panther’s Rage ?
    The Russell Killraven ?
    Wolfman and Colan’s Tomb of Dracula ?
    Who Is Scorpio? ?
    Gerber’s Man-Thing?
    Moench and Gulacy’s MOKF !
    today …

  19. 1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING

    Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson

    2. BONUS QUESTION

    What’s your favorite comic that didn’t make the bracket at all?

    Comic strip – I love Pearls Before Swine, but I’ve gotta go with my favorite of all time, Bloom County.
    Comic book – Teri S. Wood’s “Wandering Star” barely beats out James A. Owen’s “Starchild.”

    *sigh*

  20. For a completely offbeat “comics” favourite suggestion – The Wild Washerwomen. I mean, stories with pictures, right? It should count! 😉

  21. @rgf:

    Panther’s Rage ?
    The Russell Killraven ?
    Wolfman and Colan’s Tomb of Dracula ?
    Who Is Scorpio? ?
    Gerber’s Man-Thing?
    Moench and Gulacy’s MOKF !
    today …

    70s kid!

  22. Calvin & Hobbes. My husband gave me the 3-volume boxed set when it came out — one of my favorite presents, probably only surpassed by his gift of the OED.

  23. 1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING

    Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson
    XKCD, Randall Munroe

    2. BONUS QUESTION

    What’s your favorite comic that didn’t make the bracket at all?

    Breaking Cat News. Or possibly Robot Hugs.

  24. Rory Root Memorial Comics Bracket: THE FINAL ROUND.

    1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING

    Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson

    2. BONUS QUESTION

    @Meredith just mentioned the most glaring omission I found (and my favorite comic ever): The Far Side.

  25. @Cheryl S.

    I’m kicking myself over forgetting it during nominations first AND second round!

  26. 1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING

    Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson

    I love XKCD’s ideas but Calvin and Hobbes gets an extra point or two for art.
    (Also I need to pull out the C&H 3 volume set — It has been a couple of years… I feel a need for tigers and snowmen)

    On a side note, I have just finished reading the archive of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and added it to my bookmarks. Thanks to those who have mentioned it.

  27. 1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING

    Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson
    I suspect this is somewhat the wrong choice intellectually; everything from the treatment of women to the utterly experimental strips like Time. But Hobbes still has my heart.

    2. BONUS QUESTION

    What’s your favorite comic that didn’t make the bracket at all?
    The Arrival, by Shaun Tan. Which was discussed as a possible addition, but in the wrong thread. By the time I realised why it hadn’t appeared in the addendum list, I thought it best not to fuss.

  28. 1. CALVIN AND HOBBES! Calvin and Hobbes forever!

    2. Ah, I regret missing the nomination phase on this one…
    Newspaper: Bloom County.
    “Pearl pushers for hairy fishnets!” “Just publish the damn ad.”

    Already mentioned: Questionable Content, The Far Side, Pearls Before Swine.

    Political: Tom Tomorrow’s “This Modern World” (long running alt-comic that was, shockingly, a Pulitzer finalist this year!)

    Wonderfully bizarre: The Perry Bible Fellowship
    Autobiographical: Blankets, by Craig Thompson; Marbles, by Ellen Forney.
    Realistic fiction: Box Office Poison, Alex Robinson
    Serialized: Ex Machina, Brian K. Vaughn
    Weird One Offs (online): When I Am King,
    Sweet, tragic one-offs (publihsed): Robot Dreams

  29. 1. Calvin and Hobbes

    2. Anything by Bryan Talbot, Dreams Of A Dog (Herrimanesque Hegalian Dialectics), Krazy Kat, Fusion, Erma Felna EDF.

    And I forgot my BD collection. Especially the wonderful Aquablue, and Leo’s Aldebaran and Betelgeuse.

  30. Rev. Bob:

    Not that it’s relevant to any of us completely normal humans, but I do note that “squid monster” scans perfectly to “code monkey.”

    Squid Monster get up, get coffee
    Squid Monster go to war
    Squid Monster have boring cameo
    In Lovecraftian Lore

    In Lore, Squid Monster’s really scary, but
    originality’s nil
    Readers say this has all been done before
    it’s a cliche pill

    Squid Monster think maybe he would like to rewrite the Mythos for himself
    Squid Monster not do it for reals
    Squid Monster not literate, but feels

    that Squid Monster got tentacles
    Squid Monster got interstellar moves
    Squid Monster got a master plan
    Got a master class in ceph’lopod
    Got nothing to prove

  31. 1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING

    Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson
    XKCD, Randall Munroe

    But really, comic strips aren’t my thing. I read them once and never again. And think the limitations of the format makes them repetitous by nature. Oglaf is my exception.

    2. BONUS QUESTION

    What’s your favorite comic that didn’t make the bracket at all?

    A Contract With God – Will Eisner.

    3. SPECIAL BONUS QUESTION ONLY FOR HAMPUS ECKERMAN

    Other than A Contract with God, what’s your favorite comic that didn’t make the bracket at all?

    1. Socker-Conny, Joakim Pirinen

    Swedish comic that became a cult classic. I have two of the original pages on my wall. Never been translated as far as I know.

    2. Hellblazer, Dangerous Habits

    The basis of the horrible Constantine-movie. Best part is when Constantie drinks stout with the devil.

    3. Green Arrow/Green Lantern 76-89, Neal Adams/Dennis O’Neal,

    The first big superhero comic to seriously handle subjects such as racism and drugs in a way that hit you directly in the guts. A fantastic run.

    4. Uzumaki, Junji Ito

    A truly horrible comic. Somhow gives the feeling of Lovecraft without being Lovecraftian. It is totally fantastic.

    5. Prince Valiant
    The artwork is fabulous, the characters flawed, but likable. Both humor and suspension. Characters that age and change. And Sir Gawain. Always Sir Gawain.

    6. Valhalla, Peter Madsen
    Wonderful series about the Norse Gods. Not as weird techno-aliens as Marvel depict them, but at they should be show. Gods that are human in character, petty and good natured, always bickering among themselves. Madsen also did fantastic work of retelling the classic viking story “The Longships” by Frans G. Bengtsson. Still the best story on vikings.

    Someone translated these for download:
    http://norsesauce.tumblr.com/post/30301872763/valhalla-by-peter-madsen-v1-11-english

    7. Spirou and Fantasio, Franquin
    This together with its spionoffs Marsupilami and Gaston LaGaffe are one of the truly greats, almost rivalling Tintin. Great adventures! Start with Z is for Zorglub.

    8. Blueberry, Jean Giraud
    Western with fantastic artwork. This is the one that we never let be mixed with the other comics, only taken out to be read with care as to not damage comic.

    9. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, Jacques Tardi
    The first comic I found in the adult section of the library. Scarier, but still very exciting. Recently made in to a movie by Luc Besson. Have bought, but not seen yet.

    10. Lil’Abner, Al Capp
    The one with the Schmoos is just wonderful satire. Also spawned off a childrens cartoon show on TV, inspired Sadie Hawkes day celebrated on universities and much more. Don’t start from the beginning, instead pick out the best.

    And Oglaf of course.

  32. Forehead Cloths! Get your ultimate comics forehead cloths here! Available in monochrome and color! Get a dozen! Get a case!

  33. Rory Root Memorial Comics Bracket: THE FINAL ROUND.

    1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING

    Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson
    XKCD, Randall Munroe

    Tie. Half a vote to each?

    2. BONUS QUESTION

    What’s your favorite comic that didn’t make the bracket at all?

    Kingdom Come, by Mark Waid and Alex Ross.

  34. Rev. Bob:

    I’ve always thought of Spiderman not as epic storylines, but as epic moments. Single moments that will etched into memory forever. Gwen Stacy and Green Goblin, first meeting with MJ, getting loose from equipment in doc ocs base as to be able to save Aunt May, etc. So many of those. More than in any other comic book.

  35. @Nicole: (“Squid Monster”)

    Wonderful. Very much the kind of thing I had in mind.

    @Hampus: (storylines vs. moments)

    I think, on some level, Spidey IS Marvel to me. He’s their original “superhero with problems” that now defines their whole approach, in sharp contrast to the older DC comics where supers were well-adjusted men who occasionally took time out of their ideal lives to have adventures but were not otherwise affected by them.

    In that respect, looking at his character as a series of isolated snapshots – even though that’s how Pete would sell them to JJJ – seems wrong to me. He’s truly the sum of his journeys, learning and growing from his mistakes as well as his triumphs, and that’s how I prefer to think of him. That tiny “snap” in the Gwen Stacy frame is heartbreaking, but only because of all the “lesser” frames that led up to it.

    Batman, now… he’s someone you can define in moments. Just look at the Batcave; it’s already been done. That’s too sterile for Spidey, though.

  36. This is a painful choice. I don’t know how much nostalgia has colored my memory of Calvin and Hobbes, but I loved that strip.

    Still, I think I’ve got to vote for XKCD, not least because of the way Munroe bent the medium in sequences like Time.

    Cassy

  37. Pingback: Amazing Stories | AMAZING NEWS FROM FANDOM: 10/18/15 - Amazing Stories

  38. 1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING

    Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson

    This was a hard choice, but Calvin and Hobbes just about wins out

    2. I’m going to go for Joe Casey’s run on Wildcats. Starting a couple of years after Wildstorm started taking a more post-modern approach to superhero comics, Casey took a hackneyed core premise – A superhero team that owned a massive corporation to fun their costumed adventures – and turned it upside down by having the superhero use the corporation to do good on a massive scale. Stunning artwork from Sean Phillips, and later Dustin Nguyen.

  39. Rev. Bob on October 18, 2015 at 5:37 am said:

    I think, on some level, Spidey IS Marvel to me. He’s their original “superhero with problems” that now defines their whole approach, in sharp contrast to the older DC comics where supers were well-adjusted men who occasionally took time out of their ideal lives to have adventures but were not otherwise affected by them.

    Oh absolutely.
    This comment made me flash back to buying the first issues as they came out.
    Yes, Superman and Batman, the whole D.C. crew, were larger-than-life adult heroes, interesting enough, but essentially distant.
    The Fantastic Four had one token kid in among their superheroes.
    A bit meh, squeezed in among the adult plot lines, and all a bit silk-lined.
    But Peter wasn’t off being official and all, he was just some guy living in a normal person context, making a reasonable number of dopey choices.
    I was just blown away.

  40. 1. VAGUELY MIDWESTERN SETTING VS. VAGUELY EARTHLIKE SETTING
    XKCD

    For the excluded favorite, I’d have to go with Far Side.
    How did we all forget that?
    Or possibly Edward Gorey too.

  41. @Lorcan Nagle

    Yes, that run on Wildcats was great. I think I remembered to nominate that one, but I’m not sure its well-known enough to stand against most of the stuff in the bracket. I sort of hope there’s a Comics Bracket: The Sequel at some point that covers the things that didn’t quite make it this time. Maybe next year?

    @Lauowolf

    I’m still cross with myself that I didn’t think of The Far Side!

  42. Calvin and Hobbes.

    (Honestly, XKCD is fun, but it’s not even close.)

    Comic that was skipped? Paul Chadwick’s Concrete, which I realized just too late I had forgotten to nominate. I believe Dark Horse keeps the collections in print so do yourself a favour and check it out (it’s excellent SF as well as great comics, and one short story even has a guest appearance by Harlan Ellison as himself.)

  43. @Cubist: I’m afraid your answer to question #2 is invalid. Try again?

    For my own vote, yeah: maybe it’s nostalgia, but I’m going with Calvin and Hobbes.

    What’s my favorite comic that didn’t make it into the bracket? Promethea, by Alan Moore and J.H. Williams III. Moore’s usual fantastic characters, insights into mysticism that I hadn’t known about before (I’m not at all mystical myself, but the topic interests me) and amazing art covering a huge range. The only reason it didn’t make the bracket is that I already had four works by Moore in it, and couldn’t bring myself to add a fifth. If I had it to do over again, I’d probably put Promethea in instead of From Hell.

    Honorable mentions: Busiek and Bagley’s original run on Thunderbolts. Busiek’s skill at depicting character is second only to Moore’s, and he couples it with smart storytelling, and here, a neat high concept. The reveal at the end of the first issue blew my mind, and not much does that.

    The Order of the Stick, by Rich Burlew, likewise has some excellent examples of smart people being smart; and along with it, some worldbuilding of D&D concepts that actually makes them work.

    The Autumnlands, by Busiek and Dewey, is a fun mashup of Jack Vance and Jack Kirby. Too new to have a chance to get into this bracket, though.

Comments are closed.