Friday, February 02, 2007

It's all about me

Hmp. Couple of heavy posts lately.

One of you may be asking...Where's the mildly amusing? Well, before you bitterly edit your news reader subscription let me inform the few of you seeking entertaining commentary and not finding it for the last week or so is because I'm in a lousy mood and I'm sharing it. The internet lets me ensure that my bad mood spreads further than the confines of my immediate family and I'm taking advantage of it.

Fact is, I have no idea what I will be doing and where I will be living in about a week or so. Many shoes are in the air waiting to drop. Unfortunately all the metaphorical footwear are being held in the clumsy, less than competent hands of others. Sure, control is an illusion but there are some Cockrum-era Princess Projectra-level illusions momentarily in control of my life and the welfare of my family. The result is I am annoyed. Without breaking my pledge not to air "Woe Is Me" tales like many bloggers, clues to the reason can be found here and here.

I realized how upset I was getting when I read the recent issue of X-Men with some sort of art by Humberto Ramos. I was feeling pretty irrational over how bad the art is.

X-Men #195 - Bleh
It was as if all the worst elements of poorly-executed 70s manga and comics typical of 90s Marvel was all blended together, concentrated into a viscous, ink-like substance and smeared all over the pages of a book by a brain-damaged monkey in the middle of a feces-throwing tantrum. Usually, I just frown and take the title off my list for a few months if I am not feeling sufficiently X-Hungry to put up with art or story I fail to appreciate. But in the case of X-Men #195 this time around I was irritated enough that my Crap-O-Meter pegged out and and my escapist refuge became an unpleasant chore I no longer have the patience to deal with. The comic book industry should be grateful they didn't publish any L**f**d this month that I noticed. The economic holocaust to local comic book retailers would have been horrific as I dropped all titles off of my pull list (except for anything related to Fables or Mouse Guard).

Not that anyone is going to file a missing persons report, but I may disappear for a few weeks until I have access to the net and my computers and hardware again. Any future Grocery Store Artifact entries will likely be from the viewpoint of the angry, recovering from a recent food-poisoning consumer with a unique perspective and not as one from from behind the scenes.

I've finally got a meeting with a few corporate types higher up on the food chain early next week. We'll see what happens.

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5 comments:

  1. You know, I flipped through that same issue and commented to myself on the fact that Humberto Ramos has grown out of a lot of his super-detailed excesses and really matured into a nice, expressionistically loose style that reads fairly well. I guess i takes all kinds...

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  2. Looking at this panel I would say that Ramos has improved since the last time I looked -- or is perhaps tailoring his style towards the project -- but his work is still dazzling in its distortions and sheer ugliness. I've made a point of not supporting any title he's working on. Once or twice I've felt a little bad about it, as by all accounts he's a great guy, but his work is part of a style wave that is such an intense barrier to my enjoyment that I don't know that I could fight through it even if it were attached to an Alan Moore script.

    Besides, he appears to have a firm fan base. My (usually) quiet protest, I'm sure, has no impact on his income.

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  3. Chin up, Sleestak!

    Things will get better soon.

    They MUST.

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  4. As soon as Ramos leaves comics it will. If I never see another giraffe necked, bear trap jawed hunchback it'll be too soon.

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  5. I've actually grown to like his art here

    it's glossy, laid back and colorful
    gives the story a sporty, cool attitude. even though Im usually fond of details

    despite the fact that a few months back I wanted to stab him in the hands so he coundt draw again

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