The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1761: Return to Wonderland Cover Gallery, March 2008

A no-brainer today. And, I mean, it's not like this comic is directed at the brain, really. There's a little editorial at the beginning that talks about art and what art is. This is a prime example of "Bad Girl" art from a decade ago. It's exactly what you think it is.

The artists within, to their credit, are very good at drawing a certain stereotypical conception of beauty. The art is not without its merits, but after 30-some odd pages, it's a bit much. And, honestly, doesn't really entice me to read the actual series, despite my love for all things Alice-related.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1674: Herbret West #2, November 2008 (Cthuliana Week)

Though I find Herbert West to be one of Lovecraft's least-memorable characters, he seems to be the one that gets continuation after continuation of his adventures. I think it might be because he's the least-Lovecraftian protagonist in all of Lovecraft's tales. The original story was written in a more popular style than most of Lovecraft's works, an attempt to appeal to a wider audience. As a morally-ambiguous anti-hero, West has had numerous films and comics patterned on his original story. This particular version seems to be a reworking of the original tale, but set in the contemporary world. I'm not sure that West's particular brand of mad scientist really translates well to a modern day setting (something his films also suffer from) - he really does need the battlefields of WWI, or the creepy, ancient streets of Arkham in the 20s, otherwise it's completely unbelievable that he'd be able to continue his reanimation experiments. I know we're supposed to suspend our disbelief, but I'm firmly convinced that there are characters who belong in particular periods.

This issue didn't really help me with my Lovecraft conundrum. It adapts one of his stories without really offering any commentary or critique on the man who wrote it - like the films that were based on West's story, this comic focusses on the horror aspects of the story, rather than the social or systemic critique that's often inherent in Lovecraft's tales. Which makes it entertaining, but, honestly, a little vapid. In the glut of zombie-themed stories of contemporary times, you need to do something to make a story stick out.

"I will never forget those terrible events that summer night."

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 409: Grimm Fairy Tales #1, June 2005

A student of mine wrote a paper for the end of term comparing Zenescope's adaptation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with the original, and made observations about the way dream imagery becomes darker and more sinister when a character cannot escape the dream. A very cool idea, and she demonstrated it fairly well.

But we've been talking about the Grimm Fairy Tales adaptations for a couple of weeks now in meetings, and how bizarre they are. In some respects, they're pretty neat little takes on the classic fairy tales, adding an element of horror that has always been a part of these sorts of interpretations. But, as you can see from the above cover, there's also a pretty gratuitous amount of T&A. Now, this, in and of itself, is not an uncommon combination, but there's actually a chance that these stories could have some real literary merit, if it were not for the constant thong-shots, heaving, barely contained bosoms, and perfectly-toned California beach bodies. I'll admit that when I bought this comic, when it came out, there was probably something about that cover that pulled me in. I may try to be intellectual about comics a lot of the time, but I am also a human being who enjoys the aesthetic side of our species too. Here's the strange thing, though: inside the comic, there is actually little of this kind of exploitation. In fact, though fairly predictable, the story is pretty much a straight up horror tale. At the time, I was unimpressed with it, but on reflection now, the predictability that I disliked initially now seems to be a function of the source material. A fairy tale is so familiar that there's always going to be an element of predictability to an adaptation. Perhaps that's not why we watch them. It's like with Shakespeare - it's not what happens, because we all know what happens, but how what happens is depicted.

On that front, again, this comic's not fantastic. But it's getting there. First issues are like first seasons on television. It takes a while for a book to find its footing. The series continues to this day, as far as I know, but the interior artwork has come to more closely match the exterior, though still retains the horror elements. I think the best analogy for this series' genre I can think of is the best of the 80s slasher horror movies. Somehow it's always sex and death, isn't it, spiraling around one another, infinitely.

Onward.