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The Tasty Morsel that is CHEW
When I saw the subject for the most recent round of the Women on Comics Blog Carnival, the first book that came to my mind was CHEW. As an Eisner-Award Winner, I’m not entirely sure it qualifies as an “underrated” comic, but since it’s not a Marvel or DC title, I’m guessing it’s at least less well-known than other titles.
In the spirit of the “fun style” that “Fastball Special” call for posts mentions, I’ll write this post as a dialogue with two parts of myself: the part of me that recognizes and appreciates good art and fine writing, and the child in me that glories in utter ridiculous nonsense.
CRITIC ASHLEY: CHEW is one of the most original books being published today. It—
KIDDIE ASHLEY:CHEEEEEWWWWWW!!!! CHEW is ZOMG AWESOME!!! There’s blood and guts and food powers and no one’s allowed to eat chickens.
CRITIC ASHLEY: In the CHEW-niverse, poultry is outlawed because of the recent pandemic of bird flu. Certain individuals possess food-related superpowers, like the protaganist Tony Chu, who psychically glean the history of everything he eats—
KIDDIE ASHLEY: Except BEEETS!!!
CRITIC ASHLEY: Except Beets. Because of his powers, Tony gets recruited by the FDA to solve food-related crimes. Sometimes this includes murder, which means—
KIDDIE ASHLEY: TONY GETS TO EAT DEAD BODIES!!!!!
CRITIC ASHLEY: I don’t know if “gets to” is the best way to put it.
KIDDIE ASHLEY: NOM NOM NOM
CRITIC ASHLEY: Anyway, so aside from this absolutely unique premise, CHEW has great writing, including excellently twisty plots and clever dialogue. The characters’ personalities jump off the page, as a combination of John Layman’s writing and Rob Guillory’s absolutely fantastic art.
KIDDIE ASHLEY: EASTER EGGGGGGGGSSS!!
CRITIC ASHLEY: Oh, and Guillory’s Easter eggs make every page freakin’ delightful. In sum—
KIDDIE ASHLEY: READ CHEWWWWWWWW!!! DO ITTTTT!!
CRITIC ASHLEY: Chew is freakin’ wonderful. Evey issue is a wonderfully ridiculous adventure that leaves me—
KIDDIE ASHLEY: HUNGRY FOR THE NEXT ONE!!!! See what I did there? You see? You see?
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The Problem with Minnesota
Today Twitter made my day. The Seward Co-op tweeted that they had peaches and that they were goood.
Since I’ve been craving peaches for about a month, I went almost immediately. And I was so excited about them that I called Mom about them before I’d even made it to my front door. Mama was keeping my little cousin Noah at the time, and she told me he had a question for me:
Noah: “Ashley, are you coming over here?”
Me: “No, honey, not for awhile. I am planning to come visit over the summer!”
The problem with Minnesota is that it’s so far away! Of course, that’s why I came here. I wanted something new, and Minneapolis is certainly that! Part of “new,” for me, meant “far away.” And the longer I’m here, the more I like it. Mom, Dad, and Rob are coming up to visit me in May and I’m SO EXCITED to show them “my” city. I may be biased, but Minneapolis may be one of the coolest places ever. I kinda likes it.
But I do miss my family! Oh, so much. And all of my friends, in various places. Alabama, North Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, Georgia. I got folks all over (well, mostly in the South, apparently).
But what really breaks my heart is Noah. Everyone else understands where I am and what I’m doing; Noah just knows that I go to school. It took him awhile to understand why me and Robbie (Aunt Freida and Uncle Jim’s kids) don’t live with Mom and Dad, that we live at school. Now that he’s wrapped his head around that, I’m sure it’s hard to understand why Robbie comes home all the time, well, not all the time, but often, and I’ve been home like three times since last August. He’s only five, bless his heart.
I’m going to send him a map, to maybe help explain. But the bigger issue is when we talked, and when Mom tells me he says things like “Can I go with you?” when she was packing to come see me over her spring break, I can tell he misses me! And I miss him. I MISS ALL-A Y’ALL.
That’s the problem with Minnesota.
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DC Women Kicking Ass: Wonder Woman Birthday Cards
Back in the crazy, freewheeling 70s, DC licensed its heroes, as drawn by Neal Adams, for a series of Greeting Cards. Given that today is Wonder Woman’s birthday here’s a few of the cards that featured Diana.
We love you too!
Because you’re ageless?
Oh, Clark.
Boom, swish!
That is not MAC make-up on her eyes, I am pretty sure.
(Source: Flickr / andertoons-cartoons)
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I can haz Wonder Woman cakes?
Wonder Woman likes cake!
And it’s her birthday so here are some cakes!
I think this is my favorite.
I bet that’s Chris Sims’ cake.
(Source: cakecentral.com)
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Favorite Stories Starring Women: Death: The High Cost of Living
This week is round two of the Women on Comics Blog Carnival! (What’s a blog carnival?) My second post is not just about a wonderful story, but about one of my favorite comic characters, period.
If you know me, and you guessed Wonder Woman, you’re wrong, though this lady is one wonderful woman herself.
Sort of. I’m talking about Death.
Photo from Lipsticks & Lightsabers
Death, the older sister of Dream/Morpheus, one of Neil Gaiman’s characters called The Endless, who embody the things that make humanity, well, human: Destiny, Destruction, Desire, Despair, Delight/Delirium, Dream, and of course, Death. Death plays a rather large role in Gaiman’s original story of The Endless (Sandman), but I wouldn’t say it’s a starring role. But she does have a trade paperback all her own called Death: The High Cost of Living.
After the absolute epic that is Sandman, Death: The High Cost of Living doesn’t seem like much at all. After all, the modern-day events of Sandman last two to three years (not including the multiple flashbacks, which go back to pre-recorded history), while Death spans a mere twenty-four hours. But I, like all other mortals she encounters in Sandman, was absolutely smitten with Death from her very first scene at the end of Preludes & Nocturnes (Sandman’s first trade installment). When I found Death: The High Cost of Living (DTHCL), I had to have more.
DTHCL is an interesting story, structurally, in addition to being on of my favorites. On the one hand, it’s plot-driven: Death and her new friend Sexton go on a quest to find Mad Hattie’s heart, and on the way they find adventure and misadventure in everything from hot dogs to kidnappings. But it’s also character-driven. It’s a moment of insight into what makes Death who she is. She is the embodiment of death, of course, but that’s not who she is. Like humans, Death is more than the sum of her parts. She has a personality. She is “terminally perky,” as Sexton says of her smile, and she is kind, friendly, sincere, honest, straightforward, optimistic, and, most importantly, empathetic. It’s important to distinguish this empathy from sympathy. Sympathy is when you feel sorry for someone, looking in from outside their situation. Empathy is when you know what they’re feeling because you’ve walked in their shoes. That’s what DTHCL is all about—Death’s ongoing efforts to maintain her empathy with humanity.
It’s this empathy that younger brother Morpheus lacks at the beginning of Sandman, and what drives his entire story and character development. With Death, we don’t necessarily need to see her grow like we do Morpheus; we just need to see what it is that makes her tick, which apparently is apples, and music, and dancing, and the chemical aftertaste of hot dogs.
In this way, DTHCL is less a story and more a brief, twenty-four hour portrait of one of the most mysterious forces known to mankind. For a mortal, Gaiman paints a pretty good picture.
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Favorite Stories Starring Women: Lost at Sea
This week is round two of the Women on Comics Blog Carnival! Who’s excited? (What’s a blog carnival?)
I missed round one, but I’m going to try to make up for it by writing multiple posts this week for the carnival. Honestly, I’d probably write more than one post anyway because this round’s prompt brings to mind so many excellent stories. The prompt: what are your favorite stories starring women? Some of my posts this week will take liberties with the notion of “starring,” but more on that later. For now, let me introduce to you the very first story that jumped into my mind: Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Lost at Sea.
Photo from Wikipedia
Lost at Sea is a micro-bildungsroman starring eighteen-year-old Raleigh, traveling up the Pacific Coast in a car full of schoolmates with whom she’s only marginally acquainted. The story is funny, poignant, and brought me to tears more than once, perhaps because I to (as we all) have moments of feeling “lost at sea.” Why, other than this, is Lost at Sea among my favorite stories? I give you three brief reasons. [Spoiler alert.]
The Fragmented Narrative. Though fragmented, non-chronological narrative is by no means unique, it is still something that, as far as I can tell, is much less common than more traditional narrative structures. O’Malley uses this structure not to spring plot twists on his readers or in service of a mystery, which I think are the main uses of fragmented narratives, but to actually develop his character. From this structure, we get an impression of Raleigh as a young woman who is lost in her own head, in her own sea of thoughts. The abrupt transitions from scene to scene, from Raleigh’s memories and musings to the “current” events of the story jerk us around in a way that feels true to life; who hasn’t been absorbed in her own thoughts only to be suddenly, crudely jerked back to an unfortunate reality? O’Malley’s narrative structure does this for his readers, and I mean that in the best way possible.
The Unreliable Narrator. Unreliable narrators are also by no means an original device, but O’Malley’s execution of Raleigh’s unreliability is so well done that it sneaks up on us. Raleigh, the narrator, paints herself as so insecure, so socially awkward, from the beginning of the story that by the time we hear other characters’ perceptions of her, we are just as surprised and pleased and perhaps relieved as Raleigh to be not just accepted but embraced by those around her. Which brings us to…
The Cats. Raleigh’s excellently-executed unreliability also means that my favorite part of the story is not just cute and quirky but also believable. Toward the end of the story, Raleigh confesses first to readers and then to her comrades that she thinks her soul has been placed inside a cat, and if she can only find the cat, she’ll be able to get her soul back. Absurd, right? Wrong. Not for Raleigh, not for us, and, it turns out, not for Raleigh’s travel companions, which is what, I think, helps set Raleigh back on course and helps her feel a little less “lost at sea.”
I hope my spoilers didn’t, well, spoil the story for you. I recommend you check it out. Find it at your local comic shop or at your local library!
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DC Women Kicking Ass: Today is International Women's Day
Considering I gave a presentation only yesterday about studying the discourse surrounding “Women in Comics” blogs/posts like this one, this post by one of my favorite bloggers is rather timely. Here’s an excerpt that the blogger uses to illustrate the sexist discourse of the naysayers: “DC Comics will never be what you want them to be. Thank God. Give it up. The cripple is gone, Harley is a slut, Catwoman shows her bra strap. Get over it you dumb cunt.”
Today March 8, is the 101st International Women’s Day. This year’s theme is “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures”. Once again Google is celebrating the page with a custom doodle:
Frankly, I can’t think of a more recent year where I have felt concern about women in my country. The…
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Love, love, love this Catwoman shirt. While I love Wonder Woman for her history and iconic status, I’ve been more compelled by Catwoman’s story since the beginning of DC’s New 52 (though Cliff Chiang’s art has absolutely Wonder-ful—where are you, Cliff?? Come back!!). But, the fun part about opinions is that I DON’T HAVE TO PICK A FAVORITE! MWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA.
New Batman villains shirts, available at Hot Topic:
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Snowman attempt #1…
…was a complete failure.
Last week, my office mate Michael shared with me a story from his days of teaching in Korea:
The one time it snowed, my students reported back to me that they didn’t know how to make snowmen. They weren’t aware of the proper technique: starting with a snowball and then rolling it into a larger ball. Instead, they had used a “packing” method, which resulted in some rather unfortunate-looking snow sculptures. “Teacher,” they said, “we didn’t make snowmen. We made snow turds.”
After he told me this, I said, “Oh! You’re supposed to roll it?”
Whoops.
Until I moved to Minnesota, I had seen enough snow completely blanket the ground a total of maybe five times:
- The Great Ozark Blizzard (1 - 2 inches) of ‘94
- January 2005 in Washington, DC when the AUMB played in the Inaugural Parade
- Winter 2008 - 2009 in Auburn
- Winter 2009 - 2010 in Aubutn
- March 2011 Visit Day at the U of M
So when I tell you that I’m pretty lacking in snowman skills, please believe me. I remember making two snowmen in my life: one when I was three, in Ashland, Alabama. Mom, Dad, and I collected snow from the patches on the ground and on my dad’s orange Honda, stuffed it into a Christmas popcorn tin and a tupperware bowl, then tumped them over and made the snowman sand-castle style.
The other snowman I made was during the 08 - 09 winter in Auburn when it snowed. I walked around campus, taking pictures, and at one point was inspired to create this:
Oh, and then there was the 09 - 10 winter, where my friends and I pretended we had made this snowman:
Photo credit: The lovely Shanna Lockwood
However, despite these attempts, I’ve never made a snowman for realz. After I revealed this to Michael and our office neighbor, Drew, they offered tips for snowman making.
Unfortunately, today when I tried to implement those tips, the snow literally fell apart. Literally. I gave it a couple of tries, then decided to go indoors and google that sh*t. I found this video, which was helpful. This jolly Youtuber shared his secrets and gave a visual demonstration. “I can do this,” I thought.
And yet. The snow still fell apart. My guess is that the snow that has recently fallen isn’t “wet” enough, whatever that means. It just wouldn’t stick together. So, this is what happened:
A big pile of snow. What a disappointment. So, I did this instead:
Overall, I’d call that a snow #win.
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[Flash 10 is required to watch video]
And now, 0:15 of snow.
