Category Greg Smith

Sep 23 2014

Daredevil 8

daredevil 8Today, Greg and Spencer are discussing Daredevil 8, originally released September 17, 2014. 

Greg: I went and saw a movie last week against my better judgment. That movie was the clunkily titled Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, a comic-book adaptation and sequel to the excellent 2005 adaptation of Miller’s hard-boiled neo-noir stories. My roommate, who shares my love of this first one, warned me it was terrible. Rotten Tomatoes warned me it was terrible. I didn’t listen. I went and saw it, and boy, terrible doesn’t scratch the surface. It’s a miserable piece of garbage. I could spend hours rage-explaining (ragesplaining?) what is so fundamentally wrong with this dreck, but one criticism stands head and shoulders above the rest: The stylistic tics and techniques are arbitrary, meaningless, and add nothing to the story. Conversely, any play with form in Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s outstandingly excellent Daredevil 8 are part and parcel of an intense, dark, and captivating story.

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Sep 15 2014

Velvet 7

velvet 7Today, Greg and Drew are discussing Velvet 7, originally released September 10th, 2014.

Greg: When’s the last time you dorked out in public? For me, “dorking out” is a simultaneously freeing yet embarrassing experience. The feeling of visceral pleasure and physical high you get from an unbound joy something gives you, crashing into the realization that the folks you’re dorking out too don’t have much of a frame of context, and can’t join in. I once spent five minutes dorking out over a long-take fight scene in Skyfall to my parents, who in response, coughed awkwardly and said “That sounds nice.” They’re gonna have to look out, though, because Velvet is so staggeringly good and checks every box of stuff I love, that it’s 100% being added to my “dork-out” pile.

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Sep 9 2014

Swamp Thing 1: Futures End

futures end swamp thing 1Today, Patrick and Greg are discussing Swamp Thing 1: Futures End originally released September 3, 2014.

Patrick: Okay, so why “five years later,” huh? What’s the point of all these glances into the theoretic furutre of DC Comics? I know it shouldn’t matter that these stories may prove to be part of a future-narrative that gets wiped out of the canon, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that we’re reading a bunch of what-if stories. Intriguingly, these glimpses into future have their eyes set on the past; evoking elements of Pre-Flashpoint continuity and reconciling that with what’s been established since September of 2011. The future is a point on a line, plotted using the past and present as reference. It’s a herculean task, but one that writer Charles Soule and artist Jesus Saiz are more than up for, aligning themselves with the intrepid Alec Holland, perhaps unsure that they would make it through to the other side unharmed.

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Sep 2 2014

Bob’s Burgers 1

bobs burgers 1Today, Greg and Spencer are discussing Bob’s Burgers 1, originally released August 27th, 2014.

Greg: Imagination, particularly as a kid, is a powerful, revealing thing. It’s your subconscious untethered, playing make-believe and laying out your attitudes and ideals in surprisingly intimate detail. When I was a kid, my friends were keen on playing the most violent versions of Dragon Ball Z and Star Wars possible — all fighting, all the time. I was more concerned with making sure the good guys stayed good and the bad guys — only if they really deserved it — got beat up and, ideally, learned their lesson. In this first issue, we get a glimpse into the fantasies and insecurities of Tina, Louise, and Gene Belcher, as Bob’s Burgers lays out three stories of imagination.

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Aug 22 2014

The Multiversity 1

multiversity 1

Today, Spencer and Greg Patrick are discussing The Multiversity 1, originally released August 20th, 2014.

Spencer: It may not seem like it at first, but comics are one of the more interactive art forms out there. While movies and TV shows dictate the pace you experience them at, you can move through a comic book at any pace you desire, and even just the act of turning the page involves you in the story; you are advancing the story, and without your actions, the plot cannot move forward. The Multiversity is a Grant Morrison story, so it should be no surprise that it’s meta as piss. The reader’s power over the narrative is just one of many themes Morrison plays with in this title, but it’s certainly one of the most fascinating — and will likely also be one of the most divisive. Continue reading →

Aug 13 2014

Rocket Raccoon 2

Rocket raccoon 2Today, Greg and Drew are discussing Rocket Raccoon 2, originally released August 6th, 2014.

Greg: In middle school I had a problem, and that problem was flood pants. You know, pants that are too short for you, leaving your ankles embarrassingly exposed, as if you want your pants to be safe in case of a flood. Maybe we didn’t have enough money for new pants, maybe I just didn’t care, but I got ravenously bullied for wearing these things. One night, as I fought back tears and told my mom my woes, she offered a line for me to say in reponse — a line so well-crafted I can’t believe my mom didn’t have a previous career as a comedy writer. The very next day, when one of my tormentors chipped away at me, I unleashed this bomb: “When the flood comes, you’ll all be sorry.” The response was intense, way more than I could’ve imagined. These kids laughed until they cried, and didn’t bother me about my flood pants so much anymore. I learned that day a valuable lesson, one that makes itself known in this issue of Rocket Raccoon: humor is a powerful way to work through traumas.

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Aug 6 2014

Chat Cave: The Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy is the first movie in the series to turn the franchise focus toward the Cosmic end of the Marvel Universe. As pretty big Guardians fans ourselves, we just had to talk about the movie. Probable spoilers after the break: welcome to the Chat Cave.
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Aug 4 2014

Outcast 2

outcast 2
Today, Patrick and Greg are discussing Outcast 2, originally released July 30th, 2014.

Patrick: I like to think of myself as a pretty mild-mannered, in-control kind of guy. One of the things I pride myself on is my skill for conflict resolution — and as a cornerstone of that, my communication skills. I sincerely believe that just about any conflict can be ameliorated with enough patience, understanding and communication. That being said: I once punched my friend Jeff in the stomach. Straight up stocked him in the gut. I was mad about something — who even cares what — and rather than make him understand that I was upset, I just hit him. I was twelve years old at the time, and I’ve passed so many peaceful years since then, that tend to think of that person that hit Jeff as “not really me.” That was someone else’s behavior. It’s the same thing I think about the version of me that used to drink to the point of blacking out, and vomiting in the bed (only happened once, thank goodness). That wasn’t Patrick, that was drunk-Patrick, which is just a different version of “not really me.” While the first issue of Outcast settled very neatly on a question of faith, the second issue is interested in these ideas of fault and identity. Continue reading →

Jul 28 2014

Trees 3

trees 3Today, Greg and Spencer are discussing Trees 3, originally released July 23rd, 2014.

Greg: At my high school, marching band was a huge deal. It had all the emotions, pressures, and big personalities of a championship football team.  I played in the pit upfront (marimbas, vibraphones, xylophones) my entire high school career. My freshman year was the long-running, much-loved band director’s swan song — he also happened to be my dad, which definitely didn’t help with the pressure thing. We won state championships for the first time that year, meaning my sophomore year definitely didn’t help with the pressure thing. Certain instructors and students started treating it like a military outfit, and it was too much for me. I took to my LiveJournal and posted an obscenities-and-hormones fueled diatribe on the people who I felt were taking it too far. My parents immediately found out. My dad, no longer the band director but now the assistant principal, ordered me to face the new band director in a one-on-one. I went in expecting to be eviscerated, but was surprised to find the director met me with patience, understanding, and forgiveness. I was primed and ready for battle, but instead had a deep, insightful, mutually respectful conversation. This sense of narrative rise-and-hard-left-turn happens in Trees 3 as well, and left me feeling similarly satisfied.

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Jul 7 2014

The Woods 3

woods 3Today, Greg and Spencer are discussing The Woods 3, originally released July 2nd, 2014.

Greg: There was a constant problem in the percussion section of my high school band. Whenever we had concerts, it meant lugging lots of heavy equipment from our band room to our auditorium; the tympani, in particular, were awkward beasts of burden. Thus, when the concerts ended and us student musicians were worn out and ready to leave, it was too easy to duck out immediately, leaving the percussion in the auditorium without putting it back. This infuriated my band teacher, as he vowed to punish those who left early (in a full tux, no less). My response, as a habitual people-pleaser, was to take on the task myself, tirelessly hauling equipment to and fro, until the status quo was kept normalized. If it was that easy for me to seriously fall in line over something as silly as “moving percussion equipment”, The Woods 3 shows that I would’ve been a person of concern if monsters ever came to town.

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