brainstorms

Tuesday April 19, 2005

on groklessness...

people seem to generally respect groklaw. it is said to be a strong defender of open source. not being a regular reader, i assumed that meant a fair, literate and rational approach to debates around open source. i must be mistaken, or jonathan's groklaw debate link is pointing to a bad imitation.

[highly recommended related reading: jamie whyte, crimes against logic, 2004]

notable comics from last year

i will remember 2004 as the year for my comics interests: i have found material from many good writers, pencillers and inkers, some of whom i wish i had known sooner. here is a quick tour of comics that i thought were very well written, drawn & inked or both. sometimes, storylines grew too complex with many genre references [and in the case of horror, religious - almost always christian - and occult references i am familiar from some distance] but still remained enjoyable, and when the storyline faltered, good art kept me going.

i knew about kurt busiek (i think henry mentioned him first when i asked about some of the top writers in the field) and had read about him in writers on comics scriptwriting. i did not know what a potent combination he would make with carlos pacheco and jesus merino: Arrowsmith: So Smart in Their Fine Uniforms is about war and its costs.

writer/illustrator kazu kibuishi's daisy kutter is steampunk/western masterpiece; his art is as different from superhero comic book art as sumi-e is different from western watercolors; trade pbk should be out soon. when i last checked, amazon had not heard of kibuishi, but barnesandnoble at least has an entry.

joss whedon [of buffy fame], karl moline and andy owens produced the remarkable fray: good story with sharp and dynamic art to match.

not sure how i found out about the witching hour by jeph loeb, chris bachalo, art thibert (may have been mentioned in wired or entertainment weekly) but that was my first encounter with chris bachalo's magnetic, complex work.

here he is again in morales, bachalo, campbell's captain america, and his own glorious if somewhat confused steampunk.

[since i wrote the draft of this blog, bachalo nearly completed drawing a beautiful sequence in x-men: age of apocalypse by writer akira yoshida]

karl kesel, skottie young in human torch [which should be out in trade pbk soon]. i really like skottie's style. [still trying to find a copy of his sketchbook.] daniel way, skottie young, rick ketcham in venom: twist [i think this follows a venom volume by humberto ramos]

brian augustyn, humberto ramos, sandra hope in remarkable crimson loyalty and loss (1-6) heaven and earth (7-12) earth angel (13-18) and redemption (19-24) weird and wonderful story of alex elder, a teenage vampire.

one of last year's good surprises is majestic while you were out: i was not that familiar with abnett and lanning so i did not know what to expect; also this is the first time i encountered neil googe's work. every panel is well composed and drawn; add sharp inking (a calligraphic/cut nib?) by trevor scott, and good coloring, and that is a sequence (now complete) well worth getting.