Feel the magic, hear the roar

[austin_dern]

I bought a comic book, the ThunderCats the First Exciting Issue. ``First'' and ``Issue'' are correct, but it's more Exposition than Exciting. Lion-O contracted Old Age, WilyKat is off living in disgrace, and dog-aliens are invading New Thundera. Also there's new hyperactive twins WilyCub and WilyCat to fill the Wendy and Marvin role that WilyKit and WilyKat used to. That's the whole book. Probably First Exposition Issue wouldn't sell so well.

I got it at 7-Eleven, though, in a real (plastic) rack of comics that, you know, anybody can see. Similar racks are in Popular (a books-and-school-supplies chain) and Kinokuniya (a Japanese book chain with an infinitely large Orchard Road store). It's A5 size, a smaller but more convenient size than U.S. comics. Gotham Comics reprints Marvel and D.C. books, so the same people print Fantastic Four and Superman. Gotham Comics is headquartered in New Jersey.

There are some U.S.-style comic book shops here, cramped oddly-placed stores with faded posters blocking all ambient light, with a huge miniatures game in its 40,000th day crowding the floor, with back-issue boxes jammed full to 350 psi, and a Malaysian Jay and Chinese Silent Bob in the corner staring angrily at any foolish strangers. But since I can go to non-oppressive places I'm buying more comics now.

Trivia: Charles D.B. King claimed a 234,000-vote margin of victory for the 1928 presidential election in Liberia. The total electorate was under 15,000. Source: 1982 Guinness Book of World Records, Norris McWirther.

Currently Reading: 2150 A.D., Thea Alexander. I don't like utopias where everybody's happy because they're standardized. In James Blish's juvenile novel Mission to the Heart Stars the hero convinces the nigh-omnipotent aliens regulating the galaxy's mortal politics that vitality comes from the steady chaotic foam of a statistical equilibrium, not from fixed roles, and I like that more.

Comments

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I was extremely disappointed in the First Exposition Issue when it came out, a few months ago. Disappointed enough not to read any of the others.

Well, okay, maybe one other, but I didn't like it either.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I think more of a nuisance than the slow plot -- oh, I'll give them some padding, since they are trying to recap a graphic novel they can't be sure anyone saw, plus bring things up to date after the last ThunderCats season, which nobody saw -- is the artwork seemed dedicated to making each page tones of a single color -- this is a blue page; this is an amber page, et cetera. With the loss of the white space between panels and at page borders it's not always clear what the sequential flow is; you have to read a page and then retrofit it from the captions.

Plus I kept thinking Old Wilykit was Cheetara. She needs her own outfit and hairstyle.

[moonfires.livejournal.com]

They should welcome their new canine masters :>

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

One does note the invaders aren't just dog-aliens from space, but they're dog-aliens from space who ride dinosaurs.

Says one, ``This night, we mark our territory ... with blood!'' which should pretty well finish off those claims that comic books are adult entertainment.

[moonfires.livejournal.com]

Only black & white comics are adult. :>

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I missed this bit of propaganda at the start, as the dog-aliens on dinosaurs first land: ``Attention, Pack! By order of the supreme alpha, Doberlord, the land known as New Thundera now belongs to the war dogs.''
Tom Servo: Don't let them slip.
Crow: I'm still stuck on ``Doberlord.''
Joel: He wrestled control from Attila the Hound.

[oliver-otter.livejournal.com]

Why is Wilykat in disgrace? Did he stop using the litterbox or something? :-/

And if they're marking their territory with blood, they need to see a doctor. :-P

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

The comic doesn't explain WilyKat's problem and refers instead to the ThunderCats: The Return graphic novel. The only explanation we get in text goes:

Cheetara: We ... we thought you were --
WilyKat: Dead? No. But I often wished I was, and I deserved to be, after I betrayed everybody I held dear to me. I thought it was better you thought I was dead. I headed off on my own, into the badlands. To see if I could learn to live with myself, and find some sort of peace. But I had to come back. To warp you [ of the war dogs ].
Tygra: [ Hugging WilyKat ] WilyKat, you knucklehead, we would have forgiven you. We all went through ordeals during those terrible years when Mumm-ra ruled us. But we got through it ... together.