io9 
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San Francisco, 1:35 AM
Mon Dec 21
12 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/07/09
10/07/09
10/06/09
10/06/09
10/06/09
It might be didactic, and it certainly is an info-dump, but I found it never less that fascinating and compelling. Just because Moore uses the series to give a number of lectures on his views of magic and religion doesn't mean that he neglects characterization and plot.
10/06/09
Some people may think of me as an idiot for it but I feel that I need to have it be one or the other, not both. If it does both, I will lose interest in the theories/opinions and focus on the story, which leads to skipped pages.
In this case and by the way you describe it, it seems like a lot of time is spent with lectures, meaning I will feel cheated out of my money as I skip page after page of what I will inevitably find to be an old man's rambling so I can read about the characters.
Don't get me wrong. I can read essays and enjoy them; I frequently read articles about sci-fi and fantasy worldbuilding as a way of studying to become a writer. But the second you inject a fictional narrative into it, my tongue flops out and I begin drooling all over myself as my braincells quiet down for some escapism.
10/07/09
You could skip over the lectures, but the characters and the plot are IN the lectures. You'd be missing the point of the comic. If that sounds like something you'd hate, maybe you're right. Me, I love art that has something to say.
09/29/09
09/29/09
09/29/09
The relative conservatism of the Fable community (which, given that they're hundreds of years old, makes perfect sense) is prevalent throughout the series.
Besides, that comment isn't about the origins of the state of Israel, but about its current status in the world.
09/29/09
Seriously, if you're not reading this, there is something wrong with you.
09/29/09
09/29/09
09/29/09
And forever after, when they kill goblins, I'm going, "Awesome! Bulldoze the little fuckers' hundred-year-old olive groves, while you're at it! Build walls between the goblins and their Goblin Church! Kick them out of their homes and pretend they don't even have a goblin government! Tell everyone who disagrees with you that your Fairy Godmother told you to do it!"
Talk about dehumanizing your enemies.
09/29/09
And technically the olive grove was used to produce unkillable soldiers which were used to create armies which could conquer worlds. I think that counts as provocation.
09/29/09
I mean, Willingham could have used any number of historical examples to make the exact same point and it would have come off as badass, but the example he picked really minimizes the suffering of a very real group of people.
From the Comics Journal:
"If there's any underdog in this world, Israel's it. So I think I just absorbed my mother's love of Israel. Politically, I'm just rabidly pro-Israel and so that, as a metaphor, was intended from the beginning. As a matter of fact, since this interview will be coming out after issue #50, there's a scene in which it's actually stated as fact that Fabletown's battle against the vast Empire, the Adversary, is very much like Israel against the Arab nations."
[www.tcj.com]
09/29/09
Just as an aside, I should point out I'm neither pro or anti Israel, as I don't know enough about the situation to have any feelings about it. I always intend to rectify my knowledge of current events, but it's amazing what gets in the way.
10/08/09
You can do whatever you want with your feelings, but fuck you very much for having the presumption for telling me what to do with mine. I'm thrilled that political content in art has no meaning to you; enjoy your D.W. Griffith festival. If an artist has an ill-considered opinion (Neal Adams thinks the earth is hollow, for instance. No shit. Look it up), it's fine as long as it doesn't interfere with his work. Willingham uses his position as a writer of fantasy comics as a bully pulpit for some very objectionable, shallow political ideas and I reserve the right to call him out on it. I won't read any more Ayn Rand novels, either. Why? Because she was wrong and she was strident about everyone hearing her wrong ideas. See also "Triumph of the Will" by Leni Riefenstahl and, to a lesser extent, "Empire" by Orson Scott Card. Does Card being an ultraconservative moron make "Ender's Game" a bad novel? Absolutely not, because he keeps his ideology to himself. Willingham does not, so I don't read Fables anymore.
09/29/09
08/13/09
02/28/09
02/28/09
I wouldn't sound so miffed if I hadn't been so hopeful.
02/28/09
02/27/09
I feel that his tales of the Green Lantern Corps deserve an entry of their own on this list. but then again i never read 1963 and only have fuzzy memories of his run on Captain Britain. There can be only ten.
02/27/09
Let's hope movies get made out of every single one of them!
heh heh heh
02/27/09
02/27/09
02/27/09
Also, I would have tried to include the Bojeffries Saga into the list. but whutev.
02/27/09
Sheesh.
02/27/09
02/28/09
02/28/09
Warden: For you and the rest of these depraved freaks, this is your life. Some of my charges have threatened entire nations but there can be no escape from...Supermax.
SarcaSam: *ppbt!* Uh, yeah. Whatever.
02/27/09
02/27/09
02/27/09
This list seems like a struggle to even FIND ten items, because each series represents such an enormous body of work. It might have benefited from breaking up the individual series more, telling us WHICH of the six Swamp Thing volumes is the one to read -- you mention Top 10, for instance, but not the Forty-Niners, a brilliant companion novel that's arguably better than its source material. Saying "Go read League" doesn't account for the fact that the first volume is a fantastic page-turner, but that Black Dossier is impenetrable to a casual fan.
02/27/09
Let's see... First of all, the list represents my favorites, and those of the other io9 writers I talked to. These are the works I feel happy about recommending, and the ones that I think represent the diversity of Moore's work in an interesting way.
I do mention "The Killing Joke" and I recommend a volume that includes it. See above, re: the diversity of Moore's work. Also, see my comments below about why "The Killing Joke" has sunk in my estimation in recent years. (And in Moore's estimation as well, from what I've heard.)
I've never read Miracleman because it's not in print and it's impossible to find. I'm not recommending it to our readers for the same reason.
Also, I state clearly that my favorite Swamp Thing volume is the first. I mention the Forty Niners. And I mention that "The Black Dossier" is a bit of a letdown, after the first two volumes.
Thanks for your input!
02/27/09
1963 and Top 10 sound very entertaining to me.
02/27/09
02/27/09