Superman Retires

Awesome:

Bryan Talbot and the Monkey

I got a chance to see Bryan Talbot speak last week as he stopped in Toronto to promote his new graphic novel, Alice in Sunderland. The book is about Talbot moving to Sunderland, England, and exploring the many connections the area has to Lewis Carroll, creator of Alice in Wonderland. Talbot spoke for about two hours, and much of that was a discussion about Carroll and his influences. During this part of his talk I was acutely aware of how hard and uncomfortable my chair was. If I knew anything about Carroll or Alice I'm sure I would have been more into it, but I was much more interested when he discussed his process in working on this book and other comics, particularly when he spoke about the mechanics of the comics page.

The best part of the talk was when he went into some of the individual stories that make up Alice in Sunderland. The book isn't one story, but dozens, all having to do with the area. At one point he told a story about how when Napoleon's armies were marching across Europe, people in Britain worried that England would be his next stop. As in World War I, Talbot explained, when stories went around that Germans ate babies, during Napoleon's time the English spoke of the French as being inhuman. Thus, when a French ship was destroyed off the coast of the port town of Hartlepool, and the local fishermen came across the French sailors' pet monkey in the wreckage (dressed up in a little military uniform, no less), they assumed they'd found a Frenchman. So they took him to the mast of a ship, and hung him.

Just in case you didn't catch that: they hung the monkey.

To this day, Talbot said, in the same way that people from Newcastle are called "Geordies" because they supported George II, people from Hartlepool are still called "Monkey-Hangers", because-- well, you know.

I wish the page from the book on which Talbot tells this story was online, so I could show you. It's quite well done, and while I wouldn't say it's worth picking up the book for that one page, it does sweeten the pot.

Oh, and here's a reference for the story, in case you think he's making the whole thing up.

Desktops

I had this image from Marvel as my desktop for a couple of weeks, because, clearly, I like not being able to find my icons. During that time, I kept having a nagging feeling that I knew who this character in the second tier behind Iron Man was, but I couldn’t place him.
I take it he’s one of the new characters in the Initiative series, so I’m not supposed to know who he is, but still something about him kept poking my brain. Then, when I saw the book on the shelf last week, the realization hit me: it’s Frank Miller!
Look at him: aside from the obvious physical resemblance, he’s characteristically surly, and he’s cradling his fist like he’d like to punch someone, maybe al Quaeda or Wizard Magazine. Mystery solved. I hope he gets his own action figure, or maybe a video game.
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Current desktop (you care, admit it): Eric Powell’s The Goon laying a beatdown, a beautiful image of some brutal comic book violence.

The Understated Joke at the Last Second

The first time I watched Office Space I almost missed the funniest part of the movie. The main character comes home after everything falls apart on him- his plan isn't going to work, he's alienated Jennifer Aniston. He flops down onto his couch and knocks on the wall he shares with his gregarious, good natured neighbour to invite him over for a beer. The neighbour says, "No thanks," and mumbles something. When we were watching, I waited a few seconds and asked my brother, "What did he say?" and he replied, "I dunno, rewind it." The second time through we hear the lead say, "You awake? You want to come over?" and the neighbour says, "No thanks. I don't want you fucking up my life, too." We laughed harder at that than anything else in the movie.

I like those kinds of jokes, the ones that don't call attention to themselves and are slipped in at the last moment. Arrested Development and The Office both do this kind of humour well. This trailer for the movie The Ex has a perfect example:

On the whole, the movie doesn't look particularly enticing, but the final scene in the trailer is hilarious, and Jason Bateman's last line puts the situation over the edge.

These next two clips are funny all the way through, but both have that last bit that raises the funniness one level higher. The first is a trailer for a New Zealandian (Zealandish?) movie called Eagle vs. Shark, which though Napoleon Dynamite-esque looks pretty funny:

This clip is from Peyton Manning's appearance on Saturday Night Live. Again pay attention to that last line: