Isaac’s Book
Glamourpuss #5
By Dave Sim
Aardvark-Vanaheim Inc., 2009
There’s a little disclaimer at the beginning of this book that I’ve only just now seen (odd when you consider my usual tenacity in absorbing the whole contents of what I read in my first sitting): “Glamourpuss is a publication made up of both POP CULTURE PARODY and COMIC ART SCHOLARSHIP, both protected by freedom of expression rights. No proprietary interest in any brand name mentioned or any similarity between any person living or dead is implied or should be inferred. Although it’s always fun guessing, isn’t it?” The block capital letters are the book’s inflection; I’m not yelling at you, just faithfully reproducing.
I’m so glad they put that there, because otherwise I would have had no clue what I was reading. No, I’m not being sarcastic — I needed that one bit of direction that I could take half-seriously and hold onto as an idea of what I’m supposed to be reading here.
See, I’ve read a bunch of Dave Sim’s work before, most of the Cerebus the Aardvark stuff, and while so much of it is a parody of current comic culture memes, it is also quite clearly a story following the life and times of that beloved Aardvark. You’ll have to excuse me if I spent a little too much time and energy trying to find the “Glamourpuss” character in this book… asking myself, is this when her character shows up? It’s like I was waiting for old school Patsy Walker to do a walk on and tell a “serious” joke. But no, “Glamourpuss” is just the name of the fictional fashion magazine that I’m reading, and I’m going to take it as a convention that some of these magazines refer to themselves by their title, in sort of a third-person weirdness. I should read more fashion magazines, I guess.
Which leads me to the question: who is this book for? Are there people who go out and buy fashion magazines, all the while hating what they portray, and who might then appreciate this satire? That doesn’t seem like a particularly large market to build a fan base from. More likely this is a book for fans of Dave Sim, which is cool I guess, but that isn’t much of a temptation for me to get involved in supermarket-counter fashion magazine warfare.
All that being said, there were a lot of things that made me laugh here; it’s solid stuff, just not a comic book story, which is really more my thing. BUT the “comic art scholarship” part of the book is pretty interesting, and I would definitely recommend to artists to check this out. It talks about cross-hatching and stuff; it’s highly informative.
Plus there’s a two-page spread of Cerebus the Aardvark driving a Porsche, and that’s pretty cool.
Miles’ Book
Star Wars Legacy #32
Written by John Ostrander
Art by Omar Fancia
Dark Horse, 2008
I think I’m done with Star Wars.
As a kid, I loved the adventures of Luke and Han, but after three terrible movies I’ve soured on the franchise.
I know this because this is a perfectly serviceable Star Wars story set 150 years after Luke blew up the Death Star and I just don’t care about it. Maybe I’d care if there were some characters I recognized, but I remember a time when I would do almost anything for Star Wars.
Remember Admiral Ackbar? Well this issue focuses on his home world. Things aren’t going so well for the fish heads: they’re on the run after the new evil empire has destroyed their cities and rounded up most of the survivors into concentration camps.
Of course, this is Star Wars so along the way some Jedi show up, a big monster eats some aliens, and there is a lot of talk about betrayal (dudes talk about betrayal in Star Wars like it’s the weather). But I can’t be bothered with any of it. It’s all so very silly. Also, the story is exactly like the one in episodes II and III, just slightly different.
It seems played out and paint-by-numbers to me, but I can see Star Wars believers getting a kick out of this series. Truly, only for the hardcore.
“It’s a trap!”
“Yes, yes, we all know it’s a trap. That’s like the twelfth time you’ve said that.”
“Yeah, well, it’s important…”
What that story sounds like it needs is some cloned/time displaced Luke and Han saving the galaxy. Or Obi-wan. Thus saving Star Wars.