MONDOmagazine

Daredevil: Reborn #1
Andy Diggle (w), Davide Gianfelice (a), Matt Hollingsworth (c). Marvel Comics.

This book was going to have to impress the shit out of me to make me forget the shit that was Shadowland. There’s a lot of shit going around this book right now and it seems like that’s going to continue. This was an extremely underwealming performance from Diggle and Gianfelice. I’m especially dissapointed in the latter as I’m a fan of his work on DMZ and Northlanders. His work here is fine but it’s not as strong as either of works. It’s servicable, but it’s pretty boring and unispired.

Though, it would be hard to get inspired from this thin, uninteresting story. After the major fuckover of Matt Murdock’s character that Diggle helmed I was inclined to chalk it up to editorial interferance. This story, however, has puddle-deep depth and understanding of Matt. Fucking awful. It’s billed as this rebirth of Matt — okay, I’m down. In an opening scene, Matt takes a beating because he’s rejecting the cycle of violence around his life — cool, progress. Ten pages later he’s going to beat up a bunch of crooked cops. Great. Amazing. I’m glad that he got over all that shit in 10 pages. Read the rest of this entry »

By Sean Kelly

5. Black Swan (dir. Darren Aronofsky)
A film that proves that a movie about ballet doesn’t have to be boring.

4. Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan)
Even though there are likely some who are still confused by this very cerebral film, I have to say that I found this film to be one of the most enjoyable I’ve seen this year.

3. Toy Story 3 (dir. Lee Unkrich)
Pixar keeps outdoing themselves with each film and this film was a fitting conclusion to the one that started it all. Read the rest of this entry »

The Alpha Review

By Andrew Uys

I’ve heard that trade paperbacks — a run of comic issues collected into a graphic novel — are all the rage today. But which ones are worth your time? This column aims to put the spotlight on the spectacular trades — at least according to this writer. And just for fun, we will start with the letter “A,” and each subsequent review will follow with the next letter of the alphabet. While you might object to my taste or my opinion, I hope that this column will help save you time and money when you are next buying a trade paperback, as well as effort in alphabetizing.

V is for Villains United
Writen by Gail Simone
Art by Dale Eaglesham
DC Comics, 2005

Part of the Prelude to Infinite Crisis, which also included OMAC, Day of Vengeance, and The Rann-Thanagar War, this mini-series was the best read — both in terms of storytelling and art.  Written by Gail Simone, of Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman acclaim, and illustrated by Dale Eaglesham, whose works include The Justice Society of America and Steve Rogers: Super Soldier, the Villains United TPB has an amazing blend of edginess, humour, action and empathy – and this last quality is especially remarkable as the protagonists are a number of DC’s ‘D’ list villains.  And due to this title’s success, Gail Simone has continued the storyline in the monthly comic The Secret Six. Read the rest of this entry »

Michelle Giroux, Patrick Galligan, Julian Richings, David Storch, Stephen Gartner, Brandon McGibbon, Andrea Runge, Stuart Hughes, and Maria Ricossa. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

The Misanthrope
By Molière in a version by Martin Crimp
Directed by Richard Rose
Featuring Patrick Galligan, Stephen Gartner, Michelle Giroux, Stuart Hughes, Brandon McGibbon, Julian Richings, Maria Ricossa, Andrea Runge and David Storch
Runs until February 6 @ Tarragon Theatre Mainspace

By Daina Valiulis

From the opening of Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” sung in screeching operatic style, one “gets” the Tarragon Theatre’s recent adaptation of Moliere’s masterwork The Misanthrope.

Adapted by Martin Crimp, a celebrated British playwright known for his experimental style, this version has the characters speaking in rhyming couplets and using modern language. The hero, Alceste (Hughes), is a very successful playwright who is in love with (according to Martin Crimp) a materialistic, arse-licking, social game-playing, insecure young starlet called Jennifer, who despite all this, Alceste insists, is, on a deeper level, an extraordinary human being. One subplot involves a female journalist recording Jennifer’s bitingly honest commentary on her peers, which she intends to use in a scandalous exposé. Another subplot involves a bet between two men to determine whether or not one of them can coerce the flirtatious Jennifer to sleep with him.

These storylines, such as they are, however, are buried beneath a blatantly obvious concept, stock characters that have zero likability factor (and therefore no emotional resonance), and irritatingly trite rhyming couplets that are meant to be edgy by using modern language. Read the rest of this entry »

Sean Tabares, a member of Impatient Theatre's Big in Japan (via impatient.ca).

The Big Lebowski and The Soft Chin Show
Part of Comedy Bar’s Festival of New Formats
Festival runs January 2-8

By Meagan Snyder

The fourth night of Comedy Bar’s Festival of New Formats was the second of two nights curated by Toronto’s Impatient Theatre Co. Founded in 2001 by artistic director Kevin Patrick Robbins, the Impatient Theatre is primarily focused on long-form improv, offering classes at beginners and masters levels, as well as regular shows at Comedy Bar performed by their house teams. They are unique in Toronto for their commitment to The Harold as their signature style, a form Del Close created and developed with Charna Halpern at Chicago’s iO Theater in the 60s. It remains the signature style of iO as well as the Upright Citizens Brigade theatres in New York and Los Angeles.

Those familiar with The Harold can attest to the fact that while long-form improv at its best seems like magic, with ideas and connections pulled from thin air, in actuality it is truly a structured, codified craft that takes years to master. Read the rest of this entry »

Little Fockers
Directed by Paul Weitz
Universal Pictures/Paramount Pictures, 2010

By Sean Kelly

Meet the Parents became Ben Stiller’s first true hit, after breakout role in 1998’s There’s Something About Mary. I consider Meet the Parents and its 2004 sequel Meet the Fockers to be somewhat sentimental favourites of mine, which I have often played back-to-back to waste away an afternoon.

Now, here we are ten years later and onto the third film of the series. Before I move any further, I want to emphasise that I did find the film to be quite hilarious at times. However, I couldn’t help but feel that it was different from the other two. We no longer have the “Meet the _____” premise and now it seems we are just catching up with all the characters a few years after everything turned out happily ever after. Read the rest of this entry »

Superboy #3
Jeff Lemire (w), Pier Gallo (a), Jamie Grant (c). DC Comics.

Man, I love the title to this latest entry — “The New Adventures of Psionic Lad (Part One)”. I realize that I don’t really know what to expect with the Superboy series right now. The last two issues were all Parasite/Poison Ivy/Parasite Frogs/Phantom Stranger… which was revealed waaay back in August during that one Action Comics teaser story. The not knowing has got me charmed.

About the art — there’s something about it… it may just be the extraordinarily tight jeans on Superboy and the glasses, but its got me weirded out. Fortunately, the Lori Luthor character is gorgeously rendered, and when some armoured time cops jump through a portal it looks awesome. So things are balanced out.

I like the way the story skips back and for in the narrative — it’s a tricky thing to try and do, and usually I’m wary of that technique, but I think it was used properly here: it helps the flow of the issue, sprinkling the action and drama throughout the book that would otherwise have been relegated to the back of the story in an unbalanced deluge. It also helps that there’s some time travel involved, that always helps to justify these kinds of things. Read the rest of this entry »

Members of The Sketchersons participated in Monday night's shows.

The Big Lebowski and The Soft Chin Show
Part of Comedy Bar’s Festival of New Formats
Festival runs January 2-8

By Meagan Snyder

Comedic performers spend a lot of time straddling between safety and risk. For example, the reward of stand-up is achieving a following of people who appreciate one’s brand of humour, but at the same time no one wants to be held back from developing their craft, and potentially taking their material in other directions. It takes sketch troupes a long time to establish a chemistry behind the scenes that translates onto the stage/screen, and it is a special thing to work together like clockwork, with an understanding of who within the group writes and performs best together, et cetera, but it’s immediately obvious to audiences when things get a little too comfortable. Perhaps this double-edged sword is most salient in the world of improv, which is seemingly all about risk – acting without taking time to weigh options, and trusting your instincts while understanding that your actions affect the rest of the group. But members of troupes who have worked together for long enough have a good understanding of their safety nets. They understand who will have their backs when they step out into a scene, who is likely to take a scene in certain directions, when a scene needs to be reset, et cetera.

All of this is a very roundabout way of giving kudos to Comedy Bar, a venue that, in the spirit of longer-existing theatres like the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatres in NYC and LA, frequently allows established troupes and theatre companies to take risks. Read the rest of this entry »

Market Day
James Sturm (w + a). Drawn and Quarterly.

I read a lot of good comics this year, but none stuck with me the way Market Day did.  It’s the kind of book that you think about months after you’ve read it. You’ll hear something on the radio or in conversation and it will remind you of Sturm’s poignant look at the past.

The story is simple, but the implications are huge. Mendleman, a Jewish artisan selling rugs at the dawn of the industrial revolution, travels to the market to sell his hand-made rugs. The shopkeeper Mendleman has made his career on, a man who pays Mendleman what he’s worth, has retired and left the store to his son-in-law who has no interest in Mendleman’s rugs. For Mendleman, making a living for his family and making art were the same thing — so what’s he going to do now? It’s the kind of micro and macro storytelling that’s worth writing dozens of essays about. Read the rest of this entry »

Honourable mentions: I wanted to point out a few books that are amazing, fantastic books that everyone should buy. The only thing is that these books didn’t ship enough issues to make me feel right about bumping some of the awesome books below off my top 10 list. Here are my honourable mentions…

Astonishing Spider-Man/Wolverine – This bimonthly miniseries has been a blast from the moment it started. This is going to be a must-buy hardcover for those that didn’t read it in issues.
The Jimmy Olsen backups from Action Comics – With only about 40 pages or so it’s hard for me to put it above some of the stuff on my list, but man do I love this stuff. If I get an ongoing (and I really want one) I would bet that this will make the top 10 next year.
Proof & Proof: Endangered – This is my new “recommend to everyone I talk to” title. If this series had released more issues this year it easily would’ve made my top 10. Probably my top 5.
Rasl – Sure, this book comes out at a snail’s pace, but it’s worth it. Jeff Smith’s storytelling is as good as it gets and with this level of quality I wouldn’t want to rush him.
Starman – You knew I had to get this in here somewhere. As MONDOcomics’ resident Starman obsessive it’s my duty to point out that there was a new issue this year. And it was great. Read the rest of this entry »

Series of the Year: Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne

There’s no doubt about it, as far as comics go nothing beat my excitement for Return of Bruce Wayne. It made me think about the medium of comics AND was hugely fun with its portrayals of “Caveman Batman,” “Pirate Batman” and especially “Cowboy Batman.” It’s the comic’s equivalent of mini-wheats cereal.

Writer of the Year: Straczynski, and Morrison

Personally, Grant Morrison is my writer of the year but I’ve got to mention J. Michael Straczynski. I personally haven’t really liked his work much but Straczynski did create a highly acclaimed graphic novel, Superman: Earth One, that sold really well and may help spark greater interest in the ‘straight to graphic novel release’ strategy that I think is the future of comics (for several reasons that I won’t go into right now), but he was the writer on both Superman AND Wonder Woman! Just because I didn’t like the premise of his stories there — any writer that gets himself the position of writing two of DC’s biggest properties is having a pretty good year. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve come to realize that most graphic novels  I’ve read in 2010 were not published in this year… which is not to say that my Top 3 aren’t great but damn, I gotta get outside more often. My first new year’s resolution? To read more current publications!

1. Octopus Pie Meredith Gran (w+a). Villard, 2010.

Our favourite webcomic Brooklynites in a single volume! Featuring our beloved retail curmudgeon-nerd Eve, and her hilarious stoner friend/roomy Hanna. I look forward to more hair-brained Bake n’ Bake schemes in the new year (and potentially a new self-published collection!).

Imagined NYE in Octopus Pie Land: the gang will be playing a drinking game while watching a Back to the Future marathon — a shot of something dirty goes down the hatch every time a watch is glanced at. Great Scot! Read the rest of this entry »