Spike - Part One; Alone Together Now

Finally picked up the Spike comic. Yes, everyone who cares has probably already read it and reviewed it by now. Those remaining - probably aren't reading it. One of the drawbacks of having an incredibly diverse readership is - you have to be careful about certain things, such as ahem not directly bashing characters you, the writer, aren't that fond of and don't quite understand why your readership likes them as much as they do, as well as not directly bashing comics or writers or artists you aren't fond of, but you know your readers adore to pieces. It's all fine and well to take the attitude, I'll say what I damn well please in my own journal, but you gotta deal with the fallout. (shrugs). I know I'm walking a fine line here regarding the comic books - there's about 8-10 people on my flist and reader's list that LOVE the Buffy comics,and quite a few who hate the Lynch comics or Spike comics and are reading those comics very differently than I am. While there's also people who love both. People who only read Angel and Buffy comics (not Spike). People who love Lynch comics and hate Buffy comics. And finally people who hate all the comics, and wish we weren't bothering with them at all. Sigh, fans are a contentious bunch. You can't please everyone no matter what you do.

As an aside - at the comic book store got tempted by an hilarious action figure dual package of Xander and Spike in matching geeky Hawaian Shirts. LOL! Just like I got distracted last night with a blooper of Spike kissing Xander after the actors clearly got really bored of doing 100 takes of the same scene. It's the scene in Normal Again, where Xander confronts Spike, who is carrying a bag of groceries, in the graveyard talking to a sick Buffy. If you haven't seen it? Go. Google on Youtube. Now.

Spike - #1, Alone Together Now - review

Rather fun comic. Satisfied me on all levels, art, dialogue, characterization and story. First off kudos to IDW for hiring a female editor, and colorist. And - I noticed on the other two comics - Angel and Illyria - there are female writers, editors, and artists.

If you are new to Spike, Buffy, etc - not to worry - Lynch sums it all up for you nicely. Also you do not need to have read anything but Brian Lynch's Spike and Angel comics to read this tale. It only references what Brian Lynch has written and the tv series. It does however poke fun at the comics and books other guys and gals wrote. (Speaking of poking gentle fun at other writers? I just realized last night that RT Davies was parodying Whedon with his Captain Jack and Captain John. It's the same name, just different. Whedon did it first with Liam and William, and uses Captain a million times in his dialogue...to the point in which you think - what is going on with all the Captains).

The story is told entirely in Spike's point of view. It's not told like the Buffy comics are - which is an omniscient pov or multiple pov. Just first person close. That's important. Plus, this, folks, is how you write snark, in case you were wondering. Pick up Lynch's Spike comic, study the cadence of the words, and that is how you write in Spike's voice. It's not whiny, it's self-deprecating. There's a difference. It's a noir writing style - actually. You don't have to read Lynch, you can read Jim Butcher or Sam Spade novels. Spike talks like Sam Spade by way of
John Constantine. (Angel should have talked this way, but for some reason everyone writes him as incredibly whiny and mopey, except for maybe Lynch, Humphrey Bogart he's not.)

( spoilers for Spike Comic )

Caritas

Momster: Barabara Billingsly died today.
Me: Who?
Momster: Mrs. Leave it To Beaver - you remember?
Me: Wasn't she already dead?
Momster: No, she died at 94. You should remember her - you actually saw her and Tony Dow in person in high school drama class. It was Max Brown's class. You came home and told me all about it. About how she always wore pearls and it helped put her in character?
ME: Uhhh...I have no memory of this. (Struggling to remember...the best I can do is come up with a foggy pic of two people sitting on stage answering questions, but that's it.) Sure it wasn't Junior High?
Momster: No, high school. I remember you telling me.
Me: okay. You are doing a great job keeping track of all these old tv and movie stars and their deaths. While I'm keeping track of well the younger ones. What a pair we make.

Kidbro was a huge fan of Leave it To Beaver, watched it endlessly. We used to fight. I wanted to watch Battle of the Planets, he wanted to watch Leave it To Beaver. Kidbro's taste continues to
blow my mind. And of course we are both highly opinionated people, argumentative, self-deprecating, and with a dry wit (which we inherited from dear old Dad.) Kidbro also likes Three's Company, Bangle, Angel the Series better than Buffy (although he did watch both and to my incredibly embarrassment, had a friend compliment him on having a sister who wrote a massive amount of meta on the topic. I don't think anyone (who hasn't gotten paid for it) has written more. What can I say? Too much frigging time on my hands? Yep. Oh well, I met some really cool and smart people through it. Was also on a rather sane board - ATPO - our fights usually went off on sub-tangents about Shakespeare, 18th Century History, Zen Buddhaism, Indonesian mythology, and biological selection. We also had a knock-out, drag-out fight over Campbell and cultural anthropology. And an interesting battle over whether women could be effective firefighters and police officers. Much more productive than the shipper wars and Spike wars - which appear to be going on ad naseum. Seriously, people are STILL fighting over this stuff. Different players, same words. Highly amusing, and aggravating - at the same time.

Speaking of fights. My father (Popster) has the same tendency I do. Here's what happened at his small group ministry this past week.

Question: In one sentence, how would you describe Jesus Christ?

Popster: An illiterate Jewish peasant.

Me: So how did that go?
Popster: Not well.
Me: You answered the question from the perspective of an historian.
Popster: Pretty much.
Me: I get the feeling that was not the response they were looking for.
Popster: You know what they had under my high school photo in the year book?
Me: What?
Popster: Skeptic and frank with words.
Me (sigh): So, what you're telling me is the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree?
(Like it or not, folks, we are our parents children. My father's father was a skeptic, not religious, and frank with words - he had a very dry wit and was critical.)

See? Is it any wonder that my favorite character is a snarky vampire who makes fun of things including himself? I don't mind snark - as long as the writer mocks themselves. I mock everything about myself. My pseudonyme. My interests. I don't see my taste as sophisticated. I watch daytime soap operas, hello, and enjoy weird shows that no one has heard of. I criticize myself before anyone can get there - which may explain why I hate criticism. IF you are highly self critical, you tend to see the criticism coming a mile away and are hyper wary. I see all the negative responses to posts, before the positive ones. I delete and edit my snark. (Yes, I'm snarkier than you actually see. In my last review I kept deleting things that I knew some of my readers would take the wrong way. I always am. I edit as I write. And if upon re-reading a post that I've posted, I see something that will or could be misinterpreted (and trust me if I've learned anything about net posting, people always misinterpret what you write, there will always be at least one person will read what you wrote in a way you never ever imagined or intended. And trying to convince them that they read it wrong ...ends in a game of :yes you did, no I didn't, yes you did, no I didn't. ). Best you can do - try to fend that off.
( rather lengthy post that starts in one place and ends in another...I was working something out about my feelings regarding fandom, art, culture, my own love/hate relationships with it through this piece of writing )

This post is for me more than you. Through it - I'm hunting for my better self. My charitable self.
My ability to see a side other than my own. It is through writing that I cope with my world. It is through writing that I understand myself and those around me. That I can see my own contradictory and conflicting thoughts. It is through writing and always has been and hopefully always will be that I deal with the shadows, nightmares, dreams, and chaos that is both internal and external, and part of my life.

As final word on this very long rambling letter post...I had a nightmare last night. It was quite vivid. I was at a nightclub or bar, with members of my flist/fandom, and Joss Whedon had come to see us, along with two other producers and writers. I had a manuscript I was going to show them.
Part of the dream was me frantically hunting it. The worst part though was finding it and reading my poem or story or what not to them, and having Whedon rip it to shreds. Tell me how horrible it was, how amateur, and shrug off. Ignore me. It was so real. And I hated him. And in the back of my mind...which forced me awake, I wondered why I dreamt it. And thought thank god, it's just a dream, only a dream, and never ever will happen.