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shadowkatOkay, I'm really hoping this is just allergies and if they are, they go away very soon. Because I'll be damned if they keep me from visiting my aunts in the Poconos this weekend.
Ahem. Difficult and hectic day. But accomplished what I needed to do.
Then on way home picked up the latest Buffy and Angel issues. Have mixed feelings regarding both, but will state I enjoyed the Angel one more - it made me laugh, while the Buffy one frustrated me. Sigh. The problem with serials is writers drag out plot arcs for forever and a day, so that by the time you finally get to the climax, you've either given up, or you're applauding and yelling, FINALLY! Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else out there feel as if this story is well, dragging just a bit or we appear to be going in circles, ie in that we are circling the same ground endlessly, but not really getting anywhere in the process? It's probably just me. [A better analysis is below.]
Ahem. (sorry, fluid clogging the throat). The Angel comic - which is basically a fun little fanfic character piece for profit, amused me greatly. While I may not always agree with Lynch's take on Spike, I do enjoy his writing, he makes me laugh. And that's always of the good. The art could be better - I prefer Frank Urru's fluid paintings to Mooney's photo - line drawings, although they do bare a scarey resemblance to the actors who portrayed the roles. But there's a flatness to the lines that I find jarring. I like fluid and softer lines. But, hey, still be better than Jeanty - who makes me work far too hard to tell the people apart, when you have a cast of 1000s, you really need to be better able to tell people apart.
The plot is simple: Angel and Spike go to the San Diego Sci-Fi Convention. For different reasons. Angel to retrieve some mystical sword that killed him in Hell-LA, and could possibly kill him in reality. Spike to see the film Last Angel in Hell and basically be a geek. Last Angel in Hell is the film version of Angel After the Fall - with Nicolas Cage portraying Angel (LOL! Actually that's perfect casting, no one can out brood Nicolas Cage), Tara Reid portraying Spike (yes, Spike is turned into a girl and Angel's love interest), Hugo (from Lost) as Gunn, and they fight the devil. Angel muses how interesting it is that they couldn't anything, not one little thing, right. He leaves and runs smack into Spike, who also saw it.
Spike doesn't seem to mind being made into a lass - he actually would like to find her and hit on the actress playing her. They run into Jeremy from Spike After the Fall - the guy Illyria killed, after Spike went out of his way to save him, but is of course alive now because nothing in After the Fall actually happened. Anyhow, Jeremy is seriously pissed about the film and gets kicked out of the comiccon. Angel tells Spike why he is there. Spike begs to help. Angel caves. Jeremy finds costums for Angel and Spike to disquise themselves because there's a bunch of demon hunters at the con hunting Angel and they need to keep a low profile to find the sword. So why not hide in plain sight? Angel disguises himself as "She-Spike" and Spike disquises himself as Angel. (As Angel notes - "I have been tortured, stabbed, drowned in blood. I have killed loved ones. Every bone has been broken. I've lived in hell. I've said goodbye to my true love and I'm currently nostalgic for any and all of those times. Because even at my worst, I wasn't dressed as she-spike. Not just awkward to look at. It's awkwrad to see out of it. Mask. Mask was a bad, bad idea." ) So Angel takes off his costume and tries to convince Spike to do the same - Spike makes it as far as the mask before that old Ethan Raine Chaos Spell from S2 Halloween is invoked and everyone literally becomes who their costume was. Spike becomes, you guessed it, Angel. Not a lot else happens.
The comic feels a lot like a fanfic drabble, humorous, a nice character sketch, but nothing major. I rather like it for what it is. I'm not sure I agree with Lynch's take that Spike previously only followed his heart or evil or his heart and evil, and now free of love, he is actually free altogether. That feels off to me somehow. Very much the fanboy noir perspective - ie. love is not for macho men and makes us pussies, which is sort of offensive, but then noir is supposed to be offensive. That said - I'd say overall, Lynch's depiction of tall dark and brooding is spot on. Actually Angel's rather interesting and likable in this comic, not to mention laugh out loud funny.
Here's the bit that made me laugh out loud - because it sort of commented on what fandom has been discussing lately...on lj, well more or less:
There is a four-issue prequel comic series coming out before the movie is released. Are we to believe this shall be considered canon or is it fan-fiction toss-off? I've lost much sleep over this.
Hee. Brian Lynch shares my snarky sense of humor regarding being a fan, apparently.
Regarding the Buffy comic ...I'm on the fence about it. Like I said above, I'm getting frustrated again.
There are some good character moments - most of them are centered around Willow. I'm guessing if you are a huge Willow fan - you are probably loving this comic. I like Willow - so that may well be why I'm still half-way enjoying it.
Buffy...I just ache for. She just doesn't get a rest or a respite or a wee bit of happiness.
At least not for very long. And after this comic, I once again found myself wishing the character would just take off, leave her so-called friends and family, and take a long needed vacation.
I don't like Dawn and Xander in this arc. And I don't really know why. Trying to figure it out. I'm not a B/X shipper, far from it. Nor do I necessarily dislike either character - actually like both quite a bit. But here they are irritating me. I can't quite decide if it is their dismissive attitude towards Buffy and the slayers, or their love of firearms, weaponery, knowledge of it, and adoration of man-made killing machines. They are almost callous regarding the war and the deaths. Their jokes offensive and insensitive. Buffy was right to glare at Xander. And they are almost completely oblivious to the fact that people are actually dying around them, because you know - they've declared their love. Of course, we are seeing them through Buffy's eyes - so these may well be her feelings that are being projected. And I may well be over-identifying with Buffy here - which I'm guessing would thrill the writer to no end.
Giles, I'm not sure what to make of. He also appears to be embracing the man-made weaponery. This I think is rather the point. The emphasis on "man" power and "male" weapons. Pick up a gun, all is better. Guns are less harmful than magic. Which Bay and OZ discover much to their chagrin is simply not true - Bay is critically injured and without "magic" - Willow is unable to heal her or help her beyond applying a bandage in an amatuerish fashion. They've forgotten that the magic they were all so dismissive of - had positive as well as negative properties. Guns or man-made weapons such as torpedos, grenades, etc - only have negative properties. The female magic that comes from the earth can heal and destroy, while the masculain magic that is made - only destroys. Dawn and Xander embrace it, because they are jealous of the other, they don't have it, they feel powerless, and because of that they embrace the idea of weaponery much as Twilight and his minions do. Buffy and Willow are furious they've given up their power, weak, they are unable to save lives - they don't just want to kill - because the weaponery they discover only kills, it does not really protect them - they are outmanned and outgunned.
So Buffy goes to Bay, OZ's critically wounded wife, and begs for help. Bay explains the magic is not gone, just redirected. And Buffy asks to whom, Bay says the earth, the ancient earth goddesses. That through their prayers (chants) the goddesses agree to protect them in exchange for the power they've taken from them. Buffy and Willow figure out that these are just wrathful goddesses given a modern name - earth but not really from the earth at all and that these goddesses sucked out their power. Buffy decides it is time to take them up on their bargain. She asks Bay how. Bay says to use her anger. Anger is how you call them. "I have plenty of anger," Buffy states. And together Buffy and Willow unleash their rage to call up the gods.
Willow and Buffy appear to be on one side of a dividing wall regarding power and Dawn and Xander are on the other. Dawn and Xander are grooving at being the knowledgeable ones, the ones with the weaponery ability, and are in love. Willow and Buffy are struggling with who they are, lost, afraid, drowning, and angry - they are watching people die. They've been drained. Rendered weak. And neither are comfortable with guns. In the middle is OZ and Bay who meant well, but thought that power was something you give up - redirect elsewhere, that you don't need. They saw it as a negative, being in them. When Monroe, the rival wolf leader, shows up to help - OZ is shocked. Monroe states that he's on Oz's side now because Oz is fighting for those who fight to keep magic alive. And we watch as Monroe's clan is slain by tanks.
This issue pretty much spells out what we already knew - that Buffy/Willow/Xander and Dawn's plan to give up the slayer and witch power was possibly the worst plan ever. And has negative consequences. Before they could have used smoke screens, sheilds, and superstrength, now they are relegated to using destructive weapons that only hurt the earth more. All they've truly accomplished is death and destruction.
The frustration I feel while reading the comic, may well be deliberate on the part of the writer - it is the frustration that Willow and Buffy feel - and this story, or arc, is really their tale. Both of theirs. The future of Fray is a future they both wish to circumvent. (I wondered today if maybe the way Whedon plans on ending this tale is to have Buffy seal off the demons and magic and then leap through the portal - going back to the world of Normal Again, back into consciousness, the Buffyverse in truth little more than a false reality created by her mind to handle her own demons and her own issues and her own struggle with power over her own mind. But I doubt it.)
That said, I want to scream at the writers - enuf already. Tell me who Twilight is. That is the question I'd like to have answered before the end of this year. It's been teased and drawn out long enough. Almost 30 issues actually and over two years. A portion of the readership has given up and moved elsewhere. I'm not sure who Twilight is. My pet favorite is Hank Summers - but I don't know if the writers will go there. I'm willing to bet it is not Spike - because he'd need a personality transplant - Spike simply is not patient or knowledgeable enough about weapons. It could be Xander from an alternate timeline or the future - but otherwise not plausible. It could also be Angel - but only from an alternate timeline or future. Again plausibility is a factor here. Giles is another possiblity but I somehow doubt it. He was busy with Faith during a good portion of the Twilight stretch. I really don't know. The pattern points at Spike - due to the negative space surrounding him and all the romantic angst Buffy is going through which is literally bleeding through the pages. But again, personality transplant. Evil Spike wouldn't do what Twilight is up to, it's not his thing. The other one it points to is Giles and to a degree Xander, but again, I doubt it, plausibility and logistics get in the way. Dawn? Nah. But it would be fun. Again must be plausible. I really don't know and if this drags out much longer, I may not care.
Regarding Allie and the letter's page. Sigh. Sorry, this is going to sound a bit ranty, apologies in advance to anyone reading this who likes Allie, our mileage differs here and I admittedly have disliked this particular editor since the 2000 or before when I was picking up other Dark Horse titles. I've decided Allie's only job on this comic is to read and respond to letters. He certainly isn't editing the thing. If he did there'd be more continuity and less other errors. (Hello, Warren - as just one example). Also his choice in letters to reprint, I'm starting to question. He does it over and over again, patting himself on the back. I wholeheartedly agree with Danny Hirschorn of Chicago who states that Allie has not been supportive of the LGBT youth by his continued reprinting of homophobic letters and little of any others. He hasn't - Hirschorn is absolutely right. If he were, he would refrain from reprinting in every other issue, homophobic letters such as the one by Kristen Guardino of Long Island, New York which made me cringe (although she may not be as homophobic as she sounds - there are homosexual fans that struggled with Buffy's affair with Satsu, because if rang false to them and felt like fanboy sex fantasy..and to be honest, at times I feel as if the comic is catering more to the fanboy audience than the fangurl, which is odd, since I'm willing to bet that the readership is the opposite (ie. higher fangurl and lower fanboy statistically speaking). Yes, we know that there is a homophobic contigent of fans out there, but you get what 100 letters? You can't reprint the positive ones? And to reprint negative ones with no comment or just after you state you are being supportive, feels I don't know, a bit...hypocritical. Also enuf with the teasers - "next issue we'll have surprises!" Promises, promises. Deliver already. Anticipation is not something you can draw out for two years without your audience getting tired and wandering off to better climes.
ETA - Note: for a more in depth, completely opposite, and far more positive review of the same Buffy comic - go see![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stormwreath.
ETA2: A really good review of Buffy S8 issue, can be found here, it's a lot more positive than mine and makes the wise choice of ignoring the editorial page: http://aycheb.livejournal.com/101120.html?style=mine
Ugh. Feel gross and achey. Taking a shower and going to bed. I better not be sick.
Ahem. Difficult and hectic day. But accomplished what I needed to do.
Then on way home picked up the latest Buffy and Angel issues. Have mixed feelings regarding both, but will state I enjoyed the Angel one more - it made me laugh, while the Buffy one frustrated me. Sigh. The problem with serials is writers drag out plot arcs for forever and a day, so that by the time you finally get to the climax, you've either given up, or you're applauding and yelling, FINALLY! Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else out there feel as if this story is well, dragging just a bit or we appear to be going in circles, ie in that we are circling the same ground endlessly, but not really getting anywhere in the process? It's probably just me. [A better analysis is below.]
Ahem. (sorry, fluid clogging the throat). The Angel comic - which is basically a fun little fanfic character piece for profit, amused me greatly. While I may not always agree with Lynch's take on Spike, I do enjoy his writing, he makes me laugh. And that's always of the good. The art could be better - I prefer Frank Urru's fluid paintings to Mooney's photo - line drawings, although they do bare a scarey resemblance to the actors who portrayed the roles. But there's a flatness to the lines that I find jarring. I like fluid and softer lines. But, hey, still be better than Jeanty - who makes me work far too hard to tell the people apart, when you have a cast of 1000s, you really need to be better able to tell people apart.
The plot is simple: Angel and Spike go to the San Diego Sci-Fi Convention. For different reasons. Angel to retrieve some mystical sword that killed him in Hell-LA, and could possibly kill him in reality. Spike to see the film Last Angel in Hell and basically be a geek. Last Angel in Hell is the film version of Angel After the Fall - with Nicolas Cage portraying Angel (LOL! Actually that's perfect casting, no one can out brood Nicolas Cage), Tara Reid portraying Spike (yes, Spike is turned into a girl and Angel's love interest), Hugo (from Lost) as Gunn, and they fight the devil. Angel muses how interesting it is that they couldn't anything, not one little thing, right. He leaves and runs smack into Spike, who also saw it.
Spike doesn't seem to mind being made into a lass - he actually would like to find her and hit on the actress playing her. They run into Jeremy from Spike After the Fall - the guy Illyria killed, after Spike went out of his way to save him, but is of course alive now because nothing in After the Fall actually happened. Anyhow, Jeremy is seriously pissed about the film and gets kicked out of the comiccon. Angel tells Spike why he is there. Spike begs to help. Angel caves. Jeremy finds costums for Angel and Spike to disquise themselves because there's a bunch of demon hunters at the con hunting Angel and they need to keep a low profile to find the sword. So why not hide in plain sight? Angel disguises himself as "She-Spike" and Spike disquises himself as Angel. (As Angel notes - "I have been tortured, stabbed, drowned in blood. I have killed loved ones. Every bone has been broken. I've lived in hell. I've said goodbye to my true love and I'm currently nostalgic for any and all of those times. Because even at my worst, I wasn't dressed as she-spike. Not just awkward to look at. It's awkwrad to see out of it. Mask. Mask was a bad, bad idea." ) So Angel takes off his costume and tries to convince Spike to do the same - Spike makes it as far as the mask before that old Ethan Raine Chaos Spell from S2 Halloween is invoked and everyone literally becomes who their costume was. Spike becomes, you guessed it, Angel. Not a lot else happens.
The comic feels a lot like a fanfic drabble, humorous, a nice character sketch, but nothing major. I rather like it for what it is. I'm not sure I agree with Lynch's take that Spike previously only followed his heart or evil or his heart and evil, and now free of love, he is actually free altogether. That feels off to me somehow. Very much the fanboy noir perspective - ie. love is not for macho men and makes us pussies, which is sort of offensive, but then noir is supposed to be offensive. That said - I'd say overall, Lynch's depiction of tall dark and brooding is spot on. Actually Angel's rather interesting and likable in this comic, not to mention laugh out loud funny.
Here's the bit that made me laugh out loud - because it sort of commented on what fandom has been discussing lately...on lj, well more or less:
There is a four-issue prequel comic series coming out before the movie is released. Are we to believe this shall be considered canon or is it fan-fiction toss-off? I've lost much sleep over this.
Hee. Brian Lynch shares my snarky sense of humor regarding being a fan, apparently.
Regarding the Buffy comic ...I'm on the fence about it. Like I said above, I'm getting frustrated again.
There are some good character moments - most of them are centered around Willow. I'm guessing if you are a huge Willow fan - you are probably loving this comic. I like Willow - so that may well be why I'm still half-way enjoying it.
Buffy...I just ache for. She just doesn't get a rest or a respite or a wee bit of happiness.
At least not for very long. And after this comic, I once again found myself wishing the character would just take off, leave her so-called friends and family, and take a long needed vacation.
I don't like Dawn and Xander in this arc. And I don't really know why. Trying to figure it out. I'm not a B/X shipper, far from it. Nor do I necessarily dislike either character - actually like both quite a bit. But here they are irritating me. I can't quite decide if it is their dismissive attitude towards Buffy and the slayers, or their love of firearms, weaponery, knowledge of it, and adoration of man-made killing machines. They are almost callous regarding the war and the deaths. Their jokes offensive and insensitive. Buffy was right to glare at Xander. And they are almost completely oblivious to the fact that people are actually dying around them, because you know - they've declared their love. Of course, we are seeing them through Buffy's eyes - so these may well be her feelings that are being projected. And I may well be over-identifying with Buffy here - which I'm guessing would thrill the writer to no end.
Giles, I'm not sure what to make of. He also appears to be embracing the man-made weaponery. This I think is rather the point. The emphasis on "man" power and "male" weapons. Pick up a gun, all is better. Guns are less harmful than magic. Which Bay and OZ discover much to their chagrin is simply not true - Bay is critically injured and without "magic" - Willow is unable to heal her or help her beyond applying a bandage in an amatuerish fashion. They've forgotten that the magic they were all so dismissive of - had positive as well as negative properties. Guns or man-made weapons such as torpedos, grenades, etc - only have negative properties. The female magic that comes from the earth can heal and destroy, while the masculain magic that is made - only destroys. Dawn and Xander embrace it, because they are jealous of the other, they don't have it, they feel powerless, and because of that they embrace the idea of weaponery much as Twilight and his minions do. Buffy and Willow are furious they've given up their power, weak, they are unable to save lives - they don't just want to kill - because the weaponery they discover only kills, it does not really protect them - they are outmanned and outgunned.
So Buffy goes to Bay, OZ's critically wounded wife, and begs for help. Bay explains the magic is not gone, just redirected. And Buffy asks to whom, Bay says the earth, the ancient earth goddesses. That through their prayers (chants) the goddesses agree to protect them in exchange for the power they've taken from them. Buffy and Willow figure out that these are just wrathful goddesses given a modern name - earth but not really from the earth at all and that these goddesses sucked out their power. Buffy decides it is time to take them up on their bargain. She asks Bay how. Bay says to use her anger. Anger is how you call them. "I have plenty of anger," Buffy states. And together Buffy and Willow unleash their rage to call up the gods.
Willow and Buffy appear to be on one side of a dividing wall regarding power and Dawn and Xander are on the other. Dawn and Xander are grooving at being the knowledgeable ones, the ones with the weaponery ability, and are in love. Willow and Buffy are struggling with who they are, lost, afraid, drowning, and angry - they are watching people die. They've been drained. Rendered weak. And neither are comfortable with guns. In the middle is OZ and Bay who meant well, but thought that power was something you give up - redirect elsewhere, that you don't need. They saw it as a negative, being in them. When Monroe, the rival wolf leader, shows up to help - OZ is shocked. Monroe states that he's on Oz's side now because Oz is fighting for those who fight to keep magic alive. And we watch as Monroe's clan is slain by tanks.
This issue pretty much spells out what we already knew - that Buffy/Willow/Xander and Dawn's plan to give up the slayer and witch power was possibly the worst plan ever. And has negative consequences. Before they could have used smoke screens, sheilds, and superstrength, now they are relegated to using destructive weapons that only hurt the earth more. All they've truly accomplished is death and destruction.
The frustration I feel while reading the comic, may well be deliberate on the part of the writer - it is the frustration that Willow and Buffy feel - and this story, or arc, is really their tale. Both of theirs. The future of Fray is a future they both wish to circumvent. (I wondered today if maybe the way Whedon plans on ending this tale is to have Buffy seal off the demons and magic and then leap through the portal - going back to the world of Normal Again, back into consciousness, the Buffyverse in truth little more than a false reality created by her mind to handle her own demons and her own issues and her own struggle with power over her own mind. But I doubt it.)
That said, I want to scream at the writers - enuf already. Tell me who Twilight is. That is the question I'd like to have answered before the end of this year. It's been teased and drawn out long enough. Almost 30 issues actually and over two years. A portion of the readership has given up and moved elsewhere. I'm not sure who Twilight is. My pet favorite is Hank Summers - but I don't know if the writers will go there. I'm willing to bet it is not Spike - because he'd need a personality transplant - Spike simply is not patient or knowledgeable enough about weapons. It could be Xander from an alternate timeline or the future - but otherwise not plausible. It could also be Angel - but only from an alternate timeline or future. Again plausibility is a factor here. Giles is another possiblity but I somehow doubt it. He was busy with Faith during a good portion of the Twilight stretch. I really don't know. The pattern points at Spike - due to the negative space surrounding him and all the romantic angst Buffy is going through which is literally bleeding through the pages. But again, personality transplant. Evil Spike wouldn't do what Twilight is up to, it's not his thing. The other one it points to is Giles and to a degree Xander, but again, I doubt it, plausibility and logistics get in the way. Dawn? Nah. But it would be fun. Again must be plausible. I really don't know and if this drags out much longer, I may not care.
Regarding Allie and the letter's page. Sigh. Sorry, this is going to sound a bit ranty, apologies in advance to anyone reading this who likes Allie, our mileage differs here and I admittedly have disliked this particular editor since the 2000 or before when I was picking up other Dark Horse titles. I've decided Allie's only job on this comic is to read and respond to letters. He certainly isn't editing the thing. If he did there'd be more continuity and less other errors. (Hello, Warren - as just one example). Also his choice in letters to reprint, I'm starting to question. He does it over and over again, patting himself on the back. I wholeheartedly agree with Danny Hirschorn of Chicago who states that Allie has not been supportive of the LGBT youth by his continued reprinting of homophobic letters and little of any others. He hasn't - Hirschorn is absolutely right. If he were, he would refrain from reprinting in every other issue, homophobic letters such as the one by Kristen Guardino of Long Island, New York which made me cringe (although she may not be as homophobic as she sounds - there are homosexual fans that struggled with Buffy's affair with Satsu, because if rang false to them and felt like fanboy sex fantasy..and to be honest, at times I feel as if the comic is catering more to the fanboy audience than the fangurl, which is odd, since I'm willing to bet that the readership is the opposite (ie. higher fangurl and lower fanboy statistically speaking). Yes, we know that there is a homophobic contigent of fans out there, but you get what 100 letters? You can't reprint the positive ones? And to reprint negative ones with no comment or just after you state you are being supportive, feels I don't know, a bit...hypocritical. Also enuf with the teasers - "next issue we'll have surprises!" Promises, promises. Deliver already. Anticipation is not something you can draw out for two years without your audience getting tired and wandering off to better climes.
ETA - Note: for a more in depth, completely opposite, and far more positive review of the same Buffy comic - go see
stormwreath.ETA2: A really good review of Buffy S8 issue, can be found here, it's a lot more positive than mine and makes the wise choice of ignoring the editorial page: http://aycheb.livejournal.com/101120.html?style=mine
Ugh. Feel gross and achey. Taking a shower and going to bed. I better not be sick.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 03:12 pm (UTC)I'm pretty sure he reprints every single letter he gets, except maybe for the completely illiterate or libellous ones. If there are too many homophobic or negative letters, that's not Dark Horse's fault, it's the fanbase's fault.
My experience is that he replies to the letters he agrees with, and just lets the other ones stand there in a "this is what someone said, form your own judgement" kind of way.
Regarding Angel #26 - I thought it was funny, and laughed out loud a couple of times, but I didn't feel there was any kind of weight to it. If I tried to do the sort of in-depth review I do of Season 8, I think I'd end up tearing it to shreds for the shallow characterisation, lack of originality, ridiculous plots etc. (And yes, you can read in "...compared to Season 8, not to mention the TV show" into all of those statements). But I don't think it deserves that, because it's a fun read.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 03:32 pm (UTC)Unless someone can point me to proof otherwise...
no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 04:18 pm (UTC)"I run almost every letter we get, and the only ones I edit are the ones that I think are just unfounded attacks on my creators. Readers complain because they think I censor letters (I don't) and other complain because I don't (I won't)."
In the letters page for 8.24 (the one which ran the letters written after issue 12) he specifically said that he had to edit them for space because they'd received so many. In light of the comment above I'm guessing he doesn't normally even do that.
Magazines which pick and choose which letters to print probably get a lot more letters. :-)
(And can I just say, at least Dark Horse put editorial and letters in the back which are relevant to the comic, as opposed to IDW's practice of filling four or five pages with interviews and previews and things about all their other, completely unrelated franchises?)
no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 04:37 pm (UTC)But I still find Ryall's attitude towards fans and towards the comics far more professional than Allie's.
And he could choose not to reprint certain letters.
It's not like he has to print them all. It's not a fanzine after all, last I checked it was a comic book.;-)
no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 04:46 pm (UTC)I think what I'm trying to say and what the first letter writer was attempting to say is - "you can choose what letters you put on these pages. By continuing to print letters that support a negative point of view - you are giving these people a voice and/or soap box to push their views. That may not be your intent, but it is what you are doing. If you were truly supportive - you would hesitate to give them a soap-box just as you might not to put in a letter that is abusive or overly critical of the creators or writers or insulting to them.
This is not a freespeech forum, it is not a public posting box, it is a comic book that you distribute for profit - what you decide to print in that comic books sends a message and your decision to print it, means you have to take responsibility for that message - particularly since you are asking us to spend money on it."
Allie is saying, oh, I just print whatever they give me. But he is an "editor". Editors - edit for content, they correct mistakes, and they choose which letters they wish to reproduce on the page. They can also choose not to put any on the page. They are not a postal service. And I think Allie should take responsibility for it. Other editors in the comic book business do.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 03:37 pm (UTC)I like the way he describes the things inside the main characters heads and even original characters like Jeremy get to me, while the slayer extras from S8 never made it out of their box for me.
Plotwise S8 would actually be more my cup of tea, because it's an epic tale, but due to it being so the plot weaknesses fall into the eye much more than in a fun project like this arc. To me this issue almost reaches showlevels when you compare it to one of the screwball comedy eps (that tend to have plot weaknesses).
no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 04:38 pm (UTC)I preferred Spike as the hopeless romantic, but to a certain degree I think it's either making him find new priorities in his life for the moment at least (and struggle with that) or let him return to Buffy, which is not an option.
The only thing is that I think he has Spike in this oriantation phase to long now. If he wants to leave him there for this one fun occasion I'm fine with it, but after that he'll have to find some new motivations or the character will stagnate, which would be a shame since always evolving is one of Spike's greatest assets.