Groundhog's Day Resolutions

Maybe it's a Pennsylvania thing, but I prefer making Groundhog's Day resolutions to New Years' Resolutions. This is good because I am starting my resolutions just as everyone else is giving up on theirs. My Groundhog's Day Resolution for my blog is to maintain my blog, and not try to make it too great so that I end up giving up because it isn't perfect. So, instead of big, long posts with lots of scans that I never finish, I will try short posts with minimal graphics. Also, I would ideally like to comment briefly on every comic I read, starting Wednesday, but I don't know how realistic that is.

As a jump start, Kalinara is posting about her favorite storylines. Mine is the classic "The characters in the book come to life" (or, oppositely, "the real-life people get sucked into the book.")



This was the plot of the comic I read today, which I don't really know what its called, because there are too many words on the cover. My best guess is "The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma: Panchantra #1" from Virgin Comics. The characters are from an Indian book, and they are mostly animals, but can appear like people also.



Also, some of the characters are cool:




And the bad guy is a little boy wizard who rides a broomstick and wears short pants.



Doesn't get too much better than that!

Ragtime's Ideosynchratic Rating System: 14 out of 18 stars.

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (Walk In #1)

Characters
Main Hero: Ian
Minor Heroes: Astrid

Main Villains: Unknown

P'Shat

Ian is a poor, world traveling guy from Manchester who lives through his wits, and by taking advantage of people who believe that since he's British, he must have money. He tries to settle down, but he keeps having black-outs and waking up weeks later in another city. Also, he is having visions of a futuristic people, and he can't tell whether or not he is hallucinating.

Today he's in Moscow, eating the free buffet in a burlesque club and trying to hide the fact that he doesn't have any money for tips. When the bouncer tries to throw him out, he says that he's really a part of the act -- a "Dreamcatcher" who can tell you your dreams. He also gets to crash with Astrid and her stripper friends, but this doesn't work out too well, since they've also got a really bad German band crashing there.

Ian's act is a scam, similar to carnival "fortune tellers" who speak from generalities and let the gullible feed the details, but one night he is challenged by a heckler who has seen his act multiple times. In response, Ian focuses in and REALLY reads his dreams, telling him about how he dreamed of killing his brother and burying the body.

As he goes to the window that night to avoid the annoying all-hours practice session of the German band, he sees that his "vision" is replaced by an entire futuristic city.

Drash

Okay, I'll be honest. If you were to have asked me, say, last month, "Who were the members of the Eurythmics", I would have answered clearly and without hesitation: "It was Annie Lennox and that other person!"

If you were then to ask me, "Who is Dave Stewart", I would have responded, with less certainty, "Um, didn't he pitch for the Phillies back during the time I was listening to Annie Lennox and whatisname in the Eurythmics?"

Now, I would have gotten both questions right, but I would have completely missed that the OTHER GUY in the Eurythmics was actually ALSO named Dave Stewart (and also, that the pitcher became much more famous after he was traded to the Oakland A's, but Phillies Phans can't be expected to care about the American League.)

I also would have done better than "Walk In"s Wikipedia page, which currently links to an Eisner award winning colorist also named Dave Stewart as the creator of "Walk In", rather than the non-Lennox Eurythmics guy.

I'll tell you, I'm a sucker for this type of "Is it Real or Is It Memorex" Total Recall/Matrix-type story. And this one is very well done, at least for Issue #1, with characters I don't know yet.

Also, on a scale of 1 to 10 for exploitative-stripper scenes, where "10" is "Friday night at midnight on Cinemax," and "1" is a "supervised grade-school performance of 'Gypsy'", this is really closer to a 3, which is surprisingly low for an "R-rated" comic book.

I continue to love all of the variety in the Virgin comic books line, and recommend them all (I actually own all of them!) So, that's all for this one. No deep thoughts or literary criticism. Just a good story. Maybe they'll do an Annie Lennox one next!

The Virgin Line: Devi 1-4, Snakewoman 1-3, Sadhu 1-3

I have been really enjoying the Virgin Comics that have been published over the last few months, but:

P'Shat

Devi 1-4: Tara is an Indian commoner who is now relatively wealthy due to her rich boyfriend. She does not know that she is really the "Devi", and embodiment of the powers of all of the gods. Forces of evil are trying to destroy her before she discovers her true nature. Forces of good are trying to protect her until that time, and trying to show her her true nature.

Snakewoman 1-3: Jessica is an average American living in Los Angeles and waiting tables. She does not know that she is really the "Snake Woman", and embodiment of the powers of the reptile. Forces of evil are trying to destroy her before she discovers her true nature. Forces of good are trying to protect her until that time, and trying to show her her true nature.

Sadhu 1-3: James is a young working class Englishman who takes a job serving in the English army in India. He does not know that he is really the "Sadhu", an expert in eight mystic arts that control nature. The rest of the British army is trying to kill him before he discovers his true nature. Forces of good are trying to protect him until that time, and trying to show him his true nature.

Drash

Anyone noticing a pattern here?

There is value, of course, in variations on a theme, and at this early point one can assume that they will all eventually learn their true nature and go on to fight evil in their own ways. But, at this point, I'm kind of reading the same story three times.

But then, there is their methods of discovery:

Tara -- She seems to have been taking a nap for the pass two months, while the spirits of other incarnations of the Devi try to teach her the true path. Through four issues (although, to be fair, this incarnation doesn't appear in #1), she hasn't done anything more acting than nap. Lots of men are trying to save her for their own purposes. A man and Lord Bala are trying to kill her, and there are two "ambiguous" women, who are either trying to save or kill her.

Jessica -- Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. Jessica doesn't have to "discover" her powers. They are right there on page 1 of issue 1. She doesn't know what they are, however, and through 3 issues hasn't made any real progess in controlling them. Men are trying to kill her, and one man, so far, has saved her.

James -- The British captain captures him, and kills his (pregnant) wife and child in front of his eyes. After being "Dibneyed", a friend helps James escape into the wild, where natives rescue him and tell him he is the "Sadhu". No, I'm not, James protests. Yeah, you are, the natives say. This goes back and forth for a while, and then James realizes, "Hey, yeah! I am the Sadhu!" and has immediate full control over his powers by the end of #3. What have been three issues of turmoil for the girls was condensed into about three pages for the guy.

Now, none of this would have been so obvious had the book not had the EXACT SAME PLOTS so far. I am going to continue to buy them (and Ramayan, which only has 1 issue out so far), because of the great art, the interesting stories (or, story) and the potential. It's an interesting case study, though, because of the similarities.