"We serve all kinds in here."

After checking out a possible wedding party venue on Wednesday night, Karli and I decided to have dinner at the nearby Storm Crow - she's fond of their tater tots, and I'm just always happy to go to the Crow, I just feel at home there.

As it turned out, Wednesday night is Trivia Night at the Storm Crow, and as such the place began to fill up quickly.  We were seated at one end of a table for six, and a look-alike for actor Jon Heder was seated on his own at the far end.

Shortly after we placed our dinner order, Jon was joined by two women.  The sort of casual awareness that you have of other conversations nearby made it evident that they'd agreed to sit at our table to help fill in empty space in the bar, and they had a friend on the way to fill the last empty seat.

The three of them struck up a conversation, and I have to admit that I was sort of pleased for the guy there alone for trivia night who was doing his best to make a connection with someone.

At this point, the friend arrived, a blonde woman with a grey toque and a condescending smile.  I wish I'd found a way to sneak a photo, but that would have been a bit much - maybe just imagine a shorter version of Regina George from Mean Girls.  In a hat.

Regina was the poster girl for not being engaged.  She was turned away from the conversation to the point where she was facing me more than her friends, and kept looking down at the menu and smirking.

As Karli and I were finishing up and getting ready to leave - we're not big trivia fans, although it's possible that I might do well at Storm Crow Trivia Night - Jon finished making a Dungeons and Dragons dice roll joke and excused himself to visit the men's room.

The second he was gone, Regina suddenly turned her attention to her friends.

"Ohmygod, you're so funny.  I can't believe how interested you sounded when he was describing that stupid game.  'Unh huh, yes...'  My god, you're SO funny!"

I have no idea how your friend responded, because I was overwhelmed by the urge to lean over and say, "Hi there!  I couldn't help but overhear what you said - guess what, you came to the wrong bar."

Of course, my urge never made it past the original impulse, what kind of Canadian would I be if I started doing things like that in bars?  But really, if you're going to go to a venue which is decorated with battleaxes and rayguns, has a TARDIS in the back and a 10 foot wide Millennium Falcon over the entrance, not to mention a Star Trek themed drink menu and a beer named after Great Cthulhu, maybe don't make fun of the fact that the person beside you is talking about Dungeons and Dragons. In fact, I feel that the whole reason for having a bar like the Storm Crow is to provide a gathering place for people who want to talk about things like D and D without being mocked.  Full points to your friend for showing interest and attention - and I'm sorry, but you really were in the wrong bar.

- Sid

P.S.  Full disclosure:  I've never seen Mean Girls, due to my standard movie requirement of aliens and explosions (or elves and magic).  That being said, after reading the quotes from the characters on IMDB, it might well qualify under the "aliens" category.

Aussi disponsible en français.

I would like to express my ongoing appreciation for the strong social media game demonstrated by the federal government of Canada, as demonstrated by today's tweet from the National Research Council.

That being said, I have to admit that the release of Wolverine's Canadian military service record by Stats Canada is still my favourite - not to mention the Transport Canada announcement for May the Fourth last year.

Oh, and in compliance with the Official Languages Act of 1969, the French version of the NRC tweet can be found at https://twitter.com/CNRC_NRC/status/980420802297425920

  - Sid

"Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong."

You and I, we're military.  Chances are we go home, they'll courtmartial us.  And the rest of you guys, I guarantee that they will never send you up here again.

Commander Lewis, The Martian

It occurs to me that all the crew on the International Space Station needs for the best April Fool's joke ever would be a couple of ounces of fake blood, a few smuggled skull or alien masks, some disabled fuses for mood lighting, and a complete indifference to their future careers.

  - Sid

"Take care of the forest, Dewey."

You know, when I was a kid, I put a note into a bottle and it had my name and address on it. And then I threw the bottle into the ocean. And I never knew if anybody ever found it.

Freeman Lowell, Silent Running

As part of our ongoing wedding planning, Karli and I paid a visit to Vancouver's picturesque Queen Elizabeth Park this past weekend in order to look at possible luncheon and ceremony venues for our wedding.*

 

In addition to wedding pavilions and fine dining, Queen Elizabeth Park is also the home of the Bloedel Conservatory, a charming greenhouse oasis of tropical plants and birds.

 

My first thought on seeing the Conservatory was, "Wait, I recognize that - it's one of the domes from Silent Running!"  Coincidentally, I had just purchased a copy of Douglas Trumbull's 1972 directorial debut on Amazon.ca, so I sat down on Sunday afternoon to do a rewatch.

 

Silent Running is an intriguing movie that rides the fine line between classic and cult. It was produced as part of a series of five low-budget films by novice directors funded by Universal in hopes of repeating the unexpected success of Easy Rider in 1969.**

 

The movie tells the story of Freeman Lowell, part of a four-man crew that maintains the Valley Forge, one of a fleet of converted freighters orbiting Saturn. The ships are equipped with biodomes that house the remaining trees and plants from Earth, preserved against a time when they can be restored to their natural habitat.

When the government decides to destroy the domes and return the fleet to commercial service, Lowell rebels.  He kills his crewmates, and escapes with the ship and the last remaining forest by faking an catastrophic accident.  He takes the ship on a hazardous passage through Saturn's ring system and vanishes into the depths of space, aided by the ship's three robotic drones - one of which is destroyed in their passage through the rings.

Lowell, haunted by guilt over the deaths of his crewmates, reprograms the drones to act as replacements, naming them Huey and Dewey (Louie having been lost to Saturn's rings) and teaching them how to care for the plants and animals.  However, over time the forest begins to die, and Lowell is driven into depression by his inability to solve the problem, even with the help of his robotic companions.

 

Eventually a search party discovers the Valley Forge, and a chance comment by one of the searchers makes Lowell realize that the forest's problem is lack of sunlight.  He erects lights to replace the distant Sun, and then ejects the dome along with Huey. Dewey, damaged in an accident, is unable to reliably help with the forest, and so remains with Lowell as he blows up the ship in order to conceal the fate of the last forest and its robotic caretaker. 

Silent Running is a movie of firsts: it's Bruce Dern's first starring role, it's the (sometimes obvious) directing debut of special effects guru Douglas Trumbull, and the first professional FX credit for the legendary John Dykstra, hired as a student to help out with the spaceship models. Surprisingly, it's also one of the first scriptwriting credits for Steven Bochco, who is more noted for his crime dramas than science fiction.

Lowell, skillfully played by Dern, is an ambiguous figure, as much villain as hero: he's a fanatic who kills three people in his single-minded quest to do what he thinks is right, but he also regrets what he's done, and he's sincere in his love for the forests under his protection, to the point where he's willing to sacrifice his own life as well.  Dern is the perfect casting choice for this role, and he makes Lowell a surprisingly sympathetic character with unexpected depth, a portrayal which marks his transition from playing moody outlaws to more dramatic roles.

The low budget is sometimes obvious, but in some ways it works to the film's advantage. For example, most of the spaceship interiors were shot on the actual Valley Forge, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, which gives those scenes a sense of logic and solid physicality. The shells of the three robot drones are occupied by legless bilateral amputees, which removed the need for expensive electronic models, but which also makes the drones much more anthropomorphic in their reactions and timing.

Overall, Silent Running is an entertaining movie, but it's painted in very large strokes, more of a character study than a fully realized story.  It's also not a subtle film: the ecological message is blatant, right down to having legendary hippy activist/singer Joan Baez provide vocals for the soundtrack, and naming the last defender of the forests Freeman.

However, the simplicity and directness of the movie work well together, making Silent Running into a sort of environmentalist fairy tale, a fairy tale that could easily have started out the way that fairy tales do:

 

"Once upon a time, there was a man who loved the forest..."

  - Sid

* If you're curious, we batted 500: we got the luncheon venue we wanted, but not the wedding pavilion - which, at three grand for 90 minutes, is fine with me.

** One of the other films was American Graffiti, which launched the career of George Lucas*** and paved the way for Star Wars. So, really, Dennis Hopper is responsible for the Star Wars franchise.

*** And Harrison Ford's career as well, come to think of it.

"...I'm Batman."

Well, a guy who dresses up like a bat clearly has issues.

- Bruce Wayne, Batman Begins

 

  - Sid

A foolish consistency.

 

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds…”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Karli and I are away for the weekend in picturesque Victoria, where we're staying in an AirBnB micro-loft that can't be much more than 250 square feet - now I know what life would be like in the space-challenged megacities of some Malthusian version of the future (although the ceilings will probably be lower).*

We've visited Victoria a couple of times now, and we've started to develop a list of things to do and places to visit, which, in my case, obviously includes Munro's, Victoria's excellent indie bookstore.

I have yet to visit Munro's without finding something that a) I didn't expect to find; and b) wanted to buy. This visit was no exception - there in the science fiction and fantasy section was the full four book set of Chris Wooding's Tales of the Ketty Jay, an entertaining steampunk fantasy series that I'd previously read and enjoyed in digital format.

Unlike most steampunk, the Ketty Jay series takes place in its own reality, rather than an alternate history version of our own world. As such, Wooding is free to populate his tale with airships, pirates, golems, zombies, daemonists, and whatever else catches his fancy. The result is a fun light reading experience, full of adventure, drama, conflict, romance and dry humour.

Finding the entire Ketty Jay series is a bit of a happy coincidence in terms of timing – my friend Chris has been going through a bit of a steampunk phase in his reading, and I’d recommended the series to him. However, since I only have it as e-books and he doesn’t use any sort of e-reader, I was unable to lend it to him.

The only problem was that the four books at Munro's - all British imports - didn't match.  Parts one, two and four of the series were Gollancz Fantasy editions, and part three, The Iron Jackal, was from Indigo, with a completely different design sensibility. (And a note on the copyright page that it had originally been published by Gollancz.)

It actually hurt me a little bit to buy this mismatched quartet of novels, although I can't quite bring myself to blame Munro's buyer for the situation. At least they had the full set, and if this is the price that they had to pay to make that happen, then so be it. It does make me a little curious, though. These aren't just different editions, they're different publishing houses. How does this happen? Did Wooding have contractual issues between the second and third books?

A little research reveals that the matching Gollancz edition of The Iron Jackal is available on Amazon.ca, so apparently he didn't have to switch publishers, but it's ridiculously expensive, clocking in at close to $60 for a new copy. Interesting - is there some reason that the third book in that production run is in short supply?

(Damn it...I also see that there's an omnibus edition of all four books for $30....no, wait, that's for Kindle, so I haven't made a huge mistake in buying them separately.)

I realize full well that it’s irrelevant that one of the copies came from a different publisher: the content will be the same**, it’s just a bit of foolish consistency to want the cover designs to match. Regardless, if I see the opportunity to purchase a (reasonably priced) replacement copy of the Gollancz edition of The Iron Jackal, rest assured that my little mind will jump, JUMP at the chance - hobgoblin or not.

  - Sid

* Actually, it's quite comfortable for a weekend away, as well as being affordable and perfectly located.  But small.

** Probably. After all, I have a Science Fiction Book of the Month Club omnibus edition of Michael Moorcock Elric novels which disappointingly omits a line from my much-read Lancer edition of Stormbringer, the final novel in the series. So you never know.

"You really have no idea what it was. "

The movie adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's 2014 novel Annihilation represents a very specific area of science fiction storytelling:  the alien enigma.  Very few of those stories end with a resolution to the central mystery, and Annihilation is not an exception to the rule.

It's been described as a combination of Contact, Arrival and The Fountain, but none of those references really touch the core of the movie.  For a better cinematic starting point in the challenges of comprehending the unknown, I'd suggest 2001, the 2010 guerilla film Monsters*, or either of the movie adaptations of Solaris, Stanislau Lem's classic SF novel.

As in those films, the unknown in Annihilation remains just that: unknown.  The mystery is never solved or understood, and we are left to judge it only by its ambiguous effects on those who have attempted to explore it.

At the core of Annihilation is the Shimmer, a zone of anomalous effects that surrounds the impact point of a meteorite at a lighthouse on the Florida coastline.  The slowly expanding Shimmer has defied analysis, and no one has returned from any of the attempts to explore it.

This changes at the start of the film with the unexpected reappearance of one of the mission members: Sergeant Kane, the husband of cellular biologist Lena, played by Natalie Portman.  Kane, who has been missing for a year, is disoriented and suffering from some kind of physical trauma when he returns to their home.

Taken into custody by the government on their way to the hospital, Kane and Lena are transferred to Area X, the research base for examining the phenomenon, where Lena decides to join the next group of explorers to enter the Shimmer as Kane slowly deteriorates in quarantine.

Annihilation's disjointed, staccato pacing only emphasizes the strangeness of the environment that the five-woman team of scientists ventures into.  This small group of interlopers offers a full spectrum of responses to the strangeness of the Shimmer and its disconcerting effects on their minds and bodies: confrontation, defiance, curiousity, acceptance, and fear, as demonstrated through strong performances by the excellent ensemble cast of Jennifer Jason Leigh, Portman, Tuva Novotny, Tessa Thompson, and Gina Rodriguez.

My main criticism of the film is that it doesn't go far enough in its evocation of the alien - I expected it to be far more extreme in its depiction of the oddities created by the Shimmer.  Only during the final scenes at the impact point of the meteorite does the movie attempt to fully reach into the bizarre possibilities of alien existence.

 

It's hard to say whether Annihilation succeeds or not - that would depend entirely on what you think it's trying to do.  It's deliberately non-linear, ambiguous and open ended, and as such it falls well outside of the standard approach to storytelling.  It may be that its success lies in exactly that, its lack of answers to the questions it raises.

- Sid

* In which the Mexican/US border is defended by a massive wall, in case you were wondering where Donald Trump gets his ideas.

One single tribe.

"What happens now determines what happens to the rest of the world."

T'Challa, Black Panther

Black Panther, the 18th film set in the Marvel Comics Universe, has proven to be an incredible success.  The movie is full of powerful dramatic performances by a superb cast of actors, and its record-breaking box office performance clearly demonstrates that the story of T'challa, king of Wakanda, resonates with audiences on an international level.

That being said, I have to confess that there were some parts of Black Panther that disappointed me.  It may be caused by sheer familiarity with the various obligatory tropes and themes, but there weren't very many places where the movie surprised me - let's be honest, T'challa's journey from victory to defeat to victory is very much what you would expect it to be.

In fact, his opponent's journey is a more interesting one in some ways, to the point where Erik Killmonger comes very close to being the hero of the movie.  It would only take a very slight change in the plot for the film to become the tale of a lost son of Wakanda who returns from exile after the cowardly murder of his father, and then fights the son of the killer for the throne of the country, after which he will have the opportunity to use his new position to change the outside world.

Ultimately, the thing that does set Black Panther apart from the standard superhero movie formula is the cultural and moral background to the story, as symbolized by the country of Wakanda.

 

An impressive creation that draws upon a myriad of cultural influences to create an idealized African city-state with one foot in the past, and one in the future, Wakanda combines tradition and innovation:  its skyscrapers feature elements from thatched huts, its scientists wear clothing patterned after classic African tribal costumes, and it relies upon both technology and ritual observances.

Wakanda is also a thought experiment, the idealized dream of African country that has been free from the consequences of exploitation, colonization, and war.  However, the dream is a tainted one: the Wakandans are very aware of their privileged status compared to the countries that surround them, and justifiably fearful that to extend a helping hand would be to share the issues that plague their neighbours.  As W'Kabi, leader of the Border Tribe, says to T'Challa, "You let the refugees in, you let in all their problems."  As such, they are only willing to provide minimal aid to other countries through undercover operatives.

The dream is also something of a sad one when it is compared to real world. Wakanda is a what-if Africa, one which stands in stark contrast to the problems that have plagued the real African subcontinent for generations, problems caused by both long-standing tribal conflicts and the unwanted interventions of European interlopers.

It is the problems of Africa and of the underprivileged around the planet that provide the real story for this movie.  The underlying theme of Black Panther deals specifically with the fundamental question of intervention versus inaction, of community and unity, of whether or not power should be used to help the weak, even if it means the end of one's own comfortable security and the possibility of mutual failure.

 

In the final analysis, the hero decides to do exactly what heroes are supposed to do:  save the world.  Except in this case, he decides that the world should be saved for everyone, by a little bit, every single day.  It's a shame that there aren't more heroes like that in the real world.

- Sid

Not to mention the Lululemon League.

Of course, the Vegan Tyranny.  Just past the Yoga Confederacy, and perhaps sharing borders with the Gluten Free Republic.

- Sid

P.S. To be fair, this probably deserves a little more explanation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega

Merch 3: Persistence.

As per my previous two Merch posts, February was a pretty good month for filling gaps in my collection of geek schwag.  Happily, I was able to complete the hat trick by buying a couple of four-poster sets of Star Trek: The Original Series movie posters by Juan Ortiz, a leftover from my 2016 seasonal wish list.

I originally stumbled across these retro-styled limited edition* prints at the Museum of Popular Culture (aka MoPop) online gift shop while doing research for my annual gift suggestions in 2016.  Ortiz produced 80 of these unique posters, one for each of the Original Series episodes.  Sadly, it turned out that MoPop doesn't ship to Canada, so that particular gift option regretfully left the table.

However, when Karli and I decided to plan a February weekend in Seattle which would include a visit to MoPop to see the Jim Henson exhibition, I thought to myself, "Hmmm, I wonder if they have those posters in stock at the gift shop?" Logically (no Spock joke intended) there would be no reason for the two on-site shops to share stock with the online fulfillment inventory, but it was certainly worth checking while we were there.

In the fullness of time, we headed south to Seattle, and made our way to the MoPop on the Saturday morning.  When we'd finished at the Henson exhibition, we headed over to the science fiction gift shops. There was no sign of the posters in their shelf inventory, but it turned out that they still had some left in the back room, a random selection of eight or nine of the four-poster sets from the original 20 sets that were produced.

Because there was no visual guide to which posters were in each set, the clerk very kindly offered to let me look at the poster options online, but the pages were loading ridiculously slowly, making it a painful process.  As a result, I just randomly selected two of the sets rather than tie up too much of the man's time.

(He was also kind enough to give me the online sale price of $25.00 rather than the sticker price of $34.99, which is significant when you're looking at an exchange rate of about thirty cents on the dollar.)

So, what did I get in my random selection?

I'll be honest, I don't love all the posters in any of the single sets.  Each set has something I like, and each set has something I don't like, such is the nature of individual taste. In the case of these two sets, purely by chance I ended up with two of my favourite posters from the 80 options:  The Conscience of the King from Set 16, and Errand of Mercy from Set 17.  The other posters are certainly well done, but these are certainly two of the best looking designs by my standards.  They're very nicely printed on a matte finish 100 lb stock, and, based on the halftone screen, run on press rather than digitally. 

The good news is that, because of my preference for two of the eight prints, I would only want to get those two framed, at least in the short term.  Given that it could easily cost two or three times as much as my entire purchase to get just one of them put into a nice frame, I certainly appreciate the silver lining of not loving all eight of the posters. 

  - Sid

P.S. If you're a Star Trek fan in the British Columbia lower mainland who's interested in the other posters, leave a comment, we may be able to do business.

* To be honest, I'm not certain that these are officially a limited edition run as per the formal definition, it may well be that they will simply not be doing a second print run.

Merch 2: Vaulted.

When Karli and I were planning our stop at Funko headquarters in Everett as part of our recent trip to Seattle, it occurred to me that it was the perfect opportunity to get the matching Lone Wanderer to go with the Fallout: Power Armor figure that Karli had given me as a Christmas gift. 

Sadly, a little research on the Funko web site revealed that both figures had been  Vaulted*, which means that they are no longer in production.

My first thought at this piece of information was: Oh well, at least I've got one of them - and the cooler looking one! 

My second thought was: Damn...obviously I should have left my gift in its packaging to preserve its MOC (Mint On Card) value.  What have I done? **  

My third thought was to shrug and get on with my life.  After all, we're talking about polystyrene toys here, it's hardly the end of the world (no pun intended) to find out that they're not being manufactured any more.

Aha, never say never.  I still don't know if she had advance knowledge or not, but Karli almost demanded that we pay a visit Golden Age Collectables, an excellent comic book and collectable shop with a comprehensive selection which is located at Pike Place Market.***  As we wandered about the store, we stumbled across the Lone Wanderer figure in their inventory - how could I not buy it?

Both the Lone Wanderer and the Power Armor stand up well to a close inspection:  they're quite detailed, accurately modelled and well articulated.  However, I had the same problem with both of the figures.  As I've already noted, it is not easy to get them to hold onto their supplied firearms.

So now I'm the proud owner of both Funko Fallout figures - and yes, they're both out of their packaging, my sincere apologies to my heirs for ruining their inheritance.  If you're very upset, feel free to drive to Seattle and buy your own - they still had four or five of the figures left in stock at Golden Age. 

  - Sid

* This is unintentionally funny - the Fallout franchise is based around characters who have survived the nuclear holocaust in an alternate history United States by sheltering in underground shelters - called Vaults.

** Seriously, though, that's no fun.  As The Big Bang Theory's Penny said about her virginity, it's a lot more fun to take it out and play with it.

*** There's a sister store on Granville Street in Vancouver.

A brief digression regarding The Lord of the Rings.

As I mentioned in my Book Report posting, I'm currently procrastinating on my New Year's resolution to read more paper books, thanks to a digital copy of The Lord of The Rings. But, in my defense, it's just so good.

I'm a bit in awe of how well written this story actually is.  I've been a frequent visitor to the lands and kingdoms of Middle Earth over time - I've worn out a couple of sets of the books since my first purchase in the 70s - but for a variety of reasons, I haven't read Tolkien's masterpiece for several years. There's a bit of favourite fatigue for even the best books, I'm so familiar with the content by now, and so on and so on.  All that being said, returning to the books after a rest has let me see the story with fresh eyes, and as I said, I'm a bit in awe.

Yes, it's very old school - but let's say classic instead.  There isn't a wasted word, the tone and style are perfect, the descriptions are evocative and realistic, the dialogue is simple and elegant, the story flows smoothly and seamlessly from paragraph to paragraph and chapter to chapter, the tale itself is epic and gripping - it's just beautifully put together.

I admit that it's not for everyone, but if you think of yourself as a reader for the sake of the quality of the words on the page, for the pure craft of writing, you owe it to yourself to take a look at The Lord of The Rings.

- Sid

Merch 1: “I did it thirty-five minutes ago.”

“Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago.”

Ozymandias, Watchmen

Because I often refer to previous material when I'm creating new content for the blog, I spend a certain amount of time going back through old postings so that I can link to the content.  I also sometimes just re-read postings to see if there's anything I want to change, or just to check for typos.  I was paging back through the content at the end of last month when I stopped for a thoughtful moment at a slightly melancholy posting entitled, Or Vanilla Coke and Barbecue Lays which featured a photo of a rainy day mental health getaway for the jaded geek.

I'll put the photo here as a more convenient reference:

The observant reader will have noted the diverse nature of my rainy day reading material.  I'm on page six of the first issue of Watchmen from September of 1986, with the balance of the 12 issue run to the left underneath a copy of Marvel's What If from the 80s, and the first issue of Ghost Rider 2099, part of Marvel's abortive 2099 series from 1994.  Just above them is DC's beautiful four issue Kingdom Come miniseries, hand painted by Alex Ross, and beside that a mixed bag of comics capped with a Marshal Law one-off from Epic and and an issue of Vector's Annoying Post Brothers by Matt Howarth (Vector is better known for their publication of Chester Brown's legendary alternative comic Yummy Fur).

However, there's a lie in that description. Issue 7 of Watchmen isn't in that stack of comics - about 12 years ago it fell prey to a large hairball that my cat Nigel coughed up when I wasn't looking, and by the time I realized what was happening, the cover was ruined.

At one point, when my friend Chris had asked to borrow the series, I was forced to confess the gap in my collection.  He later told me that he had considered buying me the missing comic as a birthday gift, but wasn't sure if it would be cheaper to just buy me the collected story in graphic novel format.

Hmmm, I thought, looking at the picture. I wonder how much would it actually would cost me to replace that comic?

Purely out of curiousity, I hopped over to eBay.ca and did a search for Watchmen comics.  Ta dah - Issue 7, Very Good condition, a very reasonable seven bucks US, no bids, closing in 35 minutes. I shrugged and placed a bid for seven dollars - my philosophy with eBay is that either you're going to get it or you're not, getting into a bidding war just drives the price up for everyone. (I confess that there have been one or two times when I've violated this simple approach.)*

Thirty-five minutes later, boom, done, I had won the auction with my single bid, and pending the arrival of my purchase, my Watchmen set was once again complete.

"Pending the arrival"...aha, there's the rub, as Shakespeare puts it.  I had a bit of concern about the safety of my purchase as it traversed the postal system of two countries.  Our local postie has the bad habit of jamming things into our mailbox whether they fit or not, and it would be an unfortunate ending to this story to receive a damaged replacement for a damaged original. Shipping was ten bucks US (or about $12.50 CAD), and I really didn't know what that would buy me in terms of protecting my investment.

When the package arrived this week, it turned out that my concerns were completely unnecessary.  Revolutionaries**, let me tell you:  if you are looking for the well-packaged shipment of a comic book, Comic Warehouse on eBay is your seller of choice.

It came in a two inch deep box (the FRAGILE sticker is a nice touch):

 

With bubble wrap:

 

In a cardboard sandwich:

 

In a plastic bag with a cardboard backer:

 

Now, admittedly, that last one is standard collectable comic packaging, but still.

 

And, after all that, the comic was exactly as described:  Very Good condition - in fact, in better condition than one or two of the other comics in the set - and my twelve-issue run is once more complete.

Fortunately, Jaq the Cat isn't much of a jumper or climber, so I'm unlikely to have to replace my purchase due to cat hygiene issues, he just won't be able to get at it.

Unless, of course, I leave it on the floor - while I drink tea and read comic books.

  - Sid

* This parenthetical comment required me to go back to the blog and search for previous postings, as above.

** Thereby deliberately choosing a cute name for my blog readership, such as it is.

Book report.

Now that we're a couple of months into 2018, I thought that I should provide an update on my New Year's resolution to do more reading of physical books, with the goal of one book a week.  As with most resolutions, I'm not quite keeping up with my target, but unlike most resolutions, I've certainly been enjoying the process so far.

I started by clearing the decks:  a couple of months back my friend Chris had lent me his copy of Metro 2033, a mystical tale of post-apocalyptic life in the Moscow subways by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, and I had gotten about half way through the book and then just sort of set it aside as other reading captured my attention. My original introduction to the story had come in the form of the 2010 THQ game adaptation, and, to be honest, I found that in some ways I preferred it as a computer game, although it just may be that the book suffers in translation. But, with my resolution in effect, it seemed like the perfect place to start, so I moved it back onto the play list.

After finishing off Metro 2033, I picked up one of my Christmas gifts from Karli: Sean Howe's Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, which tells the tale of Marvel Comics from its origins as Timely Comics in 1939, its rebranding as Marvel and the creation of its breakout characters the Fantastic Four in 1961, through to its sale to Disney Inc. and its current incarnation as a motion picture powerhouse.

It's spiced with fascinating (and somewhat gossipy, to be honest) details about conflicts between owners, publishers, editors, writers and artists at Marvel, and the company's rise and fall over time.   

The sad part is that, as much as I enjoyed it, I really don't know anyone to whom I could recommend this excellent and well researched book.  For me, it illuminated a portion of my personal history, the period of time when I was an avid comic book reader, providing the back story for events that I could only watch from a distance when they were taking place.  If you weren't reading Marvel comics for at least some part of the last fifty years and have no knowledge of North America comic books, I'm not sure that The Untold Story would be of interest to you as an abstract historical document.  But if you do fall into that group, this books is a rewarding and fascinating read.

From there, I went with The Golem and the Jinni, followed by Spaceman of Bohemia, both of which I had purchased at The Strand Bookstore during our New York trip. The Golem and The Jinni is a wonderful book, whose titular characters meet in the cultural melting pot of early 20th century New York.  Author Helene Wecker obviously did meticulous research to create her setting, which is packed with details and grace notes regarding life in New York's immigrant communities at the turn of the century.

Her characters cleverly represent odd reversals on their usual roles:  both are traditionally associated with servitude to human masters, yet in this novel they are both set free* and forced to find their own ways in an unwelcoming and unfamiliar world. Wecker does a superbly insightful job of showing us the challenges faced by the opposing personalities of her two protagonists: one a construction of earth and water, the other a creature of air and fire.

I can't be quite as fulsome in my praise for Spaceman of Bohemia, by first time author Jaroslav Kalfar.  It's clever and well written, and I was certainly intrigued by the manner in which Czech scientist and astronaut Jakub Procha's life is molded by his father's involvement with the Soviet secret police. Unfortunately the subplot of the alien observer on Procha's doomed space mission doesn't add to the story, which, when you think about it, is a strong criticism for a science fiction novel.  A good read, but not a great read.

I'm currently making slow going with The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, but not because of any fault in the book itself.  It's a masterfully written tale which tells its story of a dystopian future without ever relying on conventional scene-setting narrative blocks.**  However, I made the mistake of loading The Lord of the Rings onto my iPhone as fallback reading material, and it's offered strong competition to The Handmaid's Tale in terms of skillful and absorbing (although obviously very different) storytelling. 

So, at the end of the first seven weeks of 2018, I'm in the middle of my fourth (and a half) book, rather than my target of seven. In my defense, both Marvel Comics and The Golem and the Jinni are big solid 450+ page books, and I've been reading steadily, so my current shortfall is based on book length rather than dereliction of duty.

Regardless, I'm quite pleased with the results so far.  It's been very enjoyable to get into that stack of abandoned purchases, and I'm looking forward to continuing the process over the course of the year.

Let's see...what do I want to read next?

- Sid

* Ish.

** Which can spoil a story if done badly.

"If I'm a muppet then I'm a very manly muppet."

I'm very pleased to add yet another entry to the varied resume that I've developed since starting this blog:  muppet.  My mother would be proud.*

- Sid

* No, seriously, my mother and I loved watching The Muppet Show together, she was a big fan.  It was often a struggle because it was broadcast Saturday nights in direct conflict with Hockey Night in Canada, and you can guess which one my father preferred.