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TheMythicalReader

Name: Christina

Bio: I started reading comics during the DC relaunch, and it's been such a great experience. If my comics diet made up a food pyramid, DC would be my grains, vegetables, and fruits, Marvel would be my dairy, and smaller publishers would be my protein. A little unbalanced, I know. Alas, often opting to eat dessert first, I'm probably not the paragon of healthy eating the USDA had in mind.


Reviews

In this issue readers learn more about Rush’s character and Kate and Maggie’s increasingly complicated relationship. We also see how…

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This, the second issue in the “Drown the World” arc, was, um, challenging. The creative team tries to maintain thematic…

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This past December marked the twentieth anniversary of the end of Soviet dictatorship and the start of a new post-war,…

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TheMythicalReader's Recent Comments
April 17, 2012 6:37 am Thanks for another great podcast! I especially loved the pricing discussion...Ron Richards, you crack me up. :)
March 19, 2012 4:31 pm BQ: Brioche! I highly recommend making your own from scratch. It requires a little time and a little love but it can be stored frozen and used later as a base for many a tasty treat. My favorites are pain aux raisins and brioche au chocolat...delish!
March 17, 2012 12:18 am I just dug up my copy of Batwoman #0, which featured Reeder on pencils for Kate’s story. I couldn’t help but notice some stylistic differences between #0 and this issue. In the former, there’s a wonderful balance between traditional and non-traditional layouts; the stylistic choices really serve the narrative and convey meaning beyond the basic events of the plot. There’s also a brilliant concision and clarity to the lines; some of the most expressive panels are also the simplest. In this issue, I found some pages to be a bit convoluted and often questioned whether certain panels really added to the narrative. I’ll be sad to see Reeder go because the kind of art she exhibited in #0 could have been a really interesting counterpoint to Williams III’s work.
February 21, 2012 9:24 am BQ: Assuming the dollars are in USD and the scenario takes place in a world comparable to our own (so no hyperinflation or other funny business), sign me up for the $1MM please. Cupcakes can be a tricky business, and there are too many unknown variables here. As any serious cupcake eater knows, the wrong icing-to-cake ratio can easily turn gladsies into sadsies, and a bad crumb is fun for no one.
February 14, 2012 1:18 am RE: Nathan’s e-mail- I distinguish between “same stories” that result from hyper-commercialism (i.e. artistic appeals to the lowest common denominator to meet financial goals) and those that resemble stories of the past simply because nearly all art is somewhat derivative. Tale of Sand, as an example of the latter, is certainly derivative in its surrealist approach to order and coherence and in its cultural allusions (it depicts many “classic” scenes found in Western cinema, literally repeating parts of past stories) but it manages to be interesting and enriching. As implied by Ron’s baseball analogy, there’s also something kind of beautiful and meaningful in belonging to a community that shares in the same moments as you (even if they are repetitive or ritualistic) and with whom you share a vested interest in the same outcome (even if it’s ultimately a trivial one).
February 7, 2012 3:16 pm I’m usually reluctant to read stuff that’s been published posthumously—even more so if it has somehow been modified in an attempt to capture the artist’s “vision.” It kind of feels like trespassing. However, I picked up Tale of Sand after reading this review, and I absolutely loved it! Well contextualized and lovingly presented, it was clearly crafted with nothing but respect for the original script. Also: bonus points for the extra sturdy cover and sewn binding! Great pick, Josh!
February 6, 2012 5:08 pm I’m not sure if the airline industry is a fair comparison given how regulation/deregulation has impacted its operations. There are also some substantial differences between the business models of Southwest and the largest carriers—such as the structure of the networks they operate—that result in very different cost structures. I agree that increases in unit sales at the cost of revenue/unit may be a sign of margin compression (assuming DC and Marvel have similar cost structures). Some erosion is obviously offset by any increase in total market size but whether it’s enough depends on how thin the margins are. This emphasis on volume over margin protection might make it harder for publishers to break even, and so they may actually be less inclined to support riskier projects.
January 28, 2012 4:50 pm Potential new readers: go for it! This was my first issue of The Unwritten—I don’t even know what the series is about, really—and I absolutely loved it. Admittedly, I tend to be okay with a little confusion and generally don’t know much about the history of the titles I do read regularly. But as Josh suggested in his review and others have noted in the comments, one need not know how this issue fits into the series to evaluate its artistic merit: its unique, thoughtful construction will give you much to think about and even more to appreciate.
January 18, 2012 9:31 pm Nope, but you were correct in the podcast: I'm a new reader who came onboard after the reboot. The username is a nod to Amartya Sen's "missing women," the idea being that systematic underrepresentation and misrepresentation of women influences social perception and reinforces the patterns we see today, whether they be in comics or in sex ratios in South Asia and North Africa.
January 17, 2012 1:06 am Ron, Conor, and Josh- Thanks so much for reading my review and for the kind words. I was making tiramisu as I was listening to the podcast and was so surprised that I nearly over-beat my egg whites! While I've only been reading comics for five months, it's been such a gratifying experience. Thanks in large part to the site and the iFanboy community, the inherently solitary experience of reading instead feels like thoughtful engagement in a larger conversation.