Temperance
Buy at Amazon.com

This is why I read comics.

I think all of us get to a point sometimes with comics where it’s not so much that we’re tired of them but we know what to expect. Things fall into obvious categories or genres. Styles of art, even with they’re distinctive, all begin to resemble each other. And even when these comics are good — or even great — they’re rarely surprising.

Cathy Malkasian‘s Temperance (Fantagraphics, 2010) is just that. It’s not a perfect book, but it’s different and thoughtful. And most of all, surprising.

A mostly allegorical meditation on the allure of conflict and the power of empathy, Temperance follows Pa, the embodiment of war; his deformed daughter, Minerva; her amnesiac husband, Lester; and Lester’s wooden leg, who Minerva crafts into a doll she names Temperance. Minerva rules over the fortress of Blessedbowl and continues to propagate the myths of the righteousness of Pa and the heroics of Lester. Temperance, who remembers being a tree, escapes and meets up with Pa as the society inside Blessedbowl falls apart.

The plot — while still fairly linear — is obviously secondary the ideas that Malkasian is trying to communicate. Pa can be seen as “evil” — and he’s certainly bad — but he’s as damaged as anyone else. Minerva just wants control, but also to keep the love of her husband and to get the respect of Pa, who obviously loved other “daughter” Peggy more. Temperance sees them all for who they are, and the end is nothing short of transcendent.

Malkasain mostly works as an animation director, including on various Nickelodeon projects as well as the Curious George animated series. While Temperance is far from being for children, her animation background shows through in her the designs of her characters, with their exaggerated, distinctive bodies and facial features. Her shaded, pen-and-ink drawings have a fluidity and beauty that gives Temperance a quietness that belies the sometimes horrific subject matter.

Malkasian has crafted a deep world with a fully-realized society. It never feels like it’s just a backdrop, and the glimpses we have of life inside Blessedbowl are fascinating. She did more than she needed to in creating interior and exterior lives for everyone here with sparsely furnished rooms and towering outside walls.

The message here isn’t the most original and the book does have somewhat of a tendency to ramble in trying to make its points, but there’s such hope and lightness of spirit here that these are tiny complaints. This is an amazing example of what comics can be.

[Review copy provided by publisher.]

Wonder Woman

Reviews of the animated Wonder Woman movie are all over. Wired.com liked it, saying it tackles the issue of sex (in all its forms) well. A.V. Club gives it a B and concludes “Too bad it isn’t a series pilot.”

Jezebel.com writer Dodai, however, wonders “Or do we ignore the film in protest of a strong woman being shoved in an animated, straight-to-DVD ghetto?”

I don’t agree with that. Certainly, it’s a straight-to-DVD movie, which sometimes means bad things, but in this case, I think it’s irrelevant. This wasn’t ever intended to be a theatrical release. As for the animation thing … well, why does that matter? I think animation is much more suited to telling comic book stories effectively than live action. I think we need to get away from the whole “animation” means “children” (look, it worked with comics! Sort of!). I’d much rather have an awesome animated Wonder Woman movie than a mediocre live-action one.

I was never really a Wonder Woman fan, but she’s a fun character with a colorful history. I’m looking forward to seeing this.

Amidi doesn’t necessarily disagree with that, but does point out that women are making a lot of cool animation (and commenters there do point out the contributions of women in the production of Coraline).

Animation is maybe a little bit more difficult than comics, but with programs like Flash and such out there now, animation isn’t off-limits to anyone who wants to try it. If the Coraline production was a boy’s club and unwelcoming to women, that’s disappointing to me, but I do have hope that it was these particular circumstances and not a conspiracy.

While the contributions of women in mainstream animation may be currently lacking, Amidi concludes with this:

“In other words, the animation world is currently experiencing an unprecedented diversification of its gender make-up, and as a result, the art form is becoming much richer and more interesting to watch.”

And I can only hope these voices begin to get wider recognition.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight #20 Buy at tfaw.com

I got into the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer pretty late in the game, but due to some post-college ennui and constant reruns on FX, I started watching right before Season 7 began. I caught up pretty quickly and found it to be a great show.

I don’t worship at the altar of Joss Whedon. I like him well enough, but I am not one of those who believes he can do no wrong. As much as I love Buffy, there are parts of it that trouble me or just didn’t work. Still, I think it was a great TV series and I still enjoy watching it.

According to Wikipedia, there were plans for a Buffy animated series in 2002. It was to follow Buffy’s adventures around Season 1 of the series (Dawn was going to be included). The talks continued until 2004 when due to a lack of interest, the project was dropped.

This was a sad thing.

The comic series has never interested me enough to pay for it — fine to flip through in the bookstore but I don’t really like the art and it moves slowly. I like the attempt, but it just hasn’t worked for me.

Yes, we’re now getting to Season Eight #20. Written by comic-book favorite Jeph Loeb (who also was one of the executive producers of the failed cartoon series) with art by Eric Wright (who was one of the designers on the show), “After These Messages … We’ll be right back!” shows what could have been.

It’s a lot of fun. It’s a pretty quick little story, but it’s joyful to see Buffy back to being Buffy — just a normal teenager who happens to kill vampires. She’s making quips with her misfit friends, rolling her eyes at Giles and getting out-of-sorts when she encounters Angel. Loeb’s tone is perfect — he has the rhythm of the early show down and it’s playful and fast. Wright’s art is delightful and yes, I’m going to say it — animated. This feels like a cartoon. Along with the saturated color palettes that shift to suit the mood, this only makes me long for the animated series that never was (and sadly, probably never will be).

While the TV series always balanced humor with horror, it did become more and more angsty as the years went on. This is the Buffy I like. If there Buffy comic like this, I’d be buying it (hint, hint, Dark Horse).

(I like the variant cover better, which is why I used it in the link to Things From Another World. I actually didn’t even know it was the variant cover when I bought it at the comic book store. I’d read about this issue a couple of weeks ago but honestly, if I hadn’t seen this cover, I probably would’ve forgotten I wanted it.)