We’re going to kick off a roundtable on Dan Clowes’ Ghost World shortly. Our regular bloggers (that’s Richard, Suat, Kinukitty, Vom Marlowe, and me) will all weigh in. In addition, blogger and critic Charles Reece has very kindly agreed to join us. Charles blogs, mostly on film, at Amoeblog. You may also be familiar with his writing if you frequent the Comicon message boards, where he is a frequent poster.
So I believe Kinukitty will be posting shortly. Don’t touch that RSS feed, as they say.
We seem to be experiencing various technical problems; comments and permalinks send you to 404 page not found, in particular.
I’ve contacted the appropriate authorities, so hopefully this will all be sorted out soon. Thanks for your patience.
Utilitarian Review is a weekly round-up of post on HU, links to other things I or other bloggers have published this week, and some random links as well.
_________________________________
On HU
This week started off with my discussion of the great surrealist artist Leonora Carrington and her drawings for the novel “The Hearing Trumpet.”
Kinukitty posted a lengthy appreciation of Tomoko Hayakawa’s The Wallflower.
Richard Cook posted a review of Brian Azzarello and Victor Santos’ Filthy Rich.
Ng Suat Tong talked about the original art market for comics.
And finally Vom Marlowe reviewed the first volume of Adam Warren’s Empowered.
Utilitarians Everywhere
At Comixology I have a longish review of Yuichi Yokoyama’s Travel.
In Yokoyama’s work, too, the viewpoint swoops and swerves, now with a skier on a high mountain pass, now underneath the train. There is certainly a celebratory, joking tinge to Yokoyama’s impossibly mobile camera. But there is also something ominous. In one sequence from the book, our protagonists’ train passes another going in the opposite direction. A whole page is devoted to the faces on the other train. They are shown in four tiers of three blocks each; all are streaked with violent motion lines; all are the same shade of grey as the window frame, all stare intently outward at the viewer. The scene is oddly disturbing; the repetition of the faces, the repetition of the expressions; the lines going through them, the grid — it’s dehumanizing, as if the faces are not people at all, but manikins, or masks.
On the TCJ.com main page I reviewed Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ooku: The Inner Chamber.
At Splice Today I reviewed Arie Kaplan’s book about the Jews and comic books, from Krakow to Krypton.
Over at the Knoxville Metropulse I reviewed the new Animal Collective ep, Fall Be Kind.
At Madeloud I reviewed Miranda Lambert’s Revolution.
In the hidebound print-based media department, I have a couple of album reviews out in the latest issue of Bitch magazine.
And former Utilitarian Bill Randall has a review on the tcj.com main page of the hipster mess that is I Saw You.
Other Links
Matt Thorn has a withering essay about how much current manga translators suck.
Shaenon Garrity has a post on the Tcj.com main page about Power Girl’s explication of her boob window. I also enjoyed Shaenon’s post about Fumi Yoshinaga.
_______________________________
For those new to HU: Music For Middle Brow Snobs is a weekly feature in which I post a downloadable mix. It’s free, so enjoy — and if you like an artist consider buying their music and/or finding some other way to contribute to their continued existence.
___________________
As some of you may be aware, I’ve become somewhat obsessed with Thai pop music recently, especially luk thung (somewhat misleadingly referred to as Thai country music.) So I thought I’d do a playlist devoted to the topic.
1. Pamela Bowden — Poo Kai Kai Loong (E-nang Dance 2)
2. Aump Nuntiya and Boonta Muangmai — Ruk Song Paen Din (Wong Kalamae)
3. Aump Nuntiya and Boonta Muangmai — Num Tah Lon Bon Tee Norn (Wong Kalamae)
5. Peter Sareewong — Yug Yai Yug Lek (Loog Thung Super-Hit Volume 2)
6. Pamela Bowden — Kor Pen Nang Eek (Kaew Ta Duang Jai)
6. Sithiporn Soontorapod —Nong Mae Khon Mai (Look Thung Super-Hit Volume 2)
7. Sunaree Rachaseema — Ban Ro (Sunaree Classic Hit)
8. Sunaree Rachaseema — Krai Nor (Sunaree Classic Hit)
9. Duangjan Suwannee — Yung Ruk Yung Ror (Mai Kla Mee Ruk)
10. Yui Yaryer — Roo Tan Na (Yui Yum Yum vol. 7)
11. Cathaleeya Marasri — Sao Muang Noni (Ruam Hit Pleng Duam)
12. Cathaleeya Marasri — Bon Kae Buer (Ruam Hit Pleng Duam)
13. Jintara Poonlab — Gig tarng jai (Jumbo HIt)
14. Siriponr Umpaipong — Tum-naeng Tee Mai Tong Karn (Bow Ruk See Dum)
15. Siriporn Umpaipong — Rean Korn Mae Sorn Wai (Bow Ruk See Dum)
16. Jing-Reed-Kao Wongtewan — Num Tah Fah (Dance) (Hudcha Dance)
Download Luk Thung Apocalypse.
Last weeks’ download is here.
If you’re interested in obtaining any of these albums, your best bet is probably ethaicd. Their catalogue isn’t always entirely updated, but I’ve gotten surprisingly good customer service.
Hey all. We’re officially moving in today. Some of the boxes are still packed and they’ll probably be at least a few stubbed toes and muttered imprecations as we stumble around the new space…but hopefully the learning curve won’t be too steep.
For those who are familiar with us already, our content is going to be much as it always was. Currently, and hopefully for a while, our bloggers are me (Noah Berlatsky), Ng Suat Tong, Kinukitty, Vom Marlowe, and Richard Cook. We write, variously, long meandering essays on Wonder Woman and gender; enthusiastic manporn reviews; chronicles of a quest for mainstream titles that do not suck; musings on the original art market in comics.; your irritatingly named roundtables,; music downloads no one listens to, occasional Thai pop videos, and goodness knows what else. This week in particular, I’m going to try and get myself fired, and then, if that doesn’t work, we’re going to have a knock-down, drag-out roundtable on Dan Clowes’ Ghost World. So…click back often! Or even better, add us to your RSS Feed by clicking that little icon thingee in the corner up there.
____________________________
The old blogspot address will stay in place as an archive. I thought, to get things started I’d put up some links to my favorite posts from our archives. So…..
The first post I did to the Hooded Utilitarian was my long, complete interview with Johnny Ryan, an expurgated version of which ran in TCJ a ways back.
Also going back a bit is this gallery of cartoons by the amazing editorial cartoonist Art Young. From that page you can click around to some other images and my essay on the cartoonist, if you’re so inclined.
One of my favorite roundtables on the site (featuring Bill Randall, Tom Crippen, and Miriam Libicki) was our discussion of the feminist Japanese manga Helter Skelter by Kyoko Okazaki. That discussion also links up at the end to the Mary Sue roundtable, which is also one of my favorites, so you can click over there if you’re just not getting enough roundtableism.
Tucker Stone and I did a back and forth discussion of Bob Haney’s Brave and Bold.
Tom Crippen’s epic discussion of Marvel Comics and Civil War is the piece that really won me over to his writing when I saw it in the Comics Journal. It’s great.
Miriam Libicki’s post on Rogue of the X-Men is shorter, but also a favorite of mine.
I also love Bill Randall’s vision of manga as apocalyptic coccoon.
And Kinukitty’s even more obsessive than usual discussion of “In the End.”
And for more recent highlights check out: our Sandman roundtable; and Steven Grant’s great guest post on race and comics; and Richard’s very funny review of Image United.
So thanks for joining us. More soon!
______________________________
As we’ve mentioned a time or two, HU is moving bit, byte, and barrel over to the new! improved! Comics Journal website!
Though we’ll be at a different location, our content will not change; you’ll still have your long meandering posts about Wonder Woman and gender, your enthusiastic manporn reviews; your quest for mainstream titles that do not suck; your erudite explorations of comics classics.; your irritatingly named roundtables,; your music downloads no one listens to, your occasional Thai pop videos, and all the other fun features which you’ve come to expect when you click over here.
Also, coming up later this week at the new space, I’m going to try to get myself fired, and then (presuming that doesn’t work) we’re going to have a knock-down drag-out roundtable on Dan Clowes’ Ghost World.
All of which is to say, I hope you’ll follow us to our new location. And if you have a link to us on your site (and thank you!) I hope you’ll redirect it to where the new content is.
This address will stay in place as an archive. I thought, as long as we’re going, I would post some links to a few of my favorite posts from the past years. Feel free to just skip ahead to the new site if the maudlin nostalgia seems too intense.
______________________
The first post I did to this site was my long, complete interview with Johnny Ryan, an expurgated version of which ran in TCJ a ways back.
Also going back a bit is this gallery of cartoons by the amazing editorial cartoonist Art Young. From that page you can click around to some other images and my essay on the cartoonist, if you’re so inclined.
One of my favorite roundtables on the site (featuring Bill Randall, Tom Crippen, and Miriam Libicki) was our discussion of the feminist Japanese manga Helter Skelter by Kyoko Okazaki. That discussion also links up at the end to the Mary Sue roundtable, which is also one of my favorites, so you can click over there if you’re just not getting enough roundtableism.
Tucker Stone and I did a back and forth discussion of Bob Haney’s Brave and Bold.
Tom Crippen’s epic discussion of Marvel Comics and Civil War is the piece that really won me over to his writing when I saw it in the Comics Journal. It’s great.
Miriam Libicki’s post on Rogue of the X-Men is shorter, but also a favorite of mine.
I also love Bill Randall’s apocalyptic vision of manga as apocalyptic coccoon.
And Kinukitty’s even more obsessive than you’ve grown to expect discussion of “In the End.”
And for more recent highlights: our Sandman roundtable and Steven Grant’s great guest post on race and comics, and Richard’s review of Image United.
_________________
And…I think that’s it. I’m kind of reluctant to go; it’s a little sad to say goodbye to the place, even if we’re not really leaving the internets. Thanks to all the bloggers who have been kind enough to lend their talents here, to the folks who have linked to us, to our commenters, and to our readers. Hope to see you all soon on the flip side.
Empowered, Adam Warren
You know one of those weeks where you’re so tired you’re stumbling and your boss of course chooses to give you yet another boring but incredibly difficult project, and there is yet another freak ice storm which kills all your pansies, and you clean off your dog’s muddy foot and discover that you’ve just smeared dog poo around on your bare hand?
Yes, that would be my week.
I flopped onto my La-Z-boy one day during that awful hideous week and sighed. I was not up for another bad comic with lumpy people in spandex, I just wasn’t. I couldn’t face beautifully drawn pretty boys, either, in case there was random non-con. I just wanted something, well, fun. And funny, if it could be had. I pawed around my stack of to be read books rather listlessly, spilling them all over the floor and tossing them over my shoulder as I went. Tenant of Wildfell Hall–good, but too long. Toss. In Praise of Idleness–nice idea, but who needs philosophy? Toss. MARC 21 For Everyone–yeah, right. Toss.
Empowered. Huh.
That was supposed to be good, I thought, and wrestled off the aggressive shrinkwrap.
An hour later, I was still chortling when I had to go wrestle my Pookie back inside from where he was telling the facts of life (Thou Shall Not Look at my people, Thou Shall Not approach my yard, Thou Shall Not even think about coming over this fence) to the new yappy dog next door.
In this volume, we meet Emp, the heroine of the tale and the eponymous Empowered. She has this supersuit that gives her powers, but it’s shrinkwrap tight and very thin. When it gets torn–as it does very easily–it loses powers. She’s famous for getting taken hostage, tied up and gagged with a ball gag, wearing her torn and scanty suit. Despite this, she’s a better superhero than the rest of the Super Homeys, of which she is an Associate Member.
I found this comic incredibly endearing, direly funny, and rather feminist. Also, hot. Emp is beautiful, but she’s not hot just because she’s beautiful. I can flip through a lot of lovingly drawn bodacious babes in spandex and be bored. No, it’s Emp’s spunk and humanity that make her so hot. Also, she has a nice butt.
This is drawn by a man who likes women to have actual thighs, and unlike many superhero comics, her thighs are fat. It’s cute and hot. Emp, of course, is worried about how she looks. There’s a very spot on portrayal of her concern about the suit–which reveals everything–when Sista Spooky makes fun of Emp for having a panty line. Which means thereafter she goes without. Which means, ahem, that she has to take care of certain things down there so as not to show, well, wiry realities to all and sundry.
Emp is both brave and real–her concerns I would have and can relate to. Her bravery is amazing because she has these human feelings and failings. Supeman’s bravery is not interesting or amazing, because he’s never worried about how the tights looked on him and he’s not too worried that the train will smash him, either. Emp has to worry about both and she dashes into danger anyway.
She also has a terrible part time job in retail.
I laughed and laughed through this comic, because so much of it is so painfully true. Who hasn’t had a crappy job, struggled to make ends meet, and lied through their teeth to their mom when she’s called to ask how things are going? ‘Oh, fine,’ we say, eating consolatory ice cream, the only good thing in our lives and probably costing more per pint than half our grocery budget for the week, ‘things are going well.’ And Emp does this.
Along the way, she is joined by Thug Boy, who is a great boyfriend and Ninjette, who is a great best friend. But it’s Emp that I feel for and who I’ll be buying the next volume to get more of. There’s also a possessed alien device, superheroes who got their mutant powers through alien STDs, and some hilarious side jobs for Thug Boy. But I think Noah covered all of that.
Highly recommended if you are in need of a sexy and funny comic to cheer up your week.