This one from Marionette!
1. A current obscure title that nobody else has heard of, which goes to show how cool you are for being aware of it. - Ex Machina. Some may say that it isn't obscure, but I have it on the good authority of Philadelphia Daily News comic critic Jerome Maida - whom I took to task for calling the concept of Green Arrow as a superhero mayor unique and original - that he can't read every obscure title that comes out. Of course I don't consider a book that's first issue won multiple Eisner Awards to be obscure... but hey, what do I know?
2. A title that everyone has heard of but doesn't think is that special, but for which you have a cunning argument for why it is cool. - Green Lantern Corps.... because Green Lantern is awesome... so a book about lots of them should be even more awesome!
3. A title that everyone already knows is cool, just to show that you have some common ground with the rest of comic fandom. - Green Lantern. Because Green Lantern is awesome.
4. A golden age title that nobody else has heard of (you can make one up if you like as there are lots of short lived golden age comics that sank without trace). - Madame Fatale. Because if there is one thing this world needs, it's a comic about an actor who fights crime by disguising himself as an old woman and then beating criminals up. He'd scare criminals straight because... well, would YOU keep mugging old women if there was a chance of getting beat up? :)
5. An indie comic that nobody else has heard of because only 5 copies were ever printed. - Here Come The Big People. Maybe not a comic with only 5 copies... but it is hard as hell to find... appropriately enough for a comic written by the original Crow T. Robot.
6. Some outrageous kitchy light-hearted silver age element that could only be reused today with heavy-handed symbolism or knowing self-reference. - Any story featuring the original Trickster, James Jesse.
7. A comic, or particular run of a comic that has been out of print for at least twenty years, which you can lobby for collected reprints of. - Mike Grell's Green Arrow.
8. A title you think must be very cool because you completely fail to make any sense of it. If it's a manga, you can't even work out whether to read it left to right or right to left because it makes as little sense either way. - The final issue of Chuck Austen's Superman run. I defy you to make sense of it!
9. A hideously expensive deluxe collection of some title . I mean if people are going to pay hundreds of dollars for it then it must be good, right? - The Starman Compendium Vol. 1. I already have all the single issues - but I must haves it!
10. A comic so obscure that it was never actually published. Or even written. - A Red Sonja/Tyris Flare fan comic I drew when I was 12. The less said about the contents the better.
Showing posts with label Trace Beaulieu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trace Beaulieu. Show all posts
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2003
Here Come The Big People #1 - A Review
Written by: Trace Beaulieu
Penciled by: Amanda Conner
Inked by: Jimmy Palmiotti
Colored by: Atomic Paintbrush
Lettered by: Richard Starkings & Koja Fuchs
Editors: Laurie Bradach
Publisher: Event Comics
Now and forever, my favorite TV show of all time is Mystery Science Theater 3000. I first got hooked on the show at the ripe young age of 12 and it was about this same time that I was discovering my own burgeoning ability to get people to laugh and found that my biggest laughs came from making fun of stupidity. And though the show was totally free of subtext, which was the big lesson of the show. Yes, there are stupid, evil and just plain wrong things in this world but the best way to fight the darkness is with a smile on your face, a laugh in your throat and a quick wit. “The devil cannot abide being mocked,” after all.
Still, much as I did love the show… it never did seem the same after Trace Beaulieu left. Bealieu did double duty on the show, portraying both the brilliant, if severely limited by vision and competence, evil mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester and the wise-cracking, sarcastic aspiring-playwright Crow T. Robot. When Bealieu left after the end of show’s seventh season, it looked as if show was gone for good in the wake of impending cancellation by Comedy Central. The show was picked up at the last moment by the Sci-Fi channel, but Bealieu opted out of the show. A new actor was left to take on the voice of Crow and the evil-moving hosting duties were moved on to Dr. Forrester’s mother. It was in this time following his leaving the show, in the late-90’s just after the big Collectors Crash that sent the comics industry into an economic tailspin that we are still recovering from that Beaulieu wrote his first comic book.
“Here Come The Big People” has a sci-fi plot as outrageous as many of the clunkers that Bealieu’s alter-ego Crow merciless made fun of. The action centers on Austin Milcsop, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Steve Ditko’s Peter Parker. Milcsop has made gazillions off his greatest invention; an electronic personal assistant called “I’m Home” or “M.O.M.” for short. MOM is capable of cleaning a house, cooking dinner and running your bath after a long day at work… but it is somewhat lacking in personality. Hilarity ensues after Austin orders Patty, a programmer with a crush and a mad-on after being ignored for years, to give “MOM” a personality. As she works on a program, Austin’s “MOM” unit picks up on his desires and the two combine with a literal alien abduction to create a large-scale, living being capable of pampering a full-sized adult male. In short, “A Big Person.”
This is, in short, a silly story. Oh, we can try and be serious and talk about the Freudian subtext, Oedipal/Elektra complexes, arrested adolescence, the search for innocence and the desire to find child-like wonder in a harsh and cynical world where children grow-up far too fast and too many grown-ups are immature. But where is the fun in that when we can laugh at the image of businessmen being pushed around in strollers as they discuss a deal?
This image, along with a hundred other hilarious moments, is gloriously illustrated by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, who some of you just might have heard of. (I am, of course, joking and if you haven’t seen anything done by either of these artists, please click here and then e-mail me the address of the Internet-capable cave that you are living in; I’m in the market for a new apartment.) Conner’s cartoony style is perfect for displaying the sure unbridled ludicrousness of this situation and yet, makes it seem perfectly natural. Palimotti’s inks are subtler here than in many of his other works with Connor, particularly their gloriously dark Vampirella issues. Still, this fits the book perfectly as this is not a dark story by any means.
Sadly, this book is rather difficult to track down now, having a very small original print run and most of the few copies being snatched up either by dedicated MSTies or Conner/Palmiotti completeists. But fear not, gentles. Kindly old Uncle Stars has discovered that Mr. Beaulieu himself still has quite a few copies of the book and will gladly send you autographed copies of both covers for a nominal fee of $9.00. Just send a check made out to “Trace Beaulieu” to…
Trace Beaulieu
PO Box 931357
Los Angeles, CA 90093
Penciled by: Amanda Conner
Inked by: Jimmy Palmiotti
Colored by: Atomic Paintbrush
Lettered by: Richard Starkings & Koja Fuchs
Editors: Laurie Bradach
Publisher: Event Comics
Now and forever, my favorite TV show of all time is Mystery Science Theater 3000. I first got hooked on the show at the ripe young age of 12 and it was about this same time that I was discovering my own burgeoning ability to get people to laugh and found that my biggest laughs came from making fun of stupidity. And though the show was totally free of subtext, which was the big lesson of the show. Yes, there are stupid, evil and just plain wrong things in this world but the best way to fight the darkness is with a smile on your face, a laugh in your throat and a quick wit. “The devil cannot abide being mocked,” after all.
Still, much as I did love the show… it never did seem the same after Trace Beaulieu left. Bealieu did double duty on the show, portraying both the brilliant, if severely limited by vision and competence, evil mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester and the wise-cracking, sarcastic aspiring-playwright Crow T. Robot. When Bealieu left after the end of show’s seventh season, it looked as if show was gone for good in the wake of impending cancellation by Comedy Central. The show was picked up at the last moment by the Sci-Fi channel, but Bealieu opted out of the show. A new actor was left to take on the voice of Crow and the evil-moving hosting duties were moved on to Dr. Forrester’s mother. It was in this time following his leaving the show, in the late-90’s just after the big Collectors Crash that sent the comics industry into an economic tailspin that we are still recovering from that Beaulieu wrote his first comic book.
“Here Come The Big People” has a sci-fi plot as outrageous as many of the clunkers that Bealieu’s alter-ego Crow merciless made fun of. The action centers on Austin Milcsop, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Steve Ditko’s Peter Parker. Milcsop has made gazillions off his greatest invention; an electronic personal assistant called “I’m Home” or “M.O.M.” for short. MOM is capable of cleaning a house, cooking dinner and running your bath after a long day at work… but it is somewhat lacking in personality. Hilarity ensues after Austin orders Patty, a programmer with a crush and a mad-on after being ignored for years, to give “MOM” a personality. As she works on a program, Austin’s “MOM” unit picks up on his desires and the two combine with a literal alien abduction to create a large-scale, living being capable of pampering a full-sized adult male. In short, “A Big Person.”
This is, in short, a silly story. Oh, we can try and be serious and talk about the Freudian subtext, Oedipal/Elektra complexes, arrested adolescence, the search for innocence and the desire to find child-like wonder in a harsh and cynical world where children grow-up far too fast and too many grown-ups are immature. But where is the fun in that when we can laugh at the image of businessmen being pushed around in strollers as they discuss a deal?
This image, along with a hundred other hilarious moments, is gloriously illustrated by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, who some of you just might have heard of. (I am, of course, joking and if you haven’t seen anything done by either of these artists, please click here and then e-mail me the address of the Internet-capable cave that you are living in; I’m in the market for a new apartment.) Conner’s cartoony style is perfect for displaying the sure unbridled ludicrousness of this situation and yet, makes it seem perfectly natural. Palimotti’s inks are subtler here than in many of his other works with Connor, particularly their gloriously dark Vampirella issues. Still, this fits the book perfectly as this is not a dark story by any means.
Sadly, this book is rather difficult to track down now, having a very small original print run and most of the few copies being snatched up either by dedicated MSTies or Conner/Palmiotti completeists. But fear not, gentles. Kindly old Uncle Stars has discovered that Mr. Beaulieu himself still has quite a few copies of the book and will gladly send you autographed copies of both covers for a nominal fee of $9.00. Just send a check made out to “Trace Beaulieu” to…
Trace Beaulieu
PO Box 931357
Los Angeles, CA 90093
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