The sixteenth comic: #70 Mandrake the Magician

Mandrake the Magician is possibly the first superhero comic - it's debatable, but it's certainly a candidate. And it's a superhero in the realistic mold - although his command of hypnotism surpasses what's actually possible, and telepathy features in places, there's no super strength, no over the top displays of power, and it tries to make it all seem at least possible.

And it sort of shows. As a character, Mandrake is boring - he's the sort of boring 'perfect' man - polite, confident and universally beloved. There's just not much to it. And while other heroes sometimes started out this way too, they evolved, but Mandrake doesn't quite seem to have gotten there in the samples we've read. The sidekicks are there too. Narda is useless and unnecessary in most stories (although more useful in Doctor Congo) and Lothar starts off as a stereotype, becomes more interesting but still is the dumb, strong one.

The storylines are also a bit samey in places - crime is committed. Mandrake might be distracted or deflected (if long enough). Else he hypnotises someone or uses telepathy to get the secret out, scares them through varying means and captures them. As a clean newspaper series, it can't go any further than that.

Although stories are linked together, there's not much more continuity. I haven't spotted any recurring villains yet, for example, which could be down to my selection of stories, but doesn't lead anywhere else.

The fifteenth comic: #395 Garfield

"Hey, did you know you can find all the Garfield strips online?"

An hour later we read the minimum we wanted. And some more. You can too!

Garfield is such a mainstay in the comic field that it feels like there's little to say about it. The riffs on it - Garfield minus Garfield, and the unnamed trend that started around the same time that just removed Garfield's speech bubbles showing how expressive the cartoon is. Also, great to hear that Jim Davis is not only willing to let those projects be, but even embraces them and enjoys reading them.

Garfield is good, from the early comics to the most recent. It relies heavily on tropes and recurring gags, and while 'fresh' isn't the best word for it, it manages to find enough variation to keep the comics fun. It's all simple and recognisable, both because you recognise the behaviour from cats and because a lot of traits - like hating Mondays - are recognisable in general.

This means that what should be repetitive and boring because of it becomes more familiar - a well executed, nice part of the day - as a newspaper comic that has run for as long really should be.

The eighth book: #8 La Celestina

I suppose it was bound to happen. La Celestina was translated to English in the 1600. While it has been updated, the translation still has elements that show its age, having really just been updated for spelling and the like. The language can certainly feel a bit dated.

What makes this more noticeable, and the book possibly less penetrable to me, is that the story has been set up as a conversation (similar to, for example, Plato's dialogues) or arguments. It reads as a play, with less stage directions, and makes the writing feel more static. There are long monologues and actions don't stand out as much. It's not what I've been used to reading and I feel I might have missed out on parts of it.

Still, it's an interesting story - the basics are there, but the characters are painted effectively and are interesting enough.

The fourteenth comic: #334 Rose of Versailles

That was... different. I've read Japanese manga before for this list, and with the love themes as found in here - the lesbian angles felt similar to, but more serious than Genshiken - but historic works, fictionalized accounts are rarer. I've been there for books a few times now, but not for comics.

That historic angle wasn't necessarily the best for the work in all places. It provided me with some detail and facts I didn't know, or had half forgotten before. My history lessons on the subject are fifteen years or longer ago, so it's all a lot hazier than it used to be. But at the same time, it meant that character development was often curtailed. In particular, historical character were shown to learn from scenes, then later discarded that knowledge because the historical figure didn't learn it quite that way.

The more interesting characters are the fictional ones - the lead, Oscar, in particular. Originally a supporting character, she became the favourite in part because they didn't need to follow a historical line for them. It means that there is actual, consistent character development, as well as a more likeable character, something the manga struggles with for Queen Marie-Antoinette.

Another thing that was noticeable was how it romanticized everything - Robespierre and Napoleon are played far more sympathetically than they should, and they can't decide quite whether court life in Versailles is good or bad. For a large part you're meant to enjoy it, and the downside almost seems to be "if only you'd spend a bit less". It's an example of "Japan loves Paris", one of those cultural phenomenons, that this likely played into.

The manga wasn't aimed at me, and that's the feeling I had all the way through - I probably would have given up earlier if I didn't know there was the definite end, and wanted to see in particular how the final few volumes played out. On towards other things though!

The eighth TV show: #129 The Prisoner

Now I had seen this before, six or so years ago, out of curiousity about the series, and enjoyed it a lot. As one of those cultural touchstone series, it also felt like something that, if you were serious about tv, you had to have seen.

Peter hadn't yet, but wanted to for a while, and this was a good point to show it to him, and to give myself a chance to rewatch it.

It was good, for the most part. The series has some weird and dud episodes - the western episode, for example, didn't hold up, and felt like it was a late addition to the schedule to make up the episodes needed for the season. If this had gone beyond the seventeen episodes broadcast it would have made for a worse series.

Now, though, the show gave us a bunch of higher concept episodes than what is usual for the era and genre, with the village setting, the titular prisoner and two staff members of the village (one of them mute throughout the series). It focuses on a range of related topics, often surrounding individualism, the good of the group, anarcy and semi-psychological explorations. It's often interesting and off putting, as you can't really know what you get each week.

The ending of the show is perfect. A straight up resolution can't work, so Patrick McGoohan - the definite visionary behind the work - goes for insane, an allegorical tale that doesn't quite resolve things, and leaves you wondering. A show that I'm happy to have seen again.

The thirteenth comic: #277 Iznogoud: The Caliph's Vacation

Puntastic is how I described the series to Peter when I picked this, although I must admit I had forgotten how many there were in here (with regular fourth wall breaking to point out how bad some of them were.

The concept is simple: our antihero wants to be caliph instead of the caliph. He does so through all sorts of convoluted plans which (as you'd expect) always end up going wrong somewhere.

Created by Goscinny and Tabary, the former one of the creators of Asterix, it has a similar sense of humour, but with more subversive storylines. Focusing on an anithero makes that clear, with usccess often a small step away - or as often staying far off - but with just enough bad luck that you want to keep rooting for him to see where else he goes wrong.

I loved this comic as a kid, often renting volumes from the library (there were more Dutch translations). I didn't adore it as much this time as I did them, but it's still good enough that I'm glad I had a chance to read this.

Double bill today

The eleventh comic: #626 Space Dog

Space Dog looks quite distinctive: bold, flat colours, angular and sharp. The strong aesthetic creates its own world that fits the story. It starts off quite standard, in a sense, for these stories - unhappy dog on the farm tries city life, escapes there, has adventure, and the very final bit even has it return there to find the simpler life.

The middle bit is what sets it apart. The trip to space even feels standard, but the dog gaining intelligence (all of this communicated through symbols and images) through alien interference is... odd, and it makes for an interesting twist towards a more immpactful story that has merit on more than its looks.

A delightful story.

The twelth comic: #902 The Arrival

Another wordless story, there is more of a reason here. The story of an immigrant (mostly for economic reasons, it seems, although there is a hint of more going on in the background that might subvert that), everything is strange, and the graphic novel is built around that. He can't communicate, so he uses drawings and pictographs instead. Because of the higher level of technology, the architecture is strange (a mixture of futuristic looks and steampunk elements thath reminded me of the game Machinarium. The pets look weird and you feel as much a stranger in this world as our unnamed main character is.

Life is hard, though not impossible, and he soon finds a job and succeeds - relatively speaking - enough for a happy end and a chance of integration.

It feels like the recent refugee crisis made this more applicable and still made it something I could connect with far more. Again an interesting story.

The seventh TV show: #317 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

H2G2 (as the title is often abbreviated) has so many incarnations, most of them widely beloved. The book will come up at some point in the future, as will the video game on Pong & Beyond proper, while I'm fairly sure the radio show would be listed if it could be. The movie... well, we'll ignore that. You can tell Douglas Adams' voice from anyone else's.

Adapted mostly from the radio play, as well as parts of the novels, the TV show remains very wordy (the book's narrator voice maintaining a strong presence). The writing is excellent, as witty as ever and simply fun.

What the TV show really adds to the saga, though, are the visuals. The show was made for a relatively cheap amount, with dodgy effects in places, but on the whole, the show gets away with a lot (in a similar way to how future show Doctor Who - the classic version - did at the time). It's effective in the many different ways it uses what it has - the Heart of Gold bridge feels clearly different (and fancier) than the Vogon's ship insides, something that comes across as well in the exteriors. A lot of these are perfectly polished, sleek ships, but instead the messes that fit the universe.

The visuals for the book, which look like primitive computer graphics (special at the time, hand drawn to seem like the old systems they had then) add to this. It feels just simple enough that it adds to the atmosphere and allows for enough in jokes without being overwhelming.

The weirdness of these visuals make the world seem stranger and it generally fits in with all the other stories.

There are good performances in there as well. Simon Jones is Arthur Dent (the part was written for him for the radio play) and the radio play cast that carry over understand their roles and play them well (aside from the occasional line of dialogue that sounds off spoken on TV, but would play better in a book or on the radio - standing around too long doesn't seem as natural). David Dixon is perfect as Ford, even if he needs part of the first episode to get it right and Sandra Dickinson mostly feels like she should have gotten more material with how good she is. Marvin's voice is perfect (again, a carry over) and his design looks great - a clunky robot that fits the remainder of the design, performed as a sad thing that somehow looks perky during the one Guide section that acts for it.

H2G2 is a great story. It's a shame the film just wasn't right and put people off, as this TV adaptation is superior and is rightfully its own great thing (while setting the stage of the likes of Red Dwarf in the future)

The seventh book: #7 Tirant lo Blanc

So I'm not quite sure I completely got this book. It's partially meant to be a satire, which came through but didn't hit as well as it would have, as I have not read as many of the work that are its inspiration (and none are really on the list either). It's a light book about a knight who becomes emperor of Constantinople (an early alternate history novel), and his adventures to get there. It hits all the known tropes - unknown knight appearing, difficult romances with intrigue and so on.

It read easily for that reason, easy enough to read and follow along with entertaining stories in there. It's not quite as funny as it should be, but it's as amusing as anything. While it doesn't quite work as a satire, it works as a lighter knight story anyway, probably more entertaining than heavy romances.

Worth my time and I hope there'll be more along like this. Don Quixote for one - a book Tirant lo Blanc inspired, and with a similar setup. It should be good fun.

The sixth book: #6 The Golden Ass

When ordered by writing date, this book should be listed before anything else I've read so far, but as this is ordered by published date, it comes in later.

The Golden Ass, or the Metamorphoses of Apuleius, tells the story about a man who gets turned into a donkey. He gets better at the end (in a somewhat inconsistent final chapter that becomes more of a religious text, teaching of the greatness of these cults. Before that it's quite an amusing tale, showing the follies of human while also showing up the main character, his selfishness and foibles.

While an interesting story, what felt just as fascinating were the details of Roman life. You hear about a lot of these things in textbooks, but in this novel they are put far more into a real life context, having a normal life punctuated by these oddities, from slaves to how leaders act. The many references to gods - Hercules a favourite, is quite insightful as well, especially where they reference deities that you don't normally think of as a major Roman one.