The Eastern Edge

Just a note to say that I didn't post the final part of the Urasawa interview translation and then abandon ship. On the contrary, I'm nearly finished my next piece of Urasawa goodness, and I expect to have it ready early next week (if not before. I'm 80% done!).

In the meantime, I've updated all my site's software and I'm now in the process of tidying up my cluttered content. Once that's done I will finally be able to spend more time working on new content. I've got a ton of things in the can too, including more on the still ongoing Hayao Miyazaki comic "Kaze Tachinu", and, just to prove that I'm not a hater, some articles on Japanese animation that I DO like.

Yes, that's right. Despite what my blog may reflect most of the time, I don't hate everything Japanese that isn't by people named Urasawa, Inoue, or Miyazaki, and I will be writing nice things about other stuff too...
Well, sometimes. I definitely won't sprinkle sugar on shit and eat it just to avoid getting flamed by overzealous fans who think everything out of Japan is just a different shade of genius. But I also will try not to take a dump on things that are decent just because it resembles a toilet through my bitter, jaded eyes either.

As far as non-Japanese stuff goes, especially comics, I am also slowly re-emerging from self-imposed exile in my "I remember when..." underground comic book bomb shelter - where Frank Miller is still cool, Alan Moore has yet to begin sexually abusing underage, classic fairytale characters, and Chris Claremont and John Byrne owned the X-Men. As good as that stuff was, I figure that embracing the new styles is the only way to grow old and still enjoy comics.

When I get old I'd rather be thought senile as I cheerfully skip down to the comic shop exclaiming "Excelsior!" and eagerly grab the latest comics in my wrinkled fingers before emptying my pensioner's change purse onto the counter in hopes I have enough to buy them, than be a bitter, insane geezer who sees the world in monochrome and no longer knows how to have fun that isn't cynicism. So, once again, I am poking my head out to see what's happening in the here and now in comics.

I say "re-emerge" and "again" because I'd actually peeked out the window of my groundhog hole this past spring for the first time since about 2007, which was when I last checked on "All Star Batman & Robin" to see if it was still insane, or if Frank Miller would redeem himself (the title is on hiatus so the jury is out; "The Spirt" movie not withstanding). But I didn't venture away from the safety of my retro-shelter until I emerged to bask in the brilliance of "Whatever Happened to Caped Crusader". It was so good, and made me feel so positive about comics again, that I even hung around and started trying to catch up with all the Marvel and DC (but mostly Marvel!) stuff I used to read so long ago.

All was well until the horror of the Wolverine story arc where Logan is actually descended from a tribe of freakin' wolf-people, and then the “Batman is dead! No wait, he’s just stuck in yet another silly alternate Earth… I think…” train wreck that was "Batman RIP", cast a dark shadow of incoherent storylines, copout conclusions and lameness that sent me diving back into my hole to weather another six weeks of winter in the comfort of the classics I grew up with.

I am, however, now ready to tentatively go back to the surface, because I know there's some good stuff out there that I’m missing and I'm determined to find it!

That includes animation, because although there is precious little good mainstream stuff that I have been able to find that isn't CG and by Pixar, I am trying to sample a little of everything, mostly by individuals and smaller studios, in hopes of finding something I like in that area too.
As cynical as I've been about the state of animation in Japan, there are a few Japanese productions out there that I really want to see but haven't had a chance yet. I'll get to those soon and hopefully have some good things to say.

For now I will continue to organize, reorganize, clean, tweak, poke, prod, push buttons, flip switches and fiddle with knobs on my site while I complete a couple of Urasawa translations I’m working on - as I mentioned, one of which is going to be posted very soon.

Until then...