Crisis (Kris)

Written and Directed by Ingmar Bergman

Film

An odd debut from one of the most acclaimed directors of all time. While definitely showing signs of the artist he grew into most of a decade later, particularly in shot composition, there are definitely signs this is a early version of his artist vision. Despite touching, gesturing more like, towards thematic elements that would infuse his following works there is a lack of both confidence and elegance in his approach. Additionally, the actors give inconsistent performances to a script that isn’t the strongest. If I were a contemporary reviwer I would declare it a mild curiousity but likely to be left as a footnote in his promising career, and through the magic of hindsight I’m a genius.

Prince of Cats(DNF)

Ronald Wimberly

Comic

Flashy bold colors and faux-Shakespearian dialogue are all that I managed to get out of this one. I picked this one up on a whim not realizing it was at least in part a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, much to my chagrin. Never had any adaptation of it “click” with me(once again my literature credibility out the window where it belongs), and even with the attempts at assuaging my bias – samurai swords and street gangs – this followed suit. In particular, the combination of faux-Old timey english with rhymes(and maybe iambic pentameter? I couldn’t tell, words do don’t that for me) and more contemporary phrases and slang kept throwing me off. I really hated how often they used “verily”, which might be true to the source material but frustrated me either way. I’m familiar enough with the source material to know that the character this centers, as opposed to the leads, Tybalt is supposed to die in a duel but I’m not sure where structually. One element I unambiguously liked was a Branded to Kill-esque ranking system for duelists that had daily updates on the top ranked duelists, though sadly no-one got high off the fumes of rice cooking here.

In fact, I only just met Juliet or her equivalent before I decided I was done and abandonend it. It was a scene of three women in a bathroom discussing blow-jobs in a manner that made me have to reread it like 2-3 times before I even got that part, at which point I was annoyed that all the cool stuff, dueling massacre via Tybalt, was happening off screen while we had time for this shit.

I don’t know why I wrote this much about something I thought was just kinda meh.

Vision

Julia Gfrorer

Comic

I can’t fully explain it but this comic seems to be almost “musically” drawn, there is a rythymic quality to the panels that goes beyond what just the classic 3x3 grid provides. I found on of Julia’s earlier works, Laid Waste, on one of the bookshelves in my house and was struck by the visuals just as the storytelling mystified me, and this definitely feels like a step up in both departments. While the settings for both works, the mythic 19th century and the black plague respectively, both lend themselves well to her shaky lines and cross hatchings, it has a stronger connection to the subject matter at hand here. It’s rare to this kind of sympatheticly weary and dejected woman centered in media, let alone comics, so I appreciated that.

I’m kinda rambling but this was a really nice quick read, and I’m looking forward to engaging with her other works.

Oh yeah I said I was starting Hellboy but uh lots of things came in from the library so I’m reading random short run comics, follwoed by the chonky Invisible Kingdom Library edition which gives “The Annotated Sandman” a run for its money as the heaviest book I’ve read. Though the library has an even bigger Doonsbury collection that I genuinely don’t think I’d be able to carry home, it’s like 3-4 inches think on top of the gigantic page sizes.

Been playing some of The Consuming Shadow which is really good. Still plinking away at the book on Nazism which is still compelling and baffling in equal measure, in terms of the malice of the ruling class of Germany at the time.

Played more Chrono Ark with my brother which is a good time, Hein is the best character and you can’t convince me otherwise.

Mulling over doing a re-read of some of my favorite comics and brekaing down what rules about them but idk yet, I have no good indication if anyone even reads these things. As a quick test, if you read this within, say, 24 hours of 11pm EST dm me the word “babel”. That’s all for today though :)