Archive for March, 2006
March 21st, 2006 | 
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In case the real review never happens
I’ve been thinking about Put the Book Back on the Shelf, the Belle & Sebastian comic collection, which I didn’t really like. What I can’t figure out is why I didn’t. Was the art bad? No. Were the stories bad? No. Do I feel like it misinterpretted the songs? No.
The only explanation that makes sense to me is this: It’s like when they make a movie of you favorite book and you sit there and think “But that character didn’t look like that” or “That didn’t happen that way.” It just can’t live up to the expectations of you have. It can’t be what’s in your head. In some ways, I think Belle & Sebastian’s music may be too personal and seeing someone else’s take on songs like “Expectations” and “Beautiful” are just going to fall short because they’re not mine.
I’m still curious about how people who don’t listen to the band would react to this collection. I think I can, at some point, take it on its own merits (I know I need to read it again). I guess, though, it’s not what I wanted it to be, but I think I was asking too much.
Colleen Doran at the Freer Gallery
If you scroll to nearly the bottom of this page, you’ll see a listing for Colleen Doran discussing Hokusai and his influence on manga and comics.
Me, I’m not really a fan of Doran. I tried reading A Distant Soil and it didn’t do anything for me. You may be different, however. Still, it’s things like this that make the Freer & Sackler Galleries one of my favorite places in the D.C. area. Do your government-funded museums host comic book artists?
Now, if they’d just hurry up and name the list of films for the anime festival on April 1, I’d be happy. I’m just guessing there’s going to be a Studio Ghibli movie in the batch (I’m thinking My Neighbor Totoro).
(I haven’t had much luck buying Put the Book Back on the Shelf, the Belle & Sebastian comics collection, but I did order it from Atomic Books, so it’ll be here soon enough. Could I have found locally it if I had looked harder? Yeah, but my recent experiences in comic book stores have made me not want to. And anyway, I’m always happy to give Atomic Books my money.)
