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Wolverine: Worst Day Ever Buy at Amazon

I am not a 10-year-old boy.

Yes, you knew this and I knew this. I mean, I do find delight in a lot of things aimed at children and pre-adolescents, but regardless, I am not a 10-year-old boy.

So maybe that’s why Barry Lyga’s Wolverine: Worst Day Ever missed its mark for me.

I liked Lyga’s The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, even if I had a few reservations about it. I could relate to the main character’s broken-hearted desperation to prove how awesome he was to the world and that his hero (in this case, Brian Michael Bendis) would recognize his greatness. Lyga captured the invisible kids living in the suburbs in this very heartfelt way.

Worst Day Ever, however, comes off feeling a little preachy. Told in a “blog” format (I think most modern epistolary novels don’t really work for me), our narrator is Eric, a young mutant attending Xavier’s School for Gifted Students. Eric’s mutant power is that no one realizes he’s around when he is — he’s not invisible, it’s just no one sees him. However, due to his heightened senses, Wolverine knows when he’s around.

Mostly, Eric is pretty whiny with a lot of “poor me” sorts of stuff. He’s not a character I particularly care about. The idea of being socially invisible could be resonant, but I don’t think I’d particularly want to hang out with Eric. While Eric eventually (and perhaps, predictably) realizes how to deal with his “power” and his own strength, he still basically annoyed me most of the time.

Lyga handles Wolverine pretty well — he understands this is a character who does have a tendency to become something of a father figure to younger mutants — and the action is fun. Sadly, there’s not enough of that, and while I know that this is a book for kids, Eric has a tendency to write around some of the more graphic parts of the story by saying it’s too “gross” to share gets annoying. It doesn’t feel like something an actual 13-year-old would do.

I like the design of the book — there are panels pulled from comics to illustrate the story, but I don’t buy that these are Eric’s “drawings.” (You mean, there’s a 13-year-old who can draw like John Cassady? Seriously?) I could believe these were Eric’s photos, but not drawings.

Included are three issues (out of four) of Wolverine & Power Pack by Marc Sumerak and Gurihiru, which I liked better than the rest of the book. They’re an odd bonus — other than Wolverine, there’s no connection to the story in terms of tone or content (they’re aimed at younger readers than the rest of the book) — but I was happy to have them there.

I still have hope for Lyga and I’d like to see him write more comic-related stories. But Wolverine: Worst Day Ever was a disappointment. Maybe if you’re a 10-year-old boy, you’d get something out of this, but even that I question.

I am, more or less, newly arrived home from Balticon 43. It was an awesomely exhausting time.

I had the pleasure and privilege of being guest liaison for Scott Sigler (like many things of this nature, I blame Dan. I mean that with absolute affection). Now, when I read horror, I tend to gravitate toward the more “strange girl” type (is this really a surprise to anyone? And yes, I know that article is about movies, but it does apply to books, too) but I like what I know so far of Sigler’s work (and after this weekend, I definitely will be reading to and listening to more). It’s mischievously aggressive — he definitely likes to push boundaries but he does it in this sort of playful way. His writing is smart and inventive.

It was no surprise he was a joy to work with. He was gracious and charming (which should in no way destroy his bad-ass image) and it was fun to get to know him.

Sigler has built his career on the Internet. He podcasts all of his books for free (they are a great way to spend your commute) and definitely inspires dedication in his fans. Let’s put it this way — you don’t really see people wearing T-shirts based on books unless they’re pop culture phenomenons like Twilight or Harry Potter or, well, by a certain writer (speaking of that, I do feel the need to mention the redesign of NeverWear just because Dan was furiously overseeing its launch on his G1 this weekend). But Sigler’s fans wear gear inspired by his work, including the very cool Krakens jerseys (and as you can see, those aren’t cheap). I think it’s great he’s found his niche and has basically done all of this on his own. He understands where the publishing industry is going in a way a lot of people don’t yet.

(And I’m not trying to make this post related to comics just to make it relevant to the general topic of this blog, but I’ve often thought about these sorts of issues as they relate to the comic book industry. Certainly, web comic artists get the idea of how well it works to provide your work for free, and I know that I’d rather pay $4 for someone’s mini-comic than I would for an issue of X-Men or whatever because I know who that $4 is going to.)

Being around Sigler was incredibly inspiring. This is a very public thank you to him for being an absolute delight and for his overall awesomeness. Thank you, Scott. And if I hadn’t lost my MP3 player sometime this weekend (it was just a cheap little thing — but it’s more I have to go buy another one now), I’d be listening to more of his stuff this week.

The rest of Balticon was great, too. If I was going to complain about anything, there’s almost too much to do (yes, that’s not really a complaint). The programming is packed. Everything I went to was interesting and informative. Mark L. Van Name was hilarious and so much fun. Gene Wolfe is, well, Gene Wolfe, which is to say delightful and it was amazing to be in his presence, even if was just for a reading. I didn’t get to interact much with Charles Stross but he was also fun. (Why, yes, I do like the word “fun” right now. Look, it was a really long weekend. I barely have an idea what day it is.)

I’m sure there are about a thousand things I’m missing. I am happy I went.

Now, on to thinking about that moving thing …

Tomorrow, I depart for the suburbs of Baltimore for Balticon 43, which isn’t specifically comic-related but promises to be a Good Time. Then in two weeks is the MoCCA Festival.

And somewhere between those two events, I will be moving (at the very least, the bulk of my stuff). Yes, I am crazy. But I figure since I went to MoCCA last year after a working a six-day week on my one day off, I can handle this.

I won’t be live-blogging from Balticon (as in, I won’t be Twittering or anything) but I may check in. There isn’t a lot of comic-related programming, but I’m going to attend what I can. In any case, I’m looking forward to this.

All of this. But I am hoping I don’t drop from exhaustion before the end of it all.

Anime News Network has the sad news that Viz’s Shojo Beat‘s last issue will be on newsstands next month. It wasn’t a magazine I read or bought regularly, but I still liked it and I’ll be sorry to see it go. I think it filled a gap that needed to be filled. I know I’d be crazy about if I was currently 14 or so.

I know that print media has faced plenty of tough times lately (of course, most industries have) and so I can’t blame Viz for doing this. It was a pricey magazine on the newsstands, after all, and it really did not run very many ads. (You could say that yes, it was basically an ad for Viz itself, but you understand my point.)

The Shojo Beat line of manga will continue, so not all hope is lost. Still, the magazine will be missed.

Original tip from The Beat

Tom Brevoort posted Tonci Zonjic’s concept sketch from Marvel Divas (called “Marvel Vixens” here — your call which is better). And I think after Joe Q.’s comments last week, this was a good move.

(And why, yes, I’d love to say I totally knew what I was doing when I picked the image for my Marvel Divas post, but I didn’t. I just got really lucky. I do, however, think that’s awesome that the very image I was attracted to was a concept for the book.)

I am kind of glad to see that this image is changing some people’s minds about the book, but I do fear it may be too little, too late. I do think Zonjic’s work will make the book something distinctive and fun, but I do think that promo cover will continue to stick in people’s minds.