When I was a kid - yeah - who am I kidding (pun alert) - I'm still a kid - I loved and still loved what I used to call comic books. Today we refer to this genre as the graphic novel. When I was deep into Arches National Park today there was a low, scudding mist that surrounded some of the pinnacles and it reminded me of a story that I had read in one of those old comic books - probably a Marvel one.
The books format was two stories with an unrelated story sandwiched in-between - the story I am thinking of was one of those sandwiched ones.
It was about an individual's visit to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) - an island in the SE Pacific that has 887 monumental statues (moai). The story concerns a find that this individual makes that eventually reveals the secrets of these statues. The last pane of the comic book story has the statues casting shadows against the midnight window of the person having made the find outside his home somewhere in the mainland USA. Now that story disturbed me for some reason and for a few nights on City Line in Saint John, I'd wake up wondering what those shadows were on the blinds of my bedroom windows.
If you look at some of these pictures maybe you'll get some of that brooding, cold, 'insect like mind' menace of some of this rock - no wonder the Druids sacrificed everything they could get their knives on in physical surroundings such as this (that is the second Druid mentioning in 2 days - could it be a trend).
Back to the graphic novel - the movies I have enjoyed the most - say over the last 5 years, seem to derive from a graphic novel source - Constantine, Sin City, Watchmen, 300, From Hell, A History of Violence and V for Vendetta. However if we add comic books then I think the rejuvenated Batman franchise with Christian Bale under the superb direction of Christopher Nolan and the Spiderman movies of Sam Raimi deserve accolades - as much as The Fantastic Four deserves all the scorn that can be heaped upon it. X-Men was good; Iron Man was very good. I would have to say that my favorite movie adaptation would be V for Vendetta - although the graphic novel, in my opinion, is still much better. You can catch a clip from the movie below:
James Cameron, with Avatar, has created something truly original, that looks like it should have been a graphic novel. Not since Lucas and Star Wars have we seen something quite like this - it will be interesting to see how this evolves - sorry - progresses through intelligent design.
No biking today - snow - but my butt is thanking me - back at it tomorrow as the snow has melted.
Butt Update - there is snow here again this AM - about 2 inches of the stuff and still snowing lightly - possibly no biking today - the butt has a respite..
Now a few words about, and for, my ebony feathered mocking protagonist - I know you're out there - I see you - I hear you - I don't know how you are tracking me - but that's OK. I am at the top of the food chain - you are not - 4.5 billion years of evolut .... - sorry, 6000 years of intelligent design have brought us to this point - the only thing left to decide is simply this - do I like white meat or do I like dark ..... can you feel the feathers being plucked right now ..... well, can you Corvus ...
More later,
Phil
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