Posted on by mwhybark

All along the Watchmentower

I’ve been amusedly following the reviews for Zak Snyder’s “Watchmen.” The news, it seems, is not so good. Most of the negative reviews have been by relatively thoughtless reviewers, a few have been reviews that contained worthwhile critiques, and a vanishingly small number have been by folks who understand the brilliance of the original comic and have consequently approached the film with a strong sense of trepidation.

Only The New York Times‘ A. O. Scott, however, included this sentence:

Indeed, the ideal viewer — or reviewer, as the case may be — of the “Watchmen” movie would probably be a mid-’80s college sophomore with a smattering of Nietzsche, an extensive record collection and a comic-book nerd for a roommate.



As it happens, in 1986 and 1987, when the original series was coming out and i was hungrily devouring it (and The Dark Knight Returns and the first run of Love and Rockets, among others) I was:

  • a college sophomore

I had

  • an extensive record collection
  • a smattering of Nietzche
  • a comic-book nerd for a roomate

For the record, I preferred and continue to prefer Debord, thank you very much. Also it should be well-noted that I actually roomed with several comic-book nerds, including yours truly, and perhaps ‘nerd’ fails to capture the social and sexual dynamism of that household.

Posted on by mwhybark

City and the Night

Watched “Night and the City” (Widmark, Tierney, more) on Friday, giggling. Widmark is a semi-sympathetic American hustler in ’40s London, the the film is largely shot on location. Widmark’s films around this time are usually eye-popping, and this was no exception. I think the last time I saw it was about a decade ago, circumstances long forgot. This vieweing, however, was oddly affected by an unwaaranted notion of geographic familiarity with riverbank London, which features prominently in the film.

I was mildly puzzled by this, having only passed through London once over a few days as a teenager, until I realized it was due to a video game I am playing on and off which features a grossly-accurate 3-D model of London during the Blitz, over which I, as a videogame player, fly over and over and over, with particular attention to an extended run along the Thames ending at the Tower of London, just beyond the Tower Bridge, which is the featured setting for the film’s conclusion.

It was one of those odd virtual familiarity experiences which were once confined to dreams, remembered dreams, and the deja vu experience. It still feels peculiar, despite the quotidian explication to hand.

Posted on by mwhybark

frame changes

Around 1986, I visited my sister in Bruxelles. One evening, we visited a young man who was a critic, and who specialiized in bandes dessinées, comics. His rundown nineteenth century student apartment was lined, floor to ceiling, in hard-bound albums, the large format 64-page books that are standard for ‘serious’ Euro-comics. They were all in French, and we were there to drink and argue politics and music, so I didn’t really get a crack at them.

Those old nineteenth-century rooms tend to have high ceilings. So I’m guessing he must have had about sixty-four linear feet of wall, multiplied by six sixteen-inch shelves. call it 3600 linear feet, each quarter-inch a bound book of the post-war European effusion of comics. 14,400 titles.

Occasionally, when my squarebound comics were out and accessible, someone would remark upon them. The clearest recollection I have of these from was a guy who had tagged along into the space with some pals. He was bored as we discussed whatever it was they were there to talk about but i noticed him bending down to the comics shelf and becoming engrossed.

As they left, he turned to me and gestured, saying, “dude, that is the comics collection of a dream.”

Having actually seen something that put my six linear feet of albums into perspective, I demurred.