I stood around in Comic Relief yesterday reading Alice in Sunderland - it was amazing and completely absorbing.

Here's an excellent reader review from Amazon:

Step right up! Step right in! Take off your hats and coats and make yourself at home. A man walks into a theater for a performance unlike any other. Onstage, the rabbit mask-wearing lead performer begins to tell the story. But it's not the story of Alice in Wonderland or even Charles Dodgson, her creator. Rather it's the tale of a place. A little strip of land on the North Eastern side of the island of Britain. A location that has inspired so many heroes, stories, tales, and legends you'd be amazed to hear them all. But Talbot isn't going to concentrate on the biggest folktales of his region. Nothing so straightforward. Instead, the book leaps, glances, references, and side-steps around every possible connection Sunderland might have to the world of Alice. What's more, the very history of Britain itself is tied intricately into Sunderland's tale. At the heart of it all, however, is the story of Lewis Carroll. For every seemingly inconsequential tangent, Talbot continually and continuously ties Alice Liddell, muse to the great author, and Carroll to the land they belonged to. Part historical treatise, part series of Rosicrucian-like connections, Talbot is unafraid to absolutely stuff his book with as much information as humanly possible. The result is a ridiculous and magnificent ode to a too little appreciated region.

It might sound a tedious affair. Constant backing and forthing between the present and the past. History coming alive is meant to be boring, right? So what are we to do when an artist like Talbot bends over backwards, not only to fit everything in, but to violently and continually change his style so as to both retain our attention and show off his prowess? Care to hear Henry V's speech before Harfleur, Act III, Scene I, done in the style of Mad Magazine? A Jabberwocky poem via Tenniel (right down to the unisexual hero?). Bryan Talbot can tell the story of brave Jack Crawford like it was a boys adventure tale then turn around and present some pretty nasty Normans ala Jack Kirby. There's even a bit of D.C. horror, odes to Herge, and a visitation from god-amongst-comic-artists Scott McCloud. Tenniel and Hogarth may get their due praise, but let us too admire what Talbot has seen fit to sneak in here and there artistically.

But I love the little things about this book too. The central plot concerns a single attendee, treated to this magnificent show in the Empire Theater. Of course the performer, the viewer, and even the man giving the walking tour are all various rather handsome versions of Talbot himself. Still, you grow very attached to the man watching. You're touched by his continual love and interest in George Fornby, local boy made good, ukulele phenomenon, and general nice guy. It's history is what it is. Hearing that the current Queen of England is related by blood to Alice Liddell isn't just good fun. Talbot can then turn Her Majesty into the Red Queen and at the same time show the moment Queen Elizabeth unveiled Sunderland's ode to the Great Library of St. Peter's in 1993. No detail is so small that Talbot can't weave it into the text in some fashion.

All kinds of cool details including the longstanding blood feuds between the Makems (Sunderland) and Geordies (Newcastle).

Cindy, it was President's Day Weekend in 2004... usually falls around Feb. 19th or 20th.

I stood around in Comic Relief yesterday reading Alice in Sunderland - it was amazing and completely absorbing.

Oh, yes! That review I linked to upthread made it look fascinating.

So, this is where we talk about the SPN Origins comic? Because the CW has a preview on their website here: [link]

Should I whitefont this? I guess I should.

I don't think I'm competent to comment on the art, but the character stuff is interesting. Sam is very young in this--six years old, right?--but still very ignorant, and it's interesting that Dean's hiding from him the facts of Mary's death. Telling Sam his mother died in a car accident, while simultaneously not hiding from him the other supernatural facts of life, is a little odd.

OTOH, I thought John's dialogue was spot-on, and sounded just like JDM, even if the art looked nothing like him. Dean was a bit too woobie-ish, I feel, but also just 10-11, so I guess it works.

The preview's the extra story, as I recall. Separate from the main one. Hester's art works for me and Johns does a good job with The Young and the Angsty. Which, of course, he's honed on TT. I have deeper thoughts, but I'm inarticulate today.

Does anyone know how I'd find out if SPN: Origins is being distributed in the U.K.? A 'cross-the-pond friend of mine has just become hooked on the show (mainlined all of S1 and S2 in the space of a month), and I want to let her know if she can get hold of issues there.

The comic is published by Wildstorm which is an imprint of DC - if DC is as major a comic book publisher in the UK as it is here. . . she should probably be able to find it.

Anne, it's available at Forbidden Planet, so it should be available everywhere. [link]

OMG, the Buffy #6 cover. There just might be major squee happening over here.

Looking forward to the SPN stuff, too.

FYI -- both Buffy #3 and Astounishing #21 are on sale tomorrow.