#i told you i will start including faust more in my art

[tcustodisart]

There's nothing he wouldn't do for his girls

[7rus7m3]

BIG 101 PENTAGON THEORY // SPOILERS FOR CANTO VI, DEMIAN (book), LITTLE PRINCE (book), LEVIATHAN, LIBRARY OF RUINA, a little bit of Divine Comedy too

RG - Red Gaze, PT - Purple Tear, LP - Little Prince, DC - Divine Comedy. Grammar mistakes can appear due to me not being very fluent in English.

So… After the new Demian scene appeared, I found it convenient to finally unleash my Dante=Sinclair pentagon theory, based on some assumptions I made from reading the source books of all of these characters. Before I start, I need to aknowledge some other things:

1. I don’t find this theory as something that actually will happen, since it may be based on my own biased opinions towards some of the characters included

2. Most of my assumptions are made through reading into intertext of the source books and how it would look more cool to potentially appear in a game. PM interpretation of books may be completely opposite from mine, so ig we will see how close I was later

3. I don’t use other sinners for my theory, since most of them are not marked, can’t use shin from what we know and/or mostly have finished self-centered story. The only one that probably will be added to pentagon is Faust, since her source is too important for Hesse as a writer and the motif of soul duality exists as an important topic in both Demian and Faust books. Also she knows too much about the Stars from what we can see in the prologue and later in her dialogues with us.

Part 1. Purple Tear

PT=Demian’s mother feels like canon already for me, but maybe just because I discussed it too much with my friends. So the main point of this theory is that Demian and PT appear to have the same main themes as characters and have similar powers, so him being Iori’s son will be natural. For example, the snake theme being introduced to us with Iori’s snake eyes in Leviathan manga or with the blue snake representing Demian on LCB Sinclair art. Multidimensional traveling powers, Shin being mostly PT’s disciples thing etc etc. Also Demian had purple eyes on his first promotional art and even though it was changed later, it is still an important thing that was planned by PM. For me it's an obvious moment for a lot of reasons, but in reality they just feel like relatives and the more you think about it the more it becomes obvious. 

As Demian’s mother, she becomes frau Eva naturally and potential Sinclair milfhunter’s interest. 

Also I believe in Iori as a higher-up person in Limbus Company assumption. As a person, who sees countless possibilities, her choices on sinners of LCB feels natural and the fact that Vergilius out of all people becomes our guide just approves it to me. 

So I added ‘Demian’ to her as a source just to start, but we can also add ‘Little Prince’ as I believe that she also represents the snake from the start of Prince’s adventure on Earth and his end on it. The Snake claims to have some sort of space-traveling power after all and while representing Birth and Death of Prince on Earth, she's a good pick for a mother figure representation.

Part 2. Red Gaze

Not too much to say here, but the obvious things we know. The Shin user triangle, even though Verg and Demian probably ain’t ever met each other once, still exists in the context of this theory. We can or can not draw a line between Demian and Vergilius, but I like to do it for the sake of making a point how they both are PT’s disciples. 

The christmas trauma line here is mostly for funsies, but it’s obviously not a coincidence on how the whole Sinclair’s family killing incident happened at the same time as Vegilius’ orphanage incident and how both suspicious shin users just watched them suffer to mentor them later. 

Dante and RG are connected through Divine Comedy, which is told directly from the game. 

Part 3. Demian

The most interesting and most intertextually written character in the game.

Sinclair being the rose became more believable to me than him being the fox after a new scene, but I still think both can be true. As we know from Demian book - Sinclair is final destination of Demian’s journey, from whom Max parted for unknown reasons (basically not answered his letters while doing his own fun stuff ig) and even tried to adapt to live in the world ignoring his marked nature (the “I am actually a lieutenant” scene in the 7th chapter). He is meeting Sinclair at first to part with him later just to end up becoming a metaphorical part of him at the end, probably dying physically. The same happens with Prince and Rose relationships in the LP. From them meeting suddenly to part later because of Prince’s complicated feelings to Prince finally coming back to her after learning how to love her and realizing her importance for his existence as a person in the metaphysical form, leaving his physical body behind. The story is too similar for Sinclair to not be Rose. The main counterargument here is the fact that we don’t know when Demian started his journey and Sinclair quoting dialogue of LP with fox. I still believe that Sinclair-Rose theory is more likely though, but Sinclair-Fox is still leading us to doomed yaoi in the end.

The Demian-Beatrice part comes from ‘Demian’ as a source too. Sinclair met Beatrice as his muse and basically Demian’s replacement as an image of his own ideals in life, she became a reason for him to stop his self-destruction path. Young love for Sinclair here is more of a reason to keep moving forward to become a better person than actual loving feeling. She is a mythological muse, but not a romantic interest fully. And in an attempt of engraving her image (haha engraving aspect), he accidentally draws Demian instead. We can put it as a direct equation of her to Demian and as a method of inserting an androgynous archetype into Demian’s character. I think of Demian-Beatrice as a cool way to introduce us to Paradiso later with him being our new guide instead of Vergilius. It will become a more logical guess later, in the context of the main part of this theory.

Part 4. Dante and Sinclair

So… Dante is a book version of Sinclair with part of Demian’s soul inside him theory… The main thing from where we should start to think about this is the whole number dilemma within Sinclair’s coat. He should’ve been the 10th Sinner before Dante appeared, but then got changed to 11th. Which is funny since 1.0 and 1.1 is a funny version number calambour. So, questions that theories answers:

1.Demian having sudden interest in Dante and giving him riddles that mostly answers the nature of more of a Demian himself as a person, than giving Dante actual usable information

2.Dante seem to have mark 

3.”What will become of me who have been robbed by me”

4.Sinclair is the only sinner we resonated with out of his Canto

5.Sinclair Canto only focusing on the first two chapters of the book, but not taking it as full. His Canto takes not even half of a book, but focuses on a really small part of it. Moby-Dick is a pre-story in Canto V, same basically for Canto I and Canto IV, we are close to the ending of CaP in Canto II and we have seen the true ending of WH in one of the Mirror Worlds with Cathy and Hareton.

6. Why they aren't changing numbers on Sinclair's coat for six Canto already

7. How Demian is able to understand us and how we are able to deeply understand Demian's feelings

8. Why we have any connections to Demian in the past and why we owe him a drawing of all things (Sinclair was a painter in the book)

9. Star is the main motivation of Dante

10. The whole engraving aspect thing. Again, Sinclair was a painter in the book and used drawing as a way to analyze his instinctive feelings

11. Dante having religious motifs and powers associated with either Tree of Life or Tree of Knowledge. Sinclair’s EGO “Branch of Knowledge” naming based on that

12. Dante’s White Night motifs. White Night is basically an Antichrist, but also a God, which connects it with the concept of both god and demon and connecting it with an Abraxas

Maybe some other questions are answered too if you think about it for a little. This is just a very solid assumption that will explain why Demian is so important for us and why Dante seems like a descendant of the Star in the prologue. As a character having another big source book I also believe in him having his own Canto and if he is a part of Dante's character then we should have the duo Canto for both Dante and Demian.

Main thing is how it happened. It's mainly fanfiction from now on. We know that there are Mirror Worlds where the whole book plot is already happened at some point (Cathy and Hareton scene in C6). So one of these basically is the one where Sinclair journey happened some other way. Maybe it was the one, where Demian helped him before the whole Kromer situation happened. After that moment in book Sinclair fastly falls back to his family and stops questioning their beliefs, so in my theory he could after all have a prosthetic operation that he was destined to before incident. That way we have his life going more calmly and as a son of prosthetic factory owner he could become a big and rich person. That would explain why Panther, Lion and Wolf were very excited over killing him. So, Sinclair of this universe goes over his way just like book Sinclair and participate in the whole June-985 thing. What else happened in June? World War 1 start. Sounds stupid, but WW1 is the main thing to change the world in Demian as a book. So the start of new world is destined to be in June-985 in the City setting, which represents WW1 starting in the Real World. The whole thing happens, and Demian either dies or merges with Sinclair to become some sort of part of him. To prevent the whole June-985 thing from happening, Sinclair travels back in time (which basically not the same, but another Mirror World) using Golden Bough and tries to engrave something that is a key to preventing the whole mass death thing. Limbus World Demian is pissy with Demian from future trying to stop the new World from happening, so he confronts us, but tries to do it in his own way. That way Dante is Sinclair from future from other mirror world and is partly a Demian himself.

In the LP, Pilot also is a child-like adult, really similar to Little Prince in some way. I personally like to read his journey with Prince as a metaphor for himself maturing and letting go his childish side, which Is again connects Dante to Demian.

So, Dante=other Sinclair=Pilot=partly Demian.

[introvertguide]

Influential Directors of the Silent Film Era

Upon hearing that I am a fan of silent era film, people will ask if I have a favorite actor or movie from the time period. However, when I am asked about my favorites from other fans of silent film, it tends to involve my favorite director. This is because silent film actors had to over gesticulate and performed in an unrealistic way and could not use their tone or words to convey emotion. The directors also did not have a way to review as they shot and would have to use editing skills and strategic cover shots to make sure that everything was done properly and come out the way they imagined it. It was up to the director to be creative and they were forced to be innovative and create ways to convey their vision. Luckily for many average or poor directors of the time, audiences were easily impressed. However, today's more demanding and sophisticated audiences can look back at some of the genius behind the films of silent era Hollywood.

Alice Guy-Blache: Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913) and The Fairy of the Cabbages (1896)

Art director of the film studio The Solax Company, the largest pre-Hollywood movie studio, and camera operator for the France based Gaumont Studio headed up by Louis Lemiere, this woman was a director before any kind of gender expectations were even established. She was a pioneer of the use of audio recordings in conjunction with images and the first filmmaker to systematically develop narrative filming. Guy-Blanche didn't just record an image but used editing and juxtaposition to reveal a story behind the moving pictures. In 1914, when Hollywood studios hired almost exclusively upper class white men as directors, she famously said that there was nothing involved in the staging of a movie that a woman could not do just as easily as a man.

Charlie Chaplin: The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1923), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940)

It is unfortunate that many people today think of Chaplin as silly or for screwball comedy when, in fact, he was a great satirist of the time. He created his comedy through the eyes of the lower economic class that suffered indignities over which they had no control. He traversed the world as his "Tramp" character who found his fortune by being amiable and lucky. The idea that a good attitude and a turn of luck could result in happiness was all that many Americans had during the World Wars and the Great Depression. He played the part of the sad clown and he was eventually kicked out of the country for poking fun at American society. Today he is beloved for his work, but he was more infamous than famous during a large part of his life.

Buster Keaton: Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), and The Cameraman (1928).

That man that performed the most dangerous of stunts with a deadpan expression, Buster Keaton was a great actor, athlete, stuntman, writer, producer, and director. It is amazing that you could get so much emotion out of a silent actor who does not emote, but Keaton managed to do it. He was also never afraid to go big, often putting his own well being at risk to capture a good shot. Not as well known for his cinematography or editing as many of the other directors of the time, he instead captured performances that were amazing no matter how they were filmed. Famous stunts include the side of a house falling down around him, standing on the front of a moving train, sitting on the side rail of a moving train, and grabbing on to a speeding car with one hand to hitch a ride. If you like films by Jackie Chan, know that he models his films after the work of Buster Keaton: high action and high comedy.

Cecil B. Demille: The Cheat (1915), Male and Female (1919), and The Ten Commandments (1923)

Known as the father of the Hollywood motion picture industry, Demille was the first director to make a real box office hit. He is likely best known for making The Ten Commandments in 1923 and then remaking it again in 1956. If not that, he was also known for his scandalous dramas that depicted women in the nude. This was pre-Code silent film so the rules about what could be shown had not been established. Demille made 30 large production successful films in the silent era and was the most famous director of the time which gave him a lot of freedom. His trademarks were Roman orgies, battles with large wild animals, and large bath scenes. His films are not what most modern film watchers think of when they are considering silent films. That famous quote from the movie Sunset Boulevard in 1950 in which the fading silent actress says "All right, Mr. Demille. I'm ready for my close-up," is referring to this director.

D.W. Griffith: Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916)

Griffith started making films in 1908 and put out just about everything that he recorded. He made 482 films between 1908 and 1914, although most of these were shorts. His most famous film today is absolutely Birth of a Nation and it is one of the most outlandishly racist films of the time. The depiction of black Americans as evil and the Klu Klux Klan as heroes who are protecting the nation didn't even really go over well at that time. Some believe that his follow up the next year called Intolerance was an apology, but the film actually addresses religious and class intolerance and avoids the topic of racism. At the time, Griffith films were known for the massive sets and casts of thousands of extras, but today he is known for his racist social commentary.

Sergei Eisenstein: Battleship Potemkin (1925)

This eccentric Russian director was a pioneer of film theory and the use of montage to show the passage of time. His reputation at the time would probably be similar to Tim Burton or maybe David Lynch. He had a very specific strange style that made his films different from any others. The film Battleship Potemkin is considered to be one of the best movies of all time as rated by Sight and Sound, and generally considered as a great experimental film that found fame in Hollywood as well as Russia.

F.W. Murnau: Nosferatu (1922), Faust (1926), and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

I think that most people would know the bald-headed long-nailed vampire Nosferatu that was a silent era phenomena. It was so iconic that the German film studio that produced the movie was sued by the estate of Bram Stoker and had to close. Faust was his last big budget German film and has an iconic shot of the demon Mephisto raining plague down on a town that was the inspiration for the Demon Mountain in Fantasia (1940). Also, Sunrise is considered one of the best movies of all time by the AFI and by Sight and Sound as well as my favorite silent film. Fun facts: 1) more of Murnau's films have been lost then are still watchable and 2) he died in a car wreck at only 40 when he hired a car to drive up the California coast and the driver was only 14.

Erich von Stroheim: Greed (1924)

Maker of very strange German Expressionist films, Stroheim films are often listed as Horror or Mystery even though he considered himself a dramatic film maker. His most famous movie Greed was supposed to be amazing with an 8 hour run time but it was cut drastically to the point that it makes no sense and was both critically and publicly panned when an extremely abridged version was released in the U.S. Over half the film was lost and a complete version no longer exists. Besides this film, Stroheim was even better known for being the butler in the film Sunset Boulevard as a former director who retired to be with an aging silent film star. He also made a movie called Between Two Women (1937) that told the story of a female burn victim that was inspired by the story of his wife being burned in an explosion in a shop on the actual Sunset Boulevard.

Victor Fleming: The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone With the Wind (1939)

Although not known for his silent films, Fleming did get his start during the silent era. He was a cinematographer for D.W. Griffith and then Fleming directed his first film in 1919. Most of his silent films were swashbuckling action movies with Douglas Fairbanks or formulaic westerns. He is the only director to have two films on the AFI top 10 and they happened to have come out the same year.

Hal Roach: Lonesome Luke films starring Harold Lloyd, Our Gang shorts, Laurel and Hardy shorts, and Of Mice and Men (1939)

It is not really fair to put Hal Roach in the silent era directors because he was influential at the time but he had a 75 year career. He was a producer and film studio head and even had a studio named after himself. His biggest contribution to the silent era was his production of Harold Lloyd short comedies and he continued to produce films in the early talkies including Laurel and Hardy shorts, Our Gang shorts, and Wil Rogers films. Roach was the inspiration for the film Sullivan's Travels, in which a famous director who only did frivolous comedies goes out into the world to find inspiration to find a serious drama. Roach did direct a single serious drama, Of Mice and Men, but it came out in 1939 and was buried underneath the works of Victor Fleming. The wealthy cigar smoking studio head that many people think of when they picture a film studio suit is based on this guy. The man would not quit and stayed in the business into his 90s and lived to the ripe old age of 100.

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Tangents

Sydney-based quintet Tangents have been playing together since 2010, but 2016’s Stateless LP marked a shift in the band’s method and sound, bringing their improvisational, collaberative playing into the studio to be reconsidered and reconfigured in the moment. This year’s Stents + Arteries EP showed the continued vitality of that approach and teased their new album New Bodies, of which Dusted’s Ian Mathers said their “post-everything mode of working is embracing rather than exclusionary [...] the result creates something intoxicatingly new.” To mark the occasion, all five band members have contributed to our Listed feature, with influences and interests running from U2 to µ-Ziq and back.

SHOEB AHMAD

Tony Conrad & Faust—Outside The Dream Syndicate

Leading up to the New Bodies recording session, I started playing bass guitar at points during our live set and really enjoyed locking into Evan with a singular pulse while the other three could let loose melodically. I wanted to pursue something similar in vibe when recording so that’s what you hear from me on ‘Gone To Ground’.

This album is pretty up there for me - not as ecstatic as LaMonte Young’s “dream music” works that Conrad was part of but also not as freewheeling as the Faust albums before this and definitely darker than both.

I love the myth of Jean-Herve Peron playing the second bass note on “From The Side of Man and Womankind” against Conrad’s wishes and I’d like to say that the loose implied funk of my bass playing is in a tribute to that.

U2—”Stay (Faraway, So Close!)” from Zooropa (1993)

Tangents is pretty left field with our musical aesthetics so this selection could be seen as a complete joke but I’ll own U2’s influence on me as a musician, even if it’s a bit naff to others.

A lot of the processes in place for the making of Zooropa (the album this track is from) remind me of how we like to work in Tangents - Ollie in a pseudo Eno role with his loops and live effects, melodic/harmonic improvisations and rhythm based studio jams - but the thing that resonates most about this song in particular is The Edge’s lullaby-like guitar riff that creates and then sustains the sweet sentimentality throughout. I’d say as much as his “single note through effects” style is basically the seed from where my guitar playing grew from, his fondness to write simple twee melodies on their best songs has influenced me more. I enjoy being able to do something similar to offset the more adventurous elements of our music and I’d say it comes to the fore in New Bodies more than before too.

Oh - did I say I was a sucker for the Wim Wenders video that was intercut with scenes from Wings Of Desire? I be honest, I think U2 may have more to answer for in making me wanna pursue an Art Pop vibe...

PETER HOLLO

µ-Ziq vs The Auteurs—”Lenny Valentino 3″ from The Auteurs vs. μ-Ziq (1994)

If we talk strings in Tangents, we’ll probably be referencing somebody like Godspeed, but as contemporaries I find it hard to describe them as an influential. I love their work but never for a second think of them when I’m playing the cello. So I’m choosing this gorgeous piece of faux-classical string pads with overdriven beats from the maestro Mike Paradinas aka µ-Ziq (it’s got very little to do with the Auteurs), because mid-’90s idm is in my blood, and Mike’s (and Richard D James’) plangent layered strings are always in there when I’m layered cello lines.

Amon Tobin—”One Day In My Garden” from Bricolage (1997)

Ollie & I have many discussions about our love of jungle & drum’n’bass. Ollie’s duo Icarus of course were contemporaries of early Amon Tobin, and a track from their first album appears on his Recorded Livemix album - serious props! Obviously the insanely chopped beats of the junglist pioneers, then Photek & Source Direct et al, contribute to our modus operandi(Photek joke, sorry), as do the more avant-garde sounds from Plug, Aphex, µ-Ziq et al. But Amon Tobin drew from his love of jazz and Brazilian music to create magnificent journeys in each track - the samba gives way to snapping breaks as, presumably, the garden becomes a jungle, and calm is returned by the end. Amon Tobin once regarded himself as a collagist more than a musician, and this collage aspect, albeit drawn from the instrumentalists in the band, is a big part of Tangents’ construction of our music.

EVAN DORRIAN

Arca—Arca

Everything Arca does has been blowing my mind for a while now. The production, rhythms, art, various (high-profile) collaborations, and on this record, his beautiful vocals, are all next level. Funnily/awkwardly enough I first heard Arca because his Soundcloud release (set/mix) Entrañas was reviewed next to our album Stateless by Pitchfork. A real honour to paired up with such a incredible modern artist, even just in web print. Looking forward to hearing more from him.

Scott Walker—Bish Bosch

This was and is a very important record for me, as is all Scott’s stuff from Tiltonwards (and Scott 4). When I first heard it I wasn’t sure how to take it all in and I’ve come to accept that I won’t. It’s a complicated and dark record that has a lot of wit and heart too.

ADRIAN LIM-KLUMPES

Tim Hecker— “I’m Transmitting Tonight” from Radio Amor (2013)

Tracks from New Bodies like ‘Immersion’ and ‘Oort Cloud’ spring from music like that of Tim Hecker. To call this music ‘drone’ or ‘noise’ is to ignore the delicacy of the rhythms of the layers, as well as the jazz-like piano chords that flutter around in his musical stratosphere. ‘I’m Transmitting Tonight’ drifts along but also has a driving momentum, depending on your perspective while listening. Our music too has different angles to approach it. When I produced ‘Immersion’, I enjoyed crafting the stretch, reverb and delay of the piano and guitar, while slamming the cello down an octave so it pensively mumbles below the stacked drum takes. This means you can hear this track almost as jazz, drone or minimal, depending on what your ear is drawn to. ‘Oort Cloud’ has similar cascading piano loops over cello and guitar drowning in sometimes noisy processing, all with an uptempo drum take layered in behind.

Bill Evans—Live in Helsinki 1970

“You use the intellect to take apart the materials, learn to understand them and learn to work with them. It takes years and years of playing so that you develop the facility so that you can forget all of that, and just relax and just play.” - interview during the filming in Helsinki, 1970.

The music of Bill Evans has inspired me for many years. His approach to harmony, melody and interplay is nuanced and emotive, and almost always a sense of calm pervades his music. Playing like Bill Evans, and thinking like him, is a lifelong pursuit. With Tangents, Bill’s philosophy of facility before play is spread across many domains. This includes pianism, a fluid approach to harmony and layering, and even the skills involved to intuit the use of effects pedals and software. The same goes for the others in Tangents - having a meta-consciousness of our band sound while improvising on stage or in the studio is necessary for all of us.

I’d love to see more live concert videos where the artist eloquently discusses musical approaches mid-set.

OLLIE BOWN

This is more of a discussion of records that I dream might be more explicitly inspirational in future Tangents records.

Alice Coltrane—Eternity

The loose funky joyousness that I associate with Coltrane is something I think we've started to explore in Tangents of late, though it is still quite latent. We don't really foreground solos too much though, which is something I like about our sound. I've been digging into her archives a bit lately and reflecting on how hard but rewarding it is to find that playful balance point where everything is poised on the verge of falling apart, as in the jammy madness and rhythmic pushing and pulling of Los Caballos. Many bands do this exquisitely and in one guise or another it's always been a strong interest for me, starting in my work with Icarus. There are moments where I think Tangents take it there, such as in the middle section of Terracotta. I look forward to exploring this more both in live improvisation and in studio post-composition. Then I love the fact that this record drops into a Rite of Spring passage (my favourite passage, seriously funky, excellently done). Also inspiration for future work: I'd love to work with Tangents to explore innovative covers and reinterpretations one day.

Pink Floyd—Wish You Were Here

You can't get more boring than to pick Pink Floyd as an influence. Is anyone still reading? But! Truth told I was having a melancholy moment the other day and I put on Wish You Were Here and for the umpteenth time in my life it just blew me away. Tangents' current work is nowhere near this carefully planned, but I hope we might engage in this kind of strict structuring in a future album. Nevertheless that kind of space and casual smoochy blueseyness is something I think we have explored our own way in tracks like Lake George and Gone To Ground, which I actually think is very Floydy. I love the pace of Shine on You Crazy Diamond, that sax solo bursting out of nowhere is stunning, verging on ironic, but completely loveable. I love how Pink Floyd do suites and guest appearances and carefully work the segues between tracks.

[930club]

SIDE NOTES: Tangerine Dream

When I first got into the rave scene in Missoula, Montana, I was entirely enthralled by the psychedelic electronic music drawn to my small, liberal hometown. Acts like Shpongle hosted masquerades at local theaters and hippies flocked to the hot springs for more psych-raves with glow paint and dreadlocks as far as the eye could see. My dad, less enthusiastic about my discovery, told me one day, “You wanna hear REAL pyschadelic electronica? Go look up Tangerine Dream.” He explained that these visionaries were the true roots of ambient and experimental electronic music. More than that, Edgar Froese (the founder) could envision things, artistically, that were entirely unique—music that utilized tools of a new era (the sequencer and mellotron) to create masterpieces unlike anything else. Embedded in the underground music scene of West Berlin in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Froese drew inspiration from classical music to traditional rock, adding recordings of his industrialized environment that he captured on a small tape recorder, almost as if to paint the very sound of life itself. He confidently sailed into uncharted waters, organizing these space-age symphonic collaborations under the name Tangerine Dream.

In the genre of krautrock, names like Kraftwerk, Can, and Faust tend to ring a bell, putting faces to an avant-garde mish-mash that developed in Germany in the late 1960s. Tangerine Dream paved the way for these other artists, and though the artists prefer to steer from traditional labels and boundaries in distaste, many regard Froese as the super father of the movement. The progressive rock sub-genre has been “described as an anarchic, intense, acid, tellurian, nocturnal, spacey, dark and oniric ‘adventure’ through rock music,” the string of adjectives manifesting the wide breadth of sounds beneath the umbrella. With over 100 albums, the vastness of Tangerine Dream’s discography is hard to describe, but AllMusic says that their sound ranged “from the most atmospheric new age and space music to the harshest abrasions of electronic dance.” Various lineups under Froese’s direction produced film soundtracks (Risky Business, Flashpoint, Legend) to soundtracks for video games (GTA V).

With Froese’s 2015 death due to an unexpected pulmonary embolism, many worried that the flame would flicker and die. Jerome Froese, Edgar’s son and ex-band member, posted on Facebook, saying, “Tangerine Dream was my Dad and my Dad is dead and so is Tangerine Dream.” After all, he was the one member who had been there through it all - the person who truly dreamed in tangerine. The band released a post-mortem statement, however, indicating their desire to carry out Froese’s vision through his previous instructions, sketches, and work with band members from previous incarnations. Now, the current lineup of Thorsten Quaeschning (synths and more), Hoshiko Yamane (violin), and Ulrich Schnauss (synths) is performing concerts all over the world in loving memory of Froese’s “change in cosmic address,” which is how Froese thought about death. I was fortunate enough to secure a place on the limited guest list for the memorial event hosted by his late wife, artist and musician Bianca Froese-Acquaye, in Berlin.

The mixed-media exhibition included fundraising for a memorial “SoundART” museum that is being built to ensure that Froese’s achievements are remembered through interactive displays of TD’s influences on music and art. Tangaudimax has not yet opened, but more information on the efforts of Acquaye and the Eastgate Music Team can be found here. The event was intimate and instead of a simple speech accompanied by a set from the current lineup, the event truly characterized Froese’s movement, giving me a better understanding of his involvement in the Berlin music scene. Of course, the hour-long set by the current lineup was beautiful — a cosmic soundscape paired with a video display of tessellating geometry, wavy galaxies, and kaleidoscopic nature. The pure power of the synth, melding with industrial beats and echoing violin, had the room of 200 fans swaying in awe. If you are reading this and have never heard Tangerine Dream, their currently lineup made this wicked cover of the Stranger Things theme song. The best part of the cover is that the show features TD music and the composers behind it took inspiration from TD’s discography of soundtracks. I stood, jealous of the majority who were most likely friends of Froese – fans who had seen the group in their zenith – but this jealousy was suppressed by the powerful feeling of togetherness created through appreciation for art.

The director of a Tangerine Dream documentary spoke, tickets were drawn to see who would take home the surrealist prints of Froese’s digital graphic work, and I sat taking everything and everyone in. The slew of art opened my eyes to a few key things readers should understand about the group. Instead of being a talented musician plucked by a record label to pump out pop hits, TD and Froese are embodied by an entire community and movement. Froese was an art appreciator whose inspiration not only came from other music, but from other forms of art. Inspired by Dadaism and Surrealism, an avid reader, he even organized an event at the house of Salvador Dali. The reading of Edgar’s Hendrix story fit swimmingly into the flow of the evening, giving voice to the deceased genius, as someone who knew people and who others looked to for direction in darkness. He was a man with such creative drive that he didn’t just follow in footsteps, but blazed new trails, shining light and color into a grey future.

By surrounding himself with likeminded artists and collaborating with many, Froese started to move mountains. His connections and community embody the current that started the wave of krautrock in Germany, and eventually the world. Experiencing people come together where it all started and hearing loved ones speak shed light on the pure power that this one man had and shared with those around him. As mentioned, Froese’s musing on death being a change in cosmic address made all the more sense by the end of the night because though he wasn’t in the neighborhood, his energy still electrified onlookers via the passion of his messengers. Such vibrant cosmic energy makes me wonder if it’s possible for a soul so innovative to rest in peace. Instead, I wish for Edgar Froese to transcend in peace, inspiring onlookers in showers of Tangerine Dreams.

-Erin Jones

[nofomoartworld]

Art F City: The Venice Biennale Pavilions: Caged Dogs, Fallen Logs, and the Problem of Time

A view of the Giardini. Photo: Marsha Owett

Pretty much any traveler will end up thinking about time in Venice given the age of the city, but the Biennale amplifies this tendency. Even in thinly attended years, visitors to the Venice Biennale preview quickly get used to standing in long cues to see popular pavilions. As far as VIP events go, the pavilion previews aren’t the least bit exclusive, so wait times come with the territory. As a result art is often considered by whether or not it’s worth the time you budget.

Usually, though, there’s at least some pay-off for spending time in a line. (This didn’t prove true for the Biennale show.) This year, I probably spent the most time waiting to get into Anne Imhof’s four hour long opera “Faust” at the German Pavilion—about an hour—which meant I caught about an hour inside the pavilion. That’s less time than I wanted, though given that there were two caged Doberman Pinschers outside the pavilion and performers who occasionally came out, the wait time was clearly intended to be part of the experience. Two out of four hours doesn’t seem that bad for a performance that’s not intended to be seen from start to finish.

The dogs were a dramatic touch and certainly primed the audience for a performance largely about power. They are, after all, a trophy dog meant to display power and aggression. At one point, a performer perched herself at the top of the 14 foot cage, adding to the spectacle. Yet spectacle—of which there was plenty—is different than the grandeur typically associated with operas. There is no grandeur here.  The performers wore dour expressions and weathered black athletic gear. Inside, a raised floor made of glass creates an underworld for the performers, but is otherwise bare except for an array of cell phones, chargers and other personal electronics. No part of the set or costuming seems large or flashy.

The final act in “Faust”. Photo: Paddy Johnson

I wondered if some of these decisions were a reflection of a culture that has become inured to the effects of scale and ostentation, but for Americans, at least, that can’t be true. We elected Donald Trump. A better explanation might simply be that the health goth aesthetic furthered the idea that sensitivity and vulnerability does not preclude the possibility of toughness and anger.  

Certainly, the performance itself reinforced this idea—at one point, from the vantage point of the floor, I watched a woman underneath me sing while lying on her back. She sang with her fist to her mouth, onto which she had affixed a small microphone with medical tape. At times her fist would begin to shake, though I was unsure if this was an expression of fortitude or fragility.

Just as often, the piece felt oddly church-like, as though we were watching a kind of ritualized endurance project. (Jennifer Lacey, Antonija Livingstone, Dominique Pétrin and Stephen Thompson’s “Culture Administration & Trembling” performed at the Abrons Art Center last year had similar qualities). In some instances, performers stood on ledges high above the audience (at one point, I’m told they danced with a dead chicken and splayed it against the plexiglass ledge.) In others, performers scurried under the transparent floor and through semi transparent glass, transforming their bodies into a ghost-like presence against the clear reflection of visitors.

After the performance had ended I returned to the stage, though now there were only a few visitors in the pavilion. Walking over the set—which without the visitors to cover the floor was completely transparent—I was overcome with vertigo. I might have been walking over glass, but it looked like I was walking on air, and I started to feel nauseous. Mostly, this is due to my own fear of injury and death. But on another level, I couldn’t help but think that ritualistic quality of the piece demanded an audience—feeling disorientingly empty without one. It was one more reason “Faust” felt like going to church. Church, with black lipstick.

Geoffrey Farmer’s “A Way out of the Mirror”. Photo Marsha Owett

Exiting the German Pavilion leads one directly to the Canadian Pavilion, which had no lines whatsoever. That’s not necessarily an indication of the quality of the work, though in this case the two happened to align.

As it happens, there was also no pavilion to speak of—Canada is renovating its exhibition space. To kick off the project, artist Geoffrey Farmer disassembled the bulk of the building leaving only a few support beams and installing a fountain that squirted water a several feet into the air. Farmer carefully placed large pieces of lumber around and inside fountain, as well as a grandfather clock nearby. I was a bit confused about why a viewer should care about the show—the Brooklyn Museum’s water fountains are far more impressive and nobody bothered to call them art. The press release didn’t help. It talks about two images that informed the piece, which is titled “A Way Out of the Mirror”. One was his grandfather’s lumber truck after it had been hit by a train. The other was Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, a picture that reminds Farmer of a fountain at the San Francisco Art Institute, which was important to him because it was the city he came out in during the Gulf War and AIDS crisis.

Now, that’s a whole lot of personal history, and sadly none of it amounts to anything visual worth contemplating. It’s a bit of a downer after coming off such a high at the German pavilion.

United States Pavilion. Mark Bradford, “The Oracle”.

Thankfully there were other highs, though they did include waiting in line. Most notably, the wait to see the US pavilion this year proved worth the effort. Mark Bradford used abstract painting as an architectural intervention, literally transforming the building for this installation “Tomorrow is Another Day”. Visitors enter through a side door, meant to allude to a servant’s entrance. A thick black sculpture with mutable tarry skin hangs from the ceiling, leaving only a small passageway. This forces visitors to the outer wall of the pavilion, which I read as an allusion to those marginalized in society. It works.

Bradford similarly transformed the center rotunda, papering the walls white and then covering the ceiling further with strips of thick black and yellow paint. The materials make the rotunda look as though it’s been taken over by a strange sickly growth‚—the paper a flaking skin and the paint a strange and odious growth. The reasons for this growth are unknown, but it’s hard not to interpret the piece as a reflection of our deteriorating institutions. The architecture is crumbling and there are no stewards in sight.

The rotunda leads into abstract paintings that have lighter palette and open up compositionally. Bradford made the paintings without the use of brushes—he built up the surface with layers of paint and then removed them with an electric sander. While visually stunning, for me, these felt a bit forced. Spheres dominate over all other motives and webs of paint coated the surfaces, at times resembling a bad sci-fi wallpaper.

They did however sufficiently lighten the mood for the final room of the pavilion, where a short loop of Bradford’s former neighbor, Melvin, plays. The video consists only of footage of Melvin swinging his hips gently as he walks away from the camera and down a street in the slums of South Central. The piece is titled “Niagara” a reference to the final scene in the Marilyn Monroe movie of the same name where she similarly saunters off into the distance.

When I first saw the video, it struck me as rather sad. Melvin was forever stuck in that loop and in those slums. The piece was executed in 2005—where was he now? After a while, though, I stopped asking that question and became enraptured with the swing of his walk—a sly act of of both resistance and pleasure.

Elsewhere in the exhibition, I hadn’t found much hope, but within the context of this video, a lot of the work seemed to be setting the stage for what comes next. And I was looking for that, in no small part because I spent my time in line for the show reading the extra-textual material about Art + Practice, a non-profit founded by Mark Bradford. Through Process Collettivo, they  partnered with Rio Tera dei Pensieri in Venice to work with incarcerated people and to support their transition to self-sufficiency.  

It’s a great project and reflects the narrative told by these paintings and videos. We’ve got a lot of work to do to build back our institutions, but further corrosion isn’t inevitable. It made me optimistic about the future.

And it got me thinking about time again. Whereas Bradford looked ahead to find strength, and Imhof’s opera reflects the anxiety of the moment, Farmer’s fountain was so situated in references to the past that it became unintelligible. That’s a common problem in contemporary art—building upon past references without having much to say—but perhaps its failures also a reflect our current needs. For better or for worse, we’ve changed too much for the voices of the past to guide us into the future. For this reason, the most relevant art I see reflects today’s uncertainty, while casting its gaze to whatever comes next.

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[studentsofshield]

2015 Comics Holiday Gift Guide Part 1 - For the Movie Fans

By Vincent Faust

(This was originally published on December 14, 2015)

Happy holidays! Whether you’re a Catholic, Jew, an observant of Kwanzaa or simply a standard slave to consumerist culture, you’ll be giving gifts to those you love. Is your father a boomer who will tell you how he used to love Thor growing up, but hasn’t picked up a four color page in decades? Is there an obnoxious young cousin in your life that could use some action packed stuff to shut her up? Maybe you treat yourself to some things too – courtesy of Santa perhaps? Well, as this club’s self-professed lord of all things comics, I’ve thrown together a handy holiday gift guide.

If you skip to the end, I have a basic list of all my recommendations if you want to bypass all my fluff. I include Amazon links throughout, but most of these books should also be available at your local comic shop (which you can find here) or run of the mill book store. I also recommend instocktrades.com for saving some money (free shipping on orders over $50).

Are you a newcomer to the superhero subculture? Maybe you found yourself among us because of Robert Downey Jr.’s undeniable wit, Chris Hemsworth’s luscious locks or Christopher Nolan’s masterful trilogy? The CW is doing some great things with Arrow, Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. Netflix can apparently only hit home runs, with Daredevil and Jessica Jones so far. Maybe you know that the world will be pummeled with over two dozen more superhero flicks by 2020, and you feel that you may as well willingly submit to your new geek overlords before you’re forced to do so. Here are some selections to prepare you for upcoming blockbusters or to delve deeper into some recent gems.

1. Jessica Jones

After Fredric Wertham nearly destroyed the medium with faulty science, the Comics Code Authority was created in 1954 as a self regulatory agency for the comics industry. Marvel remained an adherent of the censorship club until 2001. 

Jessica Jones was introduced in the series Alias, which served as the flagship title for Marvel’s Max imprint. Max was about leaving creators free to use mature/explicit themes as they saw fit. 

Alias also served as another early stepping stone in the explosive career of Brian Michael Bendis. He had already started his legendary run of Ultimate Spider-Man and was just a few months into his classic Daredevil tale. In 2015, Bendis is a multiple award winning writer and the primary architect of the Marvel Universe. 

For fans of the Netflix show, the Purple Man/Killgrave isn’t really brought up until the last five issues of the 28 issue run. It’s a slow burn character study and less of a “big bad of the week” kind of feel. Besides Bendis’ quick, natural dialogue and intriguing plotting, Alias is graced by Michael Gaydos’ noirish pencils (uplifted by Matt Hollingsworth’s colors) and David Mack’s iconic painted/collage covers. Ultimate Spider-Man collaborator Mark Bagley also does wonders on occasional flashback sequences.

Alias is collected across four trade paperbacks titled Jessica Jones: Alias. Volume 1 is here. The entire series can be grabbed together in a hardcover omnibus edition, with the added bonus of oversized pages. Here it is. 

To continue Jessica’s story, the next step is The Pulse. Still penned by Bendis, but with a more diversified art cast, the series covers Jessica’s new job at the Daily Bugle and her continuing relationship with Luke Cage. This trade paperback collects the whole series and includes the pair’s adorable wedding as a bonus.

2. Civil War

Whose side are you on? Every Marvel fan will have to make that decision on May 6, 2016 when Captain America: Civil War kicks off Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by splitting the Avengers down the middle over philosophical and legal quandaries. 

The anticipated film will be loosely based on Mark Millar’s 2006 mega hit miniseries. For better or worse, Civil War was a huge success for Marvel and would kick off their current summer event strategy that continues to this day. Nearly every single ongoing series being published got drawn into the overall tale, several miniseries popped up to run alongside it, and even series with no connection had no choice but to acknowledge it. 

I’ll spoil it a bit and say that you will probably hate Tony Stark after reading the series. Civil War is incredibly divisive to this day, but at its core is a fun action romp with some barely noticeable post-9/11 philosophical questions brewing under the surface.

The seven issue mini is collected in an affordable trade. It can work as a purely standalone work.

If you want to flesh out the broader story more, check out the next entry on this list as well as looking into the Iron Man, Spider-Man and Fantastic Four tie in issues. Unfortunately, some of these trades are out of print and harder to find today; but Marvel is literally reprinting everything in time for the movie. 

If money flows through your veins, you could even splooge for this $500 MSRP box set collecting almost everything remotely relevant to Civil War.

3. The Winter Soldier

Before Steve Rogers was an anti-authoritarian leader in the monolithic Civil War, his long lost best friend and sidekick Bucky Barnes popped back up on the superhero scene. Ed Brubaker was tasked with making Captain America into a hit again after some rocky years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

Right off the bat, Brubaker took a huge gamble by breaking a major rule in comics. People joke about death in superhero comics. It doesn’t matter anymore. Jean Grey has died a dozen times (which granted, is the point of the character). Doomsday killed Superman and he was back in less than a year. Despite all these meaningless deaths, many a comic fan used to claim, “no one stays dead except Bucky, Jason Todd and Uncle Ben.” In 2005,  those first two were made moot. Bucky was retconned from being the creepy Robin-like child sidekick to a badass soldier in his own right. The Soviets saved him from death and turned him into a Cold War killing machine. Captain America: Winter Soldier covered the basics pretty faithfully. The original comic story is one of the greatest stories told in the medium though, and knocks the film out of the water.

Brubaker’s very long Captain America saga is collected across several books. The highlights of the run are all at the beginning though. The Winter Soldier arc is conveniently collected in a thick trade. After the major shakeup with Bucky’s return, Brubaker focuses back on Steve for a while in Red Menace, with Crossbones and Sharon Carter making strong appearances. Then Civil War starts its rumblings and something spoilery happens to Steve directly following its finale. It was heavily promoted and reported on by the New York Times, so you should know by now. The third fat collection of Brubaker’s series collects the seminal death of Steve Rogers and the beginnings of Bucky’s time as Captain America. With those three books, you get a whopping 43 issues of stellar comic storytelling. They also work as perfect bookends to Civil War.

4. Batman vs. Superman

This club is called the Students of S.H.I.E.L.D; but it would be naive to think that many of us aren’t huge fans of DC’s characters and stories. It’s also naive to put your fanboy stake in the dirt and not open yourself up to these fantastic tales. 

Personally, I love the Marvel Universe just slightly more than the DCU. However, I think that DC has most of the greatest standalone stories in their stable. Also, Batman. 

With the divisive Man of Steel, Zach Snyder at the helm, an overcrowded cast of cameos, Doomsday showing up for some reason, so on, who knows how Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice will turn out (update - it was terrible). 

If you want to lower your expectations even more, or see where the story can be done right, you should look to comics. Frank Miller revolutionized Batman in 1986/7 by putting out two stories that have since become definitive masterpieces. Batman: Year One showed us Bruce’s fledgling start as the Bat, as well as some juicy Jim Gordon and Selina Kyle backstory. The Dark Knight Returns, on the other hand, was Miller’s stark take on the “end” of Bruce’s life as Batman. The former is blessed by the beautiful art of David Mazzucchelli, while Miller uses his own rough manga/film noir style in DKR. 

Every single Batman story since has drawn on the influence of this indomitable pair. Both books are absolute must haves for anyone who considers themselves a fan of Batman or the comics medium. I am going to highlight DKR, as it includes a famous showdown with Superman. It also inspired Batfleck’s armored suit.

Dark Knight Returns, along with Watchmen, is a major cash cow for DC and can be found literally everywhere. If you want to flex your comic book critic mind, I hesitantly recommend trying out The Dark Knight Strikes Again, the incredibly controversial sequel from 2001. Unlike certain other seminal works, DC at least let Miller do the sequel himself (see: Before Watchmen). 

The thing is, Miller’s work had always had slightly misogynist, racist, xenophobic undertones. But 9/11 happened in the middle of him doing the series, and it noticeably affected the story and his psyche from that point forward. Most comic fans would tell you to completely avoid DK2 and anything he’s done since. Miller’s art is either hideous or esoteric, depending on who you ask. His ex-wife and longtime colorist, Lynn Varley, was also experimenting with digital coloring for the first time. Just like his pencils, some people argue her basic, flat colors are intentional and deconstructionist, whereas others say she did a shitty job. 

If you want to go balls deep, there is an oversized hardcover collecting both series together. DK3: The Master Race is currently being published. Miller allegedly has minimal involvement in it. As of writing this, there is one issue out and reaction has been mixed.

5. The Fantastic Four Aren’t Terrible?

Fox’s most recent mess of a Fantastic Four movie, or “Fan4stic” as people love to call it, may have tarnished the IP for mainstream moviegoers for the indefinite future. 

However, the first family of comics has a storied history in the medium they helped to bring back from the dead. Fantastic Four Vol 1 #1 from November, 1961 may be the most important comic of all time. Spider-Man, Thor, Tony Stark, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Ant-Man wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Reed Richards, Ben Grimm and Susan and Johnny Storm. 

It would be easy to thank the family for their influence and then dismiss them as archaic and irrelevant. But, that would be a major mistake. Some of the greatest Marvel stories have come from the F4. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s mind blowing 102 issue run literally built the Marvel Universe from planet to planet. John Byrne really built up Sue and brought She-Hulk into the extended family. Even Jake’s fabled Walter Simonson did some great stuff on the book. I’m going to focus on two pretty different takes.

Jonathan Hickman wrote Fantastic Four for three years. Hickman is known for his slow burning, epic storylines that build off one another. In 2015, Hickman is infamous for the insane Secret Wars, which is the closest thing Marvel has ever had to a reboot. Secret Wars features Dr. Doom as a godlike figure and ostensibly features Reed Richards as the main character. Longtime Hickman readers will notice developments in the series introduced all the way back in his F4 run. Hickman introduced the FF, or Future Foundation, to the world of Fantastic Four, so the reading order can be a little confusing. 

A quick google search can help you out. The trades you would need would be this one, this one, this one, this one, then this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, and finally this one. 

If this seems intimidating, it is. I can say with complete confidence that it is worth it though, especially if you dig crazy science fiction. You can also get it all in one fell swoop across two omnibus volumes here and here. That first one is out of print though and may be an arm and a leg in the secondary market. Good thing I got it while it was available, muahaha. If you come across it at a store though, you’ll score a gem (or an investment to flip on eBay).

So…that Jonathan Hickman guy sounds kind of scary. If you were looking for some Fantastic Four stories with a little bit less emphasis on saving the multiverse, there’s something for you too. Mark Waid wrote the book for a while in the early 2000s. Waid is known for the classic Kingdom Come, as well as classic runs on Captain America, Daredevil, Hulk, Justice League, the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Flash. 

He brought one of his Flash collaborators, Mike Wieringo with him to work on the first family. Wieringo was known for his cartoony, manga inspired style that made everything he drew fun. Waid and Wieringo truly captured the family dynamic of the team. Jack Kirby shows up as a representation of God. Doom does some truly devilish shit. It’s all wonderful. 

You can get it across four trades. Tragically, the industry lost Mike Wieringo at a young age. His work will continue to inspire readers and creators for years though and show that, first and foremost, superheroes should be fun.

6. The Flash

The Flash is probably the hottest superhero property on Television (neatly excluding Daredevil and Jessica Jones since they aren’t technically on TV). The CW hit a home run with Arrow and they’ve since birthed a little universe replete with spinoffs and crossovers. When you think about it, The CW’s shows are the closest parallel to the format of comics. The shows are also going places that a multi-million dollar blockbuster wouldn’t dare, with parallel universes and such. 

Along with showrunners Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, another major player in The Flash is Geoff Johns. Johns is currently the Chief Creative Officer at DC Comics. Starting as an intern for Richard Donner (of The Goonies, Superman 1 and 2 fame), Geoff shifted over to the comics industry and had a meteoric rise. Though he wrote The Avengers for twenty issues, he is most associated with DC’s stable. He’s done character defining work on the Teen Titans, Aquaman, Superman, Booster Gold, Hawkman and the Justice Society. He presently has been writing Justice League since the start of the New 52. 

Among his prolific bibliography, Green Lantern and the Flash stick out the most. Johns brought Hal Jordan back from the grave and turned the Lantern books into DC’s biggest sellers for several years, with smash hits like The Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night. He also resurrected Barry Allen (after a legendary 23 year absence) during a second stint writing the franchise. 

It’s his early work with Wally West that really stands out though. After Mark Waid built up the Speed Force and the legacy aspect of the characters in the 1990s, Johns brought a smile-inducing optimism to the book and fleshed out the infamous Rogues. Despite featuring a different lead character, much of the show’s characterization and tone is lifted directly from Johns’ Flash.

Johns’ first Flash run was originally collected across a buttload of slim trade paperbacks. Most of those are out of print. Then DC collected the whole thing across three big omnibus volumes. These are also out of print, but they had crappy tight binding anyway. 

Starting this year, the material is being recollected again in meaty trades. Here is the first volume that just came out. The second doesn’t come out until May, but will start collecting some of the truly legendary arcs. There will probably be about four of them total. 

If you absolutely need some Barry Allen in your life, you may as well go to Johns’ rebirth of the hero. He followed it up with a short second run that lead right into Flashpoint, the harbinger of the New 52 for better or worse. 

The New 52 is controversial for longtime DC fans, and hit The Flash particularly hard by wiping out the prominent elements of family and history from the title. Barry has never been married to Iris. He never sacrificed himself in Crisis. Wally and Bart are bastardized versions of themselves. Max Mercury and Johnny Quick simply don’t exist. The first 25 issues of the title are worthwhile though, if only for the absolutely beautiful art of Francis Manapul. Those issues are split across the first four trades. Here’s the first one.

7. Doctor Strange

After the destined smash hit Captain America: Civil War, the next piece of the Marvel Cinematic Universe puzzle is Doctor Strange. Sherlock fans should be hype for Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal of the Sorcerer Supreme. 

Strange is an interesting character in the Marvel Universe. He dates back to the early days of silver age Marvel in the 1960s. He’s always been a cult favorite B-level hero throughout the years. He started out sharing the title Strange Tales with Nick Fury. The book was the ultimate treat for art nerd comic fans. Fury benefited from both Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko and had a brilliant mix of sleek James Bond style and 60s pop art sensibilities. 

Strange, on the other hand, was one of only a handful of books to get the Steve Ditko treatment. Ditko is the elusive, objectivist, visionary creator of not just Strange, but the Amazing Spider-Man himself. Whereas Peter’s scrawny, dorky physique and his creepy movement were the marks of Steve’s style on Spidey, he used Strange to go completely out there with psychedelia. The ultra conservative Ditko ironically grew to be a major inspiration to a generation of hippies. Strange has always kept that otherworldly edge in the years since.

A Lee/Ditko Dr. Strange omnibus is coming out at some point to tie into the movie. However, there are two fantastic titles that have come out closer to our own lifetimes. The most approachable and mainstream book is The Oath by Brian K. Vaughan. Vaughan is a big name in comics for writing the classic Y: The Last Man. He also has acclaim from Marvel heads for creating the cult teenage book Runaways. He is currently the number one indie darling (outside of maybe the mainstay Kirkman) with his and Fiona Staples’ Saga. Many consider The Oath to be the defining story for Stephen.

The other standout in the sparse Doctor Strange collection library is 1989’s Dr. Strange and Dr. Doom: Triumph & Torment. Written by Roger Stern, who had extensive experience with the character, and drawn by Mike Mignola, this is a true gem. Mignola is most known for founding the Hellboy/BPRD empire of independent comics over at Dark Horse. His early work at Marvel and DC is not quite as stylized and focused as Hellboy, but still features stunning art from a master of the medium. Doom goes to Stephen for help in freeing his mother’s soul from Hell. The story truly encapsulates why Strange will always be the Sorcerer Supreme at the end of the day, even if Brother Voodoo, Wanda Maximoff or Viktor seem like threats to the title. It’s also one of the best Doom tales.

8. Star Wars

Before the industry revolutionizing Star Wars came out in May, 1977, George Lucas went to Marvel Comics to try and shop a comic licensing deal. Stan Lee infamously turned him away before Roy Thomas convinced him otherwise (having previously seen success with the Conan the Barbarian license). 

Marvel went on to produce 107 issues and change over ten years. They were experiencing some financial and creative trouble in the late 1970s and early 80s, with many of their star artists gone and franchises flailing. Some critics attribute the success of the Star Wars comic (among other licenses like GI Joe and Transformers) to saving the company. 

Marvel stopped publishing the book years before the next big wave of Star Wars interest peaked in the 1990s. By this time, the license had moved to Dark Horse, where huge swaths of the now-killed Expanded Universe were built. In the 2010s, the license has returned to the house of ideas in the wake of Disney gobbling up every entertainment corporation in sight. Both LucasFilm and Marvel are now under the house of mouse. 

Marvel has since started pumping out Star Wars comics like it’s all they do. It seems to be paying off so far. Star Wars #1 was the best selling comic in twenty years, reaching over a million copies sold (yes, this is a tiny industry). The Star Wars line is basically paying for any weird experiments Marvel wants to try in the MU. If only DC could get a cash cow like this (besides Batman). An important note is that every Star Wars issue published by Marvel since January 2014 is completely canon.

Besides the fact that people would probably buy them anyway, Marvel’s Star Wars books are actually pretty great. The key to this success is putting top tier talent on the book, instead of the obscure D-listers and science fiction authors that Dark Horse used (no disrespect to those stories, which are great). 

The main title, Star Wars, is written by Jason Aaron. Aaron is one of the hottest writers of the era, with a long running indie hit (Scalped), an ongoing indie gem (Southern Bastards) and time put into Marvel on Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Punisher and several X-Men titles. He also has a instant classic under his belt (Thor: God of Thunder). 

Aaron’s Star Wars has a revolving door of all-star artists that switch out each arc. So far, John Cassaday and Stuart Immonen have done their time on the book. 

Darth Vader features the talent of Kieron Gillen (Wicked and the Divine, Phonogram, Young Avengers) and the photo realistic Salvador Larroca. Lots of comics peeps prefer Vader as the true standout in the line. 

For the Rebels fans out there, Kanan is another book. That book has no names on it though, but if you look on the bright side, they’re rising stars being given a chance to shine. 

Besides those three current ongoings, Marvel utilizes a miniseries format to tell one-and-done stories. Princess Leia herself got one by Mark Waid and Terry Dodson (another top tier team). Greg Rucka and Marco Chechetto did Journey to Force Awakens, which serves as a prequel to the film. Marvel will literally keep printing these books until the world ends I think. Chewbacca and Lando minis have wrapped up, with collections down the line. For the deranged prequel fans out there, an Obi-Wan and Anakin book is coming. 

If you want a taste of Marvel’s 1970s output, there is a nice hardcover of the first six issues, which served as a New Hope adaptation. Their old adaptations of the rest of the trilogy are available as well. If you want to read the whole series, there are three omnibuses collecting it all. An omnibus of Marvel’s dubious Ewok and droids spinoffs is coming out too. They also have the distribution rights to the Dark Horse material and are reprinting it in Epic Collection volumes. STAR WARS IS TAKING OVER!

9. Walking Dead

The Walking Dead is one of the hottest shows on television. I think it and its new spinoff actually get ratings up there with Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory, only below football programming of course. For the first few seasons, it was the “cool” thing to know that it is based on a comic book. Kind of like people boasting about knowing the plot of Game of Thrones ahead of time due to reading Martin’s novels. Everyone knows The Walking Dead is a comic by now. However, if you enjoy the show and still haven’t tried the book, you need to fix that ASAP. 

The book is written by Robert Kirkman, a major sentinel of creator’s rights. Kirkman is the poster child of the late 2000s mentality that creators don’t need to toil away at Marvel and DC for name recognition before doing their own thing. He and Brian Michael Bendis had a great debate about creator-owned comics that is worth watching for people interested in how money works in this industry. Kirkman is the only partner of Image Comics who is not a founder of the company. TWD remains the only indie comic to rank in the top twenty selling monthly books with consistency. Fun fact: his son is named Peter Parker Kirkman.

Along with his staunch views on creator rights, Kirkman is a big fan of format diversity. The Walking Dead comes in all shapes and sizes. Of course, you can buy the monthly single issues that come out monthly. Those are up to the monolithic #150 though (still trailing Savage Dragon #210 and Spawn #259 though). So, even if you are down to hop on the Wednesdays train, you have some catching up to do. The most simple way to read the book is through the trade paperbacks, which are up to volume 24 at this point. The most cost efficient method is the fat paperback compendiums. There are three so far, and they encompass eight trade paperbacks each (48 issues). 

If you are looking for something sexy to put on your shelf, you have even more options. There are hardcovers that collect twelve issues each with a trim size of 7.5 x 11 inches (compared to 6.8 x 10.2 paperbacks). Going even bigger, for maximum art appreciation, are the omnibus editions which are 8.2 x 12 and collect 24 issues each. All of the various formats collect up to issue 144 so far. If you intend to continue following the series, another thing to keep in mind is how often your format comes out.

I highly recommend www.instocktrades.com. They will offer almost all of these books cheaper than Amazon or brick and mortar stores will. Some of them might not be in stock on Amazon, or more obscure and harder to find in stores, and IST will also be more likely to have them available. Over fifty bucks, free shipping.

1. Jessica Jones – Alias Volume 1, 2, 3, 4 / Omnibus, The Pulse 2. Civil War, Mega Expensive Box Set 3. The Winter Soldier – Brubaker Captain America Vol 1, 2, 3 4. Batman v. Superman – DKR, DKSA / Deluxe HC 5. Fantastic Four – Hickman Vol 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, FF Vol 1, 2, 3, 4, Waid Vol 1, 2, 3, 4 6. The Flash – Geoff Johns Vol 1, Rebirth, Flashpoint, N52 Vol 1 7. Doctor Strange – The Oath, Triumph & Torment 8. Star Wars – Star Wars Vol 1, Darth Vader Vol 1, Kanan Vol 1, Leia, Journey to Force Awakens, A New Hope 9. Walking Dead – TPB Vol 1 / Compendium Vol 1 / HC Vol 1 / Omnibus Vol 1