Mythology of the West

American mythology is often focused on the wild west and the westward expansion. The west is still considered the frontier where known hits unknown. Tales of the wild west fill books and the movie screen. However, with many modern re-telling's of mythological stories, there is also a re-spinning to add a bit of flair. This is were wild west meets just plain weird. Weird-west tales have found their own niche. One of the best examples being Robert Rodriguez's "From Dusk Til Dawn."

The first half the film reads like any other western. There is your upstanding sheriff, innocent bystanders, and highway robbers. As to be expected the aforementioned robbers attempt to rob a bank, take hostages, and try to get away from the law. Rodriguez follows the mythological pattern to a T, until (Spoilers!) the vampires decide to show up. There is no longer a good-guy bad-guy dynamic. It is man verses monster. The vampire tropes are as you would expect: crosses, holy water, blood drinking, etc. As separate pieces the two genres are typical and common. The genius is in the blending.

Just like America is the melting pot, our modern mythologies are melting pots as well. It is not enough to be a vampire tale or a western. It is the combination that makes the weird-west worth looking into.


Celebrating the Forth,
J.R. West the Raccoon

Anita Blake: Excelling in multiple forms

Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter's Guilty Pleasures and Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton convert cleanly from book to graphic novel. This is due to the conversational nature of the story which matches the common comic book style. Additionally, the comic illustrator Brett Booth took care to match Hamilton's colorful description. The Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series is possibly the most accurate translation from comic to novel.

In both novels, Guilty Pleasures and Laughing Corpse Anita Blake narrates, her voice is a casual inner monologue which doesn't edit for the reader. This style almost exactly matches the style in the square narration boxes of comics. Her interior thought are highly reminiscent of Spiderman and Deadpool. They cleanly translate into the narration of a comic. It was almost as if Hamilton knew her novel was going to become a comic. In addition, to the voice of the narrator, Hamilton gives ample description of her world. Her illustrative description is almost enough for a sketch artist. The exact skin tone, hair type and color, body shape and size, and over all body language is covered in high detail. The illustrator is given a clear guide for each character. Booth takes the description and flawless converts it into images.

It was a thrill to both read the comic and novel version of the two stories, Guilty Pleasures and Laughing Corpse. I would recommend reading one version if you like the other.

Always looking for good comics
JR West the Raccoon

The Best Holiday Ever!

With Halloween just past, I thought now would be perfect time to hit on a common figure currently saturating our culture: The Vampire. Therefore, I took a moment on this lovely holiday to assess the vampire overload in my own life.

Example 1:
Midnight Opera by Hans Steinbach is a OEL (original English language) manga. The main character is a guitar playing vampire with a nemesis for an older brother. The first manga in the series was decent enough, but I have not gone through the trouble of finding the next.

Example 2:
Vampire Wars is a facebook application which doubles as a game. You create a gothic vampire avatar who then completes missions for his or her clan. You can fight other vampires in an old world based gaming style. It is a basic game, but I do love collecting pieces for my avatar.

Example 3:
Foxtrot had a brilliant comment on Twilight's destruction of the traditional vampire last Sunday. And as much as I love Twilight, I agree with Jason. Nothing beats the traditional Nosferatu.


Example 4:
The Vampire Diaries is a CW television show for teenagers. It is a cliché story of girl lover’s vampire, but he thinks he is wrong for her. There is even a nemesis brother; it really is just another Twilight. The only saving grace is that the vampire looks far more vampire-like than the guy that plays Edward in the Twilight movies.

This is just a quick guide to my recent encounters with vampires. It does not include the wide number of book, movie, and comics surrounding vampires, or even the White Wolf role-playing game. Take a moment and count the number of vampire inspired things in your life, you will be amazed.

Loved the Recent Holiday,
J.R. West the Raccoon

Magical Girls

So, the other night I was watching Sailor Moon. Hey no wisecracks, I loved Sailor Moon as a child, and I hate grading lab reports in total silence. Anyway, while watching Sailor Moon, I started to think about magical girls. Sailor Moon (which came to America long after it was out in Japan) is a fine example of a magical girl story. Japanese cartoons and comics are filled with the magical girl stories—stories of young girls who find they have magic powers and save the world. America has far less magic that Japan in this area. Before Sailor Moon, there were no popular magical girl teams. Until, Joss Whedon brought, our ultimate magical girl, Buffy the Vampire Slayer to America. Buffy produced a mythos and a history. The line of the Slayer is described in “Tales of the Slayers” by Joss Whedon. These magical girls protected through the ages and belong to the American mythology.

The “Tales of the Slayers” follows the stories of eight girls, none of which are Buffy. From the first nameless slayer to last girl Fray, each girl has her story. The first tale is the tale of the first. It is a sad short piece showing the loneliness of the Slayer. The second tale is of a middle ages Slayer, burned for being a powerful young woman who could protect her from, for being a witch. The third is a tale of evil not of Vampire but of the Slayer’s watcher in revolutionary France. The forth tale shows the hardship of the female form in the Victorian age. The Wild West and bond of sisters comes out in the fifth. The Slayer in Nazi Germany fights many evils in the sixth tale. The seventh shows a slayer not far ahead of Buffy, Niki the New York Slayer. Finally, the last story is of the last Slayer, a lone girl, Fray, of the future disconnected from the full history of the Slayers. Each story is a quick read, but shows these girls lives fully. The life of the slayer is complex. Not just because of the gift/curse they bare, but the times they live in. Whedon shows pieces of history through the eyes of exceptional girls.

The comic brought up good ideas and in an easy to understand form. Overall, I give it a 4 out of 5.

Rooting for girl power,
J.R. West the Raccoon

Twilight: The Movie

Until a few days ago I didn't know any of Stephenie Meyer's novels, so I have not read them, and have not even noticed that much the raging tides of fandom around them. But my wife and I watched Twilight in the theater a few nights ago, and I have to admit, I'm impressed. It's a romantic and delightfully moody film, with beautiful cinematography and visual poetry. While the plot can be quite predictable (with all the expected motifs of the teen romance), there are innovative and often breathtaking touches that I have not seen before. I was almost tired of vampires, actually, and am delighted to see them back with some refreshing newness. There was a vampire baseball game that was especially thrilling -- baseball becomes a more...vigorous...sport when played by supernatural predators who move faster than Nascar champions.

For me, the movie held a special nostalgia, as it was set in western Washington where I grew up. (If you are not from that part of the world, think Snow Falling On Cedars.) Ah, the greenery and the fog and the twilight rain and the moody land and the moody sea, and the moody people. I think I knew just about everyone in the movie. That part of the world mildews itself into your body and your blood and never leaves.

And Twilight even had me nostalgic for the Mariners.

So I definitely recommend the film - it was beautifully made, and makes me want to go get a copy of the book.

Teen Vampires, a story told over and over

Vampire Kisses: Blood Relatives by Ellen Schreiber and illustrated by REM is a manga sequel to Schreiber’s Vampire Kisses book series. It is as predictable as the genre demands. A goth high school student in a small town with a vampire fetish falls in love with a cheer, but night loving guy. Miracle of Miracles, he’s a vampire, all creaming on the inside and brooding on the outside. He’s Angel from Buffy, and Edward for Twilight, this time named Alexander from the vampire capital Romania. A nice twist is that Alexander, a night loving blood sucking guy ages. So as the main character, Raven, ages he does too. If you want fluff with little originality, and adequate images the story is okay.

The plot is typical too; bad vampires from Alexander’s past come and threaten Raven’s fairytale happiness. There is the stereotypical best friend and her boyfriend subplot. But other than that nothing really goes on.

I give it a 1.5 out of 5.

Looking for a good vampire tale,
J.R. The Raccoon

Fangs: The Science of Puncture Wounds

Being an equal opportunity editor and having just posted on werewolves, I now turn to vampires - of a sort. Here is a brief passage from Gene Wolfe's In Green's Jungles that has me pondering:

So much of her food had been taken from your grandmother while she slept. Foolish people think that they will see the marks of the fangs, and there will be blood on the sheets. The truth is that the marks are small and white, and do not bleed. An inhumu's fangs are round, you see, and the wounds made by all such round things close themselves, unless they are very large. In addition, I imagine that she was wise enough to bite your grandmother in a place where she couldn't see her wounds -- on her back, perhaps, or on the backs of her legs.

What I am pondering is both Wolfe's subverting of vampire tale tropes and the medical science of vampire wounds. In the first place, Wolfe has replaced the recognizable images of vampire lore (blood on the sheets, for instance) with something more disturbing and more chilling. Gone, the vampire's dramatic love of flair, its centrality to any scene it occupies: in place of this, the creeping invisibility and inevitability of the vampire. They walk around us and may prey on us, and even the victim may never realize there has been either hunt or loss of blood. Wolfe has emphasized the parasitical nature of the vampire in a new way. (Check out the book, starting with the first volume, On Blue's Waters - this is not his only innovation. For another blog post on this series, see here.)

In the second place, do small, round wounds heal almost immediately? I am at a loss. And are a vampire's wounds deep or shallow? In the absence of such a notable medical authority as Van Helsing (surely long dead), I will have to surprise my doctor with the question during my next physical.