more weird thingie-ness

woke up later than i had hoped i would this morning (though earlier than yesterday)to find this in the box:

Dear chiles,

Your second blog post is now live. You can find it here:

http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2007/12/22/weird-tales-chiles-samaniego-on-being-asked/#more-556

Sorry I was late getting it up today. Been very very busy!

Ann

you can fine my previous ED blogpost here, and i first mentioned guest blogging for Ann on Jeff VanderMeer's Ecstatic Days here.

as i'd promised earlier, i think i managed to make more sense and you may find more to talk about there. i only wish i knew more about what i was talking about than i actually did. er. 'know' and 'do' would do just as well in that last statement as things haven't changed much for me on the 'knowing things' front since i sent that post in. er. right.

again, please do drop by, and please do set me straight where you think i've got things crooked.

now i read it again, i wish i'd done less of the 'i am Filipino ergo i am representative of all Filipinos'-thing as people who know me know that i most definitely do not. though yes, i am Filipino. just not typical. not that i imagine i'm typical of anything.

moving on...

*

Mike Mignola is absolutely brilliant. Hellboy is absolutely brilliant. i strongly encourage anyone who doesn't yet know the World's Greatest Paranormal Detective who just happens to be the Beast of the Apocalypse or who only knows him through the Guillermo del Toro movie (brilliant in its own right, imho, just not quite the same) to go out and find a copy of one of the books and read it right now. go. that's right. right now. start with Seed of Destruction and proceed from there; or, if you would prefer to be introduced without being thrown headlong into continuity, The Chained Coffin and Others and The Troll Witch and Others should do nicely.

i finally caved (i'd been hedging for, er, financial reasons) and got the last two volumes (it's xmas, ennit?), Strange Places and The Troll Witch ....

if i have a problem with the Hellboy series it's that i tend to be baffled by the climaxes. however, this is, of course, probably my fault for being a bit slow in the head. and anyway, it's also part of the joy of it, figuring out (or trying to) what just happened; as Mr Mignola himself put it, in his introduction to 'The Hydra and the Lion' from The Troll Witch...: '...in supernatural stories you need bits that are beyond human comprehension...'

apart from that quibble, the art, the story, the stories-within-stories, the ubercool protagonist, the humor, everything in a Mike Mignola Hellboy story is just perfect. imho.

The Troll Witch... also features a story drawn by P. Craig Russel and one by Richard Corben. i pretty much knew what i could expect from Mr Russel, but i admit this was the first time i'd (knowingly) encountered anything by Mr Corben. Mr Mignola's distinctive style will always be *the* way to draw Hellboy, but Mr Corben's work here is absolutely stunning and lovely and brilliant.

so there.

currently reading: Kleinzeit, Russell Hoban

on the spinner: still mostly NIN, but with CocoRosie's Le Maison de Mon Reve and Noah's Ark sprinkled lightly over Year Zero and Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D