OUR LOVE TO ADMIRE

Johanna Draper Carlson wrote a splendiferous review of 12 Reasons Why I Love Her over at Comics Worth Reading. You should follow the link and read it. It's one of those amazing write-ups that any creative person could hope for. Like Colleen Mondor's review of Have You Seen the Horizon Lately? for Bookslut, this assessment of 12 Reasons hits all the right points, and validates for me, as a writer, that I did my job right--because if even one person can suss it out, that means I've given my readers all of the information they require to see what I am trying to say.

Here's a taste:

"Joëlle Jones makes her debut in stunning fashion. Her style impressively changes to match the mood of each piece. And that’s necessary, because Jamie Rich’s script relies on her art — he’s comfortable letting the images tell the story when needed. The reader gets to see the leads interact instead of being told what they’re thinking and feeling. That’s still obvious, though, through the well-drawn gestures and attitudes of the two. And they’re both cute. He’s got a Dean Cain-ish charm, with glasses and a great smile, while her punch of her gorgeous body is lightened by a sprinkling of freckles across her nose."

Ellerby sent me the link and it was waiting for me when I got home from a meeting with Gretchen Stelter, my agent, and that went very well, too. You haven't heard the last from me, world!

Completely unrelated, the new Madonna album, Hard Candy, has started circulating, and as a longtime Madonna fan, I'm embarrassed for her. The tracks are all produced by Timbaland and Justin Timberlake or Pharrell Williams, and they all sound like songs by those people with Madonna singing on top. It doesn't have any of her personality, but instead sounds like the record made by some young nobody who has been handed to hotshot producers. Isn't Madonna a little too far in her career to be pushed around in the studio? Or did she just check out and let them do the work? As Ian Shaughnessy said to me, they should have just called it Justified 2. There is even a song called "Spanish Lesson" that is like a half-finished sequel to J.T.'s "Senorita." The album sounds several years out of date and wholly generic.

It's a weird world when instead of Gwen Stefani wanting to be Madonna, Madonna wants to be Gwen Stefani. And she's failing.

Current Soundtrack: Barry Adamson, Back to the Cat

Current Mood: elated

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Criterion Confessions * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2008 Jamie S. Rich