Weekly Wednesdays

Ahhh Wednesday. How I love you. My mid-week break from SAT prep. The sign that the week is half over. And of course, The release of new comics. Today was a good Wednesday as far as Wednesdays go. A quality meeting with Lisa, Debbi Lee, and Timmie from endabuse.org on a violence prevention conference my friend Brandee and I will be helping with. Helping used in a very loose sense though. We’ll be guiding kids from across the country around San Francisco and showing them various locales of the city. So that’s pretty radical. (Photo courtesy of Isotope Comics)

Books today were awesome. Phonogram: The Singles Club #4, by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, was one of the best of the bunch, as it always is. For those who don’t know what the book is about, the Phonogram series revolves around two things: music and magic. Or rather the magic of music. The first series, Phonogram: Rue Britannia, had a large focus on the mysticism. The story revolved around a phonomancer by the name of David Kohl. Now these phonomancers are magic users, but rather than invoking the power of some nether-realm to fuel their spells, they rely on the ever-present power of music as their energy source. The first Phonogram dealt with David saving Britannia, the goddess of Brit Pop, from evil people. It really was rather confusing, but enjoyable none the less. Singles Club takes a difference stance on things. It’s seven one-shot issues, each told from the perspective of a different person, all of which happen at this one club on one night. Really, the issues are more of character pieces and love letters to music than anything else. The mystical element has been someone phased out by the three rules of the club: 1) No Boy Singers 2) You must dance and 3) No Magic. All of which makes for a pretty awesome story. This issue focuses on Seth Bingo and Silent Girl, the two DJs behind the turntable this fateful night. It really plays out in quite a fantastic manner. Most of the comic plays out in 2 x 3 grid (9-panel page) looking directly at Seth and Silent Girl. It’s a mix of comedic interactions and musical references that’s just an overall fun read. Whenever an issue of Phonogram comes out, I always find my iTunes library getting ever so bigger. The backmatter they throw into the issue is almost as amazing as the comic itself. With annotations on the references they make, two short back up stories and some other interesting reads; you really get plenty of bang for your buck

I’ve gushed about Phonogram quite enough, and really comics in general, but it’s worth saying that two Blackest Night tie-ins came out today, and they’re definitely worth a pick up, Tales of the Corp especially.

I’ve been thinking a lot about commercials lately. Dunno why. Maybe the way they’re shot and how artistic it can get? Probably because I still need to see (500) Days of Summer, and the trailer for that is absolutely beautifully. To kind of wrap up this Weekly Wednesday, I thought I’d share a couple of my favorite commercials. The first is the awesome Bacardi commercial, with music by our good friends Matt and Kim. There’s something about this that gives it a sense of refinement and elegance, even though it’s Bacardi. The second is the Lollipop Dell commercial, which I absolutely adore. It’s just so whimsical and fun. Very reminiscent of the coke commercials if anyone remembers those.