2.14.2021

the past few days have been very cold, negative weather. a lot of snowstorms have been happening, and i just got my first round of covid vaccine yesterday! i feel tired, but that’s about it.

i just finished The Magic of Recluce by  L. E. Modesitt Jr (at first I thought it was really bland, detailed and i felt like i was missing something, but the character interactions are written very well and would keep me reading, and eventually i fell in love with the way the world was described. i thought the ending was really weak and ended a bit too cleanly, that detracted from the book a bit for me). and now i am reading the second volume of Elfquest. I did not initially think i would like elfquest, it has that 80s fantasy style that seems really hokey to me and reminds me of so many generic cringy fantasy cartoons and comics from around that time (zelda cartoon, thundercats, she ra, he man, dungeons and dragons cartoons). but as i kept reading the first volume, i was really delighted with it. Cutter, the main character, isn’t really a character type I like, but he is written in really well and with more nuance than his archetype is normally written, you can really tell the creators cared about him. And the art is phenomenal, every single panel is so detailed and beautiful. It full captivated me! reminds me a lot of dark crystal. Next for me to read is the second volume of Mouse Guard. I read the first one and thought it was ok, i liked the art quite a bit, and i loved that the creator is very passionate about the work, and is still current with his website, where he is still posting about current comics he is working on! And he lives in Michigan, and i love midwest comics. I thought that the character designs were not varied enough, and i felt like the first volume fell in a hole that a lot of graphic novels fall into: having a lazy story. just because there is a visual aspect going in tandem with writing, does not mean that the story can be weak and be held up by the art. the story was so predictable and the minute the main antagonist was introduced i knew he was the bad guy, and it wasn’t even alluded that he was the main baddie. if it was written as a traditonal novel it would be such a generic weak story that would fail to entertain even children. It felt like the author read redwall and was like let me do that, but with beautiful woodblock art and a worse story. I hope that the second volume makes me feel better about the series, and if not I’m sure it will be eye candy. happy valentines day!<33