I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: PETER WOLF CRIER-Tiny Desk Concert #74 (August 17, 2010).

When I saw the name of this band, I assumed it was Peter Wolf, the former lead singer of the J. Giels Band.  But indeed it is not (confusing much?).  Rather, it is a singer named Peter Paisano and his drummer Brian Moen.

They play three songs.  Paisano has a good voice.  But to me the highlight of this show is the drums.  Moen uses this really heavy-looking set of “brushes” that bring a deep resonance to his drums.

“Untitled 101” is short (all the songs are short with no guitar solos).  I like the breakdown when it’s just the drums.  “Saturday Night” he dedicates specifically to Bob Boilen.  It is a bit more dramatic in delivery.  The end has some nice hummed parts, but I find the sounds that Peter makes to be unsettling (more of a grunt than a hum), especially compared to the normal hums of Moen.  “Crutch & Cane” has a bit more of that unusual pronunciation, which I think I find more upsetting than interesting.

This was a short set, but I’m not likely to track down more from them.

[READ: May 26, 2015] Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman

I was never a big fan of Wonder Woman when I was growing up (I was a boy after all).  I never watched the show, really.  As it turns out, I had no idea about Wonder Woman’s origin story, which is totally fascinating (I also don’t know if it was ever introduced in the TV show).  Turns out that Wonder Woman’s real name is Diana.  She was a Princess on the Amazonian island of Paradise.  An island where only women lived.  And, most interestingly, she was made from clay when her mother could not bear a child of her own. Whoa!

So this book is a collection of short stories by different artists with very different styles.

“Gothamazon” was written by Gail Simone and illustrated by Ethan Van Sciver & Marcelo do Chiara.
This was a disconcerting first Wonder Woman story to read because WW is thrown right into Gotham (where she isn’t  usually I gather)  All the Gotham bad guys are there but Batman isn’t, for some reason.  WW is strong and sexy in this story (with massive breasts–although i guess she is an Amazon after all).  And she is able to do what the Bat couldn’t.

“Defender of Truth” was written by Amanda Deibert and illustrated by Cat Staggs.
This story has a very old school muted cartoon style. It’s a style I don’t like much –I never really liked comics when I was a kid.  But I like the story which plays with gods and adds Greek mythology to the story.  The best part comes at the end when (as if spoken to my younger self) a boy is saying how cool WW is.  The other boys tease him because she is a girl.  Then she shows up and gives him a kiss on the forehead and the other boys think that that is pretty awesome.

“Brace Yourself” was written by Jason Bischoff and illustrated by David A Williams .
This story had a very cartoony style, which I like.  It shows Diana as a young girl on Paradise Island.  She begins to grow up and is given her singular arm band.  She will receive the second if she can defeat her mother in battle.  Which she tries to do over and over as she gets older This was one of my favorites.

“Taketh Away” written by Ivan Cohen illustrated by Marcus To.
The main premise in this story is that WW offends the gods and they begin to drain her power.  This dates back to an episode when she appeared on TV and said that the gods didn’t need to be worshiped.  The TV host was interested in her but he may have ulterior motives.

“Bullets ad Bracelets” by Sean E. Williams and illustrated by Marguerite Sauvage.
This story really twists things around. WW is a guitarist in a band.  She totally rocks.  There’s a sexist character who is (dispatched).  The next scene is a very sweet one with little girls.   This story was brief but very cool

“Morning Coffee” written by Ollie Masters and illustrated by Amy Mebberson.
This story is done in a very unusual style–the characters are almost bobblehead-like.  It’s cool and quite unique.  In the story, WW gets into battle with Catwoman who counts on WW needing her morning coffee (!) to do her job.  I didn’t know Catwoman was bad.  Huh.

“No Chains Can Hold Her” written and illustrated by Gilbert Hernandez.
Hernandez has a unique style such that WW’s arms are preposterously huge  It’sa little disconcerting (and yet I knew it was him instantly). In this story she fights off some invading aliens.  And then she gets into a battle with Supergirl and Ms Marvel   It’s an interesting look at these three characters.

“Attack of the 500-Foot Wonder Woman” written by Rob Williams and illustrated by Tom Lyle.
The story begins with WW as, yes a 500 foot woman.  Not sure why exactly.  She fights a giant monster and then is able to assist him when he reveals himself to be a shape shifter.  I enjoyed the way this one ended with a cool twist.  And it’s the first instance of her invisible jet!

“Ghosts and Gods” written by Neil Kleid and illustrated by Dean Haspeil.
This story has a cartoony style and introduces Etta Candy, a character I don’t know at all.  There’s talk that she is WW’s helper but I don’t know. Anyhow, the main focus of this story is the arrival of the Ghost Deadman who inhabits Etta’s body while she is knocked unconscious.  He mostly tries to convince WW that he is really a ghost as they escape from their confinement.

“Dig for Fire” written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman illustrated by Gabriel Hardman.
The final story is a very stark and almost monochrome story. I didn’t like it particularly because of that.  There was a lot of action and not all that much dialogue and I had a hard time telling exactly what was going on.  It was also the longest story in the book, so it was a shame to end on that one.

Overall though it was an interesting introduction to Wonder Woman and her history.  I liked everyone’s different points of view on her stories, which were pretty cool too.  I wish more of the stories were written by women, though.