IHAF ... A. Lee Martinez

It is A. LEE MARTINEZ APPRECIATION DAY!  Someone strike up the samba music, let's dance!

What do you mean, I just used this article as an excuse to post all my favorite dancing gifs?  You, sir or madam, are ill informed.  I used A. LEE MARTINEZ APPRECIATION DAY as an excuse to talk about one of my favorite authors writing today.  So what is so great about A. Lee Martinez's writing that I have to do not one, not two, but SEVEN dancing gifs?  Well, let me explain.

Back in college, and I am unsure how I came upon the book or who got me into it, but somewhere along the way I got a copy of Gil's All Fright Diner.  An innocuous little book, with a splendidly silly, semi- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy looking book.  Read the back, and I find it has vampires and werewolves and ghosts and zombies and cthullu-esque creatures, all mixing it up around a small diner.  It was an odd conceit, so I read it.  And it was really good.

That was a lot of build up, with all the other gifs, for just "really good."

I liked the book.  It read exactly like a film I wanted to see.  EXACTLY, in fact, as I pictured Owen Wilson and Brad Garrett as the main characters Duke and Earl (they don't get the joke), a werewolf and a vampire who are just dudes, not monsters.  And that's the magic of A. Lee Martinez books.  But let me continue telling the story, there, chumbawumba.

I liked the book.  I definitely didn't love it, but it was fun, with great characters, good scenes ... it really is a good book.  So I went back to Books-a-Million and grabbed the other A. Lee Martinez book they had, In the Company of Ogres.  That book ... I liked less.  It had some bits that were good, and I liked the lead character, but as a pretty straight forward fantasy book, even with some tongue-in-cheek-ness to it, I felt it wallowed around in way too many characters and just wasn't that enjoyable.  It felt like fantasy Stripes, like it was missing the meat that elevated Gil's with its really good characters.

So I shelved Mr. Martinez's books for awhile.  A few years in fact.

So I suppose none of this is sounding the most positive it could be.  But ahh, you are missing the wonderful thing here.  A man is not defined by two books.  He is defined by ... well I mean, too many things to calculate, because you cannot distill a man down just based on the writing of two books he wrote.  And I never stopped thinking about those books, like them or not as the case legitimately was.

I eventually went looking for another book by him.  I saw The Automatic Detective, which is a science fiction film noir.  I gave it a shot ...

This editorial is already long.  Come on!

Holy crap you guys, holy crap, the Automatic Detective is a flippin' AMAZING book.  It did everything I loved about Gil's, with its real, fully fleshed characters, but then created this amazing atmosphere of pulpy dread, terror, and adventure.  Mack Megaton, the book's protagonist, is one of my favorite characters I've ever read, period.  And the book itself, a few years removed from In the Company of Ogres, really excelled.  I was hooked.

Next up was Monster, another book with an incredible set of characters, and awesome big ole adventure, and really grounded emotions and thoughts.  This time, we have a cryptid exterminator, who takes care of those goblins under the bed or the yetis that wander into your supermarket.  Why this isn't a movie starring the Rock is BEYOND ME.

After Monster was Divine Misfortune, where worshiping a god was more akin to really bad online dating, and every pantheon of myth's gods existed.  Once again, we got awesome characters in our human protagonists, an African-American couple, and their decided up god, Luka, a happy-go-lucky (literally, he is a luck god) raccoon.  Once again, we got a great pulpy high adventure story.  And even better, just like in the past two books, we get realistic characters.

All of these books might sound like they are Terry Pratchett in nature, comedy mixed with genre.  But that's what you are missing!  In fact, what a lot of people are missing about Mr. Martinez's books.  There is a very subtle bias that readers have towards "genre" and "comedy."  Both are seen as light, without substance.  Just look at the Oscars, which to a fault award films that are dramatic or historic and actors who are dour or "realistic" with their amazing awards, even though other films come around that are better, with better acting, but because they may be Space Opera starring a raccoon and a talking tree, they may not get the same recognition.  A. Lee Martinez's books have may have a colorful cover and a premise that is filled with pulpy wonderful goodness, but his books have a backbone of truly skilled writing and plotting, and characters with real emotions, choices, and relationships.  When you think of these books, or really most forms of entertainment, as "genre" or "comedy," what you are subtly thinking is that they are worth less than other books or films or television shows.  We need to stop that.  And I think buying up all of Mr. Martinez's books is the best way to do it!

Divine Misfortune lead me to Chasing the Moon, an intriguing but not quite as good book centered around cthullu-esque mythos.  But for every book of his I don't care for, three more arise that make me fall in love.  In quick succession we got: Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain, which has one of the most complicated protagonists I've ever read, and was fabulous; Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest, a send-up to the "Hero's Journey" with even more incredible characters, that I in fact wrote a review of a year or so ago; and One of These Doomsdays, which you can find online for some crazy wonderful reason, as he isn't publishing it, which is BONKERS because I am LOVING IT!  It isn't finished yet, and I hope he ends up publishing it anyway, because I want it on my shelf.

To top it all off, I've been going backwards and reading the books I skipped.  I'm enjoying but struggling through Too Many Curses, and I still need to get A Nameless Witch.  I also need to rebuy Chasing the Moon and In the Company of Ogres, as my own copies have been lost.  To top all THAT off, I helped fund a short story book he wrote which featured a short story for each of his ten published books!  That is coming in the mail to my home any day now, and I cannot wait to dive into it.

To top all THAT OFF, I am an avid reader of his website, as he blogs about film, television, writing, and all sorts of stuff.  He and I don't see quite eye to eye on some things, but man oh man, we both tend to have the same opinion when it comes to "darker and grittier is better" that was sweeping through our entertainment not long ago.  Even when I don't agree with him, I love hearing his thoughts.  He shares them all the time on twitter and facebook as well.  And he writes other short stories and flash fiction you can check out all the time.  I was even able to send in a suggestion that he wrote a flash fiction of, which of course is awesome.

I am inspired to write because of A. Lee Martinez's books.  I am inspired to write because of his opinions.  I am inspired to work harder, to maybe see more of my writing published.  And even better, I am inspired to read.  I don't read as much as I used to.  I suspect most people don't.  So let's change that.  It is a new year, so let's fix that!  Go to amazon or Barnes and Noble or Books-a-Million or wherever you can, buy an A. Lee Martinez book, your favorite I talked about, or my favorite, or the ones I liked least to see if you agree.  Let's support an author who is writing exciting, incredibly well made books that don't have to choose between having good characters and good story.

And THAT is how I am going to celebrate my January 12th, A. Lee Martinez Appreciation Day.

I Have a Favorite ... author, A. Lee Martinez

A quick grade guide to each of his published novels I've read completely

Gil's All Fright Diner - Grade: B+

In the Company of Ogres - Grade: C-

A Nameless Witch - n/a

The Automatic Detective - Grade: A+++

Too Many Curses - n/a

Monster - Grade: A++

Divine Misfortune - Grade: B+

Chasing the Moon - Grade: B

Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain - Grade: A++

Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest - Grade: A+++

IHAO on ... Guardians of the Galaxy

What is there to say?

I mean, I watched the movie twice opening weekend.  I know for a fact I'll be seeing it again in theaters.  I know for a fact that I'll own it on blu-ray.  I saved the movie tickets so I can have them inside the blu-ray, because I feel it is important.  And I've done that for exactly one other movie, and that one was because it was my first movie date with my now-wife then-date-partner.  I put up a quickie review on facebook and tumblr (you should really follow me there, too, if you don't).  It is great.  It is beyond great.  It is the best summer movie I've ever seen.  It is the best comic book film I've ever seen.  It is superbly directed down to minuscule detail.  It is superbly acted.

Let me harp on that for a moment.  In the majority of scenes, you had three actors who were actually there and two stand-ins.  The two stand-ins did a very good job, but really, on set, there were only three out of the five major stars there.  The energy between actors there and not ... that is something that you would think would impact the film.  Yet, Rocket and Groot are never NOT there.  Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel are part of the movie just as strongly, seemingly, as the other three leads.  But they were not there, in person.  Their voices weren't added until after the film was basically shot.  Yet Groot and Rocket are very much a part of the franchise.  It was emotional to see them react and act and grow and change.

After the second viewing, one of the folks at the theatre with us asked me what I thought about the movie not having a story.  It had plot: go get the thing, bring it here, stop the guy from getting it, get it from the guy.  But he wondered how there was no story.  And I wonder if others think that as well.  But I can very much assuredly tell all of you, readers, that there is a story.  It is a story about character.  It is a story about making difficult decisions.  It is a story about what it means to be "good."  These characters never stop being "a-holes" as the trailer and the movie constantly refers to them.  But there is a marked difference in them as the film progresses.  They learn to trust.  They learn to love.  They learn they are not alone.  They have friends.

And that is a HUGE deal.  This is not a movie or story about family.  Family bonds are easy to write about.  It is not about love or significant others.  It is about a group of people becoming friends.  It is not just circumstances that bring them together and they have to save the galaxy!  No, they are brought together because of their actual actions and choices.  And they save the galaxy because they choose to.  It is about choice.

The movie isn't perfect.  There are some silly things, like that most bladed props are rounded, and some of the CGI mouth shapes do not match the words being said by the CGI characters.  But those things do not actually matter.  What we are were given broke every single mold.  There was no "good enough."  There was no "small part."  There was no same-old-same-old tropified story.  What we watched was ... well ...

Marvelous.

Excuse the pun.

Go see the movie.  If you don't, you'll be that dumbie that didn't see Star Wars: A New Hope in the theaters when they had the chance.

Grade: A+++

Oh, and the after credits sequence.  It doesn't matter.  It is a fun joke for comics fans, and that is all.  It leads to no further plots or films.  Guardians of the Galaxy is standalone.  Except for the fact that they started working on a sequel a week before the film's opening weekend, and part of the credits let us in the audience know for a fact that there would be another.  But yeah, anyway.  Go see it.

A little bit more, bulletpoint form

• Every single actor is amazing at what they do, and they are all my favorite
• Every single song is purposeful, and relevant
• Every single shot is exactly what the director/writer wanted them to be
• Every single person involved is proud of what they created

IHAF ... One Piece

All right, so now that I'm 155 episodes in, I suppose I finally feel confident enough to talk about what has easily become the best anime I have ever seen in my life, with the best writing and art design, music, themes, and just ... everything.

I Have a Favorite (Anime) ... One Piece

One Piece is a hugely long running anime.  I own 6 collections of it currently, and there are three more to be bought, and many more episodes created, waiting to be dubbed, subbed, and Funimation-ed so I can add them to my collection.  I watched it when 4Kids had it, it was fine, but I got tired of it.  I decided to, on a whim after talking with my roommate, give it another go.  I love the Pirates films, I love fantasy, and I'm a fan of good shows, anime, cartoon, live-action, whatever, and I have never heard a bad thing said about One Piece.  So ...

Yup, I got nothing bad to say either.  Because it is perfect.  Even the filler episodes have a purpose, which is hilariously obnoxious.  I can't, won't, and don't want to skip the episodes made to be pallette cleansers between arcs.  Not only that, but this show is perfectly plotted.  Let's talk about that a moment.

Many animes start you out in the middle of the story, or at least a little bit after the beginning of the story, and then after a few episodes, backtrack you to the actual beginning of the story.  It is an irritating practice, and one that if you do too much, makes you start to go a little insane, as I showed reviewing Attack on Titan.  Yes, we do get backstory and flashbacks, but they show up when they are narratively important, to give us a better understanding of these characters.  For all intents and purposes, we start this journey with Luffy, riding along in a barrel, waiting to be opened up.

I mentioned the characters before, and yes, these characters are great.  They are fully fleshed out and complete, with weaknesses, strengths, likes, dislikes, goals, dreams, flaws, and are completely realized.  It is so wonderful to see a cast of 7 now (a new cast member was just added) and for me to be able to completely immerse within them.  I know these characters as well as I know the best characters from any book or film.  And there is still more to learn, and still points to be surprised, as well as times to watch them grow and change, as Usopp becomes braver, as Luffy becomes wiser, as Nami becomes more trusting, and as Zoro learns to open up more.

The plot of the show, well, metaplot, as with episodic shows you have other plots going on, is that they are pirates going out for not only their own goals, but to find the One Piece, a great treasure lost in the Grand Line, a dangerous current filled with dangerous islands.  It is a battle anime, just like Ranma 1/2 (the first one, and my other favorite anime, whose collection sits nicely next to One Piece, both unfinished ... for now) or Dragonball Z or Yu-yu Hakusho (man, I gotta get this too ... ).  Our heroes have villains that stand in the way of their goals, and they take them down, to move on to the next.

Except One Piece is different from all the three the others I mentioned.  One Piece is truly character driven.  It isn't about doing your Spirit Cop duty, or competing in more and more ridiculous Anything Goes Martial Arts challenges.  Luffy is going to become the king of the pirates ... somehow, he isn't quite sure.  Zoro will prove he is the world's greatest swordsman, even though he pretty early on learns he is nowhere near good enough and he continues to train to reach that goal.  Sanji looks for a mythical paradise for a chef like himself, as well as love (though that is very much something we are meant to infer, as he would never say it directly ... or well, maybe he does, just not seriously).  Usopp's goals are a little more amorphous, to become a better man, a man worthy of the woman he loves and left behind.  Nami wants to map the dangerous Grand Line, creating the first grand map of the world.  And so on and so on.  Instead of "guy shows up, wants to destroy world or inact some other evil plot, good guys stop them" we have our heroes finding their way to where they are going, and because of their CHARACTER, they stop the bad guys, or help the people around them.

Not only that, but sometimes they fail.  Of course, as heroes, they ultimately will win (or at least, I believe they will).  But still, sometimes they fail as they go on their journey.  Sometimes they make big mistakes.  Sometimes their own character flaws make things more difficult.

Not only THAT, but One Piece gets around one of the biggest problems of a battle anime: exponential power growth.  Super Saiyan sure was cool, yeah?  Well, nope, it sucks, because they eventually reach Super Saiyan 4.  Really?!  4?  Ok, how does that even begin to make sense?  And lots of animes work like this, with people just getting more and more powerful, and villains becoming more and more ridiculously powerful to counteract the heroes power, which means that the heroes get more powerful again ... it is non-stop.

But One Piece is more clever than that.  155 episodes in, and the only character that has trained at ALL is Zoro, and that is a character choice - he pushes himself to continue to train.  Luffy may have learned a new way to do what he does, but in the end, he isn't Super Luffy.  He is the same power level as he was before.  But how do they keep the stakes high?  By having every challenge be a different problem.  I would love to spoil stuff, to be able to better explain, such as with Crocodile, or with Arlong.  But nah, just go watch it!  It is glorious in how they are able to masterfully tell stories without ridiculous character power growth.

I could gush on and on and on.  And I hope you enjoyed hearing/reading me gush as far as I did.  But ultimately, I plead you find a way to start watching if you can.  I didn't even begin to talk about the amazing water color artistry to accompany the unique character designs, or the amazing music, or the incredibly talented Funimation American voice actors.  I cannot get enough of this show.  I devour it as fast as I can, and will be getting Collection 7 as soon as possible so I can continue to do so.

A+++++++, all the pluses.

Edit: P.S. There really needs to be a parody of Pharrel's "Happy" with "Luffy".  I'mma find it!

IHAF ... Man in the Box

The internet is a magic place.  Not literally of course, because magic doesn't exist.  And no, I do not agree with or believe in the stupid technology=magic garbage that is in the Thor movies, and a bunch of other stuff.  I absolutely hate that garbage.  Let the two things be different!  They serve different purposes, narratively, and flavorfully.  Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

On the internet, there is a lot of great content.  A lot of pretty good content.  A lot of good content.  And a whole heap ton of absolute, complete and utter garbage.  Even among the great stuff, though, it is hard to sift through things.  This isn't like a good television show, which even the BAD ones had a million or so viewers.  This is about 30K or 40K views, a pretty relatively small number.  A number I'd kill for, certainly, but it isn't amazing or ground  breaking stuff.  And a lot of great content exists at that rate.  And Man in the Box is just that.

I Have a Favorite (Internet Show) ... Man in the Box

There aren't a lot of gifs of this to share with you all, but I can easily post a LOT of videos.  Because the Man in the Box crew created HUNDREDS of videos, all just a few minutes long, and almost all of them absolutely great.  The Man in the Box stuff is created by a comedian, Mike Polk, who has some internet celebrity of his own with other videos, such as the Cleveland Tourism video that I see pass around on Tumblr every now and again, or his One Semester of Spanish Spanish Love Song.

It stars his sketch comedy group, Last Call Cleveland, playing all the roles in an office job as Mike himself plays slacker/jackass Greg, a screw-up who hates his life, his job, and everyone around him, and is just trying to survive.  And from there, we reach the genius and great comedy of the show.  I find myself just indulging myself in more and more in short order, and you can sit through a good handful of them in the span it takes to watch a single episode of The League or something else that won't be nearly as funny.  Not only that, they have other little shows that are definitely worth your time on here as well, specifically Hangover Regrets and the Greg's Office Tormentors, which is just a talking heads quick Q&A in character with all the people in the Man in the Box show.

I highly suggest you take a look.  I embedded my favorite Man in the Box episode above, but I'll link to the channel RIGHT HERE, too.  Give it a chance, it is great comedic stuff.

IHAF ... Angel

IHAF is exactly what it seems like … ok, maybe it isn’t the easiest to decipher acronym.  It stands for “I Have a Favorite.”  The purpose of these little articles is so I can talk about other things that I love.  I try to keep IHAO to my first true impressions on things to review, but IHAF will let me chat about something I absolutely love and just want to share with you all.  Everything I talk about on an IHAF will be something I grade A+++.  With all that said, here we go …

I Have a Favorite (television show) ... Angel

For the past few weeks, I’ve been going from episode one through the entire show with my wife, who hadn't seen any of it other than an episode here or there on syndication.  We just finished season 3.  It is always a little hard to share something you love with someone you love, because if they don’t like it … well, that doesn’t matter, because she likes it a lot.  :D

Angel is the spin-off from Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  It became its own show very quickly without Buffy, though, and a stronger one, in my opinion.  The show starts as a take on a “dark avenger” Batman style hero, with Angel helping save people from the dark things in LA.  It slowly starts to delving into deeper ideas, though, as the line between what is “evil” and what is “good” gets blurred.  In the first episode we are introduced to a villainous law firm of humans, sure, but most already are fine with the conceit of evil lawyers.   But soon, we find demons who need saving, humans who aren’t what they seem, and Gunn, a man who is just as powerful and competent as our vampire protagonist.

It quickly became a very character driven, arching story show that never held anything back.  The arching stories are amazing, and the show never shied away from doing something difficult and letting characters go through difficult journeys.  I love the show, absolutely.

We are actually about to get into my least favorite season with my least favorite new season regular, which is what prompted me to talk about Angel.  Even at the lowest point of my favorite show, I am remembering all the things I love even in those terrible low points.  At Angel’s lowest, it is still stronger than most shows.  I compare it to shows like Supernatural or Buffy, and it shocks me to see how little fluff or pure episodic episodes there are.  Every story, every episode, it has a point and a purpose furthering the plot and the arcs of these characters.  Fred, Gunn, Cordy, Wesley, Angel, Lorne, all of these are full fleshed out characters.  They never become flanderized, like Sam has in Supernatural or Charlie has in It’s Always Sunny in Philedelphia.

How should I feel?  I'll just do all the feelings and see which one sticks.

Talking about how good a Whedon show is may seem pointless, but I really do think that Angel doesn’t get enough attention when it comes to being an amazing show.  Buffy, while good, even possibly great, never delved into the story strengths that Angel did, and its characters were nowhere near as full and complex.  Firefly, while fun, is basically a series of standalones since it did not have a chance to get going.  Dollhouse, while very very good, also didn’t hit its stride until it got rid of its episodic nature, which it never could truly shake.  If Angel has missed your radar, I definitely would suggest you give it a look.