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2009.11.24

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It's interesting. I'm a young man of 18, and along with comics, music is kind of my "thing". I think I did the exclusionary thing you were mentioning earlier-I like to talk about this stuff with my friends whenever possible, I actually DO have bands that "save/d me" at certain points in my life...and I love Phonogram.

I think it's just a really specific comic for a really specific kind of person.

Which series is it that you've enjoyed and kept up with? Blurb up top says there's only been one so far. I'm guessing ... BATMAN AND ROBIN? Try out a random issue of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man.

Nina, there's definitely supposed to be some sort of link between music and mysticism in the series, but to be honest, I found the first Phonogram miniseries to be slightly incomprehensible as to what it actually was.

I guess "Hellblazer meets Pitchfork Media" is a concept some people would love, but really, I already liked Hellblazer, and replacing Constantine with a painfully smug douchebag talking like a rejected Pitchfork article never appealed much to me.

Yeah, the first or fourth issues in this 2nd volume might have worked better for Nina. Or not. "Phonogram" seems to be very much a love it or leave it kind of book...

Oh and in case you didn't know, "Powers" is starting up again this week...

The series she kept up with was a three issue Hellboy mini-series.

Phonogram is pretty freaking annoying, I agree. I have absolutely nothing to add here - we hate it for the same reasons.

My bands that I identified with were Public Enemy and the Wu-Tang. Both still make me happy.

Since everyone else is throwing in for which series you should keep up with, I vote The Muppet Show.

I dunno, I think one of the most important points of the original Phonogram volume was that the magic comes from the music-not from what people think or say about the music, but the songs themselves. That was sort of driven home when the main character was talking about the guitarist from the Manic Street Preachers. I think that alone doesn't make it a "Pitchfork" thing, since Pitchfork is all about the image and not the substance.

One of the things about her constantly quoting the same band is it's *supposed* to be annoying. It shows that she's essentially pretty vapid; the backmatter suggests it's not even really conscious on her part all the time. But yeah, reading the fifth issue of the series isn't a good way to approach it; each issue is a different characters perception of the same evening, and each issue adds layers. Right now you're basically coming in at the final third of Rashomon. Just not going to work.

While Phonogram does indeed feature the most face-punchable characters of any comic, ever, what confuses me more is all the praise heaped upon its artwork. It's not awful or anything, and of course it looks better than most superhero comics, but I have no idea what's supposed to be so remarkable about art that looks like photographs traced in Adobe Illustrator.

Phonogram is indeed pretty terrible stuff, like being trapped in a chemical toilet for a hot afternoon with the asshat from High Fidelity (which one? every character in High Fidelity is an asshat). It's even kind of worse, I think, if you actually get a large percentage of the references - watching these characters talk about music makes me never, ever want to listen to music again. It makes me hate music.

I thought the original Phonogram series was about maturing as a person while still holding onto the things you love. What's his face, the music wizard guy, is a pretty intolerable person, but the experiences he goes through change that, at least somewhat.

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