Yep, you read it right. A two-volume set of “graphic novels” coming to a comic store near you. RUN!!! RUN!!!
ummm, which graphic novels are you talkinh about? Theres lots of very good graphic novels.
Man, these people are giving new meaning to the words “milkin’ it.” Starting from a book series, yes, I admit, it’s ok to make a movie. And yes, I suppose a comic book is ok- after all, I liked the old Star Trek comics. But “Left Behind” for kids? Left Behind the TV show? Soon we’ll get all those instabooks like they had for Planet of the Apes- Buck Cameron’s journal and all that. The tsunami of stew has vastly overwhelmed the tiny morsel of meat they started with. (Don’t get me started on the latest ST tsunami. I liked it better when Joe Haldeman and company were the only people writing the novels. Mmmmmm… maybe I need to make a visit to the used bookstore.)
I actually listened to a bit of LB book 1 on unabridged book-on-tape. It’s incredible, really. I can honestly say, without exaggeration, that I didn’t really understand the concept of “cardboard characters” before this novel. I’ve never seen any characters so utterly and completely lacking any breath of life. LaHaye and Jenkins have absolutely zero concept of how to give characters individual voices.
At the same time, I’m reading The Haunting of Hill House, and at one point Eleanor stops at a coffee shop for a snack on her way to the house. The lady who serves her a donut appears in the book for only a page or two, but in those two pages you get far more of a feel for her as a human being than you get for the entire cast of LB.
The fundamentalist porn factor is really, really apparent too. It’s no wonder FoG thinks the novels are going to convert people to Christianity. Instead of real characterization, we get all the FC stereotypes and straw-man versions of why people don’t believe in FCism. Why isn’t Rayford Steele a Christian? It’s explicitly stated that he’s left behind because he’s too smart. And why was Buck Cameron and his family left behind? Because going to church doesn’t make you a Christian, just like going to McDonald’s doesn’t make you a hamburger. I suppose there’s no hope of ever meeting a character who just prayed to God and got no answer, eh? And, of course, to folks like FoG those stereotypes are truth incarnate, so of course he expects them to hit us right in the heart. It’s as if a White man gave a Black man a racist tract and told him that when he read it, he would see himself reflected in it and it would convince him to change his ways.
-Ben
I first heard about this on a Legion of Super-Heroes mailing list… former Legionnaires artist Jeffery Moy is slated to do the artwork.
Which means the artwork will be a little cartoony but not too hard on the eyes. Pity similar statements can’t be said about the writing…
I’m thinking I might pick up at least the first one and provide a review for the board. But six bucks seems kinda steep. And I’m not even sure if I can get my doctor to prescribe an anti-emetic.
I thought you were talking about comedians whose material consisted of joking about the apocalypse!
(BTW, should that word be capitalized?)
Quasi