Lily of the Valley

- Zuda

I love Lily of the Valley.
I love the pinks. It's not black and white at all. The pink lends a world of meaning to every page. So beautiful.
I love the flamingos. A tacky example of suburban memorabilia turned into fearsome murder weapon.
Sidebar:
It can be a little bit too easy sometimes to hand an unusual murder weapon to a violent protagonist and call it a day. I don't believe that's what we see here. The lawn flamingo is such a suggestive object. When I imagine the sort of person who owns lawn flamingos I imagine someone who isn't entirely aware. Can you imagine a lady who thinks her lawn is trendy and attractive by having a few? Maybe she doesn't really 'get it'? Doesn't entirely understand why she's got to have flamingos but she plants a few anyways in hopes of fitting in.
See where I'm going with this?
But back to the lovefest....
I love the composition of the pages. Canted camera angles at all the right times, frequent close-ups but never at the expense of telling the story, aspect to aspect scene transitions that heighten the mood.
I love the song title hidden on the steps on page 15. Get the tune in your head next time you read through it.
I love that the mailbox on Mrs. Bellows front porch has a little pineapple on it. (There's a nice tie-in to my previous blog entry if you're interested in a fun fact about pineapples.)
I love the progression between this work and Mr. Atherton's first submission. There was obvious talent on display in 'Bleed', but everything fits together so much nicer this time. The look is more finished and more importantly the look complements the subject matter. I recall Gabe Ostley once explained that 'Teachers' was an attempt to draw a comic that looked like the kind of stuff you'd do in study hall in high school. I can appreciate the thought process but I think his storytelling was a little too advanced for that. Far better in my opinion to simply dumb down the choice of media as Adam Atherton has done with a look that screams sharpie marker. Still very polished but in a sharpie kinda way.
And I love the polishing of his marketing plan. The most impressive progression in his work was in the quality of his efforts to draw votes to him.

Ever since Melody finished up and Sheldon Vella apparently switched to a 'one page whenever he feels like it' update schedule (I still love your work mang. :-O ) I've been ever so slightly less involved in reading what Zuda has to offer. Lily of the Valley is rekindling my enthusiasm and I hope you'll give it another look if you haven't peeked at it since the win.

Daughter relief

- Daughter
Well the missus and I theorized that the baby was constipated. We got her some gas drops, switched to a formula with less iron, burped her more often and did these little bicycle motions with her legs. Tonight we've got a happy baby. Of course the tricky thing about babies is that it could just be a coincidence. Life playing a cruel trick on us. "Oh you thought you had her figured out? Well wait till I hit you with my next problem!"
But for the moment, we've got a happy baby.

- Music
Rihanna's 'Umbrella' - I once saw a youtube video of a guy 'one-man-band'-ing this song and doing a decent job of it. It's undeniably simple, but I've never had a problem with simple. I think the song is catchy enough, she's got a good set of pipes and it doesn't sound exactly like anything else on the radio so I like it.
Motley Crue 'Doctor Feelgood' - When I listen to this song it gets me pretty pumped up, but I also feel unexpected notes of self-assurance.
I think it's a byproduct of the song's structure. What I'm hearing is a series of leading statements followed by an affirmation, and that affirmation is comforting.
"He's the one they call Doctor Feelgood!" (statement)
Duh duh-duh duh duh duh duh duh (affirmation)
It's almost like an uptempo duet between Vince Neil and the rhythm section. Vince wails and the guitar wails, and sometimes the statement ends on a sustained note that sounds almost plaintive, but the pounding of the rhythm section always answers.

-Moon
Big news from the LCROSS mission. We smashed an old satellite into the Cabeus crater near the south pole of the Moon and spectral analysis of the dust plume conservatively suggests at least 24 gallons of water was dislodged by the impact.
This is a BIG DEAL if you're interested in going back to the Moon. A bone-dry Moon means it would be an engineering nightmare to build any sort of lab or habitat on the Moon's surface. Can't live or build anything or do any sort of meaningful science without access to water, and water is not easy to take with you.
Now that we have an idea of where to find water and how much is up there we may be able to create plans for an outpost using that information.
I'm still pretty gung-ho about going straight to Mars myself, but the Moon is okay.

-Comics
This is the second straight month that I'm just not that excited by the Zuda offerings. That's not a problem for me. I've come to expect months like this. I think the editors probably do some sort of grouping when they pick their competitors and I think there'll be a more appealing month coming soon. I will endorse 'Children of the Sewer' as my vote for November. The style of the art seems familiar, but I'm not sure who it reminds me of. Maybe Joe Kubert? He's a little before my time.