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Mignolaversity
I'm one of three members of the Mignolaversity team on [URL="http://multiversitycomics.com/"]Multiversity Comics[/URL]. My job is primarily to write the Hell Notes column. Since this thread was lost on the old forums, here're some links to past columns:
[LIST][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-hellboy-in-hell-1-3/"]Hell Notes: [I]Hellboy in Hell[/I] #1-3[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-hellboy-in-hell-4/"]Hell Notes: [I]Hellboy in Hell[/I] #4[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-what-the-hell-is-vril/"]Hell Notes: What the Hell Is Vril?[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-vampires/"]Hell Notes: Vampires![/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-the-special-sciences-service/"]Hell Notes: The Special Sciences Service[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-who-the-heck-is-hecate/"]Hell Notes: Who the Heck Is Hecate?[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-b-p-r-d-grunts/"]Hell Notes: B.P.R.D. Grunts[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-zinco-industries/"]Hell Notes: Zinco Industries[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-the-races-of-man/"]Hell Notes: The Races of Man[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/20-years-of-hellboy/"]Hell Notes: Celebrating 20 Years of Hellboy[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-the-fiery-elizabeth-sherman/"]Hell Notes: The Fiery Elizabeth Sherman[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-mystery-fenix/"]Hell Notes: The Mystery of Fenix[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-hell-family/"]Hell Notes: A Hell of a Family[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-nazis/"]Hell Notes: Nazis![/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-a-hell-of-a-love-life/"]Hell Notes: A Hell of a Love Life[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-gods-and-monsters/"]Hell Notes: Gods and Monsters[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-the-black-flame/"]Hell Notes: The Black Flame[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-lobster-johnson/"]Hell Notes: Lobster Johnson[/URL][*]Hell Notes: Past, Present, and Future[LIST][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-hellboy-past-present-and-future-1/"]Part 1[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-hellboy-past-present-and-future-2/"]Part 2[/URL][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/hell-notes-hellboy-past-present-and-future-3/"]Part 3[/URL][/LIST][*][URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/mignolaversity-reading-order-2015/"]The Mignolaversity Reading Order[/URL][/LIST]
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Good stuff Mark! Companion 2.0 right here.
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Aaaaaaaand of course I put a typo in the thread title 9_9
EDIT: And Gdeo was awesome and fixed it for me. Thanks!
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That looks rad. Probably gonna work my way through these during lunch tomorrow.
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[QUOTE=Star-Lord;15262]That looks rad. Probably gonna work my way through these during lunch tomorrow.[/QUOTE]
Skip the first two... those are pretty embarrassing.
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[QUOTE=middenway;15474]Skip the first two... those are pretty embarrassing.[/QUOTE]
Shouldn't have said that. Reads them right now.
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[QUOTE=Star-Lord;15496]Shouldn't have said that. Reads them right now.[/QUOTE]
Curse you!
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Boy, the Mignolaversity for Hellboy in Hell #6 was pretty bad. Maybe they should get someone who likes the book to talk about the book?
Personally, I thought this was the best issue of 'in Hell' so far, so I can't relate to that "review" at all. I much prefer the Hellnotes articles, or when they actually dig into the work. 'I don't like the style of the book' isn't a very good review.
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[QUOTE=Joker;79025]Boy, the Mignolaversity for Hellboy in Hell #6 was pretty bad. Maybe they should get someone who likes the book to talk about the book?
Personally, I thought this was the best issue of 'in Hell' so far, so I can't relate to that "review" at all. I much prefer the Hellnotes articles, or when they actually dig into the work. 'I don't like the style of the book' isn't a very good review.[/QUOTE]
I find myself consistently disagreeing with Mignolaversity reviews too, especially in their judgment of the Abe series and now Hellboy in Hell #6. Doesn't really feel worth it to read the reviews when they sometimes seem to just skim the stories and also openly admit to disliking aspects of the comics that I personally love. Oh well, opinions!
Their resources, special articles, and events Mignolaversity have organized have all been fantastic, though!
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[QUOTE=cantide;81001]I find myself consistently disagreeing with Mignolaversity reviews too, especially in their judgment of the Abe series and now Hellboy in Hell #6. Doesn't really feel worth it to read the reviews when they sometimes seem to just skim the stories and also openly admit to disliking aspects of the comics that I personally love. Oh well, opinions!
Their resources, special articles, and events Mignolaversity have organized have all been fantastic, though![/QUOTE]
I feel to agree on both the disagreement onto the reviews as well as the events and especially the Hell Notes to seeming fantastic.
Disagreement toward the reviews mainly sounding mostly pretty rigid or one-dimensional in its sensemaking [B]BUT[/B]:
a good thing of that could be that it might strengthen or empower more typical superhero comic fans onto trying Mignolaverse stuff out for themselves!
Most Big Two superhero stuff seems explained as primarily rigid and 'safe' and classifiable much, as if a lot of readers would be liking such rigidity typically, more rather than any risking all too openmindedness or imaginativeness much.
Especially many if not all the big Hollywood 'comics movies'.
So if Mignolaversity could be introducing new readers to Hellboy etc., even as seeming a bit one-dimensial about it, I would consider such a good thing, because as wild or weird as any of the Hellverse might seem, I'd hardly think it meant to be hard or difficult at all.
Just like how jazz music or Richard Pryor's jokes or Franz Kafka's writings wouldn't neededly be meant to be super hard to get, since any of it seems super straightforward due to being designed for making itself apparent as immediately or easily as being graphical or organically its own thing.
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I stand by my Abe Sapien reviews. If you find them one dimensional, I'm sorry. I put a lot of hard work into them, trying to make them real reviews, not just saying if I like or dislike something, but digging into the whys. In the case of my Abe Sapien #11 review, I wrote it, finished it, then threw it out and completely re-wrote it. I thought long and hard about that one, and it was utterly joyless to write, because I wanted love it. My reviews are as much an exploration of myself as they are an exploration of the material. I use the words "l think" a lot to emphasise this is an opinion, not a fact. I believe this is an important distinction make.
And I don't think David or Brian's reviews are one dimensional either, even when I don't agree with them. This week I was surprised Brian didn't enjoy Abe as much as I did, when I thought it was incredible. Really jaw-droppingly incredible. And David's review for Hellboy in Hell was surprising too. But part of the reason we have three reviewers is to get varied points of view. And we strive to be honest.
So while there are plenty of one dimensional reviews out there, I don't think you'll ever find them on Mignolaversity.
[QUOTE=cantide;81001]Doesn't really feel worth it to read the reviews when they sometimes seem to just skim the stories and also openly admit to disliking aspects of the comics that I personally love. Oh well, opinions!
Their resources, special articles, and events Mignolaversity have organized have all been fantastic, though![/QUOTE]
I never skim. I've read an issue at least twice before writing a review. But as you said, it's just opinions. No reviewer can offer more than that. I'm glad you like the other stuff we do though. Hell Notes is so much work, and it's nice to know it's not for nothing.
[QUOTE=Joker;79025]Boy, the Mignolaversity for Hellboy in Hell #6 was pretty bad. Maybe they should get someone who likes the book to talk about the book?[/QUOTE]
David's past reviews of Hellboy in Hell have been very positive. He definitely likes the book. This one just hit a wrong note with him. It happens.
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[QUOTE=Kees_L;81386]
So if Mignolaversity could be introducing new readers to Hellboy etc., even as seeming a bit one-dimensial about it, I would consider such a good thing, because as wild or weird as any of the Hellverse might seem, I'd hardly think it meant to be hard or difficult at all.[/QUOTE]
I'm so grateful for all the buzz Mignolaversity has helped to develop around HB, BPRD, and Abe Sapien in the past year or so. They've done such a great job organizing events, conducting interviews, getting the word out! I'm sure all that work has brought in some new readers.
However, Mignolaversity reviews are not written to attract potential readers--or if they are, they're not accomplishing that at all. Mignolaversity reviews appear to be written for the entertainment of current fans, given that the reviewers regularly discuss previous events and also the specific events of the issues they are reviewing. They're basically highly exclusive, spoiler-filled critiques and speculative discussion between longtime fans.
I feel that a potential new reader checking out a Mignolaversity review would get A) an eyeful of spoilers, and B) a generally negative impression of the modern Mignolaverse, depending upon which review they end up reading. And that concerns me. Reviewers have the right to their own opinions, and inflating scores just to get people interested would be unethical, but the grading of a lot of the most recent issues has been so harsh I wouldn't be surprised if it did leave a negative impression on some people and turn them off of buying the books.
All issues of personal opinions about the comics aside, there's a [B]huge [/B] difference between reviewing a comic for the benefit of the general public and reviewing it for an already-existing group of fans who you know are all up to speed with you. To be fair, it doesn't seem like Mignolaversity has ever intended its reviews to be useful for the general public, and that's fine--because they haven't been. I'm actually not sure what purpose the reviews serve, other than as a bit of self-indulgent entertainment for the authors. And that's cool, but they could do so much more with it than that.
If I could see any change in Mignolaversity in the future, it would be that they begin to provide simple, spoiler-free reviews that skip the inter-commentator debate and rather place their focus on the review's [I]readers[/I] instead of its [I]writers[/I]. It is fun to talk among yourselves about your favorite comics, but it provides no real service to readers who just want to know whether they should check out this cool new comic without being spoiled on it. The clear intent of Mignolaversity's reviews is to nitpick, theorize, and discuss each issue, but presenting only that kind of narrative in reviews may be intimidating to less-informed fans, and may leave the impression on a new reader that the comics are hopelessly complicated and there's no use in trying them out. I think it would be cool to start a more inclusive, reader-focused initiative to simply talk about what makes issue X exciting, why you should look forward to series Y, etc., without delving deep into the mythology or turning people away with too many spoilers.
But of course, it's not my website. Maybe I should just write my own reviews and stop worrying about it.
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[QUOTE=middenway;81799]I never skim. I've read an issue at least twice before writing a review. I'm glad you like the other stuff we do though. Hell Notes is so much work, and it's nice to know it's not for nothing.[/QUOTE]
I know you don't skim! I was just so surprised a few months back to see the others so confused about details in the comics that were totally clear to me, and my friends, on the first read-through. Because of things like that, some of their comments and interpretations feel careless sometimes.
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I know exactly what you're talking about... the goat! That was one I wasn't reviewing, and I admit, I DID skim that one. (I was only reviewing [I]Baltimore[/I] back then) The review copies we get are watermarked with the Dark Horse logo, and honestly, sometimes it messes with the composition of the page. I find the watermark especially frustrating when reading an Mignola-drawn story, because he uses negative space a lot, and the watermark really interferes with that.
But yeah, on second read, reading a physical copy, it was obvious. It still didn't have the impact I wanted from it though. I caught what happened, but I wanted some acknowledgement between Abe and... uh... I forget the girl's name now. But her. And I wanted a panel where she her father were framed together in full. If the last page had been two, it would have had the space to hit the notes I wanted from the scene.
I'm really glad to see other reviewers are enjoying [I]Abe Sapien[/I] #12 too. That book's a gem, and I want everyone to know about it. Seriously, I am so excited about Abe at the moment. It eclipsed a new [I]Hellboy in Hell[/I], which I would have thought was unthinkable. I mean, it's [I]Hellboy in Hell[/I]!
For me, an excellent book will never score more than an 8. Grades above 8 are reserved for the truly exceptional, the stuff that sticks, the stuff that gets me ridiculously excited. Abe was a 9.5. (I don't believe in awarding 10s, so this is essentially the highest rating I could give).
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It could've had more impact, but at the same time I personally loved the little subtle wavy transformation line of Elena's back leg--but this is neither the time nor the place ;)