harry@ucbarpa (08/25/85)
From: harry@ucbarpa (Harry I. Rubin) Subject: Re: review of Kelvin Mace #1 Newsgroups: net.comics In-Reply-To: <324@looking.UUCP> References: <9864@ucbvax.ARPA> Organization: University of California, Berkeley In article <324@looking.UUCP> Brad Templeton writes: >I think whether you enjoy Kelvin Mace depends on your style of humour. >The humour in this book is the humour of the absurd, the same sort of >thing you find in places like Monty Python. There's lots of Monty >Python that's far more violent, and people laugh at it. The Black Knight >from Holy Grail, "Salad Days", and almost all of "The Meaning of Life" are >examples of this. Now hold on there, you are impugning my sense of the absurd! My favorite humour is absurd humour. Yes, much of the Pythons' humour is absurd, and yes I enjoy much of it. But Mace is not absurd, at least not in the same way. In the Python humour, they lead you to expect one thing and then suddenly hit you with something completely different, something out of place, something which is, in short, absurd in the setting they've given you. Example: you think you are going to see normal movie credits, but you get nonsense about moose bits! Example: you think the bridgekeeper controls the magic guarding the bridge, but he gets swept away too (African or European swallow? Aaaaaaaaa!). The Black Knight bit is absurd in that you expect a knight to give up, or acknowledge defeat, when he is clearly defeated, but this guy doesn't. To tell you the truth, I thought the Black Knight bit was a bit grusome. Now in Kelvin Mace there is nothing unexpected like that. In fact, it is made abundantly clear that everyone EXPECTS Mace to act the way he does. They admire it, for gosh sakes! Mace's behavior is disgustingly consistant throughout the book. No surprises. Nothing absurd within the setting given us. Yes, Mace's behavior, and the whole setting of the comic are weird by our "normal" standards, but no one who is reading comic books has any business being surprised by a weird world, an unusual setting or background! Unusual worlds can be enjoyable if there is something clever, original, creative, about them. In Mace, the only difference is that Mace is a big tough guy who beats up on everyone within reach. Big deal. BTW, my favorite absurdity is (was) Howard the Duck. Scene: Howard opens the refrigerator to grab a midnight snack. Giant dill pickle jumps out and attacks him! (Chuckle!) >However, Kelvin Mace doesn't quite live up, and to be honest I think it >has a way to go. That's putting it mildly! >You might enjoy Stig #5. Never having looked at Stig before, I picked up #3 (the earliest on the rack). I found it mildly amusing. Kinda funny. It is funny in both ways that Mace misses: the setting is creative (a silly version of Hell) and strange, unexpected things happen (example: Stig talks a sea demon out of eating him!). >Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473 Thanks for you comments. I'm glad to hear your say, but I think in this case you are wrong to claim that Mace is humour of the absurd. Harry
brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (08/26/85)
I wasn't claiming that Mace is absurd in the sense of most Monty Python. I agree with most of the comments made. But MP has at times used exaggerated violence to good effect in the same way that Kelvin Mace does. Many people don't like that type of humour, but I found bits of it funny. Not up to the standards of Stig's Inferno, though. -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473