h1

the devil does not jest, but he might sell you amway

October 3rd, 2011 by | Tags: , , ,

Ugh man, I think I should do something I hate doing, so I’m going to give you something I like first and then just do it.

From Abe Sapien: The Devil Does Not Jest, written by Mike Mignola/John Arcudi, drawn by James Harren, and colored by Dave Stewart:


I don’t have any real insight or in-depth mind-blowing criticism here. I just love how wet and vicious this fight scene is. Abe embedding the monster in the wall with his knife (look at his hands!), that punch (BAM) on the next page, and again on the page after that… and all the while, fluid is flying like it’s Mortal Kombat. This is the second time I’m writing about wonderfully bloody fight scenes in the past 24 hours (the other isn’t live yet, but I’ll link it), but basically, I just love how this looks. It’s disgusting and visceral.

Casanova changed when it was colored and all of the blood was suddenly visible. It changed the tone of the book. It made it… wetter. This is the same. It’s an ugly fight, even with the John McClane impression Abe’s got going on in page one, and I just love how Abe wrecks these things. The pools of blood on that last page especially. You get the sense that there Abe expended real effort while wiping the floor with these monsters.

Comics: more blood please. More sweat. More fluid. You can save those antiseptic, neat freak fight scenes for the children’s comics that children don’t actually read.

You can buy The Devil Does Not Jest (how good is that title? I thought they stole it from Milton at first) at your local dispensary or buy it on Dark Horse Digital on 10/19. (There’s a schedule, which is sadly free of Usagi Yojimbo but positively flush with Groo and BPRD.)


Okay, this part sucks (for me), BUT–you can help support 4thletter! if you want to. The site’s more expensive than it used to be (thanks to viewers like you, and I guess people on message boards hijacking images), and I’m fine with paying for it, but I do have ways to defray the costs. Long story short, though, I hate ads (see the ugly Project Wonderful ads on display right now, which will be gone once I have enough money to withdraw and cancel my account again) and I like doing Amazon Associates.

AA went away earlier this year, but it’s back, so now it’s back on 4thletter!. (Or will be.) Basically, if you shop through Amazon after clicking on (for example) this link, then 4thletter! gets a portion of the proceeds from your purchase. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, and in fact, it’s invisible. It’s low, like six to ten percent, depending on what was purchased. I can’t see what you buy specifically, but I can tell what sells, if that makes sense. I get a report that says I sold X copies of Y, but not who bought it.

You can also use the search box on the right, or click the hyperlinked titles of trades when I write about things. So if I recommend Adam Warren’s Empowered Volume 1 or the Amazon Instant Video version of Takeshi Miike’s 13 Assassins, you could click those links, buy it, and I would get… I dunno, fifty cents? Something.

So, basically, I hate charity. For myself, I mean. I’m not so poor that I can’t afford to host a website, but I’m not so rich that I’m going to turn down free money. I am, however, so incredibly guilty that I don’t like getting money for no reason, which is why there’s not a Paypal tip jar on the site. If you want something off Amazon and order it through this affiliate deal, I’m totally okay with that.

So here’s some stuff you might get a kick out of, if you were so inclined:

-DRC Music’s Kinshasa One Two– This is a charity project for the benefit of Oxfam and the Congolese performers on it. I first took notice because Damon Albarn’s involved in it, but the gimmick is really cool. He and a few friends (Danger Mouse, Dan the Automator) went to the Congo and recorded with actual Congolese musicians for an album of Congolese music. I feel like this is stuff I would never hear if Albarn and them weren’t involved, and I’m listening to it right now and seriously digging it. I may write about it later, I dunno. I don’t know if this is me being all ’80s baby black dude in love with ~A~F~R~I~C~A~ and wondering where his leather medallion went or what, but I really like how this stuff sounds. When it knocks, it really knocks. Here are some samples:

DRC Music – Kinshasa One Two (see http://drcmusic.org ) by DRC Music

-The Criterion edition of Olivier Assaya’s Carlos. Jet-setting, ’70s era, international terrorism crime feature. It’s five hours of style and terror.

-Louis CK’s Louie is painfully funny. I wrote about it back in August after an episode floored me.

-Mellowhype’s BlackenedWhite. Wrote about this one, too.

-Charlie Huston and Juan Jose Ryp’s Wolverine: The Best There Is: Contagion is exactly what Wolverine comics should be like. No nonsense, lots of murder, and filthy nasty. No Angsty Comics.

-When I stop posting on here forever after tomorrow, NBA 2K12 is to blame. Sorry. (Go Hawks.)

Shill shill shill. Sorry. But yeah, I’m not begging, at least not intentionally, and I’m not trying to guilt you into buying things off Amazon when I link them. I’m just trying to be upfront so that you don’t see the little “4thletter” in the Amazon URL and get freaked out or whatever.

tl;dr: If you buy stuff from Amazon after clicking on special magical links here, you’ll help us out. Oh yeah, this only works if you’re in America. If you’re in not-America, your readership is enough, seriously. Thanks for reading all these dumb things I write.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program, which is Gavin writing funny things, Esther writing about Batmans, and me playing video games instead of getting any work done.

Similar Posts:

Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon

8 comments to “the devil does not jest, but he might sell you amway”

  1. You can save those septic, neat freak fight scenes…

    Not to be Mr. Know-it-All, but I think you mean antiseptic.

    Thankyouverymuch, I’ll go away now.


  2. I’m down with all the BPRD stuff, and Jest didn’t disappoint.

    I think the only BPRD series I didn’t care much about in recent memory was Hell on Earth: Monsters, since it seemed like a pretty inconsequential thing aside from the last-page “oh also Abe is braindead sory”.


  3. I’m glad I’m not alone in loving The Best There Is. Perfect splatterpunk, and the follow-up issue was hilarious before turning all weird again. Best thing Marvel has going on along with DeadpoolMAX and UXF.


  4. I’m always down to support good wring, so I’ll be happy to buy my amazon stuff through your AA link.

    On a 100% related note, I’ve never read any BPRD, but that fight scene sort of blew me away. I’m typically more of a trade paperback dude, any recommendations on where to start, or any particular highlights?


  5. David: I recall trying to use the amazon link long ago and not … finding it. In addition to having it in this particular post, can it live on the sidebar somewhere? Last night I dropped $45 bucks on a book, a CD and a graphic novel. Next time I do that, if I cruise over here, I’d love to find an easy way to activate your affiliocity.

    WildVulture: At a glance, that fight scene looks so ordinary (if you’re a BPRD reader — it’s excellent, but not remotely atypical of this series’ quality, so you’re in for a treat). If I may offer my two cents: I follow the series in trades, and started only in the last year or two, and moved steadily. Start with book one. You’re fortunate that they’ve recently released an omnibus, Plague of Frogs Vol. 1. It’s $34 for 400 pages, so it’s a high buy-in, but a great value.

    As for jumping-on points, there is definitely an overarching story to the “Plague of Frogs” storyline that runs through the first dozen volumes, and you will be very well-served by starting at the beginning.


  6. “Charlie Huston and Juan Jose Ryp’s Wolverine: The Best There Is: Contagion is exactly what Wolverine comics should be like.”

    For real son?

    This is the type of Wolverine story that I avoid. Over the top 90s style “kewl” storytelling on not even a “guilty pleasure” level. IMHO of course.


  7. @Urbanguy: How is it “kewl,” whatever that means?


  8. Bad b-movie/weak plot: Kidnapped Wolverine, Cage Match. Space Plague (!), Spacemen, WOLVERINE USING CLAWS TO CUT HAIR.

    Pass. Full Stop.