Yeoman of the Guard

My parents took Chris and me out to see Yeoman of the Guard at Symphony Space yesterday. I hadn’t seen it before, so I was a bit surprised by the bittersweet ending. We had trouble making out the lyrics of the songs sung by Pheobe and Jack Point (the jester), so I figured maybe that was the play’s moral: If you want a happy love life, sing clearly. Other than that, it was a good production. During intermission I sketched a couple of people in the audience.

My father mentioned that Isaac Asimov had been a Gilbert and Sullivan fan, which I’d already known. I’ve long thought that the robot stories would make for a good G&S operetta, complete with a pattersong about the Three Laws. But today it occurred to me that Ranma 1/2 might be even more suitable. The whole magical spring changing sexes thing sounds like something Gilbert would have come up with.

On the way uptown I stopped off at Cosmic Comics for Free Comic Book Day. My freebies: a Robocop promo, The Clockmaker #2, Skinwalker #1, Way of the Rat #1, and Strangehaven #3. Robocop was a waste, The Clockmaker didn’t look interesting enough to spending money on, Skinwalker looks good enough that I may get the collection four issue series, Way of the Rat looks good but not quite good enough, and I haven’t gotten around to reading Strangehaven yet. I also took advantage of the 30% discount to get the latest Ranma 1/2 book and the remaining four Lone Wolf & Cub books I was missing.

Today I also finally got around to reading some of the first volume of David Lapham’s Stray Bullets, which I’d picked up a few weeks ago on a whim. These are hard-luck crime stories, well-written and well-drawn. Lapham’s layouts and use of solid black remind me a bit of the Hernandez brothers.

I’ve actually got a bunch of unread comic collections I need to get to. The latest three Ranma 1/2 books, the rest of Lone Wolf & Cub (which will probably involve starting over from the beginning), the first volume of Kabuki, and Safe Area Gorazde.

X-Men 2

After the play, my folks drove us over to my place, and Chris and I hung out for a while then saw the second X-Men movie. I liked this more than the first, mostly because it just felt more like an X-Men story than the first one did. More superhero action, more interaction with the traditional X-Men backstory, more actual characters from the comic. More behind the spoiler warning....

(  Spoilers for X-Men 2  )