To All the Boys I've Loved, Unwritten, Unfollow, Cover

To All the Boys I’ve Loved

With this and Crazy Rich Asians, my romantic comedy cup runneth over.  (Set It Up, while fine, didn’t give me the joy both of these did.)  When I looked up To All the Boys online after watching it (I’d kept myself spoiler/article free up until then), it seemed like the all the articles about the movie were written by two groups of writers: Those squeeing at the way Peter Kavinsky (played by Noah Centineo) looked at Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor) while wishing for someone to look at them in the same way, and those praising Lara Jean’s character and her exquisite fashion sense.  

Peter’s charms didn’t do so much for me, but I was certainly smitten by Lana Condor’s performance.  Her confidence, her, anxieties, her love of family, the adorable way she strides with purpose with her arms stiff at the elbows - all of it.  I’m well acquainted with the practice of writing unsent letters to unrequited crushes, and thank god none of those ever got out.  (Let’s ignore the ill-advised 3am emails that slipped out…)

Lana Condor charmed me completely, and I’ll be watching this quite a few more times with my wife.

Regret watching: No

Would watch again: Yes

Would buy on DVD: Yes

Rating: Really Good

Only one new comic this week:

Cover 1

Bendis and Mack.  Yum. The hook is fun enough - With all the travelling comic book creators do for conventions, they are prime candidates for CIA spy work.  But let’s be honest, it could have been about an artist sitting in his chair all day long doing nothing by creating, and I’d still read it. As long as I get pages like this:

Unfollow 11-17

I read the available issues of Unfollow on readcomics.io.  No final issue, but it was nice to catch up to that point. Rob Williams really picks up the pace in the last couple issues, wiping the 140 contestants down to four in short order.  I don’t care enough to find out how it all ends, but there are two things that I particularly liked:

Javier Pulido guest pencils issue 14, which shows Larry Ferrell’s original motivation for his twisted game.  It’s completely petty, and I kind of love it for that. I love Pulido’s art even more. Check out how Bethany gathers her leg up as she sits down, and how Pulido remembers that continuity at the end of the page.  Love the attention to detail.

For all his insanity, Larry says some stuff that resonates with me:

Would read again? No

Rating: Fine

Unwritten 50-51

I came back to Unwritten after two years because it crossed over with Fables for its final 5 issues.  (Before wrapping up with a 12-issue miniseries.)  I’m glad I did. Mike Carey co-writes it with Bill Willingham, and it reads a lot more like a Fables story than an Unwritten tale.  It’s a continuation of the Mister Dark saga, and there are real stakes as the Fables struggle to survive against an implacable foe.  

I spent most of the read wondering why Willingham would allow such a major storyline to take place in a different title, until Fables started dying left and right.  This timeline gets wiped out/reset, but that doesn’t make it any less epic. I’m tempted to file it with the rest of the Fables run so that I don’t miss it on subsequent rereads.  

Cool stuff:

Heh.  “The exposition is part of the spell.”

He’s literally standing there with opposable thumbs.  He’s not fooling anyone:

Dark biting off Snows face is legit disturbing.  Also, Dean Ormston is credited with the finishes on this page.  It looks a lot more like he flat out pencilled it.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good