Ab Fab

I seem to be getting a few moments here and there to read more recently. At the moment I;m engrossed in The Beautiful Fall. A thoroughly researched and an almost overwhelming array of characters contribute to this exhaustive account of the rise of Yves St Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld. Both men saw success in 1954 with their entries in the International Wool Secretariat Competition, but their rise to success took divergent paths. St Laurent saw in the revolution of the couture business whilst Lagerfield was always visionary in anticipating the rise of ready to wear and the cult of youth. The influence of the May 68 riots, youth culture and changes in society shaped the development of Paris Couture in the latter half of the Twentieth Century more so than any other time in its history.

The Man Who Laughs

I will always be indebted to Hadrian for putting me onto the Bats. I’ve always dipped in and out of the comics world, but never hung around for long. A few issues of GI Joe, Groo then McFarlane Spider Man and the X Files held my attention for a while but then I just forgot about them. i think trade paperbacks are the only realistic way to break into a character as long established as Batman. There are one or two sites out there that help the novice approach the difficult matter of timeline/continuity for a newbie.

It hasn’t taken long to catch up on most of the titles that DC has put out. Both the artwork and story lines in Joseph “heroes” Loeb’s titles have been faves, as has the No Mans Land arc. Crisis and 52 proved to be a wonderful further expansion into the DC Universe but I don’t see myself going beyond that.

I finally managed to get into The Man Who Laughs today. The first page is very striking, with the artwork by Doug Mahnke. The story is about Batman and the Joker’s first encounter post Moore’s Red Hood. There are some nice nerdy references to other Year One events within the first few pages alone. This is turning out to be a cracking title....