What's in a Name?

I’ve recently returned from Gen-Con 2014, and goodness was it an awesome trip!  Great new games to try, tons of new people to meet, and quite a few very cool costumes to gawk at! There were even some things that fit the theme of this blog, with a few independent authors selling comics and books that had some anthropomorphic element to them. The majority of it consisted of retellings of fairy tales, however, and didn’t have quite as much animal representation as I would have liked, but we’ll see if we can get one of them up here on this blog! After all, just because we’re focused on anthropomorphic literature here, that doesn’t mean there’s not a ton of great reading out there otherwise!

I collected a lot of author and artist cards over the weekend, and I’ll try to make a full listing of some of my favorites at a later date.

Over that weekend, a very good point was brought up to me by a good friend of mine that I felt was relevant here. We were seeing a good deal of Rocket Raccoon memorabilia on display at the convention and he asked me: “Why do so many animal characters just have their animal as their last name? We don’t have comic book characters that are called ‘Steve Human’, so why is something like ‘Bugs Bunny’ okay?”

This isn’t the first time such a question has graced my mind, but I’d never been asked it directly before. It bears a little bit of thinking…

We have a ton of anthropomorphic animal characters who go by their animal type for their last name: Bullwinkle T. Moose, Mickey Mouse, Roger Rabbit, Sonic the Hedgehog, Daffy Duck, Michael J. Fox (Okay, fine, he doesn’t count…), the list goes on.

Why do we do this so often and why is it acceptable?

Well, first and foremost, the majority of these characters tend to only go by their first name. It’s extremely rare for Sonic to be greeted as anything other than ‘Sonic’ by all but strangers and enemies. And in those cases, rather than using his full name, they tend to just call him ‘hedgehog’. Even though that’s a part of his character name, it’s also something he is majorly identified as. In a way, it’s not unlike in the olden days when using a last name was something reserved for those with noble or socially important families. You would have names like “James the Younger”, “Farmer Joseph”, “Lancelot the Brave”, and “George of Elizabethtown”. Names used like these were meant to convey things about the person so that you knew what to expect before you met them. For instance, if you were told you were going to do business with a man named ‘Blacksmith John’, you could make a reasonable assumption of what kind of business you’d be doing.

I think, when it comes to the animal character names, the creators are going for a similar idea. When your primary targets are younger audiences that can have very specific likes and dislikes, making things simpler for them to separate can be very handy and even win you viewers/readers that would have otherwise never looked your way. I’m certainly guilty of taking immediate notice of Rocket Raccoon when I was younger due to the name alone. If I’d only been told he was some little fellow named Rocket who’s good at shooting stuff, I might have just written it off.

Another thing such a naming convention does is, frankly, help your readers out. After all, if we hadn’t been told that Sonic was a hedgehog, would we just naturally assume that’s what he was? Scratch that, if we hadn’t been told that one of the other characters in his series had the surname ‘Echidna’, would we have even thought to consider that as a possibility? As artistic styles vary wildly and many artists keep trying to make their characters look unique and different from other popular figures, it can be tough to discern what exactly this or that non-human character is. Even in literature, giving a character the name ‘Mole’, brings to mind an immediate image, with no need to remind the readers what the character looks like on a base level and having the freedom from that point to focus on what he DOES instead.

Of course, I won’t deny that many folks do this naming convention out of laziness too. Last names can be tough to create, especially if you don’t want them to sound strange or contrived, and with animal surnames being so widely accepted, it can be easy to do that as a default. Then again, some just stick to having characters with only one name or even NO first name at all. Mrs. Frisby certainly didn’t seem to mind…

What do you readers think? Do you think the concept of animal surnames should be on its way out, or is there still a place for it in modern tales?

Wearing a name badge is sort of like having an animal surname...

Until next time, happy reading!

-Chammy

Currently Reading:

Air Ferrets Aloft by Richard Bach

BOOK TALK: Silverwing

I didn’t really want to do a ‘book review’ of Kenneth Oppel’s ‘Silverwing’, and not because the book isn’t deserving of one! Rather, it’s because this book has been around since 1997, had an animated series, and generally is considered a ‘classic’ by some. I feel like I would contribute nothing by reviewing this book because it really is excellently written and I feel it deserves to be called a ‘classic’ with so many other anthropomorphic stories such as ‘The Wind in the Willows’ and ‘Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH’.

So, if you want a review from me on the book, here it is:

This book is awesome and you should add it to your literary collection immediately.

There ya go.

What I DO want to do, however, is talk about this book and some of the thoughts I had while reading it. If anyone here has also read it, don’t be afraid to contribute your own thoughts or your opinion on my interpretations. Discussion is what makes a novel strong!

‘Silverwing’ was a very strange book to me. I had never heard of it aside from brief mentions of the cartoon, so when a good friend of mine suggested I read this book, I at first thought he might be talking about some kind of comic. In retrospect, I should have been ashamed to have known so little about this.

‘Silverwing’ is a fantastic read that really makes me nostalgic for days spent at my school library, looking for my next book to read and finding a new world in every single one. The world presented to us in ‘Silverwing’ is both ours and not ours. It’s a world of bats, owls, rats, and other beasts, and they all have their own laws and legends. Once I let myself be immersed in it, everything made absolute sense and the world felt as familiar as our own. Reading the bats talking about Nocturna wasn’t at all unlike hearing devout Christians. Hearing the legends surrounding the past of their species made everything feel so authentic and logical that it was almost scary. By the end of the book, I began to wonder what sort of laws and thoughts the squirrel munching on peanuts in my front yard would have, and I feel like that was partially the goal of this book: to get us to think differently about our world.

There are a ton of parallels between bat society and our own, which I believe is no small mistake. One of the larger themes in this story is what it means for bats to be ‘banded’. Some of the bats in the world have bands on them that we know is a form of tracking humans place on certain animals. The bats, however, have instead formed a bit of a religion around these bands. There are different theories presented throughout the book on what they mean, with the titular Silverwings believing the bands to be a sign of ‘Nocturna’s Promise’ and that the banded bats would essentially lead them to salvation. Contrary to this, the Brightwings see the bands as bad omens that lead to bats dying mysteriously and horribly. From the neutral side, our villain of the story, a massive predatory bat named Goth, believes the bands mean nothing and are just tools used by the humans as a means of enslaving their race.  All of these beliefs actually come to a head a few times in the story, and the ‘band debates’ drummed up many memories of similar religious debates that I’ve seen or had myself, and they could get just as violent and hurtful, but also just as personally affirming.

I don’t know if Oppel was specifically making a commentary on religion or not with the issue of ‘banding’ in this book, but I feel an argument could easily be made for that as at least being a theme central to the story.

However, don’t think that ‘Silverwing’ is a story with nothing to it but bands and pseudo-philosophy! There is a ton of heart in this story as well. Shade, our main character, is a great protagonist that has a lot to prove to himself and everybody around him, and his development is solid and relatable. Shade is a great character because, despite being our hero, there really isn’t a whole lot that is remarkable about him. Shade is definitely not the strongest bat. In fact, he could very well be the weakest in his entire clan. He’s not the smartest either. He’s outsmarted by villains and friends alike all throughout the story and is shown to be immature in many of his reasonings, which makes perfect sense for his age. He’s definitely not the fastest, as his friend Marina easily outpaces him and is shown to have more dexterity than him.

So what does Shade have that makes him a hero?

Shade learns.

In a setup that really makes for a more interesting protagonist than most I’ve seen, we learn early on that the only thing that Shade is good at is asking questions and being curious. In fact, he nearly brings death upon his entire clan because he was curious about seeing the sun for himself. Shade isn’t like most plucky ‘rebel’ protagonists that break from the boring and Orwellian norm in order to actually think like modern thinking people do. He actually asks good questions in situations that most would be too scared to do so. Asking your village elder about the origin of a belief when all the other elders have been shown to be closed off and almost violent at being challenged. Asking about why a law is the way it is when it clearly keeps everybody safe and isn’t hurting anybody, but the origins of it sound unfair and strange. Asking about evolutionary relations to a species that just tortured and tried to kill him nearly as a whole. Shade never stops himself from asking questions that are unpopular and even sensibly socially unacceptable.

And what makes him extra interesting is that Shade listens. Shade will ask questions about so many things, and the answers will actually matter to him, even if they’re answers that he’s uncomfortable with and doesn’t want to hear. He’s not somebody who’s looking to argue; he’s somebody who is looking to learn. THAT is what makes Shade an incredible hero, and I feel that’s also what the central point of the book is:

Don’t be afraid to learn.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll give this series a closer look on my own… After all, this was only the first book!

Adam West was nowhere to be found in this book.

Happy reading, all!

-Chammy

REVIEW: Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

It’s a good time to be a raccoon.

When this movie came out this past weekend, I told myself, “I can’t review this… I just did a post about a movie and I should really be talking about books again. Leave the movie review to others!”

And then HE came onto the screen:

That’s Rocket. Rocket Raccoon to the wise. He’s one of my favorite comic book characters and this is the first time we’ve ever gotten to see him realized on the big screen, and, boy, do they hit it out of the park! After I saw him in this film, I debated and said, “Darn it, this is the Raccoon Reader Review! If I can’t talk about awesome raccoons here, then where can I?”

So I may be somewhat biased towards this one.

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Let’s talk about this film and what it’s about, as well as what it brings to movie-goers. There may be slight spoilers ahead, so please be sure to watch the movie before reading further if you want to go in fresh!

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is based on a long-running comic series of the same name, though the team represented in this film is from the newer run of it. I’m personally most familiar with the 23 issue Abnett/Lanning run starting in 2008, but the most current version is written by Brian Michael Bendis.  I’ve read that some people don’t care for how Bendis portrays some of the characters compared to how they were introduced (in particular how much more violent he’s made Rocket), but my own exposure to that version of those characters beyond Rocket and Gamora is minimal. I’m willing to bet that the movie versions of these characters lean more towards Bendis’ portrayal, but I saw a lot of what I loved from Abnett’s writing in them as well. Also, Abnett did an official Prelude comic to the film, so he’s definitely involved with these characters once more.

Okay, now that I’ve officially outed myself as a nerd…

The film sets the tone for us almost immediately at the start. We’re shown a young Peter Quill listening to his ‘Awesome Mix’ cassette while he waits next to his mother’s hospital room. He’s suddenly shaken out of his thoughts and hurried in to listen to her dying words. He hesitates while he’s near her and misses his chance to take her hand in comfort before she passes. We learn in this scene that she’s the only family that Peter has, since his father has disappeared, so her death is understandably traumatic for the poor lad. In his horror at losing her, Peter runs out of the hospital and into an open field…  where he immediately gets abducted up by a spaceship and we’re treated to our title sequence.

In about five minutes, the film has kind of summed up all that it has to present to us and the order it tends to present it: A.) Music B.)Relatable problems, and then C.) In Space!

I’m serious about this. This scene progression happens several times in the movie. We’re treated to an awesome oldies song (The soundtrack in this movie is absolutely incredible, by the way), we’re shown a situation or problem that we have here on Earth (Going to prison, preparing for war, etc.), and then the scene will zoom out or show us something fantastic to remind us of the setting.

Mind you, I’m not calling this a fault, but I do find it kind of funny in hindsight.

The progression of the film’s story is pretty straightforward, but it keeps us engaged. After seeing Peter grown up and taking on the outlaw name of ‘Star Lord’, we see him doing a bit of treasure hunting/thievery and eventually going to another world to sell his find. After a botched sale, we meet Gamora, Groot, and Rocket, who all promptly get into a major scuffle in an attempt to take Quill down for their own reasons. The property destruction and disturbance from the fight rightly get all four of them landed into prison where they meet Drax the Destroyer, and then our happy band of misfits is complete.

Even the tree's got his 'game face' on!

After a rocky start, they get themselves involved in a war to protect the entire galaxy from the evil Ronan and find that the treasure Peter nabbed at the beginning is just what our villain needs to destroy all existence. I won’t spoil what it is, but Marvel fans will go crazy over finally seeing it represented. Needless to say, the stakes are high, and every person on the team needs to take incredible risks before victory is achieved.

The Good:

The story itself is solidly written and has a brisk pace to it. We’re introduced to our cast quickly, but not in a rushed fashion, and the problems are laid out clearly with just enough twists and turns to keep things from being easy for our heroes. The script is also very witty and self-aware, giving us a ton of humor and personality to really help audiences connect with this very different super hero team.

The visuals are also top-notch. Aside from the stunning set designs that show a much dirtier version of space than we usually tend to see, the characters are just visually fantastic. Rocket looks like he’s just as organic as Peter or Gamora and never once did I question reality when characters interacted with him or Groot. Drax and Gamora are also an incredible example of make-up artists at their finest, especially with the intricate designs of Drax’s tattoos.

The music gets high marks as well, as I already mentioned. I’m a sucker for the era of music they tended to use, but I also like that every song was integrated into the movie because of Peter’s obsession with his tape-player. Rather than just having music playing in scenes because it fits for the soundtrack, every song is a song that Peter grew up with, so he has a personal connection to it in some way. That extra bit of effort to make music matter in a story sense is something I really appreciate.

Finally, it must be stated that Rocket is absolutely awesome and stole the show. Yeah, yeah, I’m biased towards him because of his procyonide nature, but I also feel he’s one of the best surprises of the film. Rather than being throwaway comic relief like most anthro characters in these kinds of movies, Rocket shows us so many deep emotions and bares so many mental pieces of himself that we feel for him more than almost any other character by the end of the movie. He emotes strongly both visually and audibly, and Bradley Cooper never drops the ball as his voice. It’s just so striking to see such a strong talking animal in a film like this, and he still gets to make us laugh and have a good time as well! Whoever did Rocket’s dialogue should get top marks.

The Bad:

The Humor… kind of.

When leaving the movie, a friend of mine made a very good comment to me, “I felt like I was seeing jokes roll down an assembly line at the humor factory” and I don’t think he was wrong.

There are a ton of jokes that work in Guardians of the Galaxy, but, with so many jokes in the entire film, there are also quite a few that fall flat. Some of Peter’s cute callouts to pop culture just feel forced, as does some of Drax’s silly ‘Spock-like’ dialogue where he understands and states everything literally in humorous fashion. If you’re somebody who easily cringes at ‘laugh-track’ moments in sitcoms, then you might have a rough time sitting through some parts of this film.

The other problem I feel this film is going to have is engaging people outside of the comic book and sci-fi camps. It does nothing to make this easier to digest for people who want to see a summer action flick but don’t know a thing about comics. The exposition and name-dropping are all well and good for folks who love that kind of stuff, but I can easily see the uninitiated tilting their heads. It also doesn’t help that green-skinned alien people and talking raccoons already alienate some of the typical crowd… but that also might just be the point.

This movie knows what it is and doesn’t shy away from it, so fans of the source material will adore it. Heck, I nerded out over seeing a comic panel from Legacy recreated on screen and from seeing Cosmo the Russian space dog making a cameo. I think Guardians wants that kind of reaction.

The Verdict:

If you’ve read this far, then you can already tell that I loved this movie. I highly recommend it to anyone who reads here and likes the kind of literature we’ve talked about already. I’ll be buying this once it comes out, and trying to keep myself from rushing out to the theater to watch it again and again before then.

I’ll also be working on increasing my collection of raccoon memorabilia now that Rocket’s going to be flooding the market, though some things may be harder to obtain than others…

Come on... you know you'd want one too!

Happy Reading, all!

-Chammy

Currently Reading:

Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel