Art from the Artless

Recently, Shia LaBeouf released his short film Howard Cantour,which he wrote and directed.  It stars Jim Gaffigan as a cranky online film critic.  All in all, it's a pretty good film.  It's well shot and well acted.  In short, it's the kind of thing that could make people think about Shia as more than just a dumb face in bad movies.  So, what's the problem?

The problem is that Howard Cantour is largely plagiarized from a Dan Clowes comic titled Justin M. Damiano.  Huge swaths of text are lifted verbatim and used in Shia's film.  The framing, casting, tone, and (of course) writing are all directly copied from the Clowes comic.  You can view the short film and the first page of the comic at this Buzzfeed article.

This is especially troubling because, in the basest sense, art is an expression of the soul.  Art exists to communicate ideas and emotions in a palpable, cerebral way.  LaBeouf spoke of how personal Howard Cantour was for him.  In this interview with shortoftheweek.com he said, "I have been crushed by critics (especially during my Transformers run), and in trying to come to terms with my feelings about critics, I needed to understand them. As I tried to empathize with the sort of man who might earn a living taking potshots at me and the people I've worked with, a small script developed."

LeBeouf is trying to express something.  He has feelings.  He wants to share them.  He just doesn't know how, apparently.

LeBeouf has never been universally appreciated as an actor, despite the fact that he appears in numerous blockbuster films.  So, I can see why he would identify with a story about a bitter film critic.  LaBeouf strikes me as someone who, now that he's got universal fame and a large sum of money, is desperate to be taken seriously as an artist.  A few years ago he went to C2E2 in order to sell his self published comic book, which is really less like a comic and more like what a gallery artist would produce if he was trying to do some kind of comic styled interactive art piece.  LeBeouf will also be starring in the upcoming Lars Von Trier film, Nymphomaniac, and nobody ever accused Von Trier of being "not artsy enough".

So, I can only assume this intense desire to be a respected artist combined with an intense desire to express himself artistically drove LaBeouf to plagiarize the Clowes comic.  He cant's reconcile his artistic needs with his lack of talent.  Or, to put it a little nicer, he can't seem to recognize his artistic strengths and weaknesses and understand how to best utilize them.  It's like he's a character in a Ricky Gervais show.

What we have here is unchecked hubris.  What bothers me the most about this whole debacle is that LaBeouf is in a position, because of his fame and money, to successfully produce a short film adapted from a Clowes comic.  If he really respected Clowes like he claims to, he could acquire the rights to Clowes' story or even hire Clowes himself to work on something new.  He had no problem hiring Jim Gaffigan and the rest of the crew to make this film happen.  So, why not get Clowes on bored also?  I can tell you right now that if LaBeouf had done that, if he had worked with Clowes, tried to bring a Clowes comic to life, really championed Clowes work and tried to put his own spin on it, he would be hailed as the champion of the comics genre and people would be thinking of his as more than a dumb face in bad movies.  He would be respected as the artist he wishes to be.

But no, instead LaBeouf flat out steals the story, because it's more important for his ego to have people think he wrote it.  There is nothing wrong with being a patron of the arts.  After all, the only way to grow as an artist is to work with people who are better than you or challenge you artistically.

The whole debacle offends me on a very personal level.  As an artist (both writer and musician), I find it incredibly difficult to "find your voice" without outright aping the artists who inspired you in the first place.  It's tough, it really is.  There is a fine line between ideas, themes, and style repeating in art and outright plagiarism.  Howard Cantour is a very clear case of shameless plagiarism.

I hope LaBeouf learns from this incident, but I have my doubts.  I also hope Fantagraphics or Clowes, which ever owns the rights to Justin M. Damiano, takes legal action against LaBeouf.  All LaBeouf needs to do is publicly apologize, retroactively pay Clowes, and add Clowes name to the credits and he can save a little bit of face.  For the record, LaBeouf's fake twitter apology doesn't inspire confidence.

Project Comicon St. Louis

Last weekend I attended Project Comic Con in St. Louis, which was quite a change from Wizard World Chicago, which I attended a month previous.  The biggest difference, of course, is the size of the show.  Whereas WWC is one of the year's largest shows, filling out massive airplane hanger sized rooms in the Rosemont convention center, PCC is a quaint little show in the conference room of a Sheraton hotel.

All other differences stem from this size disparity.  While each show hosts a variety of comic book professionals, at PCC the comic creators are the main attractions and they do not have to take second or third billing behind a bunch of TV and movie actors.  That alone makes it more endearing in my book.

There is also a different attitude in the crowd at the smaller shows.  Both crowds are going to be brimming with love and fervor for comics and other pop culture related art, but at the smaller shows the fandom feels less disconnected and more communal.  When I'm doing a small show, I feel more like I'm a part of the community rather than just another table at a trade show.

As for the PCC show itself, it was really great.  For the record, I did sell more comics at WWC, but the time and financial investment to be there was astronomical compared to PCC.  My table at PCC saw a fair amount of traffic since nearly all attendees could easily walk the entire floor multiple times throughout the day.

One of the things that made Project Comic Com a fantastic experience for me was that I hit the table placement jackpot.  My table was next to fellow local comic creators, Adron and Dan, creators of the comic Loop & Hoodie.  They're a couple of great guys with a fun comic and, being that we're all from the same area, I see them often on the midwest con circuit.  Aside from have familiar neighbors, sitting right across the aisle from me were two famed comic writers, Fabian Nicieza and Joshua Dysart.  Fabian is responsible for writing numerous X-Men comics that I read as a child in the 90's as well as the more contemporary Cable & Deadpool series of the mid 00's.  Joshua is one of the few modern comic writers who's work always interests me.  I don't always agree with his politics, but his work is always deep and meaningful.

Spending a weekend in such great company boosted my morale in ways that people who make custom dragon toys or cheap chibi caricatures just can't.  I was able to spend some time talking with Fabian and Joshua.  I had Fabian sign my old battered and bruised copy of X-Force 18.  Fabian is very quick witted and enjoys talking.  In many ways, he's like Deadpool come to life, just without all the violence.  When I told him that, as a child, I had probably read this comic more than anything else in my collection, he immediately (lightheartedly) questioned whether or not there had been any adverse psychological side effects.  I decided to continue the bit, explaining that I had read so many comics, it would be impossible to determine specifically which one caused all my brain damage.  He responded with a fictitious fact that 4 out of 5 dentists believe all tooth decay is a result of X-Force comics, to which I could only concede that my dentist would agree with him.  A good time was had by all.

I gave copies of Science Hero and Zero's Heroes to Fabian, who was very complimentary and we chatted about the future of digital comics and the difficulties of getting paid to do what you love.

Joshua was also very complimentary of my comics and bought both issues of Science Hero before I could offer them to him for free (sucker).   We talked about the future of Vertigo and his current work with Valiant.  I also got picked up the second Dark Crystal graphic novel, which he authored.  I am excited to read it and put it on my pile of about a thousand other books waiting to be read.

Not to keep talking about Misters Nicieza and Dysart, but I also attended a convention panel titled Us Make Comic Words.  The panel was a small, intimate discussion with four comic writing professionals, Fabian Nicieza, Joshua Dysart, Scott Lobdell, and Phil Hester.  This was a small panel with a pricey $20 entry fee.  I heard Dysart remark to Nicieza that he didn't have $20 worth of advice to give to aspiring writers.  I don't mind paying fees like this because, it being a smaller con, I feel like my money is specifically going toward comic creators instead of a random actor from a lame popular for this summer only show.

The panel was casual.  Lobdell mediated it, Nicieza talked the most, and Hester gave the most pertinent advice.  I really enjoyed the panel despite the fact that I didn't really learn any new information about making comics.  That sounds like a bad thing, but it really isn't.  I was very gratified to hear the conclusions I had come to on my own or gleaned from other sources completely backed up by working professionals in the industry.  It makes me feel like doing something right.

In the future, I plan to attend smaller shows in favor of the larger, more cost prohibitive shows.

Reflections on Wizard World Chicago

Josh and Aaron

Wizard World Chicago is a behemoth.  The convention has come and gone and I feel like I can finally relax.  I had been to Wizard World Chicago a couple of times in the past (though not as an exhibitor), so I had some sense of what to expect from the show.  Also, I exhibited at C2E2 earlier in the year, which is another big convention also held in Chicago.  Still, WWC is the biggest convention I've exhibited, and there were some key differences from this convention and the conventions previous.

Firstly, WWC is a 4 day con.  So, I was at the con from Thursday through Sunday.  That's a long time which feels even longer behind the table.  Secondly, with the exception of a few hours on Saturday, I was doing this convention completely by myself, so I had very little time to relax and enjoy the con for myself.

Last year, Wizard received a lot of flak for how uncomfortably crowded the floor was.  The layout was like a confusing labyrinth in which you were smashed butt to gut with the people on either side of you.  I had the hardest time finding specific people I was looking for, even using their maps.

This year, they tried to correct their space problems by splitting the show into two levels with the retailers on the second floor and the artist alley on the ground floor.  It's not a bad idea entirely, but there were so many problems which I can only ascribe to poor organization.  I won't go into details because there are other places around the web that do, but I will say that the whole convention seemed like a chore just to get into (even as an exhibitor).  Despite all that, what bothered me the most about this convention was the prices.  The table prices had gone up, which I can deal with, but the general admission prices were nearly doubled from the year previous.  There is no way that convention was worth $70 for a single Saturday admission, and many people were paying hundreds of dollars more to attend convention panels and shake hands with a second rate Spock (sorry Mr. Quinto, but it's true).

The real problem with the immense size of WWC is that the show is basically a giant flea market.  There is no selection process when it comes to exhibiting at Wizard World.  Anybody who pays the table fee get to exhibit, which results in a saturation of people selling the same thing.  It doesn't take an economist to tell you that that is going to spread the profits thinner among the large group of sellers.  The retailer floor was just row after row after row of the same set up of comic long boxes and popular toys.  It's easy to get lost and overwhelmed.

The artist alley felt a little different than it had in years past as well.  Not to sound like an old man pining for the glory days, but I remember walking through the artist alley and stopping at every table to talk to the artists, and most of them were self publishing their own comics.  There were lots of mini comics, and well as self published POD comics (like what I do).  I walked away from the convention with a bag full of comics I couldn't get anywhere else.  These days, it seems like there are less and less self published comics in the artist alley.  There are a number of reasons for this, and they all kind of tie into each other.

Firstly, we are in the middle (or maybe near the end) of a changing comics landscape.  With the easeability of webcomics, people don't *need* to self publish to get their work out there.  Secondly, self publishing is expensive.  Even if you're writing and drawing everything yourself, printing a book costs money.  Digital comics cuts out the costs of printing while still making yourself available to your audience.

Along with this decline in self publishing, I've noticed an increase in what I shall call "professional fandom".  Marvel and DC have always had a lax policy of not enforcing copyright infringements when it comes to artists selling prints and other merchandise with their corporate owned characters on them.  It may just be my perception, but the Wizard World conventions seem to be overrun by artists selling what, at best, could be considered "legal grey area" merchandise.  This has caused a curious situation wherein the "retailers" have effectively infiltrated the artist alley.  Upon entering the artist alley, you are no longer finding self published original comics and art, instead you are bombarded with even more Spider-man and Doctor Who t-shirts and prints.  The only difference is that in the artist alley, consumers can feel good that they are supporting an artist instead of the big evil corporation that owns all the characters they love and worship.

The other trend that I've noticed has become all the rage these past years is the pop culture mash up.  This is when you see a property drawn in the style of another property, or perhaps finding a common word or theme between two properties and combining them.  These kinds of merch may actually be more legal than outright selling a print of Thor and Loki because it could be considered satire and fall under fair use.  Occasionally, they can be clever, but more often than not I find these kinds of mash ups to be lazy, pandering, and at the very worst shallow cash grabs.  But if you're a fan of two different things, what could be better than a single thing that represents both?

I'm not here to play art police or to define what is and isn't "Art" because ultimately I'm going to take the stance that everything is and can be Art with a capital "A", but that doesn't mean that all art is inspired or interesting.

I don't want to sound too sour about the convention.  Yes, it was stressful and frustrating, but I also got to see friends and fans old and new and had some genuinely great experiences, one of which went as follows:

     A young couple were walking by my booth casually talking to each other when the man stopped suddenly.  The covers of Science Hero had caught his attention.  He picked an issue off the rack and started flipping through it.  "Science Hero," he said, "this looks interesting."
     Before I could even rev up my pitch and try to make the sale, his girlfriend cut me off and said excitedly, "Oh, I've heard of this!"
     The young man said, "Really?"
     And I said even more surprisingly, "Really?!"
     The young girl replied, "Yeah, Sean bought it and said it's great."
     This, of course, is great news for me, but the only thing that was running through my mind was, "Oh god!  She's got it confused with a different book.  He's going to buy it thinking it's something else, something more popular and better and great and he's going to be disappointed."
     Fortunately for me, the young girl cut off my paranoid internal dialog by saying, "He texted me a picture of it and said to look out for it."
    Wow!  I couldn't believe this was happening.  People weren't just liking my book, they were recommending it to their friends.  It was the most flattering thing I could have ever heard.
     The guy took the first issue in his hands and cheerfully said, "Well, if it's good enough for Sean then it's good enough for me!"
    And then they were off.  I was left with a five dollar bill in my hands and perpetually stunned look on my face.

So, that was a good thing.  I'm still convinced that there was some kind of mistake, but I'll take 'em when I can get 'em (as long as they're in my favor, of course).

I can't say for certain that I will attend Wizard World Chicago next year.  The convention is expensive and time consuming.  I like the more intimate feeling of smaller conventions, especially when the focus more on comics and less on celebrities.

   

The Unforgiven

 

I had the pleasure of meeting Tyler Ruff last March at Wizard World St. Louis.  It was there that I received copies of his comic, The Unforgiven.  

The book is a dark science fiction/fantasy that appears to draw influence from books like Judge Dredd, Hellboy, and probably some other post apocalyptic totalitarian government comics I can't think of at the moment.

As always, I'm impressed when one person can craft a whole comic single handedly, and that's what's going on here.  Ruff's art has a unique indie "comix" feel.  His pencils are incredibly detailed and there are no inks, which gives the whole comic a gritty, smeared feel that I like very much.

You can read The Unforgiven on Ruff's website, or you can buy physical copies at his Indy Planet store.

Be on the look out for this comic, it's worth reading. 

Manta-man and Manta Dad

I met Chad Sell at C2E2 last month.  Two aisles across from me, and between a large gap in the various backdrops booth set ups, I spied a big banner with the cover to Manta Dad #1.  After staring at that image for three days, I found myself mesmerized, I had to know what it was.

Chad is a cartoonist who has written and drawn a number of books, his latest release being Manta Dad.  I can't remember exactly how he sold it to me, but I think he said something about being like Venture Brothers and that was enough for me.

Manta Dad is a prequel to Manta-Man, which is a superhero farce that Chad serializes at http://www.mantamancomics.com.  Manta-Man is largely done in a strip format, which occasional deviations into larger page layouts.  It is about a guy who has the unique, and mostly useless, power to turn into a flying manta ray, and his attempts to be a superhero.  I got some good laughs out of Manta-man, but the comic reads like a strip.  It's a sexy, sometimes raunchy, adult comedy.  The plot is a little scattered at times, but it develops into a nice story, and the characters are neat.

As entertaining as Manta-Man was, I vastly preferred Manta Dad, which I thought was fantastic.  The story is much more structured and Chad really delivers great page layouts.  The comic pages are full of panels, but he still gives himself room for wide scenic scenes or dynamic action panels.

I'd say Chad's comparison to Venture Brothers was apt (I have to assume that Chad loves the character Shore Leave), with perhaps a little Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou thrown in for good measure.  The story is about a young Manta-Man (I can't recall his real name at the moment) as he goes on adventures with his dad, Harold Man, who is a Jacques Cousteau style oceanographer.  Contrary to his shy, introverted son, Harold is macho and outspoken.  He's an alpha male in a speedo.  Traveling with Harold and his son are Harold's four other spedo clad male companions.  There's a lot of gay subtext in this comic.  Indeed, even the regular text in this comic is pretty gay.  Between hunting exotic sea animals and the gay romps with his sailor friends, Harold is very busy.  Harold's homosexuality, while sometimes played for comedy, is presented as a very natural thing.  The juxtaposition then, that his insecure son has something about himself that he's trying to hide, is very smooth.  It's a book about growing up, family relationships, and silly made up sea animals.

Ultimately, what drew me into this comic was the cartooning.  I really like Chad's loose lines  His characters are very expressive with the most minimal line work.  The comic hit all the right notes for me, it's funny and deep, and it looks great doing it.  I highly recommend it.

Convention Comics

Chris McJunkin at C2E2

Unsurprisingly, my favorite thing about going to comic book conventions is meeting other comic fans.  I'm always thrilled to meet other readers and humbled to meet people who like my work, but I like meeting other comic creators just as much.  Comics is an interesting medium when compared to other genres like film or television.  The industry is so small, and it's relatively easy to self publish because of the low production costs involved.  You can bet that every single person making their own comic started off as a tremendous fan of comics in some fashion.  In short, nobody self publishes a comic for the money.  They are there because they love comics.  So, since the majority of self publishers love reading comics as much as selling comics, it is common practice to trade your comics with other creators, which is great because nearly all my money goes toward comic production without much left over to support my reading hobby.

My comics haul.

Having finished my first three conventions of the year, I've accumulated a nice pile of comics that are waiting to be read.  I didn't trade for all of these, some of them were purchased.  I only presume to trade with people that are seated near me or approach my table.  I certainly wouldn't ask guys like Chris Samnee or Cullen Bunn if they wanted to trade their award winning, money making books with my rough self published hobbyist books, but I can't resist the allure of cool comics so I'm more than happy to pry open my wallet every now and then.

I'm not doing any more conventions until next August, so I'll be using my summer time to push forward on all the writing I need to finish before then, but I'll also be reading through my new haul of comics and posting about them periodically on the blog.

 I love doing conventions, but they can really drain you.  I'm glad to take the next few months and immerse myself in my favorite hobby.

At Planet Comicon, someone asked me if I was cosplaying Spike Spiegal.

Wizard World St. Louis Day 3

Whew.

Wizard World is over and, though I know this is what everybody says, I am wiped out.  As I've learned, Sundays are usually really slow days for everyone at the convention.  Obviously, there's less people coming out to the con because most of them will all come out and do everything on Saturday.  In our case, however, not only was it slow because it was Sunday, but St. Louis also saw six inches of snow all day.  So, needless to say, there wasn't a lot of foot traffic, and from casual conversations with other artists, it sounds like everybody had a pretty lousy day for sales.  Now I see why some people don't bother to do Sundays.  If it's a lousy day for sales and they can catch a late flight out Saturday night, why pay for an extra hotel day?  It's a basic cost/benefit analysis.

So, cost/benefit for me, was it worth doing the convention?  Well, to use an industry term, I did not make table, which is to say that I did not make enough money to pay for the costs of using the table at the convention.  I did make some money, I was within double digits of "making table" but add the costs of parking, food, gas, and dang ol' Chris Samnee for charging me TWENTY-FIVE dollars for his awesome hardcover collection of The Rocketeer that he did with Mark Waid, and that starts to eat into the coin purse  (Capitalist jerks!).

But that doesn't necessarily mean it's a loss.  First of all, to be brutally honest, I've been operating Zero's Heroes at a loss for the last four years.  What's a couple bucks compared to the (much, much larger) production costs of putting together the actual book?  I'm perfectly okay with that.  The name of the game at this point is getting my work out there in front of as many people as possible, and to that end the convention was a success.  Sara and I must have handed out at least 1500 stickers, and while there were plenty of kids and adults who were just collecting swag, there were also a good number of people who seemed genuinely interested in the pitch I gave them after luring them to my table with stickers.  Though, it's entirely possible that I'm not as good at reading people as I think I am.  Time will tell how many people follow through and enjoy the comic.

Galactus

I had a fun time at the convention and I enjoyed seeing all the fans and, more importantly, the kids who are interested in comics.  The guy sitting next to me was a nice guy named Wade who made custom figures.  He had an awesome 6 foot Galactus made out of a mannequin.

Sitting next to each other for three days straight, we had plenty of time to talk.  He was frank about how he never makes any money doing conventions, he just does it to be a part of the festival, because a six foot tall Galactus is the exact kind of thing that people come to comic conventions to see, and he's happy to contribute to the overall experience, with the added bonus of seeing the convention for himself, and possibly finding a new customer interested in commissioning a custom action figure.

Like Wade, I'm happy to contribute to the experience.  The amount of people specifically combing artist alley looking for new, independent books was small, but they were there and I was glad to meet them.  I'm confident in the books I'm producing and I think with enough time put in, we can build an audience for what we do.

As I said at the beginning, attendance was low today, so there were less costumes, but I did manage to snap a few.  There was a good Rogue cosplay, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture.  Darn the luck, darn!

LUMPY SPACE PRINCESS!

Mr. Gumby

Hunter S. Thompson

Wizard World St. Louis Day 2

Whew, today was long, but fulfilling.  I don't have a lot of interesting things to report because I spent the whole day behind the table chatting it up with the con goers.  I was again fortunate enough to meet some people who were regular readers of Zero's Heroes, as well as a couple of aspiring creators and other would be artists.  I always like meeting other comic creators because they share a passion with not only comics, but usually a sense of Do It Yourself Independents.  From what I've seen, there's usually one common road into the "mainstream" of comics, and that's through self publishing.

Science Hero was a big success today.  There were a number of people who saw us from across the aisle, noticed the big blue Science Hero logo, and were compelled to come over and ask what it was.  So, I guess I owe Chris McJunkin a big fat raise for designing a killer logo!

We saw a lot of kids today, most of them lured over by the siren call of Free Stickers.  We also saw a fair share of parents who were looking for comics for their kids or grandkids.  Since Zero's Heroes is largely PG (sometimes veering in to the PG13 arena), it received a lot of attention from them.

I was also surprised by the amount of people who were themselves pleasantly surprised and intrigued by the notion that I describe Zero's Heroes as a Superhero Comedy.  I've never really thought of superhero comedy as being a novel concept, but I was raised on The Tick and Freakazoid cartoons in addition to the regular regiment of Spider-man and X-Men, so maybe I'm the outlier.  I suppose, if we're being honest, the regular fare you see from Marvel or DC these days is about as far from "comedy" as it can be, discounting the unintentional hilarity that they sometimes find themselves publishing.

All this is to say that, though I dread to dredge up the recurring complaint, it seems very obvious to me that Marvel or DC could be doing a lot more to reach out to kids or younger audiences with a wider array of styles and genres.

But that's okay if they don't.  Assuming there is a demand for such a thing, then it's a hole in the market that I can try to fill.  That's your Free Market Economics at work!

As usual, there were also a lot of great costumes today.  I managed to snap a few pics of some my favorites.  It's hard to pick an absolute favorite.  It's a toss up between Kiki's Delivery Service and Flash from G.I. Joe.  Of course, that tiny Harley Quinn was just adorable.  She probably had to pose for hundreds of pictures by the end of the day.

Dr. Quest

Kiki and Jiji

He's Batman

Yo Joe!

Tiny Harley Quinn

SPAAAAAAAACE GHOOOOOOOOOOST!

The Rocketeer

He does whatever a spider can.

Wizard World St. Louis Day One

Hello everybody.  I haven't been that active on the blog lately, mostly because for the last few months, I've been preparing for my first real convention season.  This is the first year I've ever been in an Artist Alley of any kind, peddling my books Zero's Heroes and Science Hero.  Today was the first day of Wizard World St. Louis.

This is the booth, dutifully manned by colorist, Sara Rude while I take the picture.  For a first day, I can report that it went very well.  We only made a few sales, but we gave out a lot of free stickers which people seemed to respond to.  Who doesn't like free swag, right?

Needless to say, being in St. Louis, the Dogtown print got a lot of attention.  I also got a chance to chat with the awesome Chris Samnee (Daredevil, Thor: Mighty Avenger) before the convention began, who's friendliness was only overwhelmed by his talent.

I had the great fortune of meeting a lot of other really nice people, a few of whom had actually read the comic online, which was a very pleasant surprise.  Tomorrow is going to be a big day, we expect to see a lot of people corralled through the convention floor, which means we'll be giving out a lot of stickers, I'm sure.

And of course, there were a lot of great costumes.  I've never been able to commit to cosplay, myself, but I appreciate the hobby for what it is.  Here are a few of the cool costumed people who swung by our booth.

Little Link!

ADVENTURE TIME!

GHOSTBUSTERS!

Nightwing and Batgirl

Superman and Wonder Woman

Both Sara and I are looking forward to a fun day tomorrow.  Thanks to everyone who visited the booth!

Django Unchained

Django Unchained is the first film by Quentin Tarantino to ever leave me with a sense of disappointment.

Like all of his films, it is highly stylized, delves deep into genre exploitation, and is filled to the brim with superb acting and cinematography.  Despite that, as a genre exploitation film it is not as thorough as Kill Bill or Death Proof.  Nor is it as complex or layered as Pulp Fiction or Inglourious Basterds.

When I first learned of Tarantino's ambitious plans for Django Unchained, I felt a mix of excitement and trepidation.  On the one hand, I am a big fan of spaghetti westerns, even the original Django film that Tarantino is borrowing from.  On the other hand, I feared that Tarantino's continued return to the dominant theme of revenge would grow tiresome, particularly after his revenge masterpiece Inglourious Basterds.  As it turns out, the film succeeded in both titillating and and disenchanting me.

Tarantino masterfully framed Django's quest for revenge inside the German fairy tale that Dr. Schultz tells.  In the fable, the princess Broomhilda commits a meaningless transgression against her father, the god of all gods.  As punishment, she is placed at the top of a mountain, surrounded by a ring of fire, and guarded by a dragon.  Eventually, a hero named Siegfried climbs the mountain, slays the dragon, and walks through the ring of fire to rescue Broomhilda.  In the telling of the story, Dr. Schultz casts Django as Siegfried and identifies him as an epic hero of our movie.  Django's quest is no longer a shallow wish fulfillment story about a black slave killing white people.  It has been elevated to an epic quest about the basic human condition that resonates throughout history.  Django's quest is against natural evil in the name of love.

After successfully killing the Brittle Brothers, Dr. Schultz encourages Django to let him help in the rescue of Hildie, who in the context of of Schultz' fable is the metaphorical and literal damsel in distress.  Dr. Schultz tracks down Hildie's location.  She is held prisoner in Candyland, a plantation owned by southern dandy, Calvin Candie.  Schultz concocts a plan where in they lie their way into Candyland on the false pretense of buying an expensive Mandingo fighter.  Then, when Candie is so taken with the idea of a lucrative deal for a Mandingo fighter, Schultz and Django make a second, smaller deal for Hildie, presumably to then sneak off into the night without paying the expensive Mandingo bill.

This all falls right into Dr. Schultz' fable.  Candyland is the mountain and the army of armed gunfighters is the ring of fire.  You might be inclined to think of Calvin Candie as the dragon, but that role goes to Samuel L. Jackson's character Steven, the head house nigger.  Candie is god.  He owns the plantation, he controls Hildie's fate, and his dragon, Steven, has a  fierce, blind loyalty toward him.

Unfortunately, our heroes are unable to pull a fast one over "god" and through the eyes of his dragon, Candy learns of Dr. Schultz and Django's subterfuge.  Candy takes control of the situation, abandons the Mandingo sale and instead forces Dr. Schultz and Django to pay the previously agreed upon price for Hildie, to which they reluctantly agree.  Dr. Schultz, overcome with Candy's twisted morals, feels he has no other choice but to shoot Candy.  Dr. Schultz takes on a Nietzscheian role and successfully kills god.  He then strikes a Christ like pose, accepting his punishment, and is immediately executed by Candy's henchmen.  Django tries to shoot his way out of the house, but eventually has to relent in order to save Hildie.

I liked the way this story started out, all the characters were in place and there was strong tension right up to the moment when Candy forces them to accept the new deal.  At that moment though, when they pull 12,000 dollars out of Dr. Schultz' wallet, I felt some of the tension of the movie deflate.  Considering the fact that they had more than enough money to buy Hildie's freedom no matter what cost Candy named, Dr. Schultz' plan seemed needlessly complex.  Then, after rescuing the princess, albeit not in the fashion they had hoped, they are given a free pass to leave with their prize.  Dr. Schultz, unfortunately does not have the strength of Siegfried, and kills Candy in an uncontrolled emotional outburst.  This brings back a little tension, since Django has to then shoot his way through an army of ranch hands.  This is where the length of the movie is felt.  The pace comes to a grinding halt after Django and Hildie are recaptured.

At this point, Django is faced with a series of new threats, but they appear to pose little or challenge.  He quickly and easily regains his freedom, unceremoniously shoots all the ranch hands, rescues Hildie, tortures the people who were mean to him, and blows up the plantation house.  The film feels like it is rushing to a cathartic ending where Django's revenge takes precedence over rescuing Hildie.  Most all of that could have been achieved in the first shootout and didn't require a second go at it.

As a genre exploitation film, Tarantino seems to choose not to include one of the biggest tropes of the spaghetti western genre, which is the final showdown at the end of the movie.  If Django was the Clint Eastwood character of the movie, then there was no Lee Van Cleef character to antagonize him, and that is where the tension fails.  Candy was Dr. Schultz' nemesis.  Dr, Schultz had a set of morals that allowed him to  guiltlessly kill a man once he had committed a transgression.  Candy also had his own set of morals that justified slavery though a quack science known as phrenology.  They were reflections of each other.  Although there were a few characters set up to be Django's nemesis, such as Butch or Billy Crash, they never posed a real threat and never had a proper duel.  Django's real nemesis was Steven, the dragon, but as a 70 something year old crippled man he didn't provide much of a physical challenge.

I think the ending would have come to a more satisfying climax had there been a scene like this somewhere in there.

I would still highly recommend Django Unchained despite it's lackluster ending.  Like any other Tarantino film, it was funny, bloody, and beautiful.