Stormwatch

I just had to trace back the origins of The Authority, so I borrowed Stormwatch last weekend. The first collection I read, "Lightning Strikes", was a little of expected disappointment: less sophisticated story, not-so-attractive drawing, and characters are more stereotyped.

Still, I got to know more likeable characters like Winter and Jackson King before and while he was still the Weatherman. I was little disappointed to see that Jack Hawksmoor and Jenny Sparks were not given any major roles.

All these changes as the story continues. I especially like the story arc with The High. Probably this is the first time Ellis introduced the concept of a team with a Doctor and an Engineer, a concept brought forward into The Authority.
The final moments in the story have sooo much potential to be a comic-book tragedy. I think somehow the panels and drawing did not succeed in conveying this. I can still see the tragic circumstances, but it could have been better.

The end of Stormwatch, though, is really cataclysmic. Almost everyone dies. Guess I am fortunate enough to read The Authority first before reading this end. It is such a cliffhanger, I don't think I can survive it had I read the story in the proper order :D

Anyway, I think The Authority is a good evolution from Stormwatch. There is another story branch with Jackson King called The Monarchy. I have not got my hand on it yet, but Wikipedia says story telling is confusing and fan reactions are so bad that the series got cancelled. Probably I don't miss much :)

I certainly develop a lot of respect to WildStorm after reading these 2 series. Marvel universe seem much tamer compared to WildStorm universe. Superheroes, even protagonists, die. Arguably this reduces the concept of a superhero into a supersoldier, partially dispensible in a battle. But I think it reminds me that that's how life is.

A little dose of reality

I am currently busy preparing for a journal article in addition to some other stuff which I am starting to believe to be unimportant. Well, anyway, here is a dose of reality from the Internet: 10 Fascinating Facts about Iraq Overlooked by the Media.

Is this relevant to what I do (for a living)? No, not at all. But, I would like to argue, it is much more important than what I do. This is about living people, not some l337 algorithm with some potential commercial application.

And somehow it reassures me that those additional stuff I do really does matter. (See it for yourself from here http://www1.nvpc.org.sg/sub_page.asp?pid=101&sid=265 and here http://www.migrantvoices.org/index.html)

(Edited on 5 March 2015)
The links above are broken now. What I did was volunteering for a non-profit organization called "Migrant Voices." The goal was to raise awareness about migrant worker issues as well as helping such workers make their life more well-rounded in Singapore, away from their homes.

Seeing ten ladies from Java, the island in which my hometown is located, working hard to make a better life here made me want to make my own life better. I stopped volunteering there and worked on to make a career switch to animation, a career that I am now enjoying every day.