A Pinoy Blog About Nothing

Also last week I finally found a copy of Dragonlance: The Annotated Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman at the former Page One.

Although I must admit I got this one for pure nostalgia (I first read it from book fiend Budj years ago…back in grade school), it nevertheless gave me a certain joy at reading characters and felt like I was catching up with like old friends.

Here, Hickman and Weis placed notes on certain parts of the trilogy (compiled in one thick volume) explaining the inspiration or the source of a scene or a character. The Dragonlance Chronicles started out as a companion to modules of the Dungeons & Dragons of the same name before it became successful in its own right.

I learned that the mage Raistlin’s (one of my favorite characters) characteristic whisper came about as Hickman and Weis’ friends were role-playing and were arguing with each other. The guy playing Raistlin, rather than compete with the ruckus, went the other way - he started whispering and the others strained to hear what he was saying.

I read the Chronicles and some of the books it spawned back in grade school and high school. Before I learned of a trilogy called Lord of the Rings. The authors admit that when they created the world of Krynn, the template was Middle Earth. There are a lot of similarities in Middle Earth and Krynn. In fact I read somewhere that Dungeons and Dragons was inspired by LOTR. In effect, I and a whole of generation of geeks got primed for Tolkien from reading Chronicles and playing D&D.

The Chronicles and its subsequent books starts off weakly now that I’ve reread parts of it. It doesn’t really start to get interesting until the second book as the characters (and the writers) became more confident in what they were doing. It’s still an entertaining read most especially in the context of Tolkien.

Who knows? With the success of the movie adaptation of LOTR, the long rumored movie based on the Dragonlance series might finally see the light of day. Maybe Tolkien will pave the way a second time around.

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I also finally found a copy of Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Boy on Earth by Chris Ware through CCHQ (Thank you Katherine!).

It’s a tremendous work of fiction about a boy (a man really) and his ancestors coming full circle. It’s a “small” story in a sense that this comic…ahem…graphic novel…deals with the ordinary-ness of a person’s life and how he deals with his history.

No space invaders.
No caped crusaders.
No world threatening crisis.

It’s just a story about a guy.

The art, amazing to begin with is enhanced by the way it’s printed and bound. Ware’s style is clean, almost cartoony but jolts us on occasion with a splendid detail of a period’s architecture. It’s just awesome to look at. Here’s a good of example of good story and good art coming together beyond the sum of its parts.

It took me three days to read this book. It’s a sin to try to take it all in at one sitting. Get to know Jimmy Corrigan. Hang out with him for awhile. At some parts his story might be mundane and banal but these also contribute to the poignancy of what happens to him. Just sit with him. And listen to him tell his story his own way.