let's chat about kids books, eh
Mar. 15th, 2021 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impySo I'm all caught up on the BSC graphic novels in terms of having read them. I am still woefully behind on owning them.
Let's talk about Claudia And The New Girl shall we?
First up: I have apparently been living a lie for the last however long. I spent ages forgetting that Ashley is not actually related to Andrew Wyeth, but when I double checked for my GR review, turns out that nope. That part is accurate. What else have I falsely remembered over the years?!
Anyway. I don't really mind Ashley's aesthetic changing, but I do mind very much the fact that they didn't bother to change the in text mentions of said hippe look. Like nothing about new!Ashley says hippie. Nothing. Noooooooooooootttttthhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnngggggggggg. Later, when Claud and Ashley have mostly broken up, Jackie comments on Ashley and asks if Claud and the girl who wears the long dresses are mad at each other. I bookmarked that page and flipped back and looked at every single Ashley outfit prior to that and, my friends, we never see her in a dress.
Outfit that is her closest to hippie is her intro:
But the accessories all say not a hippie. Also none of those earrings are supposed to match up if memory serves.
Second outfit isn't really shown in full, but she's wearing pants:
And since I went through AGAIN, here's the rest of Ashley's outfits up til that point and one right after:
Fringe. Ick. Still not a dress.
Definitely pants but I included the whole thing because Ash might be wearing the best outfit shown so there's that.
This is absolutely preppy vibes with an edge so not a dress and most definitely not a hippie. But I'll be damned if I didn't cackle with glee at the sight of Ashley on the mailbox so you get the whole damn page because yeah.
Literally a skirt. (and this outfit is cute, Stace. Don't hate.)
I mean it could be but also probably not.
Pantssssss.
This is the closest we get and I would still bet money that's a skirt and not a dress.
Not a dress to be seen. Even if you assume Ashley wears nothing but dresses on the weekends, I still don't expect that Jackie would see her all that often given that her entire shtick is that she's an artiste and very serious about it and spends all her free time on ~art~.
If you're going to change things, change all the mentions of that thing to reflect the change. Otherwise you just create issues that did not originally exist.
Onto other things with the book. It's obviously (see point 1 at the start) been awhile since I re-read this, but I do remember that it's one of the ones frequently mentioned in adult fandom as an instance where the BSC was terribly in the wrong in their actions. I've always sat on the fence on this particular issue because on the one hand, as adults? Duh. Of course the BSC is mean to short-sheet her bed and fuck with her snacks (though other than putting it back in the wrong spot, is it really fucking with it if Claud would have freely shared it anyway?), and the meanest thing of all was definitely the note writing. But kid!me? Kid!me who'd been replaced as a friend more than once? Oh, she definitely got why they did it and felt absolute VINDICATION when it happened.
The problem with the graphic novel is that it's even more condensed time-wise than the original book so while I get Stacey being hurt that she thought Claud lied about being able to hang out and thus lashing out, the rest of the club, especially Mal and Jessi, seem to have jumped a little faster than they should. Dawn, Mal, and Jessi come across worse here, because Mary Anne shows she's irritated as soon as she notices Claud is missing, Kristy's been irritated since Ashley was introduced (this really was a personality trait they could've changed and I'd be okay with it but no, this we keep?), and Stacey's hurt. Sigh. So this one is kind of whiplash for Dawn and the junior members.
Lesse, what else. Oh. Jackie. Mmkay. I was really hoping with the new artist we'd get Jackie's red hair. Instead we get Jackie being the ONLY Rodowsky boy with definitely brown-brown hair. You could argue, if you were so inclined, that Shea and Archie both have a different shade of brown, maybe auburn hair:
And Shea's got freckles. You know which of the three didn't need freckles to stand out? Shea. Because he's older and looks it. Jackie is adorable (seriously, my heart melts each time he appears in this) but there's no fucking reason he's not a redhead. And there are a couple of instances where the only way I can tell him and Archie apart is because Archie's got a funky haircut and his hair is a different shade. Jackie should be the standout here, okay?
I'm not sure I'd be quite as adamant about this except I finished the Karen books over the weekend and fuck me if I can tell the difference between Sam, Charlie, and even David Micheal at times because they literally look identical except for them technically being different heights (and that's negligible for Charlie and Sam). Shea looks different enough from his brothers that even if you didn't notice the height, you'd know he was older. Archie and Jackie have different hair so even when the proportions are off for their ages (Archie does not read as four at all times) you can suss out the differences. But really. Jackie is a fucking redhead and I am never, ever going to let it go. Is this some "man, redheads have a bad rap so we'll change it so Jackie's not playing into that" shit? Because Jackie's a goddamn sweetheart and I'd say you'd need to worry about that whole "gingers have no soul" rumor than anything else and Jackie's like all soul so what the actual goddamn fuck?
To be fair, if you ignore the redhead erasure (and you shouldn't), Jackie himself is fantastic and wonderful and I love him to bits in this adaptation. But I need to rant in my little corner of the universe so here we are.
Art style. This I didn't mention in my review because it always feels a bit petty to mention it unless something is just undeniably bad (I'm looking at you, NOLA girls from AG artwork), but the art style for this one isn't my favorite overall. I'm not going to swear it off because of the second arc, Dawn and the Impossible Three was my least favorite and it was the first of that arc so it could really just be an adjustment period on both ends. Also there are some bits of art I love so, so much. I think this artist does better at conveying movement and those scenes worked better for me so it's definitely not the Worst Thing Ever.
To counter the petty feeling, have two of my other favorite moments that don't include mailbox climbing:
That middle panel is adorable! ♥
I love this.
So. Mixed bag. Also, I can't tell, but did they give Mary Anne blue eyes in the graphic novels? I swear anytime she gets any color in her eyes at all, they're blue which I thought was maybe just a stylistic choice in the previous books but this one goes out of its way to show Kristy's got brown eyes and so does Claud so...
Let's talk about Claudia And The New Girl shall we?
First up: I have apparently been living a lie for the last however long. I spent ages forgetting that Ashley is not actually related to Andrew Wyeth, but when I double checked for my GR review, turns out that nope. That part is accurate. What else have I falsely remembered over the years?!
Anyway. I don't really mind Ashley's aesthetic changing, but I do mind very much the fact that they didn't bother to change the in text mentions of said hippe look. Like nothing about new!Ashley says hippie. Nothing. Noooooooooooootttttthhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnngggggggggg. Later, when Claud and Ashley have mostly broken up, Jackie comments on Ashley and asks if Claud and the girl who wears the long dresses are mad at each other. I bookmarked that page and flipped back and looked at every single Ashley outfit prior to that and, my friends, we never see her in a dress.
Outfit that is her closest to hippie is her intro:
But the accessories all say not a hippie. Also none of those earrings are supposed to match up if memory serves.
Second outfit isn't really shown in full, but she's wearing pants:
And since I went through AGAIN, here's the rest of Ashley's outfits up til that point and one right after:
Fringe. Ick. Still not a dress.
Definitely pants but I included the whole thing because Ash might be wearing the best outfit shown so there's that.
This is absolutely preppy vibes with an edge so not a dress and most definitely not a hippie. But I'll be damned if I didn't cackle with glee at the sight of Ashley on the mailbox so you get the whole damn page because yeah.
Literally a skirt. (and this outfit is cute, Stace. Don't hate.)
I mean it could be but also probably not.
Pantssssss.
This is the closest we get and I would still bet money that's a skirt and not a dress.
Not a dress to be seen. Even if you assume Ashley wears nothing but dresses on the weekends, I still don't expect that Jackie would see her all that often given that her entire shtick is that she's an artiste and very serious about it and spends all her free time on ~art~.
If you're going to change things, change all the mentions of that thing to reflect the change. Otherwise you just create issues that did not originally exist.
Onto other things with the book. It's obviously (see point 1 at the start) been awhile since I re-read this, but I do remember that it's one of the ones frequently mentioned in adult fandom as an instance where the BSC was terribly in the wrong in their actions. I've always sat on the fence on this particular issue because on the one hand, as adults? Duh. Of course the BSC is mean to short-sheet her bed and fuck with her snacks (though other than putting it back in the wrong spot, is it really fucking with it if Claud would have freely shared it anyway?), and the meanest thing of all was definitely the note writing. But kid!me? Kid!me who'd been replaced as a friend more than once? Oh, she definitely got why they did it and felt absolute VINDICATION when it happened.
The problem with the graphic novel is that it's even more condensed time-wise than the original book so while I get Stacey being hurt that she thought Claud lied about being able to hang out and thus lashing out, the rest of the club, especially Mal and Jessi, seem to have jumped a little faster than they should. Dawn, Mal, and Jessi come across worse here, because Mary Anne shows she's irritated as soon as she notices Claud is missing, Kristy's been irritated since Ashley was introduced (this really was a personality trait they could've changed and I'd be okay with it but no, this we keep?), and Stacey's hurt. Sigh. So this one is kind of whiplash for Dawn and the junior members.
Lesse, what else. Oh. Jackie. Mmkay. I was really hoping with the new artist we'd get Jackie's red hair. Instead we get Jackie being the ONLY Rodowsky boy with definitely brown-brown hair. You could argue, if you were so inclined, that Shea and Archie both have a different shade of brown, maybe auburn hair:
And Shea's got freckles. You know which of the three didn't need freckles to stand out? Shea. Because he's older and looks it. Jackie is adorable (seriously, my heart melts each time he appears in this) but there's no fucking reason he's not a redhead. And there are a couple of instances where the only way I can tell him and Archie apart is because Archie's got a funky haircut and his hair is a different shade. Jackie should be the standout here, okay?
I'm not sure I'd be quite as adamant about this except I finished the Karen books over the weekend and fuck me if I can tell the difference between Sam, Charlie, and even David Micheal at times because they literally look identical except for them technically being different heights (and that's negligible for Charlie and Sam). Shea looks different enough from his brothers that even if you didn't notice the height, you'd know he was older. Archie and Jackie have different hair so even when the proportions are off for their ages (Archie does not read as four at all times) you can suss out the differences. But really. Jackie is a fucking redhead and I am never, ever going to let it go. Is this some "man, redheads have a bad rap so we'll change it so Jackie's not playing into that" shit? Because Jackie's a goddamn sweetheart and I'd say you'd need to worry about that whole "gingers have no soul" rumor than anything else and Jackie's like all soul so what the actual goddamn fuck?
To be fair, if you ignore the redhead erasure (and you shouldn't), Jackie himself is fantastic and wonderful and I love him to bits in this adaptation. But I need to rant in my little corner of the universe so here we are.
Art style. This I didn't mention in my review because it always feels a bit petty to mention it unless something is just undeniably bad (I'm looking at you, NOLA girls from AG artwork), but the art style for this one isn't my favorite overall. I'm not going to swear it off because of the second arc, Dawn and the Impossible Three was my least favorite and it was the first of that arc so it could really just be an adjustment period on both ends. Also there are some bits of art I love so, so much. I think this artist does better at conveying movement and those scenes worked better for me so it's definitely not the Worst Thing Ever.
To counter the petty feeling, have two of my other favorite moments that don't include mailbox climbing:
That middle panel is adorable! ♥
I love this.
So. Mixed bag. Also, I can't tell, but did they give Mary Anne blue eyes in the graphic novels? I swear anytime she gets any color in her eyes at all, they're blue which I thought was maybe just a stylistic choice in the previous books but this one goes out of its way to show Kristy's got brown eyes and so does Claud so...
(no subject)
Date: 2021-03-17 12:03 pm (UTC)Half the reason I gave up my comic book addiction, aside from it being very, very expensive after awhile, was Marvel's insistence on using people who might one day be able to draw but could not at that moment manage to put together a decent panel, let alone full page or full comic. So much fug. SO MUCH.
I believe Ashley had relaxed a lot (for her anyway) by #85 (good memory!) and I'm dying at the Enid/Alex comparison.