Patton Oswalt
Author of Zombie Spaceship Wasteland
About the Author
Patton Oswalt is an actor, comedian, and author. He has appeared on numerous television shows and in more than twenty movies including Young Adult, Big Fan, and Ratatouille. He has released four TV specials and four comedy albums including My Weakness Is Strong. His books include Zombie Spaceship show more Wasteland and Silver Screen Fiend: Learning about Life from an Addiction to Film. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Patton Oswalt
Ghost Box II 8 copies
Ghost Box III 5 copies
Dating a Stripper is A Recipe for Perspective: An Essay from Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me (2008) 2 copies
Minor Threats #1 2 copies
Minor Threats #2 1 copy
Minor Threats #4 1 copy
Big Fan 1 copy
Associated Works
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer (2018) — Afterword — 3,220 copies
Courage Is Contagious and Other Reasons to Be Grateful for Michelle Obama (2017) — Contributor — 37 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1969-01-27
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Portsmouth, Virginia, USA
- Places of residence
- Burbank, California, USA
- Education
- College of William and Mary
- Occupations
- comedian
actor - Relationships
- Salenger, Meredith (wife)
McNamara, Michelle (wife, died 2016)
Members
Reviews
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
NOT SURE WHY I FEEL COMPELLED TO SAY THIS, BUT...
I'm going to make a lot of allusions to other comics/superhero stories. This is intentional and, I think, warranted. Oswalt and Blum are satirizing, paying tribute to, and playing with tried-and-true superhero ideas. When I say they're doing something ____-esque, or in the vein of, etc. I'm not criticizing, I'm describing. Their work is derivative of more things than I'm aware of because they're commenting on those things. Oswalt and Blum know their stuff, they've drunk deeply from more comic wells than I can imagine and used that to produce this series.
FRANKIE
When she was a kid, Frankie was the costumed sidekick of her mother, a supervillain/thief. At some point, they were arrested and Frankie went to prison. When she got out, she tried to go straight and get a decent job, but we all know how hard it is for an ex-con to get a job, when that ex-con is a Meta? Forget it—door after door slammed in her face. Finally, she found a job working as a bartender in a bar that catered to supervillains. Not really the elite-level villains, but the "lower ranked" ones—with just enough power to typically need a superhero instead of the police. Think the sillier ones in the Suicide Squad.
I've seen this kind of bar in Spider-Man comics, a superhero version in The Tick (animated), and a few other places like that. Frankie is friendly with a couple of her regulars but regards most of them with a kind of contempt/pity mixture. Frankie's the stereotypical Alcoholic in Recovery working as a Bartender—just her addiction is using the abilities that got her locked up.
NOT-JASON TODD/THE JOKER/BATMAN
So remember what Batman wanted to do to the Joker after he (assisted by the readers of DC Comics) beat the life out of Jason Todd? What would've happened if Superman hadn't stepped in? Well, we get the answer here—after a Joker-esque character (The Stickman) kills the kid sidekick (Kid Dusk) of a Batman-esque hero (The Insomniac), The Insomniac goes on a vigilante rampage looking for The Stickman—and woe to anyone who gets in his way. The story kicks off with someone stumbling into the bar holding the beaten near-corpse of one supervillain who was "interrogated" by The Insomniac.
This leads to the biggest crackdown on Meta criminals ever—the heroes and the police are trying to lock them all up for their own safety more than because of any crimes. It's wreaking all sorts of havoc. To put a stop to this, Frankie and some acquaintances/customers decide they need to find The Stickman themselves and kill him themselves. Why wait for the good guys to do the job? If Stickman is out of the picture, The Insomniac might be able to be stopped—or maybe stop himself.
Sure, none of these criminals are the best choices for this—and most are past the prime of their abilities—but it's not like they have a better idea.
THE ART
I can't put my finger exactly on how to describe the art—it reminded me of a lot of mid-80s Marvel Comics art, with shades of Gotham Central. That's going to help precisely no one, but it's the best I can do.
I really dug it—the art fits the story and the characters well. It wasn't too flashy or too polished—neither would fit this story. There's a roughness to it (but not in a negative way) that really suited what Oswalt and Blum were doing.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT MINOR THREATS: A QUICK END TO A LONG BEGINNING?
This is dark. It's twisted. It's funny—and it's not really funny at all. There's some tragedy to this, too.
I want more. Now.
Is it the greatest comic story I've come across lately? Nah, but the way the creative team is playing with, exploring, exploiting, and so on with tropes, stand-bys, themes, character-types, etc. is just so much fun and so interesting.
There's just a solid story in the midst of all this, too. It's more than meta-commentary on superhero stories, it's a good one itself. But for me to really dig into it the way it deserves would take more time and energy than I'm willing to devote to it. So I'll just leave it at this—you're going to dig this.… (more)
---
NOT SURE WHY I FEEL COMPELLED TO SAY THIS, BUT...
I'm going to make a lot of allusions to other comics/superhero stories. This is intentional and, I think, warranted. Oswalt and Blum are satirizing, paying tribute to, and playing with tried-and-true superhero ideas. When I say they're doing something ____-esque, or in the vein of, etc. I'm not criticizing, I'm describing. Their work is derivative of more things than I'm aware of because they're commenting on those things. Oswalt and Blum know their stuff, they've drunk deeply from more comic wells than I can imagine and used that to produce this series.
FRANKIE
When she was a kid, Frankie was the costumed sidekick of her mother, a supervillain/thief. At some point, they were arrested and Frankie went to prison. When she got out, she tried to go straight and get a decent job, but we all know how hard it is for an ex-con to get a job, when that ex-con is a Meta? Forget it—door after door slammed in her face. Finally, she found a job working as a bartender in a bar that catered to supervillains. Not really the elite-level villains, but the "lower ranked" ones—with just enough power to typically need a superhero instead of the police. Think the sillier ones in the Suicide Squad.
I've seen this kind of bar in Spider-Man comics, a superhero version in The Tick (animated), and a few other places like that. Frankie is friendly with a couple of her regulars but regards most of them with a kind of contempt/pity mixture. Frankie's the stereotypical Alcoholic in Recovery working as a Bartender—just her addiction is using the abilities that got her locked up.
NOT-JASON TODD/THE JOKER/BATMAN
So remember what Batman wanted to do to the Joker after he (assisted by the readers of DC Comics) beat the life out of Jason Todd? What would've happened if Superman hadn't stepped in? Well, we get the answer here—after a Joker-esque character (The Stickman) kills the kid sidekick (Kid Dusk) of a Batman-esque hero (The Insomniac), The Insomniac goes on a vigilante rampage looking for The Stickman—and woe to anyone who gets in his way. The story kicks off with someone stumbling into the bar holding the beaten near-corpse of one supervillain who was "interrogated" by The Insomniac.
This leads to the biggest crackdown on Meta criminals ever—the heroes and the police are trying to lock them all up for their own safety more than because of any crimes. It's wreaking all sorts of havoc. To put a stop to this, Frankie and some acquaintances/customers decide they need to find The Stickman themselves and kill him themselves. Why wait for the good guys to do the job? If Stickman is out of the picture, The Insomniac might be able to be stopped—or maybe stop himself.
Sure, none of these criminals are the best choices for this—and most are past the prime of their abilities—but it's not like they have a better idea.
THE ART
I can't put my finger exactly on how to describe the art—it reminded me of a lot of mid-80s Marvel Comics art, with shades of Gotham Central. That's going to help precisely no one, but it's the best I can do.
I really dug it—the art fits the story and the characters well. It wasn't too flashy or too polished—neither would fit this story. There's a roughness to it (but not in a negative way) that really suited what Oswalt and Blum were doing.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT MINOR THREATS: A QUICK END TO A LONG BEGINNING?
This is dark. It's twisted. It's funny—and it's not really funny at all. There's some tragedy to this, too.
I want more. Now.
Is it the greatest comic story I've come across lately? Nah, but the way the creative team is playing with, exploring, exploiting, and so on with tropes, stand-bys, themes, character-types, etc. is just so much fun and so interesting.
There's just a solid story in the midst of all this, too. It's more than meta-commentary on superhero stories, it's a good one itself. But for me to really dig into it the way it deserves would take more time and energy than I'm willing to devote to it. So I'll just leave it at this—you're going to dig this.… (more)
This wasn't quite what I imagined it would be, but it was a pleasant and sometimes amusing collection of stories about modern life, growing up in the suburbs, and becoming a standup comedian.
This is written by from the perspective of someone who has achieved a level of enlightenment, by someone who clearly hasn't. What it amounts to is a guy who hates his former self, but hasn't seemed to learn about life ... just addiction ... from that self.
There are some great stories about stand ups and the business in here, and some nice movie talk, nestled in among judgey, go-nowhere assertions that his current self is where it's at.
I wonder how the book would read if he'd made less money or hadn't had a kid.… (more)
There are some great stories about stand ups and the business in here, and some nice movie talk, nestled in among judgey, go-nowhere assertions that his current self is where it's at.
I wonder how the book would read if he'd made less money or hadn't had a kid.… (more)
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 27
- Also by
- 38
- Members
- 1,550
- Popularity
- #16,614
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 78
- ISBNs
- 29
- Languages
- 1
- Favorited
- 1
- Touchstones
- 39
I think this book is for you, Patton, not us, and this is disrespectful of the reader’s time, this the most cardinal of writerly sins.… (more)