Monday, May 17, 2004
The Living Planet, Part 2.
Continuing from Part 1...
Introduce JUSTICE HALL, swinging in towards a scene of urban devastation. As he swings towards the carnage on his Batrope, he does a little pondering about who he is and why he does what he does. On page five, he's stopped by a kid who waves him down from on top of the building he's perched on. Sensing that there's a crime in progress that he's being alerted to, Hall swoops down.
"What is it? Have you been mugged? Where are your parents? This isn't a cat in a tree thing, is it? I don't do cats-in-trees."
No, it's just a fanboy, who wants his autograph. He pulls out a spiral-ring notebook from his knapsack and wants Hall's autograph. He's about fifteen. Old enough to be out by himself at ten o'clock at night, but young enough to not realize being out by yourself at that time is kinda silly.
Hall tells him, "Go home. You're asking for trouble."
This kid will be our audience stand-in. If The Grand represents DC, then Justice Hall represents Marvel. Two sides of an equation trying to do the same thing by competing means. Schaff, in his rampaging yet mindless power, represents self-publishers... wielding the power of the comic book form but only haphazardly and without conscious direction. It's an accident if something bad happens and it's an accident if something good happens. Kastra, the alien girl, represents the independent publishers, who may have the pluck and the wherewithal to hang with the big guys but have to survive on being quicker and more clever because the punches they throw don't bring down the house. Finesse beats power any day, anyway...
So our fifteen year old kid is our audience substitute. He'll be along for the ride... not exactly a B-story, but a throughline to the end of the act... Justice Hall initally tells him to piss off, but then relents, as there really is a human face under the mask. He's taken with the boy's naivete and relents. Signs a page in the kid's makeshift scrapbook (maybe a newspaper clipping about one of Justice Hall's exploits) and tells him to get off the streets. It's a good country... a damn fine country... but on a school night it's better to be home with the lights off.
Kastra arrives on the scene with her people's spaceship, which acts as a group quinjet a nd shuttles the four around the world, and, apparently, deep space, as well. She lands the honkin' thing outside of the carnage Schaff is creating and gets out with a flourish.
This kid then meets Kastra, who's quite flattered by the attention, and flirts with the kid mercilessly. He's got an 8 x 10 of her in his book, protected by a plastic sleeve. The intimation here is the kid spends some time alone with his scrapbook in general and Kastra's photo in particular.
After the out-of-control Schaff is made docile once more, and the two-year old he's been swinging around (representing the hope for the comic book fans of the future, natch), the kid even gets Schaff's autograph: "GEED!"
Just then, The Grand flies down, having missed all the brouhaha, and informs them that they've got to stop a crashing alien ship. There is some back and forth with the kid, as he tries to get The Grand's autograph. Even Justice Hall is a little put off when our Superman-analogue blows the kid off. Kastra, Hall, even the nearly-mindless Schaff all gave the kid the time of day... the intimation here is that The Grand is doing good works for a deifferent reason than the others. There is no altruism in him, apparently... if there is, it's a selfish altruism... not good for goodness' sake, but good because of desired effect is reached. What is the desired effect or outcome for The Grand? We do not yet know... all we know is what the kid knows, that the powerful Superman analogue is blowing him off and is not giving him his autograph. It's a small, simple thing, but telling to the audience that this guy isn't Superman. He's not crass, per se, he's just not all things to all people.
As far as the kid is concerned, though, the guy he idolizes the most might just as well have punched him in the stomach.
This act, remember, all takes place at night, with the inside front cover of the book being a solid black, and the main action of the first act all taking place in a dark, moody, atmospheric Gotham-City-of-sorts.
This is taken through to the second act, which takes place in the spaceship, and is all sort of neutrally lit. A transition between the black of the first act and the bright, washed-out day in the desert of the third act, which finishes with the all-white inside back cover. Black to white, ink to no ink, something, to nothing. Man, that's a bleak view of the comic book industry, isn't it?
"We've got things to do," The Grand says, blowing the kid off brusquely.
No autograph for him, and no joy for your regular comics fan as the stand-in for Marvel Comics blithely ignores the stand-in for the comic book reaading audience and flies off, literally abandoning his audience. The four of them head off into deep space...
Q: Okay, first off, I'd just like to say... Brandon McKinney's art was pretty much pitch-perfect for the project. He made the Grand look like a world-class asshole from Panel One, and that's not easy. How'd you two hook up for this project?
Larry: Brandon and I have known each other for a while, and I set him up with Warren Ellis for SWITCHBLADE HONEY. I feared that Warren would be swamped with work and I didn't want Brandon to be waiting for script, so I pitched him the idea to work on PLANET while we waited for Warren. But W was right there with his script and so PLANET waited while B finished up that.
Q: How long ago was that?
Larry: Spring of 2001, I think.
Q: So you've been sitting on this script for a while. How many little tweaks and alterations did it undergo between the original outline and the finished product? Aside from drastic reduction in length.
Larry: Two major rebuilds. The first proposal would have been at least 288 pages long, and that didn't fit my "compression" idea... I don' really revisit and rewrite that much. Just tweak dialogue to fit space issues at the lettering stage. By the time I sit down to write, I've pretty much figured out the tale I want to tell.
Q: You didn't actually hack out 288 pages, did you?
Larry: No, that wouldn't be efficient.
Q: Make for a hell of a director's cut, though. Okay, I know you've stressed that none of the characters are one-to-one stand-ins for different aspects of the industry, but I have to wonder about the swap of Justice Hall and the Grand, and whom they represent. After the color sequence is done, their personalities seem to have solidified into pretty specific caricatures. So come on... level. Which is it for them, DC or Marvel?
Larry: Well, I think it's clear that they represent the Big Two, yeah?
Q: It's pretty clear, yeah.
Larry: So does it matter which is which? I swapped 'em around because that's what happens with Marvel and DC. Two horses, nose-to-nose.
Q: But if it's a cautionary tale, a warning of potential things to come, I'm curious on your exact take on what role each of the Big Two will take in it... if we don't change course.
Larry: Well, it's an allegory. There is no exact take.
Q: That's why I'm asking for yours.
Larry: I don't want to say what I think, because then that ruins the fun for the reader. It's like asking Dickens who he's riffing on in BLEAK HOUSE, man.
Q: Fair enough. Schaff's shown with tremendous power, wielded uncontrollably, sometimes doing as much harm as good. Do you think self-publishers still have that much influence in the field?
Larry: Yeah, I think self-publishers have the potential to wield that much power. But an interesting take is that Schaff represents the distribution aspect of the industry, as well.
Q: Specifically Diamond, or distribution overall?
Larry: Distribution, overall. Diamond, Cold Cut, FMI, the book trade... a many-limbed juggernaut. See? Allegory is fun, if you get into it.
Q: The interesting thing is, I went into reading PLANET cold. I didn't read your Cliff's Notes on it until afterwards, so I could take it in fresh. To me, Schaff came off as fanboys as much as the kid with the autograph book did. So much power to change things, with almost zero guidance on "doing the right thing."
Larry: "Just wanting you to care," "remembering when good people did good things"? Yeah, I can see that.
Q: Kastra giving the young autograph hound a kiss on the cheek and making his day... tell me that that is not a Larry Young moment in a nutshell. Convince me.
Larry: What's a "Larry Young moment"?
Q: Self-insertion. Which sounds kinda sexy.
Larry: The entire book is my take on things, so every main character says or does something I see that should be done or said, in comics. I think Justice Hall is probably closest to my personal worldview.
Q: Oh, I just meant a bit of self-insertion in that that's what you try to do with the fan base. Flirt, talk, get them intimately involved. So to speak.
Larry: I think every company has someone whose job that is. It's the nature of PR and marketing. But that's flattering that you think I'm the personification of good marketing.
Q: Well, some would say that DC and specifically Marvel do a pretty horrible job of relating to the fan base. Of course, that's precisely what the Grand does. So... you and Justice Hall? Elaborate.
Larry: He has a firm idea of what's acceptable and what's unacceptable, doesn't take any shit, is no-nonsense, is prepared for all the angles... has a strategy when things go wrong, and still has time to give a kid personal attention even while he's saying he doesn't have time. The "I don't do cats in trees" page is the one I bought from Brandon.
Q: And maybe the one guy who can stand up to the Grand?
Larry: Like I said these aren't one-to-one correlations. I have aspects of The Grand in my view of comics, too. People are complex cats, man.
Q: And decades of company history even more so. I'm with you. An interesting change from outline to TPB you have is the fanboy's reaction to the Grand blowing him off. In the TPB, the kid feels down, but Kastra cheers him right up again. In the original outline, you detail it as the kid feeling as if he "might as well have been punched in the stomach." What prompted the change?
Larry: A maturation of my view of the ephemeral nature of an audience.
Q: Since 2001 and the writing of the final script? What changed that?
Larry: I just realized that as our business grew, we'd have diehards and casual readers and new converts. I saw how Marvel fans, for example, keep reading Spidey no matter what Marvel does... but it's not the same audience; there's a turnover. So Marvel and DC, and us, even, do what's best for our companies, and not necessarily what’s best for an individual fan.
Q: So you don't see the audience for superheroes as largely static, like a lot of critics do.
Larry: If I did, I wouldn't have published PLANET OF THE CAPES and HENCH and the three FOOT SOLDIERS volumes. The middle chapter of ASTRONAUTS IN TROUBLE: SPACE 1959 is a rumination on the superhero.
Q: Well there's a pretty big sentiment rolling around that the only people buying Spider-Man, et al, these days are 35-year-old fanboys who've been buying the title all their lives. You think superheroes still have legs, then?
Larry: I wouldn't dismiss a good story just because of its format or subject matter. Super heroes, westerns, romance books, hot rod stories... if it's a good tale, well told, then I think there's an audience.
(Stay tuned for more.)
ACT I BEFORE - FROM THE NOTES OF LARRY YOUNG
Introduce JUSTICE HALL, swinging in towards a scene of urban devastation. As he swings towards the carnage on his Batrope, he does a little pondering about who he is and why he does what he does. On page five, he's stopped by a kid who waves him down from on top of the building he's perched on. Sensing that there's a crime in progress that he's being alerted to, Hall swoops down.
"What is it? Have you been mugged? Where are your parents? This isn't a cat in a tree thing, is it? I don't do cats-in-trees."
No, it's just a fanboy, who wants his autograph. He pulls out a spiral-ring notebook from his knapsack and wants Hall's autograph. He's about fifteen. Old enough to be out by himself at ten o'clock at night, but young enough to not realize being out by yourself at that time is kinda silly.
Hall tells him, "Go home. You're asking for trouble."
This kid will be our audience stand-in. If The Grand represents DC, then Justice Hall represents Marvel. Two sides of an equation trying to do the same thing by competing means. Schaff, in his rampaging yet mindless power, represents self-publishers... wielding the power of the comic book form but only haphazardly and without conscious direction. It's an accident if something bad happens and it's an accident if something good happens. Kastra, the alien girl, represents the independent publishers, who may have the pluck and the wherewithal to hang with the big guys but have to survive on being quicker and more clever because the punches they throw don't bring down the house. Finesse beats power any day, anyway...
So our fifteen year old kid is our audience substitute. He'll be along for the ride... not exactly a B-story, but a throughline to the end of the act... Justice Hall initally tells him to piss off, but then relents, as there really is a human face under the mask. He's taken with the boy's naivete and relents. Signs a page in the kid's makeshift scrapbook (maybe a newspaper clipping about one of Justice Hall's exploits) and tells him to get off the streets. It's a good country... a damn fine country... but on a school night it's better to be home with the lights off.
Kastra arrives on the scene with her people's spaceship, which acts as a group quinjet a nd shuttles the four around the world, and, apparently, deep space, as well. She lands the honkin' thing outside of the carnage Schaff is creating and gets out with a flourish.
This kid then meets Kastra, who's quite flattered by the attention, and flirts with the kid mercilessly. He's got an 8 x 10 of her in his book, protected by a plastic sleeve. The intimation here is the kid spends some time alone with his scrapbook in general and Kastra's photo in particular.
After the out-of-control Schaff is made docile once more, and the two-year old he's been swinging around (representing the hope for the comic book fans of the future, natch), the kid even gets Schaff's autograph: "GEED!"
Just then, The Grand flies down, having missed all the brouhaha, and informs them that they've got to stop a crashing alien ship. There is some back and forth with the kid, as he tries to get The Grand's autograph. Even Justice Hall is a little put off when our Superman-analogue blows the kid off. Kastra, Hall, even the nearly-mindless Schaff all gave the kid the time of day... the intimation here is that The Grand is doing good works for a deifferent reason than the others. There is no altruism in him, apparently... if there is, it's a selfish altruism... not good for goodness' sake, but good because of desired effect is reached. What is the desired effect or outcome for The Grand? We do not yet know... all we know is what the kid knows, that the powerful Superman analogue is blowing him off and is not giving him his autograph. It's a small, simple thing, but telling to the audience that this guy isn't Superman. He's not crass, per se, he's just not all things to all people.
As far as the kid is concerned, though, the guy he idolizes the most might just as well have punched him in the stomach.
This act, remember, all takes place at night, with the inside front cover of the book being a solid black, and the main action of the first act all taking place in a dark, moody, atmospheric Gotham-City-of-sorts.
This is taken through to the second act, which takes place in the spaceship, and is all sort of neutrally lit. A transition between the black of the first act and the bright, washed-out day in the desert of the third act, which finishes with the all-white inside back cover. Black to white, ink to no ink, something, to nothing. Man, that's a bleak view of the comic book industry, isn't it?
"We've got things to do," The Grand says, blowing the kid off brusquely.
No autograph for him, and no joy for your regular comics fan as the stand-in for Marvel Comics blithely ignores the stand-in for the comic book reaading audience and flies off, literally abandoning his audience. The four of them head off into deep space...
ACT I AFTER - STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH
Q: Okay, first off, I'd just like to say... Brandon McKinney's art was pretty much pitch-perfect for the project. He made the Grand look like a world-class asshole from Panel One, and that's not easy. How'd you two hook up for this project?
Larry: Brandon and I have known each other for a while, and I set him up with Warren Ellis for SWITCHBLADE HONEY. I feared that Warren would be swamped with work and I didn't want Brandon to be waiting for script, so I pitched him the idea to work on PLANET while we waited for Warren. But W was right there with his script and so PLANET waited while B finished up that.
Q: How long ago was that?
Larry: Spring of 2001, I think.
Q: So you've been sitting on this script for a while. How many little tweaks and alterations did it undergo between the original outline and the finished product? Aside from drastic reduction in length.
Larry: Two major rebuilds. The first proposal would have been at least 288 pages long, and that didn't fit my "compression" idea... I don' really revisit and rewrite that much. Just tweak dialogue to fit space issues at the lettering stage. By the time I sit down to write, I've pretty much figured out the tale I want to tell.
Q: You didn't actually hack out 288 pages, did you?
Larry: No, that wouldn't be efficient.
Q: Make for a hell of a director's cut, though. Okay, I know you've stressed that none of the characters are one-to-one stand-ins for different aspects of the industry, but I have to wonder about the swap of Justice Hall and the Grand, and whom they represent. After the color sequence is done, their personalities seem to have solidified into pretty specific caricatures. So come on... level. Which is it for them, DC or Marvel?
Larry: Well, I think it's clear that they represent the Big Two, yeah?
Q: It's pretty clear, yeah.
Larry: So does it matter which is which? I swapped 'em around because that's what happens with Marvel and DC. Two horses, nose-to-nose.
Q: But if it's a cautionary tale, a warning of potential things to come, I'm curious on your exact take on what role each of the Big Two will take in it... if we don't change course.
Larry: Well, it's an allegory. There is no exact take.
Q: That's why I'm asking for yours.
Larry: I don't want to say what I think, because then that ruins the fun for the reader. It's like asking Dickens who he's riffing on in BLEAK HOUSE, man.
Q: Fair enough. Schaff's shown with tremendous power, wielded uncontrollably, sometimes doing as much harm as good. Do you think self-publishers still have that much influence in the field?
Larry: Yeah, I think self-publishers have the potential to wield that much power. But an interesting take is that Schaff represents the distribution aspect of the industry, as well.
Q: Specifically Diamond, or distribution overall?
Larry: Distribution, overall. Diamond, Cold Cut, FMI, the book trade... a many-limbed juggernaut. See? Allegory is fun, if you get into it.
Q: The interesting thing is, I went into reading PLANET cold. I didn't read your Cliff's Notes on it until afterwards, so I could take it in fresh. To me, Schaff came off as fanboys as much as the kid with the autograph book did. So much power to change things, with almost zero guidance on "doing the right thing."
Larry: "Just wanting you to care," "remembering when good people did good things"? Yeah, I can see that.
Q: Kastra giving the young autograph hound a kiss on the cheek and making his day... tell me that that is not a Larry Young moment in a nutshell. Convince me.
Larry: What's a "Larry Young moment"?
Q: Self-insertion. Which sounds kinda sexy.
Larry: The entire book is my take on things, so every main character says or does something I see that should be done or said, in comics. I think Justice Hall is probably closest to my personal worldview.
Q: Oh, I just meant a bit of self-insertion in that that's what you try to do with the fan base. Flirt, talk, get them intimately involved. So to speak.
Larry: I think every company has someone whose job that is. It's the nature of PR and marketing. But that's flattering that you think I'm the personification of good marketing.
Q: Well, some would say that DC and specifically Marvel do a pretty horrible job of relating to the fan base. Of course, that's precisely what the Grand does. So... you and Justice Hall? Elaborate.
Larry: He has a firm idea of what's acceptable and what's unacceptable, doesn't take any shit, is no-nonsense, is prepared for all the angles... has a strategy when things go wrong, and still has time to give a kid personal attention even while he's saying he doesn't have time. The "I don't do cats in trees" page is the one I bought from Brandon.
Q: And maybe the one guy who can stand up to the Grand?
Larry: Like I said these aren't one-to-one correlations. I have aspects of The Grand in my view of comics, too. People are complex cats, man.
Q: And decades of company history even more so. I'm with you. An interesting change from outline to TPB you have is the fanboy's reaction to the Grand blowing him off. In the TPB, the kid feels down, but Kastra cheers him right up again. In the original outline, you detail it as the kid feeling as if he "might as well have been punched in the stomach." What prompted the change?
Larry: A maturation of my view of the ephemeral nature of an audience.
Q: Since 2001 and the writing of the final script? What changed that?
Larry: I just realized that as our business grew, we'd have diehards and casual readers and new converts. I saw how Marvel fans, for example, keep reading Spidey no matter what Marvel does... but it's not the same audience; there's a turnover. So Marvel and DC, and us, even, do what's best for our companies, and not necessarily what’s best for an individual fan.
Q: So you don't see the audience for superheroes as largely static, like a lot of critics do.
Larry: If I did, I wouldn't have published PLANET OF THE CAPES and HENCH and the three FOOT SOLDIERS volumes. The middle chapter of ASTRONAUTS IN TROUBLE: SPACE 1959 is a rumination on the superhero.
Q: Well there's a pretty big sentiment rolling around that the only people buying Spider-Man, et al, these days are 35-year-old fanboys who've been buying the title all their lives. You think superheroes still have legs, then?
Larry: I wouldn't dismiss a good story just because of its format or subject matter. Super heroes, westerns, romance books, hot rod stories... if it's a good tale, well told, then I think there's an audience.
(Stay tuned for more.)
Sunday, May 16, 2004
I lied. So what? Happens all the time.
Okay, so this'll be the last post of the day. Dorian at postmodernbarney's got his list of what does -- and does not -- constitute our ideal middleground comic book journalism rag.
Here I shall quote wholesale, running the risk of his wrath:
Should feature:
* in-depth feature reviews and interviews
* coverage of multiple genres
* regular columns focused on specific issues/themes
* a style that is accessable to both the casual and the more discerning reader
* editorial independance
Should not feature:
* "breaking" news I read last week/month on-line
* vanity columns with no purpose other than to give a cherished old comics-pro a steady supplemental income
* an overly narrow idea of the types of comics that should be covered
* a style that is either too erudite or too frat-boy-ish
* reveiws that habitually miss the point of the material being covered
* an inability to criticize Marvel or DC or some other publisher for fear of loss of advertising income or access to creators
That's the most coherent answer I've seen so far, and man if I wouldn't buy that magazine every day it came out.
Here I shall quote wholesale, running the risk of his wrath:
Should feature:
* in-depth feature reviews and interviews
* coverage of multiple genres
* regular columns focused on specific issues/themes
* a style that is accessable to both the casual and the more discerning reader
* editorial independance
Should not feature:
* "breaking" news I read last week/month on-line
* vanity columns with no purpose other than to give a cherished old comics-pro a steady supplemental income
* an overly narrow idea of the types of comics that should be covered
* a style that is either too erudite or too frat-boy-ish
* reveiws that habitually miss the point of the material being covered
* an inability to criticize Marvel or DC or some other publisher for fear of loss of advertising income or access to creators
That's the most coherent answer I've seen so far, and man if I wouldn't buy that magazine every day it came out.
Update.
I'm doing some house-sitting duties at a house with a bad, bad internet connection, so my blogging this week (through next Sunday) is going to be pretty shoddy. I'm still going to continue with the "The Living Planet" interview series with Larry Young, so keep your panties on for that.
See ya tomorrow.
(Note: Supersize Me was pretty good. The guy oversells his point like fucking crazy -- does he really expect me to believe that one Big Mac meal made him vomit, on the very first day? -- but otherwise it's good stuff to know. The stuff about food in schools, especially, and the kinds of deals soft drink companies cut to get their product into kids' hands.)
See ya tomorrow.
(Note: Supersize Me was pretty good. The guy oversells his point like fucking crazy -- does he really expect me to believe that one Big Mac meal made him vomit, on the very first day? -- but otherwise it's good stuff to know. The stuff about food in schools, especially, and the kinds of deals soft drink companies cut to get their product into kids' hands.)
Forbidden Blogger Passion.
Rick: I got on Jakala's permanent good side after I made funny little captions for all his vacation photos.
Rick: Not that it's hard to get on his good side. If Jakala doesn't like you, you must be an asshole.
Me: So he's a pretty nice guy overall?
Rick: Definitely.
Me: You guys are lovers, aren't you?
Rick: We are.
Me: Just checking.
Rick: Don't tell Melrose.
Me: Your secret's safe with me.
Rick: Not that it's hard to get on his good side. If Jakala doesn't like you, you must be an asshole.
Me: So he's a pretty nice guy overall?
Rick: Definitely.
Me: You guys are lovers, aren't you?
Rick: We are.
Me: Just checking.
Rick: Don't tell Melrose.
Me: Your secret's safe with me.
Comics He Shouldn't.. blah blah blah.
Mark's reliving some horrid Daredevil memories:
Daredevil's been around awhile and seems to mean something different to everyone who writes him. For Stan Lee he was a blind swashbuckler just this side of Spider-Man. To Frank Miller he was a tormented Catholic in love with a woman who was his opposite number in every way — he a lawyer, she an assassin, blah blah blah grievous chest wound. Karl Kesel, in a brief but exceptional run, brought Matt back into the courtroom and livened him up a bit after dour runs by guys like J.M. DeMatteis and D.G. Chichester. And what's up with the initials, huh? The point is, if these last two are any indication, if Brian Bendis went by B.M. Bendis not only would his run suck, the nutsacks on his forum would have a field day with the initials "B.M."
I love Frank Miller, you know. DKR got me back into comics in the first place, but man. I'd almost (almost) trade up Sin City just so we'd never have to deal with his imitators. I mean really...
"Life is horribly cheap in the big city... but someone's found a way of turning a profit by selling the parts wholesale. Inside, something tears loose at the tragedy of it all. Inside, something begins to twist and rage..."
One, no. Two, that shit about "selling the parts wholesale" doesn't even make sense, and that's true even after you find out the context (a serial killer who dresses in a super-outfit and cuts people up for organs.)
Anyway, go read it. It's a worthy substitute for Gone & Forgotten, especially since that worthy updates once per ice age.
Daredevil's been around awhile and seems to mean something different to everyone who writes him. For Stan Lee he was a blind swashbuckler just this side of Spider-Man. To Frank Miller he was a tormented Catholic in love with a woman who was his opposite number in every way — he a lawyer, she an assassin, blah blah blah grievous chest wound. Karl Kesel, in a brief but exceptional run, brought Matt back into the courtroom and livened him up a bit after dour runs by guys like J.M. DeMatteis and D.G. Chichester. And what's up with the initials, huh? The point is, if these last two are any indication, if Brian Bendis went by B.M. Bendis not only would his run suck, the nutsacks on his forum would have a field day with the initials "B.M."
I love Frank Miller, you know. DKR got me back into comics in the first place, but man. I'd almost (almost) trade up Sin City just so we'd never have to deal with his imitators. I mean really...
"Life is horribly cheap in the big city... but someone's found a way of turning a profit by selling the parts wholesale. Inside, something tears loose at the tragedy of it all. Inside, something begins to twist and rage..."
One, no. Two, that shit about "selling the parts wholesale" doesn't even make sense, and that's true even after you find out the context (a serial killer who dresses in a super-outfit and cuts people up for organs.)
Anyway, go read it. It's a worthy substitute for Gone & Forgotten, especially since that worthy updates once per ice age.
Friday, May 14, 2004
Journalism.
Jeff over at Otto's Coffee Shop makes his statement about comics journalism, and what he'd like to see.
I'll tell you where [the good] stories are: they don't exist because the companies involved don't owe the fans or the creators squat, so they don't have to cooperate in any stories.
[...]
Marvel, DC, Diamond: they aren't answerable to fans, so they have no reason to play along with "news" sites or magazines who don't play along with them. I doubt I'm the only one who's noticed recently that even Rich Johnston, once the freest talker in comics, has been keeping his trap shut (he allegedly knew about Joss Whedon on X-Men a month before the news borke, but he never printed it) except for items that the big companies are ready to "leak" (he even presents "leaks" from his own publisher as "news" or "rumor" each week!). If, as a comics journalist, you piss off your sources (or the upper management of your sources), you lose what little news you get. I have little doubt in my mind that if DC told Newsarama to stop doing their monthly analysis of sales figure estimates (such as they are), Newsarama would stop in a heartbeat, as Matt Brady knows that pissing off DC means that he loses "exclusive" DC "news" and access to DC's creators (at least those who want to keep their jobs).
And here's what I said, awhile ago:
The rest of the quasi-journalists, they take what the company gives us, thank them for that, and run back to the rest of us to fill us in on what scraps got thrown to us from the table. For a real journalist, that's not enough. The fact that most of our "news" comes from rumor mills like Lying in the Gutters says to me that publishers have erected a wall between themselves and the readers, and that we, as readers, are satisfied with that. That we'll accept that, and let them jerk us around and wait like obedient lapdogs for the next morsel to fall.
[...]
No such luck in comics journalism. The publishers, at least the large ones, have made their decision that we're not really worth the time and have kept us on a need-to-know basis. This hurts them and it hurts us. Treating the reporting half of the comics community like servants is exactly what keeps the comic book art form a "hobby" instead of, well, instead of an "art form." We cannot be perceived as big business if we are not treated as big business on all sides of the game.
Don't get me wrong: This isn't me laying the blame at the feet of the Big Two alone. No. Our news sites are pitiful and we've allowed them to be pitiful and we haven't kicked them in the ass enough to strive for more.
Jeff's money questions: 1) What is news in the comic book field? 2) What constitutes investigative journalism? 3) How can interviews become less PR fodder and more actual journalism?
1) Hard to say, sometimes. What constitutes news for some people (change in creative teams, Reload, etc) does not constitute news for others... but the same applies in any media. For some folks, what director's been assigned to a new movie project doesn't matter until the movie itself is up there on the big screen; others want to know what's going on on the set day by day. As I pointed out in the above-cited entry, though, I think something like the Gaiman vs. MacFarlane case, and the Newsarama piece about its ramifications to the industry at large, is an excellent example of what comics news should be like.
As with any creative field, there's the business side of things and the creative side of things. We get a monthly analysis of DC sales numbers, maybe some press releases about hirings and firings, and that's the business side. We get press releases about new series coming out with new creative teams, some interviews with the writer or artist, and that's the creative side covered.
Pitiful, eh?
2) Investigative reporting is not reactionary. So far, all manner of comic book journalism is reactionary; that is, the "reporters" go after a story after it's already happened and fill in the details. An investigative journalist poses a question out of the ether -- say, "how's DC responding, internally and externally, to Marvel's partnership with B&N?" -- and then gets out there and finds the fuck out. I've seen almost nothing of that sort in comics journalism.
3) Still deciding on that one. The interview series I'm doing with Larry Young now are about 50% PR and 50% me trying out something new, and I'm uncertain what defines a "real" interview in contrast to a piece of puff. ADD pretty much had it right with his 5 Questions, tracking down writers and artists and the like and just talking to them about their work in general, instead of whatever latest piece they're trying to sell. Do we have anyone right now that can pick up that torch? I'm not sure. Kevin Melrose has the interviewing chops, but I don't know his status in the comics world at large.
These are probably not satisfactory answers, but the questions are worthy ones, and worth investigation. Go over to Jeff's and answer his questions in his Comments, and then start thinking about what you can do for comics journalism.
I'll tell you where [the good] stories are: they don't exist because the companies involved don't owe the fans or the creators squat, so they don't have to cooperate in any stories.
[...]
Marvel, DC, Diamond: they aren't answerable to fans, so they have no reason to play along with "news" sites or magazines who don't play along with them. I doubt I'm the only one who's noticed recently that even Rich Johnston, once the freest talker in comics, has been keeping his trap shut (he allegedly knew about Joss Whedon on X-Men a month before the news borke, but he never printed it) except for items that the big companies are ready to "leak" (he even presents "leaks" from his own publisher as "news" or "rumor" each week!). If, as a comics journalist, you piss off your sources (or the upper management of your sources), you lose what little news you get. I have little doubt in my mind that if DC told Newsarama to stop doing their monthly analysis of sales figure estimates (such as they are), Newsarama would stop in a heartbeat, as Matt Brady knows that pissing off DC means that he loses "exclusive" DC "news" and access to DC's creators (at least those who want to keep their jobs).
And here's what I said, awhile ago:
The rest of the quasi-journalists, they take what the company gives us, thank them for that, and run back to the rest of us to fill us in on what scraps got thrown to us from the table. For a real journalist, that's not enough. The fact that most of our "news" comes from rumor mills like Lying in the Gutters says to me that publishers have erected a wall between themselves and the readers, and that we, as readers, are satisfied with that. That we'll accept that, and let them jerk us around and wait like obedient lapdogs for the next morsel to fall.
[...]
No such luck in comics journalism. The publishers, at least the large ones, have made their decision that we're not really worth the time and have kept us on a need-to-know basis. This hurts them and it hurts us. Treating the reporting half of the comics community like servants is exactly what keeps the comic book art form a "hobby" instead of, well, instead of an "art form." We cannot be perceived as big business if we are not treated as big business on all sides of the game.
Don't get me wrong: This isn't me laying the blame at the feet of the Big Two alone. No. Our news sites are pitiful and we've allowed them to be pitiful and we haven't kicked them in the ass enough to strive for more.
Jeff's money questions: 1) What is news in the comic book field? 2) What constitutes investigative journalism? 3) How can interviews become less PR fodder and more actual journalism?
1) Hard to say, sometimes. What constitutes news for some people (change in creative teams, Reload, etc) does not constitute news for others... but the same applies in any media. For some folks, what director's been assigned to a new movie project doesn't matter until the movie itself is up there on the big screen; others want to know what's going on on the set day by day. As I pointed out in the above-cited entry, though, I think something like the Gaiman vs. MacFarlane case, and the Newsarama piece about its ramifications to the industry at large, is an excellent example of what comics news should be like.
As with any creative field, there's the business side of things and the creative side of things. We get a monthly analysis of DC sales numbers, maybe some press releases about hirings and firings, and that's the business side. We get press releases about new series coming out with new creative teams, some interviews with the writer or artist, and that's the creative side covered.
Pitiful, eh?
2) Investigative reporting is not reactionary. So far, all manner of comic book journalism is reactionary; that is, the "reporters" go after a story after it's already happened and fill in the details. An investigative journalist poses a question out of the ether -- say, "how's DC responding, internally and externally, to Marvel's partnership with B&N?" -- and then gets out there and finds the fuck out. I've seen almost nothing of that sort in comics journalism.
3) Still deciding on that one. The interview series I'm doing with Larry Young now are about 50% PR and 50% me trying out something new, and I'm uncertain what defines a "real" interview in contrast to a piece of puff. ADD pretty much had it right with his 5 Questions, tracking down writers and artists and the like and just talking to them about their work in general, instead of whatever latest piece they're trying to sell. Do we have anyone right now that can pick up that torch? I'm not sure. Kevin Melrose has the interviewing chops, but I don't know his status in the comics world at large.
These are probably not satisfactory answers, but the questions are worthy ones, and worth investigation. Go over to Jeff's and answer his questions in his Comments, and then start thinking about what you can do for comics journalism.
Just too interesting not to talk about.
Pop culture Christians talk about The Punisher movie:
I discovered three days later why I had walked out of the theater liking this movie. It helped me see things from God’s point of view. He has given each of us the capacity to understand Him, because we are made in his image. The immediate desire for Castle to punish the bad guy proves that we have an innate sense of God’s justice: protection for the innocent and a lesson for the sinner. The frustration of watching Castle finish the job in the last five minutes proves that we have an innate sense of God’s mercy: not wanting the guilty to suffer more than is necessary to change his mind. It’s strange to have a sense of God’s character. It’s even stranger to imagine the intensity with which God must feel these two things equally and powerfully. If we feel it in part, He feels it in all of its fullness.
I'm not into reflex-bashing on religion. I'm not a religious person myself, but I think if something can hold billions of peoples' interest for 5000+ years, there's probably something important going on there worth taking seriously. Some of this analysis is fairly interesting, some of it's not too far off the mark from the character's central concept, and some of it... well.
Spacker Dave is a skinny, meek young man who is covered with piercings. In one scene in the movie he makes a tremendous sacrifice to save Frank Castle from certain death, in many regards he becomes a Christ figure. While we have seen him love and dance, fellowship and comfort, we see in one scene his willingness to give himself for one he knows little, Frank Castle. I was reminded throughout the torture that involves his piercings of another that was pierced for us, the person of Jesus Christ, God’s only son.
God, I'd love to hear Garth Ennis's take on that.
Saying someone is a "Christ figure" in a story has become a little too easy for people, of late. Everyone from Superman to (as of now) Spacker Dave gets the comparison, because it sounds impressive and since little enough is known about Christ the man, you can shoehorn just about anyone into the role. Same thing happens when you give comic book fans words like "decompression": They just run haywire with it with no real concept of what they're saying.
Then there's this little snippet, showing in bright colors that our well-meaning, witnessing friend doesn't understand basic irony in storytelling:
I don’t believe it is any accident in this movie that the primary evil character in the movie has the name "Saint." Early on, we see that the club and business that he runs is named “Saints and Sinners.” I will guarantee that there will be many a Christian who bashes this movie because of its obvious intent to blast Saints (Christians). But we should be reminded of the fact that Jesus himself stated that there will be many who call him Lord that will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Right... or it's "irony." Writers like to give characters significant names all the time (his Americanized last name is Castle, for god's sake! Is that not a clear statement of the man's psychological make-up?!), which is why half of all fiction ever written has some guy named "Cain" or "Kane" or "Caine" in it. It's not a greater damnation of the Church or its literature; it's cheap metaphor.
The sad thing is that while Frank is looking at punishment for those who killed the ones he loved, and later on for all rapists, murderers, thieves and more, I was reminded of the fact that in comparison to God and Jesus Christ, we are all evil and deserving of death. The movie in many ways actually helps portray this concept.
Along the way Frank, while caught up in punishment, loses all that was good about him. He turns to the bottle, drinking Wild Turkey whiskey as if it is iced tea. He loses compassion and concern towards any that he may come into contact with.
(This guy's pretty big on quoting Romans, but you could do worse than referencing Paul.)
I buy it. Castle pretty much has to believe in some kind of Almighty because of that ridiculous "supernatural avenger" angle he had for awhile there, so I would say that Mr. Witness isn't too far off the mark. Ennis's Punisher pretty much feels the way stated above, lacking in compassion and love, completely incapable of anything but his punishment because he, like Paul tells the church in Rome, feels that humans have sinned and fallen short. Of course, Paul has not lost his compassion and concern, so he feels that his flock is always worth saving.
Castle, to put it lightly, disagrees.
Hmm. Better stop now before I start sounding evangelical.
(Link via The Punisher Archive.)
I discovered three days later why I had walked out of the theater liking this movie. It helped me see things from God’s point of view. He has given each of us the capacity to understand Him, because we are made in his image. The immediate desire for Castle to punish the bad guy proves that we have an innate sense of God’s justice: protection for the innocent and a lesson for the sinner. The frustration of watching Castle finish the job in the last five minutes proves that we have an innate sense of God’s mercy: not wanting the guilty to suffer more than is necessary to change his mind. It’s strange to have a sense of God’s character. It’s even stranger to imagine the intensity with which God must feel these two things equally and powerfully. If we feel it in part, He feels it in all of its fullness.
I'm not into reflex-bashing on religion. I'm not a religious person myself, but I think if something can hold billions of peoples' interest for 5000+ years, there's probably something important going on there worth taking seriously. Some of this analysis is fairly interesting, some of it's not too far off the mark from the character's central concept, and some of it... well.
Spacker Dave is a skinny, meek young man who is covered with piercings. In one scene in the movie he makes a tremendous sacrifice to save Frank Castle from certain death, in many regards he becomes a Christ figure. While we have seen him love and dance, fellowship and comfort, we see in one scene his willingness to give himself for one he knows little, Frank Castle. I was reminded throughout the torture that involves his piercings of another that was pierced for us, the person of Jesus Christ, God’s only son.
God, I'd love to hear Garth Ennis's take on that.
Saying someone is a "Christ figure" in a story has become a little too easy for people, of late. Everyone from Superman to (as of now) Spacker Dave gets the comparison, because it sounds impressive and since little enough is known about Christ the man, you can shoehorn just about anyone into the role. Same thing happens when you give comic book fans words like "decompression": They just run haywire with it with no real concept of what they're saying.
Then there's this little snippet, showing in bright colors that our well-meaning, witnessing friend doesn't understand basic irony in storytelling:
I don’t believe it is any accident in this movie that the primary evil character in the movie has the name "Saint." Early on, we see that the club and business that he runs is named “Saints and Sinners.” I will guarantee that there will be many a Christian who bashes this movie because of its obvious intent to blast Saints (Christians). But we should be reminded of the fact that Jesus himself stated that there will be many who call him Lord that will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Right... or it's "irony." Writers like to give characters significant names all the time (his Americanized last name is Castle, for god's sake! Is that not a clear statement of the man's psychological make-up?!), which is why half of all fiction ever written has some guy named "Cain" or "Kane" or "Caine" in it. It's not a greater damnation of the Church or its literature; it's cheap metaphor.
The sad thing is that while Frank is looking at punishment for those who killed the ones he loved, and later on for all rapists, murderers, thieves and more, I was reminded of the fact that in comparison to God and Jesus Christ, we are all evil and deserving of death. The movie in many ways actually helps portray this concept.
All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
- Romans 3:23 (CEV)
Along the way Frank, while caught up in punishment, loses all that was good about him. He turns to the bottle, drinking Wild Turkey whiskey as if it is iced tea. He loses compassion and concern towards any that he may come into contact with.
(This guy's pretty big on quoting Romans, but you could do worse than referencing Paul.)
I buy it. Castle pretty much has to believe in some kind of Almighty because of that ridiculous "supernatural avenger" angle he had for awhile there, so I would say that Mr. Witness isn't too far off the mark. Ennis's Punisher pretty much feels the way stated above, lacking in compassion and love, completely incapable of anything but his punishment because he, like Paul tells the church in Rome, feels that humans have sinned and fallen short. Of course, Paul has not lost his compassion and concern, so he feels that his flock is always worth saving.
Castle, to put it lightly, disagrees.
Hmm. Better stop now before I start sounding evangelical.
(Link via The Punisher Archive.)
Thursday, May 13, 2004
The Living Planet, Part 1
A lot of people have been talking about Larry Young's recent industry fable Planet of the Capes, and a lot of them have spoken more eloquently than I ever could. That's pretty much the reason I've avoided talking about the book myself,and up till now there's hardly been anything I could contribute to the general discussion.
Until the original outline of the story itself landed in my lap. (Mike Sterling's little bird dropped it there, specifically.) Given this outline and the benefit of hindsight granted by so many other reviews scattered all across the critical spectrum, I've got a little chance to do something different and work over the brain of Planet's mastermind.
I'll be taking this in four parts: First, the original character descriptions. The next three parts will be the three seperate acts in spec form and how similar (and different) they are from the finished product.
Four superheroes encounter our world.
No one learns anything. Everybody dies.
The four heroes are thus:
THE GRAND: Our Superman analogue. He’s the one who the reader will initially think is the most stable, because of the borrowed-interest we’ll get from Superman, but he’s the one who falls the farthest when the foundation of who-he-is and what-he-stands-for is knocked away. Without the checks and balances of epic fistfights and evil supervillains to vanquish, The Grand becomes as corrupted as any evil he’s ever faced before.
JUSTICE HALL: Evoking both the "Hall of Justice" and the phrase "…and Justice for all," this guy is our super-patriot. Picture if Nick Fury was Captain America, but had the spooky inner drive of Batman. We’re going for the driven sort that Batman is, by a guy with a nationalistic bent. This is the guy who won’t go through much of an arc, because he’s the best there is at what he does. He’s the symbol of his country, a proud black raven, and nothing shakes him from his course. While a superbly trained athlete, he’s just a man; yet even The Grand doesn’t fuck with him.
SCHAFF: Once the costumed adventurer The Red Fez, Schaff battled alongside the super-team The Feds on one of their most harrowing adventures. Staving off an alien invasion, The Red Fez foiled a last-ditch effort by the aliens to escape back to their home planet. The Fez leapt into the matter-transference beam activated by the aliens as a means to escape… but as his grasp tightened around the fleeing alien commander, the Red Fez’ momentum took them into and then out of the beam. Scrambling alien and superhuman DNA yielded a mindless rampaging monster, our Hulk analogue, who nonetheless is able to be mostly controlled by…
KASTRA: …the sexy teen daughter of the alien commander. She stayed behind to care for what’s left of her father, a brilliant military commander outmaneuvered by a lucky punch. We’re looking for an Adam Hughes-kinda thing with this character, all curves and sass. If her alien garb suggests an ancient Greek influence, that’s probably because she’ll be our Wonder Woman analogue.
Q: Surely you've had some pretty strong feelings about The State of the Industry for a long time. Lots of frustration, lots of anger, lots of amusement. What finally pushed you over the edge and got you to write PLANET?
Larry: Naw, it's not like that at all. Frustration and anger? No more than about anything else. Amusement? Sure, but I get my amusement from all over. I think at first it was just trying to justify my good pal Joe Casey's assertion that I could write a decent superhero story with the fact that I'm forty years old and honestly don't get much out of the superhero stories, anymore. But I figured if I dressed up an allegory in capes and tights, and used it to comment on certain aspects of the obviously-flawed comic book industry, I could have some laughs.
Q: 2) Marvel gets a lot of flack for its incoherent policies and willful ignorance of its fans, but DC's a sinner too: beyond DC's imprints, their regular titles are dangerously static. What puts DC in the ostensible "hero" role among the Big Two in PLANET, insofar as this story has a "hero"?
Larry: Amongst Marvel and DC, I think DC is closest to my own mindset. Slow and steady wins the race, you know? I think both companies are hamstrung by needing to service their own corporate masters, but what're ya gonna do? It's the nature of the beast.
I wanna emphasize that none of these analogues are direct-line stand-ins for companies or characters or what-have-you. You can figure out what I think about each, honestly, by just a careful reading of the dialogue.
Q: 3) The suggestion from the Grand's character description is that he needs some checks-and-balances to keep him stable and honest, or else he'll fall and fall hard. On the other hand, PLANET seems to suggest that the deadlock between DC and Marvel can only end badly for both. What's your ideal situation for the Big Two keeping each other in line without choking the industry?
Larry: I don't know enough about what those guys have planned to really comment very sharply on that. If anything, I hope observers of the scene see PLANET as a cautionary tale... that while everyone's working together, things go smoothly, but once one player takes his eye off the ball, it's game over. The only thing to watch is how and when it ends. Some retailer friends of mine think that that's already happened, and the Marvel-caused Heroes World distribution panic has killed the Direct Market and no one's realized it yet.
Q: 4) All of the "heroes" in PLANET seem to have a "great power/potential used irresponsibly" motif going on, except Kastra, the representation for indie publishers. Have you you gotten some flack for that, considering you yourself run an independent publishing label?
Larry: Not any more than usual! Schaff doesn't really use his power irresponsibly, does he? He just can't coordinate his dual nature. Justice Hall is pretty responsible, too, I think. His only flaw is not reacting fast enough to The Grand's mercurial change... but like I said, none of these things are one-to-one correlations to anything, really. Sure, Kastra is the daughter of Schaff, and you could make the argument that that through the sacrifices of early self-publishers like Dave Sim and Jack Katz and the Pinis, it'd have been harder for indy companies like First, Eclipse, Pacific, Comico, and all to gain a foothold. So one is related to another. If people throw our company in with that crowd, well, I'm flattered.
(More to come soon.)
Until the original outline of the story itself landed in my lap. (Mike Sterling's little bird dropped it there, specifically.) Given this outline and the benefit of hindsight granted by so many other reviews scattered all across the critical spectrum, I've got a little chance to do something different and work over the brain of Planet's mastermind.
I'll be taking this in four parts: First, the original character descriptions. The next three parts will be the three seperate acts in spec form and how similar (and different) they are from the finished product.
THE CHARACTERS BEFORE - FROM THE NOTES OF LARRY YOUNG
Four superheroes encounter our world.
No one learns anything. Everybody dies.
The four heroes are thus:
THE GRAND: Our Superman analogue. He’s the one who the reader will initially think is the most stable, because of the borrowed-interest we’ll get from Superman, but he’s the one who falls the farthest when the foundation of who-he-is and what-he-stands-for is knocked away. Without the checks and balances of epic fistfights and evil supervillains to vanquish, The Grand becomes as corrupted as any evil he’s ever faced before.
JUSTICE HALL: Evoking both the "Hall of Justice" and the phrase "…and Justice for all," this guy is our super-patriot. Picture if Nick Fury was Captain America, but had the spooky inner drive of Batman. We’re going for the driven sort that Batman is, by a guy with a nationalistic bent. This is the guy who won’t go through much of an arc, because he’s the best there is at what he does. He’s the symbol of his country, a proud black raven, and nothing shakes him from his course. While a superbly trained athlete, he’s just a man; yet even The Grand doesn’t fuck with him.
SCHAFF: Once the costumed adventurer The Red Fez, Schaff battled alongside the super-team The Feds on one of their most harrowing adventures. Staving off an alien invasion, The Red Fez foiled a last-ditch effort by the aliens to escape back to their home planet. The Fez leapt into the matter-transference beam activated by the aliens as a means to escape… but as his grasp tightened around the fleeing alien commander, the Red Fez’ momentum took them into and then out of the beam. Scrambling alien and superhuman DNA yielded a mindless rampaging monster, our Hulk analogue, who nonetheless is able to be mostly controlled by…
KASTRA: …the sexy teen daughter of the alien commander. She stayed behind to care for what’s left of her father, a brilliant military commander outmaneuvered by a lucky punch. We’re looking for an Adam Hughes-kinda thing with this character, all curves and sass. If her alien garb suggests an ancient Greek influence, that’s probably because she’ll be our Wonder Woman analogue.
THE CHARACTERS AFTER -- STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH
Q: Surely you've had some pretty strong feelings about The State of the Industry for a long time. Lots of frustration, lots of anger, lots of amusement. What finally pushed you over the edge and got you to write PLANET?
Larry: Naw, it's not like that at all. Frustration and anger? No more than about anything else. Amusement? Sure, but I get my amusement from all over. I think at first it was just trying to justify my good pal Joe Casey's assertion that I could write a decent superhero story with the fact that I'm forty years old and honestly don't get much out of the superhero stories, anymore. But I figured if I dressed up an allegory in capes and tights, and used it to comment on certain aspects of the obviously-flawed comic book industry, I could have some laughs.
Q: 2) Marvel gets a lot of flack for its incoherent policies and willful ignorance of its fans, but DC's a sinner too: beyond DC's imprints, their regular titles are dangerously static. What puts DC in the ostensible "hero" role among the Big Two in PLANET, insofar as this story has a "hero"?
Larry: Amongst Marvel and DC, I think DC is closest to my own mindset. Slow and steady wins the race, you know? I think both companies are hamstrung by needing to service their own corporate masters, but what're ya gonna do? It's the nature of the beast.
I wanna emphasize that none of these analogues are direct-line stand-ins for companies or characters or what-have-you. You can figure out what I think about each, honestly, by just a careful reading of the dialogue.
Q: 3) The suggestion from the Grand's character description is that he needs some checks-and-balances to keep him stable and honest, or else he'll fall and fall hard. On the other hand, PLANET seems to suggest that the deadlock between DC and Marvel can only end badly for both. What's your ideal situation for the Big Two keeping each other in line without choking the industry?
Larry: I don't know enough about what those guys have planned to really comment very sharply on that. If anything, I hope observers of the scene see PLANET as a cautionary tale... that while everyone's working together, things go smoothly, but once one player takes his eye off the ball, it's game over. The only thing to watch is how and when it ends. Some retailer friends of mine think that that's already happened, and the Marvel-caused Heroes World distribution panic has killed the Direct Market and no one's realized it yet.
Q: 4) All of the "heroes" in PLANET seem to have a "great power/potential used irresponsibly" motif going on, except Kastra, the representation for indie publishers. Have you you gotten some flack for that, considering you yourself run an independent publishing label?
Larry: Not any more than usual! Schaff doesn't really use his power irresponsibly, does he? He just can't coordinate his dual nature. Justice Hall is pretty responsible, too, I think. His only flaw is not reacting fast enough to The Grand's mercurial change... but like I said, none of these things are one-to-one correlations to anything, really. Sure, Kastra is the daughter of Schaff, and you could make the argument that that through the sacrifices of early self-publishers like Dave Sim and Jack Katz and the Pinis, it'd have been harder for indy companies like First, Eclipse, Pacific, Comico, and all to gain a foothold. So one is related to another. If people throw our company in with that crowd, well, I'm flattered.
(More to come soon.)
Grand Theft Awesome.
From THE ROOMMATE:
As I have stated before, I believe this game'll be pretty Menace II Society-ed out. It appears I was right.
(Of course.)
Here's Rockstar's official San Andreas page for it, with three other shots.
As I have stated before, I believe this game'll be pretty Menace II Society-ed out. It appears I was right.
(Of course.)
Here's Rockstar's official San Andreas page for it, with three other shots.
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Heidi and the Blogosphere, part whatever.
This is all starting to wear me out, but here goes.
Heidi's response to the responses.
(A slight clarification: My statement was that Heidi's words were mean and petty, not that she herself was a mean and petty person.)
Particular responses:
Ken at Ringwood: We blog because we love it. We do it for no money and can only hope for the faintest wisp of praise. And that is enough.
Don't you think that's worth something, Heidi?
Shane Bailey: The fact that Heidi feels like that is a bad thing just makes me feel pity for her. Is that so wrong Heidi? Is it so wrong to talk about what we love? I love my little dopey site and I know others who do too. I do it for them. Not you.
Yes yes. YES. Yes. In the words of Bono, "Love love, love love, love love." In the words of Mr. Spock "Captain,too much of anything, even. love, isn't necessarily a good thing."
I believe Heidi has missed the point. I'm not saying "hey, we're enthused-as-fuck hobbyists, so we should get hugs and candy bars and decoder rings!" I'm saying, "hey, we're enthused-as-fuck hobbyists, so it's probably a bad idea to just dismiss us with broad, sweeping, vaguely patronizing statements." And yes, when you say that we can all be "safely ignored" and that most of us are "dopey," you're putting yourself in a position higher than ours. That's judgement of a very specific type, and you bet your ass you'll get harsh responses for it.
The Beat has been called a blog over and over and over again, and maybe it was by today’s standards, In olden days it would have been known as a gossip column. In addition, I think 90% of the columns included original reporting, whether it was photos from some party, reports on the same, or other information passed along to me either willingly or unwillingly. I guess if there is a source of personal annoyance on my part its [sic] that in a completely egalitarian world, someone sitting down to write about what they ate for breakfast is afforded the same amount of recognition as something that took me all week to research and write.
Right, except you're no longer talking about comics blogs. "Someone sitting down to write about what they ate for breakfast" isn't comics blogging, it's just the regular variety of online journal. Important distinction.
But just because someone has a blog doesn't make them Edward R. Murrow or Carrie Nation. That's all I'm saying.
And allow me to reiterate: That isn't what you said before. No, having a blog doesn't give someone the right to a large audience. (We earn that, and we don't even have the luxury of advertising.) But it also doesn't give you the right to dismiss the lot of us to folks who might not know any better.
Your job was to inform Group A about Group Z, and you did a piss-poor job of it. It was sloppy journalism, and you caught hell for it. Deal with it.
Excuses are fine; apologies are preferred. Still not holding my breath on the latter, though.
Heidi's response to the responses.
(A slight clarification: My statement was that Heidi's words were mean and petty, not that she herself was a mean and petty person.)
Particular responses:
Ken at Ringwood: We blog because we love it. We do it for no money and can only hope for the faintest wisp of praise. And that is enough.
Don't you think that's worth something, Heidi?
Shane Bailey: The fact that Heidi feels like that is a bad thing just makes me feel pity for her. Is that so wrong Heidi? Is it so wrong to talk about what we love? I love my little dopey site and I know others who do too. I do it for them. Not you.
Yes yes. YES. Yes. In the words of Bono, "Love love, love love, love love." In the words of Mr. Spock "Captain,too much of anything, even. love, isn't necessarily a good thing."
I believe Heidi has missed the point. I'm not saying "hey, we're enthused-as-fuck hobbyists, so we should get hugs and candy bars and decoder rings!" I'm saying, "hey, we're enthused-as-fuck hobbyists, so it's probably a bad idea to just dismiss us with broad, sweeping, vaguely patronizing statements." And yes, when you say that we can all be "safely ignored" and that most of us are "dopey," you're putting yourself in a position higher than ours. That's judgement of a very specific type, and you bet your ass you'll get harsh responses for it.
The Beat has been called a blog over and over and over again, and maybe it was by today’s standards, In olden days it would have been known as a gossip column. In addition, I think 90% of the columns included original reporting, whether it was photos from some party, reports on the same, or other information passed along to me either willingly or unwillingly. I guess if there is a source of personal annoyance on my part its [sic] that in a completely egalitarian world, someone sitting down to write about what they ate for breakfast is afforded the same amount of recognition as something that took me all week to research and write.
Right, except you're no longer talking about comics blogs. "Someone sitting down to write about what they ate for breakfast" isn't comics blogging, it's just the regular variety of online journal. Important distinction.
But just because someone has a blog doesn't make them Edward R. Murrow or Carrie Nation. That's all I'm saying.
And allow me to reiterate: That isn't what you said before. No, having a blog doesn't give someone the right to a large audience. (We earn that, and we don't even have the luxury of advertising.) But it also doesn't give you the right to dismiss the lot of us to folks who might not know any better.
Your job was to inform Group A about Group Z, and you did a piss-poor job of it. It was sloppy journalism, and you caught hell for it. Deal with it.
Excuses are fine; apologies are preferred. Still not holding my breath on the latter, though.
Joy of joys!
There's a kid inside of me, the one with the fingernails painted black, that's very happy about Vampire: Bloodlines. It's my belief the original Vampire computer game was ahead of its time idea-wise, and the technology just couldn't support what they had in mind.
(They innovated the online multiplayer storymode stuff that Neverwinter Nights became so popular for years later.)
And CHECK OUT THESE SCREENSHOTS! Holy CHRISTMAS that is a beautiful-lookin' game.
(They innovated the online multiplayer storymode stuff that Neverwinter Nights became so popular for years later.)
And CHECK OUT THESE SCREENSHOTS! Holy CHRISTMAS that is a beautiful-lookin' game.
We interrupt this comics reading festival...
...to show you Mark's Comics I Shouldn't Own, Part 3. This time Mark's bleeding his eyeballs looking at Deathstroke the Terminator #13:
Too many characters. A book completely hijacked by a crossover. And angst for miles and miles and miles. Sure, the art's not as ugly as the Lee and Liefeld clones left behind at Marvel, but it's nothing exciting, either. DC was trying desperately to tap into the franchise appeal the X-Men then held for so many readers, but all they had to do it with were their house-style artists and characters that still dressed like ABBA was cool. Did I mention this series ran for SIXTY ISSUES?
("Deathstroke the Terminator" always sounded like some kinda gay snuff porn, you know? I mean seriously, "Deathstroke"?)
Too many characters. A book completely hijacked by a crossover. And angst for miles and miles and miles. Sure, the art's not as ugly as the Lee and Liefeld clones left behind at Marvel, but it's nothing exciting, either. DC was trying desperately to tap into the franchise appeal the X-Men then held for so many readers, but all they had to do it with were their house-style artists and characters that still dressed like ABBA was cool. Did I mention this series ran for SIXTY ISSUES?
("Deathstroke the Terminator" always sounded like some kinda gay snuff porn, you know? I mean seriously, "Deathstroke"?)
Because I'm a masochist at heart.
I pick this up from Otto's Coffee Shop:
*3 Questions
I want everyone and anyone who reads this to ask me 3 questions, no more no less. Ask me anything you want and I will truthfully answer it. Then, I want you to go to your blog, copy and paste this allowing your friends (including myself) to ask you anything.*
This could get real interesting, real fast.
*3 Questions
I want everyone and anyone who reads this to ask me 3 questions, no more no less. Ask me anything you want and I will truthfully answer it. Then, I want you to go to your blog, copy and paste this allowing your friends (including myself) to ask you anything.*
This could get real interesting, real fast.
A few things.
1) I just got this week's and last week's comics today, so I probably won't be posting for awhile. Lucy, I got a lotta readin' to do.
2) You've been reading The Losers, right? RIGHT? Good. Let it be known that Jock, the artist of said fantabulous title, has announced a contest of sorts to win some stuff from he and Andy Diggle. Go check it out. (Link via Shane.)
3) Would you like a lesson in backtracking? Then look no further than Heidi MacDonald. After her rather... tactless... comments about the comics blogo-mart, she was shouted down pretty heavily by bloggers. Now, in Kevin Melrose's comments, she's changing her story. Larry was quick to point out the contrast between her stated stance and how she's reacting now.
Old Heidi:
And, except for a very few sites, I realized they can pretty much be safely ignored. When you give everyone a voice, no one can hear everything.
Heidi Nouveau:
Hello...I have a problem with BAD blogs. Not good blogging. What is good and what is bad? Maybe you kids can figure that out yourself.
That's good. Change tack and, at the same time, throw in a little bit of a snipe at the end. That's a great way to calm down the furor you unwittingly kicked up. Or, you can admit you said something really stupid, and just fess up to it already.
I'm not really holding my breath on that, though.
2) You've been reading The Losers, right? RIGHT? Good. Let it be known that Jock, the artist of said fantabulous title, has announced a contest of sorts to win some stuff from he and Andy Diggle. Go check it out. (Link via Shane.)
3) Would you like a lesson in backtracking? Then look no further than Heidi MacDonald. After her rather... tactless... comments about the comics blogo-mart, she was shouted down pretty heavily by bloggers. Now, in Kevin Melrose's comments, she's changing her story. Larry was quick to point out the contrast between her stated stance and how she's reacting now.
Old Heidi:
And, except for a very few sites, I realized they can pretty much be safely ignored. When you give everyone a voice, no one can hear everything.
Heidi Nouveau:
Hello...I have a problem with BAD blogs. Not good blogging. What is good and what is bad? Maybe you kids can figure that out yourself.
That's good. Change tack and, at the same time, throw in a little bit of a snipe at the end. That's a great way to calm down the furor you unwittingly kicked up. Or, you can admit you said something really stupid, and just fess up to it already.
I'm not really holding my breath on that, though.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
The question of blog relevance.
David Fiore links to an article on the Comic Treadmill, regarding a column by Heidi McDonald at the Comic Buyer's Guide on the relevance of blogs.
(Boy, was that one longass list of citations, or what?)
The Heidi quote:
I have been reading a lot of blogs lately. And I have to say a lot of them are really dopey. (No names.) Give 1,000 monkeys 1,000 typewriters and eventually they’ll write an issue of Night Nurse or create a blog. And, except for a very few sites, I realized they can pretty much be safely ignored. When you give everyone a voice, no one can hear everything.
H responds to this point by point (and quite well), and nails in one sentence precisely what I like about blogs and blogging so much:
My daily blog trips are the equivalent of my custom made comics magazine written by people whose writing I know I’ll enjoy.
How true. I would take the blogs I read on a daily basis over CBG, Wizard, or TCJ any day of the week. Why? Perhaps it's the general appeal of the internet -- a sense of immediacy and a nowness that the print journalism simply cannot compete with.
In "regular" media, newspapers and magazines have to compete with more immediate online journalism by offering more in-depth and informed material than can be offered on the internet. In comics journalism, this simply is not the case. I find out more about the movings and shakings of the comics world from Graeme, David, Marc, Kevin, and Shane in one single day than I would find in an entire issue of any of the above-cited magazines. Every single one of these gentlemen posts with more wit, insight, and candor than any of the "professionals" who get paid for it.
(And as to the question of "professionalism" among these bloggers: Graeme's column is proof enough that he is a gifted writer, Kevin has journalistic training as evidenced by his excellent interviews, Marc and David are easily the smartest kids in the class, and Shane has a nose for news like no one else. I myself have quite a lot of journalistic training, believe it or not, and a wall of awards to back it up.
By the way, this isn't to suggest that the others on my linklist aren't equally as worthy; those five are just the guys who popped into my head first.)
I'm loathe to say that Heidi's speaking from a mean, petty place, because that would be... mean and petty of me.
But attacking the professionalism of a large, faceless group of strangers is precisely that. It smacks of resentment of "those durn amateurs" springing up and thinking we have a right to an opinion, and that we need to be put back in our place. Worse, I believe her column is aimed at people who are not quite familiar with bloggers yet, so Heidi is attempting to downplay our signifigance before the reader can form his or her own opinion on the matter.
Which would be... you guessed it, mean and petty. Sure, a lot of us could be safely ignored, but you know what? I've never really needed the CBG, the TCJ, or Wizard to find out what's going on with comics, nor to find interviews or in-depth news. I get all that already, on a daily basis. Oh, and it doesn't cost me anything.
That's the other thing. No money is changing hands anywhere. The only currency is linkage -- and that's given freely enough between the bloggers, because we're all a pretty good bunch and we want to do something positive for comics, and why not help each other in the process? Heightened awareness and participation can only benefit comics.
None of us do this for money. None of us see a dime for our efforts (most of us, in fact, pay out of pocket), and our output is at least twice the volume of any given paid comic magazine writer by sheer virtue of the fact that most of us post at least twice a week. We don't get paid. But we do it anyway.
Because we love comics.
I'm not going to suggest that the comics bloggers are the créme de la créme, the best and the brightest, and the rest of you can go to hell while we idle away the hours in our ivory towers. But we are a steadily growing group of comics fans who care enough about the artform to write and track it on a daily basis, who care enough to put our attitudes and opinions in line of sight of anyone who wants to snark us mercilessly. A message board grants some measure of anonymity, because you're just one voice among hundreds in a single page, but writing for your own blog... you put yourself up there to get ripped to pieces with every opinion piece you post.
So what we have are comics fans who dedicate countless hours a week to finding the stories and quirks and humorous anecdotes and nostalgia and generally interesting shit about comics and write about them. Sometimes you get slice-of-life, sometimes in-depth critical analyses of series both old and new, sometimes you get some guy just screaming vulgarities at you in a humorous fashion. I don't know about you, but the sheer variety of comics commentary available on the comics blogo-sphero-googelplex makes me fucking giddy.
We blog because we love it. We do it for no money and can only hope for the faintest wisp of praise. And that is enough.
Don't you think that's worth something, Heidi?
(Boy, was that one longass list of citations, or what?)
The Heidi quote:
I have been reading a lot of blogs lately. And I have to say a lot of them are really dopey. (No names.) Give 1,000 monkeys 1,000 typewriters and eventually they’ll write an issue of Night Nurse or create a blog. And, except for a very few sites, I realized they can pretty much be safely ignored. When you give everyone a voice, no one can hear everything.
H responds to this point by point (and quite well), and nails in one sentence precisely what I like about blogs and blogging so much:
My daily blog trips are the equivalent of my custom made comics magazine written by people whose writing I know I’ll enjoy.
How true. I would take the blogs I read on a daily basis over CBG, Wizard, or TCJ any day of the week. Why? Perhaps it's the general appeal of the internet -- a sense of immediacy and a nowness that the print journalism simply cannot compete with.
In "regular" media, newspapers and magazines have to compete with more immediate online journalism by offering more in-depth and informed material than can be offered on the internet. In comics journalism, this simply is not the case. I find out more about the movings and shakings of the comics world from Graeme, David, Marc, Kevin, and Shane in one single day than I would find in an entire issue of any of the above-cited magazines. Every single one of these gentlemen posts with more wit, insight, and candor than any of the "professionals" who get paid for it.
(And as to the question of "professionalism" among these bloggers: Graeme's column is proof enough that he is a gifted writer, Kevin has journalistic training as evidenced by his excellent interviews, Marc and David are easily the smartest kids in the class, and Shane has a nose for news like no one else. I myself have quite a lot of journalistic training, believe it or not, and a wall of awards to back it up.
By the way, this isn't to suggest that the others on my linklist aren't equally as worthy; those five are just the guys who popped into my head first.)
I'm loathe to say that Heidi's speaking from a mean, petty place, because that would be... mean and petty of me.
But attacking the professionalism of a large, faceless group of strangers is precisely that. It smacks of resentment of "those durn amateurs" springing up and thinking we have a right to an opinion, and that we need to be put back in our place. Worse, I believe her column is aimed at people who are not quite familiar with bloggers yet, so Heidi is attempting to downplay our signifigance before the reader can form his or her own opinion on the matter.
Which would be... you guessed it, mean and petty. Sure, a lot of us could be safely ignored, but you know what? I've never really needed the CBG, the TCJ, or Wizard to find out what's going on with comics, nor to find interviews or in-depth news. I get all that already, on a daily basis. Oh, and it doesn't cost me anything.
That's the other thing. No money is changing hands anywhere. The only currency is linkage -- and that's given freely enough between the bloggers, because we're all a pretty good bunch and we want to do something positive for comics, and why not help each other in the process? Heightened awareness and participation can only benefit comics.
None of us do this for money. None of us see a dime for our efforts (most of us, in fact, pay out of pocket), and our output is at least twice the volume of any given paid comic magazine writer by sheer virtue of the fact that most of us post at least twice a week. We don't get paid. But we do it anyway.
Because we love comics.
I'm not going to suggest that the comics bloggers are the créme de la créme, the best and the brightest, and the rest of you can go to hell while we idle away the hours in our ivory towers. But we are a steadily growing group of comics fans who care enough about the artform to write and track it on a daily basis, who care enough to put our attitudes and opinions in line of sight of anyone who wants to snark us mercilessly. A message board grants some measure of anonymity, because you're just one voice among hundreds in a single page, but writing for your own blog... you put yourself up there to get ripped to pieces with every opinion piece you post.
So what we have are comics fans who dedicate countless hours a week to finding the stories and quirks and humorous anecdotes and nostalgia and generally interesting shit about comics and write about them. Sometimes you get slice-of-life, sometimes in-depth critical analyses of series both old and new, sometimes you get some guy just screaming vulgarities at you in a humorous fashion. I don't know about you, but the sheer variety of comics commentary available on the comics blogo-sphero-googelplex makes me fucking giddy.
We blog because we love it. We do it for no money and can only hope for the faintest wisp of praise. And that is enough.
Don't you think that's worth something, Heidi?
The Bourne Awesome.
I really, really liked The Bourne Identity. The movie, that is. Never read the book... nor do I ever think I will. But the movie represented a kind of action thriller for adults, wherein everything was not dumbed down and the explosions were not tuned up. It was just unusually engrossing and, above all else, a damn good time.
And now we have The Bourne Supremacy. I've known it's been coming, but this is the first time I've seen the trailer. New director... but that's okay. Principal cast is still there; I like how the female lead is the same as from the first movie, and it's not a rotating-Bond-chick thing. Franka Potente is a captivating actress, and her character was equally intriguing and instantly likable.
Count me in.
And now we have The Bourne Supremacy. I've known it's been coming, but this is the first time I've seen the trailer. New director... but that's okay. Principal cast is still there; I like how the female lead is the same as from the first movie, and it's not a rotating-Bond-chick thing. Franka Potente is a captivating actress, and her character was equally intriguing and instantly likable.
Count me in.
Comics He Shouldn't Own, Part 2.
Mark's at it again.
X-FORCE #26 COVER ROLE-CALL! REIGNFIRE! ROLLERGIRL! FOURARM! KNIFEY McSTICKERSON! None of whom show up until page 20! And that guy's real name, the one I called "Fourarm"? His name is... Forearm. God, fuck you, Rob Liefeld. I know you left this book 3 issues in, just like Jim Lee left X-Men and Todd MacFarlane left Spider-Man, the titles Marvel was nice (i.e. stupid) enough to create just for you guys, but fuck you for doing this to the world.
And it's even funnier than yesterday's.
I feel your pain on Cable's "ridiculous, redundant, contradictory bullshit" storyline, myself. Though I liked Cable as a kid, his background (and all that stupid-ass time travel shit with Cyclops and Jean Grey and Askani and that silver future chick who carried around little baby Nathan and X-Man and WHY DO I REMEMBER THIS! I DON'T KNOW MY MOTHER'S BIRTHDAY BUT I KNOW THE NAME ASKANI?! FUCK YOU, MARVEL!) singlehandedly kicked me the fuck out of comics.
Anyway. It's funny. Go read it.
X-FORCE #26 COVER ROLE-CALL! REIGNFIRE! ROLLERGIRL! FOURARM! KNIFEY McSTICKERSON! None of whom show up until page 20! And that guy's real name, the one I called "Fourarm"? His name is... Forearm. God, fuck you, Rob Liefeld. I know you left this book 3 issues in, just like Jim Lee left X-Men and Todd MacFarlane left Spider-Man, the titles Marvel was nice (i.e. stupid) enough to create just for you guys, but fuck you for doing this to the world.
And it's even funnier than yesterday's.
I feel your pain on Cable's "ridiculous, redundant, contradictory bullshit" storyline, myself. Though I liked Cable as a kid, his background (and all that stupid-ass time travel shit with Cyclops and Jean Grey and Askani and that silver future chick who carried around little baby Nathan and X-Man and WHY DO I REMEMBER THIS! I DON'T KNOW MY MOTHER'S BIRTHDAY BUT I KNOW THE NAME ASKANI?! FUCK YOU, MARVEL!) singlehandedly kicked me the fuck out of comics.
Anyway. It's funny. Go read it.
A missive from Shane.
Of Near Mint Heroes:
Shane: wow you know what? I DO need a bigger penis!
Okay, so it was just him getting duped by spam mail. It was still funny.
Shane: wow you know what? I DO need a bigger penis!
Okay, so it was just him getting duped by spam mail. It was still funny.
What if you were different?
So I hear you like comic books.
I mean, you're at this blog, right? So you have some predilection for them and some familiarity. Maybe you entered the GREAT LOSERS GIVEAWAY, and maybe you won a prize. Or maybe you didn't. And you're wondering... hey, man, those prizes were pretty good. Are you ever going to have another contest like that again?
Well, yes. Yes we are.
In conjunction with Shane Bailey, Kevin Melrose, Rick Geerling, Johnny Bacardi, AiT/PlanetLar, and Digital Webbing, there's a BRAND NEW CONTEST, focusing on the much-acclaimed and hard-to-find 12-part mini-series Demo. The prize list is absolutely staggering.
GRAND PRIZE: One copy each of the TPBs CHANNEL ZERO, PUBLIC DOMAIN, CHANNEL ZERO: JENNIE ONE, the two COURIER volumes, a CHANNEL ZERO t-shirt, issues #1-5 of DEMO, two pages of original art from PLANET OF THE CAPES, a six-issue subscription to DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
SECOND PRIZE: One copy each of the TPBs CHANNEL ZERO, PUBLIC DOMAIN, CHANNEL ZERO: JENNIE ONE, the two COURIER volumes, a CHANNEL ZERO t-shirt, issues #1-5 of DEMO, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
THIRD PRIZE: CHANNEL ZERO: JENNIE ONE, issues #1-5 of DEMO, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
FOURTH PRIZE: Issues #1-5 of DEMO, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
FIFTH PRIZE: An issue of SCURVY DOGS, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
(Want to know more about a lot of these pieces of art? Then check out an interview with the artist of many of them, Becky Cloonan, over at Thought Balloons. Then take a look at the interview with DEMO writer Brian Wood, and DEMO publishers Larry Young and Mimi Rosenheim of AiT/PlanetLar.)
Wow.
Whadya gotta do to win all that swag? Easy. Just march yourself over here and tell us about having a superpower. That's right, pick one superpower, tell us why you want it, and what you'd do with it. You can be typical... I guess... and say stuff like invisibility and flight, but if you go the typical route you'd better really wow us with your reasons. We want weird, original, wild, CRAZY shit ("Skin made entirely of Nerf, so I can go bungee jumping without the bungee!") that sets you apart from the rest of the entrants.
Two rules:
1) The focus of this contest is to hook NEW readers into DEMO. We'd prefer you not already be a fan.
2) Contest ends THIS WEDNESDAY, May 12th. Get your entry in, and SPREAD THE WORD!
Well, what're you waiting for? ENTER HERE!
(Special thanks and consideration to Larry Young at AiT/PlanetLar and Digital Webbing for donating the prizes, and to Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan for their time. Give them some love, people.)
I mean, you're at this blog, right? So you have some predilection for them and some familiarity. Maybe you entered the GREAT LOSERS GIVEAWAY, and maybe you won a prize. Or maybe you didn't. And you're wondering... hey, man, those prizes were pretty good. Are you ever going to have another contest like that again?
Well, yes. Yes we are.
In conjunction with Shane Bailey, Kevin Melrose, Rick Geerling, Johnny Bacardi, AiT/PlanetLar, and Digital Webbing, there's a BRAND NEW CONTEST, focusing on the much-acclaimed and hard-to-find 12-part mini-series Demo. The prize list is absolutely staggering.
GRAND PRIZE: One copy each of the TPBs CHANNEL ZERO, PUBLIC DOMAIN, CHANNEL ZERO: JENNIE ONE, the two COURIER volumes, a CHANNEL ZERO t-shirt, issues #1-5 of DEMO, two pages of original art from PLANET OF THE CAPES, a six-issue subscription to DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
SECOND PRIZE: One copy each of the TPBs CHANNEL ZERO, PUBLIC DOMAIN, CHANNEL ZERO: JENNIE ONE, the two COURIER volumes, a CHANNEL ZERO t-shirt, issues #1-5 of DEMO, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
THIRD PRIZE: CHANNEL ZERO: JENNIE ONE, issues #1-5 of DEMO, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
FOURTH PRIZE: Issues #1-5 of DEMO, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
FIFTH PRIZE: An issue of SCURVY DOGS, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
(Want to know more about a lot of these pieces of art? Then check out an interview with the artist of many of them, Becky Cloonan, over at Thought Balloons. Then take a look at the interview with DEMO writer Brian Wood, and DEMO publishers Larry Young and Mimi Rosenheim of AiT/PlanetLar.)
Wow.
Whadya gotta do to win all that swag? Easy. Just march yourself over here and tell us about having a superpower. That's right, pick one superpower, tell us why you want it, and what you'd do with it. You can be typical... I guess... and say stuff like invisibility and flight, but if you go the typical route you'd better really wow us with your reasons. We want weird, original, wild, CRAZY shit ("Skin made entirely of Nerf, so I can go bungee jumping without the bungee!") that sets you apart from the rest of the entrants.
Two rules:
1) The focus of this contest is to hook NEW readers into DEMO. We'd prefer you not already be a fan.
2) Contest ends THIS WEDNESDAY, May 12th. Get your entry in, and SPREAD THE WORD!
Well, what're you waiting for? ENTER HERE!
(Special thanks and consideration to Larry Young at AiT/PlanetLar and Digital Webbing for donating the prizes, and to Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan for their time. Give them some love, people.)
Monday, May 10, 2004
Some minor observations.
Observation the First: The other day I'm at a restaurant and I hear, in the booth behind me, a couple of kids of about 8 years old talking about Captain America and how badass his shield is. I smiled, and then a thought came to me.
How the hell do these kids know who Captain America is? There's no TV show, no movie tie-in, no Captain America books aimed anywhere even remotely at people under the age of 16, so... how did they know? What's reaching these kids and telling them about old Marvel stand-bys that are largely no longer marketed at them?
Observation the Second: I'm at Half-Price Books yesterday, because it's the most glorious place on earth, and I head on over to the smallish comic book/graphic novel section. What do I see? A mother and her two daughters, scouring the sizable collection of manga there, picking up stacks. The mother wasn't actively participating, but she was there, watching her kids, and everyone was having a good time.
I have never, ever seen that in a DM store. Granted, the two daughters and mother were of indeterminate Asian origin, so they have a bit more cultural knowledge of the existence of manga, but damn. What the hell are we missing, here?
Observation the Third: I dug up some old EC Comics reprints that I bought back when I was a kid, maybe 12-14 years ago. Who's this Russ Cochran guy, and how did he manage to get the rights to reprint all this stuff?
These books are what got me into comics way back when. I loved horror stories, loved the lurid art and the wicked plot twists, and they set off the spark of comic interest in a young boy that DC and Marvel quite frankly failed to maintain, until I came across The Dark Knight Returns back in 2001.
I was a kid who took his allowance down to the local (tiny) bookstore once a week shopping for comics. I had no idea what titles were out there, so I always browsed randomly. I had no concept of when comics came out (Wednesdays), and as I was doing this on my own, I never had anyone to clarify. DC and Marvel's release schedule thusly seemed pretty scattershot and uncertain, and 30 days is a long, long time for a little kid to wait for the next issue of something that gets read in 10 minutes. So I lost interest in a lot of monthly titles pretty fast, because it seemed like a shitload of work for me just so I could get stuff that, even to my young mind, wasn't really all that good. (This was around the release of the 2099 line at Marvel, if that gives you some context.)
These EC reprints got it right, though. On the back cover of every issue of Vault, Tales, and Haunt were four cover images, two by two, of upcoming titles... and the dates they were coming out splashed right across each. None of these covers have wordy splashes of dialogue of text to tell you what each issue is, just one stark, intriguing image and the three bubbles on the left showing you the narrators of the tales.
Point being, I knew when the next issue came out, and I had enough of a tantalizer to be looking forward to it.
Whatever happened to these reprints, anyway?
How the hell do these kids know who Captain America is? There's no TV show, no movie tie-in, no Captain America books aimed anywhere even remotely at people under the age of 16, so... how did they know? What's reaching these kids and telling them about old Marvel stand-bys that are largely no longer marketed at them?
Observation the Second: I'm at Half-Price Books yesterday, because it's the most glorious place on earth, and I head on over to the smallish comic book/graphic novel section. What do I see? A mother and her two daughters, scouring the sizable collection of manga there, picking up stacks. The mother wasn't actively participating, but she was there, watching her kids, and everyone was having a good time.
I have never, ever seen that in a DM store. Granted, the two daughters and mother were of indeterminate Asian origin, so they have a bit more cultural knowledge of the existence of manga, but damn. What the hell are we missing, here?
Observation the Third: I dug up some old EC Comics reprints that I bought back when I was a kid, maybe 12-14 years ago. Who's this Russ Cochran guy, and how did he manage to get the rights to reprint all this stuff?
These books are what got me into comics way back when. I loved horror stories, loved the lurid art and the wicked plot twists, and they set off the spark of comic interest in a young boy that DC and Marvel quite frankly failed to maintain, until I came across The Dark Knight Returns back in 2001.
I was a kid who took his allowance down to the local (tiny) bookstore once a week shopping for comics. I had no idea what titles were out there, so I always browsed randomly. I had no concept of when comics came out (Wednesdays), and as I was doing this on my own, I never had anyone to clarify. DC and Marvel's release schedule thusly seemed pretty scattershot and uncertain, and 30 days is a long, long time for a little kid to wait for the next issue of something that gets read in 10 minutes. So I lost interest in a lot of monthly titles pretty fast, because it seemed like a shitload of work for me just so I could get stuff that, even to my young mind, wasn't really all that good. (This was around the release of the 2099 line at Marvel, if that gives you some context.)
These EC reprints got it right, though. On the back cover of every issue of Vault, Tales, and Haunt were four cover images, two by two, of upcoming titles... and the dates they were coming out splashed right across each. None of these covers have wordy splashes of dialogue of text to tell you what each issue is, just one stark, intriguing image and the three bubbles on the left showing you the narrators of the tales.
Point being, I knew when the next issue came out, and I had enough of a tantalizer to be looking forward to it.
Whatever happened to these reprints, anyway?
ChaosMonkey is funny.
In his brand new Comics I Shouldn't Own series, ChaosMonkey (or, I guess, I could call him Mark) discusses Venom: Nights of Vengeance #3:
This guy here, this is Vengeance. You know Ghost Rider, right? Kind of looks like this guy here? You can think of Vengeance as Carnage to Ghost Rider's Venom — a "kewl" version of an established character created to hep up a series. And that's all I really know about Vengeance. Take Ghost Rider, add horns and tusks, bigger spikes, bones instead of chains, and, if this issue is any indication, make him talk like a dipshit tough guy, though that may have more to do with Howard Mackie than the character himself. Except I'm pretty sure Mackie wrote the Ghost Rider series and probably "created" Vengeance, so... dipshit tough guy. Fire horns tusks spikes bones.
And Venom. Poor Venom. Once the coolest cat on the block, a spit-dripping, brain-eating, Mary Jane Watson-Parker-frightening psychopath, reduced to the role of limp-dick anti-hero, saving hoo-mans and protecting bums who live underground in the ruins of the 1910 San Francisco earthquake. That happened in the Venom: Lethal Protector (Lethal Protector!?) mini-series that I threw away some years back. This issue stands as the sole survivor of my "Venom" collection, part of a series of mini-series that began with Lethal Protector and ended probably way too fucking late. (... the fuck is a "Lethal Protector," anyhow? I imagine it's like a pimp, only he doesn't take quite so much of your money, and he may or may not bitchslap you or eat your brains.)
And if you're Howard Mackie and people won't pay you for sex, what better way to make money than to team up a neutered psychopathic villain and a Ghost Rider rip-off? In 1994, no better way at all.
A seriously entertaining read. I hope there's more to come.
This guy here, this is Vengeance. You know Ghost Rider, right? Kind of looks like this guy here? You can think of Vengeance as Carnage to Ghost Rider's Venom — a "kewl" version of an established character created to hep up a series. And that's all I really know about Vengeance. Take Ghost Rider, add horns and tusks, bigger spikes, bones instead of chains, and, if this issue is any indication, make him talk like a dipshit tough guy, though that may have more to do with Howard Mackie than the character himself. Except I'm pretty sure Mackie wrote the Ghost Rider series and probably "created" Vengeance, so... dipshit tough guy. Fire horns tusks spikes bones.
And Venom. Poor Venom. Once the coolest cat on the block, a spit-dripping, brain-eating, Mary Jane Watson-Parker-frightening psychopath, reduced to the role of limp-dick anti-hero, saving hoo-mans and protecting bums who live underground in the ruins of the 1910 San Francisco earthquake. That happened in the Venom: Lethal Protector (Lethal Protector!?) mini-series that I threw away some years back. This issue stands as the sole survivor of my "Venom" collection, part of a series of mini-series that began with Lethal Protector and ended probably way too fucking late. (... the fuck is a "Lethal Protector," anyhow? I imagine it's like a pimp, only he doesn't take quite so much of your money, and he may or may not bitchslap you or eat your brains.)
And if you're Howard Mackie and people won't pay you for sex, what better way to make money than to team up a neutered psychopathic villain and a Ghost Rider rip-off? In 1994, no better way at all.
A seriously entertaining read. I hope there's more to come.
The HBO of yadda yadda.
Kevin Melrose, in his third in a series of interviews centered around Brian Wood's and Becky Cloonan's Demo, talks with publishers Larry Young and Mimi Rosenheim of AiT/PlanetLar about publishing in general and Demo in particular.
On Demo:
Q: Brian Wood said Demo was "almost impossible for me to properly describe ahead of time." What was it about the concept that made you want to publish the series?
Larry: Well, there were several factors operating, here. First, I've known Bri for a while and we've not only been able to put out some good comics together, but we're pals, too. So we've been working together for so long that we have kind of a shorthand. I don't even remember how he pitched to me, but it was probably something that just organically came out of his work with Becky Cloonan on Channel Zero: Jennie One. You know, something like, "I was thinking about working with Becky on a monthly, and address some of the subjects I like in comics. Make it look really sharp, stretch our muscles." So I think, "Monthly, 'super' powers, written by Bri, with art by Becky? Self-contained, mini-OGNs, high quality production values? I can sell the hell out of that one." So he didn't have to pitch it to me, really. I totally respect Bri and Becky as artists on top of their games, so the last hurdle was me translating all the positives to Mimi, so she could see whether or not it would make financial sense for us. I'm the crazy man, and she's pretty conservative, so whenever we agree on a project right away, it bodes well for its success. And Mimi didn't need any convincing ...
On their publishing methodology and inspiration:
Q: From a publishing standpoint, you seem to zig when everyone expects you to zag. Just when most people start associating AiT/Planet Lar with graphic novels, you put out something like Demo. Then you wade into the superhero "genre" with Planet of the Capes. Are these calculated moves to do the unexpected?
Larry: Here's the thing: I pay attention to mainstream entertainment in other media, so the things that I respond to and are interested in and influence me aren't in comics. And for Mimi, that's even more true. We just like other things as well as comics, and try to bring a sensibility of what works in other media to that of comics. That whole "HBO of comics" thing you hear about our company, most recently on the Variety comics blog, was ironically in a review about a couple of our upcoming superhero books. So there's a place for superheroes, sure, but when we do them they aren't going to be boy's adventure stories. Planet of the Capes is an allegory for the industry, and Hench is a cautionary tale. The costumes are just the detailing on a fast car, not the car itself.
All very good reads. And forget not, of course, the DEMO GIVEAWAY, wherein we give you a metric fuckton of free trade paperbacks and comics (and original art, and a t-shirt, and so on and so forth) for telling us about what superpower you'd like to have and what you'd do with it.
GO NOW!
On Demo:
Q: Brian Wood said Demo was "almost impossible for me to properly describe ahead of time." What was it about the concept that made you want to publish the series?
Larry: Well, there were several factors operating, here. First, I've known Bri for a while and we've not only been able to put out some good comics together, but we're pals, too. So we've been working together for so long that we have kind of a shorthand. I don't even remember how he pitched to me, but it was probably something that just organically came out of his work with Becky Cloonan on Channel Zero: Jennie One. You know, something like, "I was thinking about working with Becky on a monthly, and address some of the subjects I like in comics. Make it look really sharp, stretch our muscles." So I think, "Monthly, 'super' powers, written by Bri, with art by Becky? Self-contained, mini-OGNs, high quality production values? I can sell the hell out of that one." So he didn't have to pitch it to me, really. I totally respect Bri and Becky as artists on top of their games, so the last hurdle was me translating all the positives to Mimi, so she could see whether or not it would make financial sense for us. I'm the crazy man, and she's pretty conservative, so whenever we agree on a project right away, it bodes well for its success. And Mimi didn't need any convincing ...
On their publishing methodology and inspiration:
Q: From a publishing standpoint, you seem to zig when everyone expects you to zag. Just when most people start associating AiT/Planet Lar with graphic novels, you put out something like Demo. Then you wade into the superhero "genre" with Planet of the Capes. Are these calculated moves to do the unexpected?
Larry: Here's the thing: I pay attention to mainstream entertainment in other media, so the things that I respond to and are interested in and influence me aren't in comics. And for Mimi, that's even more true. We just like other things as well as comics, and try to bring a sensibility of what works in other media to that of comics. That whole "HBO of comics" thing you hear about our company, most recently on the Variety comics blog, was ironically in a review about a couple of our upcoming superhero books. So there's a place for superheroes, sure, but when we do them they aren't going to be boy's adventure stories. Planet of the Capes is an allegory for the industry, and Hench is a cautionary tale. The costumes are just the detailing on a fast car, not the car itself.
All very good reads. And forget not, of course, the DEMO GIVEAWAY, wherein we give you a metric fuckton of free trade paperbacks and comics (and original art, and a t-shirt, and so on and so forth) for telling us about what superpower you'd like to have and what you'd do with it.
GO NOW!
Saturday, May 08, 2004
Ahem.
Back to normal.
Ponies are stupid.
And so is your mother. Now shut up and start felching.
Anyway. Proof #1241057238957238759832476349 that the Image Forums are holding cells for people we'd rather not rub elbows with:
(Thanks and blame to THE ROOMMATE for finding that shit.)
Anyway. Proof #1241057238957238759832476349 that the Image Forums are holding cells for people we'd rather not rub elbows with:
(Thanks and blame to THE ROOMMATE for finding that shit.)
Purty pitchers.
Johnny Bacardi, godfather of all that is Latin and hedonistic, has put up a new blog showcasing his rather surprisingly good sketches and sequentials.
You Will Go Now!
The breadth and expanse of my art critique expertise goes to saying stuff like "that's pretty cool," so please, if you have something kind and/or constructive to say about his art, don't be shy about commenting.
Also:
You Will Go Now!
The breadth and expanse of my art critique expertise goes to saying stuff like "that's pretty cool," so please, if you have something kind and/or constructive to say about his art, don't be shy about commenting.
Also:
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATEEEE!
Jude Law is smart.
From the latest issue of Playboy:
Playboy: You played a sniper in Enemy at the Gates, but you live in a country where it's hard to buy a gun. What do you make of America's fascination with firearms?
Law: Unfortunately it seems that guns and the gun culture are a part of most world societies. What troubles me more is that people are shocked and surprised when tragedies like Columbine or the D.C. sniper shootings hit the news. Mix guns freely into a culture in which people are dealing with emotional problems and stress, and you end up with body counts because guns are so easy to operate. It is sad but inevitable, whether it's starting a war or cornering a nation or a religious faith into a position in which it feels it has to kick back to be heard. We know how humans react, just as we know how a gun works. So why are we surprised when it goes terribly wrong?
Playboy: Did watching Arnold Schwarzenegger become governor of California leave you thinking that anything is possible for Hollywood actors, or did it leave you scratching your head about the power of celebrity?
Law: A little of both. The most interesting theory I've heard was described as narrative politics -- involving the audience in the process, letting them conclude a story. The idea that the people can make it possible for an Austrian bodybuilder turned movie star to become governor empowers them to create a great story. Just as it's a great story to vote in a president whose father was in the White House and who is a reformed alcoholic.
"Narrative politics" is a term I'm going to have to write down. It does indeed seem like politics of late have been turned into a sort of spectator sport, but that of course is a lie; everything about our greater institutions has been, since the dawn of civilization, subverted into a kind of entertainment. I'd even go so far as to suggest that making a spectacle of even the most vital life-and-death issues is what seperates us from the animal kingdom and kicked us into our own peculiar brand of evolution, straying so far from the rest of the species.
The caveman hunted and killed its prey to survive, as did the tiger. The tiger, however, never felt the need to write about it on a wall.
(I don't want to hear any wiseass opposable thumb comments. You know what I'm getting at.)
Playboy: You played a sniper in Enemy at the Gates, but you live in a country where it's hard to buy a gun. What do you make of America's fascination with firearms?
Law: Unfortunately it seems that guns and the gun culture are a part of most world societies. What troubles me more is that people are shocked and surprised when tragedies like Columbine or the D.C. sniper shootings hit the news. Mix guns freely into a culture in which people are dealing with emotional problems and stress, and you end up with body counts because guns are so easy to operate. It is sad but inevitable, whether it's starting a war or cornering a nation or a religious faith into a position in which it feels it has to kick back to be heard. We know how humans react, just as we know how a gun works. So why are we surprised when it goes terribly wrong?
Playboy: Did watching Arnold Schwarzenegger become governor of California leave you thinking that anything is possible for Hollywood actors, or did it leave you scratching your head about the power of celebrity?
Law: A little of both. The most interesting theory I've heard was described as narrative politics -- involving the audience in the process, letting them conclude a story. The idea that the people can make it possible for an Austrian bodybuilder turned movie star to become governor empowers them to create a great story. Just as it's a great story to vote in a president whose father was in the White House and who is a reformed alcoholic.
"Narrative politics" is a term I'm going to have to write down. It does indeed seem like politics of late have been turned into a sort of spectator sport, but that of course is a lie; everything about our greater institutions has been, since the dawn of civilization, subverted into a kind of entertainment. I'd even go so far as to suggest that making a spectacle of even the most vital life-and-death issues is what seperates us from the animal kingdom and kicked us into our own peculiar brand of evolution, straying so far from the rest of the species.
The caveman hunted and killed its prey to survive, as did the tiger. The tiger, however, never felt the need to write about it on a wall.
(I don't want to hear any wiseass opposable thumb comments. You know what I'm getting at.)
The Beast Is Loose Again.
GRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!
MICAH IAN WRIGHT CAN EAT MY FAT HAIRY DONG AND SHIT CHINCHILLAS FOR ALL I CARE!
JOE QUESADA'S MOTHER COULD ONLY BE MORE OF A WHORE... IF THERE WERE TWO OF HER!
I WILL CASTRATE CHUCK DIXON AND SERVE HIS GENITALIA AS A SIDE DISH AT THE GLAAD MEDIA AWARDS!
I THINK THE FANTASTIC FOUR ARE STUPID FUCKING CHARACTERS. THERE, I SAID IT!
THAT GOES TWICE FOR ALL THEIR VILLAINS, EXCEPT DR. DOOM!
SPIDER-MAN HAS THE LAMEST ROGUES' GALLERY IN THE HISTORY OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE, WHICH IS REALLY SAYING SOMETHING IF YOU STOP AND THINK ABOUT IT!
DC HAS LIKE FOUR MARKETABLE CHARACTERS AND 10,000 PIECES OF WALKING SHIT IN STUPID OUTFITS!
I MEAN SERIOUSLY, STARRO? AMAZO? METALLO? SINESTRO? I KNOW RETARDED LABRADORS WHO COULD COME UP WITH BETTER SHIT THAN THAT! SOMEONE NEEDS TO TAKE AWAY YOUR "O" KEY BEFORE YOU HURT YOURSELVES!
RRRRAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!
(All-New, All-Different Howling Curmedgeons is a great blog, by the way.)
Friday, May 07, 2004
Cracking the code.
Chris M. over at The All-New, All-Different Howling Curmudgeons may very well have figured out what makes secret identities such an intrinsic part of the superhero genre:
Also, I think a final aspect of secret IDs that is good, interesting, and powerful comes from the fact that in a mass-produced, mass-marketed, homogenized, industrial society (which, interestingly enough, was really just starting to get going at 90 mph when Superman was first created), we all lose a little bit of ourselves, a little bit of our sense of the unique wonder of being me. Secret IDs give the creator a mechanism by which a character can be recognizably a real person who is part of the mass-produced, mass-marketed, homogenized, industrial world outside our windows, and yet be able to step outside of that and be wonderfully unique, and free, and tacky. I think that’s an important aspect of why superheroes won’t go away no matter how vehemently they’re attacked or intellectually derided.
Maybe this isn't such a revelation to anyone else, but you know that feeling when you're reading something good and a part of your brain just... takes shape as the ideas are fed into it, and suddenly a piece of the puzzle is filled in? That's what that was, right there, for me.
Excellent piece.
There's been some talk floating around lately about secret IDs, thanks in large part to the Superman monologue in Kill Bill: Volume 2, and it's one I'm still forming opinions on. Especially since my favorite comic book character, the Punisher, has no secret identity. He is what he is.
I think this take on what secret IDs have brought to superhero literature is more or less correct:
[T]here are probably a thousand different “dual nature” aspects to any individual, examples of the ID and Ego at odds, all sorts of stuff like that. Secret IDs are the perfect vehicle for exploring and expressing all of these things.
Excuse me while I think out loud. This won't be coherent; apologies all around.
Secret IDs sure as hell have presented a lot of material for superhero comics, and none, I think, flagellate this theme to the extreme more than the Peter Parker character, and has manifestations of such in Robin III. The conflict of leading the double life, who that person has to keep things from, and how they are constantly tormented by it doesn't really interest me all that much. It's nice window dressing, but I only have so much tolerance for angst.
What interests me is why such noisily tormented souls continue to do what they do anyway, despite the problems it causes in their personal lives and general disruption of happiness. My slightly cynical mind follows the Frank Miller course -- the sensation of unleashing one's id on the world becomes so intoxicating to them that they just can't stop themselves, and why should they? Who's going to stop them? The police? Super villains? The government? Concerned spouses? Don't make me laugh. All of these sources of intervention are either ignored or meet tragic ends.
These people get to take the superego shackles right off their id every single night in ways most of us can only dream about, and no one in the world can stop them. Most people, in fact, applaud them. I get the feeling guys like Matt Murdock and Peter Parker bitch about how their double-lives hurt them so much out of lip service alone: They feel like they should feel badly for what they do, that that's what is expected, so they act it out in largely pointless and overwrought self-flagellation. It's all an act, and they've even bought their own hype.
I guess this, ultimately, is why a guy like Frank Castle appeals to me so much. For Big Frank, there's no posturing. There's no superego. There's no second life, trying to scrape by a normal living, while having a crush on the unattainable coworker. There's no mask, no superficial identity-change device (unless you count the skull shirt, which he wears almost all the time anyway.) Frank Castle has let his id dominate his entire life, has refined and worn down all the excess baggage of the superhero into its nightmarish extreme: he is the merciless embodiment of his own darkest urges, given no need nor method for restraint. His war is his life.
And he knows it, too. He's not into self-delusion in the way Parker, Murdock and Co. are. He makes no apologies about what he does, and he doesn't even make the pretension that he does what he does for the betterment of mankind.
He's The Punisher, not The Avenger. As is stated so succinctly in "Welcome Back, Frank," he kills criminals because he hates them, not because he wants to make the world safe for good people. He wants those who have got it coming to get theirs. I suppose the Marvel Universe can be thankful that Castle had enough of a shred of morality left to aim his guns at the criminal element instead of the world at large.
This isn't me celebrating what the guy does, by the way. I'm not saluting his violence or spinning his genocide as "a man doing man's work in a world of spandex-clad children." But I think there's something raw to Frank Castle, a statement about the violent beast that's lurking under every set of red horns or web-spackled mask. When I was reading the Daredevil issue wherein Ol' Hornhead kicks Kingpin to the curb, sheds his mask, and declares himself the new, ultra-violent Kingpin of Hell's Kitchen, I imagined Castle watching from a rooftop, crossing his arms, and thinking...
"Now he gets it."
Also, I think a final aspect of secret IDs that is good, interesting, and powerful comes from the fact that in a mass-produced, mass-marketed, homogenized, industrial society (which, interestingly enough, was really just starting to get going at 90 mph when Superman was first created), we all lose a little bit of ourselves, a little bit of our sense of the unique wonder of being me. Secret IDs give the creator a mechanism by which a character can be recognizably a real person who is part of the mass-produced, mass-marketed, homogenized, industrial world outside our windows, and yet be able to step outside of that and be wonderfully unique, and free, and tacky. I think that’s an important aspect of why superheroes won’t go away no matter how vehemently they’re attacked or intellectually derided.
Maybe this isn't such a revelation to anyone else, but you know that feeling when you're reading something good and a part of your brain just... takes shape as the ideas are fed into it, and suddenly a piece of the puzzle is filled in? That's what that was, right there, for me.
Excellent piece.
There's been some talk floating around lately about secret IDs, thanks in large part to the Superman monologue in Kill Bill: Volume 2, and it's one I'm still forming opinions on. Especially since my favorite comic book character, the Punisher, has no secret identity. He is what he is.
I think this take on what secret IDs have brought to superhero literature is more or less correct:
[T]here are probably a thousand different “dual nature” aspects to any individual, examples of the ID and Ego at odds, all sorts of stuff like that. Secret IDs are the perfect vehicle for exploring and expressing all of these things.
Excuse me while I think out loud. This won't be coherent; apologies all around.
Secret IDs sure as hell have presented a lot of material for superhero comics, and none, I think, flagellate this theme to the extreme more than the Peter Parker character, and has manifestations of such in Robin III. The conflict of leading the double life, who that person has to keep things from, and how they are constantly tormented by it doesn't really interest me all that much. It's nice window dressing, but I only have so much tolerance for angst.
What interests me is why such noisily tormented souls continue to do what they do anyway, despite the problems it causes in their personal lives and general disruption of happiness. My slightly cynical mind follows the Frank Miller course -- the sensation of unleashing one's id on the world becomes so intoxicating to them that they just can't stop themselves, and why should they? Who's going to stop them? The police? Super villains? The government? Concerned spouses? Don't make me laugh. All of these sources of intervention are either ignored or meet tragic ends.
These people get to take the superego shackles right off their id every single night in ways most of us can only dream about, and no one in the world can stop them. Most people, in fact, applaud them. I get the feeling guys like Matt Murdock and Peter Parker bitch about how their double-lives hurt them so much out of lip service alone: They feel like they should feel badly for what they do, that that's what is expected, so they act it out in largely pointless and overwrought self-flagellation. It's all an act, and they've even bought their own hype.
I guess this, ultimately, is why a guy like Frank Castle appeals to me so much. For Big Frank, there's no posturing. There's no superego. There's no second life, trying to scrape by a normal living, while having a crush on the unattainable coworker. There's no mask, no superficial identity-change device (unless you count the skull shirt, which he wears almost all the time anyway.) Frank Castle has let his id dominate his entire life, has refined and worn down all the excess baggage of the superhero into its nightmarish extreme: he is the merciless embodiment of his own darkest urges, given no need nor method for restraint. His war is his life.
And he knows it, too. He's not into self-delusion in the way Parker, Murdock and Co. are. He makes no apologies about what he does, and he doesn't even make the pretension that he does what he does for the betterment of mankind.
He's The Punisher, not The Avenger. As is stated so succinctly in "Welcome Back, Frank," he kills criminals because he hates them, not because he wants to make the world safe for good people. He wants those who have got it coming to get theirs. I suppose the Marvel Universe can be thankful that Castle had enough of a shred of morality left to aim his guns at the criminal element instead of the world at large.
This isn't me celebrating what the guy does, by the way. I'm not saluting his violence or spinning his genocide as "a man doing man's work in a world of spandex-clad children." But I think there's something raw to Frank Castle, a statement about the violent beast that's lurking under every set of red horns or web-spackled mask. When I was reading the Daredevil issue wherein Ol' Hornhead kicks Kingpin to the curb, sheds his mask, and declares himself the new, ultra-violent Kingpin of Hell's Kitchen, I imagined Castle watching from a rooftop, crossing his arms, and thinking...
"Now he gets it."
The more I hear about Seaguy...
...the more intrigued I become. Grant Morrison really is some kind of genius, isn't he?
(I realize that's not news.)
Newsarama:
Q: Starting at the ground level – how do you describe this book? A simple ‘superhero with nothing to do’ tale, or the examination of man’s inhumanity to man told through iconography we’re all familiar with…or something like that?
Morrison: A bit of both, as usual. the story started out as a kind of palate-cleansing exercise - after the heavy, 'realistic' approach of the Marvel stuff, I wanted to do something surreal and whimsical, in the vein of my DOOM PATROL stories again - an ocean-going picaresque adventure, you might say.
Then I had the idea to develop SEAGUY into a weapon I could use to fight back against the trendy and unconvincing 'bad-ass' cyncism of current comics, most of which are produced by the most un-'bad-ass' men you can possibly imagine. In the current climate, it seemed like an act of rebellion to deliberately create 'the new sentimentality' and produce work that was almost embarrassingly dripping with tender and awkward feelings. There's a strange kind of Edwardian vibe hitting the world right now - a kind of slowing down, a promenading feel as people rebel against manufactured 'cool'. SEAGUY can be seen as art at the vanguard of this new attitude.
Makes me wonder. The last time we saw manufactured cool, it was during a time period I like to call "the early-mid 90's." Have we really approached that point again, and so fast? The thought depresses.
And Seaguy just sounds fantastic.
In other news: aren't puppies cute? And so fuzzy!
(I realize that's not news.)
Newsarama:
Q: Starting at the ground level – how do you describe this book? A simple ‘superhero with nothing to do’ tale, or the examination of man’s inhumanity to man told through iconography we’re all familiar with…or something like that?
Morrison: A bit of both, as usual. the story started out as a kind of palate-cleansing exercise - after the heavy, 'realistic' approach of the Marvel stuff, I wanted to do something surreal and whimsical, in the vein of my DOOM PATROL stories again - an ocean-going picaresque adventure, you might say.
Then I had the idea to develop SEAGUY into a weapon I could use to fight back against the trendy and unconvincing 'bad-ass' cyncism of current comics, most of which are produced by the most un-'bad-ass' men you can possibly imagine. In the current climate, it seemed like an act of rebellion to deliberately create 'the new sentimentality' and produce work that was almost embarrassingly dripping with tender and awkward feelings. There's a strange kind of Edwardian vibe hitting the world right now - a kind of slowing down, a promenading feel as people rebel against manufactured 'cool'. SEAGUY can be seen as art at the vanguard of this new attitude.
Makes me wonder. The last time we saw manufactured cool, it was during a time period I like to call "the early-mid 90's." Have we really approached that point again, and so fast? The thought depresses.
And Seaguy just sounds fantastic.
In other news: aren't puppies cute? And so fuzzy!
More DEMO goodness.
Kevin Melrose has up an interview with Demo writer Brian Wood, and it just provides more reasons for you to enter the DEMO Giveaway to win fabulous prizes. Observe:
Q: You mention on your Live Journal that you're outlining the last three issues. Looking back, have you been able to accomplish what you set out to do from a creative standpoint?
A: Absolutely, and then some. Ten times over. This is my proudest work of my career, and of my entire creative life.
Now darnit, wouldn't you like a chance to try that out for free? Even the format of the mini-series is unique -- 12 pretty much self-contained issues, so you can pick up anywhere and start anywhere, yet the central theme ties all the works together. Wood's right; I don't know why more people aren't doing this. You can pick up new readers at any time, and still reward longtime followers. It's darn near the perfect monthly format.
In other news: I like rocky road ice cream! Hooray!
Q: You mention on your Live Journal that you're outlining the last three issues. Looking back, have you been able to accomplish what you set out to do from a creative standpoint?
A: Absolutely, and then some. Ten times over. This is my proudest work of my career, and of my entire creative life.
Now darnit, wouldn't you like a chance to try that out for free? Even the format of the mini-series is unique -- 12 pretty much self-contained issues, so you can pick up anywhere and start anywhere, yet the central theme ties all the works together. Wood's right; I don't know why more people aren't doing this. You can pick up new readers at any time, and still reward longtime followers. It's darn near the perfect monthly format.
In other news: I like rocky road ice cream! Hooray!
Hmm.
This... hurts my delicate sensibilities.
In a perfect world the cat and the bird would exist harmoniously, and no one would be pulling shotguns (green or no) on anyone else's nose from a lifeguard's perch.
Alas, we live in a hateful world.
In a perfect world the cat and the bird would exist harmoniously, and no one would be pulling shotguns (green or no) on anyone else's nose from a lifeguard's perch.
Alas, we live in a hateful world.
Kittens!
Thursday, May 06, 2004
This is a test.
A request.
I guess I could Google it, but why else would I have you slaves here for me?
I need an image file. A big one, preferably, pretty good quality. Of what, you ask? Of Detective Comics #359, featuring the first appearance of the "new" Batgirl.
Can anyone come up with that? Drop me a link in the Comments section, or send off an e-mail to crimson @ lethaldeath.com
Many thanks.
I need an image file. A big one, preferably, pretty good quality. Of what, you ask? Of Detective Comics #359, featuring the first appearance of the "new" Batgirl.
Can anyone come up with that? Drop me a link in the Comments section, or send off an e-mail to crimson @ lethaldeath.com
Many thanks.
Funniest blog around.
For awhile now, the Power Dude has been chronicling the use of his new superpowers, his trying to score a costume, filing his taxes and finding out there's no tax break for superheroics...
He's snapped.
* Humm-vees make the most satisfying noise as you drop them into their richfuck owner's inground swimming pool. Lexus SUVs get second place.
* If you leave the owners in the car, it's even funnier.
* Dark, moody heroes have a tough time dealing with villains who moon them, then run off.
* Being a petulant fuck with superpowers is the second most richly satisying experience ever.
* The first most richly satisfying experience ever is remember the moment when you first knew true love, then flying back to that spot and tearing the fuck out of it.
Jesus Christ, evil people are funny.
He's snapped.
* Humm-vees make the most satisfying noise as you drop them into their richfuck owner's inground swimming pool. Lexus SUVs get second place.
* If you leave the owners in the car, it's even funnier.
* Dark, moody heroes have a tough time dealing with villains who moon them, then run off.
* Being a petulant fuck with superpowers is the second most richly satisying experience ever.
* The first most richly satisfying experience ever is remember the moment when you first knew true love, then flying back to that spot and tearing the fuck out of it.
Jesus Christ, evil people are funny.
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Oooh. Shiny.
A thriller directed by Mike Hodge, starring Clive Owen and Malcolm McDowell?
I'm there.
(Forget not the DEMO Giveaway -- wherein you can win a fuckton of trade paperbacks and original art just for telling us about what kind of superpower you'd like to have. GO!)
I'm there.
(Forget not the DEMO Giveaway -- wherein you can win a fuckton of trade paperbacks and original art just for telling us about what kind of superpower you'd like to have. GO!)
Best Column in Comics.
I'm tardy in reporting on it, but Steven Grant's got a new Permanent Damage up over at CBR. There's some stuff at the front about Micah Wright, but I believe the story barely deserves thinking about, let alone repeating or opining on, for pretty much the same reason Grant does.
Nobody died because of Micah Wright's fabrication.
So enough of that.
The real meat of the column, the stuff that actually does have an affect on comics as a whole, is Grant's unerring cross-section of CrossGen's myriad failures. He empashizes, again and again, the reality that if you don't have enough product to back up your hype, you'll fail, no matter how much money you throw at the market.
When Dave Olbrich was editor at Malibu, he was fond of saying perception is reality, but that's not true and it never has been. Perception can be a building block for reality, but perception unrooted (at least a little) in reality will ultimately collapse. For awhile, you can create a public perception of yourself or your company, but, again, unless you can back it up with something solid, eventually everyone cops to the emperor's new clothes and past that point it's hard to win any credibility back on your say-so alone. A problem with a lot of would-be comics publishers is that they've come to believe enough hype will make itself come true. They also convince themselves that all they have to do is publish, and both readers and ancillary income stream deals – movies, toys, amusement park rides, whatever – will come raining onto them. Too many predicate their long term success on that. Certainly in the last couple years Alessi was more prone to talk about his upcoming media deals (and their potential for saving the company, though none have yet materialized) than about the comics.
I would argue that this holds true for the Big Two, as well. It's easy to take this diagram of failure and look at Marvel's less savory practices, but I would suggest DC's lackadaisical approach to their DCU titles is equally as irresponsible and dangerously static. (If you're not Superman or Batman, for instance, you can forget about getting high-profile creative teams and gargantuan marketing pushes.)
The lesson is twofold:
For young and wannabe publishers, the conceit is that cult of personality will be enough to get your titles sold, and if you have gobs of money to make everything purdy and buy your way into large distribution, all the better. In short, if you have a noisy business presence, you don't need to be doing much creatively.
For folks like the Big Two, the reasoning is different, but the end result is the same. The Big Two seem to be operating on the idea that the fans will, by and large, buy up anything they put out. Sadly, this is true -- to a degree. Marvel arrogantly shoves out just about anything they want and doesn't even bother to check what the fan base thinks, and DC lets its much-smaller imprints garner artistic cred while doing almost nothing of interest on their DCU titles. The end conceit is, as above, that if you have a noisy (and staid) business presence, you don't need to be doing much creatively. People will come because by god, you're motherfucking Marvel, and the fans should be thankful you're casting pearls before them in the first place.
Does this mean that to succeed, a start-up should be comprised exclusively of creative dreamers who can balance a checkbook, and let it all work from there?
No. Because you need business sense, too.
What does it mean needs to be done?
I can't tell you. I'm just here to pose the question.
Nobody died because of Micah Wright's fabrication.
So enough of that.
The real meat of the column, the stuff that actually does have an affect on comics as a whole, is Grant's unerring cross-section of CrossGen's myriad failures. He empashizes, again and again, the reality that if you don't have enough product to back up your hype, you'll fail, no matter how much money you throw at the market.
When Dave Olbrich was editor at Malibu, he was fond of saying perception is reality, but that's not true and it never has been. Perception can be a building block for reality, but perception unrooted (at least a little) in reality will ultimately collapse. For awhile, you can create a public perception of yourself or your company, but, again, unless you can back it up with something solid, eventually everyone cops to the emperor's new clothes and past that point it's hard to win any credibility back on your say-so alone. A problem with a lot of would-be comics publishers is that they've come to believe enough hype will make itself come true. They also convince themselves that all they have to do is publish, and both readers and ancillary income stream deals – movies, toys, amusement park rides, whatever – will come raining onto them. Too many predicate their long term success on that. Certainly in the last couple years Alessi was more prone to talk about his upcoming media deals (and their potential for saving the company, though none have yet materialized) than about the comics.
I would argue that this holds true for the Big Two, as well. It's easy to take this diagram of failure and look at Marvel's less savory practices, but I would suggest DC's lackadaisical approach to their DCU titles is equally as irresponsible and dangerously static. (If you're not Superman or Batman, for instance, you can forget about getting high-profile creative teams and gargantuan marketing pushes.)
The lesson is twofold:
For young and wannabe publishers, the conceit is that cult of personality will be enough to get your titles sold, and if you have gobs of money to make everything purdy and buy your way into large distribution, all the better. In short, if you have a noisy business presence, you don't need to be doing much creatively.
For folks like the Big Two, the reasoning is different, but the end result is the same. The Big Two seem to be operating on the idea that the fans will, by and large, buy up anything they put out. Sadly, this is true -- to a degree. Marvel arrogantly shoves out just about anything they want and doesn't even bother to check what the fan base thinks, and DC lets its much-smaller imprints garner artistic cred while doing almost nothing of interest on their DCU titles. The end conceit is, as above, that if you have a noisy (and staid) business presence, you don't need to be doing much creatively. People will come because by god, you're motherfucking Marvel, and the fans should be thankful you're casting pearls before them in the first place.
Does this mean that to succeed, a start-up should be comprised exclusively of creative dreamers who can balance a checkbook, and let it all work from there?
No. Because you need business sense, too.
What does it mean needs to be done?
I can't tell you. I'm just here to pose the question.
A quick this-and-that.
I have determined that Invincible is the best superhero comic on the market right now.
I just got done reading issue #11, which came out today, and there really is absolutely no reason for you not to go out and get the first two TPBs and the last 3 issues up till now, because jesus christ, I haven't read a coming-of-age superhero comic that's so organic and... and unconventional in a long time.
Issue #11 sealed it for me. As I was reading it, as I was hit by startling revelation after startling revelation, the dormant fanboy in me started to stir, saying things at the back of my mind like "No! This can't be! Do this and everything's going to change forever!"
And that's officially a Very Good Thing. Why? Because that dormant fanboy is a slave to sameness obfuscated by words like "continuity," and that it was getting a good hard kick in the scrote. It means it's still possible to do the unexpected, to make a surprising and compelling story, while operating within the confines of a decades-old genre that naysayers everywhere like to proclaim is all played out.
Go read it.
NOW!
(Credit Where Credit's Due department: THE ROOMMATE got me started on this series.
Also, be sure to enter the DEMO GIVEAWAY, wherein you'll win (roughly) a fuckton of trade paperbacks and original art just for telling us about what kind of superpower you'd like to have, and why.)
I just got done reading issue #11, which came out today, and there really is absolutely no reason for you not to go out and get the first two TPBs and the last 3 issues up till now, because jesus christ, I haven't read a coming-of-age superhero comic that's so organic and... and unconventional in a long time.
Issue #11 sealed it for me. As I was reading it, as I was hit by startling revelation after startling revelation, the dormant fanboy in me started to stir, saying things at the back of my mind like "No! This can't be! Do this and everything's going to change forever!"
And that's officially a Very Good Thing. Why? Because that dormant fanboy is a slave to sameness obfuscated by words like "continuity," and that it was getting a good hard kick in the scrote. It means it's still possible to do the unexpected, to make a surprising and compelling story, while operating within the confines of a decades-old genre that naysayers everywhere like to proclaim is all played out.
Go read it.
NOW!
(Credit Where Credit's Due department: THE ROOMMATE got me started on this series.
Also, be sure to enter the DEMO GIVEAWAY, wherein you'll win (roughly) a fuckton of trade paperbacks and original art just for telling us about what kind of superpower you'd like to have, and why.)
How about some free comic books?
So I hear you like comic books.
I mean, you're at this blog, right? So you have some predilection for them and some familiarity. Maybe you entered the GREAT LOSERS GIVEAWAY, and maybe you won a prize. Or maybe you didn't. And you're wondering... hey, man, those prizes were pretty good. Are you ever going to have another contest like that again?
Well, yes. Yes we are.
In conjunction with Shane Bailey, Kevin Melrose, Rick Geerling, Johnny Bacardi, AiT/PlanetLar, and Digital Webbing, there's a BRAND NEW CONTEST, focusing on the much-acclaimed and hard-to-find 12-part mini-series Demo. The prize list is absolutely staggering.
GRAND PRIZE: One copy each of the TPBs CHANNEL ZERO, PUBLIC DOMAIN, CHANNEL ZERO: JENNIE ONE, the two COURIER volumes, a CHANNEL ZERO t-shirt, issues #1-5 of DEMO, two pages of original art from PLANET OF THE CAPES, a six-issue subscription to DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
SECOND PRIZE: One copy each of the TPBs CHANNEL ZERO, PUBLIC DOMAIN, CHANNEL ZERO: JENNIE ONE, the two COURIER volumes, a CHANNEL ZERO t-shirt, issues #1-5 of DEMO, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
THIRD PRIZE: CHANNEL ZERO: JENNIE ONE, issues #1-5 of DEMO, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
FOURTH PRIZE: Issues #1-5 of DEMO, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
FIFTH PRIZE: An issue of SCURVY DOGS, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
(Want to know more about a lot of these pieces of art? Then check out an interview with the artist of many of them, Becky Cloonan, over at Thought Balloons.)
Wow.
Whadya gotta do to win all that swag? Easy. Just march yourself over here and tell us about having a superpower. That's right, pick one superpower, tell us why you want it, and what you'd do with it. You can be typical... I guess... and say stuff like invisibility and flight, but if you go the typical route you'd better really wow us with your reasons. We want weird, original, wild, CRAZY shit ("Skin made entirely of Nerf, so I can go bungee jumping without the bungee!") that sets you apart from the rest of the entrants.
Two rules:
1) The focus of this contest is to hook NEW readers into DEMO. We'd prefer you not already be a fan.
2) Contest runs from today to next Wednesday, May 12th. Get your entry in, and SPREAD THE WORD!
Well, what're you waiting for? ENTER HERE!
(Special thanks and consideration to Larry Young at AiT/PlanetLar and Digital Webbing for donating the prizes, and to Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan for their time. Give them some love, people.)
I mean, you're at this blog, right? So you have some predilection for them and some familiarity. Maybe you entered the GREAT LOSERS GIVEAWAY, and maybe you won a prize. Or maybe you didn't. And you're wondering... hey, man, those prizes were pretty good. Are you ever going to have another contest like that again?
Well, yes. Yes we are.
In conjunction with Shane Bailey, Kevin Melrose, Rick Geerling, Johnny Bacardi, AiT/PlanetLar, and Digital Webbing, there's a BRAND NEW CONTEST, focusing on the much-acclaimed and hard-to-find 12-part mini-series Demo. The prize list is absolutely staggering.
GRAND PRIZE: One copy each of the TPBs CHANNEL ZERO, PUBLIC DOMAIN, CHANNEL ZERO: JENNIE ONE, the two COURIER volumes, a CHANNEL ZERO t-shirt, issues #1-5 of DEMO, two pages of original art from PLANET OF THE CAPES, a six-issue subscription to DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
SECOND PRIZE: One copy each of the TPBs CHANNEL ZERO, PUBLIC DOMAIN, CHANNEL ZERO: JENNIE ONE, the two COURIER volumes, a CHANNEL ZERO t-shirt, issues #1-5 of DEMO, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
THIRD PRIZE: CHANNEL ZERO: JENNIE ONE, issues #1-5 of DEMO, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
FOURTH PRIZE: Issues #1-5 of DEMO, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
FIFTH PRIZE: An issue of SCURVY DOGS, and four back issues of DIGITAL WEBBING PRESENTS
(Want to know more about a lot of these pieces of art? Then check out an interview with the artist of many of them, Becky Cloonan, over at Thought Balloons.)
Wow.
Whadya gotta do to win all that swag? Easy. Just march yourself over here and tell us about having a superpower. That's right, pick one superpower, tell us why you want it, and what you'd do with it. You can be typical... I guess... and say stuff like invisibility and flight, but if you go the typical route you'd better really wow us with your reasons. We want weird, original, wild, CRAZY shit ("Skin made entirely of Nerf, so I can go bungee jumping without the bungee!") that sets you apart from the rest of the entrants.
Two rules:
1) The focus of this contest is to hook NEW readers into DEMO. We'd prefer you not already be a fan.
2) Contest runs from today to next Wednesday, May 12th. Get your entry in, and SPREAD THE WORD!
Well, what're you waiting for? ENTER HERE!
(Special thanks and consideration to Larry Young at AiT/PlanetLar and Digital Webbing for donating the prizes, and to Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan for their time. Give them some love, people.)
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Calling all multi-classing dorks.
(If you even get that title, you qualify.)
White Wolf's unveiling some art for their new World of Darkness line, and who should be returning to their fold but Tim Bradstreet?
And, of course, some new stuff from Alex Maleev, who I believe to be one of the finest artists in Marvel's stable, regardless of my lukewarm feelings about Daredevil:
Yes, it all looks very gothy, but this is Vampire we're talking about here. At least the art's always beautiful.
White Wolf's unveiling some art for their new World of Darkness line, and who should be returning to their fold but Tim Bradstreet?
And, of course, some new stuff from Alex Maleev, who I believe to be one of the finest artists in Marvel's stable, regardless of my lukewarm feelings about Daredevil:
Yes, it all looks very gothy, but this is Vampire we're talking about here. At least the art's always beautiful.
Were I capable, I would weep with joy.
Newsarama talks to Antony Johnston about his upcoming Western comic, The Long Haul, and what he feels the appeal of the Western is:
Well, it's twofold. I personally find the real history of the Old West fascinating, because it's unique. Nowhere else in history do you find this mixture of modern, educated, post-industrial revolution people and the old-fashioned pioneering, exploratory development of an "undiscovered" country. It's a strange, almost anachronistic combination that led to some amazing historical events and characters.
And I think that mixture is responsible for the element that attracts people to the fictional Old West, which is the romance of it all. Westerns, as a rule, tend to reinforce the ideal that everyone is - and should be - responsible for their own destiny and free from oppression. That's not exactly an original notion in fiction, but Westerns are close enough in terms of history that it's easier for people to relate to the ideals and methodology in that context than in, say, the French revolution. I mean, we're only talking 140 years ago, here.
Both of those things are a big attraction for me as a writer. On the one hand you have the wild, romantic adventure of the lone gunman, and balancing that is the railroad system, telegraph lines, firearms and so on of a civilized culture. It's a great juxtaposition.
And that sure is some purdy art, too.
(Hey, Shane -- weren't you telling me about Azzarello's western? Could you refresh me on that, please?)
Well, it's twofold. I personally find the real history of the Old West fascinating, because it's unique. Nowhere else in history do you find this mixture of modern, educated, post-industrial revolution people and the old-fashioned pioneering, exploratory development of an "undiscovered" country. It's a strange, almost anachronistic combination that led to some amazing historical events and characters.
And I think that mixture is responsible for the element that attracts people to the fictional Old West, which is the romance of it all. Westerns, as a rule, tend to reinforce the ideal that everyone is - and should be - responsible for their own destiny and free from oppression. That's not exactly an original notion in fiction, but Westerns are close enough in terms of history that it's easier for people to relate to the ideals and methodology in that context than in, say, the French revolution. I mean, we're only talking 140 years ago, here.
Both of those things are a big attraction for me as a writer. On the one hand you have the wild, romantic adventure of the lone gunman, and balancing that is the railroad system, telegraph lines, firearms and so on of a civilized culture. It's a great juxtaposition.
And that sure is some purdy art, too.
(Hey, Shane -- weren't you telling me about Azzarello's western? Could you refresh me on that, please?)
Quote of the Day.
From The Intermittent, regarding a particular professor's rather insane solution to getting rid of the pornography menace:
[I]t's not that hard to have sex without other people noticing. Ask millions of teenagers.
Well, shit. Have truer words ever been spoken? Or, uh, typed? You were all teenagers once, I'm sure. Think about some of the zany places you had sex when you were one, and actually got away with.
Then post them in the Comments, if you dare. If you just make shit up... well, make it entertaining, at least.
[I]t's not that hard to have sex without other people noticing. Ask millions of teenagers.
Well, shit. Have truer words ever been spoken? Or, uh, typed? You were all teenagers once, I'm sure. Think about some of the zany places you had sex when you were one, and actually got away with.
Then post them in the Comments, if you dare. If you just make shit up... well, make it entertaining, at least.
Glorious day!
Gone & Forgotten updates with a couple articles, one about Spider-Man teaming up with the cast of Saturday Night Live (no shit):
Today, for instance, I sacrifice my juvenile glee at seeing Spider-Man - arguably a true counter-culture icon of the fictional four-color forum - teamed up with the hallmark of cocaine culture's rebel comedians, and trade it in for pointing out that the whole affair is wrapped up in a comedy comic penned by Chris Claremont.
"The hallmark of cocaine culture's rebel comedians." God, was there ever truly a time when SNL was edgy? These days, it is the very definition of cumbersome irrelevance.
And another piece examining the Hulk's insatiable lust for processed fruit pies:
“Cousin Betsy, The Plant Lady" attempts to induct the Hulk into her jewelry-thieving trio of anthropomorphic plant-villains, charmingly named Mari Gold, Rhoda Dendron and Artie Chokes. I get that Artie, you know, can choke you, but I'd hate to see Rhonda dendron even a kitten.
G&F fills me with so much glee, I feel fit to burst. With glee. All over your keyboard.
Today, for instance, I sacrifice my juvenile glee at seeing Spider-Man - arguably a true counter-culture icon of the fictional four-color forum - teamed up with the hallmark of cocaine culture's rebel comedians, and trade it in for pointing out that the whole affair is wrapped up in a comedy comic penned by Chris Claremont.
"The hallmark of cocaine culture's rebel comedians." God, was there ever truly a time when SNL was edgy? These days, it is the very definition of cumbersome irrelevance.
And another piece examining the Hulk's insatiable lust for processed fruit pies:
“Cousin Betsy, The Plant Lady" attempts to induct the Hulk into her jewelry-thieving trio of anthropomorphic plant-villains, charmingly named Mari Gold, Rhoda Dendron and Artie Chokes. I get that Artie, you know, can choke you, but I'd hate to see Rhonda dendron even a kitten.
G&F fills me with so much glee, I feel fit to burst. With glee. All over your keyboard.
Monday, May 03, 2004
Lessons from Manga.
Shane gets a small shipment of manga from a friend in Japan, and continues on his quest to survey advertising methodology in comics by comparing manga ads with ads in American comics:
So what do we have total? We have ~ 12 full page ads half of which advertise other manga and ~ 20 (I didn't list them all) stories in one book. So lets say there are 24 stories just to pick a good number and 12 ads. That's one ad for every two stories. The book is black and white except for introductions to the main stories in the books. I'm sure some of these stories are probably bigger than the others.
In American comics you get an ad about every two pages. Why can't we go this route? Books like Shonen Jump and others are showing that we can. Tokyo Pop can produce a whole run of an individual story and sell it for $9.99. These anthologies are big sellers in Japan. They would constitute a whole line of comics here in America. So lets take an example from Marvels line. Lets look at the upcoming Avengers revamp. Take all the single issues stories of the revamp. We have the main title, which is Avengers, and three other titles: Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man. If Marvel wanted to take this approach they could publish the Avengers book in full color followed by the other titles in black and white in a square bound book for pretty cheap. This would allow them more room to place ads in the book as well as reaching larger audiences through bookstores and newstands, meaning even more ad revenue as the books sales go up. This would also give them room to try other titles such as Captain Marvel or She Hulk for cheaper and less risk than publishing a full color comic based on those characters.
What I want to know is why we can't do this? Is it our adherence to the direct market? Is it the companies reluctance to take a chance on a new way of doing things?
Fuck, but those are good questions. And I can't think of any good answers. Don't get me wrong, I can think of answers, just not any good ones. Condensing, for instance, Batman titles into one large monthly anthology sounds like it would be a huge fucking relief for me and my wallet, and I'd have a greater chance of being exposed to new writers and artists quite by accident.
Maybe 300-400 page monthly anthologies would take up a lot of shelf space, so let's move ourselves more gradually in that direction: a monthly TPB, 72 pages apiece, featuring (for instance) three serial or episodic Batman (and related character) tales at 22 pages apiece, with 6 pages left over for full-page ads. Or three 20 page ads with 12 pages for ads and a letter column, or whatever. I would buy the fuck out of that book, let me tell ya.
Food for thought.
So what do we have total? We have ~ 12 full page ads half of which advertise other manga and ~ 20 (I didn't list them all) stories in one book. So lets say there are 24 stories just to pick a good number and 12 ads. That's one ad for every two stories. The book is black and white except for introductions to the main stories in the books. I'm sure some of these stories are probably bigger than the others.
In American comics you get an ad about every two pages. Why can't we go this route? Books like Shonen Jump and others are showing that we can. Tokyo Pop can produce a whole run of an individual story and sell it for $9.99. These anthologies are big sellers in Japan. They would constitute a whole line of comics here in America. So lets take an example from Marvels line. Lets look at the upcoming Avengers revamp. Take all the single issues stories of the revamp. We have the main title, which is Avengers, and three other titles: Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man. If Marvel wanted to take this approach they could publish the Avengers book in full color followed by the other titles in black and white in a square bound book for pretty cheap. This would allow them more room to place ads in the book as well as reaching larger audiences through bookstores and newstands, meaning even more ad revenue as the books sales go up. This would also give them room to try other titles such as Captain Marvel or She Hulk for cheaper and less risk than publishing a full color comic based on those characters.
What I want to know is why we can't do this? Is it our adherence to the direct market? Is it the companies reluctance to take a chance on a new way of doing things?
Fuck, but those are good questions. And I can't think of any good answers. Don't get me wrong, I can think of answers, just not any good ones. Condensing, for instance, Batman titles into one large monthly anthology sounds like it would be a huge fucking relief for me and my wallet, and I'd have a greater chance of being exposed to new writers and artists quite by accident.
Maybe 300-400 page monthly anthologies would take up a lot of shelf space, so let's move ourselves more gradually in that direction: a monthly TPB, 72 pages apiece, featuring (for instance) three serial or episodic Batman (and related character) tales at 22 pages apiece, with 6 pages left over for full-page ads. Or three 20 page ads with 12 pages for ads and a letter column, or whatever. I would buy the fuck out of that book, let me tell ya.
Food for thought.
The flesh, it burns!
Imagine the superhero mythos as a sports car. A fancy, tricked-out Italian situation, with a cherry red paint job, all-leather interior, heated seats, the most advanced MP3/CD player system on the market, and so on and so forth. You've got all the flash and pomp of superheroes, the costumes and the high melodrama and action (or, let's call it what it is, violence) rolled into one package.
Strip away the glitz and the glamor. Strip away the high sentiments and lofty, black-and-white morality. Remove all the obfuscation of paint jobs and casings, and what you have beneath this sleek package is an ugly mass of steel, a bare churning engine, and raw visceral power not held back by an affected higher moral calling.
And that's where you'll find Codeflesh.
I can pretty much imagine the kind of conversation that Codeflesh developed from. See if you can reason why: Cameron Daltrey is a bail bondsman, a man so in love with the risk and violence of collaring "skips" that he dons a mask at night to track down only the most dangerous ones, those with superpowers and the will to use them for ill. No one knows the secret of Cameron's double-life except his business partner, not even the love of his life, a stripper named Maddy. What Maddy doesn't know hurts their relationship; Cameron is so enamored with the high-risk lifestlye of his alter-ego that he constantly chooses dangerous collarings over meeting her on time for dates.
Sound familiar? Cameron Daltrey could be Daredevil. Or Batman. Or Spider-Man. Or any number of do-gooders putting themselves into a dangerous position night after night, risking their personal happiness in the process, to pursue... what, exactly?
Matt Murdock or Bruce Wayne or Peter Parker might say they risk it all to pursue a higher calling. To do right. To prevent tragedy from afflicting any more lives like it has afflicted their own. Cameron Daltrey, however, does not live in that world; it's absolutely clear that Cameron Daltrey has no such pretensions, and submerses himself in a fatally dicey nightlife simply because he gets off on it so much. It's not about right or wrong, or pursuing justice. All he's doing is what all those other superheroes are doing, anyway: Capturing villains and tossing them in the slammer before they inevitably break back out again. It's a Sisyphean task at best, and Daltrey is the only one on that list that seems to operate under the acknowledgement of that fact.
The stories in the Codeflesh collection are told in 12 page snippets, and their brevity necessitates the anecdotal style of the tales. Joe Casey here exhibits a complete command of pacing that keep things moving briskly but never come across forced, and the dialogue is given enough breathing room to sound natural, and to operate on a higher level than broadcasting necessary exposition. Only once does a character's words wander into the silly territory. The last story is especially striking in its storytelling style, and packs a wallop of emotional impact especially remarkable considering how little time we've "spent" with these characters previously.
Kudos, too, to Charlie Adlard for his art labors. Adlard's managed to take all the glitz out of the sanitized, glorified rock-'em-sock-'em duels of superhero books and turn them into what they really are: nasty, brutal, cringe-inducing, and sadistic affairs. There's nothing clean or clear about Cameron Daltrey's world, and the roughness and busyness of Adlard's panels reflect that well.
(Don't get me wrong. "Roughness and busyness" does not translate to "hard to follow." The art never fails to tell the story effectively.)
All that said, this concept is about played out. I cannot for the life of me foresee more Codeflesh collections that would not essentially be retreads of what we read here, because quite frankly there are only so many superhero conventions to comment upon before you start swallowing your own tail. We have here a collection of meditations on the nature of vigilantism, distilled of pretensions and gaudiness, and to add more on top of it would only sully what's collected here. Codeflesh is a gutpunch of a comic, and deserves a look-through for anyone interested in the underlying realities of the superhero book.
Strip away the glitz and the glamor. Strip away the high sentiments and lofty, black-and-white morality. Remove all the obfuscation of paint jobs and casings, and what you have beneath this sleek package is an ugly mass of steel, a bare churning engine, and raw visceral power not held back by an affected higher moral calling.
And that's where you'll find Codeflesh.
I can pretty much imagine the kind of conversation that Codeflesh developed from. See if you can reason why: Cameron Daltrey is a bail bondsman, a man so in love with the risk and violence of collaring "skips" that he dons a mask at night to track down only the most dangerous ones, those with superpowers and the will to use them for ill. No one knows the secret of Cameron's double-life except his business partner, not even the love of his life, a stripper named Maddy. What Maddy doesn't know hurts their relationship; Cameron is so enamored with the high-risk lifestlye of his alter-ego that he constantly chooses dangerous collarings over meeting her on time for dates.
Sound familiar? Cameron Daltrey could be Daredevil. Or Batman. Or Spider-Man. Or any number of do-gooders putting themselves into a dangerous position night after night, risking their personal happiness in the process, to pursue... what, exactly?
Matt Murdock or Bruce Wayne or Peter Parker might say they risk it all to pursue a higher calling. To do right. To prevent tragedy from afflicting any more lives like it has afflicted their own. Cameron Daltrey, however, does not live in that world; it's absolutely clear that Cameron Daltrey has no such pretensions, and submerses himself in a fatally dicey nightlife simply because he gets off on it so much. It's not about right or wrong, or pursuing justice. All he's doing is what all those other superheroes are doing, anyway: Capturing villains and tossing them in the slammer before they inevitably break back out again. It's a Sisyphean task at best, and Daltrey is the only one on that list that seems to operate under the acknowledgement of that fact.
The stories in the Codeflesh collection are told in 12 page snippets, and their brevity necessitates the anecdotal style of the tales. Joe Casey here exhibits a complete command of pacing that keep things moving briskly but never come across forced, and the dialogue is given enough breathing room to sound natural, and to operate on a higher level than broadcasting necessary exposition. Only once does a character's words wander into the silly territory. The last story is especially striking in its storytelling style, and packs a wallop of emotional impact especially remarkable considering how little time we've "spent" with these characters previously.
Kudos, too, to Charlie Adlard for his art labors. Adlard's managed to take all the glitz out of the sanitized, glorified rock-'em-sock-'em duels of superhero books and turn them into what they really are: nasty, brutal, cringe-inducing, and sadistic affairs. There's nothing clean or clear about Cameron Daltrey's world, and the roughness and busyness of Adlard's panels reflect that well.
(Don't get me wrong. "Roughness and busyness" does not translate to "hard to follow." The art never fails to tell the story effectively.)
All that said, this concept is about played out. I cannot for the life of me foresee more Codeflesh collections that would not essentially be retreads of what we read here, because quite frankly there are only so many superhero conventions to comment upon before you start swallowing your own tail. We have here a collection of meditations on the nature of vigilantism, distilled of pretensions and gaudiness, and to add more on top of it would only sully what's collected here. Codeflesh is a gutpunch of a comic, and deserves a look-through for anyone interested in the underlying realities of the superhero book.
Sunday, May 02, 2004
Strike up the band.
I have returned from the depths of Alabama a wiser man.
Lessons learned:
1) Bacon Egg n' Cheese Biscuits from McDonald's were shat directly from Aphrodite's Rubenesque ass onto my breakfast plate. They're just that good.
2) It doesn't matter what city you're in. Dance clubs, after about 20 minutes, are really fucking boring.
3) Nothing. There is no third thing.
(Name that quote!)
4) Also, no matter what city you're in, there'll be some stupid local law about having a "membership card" of some type to be able to drink. Said card takes approximately 3 minutes to get: You just have to fill out a card that has all the information already on your driver's license and hand it over to some bartender who could give two shits. Then you're a member and you can drink.
5) Protestant weddings are boring, but at least they're short.
6) Farts are like children: everyone else's can go to Hell, but yours are special.
7) Have hope. Sometimes that hot chick you think is way out of your league will approach you, all nervously and cutely, and strike up a conversation.
8) Denim jackets have got to go.
9) If you live in a town with a lot of ugly women, and you're wondering where the balance of average-to-hot women is, look no further than Birmingham, Alabama. Jesus. Yeah, a lot of them have all the wit and tact of a bag of rocks, but they are very nice to look at, and they have that accent thing going. Don't say anything too smart, because the resultant tilt of the head, the slow southern-lilted "Whaaat?" and quizzical smile all together go from charming to completely fucking maddening in 10 seconds flat.
10) Bill Hicks never stops being funny.
I'll be back on later with a review of Codeflesh and, I dunno, a picture of my balls or something.
Later.
Lessons learned:
1) Bacon Egg n' Cheese Biscuits from McDonald's were shat directly from Aphrodite's Rubenesque ass onto my breakfast plate. They're just that good.
2) It doesn't matter what city you're in. Dance clubs, after about 20 minutes, are really fucking boring.
3) Nothing. There is no third thing.
(Name that quote!)
4) Also, no matter what city you're in, there'll be some stupid local law about having a "membership card" of some type to be able to drink. Said card takes approximately 3 minutes to get: You just have to fill out a card that has all the information already on your driver's license and hand it over to some bartender who could give two shits. Then you're a member and you can drink.
5) Protestant weddings are boring, but at least they're short.
6) Farts are like children: everyone else's can go to Hell, but yours are special.
7) Have hope. Sometimes that hot chick you think is way out of your league will approach you, all nervously and cutely, and strike up a conversation.
8) Denim jackets have got to go.
9) If you live in a town with a lot of ugly women, and you're wondering where the balance of average-to-hot women is, look no further than Birmingham, Alabama. Jesus. Yeah, a lot of them have all the wit and tact of a bag of rocks, but they are very nice to look at, and they have that accent thing going. Don't say anything too smart, because the resultant tilt of the head, the slow southern-lilted "Whaaat?" and quizzical smile all together go from charming to completely fucking maddening in 10 seconds flat.
10) Bill Hicks never stops being funny.
I'll be back on later with a review of Codeflesh and, I dunno, a picture of my balls or something.
Later.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Outta Town.
I'll be heading out of town at a criminally early hour tomorrow morning, and won't be back till Sunday afternoon. I know you're sad. But please, put down that katana. You don't need to kill yourself.
You can, in the meantime, entertain yourself at these sites:
THE CLIQUE (Or, People I Bug Regularly):
Near Mint Heroes (Shane) - Never a dull post at this place. Shane brings together all the weirdest, oddest, most entertaining news on the internet just about every single day. He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of comic books. Check it.
Thought Balloons (Kevin) - Best Linkblogging on the Internet, bar none. Kevin's sharp as hell, and he's got his finger on the pulse of just about everything. In the absence of Journalista, Kevin has taken up the mantle of the news tracker of the comics blogosphere. Not on purpose; he's just naturally that good.
The Johnny Bacardi Show (David) - A hallmark of the blogosphere. Johnny, Latin hedonist, does some of the best comic book reviews on the net, and he's got the habit of occasionally posting some of his art, to taunt those of us without the talent. Bastard. Johnny also shares a love of Tarot, so for that alone he's teh rock.
Eat More People (Rick) - In the category of People Who Are Funnier Than Me, there's Rick, and then there's everybody else. He's also an apparent aspiring writer, and it shows in the wit of his entries. He's a bit less regular in his postings than the rest (needs to eat more prunes), but every post is a gem.
PEOPLE WHO ARE SMARTER THAN ME (Or, People Whose Blogs I Have No Place Commenting On)
I Am NOT the Beastmaster (Marc) - I'm just way the hell out of my league over here. There's a new, lengthy, thoughtful and thought-provoking post up here about every three or four days, and some of the comment-conversations that spring up around them are the best talk going on the internet. You absolutely cannot go wrong. (Also, Marc's apparently a flaming liberal like myself, so that doesn't hurt.)
The Intermittent (Dave) - He doesn't post in novels like most of the intellectual bloggers do, but every bit of it is food for thought. Dave's got a gift for keeping things short and sweet, and no less potent than his lengthier brethern.
JUST PLAIN FUN (Or, Places I Go Because Damn, I Enjoy Them)
Progressive Ruin (Mike) - There is always, always, always something fun or thoughtful or entertaining as hell over here. Mike's got a light touch that's nonetheless searingly insightful, and he's one of those rare good souls no one could ever say anything bad about.
Otto's Coffee Shop (Jeff) - Seamlessly blends discussion about comics, movies, and poker. Those are three great vices to have, and he writes entertainingly about all of them. Careful where you tread in that Comments section -- his friends'll beat you up for milk money. Heh heh...
Go. Visit. Enjoy. Check out every single link on my sidebar there; none will do you wrong.
See ya on Sunday.
You can, in the meantime, entertain yourself at these sites:
THE CLIQUE (Or, People I Bug Regularly):
Near Mint Heroes (Shane) - Never a dull post at this place. Shane brings together all the weirdest, oddest, most entertaining news on the internet just about every single day. He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of comic books. Check it.
Thought Balloons (Kevin) - Best Linkblogging on the Internet, bar none. Kevin's sharp as hell, and he's got his finger on the pulse of just about everything. In the absence of Journalista, Kevin has taken up the mantle of the news tracker of the comics blogosphere. Not on purpose; he's just naturally that good.
The Johnny Bacardi Show (David) - A hallmark of the blogosphere. Johnny, Latin hedonist, does some of the best comic book reviews on the net, and he's got the habit of occasionally posting some of his art, to taunt those of us without the talent. Bastard. Johnny also shares a love of Tarot, so for that alone he's teh rock.
Eat More People (Rick) - In the category of People Who Are Funnier Than Me, there's Rick, and then there's everybody else. He's also an apparent aspiring writer, and it shows in the wit of his entries. He's a bit less regular in his postings than the rest (needs to eat more prunes), but every post is a gem.
PEOPLE WHO ARE SMARTER THAN ME (Or, People Whose Blogs I Have No Place Commenting On)
I Am NOT the Beastmaster (Marc) - I'm just way the hell out of my league over here. There's a new, lengthy, thoughtful and thought-provoking post up here about every three or four days, and some of the comment-conversations that spring up around them are the best talk going on the internet. You absolutely cannot go wrong. (Also, Marc's apparently a flaming liberal like myself, so that doesn't hurt.)
The Intermittent (Dave) - He doesn't post in novels like most of the intellectual bloggers do, but every bit of it is food for thought. Dave's got a gift for keeping things short and sweet, and no less potent than his lengthier brethern.
JUST PLAIN FUN (Or, Places I Go Because Damn, I Enjoy Them)
Progressive Ruin (Mike) - There is always, always, always something fun or thoughtful or entertaining as hell over here. Mike's got a light touch that's nonetheless searingly insightful, and he's one of those rare good souls no one could ever say anything bad about.
Otto's Coffee Shop (Jeff) - Seamlessly blends discussion about comics, movies, and poker. Those are three great vices to have, and he writes entertainingly about all of them. Careful where you tread in that Comments section -- his friends'll beat you up for milk money. Heh heh...
Go. Visit. Enjoy. Check out every single link on my sidebar there; none will do you wrong.
See ya on Sunday.
Best Column in Comics.
(Quote of the day: "I'm so classy I shit fine china." - Me.)
Steven Grant saw those neato Ben Templesmith Ghost Rider pictures that Templesmith posted, and he's not pleased with the trend:
This is far from the first time something like this has been done, and I don't want to come off as singling out Ben and Dan because I'm not, but...
This sort of thing is embarrassing and amateurish. It's one thing to use the Internet to try to find a publisher for an original creation, or to otherwise finance it. With so many stumbling blocks, any venue for that's a welcome one. With something someone else owns, let's face it, it's just fan fiction. I don't care if it's professionals doing it or not, until a publisher buys a project it's just fan fiction. I can understand why freelancers want to work on company-owned properties – often it's the only way to get paid (dogs and mortgage holders gotta eat, after all), and it's possible to have fun, sometimes a lot of fun, doing it – but to so blatantly and openly go begging after something, I dunno. It's also a dodge for the creators. You're always going to find someone who thinks an idea is about the greatest idea ever conceived on the face of the earth, but it's not them you have to convince, it's an editor or a publisher or whoever makes the decisions at whatever comics company, and trotting stuff out for public viewing/opinion before it's sold is just trying to stack the deck as most companies are concerned. Companies make decisions based on a lot of factors besides (but usually not to the exclusion of) the talent involved and the quality of the work. Is the Wickline/Templesmith GHOST RIDER a hot looking package? Sure is. Would it make a good book? Probably. Might it not fit Marvel's conception of or intentions for the character? It might not. And anyone who thinks Paul Levitz or Joe Quesada can be pressured by "popular demand" into changing a decision has been paying too much attention to the hype. Remember the last time you were pressured into changing your mind on something? Enjoy it much? If you really want a company to give you the keys to the city, sell a million copy comic. Every major company in the business will be beating down your door.
Harsh.
Yet true.
That's Steven Grant for ya.
Steven Grant saw those neato Ben Templesmith Ghost Rider pictures that Templesmith posted, and he's not pleased with the trend:
This is far from the first time something like this has been done, and I don't want to come off as singling out Ben and Dan because I'm not, but...
This sort of thing is embarrassing and amateurish. It's one thing to use the Internet to try to find a publisher for an original creation, or to otherwise finance it. With so many stumbling blocks, any venue for that's a welcome one. With something someone else owns, let's face it, it's just fan fiction. I don't care if it's professionals doing it or not, until a publisher buys a project it's just fan fiction. I can understand why freelancers want to work on company-owned properties – often it's the only way to get paid (dogs and mortgage holders gotta eat, after all), and it's possible to have fun, sometimes a lot of fun, doing it – but to so blatantly and openly go begging after something, I dunno. It's also a dodge for the creators. You're always going to find someone who thinks an idea is about the greatest idea ever conceived on the face of the earth, but it's not them you have to convince, it's an editor or a publisher or whoever makes the decisions at whatever comics company, and trotting stuff out for public viewing/opinion before it's sold is just trying to stack the deck as most companies are concerned. Companies make decisions based on a lot of factors besides (but usually not to the exclusion of) the talent involved and the quality of the work. Is the Wickline/Templesmith GHOST RIDER a hot looking package? Sure is. Would it make a good book? Probably. Might it not fit Marvel's conception of or intentions for the character? It might not. And anyone who thinks Paul Levitz or Joe Quesada can be pressured by "popular demand" into changing a decision has been paying too much attention to the hype. Remember the last time you were pressured into changing your mind on something? Enjoy it much? If you really want a company to give you the keys to the city, sell a million copy comic. Every major company in the business will be beating down your door.
Harsh.
Yet true.
That's Steven Grant for ya.
Making a difference.
Steve Lieber over at Mercury Studios talks about comics activism:
Those of you who are interested in activism will get a lot more bang for your buck if you put your energy into supporting small press and self published titles. Let's say that a well-organized and sustained push could raise a book's sales by five hundred or a thousand copies. That's not enough to keep a corporate publisher from cancelling a moribund series. It simply doesn't represent a big enough slice of their expenses. But that same increase on a small press book makes an unbelievable impact. It can push a book out of the red and into the black, It can significantly increase the buzz on a title, making fence-sitting retailers more likely to order that all-important first copy, and most importantly, it can keep a cartoonist working on his or her comics instead of moving off to do commercial art.
Color me chastened, in regard to the GREAT LOSERS GIVEAWAY. However, my partners-in-crime and I had already decided to shift in this direction for the next Giveaway... just keep your eye on Near Mint Heroes on, oh, May 5th?
Something might show up.
(Dun dun!)
Those of you who are interested in activism will get a lot more bang for your buck if you put your energy into supporting small press and self published titles. Let's say that a well-organized and sustained push could raise a book's sales by five hundred or a thousand copies. That's not enough to keep a corporate publisher from cancelling a moribund series. It simply doesn't represent a big enough slice of their expenses. But that same increase on a small press book makes an unbelievable impact. It can push a book out of the red and into the black, It can significantly increase the buzz on a title, making fence-sitting retailers more likely to order that all-important first copy, and most importantly, it can keep a cartoonist working on his or her comics instead of moving off to do commercial art.
Color me chastened, in regard to the GREAT LOSERS GIVEAWAY. However, my partners-in-crime and I had already decided to shift in this direction for the next Giveaway... just keep your eye on Near Mint Heroes on, oh, May 5th?
Something might show up.
(Dun dun!)
A moment of silence.
Hubert Selby, Jr., author of Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream, has died. Rick at Eat More People, a fan of the man's work, hasa eulogy.
DC Month-to-Month for March.
Marc-Oliver Frisch with his usual fantastic analysis, plus a bit of a namedrop I have to confess I was pleased with.
I have nothing clever to add. Just go read it.
I have nothing clever to add. Just go read it.
Howdy.
Been away from a bloggable computer for a bit, but here I am again. Off to buy comics shortly. Here's the list, because you care:
DC/Vertigo/Wildstorm Comics
BIRDS OF PREY #66 $2.50
KINETIC #2 $2.50
LOSERS #11 (MR) $2.95
MIDNIGHT MASS HERE THERE BE MONSTERS #4 (Of 6) (MR) $2.95
Image Comics
FRANKENSTEIN MOBSTER CVR A WHEATLEY #3 $2.95
WANTED DOSSIER ONE SHOT (MR) $2.99
Marvel Comics
THE PUNISHER #5 (MR) $2.99
WOLVERINE PUNISHER #2 (Of 5) $2.99
Various
KISS KISS BANG BANG #4 $2.95
ROB ZOMBIE SPOOK SHOW INTL #7 (MR) $2.95
VAMPEROTICA PIN-UP ILLUSTRATED #1 (MR) PI (just kidding)
Whew. That enough books for you? Okay, here's your assignment:
Planet of the Capes came out today, a TPB for a mere $14.95. This is a book written by Larry Young, he of Astronauts in Trouble fame. Larry is completely incapable of writing something that isn't better than 90% of the dreck the Big Two put out, so that means you're going to go buy it.
This isn't an optional thing.
See ya in the stands.
NEWS THAT IS NOT NEWS: Once again I am a moron. Planet of the Capes is $12.95, not $14.95. I swear, I am flaking lately. I blame liberals.
DC/Vertigo/Wildstorm Comics
BIRDS OF PREY #66 $2.50
KINETIC #2 $2.50
LOSERS #11 (MR) $2.95
MIDNIGHT MASS HERE THERE BE MONSTERS #4 (Of 6) (MR) $2.95
Image Comics
FRANKENSTEIN MOBSTER CVR A WHEATLEY #3 $2.95
WANTED DOSSIER ONE SHOT (MR) $2.99
Marvel Comics
THE PUNISHER #5 (MR) $2.99
WOLVERINE PUNISHER #2 (Of 5) $2.99
Various
KISS KISS BANG BANG #4 $2.95
ROB ZOMBIE SPOOK SHOW INTL #7 (MR) $2.95
VAMPEROTICA PIN-UP ILLUSTRATED #1 (MR) PI (just kidding)
Whew. That enough books for you? Okay, here's your assignment:
Planet of the Capes came out today, a TPB for a mere $14.95. This is a book written by Larry Young, he of Astronauts in Trouble fame. Larry is completely incapable of writing something that isn't better than 90% of the dreck the Big Two put out, so that means you're going to go buy it.
This isn't an optional thing.
See ya in the stands.
NEWS THAT IS NOT NEWS: Once again I am a moron. Planet of the Capes is $12.95, not $14.95. I swear, I am flaking lately. I blame liberals.
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Second Best Column In Comics.
Graeme's at it again. I consider Steven Grant's Permanent Damage to be the best column in comics, though I'm not sure it's fair to compare these two. Grant's all about the analyses and state of the industry, Graeme's going for slice of life. And damn if it's not entertaining:
It was at that point, you see, that I realized that it’s actually kind of boring living out in the middle of nowhere alone. Sure, it starts out fun and exciting, but really, there’s only so long that you can convince yourself that the rustic life is something that you really ought to explore and experience for any length of time when you’re twenty years old and want to go to shitty nightclubs and shake your bits to the hits while having crushes on the most inappropriate of girls, you know? Especially if, like I did, you find yourself actually living much closer to a farm than you expected, and get lulled to sleep at night by the sound of cows mooing and awoken every morning by a peacock doing a stunningly good impression of a baby screaming.
The image I get in my head is of a slightly anthropomorphic peacock rearing its head back and just letting fly, howling its lungs out. It's both fucking creepy and hysterical as hell.
It was at that point, you see, that I realized that it’s actually kind of boring living out in the middle of nowhere alone. Sure, it starts out fun and exciting, but really, there’s only so long that you can convince yourself that the rustic life is something that you really ought to explore and experience for any length of time when you’re twenty years old and want to go to shitty nightclubs and shake your bits to the hits while having crushes on the most inappropriate of girls, you know? Especially if, like I did, you find yourself actually living much closer to a farm than you expected, and get lulled to sleep at night by the sound of cows mooing and awoken every morning by a peacock doing a stunningly good impression of a baby screaming.
The image I get in my head is of a slightly anthropomorphic peacock rearing its head back and just letting fly, howling its lungs out. It's both fucking creepy and hysterical as hell.
So why don't you kill me?
(When I was running the GREAT LOSERS GIVEAWAY, that title was the title of about half the e-mails I received. As if I didn't hate the song enough already.)
Augie De Blieck, Jr. discusses The Losers: Ante Up over at CBR. He's pretty spot-on with his assessment:
THE LOSERS is a great action/adventure/spy piece. It rarely slows down, pushing the gas pedal to the floor and taking the reader along for a wonderful ride. The gun play gets more amped up, the explosions become more bombastic, and the chase scenes conjure up visions of Bond movies. Simply put, THE LOSERS is the perfect comic book to be translated to a major motion picture, but would sadly break the budget of any movie studio that tried to. There's just that much going on here.
[...]
Andy Diggle writes some great moments, keying off the ludicrous situations the characters find themselves in, combined with the simplified character traits they display. Take particular notice of the first issue for the series. It's a great example of how a comic book series should begin. The story is complete in the first issue. You have a great idea what the general tone and theme of the series is. And you're introduced to the characters on the fly, usually by their actions and not some clunky block of text next to their first closeup. The first issue makes you want to read more, and not out of any obligation.
Pretty much. Augie's got some harsh words for Jock, the artist, but I'd have to say that comes more from Augie's traditionally being, um, a bit of a stick in the mud traditionalist about things. Me, I think the art is fun and kinetic, and thus perfectly serves the needs of the story.
Then, and this is why I love Augie so much, he has the amazing ability to attach politics to anything:
Diggle's also obviously British. British writers, after all, specialize in writing stories with paranoid American government conspiracies. I wonder if they teach that in the textbooks over there as retaliation for losing a war almost 230 years ago?
Uh, right. The British (especially it's 20-something writers) are bitter about the fucking American Revolution. I wonder if he thinks young writers in Spain are still aching over the Spanish-American War?
Could be, that having someone inside the CIA be a rotten egg (important distinction Augie overlooks: it's one bad apple and his cronies inside of the CIA that's bad, not the entire government) comes from the 50+ years of history wherein the CIA propped up and shot down governments all over the world from the shadows.
Or, you know, it makes for a fun story. It is possible to tell a fun story that uses a conspiracy premise to set a certain tone, you know. No, really. Seriously, I really do love Augie, but this kind of thing makes me scratch my head.
Anyway. No reason not to buy the book. It's only $10.
Augie De Blieck, Jr. discusses The Losers: Ante Up over at CBR. He's pretty spot-on with his assessment:
THE LOSERS is a great action/adventure/spy piece. It rarely slows down, pushing the gas pedal to the floor and taking the reader along for a wonderful ride. The gun play gets more amped up, the explosions become more bombastic, and the chase scenes conjure up visions of Bond movies. Simply put, THE LOSERS is the perfect comic book to be translated to a major motion picture, but would sadly break the budget of any movie studio that tried to. There's just that much going on here.
[...]
Andy Diggle writes some great moments, keying off the ludicrous situations the characters find themselves in, combined with the simplified character traits they display. Take particular notice of the first issue for the series. It's a great example of how a comic book series should begin. The story is complete in the first issue. You have a great idea what the general tone and theme of the series is. And you're introduced to the characters on the fly, usually by their actions and not some clunky block of text next to their first closeup. The first issue makes you want to read more, and not out of any obligation.
Pretty much. Augie's got some harsh words for Jock, the artist, but I'd have to say that comes more from Augie's traditionally being, um, a bit of a stick in the mud traditionalist about things. Me, I think the art is fun and kinetic, and thus perfectly serves the needs of the story.
Then, and this is why I love Augie so much, he has the amazing ability to attach politics to anything:
Diggle's also obviously British. British writers, after all, specialize in writing stories with paranoid American government conspiracies. I wonder if they teach that in the textbooks over there as retaliation for losing a war almost 230 years ago?
Uh, right. The British (especially it's 20-something writers) are bitter about the fucking American Revolution. I wonder if he thinks young writers in Spain are still aching over the Spanish-American War?
Could be, that having someone inside the CIA be a rotten egg (important distinction Augie overlooks: it's one bad apple and his cronies inside of the CIA that's bad, not the entire government) comes from the 50+ years of history wherein the CIA propped up and shot down governments all over the world from the shadows.
Or, you know, it makes for a fun story. It is possible to tell a fun story that uses a conspiracy premise to set a certain tone, you know. No, really. Seriously, I really do love Augie, but this kind of thing makes me scratch my head.
Anyway. No reason not to buy the book. It's only $10.
Get up and ride like I was Steven McQueen.
Do you want some music that'll maybe fuck your head a little?
Lyrics that can be sad, or funny, or dry, or a little bit beautiful?
Maybe just some angry-fun chaotic guitar rock with a howling, sarcastic vocalist?
I present to you Mondo Generator.
I've been listening to this CD (A Drug Problem That Never Existed, on which the first song is titled "Meth, I Hear You Callin'," in case you had any doubts these guys maybe did some drugs) off and on for about four weeks, and it's not gotten old yet. I won't quote lyrics at you, because I fucking hate when people do that; they always come off limp and contrived without the context of the rest of the song.
Just trust me.
(If you're going to be cheap about it and hit up some BitPass or something, look for the songs "Like You Want," "Four Corners," and "Day I Die." You can't go wrong.)
Lyrics that can be sad, or funny, or dry, or a little bit beautiful?
Maybe just some angry-fun chaotic guitar rock with a howling, sarcastic vocalist?
I present to you Mondo Generator.
I've been listening to this CD (A Drug Problem That Never Existed, on which the first song is titled "Meth, I Hear You Callin'," in case you had any doubts these guys maybe did some drugs) off and on for about four weeks, and it's not gotten old yet. I won't quote lyrics at you, because I fucking hate when people do that; they always come off limp and contrived without the context of the rest of the song.
Just trust me.
(If you're going to be cheap about it and hit up some BitPass or something, look for the songs "Like You Want," "Four Corners," and "Day I Die." You can't go wrong.)
Let me count the ways.
Why are her high-heeled mega-boots, so practical for cat thievery to begin with, open-toed?
Monday, April 26, 2004
Strikes again.
I am told that Indy Magazine has just put up its latest edition, focusing mainly on the republication of David Mazzucchelli's adaptation of City of Glass. It's got about eleventy special features going -- the republication, I mean -- and it seems worth taking a look at.
Of interest is the interview with Mazzucchelli (easily the second-greatest surname in comics, right behind his co-adaptor Bill Kartalopoulos) with some page samples and breakdowns.
I'd say more but, uh, I'm reading the damn site.
NEWS THAT IS NOT NEWS: I am a moron. Kartalopoulos is the interviewer, not the co-adaptor. The proper credit goes to Paul Karasik as co-adaptor, along with Mazzucchelli.
You still have a pretty cool surname, Bill.
Of interest is the interview with Mazzucchelli (easily the second-greatest surname in comics, right behind his co-adaptor Bill Kartalopoulos) with some page samples and breakdowns.
I'd say more but, uh, I'm reading the damn site.
NEWS THAT IS NOT NEWS: I am a moron. Kartalopoulos is the interviewer, not the co-adaptor. The proper credit goes to Paul Karasik as co-adaptor, along with Mazzucchelli.
You still have a pretty cool surname, Bill.
Now accepting donations.
I'd seen an ad for these Universal Monster DVD collections, but I didn't know they were doing that mega-set for $80.
You can make your checks out to "Ken Fuckin' Lowery."
I got no idea why they decided to put in that fucking Phillip Glass score on Dracula. It reminds me of the time a friend gave me a copy of Nosferatu on DVD, as scored by a seemingly random selection of Type O Negative songs. I appreciated the sentiment (of the gift), but can't we just watch movies how they were meant to be seen?
(Link thanks to the comments over at Eat More People.)
You can make your checks out to "Ken Fuckin' Lowery."
I got no idea why they decided to put in that fucking Phillip Glass score on Dracula. It reminds me of the time a friend gave me a copy of Nosferatu on DVD, as scored by a seemingly random selection of Type O Negative songs. I appreciated the sentiment (of the gift), but can't we just watch movies how they were meant to be seen?
(Link thanks to the comments over at Eat More People.)
The truly strange.
Fantasy is the genre that is both the most promising and most stunted, unproductive genre in all of fiction.
Case in point: When I said "fantasy," what came to mind? Swords and wizards and elves? Maybe dragons? Great Horrible Undead Hordes That Must Be Vanquished By A Band Of Plucky Multi-Racial, Multi-Talented Characters With Verbs And Colors For Names?
(Before you get all pissy, the "racial" in "multi-racial" is in reference to elves, dwarves, hobbits and other such nonsense.)
That's the problem with fantasy. You say the name and everyone thinks of one very small part of it; in this case, stuff like Lord of the Rings is considered "sword and sorcery" fantasy but fills most peoples' minds as the prime example of what the genre is and can offer. That would be like saying the only kind of drama there is are cop dramas, or that slasher flicks are all that horror has to offer. J.R.R. Tolkein may be modern fantasy's greatest hero, but I believe he is also its greatest enemy.
Then something truly strange and original comes down the pike, and I remember what fantasy should be. This time around it was Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden, written by Dave Roman and drawn by John Green.
Jax (short for Jacqueline) Epoch is your average 16 year old girl, if a bit of a recluse: she prefers books to human company, and only sticks with her current boyfriend because he's pretty cute. Her frustration with the world seems to come from the realization (typical for that age and thereabouts) that the real world usually isn't as interesting as the ones you read in books by half.
It only takes 7 pages before this book starts fucking your brain. Jax has followed her boyfriend and his group of ne'er-do-wells into a lab facility, presumably to vandalize and investigate, when she finds herself chasing a runaway lab rabbit (hint, hint) and stumbling through a gateway into...
Oh, but I don't really want to tell you. Finding out what the hell is going on, page by page, is really half the fun of it; as I was reading this book, the logic centers in my brain were screaming to piece together what the hell is going on, while the rest of me was having a blast. And this realization, right on the heels of that: This is what good fantasy should be. A pleasant disorientation as new and wonderous sights are presented to you page by page, stacking up in a half-mad configuration you know should make sense, if only you had the proper reference point to go by.
Roger Ebert once said that there was more imagination and innovation filling up the corners of the Mos Eisley cantina scene in Star Wars than there was in almost every sci-fi and fantasy movie since then. I would argue the same is true for Jax Epoch. Yes, there's some winks and nods to previous fantasy greats, such as the "chasing the white rabbit" sequence, but overall the final product is something new and innovative and heading toward (if not quite at) daring.
There are so many sights, so many characters, so many new proper nouns to learn, such a wild sense of setting and character design, and little throwaway moments of sheer oddity that you'll barely have time to catch your breath before the next new weird/stunning/humorous/odd/quirky thing comes along.
No, this isn't to say this book is just page after page of Roman's and Green's ids stamping themselves on the page; there's a real story here, a real spin, a real through-line informing every twist and every turn and every new seemingly random event. The fun is in finding it.
Jax herself is well fleshed out, which is critical. So many genre stories want to give us a cipher of a main character, perhaps assign a Hallmark card philosophy or a lame "shortcoming" to give them depth, and then expect the setting to do the rest. Not here. Jax has a wholly-formed personality, and all the quirks and foibles you'd expect of someone her age. More importantly, she works her way through what's going on the way someone like her would, rather than just going with what the plot demands. Her casual kleptomania, a personality that flicks between dreamy and pragmatic with ease -- all of it matters, all of it factors in, and all of it makes sense.
Quick question: Was it intentional to make Jax resemble Scott McCloud in some of these panels, especially early on? The big round empty glasses with black frames, the plaid flannel shirt... it was a little eerie.
Anyway. I loved it. Could you tell?
Here's a bit more info. Then Buy it.
Case in point: When I said "fantasy," what came to mind? Swords and wizards and elves? Maybe dragons? Great Horrible Undead Hordes That Must Be Vanquished By A Band Of Plucky Multi-Racial, Multi-Talented Characters With Verbs And Colors For Names?
(Before you get all pissy, the "racial" in "multi-racial" is in reference to elves, dwarves, hobbits and other such nonsense.)
That's the problem with fantasy. You say the name and everyone thinks of one very small part of it; in this case, stuff like Lord of the Rings is considered "sword and sorcery" fantasy but fills most peoples' minds as the prime example of what the genre is and can offer. That would be like saying the only kind of drama there is are cop dramas, or that slasher flicks are all that horror has to offer. J.R.R. Tolkein may be modern fantasy's greatest hero, but I believe he is also its greatest enemy.
Then something truly strange and original comes down the pike, and I remember what fantasy should be. This time around it was Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden, written by Dave Roman and drawn by John Green.
Jax (short for Jacqueline) Epoch is your average 16 year old girl, if a bit of a recluse: she prefers books to human company, and only sticks with her current boyfriend because he's pretty cute. Her frustration with the world seems to come from the realization (typical for that age and thereabouts) that the real world usually isn't as interesting as the ones you read in books by half.
It only takes 7 pages before this book starts fucking your brain. Jax has followed her boyfriend and his group of ne'er-do-wells into a lab facility, presumably to vandalize and investigate, when she finds herself chasing a runaway lab rabbit (hint, hint) and stumbling through a gateway into...
Oh, but I don't really want to tell you. Finding out what the hell is going on, page by page, is really half the fun of it; as I was reading this book, the logic centers in my brain were screaming to piece together what the hell is going on, while the rest of me was having a blast. And this realization, right on the heels of that: This is what good fantasy should be. A pleasant disorientation as new and wonderous sights are presented to you page by page, stacking up in a half-mad configuration you know should make sense, if only you had the proper reference point to go by.
Roger Ebert once said that there was more imagination and innovation filling up the corners of the Mos Eisley cantina scene in Star Wars than there was in almost every sci-fi and fantasy movie since then. I would argue the same is true for Jax Epoch. Yes, there's some winks and nods to previous fantasy greats, such as the "chasing the white rabbit" sequence, but overall the final product is something new and innovative and heading toward (if not quite at) daring.
There are so many sights, so many characters, so many new proper nouns to learn, such a wild sense of setting and character design, and little throwaway moments of sheer oddity that you'll barely have time to catch your breath before the next new weird/stunning/humorous/odd/quirky thing comes along.
No, this isn't to say this book is just page after page of Roman's and Green's ids stamping themselves on the page; there's a real story here, a real spin, a real through-line informing every twist and every turn and every new seemingly random event. The fun is in finding it.
Jax herself is well fleshed out, which is critical. So many genre stories want to give us a cipher of a main character, perhaps assign a Hallmark card philosophy or a lame "shortcoming" to give them depth, and then expect the setting to do the rest. Not here. Jax has a wholly-formed personality, and all the quirks and foibles you'd expect of someone her age. More importantly, she works her way through what's going on the way someone like her would, rather than just going with what the plot demands. Her casual kleptomania, a personality that flicks between dreamy and pragmatic with ease -- all of it matters, all of it factors in, and all of it makes sense.
Quick question: Was it intentional to make Jax resemble Scott McCloud in some of these panels, especially early on? The big round empty glasses with black frames, the plaid flannel shirt... it was a little eerie.
Anyway. I loved it. Could you tell?
Here's a bit more info. Then Buy it.
Der Chicken Checken.
Fresh new Chick Check served up with a side of fries, this time focusing on last week's DC haul.
The Rose & Thorn thing has me confused. Not about the quality of the series, no -- I've always felt it to be pretty subpar, because I just know Simone has it in her to tell a good, serious, psychological story. This just ain't it.
What confuses me is the covers. You've got your trying-to-be-deep psychological thriller and every cover has a redhead in a green PVC Frederick's of Hollywood outfit usually involved in some sort of erotic bloodplay. It's not that I'm offended or whatever, hooray cheesecake, I'm just... well, as I said before.. I'm confused. Does not compute.
The Rose & Thorn thing has me confused. Not about the quality of the series, no -- I've always felt it to be pretty subpar, because I just know Simone has it in her to tell a good, serious, psychological story. This just ain't it.
What confuses me is the covers. You've got your trying-to-be-deep psychological thriller and every cover has a redhead in a green PVC Frederick's of Hollywood outfit usually involved in some sort of erotic bloodplay. It's not that I'm offended or whatever, hooray cheesecake, I'm just... well, as I said before.. I'm confused. Does not compute.
The rundown.
Hours in a weekend, from midnight Saturday morning to midnight Sunday night: 48.
Hours I slept in said weekend: 5.
Hours I slept it off in this morning: 12.
That about evens things out, right? Later on I'll do a post about 24 Hour Comic Day in general, and what it did for me, as well as a review for Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden. Stay tuned.
Hours I slept in said weekend: 5.
Hours I slept it off in this morning: 12.
That about evens things out, right? Later on I'll do a post about 24 Hour Comic Day in general, and what it did for me, as well as a review for Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden. Stay tuned.
Sunday, April 25, 2004
Tropical Punch.
So you know how there's those titles that you never heard of before, and then suddenly you see a couple blogs/message boards/whatever bring them up in passing, and then more and more people start talking about it, and the next thing you know they've cast the actor for the lead in the movie adaptation? And you still don't even have the damn scoop on what the title's about, yet?
That's Hawaiian Dick by Clay Moore, for me. I'd heard all this stuff about Johnny Knoxville (my assessment: give the man a chance) being cast as the main character, that this is a Must Read series, and so on and so forth. But shit, I have a lot of Must Read titles on my list, okay? It's hard keeping it all in order, and remembering to ask about them all when I'm at my DM store.
And gods bless it if it doesn't come up outta nowhere when I'm throwing e-mails back and forth with Larry Young (I am not yet comfortable with calling him Uncle Lar, because that is totally a John Wayne Gacy alter-ego name waiting to happen). He points me here, to his forum on Delphi, and whadya know.
Questions answered.
That's Hawaiian Dick by Clay Moore, for me. I'd heard all this stuff about Johnny Knoxville (my assessment: give the man a chance) being cast as the main character, that this is a Must Read series, and so on and so forth. But shit, I have a lot of Must Read titles on my list, okay? It's hard keeping it all in order, and remembering to ask about them all when I'm at my DM store.
And gods bless it if it doesn't come up outta nowhere when I'm throwing e-mails back and forth with Larry Young (I am not yet comfortable with calling him Uncle Lar, because that is totally a John Wayne Gacy alter-ego name waiting to happen). He points me here, to his forum on Delphi, and whadya know.
Questions answered.
24 Hour Comic Day: Completion.
It's now 8 AM, CST, Sunday morning. I'm done.
22 pages of script, not 24. I could pad it up if I wanted, but I'm pretty satisfied with the ending. It's just 22 pages of script, mind you; I've only got 12 pages of storyboards, and no "finished" art. I can't do finished art. I can't do art at all, actually.
The story's not half bad. Kind of grim, but that's what I'm into, really. If you're curious, e-mail me (link up there in the top left) and ask, and I'll send you a copy. I'd rather not just post it, because I have enough of an ego to think someone might steal the script and go off and make millions (or, perhaps, dozens) with it.
I'll probably write some neato lengthy post about the experience, yadda yadda, artsy fartsy, but now is not the time. It's 8am, I've been awake for roughly eleventy trillion decades, and I have 2 hours of sitting around ahead of me before I have to actually prepare to be anywhere.
So now's not the time for fancy extrapolation. Now is the time for some goddamn Bacon Egg N' Cheese biscuits from McD's.
Talk at ya later.
22 pages of script, not 24. I could pad it up if I wanted, but I'm pretty satisfied with the ending. It's just 22 pages of script, mind you; I've only got 12 pages of storyboards, and no "finished" art. I can't do finished art. I can't do art at all, actually.
The story's not half bad. Kind of grim, but that's what I'm into, really. If you're curious, e-mail me (link up there in the top left) and ask, and I'll send you a copy. I'd rather not just post it, because I have enough of an ego to think someone might steal the script and go off and make millions (or, perhaps, dozens) with it.
I'll probably write some neato lengthy post about the experience, yadda yadda, artsy fartsy, but now is not the time. It's 8am, I've been awake for roughly eleventy trillion decades, and I have 2 hours of sitting around ahead of me before I have to actually prepare to be anywhere.
So now's not the time for fancy extrapolation. Now is the time for some goddamn Bacon Egg N' Cheese biscuits from McD's.
Talk at ya later.
24 Hour Comic Day: 17 Hours and Counting.
I'm still alive. I've got 19 pages done, I'm flying toward the end of this thing, and I had to take a break to play some Doom 2 or I was going to go fucking crazy and start hurting some people.
I have now been awake for almost a day, going on a low amount of (bad) sleep, taking the occasional break to read the first Skyape TPB (THE ROOMMATE bought it, since he liked Skyape: Waiting For Crime so much.)
I almost gave in. At about 3am, I truly, genuinely was ready to give it up and get some goddamn sleep. But Wil stayed online with me as my lifeline, and saw me through that bad patch. Told me to pump my veins full of caffiene and keep on trucking.
And for that I will always hate him. Thank you for encouraging me to prolong this torture, you evil son of a bitch.
More to come.
I have now been awake for almost a day, going on a low amount of (bad) sleep, taking the occasional break to read the first Skyape TPB (THE ROOMMATE bought it, since he liked Skyape: Waiting For Crime so much.)
I almost gave in. At about 3am, I truly, genuinely was ready to give it up and get some goddamn sleep. But Wil stayed online with me as my lifeline, and saw me through that bad patch. Told me to pump my veins full of caffiene and keep on trucking.
And for that I will always hate him. Thank you for encouraging me to prolong this torture, you evil son of a bitch.
More to come.
24 Hour Comic Day: Toward the End of Hour 15.
And I'm 15 pages in, actually. Typing that out made me feel a bit better. I've found my second wind, I think -- or at least a delirium-inspired dementia that passes for creative writing. This'll just be a script, folks, and 12 pages of storyboarding.
Sorry if you're disappointed. I realize I fell asleep about 25 hours ago, the last time I went to sleep.
Been up for 20 hours now. Won't be going to sleep till probably 10pm CST tonight.
Yipee.
Sorry if you're disappointed. I realize I fell asleep about 25 hours ago, the last time I went to sleep.
Been up for 20 hours now. Won't be going to sleep till probably 10pm CST tonight.
Yipee.
24 Hour Comic Day: Halfway There.
I've done 12 pages.
I've given up all hope of having a finalized product, and I think I'm going to have to be satisfied with having 24 pages of (very) rough storyboard along with 12 pages of finalized script. The process I'm using is, I think, unusual: I do the storyboard first, and then write the script from that. I suppose it helps to visualize the panels and arrangements if I actually draw it out on the page.
This is probably not interesting.
And those peanut butter cookies are seriously messing with my stomach. I have a mild headache and I'm sweaty, even though the A/C's on.
Somehow, I think I caught malaria from 24 Hour Comic Day.
I've given up all hope of having a finalized product, and I think I'm going to have to be satisfied with having 24 pages of (very) rough storyboard along with 12 pages of finalized script. The process I'm using is, I think, unusual: I do the storyboard first, and then write the script from that. I suppose it helps to visualize the panels and arrangements if I actually draw it out on the page.
This is probably not interesting.
And those peanut butter cookies are seriously messing with my stomach. I have a mild headache and I'm sweaty, even though the A/C's on.
Somehow, I think I caught malaria from 24 Hour Comic Day.
24 Hour Comic Day: 12 Hours In.
Well, 15 minutes shy of 12 hours.
I'm taking a break to make cookies.
Yeah, I'm delirious.
ADDENDUM: I totally have a dozen peanut butter cookies, now. It's sweet.
I'm taking a break to make cookies.
Yeah, I'm delirious.
ADDENDUM: I totally have a dozen peanut butter cookies, now. It's sweet.
Saturday, April 24, 2004
24 Hour Comic Day: End of Hour 10
My hand is about to fall right the fuck off. Drawing hurts. Writing hurts. Typing hurts.
This is not a good sign.
Stopped yawning, though.
This is not a good sign.
Stopped yawning, though.
24 Hour Comic Day: Hours 1 - 8.
Let's start this with how my day was going right up until I began the comic writing festival:
Got about 4 hours of sleep last night. Couldn't sleep, too anxious about miscellany, HUGE lightning storm outside with pounding thunder, and had to get up at like 7am so I could go off and do a charity thing. Help restock, reshelve, and organize a public library. Did that till about 12:30, got some lunch (no caffiene, none was available), came home. Already yawning. Not a good sign.
Sat down and started brainstorming at 1:30 CST today. I admit I already had a germ of an idea I'd been discussing with Xe (at great length) awhile ago. I find that, given those discussions, and some handy books I have on related topics, I hack out a (very rough) outline in like 10 minutes.
So far, so good.
I head downstairs, away from the infernal computing machine, to sit in relative silence (iPod, game soundtrack remixes, and Faith No More to drown out ambient noise) and start hacking it out, page by page. The basic idea is that I'm going to storyboard the comic and then actually go back and try to do GOOD drawings, which is a laff and a half, since I can't draw a convincing straight line. After I draw the "good" stuff (on boards, the kind you use to bag comics, thought it'd make a nice touch), I'd type up and print out all the dialogue and caption narration because my handwriting blows goats for quarters. Good plan.
Still yawning. Bad news: I'm low on Coca Cola. Shitty Planning 1, Ken Lowery 0.
The rest goes fairly smoothly. First page comes out in about 15 minutes. Second page has a good general idea, and 3 of 5 panels drawn. All panels with the narration. Going pretty fast; I start to think I'll actually pull this off.
Then I get to a major dialogue scene. In toto, this dialogue scene, between two characters at a diner, takes 3 pages of comic book. I suddenly gain immense respect for artists like Steve Dillon and Pia Guerra, who flawlessly and unnoticably add dynamic flow to stuff like two dudes sitting in a diner fucking talking. How do you keep that shit fresh and visually interesting for three pages?
I'm no artist, so I can't do neato three-quarters elevated angles on the conversers, so I'm stuck with profile pictures of one or both people, dead-on shots, and one panel I'm rather proud of: A fork hovers over a bite of food, as one guy asks the other, "Gonna eat that?" ...before the real meat of the conversation carries on. A nice pause.
Five hours in, I need a fucking break. I'm chewing on my pencil like crazy, sharpening it when it doesn't need sharpening, forced to a standstill at the end of this GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING DINER TALKING SCENE.
I'm yawning like crazy.
So me and the roomie head to Zeus to buy some shit. They're reducing the store size, so they're liquidating a bunch of stock, and I needed the time off to let my brain relax. We go to Zeus, we grab some Wendy's, we come back, we watch some Chapelle's Show, and I get back into it.
Except I can't. I'm stuck again. And The L Word is on Showtime, and these chicks are fucking each other about every 5 minutes. Naked. Heaving. Tongues everywhere. I could change the channel, but... sweaty naked lesbian love, man. This isn't the fake-tits-fake-tan-fake-blonde lesbian porn they make for guys. This is lesbian sex filmed for lesbians, which is so much better. Not even Mike Patton can stop me from watching that stuff.
So here I am. Updating you. And I'm about to head back into the trenches.
Got about 4 hours of sleep last night. Couldn't sleep, too anxious about miscellany, HUGE lightning storm outside with pounding thunder, and had to get up at like 7am so I could go off and do a charity thing. Help restock, reshelve, and organize a public library. Did that till about 12:30, got some lunch (no caffiene, none was available), came home. Already yawning. Not a good sign.
Sat down and started brainstorming at 1:30 CST today. I admit I already had a germ of an idea I'd been discussing with Xe (at great length) awhile ago. I find that, given those discussions, and some handy books I have on related topics, I hack out a (very rough) outline in like 10 minutes.
So far, so good.
I head downstairs, away from the infernal computing machine, to sit in relative silence (iPod, game soundtrack remixes, and Faith No More to drown out ambient noise) and start hacking it out, page by page. The basic idea is that I'm going to storyboard the comic and then actually go back and try to do GOOD drawings, which is a laff and a half, since I can't draw a convincing straight line. After I draw the "good" stuff (on boards, the kind you use to bag comics, thought it'd make a nice touch), I'd type up and print out all the dialogue and caption narration because my handwriting blows goats for quarters. Good plan.
Still yawning. Bad news: I'm low on Coca Cola. Shitty Planning 1, Ken Lowery 0.
The rest goes fairly smoothly. First page comes out in about 15 minutes. Second page has a good general idea, and 3 of 5 panels drawn. All panels with the narration. Going pretty fast; I start to think I'll actually pull this off.
Then I get to a major dialogue scene. In toto, this dialogue scene, between two characters at a diner, takes 3 pages of comic book. I suddenly gain immense respect for artists like Steve Dillon and Pia Guerra, who flawlessly and unnoticably add dynamic flow to stuff like two dudes sitting in a diner fucking talking. How do you keep that shit fresh and visually interesting for three pages?
I'm no artist, so I can't do neato three-quarters elevated angles on the conversers, so I'm stuck with profile pictures of one or both people, dead-on shots, and one panel I'm rather proud of: A fork hovers over a bite of food, as one guy asks the other, "Gonna eat that?" ...before the real meat of the conversation carries on. A nice pause.
Five hours in, I need a fucking break. I'm chewing on my pencil like crazy, sharpening it when it doesn't need sharpening, forced to a standstill at the end of this GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING DINER TALKING SCENE.
I'm yawning like crazy.
So me and the roomie head to Zeus to buy some shit. They're reducing the store size, so they're liquidating a bunch of stock, and I needed the time off to let my brain relax. We go to Zeus, we grab some Wendy's, we come back, we watch some Chapelle's Show, and I get back into it.
Except I can't. I'm stuck again. And The L Word is on Showtime, and these chicks are fucking each other about every 5 minutes. Naked. Heaving. Tongues everywhere. I could change the channel, but... sweaty naked lesbian love, man. This isn't the fake-tits-fake-tan-fake-blonde lesbian porn they make for guys. This is lesbian sex filmed for lesbians, which is so much better. Not even Mike Patton can stop me from watching that stuff.
So here I am. Updating you. And I'm about to head back into the trenches.
Start your engines.
It's 24 Hour Comic Book writing time.
So you probably won't be hearing from me for the rest of the day unless I need a break, or something.
Wish me luck.
So you probably won't be hearing from me for the rest of the day unless I need a break, or something.
Wish me luck.
Favoritism.
Couple of things:
1) We know that Marvel does not send out comp copies to online journalist types, and they have every reason in the world not to do that. Frankly, that's a large chunk of your audience you'd just be giving shit away free to, and what's to stop some jackhole from starting up a site just to score free comics (like.. say... me?)
But.
2) Also remember that a little while ago Marvel cited Mile High Comics as their favored vendor because they move a shitload of Marvel titles. This was decried as usual by blogging types, though I felt at the time that it showed a sort of grassroots support thing. Show the DM a little love.
But.
Witness Mile High getting a full-issue preview of Brian K. Vaughan's Ultimate X-Men.
Witness Mile High also getting a full-issue preview of Quesada's Daredevil mini.
This seems to be going above and beyond simply rewarding some DM stores. This looks like... an unhealthy brand of favoritism.
Could be jumping at shadows. Highly likely that I'm jumping at shadows.
But still.
(Thanks to THE ROOMMATE for finding that X-Men preview, and Thought Balloons for the DD one.)
1) We know that Marvel does not send out comp copies to online journalist types, and they have every reason in the world not to do that. Frankly, that's a large chunk of your audience you'd just be giving shit away free to, and what's to stop some jackhole from starting up a site just to score free comics (like.. say... me?)
But.
2) Also remember that a little while ago Marvel cited Mile High Comics as their favored vendor because they move a shitload of Marvel titles. This was decried as usual by blogging types, though I felt at the time that it showed a sort of grassroots support thing. Show the DM a little love.
But.
Witness Mile High getting a full-issue preview of Brian K. Vaughan's Ultimate X-Men.
Witness Mile High also getting a full-issue preview of Quesada's Daredevil mini.
This seems to be going above and beyond simply rewarding some DM stores. This looks like... an unhealthy brand of favoritism.
Could be jumping at shadows. Highly likely that I'm jumping at shadows.
But still.
(Thanks to THE ROOMMATE for finding that X-Men preview, and Thought Balloons for the DD one.)
Friday, April 23, 2004
Follow-up (advertising woes).
Dave at Intermittent (the one who kicked off all this talk) responds to his responders with some interesting and absolutely true thoughts about the state of the industry, specifically that of our "journalists."
Right now, comics journalism online and off seems to consist of interviews, previews, sales charts, rampant speculation in the absence of fact, and guys talking about stupid toys. There's no one following the writers and artists, no one consistently keeping check on the various EIC's, no one looking at marketing trends and revenue. If we had competent journalists working as journalists in this field, we'd have seen this Icon thing coming 4 months ago.
At least Comics Continuum has the balls to strip away all pretense and just be what it is: A Press Release Factory.
The rest of the quasi-journalists, they take what the company gives us, thank them for that, and run back to the rest of us to fill us in on what scraps got thrown to us from the table. For a real journalist, that's not enough. The fact that most of our "news" comes from rumor mills like Lying in the Gutters says to me that publishers have erected a wall between themselves and the readers, and that we, as readers, are satisfied with that. That we'll accept that, and let them jerk us around and wait like obedient lapdogs for the next morsel to fall.
I would prefer we avoid the kind of trash journalism rampant on TV stations like E! and VH1, but at least journalism focused on the movie industry has some kind of equality with their subjects. They're respected, treated like humans, and sometimes feared by the moguls of Tinseltown, and even the most casual movie-goer can find out what movies will be released one, two, or even three years from now.
No such luck in comics journalism. The publishers, at least the large ones, have made their decision that we're not really worth the time and have kept us on a need-to-know basis. This hurts them and it hurts us. Treating the reporting half of the comics community like servants is exactly what keeps the comic book art form a "hobby" instead of, well, instead of an "art form." We cannot be perceived as big business if we are not treated as big business on all sides of the game.
Don't get me wrong: This isn't me laying the blame at the feet of the Big Two alone. No. Our news sites are pitiful and we've allowed them to be pitiful and we haven't kicked them in the ass enough to strive for more. It's gotten to the point, for me, where news sites are barely even relevant anymore -- I just go to blogs for all my news now, and end up as well-informed as anyone who lives and breathes Newsarama and CBR. The cults of personality that have popped up because of blogs have, strangely enough, yielded more results in continuous news coverage of the comics world than the relatively faceless news sites. Wonder why that is. (Not rhetorical; I really don't know.)
Tired of it.
ADDENDUM: This, an article about the potential ramifications of Gaiman vs. MacFarlane, is the kind of journalism we should expect more often from our news sites. I know Newsarama never claims to be a "news" site... interestingly, since "news" is right there at the front of the title.. but that's still one of the finer pieces of actual journalism I've seen come out of any comic news site in awhile.
Right now, comics journalism online and off seems to consist of interviews, previews, sales charts, rampant speculation in the absence of fact, and guys talking about stupid toys. There's no one following the writers and artists, no one consistently keeping check on the various EIC's, no one looking at marketing trends and revenue. If we had competent journalists working as journalists in this field, we'd have seen this Icon thing coming 4 months ago.
At least Comics Continuum has the balls to strip away all pretense and just be what it is: A Press Release Factory.
The rest of the quasi-journalists, they take what the company gives us, thank them for that, and run back to the rest of us to fill us in on what scraps got thrown to us from the table. For a real journalist, that's not enough. The fact that most of our "news" comes from rumor mills like Lying in the Gutters says to me that publishers have erected a wall between themselves and the readers, and that we, as readers, are satisfied with that. That we'll accept that, and let them jerk us around and wait like obedient lapdogs for the next morsel to fall.
I would prefer we avoid the kind of trash journalism rampant on TV stations like E! and VH1, but at least journalism focused on the movie industry has some kind of equality with their subjects. They're respected, treated like humans, and sometimes feared by the moguls of Tinseltown, and even the most casual movie-goer can find out what movies will be released one, two, or even three years from now.
No such luck in comics journalism. The publishers, at least the large ones, have made their decision that we're not really worth the time and have kept us on a need-to-know basis. This hurts them and it hurts us. Treating the reporting half of the comics community like servants is exactly what keeps the comic book art form a "hobby" instead of, well, instead of an "art form." We cannot be perceived as big business if we are not treated as big business on all sides of the game.
Don't get me wrong: This isn't me laying the blame at the feet of the Big Two alone. No. Our news sites are pitiful and we've allowed them to be pitiful and we haven't kicked them in the ass enough to strive for more. It's gotten to the point, for me, where news sites are barely even relevant anymore -- I just go to blogs for all my news now, and end up as well-informed as anyone who lives and breathes Newsarama and CBR. The cults of personality that have popped up because of blogs have, strangely enough, yielded more results in continuous news coverage of the comics world than the relatively faceless news sites. Wonder why that is. (Not rhetorical; I really don't know.)
Tired of it.
ADDENDUM: This, an article about the potential ramifications of Gaiman vs. MacFarlane, is the kind of journalism we should expect more often from our news sites. I know Newsarama never claims to be a "news" site... interestingly, since "news" is right there at the front of the title.. but that's still one of the finer pieces of actual journalism I've seen come out of any comic news site in awhile.
Well, that's just super.
Johanna Draper Carlson has come to the blogosphere, which is like another nail in the coffin of my relevance. When all these fancy "qualified writers" show up with their "interesting topics" and "new ideas," I can feel my grasp on you subliterate monkeys slipping bit by bit.
Damn you, Johanna.
And welcome! The Chick Check alone is worth the price of admission.
Damn you, Johanna.
And welcome! The Chick Check alone is worth the price of admission.
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Nice, ain't it?
You might have noticed that there's been a slight change around here. A bit of a.. cosmetic upgrade. Something tasty.
Shane is responsible for the beautiful tableau of colors you see before you, that wonderful masthead up there, for the lovely font of my lovely blog, and for the general assembly of neatness.
Wil is responsible for the little devil bastard named Pinche Cochino. Those who know Spanish... know what that means.
These are men of vision who wasted their time to please YOUR retinas. Give them praise and visit their sites.
This is so beautiful I could splooge all over your mother.
Shane is responsible for the beautiful tableau of colors you see before you, that wonderful masthead up there, for the lovely font of my lovely blog, and for the general assembly of neatness.
Wil is responsible for the little devil bastard named Pinche Cochino. Those who know Spanish... know what that means.
These are men of vision who wasted their time to please YOUR retinas. Give them praise and visit their sites.
This is so beautiful I could splooge all over your mother.
Holy SHIT!
From Eat More People, I find this link to Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night, Dark Days etc.) doing his spin on Ghost Rider.
It. Is fucking. Gorgeous.
It. Is fucking. Gorgeous.
Worth reading.
Fanaticism is the ultimate enemy of mankind.
Incredibly enlightening. Thomas Jefferson quotes never get old.
(From the blog with the name that reminds me of that damn Fiona Apple album, Once I Realized I Was On Fire I Relaxed and Decided to Enjoy the Fall. I assure you the actual blog is not annoying at all, and that Fiona Apple should die a pauper's death.)
Incredibly enlightening. Thomas Jefferson quotes never get old.
(From the blog with the name that reminds me of that damn Fiona Apple album, Once I Realized I Was On Fire I Relaxed and Decided to Enjoy the Fall. I assure you the actual blog is not annoying at all, and that Fiona Apple should die a pauper's death.)
Pushin' up Daisies.
Kazu Kibuishi gets himself interviewed over at Paperback Reader, about his upcoming mini Daisy Kutter: The Last Train. They also can't seem to decide how to spell his name.
Here's a segment I know will interest Jeff:
Q: When I first heard of Daisy Kutter, I was expecting a typical Western book with gunfights and bar brawls. Instead, a lot of the tension comes from an often-overlooked aspect of the Western story: the poker table. Are you an avid card player?
A: (Laughing) Oh yeah. I love playing Texas Hold 'Em, and I think it shows in this first issue. And no, before you ask, I have not watched the World Series of Poker, but I am familiar with it. In fact, it's probably the reason my friends pulled me into the game. I've been hooked on it ever since.
On the tone of the book:
Q: For the remaining issues, can readers expect to find the action and drama in more unlikely places, such as Daisy’s inner struggles, or will there be plenty of gunfights and fisticuffs?
A: I'm glad you caught that about the first issue — that there isn't a single shot fired or a punch thrown. I promise there will be plenty of action down the line, but I want the readers to feel there's something at stake when it all goes down. Man, I WANT to feel it myself when I have to write and draw all those panels!
Seriously, when I started this project, I really wanted to base everything around the emotions and not just the cool action. I would not have tackled this project if it weren't for the intense conflict going on in Daisy's head during all of this stuff. Her problems make her such an interesting character to write, and she's been the most complex one I have written thus far. And, it only gets more complex as it goes. (laughs)
Color me there.
Here's a segment I know will interest Jeff:
Q: When I first heard of Daisy Kutter, I was expecting a typical Western book with gunfights and bar brawls. Instead, a lot of the tension comes from an often-overlooked aspect of the Western story: the poker table. Are you an avid card player?
A: (Laughing) Oh yeah. I love playing Texas Hold 'Em, and I think it shows in this first issue. And no, before you ask, I have not watched the World Series of Poker, but I am familiar with it. In fact, it's probably the reason my friends pulled me into the game. I've been hooked on it ever since.
On the tone of the book:
Q: For the remaining issues, can readers expect to find the action and drama in more unlikely places, such as Daisy’s inner struggles, or will there be plenty of gunfights and fisticuffs?
A: I'm glad you caught that about the first issue — that there isn't a single shot fired or a punch thrown. I promise there will be plenty of action down the line, but I want the readers to feel there's something at stake when it all goes down. Man, I WANT to feel it myself when I have to write and draw all those panels!
Seriously, when I started this project, I really wanted to base everything around the emotions and not just the cool action. I would not have tackled this project if it weren't for the intense conflict going on in Daisy's head during all of this stuff. Her problems make her such an interesting character to write, and she's been the most complex one I have written thus far. And, it only gets more complex as it goes. (laughs)
Color me there.
Fun with Legos.
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Interblog Dialogue.
(Hey, that rhymes!)
Dave over at The Intermittent speculates on just what it is that causes titles to sink: Is it really the lack of advertising or knowledge, or simply the preference of the fans in action?
So how can it be a failure of advertising when good comics die? How many of the hundred thousand or so regular comics readers out haven't heard that Sleeper is a good comic? Can there really be that many? This isn't snark; I'm really curious. Is the problem really, pace Steven Grant, that folks aren't finding out about good comics....or is it that the people who make up the bulk of the direct market simply have very different ideas then the comics cognoscenti as to what constitutes a "good comic?"
I suspect it might be the latter. And this is not a slam on the direct market; the market is what it is. And while I'd love it if tons of others shared my loves, I don't see divergent tastes as evidence of moral failure. Different strokes, and all that. But pinpointing why a book like WildC.A.T.S. v. 3.0 didn't sell is important, if only so its mistakes can be avoided (assuming that's possible). Maybe a lack of advertising really is to blame, at least in part. Before we accept that as recieved wisdom, though, let's make sure it's true.
The "received wisdom" part was linked to my entry regarding helping out titles while they're still alive, the one where I assigned my readers to go out and buy an issue of Lone and Runaways.
Dave's onto something, but first I want to clarify what my received wisdom was.
I agree with Steven Grant that retroactive activism is a waste of time and doesn't serve any real purpose. It's kvetching for the sake of kvetching, and lord knows us online comics fans love to bitch. I simply want them to take a more active role in the health of the titles they love.
I do believe that advertising now is greater than it probably ever has been, in the comics community. Back up: that's true, to a degree. How often do you see Fables advertised in Superman/Batman? Not very bloody often, that's what. Part of that is advertising to the demographic; part of that is a willful ghettoizing of titles. This is a reductive system: if you advertise Vertigo titles only to Vertigo readers, it stands to reason your base readership isn't really going to grow, is it?
Yes, there are the retarded segment of the fanboys that wear their aversion to anything new proudly on their sleeves. Yes, there are insufferable snobs on the other end of the spectrum, sniffing their noses at anything with a cape on the cover, foretelling the End of Comics As We Know It whenever they see another Wolverine guest appearance. These people are equally as backwards as the fanboys; their drug of choice (to the exclusion of all else) is simply different. Same shit, different pile.
Those people resist change like no other, and remain insular to the point of creative death. But they are the extreme minority, repeat EXTREME MINORITY of the comic book fanbase, the two opposing points on the spectrum. There's a fuckton of parity in between those two points, of people who read 90% superhero books and maybe a little bit of Planetary, to the guy who reads nothing but AiT/PlanetLar's booklist with a little dash of Batman for seasoning. There's something for every taste in the comics world, but not all of it is getting equal shelf space in every DM store from coast to coast.
So I don't know that the argument that "the market is what it is" is enough for me.
Let's say, as a hypothetical, public television is absolutely nothing but cop dramas. If you want a little bit of variety, maybe some law dramas and hospital dramas, you get your basic cable installed for a bit of a fee and a bit of a hassle. If you really want some variety, maybe some comedies, some horror, and so on and so forth, you have to get premium cable, for a larger fee and a greater hassle.
And if you want every possible bit of fiction and nonfiction alike, you have to get some mega-service, like 500 channels of cable or satellite TV. This costs you installation fees, absurd monthly fees, the hassle of dealing with service changes, changing rates, and a lot of extra baggage besides.
It's feasible that a person with nothing but cop dramas wants more out of his TV, but he doesn't have the time, patience, and/or available service to get more. The market is what it is, sure, but willing customers are also limited by outside factors. Have you seen the crap on the three networks lately? Does any of that speak to you? Does it speak to the majority of the people you know?
Most likely the answer is "no." But you have to deal with it, because that's what takes up the most space and gets the most exposure.
I would also say that Dave's argument is based on the assumption that every single comic book fan is tapped into the blogosphere, news sites, and Wizard magazine on a regular basis. I say this isn't so. How many regulars do you know on message boards and blogs? Maybe a thousand, in all? Two thousand? The major blogs (such as Fanboy Rampage) get about 800 unique visitors a day -- a miniscule percentage of the estimated couple hundred thousand comic book readers.
We are not all tapped into the pulse of the industry, due in part to sheer ignorance of the matter or willful avoidance. I would suggest that the online talkers, like us, are the extreme minority of fandom.
The rest just don't know about Rocket Comics. Or Oni. Or Avatar. The DM stores don't advertise them and in many cases can't afford to give them shelf space. So they're not talking about them, and their shoppers never learn. The "the market is what it is" argument presupposes that every single comic book buyer knows everything there is to know and acts on it accordingly. I do not believe this is the case. They just need exposure.
Which is where what I was talking about earlier today comes into play: comics advocacy. If you like something, spread the word. The response I got from people over the GREAT LOSERS GIVEAWAY was enough proof to me that there's comic fans and non-comic fans alike who want to see something new and different, and were almost searching for an excuse to try out a new title they knew nothing about.
People are not ignorant unless you treat them as ignorant.
Which is what, I think, most comic book companies do, unconsciously. They aren't trying to snare new fans; they're trying to keep the same fans in circulation on similar titles. There's no growth, and no organized push for growth. So, bit by bit, that's what me and my good buddies are trying to do. Create awareness. Create growth. Reach new audiences. Spread the word.
And you know what?
It works.
ADDENDUM: Rick over at Eat More People chimes in with his two cents, and it's worth taking a gander at. Us bloggers get lucid and prolific in the wee hours of the morning, don't we?
ADDENDUM, PART DEUX: Shane chimes in with his thoughts on the advertising/market debate, taking more of a center role (being that Shane is a rational person.) Interesting thoughts, and a quick analysis of what a gaming magazine's ads look like compared to the ads in a comic book. It's enlightening.
NeilAlien also chimes in and, in his usual style, summarizes everything perfectly in like a paragraph. That bastard.
(Whew. Kind of went off on a rant there, didn't I? Don't get me wrong, Dave -- I'm not pissed at you or something, not even close. You said something provocative, and I responded. Bravo.)
Dave over at The Intermittent speculates on just what it is that causes titles to sink: Is it really the lack of advertising or knowledge, or simply the preference of the fans in action?
So how can it be a failure of advertising when good comics die? How many of the hundred thousand or so regular comics readers out haven't heard that Sleeper is a good comic? Can there really be that many? This isn't snark; I'm really curious. Is the problem really, pace Steven Grant, that folks aren't finding out about good comics....or is it that the people who make up the bulk of the direct market simply have very different ideas then the comics cognoscenti as to what constitutes a "good comic?"
I suspect it might be the latter. And this is not a slam on the direct market; the market is what it is. And while I'd love it if tons of others shared my loves, I don't see divergent tastes as evidence of moral failure. Different strokes, and all that. But pinpointing why a book like WildC.A.T.S. v. 3.0 didn't sell is important, if only so its mistakes can be avoided (assuming that's possible). Maybe a lack of advertising really is to blame, at least in part. Before we accept that as recieved wisdom, though, let's make sure it's true.
The "received wisdom" part was linked to my entry regarding helping out titles while they're still alive, the one where I assigned my readers to go out and buy an issue of Lone and Runaways.
Dave's onto something, but first I want to clarify what my received wisdom was.
I agree with Steven Grant that retroactive activism is a waste of time and doesn't serve any real purpose. It's kvetching for the sake of kvetching, and lord knows us online comics fans love to bitch. I simply want them to take a more active role in the health of the titles they love.
I do believe that advertising now is greater than it probably ever has been, in the comics community. Back up: that's true, to a degree. How often do you see Fables advertised in Superman/Batman? Not very bloody often, that's what. Part of that is advertising to the demographic; part of that is a willful ghettoizing of titles. This is a reductive system: if you advertise Vertigo titles only to Vertigo readers, it stands to reason your base readership isn't really going to grow, is it?
Yes, there are the retarded segment of the fanboys that wear their aversion to anything new proudly on their sleeves. Yes, there are insufferable snobs on the other end of the spectrum, sniffing their noses at anything with a cape on the cover, foretelling the End of Comics As We Know It whenever they see another Wolverine guest appearance. These people are equally as backwards as the fanboys; their drug of choice (to the exclusion of all else) is simply different. Same shit, different pile.
Those people resist change like no other, and remain insular to the point of creative death. But they are the extreme minority, repeat EXTREME MINORITY of the comic book fanbase, the two opposing points on the spectrum. There's a fuckton of parity in between those two points, of people who read 90% superhero books and maybe a little bit of Planetary, to the guy who reads nothing but AiT/PlanetLar's booklist with a little dash of Batman for seasoning. There's something for every taste in the comics world, but not all of it is getting equal shelf space in every DM store from coast to coast.
So I don't know that the argument that "the market is what it is" is enough for me.
Let's say, as a hypothetical, public television is absolutely nothing but cop dramas. If you want a little bit of variety, maybe some law dramas and hospital dramas, you get your basic cable installed for a bit of a fee and a bit of a hassle. If you really want some variety, maybe some comedies, some horror, and so on and so forth, you have to get premium cable, for a larger fee and a greater hassle.
And if you want every possible bit of fiction and nonfiction alike, you have to get some mega-service, like 500 channels of cable or satellite TV. This costs you installation fees, absurd monthly fees, the hassle of dealing with service changes, changing rates, and a lot of extra baggage besides.
It's feasible that a person with nothing but cop dramas wants more out of his TV, but he doesn't have the time, patience, and/or available service to get more. The market is what it is, sure, but willing customers are also limited by outside factors. Have you seen the crap on the three networks lately? Does any of that speak to you? Does it speak to the majority of the people you know?
Most likely the answer is "no." But you have to deal with it, because that's what takes up the most space and gets the most exposure.
I would also say that Dave's argument is based on the assumption that every single comic book fan is tapped into the blogosphere, news sites, and Wizard magazine on a regular basis. I say this isn't so. How many regulars do you know on message boards and blogs? Maybe a thousand, in all? Two thousand? The major blogs (such as Fanboy Rampage) get about 800 unique visitors a day -- a miniscule percentage of the estimated couple hundred thousand comic book readers.
We are not all tapped into the pulse of the industry, due in part to sheer ignorance of the matter or willful avoidance. I would suggest that the online talkers, like us, are the extreme minority of fandom.
The rest just don't know about Rocket Comics. Or Oni. Or Avatar. The DM stores don't advertise them and in many cases can't afford to give them shelf space. So they're not talking about them, and their shoppers never learn. The "the market is what it is" argument presupposes that every single comic book buyer knows everything there is to know and acts on it accordingly. I do not believe this is the case. They just need exposure.
Which is where what I was talking about earlier today comes into play: comics advocacy. If you like something, spread the word. The response I got from people over the GREAT LOSERS GIVEAWAY was enough proof to me that there's comic fans and non-comic fans alike who want to see something new and different, and were almost searching for an excuse to try out a new title they knew nothing about.
People are not ignorant unless you treat them as ignorant.
Which is what, I think, most comic book companies do, unconsciously. They aren't trying to snare new fans; they're trying to keep the same fans in circulation on similar titles. There's no growth, and no organized push for growth. So, bit by bit, that's what me and my good buddies are trying to do. Create awareness. Create growth. Reach new audiences. Spread the word.
And you know what?
It works.
ADDENDUM: Rick over at Eat More People chimes in with his two cents, and it's worth taking a gander at. Us bloggers get lucid and prolific in the wee hours of the morning, don't we?
ADDENDUM, PART DEUX: Shane chimes in with his thoughts on the advertising/market debate, taking more of a center role (being that Shane is a rational person.) Interesting thoughts, and a quick analysis of what a gaming magazine's ads look like compared to the ads in a comic book. It's enlightening.
NeilAlien also chimes in and, in his usual style, summarizes everything perfectly in like a paragraph. That bastard.
(Whew. Kind of went off on a rant there, didn't I? Don't get me wrong, Dave -- I'm not pissed at you or something, not even close. You said something provocative, and I responded. Bravo.)
The Haul.
And what I thought, because mine is the Only Opinion That Matters:
Rich Johnston's Holed Up #1 -- In order to have successful satire, you must have a recognizable target shown, bit by bit, to be totally and completely insane. Rich Johnston skips all that tough setup stuff, took some notes from The Unfunnies while completely missing the point, and slapped on a half-assed sitcom look and feel (stolen from Natural Born Killers, I'd wager) to bring us what is supposed to be a caustic look at some of the nuttier aspects of American life. Instead, all we get is a comic book of caricatures that's just pretty lame and aimless, and leaves me asking that deadliest of questions: "What's the point?"
Rating: Won't make that mistake again.
The Walking Dead #6 -- Grim, grim, grim. We've reached that inevitable point in the Zombie Apocalypse Survivors story where the chain of survivors distintegrates link by link. This could be overwrought, but Kirkman has a knack for taking old conventions and finding something new to do with them. In the process, he gleans new truths out of old stories. The ending's a bit heavy-handed, but I'll grant Kirkman that after all the fine, fine work he's turned out on this series so far. And I will sorely miss Tony Moore when he is gone.
(Though what I've seen of Charlie Adlard's work is trés impressive, and far moodier than Moore's work.)
Rating: Zombie-rific.
Lone #6 -- Thus ends one of the quirkiest, oddest, and most interesting mini-series on the market. It's a fairly standard action ending to an action title, with some fairly standard conventions on who dies and who doesn't, but these characters are sharply drawn and its villain so easily hateable that you have no choice but to be sucked in. The whole series is highly recommended, and I'm eager to see if it'll be collected into a TPB.
Rating: Sad to see it go. We shall miss you, Lone.
Batman: Gotham Knights #52 -- Thank god for this series. Now that Azzarello's off the main title, to be replaced by Judd "Bleh" Winick, I was starting to wonder where I'd get my Dark Knight fix. Hush, in his much-lauded debut series, was nothing but a blank slate upon which an evil motive was placed; here, Lieberman fleshes him out as the smart, ambitious, and ruthless villain only hinted at previously. The Joker's rant about who the real power in Gotham is ("ME!") is a classic scene, and I like seeing how ol' Jokey operates, behind the one-liners and homicidal mania. This storyline, if it keeps its current course, is going to be one hell of a rumble in Gotham.
Rating: The bitch is BACK!
Robin #125 -- The much-vaunted issue where Tim Drake throws down the mantle of Robin, a sabbatical I predict will last approximately six issues (just enough to get a "NEW ROBIN!" TPB out of it) before things get back to normal. That being said, Bill Willingham can write him some dialogue, though his readily apparent skill at storytelling is hampered by De La Fuente's complete disregard of anatomy, angles, perspective, and consistent character design. An interesting diversion overall.
Rating: Just stick to the dialogue balloons.
Fraction #1 -- Another strong title out of the DC Focus stable. The superheroic conceit featured in this title is that classic mainstay, the powersuit. Except: not just one average joe stumbles across it, but four of them, old buddies and part-time losers all. There's a clever (if overt) usage of color to indicate how each of these four friends regard this new wildcard in their life, and I can only hope the morality at work doesn't stay so cut and dry.
Rating: Definite, definite potential. Pick it up and give it a try.
Reviews for Daredevil #59, Runaways #14, and Ultimate Spider-man #57 later on. Probably tomorrow.
Rich Johnston's Holed Up #1 -- In order to have successful satire, you must have a recognizable target shown, bit by bit, to be totally and completely insane. Rich Johnston skips all that tough setup stuff, took some notes from The Unfunnies while completely missing the point, and slapped on a half-assed sitcom look and feel (stolen from Natural Born Killers, I'd wager) to bring us what is supposed to be a caustic look at some of the nuttier aspects of American life. Instead, all we get is a comic book of caricatures that's just pretty lame and aimless, and leaves me asking that deadliest of questions: "What's the point?"
Rating: Won't make that mistake again.
The Walking Dead #6 -- Grim, grim, grim. We've reached that inevitable point in the Zombie Apocalypse Survivors story where the chain of survivors distintegrates link by link. This could be overwrought, but Kirkman has a knack for taking old conventions and finding something new to do with them. In the process, he gleans new truths out of old stories. The ending's a bit heavy-handed, but I'll grant Kirkman that after all the fine, fine work he's turned out on this series so far. And I will sorely miss Tony Moore when he is gone.
(Though what I've seen of Charlie Adlard's work is trés impressive, and far moodier than Moore's work.)
Rating: Zombie-rific.
Lone #6 -- Thus ends one of the quirkiest, oddest, and most interesting mini-series on the market. It's a fairly standard action ending to an action title, with some fairly standard conventions on who dies and who doesn't, but these characters are sharply drawn and its villain so easily hateable that you have no choice but to be sucked in. The whole series is highly recommended, and I'm eager to see if it'll be collected into a TPB.
Rating: Sad to see it go. We shall miss you, Lone.
Batman: Gotham Knights #52 -- Thank god for this series. Now that Azzarello's off the main title, to be replaced by Judd "Bleh" Winick, I was starting to wonder where I'd get my Dark Knight fix. Hush, in his much-lauded debut series, was nothing but a blank slate upon which an evil motive was placed; here, Lieberman fleshes him out as the smart, ambitious, and ruthless villain only hinted at previously. The Joker's rant about who the real power in Gotham is ("ME!") is a classic scene, and I like seeing how ol' Jokey operates, behind the one-liners and homicidal mania. This storyline, if it keeps its current course, is going to be one hell of a rumble in Gotham.
Rating: The bitch is BACK!
Robin #125 -- The much-vaunted issue where Tim Drake throws down the mantle of Robin, a sabbatical I predict will last approximately six issues (just enough to get a "NEW ROBIN!" TPB out of it) before things get back to normal. That being said, Bill Willingham can write him some dialogue, though his readily apparent skill at storytelling is hampered by De La Fuente's complete disregard of anatomy, angles, perspective, and consistent character design. An interesting diversion overall.
Rating: Just stick to the dialogue balloons.
Fraction #1 -- Another strong title out of the DC Focus stable. The superheroic conceit featured in this title is that classic mainstay, the powersuit. Except: not just one average joe stumbles across it, but four of them, old buddies and part-time losers all. There's a clever (if overt) usage of color to indicate how each of these four friends regard this new wildcard in their life, and I can only hope the morality at work doesn't stay so cut and dry.
Rating: Definite, definite potential. Pick it up and give it a try.
Reviews for Daredevil #59, Runaways #14, and Ultimate Spider-man #57 later on. Probably tomorrow.
In the Beating A Joke to Death department...
Maybe your junk is getting a little uppity? Maybe a little too big? Mayhap you need some help from these guys?
Or maybe you're unclear as to what this "in the junk" business is all about. Luckily, someone has posted a step-by-step display of what it means to be Kicked in the Junk.
Like so:
(Blame Shane.)
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Just how unique do you think you are?
Want to find out?
If it turns out you are... there are professionals who can help.
(Thank you for participating in Adventures in Corporate Schillhood.)
Want to find out?
If it turns out you are... there are professionals who can help.
(Thank you for participating in Adventures in Corporate Schillhood.)
Best column in comics.
Steven Grant talks about cancellations, along with many other topics.
Shane quotes this very same paragraph, but I believe it bears reiterating. This is why we did something like the Great Losers Giveaway, and why we'll continue to run giveaways like that in the very near future for other Titles In Trouble:
Recently the comics world was "rocked" by the sudden cancellation of Wildstorm's WILDCATS 3.0 and STORMWATCH:ACHILLES, despite a recent high-profile crossover that involved both books with on-off hit THE AUTHORITY and another tenuous but highly-regarded title, SLEEPER, and brought a sales bounce to them. Both brought new ideas and new takes to the well-trod superhero genre. WILDCATS 3.0 was a unique attempt to upgrade superbeings to a corporate environment. STORMWATCH:ACHILLES was a highly politicized series about paramilitary human response to super-action. Both were well done. Both had audiences. And only an idiot would be surprised by the cancellations.
Because, good as they were, they weren't selling.
Bitching and moaning won't do it. Lamenting it all after the fact, saying the comics industry is doomed after good titles get bounced -- that solves nothing and helps no one. Find new titles that are worth your time, and talk about them. Buy a few extra issues and give them to your comics-reading friends.
Is that so hard?
It's not, believe me.
Reaction is not enough in this business. It's a small business, small and insular, and incredibly hard to find safe ground for a relatively unknown product. This means you have no time to sit back and doomsay only after your title of choice gets the can. If that really is all you can offer, then please kindly shut your trap and let people with some initiative do the talking. You folks are like those professional mourners of ancient Egypt: Wailing and moaning and gnashing your teeth, lamenting the death of someone you never really cared about in the first place.
At the risk of coining a cheesy phrase, turn your reaction into action. Take the initiative, for once.
Your assignment: Buy Runaways #14 and Lone #6. No questions asked, just DO IT. If it intrigues you, and you want to know more, BUY THE OTHER ISSUES. If you still like them, then buy a couple more for your friends (you can spare $5 for your buddies, right?)
That is the first step to affecting change.
Move. You have your orders.
Shane quotes this very same paragraph, but I believe it bears reiterating. This is why we did something like the Great Losers Giveaway, and why we'll continue to run giveaways like that in the very near future for other Titles In Trouble:
Recently the comics world was "rocked" by the sudden cancellation of Wildstorm's WILDCATS 3.0 and STORMWATCH:ACHILLES, despite a recent high-profile crossover that involved both books with on-off hit THE AUTHORITY and another tenuous but highly-regarded title, SLEEPER, and brought a sales bounce to them. Both brought new ideas and new takes to the well-trod superhero genre. WILDCATS 3.0 was a unique attempt to upgrade superbeings to a corporate environment. STORMWATCH:ACHILLES was a highly politicized series about paramilitary human response to super-action. Both were well done. Both had audiences. And only an idiot would be surprised by the cancellations.
Because, good as they were, they weren't selling.
Bitching and moaning won't do it. Lamenting it all after the fact, saying the comics industry is doomed after good titles get bounced -- that solves nothing and helps no one. Find new titles that are worth your time, and talk about them. Buy a few extra issues and give them to your comics-reading friends.
Is that so hard?
It's not, believe me.
Reaction is not enough in this business. It's a small business, small and insular, and incredibly hard to find safe ground for a relatively unknown product. This means you have no time to sit back and doomsay only after your title of choice gets the can. If that really is all you can offer, then please kindly shut your trap and let people with some initiative do the talking. You folks are like those professional mourners of ancient Egypt: Wailing and moaning and gnashing your teeth, lamenting the death of someone you never really cared about in the first place.
At the risk of coining a cheesy phrase, turn your reaction into action. Take the initiative, for once.
Your assignment: Buy Runaways #14 and Lone #6. No questions asked, just DO IT. If it intrigues you, and you want to know more, BUY THE OTHER ISSUES. If you still like them, then buy a couple more for your friends (you can spare $5 for your buddies, right?)
That is the first step to affecting change.
Move. You have your orders.
"Tonight I'm just gonna help you get rid of these bodies..."
Johnny Dynamite: Underworld is a blast. It's the kind of book that makes me want to recite the James Ellroy "perverts, pederasts, and panty-sniffers" routine (which I know by heart, scarily enough). It makes me want to soak in some bad 50's monster movies. It makes me want to crack open some Mickey Spillane, and maybe swing a gold watch by its chain while I do it.
And, strangely, it makes me want to watch From Dusk Till Dawn. While you read the plot summary, see if you can figure out why.
Like any decent detective story, it all starts because of a dame. She's blonde (of course), she's leggy (duh), she's a soiled dove with a heart of gold (natch.) This particular blonde is an old fling of the titular private eye, now starring in movies funded by Vegas mafioso Tony Mal. Tony Mal beats her, she runs to Dynamite, Dynamite runs back to Mal, takes care of business, comes back to the girl, finds out she's dead, takes out Mal, and takes out Mal's boy what killed the blonde.
Or so we think...
In a truly twisted, truly memorable sequence, Mal's hitman (Freddie Faust) wanders the desert Dynamite dumped him in, gutshot and dying, until he stumbles upon a nightclub tableau worthy of any bar in Hollywood, circa 1955, bartended by none other than the Lord of Darkness. Faust, because it's in his goddamn name, cuts a deal with El Diablo -- near-immortality and a clean slate to work his dastardly mob magic. Faust gets the know-how to create an army of zombie mobsters to do his bidding, Tony Mal's old empire, and two caveats to all of this: Don't use supernatural muscle overtly, and be careful of the one man who can kill you.
No points for guessing who that is.
What follows is a cofidently spun tale of mobster shootouts, zombie attacks, blonde beddings, and good old-fashioned hardboiled PI narration set to the soothing lines of Terry Beatty's so-50's-you-could-choke artistry. That said, I've got to agree with Johnny Bacardi's assessment of the occasional stiffness of Beatty's work; you get the sense of mannequins posing in some panels, rather than smooth, natural human motion. For me, this is a minor problem. Except for a few semi-sloppy two-page action sequences early on, Beatty does his part in storytelling in a pretty conventional but completely mastered style. Max Allan Collins has complete control over the pacing of his story, moving along at a steady pace neither zippy nor plodding. Combine those two talents and you have a hell of a spine to build a story on.
I got a lot of joy out of this book. I rather liked the parallels between the genre clashings presented, and that every blonde bombshell in the story worked on movies that had pretty much the same material; and maybe it's just the schlock horror fan in me, but damn if the mobster-zombie elements weren't done in a pretty competent and, in this story's own rules, completely convincing manner.
It all comes back to that nightclub scene in the desert, for me. A ninety-degree turn in genre like this one has can be death for a narrative, but the sheer oddity of the tuxedoed Satan and his pitch is such an amusing (and ballsy) spectacle that you can't help but keep turning the pages, if for no other reason than to see what the hell Collins has up his sleeve next. And before you know it, you're seeing mobster zombies and nodding your head, like it makes sense or something.
And damned if it doesn't, too.
Rating: Buy it right the fuck now. This bad boy's only $13, and I'd gladly pay $20.
And, strangely, it makes me want to watch From Dusk Till Dawn. While you read the plot summary, see if you can figure out why.
Like any decent detective story, it all starts because of a dame. She's blonde (of course), she's leggy (duh), she's a soiled dove with a heart of gold (natch.) This particular blonde is an old fling of the titular private eye, now starring in movies funded by Vegas mafioso Tony Mal. Tony Mal beats her, she runs to Dynamite, Dynamite runs back to Mal, takes care of business, comes back to the girl, finds out she's dead, takes out Mal, and takes out Mal's boy what killed the blonde.
Or so we think...
In a truly twisted, truly memorable sequence, Mal's hitman (Freddie Faust) wanders the desert Dynamite dumped him in, gutshot and dying, until he stumbles upon a nightclub tableau worthy of any bar in Hollywood, circa 1955, bartended by none other than the Lord of Darkness. Faust, because it's in his goddamn name, cuts a deal with El Diablo -- near-immortality and a clean slate to work his dastardly mob magic. Faust gets the know-how to create an army of zombie mobsters to do his bidding, Tony Mal's old empire, and two caveats to all of this: Don't use supernatural muscle overtly, and be careful of the one man who can kill you.
No points for guessing who that is.
What follows is a cofidently spun tale of mobster shootouts, zombie attacks, blonde beddings, and good old-fashioned hardboiled PI narration set to the soothing lines of Terry Beatty's so-50's-you-could-choke artistry. That said, I've got to agree with Johnny Bacardi's assessment of the occasional stiffness of Beatty's work; you get the sense of mannequins posing in some panels, rather than smooth, natural human motion. For me, this is a minor problem. Except for a few semi-sloppy two-page action sequences early on, Beatty does his part in storytelling in a pretty conventional but completely mastered style. Max Allan Collins has complete control over the pacing of his story, moving along at a steady pace neither zippy nor plodding. Combine those two talents and you have a hell of a spine to build a story on.
I got a lot of joy out of this book. I rather liked the parallels between the genre clashings presented, and that every blonde bombshell in the story worked on movies that had pretty much the same material; and maybe it's just the schlock horror fan in me, but damn if the mobster-zombie elements weren't done in a pretty competent and, in this story's own rules, completely convincing manner.
It all comes back to that nightclub scene in the desert, for me. A ninety-degree turn in genre like this one has can be death for a narrative, but the sheer oddity of the tuxedoed Satan and his pitch is such an amusing (and ballsy) spectacle that you can't help but keep turning the pages, if for no other reason than to see what the hell Collins has up his sleeve next. And before you know it, you're seeing mobster zombies and nodding your head, like it makes sense or something.
And damned if it doesn't, too.
Rating: Buy it right the fuck now. This bad boy's only $13, and I'd gladly pay $20.
A Grim eulogy.
Last communique from Graeme of Fanboy Rampage before he goes off to the wild blue yonder of the Grand Canyon. Less a single column and more just a smattering of thoughts, it's still a pretty damn good read. Observe:
What seems to be happening at Wildstorm is that DC – or that particular imprint at DC, anyway – are now starting to follow Marvel’s lead more than a little bit. Not only are they seemingly culling the lower-selling titles (with Authority being relaunched with a creative team that will make a lot of people very happy, and Sleeper surviving due to good sales in trade format), but if rumors are to be believed, Wildcats may be relaunched again as a mainstream superhero title, with the characters back in superhero costumes and going back to the simpler world of Good Versus Evil… just like Marvel are doing with their X-Men franchise. It’s an interesting route to take, if that is what’s going on; they’re definitely following the money by retracing the steps of American comics’ most successful franchise, but how much of that success is down to reader apathy and buying what they know, and how much is down to the actual content is always up for debate. And it’s not as if Wildstorm’s Gen13 revamp, which took the concept into much more old school superteam territory (and was written by X-Men Reload’s chief architect, Chris Claremont) was a big success…
(From Broken Frontier.)
What seems to be happening at Wildstorm is that DC – or that particular imprint at DC, anyway – are now starting to follow Marvel’s lead more than a little bit. Not only are they seemingly culling the lower-selling titles (with Authority being relaunched with a creative team that will make a lot of people very happy, and Sleeper surviving due to good sales in trade format), but if rumors are to be believed, Wildcats may be relaunched again as a mainstream superhero title, with the characters back in superhero costumes and going back to the simpler world of Good Versus Evil… just like Marvel are doing with their X-Men franchise. It’s an interesting route to take, if that is what’s going on; they’re definitely following the money by retracing the steps of American comics’ most successful franchise, but how much of that success is down to reader apathy and buying what they know, and how much is down to the actual content is always up for debate. And it’s not as if Wildstorm’s Gen13 revamp, which took the concept into much more old school superteam territory (and was written by X-Men Reload’s chief architect, Chris Claremont) was a big success…
(From Broken Frontier.)
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
"Raspberry! Only one man would dare use that flavor..."
Lifted wholesale from EW.com:
The release of ''Star Wars: Episode III'' is still more than a year away, but in five months, you can get a good idea of how baby-faced Jedi Anakin Skywalker becomes black-masked villain Darth Vader. Lucasfilm announced on Monday that the upcoming DVD set of the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy, due Sept. 21, will offer a whopping 10 hours of extras, including a preview called ''The Return of Darth Vader.'' The preview will feature George Lucas discussing Anakin's seduction by the dark side of the Force, show the new Vader costume that Hayden Christensen will wear in ''Episode III,'' and detail the preparation for the epic lightsaber battle between Christensen's Anakin and Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The DVD box will contain four discs: one disc each for ''Star Wars,'' ''The Empire Strikes Back,'' and ''The Return of the Jedi'' (complete with commentary tracks by Lucas, Carrie Fisher, and others associated with the movies), and a fourth disc of bonuses. They include a two-and-a-half-hour making-of documentary, testimonials by filmmakers influenced by ''Star Wars,'' hundreds of previously unseen production stills, and previews of two upcoming video games. That should last you until next May, no?
Excuse me while I change my pants.
The release of ''Star Wars: Episode III'' is still more than a year away, but in five months, you can get a good idea of how baby-faced Jedi Anakin Skywalker becomes black-masked villain Darth Vader. Lucasfilm announced on Monday that the upcoming DVD set of the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy, due Sept. 21, will offer a whopping 10 hours of extras, including a preview called ''The Return of Darth Vader.'' The preview will feature George Lucas discussing Anakin's seduction by the dark side of the Force, show the new Vader costume that Hayden Christensen will wear in ''Episode III,'' and detail the preparation for the epic lightsaber battle between Christensen's Anakin and Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The DVD box will contain four discs: one disc each for ''Star Wars,'' ''The Empire Strikes Back,'' and ''The Return of the Jedi'' (complete with commentary tracks by Lucas, Carrie Fisher, and others associated with the movies), and a fourth disc of bonuses. They include a two-and-a-half-hour making-of documentary, testimonials by filmmakers influenced by ''Star Wars,'' hundreds of previously unseen production stills, and previews of two upcoming video games. That should last you until next May, no?
Excuse me while I change my pants.
A worthy cause.
More juvenilia.
That is some funny shit. "In the junk" is one of the greatest phrases of all time to slap on the end of a sentence. Try it!
Also good to throw onto the end of a sentence:
"In accordance with prophecy."
Usage: "I will buy a novelty-sized cookie, in accordance with prophecy."
Or, as stolen from Amazing Spider-Man #129,
"This the Jackal swears!"
Usage: "Nose hairs grow like a foot a minute, this the Jackal swears!"
(Image swiped from ChaosMonkey's Abysmal Pit, which is loads of fun to type out.)
Look, up in the sky!
Imagine, if you will, four panels on a page, one in each corner, of equal size to the others. In the top left panel we see a distant shot of a complex of ancient Egyptian temples and monuments and gateways, and much smoke is blowing. A man dressed as a Big Bird facsimile is punching a guy in a stovepipe hat in the face.
In the top right panel, we see the entrance to a sacred temple, and a gorilla wearing shoulder armor, goggles, and a utility belt is being helped out by a woman in fox-hunting gear, who has a cybernetic arm.
Bottom left panel: A pirate has his fist reared back to punch his captor, a man dressed like a pharoah by way of the Kiss army. Both look off-panel, stunned, presumably at the gorilla and the woman with the cybernetic arm.
Bottom right panel: Close up on the gorilla and the woman. The gorilla is giving a thumbs up, because hey, why not, right?
And that, right there, is Sky Ape: Waiting For Crime. A zany and (dare I say?) madcap comic book that, at least in this installment, hits about as often as it misses. You get the impression that the writing team behind this concoction were trying just a wee bit too hard to be zany and madcap.
Let's back up: I confess I have not read the first Sky Ape collection, but this is a fairly self-contained volume, and any background information we need can be inferred or is supplied to us (such as the origin of the woman-in-riding-gear-with-cybernetic-arm, Francis.
The breakdown? Skyape is a gorilla-accountant by day, gorilla-with-jetpack by night. He can talk. He has his secret identity. He has his buddy Francis, who he secretly lusts for, and a companion (friend? ally?) and mad scientist Peyton Fenway. The problem? Rather unusual installments are showing up in ancient city structures: a spa in a pyramid, vinyl siding on the pueblos of the Anasazi, baseboard heating in the ancient cities of Peru -- someone is going back in time and installing cheap crap on ancient monuments!
I would not dream of telling you who's doing it, or why. Suffice to say the reasoning and methodology are right on par, sanity-wise, with the Kissy army pharoah.
I'm really on the fence here. A lot of the humor relies on wacky non sequitors and pop culture references, and those don't hold a lot of weight with me unless they're done really, really, really well (and sparingly). Examples:
Maintenance man: You called, sir? We're here to spray for Ted Nugent.
See? Funny. I'll be using that line for ages.
Owen Dangertooth: Sorry we're late, buddy! I was busy wiping my ass on Fred Durst!
Eh, not so much. Don't get me wrong, wiping my ass on Fred Durst is a long-held fantasy of mine, but I doubt that joke will pack any punch in three years' time. Ted Nugent, on the other hand, is immortal.
I guess the final verdict comes down to this: If I had not received this for free, I probably would not have bought it, even though it's only $6.95. Then again, perhaps this just isn't prime Sky Ape territory. My local DM store has a copy of the first TPB, so maybe I'll pick that up, see what it does for me...
In the top right panel, we see the entrance to a sacred temple, and a gorilla wearing shoulder armor, goggles, and a utility belt is being helped out by a woman in fox-hunting gear, who has a cybernetic arm.
Bottom left panel: A pirate has his fist reared back to punch his captor, a man dressed like a pharoah by way of the Kiss army. Both look off-panel, stunned, presumably at the gorilla and the woman with the cybernetic arm.
Bottom right panel: Close up on the gorilla and the woman. The gorilla is giving a thumbs up, because hey, why not, right?
And that, right there, is Sky Ape: Waiting For Crime. A zany and (dare I say?) madcap comic book that, at least in this installment, hits about as often as it misses. You get the impression that the writing team behind this concoction were trying just a wee bit too hard to be zany and madcap.
Let's back up: I confess I have not read the first Sky Ape collection, but this is a fairly self-contained volume, and any background information we need can be inferred or is supplied to us (such as the origin of the woman-in-riding-gear-with-cybernetic-arm, Francis.
The breakdown? Skyape is a gorilla-accountant by day, gorilla-with-jetpack by night. He can talk. He has his secret identity. He has his buddy Francis, who he secretly lusts for, and a companion (friend? ally?) and mad scientist Peyton Fenway. The problem? Rather unusual installments are showing up in ancient city structures: a spa in a pyramid, vinyl siding on the pueblos of the Anasazi, baseboard heating in the ancient cities of Peru -- someone is going back in time and installing cheap crap on ancient monuments!
I would not dream of telling you who's doing it, or why. Suffice to say the reasoning and methodology are right on par, sanity-wise, with the Kissy army pharoah.
I'm really on the fence here. A lot of the humor relies on wacky non sequitors and pop culture references, and those don't hold a lot of weight with me unless they're done really, really, really well (and sparingly). Examples:
Maintenance man: You called, sir? We're here to spray for Ted Nugent.
See? Funny. I'll be using that line for ages.
Owen Dangertooth: Sorry we're late, buddy! I was busy wiping my ass on Fred Durst!
Eh, not so much. Don't get me wrong, wiping my ass on Fred Durst is a long-held fantasy of mine, but I doubt that joke will pack any punch in three years' time. Ted Nugent, on the other hand, is immortal.
I guess the final verdict comes down to this: If I had not received this for free, I probably would not have bought it, even though it's only $6.95. Then again, perhaps this just isn't prime Sky Ape territory. My local DM store has a copy of the first TPB, so maybe I'll pick that up, see what it does for me...
A quick plug.
Jeff over at Otto's Coffee Shop (and what's that name mean, anyway?) has some good, sharp TV reviews up. I've never heard, nor do I think I'll ever hear, a more accurate description of Al Swearengen from Deadwood's dialogue than this:
I love the way that Swearengen uses words like "fuck" and "cocksucker" the way the rest of us use "the" and "and."
I, too, hope for one day to use those words so fluently. Jeff: might I suggest that Swearengen uses the word "cunt" like we use a less-frequent but fairly common word, such as "hello"?
I'm glad they've set up Swearengen and Tolliver to have a more practical working relationship. I didn't want to see blood on the streets right away for it, because I think both saloon owners are way too smart for that. And I rather like Swearengen (bastard that he is) and would have resented some new guy coming in and just wiping him off the face of the earth five episodes in.
Best new show on television, bar none.
I love the way that Swearengen uses words like "fuck" and "cocksucker" the way the rest of us use "the" and "and."
I, too, hope for one day to use those words so fluently. Jeff: might I suggest that Swearengen uses the word "cunt" like we use a less-frequent but fairly common word, such as "hello"?
I'm glad they've set up Swearengen and Tolliver to have a more practical working relationship. I didn't want to see blood on the streets right away for it, because I think both saloon owners are way too smart for that. And I rather like Swearengen (bastard that he is) and would have resented some new guy coming in and just wiping him off the face of the earth five episodes in.
Best new show on television, bar none.
Just so you know.
Someone came to this site after searching for "you're still a homo chips ponch" on Google.
Give it a try.
(Got a headlight to put into my car. After that, it's comic book blogging time.)
Give it a try.
(Got a headlight to put into my car. After that, it's comic book blogging time.)
Refreshing!
Taken verbatim from Rich Johnston's "Lying in the Gutters" column, so take it as you will:
Gutterati Nate Southand emails me with a "Sin City" location report from the upcoming Rodriguez/Millar movie.
"A friend of mine worked as an extra on 'Sin City' yesterday, and he had some exciting news.
"They were filming the strip club scene. Apparently, this will be the most faithful adaptation of a comic in history, because their shooting script was xeroxed copies of Sin City. They line up the camera to look like the panel, and they shoot.
"They're filming 'Sin City, That Yellow Bastard' and 'The Big Fat Kill.' The stories will be cut together 'Pulp Fiction' style. An intro starring Josh Hartnett is from 'Booze, Broads, and Bullets.'
"Mickey Rourke as Marv. They used prosthetics to make him true to the comic: square jaw, flat nose, everything.
"Nancy hasn't been cast yet. They used a stand in.
"Frank Miller is on set."
I'm not one for hyperbole (is that one right there?), but you know what? If all this is true, and if it's true that Tarantino might do a segment or two... this could be the comic book movie that finally breaks ground with the critics. Real ground. This could be The One, folks.
Gutterati Nate Southand emails me with a "Sin City" location report from the upcoming Rodriguez/Millar movie.
"A friend of mine worked as an extra on 'Sin City' yesterday, and he had some exciting news.
"They were filming the strip club scene. Apparently, this will be the most faithful adaptation of a comic in history, because their shooting script was xeroxed copies of Sin City. They line up the camera to look like the panel, and they shoot.
"They're filming 'Sin City, That Yellow Bastard' and 'The Big Fat Kill.' The stories will be cut together 'Pulp Fiction' style. An intro starring Josh Hartnett is from 'Booze, Broads, and Bullets.'
"Mickey Rourke as Marv. They used prosthetics to make him true to the comic: square jaw, flat nose, everything.
"Nancy hasn't been cast yet. They used a stand in.
"Frank Miller is on set."
I'm not one for hyperbole (is that one right there?), but you know what? If all this is true, and if it's true that Tarantino might do a segment or two... this could be the comic book movie that finally breaks ground with the critics. Real ground. This could be The One, folks.
Juvenilia.
So I'm browsing the fancy "high-end" Marvel store, the Official One, and it's 2:30, and I notice two very funny things.
First is this, a little graphic that Reed Richards might have some complaints about:
If you're old enough to read this blog, I don't need to explain the joke.
And then there's this, described thusly:
Marvel Legends 6" Thing
Features more than 30 points of articulation and a wall-mountable display base. Stands 6” tall.
Tragically, there is no picture.
(Shut up. I cracked the hell up when I saw that stuff, and you did too.)
First is this, a little graphic that Reed Richards might have some complaints about:
If you're old enough to read this blog, I don't need to explain the joke.
And then there's this, described thusly:
Marvel Legends 6" Thing
Features more than 30 points of articulation and a wall-mountable display base. Stands 6” tall.
Tragically, there is no picture.
(Shut up. I cracked the hell up when I saw that stuff, and you did too.)
Monday, April 19, 2004
To Buy list.
The Diamond list of comics shipping for Wednesday, courtesy of Johnny Bacardi (Latin hedonist!)
And what I'll be getting, because I know you're so very, very curious:
EL ZOMBO #1 (Of 3) $2.99: Full disclosure: I have no idea what this is, but that's a hell of a title.
LONE #6 $2.99: This is a mini-series, right? That's what I always thought.. if I'm incorrect in that, please let me know.
FRACTION #1 $2.50: Been bad about the Focus line. Hard Time is great, but I haven't yet touched anything else, but this one.. sounds good.
WALKING DEAD #6 (MR) $2.95: One of the best titles in comics. You have no reason for not buying this.
CABLE DEADPOOL #2 (RES) $2.99: One last chance to impress me.
RUNAWAYS #14 $2.99: A Title In Trouble. (A-TIT! Tee hee!) BUY IT! It's good loving. Can't go wrong with Vaughan.
GEORGE ROMEROS DAWN OF THE DEAD #1 (MR) $3.99: You know why. Steep price, though.
RICH JOHNSTONS HOLED UP #1 (Of 3) (MR) $3.50: Could be tacky and good, or could be tacky and bad. I'll find out.
And what I'll be getting, because I know you're so very, very curious:
EL ZOMBO #1 (Of 3) $2.99: Full disclosure: I have no idea what this is, but that's a hell of a title.
LONE #6 $2.99: This is a mini-series, right? That's what I always thought.. if I'm incorrect in that, please let me know.
FRACTION #1 $2.50: Been bad about the Focus line. Hard Time is great, but I haven't yet touched anything else, but this one.. sounds good.
WALKING DEAD #6 (MR) $2.95: One of the best titles in comics. You have no reason for not buying this.
CABLE DEADPOOL #2 (RES) $2.99: One last chance to impress me.
RUNAWAYS #14 $2.99: A Title In Trouble. (A-TIT! Tee hee!) BUY IT! It's good loving. Can't go wrong with Vaughan.
GEORGE ROMEROS DAWN OF THE DEAD #1 (MR) $3.99: You know why. Steep price, though.
RICH JOHNSTONS HOLED UP #1 (Of 3) (MR) $3.50: Could be tacky and good, or could be tacky and bad. I'll find out.
See?
I got the comic today, read a bunch of it, ended up at the mall later, and bought 7, 9 & 10, was pissed they didn't have 8, have to go to the comic shop for that.
love the comic, thanks.
That was from the second place guy, the one who broke his ass and let us know about it and won himself a copy of The Losers: Ante Up.
If you haven't bought it yet, what's your excuse?
Don't that just warm your bowels right up?
love the comic, thanks.
That was from the second place guy, the one who broke his ass and let us know about it and won himself a copy of The Losers: Ante Up.
If you haven't bought it yet, what's your excuse?
Don't that just warm your bowels right up?
What he said.
The Man speaketh:
[L]isten carefully. I support [Rush] Limbaugh's right to be on the radio. I feel it is fully equal to [Howard] Stern's. I find it strange that so many Americans describe themselves as patriotic when their values are anti-democratic and totalitarian. We are all familiar with Voltaire's great cry: ''I may disagree with what you say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.'' Ideas like his helped form the emerging American republic. Today, the Federal Communications Commission operates under an alternative slogan: ''Since a minority that is very important to this administration disagrees with what you say, shut up.''
Very good, if brief, read. I like this part:
Unlike millions of Americans, I do not listen to Rush Limbaugh on the radio. One reason for that is that I am usually at the movies when he's on the air -- an alternative I urge on his listeners.
[L]isten carefully. I support [Rush] Limbaugh's right to be on the radio. I feel it is fully equal to [Howard] Stern's. I find it strange that so many Americans describe themselves as patriotic when their values are anti-democratic and totalitarian. We are all familiar with Voltaire's great cry: ''I may disagree with what you say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.'' Ideas like his helped form the emerging American republic. Today, the Federal Communications Commission operates under an alternative slogan: ''Since a minority that is very important to this administration disagrees with what you say, shut up.''
Very good, if brief, read. I like this part:
Unlike millions of Americans, I do not listen to Rush Limbaugh on the radio. One reason for that is that I am usually at the movies when he's on the air -- an alternative I urge on his listeners.
Heh.
Jim Treacher's haiku-review of Kill Bill 2:
In a mobile home
Swordplay is problematic
But keep an eye out
I'd just like to say I liked Volume 2 a lot more than Volume 1. It clicked. It's not as hectic and fast-paced as the first one, but that's fine; we get lots of nice, juicy dialogue to savor, and rock-solid performances from every single member of the cast. The first movie didn't have good performances so much as it had good lines delivered confidently -- but this one is a damned masterpiece.
In a mobile home
Swordplay is problematic
But keep an eye out
I'd just like to say I liked Volume 2 a lot more than Volume 1. It clicked. It's not as hectic and fast-paced as the first one, but that's fine; we get lots of nice, juicy dialogue to savor, and rock-solid performances from every single member of the cast. The first movie didn't have good performances so much as it had good lines delivered confidently -- but this one is a damned masterpiece.
Jim Lee on Superman.
Interesting interview with Jim Lee over at Broken Frontier. I've come to think Jim Lee is just a really cool guy. Anyone got anything to counter that?
Anyway, there's this:
BF: How would you compare the talents of Brian Azzarello with those of your former collaborator Jeph Loeb? What does either writer bring to the table that your artistic talents can take advantage of?
JL: Both are great writers to work with. Jeph stages things more elaborately, very cinematically. Brian has a lot of the tension come through dialogue, through silent beats. I’m drawing a lot more shots where the camera is cutting back and forth between the characters or holding still on one character while he ‘acts’ out his lines. They both have a flair for the dramatic though and I consider them both not only to be some of the top writers in the field today but also good buds.
Which, well, I can only hope Lee's being diplomatic there. I guess Loeb could be considered a "top writer" because he sells so well, and Azzarello because he writes so well... anyway.
And check out how closely BF gets to asking about the cancellations of two top Wildstorm titles, and then dances right away from it again:
BF: About WildStorm, fans are heavily discussing what the new direction of the WS universe with Coup D’Etat having wrapped up. What factors do you think led to the necessity of a new course?
JL: While the books were very well received and critically acclaimed, we felt we needed some big event to make retailers and fans take notice. We felt if they gave the line a chance, they would stick around because I happen to feel the creative teams on all the Eye Of The Storm books are top notch. I think in years going forward, these will be the superhero books fans will look most fondly back on for doing very different and cutting edge work. Getting some marketing muscle and dollars out there to open the eyes to the rest of the fans was the goal and from the numbers we got, it looks like we succeeded. Now we have to continue delivering the goods and come up with other ways to make people take notice. It’s sad that a lot of the very best comics today are on the verge of cancellation.
Which would be a perfect lead-in, right? You'd think Jim Lee is giving the BF interviewer an opening to ask about the cancellations of WildCATS and Stormwatch, right? I mean, Jim Lee wasn't personally involved in the cancellations, but Wildstorm is his baby, so it would only seem logical...
Here's the next question:
BF: Is there anything you can reveal about what will be done in the next couple of months to make WildStorm bolder and better?
Dickheads.
NEWS THAT IS NOT NEWS: I am a moron, and my reading skills today are apparently faulty. The interview took place before the announcement of the titles' cancellations. Whoops.
Now who's the dickhead.
Anyway, there's this:
BF: How would you compare the talents of Brian Azzarello with those of your former collaborator Jeph Loeb? What does either writer bring to the table that your artistic talents can take advantage of?
JL: Both are great writers to work with. Jeph stages things more elaborately, very cinematically. Brian has a lot of the tension come through dialogue, through silent beats. I’m drawing a lot more shots where the camera is cutting back and forth between the characters or holding still on one character while he ‘acts’ out his lines. They both have a flair for the dramatic though and I consider them both not only to be some of the top writers in the field today but also good buds.
Which, well, I can only hope Lee's being diplomatic there. I guess Loeb could be considered a "top writer" because he sells so well, and Azzarello because he writes so well... anyway.
And check out how closely BF gets to asking about the cancellations of two top Wildstorm titles, and then dances right away from it again:
BF: About WildStorm, fans are heavily discussing what the new direction of the WS universe with Coup D’Etat having wrapped up. What factors do you think led to the necessity of a new course?
JL: While the books were very well received and critically acclaimed, we felt we needed some big event to make retailers and fans take notice. We felt if they gave the line a chance, they would stick around because I happen to feel the creative teams on all the Eye Of The Storm books are top notch. I think in years going forward, these will be the superhero books fans will look most fondly back on for doing very different and cutting edge work. Getting some marketing muscle and dollars out there to open the eyes to the rest of the fans was the goal and from the numbers we got, it looks like we succeeded. Now we have to continue delivering the goods and come up with other ways to make people take notice. It’s sad that a lot of the very best comics today are on the verge of cancellation.
Which would be a perfect lead-in, right? You'd think Jim Lee is giving the BF interviewer an opening to ask about the cancellations of WildCATS and Stormwatch, right? I mean, Jim Lee wasn't personally involved in the cancellations, but Wildstorm is his baby, so it would only seem logical...
Here's the next question:
BF: Is there anything you can reveal about what will be done in the next couple of months to make WildStorm bolder and better?
Dickheads.
NEWS THAT IS NOT NEWS: I am a moron, and my reading skills today are apparently faulty. The interview took place before the announcement of the titles' cancellations. Whoops.
Now who's the dickhead.
Punishment.
From EW.com:
Second place, as expected, went to ''The Punisher,'' the comic-book-based thriller starring Thomas Jane, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, and John Travolta, with $14 million. That's considerably lower than the $23.2 million debut of ''Hellboy'' two weeks ago. Could audiences be tiring of these comic-book flicks? With ''Spider-Man 2'' less than three months away, don't count on it.
This annoys me. El Castigador rakes in $4 million more than was anticipated, brings in Lion's Gate Films' highest opening weekend gross ever, and they bring in this shit about people "tiring of comic book movies."
Let's get something straight here: Hellboy opened up against nothing. The other releases that week were fucking Home on the Range, Walking Tall, and The Prince and Me. It did not have to open against A QUENTIN TARANTINO MOVIE. It also had twice the marketing behind it that El Castigador did.
Anyway, according to Box Office Guru, the numbers on El Castigador were pretty damn solid:
Opening in second place was another revenge-driven action film, the Lions Gate release The Punisher with an estimated $14M. The Thomas Jane-John Travolta pic averaged a solid $5,285 from 2,649 theaters despite facing competition from Kill Bill.
Ahem. I get defensive. Sorry.
(EW link provided by Fanboy Rampage.)
Second place, as expected, went to ''The Punisher,'' the comic-book-based thriller starring Thomas Jane, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, and John Travolta, with $14 million. That's considerably lower than the $23.2 million debut of ''Hellboy'' two weeks ago. Could audiences be tiring of these comic-book flicks? With ''Spider-Man 2'' less than three months away, don't count on it.
This annoys me. El Castigador rakes in $4 million more than was anticipated, brings in Lion's Gate Films' highest opening weekend gross ever, and they bring in this shit about people "tiring of comic book movies."
Let's get something straight here: Hellboy opened up against nothing. The other releases that week were fucking Home on the Range, Walking Tall, and The Prince and Me. It did not have to open against A QUENTIN TARANTINO MOVIE. It also had twice the marketing behind it that El Castigador did.
Anyway, according to Box Office Guru, the numbers on El Castigador were pretty damn solid:
Opening in second place was another revenge-driven action film, the Lions Gate release The Punisher with an estimated $14M. The Thomas Jane-John Travolta pic averaged a solid $5,285 from 2,649 theaters despite facing competition from Kill Bill.
Ahem. I get defensive. Sorry.
(EW link provided by Fanboy Rampage.)
A miniature mindfuck.
Glee!
Doom 3.
Not sure why they're calling it Doom 3, as it appears to be a redo of Doom 1, but I don't care. It's DOOM, baby! The first game I ever bought for the computer was Wolfenstein 3D, complete with the shareware of Doom, Episode I: Knee Deep in the Dead. I remember being genuinely scared by the sound effects of distant zombies.
The pink demons still freak me out, sometimes.
And I, somehow, managed to get a beta of Doom 2 long before anyone I knew could ever get their hands on the game... and I became the coolest kid on the block. And a badass on DWANGO (anyone remember that?)
I just hope they have something in Doom 3 that's as viscerally satisfying as the sound of the double-barreled shotgun blasting nice and loud, and klik-klaking in reload.
(Link thanks to Wil.)
Not sure why they're calling it Doom 3, as it appears to be a redo of Doom 1, but I don't care. It's DOOM, baby! The first game I ever bought for the computer was Wolfenstein 3D, complete with the shareware of Doom, Episode I: Knee Deep in the Dead. I remember being genuinely scared by the sound effects of distant zombies.
The pink demons still freak me out, sometimes.
And I, somehow, managed to get a beta of Doom 2 long before anyone I knew could ever get their hands on the game... and I became the coolest kid on the block. And a badass on DWANGO (anyone remember that?)
I just hope they have something in Doom 3 that's as viscerally satisfying as the sound of the double-barreled shotgun blasting nice and loud, and klik-klaking in reload.
(Link thanks to Wil.)
Sunday, April 18, 2004
A random thought.
I'm really glad that Nazi saboteur killed the doctor who pumped Steve Rogers full of his super soldier serum.
(Lordy, did that sound homoerotic.)
Because like, the plan was, to make a BUNCH of these guys, right? A bunch of Captain Americas, running around and kicking Nazi ass. While I have no doubt that if that plan had come to fruition, these super soldiers would be kicking Hitler's head around by suppertime, what do we do with these guys afterwards? I mean we can presume they'd all have fancy neato shields, so just popping them two in the head wouldn't work out so well.
It's not like they would all be as noble and heroic as Steve Rogers, right? Even if you just injected one platoon of guys with this serum and gave them indestructible shields, that's 29 guys whose only distinguishing characteristics is that they are between the ages of 18 and 25, male, and weren't good enough for the army to throw onto the front lines as cannon fodder. And they aren't all going to conveniently get frozen in an ice floe, mister.
Can you imagine what would happen if you injected the cast of the latest Survivor with the super soldier serum, and made them super strong, super tough, tactically brilliant and functionally immortal?
Okay, how about the New York Yankees?
The anchors and anchorettes of Fox News? Bill fucking O'Reilly?
If you tell me that doesn't send shivers of fear right down your spine and into your bowels, then you, sir, are a liar.
(Lordy, did that sound homoerotic.)
Because like, the plan was, to make a BUNCH of these guys, right? A bunch of Captain Americas, running around and kicking Nazi ass. While I have no doubt that if that plan had come to fruition, these super soldiers would be kicking Hitler's head around by suppertime, what do we do with these guys afterwards? I mean we can presume they'd all have fancy neato shields, so just popping them two in the head wouldn't work out so well.
It's not like they would all be as noble and heroic as Steve Rogers, right? Even if you just injected one platoon of guys with this serum and gave them indestructible shields, that's 29 guys whose only distinguishing characteristics is that they are between the ages of 18 and 25, male, and weren't good enough for the army to throw onto the front lines as cannon fodder. And they aren't all going to conveniently get frozen in an ice floe, mister.
Can you imagine what would happen if you injected the cast of the latest Survivor with the super soldier serum, and made them super strong, super tough, tactically brilliant and functionally immortal?
Okay, how about the New York Yankees?
The anchors and anchorettes of Fox News? Bill fucking O'Reilly?
If you tell me that doesn't send shivers of fear right down your spine and into your bowels, then you, sir, are a liar.
