The Cipher 02/23/11: “hide til it’s bright out”
February 23rd, 2011 by david brothers | Tags: cipher, dwayne mcduffie, kanye west, sean witzkecreated: What a weird week, man. RIP Dwayne McDuffie. I’m kinda pissed that my BHM11 post about him ended up being sort of a eulogy. It is what it is, though, and I’m thankful for what he gave me. Look for a longer piece on CA tomorrow, I think.
-Me and Uzumeri got together to talk about Uncanny X-Force. Gav pointed out that both of us liked X-Force for different reasons. Me for Fantomex, him for Deadpool.
-I reviewed Summer Wars, Funimation’s new anime disc. Summer Wars
-Marvel comics, black history, get at me. Part 2 hits on Friday.
consumed: I went to a Marvel vs Capcom 3 tournament on Saturday on a whim. I ended up placing fifth, but the first cat I fought was exactly the type of player I’m not down with at all. All types of move spamming, and then when the clock got low, he tried to run away. I had to call this dude out before he manned up and fought me. C’mon, son. What part of the game is that? Oh yeah, the unfun part.
-I talked some about McDuffie on Twitter. Gonna throw those up here because I think I said a few things worth reading:
-Also, seriously, if you’re gonna write about McDuffie this week–Milestone was its own company, not an imprint of DC Comics. Get it right.
-The importance of DC not owning Milestone is this: You need to own your own work. That’s how you make money and leave a legacy that’s yours.
-DC published Milestone. They didn’t own them. McDuffie & Co shopped Milestone around to several publishers, and DC eventually bit.
-The copyright, the honor, and the legacy belong to McDuffie, Davis, Dingle, and Cowan. Milestone was theirs, and they did it for us.
-And Milestone and McDuffie’s career weren’t just about black characters, either. Blood Syndicate had TWO kinds of hispanics on the team.
-You don’t even see that these days. That’s in addition to every other type in Milestone comics. They weren’t black comics. They were comics.
-Yes, it was revolutionary. No, it hasn’t been beaten. They set the bar high, but in the exact right space.
-I definitely felt some kind of way when Batwoman was getting press for being out and a superhero because, HEY! Milestone was there FIRST.
-(a correction because I was wrong on one point:) Milestone was 1993, Alpha Flight [and Northstar coming out] was 1992. Credit where credit’s due, though, despite Byrne being his typical douchebag self. [why did I diss Byrne there? Not sure– a) he’s subhuman b) his big plan for Northstar to get AIDS and die was stupid c) I was just talking yang d) all of the above]
-There are a bunch of McDuffie comics to read on @Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited. I recommend his Fantastic Four.
-John Ridley and Georges Jeanty’s The American Way
-This Rahm Emanuel Twitter thing is crazy. Great read, wonderful gimmick, profane, funny, interesting… great gimmick Twitter.
–Matt Seneca on George Herriman, and a panel from a strip I dug quite a bit.
-Romina Moranelli is an ill artist. DeviantArt, website.
-I want to do another series of art posts. Pretty Girls is nice, but now it’s like, been there, done that. I’ve got an idea, too. Might call it “Nice With the Pen,” and it’ll be a multi-creator round-up, rather than focused, and I’m not sure how much commentary I want to throw in it. Not a lot, I don’t think, because good art stands on its own. Just a round-up of stuff I saw that week that I liked, whether old or new. Maybe “7 Days, 4 Colors.” Who knows. There’s probably an album title I can jack.
-I liked this review of Daughters of the Dragon that Jonathan Rosselli wrote. Not because he says nice things about me (compliments are tricks!), but because he has some real good reasons for digging that book.
–Sean Witzke runs this piece. Nobody beats the Witz, and here he’s talking about a Moebius book I’ve never read. Time to hit the library, right? This is good stuff.
-Is there a worse nickname than “the Witz?” I apologize.
–Stan Sakai interviews Usagi. Oh my.
-If you write about comics online without even so much as mentioning the people who created the book you’re talking about… you suck, doggie. Stop writing. Retire. Nobody likes you. Grow up. There’s nothing about Batman that’s intrinsically awesome. Somebody made stories that made you like him. At least pretend like you care.
-Creators up, characters down.
-Quick hits: Mass Effect 2
-How awful is Kanye’s “All of the Lights” video? Cripes, remember when Hype could make you wish you were in a rap video? What happened to that toy?
-Remember these? That Kanye no-step and lean is still the only dance I do.
-Lauryn Hill, man.
David: Power Man & Iron Fist 2
Esther: Action Comics 898 and possibly Detective Comics #874
Gavin: (maybe) Metalocalypse Dethklok 3, Justice League Generation Lost 20, Incorruptible 15, Avengers 10, Captain America 615, Deadpool Team-Up 884, Deadpool 33, Incredible Hulks 623, Iron Man 2.0 1, Namor The First Mutant 7, Power Man And Iron Fist 2, Punisher In The Blood 4, Secret Avengers 10
Similar Posts:
- Black History Month 2011: Dwayne McDuffie
- DC Comics: Meanspirited, spiteful, and childish.
- McDuffie fired off JLA
- RIP Robert L Washington III
- Black History Month ’09 #27: Life Is Illmatic
Re: MvC3
My apologies if I’m preaching to the choir here, but there’s an excellent guide at http://shoryuken.com/
Also, Justin Wong’s twitter reactions to the game were priceless:
http://shoryuken.com/content/only-problem-mvc3-you-3694/
If you write about comics online without even so much as mentioning the people who created the book you’re talking about… you suck, doggie. Stop writing. Retire. Nobody likes you. Grow up. There’s nothing about Batman that’s intrinsically awesome. Somebody made stories that made you like him. At least pretend like you care. Creators up, characters down.
Couldn’t agree more. It’s what separates the kids and adults. (Slightly less annoying and adolescent is when I see people hating an artist or writer not because they’re good or bad, but because of something they “made a character do”, like they’re some kind of evil manipulative god-being. They’re just normal people making funnybooks!)
Man, I knew Milestone was its own company, but accidentally said “imprint” on the P:R tribute week announcement. Corrected. Thanks for the heads up
What you have to remember about tourney-play is that most of the people playing aren’t there to have fun; they’re there to win. Basically any tactic is fine as long as it means you win. In their mind, anything that exists within the game even accidentally (including glitches) is fair play, and anyone who willfully refuses to exploit them or is annoyed when other people do is a “scrub” and will never be a good player until they change their ways.
No, I don’t really like it either. It’s part of why I’ve started to go off of fighting games personally, since I’m not in the mood to pour so much time into completely learning the ins and outs of a game to a point where it stops being a game. Unless you’re actually making money off of it as some professional gamers do, I just don’t see the point in it.
@Keith:
Yeah. Glitch-fighting has even wrecked up Smash Bros, which should by all rights be the goofy, silly, “Who cares who wins” game.
Practically no one (that I’ve seen) has been talking about how the Kanye video basically ripped off the opening credits sequences from Gasper Noe’s Enter The Void: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPxgi-PiNFE
Oh, and thanks for recommending American Way. 1st issue was was great, the trade is now on my Amazon wishlist.
@Dean Trippe: No prob!
@Keith: Yeah, that’s the thing. I used to love fight games, but man, that love has faded super hard over the past few years. All I really play with now are friends who play at high level but don’t do that play to win garbage. It’s not fun for anyone involved, you know? Make things interesting, take chances, have a grand old time! Winning isn’t everything, especially if you aren’t playing for money.
@werdsmiffery: No problem, man. It’s a good one.