Kyle Baker on Frank Miller’s Will Eisner’s The Spirit:
Miller seems to think comic books are a joke. Well, Mr. Miller, just because something’s called “comic” doesn’t mean it’s humorous! Watchmen is a comic, and it’s sad!
Tucker Stone makes a good point about what DC needs:
What DC Comic Needs to Come Back in 2009 and Why:
There’s really no contest here, unless you’re a big Jamie Reyes fan. Then again, if you’re a big Jamie Reyes fan, you’re probably still trying to figure out why the computer won’t turn on. (It’s because you covered it in peanut butter, because you are an infant.) No, the best DC book, the one that they need to bring back, the one that left a gaping hole in the DC line-up when it departed, despite what was the most promising upcoming line-up in the last twenty years of DC/Marvel history?
Solo. The five dollar comic with the white cover, the 48 page, no ad-having, one-creator anthology comic that allowed people like Brendan McCarthy, Paul Pope and Darwyn Cooke (and more) to do whatever they wanted with whomever they wanted. For the length of its too-short 12 issue run, Solo was the most rewarding bang-for-your-buck comic on the stands. Unless you like lost chances and spilling tears, don’t look at the wikipedia entry for the series and see the possible future creators who were in talks to do an issue.
What DC Comic We’ll Give You in Exchange:
Well, it’s a tough one again, but only because DC has been nice enough to go ahead and cancel Blue Beetle, Birds of Prey, Robin, Nightwing, Simon Dark, Supergirl, Teen Titans, and Titans.
Wait, I just heard that they haven’t cancelled Simon Dark, Supergirl, Teen Titans or Titans. Paint me shocked and awed! Cancel all four, and give Solo the extra pages.
I would give up pretty much any DC comic produced in the years since Solo was cancelled to get Solo back. In fact, I’d just keep the two All-Star books and let all the others rot. I’m totally okay with DC just publishing All-Star Batman, All-Star Superman, and then Solo monthly.
I disagree with him on Wildstorm, though– I want Wildcats 3.0 back.
My friend Larry made a movie. It looks fun, and he inadvertently did something I’ve wanted to se in an action movie for ages- no jump cuts in the fight scenes. He lets them breathe.
Check out the new trailer:
Yeah Sure Okay has already started preorders (ten bucks!) and he’s shipping in January.
I was going over Google Reader and saw an interesting post on When Fangirls Attack. The text just said “2008: The Year of Misogyny,” so, being a fairly bright and curious fellow, I clicked on through to see what was what.
The post opens with a cheesecake motivational poster and then outlines all of the terrible things that have happened to women over the past year. I’ve seen it linked in a few spots, so I figure it’s a Thing. It’s a pretty gruesome list, and a little hard to read. Shabby treatment of female characters, female characters getting brutalized, and so on. The author asks “Aren’t you angry? If you aren’t, then why? And if you are, what are you going to do about it?”
Well, let me tell you something. After reading it, I was pretty angry. I was angry and fuming and thinking and realized that, as a race blogger, I owed it to my people, black and american and both, to examine the plight of black people in comics in 2008.
As you can tell by the title of my post, I am not happy! The list below is non-exhaustive, as I’m sure worse things have happened, but these are the ones I know of or have read. You may wish to listen to this song or this one in order to make it through this terrible list.
Read the rest of this entry �
Not a comic article today, but hopefully it’s still worth your time.
I have a very healthy relationship with my brothers, Geremy and Justin, though in this site’s 3 years, I never brought either of them up. Justin is currently a schoolteacher while Geremy is… something else. Something else entirely.
He’s always been big into music and his various musical exploits had evolved into a rock group called The Fever, which hung around New York City several years back and released several albums during their tenure. He took the helm as lead singer. Here, have a music video.
He’s moved onto other projects since the band broke up, including the creation of the short-lived MTV advertisement character Chunky Pam. He later created a non-MTV video with her about our homeland, New Jersey. Cameo appearance towards the end by my brother Justin as the Sopranos-esque mystery man at the diner.
Nowadays, he’s got a gig working for Diesel, the jeans company. For their site, he writes and directs short movies that even I have trouble wrapping my head around. But he’s my brother and I love him, so I go with the flow.
The pride and joy of the Diesel video collection is The Rise and Fall of Pete the Meat Puppet. He wrote it, directed it and even performed the overly catchy song. Watch it and enjoy your impending nightmares.
You might be better off just going to the YouTube page for it, since they have it in high def.
Looks like the short is taking off a bit, since it got featured on G4’s Attack of the Show. Sweet.
Geremy’s warned me about how Pete looks even more messed up in color and showed me a picture to prove his point. It’s… not pleasant.
He was also behind Hair Bath, a series about an attractive woman disturbingly obsessed with your hair.
You can check out more of his stuff, including the further adventures of Pete the Meat Puppet, at Diesel.com. Send in your hair if you can fit it into your schedule and buy… Diesel jeans…? I guess?
(Really, though, I don’t know what the fuck.)
This is incredible. I jacked it from Xclusives Zone, major props to Shaun Boothe for doing it.
There are the only two things I like enough to hang as posters on my wall. One is the original art to this:
The other is this.
The man is a superman.
Last time on the Venom Marathon, we discovered that the symbiote is an entity that can extrude itself as a molecular filament and travel along communication cables. In other words, Carnage Unleashed is the greatest awful comic of all time. Yet somehow, Marvel brass decided that Larry Hama should continue writing the series.
Continue he did, with Sinner Takes All. Had they gone with a real numbering system, this would be Venom #31-35, meaning that we’re halfway into his series. I have fonder memories of this one merely because as a kid, I had the entire five issues. Boy were they big issues. The first four came with a Jury back-up story that I’ve never cared about enough to actually read. The fifth issue came with a quick Venom story that I’ll get to after this Sin-Eater business.
The artist here is Greg Luzniak (Ted Halsted takes over for the last issue), who had a really nice art style for the most part. The catch was that his Venom, as you can see, is a little bit overboard.
Yikes. From what I understand, Hama is less into the superhuman and more into badasses armed to the teeth, so this storyline comes more natural to him.
Honestly, if you aren’t reading Hellcat already, I can’t do anything for you. Why aren’t you reading this amazingly charming, funny, fun, interesting, and well done book? It’s really very great, to not put too fine a point on it. David LaFuente’s art is great and unlike 90% of comic art out there.
That said, go read Tom Spurgeon interviewing Kathryn Immonen, writer of Hellcat, at Comics Reporter.
Here’s hoping we see more work out of everyone involved.
Sometimes (all of the times that have ever been times in recorded history) Dinosaur Comics is really, really good. This is one of those times.
I’m slowly trying to get back to writing those smarty-art posts everybody loves, but getting b.o.m.b. is tough! I’ve got a few things planned to get back into the swing of things and get it hot in here. I’ve been slacking like crazy lately.
Look for the start of a short series on a very specific Frank Miller-related subject later on this week, and I may try to rope some blog pals into talking about it with me. I’m hoping it has legs, but I’m sure that we’ll find out soon.
You can see my views on Batman #681 over at PCS. I’m not sure why the front page hasn’t updated, but there should be a few reviews going up this week, too.
I figure I have a reputation to keep up with, so let me get on with it.
Scipio from Absorbacon, on the day after Barack Obama was elected president, had a few things to say. I pulled an excerpt out for y’all:
Sorry to rain on anyone’s parade, and I’m sure this is going to anger a lot of readers, and I’m going to be misunderstood. But here goes….
Barack Obama’s not the country’s first black president; Barak Obama’s not black.
First, let me affirm, and strongly: I supported Obama during the primaries; I voted for him in the general election. I was, am, and, hopefully will every reason to continue to be, a strong supporter.
His election is not just a victory for an individual or a party, but for American democracy and spirit, which it has revivified. And I couldn’t be happier about it.
However….
I am not delighted by the constant characterization of Obama as the first Black president. YES, he certainly “looks black”. Yes, because of that he’s certainly had the experience of growing as a perceived black person in the last 40+ years. And, yes, that is very significant. It’s of great signficance and a great sign of hope for the future that the American people would elect such a man as its leader.
But, for one thing, he’s biracial. That, to me, is more symbolically significant, since he personifies (or could) a post-racial way of viewing the world, one that is the only real hope for social unity in our nation. That’s something that gets swept aside when he’s characterized simply as “our first black president”.
I don’t think that Scipio will be misunderstood at all. His point is clear as day. “Barack Obama is biracial, therefore he is not black.” In his own words, “Barack Obama’s not black.”
The problem is that Scipio is wrong. His opinion is wrong, his point of view is wrong, he’s uninformed whatever whatever. You know what I’m saying. There is actual factual reality and then there is Scipio, over here saying things.
My first thought after reading this post on Wednesday was a Paul Mooney skit. “White folks made up the word ‘nigger’ and don’t want me to say it.” His point is that nigger is not new, and was not created by black people. Was it adopted? Yeah, it was.
“Being black” is similar. Black people didn’t decide who got to be black and who didn’t. One drop rules aren’t from Africa. That’s something we inherited. However, we took the handoff once the ball got rolling. Got free, reclaimed it, and made it ours.
So, basically, you don’t get to decide who’s black or not. Black people got that treatment for a few centuries and now it’s over. It’s our turn. We know who’s black and who isn’t.
Being black isn’t a matter of having two black parents. It isn’t that simple. It’s not about being from the ghetto, or talking slang, or liking rap. It’s not about education. It’s not about status. There are a wide spectrum of experiences that make up the black experience.
Most of all, though, Barack is black because he says so. In his own words: “If I’m outside your building trying to hail a cab, they’re not saying ‘Oh, there’s a mixed race guy.'” He’s said over and over again that he’s black.
Who are you to say that he isn’t, in the name of making him fit your agenda? Being biracial is more symbolically significant than being black when attaining the highest public office? Really?
How about if it’s good for Barack, it’s good enough for me? And you? And anyone else who cares to question his own personal racial identity?
I’m sorry he doesn’t fit into the little box you’ve prepared for him.
So, in the spirit of not misunderstanding–
Scipio says “Barack Obama is not black.”
Barack Obama says he’s black.
No misunderstanding there at all.
