We were cleaning up this weekend, and came across a few historical curiosities which we may post over the next few days or so. First up, a bizarre photo taken c. 1993 at the amusement park Magic Mountain of (clockwise from the top) Robbie Busch, Stephen DeStefano, Kyle Baker and The Beat. What’s notable here is that the green screen effect produced a stigmata in the shape of Charlie Parker’s head floating over Kyle’s chest. Kyle is just that powerful!
Man, we are trying to get away from all the Gender Wars, but all the good links seem to circle back around, like Michaela Reid’s write up on the “Having Our Say: Black Women Discuss Imagery” panel at the ECBACC a few weekends back.
4. What would an ideal state look like?
* RL: “There should be a gazillion small companies putting out what needs to be said, however they need to get the truth out. When you tell your own truth, people follow.”
* LAB: In an ideal world “every major publishing house would be giving Anne Rice dollars to people writing speculative fiction.” She said that 60% of all paperback sales are romance novels, and that publishers tend to put all the money and promotions and good distribution deals into a few big authors. “They’re all putting Danielle Steele in her Rolls Royce. There’s a huge pay disparity.”
* CLE: “Utopia? I’m so used to just fighting for the most minute recognition. Just to walk into a comic book store and see a diverse range.”
* RL: Talked about how there is often a defensive backlash against comic book creators of color: “When you do start bringing things to the light, people get upset.” She said she had gotten a lot of negative reactions to making the main characters in her Sand Storm comic books, which are set in ancient Egypt, black instead of fititng into the “Elizabeth Taylor” white Cleopatra that so many people are comfortable with.
Reid has more coverage of the show here.
We always liked the All Ages Reads feature in Newsarama — actual kids reacing kids comings and giving their thoughts. This time they look at The Black Belt Club and Abadazad — I was particularly curious about the latter, because after a HUGE publicity push for it last year from Disney is kinda dropped off the grid entirely. :
I have several problems with the new format. First, there just isn’t enough of what made it great in the first place – comics. I counted 24 pages of comics out of the 144 pages in the first issue; if my calculator is to be trusted, that’s a tad over 16%. Second, the books are just too small. At roughly 8” by 5”, the books just aren’t big enough to do Ploog and Bell’s magnificent work justice. And because of the page frame that is supposed to look like we’re reading a book within a book, the comics are even smaller than they could have been. It looks like the pages were photocopied at a reduced percentage and they just don’t hold the same magic as the original at all. In addition, the text in the comic sections is so small that anyone over the age of 40 will have trouble reading it. Not that I’d know that from personal experience or anything.
These complaints aside, Abadazad is still high-quality literature and is recommended for readers of any age. It would make a great read-together book for younger kids and their parents. Abadazad definitely belongs in children’s libraries and could be used to great effect in classrooms – it’s a shining example of great storytelling.
Shelby says: I like that it’s in the form of a diary but she’s talking to you, too. The whole idea of the story is interesting because it’s different from everything else. I just like the idea that Kate goes to another world and the made-up characters in Abadazad are cool because they’re really different from the creatures on earth. The pictures are important because it explains some things that you can’t really do in words. Sometimes in books there are really good descriptions of characters so you can understand what they look like and you don’t need pictures, but in Abadazad it’s like impossible to describe some of them, so the artist has to draw them. The art has got a lot of color and that makes it look really good. Mostly kids who can read and their parents will like it.
I don’t have too much to say about Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. It should have been called “At Ordeal’s End.” I was sorely disappointed by POTC II, and III is cut from the exact same cloth, since it was made at the same time. A glance at the stillstells the tale: every one is crammed, packed and ugly, just like the movie.
I’m going to talk about the movie a bit and I’m going to discuss the ending in depth, so PLEASE, only click on more if you are fully prepared for SPOLIERS.
I MEAN IT… S P O I L E R S
(more…)
While the holiday weekend has left people more interested in barbecues and outdoor exposure, a few developments. First J. Bone has posted the above image.
But see also this (!).
A few responses from the blogosphere.
Laura Hudson:
Oh, Joe Q. How could anyone read anything perverse into this picture of bleeding, half-naked women strung up in chains, with drops of moisture glistening on their breasts as probing tentacles creep towards them? You heard it from the man himself: this is a totally innocent picture of kick ass women fighting the Brood, and you’re a dirty, dirty pervert for thinking anything else. Also, I particularly like how he tries to cash in on some sort of feminist cred by citing the woman who brought us Drain, a story about a sexy Asian vampire named Chinatsu who likes to lez it up with other sexy female vampires, and decapitate dudes while making jokes about “head” and licking her loooong sword. But you know, I’m probably reading too much into that too.
Kalinara
That said, there seems to be the prevalent idea in these defenses that the product isn’t offensive because the producers did not intend it to be so. That the product is being “misconstrued” as sexist.
It doesn’t work that way.
Adam Hughes does not get to determine what of his work offends people. Joe Quesada does not get to determine what covers set us off. No one gets to make that decision except the person who is offended. To that person, the work is offensive.
Peter Sanderson
Hughes asks, “is it really a sexist or misogynistic act if it wasn’t intended that way on the part of the people doing it? . . .are you seeing something that’s either not there, or that the artist never intended to be there?” First, this demonstrates a lack of understanding of human psychology. Certainly, a person can be subconsciously sexist or misogynistic. Certainly people can consciously hold prejudiced opinions without being aware they are prejudiced: they consider their opinions to be correct. D. W. Griffith was reportedly surprised that his film Birth of a Nation (1915) was attacked as racist, though today that is the unanimous opinion of cinema scholars. There’s that song in the musical Avenue Q, “Everybody’s a Little Bit Racist.”
Moreover, even if Hughes did not consciously or unconsciously have sexist intentions, that does not mean that people who interpret the statue as sexist are wrong. Certainly artwork can be interpreted in ways of which the artist was not consciously aware. A Freudian interpretation of Oedipus Rex is not invalid simply because Sophocles died centuries before Freud devised the term “Oedipus complex.” If an interpretation fits the artwork, it is justified whether or not the creator agrees with it. This is a basic principle of criticism, long accepted in academia, and comics writers and artists had best wake up and take notice. (Not surprisingly, Neil Gaiman recognizes this principle, as can be seen from his introduction to The Sandman Papers, Fantagraphics’ 2006 anthology of academic essays about his work.)
J. Caleb Mozzocco:
Beyond the fact that Quesada doesn’t see a problem with the cover (A state of affairs I had imagined and found perhaps just as bad if not worse than an intentional use of the imagery to stoke it’s most negative and perversely sexual connotations), I was surprised to hear him say publicly that he’s not a “deep follower” of manga.
Um, should you really be the Editor-in-Chief of one of the biggest American comic book publishers and not be “deep into” the most rapid-growing and widely-read type of sequential art storytelling? Admittedly, it does explain why Marvel’s dozen or so attempts to attract the manga audience have all fallen flat (with a few vestiges of such initiatives seemingly succeeding despite Marvel’s efforts, like Runaways surviving the doomed “Tsunami” line or Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane lasting as long as it has and racking up rave reviews), but, Jesus, if I was Quesada I’d have copies of Fruits Basket and Naruto under microscopes in a big Marvel lab somewhere, with Marvel staff scientists studying the things around the clock and I’d be calling once a day to ask if they’ve managed to identify and reverse engineer whatever it is that makes kids love those things so much.
Also Lea Hernandez has remixed the cover to make it a little less hentai and Misty Knight ethinically accurate.
film ick has scoop:
Later this year - if all goes well - Neil Gaiman will be directing his first feature film. It’s an adaptation of his Death: The High Cost of Living mini-series, and - of course - he’s scripted it.
This was the film he was discussing with Guillermo del Toro at the meeting a couple of weeks back, as I suspected. I’ve now had this 100% confirmed.
What more do I know? That the film will most likely shoot in late autumn, early winter, and in the UK, though the comic takes place (mainly) in the US.
LaBeouf’s involvement geos back at least two years
Young actor Shia LaBeouf, who starred in Warner Bros. Constantine, told SCI FI Wire that he’s been working with graphic novel writer Neil Gaiman to bring his Death stories to life on the big screen.
George Gene Gustines examines the concepts from TV which are now being used in comics , like “Show runners’ and “seasons.”
¶In “Countdown,” a new weekly series from DC Comics that began this month, Paul Dini, who worked on ABC’s “Lost,” is serving as head writer.
¶The new “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” series from Dark Horse is being promoted as the never-produced Season 8 of the “Buffy” television show and is written by Joss Whedon, Buffy’s creator, who is credited as the comic’s “executive producer.”
¶Marvel Entertainment is also adopting the “season” mentality — a fresh number of issues and then a break — on high-profile series like “Ultimates” and “Young Avengers.”
¶Platinum Comics has adapted television’s “show runner” concept, used to describe the top writer-producer on a series, into a “comic runner” for their Web-only titles.
We did like this from Platinum:
Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, the chairman of Platinum Studios, which offers Web-only and traditional printed comics, conceived the position of “comic runner” to help produce his company’s online titles.
“The comic runner is basically an entrepreneur who is running a small business,” he said. Mr. Rosenberg called it a “tough job” that required the ability to get comics from idea to final product regularly.
The comic runner must also be the spokesman for the property, helping to make decisions about publicity, merchandising and television or film development.
In olden days, this was often called being an “self-publisher” or an “editor”" but we’ll take the fancy modern title, too.
The Comics Reporter has posted the Annual Guide to San Diego Comic-Con, which is as definitive as it gets. His list of lodgings ranked by desirability has 22 categories, and in our 20+ years of con going, we’ve known someone to utilize all 22! Even jail. The guide contains many shockers, like this:
2. In eight years of staying there, four days per visit, the only comics-related person I have ever seen in the Westin Horton Plaza’s exercise room is Kevin Eastman. In general, use of hotel facilities like pools, hot tubs and exercise rooms seems to be really light during the convention weekend. Taking a couple of extra hours in the morning to pamper yourself or get in a workout can be fun and a great stress reliever.
Kevin? Didn’t see THAT one coming! Also THIS
3. The security people at the Hyatt will follow you into a bar in order to yell at you for not obeying their orders, but you pretty much have to take a swing at one to get thrown out. Don’t test this.
is not true, as we have been thrown out of the Hyatt bar, although that was a long time ago. Things may have changed.
Also, your press types may want to note that the con is closing down press registration on June 18th, which is really, really, really early, but they are trying to keep down the people who show up on the day of and get in for free as members of the press. Professional registration closed on May 1.
Jeff Lester tracks down an early work by Bryan Lee O’Malley: Spider-Man: Doctors, an early reader for kids. O’Malley ‘fesses up:
Yeah, it was one of the first things I did in comics, way back in 2001. Go ahead and run images if you want.
Christopher Butcher actually helped me colour it, which is why it’s so pink. That was right before we moved in together.
Just visiting old friends.
[Photo by Elim Mak.]
Gary Groth is paging all Pogo fans to help with FBI’s upcoming Pogo reprints:
We are requesting the help of Pogo collectors who may have original art or high quality reproductions of Walt Kelly’s Pogo strip.
We are currently assembling Walt Kelly’s POGO: The Complete Daily & Sunday Strips. We are looking for the best possible black-and-white reproduction of both Sundays and dailies — especially the Sundays. If you have original art or proofs that you would be willing to let us scan, we would be grateful if you’d contact us. You may e-mail me directly at:
groth@fantagraphics.com
(Please put POGO in the header). Thank you.
Gary Groth
Fantagraphics Books
The animated PERSEPOLIS, co-directed by Marjana Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud has shared the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film tells of Satrapi’s girlhood in post-Revolution Iran. The film will be released this fall in America by Sony Classics. It shared the prize with Stellet Licht, a tale of forbidden love among Mexican Mennonites directed by Carlos Reygadas. The Romanian 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days by Cristian Mungiu wpon the Palme d’Or
.
Bill Amend won the Cartoonist of the Year Reuben award in a ceremont mast night, according to Editor & Publisher. Amend ended the daily run of the strip last year, but continues it as on Sunday’s only.
Other winners from the article:
– Best comic strip cartoonist: Stephan Pastis (”Pearls Before Swine”/United Media).
– Best comic panel cartoonist: Hilary Price (”Rhymes With Orange”/King).
– Best editorial cartoonist: Mike Ramirez (Investor’s Business Daily/Copley News Service).
– Best newspaper illustrator: Laurie Triefeldt (”World of Wonder”/The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J./United).
– Book Illustration : Mike Lester
– Greeting Cards: Carla Ventresca
Carter Goodrich also won an award for OPEN SEASON in the animation category.
Looks like WP crashed for about 12 hours. It’s been acting a bit unstable lately — hence all the double postings. I’m hoping we can get it stabilized next wee. In the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions on what to do with WP, feel free to leave them. I’m going to lay off the postings (Except for the TUF recap)to try to keep things on the DL. Everyone have a great weekend!
At least one authority figure has spoken out, and the message is “Subtext? What subtext?”:
On the MJ: Statue:
JQ: Not really. When fans saw the statue was exactly the same time I was made aware of it, I have no involvement in that stuff and haven’t kept up with the brouhaha. It kind of floors me in a way because Adam Hughes is brilliant and is known for his amazingly sexy portrayal of strong women, so I’m not quite sure what people are up in arms about? Seriously, fill me in because I’ve literally been out of town and out of the loop.
On Heroes for Hire:
How about the Heroes for Hire #13? This has caused some controversy of its own, with some people likening it to a very unsavory recurring element in some more adult-themed manga?
JQ: This one I can answer to. First, I think people are reading way too much into that cover than was ever intended. I heard terms such as “tentacle rape” being thrown around when that in no way is what’s happening, nor does it happen in the book. Those tentacles are the arms of the Brood who appears in the issue and is a major story point, the Brood have tentacles, sorry about that.
Secondly, the concept for that cover, soup to nuts came from a female artist. Thirdly, not being a deep follower of manga, I have no idea what recurring theme people are referring to or concerned with. While I appreciate the sentiment and the feelings that some may have about this, I honestly feel that there is way too much being read into this cover.
Also, HFH is a book that features two strong, lead female protagonist who kick major ass; somehow folks have forgotten to focus on that.
NRAMA: Well, you correctly identified the “unsavory” element we were referring to…just one of those absurd phrases (though it exists).
Frankly, we’re most baffled by Newsarama’s followup question/comment (quoted above.)
…and nothing would ever be the same.
Even though we’re taking the day off, we couldn’t ignore a bunch of press for LEVITATION and WIRE MOTHERS by Jim Ottaviani and illustrated by Dylan Meconis and Janine Johnston, respectively. Newsarama raps with Ottaviani about both books. We’re especially interested in WIRE MOTHERS which recounts the background of Harry Harlow’s terrifying experiments with monkeys and terry cloth “mothers”…as a kid, we saw this special when it was rerun, and the image of the sad, alienated baby monkeys clinging to a rag over a piece of wire as if it was all that they had in the world is one that haunts us to this day.
Jim: Well, for Wire Mothers, the pitch is that there was a time not so terribly long ago when scientists didn’t think that love was real– you know, “We’ve got the word, but is there any such thing as love? Isn’t it just attachment? Isn’t it just the desire for food, warmth…whatever it is?”
And one guy, Harry Harlow, said, “You know, I’m dead certain that love exists, and that it matters. And I’m going to set about to prove this, because all the advice that scientists are giving to parents these days – don’t hug your kids, don’t kiss your kids, be very cool and distant – I think that’s nonsense.” And he was able to prove that love exists – not only is it learned, but that it matters to all sorts of creatures, from monkeys on up to humans.
Levitation is best described by a quote from Scientific American in 1897 that I put in the front of the book, which explains how there’s been very little written explaining stage illusions – how these illusions bring together performance, psychology and science to achieve their effects. That’s the book – it’s the story of one of the most famous illusions ever performed, and the science and evolution of that illusion.
We’ve read both books, and although not without some flaws (lettering, ahem) they are a fine continuation of Ottaviani’s quest to humanize science through comics.
We’re going to be frightfully busy today so very very little posting.
In the meantime…PIRATES!
Via Flog.
And now just to cleanse everyone’s palette, here are pictures from the book party for Ariel Schrag’s Stuck in the Middle Friday at Rocketship. The place was ABSOLUTELY packed, and here’s a nice picture of Gabrielle Bell and Ariel.
I know everyone is hot and bothered, but the server is very busy, so please don’t keep hitting send when you post! We are getting tons of double posts! PATIENCE.
Writing in his real life guise as Steve Murray, Steve/Chip has a new advice feature at the National Post and it is rife with sensibleness:
STEP TWO: Armed with this knowledge, you now need to stew. Close your curtains and sit in the dark for a weekend. Now think about what I just said until your anger hits the boiling point.
Apparently Marvel has a “Coober Skeeber” type anthology of indie type artists handling their characters underway, and Dash Shaw is the first to show off part of his effort on the Meathaus Blog. . Maybe they will finally publish that Peter Bagge Hulk story in here?
Red Mile Entertainment, Inc. (OTCBB: RDML), a worldwide developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software, today announced it has entered into a multi-year, worldwide license agreement to develop and to publish video games based on the Sin City series of graphic novels by writer/artist and film director Frank Miller. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The winner of multiple awards in its original comic-book and graphic-novel forms, the Sin City property achieved even greater public awareness with the 2005 release of the successful Frank Miller’s Sin City live-action theatrical feature film.
“Sin City enjoys a broad and devoted following. Its crime noir settings, richly detailed characters, hyper-real action sequences, and engaging stories provide an outstanding groundwork for video games,” said Chester Aldridge, CEO of Red Mile Entertainment. “Red Mile is enthusiastic about working with Frank Miller to create a franchise that is worthy of this great property.”
You are currently browsing the THE BEAT weblog archives for May, 2007.