Sackboy to Nikko - FUCK YO COUCH

Little Big Planet - Game of the Year.

Respect Your Audience

I saw a comedian earlier tonight. 

He was okay, some good ideas, but his big problem was one I see a lot in pop-culture (TV, comics, movies); an assumption that your audience needs everything explained to them.

While this was a recurring thread throughout his set, there was one bit in particular that really highlighted this problem and frustrated me. Here is the start of the bit, to the best of my recollection:

"I do have a little bit of a drinking problem, but I try to strike a balance, so I exercise. I try to run a mile for every beer I drink. This only ever becomes a problem when I start dating a girl who's really into exercise, and she wants to know what I do to keep in shape... and I eventually tell her that I run five or six miles a day."

At this point in the bit several people in the audience, including me, laughed. We had all already made the jump from "run a mile for every beer I drink" to "run five or six miles a day." This was a pretty good joke.

The comedian, however, looked surprised, stopped his bit for the breifest of moments and actually said to the audience, "Huh, okay, well, that's not the funny part..." and then continued the bit. He continued this story for two or three more minutes, eventually getting to the punchline of  explaining to the audience again that those miles were based on the number of beers he drinks. 

Now, it's important to note that some people did laugh. It was a fairly small crowd of people (maybe 30), and some of them only laughed once the comic got to the end of the long-winded version. But for me at least, by making me wait for a few minutes, he lost me completely. By adding this hand-holding two minutes to the end, the bit became inelegant, his tone seemed to change to condescending, and I became bored with it.

This sort of thinking, that people are too dumb to keep up, has permeated pop-culture, and serves as a reminder that reaching the "lowest common denominator" is something that can come from form as well as content. 

When creators dodge this, when they trust people are capable of understanding their work, then audiences more often feel engaged rather than confused, and focus harder to have a real dialog with that work. And when that connection is made, it's usually far stronger than had everything been spelled out for them.
  
If this comic trusted his audience more to be able to keep up with him, he might have gotten one big laugh instead of splitting it and losing half the audience, gotten an additional two minutes to squeeze a new bit into, and maybe gotten a new fan. Instead he just got a few small chuckles, an extra two minutes of no punch lines, and me blogging about how crappy his routine was.

Respect your audience and we'll respect you back.

-casey-

Let's Play The X-Men Guessing Game

Hey kids! 

Like I said in title, let's play the X-Men Guessing Game!

Q: Based on this panel from Uncanny X-Men #502...

...is Dazzler - 

A: Dizzy from holding her breath, and leaning against the door for support?
B: Posing like that to distract from what is a really bad X-Men costume*?
C: Traced from porn?

To get the answer, just drop a line to Marvel Comics at this link, and I'm sure they'll let you know!

-casey-

*And that's saying something.

For anyone wondering why the posts have been slow...

BLAME THIS ASSHOLE.

Missing the Point - Marvel Noir Part 2

Hey kids! Remember this post?

Well, our old pals at Marvel have put out the December solicitation for the first issue! Let's take a look...

"X MEN NOIR #1 (of 4)

Written by FRED VAN LENTE

Pencils & Cover by DENNIS CALERO

Variant Cover by DENNIS CALERO

"The coroner's men flipped the redheaded corpse over so Dukes and Magnus from Homicide could get a better look at her. 'Better' being a relative term in this case, with the claw marks that slashed her face into a featureless, bloody mask and turned her guts into a butcher shop explosion.

"But the tattoo -- the simple, encircled 'X' above the left shoulder blade -- remained intact, and Dukes pointed it out with the toe of his wingtip once Peter the rookie was done heaving up lunch.

"'See this ink?' he said. 'Means she did time at this reform school upstate, run by this shrink, Xavier...'"

32 PGS./Parental Advisory ...$3.99"

I think the writing here can be summed up by the following phrase: 

Butcher shop explosion. 

Butcher shop explosion. 

BUTCHER. SHOP. EXPLOSION.

Or, to demonstrate visually - 

-casey-

Oh god, oh god no...

I had a sudden horrifying realization.

Batman is a furry. 

-casey-

Missing the Point - Marvel Noir

For the past few months, Marvel slowly leaked the above teaser images to the comics press, until today they announced a new imprint - Marvel Noir.

Newsarama has the full story [here].

This imprint houses several upcoming mini-series, which will feature familiar Marvel characters in a 1930's crime setting, independent of any continuity, without any of their familiar powers or trappings of the super-hero genre.

Speaking of classic Marvel characters like the X-Men, artist Dennis Calero said of the premise, "What if they were conceived as pulp action characters rather than superheroes?"

My question is this: When you've decided to strip these characters of their powers which define them, of the genre conventions from which they were conceived, and the continuity that binds them to a largely unchanging existence, why are we even using these characters at all?

Is there any literary or entertainment value in simply putting the Gambit/Rogue love story in a different setting? At what point will Marvel stop pretending to do something new, and instead actually do something new?

Or will we forever see Marvel cycle through the same stable of 20 odd characters, never conceiving any new characters as pulp action, superheroes, or any other variety?

And not to beat that dead horse but are we to blame for buying these?

Show me something new, Marvel, and I will give you my $2.99.

-casey-

One sentence about Peanuts (part 2)

Snoopy is a spy for the Russians.

Today on MySpace

Presented on the new MySpace homepage:

New Metallica
Old Cheech and Chong
Chris Kattan in a NON-IRONIC FASHION

And finally... SADNESS

I'd love to take off into these woods and get good and lost for a while...

Hey guys,

Real updates are going back to sporadic for the next week, since I just moved to a new apartment that's without internet.

However there is some concern that, without the constant typing and clicking that they've become adjusted to, my hands will shrivel up and fall off.

To combat that, I'll try to do little mini-posts at the end of my work day, thus keeping the semi-daily updates more daily than semi-.

Real post tomorrow, for now here are two songs to give you an idea of my mood;

Mates of State - California (Phantom Planet Cover)

The Cribs - Be Safe

-casey-

Get Free From the Middle Man

I defy you to not be totally charmed.

Julia Nunes - http://www.junumusic.com/

Damn Fools - Ben Curran Edition

Hey Kids!

Remember This Post about how if you don't like something, a comic you're reading, a blog you're checking, just stop participating in it?

Well, instead of doing that, Ben Curran over and ComicBookResources.com chose to post a 60 item long list taking childish pot-shots* at things he hates in the comics industry. 

See it here - 

60 Things I Hate (Well, more like don't care for) About Comics

 
 

Now, were I to write up this post, saying that Ben Curran sucks for liking Clerks 2** and then continue to read his blog, I would be no better than that which I decry.

 

Instead I'm just going to point out that acting like Comic Book Guy does nothing to help you be taken seriously, that writing solid reviews and analysis is harder and more interesting, and I will not be reading the Comics Should Be Good! blog any longer. 

Agency, kiddos! Taste the FREEDOM.

-Casey-

 

* One blogger makes the list because he likes Hawkman. A list of lisenced comics "whose annihilation would make [him] happy." A list of people who should never have written comics. You don't like something so you don't want ANYONE to have it? That is the attitude of a child.

** It should be noted that Clerks 2 is a terrible movie.

Okay, I'm sorry, this is the last one...

He's to sexy for all of those things. 

I promise, I'm done for now.

I should probably start saving these up...

Kids, this is why you don't go down the YouTube Rabbit Hole.

GAAAAAAH

Why is this thing a thing?!

Bad Box-Art Theater

"Why choose a single Fish Related Action Movie Pun when we can have TWO?"

Other than that, I have NO IDEA what the hell is happening here.

Adventures in Google Advertising

While I appreciate the concern for my finances, Google, I'll thank you to keep your adds out of my asshole.

Damn Fools - PVP Comics

"If at first you don't succeed, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it."

- W. C. Fields

An annoying trend exists in nerd culture, and comics culture specifically, where we cannot let anything go. Comics that we claim suck get our $2.99 every month, we complain about TV shows yet tune in every week, and go to the sequels of the movies that we didn't even like to begin with.

Are we so shut out from the broader pop-culture that we cannot let go of things that are specifically for us? Like so many Garfield window-toys we cling, bleaching in the sun, orange and gaudy, not to be moved. Or is it that we are a culture that nurtures complaints - geeks as a people are of the internet, a place designed specifically to allow anonymous, endless criticism*.

Regardless of why, I'm as guilty as the rest, so I am going to excise my demons here.

Today is the day I begin the process of moving on.

Today is the last time I go to PVP Comics.

I started reading PVP around 1999/2000, a year into highschool, back when the comic strip was about gaming. It was punchy, the art was good, and most importantly the strips were funny.

Eventually, though, the funny decided it didn't need to show up to work every day. Gags turned into running gags, running gags turned into memes, and memes got tired. The strip became more sit-comish, with some gags ripped straight from shows like Newsradio, with the more hackneyed plots that style demands. At one point Scott Kurtz, the creator of PVP, even introduced a talking cat that wanted to take over the world.

If there's two rich comedy veins currently unmined by cartoonists, they're cats and adorable megalomaniacs.

But something kept me reading. For every Scratch the cat and Shecky the Troll I wanted to throttle, I still really enjoyed the core cast. Brent, Cole, Skull, Jade... these are characters who I've been reading about daily for nine years now, and Kurtz has done an amazing job of keeping most of his older characters three-dimensional, consistent, and interesting.

Another plus for the series is how Kurtz has evolved as an artist over the years. Comparing Kurtz's early work to what he's drawing today is a bit like comparing the light from a match to that of the sun. It ranges from solid cartooning to some really beautiful line work. If Kurtz continues to work on his artistic range, maybe some day he could be as diverse as late-era Bill Waterson.

But those can't save the fact that the strip just isn't funny any longer. I click through each tired story line, excited for the next to begin but as soon as it does I find myself waiting for it to be over. The stories are boring, there are no good gags to be had.

And every strip is so steeped in Kurtz's love for pop-culture that it becomes distracting. It's impossible for there to just be a doctor in the strip, the doctor has to be Hugh Laurie from House, and a panel must be spent referncing that. It's gotten to the point that I can only respond to all of Kurtz's winking with eye-rolls.

So today I take a step into a scarier world, a world without Skull the Troll and with one less thing that annoys me taking up my time.

Today I quit reading PVP. Tomorrow perhaps I'll stop buying back-issues.

Baby steps, Casey, baby steps...

_casey_

*And pornography distribution.

Random Reviews - Fantastic Four: 1 2 3 4

It's possible that I'm more susceptible to the whims of writer's block than your average blogger.

Living in a nerdy version of Fred Sanford's house, I constantly trip over excuses not to write... Hey, is that the DVD of Izo that I bought about three years ago and haven't watched yet? What about that copy of The Sun Also Rises that I bought and promptly used to prop up my desktop speakers? And tempting me from my bedside is Batman choose your own adventure book I bought in 4th grade and have read 100 times by now.

So, like a judo master, I decided to use my opponent's strength against him. I closed my eyes, reached into the pile, and said "I AM GOING TO REVIEW THIS THING!"

What I grabbed was Grant Morrison and Jae Lee's Fantastic Four: 1 2 3 4

Reading Final Crisis and the JLA story Rock of Ages it's become pretty clear over the years that Grant Morrison would have a great bit comics-author make-out with Jack Kirby if he could. They're both all about big, crazy ahead of their time ideas, and both sometimes a little weak on delivering those ideas in a story. So when Morrison gets hold of Kirby's most famous creations and uses it to stage a five-dimensional chess match, I get a little nervous.

1 2 3 4 avoids falling into a downward spiral of Morrisonian craziness, though, by letting the structure of the mini-series work for it. Taking place over four issues, each member of the Fantastic family gets 22 pages to take front and center... and by putting Mr. Fantastic's issue dead last.

So any and all discussion of "prime movers," alternate realities, and dimension warping machinery that Mr. Fantastic would otherwise be Morrison's mouthpiece for get put as far away from the reader as possible, and for three issues, we get to read about the characters.

Morrison writes the Human Torch and the Thing relatively deftly. The Thing is made human early on in a "be careful what you wish for" twist. As for the Torch, it's hard to lend depth to a character whose whole shtick is that he's a one-dimensional airhead. Their parts weren't especially great or boring, but I think even a well written version of either character would seem flat next to this story's version of Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman.

In my favorite part of the book, Sue and her friend Alicia Masters share dinner... for twelve pages. Excessive in any other book, but here one detail makes it work - Sue goes through eleven pages of it completely invisible.

Running to Alicia's apartment to get some time away from being in the Fantastic Four, Sue drinks wine and talks... mostly about Reed. She talks mournfully about being ignored by Reed, how she wishes he would talk to her, and how he seems to "look right through her." That kind of lazy metaphor works here (Looking through the Invisible Woman, haha, get it? Groan.), because it's with Alicia, a woman who is totally blind. When around the one person who can't tell if she's invisible or not, Sue still chooses to be transparent.

Looking for that privacy and some time away, Sue needs to be invisible so she can hide from the one person left who can see us - us, the reader.

All through this sequence, Sue emotes through a wine glass, which artist Jae Lee imbues with tremendous personality. It dips, it rises, it tilts and represents the ups and downs that come from having this conversation about her husband.

So when Namor the Atlantean Sex God shows up at the end of the sequence to take her away demanding "Susan, let me look at you," she drops the glass and becomes visible. Sue doesn't need the glass, or to be invisible - there's finally someone worth being seen by.

It's a great marriage of character, conflict, and something that can only happen in a Grant Morrison super-hero comics, and I ate it up.

one sentence about peanuts (part 1)

Schroeder is a total bad-ass.

(More updates to come, I promise.)