electricinca.com

Me not discover new genre of fiction called Bizarro. It's nothing to do with the character from the Superman universe of the same name though. Although if we were still using the bizarre backward logic and manner of speaking as exhibited by the character Bizarro then it would mean that the two were linked - confusing! Anyway Bizarro sounds right up my alley so I think I'll be checking out The Bizarro Starter Kit as recommended by Bizarro Central.

Labels: books, comics

Brilliant composition in this photograph with the lady on the seat giving just a glance out of the corner of her eye to Superman walking past her.

Labels: comics, photography

I have a lot of respect for Bitch Ph.D and read her blog regularly but I think she may be overreacting about the Rapist No.1 action figure from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's new movie Grindhouse.


As well as the Rapist figure (which is the likeness of Tarantino as he portrays said character in the movie in one of his customary cameo appearances) action figures of other characters such as Cherry and Dakota are available to buy.



She seems mostly concerned that it is being marketed by the name Rapist No.1 doll but that is just the name of the character in the movie and to my mind is no different than a Freddy Krueger action figure. It's not as if the figure is even depicted in an act of rape and can hardly be considered glorifying rape or fostering an attitude that rape is acceptable.

I haven't seen Grindhouse yet but I would imagine if Tarantino's previous movies are any indicator that this rapist character meets a gory and well deserved end. I think there is a debate to be had about the depiction of rape in movies and on television and the trend for the sexualisation of female victims of rape in them as opposed to the depiction of male rape victims. Also there is a disturbing trend (in comics it is referred to as the Women in Refrigerators Syndrome) for using violence against women as a plot device and motivating factor for the hero protagonist of the story to whom the victim is connected.

I think that Bitch Ph.D has picked upon the wrong thing for her argument here.

I don't see the appeal myself for these action figures designed for adults and they are very much a niche product that as opposed to movies have little to no impact on society at large. I believe that had she not written about it then virtually the entire readership of Bitch Ph.D would never have known that such a thing as a Rapist No.1 action figure even existed.

Labels: cinema, comics, movies

I read at the weekend in Empire magazine that the production of the movie adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's classic graphic novel Watchmen is back on.

The producers clearly have a lot of respect for the material but they simply cannot have an understanding of why it works so well if they believe they can turn it into a movie.

I think it is basically unfilmable as it is impossible to capture the essence of it in any other form that that for which is was written.

They will no doubt be able to get the basic story on celluloid but what makes the comic so great will almost certainly be lost.

I was trying to explain it to my brother and it is basically that there are certain pieces in various different media that in transferring from one medium to another would lose their essence.

Un Chien Andalou for example could not possibly work as a short story.

The words of Zack Snyder director of 300 who has also been lined up to direct Watchmen give me some comfort.

I want to make this movie, it’ll be awesome to make it but I need to be convinced that it will be worth making, that we have respect for the thing. I’m going to wait and see right now – I’m the biggest sceptic!

But don’t read too much into that - the hope is to start filming next year, once the screenplay has been cracked. “I haven’t seen anything yet that makes me think that we’re any closer to it,” added Snyder. “Everyone says ‘I respect the source material’ but I think what Hollywood misses and what we need to think about is what is the book about? What does it mean? It’s easy to get caught up in the mechanics of the script and the mechanics of the movie.

I believe that it might be possible to make a wonderful adaptation of Watchmen but I have no idea how that can be accomplished and have no faith that anyone will be able accomplish it.

It would I believe require complete deconstruction of it and then for it to be utterly rebuilt from the ground up with the narrative techniques that are unique to comics replaced with some film making techniques.

Watchmen is an analysis of what it is to be a superhero but also a deconstruction of what comic books about superheroes are. Perhaps a movie version could be a deconstruction of superhero movies in some way. I'm still not convinced that we are going to get anything like that, this will probably be yet another awful adaptation of a Moore comic but there is a one in a million chance that it might be a movie masterpiece.

Labels: comics, movies

Tom Tomorrow has produced a really excellent page of This Modern World today.



The rest of it can be read here.

Labels: comics

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - COMPLY

It's one of my favourite webcomics and even better it's Creative Commons licensed.



Permalink for the above comic page is http://xkcd.com/c128.html

Edit: The latest one is quite appropriate given the current heatwave in Britain.

Labels: comics, humour

BoingBoing reveals that Marvel Comics is continuing in its bid to steal the word "super-hero" from the public domain. They pick up on a suggestion made by Warren Ellis.

Let's never use the term "super-hero" to describe a Marvel character. Let's call them "underwear perverts".

This really pisses me off as the only reason why they should be trying to trademark a term which is so generic is to stifle competition. It is blatant anti-competitive practice. Also bizarre given that DC Comics amongst others existed and were using the term superhero long before Marvel Comics published their first 'underwear pervert' comic book.

In fact DC is also in on the trademark claim.

Labels: comics

I've been very up and down about the movie adaptation of the classic graphic novel V for Vendetta. It's one of my favourites and so I was initially enthused to hear it was being adapted for film, but then the thoughts of other film adaptations of Alan Moore's comic book work took the shine off somewhat.

But then hearing of the involvement of the Wachowskis and seeing the photos of the production design made me think that actually it could turn out really well. But then there was the Eggy in the Basket news which brought me back down again.

But with the movie posters that were recently revealed which I loved and now this trailer I'm very much looking forward to it again. It's looking great.

Labels: comics, movies

In another story of a comic book fan railing against the injustices of the world we have from one of my local haunts of Straight to Hell the tale of Tom Willecome.

Resident punk rock legend (and angry..oh so angry..Welshman), Tom Willecome has become infamous around our forum for his oft-heard chants of "Piece Of Shit" whenever the subject of the upcoming Hellblazer movie, "Constantine", is broached.

With that in mind, Tom has decided to vent his rage in a positive manner, hence TOM's Constanteen Charity Challenge to raise funds for the Lyomphoma Association.

Based on the final total raised for the Lyomphoma Association , Tom will, for...

£100 - attend the movie with another forum regular...

£250 - ...write a review...

£500 - ...with no swearing....

£1000 - ...as if he'd never heard of John Constantine before.

So go on I urge you to torture Tom a little and force him to watch Constantine, if not for charity then in revenge for the Welsh rugby team's recent victory over England.

Labels: comics, movies

The BBC's Culture Show is clearly behind the times and trots out the now cliched report on how comics ain't just for kids. Look here Middle England there are things called Graphic Novels and they deal with real issues in a serious way using a garphical format.

Graphic novels get real
Far from being stuck in an adolescent fantasy world, the latest trend in graphic novels is autobiographical and intimate. We look at Epileptic, the latest book by David B and trace the history of the real world in comic book form.

Random House website: Epileptic

The one British example of this 'realist' style of graphic novel that they present is the When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs which was published over 20 years ago in 1982. This strikes me as bizarre given that there has been a slew of critically acclaimed British comic writers that have come to prominance in the intervening period such as Alan Moore and Grant Morrison.

These writers may have come to prominance mainly due to their superhero comics written for American comic companies but they have also produced great work in the 'realist' style. Alan Moore's From Hell is on the surface a lurid penny dreadful about the Jack the Ripper killings but in my opinion has actually greater depth than anything shows like this normally present as graphic novels that might appeal to the middle classes such as Maus or Palestine.

Even moving into the more fantastical arena for this is where comic books can surpass all other media formats we have superlative stories which should be attracting a wider audience despite the distain that the intelligentsia seems to have for comic books. The satire of the now departed Transmetropolitan is very relevant today and to return to Moore the dystopian vision of the future in his V for Vendetta now seems to have become our reality. But where is V to save us now.

Labels: comics

It looks like the movie adaptation of Alan Moore and David Lloyd's seminal comic book series V for Vendetta will be going ahead with Natalie Portman in a leading role. The film will be produced by the The Wachowski Brothers and Joel Silver, the creators and producer of the revolutionary, $1.6 billion-grossing Matrix trilogy and directed by James McTeigue. I'm feeling very positive about this production and I'm confident that the Wachowskis will deliver a truly excellent adaptation of one of Alan Moore's works as the previous movie adaptations, From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen have been below par.

Labels: comics, movies

The forum of Straight to Hell is one of my regular haunts and it has moved. Voices From Beyond can now be found at that new link.

Ostensibly a forum about the comic book Hellblazer it became just a really cool place to hand out and shoot the breeze with like minded people about a huge range of subjects from religion to movies and video games. Hopefully with the move it will retain its character and be a place you will still find me hanging out in most days.

"The ants are my friends
they're blowing in the wind
the ants they are blowing in the wind"

Labels: comics

See it here. Non-subscribers can read it via the ad-sponsored free day pass.

A wide ranging interview with arguable the best comic book writer of all time that covers his work, his views on politics and how TV and Film are short-circuiting reality and damaging the public's ability to discern the truth of events.

Favourite quotes from the interview:-

And I really hope that people are not morally lazy or weak enough to elect this guy; I won't say 'again' because he wasn't elected the first time. And it is true to say that across the world there is quite a lot of anti-America sentiment, which is different than anti-American sentiment. I think that even in the majority of Muslim countries that have been polled, nobody blames Americans -- they blame George Bush and the people surrounding him. Mind you, we'll see what happens this November, because you can have someone take over your country once and still have it be an accident. But twice? Well, that would be regrettable. [Laughs.]

...I mean, I think that television is one of the most diabolical -- in the very best sense of the word -- inventions of the past century. It has probably done more to degrade the mind and intelligence of its audience, even if they happen to be drug addicts or alcoholics; I would think that watching television has done more to limit their horizons in the long run. And it has also distorted our culture.

Labels: comics

I've just realized that I've become King Mob and I'm not sure why it's happened. I used to be like Jack Frost at the start of the comic book series The Invisibles. I was a foul-mouthed little cunt with no respect for authority but I was also extremely intelligent and thought I knew all the answers. I chilled out and became a little bit more enlightened and was well on my way to becoming a buddha-like being.

But somehow I've gotten off track and evolved into another member of The Invisibles, I've become King Mob. I've got myself a tattoo of a scorpion on my back, which isn't exactly the same as his but is essentially the same in that it's a scorpion on my back.
  

I've fallen in love with a red-haired girl from the future who reminds me of Ragged Robin.

In addition and quite worryingly I've developed an affinity for violence, not that I'm shooting anyone or anything like that. Well who knows what would happen if I owned a firearm ey?

Perhaps I shall progress further through the Invisibles during my evolution. I don't see myself becoming a transvestite witch or a black former policewoman so looking further afield maybe I'll end up as a Billionaire industrialist like Mason Lang or an insane homeless guy like Tom O'Bedlam.

Labels: comics

With the improvements in processing power of modern graphics cards the characters in video games are appearing increasingly lifelike but have now possibly hit a wall. Human beings have over the millions of years of evolution developed an amazing ability to recognize other human beings and are able to discern the difference between real people and fakes. No matter how good the waxworks are at Madame Tussauds they could never be mistaken for a real person because they lack the 'spark of life' that humans are somehow able to recognize. The same is true of video game characters and computer generated animations no matter how close to realistic they are they will probably always lack that je ne se quais. The characters appear like dead people that are moving, puppets made of human flesh.

This phenomenon has been termed the 'Uncanny Valley' by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori and is written about in the article The Undead Zone: Why realistic graphics make humans look creepy by Clive Thompson. Mori used the term in relation to robotics but it is equally applicable to any situation where a representation of life is produced.

The comic book writer and artist Scott McCloud tackles this same problem in his book Understanding Comics. People prefer art in comics where the characters are detailed enough that you can distinguish between the various people but also lacking sufficient detail so that the reader can fill in the blanks and imbue it with life in their minds. But when something is too realistic the reader has less work to do to add life and so focuses on the minor details that detract from the realism.

Labels: comics, Games

What the hell does he mean slab?

The term refers to getting a comic professionally graded by Comics Guaranty, LLC (CGC) who will then seal it in a comic book holder as can be seen here.


There has been some controversy recently concerning the slabbing of new comics with extremely high grades i.e. the comic is in mint condition and then auctioning them on eBay at hugely inflated prices.

But I shall not be doing that. I am considering whether it makes sense to slab the following comics that I am considering selling.

Batman #155
Elseworlds 80-page Giant
Ultimate Spider-Man #1

There is some financial sense in doing so if I am definitely going to sell as CGC graded comics are currently selling at a premium.

Labels: comics

Other comic geeks might be interested in this.

'Uncanny physics of comic book superheroes'

Especially cool: Why Krypton *had* to explode.

Labels: comics