Gone with the Blastwave
Dec 08Matt’s being deep ‘n shit, and all I’ve got is a web comic I’d like to spread to the masses. Fuck! How lame am I? Still, it’s a funny comic, particularly if you’ve ever played any first person shooters.
Matt to Comics Legends: Cowboy Up Re: Bush, Iraq
Dec 08My boss asked us all to create short lists of things we want from Target.Com, so that he can purchase us a gift for Christmas. Pretty generous, and one of the items that made my list was Absolute Watchmen.
Which got me to thinking about what I’d say if any office comics neophytes asked me about what exactly Watchmen is, and then about how Watchmen is timeless but also a product of its era, and then about how it’s actually a pretty sharp political statement about the cold war and nuclear proliferation, and THEN about Dark Knight Returns and how Frank Miller savaged the Reagan administration and the politics of eighties America.
Then I got sad. Cause who’s doing that NOW, when we need sharp and biting critique of our nation’s policies more than ever?
No one’s doing it, that’s who. Alan Moore’s making pornography–excuse me, “erotic fiction”–and Miller’s gone red white and blue in the wake of 9/11. Howard Chaykin’s cranking out excellent and absolutely uncontroversial work for both Marvel and DC. All the angry young men of the eighties comics new wave have become far less angry old men, except for Moore, and then only when they make his books into movies.
Is Civil War supposed to count? Cause it’s pretty tame. Toothless, in fact. Thinly-veiled allegory that strikes no nerves.
Fact is, there’s nothing out there on the scale of a Dark Knight or Watchmen that is taking the current administration to task for its heartless, thoughtless policies at home and abroad. These assholes are getting a TOTAL free pass from the comic book industry. (And the music industry, and most of the movie industry, and DEFINITELY the television industry. But that’s another post.)
I guess one could argue that we don’t need comics to act as political statements, nor do we need pop tunes, popcorn flicks, and the boob tube filling any kind of similar role. Except we DO, if only because some of our greatest artistic achievements as a nation have emerged from the righteous rage of political protest.
History will probably not be kind to our current era of comics, if only because the US of A was brought to its knees by Bush and his cronies, and sequential artists did absolutely nothing about it. Talk about an infinite crisis–there’s one for ya.
Serenity Now (Finally!)
Dec 05Can I ask y’all a question?
Y’all are my friends, right? And y’all don’t mind that I’m hittin’ y’all with lots of “y’all” cause I been watchin’ too much Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders on CMT, right, y’all?
Why didn’t y’all kick my ass and make me watch Serenity a long time ago?! Y’all, that movie’s awesome, y’all!
I’m a Whedonite, full tilt. And yet…and yet lately, when I stumble on Buffy or Angel on my cable box dial, I feel somehow distant from it. Like it’s a relic of my early twenties, like the dialogue feels too on-the-nose, like Whedon’s style isn’t really speaking to me as it once did.
Serenity…well, it SPOKE to me. It takes Whedon’s tropes and style and elevates it to a level that deserves to stand on its own alongside any of the great sci-fi films of the past year, the past decade, maybe further back, I dunno.
It’s not a movie you “may like if you like Buffy,” it’s just a GOOD fucking movie, y’all.
In a World
Nov 28Alright, Heroes. Ya got me. I am UNDER YOUR SPELL. I might even kind of love you. These past two eppys have been stellar. But can you do me one favor? Can you somehow lose the awful, bombastic voiceover guy on the promos? The one that sounds like a bargain basement version of the dude who does all the movie trailers?
Honestly, I think that guy epitomizes the overly-serious, condescending element that sometimes sneaks into the show and sort of put me off of it in the first place. Like, when the show first launched, he couldn’t shut up about all the “blogs” and advance hype it was getting. And now he’s like, “in a show known for its SURPRISE ENDINGS…”
Argh! Listen, Bargain Basement Announcer Man: We all KNOW the show has surprise endings! You do not need to TELL us what one of the series’ trademarks is. It makes it way less cool when you say it out loud like that. What if the promos for Buffy were like, “In a show known for its WELL-CRAFTED METAPHORS FOR TEENAGE ANGST…” Or the ones for Smallville said, “In a show where we RE-IMAGINE THE EARLY YEARS OF SUPERMAN AND THERE IS LOTS OF HOMOEROTIC TENSION…”
Gah. We are not dumb, OK?
Be Honest.
Nov 26We’re a couple weeks behind on our Battlestar Galactica, so I just now watched “Torn,” the one where Baltar goes to the virus-infested Cylon ship and Starbuck and Tigh drink themselves into bitchiness on board Galactica.
Am I the only one who half-thought, and half-HOPED, they were setting us up for ol’ Tigh and Starbuck to knock some boots? I’m almost ashamed to say it, but I really really wanted that to happen.
I’m almost ashamed because thoughts of such things are wrong and sinful, according to our Parent God Xenu. Also, Tigh’s wrinkly ass never needs to enter my brain. Ever.
