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mostlysignssomeportents · 3 years ago

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The S&L crisis perfected finance crime

When the Great Financial Crisis hit, suddenly there was a lot of talk about the Savings & Loan crises of the 1980s and 90s. I was barely a larvum then, and all I knew about S&Ls I learned from half-understood dialog in comics like Dykes to Watch Out For and Bloom County.

As the GFC shattered the lives of millions, I turned to books like Michael W. Hudson’s THE MONSTER to understand what was going on, and learned that the very same criminals who masterminded the S&L crisis were behind the GFC gigafraud:

https://memex.craphound.com/2011/03/07/the-monster-the-fraud-and-depraved-indifference-that-caused-the-subprime-meltdown/

Hudson’s work forever changed my views of Orange County, CA, a region I knew primarily through Kim Stanley Robinson’s magesterial utopian novel PACIFIC EDGE, not as the white-hot center of the global financial crime pandemic.

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/01/15/pacific-edge-the-most-uplifting-novel-in-my-library/

That realization resurfaced today as I read the transcript of UMKC Law and Econ prof Bill Black’s interview with Paul Jay on The Analysis, when Black says, “Orange County is the financial fraud capital of the world, not America, the world.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFH5-5D5_Lc

Black is well-poised to tell the tale of the S&L crisis. He served as a bank regulator during the crisis, and his notes on the “Keating 5” meeting were the turning point for public and Congressional attention to the crime:

https://theanalysis.news/economy/the-best-way-to-rob-a-bank-is-to-own-one-bill-black-pt-1/

In 1998, he finished a criminology doctorate at UC Irvine (in Orange County!) on the S&L frauds, entitled “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One,” a title he used for his 2005 book (updated in 2013) on the scandal:

https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/blab2p

The S&L crisis shares a lot in common with today’s financial crimes, but it had one key difference: ultimately (with Black’s help), more than 30,000 criminal referrals were made against the bankers involved in the crisis, and more than 1,000 were convicted of felonies.

The story of the S&L crisis is both a roadmap for holding finance criminals to account (a roadmap we threw away and forgot about) and a roadmap for committing gross acts of financial crime with impunity (which the finance sector studied carefully and keeps close its heart).

Black calls finance a “crimogenic environment,” in where deregulated institutions become pathogenic, “like a cesspool that produces lots of bacteria and viruses and such and causes lots of infections.”

The S&L crisis began with the Carter-Ronald deregulatory blitz. Both presidents assumed that because S&Ls (a kind of bank) in California and Texas were doing really well after deregulation, that meant CA and TX had nailed it and their example could be expanded nationwide.

In reality, the rosiness of the California and Texas S&Ls’ books was the result of “control fraud,” when a person who controls the bank is stealing from it.

Black likens this to a homeowner who commits insurance fraud — an ultimate insider, who knows the code to de-activate the alarm system and also knows just where the most valuable items are kept.

The major control fraudster of the S&L crisis was Charles Keating, a “top 100 granter” who was among the 100 highest donors to Reagan and Bush I. Keating has stolen a vast fortune from Lincoln Savings, and he was able to trade some of that loot for political cover.

Keating hired Alan Greenspan (!) to lobby for him, and Greenspan suborned five senators (the “Keating Five”) who threatened regulators with dire consequences if they didn’t stop digging into S&Ls.

This was also a priority for Reagan, whose plan for vast tax-cuts for the wealthy might stumble if it the public found out that the US government needed billions to bail out these walking-dead fraud zombies.

Reagan turned to Ed Gray, a PR guy, to run the S&L operation. Gray was hand-picked by the S&L’s trade association, and they told him flat out that he was there to make S&Ls look good — not to blow them up by investigating their balance-sheets.

The problem is that Gray — who was a hardcore Reaganite partisan and deregulation true believer — was honest, and the fraud was so obvious. The Texas S&Ls were originating fraudulent loans to build housing tracts that didn’t exist.

When Gray went out to look at these building sites, he just found endless rows of desolate concrete pads — he called them “Martian landing pads” — and abandoned ruins. These were the collateral on billions in loans!

Gray is a believer in sound finance, and this is undeniable evidence that deregulation has led to catastrophically unsound practices, so he starts imposing regulation on the S&L sector.

Keating pulls strings to sideline Gray, but Gray keeps pushing. Keating gets the leadership of both parties in the House to sponsor legislation ordering him to stop. He keeps going.

Donald Regan — an ex-Marine who went from CEO of Merrill Lynch to Reagan’s Chief of Staff — leans hard on Gray, but Gray won’t stop.

The Office of Management and Budget swears out a criminal complaint against Black for closing too many S&Ls. He won’t stop.

They go after Gray’s guy in Texas, Joe Selby, a former acting Comptroller of the Currency with impeccable credentials, demanding that Gray fire Selby. Democratic Speaker Jim Wright says Selby should be fired because he’s gay. Gray won’t budge.

Homophobia turns out to be a powerful weapon for criminal impunity. Keating sued Black and the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, claiming the bank’s gay employees had conspired against Keating because Keating was an evangelical Christian.

Gray took finance crime seriously. He had two priorities: one, eject anyone committing fraud from working at any financial institution, and; two, criminally and civilly charge those former execs and take back all the money they stole and ruin them financially.

Black and colleagues took this to heart, making thousands of criminal referrals. When law enforcement refused to act on these, they started publishing their referrals, and newspapers published stories about how none of these criminal referrals were leading to prosecutions.

Gray eventually gets sidelined by a “team player,” the disgraceful Danny Wall, who studiously ignores all the crime that has been uncovered. But then Bush I replaces him with Tim Ryan, whose marching orders are to root out finance crime.

Ryan ultimately made over 30,000 criminal referrals over the S&L scandal, and brought prosecutions against elite criminals, including Neil Bush, the son of the President of the United States of America.

Black: “Tim Ryan sacrificed his career for the public knowingly…he’s been unemployable since.”

And as for Bush I, his first major legislative priority became the removal of financial crime from the jurisdiction of independent watchdogs, so this would never happen again.

This is as far as the interview gets (it’s part one of nine!), but it’s already answering some of the most important questions the Great Financial Crisis raised, like, “Why didn’t any of the bankers who stole trillions from the world go to jail?”

Image: Dykes to Watch Out For strip #90 (1990), “The Solution,” Alison Bechdel https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3908728&userid=99998&perpage=40&pagenumber=10

#pluralistic

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sally-mun · 5 years ago

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So I’ve been slapped with a $1,900 car repair bill, and while I don’t expect this to come anywhere near -covering- that cost, I’d still like to offset it a little. I’d really appreciate if you guys would at least take a look or spread the word, the prices are pretty low and some of this still I’ve either never used or only used a couple times. If you see something you’re interested in, shoot me a message for more details or better pictures (since I took these in kind of a hurry). Also stay tuned because I might list more stuff.

Images below the cut so I don’t bog down people’s dashboards!

Socks: All unused, aside from me trying to put on the Fluttershy ones and realizing they wouldn’t go over my big calves.

Ankle-high: $2 each Knee-high: $3 each On hold!

Accessories: Mostly unused, I think I wore the necklace and the raccoon tail wallet chain a few times but that’s it.

Furry tail chains - $5 each Batman belts - $4 each Bracelets - $2 each Necklace - $3

Hats - $5 each Armsocks - $4 Sold, thank you!

Shirts: A couple I outgrew, a couple never fit because women’s clothing sizes are fucking stupid, and one I inherited while working at GameStop.

T-Shirts - $5 each

Pacman pajama pants - $4 Dinosaur ugly sweater - $25

Knickknacks: Yeah kind of a mixed bag here. Not gonna lie, some of this stuff I don’t even know what it is.

Coin block box - $1 Coin block tin - $1 Sonic tin - $1 Sonic fast food toy - $1 Battlefield 4 dog tags (the thing in the shiny bag) - $3 Morty figure - $2 Tenchi Muyo figures - $2 each or $5 for all hideous little Sonic figures - $10 each (these are actually quite rare) Sonic Battle (JP) - $2, because so far as I know THIS DOES NOT WORK! Please only buy this if you think you can fix it or just want it for your collection! Sticker (don’t even know who it is) - $1 Zelda gashapon figure - $5 Sonic lanyard (JP) - $8 Sega Saturn series keychain figures - $10 each (I used to know these characters’ names but I can’t place them off the top of my head. I think one is from Virtua Cop.) Cyborg Batman keychain - $1 keychain of chick in purple outfit - $1 (sorry it’s another character I can’t remember. Maybe Sonya Blade? I honestly don’t remember.) Buttons - $1 each or $3 for all Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 keychain - $3 Goku figure keychain - $2 Sonic Triple Trouble pog promo pack - $10 Mario & Sonic at the Olympics styluses - $15 Sold, thank you!

Sonic pogs - $2 each Sonic gift card (no value, obviously) - $5 Sonic phone card (JP) - $10 Sonic Game Gear tips cards - $3 each Pokemon cards - $1 each Sonic playing cards - $5 Borderlands 3 points card - So I have a ton of these cards that I brought home from work because I didn’t want them thrown away, and each one has a Diamond code for 1,500 points to buy gold keys or items with. I’m honestly not comfortable ‘selling’ these per se, so if you want one (or more) just make me an offer or send a donation on Ko-fi with a comment that you’d like one.

WiiU drawstring bag - $4

I forgot to put these socks in the previous socks section. They’re not knee-high so they’re also $2 each.

Books: The notebooks are completely unused (and one is still shrinkwrapped), and the guides were probably used by someone else but not by me. They were in an eBay lot along with something else that I specifically wanted, so these were just kind of foisted on me.

Notebooks - $5 each Guides - $8 each

Comics: $2 each or $20 for all (per series)

Since most of these are from Free Comic Book Day events, I feel weird asking for a price for them, so make me an offer or donate on Ko-fi if you want one.

Dolls: Kind of a range here. The Bulma doll is probably the most valuable since it’s one of the original DBZ UFO catchers from the 90′s. Also with the Papyrus plush I’d just like to point out that getting the same doll on the Fangamer website will cost $32 before shipping.

Goku POP - $10 (please note the box is a little borked) Bulma UFO catcher - $40 Papyrus plush - $25 Sold, thank you! Neopets keychain plushies - $5 each On hold!

OKAY that’s it for now. Like I said I might add more (or do another post) later, because I know I have more things, I just didn’t gather them all at the same time.

Payments will most likely all be through Paypal, and buyers are responsible for shipping costs (which will probably be at least $5, more if it’s a larger package).

Thanks to anyone that can help!

#buy my shiiiit #plzkthx #signal boost

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artdjgblog · 4 years ago

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Innerview: Sonya Baughman / Review Magazine

July 2008

Image: DJG's "Live & Let Die" Record by Paul McCartney & Wings

Note: Interview for a magazine feature.

01) Where did you grow up and where do you live now? My young cloth diapers treaded a lot of dirt, dead animal and doggy acres in the North Central stick regions of Missouri, Mid-West, USA. Currently, adult plastic diapers drag and sag me in mid-town Kansas City, MO. The first six years had me bucking bales, falling off hay wagons, piercing my cheek on a hay bale stinger, assisting with the old cow stuck in the mud, designing elaborate tunnels and forts from tomato cages, watching “The Muppets” and “Star Wars” a lot, hearing scary stories of Leopard Man, posing for many pictures with dead and live animals, rocking out in cowboy boots to “Live & Let Die” on my Papa Smurf guitar, and crying at night to my raccoon wallpaper…among many other early formative brain tattoos. Act Two had many dry summers and the bank repossessing the farm and moving us to the home and acres where my Dad grew up. The new place had a blacktop in front of it and a gravel lane with a bridge/creek. The blacktop was a reservoir for leaving behind summertime shoe and bike impressions and for popping tar bubbles in the blistering heat. I also was of age to really explore and build many forts and treehouses in the ditches, barns and woods. Also, I started to go hunting and spend time in the fields with my Dad. We never had a shortage of animals and pets too. A lot of spare time was also spent in the sandbox or in the bedroom designing and building things based on what I saw and experienced. There was also a massive in-take of drawing and pop-culture from comics, books, music, television and movies. There wasn’t much of a cap on what my siblings and I could devour. Oh, and loads of sugary sweets and cereals. Go through the yearly motions and I end up at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, MO. There I got some very formal education and incredible interaction with students and design professors from the great making thing ways of Eastern Europe and Russia. I pretty much maxed out my art and design class card and was even making a ton of design work on the side for musicians. I then received a higher calling to drop out of school and make my guts out in Kansas City, MO which is where I’ve flopped around now for the past seven years. 02) Talk a little about your artistic background. Are you self-taught, did you go to college for art (if so, where)? My background is painted with loads of pop-culture from the 1980s and ’90s mixed in with the soil of farm life. I also designed and built many elaborate tree houses and forts up until the age of eighteen and spent most any spare minute in the sandbox or locked in my room drawing, reading, studying, video game playing, movie watching and just playing in general. I’ve never understood people’s ability to get bored or to not use the creation within them to ooze life out. I’ve enjoyed drawing comics, sports mascots and WWII battle scenes with my Dad at a young age that involved aircraft carriers, tanks and flags of those involved in conflict. My older brother would also draw a lot with me. He was better though. My younger sister and brother were pretty solid too. We have no idea where our creativity came from other than a great uncle, maybe? Also in my youth I would make giant collages out of magazine clippings and lots of mix tapes of Dr. Demento’s bizarre radio program and recorded and memorized many a variety of cartoon episodes and cool shows like Pee-wee’s Playhouse. I’ve also been a constant collector all my life. Back in the day I was all about the whole spectrum of toys, comics, ball cards, cereal boxes and loads of other junk…even kept dead animal parts under my bed. In the fifth grade I won a county wide logo contest for a skating and bowling fun center and it was the first time I realized disappointment with design as my logo was butchered by those higher-up. In middle-school up until my junior year of high school I studied more comics, logos, sports architecture and wanted desperately to design new-vintage baseball stadiums until the realization of my poor math skills hit like a ton of collapsed buildings. I even won a Kansas City Royals baseball essay contest. Getting made fun of daily in high school stunk, but it really fueled my work ethic, dreams and caused me to lock up in my bedroom at night. Though, I still wish I would have worked harder in my youth. I still really enjoy working hard and being alone to this day. In the summer of 1996 I was selected to attend the first ever Missouri Fine Arts Academy and learned that I had more to offer with my insides and got a chance to interact with more likeminded minds. I came back to my senior year of high school with notebooks of typographic graffiti designs and a whole new language of what I thought was the art world. There was also a new art teacher at my school and he was serious and seriously cool and recognized that I had something to offer. I also came back to my senior year with more confidence in expressing myself and decided to dive into the world of graphic design for my post-high school studies. I had no idea what I was going to really do with it, but I knew I just wanted to use my gift of making stuff for the rest of my life. And graphic design somehow promised a bit more security in money than going the fine art route. Though, I’ve now managed to merge the two and to still not make any money. My high school scores had me at number 12 out of 24 in my class and I scraped the bottom of the test barrels to get me into college. Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, MO said I could come and so I did. They were the only institution I applied for and I had liked it from my three week stay at Fine Arts Academy the previous year. College was great, but I could tell quickly that I wasn’t a top art pup like I was in my small school way back down the line. I was with the bigger dogs now. I struggled with drawing classes because I realized that I wasn’t as good as I had been told I was for the previous eighteen years. That was a set-back and I still wish to this day I would have worked harder at drawing. But, mostly I have trouble drawing in a cramped room with a ton of people breathing down my neck and at certain times of the day. The introduction and foundation art classes were more my calling and I could take the stuff home and work alone and all night. Most of my friends complained because they couldn’t wait until sophomore year when we would be on the computer for design. I didn’t really understand what I was getting into with graphic design. In fact, one day I exclaimed to my friends that I was taking the graphic design route that didn’t use computers and was entirely hands-on. They thought I was pretty insane for saying that and pretty much called me a fool. It’s kind of funny now though. I was so naïve at 18 and 19 to what the formal graphic design world was and I think I still am ten years later. Back when I was more bushy-tailed, I just wanted to make things and cut stuff out and not chain up to a computer…and I guess I’m still bushy-tailed, though I have a computer and use it mostly as a tool. When I finally did get placed in front of a computer, it was a struggle and I just couldn’t get into it and past the screen barrier. It almost stopped me from majoring in graphic design. But, we weren’t on the computer all the time as we were taught to conceptualize and to think and to be hands-on too. But, we needed to know the computer too. I just couldn’t get along with the computer for the longest time. Of course, the computer whiz kids just couldn’t wait for the next semester that involved a wordy world called typography. Which, naively enough I thought was about the art of map making. I liked maps, so I was excited too. But, I soon found out it was a whole new world that would poison the ABCs in me forever…good and bad. At least in type class we were still taught to think and do things by hand before messing with computer fonts. That first year or two of official design school was just terrible for me as I felt I wasn’t really “getting” it and didn’t think I would be happy as a graphic designer. I was just fulfilling project requirements and with zero heart or much care. It wasn’t until I haphazardly signed up to duel major in illustration that things started to make music inside of me. I began to really pour myself out and realize that I could approach things in a similar light as to when I was a child and be happy. Illustration saved me and I found my voice with it and my classmates and instructors started noticing. The energy there was great and everybody fed off of each other and helped each other see in new light(s). I also began to understand the valuable importance of the experience of my schooling as the instructors not only had a unique style of teaching, but they also had interesting backgrounds and culture from Eastern Europe and Russia. I could mildly relate to them as I was a transplant from the foreign farm world of North Missouri. After many design trips to studios I began to feel a very empty feeling with the profession I had chosen to represent my working life. It was not what I wanted to do with a “career”, or my time. I didn’t wish to work in a factory of fried monitor goo-lash. I wanted to just make stuff and at my own pace and pleasure. I was also very protective of my work and wanted parental rights and not for it to belong to another man’s name or dream. My love for music started to fuse with design and I began to start making many things on the side for musicians, which spread to other types of word-of-mouth work for me. An eye-popping lecture by modern rock poster designer Art Chantry sealed my personal deal for wanting to do my own thing. Shortly after that I decided I needed to change many gears in my life and secretly drop out of school following my final design class in the fall of 2001 and live with a band (and some) in a big old dilapidated orange house behind the original Lamar’s Donuts in Kansas City, MO. While some senior students had trouble looking for one real world client to work with for their final projects, I had close to 10 off the top of my head and whole bunch of future blank pages to fill. 03) During the time you have been making art have you always been drawn to this type of graphic expression? Did you “find” a style or did a style find you? I’d say a bit of both. I’ve never really gone for a set “style”. I’m sure that I’ve got one that has become recognizable to my thumb prints. Honestly, I never really think too hard about what I’m making or the why or how of the making until I have to answer questions like this. Then I start to over-think things. Also, whenever I’m told that I’m a good collagist or good at hand type or so-and-so rendering, then that is the only time I really make an effort to switch gears. I have boiled the majority of my output to be relational to the immediacy of my moods, thoughts, tickles, inclination and whatevers. Though, sometimes life can get in the way and I’ll have to slide down a small sliver of time and energy depletion, like I am with trying to get this writing out on time! But, I’m a big fan of cranking stuff out no matter what. Life is pretty darn short to sit on my hands. It seems that style can be a bit of a drag for some people and/or a hole. I’ve always been more in-tune to the folks who just follow what their gut, heart, hands and eyes speak instead of creating a set template. Some people never stray too far from that and only a few can truly get away with it. Edward Gorey is perhaps one of the few who could really make it work for me. I would certainly love to draw and think as well as he did, but I might be quite miserable doing the same thing over and over even if I was able to do it for a living. I think that a lot of people get confused and think they need to have a style and either invent one or pick other people’s noses instead of sniffing what they’ve been wearing all their life. Style to me is a lot like decorating or something. Though, at the same time that decoration might marriage perfectly to what somebody thinks they need. I don’t know though. Sometimes I think it’s funny when we as people think we need something to look or feel a certain way that’s already been communicated or visualized. I think that sometimes we are too caught up in what’s done before instead of thinking for ourselves. I’m guilty too. What’s really confusing to me, on a personal level, is when I get a request like, “We like all your work so make whatever you want!” and then the client ends up being really disappointed because it wasn’t in their “style” and then it’s awkward. Style is just an odd thing to me. But, most things are. I try to just trust my gutty heart and just make. 04) Do you see your work as communicating your identity or as helping to communicate the identity and message of others? … or both? I see it as me communicating what I’ve gathered from being on the Earth for 29 ½ years and spreading that manure the best I can. It’s a heaping helping to tell the story of others by telling my story. Most of my work fits into fine art and design, at least I’m always told that. I’m not really sure. Of late I’ve been pushing into more of the fine art bin. But, I’m not a big fan of labeling things and I would like to do many things with this thing I do. With design, one does have a role to play with helping somebody else tell their story, and at times, sell their story. There is also a responsibility to the venue the product is in or where it will eventually end up, whether a fine package on a shelf or a poster in the gutter. I feel it can be easy for a designer to lose perspective of the role playing. With leaving behind an identity…well, I like the idea of a paper trail, time-line and bruising thumb prints on this life. However, I don’t necessarily have the intent to say “Hey, look at me.” I am just another human, and one who happens to make things. If the work speaks or inspires (probably frightens and confuses on occasion), then that means a lot to me, especially in these fast-paced and flashy “everyone’s a designer-decorator” times with millions of images and advertisements everywhere. I think it’s great to recognize and at times celebrate gifts and achievement. But, I feel there needs to be a healthy balance. It can be a dangerous thing to play with at times. Some artists I feel become the work of art themselves and end up playing God with the gift and this saddens me as it usually ruins them in the long run. 05) Is there anything about your geographic location that has given you a unique perspective on design and the art you create? Certainly, growing up country might have my visions at a stranger advantage, and a howling merge to that with the city life now. You might see a lot of wonderfully strange things on the streets of the city due to the amount of activity by varieties of people and culture. But, only in small town Missouri do the deer pile up outside the meat locker and blood runs next door to the Baptist church as the high school band splash-marches through it. Growing up it was easy to take my lifestyle for granted. I enjoyed it immensely, but when I was 15 to 18 I wanted to get out a bit more. I was hungry to explore, and not just the many acres we lived on. I wanted the rest of the world. I became a little disgruntled with growing up country and I think that there is a certain stereotype placed upon people anywhere they are, but country folk get it pretty bad. I definitely ate from both sides of the fence, but also didn’t want to be hung up in it for a living. As I grow older I appreciate my roots a lot more and celebrate them and am very thankful. I enjoy going back home. And some day I’d like to move outside of the city to a small plot of land with a making things shack out back. But, my family home isn’t too far down the road for a getaway weekend visit to sit with the stars, coyote yips and fish. 06) What do you consider influences on your art? (this can be other artists, music, philosophy, nature – anything. this question is not just limited to “I’m a big fan of Banksy”) First thing, I believe in the compiling of all days in life to influence an artist’s output (horse apples or clean streets). Our walks tell a lot about who we are in the present prints. I feel that one would be lying to me if what they created was not in their full vision. But, I too think that we all wear and share influences as witnesses to what we’ve seen and where we’ve been. We all help shape each other. I’ve rattled off my early influences of popular culture. I think I’m more in-tune with my child’s self now than I was then as I sit alone and make things and pull from all my days. It’s also easy to feel that I was really moving and discovering more back then with naïve, childlike faith that I’m trying to get back now. I have some good days though and mostly when I’m not thinking too much. I’m still a fan of absorbing lots of things and from many angles. Of course I have my artistic influences. One of my big influences as a child was my Grandma Gibson. She is from the old school of the country and a very hands-on person with making many things like clothing, dead animal backpacks, blankets, pillows, fridge magnets and game board pieces. I still have a lot of the things from those years. I think a lot of my approach to making things came from her. My “professional” art world as a kid had an outside knowledge from trips to museums and PBS specials, though I felt a little detached from that world and still kind of do. My heroes were at the movies because they were more immediate to me, guys like Jim Henson, Stan Winston, Dr. Indiana Jones, Rambo and Han Solo. But, it was Henson’s world that opened me up to the first idea of an artist’s legacy, vision and spirit and glimpse of another world. Something big-time ached in my decade old gut the day I found out he passed away. Musically speaking I was very much a child of my Mom’s Beatles records, “oldies” music and a ton of television theme songs, novelty sing-alongs and old church songs. I still put a lot through my ears now and my biggest influences in music in my older years are Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Buckley, Elliott Smith and Bob Dylan. Also, I am still a big fan of tons of picture books and just anything really. I just know that I’ve never had bare space on the walls and shelves of my home and head. Oh, and wherever I am I’m usually distracted by the stuff on the ground. I’m a big collector of found notes, writings, scribbles, addresses, children’s drawings and good-bad-silly-stupid-smart designs. I like to collect ‘em all. I’ve also collected stamps since I was 10. I’m a big nerd. Here’s a listing of some names in the art and design canon who have made things that either attracted, influenced or moved me in some ways (in no particular order): Saul Steinberg, Seymour Chwast and Push Pin, Lester Beall, Edward Gorey, Ray Johnson, Art Chantry, Henryk Tomaszewski, Vaughn Olver and V23, Raymond Pettibon, Paul Klee, Stanley Donwood, Stefan Sagmeister, Cy Twombly, Saul Bass, Ivan Chermayeff, Ralph Steadman, Robert Rauschenberg, Jean Michel-Basquiat…most anybody who has something to say and develops a bad back carving out their paper trail. Movies are also a giant influence on my work and I study them almost daily. Some of the filmmakers who capture a certain craft of unique spirit that I enjoy include P.T. Anderson, Wes Anderson, Michel Gondry and the Coen Brothers. Folk Art is another big mind-blow and one of my favorite areas to study and get ticked by the of-the-moment heart, purity and passion. I love the idea of somebody just up and making something for the heck of it and not for art’s or ego’s sake. That’s the childlike thing I miss the most. The makers and shakers that move me the most from the folk art movement are Henry Darger, Bill Traylor and Robert E. Smith. And sometimes I get more out of the work on display in county and state fairs by everyday arts and crafters than so-called “professional” art and design work. 07) What is your perspective on the place of poster art here in the Midwest (or KC specifically) as it interacts with the rest of the art community and how the poster art coming out of this community may be perceived on a more national level? I’m curious about this because of the recognition Kansas City artists in general have been receiving lately on a national and international scale and how the art world tends to waffle between interest and disinterest in artists in this region. The music scene here is very interesting to me and a lot of times I think that it is just like 20 people all making it happen. Though, there is a lot of talent, diversity and genre-bending for a small town like this. There are a lot of groups making a mark here and down the highways, same with the people making stuff for them. Though, I get a little strange sometimes because I sometimes feel that the small scene mixed with the internet’s social networks and fewer record stores (oh, and most of my posters take up a whole bulletin board!) makes the poster almost secondary information and so-so decoration. In the same thought though, most of the stuff I see on the internet passes by me in a two-second window like that of highway advertising. Though, some do stick out to me because I’m always on the look to get tickled. And I don’t feel the art of the printed piece will die any time soon. Anyway, the scene just works here in Kansas City somehow and everybody takes care of and appreciates each other’s roles and contributions. I’ve had some great response to what I’m slapping up, but at the same time I think that a lot of people don’t get it. What’s not to get, it’s not too special? But, that’s fine with me. I’m not sure where I am in the scene. Maybe more-so in the “seen” department with my meager budgeted work hanging above a stool in the blurry-eyed late hours. I still think that toilets are one the best places for information gathering. Poster art in general in the last ten years alone has received a great breath of fresh air. Many of the makers are respected within a small collective, and have also been breaking through to represent on a national level of design aesthetic, as well as a well-rounded view of the printed timeline to life and culture. It’s also something that anybody can do and a lot of bands still just make their own stuff, which I’m cool and whatever with it. Everybody has their own style, agenda and empty pockets. But, the personal computer has saturated the landscape with a lot of “samey”. Then again, if it works, it works. In the end if it gets people interested and enthused, then what is there for a bum like me to complain about? And sometimes I really get a kick out of unskilled design stuff(s). I try to stay out of design politics for the most part. There is more to life than design dogma. Though, there is design all around us as we interact with it in every way from the tip-top of a tree to a paper scrap for this article. I enjoy the simple act of creation and inspiration that comes from something that seems like nothing, yet has always been a “something” growing and building and will continue to grow if the viewer lets it do so. You just have to add the proper mix of ingredients, I guess. And I guess my brain isn’t one to formerly function on the full realization to what it’s thinking. So, I’m babbling right now. I do know that something I’ve always enjoyed about the concert poster is the relatively short life span it has and how that can be used to the advantage. I just want to encourage people out there, designers/artists, non designers/artists or even church secretaries, to really push things and work harder. I don’t really care if everyone isn’t versed in design and art. In general I just encourage more to experiment with poster art, find your voice(s) and find new ways to spread the good word. Even if it’s not for a concert or an event, just make something and get it out there. Throw your junk off the overpasses if need be. 08) How has your work been received within the arts community here (and also in other geographic regions if you have been branching out)? For seven years now I’ve somehow managed to remain fairly anonymous and at the same time have sparkled a bit of attention…maybe just a glittering. Life and day job dwindle my hours to where it’s hard to even pay attention on my own stuff sometimes, so I don’t get out much here in the city. Though, I guess it is easier to keep up with things on the internet, papers and here-say. I think Kansas City is making her own dent right now with a wide variety of things going on in the arts landscape. The town is kind of booming and bustling right now. Being that we’re a small town, it’s easy for a small fish to get more wet feet. Though, I’ve never put my whole foot into anything. I just do my thing. Some days I’m not really sure what that thing is, but I do it despite my muck. When I first started on my design quest, like when anyone tackles something head-on, I was head-over-heels and not sleeping much. I was also living with bands and interacting more and actually going to shows several times a week. I don’t know how I did it without exhausting my ticker, but for some reason it all worked. I started to garner a little bit of buzz here that seemed to spread quick outside the state and international borders. Many people contact me from all over and slap my stuff alongside some of my design favorites in magazines and books. It’s a hoot. People are always interested in my story and creations. It’s all still really odd and blushing to me in some light that the little things I make are reaching a selective audience on a much grander scale. Anyway, I’ve certainly learned now that sleep is important and that it’s better for me to work smarter, not harder. Though, that’s not entirely the truth as I still work pretty darn hard and I believe in it greatly. Still, I’ve struggled with my own brand of discontent since I fell from a slide and blacked-out at the age of five. It’s something that I’m working and wrangling with. But, with any kind of actual work you’ve studied, worked hard with and duct taped up the switch with 24-7, you learn to just not think and rather DO and the moves become mechanical. I just have to put to use different types of oil to keep from rusting. It all becomes a fluid thing, or something constantly coming down on me in the grocery aisle, tree leave holes and side walk crack scribbles. It can be challenging when life stuff gets in the way, but I shouldn’t see it as getting in the way. I easily get confused, but then I realize that the things I experience and see and do (good-bad) all go into my design pot mixed with my past and then I just have to do the upchucking as I move forward and I tend to feel better. Recently I’ve definitely stepped back on my massive production of concert posters and I’m sure that many people reading this will think, “Geesh, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen this idiot’s work?” Not only has my life changed in some ways, but I also had to give myself permission to take a time out and to learn to say no to some things. A break was needed before burnout and bitter rotted my worms in the apple, among other things. I had a year of little activity and practiced sitting on my nest. I still made a bunch of stuff, but a lot just for me. I’ve also been involved in various group art shows around the country, design books and special art projects with friends spread about. Another thing I did, and still do, is just to see what other avenues I’d like to take my one man show. I’m learning to use the internet for the medium that it is too. Anyway, I’ve always got some stew samples back burning, but my biggest competition is myself…on top of time, energy and money. Mostly myself, as I’ve always been extremely hard on myself. Though, I’ve been told I make it look easy. I’ve never been good at math, so you go figure. I get exhausted from trying to figure this out. 09) Is artwork your main profession and, if not, are you intending to make it so? It’s really flattering and kind of sad when every spring I get more and more inquiries from freshly plucked and talented college students about a possible internship or job with DJG Design. In general, due to what most think to be a large and varied output of work, people who don’t know what I’m about think that there is a D, a J and a G making things. It always excites me to be contacted by enthused students and other design people (any walks of life, really) who saw something or connected to my work and got a spark. It makes me rosey, but it also keeps me a little down as I don’t make enough money to do this full-time. But, it all keeps me at my little basement bay working on my bad back and poor eye sight, keeps me (under)grounded in some ways. I’ve always worked full-time jobs and have been married now for three years. So, certain responsibilities come with walking hand-in-hand with another. For now I just spin the day job blues and try to stay content and disciplined, burning the fuel before and after work. But, age is setting in a bit and I’m getting antsy. I also grow tired easier. Good things do come out of day jobs, good design work does too. For the first four or five years I was a janitor and groundskeeper. So, loads of perks came from great finds, discards, dumpster dives and lots of free food and more time to read and study and draw. Heck, I even designed a few posters between clock punches. Currently my position has me staring at a computer doing data entry. The health care, artificial air and hours are great and I can walk out my back door and be there in seven minutes. But, it can be difficult to know that I’m sitting and squandering something back home. I do take it with me everywhere upstairs, and I do a bit of networking during the day time, but there is still that itch to make things full-time and not have a full plate of non-stop. It’s all hard to balance. But, making things is the only thing that I’m told that I’m somewhat good at. Well, other than eating junk food, watching movies, being confused and petting my four kitty cats. I am fast approaching thirty and the visual of time stacking is more evident than ever. Each space between second hand clicks is another scratch of tiny pine box to me. I am slowly checking off my list of “Before 30 Goals”, but I’m usually several cars back and sometimes it’s a pileup. Life takes a different course too. But, I have caught back a hold of a torch of some sort. I am constantly tacking up side boards to the wagon. After eight years of looking at Gigposters.com, I finally have ALL of my poster work up on there. It’s a great way to generate exposure and get my work out some more. I also have my new website up and an extensive volume of imagery on my Flickr.com account. It can be a bit odd to put one’s self out there in such a reservoir fashion, but I do like the idea of the timeline and personal file cabinet. And if my house burns down, it’s all digitized and makes it easier on my friends when they have to move me. So, day jobs…they are both blah and bling in my mind. My sling shots just point back at me on certain days. Sometimes they change direction with every sentence. At least I’m now under a thousand dollars on my student loans. I don’t make a thousand dollars in most years on design. 10) Tell me a story – have you had any strange poster requests? A project where you just about lost it? A poster that succeeded beyond expectations or failed in a way that took you totally by surprise? A project-situation-chaos that always sticks out when I’m asked a question like this happened to me back in June of 2002. It’s not a poster, but it’s pretty whacky and ended up being one of the best things that I think I’ll ever make. It was a special run of 250 homemade CD packages for the band Elevator Division. I’ve had many projects that demand more production time than my little brain imagines, but this one was the worst. Actually, the finished piece is a lot tamer than my initial idea. Though, the final image’s concept married to what the band was communicating on the disc inside is way better. The following true story I’ve released for a previous interview, I just tweaked a few glitches… The idea came at the night I started printing. Well, actually it was spray paint. I had an image made for a month or more and then changed it at the last stroke of inspiration. It married the themes for the album “Whatever Makes You Happy” perfectly. With reflections of war and relationships in the songs, I made an image of a hand shooting off its index finger like a missile. It was the idea of shooting off one’s options and making decisions. It was aggressive, inviting, serious and humorous all in one. It was not only fitting for the band/music but also to the national/world agenda and climate. I went to war that night with many cans of spray paint and the idiot mind to do two-hundred and fifty all in one massive sweep, and in my basement, which is something I will never do again because I could have died. I will probably also never be involved with another package like this again (take that back, I have been). Anyway, each one was hand-cut from cardboard and handmade stencil sprayed and rubber stamped. Inserts were cut, folded and glued. At the last mist of red spray a crack of thunder shook the massive turn-of-the-century home and I bolted from the basement and out the front door to a down poor fit for Noah himself. I was like a much less cool version of Dr. Frankenstein though. I leapt off the front porch and slid head first down the embankment and into the street turned river current. But, like a taxidermy nightmare, I was born again. The drug dealing squatters across the street were on their front step perch per usual summer evening, looking at the fire in my eyes and the red paint streaming from ears, nose and mouth. It was a high much higher than that of chemical substance. Well, maybe a three pack of design, life and paint fumes. 11) What is it about the poster as an art form that you feel is unique among other art forms? What purpose does it serve in your mind that can’t be served by another type of visual art? I’ve hinted at this in a previous question. I like the idea of the poster’s life-span being short, relative to the date and time…event, whatever. But, if it connects in the right way, and it can be different for everyone as art-design-whatever, is all relative to the viewer, I think that even a concert poster’s impact can last a long time. Since my first year in Kansas City I’ve had people find me out and say that they had a bedroom wall filled up with my work. It really moved me that something so simple (and sometimes stupid) that I squeezed out caused somebody else to be moved enough to hang it above their dreams at night. It means a lot to me when others get something out of something I’ve made. I know from child to adult, I myself have gotten something out of the stuff I’ve collected and tacked to my walls. It’s odd, yet a really nice feeling to know I’m somehow contributing to a landscape in some way. Making things is an act that I’ve always needed to do and has helped me get the best out of many days. I’ve always had difficulty with contributing in many forms of communication and on some days it’s terribly hard even just to be out and about. Making things has served as my calling with communication. It’s nice to know it can help others too in whatever way. -djg

#innerviews

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scumgristle · 5 years ago

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You’ve been vocal about your hate for My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way, what is it about the guy that gets under your skin, because Boneyard Press published his first book “On Raven’s Wings”?

HDF:Short answer? Gerard Way is a liar and a fake who devalued Boneyard Press products and implied I was a liar by his deceits and instead of owning up to his deceptions he kept on lying and set his fans loose on me for an online hate campaign that hurt my wife’s recovery from Chemo and Radiation therapy to combat her ovarian and cervical cancer.

In order to inflate orders on his upcoming comic book, “The Umbrella Academy”, Dark Horse, editor Scott Allie & Gerard Way made a major press push stating the falsehood that “The Umbrella Academy” was Gerard’s first published work in comics, which they knew was a lie.

Gerard’s first published work was done over a decade earlier when Boneyard Press published his series, “On Raven’s Wings”. Issue #1 was published in April 1994, written by Gary Way, drawn by Jose Santos with inks by Dana Greene and a fully painted cover by Rob Nemeth. Issue #2 was published in September 1994 with Gary writing, Jose & Dana on the art, another great painted cover by Rob Nemeth. When Gary couldn’t hold his art team together, we canceled the series, but that didn’t stop me from schleppin’ this kids books to convention after convention telling everyone what a great new writer this kid was and that yeah, he’s got the goods. I did this for YEARS.

Dark Horse and its editorial staff knew all about this but decided to pump the numbers up with the lie about ‘first published work’. They were even lying about it when directly asked by some members of Gerard’s fan club. They claimed that Garry Way was not Gerard Way. According to Dark Horse, they were two different people.

Why did they do that? Because any comic geek worth his salt can tell you, an artist’s first published work is generally the most valuable, knowing this, fans will invest in a new book so they can have that “First published work” tag. Dark Horse & Gerard lied about it all to inflate their sales on the book.

They kept right on lying even to Rolling Stone. Dark Horse’s Scott Allie said, “Hart published Gerard’s first comics when Gerard was fifteen. I don’t think we’ve ever said Umbrella Academy is the first comic Gerard did.” Funny thing was, the very day this was quoted in Rolling Stone the Diamond Preview catalogue came out with a full page add proclaiming that The Umbrella Academy is Gerard Way’s first published work. Full page ad. Big ass bulletin points. Dark Horse and Scott were full of shit and they knew it but they threw me under the bus in the press anyway.

Ripping off your fans like that, gaming store owners, that’s some pretty low shit to pull, but it was going to get a lot lower when he sicked his fans on me & I was unable to keep my wife from reading the hate mail, which just wrecked her. I mean, she was already emaciated from the Chemo & the Radiation… Watching her crying, reading that shit he sent my way because he wasn’t man enough to own up to his own actions…

Yeah….

This shit is personal.

You ready for the background on why this is such a burn? Because here’s the long story…

So it’s the early 90’s and I get a submission packet from a high school kid named Gary Way. He was a big fan of mine so he sent this comic book that he & his buddies were doing together to me. I thought it was pretty good. So I decided to invest my money & publish it. That’s when I got to know him, when I took him under my wing.

I did this with a lot of the lost souls & angry young kids who found their way to me. I wasn’t just their publisher, I was their friend, I cared about my guys. They were important to me and I wanted them to get stronger, to be stronger, to do the best work they could do. My philosophy at Boneyard Press was give me your stragglers, give me your battered & cast offs… I would rebuild them… I would forge them into wolves and together, we would own the shadows.

Gary was one of these kids.

I used to have talks with his mother about how to keep him from getting beat up & bullied at school where he lived in Jersey. I talked with Gary quite a bit too. This was before email & texting, so people actually talked to each other then… So… after Boneyard published the first issue of his on going series, I took a liking to the kid so much I got him on the Sally Jesse Raphael show as an “Official Boneyard Press Writer” and he got to stand up & ask a question on the air.

Pretty cool for the school punching bag, right?

Gary gets out of high school & stays in touch with me through his days in college. A lot of my interns & guys did that as they were growing up. When he called me from the offices of DC & told me about his new job at Vertigo, I thought, Fuck yeah, now one of my guys is rising up! Kick Ass!

911 happens, I don’t hear from the kid again. Me, my life moves at light speed, so I don’t think twice about it… a few years go by, I’m working full time in Adult films, then I get the youtube/mail from a fan who tells me all of her friends are calling her a liar over my book, On Raven’s Wings, and it’s author Gary Way.

You see… Apparently there was a Gerard Way with a new comic book coming out from Dark Horse comics & they were marketing it as the first published work of Gerard Way, the frontman for My Chemical Romance, which will have more value in the collectible comics market & would help them get a sales bump. My fan said to her friends, “Hey, that’s not his first published work, he did a series for Boneyard Press as Gary Way, that’s his first published work.” She contacts me to get the truth. I go fucking ballastic.

No motherfucker is going to make a liar out of one of my fans. Fucking no one.

I write a blog on my Live Journal account wondering if Dark Horse is a knowing partner of Garry Way’s charade to game the fans & the retailers or are they unwitting pawns. I was very, very, very angry. Then I got my hands on the My Chemical Romance video interview with all grown up Gerard Way telling people that he wished someone had taken a chance on him & published his comics when he was a teenager, that only someone believed in him enough to publish his work back then.

I’m fucking LIVID watching this & listening to this. I watched it over & over.

Then when Rolling Stone get’s involved, the press goes nuts, my lawyer tells me to shut the fuck up for once and since my wife was recovering from ovarian & cervical cancer, which nearly killed her… and the chemo turned her into a walking skeleton… I mean… I’d go to rub her feet, and there was no meat on the bottom of her foot. It was all bones.

Since the doctors in Japan had told me her cancer was stress related and that too much stress would kill her… I had to shut the fuck up & do my best to keep Waka from reading all the hate mail & hate memes on the web. That didn’t need to happen. Gary could have just owned up to the truth.

Only he didn’t.

Instead of manning up and owning his lies and deceptions, he chose to hide behind a bunch of clueless emo twits and chose to sick his fan base on me… On my wife. Who cried & cried reading this shit. She doesn’t want me to talk about this, she doesn’t want to acknowledge how this puke & the scum bags online got to her, but she was vulnerable back then. I was her only caregiver. The only one. Her family was back in Japan. And I couldn’t stop her with from reading this… I could only shut up, try to let it blow over while I consulted with my lawyers about what to do.

For what Garry Way did to my reputation, to my company and most of all, what he did to my wife… in the midst of her suffering… When I was only speaking the truth. If he wasn’t lying why did he call my office from the middle of his south American tour, when this whole thing blew up, he sure was able to find my number and communicate with me AFTER the truth came out. It didn’t have to go down the way it did. My wife should have been able to focus on recovering from cancer, from never being able to have a baby. But no, this asshole put us through the ringer to save his own pride when caught in a lie.

For that… For what he did to my wife… I hate that motherfucker.

I hate that motherfucker like you cannot even put into words.

#my chemical romance

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bat-lings · 6 years ago

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Opinion on Jason Todd/Bruce Wayne relationship as a father-son?

ALRIGHT the human rambling disaster that I am struck again

Jump to the conclusion if it’s too long!

It’s just really hard discussing anything about Jason without acknowledging the sheer mess that DC’s whims made of him. To take that inconsistency into account let’s consider his relationship with Bruce from three angles:

Before Jason’s death / during his Robin days as portrayed before Starlin;

Before Jason’s death / during his Robin days as portrayed since Starlin and up until Jason’s resurrection, through mentions & flashbacks;

Post-resurrection.

Sadly enough the first era is the only one that bothers to portray a father-son dynamic with enough content to have a real opinion on, but I’ll take what I have. And what we have then is pretty great.

Jason’s Robin days

We’re in the 80’s, and Jason & Bruce’s relationship is the most ridiculously pure thing to have graced our poor souls. It’s soft and good.

They have great interactions, a real proximity, and overall bring a lot into each other’s life. Alfred and Bruce are happy to have another kid at home, and Jason is as much in need of guidance & of a family as any other kid. Jason doubts himself a lot and Bruce does his best to reassure him. He’s also is a teasing little shit and that’s great.

[Batman #377 || Detective Comics #579]

[Detective Comics (1937) #573]

JASON YOU’RE TOO CUTE. Also the tired dad feel is strong in that one lmao. Jay, lad, my son, my life,, what have you done to the newspaper,,,,

Ahem right, less gushing more commenting.

As you can see, Jason and Bruce’s relationship before his death/resurrection is pretty peachy. The slice of life sequences strengthen their father-son bond into the reader’s mind. We’re shown they’re father and son rather than just told so.

At some point Bruce’s custody of Jason is temporarily threatened, and that arc is a vivid telling of how strong their bond is.

[Detective Comics #542 || Batman (1940) #377]

Just. That whole speech. “Only Jason is real.” Definitely one of my favorite papa-bat moments.

And as Robin? Jason is clever, often brings valuable insight during cases, and respects Bruce’s teaching and authority. Bruce makes a good job at addressing Jason’s insecurities and guiding him, both through his training and by honing his moral compass.

(Note that I said honing, ‘cause Jay’s moral sense is very much present well before he meets Bruce. He was cool with stealing to survive but Ma Gunn’s school was too much for him.)

He’s initially nothing like the violent angry kid he’s now known as. Pre-Starlin, the only times Jason acts brashly is when confronted with his father’s killer. When Bruce addresses the matter, it’s not about blaming or judging him. ‘Cause he gets it, but it’s also his job to make sure Jason’s not compromised.

[Detective Comics #580 & 581]

And when Jason promises to keep himself in check, it’s all it takes for Bruce to take him back on the case. That’s how much he trusts him. Read the end of the issue and see how Jason proves himself worthy of that trust.

Not only does Jason understand Bruce as much as Bruce understands him, but he’s very perceptive in general. He tends to be straightforward with what’s on his mind… at least when it comes to calling out Bruce lol

[Detective Comics #579]

(They’re talking about Leslie on the last one btw. She was Bruce’s surrogate mom after his parents’ death and they have a great dynamic. Another pearl straight outta the 80′s!)

They get each other, they trust each other, they respect each other. Honestly Bruce’s relationship with Jason was the most healthy he’s had with any of his kids.

We can kiss all of that goodbye after Starlin has his way with Jason. And since Starlin’s “““characterization””” is the one that crossed the years, of all things, we can consider Jason’s initial portrayal pretty much retconed— and his relationship with Bruce with it. Shame, huh?

Of Flashbacks and Victim-Blaming Robin days, 2.0

From the 90’s to the reboot there is… few material about Jason’s relationship with Bruce. Or about Jason outside of his death/Robin.

Whether Jason is mentioned or appears in a flashback, the goal isn’t to recall a father-son relationship. It’s to drive through the point that Jason was reckless and violent. That new portrayal has its predictable impact on their relationship, and that’s pretty much all there is to say.

[Gotham Knights #43]

Obviously Bruce doesn’t trust Jason, since Jason is now a “reckless angry kid who likes to inflict pain on criminals”. Beatty delivers cool stories, but if you read that arc you’ll see that he lies it very thick when it comes to victim-blaming Jason.

Depending which writer/comic book you’re reading, it’s implied or affirmed that Jason is Bruce’s son. You’ll probably have a line about Bruce’s unending guilt, or Jason’s (*sigh*) recklessness. Mostly Jason’s a cautionary tale addressed to either Tim (who never gave much of a shit about Jason btw) or Cass (Batgirl #7 is a rare instance where it’s done without victim-blaming because Pucket is da bomb).

But there’s legit no material about Jason’s childhood in the Manor, or how him and Bruce acted around one another, what they talked about, Jason’s personality aside of “angry”, how Bruce addressed his son’s self-doubts – oh right modern!Jason is an arrogant brat who claimed the Robin mantle for himself so that’s out.

DC rolled with Starlin’s portrayal, and didn’t bother to construct anything else between Jay & Bruce to replace the parts they chose to erase.

[Batman (1940) #645]

The point is: Jason and Bruce’s father-son relationship before Jason’s death is barely spoken of. We don’t know shit about how Jason was as a kid. Bruce loved him but didn’t trust him since his “mean streak” made him sooo dangerous and unmanageable. That’s it. Jason is the bad Robin first, the dead Robin second, and Bruce’s son last.

Resurrection and onward

Jason and Bruce’s relationship post-resurrection is complicated, for obvious reasons, and has interesting potential. My main problem with it is that it’s seldom addressed after Jason makes his dramatic return in UtH & the arc is closed.

For all that I have a love-hate relationship with Winick’s writing, and for all that I don’t like everything he’s done with Jason, his narrative is mostly coherent (and a good read overall!).

Winick doesn’t talk outward about Jason and Bruce’s bond before Jason’s death, but enough is implied. Jason’s damaged psyche centers around Bruce and what wrongs Jason considers to have suffered from him. He reorganizes his entire identity and actions around Bruce.

It’s not only consistent with Jason’s mental health at this stage, it’s telling of Bruce’s importance for him. The same way Bruce must have been his world after he took him out of the streets, Bruce is still very much his world when Jason is on a vengeance frenzy.

Killing Bruce, taking revenge against Bruce, making a point to Bruce; everything is about Bruce. It’s the whole “the opposite of love is apathy not hate” thing. DC could’ve expanded on that and made it evolve into whatever, but they just, y’know. didn’t.

[Batman (1940) #650]

I like Under the Hood and Lost Days well enough except for the Jason/Talia ugh. Problem is, DC obviously had no idea what to do with Jason after that, so his relationship with Bruce stays at a status quo.

Post-resurrection Jason isn’t so much estranged family than an antagonist who makes some cool appearances here and there— when they’re not so terribly written that they make me cringe.

There are some other interesting things here and there, giving depth to Jason’s estrangement from Bruce & the batfam…

[Green Arrow (2001) #72]

… but those elements are few and far between, and fail to establish a solid construction/development of any kind between Jason and Bruce. UtH!Jason put on some interesting bases but afterwards? Jason as a character is stagnating, and so is his relationship with any member of the batfam.

And then there’s the n52 & Rebirth I guess. It obviously wants to deliver a father-son narrative, but doesn’t do great job at it. Again, aside from a few cute scenes, the “he’s my son but he does baaaad things” eternal dilemma, and Jason’s newfound proximity with the batfam coming out of nowhere (especially with Tim wtf), I didn’t find much content to have a solid opinion on.

(Salty) conclusion

My opinion of Jason & Bruce’s father-son relationship is that it’s hella cute pre-Starlin and that Winick’s version of it makes sense within his Under the Hood & Lost Days narrative (I personally cut out “bad seed Jason” and keep most of the rest).

I think we lost a lot of potential when Starlin’s work became the reference. I think the Red Hood and his baggage with the whole fam could’ve been richer and more interesting if Jason’s initial characterization was kept in mind.

Yes, Jason and Bruce’s initial relationship could’ve used some more tension/conflict in between the sweet moments but… as far as I’m concerned Starlin’s writing wasn’t the way to go.

I think the only way to build a coherent interpretation of Jason & his relationship with the fam is to make a patchwork of canon elements and to fill in the blanks yourself. Thus what I have on Jason & Bruce that takes the Red Hood into account isn’t so much an “opinion” on canon material than a personal construction.

I’m sorry Anon, I bet that’s not what you expected when you sent that ask, but it’s all I have to give :’) Hope the answer is still okay & thanks for the ask!

#jason todd #bruce wayne #batfamily #batdad #batfam #red hood #batman #robin #dc comics #meta #dick grayson #barbara gordon #zae chatters #asks #my stuff

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herotting-archive · 6 years ago

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BILL’S TIMELINE:

special note: two ‘years’ for this, as Dad Verse is set in the present/Bill was a kid during the 90′s in it. This is how MY Bill life goes, from age 0-40. These ideas are still kinda draft-ish, so they’re subjected to change. Contains some sensitive content, all of which will be tagged.

1979 / 2002 : Bill was born, along with his twin brother Aaron. (age 0)

1980 / 2003 : Bill’s sister, Jane was born. (age 1)

1984 / 2007 : Bill’s brother, Tommy was born / Bill discovers x-men, then shortly other comic books / Bill's first day at school. (age 5)

1985 / 2008 : Bill watches Star Wars for the first time, shortly gets into other Science Fiction films. (age 6)

1988 / 2011 : Bill attempts to befriend classmates - instantly discovers he picked the wrong group, they show cruelty by making fun of his clothes. / Bill meets Josh after standing up for him to bullies who were making fun of his weight. (age 9)

1989 / 2012 : Bill meets Pete, then Jerry not long after. / Jerry introduces Bill to tabletop games and fantasy. / Pete shows Bill his first horror film, Halloween - Bill loved it, albeit being a little traumatized. (age 10)

1990 / 2013 : The Eltingville Comic Book, Science - Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Role - Playing games Club is established. / The club begins to get treated worse at school by peers, because of their ‘nerdiness’ (age 11)

1992 / 2015 : Bill asks a girl out at school, only to get laughed at by her and everyone else / Bill gets beaten up by stronger male peers for the first time. / Bill tells the teachers, they do nothing about his abuse or even express vexation with him / Bill began to feel a sense of sadness, suspects it’s his treatment at school. / Bill’s fascination with comics grow, seeing how fictional characters deal with bad guys/bullies, finding inspiration in it. (age 13)

1993 / 2016 : Bill’s parents’ fighting becomes worse, he tries to drown it out by hiding in his room and reading comics. / Bill’s sadness worsened, developing into a bad depression. He becomes too stressed to do his homework. / Bill began to realize how bad his parents were and what it means that his mother is a drunk, as well as never being good enough for his father and the abuse he receives from him. / Thus, Bill started feeling resentment toward his mother and his father. / Bill’s interests were slowly turning into obsession, as he began to spend more and more money and time on them. (age 14)

1994 / 2017 : Aaron got into the “hipster” scene and eventually picked up drinking, this greatly strained Bill’s relationship with his twin. / Aaron ceased participating in fandom activities with Bill. / The club got into their first big fight / Feeling a lack of motivation and melancholy, Bill has stopped bathing and trying at school, this angers his father. / Upon noticing the fit jocks and the strong fictional heroes, Bill began to become very insecure about his body and even began to harm himself. / Bill’s hatred grew stronger, resenting himself and the world around him. / Parents divorced, his father leaving with Aaron. Bill felt guilty about this and blamed himself for his behavior. (age 15)

(currently/main verse) early-late 1995 / early-late 2018 : Bill is a hateful, self-loathing, obsessed, depressed wreck. / Fights with the club has gotten worse. / Mother grew concern about Bill’s behavior and obsession, hires two men (dubbed themselves “mandom”) to help and steer Bill away from his interests. The tables were turned and Mandom steals nearly all of Bill’s merchandise/collection then left him tied up for days until discovered when mother came home. / Bill’s depression worsen after losing ‘everything valuable’ to him. / Bill’s resentment for his mother is at an all time high because of this, refuses to talk to her. / Obsession grows as he’s desperate to rebuild his collection. (age 16)

underneath is for anything past the current (main verse)

1997 / 2020 : Aaron visits Bill to rekindle their brotherhood after The Northwest Comix Collective disbanded, and Aaron grew tired of his father’s abuse. Bill was stealing from his friends’ collections, they soon confront him about this. The club has a huge fight over this, their friendship greatly tarnished. / The club doesn’t end, but they began to become distant with each other. (age 18)

1998 / 2021 : Feeling lonely, stressed, and displeased with his life, and finding out nothing can bring happiness, Bill attempts suicide and fails. / Bill is put in a mental institute for a long while. (age 19)

2000 / 2023 : After having been put on anti-depressants and continue his years of therapy, Bill apologizes to the club and rekindle the friendship they once had many, many years ago. The club came to a mutual agreement about not taking fandom so seriously, but still having fun with it. / Bill continues college, majoring in writing/journalism. / Because of therapy, Bill’s make more attempts to take care of himself, and works out. (age 21)

2002 / 2025 : Bill meets a woman at college, has unprotected sex with her. / Woman gets pregnant, considers abortion or adoption until Bill promises to take care of the baby. / A beautiful baby girl is born, Bill names her “Jillian Emma Dickey” (age 23 / special note: this changes vastly depending on ship/verse)

2003 / 2026 : Aaron’s comic writing career finally took off, his original work becoming very famous - Bill feels jealous because of this and becomes slightly distant with Aaron. (age 24)

2004 / 2027 : Bill graduates from college / Bill takes anger management classes. / Bill becomes a professional movie critic (age 25)

2006 / 2029 : Bill becomes an occasional boxer in his hometown as a hobby / Aaron’s comic was adapted into a film (which Aaron also writes and directs) (age 27)

2007 / 2030 : Bill writes his first ever literature, it’s an autobiography titled “The Eltingville Club: Dangers of Fandom” The book is mostly famous with nerdy fans who misunderstood and saw it as an attack (therefore they spent most of their time online erroneously criticizing and hating it) and eventually fans of the new famous movie director/writer, Aaron Winkleman. (age 28)

2010 / 2033 : Bill begins to write for Screen Rant. (age 31)

2013 / 2036 : Bill attends Comic - Con with his famous twin, Aaron, instantly regrets it. (age 34)

2014 / 2037 : Bill’s daughter; Jillian establishes The Eltingville Comic Book, Science - Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Role - Playing Club: Next Gen. Or otherwise known as: The Eltingville Club 2.0. This greatly concerns Bill, but he doesn’t do anything about it. (age 35)

2018-2019 / 2041-2042 : Jillian greatly reminds Bill of himself when he was a teenager, this exceedingly concerns him but he doesn’t know how to help it. (age 39-40)

#;; member ＃01 / about #pregnancy tw #abuse tw #child abuse tw #self harm tw #suicide tw #// woo! This is longer than I intended #// Hence why I had to put it under a readmore!

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rebelsofshield · 5 years ago

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Panels Far, Far Away: A Week in Star Wars Comics 6/19/19

The rebels may be warriors for justice and galactic revolution, but that can’t always be the case, right? Three different Star Wars comics from Marvel explore the gray areas of galactic war this week.

Star Wars #67 written by Kieron Gillen and art by Angel Unzueta

After nearly thirty issues and four years of story, Kieron Gillen’s wild run on Star Wars comes to a close with the climactic finale to “The Scourging of Sho-Torun.”

With Queen Trios dead and the partisans having turned Leia’s tactical strike into a potential worldwide cataclysm, our band of heroes desperately attempts to escape with their lives and prevent disaster.

Gillen and artist Angel Unzueta aim for fun and excitement here and the results undeniably deliver. After a run that at times tread rather close to being somber and tragic, it is a bit jarring to see Star Wars make a marked turn towards the lighter and playful here at the end of its latest incarnation, but the creative team here operates at such a fast story telling clip that it’s hard not to get caught up in it all. Whether its TIE fighter chases through the depths of Sho-Torun or surprising acts of heroism by unexpected characters, Gillen keeps the creative twists and turns flying.

The result does end up feeling a tad anticlimactic and thematically confused though. While Gillen does write some great interactions between him and Han, Benthic Two Tubes and his partisans end up being the largest problem here. When their involvement in Leia’s strike on Sho-Torun predictably turned into a mission of vengeance, Benthic became an entertaining wild card to an already complex story. Unfortunately though, Gillen pivots maybe too hard to making Benthic’s revenge responsible for the mission’s hiccups and takes away from the intriguing character study of Leia that this arc originally seemed set upon. Leia does get to put the pieces back together of her mission, but any message that was trying to be said about her flirtations with darkness feels lost in the midst of all the chasing and escaping.

Angel Unzueta’s potential final issue of Star Wars proves to be one of his strongest. Although his detailed and expressive faces at times still feels a little uncanny or separate from their bodies, this action heavy issue feels dynamic and energetic. The explosive collapse of Sho-Torun feels suitably apocalyptic and scenes of the Falcon diving through molten magma and collapsing super structures are a visual treat.

At the end of it all, it will be sad to see this creative team go even if “The Scourging of Sho-Torun” proved to not be the strongest story they would produce. Gillen in particular proved to be one of the most influential and inventive voices in the new canon and its hard to undersell how important some of the creative choices he made on Darth Vader and Doctor Aphra have shaped not only the Marvel line but the franchise as a whole. I would be happy to see him back someday.

Score: B

Star Wars Doctor Aphra #33 written by Simon Spurrier and art by Wilton Santos, Caspar Wijngaard, and Andrea Broccardo

Conceptually, “Unspeakable Rebel Superweapon” is shaping up to be one of the strongest story arcs that Simon Spurrier has envisioned for this series to date. It’s premise blends elements of Rogue One, Indiana Jones, and Killing Eve style spy thrillers into a strange and colorful character piece that feels up the series’ alley and fits Spurriers particular sense for the weird side of the galaxy.

Turns out that magic Jedi gun that Aphra snatched last issue is more than just a valuable artifact. It may contain the design blue prints to an off the books rebel superweapon that may be useful in assassinating Emperor Palpatine. Also turns out that stealing this artifact combined with her recent actions on Milvayne landed her on the Empire’s most wanted list. Also turns out that Aphra’s ex-Imperial lover, whom she brain washed with a telepathic squid, is now a member of one of the rebellion’s most ruthless espionage units. Combine that all with some thematic throughlines about morality and motherhood, we are on track for another rich arc of Doctor Aphra.

Throwing Aphra into a sect of the rebellion that not only makes use of the archaeological plot points of her career but also stretches traditional ethics is a great move by Spurrier. While the flashback sequences with Aphra and her mother may lay it on a bit thick, making Aphra (and the reader) enter into a morally sticky faction of normally heroic characters is fruitful playing ground for writer and character. If past arcs of Spurrier’s run were about reinforcing Aphra’s chaotic and dangerous character, maybe the future of her story is finding out how that character may still be used to do some good.

Making Tolvan a prickly rebel spy is also a great twist and it’s nice to see her evolve as a character outside of being the object of love and misfortune for Aphra’s latest schemes.

Unfortunately, “Unspeakable Rebel Supreweapon” is still struggling visually. Wilton Santos, Caspar Wijngaard, and Andrea Broccardo all take on pencil duties here with Chris O’Halloran and Stephane Paitreau doing colors. That’s a lot of hands in the visual pot and the result is rather underwhelming. Of the three main pencilers, Wijngaard is again the most successful. While there is little apparent editorial logic to who draws what, Wijngaard handles most of the flashbacks and expository panels and these are often the most striking and fun images of the book. Whether it’s Jedi Apostate Oo’ob striding a starfighter and shouldering his experimental weapon or Tolvan and her team of spies letting loose on a group of hapless Imperials, Wijngaard’s moments in the spotlight are stellar. Santos struggles however. In particular, his decidedly sparse and underdetailed environments, which are done no favors by the coloring, lack the diverse and lived in aesthetic that one would expect from Star Wars or even past arcs of this title. It’s disappointing as the script for this story is so strong that its underwhelming visuals become all the more of a letdown.

Score: B

Star Wars TIE Fighter #3 written by Jody Houser and art by Roge Antonio and Geraldo Borges

Last week saw the release of Del Rey’s latest Star Wars novel, Alexander Freed’s Alphabet Squadron, which harkens back to the military procedurals of the 90’s X-Wing series. I’m only about 100 pages into the book, but so far Freed has managed to bring to life rebel aces in a way that hasn’t been felt in sometime with characters that are exciting but also heartbreakingly human. Jody Houser has a much shorter and very different mandate with TIE Fighter, but so far the book and comic are managing to be fitting pairs.

Perhaps Houser’s biggest success so far is making us naturally root for “the bad guys.” It may help that that the forces Shadow Wing are fighting are mostly other Imperials, but this makes one of the few pieces of current canon with Imperial leads that doesn’t actively feature defectors among its protagonists. Shadow Wing are loyal to the Empire, but Houser so far has done a decent job of setting up these five pilots as relatable “everymen.” They aren’t necessarily blameless individuals, but they are understandable as people and it makes them engaging protagonists all the same.

This third issue of TIE Fighter explodes the central conflict and as a result Houser and artist Roge Antonio really get to let loose with well-crafted dogfight set pieces. Antonio captures the chaos of starfighters chasing each other through space with the appropriate intensity, but also thankfully, never loses sight of the central cast. Action scenes are clear, intense, and exciting.

That being said, there are some emotional beats here that TIE Fighter fails to fully sell. Whether it is the suddenness that they happen or that Houser hasn’t yet earned the emotion for these moments, there are beats that should sting or surprise but instead slip by quickly and passively. Maybe TIE Fighter would have benefited with just a bit more downtime for its cast before throwing them into this chaos? Who knows, but it’s hard not to leave this issue without feeling kind of hollow.

Score: B-

#Star Wars #Star Wars comics #review #reviews #Marvel #TIE Fighter #Doctor Aphra #Kieron Gillen #Angel Unzueta #Simon Spurrier #Wilton Santos #Caspar Wijngaard #Andrea Broccardo #Jody Houser #Roge Antonio #Geraldo Borges

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kawitchii · 6 years ago

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Little Witch 101: Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Today we take a step back from anime’s little witches to look at a little witch close to my heart: Sabrina Spellman. Long before she started her chilling adventures with black magic, demons, and Satan, Sabrina was just your average all-American girl. She went to high school, had a teenage romance, and lived with an eccentric family. Plus, she managed to balance all of this while being a witch. Though she may not have been America’s first magical girl, Sabrina certainly was America’s first little witch and, as the years have shown, she’s always been beloved by many.

From comic book sweetheart, to animated middle-schooler, to black magic princess—the world just can’t get enough of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

An All-American Little Witch through the Ages

Sabrina made her debut as a comic character in Archie’s Madhouse in 1962 and kept appearing as a regular until 1985 even though she managed to get her own comic volume in 1971. This Sabrina was part of the Archie’s line up of characters and had frequent interactions with his friends since she only lived in the next town over. Sabrina still was a secret witch in this scenario, only ever revealing to the group that she was a witch years later in a remake of the original Archie comics. It’s also interesting to note that a major point of Sabrina’s story was that if a witch fell in love with a mortal, they’d lose their powers. In fact, witches weren’t supposed to fall in love at all. This, of course made Harvey’s presence a special problem in the original series.

In the 70s, Sabrina’s first animated series featured some new characters called the Groovie Goolies who are inspired by classic Universal monsters. This version of Sabrina has a distinct 70s meets magical girl vibe to it that jumps right out at you from the start of the show’s opening:

"Once upon a time, there were three witches, who lived in the little town of Riverdale. Two aunts, Hilda and Zelda, are choosing the ingredients to create an evil wicked witch. But suddenly, Zelda bumped right into Hilda and accidentally added beautiful girls' stuff as an extra ingredient. Thus, the grooviest teenage witch was born. She has white hair with a pink headband, and blue eyes. She wears a blue dress with a black belt and black shoes. She loves to goof off and battle evil forces using her ultra-magical powers. It so happens that she is the first bewitching American superhero — Sabrina, the teenage witch!"

This was the first time Sabrina’s adventures resembled action packed magical girl adventures. She’s not just a hip high-school student with a band made of groovy monsters, but a kick-butt, super girl! In fact, she really likes fighting evil (reminiscent of the titular character of Star vs the Forces of Evil) just as much as she likes doing regular mortal girl things. Unfortunately this adorable series only ran for four seasons.

It wasn’t until 1996 that Sabrina would be on TV again, this time in live action form. Arguably the most popular version of Sabrina, Sabrina the Teenage Witch set a couple of firsts that would influence Sabrina stories for the rest of history. This series was the first to go into depth about Sabrina’s family life as a mortal and witch. This also is the first series that introduces the lovable and sassy Salem as a talking character, which is now something that’s expected of new Sabrina series. Finally, Sabrina the Teenage Witch was the first version of Sabrina where she wasn’t born with knowledge of her powers, but instead found out about them on her 16th birthday, giving her even less experience and training than all her other counterparts.

Sabrina in Sabrina: The Animated Series follows suit because she is 12 rather than a high school girl. In this series, she often gets help from a genie-like creature called the Spooky Jar in order to do more complex magic. This magic often backfires on her and causes problems, but always results in important life lessons.

Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch takes a turn for a more Eastern interpretation of little witch but for good reason. It was heavily influenced by a Sabrina manga made in the 90s. In this series, Sabrina is a princess who is destined to become ruler of the witch world. Salem is not a sassy friend, but an enemy spy sent to set Sabrina on a path of destruction. Sabrina even needs to go to two schools: her mortal high school and a magical one. With this comes double the rivals, and double the love interests with not just Harvey but a dreamy warlock named Shinji. In this series, Sabrina also battles the forces of evil that are sent to her by Enchantra, an evil sorceress looking to destroy Sabrina and take her powers. This was the most off-beat of the Sabrina series until recently.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina features a world very similar to the original Sabrina Comics, but with a spooky twist. Instead of being witches with powers that come naturally, witch powers come from a deal with Satan. Unlike previous incarnations of Sabrina, she’s proficient in her powers here, but it is expected that she sign her name in blood in the Book of the Beast during a black mass on her 16th birthday. It’s a pretty heavy change to the normally upbeat and comical Sabrina story, but that isn’t the only change to the Sabrina story… Poor Salem doesn’t even get to talk! Though this series has its major differences, it’s a must watch for lovers of horror starring witches.

The Real Sabrina Spellman

Sabrina may have gone through a lot physical changes over the years, but she’s always been the same character at her heart. Sabrina is a spunky, caring, kind of clumsy girl who just wants to do the right thing and help others. Of course, this means using her magic, even though she’s never quite a master at it. It especially gets sticky when she uses magic to help mortals. Sabrina’s interloping with mortal affairs constantly seems to get her into trouble. These magical hi-jinks are especially worrying to Sabrina’s family, which is comprised of her aunts Hilda and Zelda as well as their cat, Salem Saberhagen. Unfortunately, Sabrina is separated from her birth parents, warlock Edward and mortal Diana, because of the Witches Council. Humans and mortals are not to live in peace with one another, let alone marry and have children, so Sabrina is always a special case.

Still, Sabrina lives in the mortal world and is plagued with mortal problems. She’s half-mortal after all, so these issues are always important to Sabrina whether it’s something as trivial as fitting into slim clothes or as earth-shattering as telling her mortal friends she’s a witch. This is a reoccurring issue in all of the Sabrina series since her love interest is always Harvey Kinkle, a nice, average human boy. Sometimes Harvey finds out about the magic, sometimes he doesn’t, but his presence is a persistent problem for Sabrina no matter the iteration of her story. It’s the same question that is reflected in her upbringing. Which world should she choose: the mortal world or the witch world? Since she is part of both, Sabrina can’t understand why she can’t have both. Her parents didn’t choose. Why should she?

Not only is it difficult for Sabrina to separate herself from the mortals because of love, rivalries always play some sort of role in Sabrina’s life. Though Sabrina’s original rival was another witch, named Rosalind, all of her other rivals are mortal girls who mirror the real teen issues of high-school hierarchies involving cheerleaders and popular girls. They may seem like trivial problems, but these rivals are often the cause of Sabrina’s interference in mortal affairs. Girls like Gem, Libby, and Amy have tried to steal away Harvey, bully Sabrina’s friends, and make fun of her family. Sabrina can’t help but try to teach them their own lessons by using magic to make the girls suddenly nicer or, in a case from the live action show, accidently turn the a girl into a pineapple. These instances in turn teach Sabrina her own valuable lesson: not all problems can be solved with magic.

Like most little witches, Sabrina’s story of being extraordinary in a world of average people is relatable, but unlike most little witches, Sabrina is tied to both the world she comes from and the world she lives in. She’s able to solve problems other witches can’t because of her mortal upbringing. Her witch life has left her with an idea that most problems can be solved easily, which causes other problems in her mortal life. It’s this constant balance of these two halves that make Sabrina’s story entertaining no matter what adventure she goes on.

There’s plenty of ways to enjoy all kinds of Sabrina stories both legally and illegally so if you want to support the series you definitely can! Archie Comics has the 90’s comics to the current Chilling Adventures Series available for sale, but no classics. In that case, you’d have to search them up on illegitimate sites. Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996) is available on Hulu, Amazone Prime, and Google Play. Sabrina the Animated Series is available through Starz, Amazon Prime, Google Play, and iTunes. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is available on Netflix. Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch is the only series not available for streaming legally.

#little witch 101 #sabrina the teenage witch #the chilling adventures of sabrina #sabrina the animated series #sabrina secrets of a teenage witch #little witch

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sullen-defiance · 6 years ago

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Captain Marvel summary and review- Spoilers

Captain Marvel as a movie had a lot of expectations going for it. The problem is it can’t just be fine, it has to be great to justify itself and that sucks.

The first half was...okay. The part with the 90′s was less than what was expected by the built up hype. We get blockbuster, radio shack, one of those coin operated phone booths and I think that’s it. It’s less epic than what I was expecting, and that’s fine!

I have not read the comics for this character apart from a few pages floating around. I do know some of her backstory though. The dad, the brothers...interestingly almost none of this is in the movie. The clips of her childhood in the movie are all that is. It’s a kinda montage. I wish we had gotten 10-20 minutes at the beginning of the movie that detailed her childhood.

Instead it starts off with her in the kree world with her memory lost, she doesn’t know herself and unfortunately nor do we. As the movie progresses, she starts remembering but we don’t get much of an inside look (if that makes sense). It would work in a book format, not so much for a movie, much less an action adventure.

In the kree world, Carol is known as Vers, (from Danvers). She has powers, but weirdly her mentor insists on her fighting without them. He also tells her she has to suppress her feelings to be a great warrior and she takes it as well as Anakin Skywalker. She then meets the Supreme Intelligence of the kree ppl, whose true form nobody knows, they appear instead as the opposite person’s most admired figure. So, a reverse boggart?

Jude Law also tells Carol he wants her to be her best self and that sent me screaming to You, it was not a good comparison.

The higher powers approve her going into combat, so this is her first mission, in 6 years? A little back and forth between her and the Supreme Intelligence, she can;t remember who she’s speaking to, even if its supposed to be the person she most admires. At the mission, more back and forth between the team, this time more humorous. Carol seems the outsider and we later find out why. The entire team knows more about her than she does, and they’re hiding it from her.

The mission to rescue a spy goes awry, its a trap, they capture Carol who the trap is actually for. A memory device pokes at her brain and spills montages left and right. Carol wakes up, kicks ass and crash lands on CR-45 (?) which its inhabitants know as earth. The memory spills include one of a Dr Lawson, who Carol sees the higher beings as. The kree want this doctor. She spills all to Jude Law who tells her to sit tight.

She does not sit tight.

Carol and Fury reenact the buddy cop movies of the 90s, and team up after Fury sees the Skrulls with his own eyes morphing into Coulson. Fury is basically a baby in this, since when his boss tells him, over the dissected body of not!coulson to keep this to himself and not to involve any other shield employee, Fury agrees. Has he not watched any 90s movie? He was in half of them!

They end up causing chaos in the air force hanger and find valuable clues to Dr Wendy Lawson and Vers’s past. After new recruit real!Coulson lets them go, they buddy cop over to Maria, Carol’s bestest. It explains why Coulson and Fury are so close. Coulson earned Fury’s trust a long time ago. Maria gives an infodump on Carol’s past and her last day on earth. Lawson, one day, was frantic and said lives were at stake and her prototype plane had to take off now. Carol insists on flying it. That’s all they know until the Skrulls turn up. Talos, Head Skrull, gives her a peace offering, the black box of her crash.

Voice box recording turns into flashback. Lawson was actually a kree who defected. She was working on a new fast type of plane powered by the tessaract, which was picked up by Howard Stark at the end of CA:TFA. It turns out the Kree are the bad guys while the skrulls are the good guys?! wtf? This was kinda a weird choice. I kept waiting for the skrulls to turn around and say sike! we’re the bad guys too! So the skrulls are the good guys in the movieverse? I know there are some good skrulls in comics, but they are really rare. The kree attack Lawson and they crash. She bleeds blue and insists on destroying the engine. Before she can do that, Jude Law shoots her, Carol shoots the engine and absorbs the energy. The Starforce team kidnap Carol.

Fury is still suspicious and threatens Talos with the cat, which will follow them hither, thither and yon. Talos claims it is actually a Flerken. They head to Lawson’s secret headquarters, which is orbiting earth, and is host to skrull refugees. Lawson was building her superfast plane for the skrulls, so they could go far away where the kree could not reach them and settle on a new planet. Carol, charmed by mini-skrulls, swears to help.

Goose, the cat, the flerken actually, SWALLOWS the tessaract by i shit you not using the octopus tentacles that come out of his/her mouth. Dr Lawson had strange taste in pets. Now it makes me sad, to think of the flerken left alone after Lawson dies and Carol disappears. No wonder she keeps following Carol. After I finish this I have to go cuddle my cat.

Jude and the Starforce show up and ruin things as usual. They capture everyone and tie Carol up fifty shades style and the Supreme Intelligence taunts her, saying Carol’s emotions are still holding her back. This is when Carol goes into kickass mode and wipes the floor with everyone. Goose...swallows some people. I don’t want to talk about it. Maria flies the rest of them to safety and kree forces gather at earths atmosphere and attack. Carol kicks their ass too and promises Thranduil that she’ll come for the rest of them. They leave. Carol puts Jude Law back in his place, it is so satisfying.

Fury learns what happens when you give too much attention t a cat when it does not want to be touched. I would not survive if I had a flerken. It is hilarious though that all those shitposts and memes and other posts of Fury and Goose and Fury’s eye are now canon. Carol leaves with the skrulls to find them a new home and gives Fury back his updated pager. Fury starts typing up his Avengers manifesto v1.

So, the second half of the movie was when it really hits its stride. Carol really settles into herself then, and there’s definitely a change in her. Her sense of humour also reminds me of Tony Stark and it would be a joy to see them interacting in Endgame, but I doubt they’d give Tony’s character that.

The two main drawbacks were lack of attention on her childhood and youth, which is only hinted at and the lack of introspection. There are no quiet moments where they focus on her emotions, so we get to know her and how she’s really feeling. The only facets of her you see are wisecracking, kicking everyone’s ass and memory loss angst. You don’t even see her ptsd, it doesn’t really touch her. It could just be first movie problems. The second movie, or subsequent avenger v2 movies could address this.

Everything else was great, I particularly loved the credits, Marvel has been pushing them to an art form lately and CM’s is really epic.

POST CREDIT SCENES

MID: Present day Avengers Compound. We see some numbers first, Tony’s holographic screens are up and the news is not good. The numbers missing is devastating. Camera moves to bearded Steve in a white tshirt looking delicious and Natasha standing around the holographs. Steve says, “This is a nightmare.” Nat says something like i’ve never had a nightmare like this before. Rhodey enters and says the pager turned off. They rush there, Bruce is there too. They troubleshoot a little and Nat orders it be turned on and new developments reported to her. She turns around and Carol is there. Its a bit like a horror movie scene to be honest.

END: Goose vomits out the tessaract.

#captain marvel #brie larson #goose #carol danvers #avengers #spoilers

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tbr-agency · 2 years ago

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【 BASIC INFORMATION 】

BIRTH NAME: NOH YEONWOO

ENGLISH NAME: N/A

CODE NAME: YEON

NICKNAME(S): N/A

PREFERRED NAME(S): YEONWOO

BIRTH DATE: 20 OCTOBER 2001

INTERNATIONAL AGE: 21

ZODIAC: SCORPIO

GENDER: FEMALE

NATIONALITY: KOREAN

ETHNICITY: KOREAN

CURRENT LOCATION: THIS INFORMATION IS UNAVAILABLE.

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: N/A

MBTI: ESFJ

GROUP: 𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐕𝐄𝐀𝐔

【 BACKGROUND 】

BIRTH PLACE: SOUTH KOREA

HOMETOWN: ULSAN

SOCIAL CLASS: UPPER CLASS - MIDDLE

EDUCATION LEVEL: BACHELOR'S DEGREE

FATHER: NOH KIHA

MOTHER: MOON JIYUN

SIBLING(S): NOH YEONSEOK (2ND BORN), NOH YEWON (YOUNGEST)

BIRTH ORDER: OLDEST

PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS: THIS INFORMATION IS UNAVAILABLE.

OTHER IMPORTANT RELATIVES: MOON BIN (ASTRO), MOON SUA (BILLLIE)

【 OCCUPATION & INCOME 】

PRIMARY SOURCE OF INCOME: (PUBLIC SAFETY) - TBR AGENCY

SECONDARY SOURCE OF INCOME: PART-TIME LIBRARIAN (NIGHT SHIFT)

APPROXIMATE AMOUNT PER YEAR: THIS INFORMATION IS UNAVAILABLE.

CONTENT WITH THEIR JOB (OR LACK THERE OF)?: "Very!"

PAST JOB(S): N/A

SPENDING HABITS: "Definitely comic books!"

MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION: WALLET, TBR AGENCY ID CARD

【 SKILLS & ABILITIES 】

PHYSICAL STRENGTH: 85 / 100

OFFENSE: 85 / 100

DEFENSE: 90 / 100

SPEED: 90 / 100

INTELLIGENCE: 80 / 100

INTIMIDATION: 75 / 100

LEADERSHIP: 75 / 100

ACCURACY: 80 / 100

AGILITY: 90 / 100

STAMINA: 95 / 100

TEAMWORK: 85 / 100

TALENTS: STORY BOARD ILLUSTRATING

LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: KOREAN, JAPANESE, ENGLISH

【 PHYSICAL APPEARANCE & CHARACTERISTICS 】

HAIR COLOR: DARK BROWN

HAIR TYPE/STYLE: LONG, SLIGHTLY WAVY

GLASSES/CONTACTS?: CONTACTS

DOMINANT HAND: RIGHT

EXERCISE HABITS: JOGGING

TATTOOS: N/A

PIERCINGS: N/A

MARKS/SCARS: "My left arm! Got it from saving my regular customer from a drunkard old man who came to my comic store!"

USUAL EXPRESSION: SMILING

CLOTHING STYLE: SEMI-FORMAL, CASUAL

JEWELRY: BRACELET, WATCH

【 MANNERISMS 】

SPEECH STYLE: CASUAL

QUIRKS: CAN DO SLEIGHT-OF-HAND, LIKE A PICKPOCKET

HOBBIES: READING

DRIVES/MOTIVATIONS: HER FAMILY

FEARS: N/A

POSITIVE TRAITS:

⤷ BRIGHT

⤷ BRAVE

⤷ REALIABLE

NEGATIVE TRAITS:

⤷ INDECISIVE

⤷ HARSH

⤷ SNEAKY

DO THEY CURSE OFTEN?: "Nope. It's a rare case!"

CATCHPHRASE(S): "Booked and busy for the night to guard the bookshop!"

【 FAVORITES 】

ACTIVITY: CYCLING BY THE HAN RIVER

ANIMAL: CHEETAH

BEVERAGE: ENERGY DRINK

COLOR: RED

FOOD: BIBIMBAP

MODE OF TRANSPORTATION: BICYCLE

SPORT(S): JOGGING

WEATHER: CLOUDY

VACATION DESTINATION: NEW YORK

【 ATTITUDES 】

GREATEST DREAM: TO OWN A BOOKSHOP

GREATEST FEAR: N/A

MOST AT EASE WHEN: SURROUNDING HERSELF WITH BOOKS

LEAST AT EASE WHEN: GET CALLED LAST-MINUTE FOR WORK

WORST POSSIBLE THING THAT COULD HAPPEN: GETTING SHOT

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT: TAKING HER DRIVING LICENCE

BIGGEST REGRET: N/A

MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: CRASHING HER BICYCLE TO A LAMP-POST

BIGGEST SECRET: N/A

TOP PRIORITIES: WORK

【 TRIVIA 】

Yeon and the Moon siblings, Astro's Moonbin and Billlie's Sua, are cousins. (They are close.)

Yeon works part-time as a night librarian for her father's small library. (Everyday would be pack except for weekends since it is open 24-hours.)

Yeon's father also owns an entertainment company. (One of his artist is Lizzy's brother.)

Yeon used to be a trainee in her father's company but decided to leave after a year.

Yeon and Alissa are friends ever since their high school days. (Yeon attended Daeil High School.)

Yeon has a few weeks left before graduating from the police academy.

【 YEON'S STYLE 】

NOUVEAU masterlist

#nouveau.yeon #nouveau ― yeon #yeon.profile

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taz-writes · 6 years ago

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4, 28, 37

4. A character you rarely talk about?

Melalina! I mentioned her briefly in the last ask I replied to, but yeah, she doesn’t get any attention from me on this blog. It’s really a shame.

Mel’s a main character in The Queen of Feilan (aka book 2), but since she doesn’t appear in book 1 she gets rather jilted. Mel is a royal princess of Marazzia, the mersprite nation to the west of Feilan, and as it stands she’s something like fifth or sixth in line for the throne behind a few aunts, uncles, and siblings. She doesn’t have any real intentions towards the throne, and plans to become a diplomat when she grows up! As such, she’s very friendly and peppy, with a bubbly exuberance that makes Violet want to slam dunk her through a window. They butt heads CONSTANTLY. Mel is the bearer of the Illusion necklace, completing the set of 4 McGuffins that my books are initially focused around, and because of that she’s able to cast fairy magic (mersprites usually can’t). She’s also responsible for summoning Sayara to Marazzia and kicking off book 2′s plot. All in all, a good friend and much-needed comic relief to offset some of the overwhelming darkness going on in TQOF!

28. Your most dangerous OC?

Define “dangerous.”

My gut instinct is to say Nafia. She’s the lead goddess of Feilan’s pantheon, she created the universe, she bends the fabric of reality in her hands, etc etc.... but she doesn’t ever do anything, and she’s not a malevolent being, so I don’t feel like she’s that much of a threat. She’s so far detached from the world of mortals that they barely even register to her anymore.

Of the other Feian gods, Immaline is the most potentially-dangerous, because Darkness is the most potentially-dangerous magical element and Immaline wields it with unsurpassed skill. (Any elaboration would be spoilers here.) But again, Immaline isn’t a malevolent being, she’s actually a valuable ally to the squad in book 3 and she’s devoted her entire existence to protecting people. She doesn’t register as dangerous.

Amalie’s the most potentially-dangerous mortal. She’s not the strongest, but her powers have the most potential to completely wreck your shit. Big destructive antimatter attacks with necrotic damage, don’t fuck with that. But Amalie also has tight control of her abilities and outright refuses to use them most of the time, so she’s not that practically dangerous, she just could be if she wanted to. (please god don’t let this girl get mind controlled.)

Violet is the most dangerous mortal to be around, because she loses control of her magic when she’s angry or afraid and she spends 90% of her life in one of those two states (someone please help her). She has a similar skillset to Amalie, too, just with less necrotic damage and more brainpain. Kyrina’s a close second for more dangerous on a practical level, for similar reasons--loses control of her magic when she’s emotional, plus she’s REALLY REALLY POWERFUL, so she can do a lot of damage. Violet beats Kyrina for danger scale because Violet has better aim.

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human

Technically, the Father of Evil qualifies. He was human once--not fey, just human--but his actions have made him something.... unsettling. The Paleness he wields is a power of corruptive calm, and it’s begun to take over his mind and body both as he uses it to keep his eternal life. He hasn’t been fully human in a very long time.

I also have a number of characters like this in my other WIP worlds--the Silver Paladin from Nymia (post pending) is very similar, and nobody in my big weird superhero comboverse thing is all the way human anymore. The comboverse magic/power system shapes wielders to match their powers over time, so there are a lot of characters running around with transparent hair or weird tinted skin or odd eyes or something. A few people have gills, so that’s cool. They all started human, just got warped by their Talents.

Thanks for asking!!!

#taz talks #the most dangerous character stalled me for a while actually #i had trouble deciding #cosmostellar

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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15 Superhero Games That Should Never Have Been Canceled

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We’ve been blessed with a surprising number of great superhero video games over the years. From Batman for the NES to The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and Marvel’s Spider-Man, developers have often shown superheroes the love it took them years to consistently receive in other mediums.

Yet, I understand why it’s so easy to focus on the superhero games we almost got rather than the ones that we did get. There’s an entire section of gaming’s digital graveyard devoted to canceled superhero games, and it’s filled with projects that could have been contenders or, at the very least, would have given comic book fans everywhere the chance to spend time with characters that still haven’t gotten a proper video game adaptation to this day.

So brace yourself for disappointment as we look at what could have been and 15 of the most notable superhero games that should never have been canceled.

15. X-Women: The Sinister Virus

As the name suggests, X-Women was based on the idea that all the male X-Men team members have been incapacitated by the Genesis Virus. It’s not only an interesting concept that would have put characters like Storm and Jean Grey in the spotlight, but the project was even being developed by Clockwork Tortoise: the studio behind the excellent Sega Genesis version of The Adventures of Batman & Robin. This game seemingly had a lot going for it.

So why was it canceled? Well, according to those who worked on the project in the late ‘90s, X-Women got off to a rough start that it never really recovered from. A combination of technical shortcomings, studio drama, and Sega’s desire to start moving away from the 16-bit era pretty much doomed this game before it ever had a chance to become more than some vague ideas.

14. Spider-Man 4

Well, the name of this game should probably give you a hint as to why it was eventually canceled. It is, after all, hard to make a game based on Sam Raimi’s fourth Spider-Man movie when Sam Raimi’s fourth Spider-Man movie was, itself, eventually canceled.

Interestingly, though, a working version of the Spider-Man 4 prototype was discovered on an old Nintendo Wii devkit in 2019. While it’s obviously not fair to judge a half-finished prototype too harshly, everything we’ve seen of this game suggests it would have been…pretty much just ok. It’s doubtful we missed out on anything better than a pretty good rental when this one was eventually canceled.

13. Marvel Chaos

I’ve actually heard conflicting reports about this game over the years, but most accounts of its development suggest Marvel Chaos was supposed to be a Marvel fighting game modeled after the Def Jam series. Needless to say, that idea had a lot of potential.

That makes it all the more depressing that nearly every report about this game’s development agrees that it was canceled simply because it wasn’t very good. EA decided to cancel this project rather than invest more money in it, which ultimately led to EA Chicago’s closure and the end of EA and Marvel’s partnership (at least for a time).

12. Superman 64 (PS1)

Apologies for the confusing title, but it’s pretty hard to talk about this game without eventually getting around to the fact that it was essentially supposed to be the PS1 port of the infamously bad Superman 64. However, because the PS1 couldn’t quite handle some of the free-roaming mechanics featured in the N64 game, this port was essentially redesigned by developer BlueSky Software to be its own thing.

Do you know what’s really funny? A recently leaked prototype of this canceled game suggests that it actually might have been kind of fun. At the very least, this port’s emphasis on linear combat looks a lot more enjoyable than…whatever Superman 64 was going for. In a world where most Superman games are bad, it’s a shame this one didn’t get the chance to at least be decent.

11. Marvel Universe Online

An MMORPG set in the Marvel universe made by the City of Heroes team? How did this game ever get canceled when it’s seemingly a license to print money that might actually be more valuable today than ever before?

Well, some reports suggest this game simply wasn’t coming along as quickly as some hoped it would, but according to Microsoft, the game was ultimately canceled largely because they looked at how every non-WoW MMO on the market at that time was performing and felt that Marvel Universe Online had a slim chance of making enough money to justify everyone’s investments.

10. The Flash

The rise of the open-world genre has also meant the rise of superhero fans wondering why more game developers just don’t put their favorite characters in an open-world playground. That formula has certainly worked numerous times in the past, and it could have also worked for this Flash game that developer Brash Entertainment worked on starting in the mid-2000s.

While Brash went under in 2008, they took this potentially amazing project with them. Reports about this game’s development, as well as some early test footage, suggest it was an appropriately fast-paced open-world epic that dove deep into the Flash’s lore and even featured a kind of Sunset Overdrive-style navigation system that would have let The Flash pull off elaborate tricks. Someone really needs to mine this project for its best ideas and revive them in some form.

9. The Dark Knight

We’ve talked about this game extensively in the past, but what you really need to know is that there was supposed to be a game based on Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight film and that game was shaping up to be pretty ambitious for a licensed title intended to debut alongside the film.

Unfortunately, The Dark Knight’s ambition may have gotten the best of it. The game missed its initial release windows and was ultimately determined to be more trouble than it was worth. While I’d still love to play this game, I don’t know if it would have been nearly as brilliant as Rocksteady’s Arkham series.

8. Green Lantern (SNES)

Aside from cameos in DC fighting titles and the so-so Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, the Green Lantern hasn’t exactly gotten a lot of video game love over the years. That makes it that much more of a shame that the Green Lantern almost starred in a SNES action game that was not only almost finished at the time that it was canceled but actually looked pretty good.

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Actually, the game’s cancellation seemingly had nothing to do with the quality of the game itself. Reports suggest that the game was ultimately canceled due to the rise of the Sony PlayStation (and the start of next-gen gaming) as well as conflicts between DC and developer Ocean Software regarding how this game should handle ongoing aspects of the Hal Jordan storyline.

7. 100 Bullets

Well, “comic” is probably more appropriate than “superhero” in this instance, but it’s hard to have this conversation without mentioning the 100 Bullets game we never got to play. Not only was this game based on a hot (at the time) comic property but everything we’ve ever heard about it suggests that it could have been a worthwhile entry into the post-Max Payne era of third-person action titles.

Sadly, the decision to cancel this game ultimately came down to money. Publisher Acclaim Entertainment’s rapidly deteriorating financial situation spelled the end for 100 Bullets and most other projects the company planned to publish at that time. There was brief chatter about a possible revival, but nothing ever came of it.

6. Ghost Rider (PS1)

In the late ‘90s, Neversoft Entertainment (developers of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater) started working on a Ghost Rider action/adventure game that combined elements of 2D and 3D design. It was basically a Castlevania-style action game from the studio that eventually brought us that amazing PS1 Spider-Man title. The only known footage of this title is pretty rough, but it certainly looked promising.

In fact, this is another one of those instances where the game’s eventual cancellation has nothing to do with how good it was. Ghost Rider was supposed to be published by Crystal Dynamics, but reports indicate that Crystal Dynamics decided to get out of publishing before the game could be completed. Neversoft apparently tried to approach them to work out a new deal, but rumors suggest the company just wasn’t interested in funding a 2D action game at that time.

5. Justice League: Mortal

Remember that Justice League movie George Miller was supposed to direct that was ultimately canceled due to budget concerns? Well, it turns out that developer Double Helix once worked on a loose video game adaptation of/tie-in to that film. It was going to be a third-person action game with a DMC-like combo system that, you guessed it, was canceled around the same time as the George Miller Justice League movie.

What’s really interesting about this one, though, is that elements of this project were eventually spun off into the Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters game we mentioned earlier. While that title offers a rough look at what this one could have been, reports suggest Justice League: Mortal was a much larger and more ambitious game.

4. Daredevil

It’s hardly a surprise that Daredevil is arguably the most talked about canceled superhero game of all time. After all, an open-world Daredevil game that properly utilizes the character’s abilities while diving deep into his comic book lore is something a lot of fans would probably still play today.

With this one, though, the story isn’t so much that it was canceled but rather that the project made it as far as it did. Reports about this game’s development suggest that it wasn’t only an overly ambitious technical nightmare, but that the stress of working on this title led to a sharp decline in morale at developer 5000ft Inc’s offices and may have even resulted in a rise in substance abuse issues among the studio’s employees. Marvel eventually decided to pull their support for this one due to a litany of problems and disagreements.

3. Gotham By Gaslight

Yes, there was a time when someone was bold enough to pitch a steampunk Batman action game based on the famous Batman story of the same name. Early footage of the prototype for that concept even suggests that its gameplay would have fallen somewhere between the Arkham titles and Bloodborne.

“Pitch” and “prototype” are ultimately the keywords to keep in mind here, though, as it sounds like Gotham by Gaslight never made it further than those very early stages. This feels like the kind of game that would be easier to find funding for today, but at this point, it sounds like it will forever be a “what could have been” situation.

2. Superman: Blue Steel

Throughout the…dodgy history of Superman video games, most fans of the character have cried out for an open-world Superman title that captures the awesome potential of the character’s abilities without reducing Superman to a wrecking ball. Well, developer Factor 5’s Superman: Blue Steel was supposed to be that game.

In fact, Blue Steel lead designer Salvatrix recently shared new details about the game via Twitter that all confirm reports people had been hearing for years regarding this project’s potential. Unfortunately, she also confirmed that this game’s cancellation ultimately came down to the market crash that hit at the time and how it left the team without the resources and support they needed to complete their vision.

1. Spider-Man Classic

What you really need to know about Spider-Man Classic is that it was supposed to be the follow-up to the largely underrated 2009 game Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. The basic idea is that it would have seen Spider-Man and Wolverine team-up to battle new and old foes as Spider-Man relieved some of his most memorable moments from the comics throughout the years. Yes, it probably would have been amazing.

Spider-Man Classic was unfortunately canceled when developer Shaba Games was shuttered in 2009. While we ultimately ended up getting the incredible Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions as a result of this cancellation, I chose to believe there’s enough room in this world for both.

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infectedworldmind · 7 years ago

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On a fine day last week month in New Haven, I was talking comics on twitter with some friends while waiting for my train to move. The topic was DC Comics’ decision to reintroduce the Huntress (a female vigilante) as a woman with brown skin. If you’ve been following DC’s rebooted New 52 universe, you’ll know that the Huntress was originally re introduced as the daughter of Batman and Catwoman from a parallel universe. This new version of the character is an updated take on Helena Bertinelli, the daughter of a mob boss familiar to both fans of the DC universe that preceded the new 52 and fans of the Arrow television show.

Meghan Hetrick-Murante’s Huntress

Helena Wayne Huntress (George Perez)

Classic Huntress (Thomas Castillo)

Arrow Huntress (Jessica de Gouw)

This decision closely followed DC’s decision to reintroduce Wally West (a character who was Caucasian in earlier incarnations) as an African American. During the conversation, a good friend of mine expressed some concern about DC’s decision to fundamentally change existing characters and mournfully noted that reboots mean that no one ever exists anyway. The comment reminded me that I’ve felt disconnected from DC titles since it’s recent reboot, which led her to suggest that we still feel an emotional connection to the characters even though we all say ‘follow creators not characters’.

On a recent episode of Wait, What?, Graeme and Jeff discussed Jeff’s superhero/adventure comic ennui. (Editor’s Note: This is the best comics podcast since that other one. Become a patron via Patreon.) During the conversation, Graeme suggested that one of the reasons that Jeff found it hard to maintain interest in superhero and adventure comics not published by Marvel and DC was that he didn’t have an emotional/nostalgic connection to the characters in the book. Although Jeff’s lack of interest seemed to be driven by evolving genre preferences and his concern that the superhero/adventure books were part of a broader brand marketing strategy designed to separate readers from their cash, something about Graeme’s suggestion resonated with my own experience. I enjoy a number of the superhero and adventure books published by Image, Dark Horse, Valiant and Dynamite, but I tend to drop (or lose interest in) these titles far more frequently than lesser titles published by Marvel and DC. I love Fred van Lente and Jeff Parker, but frequently have to remind myself to pick up their non-big two superhero books.

Since I became a regular superhero comics reader again in the mid aughts, I’ve been more interested in creators and creative teams than individual characters. I’ve also banged the ��creators over characters’ drum to everyone I knew who read superhero books. At the same time, I have to admit that I would be more entertained by a great story featuring a Superman analogue if it actually featured Superman. I’m more likely to buy a pretty good X-Men book than a fantastic issue of Harbinger, Valiant’s answer to the X-Men. Does this complicate (or undermine) the idea that creators should be more important than characters?

I don’t think it does. First, I don’t think that my interest in Superman stories necessarily implies any loyalty towards ‘Superman’ as a character or brand. I respect people who love the characters as characters, but sometimes that love looks an awful lot like simple brand loyalty. If someone is into Spider Man because the character’s story and values resonate with something in their lives, that’s great for them. It’s not the equivalent of self-identifying as a Cap’n Crunch super fan. But it’s hard to ignore the fact that the media conglomerate that owns Spider Man views people who identify as Spider-Man qua Spider Man fans as the “fiends they’re accustomed to serving“.

When I say I love Superman, I’m expressing fondness for stories featuring the character that explore the themes we associate with the Superman narrative. I’m interested in how stories by Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder or Geoff Johns and John Romita, Jr. resonate with earlier stories by creative teams as varied as Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, Mark Waid and Leinil Yu, John Byrne or Elliott Maggin and Curt Swan. I don’t care if “Superman” is married or single. I don’t care if “Wolverine” dies, but I am interested in how a story by Paul Cornell and Ryan Stegman build on a prior story by Jason Aaron and Ron Garney and an even earlier set of stories by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller in a fictional universe with tighter continuity. When I’m faced with a choice between X-Men and Harbinger, I don’t think that I’m simply expressing loyalty to my favorite brand if I choose X-Men.

I value those stories, but also recognize that the people behind them are more valuable.

An Aside: I guess that’s why I was surprised by my general lack of interest in DC’s most recent reboot. I’ve always been able to roll with the punches in the past, but there’s something about this one that leaves me cold, and it’s not just because most of the books aren’t any good. I know that all reboots are driven by a mix of commercial (expand the audience by making the books accessible to new readers) and creative (give storytellers opportunities to tell stories unburdened by decades of continuity) reasons, but the New 52 (which was preceded by two other recent reboots) just felt like more of a pure marketing campaign, the end-result of an ambitious junior executive’s corporate synergy strategy.

When I tell people to value creators more than characters, I’m trying to express a simple idea: people are more important than property, even if the property is entertaining. It’s not supposed to serve as a blanket condemnation of readers who enjoy books featuring their favorite Marvel or DC character or who have some emotional connection to the characters. It’s more of a friendly (and easily misunderstood) reminder that storytellers are more important. A nudge to get readers to think more about creators and question the degree to which we’ve aligned our perspective on the art form with that of media corporations and become shareholders with no equity. But I’m not sure that’s a good enough explanation. What do I really mean when I argue that creators are more important than characters?

A. You Should Buy This, Not That: The ‘creator over character’ credo is intended to guide consumer behavior in a ‘positive’ direction by encouraging readers to sample unfamiliar work and in a ‘negative’ direction by suggesting that they refrain from buying and reading books that they don’t like. The latter is the tougher sell. Telling people to buy something new is just a recommendation, but advising that they stop buying a book sounds more like bullying or nagging. It’s also asking readers of superhero comics to abandon the time-honored practice of reading books they hate featuring characters they love. I say ‘they’, but I can just as easily say ‘we’, because it’s taken me a long time to break the habit of reading books after the great creative team that brought me to the book either leaves or breaks up. I’ve stuck around on books after the artist half of the creative team that first attracted me to the title departed and after great writers were replaced by a series of journeymen. When I was a kid, I persevered because I wanted to keep up with the things that were going on in the imaginary lives of my favorite fictional characters. I loved the good stories but tolerated the bad ones as a plot development delivery system. I never had a problem with picking up unfamiliar projects by my favorite creators, but I found it difficult to drop books about characters I loved after I lost interest in the writing and/or the art. I was the one who kept reading Fanastic Four after John Byrne left and Daredevil after Ann Nocenti departed. It was a joyless exercise that made me a “well informed” reader with ambivalent (borderline cynical) feelings about the genre.

My dilemma was typical for readers of my generation of readers, who were known for borderline obsessive-compulsive collecting habits. Some bought everything for reasons similar to mine, and others did so because they wanted a complete set of a particular title (or group of titles) or because they viewed the books as an investment. In traditional narratives about the comics industry, these habits eventually destabilized the market place and led to the infamous speculative bubble in the direct comics market during the late 1980’s and ’90’s. This story rests on the assumption that the marketplace was ever particularly stable, but that’s a discussion for another day. Anyway, I got older and my interests broadened. I couldn’t afford to keep buying books that I didn’t really enjoy. As I went through the process of pruning my pull list, I came to the pretty obvious realization that my views on the state of the genre and the medium improved when I limited my purchases to books that I like by creative teams who were doing interesting work. It’s like any medium – when you cut out the mediocre pap (however you choose to define that), everything feels like a new Golden Age. I’ve always suspected that the market for superhero comic books was distorted by the buying habits of consumers who picked up books that they didn’t like, and it would be very interesting to see how the market responds when/if consumers reveal their true preferences.

The only thing that complicates the idea of telling people to stop buying books they don’t really like is that some readers are simply more interested in Marvel and/or DC’s vast narratives than comic books. I used to get annoyed by this, but its just what happens when the two biggest comics publishers are primarily interested in transmedia brand management. Marvel is (understandably) focused on building an audience for the different versions of the Marvel Universe, whether in comic book, video game or film/television form. DC is… I don’t really know what DC is doing. In any event, there’s some nontrivial portion of the readership for both publishers that aren’t actually comic book fans. I still think that subgroup would have a better experience if they followed the creators that they liked in their fictional universe of choice, but I imagine that they have become comfortable with viewing the storytellers as interchangeable cogs. If you don’t mind Branagh departing the Thor franchise, you’ll probably be okay with Warren Elllis and Declan Shalvey exiting Moon Knight.

B. You Should Think Differently About Superhero Comics: We spend too much time talking about the plot of superhero comics and too little about the creative choices made by the storytellers. We still compare runs on an individual title when we should focus more of our attention on the dialogue between a creative team’s run on a title and other work by members of the team. I think that the relationship between Brian Bendis’ run on the X-books and Bendis’ previous work with John Romita jr. on the Avengers or between Bachalo’s work on X-Men and his collaboration with Zeb Wells on Amazing Spider Man is far more interesting than the one between Bendis and Bachalo’s book and the preceding run by Kieron Gillen, Carlos Pacheco, Greg Land and Nick Bradshaw.

If the average consumer identified storytellers as the source of meaning and value in superhero comics, we might be more inclined to think and talk about structure, rhythm and theme instead of plot developments. We might spend more time searching for the artistry in a book and less speculating about plot twists. Sometimes we criticize critics for not helping audiences understand the unique visual vocabulary of comics, but if audiences viewed superhero titles as more than delivery systems for the adventures of their favorite characters, the demand for that kind of discussion might increase. It would be a response to the limits of the now-standard critical approach of viewing Marvel/DC titles as components of a vast narrative, which tends to set the product line (or even a family of titles) as the boundary of the story instead of the individual series or issue. It’s fun to explore how large scale collaborative authorship is practiced in Marvel and DC, but that focus can sometimes lead us to deemphasize the individual comic (or run by a specific creative team) as a discrete creative product.

C. You Should Recognize That People Are More Important Than Property: This is the simplest and most important reason why we should value storytellers more than characters. It’s the refrain that came to mind every time I read comment threads (I know, that’s my own fault) on articles about publisher/creator disputes or about retired creators who had significant financial and/or health care issues. Although some would express support for the creators involved, there was always a contingent of commenters who used the thread as a forum to cosplay as free market quasi-libertarian economists. They would argue that creators should be satisfied with the compensation that they received at the time the character was created, regardless of whether the contract was adhesive or unconscionable or whether the creator (believed that they had) retained reversion rights. They would argue that a creator’s heirs were being selfish for pursuing claims on behalf of the estate. I wasn’t bothered by their ignorance of economic theory and contract and intellectual property law. If we silenced everyone who talked about things they didn’t understand on the internet, there would be very few conversations. It was the lack of empathy, the ease with which people dismissed the sins of the past and the struggles of retired storytellers. These readers were primarily concerned with getting their superhero comics fix and afraid that a successful lawsuit would interrupt their supply or that hard-luck stories about creators would sour their reading experience.

My disgust at these comments is offset by the sense that publishers have contributed to this mindset. Every time someone wished that the heirs of the Siegel or Kirby estate would just go away, I was reminded that most fans’ views on creators rights and intellectual property are perfectly aligned with the financial interests of the industry’s largest publishers. It’s the natural result of the companies’ strategy of convincing fans that the people creating the projects they love are superstars and interchangeable. Publishers will give storytellers ‘fun’ nicknames, refer to them as architects and spin elaborate tales of happy bullpens, but creators are replaceable (especially if they’re the penciller, inker, colorist or letterer. Why yes, comics are a visual medium, why do you ask?). They want us to think that the team working on our favorite books are the greatest until they depart and are replaced by another team that is the greatest. A reader who cares more about the publisher’s characters than the people who tell the stories is a more loyal customer. If that same reader valued the storytellers more than the publisher’s brands, it’s less likely that their perspective on the industry will be perfectly aligned with the large publishers.

Why I Might Be Completely Misguided (Avoiding Epistemic Closure): I’d love to believe that a fanbase that adjusted the comparative value of creators and characters would be more willing to engage with the realities behind the production of their favorite comics. The problem is that this idea relies on the assumption that we (the community of readers) share a common set of prior beliefs. The community of readers is politically diverse and includes economic conservatives and libertarians who are naturally inclined to embrace a media corporation’s perspective. These readers are less likely to sympathize with the plight of an older creator with health concerns or be troubled by the sordid history of superhero comic publishers. Adjusting the comparative value of characters and storytellers may make some difference, but it isn’t a panacea.

I also can’t ignore the possibility that my expectations are unreasonably high. Most consumers of culture don’t spend much time thinking about the artists who create the culture or the conditions under which it is produced, particularly if it is created through a collaborative process and is owned by a media corporation. We talk about the cult of the show runner in American television, but no one talks or cares about (and I’d bet that few even know the identities of) the show runners behind the most popular shows like the Big Bang theory or one of the interchangeable CSI shows. I’d bet that few people even know who they are. Some people want their entertainment to be the amusing/stimulating stuff that fills the gaps of their lives. Would it be fair to expect them to do more? Maybe not. Maybe the best that we can do is to occasionally remind them how the sausage is made and offer an alternative way of looking at the industry/culture.

If you don’t read superhero comic books, I could understand why you’d feel like the superhero books published by Marvel and DC have never felt less relevant to the future of comics culture or the conversation about comics. That might be true, but the superhero books published by Marvel and DC account for a significant share of the direct and digital market and many of the high-profile creators that help make the ‘independent’ scene economically viable got their start (or are still working for) one of the ‘Big Two’. Both publishers and their respective readers still matter, and adjusting the perspective (and buying habits) of the readers is a necessary component of industry reform, whether we’re looking for more diversity or better deals for creators.

The bottom line? Whether you’re a fan of superheroes as media properties or cultural symbols or vast narratives or simply as a genre of comic books, you should recognize that the books are a product of the creative vision of those who make the book, not the company that publishes it and that we should value them more. And readers like me need to do a better job of stepping outside of our comfort zone by buying Harbinger instead of X-Men.

Storytellers Up, Characters Down (If Superheroes Can’t Swim, They’re Bound to Drizown…) On a fine day last week month in New Haven, I was talking comics on twitter with some friends while waiting for my train to move.

#DC Comics

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bigyack-com · 5 years ago

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Vir Das Is Afraid of Not Having It

Vir Das is, in his own words, a small things guy. The 40-year-old, best known for his stand-up comedy, doesn't stress about stuff too much. His biggest concern? Getting home in time to walk his nine-year-old bulldog Watson, whom he hasn't seen much of because he's been travelling. Das namechecks pollution — “if I had to pick a big issue,” he adds — before returning to the small things. “I act, I do stand up, and I do music,” Das tells Gadgets 360 from Chennai. “And I've done a heavy amount of acting and I've done a heavy amount of stand-up, but I haven't made a lot of music. So I've been missing my band a little bit.” If you haven't heard of his music career, Das' band is called Alien Chutney, self-described as India's first comedy rock band. “Alien Chutney has always been one of those things that I think Vir saw as a holiday from the stand-up and acting,” the band's pianist Kaizad Gherda, who has known Das for 12 years, says. Within the other two, it's largely been stand-up recently. Das hasn't had a film role in over two years. That's in part due to his deal at Netflix, where he released his first hour-long stand-up comedy special — Abroad Understanding — in 2017. That led to a 36-country world tour in 2018, plus a second special — Losing It — in late 2018. “I consciously didn't because I fell back in love with stand-up,” Das notes. “You don't get to perform in Oslo and try and figure out what they find funny without some serious commitment to that process. And I just hadn't done that before. So, I took a year-and-a-half to really get good at stand-up.” But that's been slowly changing. In early 2019, Das was part of the short-lived ABC action comedy-drama series Whiskey Cavalier — it aired on Colors Infinity and can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video — which was cancelled after a season. In late 2019, Das acted in sketches for Jestination Unknown, an Amazon comedy travel reality series he also hosted. That's set to continue in 2020. In addition to two unnamed films, Das has a series called Hasmukh — he wouldn't reveal the platform attached — about a comedian who's a serial killer, which he has written, creative produced, and acted in. Das thinks it has elements of crime dramas Dexter and Fargo. It's currently in post-production, so expect to see that on your screens soon. “It's nice to do some Hindi stand-up, and it was nice to murder people every episode, I enjoyed that as well,” Das adds with a chuckle. “Hopefully, an avatar of me people will not expect.” Before that, Das can be seen alongside Preity Zinta in an episode of Fresh Off the Boat — it airs on Hotstar Saturday — the immigrant sitcom that's currently in its sixth and final season. On it, he plays someone “who has infectious enthusiasm and zero pragmatism. He's fully 900 percent into everything but has no clue how to do it whatsoever.” If it does well for its network ABC, it could end up being turned into a spin-off series. Das says it was “the luck of the Irish” how the Fresh Off the Boat role came together. In July last year, he was at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal when he got a call. Das flew down to Los Angeles to meet with writer Rachna Fruchbom and executive producer Melvin Mar. 48 hours later as he landed in India, he was told he had the job.

Das and Zinta in Fresh Off the Boat Photo Credit: ABC And then there's the new stand-up special — his third, which makes him one of just six comics to hit that milestone on Netflix. Titled For India, it's out Republic Day — Sunday — on the streaming service globally. With it, Das also makes his directorial debut, co-directing alongside Ajay Bhuyan, whom he previously worked with on Jestination Unknown. “I really got into the theme of this special,” Das adds. “And the shot-taking and the breakdown and how visually a special — yes, it's a piece of stand-up comedy but it's also a piece of cinema. There is an artistry to how to shoot a special. I learnt on this special to not have the fancy stage or the fancy lights or the swag suit or the big set. There's basically no set in this special.” That's not an exaggeration. In For India, Das — in loose-fitting clothing and a pair of jootis — walks out of a blue door that's placed in the middle of nowhere and then takes his place on the three steps that follow. The only thing next to him is a kulhad. The audience, sitting on lit-up chairs, surround him in a semi-circle. “I really wanted this special to feel intimate, because you can't do a special about India without making Indians as much a part of this special as the artist,” Das says. “Usually the audience is dimly lit; we've deliberately brightly lit. So if a joke works, you can see them laughing at it, and if they're uncomfortable with a joke, you can see that too. You're watching the audience as much as you're watching the comedian.” That intimacy isn't a natural environment for Das, who admits he's never been a “conversationally confident” person through his life. But those inhibitions magically disappear on stage, he adds: “Ever since I was a kid, school grades, debating, dramatics, ‘What's the Good Word?', quizzes, poetry recitals, anything on the stage, I was up for it.” Das was born in 1979 Dehradun, a small town on the foothills of the Himalayas, some five hours north of India's capital New Delhi. Just a few months old, the Das family — including his elder sister, Trisha — moved to the bustling Nigerian port city of Lagos, where he spent most of his early childhood. But his parents wanted him to have an Indian education, so at age nine, he was sent off to a boarding school in the sleepy town of Kasuali, five hours west of his birthplace. After splitting his time between India and Africa throughout school, Das came down to Delhi — his family had also moved back in the interim — for college, opting to study political science. But halfway through his degree, he packed his bags and moved to Chicago on a scholarship. There, Das would have his first taste of stand-up, writing and performing a 90-minute show in the final year of drama school. Soon after, Das was on his way to a master's degree in theatre in Alabama. But life had other plans. Das returned to Delhi for five months before he started grad school. During that time, he got another lick at stand-up. Loving it and wanting to become a full-time comic, Das dropped out of university in three months. His upbringing has made him “the perpetual outsider”, Das notes, “and that's something that I've had to make peace with. I'm very Indian for American audiences and very Western for Indian audiences. I'm way too Bollywood for music festivals and I'm way too indie for Bollywood. But I do believe that not getting lost in either one of those bubbles is a very valuable thing. “It took me a while to figure out comedically that I couldn't write for a particular audience because I didn't come from a particular audience. I just kind of had to write for myself and pray to God that the audience came along.” Back in India in the early 2000s, Das did anything and everything that came his way. That included stand-up specials, hosting TV shows, doing improv, and being part of a larger comedy ensemble. During one of those specials, Das thought of pairing comedy and music. “The only reason that I play with Alien Chutney is because it stands out,” Gherda says. “Even though the song has the same joke or the same punchline, it always lands differently for different crowds. Vir may have to twist it and turn it for different cities when we tour India. It's not like we're trying to play it perfectly. We're trying to ensure that the joke always remains funny.” Around the same time, Das would make his way into Bollywood, which included a leading role in the black comedy thriller Delhi Belly. Alongside, Das wrote a play called History of India.

Kunaal Roy Kapur, Imran Khan, and Das in Delhi Belly Photo Credit: AKP/UTV In fact, that was the original title for the new special — now called For India — an insider told Gadgets 360, before it underwent an overhaul of sorts. It still retains the essence, which involves Das looking at “what it means to be Indian in today's world. A mix of nostalgia and social commentary and just little s--t from India that I thought was funny.” For an hour and 15 minutes, Das talks about everything from chyawanprash to Ram Mandir, making a big deal out of little things and making light of controversial topics. He channels that outsider perspective by working two crowds — one Indian and the other foreign — in the same room. Every time he lands on a very-Indian thing like chyawanprash, the lighting changes as Das addresses the Westerners to explain it in their words. What's more interesting, in terms of what Das discusses, is the how. By and large, every time he wants to arrive on a political joke, he approaches it via a cultural association, be it a film, a book, a drink, or Indian uncles. It's a clever bait-and-switch, though viewers will likely see it coming after the first few instances. Mowgli is linked to Amit Shah, and Indian uncles are tied to Babri Masjid. “Sometimes you're like, ‘I want to write a joke about Doordarshan's Jungle Book.' And then you arrive at a political joke somewhere just because that's kind of floating around in your subconscious,” Das explains. “I did want to write a show that brought all Indians to the table because I think that the show — sort of a celebration of India — would need it as well. But at the same time, you don't want to stay away from things that — I do have beliefs.” For India is also like a homecoming for Das, who hadn't shot a special in the country in two years. And it kicks off a self-proclaimed “interesting” year, he says: “2020 is a year I decided not to repeat myself. The movies that I'm doing are extremely different and challenging. I don't look or sound like myself. I have a new show that I'm touring the world with and it's an incredibly personal show. “I'm going to release a hip-hop album at the end of the year, which is something I'm excited about because I think I'm at rap, and I wanna see if I can try and take Alien Chutney in a new direction. We're getting into the studio in a week to lay down like seven tracks.” “I think he's pretty good at that, because we previously had done a song called ‘Government Man' in that style and he was a little nervous as to whether everything would land or not,” Gherda remarks. “But it became quite a catchy and popular song. I think it's given him confidence to do right in that zone now.” “I love playing big music festivals with my band. I don't get to do that enough,” Das adds later, asked what he misses the most about his early years. “And I really enjoyed the job at CNBC. Because I was just this kid who they let on the nine o'clock news bulletin to joke and I had nowhere near the intelligence or maturity of anybody in that office building. “But they still put me on air on prime time, so I used to enjoy just being a kid raised in the newsroom. That was interesting. Sometimes I miss being part of a topical comedy show, and I think that's something I might do later in my career is get back to the Jon Stewart, John Oliver kind of game.” In his fifteen-or-so-year career so far, Das has explored virtually every art form available to him. Gherda says he does “a billion things” and adds: “There were days when it was just us. And Vir used to answer a call, and Vir used to quote for us, and Vir used to organise a car, and Vir used to book our tickets and our hotel. He had the motivation to do this without the celebrity attached to him.” Is there something Das can't do? “If I know that I can't do it, I usually want to do it,” he replies, before adding with a laugh: “Even if I'm going to be terrible at it.” That fearlessness has made him one of India's highest-earning comedians. Das' biggest fear is “not having it. I never want to get to the point where I'm not nervous before the show. I never want to get to a point where I'm not nervous about some of the products that I'm putting out. I never want to have a first day at work on a new project where I'm not terrified, because I think those three are good signs about artistic evolution. “If you constantly feel like a newcomer, and you're probably not good enough to do it, chances are you'll work that much harder.” Read the full article

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