Nobody did it like The King. Nobody before and nobody since.
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Friday, August 28, 2015
Happy Birthday, Jack Kirby! Design Aesthetic
One last shout out for The Kirby4Heroes/ Hero Initative event today in honor of Jack Kirby's legacy.
Nobody did it like The King. Nobody before and nobody since.
Nobody did it like The King. Nobody before and nobody since.
More Happy Birthday to Jack Kirby - Marvelous Marvel
A friendly reminder that in honor of Jack Kirby's birthday, you can donate today to the Heroes Initiative, an organization that helps freelance comics folk with financial support in times of need.
Click here to donate and see what else is going on today thanks to the Kirby4Heroes Campaign.
So, Jack Kirby more or less made up about 90% of the Marvel Universe that anyone cares about. He didn't do Spider-Man and had limited contributions to Iron Man, but he drew up a whole lot else.
Way back before World War 2 and his own enlistment, Kirby went ahead and made-up a superhero to throw a punch at Hitler as a proxy for the slug Jack would have gladly thrown himself.
Click here to donate and see what else is going on today thanks to the Kirby4Heroes Campaign.
So, Jack Kirby more or less made up about 90% of the Marvel Universe that anyone cares about. He didn't do Spider-Man and had limited contributions to Iron Man, but he drew up a whole lot else.
Way back before World War 2 and his own enlistment, Kirby went ahead and made-up a superhero to throw a punch at Hitler as a proxy for the slug Jack would have gladly thrown himself.
Happy Birthday, Jack Kirby! Some Favorites from his time at DC
Today marks Jack "King" Kirby's 98th birthday.
Jack's granddaughter runs to Kirby4Heroes Campaign, which is an annual event focused on raising money for The Hero Initiative. The Hero Initiative raises money for freelancer comic artists and creators who may need some financial assistance.
Let's honor Jack Kirby by donating today!
And what better way to celebrate the man and artist than with a glimpse of his amazing work. We're doing more than one post on Kirby, so look for two more today. But we're starting with DC as I first went from "that's Jack Kirby" to appreciating Jack Kirby, specifically via his Fourth World work and that era of DC output.
Let's start with one of my favorite DC characters, and an original Kirby creation...
Jack's granddaughter runs to Kirby4Heroes Campaign, which is an annual event focused on raising money for The Hero Initiative. The Hero Initiative raises money for freelancer comic artists and creators who may need some financial assistance.
Let's honor Jack Kirby by donating today!
And what better way to celebrate the man and artist than with a glimpse of his amazing work. We're doing more than one post on Kirby, so look for two more today. But we're starting with DC as I first went from "that's Jack Kirby" to appreciating Jack Kirby, specifically via his Fourth World work and that era of DC output.
Let's start with one of my favorite DC characters, and an original Kirby creation...
Thursday, August 27, 2015
80's Watch: UHF (1989)
In the glorious summer before my Freshman year of high school, I saw UHF (1989) in the theater. Twice. I admit, once was at the dollar theater, but still. In fact, one of those dates would have been right around now as my ritual was to go see a movie the night before school started, and that year, our movie of choice was UHF. For a dollar.
You're welcome, Weird Al.
"Weird" Al Yankovic was an extremely well known figure by 1989, having broken through with his 1984 album "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3D and - much to my delight and surprise - he's still going strong in 2015. He just played two nights in Austin. His last album actually hit #1 on the Billboard charts. Not bad for a song parody man who has managed to outlast and/ or outlive about 90% of the acts he's spoofed.
The movie has a razor-thin plot and is more or less an excuse for Al to move his talents for translating rock songs into jokes about processed foods into the more visual realm of pretty spot on spoofs of TV and movies. And, really, he sort of very casually takes on the culture of TV in the 1980's in general.
You're welcome, Weird Al.
"Weird" Al Yankovic was an extremely well known figure by 1989, having broken through with his 1984 album "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3D and - much to my delight and surprise - he's still going strong in 2015. He just played two nights in Austin. His last album actually hit #1 on the Billboard charts. Not bad for a song parody man who has managed to outlast and/ or outlive about 90% of the acts he's spoofed.
The movie has a razor-thin plot and is more or less an excuse for Al to move his talents for translating rock songs into jokes about processed foods into the more visual realm of pretty spot on spoofs of TV and movies. And, really, he sort of very casually takes on the culture of TV in the 1980's in general.
TL;DR: Pondering falling DC Comics Sales, Uncle Scrooge, New Coke and Consistency
According to Heidi (and, I guess, Bleeding Cool), DC's "DC You"/ Post-Convergence line of books is not selling at needed levels, perhaps far below those levels as the just-launched DC You effort may be about to quietly go off into that good night. TPTB at DC Comics must see some bad signs when it comes to future sales, something they have have a feeling for 3-4 months before comics hit the racks as we're all stuck in this "pre-order" culture from retailer to consumer.
Rumor is that there may be a call to retrench back to the Pre-Convergence line of thinking on the DCU line of books rather than the "Batgirlification" of the line, ie: Dan Didio doesn't know why the current Batgirl comic is selling, and so he's now just letting creators throw shit at the wall to see what sticks.
Here's where I'm going to say something that seems obvious, but isn't treated as such, so bare with me before rushing to the comments, but: the idea that continuity doesn't matter in comics - something longtime comic fans, some of my online pals who come to this very site like to say, may very well be wrong. Even if "Continuity", as in "nitpicking details over a forty year run on a comic" is unnecessary, I'd suggest that Consistency absolutely does matter.
And it may be DC's lack of Consistency/ Continuity that's led to the sudden death spiral for sales.
Rumor is that there may be a call to retrench back to the Pre-Convergence line of thinking on the DCU line of books rather than the "Batgirlification" of the line, ie: Dan Didio doesn't know why the current Batgirl comic is selling, and so he's now just letting creators throw shit at the wall to see what sticks.
Here's where I'm going to say something that seems obvious, but isn't treated as such, so bare with me before rushing to the comments, but: the idea that continuity doesn't matter in comics - something longtime comic fans, some of my online pals who come to this very site like to say, may very well be wrong. Even if "Continuity", as in "nitpicking details over a forty year run on a comic" is unnecessary, I'd suggest that Consistency absolutely does matter.
And it may be DC's lack of Consistency/ Continuity that's led to the sudden death spiral for sales.
Let's Apply This to Scrooge McDuck
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Bond Watch: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
I like James Bond. I mean, I like Bond enough that there's a tag on the topic here on this site. But I was never a total die-hard James Bond fan. He's sort of like Superman in that we all generally know about the character, but, holy smokes, between books, movies, different version of movies, behind-the-scenes ownership rights intrigue, etc... there's a lot to keep up with. Hell, there was even a James Bond Jr. cartoon at some point.
I hadn't seen On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) since the summer circa 1987 when my brother and I went to Video Station and rented a new James Bond movie every day or two. And, frankly, I wasn't remembering a bit of it until Bond put on his kilt and wandered into the dinner party at about the 1/3rd mark. Which is weird, because this is the movie that opens with Diana Rigg, an actress so associated with Avengers and other work that I'd forgotten she was ever a Bond girl. Maybe THE Bond girl, depending on your definition.
What I had known for years was the following:
I hadn't seen On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) since the summer circa 1987 when my brother and I went to Video Station and rented a new James Bond movie every day or two. And, frankly, I wasn't remembering a bit of it until Bond put on his kilt and wandered into the dinner party at about the 1/3rd mark. Which is weird, because this is the movie that opens with Diana Rigg, an actress so associated with Avengers and other work that I'd forgotten she was ever a Bond girl. Maybe THE Bond girl, depending on your definition.
What I had known for years was the following:
- This was the one starring George Lazenby, the man who was not asked back
- People really, really seem to like this one, or at least refer to it a lot
- Connery still came back for a couple more of these
Monday, August 24, 2015
Super Watch: Superman 2 - the Richard Donner Cut (2006)
By anyone's estimation, the production of Superman: The Movie and Superman II as co-developed/ co-produced movies was a bit of a trainwreck. It's nothing less than a super-feat that the two movies which came from that effort went on to become world-wide classics beloved across at least two generations.
I actually care about and read about the Superman movie franchise, and I've read and heard so many different versions of what happened during the production of these movies that I have absolutely lost track of all the moving pieces. But the short story is this:
I actually care about and read about the Superman movie franchise, and I've read and heard so many different versions of what happened during the production of these movies that I have absolutely lost track of all the moving pieces. But the short story is this:
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Sci-Fi Watch: Solaris (1972)
Back about three years ago, I listened to the audiobook of the 1961 Polish sci-fi novel, Solaris. I'd been trying to watch this movie since my college heyday of watching movies based on whatever criteria drives your movie-watching when you're in college, but I never made it more than ten minutes in, which is bizarre given that I'd done fine with director Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 film Stalker, saw it twice, and ripped off shots for my own film school projects.
I'd really enjoyed the book. It felt like a missing cornerstone of what was going on with Asimov and his ilk at the same time, all stuff I love, but you can only ponder so much whether a robot has feelings.
I'd really enjoyed the book. It felt like a missing cornerstone of what was going on with Asimov and his ilk at the same time, all stuff I love, but you can only ponder so much whether a robot has feelings.
"Parker" Watch: Payback (1999)
Way back in 1999, I remember this movie coming out, but I didn't really care, because I wasn't much of a Mel Gibson fan. And even since I began reading the Parker novels and found out that Payback (1999) was an adaptation of The Hunter, the first Parker novel by Richard Stark, I've been curious, but I wasn't going to make it a priority.
You kind of have to understand where action movies were in 1999. It was an era that loved (I mean loved) formula and plot point checkboxes every movie had to contain. Once you knew the formula, you were going to see action stars basically go through the motions, and by the late 1990's, these movies were going through the motions in pretty terrific style as new filming techniques and ideas were lifted from Asian action movies and cinematography techniques changed. But the scripts were beginning to feel pretty anemic as action heroes became overly familiar, their tropes predictable, and, frankly, maybe got a little long in the tooth for what they were doing. Really, if superhero movies and The Matrix hadn't come along, it's a pretty good question where action movies would have gone, but even as an action-movie guy, I was losing interest, and I was squarely in the intended demographic as a 24-year old dude at the time of this movie's release.
But last night I found this movie available for free on Amazon Prime, so I figured - hey, why not?
You kind of have to understand where action movies were in 1999. It was an era that loved (I mean loved) formula and plot point checkboxes every movie had to contain. Once you knew the formula, you were going to see action stars basically go through the motions, and by the late 1990's, these movies were going through the motions in pretty terrific style as new filming techniques and ideas were lifted from Asian action movies and cinematography techniques changed. But the scripts were beginning to feel pretty anemic as action heroes became overly familiar, their tropes predictable, and, frankly, maybe got a little long in the tooth for what they were doing. Really, if superhero movies and The Matrix hadn't come along, it's a pretty good question where action movies would have gone, but even as an action-movie guy, I was losing interest, and I was squarely in the intended demographic as a 24-year old dude at the time of this movie's release.
But last night I found this movie available for free on Amazon Prime, so I figured - hey, why not?
Spaghetti Watch-tern: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
I vaguely remember my dad explaining Spaghetti Westerns to me at some point in high school while we watched High Plains Drifter on cable on a Saturday, but I didn't watch The Man With No Name Trilogy until college when JAL took me to the Paramount to watch The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and I fell in love with a movie the way you do when you're 20. I followed up quickly with the two others and then, in that era where you paid extra for letter-boxed movies on VHS, I got my hands on Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
Expect no objectivity from me when discussing Sergio Leone's sweeping epic. From Woody Strode entering the frame in the first scene to Claudia Cardinale carrying water jugs out to the railroad workers, there's not a frame of the movie I don't think hits all the right notes. Now, it's not an obvious and easy movie to watch. It unspools slowly and steadily, but isn't the sort of movie that's quick to lay out the plot for the audience lest they get lost, and it's rife with operatic symbolism and themes, and it does not care if you're keeping up. The movie is too busy being exactly the movie Sergio Leone wanted to make, complete with Charles Bronson as the anonymous harmonica playing gunslinger and one of the best of the Leone/ Morricone collaborations.
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