My wife asks:
Gorilla vs. Robot. Who wins? (your choice as to how literally you'd like to interpret this question)
bonus question: Lucy vs. Scout. Who wins?
Question # 1: We do.
Question # 2: Nobody.
JimD asks:
1. Supes v. Alistair? Who wins?
2. Ten years ago, The League began this blogging thing. If we could transport 2003 League to 2013, what would he say about the world he surveys here?
3. Compare the child reader of comic books in 1986 (who could go to 711 and purchase a new issue) with his 2013 counterpart. What changed, and why?
4. Can we trust those youths who have no meaningful memories of the 1990's?
5. What does it all mean?
Film. Comics. Sci-Fi. Superheroes. Pulp. Noir. History. Superman. 20th Century Archaeology.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Your Questions Answered: What if I Had Creative Control of Superman?
Jake asks:
Since this is Superman heavy blog, if you were the publisher or editor in chief over at DC, or even just a writer on a Superman title, what would you do, creatively, with Superman? Assuming you could flush the whole reboot, what would you do (or not do) with the character? Just focus on good, solid storytelling? Make Superman more socially/politically conscious? Introduce him to a wider audience, i.e. kids, women, etc.?
Believe it or not, this isn't something I think about all that much, and maybe that's wrong-headed, but I'm never comfortable with reviews of something that start with "what they should have done was..." or "what they should really do". It seems like an endgame with little satisfaction.
Usually the question I find myself asking is: why didn't that work?
But rather than dodge the question, let me give it a whirl.
1. Re-Establish a Supporting Cast of Humans
If you've been picking up Superman comics for a while, or, in fact, most superhero comics of the last decade, one of the primary problems I detect is that there is no status quo. There's no "home base" for the characters to point to and have in mind as they go about their adventures. Spider-Man lost his with the dissolution of the Mary Jane marriage, Batman is almost never seen as billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne with his youthful ward, and the only writer who seemed to want to put Clark Kent in the Daily Planet for more than two panels every six issues was Geoff Johns, who left the book before his creative imprint could really take hold.
Since this is Superman heavy blog, if you were the publisher or editor in chief over at DC, or even just a writer on a Superman title, what would you do, creatively, with Superman? Assuming you could flush the whole reboot, what would you do (or not do) with the character? Just focus on good, solid storytelling? Make Superman more socially/politically conscious? Introduce him to a wider audience, i.e. kids, women, etc.?
Believe it or not, this isn't something I think about all that much, and maybe that's wrong-headed, but I'm never comfortable with reviews of something that start with "what they should have done was..." or "what they should really do". It seems like an endgame with little satisfaction.
Usually the question I find myself asking is: why didn't that work?
But rather than dodge the question, let me give it a whirl.
1. Re-Establish a Supporting Cast of Humans
If you've been picking up Superman comics for a while, or, in fact, most superhero comics of the last decade, one of the primary problems I detect is that there is no status quo. There's no "home base" for the characters to point to and have in mind as they go about their adventures. Spider-Man lost his with the dissolution of the Mary Jane marriage, Batman is almost never seen as billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne with his youthful ward, and the only writer who seemed to want to put Clark Kent in the Daily Planet for more than two panels every six issues was Geoff Johns, who left the book before his creative imprint could really take hold.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
I am in the awkward position of admitting I liked the 2012 film "Battleship"
So, Jamie's dad had more than once recommended me the 2012 film, Battleship, which he'd seen in the theater. I had heard some atrocious things online, but Dick was the only person I knew who had actually seen the movie.
A good, brainless movie can really pass the time on the elliptical, so I threw on Battleship, directed by the notable director and producer Peter Berg of Friday Night Lights fame, and starring Taylor Kitsch of FNL fame as well.
If you have high hopes for a groundbreaking film based on a board game, which throws up a title screen that this is a Hasbro movie, and which stunt casts Rihanna, well, you may come away disappointed.
I am not averse to, and am actually a fan of, what my brother calls "hardware porn". Movies that feature lots of military vehicles, space ships, cannons, what have you... and in this vein, I am quite excited for Pacific Rim. It's worth noting that Battleship is probably intended for middle school boys, from the chaste romantic story to the color-by-numbers scrappy-rebel-learns-honor-in-the-military plot. And, also, the complete fetishization of naval combat against alien aggressors.
A good, brainless movie can really pass the time on the elliptical, so I threw on Battleship, directed by the notable director and producer Peter Berg of Friday Night Lights fame, and starring Taylor Kitsch of FNL fame as well.
If you have high hopes for a groundbreaking film based on a board game, which throws up a title screen that this is a Hasbro movie, and which stunt casts Rihanna, well, you may come away disappointed.
I am not averse to, and am actually a fan of, what my brother calls "hardware porn". Movies that feature lots of military vehicles, space ships, cannons, what have you... and in this vein, I am quite excited for Pacific Rim. It's worth noting that Battleship is probably intended for middle school boys, from the chaste romantic story to the color-by-numbers scrappy-rebel-learns-honor-in-the-military plot. And, also, the complete fetishization of naval combat against alien aggressors.
Remembering Patsy Cline on the 50th Anniversary of her Passing
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of Ms. Patsy Cline.
New Series coming: Superman Unchained! (nice title, DC...)
Sigh.
I wonder if DC even realizes that they're also publishing a comic of Django Unchained at the moment. And that comic's title has a meaning to it that's a lot less steeped in DC's insecurities about their flagship character.
This, from an article at Newsarama:
You can more or less read that as "we're really uncomfortable with Superman as a character who isn't as straightforward as Batman, and as guys who grew up thinking Batman rules and Superman drools, we're not sure what a Superman comic looks like, and we really aren't going to do any research to find out. But we have a corporate imperative to make Superman work in the comics, so we're doing what everyone else has said they're doing since Mike Carlin left the editor's post."
I'm not sure the comic will be bad, necessarily, but the one drumbeat DC has had around Superman for at least 13 years has been "we think we know Superman, but we're going to try something new for a new group of readers".
At this point, the only thing left new to try is to actually go back to whatever that model was that they think Superman has been living by until the new writer (who has never read Superman before) took the paycheck. Only, the character hasn't had an opportunity for 13 years of comics to even have a status quo. He's been rebooted five times in the past 8 years or so, and I think only writer Geoff Johns managed to get Clark Kent in a Daily Planet newsroom with Perry in more than one issue of his run.
Frankly, I'm tired of DC's shame of their own very lucrative bit of IP. Nobody buying those t-shirts or stickers for their cars (all of which bring in way, way more than this comic ever will) are looking for a new, edgy Superman. Dumping 75 years of the character doesn't automatically equate to speaking to ANYONE. In fact, I'd argue that a lot of people would like to pick up a Superman comic and see what they're expecting as per Superman's status quo, not whatever the writer of the week and Jim Lee (no master storyteller, he) have as a way of reimagining the character.
DC, you are the disappointing sibling who we all think has the tools to get his life together, but who keeps somehow making bad decisions that he can only see as strokes of bad luck. We're getting tired of bailing you out so you can keep the electricity on in the apartment you can't afford.
I wonder if DC even realizes that they're also publishing a comic of Django Unchained at the moment. And that comic's title has a meaning to it that's a lot less steeped in DC's insecurities about their flagship character.
This, from an article at Newsarama:
"We're all fans and we've all known this character for a long time," Jim Lee tells USA Today. "You have to fight your natural tendency to do what you know or what you've always thought the character to be.
"We've been pushing the creators to not be beholden to the past conceits and understandings of Superman. So we will speak to a new generation of readers."
You can more or less read that as "we're really uncomfortable with Superman as a character who isn't as straightforward as Batman, and as guys who grew up thinking Batman rules and Superman drools, we're not sure what a Superman comic looks like, and we really aren't going to do any research to find out. But we have a corporate imperative to make Superman work in the comics, so we're doing what everyone else has said they're doing since Mike Carlin left the editor's post."
I'm not sure the comic will be bad, necessarily, but the one drumbeat DC has had around Superman for at least 13 years has been "we think we know Superman, but we're going to try something new for a new group of readers".
At this point, the only thing left new to try is to actually go back to whatever that model was that they think Superman has been living by until the new writer (who has never read Superman before) took the paycheck. Only, the character hasn't had an opportunity for 13 years of comics to even have a status quo. He's been rebooted five times in the past 8 years or so, and I think only writer Geoff Johns managed to get Clark Kent in a Daily Planet newsroom with Perry in more than one issue of his run.
Frankly, I'm tired of DC's shame of their own very lucrative bit of IP. Nobody buying those t-shirts or stickers for their cars (all of which bring in way, way more than this comic ever will) are looking for a new, edgy Superman. Dumping 75 years of the character doesn't automatically equate to speaking to ANYONE. In fact, I'd argue that a lot of people would like to pick up a Superman comic and see what they're expecting as per Superman's status quo, not whatever the writer of the week and Jim Lee (no master storyteller, he) have as a way of reimagining the character.
DC, you are the disappointing sibling who we all think has the tools to get his life together, but who keeps somehow making bad decisions that he can only see as strokes of bad luck. We're getting tired of bailing you out so you can keep the electricity on in the apartment you can't afford.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Your Questions Answered: Why do you hate Rutherford B. Hayes?
Anonymous asks:
Why do you hate Rutherford B. Hayes?
I actually tried to find a reason to hate Rutherford B. Hayes, but reading his bio, it's kind of hard to find much fault with the guy. He inherited a tough spot in the wake of the panic of 1873 and managed to forge a new path for currency, worked to amicably end Reconstruction and restore full independence to the South, did good deeds in Latin America, took no BS from Mexican bandits and handled the railroad worker's strike with more humility than Reagan and the mess with the air traffic controllers.
The 1870's are a somewhat unsexy period in American history, so I had to look up quite a bit on Hayes, but in my estimation, aside from the extremely dicey way in which he took office, he seems all right.
So, the answer is: I DO NOT HATE RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
In fact, I find quite a bit to admire in his biography.
I'm not sure I'm ready to get on the Rutherford B. Hayes bandwagon, like you people, but as a man of his time, he seems pretty remarkable. Unfortunately, he falls between Lincoln and Roosevelt, in that era of American history that just doesn't get much press. I think that's all on me to better understand, and maybe that's worth doing sometime.
Why do you hate Rutherford B. Hayes?
I actually tried to find a reason to hate Rutherford B. Hayes, but reading his bio, it's kind of hard to find much fault with the guy. He inherited a tough spot in the wake of the panic of 1873 and managed to forge a new path for currency, worked to amicably end Reconstruction and restore full independence to the South, did good deeds in Latin America, took no BS from Mexican bandits and handled the railroad worker's strike with more humility than Reagan and the mess with the air traffic controllers.
The 1870's are a somewhat unsexy period in American history, so I had to look up quite a bit on Hayes, but in my estimation, aside from the extremely dicey way in which he took office, he seems all right.
So, the answer is: I DO NOT HATE RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
In fact, I find quite a bit to admire in his biography.
I'm not sure I'm ready to get on the Rutherford B. Hayes bandwagon, like you people, but as a man of his time, he seems pretty remarkable. Unfortunately, he falls between Lincoln and Roosevelt, in that era of American history that just doesn't get much press. I think that's all on me to better understand, and maybe that's worth doing sometime.
Your Questions Answered: 3D Printing
Marshall asks:
What do you think of 3-D printers? Are you excited? Do you have plans? Or do you think, "Oh, man I don't even...that's for kids of kids to enjoy but I ain't got time to worry about it."
What a fantastic and unexpected question.
In 1999 I was working in a multimedia/ video production office and we were helping produce a video for a faculty going for an NSF grant. He was helping to develop a process that, at the time, was called "Solid Freeform Fabrication", I believe. I stood there and watched the process happen (well, watched it on the monitor), and couldn't understand how this was happening, how it was possible.
It was an amazing technology, watching parts within parts rise from a sea of dust on the power of lasers and engineering. It was like a special FX sequence but it was happening in front of me, just one of many terrific sci-fi as life moments that I experienced working in the College of Engineering (nuclear reactors, robots, super computers... it was always something new and bizarre). But I didn't really understand the implications until recent times when it seems that this technology will move out of corporate environments and could soon be consumer-grade stuff.
Like the distribution of media via electronic means or the coming change in education, I'm watching with bated breath. Self-produced manufactured goods is the next game changer. In fifteen years, kids will draw their ideas for toys into an app and print their own action figures. We won't go to the store to buy certain or, perhaps, many items... we'll just buy the design online based on ratings and print up that thing at home. We'll have access to things imagined by weird people who never wanted to be mechanical engineers, but they've had an idea and refined it and now it's just out there in the sea of ideas. Maybe you'll buy a portable battery device to make it work. It's the @#$%ing Diamond Age.
It's going to have us ready to similarly work with and feel comfortable with other technologies that enable us to generate and design technologies at home. 3D printing today, matter converters tomorrow. Making iPhone Apps is going to seem like rubbing two sticks together for a spark.
I was extremely ecstatic until someone mentioned that guy who was putting designs online for making guns, and suddenly I got a lot less excited. If you can print up a gun, what else are you going to print up? A drone to fly that gun into my living room?
None of this means I think we need to control 3D printers or have some sort of government oversight on printing, but it dissolves the supply chain that could be interrupted to keep some items out of the hands of folks who wouldn't normally be licensed to have military assault weapons. Between you and me, I don't want 13 year-olds printing up M-16s before their parents come home from work.
Let's them them print up nunchucks and shuriken, though, because every kid should have those.
So, yeah, stuff is going to get real complicated with this amazing new power we're giving ourselves.
For me... well, I lack imagination. I don't know what I'd print out immediately. A lifesize bust of our own Randy? A Theodore Roosevelt action/ adventure playset? I don't know.
But as these things become accessible and better, I look forward to how it will create opportunity for artists, for inventors, engineers, scientists, kids... all of us, I guess.
What do you think of 3-D printers? Are you excited? Do you have plans? Or do you think, "Oh, man I don't even...that's for kids of kids to enjoy but I ain't got time to worry about it."
What a fantastic and unexpected question.
In 1999 I was working in a multimedia/ video production office and we were helping produce a video for a faculty going for an NSF grant. He was helping to develop a process that, at the time, was called "Solid Freeform Fabrication", I believe. I stood there and watched the process happen (well, watched it on the monitor), and couldn't understand how this was happening, how it was possible.
It was an amazing technology, watching parts within parts rise from a sea of dust on the power of lasers and engineering. It was like a special FX sequence but it was happening in front of me, just one of many terrific sci-fi as life moments that I experienced working in the College of Engineering (nuclear reactors, robots, super computers... it was always something new and bizarre). But I didn't really understand the implications until recent times when it seems that this technology will move out of corporate environments and could soon be consumer-grade stuff.
Like the distribution of media via electronic means or the coming change in education, I'm watching with bated breath. Self-produced manufactured goods is the next game changer. In fifteen years, kids will draw their ideas for toys into an app and print their own action figures. We won't go to the store to buy certain or, perhaps, many items... we'll just buy the design online based on ratings and print up that thing at home. We'll have access to things imagined by weird people who never wanted to be mechanical engineers, but they've had an idea and refined it and now it's just out there in the sea of ideas. Maybe you'll buy a portable battery device to make it work. It's the @#$%ing Diamond Age.
It's going to have us ready to similarly work with and feel comfortable with other technologies that enable us to generate and design technologies at home. 3D printing today, matter converters tomorrow. Making iPhone Apps is going to seem like rubbing two sticks together for a spark.
I was extremely ecstatic until someone mentioned that guy who was putting designs online for making guns, and suddenly I got a lot less excited. If you can print up a gun, what else are you going to print up? A drone to fly that gun into my living room?
None of this means I think we need to control 3D printers or have some sort of government oversight on printing, but it dissolves the supply chain that could be interrupted to keep some items out of the hands of folks who wouldn't normally be licensed to have military assault weapons. Between you and me, I don't want 13 year-olds printing up M-16s before their parents come home from work.
Let's them them print up nunchucks and shuriken, though, because every kid should have those.
So, yeah, stuff is going to get real complicated with this amazing new power we're giving ourselves.
For me... well, I lack imagination. I don't know what I'd print out immediately. A lifesize bust of our own Randy? A Theodore Roosevelt action/ adventure playset? I don't know.
But as these things become accessible and better, I look forward to how it will create opportunity for artists, for inventors, engineers, scientists, kids... all of us, I guess.
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