Film. Comics. Sci-Fi. Superheroes. Pulp. Noir. History. Superman. 20th Century Archaeology.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
A few Richard Stark Books - The Dame, The Black Ice Score and The Sour Lemon Score
I've been plowing through more of the Parker and Allan Grofield novels by Richard Stark. As much as I write here, I can't imagine how much time that guy must have spent in front of the typewriter. Keep in mind, Richard Stark was just one pen name of Donald Westlake, who was usually out writing kind of wacky crime and mystery stories. The three books I just finished, originally pulpy paperbacks, all came out between 1968 and 1969, and the next one I'm going to pick up also was released in 1969.
But in writing that much, it's interesting to see Stark second guess himself, realize maybe he went a little off formula and come back to correct himself, especially with Parker. It makes me wonder if he'd gone back and re-read the first Parker novels and seen how far afield The Black Ice Score truly was from The Hunter and The Man with the Getaway Face (still a great book title), and that, maybe The Black Ice Score felt a little, almost, cozy for Parker.
But in writing that much, it's interesting to see Stark second guess himself, realize maybe he went a little off formula and come back to correct himself, especially with Parker. It makes me wonder if he'd gone back and re-read the first Parker novels and seen how far afield The Black Ice Score truly was from The Hunter and The Man with the Getaway Face (still a great book title), and that, maybe The Black Ice Score felt a little, almost, cozy for Parker.
Your Daily Dose of Good Cheer (fictional human edition): Lois Lane
You can't be a wallflower. You've got to have spunk, speak your mind, be a risk-taker, and not because you're a dope, but because you're smart and you've got backbone... and Lois did all that in spades, whether she was flying off to investigate a mad scientist and his death ray or clinging to the bottom of an elevator going up to the top of the Eiffel Tower where terrorists had an atomic bomb. She didn't count on Superman to be there to save her skin, and she still flung herself headlong into trouble.
Of course, it's hard to remain forever between your mid-20's and late 30's, and so we've had a lot of women fill Lois's shoes over the years.
Let's take a walk through them, shall we?
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| Joan Alexander: Superman serial cartoons, radio show |
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| Noel Neill: Superman serials, Adventures of Superman, seasons 2-6 |
Monday, April 8, 2013
Some artists I think handle Wonder Woman really pretty well
As a comic strip character, Wonder Woman is a tall order. Especially for the many comic artists who have, more or less, one or two styles of women they can draw, and then mix it up with clothes and color. We know what Wonder Woman might look like in our mind's eye, but, like Superman, mostly we know when its wrong.
The comics describe Wonder Woman as:
If you're many artists, you chuck the icon and start drawing a swimsuit model in a "sexy" pose.
As an example, DC took some ribbing thanks to the "variant" cover for JLA #2, which featured the usually tough-looking male members of the JLA, and then a kind of youngish, kittenish version of Wonder Woman. I don't know that there was a better way to make the point that WW needs to be portrayed as a peer to her JLA colleagues and not as the resident cheesecake, but in response fans created the "what if male superheroes posed like Wonder Woman" meme. You sort of hope DC brass hears about these things and applies changes as they go along.
I wasn't a Wonder Woman reader until way late in the game. I was vaguely embarrassed then (and now) to pick up "sexy" covers on comics, and during the 90's, when I was curious about the character, DC was in the middle of experimenting with both good girl and bad girl art on the title. But when Phil Jimenez came on Wonder Woman, I couldn't help but notice the covers weren't cheesecake, the stories were different from everything else I was reading, and when I flipped through the comics, the art was absolutely stunning. I became a fan of the character thanks to the work of Jimenez, and then had a lot of work to do catching up.
The comics describe Wonder Woman as:
Beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, swifter than Hermes, and stronger than HerculesHow do you draw that?
If you're many artists, you chuck the icon and start drawing a swimsuit model in a "sexy" pose.
As an example, DC took some ribbing thanks to the "variant" cover for JLA #2, which featured the usually tough-looking male members of the JLA, and then a kind of youngish, kittenish version of Wonder Woman. I don't know that there was a better way to make the point that WW needs to be portrayed as a peer to her JLA colleagues and not as the resident cheesecake, but in response fans created the "what if male superheroes posed like Wonder Woman" meme. You sort of hope DC brass hears about these things and applies changes as they go along.
I wasn't a Wonder Woman reader until way late in the game. I was vaguely embarrassed then (and now) to pick up "sexy" covers on comics, and during the 90's, when I was curious about the character, DC was in the middle of experimenting with both good girl and bad girl art on the title. But when Phil Jimenez came on Wonder Woman, I couldn't help but notice the covers weren't cheesecake, the stories were different from everything else I was reading, and when I flipped through the comics, the art was absolutely stunning. I became a fan of the character thanks to the work of Jimenez, and then had a lot of work to do catching up.
Your Daily Dose of Good Cheer: Nichelle Nichols
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| Uhura tricords the heck out of this alien landscape |
more Nichelle Nichols...
Annette Funicello Merges with The Infinite
It seems that original Mouseketeer, beach movie fixture and boomer icon, Annette Funicello, has passed.
I knew Annette from her 80's-era TV appearances and also as the girl that, apparently, men of my Dad's generation all grew up having a crush on. Annette Funicello was going through a sort of nostalgia-tour renaissance when I was a kid, in peanut butter commercials, guest appearances, etc.. at a time when we also happened to have the Disney Channel, which would rerun the old Mickey Mouse Club episodes (but not in order, because that would be nuts). And I was just the kind of kid who was cool enough to think a good afternoon included Mr. Ed and Mickey Mouse Club re-runs.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
10th Anniversary Round-Up
Back on March 30th, this blogger marked his 10th Anniversary of writing. We want to thank everyone who had an opportunity to send something in!
If we missed your email or message, let me know, as we'd love to include you in this celebration. Also, feel free to send something in any time if you'd planned to do something but got busy.
Here are some links to the posts as they are now. Thanks again so much to all of you.
My own thoughts
If we missed your email or message, let me know, as we'd love to include you in this celebration. Also, feel free to send something in any time if you'd planned to do something but got busy.
Here are some links to the posts as they are now. Thanks again so much to all of you.
My own thoughts
Saturday, April 6, 2013
So, That Online Course I'm Taking - Gender Through Comic Books
Just as an FYI - I intentionally wrote my piece on portrayals in women in comics earlier this week before getting into the reading for the course I'm taking.
The course is: Gender Through Comics Books at Canvas.net and originating at Ball State.
Anyway, I work in higher education, currently in libraries, but from 1997-2006 I worked in Distance Education at large public research universities, UT Austin and Arizona State University. From 2007-2008, I worked at a smaller eLearning company here in Austin that developed mostly corporate training materials with the occasional foray into creating materials for educators.
When I left university distance learning, it wasn't because I was tired of the field. I thought eLearning was in its toddler-hood, but we were taking a leap to return from Arizona to Austin, and there weren't/ aren't that many positions out there for this, even with my sterling credentials. Working in a media shop developing stuff for corporations was a great experience in many ways, and I learned a tremendous amount I doubt I would have gained at The Academy (as we like to say when we're wearing tweed and drinking hot tea from small cups).
Back in 1999 or so, I remember watching a clip from 60 Minutes on The Future of Education. At the time, University of Phoenix was a rising star and talking heads were proclaiming that UofP had cracked the code. In a few years we'd all be taking our courses through them, and there was no point in resisting progress. They predicted (and were clearly relishing the term way, way too much) the concept of "rock star faculty", folks who would be THE faculty voice for a generation talking about America History 101, etc... Nobody was sure how it would work, but they were certain it was just around the corner.
It didn't happen.
The course is: Gender Through Comics Books at Canvas.net and originating at Ball State.
Anyway, I work in higher education, currently in libraries, but from 1997-2006 I worked in Distance Education at large public research universities, UT Austin and Arizona State University. From 2007-2008, I worked at a smaller eLearning company here in Austin that developed mostly corporate training materials with the occasional foray into creating materials for educators.
When I left university distance learning, it wasn't because I was tired of the field. I thought eLearning was in its toddler-hood, but we were taking a leap to return from Arizona to Austin, and there weren't/ aren't that many positions out there for this, even with my sterling credentials. Working in a media shop developing stuff for corporations was a great experience in many ways, and I learned a tremendous amount I doubt I would have gained at The Academy (as we like to say when we're wearing tweed and drinking hot tea from small cups).
Back in 1999 or so, I remember watching a clip from 60 Minutes on The Future of Education. At the time, University of Phoenix was a rising star and talking heads were proclaiming that UofP had cracked the code. In a few years we'd all be taking our courses through them, and there was no point in resisting progress. They predicted (and were clearly relishing the term way, way too much) the concept of "rock star faculty", folks who would be THE faculty voice for a generation talking about America History 101, etc... Nobody was sure how it would work, but they were certain it was just around the corner.
It didn't happen.
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