4thletter!

Gangstarr Girl: Blaxploitation Friday #21 (The Horror Edition)
Blaxploitation Friday #21 (The Horror Edition)

If you’ve been following this series then you realize that despite the overall cheesiness of blaxploitation movies, the basic theme is movies geared toward the African-American community–something that we can call our own. Yes, the characters are very stereotypical and the movies tend to follow the same plots like sticking it to the man, a big score (involving money), pimps, the bad chick on a rampage of vengeance, etc. but you didn’t think there could be blaxploitation movies without factoring in the horror genre did you? If so, you are sadly mistaken.
Kicking off the blaxploitation Friday horror edition is JD’s Revenge.

I’ve been following GG for a minute now, in part because of these posts about blaxploitation. Go check it out, it’s always interesting.

Join artist LeSean Thomas ( Co-Director/Supervising Character Designer of Peabody Award Winning “The Boondocks” Animated Series ) as he debuts his art book MIDNIGHT MARAUDER: THE ART OF LESEAN THOMAS VOLUME 2, a second collection of illustrations, conceptual designs and tutorial anecdotes. Featuring visual ranges from American animation and anime-influenced stylings to edgy, urban-driven aesthetics, it’s a visual tour de force of unique and dynamic work from one of today’s top American contemporary character artists.

I got a look at an early copy of the art book and it is super dope. If you’re in LA, here’s the details:
Date: Saturday, September 20, 2008
Time: 5:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: 33THIRD GRAFFITI SUPPLY/VINTAGE VINYL RECORDS STORE.
Street: 5111 West Pico Blvd.

I won’t be able to make it, since I’m stuck in San Francisco getting my work on, but I think this is a pretty cool event. If you’re in town, go to it and grab a copy of the book.

It’s got a great title, too.

This sounds like a pretty good cause.

Charitybuzz.com is hosting an online charity auction benefiting Jayni and Chevy Chase’s Center for Environmental Education; a non-profit organization dedicated to “green” k-12 schools across America through initiatives that provide energy efficient facilities, encourage healthy food and lifestyles, and promote civic environmental education. I was wondering if you could publicize a donation from Robert Downey Jr. on your blog:

To raise proceeds and awareness for the organization Robert Downey Jr. has teamed up with charitybuzz to give one lucky bidder the chance to join him for a day on the set of Iron Man 2. Valid for 2 people in Manhattan Beach, CA, spring 2009. Based on availability. Winner(s) will spend time with Mr. Robert Downey, Jr. in his trailer.

Check out more info here. The auction closes on September 23rd, so you’ve got just under a week if you want to bid.

Batman’s Comedy of Eros, by Dennis O’Neil - ComicMix news

Comics have come a considerable distance in the few years since I left editing. Hell and damn, once verboten seem okay both in comics and on TV, and a few gamier locutions are beginning to pop up. But I don’t believe the medium – comics – has evolved to the point where authentic street lingo is expected.

This is about the All-Star Batman thingaling. I guess what he’s meaning by “authentic street lingo” is curse words, but I don’t exactly see why comics have not, or would not have, evolved to the point where it is expected.

“Motherloving” is a terrible, terrible word. It was bad in Ennis’s Punisher, it was bad in Priest’s Panther (or was it Deadpool?), and it was bad in last week’s issue of Amazing Spidey. “Butthat” is pretty bad, too. “*@#($&” is annoying, but not as annoying as the fake Legion grife and sprock and frak and whatever.

I saw The Incredible Hulk with Ron from iFanboy and James and Kirsten from Isotope. There is a bit in the movie where the old school Hulk theme plays. We were talking about the movie afterwards, and Kirsten remarked that playing the Hulk theme was a bad move. It was something that pulled you out of the movie and just reminded that you that you were a dumb comics fan who was seeing a dumb movie about a dumb guy who turns into a big dumber guy.

That’s what the fake censoring does. No one is doing it for the “Hee hee it was almost a cuss word” thing. People do it because the other ways look stupid. The other ways just serve to remind you that, HEY, this is a comic book, buddy! They jerk you out of the story. They look stupid.

The black bars are actually pretty elegant. I think the first place I saw them, and really noticed them, was in Adam Warren’s work, though Milestone used a variant of it. It’s reminiscient of the TV beep or music video cut. It takes away the word while still allowing it to remain present for dialogue flow or character purposes. A lot of all-ages titles get this right. They don’t use fake curse words. If they have a situation that needs them, they don’t replace it with “motherlover.”

Some people don’t like to be reminded that they are reading a comic while they’re reading. It isn’t a comics hate or self-hate thing. It’s no different than being pulled out of a movie or novel. It’s distracting. It hurts your enjoyment of the book.

So, yeah. Put me down with the people who expect authentic street lingo out of comics, be it superhero or otherwise. I can’t think of a single reason why not. If it isn’t a book that that is mature readers (and that is an essay to come, as Frank Miller had a really interesting discussion about it in some Sin City lettercols years ago) and you are worried about backlash, bleep the words.

David U from FBB has some more thoughts on the immaturity thing here.

More to come. I’ve been at work all day yesterday, all night last night, and possibly all day today again. I want to talk about this stupid streak of self-loathing comics fans have, or at least loathing toward other comics fans, and more on censorship and labeling.

I guess the long and short of it, though, is that labeling isn’t something I’m down with and self-loathing is for idiots.

www.CafeSale.net - bengal

I forget how I found this (a link off a link off a link off a link), but I really, really dig this art. Some of it is nsfw, mind, but the Catwoman pieces are the bomb and the general sense of fun and style is prevalent. The website design is also pretty tight. Go give it a look. I’m probably going to go through the site (once i get some free time) and work up some iPhone wallpapers.

Funnybook Babylon - Archives - Tough Love Tuesday Breaking News: Insufficient Censorship

The reason behind All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder’s recall revealed! The censor bars didn’t print properly a whole bunch of times! Cusswords are visible! Look out! Don’t click through if you don’t want to see Batgirl being super-sassy:

(this makes the comic late, which sucks)

Marc Bernardin, Adam Freeman, and Afua Richardson created Genius.

In thanks for them making it, you should take advantage of this being the last day to vote and Vote for it in Top Cow’s Pilot Season 2008 contest.

Also, Adam Freeman wrote this.

Go, vote.

I’m not kidding, vote for Genius. Do it once a day from here on out. It’s down to the final stretch for voting, and Genius has a chance to take the top spot.

Voting for Genius means a vote for a book starring a young and intelligent black girl who is not afraid to both take no prisoners and do what has to be done because it has to be done. There are no capes, no powers, no shenanigans– just someone who has been born into a role that shows up time and time again. It’s exciting, it’s interesting, and most of all, it’s new. It isn’t Starship Troopers Meets Jaws (”we’re gonna need a bigger spaceship”) or some other dumb high concept book. It’s new and it’s a comic book.

If I absolutely have to sell it to you through a superheroic lens, consider it “What if the spirit of Oracle from DC Comics, Batman from DC Comics, Malcolm X from X-Men, and Huey P Newton from Fantastic Four had a baby and that baby grew up in South Central?”

or

“What If Hannibal (not from the A-Team) was reincarnated into the body of a young girl from LA in the modern day?” if you’re a history buff

or

“What if this was the best new comic idea in years and it didn’t get any traction because you didn’t vote for it“

For serious, do you know a teen who’s curious about comics? Male, female, whatever? You can slide her this book. It’s got the right mix of “Fight the power” and “Knowledge is power” to both educate and entertain. It’s got all the fixings for a good comic and one that can pull someone in. You know how many comics I can give to my cousins? Not very many.

This is one of them. I asked for this comic over a year and a half ago and these people came through. Let’s support this book.

You can read the full issue here if you’re undecided. It’s the kind of idea that’s so awesome that everyone else is like “Ugh, I had that idea ages ago I just didn’t want to do it because it was too much awesome.”

I feel terrible that I didn’t write about it here more, because it’s exactly what I want out of comics. I got to meet the writing team at San Diego, and they were super excited about the book. I didn’t get a chance to chop it up with them, since they were signing at Larry Young’s table and I’d already spent half the con harassing Larry & co, but they’re good people. The artist is an Ormes member, and that makes her good people, too.

Go, vote.

I read SpeedForce.org, and had hyperborea.org in my RSS reader before it turned into/launched a blog. I’m a big Flash fan, and it is the Flash resource as far as I’m concerned. I don’t use it as a resource (like Wikipedia’s intended use) so much as a place to go and find something interesting to read, and something after that, and something after that (like Wikipedia is actually used).

Anyway, an interview went live on their site today with Tom Peyer, outgoing writer on the Flash. It’s a good interview, and well worth clicking through. Here’s an excerpt, though.

SF: Online fan discussions can get rather brutal. Do you keep an eye on fan message boards or blogs, or do you generally keep away from them?
PEYER: There are nice moments. Writing about one of our issues of Flash, a very nice blogger said that he was moved to read a comic that really understood what it’s like to be a parent. I don’t have children, so I took that as a great compliment. The negative posts don’t bother me anymore. The readers paid their money and have a right to express themselves. That doesn’t mean I’ll agree with them. I don’t voraciously consume the comics internet — when I’m not working, I like to read about other things — but I like it.

Is he talking about my Flashy Dynasty post? I think so! That rules.

You can check out my other posts on Flash here. It’s all the tagged ones, anyway. This one by Gavok is probably the best, though.

Four Color Heroines interviews noted bloggers Cheryl Lynn and Valerie D’Orazio, among others, at New York Comic-con 08. I wish that the interviews went a little more in-depth or were just longer in general, as we don’t get much more than a taste of each interviewee.