McSame Sign Update 3

Yep, shoulda thought of all this weeks ago. Another neighbor came over and had to tell us how great the sign(s) were, and I JUST sold one to another guy who was buddys with the last guy who bought one. I'm going to make a few more tommorrow- maybe give a couple away to folks who's houses are more visible than mine. Have to admit- it's nice to see there are LOTS of folks in my neighborhood who share my sense of humor.

Thanks.

McSame Sign Update 2

The second sign has been up since the last report, but the attention the sign has been generating has been great. I WISH I had thought of doing this a few months ago because I would have made a little jing- lol! I've had a LOT of folks saying I should offer them for sale, but being this close to the election I figured it wouldn't really net me much. I've done another four signs, put one out in front of my house on my other corner, given one away to be seen in front of a prominent business on Dort Hwy (yes, a strip club if you MUST know...)and I had two in reserve until just a few moments ago when a complete stranger knocked on my door asking me where I got the sign and that it was the funniest thing he had ever seen. I sold him a sign for the ones in his pocket (enough to cover my costs of making all the signs- even the one that was stolen)- so it is now a break even proposition. With one week to go until the election, of course I'd realize a GREAT idea! Once more proving that I always seem to do my best work when I'm up against a deadline- HA!! Anybody want a campaign sign with less than a week to go? Let me know...

WAKE UP!

My Favorite Podcasts

Just sent a list of my favorite podcasts to a friend of mine, so I thought I'd share them with you. Hope you take the chance to check them out, especially if you listen to your computer while you're working. these podcasts are the best I've heard so far, but if you know of one here not on this please, PLEASE do not hesitate to share!

http://librivox.org
This is THE "books on tape" site, this is good for short stories and recorded works of public domaon material. Librivox'a general rule is that if it was originally published before 1923 then it's DEFINITELY in the public domain They also have an awesome flowchart and sets of links for the average joe to web search if a particular work is available.

http://www.sickandwrongpodcast.com/index.htm
This is the Sick and Wrong show- two guys- one originally from Bay City Mi- in San Francisco doing a podcast about sick and wrong things that happened that week, plus an occasional guest interview. Best part of this show is the Drunk Dial Voice Mail and the E-mails at the end of the show. This show is extremely adult but a little easier to handle than the next listing.

http://www.distortedview.com/show/
This guy makes something of a living online- not neccessarily from his daily half hour show, but from folks subscribing to his "Side Shows" which are all the half hour shows archived as well as special Side Show only shows and videocasts. He uses the "freebie" to set the stahe for the REAL show offered only to subscribers. I am not a subscriber so I have NO idea how aw it gets, but I imagine it is pretty raw. This podcasts content is EXTREMELY adult, and it is difficult for me to stand at times (especially on Tuesdays) and he makes no appologies about it. This guy is out of Columbus OH and actually seems to be making a living at doing the podcast.

http://crankcast.net/
This is a comics and popular culture podcast that Mike Norton (Dr. Goyle) is a part of- interesting stuff for the most part.

http://www.freetalklive.com/
This is a libritarian style talk show that runs Mon-Sat that is always worth downloading and listening to if you have the time. I like these guys, though I REALLY don't agree with their stance on Intellectual Rights. They push the "free state initiative" where they're trying to get like minded, liberty free thinkers to all move to New Hampshire to live and be a political force.

http://www.dancarlin.com/
This guy runs 2 podcasts, both of which I KNOW you would LOVE! He does a free thinking political cast called Common Sense, which is incredible, and a History broadcast that is twice as good as his political casts. This guy's broadcasts are way above most other folks broadcasts, and are well researched, well thought out and NOT boring. His recent history broadcasts on the Apache nation and his seperate one on the Huns are both INCREDIBLE. His older political casts can be dated at times and best listened to fresh, but his history broadcasts are timeless. In fact, just going to get this link I found a new political show that I'm downloading now.

http://www.971freefm.com/pages/4096.php
This is the link to Leykis- always good to listen to and ALWAYS interesting. This is his HUGE archive page where he posts shows usually a day or 2 after they've aired. This guy is syndicated all over the country but around here. He is always thought provoking and entertaining.

http://mudbomb.com/archives/category/podcast/\
Mubbomb is the funniest ADULT news podcast I have ever found- consistantly funny and ALWAYS worth the listen, but VERY adult. The latest episode has one of the casters on Holland and he talks about the weirdness that is there. This site hasn't had a new podcast in a lloonnnggg while.

Enjoy and WAKE UP!

McSame Sign Update

I looked out at 3 this afternoon to see my McSame sign gone. The wire folder was still there, but the sign itself was nowhere in site. After checking the neighborhood I found the "UAW endorses Obama" signs up the street still intact, but again no "Obama/Biden" signs in site. No one on my immediate street has a McCain sign up at all, and I have yet to see one. the nearest one I've seen is 2 blocks over.

The new sign went up at 3:15 and as of 9pm it was still there.

I've cut two more and will have another one on my other street up tommorrow morning (I live on a corner), and I'll have one in reserve, just in case. I'm thinking I'll be like a hydra, for everyone the take down 2 more will take it's place. the next one will go up with a "Warning this sign under surveilance" sign underneath it. If I do it I'll show you a picture.

Folks, if you feel as strong about this as I do, maybe it's time to do your own sign.

WAKE UP!

WTF: Weekend Update

Catching you up on a few bits of previous bloggings, just to keep you as up to date as possible:

Obama last week (or perhaps the week before) actually had the words “geo thermal” hit the media from one of his speeches. Whenever these politicians publicly address our energy needs, and how badly we need to be self-reliant, absolutely none of them want to talk about, let alone USE the term “abiotic”, but every once in a great while you’ll hear them say “geo-thermal” probably just to screw with the heads of an energy corp or two- though I’m sure that part of making geo-thermal energy “practical” will be how much these corps can charge us a lot more than exactly how simple, cheap, and cost effective it could be.

I’d be more interested in what these politicians were spouting if they were actually trying to think a little more out of the box. Let’s see Obama start talking about real alternative energies- I mean here in Flint, we’re all excited about a bio-fuel plant that will actually take shit and turn it into fuel- literally. We’re losing our ass for being such a GM hub that when a few extra jobs for recycling shit starts to be whispered, we’re kissing ass grateful. Of course, our last three fast food franchises that opened here (Krispy Kreme, White Castle, and now Sonic- yes, we are in the “big time” now) they all had about a 10-1 application ratio. That’s 10 applications for each job. That’s one of many reasons why McCain never bothered to take Flint, let alone Michigan as viable. We’re too freakin’ poor for their elite asses to waste their time with us.


My “McSame” sign is still in front of my house as I type this. Guess the McCain folks who were stealing Obama signs around here are fooled. I did have my neighbor come over to tell me he appreciated my sense of humor. He’s a retired shop worker who’s VERY conservative, and he’s not fooled by all the negative campaigning- he thinks for himself. I’m almost looking at the election as a measure of intelligence for the country, which may be a problem on my end because I’m usually pretty cynical when it comes to folks being “sheeple”. I think the choice is too easy to make if you just THINK and look at the record, campaign, and demeanor of the candidates.

It is driving me NUTS that all the outcry over Obama’s socialistic tax hike on the rich works out to a lousy THREE PERCENT!! And it returns the tax structure to the same levels when Clinton was in office- BUT adds a deduction for every employee. Once you actually READ the fine print and look at the real percentages, then you realize that the folks screaming about “socialism” are the same guys shipping jobs and opportunities for employment elsewhere. These guys aren’t really worried about socialism as much as losing a lousy THREE PERCENT! That just means they MIGHT have to stop getting their coffee from Starbucks and get it from McDonalds every morning in order to maintain their exact standard of living. Either that or be a little more charitable, or actually do something else like invest in their business infrastructure, or hire an American employee or two to balance it all out. It’s SO ridiculous that it plain pisses me off! “Socialism” indeed!

Getting off the soapbox now and back to the updates… On the Flint front, the guy who hand spray painted “Isn’t Flint Great?” on his store front has now changed his tune…



I understand (and even show there from his little poster he’s tacked up next to his door) that he’s printing t-shirts out of the store front now. I was looking at getting a store front to print t-shirts out of not more than 2 blocks away from where he is, but was told I had to install an extensive sprinkler system into the building THAT I WOULD BE RENTING because those pesky shirts catch fire SO often (not!) that a fire extinguisher would not do the job properly. Needless to say I farm out any t-shirt print jobs I get now, which thanks to the economy are getting fewer and fewer.

One thing I can say I’m proud of for living around Flint right now is that we’ve had two crappy mayors, and now Flint’s about to have their second recall election for mayor within the decade- that’s kinda cool if you ask me. I’m making a shirt that says “2 Mayors- 2 Recalls, FLINT MICHIGAN, Making Democracy Work For US.” Seriously. Let me know if you want one.




On the comic front- the latest posting of Lying In The Gutters on the Comic Book Resource site: http://www.comicbookresources.com/ (a kind of comic book gossip column) makes mention that DC may soon be revamping the Paul Kirk Manhunter back into a full fledged series. If you look back a few weeks on one of my “Heroes I Miss” postings you can see more on what he’s all about. This is well past due to happen, I just hope they take their time with the property and DON’T FUCK IT UP! We’ll see.

On the blog front I’m still behind on those “Heroes I Miss” sections and I’ve mentally prepared a number of other postings as well, I just need to get off my ass (or more on point- get on my ass in front of this computer) and type them in. In the meantime I’m working on a couple of other fun things that MIGHT actually work out. Yep, more “obi-Wan Kenobi off on a wild crusade” kinds of things so they’re really not worth getting into.

Thanks again to all you folks sticking with this blog- I hope you’re finding it entertaining. As always, I encourage you to stop lurking at any time and comment, or drop me a line via my MySpace page if you’ve got anything you feel would be worth mentioning here. Doing so might inspire me to post more often. Thanks again and. As always…

WAKE UP!

Yard Sign

Since I can't seem to keep an Obama sign in my yard, I made up my own:



WAKE UP!

WTF: Random Political Rambling (sorry)

Oh yeah, I wish this stupid election was over! There's not that many Obama signs in my neighborhood (unless you count all the foreclosures and HUD repos- they even outnumber the McCain signs!) because there seems to be an effort out for McCain folks to pull Obama signs up out of folk's lawns- PLUS the only way I seem to be able to get ahold of one is through a donation- which might actually explain most of the Obama finance kitty- lol.

Seems to me that it's coming down to a vast polarization here in America between the McCain and Obama folks, worse than any polarization I've ever seen. Trouble is that it's looking like the sheeple (at least the uneducated blind following ones) are all falling for McCain, and to me that's disturbing. Don't these folks READ? Have they NO common sense at all??? I mean, I'm not too hip on voting for a Democrat myself, but I've at least read the backgrounds on all the candidates and have realized who's the lesser of the two evils. I've watched television and seen enough to see who's pushing the "hate, fear, and smear" about the other guy to the point of deciding my vote. Have these folks no shame? Do they LOVE the way their neighborhoods and country, not to mention the political party in the presidential spot, are currently behaving? McCain and Palin remind me of old time fear mongering a LOT more than ushering in any kind of "change".

Flat out, McCain has no message other than "That guy's a terrorist, wait, he pals around with terrorists, wait he's a socialist!", only a continuation of the same solutions that put us here, just look at his "plan". Those "mavericks" are bought and sold, not only by their party, but by their sheer greed. All the candidates have flawed records, don't get me wrong here, but McSame and Bailin are supposed to be representatives of the "christian conservative right" and all they are doing is mimicking the sheer hypocrisy of day-to-day smear politics. Neither one of them are remotely "Christian" (just look at the lies and hatred they breed in their campaigns- "Do unto others" indeed!) "Conservative" (Palin is so "conservative" that she left Wasilla- a town 5/8th the size of Flushing- with a 25 million dollar debt from a sports arena she arranged by the same construction company that built her big house as a "favor" to her buddy husband), or remotely "Right" (McCain's votes are available to the highest bidder, he was part of the Keating 5 savings and loan SCANDAL, and he's voted with Bush these last 4 years around 90% of the time and he's proud of it), C'MON!! Seriously, do you want that kind of hate, smear, and SHIT anywhere near the Whitehouse? What kind of attitude do you want the country, and yes, the world, to have for at least the next four years?

Where are folk's common sense? I have to applaud Colin Powell (current scourge of the right-wing radio set) for spelling it out so directly and on point:



I sincerely hope that Obama asks him to serve as Secretary of State and gives him a chance to rectify his being made a patsy in front of the United Nations when he tried to sell them on the war in Iraq (and that's not a political opinion there, just look at the commission report(s)), to me he's the BEST man for the job. I'd let him loose and tell him to get us out of Iraq and back on point asap, because you've got more problems within our borders to deal with.



Even if Obama gets in, there has been SO much hatred made out of his reputation and campaign that the country will be shredded (more shredded than we are now or have ever been) for a VERY long time, and frankly I blame the Republicans and McCain totally for it, and they ought to be ashamed of themselves for the shit and dirt slung in the last few months. Obviously money has no shame, corporate greed has no bounds, and folks who can't make their own reasoning or curiosity to educate themselves have no ethics either. Politics and this country (what the Republicans sadly want to call "REAL America") have an ugly shit smear around their bowl brought on by the Republicans and I'll not be forgetting that anytime soon. No wonder voter apathy is so high! Now a vote for Obama doesn't mean a vote against racism and corporate greed nearly as much as a statement on how much more shit we as Americans want in our lives. Do we reward shitslingers, liars, and smearmongers by voting them into office, or do we want intelligence, calmness, and reasoning to dominate our politics? If anything I would think all the fearmongering and lies would promote folks to vote AGAINST your shit, and I honestly hope there are enough THINKING people out there to toss idiots and shitslingers away from any kind of public life, let alone our tax money.

Please don't follow what I say blindly either, read up on these idiots and vote for yourself, but PLEASE do it with more than an open mind, do it with an informed heart. Look around you before you vote, and most of all...

WAKE UP!

COMICS MY WAY: Grayson Disgrayson And A CW Fix

On the upside it looks like the CW network is admitting that this will be the final year of Smallville, which is about 3 seasons too late if you ask me, so there IS some good here. On the bad side they are seriously considering replacing Smallville with yet another “revamp” of a superhero, this time being Robin and, like Smallville, it would focus on the years before becoming Robin, and on his home family life. Is this remotely something that comic book fans want to see? Smallville I could understand because for 1) It’s Superman, and 2) His early years is when all of Clark Kent’s moral center is formed and it’s probably the best time in his life in regards to building his character. When you think about it, focusing on Robin’s life before Batman is just plain dull, stupid, and too “Dawson Creekish” to make anyone over 15 interested, especially anyone male (but admittedly most dramatic television is AIMED at a primarily female audience anyway, so well, ‘WHATEVER!”

In comics, Dick Grayson is literally three Robins back in continuity. They’ve killed Robin almost every way you can think of (even leaving it up to an online vote once), and Dick Grayson changed suits and became Nightwing about 20 years or so ago. Most comic fans will tell you (or would tell you if these silly network execs would actually ASK them!) that Robin is a much-hated character over all. Kid sidekicks have become a clichéd joke in most every comic fans mind, not withstanding the homosexual overtones brought on in the 50’s by Wertham’s tirade on comics: The Seduction Of The Innocent.

Robin has NOT been in the top 4 money making Batman films in the last 20 years. Maybe the CW execs can take that as a hint. Unless there’s some AMAZING reworking here, doing a series on the Flying Graysons is a losing proposition. Fans will not only not watch it, but they will HATE it, and one thing I think all the media has learned by now (and are painfully learning with HEROES) is that when the fans HATE you, you make NO money.

Hey CW, best of luck on The Graysons, hope you pour a TON of money into it because it’s gonna make Birds Of Prey (a series that died for completely different reasons) look like a winner! Let’s just hope they don’t decide that the failure of The Graysons makes them think that Smallville was a fluke, or that the audience is over this whole “superhero thing” and abandon the genre altogether.

Knowing them they will place a full season order based on the look of the pilot, start full tilt into filming the first season, run the pilot, look at the ratings, realize their mistake too late as they have already placed the show on the fall schedule, stop full production of episodes around 10-11 as they see the ratings on the first 1 or 2 shows, run about 8 episodes while they chase around creating the next bland ‘reality” nightmare to replace it, and a year or so later release the DVD set to mediocre sales and giggles from most comic fans who STILL are looking for great escapism on television, as the CW has sworn off doing anymore DC properties since they can’t seem to sell them beyond Smallville. I can see all that easily happening.

Listen. Instead of just bitching, I would like to propose a short list of DC comic properties that the CW should consider doing INSTEAD of The Graysons. Screw the name recognition, these properties might not be know to most, but if they did do them with even a small hint of respect to their source material, they would probably have another Smallville on their hands. Let’s NOT do the obvious ones, like the Bruce Wayne script that the WB almost did, or the Mercy Reef/Dawson-Aquaman pilot that they shot and never aired, or even Global Frequency that was a much more ambitious and fun version of Fringe (well, almost- global had MUCH more entertainment potential), those are probably gone anyway. I know this a personal list, based upon my perceived potential, and I’m not a television guy, so logistics and budget constants ARE considered but MIGHT be unrealistic. Here goes:

First, the no-brainers:

1)GREEN ARROW: Set-up is done, actors and costumes are ready to go, sets are built, concept is easily accessible, even doing today’s version of the comic can be done. This is a total no-brainer for CW, Warners, and DC- a solid win/win/win. If you keep to the Smallville budget you could even start a regular rogues gallery of villains and turn him into a real swashbuckling adventurer, and when’s the last time we’ve had a REAL action oriented show on that didn’t involve vampires and darkness? His association with Black Canary could easily rival the relationship dynamics in Moonlighting or Bones.

2)MARTIAN MANHUNTER: Seriously, call it JOHN JONES and never show his true greenness (or show it in shadow, or shadow form), but give him his powers and his alien-ness. An outsider looking in on earth life- it’s literally Starman (the movie) meets superheroes, and with the same actor as was in Smallville you’ll have a strong African American lead to boot. Again, a REAL no-brainer here.

3)DIANA PRINCE: You don’t even show her origin if you can’t afford it, plus the costume is optional, but honestly who doesn’t want to see a well formed girl in a Wonder Woman costume running across our TV set again? Stupid that you’re not already 3-4 seasons into this show. Of course it would take a little thinking if you were to totally update her, but I’m willing to bet that recreating WW2 on the Warner’s lot would not be too difficult if they really wanted to.

4)MANHUNTER: Paul Kirk or otherwise, take a version of Manhunter, or blend them into a new one. You’ve got rights to the name and plenty of concepts to choose from (though the Paul Kirk version would allow you a MUCH wider story range as one episode he’s modern day, the next he’s reminiscing about his days as a WW2 superhero- with no powers to boot!). You could easily leave this in it’s own universe and go for YEARS just copying James Bond and Alias plots-seriously a lazy no-brainer. Look back a few weeks in this blog to a previous “Heroes I Miss” post for more on this guy- I promise you it’s worth it!

5)THE PHANTOM STRANGER: Again, easy concept to grasp, a wide range of stories to tell, and a GREAT hook and plenty of room for character development. This could be a multi season series where no 2 seasons are exactly alike. One season, it’s all short stories, set in multiple places, fighting multiple problems, as only the viewer is allowed to REALLY get to know the main character. Next season, set in modern day, establishes a secondary cast, must like the old Bill Bixby Hulk, the Stranger keeps traveling and there’s a reporter and a head of “homeland security” desperately trying to trap him and figure him out. Next season could be a constant chase after a major, MAJOR baddie (you could even rip-off Heroes and have his stopping an “end of the world” scenario that he’s trying to keep from happening). Again, a no-brainer.

Now quickly, here’s 5 higher concept properties that I long to see on TV, but the budget would probably never allow it:

1)ADAM STRANGE: A remake from the ground floor of the ORIGINAL concept, and I’m gonna leave that hanging because I’ve rambled enough for one post and I plan on using him as another Hero I Miss really soon. Let’s just say that the property has such mass appeal for all ages, a true cross of romance, and action/adventure science fiction than anyone with half a brain at the CW offices should already be arguing over budget.

2)KAMANDI: Not so high concept, last boy on earth after a worldwide holocaust that has turned everyone else into animal mutants. Modern retooling, and employing a few geniuses in makeup (as well as a few actors willing to wear make up all the time) this property has hard potential.

3)STARMAN: The comic this time. Take the latest revamp and run with it. Again, potential potential, potential.

4)THE QUESTION: Easy make-up, great concept (at least in the first revamp) and again, probably a no-brainer.

5)Man, who to choose for #5 here where there are SO many…Let’s just put it this way EL DIABLO, VIGILANTE, BAT LASH or any other western superhero, comic character. I miss seeing a good western on TV, even a super heroic one would be MORE than welcome and DC has a TON of properties to choose from. A personal favorite, again because of the multi-story potential would be Vigilante, because you can tell Wild West stories, old Hollywood stories, Modern Hollywood stories, anything really, though I’d probably turn him multi-generational (Like The Phantom, kept in the family with plenty of records of previous adventures- only I’d keep a grandfather type around to tell a story or two so he could REALLY exaggerate them superheroicly at times).

There you go ten plus properties all of which I would MUCH rather watch that any silly attempt at a young Dick Grayson, but like I said, I’m sure ol’ CW will be doing the path of least geekiness, so get ready to watch a kid or two in bad tights, swinging on trapezes. If they would do COMICS (television) MY WAY I assure you it would be much more fun.

WAKE UP!

Recycled Ranting: All My Heroes Are Dead

I was wading through some old files and found this rant, previously posted on the Komikwerks site a couple of years ago, it still applies today and I thought I'd like to share it all with you again. Hope you don't mind...

ALL MY HEROES ARE DEAD
First of all I love comics, all kinds of comics, and have worked and read, and perhaps even breathed comics for most of my life. They got me through High School, they prompted me to become a graphic artist, they destroyed my first marriage (well, they helped), and were a firm condition on all my relationships since, I wouldn’t have met my current wife (Married fifteen years this year, thank you!) if it wasn’t for her LOVE of comics- she’s got more long boxes than I do!

I LOVE comics, but all my superheroes are DEAD.

All the heroes were systematically killed off, all in various ways and forms, and replaced with soulless zombies (Which may explain the market’s current hunger for hungry walking dead comics, their favorite superheroes have been zombies for some time now, so why not read about the real thing?). Like Invasion Of The Body Snatchers the souls of all the icons in these superhero universes died and have been replaced with “pod people” walking dead; zombies forced to live out the rest of eternity walking lifelessly through the motions of their former selves, left to constantly rise from whatever future “deaths” they are forced to endure to pace through the same motions yet again, only this time just a little bit more decayed and lifeless than the last.

Oh sure, most current fans would just say it’s “reality” creeping in, comics have to keep pace with the “times” (whatever THAT means!) and be more “mature” and realistic, more dark and “hardcore”, that these characters must face a reality that creeps ever closer to the one the reader is in. I’m here to tell you that they definitely do NOT need to, and that American superhero comics, as an art form, are so, SO badly crippled because they do, perhaps to the point of the entire genre’s death.

How else do you explain Spider-man meeting The Green Goblin the first time, what at least four times over now? Batman has found Robin how many times? The Justice League has formed what, at least three times now, and don’t even try to explain Captain Marvel to me, from EITHER company because the ones I loved died about three incarnations ago apiece. Plots are now tirelessly recycled “made more realistic” slowed down to a near lifeless crawl, and repeated almost with each new writer of the title.

Sure comic sales are going up, SLIGHTLY, but so is the cover prices and the “events”- you know those crossovers that will change the superhero universe FOREVER-or at least until the next major “event”- artificially making the market look bigger. Graphic Novels are the largest growth portion of the market, but seriously how much of that growth are the Marvel Essentials and the DC Showcase Presents? Collections that I consider to be the true grave markers to memorialize the deaths of all the particular icon’s adventures each book collects. Personally I buy them all, looking at it as part nostalgia and part mourning. This month Marvel even collected their first version of their “official handbook” in one nifty Essentials, once again to let us all have a taste for those original heroes, as their soulless zombies trudge on.

To me comics were always about exaggeration, pure and simple, they were never supposed to reflect “real life”. If I want “real life” I could get that by just stepping outside, or turning on a television. Would comics, as an art form, have lasted as long as they have if they were as realistic as they are now? Do we recognize the Masters of our craft, like Eisner, Kirby, Cole, Beck, Fox, and Binder and so many other talented people throughout the last 80 or so years, for their “realism”? If superhero comics have survived all these decades as an entertainment medium because of their ability to exaggerate to the farthest reaches of our imagination, isn’t there something inherently WRONG about the constant striving for realism, or realistic themes in today’s comics, especially in our superhero universes, whose very foundation were the suspension of belief that a person could get extra powers or dress in tights and fight crime without folks laughing at them?

Anymore all the companies printing superheroes remind me of is the dance band on the Titanic, they KNOW they’re going down, but they’re gonna keep playing, no matter how badly, until they can’t play no more, and mostly the same song over and over again. Besides, let’s face it, it’s so much easier to draw from “real life”(photo reference), and be able to re-write a one issue plot into six issues, like the old cliché’ goes; “Dying is easy, comedy is hard” that’s why most of today’s writers are able to write four or five issues a month, because they’re dying (or zombifying), and that’s EASY.

So. What’s the solution? Should all realism be washed out of superhero comics? No, absolutely not. There IS a market for such work, however dwindling. Do we “reinvent” our icons AGAIN? Frankly, it’s too late; those icons were tainted and dead the first time they were “revamped” (Is it me, or is Superman STONED on the cover of the first issue of his latest re-re-reimagineering?). Start fresh, with new characters in the direct market? I’m not convinced that’s the solution either because it might be too late for the direct market also (which is probably another rant all together). Besides the “big two” seem to be unable to create new, popular icons in today’s market, which explains the last few issues of Marvel Team-Up being populated with some of the most recent attempts at icons in a team called “The League Of Losers” or something like that. Can comics EVER be as entertaining and as widely read as they once were? You CAN’T be so naive as to blame ALL of comics dwindling readership on outside forces can you? You really have to look INSIDE the art form for reasons we haven’t stayed entertaining with the masses in modern times.

I don’t have a magic solution to the problem, though I have a few theories. Maybe it’s time we all start seriously discussing some solutions before the art form dries up completely. Maybe it’s time to fight back against the zombie horde that seems to chase away more readers now than it attracts. My wife for example, used to read EVERY superhero book out. Now she only reads a handful of the more realistic ones, mostly out of any known “universe” because like me all her heroes died a LONG time ago as well. She still LOVES comics, like I do, but stopped reading so many when they stopped being so entertaining and became more “realistic”. I KNOW we’re not alone in this.

Does anyone out there care, or are you all walking dead as well?

Thanks for being here

WAKE UP!

WTF Fridays: Early Morning Wanderings

Hey, to say it's been one hell of a week would be an understatement. Subdued by a cold, bowled over by work, and embroiled in a top, TOP secret work project can have a bit of wear and tear on a monkey, especially on his blog!

All I can say is "Sorry about that chief!" I haven't been ignoring you all on purpose, and thanks a heap (and I sincerely mean "thanks") to the two of you that felt it important enough for you to email me and ride my ass that there hasn't been any contributions to the blog all week- it was not intentional I assure you, and I appreciate knowing that you're out there and care enough to bitch. Thanks.

Well, maybe I was avoiding you on purpose. Most of my thoughts outside of work have all been on politics and our economy, two subjects I'm pretty sure most of us are sick and tired of talking about at this point, am I right? Perhaps better silence that me blabbing on and on about how folks should REALLY be looking at all the candidate's records to see who out there is telling the less lies. Again, just as well, as later in the week it started to become pretty obvious on who's ahead and who's glassy eyed race-baiting just isn't settling well for those few candidates who are trying to find the true issues on their presidential hopefuls. It's just flat out becoming a sheer waste of time isn't it? On the bright side, ol' man McCain has abandoned Michigan for campaigning in, chalking off the state as a loss, and robbing most of the media outlets of any of his campaign contributions. Thanks john! I'm seriously thinking of starting my own campaign lawn sign that reads: "McCain/Bailin: Think Michigan", bet I could make a mint.

I've hardly been out all week, and too sick to go out for 2-3 days of it. This monkey is lloonnnggg overdue for a little lap dancing, and unfortunately it'll still be a few days before that happens. Friday for sure.

One thing that has boiled my blood this week has been the sad, sorry state of "mainstream" comic strips right now. All these great creators that work on a strip for a few years and then "retire"- WHAT THE FUCK??!! How do you RETIRE from comics??? doing a daily grind on something ANYTHING that promises me something of a living is most ever cartoonists dream, and yet these idiots run the race for a few years (or in For Better Or Worse's Lynn Johnson's case a few decades) and then decide the work is just too much? C'MON!! there are folks out there banging out strips on a daily basis and another 10-20 times worth begging for the opportunity to do so, and you take your nationally syndicated strip, pack up, and walk away, or worse still, you allow reruns of your strip to be run so you can still pocket even MORE jing and do nothing to earn it.

I understand Peanuts, and I totally accept that as the exception to the rule. Charles Shultz and his estate deserve every penny they make off of their reruns. Schultz was there longer than most anyone (especially now) and make or broke the funnies section on a number of huge papers, plus his work is TIMELESS, and like I said his estate deserves to have his strips run and rerun throughout all time as far as I'm concerned.

My problem is Doonsberry, Boondocks, Calvin and Hobes, For Better Or For Worse, Far Side, and now Opus all running and retiring because it just doesn't seem worth it to keep going. Thanks you jerks! Especially Johnston, who worked (or still works) with at least two other assistants on the strip and is blatantly running reruns (even "updated" reruns are still reruns), and continues to not only make the same jing but still retains most of her prominent space above the fold on the front page of the comic section. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU! I understand if you stop- if the work has lost its' edge and you need to go find it again- draw up and take a break, but to abandon your job as if it is no longer worthy of your attention is shameful.

Opus' Breathed is a prime example of a spoiled rotten creator that needs to have his ass kicked for abandoning his readership AGAIN, just because he's lost his "edge" and "doesn't want to run commentary about the current political situation"- BOO HOO HOO! Maybe you deserve to languish in obscurity once you DO find your voice (and you've proven with Outland and Opus that you're bound to find that "voice" again), perhaps stuck with a web strip that few people read, or even get to know about. You WERE funny up till a few months ago, so what the hell happened? Your last few months worth of strips have been lack luster and sad, maybe you should be FIRED as opposed to retire.

Of course there are a number of strips out there that I just don't find funny, or that have lost their sheen to the point of the real punch line being the fact that editors continue to print your bland, sad works. These newspapers that are SO desperate to find new readers- ANY readers and yet continually stick to the unfunny and sanitized strips for printing, so they don't piss off any readers. That's what stopped Liberty Meadows, and I don't blame Cho for quitting- his problems wit editors were two fold- one being his too PC editors and the other being his unable to please his too PC editors because his sense of humor was too adult for them to handle. That still doesn't excuse these guys who have been in the trenches for years, guys who KNOW what they can and cannot get away with, to just up and quit. Strip editors need to grow a thicker skin and realize the simple cliche' that you can't please everyone all the time. Plus a little controversy, especially in the funnies section, helps to sell more papers, or at least you would think so, but then I tend to think RATIONALLY.

There are way too many good strips, FUNNY strips, that these editors can run with that would spice up their sections. Honestly how many folks would miss Beetle Bailey or Snuffy Smith? I understand why Dilbert needs to be there, but isn't that strip about 10 years past fresh? And, Garfield...why? Marmaduke...why? And Foxtrot is now only unfunny on Sundays- okay, he's occasionally kinda funny, but again, WHY?

I'm probably out of step with the times anyway, because I still love an old fashioned, well done, well written adventure strip like Tarzan or Dick Tracy. These so-called "funny" (sterile) strips just take up space and keep the younger funnier (perhaps edgier, and hipper) strips from being seen. Some of those strips NEED to retire, especially if their creator has lost their "voice".

So, enough of the above rant. I have folks now telling me "If you don't like something why don't you do something to change it", well, I'm working on that...maybe.

More stuff on the way- I've already scheduled a rant (recycled perhaps, but I'm still not getting paid for it- lol!) for tomorrow (Monday), and I'll try to schedule another thing or two before the day's out, just to give you folks a little something through the week, in case I get too busy again. This should be enough for now. Take Care and WAKE UP!!

Site of the Week: Ugo Comics

Here's Ugo Comics top 50 "WTF" moments in comics. Haven't read them all yet, but from what I've seen they're pretty spot on! Go take a look be either clicking on the headline above or go to this address:

http://www.ugo.com/comics/wtf-moments-in-comics/

Enjoy, and WAKE UP!

HEROES I MISS: MONARK STARSTALKER

Monark Starstalker stands as one of the most forgotten characters in the Marvel pantheon of heroes and gods. There is no listing of him in any of the Marvel Universe guides, there is no Wikipedia listing (at least none as of this writing- I might do that myself)only a mention in his comic title's entry, and Marvel seems to have completely shunned him. Most fans have no clue he ever existed, fewer still own a copy of his only appearance, and most anyone who has read comic books for the last 30-40 years could remotely tell you anything about him, especially most of the editors working at Marvel today, and believe me when I tell you, we are all sadder off for it.

The late seventies were a trying time for mainstream comics. Not quite kid’s literature, and yet, thanks to the Comic Code Authority, not really allowed to be adult in most ways, intellectual comics were having a rough time finding a regular reading audience. Warlock, Deathlok, Killraven, and so many other series were tried and could not hold readers. Marvel was trying everything they could to walk that fine line between Code acceptance and gathering an older, wiser, more profitable audience. Some of those efforts were short lived, while others were shelved, or put in a drawer, left for inventory; too good to be tossed, and yet too odd to be given a regular book.

For whatever reasons Monark Starstalker was given an odd slot in an umbrella “concept” title called Marvel Premiere for issue number 32. It was a self-contained seventeen page story, an easily accessible heroic character, and one that had a profound impression on my youth, but now is long forgotten by practically everyone.

Take a second and try to wrap your head around this concept and remember, this was 1976, a year before Star Wars, black and white magazines were flourishing on the newsstands (which is REALLY where this concept belonged), the direct comic market was in it’s infant stages, the cyberpunk movement was just starting if that (Neuromancer by Gibson is copyright 1984- I checked), and Clint Eastwood Italian westerns were running on television, it was a totally different time than now. Marvel has a property developed (likely “given to them” is a better phrase here) by one Howard Chaykin (who was probably doing another Hero I Miss, Ironwood for DC around that time), and “edited” by Archie Goodwin (creator of the Paul Kirk Manhunter concept btw), who I’m sure did a little more writing on this than he was to take credit for (I understand that Goodwin did that a lot, and was a masterful writer to boot!)

The concept can only be described as a cyberpunk, space opera, western and has all the classic heroic elements about it introducing a character that, again like Bloodstone, SHOULD have been developed into one of Marvel’s most iconic properties, but for whatever reason it was not meant to be.

I was going to give you a blow by blow breakdown of the plot of the story, but let’s just say it was a classic western/bounty hunter tale really meant to introduce the reader to the main character, a nearly emotionless “cowboy” paladin, who carried little more than a pair of what looks like six shooters and a robotic bird, Ulysses, who actually shares his nervous system. Below, hopefully legible enough for you to read, is Monark’s ¾ page explanation of his cyberpunk style “origin” as he explains it to the woman he is traveling with…



So here you have it, an emotionally damaged, cold macho hero bounty hunter, space cowboy, making his way across explored space by capturing criminals and collecting their bounties, all wrapped around a Solomon Kane style wanderlust. Though the opening tale is a bit two dimensional with western cliche's and space gadgetry mixed delightfully together, it doesn’t take much imagination to see that Marvel had a character with Monark that, like the Bloodstone character I mentioned a few months back, SHOULD have become one of their most iconic and classic. Instead we have only this one seventeen page story, in a book that’s yet to be reprinted, with a character long forgotten. William Baker and I pitched a “revamp” of this character a few years ago to a couple of Marvel editors none of which remotely knew anything about the character, let alone that their company had printed it- more the pity.

Goodwin has since passed and Howard Chaykin did have a few more bright spots in his career, like American Flag, but I have yet to enjoy anything that he’s been involved with nearly as much as I did this story and, like Watchmen, I still dust it off from time to time and reread it, reliving my frustration and anger at Marvel’s stupidity with each and every reading that something more was never done with this character.

On the bright side, there hasn’t been anyone do a “revamp” in print of this character as of yet, and perhaps it’s for the BEST. Considering a number of other “revamps” done by Marvel of late (Bloodstone being a prime example of a good character fucked over to the modern Marvel Universe) it leaves this character to stand on it’s own, wrapped in a comic bag, buried in a few long boxes, and left untarnished to be enjoyed by all of us few who still remember him fondly. Still if you ever see me doing a “space western”, or a fantasy/heroic character that involves a robot bird, rest assured that I fully admit that it’s not an original idea of mine, but a fond memory and “tip of the hat” to a dynamic hero and concept that I greatly miss.

R.I.P. Monark Starstalker.

WTF Friday: Zimmtoon Duality

I still hate politics, as I would imagine most thinking people do. Now I get to poke fun at them so I kind of have to keep track, at least locally. Below are 2 versions of a recent Zimmtoons about McCain's decision on pulling all his funding and campaigning from Michigan to concentrate on more "winnable" states; actually it's those states that were gullible enough to vote for George W the last time- Michigan did not, but voted for a Governor who has driven the state to a place worse than where George W has put the country. As if such a place could ever exist. I tell folks we live in an orgy state, we're getting fucked in all directions and levels with as many violations as you can imagine (as well as a few you can't).

Luckily I have another outlet for these kinds of Zimmtoons, and that is Andrew Heller's online blog from the Flint Journal site. You can find this first cartoon, as well as 4 others on his blog here: http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/aheller/



The following is almost the same toon, only this time the way I had first envisioned it. It's a little rougher than I thought The Journal would allow on their site, so I now share it with you. Enjoy!



The last week has been a "hurry, hurry up, now wait" kind of week as I poured over a few deadlined assignments over the weekend, then another few at the start of the week, and now it's kind of like Wile E Coyote running off a cliff, looking frantically around with no firm ground beneath me. I have little "work,work" in front of me. So, I took yesterday off for my REAL birthday (49, but actually 27- and Spank's birthday is April 1st, thanks for asking), and now I'm straightening up a few misc. projects before diving head first into the next one. Well, that and I'm hoping to get a little ahead on this blog over the next couple of days as well...we'll see... I'm working towards getting more of my monkey ass out to the masses, as well as make a little jing, and I'm sure most of you know how that goes.

Catch you later.

WAKE UP!