Can U Dig It?
Pop Will Eat Itself is easily one of the bands I love the most, but they are mostly remembered for the line “Alan Moore knows the score.” Partially because the song that contains it is so damn catchy and fun, but mostly because it’s a very true statement. Everyone in the 80s knew and now Entertainment Weekly updates the line with their interview “Alan More Still Knows the Score.”
There are a lot of great things about Moore, but the fact I latch onto is that he is the sanest man giving public commentary on the movie industry and its products — that is, it’s crappy, it’s bereft of originality, it’s slipping in it’s importance as an art form, and it’s really worth avoiding if you’re a writer. Never let them touch your stuff, especially if you write comic books.
Obviously, I’m not extreme — I’m close, dammit, but not quite there and I did love “Persepolis.” However, I’m right on board with the big picture. Here’s Moore on the subject right now:
“I see a kind of degeneration, if you like, in terms of the imagination that those pioneers back in the 19th century were gifted with, and kind of recycled ideas that we tend to get served up today…. So often any film that comes out is going to be a sequel or a remake of a film that’s previously existed — and I’ve said this before, that we will see Johnny Depp playing Cap’n Crunch. It will eventually get down to breakfast cereal mascots”
It chilled me when I read that because it seemed less like a joke and more like he had actually seen into the future. I can see that happening. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already.
This is why I’m numb to the Dark Knight movie thing. I’ve seen ten bazillion stories about Batman in the last 40 years of my life, I’m tired of seeing stories about Batman. I’m tired of the same stories again and again. I don’t see why I should be expected to care, frankly. As I said, I liked “Persepolis” — that was a new story (and the comic book creator made it, so it wasn’t compromised in the usual ways).
But then again, Batman isn’t a character — he’s a property. He’s a product. It’s not that he’s only as good as the creator who’s working on him — as a soulless product, he actually brings the creator down a few pegs and makes him have to work harder than he would have on some other project that was more personal, rather than work for hire. I really love Christopher Nolan, but I don’t really feel the need to see what I view as his “work for hire.”
And I love The Watchmen, which is why I don’t feel the need to see a simplified version of it turned into product by some Hollywood guys. I felt the same way about the Phillip Pullman book.
Oh, sure, I break my own rules sometimes — I loved the Lost in Space movie. But nobody’s perfect when they’re looking for a way to pass the time.
A little of this
News that Canadians saw a record number of UFOs in 2007 suggests to me that they aren’t any less whacked out than we are, just much more polite. Which still makes it a preferable country to me.
We will be heading to New Brunswick, after skipping a year in our annual respite to the gentle wilderness to the north. I have a feeling we won’t be encountering any UFOs, just your general Canadian-ness.
Which is a long way of stating that I haven’t put much up here recently and felt like posting. Jana went out on her backpacking trip and relatives were swirling around and I’ve been doing lots of things at the newspaper and it’s very, very hot. And since Jana was taking a week off of The Bob, I decided to do the same on my two more time consuming creative projects, Danger Brigade and The Secret History of El Comics.
Top John news:
Got an iPod Touch. It’s the best gadget I’ve ever had. It replaces my Palm (if anyone wants to buy a used Palm off me, speak up) and it fulfills that need plus some. For one, it’s actually compatible with my Macbook. For two, it’s simpler to use than the Palm. For three, you can go online with it if you find a wireless network. For four, I get to watch snippets of old British science fiction shows that I can’t imagine having the time for other than within the nooks and crannies of my life.
Workwise, I had several excellent interviews these last couple weeks — Nick Zammuto, of The Books, about his Laser Show at the Williams College Museum of Art — love Nick, he’s such a great guy. Also, Ike Sheldon from The Wilders , the best new band that I have encountered. They’re an all acoustic hillbilly band with tinges of bluegrass — they rock the hell out of most the crap that sells these days. Ike was a real nice guy and a great character. Best of all, I had a great chat with comic artist Joe Staton, who will have a gallery show down in Pittsfield. I flipped when I saw he was going to do a show locally — Joe is all over my childhood, he drew practically everything I loved, and now he does stuff that Harry and Hugo love. Couldn’t pass that opportunity.
Oh, the Transcript now has a feed for my entertainment pages if anyone cares to subscribe.
I bought a new needle for my turntable and it broke in a day. I tried to get my money back, but have gotten no answer. I’m back to using the old one, which still sounds fine, but it’s annoying. The damn turntable is 20 years old and works like a dream — best electronics purchase I ever made.
I was getting really frustrated with new music I encountered and pulled out all my old Yazoo comps. Blues, country and jazz from the 20s and 30s has been the majority of my listening these days — seriously. Although I alternate it with artsy synth music — early Simple Minds, Dalek I Love You, Ladytron, very early Human League, stuff like that. It’s a mix that works better than you think it would and, strangely, really captures my North Adams surroundings.
Ross Campbell proved me wrong!
Sometimes when you give a bad review, you forget there’s a face that goes with the work and a brain behind the face. It’s one thing when you’re ripping a Hollywood blockbuster — whatever, someone is being duly compensated for their pain and they’re working within a larger evil anyhow — but certain individual works, like comics can offer more direct effects on the reviewer and the reviewed.
Jana and I have both been there. For all the “Very Vicky” love that existed, there were also the bad reviews that went beyond a critical summation to being mean. And those just aren’t fun. At all. Especially when you don’t see yourself or your work reflected in the comments.
In a review for the Minx line, I had some fun directing some over-the-top criticisms toward the book “Water Baby” and thought nothing of it. I noticed tons of traffic being directed here from a Livejournal blog and so, curious, I went to see who had said what. As it turned out, it was creator Ross Campbell’s blog where he linked to the bad review and very politely spelled out his feelings about it and begged people to keep calm if they had to comment on my blog. They did, but they let loose there, which is certainly their right.
A funny thing happened, though. I started to find their characterizations of what I must be like to be bizarre, even over the top funny. They seemed so naive and blustery that the things they were saying in defense were kind of charming in a strange way. It seemed as though everyone was reading the review selectively in order to justify their preconceived notions about who would write such a thing. I came off as a person with disturbing issues who couldn’t write, had no idea how to review something, I was painted as a prude and, it felt, like a fuddy duddy reactionary suburban dad type, that I was intolerant of people different than me, that I had no idea of reality, of what teenagers are like, that I don’t like works about people different than me. And I thought to myself, “Geez, this is the sort of posturing I did to Ross Campbell, except there are like 30 more people doing it than this measly one of me.” All because I have very specific ideas about YA literature that aren’t unusual ideas to have and I made speculative sport of the creator— whether in a clunky or skillful way is not for me to say, but it certainly didn’t sit well with some people!
It’s always interesting to not just see yourself through the eyes of others but see how others imagine you are based on your written word — believe me, I’ve dealt with it scores of times locally because of things I’ve written in the paper. On one hand, folks on Ross’ blog were painting me as a repressed reactionary — on the other, folks who read the paper paint me as an outrageous, coarse liberal-minded degenerate hater of all that is right and holy. I mean, which was I???
Eh, I’m only me.
