Deadwood

Yes, the series Deadwood is over, and while you can certaionly say that not much happened this season, you can also say that they had the most interesting nothing happening of any TV series I've seen.

Just a great show, as long as you can stand the constant profanity.

That didn't last long

Time Magazine's humor site OfficePirates.com has shut down, after a "soft launch" which is a nice way of saying that they didn't promote it anywhere, and the only reason I ever found it was because there was an article about how bad it was in the paper a month ago.

And let's face it, shitty humor sites on the inkernets only fail when the people putting up the money for them get tired of it. Look at the National Lampoon website...it hasn't made anyone laugh and it's still up.

Blogs by Tom Brevoort

Tom Brevoort is an editor at Marvel who runs most of the main Hero books like The Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America and the like. He's also a guy I have been on discussion lists with, traded e-mails once in a blue moon, and think is a stand up editor who knows the history of comics but doesn't let it get in the way of doing new things. He is a HUGE Jack Kirby fan, and often helps out the reprint department at Marvel when it comes to the old Silver and Atomic Age stuff.

One thing he hasn't done well lately is communicate to fans the problems with the big crossover event "Civil War", and while I commend him for staying on a couple of message boards as people attack him for the delays and his explanation, I wonder if it's a good idea.

One of the things I am impressed with, and why I'm writing this as a blog entry, is that he has put together a simulation on what it's like to be an editor by having two fans work with him on a FICTIONAL (got to highlight that, since he says that one of the creators named thought it was real and was scared he was going to have to leave a book he was currently writing for one he knew nothing about) group of books and the problems therein.

It's fascinating to me because it shows all of the work going on behind the scenes to coordinate modern comics, as well as giving people an idea of what it's like to put things together. For comics fans, it's amazing reading, and for people who don't read comics, it gives a good idea of what it's like to balance creativity with market concerns.

Another reason I shouldn't poke around on the John Byrne board

In a thread titled Q for JB about TCJ’s "Kirby Petition" we get a lot of really silly conversation, typical John Byrne revisionist history, but the gem for me is:

...what has TCJ done? (meaning The Comics Journal)

***

Given a whole bunch of pseudo-intellectual "fans"
the model for their not-so-original thinking.

And here's a quick list of the things I have seen TCJ (and Fantagrpahics, the company that publishes it) do, and mind you, I'm not a fan of the magazine or its approach:

-Classic comic strip reprints, including Krazy Kat, Popeye, Prince Valiant and Peanuts

-Comics such as Love and Rockets, Ghost World, The Complete Crumb and others

-Comic criticism that attempts to bring the kind attention that literary criticism has

-The fight to get Jack Kirby his art back (which is the focus of this thread), which eventually got Marvel to give him SOME of his art back, and did not require him to sign the specialized release that Marvel's lawyers cooked up only for Kirby

-Real journalism in comics (although this has faded over the last decade or so) including stories on comics distribution, business practices and the like

And that's just off the top of my head. The artists that Fantagraphics has discovered and championed are pretty legendary in the field of Indy comics and many of them have gone on to mainstream (outside comics) success. By the way, as a bonus, Byrne is able to slander the creators of Superman and Neal Adams as an aside. You have to love his message board just for the sheer Gonzo of it. It's a car wreck I can't help but gawk at....Ghods help me.

Dear Morgan Spurlock

Morgan , I love you. Really I do. I think "30 Days" is the best documentary program on TV, and does a masterful job of telling people that t's a good thing to put yourself in someone else's shoes for a while to see how they fit. I think that the definition of intelligence isn't problem soloving as much as being able to see another person's point of view and understand them before making judgements and decisions.

However, I just watched the epsiode when you lived on Minimum Wage for a month, and while it sent a good message, it doesn't paint the entire picture.

Having lived on crap wages for an extended period of time and getting out of college during the First Bush's economy, there was a time in the late 80's when the big joke was: What's the status symbol of life under Bush? A job.

You showed some of the problems of living where one bad thing can set you back into massive debt for months, but because it was only 30 days, it didn't show how it just grinds you down over time. Imagine a year or two years of having to decide if you but the naem brand cereal or two boxes of the vaguely nasty store brand. Having to buy canned veggies because if the fresh ones go bad, you've wasted too much money, but you don't know if you'll be able to be home for a meal between your two jobs. Hell, I remember being happy about the fact that at one of my jobs, meals were included more than the fact that there wasn't medical benefits even if I were hired full-time.

The right wing tells us another lie: the majority fo people on minimum wage are White (their emphasis, not mine) suburban teenagers at their first job.

Well, it's partly true, they are mostly white, but they are also mostly over the age of 20, and there is a large number who are working jobs that require hard phy8ical labor.

There are a lot of reasons for the wage problems in the US, the main one is the collapse of the Unions, and people undercutting each other for jobs over the last 25 years, but the unnoticed one is the fact that we, as Americans, just couldn't possibly care less about other people as long as we have our big cars and our cable TV. Until that changes, nothing else will. And looking at the kind of coverage this issue gets, it's pretty clear that those who have think that there is something wrong with the have-nots, and if they'd just work harder, they could have the $300,000 house and the SUV. Never midn that when you are working just to get by, finding another job or improving yourself tends to take second place to making it to the end of the week.

There is a lot more to be said about this country's lack of compassion in a time of rising religiousity, but all of the trends I see show a rise in the Christianist instead of Christianity.

Hello, little blog

I hate to say it, but as I am getting the site updated, I ignored my blog. Of course, I usually ignore my blog since I have postings in a couple of different communities and such, but I feel bad from time to time that this little blog just gets left here all alone. So:

I am a HUGE fan of classic low budget, nearly underground movies, and now Turner Classic Movies will be having a series of them hosted by Rob Zombie. The TCM schedule should be out soon, but some of the movies they are going to be showing are The Crazies by George Romero, a couple of Ed Wood movies and so on. I have a deep love of TCM, and feel like I plan my weekends around some of their movies.

OK, I always make sure I'm home for the Sunday Night Silent movies, but...

And if they are showing a Marx Brothers movie, it's hard to leave the house...

OK, My name is Cory!!, and I'm addicted to movies. But it's not like I have to worry about withdrawl for while now.