Month: February 2014

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Over the course of the next month, I’m going to put up a bunch of interviews in the 30-40 minute range—I’m aiming for two a week, but I may end up with a few more—with people in and around comics, talking about what they do and why. I don’t have a script, preferring to let the conversation go where it wants to go, but I did ask each person how they came to comics and what their comics community is like. Beyond that, it’s anything goes. This won’t be exhaustive or comprehensive, because there are literally not enough hours in the day for that. But hopefully it will be a lot at the very least.

There aren’t words to say how excited I am about David Brothers’ new comics podcast.
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Where were the uninformed, undecided voters watching television? Sports were big, because they reached large numbers of people who avoided news. In other cases, the audience organized itself by politics, even though the shows featured no politics. There were few evangelicals who were likely to watch Family Guy, for instance. Other shows defied reasoning. Reruns of black-and-white shows and sitcoms on TV Land showed up again and again as overindexing undecided voters. Obama’s team bought ads to reach two thousand people on the Syfy network at 3:00am because they represented great value for low-information, undecided voters.

From The Message: The Reselling of President Obama by Richard Wolffe.
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Researching the final episode of this season of Sherlock, I’m reminded of how much I love the fact that, despite the amazing number of WTF moments, it’s an entire episode about making the subtext of the entire season into text.

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callmecayce:

taterpie:

graemem:

Finally watched some of CBS’ Elementary after being told numerous times that it’s as good as/better than the BBC’s Sherlock, and… well, I’m not convinced, to say the least. The CBS series lacks the humor, self-awareness and smartness for me that I love about the BBC show.

That isn’t to say that…

It also lacks the sexism and racism, alas, alack.

What she said. And also, it IS funny! And, you know, doesn’t make me hate myself for liking it as much as I do (which is A LOT). 

I didn’t mean it’s not funny at all, more than its not AS funny, for me – the comedy, at least in the ep I watched, was more broad and obvious.

I’m prepared to assume the ep I watched – the first one of the second season, the earliest on CBS’ website – was not as good as it regularly is, if only because I want to believe that its better than that, if it makes sense?

Then again, I always find American TV shows’ “Let’s go to the UK!” episodes kind of horrible, so there’s that.

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Finally watched some of CBS’ Elementary after being told numerous times that it’s as good as/better than the BBC’s Sherlock, and… well, I’m not convinced, to say the least. The CBS series lacks the humor, self-awareness and smartness for me that I love about the BBC show.

That isn’t to say that it’s not fun in and of itself, because it is – it’s a broader confection, something closer to Fox’s Bones or ABC’s Castle, both of which are fine shows for what they are but are nowhere near the same level of Sherlock. Now that Elementary has been bought by Hulu, I’m sure I’ll catch up at some point, but still.

I’m now thinking about the impulse that drives people responding to mention of Sherlock to say that Elementary is “better.” The idea of competitive television viewing, if that makes sense, is an interesting one, and a frustrating one, as well.I need to think this through a little more.

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If a single butt warranted editing, it’s concerning to speculate how Marvel will handle legitimately graphic scenes in upcoming “Miracleman” issues released through their app. In issue #9, a character gives birth over multiple pages of the book, with great attention to the scientific details of child delivery, including a display of parts that would now be covered by purple panties. In issue #15, a character goes on one of the most violent rampages in superhero comics history, destroying the entire city of London. People are torn apart, impaled, skinned and tormented by a rain of severed hands and feet. Will this content be similarly edited, and if so, what does that mean for the creative integrity of the story? These moments are intended to be shocking, to make readers feel, to connect us to the ideas of power and villainy – mature themes, to be sure, and thought provoking ones that set the stage for Moore’s later work on acclaimed titles such as “Watchmen.” If these moments are at risk of being censored, the story of “Miracleman” becomes something else, a work out of sync with the vision of its creators.

CBR takes up the story of Marvel’s censorship of Miracleman in its digital format. So far, this has been downplayed as Marvel because it’s “only” in digital, and there’re “parental advisory” (that is, uncensored) editions also available from some – but not all – digital outlets.

There’s more to be addressed here, including the fact that (a) the creators apparently didn’t know that Marvel was censoring the digital editions, and (b) the censored editions are euphemistically called the “mass market” editions of the work. What, if anything, does that mean about the eventual bookstore collections?