Being an internet refuge for Graeme McMillan
Doctor Druid, and I turn him into a comic book writer to play up the fact that he’s always reminded me visually of Warren Ellis. (Now that I’ve made that joke, part of me is going ‘Wait, what if you did some kind of “Anthony Druid is a psych-sci-fi writer and his life goes nuts around him like a supernatural Philip K. Dick?” and wondering if there’s something in that.)
I like Doctor Druid, because he’s Marvel’s Doctor Orpheus; he’s the Doctor Strange who’s allowed to be a dick.
There’s more nice guitar gush (e.g. the sub-Tom-Scholz anthemic stairclimb of ‘Black Star’), but the rest of the album mostly reminds me of Suede trying to rock like Sparks but coming out like U2, or (more often) that hissy little pissant in Smashing Pumpkins passive-aggressively inspiring me to clobber him with my copy of The Grand Illusion by Styx
I have an answer to this! Kind of. Back when I was trying to get something together for Dylan Todd’s 2299 anthology – spoilers: I completely screwed myself on scheduling and let myself and him down on that front, so sorry again, Dylan – I came up with a one-off 2000AD-style thrill called Lucifer Sam (because the Pink Floyd call-out seemed ideal) that was pretty much my take on a John Wagner take on a Han Solo character in a Dredd-esque future world. It was ridiculous in the ways such things should be ridiculous, and one day, I might revisit the idea.
(Talking of anthologies I tried and failed to contribute to, there’s also a story I wrote for a San Francisco-based anthology which explained the secret origin of the Transamerica Pyramid. That was very Future Shock-y.)
Pop culture is half about enjoyment and half about denial. If I can spend four minutes watching a Kanye West video, that’s four minutes that I’ve wasted in my life, but it’s also four minutes that I haven’t had to think about the shit in my life. It’s a toss-up is what I’m saying. A balance – both awful and wonderful.
I’ll say it again – make it a mantra: Credit is easy, credit is free, and credit is proper. Nobody loses anything when a company or their spokesperson says, ‘Thanks to Gerry Conway for creating Vixen in the first place.’ That doesn’t cost anyone anything but a few sentences. More importantly, it’s a statement of fact. No creation of Vixen = no Vixen animated series. No hundreds of jobs for the people on that series, no income stream for the company making that series, no Annie Award if it’s amazing. There was an artist involved with Gerry, too [Bob Oksner], and it simply doesn’t take very much effort to point them out as the starting point. There are three intros in the ‘Art of Big Hero 6’ book, and all three talk about ‘origins’ of the project – not one mentions us. There’s a video piece on the origins of BH6 on the Blu-ray – it doesn’t mention us. That’s just not right.
Some companies line up behind a defense that comics are cumulative works and therefore credit is tricky because there is no one creator. But that’s not the case. We went to a comic convention last year – and I won’t name names – but one of the guests introduced themselves as the co-creator of a Lee/Kirby character. Now, this person certainly worked on the character and did a great job – maybe the definitive job and certainly my favorite run on that series – but they didn’t co-create the character. Miller’s run on ‘Daredevil’ defined that series for me, but Miller didn’t co-create Daredevil. He added to it. A lot. I worked on X-Men. I also wrote a Superman book for Vertigo that I think added something to the mythos. But I didn’t co-create Superman or the X-Men. I think it’s pretty simple to identify who created characters and say, ‘You came up with that. Good for you.’
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON POINTS OUT THE SCIENCE FLAWS IN DAVID BOWIE’S ‘SPACE ODDITY’
Lyric: You’ve really made the grade and the papers want to know whose shirts you wear.
Tyson: That’s a weird question to ask, even on Earth. Plus, astronauts are nude most of the time – for aerodynamics and propulsion reasons.Lyric: Now it’s time to leave the capsule if you dare.
Tyson: Commands are rarely so direct, but instead use a lot of psychological tricks. “All the little babies are staying in the capsule. Only big boys go for space walks. Or maybe your little sister would like to go for a space walk. After all, she knows that she’ll get a McFlurry afterwards. I don’t think Santa Claus would be very impressed if you stayed in the capsule.”
Lyric: I’m floating in a most peculiar way and the stars look very different today.
Tyson: An astronaut would never say that, for fear of being called a “n00b” by mission control, thereby being “pwned.”