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“Pre-Impressions”

November 7 marks the first day of Marvel Comics’ initial wave of new releases for Marvel NOW! with a month including a number of high-profile relaunches with many more to come through January 2013. With all the hype and anticipation surrounding the three-month launch window of Marvel NOW!, we thought we’d share the CBR Staff’s impressions of the publishing initiative’s titles before the books hit stands. Check out the top picks of the CBR Staff below and then head to the forums to discuss what you’re most excited about in the coming months.

I wouldn’t normally note something like this, but this story on CBR today is the story that Chad Nevett described as “sucking Marvel’s cock and pretending it’s journalism” on CBR the other day. I don’t know quite why I am so surprised to see it go up, especially so close to Chad’s post calling it out for what it is, but I am. Somewhat proving Chad’s point about it in some way, it’s promoted twice on the front page of the site as I write.

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“There’s No Silver Bullet Anymore”

 

I think the institutions that have a real commitment to journalism understand that there is a real future of journalism in interactive news and in interactive storytelling and multimedia storytelling. There’s no silver bullet anymore. There’s no longer just an article, or there’s no longer just a news report on television at 6 p.m. or just the radio in the evenings. There’s a whole bunch of different ways that people are consuming their news nowadays. That’s as affected by technology as it affected by the news and people.

From here. There’s something about that “there’s no longer just an article” that sticks with me. In an interactive media world, is there such a thing as a news story, or is everything “news cycles” these days? If it’s the latter, what is the purposes of being a writer, exactly?

 

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366 Songs 305: Frankenstein

And, after I complain about Hallowe’en, I go for a monster-themed song. What can I say? I’ve been in a particularly Hallowe’en-y mood all day because of a thing I’ve written for Newsarama that will hopefully go up today, despite everything. Even so: I love Edgar Winters’ “Frankenstein” for the following reasons:

  • That riff is awesome.
  • There is something ridiculously wonderful about the way that the organ at 0:16 reminds me of the theme to Taxi.
  • The extended freak-out from 2:22 through to 3:54 is arguably the greatest argument against prog-rock ever recorded.

    • (Actually, this live version is even greater for the progginess of the whole thing:

    As they used to say on The Fast Show: “Nice.”)

    I actually discovered the song in the 1990s, through They Might Be Giants, and I have to admit, I may still prefer their version –

    – and yet, in whatever form it takes, there’s no denying that “Frankenstein” is one seriously weird, wonderful and stupid song that demonstrates in its own way the value of not caring what anyone thinks and following your bliss. Even if your bliss is a spectacularly grindy song that seemingly never ends.

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    Boo! Hiss

    I don’t get Hallowe’en.

    I try, I promise, but I’ve never really been into it; I’ve never been the one who gets excited about dressing in outrageous costumes or drawing attention to myself and how I look, and I’ve never really enjoyed Trick’r’Treating, either (When I was a kid, lo those many years ago, it was still called “galoshing” in Scotland. Although, looking at that word there, I wonder how badly I’ve misspelled it. “Galoshin’,” maybe? “Galloshing”?), so the whole holiday feels like a strange waste of energy and attention to me. I feel like the Grinch saying that, especially now that I live in America, a country that seems to consider Hallowe’en a national holiday on par with Christmas and Thanksgiving, but it’s true; when people talk about going to parties or getting dressed up, I find myself shying away mentally and thinking “Eh, you’re all crazy.”

    I’d call it a sign of getting old, but I was always like this.

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    Stay Positive

    I think I bristle at the “you’re so negative” thing that I get every couple of months because it ain’t true. I can be, have been, and will be negative, sure. But if you look at my work, you’d have to be crazy to come to that judgment. ‘cause, here’s the other thing about writing about comics: no one pays attention to everything online, but everyone pays attention to certain things, and posts that are going at someone or negative get a lot of attention. They can and will outshine the sloppiest kiss you ever laid on a comic.

    From here. Quoted for truth.

    Of course, sometimes positivity just doesn’t work, either. I started, the other week, just showing art from comics that blew me away on the Newsarama blog. They weren’t the best known comics, but they looked amazing. How quickly do you think I got accused of shilling for publishers? Spoiler: Very.

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    Two For The Price of One

    This is a screenshot from the front page of Time.com as I write these very words. Those two un-pixelated stories? They’re both by me; weirdly and somewhat wonderfully, I ended up doing two stories for Time this week (Yes, the Lucasfilm/Disney thing was a last-minute thing, because I journalist well at times, thank you very much) and they both ended up on the front page of Time.com. I swear, I’m almost getting good at this writer thing.

    The stories can be found here (Disney/Lucasfilm) and here (Horror on Broadcast TV), respectively.

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    “Usually, People Get Paid for Endorsements, Right?”

    I sure as hell won’t miss getting requests to participate in articles where you list all of the Marvel NOW! books you’re looking forward to and why. Oh, not a rundown of all of the titles and what you think of each. No, just what books you’re looking forward to! Because it’s a fun article! And it’s only fun when it’s positive and pretty flowers and free advertising for the largest comic publisher in North America! I don’t know if I’d like it more or less if money had been offered. I guess getting paid to participate in an article like that would be more honest. I mean, it’s a fucking ad for a bunch of comics — an endorsement! And, usually, people get paid for endorsements, right? Then again, it’s not like this is Marvel asking that this article happen, it’s just something that someone came up with, because it’s a ‘fun idea.’ How sad is that… ‘Fun’ equals ‘free promotion.’ Not actual balanced content — not even the illusion of it. Hey, if you genuinely love something, then shout it from the roof. I’ve never shied away from that. But, this… this is shilling pure and simple. Sucking Marvel’s cock and pretending it’s journalism.

    From here, where Chad Nevett writes about his decision to step back from writing for The Comics Internet and explains why. He’s not wrong, but I’m still surprised that this saw print on ComicBookResources itself, simply because it’s… I don’t know, pulling back the curtain a little bit too much for comfort, maybe? I can’t imagine that there aren’t as many CBR writers who’d see this and think “I am a sell out” as there will be people reading it and thinking “I KNEW IT!” (This isn’t just something that is restricted to CBR, by the way; Newsarama and iFanboy and other comic sites do it just as much, too. And, yes, I write for many of these comic sites, and I sometimes contribute to this type of thing, for the purposes of full disclosure). Nonetheless, I’m really glad he wrote it; I think it’s smart and passionate and needed to be said by someone who actually has experience in this field. I just wonder what the reaction will be, both privately and publicly, is all.

    …Somewhere in my head are thoughts about “fun articles” and positivity and the way in which they do serve a purpose beyond shilling or cowering to publishers/creators/whatever, but they’re nowhere near well-formed enough to actually write into anything coherent yet. One day. I still have to write about being on television last week, too.

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    366 Songs 304: The Imperial March

    What can I say? It seemed appropriate for a day when people lose their shit over Lucasfilm being bought by Disney and a new Star Wars movie was announced, instead of, you know, continuing to lose their shit about a hurricane – Sorry, “super storm” – decimating the East Coast. But, putting aside the timeliness and the “Really, Internet? Really?” nature of things, there’s no getting away from the fact that John Williams’ “Imperial March” is kind of a spectacular piece of music. Even if it wasn’t amazingly evocative and nostalgic for anyone who’s seen the original Star Wars trilogy, there’s such a narrative power in this music: You listen to it, and you can hear an epic grandeur, a militaristic element and a growing intensity – The bit at 2:49! – throughout, and you can imagine a story, even if it’s not necessarily the story of Star Wars. Williams is famous for his well-known themes to Star Wars, Superman and Indiana Jones amongst many others, but it’s this piece of music that will always make me love his work without any doubt.

    Poh, hee. Poh, hee.

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    What Are Our Tote Bag Rewards?

    Actually raising money is only part of the challenge with Kickstarter, which has to approve a project in the first place. The Amicos’ first Kickstarter campaign pitch last winter was rejected because the rewards they proposed — the special add-on that donors gets based on the amount they donate — weren’t good enough. (Update: Kickstarter’s Justin Kazmark emailed me after this article went up to say that the first proposal wasn’t rejected per se. “Someone from our team suggested they just give more thought to their rewards before launching,” he said.) This time around, awards varied from donors names being published in a “thank you” post ($10 or more) to getting the Homicide Watch team to guest-teach a class or lecture ($5,000 or more).

    “Kickstarter is an odd fit for journalism in many ways,” Laura said. “The symptom of that to me is that rewards are so problematic. Public media does tote bags. Tote bags even have nothing to do with what you’re actually producing, which is the point of Kickstarter. It doesn’t have anything to do with the product we’re offering, necessarily.”

    From here.

    I have a weird fascination with crowdfunding, and especially the idea of crowdfunding what I do, which is journalism, I guess. Discovering that people have successfully done it already is oddly comforting, to be honest.

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    366 Songs 303: Dolphins

    Terry Callier died this weekend. I never really knew his work, but this duet with Beth Orton, covering Fred Neil’s “Dolphins,” remains one of my favorite recordings ever made; there’s something about his vocals in here, how comforting, how rich and warm they sound. Orton’s own vocals dance around Callier’s; he grounds the performance, and provides the world for her to return to.

    I love “Dolphins,” as a song, but often find the performances from various artists to be disappointing. Even Neil’s original doesn’t sound quite “right,” somehow. There’s something about the interplay of Callier and Orton’s voices, about the folk/jazz accompaniment (Those vibes!) that backs them up, that fulfills the song’s potential as nothing else I’ve heard actually managed. Maybe I should hunt down Callier’s earlier catalog and see what other favorites he worked his magic on, as well.