Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Comics blog visit


Just went on Comics Alliance, a site I stopped visiting a while back, and going through it, made me remember why I quit it, the articles of bull and talking out the author's butts, an article on 90s X-Men that felt condescending. the saying of things sucking when it's not an attempt to warn people not to read something but just to show smug superiority, disrespect to material, probably colored by bad experiences on the site before, but still, that's what my brain keeps feeling and thinking...Am I still on?

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

A sleep-deprived last thought of the night

If you're a very machismo man who refuses to sue condoms, then just think of them as a sign of manliness,  shaped for your genitalia, and a sign of prowess. I'm not Dan Savage but...wait, what time is it, and how long have I been awake?

A letter to the bomber of the Boston marathon

Who are you? What are you?
Are you a man? Are you a monster?
Are you alone? Are you legion?
Are you lost? Are you found?
A cipher, to never be decrypted?

Why did you do what you did? Revenge?
To make a cause known? To send a message?
We don't know who you are, no one has claimed responsibility.
Is it that you just take joy in destruction, in creating and watching suffering and making the world
burn?

You killed three people,
injured hundreds.
Added another tally mark to a bloody year
of a bloody two decades
of a bloody history.
Aurora
Wisconsin
Newtown
Los Angeles County
Georgia
Must the list go on and on?
Are you the predecessor of a new breed
Or a relic of another age,
unable to get past anything without violence?

I do not wish for revenge be taken on you,
revenge will only continue the cycle
of bloodshed
and put more at the chopping board.
I do wish justice be served
and peace come to mind and world.
But all I want to know is
Who
What
Why.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Updated Comics Conference ideas

A Proposal for a Conference on Graphic Arts and Storytelling (and comic books and strips, too) (This is all just random now, brainstorming basically)
-Notable figures interviewed and given a Q&A by audience members (there's so many who could possibly attend, but my hope is Bill Watterson ,and Gilbert Shelton, and Daniel Clowes, and any surviving artists from the Golden Age)
-Exhibitions and discussions on comics from outside the United States
--India
--China
--France
--Brazil
--Anywhere else
-The Art of Black and White
-The Effect and Legacy of the Cold War on Comics
-The Effect of the Bush years on the comics world
-Will Eisner Retrospective
-Tables for freeform talking amongst professionals, attendees, and any dreamers out there without experience but with ideas
-Noir comics
-The age of technology we live in, and future speculations on how it could change the field, such as in publishing and editing
-A room for trading and selling volumes of material and art supplies
 Commercialization and corporations
-Several conference long marathons of screening movies and TV shows based on comics and such.
--DCAU series
--Old serials
--The Incredible Hulk TV series from the 70s
--Dark Knight Trilogy
-Setting up local presses in your home town
-Explore new areas of subject matter
-Debate: Watchmen: Boon or hindrance to comics? (Or maybe, to go along with it, is it good or overrated, you decide while our panelists go at it)
-Something to do with MIT
-Mathematics
-Learn art techniques
-An all-digital world
-History
-Public perceptions
-Perceptions of the makers
-Symposium on fandom
-Have the Ohio State University Billy Ireland Library send reps (if they want)
-Symposium: SHould we make softcore porno comics? (To see if anyone's reading this post)
-A discussion with Mad Magazine staffers and veterans, to go over the history and future of the publication)
-Symposium: Starting a comics revolution in analogy to the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s?
-Alternative comics
-3-D printing
-Fractal forms of graphic novels
-Appreciation of Joe Kubert
-"From Page to Screen; The rise and fall of Fritz the Cat" and debate on the film as well (Thanks to commenter red_locker for the idea)
-Journalism
-Ontology
-The Tao of Graphic Novels

Again, if you read this, please, please put your own ideas below and I'll see what is appropriate and such. I'll be back in a few days to put up an actual refined draft, and anyone who comments might get their idea up here.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Obscure Author Appreciation Week

This week, in honor of so many writers and authors who have faded away or never even made it, I suggest you try to look them up, buy their works instead of big name people, there's whole untapped literary worlds out there.

Also, I have not done any work on the comics conference proposal, had too many things going on at the moment.

And now, some music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvTfN2gjDvU (So it won't be taken down from here)