Friday, November 7, 2014
We Got Nuthin'
Doug: Good morning, good day, good evening -- whatever time you're stopping by, welcome. Between general life-busyness, Karen traveling, etc. we don't have any new content for you today (and looking at the queue, going forward as well (!!)). So for today at least, the readers become the writers -- you are in charge! Someone PLEASE start a stimulating conversation!
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32 comments:
Like in 'Oklahoma'...,
"I've got plenty of nuthin', and nuthin's plenty for me.."
Who's got a topic today.., besides 'a show about nothing'.. (Seinfeld..).
Any pontifications on.. nothing..?
George Harrison's 'It's All Too Much' or 'The Inner Light' speaks to that concept as well, just to name a few.
Any 'Dark Side of the Moon' fans..?
Ah, a potpourri about meaninglessness. I rather fancy that.
In the scheme of the universe, it is meaningless. But I really hate 10-year old Doug when I discover that the fiend clipped out the Marvel Value Stamp.
Additionally, I will be catching some leaves tomorrow, then attempting to reseed parts of my lawn, areas that resemble a patch of desert.
Next!
Doug
Why not, as Edo has suggested, re-run some earlier posts that nobody commented on if there's no time to do a new post. I was reading the item on POTA magazine from early 2010 which had 2 comments and one of those was from somebody promoting his own blog !! As David mentioned Seinfeld - that show was shamefully treated on British TV being shown often after midnight if it was shown at all. As a result if you ask most British people who Jerry Seinfeld is you'd get a blank stare. I only saw about 3 episodes until the DVD sets came out - great show though.
Colin --
The comic book reviews are generally not productive posts comments-wise. I'm not sure re-running old ones would stimulate any further conversation. Karen and I have discussed that the new "Arc of Triumph?" format seems to generate a bit more discussion, so we're liking that for the time being. We do, however, intend to partner-review the Wonder Woman and JLA installments in the Paul Dini/Alex Ross collaborations in December. Time permitting on our ends, of course!
But thanks for the vote of confidence on our old reviews!
Doug
Doug, I didn't just mean comic reviews - there were other things too.
Oh, sorry Colin.
I assumed since you mentioned the magazine review that you were mainly speaking of those posts.
My apologies.
Doug
Any opinions on the name of the next Star Wars flick? If you've not heard, it will be titled "The Force Awakens".
Doug
Much as I like Colin's suggestion (and not just because I inadvertently inspired it - really and truly), it would actually take a bit of work to go through the archives of this blog's earlier years and find a neglected post that could use some renewed love.
So anyway, I have my own suggestion: why not just pick up from the last few comments made in yesterday's post that seemed to take the conversation in an interesting direction: a general discussion of the old cheap b&w paperbacks reprinting comics, mainly newspaper strips, but also stuff from Mad Magazine, regular super-hero comics, etc.
I think those were a ubiquitous part of growing up in the 1970s and early '80s (and, I'm assuming, the 1960s). As yesterday's commenters noted, there were tons of them and everyone seemed to have them. Even the library in my otherwise rather conservative Catholic elementary school had stuff like the Peanuts and BC books. And my school friends and I used to pass around our various Mad books constantly.
I have to say, though, that the little Doonesbury books eventually became my favorites. I inherited a bunch from my older brother as he left for college, and then bought my own, and I enjoyed reading those well into high school.
So, does anyone have their own favorites, or some great memories about these books?
Edo, I had a slew of MAD paperbacks, which I particularly enjoyed the early 60s releases (for a dime..).
Beetle Bailey was another favorite, then Peanuts.
Doug - Don't care about about the new Star Wars film. Mainly because I never liked Star Wars to start with. Even as a kid, it all just seemed really dumb.
Maybe someone out there could explain why I should care?
-sean
I remember those MAD books too, FIGHTING MAD, MAD ABOUT TOWN and THE SELF-MADE MAD and others!!
Man, (or should I say Mad) I wish I still had those! I remember the Self Made Mad depicted Alfred E. with his feet propped up on a desk in a couple wore-out shoes with his toes sticking of one of 'em.
I also remember they had a small stack of those at summer camp, which gave me an entertaining diversion between episodes of food poisoning and getting beat up. mp
Tumbleweeds is a cartoon I recently read through again in b+w digest form. A local comic shop was selling Mad magazines super cheap a few years ago, so I have a bunch of those classic issues, but occasionally I'll still find a Mad digest that I'll pick up for the art by Mort Drucker or Jack Davis.
As a kid, I remember loving Don Martin's Captain Klutz digest comics.
Oh, geez, Captain Klutz: among my pals, I think those books were our favorites (at least in early elementary school).
Loved those B&W paperback collections. I had several each of Peanuts, BC and Mad (including a couple of the Don Martin solo books). For a few years in a row I could count on a Peanuts book in my Christmas stocking.
On the super hero side I had a Batman collection published at the height of Batmania. And one of my introductions to the Marvel Universe was the Thor Lancer paperback (see Karen's post from yesterday).
Edo, I LOVED Captain Klutz.. I so wanted a custom action figure of him..
("Hear me shouting.., Entertainment Earth..?")
Yes, I just bought another cheap vintage copy of 'Self-Made MAD', just for the Alfred cover with his feet up. Too funny you mentioned that, Anonymous.
Other amazing feats of nothingness..?
The Monkee's trippy 1968 movie 'Head'.. An experiment in a circular story-telling, you can virtually start watching at any point in the movie, then start back at the beginning (up to that start point..) and it's the SAME MOVIE.
Rather a dark, defeatist tone for a pop film, it still shines with great Carole King numbers and great musicianship. Watch for Frank Zappa's appearance, along with Sonny Liston (punching out Davy in the boxing ring..), Annette Funicello, and Packer quarterback Ray Nitschke.
Oh, and it was screenwriter (not-quite-famous-yet) Jack Nicholson's idea to call it 'Head'.., so when they did the planned sequel, the opening promo would read..,
you got it...,
"From the folks that gave you Head.."
I loved the Peanuts books for the characterisation and interplay more than the satire. The problem with most of those newspaper strips is that they just weren’t funny. Garfield is abysmal. A big exception for me was the Wizard of Id, which was sometimes laugh out loud funny.
Any love for Asterix or Tintin over there in the New World?
Doug - ref. the Force Awakens – does that mean anything? It smells of Phantom Menace to me, which is surely less threatening than, you know, an actual menace. They don’t seem to care, do they? Return of the Jedi was called Revenge of the Jedi all the way up to nearly the end, until someone pointed out to George that revenge wasn’t very Jedi like, whereupon they destroyed everything and re-branded. Imagine Disney doing that? I think Family Guy accurately predicted the Force Awakens with ‘Something something something Dark Side’
David – Ref. Dark Side of the Moon (…you had to love that segue….) to this day a stunning achievement. Probably their musical high point, although I think The Wall throws down a psychological and narrative gauntlet that no rock band has yet picked up. For all its angst I feel curiously elevated by Dark Side, whereas I always feel torn down by the Wall. I’m saddened that Endless River will be mostly instrumental as I’d love to have seen Polly Samson let loose on the lyrics.
Richard
Sorry to disappoint, Colin, but on the other hand, you kids have seemed to run with the ball today.
Speaking of Frank Zappa, did you know that he was involved with surf music not as a performer but as a studio engineer and producer? He worked in a studio in Cucamonga that produced the original "Wipeout" and other surf hits.
@Richard I like Asterix but I've only read the first couple of albums. Tintin is good too; I've read a few of those and I love the detail that Herge put into them. I also like Corto Maltese...Hugo Pratt is another one who put lots of realistic detail into his stories.
(Reading them also gives me a chance to practice my french, which is not exactly what you'd call fluent!)
Mike W.
Hiya,
How about something in the purely silly department, the unfortunate implications of two words or names being placed next to each other.
The early Seventies were a rough time for the old time professionals, many of the artists had a rough time switching over to the Kirby proportions and action style. Sometimes they found work, mostly not.
For a brief time classic Superman artist Wayne Boring found employment at Marvel. A few issues here and there. Out of curiosity I went to the Marvel Comics Creator Index to look at his short page where he and his writers were listed in a rather unfortunate manner that went something like this;
Thomas, Boring.
Friedrich, Boring.
Wolfman, Boring.
Conway, Boring.
This gave me a few giggles.
pfgavigan
Yeah, Richard, I like both Tintin and, especially, Asterix as well, although in the case of the latter I only like the ones actually scripted by Goscinny.
And unlike a lot of other European comics, both of those do tend to have a lot of fans in the US, as most school and public libraries hold the albums, especially the Tintin books. Also, in the '70s at least, I remember there was some kids' magazine that was distributed in our school that regularly featured serialized Tintin adventures.
Richard--Tintin and Asterix, yes. I had a few of the Asterix books when I was a kid. Great art in both series, and I liked the travel to exotic locales. I read through a bunch of the Tintin books just a few years ago, and they hold up very well.
I see the record for original comic book art was broken this year, by a Tintin page: http://www.comicsandcola.com/2014/05/tintin-piece-sets-new-world-record-for.html
2.5 million Euros, or over $3 million!
Asterix was often wildly entertaining, and believe it or not they used to run it as a strip in the Des Moines Register.
Also Conan!
No more. Well, at least they still got Rex Morgan. {AARGH} mp
An interesting thing about Asterix: as you know it is full of in jokes and references in the original French which are then translated into different puns in other languages and local jokes specific to each region, but apparently it is absolutely loaded with satire which gets lost. I had no idea until I dated a French girl who had written a dissertation on it. For example, the Mansions of the Gods, the one where the romans try to build new tower blocks in the forest near the village, is actually a satire on a scandal around social housing in France at the time and the roman doing the building bears a striking resemblance to the then French housing minister. The Goscinny ones are all laced with subtext.
Richard
An interesting thing about Asterix: as you know it is full of in jokes and references in the original French which are then translated into different puns in other languages and local jokes specific to each region, but apparently it is absolutely loaded with satire which gets lost. I had no idea until I dated a French girl who had written a dissertation on it. For example, the Mansions of the Gods, the one where the romans try to build new tower blocks in the forest near the village, is actually a satire on a scandal around social housing in France at the time and the roman doing the building bears a striking resemblance to the then French housing minister. The Goscinny ones are all laced with subtext.
Richard
For those that watch Colbert, his pun on the new Star Wars movie: The Force Awakens.....because it fell asleep during the Phantom Menace!
And speaking of nothing, I am about two to three weeks behind in my TV viewing. And more than that in my updates on current comic book doings, does anyone know if the new Marvel stuff has started on Netflix?
In my reading books of cartoon strips, Calvin and Hobbs became a new treasure for me. I think it was mid 80s when they came out. Would that still count as Bronze Age?
Two things I forgot on an old blog posting: One book I started reading that I'm not sure I could pick back up, Dark Horse's Ghost. I read up to issue 25 and I just got a great big "eeeeh" out of it. I have 26-39 in another box and I'm not looking forward to getting to it. Second thing, I can't believe I wrote "to much" instead of "too much"! I have no excuse. Not a one, nothing, zip, zilch, nada, null, void, the empty set.
The Prowler (Pick up your feet got to move to the trick of the beat there is no elite just take your place in the driver's seat driver's seat, driver's seat, yeah).
A few random comments:
Richard- Have never read Asterix, but was quite fond of Tintin. If memory serves me, Boy's Life carried it for a while during my Cub Scout years.
As for Mad paperbacks, they occupied my bookshelf before I even knew there was a Mad Magazine! One of the best was "Its A World, World, World, World Mad". Featured an incredible Jack Davis cover parodying the movie poster for the film "Its A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". Loads of caricatures from the era, including LBJ, the Beatles, and Charles DeGaulle.
And having mentioned the film, IaMMMMWorld (forgive the abbreviation; typing so many Mad's is driving me, well.....) I must give it due praise as another pop culture gem. What a cast. There lies perhaps the germ for another topic someday; large ensemble films ( Rat Race also comes to mind).
Oh, and Doug- don't be too hard on yourself regarding the Marvel Value Stamps. I'm responsible for 100 cut-up issues as I filled the album completely. Kept it for years, until finally parting with it at a Con in Chicago...
Great, JUST GREAT!!!! The web ate my post and now I have to go to work...........
The Prowler (steaming under his cowl).
I personally don't care what the name of the new Star Wars movie will be, as long as they make a good movie. I think George Lucas realized that he had lost the magic mojo in terms of creativity for his baby long ago. Sometimes the originator of a work is not the best person to carry it into the future, and I think George felt this had finally happened to him. At least we'll get to see the original cast in the new movie. For me, the first 3 movies from 1977-83 were MY Star Wars. Those later films just didn't do it for me.
Let's hope for the best!
- Mike 'may the Buffalo chicken wings be with you' from Trinidad & Tobago.
I think if George Lucas had held onto Star Wars, the movie would probably be called something like "Star Wars Episode VII: Jar Jar's Revenge". Then someone would point out that revenge isn't very Jar Jar-like, and they would change it to "Jar Jar Strikes Back!"
I'll try the best that I can to reconstruct what I tried to post yesterday.
Colbert remarked on the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens ... after the Phantom Menace put it to sleep.
What I forgot on my post from a few days back, Dark Horse Comics Ghost. I've read the 1-27 and just felt "eeeh" about it. The story line became repetitive and boring. I have 28-39 in another box and I have no desire to go look for it. And the other thing about that post, I can't believe I typed "to much" instead of "too much". I have no excuse, none, zip, zilch, nada, null, void, the empty set.
The Prowler (a day late and a dollar short).
Mike, for my personal Lucas/SW tastes, I only liked the first two, the original and 'Empire'..
To me, Georgie lost his way by the time 'Return' was made.
Nowadays, I only watch 'Return' via the Family Guy spoof, 'Its a Trap'...
Best darn satires ever done, and LucasFilms-approved. Probably one of the best 'fanbase-friendly' moves by Lucas did, latching on to what Seth's company was doing..., so as not to appear too self-absorbed with all his increasingly-unpopular re-edited releases.
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