Dreams Of Noise

Ahhh, DC Comics. Always with the maturity and good clean fun.

I don't think it's any secret that I've had it up to HERE with what the writers and editors at Marvel and especially DC Comics consider to be cutting-edge material, mostly because their material tends to include lots of cutting edges. But this is just frickin' nuts.

And I see the stuff in the comments on that page about the potential meta and meta-meta context. Nope, sorry, no biscuit. DC's animated wing is doing just fine without this crap; Marvel's animation is nearly as good, and of course the movies are great. No, the people in charge at DC Comics these days are the sad, repressed damaged goods people used to think were caused by comics.

I can certainly deal with violence in comics (said the guy who loved Frank Miller at the beginning of his career, long before most people had heard of him). Absolutely sexuality (said the proud owner of the three-volume hardcover Lost Girls, every issue of XXXenophile, and lots of other smutty goodness). But there are... not limits. Standards. There's an old adage about rules, and how they're made to be broken... but sometimes they're made to be followed, because they work.

Every once in awhile, someone posts an old page from the earliest days of Spider-Man or Fantastic Four, or even Superman during the Curt Swan heyday. And it's wonderful how much story and characterization Stan and Steve or Julie and Curt crammed into six or nine panels... and how there actually was story and characterization going on.

Remember the chest-burster scene in Alien? Ridley Scott famously didn't tell the cast what was going to happen, to make sure that their reactions were all believable... to force everybody in the film, and thus everybody watching the film, into a new and unknown realm of horror.

Sometimes I feel as if modern comic creators are trying to do that all the time.

It ain't the medium -- it's the people who have forgotten, or never learned, storytelling... and, possibly, how to have fun.

Thoughts?

A little extra love and attention for:

• Nuclear Bubble Wrap's next album, Psycho Delicacy
• Filmmaker Gary Wood's My Kid Brother's Band, about the sister of George Harrison
• Keith DeCandido's graphic novel, Dragon Precinct
• A nifty-looking game and adventure maker, Adventurenazor: When Pigs Fly

Any other cool projects we should know about?

71% on Rotten Tomatoes. First shows are at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

I'm looking forward to it. I hope it's good. Gotta say this, though: When a movie reviewer complains about the science in a Superman film, it'd better be really, really hosed science.

Because, Superman.

So many things we celebrate on Geek Pride Day!

First, of course, it's the Glorious 25th of May, for all you Discworld fans.

It's also the 36th anniversary of the release of the original, non-Episode IV Star Wars. We weren't completely unprepared -- technically, Jaws was the first "blockbuster" -- but, besides being the coolest thing most of us had ever seen up to that point, Star Wars was absolutely transformative in how films were both created and marketed. Along with Star Trek, it can be considered one of the foundations of modern mythology.

And, celebrating another of those foundations, it's Towel Day, celebrating the life and writings of author Douglas Adams, creator of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Here's hoping that, someday, we'll all have a proper edition of that mind-bogglingly useful book.

And, on top of all that, it's the birthday of such geek legends as Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803), Sir Ian McKellen (1939), Frank Oz (1944), Barry Windsor-Smith (1949), and Stan Sakai (1953).

How are you celebrating Geek Pride Day? I'm at Up In The Aether Con in Dearborn, MI, where the place has already been going crazy since yesterday morning. Wonderful folks, superb cosplay, Victorian mad science, gorgeous women in corsets, fun fun fun.

• Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you*).
• Free Comic Book Day.
• Huge opening weekend for Iron Man 3.
• Fantastic image of the Horsehead Nebula that's gone semi-viral this week.
• The Kickstarter for the Dr. Demento documentary went nuts the last two days, and funded easily.
• And I got a book I did not know existed last week: the Nexus Omnibus Volume 1 by Mike Baron and Steve Rude.

All in all, definitely a Week In Geek. And this weekend especially.

I'm going to get a few comics, come home and clean a bit, and then work on music. All while enjoying a gorgeous Southeast Michigan spring day. You?

* I accept that this has become popular, and I really don't mind going with it, but I'm old school: In my heart of hearts, Star Wars Day will always be May 25.

Right here. All I'll say is, it's about a minute of character work. By RDJ and Gwyneth. Don't want spoilers, don't watch.

Definitely intriguing. Thoughts?

Can't wait can't wait can't wait....

The US trailer released this week is very different in tone from the International trailer released the day before. Looks like a combination of several storylines, meshed with the Mariko/Yukio stuff from the very first Wolverine mini-series, written by Chris Claremont with art by Frank Miller. (That one got translated into Anime a couple of years ago.) Dunno how much of that will make it into this movie, but there's no question that we have Silver Samurai. And Viper. And, strangely enough, Jean Gray.

Thoughts? Beyond the obvious, "... I guess Logan is tall now. And, surprisingly, I don't have a problem with that."