why comicbooks might be important

in a semi serious way there is something to be said about media such as comic books and television to anyone interested in narrative storytelling.

the main fact is that the turnaround to publication is so short that the authors are not allowed really much time to navel gaze, to get profound or basically become self indulgent. there is the story, the story, and sometimes some commentary, but mostly just story.

after giving the whole comicification of the movie industry some thought i think that there are two things going on here:

1. hollywood is looking for another short cut to creating franchises. by utilizing the characters and stories from the comicbook scene they have two things - a built in audience (i.e. revenue stream) and a lack of need for any real creative input. as i've said elsewhere, those of us who are fans of a comic story - when put on screen the only thing we care about is if it is true to the original art.

2. inherent market synergy. rather than team up with marvel to create a comic based on their work - use their work and pay them money. you instantly have comics, toys, etc all built around your little franchise.

okay so perhaps that's one idea. no one said that hollywood was known for more than one note symponies - at least not lately anyways.

the funny thing is that marvel is doing exactly the opposite. i think they decided they were getting ripped off by the guys in the suits so they rolled up their sleeves and started producing their own films. some of them direct to dvd - a brilliant idea by the way and some of them slated for the silver screen.

not to be outdone - cable franchises also take part in the action - showtime a few years ago created series based on the french post-apocalyptic comic 'jeremiah' and hbo is slated to produce an animated adaptation of 'preacher' the cult independent graphic novel series.

back in the day, quite a few student film makers i knew studied comics almost as seriously as theye studied godard, truffaut, spielberg, and preminger. i asked one of them and his response was that where else could someone who is interested in visual storytelling get so many examples of narrative directness than this? he made a good point that is still valid today. about a year ago i picked up one of the recent incarnations of the x-men and found a fantastic story that takes place in 30 seconds of 'real time' but took and entire book to tell - detailing an attack by the sentinels upon rachel summers' family.

last but not least is stephen king. a recent visit to his website shows that he has partnered with marvel comics to come up with an 'inspired by' series based on his 'dark tower' series.

improve your self confidence

face it please, you're sick of people that shouldn't have confidence having too much and you feel like you have none.

7 helpful tips to immediately increase your self confidence sounds like a come on from an infoblog.

actually - it appears to be a teaser for a book on self confidence.

stilll it ended up on digg.com for some reason

scooby doo, where are you? *in japan*

from japanator.com

baba brinkman interview

for any of you who've been reading me since i started on myspace, you may recall that i did an email interview with a couple of musicians that i am a fan of.

one of them is baba brinkman and he's apparently liked my e(nterview) well enough to reprint it on his blog.

if you've not read the original - here's your chance to read it.

p.s. he calls me an online journalist - i don't see myself as that - only as someone who's perennially curious. ask my fiancée, she'll validate that comment.

baba brinkman (e)nterview

clarification and all of that

sometimes i think about what i wrote and have to review it in my head for a while and then re-state a few things.

a while back i was talking about my love for 'dark fiction' aka horror stories and i made a comment about being able to explain derrida to semi-literates.

see, now i talk about derrida to a lot of folks. he's one of my personal heroes and so i talk on and on about him (if you get me started. i'd advise you not to though - unless literary theory is a hobby or something).

it occured to me recently that if someone i know read my blog and we had chatted about derrida that it could taken as a dis.

it wasn't - because here's the context for the comment: years ago i used to chat online. i worked second shift and it was a way to keep my world from becoming limited to the people that i worked with, who of the marjority were not the ones that i would hang out with at a party sad to say, anyways.

i was having a discussion with an acquaintance of mine who was doing her masters in some ridiculously difficult area like physics or something and we got to arguing about wittgenstein vs derrida and this idiot (sorry to say but the guy had a problem with spelling - and no it wasn't ghetto spelling neither, dude had issssssuuuuuesss with the english language) kept butting in going 'who's this, who's that' and whatnot.

so, i patiently explained derrida's importance and some of the particulars of our debate (which i can't remember in detail but had to do with something like: which was more relevant: wittgenstein's statment that words are actions or derrida's commentary on western civilization's preference for oral over written word authority...*sigh* and it was like 2a.m. as well) he promptly asks my conversation partner if she has any nekkid pix she wanted to send him.

so, for the record - there it is and it shows me that we need to focus. all of us.

shift your shape

or is it shape your shift?

either way tune into shapeshifters.net if you want to connect with other creative types around the world and actually get something going.

i'm for real.

left coast underground abstrakt lyrics

Existereo - Bus Driver - Make Some Noise 10-23-06 Hollywood

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