shining the light of "duh" in my eyes

[rone]

Fundamentalists are crazy.  They're the real world equivalent to the evil geniuses of our spy fiction and our superhero comics.  They want to mold the world into a specific shape that they really believe in, and if you don't believe in that, if you can't relate to that, it just seems crazy.
        — jacksonpublick, in Reason Magazine

Publick goes into a few of the reasons why i despise the DC and Marvel universes. I should take advantage of this interview and ramp up my anti-DC/Marvel rant.

Comments

[crisper.livejournal.com]

Might as well lament the deplorable state of the zeppelin industry while you're at it.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

My aim would be to try to snap some sense into those of my friends who still cling to their precious characters like a battered wife tightly hugging her abusive husband.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I never really got into actually reading comic books--the individual issues seem so thin, only a little smidgen of story per issue.

But I've developed a strange fascination with reading about comic books on the web. Ever read an online biography of a superhero, tracing the history through decades of comics? It's like some fever dream or schizophrenic word-salad, the result of decades of having to one-up the last identity-destroying crisis or greatest conflict of all time for the fate of the universe. And the creators often seem hell-bent on destroying whatever made the character appealing in the first place.

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

So true! The summaries are often more fun than the thing itself.
I've got an ambivalent relationship with superhero comics; as with everything, some are excellent and some are so poor. I think I take what I want from the concepts and run away with them, which is probably not the best way to relate to a medium, but, oh well.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

And then there's the backstage drama. For some reason I am particularly fascinated with the many branching sub-universes that swirl around the collection of characters named Captain Marvel. There seems to be a universal law that wherever anything connected to a Captain Marvel goes, there follows some sort of legal dispute--with the conflict over Miracleman being the ultimate infinityth-order ramification, since Miracleman was himself spawned from Captain Marvel through complex multiple efforts to skirt copyright infringement.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...or maybe trademark, I'm not sure. Or both.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I think I take what I want from the concepts and run away with them, which is probably not the best way to relate to a medium

Um... there's a better way?

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess ideally one could accept all components as necessary, even if one didn't approve of them? I think that really I'm just sick of seldom unequivocally enjoying media.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

[mulling more old shit over]

I think that one can better relate to a medium when one understands its context, but that doesn't going to necessarily mean one will be more accepting or approving.

As for unequivocally enjoying media, i'm fascinated by your desire to do so.

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

(I wish LJ would let you actually see the thread you're replying to while typing a reply, instead of just the immediately previous comment.)

Agreed, agreed. I think I was more talking about not even relating to the thing as a work, just trying to appreciate what parts one can. Insofar as I was saying anything much.

Enjoymentwise, I don't know; I think sometimes I get a little sick of always harpyishly finding fault. But I don't really think I meant that I wanted to have every frame of a movie fill my heart with wuv or anything. This is neither likely nor necessary. I will embrace my harpy nature.

[damienw]

pleas do; it might help me crystallise my isssues with the material

[kerri9494.livejournal.com]

I met Harvey Pekar last week. That was cool.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Pekar was a major inspiration for some anguished autobiographical comics I drew when I was in college and passed around to my friends. Fortunately, I do not think they survive. They describe the adventures of a bunch of guys with personalities similar to Roast Beef, because, you know, that's what we were all like.

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

I think the autobio comics world gets a lot of that.
Was depression playing across your handsome features? I bet it was!