He has plenty of people to shout down people like these lunatics who claim to believe he’s a psychotic commie-Nazi, but here ya go:
Print out a high-res version and and stick it up in your local creche, why dontcha.
I thought this was fairly striking - an animated propaganda film made by Winsor McCay about the sinking of the Lusitania. The animation is very stylish and very powerful, quite reminiscent of Miyazaki I thought …
More about Winsor McCay from John Holbo here, and here’s the obligatory Wikipedia page, complete with a fantastic page from ‘Little Nemo’. I like the sound of ‘Dream of a Rarebit Fiend’.
There’s a wealth of reminiscences from Simpsons insiders in this Vanity Fair piece, but the thing that really struck me (from the first few thousand words, anyway) was this remark by an acquaintance of Matt Groening about the very start of it all, when he had just agreed to start doing one-minute animations for the Tracey Ullman show:
Polly Platt: What’s funny now, because he’s so rich, is that I was driving home from my office at Paramount, very shortly after that, and I saw Matt sitting at the bus stop. He didn’t even have a car. I had no idea he was so poor.
Which says a lot about the US, or maybe just LA.
I’ve just finished Osamu Tezuka’s Apollo’s Song and was going to do a review, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as good as this one from Jog - The Blog. And yeah, the book really is that strange.
This site is, well, fascinating. Entirely dedicated to a love affair between Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.
Here’s a few pictures:
Mr. Spock dressed as a Can-Can girl.
This picture is called At the Rennaissance Faire on Shore Leave.
Which begs the question… do Kirk and Spock have such a in-depth love affair that they attend Medieval festivals with eachother?
Here’s further evidence that Captain Planet played a pivotal role in the Norn Iron peace process:
It’s interesting to note the quasi-German accents of the Protestant guys, while the Catholic guy has a Caribbean lilt. That’s multi-culturalism for you.
Captain Planet reminded me of Captain Euro:
The web site is http://www.captaineuro.com/. Fascinating stuff. Especially his arch nemesis, Dr. D. Vider - who I presume is a member of UKIP.
I wonder what Captain Euro would make of Captain Britain:
Or Super President - the President of the USA, as a superhero
Or Israel’s Uri Oan
we could go on and on and on!
I love Get Your War On, but I love the various spin-offs even more. Obviously I’d like to think it was due to some sort of ironic metareality that I fundamentally connect with, but since my Dad admitted lampooning a colleague with My Filing Technique is Unstoppable, I’ve abandoned that idea.
The latest wheeze: advertising. Scroll down here for some totally push-button online partnering, freshly birthed by Joey the Midwife.
Why would you pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for another dose of Typical Advertising? Ho-hum… another ad campaign… call the ex-football star, the girls in bikinis, the rock band with the most tattoos… make your stupid commercial… then wonder why nobody’s buying your stupid goddamn deoderant. Money well spent? Doubt it. Feel good? Doubt it. What you need is an exciting new ad campaign. Got it? No. Gonna get it? Yes. Go for it. Good going. You’re on your way to a stroke of brilliance. Check our hip attitude. Check our bargain prices. Then make your call: Joey The Midwife at 212-OH-MY-GOD. Then you’ll see why the NASDAQ Stock Report rated us “US-48 state-to-state.”
After writing that last post, I went looking for more stuff by John Carlin - and it turns out he’s just written a good article on Brazil and particularly Ronaldinho for the New York Times. Interesting quote from The Goofy One:
Ronaldinho may get close to the secret of Brazilian soccer — the alliance of discipline and skill with superior imagination — when he explains his role with the team. “When I train,” he says, “one of the things I concentrate on is creating a mental picture of how best to deliver that ball to a teammate, preferably leaving him alone in front of the rival goalkeeper. So what I do, always before a game — always, every night and every day — is try and think up things, imagine plays, which no one else will have thought of, and to do so always bearing in mind the particular strengths of each teammate to whom I am passing the ball. When I construct those plays in my mind, I take into account whether one teammate likes to receive the ball at his feet or ahead of him, if he’s good with his head and how he prefers to head the ball, if he’s stronger on his right or his left foot. That’s my job. That is what I do. I imagine the game.”
I’ve copied the whole thing at the end of this post for anyone who doesn’t have a NYT registration.
Also check out the NYT’s entertainingly bizarre cartoon guide to the World Cup.
(more…)
If, like me, you’ve often yearned for someone to combine the characters and distinctive ligne claire style of Hergé’s Tintin comics with the refreshingly uncompromising political views of militant anarchism, then yearn no longer: Breaking Free, the brilliantly mad transplanting of Tintin and his pals to a grimy mid-80s council estate perpetrated by friendly anarchists Attack International, is now available in full online. Here’s a taster:
I know we really shouldn’t encourage these people, but I’m drawn with a horrible fascination to the new film of V for Vendetta - a sanitised, kid-friendly dystopia set to a pounding rock score is just what the world needs now, after all. Alan Moore doesn’t seem keen, though:
“I’ve read the screenplay,” Mr. Moore said. “It’s rubbish.”
But then he would say that. He seems to be pretty bitter about how he thinks he’s been treated by first the comics and now the movie industry, and sounds like a bit of a nightmare to deal with. But I wouldn’t mind visiting his gaff:
Today, he resides in the sort of home that every gothic adolescent dreams of, one furnished with a library of rare books, antique gold-adorned wands and a painting of the mystical Enochian tables used by Dr. John Dee, the court astrologer of Queen Elizabeth I. He shuns comic-book conventions, never travels outside England and is a firm believer in magic as a “science of consciousness.” “I am what Harry Potter grew up into,” he said, “and it’s not a pretty sight.”
… and I approve Frank Miller’s forthcoming comic.
Brownstein: Politics often shift you work. Your next work is blatantly political.
Frank Miller: It’s called HOLY TERROR, BATMAN. I have 120 pages done so far, I expect to have 200 when I’m done. It’s the best artwork I’ve ever done–
Brownstein: I’ve seen some of it and I agree.
FM: It’s blatant propaganda. It’s Batman going to kick al-Qaida’s ass. (applause) It’s a reminder to people that we’re against a ruthless foe. I just wish the entertainers of our time had the spine of the ones who faced Hitler.
Brownstein: What is it you hope to acheive?
FM: Superman punched Hitler, so did Captain America. It just seems silly to have Batman out there chasin’ the Riddler when there’s al-Qaida out there!
Brownstein: What should people expect?
FM: (creepy voice) Be afraid. (laughter) It’s Pulp-y. It’s my love letter to the city; it’s Gotham under attack. Batman is in love with the city. It’s emotionally raw; if you mean emotion between a man and a woman, a man and a city or a man kickin’ al-Qaida butt.
Brownstein: Culturally, how does the use of superheroes help crises?
FM: I don’t know the effect, but I know it helps. The Greeks had the Gods. [In America] during the biggest urban crime wave, we had Dirty Harry. People always say ‘Superman is an icon.’ An icon of what ? The flag-bearer of WWII ? The Golem ? The confused guy of the 60s ? The glam guy of the 70s ? I figured him being so powerful had to make him on the bad guy’s side.
These cartoons based on people’s dreams are great. For example:
There’s about a million more here.
I’m not sure my dreams would make such good cartoons, even if I could remember them properly. I think last night my dream involved trying to devise a suitable performance incentive scheme for 7th-century housebuilders.
