Here’s hoping that as well as the other stuff you have planned for this newsletter we can get deep dives like this about all your previous projects as we go. Would love some behind the scenes stuff now that you are afforded the ‘freedom’ of not really working for the big two anymore and can be more open about your projects there.
Would also love some more stories about your creator owned works!
“..,amusingly enough, on our Zoom calls I was unshaven in my Sean Connery ‘Highlander’ mode…”
At 3:47pm on February 1st of this year, for reasons unknown to me (at the time), whilst thinking about Xannaduum, I spontaneously created the following meme :
It’s a panel from The Invisibles Vol. 1, issue 18 or 19 (I think), showing King Mob/Gideon and the Old Feller Aborigine, both thinking “Can You Hear Me..?” at each other, and King Mob answers (aloud) “Yep.” —
The previous day, on a similar spontaneous impulse, I felt the irresistible urge to watch the Danny/Scatman Corrothers scene kitchen scene in The Shining, whilst eating choccolate ice cream (on the flimsy Maybe-Logic that if it worked for him, it would probably work for me, too).
Which it did. Or it has.
Because this is what I felt compelled to write under that image as a caption :
I would like to play devil's (Darkseid's?) advocate here, and mount a half-hearted defense of the current DC "Depressoverse" (as so eloquently called out in Blackstars #2).
In our current dysneytopia, where IP-monopolies are ingesting every last scrap of mass culture and excreting recursive coils of cinematic "continuity" for public consumption, I think there's some merit in seeing those precious trademarked characters debased and degraded. The super-horrors of Scott Snyder's "Metal" and the like represent a real and arguably healthy collective dissatisfaction with our cultural status quo, in the same way that horror movies reflect our cultural taboos and anxieties. Every time Warner Brothers very politely reminds me that the S-shield is a "Kryptonian symbol of hope," I can't help but think that that slithering sigil looks more and more like a grasping Lovecraftian tentacle, or perhaps a stylized human centipede.
But deconstruction is a pretty sad endeavor unless reconstruction follows. So the creative challenge before us is to invent novel forms of heroic narrative, stories that resist the corporate ownership of culture, stories that break cycles of commodification and consumption... somehow. I'm honestly a bit stumped at the moment. If you guys have any good ideas, let me know.
"We chose to have them dressed in spacesuits adding to either The Realism or The Absurdity, it’s hard to say."
The Scene -- Outskirts of Luna City-7,
Excavation of the Ruins of the Former Ancient Tycho-Tranquility Lunar Base,
853rd Century --
A Blue-Skinned, velvet-furred Plutonian ArtiFactOlogist assumes an expression of puzzlment, as HeShe delicated lifts out and dusts clean the warped and twisted pre-carbon-steel rod-shaft of Number 9-Iron driver and a small bucket of Slazenger-5 Golfballs --
Dr-Dr. Heinrich "Titania" Jones CDXXIII :
What The Fark is THIS..?!
Superman (Kal Kent), leaning down over HurHiz 3rd Left Shoulder :
Clearly, You're Not a Bowler.
For every JFK reference, there must be a Nixon Joke -- this is the only way to maintain Harmony and Balance across The Multiverse (and people will STILL bitch about it on The Internet....)
Here’s hoping that as well as the other stuff you have planned for this newsletter we can get deep dives like this about all your previous projects as we go. Would love some behind the scenes stuff now that you are afforded the ‘freedom’ of not really working for the big two anymore and can be more open about your projects there.
Would also love some more stories about your creator owned works!
“John Huston was Terrific —
And he gave me and Michael Caine a directive that no other guy would have thought of — that the character — Danny and Peachy — were really ONE MAN.
And as long as they were together, they could do ANYTHING.”
— Sean Connery on
The Man Who Would Be King.
P.S. — The •Best• (and, most HORRIFYING) Line in Prometheus is :
“It must feel as though Your God has abandoned You.”
I could write ESSAYS on that line — but you can sum it ALL up, as :
“Empathy requires INSIGHT, not guesswork.”
Or rather, heuristics…..
“..,amusingly enough, on our Zoom calls I was unshaven in my Sean Connery ‘Highlander’ mode…”
At 3:47pm on February 1st of this year, for reasons unknown to me (at the time), whilst thinking about Xannaduum, I spontaneously created the following meme :
It’s a panel from The Invisibles Vol. 1, issue 18 or 19 (I think), showing King Mob/Gideon and the Old Feller Aborigine, both thinking “Can You Hear Me..?” at each other, and King Mob answers (aloud) “Yep.” —
The previous day, on a similar spontaneous impulse, I felt the irresistible urge to watch the Danny/Scatman Corrothers scene kitchen scene in The Shining, whilst eating choccolate ice cream (on the flimsy Maybe-Logic that if it worked for him, it would probably work for me, too).
Which it did. Or it has.
Because this is what I felt compelled to write under that image as a caption :
“YOU CANNOT DIE, MACLOED.”
I would like to play devil's (Darkseid's?) advocate here, and mount a half-hearted defense of the current DC "Depressoverse" (as so eloquently called out in Blackstars #2).
In our current dysneytopia, where IP-monopolies are ingesting every last scrap of mass culture and excreting recursive coils of cinematic "continuity" for public consumption, I think there's some merit in seeing those precious trademarked characters debased and degraded. The super-horrors of Scott Snyder's "Metal" and the like represent a real and arguably healthy collective dissatisfaction with our cultural status quo, in the same way that horror movies reflect our cultural taboos and anxieties. Every time Warner Brothers very politely reminds me that the S-shield is a "Kryptonian symbol of hope," I can't help but think that that slithering sigil looks more and more like a grasping Lovecraftian tentacle, or perhaps a stylized human centipede.
But deconstruction is a pretty sad endeavor unless reconstruction follows. So the creative challenge before us is to invent novel forms of heroic narrative, stories that resist the corporate ownership of culture, stories that break cycles of commodification and consumption... somehow. I'm honestly a bit stumped at the moment. If you guys have any good ideas, let me know.
“There’s NOTHING Like a Challenge to bring out The Best in Man….”
I am enjoying this commentary so much - thank you! Looking forward to seeing what comes next ...
It is •I• Who am Honoured, Lord Lochsley --
....sorry.
"We chose to have them dressed in spacesuits adding to either The Realism or The Absurdity, it’s hard to say."
The Scene -- Outskirts of Luna City-7,
Excavation of the Ruins of the Former Ancient Tycho-Tranquility Lunar Base,
853rd Century --
A Blue-Skinned, velvet-furred Plutonian ArtiFactOlogist assumes an expression of puzzlment, as HeShe delicated lifts out and dusts clean the warped and twisted pre-carbon-steel rod-shaft of Number 9-Iron driver and a small bucket of Slazenger-5 Golfballs --
Dr-Dr. Heinrich "Titania" Jones CDXXIII :
What The Fark is THIS..?!
Superman (Kal Kent), leaning down over HurHiz 3rd Left Shoulder :
Clearly, You're Not a Bowler.
For every JFK reference, there must be a Nixon Joke -- this is the only way to maintain Harmony and Balance across The Multiverse (and people will STILL bitch about it on The Internet....)
Amazing Connery vibes off that photo
Love the analysis and deeply love the Connery look!