Archive for July, 2009

Die By the Pen: Meditations on Bubbles

In Die By the Pen, Jared Gniewek discusses what feeds his fires as an author of comics, screenplays and radio dramas.

DBTPphoto1

I am at the summer place now.  My family purchased a group of cabins on the top of a mountain in the Catskills thirty-nine years ago and they allowed me a week up here at my mother’s cabin for meditative writing.

I am always looking for places from which to write. It seems every location I’m in favors a different style and here, all alone, being kept company by the bears and skunks, I find I let myself think a little more freely. If you can imagine your old buddy, Jared, singing with songbirds and getting beavers to sweep his floor then you got the idea of what it’s like up here.

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Strip Search: Hark! A Vagrant

In Strip Search, Jennifer M. Babcock reviews and recommends comic strips available in print and on the web.

I’m not sure how well known Kate Beaton’s work on her webcomic  Hark! A Vagrant is, but I don’t think its is as well known as it should be — which is saying a lot since Beaton has recently been setting the internet on fire with her talent.   Anyway, if you’re not familiar with her work, check it out and you’ll see that a lot of the themes cover literature and history,  so it’s a little geeky but not in the same vein as a lot of gaming/techy comics like PVP, Penny Arcade, or xkcd.

Miss Beaton, you see, has a background in history and anthropology from Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada- whoever said history was a useless degree is obviously wrong, since she’s obviously made it big with her “history” comics! And while I don’t think that you can really appreciate this comic without knowing an inkling of western culture, it’s become clear that this comic isn’t beyond reach for most people. In fact, I’d say that the only pre-requisite for this comic is an appreciation for the absurd.

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Media Madness: Top 10 Comic Book Character Performances

In Media Madness, Matt. Murray reviews, revisits and rambles about comics, cartoons and their interactions in and with related media.

A few weeks ago, here on the Ol’ SAC Blog,  I let loose a venom-soaked rant against five of my least favorite comic character performances in live action media.  To atone for that I promised a Top 10 list of my favorite performances to show that I can be at least a wee bit positive about the media that I so love and spend so much money and time watching and consuming.  So, it may be a few weeks late, but here’s that venom-soaked rant that I promised.

But before we roll on, I feel that maybe there’s a little clarification that needs to be taken into account.  There is one, actually two,  key performances of one seminal character missing from this list and that’s because I think there needs to be some time put between those parts and writing about them to understand their true weight, or perhaps they need to be examined in their own post – now there’s an idea, and it’s mine so no sniping – and I’m talking about Heath Ledger, Jack Nicholson and their respective Jokers.

joker montage

Ledger’s pre-eminence as the premiere essayist of a four-colors-for-a-dime character is up for debate. Yes, he was brilliant; and yes that is at least one of the reasons he currently stands as the only actor to be honored with an Oscar for his performance (read all about the whys and wherefores here); but I believe Jack Nicholson’s Joker could still go toe-to-toe for him for the title of the true Clown Prince of Crime. Only time will truly tell… but, I had to take Ledger, and in fairness Nicholson, out of the race to honestly handicap the rest of the field.

So without further ado, here are my two bits:

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Die By the Pen: Let’s Just Settle This

In Die By the Pen, Jared Gniewek discusses what feeds his fires as an author of comics, screenplays and radio dramas.

gun

I’ve been contributing to the Sequential Art Collective blog for some time now and thought it appropriate to write about what it is I hope to achieve through these essays and through our organization. If it hasn’t become apparent through the text or if you are a new reader this will give you a chance to see what I represent towards this collective.

This blog (an ugly word if ever there was one) is a place where I have been asked to share my experiences as a writer, creator, and enthusiast. I think I’ve delivered on this for the most part. I’ve shared some of my techniques for slogging my way through written works as well as some of my social opinions regarding the state of comics. I fully intend to continue this way. Choosing whatever “feeds my fire” to discuss.

Some folks have said that my work here is unfocused, long-winded, and rambling. Some folks have said that this blog isn’t “about” anything and needs to have more of a viewpoint from which to emerge. They believe it isn’t consistently pointed, funny, or exciting. I aim to spin those talking heads like the pea soup puker in The Exorcist!

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Alphabet of the Arcane: The Letter P

In Alphabet of the Arcane, Justin Maudslien, aka Sub-Human’s Mr. M., explores weird and little known factoids and shares his skewed observations about the world of comics, cartoons and sequential art.

Greetings and salutations mortals, it is I, the bringer of blogs, the conjurer of connotations, the wordsmith of…um…words.

This episode is brought to you by the letter P and the number 1. You might be thinking: “Oh great, an entire blog about golden showers or other sick fetishes… but no!  Relax, faithful readers, for I have brewed up a subject for the ages. Take note of your location because some day your grandchildren will ask where were you the day you read– The Infamous Pimp Slap comic blog.

PimpSlap-1.jpg Pimp Slap image by Major_Payn3

Photo taken from Photobucket, created by Major_Payn3

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