PORTLAND, OREGON - There is no secret to drawing comics. Draw all your female characters with odd proportions, have them wear skin-tight outfits with their boobs hanging out, then have all the dudes have their teeth clenched, make sure they have a dark past that has come back to haunt them, punch a few dudes.
Done and done.
Everyone goes home with an Warner Brother’s animated series with Mickey Rourke in a villain role for your sequel.
[lights cigar with $100]
[puts feet on desk]
[gloats]
But is it that, sometimes (OK, a LOT of times), comics that people seem to think are great just don’t translate to the movies? Does it mean that if the movie sucks, the comics sucks? Generally not. And generally it is because comics are a lot more subtle in their machinations than most people will give credit for…
Where turning the right phrase with the right tempo and finding exactly the right word can evoke a reaction in text, comics have their own ways of either twanging heartstrings or causing righteous fury and do so with their own set of rules and techniques.
Perhaps the most accessible and entertaining entrance to this quiet world of ink and bristol board is the subject of this weeks…
I just can’t believe something like this existed. Did we really use cartoon characters to training our military?
But I should have known. I mean, growing up we had Reading Rainbow and School House Rock videos that our teachers used when they did not feel like teaching. According to another video I was watching on the creation of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas“, the creator of Bugs Bunny is one of two creators for this little guy named, Private SNAFU.
I honestly don’t have anything else to write or say about these videos. You just have to watch. I was kind of in shock and lost all my thoughts in the WTF of it all.
Most of these choices have the common denominator of being released in the 70’s or close to it (within a few of years) but still having that feel of that time. Great music and great feelings abound! I am having one of the of those nostalgic mornings where I want the good feeling music surrounding my ears and intertwining the cobwebs within my currently, motionless mind.
So, without further delay….enjoy this small collection of some great songs by very talented people. Youtube always finds a way to suck me in on Saturday but it does feed the hunger. I didn’t choice these videos based on the video but solely based on the version of the song.
Strange as it may seems, as it turns out both Cash and I share the same favorite Holiday movie.
Oh yes, what else could I be referring to but Satoshi Kon’s acclaimed Tokyo Godfathers? And it’s only fair that in that spirit of Giving that’s so embalmed in this season that we bring to you our own small offering of Peace and Light.
(really, JMAF Excellence Prize; that is some seriously heavy shit right there.)
And Runaways. (The one’s with good taste in bottled water).
And Regretful Alchoholics. (Who make good in the end).
And Drag Queens. (Really, really nice and responsible ones).
And abandoned Babies. (I think that might be mostly decor).
In all honesty though, this is quite possibly one of the most realistic yet uplifting traditionally Holiday films I’ve ever come across. By far surpassing Its a Wonderful Life, or even (god help me) A Charlie Brown Christmas.
I made it a point last year to purchase a copy (do it!) and I literally insist upon watching it the week before Christmas. This movie will be shown in gratitude each year by my household for perpetuity. Its about time we remembered that at one point or another we all came from the streets, wherever they may be, and give acknowledgment to the struggles of others.
Even us hyphy white bastards.
Merry ChristmaHanukKwanzaaiHajira (or Yule for my folks) to you all, with the very best wishes to all from everyone at BoL! [Read more →]
COAST CITY – One of the biggest stigmas still attached to comics is that they are low brow. Uncouth. Degenerate.
Like this.
But it’s not all like that. Yes, sadly, much of comicbookery is very smart and very interesting and very, very well illustrated. Many comics have won prestigious literary awards and run the gamut of subject matter including social commentary, political commentary, and sexual commentary (and the boobs implied therein) – yes, comics have it all. It’s not all about men in tights and improbably proportioned women.
That said, comics featuring these men and women can be used to express the same high-falutin’, literary, socio-political drama. And, apparently, they can be made in using gouache. This is perhaps most true in my second recommendation:
I am not even going to pretend that I understand which way is front or back.
/Sigh… Where is the only place that you can go at 2am to see someone that might just be in worse shape than you but not because they are drunk? Where else can you go at 2am and play with the bouncy balls, turn on all the nosey toys, sit down in the middle of the toy aisle to play battleships with your friends? Walmart, of course!
I spent many countless moments of my young adult life wondering the aisles in the wee hours of the AM reeking havoic with my friends. I spent many minutes people watching because in Walmart that is what you go there to do, to people watch. I saw some crazy and very unfortunate things at Walmart. It is the one place on earth that diversity is apparent. Hookers to suits, dementia to child tantrums, fashion statments to fashion mishaps, make-up, electronics, groceries, guns, video games, toys, As Seen On TV and all at a low price in a big blue and white painted warehouse where America drones and walks the earth one ground shaking moment at a time.
There is a website now dedicated to the “People of Walmart“. I never thought I would see that day but we all knew it would happen because if you have ever been to a Walmart you know, you just know.
I didn’t get back from the studio until 2 am last night so Monday’s post will happen today. My semester is almost over. All my projects are done, and now I only have a couple of final critiques left. I’ve had little sleep and my beard is half grown in, shaving that today. I also woke up to find out that the German program at my university has been cut, apparently they thought if they did it during finals week everyone would be to busy to notice or care. Well played USM. Verdammt schwein! Kulture ist nichts, Profit ist alles. Sorry… the German leftist rebel in me is rearing its ugly head.
Speaking of German left-wing radicals, I recently watched a really interesting movie about the Baader Meinhoff Gang. They were the hippies radicals that started the RAF. For those of you unfamiliar with them they were sort of a German version of the Weathermen, but way more dangerous and didn’t blow themselves up.
German hippies were is some ways very similar to American hippies, protesting the Vietnam war and marching against corporate imperialism were standard, however the Generation Gap was much more severe. At this point Germany was still being run by former Nazi party members, that’s right pickings were slim the only people left that could run the country had been. So, while no one talked about Hitler or National Socialism anymore, the system that put him in power was still more or less the status quo. So you can imagine how much more extreme things were.
The German post war movement wasn’t completely about radicalism and urban guerrilla warfare. Some really cool things came out of that era, in fact BBC just released a documentary on Kraut Rock ( an English term). As Germany was forced to find a new identity they pioneered some amazing sounds, much of which influences almost everything we hear on the radio today. The “Krauts” intentionally sought out a new sound that was not rock or blues based, that would have been to American or British, and they certainly couldn’t rely on past German conventions. So they looked to technology and incorporated synthesizers in their music. Afrika Bambaataa was quoted in saying if it wasn’t for Kraftwerk there would be no hip hop.
“But Gestalt there are six of them, I don’t have time for that.”
Well, even if we can’t save the German department, we can at least understand how much we have been influenced by the German culture. I’m talking about the good stuff, na klar. Trust me, this documentary goes by really quickly and it’s worth it to watch David Bowie completely ripping them off on his Heroes album. That’s right, David Bowie and Brian Eno completely ripped two albums worth of material right out the Kraut Rock play book. And I thought the competition on Glee was harsh.
In part 3 of 6 there is a scene where the drummer from Can, Jaki Liebezeit, coming from a strong jazz background, was told to play monotonously. Monotonously!?!….yes this moment blew my mind this repetitive jazz based trance music set the stage for what is broken beat dance music today. Basically these guys were more or less looping breaks with out having to sample anything but themselves playing live and in the moment. Watch the videos,and I know what your thinking.
