Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Free Form Comments

Say whatever you want to in the comments to this post -- random, off topic thoughts, ideas, suggestions, questions, recommendations, criticisms (which can be anonymous), surveys, introductions if you have never commented before, personal news, self-promotion, requests to be added to the blog roll and so on. If a week goes by and I have failed to add you to the blog roll TELL ME TO DO IT AGAIN, and KEEP TELLING ME UNTIL IT GETS DONE. I can be lazy about updating the non-post parts of this site. Remember these comments can be directed at all the readers, not just me.

ALSO. You can use this space to re-ask me questions you asked me before that I failed to answer because I was too busy (but now might not be). That is often the reason I fail to get back to people, and on a blog, after a few days, the comments thread dies and I just kind of forget about it. Let's use this space to fix that, because it does need to be fixed; I look like a jackass sometimes, leaving people hanging. I will TRY to respond to any questions here.

AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore. For example, if you thought of a great quote for the great quote commonplace book, but now no one is reading that, you could put it here.You do not have to have a blogger account or gmail account to post a comment -- you can write a comment, write your name at the bottom of your comment like an e mail, and then post using the "anonymous" option.

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13 comments:

Christian O. said...

Kieron Gillen, writer of Phonogram and Games/Music/Other journalist, interviews Matt Fraction about how XBox Live influences his process.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_154/4971-The-Comics-Panel


I would kill for a chance to play with the Marvel boys. And hopefully get at least a decent shot in on Fraction.

jen said...

Trying to catch up with what's been said on here, now that term's over and I'm allowing myself a momentary break from organising a 3-day art and music festival...

First off, congrats, Geoff, on the new job.

Second, a few comments on the gimmick sitcom post of a few days ago. I think, especially talking recently, you have to incorporate discussions of UK sitcoms. Geoff's mention of The Office is a start, though I don't quite agree with the 'lack of gimmick' idea.

At the root of it, every sitcom has a gimmick, even if it's to portray the utter drudgery of a working-class Mancunian family that does little more than sit and watch TV (The Royle Family). Some obviously rely on it more than others, with programmes such as Blackadder or Red Dwarf using genre-bending as the gimmick (for more about sitcom genre-bending and hybridity, read my dissertation-in-progress).

As to why there has been a drop off of the cheesier end of the gimmicks, there are lots of reasons: audience sophistication, audience fragmentation, FCC rulings and Watershed rules, commercial pressures, and not enough talking horses being born.

Anonymous said...

Ok, so I picked up the first issue of Trinity last week and was disapointed by two things:

First, I wasn't really grabbed by the story (and The Flash's appearance just seemed random... plus he was with the 'Flash Kids' which I happen to think is just about one of the dumbest ideas ever) Second, was Bagley's art. I wouldn't necessarily say I was FAN of Bagley but I've always liked his art. I used to big a big New Warriors and Amazing Spider-Man fan when he was drawing those and, from what I've seen, I like his stuff on Ultimate Spidey too but his art here... just seems... sloppy. Bagley has always been known for his speed... he's one of the few artist who consistently meets deadlines these days and I seem to remember Amazing Spider-man being bi-weekly at one point in his run. However, in Trinity he seems guilty of some almost Liefeldian gaffs. Also, his superman seems a bit Scrawny. So, has Bagley always been this bad and I just didn't notice or is this sloppiness brought on by the bi-weekly schedule?

James said...

Bagley on a weekly title seems like such a wrong-headed, self-fulfilling, fan-messageboard prophecy. Sure, he's only doing half a comic which is two comics a month which he's done before blah blah blah, but there has to be a big difference between "oh man this guy is done fast we can release two Ultimate Spider-Mans this month" and "turn around 12 pages a week every week for a year". If only psychologically.*

So, to answer your question there Scott, bearing in mind I haven't read Trinity: "I think it's the second one".

*I'm sure I've probably got the specifics of what Trinity actually entails wrong, but you get the idea.

James said...

Oh, and thanks for the link Christian, great read.

Jason said...

Just because I have to say it:

The Ang Lee Hulk movie is awesome.

The new one is fine.

Anonymous said...

Spinal Tap fans,

I'm trying to find a clip for a future post I'm working on. It's the clip where Nigel and David are sitting at the table and recall the first song they ever wrote together, "All The Way Home." The two of them then sing an a capella version of the song. I tried Youtube but all I could find was a clip (from the outakes I think) of the two goofing around in the studio playing it on acoustic guitars.

Anyone else no what I'm talking about?

Geoff Klock said...

The Ang Lee Hulk may have been good -- I have to go back and re-watch it. I have been turned around on a lot of the content -- it is an interesting thing to do a serious meditation on the nature of anger in a summer superhero movie -- but no argument will turn around how silly the character looked or the "comic book" scene changes. The new Hulk was absolutely unwatchable -- no chemistry or personality in the actors means no one cares when the CGI monsters just start punching each other.

Streeborama said...

Geoff: Thank you for your help with the Fraction questions. I'm going to have to make a new segment just to feature them all. It will be fun.

Christian: Thanks for the link. Therein lies the secret of the Fraction writing process. Video games. I prefer old school boxing myself. The best is the Knockout Kings/Fight Night series. The new version comes out next year. It will feature for the first time ever in the same game - Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. For boxing fans - that's like having Superman and Wolverine in the same game. A few hours of Ali jabbing Tyson's face in and I should be able to write the best damn comic of my life.

Anonymous said...

Streebo,

the Superman/Wolverine comparison is a surprisingly apt one if you really think about it.

James said...

For shame! The Hulk in Ang Lee's Hulk looks great.

Ping33 said...

I liked the way Lee's hulk movie was made, but didn't find the story compelling. I have almost no interest in the new one because you get the whole movie in the trailer. I am hyped for wanted and handcock though.
I got my starman omnibus #1 and complete omec in the mail today, great packaging on both, nice to see these compendium hardcovers in a format which one can manage and actually read.
Oh and phonogram sucked and grant is a dick head who is far too full of himself and couldn't stop hitting on my wife at Bristol 07

Jason said...

The only way for me to care about the new Hulk was to pretend that they were actually the same characters from Ang Lee's, just played by different people.

But I agree, the actors were dull. William Hurt and Liv Tyler especially seemed perversely to be striving for utter vanilla-ness.