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Posts from the ‘funnybooks’ Category

May 28

Just in case you’ve been in a cave

What, too subtle?

What, too subtle?

The big IP story in Canada this week has been the Conference Board of Canada publishing a report on the “Digital Economy” which read a lot like propaganda (from the US lobbyist “International Intellectual Property Alliance”, specifically). A little legwork by Michael Geist turned up the fact that it not only looked identical to US lobbyist propaganda, but ill-informed US lobbyist propaganda at that. It also turns out it’s ill-informed US lobbyist propaganda that the Canadian government paid top-dollar for. Lo and behold, it was indeed plagiarized ill-informed, US lobbyist propaganda.

Really this whole thing has been the Michael Geist show… so skip the middle man and enjoy the glorious shadenfreude directly. I don’t always agree with Mr. Geist, but I’ll toast a glass to his efforts tonight.

May 28

Snake ‘n Bacon. Snake ‘n Bacon! SNAKE ‘N BACON!

One's tasty crumbled in a salad. The other's a snake. <br /> © Michael Kuppenberg

One's tasty crumbled in a salad. The other's a snake.
© Michael Kuppenberg

Attention U.S. based followers of this blog. Immediately stop what you’re doing and go on over to the AdultSwim website where you can now view the pilot for Snake ‘n Bacon adapted from the many works featuring Michael Kupperman’s celebrity duo.

“But Brad” you ask, “as a Canadian who is blocked from receiving AdultSwim programming, or even the very website you’ve linked to, how can you recommend said pilot sight unseen?” This is a reasonable question. Feel free to assume I am either extremely irresponsible with my reccomendations… or I have… “sources”.

Seriously, while I was a little unsure off the top (I’m one of those purists who doesn’t normally care for Williams Street’s house style when it comes to live-action) the pilot soon barrels headlong into familiar “Tales Designed to Thrizzle” territory with some great sequences and some old Kuppenberg friends come to life. It’s worth the (non existant) price of admission for the stylistic approach to the “Fruit of the Month Club… man” alone.

Unlike most animation adaptations, some aspects of Kupperberg’s style are even vastly improved by the transition to animation, and addition of voicework. While that’s normally a stumbling block for many animation adaptations – segments like “The Head”, or “Bullfrog” are significantly more vibrant with the spot-on vocalizations. Plus, Kupperman appears to have drawn all the animation segments himself – so it never feels like it’s not his work or “off reference”.

Why are you even still reading this? It’s short, great fun, and I can almost guarantee there’s one segment in it you’ll laugh at. You should be over there, clicking “rate this 10” and pressuring AdultSwim to turn this into a series that’s available on DVD so I can legally purchase it.

Come ON it’s got Snake AND Bacon in it. That’s like the “Oceans 11” of zoology and pork!

Mar 2

Why the scans_daily fracas isn’t an argument

Angry Mob by Colin Purrington

No, I’m not going to post at any length about scans_daily getting shut down on livejournal. I’m not even linking to anyone else’s recaps, summaries, opinions, editorials, or interpretive dances – because I find almost everything on this event ridiculous across the board (if you have no idea what I’m talking about, consider yourself lucky and move on… nothing to see here). One “meta-camp” is arguing that s_d blatantly violated copyright (or, if they’re charitable, that most s_d users misunderstand both the spirit and letter of “fair use”). The other camp responds with their stringent beleif that the major comic publishers have neither any kind of electronic distribution roadmap, nor marketing strategy to target young digitally-savvy readers.

This is not really a philosophical argument for the decades since the, obvious, conclusion is that both sides are absolutely correct and neither is actually “arguing” with the other.

It’s like trying to determine the relative merits of “gravity is a strong physical force” vs. “geese are capable of long-distance flight”. Both sides are (at the core of their fiery hyperbolic vitriol) verifiable fact, and just because both happen to be angry with each other that doesn’t magically bring a correlation between their statements into existence. Everything else is just wasted hot air, and the usual internet flotsam and jetsam – and lord knows we don’t have enough of that already.

Feb 23

I even spared you the joke about the “bitter aftertaste of Fred Motz nuts”

Hurm.

I don’t mind sharing geek culture with the masses, but I find it difficult to explain (even to friends) how weird it is to see “Watchmen” stuff everywhere. It’s like, my adolescent fever-dreams have escaped to manifest themselves as novelty keychains, or collectible limited-edition coffees.

Thankfully Bully, the little stuffed bull, eases my pain with his selction of delicious “Watchmen”-themed ice-cream.

Personally I think the “comment of the thread” award was won almost immediately by RAB who wrote:

The bowl is empty. The scoop is falling from my hand. I am eating the ice cream. I am bringing the groceries home. I am paying the cashier. I am seeing the ice cream in the freezer case for the first time. The scoop is falling from my hand. The morality of my diet escapes me.

Rounds of applause all around – and since “Watchmen Ice Cream” was too delicious a challenge to ignore, I leave you with my humble suggestion:

Classic New-York banana, with a hint of salt-water tears

Jan 28

1 Comment

I wish I was making this up.

polar-bear-oh-nothumbnail

Pop Quiz Hotshot… a new Tokyopop Manga is published with the following (partial) description:

“Trina Devi is the last of the Tantric Adepts and a master of the esoteric art of Stripfighting; a tantalizing fusion of Shaolin martial arts and Tantric sensuality, where practitioners use articles of clothing as weapons to subdue and incapacitate their opponents.”

It should be marketed towards:

Don’t get me wrong guys, I know the market is in the tanks… but I’m not sure selling softcore to pre-teens is necessarily the solution.

[EDIT – I’ve been informed the rating is not “Older / Teens (11+)” but rather “Older Teens (16+)” and that the logo is just hard to read on the Tokyopop website… I guess I’m happier with that rating (at least without having actually read the thing. So now I have to find something else to be outraged about… like, why doesn’t the ratings logo actually link to a ratings explanation page? I may (or may not) be fine with the rating, depending on how they classify their categories, but if a net-addled wonk like me can’t find a definition page in two minutes of searching – that’s probably not good enough for little Billy’s Mom.]

[EDIT 2 – Yes I’m aware there’s a viewer on the tpop website to actually read the first 50-odd pages of “Tantric Stripfighter Trina” and therefore better base my opinion. However, without a serious creative team pedigree, or a shelf full of industry accolades, or someone paying me to, I am likely never going to voluntarily read a work entitled “Tantric Stripfighter Trina”]

Jan 15

1 Comment

BlogFox Braindump!

I don’t have a lot of insightful, funny, lengthy stuff to post, but rather a bunch of odds and ends that don’t lend themselves to lengthy discourse… hence – fear my braindump:

Jan 12

2008 – A year in funnybooks

*May not be representative of most comics retailers

I actually discovered the group blog The Savage Critics because of Brian Hibbs interesting column Tilting at Windmills. There are all kinds of good blogs from the “through-the-looking-glass” world of comic-book retail – but Brian has a penchant for distilling all kinds of nit-picky retail data into a comprehensible fashion. He recently posted two quick lists of his store’s 2008 top-sellers (one for “books” and one for “comics” (“books” primarily refers to trade paperbacks and other collections not, say, prose – and “comics” refers to single-issue “floppies”… more or less).

Something fascinating struck me from Brian’s posts though. Digging through his “books” lists, I own (in some format or another) over 52% of the top 100 items from the “books” list… yet over on the “comics” list, I own less than 16% (and if you remove “DC Universe Zero” and “Trinity #1” (which I got for free from my local shop), and a couple “Astonishing X-Men” (which I bought by mistake, although ended up enjoying) that’s less than 10% I actually intentionally shelled out money for.
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Jan 7

Happy New (Glurk)!

boxie2009

I decided to mix up festivities this year by apparently toasting in the new year with a large glass of influenza virus. In retrospect, I think I can see why “champagne” is probably the more traditional medium, as “general discomfort” really doesn’t do justice to the past few days.

I have trouble reading when I’m sick, but managed to squeeze some of my “unexpected bonus vacation” time to read through several collected Scary-Go-Round volumes I received over the holidays. Like clockwork, I’ve been rewarded for my diligence by John Allison turning his laser sharp pen to five brilliant panels which sum up the entirety of Canadian politics.

  • Cons: Allison may be in the back pocket of the monarchy – trying to reassert it’s colonial grasp
  • Pros: Heroic send-off for Stéphane Dion, Allison manages to avoid using (then subsequently having to define) the term prorogue.