Tom Goes to the Mayor

Another TV show that has an interesting approach to incorporating a comics aesthetic into a comedy is Tom Goes to the Mayor. Not in the same way as The Maxx, certainly, but an interesting approach that has much to do with low-end animation techniques.

Brought to you by Adult Swim's Tim & Eric.

Post-Secret--What's the secret?

No doubt some of you have heard of "Postsecret" the web site (and book) where people supposedly send postcards in with a secret written on one side. Although I have some very strong reservations about the veracity of these things, there's no doubt it has proven an interesting creative outlet...in other words, there seems to be something interesting going on here with both the combination of visuals/text (the art) and the anonymity of posting them online. Have a look and see what you think.

Disney Completes Marvel Acquisition For $4.3 Billion

This article was published in the WSJ on December 31, and was probably overlooked by many because of the holidays, but I remember feeling an actual pang of conflict when I saw it. It certainly seems likely for the integrity of classics, i.e. Hulk, X Men, Spiderman, etc to be severely comprimised once they are absorbed into the Disney machine. Are these comics already over-commoditized and over-commercialized? Yes of course they are. But Disney would have no interest in acquiring Marvel without a strategy already envisioned for a newer, more lucrative revenue stream. These comic brands will soon be integrated in to theme parks, cable channels, and possibly even as promotional fodder during college football on ABC and ESPN. How will the values of these comic characters be transformed to fit in to Disney's ideological agenda? What will be omitted and/or added to the storylines or scripts to maintain a seamless connection with the rest of Disney's empire?

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091231-706942.html

Understanding comics

Scott McCloud does a cool thing by writing a book about comics (that looks like a comic strip) I found it a little odd yet compelling at the same time! It is interesting to note the various ways that the human mind makes sense of the world. What if the world were one big giant cartoon strip? Maybe it is and we are all the characters...hmmm

What makes this media so unique is the way it works with the human mind to convey whatever message the creator sees fit to send. I think back and remember the comics that I read as a kid, Snuffy Smith, Beetle Baily, Family Circus, Grin and Bear it, Peanuts, all of which use the concept of amplification through simplification and realize now why they were so compelling. In some small way I saw myself in them. But at the same time, they served as an escape from the real world of detailed faces and completely drawn humans. We will talk more about this in class this afternoon.

Other Uses For Webcams

I thought this article tied in well with our new media topic. A woman in Germany was watching a sunset over the North Sea, occurring hundreds of miles away, on her webcam when she noticed a male tourist wandering around on the ice. When he became disoriented he began using the flash on his camera to try and figure out where he was. Fearing he might freeze to death or fall through the ice, she immediately contacted the police who were able to rescue the man. Apparently, webcams are good for more things than just porn nowadays.

Awesome! Awesome to the MAXX!

I don't know if any of you actually read these things... In fact, I'll be brutally honest and say that I often tend to "forget" about this blog, and that we are supposed to contribute to it on a regular basis. Perhaps, it's an age thing. I have no idea. I think that it's kind of stupid to continually tell your story and thoughts on the web, in the hopes that someone will read it. But then again, I prefer to bitch and moan in public. HA HA!!! Anyway, on to the academia!

For any of you nerds and geeks out there, hopefully you recognize my title from an episode of Futurama. When I read comics as a kid (Damn, do I miss the 80's and being a kid!), comics were very 2D. They would flow from left to right, and once in a while you would get a point of view shot. Granted, that a lot of comics were around back then, I was limited to what I could and could not read. (My mom forbade me from watching the Simpsons and Bevis and Butthead.)

But as time progressed, and I was able to sneak around my mom's eagle eye, I started to get into a lot of comics that were dark and full of stories of moral and ethical trials and tribulations. The stories were very in-depth where you started to associate yourself with the characters and their adventures. But more importantly, at least for me, comics were evolving into short films. They started to use different angels, lighting, framing, and other techniques that I found not only fascinating, but inspiring. This inspiration is what would eventually lead me to getting a degree in Film/TV/Radio production, but I digress. As I became more educated and older, I started to realize that comics were and are, able to do things that film and TV could never hope to achieve. Not only out of the lack of technology (at the time), but also the costs of making such productions. The way comics were able to tell the story, was beyond anything that could be found on film or TV. But as technology progressed, the "Comic Nerds" were able to put their concepts into a new medium. With movie adaptations of such comics (or in this case "Graphic Novels" to all you uber-nerds) as 300, The Watchmen, and others, it is becoming apparent that ideas and concepts that seemed to be impossible to produce, are now a regular expectation. I think that the more both mediums are able to combine their individual techniques into a shared platform, the deeper our understanding, response, appreciation, and reverence of these stories will become.

Word.

Early Works from Rodolphe Topffer

Hi class! I was interested in looking up more work from Rodolphe Topffer who is said to be the "father of modern comics." The link I have included shows the first "picture-story," which he drew in 1827 and is titled Histoire de Mr. Vieux Bois. The storyline/humor is a bit different than we're use to seeing in today's comics, it almost seems like its meant to be a romantic comedy. Enjoy!

http://leonardodesa.interdinamica.net/comics/lds/vb/VieuxBois01.asp?p=1

(Scroll to the bottom of the website for the English translation.)