- @steevbishop @acheverton Look, when we have a car, & the quickest route to our house from Ocean Village doesn’t take us thru St Marys… in reply to steevbishop #
- @acheverton @steevbishop … then we’ll start frequenting better cinemas! in reply to acheverton #
- @steevbishop @acheverton I mean as a matter of course! in reply to steevbishop #
- In our defense, the film was awesome enough that we didn’t notice it after a while… #
- @acheverton Huh. Yeah, here too… Wonder what that was all about. in reply to acheverton #
- Anyone in Southampton know what the fireworks were in aid of? I’m guessing a boat… #
- @thoughtmecca A lot of libraries, you just need to ask. They get precious few excited customers, some libraries… in reply to thoughtmecca #
- @Wossy It really is nice to see someone’s face when you get them something they love… So actually, it’s a SELFISH desire! Oh noes…! in reply to Wossy #
- @joshhechinger The problem you cite – about the show within the show’s relative poor quality – is a bit of a deal-breaker, isn’t it?… in reply to joshhechinger #
- @joshhechinger … still, I’d like to rewatch Studio 60 free of the spectre of cancellation that hung over it throughout… in reply to joshhechinger #
- @joshhechinger …That stuff affects my enjoyment of a show! If it’s over & done, I feel less bitter about the mistakes that are made. in reply to joshhechinger #
- @katiewest It’s sad in that it might be the last we see of that particular iteration of Star Trek EVER! in reply to katiewest #
- @katiewest (By iteration, of course I mean “Universe”… not “Series”) in reply to katiewest #
- @joshhechinger Oh, yes… that’s a damn good – it’s a two-parter, isn’t it? in reply to joshhechinger #
- @Wossy You will wish @ferretprincess a happy birthday from us, won’t you? Have missed her terribly! in reply to Wossy #
- @JSCarroll The opening credits to Dexter riff off that sequence beautifully. I’d forgotten that that was where it came from…! in reply to JSCarroll #
- Via @josiefraser “What Is Next Generation Learning?” – more relevant to primary/secondary ed than FE or HE, but cool: http://twurl.nl/qmy4sh #
- @Groonk Oh, I know… I was talking about my relative enjoyment of it – I WANTED to just enjoy the bits that were good (there were many)… in reply to Groonk #
- @Groonk …but watching it at broadcast, I just got frustrated because of the bits that were going to get it cancelled (Many, again!). in reply to Groonk #
- @jamiesmart Oh, BTW, VERY tiny review of Raoul here: http://twurl.nl/pzj1uy (I am WAY behind on my blogging, so didn’t have much time!) in reply to jamiesmart #
- @joshhechinger I think pretty much everyone is great on the show, except Sorkin. And damn if that ain’t the shame of it… in reply to joshhechinger #
- @jamiesmart It occurs to me that knowing nothing of process, I should have clarified that when I say “Hastily dashed off” I mean relatively! #
- @jamiesmart … Because those finely cross-hatched & painted pages look just incredibly work-intensive…! in reply to jamiesmart #
- @ferretprincess Sent you birthday wishes by way of J, because I wasn’t sure you’d be on – but here you are! Happy Birthday, youse! #
- (@ferretprincess Yay..! I don’t think I realised that you were also a Gemini… WE ROCK!) #
- @steevbishop Good article, but it’s not like the music industry as a whole is listening to reason…
in reply to steevbishop # - @marcellerby Glasses? I have to say that you are doing a beautiful job at mo. The subject isn’t easy emotionally/creatively… in reply to marcellerby #
- @marcellerby …I tried to write out similar experiences a few years back, & just get either angry or upset, visibly on the page. Well done! in reply to marcellerby #
- @belle_lulu Your welcome! in reply to belle_lulu #
- @dailyecho LOVING the use of Bug Powder Dust at the lead-in ad on that video… in reply to dailyecho #
- Oh, btw… as AWESOME as Star Trek was, I’d probably have forgiven it anything for the use of Sabotage by Beasties early on. FUCK YES! #
- @realnickgriffin But… but I thought voting for the BNP was going to mean we could say what we wanted. @ProudNational must be off message. in reply to realnickgriffin #
- Note: I didn’t vote for the BNP. That last tweet (whichmostofyoudidn’tsee #fixreplies) was ironic. #
- @sispurrier Should they really be printing pictures of him before the case is decided? I thought… Oh, child molestation huh? I’m an idiot. in reply to sispurrier #
- @sispurrier …for a second there I forgot where I live. in reply to sispurrier #
- @girlonetrack Well, if the press are doing the “think of the children” bit, isn’t there a prominent BNP member with a history in child porn? in reply to girlonetrack #
- (By which I mean he has a record, not he starred in child porn.) @girlonetrack #
- (By which I mean criminal record, not, you know, vinyl record…) @girlonetrack #
- @realnickgriffin Ah, but did he, ahem… “Make you look”? If so, he scores a victory, of sorts… in reply to realnickgriffin #
- Pixar’s latest short is just stupidly cute: Partly Cloudy – http://twurl.nl/sgfv27 #
- RT @idsharman: @nixsight Sabotage…hehehe… http://is.gd/YL4C #
- Bug powder dust with the mugwump jism… ♫ http://blip.fm/~811s4 #
- Listen all y’all… ♫ http://blip.fm/~8120u #
- God, why the hell does Blip.Fm need to replicate – badly – YouTube functionality? Stupid diversifying services… #
- @fabuleuxfab: “Here are the lyrics http://tinyurl.com/mwgwbh from yours truly, now sing along
@ExtremeAnnette… ♫ http://blip.fm/~8129w # - Heh… Crackhead-Sally is DEFINITELY a name I’m going to use at some point… much thankyous to @ElizaPatricia #
- OK, stories like this actually make me feel all Right Wing: http://twurl.nl/ro7bge (Yeah, THANKS @Bournemouthecho… ) #
- Oh, @Bournemouthecho, I can’t stay mad at you – I know you were just doing your job – it’s the scum that done it what’s to blame! #
- Oh go on… feeling a little wonky & way out there… ♫ http://blip.fm/~81b27 #
- Oh dear… sorry to repeat myself, but this is actually pretty nifty… ♫ http://blip.fm/~81b5e #
- Gorgeous as it is, Armed Assault 2 might just be too much like being in combat for me – terrifying & confusing! http://twurl.nl/h7ua5n #
- @steevbishop That could mean almost ANYTHING! in reply to steevbishop #
- @steevbishop Yeah, I guessed that might be what you meant… I’m right there with you sir! (Saw a trailer for Hangover last night, actually) in reply to steevbishop #
- @Sulman @steevbishop I find that pretty easy to believe! in reply to Sulman #
- @acheverton I… uh… don’t know. I guess masturbating is out. Unless you have any old Freemans catalogues around? in reply to acheverton #
- RT @rhodri: Oh, man. The most glorious example of people not understanding intellectual property: http://is.gd/YXPZ #
-
Found Objects
We need comics. We don’t need the comic mainstream – certainly not as much as it needs us. And we wouldn’t even be having this argument about Watchmen if that book wasn’t part of that industry. It couldn’t have existed without it, it wouldn’t have been relevant without it, and most of us wouldn’t have even had the chance to read it without it.
We don’t have to give a shit about Watchmen, or Before Watchmen. We choose to.
We don’t have to fight about issues that we really have no skin in. We choose to.
We should really grow out of it.
Last Friday I wrote a really long post over at my site about Before Watchmen. It was probably too long, fence-sitting and unstructured to get as much widespread attention as some of the more aggressive pieces out there, but I still feel everything in it.
This is the tiniest part of it - a sentiment that I feel is pretty important - you can read the whole thing here.
I AM IN CONTROL OF MY EMOTIONS!
The Newly Announced Before Watchmen Is a Prime Example of What's Killing Mainstream Comics
“I have no idea whether this project will be any good or not. But it sits as a shining example of the fundamental flaw that exists in the comic industry, especially within DC Comics. They spend most of their time chasing the readers that grew up with their iconic characters rather than attempting to attract new readers who are growing up right now.”
Totally agree with this - though I think DC52, being a company-wide initiative, was more indicative of it, and I said as much at the time.
However, that backward looking trait in comics isn’t unique to publishers. Comic readers - many of whom are also comic retailers, which is a bigger issue - run wild with entitlement on either side of any comic-related debate, and stand ready to jump on anything that they perceive as a deviation or affront to comic texts or characters that they feel shouldn’t be touched. It all adds to the stupidly binary way any comic-related issue is handled.
The huge amount of brilliant work that goes un-discussed, unsupported and unbought in-between those two dominant cultures is the only genuine ongoing tragedy in comics today, I reckon. The rest is just semantics and negotiation of contracts.
Yup, yup, yup…the fact that people are wasting their time arguing about the merits of Before Watchmen while amazing books like The Interactives go largely ignored is, quite frankly, criminal.
Not least because it means that yet again we’re all having a conversation about Watchmen. I came to Watchmen a little bit late - like, a year after publication - and loved it at the time. It encouraged me to go on and read so many more other books, to read them critically, and work out why they work and don’t work etc etc etc. But the more people hold it to this impossible standard in such a hyperbolic and aggressive way, the more I find reasons to chip away at it.
If you love Watchmen that much, write about how good Watchmen is in it’s own right. Don’t use it as a stick to bash everything that’s come since. Don’t use it as a way to try and win an argument about whatever your pet comic issue is that week. I think Alan Moore’s biggest issue is that his book isn’t regarded enough in it’s own right, and it’s an important enough work to be handled without gossip-context and all the other bollocks that passes for adults-who-read-comics-talking-about-comics.
Show Alan Moore and Watchmen a bit of respect, and don’t try and impose your fucking context on it. It’s a work of art. It genuinely can’t be ruined by any art that follows, but it can be ruined by every third word spoken about it being bleaty, entitled shite.
Sorry, you said something? The Interactives? What’s that? I have never heard of it, therefore it must not be worth bothering with.
Yep, I completely agree with you here. As great as Watchmen was it has been a big part of what has utterly ruined comics (and I know that Moore agrees with this himself) as so many people have spent the years since using it as a template for what comic should be. It was a work of satire! It was never intended to be a “How To” guide for aspiring comic creators.
And The Interactives is this - http://theinteractives.com/
Huh. That looks ace, actually.
The Newly Announced Before Watchmen Is a Prime Example of What's Killing Mainstream Comics
“I have no idea whether this project will be any good or not. But it sits as a shining example of the fundamental flaw that exists in the comic industry, especially within DC Comics. They spend most of their time chasing the readers that grew up with their iconic characters rather than attempting to attract new readers who are growing up right now.”
Totally agree with this - though I think DC52, being a company-wide initiative, was more indicative of it, and I said as much at the time.
However, that backward looking trait in comics isn’t unique to publishers. Comic readers - many of whom are also comic retailers, which is a bigger issue - run wild with entitlement on either side of any comic-related debate, and stand ready to jump on anything that they perceive as a deviation or affront to comic texts or characters that they feel shouldn’t be touched. It all adds to the stupidly binary way any comic-related issue is handled.
The huge amount of brilliant work that goes un-discussed, unsupported and unbought in-between those two dominant cultures is the only genuine ongoing tragedy in comics today, I reckon. The rest is just semantics and negotiation of contracts.
Yup, yup, yup…the fact that people are wasting their time arguing about the merits of Before Watchmen while amazing books like The Interactives go largely ignored is, quite frankly, criminal.
Not least because it means that yet again we’re all having a conversation about Watchmen. I came to Watchmen a little bit late - like, a year after publication - and loved it at the time. It encouraged me to go on and read so many more other books, to read them critically, and work out why they work and don’t work etc etc etc. But the more people hold it to this impossible standard in such a hyperbolic and aggressive way, the more I find reasons to chip away at it.
If you love Watchmen that much, write about how good Watchmen is in it’s own right. Don’t use it as a stick to bash everything that’s come since. Don’t use it as a way to try and win an argument about whatever your pet comic issue is that week. I think Alan Moore’s biggest issue is that his book isn’t regarded enough in it’s own right, and it’s an important enough work to be handled without gossip-context and all the other bollocks that passes for adults-who-read-comics-talking-about-comics.
Show Alan Moore and Watchmen a bit of respect, and don’t try and impose your fucking context on it. It’s a work of art. It genuinely can’t be ruined by any art that follows, but it can be ruined by every third word spoken about it being bleaty, entitled shite.
Sorry, you said something? The Interactives? What’s that? I have never heard of it, therefore it must not be worth bothering with.
The Newly Announced Before Watchmen Is a Prime Example of What's Killing Mainstream Comics
“I have no idea whether this project will be any good or not. But it sits as a shining example of the fundamental flaw that exists in the comic industry, especially within DC Comics. They spend most of their time chasing the readers that grew up with their iconic characters rather than attempting to attract new readers who are growing up right now.”
Totally agree with this - though I think DC52, being a company-wide initiative, was more indicative of it, and I said as much at the time.
However, that backward looking trait in comics isn’t unique to publishers. Comic readers - many of whom are also comic retailers, which is a bigger issue - run wild with entitlement on either side of any comic-related debate, and stand ready to jump on anything that they perceive as a deviation or affront to comic texts or characters that they feel shouldn’t be touched. It all adds to the stupidly binary way any comic-related issue is handled.
The huge amount of brilliant work that goes un-discussed, unsupported and unbought in-between those two dominant cultures is the only genuine ongoing tragedy in comics today, I reckon. The rest is just semantics and negotiation of contracts.
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