- @georgelondon Careful, she's Greek Cypriot… in reply to georgelondon #
- Girl One gone to evening shift. Know I should make/eat food, & either play games or do something productive, but I suddenly feel drained. #
- @SorenLorensen You KNOW I only have your best interests at heart! (Whatever that means…!) in reply to SorenLorensen #
- @SorenLorensen Hahahaaha! It's a damn shame that that WASN'T a euphemism, frankly…! It'd be a good one. in reply to SorenLorensen #
- Just played Tenacious D's The Metal, Weezer's My Name Is Jonas, & The Devil Went Down To Georgia on Guitar Hero. On Easy. I am NOT GOOD. #
- @davidbaillie That's because I faxed you a photo of it. Keep up! in reply to davidbaillie #
- @SorenLorensen Aww, yay! You rock!
Has @ILoveMyBrick unloaded the chowder on your bowl, yet? I only had a can of chicken noodle soup. 
in reply to SorenLorensen # - In colossal game of British Bulldog at end of time, to decide who gets into heaven, I already know I want you on my side, @SorenLorensen..! #
- … You too, @RedMummy, especially if you've got marauding elephants. #
- @SorenLorensen Bloody hell! @ILoveMyBrick is a hero…! Your very own veritable chowder fountain! in reply to SorenLorensen #
- @RedMummy I hope at least ONE of the mariachi singers is @Glinner. @belle_lulu do you keep them with the chickchucks? in reply to RedMummy #
- @RedMummy, @belle_lulu, must say that @SorenLorensen's appreciated show of support was pre-emptive. Previous threat hopefully dealt with. #
- Actually, @RedMummy, I went looking for video proof of @glinner's mariachi performances a bit back, & found NOTHING. Suspicious… #
- @SorenLorensen Naughty naughty BBC! in reply to SorenLorensen #
- @SorenLorensen Heh… I saw. I totally follow him. Not to toilets, as SOME PEOPLE would have you believe… in reply to SorenLorensen #
- Got to say that what with @SorenLorensen's food provisions, & mine & @ILoveMyBrick contributions, today has been a good day for cum humour. #
- Stand down, strike team! @RedMummy, best leave pachyderms & Mexicans in t'car, go get yourself a cup of tea… Wait for sitrep. #
- Quite struck with my idea of British Bulldog on Judgement Day. Final Trump would be like the playtime whistle… #
- @RedMummy You might want to crack the window a little bit, just in case! I know it's night time, but car WILL get stuffy… in reply to RedMummy #
- @davidbaillie Is it a birthday? in reply to davidbaillie #
- @evangineer S2 just utterly didn't know where it was headed. Made mistake of thinking people watched for convoluted nonsense, not fun! in reply to evangineer #
- @charltonbrooker That, sir, was a lot of fun. in reply to charltonbrooker #
- @kierongillen Still a remarkably young man. Well done! You survived another year! #
- Woah. 2 chaps that I'm both vaguely in awe of & have actually met a few times share a birthday today. Happys, @kierongillen & @davidbaillie! #
- @douglasnoble Wait, what? Did YOU just have a birthday, too? in reply to douglasnoble #
- @davidbaillie Well, well done you! in reply to davidbaillie #
- @davidbaillie Did you know that I'm now taking part in a weekly comics podcast? in reply to davidbaillie #
- @georgelondon Oh, no, I was shocking. But then, I never had @SorenLorensen on my side. Also, stakes weren't as high! in reply to georgelondon #
- @CaminoHolidays I'm IN Europe, so your idea that this is somehow a uniquely American thing is… well, almost racist. Personally, I feel… in reply to CaminoHolidays #
- @CaminoHolidays …sympathy for you & your child, but don't see how my use of a word speaks to my understanding of their situation… in reply to CaminoHolidays #
- @CaminoHolidays …& it's a little presumptious of you to think that you know what I think or know. But good luck in your mission! in reply to CaminoHolidays #
- @CaminoHolidays …I use word "retarded" to speak generally. I don't assume for a second that one condition is the same as all others. in reply to CaminoHolidays #
- @CaminoHolidays …In the same way that when I say someone or something is Mad, I don't mean that they specifically are bipolar or whatever. in reply to CaminoHolidays #
- @CaminoHolidays …To cluster all of these conditions together is to undermine understanding of each. in reply to CaminoHolidays #
- @SorenLorensen You've just gone nuts for the brandy, now… drunkard! (Why haven't I got brandy?) in reply to SorenLorensen #
- I am off-sick. It should be noted that by saying that, I don't mean that I have the palsy, or the AIDs, or Pig Flu. I just have a cold. #
- @SorenLorensen Just spent an hour or so getting up to date on The Daily Show with dog under duvet on settee. Not YOUR settee, of course. in reply to SorenLorensen #
- Dammit! The sun is killing us! What will we do about this fiery menace?? @andynyman #
- @Sulman There were wraps? And curly fries?? Did you eat in the refectorery and that? in reply to Sulman #
- @Specsneedaclean Thankyou… I don't feel it's healthy to oversell what is essentially mainly discomfort & unpractical, rather than deadly! in reply to Specsneedaclean #
- @tbush Oh yes, shouldn't be a problem… mainly spending day trying to get over the thing now so I'm actually useful tomorrow/Friday tbh. in reply to tbush #
- @CaminoHolidays Well, true. But shouldn't assume understanding is issue… worked around mentally handicapped kids for years, one in family. in reply to CaminoHolidays #
- @CaminoHolidays Sometimes other people are just smart enough to know what they are saying without needing you to act as conscience for them. in reply to CaminoHolidays #
- @Sulman Grrr… d'oh! Mind you, that's YOUR office. By the time it gets round to mine, it's the large lady in the tabard doing the rounds. in reply to Sulman #
- @Specsneedaclean in reply to Specsneedaclean #
- @Emmavieceli Oh… well, that's… kind of a good thing? Maybe they already own your work elsewhere?
in reply to Emmavieceli # - @CaminoHolidays You're doing it again. I don't care if it's a word you use. It's a word I use. Where I worked, the word was "inclusive"… in reply to CaminoHolidays #
- @CaminoHolidays …I find that worse. in reply to CaminoHolidays #
- @Sulman HAH! in reply to Sulman #
- @CaminoHolidays You can use whatever words you want, though… I don't mind! in reply to CaminoHolidays #
- @CaminoHolidays That's kind of how I take people on Twitter, so it shouldn't be a problem for me! Greeting thing normally comes at start? in reply to CaminoHolidays #
- @CaminoHolidays Heh… I don't have an interest in grammar. I'm just a writer, so I use it. in reply to CaminoHolidays #
- @jhewlett Oh my that's a good feeling. Always SURPRISINGLY good feeling, if I recall right. in reply to jhewlett #
-
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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