- Have felt a little nauseous since lunchtime, & now my ear refuses to pop. Got high hopes for tonight's MOMBcast! Maybe I'll puke! Yay! #
- (I hope I don't puke. Gluck, bluck, I feel yuck…) #
- @SorenLorensen Uh… I can't be held responsible for anything I might have said in the nausea wracked excesses of the afternoon… in reply to SorenLorensen #
- @SorenLorensen …I believe I ALSO said both "sexy" and "cavewoman". Make of it what you will…
in reply to SorenLorensen # - "I wanna be a triangle!" #
- I think Homer might actually have a brain tuna or something. His hallucinamations seem to be getting worse. #
- OMFG the duracell bunnies just formed a duracell giant elephant. What the hell? #
- Managed to NOT be sick on't podcast. YAY! #MOMBcast! #
- @davidwynne Senser, sir? in reply to davidwynne #
- @TracyAnnO Gosh. Are you actually tiny, or are they all quite tall? I had thought you were taller. Not that taller is better. It isn't. Um. in reply to TracyAnnO #
- @davidwynne Oh, fucking of COURSE. Sorry, I'm an idiot… in reply to davidwynne #
- @TracyAnnO Welp, either way, you look LOVELY. THEREISSAIDIT! Five five is probably about average for a lady, innit? in reply to TracyAnnO #
- @davidwynne God, but no, but GAH! It's SO embarrassing! I don't know how I could make such an obvious musical error. FLIP! I know it well! in reply to davidwynne #
- @TracyAnnO We've got a monkey in the name of the Monkey On My Back comic podcast. I'll let you know how that does RE: listeners… in reply to TracyAnnO #
- @DimitriMOMB That was quick. Kind of. in reply to DimitriMOMB #
- @thecraigmorris Funnily enough, @Sulman & I were talking about the awesomeness of In Bruges just today. It's awesome, innit? in reply to thecraigmorris #
- @davidwynne I just got a bit carried away when I thought I'd seen a reference to Senser. GAH! in reply to davidwynne #
- @DimitriMOMB Did I MAKE this week's deliberate mistake? in reply to DimitriMOMB #
- @jhewlett After that tweet, I don't think I've really understood the point of being a DJ AT ALL, frankly… in reply to jhewlett #
- Somehow didn't tweet earlier: Blog post – In Which I Solve The Movie Piracy Problem For EVERYONE Once And For All – http://bit.ly/13jTZ5 … #
- …You're all very welcome. #
- @thecraigmorris In Bruges was actually my favourite film of last year – http://bit.ly/uePsb in reply to thecraigmorris #
- @thecraigmorris It took up a remarkable chunk of that week… multi-part post, spanning my entire life. It was a meme, dontchaknow! in reply to thecraigmorris #
- RT @katiewest: Link: Ghost (Natasha Poly: Multiple Exposure) 2009 – via Susannah Breslin. http://tumblr.com/xgi3ji0g8 #
- Just in case for some INSANE reason you aren't already subscribed to it, the 4th #MOMBcast is here! http://bit.ly/44bt3! #
- http://bit.ly/44bt3 – Rich & Nick are sick, Jon talks about Daredevil: Born Again, we give with the Marvel love, & other stuffs! #MOMBcast #
- @EvilLandlord Oh, balls… it SHOULD pick up that it's a blackberry, & use the mobile theme. Which I haven't looked at in ages. Damn, sorry. in reply to EvilLandlord #
- @Glinner Blimey, ta for the nod. That's the busiest my Mentions column has been in FOREVER! I may have to start regularly blogging again! in reply to Glinner #
- @KajunFirefly Ha! You KNOW it makes sense… in reply to KajunFirefly #
- @SamShepherd Aww, feel better, youse! in reply to SamShepherd #
- @Sulman Grrr… Course, if you FF @steevbishop around lunchtime, we should be able to see the mushroom cloud from Starbucks! in reply to Sulman #
- @andydiggle What IS a split digraph…? Wait, no, never mind, I'll google it. in reply to andydiggle #
- RT @RichMOMB: Meat Eaters – Keep Being awesome http://bit.ly/P2mLj (Oh, that's just awesome…) #
- ATTN: Erotic Care Bear novelists! http://tinyurl.com/ykzqco3 "Topics include safety, love, and threesomes." (via @essrose) #
- @danwellman Happy birthday, little nipper! Doubling in age at such a fast rate that pretty soon they'll be older than us all! in reply to danwellman #
- Ever Dream this man? http://bit.ly/3rw5Pj (Totally giving me the heebiejeebies… & isn't it the midget from Twin Peaks? via @RichMOMB) #
- Science fiction is so weird. Somebody else shared this, but not sure who, now – Captain Kirk Has Taken Too Much LSD – http://is.gd/4mdQy #
- @RichMOMB Listened to the podcast yet? in reply to RichMOMB #
- @RichMOMB About to in a minute, when I've got me some CRISPS! in reply to RichMOMB #
- Drawings by artist whilst tripping his nuts off – Interesting LSD Madness http://bit.ly/f7plg (Fascinating, thanks @RichMOMB) #
- @MissDracula The 'Flashdance' soundtrack is a brilliant accompaninment for ANYTHING. in reply to MissDracula #
- @MissDracula …Apparently, I got so excited by the idea, I forgot how to spell 'accompaniment'. in reply to MissDracula #
- @steevbishop Wow. We're ACTUALLY tiny, aren't we? in reply to steevbishop #
- @acheverton Feel sorry for the artist come the last drawing. Poor bastard doing exactly the same work, but now despondent & disillusioned! in reply to acheverton #
- I'm… pretty sure I just bought this Red Bull because a cute student was fidgetting around with the top of the container. I didn't want it. #
- From last night: #MOMBcast 4 is available now! – http://is.gd/4mgN7 – We talk about DD: Born Again, @neilhimself's Twitter project, stuffs! #
- @Specsneedaclean Not that much. Maybe a couple of cans a week. Only enough, I suppose, that it's exceptional enough for me to mention it! in reply to Specsneedaclean #
- Also, I Solved Movie Piracy at Nixsight last night. http://is.gd/4mh04. Yes, you may touch me! #
- @Specsneedaclean Oh, no, I liked it! in reply to Specsneedaclean #
- Little piece of genius advertising-writing for y'all… http://twurl.nl/olm6v6. (RT @georgelondon) #
- @Specsneedaclean Um… now this scenario is starting to weird me out a little bit. in reply to Specsneedaclean #
- Not sure where the joke here is. This is EXACTLY what happens in Brokeback Mountain, isn't it? http://is.gd/4mhGm #
- @Specsneedaclean You LOVE my cheeks. Cheek! I meant cheek! in reply to Specsneedaclean #
- Heh. March Of The Penguins. May lose something in translation, but lovely Canal+ ad – http://is.gd/4mieP #
- @willmcinnes I think it's something to do with original sin. Or original Sin-dy, off the videos on the internet. in reply to willmcinnes #
- @georgelondon Oh god, you've reminded me… I've got my Thursday socks on, cos I couldn't find my Friday ones at short notice. Worried, now! in reply to georgelondon #
- Right. Nipping to the bank. Wondering what to do about my lunchies… #
- @georgelondon No, my sister bought me a set of 5 pairs, each pair with a weekday written on them. I get weird about wearing the wrong day. in reply to georgelondon #
- Hm. Comments appreciated, but can't help noticing that thus far, most responders to the post have picked up on the anon twitterer's idea… #
- … & not my GENIUS one. The bit with the GENIUS in. So far only @KajunFirefly has mentioned my GENIUS, & I suspect they were being ironic! #
- @georgelondon I KNOW! Stupid sister. What, just because I might have mentioned naked weekends once, doesn't mean we do them ALL THE TIME! in reply to georgelondon #
- RT @Rich_Fulcher: I've just cancelled my Daily Mail subscription. (LOLS. ACTUALLY the funniest thing anyone has said on the subject.) #
- @camiknickers God, that's depressing. Me & Girl One will be sitting on the sofa, full of ill & feeling sorry for ourselves. Come on over!! #
- @camiknickers Dammit, punk'd again! Nothing ANYONE says on this stupid internet is ever true! in reply to camiknickers #
- @camiknickers Heh heh heh! I like kittens! in reply to camiknickers #
- "A cutting saw accident"? What the fuck is a cutting saw, Jon? What good is a saw that doesn't cut? #
- Heh. Listening to @RichMOMB's graceful handling of @neilhimself's project. Good to see that all our prep work on that paid off! #MOMBcast #
- Listening to the #MOMBcast as I work. We were REALLY quite bewildered this week. I pronounce us Calciyummy! #
- RT @AJCann "most students reject the mobile potential of podcasting" http://bit.ly/1ZJJaI #
- @acheverton Suppose it's possible that if God didn't really create everything so much as seperate & designate them, not his jurisdiction… in reply to acheverton #
- @acheverton …& in fact you can read that 1st Commandment as the 1st ever passive-aggressive note written, rather than an order. in reply to acheverton #
- As @Sulman has quite rightly noted, that podcast thing is a bit heavy. I RT'd it for work reasons, so I'd remember to read it. Sorry! #
- Yay! We managed to sneak in a reference to porn in the final quarter! Yay, that was close… We almost forgot! #MOMBcast #
- @Sulman Is that here at work? in reply to Sulman #
- Oh you fucking idiot! Ra's Al Ghul doesn't have a "Z" in it! You make me SICK! #MOMBcast #
- @Sulman Sheesh and blimey! in reply to Sulman #
- We totally failed to take a photo this week, @RichMOMB & @DimitriMOMB #
- @Sulman Oh, that doesn't sound as ominous as I was expecting AT ALL… It'll probably be FINE! in reply to Sulman #
- Oh, really? There's a misogynistic trap, now, is there, @DimitriMOMB? What's that, A TRAP SPECIFICALLY FOR MISOGYNISTS, eh? #MOMBcast #
- …Is it some sort of catch-&-release scheme, @DimitriMOMB? Do lots of unwitting NORMAL men get caught in the net, like dolphins?? #MOMBcast #
- "It's tough at the slightly higher than the bottom!" #
- Hah! I like when @DimitriMOMB cautiously suggests that we MAY have something cool on next podcast, & then @RichMOMB just shouts it out! #
- Well, I'm pretty pleased with this week's #MOMBcast. I'm also quite pleased that we left that offcut at the end. Yay, us! #
- @tonymoore Damn, they're short. Seems like only an hour ago you were breaking out the boxset! in reply to tonymoore #
- @DimitriMOMB Yup… I'm always thinking, all the time! in reply to DimitriMOMB #
-
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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