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Post by berkley on Jun 20, 2023 2:42:24 GMT -5
In that case ... can you loan me some money?
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Post by berkley on Jun 20, 2023 2:35:07 GMT -5
This has been an interesting discussion from one perspective: it seems there isn't much disagreement about the basic facts: Lee and Kirby each made important contributions to the characters and comics they produced. I don't think there's even much disagreement as to who did what, in a very general sense - Kirby coming up with new characters and often the story concepts, Stan Lee the script and dialogue (obviously) but also the characterisations and interplay and the general attitude that lent the 1960s Marvel so much of its charm.
Some things we just don't know in detail, as Commond points out - how much was hashed out together in story conferences, who contributed what to a plotline, how much new stuff did Krby spring on Lee when he sent in the artwork, how much did Lee alter or misinterpret Kirby's ideas, etc. Though there are clues to such details in some specific cases, as Kirby101 mentioned in regard to the Silver Surfer.
So to me it looks like where the big disagreement comes in is our differing value judgements as to how good was Kirby's and Lee's work apart from one another, whether solo or with another collaborator. And boy, there is a huge gap here between the two "camps" (not sure I like that word in this context, noticeably applied only to the Kirby side so far, not the Lee). We see it, for example, in Kirby101's and Tarkantino's differing assessments of the Lee/Buscema Silver Surfer; or in the differing views of Kirby's solo work, e.g. the New Gods and The Eternals.
Looking at Stan Lee's work apart from Kirby and Ditko, I don't think I've seen it dismissed in the same way - though I do see a significant difference in this work myself, and one that helps give an idea of what he brought to the table when he did work with those two on series like the FF, Thor, Dr. Strange, etc. I'm willing to hear an argument against this - but it seems that these Kirby vs Lee arguments never get to this point.
I'm not sure there's any bridging ths gap, because I think that comics readers who don't see much artistic value in Kirby's solo work see everyone who disagrees as victims of an illusion, brainwashed into thinking this hack artist was a creative genius because that's what they've been told (by someone, sometime), while they themselves are the brave truth-tellers pointing out that the Emperor has no clothes. Excuse the rhetorical exaggeration, but that's the feeling I get - that there's no common ground for a real conversation. And fair enough, in a way - I suppose I'm equally guilty in not being in any hurry ready to find common ground with, I don't know, fans of Jim Lee's artwork or whatever.
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Post by berkley on Jun 20, 2023 1:13:49 GMT -5
I still haven't been able to bring myself to try any of these new Star Trek shows or movies with different actors playing younger versions of Uhura, Spock, Scotty, etc. I suppose because it's happened so late in the day from my POV as someone who grew up with the old show that I just can't imagine enjoying those characters in any other way. In contrast to a character like James Bond that already had several different incarnations by the time I became aware of it.
I might be able to overlook that issue long enough to at least look at something if I heard anything else that made it sound attractive but so far nothing has drawn me in. The only thing they have going for them is their connection with the original series and since I get the impression (rightly or wrongly) that there isn't much real connection, I don't feel any incentive to watch. Maybe one day I'll try something, whether on purpose or by accident, and find that I like it after all - which is what happened to me with the Next Generation after ignoring it the first few years.
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Post by berkley on Jun 16, 2023 16:36:33 GMT -5
Finished up the second, and apparently last, season of Perry Mason last night. I liked it every bit as much as season one, though it had a major problem in that the major reason for the murder was anachronistic. There were quite a few people who complained about this season, and the series in general, that it was different than classic Perry Mason. But if you want that, why not just watch the old show? And they seem to miss the point that this is Mason very very early in his legal career. They have also complained that this season messes with one of the cardinal tenets of the show...to which I say, good, because that tenet was stupid and unrealistic. My mother LOVED Perry Mason, both the books and the show. I've never read the books because I don't care for the character (I do love Gardner's other series, Cool & Lam, though). But the point is...my mother loved it. I'd venture that no more than a handful of people under about 45 have any idea who Perry Mason is. The original run of the show ended before I was born and I'm old. The last TV movie aired 30 years ago. So if their are a lot of Mason fans out there they are in at least their 70s and older. And honestly, the show was hokey. Any DA who lost that many trials would lose re-election. And any defense attorney who only defends only people who aren't guilty is going to be starving to death as he works out of his cardboard box office.
That reminds me, I've been watching a new Quebec show the last few months called Indéfendable in which the protagonists are criminal defence lawyers in Montreal.Too bad it's in French, because I'd be curious to hear what you think of it. Maybe your French-speaking son can try it sometime and give you the low-down. It's available for free streaming on the TVA website (link above), which is how I'm watching it (with the CC turned on so I can read along with the dialogue).
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Post by berkley on Jun 16, 2023 16:20:37 GMT -5
Just got back from the ER an hour ago. Turns out I broke my left patella in half and either tore or strained all the ligaments and tendons attached to it. Not sure what happens next. Maybe nothing, maybe a stay at a short term nursing care facility. I'll know more tomorrow.I'm DONE with today. Cei-U! Basta es basta!
here's hop.ing for some good news tomorrow
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Post by berkley on Jun 16, 2023 15:49:06 GMT -5
The few that I can think of that I might have liked have never happened, as far as I know, whether as cameos or as official cross-overs. For example, it might have been interesting to see the Phantom Stranger or Madame Xanadu in combination with Doctor Strange, or perhaps Gerber's Jennifer Kale in the Man-Thing series.
Speaking of Man-Thing, there was a double-page spread in the last issue of Gerber's run that featured a lot of cameos, as it was meant to be a huge mass of characters from different universes of the mulitverse all mixed together in a crowd. I'm pretty sure there were some DC characters included. I'll try to find the image online and post it here.
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Post by berkley on Jun 14, 2023 12:42:49 GMT -5
I've read Blood Meridian and The Road. The first one is pretty brutal, the second pretty bleak, but both are very well written. And worth reading.
I've read Blood Meridian and an earlier one, Child of God. Both very dark and violent. Blood Meridian is largely based on first-hand accounts of actual events but, as EdoBosnar says, it's really McCarthy's writing that makes it into something special.
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Post by berkley on Jun 11, 2023 22:25:45 GMT -5
Wow: I just can’t be enthusiastic about the XFL, given I’m not sure it’ll be around forever. What's the idea behind it - to have some American football during the time of year when there's no NFL? Or is it something else, different rules or something?
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Post by berkley on Jun 11, 2023 22:19:51 GMT -5
Don't think I ever knew about that Wrightson book, The Mutants - was it a graphic novel, a collected series, or what?
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Post by berkley on Jun 11, 2023 16:08:20 GMT -5
I find Jim Lee and a few other popular superhero artists from the 1990s onwards not dissimilar to Liefeld in their overall aesthetic, even though they may be much better artists technically, with a better grasp of anatomy and how to frame a panel and so on. One of several reasons I find most superhero comics after the 1980s unreadable.
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Post by berkley on Jun 11, 2023 16:00:13 GMT -5
Hm, yeah, but that's a picture of Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and the rest of the Wild Bunch, a very Western gang of outlaws. The equivalent of the Western gunfighters in the East in the late 19th/early 20th century would have been the various 'ethnic' gangsters (Irish, Italian, Jewish, etc.).
Yes, it's a famous pic; I used it mainly to simply illustrate the "city slicker" style of dress vs. range wear that is normally stereotyped with gunfighters in comics. As we know, "The Sundance Kid" was the only member born east of the Mississippi, and even then he was raised in Colorado from childhood.
I'm also purposely not equating the term "gunfighter" with "outlaw gangs" or "gangsters" because the terms are not synonymous (hence, my used of the terms "dude" or "dandy").
There are plenty of gunfighters who wore "white hats" or carried a badge.
It is a great picture, and I love their stylishness, which I think looks very sharp without straying over the line into excessive dandyism. But =of course that's how it looks to me today, I'm not at all sure how it would have looked to their contemporaries.
Wasn't Billy the Kid an easterner? Though without looking it up to check, I seem to remember that he was a coward who shot people in the back that he was afraid to confront face to face.
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Post by berkley on Jun 11, 2023 12:45:28 GMT -5
I'd love to read that SF book Bolan says he'd written, and to hear the 8 tracks he did with Bowie. Didn't know about Angie Bowie being a Marvel fan.
Did that interview with Alex Harvey ever happen and did they talk about comics?
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Post by berkley on Jun 10, 2023 23:12:28 GMT -5
I can see the case for Malcolm X. Wouldn't make it myself, but I can see others sharing the same opinion. My favorite film from '89 is Do The Right Thing. I'm also a big fan of Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape, which for years and years was a film title I remembered from the video shop rental days but didn't watch until I took place in an 80s film poll. Crimes and Misdemeanors is one of Woody Allen's better films, and there are admirable early works from Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy) and Aki Kaurismaki (Leningrad Cowboys Go America). I don't think I've ever watched Dekalog in its entirety, but it's considered one of the greatest television series of all-time, and was released as a series of films. Shohei Imamura's Black Rain is a high quality film, as is Kitano's Violent Cop. Kiki is beloved in Japan and many people's favorite Ghibli movie. Roger & Me is Mike Moore's early hit, then you have great films like City of Sadness by Hou Hsiao-hsien and Life and Nothing But by Tavernier, Bertrand. Quite an interesting year, actually, with a lot of interesting films being made around the world.
As usual I missed a lot when I skimmed through the list. If Kiki means Kiki's Delivery Service, that would definitely be a highlight of the year, though I didn't see it myself until the late 1990s or early 2000s.
Spike Lee and Steven Soderbergh are two well-known American directors whose films have never attracted me, for whatever reason. I feel like I should try something, but more out of a sense of duty as a film-fan than from any real desire to watch anything of theirs. But I will do it eventually. I have seen one Spike Lee film, Jungle Fever, and I thought that was pretty good, so I'm more inclined to him than Soderbergh.
O f the others you mention, City of Sadness and Life and Nothing But are close to the top of my list. Imamura's Black Rain I'm almost afraid to watch, as I am things in general about Hiroshima - or the Holocaust or the genocide of Indigenous Peoples and other things of that nature, coward that I am.
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Post by berkley on Jun 10, 2023 22:34:01 GMT -5
I loved Unicorns costume. The horn, the green and orange, the thigh high boots, and of course the Siloette of the unicorn
Me too, but when I try to picture it in my mind I think this positive feeling derives from one specific comic, I think drawn by Keith Giffen but I can't recall any other details at the moment.
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Post by berkley on Jun 10, 2023 22:26:24 GMT -5
Man, that is an excellent cover by, I'm assuming, Maneely - esp. love the image of Leopard Girl throwing the knife. Otherwise, yeah, the Zar family really wasn't creative with the names; Ka and Lo already had it bad, but the twins, Mi-Zar and Ne-Zar, had it even worse, to say nothing of the baby of family, poor little Pu-Zar...
Lo-Zar sounds almost like a joke name meant to make the reader think "Loser".
Leopard-Girl's knife-throwing is an impressive 3-D effect - I wonder if this was one of the first times it was done, the combination of an object coming outwards towards the viewer at an angle and also breaking the panel-border? That's what intensifies the impression, I think.
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