|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 13, 2015 15:37:16 GMT -5
I read that scene and those comics so out of context of the time they were written that I really didn't think nothing of it. But this makes me think about it again. But I found Hal boring way before I read these. Truth be told, I never cared for either Ollie GA or Hal GL. I started with Conner (good god I hate that name) and Kyle. But if a gun were pointed to my head I find Ollie, just a tad bit more interesting than Hal. But that's mostly from Longbow Hunters. Anyway ... thanks for making me think about that again. I might read those again this weekend. Time may not have been kind to this famous scene from GL 76, but in its time, it was moment of earth-shaking humility, not just for Green Lantern, but for the world of comics. You hate to play the "hadda be there" card, but... The sea-change in comics at that time is well documented, and I don't want to rehash it here, but those three or four panels were essentially comics' Pleasantville moment. The trees caught fire, color flooded the world, and suddenly there was a connection between that world and the world we were all living in. There had been other stories before this that flirted with “relevance,” like the JLA two-parter about pollution (also a Denny O’Neil story) and a Spider-Man storyline set amidst a campus protest about tenants’ rights, IIRC, but the super-hero lines of DC and Marvel were firmly ensconced in business as usual. As so often happens, the first ripples of change were being seen outside the spotlight, in Sgt. Fury and the DC war comics, where the many issues raised by our involvement in Vietnam could be examined without straining credulity. You’re right, Green Lantern had saved the world countless times, but in comics, that “world” was white and upper middle-class. The old black man, who appears in those few panels became and remains one of the iconic figures in comics history because he was the first character ever to force one a traditional near-omnipotent comic book hero to look into the mirror and see how narrow his world-view was and how undeservedly self-satisfied he had become. It was clear even then that Green Lantern represented not only the rest of his costumed pantheon, but comic book readers, publishers, and creators as well. Yes, Green Arrow was generally insufferable, but that is quite in character with converts, and O’Neil knew this, which is why GA was so appropriately humbled on the cover of GL 85. Yes. The run was a kind of “Issue of the Month” approach, but it took us on a tour of an America in the throes of social revolution, which was happening with the same rapidity as the travels of GA and GL. Over the short course of this run, comic book readers saw accepted mainstream views challenged and the rules of the super-hero universe broken left and right in stories that dealt with issues in general, like overpopulation, conformity, and drug abuse, but also astonishingly timely issues, like the disrespect for the law of the Nixon administration and the show trial of the Chicago Eight. These kinds of stories were undreamed of before GL 76. Yes, comics readers had read political and social commentary for years in MAD magazine, but MAD’s stock-in-trade was humor. Sure, GL/GA may have been melodrama, but in its best moments, like the famous sequence with the old black man, its honesty was undeniable. That old man’s righteous anger was a perfect comeuppance for a society convinced of its nobility, blinded by its exceptionalism and deserving of a slap in the face. Yes, GL’s brief success initiated a flood of copycatting, but so what? Thus it has ever been in pop culture. Yes, today the quest of GL, GA and the Guardian probably seems as trite and clichéd as the idealism and the loss of innocence that motivated it. We live in an age in which idealism is scorned, success is measured by celebrity and in which the old black man would be regarded not as a human being but as a “taker.” Sorry to go on like this, but I remember those horrible days, and how eloquently that old black man spoke not just to Green Lantern, but to all America. I only wish we’d listened to him. Unlike you I didn't read that as it came out, since it was just a few years before my comics buying time. But I did read it just a few years after the fact. And with that particular sequence, I get what they were going for and applaud them, but I think the sequence itself was clumsily handled.
|
|
|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 13, 2015 9:46:44 GMT -5
Love the joke in the background. Hilarious.
|
|
|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 13, 2015 9:12:15 GMT -5
I was surprised when The Spirit tanked. That's one that I fully expected to tank - no-one outside fairly serious comics nerds had heard of the Spirit, and all the advance publicity and leaks led everyone familiar with the Spirit to avoid the film like the proverbial plague. Agreed. I tried watching it for free on DVD from the library. Made it through about 20 minutes. Thankfully Mr. Eisner didn't live to see it.
|
|
|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 12, 2015 14:59:00 GMT -5
For the purposes of a joke in a comic strip I'm drawing I have a character living in a comic shop hiding in boxes of comics that he KNOWS will never be looked at because they are so non-collectable. So the question I have is, what should be written on the box? My first thought would be 'Atlas Seaboard' but I'm sure you guys have better suggestions. Help please? My submission would be:
What could be worse?
|
|
|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 12, 2015 14:05:39 GMT -5
I recall that Jez was collecting Archies as well.
|
|
|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 12, 2015 12:50:32 GMT -5
But you and I look for crazy, whacko times in comics. Those are the kind of comics that we both look for. I am surprised you like anything by PAD. That is a shocker to me. Not a bad thing, it's just from the stuff I see you post about, I would think you'd steer clear of PAD. Of course, I'm never 100% familiar with all works by all writers, so maybe he's done some more light hearted stuff. I have never read any Supergirl anything before. But with DC reads, if I start reading something, I tend to like to read it from the beginning, and not jump into a character/team in bronze or modern age where they already have soooo much history (or have been written as a completely different character and are only the same in name). I can jump into characters and teams anywhere with Marvel, but I get confused if I try this with DC. I am going to keep this run of Supergirl in mind, though, for once I have read some silver age stuff. I do love me some PAD writing, so I doubt that this will disappoint. PAD books are full of light-hearted stuff. Check out his Young Justice run... Starting right off the bat with the new villain Mighty Endowed, who fell on her face. Literally. "She has... vast tracts of land."
|
|
|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 12, 2015 12:44:30 GMT -5
So, three teenagers are on the street, two boys and a girl. Both boys have versions of x-ray vision. Which they use to look at each other under their clothes. Ignoring the girl (and most teenage boys favorite fantasy). Is this Brokeback Smallville?
|
|
|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 12, 2015 12:22:29 GMT -5
I summon the Demon's Head! Hey...this is an all-ages site. Plus the Doom's "royal willie" remark. You are developing a potty-mouth, sir.
I summon the bar of soap!
|
|
|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 12, 2015 11:57:15 GMT -5
I read my copy of this to death: This may help to explain some of those Superdickery covers. Looks like Jimmy was a jerk too, unless these are in retaliation.
|
|
|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 12, 2015 11:43:53 GMT -5
That's the first thing I thought of too. Ouch.
|
|
|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 12, 2015 10:57:52 GMT -5
Going back a bit, it may be surprising to some to learn that Disney's Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi were box-office flops at the time of their initial releases, failing to earn back the cost of their production. Dumbo, with it's modest production budget, was the company's lone feature-length, animated smash hit during the 1940s. It was the success of 1950's Cinderella that pulled Disney back from the brink and began their long tenure as the premier studio for feature-length animation. Until Black Cauldron (1985) almost killed Disney animation. It wasn't until the Little Mermaid (1989) that Disney's animated features took off again.
|
|
|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 12, 2015 9:51:45 GMT -5
Do you even have in the US a national TV network owned by the state and not dedicated to profit, like in most european countries? PBS is sort of like that but it doesn't have the prominence that the national networks have in Europe. PBS would be the closest equivalence here in the states as it's non-profit, but while it gets some government support, it's not state owned.
|
|
|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 12, 2015 9:45:45 GMT -5
I worked with them intimately in an environment - a right-wing daily newspaper - Been there, done that. Even though it was known as the Arkansas Democrat when I started there (it's now hyphenated as Democrat-Gazette, thanks to taking over a rival newspaper in 10/91), my old paper in Little Rock couldn't be more Republican. For a couple of years the editorial staff included Tucker Carlson, who I gather has gone on to some prominence as a conservative pundit on TV. And of course even if personal experience is cast aside, the "liberal media" stereotype is utter nonsense. That would be the liberal media that had no room for Phil Donahue because he wasn't properly enthusiastic about a war based on lies, the liberal media that fawned all over the liar-in-chief in the wake of the "Mission Accomplished" photo opp, the liberal media whose Judith Miller worked hand-in-glove with the White House warhawks to promulgate the lies. It's a sad truth that the "liberal media" is a much beloved device used by the Republican leadership to try to explain away when newspeople catch them in a lie, or out them on a questionable position/practice, or just catch something bat-crap crazy they say. The Democrats face the same problems with the media (though less so from my observations, which is part of why I vote for them), but they don't have the "liberal media" myth to fall back on. Sexual hijinks like those of Bill Clinton and Gary Hart were media fodder for years. Where was the media's liberal bias then? Contrast that with Republican lawmakers caught playing footsie in airport bathrooms or using the services of male prostitutes while claiming to be anti-gays. First thing out of their mouths is generally how it's been blown out of proportion or outright fabricated by the "liberal media".
And while generalities inevitably go wrong, it's frightening how many otherwise reasonable, everyday people buy into it, just because they hear it so much on TV (which is ironically supposed to be part of the "liberal media").
|
|
|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 12, 2015 9:15:12 GMT -5
You forced me to deploy the nuclear option You might hate bananas, but everyone loves Dolphins. You, sir, are a fiend.
|
|
|
Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 11, 2015 15:57:24 GMT -5
As comics fans we must take special note of this year's FANTASTIC FOUR flop, which I as yet have not even seen, partly because it left theaters here so fast. That's one I won't see until I can see it for free. Maybe not even then.
|
|