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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 5, 2017 11:51:25 GMT -5
I could legitimately enjoy a comic as bizarre as this if only the art was better. Oh, I did enjoy it. I have a lot of affection for these personal labors of love even if they're (as in this case) really, really terrible. I definitely admire creators who put themselves out there with these works of art that they have invested parts of their soul in, even (especially!) if they're not blessed with much (any!) God-given talent. I've got a drawer full of mini-comics and my (extremely loose!) filing system goes (A) Actually good, (B) derivative, opportunistic twaddle (usually porn), and (C) bizarre labors of love. Street Poet Ray is basically a Class (C) mini-comic. That somehow got published by Marvel. Like Steve Gerber (Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown) is my favorite mainstream factory system writer not because he's the best writer ever but because he seems the most personally invested in his work. |
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Post by chaykinstevens on Dec 5, 2017 13:39:36 GMT -5
According to Wikipedia, Blackthorne lost lots of money when they licensed Michael Jackson's Moonwalker and the movie tanked. It says they laid off eight of their nine employees in November 1989 and ceased trading in 1990. Was that a theatrical release? I've barely heard of it (There was a video game!) and I care a lot about pop music. I think I can remember it being released in cinemas in the UK, but I was never much of a Jacko fan and I've not seen it. IMDB gives it 6.0. Wikipedia says "The release of Moonwalker was originally scheduled to coincide with Jackson's 1987 album, Bad. During the theatrical release of Moonwalker, Jackson was also embarking on the Bad world tour, his first tour as a solo performer. The film was released theatrically in Europe and South America, but Warner Bros. canceled plans for a Christmas 1988 theatrical release in the United States. Moonwalker was instead released on home video in the United States and Canada on January 10, 1989, just as the Bad tour finished. (His tour was supposed to finish sooner, but had been postponed due to some vocal strain, so it went on until the last week of January 1989.) The video had sold more than 800,000 copies in the U.S. by April 17, 1989." |
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Post by MDG on Dec 5, 2017 15:38:47 GMT -5
Weird that Comix Book only lasted three issues. It didn't strike me as much worse than Marvel's Black and White mags, and Stan (at the time) seemed hungry for hipster recognition... I wanted to check to see if Comix Book had "Stan Lee Presents...," but I have no idea where my copy is. This from wikipedia, though: Sounds like he wanted it both ways. |
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Post by berkley on Dec 5, 2017 15:43:48 GMT -5
This is the first I heard of Street Poet Ray, and reading panels posted above, it comes across to me like it was one of those things that was meant to be funny just because it was so stupid - something like Andrew Dice Clay was doing around the same time, IIRC.
Maybe this was a bit of a trend at the time in American pop culture? Though I must admit, I can't think of any other obvious examples off the top of my head.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 5, 2017 16:39:15 GMT -5
This is the first I heard of Street Poet Ray, and reading panels posted above, it comes across to me like it was one of those things that was meant to be funny just because it was so stupid - something like Andrew Dice Clay was doing around the same time, IIRC. Maybe this was a bit of a trend at the time in American pop culture? Though I must admit, I can't think of any other obvious examples off the top of my head. It seems like it should be but I honestly don't think so. There were strips about nuclear war and...  Like I can't imagine how anyone would see Street Poet Ray as a serious artistic statement but it plays completely straight and reads like the creative team are really striving to convey deep, profound insights. Spoilers: They do not convey deep, profound insights. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2017 16:42:44 GMT -5
I found this description of the series at Atomic Avenue... Atomic Avenue-M (wondering if anyone ever called the 900 number) |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,545 
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Post by Confessor on Dec 8, 2017 6:37:09 GMT -5
Was that a theatrical release? I've barely heard of it (There was a video game!) and I care a lot about pop music. I think I can remember it being released in cinemas in the UK, but I was never much of a Jacko fan and I've not seen it. IMDB gives it 6.0. Wikipedia says "The release of Moonwalker was originally scheduled to coincide with Jackson's 1987 album, Bad. During the theatrical release of Moonwalker, Jackson was also embarking on the Bad world tour, his first tour as a solo performer. The film was released theatrically in Europe and South America, but Warner Bros. canceled plans for a Christmas 1988 theatrical release in the United States. Moonwalker was instead released on home video in the United States and Canada on January 10, 1989, just as the Bad tour finished. (His tour was supposed to finish sooner, but had been postponed due to some vocal strain, so it went on until the last week of January 1989.) The video had sold more than 800,000 copies in the U.S. by April 17, 1989." Yeah, Moonwalker was bad (excuse the pun). Very bad. I was a massive Michael Jackson fan at the time and went and saw the film at the cinema. I was beyond disappointed. I was confused about just what it was supposed to be. It's really a series of music videos to songs that had appeared on his 1987 Bad album, with some of them tied into a loose plot, with some appallingly badly acted scenes binding them together. As a collection of music videos it's fairly enjoyable, but as a movie it really sucks. |
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Post by hondobrode on Dec 10, 2017 19:16:08 GMT -5
I vaguely remember seeing it and turning it away without even opening it.
Some of what was coming out then was terrible and this sure looked like that.
Perversely, I'd probably pick this up now just cause it's so bad.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Dec 2, 2023 7:08:30 GMT -5
I just came across some information about Street Poet Ray on Tom Brevoort's blog: "The least-successful Marvel comic of the era–and possibly the worst-selling of all time–was a licensed title called STREET POET RAY. Somebody somewhere in the organization had seen the guy behind Ray perform or produce some of his pseudo-rap, and thought putting out a comic book would give Marvel “street cred”, as well as being an absolute cash cow. Didn’t work out that way. In fact, the artwork in STREET POET RAY was about the most amateurish to ever grace a Marvel book. Pretty much everybody in the editorial department knew that this was a venture foredoomed to failure, and a bit of an embarassment as well, but we were obliged to get it done. I myself had nothing to do with STREET POET RAY, but I did come across this doctored monster cover put together, if memory serves, by Paul Curtis, which very well summed up our feelings towards STREET POET RAY. This hung on my wall for awhile–you can see it if you look closely in the photograph I ran yesterday."  4,750 copies of SPR #3 were shipped in the month Todd McFarlane's Spider-Man #1 launched. link |
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