| Posted: 16 July 2009 at 5:01pm | IP Logged | 3
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And every couple of weeks, you've got another example of the comic industry going too far, which probably stretches back to 1748. All of which phrased as semi-hysterical ravings, often involving the sexual context of the characters that seems to be a sick fascination of yours.
There comes a point in which a sane man stops reading comics and finds a hobby that doesn't cause him endless aggravation. I can understand a professional complaining about the state of his industry, because it's his livelihood that is being destroyed; but a fan who doesn't enjoy what he's reading/watching is just a masochist.
Robert, you are exactly the reason I continue to complain. If you just ask Eric White or his various pseudonyms, you'll be informed that I'm a "failed writer" who will never be "fit" to lick the muddy tracks of Johns, Morrison, Bendis, ect. It's you and your ilk who cannot seem to understand what the purpose of the comic book is, or how it can be most effectively used.
There were a lot of people in the 1950s who probably thought television was going to be the greatest educational tool of all time. You don't hear anyone say that today, even though there's "good stuff" you can learn from...certainly more channels with more interesting content than ever before. But that "good stuff" is almost completely swamped in utter shite, a tsunami of arrogance and hubris.
Comic books are pretty much in the same boat. There's no way to say to tasteless cretins, "Hey, you do realize comic books are not the movies, right? You do know that excessive violence and sexuality in mainstream comics, the very idea of content ratings for mainstream comics, reeks of the worst corruption of the form we've ever seen? You do know that?"
I mean, how many times can you read about former professionals who brought the superhero to its apex bemoaning what has happened to what was once a legitimate expressive art form, accessible by anyone. A child barely literate to a man who needs a magnifying glass to see the lines, they could pick up a comic book and walk away with something imbedded in their minds, in their very lives.
Just because you, Robert, and others like you think "whatever, it's just comics. Whatever, dude." You're killing the potential of comics, of the form, not just the potential for another stupid goddam Batman story where he's fighting Two-Face again. See, that's why I don't read the goddam Batman...I have grown out of that story, for the most part. The fact that adult readers can't let go, can't see that, is why we have to have goddam Batman vs Two-Face over and over and over, only this time Two-Face is "more" insane than ever and just hacked up Vicki Vale. You, the product of the direct market, are the readers who demand that "this time" the Batman/Two-Face conflict be elevated to meet your adult expectations. You think this doesn't start with the little cuts, the little notions of "well, Batman's costume is getting boring. I think he needs an all-black costume, like the movie!" Which then leads to, "Hm, Bruce Wayne is kind of played out. Let's replace him with somebody else and make a bunch of money from these stupid rubes who are going to buy into it!"
Robert, remember this: I have just as much reason to complain about this unfortunate cultural shift as anyone. I have my endeavors. I actually ardently believe in the willing suspension of disbelief, of the greatness of a tale told well. I don't have to justify why I am speaking, to you, or "Eric White" or anybody else. I can do it in a Forum, I can do it face to face. I don't have the kind of wormy fear that people have, where they don't really believe in anything and thus they'll believe in everything. I don't believe our entertainment is facile, and meaningless. I don't believe some old Ray Bradbury script on the radio, heard by a child Stephen King hidden terrified on the stairs, has no meaning. These discoveries are what create the next imaginative traditions. Someone will find their entire life in the space of a single short story, or poem, or painting. It's like what the NEA says, only it isn't pretentitious horsesh*t. It's what really happens in the world.
There is no escape from the sophomoric talents and cardboard executives who approve the mediocrity we all suffer with, in our entertainment. What was once an important escape for most people is now a sedative: your mainstream is an idea-killing arena, a place where posturing and attitude is a substitute for talent. Your lack of control, of dedication to something which has real meaning, toward what goes into your cotton-candy brain has created the craven hordes, the consumers who have no scale by which to judge the texture or poignancy of the horsesh*t served on their plate.
So when I say that something like Superman having an S on his belt buckle is a critical blow to the character's integrity, leading to a downward spiral for that character and every lesser character, all the way to the extinguishing of the imaginative flame with BAD IDEAS (tm), then you know I'm saying the S on the belt buckle is the crushed butterfly on the boot of the time traveler who changes all history and creates a world completely dominated by the Axis Powers.
It's about knowing the measure of meaning against horsesh*t, and one thing we do know: You don't know the difference, Robert Walsh.
More's the pity.
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