* It’s been brought to my attention that some people may doubt my sincerity when I sing the praises of Tom Brevoort’s blog and/or Twitter feed–from which I mined the content in this Robot 6 piece on the Marvel/DC rivalry. Let me assure you that I’m serious as a heart attack. It’s not that I agree with everything he says, or that I don’t realize that it’s at least in part showmanship–it’s that I wish every other bigwig in the biz came out and said what they were thinking. We’d be healthier.
* Speaking of said rivalry, here’s Kiel Phegley on Marvel’s provocative Siege/Blackest Night comic-swap offer.
* Here’s Jog on last week’s comics. It starts with the sentence “This is a VERY GOOD Image comic about orcs and stealing and penises and conquest” and gets better from there.
* Here’s David Welsh on Natsume Ono, author of the very promising-looking not simple.
* Here’s Jim Henley on how Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson are, and aren’t, like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby or Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Actually, it’s also about how Lee/Kirby and McCartney/Lennon themselves aren’t like Lee/Kirby and McCartney/Lennon.
* Here’s Jeet Heer on the paradox of James Cameron’s Avatar. Speaking of, I know it was very nice-looking, but I’m trying to figure out why the hell it won the Golden Globe for Best Picture, and in fact why it was even nominated versus, say, District 9 or Paranormal Activity, and the only answer I can come up with is that Hollywood wants to canonize absurdly expensive filmmaking that makes an even more absurd shitload of money in turn. If this thing had flopped as hard as people thought it would–as hard as I thought it would–heads would have rolled in the dozens. (Well, in theory; accountability is so not hot right now.) It was structurally important to the American film industry for this movie to be hugely popular with audiences and critics.
* They hired a guy who makes Saw movies to do the Paranormal Activity sequel. You can’t make that up.
* Jeepers, that’s a gawjuss Dough Mahnke cover for Green Lantern #53. Click the link for the full-sized image.
* I can’t even imagine spiking a finished comic. I’m too precious about my own work and too un-prolific to spare one.
* I thought this Onion News Network piece on Lost fandom could have gotten a lot more vicious than it did, but it’s the appearance of Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse toward the end that tipped the scales in its favor. They kid because they love!
Re: Avatar
People like to reward “work”. Avatar is so huge, they feel like it deserves awards. A small example: at my work one department always wins our Halloween decoration contest because they take it super serious and do all kinds if stuff, even if it’s pretty standard and doesn’t have much imagination. Since they do so much though, people feel like they have to be rewarded. That’s my personal justification for the sad event anyway.
Paranormal Activity, questions of quality aside, couldn’t have been nominated because it’s 2 years old. The thing was released in ’07.
Hmmm… I liked Avatar, so maybe I’m biased (ha), but I think it’s success with audiences & critics is as genuine as District 9’s. That said, the Golden Globes are complete bullshit and I agree with you that it is in the industry’s (short term) interest to promote these kinds of massive spectacles.
I know Paranormal screened here and there for a while, CRwM, but it didn’t even come close to playing outside random horror festivals or whatever until this summer. Saying it was “released” in ’07 is putting it a little strongly. That said I have no idea what the rules are for that sort of thing.
Jon: Yeah, I don’t mean to imply that the people who liked it are insincere, but as you say, there’s an institutional incentive for bodies like the Golden Globe people to proclaim it as Officially Awesome.
Matt: That’s a good point too. I also think people love an overdog.
I believe the rules for the Globes are a week-long release in NYC or LA, so festivals wouldn’t count. Paranormal Activity is definitely a 2009 release for awards purposes.
Point taken.