Do Not Siege Walled Cities - 237

To Celebrate Knowing Nothing

HOPE YOU’RE ALL KILLING IT

I woke up at 2:30am to witness a Fortnite event with my stepson so I’m beat today. This might be a short one, but I promise it will be done with love.

The only other news I have to report is that I uncharacteristically spent money. Black Friday sales caught me and I just received 100 cans of kombucha as a result. This is how we’re living out here. Hope you engaged in kombucha capitalism this holiday season and got yourself some crates like I did.

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YOU CAN’T TAIKA YOUR WAY OUTTA THIS

Director Taika Waititi got the internet a flutter this week when he revealed in an interview that he took the job on Thor: Ragnarok for the money. He went on to say he was unfamiliar with Thor as a character.

I don’t understand why public figures still take the bait. Entertainment press will always find a pull quote that makes you look like an asshole. Waititi may actually be an asshole, so perhaps he disregarded the clear signs of a setup. Whatever the case, he put a thing into the world that upset a number of people, confirmed suspicions for some, and elicited a type of defensiveness from others.

I don’t have particularly strong views on it. I’ve done things for money. I’m a big advocate for saying no to work you won’t do well, so there’s limits. But, in general, we should be honest about the fact that people need food to live and money for food.

That said, I didn’t understand the intense defense some mounted for Waititi. I even saw some suggest you could only do good work if you are not a fan of the property you’re adapting.

Let’s not be weird, people.

I’ve heard from Big Two editors directly that they are not interested in hiring fans. The rationale is fans are too close to the thing. And therefore too precious with the characters. Too reverent. Stuck, in some ways. And maybe this makes sense if you don’t inspect it.

But, I think we should inspect it.

There’s geniuses out there. And there’s capable journeymen. In the right circumstances, these people can deliver great work regardless of their affinity or familiarity with a property.

But we shouldn’t assume that because a smoker finishes a marathon that he wouldn’t have done better if he didn’t smoke. Success despite =/= success because.

Let’s take Thor. You could deconstruct the character a million different ways. Make him working class. Make him a buffoon. Make him a peacenik. Make him a male stripper. Reimagine his story. Make it satire. Make it supernatural horror. Make it an erotic thriller.

You could do all these things and, with the right talent, arrive at a creatively successful story.

But it would all demand an answer to “why Thor though?” You COULD do all these things to Dracula. You COULD do all these things to John Wilkes Booth. But why would you?

I do not believe there’s an obligation to regurgitate the original work into a new medium or new era. As an artist, it’s your job to do more than that. But when you do not care at all for the property your paymasters thought worth buying, you look worse than a hack. You look like someone who couldn’t do it yourself. You look like someone whose fear of working on a $4M movie is so intense that you’ll do anything to format a $200M movie to your tastes. In comics, you look like someone who so fears creator-owned that you’ll do anything to stay in that Big Two yolk.

It’s just a lame thing. I’m not mad at Waititi for taking the job. And I do understand why people appreciated his candor here. But it’s lame to do a bad job and then act too cool for it. “You know, I never wanted that job.”

It’s lame. No need to defend it, folks.

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AGAIN, THIS TIME WITHOUT THE JUDGEMENT

I wanted to talk about a documentary(?) I watched this week and how what I learned applies to comic books.

Channel 5 is a guy who does lightweight, Youtube-coded, millennial-sensibility, documentaries. He gripped the TikTok consciousness last year, got red hot, and stumbled in an HBO deal. Then the perfunctory #metoo emerged from his shadow and put him off the radar for 10 months.

He came back with a haircut.

I do not care about whatever that personal problem was. And I appreciate the type of man-on-the-street reportage he does. Glad he’s back.

But, man, he didn’t learn a thing.

When you position yourself as someone’s moral better, you put a target on your back. He had sold himself as an ally and man of the left. The progressive older brother every post-Tumblr kid wanted. And when he got jammed up, hat’s who was disappointed in him. So that’s who put him to the torch. Because lecturing people triggers something in the lectured. They now need you to meet the standard you set. “It’s the sanctimony, stupid.”

And this dude cannot help himself. Throughout his San Francisco doc, he makes sure you know he’s the good guy. With the correct opinions. I would argue that, because of this, he never gets close to a real conversation about San Francisco. He just monetizes video of people breaking windows.

This is so much of comics to me.

“I am definitely the good person here. What I’m proposing is goodness. Unassailable, but also completely useless, platitudes are what you’ll find here. You can’t be mad!”

Nothing on offer, because nothing is explored without the soft light and vaselined lens of self-interest.

A missed opportunity. And enough of those make for a misspent career.

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LOCAL GUMTREE POST

In Australia we’ve got Gumtree rather than Craigslist. Same thing, but with a 2008 interface rather than Craiglist’s 1999 look.

Sometimes I’ll poke around for graphic novels and manga. Here’s an ad I caught yesterday.

I almost wrote him to tell him to hold onto these volumes. Never know when you’ll be an incel again.

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AN OVERSIGHT

I’ve never read SOMERSET HOLMES, despite it being an oddity right up my alley. A superior creative team in Bruce Jones & April Campbell writing, and Brent Anderson on art is enough to rope me. The grounded thriller vibe is enough to rope me. And its place in history as an early can-we-get-this-to-Hollywood creator-owned comic is enough to rope me.

It’s a familiar-feeling thriller (though Jones might argue it feels familiar today because it’s been borrowed from his work in the intervening years) about an agent that has lost her memory. So, a Hollywood premise through and through. How the question is how do they do with it?

SOMERSET HOLMES strengths are all in the acting. Its efforts to feel like film are successful. And a pretty decent film, too. Shots are well-chosen and the acting is nuanced and purposeful.

I understand comics still need bombast. I’m usually the guy calling for it. But there is something endlessly fulfilling about tiny moments done effectively.

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VIDEO NASTIES

The series is ongoing. I ask for your grace here. I am largely speaking extemporaneously and if you’ve ever tried that in a real way you know it’s easy to look like a fool.

It’s a work in progress. Get on board early.

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I’M OFF TO WRITE SOME COMICS

Work incoming. Look for me to tease some of it soon.

Until then, stay out of the penitentiary and avoid needle drugs. Try to put yourself in a position where you never have to take jobs that you later have to distance yourself from. Do for self.