Do Not Siege Walled Cities - 262
Trending Downward
BACKYARD INFLATABLES
This one will be quick and painless. I’m at a BBQ and wondering when my absence will be noticed. A few updates, and no scandals (I don’t think).
MY TIME IN TEXAS IS ALMOST OVER
I learned some things. Mostly that 1/5 of Austin is from California or New York and moved here to escape covid mandates or vaccine requirements. But also that just ONE of the three major inflatable rental houses in the metro area rents to over 4000 events per year. I know this because I kept a man on the phone for 30min out of idle curiosity about an industry I have nothing to do with.
If you ever wanted to be in a very specific lane of customer service, I suggest the inflatables racket.
That scene from The Graduate but instead of “plastics” the man tells me “inflatables.”
HOBBIES, I HAVE NONE
Whenever I find something I really enjoy consuming, I try to make it myself. Maybe that’s hubris, or just what true appreciation looks like. I couldn’t say. But it’s my way. I loved comics, so I made them. Loved music, so I made some. I don’t know why I can’t just ingest without thinking the world needs my take on a medium. And I really can’t say why I end up trying to make money off any of it.
But I may’ve found something that is additive to my existing skills without the potential to monetize it directly. A pure relaxing time passer.
I’ve been watching hundreds of movies the past few weeks. Not at the correct speed, mind you. I jog shuttle around the movies looking for specific clips for a project. Something between mindlessness and light problem-solving. It’s fun in a meditative way.
And what I’ve found is I’m learning a lot about composition and lighting by virtue of comparing it scene-to-scene in dozens of films. The framing of leads is fascinating. Extreme example, admittedly, but Kevin Smith never has someone on camera who isn’t talking. While Robert Rodríguez will film a face for the sheer fact its expressive and beautiful.
I’m in a place in my writing where I’m mostly interested in women in heels shooting gangsters. That’s just where I’m at. Framing an attractive face and making it hit the audience’s brain in exactly the way you want it to… that’s a gift. I’ve watched (at 4x speed) so many movies that just do not care about lighting as a force multiplier. They keep slapping faces with ‘natural’ light that does nothing to shape our feelings for a character. I get not every film has the intention of making movie stars. But I believe every marquee character should justify their time on that marquee. Put the face in dramatic lighting. I want their faces unnaturally bright. Like beacons. Why is there a band of light across their eyes? Because they are the names on the poster. Put them center frame often enough that we know why this guy has top billing.
Can this concept be crudely transposed to comic books?
Yes. Do it. Main character is main character. Beautiful faces are engaging. I want all my characters to be lit and framed as though the director has a crush on them.
DON’T FORGET!
I’m signing at the following locations with some gifted people and I will have ashcan editions of LEADED GASOLINE. Come out. I’d love to see you.
And just because I accidently dragged this into the browser:
For me, the sweetness is immaterial. The crispness of the apple is primary.
NOTHING MAKES SENSE BUT MAYBE ALSO IT DOES
“Bad Boys 4 SHATTERS the box office!! Movies are back!!!”
Didn’t we hear last week that movies are dead and bloated and their skin has sloughed off and now we’re looking at monstrous deformed corpses rather than films?
Oh, that was last week? And nothing pundits say matters hours after they say it? Alright.
As human beings, we have a real difficult time with trendlines. To win arguments, our citations start and stop when it’s convenient for us. “The stock is soaring!” But scale out and it’s 200% under its value this time last year. We just do this all the time.
Comics have been ignoring trendlines for a long time. We will, apparently, convince you that what you don’t like is what you need. And if backed into a corner on sales figures, we’ll deflect with “but profits are up!” I recently learned a Marvel book that no one talked about, and people forgot existed entirely (retailers included) midway through its run, proved very profitable.
Due to a high cover price.
Selling to 1/4 the readers, at 3x the price? Not sure how that works, but I don’t think it TRENDS WELL.
I’m seeing tweets from retailers about ABSOLUTE POWER #1, the kickoff to a DC crossover event, being woefully underordered. Let’s say that’s not anecdotal and represents the facts. Why are we still doing this “crossovers are annoying, sure, but they spike sales and that helps retailers and the publishers’ managerial class” thing when we can just pull out the chart?
I’m a writer. I don’t have the answers to anything. But I’m just unable to buy the official narrative on these things. The ‘necessary evil’ talk is tired. “No solutions, just tradeoffs.” Ok. I can accept that. But where’s the readers’ part of the trade? What does the reader actually receive in any of these alleged compromises?
LET’S SEE THE CHART.
MEDIA CONSUMPTION
Out of all the movies I’m pulling scenes from, I can’t say with any confidence why I arrived at Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects as the thing I sit down and actually watch. There is no indication it was gonna be good. But it had been awhile since I’d sat with a proper Cannon Film and, boy, was this one.
Charles Bronson is a mildly racist vice detective who will set fire to a perp’s Cadillac or penetrate a perp’s ass with an oversized dildo. He’s not letting civil liberties slow down his sense of justice.
This is one of those movies a hack reviewer would say has “a murky plot.” But that’s bullshit. Novels have murky plots. There just happens to be two things going on in this movie and they don’t always overlap at the anticipated pace.
The film is one of those time capsules to a moment where Americans were expected to have anxieties about the Japanese. I don’t know how much that ever manifested in real life, but a small collection of movies from the mid-80s tell me that at least the media was banking on it.
I was bored at no time during this movie. And the cavalier attitude it has towards extrajudicial enforcement made it feel dirty and fun. Here’s a screenshot of Bronson enjoying a sex trafficker being raped in prison. Mind you, he says this to himself:
I would recommend the movie. And I found it inspiring, in it’s own strange little way. It is time for a Cannon Film Group in comics. Where is the sleazy genre work that is self-aware but unwilling to wallow in irony? Where is the creator who actually just likes the thing for what it is?
BEFORE I FORGET
I saw an essay about why the Reggie scene from Bad Boys II is problematic, twenty-one years later.
That was a sign, for me. Nonsense police are on the scene. None of the opinions matter. You lost the plot and became a joke and there’s no reason for a reasonable person to interface with your dumb ideas. Problematic sounds a lot more fun than being a bitchass whiner who makes nothing but criticism hosted on digital platforms that will die within the decade.
The Piskor thing broke the spell hanging over a lotta people in comics. It was too much and once you do too much, humoring you becomes optional. No more busybodies who don’t make anything. I should really do a ‘where are they now’ segment with the busybodies and the targets of their fixations. Remember Frank Miller getting kicked off Thought Bubble? I’m going to watch a documentary about Miller, in a theater, this week. What are his persecutors up to?
No more “a very necessary thread on why thing we all love is bad” bullshit. You do too much and now who could care?
Bad Boys 4 life. Reggie scene 4 life.
AND THAT’S IT FOR ME
Back to the BBQ, where I’ll pick at the salsas. Hope your week is productive and fun. Do for self.