Do Not Siege Walled Cities - 273
Retire Jack Black To a Mining Colony With Low Life Expectancy
JUMP INTO THE FIRE
Hello all! Happy to have your eyes again. I’m in Austin Texas and for those asking, the chickens are doing well outside of a broody bird I have to remind to eat.
I felt like a comic book writer this week, rather than the “guy who puts comic books together” I’ve been recently. There’s a thrill to hiring cover artists and colorists, putting together a schedule, and keeping the train on the track. But it’s not the same as putting my brain in a story and trying not to destroy either one.
Really truly beautiful work is coming in from my co-creators. Here’s a Ludo spread he’s coloring now.
WHY DO YOU CAAAAAARE?
A tweet about the Minecraft film went viral, mostly due to the copious quote-tweets rebutting it. The original tweet was pointing out that the Minecraft movie is for 6-year-olds, not adults. The implication being adults should not lower themselves by judging it. “It’s not for you,” is the refrain from a section of the internet.
The responses were clips from children’s movies from the past, demonstrating that the genre is capable of depth. And the point was made. It was best illustrated by a clip from the Don Bluth film The Secret of NIMH. “This was made for 6-year-olds.” And it was dramatic, dynamic, and the stakes were life or death.
Now, perhaps it’s unfair to cherry-pick a pivotal scene in a classic and weigh it against a teaser trailer. But I think there’s something to the idea that you can judge works without playing the “it’s for kids” get-out-of-jail-free card.
While sensibilities differ and “that’s not for me” is a fair enough assessment of a thing you’re not interested in, using “it’s not for you” as a means to escape criticism is just tired. I was never going to be a passenger on the Space Shuttle Challenger, but I feel confident saying that particular ship did not live up to expectations. There’s the exceptional, there’s the platonic ideal of a thing, and then there’s just basic standards. You can sit in a chair. A car has a means to steer it. A story should have compelling characters, interesting setting, and forward momentum. It’s proper and good to judge a kid’s movie on those standards.
It may be the thesis of my career, both in comics and music: Even crap is capable of being GOOD.
SEE YOU AT THE EGG
Bernie Mireault took his life this week.
My comic shop as a kid was FantaCo Comics at 21 Central Ave, Albany NY. The vibe is one I’m grateful for still. They had my AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, but also everything I didn’t know about yet. Titles that may’ve felt obscure to a teenager, like Mireault’s THE JAM, were always on offer. And certainly GRENDEL. I know his work well despite never having been a collector of it. You take these things, and people, for granted.
I like being alive. And so when people choose to die, I feel some despair. Even if I can rationalize that some suicides are making an informed choice and it represents an important agency and autonomy, I still feel bad about it.
I did not really need to read it to know, but it was confirmed by some of his eulogizers that Mireault died in poverty. If I could offer any advice to people in creative fields: work whatever jobs you have to to build a life. Your art is everything until you’re hopeless and inert and cornered. I’m not speaking to Mireault’s state of mind, but I don’t think it’s hard to picture how some artists can arrive where he did. You may never be appreciated in your lifetime. Plan accordingly.
RIP to an odd and singular talent.
IS IT WRONG TO CELEBRATE FAILURE AND LOSS?
For people who have no interest in videogames, I’ll keep the lore short:
A game called Concord launched recently and was taken offline within two weeks. Customers were given refunds. It may or may not resurface as a retooled free-to-play game, but most likely it is a write-off. A massive one. $100M+ if the reporting is correct.
Now there’s a ton of post-mortem analysis going on about why it failed. The most obvious reasons cited are the price (most games of this type are free) and the inability to differentiate itself from the competition.
Some claim the game is culture war collateral, because very early in its rollout the characters’ pronouns were centered. The game also features a ‘diverse roster of characters’ which some people lump into culture war conversations.
In that messy nexus of culture war and personal preference, we’ve got the character design. Which most everyone agrees is part of the game’s inability to draw gamers in. But the reasons the characters don’t work vary by commentator.
Here’s a selection of the ‘diverse’ characters. Obviously whoever I grabbed this from off Google Images was trying to illustrate a point.
And I believe this is the full roster.
I say this conversation represents a nexus of politics and preference because I look at these characters and think they all look equally lame. But some people look at the non-white and female characters and think, “really tacky how hard this game is trying send a message.” And others feel just the opposite. They think, “interesting that these designs are a problem. Is it possible you have a problem with black people/women/etc?”
So, which is it? Is it possible any of these are just the actual fact? Is this game desperately trying to hammer a social message? Or is it the case that there’s nothing abnormal here and people with unspoken race anxieties are seeing social messages in their soup?
I don’t know. I don’t know the developers and I don’t know the alleged racists.
But I do know these designs suck.
I just wonder if they suck any more than the most popular game in the hero shooter genre, Overwatch. Here are those characters:
Ok. Now that I’m looking at the Overwatch roster… no. The answer is no. Sure, Concord’s characters are decidedly lame. Lame as shit even. But these are just as bad.
I can’t find a meaningful difference. And am I crazy or is Overwatch just as racially diverse as Concord? Am I crazy? What are people talking about? Is everything just an excuse to argue?
Looks like the game failed because they asked money for something that’s normally free. End of story.
On to the headline, is it wrong that people should be glib about something failing? Because a lotta people are really having a laugh over Concord falling apart.
Well, weigh it. On one hand, we’ve got the disappointment and hurt of the hundreds of people who worked on that thing. It does not feel nice to fail. And on the other hand, we could examine the idea that eventual good is made through iteration and failure is necessary.
But where does that last bit include mockery and elation? It’s a fine line on seeing failure as a natural part of the evolution of a product, medium, genre, etc and getting off on people losing. So fine a line, in fact, that I don’t have an answer.
YOU DON’T GET TO DO THAT
Seeing some barf-worthy discourse around Neil Gaiman. I don’t know that it’s worth analyzing in great depth, so here’s my bullet point responses.
No, corporations do not have a right to seize a creator’s work because the creator doesn’t live up to your moral expectations. That’s not how that works. Protections are not privileges. What is yours is yours, without caveat.
You don’t get to say, “there’s always been some chatter about his personal life” now that he’s being accused of misconduct. If you heard someone was a rapist and you did nothing, you own some of that. So, did you actually hear that about Gaiman or are you a brain-injured NPC that reconstructs their recent history to account for current news?
I’ve been public about Gaiman being an annoying turd for a long time. But that’s not the same as sexual misconduct. When you say, “why is no one talking about this?” the logical answer should be because none of you are investigators or litigators. And if your point is “it feels bad that this serious issue isn’t being discussed because we are afraid to admit a guy we saw as ‘our guy’ may be a bad dude” then, congratulations, you’re starting to get how this all works. Yes! It does feel bad! Just as it should feel bad that extra scrutiny and suspicion is heaped on guys who are not ‘our guys.’
A HEADS UP
Mark Bertolini, who is NOT one of of my Italian co-creators, despite the name, has launched a ZOOP campaign to fund his book, BREAKNECK. You can find that page by clicking HERE.
Bertolini is something we don’t see very often anymore, which is a proper INDIE creator. He works in all the genres the direct market coddles, but is not married to its expectations. Born at the wrong time, in some respects. In 1987, he’d be more at home. But, born at the right time in at least one regard: He can reach his readership in their homes via crowdfunding. And, if you’re reading this, now he’s reached YOU.
UBER SEXY ULTRA VIOLENCE
A few words about how American comics may be missing genre milestones by being scared. Lean in and profit.
MEDIA CONSUMPTION
One of my oldest friends is a slasher and giallo superfan. And he loves Fulci movies. I never really gave them the time everyone else on Earth believes they deserve. For whatever reason, this week, I have. I’m still working through one of his made-for-TV lesser works, Touch of Death, but did catch New York Ripper in full.
I think movies like this are instructive for comic books. Because they remind you that story ‘should not’ come second… but definitely can come second. This is a messy mix of soggy wooden dialog and laughable premises. And because it has some swag… it works. Elevated idiocy.
Speaking of making no sense and being all style over substance, we’ve got Angel Cop. A 6-part OVA that is the definition of cool for cool’s sake. In the tradition of the best anime, anything that looks cool works. Does it stand to scrutiny on any level? Definitely not. But it sure does look cool. Ok, leave it in. Fun violence of the type you miss.
This one was interesting. Wheelchair-bound writer sends his wife out to sleep with men, who then all end up murdered. Is SHE the Black Angel? Here’s some notes I took while watching it: “Close up of severed penis. Harsh faces. Cuckery.”
I THINK THAT’S IT FOR THE DAY
Hope you’re all in good health and stay that way until I next message you. It’s easy to get cancer. It’s easy to succumb to depression. And the only insulation you’ve got from some of that pain is the assumption that people won’t be cruel on top of it. So the next time you catch yourself being nasty, think about how short a time we’ve got. Do for self.