The Four Color Media Monitor

The New Yorker wrote some history about Héctor Germán Oesterheld, a comic strip writer in Argentina, who appears to have had a fishy approach to what he considered worthy subjects to cast in his cartoons:

One of the few things we know about the end of the comic-strip writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld’s life is that he was allowed to smoke a cigarette on Christmas Eve in 1977. Argentina’s National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons, or conadep, issued a report in 1984 containing that detail. The report quotes Eduardo Arias, a psychologist detained with Oesterheld:

The guards gave us permission to take off our hoods and smoke a cigarette. They also allowed us to talk to each other for five minutes. Then Héctor said that as he was the oldest he wanted to shake hands with all the prisoners present, one by one. I will never forget that handshake. Héctor Oesterheld was sixty years old when this happened. His physical condition was very bad indeed. I don’t know what happened to him. I was freed in January 1978. He stayed in that place.

Both men were prisoners of the Argentine junta at one of its most notorious facilities, a detention and torture center situated in a police station in the Villa Insuperable neighborhood in the province of Buenos Aires. It was known mainly by its ironic nickname, the Sheraton. Oesterheld and three of his four daughters were among los desaparecidos, “the disappeared,” those people who were kidnapped and almost certainly murdered by the regime; the fourth died during a botched abduction.

For most of his life, Oesterheld was a beloved writer of pulp adventures—Westerns, stories of alien invasion, tales of the battlefield in the Second World War—that often bend or break genre rules. When Oesterheld departed from convention, it was to tweak reigning pieties. His cowboys are villains who oppress courageous Indians. His war stories privilege moral ambiguity over daring exploits. When his aliens invade an imaginary Argentina, feckless governments abandon a persecuted citizenry, who have to resist the invaders as guerrillas. His work reflects a desperate search for heroism, at first in adventure stories and then among real-world figures like Eva Perón and Che Guevara, who star in his comics less as historical figures than as avatars of his passionate leftism.

Well here's where they lose me, when they begin sugarcoating a figure like Guevara, who was really a tyrant, and was responsible for slaughtering over 100 people regardless of guilt or innocence. And he was against free press. I'm sure the rightist movement in Argentina at the time weren't saints either, but glossing over the most serious offenses committed by leftists like Guevara is very troubling. As told in this Wall Street Journal op-ed (via AEI) about the Castro regime, whom Guevara assisted in taking over Cuba:

Cuba Archive finds that some 5,600 Cubans have died in front of firing squads and another 1,200 in “extrajudicial assassinations.” Che Guevara was a gleeful executioner at the infamous La Cabana Fortress in 1959 where, under his orders, at least 151 Cubans were lined up and shot. Children have not been spared. Of the 94 minors whose deaths have been documented by Cuba Archive, 22 died by firing squad and 32 in extrajudicial assassinations.

If that's the kind of man Oesterheld revered, something is terribly wrong here, and he's hardly a legend if he glossed over serious acts of barbarism. Even Peron and her husband Juan weren't admirable figures, based on how the husband had granted safe haven to Nazi war criminals, supported Mussolini during WW2, and the wife just went along with it all. How can a sensible person admire a comics writer who depicted those kind of real life figures as "avatars"? Some search for "heroism" alright. This looks like just another poor example coming from a magazine that's long been a far-left apologist for years.

Labels: comic strips, history, msm propaganda, politics

Back in the 1970s, a children's author named Arnold Lobel penned 4 illustrated books called Frog & Toad, which appear to have been allusions to his own homosexuality. Now, there's an animated TV show being produced on Apple TV-Plus, and in an interview with the Daily Beast, the producer says it'll contain homosexual subtext:

“Every single person on our crew that had a hand in the show—as an artist, as a writer, as a voice actor—they all brought their own version of Frog and Toad to what they did,” Hoegee says. “It was really important to me that I allow as much of that on the screen as possible.”

That’s why Hoegee found it important to consider the queer subtext of the Frog and Toad books. A “significant number” of his cast and crew identify as LGBTQ+, Hoegee says, and he aspired “to make sure that everyone felt that they were being heard and their contribution—their Frog and Toad—lived on in whatever shape that was.”

“You can’t deny it,” Hoegee says. “It is part of the books, it’s part of the legacy.”

Though Frog and Toad are simply called “friends” in the series and in the books, Arnold Lobel came out to his family as gay in 1974, after the books had been published. In a 2016 interview with the New Yorker, Adrianne Lobel called the books “the beginning of him coming out.” Over the years, Frog and Toad have become gay icons. There are shirts that read “Frog and Toad Are Gay.” Even when this series was announced, Them wrote an article headlined “Everyone’s Favorite Queer Couple, ‘Frog and Toad,’ Are Coming to TV.”

“What we wanted to do here is create a faithful adaptation of the books,” Hoegee says. “For people, a lot of readers of a certain age, Frog and Toad as characters seen through a queer lens is hugely important to them. We can’t deny anyone that meaning to them, as far as these characters go. If that’s how you see these characters in the book, it’s fair to say that you will have the opportunity to see a similar viewpoint in the show as well.”

Perceive Frog and Toad however you want, but Hoegee says the most important thing is that you understand how much they deeply care for one another. It doesn’t matter if that compassion is platonic or romantic, the fact that they’re nearly inseparable should teach us all a bit about companionship.

“What Frog and Toad shows us is that there is still the ability to have a deep and meaningful and loving friendship that transcends everything,” Hoegee says. “This is a show that celebrates how two very different characters can still find a common ground and a respect and appreciation and love for each other, that still allows them to have fun together and be inseparable. Our differences shouldn’t divide us, our differences should be the thing that brings us together.”

Ever notice how nobody covering news like this ever discusses whether readers of "certain ages" can view certain creations through an ethnic/national lens (Israeli, Estonian, Armenian, Pervian, etc)? It just shows how sexual preference is the only form of identity politic Hollywood truly cares about today, and judging by how many LGBT practitioners are working on this show, they're clearly intent on making it their own vanity project in some way or other. The gushing attitude the producer employs is utterly embarrassing and head-shaking.

And as far as perceptions are concerned, Breitbart notes:

Like Sesame Street‘s Bert and Ernie, the original Frog and Toad characters from Arnold Lobel’s books have become icons of the LGBTQ+ world, even though the books don’t contain any references to homosexuality.

Arnold Lobel, who was gay, never indicated that the characters represent a gay couple. In the books, Frog and Toad are best friends who embark on a series of adventures, including flying a kite, discovering nature, and swimming.

While he may not have stated directly they were meant to represent a homosexual couple, I did once read some statements he made to the press that both amphibians were meant to reflect some of his own personality, and the producers of this new cartoon are doubtless exploiting that as justification for what they've set out to do. So whether it's a "faithful" adaptation is debatable, but don't be shocked if they go beyond mere subtext in the finished product. My own family once owned a copy of Frog & Toad, but like countless others at the time, had no idea whether it was meant as a statement by somebody who truly believed liberal propaganda that homosexuality was a positive role model.

What's really weird, depending how you view this, is that here, Lobel was married to a woman, Anita Kempler, gave birth to a daughter and son, and clearly was capable of leading a heterosexual relationship, yet somewhere along the way, he decided he wanted to lead a homosexual lifestyle and dumped the lady like cold coffee, all for the sake of that. Seriously, it's just not a good example he set by doing so. Now, decades later, some leftist ideologues are blatantly exploiting his work for their very own agendas. And it's a shame Sesame Street's Ernie & Bert fell victim to the same exploitation along with the whole show itself on PBS, which has fallen victim to LGBT exploitation in recent years. Some of the best children's TV programs of yesteryear have been throughly desecrated as a result.

Labels: animation, golden calf of LGBT, history, licensed products, msm propaganda

IDW Publishing's been suffering quite a few losses in the past number of years due to their own wokeness, and as Deadline Hollywood reports, they're now losing value on the stock market, and shedding more employees:

IDW Media Holdings, the company that includes a prominent comics division and an entertainment division behind such series as Syfy’s Wynonna Earp, BBC America/Netflix’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and Netflix’s Locke & Key, said Thursday it is undergoing cost-cutting measures including reducing its workforce by more than a third, delisting from the NYSE and making changes to senior management in response to “operational challenges.”

Leaving are Paul Davidson, EVP and head of IDW Media’s entertainment division, along with the majority of the entertainment team, as well as the head of publishing, Nachie Marsham, Deadline has learned. [...]

Overall, the layoffs will impact 39% of IDW’s current workforce, which the company said will eventually deliver $4.4 million in annual savings.[...]

As for the stock, the IDW board plans to deregister its Class B common stock and delist it from the NYSE, expecting the moves to take effect by May 18. The company said it “intends to file an application for its Class B common stock to be quoted on the OTCQB platform as soon as practicable.”

They claim it'll help them recover, but seeing how they lost licenses to publish comics based on GI Joe and Transformers (and adaptations of merchandise took up a considerable amount of their publishing slate), and have damaged their brand with wokeness to boot, that's why, unless they're willing to turn around and be less PC, their chances of recovery are very thin. In fact, when you have too much licensed merchandise as a way of running a business, that's why the company is hardly a loss. A similar argument could be made for how they did business with woke Netflix.

Labels: indie publishers, licensed products, sales

Here's a recent radio interview transcript from USC Annenberg Media with store managers from California, who provides yet another overconfident view of the impact superhero movies have back on the zygote. Much as the journalists themselves gloss over perceptions:

With Avengers Endgame holding the title as the second highest grossing film of all time, superhero movies have become a fan-favorite among audiences from all ages and has cemented itself as a household name in the film industry. According to Business Insider, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is worth more than $25 billion worldwide, turning comic book characters into desired roles by A-list celebrities and dedicated theme park attractions like “Avengers Campus” outfitted with merchandise, rides, and costumed actors.

What was previously considered a genre for “geeks” and “dorks”, these blockbuster films have revolutionized the way super heroes are now seen, and have turned 60% of adults in the United States into superfans.

Today, the emergence of popularity continues to rise to higher heights and their notoriety has sparked the interest in fans of the films visiting comic bookstores to discover where their favorite crime-fighting vigilantes come from.

No shock at all they'd ignore how the success of the past decade is receding now, under the weight of political correctness at the film studios. And even before now, it's not like geeks and dorks suddenly found respect overnight. With the way the companies who own the classic creations today look down their noses at the fans, it's clear the situation isn't what they what everyone to believe it is. Besides, most of the comic adaptations now considered a big deal are almost entirely those based on Marvel/DC. Independent comics get very little of this same attention by contrast, unless it's something as jarring as The Boys happens to be. Now, here's what one of the interviewees said:

Geoffrey Patterson Jr., the owner of Hi De Ho Comics in LA and Geoffrey’s Comics in Torrance, spoke on the evolution of the image of comic books through the decades.

Geoffrey Patterson Jr.: I mean, well, this has changed so much because. As recently as just 15 years ago. Comic books like would be looked at differently at a dinner party. If you mentioned you read comic books, you know, and now it’s just another thing that people read. I think that to me is the biggest change is how there are people who just casually read some comic books nowadays.

You could make a similar point about RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons - which is now regrettably being accused of supposed racism, and current owner Wizards of the Coast isn't defending the products they bought from original TSR co-founder Gary Gygax, who decidedly made a terrible error - and even a claim that found recognition wouldn't hold up well if viewed under a magnifying glass. Also note how the recent film adaptation omitted the original creators' names from the credits. Sure, when Gygax sold them the properties over 2 decades ago, it wasn't like they were that PC at the time, but even so, it's stupefying how many entrepreneurs are selling their products to conglomerates left and right, as though money literally takes precedence over all. And if WotC really believes "race" is a problem in D&D, then we obviously haven't gotten over the "satanic panic" of the 1980s, and it sure has boomeranged back.

I suppose the point here is that, if D&D could undergo PC alterations, then not only could Marvel/DC experience the same, they already are, first in comics and then in movies, when you consider how only the brand new Latino Blue Beetle is considered acceptable for a live action movie, and at the expense of Ted Kord, and even his predecessor, Dan Garret. Let's also consider how woke the movie looks be, too. Maybe most irritating is how a lot of what you see in modern times at the Big Two's publishing arms is being written more as a means for providing screenwriters with templates, not so it can serve the art form independently on its own. But does that mean anything to the specialty store managers who were interviewed for the radio station? Apparently not. And it's a real shame they insist on being so knee-jerk and sugarcoated.

Labels: dc comics, licensed products, marvel comics, msm propaganda, politics, sales

Aleteia announced there's a new comic published titled Medal Knight, drawing ideas from a Catholic representative of Poland who'd sacrificed his life during WW2 to save another man's:

There’s a new superhero on the block, and his story was inspired by a Catholic saint. Medal Knight is the latest graphic novel from Voyage Comics, a publisher committed to creating high quality entertainment informed by Catholic values. Voyage’s offerings include features on the lives of saints, like Digital Disciple: Carlo Acutis and the Eucharist, and adventures inspired by the works of great Catholic thinkers, like The Phantom Phoenix series. Now, with the addition of Medal Knight, St. Maximilian Kolbe joins their list of influences.

Medal Knight follows the story of Max, a gifted 18-year-old with a penchant for invention and engineering. Enrolled at a highly advanced technical school that pushes him to achieve great things, Max makes great strides in the field of robotics while taking pride in the potential of his inventions to help the world. [...]

Philip Kosloski, author of Medal Knight and founder of Voyage Comics, explained that Max was inspired by the influential Polish saint Maximilian Kolbe. Kolbe is most prominently known for his martyrdom at the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz, but what many do not know is that this Catholic saint was a technology enthusiast:

“One of his classmates in seminary later explained how he was enamored with the Wright Brothers and the aerodynamics of flying. He was often seen by his fellow seminarians sketching drawings of spacecraft in his spare time, filling the margins of his theology notebooks.” Philip Kosloski added, “In the biography A Man for Others: Maximilian Kolbe, Bronislaus Strycznys explained, ‘Already, he anticipated the possibility of reaching the moon with a rocket and he thought of many other unusual inventions.’”

[...] Medal Knight pays homage to all these elements of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s life with this new, exciting superhero. With phenomenal art from Sergio Cariello of the Action Bible! and Phil Kosloski’s genuine and realistic dialogue, Medal Knight is the exact comic needed in the post-Avengers comic book world. Tony Stark, eat your heart out!

It's decidedly preferable reading stuff like this than the embarrassment the Avengers became under hack writers like Brian Bendis and Jason Aaron in the past 2 decades. Historical figures like these can certainly make great wellsprings, so congratulations to Voyage for thinking these tales up.

Labels: Europe and Asia, history, indie publishers, technology

First, here's a report on CBS-17 in Raleigh of a comics store proprietor who was arrested for sexual abuse of an underaged girl:

A Wilmington comic book store owner has been sentenced between 16 to 20 years in prison for sexual offenses against a child he first met in 2000 when the child was 10 years old.

Robert Adam Burns, now 58, pleaded guilty in New Hanover County to four counts of statutory sex offenses with a 13-,14-, or 15-year-old and four counts of indecent liberties with a child, according to North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein. All of the counts stem from abuse against one victim in 2004 and 2005.

In 2000, he met the victim at his comic book store and began grooming her by giving her surfing lessons at Wrightsville Beach for some years, Stein said in a Monday news release.

Burns began sexually assaulting the victim when she was 14 years old. She came forward in early 2020 to disclose the abuse.

Very chilling. So this monster committed a serious offense against a minor, and disgraced the profession, doing a terrible disservice to industry and audience alike. Sadly, as realists recognize, this is not a shock a man in the comics sales profession could commit sexual abuse.

Next, in the Hickory Daily Record, word of a specialty store manager who acted heroically by saving a fellow worker at his shopping arcade from a rapist:

A man was arrested on an attempted rape charge thanks to the quick action of a local businessman and his friend.

Hickory police charged 22-year-old Hickory resident Justin Bradley Johnson with one felony count of attempted second-degree rape in connection to an assault in a downtown Hickory shopping center.

Jacob Edwards, owner of Time Tunnel Comics, said he had closed his store and was in his car about to turn out of the strip mall parking lot, when he saw Prism coffee shop owner Nestaseya Baadani banging on the door of his store. Edwards said he knew something was wrong when he saw Baadani running.

“Apparently, she had beaten on all the (shop) doors, all the way down until she got to mine,” Edwards said.

Baadani informed Edwards and his friend Mark Ball that someone was being attacked at the store next to her coffee shop. Edwards said the moment he opened his car door he heard someone screaming for help.

Edwards said he subdued Johnson with a chokehold. Edwards said he and Ball held the suspect on the ground until police arrived.

“Once I let go of the choke, he started to come to. But by that point we had him on the ground. I’m a man of heroic girth, so I’m just on top of him and he ain’t going anywhere,” Edwards said.

This guy, in sharp contrast to the first example, has done a good service for the medium and its audience, by selflessly defending a local woman from a sexually violent predator. So congratulations to Mr. Edwards for helping to stop a crime. Thank goodness for folks like these.

Labels: misogyny and racism, sales, violence

KHON-2 announced a exhibition held this week in Honolulu, where one of the organizers is the author of Pineapple Man:

Pineapple Man and Friends is an exhibit at The ARTS at Marks Garage and runs through April 28.

It’s all thanks to Sam Campos, a Hawaii leader in comic art and the creator of Pineapple Man.

It features everyone from veterans to students and self-taught artists.

“We showcase all of our comic book artists around the time of some of the other cons that happen statewide. And it’s to help these artists that don’t get to show in some of the galleries and you know, a lot of their stuff is underground or online,” said Elizabeth O’Brien, from The ARTS at Marks Garage.

“We see it in the newspapers, we see it of course, online, but not in the galleries,” said O’Brien. “So this is a chance for them to shine and show off their work and to be here in person to do that.”

[...] “Big comic book companies, you know, people see that but they don’t see the local guys a little guys us going, ‘hey, I have an independent comic,’ right?” said Wong. “So I think this is like this gallery helps us promote our work and showcase that it’s important.”

That's been a pretty apparent problem for years. The mainstream press doesn't really care about independent productions, no matter the quality of the story and art. All they care about is tabloid-like directions of the majors, one of the leading reasons so many stories with potential end up watered down when they're turned into movies. And there's no telling if that'll ever change.

Let's hope these exhibitions do draw more attention to what the island state has to offer, which can have as much potential as what's found on the mainland.

Labels: conventions, exhibitions, good artists, indie publishers, museums

As though it weren't bad enough the aforementioned writer Zeb Wells was irritating Spider-fans whom neither he nor Marvel seem to have any interest in pleasing, now pretentious Polygon's writing a superficial briefing of the Spider-storyline, making no serious attempt to be objective:

For an entire year, Amazing Spider-Man has been teasing readers with its set up. It has all the usual hallmarks of a Spider-Man comic, but with glaring mysteries: Why is Peter Parker persona non grata with everyone he’s normally chums with? Why is Mary Jane dating some guy who has two elementary school age children?

By all appearances, six months before the events of last year’s Amazing Spider-Man #1, Spider-Man did something so heinous and wild as that it made his entire social network stop speaking to him and Mary Jane start dating a single dad.

And now Amazing Spider-Man is finally getting around to explaining what it was.

[...] As you might be able to tell from John Romita’s art here, writer Zeb Wells has taken Spider-Man in a somewhat timey-wimey direction. Yes, it’s a good old “time moves faster in the alternate dimension” story, but from the perspective of the real world.

When Mary Jane got trapped in an apocalypse dimension, Spider-Man burned all his bridges, stealing a miniature fusion reactor from the Fantastic Four and pummeling Captain America to escape. He did all this to recruit the only person who’d help him (a desperate for redemption Norman Osborn) turn the fusion reactor into a dimension hopping device so he could go back and get her.

But all that webslinging, punching, and mad science took him a whole day, which was apparently enough time for Mary Jane to meet another survivor, give up on getting rescued, fall in love, and make two entire humans.

There’s Parker luck, but this is extreme.

And in a very bad way. It's no different from a few other runs since the turn of the century with instances where Peter arrives too late to meet Mary Jane, and here, they certainly trolled the audience with the notion that instead of bearing children for Peter, if MJ bore any, it was for another man. That this takes place in another dimension doesn't alleviate the bad taste they're foisting on Spidey, right down to how this story downplays Osborn's past villainy, and is a slap in the face to Gwen Stacy. And Polygon's writer can only offer a non-commital take on the subject that doesn't approach the storyline with a critical eye. She even wrote a brief about Tom Taylor's Nightwing run that's no better:

So I’m really looking forward to seeing how Tom Taylor, a bit of a master at wild continuity swings that are still full of character, plans to bring the wide, wide web of Titans together in one book. In the meantime, his Nightwing is basically a Titans book at the moment, with the classic ’80s/Cartoon team lineup trying to rescue a little girl’s soul from hell, where her dad sold it to.

Coming from a such a politically motivated writer, it won't be shocking if this turns out to be as tasteless as it sounds. And they predictably have the gall to sugarcoat it. There's even this brief about a Jason Aaron Avengers tale, Assemble Omega:

I would say that Jason Aaron’s Avengers run went out with a bang, but honestly it’s been cranked up to 11 for so long that I’ve got the comic book reading equivalent of tinnitus for it. I’m happy for a writer to have spent so long doing something he’s clearly very excited about, [...]

I'm not, nor is anybody else who was alienated by this guy's social justice pandering politics. But it's no shock Polygon's still writing these insulting farces. They're some of the worst of the mainstream industry's apologists.

Labels: Avengers, bad editors, dc comics, dreadful writers, golden calf of villainy, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, Spider-Man, Titans, women of marvel

So there's an upcoming live action movie based - on the surface anyway - on Masami Kurumada's famous Saint Seiya manga, which was also adapted into a notable anime series by Toei in the late 1980s (with some sequels coming at least a decade later), and here's the starting info from Coming Soon:

The official Knights of the Zodiac trailer has been released, giving fans a closer look at the live-action Saint Seiya movie. Based on the popular manga and anime, Knights of the Zodiac is set to release exclusively in theaters on May 12. [...]

Knights of the Zodiac was created by Masami Kurumada. The manga was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1986-1990 and gained massive popularity. The series was localized as Knights of the Zodiac and would spawn numerous spin-off series, anime, and video games.

What isn't clear from the above, is that, if Bounding Into Comics is correct, it's actually based on what Netflix broadcast nearly 4 years ago, a CGI-animated miniseries whose USA producer made sure to gender-swap at least one of the original cast members from the original tales, Shun, instead of create a new female character, if it's such a big deal. On which note, let's take a look at what's told by Meaww at the time the miniseries first aired on Netflix:

Netflix is all set to release ‘Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya’, a remake of the classic 1980s anime, and the upcoming show has already been met with controversy. The debate is about a certain character who was gender-swapped from male to female but the problem is a little more nuanced than it might appear at first glance.

The original ‘Saint Seiya’ anime was an extremely popular show that still maintains a cult following. It featured mostly male characters, which to be honest is not that surprising considering the time of its release. The controversy surrounding the remake erupted back in December 2018 when it was revealed that one of the original characters, Andromeda Shun, has been gender-swapped for the new series.

The problem isn’t just that Shun was a highly popular character in the original anime. The Bronze Saint was arguably one of the strongest characters on the show but he displayed a very kind, peaceable disposition. He was very sensitive and effeminate, qualities that got some fans to adopt him as a gay icon and others to praise him for showing how men could be kind and sensitive and still be strong fighters.

Considering how much of a sacred cow and a protected class topic homosexuality is in Hollywood, it certainly is weird they'd want to change Shun, of all characters, from male to female. Presumably, this was because most mangakas in Japan, even if you don't agree with the LGBT practice, usually avoid politicizing it, and unlike the USA, they have no issue with depicting a male LGBT character as a baddie. So because Shun didn't meet their idea of what an effeminate man should be characterized as, they decided this would make the perfect example for gender-swapping? Well, all they did was prove the key to failure is trying to please everyone. Though I think it should be made clear kindness and sensitivity are qualities that can absolutely be found in heterosexual men too, so it's awfully silly how ideologues try to hijack certain ideas to fit their narrative.

As the controversy gained steam, Eugene Son, who is a writer on the show, took full responsibility and defended the decision to change Shun’s gender in a series of tweets that have now been deleted. He explained that while the original show had some excellent core concepts, the one thing that bothered him about it was that “the Bronze Knights with Pegasus Seiya are all dudes”.

He also added that the creators of the remake were aware of the important female characters on the show but decided against changing the story to give them more central roles because it would be a disservice to the characters.

“There are plenty of female characters in the anime and manga. Marin and Shaina are both incredible. But they’re both powerful already – no one wants to see them turned into Bronze Knights."

He also explained that he was not comfortable with the idea of creating a new character just to add representation, clearly having taken a hint from the controversy created by the addition of Evangeline Lilly’s Tauriel to ‘The Hobbit’ movies.

“I didn’t want to create a new female character that would stick out and be obvious – especially if she was not created naturally and has no character/personality except 'to be the girl.'”

This is enough to fall off the chair laughing at, since he went and did just what he said he didn't want to do. And I'm sure he knows it. All he's done is demonstrate a lack of both courage and creativity. The miniseries got some pretty negative reception, all the more reason it's dumbfounding it would get any sequel parts as it went along, if it's as dull as considered to be.

An important part to consider about the original Saint Seiya is that stood out as an example of men who could act heroically. And that's why you may dread the upcoming movie adaptation, since, if it's as woke as can be expected, the idea of men heroically defending a lady's honor could be dumbed down horribly. Not to mention that mainstreaming these creations through blockbuster movie fare has long become incredibly off-putting. That's why, no attending this new live action movie for me. Besides, what if it's even more jarringly violent than the original manga/anime was, and ends up played for cheap sensationlism? What would that say about the movie producers' ideas of what makes great entertainment?

Labels: golden calf of LGBT, licensed products, manga and anime, moonbat writers, msm propaganda

I found this item on CBR, containing a list of some of the worst DC "events" from the past 2 decades that are unlikely to be adapted to movies as Marvel's Civil War regrettably was, though you can never be too sure they're correct. For example, what else but Identity Crisis made the list:

Comic books have an utterly horrible track record with depictions of sexual violence. It’s not only a difficult topic to get right; a wrong portrayal taints the character forever. Such was the case in Identity Crisis when it was revealed minor villain Dr. Light had attacked and raped Sue Dibny, Elongated Man’s wife.

Disgustingly, certain members of the League decided to wipe Dr. Light and Sue Dibny’s memories, including Batman, who was against the truth being hidden. This was not only a needlessly edgy story but also made the responsible League members come off as complete monsters.

There is an interesting point about mainstream comicdom doing poorly in its portrayals of sexual violence. One of the very few examples I know of where it was handled right was the 5th issue of 1987-90 volume of The Question, written by the late Denny O'Neil. And thankfully, it was anything but graphic, but the main point is that sexual assault was depicted negatively there, so O'Neil deserves some credit for recognizing the seriousness of the topic. In sharp contrast, of course, to anybody involved in the production of Identity Crisis, who disgustingly didn't.

One of the most irritating things about the apologists this miniseries had in the past is that some of them were supposedly appalled and offended by Spider-Man's Sins Past, and what it did with Gwen Stacy, shoehorning her into an equally contrived, out-of-the-blue situation where she had sex with Norman Osborn, and supposedly gave birth to twin children. Yet these same phony fans were perfectly fine with the anal rape scene in Identity Crisis, despite how crass it was. Let's be clear. Sins Past was very bad. But how is a scene where Gwen was anything but sexually assaulted against her will somehow worse in every way, shape and form than a scene that was touted as a rape, where an innocent and defenseless woman was violated to her core by an out-of-character villain, another innocent woman was pegged as her killer, and a tabloid paper later claims she too was sexually assaulted in Arkham Asylum? Based on all the repellent hypocrisy and double-standards prevalent at the time, I don't believe for even a millisecond that these were Spider-fans complaining about Sins Past. (I vaguely recall a sick, creepy sounding message board poster with the screen name "Old School Spidey Fan" as one of the worst of the hypocrites.) At best, it suggests they were virtue-signaling, acting as though, because they supposedly disapproved of Sins Past, that somehow makes it okay to overlook their defense of IC. But as I've made clear before, it's a forgone conclusion that, if Mary Jane Watson were an obscure member of the DCU instead of Marvel, were the girlfriend/wife of either Elongated Man or Atom, and were put through the same wringer Sue and Jean were, these same pseudo-detractors of Spidey's Sins Past would welcome it full force. Exactly why said hypocrites should be soundly condemned.

Another example the article gives is Amazons Attack:

The Amazons have never had the most stable of relationships with the rest of the world, and it all came to a head in this miniseries by Will Pfeiffer and Pete Woods. It involves Queen Hippolyta coming back from the dead, and leading an attack on Washington, DC, at the manipulation of the sorceress Circe. Unlike The Trial of the Amazons, this does not paint Amazons very well.

The story is ridiculous and flanderizes the Amazonians to a sexist degree. Their reasonings boil down to basically “men bad” instead of having the typically nuanced reasons for Amazonians isolating themselves. At the very least, it did give readers the hilarious “Bees. My god.” line from Batman, after he sees a bee gun in action.

This too was a product of a time when contempt for ladies was particularly notorious, as the prior example makes clear, and the worst part is that the people who had no issue portraying the Amazons so hatefully in this miniseries are likely quite fine with supporting all the LGBTQ ideology that's been in motion since. Amazons Attack is practically the kind of tale that turns lesbians into easy targets. On which note, the chances you'd see a commentary about homosexual male variants on the Amazons (would Frank Miller's 300 count?) stating "women bad" coming from the Big Two is next to nothing. I remember one of the writers of this revolting tale practically laughed at a question of whether he'd noticed the outrage, which totally confirms DC prepared this for the sake of laughing at anybody who dared to take offense.

But the Amazons "never" had the best relations with the mortal world? That's a flaw. Under George Perez, they did. It's under Dan DiDio they didn't.

CBR even thought to add a Batman tale by Kevin Smith, The Widening Gyre, to the mix:

Kevin Smith is no stranger to the world of comics, but this comic made that fact rather suspect. The Widening Gyre storyline focuses on Batman, his fiance Cloud St. Silver, and a new masked hero named “Baphomet,” who earns Batman’s trust. The entire story is a mishmash of inconsistencies and bad characterization.

For one, Batman is shown to be paranoid about his fiance being some kind of robot or sleeper agent. Meanwhile, he trusts Baphomet, a man he’s never met before, without question, to the point of revealing his secret identity to him. The reveal that Baphomet is the obscure and weird villain known as Onomatopeia was just the icing on the confusion cake.

I notice they confused the name that's usually Silver St. Cloud, but that's probably nothing compared to the head-shakingly stupid idea she'd turn out, in this story, to be either a robot or an enemy spy. And it's hardly a surprise Smith could have such a pretentious take on both DC/Marvel, recalling that overhyped Black Cat miniseries he stalled on completing in the early 2000s for a year and half before finishing it with a retcon injecting sexual abuse into Felicia Hardy's background. Also notice how the woman, regardless of exact status, is portrayed as untrustworthy, while the male stranger by contrast is fully trusted. That's certainly eyebrow raising.

Let's also see what they say about Final Crisis:

This arc right before Final Crisis was so universally panned that Grant Morrison even says it’s unnecessary reading for his storyline. The 51 issues are a confusing mess of mischaracterization and shocking deaths that ultimately amount to nothing by the time Final Crisis rolls around.

The fact that all of it is set on Earth-51 means nothing there matters for the main continuity. Not only that, even within the bounds of the story, it ends with abject failure, as Ray Palmer fails to develop a cure for the virus, and it ends up infecting their entire universe anyway. Plus, “I’ll kill you to death” is not nearly as cool as the story think it sounds.

But what's telling is how the Silver Age Atom is made out to look like a failure, adding insult to injury over how his former wife, Jean Loring, was forced into the role of a killer in Identity Crisis a few years prior. Now that I think of it, in the mid-2000s alone, DC was going miles out of its way to make Ray look terrible. So this would be just one more example, and it makes no difference whether it'd be an alternate dimension doppelganger; it's still pretty obvious what they'd set out to do. And even Morrison never complained.

Another gross example is Cry For Justice, and what it does with Green Lantern:

After the events of Final Crisis, a few heroes have started losing faith in what the Justice League fights for. So, he and Green Arrow split from the league to form their own, much more brutal vigilante team. Leaving aside the red flag of “Hal Jordan being stressed and taking things into his own hands,” this storyline was practically character assassination.

Hal Jordan, fresh off his “redemption” from Emerald Twilight, suddenly relapses into a vengeful vigilante. Green Arrow, typically a jokester, engages in the cold-blooded torture of villains. Not to mention, the editorial issues meant that any interesting ideas the storyline had were not given time to breathe.

I'm not sure Ollie Queen was ever a "jokester", but the way this comic exploited him for what could easily have been a political metaphor for Guantanamo Bay (similar to Identity Crisis, which was definitely that kind of metaphor) was truly disgusting, as was the tale's turning Arsenal's daughter Lian into a sacrificial lamb for the sake of culling every minor character in the DCU, every which way but loose. IIRC, this comic was also notorious for doing the same with the Three Dimwits from the Golden Age Flash tales.

There's also Batman's War Games, although here, there's one part where they stumble:

This is one of the most mean-spirited Batman stories ever told, and that’s because of how personal it gets with Stephanie Brown. This storyline has Batman determined to prove to Stephanie that she was never worthy of the title of Robin. What follows is a cruel series of events that results in her “death.”

The fallout from this storyline meant Tim Drake became more angst-ridden and lost a lover. Even worse, it was revealed that the death was faked all along to teach Batman a “lesson.” Everybody involved in this storyline comes off as a bitter and hateful person, except Stephanie Brown. Not a great choice for a movie if the studio plans on making the cast likable.

In the years since, DC's desecrated Tim by turning him bisexual, or maybe even full-fledged homosexual in a relationship with another teenage boy whom Bill Willingham introduced some time before. On which note, let's consider that Willingham has to shoulder some of the blame for bringing us to this dire situation. For an alleged conservative, he did considerable wrong here, and now everyone's paying the price, not just Spoiler and Dr. Leslie Thompkins. But what makes this fumble and so insultingly awkward is how they imply reversing the death of Spoiler was worse than killing her. What actually happened, assuming they confused the info, was that Thompkins was established as supposedly killing Steph, all supposedly to teach Batman a "lesson". Oh, did I forget to mention Willingham penned that storyline too? Like I said, we have us here a case of a "conservative" who sure knew how to lose everybody's respect, and make it difficult and embarrassing to read anything mainstream he wrote ever since, even if those storylines have since been jettisoned.

Finally, there's Heroes in Crisis:

The not-so-long-awaited spiritual successor to Identity Crisis, this storyline involves several traumatized superheroes in therapy getting massacred. Over the course of the story, it’s slowly revealed that the man behind the massacre was none other than a deeply disturbed Wally West.

The insensitive portrayal of mental health, the butchery of several classic characters, and the specialized hitjob on Wally West led to this series being universally panned by critics and fans alike. It’s so bad that every year, a new retcon changes something about it to distance all the characters from the consequences of said event.

That was eventually what happened with IC as well, though it's pretty apparent we're still shaking off the horrific effects it resulted in for comicdom. Either way, none of these artistic fiascos will be solved so long as the Big Two are under corporate ownership.

And if none of these storylines are adapted to film, that'll be a blessing. DC sure knows how to go miles out of their way to supposedly Marvelize their universe, and that's exactly why their efforts have backfired only so many times. And the worst part is that, if Marvel hadn't gotten there yet at the turn of the century, they sure have since.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful artists, dreadful writers, golden calf of death, golden calf of villainy, misogyny and racism, moonbat artists, moonbat writers, violence, women of dc

It's been apparent for some time that Marvel was just taking Spider-fans for a ride when, on the surface, it looked as though they were willing to reverse One More Day and restore Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson's relationship. But since last year, C.B. Cebulski made clear they'll do nothing of the sort, and now, in a Popverse interview with Zeb Wells, he's signaled what he has in store for the web-slinger's stories is something he's completely okay with angering Spider-fans about. They bring up one of the worst eras in the past 15 years, which Wells was involved with writing:

You worked on Spider-Man during the 'Brand New Day' era. What are some of the biggest changes in your writing process since then, how you view Spider-Man, and if you think he's different now than he was then?

Well, I think I'm a much more skilled writer - I would hope. I'm more confident. I've just done it for a lot longer, and so my process is a lot more dialed in. I have more fun doing it because I am more disciplined. And that's one thing you have to learn, more discipline leads to more fun. Spider-Man, he's got some more miles on him. He's seen some more stuff, some more traumas, some different traumas.

You're responsible for one of those traumas!

I am! I am!

And this surely preceded the equally pretentious Tom King's obsession with writing contrived traumas in the DC universe. With the way Wells has gone about his career, his claim he's more "skilled" and "disciplined" is very sad.

Another former rogues gallery member, but one that Peter is a lot more comfortable with - A LOT more comfortable with is Felicia Hardy. They've gotten closer during your run. Talk about getting Peter and Felicia back together. How do you see their relationship?

I see it as very fun. They're both superheroes. Felicia is clearly not his equal because she's more of just about everything that he is - she's more. It's fun to put him in a situation where he can barely keep up and to see if now that he's a little older, see if he can hang with her a little bit better.

They've both changed a lot since their first relationship.

For sure, and Jed MacKay has filled in so much of her character in the meantime. It's fun to play with.

There may have once been a time when these team-ups with Black Cat would've been a delight, but when it all comes at Mary Jane's expense, that ruins everything. On which note, let's turn to that precise issue:

Over in Jed MacKay's Mary Jane and Black Cat limited series we saw Mary Jane with powers. Will the origin of her powers be addressed during your current arc, as we flash back to the missing events from last year?

Yes. We will definitely see how that came about, and what happened and see the origin of Mary Jane as a hero.

This is all leading to Amazing Spider-Man #26, which you have called the most shocking event to happen to Spider-Man in 50 years. Back in 1973 Marvel killed Gwen Stacy. I know that you can't tell us what this shocking thing is, but what can you tease?

I can tease that many people will be very mad at me. I can tease that Nick (Lowe) told me not to do any comic conventions after this issue comes out (laughs). People will be upset.

I know you can't tell us what happens, but can you describe how editorial reacted when you pitched this to them. What was their level of shock?

Nick's a mad man, so he was completely down. I don't know how it went when he ran it up the ladder, but I'm very excited for people to read issue 26.

No doubt, he's begging for outrage to occur, which only makes this all the more repellent an affair. It makes no difference where this is going, or what they'll have in store for MJ. When somebody says he hopes to offend fans over what could easily be the wrong reasons, that's only a signal why we should stay away and not put our money into their pockets. It's bad enough that, last time I looked, the writers appear to have joined MJ up with another man, who may have kids, in another slap in the face to Spider-fans who'd rather she have kids of her own with Peter. Now, Marvel's trolling the audience again with aggravation, and only making clear that so long as Marvel's under Disney's ownership, this'll just go on and on, explaining perfectly why we can't buy their products anymore.

Labels: bad editors, dreadful writers, golden calf of death, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, msm propaganda, Spider-Man, women of marvel

Over a dozen years ago, a leftist activist in San Francisco produced a comic called Foreskin Man, which built on antisemitic tropes and imagery in its supposed objection to the custom of circumcision in the Judaist religion. Here's a posting on Tablet about it:

Matthew Hess is the San Diego-based intactivist who wrote the San Francisco initiative. But he is also the author of a comics series—the first issue of which came out a year ago—that, to the Anti-Defamation League’s reading (and to my own), trades in anti-Semitic tropes to make its anti-circumcision case. It is bad enough that the hero, “Foreskin Man,” is a strong, blond Aryan-type. The villain is “Monster Mohel,” and as you can see from the illustration, he is straight out of a 19th-century pamphlet (note the nose, devious expression, hat, and even fingernails). “Nothing excites Monster Mohel more than cutting into the penile flesh of an eight-day-old boy,” the comic says.

Back in the 19th century, observant Judaists wearing what's now considered ultra-Orthodox attire were considered easy targets because they more or less wore identifiable outfits, even if said clothing may have been based on that of Polish and Lithuanian nobles. Whether one considers circumcision revolting, it's still no excuse for couching said comic in antisemitic stereotypes like evil grins, and besides, there are Christians who've practiced it too, if only for health benefits. So where did Mr. Hess get off resorting to such garbage stereotyping?

Here's some more from Intl. Business Times, and what they say here gives new meaning to "seeing is believing":

Foreskin Man, a comic book series created by MGMBillorg president Matthew Hess, features head of the Museum of Genital Integrity Miles Hastwick, who doubles as the aforementioned Foreskin Man.

The general premise of the comic is Hastwick trying to raise awareness of the evils of circumcision while doubling as the circumcision fighting Foreskin Man.

"Integrity"?!? Oh my god. Does anyone know how head-shakingly bizarre that sounds years later, when now, there's "gender reassignment surgery" going on in leftist bastions that's doing permanent damage to the human body? Gives a whole new meaning to the old adage, "you can't make this stuff up" if you view this through a modern day lens.

The general premise of the comic is Hastwick trying to raise awareness of the evils of circumcision while doubling as the circumcision fighting Foreskin Man.

He fought doctors in the first issue and African tribal leaders in the third issue, but it's the second issue that has generated the most heat.

The issue features Foreskin Man fighting off Monster Mohel from performing circumcision on baby Glick, a young Jewish boy. Hess draws Orthodox Jews as machine gun toting terrorists, intent on circumcising no matter what the costs. Not surprisingly this has upset many within the Jewish community.

This comic has drawn the serious ire of the ADL for a multitude of reasons, but one of the main reasons is the Monster Mohel depiction. In Jewish faith, the mohel is the person that performs the traditional Jewish circumcision and is generally highly respected within the community.

The ADL said, The comic book portrays mohels -- those specially trained to perform the traditional Jewish circumcision ceremony -- as rapacious, bloodthirsty and bent on harming children.

The comic's climax is when Foreskin Man triumphantly battles Monster Mohel and his goons. Foreskin Man is able to fight through all of the goons and save the young boy before delivering him to a safe community.

Sounds almost like a Mary Sue situation. That aside, if the comic's also unfair to African practitioners and medics who're doing it for health reasons, then even there, offense should've been taken. Say, what if it turns out this Mr. Hess never showed any of the same concerns for Muslim girls who were circumcised in what's called Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)? If the same concerns he supposedly had for boys didn't extend to girls, that says all you need to know where he's really coming from.

But now for the challenging question, in an era struck by the tragedy of transsexual surgeries that can serious damage the body: would a crude comic like Foreskin Man be published today, no matter how hypocritical it could look in a time when many of the same people who could've upheld its whole premise back then may now be advocating gender reassignment surgery? The sad answer is probably yes, because if they're prejudiced enough, then it makes no difference to them how contradictory it'd wind up becoming. What matters to them is undermining any belief system they view as anathema to their own repellent viewpoints. In other words, they'd be against circumcision, but perfectly fine with causing damage to many of the same physical organs altogether. Needless to say, these mutilation surgeries are, in their own way, the same thing as FGM, and a form of child abuse. Come to think of, even when performed on adults, it's a form of abuse. The same can be said when it comes to chemical/drug surgery. And goodness knows how many awful propaganda comics have come down the pike in the past decade upholding these repellent operations.

Labels: Africa, golden calf of LGBT, islam and jihad, misogyny and racism, moonbat artists, moonbat writers, politics, science, violence

John Nolte at Breitbart's addressed the stark difference between how 2 actors who've appeared in comics movies, Ezra Miller and Jonathan Majors, were dealt with by Hollywood, which sadly does prove racism is still a problem in Tinseltown:

Proving again that Hollywood is an openly racist industry is the fact that Flash star Ezra Miller is being rehabilitated while Ant-Man and the Wasp Something-Something-Mania star Jonathan Majors is watching his career and reputation explode.

Ezra Miller is white.

Jonathan Majors is black.

Shall we compare rap sheets?

The difference is that Miller was credibly accused and charged with sexual misconduct and assault, though with Majors, the accusations of assault aren't as clear, though according to this report, several other women also lodged accusations against Majors. Either way, what's disturbing is how the white man - one who's additionally following the LGBT playbook - is let off the hook with barely a slap on the wrist, while the black man is almost entirely shunned by the moviemakers regardless of guilt or innocence. What does that say about Hollywood's approach? Protected class status certainly is entrenched in this grimy industry.

This only compounds my decision not to watch the Flash movie ever, and others would be advised to avoid it too. It's just throughly embarrassing what they'v led to, and tarnished more than a few comics adaptations along the way. A genre that, as noted before, is starting to lose steam in movie adaptations anyway because of all the wokeness they've succumbed to.

Labels: Avengers, dc comics, Flash, golden calf of LGBT, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, politics, violence

A columnist for the Ithacan acknowledges it's gotten to the point where the moviegoing audience has tired of superhero fare, but offers no explanation or argument why audiences are losing interest in the films, sticking instead to a superficial approach that doesn't really explore any of the deeper reasons why film viewers are bailing:

When “Avengers: Endgame” became the second highest-grossing movie of all time, making nearly $2.8 billion by the end of its theatrical run, it seemed as though not even the sky could limit the gargantuan power of the comic book movie genre. However, it is only when something is seen as being too big to fail that it can be knocked down a few pegs. This is exactly what seems to be happening in the current era of supposed superhero fatigue.

In January 2023, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was featured on “The Movie Business Podcast,” where he discussed why he does not believe movie-going audiences are becoming tired of superhero cinema and storytelling. Feige compared comic book films to films like “Gone with the Wind” in that they are both adapted from written material. He said that because audiences are not feeling fatigued from watching movies that are adapted from novels, they would not feel fatigued from watching movies that are adapted from 80 years worth of comic book storytelling. The difference here that Feige does not seem to grasp is that most novels do not tell relatively similar stories over and over again. Movies that are adapted from books do not follow a predictable formula unless it is directly a story that has already been told before.

Most novels are usually stand-alone, and such film adaptations aren't based on a whole shared, expanded universe where only so many characters from different series appear as guests in each other's comics, and gather together in a team series like Avengers and Justice League of America. In addition, most novels are strictly text-based experiences with little in ways of illustrations. Feige sure doesn't seem to grasp that there is a difference.

Superhero comic books and superhero movies are extremely formulaic. A person can read a comic book or watch a comic book movie fully aware that the story is going to end with the heroes beating the brand-new villain of the week without almost any consequences. Even if a story does not end this way, there is almost nothing Marvel can do at this point to shock audiences in the same way it did at the end of “Avengers: Infinity War.” With what Marvel has currently set up with their latest saga of films following “Avengers: Endgame,” even if the next “Avengers” film ends with a shocking cliffhanger that will lead into the subsequent movie, it is bound to not have the same type of pop cultural impact that “Avengers: Infinity War” had.

Aside from a few standout entries like “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” it has felt like Marvel has been losing its magic. Projects released over the last two years like “Thor: Love and Thunder,” “Eternals,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and more have felt lower in quality than what audiences have received in the past.

Yes, but most curious they don't acknowledge these movies did receive criticism for wokeness. What, they don't think that turns anybody off with how alienating these forced and contrived ingredients are? Sadly, it would appear not. Yet if Marvel's injection of LGBT propaganda into their screenplays is any suggestion, they can shock audiences for all the wrong reasons. Of course, shock value isn't often something positive, and definitely not if it's played as cheap, offensive sensationalism.

And then, the paper's writer takes a more sugarcoated path:

Luckily, Marvel has until May 2025 when “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” is scheduled to be released to get fans fully back on board. Upcoming projects like the Disney+ series “Secret Invasion” and the Captain Marvel sequel, “The Marvels,” look like they both have the potential to bring back the beloved Marvel magic. However, it is James Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3” that has the most pressure to be positively received by both critics and fans. [...]

Films like “Joker,” “The Batman” and “The Suicide Squad” have felt like massive breaths of fresh air for the comic book movie genre. They are almost enough to make up for the lackluster releases that the studio has been responsible for that have aided in the superhero fatigue conversation. DC’s two latest films, “Black Adam” and “Shazam: Fury of the Gods,” have been critically panned and bombed at the box office. Because of their massive failures, DC Studios has much more riding on Gunn and his partner Peter Safran than it would have had otherwise.

It is up to their upcoming slate, along with films like the “Joker” sequel and “The Batman: Part 2,” to save DC Studios from being drowned by fans who are becoming more uninterested in the comic book movie genre with each passing lackluster film. As for Marvel, aforementioned projects like “Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3” and “The Marvels,” as well as Sony Pictures’ sequel to the Academy Award-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” will hopefully set the brand back on track and prevent superhero cinema from getting one step closer to going the way of the western.

Ugh, to think they're taking such a glossed over, superficial approach to angle of darkness the Joker and Batman films represent. No serious argument is raised here why optimism and a sense of humor are concepts the filmmakers - to say nothing of comics writers - is something they all need to brush up on, and without resorting to PC wokeism along the way, as the Spider-Verse sequel happens to do, which is why their superficial view of that cartoon movie makes this column all the more laughable. Even the 3rd GotG movie, IIRC, will reportedly be going that route, one more reason why the aforementioned fatigue is bound to set in deep.

So this college paper just skims the surface of why these comic adaptations are waning in success, and doesn't really answer any serious queries why they're failing artistically for starters, and financially next. Which goes to show leftist university press can be some of the most unintelligible around.

Labels: animation, Avengers, Batman, dc comics, golden calf of LGBT, golden calf of villainy, marvel comics, msm propaganda, politics, sales, Spider-Man

A writer at Hyperallergic is telling us this, in what sounds like a politically motivated view of the Black Comic Book Festival at the Schomberg Center:

I encountered Joel Christian Gill, a professor at Boston University, founder of Strange Fruit Comics, and writer of Eisner Awards-nominated memoir Fights: One Boy’s Triumph Over Violence (2020), whose words stuck with me throughout my visit. “You don’t have to be Black,” he said. He was reminding me that at this festival I wasn’t the only Black girl in the room; I didn’t have to go searching for books made by and for me, because they were all around me. The experience of being a Black woman represented in every book in my vicinity is a rare one, as Black men and women are vastly underrepresented in the comic book industry.

Honestly, after several decades since the CCA became little more than a tool used to undermine racial representation in comicdom, and these problems have since been solved, is it really such a big deal compared to the vitality of story merit? Though if it matters, how come nobody asks whether leftists led to such an embarrassing situation? Here we are decades later since the 1950s, and still nobody has the courage to raise such challenging queries whether liberals have accountability.

She also quoted some interviewees:

“I think the festival definitely helps to uplift you and to make you feel proud of your heritage and where you came from,” Joshua said. “It makes you feel like you deserve to be seen … because when you’re not in the media it feels like you’re being erased, like your existence is invalid. But seeing yourself in the comics, you feel a sense of pride to be who you are, and it’s really powerful.”

He also sees graphic novels as a unique way of learning about Black history. Comic books are a way for Black people to teach ourselves about our past and present without being in a school or under the direct guidance of someone else, offering us a sense of freedom that society tries to strip away from us. Being at the festival was a way to gain that freedom back.

Reading this, I wonder how they feel about women - Blacks included - being erased in sports and advertising, for example, by men claiming to be women under the protected class status of transsexuality? That aside, it's honestly stupefying how, years after blacks became more noticeable in comicdom, even to the point of black characters being forcibly shoehorned into the roles of established white characters at the latter's expense at the Big Two in the past 20 years, everyone acts like it's never enough, and never happened. Nor do they consider that, if comics at the Big Two taking this approach were flops, it's because many people, Blacks included, realized it was all just a shoddy gimmick with no real merit involved. Certainly, there's got to be freedom at a convention like this, but that doesn't mean they should be doing it out of political motivations.

In fact, graphic novels are so powerful in their ability to make Black people feel seen that many of them are being placed on banned book lists, as I learned at a panel discussion titled “Banned Books and Diversity in Comics.” Author Monique Couvson, whose book Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools (2018) was placed on a ban list in Texas, called it “a badge of honor.”

“I think the books that get banned are those that are pushing us and those that are challenging us to think outside of what is normalized to harm us,” Couvson said. “It means I’m doing what I’m supposed to do.”

If this is a politically motivated GN they're highlighting, told from a leftist viewpoint as the author's employment at the Wash. Post suggests, and it was removed from local school libraries, then what if it was removed because it painted a potentially discriminatory picture against whites? And by the way, if they're really so concerned about normalization of harmful ideologies, does the current transsexual ideology situation worry them? It's harmful to women and children. Have they ever considered? One does have to wonder how any leftists in focus here view such issues.

To my surprise, I found that the Black Book Comic Festival was more than just a place to shop for new books. It is a community of disruptors upholding the principle of what makes books great — telling stories that help to create a more equitable society.

In other words, what the article title calls "resistance"? Okay, got it. But why don't they consider that, if there's racial inequity again, it's because the left's led us to a sad situation? If those queries can't be considered, nothing's solved, alas.

A specialty comics convention for the black community can certainly be quite helpful and educational, but not if it's built on politically motivated ideologies, and not if the folks covering the subject keep acting like specific problems were never solved, or like not just the Big Two, but everyone and anyone else, must develop their stories and employment based on quotas for the sake of "inclusion", to the point where it's unorganic. That's how we've gotten to a situation where independent comics, if that's the focus of this festival, make a far better choice of purchase. Certainly the comics that aren't politically motivated and biased.

Labels: conventions, misogyny and racism, msm propaganda, politics

The Herald-Banner of Greenville interviewed Matthew Holland, who's developing a comic with some industry veterans on an indie production called Intergalactic Riptoadz. It begins awkwardly though:

With superhero movies still consistently filling movie theaters and pulling in subscriptions to streaming services, the comic book format of extraordinary do-gooders facing off against villainous masterminds continues to entertain and inspire audiences of all ages.

One must wonder why they don't acknowledge the box office receipts are dwindling for superhero movies, and it's for the best, seeing where both Disney and Warner Bros. are going with the wokeness. That told, the premise of the comic in focus is certainly interesting:

One person who is in the process of taking his love of the genre from mere appreciation to creating his own comic book is Matthew Holland of Greenville, who’s working with talented artists and industry veterans to bring his vision – The Intergalactic Riptoadz – to fruition.

The Intergalactic Riptoadz belong to a species of amphibious aliens and they are refugees from a war-stricken planet, Holland said as he started to explain the premise behind his comic book.

As the Riptoadz continue on their travels, they notice that large populations of various species are mysteriously disappearing, and find out that an alien trafficking ring is preying upon the inhabitants of several different planets. The Riptoadz then end up leading an intergalactic revolution in which they battle space pirates and other wicked foes.

“One of the ideas behind the project is to increase awareness of human trafficking, and it’s about how a lot of times there are people in power who are behind the scenes pulling the strings and profiting from the suffering of others,” Holland said. “For centuries, peoples’ lives have been stolen while those who are guilty of trafficking often walk freely.”

There is still modern slavemongering going on in Islamic countries in north Africa, for example, and more recently, there's a crisis of human trafficking making its way into the USA from - but surely not limited to - Latin America, via all the illegal immigration that's been filling up the country as a result of Joe Biden and company's pathetic policies. I'm very impressed Mr. Holland and company thought of developing even a fictionalized metaphor for the topic, because from past to present, it's still a very serious and harrowing issue.

While Holland, himself, has long enjoyed drawing, for the Riptoadz, he is mostly handling writing duties. As for the drawing and inking, he has enlisted Brazilian artist Emanuel “Manu” Silva – and for coloring, he is working with Dan and David Kemp of Kemp Studios.

“Me and Manu belonged to a lot of the same (Teenage Mutant) Ninja Turtle fan groups and we just hit it off, so we’ve been sharing art for years,” Holland said. “I think that what we’ve been able to make together has come out pretty cool.”

Meanwhile, colorists Dan and David Kemp are industry veterans, and their work has been seen in several well-known comics, such as Spawn, Spiderman, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, and Wolverine.

To continue to fund the project, Holland plans to launch a campaign in May through Kickstarter – which is a well-known crowdfunding site used to fund creative ventures, such as films, music, video games, board games, and publications including comic books.

They'd be strongly advised to enter Kickstarter with an awareness that the company are woke leftists who're willing to suspend their campaigns over Orwellian Thoughtcrimes, as they did with Mike Baron's Private American campaign, and the president of the Canadian-based Crowdfundr did a few months ago. Which reminds me, last time I looked, the guy locked up his Twitter account, apparently turning tail in cowardice and running from the arguments he'd engaged in previously, yet he didn't do so very honestly.

Again, I'm wishing Mr. Holland good luck with selling his comics adventure, which builds on metaphors for an important subject. But I hope he realizes that Kickstarter could be a poor choice in the long run for gathering funds to pay and buy the book in development. Maybe they'd want to consider Fund My Comic instead?

Labels: Africa, history, indie publishers, islam and jihad, misogyny and racism, politics, technology

Here's a report on Insider about some schools in Florida and Wisconsin that removed "Assassination Classroom" from their shelves after a campaign by family groups concerned about the possibility it could encourage violence:

Some schools in Florida and Wisconsin are banning a Japanese sci-fi comic book over concerns that it promotes violence against teachers.

The manga, called "Assassination Classroom," features a large tentacled monster that destroys the moon and threatens to destroy Earth. The monster starts working as a homeroom teacher in a junior high school, where it tells its class that it will give them the opportunity to kill it before it destroys the planet.

[...] Moms for Liberty — a conservative group that pushes for the removal of books from classrooms that they deem inappropriate and which has campaigned to get members elected to local school boards — fought for the comic book's removal from Gifford Middle School.

[...] Jennifer Pippin, chair of the Indian River County chapter of Moms for Liberty, said that the group considered the book inappropriate because it features pictures of kids with guns inside a classroom, noting a recent spate of school shootings in the United States.

[...] The Elmbrook School District in Wisconsin also removed the book from its digital library after parents complained that it was violent and sexual, Fox News reported.

In the USA, with the chaotic education system they've got there, it should be understandable why such a violent story in itself could raise concerns. Who's to say these stories couldn't be used as indoctrination tools? So, even if the issue isn't whether teachers could be endangered by such storytelling, there's still the issue of gun violence itself to worry about. I'd once noted the entertainment host Bill Maher made considerable points about children's exposure to violent entertainment, and it makes little difference where the product comes from; in a country like the USA, it can, most unfortunately, end up becoming a bad influence due to the disastrous education Maher alluded to in his discussions on HBO. So, Moms For Liberty decidedly did the right thing to protest.

Labels: manga and anime, msm propaganda, politics, violence

That's what Scott Mendelson at the Wrap believes, based on how past success of comics movies is waning, and how the new Super Mario Bros. animated movie did pretty well at the box office:

Forget Marvel and DC: ”Super Mario Bros.“ is the latest evidence that there are rich, mostly untapped veins of IP just waiting for Hollywood to turn into franchises

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” promises to put Universal on the animation throne long occupied by Disney. It also shows that video games, not comic books, are where Hollywood should be sniffing around for new franchises.

With a comparatively modest $100 million budget, Universal and Illumination’s video game adaptation shattered box office records for animated movies, earning $204 million domestically and $376 million worldwide over the long Easter weekend. But the movie also set a record for box office derived from a character that audiences likely first encountered in an arcade or on a console.

The rest of the article is behind a paywall, but for now, what's available may be enough to argue that no, turning to video games once again, as was tried several times in the past, most notoriously with the live action Super Mario Brothers movie starring the late Bob Hoskins alongside John Leguizamo (who trivially complained about "inclusion" for the voice roles), would not be the best way for Hollywood to go. It'd just be another example of relying too heavily on a "junk food path" for making big bucks at the box office, and not relying on serious acting talent. Certainly if the adaptations were live action. If they do want to adapt video game characters into movies, what would be acceptable is if they're animated as this Super Mario Brothers movie is. The same can be said for comics. Indeed, what's the use of relying on only so many heavy special effects palettes and wardrobes that can look ridiculous in live action? Plus, I may have argued before there's not enough respect for animation as a medium to convey a story in the USA, in contrast to Japan, where they proved their ability to market and convince. Seriously, I'm not supporting Mendelson's argument as I see it so far, unless he's at least willing to make a case for animation as the way to do it. And even then, he'd have to be 10 times willing to acknowledge that political correctness wouldn't be healthy for any resulting adaptations coming about.

A writer at the Federalist commented on the topic, and much as he'd like to feel excited about some of his favorite video games being adapted into films and TV shows, leftist PC mentality could ruin everything:

I know I should be thrilled that some of my favorite characters are making their way to the big screen but I feel slightly unnerved. Yes, it’s good that gaming is receiving some form of cultural recognition. Gone are the days of people giving you a funny look for saying you enjoy playing video games. We’ve made it, hallelujah.

But there’s a danger in becoming more mainstream. It creates an incentive for bad actors to hijack whatever we’re talking about and twist it to their own ends.

I mentioned that Peach is a bit of a girlboss in this new “Mario” movie, a strong female character who doesn’t need a man to protect her. But that just scratches the surface of leftist ideology seeping into games-based media. Episode three of “The Last of Us” featured a gay couple shoehorned into the show, complete with a gay sex scene, to push LGBT ideology. The episode’s director even admitted that he wanted to “sort of trick the rest of the world into watching” a gay romance.

Not creepy or weird at all!

Paramount tried to pull the same woke crap with a TV version of the sci-fi epic Halo. Master Chief is relegated to the role of a supporting character, forced to worship at the feet of yet another strong female character who was invented by the showrunners to push a yas qween message.

But frankly, I think the worst example of showrunners exploiting gaming to push leftist ideology on screen is “The Witcher.” That show is like the final boss of wokeness. It’s got everything: girl power, race swapping, and LGBT propaganda.

It was so bad, and so drastically not like The Witcher games, that mega nerd and proof-that-geeks-can-be-cool-too Henry Cavill left the show, citing specifically that he didn’t feel as if the showrunners cared about the source material.

And that’s why this newfound mainstreaming of video games is a double-edged sword. It’s great that the hobby is engaging more people. But to the extent the wrong kind of people are engaging with gaming, there’s definitely an infection taking root.

Which is why the guy makes a case for gatekeeping for the right reasons, and this should be the case for comicdom to boot. It's also why, now that I think of it, adapting comics to animation practically isn't working out because the woke trash has already infected products like the Spider-Verse sequel, and is bound to infect any future video game adaptations, which audiences would then be strongly advised to avoid. In Japan, it's worked well enough over the past 3 decades or so, because there, they're not pandering to PC like in the USA. So maybe it'd be better if adaptations of Japanese games remained overseen by their own animation studios. That way, we'd have far better entertainment, certainly if it isn't mainstreamed to suit PC mentality in the west. If only the same could be said for USA comics.

And by the way, it's fine if you want to cast female characters portrayed as capable fighters, but if they're turned into Mary Sues without any flaws or weaknesses, then it blows, and the same can be said if it's all done at the male characters' expense too. That's something the producers of the above examples clearly haven't considered.

Labels: animation, golden calf of LGBT, licensed products, msm propaganda, politics, technology

The ICV2 columnist Steve Bennett, who's also a specialty store manager in Ohio, is attacking a Florida Republican named Webster Barnaby for something I don't think was particularly well thought out and downright peculiar involving comics, but it's clear Bennett's speaking from a far-left viewpoint that isn't altruistic, and his viewpoint is entirely biased:

I know it’s not Pride Month yet, and I honestly try not to write about every single new comic book-adjacent outrage that hits the Internet, but when this first story was waiting for me in my newsfeed this morning, what else could I do but lean into it?

While discussing Florida House Bill 1521, which “criminalizes the use of public bathrooms for transgender people” in a committee hearing, Representative Webster Barnaby compared the transgender persons and parents of transgender children, who were there to speak out against the bill, "to Marvel's X-Men, characters in the comics in which bigotry, hatred, and fear of mutants are central themes."

In a rant that could have been by the character Reverend Stryker from the graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson, Barnaby said: “I’m looking at society today and it’s like I’m watching an X-Men movie. When you watch the X-Men movies or Marvel comics, it’s like we have mutants living among us on planet Earth.” He also added, "The Lord rebukes you, Satan, and all of your demons and all of your imps who come parade before us. That’s right, I called you demons and imps who come and parade before us and pretend that you are part of this world.”

Barnaby later offered an apology, as reported by WESH. “I would like to apologize to the trans community for referring to you as demons,” he said.

Now did Barnaby, who's originally from the UK, say that? According to this news, he did, and if he was doing in a negative connotation that implied he didn't like the X-Men, that was incredibly stupid, because years before, they weren't created to serve the kind of agendas they've been exploited for since the turn of the century. But it's still very unclear if Bennett's quoting this ad verbatim, and no matter what one thinks of Barnaby's approach, Bennett's still upholding ideologies harmful to children. And given the damage still being done youth via this horrific ideology, should Barnaby have to apologize? Very sad. Bennett continued his hypocrisy by citing pretentious Judy Blume, who became an apologist for the graphic novel Gender Queer:

In an article on the recent bouts of book banning that included an interview with author Judy Blume (Tiger Eyes, Forever, etc.) in the Guardian, Blume gave an unprompted positive review for Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel memoir Gender Queer (see “‘Gender Queer’ Was The Most Frequently Challenged Book In 2021”) “which recounts Kobabe’s journey to adulthood and exploring their gender identity and sexuality.” In the interview, Blume said:

“It’s probably the number one. banned book in America right now. And I thought, ‘This young person is telling me how they came to be what they are today.’ I learned a lot, and became even more empathetic. That’s what books are all about.” Blume added, “No child is going to become transgender or gay or lesbian because they read a book. It’s not going to happen. They may say, ‘Oh, this is just like me. This is what I’m feeling and thinking about.’ Or, ‘I’m interested in this because I have friends who may be gay, bi, lesbian.’ They want to know!”

In that case, I guess no child is going to become one just because schools across the USA and Canada are indoctrinating them with books and other such materials normalizing the ideology. It's very typical of these far-left disgraces to dismiss concerns, and then lo and behold, we find out later they're quite fine with something terrible happening. That's exactly why we're in the dire situation in this era. I certainly have no respect for Blume after this. And then, Bennett goes on to talk about the Marvel Swimsuit Specials of the early 1990s, and sounds pretty curiously negative about their very publication:

One thing I’ve learned over the nearly two decades that I’ve been writing these things is once something has been created, creators have no control over what people make of it. Like when you discover that canonically straight cartoon characters like She-Go, from Disney’s Kim Possible, have been a gay icon for nearly two decades without me knowing about it (see “Confessions Of A Comic Book Guy -- He-Man: Missing In Action).

Or take, for instance, the Marvel Swimsuit Specials. Most fans I know, myself included, considered them to have been cringy cash grabs for sweaty adolescents with no access to porn and Marvel completists who had to have everything labeled “Marvel.” But, to be fair, as Marvel itself said in a post last month, the 1990s really was, according to Marvel itself, “a time when beach culture and swimwear were at the center of pop culture” (i.e. Baywatch, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issues, etc.). And the Marvel Swimsuit Special “captured the cultural zeitgeist of the time” (a.k.a., this was another example of Marvel once again chasing a fad).

Which is as may be, but according to Cameron Scheetz in a piece for Queerty, those Marvel Swimsuit Specials apparently had a whole other audience. He writes, “On one hand, these overblown portrayals of impossible physiques no doubt contributed to harmful body image issues for Gen X-ers and Millennials who came of age at the time. On the other, the bold, bulging, overtly thirsty images provided an avenue for readers of all ages to explore desire—not to mention a safe space for burgeoning queer folks to look, admire, and… find some things out about themselves!”

To promote the upcoming Summer Of Symbiotes event, Phillip Tan and Scott Williams have crafted an image similar to Jim Lee and Scott Williams iconic “poolside pinup” from 1991’s X-Men #1. But now that the Marvel Voices: Pride anthologies are a yearly thing, they might want to further tap into its audience by doing a Marvel Voices Pride Swimsuit Special for next year’s Pride Month. Imagine the outrage!

Hmm, how interesting. On the one hand, Mr. Bennett seems to be tearing down on the Swimsuit Specials, all because they could service heterosexuality. On the other hand, he apparently believes that, if they do appeal to LGBT ideology, then all of a sudden, they're okay in that regard. What an insult to the intellect. He's obviously trying to sully everybody's view of them in retrospect, and that's not helpful. It's just like when I once found a magazine writer belittling them over peanuts several years ago, and now somebody else decided to join the bandwagon, ripping on easy targets while otherwise ignoring the sorry state of modern mainstream. It's shameful ICV2 employs these kind of charlatans and ideologues, but, unfortunately, that's been common for years already.

Since we're on the topic, Bounding into Comics told some more about the now dismissed Isaac Perlmutter, and he argued he'd tried to dissuade Disney from enmeshing themselves in political matters in a Wall Street Journal interview:

On top of Perlmutter being opposed to Disney CEO Bob Iger’s overall business strategy, he was also opposed to the company’s political intervention in the state of Florida when the company opposed Florida legislation blocking the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation to children in grades kindergarten through third grade.

Perlmutter relayed a conversation he had with Florida governor Ron DeSantis, “Ron, you’re right. Disney doesn’t have the right to get involved with politics, and you know, I’m the largest individual shareholder.”

He went on to reveal he even advised Disney executives to not get involved, “Don’t get involved in politics. You’re going to get hurt. It’s a no-win situation.”

But while this claim, on the surface, might seem admirable, it's what follows that demolishes everything:

While Perlmutter noted he spoke with both Disney executives and Ron DeSantis, it wasn’t over any kind of principled moral stance on the issue. As Perlmutter revealed he would personally pay for mutilation surgery for Disney employees who think they can change their sex via surgery or chemical alterations.

He said, “I called and said, if anyone would like to change their sex, my professor is the number one in the country. They should call me, and I’ll help them to make an appointment.”

Wow...Perlmutter actually thinks it's okay even for adults to mutilate their bodies and turn themselves into Frankenstein-like creations? No wonder I can't respect this man. He's morally bankrupt. Even if he said that as some kind of attempt to stave off an obnoxious backlash by LGBT activists, it's still pure cowardice and won't appease them, period. No wonder he's not even fit to own the publishing arm of Marvel, which, as mentioned before, he never did anything to ensure would remain artistically fit.

And now, Perlmutter's on his way out the door at leftist-dominated Disney. Based on his pathetic pandering, that's why my negative view of him is compounded. For somebody calling himself a "Republican supporter", that's as far as it goes alright. Perlmutter's nothing but a bizarre phony who's ensured he won't be remembered fondly for his management of Marvel, and what he told the press on his way out will only solidify the poor perception everyone now has of him. What an embarrassment indeed.

Labels: golden calf of LGBT, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, politics, X-Men