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Jul 18

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Obligatory Batman Tie-In Story

I was picking up my pull list at my local comic haunt last week (confidential to readership: If you don’t know what a “pull list” is, this story is probably not for you) and ended up in line behind a mother and her young son discussing which comic character he would dress up as for “Super Hero Camp.” “Wolverine!” was his instant, choice. “No, that’s too scary for some of the younger kids – pick someone more friendly.” The boy started scanning action figures lining the wall across from the counter “The Hulk! Hellboy! Lobo!” Each met with a similar complaint. The young gentleman clearly screwed down his thinking cap to give the issue some major thought – and then you could see the lightbulb go off over his head – “The Joker!”.
Mom beamed. “That’s a much better choice!” At this point I came dangerously close to doing a spit-take. May I present a common comic-shop dillema: Should I volunteer an opinion that no one has asked me for? Read more

Jun 23

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Copyright, more like copywrong… amirite?

Thank you, well intentioned people who keep hitting my contact form, I’m well aware that a revised bill C-61 to amend Canada’s copyright legislation was tabled more than a week ago, and I’ve still yet to say “boo” about it.

I don’t want to say too much on it, until I have a chance to actually review the legislation, especially after I knocked other folks this month for jumping on various “hate on” bandwagons without doing their research. I’ll try to get to it in the next couple of days – I promise.

Jun 15

Not Happening

I guess it’s become de rigeur to bash M. Night Shyamalan lately – but I don’t consider myself part of that bandwagon. For starters I count “Unbreakable” among my favourite films, and it was far from a critical darling. So please use that as some kind of calibration to take heed when I feel compelled to vent that “The Happening” is the worst movie I have seen in many years – bordering on unwatchable.

The film is such a monumental failure on every conceivable level that I spent portions of it wondering if Mr. Shyamalan was actually significantly ill, or through some ill-advised contract somehow had to put his name on a film with which he had no actual involvement. Short of either of those possiblities (or perhaps his previously using ghost-talent which wasn’t available for this go-round) – I really don’t have any other explanation for the fact that he seems to have forgotten (or is willfulling ignoring) everything he once knew about writing, composition, or dealing with actors.

The very first line of the movie (a throw away by a bit character which only has to set up one event) somehow manages to be both a non-sequiter, over-explanitory, and manage to be a sentence no one has ever said in natural conversation – in the history of the world. A herculean trifecta of bad writing… in the first line:

A woman is silently reading a book.
Woman: (to her friend)I lost my place, where was I?

How should your friend know? You were silently reading a book.

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Jun 12

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Rise of the pop-culture tribes

A weird combination of Chris Sims awarding winning comic-blog-stylings and an interesting interview on Jazz FM got me thinking about the concept of tribalisim today, and how the future may be ruled by distinct groups with unique languages, customs, and idioms – based on how much they loved “Alf”.

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May 28

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Bryan Lee O’Malley and the case of the TokyoPop Pilot Pandemonium

Bryan Lee O’Malley has recently posted a number of objections regarding TokyoPop’s default contract for their new Manga Pilot Program.

Firstly the obligatory disclosure that I have a gigantic man-crush on Bryan. Anyone who has ever worked at The Beguiling is automatically cooler than me, but come on – “Lost at Sea”, “Hopeless Savages”, “Scott Pilgrim”!? I have lost this battle already. So I actually was going to limit my comment on this issue to an e-mail to him directly. But since a lot of other people have started commenting on his original post, especially creators I have huge respect for

[Edit – I owe Lea an apology as this whole kerfuffle started with her post, I mis-read the timing of the posts .. worse – I mis-spelled her name (which she was too polite to point out). How bush league is that?]

(Lea Hernandez, Kris Straub, I’m looking at you) I felt it was important to get some kind of contrarian opinion out there for anyone who might be Googling.

So please take what I have to say from a place of deep respect for some of my favourite creators out there: There are bad screwjob contracts out there. TokyoPop may have a record of bad Original Property Agreements (of which I can’t comment, having never seen one, or heard anything about one, ever) [Edit – No, their record is pretty bad. See my amended take at the bottom]. However as someone with no particular tie to TokyoPop whatsoever (other than devoting a copious amount of my bookshelf to Shojo titles which-shall-not-be-named) this particular agreement is not one of them.

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Oct 18

St. John’s in glorious High Definition

Oooh. Powerpoint.

Firstly, thanks to everyone who came out to either of my panels as part of the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival. It was great to get out of town for a couple of days and I had a great time meeting with you all, and participating in the face-2-face session on Friday.
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