Leia and C-3PO in The Star Wars Holiday Special (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Star Wars Holiday Special was an attempt to use the Christmas/Hanukkah season to keep Star Wars in people’s minds while The Empire Strikes Back was being put together. What we got was a horrible mess, but NerdSync showcases what would have been a far better story, some history of how it came together, and why we got the disaster we ended up with.
While some at Marvel want to insist the problem is that their critics don’t want to see people of color or other sexual orientations, the problem is that most readers do or accept those characters. The problem comes in how you write them, and how you approach critics. Some of the bloggers I follow bring up the example of America Chavez, a dimension-hopping hero that in her most recent incarnation seems to be defined by being a lesbian of color instead of being someone who happens to be a lesbian of color. What’s the difference? James Harrington explains how to make a minority character a character instead of a concept. Everyone deserves to see themselves represented! He uses novels for his example because he’s a novelist and so is the woman asking the question, but it’s true of any medium.
I thought there were 17 chapters of this book, but there’s actually 18. That means after THIS chapter we will be at the halfway point of the book. I wasn’t watching the clock so I don’t know how long the movie took, but it felt less than half the movie before we finally got inside Benes. That urgency to get in there fast has been missing in the book to focus on character and the science involved. I know Asimov is a great science fiction writer and I don’t hate what I’m reading. There have also been additions I’ve enjoyed. However there are things the movie did better as a sci-fi action piece. While some of Asimov additions do serve the story better or at least better serve the transition to prose, there are other things that the movie has done better.
In this chapter we are finally in the patient and the trip begins to reach the blood clot and save Benes. What other changes are in store and will they be good ones? Let’s dive in (no pun intended) and find out.
You’re probably wondering why I’m going this week without comic reviews. Well, for this week I really want to get Captain Yuletide done. However you’ll see more postings at The Clutter Reports as I go through the “re-integration” phase of the Comic Organizing Mega-Project. I may end up doing comic review that week after all, depending on what I work out. However, this week I really want to give myself time to get my own comic done because I’m tired of doing this bi-annually rather than annually.The plan is to take time to give my drawing hand or my eyes a break by sorting and relaxing from sorting by drawing and coloring/lettering on the computer.
There will still be Morning Article Links and feature articles, like tonight’s next edition of the Chapter By Chapter review of the Fantastic Voyage novelization, but I need some extra time. Hopefully I’ll be doing comic reviews next week but it depends on how well I can keep things organized during the resorting. I’m hoping to start the new year better off than I’m ending it but I have these two distractions, plus some dental work on January 4th that may mess with things. We’ll see how things go.
I didn’t read the DC Comics
1987 test logo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
crossover event Bloodlines but some of you out there might have. If so, Gary over at Crisis On Earth Prime has done an annotated going-over of the event.
Cover of one of the books of the Robert L. May story by Maxton Publishers, Inc. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Every time I get sick it’s at the worst time. From minor issues like the dental problems this year delaying me to last year’s medical crisis ruining most of a year when I planned to make a big push, it’s always delays, delays, delays. This year’s Captain Yuletide is held up and I’m hoping to at least have it done by the end of the month, which will also be the end of the year, but we’ll have to see how that goes. I didn’t plan to alternate between Christmas comic and Christmas video but that seems to be the trend.
Last year I even wrote and recorded the review I planned to do, the Rankin Bass version of Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, my favorite Christmas special. But by the time I was able to edit it felt kind of pointless and so I didn’t. Instead I saved it for this year…and even then I didn’t get it edited for Christmas eve! So here it is Christmas day. When I should have the comic. The question I wanted to explore going into this review was why the special was not only so special (no pun intended) to me but why it is the definitive version for many, most of us not having read the original book (which I would really love to do someday). So that’s how I’m looking at this Christmas classic. Enjoy and I hope your Christmas was a happy one, even if you didn’t celebrate the holiday.
That’s not how facepalming works!
Superman Adventures #24
DC Comics (October, 1998)
“Power Corrupts, Super Power Corrupts Absolutely!”
WRITER: Mark Millar
PENCILER: Aluir Amancio
INKER: Terry Austin
COLORIST: Marie Severin
LETTERER: Lois Buhalis
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Frank Berrios
EDITOR: Mike McAvennie
The Clutter Reports (my other site) Atop The Fourth Wall Crisis On Earth Prime Lean Into Artcast Bully Says “Comics Oughta Be Fun” Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery
Cartoon Hero’s Lair SF Debris Four Million Years Later
