“Darn kids and their building blocks!”
Godzilla: King Of The Monsters Special
Dark Horse (August, 1987)
WRITERS: Randy Stradley & Steve Bissette PENCILERS: Steve Bissette & Ron Randall INKERS: Art Nichols & Tony Salmons COVER COLORIST: Steve Mattsson LETTERER: David Jackson ADDITIONAL MATERIAL: Paul Chadwick, Rick Geary, Keith Giffen, Alan Moore, Mark A. Nelson, & Charles Vess EDITOR: Randy Stradley
Icon of a television. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Yesterday two interesting articles came out regarding Maker Studios, the multichannel network recently purchased by Disney. Variety reports that Maker made a deal with another Disney-owned property, Fusion, to produce shows for Disney networks using stars from their YouTube partnership as well as having members show up on America’s Funniest Home Videos. However, I’m only considering that a companion piece to our discussion topic tonight.
Maker CEO Ynon Kreiz, according to report by The Hollywood Reporter, attempted to make the case that the longform TV show is dead or dying and the future belongs to shorter videos, like the content you might see on YouTube, or the really short programs you see from Japan that are about 15 minutes in length. (There are a few anime that aren’t a full-length TV episode as we know them. And he thinks those are too long, believing today’s viewer can’t last past four or five minutes.) While there is obviously a place for these, to say that the longform show is dead, is exaggerating. A lot. I don’t think Kreiz follows actual online discussion, just his participants’ analytics. He’s missing the whole picture here.
And this is the Christmas issue.
X-O Manowar #26
Valiant (March, 1994)
“The Gift” PLOT: Rob Johnson SCRIPT: Jorge Gonzalez PENCILER: Rik Levins INKER: Mike DeCarlo COLORIST: Andrew Covalt LETTERER: Ken Lopez EDITOR: Bob Layton
Lego Batman: The Videogame (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
CNet reporter Bonnie Burton is reporting that a LEGO Batman movie, spinning off of the insanely popular LEGO Movie, has been announced, with Will Arnett reprising his role as Batman. Forgotten is a direct to video LEGO Batman movie that came out just last year, yet every report I’ve seen seems to believe it’s a new idea. It was based on the video game and had cameos from other Justice League characters (it was during the release of the second game). Still, it may end up more fun than anything with Batman in the title that’s come out since The Brave And The Bold ended.
Whatever happened to marking treasure with a simple “X”?
Iron Man #175
Marvel (October, 1983)
“This Treasure Of Red & Gold…” WRITER: Denny O’Neil PENCILER: Luke McDonnell INKER: Steve Mitchell COLORIST: Bob Sharen LETTERER: Rick Parker EDITOR: Mark GuenwaldWhile one hopes the anti-spoiler crowd wouldn’t go quite that far, and the fact that I stumbled upon it for this commentary is quite lucky, there are people who hate something to be spoiled. And I understand the reasoning as a fan, but also as a writer. There is, however, another camp with an equally valid beef against the anti-spoilers, namely people who want to discuss that really cool thing they saw in last night’s show because it was so good. Somehow these two sides ended up at war, because that seems to be what geek culture is good at lately. Yes, even people who hate the military and don’t think we should go to war to protect ourselves and our allies (and I’m not pointing at specific cases, even in light of current events) will toss death threats over the dumbest things possible.
While the above video is played for laughs, Vulture contributor Adam Sternberg is quite serious in an article where he treats spoilers like a tight yoke around the neck and thinks spoilers are actually a good thing. I see his point but also disagree with him. There is a reason for spoilers and it comes down to the reading or viewing experience.
“That’s the last time we let Aric marathon Survivor!”
X-O Manowar #22
Valiant (November, 1993)
“White Kings And Black Knights” part 1 WRITER: Jorge Gonzalez PENCILER: Paris T. Karounos INKERS: Tom Ryder & Rodney Ramos (no colorist or letterer credits) EDITOR IN CHIEF: Bob Layton
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
