Before I Begin, A Comment of Sorts...

From this point out, I would like to make an apology to anyone who may feel offended by what I say on my websites and on social media outlets.  

 The views and opinions are my own and do not reflect those of corporations, fandoms, or communities as a whole.

I am affiliated with very few individuals and even fewer web portals, but the thoughts expressed are clearly my own and is in, no right, connected to them.

Send all hate mail to the closest trash can near you because I won't read them.  It's not that I don't appreciate your opinion, I do, but if you're going to just shout at me than talk to me, you're wasting your energy. And you may need to conserve that energy for something more constructive in your life. Like chewing gum. Or sipping tea. It's no reflection on you, but if you're putting energy to write a screed about something someone posted online, sit back and chill a sec.

Thank you, and good day!

Back when I was a kid, I've read stories about how Walt Disney was a master storyteller who often pitched a story to his talented crew of animators and artists. He went into much detail about how he saw the world, the heroes, the villains, the settings, the beginning, the middle, and the end. 

The first time he did this, it was a simple tale about a girl who was scorned by her stepmother and banished into the forest, how she found a house she thought was abandoned, the little people who saved her, how the stepmother transformed into a crone who poisoned her rival, and how the kiss of her true love would break the deadly curse. He told the animators who were enthralled with that story this will be our first film. 

I know I've given Max Landis a lot of crap lately, but I'm slowly starting to get that Walt Disney vibe from from him. He can tell a story. He is well-versed in Superman mythos. He is a fan, and it shows in this video pitch he made about how he'd do the Death and Return of Superman. He doesn't really say it's a comic or a film, but if Max had his way, this is the definitive Superman story he would tell. 

If only we could ignore Man of Steel and get this guy to helm a Superman movie or three.  I'd rather Zack Snyder talk to Max Landis instead of Frank Miller because after seeing this, I believe Max could save the Superman franchise. 

Today, April 18, 2013, is the 75th anniversary of the introduction of Superman.

To many, he's one of the greatest creations of the 20th century, the prototypical superhero as well as the reason why these costumed folks are called "super" heroes to begin with. 

To some, he'sold-fashioned. A relic of an older time. An optimistic individual who sees the good in us all, which is no good to a cynical minded person who would rather see instant punishment and overt-the-top violence with fancy weapons and such. 

To others, like myself, he represents hope. An ideal to live up to and aspire to be. In a world like ours, we don't have such a being in existence, at least beyond fantasy. And given what's happened in the last week, heaven knows we need him.

Superman's not perfect by any means, and he'll be the first to admit that. He's humble, earnest, a citizen of the world, and very curious about the world he lives in and what's beyond the planet that he calls home. And he wouldn't hurt a fly. 

You ever tied bubble wrap on your hands? That's Superman's life, having to be careful and try not to harm people because he actually believes in the people. 

A lesser man would use his power to imprison and cause fear to the populace. He'd embrace the role of god if that was in his nature, but it's not. He had lots of great influences in his life, including his adoptive parents Jonathan and Martha Kent, the friends he grew up with in Smallville like Lana Lang and Pete Ross, and those he worked with like Perry White, Cat Grant, Jimmy Olsen, and Lois Lane.

By the way, I don't know why people think that celebrating Superman is slighting Lois Lane. I've always felt that Lois's story made Superman's legend that much stronger since in every incarnation of the character, the costumed hero's first non-confrontational meeting had always been with Lois. She names him. She inspires him. She loves him, and all of those feelings are more than mutual.

So, today, the man in the funny red sheet celebrates his diamond anniversary. Not many characters have endured in the pop culture for so long, and even today, Superman's legacy is tied to products outside of comics, and it's still a powerful one. You'll see the familiar S Shield of Hope in every form of entertainment, references to the mythos everywhere, and every so often, you'll look to the skies, hoping to see a red streak across the sky.

After all, we all believe a man can fly.

(painting by Alex Ross)

The Pandora's Box Has Been Opened By A Spunky Girl Detective

Congratulations Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell, and Warner Bros. You guys have essentially created the most successful movie Kickstarter campaign ever and will give the fans of the popular UPN series Veronica Mars a theatrical version of the series coming out next year. Of course, you kind of opened up a dangerous Pandora's box in the process not only creating a new precedent for film funding by major Hollywood studios but also convincing fans that older shows can be revived this way forever. 

So, After March 16, 2013 on Cartoon Network . . .

. . . there won't be more than 30 minutes of new, serious American-produced action-animation on the entire network. 

By "serious," I mean more action scenes than comedy scenes. DC Nation is about to be half-comedy with the arrival of Teen Titans Go! next month. Meanwhile, another Batman series, Beware the Batman, takes over Green Lantern's slot in the summer. The last episode of the fifth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is not only the last episode on Cartoon Network, but also could be the last episode period.  

After Saturday, March 16, 2013, there's only one serious action series in production on Cartoon Network (Beware the Batman), and that'll premiere in the summer. Ben 10 Omniverse is mostly played for laughs, a stark contrast from the previous Alien Force/Ultimate Alien seasons.  Dragons: Riders of Berk is also mostly comedy, as is anything Lego-oriented. 

And I think Cartoon Network is okay with that. After previously killing Sym-Bionic Titan and ThunderCats, the fact that the high-rated DC Nation shows are history (and, unlike SBT and TCats, will likely never rerun anywhere [see Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Legion of Super Heroes, the entire run of The Batman, and Cartoon Network's own Generator Rex]) shouldn't really surprise anybody. 

Cartoon Network seems to be shying away from "serious" action cartoons and focusing more on comedies and comedic-action. That seems to be the trend with kid-vid these days. Action only has one weekday outlet in the US, and that's The Hub's Hub-Boom! block of . . . wait for it . . . built up mostly of DC Comics reruns. Aside from that, it's a non-factor on American television on days that don't begin with S. 

No wonder people are finding solace in anime online. They definitely fit the action cartoon fix in this country. I'm a fan of American titles, but the fewer that exist, the less inclined I am to watch the cable outlets. I already find my Cartoon Network viewing time cut down dramatically from five years ago, but considering I'm a 35-year old man, I don't think they'll mind me going away since the channel's not for folks like me.  Still, for those kids who actually like action, they either have to deal with stuff like Beyblade and Pokemon or venture untethered online to find something new and different for their action needs, especially if the big three cable networks aren't really offering it any more, especially not on weekday afternoons.  

Which is probably why I'm hoping for a mass movement to bring original American-made action cartoons online. That will come in a few years, and I look forward to that day.

(Before anybody suggests it, no, I don't think Young Justice and Green Lantern should be on Toonami, mostly because I don't want the block to be Cartoon Network's action cartoon basement where they throw away good action shows never to be seen in the daylight again)

The Summary of That Last Post

DC Comics is trying to do in their comics universe what their animation counterparts have been doing for over 20 years in creating a universe built up on only five years of collective history and failing badly.

And I talk too much. Good night, everybody! And keep creating.

It May Come To Nobody's Surprise That I'm Not Cool

There's nothing cool about me. I'm just a nerd not nerdy about the right things.

While superheroes entertain me, I rarely pick up comic books. I'm a fan of very few cartoons  from Japan (and the fact I rarely use the word anime points a bull's eye on my head to a lot of folks who think I'm just an a-hole you shouldn't trust [some anonymous jackenfool said that on some site, so it must be true]). I write more than I draw some days. Other days, I draw more than I write.

Most days, I'm just doing both. Thinking with words and pictures.

My life is pretty humdrum. Have way too many responsibilities on the other end of the screen (mostly taking care of my mother after years of taking care of my grandfather).

I'm not a loud person. I don't crave attention. I don't want it. I don't have many friends, but the few I have (mostly online) are the best folks I know. In one, I found real love. You know, the kind of love you read about in books. Just sucks we're in two different states.

But no, I'm not cool by any stretch. I have a strange brain that lets me retain so many things. I'm always creating and thinking, putting aside one idea after another. Sadly, lots of ideas that are cluttered around on paper and files that I'm just now putting together.

That Centauri story has been in my head since 2000 and I'm just now putting all the pieces in one story.

I worry way more than I should. I wish I could be cool. I wish I had the power to make things happen, but right now, I'm trying to keep myself going in this world.

It's rough. So many things are against me, but I'm not blaming anybody else for my shortcomings. Just have to do what I have to do.

What that is will probably be cooler than what I'm doing and how I'm living now.

Do we have a contender for Brand New's Worst Logo of 2012 on the year's 13th day already?

Page curl. Let that sink in for a minute. Page. Curl.

DC Comics, which has a great logo they introduced seven years ago and has been the first and last thing seen with every DC-made production, has a new logo according to Bleeding Cool.

And the backwards turn is now complete.

DC Comics 2012 looks like Image Comics and Marvel Comics circa 1994, most of the characters are younger, a whole lot of characters aren't around, and Batman and Green Lantern remains relatively unchanged. Diversity is a joke, and people who don't feel that's true are the demographic that the whole reboot/set is aimed towards, namely the demographic they were already reaching in the first place: White dudes 18-34.

The whole company is ran like a good-ol'-boys network with old friends of those in power working on multiple books and those who aren't are given the boot. They advertise in the same old venues instead of, I don't know, opening themselves up to new ventures and outlets. Why didn't DC Comics advertise the relaunch on BET, CMT, Lifetime, or LOGO?

And now, they're getting a backwards-looking logo that reeks of a PhotoShop designer using a page curl technique for the very first back in 1996.

Fitting and yet very sad.

Let Me Get This Straight

In 2009, Funimation declares in a public conference call that when it comes to anime titles, they have  "a first look at all opportunities in terms of licenses. We’re seeing them all, we have an opportunity to bid on them all."

Several distributors went under and those that remained are struggling. The thing about such Funimation's statement is that they're basically saying that they get first dibs out of everything that comes out of Japan and whatever they don't pick up aren't worth picking up. It also means that a lot of what's on the marketplace that aren't distributed by Funimation are Funimation's scraps.

Is that the kind of message you want to put out there in a struggling market, that instead of being a more united industry, one distributor basically says what other folks have is junk? There's something going on, and if the industry isn't careful, there's going to be fewer choices out there, and fewer players. A shame the industry doesn't get it. It's even a shame the distributors don't really get what's going on out there in the anime community.

A lot of folks want something real. Something new AND good. Something that challenges the mind without retreading something from the past or catering to the lowest demographics filling it with gratuitous violence and excessive, unnecessary nudity. . Unfortunately, there's no Cowboy Bebop breakout series out there in the immediate future, and it seems the producers are catering to the same old fans. I think that's why I became drawn to Brotherhood lately. While it's not completely new, it was certainly more cerebral than the original Fullmetal Alchemist series (which I liked) that dove into philosophical debates about theology vs. science without beating your head with it.

Instead of something truly creative, you see the same types of shows with the same old stories. A lot of shows are interchangeable, and the few that aren't get pushed out of the limelight by the powerful distributors here. I may knock Adult Swim from time to time, but at least they picked up titles that are more cerebral and quite mature without being gratuitous.

It's the industry that refuses to grow up. The production side and the distribution side. The distribution side is getting smaller and smaller, and when the leading distributor made a statement that weakens the other distributors, it makes the whole industry look bad.

Unity is in order. Otherwise, in five years, there won't even be an anime industry.

Father Issues

I don't know WHY they're making Zeus the "father" of Wonder Woman in the New 52 (guess that would make her and Cassie "Wonder Girl" Sandsmark half-sisters?). What's that going to do, make her more of a demigod than an Amazon? I dunno. Still, I'm about 52% ready to accept that if, and ONLY IF, they eliminate Heracles's pillaging rampage and his rape of Queen Hippolyta.

(If you're a student of mythology, or watched Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, you know that Heracles is the son of Zeus)

Because it's a refrigerator moment that made the Queen of the Amazons seem weak and made even weaker in the Challenge of the Gods storyline when she forgave him (even having a brief romance) and in a later story when he tried to seduce Diana.

Though like all things people want to forget, it never happened. Or at least, it's so convoluted and obscured that the powers-that-be made it so you WOULD forget about the dark, sinister, messed up past of the character.

And it'll probably still be in-canon which makes the Zeus/Hippolyta coupling all the more creepy and a bit Oedipal when you bring in Heracles.

Comics, everybody!

Idle Thought About DC's 1st Solo Title With A Black Woman Lead

Why did they go with Voodoo instead of Vixen?

I'm not asking that because I have a fox in this fight. I'm asking because, well, here's why:

DC has so many characters of color they're NOT using, and the few females of color (FOC) are in secondary roles and barely noticeable. And the two most visible FOC in the DC Universe are The Question and Vixen. So far, Renee Montoya, the most recent incarnation of The Question, has been seen in a poster in a panel of Batwoman and Vixen is a member of Justice League International.

Aside from a critically-acclaimed miniseries, Vixen has made notable appearances on two of the most recent DC Universe animated series, Justice League Unlimited and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Not to mention the fact that she's one of the few FOC to get the action figure and bust treatment (Static, clearly the 2nd most visible POC in DC Comics after John Stewart [the Green Lantern of Justice League and JLU], only recently received his first action figure, and it was the older version seen in JLU) as well as being the center of a major story arc in Dwayne McDuffie's Justice League of America run.

Needless to say, I've grown to love Vixen over the years. A lot.

And it's frustrating to see the first solo book with a Black female character in the lead role NOT being Vixen but rather Voodoo.It's not that I have a problem with Voodoo. It's not every day you see a stripper with powers headlining a comic book aimed towards a mainstream audience. It's just that the powers that be at DC felt that Voodoo would be a more viable solo character approachable to a newer audience than Vixen, who is already more familiar to an audience who don't really read comic books.

With Vixen, there's this "Hey, I know her from Cartoon Network" approach to her. People know her. People know she's a great character. She can use the abilities of animals to defeat her opponents. Little girls and little boys of all races could identify with her immediately. With Voodoo, there's this "Who's she?" approach to her. Unless people remember the short-lived WildC.A.T.S. animated series (and honestly, who does these days?), she's a new character. She's not quite a stripper with a heart of gold, but she uses what she has to do what she has to do. Not quite a character for little girls to look up to, although 85% of little boys may ask why they feel funny down there all of a sudden. 

I'm just wondering why Voodoo instead of Vixen?

When it comes to advertising using an audio/visual medium, audio is just as important as video.

The music in the original DC 52 promo video was terrible. It seemed like a scene from a mid-90s movie when the hero, after he enters the room, says something "smartassy," and right before they start the fight. This is the image the powers-that-be wants the audience  to think about in relaunching the DC Universe. To be honest, it's kind of dated. A relic from the early 80s and mid-90s.

It lacked something. An umph. Something that showcases that these are the world's greatest superheroes. No majesty.. No awe-inspiring tune. Just a generic pre-fight guitar-heavy instrumental. And it's slow-paced at that.

What would I have used? The theme song to The New Batman-Superman Adventures. It's epic, familiar, majestic, awe-inspiring, orchestral, and a great instrumental theme that won't be dated in a decade or two.

While Fox wanted George Lucas to use the modern music of the 70s for his small film known as Star Wars, he insisted on using orchestral music that wasn't tied down to a particular period in time and could be considered ageless. He knew the power of music and how timeless it could be.

That's kind of the approach I went in this redubbing. Speeding up the video a bit, and whadjaknow? it fits like a glove.

MTV @ 30: Reality Killed The Video Star

"Ladies and gentlemen . . . rock and roll."

On August 1, 1981, these words marked the beginning of what many at the time felt was a revolution in music entertainment. Music Television, a wall-to-wall barrage of music videos and concerts from artists lighter than a paper bag, was launched on that day. We knew it as MTV: Music Television.

And by the time they actually began airing more diverse acts, introducing a new music genre known as rap, reintroducing the world to a former boy band frontman and making him a superstar, and making stars out of a quartet of grungy pop songstresses from New York, a working-class hero, the nerds playing with synthesizers and accordions, a hard-rocking spiky-haired idol, and so much hair. Music evolved and changed, but MTV continued to be a part of that industry for much of the first decade.

Then they got "Real."

The Real World, which premiered in 1992, has not only become a staple of MTV, but its spirit lingers on in everything the network does now. Just as the animated IDs created by a myriad of studios in the 80s led to Liquid Television, Oddities, and Cartoon Sushi and its numerous spinoffs in the 1990s, The Real World is the precursor to what MTV is now, a network full of non-scripted (but heavily-edited) series known foolishly as "reality shows." These shows are full of snobs, spoiled brats, muscleheads, crass girls, boorish boys, and pointless, stereotypical behavior. The scripted fare echos many of the elements from those "reality shows." And do you know what has been lost on MTV?

Music.

Aside from the sporadic airings of AMTV, music is largely absent in the daylight and prime-time hours of MTV. Most music programs either migrated over to MTV 2 and VH1 Classic (which is doing more celebrating of MTV's 30th anniversary than MTV) while the video are on the smaller MTV Hits and MTV Jams networks. Hell, the closest thing we have to MTV as it used to be are TheCoolTV (an over-the-air digital substation) and Fuse (a cable network originally the American version of the Canadian MuchMusic channel that is largely on digital cable grids).

And the sad thing about MTV's irrelevance in the music industry is because they were slow to adapt to newer mediums. YouTube's growth over the last decade has brought videos to the masses the way they were intended to be seen and heard. And it made stars out of unknowns.

Like OK! Go! and that Justin Bieber kid.

So, while video killed the radio star as The Buggles sang when MTV launched 30 years ago, reality killed the biggest video star that ever lived, MTV. While it remains popular, the music has faded to a whisper.

Since they're no longer using it, _usic wants its M back.