| Spread the Word |
[Apr. 16th, 2009|05:37 pm] |
If any of you are fans of the Turtles, help us spread the word!
The above banner is for issue 59 written by the inimitable Tristan Jones, and you should all go read everything he has done with the Turtles, like right now.
But what you should really really do is help Tales out by posting this banner in your blogs, as a sig, or where ever to help spread the word. On the superhero scale, the Ninja Turtles really rank up there with Spider-man and the X-Men in terms of recognizability and popularity, but though everyone knows them and their various spin-offs, not a lot of people read the comic where it all began. Join in the fight to change that now!
|
|
|
| N.L. makes history with power sale through Quebec |
[Apr. 2nd, 2009|12:29 pm] |
|
For the first time in more than four decades of often raucous relations, Newfoundland and Labrador made the deal with Quebec for what are called wheeling rights, in which power generated in Labrador passes through Quebec. Under the terms of a 1969 deal, power generated at the Upper Churchill site in Labrador is sold to Hydro-Quebec, which then can resell the power at significantly higher rates.
Is this deal as momentous as it seems? Upper Churchill is one of the main roadblocks still keeping Newfoundland from feeling at all part of Canada, and a major thorn in the side of our national identity as Newfoundlanders. Does this... fix that?
There totally wasn't enough pertinent info in this article. |
|
|
| On media stars crossing into other media |
[Mar. 29th, 2009|07:32 pm] |
From Eddie Campbell:
I see that the author Ian Rankin was interviewed this week at Newsarama, on account of his new gig at Vertigo, writing a so-called 'graphic novel':"...a lot of people hated the film of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but I loved it! I think I went and saw it three times! I liked the characters, and the idea of them as the first superhero fighting team. That’s just a great idea. As a creative writer, that just really appeals to me, genre-hopping and playing games with them.
I loved V for Vendetta as well. I thought it was very true to the source material, very faithful. I thought, “being Hollywood, they’ll make him take off the mask, we’ll get to see his face.” Nope. Loved From Hell also. I think I liked it better than the comic book, which is very hard to follow in parts." But we need not worry because he is actually really truly quite brainy. In figuring out how to write comic books, this is what he came up with:"What I did was I got a copy of a book called Understanding Comics and the others by Scott McCloud. And I thought they were really quite cerebral. It was like, “What happens in the space between the panels is almost as important as the panels themselves, because time has passed, and you’ve got to imagine what has happened between these two panels.” With any luck he'll fall through the space between the panels and we'll be spared.
|
|
|
| Buy the book! |
[Mar. 15th, 2009|01:47 pm] |
PS: You should all go out and get Tales of the TMNT 56 by my buddy Tristan Jones and Paul Harmon, who's one of the best (non-mirage) Turtles artists out there.
You should especially get this if you were a fan of the new cartoon, as it introduces some "cartoon" characters into the "comic" universe. Sweet.
[edit] Also, you should go read this incredibly awkward and hateful letter from Watchmen screenwriter David Hayter first begging you to see his movie again this week so that it makes more money, then in a second letter, apologising that he just compared the experience of going to a movie and the movie itself to rape. Funny ol' world ain't it?
|
|
|
| Canadian Movies |
[Mar. 11th, 2009|10:14 pm] |
Living in the US, every now and then folks ask me about what movies are like in Canada. From now on, I will direct them to this article.
A Canadian filmmaker who lost an eye in childhood as a result of a shooting accident is planning to make a documentary film using an electronic camera concealed inside a prosthetic eye...
|
|
|
| Saw Watchmen, wot? |
[Mar. 9th, 2009|11:13 pm] |
Yeah, so Watchmen. Actually not that bad. We figured on the comic movie scale of 1-10, 10 being The Dark Knight or Akira (I guess... what else rates a ten?) and 1 being Faust: Love of the Damned, Watchmen probably rates a 7 or 8. It was fun. On the actual movie scale it's probably only about a 6-6.5, but still a pretty good achievement considering what COULD have been adapted out of Watchmen.
One thing that's still causing fits of rage for me is the reaction to Dr. Manhattan being naked. It was a good measure of the maturity level of our audience to see who started giggling whenever he showed up (thankfully only a couple). But people won't shut up about it now. It's there in the comic, it perfectly illustrates his divorce from humanity and our society, and it was really brave of them to put it in the movie.
Full frontal female nudity happens so frequently we're desensitized to it. Just a few years ago, a fully nude female rated a PG-13 or R, while a naked man meant an automatic X. But put a naked man in a movie and people twitter about it for weeks. Great.
PS: Whoa, twittering about something works as a double entendre now. Weird.
|
|
|
| Montcalm and Wolfe, sitting in a tree... |
[Feb. 21st, 2009|11:16 pm] |
 So apparently there was supposed to be a reenactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham this summer for its 250th anniversary, but it's been cancelled. This would have been amazing to see, but considering things, it's probably best this doesn't happen.
I had a conversation over the holidays in which we were comparing America and Canada, and the topic of history came up. As I've said before, the thing I love most about this country is how much these people truly learn and appreciate their own history. We don't at all in Canada, and it's one of the main reasons we've got little to no concept of our national identity. The yanks know themselves pretty well.
Anyway, it came up in this conversation the old chestnut that American history is more interesting than ours, in particular the fact that they had a Civil War and we didn't. And I got really upset about this because of the Plains of Abraham.
For those not in the know, on September 13th 1759 the British and French armies met outside Quebec city. The British won, and a year later the French gave the British all their holdings in North America. Though it would not officially be ratified for over a century, this was the birth of Canada.
Everything that our nation is today can be traced back to this event, but no one even bothers to learn about it. It's a 250 year old battle that is still as potent and politically charged today as it was 249 years ago. Canada was made on the Plains and defined itself as a nation in 1812. We have had both a war of independence and a civil war, just not in that order.
|
|
|
| Turtles at Downtown Comics |
[Jan. 27th, 2009|09:38 pm] |
For those of you who missed the Morning Show interview, it's right here.
Good news! The first Tales shipment finally arrived at Downtown Comics, though Jason and the B'ys say they'll probably be sold out by the time I post this (call ahead). A new shipment of 50 or so more copies should get there in the next week.
And if you're not sick of me yet, I also had the pleasure of being interviewed for The Telegram by Heidi Wicks. That will be printed in this Saturday's paper.
AND I just did my first signing at talk today at the Yale Bookstore! We had a class of middle school kids come in and read some poems, then I read my poem Jolly Bonnet and talked about about writing poems and writing comics, and the similarities between the two.
It's a weird mix of topics, but after I started thinking about it, it makes some sense. In both comics and poetry (as opposed to film and prose, say) the idea is to achieve a certain economy of words or images. In poetry, every word must count and build toward the central idea. It's the same in comics, only in beats of time turned into pictures instead of words.
In a novel, say, you could describe a whole fight in pages and pages, detailing the area, the characters, the sounds and smells, their thoughts, as well as the action from start to finish. In a comic, you have to crunch that down into a small collection of important moments in sequence.
I'm rambling, but I've just never thought of poetry and comics as being so closely related in terms of process before. Nifty.
|
|
|
| Media Blitz |
[Jan. 25th, 2009|10:48 pm] |
Clearly I've underestimated the popularity of the Ninja Turtles in Newfoundland.
I'm being interviewed tomorrow morning for The Morning Show on CBCone. I'll probably be on (live!) between 8:00 and 8:30 am St. John's time. That's 6:30 am in Connecticut. Don't let my sacrifice be in vain!
If you aren't in Newfoundland, but are into being awake in the morning, you can listen to it online at the above link. Check at out, then tell me how it went because I can guarantee I'm going to be too asleep to remember. Either way, that's entertaining radio!
I also did an interview with Heidi Wicks of The Telegram in St. John's, talking about the Turtles, comics, and the Newfoundland comics scene. I'm not sure when it's going to run, but I'll definitely post here.
|
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Jan. 22nd, 2009|09:05 pm] |
Walt Kneeland reviews my book!
Remember, if you're in Canada, Tales 54 comes out tomorrow!
[edit] If in fact the shipments had made it. Stupid winter storms! In St. John's, I'm hearing that Downtown Comics should have them in on Monday. I'll post any updates.
Also, you should listen to my interview with CBC radio 1 Monday morning at 8:00am!
|
|
|
| News forcast is 90% chance of awesome. |
[Jan. 13th, 2009|06:45 pm] |
 One of the coolest books you've never read is Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars. It's just awesome, fun, action filled pulp at its very, very best and deserves to have been read by everyone so that their kids run around naked pretending to be John Carter beating up aliens all day long.
Anyway, they've been trying to make it into a movie since 1912 (and may sometimes have succeeded, I don't remember), but apparently this time Pixar's doing it and that, my friend, is ten hundred thousand tons of awesome.
The picture here is of the eponymous princess, Deja Thoris, mercilessly killing a green martian. Pencils and inks by Frank Cho, colours by me (unbeknownst to him) when I was trying to learn photoshop. I asked Mr. Cho once why he had never done a full length comic or at least illustrated edition of A Princess of Mars and he described to me the litigious history of the property, so it'll be a miracle if this movie gets made at all, let alone gets made well.
|
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Dec. 15th, 2008|05:19 pm] |
 My book Tales of the TMNT 54 is off to the printers!
I should be getting comp copies soon, which is good cause I really want to know what happens.
I just finished watching Planet Terror, which I think I like better than Death Proof. Much less pointless conversing. Death Proof did have Kurt Russel, though, and it was pretty sweet by the time the stunt women showed up... but none of them had machine guns for legs, so it was somehow less impressive.
Anyway, Ainz is gone home for Christmas (a week earlier than me) so as you can probably tell, I'm bored. Still, Tales! Wee!
|
|
|
| Oops. No more government. |
[Dec. 5th, 2008|11:20 pm] |
|
So the whole fracas with the Canadian government is quite interesting/frustrating. It seems there isn’t an ounce of leadership ability in the whole of Ottawa. None of the party leaders should be allowed to run a country. None of the people waiting in the wings to replace them should be allowed to run a country. It’s a magnified version of the perpetual state of Canadians who pay attention to their politics, which is to say half way between laughter and weeping. A few years ago I read skimmed Jeffery Simpson’s The Friendly Dictatorship. It basically implied that the Chretien Liberal government had been allowed to amass too much power. This is a typical criticism for an administration after its first term, so Simpson’s book came as no surprise somewhere during Chretien’s third. Taken further, if I remember it at all, the book attacks Chretien directly by suggesting he continually added more and more responsibility, more and more power, to the position of Prime Minister. Kind of a benevolent, intelligent Dick Cheney. And it’s true that by the end of his term, Chretien could barely be touched by a deluge of scandals, political opponents, protestors, and burglars , and would probably still be in power today if his own power-mad finance minister hadn’t convinced the Liberals to oust him. So it’s possible what was left was a kind of power vacuum. An Ottawa so used to an invincible Prime Minister who ruled confidently with an iron fist it had forgotten how to do anything. We were left with Chretien’s lackeys, and the opposing parties he had already squashed. Can we blame this current crisis on Da Boss? Blame Chretien for being so good at his job he left no room for a successor? No, not really. But it’s fun to think about while we wait for the kids to stop fighting. God, Canada, get yourself together! Everybody’s looking! |
|
|
| Just for today. |
[Nov. 11th, 2008|09:12 pm] |
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless falls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor eer eagle flew –
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God. |
|
|
| You get the Government you deserve |
[Nov. 7th, 2008|07:51 pm] |
|
The long dream of a national portrait gallery to showcase Canada's famous faces is dead. The Harper government abruptly announced late Friday that it is killing the project, which has been in the works for seven years. Newly minted Heritage Minister James Moore announced that none of the proposals received by developers is acceptable to the government, "and we are therefore terminating the selection process." Well great, Tories. Just as Ainz and I are watching Barack Obama become the first black US President in one of the most historic and inspiring moments of our generation and wondering "Why can't Canada pull off stuff like this? Why isn't Canada as passionate about its own identity as America is?" we are swiftly brought back to reality with the fact that Canada has no national pride because we are boring and also suck.
Thanks for voting these idiots in again, guys. Next election I'm voting Bloq.
[edit] I don't want to leave this there.
Look, I love Canada. It's a great place to be from, it's all about understanding, fun, and peace. It's an international nation, and though it's a bit too subdued in the way it asserts itself sometimes, things generally work out okay.
But we've just got no self-respect on an international level. Aside from saying "We're not the US, suck it Yanks!" we have no national identity. We ignore our history, we refuse to define or defend ourself on any stage and in general would rather talk about others than ourselves and let them do the interesting stuff.
A sense of a nation's self-worth and a unifying national identity doesn't happen overnight. People have to strive for it, be they leaders, politicians or artists. We have to grapple with ourselves to understand ourselves so we can point at something and say "That's Canada".
Universal health care and the sense of community it represents? That's Canada. The Terry Fox Run? That's Canada? Trudeau saying "There is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation."? That's Canada. Molson beer ads? That's hella Canada.
And that's all we've got. Snippets and beer ads. And that's all we're going to have while this government persists in viewing Canadians as calculators and economic machines.
|
|
|
| "It is 11:01pm, and Barack Obama is President of the United States" |
[Nov. 5th, 2008|12:46 am] |
Okay America, you know what? All is forgiven.
Seriously, I understand that the last 8 years were just the transitional phase, a "larval" stage if you will, getting the country and indeed the world ready for President Barack Obama.
I am fully prepared to concede that the whole Bush regime was just the compost, the mulch from which blossoms shoot forth. The fertile top soil or manure. The shit, if you will.
But all is forgiven, cousins to the south. I forgive you the last 8 years. I forgive you the Spider-man movies, and the "Peeping tom" Superman in Superman Returns. Hell, I'll even forgive you Catwoman! Yeah I said it. I forgive your crappy airport security making me take my shoes off all the time, and thus making me miss flights. I forgive you for Anne Coulter and also for Michael Moore, cause guh.
And yes. Yes America. I forgive you for New Haven. I know you didn't mean it. S'okay we're totally square. I loves ya. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
spectre_general's journal
