Captain America: The Winter Soldier books Robert Redford as the heavy and makes a few halfhearted allusions to our own imperiled civil liberties, and everyone calls it a “’70s political thriller” with a straight face, forgetting that actual ’70s political thrillers seldom excused government malfeasance by blaming it on defrosted Nazi agents.
— Alex Pappademas, “Giving the Devil His Do-Rag: Why Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’ Is the Least Marvel-y Marvel Property Yet”
This TED Talk was very different than I expected.
Well. This is interesting.
I’m sure we’ll continue to talk amongst ourselves about how to handle the current crisis. Cis people don’t get to lead that conversation. We don’t care what you think. We’re more concerned with what you do, or more often, what you don’t do.
— eastsidekate at Shakesville
I feel like it was a weak year for films. As I reflect on the films I saw in 2014, not many really stand out. I also feel like the whole “back-end loading” problem is affecting more and more every year. I’ve stopped watching films in theatres, and studios keep holding back their best films until the fall (when Oscar season starts), so I tend to see the best films several months after they’re released.
Anyway, here are my favourite films that I saw in 2014:
One of the things that Ty taught in his writing class was story maps. Basically, (in the form he was teaching us) they’re a simple device for planning a basic comic script. Obviously, story maps aren’t unique to comic writing, but Ty’s technique for using them is pretty specific to mainstream comics publishing.
Here’s an example of a story map that he filled out — I’ve seen this particular example used to provide a visual aid for his Writing Comics course. He also hands out blank versions in his class — I scanned one and redrew it in Illustrator because I like doing stuff electronically.
So, j00j suggested that I write something about comics. That’s a big topic for me, and has several dimensions. I mean there’s the whole “my history reading comics” angle, and the “comics I like” angle, and the “what tools am I using to make comics?” angle and even the “what comics am I working on?” angle.
So I’m gonna try all of that. But probably not all in one post. First, history.
I’ve said before that the house I grew up in didn’t really have many books. My parents weren’t readers, and I didn’t start reading until they taught it in school. I attended Rosedale Public School for nine years (kindergarten to grade 8 school). There wasn’t much distinctive about Rosedale. It was built in the mid-fifties, and had two classes of each grade. The classes for grades two and three laid out in an open concept in an area that surrounded the school’s library (although we never called it a library; it was apparently a “resource centre”).
Anyway, in grade three (1974/1975), the teachers introduced a reading period, and encouraged kids to bring books to read, and to show them off to other students. And that was how I was first introduced to comics. Several other kids had comic books. Popular books at the time included Richie Rich and Baby Huey and Hot Stuff, the Little Devil, but I was most fascinated by one comic in particular: Justice League of America #100.
I’ve been neglecting my blogging. Mostly, I haven’t really felt like I’ve had a ton to talk about. Months ago, I remember people were doing the whole “write X posts in period of time Y” thing, and I found other people’s posts interesting.
So, tell me: what should I write about? Give me a topic or two, and I’ll bloginate it!
I’ve been watching Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix for a few weeks. I started watching it because I was in a funk of hate-watching Bones and I needed to stop.
I don’t love the Grey’s Anatomy, but I’m enjoying it a lot more than Bones. I find the soap-operatic qualities tedious, but I enjoy many of the characters: especially Cristina, Callie and Arizona. Cristina is probably my favourite. I’m somewhere in the seventh season, now, and I’m tired of any storyline that distracts from Cristina-as-super-awesome. Because she’s super awesome.
You’d think I’d have stronger identification with Meredith, given her moody backstory involving fraught parental relationships, but I’m pretty meh about her. Give me Cristina any day.
This is a good set of links and interpretations about rates for comic book artists.
Generally, the good graphic novels fetch $100 – $300 per page, although professionals who have been in the industry for a long time can command as much as three times that amount. In fact, one elite illustrator commanded as much as $1,000 a page (on a 22-page comic book)! Most of the popular titles that artists, like David Cassaday, work on are monthly issues, which end up providing him with a six-figure salary. The back-end royalties on merchandise, trade paperbacks and movie royalties are also generous.
This is my blog. In which I say stuff. You probably don't care but, hey, it's not about you.
