Truth That Goes Crunch

So, Axe, they of the incredibly sexist ads, are publishing a "graphic novel" for their latest product, Axe Anarchy.

Its creative awfulness is only exceeded by the classic fruit pie comics - if fruit pies caused excessive fucking instead of curing hunger.

( Reviews of DC Direct movies 'Batman: Under the Red Hood,' 'Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam,' and other recent shorts )

Because I can:
- Things making me annoyed this week, as I learn from a cis guy that 2010 is apparently the "Year of the Transsexual."
- Why I Don't Care That You're Not An Asshole, on the most important takeaway of the Haley Barbour mess.

A couple months ago, a lot of nerd blogs picked up on the Batman XXX trailer, which appeared slavishly faithful to the original show.

Having held a group showing of it last night, I can confirm that it is indeed fan-wet-dream slavish. ( In some ways insanely so. )

Otherwise, find a copy of the pornless cut. You lose around an hour of film, but what's left is quite funny and fairly SFW, considering its source.

Bonus Link: Village Voice Comic on Batman XXX and the allure of the nostalgia fetish.

All will be sent for free, and there may be more added the longer I clean/arrange my apartment.

Comics:
Birds of Prey #105, 109, 144
Venus Wars II #1-5, 7, 9
Ultraman Tiga #3 (no cover)
Legend of Mother Sarah: City of Angels #4

CD:
Watashi Wa, "Eager Seas"

Books: See BookMooch list.

I am displeased, for

A) Geoff Johns is now co-writing "Shazam!", if he can get his hands out of his writing pants long enough to create a good story, as opposed to feeding his fanboy needs.

B) The new Moon Knight series. This solicit rather horrifies me:

VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT #3
Written by GREGG HURWITZ
Penciled by JEROME OPENA
Cover by LEINIL FRANCIS YU
"SHOCK AND AWE," PART 3
Years ago, Moon Knight lost his mind and killed a man, cut off his face and brayed at the moon. That man was his nemesis: Raoul Bushman. Now Bushman is back and looking for payback. He's laid a trap for Moon Knight, emptying Ravenscar Asylum and the lunatics are running wild down Broadway. For Moon Knight to defeat them - and Bushman - he'll need the full arsenal of his wits and weaponry. Because nothing can prepare him for the madness of Herman the German and the Great Wall.
32 PGS./Parental Advisory ...$2.99

MOON KNIGHT IS NOT BATMAN. BUSHMAN IS NOT THE JOKER. Having Marc be "cured" of his schizophrenia just so MK can be rebranded as a grim-n-gritty badass is unnecessary and totally misses what is valuable about the character.

Also, why the hell does MK have guns? He doesn't use guns.

Without meaning to, this post basically became a long-form essay on Western cultural appropriation of Eastern Asia sphere cultures in American comics, the nature of costumed superheroes as a media commodity, and why exactly I hate the Great Ten and what they represent.

( 'It’s like English-Chinese food, take away the spices and add sweet-sour flavour.' )

Add another article to the long list of poorly researched, hilariously oblivious, and utterly breathless "HOLY SHIT, COMICS AREN'T FOR KIDS! OMG PEOPLE!" reporting - WSJ profiling Belgian writer Jean Van Hamme, author of XIII:

"Belgium is so comic-crazy that the books are published in hardcover, printed in rich colors on glossy paper and sell for about $15 apiece. Publishers churned out more than 4,000 new titles last year. Museums and art-school curricula are devoted to comics."

Next thing you know, they'll even be making movies about comic books! Craazeee!

I do not promise coherency. This is maybe four posts, compiled into one big "I need to sleep but I need to post" post. I promise post-finals I will scan in Mr. T and the T Force!

arionhunter: *just bought a book on the making of camp* I cannot wait for finals to be over
dingsi: *hug* stressful?
arionhunter: Yeah, and irritating because I have books! And I want to read them now.
dingsi: i know that feeling. it's like getting chocolate for easter and being expected to NOT eat it right away
arionhunter: Exactly!
I have a book on rhetoric and argumentation that takes on street preachers!
I know that's not sexy to everyone, but I'd hit it with a ten-foot pole.
dingsi: hah! I can see why

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Things comics have given us that are questionable - the series "Lynch Mob." (man in the middle with the glowy fist is Lynch). The main character may or may not be a man of color whose codename is "Lynch." I do not have the time to take scans, but in the first issue Lynch's skintone considerably is darker than the white people he stands next to. The writer never clarifies Lynch's ethnicity, as they're all too busy fighting a hot anthropomorphized female computer AI in a bikini.

Then again, this imprint also gave comics "Smiley the Psychotic Button," whose first issue ends with Smiley realizing he, as a button, has no penis so he can't have dream-sex with Lady Death.

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My first cat macro starring Cat.

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( Summer reading list, mainly for personal reference. )