Erbert and Gerbert’s Subs and Clubs, a Midwest-based chain of sub shops, decided to do something a little different to advertise their business. Here’s the entire how-to and the result:
We’d love to know if there are any other "human flipbooks" in existence!
Congratulations to Ted Rall on his election as incoming President of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists! Rall, shown here officiating at the recent wedding of fellow cartoonists Mikhaela Reid and Makesha Wood, states on his blog that "Never, in the history of the form, has the quality of political cartoons has been as high as it is today. Never have they been more widely read, or appreciated, by the public. Yet newspapers are firing their cartoonists and slashing their budgets to buy syndicated cartoons. There have never been so few cartoonists. There have never been so few editorial cartoons in print," and that his biggest challenge will be "trying to find a free market solution" to this disparity.
Rall has been a nationally syndicated cartoonist since 1991, and a vocal and sometimes controversial presence on the cartoonist scene. He’s authored a number of prose and graphic novels, and has compiled three volumes so far of his Attitude series, a comprehensive listing of "subversive" political, alternative and online cartoonists.
All hail the autumnal equinox, which crept in at 5:51 AM today! Yes, we were awake for it, thanks to affection-demanding cats. For us, autumn is the season of excitement and change, and that certainly applies to ComicMix, as you all know. But one thing that’s staying the same is our great lineup of core columnists; here’s what we’ve had for you this past week:
Meanwhile, Mellifluous Mike Raub has reached that pinnacle at last, the hundredth Big ComicMix Broadcast! Here’s that one and the ones surrounding it:
Way to go, Mike!
Bummed out because Jonathan Ross’ BBC4 documentary In Search of Steve Ditko isn’t being shown in the US? God bless the internets, we say. Here’s part one:
YouTube has it up in seven parts; here are sections two, three, four, five, six and seven. The documentary also features Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Stan Lee, and a veddy English sensibility throughout; enjoy!
A few months ago, Google’s map section came out with a new feature called Street View, which had a number of people up in arms. "They’re spying on us!" came the cry. "It’s creepy and inappropriate! Our privacy is being violated by having cameras in public streets capturing possibly embarrassing moments for posterity!"
I’d lay odds that many of these advocates are the same people upset about the restrictions on their rights to, say, film or photograph things on public property in some cities. It reminds me of a line Peter Stone wrote for Ben Franklin in 1776: "…rebellion is always legal in the first person — such as ‘our’ rebellion. It is only in the third person — ‘their’ rebellion — that it is illegal." Google Street Views is "their" invasion, filming in NYC is "our" right.
But what can you expect? We live in a society that increasingly blurs the dividing line between the public and the private. My Mom uses a phrase to describe the kinds of romance novel plots she likes to read: "the ones that stop at the bedroom door." I feel the same way about most entertainment I prefer, as well as about most of real life. I’m not one of those people who believes that public displays of affection are somehow ickier if they’re between members of the same sex; I’m one of those people who believes that most overt public displays of affection are equally icky and belong behind a closed bedroom door.
Of course, I’m clearly in the minority here. I recognize that we’re a culture obsessed with having it both ways. We raise up a storm of protest at violations of our privacy by others, especially government authorities — "keep your laws off my body!" — and at the same time reserve the right to self-violate.
Yeah, I’m psyched for this next year as well. Even though I’m strictly a "Phase One" gal for now, ComicMix‘s next incarnation has me excited over lots of good reading ahead. But let’s not let the weekly columns get lost in the shuffle:
Are we there yet, Mellifluous Mike Raub? Almost to one hundred Big ComicMix Broadcasts:
May you all be inscribed in the Book of Much Nachas (that’s nachas, not nachos) for the sweetest and healthiest of years!
Just as with the Twilight Zone, I have a favorite Star Trek: Next Generation episode that’s stuck with me for years. It’s called "Darmok," wherein Picard & co. attempt to communicate with the Tamarians, a people with an incomprehensible language. Blogger Barbara O’Brien picks up the plot synopsis: "Captain Picard and Dathon the Tamarian have an adventure together battling an invisible beast, and during this adventure Picard has a ‘Helen Keller at the water pump’ moment and realizes that Tamarians speak in metaphors taken from stories. For example, ‘Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra’ refers to two enemies, Darmok and Jalad, who became allies at Tenagra. As a phrase, it means ‘Let’s put aside our differences and be friends.’ So after much suspense and drama and the death of the unfortunate Dathon, by the end of the episode Picard knows enough Tamarian to say, ‘Bye. It’s been real.’"
One of the reasons this show resonates with me so much is that I’m keen on the necessity of communicating, whether through stories or essays or conversation. I wouldn’t have majored in English and linguistics at college if this idea weren’t one of the driving forces in my life. I’ve always believed that there has to be a way of making myself understood to anyone — probably as futile a notion as my childhood ambition of wanting every single person I met in my life to like me, to never make any enemies. But you know, I haven’t necessarily given up on that one either! And as I’ve noted a number of times, much of my life has been spent in trying to find the key, the conversational Rosetta Stone, that would result in my late father finally being able to understand me — a quest at which I never succeeded, but which led me to become a writer.
Communication is the implicit goal of storytelling. If you’re not making some connection with your readers or viewers or listeners, you may as well be writing in a secret diary. Now, I’ve mentioned before that I have a small tolerance for things like Easter eggs and other pop culture references stuck into TV shows, comics, etc. as a wink between writer and audience; you’ll notice those stories are often the first to become dated as well because their references are so time-specific. But that’s a far cry from deliberately not communicating at all, but faking it in a way that makes your audience feel as though they’re stupid if they admit they’re not in the know.
Fortunately this deliberate communication breakdown doesn’t happen with most stories I read, as I tend to choose my entertainment rather than having it (and any accompanying trendiness) choose me. But it does happen in real life, particularly so in this century so far. I don’t think I have to tell you what series of events brought this on.
Once again I’m here at home base whilst my ComicMix colleagues have more convention fun, this time at Baltimore where, just about at the time you read this, The Big Announcement will be made. I do hope it’s good news! Meanwhile, let’s not forget that we "Phase One-ers" are still around cranking out our weekly columns:
And of course, Mellifluous Mike Raub edges ever closer to the hundredth Big ComicMix Broadcast:
Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow, folks!
There’s been a flurry of posts lately in the comics blogosphere, including Glenn Hauman’s last column here, about perceived value for money (let’s just call it PVFM) when it comes to comics. The consensus seems to be, American comics periodicals from the Big Two are usually about 22 pages long and take mere minutes to read through, which is Not Good. Added to that the current buzzword in vogue for what used to be called "padding," now rechristened "decompression," and the PVFM aggravation level shoots way up as the time actually spent reading the thing goes way down. And the conclusion is, there just ought to be more words per page, and possibly more pages per pamphlet, so the reading time (and thus the presumed enjoyment time) increases and fans don’t feel like they’re being ripped off and more readers will return to comics and all will be well with the world. It’s gotten so bad that I’ve actually seen online comics pages where a writer/artist will put up a page of wordless story and apologize for the lack of dialogue on it!
Allow me to ask: When did PVFM become a condition upon which entertainment should be created? Do all stories have to be dense, or should all stories strive instead to be good?
Look, I understand PVFM. I frequent an all-you-can-eat sushi place, for cripe’s sake. The sushi’s very good there, or I wouldn’t frequent it. But I’ve been to lots of AYCE places that made me wish I paid more for less-but-better stuff. As anyone who’s visited a 99-cent store would agree, quantity isn’t always synonymous with quality.
Particularly where such a subjective experience as entertainment is involved. Perhaps I’m the wrong person to ask this, what with my swiss-cheese retention abilities, but were all the stories you really remember fondly real long ones? I’ve been to some long, dense movies that were full of sound and fury and signified less than nothing; the concession candy had more fulfillment. And I’ve spent two minutes reading various pithy blog posts that stick with me far longer than the screens and screens of blather that, frankly, I usually can’t even make it all the way through. But okay, let’s be fair — comics aren’t blog posts, where brevity and getting to the point is often prized. And they’re not movies, where unspoken movement can convey so much that a constant stream of words isn’t necessary.
So tell me, without looking: what’s your favorite comic book story, and how many words does it contain?
I’ll be travelling today, hoping everyone else had plans to take to their cars either yesterday or tomorrow, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t leave you with some fine ComicMix columns from his past week, all well worth reading:
And for your listening pleasure, Mellifluous Mike Raub brings you the Big ComicMix Broadcasts as always:
And, of course, check out Mike’s weekly Stories Behind The Big Broadcast.
Have a swinging September, y’all!
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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