Ugly American: In Defense of Monsters

Since monsters tend to dwell over in these parts, I thought it apropos to defend one of comics’ most notorious creatures; Mark Millar. I’m talking about his recent comments regarding his use of rape in that New Republic article that everybody (except Millar, of course) is so upset about. No stranger to controversy is Mr. Millar, to be sure. I don’t even think it’s accurate to say that he courts these little public relations disasters – frankly, he demands them.

And yet, things are never quite so simple or so base as Millar or his vehement critics would have you believe. There are lots of layers to the onion that is The Crazy Scottish Git, as I am fond of calling him. And there is a lot of context to parse regarding Millar, and Kick-Ass 2, and American culture in general. The Bunnies would have you believe the situation is as simple as “Mark Millar is a rape-obsessed pervert who thinks it doesn’t matter”.

That’s demonstrably absurd.

In order to paint a more rational picture, though, it would be helpful to start at the beginning, with the article that started the The Great Feces Storm. Or maybe even before. Yeah, let’s start before that, even.

All of this hullaballoo is centered on Mark Millar’s admittedly frequent depictions of rape in his comics in general, and Kick-Ass 2 in particular. I clearly remember the Pharisees wailing in the streets and tearing their robes when the Red Mist and his gang did unspeakable atrocities to Dave’s would-be girlfriend Katie in that series. “It’s time to see what evil dick tastes like”, says Mist.

That scene is detestable and loathsome….and it’s supposed to be. Here at the Ugly American we’ve already covered the basic principle of “representation does not equal endorsement”, so I won’t retread that ground here. Suffice to say that the sick feeling in your stomach when you read that rape scene is exactly what Millar intended to be there. These are bad guys doing bad things. Duh. Bunnies don’t get that, though. They just know that things they don’t like shouldn’t exist, and people that do things they don’t like should be silenced. We’ll get to the specific Bunny Briar objections to all this later, I promise.

That New Republic article wasn’t the first time Millar had to field bad press regarding Kick-Ass 2 the film, though. Right about the time Jim Carrey would have had to start doing press for the film, he suddenly grew a conscience. In light of the Newtown shootings, he could no longer endorse the film, yadda yadda yadda, insert wailing in the streets and robe-tearing here.

Mind you, the check still cashed very nicely for Mr. Carrey. No mention of giving back that “blood” money, or donating it to the victims of Sandy Hook, or anything else that would involve actual moral integrity. Like all limousine liberals, Carrey made damn sure he got the best of all worlds with the least cost to himself – he got to profit handsomely, he got his vanity stroked by a cheering throng every time he got in front of a microphone over what a wonderful person he was, and he got to sit at home with all that money while everyone else rolled up their sleeves and did the grueling work of marketing the movie.

What’s interesting to me about that scenario is Millar’s response to the cowardly little two-faced turncoat. Millar’s response was essentially “Love ya, Jim, and wish you’d reconsider, (especially considering you knew exactly what you were getting into when you signed on) but I respect your opinion and wish you the best.” Jim Carrey just took a bunch of his money and then publicly took a poop on his movie, and Millar just smiled and went about his business.

Now….does that sound like a monster to you? Or does that sound like a cat who walks the road of tolerance? Does that sound like a dude with no sensitivity for other people or their plight? Or did he just take a slap in the face that could have jeopardized a multi-million dollar project and then show empathy? We’ll get back to that later.

So…the New Republic article. Here is where context gets awfully difficult, if not impossible. That article was a phone interview combined with research. It was not published in an “I asked this question, then Millar said this in response format”. My point is, we don’t know exactly what Abraham Reisman said to Millar that prompted his much-criticized response. The article makes it appear as though Reisman got a quote from Laura Hudson about Millar’s use of rape in his work, and then brought it to Millar’s attention for a response. Here’s what it looks like in the original article:

Laura Hudson, the former editor-in-chief of the popular blog Comics Alliance and a senior editor at Wired, thought that scene was deplorable, but typical of Millar. “There's one and only one reason that happens, and it's to piss off the male character,” she said. “It's using a trauma you don't understand in a way whose implications you can't understand, and then talking about it as though you're doing the same thing as having someone's head explode. You're not. Those two things are not equivalent, and if you don't understand, you shouldn't be writing rape scenes.”

Millar is of the exact opposite opinion, saying they are equivalent, and that his depictions of sexual violence are all part of his ongoing quest to push boundaries.

“The ultimate [act] that would be the taboo, to show how bad some villain is, was to have somebody being raped, you know?” he told me. “I don't really think it matters. It's the same as, like, a decapitation. It's just a horrible act to show that somebody's a bad guy.”

OK, bear with me now, because I’m going to do a little literary forensics. I believe that the Millar quote was actually created first, based upon a question the reader isn’t actually privy to, and that Laura Hudson responded to the Millar quote.

Here’s why I think that. The key element for me is this:

“It’s the same as, like, a decapitation.”

What that sounds like to me is Millar making an argument on the fly and searching for an abhorrent equivalent to rape, not referencing a quote just shared with him.

The other thing that just doesn’t jive with me is the phrase “I don’t really think it matters”. It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to call rape the ultimate taboo in one breath and then minimize the act directly after.

Here’s what I think really happened, and I’ll freely admit that I am now engaging in reasoned speculation, and not any kind of factual knowledge. I wasn’t there for the interview, so only Reisman and Millar know how things actually went down. But given the tone and the subject matter of that article, what if Reisman asked Millar something along the lines of:

“You sure do have a lot of rape in your stories – are you just a skeevy perv, or what’s that all about?”
Now, I’m sure my hypothetical question was posed a bit more diplomatically, but that’s the gist. At that point Millar is forced to do one of two things – A) tell the interviewer to go fuck himself or B) walk the interviewer through an explanation of why his usage of rape is about story mechanics and not a personal fetish.

I think that there is an implication of psychosis (the article’s headline flat-out calls him comics’ sickest mind) in a lot of the questions Millar is forced to field, and that response is about saying “Hey, I’m not a rape freak. It’s a story technique to make villains as bad as they can possibly be so that you care about the hero’s plight. I’m not interested in rape, I’m interested in drama, and that’s about the most dramatic thing I can imagine, because it’s terrible.”

That’s what I think happened. I can’t prove it, but it makes sense to me. Certainly a lot more sense than Reisman bouncing the Hudson quote off of him and then inexplicably focusing on the equivalency part of the argument. I would think if the Hudson quote actually came first, he would address the part where she implies he shouldn’t be allowed to write stories about rape if he doesn’t understand it properly.

We shouldn’t just gloss over that part, by the way. One of the more obnoxious tendencies of the Briar Patchers is the insatiable need to be the arbiters of things. Bunnies get to decide who is allowed to do what. If Mark Millar doesn’t think like Laura Hudson, then he shouldn’t get to write things on those subjects where they disagree. Bunnies are fascist dictators by nature. But it’s always for your own good, so you’ve got that going for you.

Hudson gives no indication about who is qualified to write about rape, how often it should come up, or what a proper rape portrayal should look like. We only ever get the negative – sexist male writers (and they’re all sexist, don’t you know) shouldn’t get to write about rape, it happens too much in comics, and it only happens as a plot device to upset the male lead.

I find it very odd that the Bunnies never have a template to point to. There is never a silver lining in the grievance cloud, there is only victimhood and the inevitable clapping for the “courage” these Bunnies show in defying their oppressors. You would think that in the history of comics, one person would have gotten their rape depiction right, even if just by accident. The comics medium has travelled across a myriad of time periods, and have been constructed by a wide variety of creators. Many of them, dare I say, with philosophies very Bunny-centric in ethos. In fact, if you’re paying attention at all, the medium is currently LOUSY with them.

So why do Hudson and her ilk never have a positive example to point to and exclaim “less like Millar, more like that?” One, because there would inevitably be disagreement on the issue, and that would put the infallibility of the Bunny doctrine into question. Can’t have that. Easier to just declare it all rotten and enjoy the applause from the cowards in the peanut gallery. The Bunnies end up eating their own in that manner, by the way. Can you imagine what it must have been like to be Judd Winnick and Scott Lobdell catching flak for their sexism when the New 52 first launched? No, even the feminists are sexist in the 21st century.

The truth is there will never be a “correct” portrayal of rape in comics, because in the bizarro 21st Century we gain cultural capital through victimhood, not victory. No matter the facts or reality, there will never be any (admitted) progress in comics because then you have to relinquish your victim status, and that’s where all the power is. If you’re oppressed, you can whine and change the books, save characters, you can even make sure that Orson Scott Card never works again. That’s power!

If you’re a victim, everybody in public is afraid of you. The trick is to always be a victim. How admirable.

As to the frequency of rape in comics, I have no data to say that it happens too often or not enough. I don’t find a lot of rape in my comics, but then again, I’m only reading about 25-30 a month. I also don’t find any female characters acting only as window dressing, waiting to be abused so that male characters get mad. I read about Carol Danvers,

and Alana from Saga, and Arcadia Alvarado from Saucer Country, (who might have been probed…but so was her estranged husband) and Officer Dana Cypress of Revival. No wilting lilies or damsels in distress waiting for men to take revenge there. How about Rachel from Rachel Rising or Cassie Hack or Hazmat or X-23 or Harper Row or Casey Blevins or Kate Bishop or Carlie Cooper or…need I go on? It’s not that I don’t find a lot of the sexist stereotypes I’m told are completely dominating comics….I can’t find ONE.

One thing I do find, and find curious – so many of Millar’s detractors cite statistics indicating that rape is everywhere, and that nobody escapes unscathed. It’s going to happen to you, or someone you know, they say, and that hardly seems like the case for decapitations, MARK! I believe in those statistics.

Well, fine, but doesn’t that make the case that rape should come up in comics, and with relatively high frequency? If that’s reality, why bury it? I think the danger would only be in promoting rape, and I hardly think Millar’s comics qualify. In Millarworld, rape is something villains do in order to prove their supreme villainy.

Listen, Millar is a showman, a carny in the old school style. His comics are over-the-top, and absurd, and if you wanted to make the case that his cartoony depictions of violence diminish the horror of it all…I guess I could listen to that argument. I still don’t think the answer is censorship, but I’ll listen. I don’t believe for a second that anyone at any time picked up a Mark Millar comic and said to themselves “I didn’t think rape was cool before, but now I think it’s awesome.” That just doesn’t exist. Quite the opposite, I would say. So relax, people.

Mark Millar is not a monster. He’s a guy with a mother, and a wife, and a daughter. He’s not promoting or minimizing rape. I don’t know why supposedly educated adults don’t get that. You know who gets it? A 16 year-old girl. Here’s Chloe Moretz, also known as Hit Girl:

"It's a movie," Moretz recently told a reporter. "If you are going to believe and be affected by an action film, you shouldn't go to see 'Pocahontas' because you are going to think you are a Disney princess."

"If you are that easily swayed, you might see 'The Silence of the Lambs' and think you are a serial killer," Moretz said.

"It's a movie and it's fake, and I've known that since I was a kid ... I don't want to run around trying to kill people and cuss. If anything, these movies teach you what not to do."

Amen, sister.

By the way, can you guess Millar’s response to this latest storm of feces? There hasn’t been one. I love that. I love that he’s smart enough to understand that he’s never going to change the mind of a Laura Hudson, so there’s no point in feeding the troll. I love the fact that he understands that the people who count know that a “monster” who takes the high ground isn’t much of a monster at all.

But most all, I love the fact that he didn’t apologize. I’m so deathly weary of good people apologizing for things that aren’t crimes, simply to appease inflated sanctimonious egos. Keep fighting the good fight, you Crazy Scottish Git!

Ugly American # 31: Comics and fridges and death, oh my!

I want to talk about Avengers Arena again this week, because it’s fun and it’s worth it. The comic itself is several grades more interesting than it gets credit for, even from its supporters, in my opinion. It’s an interesting artifact, and what’s even more fascinating is watching people react to it. Does any comic encapsulate what’s right with comics and wrong with the people who read them more perfectly than Avengers Arena? I say thee nay!

The only thing I like better than good comics is watching humans respond to them like deranged amoeba in my personal petri dish. The whole package is too delicious.

A good number of the amoeba have really freaked out about Avengers Arena # 10, to the point where Bleeding Cool ran a story on it. Sister Grimm “dies” at the end of the issue, and this produced quite the fit of Pharisee robe-tearing, over-taxed tear ducts, and many a “fuck Dennis Hopeless”. Which when you think about it is sort of a sweet offer, but I’m betting he already has someone lined up for those duties. But I digress.

You may have noticed that I didn’t announce any “spoiler” warnings about the Nico “dying” bit as I normally would. This is actually related to my main point about all these histrionics:

THEY TOLD YOU UP FRONT THEY WERE KILLING EVERYBODY (BUT MAYBE ONE) IN THIS GODDAMN COMIC BOOK.

Why is anybody shocked or upset that their beloved characters are dropping like flies in this thing? That’s what they said they were going to do! If the idea of a character dying in this comic causes you strife….I don’t know….maybe this isn’t the comic for you? Just a thought.

Imagine going to a restaurant and ordering from the nice French waiter.

YOU: “Yeah, how’s the Peking Duck? Just to let you know, I don’t like things that are salty. Love Peking Duck, but just can’t handle a lot of salt.”

WAITER: “Zee Peking Duck is tres magnifique, madame, but I’m afraid eet eez quite salty. Quite salty.”

(Apparently Batroc the Leaper is your waiter, which is awesome. Good to see him working)

YOU: “OK, I’ll take the Peking Duck, then. And some raspberry tea.”

BATROC: “Oui, madame. I would just like to remind you, howevair, zat zee Peking Duck eez very salty.”

YOU: “Uh-huh.”

BATROC: “Very well, madame.”

Now, if you get your Peking Duck and you don’t like it because it’s too salty….who is to blame? Is it the chef’s fault? Would it be reasonable to start shouting and cause a scene, then run to the internet and start trashing the restaurant about how crappy the food is and how poorly they treated you, or are you just a stupid asshole who didn’t listen to what the waiter plainly told you? I will let you, dear reader, solve that mystery for yourself.

Meanwhile, the chef wrote the shit out of that issue. Listen, the traps are easy to identify. If this is just a mousetrap built for blood, it’s pandering to the worst of the worst of us. But that’s never been what this book is about.

Avengers Arena is a giant character study about what happens to (mostly) good people when you strip away the trappings of civilization and throw them into pure survival mode. It’s not a “snuff comic” any more than Nolan’s Dark Knight was a snuff movie. Same themes, same questions, except Hopeless has a lot more space to make the drama breathe, and he’s been using it to grand effect.

The point of AA # 10 isn’t that Nico “dies” at the end. The point is the continued ascendancy of Katy, and the fact that nobility took a major hit this episode. Katy is a Machiavellian bitch on wheels, a joy to root against, and a fantastic example of a comic book creating something out of nothing. I didn’t care about Katy, or Death Locket, or Cami, or Kid Britton six months ago. They all mean something to me now. What are you reading these days that means something to you now? I’m digressing, though.

The point is that in issue # 9, a group of the kids finally understood that Katy was a real threat that probably needed to go for the good of the group. For wonderful character-driven reasons I won’t ruin for you here, that seemed like the wrong thing to do.

That decision split two very good friends and fellow Runaways, Chase and Nico. Nico couldn’t pull the trigger on Katy, but the lessons of Murderworld have been teaching Chase that he can’t necessarily afford his best impulses, so he dissented. Nico kicked Chase out of the group, and then Katy used Chase (against his will) as a tool to destroy Nico. Heart-rending stuff, and all plausible given the mechanics of Katy’s power set and Chase’s new toy. Nico, for her part ushers the rest of her group to safety and then stands off against an entire pack of combatants that includes her best friend in the arena and a friggin’ SENTINEL.

Now, if you’re paying attention at home, here’s what the scorecard looks like - Dennis Hopeless just engineered a result that includes perfect emotional poignancy while escalating the tension of the plot while simultaneously forwarding his moral themes. And by the way, all of that unfolded seamlessly in the organic action of the story, without shaking the car or making you reach for the KY bottle. What in the FUCK are you people bitching about? That was virtuoso. This is comics at their best.

And by the way, people, look at the last page again. Nico has no bars lit on her life-o-meter, but her last act was to grab the Staff of One (with the only hand she has left) and cast a “help” spell at it. Maybe that spell was too late, and maybe it isn’t. Maybe next issue the staff brings her back. Maybe she doesn’t come back until Bendis or somebody important decides they want to use her again a year from now.

To me, that 'aint the point. To me, the point is that this book is really about to ramp up and get down to the nitty and the gritty. There’s a bunch of young people on Murderworld now who have no choice but to realize that this game isn’t a game, and that a moral code is a death sentence. Sympathy and friendships are death sentences. How will the remaining players react? I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out. For me, that’s the point.

The points on the hater boards seem to revolve, as they always do these days, around Southpaw Bunny politics and blind emotion. Lots of talk about “fridging” Nico, which doesn’t impress me. You can’t just reference “Women in Refrigerators” and drop the mic like you said something meaningful.

Well, you can do so on the comics news sites, but that doesn’t play here at the Ugly American. I think it’s possible to have a debate about the frequency of female death/trauma in comics, or the validity of the “helpless female useful only to drive male vengeance” stereotype.

The Bunny side is going to lose that argument to about 15 minutes of real research, because this just in…every character in comics suffers atrocities. It’s kinda part of the gig. Remember that Capt. Everything Goes Right All The Time For Him series? No, you don’t. Because it never got pitched, much less published.

So yes, we could have that debate, but that’s not what’s going on over at the boards right now, or on your local Twitter. It’s a pervasive reactionary mindset that says “I didn’t like it, the character was female, so it must be sexist”. If you disagree with them, then you’re sexist, too.

Actually, I think pervasive is the wrong word, though. I think the vast majority of comics readers either don’t care about this stuff, or maintain a more reasonable attitude. The problem, in my opinion, is that this hyper-vocal manic minority get a lot of ink on what passes for comics news outlets, offer little in the way of dissenting opinion, and it gives the nonsense more weight than it deserves.

One of these idiots actually had the audacity to post a hate-tweet post script of:

#okay kill the Asian woman that’s totally fine…

I wonder if that person recognizes that their “defense” of Nico is uglier than any imaginary bigotry he ascribes to Dennis Hopeless. I’m guessing not. No, there’s no thought process necessary to hear clapping at the end of your rage any more. It’s just “I didn’t like it, the character wasn’t white, therefore it’s racist.” Absurd.

No charge of racism or sexism against this series in particular will stand up to an ounce of actual rational analysis. Meanwhile, Marvel just had Brian Wood build an X-Men team of X-Women, and they’ve been actively courting pitches on what Tom Breevort is calling a “Black Avengers” book. Does that sound like a publisher cultivating bigotry to you?

To recap on a more positive note - Dennis Hopeless is putting on a clinic, and regardless of what you may have had tweeted at you, Avengers Arena is fantastic in all areas.

You may disagree below.

Ugly American # 18 – Color Me Bad Edition!

Follow Up:  Playing the Orson Scott Card

Well, looks like the Bunnies got their way, as they often do in these dark days.  Chris Sprouse has bowed out of his penciling duties and DC has shelved Card’s Superman story until it can hire another artist.  I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that story to see print, folks.

Sprouse claims that the media attention was affecting the work, and that he couldn’t abide a decline in quality.  I have nothing against Sprouse, he’s a grown ass man in a tough spot, and he’s free to do what he wants.  But that story smells like bullshit.  I don’t even know what that means, really.  Is he implying that he can’t concentrate on the work with the hullaballoo, or that he’s doing so many interviews he doesn’t have time to work?  It makes no sense to me.

What I believe Sprouse would tell you, if he lived in a society that would support honesty is that he’s uncomfortable and afraid.  He doesn’t want to be the guy who thinks it’s OK to work with The Guy That Hates Gay People.  He doesn’t want to have to answer the questions, he doesn’t want to have to swallow hard before he opens his twitter account, and he doesn’t want to be the guy with a front yard packed with villagers carrying torches and pitchforks.  Before you accuse me of hyperbole, it wasn’t too long ago the Bunnies decided George Zimmermann needed to pay for his alleged crimes and Spike Lee published what he thought was Zimmerman’s address on Twitter, so that interested parties could…I don’t know…debate the case, I guess?  I’m sure his motives were pure.  Turns out it was the address of an old couple having nothing whatever to do with Trayvon Martin.  No charges filed on that, by the way, but he did pay them some settlement money.  So yeah, if I’m Chris Sprouse, I’d want to extricate myself from the situation as well.  Weird stuff happens when you cross the Soft and Fuzzies.

Now I’ve got people lining up on my Facebook wall pretending like something wonderful just happened, but really it’s just the return of a new flavor of McCarthyism.  Trust me, folks, that’s nothing to cheer about.  Not that even 1% of the 99% would even know who Joe McCarthy was, which is exactly why these little bouts of ideological bullying cycle around again and again.  Oh, they know about chucking disgruntled birds at pixilated structures and how to text blind with the phone in their pocket.  They know the Duck Dynasty guys.  But Senator McCarthy, your little war against the Communists has been forgotten – say it isn’t so, Joe!

And just like this new brand of insanity, the old brand originally came from a good place.  We had some Russian rats in the pipes, and guys like Alger Hiss probably needed to go.  But it starts with Alger Hiss, and then the power starts to make the fevered egos a little too drunk, and by the end of it you’re clapping irons on janitors and blacklisting actors and directors from working in Hollywood.  That’s what has happened here with Superman Adventures.  It starts with people wanting basic human rights for all, but it ends with little would-be dictators deciding that anybody who doesn’t agree with their point of view shouldn’t exist.  So Orson Scott Card is gone now.  He’s effectively blacklisted. 

So now what?  Should DC distribute a liberal test to decide if writers and artists are progressive enough to work there?  I saw an article linking to Sprouse’s other projects so Bunnies could reward him for his efforts, which I thought was more than a little odd.  If I want a good hamburger, I don’t ask if the cook agrees with me about immigration policy.  I ask if the food is good.  Apparently in the Bunny Briar, you read comics if the creators agree with you about politics, and you end the career of anybody who doesn’t.  It’s appropriate to be worried about the future of America.

I guess the good news is that DC didn’t curl up into the fetal position and cave to the pressure.  They did the right thing and explained that what their employees believe in their off time doesn’t really have much to do with them.  Not everybody caves to the Bunnies, and there is still hope.  But mostly this stuff is just depressing.

So let’s talk about Sex, instead, shall we?

Sex # 1

My take on Joe Casey by now is familiar to Insomniacs.  I love the idea of Joe Casey.  I don’t want to imagine a world in which Casey is not making comics.  Every single blessed time I see a solicitation or a teaser campaign for one of his projects, I say to myself “Oh man, I have GOT to get on board with that!”  It was no different with Sex.  And every time I dive into the actual guts of the Joe Casey comic, something seems out of synch or intrinsically broken about it.  It seems like it will be no different with Sex.

The single greatest and most important element of Sex # 1 does not appear in any panel, but the back cover.  In the bottom-right corner it says:



I laughed so hard when I saw that…quintessential Casey!  There is indeed no shortage of bullshit in this comic, starting with the snarky little “Collector’s Item” tag on the front cover.  Just in case you missed how much distaste he has for the collector’s market, it looks like the same tag will be gracing issue # 2 as well.  I imagine the joke will continue to get more delicious, and by issue # 8 we will all be tearing up before we even get to page one.  Does that (admittedly juicy) little piece of meta assist the reader with processing the tone or themes of the comic inside?  Ahhh, no.  Not really. 

Except it kinda does, because it’s a Joe Casey comic, and that means anything goes.  In Casey World everything goes into the stew, because if he thought of it, then it fits.  Mostly, Sex is about Simon Cooke, the world’s most dull ex-superhero.  It’s hard to be exactly sure this early in the game, but it seems like Sex is going to be some kind of perverted Shane trope.  Mr. Cooke used to be The Armored Saint, crime fighter and defender of Saturn City.  He made a promise that he would hang up his costume to somebody who has subsequently died, though.  So now he does….well….nothing, really.  But talk.

There is an awful lot of talking in Sex # 1, and a lot of awful talking.  Talk about where to set the helicopter down, talk about civic functions and meetings and potential pay increases, talk about things that are happening in other places, and talk about things that used to happen.  Nobody in this comic is particularly interested in doing anything here and now, though.  There are a lot of dour faces with moving lips, but everything else is limp.  In fact, by the time we get to the actual sex of Sex, Mr. Cooke is too distracted by that previously-mentioned-dead-person’s Inception totem to even notice the super hot chick with her face buried in the other hot chick’s fully rendered taint. 

There’s a lot of talking, but nothing that pops at even 20% of the intensity and energy of the letters page.  You’ll hang on every word of Joe Casey’s during the back matter, as always.  He is an out-of-the-box, passionate, entertaining cat.  If any of the characters actually talked like Casey, you’d never want it to end. The puppets inside of his panels…

“I appreciate what you’re trying to do.  Maybe it’s just a bit too soon.  I dunno….”

Yawn.

And for all I know, that’s the bit.  There’s always a bit (or five) in a Joe Casey book.  Maybe the trick he’s trying to pull off in Sex is showing how dead Simon Cooke and his world are, and then he finds some kind of vitality in the continuously escalating sexual journey he’s about to embark on.

 Reviewing a first issue is really like reviewing the first 20 minutes of a movie.  Would you give the first 20 minutes of Sixth Sense four stars?  You sort of need the end, or at least a grasp of the bigger picture to assess it.  I’m admitting I don’t have enough info to properly diagnose what Casey is doing yet or how well he’s doing it….but it feels a little like we’re headed toward a weird train wreck where a really unimpressive Shane decides to fuck a lot of whores instead of picking up his guns to save good ol’ Saturn City again.  What a bunch of fuckin’ bullshit, indeed!

There’s other crumbs of oddness.  There’s a not-too-subtle phallic arrow on the cover, and then you open the cover and there’s a large building shooting out of the ground at a perfectly erect 45 degree angle.  The title of Chapter One is “The Summer of Hard.”  I don’t have a problem with any of that.  Good God, if you’ve heard my show, you know I don’t have a problem with that.  The problem is reconciling the juvenile, playful stuff on the periphery with the stuffy, plodding contents.  Am I taking this seriously or not?  Sex is like a Deadpool comic inviting you to an insurance seminar that breaks out into some porn at the end.  As the credits roll, the director cuts them short, shrugs his shoulders, and essentially admits that the whole thing was an abject failure with good intentions. 

How bizarre is that?  Then, just up the ante a little further, let’s throw colored boxes around pieces of dialogue.  Every page of this comic contain balloons with a word or two highlighted in a rainbow of fruit flavors.  It’s painfully distracting.  I had some fun trying to decipher what the colors might signify, briefly.  Are the light colored words sexy, and the darker colored ones not?  Ehhhh, not really.  I’m told the average male has a sexual thought every 2.6 seconds or something like that.  Could this be Casey trying to indicate a sexual thought with a blip of color?  I don’t know.  I wouldn’t put it past him.  That kind of thing is fun in the abstract, but in terms of reading mechanics, it’s like somebody throwing rocks into your transmission.  What a bunch of fuckin’ bullshit, y’know?  That’s the Joe Casey experience.

You know, a lot of artists are intensely afraid that they aren’t actually any good, secretly dreading that someday the world will discover that they are frauds.  I’m talking about hyper-talented, top-of-the-game people hide this fear in their hearts.  Sometimes I think Joe Casey is afraid to play a story straight, because it won’t be any “good”, and he’ll be “exposed” as a fraud.  But if you hang a bunch of sophomoric dick jokes, collector’s mentality meta-commentary, oddly colored word balloons, and an alert at the end about what a bunch of bullshit the comic is, you’re off the hook.  The absurdity shields you from real criticism, because either A) it’s just a gag, relax, I’m not writing War & Peace over here or B) it was an experiment the critic was just too lame to “get”.  The problem is theirs.

Or maybe I’m just projecting, because that pretty much sums up myself, and I should just leave Joe Casey out of my own psychological foils.  But I would really, really love to see Joe Casey write something with all the horses pulling the wagon in the same direction.  This comic isn’t that.
I don’t know. 

Feel free to add your own thoughts about Joe Casey, Sex, or my misguided armchair psychology – that could be fun, right?





 

Ugly American # 15: Playing the Orson Scott Card!

Before I get rolling with my USRDA of vitriol, a couple items about helping people. Quick update on Peter David – he is back home, and walking after a fashion. If you have any experience with strokes, you’ll know that the recovery process takes a lot of work and a lot of time.

Plus, there are medical bills. Those are not fun. What is fun? How about a pile of original comic book art work supplied by friends of PAD in a benefit auction? The selection runs the gamut…Hulk, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man 2099, X-Factor, you name it. I’ve got my eye on an original Layla piece. If that’s something that interests you, here’s the central site that Fallen Angel artist JK Woodward set up. If original art is out of your price range, hey, you can always donate at PAD’s blog in any amount, and by all means spread the word! The proceeds from these items are going directly to David’s medical costs. It’s something you can feel good about contributing to.

CBLDF Reward Zone
I’d also like to direct your attention to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. I know it doesn’t sound sexy, but you must see to believe the items they have available there! I recently purchased a copy of Saga Volume 1, personalized by Bryan K Vaughan. They also sent me a really high quality Valentine card complete with gorgeous Fiona Staples artwork. You can get one of these as well…for $25. That’s a ridiculous steal.

So how did I get my book personalized? Glad you asked:

Needless to say, this is not quite what I asked for. I would never claim to be the “Loudest Swain” of anything. I don’t want to tell tales out of school or anything, but that Dominique Swain is a bit of a screamer. You heard it here first.

Now, some Louden Swains of Podcasting might be disappointed that the inscription didn’t quite get there, but not this one. Obscure references that fail to land are kind of my thing. So the only scenario better than getting it right is getting it wrong. I will always cherish that book. By the way, it was about a week between ordering and delivery. That’s pretty good for any shipped item. For a personalized one? Off the charts efficiency.

There’s a ton of Paul Pope stuff at the CBLDF reward zone right now, and how about that Fear Agent print signed by EC legend Jack Davis! They want $30 for that. Are you kidding me?

These items are just cool to own, they are priced attractively, and the fact that the money is going to defend free expression and comic books makes it even sweeter.

Don’t ever fool yourself into thinking the First Amendment is going to defend itself. The right to speak freely is constantly under attack - now more than ever, in fact. There will always exist a vile segment of humanity that would love to wipe everything that isn’t their position out of existence. These days, that group masks their evil in a quasi-genius tapestry of impossibly soft fur, long ears, and long whiskers. They are Soft…Fuzzy…Bunnies. And they are not your friend. Speak of the devil….

Orson Scott Card Shenanigans
DC Comics hired Orson Scott Card to write the first couple of chapters of Superman Adventures, and the Fuzzy Bunnies had a conniption over this, because Card has publicly declared his opposition to homosexuality generally and gay marriage specifically.

Couple things before we move on. I’ll briefly share my thoughts on the subject as “truth in advertising”, so that you’ll know where I’m coming from. I think homosexuality is fantastic. I want more gay people of every stripe. I like the Lipstick Lesbian, the Diesel Dyke, the Closet Queer, the Flamboyant Flamer, and everything in-between. I might have a different opinion if the species were in danger of extinction or something. Turns out we have a few too many billion people on this rock, so I’m quite comfortable with the idea of lots of gay folks.

And as far as marriage goes? Have at it, I guess. If you’re that into suffering that you want to lock in for an eternity, sure. Go ahead. As long as the people involved are adults willfully entering into said lifetime contract of misery, I won’t be the one to stop you. This issue actually came up for a vote here in Minnesota in November, and I quite happily cast my vote in the direction of allowing gay marriage. I’m telling you this so that you’ll understand that I’m about to defend free speech, not sublimate some kind of homophobia.

The Fuzzy Bunnies want Card fired, because his views make them uncomfortable, and that’s their answer to everything. If something makes you feel emotionally oogey inside, then it must be eradicated. There’s no retort, no conversation, and for damn sure no freedom. Do what we do, think what we think, or cease to exist. Here’s who thinks like that; dictators, sociopaths, and children. Very nice company, your mother must be proud.
 
What makes it extra egregious in this case is that the Bunnies aren’t even objecting to the material. Nobody on the outside has seen a script yet! They’re objecting to the idea that a person holding views other than their own can find gainful employment. The Nazis think that’s a little over-the-top.

In America circa 2013, though that’s business as usual. We don’t have conversations any more, about anything. God forbid we actually struggle with ideas. The Soft and Fuzzy Bunnies kill you with hypocrisy. They preach tolerance and love, but don’t be fooled by the downy pelt. That rabbit has teeth! Walk in lock step or feel the pain. Boycott, censor, silence, eliminate, demonize.

I like the free market of ideas. I like the idea of talking back to alternatives and building better ideas. Do you know who fears alternative viewpoints? Bullies and morons. Bullies need to have control. Doesn’t impress me. Morons know they’ll lose. Again, not impressed.

So no, I do not agree with Orson Scott Card on the subject of gay marriage. So what? That’s a question we need to start asking more often. I don’t think Card has any intention of painting much of his politics into Superman, but even if he did, why should I worry about that? I’ll just talk back to it, like I have to talk back to the LEGION of comics feeding me a steady diet of Lefty Donkey Kool-Aid.

The most important skill you can have in the 21st century is critical thinking. Neuro-linguistic programming and the science of bullshit is so advanced, you stand no chance if you don’t start flexing your “talk-back” muscles early and continuously develop them. Naturally, America has completely abandoned the philosophy of philosophy in favor of “My way or……yup, that’s it. My way.” Thomas Paine would throw up if he could see us now.

Bunnies, I almost get it. Some of you out there are legitimately interested in a better world, and not just fascism. That’s admirable. But you don’t need to worry about Superman stories. If your ideas are better, you’ll win the conversation. The point is to protect the conversation. Don’t be afraid of bad ideas. Be afraid for your freedom. So few people on this ball of mud have ever enjoyed the right to say stupid shit. It’s a very precious jewel. Stop being fascists. Thus endeth the lesson.

As always, you are welcome to 'talk back' to this blog. Please leave your comments, be they similar to mine or not, below.