We live in a story saturated world, or at the very least I do. I constantly surround myself with movies, books, tv shows, video games, I'm one of those people who loves to tell stories of what happened in their day, even if it's a minor occurrence. For example I went on a bike ride yesterday and had two fun things happen to me, First was while I was on the path I came upon a kid of about 6 or 7 and his dad who were out for a walk, for some odd reason seeing me coming at him the kid froze, put both his hands up in the air and stood in the middle of the path, slightly moving from side to side as if he was trying to block me from passing. I could tell this wasn't the case because of the look of pure panic in his eyes, he just couldn't tell which way to go and was constantly second guessing himself on which way to get to safety. Eventually his dad pulled him out of the way, but there was this moment where me and the kid where I was just staring into this kids panic stricken face, his eyes getting wide and red as if he was about to cry, his brain clearly working overtime as he tried to work out which way he was supposed to go, while he foolishly stood right in the middle of the path bouncing from side to side in the exact place where it was impossible he wouldn't get hit, all he had to do was move a foot to either side and he wouldn't have been in any danger at all. Silly boy.
The second little adventure was far more awesome. I was crossing a street with some other bikers, for some odd reason we all ended up crossing at nearly the same time in opposite directions, and in order to get back on the path I had to go around this guy in a tight curve where you have to lean into it a little bit and you end up tilting to your left which works fine as long as you don't hit gravel. I hit gravel, my bike started going out from under me, continuing it's slide horizontally without me, and I had a moment where I thought "well, I'm going to crash", but I caught myself with my left leg, kicked up and somehow got the bike back under me and saved it. Then I yelled out a loud yell of excited inappropriate words because I am clearly a bad ass mother trucker. I caught the back of my right leg on the gears and I couldn't see if I was bleeding or not, (I wasn't even cut but it hurt like I may have been.) I just kept on going.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013
History of comics part two, I'm so sorry.
I've learned a lesson with this two part post thing. Don't do it. There are so many other things I have wanted to write about but I had the second part of the comics thing I was doing earlier to write, which I'm going to write now just to get it out of the way, and because it's awesome.
So when you last read I was telling you about how basically comics had turned to movies as a way of getting out of bankruptcy and in so doing had made majors companies who cared lots and lots of money, which caused them to take notice and buy those comic book companies. Marvel is now owned by Disney, and DC has been owned by Warner Brothers since sometime in the sixties.
It seems like the major change over of major corporate owership happened in about Steptember of 2011 when DC relaunched everything. I used to have this crazy dream of writing Action Comics 1000, which I thought was do able since it was somewhere around 877, near 8 years away, I thought that was enough time to become successful, but that dream was shattered when they decided that history didn't matter, that large numbers scare away new readers, and that 1 was a friendly inviting number, so they rebooted everything with a big old 1 on it. It's cool, who needs goals and achievements to motivate them anyway? DC is now for the most part like season 4 of Community, sort of like what you loved before but it's as if the whole thing is being acted out by people who don't really know what they are talking about. There are people who get the characters and then there are people who run things, right now it's in the control of the people who run things. A lot of people are leaving/ have left because 30 year vets of writing don't like being told they don't get the character because they wrote him in a seated position for a panel. "Batman never sits down, and Jesus never poops. Everyone knows that!"
So what are the people who run things running this thing towards? Market testing for one. When DC relaunched they had 52 titles some of which I had no idea why they existed, there was no demand for an I Vampire book, that I knew of anyway, there was no reason for a Justice League Dark, or a Grifter series or Red Lanterns. Not that these were all bad books, but they were inexplicable at the time they came out. Come to find out thought that they would like to make Justice League Dark into a movie, that right after a flash animated film comes out showing off how freaking cinematic his powers are, there are now plans for a Flash film leading up a Justice League movie. Before the model was this, the publisher put out a bunch of comics over years and every now and again there was one that was really inspired, and years later it was adapted into a film, and in this way good comics made some hit and miss movies. Now they are trying to drum up interest with the comics themselves as part of an already existing movie property which they plan to make into a thing that people are going to love. This is a terrible plan, but it's not like it can't work.
The public likes what it likes, you can't control what people see at the box office. as much as you try. Right now the philosophy in Hollywood is big investment makes you big money back, so they budgets of films have become cartoonishly big in the hopes of making a billion and a half dollars like the Avengers and The Dark Knight did. This is always a bad idea as bigger budgets don't equal better movies, just louder ones, and people get annoyed by loud things. Not all loud things mind you, but movies are like music, they should have ebbs and flows and rhythms to them, if they don't it just becomes noise. Those ebbs and flows are the difference between making a great film like Pacific Rim or a terrible loud one like Transformers or Red 2. So money isn't the key to a big hit, good stories are, and you nearly never get a good story from a corporate plan for a big movie launch, because there can be no art in it. It's inorganic and unnatural, because you are forcing it to be likable instead of actually being likeable, like the nervous kid who wants to be loved too much and is trying too hard people are going to hate you. So DC is kinda terrible right now, which is really too bad because I like there characters a lot. It's like watching one of your friends put on a lot of weight and get into WWE wrestling on TBS hardcord, they think it's awesome but you want them to get there old job back and shower.
Marvel on the other hand seems to be on a simliar but more stable course. They just seem to want books out which are good, they even allow there artists to experiment and create new things on books like Young Avengers and Hawkeye, which are some of the better books on the market right now. Yes they are synergizing a bit but not in a way which I seem to notice at least. Maybe this is a failure on there part but I think it's a success because their stories are still readable. unlike this blog which is becoming increasingly inside baseball.
Just so you know this is the point where I am tired of talking about this and want to switch over to something new. I really want to write a review of Wolverine, or talk about how awesome my socks are, you know amazing things.
Check back next time when I pick a more readable subject I promise.
So when you last read I was telling you about how basically comics had turned to movies as a way of getting out of bankruptcy and in so doing had made majors companies who cared lots and lots of money, which caused them to take notice and buy those comic book companies. Marvel is now owned by Disney, and DC has been owned by Warner Brothers since sometime in the sixties.
It seems like the major change over of major corporate owership happened in about Steptember of 2011 when DC relaunched everything. I used to have this crazy dream of writing Action Comics 1000, which I thought was do able since it was somewhere around 877, near 8 years away, I thought that was enough time to become successful, but that dream was shattered when they decided that history didn't matter, that large numbers scare away new readers, and that 1 was a friendly inviting number, so they rebooted everything with a big old 1 on it. It's cool, who needs goals and achievements to motivate them anyway? DC is now for the most part like season 4 of Community, sort of like what you loved before but it's as if the whole thing is being acted out by people who don't really know what they are talking about. There are people who get the characters and then there are people who run things, right now it's in the control of the people who run things. A lot of people are leaving/ have left because 30 year vets of writing don't like being told they don't get the character because they wrote him in a seated position for a panel. "Batman never sits down, and Jesus never poops. Everyone knows that!"
So what are the people who run things running this thing towards? Market testing for one. When DC relaunched they had 52 titles some of which I had no idea why they existed, there was no demand for an I Vampire book, that I knew of anyway, there was no reason for a Justice League Dark, or a Grifter series or Red Lanterns. Not that these were all bad books, but they were inexplicable at the time they came out. Come to find out thought that they would like to make Justice League Dark into a movie, that right after a flash animated film comes out showing off how freaking cinematic his powers are, there are now plans for a Flash film leading up a Justice League movie. Before the model was this, the publisher put out a bunch of comics over years and every now and again there was one that was really inspired, and years later it was adapted into a film, and in this way good comics made some hit and miss movies. Now they are trying to drum up interest with the comics themselves as part of an already existing movie property which they plan to make into a thing that people are going to love. This is a terrible plan, but it's not like it can't work.
The public likes what it likes, you can't control what people see at the box office. as much as you try. Right now the philosophy in Hollywood is big investment makes you big money back, so they budgets of films have become cartoonishly big in the hopes of making a billion and a half dollars like the Avengers and The Dark Knight did. This is always a bad idea as bigger budgets don't equal better movies, just louder ones, and people get annoyed by loud things. Not all loud things mind you, but movies are like music, they should have ebbs and flows and rhythms to them, if they don't it just becomes noise. Those ebbs and flows are the difference between making a great film like Pacific Rim or a terrible loud one like Transformers or Red 2. So money isn't the key to a big hit, good stories are, and you nearly never get a good story from a corporate plan for a big movie launch, because there can be no art in it. It's inorganic and unnatural, because you are forcing it to be likable instead of actually being likeable, like the nervous kid who wants to be loved too much and is trying too hard people are going to hate you. So DC is kinda terrible right now, which is really too bad because I like there characters a lot. It's like watching one of your friends put on a lot of weight and get into WWE wrestling on TBS hardcord, they think it's awesome but you want them to get there old job back and shower.
Marvel on the other hand seems to be on a simliar but more stable course. They just seem to want books out which are good, they even allow there artists to experiment and create new things on books like Young Avengers and Hawkeye, which are some of the better books on the market right now. Yes they are synergizing a bit but not in a way which I seem to notice at least. Maybe this is a failure on there part but I think it's a success because their stories are still readable. unlike this blog which is becoming increasingly inside baseball.
Just so you know this is the point where I am tired of talking about this and want to switch over to something new. I really want to write a review of Wolverine, or talk about how awesome my socks are, you know amazing things.
Check back next time when I pick a more readable subject I promise.
Monday, July 22, 2013
A brief History of Comics.
So comics as we know them today started in the late 1930's with things like superman and batman and wonder woman. Then they got spooky and violent which upset this jerky psychologist named Wertham who said they were corrupting the youth so comics started policing themselves and were childish for til the 1960s when Marvel (Spider-man, The Fantastic Four, The Avengers) came out and that became the big thing for teens and kids with the things that we think of when we think of comic books. In the 1980s they had a revolution where they got darker once again and more real world, less romantic, it seemed like they were growing up, this made them super popular for a bit in the late eighties to the early nineties when everyone thought that buying comics could make you rich, which was dumb. This bubble burst in the mid nineties and Marvel went bankrupt, sales dropped, there were shake ups and eventually better writing and stories. And Movies.
So the way that Marvel got themselves out of Bankruptcy was to sell the film rights to the characters they owned to 20th century Fox, Sony, Lionsgate, whoever would make a movie of their stuff, and that is why we saw the early part of the 2000's packed with superhero movies. Fox made X-men, which did well, and so Sony made Spider-man, which did better, so then Fox made Fantastic Four, which is a regrettable film and too bad because I love that team. Marvel then saw that these movies staring there characters were doing really well and yet they didn't get that much of a bump in comic book sales, I'm sure they did well in merchandise from toys and bath towels and Halloween costumes but all of that money was shared with the studio in a big way. Also they didn't have creative control of their characters anymore in the public consciousness which is a big deal to them, suddenly Spider-man had to have organic web shooters because it was in the movie, they had to conform to what another company was doing with their stuff, not cool. So Marvel starts Marvel Studios, and as their first gambit makes Iron Man and a new Hulk movie. This was gutsy, because nobody knew who Iron Man was or cared at that point, add a little Downey Jr to the mix though and Marvel was able to make everything up to the Avengers off the hit they had in Iron Man and we get the movie landscape they have now with Thor and Captain America movies getting sequels and plans for an Ant Man Movie, yes that's happening, but let me blow your mind a little more.
You may not know this but Disney now owns Marvel, and I think this was planned since at least 2004 on Marvels part. They rebooted things, which is not uncommon for comics, started doing big blockbuster events and most of all really started trying to market their characters in a bigger way, particularly in a thing they did called Civil War in 2006 which featured all their characters fighting each other mainly featuring Iron Man and Captain America. They did things that got them in the news and they made sure that everybody knew about it, Spider-man made his identity public, Captain America was killed, their was constant news reports of a book being so successful they had to do second and third printings. They were prettying themselves up for a corporate buy out because it's safer to be with a big company than be on your own, as their bankruptcy had taught them. The movies were a part of this process too, they needed to prove they could make whoever bought them out big money, movies are the best way to do that. So eventually Disney comes along and buys Marvel for 4 billion dollars, that was 2009.
So the way that Marvel got themselves out of Bankruptcy was to sell the film rights to the characters they owned to 20th century Fox, Sony, Lionsgate, whoever would make a movie of their stuff, and that is why we saw the early part of the 2000's packed with superhero movies. Fox made X-men, which did well, and so Sony made Spider-man, which did better, so then Fox made Fantastic Four, which is a regrettable film and too bad because I love that team. Marvel then saw that these movies staring there characters were doing really well and yet they didn't get that much of a bump in comic book sales, I'm sure they did well in merchandise from toys and bath towels and Halloween costumes but all of that money was shared with the studio in a big way. Also they didn't have creative control of their characters anymore in the public consciousness which is a big deal to them, suddenly Spider-man had to have organic web shooters because it was in the movie, they had to conform to what another company was doing with their stuff, not cool. So Marvel starts Marvel Studios, and as their first gambit makes Iron Man and a new Hulk movie. This was gutsy, because nobody knew who Iron Man was or cared at that point, add a little Downey Jr to the mix though and Marvel was able to make everything up to the Avengers off the hit they had in Iron Man and we get the movie landscape they have now with Thor and Captain America movies getting sequels and plans for an Ant Man Movie, yes that's happening, but let me blow your mind a little more.
You may not know this but Disney now owns Marvel, and I think this was planned since at least 2004 on Marvels part. They rebooted things, which is not uncommon for comics, started doing big blockbuster events and most of all really started trying to market their characters in a bigger way, particularly in a thing they did called Civil War in 2006 which featured all their characters fighting each other mainly featuring Iron Man and Captain America. They did things that got them in the news and they made sure that everybody knew about it, Spider-man made his identity public, Captain America was killed, their was constant news reports of a book being so successful they had to do second and third printings. They were prettying themselves up for a corporate buy out because it's safer to be with a big company than be on your own, as their bankruptcy had taught them. The movies were a part of this process too, they needed to prove they could make whoever bought them out big money, movies are the best way to do that. So eventually Disney comes along and buys Marvel for 4 billion dollars, that was 2009.
Friday, July 19, 2013
There are some things you should know about me, the 8th or 9th being that I love Parks and Recreation on NBC, but the first thing you should know is that I am something of a master at over thinking trivial things and coming up with systems around them (This is called being a nerd about stuff.). So here is where these two things mix.
This is the cast of Parks and Recreation.
And for those who haven't seen the show, it's about a parks department in a small town in Indiana and the super driven deputy director who wants to be the best public servant in the history of people. Also if you haven't seen the show its on Hulu, start with season three, trust me, you'll be fine.
The thing I see in the show, and I think a key to why all the characters are so likeable is because they are all grown up versions of High school stereotypes, with nice little twists. So what follows is a who's who comparison of Pawnee.
Leslie Knope- The student body president/Valedictorian.
Leslie is the main character of the show, it follows her slow rise to power by little successes in her life. She is a bottle of energy and fully committed to the things she does, and much like any student body president or valedictorian that thing being good and achieving something is the MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD! "Oh God, lets panic, the water pressure in the drinking fountain is too high, what if they drown? What if it shoots someones eye out? We Have to fix this or people are going to go blind and drown." That's how she reacts, and it's because of this her projects tend to be such a success, well that and it's a show and it's heartwarming to see people do well when they really care, and that is the heart of Leslie, she cares way too much, and it's adorable.
Ron Swanson- The Principal.
Ron is the director of the apathetic head of the parks department, he is the man that man's man men look up to, he likes pretty brunettes and breakfast food. The reason he fits the principal model is he sits above all the things that happen, he's not ever willing a part of the drama that is Leslie's drive to be the best person who has ever lived, he could care less if the parks are fine, he would rather see them run by private industry like everything else. He doesn't seem to need anything that those around him have to offer, because he does tend to have the answers for everything. He is in this way the overseer and in a way protector of the cast, principled in how he lives and despite how he may feel about Government he does want everyone around him to succeed and since he is so super handy with pretty much everything he often facilitates that success.
Andy Dwyer- The slacker kid/ class clown
Andy is the guy who never had any idea idea what was going on in class because he was too busy being awesome in his own head. He's joyfully harmless, a puppy dog of excitement and joy, he's a big kid, but...he's also thirty and doesn't really have a direction in his life or anything really going for him when we first meet him yet he seems to be mostly ok with that, because there isn't really a way to bring him down. He's sort of oblivious to the rest of the world because his world, where sometimes he plays Bert Macklin, FBI is just so fun for him....but then there is April.
April Ludgate- The Goth Chick
She may not wear black all the time and dress freaky but her demeanor and lovable hatred of everything but her husband Andy and animals, who she loves for not being people, totally puts her in the dark camp of the goth chick. She hates everything for being where it is, doesn't care about anything, and takes a certain amount of joy in things going terrible. Yet and this is the brilliance of the show, she is married to the happiest most bright character in the show. It's like having a cat and a puppy get married, or watching the class clown make out with the goth chick. they don't seem to belong together and yet they balance each other so incredibly well.
Ben Wyatt- The Nerd
This almost goes without saying, He is everything a nerd is, socially awkward, very specific and with a tendancy to want to be right about even tiny stupid things that don't matter, and of course a fan of Game of thrones, Star wars, and Star Trek. and Lord of the Rings. He's got strange hobbies, basically the only thing he hasn't done is just come out and say he's played Dungeons and Dragons. I guess nerds don't change that much once they leave school because all the things they are he is. I love him.
Tom Haverford- The popular kid
Tom is obsessed with being on the cutting edge and looking cool. That's the most important thing to him, being the cool guy with the cool things. if he doesn't have that, then life is sort of terrible. He's a schmoozer, a party person, and fairly shallow about most things. Being in the know, having the cool thing, and most of all having other people think he is cool is the most important thing to him. He is also very influenced by all those who are the setters of cool in culture, almost being a wannabe version of all those people combined.
Ann Perkins- The Cheerleader
She's pretty, but beyond that she is a little bland. She is the girl who goes from relationship to relationship and has been able to coast on her looks. Lets face it people are nicer to pretty people, but now that as she is getting older she is finding that she needs a drive and personality all of her own. In the past she has taken on her boyfriends personality and now that's not enough. I think Leslie likes her so much because in a strange way she takes loving pity on her for never having had to develop as Leslie did, in an inverse way to the way a cheerleader would to an unattractive girl in high school for not being as pretty as she is. Still not to make Ann sound terrible, she's at least grounded as a person which is needed for most of the group who have there head in the sky.
Chris Trager- The Jock.
He is obsessed with heath and fitness and he Literally the most enthusiastic person I have ever seen. I like him, because he thinks it's great and it is literally the best. He's a machine. There really isn't much more to say about him other than that except he has a big heart which is easily touched. Cry baby.
So there it is, the cast of the show. As you can see they all sort of fit these things that we've all known for years via High School archetypes. It's sort of sweet in a way because it gives you all these very different people yet they all seem to like each other and get along.
This is the cast of Parks and Recreation.
The thing I see in the show, and I think a key to why all the characters are so likeable is because they are all grown up versions of High school stereotypes, with nice little twists. So what follows is a who's who comparison of Pawnee.
Leslie is the main character of the show, it follows her slow rise to power by little successes in her life. She is a bottle of energy and fully committed to the things she does, and much like any student body president or valedictorian that thing being good and achieving something is the MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD! "Oh God, lets panic, the water pressure in the drinking fountain is too high, what if they drown? What if it shoots someones eye out? We Have to fix this or people are going to go blind and drown." That's how she reacts, and it's because of this her projects tend to be such a success, well that and it's a show and it's heartwarming to see people do well when they really care, and that is the heart of Leslie, she cares way too much, and it's adorable.
Ron is the director of the apathetic head of the parks department, he is the man that man's man men look up to, he likes pretty brunettes and breakfast food. The reason he fits the principal model is he sits above all the things that happen, he's not ever willing a part of the drama that is Leslie's drive to be the best person who has ever lived, he could care less if the parks are fine, he would rather see them run by private industry like everything else. He doesn't seem to need anything that those around him have to offer, because he does tend to have the answers for everything. He is in this way the overseer and in a way protector of the cast, principled in how he lives and despite how he may feel about Government he does want everyone around him to succeed and since he is so super handy with pretty much everything he often facilitates that success.
Andy Dwyer- The slacker kid/ class clown
She may not wear black all the time and dress freaky but her demeanor and lovable hatred of everything but her husband Andy and animals, who she loves for not being people, totally puts her in the dark camp of the goth chick. She hates everything for being where it is, doesn't care about anything, and takes a certain amount of joy in things going terrible. Yet and this is the brilliance of the show, she is married to the happiest most bright character in the show. It's like having a cat and a puppy get married, or watching the class clown make out with the goth chick. they don't seem to belong together and yet they balance each other so incredibly well.
Ben Wyatt- The Nerd
This almost goes without saying, He is everything a nerd is, socially awkward, very specific and with a tendancy to want to be right about even tiny stupid things that don't matter, and of course a fan of Game of thrones, Star wars, and Star Trek. and Lord of the Rings. He's got strange hobbies, basically the only thing he hasn't done is just come out and say he's played Dungeons and Dragons. I guess nerds don't change that much once they leave school because all the things they are he is. I love him.
Tom Haverford- The popular kidTom is obsessed with being on the cutting edge and looking cool. That's the most important thing to him, being the cool guy with the cool things. if he doesn't have that, then life is sort of terrible. He's a schmoozer, a party person, and fairly shallow about most things. Being in the know, having the cool thing, and most of all having other people think he is cool is the most important thing to him. He is also very influenced by all those who are the setters of cool in culture, almost being a wannabe version of all those people combined.
Ann Perkins- The Cheerleader
She's pretty, but beyond that she is a little bland. She is the girl who goes from relationship to relationship and has been able to coast on her looks. Lets face it people are nicer to pretty people, but now that as she is getting older she is finding that she needs a drive and personality all of her own. In the past she has taken on her boyfriends personality and now that's not enough. I think Leslie likes her so much because in a strange way she takes loving pity on her for never having had to develop as Leslie did, in an inverse way to the way a cheerleader would to an unattractive girl in high school for not being as pretty as she is. Still not to make Ann sound terrible, she's at least grounded as a person which is needed for most of the group who have there head in the sky. Chris Trager- The Jock.
So there it is, the cast of the show. As you can see they all sort of fit these things that we've all known for years via High School archetypes. It's sort of sweet in a way because it gives you all these very different people yet they all seem to like each other and get along.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Alright lets get this thing started. My name is Luke and this is a blog I'm doing about storytelling, meaning making, prop creation, comic books, joke telling, and tutorials on how to tie a tie in less than 2 seconds with one hand. So you know...magic.
Things you can expect from me in the coming weeks in what I am calling, Chapter One of my blog:
Things you can expect from me in the coming weeks in what I am calling, Chapter One of my blog:
- An essay on Parks and Rec, and how it's really a show about High School.
- Movies! including one I made once trying to get a job with Joss Whedon.
- Stand Up! including old and new shows I do. Can't make it to see me because you live in Texas? Watch here, it will be just like being in a small house in Texas watching a You Tube video.
- How to make cool props and replicas out of stuff.
- An essay on the nature of storytelling and how it forms the soul of spiritual experience.
- Why Superman is my Homeboy.
- Why the Flash is my Homeboy.
- Why Doll Man is my Homeboy.
Also I'll take requests if there is something you'd really like me to write on, I'll find a way to write something entertaining on it. For example...Soap dishes...... "The first thing I want to know when I see a soap dish is who is eating soap? Then second thing is what do you clean that dish with when you are done eating? More soap?
Yeah, just like that.
Now I'm going to drink beer and watch Parks and Rec. Welcome to my blog, may it be a long and fruitful one.
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