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The Evolution of DC Comics

2 Oct

October 2, 2013

I used to be a huge comics fan. And like any fanboy, I was hooked on DC and Marvel. But that was back in the day, long before Marvel became the home of paranoia and dark inks. How anyone can read a Marvel comic today is beyond me. (To be fair, I do think that putting Doc Ock’s brain in Peter Parker’s body is brilliant.) Today I stick to the classics- subtly simple, like Carl Barks’ Ducks. Sequential image mastery, like Segar’s Popeye. But deep down, I’ve always been a DC guy, and more specifically, a Superman fan. Give me a big, barrel chested Wayne Boring Superman anytime.

But we’re not quite going back that far today, just to 1982.

DC_Comics_Style_Guide

This was DC’s 1982 style guide, featuring their biggest stars and their color guide. A whooping 50 colors! This is Alex Ross’ worst nightmare- only 50 colors.

So let’s take a look at some of the characters. Superman has died and returned, Green Lantern died and returned, Supergirl died and stayed dead, one of the Robins died, Batgirl got crippled, and Hawkman and Hawkgirl got retconned over and over and over.

And now today.

Scribblenauts-Unmasked-by-the-numbers-1

Check out those stats. 1050 heroes. 22 of them Superman!

While I may not be the biggest DC fan anymore, I am glad to see the medium is doing well. It may not be thriving, but it is still growing and evolving. Way to go!

 

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Allan Keyes Marvels at: The Sheer Brilliance of Jackie Gleason

30 Sep

September 30, 2013

keyes

We all know the triumphs of Jackie Gleason- Ralph Kramden (his masterpiece), Minnesota Fats (his Oscar-nominated role) or my personal favorite, Sheriff Buford T. Justice. Such a comic genius!

 jg1                       

Anyone can take a winning formula and run with it like a champion. But the measure of the man comes in the face of failure. And speaking of failure, ever hear of a Gleason project called “You’re in the Picture”?  It was only ranked as the 9th worst show of ALL TIME by TV Guide.  Just for context, this project was worse than:

“Hello Larry”

“The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer”

“Manimal” (!!!)

“Supertrain”

….but slightly better than “Cop Rock” So yeah, this show was pretty putrid.

You know how you and your girl can go to the county fair and have those backgrounds where you can stick your head through the cutouts and your flabby ass is transformed into muscle diesel and your girl suddenly gets those DD breasteses you’ve been dreaming of? Hilarious right! Well, that was the basis of this game show.

Yeah……wowee.

 jg2

Someone stuck his head through the hole and had to guess what the picture was. As you would expect, this show lasted ONE episode, and everyone knew that “the ship be sinking” as soon as it aired. So rather than do what network television would do today, which is move the show to 8:30 on Friday and play out the string as a summer replacement, Gleason came on the air the next night and aired an amazing nine minute mea culpa about just how big a bomb this show was. It’s nine minutes out of your life, but it’s nine amazing minutes. Please watch:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5kwd0_jackie-gleason-you-re-in-the-pictur_creation

(and it does disgust me that blowhard Anthony Bourdain is advertised at the front of this video. This human grease stain doesn’t deserve to be on the same video sharing service as a titan like Gleason)

Most people would’ve skulked away nursing their wounds, but not Gleason. He starts out “Last week we did a show called “You’re in the Picture…….that laid the BIGGEST bomb” and it gets funnier from there. Only a genius could take that wet fart of a TV show and make his explanation/apology compelling, funny television. That’s GENIUS. And kudos to the network for allowing Gleason to get on there and actually speak about it. You wouldn’t get that today. My favorite part of the whole video is where he  actually hints that he’s not really drinking coffee out of that cup, if you get my drift.  He actually lost a sponsor over that if you can believe.

Now if we can only get a TV network to give us a pre-emptive apology for some of the upcoming sure-to-be bombs in the new fall lineups…

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