Cheer…

A fun video of a classic song via the comments of this post at Edge of the American West.

Also: today’s Scary Go Round is brillant.

You find this funny?

I believe that Scott Kurtz is the only man on the fucking planet who could be upset about a good review.

Awhile ago Johanna Draper Carlson, of Comics Worth Reading, (whose work, for the record, I don’t even like) gave a pretty good review of Kurtz (and friends) new book, How to Make Webcomics. Carlson actually had pretty nice things to say about the book, though she noted that Kurtz didn’t give aspiring webcomikers any advice on dealing with/wrangling critics. Oh and she found some editing mistakes.

Now this mild mannered review caused Kurtz to vomit out a long blog post attacking the very foundation of literary criticism!

Kurtz: (bolding is mine)

It’s a notion I’m seeing pop up more and more in the blogosphere. The concept that the critic, or reviewer, plays as important a part in the creation of the work he’s critiquing as the artist himself.

…

Johanna, as her bi-line informs us of her identity, seems almost put-off that we do not take into account the possibility that critics are ever right.

…

I’m not sure how I ended up in so many tug-of-war competitions with bloggers, where the outcome of our match determines the superior position: creator or critic. But it seems to be cropping up again. There is a strange sense of entitlement, an eerie assumption of an unspoken working relationship that I am happy to inform does not exist. Why we insulate ourselves from the notion that the external critic can EVER be right, is because their critique is moot in regards to the progression of our work.

There’s a lot here but I think Kurtz is amazing full of himself and is intellectually shooting himself in the foot. Because, basically, critics and creators are two sides of the same coin (like Batman and the Joker!), they have a symbiotic relationship. Without creators critics would have nothing to critique but without critics creators would have no one to absorb and, yes, critique their work. They would be making art in a vacuum.

And no one, like Kurtz, who puts their work on the internets wants to work in a vacuum.

And clearly, there is no value to criticism since, you know, there aren’t universities offering courses and conferring degrees in literary theory and criticism.

Basically, it seems to me that Kurtz wants his audience and his critics to shut up and take it. They must be a passive audience, willing to follow Kurtz over whatever cliff he wants to go for the “sake of his art”. Kurtz’s intellectual radar seems overrun by internet trolls who have nothing of value to say. They seek, not to judge the work of a creator them admire, but instead to cramp his style, to wreck his artistic vision.

Kurtz seems so scared (understandable, mind you) of fan entitlement that he’s locked his mind entirely to criticsm. And that makes him more than a little full of it and himself.

Anyway, this is old news. In today’s PvP, Kurtz has unleashed a new group of super villains on his unsuspecting hero, Lolbat. One of them happens to include ‘The Savage Critic’, a female critic-as super villain. Hey, you know whose also a female critic? Johanna Draper Carlson, of Comics Worth Reading! She also writes (or at least wrote) for the Savage Critic(s). Could ‘The Savage Critic’s’ secret identity be Carlson?

If it was wouldn’t that just be hilarious? Kurtz has turned his critics into a joke. The laughter never stops.

And all of this was over a positive review.

Twit this!

Lord, Scott Kurtz never fails to amuse.

From a Twitter bitch-fest:

pvponline Let me see if I can break it down for you guys: Skull getting eye-fucked=not like. PvP being parodied in Foxtrot with reverence=DO like. 3 minutes ago from twitterrific

pvponline @djcoffman How noble of you, DJ. You’re a real gentleman. about 8 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to djcoffma

pvponline @djcoffman Scott Rosenberg has taught you well. You two so deserved each other. about 8 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to djcoffman

pvponline @djcoffman Where was the satire? Maybe if you understood these things better you would still own Hero by Night. So blow ME. about 8 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to djcoffman

pvponline @djcoffman the Han shirt is commentary and satire (i.e. fair use) DJ. What you did was infringement. my paypal is kurtz@pvponline.com. about 8 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to djcoffman

pvponline @JoshuaJericho DJ’s never had a real tight grip on ownership rights. Clearly. about 8 hours ago from web in reply to JoshuaJericho

pvponline @djcoffman and P.S. Since you made 2 bucks off that, you owe me two fucking dollars. about 9 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to djcoffman

pvponline @djcoffman Hey, asshole. I officially do NOT give you permission to draw the red skull fucking my character. take that shit off your website about 9 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to djcoffman

Coyness is nice, and coyness can stop you, from saying all the things in life you’d like to…

In this edition of our link-blogging feature “Wish I’d Said That…” we enter a new era. Done are the Star Wars titles for these posts! It is a BRAVE NEW WORLD folks.

Can anyone tell me where I got this title from?

On to the links:

• Matthew Yglesias on contingency & patriotism.
• Now I think I’ve made it clear that in this crazy Presidential contest that I support Obama. Now here Historiann highlights some of the sexist treatment Clinton has received from the press and Obama supporters. This is something I completely agree with. Clinton has gotten a lot of sexist shit (some of which I have witnessed first hand) from my fellow Obama supporters. It needs to stop. Not only is it as bad a the racist shit that’s been thrown at Obama but it makes our candidate look bad and we should be better than that. The racist cant directed at Obama is wrong and the sexist cant directed at Clinton is wrong. And everyone should say that. Even if you don’t support Clinton.
• Warren Ellis on his superhero work.
• Required Eric & Ari link: Eric on the past & future of American liberalism.
• New site design for Scary Go Round.
• Eric Alterman on the future of the newspaper.
• (Via Ezra Klein) Why CNN continues to allow this man on the TV baffles my tiny brain.
• An interesting  Mario Kart (Wii) review.
• Fan reaction to the Superman legal cluster-fuck. Somehow, this is not surprising. Fans want their comics, goddamn it, and we can’t let a little thing like creator rights or justice get in the way.
• Marvel B0y fake!!?!?! Oh noes!

I think that’s all for now.

A completely arbitrary list of half remembered things…

Before it became too uncool to do a “best of 2007″ list/retrospective I thought I’d get my completely arbitrary list of things I most enjoyed in the last 12 months.

Then I remembered that I have a shitty memory and I can’t clearly remember what exactly I read/watched/listened to in 2007 that came out in 2007. It all blurs together.

But I decided to fuck it, this is blogging, who needs a perfect memory?  So below is my picks for the best of the best from last year.

Books

2007 was a great year for new books. The obvious choice for BOOK OF THE YEAR is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I have go reason against the grain chose something that isn’t obvious. Unlike many, I enjoyed the hell out of HP7 and my enjoyment has increased with repeated readings.

This was also a great year for Star Wars books. All four (or was it three?) Legacy of the Force novels released this year were very enjoyable. The best, of course, was Sacrifice a great emotional wrecking ball of a Star Wars book.

I read a lot of history books this year (inside and outside of class)  but the only one I read that was published in 2007 was John Ferling’s Almost A Miracle, which was a solid if unexciting narrative of the Revolutionary War. A good book, but not nearly as impressive as Adams v. Jefferson, the last Ferling book I read.

 Comics

Now here is where my memory really starts effecting things. I read a lot of shit this year and its hard to remember what exactly came out this year and what didn’t. Plus, I’m pretty disgusted with the state of superhero comicdom at this point, so most of my judgments are pretty clouded.

The easiest pick is BEST OGN for is Scott Pilgrim vol. 4. Again I go for an obvious pick (especially for those who know my reading habits well) but it really was the book I enjoyed the most this year. Will O’Malley get volume 5 out in 2008? Hmmm…

For monthly, ongoing series I’m not entirely sure what was good… all of the shit released this year tends to weigh heavily on my memory.

Here is a list of the ongoing series I enjoyed most this year (in no particular order)

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Eight
• Runaways (pre-Whedon)
• Daredevil
• All-Star Superman
• Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane

MINI-SERIES OF THE YEAR was easily Dr. Strange: The Oath. No explaination is required, me thinks.

Movies

MOVIE OF THE YEAR was easily Superbad, the closest thing we will ever get to a progressive, dare I say feminist (?), male driven teen sex comedy. It is nearly impossible to put into words how much I enjoyed that film. It immediately jumped into my all-time favorites list. Repeated watches have not diminished its quality.

Only other movie I remember seeing in theaters this year and really enjoying was the fifth Harry Potter film.

Music

Tito has a better list than I could ever come up with. As I commented on Tito’s list, Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (was there more Ga?) was easily ALBUM OF THE YEAR. Followed closely by They Might Be Giant’s newest offering, The Else.

Of course that may be because those are the only two new albums I bought this year.

TV

There was no TV SHOW OF THE YEAR for 2007 for me… honestly I barely watched any new TV this year. Heroes was mostly terrible &/or boring… I gave up on the Sopranos years and years ago…

Thinking about it… it’s kind of distressing considering how much new TV I used to watch.

I did watch a lot of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine reruns this year. Can that count?

Video Games

I didn’t play many new games this past year except Mass Effect, which was fantastic. It was so fantastic that I bought an X-Box 360 just to play it. So yeah, Mass Effect gets GAME OF THE YEAR.

I did play and enjoy BioShock too.

(last but not least) Blogs & other Internets stuff

Here are the blogs I enjoyed most in the last year (in no particular order)

• Matthew Yglesias
• Progressive Ruin
• Blog@Newsarama
• Pretty, Fizzy Paradise
• Written World
• Edge of the American West
• Altercation
• Savage Critic(s)
• Comics Should Be Good!
• When Fangirls Attack!
• Occasional Superheroine

WEBCOMIC OF THE YEAR is Questionable Content. It’s been relatively consistantly good all year and deserves kudos for being able to pull that off.

Though this isn’t not a good thing to note, 2007 was the year I finally gave up on PvP in disgust. Honestly it was like when I quit smoking, it was quite the relief.

Well, that’s all for 2007. It looks like 2008 is going to be a great year for pop culture, especially movies (new Batman, Potter, and Indy flicks coming out soon).  But of course, we will have to wait and see.

Borrowed but true!

I just read this and must post it here. I did not create it, but I feel that just linking it would not truly do it justice.

Brilliance from Shortpacked by David Willis:

Mr. Willis, I love you with all of my heart and soul. Please, friends, go read more of his work. The man is a true American hero!

(The above image is copyright 2007 David Willis)

My aim is true

As of now, Blurred Productions is officially back from Heroes Con 2007. As you can see I’ve made some changes to the site (including a new theme! WHEW!) so there’s lots to discuss.

First, some thoughts on the Heroes’ Experience.

• I met a lot of very nice people at the convention, more or less thanks to good friend and nice lady Danielle Corsetto. These very nice people include Liz Greenfield (of Stuff Sucks) and Dean Trippe (of Project Rooftop).
• I got sweet, sweet conventions sketches from Ringo! (of Sue Storm), Dean Trippe (of Niko and a VERY AWESOME Batgirl), and Andy Runton (of Owly as Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Someday I will scan these and place them on this piece of the internets.
• I went to the DC Nation, Countdown/DC Pimping-New-Shit Panel, Danielle’s webcomics panel and the Marvel Writers Panel.
• I managed to only roll my eyes, eight or nine times during the DC Nation panel.
• As much as I feel that Dan Didio’s vision for the DC Universe and comics in general isn’t all that its cracked up to be; I will give him this: he is one hell of a showman. Didio can easily enthrall fanboys for 90 minutes. As much as a groaned at jackass Batwoman-lesbian-Question-making-out jokes I would be lying if I didn’t say I was entertained.
• If you wish to view the (drunken?!) mischief of this weekend you can (via Facebook) here, here and here.
• This was easily the most fun I’ve had a convention. BP will be returning, in force, next year. So you better watch out!

Okay, besides the Heroes Con greatness things have shifted around again here at Blurred Productions. I’ve updated/redesigned the blogroll. And yes, as The Kaiser reported yesterday we’re going to try in the next month or so to do a podcast and see where that takes us. Because, putting my writing on the internet just wasn’t enough for my Ego sized ego. Now I must put my voice up too.

I think that’s all for now. There was a lot of news out of both Heroes and Philly this weekend so expect some commentary on that later this week. Plus Previews… I’m sure there’ll be something or other to be said about that.

Returning to hell…

My utter love for Martza Campos’ College Roomies From Hell!!! collapsed a few years ago (was it really that long ago? Wow.) after the never ending storyline of doom she had embarked on. I still check in on whats going on in CRFH!!! every once in awhile, I mean the comic did dominate my on-line reading habits for over three and a half years. It’s hard to completely give up a habit that far entrenched.

With my latest  check up on where the comic had gone in my absence left me mightily impressed. Campos’ art, which had taken a bit of a slip in quality when I quit, is stronger then ever. The writing had gotten back on track as well. The strength of CRFH!!!, strong characterizations mixed with weirdness, is back to the forefront. Plus Campos’ has taken the characters to places, where as a fan, I’d always wanted to see them go.

This may be enough to drag me back into regular readership. We’ll have to see.

Lesser Superheroes!

My webcomic is finally up! Accuse me of abusing this sacred blogspace for advertising if you must, but this is huge news. After countless writes and rewrites (Seriously, the first few pages I drew years ago) , it’s finally up to be viewed by the general public.

http://www.lessersuperheroes.com

Go visit the site and explore around a bit. The current comic on the home page is just a little intro, but go click on the Archive button to the left for the first two stories. We’re going to sit on the first few stories for about two weeks, and then start regular updates (MWF probably).

Tell your friends! Tell their friends!

We can always pretend it didn’t happen…

Long time readers (from the Dark Ages of Saturday Morning Bitchin’) will remember that I have a (nearly) undying passion for webcomics. Oh sure old favourites, like CRFH! and Stubble, have fallen over the wayside during the relentless march of years but my love for webcomics as continued unabated. For one comic towers above them all in my heart, John Allison’s Scary Go Round.