Category: News

You’ve probably heard the schoolyard snap: "Yo’mama’s so dumb she failed a Rorschach test." I never thought I’d find a case where it’s actually true, but lo and behold, Arne Starr pointed me to one.

Perhaps you know the old joke: A man goes to a psychologist and says, "Doc, I got a real problem… I can’t stop thinking about sex."

The psychologist says, "Well let’s see what we can find out", and pulls out his ink blots. "What is this a picture of?"

The man looks the picture upside down then turns it around and states, "That’s a man and a woman on a bed making love."

"Uh-huh. And what is this a picture of?"

"Well, that’s a man and a woman on a bicycle making love."

The psychologist tries again with the third ink blot. "What is this a picture of?"

"Obviously, that’s a man and a woman in a volcano making love."

The psychologist states, "Well, yes, you do seem to be obsessed with sex."

"Me? Doctor, you’re the one who keeps showing me the dirty pictures!"

Which brings us to Debbie Schlussel. Debbie is a conservative activist and occassional movie critic and she thinks that if you see Watchmen, you’re "probably a moron and a vapid, indecent human being."

She spends the first half of her review saying that the movie isn’t for children (no "kidding", Debbie, that’s why it has an R rating) and bemoans the fact that "plenty of clueless parents brought their young kids and kept them there for the entire almost three hour "experience" at the screening I attended". Now, her article went up on March 4th, so the only way that she could have seen it would have been at some sort of industry screening or press event. I’ve been to a few of them in my day, and I never remember children being present at such events.

She also decries the amounts of sex, violence, brutality, bad language, and other things that make her feel icky.

But most amazingly, she claims to be a great conservative thinker, and yet somehow never connects with the core question of the film. And that core question is this:

How far will you go to save your world?

It’s really a simple question, but it has very complicated answers.

Would you kill a child molester who fed his victim to his dogs? Obvious sexual deviancy, right? What about killing lesbians, then?

Would you break into prison to release a criminal? What if you knew he wasn’t a criminal, but couldn’t prove it?

Would you shoot police officers who were getting in your way of saving the world? How about if they were just preventing you from beating up on crooks?

Would you lie to bring down a presidential candidate, perhaps by accusing him of being a Muslim (like that’s bad in and of itself) in order to save the country? In Debbie’s case, we already know her answer to that question, character assassination is okay— so how about assassinating the President outright? Is that cool? Or assassinating reporters who might bring government misdeeds to light?

Would you kill a person to protect the world? How about killing someone in self-defense?

How about more than one person? How about three? Thirty? Three thousand? Three hundred thousand? Three million people? How many people is it okay to kill in order to protect the world? Would you fly a plane into a building? Would you invade a country? Would you nuke a city?

Who appoints themselves to make these decisions? And who watches over them?

All of these are valid questions brought up, implicitly or explicitly, in Watchmen. And if Ms. Schlussel was a deep thinker, or had any self-awareness at all, some of those questions might occur to her.

But Ms. Schlussel, sadly, can’t see any of that.

All she sees… are dirty pictures.

One more note: Ms. Schlussel goes way overboard in a follow up piece, complete with a Godwin’s Law violation:

Poor Hitler. If only he’d made Mein Kampf into a comic book instead of an actual written screed. Then, the ovens of Auschwitz and the human lampshades would be all the rage and cool of kitsch.

As it happens, I happen to have Hitler’s thoughts on the matter:

A while back, there was a spate of Marvel characters that were having their stories retold for different countries, for example Spider-Man India, with Pavitr Prabhakar, his uncle Bhim and aunt Maya. Now Nikki Finke tells us that Marvel may be doing the same for their movies:

Marvel Entertainment announced today that it’s forming an "International Advisory Board" comprised of business leaders from key international growth markets to work with Marvel executives to explore opportunities for expanding the penetration of the key character brands in international markets. The Advisory Board is chaired by James Halpin, a Marvel director since March 1995; Peter Yip, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of China’s CDC Corporation; and Bollywood film producer Manmohan Shetty, former chairman of India’s Adlabs Films. Marvel is in the process of filling two additional Advisory Board positions. Simon Philips, Marvel’s prez of Worldwide Consumer Products will serve as the primary company liaison to the Advisory Board.

Hey, if it worked for Spider-Man in Japan… although you can make that decision for yourself, Marvel is now streaming those episodes.

We’ve just received word that John Carbonaro passed away on February 25th at the age of 58.

John was a hard-core comic fan who acquired the rights to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comic in 1981, which had been published in the sixties by Tower Comics. Robert J. Sodaro wrote up a long history of John and his time with the Agents in this article and only hints at some of the convoluted publishing history and legal messes (any series that shows up in both Thunder Bunny and Penthouse Comix has a weird publishing backstory.)

i only met John a few times, but he will be remembered.

The numbers are in and WATCHMEN starts fast and ends at a jaunt, while David Faustino shares the future of his STAR-VING series, we predict what will be in your bag from the comic shop this week, PERRY BIBLE FELLOWSHIP hits hardcover and Mike Gold reviews the Watchmen reviews.

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Dakota Fanning is about to go all Volturi on your ass.

The 15 year old actress is set to sparkle– literally– in Summit Entertainment’s movie The Twilight Saga: New Moon, the sequel to its Twilight film, according to People.com.  Fanning will take on the role of Jane, a particularly evil vampire in the guise of a sweet young thing who is a member of the Volturi sect of vampires. 

Principal photography for New Moon is scheduled to begin in Vancouver later this month, with the release date close behind on November 20, 2009.  New Moon is shooting back-to-back with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (June 30, 2010), the third movie in the saga that is based on Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books.

With warmer weather on the horizon and the promise of many interesting theatrical releases in the coming year, people are beginning to make plans to gather with friends for dinner and a movie. If you have been making these plans, you have probably noticed that many of your friends are bowing out for the dinner portion.

One of the most important social rituals for people is the shared meal, yet in these financially difficult times, it is becoming more and more difficult to afford the luxury of dining out or even ordering in.

But don’t write off feasting with your friends just yet. Instead, consider making a meal at home.

Whether you are gathering at a friend’s house to have an anime marathon, getting together at a pal’s apartment before that preview screening of a hot new movie, or meeting up with friends at a convention to which you have a free pass, there are things you can make yourself for a fraction of the cost of restaurant, movie theatre or convention food.

Some of the easiest things you can do when having guests for dinner is to have a taco night, where everyone either chips in toward the total cost of food or brings one of the components for making tacos (shells, meat, beans, cheese, salsa, peppers, lettuce, tomato, etc.). Even if you are making food for a game group that consumes vast quantities of food, when all is said and done, you will have spent less and eaten better than if you had ordered out or picked up fast food. And even if you are not concerned about eating healthier snacks, you can certainly see the value in spending the same amount on a huge batch of homemade cookies as you would have spent on one standard sized store bought package.
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Happy Watchmas, everybody! Today’s list of quick items:

• In an alternate universe, Rick Marshall Megan Fox is doing both the Jonah Hex movie and is attached to star in Fathom, based on the comic from the late Michael Turner. As you can see from the picture, inspired casting. (Go ahead, ask me what I’m doing reading LesbianGeek.com. I dare you.)
   
• The Secret Origins of Watchmen (and the history of Charlton Comics), including interviews with ComicMixers Dick Giordano and Frank McLaughlin.
   
• Why Watchmen’s Alan Moore Hates the Movie Industry (And Who Can Blame Him?)
  
• Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources has started Slash Print. Yep. It really is coming, folks.

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.