Tagged: John Ostrander

Catnapped, by John Ostrander

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  • September 4, 2008

I love dogs. Most of my life, I’ve had at least one dog and often times two. Some have been wonderful, smart creatures and some were just thick as a brick. All were good companions and I have specific stories relating to each and they are bright in my memory.

All that said, dogs are a lot of work. It’s not simply the feeding – you have to walk them, no matter the weather, no matter whether they want to go out in that weather. They should be played with and exercised and they live for your attention.

I’m finding that, as I grow older, that I’m becoming more of a cat person. No, not like “Curse of the Cat-People” cat person. After our last French bulldog, Mojo, passed away, I’ve declined to get another dog. Maybe I need more exercise myself but I just wasn’t into walking a dog that much anymore. It was becoming work and that’s not fair to any dog.

So we now have two cats instead – Windermere, aka Windy, and Micah the Wonder Kitten. Very different in temperament and Micah has a story that I should tell you about some time; he really shouldn’t be alive. They suit me right now. They can be fun, affectionate, a little crazy, but there are also times when they go off and sleep somewhere and don’t seem to care what I’m doing.

Mind you, they also prompt me to do some of the most useless things that I do with my life. There are times when I have caught myself trying to explain the rules of the house to our two felines. It assumes that a) they know English, or b) they know what a rule is, or c) that they would care. I have patiently explained to them why they are not allowed up on the kitchen counters or why they should not dash right under my feet when I’m walking down the stairs. I’ve done this many times. They seem to be paying attention but I’ve discovered it’s only in hopes that I’m going to feed them. I’ve explained to them when mealtimes are but they don’t care about that, either. Like small human children, they have no concept of “later”. It is either “now” or “never.” Very binary.

Cats may understand “Don’t get up on counters” if they get wet when they do it. This can be done by the sink sprayer or with squirt guns that we have sequestered around the house. Windermere hates it although it doesn’t prevent her from trying to get up on the counters if she thinks I’m not paying attention. It simply means a sharp word will make her run for the hills. Micah, on the other hand, can get pretty wet and doesn’t seem to care. He just gives me a look as if I’m the one who is demented and appears to be asking, “And you did that – why?” (more…)

Given You A Number, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • August 28, 2008

It’s a good thing for this column that I listen to NPR. I don’t know if I’d have the number of column topics that I’ve had without it. This time I was listening to a debate between a former college/university president and the head of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The topic was whether the drinking age should be lowered to 18. I like to think I would have been more Pro on the topic back when I was 18 myself, but the fact was in those days I was so square I was cubed.

Both sides had pretty fair arguments, but the one that struck home most for me was this: a young man or woman can sign up for the Armed Forces, be taught to kill, be put in situations where they can be killed, and are expected to exercise quick and accurate decisions between friend and foe, even when the foe dresses like everyone else. Yet, those same young people cannot be expected to responsibly decide how much to drink. They can die for their country but they can’t have a beer because they’re too young.

Is it just me or does anyone else think this is pretty screwed up thinking?

Both eighteen and twenty-one are “magic numbers.” Are we really “adult” by either one of those birthdays? Some folks are, some aren’t. Some never are. If you’re one of those whose criterion for voting for a particular candidate is whether or not you would want to have a beer with them, then you’re not old enough to vote. I don’t care how many birthdays you’ve had; you’re not old enough. (more…)

ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending August 24, 2008

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  • August 24, 2008

The traditional summer vacation week has begun, with most family-types heading to familiar retreats and time shares before the kids return to school, while politicos gear up for their quadrennial conventions with pundits in tow. Gonna be a weird week, I’m thinking. But we’ll still be here, bringing you our regular columns and features. Here’s the roundup from this past week:

Loads and loads of hugs to our newly-hired news editor, Bob Greenberger! Want my old ComicMix business cards?

Framing The Question, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • August 21, 2008

There’s a lot of buzz on the Internet this last week stemming from new Image partner Robert Kirkman’s video-taped manifesto calling for … well, I’m not exactly certain what he called for. A subsequent article/interview on Newsarama said it was “a call to arms for fellow creators to focus solely on their original stories, instead of the licensed work from the big two comic book companies, Marvel and DC.” Although he is also quoted later in the article as saying, “I want everyone to understand, I’m not saying no one should aspire to write for Marvel and DC characters … I’m just saying that it shouldn’t be the pinnacle of a comic book career.”

The article adds: “While Kirkman sees contemporary creators who try to do both creator owned works, and books for the big two, he believes they’re hurting their opportunity to succeed with their original stories.” It then quotes Kirkman further: “You can’t put your feet on both sides of the fence you have to take that plunge … if I’m doing Invincible and I’m also writing Spider-Man, and I’m giving fans a choice to try my unknown book, or Spider-Man who they know, they’re going to choose Spider-Man.”

OR … maybe some of those fans try Invincible because they really like what the writer is doing on Spider-Man. The savvy ones follow the talent – whether it’s the writer or the artist. The majority, however, are reading Spider-Man because it’s Spider-Man and it doesn’t matter if a hundred monkeys are typing it – unless the monkeys do something really dumb with it like use a Mephisto ex machina to get rid of a pesky marriage or bring out a clone or something. Stoopid monkey!

The point is … more readers get exposed to the writer as a result of his work on Spider-Man. A fair question to ask is – did the sales go up on Kirkman’s own creator owned books after he started writing the webby wallcrawler at Marvel? If not, then he had no benefit from doing it. If they have gone up, however, then at least part of the reason will be his stint at Marvel.           

As I understand it, Kirkman wants to re-energize/save the comics’ industry. If all the established talent left DC and Marvel, he thinks the two companies would have to “re-focus the majority of their titles to the teen audience.” The established creators would then work on creator owned books, revitalizing the industry. (more…)

ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending August 17, 2008

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  • August 17, 2008

You know, it’s not like the Olympics broadcasters on NBC get paid to talk for a living or anything.  I actually heard one of them exclaim, after Michael Phelps won his record-breaking eighth gold of these 8-8-08 Games, "This has never happened before, and may never happen before!"  I immediately looked around for a TARDIS.  Then again, I keep confusing "Citius, Altius, Fortius" ("Faster, Higher, Stronger") with the opening from the Six Million Dollar Man ("better… faster… stronger") anyway, so there you are.  Meanwhile, ComicMix columnists have been jumping some hurdles of our own for  you:

How can geeks be this into international competition?  Well, when else are you gonna see dressage and badminton and water polo and trampoline?  At least, in between the endless bouts of beach volleyball?

A Matter of Opinion, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • August 14, 2008

So. I’m watching – and enjoying – the finale of this season’s Doctor Who. I’m a big fan of the time traveling Doctor and have been for years and his present incarnation, embodied by David Tennant, is one of his best. The Doctor is in a dire fix, as usual. This time, he’s trapped in the headquarters of his arch-foes, the Daleks, and at the mercy of their creator, Davros. A whole squadron of the Doctor’s companions and friends are trying to help him by a) threatening to blow up the Dalek HQ or b) blowing up the Earth itself, ruining the Dalek master plan. Like I said, the situation is dire.

Davros sneers at the Doctor that, while the Doctor himself doesn’t carry weapons and won’t kill, he creates friends and companions who will. He tells the Doctor that those companions are the Doctor’s weapons. The Doctor looks guilty and distressed as he considers, and seemingly accepts, Davros’ accusation.

Mind you, this is the Davros who has just enunciated his master plan of destroying not just the Earth, not just the galaxy, not just the universe, but all of reality except for the Dalek HQ. This Davros describes as winning and will prove the Daleks – and thus Davros – are supreme.

Which leads me to my thought of the week. Some people’s opinions really don’t matter. They just don’t. I’m not saying that people don’t have a right to their opinions or that they don’t have a right to express those opinions. However, there’s no rule saying that I have to listen to them. As I heard Steven Grant once say on a panel, “Opinions are like assholes; everyone has one.”

And, omigawd, are there assholes out there with opinions – especially now in an election year and especially here on the Internet! You don’t need to actually know about something to blog about it. Hell, I’ve proven that from time to time myself. What you need is a computer, a modem (preferably high speed), and a website. It doesn’t have to be your own website; if it has a message board, you can blaze away with your opinions at will. You don’t even have to use your own name so you don’t have to stand by your opinion. Wheee. What fun. (more…)

ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending August 10, 2008

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  • August 10, 2008

Don’t bother me, I’m watching the ‘lympics.  As if I followed any of these sports at any other time.  We’ve had some good sports here in ComicMix too; here’s a bit of what they’ve done for you this past week:

Now will someone please put some proper shorts on those female volleyball players?

Semi-Controlled Chaos, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • August 7, 2008

People are sometimes invited to my house. They’re never invited to my office. Ever. A cluster of clutter bombs go off in there with alarming regularity. My shutting the office off from public view is my tacit admission that the place is a hole.

I have a defense. I’m “creative.” I’m an “artist.” My office space reflects my jumbled creative mind. Actually, as I look around me, it’s maybe reflecting a mind that’s on drugs or needs to be. We don’t have dust bunnies; we have free-range dust buffalo. Herds of them move about in a sort of majestic splendor. They intimidate the cats. Wait, I can hear them rumbling by now. No, hold on – that’s a dump truck rolling down the road.

There are piles of things all over the place. There are boxes piled on boxes in front of bookcases that also have boxes in them. Sections of the floor have not seen daylight in the better part of a decade. Not that I’m sure how much daylight gets in through the windows anyway since they acquired a grayish patina. I’d wash them but I think the tint is baked on.

I have a relative idea of where everything is with two exceptions: stuff relating to my taxes and the take-out menu to my local Chinese restaurant. I know they’re both in here but it’s often a problem to lay my hands on them at the exact moment I need either of them. I don’t know what the linkage is between my taxes and the take-out menu. I’m assuming there is one; why else would these be the only two things that go missing? Currently I’m working on two hypotheses – either the office has eaten them or the cats have stolen them. That’s the most logical explanation I can devise.

There’s a fairly clear path from the door to the corner of the room where my desk is located. The mess sometimes encroaches on the path but I haul out the old machete and hack my way back through and things are fine again – for the time being.

Why is my office in such a state? My defense – in part – is that I’m a freelance writer; I don’t get paid for cleaning up my office and I don’t make enough to hire someone to do it for me. I have enough problems with my deadlines as it is and vacuuming the rug doesn’t help me meet them. Plus – I’m a guy. Like many guys, I have a fairly high DTL – Dirt Tolerance Level. Plus I’ve named some of the dust buffalo. There goes Bob. Howdy-doody, Bob. (more…)

ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending August 3, 2008

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  • August 3, 2008

August?  August?  Where did July go?  As if anyone’s recovered from San Diego yet.  As the dog days approach, ComicMix is still barking up all the right trees with our regular columns and features; here’s what we’ve broughnt you this past week:

So cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of peace!

Our Own Private Gotham, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • July 31, 2008

The newest Batman movie, The Dark Knight, is doing a nice bit of smackdown with all kinds of records, as well it should. It’s taking in money hand over fist. There are even whispers that it could wind up outgrossing Titanic, although I don’t think that will happen myself. The film will probably be up for several Oscars next year including, among others, Best Picture and possibly Best Actor for the late Heath Ledger’s incendiary portrayal of the Joker.

I’ve seen it, I loved it, I was stunned by it like everyone else. Best Batman movie ever. Possibly the best superhero movie ever. What really interests me, however, are the reports on the demographics of just who is going to see this film. It’s not just we comic geeks. It’s not just young males looking for adrenaline and excitement and explosions (although the film also has plenty of those). It’s everybody. Young and old, male and female, all colors, all races. That makes me ask a different question.

What is our reaction to this movie telling us about ourselves?

There’s a zeitgeist going on. You see this every once in a while – a film or a book or some music taps into the national psyche and expresses something that we, as a people, are feeling. I think the response to The Dark Knight shows it’s happening again.

Yes, the pre-opening buzz for the film was really positive. Heath Ledger’s death added a morbid curiosity. It had a terrific PR push. Anticipation was high. The response, however, is phenomenal. It’s doing better than the studio even hoped. So, again, I ask what is going on here?

Exploring this is going to involve talking freely about the film. If you haven’t seen the movie, go see it first. Experience it for yourself. This column will still be here when you’re done. In other words, Spoilers Ahead! (more…)

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