this is my mad face

[thehefner]

The contemporary zeal for graphic novels— fiction, let us remember, equipped with drawings and speech bubbles— has, to this spectator, encouraged the emperor to parade before an adoring public in a threadbare Speedo, if that. For filmmakers, they're smokin' assets, serving as ready-made storyboards as well as trailing a pre-sold and, dare I say, undemanding readership behind them. Beyond Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World, there doesn't seem to be an American subgenre entry suitable for adult teeth; it's little surprise that David Cronenberg hadn't even heard of the comic origins of A History of Violence before he began rewriting the script. Arguably the luckiest beneficiary of the fad is writer Neil Gaiman...

And so on like this. From the Village Voice's review of Mirrormask. Now maybe I am overreacting. Maybe the author of this article has a point. Maybe...

No fuck that. Fuck that and fuck you, Michael Atkinson you condescending smug ignorant fuckwad. It doesn't matter that you can't hear me, that I'm not really addressing you. Your head is so far up your ass, you don't deserve a rational argument from me. I had thought we'd finally reached some cultural acceptance for the art form, but clearly not. "Adult teeth"? "Fad"? Fuck you.

The worst part is, this is just a reminder that people like this are out there, and there are a lot more than I think there are. Just when I think otherwise, another comic store owner is being sued by some PTA group for selling "obscene" material.

What the hell is wrong with some people? Why are comics considered legitimate art in Europe and Japan and South America and yet are still considered slightly higher than billboard-painting here in America?

Fucking pisses me off. It's one thing to dismiss superheroes as "kids stuff", which gets me angry enough as it is but I can understand it. But to shoot down an entire genre, a "subculture" as he puts it, as not being "adult," makes... well, it makes Hulk want to smash everything, to put it one way.

If I'm mistaking what Atkinson is saying, please let me know. Even if I cam, the sentiment still holds for the masses out there who still share these views. It is one of my goals in life to eradicate such opinions and to make the art form as accepted and respected as film, literature, and "fine art."

Comments

[disc-sophist.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was one of the rare articles that made me immediately look for a "comment" option. At least Gneil seems zen about it. I'd like to think he'd only worry about something that's a real threat, and he just said he was amused. Doesn't mean it doesn't get under my skin, though.

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

please, re-write with a miniscule less vitrol and i'll happily send it to the idiot, his editor, and my lj (not like many read that).

he needs a crainalrectalectomy

My shocked gasp...

[imaget.livejournal.com]

echoed through the art gallery and brought my co-worker Tiffany out of the back office.
Alls I can say is ANGER, ANGER, ANGER,ANGERANGERANGERANGERANGERANGER RAGE!
I feel like he just said something about my mama, and that I must now find him and kick his ass.
ANGERANGERANGERANGERANGERANGERANGERANGERANGERANGERANGERANGERANGERANGERANGER

[morganashkevron.livejournal.com]

Send a letter to the editor - I already did. What a ridiculous article.

[morganashkevron.livejournal.com]

And dude...they're gonna use my letter in the next issue. wtf

[2sick2pray.livejournal.com]

Meh. It's a reviewer's job to be more snide and smug than normal people. They're paid to be biting, condescending, and mean. I don't say that to insult them; but it's no fun to read a review that's nice. They almost all have to be exceptionally glowing or unnecessarily horrible or you lose interest reading them.

I hesitate to say I kind of agree with a couple of his points, because I don't want you to be angry at me and I don't want to be closed-minded about something my friends enjoy - that would be rude. But I don't really understand the genre and don't particulary want to. I've got other things to do.

But I understand. It's like when people tell me Shakespeare is antiquated and inaccessible and boring and just wanking by the theatre community for the theatre community and nobody else. And they do at Tisch, constantly. and they all feel like they're the first ones who've ever dared to say it to me. think they're being rebellious and edgy by denouncing the bard. naive idiots. i don't get angry that it's their opinion so much as that they think they know more about it than I do, despite my having studied it all my life and their having read a couple plays in higschool.

Anyways... my point is their feeling that way doesn't make me less able to enjoy Shakespeare. So fuck 'em. They're entitled to their opinion, I'm entitled to mine (which I feel is correct and right, but what am I gonna do to convert em? Can't. not only that, it isn't worth my time. I've got better things to do and more important people to talk with) And I try not to let it get me angry, because it doesn't help in the long run.

Don't know if that helps any, but yeah...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Mel, you can't just drop a bomb like "I kind of agree with a couple of his points," and then 1.) not go into them and 2.) be open to me actually trying to get you to understand the art form rather than potentially unduly maligning it. Not with one this close to me.

These reviewers are meant to review THE WORK THEY ARE REVIEWING, not to insult the mentality of AN ENTIRE FUCKING ART FORM. Yes, I am using caps because I am pissed and shouting. That's totally un-fucking-called-for.

It isn't like him dissing Shakespeare. It's like him dismissing THEATRE. Know what I mean? If this were just superheroes, I'd understand. I'd be unhappy, but whatever, let him have his opinion. But this kind of huge asshat ignorance smugness is utter bullshit and comics have had to endure it ever since they were created.

[2sick2pray.livejournal.com]

I think dismissing theatre is sort of the same thing; at least in terms of how I'd react to it. And if culture as a whole someday does dismiss theatre, I think the best strategy is to fight it not with words and debate, but by having the stamina to continue to create despite it all. To direct it to an audience that does appreciate it, even if that audience is smaller than I'd like. I think that's a noble thing to do and strive for. That's all I was saying. That we just have to fight it by creating and delighting in that which delights us, even when others condemn it. We're not going to change their minds simply by telling them they're wrong. And if they're too closed-minded to see the power in that which has been created, they're none of our concern anymore because they have proven themselves unworthy of it.

And I don't agree with how he states his opinions... I'm just saying it kind of comes with the territory. What I do agree with is that comics are over-exploited in the film industry specifically because producers know that comic movies are a current fad. Not fad in a condescending way, fad in =chingching at the box office kind of way. And I agree that they have a devoted following that will come to see the movie regardless of who's in it or who directed it, and that many people who go to superhero movies (some of which are indeed sub-par movies made specifically as summer blockbusters) are not very discriminating. And I agree that it's not surprising that someone would agree to write a film script based on a comic they'd never read or heard of in Hollywood. Cause that's Hollywood for you. The way he uses these points to condemn the source material for the movies he's seen is pretty stupid. And being so stupid, not worth getting upset about, in my pov. I can't get angry at something I can't even begin to take seriously.


And I'm not trying to malign the genre of graphic novels, I'm just saying it's not something I'm into personally.

Look I know I have this annoying habit of becoming a devil's advocate every time you post about something you're passionate about. I'm not doing it to be a bitch... it's just that strong opinions pique my interest and I see them as a good opportunity for debates - which if you haven't noticed, I enjoy. If you don't want me to, just let me know. We still haven't discussed whatever it was awhile back that was bothering you last time I posted to your journal, but I suspect that habit of mine is at least part of it. So do tell me if you just want me to shut up and go away okay? I can respect that. It's your journal, and you shouldn't have to justify the opinions you post in it to me just because I think it'd be fun to discuss if it's not fun for you. So say the word and I'll stop... really.

[covenhouse-cat.livejournal.com]

What infuriates me is that the people who denounce comics or theatre think of themselves as somehow more cultured than the Average Joe. Personally, I think they lack imagination. Both theatre and comics require the "leap" from what is actually there to what is implied, and people with no imagination just don't get that.
I've had students say that they "don't like theatre". I then ask them how much theatre they've seen, and the reply is usually one to three high school plays, maybe one college play. So, I can understand that. They might have seen a couple of doggy plays. I tell them to imagine the _possibilities_ of film, music, dance, special effects, and the immediacy of having people performing/doing this stuff in the same room, right in front of you. It's not so much that theatre is always exactly right for whatever kind of entertainment one might enjoy. But that the theatre has almost as much range of possibility as film, added to the fact that it's all right there makes it awesome, limitless, exciting in my book.
And comics? Come on, now. Words are capable of everything from poetry to reporting to scripture to creating whole worlds explored in fiction. They are our primary tool of communication between other members of our species.
And pictures can represent everything from photographic realism to painted surrealist art to iconography to anything you can imagine in your mind's eye. And comics are both words and pictures. What on earth is adolescent about that?