Ah, the simple innocence of a geek child

The interwebs were all abuzz last weekend, when Volkswagen released their "The Force" commercial in time for the Superbowl. The ad was an unqualified hit, but it also reminded me a number of pretty geeky things I got upto as a kid.

My geekiness counter swung wildly over the years - I was quite a geek until the age of .. ooh, let's say 12, at which point I sadly fell victim to the Dork Side (heh). My geek level were kicked up a notch only after I moved to New York, and started earning enough to indulge my JLA habit. Until then, I was the stereotypical kid with braces who loved Star Wars, and was too shy to work up a conversation with a girl more than 2 branches away on the ol' family tree. 

Seriously, if I were Jewish, that childhood would have gauranteed me a lifetime as a successful stand-up comic. But I digress ...

As I was saying, the ad, definitely reminded me of my childhood, and I thought I'd come out of the (geek) closet and share some memories with you.

Memorising Star Wars: A New Hope by the age of six

Yes, that's right. Before the interwebs came about and offered unfettered access to geek materials & scripts, I knew every word of every line in Star Wars: A New Hope. Mostly because it was one of the few video tapes I had to watch growing up in Nigeria, but let's face it, when you're six, there's very little that can top the coolness of watching Luke kicking Empire butt. I still belive that no other sci-fi/ fantasy movie has topped the thrill of the Death Star battle sequence.

The Bucket-on-the-Head Vader

I never had access to costumes as a kid, but necessity is the mother of all invention, as they say. I found that an empty bucket on the head made for the perfect echo chamber to recreate Vader's heavy breathing sound effect. Of course, I couldn't see anything, which is why after more than a few bumps, I limited myelf to standing still and recreating scenes from Star Wars: A New Hope.

I sometimes wonder if I'd have been such an ardent Star Wars fan as a kid if I'd known how Lucas was going to rape my childhood with Parts I-III, and that turd-fest called Indiana Jones & The Crytal Skull.

A Love of Max Fleisher Superman cartoons

As my darling wife will tell you, until a few years ago, I LOVED Superman. I wasn't quite at the level of Jerry Sienfeld, but I was up there in loving all things Supes. And the reason for it all was a video tape of the amazingly gorgeous Superman cartoons from Max Fleisher studios in the 1940s. These cartoons were short, packing a ton of action into a few minutes, had humour, superhero moves, and a bit of horror (hey, I was six ... some of those scenes are quite scary). Gods, I used to feel a little tingle down my spine hearing the words, "This looks like a job for Superman!", and watching Clark Kent's silhouette change into Superman against a soaring score!. I'm pretty sure I used to run around with a towel tied around my neck, because to me, these cartoons defined how Superman looked and moved while saving the day from rogue giant gorillas or the dastardly gang of theives that kidnapped Lois Lane. When my nephew turns five, I know what his birthday present is going to be!

Little known fact that I just read from Wikipedia: these cartoons were responsible for giving Superman his flying powers. Superman orginally could "leap tall buildings with a single bound" but not actually fly. That apparently looked a bit silly when animated, and so the powers that be decided to give Supes the ability to fly. (Of course, this is from Wikipedia, so hopeully some ardent fact-checker/ quizzer like Fing can verify this!)

I was thrilled to find out that these cartoons have gone public domain now - you can watch a lot of them online now. Here's one of my favourites.

My firm belief that Spock was the coolest Star Trek character ever

I religiously watched Star Trek (TOS) on DD every Sunday morning. Let's face it, there was little else to watch. Regardless, I thought Spock was the best character of the show. Never mind Bones' preacher-fiery humanity. Never mind Kirk's cocky swagger, cocky attitude (especially with the female aliens, am I right?!)  & command abilities. Spock had it all.

Spock could cooly analyse a situation and figure out a way to save the day. He had super-human strength. He could kick-ass in a fight, and could render people unconcious with the Vulcan neck-pinch. Dammit Jim, the pointy-eared hobgoblin had green blood! Kirk had to fake his death to get out of an ass-whooping by Spock!

This was in the mid-80s, long before Star Trek: TNG came on the air. These days, I'm convinced that Picard could have kicked Kirk's butt (let's face it, at the end of Generations, Picard was still alive)!

What's In A Name?

As some of you may know, the Missus & I are moving to the Bay Area. And that means I've got to change this blog's name. But I'm scratching my head over what it should be.

Now from a common sense perspective, I'd like to leave out names of places. "Musings From New York" would become "Musings From Palo Alto" which at some indeterminate time might become "Musings From Timbuktu" and so on, and that's obviously cumbersome.

I already have the tagline: "When 140 Characters Isn't Long Enough". Since most of my communication these days is via Twitter, this blog has evolved into a means of posting lengthier thoughts, photos, and so on.

So ... does anyone have any useful suggestions?

Why Can't Comic Books Grow Up?

Advance warning: spoilers occasionally appear.

I've gotten into comic books - again - recently. I'd started following a few titles a couple of years ... Hellboy, Futurama, that sort of thing. I discovered, and got hooked onto, the Fable Series, and of course eagerly devoured any Mike Mignola work.

Recently, I got into the Blackest Night event from DC. I did so because I wanted to get back into reading Superman & Batman titles, and Blackest Night happened to be the big DC event of the year, and although it primarily concerns Green Lantern, I thought I'd give it a shot.

Now, 3 months into my reading of Blackest Night, and stand very firm on two pet peeves:

First, I HATE cross-overs!

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a cross-over refers to a storyline that spans multiple titles. Thus, a tumultuous event like Blackest night has impacted other DC franchises, leading to Superman: Blackest Night, Batman: Blackest Night, Flash: Blackest Night ... and well, you get the picture. Until recently, I'd only purchased the Superman & Batman cross-over titles, since, well ... those are my favorite characters (qualifier: see #2 below).

But then, I picked up Blackest Night #5 (the main title in this arc), and I took one look at the first page and went "Umm ... The last time I saw GL, he was whisked away from JL headquarters, and now, he's reunited with all the other color Lanterns.  ... Did I miss something here?" Turns out, I did. I missed Green Lantern #45-48 (or something in that vicinity), according to the friendly staff at Midtown Comics. And thus, I had to buy titles of a series I have absolutely NO interest in following.

"But hold on", you say! "Why is that such a pet peeve?". It's because a cross-over should not rely on other titles to develop major plot points. The writer has to be able to keep the central threads contained in one title/ series, and use the cross-over titles to fill in any incidental gaps. You don't want to alienate the reader by forcing him to invest more cash in titles normally not followed just to make sense of what's going on!

Don't get me wrong - I think Blackest Night is a fun event. The visuals are gorgeous, and it's generally well-paced. I'll definitely be following it with bated breath until the very end. I think it might be DC's plot device to resurrect Bruce Wayne. Or at least a bridge into a story arc that sees his return to modern times (that's right, he's not dead. Just wandering around in prehistory. Lame, or what?!)

Ahem ... to return to my original point. Cross-overs suck.

Second, comic books need to grow up.

If you've picked yourself off the floor from when you fell off your chair laughing, read on for an explanation.

The reason why I lost interest in comic books in the first place can be summed up in one word: escalation. Superheros kept getting stronger. And villains too. Next thing I know, each story arc deals with the next big cosmic entity threatening to destroy the universe as we know it. And smaller arcs just reduced the scale of things ("end of the city as we know it", etc.). And that's why, when I finally got back into comics, it was to read unconventional titles, and I loved them. Fables, Hellboy, Sandman, and so on. And that's because those comics focused on characters not action. Each story arc saw some humor, some drama, some action, and above all, some major character development. Especially in Fables. I kid you not, I cannot put into words how Fables TPB #1 blew me away, conceptually, and for the amazing writing.

And that's why I get a little bit depressed when I read the latest crop of Superman or Batman titles (as an aside, there are like 5 separate Batman series now. WTFF?!). These venerable DC titles seem to revel in garish action. I have no idea why ... is it because modern youth has the attention span of a gnat and needs to be entertained with pretty, petty baubles? If you want to see these titles written well, pick up any story arc written by Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, or Frank Miller. It will change the way you read comic books, I guarantee it.

Which is why, although I'm digging this Blackest Night event, a small part of me rebels for the quality of writing and the seeming over-emphasis on the afore-mentioned gorgeous visuals. It's all style. No substance.

And that's why comic books need to grow up!

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As an aside, I cant thank the friendly staff at Midtown Comics enough. I've visited many different comic book stores in NYC, and I've had my fair share of Comic Book Guy moments. Not so with Midtown Comics ... friendly, professional, helpful, and quite knowledgeable. There are a couple of minor peeves though: I have an online account with them, and shipping is by time (biweekly), not by number of titles. Depending on the vagaries of the comic printing schedule, I can get as many as 10 titles per shipment, or as few as 2. And the shipping cost is the same. I've paid $8 shipping for a heavy box of comics, and for a single issue. To quote Eric Cartman, "You're breaking my balls, man" ... and the second peeve is that they need to tune into a better FM station instore. I thought it was an endlessly looping mix tape piping over the PA the first few times I visited the store!

Disney + Marvel = Dismal?

The interwebitubes have been all a-twitter (hah!) about the Disney-Marvel deal today (BTW, hats off to TechCrunch - they posted the first story I saw). A lot of folks have tried to wonder what the mash-up may lead to ... here are a couple of my favorites:

- From @muskrat_john: Bambi's mother was killed...BY WOLVERINE!

- From @pvponline: The Incredibles can meet the Fantastic Four now.

And other combos I could think of included:

- The Cars fight Magneto!

- The Beast meets Beast!

- Hannah Montana meets Jubilee!

Apparently Stan Lee thinks this is a good deal. In short, I disagree ... somewhat.

Let's face it, Disney's current roster of IP & Franchises appeals to young kids, and girls. I'm sure there's boy-centric material in there, but I'll be darned if I know what it is. The typical Disney fare is "wholesome family" entertainment, focussed on driving home a message or moral. Marvel's roster does include "lighter" versions of their popular heroes but a significant chunk appeals to an older, more mature, primarily male population. No disrespect meant to the girls, but I think Emma Frost or Mystique are drawn to satisfy raging hormones. And that pretty much goes for most comic book characters anyway. DC is no different.

On the face of it, you could argue that the two companies supplement, not complement, each other. The combined entity will have content that appeals to younger kids, girls, and boys. To me, that's the danger - the two companies' products appeal to different demographics, and need different marketing techniques. There's a very real danger that unless Marvel retains editorial control, that they'd need to tone down their edginess, possibly leading them to shelve or sell off some of their more "mature" IP like The Punisher.

Where the deal does make sense is if you look at Disney as a collection of content delivery channels. Disney of course has its own venerable film & animation studios (which have woefully languished since the 90's and ceded the crown to Pixar). Disney owns a suite of TV channels, including ABC Family & XD. The latter already carries the superhero fare, and ABC Family carried a host of direct-to-TV content developed by Marvel in the late 90's (leading to a lawsuit, even). Disney also does publish in the dead-tree space, but I'm not sure how large that arm of the business is, or how large it is in comparison to Marvel.

Thus in my mind, what makes the most sense is Marvel acting as an independent studio, using the Disney brand & marketing platform to deliver that content. But that's only if Marvel can keep Disney from interfering with the content.

On a personal note, I hope to blog more often. I realize the blog's fallen by the way side since I got married ... ah heck, who am I kidding, since I found Twitter! But I want to write more, and hopefully I can stay motivated! As always, comments and encouragement help!

All a-twitter!

I've added a Twitter panel to the right, showing my last 10 tweets.