I'm going to be teaching two weeks straight - two weeks of junior high kids who come to this site to learn to do art, to dance and to act in a play and make puppets out of wax and, with me, learn about the many connections between poetry, mythology, and comic books.
I grabbed up a bunch of illustrated mythology guides in case the kids didn't have much of a background - one illustrated Greek and Roman, one illustrated Norse, and a giant 40-pound World Mythologies Guide, which include everything from Egytpian, Native American, East Asian, etc, to African and Celtic, with lots of fascinating pictures. I'm debating whether to bring in a beautifully illustrated "Tales of Genji" I found in the Manga section, but it does have some female nudity, so it's probably fof the list.
Then I was trying to decide which comic books were safe enough - that is, free of blood-and-guts-and-nudity - to bring in for these junior high kids (who will be chaperoned, so I really can't break the rules.) Astonishing X-Men? Some new Gail Simone Wonder Woman? Fray? Buffy? Even the ones I consider pretty safe have a surprising amount of adult stuff in them.
Recommendations? Ideas?
I'm going to have them do some writing exercises every day, including writing their own creation-type myth, two persona poem in the voices of a villain(ess) and hero(ine), a character sketch of a comic book character that includes some archetypal realtionship to a mythological character...some fun, right?
Thank you, Centrum Young Artists Project, for setting something like this up. Should be a blast!
Monday, March 3, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
Poetry and Comics, Chuck Renewal
Bookslut alerted me to an interesting blog post:
http://garysullivan.blogspot.com/2008/02/poetics-of-comics-bill-randall-on.html
on the relationship between poetry and comics. Obviously, as a comic book geek who is also a poet, this was an interesting topic for me.
I'm teaching a class in a few weeks in which I'll encourage kids to write about comic book characters, mythology, and even illustrate a comic book character of their own creation. It seems like a good way to include stuff kids are naturally interested in (say, comics and graphic novels) with things they may not initially be so excited about (ancient mythology, persona poetry, archetypes.) Maybe I'll post about how it goes.
I personally would love to have a poetry graphic novel or comic. Maybe publishers will start publishing hybrids like these soon.
In television news, Chuck was renewed, yay! Although boo, Heroes won't be back til the fall. Reaper has a few more new episodes to burn, but not sure about its renewal yet. In other news, we need more female-centric hero shows, no? Neither Bionic Woman or Terminator's Sarah Connor Chronicles really scratched that itch, what with their bad writing and bad acting and all.
http://garysullivan.blogspot.com/2008/02/poetics-of-comics-bill-randall-on.html
on the relationship between poetry and comics. Obviously, as a comic book geek who is also a poet, this was an interesting topic for me.
I'm teaching a class in a few weeks in which I'll encourage kids to write about comic book characters, mythology, and even illustrate a comic book character of their own creation. It seems like a good way to include stuff kids are naturally interested in (say, comics and graphic novels) with things they may not initially be so excited about (ancient mythology, persona poetry, archetypes.) Maybe I'll post about how it goes.
I personally would love to have a poetry graphic novel or comic. Maybe publishers will start publishing hybrids like these soon.
In television news, Chuck was renewed, yay! Although boo, Heroes won't be back til the fall. Reaper has a few more new episodes to burn, but not sure about its renewal yet. In other news, we need more female-centric hero shows, no? Neither Bionic Woman or Terminator's Sarah Connor Chronicles really scratched that itch, what with their bad writing and bad acting and all.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
No Flying, No Tights
Sometimes you find a web site so uniquely cool, you must tell people about it right away.
Here is one:
http://www.noflyingnotights.com/
Here is one:
http://www.noflyingnotights.com/
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Witchblade News, Heroes finale
Hey all! Sorry for the long haitus, for which I have very little excuse, except I moved, came down with a bad case of bronchitis, and have since been hiding out in the new rental house.
But this news item, if not the lackluster "season finale" of Heroes, shook me awake:
TNT's Witchblade series, inspired by Top Cow's comic of the same name, is heading to DVD release, finally! This series, especially the first season, was unbelievably exciting - lots of interesting, high-budget special effects, and strong acting (if not from lead Yancy Butler) fr0m a lot of minor characters.
Here's more, but not much more, on this release: http://www.TVShowsOnDVD.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=8771
So, Heroes - Nathan getting shot was supposed to be a big surprise, but seemed sort of inevitable - Peter saves the world from the release of the virus (in older scripts, he did not) and bad old Kensai gets buried alive, a la Alias. This second season just didn't have the juice, the "wow" factor, or the first season, and I hope when it comes back it will be with renewed, more creative writers.
Anyway, that's all the news for now! Not watching much television due to the writer's strike, but looking into acquiring some Gaimon Sandman comics, among other things. Happy 2008!
But this news item, if not the lackluster "season finale" of Heroes, shook me awake:
TNT's Witchblade series, inspired by Top Cow's comic of the same name, is heading to DVD release, finally! This series, especially the first season, was unbelievably exciting - lots of interesting, high-budget special effects, and strong acting (if not from lead Yancy Butler) fr0m a lot of minor characters.
Here's more, but not much more, on this release: http://www.TVShowsOnDVD.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=8771
So, Heroes - Nathan getting shot was supposed to be a big surprise, but seemed sort of inevitable - Peter saves the world from the release of the virus (in older scripts, he did not) and bad old Kensai gets buried alive, a la Alias. This second season just didn't have the juice, the "wow" factor, or the first season, and I hope when it comes back it will be with renewed, more creative writers.
Anyway, that's all the news for now! Not watching much television due to the writer's strike, but looking into acquiring some Gaimon Sandman comics, among other things. Happy 2008!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The latest on Chuck, the penultimate epi of Heroes
First of all, congrats to Chuck - this excellent show has been picked up for when the writer's strike is over, for a full season. This show is like watching a wonderful movie (Office Space meets Alias?) for an hour every week. I love it!
So, this episode lacked the power, wit and grace of the previous one, had way too many plotlines, and just fell flat. Let's hope the next episode, which, if the writers don't get working soon, is going to be the season finale, isn't the big disappointment that last year's season finale was. I was pretty much looking forward to Hiro kicking Peter's butt in this episode, but, sadly, they're saving that for next week. Have you ever heard of an "idiot" plot? This means everyone has to be an idiot for the plotline to work. So, this week, Maya, Peter, Mohinder...Micah's cousin...wow, how incredibly easily manipulated are these characters? I hate losing respects for my imaginary friends.
On the plus side, it was nice to see Claire standing up for herself with Elle.
On a somewhat related note, if you love superheroes and poetry, or someone you love does,
This book makes a great holiday gift!
So, this episode lacked the power, wit and grace of the previous one, had way too many plotlines, and just fell flat. Let's hope the next episode, which, if the writers don't get working soon, is going to be the season finale, isn't the big disappointment that last year's season finale was. I was pretty much looking forward to Hiro kicking Peter's butt in this episode, but, sadly, they're saving that for next week. Have you ever heard of an "idiot" plot? This means everyone has to be an idiot for the plotline to work. So, this week, Maya, Peter, Mohinder...Micah's cousin...wow, how incredibly easily manipulated are these characters? I hate losing respects for my imaginary friends.
On the plus side, it was nice to see Claire standing up for herself with Elle.
On a somewhat related note, if you love superheroes and poetry, or someone you love does,
This book makes a great holiday gift!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Cautionary Tales - Daddy Issues and Why Can't Every Episode of Heroes Be This Good?
Okay, where did they dig up the writers for this episode? Have these writers been asleep for the first seven or eight episodes? How is it that suddenly, Heroes becomes funny, snappy, heart-rending, and action-packed after a snoozer of a half-season? I was literally jumping up and down off my couch and pacing the whole episode? What happens next? Argh! No, Writer's Strike! Don't take away this new and improved Heroes!
So many witty lines ("What is your power - human punching bag?" "Do you still have Mr. Muggles Doggy Bath?" Dark!) And how great was Mrs. HRG tonight? Finally he faced his fears about his own death, and became his kick-ass old, sort-of-evil-sort-of-good self? And how weird is it that the writers complicated the boring characters of Mohinder and Matt Parkman? Good times.
Also, the whole Hiro investigating his father's murder, and paying his last respects in back time, was pretty great. "We have the powers of gods, but that does mean we should play God." Superheroes, man, all those moral and ethical delimnas.
So many witty lines ("What is your power - human punching bag?" "Do you still have Mr. Muggles Doggy Bath?" Dark!) And how great was Mrs. HRG tonight? Finally he faced his fears about his own death, and became his kick-ass old, sort-of-evil-sort-of-good self? And how weird is it that the writers complicated the boring characters of Mohinder and Matt Parkman? Good times.
Also, the whole Hiro investigating his father's murder, and paying his last respects in back time, was pretty great. "We have the powers of gods, but that does mean we should play God." Superheroes, man, all those moral and ethical delimnas.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Four Months Ago...and Chuck, Meet Summer!
It's a sad story because you just know Chuck is going to get cancelled because of the strike. But when Chuck (ie Seth Cohen, the older-and-more-spy-like) met Summer in last night's episode (Chuck Versus the Truth) I just wished the show would go on forever. So much fun!
On Heroes, we finally got to solve some of the mysteries (How Peter wound up with amnesia, how Nathan was healed, how DL died) but others were left unsolved - like, how did the Bennett's get back together? This, again, is a show that is just getting back together just before the writer's strike will cause it to go dark.
And I am a writer, so I support fair wages for work performed, but at this point, I think they're doing themselves more harm than good. One of their key sticking points is getting paid for downloads of episodes, and I think that's still such a new revenue stream (ie not that successful a revenue stream) for companies that the big media networks aren't going to budge on it. I've always worked for a set-fee for my media contributions, and never got a per-download bonus or anything. That would be nice, though. How about it, MSDN?
On Heroes, we finally got to solve some of the mysteries (How Peter wound up with amnesia, how Nathan was healed, how DL died) but others were left unsolved - like, how did the Bennett's get back together? This, again, is a show that is just getting back together just before the writer's strike will cause it to go dark.
And I am a writer, so I support fair wages for work performed, but at this point, I think they're doing themselves more harm than good. One of their key sticking points is getting paid for downloads of episodes, and I think that's still such a new revenue stream (ie not that successful a revenue stream) for companies that the big media networks aren't going to budge on it. I've always worked for a set-fee for my media contributions, and never got a per-download bonus or anything. That would be nice, though. How about it, MSDN?
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