Naturally, here I go and start my blog by mooching from other, more pro-active blogs. Still, I think these articles are of considerable interest, so I thought keeping the links here was a good idea. Not all of these are recent articles. Have a look;
Here is a very good article talking about the politics of modern comic book Superheroes, especially as compared to the politics of the legendary “V for Vendetta”. Be sure to read the comments as well;
http://anthropik.com/2005/11/remember-remember-the-fifth-of-november/
The author of the following post (and blog, which is interesting in general) made some pointed barbs (with his art) about people who thought nuclear war was winnable, back in the 80s. Now those same people have crawled out from their atomic bunkers and think it’s a good idea to encourage another apocalyptic conflict, because it is surely winnable. So, this is handy as a reminder of how to successfully distill very complicated subjects that deserve thorough analisys into small visual bites that those unwilling to ponder too deeply can easily grasp. No, I didn’t mean “ignoramuses” by that, I merely meant “the less than fully informed”, which thanks to the state of mass media today, is endless millions of people. At any rate, have a look;
http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2005/08/nuclear-war-there-goes-my-career.html
On the aesthetics of Communism. Of interest to any fans of The Red Star. This isn’t anything like a scholarly article on the subject (which would be too gruesomly boring and self-important for anyone sane to actually read), but just one Finnish fellow’s take on the subject. Listen, any article that starts it’s coverage of the subject with the words “Imagine those godawful motivational posters but only presented as serious artwork-” is all right by me. With nice picture links, too! Well, the article is mostly picture links. As a fabulous bonus, it has a link to a website containing the pages from a 1961 comic book title “This Godless Comunism”. What could be more unspeakably horrible than this terrified line from one of the panels “But with my wife working, who will care for the children?”. The horror! And, I kid you not, the first interior page is a letter from J. Edgar Hoover praising said comic. If that doesn’t make you click the link, I don’t know what will.
http://lackofavoice.blogspot.com/2005/10/aesthetics-of-communism.html
Here is a very witty (yet with a fine grasp of historical facts) review of the film Alexander. Yeah, I know, but I warned you there would be some older links, didn’t I? We all know how dubious the movie was, but this is still worth reading for entertainment value.You know, that thing the movie was mostly lacking. Any article about the movie containing the sentence ” From here, Alexander’s exploits unfold, as he gets rowdier and more powerful with each additional blonde hair extension.” is worth reading, right? Alas, many of her other reviews are far, far off the mark. But not everyone can be Kenneth Turan. At any rate, here goes;
http://www.whattheflick.com/archives/2005/01/greek_week.html
Next, an impressively lenghty interview with the good Mr. Gossett of Red Star (no, not lightsaber, damn you) fame. Since, as the author put it “it took over a year to complete”, it’s pretty disjointed, but I think it will contain a number of new and interesting facts for the Red Star reader;
http://otakucentral.blogspot.com/2005/10/interview-christian-gossett-red-star.html
And finally, but by no means least, a very interesting blog discussing politics in comic books. Warning, it uses long words, is pretty cerebral, and well-deservedly criticizes some modern superhero titles for their not-too-suble support of totalitarianism (or at least totalitarian tactics used by They Who Shall Not Be Named);
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/comicbookpolitics/
All right, that’s it for now. Have fun.
