I'm a big fan of Genesis from way back. It was originally because the front man for the band when I first discovered them was also the drummer, Phil Collins. As a budding drummer myself, I really appreciated that. I was thrilled to soon discover they paid tribute to Winsor McCay with the song "Scenes from a Night's Dream."
But one of their songs that caught my (and popular) attention was "Land of Confusion" from their 1986 album Invisible Touch. It did well on the charts (#4 in the US and #14 in the UK). It spoke to a lot of the concerns and fears I know I had in the mid-1980s, but one thing that struck me was the Superman reference in the lyrics...
Superman, where are you now?
When everything's gone wrong somehow
The men of steel, the men of power
Are losing control by the hour
This was emphasized in the video as the Ronald Reagan character dons a Superman style suit and races off to the save the day... only to get distracted by the television.
(As an interesting aside, the visuals pay tribute to another Superman reference in a song by a different artist. Jim Croce's "You Don't Mess Around with Jim" includes the line "You don't step on Superman's cape!" Which is precisely how Reagan is halted in the "Land of Confusion" video.)
Seemingly to reinforce the comic connection of the song, the metal band Disturbed did a cover of "Land of Confusion" in 2006 and hired Todd McFarlane to create the video. McFarlane's visuals were decidedly less comedic and much darker, despite using many of the same visual ideas. In this version, the protagonist is based off "The Guy" mascot of the band's previous albums and given super powers, including super strength, flight and an energy punch. Despite this, however, the Superman reference in the lyrics is largely dismissed -- a scrap of paper with an "S" flies across The Guy's chest during the lyric and he quickly discards it.
The Guy's original character design was by David Finch, and the cover art for Ten Thousand Fists that was used as the basis for the video was by Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo. McFarlane talked about the development of the video in a short making-of documentary.
One more comic connection for the song. It was even more recently covered again by Katzenjammer, a Norwegian band whose name is directly a tribute to the Katzenjammer Kids, who they felt they resembled. While their video is primarily live action shots of them playing, it also features cartoony animations and some classic visual idioms from comics. Including (most of) the iconic "S" shield.
There are, of course, any number of fairy tales out there from Aesop's Fables to Journey to the West. Their longevity often has to do with each generation being able to take the stories and manipulate them to better fit their current times and culture. The wicked Queen from the original Snow White stories, for example, was literally tortured to death at Snow White's own wedding. Hardly an ending that would befit the benign environment Americans wanted for their children when Walt Disney made his animated version of the tale!
The stories are so well-known that any number of creators have played around with the basic elements to varying degrees. Betty Boop took up the role of Snow White, Bugs Bunny met the Three Bears, Tex Avery animated a decidedly more racy version of Cinderella, there was a regular "Fractured Fairy Tales" segment on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show... And now Paul Jenkins and Humberto Ramos take their turn with Fairy Quest.
The story concerns two inhabitants of Fablewood, who repeatedly act out their parts in their respective fairy tales over and over again. While they technically have free will to do as they please, Mr. Grimm does his best to ensure there are as few deviations from the script as possible, issuing citations when characters improvise or ad lib their material. Repeat and serious offenders get thrown into the Mind Eraser, and are "rehabilitated" in a decidedly Orwellian manner. It's under this environment that Red Riding Hood befriends the antagonist in her story, Mr. Woof. When the convicted Cindy Rella gives up the names of like-minded citizens, Red and Woof rush to escape in the hopes of finding their way to Realworld...
The book has the high level of quality that I know I've come to expect from Jenkins and Ramos. There's plenty of action to move things along quickly, but the story doesn't feel empty or hollow because of it. The characterizations across the board are interesting, both those who fall perfectly in line with what you'd expect from them based on older stories and those who play against type.
With so many variations and twists on the classic stories as there've been, the premise of having rigid scripts seems a tad odd, but I suspect we'll see in future installments that Mr. Grimm hasn't always been in charge of Fablewood and his authoritarian regime is a reaction to all the changes made in the past. Likewise, I expect Red's ultimate theme/message will be along the lines of allowing stories to live and grow naturally. Both points, of course, could be put in a larger context as well, about living your own life and telling your own story.
Or, I suppose, they might just let the story be fun and not put a strong message behind it! But in any event, it's already a fun book and I'm looking forward to seeing more. I suspect Jenkins and Ramos will have copies of these at upcoming conventions.
Spider-Man was created in 1963 by (depending on who you ask) Steve Ditko, Stan Lee and/or Jack Kirby. I won't get into that. But in 1967, the character was picked up for a cartoon series for ABC. That led to the original Spider-Man anthem that everyone knows so well.
Spider-Man! Spider-Man!
Does whatever a spider can!
Spins a web! Any size!
Catches thieves just like flies!
Look out! Here comes the Spider-Man!
There have been other Spider-Man songs since 1967, not surprisingly. Offhand, I know of...
"Spider-Man" by Icarus, 1972
"Spider-Man Theme Song" by Gary William Friedman, 1974
"The Amazing Spider-Man Theme Song" by Dana Kaproff and Stu Phillips, 1977
"Spider-Man Theme Song" by Joe Perry, 1994
There are others, I'm sure. More recently, you've also got all the music by Danny Elfman from the movies, Nickelback's "Hero", the Turn Off the Dark pieces by Bono and The Edge...
To date, none have really topped the original theme song in terms of memorability. That doesn't stop folks from trying, though. With the new movie opening this week, naturally, it comes with a new score by James Horner. But perhaps to less fanfare, comic rock pioneer Ray Wall has also released his latest effort: "Spider-Man Song".
I've been listening to Wall's comic rock music for several years now, since he released "The Fantastic Four Song" back in 2005 in fact. I've been impressed at the musical improvements Wall has made since then; his newer work definitely sounds more nuanced and his recordings are more polished. Topping the Webster/Harris theme, though, is a tall order. I'll let you take a listen and judge for yourself how Wall stacks up...
I talked to Wall a week or two back, and he's currently working on putting together a full album of comic rock tunes. Hopefully, he'll have those recorded and available later this year but, hey, this is what he does in his spare time!
I've read a fair amount about science fiction fandom, and have seen/heard of a number of filking groups over the years. I've long been surprised that the same phenomenon hasn't really taken off in comicdom, but maybe once Wall's album is out, that will change things.
Ah... glad that Independence Day falls on a Wednesday this year. I can just throw my links up and not have to come up with some insincere, patriotic-themed post! Onward...
Speaking of independence, Tim Marchman interviews Len Wein about Watchmen and Before Watchmen. The interview itself covers pretty well-tread territory, but what's striking is Wein isn't able to comment fully and has an official DC minder named Pam keeping his comments in check.
Maria Selke pays tribute to the many Star Wars references in the Babymouse series. (A series, I might add, is still widely ignored in comics circles despite it's long-running popularity among young readers.)
The Kids Read Comics Celebration is this weekend in Ann Arbor, MI. It's essentially a comic con aimed squarely at kids and teens with a noted lack of superheroes. I don't usually plug conventions here, but given how VERY little coverage kids comics receives in the "traditional" comic press, I felt this is worth pointing out.
Over at The Learned Fangirl, Viv Obarski talks about how television shows have become more and more impenetrable for casual viewers, and how you can't just watch episodes occasionally, but really have to commit to a full season. I'll let you make your own analogies to contemporary comics storytelling.
I caught Jamaal Branch plugging this on LinkedIn: AutoBio Comics. Basically, you write a story (to whatever level of detail you're comfortable with) and his team will draw it. The per page price varies depending on the art style you want but, if I'm reading things right, maxes out at $100. Although he's marketing it as a cool way to showcase someone's life story for a birthday/retirement/whatever gift, in theory, you could tell any story you wanted. It seems awfully cheap for the services provided, but Branch claims everyone's getting paid fairly.
Rudolph Dirks created The Katzenjammer Kids in 1897 for William Randolph Hearst's American Humorist. Between 1912 and 1914, Dirks and Hearst got into a legal battle over the rights of the characters and Hearst was able to keep the rights to the Katzenjammer Kids name, getting a new artist, Harold H. Knerr, to draw the strip.
Dirks, though, created essentially the same strip again, this time calling it Hans und Fritz. In 1918, he renamed it to The Captain and the Kids and it directly competed with The Katzenjammer Kids for the next several decades, but both remained popular at least through the 1960s.
Here's an ad I stumbled across in a 1940 issue of Life technically featuring The Captain and the Kids, although it may as well have been the Katzenjammer Kids. I'm fairly confident Dirks himself created this.
Although... comic strip characters talking about how great it is to be regular? By eating "a natural laxative cereal"? T!M!I!
Back in the 1980s, John Byrne changed up the classic team line-up for the Fantastic Four, ditching the Thing for She-Hulk. I vaguely recall fandom being initially upset over the move because the Thing was such a beloved character and She-Hulk, at the time, was still largely seen as a blank slate. Roger Stern had done a fair amount to provide her with some character development over in Avengers but that was still relatively recent and amid a larger cast.
The other issue fans had was that She-Hulk was a complete outsider. The Fantastic Four were largely about family (an extended family, but still a family) and She-Hulk had almost zero history with any of the team members. Prior replacements like Crystal and Medusa made some sort of sense and even Power Man's brief stint with the team was not at the expense of losing another character.
But what Byrne smartly did was almost immediately throw the team into a situation in which She-Hulk's status as an outsider was immediately apparent and part of a specific character point. He made it very clear that she was NOT a true replacement for the Thing, and her superficial value to the team (physical strength) did not automatically qualify her as Thing's ready-made stand-in. Several of her early stories in the book followed in which she was seen acclimating herself to her new home and her new team.
Some years later, after Mr. Fantastic "died", he was replaced by Ant-Man. (The Scott Lang version, not Hank Pym.) He was another character that was largely a blank slate, but did have the advantage of replacing a hole that was created several issues before he arrived instead of one that was generated by his arrival.
But he never really felt right for the book. That was, in part, because he was never really integrated into the team. In the story, he was cited as being hired for his scientific knowledge and, in that sense, he was filling the Mr. Fantastic's superficial role as resident smart guy. But where I think writer Tom DeFalco dropped the ball here was that he didn't spend any time integrating Ant-Man into the team. They shot from one adventure to another with little down-time, and much of the characterization efforts went into the Invisible Woman and her dealing with losing her husband.
I actually rather enjoyed the DeFalco stories for the most part. He wrote them in a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants manner, and readers frequently didn't see where a story might be headed. I found this interesting in that it was different and didn't follow typical plots that were excessively predictable. But, at the same time, it also meant that the overall structure of the title as a whole suffered a bit from a lack of pre-planning. Where Byrne knew where he was going with the characters and often planted plot seeds months, if not years, in advance, DeFalco made some dramatic turns, sometimes mid-story. (I recall artist Paul Ryan once noting that Lyja's pregnancy was originally intended to result in a human/Skrull child, and he was really surprised when the script came in showing that it turned out to be an implanted monster.)
So when examining the integrations of She-Hulk and Ant-Man into the Fantastic Four, it's actually difficult to make direct comparisons. The two were treated so very differently that there almost is no comparison. But, given She-Hulk's and Ant-Man's comic book careers since then, I think it's fair to say that Byrne did a better job endearing his replacement member into the hearts of fans.
No, my post title has nothing to do with a Hispanic translation of the old Super Friends cartoon. It's a reference to a 2007 documentary called, obviously, Super Amigos. It's about five men who, independent of one another, don costumes reminiscent of Mexican wrestlers and pursue social justice in and around Mexico City. Super Animal fights for animal rights, particularly working against bullfighters. Ecologista Universal fights on various ecological fronts. Super Barrio helps tenants of poor neighborhoods who are getting unfairly evicted. Fray Tormenta helps impoverished children. Super Gay fights for LGBT rights. They all take different approaches to fighting injustices, from Super Animals more direct and aggressive techniques to Super Barrio's more inspirational and motivational approach.
It's not surprising that real life superheroes would show up in countries besides the United States. Phoenix Jones doesn't have a lock on the idea, after all. But what's immediately striking, to me at any rate, is the different direction these Mexican heroes take. They're still referred to as superheroes (though, notably, not by themselves) but take their visual cues from wrestling rather than "typical" costumed heroes. Wrestling, of course, is a larger part of Mexico's cultural heritage compared to superheroes (and comics in general, for that matter) so it makes sense that their frame of reference is a little different than here in the U.S.
But what's also note-worthy is that they're all tackling issues on a larger scale. These aren't costumed vigilantes prowling the streets to break up bar fights and muggings; they're trying to affect social change. Not only that, they're trying to do so by helping to empower others to fight with them. They're not trying to be lone warriors, individually helping one or two people at a time. They're trying to raise armies to push society on the whole in a certain direction.
I think that says quite a lot about the differences between Mexican and U.S. cultures. Here in the States, we often pride ourselves on our "rugged individualism" but that also makes it more difficult to push to reform larger issues because we're all being individualistic, instead of joining forces to combat a larger enemy.
Now, I would argue that some of these Lucha Libre style heroes are astonishingly ineffective. Ecologista Universal in particular has good intentions, but doesn't really get it. For example, when he buys groceries at the store, he doesn't leave until he's removed all the packaging so it doesn't go into a landfill. Except that it's still going to go in a landfill, regardless of where he leaves the packaging. He might not be putting in HIS garbage can, but it's going into somebody's. Also, I have to wonder about the environmental impact a full-length cape covered in plastic sequins had. His one "victory" is that Mexico City is now behind Cairo as "most polluted city" but I'm pretty sure that has more to do with Cairo getting worse, not Mexico City getting better.
The Super Amigos documentary is a little hokey, with periodic "Meanwhile"s and "Across town"s and animated "origin" sequences, but it's still fascinating to see how superheroes get interpreted in other countries. The United States has Spider-Man and Batman and the big names that are globally popular, but that doesn't mean that other countries have their own cultural heritages they're going to overlook when they take on the mantle of superhero.
The Guy's original character design was by David Finch, and the cover art for Ten Thousand Fists that was used as the basis for the video was by Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo. McFarlane talked about the development of the video in a short making-of documentary.
