Monthly Archives: March 2010

Original Art: A Short Note on Hal Foster

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Of late, I’ve been revisiting a number of Hal Foster originals. In so doing, I’ve occasionally noted a certain resemblance between Foster’s work on Tarzan and the pencil sketches he did for John Cullen Murphy as he was handing over the reigns of Prince Valiant to his chosen successor. These sketches were never meant for public consumption but have since reached the collector’s market. Foster’s pencil drawings are like notes to an essay, a more relaxed and open conversation with his collaborator and now, with the passage of time, his readers. In some ways, a Foster Tarzan Sunday might be said to be a few steps closer to the raw ideas of the artist.

[Detail from a Hal Foster Pencil Prelim]

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Katrinasploitation

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Nola
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Creator: Chris Gorak
Writer: Pierluigi Cothran
Artist: Damian Couceiro

Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters in American history, killing over1,800 people and flooding the city of New Orleans. But despite the scope of the disaster, there are surprisingly few comics about Katrina or its aftermath. Perhaps comic writers, who tend to be white, northern, and middle class, are simply indifferent to a disaster that mostly affected people who are black, southern, and poor. Or if I were to be more charitable, perhaps comic writers are trying to be respectful, given that Katrina is still a very recent tragedy from the survivors’ perspective. But if I’ve learned anything from my years of consuming pop culture, it’s that somebody will eventually find a way to turn even the worst disaster into a frivolous pulp thriller.

Which brings me to Nola, a 4 part mini-series created by Chris Gorak (an art designer for several big films) and written by Pierluigi Cothran (writer of several Heroes graphic novels). The story is about the oh-so-cleverly named Nola Thomas, an attractive African American woman who falls for a married man. Who’s rich, white, and named Chevis, so obviously he’s an asshole. In fact, he’s an asshole of Kennedyian proportions, because when he drunkenly flips his car off the road with Nola inside, he sets the car on fire and flees rather than get caught having an affair with a black woman. Of course, Nola survives but she’s badly burned.

Hurricane Katrina finally factors into the story while Nola is in the hospital. Abandoned by the medical staff, Nola wakes up in a flooded room, bandaged like a mummy in the tradition of horribly scarred noir heroes. After she discovers that her mother died in the hurricane, Nola decides it’s time to set the plot in motion and get her revenge. So she travels around the ruins of New Orleans, killing the doctor who left her to die, killing a few cops (it’s okay, they were jerks), and eventually hunting down Chevis. Along the way she also uncovers a rather convoluted murder mystery involving her long-lost father and another evil, rich white guy.

Ignoring the presence of Katrina, Nola is just an old-fashioned pulp crime story. It does occasionally touch upon race, but only in a shallow manner that helps advance the plot. And the colorful setting of New Orleans (pre-Katrina) is never used to its full potential. None of this is to say that Nola is awful, so much as it isn’t notably ambitious or original. Damien Couciero’s artwork, best described as generic, reinforces my impression of Nola as a by-the-numbers crime comic.

But the use of Katrina can’t be casually set aside. The plot hinges on the disaster in a number of ways: Nola is abandoned in the hospital because of the hurricane, her mother dies during the flooding, and she’s able to sneak around the city and get away with murder because law enforcement is already overwhelmed. The flooded landscape of New Orleans also give Nola a few memorable scenes, even if Couciero’s art is rather boring.

Most importantly, Katrina is a massive tragedy, and real-life tragedies can impart the illusion of relevance on otherwise irrelevant stories. Is it crass and shameless to use a real disaster to elevate low brow entertainment product? Yup, but Gorak and Cothran would probably insist that the personal tragedy of Nola is deeply interwoven with the larger tragedy that befell New Orleans. Because you see, Nola is scarred, just like New Orleans, and … um … Nola will never be the same again (after all the murdering and what not) and the city will never be the same again! It all makes sense, as long as you don’t think about it.

But if you do make the mistake of thinking about it, you’re left feeling dirty. It’s bad enough that so many people died while the government dithered, but Nola adds insult to injury by treating that catastrophe as a plot device for a trite revenge story.

Cuckoo for Copyright Comment Roundup

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To finish up our roundtable on copyright I thought I’d highlight some of the more interesting comments.

First, Nina Paley very kindly stopped by. Her comments start here. In one of the most pointed she said:

My focus is not on changing the laws – that is extremely unlikely. Copyright will become increasingly draconian, because of of our rather corrupt congress and campaign finance system.

Interestingly, I mentioned in the interview that back in the day, when women criticized misogyny in certain underground comics, they were accused of “trying to censor.” As I demonstrate viable alternatives to copy restrictions, people argue back as if I’m somehow trying to “remove copyright entirely.” I can’t remove copyright, and even if I could, I don’t support dictatorial, unilateral legislative changes that don’t reflect the will of the public – that’s how we got the copyright mess we’re in now.

What I am trying to do is increase public awareness of what copyright is (an artificial monopoly), how it works (through censorship), and what we can do in the midst of a broken system. Many wonderful opportunities exist for artists right now, but no one needs to take them. I win either way: if more works are freed, I live in a freer society, and if more works are locked up, my free works enjoy a competitive advantage.

Over at his blog, animator Mark Mayerson touches on some issues particular to film.

I agree that Paley has something of the “zealousness of the convert.” Because a copyleft approach worked for her, she assumes that it is the right way to go and will work for everyone else. I think the Newman interview in the roundtable makes some very good points in refuting Paley.

There are so many issues wrapped up with this. First is the length of the copyright term. What’s the right length to benefit the creator and his/her heirs while still allowing for a vibrant public domain? Right now, it’s an open question as to whether anything will ever again be added to the public domain except by accident.

Then there’s the issue artists and corporations. Newman, as a composer, is creating complete works without the aid of others. It’s natural for him to hold the copyright. Even though Paley made Sita by herself, she included other works on the soundtrack. Paley is a rare case in that the majority of films are created by more than one person. In that case, who should hold copyright or how should it be split? What rights do financiers have relative to creators?

I think we can all agree that artists should have more ownership of their work (as opposed to corporations owning it), but should corporations vanish, we’re still left with some difficult questions.

There’s a fairly lengthy comment thread over at Sequenza21 inspired by Jonathan’s post. One interesting comments from composer John Mackey.

I’m also of the belief that your potential performer, like any person, has a mindset that you get what you pay for. If you don’t believe enough in your music to feel you should be compensated for it, how good is your potential performer going to think it is when they happen upon it online? If you, literally, can’t even GIVE it away, why would somebody think it was going to be good enough to take the time to even listen to the MP3 or look at the free score? It goes to something Eric Whitacre said once, and I’m going to get the quote wrong, but it was essentially, “nobody wants a free futon from Craigslist, but a whole lot of people would pay $50 for that same futon on Craigslist.” (I think his quote was actually more along the lines of “nobody will pay $10 for a futon, but everybody will pay $100 for a futon,” but the point is the same.) Charge something for it — and that’s a right that copyright law provides — and suddenly it’s “worth” something. A free futon is just gross.

And another from Chris Becker.

I do know from friends who have or currently write music for television (and I’ve done this as well…) that big corporate media entities have made every effort to cut down on the amount of money they are willing to shell out to composers because of the availability of license free music. Their attitude is: “Look, we can get this music for free OR my kid can spit it out using a loop CD, so YOU punk ass composer should be grateful we’re even considering funding a day of recording sessions…”

Back on HU, commenter plok, a singer-songwriter and supporter of freer copyright, had a whole slew of entertaining comments, which you can scroll back and forth for. I’ll point particularly this one.

I wish you would stop saying “stealing”, though — we’re talking about copyright infringement, not theft, and it’s an important difference. What the record company’s doing to me isn’t the same thing as what downloaders are doing to it — it’s a lot worse. In the grocery store of my music, the downloader’s taken a grape and popped it in his mouth; the record company’s taken cash from the till.

Also, a very important thing I would like to communicate to you is that the downloaders are mailing me a cheque — in fact they’re mailing me several different cheques, just by doing what they do. The people who download are avid music fans, they attend concerts and purchase records and T-shirts and sometimes even beer for the musicians, but more importantly than any of that they make new fans…and every time they do, they pay a Blank Media Levy designed to compensate artists for copying activity that can’t be monitored or controlled. Although I don’t know how much I’d be getting from it, because I can’t bring myself to take that money as long as individual downloaders are not just paying it, but also being prosecuted for what we all know they’re paying it for. And especially not if it’s my music they’re downloading, because nothing says they have to download my music instead of somebody else’s!

I mean, I’m grateful they like it enough to want to own, and even share, a copy of it! Make no mistake, that is support, and if the RIAA was interested in monetizing the Internet as a promotional resource instead of as a retail outlet, that support would translate to a couple different kinds of new income for me…but the word “stealing” stands in my way, stands between me and that new revenue.

Short form: I see downloaders as radio listeners, not shoplifters. Which is why every time someone expresses outrage that those people are getting away with murder, I always make a point of saying “well, why not join ‘em?” Radio listeners successfully send money my way even though they don’t pay user fees; I don’t see why Internet listeners should have to pay anything more than that. If you don’t want to buy the CD or go to the show, I can’t make you do it by shaming or threatening you out of listening to the music…and I don’t want to do any of that anyway.

Eric B. addressed the question of whether those who download illegally are petulant infants

As for the “petulant infants” on the internet–I think it’s a bit trickier than that. I mean, if I see a dollar bill floating along the street, I’m likely to pick it up and put it in my pocket, if the rightful owner is nowhere in sight (This actually happened to me the other day). I’m not going to undertake a worldwide search to return the dollar bill…nor am I going to leave it floating around. While the internet downloading thing isn’t really equivalent, it does have that feel. There’s so much crap floating around out there, that it’s kind of like picking it up in the street. I have yet to download for free music that in my former life as avid CD purchaser, I would have purchased. That is…I try to ask myself, “would I be buying this” under other circumstances, and if the answer is yes, I’ll probably buy it (on iTunes or in physical form, or whatever)…But if it’s a matter of trying something new–or obtaining something that I otherwise probably wouldn’t have bought–well, I’ll let your imagination wander. Sometimes this kind of sampling leads to purchases (concert tix, other CD’s, songs by the artists I especially like) and sometimes it doesn’t. My income is very limited (or has been over the last 5 years or so)–but my appetite for music isn’t really, so I try to resolve those things. I buy a lot of blank media, so I guess some of my money finds its way back to those who profit, or whatever…Maybe this makes me a “petulant child” –but I’m guessing I’m not an atypical one. I don’t think I should be able to get anything I want for free…and I do support my artistic favorites…but I do think that it’s unwise to take a pie-in-the-sky view of this kind of thing. Just because it may be ethically “wrong” to download without paying, it will continue to happen regardless of changes in copyright law unless there is a way to stop it. Currently, there isn’t really.

And artist and critic Bert Stabler summarizes my discomfort with the Paley’s movie Sita Sings the Blues:

The word you all are looking for is “patronizing.” Whenever NPR profiles the latest Ry Cooder musical fusion crossover between Mongolian throatsinging and Cherokee nose fluting, with an electronic cumbia bassline, the reason your stomach should churn with shame as an educated privileged cultural consumer is because, ever so quietly, guilt is being atoned for with tokenism. There are worse things than trying to atone for sins, but hardly a more irritating way of going about it.

Caro has an impassioned defense of Sita in that thread too (she gets to compare me to Hindi fundamentalists.) And there’s lots more from Caro and me and lots of other folks if you click about.

Thanks to all of those who commented and to our guest posters, Pallas, Jonathan Newman, and Alan Benard. And thanks especially to Caro for inspiring the whole thing with her interview of Nina Paley — and to Paley herself. You can find the whole roundtable here.

Sunday Funnies

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To wrap up the roundtable, some Nina Paley cartoons. The full run of Fluff and a selection of more Nina’s Adventures, along with other cartoons, interviews, and miscellaneous materials related to Sita Sings the Blues, are available at the Internet Archive.

Click through the thumbnails below to read.

“Art vs. Commerce” from Nina’s Adventures

“Sheep Reincarnation” from Nina’s Adventures

“Urbana, Illinois vs Santa Cruz” from Nina’s Adventures

“That Little Weasel!” from Nina’s Adventures

Empire of the Godzillas from the Daily Illini (c. 1983, University of Illinois Student Newspaper)

Godzilla PDF

___________

Update: You can read the whole roundtable on copyright here. Despite Caro’s promise that this is it, we’ll actually have one more post on the topic tomorrow….

Utilitarian Review 3/13/10

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On HU

This week was devoted to our (still ongoing) roundtable on copyright.

Utilitarians Everywhere

At Comixology I talked about Steven Grant’s Punisher series, Circle of Blood and the connection between super-heroes and noir.

From the neck up, though, the Punisher isn’t hyper-competent at all. Instead, he’s more like the classic noir dupe. Though he has a certain tactical animal cunning, his inner monologue is obsessively repetitive in a way that suggests borderline idiocy — where Batman’s traumatic backstory has, supposedly, made him smarter, the Punisher’s has left him, in Grant’s writing, a monomaniacal mental and emotional basket-case. The Punisher is, like most noir men, childishly easy to fool. He stumbles into traps, is bamboozled by a shady conglomerate called the Trust, and, inevitably, betrayed by a woman. His solve-it-by-shooting-it approach to every problem results in heaps of dead bodies, including that of one child. Said child’s death sends our hero into a self-pitying funk, complete with flashbacks and profound utterances (“It’s got to stop. The poor children.”) which, at least from my perspective, makes him appear more damaged, dangerous, unsympathetic, and unheroic than ever.

On tcj.com I reviewed Fumi Yoshinaga’s All My Darling Daughters.

At Madeloud I interviewed Best Music Writing series editor Daphne Carr: Part 1; Part 2.

Also at Madeloud I reviewed Priestess’ prog metal opus, Prior to the Fire.

Other Links
Dirk kicks ass.

Jason Thompson on incest in manga.

Tucker argues that illegal downloading is bad because it betrays the can-do rapacious imperialism of our forefathers.

And Tucker also pointed me to this article about why contemporary poets should just go ahead and die already.

And here’s a long, academic, and pretty fascinating article about yaoi and homophobia.

Copyright for Middle Brow Snobs (Or, Worst. Mashup. Ever.)

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I’ve been a little obsessed with mashups recently, so I thought in honor of our free culture roundtable, I’d try making one of my own. Of course:

— I can’t beat match,

—my only software is Garage Band

—which I don’t know how to use,

— I’m a Paid Music Critic

— which means I have the musical eptitude of a lightly lobotomized bag of hammers.

These factors might deter others…but hell, Nina Paley’s got me all gung ho on niche markets, so I figure somewhere out there there’s a vital fanbase that wants to hear Beyonce incompetently combined with Australian female doom metal. No doubt there are LiveJournal groups and message boards and lord knows what else, right?

Right?

In any case, without further ado, here is Single Plague, in which Beyonce battles Murkrat, with a brief cameo by the Carter Family. Download it and weep.

For a discussion of real mashups and a list of some of the best, try this list and discussion by Alan Benard.

Put ’em together and what have you got?

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Noah kindly asked me to list some of the mash-ups we like to listen to over at Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k) and Newswire as part of the copyright roundtable. This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive history, nor an exhaustive list, nor anything more than some of the form’s developmental high-water marks cribbed from Wikipedia’s Bastard Pop article and our personal preferences.

There was a time when mashups and audio art required relatively expensive and rare control rooms, a razor blade to cut recording tape montages together, and multi-track machines to lay them over one another. Frank Zappa borrowed from Edgard Varese‘s musique concrete. John Oswald examined the power of rock ‘n roll and preaching — later he would prove a dab hand at deconstructing a king’s pop.

In the digital age, the means of audio production became cheaper and more accessible with each passing year. By the late 1980s, hip-hop artists looped and dropped samples into their tracks with little difficulty, producing masterworks: De La Soul’s Three Feet High and Rising, Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet, and Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique. But the constant roar of James Brown’s repeated screams came to a halt in a shitstorm of lawyers and bills for sampling rights.

Click to play video: Negativland – U2
 
Negativland’s struggles defending the U2 sound-collage EP from the band U2 itself and its label define the difficult intersection of art and commerce, fair-use and copyright, parody and trademark. Happily, everyone involved eventually got over it.

Turns out that, if you are going to do this thing legit and clear the samples (and make money), you end up with weak raps over one monotonous bit of a song performed by one of music’s least-deserving billionaires. Goofy and tame sci-fi football chants also perch atop the charts. The worthwhile and entertaining experiments in laying bits of songs over one another have mostly moved underground.

Here is the promised list of mashups we think you might enjoy.

Now that the form, post-Danger Mouse, has solidified, mashups are mutating. Poor Mojo editor Morgan Johnson asked me to add, and this is apropos the final selection: “Honestly, with the whole remix culture thing, the line between remix and mashup has become terribly thin. Look at the Popular tab on Hype Machine, usually 50% of this most downloaded or listened to songs are remix/mashups.”