New Crowdfunded Graphic Novel Depicts the 1967 Herbert Schirmer Abduction
I got an early Christmas present last year: a package from Los Angeles cartoonist Mike Jasorka. Inside was the fruit of his efforts and my $20 Kickstarter pledge: December 3rd 1967: An Alien Encounter, a graphic novelisation of the strange case of Herbert Schirmer, a Nebraska state patrolman who claims to have been taken aboard an alien spacecraft.
I commend it to all wrong-thinking disinfonauts everywhere, for several reasons, but mostly aesthetic. The black and white panels occasionally splashed with dramatic colour ensures that the 50+ page book is a visually compelling artefact.
It also arrives with a CD, a word for word adaptation from the found audio of Schirmer at a 1970’s UFO conference in Florida, making it simultaneously an aural event (surely a first for a graphic novel, but fanboys will no doubt correct me). Finally, there’s the story: of Schirmer’s childhood upbringing that leads him to become a police officer, what happened that very night on duty and why even after countless ridicule, he stuck next to the unbelievable truth. Herbert’s heart-felt story speaks of his childhood upbringing that leads him to become a police officer, what happened that very night on duty and why even after countless ridicule, he stuck next to the unbelievable truth …
Alan Moore Reacts to Frank Miller’s OccupyWallStreet Rant
A response to Frank’s Miller OWS rant found on Bleeding Cool, originally on Honest Publishing. Says Alan:
“Well, Frank Miller is someone whose work I’ve barely looked at for the past twenty years. I thought the Sin City stuff was unreconstructed misogyny, 300 appeared to be wildly ahistoric, homophobic and just completely misguided. I think that there has probably been a rather unpleasant sensibility apparent in Frank Miller’s work for quite a long time. Since I don’t have anything to do with the comics industry, I don’t have anything to do with the people in it. I heard about the latest outpourings regarding the Occupy movement. It’s about what I’d expect from him. It’s always seemed to me that the majority of the comics field, if you had to place them politically, you’d have to say centre-right. That would be as far towards the liberal end of the spectrum as they would go. I’ve…
Frank Miller (Comic Book Legend) Slams the Occupy Movement
Well, he is responsible for the “Goddamn Batman” after all … Says Frank:
Everybody’s been too damn polite about this nonsense:
The “Occupy” movement, whether displaying itself on Wall Street or in the streets of Oakland (which has, with unspeakable cowardice, embraced it) is anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment. “Occupy” is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness. These clowns can do nothing but harm America.
“Occupy” is nothing short of a clumsy, poorly-expressed attempt at anarchy, to the extent that the “movement” – HAH! Some “movement”, except if the word “bowel” is attached – is anything more than an ugly fashion statement by a bunch of iPhone, iPad wielding spoiled brats who should stop getting in the way of working people and find jobs for themselves.
This is no popular uprising. This is garbage. And goodness…
Batman Arrested On Rooftop In Michigan
So often, real-life superhero-ing goes terribly, terribly awry. WDIV Detroit reports on a bizarre arrest — the photo below is the actual suspect in question:
A 31-year-old man dressed as the comic book character was arrested Wednesday in Petoskey after he was seen hanging from the wall of a downtown business on East Mitchell Street. The Petoskey Department of Public Safety said officers pulled the man back onto the roof and found a baton type striking weapon, a can of chemical irritant spray, and a pair of lead lined gloves.
The suspect, a Harbor Springs resident, was arrested for trespassing and possession of dangerous weapons. He is being kept in the Emmet County Jail.
Charlie Sheen Quotes Presented By Superheroes
Well, we discovered this week Charlie Sheen does have a superpower: getting a million Twitter followers in 25 hours. If you’d like to take a break from the serious news of the week, very funny post from Laura Hudson on Comics Alliance:
Earlier this week, we decided that the only way to deal with the exploding celebrity Death Star that is Charlie Sheen was to take his spectacularly hubristic comments and put them in the mouths of superheroes, with the help of Chris Haley and Curt Franklin of the webcomic Let’s Be Friends Again.
You, the readers, told us that the six measly pieces of original art where your favorite Marvel and DC characters reiterate the philosophical jewels of the only celebrity whose veins pump pure tiger blood was simply not enough, and we have heard your demands.
Update: Actually Sheen may be trying to use his new-found superpower for good, the Hollywood Reporter is claiming he’s going to Haiti with Sean Penn.
Real-Life Superhero Prevents Seattle Carjacking
A dorky but effective way to fight crime? A Seattle-area man was being carjacked when a local “superhero” named Phoenix Jones intervened to chase off the criminal. Jones is a part of a crime-fighting unit called the Rain City Superheros and keeps his true identity hidden, transforming into his alter-ego each night in the back of a comic store.
Holy Bat-Internets! The Batcave’s Been Discovered in Okinawa Using Google Maps!
Holy Bat-Internets! Many thanks to the intrepid reporting by Cyriaque Lamar on io9.com. (Possibly a new Bat-Ally?) At least we are closer to determining the new villain in the anticipated sequel to The Dark Knight.
It’s that vile Searchmaster known as … The GOOGLER! Cyriaque Lamar writes on io9.com.
Batman’s secret hideout has been discovered using the magic of the internet, and surprisingly it’s not under Wayne Manor. No, it’s located on a US military base in Okinawa. Who’d have thunk?
Why does this building sport the Batman insignia? Says one Reddit user, “There are two squadrons of [F15s] here on Okinawa, the bats, which sport blue tail flashes, and the cocks, which sport red tail flashes.” That sounds perfectly logical. Perhaps a little too logical. I’m inclined to believe that that hangar hides a device more along these lines…
Terrorist Comic Book Character To Teach Children
Ali Imron
Will scaring children with colorful drawings teach them a lesson about terrorist recruits? From BBC news:
The only surviving perpetrator of Indonesia’s deadliest terrorist attack, Ali Imron, is an unlikely comic book subject.
But the story of his journey from young Muslim to convicted terrorist has been chronicled in a new comic book.
Some 10,000 copies of Ketika Nurani Bicara, or When the Conscience Speaks, will be circulated in schools and libraries from next month, in an attempt to warn the country’s youth of the dangers of Islamic extremism.
Ali Imron is currently serving a life sentence for his role in the bombing of the popular resort of Bali that killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.
He escaped the death sentence because he repeatedly expressed remorse, and co-operated with police.
“From the time I was instructed to bring the bomb… there was already doubt in my heart. Is this really jihad?” he said at…
Mom Claims Her Son Is In ‘Extensive Therapy’ After Viewing Manga in the Library
Brian Hughes writes in the Northwest Florida Daily News:
A Japanese serial graphic novel genre popular with young teens has raised the ire of a Crestview mother whose teenage son got hold of an adult version of the genre from the Crestview Public Library. “Manga” depicts highly stylized adventure and, occasionally, violence in fantasy settings.
Margaret Barbaree, founder of a citizens’ group called Protect Our Children, presented examples from a manga book to the Crestview City Council last week that she described as “graphic” and “shocking,” taken from material she said is “available to children” at the Crestview Public Library.
“My son lost his mind when he found this,” Barbaree said of the manga book from which her examples were taken. She said her son had removed the book unsupervised from the library’s general stacks last summer and put it in his backpack. She has kept it ever since.
“Now he’s in a home…
Holy DARPA, Batman! Pentagon’s BaTMAN and RoBIN Projects Attempt to Master Biology
Who knew that reading comic books or watching the classic ’60s Batman TV show would lead to this? Katie Drummond writes in WIRED’s Danger Room:
The Pentagon’s blue-sky research arm has outdone itself this time. Darpa’s got two new projects that are ambitious in scope, even by their standards. So maybe that explains why the agency opted to enlist some awesomely bad superhero acronyms to characterize the way-out endeavors.
At least, that’s the best explanation Danger Room can come up with. Because it’s tough to see a connection between the fundamental nature of time, biological design … and Gotham City’s Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder.
Leave it up to the prodigious acronym artists at the Pentagon — responsible for gems like RESURRECT, NIRVANA and DUDE — to go for it anyway. Darpa’s launching Biochronicity and Temporal Mechanisms Arising in Nature (BaTMAN), in an effort to better understand “the spatio-temporal universe,” and, from there, “transform…
Classic Disney Comics: Mickey Mouse Sells Amphetamine In Africa
From the vaults, the 1951 Disney comic book Mickey Mouse and the Medicine Man, about Mickey and Goofy as drug pushers in Africa.
Chris Ware’s Rejected Cover For Fortune Magazine
Acclaimed-genius comic book artist Chris Ware was commissioned to do the cover for capitalist magazine Fortune’s iconic “Fortune 500″ issue (a list of the 500 top companies). Media Bistro reports that the finished result was rejected; upon inspection with a magnifying glass, it’s easy to see why.
Viewing the hi-res version reveals a multitude of subversive tiny figures including CEO’s dancing a jig on top of the number “500,” China dumping money into the ocean, houses sinking nearby, orange-clad Guantanamo prisoners, and Mexican workers sitting in a “Fabrica de Exploitacion” center. It was all a bit too much for Fortune to handle.
‘Our Gods Wear Spandex’ Author Christopher Knowles on The Black Fridays
The Black Fridays — Episode 11: Christoper Knowles
Website • iTunes • Direct Download • RSS
CHRISTOPHER KNOWLES is on the show! We had an awesome time speaking with Chris on this episode. We talk about his Eagle Award winning book, Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes, about the symbolism in Torchwood: Children of Earth, and about how ancient symbols permeate our modern day culture.
Chris also gave us an inside look into his newest project, The Secret History of Rock ‘n Roll.
You can (and must) check out more about Chris at his blog at www.secretsun.blogspot.com.
Hypersigils Reconsidered
Via Technoccult:
I’ve been thinking recently about Grant Morrison’s “hypersigil” concept, but considering as not an occult/magical practice, but as as a cybernetic phenomena. [...]
The way I see it, the online persona, fictional self, or avatar one creates can create feedback loops to reinforce behaviors and perceptions and have a create significant “real world” changes in a person’s life over time.
In the case of Grant Morrison, he was also shaping his persona in the letters column of The Invisibles, in interviews he gave, and his public persona at comic conventions.
