Here ye, here ye! Gather round, for it's that time of the year that hasn't ever occurred before. It's the First Annual Bouffant Productions Awards!
Best Show of the Year
Runners Up
- Game of Thrones
- House of Cards
- The Walking Dead
And the Winner is...
Breaking Bad
Yes it comes as no surprise that Breaking Bad won. But the swan song of Walter White deserved to win with the most astonishing episode of television this millennium, Ozymandias. The Walking Dead was a fantastic first half of season 4, and I look forward to the next half next year. IT was unsurprising how great Game of Thrones was, but it also had the very depressing Red Wedding, and so I always find it hard to re-watch a series when one episode is so depressing (see Dexter's finale season).
Worth A Mention
- House of Cards
Netflix's political drama was not something I ever expected to watch, but from it's very first scene I was hooked. If American politics isn't your cup of tea, do it for Kevin Spacey's southern accent and ruthless determination.
Best Film of the Year
Runners Up
- Star Trek Into Darkness
- Monsters University
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
And the Winner is...
Gravity
Probably another no-brainer, but watching Gravity up on the big screen in 3d was definitely the greatest cinema experience of the year. Whilst it might not hold the same weight on the small 2d screen, it will always hold the number 1 spot for me for 2013.
Worth A Mention
- Fast and Furious 6
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Fast and Furious franchise is great. The stories are simple, the acting isn't going to win any oscars, but god damn are those films fun. And with Paul Walker's death, I think he deserves this.
Best Game of the Year
Runners Up
- Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
- GTA V
- Tomb Raider
And the Winner is...
The Last of Us
Never before have I spent so long wandering round and admiring the scenery in such a linear game. The Last of Us has an unparalleled level of brilliance, even with GTA V, I just found myself so much more immersed in The Last of Us's world. Congratulations Naughty Dog, you once again did a brilliant job!
Worth a Mention
- The Wolf Among Us
Telltale proved with The Wolf Among Us that they have found the same art to storytelling that Naughty Dog found with Uncharted and The Last of Us. I decided to mention TWAU over The Walking Dead season 2 because everyone knew that WD would be great, but no one knew if TWAU would carry that same level of power.
Best Song of the Year
(with this award, things will be a little different. I'm going to pick the song of the year that I came across this year, regardless of whether it came out this year or not.)
Runners Up
- 1977 by Ana Tijoux
- Bang Bang by Will I Am
- Not Your Kind of People by Garbage
And the Winner is...
Kiss of Fire by Hugh Laurie and the Copperbottom Band
Hugh Laurie is not the sort of man that most would think of as a musician, but by God can he play! Having had the good fortune to see him play twice now (the first at his very first show in London in an old church and getting the opportunity to sit 3 foot away from him) I can honestly say he puts on one hell of a show.
Worth a Mention
- Odds Are by Barenaked Ladies
I'm recommending this song, because I was in the music video! When I went to visit Rooster Teeth in 2011 for the very first RTX, we shot a video where we all dressed up as zombies and advanced on Geoff and Gus, and when Barenaked Ladies asked Rooster Teeth to shoot their music video, they reused the footage! Plus its a really cheerful and catchy song.
Best Book of the Year
(again with this one, I don't tend to read current books, so it's whatever book I read this year that I enjoyed)
Runners Up
- Batman: Year One by Frank Miller
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
- A Storm of Swords by George R R Martin
And the Winner is...
Never Go Back by Lee Child
Plain and Simple, because I love Lee Child books. Jack Reacher is freaking awesome!
Worth a Mention
-The Masque of Anarchy by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Yeah its a poem, but it's the best poem I've ever read. So go read it.
And that wraps up this years Bouffant Productions Awards. Congratulations to all that were nominated. Hope you all strive to be even better in 2014.
And to all my readers, have a great New Year and I'll see you in 2014.
Saturday 28 December 2013
Saturday 21 December 2013
Finale
Spoiler warning, I'm going to be talking about Homeland and some other shows, but not just yet.
December has a funny way of making you reflect on life, I mean, just because it's the final month of the year, it shouldn't really hold any great value for retrospective. But it does, and I always find myself looking back over the years accomplishments and failures, which in turn usually leads to me summing the year up by one positive or negative factor. 2008 saw me getting a good job, starting university, and turning 18, but it also saw me getting dumped in January, and so now I always think of 2008 as a bad year, when if I think about it, it held many more positive memories than most years.
So when I turn my gaze back over 2013, I foremost find myself thinking that I never really got the hang of writing 2013 down. It may sound foolish to most people, but I thought that if I mocked the whole "mayan 2012 doomsday" thing, then life would go about enacting it out of spite towards me. So for a few years, I didn't know if I would make it to 2013, and now that we've come to the end of it, I never really thought it would happen.
But more importantly, I find myself thinking that 2013 has been quite a waste. Even though I've written and illustrated a graphic novel (which I promise is still finding it's way into the public), worked my way through a Masters degree, and got myself a job I genuinely enjoy everyday, I still think of the year on a whole as a let down. I feel like I haven't taken the chance to properly squeeze this year for what it was worth, perhaps because there have been more than a handful of negative moments peppered throughout the year, and I just can't take my mind off them, or perhaps its another sign that I'm becoming a different person. In July I wrote down a list of 10 things I wanted to do in the next year, and I planned to make at least half of them a reality. So far I have crossed off 2 of them; get a job and make new friends. Frankly I didn't expect to cross that second one off so soon, or at all, but I guess that I have my job to thank for that. I know I work with some truly bizarre and wonderful people, and I'm really happy to have met all of them. Some of the things on my list I know won't happen. Number 6's "Live in York or somewhere nice" I know can't happen if I still want to work in my current job, with it's apprentice wage I can't afford to spend the money I make renting somewhere. But I knew I wouldn't get all of them done, and that is the magic of it. Whilst most people make their yearly resolutions in the December/January period, I didn't want to be stuck with that constant reminder every time I saw a calendar, and I didn't want to get to next December and think about all the stuff I didn't manage to do... which I'm actually doing now anyway, so maybe I need to tweak the system a little.
But I'm a silver-linings kind of guy. If I'm feeling down now, then I want to use this memory as an example in the new year that by December 2014 I will be on my way to the person I want to be. The moments I spend doing things that aren't taking advantage of my full potential will be the moments I purge from 2014 me, then by 2015 I'll be able to look back at this year as the year I corrected my course. I want to be able to look back at the things I don't like about myself, like the fear I feel when an opportunity presents itself, and be relieved that I overcame that. I want to Carpe that Diem right in the face!
Anyway, I did say I would talk about Homeland, and I've been psyching myself up all week to talk about this, so here goes. (Spoilers ahead Cap'n!)
The finale of season 3 of Homeland aired last sunday, and if I hadn't already been told that they were commissioned for a fourth season, I might have come away happier. I wasn't angered that Brody was hanged in the Middle East in front of the mother of his unborn baby, to be honest it was the only real ending he could have had. When his name was picked out of the raffle of life, Brody got a shitty deal, and whilst everything he did in season 1 was done out of manufactured, misguided love to a terrorist's child's death, there wasn't really any kind of redemption that would allow him to walk the streets of America as an innocent man. He had to die, I understand that, I accept that, but knowing that season 4 is going to continue a story that revolved around him just seems wrong. Sure, the first half of the season did a pretty good job at showing a world without Brody, but that was only because everyone was sat on the edge of their seat waiting to see how Saul and Carrie would end up crossing paths with him in the future. To continue the story with him dead would just seem fractured.
I mean, they could always do the old classic "he didn't die really" in the first few episodes of the next season, but I feel like Game of Thrones has bullied all the other shows into packing that in. Either you kill your characters off for good, or you're a pussy! But sometimes that's what we need from a show. We watch these programs to escape from our lives, same with gaming or reading books, we need to experience something other than the lives we were given. But does that mean we have to be tied to the same shitty circumstances that keep our real lives in line? We loved Brody, we knew he was fucked up from all the crap he went through, but he was the reason we watched. Carrie had her suspicions, and we watched to see whether she was right or wrong, and that has been the defining quality of the show. Even in the penultimate episode of season 3, no one could be sure that Brody hadn't decided to shun his homeland and just stick with the people who had welcomed him in with open arms. I don't know what the show would be without that, and I imagine a lot of people will feel the same way.
So maybe Brody will make a return to our screens next September, until then we have Sherlock on new years day, Game of Thrones next spring, hopefully the new series of 24 sometime in the summer/autumn, and the finale of How I Met Your Mother in March. Maybe I will have the time to watch these shows in-between my new uber-productive life.
Have a great christmas guys, I might try and make another post before next year, but if not then I hope we all make 2014 the best damn year ever!
Toodle Pip!
December has a funny way of making you reflect on life, I mean, just because it's the final month of the year, it shouldn't really hold any great value for retrospective. But it does, and I always find myself looking back over the years accomplishments and failures, which in turn usually leads to me summing the year up by one positive or negative factor. 2008 saw me getting a good job, starting university, and turning 18, but it also saw me getting dumped in January, and so now I always think of 2008 as a bad year, when if I think about it, it held many more positive memories than most years.
So when I turn my gaze back over 2013, I foremost find myself thinking that I never really got the hang of writing 2013 down. It may sound foolish to most people, but I thought that if I mocked the whole "mayan 2012 doomsday" thing, then life would go about enacting it out of spite towards me. So for a few years, I didn't know if I would make it to 2013, and now that we've come to the end of it, I never really thought it would happen.
But more importantly, I find myself thinking that 2013 has been quite a waste. Even though I've written and illustrated a graphic novel (which I promise is still finding it's way into the public), worked my way through a Masters degree, and got myself a job I genuinely enjoy everyday, I still think of the year on a whole as a let down. I feel like I haven't taken the chance to properly squeeze this year for what it was worth, perhaps because there have been more than a handful of negative moments peppered throughout the year, and I just can't take my mind off them, or perhaps its another sign that I'm becoming a different person. In July I wrote down a list of 10 things I wanted to do in the next year, and I planned to make at least half of them a reality. So far I have crossed off 2 of them; get a job and make new friends. Frankly I didn't expect to cross that second one off so soon, or at all, but I guess that I have my job to thank for that. I know I work with some truly bizarre and wonderful people, and I'm really happy to have met all of them. Some of the things on my list I know won't happen. Number 6's "Live in York or somewhere nice" I know can't happen if I still want to work in my current job, with it's apprentice wage I can't afford to spend the money I make renting somewhere. But I knew I wouldn't get all of them done, and that is the magic of it. Whilst most people make their yearly resolutions in the December/January period, I didn't want to be stuck with that constant reminder every time I saw a calendar, and I didn't want to get to next December and think about all the stuff I didn't manage to do... which I'm actually doing now anyway, so maybe I need to tweak the system a little.
But I'm a silver-linings kind of guy. If I'm feeling down now, then I want to use this memory as an example in the new year that by December 2014 I will be on my way to the person I want to be. The moments I spend doing things that aren't taking advantage of my full potential will be the moments I purge from 2014 me, then by 2015 I'll be able to look back at this year as the year I corrected my course. I want to be able to look back at the things I don't like about myself, like the fear I feel when an opportunity presents itself, and be relieved that I overcame that. I want to Carpe that Diem right in the face!
Anyway, I did say I would talk about Homeland, and I've been psyching myself up all week to talk about this, so here goes. (Spoilers ahead Cap'n!)
The finale of season 3 of Homeland aired last sunday, and if I hadn't already been told that they were commissioned for a fourth season, I might have come away happier. I wasn't angered that Brody was hanged in the Middle East in front of the mother of his unborn baby, to be honest it was the only real ending he could have had. When his name was picked out of the raffle of life, Brody got a shitty deal, and whilst everything he did in season 1 was done out of manufactured, misguided love to a terrorist's child's death, there wasn't really any kind of redemption that would allow him to walk the streets of America as an innocent man. He had to die, I understand that, I accept that, but knowing that season 4 is going to continue a story that revolved around him just seems wrong. Sure, the first half of the season did a pretty good job at showing a world without Brody, but that was only because everyone was sat on the edge of their seat waiting to see how Saul and Carrie would end up crossing paths with him in the future. To continue the story with him dead would just seem fractured.
I mean, they could always do the old classic "he didn't die really" in the first few episodes of the next season, but I feel like Game of Thrones has bullied all the other shows into packing that in. Either you kill your characters off for good, or you're a pussy! But sometimes that's what we need from a show. We watch these programs to escape from our lives, same with gaming or reading books, we need to experience something other than the lives we were given. But does that mean we have to be tied to the same shitty circumstances that keep our real lives in line? We loved Brody, we knew he was fucked up from all the crap he went through, but he was the reason we watched. Carrie had her suspicions, and we watched to see whether she was right or wrong, and that has been the defining quality of the show. Even in the penultimate episode of season 3, no one could be sure that Brody hadn't decided to shun his homeland and just stick with the people who had welcomed him in with open arms. I don't know what the show would be without that, and I imagine a lot of people will feel the same way.
So maybe Brody will make a return to our screens next September, until then we have Sherlock on new years day, Game of Thrones next spring, hopefully the new series of 24 sometime in the summer/autumn, and the finale of How I Met Your Mother in March. Maybe I will have the time to watch these shows in-between my new uber-productive life.
Have a great christmas guys, I might try and make another post before next year, but if not then I hope we all make 2014 the best damn year ever!
Toodle Pip!
Sunday 1 December 2013
Paul Walker
It is with grave news that I come here today. Paul Walker, actor from the Fast and Furious franchise, died yesterday. I don't know why I felt the need to write something about an actor whose only role I have watched is a series of fast car films. It saddens me to know that because he died in a car crash, the bastards of the internet will go to town with stupid FF jokes, when really we all should remember the man for all his achievements. The FF films were never going to win any awards, but it was because of that that I loved them. They were cheesy and predictable and easy, but they were enjoyable and fun. I built friendships from my love of these films, and they helped more than once to cheer me up in difficult times. The Fast and Furious franchise has had a tendency in the past to mix and match it's main protagonists, and for that I believe they will be able to move on past Walker's untimely demise, but part of the magic will be gone too. I will miss the FBI-turned-streetracer, and I wonder how they will handle his death. But even if they simply decide to scrap the 7th film, I will be happy, because Paul and his friends picked me up when times were hard, they made me happier than most films could dare to dream.
Goodbye Paul Walker. You shall be missed
Goodbye Paul Walker. You shall be missed
Saturday 16 November 2013
Life, the Universe and Everything
I know, I know, I keep promising regularity to this blog and then leaving it dead in the wind for weeks at a time. All I can say is that my life has changed a lot recently, and it's because of that that I haven't had as much time for the things I need to start focusing a little more on.
When I look back on my life, I tend to categorise every year into some sort of theme. The last 3 years have been the Manchester Trilogy (3 academic years I should say, although that goes against what I just said, but its the categorising part that's important), 2008 was the year of moving forward. 2010 was the year I realised that life can flip itself upside-down without a moments notice. And this year, well I don't really know what I'm calling this year.
In some respects this year has been one of the most important years of my life, bringing with it massive changes some of which I hadn't expected, but strangely its those massive changes that have brought my life back towards what it used to be like 4 years ago. I feel more and more like the Manchester Trilogy was a chance for me to take a hiatus from life. I mean, whilst I did get stuff done (a Masters degree for one), I didn't really have many responsibilities or goals. That's not to say it wasn't worth it, some of the best moments of my life happened during that time, and I wouldn't want to change those for anything. But now I'm working in a job that I honestly love, with people who are brilliant and insane and fucking ace, but I'm in a job designed for people much younger than myself. I crave for the next part of life to be upon me, I want the job, the house, the girlfriend/wife, and it somewhat dampens the joy of work when I know that what I seek is still years away. As an apprentice, I'm making less than £100 a week, it's not even enough to move out and live with friends, at least not with any hope of affording food as well. It kind of sucks to think that if a better paid job came along, I'd probably have to just go for that instead. But I guess thats what I get for stepping away from life for 3 years, I have to pick up where I left off. Like I said though, I'm glad I did it, when I found out I had diabetes in 2010, I didn't know what I was going to do, so I decided to take every day as it comes, no planning ahead, no worrying about the future. At the time it was the right decision for me, it gave me the chance to just relax a little and do what I wanted to do, which was get drunk a lot and play video games. But in the final months of my last relationship, it became ever more apparent to me and her that I needed to get back to normality, and whilst that didn't come in time to save our relationship, I'm glad to be able to start afresh. Unfortunately, our friendship didn't last, which is unsurprising as going from lovers to friends isn't that straightforward, and whilst she probably hates me right now, I'm glad to know that she is ok and getting on with her life. Just like I needed to put more focus on myself, and that just wasn't possible with her in my life. If she is out there reading this, then I hope she doesn't take offence to that.
As for the girlfriend part of my big plan, I don't really know what to do. Enough time has passed now that I'm ready for someone new, I think my life has started to stabilise a lot more than it was a few months ago, but I don't really know how to go about it. I wouldn't ever class myself as a shy person, I just properly suck at the whole "conversation" part. Whenever I'm talking to someone I don't know too well, I end up drawing a blank on what to say. My mind will be telling me to talk about what I know, but I know a lot about American sitcoms, video games, and drinking, and I know that half of the stuff I would say would bore the shit out of them. And thats just when it comes to conversation, I'm clueless when it comes to picking up women. Theres a girl at work that I'm quite into, but I have no idea how to approach the situation, or even if I should. People always say "don't shit where you eat", and I wouldn't want to screw the situation up at work. But then some other less educated people like to scream YOLO as they get arrested, so who the fuck knows what the right course of action is.
Going back to work, I've been there for almost a month, and already I've got some interesting things on the horizon. For a business admin role, I've been tasked with making a live action comic book video to detail what we do in our part of the company for our 10th anniversary company meeting in January. It's gonna completely take over my life, but if I do a good enough job, maybe they'll consider that bit more about keeping me on when my apprenticeship runs out. As it stands right now, I want to either stick with this company for the foreseeable future (getting paid more hopefully) or I want to move to York with my friends. If the outcome is the former, then great, I'd love to keep working there. If it's the latter, then I'd want to know that I'm going to walk into a new job as soon as I get there, lest the whole experience turn into another Manchester scenario, and my liver would thank me greatly if that wasn't the case.
Anyway, talk over. Like I keep saying, this is a blog about me, I needed to write this. Perhaps next time I'll talk about the epic Assassin's Creed 4 ship battle I had against 3 Man of War ships in the middle of a storm. Maybe I'll go into depth about this little crush of mine at work (although not if anyone from work reads this). I don't know what it is people seek from my blog, I'd suggest leaving a comment if there was something you found more interesting, but I'm still surprised to see the hit counter on here going up between my updates. It appears someone out there is reading, so if that person is you, then feel free to leave me a comment. Say hi, or tell me to go fuck myself, or something in between.
Toodle pip for now m'dears!
When I look back on my life, I tend to categorise every year into some sort of theme. The last 3 years have been the Manchester Trilogy (3 academic years I should say, although that goes against what I just said, but its the categorising part that's important), 2008 was the year of moving forward. 2010 was the year I realised that life can flip itself upside-down without a moments notice. And this year, well I don't really know what I'm calling this year.
In some respects this year has been one of the most important years of my life, bringing with it massive changes some of which I hadn't expected, but strangely its those massive changes that have brought my life back towards what it used to be like 4 years ago. I feel more and more like the Manchester Trilogy was a chance for me to take a hiatus from life. I mean, whilst I did get stuff done (a Masters degree for one), I didn't really have many responsibilities or goals. That's not to say it wasn't worth it, some of the best moments of my life happened during that time, and I wouldn't want to change those for anything. But now I'm working in a job that I honestly love, with people who are brilliant and insane and fucking ace, but I'm in a job designed for people much younger than myself. I crave for the next part of life to be upon me, I want the job, the house, the girlfriend/wife, and it somewhat dampens the joy of work when I know that what I seek is still years away. As an apprentice, I'm making less than £100 a week, it's not even enough to move out and live with friends, at least not with any hope of affording food as well. It kind of sucks to think that if a better paid job came along, I'd probably have to just go for that instead. But I guess thats what I get for stepping away from life for 3 years, I have to pick up where I left off. Like I said though, I'm glad I did it, when I found out I had diabetes in 2010, I didn't know what I was going to do, so I decided to take every day as it comes, no planning ahead, no worrying about the future. At the time it was the right decision for me, it gave me the chance to just relax a little and do what I wanted to do, which was get drunk a lot and play video games. But in the final months of my last relationship, it became ever more apparent to me and her that I needed to get back to normality, and whilst that didn't come in time to save our relationship, I'm glad to be able to start afresh. Unfortunately, our friendship didn't last, which is unsurprising as going from lovers to friends isn't that straightforward, and whilst she probably hates me right now, I'm glad to know that she is ok and getting on with her life. Just like I needed to put more focus on myself, and that just wasn't possible with her in my life. If she is out there reading this, then I hope she doesn't take offence to that.
As for the girlfriend part of my big plan, I don't really know what to do. Enough time has passed now that I'm ready for someone new, I think my life has started to stabilise a lot more than it was a few months ago, but I don't really know how to go about it. I wouldn't ever class myself as a shy person, I just properly suck at the whole "conversation" part. Whenever I'm talking to someone I don't know too well, I end up drawing a blank on what to say. My mind will be telling me to talk about what I know, but I know a lot about American sitcoms, video games, and drinking, and I know that half of the stuff I would say would bore the shit out of them. And thats just when it comes to conversation, I'm clueless when it comes to picking up women. Theres a girl at work that I'm quite into, but I have no idea how to approach the situation, or even if I should. People always say "don't shit where you eat", and I wouldn't want to screw the situation up at work. But then some other less educated people like to scream YOLO as they get arrested, so who the fuck knows what the right course of action is.
Going back to work, I've been there for almost a month, and already I've got some interesting things on the horizon. For a business admin role, I've been tasked with making a live action comic book video to detail what we do in our part of the company for our 10th anniversary company meeting in January. It's gonna completely take over my life, but if I do a good enough job, maybe they'll consider that bit more about keeping me on when my apprenticeship runs out. As it stands right now, I want to either stick with this company for the foreseeable future (getting paid more hopefully) or I want to move to York with my friends. If the outcome is the former, then great, I'd love to keep working there. If it's the latter, then I'd want to know that I'm going to walk into a new job as soon as I get there, lest the whole experience turn into another Manchester scenario, and my liver would thank me greatly if that wasn't the case.
Anyway, talk over. Like I keep saying, this is a blog about me, I needed to write this. Perhaps next time I'll talk about the epic Assassin's Creed 4 ship battle I had against 3 Man of War ships in the middle of a storm. Maybe I'll go into depth about this little crush of mine at work (although not if anyone from work reads this). I don't know what it is people seek from my blog, I'd suggest leaving a comment if there was something you found more interesting, but I'm still surprised to see the hit counter on here going up between my updates. It appears someone out there is reading, so if that person is you, then feel free to leave me a comment. Say hi, or tell me to go fuck myself, or something in between.
Toodle pip for now m'dears!
Monday 14 October 2013
Remix
This isn't a big update (as you can probably already tell), but I came across this remix of one of the songs from Final Fantasy 7 (one of my favourite games of all time) and I've had it on repeat for most of today. So I thought it best to sharey sharerson with you guys. It's by a chap called Evil Needle, whilst his name may fill your pants with mess, his music is very chilled. It's great to listen to if you're just getting on with work, I've been listening to more of his stuff whilst I continued to work on some of my drawings.
CLICKEDY HERE
CLICKEDY HERE
Friday 11 October 2013
Good times!
So yeah, I think it's safe to say that I'm pretty terrible at remembering to update this frequently.
However, that should be about to change. You see, I am a creature of habit, I need a routine in my life to keep the equilibrium happy. Whilst I was working on my graphic novel (more on that soon) I had a routine, get up at 9, work all day, then get drunk and sleep. Then I finished working on it and needed to find a job.
Well, on wednesday I got offered an apprenticeship! So on the 21st I start work!
I've been putting a lot of things off until I had a job, such as exercise and writing on a day to day basis. It was quite a feeble excuse, but I wanted to have my routine set before I started adding these things into my life, and now that I have the job, I want to get back into getting my shit together. That includes updating this blog with whatever I want to talk about.
Today I got the results for my graphic novel, Second Solace, from my Master's tutor. So now the next step is to do a couple of tweaks to it over the next week before I start work, and then get it thrown into as many publishers faces as I possibly can and hope that someone somewhere thinks it's half decent. If that fails, then I'll be looking into Kickstarter, and if that fails, it's going up as an e-book on amazon. Regardless of the outcome, I'm getting it published!
On a completely different note, I played the first part of telltale's "The Wolf Among Us" game. I don't know what they're drinking over at telltale, but man can those guys write! I've never heard of Fables before, but I picked it up solely because of telltales' track record with excellent storytelling, and I was not disappointed. Well, I was when I came to the end and remembered that awful feeling of having to wait over a month for part 2.
Anyway, for my extended absence from blogging, please accept this delightful picture of Guybrush Threepwood that I knocked up today. It's part of a series of pictures I'm hoping to do on many of my favourite characters (whether that be film, game or tv etc.) which I would like to one day get printed up onto canvas to stick up around my abode.
Anyway, toodlepip for now you wonderful bunch of people!
However, that should be about to change. You see, I am a creature of habit, I need a routine in my life to keep the equilibrium happy. Whilst I was working on my graphic novel (more on that soon) I had a routine, get up at 9, work all day, then get drunk and sleep. Then I finished working on it and needed to find a job.
Well, on wednesday I got offered an apprenticeship! So on the 21st I start work!
I've been putting a lot of things off until I had a job, such as exercise and writing on a day to day basis. It was quite a feeble excuse, but I wanted to have my routine set before I started adding these things into my life, and now that I have the job, I want to get back into getting my shit together. That includes updating this blog with whatever I want to talk about.
Today I got the results for my graphic novel, Second Solace, from my Master's tutor. So now the next step is to do a couple of tweaks to it over the next week before I start work, and then get it thrown into as many publishers faces as I possibly can and hope that someone somewhere thinks it's half decent. If that fails, then I'll be looking into Kickstarter, and if that fails, it's going up as an e-book on amazon. Regardless of the outcome, I'm getting it published!
On a completely different note, I played the first part of telltale's "The Wolf Among Us" game. I don't know what they're drinking over at telltale, but man can those guys write! I've never heard of Fables before, but I picked it up solely because of telltales' track record with excellent storytelling, and I was not disappointed. Well, I was when I came to the end and remembered that awful feeling of having to wait over a month for part 2.
Anyway, for my extended absence from blogging, please accept this delightful picture of Guybrush Threepwood that I knocked up today. It's part of a series of pictures I'm hoping to do on many of my favourite characters (whether that be film, game or tv etc.) which I would like to one day get printed up onto canvas to stick up around my abode.
Anyway, toodlepip for now you wonderful bunch of people!
Wednesday 2 October 2013
I return!
Yes, that's right folks, I'm back!
Sorry I've been gone so long, partly it was because I just forgot, but the times when I remembered, I couldn't think of anything to say.
But now I do have something to say, and its on the topic of finales
SPOILER ALERT
I will be talking about the finales of LOST, Breaking Bad, and Dexter. You have been warned.
Breaking Bad finished this week, and I can honestly say I couldn't pick fault at it. I know some people werent super pleased that Walt essentially got what he wanted, after everything he has done, but I was ok with it, because ever since his hair grew back he kinda stopped being Hiesenberg. So I liked that there were parts of Walt returning.
Dexter, on the other hand, had quite the depressing finale. I don't know if it's because it's final season aired alongside the final season of Breaking Bad, but the whole season felt a little underwhelming. I know that the show has seen a decline in writing performance since season 4 ended, but the stories were always interesting and unique. But I think everyone expected the final season to see Dexter go up against the people he worked for for so long. It may have been unsurprising, but I think that that is what the show needed to do. We all knew he couldn't get away with murdering people forever. But regardless, it was an interesting story, and an interesting (yet depressing) finale. Deb suffered at the actions of Dexter, and in the shows final scenes, he drops her lifeless body into the ocean before sailing off into a storm. Then right at the end we see the shell of his former self sitting in an empty room, completely lost.
But here is my main point that I wanted to talk about.
Damon Lindelof was one of the creators of LOST, and on Monday morning he retweeted hundreds of people admiring the finale of Breaking Bad and telling him that is how you end a show. He later went on to write a blog about how he is done with trying to defend his show and it's finale. I feel sorry for the man, I loved LOST, and whilst I was upset that there were several things that were left unexplained, I can't fault him for the direction he took his show in. I like to write, and if one day I get around to writing my own book or show, I would expect people to respect my creative decisions. If I had made LOST, I would have focused more on attempting to survive on an island, rather than the supernatural aspects, but that it would have been more like Castaway.
I feel sorry that so many people think its ok to just blatantly insult Lindelof about his decisions when it was their own choice to sit and watch 6 seasons of his show. To give him credit over Breaking Bad, at least no one guessed how LOST would end. I don't know anyone who watched Breaking Bad that thought Walt would survive. Same goes for all the people insulting Dexter's finale, no one thought Dexter would be left alone in a woodcutter's house.
I guess my point is this, I will never insult a television show/book/film's creative decisions. It's not my place, I might not be left happy afterwards, but at the end of the day, it is their choice how they end their work, not mine. I didn't like the incestuous side plot that Dexter teased, but it certainly got people talking about the show, and that's the point of including it. If they didn't take risks, no one would have watched it past the first episode.
Speaking of excitement, Second Solace chapter one has been submitted to my tutors, and in 9 days I will get my results. I'll then spend a few weeks making it as good as possible before it goes out into the big wide world.
Toodles
Sorry I've been gone so long, partly it was because I just forgot, but the times when I remembered, I couldn't think of anything to say.
But now I do have something to say, and its on the topic of finales
SPOILER ALERT
I will be talking about the finales of LOST, Breaking Bad, and Dexter. You have been warned.
Breaking Bad finished this week, and I can honestly say I couldn't pick fault at it. I know some people werent super pleased that Walt essentially got what he wanted, after everything he has done, but I was ok with it, because ever since his hair grew back he kinda stopped being Hiesenberg. So I liked that there were parts of Walt returning.
Dexter, on the other hand, had quite the depressing finale. I don't know if it's because it's final season aired alongside the final season of Breaking Bad, but the whole season felt a little underwhelming. I know that the show has seen a decline in writing performance since season 4 ended, but the stories were always interesting and unique. But I think everyone expected the final season to see Dexter go up against the people he worked for for so long. It may have been unsurprising, but I think that that is what the show needed to do. We all knew he couldn't get away with murdering people forever. But regardless, it was an interesting story, and an interesting (yet depressing) finale. Deb suffered at the actions of Dexter, and in the shows final scenes, he drops her lifeless body into the ocean before sailing off into a storm. Then right at the end we see the shell of his former self sitting in an empty room, completely lost.
But here is my main point that I wanted to talk about.
Damon Lindelof was one of the creators of LOST, and on Monday morning he retweeted hundreds of people admiring the finale of Breaking Bad and telling him that is how you end a show. He later went on to write a blog about how he is done with trying to defend his show and it's finale. I feel sorry for the man, I loved LOST, and whilst I was upset that there were several things that were left unexplained, I can't fault him for the direction he took his show in. I like to write, and if one day I get around to writing my own book or show, I would expect people to respect my creative decisions. If I had made LOST, I would have focused more on attempting to survive on an island, rather than the supernatural aspects, but that it would have been more like Castaway.
I feel sorry that so many people think its ok to just blatantly insult Lindelof about his decisions when it was their own choice to sit and watch 6 seasons of his show. To give him credit over Breaking Bad, at least no one guessed how LOST would end. I don't know anyone who watched Breaking Bad that thought Walt would survive. Same goes for all the people insulting Dexter's finale, no one thought Dexter would be left alone in a woodcutter's house.
I guess my point is this, I will never insult a television show/book/film's creative decisions. It's not my place, I might not be left happy afterwards, but at the end of the day, it is their choice how they end their work, not mine. I didn't like the incestuous side plot that Dexter teased, but it certainly got people talking about the show, and that's the point of including it. If they didn't take risks, no one would have watched it past the first episode.
Speaking of excitement, Second Solace chapter one has been submitted to my tutors, and in 9 days I will get my results. I'll then spend a few weeks making it as good as possible before it goes out into the big wide world.
Toodles
Sunday 21 July 2013
It's been a while...
It's been a while since I last posted something on here. I've had somewhat of a hectic month, I've spent almost all of my time working on Second Solace and I've made some real progress with it. But in this last month I've moved across the country and split up with my girlfriend. It's been a real change to my life, and it is one that I am both afraid by, and excited about.
I wanted to sit down and write something, and I think the reason I have finally decided to is not because I feel like it is the right thing, but because I decided to do this blog for me and about the things that I would want to read about. So whilst I won't mention the details on my break up, I will say that honestly, I'm ok.
I've been thinking a lot about the future recently, I guess it makes sense as my life has changed so much recently. I said I was scared by the changes, and I would say that that is because right now, I have no idea what the future holds for me. Once the 19th of September roles around I will be officially done with my Masters, and whilst I plan to continue working on Second Solace until I feel it is of a sellable standard, I will no longer be able to put all my time into it.
I have always said that to be happy, I need to have at least 2 of my 3 key pillars of life. They are 1- Where I am living, 2 - Who I am living with, and 3 - What I am doing. Whilst I was in Manchester I had my girlfriend, my flat and my masters, so all in all I was happy. But now for the most part I have none of these things. Sure I'm living at my old house, but living independently is a hard thing to give up once you have it.
So it has been this thought, more than the breakup, that has weighed on my mind. Looking back at the relationship, I can see where there were problems, and I have resolved things in that aspect. But being in Manchester always felt like the logical step forward, it is a societal hub, a place where an aspiring writer/artist can find his place. But Scarborough hasn't got that excitement to it.
One of the things I've been thinking about so much recently is what I will do, I've had it with silly student jobs where I feel like I'm going nowhere, and I get that jobs these days are hard to come by, but it would be foolish of me to give up hope before I've started. So I've been trying to come up with a plan. Firstly, I would like to move out, preferably to York as I don't see the need to get a flat in the same town that I could live for cheaper with family. I think if I decide to move it would be by myself, living with friends was fun, but it really put a strain on the friendship at times, and going back to friends after living with a partner would feel like a step back that I don't want to take. And in all honesty I think I have the type of personality that could live alone.
For a job, I've been looking into apprenticeships, whilst they pay less they do offer more opportunities to shine. Although I doubt I could afford a flat off the salary of an apprentice.
So there are a few things to work out, but that will come with time.
I'm sorry that to every one of you that stumbles across this for the topic of bloggery. But like I said before, this is my blog, and sometimes you've just got to write about what is on your mind, even if it isn't an interesting subject to most people.
I'm still working hard on Second Solace, but I'll try and find the time to be a little more regular on this.
Anyway, farewell for now
:)
I wanted to sit down and write something, and I think the reason I have finally decided to is not because I feel like it is the right thing, but because I decided to do this blog for me and about the things that I would want to read about. So whilst I won't mention the details on my break up, I will say that honestly, I'm ok.
I've been thinking a lot about the future recently, I guess it makes sense as my life has changed so much recently. I said I was scared by the changes, and I would say that that is because right now, I have no idea what the future holds for me. Once the 19th of September roles around I will be officially done with my Masters, and whilst I plan to continue working on Second Solace until I feel it is of a sellable standard, I will no longer be able to put all my time into it.
I have always said that to be happy, I need to have at least 2 of my 3 key pillars of life. They are 1- Where I am living, 2 - Who I am living with, and 3 - What I am doing. Whilst I was in Manchester I had my girlfriend, my flat and my masters, so all in all I was happy. But now for the most part I have none of these things. Sure I'm living at my old house, but living independently is a hard thing to give up once you have it.
So it has been this thought, more than the breakup, that has weighed on my mind. Looking back at the relationship, I can see where there were problems, and I have resolved things in that aspect. But being in Manchester always felt like the logical step forward, it is a societal hub, a place where an aspiring writer/artist can find his place. But Scarborough hasn't got that excitement to it.
One of the things I've been thinking about so much recently is what I will do, I've had it with silly student jobs where I feel like I'm going nowhere, and I get that jobs these days are hard to come by, but it would be foolish of me to give up hope before I've started. So I've been trying to come up with a plan. Firstly, I would like to move out, preferably to York as I don't see the need to get a flat in the same town that I could live for cheaper with family. I think if I decide to move it would be by myself, living with friends was fun, but it really put a strain on the friendship at times, and going back to friends after living with a partner would feel like a step back that I don't want to take. And in all honesty I think I have the type of personality that could live alone.
For a job, I've been looking into apprenticeships, whilst they pay less they do offer more opportunities to shine. Although I doubt I could afford a flat off the salary of an apprentice.
So there are a few things to work out, but that will come with time.
I'm sorry that to every one of you that stumbles across this for the topic of bloggery. But like I said before, this is my blog, and sometimes you've just got to write about what is on your mind, even if it isn't an interesting subject to most people.
I'm still working hard on Second Solace, but I'll try and find the time to be a little more regular on this.
Anyway, farewell for now
:)
Monday 24 June 2013
Update
I just wanted to make a quick update here to say that progression on second solace is going slowly but surely. I'll be posting a few pages up in the following weeks as an example for what I want to tell.
Thursday 13 June 2013
Work
Since I have now finished all my Uni work (excluding the graphic novel) I thought I may as well post them online, perhaps if you come across them you may be compelled to try something similar, or maybe not.
So here first is my research proposal in How Graphic Novels engage in Political Debates
Hope you enjoy.
So here first is my research proposal in How Graphic Novels engage in Political Debates
Hope you enjoy.
Aims
and Objectives
I propose to produce a comprehensive study into the
graphic novel and to explore how they have engaged in political debates over
the past three decades. I shall begin by examining graphic novels such as “V for Vendetta”, “Persepolis”, “Maus”, “Watchmen”,
and “When the Wind Blows”, looking
at how they engage in debates around topics such as sexism, racism, anarchy and
oppression. My research for the study will involve reading journal articles and
interviews with graphic novel writers such as Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman, Frank
Millar, Neil Gaiman and Joe Sacco, in order to gain insight into the reasons
why they told the stories in the manner they chose.
I will then discuss
whether these graphic novels still hold the same relevance in society today as
they did when they were published. In conjunction with this I shall also discuss
whether we could take a retrospective look at these graphic novels and apply
their values to modern society. With this, I hope to expose the debates amongst
graphic novels to a greater audience, thus encouraging readers to view the
graphic novel as a serious form of literature rather than as light-hearted
literature for children. This should allow the graphic novel to be used more
widely in education, at first as a more basic level for teaching English, but
also as a method of teaching students about certain political and historical
issues. For example, through the use of Art Spiegelman’s “Maus”, students are able to gain an insight into the Holocaust
without being exposed to some of the more graphic photographs taken from that
era.
Title
of Project
The title I have
chosen for my project is ‘How graphic novels engage in political debates.’
Description
of Project that is accessible to a general audience
The graphic novel has been around in its current form
for over seventy years. It has expanded exponentially across the globe in many
forms. The incredibly popular Japanese “Manga”, differing mostly from western
graphic novels by its distinct art style of round faces and wide eyes, has spread
across the world, spawning Anime series from its comic books, and comic books
from its Anime series, not to mention countless video games, toys, books, DVDs
and more from its series. By 2009, Manga had amassed over 5 billion dollars in
Japan alone.
The
graphic novel has a strong influence in modern day education, particularly for children
and adults wishing to learn English. The visual aid of a blend of written word
and graphic medium helps the student understand the language, as they force the
reader to think, and become involved in the transition between panels. An
article in the “Journal of Graphic Novels
and Comics” written by Shari Sabeti had this to say on the subject:
“There has been
much press recently about the introduction of comics and graphic novels into
higher education. They are now part of the undergraduate English course at
Dundee University and Napier University is offering a course in the composition
of graphic novels as part of their Creative Writing MA. The University of
Creative Arts in South East England runs a BA in Graphic Storytelling and Comic
Art.” (Sabeti. 138)
In North America there are various colleges,
which offer courses on creating comics and graphic novels, and there is a
National Association of Comics Educators who support the teaching of comics
alongside the more conventional literary texts.
Thanks
to the comic and graphic novel, the comic-book convention known as ‘Comic Con’
has now turned global with over twenty different Comic Cons held across the
world, the largest accommodating over one hundred and twenty thousand people. ‘The
Penny Arcade Expo’ (PAX) was started by the online comic series Penny Arcade
and has now run for nine years, growing exponentially every year. Both PAX and
Comic Con have developed so much that many film and television companies use
them as an opportunity to announce new projects and show off unseen footage.
Many actors and directors of recent superhero films take this as a chance to
meet loyal fans of their work.
With the growth
of comic book-inspired films in the past two decades, over seven billion
dollars has been generated alone from just the top twenty, although the list spans
more than one hundred and is growing every year. One of America’s biggest
television shows “The Walking Dead”
owes its success to the ongoing graphic novel series of the same name. Some of
the biggest television shows and films such as the hugely popular “Game of Thrones” and “Star Wars” are venturing into the
graphic novel to tell their stories in a new fashion. Some of the biggest video
games of the last decade have come from popular graphic novels like “The Walking Dead”.
With the boom of
the Internet over the past few decades, many graphic novelists have sought the benefits
of self-publication on the Internet. They can use the power of the Internet for
their comic and graphic novel series in the form of weekly updates on a
continuing story, or crowd sourcing websites where members of the public are
given the opportunity to donate money towards their projects.
However there
still remains a stigma attached to the graphic novel that their stories consist
of naught but superheroes born from a different era that must save the
innocent. Many believe they are targeted towards children. An article in The
Times in 2009 brought attention to the fact that the Edinburgh Napier
University had chosen to include a course in graphic novels. It bore the
headline:
“Holy academia, Batman! Scots universities offer
courses in comics”, (Maxwell) thus implying the stereotype to its
readers that the idea is juvenile.
But that is
simply not the case. Graphic
novels such as “Watchmen” and “V for Vendetta” convey stories ripe
with important political arguments, and indeed the graphic medium has had a
close relationship with politics through political cartoons since the early twentieth
century.
Whilst there are
other studies available that cover aspects of my proposed research study, I found most covered the topic quite
superficially. Therefore my
intention is to provide a unique and comprehensive assessment of the relationship
between the graphic novel and politics, exploring the relevance of past and
present themes and values on society today and whether these are used to their
full extent in education.
Research
Context
Over the past forty years, the graphic novel has
fought its way into the innermost circle of literature. No longer are they
stories about superheroes saving the innocent read by children and comic book
fans. These days, their stories cover a vast range of exciting and thought
provoking topics that, thanks to their use of the graphic medium, express
another dimension of storytelling in a way that other forms of literature
cannot.
Alan
and Anarchy
Alan Moore’s “V for Vendetta” is set in a dystopian
United Kingdom future in which a totalitarian government is brought down by an
anarchist named “V”. It is a story that covers the political viewpoints of
anarchism, fascism and xenophobia.
Alan Moore has
become one of the biggest names in the graphic novel industry, having written
classics such as “V for Vendetta” and
“Watchmen”. He is often referred to
as the greatest graphic novel writer in history and one of the most important
British writers in the last fifty years. He identifies politically as an
anarchist, and such views are greatly expressed in “V for Vendetta” in which the revolutionist “V” dons a Guy Fawkes
mask as he reins anarchy on a totalitarian government.
Alan Moore’s critically acclaimed “Watchmen” explores the outcome of
placing superheroes into a real world setting. The story takes place in an
alternate universe where America and Russia stand dangerously close to the
brink of nuclear war. The graphic novel’s real superhero, Dr. Manhattan, a man
transformed by nuclear radiation into a blue superhuman capable of many
superhero feats, such as the ability to blow up an entire city using only his
mind, represents America’s nuclear superpower. In the graphic novel, he
single-handedly wins the war for America against Vietnam offering an alternate
history:
“What would have happened in a world
where the United States used its nuclear arsenal early and often?”(Stokes, par. 8)
“From Hell” is another graphic novel from the writer Alan Moore,
this time delving into the theory that the Jack the Ripper murders were part of
a conspiracy set up to hide the birth of a royal baby. Queen Victoria, ashamed
by Prince Albert Victor’s marriage to Annie Crook and the child they conceive
together, orders her royal physician Sir William Gull to destroy Annie’s
sanity:
“Queen Victoria is the picture of the stern monarch, intent upon
keeping any scandal at bay. She prefers not to know the method, only the
successful outcome, of the elimination of the potential embarrassment. She is
England; stern, inflexible, and paranoid.” (Gafford, par. 12).
Many would say that this analogy of Britain holds
true today, as can be seen in Raymond Brigg’s “When the Wind Blows”, which I will discuss in depth later. It
appears that most people do not care for the details of the path taken, so long
as the end result is one we find desirable. We are becoming a paranoid nation,
thanks in the most part to the tabloids and news channels. Even though there
are many places in the world that suffer devastation on a daily basis, we seem
to continue to turn our heads until the moment the devastation hits home.
There is a
quotation in the foreword for the graphic novel “V for Vendetta” from Alan Moore written in 1988 about the changes
in England over the seven years it took him to create the book:
“It’s
1988 now. Margaret Thatcher is entering her third term of office and talking
confidently of an unbroken Conservative leadership well into the next century…
the tabloid press are circulating the idea of concentration camps for persons
with AIDS.” He then goes on to say, “The
government has expressed a desire to eradicate homosexuality, even as an
abstract concept, and one can only speculate as to which minority will be the
next legislated against.” (Moore. 6)
The era Moore
speaks of is now a quarter of a century ago, and whilst thankfully there no
longer remains even the slightest whisper of talk over AIDS concentration
camps, homosexuality is still hounded by homophobia in certain aspects of life.
As of May 2013, there are only ten states in America that have legalised
same-sex marriages. In 2008, a study showed that nearly one in seven of the
gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community reported living in fear of
homophobic violence.
In “V for Vendetta”, the idea of a world
under constant surveillance was one that existed only in Alan Moore’s mind, but
as of 2011, a study showed that the United Kingdom is watched by a network of
nearly two million cameras.
Since the graphic
novel’s release, the Guy Fawkes mask has been adopted as the symbol of many
protesters such as the internet-based group ‘Anonymous’. During an interview
with Entertainment Weekly following the protests against the Church of
Scientology in 2008, Alan Moore stated that he was:
“Quite
heartened the other day when watching the news to see that there were
demonstrations outside the Scientology headquarters over here, and that they
suddenly flashed to a clip showing all these demonstrators wearing V for
Vendetta Guy Fawkes masks. That pleased me.” (Gopalan, 5: par. 2)
In 2006, a film adaptation of “V for Vendetta” was release, co-written
by the Wachowski Brothers and directed by James McTeigue. The context of the
film was different to that of the graphic novel which had been released almost
twenty years prior. The film was:
“An allegory for life in George W. Bush’s America, and an unwavering
critique of his administration and its policies (both domestic and foreign)
surrounding the war on terror.” (Miguel, 3). Director
James McTeigue stated in an interview that he:
“Felt the [graphic] novel was very prescient
to how the political climate is at the moment. It really showed what can
happen when society is ruled by government, rather than the government being
run as a voice of the people’’(Miguel, 3).
Miller, Terror and
Occupy
After
the events of 9/11 in New York and the 7/7 bombings in London a few years
later, the topic of terror was high in the public’s eye. Much like the infamous
vigilante, Guy Fawkes, with whom he likens his appearance to by using a mask, the
character ‘V’ in “V for Vendetta”
plots the destruction of Parliament. In the eyes of the public, he would be
branded a terrorist. During an interview, James McTeigue said:
“I think rather than just come out and call him a terrorist, I think you
have to look behind the veil and see what creates people like that. Then if you
take that line, is it right to call Nelson Mandela a terrorist? Is it right to
call Che Guevara a terrorist? There’s been a lot of historical figures that, at
the time, depending on what regime they’re fighting against, are called a lot
of different things. I think V falls in that milieu of lots of different
people.” (Wikispaces, par. 4).
During
the Occupy Wall St in 2011, thousands of Americans rallied together to protest against
the corporate influence on democracy and the lack of legal consequences for the
people responsible for the increasing inequality in wealth. Like the protests
against Scientology in 2008, many of the protestors took up the Guy Fawkes mask
from Alan Moore’s “V for Vendetta” as
they began their protests against Wall Street. Alan Moore, who asked for his
name to be removed from any film adaptations of his work since “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” claimed
in an interview with The Beat on the
topic of “V for Vendetta” that he
doesn’t:
“Own the baby anymore. The baby is one I put a
great deal of love into, a great deal of passion and then during a drunken
night it turned out that I'd sold it to the gypsies and they had turned out my
baby into a life of prostitution. Occasionally they would send me increasingly
glossy and well-produced pictures of my child as she now was, and they would
very, very kindly send me a cut of the earnings.” (Beat, par. 27).
But, just as when the Guy Fawkes mask was used in the protests
against Scientology in 2008, he stated in an interview with the guardian that:
"I
suppose when I was writing V for
Vendetta I would in my secret heart of hearts have
thought: wouldn't it be great if these ideas actually made an impact?
So when you start to see that idle fantasy intrude on the regular world…
It's peculiar. It feels like a character I created 30 years ago has
somehow escaped the realm of fiction." (Lamont, par. 4).
Frank Miller,
writer of “Sin City”, “300” and “Batman: Year One”, issued a statement
on his personal website. He referred to the group “Occupy” as:
“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.” (Miller, par. 1)
He went on to state that their movement was:
“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.” (Miller,
par. 2)
Miller, who is perhaps best known for his graphic
novel “300” in which the Spartan army
fights for “freedom”, angered many with his attack on the “Occupy” group. One
of those he angered was fellow graphic novelist, David Brin, who took to his
blog in retaliation to Miller’s comments with a complex analysis of Miller’s
graphic novel “300”, saying:
“Uh,
right. Freedom. Sorry,
but the word bears a heavy burden of irony when shouted
by Spartans, who maintained one of the
worst slave-states ever, treating the vast majority of their people as
cattle, routinely quenching their swords in the bodies of poor, brutalized
helots... who are never mentioned, even glimpsed, in the romanticized book or
movie.” (Brin, par. 9)
His attack at the “Occupy” movement came as quite a
shock to those who are acquainted with his work. In his hugely successful “Batman: Year One”, Miller portrayed the
Dark Knight visit Gotham City’s wealthiest citizens and tells them:
“You’ve eat Gotham’s
wealth. It’s spirit. Your feast is nearly over. From this moment on, none of
you are safe.” (Miller.
38)
Miller continues this ideology in his next graphic
novel about the caped crusader, “The Dark
Knight Returns”. Batman, having spent many years hiding away after a forced
retirement from crime fighting, sees his world has grown out of control with
street violence. Believing society has lost the ability to fix itself, Batman
returns to take matters into his own hands. After assembling an army of
vigilante youths, he takes the fight to the government so as to enforce his own
law upon the streets of Gotham. The graphic novel’s President of the United
States bears a remarkable resemblance to America’s President Ronald Reagan.
Superman, who serves as this mock Reagan’s personal wrecking ball, is tasked by
Reagan to end Batman, and his personal army’s uprising. As the two superheroes
collide, the increasingly unstable Batman beats his opponent to within an inch
of his life before faking his own death. Superman in this story, despite being
a product of a far away planet, stands for America, and so his near defeat by
Batman, a man who has always stood for the people of Gotham, is an allegory for
the common man fighting back against the government.
The Middle East
Debate
However, Frank Miller’s more recent work in “Holy Terror” is much more in tone with
his attack on “Occupy”. Originally meant as another Batman story, “Holy Terror” sees “The Fixer” fighting
against al-Qaida. Miller described the graphic novel as a piece of propaganda
to remind people that America is still at war against terrorists. Spencer
Ackerman from Wired magazine summed up Miller’s “Holy Terror” as:
“A screed against Islam, completely uninterested in any
nuance or empathy toward 1.2 billion people he conflates with a few murderous
conspiracy theorists. It’s no accident that it’s being released ten years after
9/11. This comic would be unthinkable during the unity that the U.S. felt after
the attack. Instead, it’s a perfect cultural artifact of this dark period in
American life, when the FBI teaches its agents that “mainstream” Islam is
indistinguishable from terrorism and a
community center near Ground Zero gets labeled a “victory mosque.” (Ackerman, par. 3).
Joe Sacco is perhaps less known as a
graphic novelist and more as a comics journalist. His 1996 graphic novel “Palestine” tells of Sacco’s experiences
in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between a two-month period of December 1991
and January 1992. His portrayal of the Palestinian people is all based on
genuine meetings he had during his time there, focusing on the small details of
life as a Palestinian during a difficult time in history. His brutal honesty
and attention to detail throughout the book earned him the role of the
pre-photography war artist.
Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian-born
French Graphic novelist. Her autobiographical graphic novel “Persepolis” tells her childhood story
as a young woman in Iran during the Islamic revolution. The story does not shy
away from the heavily sexist nature of Islam in the 80s, such as the obligation
for girls to wear a veil and being segregated by sex in her school. She
discusses her desire to learn of revolutions and socialism, referring to Fidel
Castro and Che Guevara as inspiration. Her favourite comic book “Dialectic Materialism”, now going by the name of “Marx for
Beginners”, further inspires her to protest, even at such a young age. She is
sat down by her parents and taught about the horrors her grandfather went
through when imprisoned for communism. Since the graphic novel’s release, Iran
has remained a troubled country, and in 2009, Marjane Satrapi updated “Persepolis” to include further
information on Iran and the presidential election. Her work in “Persepolis” speaks powerfully from first
hand experiences. She is able to give insight to an audience who may not be
willing to read extensively on the subject. Graphic novels such as this open up
opportunities for readers to hear powerful humanitarian messages.
Cat and
Maus
Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” is a graphic novel depicting
Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a holocaust
survivor. The book depicts humans as various animals, with Germans as cats,
Jewish people as mice and non-Jewish polish people as pigs.
“Traversing the breach between past and present,
Father and Son, language and image, manifest and latent, Spiegelman's Maus bears witness to the process of
bearing witness” (Leventhal,
par. 14)
From their experiences of anti-Semitism to their
captivity in Auschwitz, Spiegelman’s shocking interpretation on the Holocaust
through a comic medium earned it a place amongst the New York Times bestseller
list.
Briggs and Nuclear Culture
Raymond Briggs is a well-known English Graphic
Novelist. His work achieved critical and popular success amongst adults and
children with most of his work catering to the latter. Just four years after
his hugely successful “The Snowman”,
Briggs shocked audiences with his dark graphic novel “When The Wind Blows”. “When The Wind Blows” tells the story of
retired couple, Jim and Hilda Bloggs who, after experiencing a nuclear attack
by the Soviet Union, decide to hide out in a makeshift fallout shelter for two
weeks. However, they briefly go outside for some fresh air and rainwater, thus
exposing themselves to a massive amount of radioactive fallout. Throughout the
story, Jim’s optimistic outlook and Hilda’s attempt to carry on as if nothing
had happened mask the fact that the pair are suffering from radiation sickness
before eventually dying in each other’s arms. The graphic novel parodies the
typical British stiff upper lip sensibility to ignore the reality of the
situation, and Jim’s unshakeable belief that the government knows best
expresses our desire to live in a false sense of security that everything will
be ok. Although this was written over twenty years ago, its message still holds
true in the present day with our society suffering from a financial crisis, and
the constant reassurance that the government is working on it, so everything
will be ok.
Gaiman on belief
Neil Gaiman has
become a well-known name amongst the graphic novel industry in many ways thanks
to his reimagining of Vertigo’s “The
Sandman”. During an interview with Politics and Prose, he spoke about The
Sandman series’ exploration of different mythologies saying:
‘I think that one of the biggest problems that faces
us is that people don't understand each other's belief systems -- political,
religious, or even recreational. The extreme end of that is war, of course. And
it's a lot harder to demonise people if you know what they think or believe or
dream.’ (Dannenfelser,
par. 3).
Collins and the Prohibition era
Max Allan Collins’ graphic novel “Road to Perdition” tells the story of
Michael O’Sullivan, a ruthless enforcer for John Rooney, a close associate of
Al Capone. Set in the early 1930s, “Road
to Perdition” explores the life of crime from the viewpoint of a relatively
unimportant member of the mob. Like many of the crime films and novels
surrounding the same era, “Road to
Perdition” continues the strange procedure of romanticizing gangsters and
life on the opposite side of the law. The graphic novel looks at the aspects of
mob life, from gaining wealth from supplying illegal alcohol during the
Prohibition era, to bribing the local police, giving the reader an insight into
the issues of 1930s America in regards to the mob.
Enki Bilal on fascism
“The Nikopol Trilogy” is a series of
three science fiction graphic novels written by Enki Bilal, set in 2023 the
story follows Alcide Nikopol’s return to dystopian Paris after spending the
last thirty years orbiting the Earth under cryopreservation. The Paris he
returns to is one governed by fascist dictator J.F. Choublanc and is teeming
with aliens. Throughout the trilogy, some of the themes that Bilal explores
shift quite fervently, and yet some remain remarkably similar throughout.
“In the first volume, Horus, the renegade Egyptian God,
attempts to take control of Paris by possessing Nikopol Sr., and as Nikopol
goes insane (as a result of being possessed by this overly ambitious God, as
well as arriving to a completely different world after living in suspended
animation in space for thirty years), he is replaced by his son, Nikopol Jr.
simply because they look alike. In the final volume, Niko himself is mistaken
for his father by Equatorial authorities and he is sent up to space (where it
is hinted he will be staying for thirty years) and Nikopol, who has been taken
for his son simply because of his appearance, starts a new life. In this sense,
not only does Bilal use the same, postmodern approach to identity throughout
his book, he also brings the trilogy “full circle”, as the end of the last
graphic novel very closely and ironically resembles the end of the first.” (Berk, par. 7)
Research
Methods
To be able to prove that the graphic novel can and
should be taken seriously, and that they often engage in important political
aspects of modern day life. I will read popular graphic novels such as Alan
Moore’s “Watchmen” and “V for Vendetta”, Raymond Briggs’s “When the Wind Blows”, Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis”, Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” and Art Spiegelman’s “Maus”. I will also look at some less
popular graphic novels such as Joe Sacco’s “Palestine”,
Sharon Rudahl’s “A Dangerous Woman: The
Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman”, Emmanuel Guibert’s “The Photographer” and Brian Wright-McLeod’s “Red Power: A Graphic Novel”. Once I have studied these graphic
novels I will begin to analyse the political debates that lay within.
In conjunction
with this, I will also read journals and articles such as the Journal of
Graphic Novels and Comics, which relate to the subject of how graphic novels
engage in political debates, which I will find from reputable sources on the
Internet, and in archives. I will
read interviews with graphic novel writers such as Alan Moore, Frank Miller,
Art Spiegelman, Neil Gaiman and Raymond Briggs to gain insight into their own
political motives. If no such interview exists, I shall attempt to make contact
myself and conduct the interview first hand.
I feel that these
methods of research are the best for the task as there is no better way to
understand the political complexities of the graphic novel than to experience
it first hand. The use of interviews with graphic novel writers will prove
especially useful as once I know the political agendas of the writer, I will be
able to apply that knowledge to their graphic novels and discover the meanings
that are either obvious or sometimes hidden within their pages.
My role in the
project will be lead researcher; I will be responsible for gathering the
information and analysing it myself. I do not intend to employ the expertise of
fellow researchers unless the situation demands an extra participant or I am
unable to take the lead in the matter at hand, or if I feel that another
viewpoint may be of use to me.
Plans
for Dissemination
Upon completion
of the project by the end of the year, the research results will be
disseminated through the following ways:
· A presentation of
the research results at Salford University which will be open to members of
staff and fellow students of the university
· A publication of
the research results in the Journal of
Graphic Novels and Comics
· A presentation of
the research results at any relevant festivals or conventions
· After publicising
amongst several social media websites, I shall perform a video presentation to
be uploaded to the Internet.
· I shall accompany
this by uploading the research to my own personal website which shall be linked
to the video presentation.
· I shall contact
local businesses that sell graphic novels and comic books with the intention of
advertising my research.
· This could lead
to the opportunity to present my research to the public in certain stores that
sell graphic novels.
Impact
and Public Engagement
The graphic novel as a form of literature has already
begun to be viewed seriously thanks to works from the likes of Alan Moore, Neil
Gaiman, Art Spiegelman and Frank Millar, and with the help of this project, I
hope the graphic novel will further its claim to be taken as a serious form of
literature. The stigma that is attached to the graphic novel that they consist
of only superhero stories for comic book fans and children, and thus should not
be taken seriously is very damaging to the graphic novel industry. The main
goal for this project is to help change opinions and open up the graphic novel
to the mainstream market by showing to the public that the graphic novel has as
much to say about serious political agendas as prose or poetry.
One of the most
important outcomes for the destruction of the stigma that surrounds the graphic
novel will hopefully be to enhance its inclusion in education. Already, there
are some schools that use the graphic novel as a way of teaching English to
children and adults. These appear to have recognised the benefits of using the
combination of the written word and the use of the graphic medium to help the
student to understand the context in which a word is used. This is particularly
valuable in a world that theoretically recognises that we all have different
learning styles.
The graphic novel
can also be used in schools to bring students together. In Shari Sabeti’s “The irony of ‘cool club’: the place of the
comic book reading in schools”, she discusses how she noticed several
students in the library reading graphic novels together. The librarian subtly
mocked the students for their reading preferences, so Shari decided to form a
graphic novel reading club. After a while, the students that attended named it
the ‘cool club’, and during her time at the school, Shari noted how the bond
these students had formed over their fondness for the graphic novel had made
them all close friends. The librarian at the school had looked down on these
students for their interest in what she thought to be juvenile literature. Had
it not been for Shari Sabeti and her desire to bring these students together
with the graphic novel ‘cool club’, then it is likely these students would have
never formed their close bonds of friendship and may never have nurtured their
interest in reading. With the help of this project, and the increasing number
of intelligent graphic novels, my hope is for more schools to realise their
potential and form their own graphic novel clubs.
As the graphic
novel shifts into a more serious status in society, there stands the potential
that more people will look past the stigmatism into the genre as a source of education
as well as entertainment, and will encourage other writers to experiment with
this as a mode of propagating their own work.
Works Cited
Moore, Alan. V
for Vendetta, New York, DC Comics, 1988. 6. Print.
Satrapi, Marjane.
Persepolis, New York, Pantheon Books, 2003. Print.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus,
New York, Pantheon Books, 1991. Print.
Moore, Alan. Watchmen,
New York, DC Comics, 1987. Print.
Briggs, Raymond. When
the Wind Blows, Middlesex, Penguin Books Ltd, 1982. Print.
Sabeti, Shari. “The irony of ‘cool club’: the place of
the comic book reading in schools”. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 2.2.
138. (2011)
Kirkman, Robert. The
Walking Dead, California, Skybound Entertainment, 2003. Print.
Abraham, Daniel. Game
of Thrones, New Jersey, Dynamite Entertainment, 2011. Print.
Warner, Chris. Star
Wars Infinities, Oregon, Dark Horse Comics, 2002. Print.
Maxwell, Tom. Holy
academia, Batman! Scots universities offer courses in comics. Web.
11.04.2013.
<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/scotland/article2632579.ece>
Stokes. The
Political Message of Watchmen. Web. 14.04.2013.
<http://www.overthinkingit.com/2009/03/07/the-political-message-of-watchmen/>
Moore, Alan. From
Hell, London, Knockabout Comics, 1999. Print.
Gafford, Sam. Casebook:
Jack the Ripper – From Hell: A Discussion of the Moore/Campbell Series.
Web. 01.04.2013.
<http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-fromhell.html>
Lewis, Paul. You’re
being watched: there’s one CCTV camera for every 32 people in UK. Web.
25.03.2013
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/02/cctv-cameras-watching-surveillance>
Gopalan, Nisha. Alan
Moore Still Knows the Score! Web. 08.04.2013.
<http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20213004_5,00.html>
San Miguel, Ane. “Graphic
Novels and Films as Cultural and Political Values Driven Tools”. (2012)
Web. 25.04.2013
<http://www.academia.edu/2619379/GRAPHIC_NOVELS_AND_FILMS_AS_CULTURAL_AND_POLITICAL_VALUES_DRIVEN_TOOLS>
James McTeigue
Interview. Web. 08.04.2013
<http://v-for-vendetta.wikispaces.com/1.1+James+McTeigue+interview>
Moore, Alan. League
of Extraordinary Gentlemen, New York, DC Comics, 1999. Print.
Beat, The. A for
Alan, Pt. 1: The Alan Moore Interview. Web. 25.04.2013
<http://web.archive.org/web/20060505034142/http://www.comicon.com/thebeat/2006/03/a_for_alan_pt_1_the_alan_moore.html>
Lamont, Tom. Alan
Moore – meet the man behind the protest mask. Web. 25.04.2013
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/27/alan-moore-v-vendetta-mask-protest>
Miller Frank. Sin
City, Oregon, Dark Horse Comics, 1991. Print.
Miller, Frank. 300,
Oregon, Dark Horse Comics, 1998. Print.
Miller, Frank. Batman:
Year One, New York, DC Comics, 1986. 38. Print.
Miller, Frank. Anarchy.
Web. 24.04.13
<http://frankmillerink.com/2011/11/anarchy>
Brin, David. Roll over, Frank Miller: or why the Occupy Wall Street Kids are Better
than the #$%! Spartans. Web. 24.04.13
<http://davidbrin.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/move-over-frank-miller-or-why-occupy.html>
Miller, Frank. The
Dark Knight Returns, New York, DC Comics, 1986. Print.
Miller, Frank. Holy
Terror, California, Legendary Comics, 2011. Print.
Ackerman, Spencer. Frank
Miller’s Holy Terror Is Fodder for Anti-Islam Set. Web. 24.04.2013
<http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/09/holy-terror-frank-miller/>
Sacco, Joe. Palestine,
Washington, Fantagraphics, 1996. Print.
Del Rio, Eduardo. Marx
for Beginners, New York, Pantheon Books, 1976. Print.
Leventhal, Robert. Art
Spiegelman’s MAUS: Working-Through The Trauma of the Holocaust. Web.
02.03.2013
<http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/holocaust/spiegelman.html>
Gaiman, Neil. The
Sandman, New York, DC Comics, 1989. Print.
Dannenfelser, Heather. 10 Questions with Neil Gaiman. Web. 18.04.2013.
<http://www.politics-prose.com/10-questions/10-questions-neil-gaiman-0>
Allan Collins, Max. Road to Perdition. New York, Paradox Press, 1998. Print.
Bilal, Enki. The
Nikopol Trilogy, Paris, Les Humanoïdes Associés, 1980. Print.
Berk. FA II – The Nikopol Trilogy. Web.
05.05.2013
<http://exclusivelycomics.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/fa-ii-the-nikopol-trilogy/>
Rudahl, Sharon. A
Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman, New York, The New
Press, 2007. Print.
Guibert, Emmanuel. The
Photographer, Germany, First Second, 2003. Print.
Wright-McLeod, Brian. Red Power: A Graphic Novel, Montreal, Fifth House Publishers, 2011.
Print.
5730
Words
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