A collection of interesting quotes from this week:
“Just because Marvel’s comics have a shitty interface or an unwanted run of Gambit comics doesn’t validate my pirating their stuff, it doesn’t excuse or justify it or give me any moral or ethical high-ground. If I’m stealing their IP then I’m a thief, and I either make my peace with that or I don’t, and stop stealing.”
– blogger and retailer Christopher Butcher, on torrenting and entitlement
“I simply can’t stress enough how shortsighted, how ignorant, how goddamned lunkheaded DC and Marvel are being right now. They aren’t just shooting themselves in the foot like other media companies; they’re shooting themselves in the head. Internet downloading and the word-of-mouth generated by it has been quietly driving their business for the last couple of years now and they want to kill it. It’s just staggering.”
– blogger Christopher Bird, on word that DC and Marvel have sent cease-and-desist letters to a popular torrent site
“Frankly, the problem with American comics is that they were too conservative. They lacked the courage to go fully with the creator-owned model to the extent that Japanese publishers have. The American publishing companies are corporate-owned, and they go with this mindset that they’ll ‘reinvent Spider-Man for every generation.’ You can’t read every issue of Spider-Man that’s come out since 1963 and read it all the way from then to the present — that’s just ridiculous and impossible to do.
“And maybe that’s what some people want. They want a story that they can just drop into at any point. But I think that it’s much, much more rewarding to read and follow a complete story and to identify the story with the artist, not just the character.”
– Jason Thompson, author of Manga: The Complete Guide, comparing American and Japanese comics
“What’s great, and rather unique, about comics is that we’re a small concern, financially. No one is sinking tens of millions of dollars into a new monthly series like they would a film, so the freedom is so much greater. A creator can see his vision realized just like it is in his head, not after being rewritten by a bunch of hacks, edited mercilessly, and filtered through a bunch of producers and a director. I have a feeling if I tried to write for Hollywood I’d be stressed out and driven mad within weeks.”
– writer-artist Brian Wood, on comics storytelling
“I was just always amazed that people used to rag on my movies. Nobody really acknowledged the fact that [Batman] was slightly different at the time from other comic book movies. So lay off, will you? They would get on my case all the time and it’s still kind of that way today.”
– director Tim Burton, on criticism of his Batman movies
November 25th, 2007 at 11:57 am
People were spoiled by the Tim Burton Batman movies, I think and now take them for granted. I remember the astonishment on the face of a friend of mine when a bunch of us conviced him to watch the first Batman… he was expecting a triumphalist and absurd rendering of a man with pointy ears beating people up for an hour and a half and instead he got an absurdist black comedy with Jack Nicholson as a scary clown. WIN!
November 25th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I’m surprised that Burton heard a lot of complaints about his Batman. I remember nothing but praise. Batman Returns was less good, but still a decent movie.
November 25th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Tim Burton and Frank Miller should collaborate on a stop-motion adaptation of All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder. It’d be the greatest movie ever.
November 25th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
I actually prefer Returns because of Catwoman but I loved those movies when they came out. But I’ll tell you what, those movies have not aged well AT ALL!
November 26th, 2007 at 9:25 am
“And maybe that’s what some people want. They want a story that they can just drop into at any point. But I think that it’s much, much more rewarding to read and follow a complete story and to identify the story with the artist, not just the character.”
Great point. And good assortment of quotes this week.
November 26th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Manga sucks, there I said it. Of course, this is just my personal opinion and in no way invalidates the opinions of those that enjoy it, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks it’s boring as hell.
I just watched Burton’s Batman again the other night. It was hands down my favorite movie of all time when I was 12. Now, it doesn’t hold a candle to Begins, but it is still a good movie.