“You try to do evil things with cheese and I’ll show up!”: Marjorie Ingall of The Jewish Daily Forward writes a nice piece about four-year-old girl Maxine, who has just entered a superhero phase, an article that includes some cute little kid anecdotes and meditations on the Jewishness of superheroes. It’s written for the “civilian” crowd, but probably worth a read for those interested in the subject. I learned a thing or two—particularly about WordGirl from planet Lexicon, a superheroine I’d never heard of. I was initially attracted to the headline: “Bam! Pow! Whack!”
“Bam!” and “Pow!” you see in headlines all the time, but “Whack!”? That’s a new-ish one; I was expecting “Biff!”
Just add the word “penis”: Dick Hyacinth muses on super-men’s members in the Mighty Marvel manner! Um, there aren’t any pictures (thank God!), but maybe Not Safe For Work, depending on where you work.
Awww…: This San Francisco Chronicle story about artists Briana Miller and Thien Pham is pretty darling, and I like the term “artners.”
Very cool capes for very little people: Something tells me if I wore one of these, it would just look like I had a big on backwards
“Obama saved our sales”: Okay, I’m as sick of hearing about Spider-Man’s team-up with Obama as anyone else on earth, maybe a little more so since I consciously go out of my way looking for articles about comics to link to, but I kind of liked the lead of this article, in which it sounds like President Obama single-handedly saved this particular New Jersey comic store from The Great New Depression, by singlehandedly not somehow preventing Marvel Comics from printing a cover with his face on it. Next to a government bail out of the comic book industry, why, it’s the next best thing!
Eighth Batman movie not nominated for Best Picture either: I keep hearing the word “snub,” even “the shaft” and “robbed,” in relation to The Dark Knight only getting one measely Oscar nomination in the best supporting actor category, but is this really all that suprising? Everyone knows that movies with the holocaust in them are always more likely to be nominated for best picture than movies with the Bat-pod in them.
January 24th, 2009 at 9:29 am
People keep saying “One nomination” when it got EIGHT. one MAJOR maybe, but still, eight nominations. sheesh
January 24th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Thanks for finding the article from the Jewish Daily Forward. It was a very cute read, especially for me who has a four year old son who is in his own ‘Super-Hero’ phase. Side note: He loves Superfriends comic that is currently being published from D.C.
As a Jew and been reading comics for over 30 years the fondest memoy has been when in Fantastic Four (the issue fails me right now) was when they said Ben was Jewish. I’m not sure why for everything that I’ve read something like that would stick out but it does.
January 24th, 2009 at 10:33 am
WordGirl is well worth experiencing. Funny stuff… alas, my four year old seems to have tired of it (she still likes her superheroes, and is thrilled when her Tiny Titans comes in the mail.) I think when they removed the Huggydance from the episodes, she lost enthusiasm. But don’t let your adulthood stop you from trying an episode or two for yourself.
January 24th, 2009 at 11:53 am
WordGirl is the best show on TV. I draw your attention in particular to the theme song.
January 24th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Let me, too, sing the praises of WordGirl. Some clever stuff there.
January 25th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Word Girl rocks… My daughter watches, even though she’s probably a tad old for the show now, and I occasionally watch with her. Clever, funny, and excellent programming.
As for TDK not getting a best picture nod, I agree with you’re saying, Caleb, but it is disheartening when you see a film that got decidedly mixed reviews (Benjamin Button) get nominated, but the almost universally acclaimed TDK doesn’t. There’s also the problem of several films that get released late in the year in only a few markets getting nominated all the time… Many filmgoers haven’t even been able to see some of these movies yet. Those films should really be held over until the next year’s awards. Set an earlier cutoff date for releases, or require that films get a general release before the end of the year.
Basically, TDK (and Wall*E) are being punished not only because they’re not typical Oscar fare, but in part because they came out so much earlier in the year. Regardless of the reasons, the fact that popular (and critically acclaimed) fare like TDK and Wall*E didn’t make the cut shows just how out of touch the Academy is. Hell, I’d even argue that Robert Downey, Jr. might’ve been worthy of a nomination for Best Actor too. I can’t really judge, since I haven’t seen all of the nominated performances.