This is a pretty great moment in Thing-itude, as well.
Archive for May, 2010
Great Moments in (Drunken Mego) Iron Mannery, Part !?!
Posted in Threat Quality with tags Mego Iron Man, Threat Quality on May 21, 2010 by braakHere are your 2010 (paunchy, hairy, overwhelmingly male) AVENGERS!
Posted in Threat Quality with tags I am an Avenger, Jeff Holland, Threat Quality on May 20, 2010 by braak
On the downside – apparently John Romita Jr. is NOT drawing me. Or anyone. Siiigh.*
On the upside – hey look, I’m in an Avengers comic! Along with a lot of other hollow-eyed bearded adult males!
Which means Braak has his pick of photos he can claim are him!
(I am on the lower right page, in the yellow shirt, looking all like I’m gonna hang out with Doc Savage or some shit. Click the picture for full-size, and thanks to Bleeding Cool for saving me the trouble of scanning it.)
*It’s okay, though, since I also thought I was in the Free Comic Book Day Iron Man/Thor one-shot he drew – turns out it was Tony Stark the whole time.
Holland’s Writing Rules, Part 286 (let’s say)
Posted in Threat Quality with tags Jeff Holland, Threat Quality, Writing Rules on May 20, 2010 by braakDear Hollywood Screenwriters,
Can we be done with the phrase “If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead by now?” and all related proclamations?
We get it, the guy is dangerous.There’s a reason he didn’t shoot to kill.
Perhaps there is another way of conveying this.
Because honestly, if I’m in a life-or-death situation, and I try to kill someone, and I fail (because let’s face it, I’m probably not going to be very good at that)? That is the FIRST thing I’m going to tell him.
How about we try, “I don’t want to kill you yet. You’re useful.” Or, “Killing you doesn’t help me at this juncture.”
Okay, those kind of suck, but you’re the big-shot Hollywood screenwriters, you get paid for this crap. Do a little of your own legwork.
Thanks,
Jeff Holland
Representations of Women in (Mostly Superhero) Comics
Posted in Braak, comic books, Threat Quality with tags Braak, comics, feminism on May 19, 2010 by braakThis is a thing that comes up periodically, like when io9 finds Disney princesses done up in sexy cartoon “Comic Book Style” by J. Scott Campbell or (just so Meredith doesn’t feel like I’m picking on her) when Chris Sims reviews Jeph Loeb’s Ultimatum. What happens is, someone says, “Jesus fuck, could there be one comic in which all the women don’t have their tits sticking out all the fucking time?” Inevitably, at least one person responds to these criticisms with the following argument (and occasionally a few supplemental ones):
“Comics have always been an exaggerated ideal, just like in movies and other forms of media, and besides, they exaggerate men and women equally, so it’s not sexist.”
Refuting this argument is a long and exhausting process, so, to save time, I’m just going to do it here and leave it up so I can link to it when someone (inevitably) says it again.
The Best Wolverine Story Ever
Posted in Threat Quality on May 19, 2010 by braakBy Faith Erin Hicks.
Congratulations, True Believer!
Posted in comic books, Jeff Holland, Threat Quality with tags Avengers, Something-Something-Punk-Suckers, Unexpected News on May 18, 2010 by braak
An email I received this afternoon:
To: Jeff
From: Jarvis, Edwin
Re: Application Status
Congratulations True Believer!
Great Moments in Iron Mannery*, Part 5
Posted in Threat Quality with tags Iron Man, Threat Quality on May 18, 2010 by braak
Tony Stark’s business philosophy: you gotta spend money, to get crappy antiques, to donate crappy antiques, to break crappy antiques, to spend money to buy the broken crappy antiques, to make money!
(Look, it’s complicated. You wouldn’t get it. Ask an economist.)
Art by M.D. Bright
*Yes, I’ve settled on ‘Iron Mannery’ as the proper terminology.
I Like The Sound
Posted in Jeff Holland, Threat Quality with tags Brad Roberts, Jeff Holland, Robert Johnson, Threat Quality, Vinyl Records on May 18, 2010 by braakWhat’s the best sound you can think of?
I was listening to an interview on Philly’s WXPN with Brad Roberts. You’d recognize his voice immediately, even if he wasn’t singing – Roberts is the frontman for Crash Test Dummies* (whose first three albums are actually all-time 
favorites of mine, and even though I don’t necessarily like the last few, I can see why Roberts would want to play around with different genres and formats).
Anyway, he’s warm and funny and thoughtful when he talks with Dan Reed about the ways that recording and selling music has changed over the last decade or so. Specifically, he mentioned the “bugaboo” he has (god bless Canadians) with MP3s.
He’s not the first one to point out that condensing the vast sonic landscape of a real-world recording into a digital, saleable format has robbed music of its richness of sound.
Great Moments in Iron Mannification, Part 4
Posted in comic books, Threat Quality with tags Iron Man, Threat Quality on May 17, 2010 by braak
Tony Stark is so cool that he can make, “I’ll just have water, thanks” sound swanky.
Listen:
Posted in Threat Quality with tags Braak on May 17, 2010 by braakI don’t have anything good today. I’ve got a week and a half to finish writing a play that I have to perform in August. I am not super happy with it at the moment. Hopefully, sitting around and drinking whiskey will solve this problem, but I’m not making any promises.
Let’s see, what’s a good thing to look at? Oh, here:
Hark, A Vagrant! Kate Beaton’s history webcomic. It is regularly hilarious, though sometimes it’s about Canadian history, which makes it hilariously obscure. Here are some favorites:
