Kevin Church, The Website Guy, is one of my favorite comic-related bloggers. His BeaucoupKevin.com regularly provides me with daily entertainment.
He recently wrote an "An Open Letter To Comics Fans" that practically screams, with minor revision of context, at Transformer fans. Hell... it applies to most fandoms in general.
I guess the TF trigger was...
While I'm at it, if you're getting excited over Watchmen as a two-hour movie, then go fuck yourself. No, really, go ahead and do it now - I'll wait. Superhero comics have their very own Finnegans Wake and The Crying of Lot 49 rolled into one, beautiful piece of work and you want to see it raped and reduced to a 120-minute running time? What the hell is wrong with you? Support the medium, not the bastardization thereof.I completely understand this from a Watchmen point of view.
And I can totally apply this to toy-geek-based-stuff being turned into Hollywood-fare.
I'm guilty of supporting Hasbro spewing out TF shit just because it is TF shit.
That's changed a lot over the past 6 months or so and I'm thankful for that.
Then again, looking at this diatribe, comics are their own beast from toys but the strange adult fandom that has crept up around children's toys is pretty much complementary to the comics adult fandom.
Alas, I've been a part of both worlds and all I can say is we are a very very scary lot indeed.
Note: Kevin's post was inspired by this Gizmodo post which is insanely great.
For the state of Hollywood and comic-based movies, look no further to the announcement of Ghost Rider 2.
Oh, and a thought - Australia is currently removing bloodthirsty M-rated video game titles - ostensibly to "...Protect the children."
...even though the average age of gamers is about to turn the *thirty* threshold.
Maybe the supposed things of childhood - comics, cartoons, toys, video games - are quickly being redefined by the latest generations as open to all? Maybe it's time not to feel so bad about embracing the allure of plastic crack. :)
Hollywood still has its head in its arse though.
We're only scary when we ask to be taken seriously, and despite the number of us running around publicly, there are closet members of the "brotherhood of adult comics people" everywhere. I've had random discussions with completely professional looking people on the Subway about whether or Not Kyle was a better GL than Hal, or why I didn't mind "the Breaking of Batman" but hated "the Death of Superman". (I've also had those conversations with guys who looked like they just woke up in the gutter.) Besides, if someone tells me "From Hell" or "LXG" was a really good movie, I'm gonna tell them why they're wrong and cite examples. Simple as that.
It doesn't work so much for TFs, though, because despite the crossover there's nothing essentially "adult" about TFs. I mean, MP-01 is obviously not for kids, but it doesn't carry the same sense of gravitas that something like Watchmen or Planetary does, y'know?
And does it louse up my argument that I was reading stuff like Watchmen and Maus when I was 9?
Frowny: I would like to think that many TFs have multiple merits; in design, in engineering, in implementation and execution; and as an educational device.
That the greater society fails to recognise the artistic and progressive significance of such items is more a failure of society; but it is also nothing new.
In decades to come, comics and TFs will gain greater recognition for their benefits, and society will instead find new moral panics - no doubt the addictive and escapist qualities of virtual reality, or the impending destruction of humanity at the crushing claws of robot interlopers.
JOP: What are you smoking and where can I get some?
Nala: It is, of course, Friday. Or as we like to call it around here, "Margarita Day." I think that might be it. :)
Seriously though; a lot of the love / hate relationship with plastic crack stems from the fact that the ever-present shadow of society has deemed these objects, in their eyes, as things for children.
Therefore by coveting them, we feel guilty in the eyes of society. (That and the fact that purchases of ultra-rare Lucky Draw TFs aside, dropping thousands of dollars monthly on toys might be excessively unhealthy and unhealthily excessive.)
But seriously... this is just like a watered-down moral panic. Rock and roll corrupts our youth; comic books, marijuana and video games inspire our teens to acts of senseless violence. Dungeons and Dragons? Hah! Should be called "Dungeons of Satan!"
And TFs are for children. God forbid for one moment an adult might find some sort of aesthetic satisfaction in a 1:29 representation of Optimus Prime. :P
So yeah; the TF collectors and comic fans are 'scary' insomuch as they are little-understood and representatives of otherwise unrepresented artforms; but the wheel turns and in time, this burden will be passed on to new forms of art and entertainment. Sucks to be them. :)