Art Or History?

Synopsis

Nazis force a Czech Jew artist to paint images of Gypsies being led to their deaths. She survives, eventually becoming a Disney animator. Years later, she finds out that the paintings are on exhibit at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland. She wants them back. The Museum says no. Comic artists come to her defense ...

That's the story in a nutshell. Rarely does our professional life (museums) and personal interests (comics, among others) dovetail so well.

An article in yesterday's LA Times does a nice job of encapsulating the issue.

Here's Our Opinion

The Museum should give her back the art! Play nice. Perhaps you can broker a deal to get back some or all of the art upon her death. Perhaps not. We don't see this as any different from art stolen from private Jewish collectors that has been the subject of so many controversies over the last 20 + years. This case is unique. Stop hiding behind the potential precedent and do the right thing. Get high quality scans done. Exhibit them. Tell the whole story as to why there are prints on exhibit and not the originals. It's a very engaging story that your visitors and most likely the bulk of survivors and their descendents would appreciate. Take the high road. The Nazis certainly didn't.

What Can You Do?

The U.S. State Dept. is reportedly involved, though with Poland one of the few "coalition of the willing" in Iraq, we suppose the U.S. won't push them too hard and risk poisoning Polish public opinion. Call your elected official and ask them to work on the artist's behalf.

Why Do We Care?

We're not the heartless bastards you think we are. We like art and we hate to see real artists screwed (PUTTING ON ART SNOB HAT: Except for maybe Wyland and Thomas Kinkaid, where the "real artist" designation is debatable). We work in museums and we don't like it when museums take advantage of individuals, as in this case, or of nations, as in the case with the British Museum and Greece, regardless of their protestations.

Inappropriate Spectre Panel

Hope he's using protection. From What WERE They Thinking?

Inappropriate Batman Panel

We think it speaks for itself. From the dastardly denizens over at Superdickery.

David Mack's Cross Bronx Cover

Thanks to the David Mack Guide for clueing us into the fact that David Mack is the cover artist for issue #4 of Cross Bronx. Written by Michael Avon Oeming, Cross Bronx is a crime story with a heady dose of mystical santeria. We've been reading it all along and are very excited to see that Mack, our favorite artist consistently working in comics today, did the above cover. The issue is scheduled to be released a week from today, but note that original release dates can be very unreliable. Issue #3 ended in quite the cliffhanger and we can't see what's going to happen.

Just a reminder, Mack is doing the covers for the White Tiger miniseries (issue #1 was released a few weeks ago). The first was gorgeous and we liked the story too. Give it a look-see.

Ass Cancer Cabaret

Thanks to Dial The Operator for introducing us to the wonders of Kiki and Herb. A cabaret act about Ass Cancer. Who can ask for anything more? We must go to NYC and see this show. The New York Times described their Kiki and Herb: Alive on Broadway show as "a hyper magnified cabaret concert that has the heat and dazzle of great balls of fire." Now you know you want to see it too.

Vertigo's Preacher Heads To HBO

Should be fun. Newsarama has the specifics here.

Zombies File Lawsuit

It's so funny, it speaks for itself. Read the specifics over at Boing Boing. We're rooting for the zombies. You?

Comics You Should Hide From Your Mother, Along With Your Weed, Porn, And Cat Fancy Magazine Backissues

Comix-Fan posted lists of the Top 10 Comics To Hide From Your Mother. That inspired us to come out with our own list 10+. To be sure, we don't tend to get the most objectionable comics, but we have our share. Here's our top 11 (why not 11?) in no particular order whatsoever.

Codename Knockout: Sexy over-sexed superspy with her hyper-sexed gay sidekick. It's like the WeHo version of Mission Impossible (but the kind where the star is out of the closet).


Bigger Dicks: Scat, semen, and violent humor. Yeah, that's right up mom's alley.

Punisher: Kill, kill, kill. Run mom, run.


Lost Girls: Mom does not need to see the XXX sexual escapades of her favorite fairy tale characters. Hell, we don't even want to see a sex scene in a "Hallmark Hall of Fame" movie while in the same room as her.

Girls: Cannibalistic cloned naked women who bed every man in sight. If that's not bad enough, there's the giant woman-ingesting sperm in the cornfield. The series is like a really whacked out episode of X-Files on shrooms (not that we'd know anything about that).

Fallen Angel: Catholic mom does not need to hear a rational reason as to why God doesn't care about us and never really did, thank you very much, regardless of how well written and painted the series is.

Lone Wolf and Cub: So violent that mom's would barf. As much as we would love it and its historical sensibilities, she would be turned off. In a moment of weakness we did consider showing her the films ... but then thought better of that.

The Filth: We didn't really understand this comic set in some sort of bizarro post-apocalyptic world that would be deemed extra-raunchy by even denizens of the French Quarter. It sure made us feel dirty.

Wanted: Violent and cruel, yes. However, it would not have made the list were it not for the last page. Haven't read it? Do yourself a favor and put it on your Christmas list for mom to buy for you without knowing the depths to which she is sending you.

Battle Pope: Our Catholic mothers would not approve of a wisecracking hyper-sexed Pope with next to no luving for piety. And he loves guns, particularly the kind that leave lots of carnage.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: There's one aspect in particular that makes this one a never see for our mums. The Anal rape of Invisible Man by Mr. Hyde. And the sick thing is, you're kinda cheering for Mr. Hyde.

Sadly, our mothers have gotten wind of this blog. The cat's now out of the blog. But we don't want to hear any harping moms as we warned you the commentary here may not be mother-approved. Hell no! Fuck that shit, goddamn it!

Ralphie Now Shooting Eyes Out With Pulsar Blasts

It turns out that Peter Billingsley who played Ralphie in A Christmas Story is an executive producer on the upcoming Iron Man film. Who knew?

DC Announces Ridiculously Named MINX Line Of Comics Geared Towards Girls

Is it just us, or does this seem wrong? According to our Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a minx is defined as:

1 : a pert girl
2 : a wanton woman

Dear (INSERT FAVORITE DEITY/BELIEF SYSTEM HERE), what marketing genius decided that a word that's synonym colloquially translates as "slut" would be appropriate for this line?

Admit it. You don't know what pert means either. Not to worry. We looked it up for you. It's defined as:

1 a : saucily free and forward : flippantly cocky and assured b : being trim and chic: Jaunty (a pert little hat) c : piquantly stimulating (is a pert notion)
2 : lively, vivacious

Not so bad there, except for the trim and chic part. Way to set a high bar when it comes to body image and "style" (which is all too often tied to socioeconomic status, something that the target audience would likely be unable to impact).

DC, you deserve all the crap you get for this one. Next time, consult a thesaurus. And since I have your attention, Infinite Crisis was a big let down.

R.I.P. Dave Cockrum

Legendary Uncanny X-Men artist Dave Cockrum passed away last week. Newsarama has a brief article here. Cockrum's art is one of a handful of artists who drew me into comics (pun intended) when I was a wee one. For that I am ever grateful.

Shady Pines Superhero Retirement Home

Thanks to Tits McGee over at tits list for pointing the way to these awesome photos. She found it somewhere over at Boing Boing. Since we couldn't find the post over there, here's the link to all the pix by artist Gilles Barbier. The activity director did want me to remind everyone that tonight's vegetable will be creamed okra and that group canasta will begin promptly at 6:3o PM.

Ratboy Attacks

Enjoy laughing. We know we did.

Newsflash: Bette Davis Rises From The Dead

Lock the doors and hide the gin.

Mister Fanboy Blogging Milestone

Today we reached a mini-milestone here. We've had over 5000 distinct visitors since May. Sure, that's not much to brag about considering some of the other blogs out there. But then again, we're not sharing porn with you all (here, but in the relative darkness of an alley, that's a different story). So thanks to all of you that have wasted valuable work time here. We appreciate it. We like to think we've done our little part in reducing the productivity of American workers, thereby impacting the overall GDP. Yeah for us. If we had $1 for each visitor, we'd be on vacation right now. This blog keep adapting. If there's something out there that you want to see, let us know and we'll see what we can do.

Match Game: Ode To A Great Show

Remember Match Game when it was on originally? Probably not, as the quintessential 70s game show has been off the air since 1982. We have vague memories of it as children, though we tended to enjoy Price is Right, Tic Tac Dough, Press Your Luck, and Joker's Wild the most at the time. That's because Match Game was really geared toward adults. These days, Match Game is seen daily on the Game Show Network. A marathon begins tonight on the channel - that's in 30 short minutes for you East Coasters. And then, tomorrow night at 8 PM you can get the behind the scenes lowdown on the ribald show. Yes, we said ribald. That's because it's a bit naughty and, regardless of how much they protest, the celebrity guests were more than a little drunk and host Gene Rayburn does nothing but encourage their behavior (yeah Gene!). Just today, there was a great article in the Los Angeles Times about the show. Below, you'll find pics of some of our favorite celebrity "personalities" from the show. So if you're not familiar with the show, or it's been a while since you've been acquainted with it, what are you waiting for? Now's your chance.

Is Galactus Real Mommy?

Does God exist? Perhaps its a goddess. Is Santa Claus giving us toys or is he a plant for the chimney sweeping industry? Does the Tooth Fairy steal children? Does the Easter Bunny really pass VD? All questions for the ages, to be sure. Sysm, one of our eagle-eyed viewers sent us this link where denizens from the Marvel Universe discuss Galactus, Eater of Worlds, our place in the universe, and some pretty crass faux commercialism. Check out Galactus is Coming.

What Were The Heroes Thankful For?

Now that everyone in the US is coming off their tryptophan and sugar highs, it's best to consider what our favorite costumed heroes are thankful for. Well, perhaps it's not best, but well timed instead. Regardless, I-Mockery has polled some of the better known superheroes to find out what they were thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Our favorite?

Did you just say 'Thanksgiving' to me? Did you? You'd best get the fuck out of my face before I carve you like a turkey.

Comics Crossing Cultural Boundaries

This morning, National Public Radio's Morning Edition program did a story looking at how comics are beginning to work their way into Arab literature and and vice versa. Willingham's 1001 Nights of Snowfall and new work by a Kuwaiti author are discussed. Listen.

PJ Harvey - Just Because

We picked up her new Peel Sessions album, and no surprise, we loved it. She's our favorite rock goddess working today. Some men are put off by strong women like her. Not us. Enjoy.

Dazzler For Amy

Who is this Amy and why does she need Dazzler? Developing ...

No seriously, there is a reason. Check out this link at Arrogant Self-Reliance and then join in the discussion. It's a great, thoughtful blog.

Invitation: Stilt Man's Wake

A few weeks ago, we got word that Marvel might be offing our favorite useless villain, Stilt Man. In an attempt to save him, we asked those interested to please sign an online petition to prevent his untimely death. Fast forward one week later and not one of you bothered to sign it. Always willing to embrace mob rule, we then gave Marvel explicit permission to kill off Stilt Man. Because we clearly have lots of pull in the Marvel editorial offices, they have decided to take us up on our offer and kill our Stitly. How do we know? For one, we are not stupid. Besides that, we ran across the solicitation for a February issue of Punisher: War Journal #4. By the way, it appears that Punisher may have killed two villains in Civil War #5, released today. Here's the solicitation that we mentioned above (above photo from there as well).

PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #4 Written by MATT FRACTION Pencils and Cover by MIKE DEODATO "Small Wake for a Tall Man" In the ashes of CIVIL WAR comes this modest service for its tallest victim -- the stainless steel sultan of stretch, Stilt Man! In a sleazy pub, Frank Castle's first super-victim is laid out on the tables, his life and legacy celebrated by a veritable who's who of Marvel villains that come to pay their respects, not just for a fallen friend, but for a lost way of life. Raise a glass, friends, and join us in this year's MUST SEE funeral! Even Spider-Man's gonna be there!

X4?

Buried deep within the Atomic Comics email update, we found this little tidbit of information, that's probably been floating out there for a while.

Brian Singer confirmed the producers of X-Men 4 asked him to return to the director’s chair, but he declined because the shooting would conflict with the filming of the sequel to Superman Returns. However, Singer did say he’d be interested in taking the reins for the planned Wolverine spin-off film which could better fit his schedule.


Makes you wonder, huh?

Simpson's Movie Trailer

Check it out here. We can't wait. We love the show. The trailer's great. It's still one of the best shows in the TeeVee after all these years.

Girls To End With Issue 24

Oh no! Where will be get our fix of giant deadly sperm.

Newsarama has the specifics here. Trades are available of Girls now if you want to catch up. We strongly suggest you do. Created by the Luna Brothers, the same creative team behind the surpisingly different Ultra, the series looks at a town that is cut off from the world by an invisible "bubble." Meanwhile, mysterious cloned women hatched from eggs stalk the women killing them, and having sex with the men, which in turn creates more eggs. At the same time, there's a deadly giant sperm in a cornfield. Super strange- yes -- but the best part of the series are the reactions by the seemingly normal towns people. Some of them go off the deep end. Check it out now.

Vote

Don't be a dumbass. If you live in the US, vote tomorrow. If you haven't registered, do it early for next time. We voted absentee this year since we learned early last week that we will be jetting off to lands afar tomorrow.

In related news, our Editorial Offices, in turmoil since the attack in space several weeks ago, are scouting out properties in three different states over the next 9 days. As such, we may be relocating. Stay tuned.

You Have Not Spoken: Kill Stilt Man

A week ago we posted Save Stilt Man, about the apparent upcoming Punisher that appeared to take him out once and for good. Well, it's been a week and NO ONE wants to save him. That leads us to believe that you want him dead. And since we're all about mob rule, we give Marvel the go ahead to kill the character that they've probably already decided to off.



Still ambivalent about the whole thing? Perhaps the above pic will change your mind. Look at what he does to women! And Black Widow doesn't seem to care! fromm Daredevil #102 and found over at What WERE They Thinking?

A New Era In Race Relations

And what, pray tell, does whitey smell like? From Daredevil #224 and found over at What WERE They Thinking?

Black Widow - Plastic Surgery?

Is it just us, or are her breasts particularly perky? We better not say that out loud - she may kick us in the crotch like that guy.

We live in one of those towns where people from LaLa Land come to get "work done." Saturdays, when we're downtown, we run into many a plastic surgery nightmare -- usually women and most likely out and about for the 1st time since the bandages were removed. Although they wouldn't be caught dead out in public in their hometowns, somehow they think it perfectly fine to scare us locals with their frighteningly puffy, scarred and blackened faces.

We're not sure how we feel about plastic surgery. In general, it's way too popular for vanity reasons. Of course, there are many rational reasons to get it. When we see breasts bounce in unison - we're kind of creeped out. And don't even get us started on puffy lips.

From Daredevil #122 and found over at What WERE They Thinking?

UPDATED: New Creative Team On Aquaman: Sword Of Atlantis

Write Kurt Busiek will be replaced by Tad Williams beginning on issue #50. As was previously announced, artist Shawn McManus (earlier reportes stated artist Paul Gulacy) will be taking over the drawing duties as well. Read the Newsarama story here. Yes, we still admit we regularly purchase Aquaman titles. The previous reboot we really liked, where San Diego is sunk with its surviving citizens becoming water breathers. This one is interesting too, kind of like Camelot meets Atlantis, taking place after the destruction of Atlantis during the Infinite Crisis storyline, but we're unsure of where it will end up. Either way, we're a sucker for the guy who claims dominion over 70% of the livable space on this planet.