Oct.13-19 - More Returns and Changes

Strange Attractors

I want to point out two sites I have in one or another section of my blogroll over on the right, each of which deserves a highlight. Each initially might seem to be a narrow focus, but the interest of the author comes through in each case to demonstrate that it's broader and more detailed a subject than you might have thought.

No snubs intended to the multitude of sites I'm not mentioning -- I have so many in the blog roll for various reasons -- but these two are ones that I haven't noted in posts before, one because it wasn't there before this week.

One spot I always enjoy visiting is Exclamation Mark's Vintage SciFi/Horror Review. If you're a fan of sci-fi/horror movies, particularly older ones and B-movies, then you'll find enough material over there to keep you browsing for a long time.

It's a marvelously well-organized site, with an alphabetical listing, a direct search window and movie reviews archived by decade - down to individual years for the 1950s and '60s. Go hunting for some movie you haven't seen in years or just stroll through the site, looking for something you never saw or simply forgotten. Mark's done and continues to do a superb job of providing both his own perspectives on each film and occasionally some behind-the-scenes elements, remaining respectiful of each movie as something that has its unique place in the universe, even when he doesn't happen to think much of it.

If you, like me, have fond memories of the movies your local horror host (for me it was Dr. Shock) or Chiller Theatre or whatever it may have been called in your area showed you each Saturday, then Mark's site should be on your list.

A very recent addition to the web and to my links is actually a collection point for a series of pieces, almost all of which concern comic books, written several years ago but which have since lost their place on the web: Martian Vision. The title arose from the author choosing John Jones (J'onn J'onzz), DC's Martian Manhunter, as a pseudonym at the time. I've lost track of what he really wants to be called online these days.

He's in the process of repackaging many of the pieces -- sometimes writing what amount to forewords for them, as they were written more than a few years ago -- so it's an archive under construction. Even so, there's already a broad swath of pieces, hitting on fundamental comics elements such as continuity, -- actually doing so in two other pieces (Thanks for the corrections, H) - and the problems with timelines that constantly try to place this month's story in the present. Specific pieces on characters who are personal favrorites of the author such as the Black Panther, Hawkman , Vision and Hank Pym are in the mix, too, along with a piece on the comics pro he hates the most.

This is the sort of material that comics fans have always kicked around, albeit usually more casually, save that it's concentrated as one fan holds forth on each topic of interest to himself.

The pieces are written in a generally unapologetic style -- something the author makes note of at various junctures -- that will likely tickle you when you agree with his points and outrage you when you don't.

The important elements to keep in mind while reading any of the articles is that even when he's (and it'll feel frequent) heaping abuse on some effort, event, decision or person, it's because he cares about the underlying topic.

If, in some of the stronger pieces, you find yourself heating under the collar as you read, if you find yourself screaming "Holy Fucking God in Hell, what is this guy's problem?!" well, remember that at least some of this, too, is because you care. If all else fails, you have that in common with him, and over the years I've found that point of commonality is a critical one. Contrast that with the blank stares (at best) one's likely to get if one brings up a comics topic to most of the people you know.

Happily, the community of comics fans at least thusfar continues to roll on, and while some of us might seem destined to eternally disagree with each other across what seem to be generational divide I've been around long enough to see attitudes evolve and change. The barbarians of one era, rolling in like vikings to gleefully rape and pillage an established city, laughing at the quaint, slow, time-ripened populace, eventually become the solid citizens of a new city and come to have a very different view of the destructive, iconoclastic actions of the next wave of invaders. Part of the task of the older fans is to help the younger ones gain some perspective, and the task of the younger fans is to help reignite some spark of fervor in the old guys and to remind them how to see characters and stories with fresh eyes.

Sometimes it's more a matter of style, as when I came to realize that much as the grotesque posing and ridiculously over-inflated bustlines, angry mouths and space-gobbling illustrations of the Image Age wave of comics art that so did (and does) appall me, so, too was the reaction of many a '50s/early '60s era comics fan who was used to the DC heroes of that time when Marvel hit the scene and brought hyperbolic poses, forced perspectives and disproportionate renderings in the name of emotional content and sheer excitement... but those are topics for another post.

Comment, agree, disagree or simply react (in brief or at length) on whichever pieces catch your eye. That's what the pieces are there for. There's a great deal up already at Martian Vision and more on the way.