Re: "Ethnic Images in the Comics" posts...

You'll note that over the last few days I've shared with you Nemo #28 and their spotlight on "Ethnic Images in the Comics" and I've done so without any commentary from myself. I did so partially because it can be a sticky subject talking about different ethnicity's and I wanted to present the comics and Nemo's editorials without my usual rambling muddling things up.

I have many things I can say about the priceless contributions people of all countries have brought to all things American and I could lay out shopping lists of the value of both the positive and the negative stereotypes that we look back on disdainfully. They both served their purpose and what we are now is seasoned with all good things and bad things of our past.

Irish stereotypes in Maggie and Jiggs were laid out by Irishman George McManus. The German shenanigans of The Katzenjammers came from German Rudolph Dirks. All manner of what we would now see as racist or anti-Semitic Jewish stereotypes come from the pen of Rube Goldberg, Milt Gross and many others. I feel in some way the stereotypes are born from the artist trying to find his own way in the world...not in judgement over a culture or in ridicule of their own.

Like I said. I kept my commentary to myself. Though I can pinpoint exactly where my heritage is and show exactly where my branch on my family tree came from...German, Austrian, French, Irish, Scottish and Chippewa...I am a 7th generation American, white bread through and through. I am a straight, Caucasian, male between the ages of 18 and 55 and am therefore in the only demographic not defended by any organization and the only group who (by law) cannot sue other people for hurting my feelings. And no one cares OR SHOULD care about my opinions on what the immigrant life experience is.

It was coincidence that my posts were around Martin Luther King, Jr Day. A happy happenstance. Dr. King dreamt of a day where his children would be judged by their character and not by color of skin or belief system. It's coming. It's just taking a while. I dream of it too.

And that's why I shut up for 5 days. Man, it was tough.

Talk to you soon.

In the History of Time of The Mesoamerican Calender - Steven Slater is My Hero of the Day!

You all know about the pre-Colombian calender? The Mesoamerican Long Count Calender? You know, the one that ancient Mayans and other cultures followed that some knuckleheads say predict the end of the world on December 21, 2012? Yeah, that's the one!

Yes it does count up to a round number that coincides with 12/21/12 on our Gregorian Calender, but it also coincides with August 11, 3114 BCE as being the date that the world was created.

HAPPY 5,124th BIRTHDAY WORLD!!!

Now, on to what I wanted to tell you about.

Didja all hear about Steven Slater? The former JetBlue Flight Attendant who quit his job with panache on Monday?

More importantly, he told rude, snotty, self-entitled folk everywhere to take a flying leap and lightened the heart's of all of us with a service industry job every where.

There are lots of different accounts of what happened and you can do your own research and draw your own conclusions, but here's how it played out from what I can gather...

Two female passengers caused a bit of disturbance early in the flight at not having sufficient room for their carry-on bags. When the plane landed it started again, when their bags were not returned to them immediately on landing and in a struggle to get their bags down, words were exchanged again between the Flight Attendant (Steven Slater) and the passenger and one bag fell or was brought down from the overhead in a way that struck the attendant on the head. Steven Slater then gathered his wits, walked to the PA system, announced something like, "I have been in this industry for 20 years. To all of you who have shown dignity and respect, thank you it's been a nice ride. To that motherfucker who just told me to 'fuck off'....fuck you!" Then he lowered the emergency ramp out of the side of the plane, grabbed two beers out of the galley and slid on down and went home.

That's a helluva exit!

Just yelling "Take this job and shove it!" is NOT what makes Slater my newest hero. That's a path that's going to make things hard on himself, and other than his minor celebrity in the short term, it's not going to put food on his table.

What makes him a hero to me is the statement it made to the woman. Here's how it plays out with more hyperbole in my head, if I can fill in the blanks of the story based on what I know about humans.

Two female passengers boarded a plane after a weekend getaway where they didn't get laid. The frustrated pair of $27,000 a year "office administrators" were feeling all the self-entitlement and importance afforded them by their $89 plane ticket and years of Oprah and her politically correct minions telling them that "every soccer player deserves a trophy, every one's a winner! Especially YOU!!!" and were pissed that they hadn't been treated as royalty when they brought a bunch of carry-on bags on the over-booked flight, and there wasn't convenient space to shove the 3 pair of shoes they bought to console themselves for their sexually dry weekend. They decide to take out their frustrations on the over-worked $27,000 a year Flight Attendant. He tells them to "fuck off" because their parents never told them to more simply "mind your manners".

First mistake and a prevalent one indeed in this challenged economy.

There's no money. So companies and corporations, big and small are lowering prices so consumers will use their product and services. Lower incomes for employers mean lower incomes for employees and they demand even LOWER prices on the goods and services they need or desire. It's an economy in adjustment and it's a frustrating cycle. An unfortunate side-effect is, people bartering for lower prices also want to barter for more value in what they receive. We all do it. But aren't we the same ones who want to get paid more for what WE do? How does it settle itself? I don't know. But it seems futile to me.

We demand lower cost air travel and receive it from the airlines to get our business. Seems logical until you realize that we're demanding that a company which runs a giant piece of metal that flies (say this over to yourself...you get in a chair and somebody FLIES you to where you want to be...through the air...actually FLIES you there, numskull) to do it on the cheap. And then after it succeeds in hurling you across a great distance we have the nerve to complain that someone didn't wipe our ass for us and that it wasn't all-inclusive in the $89 you paid for not being killed.

When you order a fast food hamburger from Burger King, you are NOT allowed to complain or be abusive to the kid behind the counter if it isn't "up to snuff". You opted for cheap, NOT good. Take it and be on your way. There is no open grill in the back making you fresh food made from quality ingredients. There are flash frozen burger patties that were cooked 3 weeks ago in a factory umpteen miles away with "genuine artificial charcoal flavouring added" and a couple of $8 an hour employees microwaving them and passing them to you.

You are not allowed to go to Subway on Fridays and order the "lobster salad" sandwich on "artisan bread" for $5 and pride yourself on being a gourmand. That ain't lobster people. I don't know what kind of gelatinized-to-lobster-like-texture substance it is, but if you're rude to your $8 an hour sandwich maker behind the counter, I can guess a couple of other ingredients have been added to make it "-salad".

When one of my clients comes to me after demanding they get special pricing and pay 1/10 the retail price for my goods and services, they are NOT entitled to get huffy in the same breath and complain that my services are not offered around the clock or on Sundays.

You want cheap or you want good. You can find a compromise and we'll have to, to make it out of this "global economic crisis". But you can't have both.

Especially frustrating to find a solution when we're all in the same boat...or plane together.

Steven Slater is my hero, not because he gave up, or told the boss to shove his job. He's my hero because he told a couple of people to "mind their manners."

And he did it with panache and aplomb.

Mind your manners everyone. We're all in this together. Nobody gets treated like they think they deserve to all the time. Get over it.

Oh, and don't be stressed about that calender and the end of the world. It's just ONE round number it get's to in 2012. There's more coming up in 2407, 2801, 3195, 3590, 3984, 4378 and 4772.

And to the army of Human Resources drones that are flooding out to every corner of JetBlue and other airlines to give "sensitivity classes" to your workers. You're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. One that our $89 plane tickets won't cover the cost of.

Here's a John Prine song I dedicate today to Steven Slater and everyone who's done being pushed around by people feeling the same pain as us.



Talk to you soon!

The Much Sought After and Highly Coveted Kreativ Blogger Award

HEY! Looka what I got!!

Ah, acknowledgement from my peers...or my betters, however you look at it is nicccccccce!

Ivan G. Shreve Jr. over at his happy blog Thrilling Days of Yesteryear, has generously nominated humble little me for the Kreative Blogger Award and I couldn't be more proud. For those not familiar with Mr. Shreve's little corner of the World Wide Interwebs..."shame on you"! It's a wonderful daily (oft-times more) blog that's much more than your standard film or DVD reviews. Ivan let's us feel like we're watching classic films right beside him, experiencing his recent convalescence, his Mom's home-care and anything else in his daily life.

There are rules to accepting this prize, which I will happily abide by, which I will attend to once I hang this in my trophy room!

Looks verrrrry good indeed...now, down to brass tacks!

A. You must thank the person who nominated you for the award. Done and done!

B. Copy the award logo and place it on your blog. Proudly displayed, thank you!

C. Link the person who has nominated you for the award. Remember before when I was talking about how good Ivan's blog is? Be sure and hit that hotlink...you'll thank me later!

D. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting. Only 7??? Oh well, I guess I can edit.

1. Someday I want to change my name to John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt. Then his name will be my name too.

2. I have the strength of 10 men, the recuperative powers of Wolverine and the medical documentation to prove it!

3. Though I have had life-long unrequited crushes on the following (listed with reasons things would never work out), Betty Crocker (too matronly a figure for deep romance) Sarah Lee (she's got an attitude - she thinks that nobody doesn't like her) and Mrs. Butterworth (forbidden love...MR. Butterworth would never approve) ---- I am really saving myself and my hand in marriage for Little Debbie...if she ever grows up.

4. I believe that if God (The Flying Spaghetti Monster) had intended us to be vegetarians, he wouldn't have made cows and pigs so delicious!

5. If I were to ever have plastic surgery, it would be to add a prehensile tail. Oh, and maybe a blow-hole in the back of my neck so I would never have to come up for air...you know...for the ladies.

6. I believe that the meaning of life (i.e. "what it's all about") is "The Hokey Pokey". I mean, it's right there in the song people!

7. If there's one thing I've learned, it's you can't teach me anything.

E. Nominate seven (7) other "Kreativ Bloggers". THIS is a tough one. If you take a gander over at my blog roll "Other Blogs I Like to Read" you can see I have many, many favorites and seem to find more with every passing week. But if I were to have to choose, here's some that I highly recommend you take the time to check out.

1. Hungry Comix - Lysdexicuss I've learned more about typewriters than I ever thought I could know from his Screen savers!

2. Stripper's Guide - Allan Holtz A comic strip researcher who leaves no stone unturned. Things he's come across while working on other projects, he posts for us to appreciate. Comic strip "News of Yore" news bits and long lost George Herriman every Saturday...well worth a gander!

3. Golden Age Comic Book Stories - Mr. Door Tree Some of the most beautiful scans of a grand array of art, not just for the comic book story lover.

4. Comics Make No Sense - Adam Barnett Musings on the stories, characters and dialogue that raised us all. One of the funniest things I come across every day!

5. The Big Blog of Kids Comics - Mykal Banta At last count Mykal is doing 7 blogs...whew...and every one of them is a pleasure. This has got to be my favorite though, pure un-adulterated, good, clean, fun comics. I feel 30 years younger and carefree with every post.

6. Art, Movies, Wood and Whatnot - Artman2112 A guy with a penchant for Clara Bow AND Woodworking.

7. Hey Look What I Found the Art of Michael Wurl - Michael Wurl - Self described "Artist, writer & musician... also a comic book enthusiast and bon vivant ne'er do well blessed with a rapscallionesque savoir faire.

Seriously...they're VERY worth your time. Read them now and thank me twice later.

F. Leave a comment on each of their blogs to let them know they've been nominated. I'm off to take care of that NOW!

G. Sell all your worldly belongings, shave your head and swear total allegiance to the all-powerful Lettuce God, Icebergeron. Hmmmph. I'll meet you a 3rd of the way there.

There's ALWAYS a catch!

See y'all tomorrow!

My Head Must Be Loose! I Forgot Dr. Seuss!

Born March 2, 1904, Theodore Geisel would be 106 years old today...you know him better as Dr. Seuss.

Geisel was born in Springfield, Mass. and was the son of a German immigrant who had inherited the family brewery...one month before prohibition began. sigh.

He showed an early penchant for cartooning, and as a student at Dartmouth College, he contributed regularly to the college humor magazine "The Jack O Lantern", eventually becoming it's editor-in-chief. One day he was caught in his dorm room with a few friends enjoying that juniper berry flavored ambrosia known to the hoi polloi as gin. Again, this was during prohibition and he was punished by the school by being banned from all extra-curricular activities...including the "Jack O Lantern".

Being a proper German heritage-drunken-cartoonist-rebel (ya gotta love us) he continued his work there under his mothers maiden name. "Seuss". After he graduated, his work that appeared there was properly signed "Dr. Seuss".

The rest is history.

You all of course know the bulk of the good Dr.'s work. The author/illustrator of maybe the most beloved children's books known to man. "The Cat in the Hat", "Green Eggs & Ham", "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish", "Yertle the Turtle", "Horton Hears a Who" and "...Hatches the Egg", "The 500 Hats of "Bartholomew Cubbins" and on and on, including the perennial "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" are amazingly, just a few of the titles under his hat. I thought I'd run down some of his other work, outside the children's book medium.

One area I've just learned about, is his work in the advertising field in the mid-1930's. His most successful being for an insecticide named "Flit".

Apparently his catchphrase "Quick Henry...The Flit!" became quite a national phenom in it's day. More on this as I keep filling my head.

Another foray in the 1930's was his attempt at a newspaper comic strip. Called "Hejji" this strip on ran for a brief time in 1935. It's great to see the few examples I've seen. His work was so often relegated to economic 2 color printing in his children's books, it's nice to see his wonderfully quirky style in glorious 4-color.

Shortly after, he wrote the first of those great books you all know.

"And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street" is really fitting for a first I think. A cannon that eventually took us to so many amazing worlds and lands unlike our own, and the wonder of this book is all the amazing things you can see just outside your own front door. For all his metered rhymes and basic words that taught us all how to read, this kind of stuff is what I most appreciate learning from him.

Amazing things are everywhere!

A book that he produced later taught us all, that life is an adventure. Don't just take what is handed to you as "that's all there is"...those sights on Mulberry Street and more are everywhere that life takes us.

Open your eyes kid. Life is fun. It's not about paperwork.

SIDEBAR: One JO's Opinion:

This is not really about Dr. Seuss, but he reminded me of it. Something that's been sticking in my craw of late. If you don't care to hear it, skip down to the next bunch of blue letters and pick up where I left off.

For all you administrators and bureaucrats and management types out there. For all you drones out there who mindlessly and uncreatively live out your day by filling up the time until you die. To all you people proud of your "in" and "out" boxes filled with e-mails you uselessly printed out.

Listen closely.

Are you listening?

I'm serious, listen up.

Paperwork is NOT im-port-tant.

NOT. It really isn't.

No one is going to know that you signed and stamped and filed that piece of paper.

Ever.

It's' NOT going to matter.

Never.

Not in 100 years. Not in 10 years. Not next week. Not 10 minutes after you're done.

NOT im-port-tant!

It's never going to matter.

Ever.

Please continue existing ("living"'s too strong a word) as I suppose you have the right. Keep watching that clock...you'll be dead soon...don't worry.

But stop trying to convince me that what you do matters, one iota.

It doesn't.

BACK TO DR. SEUSS:

During WWII, Dr. Seuss worked for the war department making propaganda material. The war department commandeered the animators over at Warner Bros. to make some cartoons for the soldiers to warn against such things as rumors, spies and booby traps and lessons on how to protect yourself from things like malaria and VD.

Dr. Seuss was brought in to write the first of these. So he created an "everyman" soldier the boys over there could relate to. Private Snafu (Situation Normal, All Fucked Up) starred in a dozen or so cartoons that were marked classified until sometime in the mid 1990's, now they're available for all to enjoy.

Here's a couple:





Great stuff!

In the 1950's he created a character to be used by UPA studios and distributed by Columbia. Only 4 of these were ever made, but they were wildly popular. Here's the first.

Gerald McBoing Boing:

Dr. Seuss had a wonderfully complex and creative mind. We lost a lot when he passed away, luckily he left us a lot too.

He even wrote a book for us too old to read his books. He called it his "book for obsolete children", and it's titled "You're Only Old Once". Get it. If you're 30 or 50 or 70 years old, this book's for you.

And it's from a Dr., after-all.

Thanks Dr. Seuss! You had a helluva run.

You made our childhoods happy, your cartoons and rhymes were fun!

DR. SEUSS BONUS:

I feel bad that I was a day late with my post for Dr. Seuss, there are a lot of birthdays this week in my head and I guess he got swept under the rug. So here's one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books/animated TV specials, "The Lorax".

If you're hesitant about spending $18 to see "Avatar" in iMax 3D, just watch this...it's the same story.

Except Dr. Seuss did it first. And it rhymes.

Happy President's Day...kind of

My attempt at wishing the select few a happy 3 day weekend...I kind of get off track.



...oh well...I tried.

See ya tomorrow.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Had a Dream

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born this day in 1928.

On August 28, 1963...when I was but 20 days old, not even 3 weeks of age...Martin Luther King, Jr. gave one of the most important and well-spoken addresses ever given.

At the apex of a civil rights march on Washington, King stood before the world and told us of a dream he had. A dream in which his children would one day live in a world where they would be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

For a person to be judged by the content of character. Say it to yourself. Judged by the content of your character.

That would be a perfect way to be. Think of it.

You have no control over the color of your skin, your height, your physical beauty, your handicaps.

You have complete control over your character. The way you conduct yourself. The way you treat the people around you.

Your character is who you are. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be judged for that?

You should know by now that I am a practicing evangelical atheist. I speak in tongues, believe in no higher power than man's own mind and I think I can heal you anyway. Dr. King's character was above and beyond any religious affiliation, though. Like Gandhi said, "I like your Christ, but your Christians leave a lot to be desired"

I judge Dr. King by his character and the influence he had on an ugly world.

It's still ugly, but not for Dr. King's lack of trying. It's a brighter world that he left. A better world for the influence of his character.

SIDEBAR:

I hesitate to pollute my post about Dr. King with this, but there is the old concept that, we wouldn't know or appreciate the light without the dark, cleanliness without filth, God without the Devil. The humanity of Dr. King's philosophy may be celebrated by the contrast of what this jack off said yesterday!

Pat Robertson is a hate-monger, a manipulator, an opportunist, a prey-er on the spirit of man and in short, an ignorant shit-bag!-

The idea that in the year 2010 this raving asshole can go on TV and announce to the world that the poor people of Haiti were hit with a devastating earthquake because "they made a pact with the devil". is one thing. The part where millions of people are going to believe and support him is unconscionable.

I'd suggest that every member of The 700 Club be lobotomized, but I'm afraid I'm too late.

Hey Pat! I made a pact with the tooth fairy, some forest gnomes, 3 wood sprites and Santa's elves that if I ever meet you I'll kick your sorry ass!

I'm dredging this award out of retirement. Robertson and all your idiotic followers, you are "the smegma wads of the week"!

Your charcters have been judged!

END SIDEBAR:

We miss you Dr. King. We didn't mean to kill you.

I sure hope your dream doesn't die.

Unless the dream dies so it can become a reality.

Pixar News Flash! - One JO's Opinion

THIS JUST IN! Pixar Animation officially changes it's name!

To..."Our Movies DON'T Suck!"

Ok, it's not true. But they COULD and no one could argue with them! Pixar makes some of the best movies made today.

"Up" was released on DVD and BlueRay on Tuesday, the 10th Pixar feature and proof positive that their movies DON'T suck.

Some of the most multi-faceted and creative storytelling in the last 20 years has consistently come from this studio...do NOT be mistaken...they are NOT aimed just at kids.

Do NOT be confused by the competition. Other CGI films are released every couple of months or so, but to compare them with Pixar is to compare Hitchcock with Ed Wood...NOT the same animal.

Disney (Bolt, Chicken Little) and Blue Sky (Ice Age) make films which ARE aimed only at the kiddie-set. And DreamWorks (Shrek, Kung Fu Panda) releases kiddie-fare with simplistic, sophomoric humor thrown in to keep their "mook" parents happy.

But Pixar makes true film making gems. Do yourselves a favor...see and own them all.

"Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2"

"A Bugs Life"


"Monsters, Inc."

"Finding Nemo"

"The Incredibles"

"Cars"

"Ratatouille"

"Wall-E"

"Up"

Accept no substitutes. Don't let the "Meet the Robinsons" and "Shark Tale"'s of the world fool you.

Only Pixar offers the "Jeff Overturf Stamp of Approval of Great Storytelling".

This has been "One JO's Opinion"!

One JO's Opinion: "Trying to reason with terrorist season"

On September 11, 2001, a few people did a horrible thing. On September 11, 2001, a whole lot of people died because of it. On September 11, 2001, millions more people...100's of millions more people, had to sort out in their minds all the "why's" and "what's" of what happened.

On September 11, 2009 those 100's of millions of people are still trying to sort it out. Still trying to make sense of it. Trying to make sense out of what seems to make so little sense at all.

I'm not qualified to comment on the socio-political or the socio-economic reasons behind what happened. And I'm not about to get into what religious ethos are struggling against each other here...I'm not interested...not the least little iota.

On September 11, 2001 a few people terrorised...struck fear...into 100's of millions of others. On September 11, 2001, those 100's of millions were frozen in their tracks trying to absorb what happened...for about a millisecond, then when those 100's of millions saw that a few of their number were in danger, they forgot their own presumed danger and rushed to help the others. Some of the rescuers died too.

I do my best to remember, that they didn't die to preserve my freedom. Just as our soldiers (from Iraq all the way back through Vietnam, WWII, WWI to The Revolutionary War) didn't really die for our freedom. They fight and die because they understand that their own liberties are at stake, and that they are worth dying for. We all should have that kind of conviction.

Think about what's valuable to your life. Then remember those that fell because they felt the same way.

I refuse to honor those that did the damage by remembering what they did. I prefer to honor those that ran into the heart of the fire because; immediately, inherently and instinctively they knew it was the right thing to do.

Here's to everyone who does something worth while with no thought to the danger it puts them in, just knowing it needs to be done. May there always be people like that.

And fuck the one's who don't.

One JO's Opinion: Every medium can be a large.

I watched "The Watchmen" movie the other night, and it made me think.

This is NOT a movie revue. Let me just start by saying I thought it was a fine piece of work.

It just made me think of something.

"The Watchmen" movie idea has been volleyed about for over 20 years, not since the comic book of the same name hit the stands, but ever since the 12 issues of same had been collected into a graphic novel and the sales results came in.

It was called "unfilmable" by many and I agreed. The book was so dense with nuance that made the story enjoyable, you could never get it all into an hour and 40 minute movie. But that isn't really the problem.

It was the perfect comic book. It told a story in a way that can only be told with the tools that can only be utilized in this specific art form. A film has different tools. They can replicate things, but they do not perform the same way.

Here in 2009 they did it successfully. Clocking in at over 3 hours and using technical innovations that weren't available or cost-effective 20+ years ago, they pulled it off. It was visually true to the comic and kept the story almost completely intact. If they were going to do a "Watchmen" movie, this was the way to do it. And I'm glad they did, it was fun to watch.

But, as I said, it made me think. Why is a creative work only considered truly successful if it eventually evolves into a film? Why is that the pinnacle of success?

Every creative medium has values intrinsic to only itself, that can't fully be translated into a version in another. A painting can be recreated as a sculpture...but they have different values about them that rise above or below each other.

"The Grapes of Wrath" is in the top 10 of my all-time favorite books. It tells a story in a way that you can only tell in the form John Steinbeck scribed it. It needs the novel's length, it needs the breakdown by chapter. In this case, every third chapter is a commentary, a chapter which puts the reader's mind in the mood and the place it needs to be, as well as making parallels to the characters in the story. It could have been called "unfilmable".

"The Grapes of Wrath" is in my all-time favorite top 50 films. It's got differences from the book. It says a lot of the same things as the book. But John Ford understood that film and novel are two different mediums and have values that can only be translated by it's specific form.

"The Far Side" by Gary Larson is in my top 15 favorite comic strips of all time. And it may just be THE PERFECT comic strip. The gags Larson pulled off in this thing are things that could only be done in this medium.

With The Far Side you almost have to read the caption and view the cartoon simultaneously. Try and describe a Far Side to someone, by the time you describe the action and give the verbiage (or vice verse) it loses too much of it's effect.

The elaborateness of the image and the juxtaposition of the subjects would be too unwieldy (cost and production-wise) to do in film or television to make the brevity of the "quick punch" to seem right or to be as funny.

This is an honorable thing. This is the apex of this medium. It wouldn't be "better" just because it was made into a film. John Steinbeck's work didn't became "better" because it was made into a film...it is a great novel.

Let's stop comparing different creative medium by the monetary gain they provide. Comic strips, films, songs, paintings, sculptures, television, etc. are all valuable on their own.

And made greater for those things which make them their own.

This has been "One JO's Opinion". Jeff Overturf or Jack-Off? You decide...but I'll probably keep having them anyway.