What You’re Missing: No, this time is 'who' you’re missing:

Arriba baby!

Just in time for Cinco de Mayo, here is some seriously awesome artwork from one Raul Trevino.  Artist and writer of the most excellent comic Tinkers of the Wasteland (which you can totally see online, but you should just really buy the books because they’re awesome), he also has a beyond amazing collection of original illustrations, including a collection inspired by the tradition of Dia de los Muertos (aka Day of the Dead), most famously practiced in Mexico, but also in many other countries around the world (basically wherever the Imperial Spanish were in charge for any length of time).  His works are great and worth a look, if not a total insta-buy. 

Seriously fun stuff.

In addition to the illustrations, Raul’s comic Tinkers of the Wasteland, is something that many a manga fan will appreciate.  If you’re old enough to remember the amazingly fun read that was Caravan Kidd, then combine that with a kind of visual que/aesthetic of Adam Warren circa Dirty Pair: Fatal but not Serious, and you’ve got this one.  I don't know if these were actual influences, but that's just the vibe I personally got when reading this. And that's a vibe I dig baby.

Post-apocalypse settings are a bit of an overtrope I know (especially because it looks like we'll be having exactly that in real life thanks to Kim tubby the 3rd and President Tiny-hands), but his series pulls it off quite well, and really looks at what kind of dynamic occurs when the world goes to hell and chickens are used as currency.  I won’t give anything away, but if you’re looking for something a little different, and dare I say “grounded” when it comes to comparison against some more popular manga out there, then this is worth a read.

F-ing chickens.

Although some books are out of print, they do show up on the secondary market and are worth tracking down.  Raul Trevino appears at conventions in California as well, so you can even get them signed.  Because he’s cool like that.  You can check out his tumblr or twitter to see some of his illustrations as well.

So even though Cinco de Mayo, sink-o-the-drink-o, and Dia de los Muertos (best holiday ever...) are all totally different things, they are all good reasons to grab a margarita (or eight) and check out Ink and Dead, or Tinkers of the Wasteland.

Also available in a Digital PDF version.

In addition to books, Raul Trevino also sells prints, and even original art pieces from his online store, which you should totally go to and buy stuff from because it's awesome.

April 2017 Recap and Leftovers

In the last post of every month, we look at stories we didn't cover, either they weren't big enough for a whole post, or they just slipped past us.  Additionally we will leave you a recipe for a Japanese dish that you may have seen featured in an anime or two that you like.  Except we're not doing that this time because we already made this thing hella long.

From the Law Offices of Insult & Injury
Yasutaka Tsutsui wrote novels called The Girl Who Leaped Through Time and Paprika (among many others), which have also been adapted into anime movies.  Yasutaka Tsutsui also wrote this about a statue in Korea commemorating women forced into sex slavery by Imperial Japanese forces:

Ambassador Nagamine goes to Korea again. This means [the government and the envoy] accepted the comfort women statue. The girl is cute, let's go there and cover it with semen by ejaculating altogether.
                                                   -Yasutaka Tsutsui

Ok so my first reaction is “what in the actual fuck-shit-ass-peanut-butter-bbq is that kind of comment?”  To which my subsequent reaction was ...oh right, Japan ...because of course that kind of idea would come out of Japan.  Yasutaka Tsutsui has since retracted that comment and stated he did not “intend to offend” anyone, to which I am simply thinking; oh bull-fucking-shit, you know exactly what that statue means and you know exactly what you said, ya weirdo. 

And like it or not, we're definitely getting Rule 34 of this in 3...2...1...

This bukake twist isn’t the beginning nor is it the end of this story.  The issue of Comfort Women has always been a sore spot for Japan, and is often the singular thing that gets erased from the history books by almost every group in Japan across the political spectrum.  Well, not everyone.  When this statue was installed in Korea, the Japanese ambassador was actually recalled.  Yes fine, it was set up near the Embassy as kind of like a big “fuck you” from Korea and all that, and he came back after 2 days, but recalling an Ambassador is a fucking huge thing.  You don’t just go do that every time something happens you might not like.

Even here in the good old USA, Japanese revisionist history proponents took their requested removal of the American version of that memorial statue (located in Glendale California), to the actual Supreme Court of The United States.  The plaintiffs have the audacity to call themselves Global Alliance For Historical Truth, and want the statue down because something something Japanese women something something nothing to see here.  This is an indefensible position to take.  Even the law firm representing them was eventually like “um, nah, we’re out, this is all kinds of messed up.”  Seriously, this lawsuit was originally brought to court by a tiny cute little Japanese oba-san, but it’s still such an insane level of Holocaust-denial pure awfulness, that you almost don’t give a shit that the woman probably ended up in fucking Manzanar at some point.  This is like that time some insane woman tried to sue “all gay people” because Jesus was too busy to do it himself or whatever.  I don’t know what kind of idea they had regarding a legal argument to they could make regarding that case, but the Supreme Court actually made the reasonable decision of telling them to fuck off, and so the statue stays.

 Jesus was indeed too busy doing something, I can tell ya that.

Just keep in mind this isn’t just the Japanese equivalent of your racist uncle who has an individual “Make America Great Again” hat for every single day of the week, and can’t stop reminding you that Trump won, so now you college edgimucated librulz all have to join the NRA or something (well... the American case is actually mostly that though).  But the rest of this is an actual government recalling an ambassador over a bunch of insane shit, while the Norkos put another coat of turtle wax on the nukes, and while the Sea of Japan starts getting really crowded with naval vessels which can only speak to each other in "cruise missile."  Yep, Japan is creating an unnecessary shit-storm over a statue of a girl.

 You kids play nice now.

Mostly it's political, but maybe a bit of it is actually because…

Japan is still totally sexist. 
Megumi Igarashi, also known as Rokudenashiko has had her obscenity charge upheld by the Tokyo High Court.  Yes, the country that has had giant rock hard cock parades marching down public streets (more like pubic streets… wink wink) for centuries, still flips the fuck out over a cunt-kayak or whatever she did this time.  Seriously, a vajayjay boat is no big deal when you think about all the insane sex stuff coming out of a country which has apparently forgotten how to reproduce like normal humans. 

While the fine she received is relatively small, it’s still 100% bullshit.  Why distributing digital scans of your own hoo-ha to people who helped fund your art projects which make use of said digital hoo-ha scan is considered “obscenity” in a country in which “guro” is a thing, is beyond me. 

Although I might have second thoughts if the hoo-ha I saw had teeth and appeared to be in a state of constant screaming.
おまんこございます！

Maybe if she moved all the internet servers and production out of Japan and over to Guam or something, she would be able to keep doing what she’s doing, free from the army of old men who still somehow refuse to stop running things over there like the year is 1972.  The country pixelates its porn and has a real problem figuring out sex.  This development is not helpful.

People who go making and enforcing this “obscenity” bullshit… what do they think they are accomplishing?  What's going through their heads?  There’s no government enforced religion like where everyone thinks there’s a magical sky-daddy is going to smite you for some sort of blasphemy which is the result of …seeing a cartoon (hoo-ha or otherwise).  So that's not the reason they hate art.  So what the crap is the driving force here?  It seems as if Japan is maintaining a desperate and iron-strong grasp on a conceptual picture of what once was but will never be again.  You know how sometimes parents go crazy if their kid dies and keeps holding on the dead body and dressing it and talking to it and keeping the room exactly like it was on the day that whatever the hell happened to kill the thing?  Yeah, that’s Japan in some ways.  They are seriously clinging to the cadaver of a cultural past where everything was “better” but much like the USA, those times when everything was “better” were simply only the result of a complete lack of competition in the global economy for literally anything, and incorrectly associating cultural norms of the time with as being necessary for the inevitable prosperity which comes from being the only country around where people aren’t starving to death on a regular basis and the water isn’t full of diphtheria.  Now that you have to share more space in the elevator of life, it never feels as nice as when you have the whole place to yourself.  The mistake is thinking you had the elevator to yourself earlier because of the style of clothing you had on and not the fact that when that was happening you were actually the only tenant in the building, and  a lot more have moved in since then.

 ..."bitch"

But much like that crazy cadaver clinger, the only way to fix the issue is with outside forcible intervention.  Japan is never fucking its way back to a healthy population and so they are going to have to share their toys.  The levels of xenophobia, income inequity, language barriers, straight up racism, and the fact that the entire country seems to think that everyone needs to live in Tokyo.  The types of diversity that Japan needs even go as far as needing socio-geographic changes on a fundamental level.  That kind of thing is usually slow and expensive.


United Airlines.
So there’s no way you didn’t hear about that craziness by now.  To anyone who makes regular trips to Asia… or Europe… or Florida… or Paraguay, or literally anywhere for that matter, please never fly United Airlines ever again.

 

If for no other reason then just remember you could be next.

I know it’s not the fault of a lot of working stiffs over there who just do regular shit like clean the landing gear or deliver orange juice to the terminal lounge, but after the whole doctor-punching thing, there’s nothing I would love more than to see that entire company go down in flames.  I don’t care if that means literally going down in flames, if you’re still flying United at this point, then the plane crashing and your subsequent death from inhaling the smoke coming off the smoldering bodies of your own children while they gaze screaming into your panicked face as you remain trapped under a bulkhead impotent to save them or even lessen their agony, ensuring that the last experience you will ever have is learning what your own child's grilled pancreas smells like, …yeah that isn’t going to make me feel bad for you.  Fucking giving your money to United… you got what was coming to you.

Seriously, United did this on April 21, that's only 10 days after punching a 69 year old doctor in the face and dragging him away even though he did nothing wrong and had patients to see. 

The FCC hates you, State governments step in to stop them.

For the international members of this glorious audience, who are reading this in far away places like Mongolia or Washington DC, you may not be aware of how much power the individual states of these American States United actually have.  It's a considerable amount more autonomy than in many other countries.  That's why I can take a quick bus ride into New Jersey, bang a 16 year old, and not go to jail for it, where if I did that on the other side of the river it would be all statutory time.  It's why I can drive to Virginia, buy any kind of gun I find for sale and instantly take possession of it, whereas if wanted to do that here in NYC ...well I can't do that here.  States in the USA can set a lot of their own rules, and enforce them with a wide tapestry of enforcement agencies that never talk to each other.  Seriously, you could do a whole Hetalia series just on the internal interplay of the USA alone.

Oh, wait, every high school weaboo has already done that. Like ichi-ban super sugoi-goi kawaii desu!

But if you don't know much about the individual states and how they work, here's a boring educational video that explains a little.

And that's not even counting the USVI or Guam.

To the X and Y generations, the FCC is often painted as the “bad guy” in a lot of stories.  They were the organization of social conservatives who would lose their shit if someone said “tits” on a TV show or something.  The FCC was the guy who Dee Snider told “we’re not gonna take it” in the 80’s and the target of the ubiquitous “fuck the FCC” tagline which made the rounds in the 90’s.  But once the internet showed up, the bad guy became the RIAA and MPAA and the FCC kind of just faded.  The thing is, much like one can be critical of the FDA for some of the stupid shit they do, they also do a lot of important stuff that protects people.  The FCC is very similar, a lot of what they do is actually beneficial to the public and seriously important, so the current ass-raping of FCC regulations is something you should be concerned about.

Oh and it's not just Net Neutrality out there that's in trouble.

Other things like... well everything is in trouble.

It should come as no surprise that our president has allowed corporate interests to come in and destroy the crap out of Net Neutrality and other important privacy protections.  Make no mistake, this has been on the Telecom agenda for long before the election... and if Goldman Sachs Banker-BFF Hilly-Billy were the one bombing Syria right now instead of Cheeto-Face-Tiny-Hands, we’d still have the exact same thing happening.  Some things are inevitable. 

 I don't even know what this is from but I totally had to put it here.

What is genuinely surprising is that individual State Governments are picking up the gauntlet of defending the people, and passing their own legislation which preserves the various protections afforded to their own constituencies, which providers must follow if they want to do business in that state.  What is super-surprising is that this has been initiated by Republicans in state government.  Now, it should be mentioned that these are Massachusetts Republicans, which in reality are kind of more progressive than Arizona Democrats, but it’s still unexpected.

This state/local level is the arena where political representatives will actually listen to you.  You think the President gives a fuck what you write to him?  You think people like senator-for-life Chuck Schumer is going to care what actually affects you?  They’ve got their ALEC money, and lobbyist money and super PACs, and “donations” so they’re fine.  You, young person who actually knows how the internet works and who will actually be hurt by this development, you don’t count to them.  You don’t vote, you don’t earn enough to make serious donations, you don’t own any businesses that they can claim they are using to “keep American jobs” by bribing you not to move… you have nothing they need.  But, lots of local state-level and even municipal politicians have recently learned that the gimmie-vote doesn’t work on their jobs anymore.  So contact them, write to them, even to the Governor’s office, write to local chambers of commerce, they are going to be much more inclined to listen.  Someone who bothers to print out, sign, and mail a letter about net-neutrality is going to be someone a local politician knows they will have to prove their value to.  This is how we stay safe from the culling of net neutrality.


Ex X-Men Artist: International political nonsense
Some artist not-so-subtly worked in some references to recent political development in Indonesia full of good old religious bigotry.  Basically, a group of people wanted to remove the Governor of Jakarta and elect a different one because the current one was not religion X but rather he was religion Q, and well, religion X totally can't have that happening now can they?  So although done overtly, these references to that situation inserted into the X-Men comic did actually make it through all the way to print.  Probably because the people who check for that stuff, can’t be aware of every political situation in the entire universe as we know it.  If an artist in NYC created a similar reference to municipal land use through eminent domain in the Atlantic Yards project, and concealed it in a comic published in Australia, it’s unlikely that’s gonna get noticed before it goes to press either. 

Smooth move guy...

Oooo that’s a touchy subject.  You know what Disney really hates coming into contact with?  Yeah, it’s touchy subjects.  So it would be ludicrous to expect that Disney would not fire this artist and pull the issue with all speed, even more so when learn this particular touchy situation has the term “anti-Semitic” attached to it.  So yeah, of course Disney’s gonna drop that guy straight into pariah-land. 

His art was not really that good when you go back and look at it.

Message to Disney/Marvel:  Hey! This is the perfect time to go “America First”! …Americans know exactly fuck-all about any other countries unless a Kardashian has been robbed in one, so you won’t have to worry about this kind of thing ever again!  You don’t even have to pay for extra proofreaders and fact checkers!  It’s a win for your wallets and, a win for... well since when have you ever cared about anything else anyway?

Much like someone once had a sign up inside the White House once which read “Keep it Simple Stupid” Disney/Marvel’s new mantra can be “Keep the Stupid, Simple.”  Buy up these recalled issues kids, like I said before, this kind of thing is a great financial instrument.  …oh, and I know someone who just got bumped to the top of the no-fly list (wink).    Hopefully, getting fired hasn’t put this Ardian Syaf artist guy one broken pencil away from pulling a Collin Ferguson on the Jakarta MRT.

And in the end, religious zelots X beat secularists Q, because of course they did... yay creationism I guess?  Good for their magical sky-daddy.

At least there are people there who rightfully point out that it's smaller groups of these people, messing it up for everyone else.

This thing is already TL;DR so I am making otaku food/recipes their own recurring segment.

Wonder the Woman: Identity Politics + Wonder Woman = A Problematic Post.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Somehow, Wonder Woman keeps ending up atop the plinth of misdirected self-absorbed outrage.  Apparently, this time it's because a distinct lack of visible armpit hair is an affront to everything in the universe and you're a misogynist agent of the patriarchy if you don't get out in-front of DC's offices right the hell now with a protest sign and 3 different whistles.  It is amazing how identity politics wielded as a cudgel by out-of-touch people just ruins everything it encounters.  Actually that's not amazing. What is amazing is that this is working its way into pop-culture via a most agonizing exploitation of ridiculous minutia.

Just to point something out, I naturally don't have any significant armpit hair.  It's always been like that.  You gonna get on my case for not growing it out harder?  WTF.

Get Woke, Go Broke.
Via Living with Hipstergirl and Gamergirl

The above sentiment is what brings an added degree of frustration to this mess.  The people doing all the bellyaching, moaning, whining, kvetching, shouting, ranting, back-turning, and finger waving or whatever various other unproductive disruptive activities they do, know exactly nothing about Wonder Woman other than "something something The Patriarchy!"  They also will never bother to learn.  To many people critical of these things, pop-culture is still something for the "nerds" or "basement dwellers" out there and they themselves with their oh so mighty opinions of what is and isn't appropriate are just so much more sophisticated.  It's understandable that people thought that way in 1987, but not 2017.  Seriously, ask one of them what Wonder Woman's real name is and they'll have no idea, but they'll have plenty to say about her outfit and what books/art you should be able to read or buy.  These social pontifications serve only to damage an existing brand and prevent people from accessing it who wish to do so.  Therein lies the problem.  The "I think it's bad!  So no one can have access to it no matter what" mentality is simply censorship under the guise of socially progressive propositions.  But this does not build anything, nor does it offer alternatives to something they believe is deficient in terms of being "woke" or whatever the comic book equivalent of that is.  It just destroys what it deems as antithetical to its own sensibilities and moves on to a new target. Or just comes back to bashing Wonder Woman again because these people are insane.

Yes this actually happened. 

This is either sexism or the school engaging in micro-tyrancy. Or both.

Yes that's a school punishing a student for bringing "violent imagery" into the classroom in the form of those above images.  This is most likely a case of not only hostility to Wonder Woman, but also the broader problem that schools have devolved into Zimbardian nightmares of out of control administrators and teaching staff, seeking to dehumanize every student to the point where they can exercise absolute control over them.  There is really not much difference between punishing a student for something so innocuous as the instance above, and that scene in Cool Hand Luke where the prison guards make him dig a hole and then fill it back in just for the hell of it, so they can show him who's boss.  It doesn't end well in either situation.

Returning to the armpit hair issue, Wonder Woman is Greek, and has been alive for a long time.  Regarding specific tastes, you ever see Ancient Greek statues?  You know what's not there on the ones of both women and men?  Armpit hair.  So maybe we can get historical accuracy in on this and say that it is period specific if it means so much to people?  Actually, she's basically half Goddess, so she probably has the ability to straight up will her hair right the fuck off any part of her whenever the fuck she feels like it. 

Hell, the Ancient Egyptians hated body hair so much they all shaved and waxed every inch of themselves (that's both the havers of XX and XY chromosomes), so if an Ancient Egyptian character had no armpit hair and a bikini wax, would that be sexist?  Of course not, it would be straight up historically accurate, but some people would call it sexist anyway by incorrectly applying modern social norms to areas outside their effective purview.

Something something, PH balanced, something something, punchline.

UNwoke:

Oh but that isn't the only bone of picking that the Anti-Wonder-Warriors have with Wonder Woman.  In late 2016, she was "fired" from being an Honorary U.N.  Ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls, because... sexism I guess.  Like maybe she is sexist, or represents sexism or is the result of sexism ...something stupid, the reasons don't make a lot of sense.  This kind of thing is so ridiculous.  Sure there are legitimate issues of sexism and imperialism you could bring up when talking about an affiliation of Wonder Woman with the U.N., however the action was intended to be positive, and helpful.  Then, rather than offer a replacement role-model, these protest people seem only concerned with tearing her down.   A fictional character getting removed from a semi-fictional position at the non-fictional U.N., is something that is apparently worthy of major action, because nothing says gender equality and female empowerment like firing a woman because of her looks. 

This guy knows what I'm talkin' about...
Yes that should worry you, it's terrible.

The armpit-police and people cheering Wonder Woman's removal from the U.N. are some of the same people out there who will insist that the 2016 Ghostbusters is the best movie ever and you're a total misogynist agent of the patriarchy rapist if you didn't go see it 17 times in the theater when it came out.  But then still admit the movie itself was bad when they think no one is listening.  The thing is, they really are wasting everyone's time.  Their efforts might better serve women's issues if directed at other situations, such as;
  
Saudi Arabia is on the UN Human Rights Council.  You know, this place:

 

 

 

She's dead now.  Seriously.

Yes you heard right, Saudi fucking Arabia is (somehow) on the U.N. Human Rights Council.  Saudi Arabia should not be on the U.N. Human Rights Council.  They behead people for "witchcraft" there.  But yay, you got Wonder Woman fired over using a Schick, because what kind of message is the U.N. sending by associating with a fictional character who has been portrayed battling sexism herself but has the wrong outfit on while doing it and was "too sexy" or something...  she should cover up I guess!  Hey wait, doesn't Saudi Arabia have something she can use? 

It's a good thing the U.N. isn't doing anything else that might send out an even worse message to the world... like letting the country where this shit happens (Warning: very disturbing image) have a say in how the world approaches human rights. 



You probably forgot, but...

Most of these girls (and lots of others as well) are still missing, but that hashtag you put on your twitter 3 years ago is definitely totally helping, they should be getting rescued by Instagram any minute now.   You know Vine was actually killed for getting too close.  

Wouldn't it be great if there were perhaps a League out there, which dedicated itself to Justice, made up of people with powers beyond that of average people, they could rescue these kidnapped children by using those powers for good...  perhaps rescued by a Wondrous Woman if you will, who would fight for the safety of other women and girls throughout the world? 


You're about to open up Google Maps right now...

There is still a violent war and terrifying rape epidemic in the Central African Republic.  I am guessing you don't know where that is.  But hey, you wrote an angry Facebook post when Harambe got shot so it totally evens out (I am guessing you can't remember what the date was when that happened either). 



Hey look, a little closer to home...

 

People are still starving to death in Venezuela.  Yeah it's starting to get close to Raft of the Medusa levels of terrible over there.

Too depressing?  Here's a First World problem for you...

The art instillation in New York City known as Fearless Girl is a temporary one and is scheduled for removal at a later date.  There is vocal support for making it permanent.  All you have to do is contact the office of the Mayor and if you live in NYC you should also contact your City Council Representative.  If you don't live in NYC, you are still a potential visitor/tourist/student/whatever so you should write in anyway.  If you have 5 minutes and a stamp, this shouldn't be a hard decision to make.

There, I just listed a bunch of stuff that you really should be concerned about, and might be able to actually do something that resembles helping, depending on the resources you have available to you.  You're not helping anyone involved by "checking" your "privilege" ...you help by using it to improve situations for others.

Maybe just stick to TV?
Coming back to super-hero movies, I would like to add the disclaimer that I hate hero movies.  Marvel/DC cinematic tripe is something I actively avoid.  With the exception of 30 minutes of Iron Man I saw on an airplane, I have not, nor do I intend to see any of this garbage (this includes GI Joe and Transformers).  So I already know I don't like this movie, but it's because I think the movie is going to be crap (DC couldn't even make Harley Quinn: The Movie without fucking it the hell up).  It's not because of some sort of warped notion of social values that I am avoiding this thing.

Another disclaimer I should make is that it seems apparent that the notion of armpit hair on Wonder Woman to be but a cause du jour with a relatively limited number of people and is most likely getting CNN-ed way out of proportion by the media machine.  Since Trump's tweets don't bring in the viewers like they used to, they have to come up with something.  My writing this is most likely in no way helping the situation either.  Actually since only 4 people are going to read this I don't think it's going to make any difference.

Comic book stories as TV have definitely contributed to our new golden age of television that we are currently enjoying.  Walking Dead, Lucifer, Preacher, DareDevil, Arrow, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, ...and The Flash I guess?  Is The Punisher still a show?  Also Iron Fist exists.  I know there's more and I'm not even going to go into animated shows but there's now so many all at once that it becomes possible to start doing actual scatter-plots with this stuff. Television actually removes the three main components that usually combine and conspire to kill major movies and make them utterly shitty.  So what specifically is it that makes TV better?

Hey, Maze, you got... a little something... on your... um... never-mind.

#1: No MPAA.  TV Ratings turned into a joke the day VOD became widespread.  With entire streaming services out there now making original content, the notion of making a solidified TV rating system akin to the draconian MPAA a reality, is reduced to a complete fallacy.  I have previously mentioned how damaging MPAA ratings are and most moviegoers who aren't 100 years old have recognized them as mostly useless relics of time when interracial marriage was illegal.  

As long as movies mutilate themselves in some sort of manic episode of body-dismorphia, cutting off their own fingers to fit within the glove of the "commercially viable" PG-13 rating, we will get nothing but equally mutilated works of cinema.  Like a super-model with anorexia, it is not fun to look at, no matter what designer rag you drape around it and how much "confidence" it has.  Hey parents, if you're not convinced yet, then go watch 007: Casino Royale then go watch The King's Speech. Now come back and tell me which rating should be on which movie. 

#2: China hasn't ruined TV yet like it has ruined movies.  The CCP exherts a serious amount of control over Hollywood.  No, there are not people sitting in some dark room, wearing sunglasses, calling the shots and slowly smoking cigarettes while ominous music plays.  However, in financial planning, China as a market is now a significant fixture in earning projections for any project.  Producers, writers, and studio executives now have to take this into account when they decide what projects to finance and how they want them to be made.  So because of that, if you don't think that every major movie made by Hollywood studios has entire teams around them which have the sole function of making sure the final product will meet Chinese government censorship standards and resonate with Chinese audiences, then you haven't been paying attention over the past decade. So, low context stories and simple dialogue, jokes that are more "universal" and therefore more pedestrian, and a style that favors slapstick and visual effects over depth and intensity, those are what you will see a lot of, and those qualities are usually what makes a movie a stinking pile of shit.  That's why Ghostbsters 2016 sucked, it was counting on China and desperately tried to make it appealing to that audience as well... didn't really work out for them.

So to recap, Movies are multi-million dollar investments, the investors are going to want to earn as much as possible on them, and that means following CCP rules. That's how investing works.  Unfortunately, this leads to un-funny, one-dimensional, rubber-stamp stories with dialogue so simple you can't tell if the entire cast has brain damage.  Since TV doesn't need to kowtow (look, a pun) to the CCP, they can get very deep into the high-context type of narrative that domestic audiences can appreciate.  They also not only are able to freely ignore Chinese Government censorship laws but U.S. ones as well.

As awesome as this looks, it would probably end up as a shit movie unless you involve Rule 34.

#3:  Technology... technology everywhere.  This is a broad one, but technology has allowed for productions the level of which would have been unthinkable even as recently as 10 years ago. Higher production values with less equipment.  Post production and effects that can be done in a single home-studio by a creative professional.  And a pool of talent that is able to get more done remotely than ever before.  These things help make the mega-hits possible. 

But wait there's more!  It's not just RED cameras and production technology that is helping, but media delivery and storage technology as well.  When you have a delivery system that frees the audience from an appointed airtime, you have fundamentally changed how people can consume media.  For example, although the last episode of Breaking Bad aired years ago, if I wanted to get into the show, I could still just fire up the Netflix and watch every episode on my own time without having to purchase packaged media which takes up space and has no exit for me to bail in case I end up not liking the show.  No more rushing home to catch whatever episode of anything because you can watch it on your tablet tomorrow on your way to work.  While this can lead to an overwhelming feeling when you realize how much is out there, it is ultimately helpful in building bases which have strong loyalty and follow-through.  It lets people integrate this entertainment into their lives and schedules like never before, which will lead to increased commitment when it comes to following a series.

Netflix is your friend.  Who could not like this show?

So in terms of Wonder Woman, though I don't like Marvel/DC dreck, I actually hope the movie does well, because there is a notion out there about a crossover between the DC and the Power Rangers universes.  I don't know why, but that actually sounds like it would be cool.  I am sure people will complain about something being sexist and all kinds of other -ists and so on, but if both Wonder Woman and Power Rangers are successful, then a tidal wave of investment capital is going to push right through any opposition, whatever it may be, and that movie is gonna get made.

 

Please line up for the armpit sexism check.  Armpit sex is ok though, it's just armpit sexism that's banned.  It means what you think it means.

"...And I helped!" Manga’s contribution to the death of the CCA.

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In the wake of the recent unsurprising news that has finally made it into mainstream media, that MPAA ratings are nothing more than a corporate censorship tool used to maintain entertainment monopolies. The not-so-recent demise of the Comic Code Authority can hopefully offer some helpful insight on how to hasten the end of the for-profit disease that is the genuinely evil MPAA Rating System.

Unfettered by knee-jerk restrictions of 1950's moral panic, manga shows us the heights that American comics could have reached if not for a Godwin-envoking, research-faking maniac (Fredric Wertham, who doe snot deserve the title "Doctor") in the aftermath of the horrific cultural destruction perpetrated by one Anthony Comstock.

The final nail in the coffin often gets too much credit. It signifies the end of an era, entity, or other institution being forced into that long good night either by circumstance, attrition, or social upheaval. It doesn’t really do much though. If you were trapped in a coffin with all the nails in the lid except one, you’d probably stay trapped. No, it’s those first nails that are the truly important and often heroic ones, desperately holding down the coffin lid themselves while that which lies within struggles to break free with all its strength. These “first-nail” endeavors often have their significance muted by the passage of time and the ascendance of a subsequent generation which knows no other world than one where the effects of the “first-nail” efforts might as well have existed forever and all time. Thus, these “final-nail” efforts come to signify the entirety of a struggle in a singular, lasting, well documented, and stationary mote.

To over three (perhaps four) generations, it’s just as impossible to picture the CCA having any real power to change things in publishing, as it is to imagine a world where the color of your skin meant sitting in the back of the bus. We’ve never known a world where the McCarthy-era soaked tenets of this bully pulpit were followed by the publishing industry as absolute unbreakable law. A world where breaking from such obedience to these racist, sex-phobic, misogynistic, paranoid, hyper-puritanical whims, would mean they would put you out of business in an instant. But that was exactly the case of EC Comics:

What, Me Worry?

By the time I was born, let alone old enough to be hauling new comics home from St. Mark’s Comics every Wednesday, the CCA had already passed the event horizon of irrelevance, becoming a lame duck with the publication of Amazing Spider Man #96. The cat (more like paper-tiger) was out of the bag, and Marvel survived publishing a comic without the seal of approval, effectively telling the world that the emperor had no clothes. The CCA desperately tried to amend its code in a very retroactive “I totally meant to do that” fashion, but it was too late.

But though the CCA was shown to be worthless, it wasn’t going to go away any time soon, and they made laughable efforts to evolve. They were still around during the 1980’s, and only by perhaps just a slim margin was the CCA not revived with new strength and legitimacy during the “music scare” of the 1980’s, which brought us the PMRC organization, and first painted the RIAA as the “bad guy” when it came to opinions of pop-culture fans. Thankfully, the “Highlander-style" reinvigoration of power never happened with the CCA, and in the 1980’s, manga started creeping into the commercial comic-shop circuit, all of it sans-CCA label, with ninja-like stealth.

It was acceptable in the 80's

Things trotted along, and no one really worried about that ever shrinking CCA tag in the corner, as it no longer had any value. But the ever present nagging feeling it reinforced; “comics are for kids” and the “living in your parent’s basement” stigma if you were over the age of 14 and still buying them, still clouded the minds of comic readers and non-readers alike. The CCA stamp was a zero-sum entity. All or nothing, no shades of gray like we see in the equally destructive and more powerful MPAA ratings. This fact gave even more substance to the notions that all things published as comics were “for kids,” requiring their precious eyes to be shielded from possible destructive “adult” elements; Elements which belong in novels or films, where there is a system capable of differentiating between the many levels of age-appropriate content... anywhere but comics (think of the children!). But manga was now on the scene, providing narratives and windows into universes so much deeper than the one- dimensional dictates of American CCA approved comics. Slightly more plentiful than before, manga were chock full of CCA violating content like nudity, homosexuality, “liberated women,” successful criminals, nice guys finishing last, gambling, sword-fights, and happy drunk-drinkie time. And by that fact, they actually offered the reader a story where the ending was NOT a forgone conclusion, and therefore, genuinely entertaining.

Left: CCA Approved content
Right: Worse than Hitler (According to "Dr" Wertham)

Then the 1990’s comic bubble happened, and suddenly comics were not entertainment but a financial instrument. This produced three major environmental factors that would have lasting effects both on the CCA and manga itself.

First: Comics were being produced and sold at a record pace. Many people were buying and then selling them without a second thought to the actual content, because they never looked past the cover. A cover that they could care less if the stamp of approval from an organization based on the social values of their grandparents was on it or not.
Second: This rapid buying and selling had publishers scrambling to produce anything, regardless of the narrative or artistic quality (how else can anyone explain Rob Liefeld). This lead to seriously poor quality publications and the endless spinoffs soon generated brand fatigue (or character fatigue) in readers. This led manga being accepted as an alternative to what American comics had become, almost preserving the higher quality narratives that readers had come to expect. This helped give manga a foothold in the third factor.
Third: Extreme retail proliferation. During the boom of the 1990’s, the national comic retail footprint expanded exponentially. I remember in my neighborhood alone, the number of stores you could walk to, went from 1 up to 5 in a single year (after the bust it’s back down to 2). Comic retail was everywhere, and brought with it the “fringe” titles that included all manga, making their way onto the shelves next to the 7 different X-men spinoffs with varying chromium covers vacuum packed with a “limited edition” collectable trading card of Jubilee and 17 pages of ads for Extreme Ranch Doritos, Sega CD games, and Mountain Dew. Sure that issue of Ranma1/2 was a wallet-destroying $4.95, but next to the alternative, it was totally worth it.

Viz's first American release of Ranma 1/2 (issue #1, full color).

Point #3 is the most important here, because with such fierce competition, and the need to sustain sales as comics become a business unto themselves and not simply a product carried at stores that sell other things (drugstores, and so on). The majority of retailers and distributors did not consider the CCA seal as necessary and were happy to carry any publication that didn’t have it if it were part of a successful product offering. This meant that a book that didn’t carry the CCA stamp now had equal footing in the war for shelf space.

What's missing?

After the inevitable comic bust, the seeds planted by manga were watered by the popularity of anime (most American Otaku discovered anime first and then sought out manga, where I was an anomaly seeing manga first and then seeking out anime). From the desolation of the previous bust rose an indie comic scene to rival that of the major publishers, and not only was Japanese manga a large part of that, but after a few years American produced manga-style books starting permeating retail channels via independent labels and independent producers. The choice of appropriate content was put into the hands of the consumer, and not pre-determined by an organization which gleefully exercised its power to censor content, simply for the sake of feeling powerful.

Yes I bought this crap... give me a break, it was a different time.

This was the start of the final leg of the power drain from the CCA, which included the massive success of non-participating Dark Horse and Image Comics, and the withdrawal of Marvel Comics in 2001. Hoards of publishers weren’t even bothering with the CCA, including boatloads of Pokemon comics going out the door, all without the “seal of approval.” This was important in that it literally drained the life-blood of the CCA, and made it impossible to ever be relevant again. Their all-or-nothing way of doing things could never weather the kind of cultural transitions that happen in a country like the USA, nor could it ever weather the kind of rapid evolution in media retail in a country like the USA. The forced censorship of the MPAA and ESRB are more insidious and difficult to dislodge because they have gradient levels, but it’s only a matter of time before theaters stop giving a crap about ratings, but given what's happened with the downright criminal censorship of The King's Speech, it still may be a while before theaters stop giving a crap about MPAA ratings in favor of selling tickets. When films and games are bought and consumed exclusively by the end-users (as they soon will be via digital distribution), the MPAA and ESRB will become worthless as well. We can see that process in action at the moment with the once powerful now irrelevant PMRC, who’s “Tipper Sticker” has in effect been thoroughly murdered by P2P sharing, iTunes, and music streaming services.

This is why nobody likes you and you're going to die alone Tipper!

It only took a bit over 50 years, but this power-hungry censorship organization, the product of McCarthy era fear mongering, and predicated on a medical hoax by a misogynist doctor, has finally been rightfully buried in irrelevance. ...and manga helped.

やった！

Sip some Champaign in celebration, and keep up the good fight.

Do you have any stories from 1990's English language manga collecting? Share them with us here, share them with the internets for otaku e-points... you'll feel better.

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The good old days: Comic Book Speculation

Trading will open up heavy.

So DC comics is either genuinely full of people who don’t know what they’re doing, or they are very calculating. Either way, they’ve pulled off a major comic PR coup with the All Star Batman and Robin #10.

For those of you who don’t know, there is a 2 page story in this issue where there is plenty of Batgirl profanity. Now in comics, the way to censor that is to black it out so you can tell there’s a word under there, but can’t see the actual word. Yes, for the first time DC has realistically portrayed the type of things that would be said by some drug dealing thug who just got his ass kicked be a smoldering hot giant boobed red head with a bat fetish (yes we get the “C-word”). You can read the news story here.

Unsurprisingly, this has created a frenzy of speculation the likes of which haven’t been seen since X-Force issue 1. Unsurprisingly, I dived right in. And unsurprisingly, there were plenty of opportunities to buy these books at comic retailers who have to worry about paying rent this month and can’t wait for DC to come back 2 weeks from now with a book they’ll probably sell less of (thanks Forbidden Planet). DC can bully the major distros into pulping a lot of these things, but not the shrewd retailers here in a city where commerce and money rule with an iron fist (even when the DC offices are right down the street here).

Collectibility and a market for it have always seems to develop together in some form or another for almost as long as fandom has existed. However, this is where fandom of culture and imagination meet the harsh realities of supply and demand. One of the more immune fandoms to the growth of collectability as a function of pure economics, is anime. With the exception of genuine original artwork, there are no real strong areas of anime collectibility save for those which more imitate American constructs. There are the few items like those UCC coffee cans and the old Viz color issues of Ranma and Inu Yasha from back in the 1990’s.



So with that in mind, I have some of these Batman issues and if anyone wants one, they’re $75 ea. You’ll see Batgirl say “Fuck” and what not.

Furries stole their future.

Opinion piece. Views expressed are solely that of The Angry Otaku and do not speak for any group The Angry Otaku is affiliated with and all that. My past stuff was a bit more analytical... this time I am out to piss some people off.

The following writing is based off of a recent experience that I had with something specific, that probably doesn't represent a the entire group as a whole. But I am gonna let it taint my view anyway and go ahead and write this. So remember this going in; what you are about to read is based off of both years of following titles that would eventually end up over at Radio Comix or MU Press but still biased unfair and generalizes large groups, and is intended to provoke a reaction (read; I am being confrontational on purpose because I really wanna see if anyone is actually reading this) . On with the show!

Ok this isn't what I was mentioning above, but still just fucking made me so angry.

I am going to cross into an area of commentary that has started many a flame war and in the end only serves to widen the divide between what a “fandom” is as apposed to “escapism” amongst the masses. That, my friends is the ever increasing and irreconcilable gulf between the anime and furry followers that has grown exponentially since the year 2000. Although I use the year 2000 as a point to mark the moment where great divide passed the event horizon, the truth it that those furry dog-fuckers had been working on splitting off “anthro” from normalcy for some time up until that point.

There was once a time where both genres existed on the fringe, but neither had anything too terrible going for it. The early influx of “gekiga” never caused any “Crying Freeman” style shooting rampages in a mini-mall, and The American Journal of Anthropomorphics didn’t produce any skunk-fuckers. But there was always a danger that as both fandoms grew, the fringe would get out in the spotlight and not only have an influence on how mainstream medea viewed the entire group, but more importantly effect the direction of commercial production of material (without which, there IS no fandom). Anime worked hard and got lucky that the "all anime is violent girls/guns/nudity" label of the 1990's didn't stick. Furry seemed to have the opposite happen to it and had a commercially viable future shot down by the publicity of what some call a fringe group, or a segment not totally representative of everyone. That may be true but it happened anyway. Sure the intellectual furry fodder will argue about things like “Fritz the Cat” and “Omaha the Cat Dancer” were out there but those have about as much to do with the pile of ferret vomit that is modern furry fandom as “Kamen Rider” or Yukio Mishima have anything to do with “Inu Yasha” or “Naruto” (that’s a big fat nothing by the way).

The day that “Anthro” went from an artistic appreciation to a sick form of escapism similar to the Absinthe craze of over a century ago but without the Anthony Bourdain-esque coolness factor, and later degenerate further into something like the NAMBLA movement. It was the day it was hi-jacked by the very same destructive elements that seek to destroy anime fandom as well, although anime fandom was able to fight off most of these elements with the power of commercial success, Anthro didn’t stand a chance once the downward spiral started.

At first it only looked like a few bad apples spoiling ConFurence East, or some idiot artists taking things too seriously like in the “I saw her yawn” comic short at the end of one of the early Shanda issues from AP (or was it Katmandu …or Furlough… I don’t remember anymore). Although it seemed something was wrong, things appeared to still be mostly grounded, I mean Tank Vixens was fun, Salusians were an important part of NHS, the whole nekomimi ting was as popular as ever, and Fred Perry’s Gold Digger was proving it had staying power. But the undercurrents had entrenched themselves and before anyone knew it, “Anthro” was simply no more, and there was only “Furry” which was mostly hard core yiff porn (nothing wrong with pron. Porn=good. Gay or straight doesn't matter, BUT it's not a good opening act), and then the people dressed as Bugs Bunny with boobs or even worse the body paint and nothing but a dixie cup in a hotel lobby (don’t tell me I’m wrong, I was there back in the 1990’s, ok fresh?). This might have been simply a swing to one extreme of the fandom before progress returned to a middle ground, if not for the internet explosion that happened at the same time. That would change everything.

This new ability to massively archive and distribute this fringe “Furry” media meant that the very first thing many people saw of was this degenerate corrupted version of what was once a true art form. This first face that was shown to most of the world was simply a case of the wrong art attracting the wrong crowd, and the snowball effect was enormous! The last bastions of normalcy were pushed out for people who have sex with animals and call it a lifestyle, and people who think they are a really grey wolf with opposable thumbs, the ability to walk upright, and the power of speech. Shamanism would be a spiritual excuse if they tried to make themselves look like the exact physical thing they thought they were, but labeling yourself “Zig Zag” trapped in the body of a dude? …That’s just dumber than Kirk Cameron’s “God Banana” times a million. Fursuits aren’t animal suits, they’re CARTOON ANIMAL suits, and you misguided idiots out there are not, and never will be an animal, nor a cartoon, and certainly not both at once.

In 1996, I actually penned a small essay on the divergences of Anthro and anime… I forget why (and I think I cited Eric Schwartz), but as I noticed some major differences it was still not enough to send up red flags. I never would have imagined the kind of defilement that Anthro would suffer at the hands of assorted deviants and uneducated morons, and later that messed up product would actually come back to latch itself on to anime to try to legitimize it. To read that list linked to at the top of this post is to see apologist tripe at its e-worst. It is not holding up a mirror to another fandom, but rather a magnet. A magnet that sucks the kind of depravity and fancer (that’s fan+cancer) to any genre that shows the slightest sign of weakness regardless of what it is, had it been oil painting or origami at the time then that would have been it. If you think that’s something that doesn’t happen outside of pop-culture, then you haven’t seen Detroit lately have you?

“Furry” has indeed sunk very low from what it once could have been, and the extreme actions of /b/, Anonymous, and Legion are but necessary and natural defenses against this sad development. To have squandered the mainstream success that Anthro was enjoying in the 1980’s and 90’s with Heathcliff, Nimh, American Tail, Tail Spin, and so on, only to be stricken from commercial animation completely and categorized as some fetish-fed subculture which sabotages its own industry's growth, well all I can say is that for letting that crap happen “Furry” deserves another CSI episode. The lines have been drawn by the very side that is trying to free itself from what it sees as oppressiveness, but the more it gets out into the spotlight, the more the rest of us wish they would get the hell back off stage.

Some guidelines if you feel the need to comment (which I don’t think anyone will because no one is gonna read this anyway):

-If you are currently in High-School or younger, DON’T bother commenting. I’ve got manga and anthro comics that are older than you. If you weren’t there to experience what was lost, then don’t come up with some crap about how today is just as good. (Oh and your Deviant Art sucks).

-If you have a wikifur account; I already know what you’re gonna say, just as sure as Dr. Comet likes Krystal, and no Jeremy Bernal style hissy-fit is gonna do anything so save your energy for fapping to Mr Hands or Dog Whisperer or Aragon or whatever it is you do.

-If you think “otherkin” or “otakukin” are a legitimate religious anything, then I just hate you so don’t comment on basic principle. ..ok maybe not "hate" but I won't take you seriously.

EDIT: The above rules don't apply if you can be as smart as that first one. Then comment away.

Oh, and FYIAD. …no really.

Pool’s closed bitches. ...so dance.