Okay, now I realize being a comics/science fiction/fantasy fan (or, indeed, a fan of anything…”fan” being short for “fanatic,” after all) requires a small bit of obsession. “I have to get the comic shop every week,” or “I have to remember to set the TIVO [or VCR…I’m a caveman] for Smallville,” or “I only need two more issues of Secret Defenders to complete my Bill Wylie collection.” You know the mindset. (And just so you don’t think I’m about to start casting stones, keep in mind that I’m the guy who bought a New Titans annual because Swamp Thing appears in one or two panels.)
Doing a weblog is one form of this obsession, and making costumes and writing fan-fiction are a slightly more extreme versions of this sort of behavior. I can even understand going through the effort of making your own fan film.
However, I think some sort of line may have been crossed when you’re doing full “TV” seasons with multiple episodes. That sort of time and energy devoted to creating a derivative product based on a property you don’t own and to which you don’t have any kind of official connection seems a little…well, I don’t want to be too harsh, since the people involved are enjoying themselves and there is obviously value in that. However, all it would take is one cease-and-desist letter from the property’s actual owners to shut down production, and all that energy would have come to nothing.
(inspired by a recent posting on Memepool)
Speaking of fan-fiction…a crossover between Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Sailor Moon is about as unlikely as they come. Rated “R” – currently having some bandwidth issues. (via Portal of Evil)
And speaking of my particular obsession…Four Realities discusses the Swamp Thing comics in his collection.
There’s a comic weblog called “The Comic Blog”? I’m surprised the name wasn’t taken. Anyway, lots of good comic reviews here.
So there’s that scene in the original, unreleased Fantastic Four movie where Alicia Masters, the blind sculptress, runs her hands up and down the Thing’s body, and the Thing is breathing heavily, practically panting, and the scene goes on and on and on and on, and you turn away, and you turn back again fifteen, twenty minutes later thinking the scene must be over by now, but no, it’s still happening.
Well, poking through our preview copy of the comic book adaptation of the new Fantastic Four movie (in stores this Wednesday…the comic, not the movie), there’s another Alicia/Thing scene that at first glance seems just as peculiar. SPOILER, I guess…the scene features Alicia apparently spraying down the Thing’s body with a hose. That in and of itself may not be very strange, but there’s a part of my brain that fears that this scene will also go on forever, with multiple angles of Alicia squirting the Thing with water, squirting herself, everything getting all soapy and sensual and looking like that Paris Hilton Carl’s Jr. commercial.
But maybe that’s just me.
FARK photoshop contest: “What would Superman be like if his spaceship crashed somewhere other than Smallville, Kansas?” Red Son reference in 3…2….
