IIRC they did a story about Superman, which I thought was pretty funny, although I don't remember very much about it except they were making fun of Byrne's "More real" Superman (growing a beard in a few minutes, etc.)
I've been a fan of the early MAD comics, which parodied many super heroes, including Batman and Robin (Batboy and Rubin), Superman (Superduperman), Plastic Man (Plastic Sam)
What If, IIRC was crossover stuff, What the... was self parody. I've got several of the early What the... comics, which had some pretty funny send-ups. Once they got through most of the line it became a too much of a stretch other than an occasional gem later on. The Pulverizer was pretty hilarious.
A few months ago (before I got rid of TV) I found myself watching (and enjoying) Justice League on Cartoon network quite a bit. It was on just before the switch to Adult Swim which was an ideal timeslot for me.
You missed my entire point. The comics industry was floundering when Fantastic Four #1 was released in 1961
Actually the comic market was in dire straits thanks to the attention of Congress and the acceptance by the industry of the Comics Code There's a reason people often refer to the late 40's and 50's as the Golden Age of comics. EC, the publisher of MAD suffered considerable as their stock in trade was drama and horror, much of which posed ethical dilemmas to readers.
Creating a bunch of harmless super heroes who fought megalomaniacal (or just plain evil) villains was more acceptable and the industry had to find it's feet again. Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman were already pretty safe as they already fit the mould.
Yeah, TMNT sucked pretty badly...I can't understand how anyone liked it. It's a pretty freaking far cry to call it 'classic'. The comic was okay, though, although when it was out and I was 15, I was a bit old for comic books.
TMNT were pretty dark in the original comics, after Eastman and Laird sold the comic it became all warm and fuzzy and cloying and sickening. The TMNT movie was more representative of the later direction of the characters.
Old? Old? I got into comics when I was recovering from cancer and needed a cheer-up and distraction. Around the begining of TMNT it was being collected, like 90% of the rest of the comics, by adults (some even kept them mint in bags and never even read them: speculators) The comic book market is more like it is in Japan and Europe than most people are willing to admit, it's just more of this puritan denial sh!t that comics are only for kids.
BTW I've actually got a couple of the original Eastman and Laird (b&w printed on pulp) TMNT comics in a box somewhere. Anyone know if they're worth more than I paid?;-)
A FF cartoon may not be all that original, but the FF is the group that put Marvel Comics on the map and revitalized the entire industry. Even Superman, Batman, and the rest of the Justice League owe a great deal to the Fantastic Four.
Fantastic 4 began, IIRC in the 60's. Batman and Superman date at least to the 30's, Wonder Woman the 40's. Fantastic 4 was effectively Marvel's answer to DC (original name: Detective Comics)
Marvel kinda imploded between the late 80's and early 90's, verging on bankruptcy, when the comics market collapsed (like so many other fad markets) after overheating on about 47 million X characters and all their own lines of comics. Eventually they did some house cleaning and had some goofy war to re-establish a manageable core of characters, about as shameful as DC's death of Superman.
When I first read this I was pretty excited... but to be honest I'm not so sure now. It seems like lately cartoon series' are really lacking. I mean look at the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles compared to the old one... They chopped out so much of what make the Turtles so cool. I think its because they tried to adapt them more to pop culture. Hopefully they won't do the same to the Fantastic 4.
Maybe if Fox picks it up, we'll see Ralphie on the Simpsons douse himself with lighter fluid...
Ralphie: "Look! I'm The Human Torch! Ha Ha Ha!"
Chief Wiggum: "Hu hu hu! That's cute, Ralphie, now drop the book of matches. Ha ha ha! Ralphie, drop the matches.."
Ralphie: "Whee!"*scritch*FOOM!
No doubt to capitalize on the film (2005). (Which will hopefully turn out better than an earlier try (1994)
Of course, us late boom kids will remember this animated series and try to overlook this one (1978), when PC and non-violence destroyed Saturday morning TV ("Oh dear, children might see Johnny erupt in flames and try to emulate their animated role model and pour gasoline all over themselves and strike a match! Won't someone please think of the children!')
On an average weekend I ride over 100 miles on a bicycle, averaging about 20 mph. The amount of food and water required for these rides is actually very minimal and close to what I normally consume. My metabolism doesn't just store unneeded energy and make me bloated, it's just chucks it (it's called Inefficient Metabolism) so however much you normally eat, if you don't store it, you waste anyway for whatever level of activity you engage in which may be limited to sitting on a chair all weekend fine tuning your drivers, playing d00m 3, or hitting Reload.
The truck is hydrogen-powered and creates its own fuel from solar energy and water
Wow looks like the Republicans are getting all the mod points today!
This was the subject of a MAD Magazine cartoon, about 30 years ago, drawn IIRC, by Al Jaffee: A man invents a car that runs on water and is hauled away by government agents due to the threat it posed to the big oil companies and their grip on Washington.
30 years later, the idea still rings with some conspiracy theorists that the powers that be don't want alternative transportation and fuels to work.
The truck is hydrogen-powered and creates its own fuel from solar energy and water
National Security Risk in Sector 14
"Come along with us sir"
"What have I done?!?!?"
"You're charged with subverting US foreign policy, energy policy and corrupting minors. President Cheney is most displeased."
I was so thrilled to hear my subscription dollars are used to bring Howard Stern to Sirius. I may actually listen to him, but not intentionally. They also have a 24x7 Elvis station, too. With the debt Sirius has I was perplexed they threw millions at Stern, perhaps hoping to lure more customers. Maybe so, I wonder if they'll license his broadcasts to radio, tho. I can't imagine the average Stern fan being happy that they'd have to subscribe to Sirius to listen to Mr Stern. I'm not happy I miss a lot of things on pay TV, such is life.
Google Print is a new book search (partnered with Penguin and Scholastic) they'll roll out formally on Thursday, in some more of this interesting little tango they have with Amazon (they of the a9.com search engine free of ads.)
Lots of luck keeping up with Microsoft. Once they find they have competition they'll undoubtably come up with some stinky
way to break your applications. Partners are less likely do suffer such a fate, but sometimes do anyway if Microsoft believes they
need to retain all creative control.
Of course, I could also be a cynic, considering Colton sold Live Software, he may be positioning his new venture for a buyout by Microsoft.
Ob Simpsons: OK, boys, buy him out!.. I didn't get rich by writing a lot of checks.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SlashdotTV's News, I'm Timothy, your host. If you have moderation points or metamoderation
you may use them <ouch> at anytime during the <ouch> netcast. Please use res<ouch>ponsibly. Later we'll broadcast a slashpoll with CowboyNeal somehow
worked <ouch> into the final option.<ouch><ouch><ouch>
Oh fsck this, <ouch><ouch><ouch> damn, take <ouch><ouch>these wires off<ouch> damn, what a <ouch><ouch>way to run a <ouch> network!
think each year would water the thing down. Much like any other contest that is expensive.
Why not every 4 years? Even 3 would work. This way, it would give people more time to work on even better designs, perhaps even alternative fuel methods for reaching space.
Nope, nope, nope!
We need this all right away. Get off your fat butt and get to work! Innovation in rocket science can drive the economy. Why accept it's hard to do? Back in the early days of aviation (barnstromers and all) wild ideas were tested (ok, some were dangerous and should probably be conducted away from populated areas) but out of all those wild ideas increments in the technology were achieved (beware of patents, the Wrights nearly killed it with the Wrong Stuff!)
Future Patents Awaiting to Be Awarded:
Blowing your silly looking rocket up on the launchpad (whoops, too much prior art)
Method for serving meals in weightlessness
Method for cleaning puke off cabin walls
Rocket powered by fuel from reprocessed used (eugh) baby diapers (gag) (retch)
Rocket with screen door
Pilot airbag
Altudinator
Method for brewing beer in space
Method for dispensing beer in space
Method for wearing lampshade in space
Method for treating hangover in space
Muzak for space travel
Firewall to keep hacker passengers from redirecting rocket to spell 1337 in contrail
Cheese in a can (whoops, prior art, too)
Copyright phrase Spacemeet (as in, we all gonna meet in space, big space meet!)
Method for ejecting passengers
Method for ejecting crew
Method for evading rocket with process server on board
Space Racing, the America's Cup 3D (featuring Larry Ellison and Richard Branson duking it out for bragging rights!)
Method for refueling, checking the oil and cleaning windows at full service station
Method for letting customer do all that hisself at self service station
Method for launching own satellites
Method for forming a united federation of planets
And the list goes on!
Why am I so in favor of such things? I'll be selling the popcorn! =-)
Re:More Democratic Market
on
The Long Tail
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
They again, were entertainers...no one really goes and studies the "music" of Sinatra like one would go and study up on Miles Davis or Bob Dylan or Jimmy Page....as in the art of music itself.
But there's certainly nothing wrong with Britney Spears if you're into her. It's what someone likes...and the "music" is really secondary to BS or others of her ilk. It's the entertainment that's the draw.
Right, but on radio, there's little of Britney to see (clothed or otherwise) whereas I'd say Sinatra, Derren, Holiday, Jordan(*), et al have, for lack of a better word, presence that transcends decades and a purely audio medium. Britney sounds too much like her contemporaries, so it's her prancing around on stage and the audience fascination with whatever she says in magazines or does in her personal life (as observed by tabloids) that carries her.
* I'd never heard of Louis Jordan until I had satellite, now I've got many of his albums, an amazing, talented writer, composer and singer I would have probably gone my life without ever hearing of.
Re:Primer
on
The Long Tail
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Haven't read the article yet (gotta get that karma, baby!) but I think the movie Primer is a great example of a niche movie.
If it's a niche movie, it'll probably be on the local indie screen soon.
I hope it's better than some of the stuff I've heard about being good, which wasn't, i.e. Young Einstein and Blair Witch.
Films I did love watching were:
Triplets of Bellville
Run Lola Run
Monsoon Wedding
Shaolin Soccer
Touching the Void
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
All of which were at the local indie theaters. I'm hard pressed to think of anything I've seen at the main theaters in the past 5 years that could hold a candle to any of these.
Re:More Democratic Market
on
The Long Tail
·
· Score: 1
Uhm. You know there were 8 TV series (seasons) of Red Dwarf done by the BBC, along with a movie that's in production, right? The two books only cover a part of the first season. The first 4 series are on DVD now, so go hit your local library or DVD rental store and check it out.
I remember watching a PBS fundraiser, years ago, where they were introducing the actors who would be playing the new series the station would carry (if the station could just get enough donations) but it didn't strike me as interesting enough to watch more than a part of an episode. But like I said, the first two books didn't inspire me to read any further so I didn't.
Re:More Democratic Market
on
The Long Tail
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
You are confusing Britney Spears (BS?!) with a musician. She is an entertainer. Nothing more, nothing less.
You could say the same of Frank Sinatra or Bobby Derren. Why does their music have impact and BS doesn't?
More Democratic Market
on
The Long Tail
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Often I'm irritated anyone, including friends, try to interest me in something 'like' what I'm reading, like Amazon Recommendations do.
Politely I'll say, thanks, I'll look into it or such and carry on my way. Sometimes I'll actually buy a book on recommendation and toss it on
a shelf somewhere for a rainy day or the next in line of the very long line of books I've read. This is effectively Word-Of-Mouth advertising and
the most effective of all forms of advertising -- small wonder Amazon uses it, it works and I've grudgingly picked up a few other books
due to this and often it is true, I will enjoy the book, after all hundreds or thousands aren't necessarily wrong.
A notable exception was Red Dwarf, which many people recommended as the next Hitchhikers, as good as Hitchhikers, etc. I found the two books to be like
they said, but perhaps not as they intended, I found Red Dwarf to be very derivative and fairly juvenile, as if someone really loved a book so much
that they wrote in a similar setting (sci-fi in this case.) I didn't pursue it past the two books I was given, it was a bit of a downer, too
as the authors had a small group of characters to play with after killing off the entire human race and finding bugger all in space.
I've had satellite radio for two years now and can tell honestly say I don't listen to current pop anymore, as I've found swing and standards to be
awesome music, it's a bit puzzling how music evolved from that to Britney Spears, et al, but as The Long Tail indicates, we're leaving a top-down
dictation of our musical tastes and finding our own way, whether in the past or in the present but other genres than commercial radio wants
us to hear (and buy.)
Years ago I moved to Santa Cruz, which has the Nickelodeon and Del Mar theaters. I've found about 3/4 of the films I watch
are there rather than the big hollywood multiplex (Santa Cruz 9) down the street. I'm more surprised and intrigued by what I see on those screens (which included Touching The Void)
than the shiney, candy-like offerings from down south. I can't say I'd have had the same choice in the city I moved from, where no such independent
cinemas existed, shy of driving 125 miles to the Maple Theater in Troy, MI.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm goin WiMax with uClinux! w00t!
"nigh!"
"No, no. 'Ni'. You're not doing it properly. No"
I've been a fan of the early MAD comics, which parodied many super heroes, including Batman and Robin (Batboy and Rubin), Superman (Superduperman), Plastic Man (Plastic Sam)
What If, IIRC was crossover stuff, What the... was self parody. I've got several of the early What the... comics, which had some pretty funny send-ups. Once they got through most of the line it became a too much of a stretch other than an occasional gem later on. The Pulverizer was pretty hilarious.
About the Wonder Twins...
Actually the comic market was in dire straits thanks to the attention of Congress and the acceptance by the industry of the Comics Code There's a reason people often refer to the late 40's and 50's as the Golden Age of comics. EC, the publisher of MAD suffered considerable as their stock in trade was drama and horror, much of which posed ethical dilemmas to readers.
Creating a bunch of harmless super heroes who fought megalomaniacal (or just plain evil) villains was more acceptable and the industry had to find it's feet again. Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman were already pretty safe as they already fit the mould.
TMNT were pretty dark in the original comics, after Eastman and Laird sold the comic it became all warm and fuzzy and cloying and sickening. The TMNT movie was more representative of the later direction of the characters.
Old? Old? I got into comics when I was recovering from cancer and needed a cheer-up and distraction. Around the begining of TMNT it was being collected, like 90% of the rest of the comics, by adults (some even kept them mint in bags and never even read them: speculators) The comic book market is more like it is in Japan and Europe than most people are willing to admit, it's just more of this puritan denial sh!t that comics are only for kids.
BTW I've actually got a couple of the original Eastman and Laird (b&w printed on pulp) TMNT comics in a box somewhere. Anyone know if they're worth more than I paid? ;-)
Fantastic 4 began, IIRC in the 60's. Batman and Superman date at least to the 30's, Wonder Woman the 40's. Fantastic 4 was effectively Marvel's answer to DC (original name: Detective Comics)
Marvel kinda imploded between the late 80's and early 90's, verging on bankruptcy, when the comics market collapsed (like so many other fad markets) after overheating on about 47 million X characters and all their own lines of comics. Eventually they did some house cleaning and had some goofy war to re-establish a manageable core of characters, about as shameful as DC's death of Superman.
can't believe I actually know this crap...
Maybe if Fox picks it up, we'll see Ralphie on the Simpsons douse himself with lighter fluid...
Ralphie: "Look! I'm The Human Torch! Ha Ha Ha!"
Chief Wiggum: "Hu hu hu! That's cute, Ralphie, now drop the book of matches. Ha ha ha! Ralphie, drop the matches.."
Ralphie: "Whee!" *scritch* FOOM!
No doubt to capitalize on the film (2005). (Which will hopefully turn out better than an earlier try (1994) Of course, us late boom kids will remember this animated series and try to overlook this one (1978), when PC and non-violence destroyed Saturday morning TV ("Oh dear, children might see Johnny erupt in flames and try to emulate their animated role model and pour gasoline all over themselves and strike a match! Won't someone please think of the children!')
On an average weekend I ride over 100 miles on a bicycle, averaging about 20 mph. The amount of food and water required for these rides is actually very minimal and close to what I normally consume. My metabolism doesn't just store unneeded energy and make me bloated, it's just chucks it (it's called Inefficient Metabolism) so however much you normally eat, if you don't store it, you waste anyway for whatever level of activity you engage in which may be limited to sitting on a chair all weekend fine tuning your drivers, playing d00m 3, or hitting Reload.
This was the subject of a MAD Magazine cartoon, about 30 years ago, drawn IIRC, by Al Jaffee: A man invents a car that runs on water and is hauled away by government agents due to the threat it posed to the big oil companies and their grip on Washington.
30 years later, the idea still rings with some conspiracy theorists that the powers that be don't want alternative transportation and fuels to work.
National Security Risk in Sector 14
"Come along with us sir"
"What have I done?!?!?"
"You're charged with subverting US foreign policy, energy policy and corrupting minors. President Cheney is most displeased."
I was so thrilled to hear my subscription dollars are used to bring Howard Stern to Sirius. I may actually listen to him, but not intentionally. They also have a 24x7 Elvis station, too. With the debt Sirius has I was perplexed they threw millions at Stern, perhaps hoping to lure more customers. Maybe so, I wonder if they'll license his broadcasts to radio, tho. I can't imagine the average Stern fan being happy that they'd have to subscribe to Sirius to listen to Mr Stern. I'm not happy I miss a lot of things on pay TV, such is life.
Of course, I could also be a cynic, considering Colton sold Live Software, he may be positioning his new venture for a buyout by Microsoft.
Ob Simpsons: OK, boys, buy him out! .. I didn't get rich by writing a lot of checks.
I'm encouraged by the fact none have died (excluding the three dummies blown up near Seattle) during this experiemental period.
Method for turning rocket into MegaMaid!
Why not every 4 years? Even 3 would work. This way, it would give people more time to work on even better designs, perhaps even alternative fuel methods for reaching space.
Nope, nope, nope!
We need this all right away. Get off your fat butt and get to work! Innovation in rocket science can drive the economy. Why accept it's hard to do? Back in the early days of aviation (barnstromers and all) wild ideas were tested (ok, some were dangerous and should probably be conducted away from populated areas) but out of all those wild ideas increments in the technology were achieved (beware of patents, the Wrights nearly killed it with the Wrong Stuff!)
Future Patents Awaiting to Be Awarded:
Blowing your silly looking rocket up on the launchpad (whoops, too much prior art)
Method for serving meals in weightlessness
Method for cleaning puke off cabin walls
Rocket powered by fuel from reprocessed used (eugh) baby diapers (gag) (retch)
Rocket with screen door
Pilot airbag
Altudinator
Method for brewing beer in space
Method for dispensing beer in space
Method for wearing lampshade in space
Method for treating hangover in space
Muzak for space travel
Firewall to keep hacker passengers from redirecting rocket to spell 1337 in contrail
Cheese in a can (whoops, prior art, too)
Copyright phrase Spacemeet (as in, we all gonna meet in space, big space meet!)
Method for ejecting passengers
Method for ejecting crew
Method for evading rocket with process server on board
Space Racing, the America's Cup 3D (featuring Larry Ellison and Richard Branson duking it out for bragging rights!)
Method for refueling, checking the oil and cleaning windows at full service station
Method for letting customer do all that hisself at self service station
Method for launching own satellites
Method for forming a united federation of planets
And the list goes on!
Why am I so in favor of such things? I'll be selling the popcorn! =-)
But there's certainly nothing wrong with Britney Spears if you're into her. It's what someone likes...and the "music" is really secondary to BS or others of her ilk. It's the entertainment that's the draw.
Right, but on radio, there's little of Britney to see (clothed or otherwise) whereas I'd say Sinatra, Derren, Holiday, Jordan(*), et al have, for lack of a better word, presence that transcends decades and a purely audio medium. Britney sounds too much like her contemporaries, so it's her prancing around on stage and the audience fascination with whatever she says in magazines or does in her personal life (as observed by tabloids) that carries her.
* I'd never heard of Louis Jordan until I had satellite, now I've got many of his albums, an amazing, talented writer, composer and singer I would have probably gone my life without ever hearing of.
If it's a niche movie, it'll probably be on the local indie screen soon.
I hope it's better than some of the stuff I've heard about being good, which wasn't, i.e. Young Einstein and Blair Witch.
Films I did love watching were:
Triplets of Bellville
Run Lola Run
Monsoon Wedding
Shaolin Soccer
Touching the Void
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
All of which were at the local indie theaters. I'm hard pressed to think of anything I've seen at the main theaters in the past 5 years that could hold a candle to any of these.
I remember watching a PBS fundraiser, years ago, where they were introducing the actors who would be playing the new series the station would carry (if the station could just get enough donations) but it didn't strike me as interesting enough to watch more than a part of an episode. But like I said, the first two books didn't inspire me to read any further so I didn't.
You could say the same of Frank Sinatra or Bobby Derren. Why does their music have impact and BS doesn't?
A notable exception was Red Dwarf, which many people recommended as the next Hitchhikers, as good as Hitchhikers, etc. I found the two books to be like they said, but perhaps not as they intended, I found Red Dwarf to be very derivative and fairly juvenile, as if someone really loved a book so much that they wrote in a similar setting (sci-fi in this case.) I didn't pursue it past the two books I was given, it was a bit of a downer, too as the authors had a small group of characters to play with after killing off the entire human race and finding bugger all in space.
I've had satellite radio for two years now and can tell honestly say I don't listen to current pop anymore, as I've found swing and standards to be awesome music, it's a bit puzzling how music evolved from that to Britney Spears, et al, but as The Long Tail indicates, we're leaving a top-down dictation of our musical tastes and finding our own way, whether in the past or in the present but other genres than commercial radio wants us to hear (and buy.)
Years ago I moved to Santa Cruz, which has the Nickelodeon and Del Mar theaters. I've found about 3/4 of the films I watch are there rather than the big hollywood multiplex (Santa Cruz 9) down the street. I'm more surprised and intrigued by what I see on those screens (which included Touching The Void) than the shiney, candy-like offerings from down south. I can't say I'd have had the same choice in the city I moved from, where no such independent cinemas existed, shy of driving 125 miles to the Maple Theater in Troy, MI.