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themostexpensiveboningknife · 4 years

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In A Superficial World Should We Be Dean Blunt?

It seems easy as a musician, plus visual artist in Dean Blunt’s case, to fall prey to the charms of success, to dilute artistic vision in pursuit of, of what? More fame and money, probably, both are pretty addictive after all. To make music that is both technically and conceptually forward thinking (don’t ask me what “forward thinking” really means), while also being incisive and revelatory of dominant social trends, now that’s rarely done, and to find unique sonic palettes across various disparate aliases and to remain, not aloof, but distant from the intrusive confusion and folly of clout chasing aspects of the worlds of contemporary music and art, these make Dean Blunt or Babyfather or DJ Escrow or Blue Iverson or Hype Williams a creator worthy of esteem. At least, they might do.

“I couldn’t tell who was real and who wasn’t. When it came down to it I realised the only person I could depend on 100% in beef, was me.” Pagans (feat. Arca)

Babyfather, a Romantic poet whose sensitive and vulnerable ruminations on UK street life best reveal themselves on the mixtape UK2UK. Ostensibly hosted by DJ Escrow, another DB creative moniker—DB’s ability to be able to morph into aliases at will and to transmit the individual sensibilities and musical qualities of each reminds me of Madlib (Quasimoto, DJ Rels, Yesterday’s New Quintet, et al.)—we get flecks of grime, trap, ambient, acoustic interludes, vocal skits, and straight white noise. These are funny times, vulnerable and sad, insular and introverted, the streets of London are dark, they’re real, and a cloak of bravado is a must, but behind it all, always, are human emotions. DB pulls back the peeling plaster to show the perpetually healing wounds; whether you think DJ Escrow is an endearing figure, deep and poetic, or spouting not much at all, the human shines through, and it does in a way that is rarely allowed to within Black British street music. DB’s experiments across the sonic allow for a probing of the psyche of the real London streets, its protagonists, rules, customs and traditions.

Enigmatic. It’s a quality we should value in music. When so much is on show and everything needs to be seen and understood, remaining under it all deserves plaudits. It seems to espouse a sense of authenticity, let the art do the talking, trust in the sound. DB sending up a body double imposter to collect an award at the NME awards for most promising newcomer, “I’ve finally made it!” shouted out on arrival to the stage, is almost perfect. NME, the white-focused black-shunning music mag, gives awards to artists it can’t even pick out of a crowd. DB’s intervention strikes as the best kind of performance art, the kind that says much more than the bodily act alone.

DB’s no stranger to contemporary art (a nebulous term, he’d probably disown). His is a practice so tongue in cheek as to form an ulcer. A biting assessment of everything and nothing. Writing about an artist like this is quite long because you can’t help but feel that this is exactly the kind of faux analysis that he situates himself against. But anyway, there was the show that consisted of a single stock photo and a single high pitch ringing. Come and stand around, have a drink, if looking at art is about changing something inside of you, then it was a success. I remember seeing a DB exhibition photo with a fridge full of the drink KA; so much for the holy trinity it’s all built on: white walls, white people, white wine. It would be great to dismantle all three but let’s start at the bottom of the pyramid—anyway, that an exhibition opening needs copious alcohol is a truism—and maybe the rest will begin to falter.

"Girl come with me, I will proceed to lay you down” Caught Feelings

When we do get DB its raw. Or is it? Fading, foggy instrumentals barely punctuated by DB’s mellow, out of tune, piss-taking crooning. But it does do something, inside, I mean. Well there’s undoubtedly an atmosphere, it could even be sadness, genuine emotion, but then the lyrics to these not quite sensical ballads suggest otherwise. The Narcissist then, is the music itself, not the singers or composers, but the actual music. DB can’t even do real personal emotions without getting an ulcer again.

It’s an art in itself you know, choosing the right collaborators. Putting aside the infamous and delicious and profligate Hype Williams drama (how to say it in one sentence: the many purported iterations/passing on of the baton could have once been DB or might always have been), these are some fucking nice collabs man: Inga Copeland, Mica Levi, I just discovered the James Ferraro link up while writing this shit, Delroy Edwards—it’s all some crème de la crème stuff. I guess it’s real recognise real?

“Nredup 82 10 months ago:

sampled from? just wonder about orginal sounds of guitar.

repliesvaguelyhuman 10 months ago:

wtf you mean sampled, dean blunt plays guitar like a mfer.” (Somalia Park, (Youtube Comment)

Someone’s recognising anyway; this is a term that might be thrown around a bit too much, but this is all Cult Status stuff. A cult following, obsessively passionate fans, like myself. “Only bored people with loads of money buy my music.” Wah Wah Wah, make me cry, is that me? For much of the reasons that I’ve vaguely scratched the surface of, and what were they again? Musical quality, innovation, enigmatic, art world connect, collaborations, plus more besides.

He does radio, he does some promotion, DB is not in some vacuum of nothingness, I even saw him on a panel talk once. Which leads me to the question: What does he want out of all of this? Sometimes being enigmatic, coy and withholding, can strike as one big act, playing for the cameras, I’d be lying if I said I haven’t got that feeling from DB once or twice. But the point of it all? Well it seems to lie within nothing really. The whole package, everything that forms DB, from music, to (no)-shows at award ceremonies, to his art, to his kind of Fluxus-esque persona where you’re never sure where reality starts or ends, to expect it all to lead towards some greater singular meaning is to fall for the fallacy that DB relentlessly mocks. Nihilistic crap. Remember that famous Modernist calling, art for art’s sake? It’s pompous and barely anyone ever does it, even though many try, but I’d like to say DB is a reasonably good candidate for this mantle. No wonder its always so depressing.

Anyway, all I’ve been trying to say is I like his style, a true smooth musical operator.

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jmreyes9 · 3 years

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THE SEARCH FOR GONE WITH THE WIND’S SCARLETT

By Jesse Reyes

Many people have heard of or seen the movie Gone With The Wind. It is probably one of the most-watched films that came out of Hollywood. Produced by David Selznick and starring Clark Gable as Rhett Butler and Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara, the movie was adapted from the novel of the same title written by Margaret Mitchell.

Life Magazine published in 2019 a booklet in which the author Molly Haskell states: “Scarlett Ohara famously vowed that she would lie, steal. cheat or kill to survive. And just like its heroine, “Gone with the Wind” has shown remarkable resilience. Eighty later, the film remains a fixture in popular culture. Its iconic status is more secure than ever, thanks to television, DVDs, parodies and revivals that roll around as regularly as national holidays. Just as amazingly, Margaret Mithell’s 1,037-page novel has been in print since it became a best-seller in 1936, its life extended by a prequel, a sequel—and, of course, the movie.”

Haskell continues: “The story of a small corner of the South in the 19th century, a war movie with no battle scenes, revolving around a heroine of questionable morals, has proved uncannily adept at crossing barriers of geography and time. The poster of Scarlett and Rhett posed against the flaming sky is as instantly recognizable in China or Ethiopia or France as th

e American flag. The movie is still the biggest blockbuster in history with ticket prices adjusted for inflation. And if it doesn’t have quite the must-see thrill it once did, if many of its transgressions appear fairly innocuous today, others are as fresh and controversial as the were in 1939.”

Continuing her article, Haskell states:”Politically incorrect and racially retrograde, GWTW has offended so many sensibilities that the overtire should be priced by a trigger alert: Beware! This is history written by the losers. The Yankees are irredeemable villains, the slaves too happy in their subjugation to yearn for freedom. The marital rape, in which Rhett forces himself on Scarlett and—horrors!—she enjoys it, an still raise the blood pressure of feminists. But the allure of Gone with the Wind is more powerful, fed by fantasies that run roughshod over ideology.”

Not too many people, I don’t think, knew of the difficulty in searching for the actress who was to play the role of Scarlett O’Hara. In the same Life Magazine Gone with the Wind issue, an article entitled “The Search for Scarlett” without any affixed author has the following tale:

“In the summer of 1936, as Gone with the Wind snowballed into a literary sensation, David O. Selznick came u with a Barnum-esque plan to ksep his film adaptation on the public’s fickle radar He manufactured a swirl of hype and hoopla by urging people to write in and cast their votes for who should play Scarlett O’hara…

…By late 1936, he had received 75,000 letters. The earliest tally had Bette he Davis in the lead, followed by Katharine Hepburn, Miriam Hopkins, Joan Crawford, Margaret Sullavan and Barbara Stanwyck. Tt the were he response was overwhelming. Selznick realized that no matter whom he cast, he would disappoint some fans. Maybe, he thought, the solution was to find an unknown. So in November 1936, he sent his East Coast story editor, Katharine Brown, on a talent search throughout the South. All told, 1,400 hopefuls showed up. “The belles turned out in droves,” an exhausted Brown wrote back to her boss. “For the most part they were all healthy mothers who should have stayed in Baltimore.”

…Back in Hollywood, Selznick continued to screen test more than 30 actresses for the better part of 1937. Tallulah Bankhead, Jean Arthur, Susan Hayward and Joan Bennett all tried on petticoats and posted Scarlett’s signature line. “Fiddle-dee-dee!” None of them won over the exacting producer…

…By the beginning of 1958, Paulette Goddard had emerged as both Selznick’s and director George Cukor’s top candidate. But the fat that she and Charlie Chaplin were living together out of wedlock took her out of the running. Hepburn, an early contender was also scratched. Selznick dismissed Lana Turner as too young and inexperienced…

…Finally, in December 1938, a relatively known British actress named Vivien Leigh appeared on the back lot of Selznick International like a long-awaited apparition. Accompanied by her new American agent (who conveniently was Selznick’s brother, Myron)(, she was cheekily introduced to the producer as “Scarlett O’Hara.” It was love at first sight. Selznick later said that it was Leigh’s sparkling blue eyes that sold him. The next day, she was brought in for a screen test. And on Christmas Day 1938, Selznick signed Leigh for the part that all of America seemed to have a stake in. After two and a half years of searching, he finally had his Scarlett.

Written on 11/27/21 in Chicago, IL.

Other writings and poems of Jesse Reyes can be seen in his blog anadventurecalledlife.com

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davidmann95 · 7 years

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Batman Starter Pack

I’ve been through this routine once before (including the preface that I recognize there are a million other lists exactly like this on every comics-related site out there) but after having shared some starting points for Superman on Miracle Monday, I figure my second-favorite guy with his own personalized set of crime-fighting pajamas merits the same treatment on his own special day.

Assuming you’re forgoing a more traditional celebration of DC’s Batman Day - either having your parents brutally shot to death in front of your terrified, uncomprehending young eyes, or finishing your criminology degree and engaging in anonymous back-alley karate fights with circus clowns in response to the same - looking into some solid starting points for the character is a respectable alternative. Especially given some of his most classic adventures have recently come under some degree of critical reevaluation, while the likes of The Lego Batman Movie, the much-missed Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and the resurgence of the 1960s Batman TV show alongside contemporary developments in the comics have done a great deal to change the general perception of the character. So once again, here’s ten stories in a recommended - but by no means strict - order that should, as a whole, give you a pretty decent idea of what Batman’s deal is and why you should care, all of which you should be able to find pretty easily on Comixology or a local bookstore/comic book shop.

1. Batman: Zero Year

What it’s about: The current ‘canon’ take on his origin, it’s a pretty straightforward take on Bruce Wayne’s return to Gotham, early forays into crimefighting against the Red Hood Gang, and assumption of his familiar mantle...until the Riddler, a city-wrecking superstorm, and a literal bone monster get involved, culminating in a final act that has a sleeveless, dirtbike-riding Batman trying to save a post-apocalyptic Gotham whose citizens have become hopeless slaves of Edward Nygma’s merciless totalitarian riddle kingdom.

Why you should read it: This comic is bonkers, in absolutely the best way. Writer Scott Snyder has repeatedly said that since the previous major take on Batman’s origin in Year One was so iconic - to the point that, unlike Superman’s regularly refreshed history, it remained solidly in continuity for 25 years - no attempt at hitting the reset button could feasibly follow in its footsteps, and so the only way to make it work was to go as far in the opposite direction as possible, hence Dirtbike Batman and a Gotham of neon pink skies. And for all that, it works remarkably: it’s perhaps the least subtle Batman comic of all time, but it’s a solid look into what drives him, why he does what he does in the way he does it, and the beginnings of his relationships with some of his closest friends and enemies in the context of a mad, blockbuster story ranging from scraps with cops and gangsters to a race against time to literally save a city from death by fire. It is in many ways perhaps the most proudly and bluntly Batmaney Batman story of all time, the core of his world as screamed through a megaphone.

Further recommendations if you liked it: While maybe the most iconic work from their time together, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo worked together on the main Batman title for 5 years and almost 50 issues, in arguably the most acclaimed run of Batman comics of the 21st century; I’d primarily suggest checking out Court of Owls, their first and for me best collaboration, but their entire tenure is worth your time, collected across 10 volumes. If you specifically want to indulge the off-kilter “wait, Batman’s doing what?” sensibility of Zero Year further, after his time on Batman proper Snyder wrote All-Star Batman, working with a number of iconic artists on some of his weirdest Batman comics; his later The Batman Who Laughs operates in much the same mode. If you’re mainly interested in the sort of Big Batman Event Story this and Court of Owls wrote the modern template for, Steve Orlando and companies’ Night of the Monster Men is maybe the most thoroughly entertaining example. And as a respectable recap of Batman’s life since his origins, while many longtime fans are ambivalent at best on it, Batman: Hush is an effective sampler platter of Batman’s history and relationships that’s proven enduringly popular among new readers.

2. Gotham Central

What: Set from the perspective of the grunts of the GCPD, Gotham Central shows what it means to be a cop in a city where you’re a pawn of the Bat at best, corrupt or a casualty if you’re not so lucky.

Why: Certainly the most acclaimed Batman-related ongoing ever published, there’s no book that better sells the ‘street level’ take on his world that so many want; Batman himself is largely a background presence, feared and resented by our actual leads as they go up against the incidental fallout of Gotham’s particular brand of horror. And all that’s before you even get to the Joker story that directly inspired The Dark Knight. While Gotham’s more traditional heroes may rarely show up, there’s no story that better explains why they’re needed, and what it means to live in their wake. And it’s Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka and Michael Lark doing a cop book, so even Batman aside it’s worth your money ten times over.

Recommendations: Gotham Central may be a cop comic, but the cities’ most iconic officer in Commissioner Gordon only makes one or two appearances since he had retired at the time (an obviously temporary condition). If you really want to see him in action, you’re looking for Batman: Year One. Typically cited as one of the all-time great Batman stories - and it absolutely has some of his definitive moments and iconography - at heart it’s Lieutenant Jim Gordon’s year of figuring out how to make it in Gotham without losing his soul in the process, and it was that infusion of grim crime noir into the world of Gotham that defined the aesthetic Gotham Central operates under. If you’d like to pursue that particular line further, Batman: Turning Points is also worth hunting down, showing Batman and Gordon’s relationship develop over the years in reference to major upheavals in Batman’s world, and Batman: The Black Mirror, operating under a similar tone and showing Dick Grayson working with Gordon during the former’s own time in the cape and cowl, in a mystery connecting to both Batman: Year One and my next recommendation. Additionally, Kurt Busiek and John Paul Leon’s Batman: Creature of the Night provides an entirely different and disturbing type of ‘street-level’, ‘realistic’ view of Batman.

3. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

What: A decade after his retirement, an unprecedented Gotham crime wave forces a middle-aged Bruce Wayne out of retirement as he proves unable to resist the call of his demons. But even as he fights back the Mutant gang and recruits a new Robin, his resurgence has caught the attention of familiar enemies, and the political shockwaves of his vigilantism will ultimately bring him face-to-face with his oldest ally in a fight he simply can’t win.

Why: Commonly held up alongside Watchmen, which is a...touch of an overstatement in hindsight, while aspects of its politics and portrayal of the Dark Knight in question have aged somewhat questionably it’s regardless a justified classic by a one-time master of the medium at the top of his form, packed from top to bottom with brilliant storytelling, jaw-dropping moments, and a redefinition of the character that not only shapes him to this day, but the superhero genre as a whole. Definitely and very reasonably not for everyone, but essential to Batman as he exists today.

Recommendations: Frank Miller’s presented numerous followups to The Dark Knight Returns, and while The Dark Knight Strikes Back and All-Star Batman & Robin The Boy Wonder are hardly lacking in lively experimental flavor or gonzo charm, they’re an acquired taste at best: if you want to see more of this version of Batman’s world, you’re safest going for The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade, a one-shot portraying the events leading up to Batman’s retirement a decade before DKR. For other seminal Batman stories that either don’t quite live up to the hype or have aged questionably but are all-in-all still probably worth looking into, check Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth, Batman: The Long Halloween (followed up by Batman: Dark Victory) and possibly The Killing Joke.

4. Batman: Ego and other Tails

What: Before he was widely lauded for DC: The New Frontier, Darwyn Cooke was a storyboard artist for what we now know as the DCAU family of cartoons; his pitch for the job included a 14-page Batman story that years later would be edited and expanded upon to become Batman: Ego, where a catastrophic series of events leads Bruce to consider leaving his mission behind, forcing him to confront his demons more literally than ever before.

Why: Stories that question Batman’s sanity and his place in the world are a dime a dozen, but none like this, probably the deepest individual dive of all time into what exactly makes Batman tick. To say much more would spoil the amazing central conceit, but from his moral code to what he does or doesn’t give up by forgoing his life as Bruce Wayne, there are few aspects of his world this doesn’t touch on one way or another. Plus, while Ego may be the lead, the modern collection is stuffed full of other excellent Batman comics Darwyn Cooke had a hand in one way or another.

Recommendations: Most significantly, the collection also contains Selina’s Big Score, a Catwoman heist comic that leads into Ed Brubaker’s seminal run on the character, which are spread out over three trades that are absolutely worth picking up. If you’re interested in another story in the DCAU style and tone that goes into darker territory than the cartoons would typically dare, try Mad Love, the definitive Harley Quinn story. And if you want another headtrippy Batman comic that delves into his psychology, you’re looking for Death and the Maidens, intended at the time to be Batman’s final confrontation with Ra’s Al Ghul and featuring a conversation 65 years in the making.

5. Matt Wagner’s Dark Moon Rising titles

What: Eventually branded under the title of Dark Moon Rising, this series is actually made up of two six-part tales: Batman and the Monster Men and Batman and the Mad Monk, each Matt Wagner’s retelling of a classic Golden Age Batman story, from an era where the supernatural was not quite so distanced from Batman’s usual world.

Why: On a simple level, these are just some real good Batman comics; Matt Wagner’s a phenomenal fit for the character, these are nice and standalone, and Batman has to escape some deathtraps, which is always a treat. But the introduction of the truly bizarre to Batman’s world - by a standard that allows for coin-flipping disfigured District Attorneys and maladjusted widowers with freeze-rays as all part of the regular scenery, anyway - can be something of a hurdle, especially for new readers. In that regard this is a perfect introduction to the more outré side of Batman’s job, cushioning the transition with wild pulp adventure and thrilling horror in a series that feels entirely of the same world seen in the likes of Year One, even as Batman fights a vampire who is also a werewolf.

Recommendations: If you enjoyed the look at a Batman who’s still somewhat figuring out his limits and the parameters of his operation, you’re in luck, as Year One-era Batman stories formed their own effective subgenre for the character for awhile, primarily in the series Legends of the Dark Knight, which had one of the better hit-to-miss ratios for Batman ongoing titles, and Batman: The Man Who Laughs, Ed Brubaker and Doug Mahnke’s take on his first encounter with the Clown Prince of Crime. If the pulpy noir approach is what appealed, I’d say you might be in the market for Batman: Strange Apparitions, the collection of Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers’ highly influential 1977-1978 tenure on Detective Comics (plus a preceding couple issues by Englehart drawn by Walter Simonson, and a couple issues by Rogers without Englehart), a major step on the road to Batman as he exists today which also featured the - at the time - unexpected return of one of the Golden Age villains Wagner features.

6. Nightwing: Better Than Batman

What: Under the thumb of the Parliament of Owls, the Courts’ international equivalent - if with more up his sleeve than they expect - Nightwing finds himself in deeper than he ever could have imagined as he falls under the ‘mentorship’ of the mercenary Raptor, who not only leaves Dick questioning lessons he had previously taken as gospel, but tumbling down a rabbit hole through his own past that threatens to destroy the life he’s built for himself in the present.

Why: There’s no comprehensive look at Batman that doesn’t involve the family he’s built for himself, and this in my mind is the definitive story of the original Robin. Touching on his heritage, his early days as the Boy Wonder, his modern MO as a dashing international superhero with a pinch of espionage, and his connections with the rest of his crime-fighting family, the heart of the story is his relationship with Bruce: their days as Batman and Robin, their differing methods and ideologies, the complications stemming from their distinct backgrounds, and how their brotherhood ultimately saved them both. More than any other single book it underlines the foundation of what makes Dick Grayson work, and by extension the entire concept of the Batman Family.

Recommendations: Better Than Batman is the most compact and satisfying example of what defines Robin and the Batman Family as a whole, but if you’d prefer something more expansive in scope, Batman and Robin Eternal touches on many of the some ideas. For both a solid look back at Dick’s career back when wearing pixie boots, as well as the origin of one of the other two major templates for Batman’s sidekicks, Robin/Batgirl: Year One collects a pair of cult classic stories, Batgirl in particular being the one to check out. As for the third, while Jason Todd’s most iconic story is unquestionably Death in the Family, its actual quality hardly lives up to its enduring imagery and impact; you’ll be best served looking at his return from the grave in Batman: Under The Hood. Alfred’s the other major foundation of the family, and for him I’d probably recommend the soon-to-conclude All-Star Batman arc The First Ally. As for the rest of the family, for hitting the most members in one package I’d recommend James Tynion IV’s run on Detective Comics - beginning with the trade Rise of the Batmen - which returns or recontextualizes a number of fan-favorite characters under an umbrella of incredibly solid Batman Family adventure stories.

7. Paul Dini’s Detective Comics

What: Collected across Batman: Detective, Batman: Death and the City, Batman: Private Casebook, and Batman: Heart of Hush, Paul Dini - one of the main architects of Batman: The Animated Series, and much of the later DCAU as well - serves up a run of almost uniformly excellent, largely done-in-one Batman adventure stories.

Why: Iconic storylines may draw attention to a character, but the brick and mortar of the greats is laid on a foundation of just plain good comics, month-in and month-out, and there are few better examples for Batman than with Dini’s tenure on Detective Comics, especially with the likes of J.H. Williams, Don Kramer and Dustin Nguyen in tow. They may not be stories that redefined the character for a new generation, but they’re simply and unassailably Quality Comics of a sort rarely achieved.

Recommendations: For a more old-school example of the same principle, Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ classic tenure on the character is as good as it gets, featuring the likes of The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge - the first comic since his earliest appearances in the 1940s to portray him as the killer clown we know today - and the first appearance of Ra’s Al Ghul. The multiple spinoff comics of Batman: The Animated Series such as the multiple iterations of Batman Adventures and Batman: Gotham Adventures also have a solid hit-to-miss ratio in that regard. And if you’re interested in more of Paul Dini’s Batman comics, Batman: City of Crime with Alex Ross is one of the characters’ all-time great stories, and Dark Night: A True Batman Story with Eduardo Risso is a powerful autobiographical piece on how Dini’s life and work collided in his darkest hour.

8. The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told

What: Exactly what it sounds like, this trade collects standout Batman stories from across the first 50 years of his history.

Why: The trouble with comics is that not all of a characters’ best material is necessarily in individual trades, or single runs - just stick to those and you’ll miss out on some stone-cold classics. There have been plenty of collections attempting to gather up the ‘best of the rest’ to rectify that though, and of those I’d particularly recommend the edition above, filled from top-to-bottom with not only delightful artifacts like The Batman Nobody Knows! and A Caper a Day Keeps the Batman at Bay!, but definitive stories such as The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne! and Death Strikes at Midnight and Three.

Recommendations: For a similarly charming - though I believe far more difficult to track down - retrospective, Batman from the 30′s to the 70′s is certainly worth picking up if you ever happen to see it around. If you find older Batman stories appeal, it’s worth checking out both The Batman Chronicles, collecting his earliest appearances in the 30s and 40s, as well as Showcase Presents: Batman with his 60s adventures, and perhaps the more recent run Batman ‘66, a direct continuation of the Adam West/Burt Ward TV series. You might also be interested in The Brave and the Bold #200, featuring a 'teamup' of sorts between the Batmen of two eras. If what mainly appeals to you is the thrill and comic value of seeing Batman in bizarre situations you’d never see now, Showcase Presents: The Brave and the Bold might be your speed, containing Bob Haney and Jim Aparo’s madcap tenure, as well as Neal Adams’ relatively recent lunatic masterpiece Batman: Odyssey.

9. Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth

EDIT: This list was written prior to allegations made against Warren Ellis. It’s your money, but while I’d still recommend checking the book out of the library - the quality of the work isn’t going to change now that it’s out there in the universe - if you’re looking to pad your bookshelf I might recommend skipping to some of the books suggested below in its place.

What: “Mystery archaeologists” Jakita Wagner, Elijah Snow and The Drummer are a group of superhumans investigating beneath the skin of the Wildstorm universe to uncover the wonders and terrors lurking in its darkest corners. On a trip to Gotham City to apprehend serial killer John Black, his own abilities trigger when cornered to rotate them all through different realities...and in other versions of Gotham, they find they’re not the only ones looking to bring Black to justice.

Why: Planetary built itself on distilling artifacts of 19th and 20th century pop culture (typically by proxy) down to their most essential ideas and iconic values as mysteries to be unveiled, whether 1920s pulp heroes, Godzilla, Sherlock Holmes, 80s and 90s Vertigo comics, James Bond, John Woo revenge flicks, or any of a dozen others. While the other two Planetary crossovers break with formula, this applies it to the biggest modern 20th century icon of all, as a group of hardened Warren Ellis-y superbeings entirely unfamiliar with the concept of ‘Batman’ are forced to run a gauntlet of over 60 years of his most iconic takes when their versions of justice collide. As far as I can tell regarded as a footnote in Batman’s own history, it’s regardless one of his all-time greatest stories, extrapolating him in every direction at once to find the core that unites them all, topping it off with the no-shit best Batman moment of all time.

Recommendations: Most obviously, soon as of the time of this writing Warren Ellis will be tackling a full-scale Batman project alongside longtime collaborator Bryan Hitch, The Batman’s Grave, which I couldn’t be more excited for and obviously recommend checking out. For other stories taking a particularly off-kilter look at Batman and his world, whether through unusual styles or with versions of the character entirely unlike anything ever known, you’ll want to check out the trades of Batman: Black and White, an anthology running as a backup through numerous Batman titles eventually collected in trade, showing a gauntlet of top creators doing their own brief takes on Batman and his world, kicking off no less with another Ellis-written Batman story that powerfully sums up his drive. If you’re looking for something more specifically in the vein of Night on Earth though - a stripped-down, iconic Batman that acknowledges the odder parts of his history and confronts deep emotional truths about himself amidst high-action spectacle - then the current run on Batman proper by Tom King and company is something I’d certainly recommend checking out on the understanding it comes with ups and downs.

10. Batman: The Black Glove

What: From his great lost love to family he’s never known, from the basement of the GCPD to the bowls of Arkham, from the secrets of the past to the horrors of the future, from the ends of the Earth to the inside of his mind, the grip of Batman’s greatest enemy reaches wherever his shadow falls. Collected variously as Batman and Son and Batman: The Black Glove, Bruce Wayne finds himself matched against a seemingly disconnected series of challenges ultimately pointing towards the machinations of a greater threat; one that has constructed his downfall across decades, weaponizing his own mind and history against him as they build towards breaking the Batman once and for all.

Why: These issues are the start of the best Batman comics of all time. They’re absolutely fantastic all on their own, make no mistake; the first arc introduces one of the most significant Bat-family characters of all time, The Clown At Midnight is a criminally underrated classic, and Club of Heroes has J.H. Williams III drawing what amounts to 7 Batmen and 3 Robins being trapped in the plot of And Then There Were None. But more than that, these issues lay the foundation of a 7-year run by Grant Morrison built around mysteries that reach across every facet of Batman’s world, which not only reinvents him as a character, but is frankly and simply the best sustained run on a major superhero of all time. This should by no means be the first Batman comic you ever read, but make no mistake: everything leads to this.

Recommendations: Well, for one thing there’s the rest of the run. Before moving on, you may if possible want to check out Batman: The Black Casebook, a collection of numerous Golden and Silver Age comics that Morrison drew on significant plot and thematic elements of for his work, and Dark Knight Dark City, a supernatural thriller and one of the best Batman-as-detective comics out there which ends up forming much of the spine of some of Morrison’s biggest developments. From there, the rest of his run is collected across Batman R.I.P. > Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn > Time and the Batman > Batman vs. Robin > Return of Bruce Wayne > Batman and Robin Must Die! > Batman Incorporated > Batman Incorporated: Demon Star > Batman Incorporated: Gotham’s Most Wanted.

While much of the impact of the run was immediately dismantled (in large part by Morrison himself, who’s had similar experiences in the past and wanted to show the ideas he introduced off on his own terms here), slowly but surely creators are coming around to what he was doing and have followed up accordingly. Grayson - one of the most beloved DC titles of the last several years - follows the original Robin as he infiltrates the superspy agency Spyral introduced in Batman Incorporated, and leads directly into the previously mentioned current excellent run on Nightwing, which itself has a direct sequel to Morrison’s Bat-tenure in the arc Nightwing Must Die! The major DC event book Dark Nights: Metal by the team behind Batman: Zero Year is itself a direct sequel to several of Morrison’s biggest DC stories, his Batman run most of all. Morrison himself at one point announced plans for Arkham Asylum 2, which rather than following up on his graphic novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth is apparently a direct sequel to his Batman epic starring Damian Wayne as the Dark Knight; hopefully it will one day see fruition. Finally, if you’re simply looking for something on a similar wavelength of bizarre, lurid international pulp mystery mixed with wild fist-pumping superhero action and character moments, the ongoing crossover Batman/The Shadow - soon to end and be directly followed-up by The Shadow/Batman with the same writer - is easily one of the best of its kind of cross-company team up and absolutely a descendant of the type of Batman comics Morrison’s tenure produced.

#Batman #Opinion

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webpostingpro-blog · 7 years

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Maryland men's lacrosse would welcome back Mac Pons for last five regular-season games

TIime could appear like going for walks out for senior defenseman Mac Pons to play for No. eight Maryland. The Bel Air resident and Boys’ Latin graduate has no longer played within the crew’s first 8 video games due to an unspecified decrease-frame injury, and there are simply 5 greater video games left inside the regular season.

Educate John Tillman stated the decision of whether Pons will go back this season is totally up to him.

“We’ve had discussions with Mac and just tried to put the whole lot out for him,” Tillman said Tuesday morning. “I wager it’s in no way too past due, but realizing that a whole lot of the season has handed us by means of, you kind of appearance and move, ‘In case you’re a young individual, could you as a substitute have the whole year as opposed to part of the year?’ I think that’s a private choice.

I think for Mac, the selection is, ‘

Do I come returned and try to play with all the men I came in with?’ Or does he simply say, ‘I’m going to give up on the 12 months and that I’ll simply come again next 12 months and take the redshirt’? He hasn’t without a doubt made that selection but, and I truly do experience like that’s a personal and own family choice with genuinely the capacity to get the recommendation from us.”

Tillman said Pons is strolling at the side and is making moderate progress, however, did now not have any information on how near he is to returning to exercise and then games. Tillman stated Pons is in part driven by means of a choice to play with attackmen Matt Rambo and Colin Heacock (Boys’ Latin) and defenseman Tim Muller and the relaxation of his classmates.

How to Put Your Name Next to the Time on a Mac

It is easy to position your call subsequent to the clock up at the pinnacle proper of your Mac’s screen. Other than the chill component, displaying your call in the menu bar makes it very clean to know whether or not you are signed in as yourself or as a person else who stocks your Mac.

By default, the person name does not show to the right of the clock. It’s as much as you to show it on. Right here’s the way you do it.

Visit the Apple menu and pick out Device Preferences

Click on Customers & Businesses

Click on Login Options (lower left of Users & Corporations preference pane)

If the Alternatives within the proper hand aspect of the Login Options are gray it method the panel is locked. You may unencumber it By clicking the lock at the lowest left of the Customers and Companies choice pane and getting into your person’s password.

You are almost completed: simply check the field next to “display fast user switching menu as” and then pick out an alternative from the menu to the right. “Complete name” is probably your first and final name. “Account name” is probably something shorter, like simply your first call (or maybe your first and last call), no spaces, lower case. Whilst you look up on the menu bar you’ll see the effect of your choice.

Menu bar space is treasured, so you may additionally need to go with the shorter “account call” or maybe simply the icon.

For a Mac with one person, showing your call (or the icon) is only cosmetic. However for Macs with more than one Customers, displaying your name isn’t always only informational (as it suggests who’s logged in), However a time-saver because clicking at the call (or the icon) produces a menu of Customers, and You can log into any of them Through deciding on them and coming into the proper password.

While you’re up there, you would possibly need to customize the date and time show as well

In case you Go to Apple menu/System Alternatives/Date & Time, after which “Clock,” you will get masses of Alternatives. I really like to expose the day of the week in addition to the date, and the time as a virtual clock. (On menu bars in which space may be very tight I take advantage of the analog clock, to store space.) I do now not advise the flashing time separators as it’s far a consistent distraction and your eyes might be subconsciously interested in them.

Bonus tip: You could put your name to the left of the time Via conserving the Command key down, clicking on your name within the menu bar, and dragging your name to a location. The trick is you have to preserve the Command key down earlier than clicking.

Inviting Songs That Begin With The Word Welcome

A colleague in my poetry magnificence some years in the past claimed that a great song is sort of a pair of socks clean out of the dryer, warming your feet at the bloodless floor within the iciness. The simile worked for me, besides that, I stored considering how most of the socks I pull from my dryer pop out without a mate.

A better evaluation for a good tune, I assume, might be the house of a friend. The track eagerly invites you in and, once inside, you experience with no trouble comfortable.

I assume, might be the house of a friend.

The track eagerly invites you in and, once inside, you experience with no trouble comfortable.

With that metaphor in thoughts, it’s far surprising how few songs start off with the word welcome. It’d be a super greeting for the listener, who wants to enjoy his visit.

Here are famous songs that clearly do begin with the phrase “Welcome.”

Permit Me Entertain You via Queen

Freddie Mercury gives open palms to the many of us who sold the Jazz album, certified platinum due to hits along with “Fat Bottomed Ladies” and “Bicycle Race.”

Karn Evil 9 by using Emerson, Lake, and Palmer

The name is a trade spelling of carnival, which is the object of Greg Lake’s greeting on this Mind Salad Surgical operation music’s first phrase.

Welcome To My Nightmare by Alice Cooper

This scary greeting is the identity tune to the primary album Cooper did after leaving his authentic band, who soon released a record under the name Billion Dollar Infants.

Welcome To The Jungle through Guns N Roses

An anthem at a whole lot of carrying occasions, this song has to turn out to be the rock band’s maximum identified song.

Welcome Lower back via John Sebastian

Lovin’ Spoonful’s the front guy scored his first solo hit with this subject song from the Welcome Back, Kotter Television display starring a younger John Travolta.

Welcome Returned Home with the aid of the Dramatics

This conventional is one of the most enduring hits from the R & B group.

Welcome To My World by Jim Reeves

The country crooner remains remembered for his golden voice, verified on songs like this one and “He’s going to Have to Cross.”

Truth About Online Games

One component which never appears to die down may be the hype created with the aid of online video games. Many would possibly think that the fever of on-line games has died down but they could not have been extra incorrect. In truth, on-line video games are maximum famous today in comparison to what they had been a few many years in the past. The undying attraction for the digital world of gaming is at a consistent up upward thrust. Due to the improvements in generation, the graphics, nice of visuals and sounds,

Have significantly increased in every potential, really pulling greater enthusiasts into its area of impact. The get right of entry to the net has additionally improved the number of people who can access those games inside the first actual location. The sensible experience of the digital world, which we check with as the world of gaming, in reality, plunges each person into its orbit. This in turns them into obsessive fans to this illusionary, yet very surreal global which is underneath their manage and electricity.

Whilst coming all the way down to on-line games, over the years,

They have seemed to have won exceptional fans in contrast to every other. As mentioned earlier than Due to the improved get right of entry to of the internet, the superior technological pics used certainly make video games very addictive. Due to the mere reality that these video games are to be accessed on-line, time is instead saved from downloading these very games at the very begin.

Few games additionally allow a user to store their progress after a totally

A quick check in the method which can be logged in thru social media websites as well which include Facebook, Google+, Yahoo and so forth. A recent observe has additionally shown that nearly one in each five users at the net get entry to gaming websites and this quantity is anticipated to growth with the due passage of time as sports builders are very eager on generating progressive time powerful and fan-following on-line video games which continue a person busy for days. Even though a handful of people might move against the very essence of on-line video games, there aren’t best more than one, however numerous advantages of on-line gaming which many are unaware of. Fortuitously for

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webpostingpro-blog · 7 years

Text

New Post has been published on Webpostingpro

New Post has been published on https://webpostingpro.com/maryland-mens-lacrosse-would-welcome-back-mac-pons-for-last-five-regular-season-games/

Maryland men's lacrosse would welcome back Mac Pons for last five regular-season games

Educate John Tillman stated the decision of whether Pons will go back this season is totally up to him.

I think for Mac, the selection is, ‘

How to Put Your Name Next to the Time on a Mac

By default, the person name does not show to the right of the clock. It’s as much as you to show it on. Right here’s the way you do it.

Visit the Apple menu and pick out Device Preferences

Click on Customers & Businesses

Click on Login Options (lower left of Users & Corporations preference pane)

Menu bar space is treasured, so you may additionally need to go with the shorter “account call” or maybe simply the icon.

While you’re up there, you would possibly need to customize the date and time show as well

Inviting Songs That Begin With The Word Welcome

A better evaluation for a good tune, I assume, might be the house of a friend. The track eagerly invites you in and, once inside, you experience with no trouble comfortable.

I assume, might be the house of a friend.

The track eagerly invites you in and, once inside, you experience with no trouble comfortable.

With that metaphor in thoughts, it’s far surprising how few songs start off with the word welcome. It’d be a super greeting for the listener, who wants to enjoy his visit.

Here are famous songs that clearly do begin with the phrase “Welcome.”

Permit Me Entertain You via Queen

Freddie Mercury gives open palms to the many of us who sold the Jazz album, certified platinum due to hits along with “Fat Bottomed Ladies” and “Bicycle Race.”

Karn Evil 9 by using Emerson, Lake, and Palmer

The name is a trade spelling of carnival, which is the object of Greg Lake’s greeting on this Mind Salad Surgical operation music’s first phrase.

Welcome To My Nightmare by Alice Cooper

This scary greeting is the identity tune to the primary album Cooper did after leaving his authentic band, who soon released a record under the name Billion Dollar Infants.

Welcome To The Jungle through Guns N Roses

An anthem at a whole lot of carrying occasions, this song has to turn out to be the rock band’s maximum identified song.

Welcome Lower back via John Sebastian

Lovin’ Spoonful’s the front guy scored his first solo hit with this subject song from the Welcome Back, Kotter Television display starring a younger John Travolta.

Welcome Returned Home with the aid of the Dramatics

This conventional is one of the most enduring hits from the R & B group.

Welcome To My World by Jim Reeves

The country crooner remains remembered for his golden voice, verified on songs like this one and “He’s going to Have to Cross.”

Truth About Online Games

Whilst coming all the way down to on-line games, over the years,

Few games additionally allow a user to store their progress after a totally

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