Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Fanboy Trailblazers & Online Art Avartars

We spotted two newspaper articles that may be of interest to you. The first is "Triumph of the Fanboys" by Lynden Barber in the Weekend Australian (27-28/12/08) which examines the influence of comic book fans on popular culture, especially the movies. Here's the intro:
WHEN Hollywood studio Warner Bros announced recently it was planning to make fewer movies, it added an all-important proviso: of those it did make, a bigger proportion would be based on comic book characters. Which raises the question among those not yet won over to the essentially teenage appeal of superheroes: What exactly is it about movies about men in facemasks and tight underpants that has Hollywood salivating?
Hmmph. All the long-time comics and graphic novels aficionados out there have known the answer for years – engaging characters and fabulous storytelling we can relate to and get emotionally involved in. We've been defending comics for years and now we feel absolved from the 'supposed' crime of having worked in such a medium of disrepute as judged by the literary set. We've both faced the scorn and derision from several of our contemporaries in publishing circles who just did not get it. We're glad the general populace is embracing these movies and also discovering the original source material. Do we have a slight chip on our shoulders? Yep! But it's rapidly turning to splinters and sawdust in the wake of this new acceptance of comics and subsidiary product.

The other article talked about the new business of online art galleries and even avatar buyers – does eBay count? Here is a link to "Online Galleries Are Go", which featured in The Sun-Herald (28/12/08).

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
See you on the morrow.

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