Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "batman"
Book Review: The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon
The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture
Glen Weldon (Author, Narrator)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Audible.com Release Date: March 22, 2016
ASIN: B01BPHJCXM
https://www.amazon.com/Caped-Crusade-...
Written by Wesley Britton for BookPleasures.com:
Glen Weldon is far from the first historian to explore the extensive Batman history in a full-length critical study. Perhaps the densest and best researched book on the topic, at least up to its publication date, was Bruce Scivally’s 2011 Billion Dollar Batman. Over recent years, the Sequart Research & Literacy Organization has featured many scholarly titles on various aspects of Batman’s place in comics, television, and films like its impressive essay collections on the 1966 Adam West television series, the work of Grant Morrison, and Julian Darius’s
2011 Improving the Foundations: Batman Begins from Comics to Screen. Now, Glen Weldon picks up the mantle, er, cowl, and takes us back to the beginning and brings us up to the present by tracing Batman’s evolving place in popular culture. Unlike other studies, he also focuses on the responses of “nurds” to the character and Bruce Wayne’s Gotham City milieu.
Naturally, the saga begins with the debut Batman stories created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger in Detective Comics in 1939. Thereafter, Weldon looks at how and why Batman was a figure forever changing in re-boots, re-sets, re-moldings and re-framing in popular media. The first serious course correction for the character and comic books in general took place in 1954 with the publication of Seduction of the Innocent by Fredric Wertham. That book attacked the comics industry claiming it was an assault on the morals of youth. Were Batman and Robin homoerotic characters? Were the street fights with criminals too gritty for young readers? To deal with the cultural controversy, Batman became less a dark crime-fighter and more an out-of-place sci fi space voyager.
Then came the 1966 Adam West TV series where the battle lines were drawn between the nurds wanting their comic book Batman to not be bowdlerized by the TV nonsense and the “normal” viewers who really didn’t care all that much about the character. Ironically, as Bruce Scivaly noted in his 2011 study, the comic book Batman wasn’t really that “adult” before Adam West, although DC Comics had tried to tone down the more fantastical elements in recent years.
After the TV series’ demise, the “nurds,” by use of fan newsletters and letters written to National Periodicals, championed the return of their “Batman,” that is, a more adult-oriented, dark vigilante. In the main, the nurds got their way as comic creators like Neal Adams, Steve Englehardt, Frank Miller, Denny O’Neill, and Grant Morrison gave readers a more and more violent, grim and gritty brooding bad ass. Then came the surprisingly successful Tim Burton movies and the Fox animated series that could appeal to both “nurds” and “normals” while the comic books became tougher and tougher and far removed from the children’s stories of yore. Then Joel Shumacher reversed that course before Christopher Nolan got things back on track for both “nurds” and “normals” alike.
Weldon gives more or less equal time to the creators of Batman projects, the fans and their responses to each new twist and turn, as well as the marketing and merchandising shifts that had much to do with how Batman had to be reshaped for each new generation of readers and viewers. For example, Batman wasn’t the only character to be packaged in more and more garish covers during the heyday of comic shops and collector’s editions during the 1990s. The advent of the internet was tailor-made for a fan base of nurds already poised to debate, discuss, and champion their visions of just who and what Batman should be. This included, and includes, online forums, websites, blogs, games, and fan fiction. Not to mention cons and even Legos.
I have to admit, Weldon seems rather obsessed with the “gayness” of Batman. I sort of understand why, but this is an area in which he gets rather heavy handed. Obviously, the primary audience for The Caped Crusade is fans of Batman, the very sort of fans the book is written about. I also think that those interested in nurd culture in general would be interested in this exploration of one thread of who they are. I guess that includes me. And perhaps you.
Originally posted at BookPleasures.com on June 6, 2017:
goo.gl/24bCSW
Glen Weldon (Author, Narrator)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Audible.com Release Date: March 22, 2016
ASIN: B01BPHJCXM
https://www.amazon.com/Caped-Crusade-...
Written by Wesley Britton for BookPleasures.com:
Glen Weldon is far from the first historian to explore the extensive Batman history in a full-length critical study. Perhaps the densest and best researched book on the topic, at least up to its publication date, was Bruce Scivally’s 2011 Billion Dollar Batman. Over recent years, the Sequart Research & Literacy Organization has featured many scholarly titles on various aspects of Batman’s place in comics, television, and films like its impressive essay collections on the 1966 Adam West television series, the work of Grant Morrison, and Julian Darius’s
2011 Improving the Foundations: Batman Begins from Comics to Screen. Now, Glen Weldon picks up the mantle, er, cowl, and takes us back to the beginning and brings us up to the present by tracing Batman’s evolving place in popular culture. Unlike other studies, he also focuses on the responses of “nurds” to the character and Bruce Wayne’s Gotham City milieu.
Naturally, the saga begins with the debut Batman stories created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger in Detective Comics in 1939. Thereafter, Weldon looks at how and why Batman was a figure forever changing in re-boots, re-sets, re-moldings and re-framing in popular media. The first serious course correction for the character and comic books in general took place in 1954 with the publication of Seduction of the Innocent by Fredric Wertham. That book attacked the comics industry claiming it was an assault on the morals of youth. Were Batman and Robin homoerotic characters? Were the street fights with criminals too gritty for young readers? To deal with the cultural controversy, Batman became less a dark crime-fighter and more an out-of-place sci fi space voyager.
Then came the 1966 Adam West TV series where the battle lines were drawn between the nurds wanting their comic book Batman to not be bowdlerized by the TV nonsense and the “normal” viewers who really didn’t care all that much about the character. Ironically, as Bruce Scivaly noted in his 2011 study, the comic book Batman wasn’t really that “adult” before Adam West, although DC Comics had tried to tone down the more fantastical elements in recent years.
After the TV series’ demise, the “nurds,” by use of fan newsletters and letters written to National Periodicals, championed the return of their “Batman,” that is, a more adult-oriented, dark vigilante. In the main, the nurds got their way as comic creators like Neal Adams, Steve Englehardt, Frank Miller, Denny O’Neill, and Grant Morrison gave readers a more and more violent, grim and gritty brooding bad ass. Then came the surprisingly successful Tim Burton movies and the Fox animated series that could appeal to both “nurds” and “normals” while the comic books became tougher and tougher and far removed from the children’s stories of yore. Then Joel Shumacher reversed that course before Christopher Nolan got things back on track for both “nurds” and “normals” alike.
Weldon gives more or less equal time to the creators of Batman projects, the fans and their responses to each new twist and turn, as well as the marketing and merchandising shifts that had much to do with how Batman had to be reshaped for each new generation of readers and viewers. For example, Batman wasn’t the only character to be packaged in more and more garish covers during the heyday of comic shops and collector’s editions during the 1990s. The advent of the internet was tailor-made for a fan base of nurds already poised to debate, discuss, and champion their visions of just who and what Batman should be. This included, and includes, online forums, websites, blogs, games, and fan fiction. Not to mention cons and even Legos.
I have to admit, Weldon seems rather obsessed with the “gayness” of Batman. I sort of understand why, but this is an area in which he gets rather heavy handed. Obviously, the primary audience for The Caped Crusade is fans of Batman, the very sort of fans the book is written about. I also think that those interested in nurd culture in general would be interested in this exploration of one thread of who they are. I guess that includes me. And perhaps you.
Originally posted at BookPleasures.com on June 6, 2017:
goo.gl/24bCSW
Book Review: Irwin Allen's Lost in Space: The Authorized Biography of a Classic Sci-Fi Series, Volume 2, by Marc Cushman
Irwin Allen's Lost in Space: The Authorized Biography of a Classic Sci-Fi Series, Volume 2
Marc Cushman
Publisher: Jacob Brown Media Group; 1 edition (November 1, 2016)
ISBN-10: 0692747567
ISBN-13: 978-0692747568
https://www.amazon.com/Irwin-Allens-L...
Reviewed by: Dr. Wesley Britton
I rather expected Volume 2 of Marc Cushman’s exhaustive history of Lost in Space would have to be much thinner and less engaging than Volume 1. After all, Vol. 1 included the pre-LIS careers of Irwin Allen and all the cast members as well as an in-depth look at Allen’s first TV sci fi series, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. For Vol 2, what else could Cushman do other than review all the episodes produced in season 2 of LIS? Well, he could, and does, give us a very decent overview of Allen’s prematurely cancelled Time Tunnel that ran on ABC from fall 1966 to spring 1967.
In many ways, my expectations were spot on. But not completely. This is especially true of the early discussions which focus on the changes that came when the show was now produced in color. Over and over, we’re told how “pop art” the visuals became, perfectly timed to coincide with the psychedelic ‘60s. As Cushman looks at the first episodes of the 1966-1967 season, it doesn’t seem like most of the cast members were all that important, other than the break-out star, Jonathan Harris. As with season 1, he continued to be not only an actor but a major script re-writer as well.
In fact, cast member Marta Kristen, who played Judy Robinson, said the program became the Jonathan Harris show with his evil Dr. Zachery Smith taking up the lion’s share of the time along with Bob May inside the robot and Bill Mumy’s Will Robinson. Guy Williams and June Lockhart, who had been major TV stars in their past series (Zorro, Lassie) had only sporadic lines and duties. In addition, the program became, more and more, a comedic fantasy emphasizing monsters, special effects, outlandish props, and oddball guest stars. With the apparent exception of network president William Paley, whom Cushman says was embarrassed by shows like LIS, CBS liked the changes. Top executives preferred a lighter touch that appealed to younger viewers which made for a winning formula against ABC’s Batman.
I was surprised to see just how much competitiveness Allen felt with the newcomer to network TV sci fi, the more serious Star Trek. For much of that season, in terms of ratings, LIS was often the weekly winner. Writers who worked on both series felt freer when scripting for LIS as there were fewer restrictions on what they could create. I wasn’t aware of how much pioneer work took place in LIS, especially with filming those outer space visuals and creating those weird props.
For a time, I felt like I was reading nothing more than a very, very detailed episode guide, something only diehard fans would enjoy. As Cushman admits, “my books redefine `TMI’." True enough. Nonetheless, there’s a warm tone that runs through the production notes. It’s clear Cushman liked the series when it first aired and he likes it, perhaps even more so, now. There are frequent moments when Cushman takes the time to point to just what made a specific episode special or entertaining. He tells us the better stories had themes, as in the lessons children learned about topics like self-sacrifice, tolerance, lost innocence, or sexual equality. Such thematic material, of course, wasn’t present in many more fantastic episodes.
In the end, it will be the serious fans who’ll want this second volume in the LIS saga. I can well imagine many TV sci fi fans who would also like to skim a book about one of the pioneer series in the genre. Certainly, most libraries should shelve this series, especially if they specialize in popular culture, TV production, or media studies. It’s not a cover-to-cover read, but rather a readable reference work.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on July 26, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/hfkMM2
Marc Cushman
Publisher: Jacob Brown Media Group; 1 edition (November 1, 2016)
ISBN-10: 0692747567
ISBN-13: 978-0692747568
https://www.amazon.com/Irwin-Allens-L...
Reviewed by: Dr. Wesley Britton
I rather expected Volume 2 of Marc Cushman’s exhaustive history of Lost in Space would have to be much thinner and less engaging than Volume 1. After all, Vol. 1 included the pre-LIS careers of Irwin Allen and all the cast members as well as an in-depth look at Allen’s first TV sci fi series, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. For Vol 2, what else could Cushman do other than review all the episodes produced in season 2 of LIS? Well, he could, and does, give us a very decent overview of Allen’s prematurely cancelled Time Tunnel that ran on ABC from fall 1966 to spring 1967.
In many ways, my expectations were spot on. But not completely. This is especially true of the early discussions which focus on the changes that came when the show was now produced in color. Over and over, we’re told how “pop art” the visuals became, perfectly timed to coincide with the psychedelic ‘60s. As Cushman looks at the first episodes of the 1966-1967 season, it doesn’t seem like most of the cast members were all that important, other than the break-out star, Jonathan Harris. As with season 1, he continued to be not only an actor but a major script re-writer as well.
In fact, cast member Marta Kristen, who played Judy Robinson, said the program became the Jonathan Harris show with his evil Dr. Zachery Smith taking up the lion’s share of the time along with Bob May inside the robot and Bill Mumy’s Will Robinson. Guy Williams and June Lockhart, who had been major TV stars in their past series (Zorro, Lassie) had only sporadic lines and duties. In addition, the program became, more and more, a comedic fantasy emphasizing monsters, special effects, outlandish props, and oddball guest stars. With the apparent exception of network president William Paley, whom Cushman says was embarrassed by shows like LIS, CBS liked the changes. Top executives preferred a lighter touch that appealed to younger viewers which made for a winning formula against ABC’s Batman.
I was surprised to see just how much competitiveness Allen felt with the newcomer to network TV sci fi, the more serious Star Trek. For much of that season, in terms of ratings, LIS was often the weekly winner. Writers who worked on both series felt freer when scripting for LIS as there were fewer restrictions on what they could create. I wasn’t aware of how much pioneer work took place in LIS, especially with filming those outer space visuals and creating those weird props.
For a time, I felt like I was reading nothing more than a very, very detailed episode guide, something only diehard fans would enjoy. As Cushman admits, “my books redefine `TMI’." True enough. Nonetheless, there’s a warm tone that runs through the production notes. It’s clear Cushman liked the series when it first aired and he likes it, perhaps even more so, now. There are frequent moments when Cushman takes the time to point to just what made a specific episode special or entertaining. He tells us the better stories had themes, as in the lessons children learned about topics like self-sacrifice, tolerance, lost innocence, or sexual equality. Such thematic material, of course, wasn’t present in many more fantastic episodes.
In the end, it will be the serious fans who’ll want this second volume in the LIS saga. I can well imagine many TV sci fi fans who would also like to skim a book about one of the pioneer series in the genre. Certainly, most libraries should shelve this series, especially if they specialize in popular culture, TV production, or media studies. It’s not a cover-to-cover read, but rather a readable reference work.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on July 26, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/hfkMM2
Two Free Movies on YouTube!Two Free Movies on YouTube!
Two Free Movies on YouTube!
Sequart Organization and Respect Films are proud to announce that their feature-length documentaries Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods and Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts are now available to watch for free on Sequart's YouTube channel!
https://www.youtube.com/user/SequartTV
Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods was produced in close collaboration with Morrison and features extensive interviews with him, as well as never-before-seen photos and documents spanning his childhood to the present day. Complimenting Morrison’s own words are interviews with his closest collaborators and friends. The film makes extensive use of found and abstract footage to make the documentary feel like a Morrison comic.
Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts features the most extensive interview ever given by Ellis. His acerbic wit and core belief in humanity come across like never before, revealing the unique point of view that has made him such a pivotal and influential figure to his massive audience of artists, journalists, scientists, and fans.
If you enjoy these films, you can also purchase a download, including extra footage, on our website's store. And of course, we have plenty of Grant Morrison- and Warren Ellis-related books for you to enjoy, including:
• Grant Morrison: The Early Years
• Our Sentence is Up: Seeing Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles
• Curing the Postmodern Blues: Reading Grant Morrison and Chris Weston’s The Filth in the 21st Century
• The Anatomy of Zur-en-Arrh: Understanding Grant Morrison’s Batman
• Shot in the Face: A Savage Journey to the Heart of Transmetropolitan
• Keeping the World Strange: A Planetary Guide
• Voyage in Noise: Warren Ellis and the Demise of Western Civilization
• Warren Ellis: The Captured Ghosts Interviews, featuring the complete transcript of over 10 hours of interviews with the man himself
ALSO FROM SEQUART
Grant Morrison: The Early Years, by Timothy Callahan, was the first book ever published on Morrison's work.
Our Sentence is Up: Seeing Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, by Patrick Meaney, examines Morrison's classic series in an easily accessible fashion.
Warren Ellis: The Captured Ghosts Interviews contains the full transcript of over 10 hours of Ellis interviews, ranging in subject across his entire career.
Copyright © 2018 Sequart, All rights reserved.
Sequart Organization and Respect Films are proud to announce that their feature-length documentaries Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods and Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts are now available to watch for free on Sequart's YouTube channel!
https://www.youtube.com/user/SequartTV
Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods was produced in close collaboration with Morrison and features extensive interviews with him, as well as never-before-seen photos and documents spanning his childhood to the present day. Complimenting Morrison’s own words are interviews with his closest collaborators and friends. The film makes extensive use of found and abstract footage to make the documentary feel like a Morrison comic.
Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts features the most extensive interview ever given by Ellis. His acerbic wit and core belief in humanity come across like never before, revealing the unique point of view that has made him such a pivotal and influential figure to his massive audience of artists, journalists, scientists, and fans.
If you enjoy these films, you can also purchase a download, including extra footage, on our website's store. And of course, we have plenty of Grant Morrison- and Warren Ellis-related books for you to enjoy, including:
• Grant Morrison: The Early Years
• Our Sentence is Up: Seeing Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles
• Curing the Postmodern Blues: Reading Grant Morrison and Chris Weston’s The Filth in the 21st Century
• The Anatomy of Zur-en-Arrh: Understanding Grant Morrison’s Batman
• Shot in the Face: A Savage Journey to the Heart of Transmetropolitan
• Keeping the World Strange: A Planetary Guide
• Voyage in Noise: Warren Ellis and the Demise of Western Civilization
• Warren Ellis: The Captured Ghosts Interviews, featuring the complete transcript of over 10 hours of interviews with the man himself
ALSO FROM SEQUART
Grant Morrison: The Early Years, by Timothy Callahan, was the first book ever published on Morrison's work.
Our Sentence is Up: Seeing Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, by Patrick Meaney, examines Morrison's classic series in an easily accessible fashion.
Warren Ellis: The Captured Ghosts Interviews contains the full transcript of over 10 hours of Ellis interviews, ranging in subject across his entire career.
Copyright © 2018 Sequart, All rights reserved.
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