On HU

We started the week off with Richard Cook’s discussion of the story of St. Catherine from the Big Book of Martyrs.

Ng Suat Tong skewered Usamaru Furuya’s Genkaku Picasso.

Sean Michael Robinson discussed the child porn conviction of Steve Kutzner.

Vom Marlowe reviewed Allie Brosh’s webcomic Hyperbole and a Half.

And finally I discussed Manny Farber, termite art, white elephant art, and Galileo.

Utilitarians Everywhere

At Comixology I talk about Escher, time, space, and Dr. Manhattan.

Of course, you don’t really need to make a choice for one or the other. The title of the piece may indicate that there are a bunch of reptiles here, but much of the enjoyment of the image — and of Escher’s work in general — is the sense of moving pieces caught in a pleasurably regimented dance. Even if it’s not technically one reptile moving, the individuals are nonetheless interchangeable. You know that the reptile climbing the triangle is going to get to the top of the D & D die and that it’s going to blow smoke out of its nose when it gets there just as its predecessor did. The reptile blowing smoke will climb onto the little cup; the reptile on the cup will crawl back into the abstract pattern. Whether the image is showing a sequence as a comic would or merely implying it, the point is still that time and identity are flattened out across space.

At Splice Today I review Cool It!, a movie about the dangers of overreacting to climate change.

Cool It has more ambitions than merely setting the record straight on global warming, though. One of the talking heads that Cool It drops on the unsuspecting viewer notes with the slightly condescending chuckle of the large-brained that Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, was a “great piece of propaganda.” No doubt it was. So is this. Cool It uses, in fact, many of the same hagiographic tactics as its more famous predecessor. We see Bjorn biking healthily through Denmark, chatting earnestly with impoverished children in third world nations, and puncturing bloviating politicians with his rapier wit. We get porn-movie close-ups of his book as voiceovers speak sternly of its controversial and brave counter-intuitiveness. The movie even trots out Lomborg’s Alzheimer-afflicted mother for a few scenes—because nothing adds depth to a wonk’s character like a little family tragedy.

Other Links

Suat pointed out to me this really interesting article in praise of abstraction at Comets Comets by Blaise Larmee.

VM wanted to let folks know that the anatomy book she reviewed a while back is now downloadable.

R. Fiore has a beautifully snide article up about Drew Friedman.

And this is from Wax Audio, who is a fucking genius.

On HU

Erica Friedman began the week with a discussion of the Bechdel Test and the manga Silent Mobius.

James Romberger wrote about the late horror comics of Alex Toth.

I used Laura Mulvey’s gaze theory to talk about Moto Hagio’s story “The Willow Tree.”

Richard Cook discussed St. Olaf’s appearance in the Big Book of Martyrs.

Vom Marlowe reviewed James Love’s Bayou.

And we finished the week out with the conclusion of our roundtable on Charles Hatfield’s Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature. Charles himself has two posts (about his writing and rethinkings of his book, and about Gilbert Hernandez) and I had a reply because I’m incorrigible — and there are some spirited debates in comments as well.

Utilitarians Everywhere

At Splice Today I review some Roger Corman produced Alien knock offs just released to DVD.

But what’s most notable about these movies is not who gets killed, but who doesn’t. Because the greatest thing about Alien, the thing that gave it its real bite (as it were) wasn’t the gruesome beauty of its special effects or the brutal claustrophobia of its mise en scene… Or, okay, it was those things, I’ll admit. But it was also its twisted ruthlessness. Alien looked like a sci-fi film, but it walked like a slasher. Everybody in that movie was ruthlessly humiliated—especially the brave het heroes, who ended up raped, impregnated, violated, and dead, dead. The only one who gets out alive was that uber-final girl, Ripley, who was hard-assed and butch as hell, and when she left she didn’t need no stinking man, because (as I mentioned) all the men were dead.

Also at Splice I reviewed a new album by Eurodisco weirdos Majeure.

Long before Westerners had discovered philosophy, or even consecutive thought, the ancient Mayans were predicting a day in 2012 when Hegel’s brain would be uploaded to rotating satellites, creating a dialectical Skynet which would order the crucifixion of all humans and then broadcast impenetrable prose to their rotting corpses. Scientists today still wonder at the perspicacity of these ancient cultures, which—using nothing but the basest computers woven out of specially prepared obelisks—managed to predict the bloody demise of the hidebound print-based media, the rise of the cyborg antichrist Ke$ha, and the reverse rapture of materializing silly-bands which are even now drowning the world in a multi-colored kaleidoscope of hollow Platonic forms.

At Madeloud I reviewed Antony and the Johnsons new album.

Also at Madeloud a review of some depressive mopey but chimey black metal by Happy Days and Eindig.

Other Links

It’s good to be reminded now and then that before Gary was beloved and respected he was really, really, really loathed. (Our own Alex Buchet comments extensively on the very rancorous thread.)

Shaenon Garrity has been on fire recently. I kind of have no interest in ever reading Scott Pilgrim, but this review is awesome.

On HU

Domingos Isabelinho looked at Otto Dix’s bookDer Krieg.

New columnist Stephanie Folse talked about the BBC crime drama New Tricks.

Ng Suat Tong talked about the accomplishments of the Comics Journal.

Ng Suat Tong compared the workings of the visual art market to those of the original comics art market.

I wrote a longish essay about Moto Hagio’s story Iguana Girl.

Jones (One of the Jones Boys), did a two part guest post on visual aliens — characters drawn in a different style from their surroundings. Part One Part Two

Utilitarians Everywhere

For Splice Today I wrote an essay on Faith Evan’s new album and torch songs.

For Madeloud I sneered at Sufjan Stevens’ new album.

Other Links

A couple people pointed out this interesting post about where Marston and Peters try to figure out how to draw Wonder Woman.

Shaenon Garrity has a great post about Michael O’Donaghue’s over-the-top-exploitation comic Phoebe Zeit-Geist.

And I’m really into Rye Rye at the moment.

On HU

Kinukitty reviewed the yaoi manga How to Seduce a Vampire.

Andrei Molotiu examined how it changes our view of comics to see original comics art in a gallery context. (This is the first in a new series edited by Derik Badman reprinting academic articles and essays.)

Richard Cook examined 80 years of Asians on mainstream comic book covers.

I talked about Moto Hagio’s short story Angel Mimic.

Vom Marlowe talks about the novel Blackout by Connie Willis.

Caroline Small discusses Alexis Frederick Frost’s wordless minicomic Voyage.

Utilitarians Everywhere

At Madeloud I review doom metal band The Body’s album All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood.

Other Links
I quite like science blogger John Horgan.

This article, with Sesame Street appearances by Destiny’s Child, Stevie Wonder, and Paul Simon, is great.

On HU

This week started off with Erica Friedman talking about the Bechdel test and manga.

Alex Buchet wrote about fairy tales and silhouette art.

Ng Suat Tong reviewed Ma Li and Chen Uen’s popular Taiwan comic Abi Jian.

Richard Cook talked about gender in Final Fantasy XIII.

I discussed Alan Moore and the fans who hate him.

I talked about Moto Hagio’s short story Hanshin: Half-God.

And I reviewed Jim Collins’ Bring On the Books for Everybody.

Oh, and I think I’m going to stop with the music downloads. It’s been fun, but there’s not a ton of interest, and I spend too much time on the blog as it is!

Utilitarians Everywhere

At Splice Today I have an article encouraging gay teens to drop out of school.

Nonetheless, I find the message in the videos I’ve seen frustrating. Yes, it’s good for kids to know that things will improve. But high school isn’t a force of nature. It’s not a hurricane, or even acne. It’s not unavoidable. If high school is making your life miserable beyond all endurance—so miserable that you’re seriously considering killing yourself—then maybe you shouldn’t wait two or three years for your life to get better. Maybe you should just drop out.

Also at Splice Today I have an essay about the I Spit on Your Grave remake, feminism, the end of politics, and Funny Games.

The remake follows through on the group dynamics to some extent—the guys egg each other on; they bring Matthew along to lose his virginity, etc. But it abandons the effort to make the men appear like just folks. Ironically, the director Steven R. Monroe gives one of his characters a video camera, and we see some of the rape through the lens. This is an obvious effort to implicate the viewer, but in fact, this version of the story is much less accusatory than Zarchi’s original.

That’s because, instead of seeing the rape as a result of standard male group dynamics, Monroe tries hard to de-collectivize the guilt. In Zarchi’s version, the men were typical guys, and the rape, too, was therefore typical—a possibility for any man. In Monroe’s version, on the other hand, the rapists are individual monsters, a much less frightening idea.

At Madloud, I discuss 15 or so of the 15,000 covers of “Summertime.

This is fascinating, in a Hey! -that’s-Barry-Manilow-defecating-on-my-porch! kind of way. Philadelphia studio musicians turn Gershwin’s mournful lullaby into a giant lounge turd, complete with smooth-jazz intro and half-assed crappy disco cheese funk. For the full effect, imagine Paul Robeson dancing in a conga line with a white shirt open to his navel. Or, you know, don’t.

Other Links

Alex’s post reminded me of this awesome fairy tale resource.

I haven’t seen the Social Network, but the trailer looks terrible. I was pleased to see Jezebel buck the conventional wisdom and eviscerate it.

And this is several years old, but still an interesting article, on sexual harassment online.

On HU

To start out the week kinukitty reviewed the yaoi manga Hiro Madarame’s Scarlet.

Ng Suat Tong discussed Jacques Tardi’s It Was the War of the Trenches in comparison to other war narratives.

Richard Cook looked at the DC comics that came out in the month he was born, September 1980.

Alex Buchet continued his series on comics and architecture with a discussion of comics creators who also did architectural projects.

Sean Michael Robinson wrote a lengthy article on the Choose Your Own Adventure series.

I explained why I didn’t like the first four stories in Moto Hagio’s Drunken Dream.

And for your download, a collection of torch songs.

Utilitarians Everywhere

At Splice Today I review Justin Townes Earle’s latest album.

At Madeloud I have a review up with Jake Austen about his work producing Chic-a-go-go, Chicago’s all-ages public access dance show.

On tcj.com, Matthias Wivel reviews Ulli Lust’s “Heute ist der letzte Tag vom Rest deines Lebens.

Other Links

Matt Seneca talks about a Gary Panter panel and the ways of realism.

Karen Green has a thoughtful article about what is and is not propaganda in comics.

Groovy Age of Horror is the best there is at what it does.

Submit to the Hooded Utilitarian!

As regular readers have probably noticed, HU has been taking tentative steps away from group-blogness and towards kind-of-sort-of-magazineness. I don’t think we’ll ever abandon having a regular roster of bloggers, but I do hope to continue to get more guest writers.

Which is where you come in. I would love to hear from new writers. If you have an idea for an article, please contact me at noahberlatsky at gmail. The best way to get a sense of what sorts of things we write about is to look back through the archives…but if you don’t see the kind of thing you want to write about there, don’t let that discourage you. We probably just haven’t gotten to it yet!

Also, this seems like a good time to announce that we are planning to debut several new columnists over the next couple of months.

Sean Michael Robinson, a cartoonist and art teacher (who you may remember from this article) will start with a new monthly column next week.

Stephanie Folse (aka Telophase), a former columnist for Tokyopop (and author of this article) will also be joining us as a monthly columnist starting in October.

Artist and critic Derik Badman will also be joining us. Derik is going to be organizing a feature where we reprint academic articles or (if we’re lucky) excerpts from academic books that focus on comics. We hope to run this feature once a month, if we can find willing academics (if you are such an academic, and would like to see an article of your reprinted on HU, please contact Derik Badman: first name . last name AT gmail dot com (no spaces, all lower-case)).

In addition, Domingos Isabelinho, Derik Badman and possibly Alex Buchet are working on some translations of French comic criticism, which we should be publishing over the next few months.

And we’ve also got several interesting guest posts lined up, as well as some roundtables and, of course, our regular bloggers will keep doing our thing. Thank you all for reading and commenting!

On to your regularly scheduled Utilitarian Review….

On HU

We started off the week with a long post by Matthias Wivel about the great mangaka Yoshiharu Tsuge.

Ng Suat Tong followed up with a post focusing on Tsuge’s manga Red Flowers.

Richard Cook discussed his experience at SPX.

Alex Buchet continued his series on comics and architecture, including a gallery and a half of examples.

Vom Marlowe discussed an anatomy book from ImagineFX.

I wrote about Alex Toth, minimalism, and realism, inspired by a post by Matt Seneca.

And death, sludge, doom, and some mud in your weekly music download.

Utilitarians Everywhere

At Splice Today I got paid to write poetry! Only five haikus, but still. This is the best one:

Drat. I have no pants.
The days are cold; the nights, cold.
Here I sit. Help me.

At Madeloud I reviewed the new album by the electronica outfit Dead Fader.

At the Chicago Reader I recommended an exhibit of Chinese Buddhist cave art at the Smart Museum.

Other Links

Robot 6 talked to Dirk Deppey about what he read last week.

Melinda Beasi continued the discussion of gender and shojo manga.

I enjoyed Tom Spurgeon’s review of the latest complete Peanuts volume.

And I thought Nicole Ruddick’s review of A Drunken Dream at Comics Comics raised some interesting issues.