reason.com
In which, Andrew and Tracy step out of their comfort zones and into Dude’s, discussing the 1st Amendment and free speech–both what it means to us, and what it means in the context of comic books and broader geek culture. A little heavier and pithier than our normal podcast topics, this one is timely given the current climate of the geek community.
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) is fighting the good fight against comic book censorship, a problem that has plagued the industry for decades. In order to better educate myself, and by extension Therefore I Geek’s readership, I am starting a periodic series in which I will read all of the books in the CBLDF’s list of banned book case studies and discuss them. These blog articles will take the opportunity to evaluate the material on its own merits, as well as in the larger context of censorship and why these books were banned. To kick off this new series, I’ll be discussing Brian K. Vaughan’ Pride of Baghdad.
In March of 2003, a US led coalition began airstrikes in preparation for the invasion of Iraq. As a result of the airstrikes, four lions from the Baghdad zoo escaped from their enclosure and began wandering the streets. Pride of Baghdad tells the story of these lions, using their journey as an allegory for discussing the invasion itself and exploring the some of the philosophy that surrounded it. At the time the book was published in 2006, the war’s outcome was far from clear, as a civil war was just beginning and the book makes no attempt to predict the future beyond the obvious idea that no matter what the outcome, things will never been the same in Iraq. Continue reading
Filed under Andrew Hales, CBLDF Response, Comics
Like many boys, Borderless comic book store owner Peter Newcomb was a reluctant reader as a preteen. Books really didn’t have any draw for him and he saw nothing exciting in pages full of plain text. At the same time, however, he loved looking at the picture in comic books, and he wanted to know the story that went along with them, so he began reading the printed dialogue. Over time, he became a good reader, which led to his becoming an avid reader—and he wants other reluctant readers to be able to do the same thing. This was the driving force behind the opening of his comic book store, and Pete encourages young people to come in and read comic books, even if they don’t buy them.
Continue reading
Filed under Comics, Editorial, Tracy Gronewold
In a rather surprising announcement yesterday, Comixology announced that they are becoming a subsidiary of Amazon. The digital comics outlet has made quite the name for itself the last few years, and even has the distinction of being the highest grossing non-game app in the iTunes store. It’s currently unclear what this acquisition will ultimately mean for users, but details will likely be coming soon.
While I’m a fan of both companies, I do get concerned when too many things that I enjoy get clustered under one company. There is always a risk of the market being run by edict instead of by competition to be the best service.
Over the last couple decades there has been a consistent push to blame violent video games for the various violent events that occur in real life, such as the Washington Navy Yard and Sandy Hook shootings. While events such as these are tragedies to be certain, it is wholly incorrect to blame video games for the actions of these deranged individuals. In a recent article by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund two more studies to the existing mountain of evidence to support the fact that violent video games do not increase violent tendencies in individuals.
In the end, the only “evidence” to support the idea that video games cause violence, is anecdotal, which is, in fact, not evidence of any sort.
There has been some speculation lately about the fate of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and whether or not the show will get a second season. I think it’s safe to say that the show hasn’t been performing quite as well either ABC or Marvel would like, but that is not to say that the show isn’t performing. It has the highest ratings of any ABC show that night, it is not too far below the network’s average, and to be fair, they’re directly competing with N.C.I.S. which is one of the highest rated shows on TV right now. In all likelihood we will get at least one more season out of the show and if the ratings can turn around, maybe more.
Hopefully the end of the season will gain some last minute momentum, thanks in part to its tie-in with Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Webcomics are a wonderful thing. Personally, I start off my day by reading several rather enjoyable ones. The only real problem is that sometimes it’s hard to keep up with them, especially the ones that come out daily. For those of you who have this issue, here’s a list of 17 webcomics that have wrapped up their runs and are available for you to read at your leisure. Among them is Starslip, which is one of my personal favorites, and 8-Bit Theater by Atomic Robo’s Brian Clevinger.
Filed under Around the Web, Weekly
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