Issue 2 “Some are neither born Nor Made”
(Same “deadly virtue” theme as Issue 1 (a 3-story arc based
on the deadly virtue Chastity/vice Lust))
This issue is really Stan’s Manifesto to the world: and he
is quite tired of the status quo…
front Cover: One
of the main images driving issue 2. It’s meant to be a big surprise as the
leech-nuns are closing in on Stan and Dany, and it features unbelievable inking
from 12 year old Jojo. The third letter in the title, “n”, is now changed into
an Omega (but is it for Stan, or someone else..?) I love Jojo’s idea for a
signature: “JP²”. Kind of an homage to Johnny Romita and Johnny Romita Jr
(one of Jojo’s favorite artists!): Junior is sometimes JR Jr, or JR², but
sometimes they also work together on a comic, then it’s like me and Jojo: JP
and JP. (And yes, evil leech-monster nuns do wear pretty ruby slippers.)
front
inner sleeve: we always liked when comic books do a brief recap on the front
sleeve (or even the first page). It makes it a more fun kind of story-telling
experience: the ominous “LAST TIME…” also we were happy to try all the new
tools and tricks we could on photoshop: I believe we had a full version of
photoshop at this time, or soon after this issue (a step up from “elements”,
but not quite “CC” yet…)
Issue 2
page 1: evil leech monster nuns closing in, at various stages of
transformation/morphing. The little purple velour bag with “the still warm
heart” of Carl Bobson slowly leaking blood and melting snow, etc. I love the
DuSable Bridge (although most people still call it the Michigan Ave. Bridge)
and I love trying to transcribe screams and sound effects just the way I hear
them in my head. This is also inspired by the last scene in Predator 2, when
Danny Glover defeats the predator, then 10 more walk out and he says “OK, who’s
next?”
(Incidentally, note the little joke with the wolf and the
lamb on the coats…)
The credits:
Title: “Some are neither born nor made…” we’re talking about
“heroes” here, and is Stan really a hero? Was he born a hero? Made a hero by
circumstances? Noooo… “Heroes are
made not born; love is destiny not faith, and you are forever not timeless.”
“Fabela et picturae” fabella (story, tale, anecdote, fable,
play) picturae (pictures, paintings, images, word pictures)
Forgot to do a Disclaimer for this issue…
Page 2 Here’s the
main image representing the craziness within: the nuns leaping into leviathan’s
mouth to follow their sister. Eeech… shudder…
Page 3 panel 1
going for the archaic or british spellings makes it seem creepier and more
evilly religious… also you can start to see a big hint about stan: instead of
“DuSable”, it looks like it says “Diable”… the first of several more of these
throughout the series…
Panel 2 I like
the little leviathan eggs coming up to look at their daddy… each with different
little baby eye colors
Panel 3 I like
the idea that the leviathan laid millions of eggs, but they can’t be fertilized
without a special biblical ritual. Stan and Dany watch it swim away as the
little eye-eggs swim along behind it, trying to catch up
Page 4 Panel 1 Stan:
always with the common-sense response: he’s the only normal one…
Panel 2 I like
that Dany gets to be a scared little boy here
Panel 3 already
the idea that God heads up a corporate entity, with all the corruption, evil
and greed that image brings. And that God may have “created” the world, but
then he abandoned us. Veni, Vidi, Vici, but this is a naughty (slightly crude,
sorry…) variation “He saw, he came…”: the recurring theme: God fertilized the
earth, like a salmon.
Panel 4 As you
can probably tell, we took a liking to poor old Leviathan early on. I feel
sorry for the “great beast”, who was really tooled on in the Bible in
particularly cruel and sadistically officious ways. We think of him as a big
creature who just wants to exist, like all the rest of us…
Panel 4 “Let’s
get the Heaven out of here…” har-har… also note how the blood puddle around the
heart in the purple velour bag keeps getting larger as he snow melts…
Page 5 Panel 1
Ok… so we were so sure, back then, that Google Glass was coming for everybody,
was going to be in every home, on every sidewalk… this was the actual command
you gave your google glass “OK Glass…” The idea was, how in the heck do
superheroes get all their exploits recorded anyway? Well, in 2014, they
probably recorded their triumphs like selfies… yes yes, Stan does look a little
like Jon Hamm… but here we were really thinking of a different anti-hero… one
with a chain-saw hand and a boomstick.
“You were expecting maybe…” Stan’s early catch-phrase again…
but later, we started liking “Things is gonna get weird” even a little better
as Stan’s catch-phrase. I think it kind of explained the whole dichotomy of the
world we live in: everyone has to “behave” a certain way, follow the rules,
etc… meanwhile the universe just outside of this safe-place is COMPLETELY
INSANE… all around us: AAAgh!
Panel 2 This page
gets at the source of poor little Dany’s horrible visions and nightmares. Stan
jokes that he smells strongly of garlic. “The Church” appears at the homeless
boy’s door in the guise of a catholic relief/social work organization. Somehow
they got his name and found him to be a ripe victim. They promise him they can
remove his evil nightmares if he keeps special wrapped crucifixes in the
freezer and wears one every night.
Panel 3 In
reality, these are DMSO soaked crucifixes that deliver LSD to the boy
transdermally (“Delysid”, “Dr. Hoffman’s gift”). Does this church work for Carl
Bobson, delivering innocent young boys for him to abuse sexually? Do they work
for the Leech Nuns, preparing children for their great evil ritual? Stan
dispatches the LSD crucifix calling it “Reliquiae ex brandea”, a loose synonym
for “Third class relics”. Stan then makes a joke alluding to his prior
experience with transdermal LSD (did he use LSD at concerts? Squirt people with
LSD squirt-guns?) Transdermal absorption of LSD seems to be controversial, and
there is disagreement if absorption through the skin works reliably, except
when dissolved in DMSO which makes it transfer readily through the skin.
Page 6 Panel 1 as
they walk off the DuSable bridge, we see Sons of God graffiti on the wall (the
lamb with the Aramaic letters “Ax Hacx”). (If you look close, you’ll also see
“Ax Hacx” in the puddle of blood. the conspiracy: they’re everywhere). “You’re
probably wondering wht THAT was all about…” Stan is just funny to me… “You gotta give me my due…” I was always happy to put
in any possible devil clues I could. He alludes to intra-demonic/supernatural
territorial markings, messaging, etc. graffiti no one would ever notice, from
one terrible religious subspecies to another. Like the Hebrew graffiti on the
wall: Livyatan, and the cult who seems to worship him or aspire to use his
power (the Hellmouth, portal back to chaos, etc.) to bring about the end of
creation as we know it. “Back home to hell…” I love the idea that the evil were
evil all along and belong there, no whiny sympathetic revisionist backstory
crap.
Panel 2 “And God
created the great sea monsters…” this is the whole thing: he created them, then
to use and abuse and torture them? WTF? I love Leviathan retaining the power of
“Uncreation” though, and Leviathan is one of my heroes in the book. The bas
relief sculptures on the building here is take-off on the heroic artwork on the
actual DuSable or Michigan Avenue bridgetower houses commemorating important
events in Chicago history. Here it tells a mysterious tale involving God and
the angels killing one of 2 leviathans to protect innocent women and babies.
(bears often sneak their way into images on Sons of God also… not sure why…)
Page 7 Panel 1
“Johnny Law” is what we called the police (and reminds me of my old friend
“Johnny Lough’s”) Stan is very savvy with the media, and calls them on his
Google Glass. Whatever happened to our cool society where new technology was
actually groundbreaking and challenging? (as opposed to “pacifying”?) Who could
be opposed to having every second of everything filmed everywhere at once? What
could go wrong with that? “5 minutes…” I actually tried to figure out how long
it would take them to walk from the Michigan Ave bridge to AT&T plaza. (Not
sure what JOjo wrote in the lower left hand corner here… I’ll have to ask him…)
Panel 2 “Old
Sluggo” ie Leviathan (or the poor little tough guy in Nancy) also here is the
beginning of a LONG string of recycling jokes… Chicago Daily Tribune was my
go-to newspaper of choice here, and we see headlines already out, like the old
cartoon gag where a newsboy announces the action immediately as it happens
(meanwhile, some of the papers are antiques when it cost 2 cents). “Boy Escapes
Evil Nuns”, “Hatchet Hero Mysterious Savior”. We see the police cars zipping by
the opposite way (to the scene of the crime). We tried to get things like
actual Chicago police car colors right, parking signs, bus signs, etc.
Panel 3 More heretical giant intergalactic salmon background.
Also more naughty reference to “Godspill” (“spilling his seed on the ground”)
and that this is why the Milky Way is white (see videos of salmon fertilizing
eggs). Wouldn’t our great-grandchildren be proud to know that the acronym “OMFG”
was a tempest in a teapot, once, way back when…
So, more recycling bins: ehyeh
asher in an unending circle of celestial salmons (I am who I am, I will be
what I will be… etc.) the theme here is watery deaths/abandonment/catastrophe
at sea, as we see horrible original newspaper accounts of the people dying in
the Lusitania, the Titanic, and the Eastland.
Panel 4 Stan is a
cynic, a skeptic (even though he has seen more hyperreal crazy shit than anyone
could imagine…): here he explains how insane it is to take the Bible as the
Bible. And how people extract an entire way of life, a lawbook, a code of
behavior for all to follow or enforce, from an indirect ephemeral ghost-image;
all derived from one blurry dot. So the tesseract recycle box is a meta-joke:
don’t RE-cycle, “Un-cycle” (whatever
that represents to you…) and we’re throwing away/recycling things that seemed
so important at the time: annals of Physics, black hole diagrams, Einstein’s
theories being demonstrated in the real world; then, as he told president Roosevelt
back in 1939, being turned into atom bombs, killing millions, and winning the
Nobel Prize… yeah… recycle this shit…
Page 8 panel 1
the onslaught of recycle boxes continues, unabated: God is projected onto our
lives, our society, with the characteristics of a 1950’s idealized American
father from TV and the media: man created God in his own image. How in the name
of Yaweh did THIS particular set of customs, clothing, language, censorship,
hairstyles, everything… how did THIS become the default for the next 64
years?!! Only look at these guys: June and Ward Cleaver, Ozzie and Harriet,
Father Knows Best, Eugene McCarthy, and J.R. “Bob” Dobbs. Every congressman,
every political leader today must conform to these standards, or risk
banishment. Ucchh.
Panel 2 when we
expect to see God, HE is always Michelangelo’s angry God from the Sistine
Chapel (Creation of the Sun and Moon). Stan further lays out his case against
organized modern religion, heaven, and hell, and how these mammoth institutions
use the cowing and intimidating and exclusion and organizing to foment ANY
policy they wish, on whomever they wish, wherever, under the guise of God’s
work, God’s will.
The green ($$) recycle bin also features cherubs from
Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna”. The
newspaper samples reflect the folly of “Saving up for the future” (Banks failed
anyway, squirrel cartoon, stock market crashes), or the “offer this suffering
up for the poor souls in purgatory” mentality,
when people were told to get tattoos on their lateral chest skin telling
medics what blood type they were in the case of nuclear Armageddon.
Panel 3 yet
God-fearing Christians would lynch black people and bring their kids to see the
aftermath: another name for religious groups might be “mob rule”, and the
official reporting on even terrible public occurrences might not be
trustworthy. “ An eye for an eye” (“lex talionis”) may be “Old Testament”, but
it’s Dogma to the people in charge today: God’s Law.
The yellow recycle box features some Trinity symbols, which
can be both very elaborate and disquieting (I mean creepy).
Panel 4 the
theory of “my rightful place”; manifest destiny of white people in modern
America. I have and I take because it is the natural order of things (if it
involves perpetuating poverty, keeping anyone down…) I do what I have to to
keep my station (“for my family, my legacy) We see the red (republican) recycle
bin, recycling the Bush family/ the republican legacy, at any cost: and the red
white and blue wheel of Karma… it goes around and…
Panel 5 … and
around. Now we see the blue recycle bin of democratic promises and jargon, of
Obama’s Kennedyesque and Lincolnesque quotes and symbolism. It all just goes
around and around. Now the red white and blue wheel of karma is the red white
and blue wheel of Captain America’s shield (or Obama’s campaign circle).
Here’s another one of my favorite recurring themes: “God the
Father is on his way back here and he’s a gonna be pissed…!”
Panel 6 I’ve been
crestfallen, since the 1990’s, to see how people in the public/political
spheres just keep repeating patently false claims, over and over, baldly lying,
in the media: and if they do it long enough and indignantly enough, it starts
to fly as manufactured truth. There’s no such thing as global warming;
cigarettes aren’t poisonous, otherwise how could we sell them? I made up this
slogan too “Re-cycle Re-ligion” based on all the advertising slogans I’ve seen
on recycle posters. And a general theme of the book is “One man’s garbage…”
This version of the Daoist wheel is the Korean tricolor
Taeguk. (and no symbol is safe from our satire here… not even “Have a Nice
Day”)
Page 9 yes, the
first box, the orange box, IS based on “The Architects of Fear”, from the
famous twilight zone episode… yes, a guy named Alan Moore recycled this episode
for his own graphic novel. So I’m re-recycling it? The scarecrow circle is from
the final narration: “Scarecrows and magic and other fatal fears do not bring
people closer together. There is no magic substitute for soft caring and hard
work, for self-respect and mutual love. If we can learn this from the mistake
these frightened men made, then their mistake will not have been merely
grotesque, it would at least have been a lesson. A lesson, at last, to be
learned.” So I’m basically making fun of myself again here, recycling rehashed
now-hackneyed graphic novel themes: “reuse, repackage, recirculate!”
But here’s the new part: maybe the Bible was just an earlier
pop-culture touchstone: an easy read, a cliff-notes of actual deep
philosophical and ethical thought…? Nahhhhh!
Black coffin/recycling box: mandatory soylent green joke:
recycle dead people… as lunch!
Purple box: my favorite unending consumer directive:
lather-rinse-repeat-lather-rinse… the idea here is that the Bible’s facile good
and evil stories are the equivalent of Marmaduke comics (or Aqua Teen Hunger
Force) dumbed down Pablum for the masses. (wait, does that now include
second-generation criticisms like Watchmen or 3rd generation like
Sons of God…?)
the white coffin box is the opposite of the black one,
“Recycle Life!” aww… it’s a Christogram: HIS… (and “Spread the word to end the
word”… some people use words some people hate, some people hate people who use
words they hate, some people hate people who are described by hateful words…
words words words)
Aqua Teen Hunger Force fans will of course recognize the
famous quid pro quo here: the communication breakdown regarding a plague of
snakes: “When you say snakes, all I hear is Easter Bunny, Easter Bunny, Easter
Bunny…”
The green recycle bin is more recycled comics about Chicago: from the original dark knight,
a black gentleman/hero from the old Pittsburgh Courier, (very different from
the one so popular today in movies) tackling a Chicago gangster, to an old Jack
Kirby comic about a real life mass murderer in Chicago, to some crappy
pretentious Chicago-based meta-comic about religiosity… the recycle symbol is
small, but it says “eat, excrete, return to soil, grow…” and the caption is
about the never ending circuit of “moral ideas”: Rehash, retread, regurgitate”
lame used-up ideas, over and over. History repeats itself, we all think we’re
thinking these things for the first time, blab la bla… aren’t we so smart…
The brown coffin/recycle bin is Jesus, alpha and omega, his
life summed up in a catchy corporate slogan: “returned, released, reborn…”
Page 10 panel 1a they’ve arrived at Millennial Park; our
garbage truck from issue 1 has also arrived.
Panel 1 b Before it can take
trash, Stan pulls out a 1611 Holy Bible from the garbage (with little blurbs
like “From God’s mouth to your ears” instead of “from your mouth to God’s
ears…”) again with the “One man’s garbage…” analogy.
Panel 2a Stan throws out the pedophile priest’s heart
in the velour bag, into the garbage. If you look closely at the garbage in the
truck, you might find Felix the Cat: this is a tribute to Todd MacFarlane who
worked Felix into so many of his comics (e.g. the early spider man series)
Panel 2b i.e.
this whole pseudo religious ritualistic crap is all just garbage (including all
the comics and movies and satires like this one)
Panel 3 now we
turn our attention to the news and the media, parasitizing the unfortunate
victims and the self-important users. Much like the pedophile priest; or the
leaders of Society; or of organized religion; We used all real Chicago news
trucks, stations and logos. The pink recycle box is of course taken from the
famous bible quote “To everything turn turn turn…” like the entire universe…
Page 11 Panel 1
Charlie Sheen was shamelessly splashed everywhere around this time: even on
sports talk radio… and Sandy Hook: I heard a Sandy Hook story on NPR EVERY
SINGLE DAY for over one year out! Literally one full year… disgusting. And when
it wasn’t Sandy Hook, it was George Zimmerman…
Panel 2 by the
way, this was before Ron Burgundy 2
Panel 3 another devil clue-joke . the fourth estate
is the media. Lighting a candle and reading the bible before bedtime are
foreshadowing…
The Bean must be included in all Chicago stories: it’s the
laaaaohwww.
Up here in Maine, people drove cars up into the park to
light up the ice rink.
p.s. it’s pretty easy to tell which parts of these pages I
inked: jojo’s inking was already professional level when he was 12… (e.g. see
Stan vs the McCormick ice rink behind him…)
page 12 panel 1
(I could always color, though…)
I made up another pretty good quote here: “Anyone can walk
on water… if it’s cold enough outside.” This is Stan competing with his
brother, Jesse. In Stan’s own way…
Panel 3 Stan
can’t have the Sons of God find out where he is “Live” on TV, or they would
come get him. So he requires the press to do a time delay (so he can escape to
his safe/shielded area (Dunning Insane Asylum)
by the way, I love how we bent all the buildings reflections to fit in
the Bean. More next-level inking by Jojo.
Back inner sleeve In the background are all the other things
that should be recycled in this context: “recycle proselytism, fundamentalism,
belief systems, ways of life, etc.” I can’t remember all of them that got
covered up.
Here are the collected recycle boxes. One is changed here: I
redid the lime-green images, cravenly redrawing the original Crumb-style
cartoon with my own lame carrot/outhouse designs (I still distrust humanure).
Back Cover “Ars Jojo, literrae ioannis” art jojo, words
(or letters) by John (misspelled ioannis)
This is an old Beanie and Cecil joke. After getting walloped
and mangled by Dishonest John (as the Blue Beetle), Cecil used to look at the
camera and ask “Do you think there’s too much violence on TV these days? Or on
cartoons? Etc.
The joke here is the irony of having the hyper-violent nun
be the censor, all the while enumerating specifically a list of vicious,
violent things: I would never want a little child to read this list of things
they can’t read! (and the list shows the bad thoughts, obsessions and intentions
of the list’s makers and censors and senators, etc.) This is of course, the
text of the famous 1954 Comics Code Criteria:
Crimes shall never be
presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote
distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire
to imitate criminals.
If crime is depicted
it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity.
Policemen, judges,
government officials, and respected institutions shall never be presented in
such a way as to create disrespect for established authority.
Criminals shall not be
presented so as to be rendered glamorous or to occupy a position which creates
a desire for emulation.
In every instance good
shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds.
Scenes of excessive
violence shall be prohibited. Scenes of brutal torture, excessive and
unnecessary knife and gunplay, physical agony, gory and gruesome crime shall be
eliminated.
No comic magazine
shall use the words "horror" or "terror" in its title.
All scenes of horror,
excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism,
masochism shall not be permitted.
All lurid, unsavory,
gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated.
Inclusion of stories
dealing with evil shall be used or shall be published only where the intent is
to illustrate a moral issue and in no case shall evil be presented alluringly,
nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader.
Scenes dealing with,
or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism,
ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited.
Profanity, obscenity,
smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols which have acquired undesirable meanings
are forbidden.
Nudity in any form is
prohibited, as is indecent or undue exposure.
Suggestive and
salacious illustration or suggestive posture is unacceptable.
Females shall be drawn
realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities.
Illicit sex relations
are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed. Rape scenes as well as sexual
abnormalities are unacceptable.
Seduction and rape
shall never be shown or suggested.
Sex perversion or any
inference to same is strictly forbidden.
Nudity with
meretricious purpose and salacious postures shall not be permitted in the
advertising of any product; clothed figures shall never be presented in such a
way as to be offensive or contrary to good taste or morals.
From Wikipedia: The Comics Magazine Association
of America (CMAA) was formed in September 1954 in response to a
widespread public concern over gory and horrific comic-book content.[1] It
named New York Magistrate Charles F. Murphy, 44, a specialist in juvenile delinquency, to head the organization
and devise a self-policing "code of ethics and standards" for the
industry.[1] He
established the Comics Code Authority (CCA), basing its code upon the largely
unenforced code drafted by the Association of Comics
Magazine Publishers in 1948, which in turn had been modeled loosely
after the 1930 Hollywood Production
Code.[2] This
code banned graphic depictions of violence and gore in crime and horror
comics, as well as the sexual
innuendo of what aficionados refer to as "good
girl art". Fredric Wertham's 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent had
rallied opposition to this type of material in comics, arguing that it was
harmful to the children who made up a large segment of the comic book audience.
The Senate
Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings in 1954, which focused
specifically on comic books, had many publishers concerned about government
regulation, prompting them to form a self-regulatory body instead.
More references, Issue 2:
Page 7 panel 3 Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_that_I_Am
(Ehyeh asher ehyeh literally translates as "I Am Who I Am." The
ancient Hebrew of Exodus 3:14 lacks a future tense such as modern English has,
yet a few translations render this name as "I Will Be What I Will
Be," given the context of Yahweh's promising
to be with his people through their future troubles.[1] Both
the literal present tense "I Am" and the future
tense "I will be" have given rise to many attendant
theological and mystical implications in Jewish tradition. However, in most
English Bibles, in particular the King James Version, the phrase is rendered
as I am that I am.)
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/eastland-disaster-killed-more-passengers-titanic-and-lusitania-why-has-it-been-forgotten-180953146/One
of the greatest inland waterways disasters in the history of the United States
took place in the Chicago River, Chicago, Ill., July 24, 1915, when the
steamship Eastland capsized with a loss of near 850 lives.
http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com/chi-0720-eastland-disaster-pictures-pg/
even more heartbreaking when you see actual photos of the people who died and
think of their lives…
page 7 panel 4 einstein’s letter to Roosevelt about a
nuclear bomb http://discovermagazine.com/2008/mar/18-chain-reaction-from-einstein-to-the-atomic-bomb
Page 8 Panel3 "Only one eye for one eye"[1],
also known as "An eye for an eye", or the law of
retaliation, is the principle that a person who has injured another person is
to be penalized to a similar degree, or in softer interpretations, the victim
receives the [estimated] value of the injury in compensation.[2] The
intent behind the principle was to restrict compensation to the value
of the loss.[1]
The principle is sometimes referred using the Latin
term lex talionis or the law of talion. The English word talion
(from the Latin talio[1])
means a retaliation authorized by law, in which the punishment corresponds in
kind and degree to the injury.
Page 10 panel 2a http://www.cbr.com/comic-book-legends-revealed-289/
Page 11 panel 2 https://jmcpherson.wordpress.com/2008/04/25/mottos-for-journalism/ so funny: gotta put these in here:
“Roy Peter Clarke at the Poynter Institute on Monday called
for entries for a six-word motto for contemporary journalism. He got the idea
from a similar contest for a new American motto, proposed by Stephen J. Dubner,
co-author of Freakonomics, and a friend of Dubner’s (The winner of that one, by
the way: “Our worst critics prefer to stay.”)
Going for quantity over quality, I fired off 14
entries. This morning Clarke announced the top 10 and runners-up from among the
hundreds submitted (suggesting he touched a nerve among journalists and
journalism educators), and I found my name on the list five times. Some
suggestions were better than any of mine, however (including Clarke’s own “Feed
the watchdog, euthenize the lapdog”–which he was persuaded by popular demand to
include among the finalists–and “Last one out, turn off the lights,” “Need more
Knight, less Ridder” and “See no evil, write no story”). My other
favorites include Ryan Kelly’s “Dirty commie latte-sipping liberal scum,”
Ken Fuson’s “Doing more with less since 1690” and “We’re sorry about all the
trees,” and Lois Collins’ “We won’t bore you with context.” I’ll list
them all here:
Top Ten Picks:
Doing more with less since 1690. Ken Fuson, Des Moines
Register
We’ll always have Paris … or Britney — Jim McPherson,
Whitworth University
It’s how I change the world. — Nick Escobar, The Elgin
(Ill.) CourierNews
Get it right, write it tight. — Margaret McDonald, McDonald
Wordsmith Communications
They’ll miss us when we’re gone. — Scott Powers, Patrick
McGeehan, Matthew Jones, John Davenport
Feed the lapdog, euthanize the watchdog — Roy Peter Clark
Who, what, when, where, why, Web — Greg Phillips, The
Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer
Facts, schmacts … how is my hair? — Kathy Sweeney,
anchor/investigative reporter, Heartland News
Dirty commie latte-sipping liberal scum — Ryan Kelly,
Christopher Newport University
Please stop griping, now start typing. — Jeff Unger,
University of Illinois
Honorable Mentions:
We’re sorry about all the trees — Ken Fuson
We checked: Our mother still loves us — Ken Fuson
Stop the presses! Oh, you did. — Jim McPherson
Information you can trust until tomorrow — Jim McPherson
No news is not good news — J. David Knepper and Leah Etling
Black and white, but not green enough — Robert Timmons
How many inches is the truth? — Casey Bartels
Got stry – will txt u asap — Lynn McMahon
Seek the truth, not the money — Angele’ Anderfuren
Not tonight, dear. I’m on deadline — Christopher Ortiz
We don’t make this shit up — Deb Sutton
Writers’ block is on Fleet Street — Anand Raj
Dead wood floats. So can we — Ray Martinez
A journalist’s work is never done — Randy Rogers
If we go, who will know? — Steve Riley
History’s first version, updated every minute — Rebecca
Jones
Five Double You and One Age (Quinque Bi Tu Et Unum Aetas) —
Sebastian Moraga
We break stuff. Like the news — Ryan Kelly
Critical thinking? We outsourced to India — Dennis Alchemist
It beats working for a living — Jim Naughton
Speak truth to power, or else — Peter Gates
Journalistic bias? There’s no stinking bias! — Tim Owens
Journalism lives where the truth lies — Daneja Kirkland
But this IS my day job! — Mike Gruss
We won’t bore you with context — Lois M. Collins
News now: We’ll fix it later — Lois M. Collins
Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy! No, seriously. Accuracy! — Tim
Schulte
Every silver lining has a cloud — David Vossbrink
Must be readable on the crapper! — Michael Sweeney
Eye on the ball; ear on the ground — Peter Dannenberg
Mainstream media: We’re your grandfather’s blog — Jim
McPherson
Filling the space between the ads — Jim McPherson
Write the truth between the lines — Lynn McMahon
Ding dong, the print is dead — Russel Nichols
There’s a period key. Use it. — Dan Close
Journalism: Sizing down, so bottom’s up! — Matthew Cate
Pyramids to blogosphere, and everywhere in between — Bill
West
Incidentally, my other suggestions were:
“Buns of steel exercise plan: Interactivity.”
“Front page scoop, inside page correction.”
“Untruth, injustice and the American fray.”
“Tracking down YouTube’s best for you”
“Spanning the country for campaign gaffes.”
“Don’t hate us because we’re dutiful.”
“Poll says we should shut up.”
“Sobriety is for news, not journalists.”
“Telling you what to think about.” (for the agenda setting
scholars)
Back cover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredric_Wertham
interesting Frederic wertham bio, especially regarding later critical evaluations
of his work:
Among the criticisms leveled at Seduction of
the Innocent are that Wertham used a non-representative sample of
young people who were already mentally troubled, that he misrepresented stories
from colleagues as being his own, and that Wertham manipulated statements from
adolescents by deliberately neglecting some passages while rephrasing others
such that they better suited his thesis.
“In 2013, scholar
Carol Tilley reexamined Wertham's personal archives and concluded that he had
skewed his data to make it appear as if comic books were more harmful. Tilley
claimed that Wertham "played fast and loose with the data he gathered on
comics".[11] This
work was the first to confirm that Wertham willfully distorted the data used to
indict comic books as a cause of juvenile delinquency.
In 2014, documentary filmmaker Robert A. Emmons Jr. produced
the documentary Diagram for Delinquents, which details the complicated and
controversial history of Fredric Wertham and comic books in the 1940s and
1950s.[12] The
film's goal is to create a more complex picture of Wertham than has previously
been depicted in comic book documentaries.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority
awesome article about the comics code!
Disclaimer: I am fully aware of just how Zimsky this is: writing down all these sources and inspirations and references for… well, for posterity. Theyah!
Disclaimer: I am fully aware of just how Zimsky this is: writing down all these sources and inspirations and references for… well, for posterity. Theyah!
