Yeah, this comic is relentlessly stupid. For a good homage to sci-fi, and possibly EC comics, read Fear Agent by Rick Remender. Great read in every way possible, though I had to get an oversized omnibus-type book of it, which was a pain in the ass to actually sit down and read. And the smaller volumes are kind of annoying to find.
Also, for good satire/homage you could read Tom Strong by Alan Moore. I was thinking of this even before the end and the fake PSA thing. "Holy socks!" or something. Alan Moore is funny for the right reasons. Frank Miller on the other hand....god only knows.
Great episode. Always love Miller Time. Especially when I'm drinking Sam Adams and hitting on women I've been periodically stalking on facebook.
Wait, Did you use the opening from a Year ago for this episode? Or is that due to some Computer Problems or something?
Also, Love the Clock you got, did someone make that after you mentioned it in your Live Show?
With the Lance Blastoff look, I guess if this was meant to be a bit of a joke comic, the Costume is suppose to be a joke of the old suits that you see in the Silver Age Comics. That’s a guess, to say the least.
But like said, this is a comic which tries to be funny, but just isn’t, with weak jokes. And it is hard when jokes in comedy get mediocre response, Marville One and Two, anyone?
Wait, Frank being asked about the Superman or Batman Film…Are we going to have it full of over use of memes, Lois Lane getting ‘Work On The Streets’ (If you know what I mean) or Superman cursing all the time? I hope those are rumours, eh?
Nice Review though, Linkara. Looking forward to seeing more from you! ;3
You went retro for the opening, I see. Very cool. :D
The movie Sin City is sort of a guilty pleasure for me, though my only exposure to The Spirit has been via the hilarious review you and Film Brain did.
As for the so called 'homage'...yeah, I'm not seeing it either. The tales in EC comics may have been gory at points, but they always ended with the jackass protagonist getting what was coming to them, or they made you feel bad for them. One I remember from Weird Science was the story of a father and son that land on an alien planet, and an alien approaches. The father shoots it dead, and then later he dies. The son is left alone, and while on the planet, he starts to change...at the end, you find out that time has looped back on itself.
All that Pike Jetpack makes me feel is annoyed.
Though if the woman had said that she needed real meat and a real man and then proceeded to messily devour Spear Colander-Head, I would like this comic much more.
I know this isn't a horror comic,but for some reason I can imagine Moarte flipping the bird to this carcass of an EC Comics "homage" like Linksano did last week.
Also I didn't know you like Code Geass Abridged, I really didn't see it coming
Ehhhhh... I don't know about this one. I kinda thought this one was okay. In terms of how much I chuckled at what was going on on the pages though, not much more. It really doesn't work as a parody or for any real logical reason, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was kind of amused by the ridiculousness. But what do I know. I'm also the guy who thinks Dark Knight Strikes Again works as a parody. Maybe it wasn't written that way and Miller called it that retroactively, but it does feel to me like a decent work of self-parody, playing up his tropes that were kind of silly in Dark Knight Returns as hugely, hilariously dumb in DKSA. Still, a good review as always. Looking forward to your first reviews of the new DCU next week =P
Got a couple questions to ask, Linkara. Was gonna ask about the use of the older opening credits but your recent twitter post explained that. Plus what happened to your pocket watch? Also, did we really have to go straight into Miller Time after the idiotic mess that was Marville? It's like going from one form of painful torture to another.
The first story of Punch Rockgroin (at this point, I'm not gonna use the character's real name and go with my favorite made-up names Mike and the bots used for their Space Mutiny review) is pretty much Frank Miller at his worst. God awful artwork, the over emphasis of certain words, the stupidity of the characters, and the portrayal of the female character as a flip-flopping nut that becomes Big McLargehuge pet aka the same sexist template for all of Franks' female characters!
I'll be honest, Frank's art and story works best in Sin City. I got into the Sin City stories in the late 90s but I'd like to go back and read them again to see if they still hold up. Having said that, I do recall the Daddy's Little Girl storyline and, imo, was definitely one of the more icky Sin City yarns.
And, dear Glob, just when I think the moronic adventures of Trunk Slamchest couldn't get any worse. Between the messed-up looking sex bots and "hilarious antics" of Roll Sizzlebeef, I'm starting to wonder why Frank Miller isn't in a mental ward under 24 hour observation.
And then I find out a rumor that Miller was called to offer his two cents on the upcoming Superman/Batman movie.
Excuse me while I find a cast iron skillet to beat myself unconscious with.
All the stories in this comic were actually reprints. I guess the idea was to collect the Lance Blastoff stories, but the Sin City story was thrown in to make it the standard length of a comic.
Actually, it makes sense that the portrayal of that woman could be Frank Miller's idea of parody before it was his idea of serious writing. Remember when Miller called Batman the most pure and good hero before he made him into a psycho? Clearly, at some point his brain just hit the reverse switch and started believing the opposite of everything.
couldn't resist one last mystery science theater, could you? lols. ....why was there a clip with lelouch from code geass holding a picture of twilight sparkle? would be less confused if the guy wasn't speaking in the yugioh abridged voice........... just realized I know what all three of those are........ also realized that on hindsight, my little pony has a infinitely more cohesive plot than yugioh ever had, and my little pony is episodic (believe it or not the series DOES have continuing plot lines and such and is, for the most part, well written for what it is, and the plot points do not center around playing a card game when the protagonist has the ability to mind rape people at will.)
.......this comic failed to even be offensive, just stupid. especially exemplified by the fact the guy could not comprehend the factor of he could make more money selling advanced scientific knowledge to people by about a billion than making a race braindead.
This has to be the mot awesome comic you had on you'r show so far! Unlike you, I can appreciate the over-the-top machismo of Lance Blastoff, and his utter lack of morals
It reminds me of a little project I'm doing my self "The Unlikely Adventures of Lady Crow" only that one is more inspired by stuff like Doc Savage, Fu Manchu, and Johnny Quest (and yeah, I admit the idea popped into my head after watching season 5 of Venture Bros., while re-reading The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and playing Bioshock Infinite)
It takes place in an alternate time-line, where WW2 never happened, colonialism survived till this day, Russia and China are still monarchies, an alliance of France, Spain, Netherlands, and Italy has conquered most of Europe during (a very different) WW1, Mexico is a nuclear superpower, the USA has never recovered from the Civil War, the Inca have conquered most of South America, and Congo is actually a decent place to live The setting's aesthetics are a mix of Victorian, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco, with a dash of Classicism
Luckily it's more than one person writing them. And I will admit it, I am responsible behind some of the earlier ones. I haven't written in a long time since I ran out of ideas. Though I'm beginning to think that was a mistake because personally, I don't think the others are doing a good job at it.
And for those who were asking in the Ravager comments if my comments were part of the puzzle: No, I am not in cahoots with Linkara. The only thing he gave me was a reply to an email after telling him about the ARG (since the whole thing started out of boredom and I didn't want him to be confused).
Once again a good Miller Time Episode Linkara, I watched earlier today but I couldn't comment because I was using my new iPhone 5.
It must be hard for you isn't you, you just drank yourself stupid because of immense idiocy of Marville and now you have to endure the awfulness of Frank "I can't write Wonder Woman or any female character who isn't a teenager to save my life" Miller.
So you're going to see Man of Steel tonight, I saw and I liked it, I found it to be a pretty well-written movie and I hope you can enjoy it.
Well, this was obviously a parody, not an homage. I felt the whole review was misguided by Miller hate. It ridicules the Comics Code Authority multiple times, makes fun of pulp heroes in a very Miller way, and even the title is a joke for the CCA, since it's satirizing the fact that people in the 50s got offended by silly comicbook tales.
As for the artwork, you have to understand Miller uses those poses to give strong silhouettes to his characters.
The comic just doesn't take itself seriously enough to suck to be honest. It's not like ASBAR which is painfully decompressed and shits all over DC characters.
Still found the episode as a whole fun to watch, but I just gotta point all that out. Peace out.
This seemed bad, even compared to the other Frank Miller stuff you've shown here, if only for different reasons. At least in the Batman and Robin comics, for example, it seemed like he was actually writing all those questionable, if not downright offensive things like he actually meant them. In those cases, even though I didn't like or agree with what he was saying in those stories, at least he seemed to be writing them like he actually meant it.
In this case, though, it seemed to have a tone more along the lines of an author who was wondering "How would my audience react if I wrote stories like this...?" and did a really watered-down version of what he had in mind, which is actually kind of worse, at least in my mind. Almost like he had the ideas in his head and wasn't sure about going ahead with them.
I can't decide if this is a parody or not. It wasn't that good. I guess Lance Blastoff isn't that kind of Douchebag anti hero that I like. I just can't get into them if their humanity isn't them.
Eeeee! Was that a Flash clock? *grabby hands* Want one!
I'm really not sure how Frank Miller thought he could pull off a parody of this nature. Like you said, it's too close to how he normally writes. It makes me wonder if they weren't really meant to be parodies at all. Maybe they were just a small collection of story's written by him, and some one else decided to call them "Tales to Offend".
Also, some of them evolved into a space-faring civilization and ditched the planet to go to the Delta Quadrant, while others fought humans for control of the planet but were wiped out when a giant space parasite crashed into the Earth and created a multi-million year long ice age that eventually ended as a result of time travellers screwing up the super-magical Antediluvian civilization.
Not really zen, though it is a permutation of the most basic of all pieces of knowledge; "X=X."
8:45
Darn. Bob Helmethead saved her. I'm not saying it would make me happy to see her get torn to shreds. It's just that she's clearly taking a page out of the playbook of many other famous writers of the last few centuries (Jemas among them,) who had a tendency to project human virtue and superhuman sinlessness onto anything that had or seemed to have experienced suffering, except, of course, us. I'm just saying, seeing her get gobbled up by what she's alleged protecting/mourning... I felt a slight tinge of satisfaction there.
10:30
I'm usually okay with stories where a man teaches a woman (through some means) that she's made a mistake, and needs to correct it. What I'm not okay with is the plot point you drew attention to; the woman who thinks her whole purpose in life is to be a man's sex object, and isn't immediately reprimanded for it. Sadly, such girls exist in droves in the real world, and should be encouraged to respect themselves (and really, masculine maturity, which also suffers from this kind of behavior) more than this.
13:50
It's also not just icky, but immoral, on several different levels. In fact, the many reasons for this, and why they hold together logically was the subject of one of my recent research projects, and believe it or not, one of my most difficult ones. It can be hard to pin down -all- the reasons why this kind of thing is just plain wrong.
14:40
Huh. For some reason, it's just not as satisfying if she's not trying to protect the horrifying monsters -right before- being eaten by one. Just not as much karma there.
16:40
Beats me. If this comic were made by the original EC comics guys, I'd almost call it a cry of victory, but from Frank? I haven't the foggiest.
So in conclusion, I guess I'm not really that offended; just annoyed and disheartened that someone, somewhere let this thing see print. But maybe I've just become harder to offend in recent years.
I'm actually impress that you could make a 21 minute review of this comic.It was just so vapid that I see why no one ever talk about it.There wasn't any thing in there worth noting.I'm pretty sure that women was suppose be one of Frank Miller stereo type of people he don't agree with.In this case animal right activists and vegetarians but at this point this is probably the least offensive women he have wrought for in your reviews.
You can only act like an asshole if it means something in particular in these types of comics. Heck, even after EC's fall, you still had these types of twist tales being written at Marvel (well, Atlas) in their anthology books prior to the return of the superheroes. And even those, which weren't as gruesome since the CCA existed, made more sense than this.
But hey, we got some idiot woman eaten by a dinosaur and a ton of MST3K bits in the episode so it's all right in the world regardless.
Okay, I haven't read this comic and this is the first I've heard of it, but going by the bits you showed, it actually looks like it might be kind of funny. Reminds me a bit of the early issues of Heavy Metal magazine, to be honest, and that stuff was pretty amusing.
Enjoyed the review as usual, and the only reason you use so many MST3K clips is because that is a very good series.
Wait, Frank Miller is helping with the Superman/Batman film? I know it hasn't even had a trailer yet, and that I should remain open-minded, but it is just getting so hard. I fear that since Batman is more popular it's just gonna be "Batman kicks Superman's ass and then they team up." Like the Batman and Spawn crossover written by . . . oh, Frank Miller.
But hey, I'll follow your lead Lewis. Just stay calm and hope for the best.
I’m pretty sure the poem is the one that someone was posting bits of a few weeks back. I didn’t believe that it was Linkara posting this glitchy stuff in the comments during ‘The Entity’ storyline and I don’t think it’s him now. However, at least whoever is posting this is making them legible. It always really annoyed me when I couldn’t read comments because someone had gone mad with the glitches. I mean what’s the point if people can’t read what you’ve written?
Wow, a Miller comic that doesn't involve Batman. It's still lame.
Anyway, great review. I'm still waiting for that imminent beatdown against Frank Miller's Holy Terror . . . and the remaining issues of All Star Batman and Robin.
You should do a month of comics that were specifically intended to get sales by trying to be offensive, but failed to get enough attention, and point out how many of them fail at basic storytelling for the sake of trying to be "controversial." Things like Battle Pope, Liberality For All, any of the "Jesus is a [insert action hero trope]."
Hmm. Sometime after initially viewing this review I had a thought about this comic. I'm not saying it's right or anything or if it would even help if it was, but for the sake of discussion I thought I'd bring it up.
Basically, what if this was a parody of the kind of attitude that got comics censored and a number of ideas banned, presented in the format of a comic from the time, rather than a parody or homage to the comics themselves at all? Like if they took some of the anti-comics arguments and created a comic seen through that lens?
Some people found the comics offensive as they were, so here we have 'Tales to Offend'. They thought the heroes were bad role models so this one is the biggest ass and yet called the 'favorite hero'. If comics were said to teach horrible lessons and add to juvenile delinquency, then here we have kids being taught to drink and smoke, messed-up ideas about sex and relationships, and the asshole protagonist winning in the end directly because of the horrible things he did.
At that point every stupid decision becomes a conscious choice made to embody the more exaggerated arguments against comics at the time. The end result is then a complete mess that stands in stark contrast with the actual subject matter being described by those flawed arguments - that comparison would be the joke. Even the inclusion of a better-if-icky story that doesn't fit could be explained if someone can find a quote about comic anthologies being called comparatively inconsistent and poorly put together, shoehorning in one good story from somewhere else to sell bad content. I don't know if anyone actually said that but I can imagine it easily enough.
This comic was actually pretty cool Are you sure there isn't more stuff with Lance Blastoff?
I think you did not do this comic justice by comparing it to Deadpool Deadpool is a completely different kind of humor This comic is much closer to the crazy awesome and hyper masculine goodness that is Lobo And let's face it, compared to the main Man, Lance is a saint.
The silly costume is obviously a reference to sci-fi serials from the 50s and 60s, like Caprain Video, who due to their low budget had to use everyday household items to make their props
Considering you'r track-record with these things, I'll just assume you never heard of rare steak, and let this one slide Alto I will point out that you'r constant slander of raw meat eating is highly insensitive towards the Inuit people, Japan, and the lovers of Steak tartare everywhere
exactly how hard was that "CCA = ass" message to understand?
Seriously, I would not mind to see more of this character
I'll just assume you never heard of rare steak, and let this one slide Alto I will point out that you'r constant slander of raw meat eating is highly insensitive towards the Inuit people, Japan, and the lovers of Steak tartare everywhere
Uhh...what? I'm pretty certain Lewis knows what rare steak is, unless you think the Midwest is in some sort of bubble separated from the rest of the world. Also, why are you speaking for entire cultures? What makes you think that the Inuit or Japanese really give two figs for what a guy in the Midwest likes or doesn't like? I hate bananas, does that make me biased against monkeys?
As for the "It's a parody" defense, no. It's not. Parodies are supposed to at least inspire a chuckle. This is just juvenile humor(and yes, I did get the CCA joke. It wasn't funny.) and unlikable characters.
Hell, it isn't even all that offensive. It's just a bunch of shoe-horned references. Even the Sin City story was more icky than offensive.
Now, if you want something that was meant to offend and is also very, very funny, please go read A Modest Proposal.
I'd really like to get the project off the ground my only problem is that while I think my self decent at coming-up with stories, my bane are dialogues I really suck at writing dialogues which is why I'd like to have a co-writer
and again, it's going to be really offensive themes include: classism, nationalism, drug abuse, stereotypes, human sacrifices, head and scalp hunting, religious extremism, cannibalism, racism, slave trade, fascism, communism, and political back-stabbing on a global scale the joke mostly being that these things are considered perfectly normal, and even desirable in the world's various nations
kinda like deliberate values dissonance played for dark comedy
And here's the creepy thing. Just change one word (literally, just the word 'kill') in that woman's insanity at 8:09 and it reads like she's in a Twilight-inspired fanfic. Only about dinosaurs.
And sadly I'd like to think that Miller was above writing a human/dinosaur romance but this IS Frank Miller we're talking about. Just give the dinosaur a Batman outfit and some dialogue about how great the dinosaur is and I wouldn't be surprised to see multiple women throwing themselves at the dinosaur.
And again we're seeing the problem of people mistaking parody for "see, here's the joke. laugh at the joke". In case no one's noticed, humor doesn't work that way. In Sailor Moon Abridged, the joke isn't really Rei (a satanist) telling a character to go to heaven and the joke isn't that Ami is explaining why Rei would see it as something bad, the joke is Serena commenting on the fact that they explained the joke. See the difference?
"Considering you'r track-record with these things, I'll just assume you never heard of rare steak, and let this one slide Alto I will point out that you'r constant slander of raw meat eating is highly insensitive towards the Inuit people, Japan, and the lovers of Steak tartare everywhere"
Please allow me to remind you of the following. Even rare steak is legally required (in all public places to eat) to be cooked to a certain degree to avoid infection Food poisoning is rather common when people eat foods raw. Lastly, H.I.V. is believed to have spread to humans from a monkey, either from improperly cooking the monkey or from being bitten and either way the humans were exposed to the monkey's fluids (which is no different from what this woman is doing considering the amount of blood on her face).
In other words, any raw food that is not properly stored and prepared is a serious risk to human health. What the woman does in this comic isn't just dumb, it's extremely risky and I would hope that any person with a decent education would recognize it for the dangerous act it was.
I did note that raw meat has to be (quoting myself) properly stored and prepared. Rare steak (or at least every kind I've seen served) still has to be cooked a bit first.
Herbivores? Peaceful? Where did you come by that odd idea?
I've been to Africa. I went on safari (*not hunting*!!!), and they drove us around in a jeep trying to find wild animals. We'd see lions, stop the car, turn off the engine, take pics. Elephants? Same thing. Cheetah? Again. Rhinos? Yep. Water buffalo? They did NOT turn the engine off. The most dangerous of all those animals was one of the herbivores.
(Hippos are also very, very aggressive and dangerous - but we never got in the water with them.) ~ Mik
Im going back and watching your old episodes, and am currently watching "that's all i'm saying" I did read your response to the comment that you will no longer be doing this segment, so I won't be asking.
However it makes me curious as to whats in your pull list or even as simple as. "what New52 comics are you purchasing this August?"
I posted the immediately previous comment (5:00 AM Aug 12) WOW what results, thank you immensely. though I'm sure you planned todays episode in advance, it's still refreshing seeing my post answered with a completely video in.... five hours. again although possibly coincidental... THANK YOU
Holy Terror wasn't racist. Miller's target was terrorism, not Muslims. There were white terrorists in that book. It was not an attack on the Muslim religion at all. Miller's an atheist, he hates all religions.
Man of Steel's biggest issue was not understanding Superman's character or what makes him an interesting or compelling character, SO WHY DID THEY GO TO FRANK MILLER FOR THE SEQUEL? He knows NOTHING about Superman!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE
ReplyDeleteSee Frank, THIS is how you do humor right!
Then again, we need a little more spam in this post!
Yeah, this comic is relentlessly stupid. For a good homage to sci-fi, and possibly EC comics, read Fear Agent by Rick Remender. Great read in every way possible, though I had to get an oversized omnibus-type book of it, which was a pain in the ass to actually sit down and read. And the smaller volumes are kind of annoying to find.
ReplyDeleteAlso, for good satire/homage you could read Tom Strong by Alan Moore. I was thinking of this even before the end and the fake PSA thing. "Holy socks!" or something. Alan Moore is funny for the right reasons. Frank Miller on the other hand....god only knows.
Great episode. Always love Miller Time. Especially when I'm drinking Sam Adams and hitting on women I've been periodically stalking on facebook.
Wait, Did you use the opening from a Year ago for this episode? Or is that due to some Computer Problems or something?
ReplyDeleteAlso, Love the Clock you got, did someone make that after you mentioned it in your Live Show?
With the Lance Blastoff look, I guess if this was meant to be a bit of a joke comic, the Costume is suppose to be a joke of the old suits that you see in the Silver Age Comics. That’s a guess, to say the least.
But like said, this is a comic which tries to be funny, but just isn’t, with weak jokes.
And it is hard when jokes in comedy get mediocre response, Marville One and Two, anyone?
Wait, Frank being asked about the Superman or Batman Film…Are we going to have it full of over use of memes, Lois Lane getting ‘Work On The Streets’ (If you know what I mean) or Superman cursing all the time?
I hope those are rumours, eh?
Nice Review though, Linkara.
Looking forward to seeing more from you! ;3
OMG I thought yesterday was Monday. Crap, I feel so stupid now
ReplyDeleteYou went retro for the opening, I see. Very cool. :D
ReplyDeleteThe movie Sin City is sort of a guilty pleasure for me, though my only exposure to The Spirit has been via the hilarious review you and Film Brain did.
As for the so called 'homage'...yeah, I'm not seeing it either. The tales in EC comics may have been gory at points, but they always ended with the jackass protagonist getting what was coming to them, or they made you feel bad for them. One I remember from Weird Science was the story of a father and son that land on an alien planet, and an alien approaches. The father shoots it dead, and then later he dies. The son is left alone, and while on the planet, he starts to change...at the end, you find out that time has looped back on itself.
All that Pike Jetpack makes me feel is annoyed.
Though if the woman had said that she needed real meat and a real man and then proceeded to messily devour Spear Colander-Head, I would like this comic much more.
I don't Millers trying to create art,it seems more that he tries to create dada.
ReplyDeleteI know this isn't a horror comic,but for some reason I can imagine Moarte flipping the bird to this carcass of an EC Comics "homage" like Linksano did last week.
ReplyDeleteAlso I didn't know you like Code Geass Abridged, I really didn't see it coming
Ehhhhh... I don't know about this one. I kinda thought this one was okay. In terms of how much I chuckled at what was going on on the pages though, not much more. It really doesn't work as a parody or for any real logical reason, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was kind of amused by the ridiculousness.
ReplyDeleteBut what do I know. I'm also the guy who thinks Dark Knight Strikes Again works as a parody. Maybe it wasn't written that way and Miller called it that retroactively, but it does feel to me like a decent work of self-parody, playing up his tropes that were kind of silly in Dark Knight Returns as hugely, hilariously dumb in DKSA.
Still, a good review as always. Looking forward to your first reviews of the new DCU next week =P
"Take a bite out of it see what happens." Eh it worked for Son Gohan for the past year, though he did have the advantage of carrying a sword.
ReplyDeleteThey might as well just call the rest of this comic "Duck Dodgers By Frank Miller."
Gotta say its nice to see a Miller time episode that isn't about one of his more famous creations, just a breath of fresh air,
ReplyDeleteAnyway Great episode as always
Is there were review of Holy Terror? Can't find it. Or this is for future episodes?
ReplyDeleteGot a couple questions to ask, Linkara. Was gonna ask about the use of the older opening credits but your recent twitter post explained that. Plus what happened to your pocket watch? Also, did we really have to go straight into Miller Time after the idiotic mess that was Marville? It's like going from one form of painful torture to another.
ReplyDeleteThe first story of Punch Rockgroin (at this point, I'm not gonna use the character's real name and go with my favorite made-up names Mike and the bots used for their Space Mutiny review) is pretty much Frank Miller at his worst. God awful artwork, the over emphasis of certain words, the stupidity of the characters, and the portrayal of the female character as a flip-flopping nut that becomes Big McLargehuge pet aka the same sexist template for all of Franks' female characters!
I'll be honest, Frank's art and story works best in Sin City. I got into the Sin City stories in the late 90s but I'd like to go back and read them again to see if they still hold up. Having said that, I do recall the Daddy's Little Girl storyline and, imo, was definitely one of the more icky Sin City yarns.
And, dear Glob, just when I think the moronic adventures of Trunk Slamchest couldn't get any worse. Between the messed-up looking sex bots and "hilarious antics" of Roll Sizzlebeef, I'm starting to wonder why Frank Miller isn't in a mental ward under 24 hour observation.
And then I find out a rumor that Miller was called to offer his two cents on the upcoming Superman/Batman movie.
Excuse me while I find a cast iron skillet to beat myself unconscious with.
A͡ ͏tho҉usand n̨a̛me͝ś a͠n͜d ͞ál͟l ̡áre͢ ̡tr̸u͏ę,
ReplyDeletęT͝h̶e̴ ͘m̛i̴ss͘ińg͢ ́o͠n͘e l̛ook̷s̕ b̢ack ̵a͞t ̶y͝oų,̛
Ánd no͞w̡ ͞y̷o̷u’̧l̀l bi̸d ̧the ̕w̸orl̕d̡ a͞dieu,
A̛ll ̴t̕hat͢ ̵yǫu’l̴l̀ h̶e͡a̢r ̵i̴s͝ ̷hi̕s̡sing.
N͘o̷stal҉g͘i͢a c̀al̛ls, yo̢u s͏a̡y҉ ̷go̵odb͝y̵e͏,
On w͏in͝g̛s̴ of͟ ̛memơr͞y͝,͜ a͞w̨ay y̴ou͝ f̶ly͞,
Its d͟e̶at̕h ̀was n҉e̸v͟er̷ ̢mo͝re th҉an a lie,
̨N͘o̕ t͘ime ͢l̸e̷ft f͟o͟r r̴emi͘n͠i͞sc͟i̢ng.
Be͏nea̷t͏h ̡th̵e ̵w͟av̷es ̛i͡ts boǹes̨ wer̢e f̵oun͟d̴,͏
͡Y̕o̸u̷’r͏e ̨cha̛ra̕c̶te̶r ͠sh̷o̵ul̢d̛ ͟h̡ave ͘dr̴o̵w͘ne̸d͡,
̴De͜a̵t́h͞ ho̕l͜ds͝ n̛o͢ ͡sway̴ ͟fo̧r souls ưn̵boun̢d͝,͠
Y̧o͠u’҉re̸ ͞f҉r̸eed͡o͟m̴ ̕it’s̀ ҉di͠s͘mi̷s͞si͡ng͘.
T͝hé ͢st̷at̕i̷c͝ li͡ves̕ i̛nsid̷e ͟your head̢,̢
I͠t’s t̡oo ҉ĺate, yoų’r̨e̡ ͜álr̴e͟a̵dy ̡de͞ad͢,
͞Wh̀ęn i̛t ͏ẃa̕s ̛c͠ut,҉ ͠gl̛itc͟h́e̴s ҉are a͟ll it ̡b̶l̀ed,
An͟d a͝ll̕ ̵that͞’s left͟ iş missing̷.͢
All the stories in this comic were actually reprints. I guess the idea was to collect the Lance Blastoff stories, but the Sin City story was thrown in to make it the standard length of a comic.
ReplyDeleteActually, it makes sense that the portrayal of that woman could be Frank Miller's idea of parody before it was his idea of serious writing. Remember when Miller called Batman the most pure and good hero before he made him into a psycho? Clearly, at some point his brain just hit the reverse switch and started believing the opposite of everything.
ReplyDeletecouldn't resist one last mystery science theater, could you? lols.
ReplyDelete....why was there a clip with lelouch from code geass holding a picture of twilight sparkle? would be less confused if the guy wasn't speaking in the yugioh abridged voice........... just realized I know what all three of those are........ also realized that on hindsight, my little pony has a infinitely more cohesive plot than yugioh ever had, and my little pony is episodic (believe it or not the series DOES have continuing plot lines and such and is, for the most part, well written for what it is, and the plot points do not center around playing a card game when the protagonist has the ability to mind rape people at will.)
.......this comic failed to even be offensive, just stupid. especially exemplified by the fact the guy could not comprehend the factor of he could make more money selling advanced scientific knowledge to people by about a billion than making a race braindead.
What was with the white star on the cover with the words "Approved by God"?
ReplyDeleteThe point of Twilight Sparkle is to be adorkable, obviously.
ReplyDeleteI'm left wondering what parents tell their kids tales of dinosaurs to frighten them.
ReplyDelete"Let me tell you all about these creatures that died out a long time ago, before humans were even around." SCARY!!!
I don't know... this episode felt incomplete to me. Maybe it was the comic, but it was really lackluster.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe you let the "Approved by God" seal on the cover get by without commentary...
ReplyDeleteAnd the spam attack was PINK!
More like "Tales to Bore."
Good review, though!
This has to be the mot awesome comic you had on you'r show so far!
ReplyDeleteUnlike you, I can appreciate the over-the-top machismo of Lance Blastoff, and his utter lack of morals
It reminds me of a little project I'm doing my self
"The Unlikely Adventures of Lady Crow"
only that one is more inspired by stuff like Doc Savage, Fu Manchu, and Johnny Quest
(and yeah, I admit the idea popped into my head after watching season 5 of Venture Bros., while re-reading The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and playing Bioshock Infinite)
It takes place in an alternate time-line, where WW2 never happened, colonialism survived till this day, Russia and China are still monarchies, an alliance of France, Spain, Netherlands, and Italy has conquered most of Europe during (a very different) WW1, Mexico is a nuclear superpower, the USA has never recovered from the Civil War, the Inca have conquered most of South America, and Congo is actually a decent place to live
The setting's aesthetics are a mix of Victorian, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco, with a dash of Classicism
http://burningresurrection.deviantart.com/gallery/44892136
currently looking for a co-writer, or possibly even an artist
gotta love shameless self-promotion that most likely nobody will pay any attention to
also, probably my favorite Sin City short
I think Zalgo is loosing his touch
ReplyDeletenot only is his message almost readable now, but he also does cohesive poetry
Luckily it's more than one person writing them. And I will admit it, I am responsible behind some of the earlier ones. I haven't written in a long time since I ran out of ideas. Though I'm beginning to think that was a mistake because personally, I don't think the others are doing a good job at it.
DeleteAnd for those who were asking in the Ravager comments if my comments were part of the puzzle: No, I am not in cahoots with Linkara. The only thing he gave me was a reply to an email after telling him about the ARG (since the whole thing started out of boredom and I didn't want him to be confused).
I'm not trying to defend this comic ,but I think the title was referring to that guy's jack@$$ery. Though I'm just speculating
ReplyDeleteOnce again a good Miller Time Episode Linkara, I watched earlier today but I couldn't comment because I was using my new iPhone 5.
ReplyDeleteIt must be hard for you isn't you, you just drank yourself stupid because of immense idiocy of Marville and now you have to endure the awfulness of Frank "I can't write Wonder Woman or any female character who isn't a teenager to save my life" Miller.
So you're going to see Man of Steel tonight, I saw and I liked it, I found it to be a pretty well-written movie and I hope you can enjoy it.
So are you gonna see the Wolverine sometime?
Well, this was obviously a parody, not an homage. I felt the whole review was misguided by Miller hate. It ridicules the Comics Code Authority multiple times, makes fun of pulp heroes in a very Miller way, and even the title is a joke for the CCA, since it's satirizing the fact that people in the 50s got offended by silly comicbook tales.
ReplyDeleteAs for the artwork, you have to understand Miller uses those poses to give strong silhouettes to his characters.
The comic just doesn't take itself seriously enough to suck to be honest. It's not like ASBAR which is painfully decompressed and shits all over DC characters.
Still found the episode as a whole fun to watch, but I just gotta point all that out. Peace out.
This seemed bad, even compared to the other Frank Miller stuff you've shown here, if only for different reasons. At least in the Batman and Robin comics, for example, it seemed like he was actually writing all those questionable, if not downright offensive things like he actually meant them. In those cases, even though I didn't like or agree with what he was saying in those stories, at least he seemed to be writing them like he actually meant it.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, though, it seemed to have a tone more along the lines of an author who was wondering "How would my audience react if I wrote stories like this...?" and did a really watered-down version of what he had in mind, which is actually kind of worse, at least in my mind. Almost like he had the ideas in his head and wasn't sure about going ahead with them.
I can't decide if this is a parody or not. It wasn't that good. I guess Lance Blastoff isn't that kind of Douchebag anti hero that I like.
ReplyDeleteI just can't get into them if their humanity isn't them.
Eeeee! Was that a Flash clock? *grabby hands* Want one!
ReplyDeleteI'm really not sure how Frank Miller thought he could pull off a parody of this nature. Like you said, it's too close to how he normally writes. It makes me wonder if they weren't really meant to be parodies at all. Maybe they were just a small collection of story's written by him, and some one else decided to call them "Tales to Offend".
Also, some of them evolved into a space-faring civilization and ditched the planet to go to the Delta Quadrant, while others fought humans for control of the planet but were wiped out when a giant space parasite crashed into the Earth and created a multi-million year long ice age that eventually ended as a result of time travellers screwing up the super-magical Antediluvian civilization.
ReplyDeleteOh, Frank. Please change.
ReplyDeleteWow. Okay...
ReplyDelete"If your money's good."
Not really zen, though it is a permutation of the most basic of all pieces of knowledge; "X=X."
8:45
Darn. Bob Helmethead saved her. I'm not saying it would make me happy to see her get torn to shreds. It's just that she's clearly taking a page out of the playbook of many other famous writers of the last few centuries (Jemas among them,) who had a tendency to project human virtue and superhuman sinlessness onto anything that had or seemed to have experienced suffering, except, of course, us. I'm just saying, seeing her get gobbled up by what she's alleged protecting/mourning... I felt a slight tinge of satisfaction there.
10:30
I'm usually okay with stories where a man teaches a woman (through some means) that she's made a mistake, and needs to correct it. What I'm not okay with is the plot point you drew attention to; the woman who thinks her whole purpose in life is to be a man's sex object, and isn't immediately reprimanded for it. Sadly, such girls exist in droves in the real world, and should be encouraged to respect themselves (and really, masculine maturity, which also suffers from this kind of behavior) more than this.
13:50
It's also not just icky, but immoral, on several different levels. In fact, the many reasons for this, and why they hold together logically was the subject of one of my recent research projects, and believe it or not, one of my most difficult ones. It can be hard to pin down -all- the reasons why this kind of thing is just plain wrong.
14:40
Huh. For some reason, it's just not as satisfying if she's not trying to protect the horrifying monsters -right before- being eaten by one. Just not as much karma there.
16:40
Beats me. If this comic were made by the original EC comics guys, I'd almost call it a cry of victory, but from Frank? I haven't the foggiest.
So in conclusion, I guess I'm not really that offended; just annoyed and disheartened that someone, somewhere let this thing see print. But maybe I've just become harder to offend in recent years.
I'm actually impress that you could make a 21 minute review of this comic.It was just so vapid that I see why no one ever talk about it.There wasn't any thing in there worth noting.I'm pretty sure that women was suppose be one of Frank Miller stereo type of people he don't agree with.In this case animal right activists and vegetarians but at this point this is probably the least offensive women he have wrought for in your reviews.
ReplyDeleteI would say the reason Deadpool works is that every other character thinks Deadpool is lame in his stories, thus makinghim an underdog.
ReplyDeleteAt least it was short.
ReplyDeleteThings I am grateful for, currently Frank Miller cannot write for the Black Widow.
I love when the little Muppet Thing makes an appearance on the title cards, he's so awesome.
You can only act like an asshole if it means something in particular in these types of comics. Heck, even after EC's fall, you still had these types of twist tales being written at Marvel (well, Atlas) in their anthology books prior to the return of the superheroes. And even those, which weren't as gruesome since the CCA existed, made more sense than this.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, we got some idiot woman eaten by a dinosaur and a ton of MST3K bits in the episode so it's all right in the world regardless.
I noticed Flint Dille (G1 Transformers writer) was credited on the last story. Weird.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I haven't read this comic and this is the first I've heard of it, but going by the bits you showed, it actually looks like it might be kind of funny. Reminds me a bit of the early issues of Heavy Metal magazine, to be honest, and that stuff was pretty amusing.
ReplyDeleteLinkara...the word REAL MAN in the Lance Blastoff Dino story is not said by her but by HIM
ReplyDelete@Burning Ressurection:
ReplyDeleteActually, your whole pulp adventure parody sounds like it could be a lot of fun! I really hope you can get it off the ground.
I'll have too keep checking your gallery.
Enjoyed the review as usual, and the only reason you use so many MST3K clips is because that is a very good series.
ReplyDeleteWait, Frank Miller is helping with the Superman/Batman film? I know it hasn't even had a trailer yet, and that I should remain open-minded, but it is just getting so hard. I fear that since Batman is more popular it's just gonna be "Batman kicks Superman's ass and then they team up." Like the Batman and Spawn crossover written by . . . oh, Frank Miller.
But hey, I'll follow your lead Lewis. Just stay calm and hope for the best.
I’m pretty sure the poem is the one that someone was posting bits of a few weeks back. I didn’t believe that it was Linkara posting this glitchy stuff in the comments during ‘The Entity’ storyline and I don’t think it’s him now. However, at least whoever is posting this is making them legible. It always really annoyed me when I couldn’t read comments because someone had gone mad with the glitches. I mean what’s the point if people can’t read what you’ve written?
ReplyDeleteWow, a Miller comic that doesn't involve Batman. It's still lame.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, great review. I'm still waiting for that imminent beatdown against Frank Miller's Holy Terror . . . and the remaining issues of All Star Batman and Robin.
You should do a month of comics that were specifically intended to get sales by trying to be offensive, but failed to get enough attention, and point out how many of them fail at basic storytelling for the sake of trying to be "controversial."
ReplyDeleteThings like Battle Pope, Liberality For All, any of the "Jesus is a [insert action hero trope]."
Hmm. Sometime after initially viewing this review I had a thought about this comic. I'm not saying it's right or anything or if it would even help if it was, but for the sake of discussion I thought I'd bring it up.
ReplyDeleteBasically, what if this was a parody of the kind of attitude that got comics censored and a number of ideas banned, presented in the format of a comic from the time, rather than a parody or homage to the comics themselves at all? Like if they took some of the anti-comics arguments and created a comic seen through that lens?
Some people found the comics offensive as they were, so here we have 'Tales to Offend'. They thought the heroes were bad role models so this one is the biggest ass and yet called the 'favorite hero'. If comics were said to teach horrible lessons and add to juvenile delinquency, then here we have kids being taught to drink and smoke, messed-up ideas about sex and relationships, and the asshole protagonist winning in the end directly because of the horrible things he did.
At that point every stupid decision becomes a conscious choice made to embody the more exaggerated arguments against comics at the time. The end result is then a complete mess that stands in stark contrast with the actual subject matter being described by those flawed arguments - that comparison would be the joke. Even the inclusion of a better-if-icky story that doesn't fit could be explained if someone can find a quote about comic anthologies being called comparatively inconsistent and poorly put together, shoehorning in one good story from somewhere else to sell bad content. I don't know if anyone actually said that but I can imagine it easily enough.
Just a thought.
This comic was actually pretty cool
ReplyDeleteAre you sure there isn't more stuff with Lance Blastoff?
I think you did not do this comic justice by comparing it to Deadpool
Deadpool is a completely different kind of humor
This comic is much closer to the crazy awesome and hyper masculine goodness that is Lobo
And let's face it, compared to the main Man, Lance is a saint.
The silly costume is obviously a reference to sci-fi serials from the 50s and 60s, like Caprain Video, who due to their low budget had to use everyday household items to make their props
Considering you'r track-record with these things, I'll just assume you never heard of rare steak, and let this one slide
Alto I will point out that you'r constant slander of raw meat eating is highly insensitive towards the Inuit people, Japan, and the lovers of Steak tartare everywhere
exactly how hard was that "CCA = ass" message to understand?
Seriously, I would not mind to see more of this character
you have to admit
ReplyDeletethis comic can be taken as a really appropriate F*Ck YOU to Marville
I'll just assume you never heard of rare steak, and let this one slide
ReplyDeleteAlto I will point out that you'r constant slander of raw meat eating is highly insensitive towards the Inuit people, Japan, and the lovers of Steak tartare everywhere
Uhh...what? I'm pretty certain Lewis knows what rare steak is, unless you think the Midwest is in some sort of bubble separated from the rest of the world. Also, why are you speaking for entire cultures? What makes you think that the Inuit or Japanese really give two figs for what a guy in the Midwest likes or doesn't like? I hate bananas, does that make me biased against monkeys?
As for the "It's a parody" defense, no. It's not. Parodies are supposed to at least inspire a chuckle. This is just juvenile humor(and yes, I did get the CCA joke. It wasn't funny.) and unlikable characters.
Hell, it isn't even all that offensive. It's just a bunch of shoe-horned references. Even the Sin City story was more icky than offensive.
Now, if you want something that was meant to offend and is also very, very funny, please go read A Modest Proposal.
@Tetsu Deinonychus
ReplyDeletethanks for the kind words of encouragement
I'd really like to get the project off the ground
my only problem is that while I think my self decent at coming-up with stories, my bane are dialogues
I really suck at writing dialogues
which is why I'd like to have a co-writer
and again, it's going to be really offensive
themes include:
classism, nationalism, drug abuse, stereotypes, human sacrifices, head and scalp hunting, religious extremism, cannibalism, racism, slave trade, fascism, communism, and political back-stabbing on a global scale
the joke mostly being that these things are considered perfectly normal, and even desirable in the world's various nations
kinda like deliberate values dissonance played for dark comedy
A straw environmentalist. How entertaining.
ReplyDeleteAnd here's the creepy thing. Just change one word (literally, just the word 'kill') in that woman's insanity at 8:09 and it reads like she's in a Twilight-inspired fanfic. Only about dinosaurs.
And sadly I'd like to think that Miller was above writing a human/dinosaur romance but this IS Frank Miller we're talking about. Just give the dinosaur a Batman outfit and some dialogue about how great the dinosaur is and I wouldn't be surprised to see multiple women throwing themselves at the dinosaur.
And again we're seeing the problem of people mistaking parody for "see, here's the joke. laugh at the joke". In case no one's noticed, humor doesn't work that way. In Sailor Moon Abridged, the joke isn't really Rei (a satanist) telling a character to go to heaven and the joke isn't that Ami is explaining why Rei would see it as something bad, the joke is Serena commenting on the fact that they explained the joke. See the difference?
"Considering you'r track-record with these things, I'll just assume you never heard of rare steak, and let this one slide
ReplyDeleteAlto I will point out that you'r constant slander of raw meat eating is highly insensitive towards the Inuit people, Japan, and the lovers of Steak tartare everywhere"
Please allow me to remind you of the following. Even rare steak is legally required (in all public places to eat) to be cooked to a certain degree to avoid infection Food poisoning is rather common when people eat foods raw. Lastly, H.I.V. is believed to have spread to humans from a monkey, either from improperly cooking the monkey or from being bitten and either way the humans were exposed to the monkey's fluids (which is no different from what this woman is doing considering the amount of blood on her face).
In other words, any raw food that is not properly stored and prepared is a serious risk to human health. What the woman does in this comic isn't just dumb, it's extremely risky and I would hope that any person with a decent education would recognize it for the dangerous act it was.
"Even rare steak is legally required (in all public places to eat) to be cooked to a certain degree to avoid infection"
ReplyDeleteYou can get both steak tartare and beef carpaccio at certain restaurants. At least, you can in the state of New York.
I did note that raw meat has to be (quoting myself) properly stored and prepared. Rare steak (or at least every kind I've seen served) still has to be cooked a bit first.
ReplyDeleteHerbivores? Peaceful?
ReplyDeleteWhere did you come by that odd idea?
I've been to Africa. I went on safari (*not hunting*!!!), and they drove us around in a jeep trying to find wild animals. We'd see lions, stop the car, turn off the engine, take pics. Elephants? Same thing. Cheetah? Again. Rhinos? Yep.
Water buffalo?
They did NOT turn the engine off. The most dangerous of all those animals was one of the herbivores.
(Hippos are also very, very aggressive and dangerous - but we never got in the water with them.)
~ Mik
Good to see another Miller Time on the chopping block, Linkara.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Miller, It would be interesting if you looked at a book called "Spiderman: Reign", which draws parallels to "The Dark Knight Returns".
At least there is no "The Spiderman Strikes Again" book.
This is probably old, but I find it more offensive than this comic.
ReplyDelete“The noir hero is a knight in blood caked armor. He's dirty and he does his best to deny the fact that he's a hero the whole time.” - Frank Miller.
True fact: found that on Facebook and the person who posted it said that it speaks to her.
Im going back and watching your old episodes, and am currently watching "that's all i'm saying" I did read your response to the comment that you will no longer be doing this segment, so I won't be asking.
ReplyDeleteHowever it makes me curious as to whats in your pull list or even as simple as. "what New52 comics are you purchasing this August?"
I posted the immediately previous comment (5:00 AM Aug 12)
ReplyDeleteWOW
what results, thank you immensely.
though I'm sure you planned todays episode in advance, it's still refreshing seeing my post answered with a completely video in.... five hours. again although possibly coincidental... THANK YOU
Holy Terror wasn't racist. Miller's target was terrorism, not Muslims. There were white terrorists in that book. It was not an attack on the Muslim religion at all. Miller's an atheist, he hates all religions.
ReplyDeleteMan of Steel's biggest issue was not understanding Superman's character or what makes him an interesting or compelling character, SO WHY DID THEY GO TO FRANK MILLER FOR THE SEQUEL? He knows NOTHING about Superman!
ReplyDeleteI couldn't help but think of this when you were discussing the first story. http://partiallyclips.com/2008/06/29/dinosaur/
ReplyDeleteIsaac Baranoff said...
ReplyDelete"Holy Terror wasn't racist. Miller's target was terrorism, not Muslims."
"Miller's an atheist, he hates all religions."
Muslims aren't a race.
Nor do all atheists hate all religions.
If you are aware of these things, it does *not* come across in your post.
~ Mik