Disclaimer: None of what I post here is in any way the views of Blog@, Newsarama, or Imaginova Networks or anyone associated with them. These are my own opinions, and I speak only for myself. And they’re right.

There has been a bit of an uproar on Twitter in the last 24 hours, primarily instigated by three big names at Marvel Comics complaining about tweets, posts on the microblogging social network, being reposted on websites such as this one, CBR, and many others. The contention by Tom Brevoort, Brian Michael Bendis, and Joe Quesada is that this shouldn’t be done without permission or even payment to the person who made the original 140 character or less post.

…them as articles without any permission or payment to CB. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Newsarama Blog.about 8 hours ago from web

TomBrevoort

Tom Brevoort

This brings to light something that bugged me for the four years that I covered comic books, and one of the big reasons that my focus is on video games nowadays. Press coverage of comics is so reliant on being buddy buddy with the various companies that are being covered, the majority of comic book press has become nothing but a glorified PR stream. But let’s get to the point of contention first: Twitter. (more…)

Henry posted the latest Saturn Award nominations earlier today, and I have to say, it strikes that special part of me usually reserved for bogus “parent groups” and pretentious lists (hehe). See, I was under the impression that the Saturn Awards were for SciFi/Fantasy/Horror, with an emphasis on the first two. I was also under the impression that Awards in general were reserved for, well, good things.

Apparently these are wild misconceptions, and instead, the Saturn Awards are in place to reward just about anyone who makes moving pictures, no matter the subject or the quality, and it’s a damn shame.

There are already plenty of awards out there for the general movie/tv industry: Golden Globes, SGA, WGA, DGA, Oscars, BAFTA, etc. The idea of a dedicated Genre award is a great one, but clearly the Saturns have lost their way. Examples, you say? Let’s take a look here. (more…)

Welcome to the second edition of the column that tells you the proper way to think. In light of the “Best of 2008″ lists that are coming out right now, I thought I’d ask the question, why do these lists of “graphic novels” (don’t call them comic books, those are for kids!) have to be full of obscure art-house style books? Is that really the only thing that’s any good?

First off is the aforementioned graphic novel vs. comic book distinction. Some of these are GNs, and that’s cool. Some are collections of comics, cool as well. Some are “serialized GNs,” or set stories that were released in a monthly nature first but are still self-contained and not part of another ongoing story. Why does it hurt these writers so much to make these distinctions? Can we not make note of what “type” a particular book falls under, if only to let readers know their options for how they can read this medium.

In addition, any variation of 60s Batman TV show sound effects (Pow! Bam! Boom!) should result in the writer being hit over the head until you hear at least the same sound effects, if not some new ones. Also, as the comic industry has been catering to adults for decades, with the last several years having adults as the primary audience. Again, any variation of “Comics aren’t just for kids anymore” should automatically mean the list can never see print.

I digress, though those two possible introductions are in fact great indicators that you’re reading a pretentious list, I wanted to talk more about the lists themselves. I am not arguing at all that popularity equals quality. The problem is when things are seemingly shunned because of their popularity. It’s the same thing that largely happens with movies and awards. The tendency is to go strictly to ultra-serious, ultra-dramatic, and often obscure options that few have seen/heard of/read, just to show the nominator or organization’s amazing breadth of knowledge and experience. I am very glad that comics and graphic novels can be used and do get used for so many different kinds of stories. The fact remains that the majority of comics are superhero books, and some of them are very, very good.

I love the idea of celebrating the diversity that has beenbrought to comics, with much of that diversity coming in the last few years thanks to publishers like Top Shelf, Oni, AiT, and many others. I beg future best of, top ten, etc. list makers to contemplate that part of diversity is those “mainstream” or superhero books out there, as well. I assure you, you’ll find some great reads, and even some of the best reads of the year.

That’s my opinion, and it’s right.

Welcome to a new column I’ll be doing irregularly here at Blog@ called My Opinion is Right. I have some strong opinions on things related to Geek Culture, and I’m lucky enough to have this sounding board, so here’s the right way to think about this particular subject.

A little over a week ago, the mothership ran an AP article about a watchdog group that made a list of ten games that kids shouldn’t play. All ten of these games were rated M for Mature, or 17+, a rating very very similar to the R rating used for movies. My immediate thought was echoed in the comments section there: Why the hell does a separate group have to tell me what I am already being told?

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