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Underground > Comic Books >

Do you know too much about comics?

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

07:06 / 04.10.04

My friends and I were watching television and a strange cartoon featuring Daffy Duck and the Green Lantern Corps came around. Somebody asked me if the squirrel in the green lantern suit on Kilowog's shoulder was a legitimate Green Lantern. I replied that it was in fact a member of the Corps and told them how he eventually got run down by a truck (which is true. Poor lil' fella). Somehow, adding that little bit of backstory eventually turned into an entire lecture on the history of the Corps and the Green Lantern in general.

I realized sometime around Parrallax saving the sun and all the earth's heros that I could do this with almost any D.C. or Marvel character (provided that character had a decade or two's worth of backstory to delve into, and there was an audience present and willing to listen). And I haven't touched anything from either company in years. I feel ashamed that I know more about Green Lantern than I do my own medical history.

No doubt several of you have near encyclopedic knowledge of various titles from a given time frame. Do you ever wonder if maybe you should have perhaps devoted all this effort to something more useful? Well, too late now, you're stuck with the knowledge that Cyclops's father is the captain of a group of intergalatic pirates known as the StarJammers, instead of the quadratic equation, until you fucking die. Live with it. Here's the question: what will this information get you?

Is it possible to convert this knowledge to something useful? Like electricity? Or a method to accurately predict prime numbers? Can we somehow adapt it so it has some purpose in our everyday lives? Tell me, will I ever get a prize for knowing Tony Stark's blood type? I should get something for all this.

09:17 / 04.10.04

Oh no, not Ch'ip! Sob! NOT CH'IP!

10:09 / 04.10.04

Ch'p was great wasn't he. He was hit by a yellow truck, in Mosaic wasn't he? God, that series was wierd.

10:23 / 04.10.04

Yes, but I know how to keep my mouth shut.

THAT IS THE KEY.

10:49 / 04.10.04

C'hp must be avenged by his brother. D'le.

Spyder Todd 2008

15:49 / 04.10.04

I find that when ever someone asks me a comic book related question, I find it impossible not to turn it into at least a 10 minute lecture. Does that mean I have a problem, or that comic book histories are just too complicated?

16:46 / 04.10.04

Well, I sometimes use my knowledge of comics and cartoon as pedagogic support in my classes (I teach philosophy)

19:03 / 04.10.04

I think I do. Proof:

I think Teen Titans is a fun, cute, light show and I told my high school-age brother he should watch it. He, considering himself too old for it, said he'd pass. To try and convince him to watch it, then, I went on a several-minute thing where I talked about how the show is cool because it essentially adapts the Wolfman/Perez-era Titans (minus Kid Flash and Wonder Girl) in a way that is accessible to a contemporary audience. I then went on about how it even includes the whole Terra storyline (which I didn't think they'd do), although I explained in detail how the story differs from the original version where she was an active unrepentant traitor and it was heavily suggested that she and Deathstroke were having all sorts of illegal sex.

And the kicker is: I have never actually fucking read any Wolfman/Perez Titans, I've just read of them and know all this stuff anyway. So that, I think, is quite an accomplishment in the field of geekery.

19:52 / 04.10.04

And the kicker is: I have never actually fucking read any Wolfman/Perez Titans, I've just read of them and know all this stuff anyway. So that, I think, is quite an accomplishment in the field of geekery.

i have so been there.

oh, well. off to the comic store.

23:01 / 04.10.04

You could always use your knowledge of the comics industry to provide the framework for a Pulitzer prize-winning novel as Michael Chabon did...

13:49 / 06.10.04

whats the episode of the simpsons were comic book guy says "Oh NO, Ive wasted my Life" upon realising the worlds about to end?

This thought crosses my mind as i start reading the kree/skrull war for the xth time...

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

14:27 / 06.10.04

I see it as my own little mental illness I share with about 50,000 other people.

Some people know birds, some people know the Civil War, some people actuary tables, I know that there is no way in actual continuity that Gwen Stacy could have been inpregnated with Norman Osborne's children because she wasn't gone long enough, she went to England and not France after her father was killed and the kids didn't have a weird Osborne hair.

And, sad confession time, when I read "Cavalier and Clay", what popped into my head was, "Yet ANOTHER fictionalization of the Superman creators. This has to be the 1003rd time I've read something like this. Boy, it's nice prose, tho."

14:30 / 06.10.04

Y'know, I think it's fine to know way too much about comics. One thing I keep noticing is that the happiest people are the ones who're completely, utterly absorbed in some weird interest. And being obsessed with comics arcana is a lot cheaper than being obsessed with wines or antique firearms or Leicas.

Haus of Mystery

14:44 / 06.10.04

As long as you can be witty and charming with it, a healthy knowledge of comics is fine. Self-deprecation can help also. It's when you become the drone-bore, oblivious to people's reactions to your ranting that it's time for a rethink.

16:34 / 06.10.04

"But Aquaman! You cannot marry a woman without gills! You're from TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS!" has become my hipster lingo for "knows way too much about comics". My imaginary friends say it all the time, and boy, do we laugh.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

16:57 / 06.10.04

Well, I sometimes use my knowledge of comics and cartoon as pedagogic support in my classes (I teach philosophy)

Well, that's pretty cool. I do plan to be a teacher...

Spyder Todd 2008

20:26 / 06.10.04

Some people know birds, some people know the Civil War, some people actuary tables, I know that there is no way in actual continuity that Gwen Stacy could have been inpregnated with Norman Osborne's children because she wasn't gone long enough, she went to England and not France after her father was killed and the kids didn't have a weird Osborne hair.

Solitare Rose, I just want to say: Yay.

Porn Star Justice

18:48 / 07.10.04

Once I was in a discussion with my boss and the phone rang. It was my brother asking me "What was the name of the identity Batman used to disguise himself as to hang out with criminals?" without missing a beat I said "Matches Malone, gotta go."

I wish I had been that quick in coming up with a cover story of what the question was, when my boss asked.

22:30 / 07.10.04

I had the fun, and kinda confusing, privilage of giving a lecture on (ahem) "Masculinity and Postmodernism in contemporary superhero comics" a couple of days ago at my old university. And the strangest thing was having to remember that these people knew *nothing* about comics... that wasn't the Spiderman movies or Adam West's Batman. Every time I went to make a throwaway reference to a character, I then had to decide if it was really worth explaining their origins and digging up a cover-image for show...

...but I did get to talk about Flex Mentallo.

And someone interrupted the lecture to ask me about the cultural differences between Superman's invulnerbility and Wolverine's fast-healing version of same. And this made me happy.

21:32 / 08.10.04

And what I've noticed: no matter how geeky or nerdy or weird some of us are, in general we're a hell of a lot more articulate than the slack-jawed dunderheads who spend a comparable time watching TV and/or hanging out at the mall.

Cowboy Scientist

07:21 / 10.10.04

...but I did get to talk about Flex Mentallo.
Woo-hoo! What did you say about it?

19:28 / 11.10.04

And someone interrupted the lecture to ask me about the cultural differences between Superman's invulnerbility and Wolverine's fast-healing version of same. And this made me happy.

I love that as a question. I think it's something I could probably answer, too.

What's the current state of play with comics in academia?

20:09 / 11.10.04

Comics are all strangely hip in the world of academia right now, at least in the little fringe of universityland that I still have contact with. Next year, the University of Melbourne are even hosting an internation conference on superheroes next year.

(Continuing my Flex-obsession, I'm on a panel talking about "muscle mystery" vs parallel worlds...)

I bookended my lecture with the old Insult That Made A Man Out Of Mac advertisements, and talked about how Flex was finally 'defeated' when denied legal access to his origin story by Charles Atlas... the Brotherhood of Dada got a big, curious laugh from the crowd, too. Did my heart good.

11:43 / 12.10.04

Do I know too much about comics. Would shouting at the TV during the report on the death of Christopher Reeves because they referred to Superman as "the caped crusader" indicate the answer oh god yes.

Hmmmmm, thought so...

23:25 / 15.10.04

An offhand comment slipped into a 90 minute discussion about the timeline of X-men, Wolverine in particular. There were three of us, each more familiar with differnet areas, so we rounded out quite nicely. Then it somehow collapsed into debating Hellboy and Wolverine vs. The Tick and Green Lantern. Ghost Rider was referee.

What's the current state of play with comics in academia?
My January term class is The Comic Book Aesthetic.
"This course will ... examining the manner in which a successful visual narrative is produced. The class will also emphasize connections between the arts of comic book writing and screenwriting."
Needless to say, I can not wait.

00:52 / 16.10.04

Do I know too much about comics. Would shouting at the TV during the report on the death of Christopher Reeves because they referred to Superman as "the caped crusader" indicate the answer oh god yes.

Would berating you because it's Reeve and not Reeves count, too? Yes'm.

22:30 / 03.01.05

I really wanted to share this. My previously mentioned comics class started today, and here is the assigned reading:
Scott McCloud Understanding Comics
Will Eisner The Dreamer
Chris Ware McSweeney's Quarterly Concern No.13
Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith Criminal Macabre: A Cal MacDonald Mystery
Warren Ellis and Darrick Robertson Transmetroplolitan
Takeshi Konomi Prince of Tennis
Natsuki Takaya Fruits Basket
Brian Michael Bendis and Chuck Austen Elektra: The Scorpio Key
Alan Moore Supreme: The Story of the Year

I really wish the class was more than a month long.

13:01 / 04.01.05

Why the heck is that Bendis/Austen ELEKTRA story on there? There are other Bendis works that are far better than that relatively lame little story. That ELEKTRA story is totally outclassed by pretty much everything else on that list, in terms of writing and art.

14:36 / 04.01.05

Indeed. And I'm required to buy it.

I'm still looking forward to it though, because part of the class is creating an 8page comic. Glee.

14:40 / 04.01.05

Now THAT's cool.