Another week of what feels like modest progress on the Khorne display piece. I made a mistake and learned some things this week but first, here’s a look at where the mini stands.
On Thursday, I was getting close to the end of painting the hand and weapon and I wasn’t satisfied with how it looked. One thing that was really helpful was that I knew that I would want to update this very website this weekend and I always try to have something interesting to share so that gave me some extra motivation to work out the problem. I realized that it was a little bland for a couple reasons.
One is that it was missing the lighting/glow that will come to life even more when I get the base done but also, the parts I was painting don’t photograph well and are a little tough to see. All of the highlights are towards the bottom of the weapon which are not easy to see from the normal angles. I suspect this is a big reason why people don’t use nadir lighting with Warhammer miniatures. What gives me hope is that when I put this guy on his base, he’ll be at a bit of a raised angle and so it should be easier to see the highlights and lighting effects than it is in the photos above. Taking good photos of the miniature will be key in showing off the work I’ve put into it.
Of course, I can’t help but wonder how impressive this will look at a certain painting competition I intend to enter it in. It would probably be ideal if the mini was placed higher up in the cabinets whereas if it is in the bottom of the case, it probably won’t be noticed or look as good. Obviously, this matters not at all when it comes to how the mini is judged but its a thought that crossed my mind.
I did goof up with painting this mini this week and I should have avoided attaching the piece to the mini until I had painted the bottom parts. It was really tough to paint a few small parts on the bottom which you can’t see in photos. I think it looks alright in spite of the difficulties but I could have made this easier on myself. You live and you learn.
I only have the other side to go which is great because I’m ready to have the miniature done. At the same time, I want to make sure I’m keeping the quality up so I could see myself taking a break for a day or two at least before getting back to it. The other weapon is a repeat of everything I just painted so its not like there’s anything new or exciting to work on there.
As promised last week, I wanted to do a little comics talk since I’ve been getting back into them after a bit of a hiatus. I re-read something on a whim that is really good and a comic that I think a couple regular visitors would like so I thought we might as well chat about it.
Old Man Logan is ostensibly what inspired the movie Logan but not so fast, the comic is wildly different and I’m going to argue that its better than the movie. In the comic, the villains all teamed up to finally show up the superheroes and it surprisingly… it worked! Now the US is a wasteland of carved up fiefdoms where people like Kingpin and Doctor Doom are firmly in control. Most of the superheroes were killed in the villain uprising and society as we know it is gone. Much of the US looks like a wasteland similar to Fallout, though there are some cities left even if they look nothing like they used to. Wolverine is still kicking but he is changed. I’ve heard comparisons to the movie Unforgiven, which I’ve never seen, but to put it in other words, Wolverine has given up being a hero and refuses to fight or pop his claws. Wolverine has a wife and kids and is trying to be a successful farmer in the wasteland no less.
His life changes when he comes up a bit short on money and his slumlord/loan shark which happen to be incestuous offspring of the Hulk and She-Hulk, beat the crap out of him and threaten to kill his family if he doesn’t come up with the money in a month. Enter Old Man Hawkeye who says he needs Wolverine to accompany him on a “package delivery” job that pays handsomely. Things get even more interesting from there as the story becomes an “on the road” narrative across the wasteland. There are a lot of surprises from there and the book is unrelentingly grim and cynical. I guess you could say its like a mash up of The Road and Marvel. In many ways, its amazing Marvel published this book because of how bleak it is and how their beloved characters are treated in it. The book is bloody and a bit gruesome but since we’re all adults here, I can’t imagine that would bother anyone much.
If that doesn’t entice you, then the art definitely should. It is some of the very best you’ll see in a comic book. The level of detail that the artist, Steve McNiven, puts in is astounding. He uses cross hatching to create texture and he also draws all of the little hairs and cracks in rocks that most comic artists do not have the time for. Its a visual feast for the eyes.
Marvel, as they often do, tried to continue this series on with different writers and artists afterwards. While those aren’t bad, they don’t compare to this story which is one of the best Wolverine stories ever made. So make sure you get Old Man Logan by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. While this comic is over ten years old now, I highly recommend it and I’d love to see an Old Man Logan miniature get made for Marvel Crisis Protocol. As Wolverine would say, “What you waiting for, bub?”
Kuribo's Painting 
Come for the pun title, stay for the article.
You nailed why I gave up on comics; changing artists, colorists, writers that changed the whole tone of a storyline for me. Not to mention multiple covers for the same issue. (Rant done)
Looking forward to seeing it all come together for this miniature, the weekly progress is amazing.
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I’m glad you liked the title. It was more inspired than my usual titling haha. Thanks for the kind words on the painting as well!
I probably should have mentioned that I’m reading comics digitally. I stopped buying physical trade paperbacks a number of years ago because I ended up with a closet full of them. I wasn’t really collecting them so much as just buying them to read what I liked but sure enough, I ran out of room pretty quickly. I don’t like reading digital books as much as paper ones but I do like reading digital comics pretty well on my iPad.
Having said that, I know what you mean about multiple covers and the collecting part of comics. I don’t know a ton about it but its definitely a more hardcore (and expensive!) way of being into comic books. I just enjoy reading them and am happy to buy digital ones when I can get a good deal on them. For example, there is a brand new Conan the Barbarian series that just started and I’m debating whether I want to buy each issue or wait until its collected because I’m very curious to check it out!
I was going to warn everyone that if a person or two comments about comics in response, its only going to encourage me to talk about them more in the future but you’ve almost all but guaranteed I will 🙂
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Oh, we’re going to discus physical vs digital too…?!!!! 😂😂😂
This could get long, but the digest sized reply is ‘some (mostly older) comics end up being better in print, whereas a lot of newer stuff I’m fine with digital’. Most newer comics art is drawn directly on the computer anyways, so you’re not getting any benefit of out printed copies.
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All comic book talk is welcome here 🙂 I agree with everything you said about older comics and newer comics. I think the older comics are more affordable in print than newer ones too so that is a good thing about them as well.
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Yea, modern series seem to be the worse. I tried to read some DC comics from a few years back and they were switching artists every other issue or sometimes even in the same issue. I got the impression that they felt they were interchangeable cheap production robots and no one could tell the difference. I would not be surprised if they let all their artists go at this point and switched to AI art. I imagine Marvel is not much better, even though I tend to like their characters more.
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I hope AI doesn’t ruin art in the future! Truthfully, its really hard to find artists who can keep up with a monthly book. I think more series should just come up with a writer and two artists who can swap every couple of months to keep the book coming out. Smaller publishers will delay a book or release it periodically to make sure the art stays consistent but Marvel and DC are much less willing to do that. To misquote Dune, “The comics must flow!”.
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Well, some of the older artists did more than one book in a month. Though not to the level of detail that some modern artists do. Art style in comics is really important to me, so I would rather have one artist who does a book every 2-3 months or an artist who is maybe not as detailed but still good. I think a number of artists make their work way too busy, with lots of unnecessary lines (like Jim Lee), and if that’s what’s causing their book to be late, maybe they need to refine their style so they can meet deadlines.
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That is very true. I can’t believe they were able to keep up with that pace either. Personally, I love the really realistic and detailed modern art so I’m happy to wait patiently for stories to come out if that is what it takes. I do think Marvel and DC are not willing to wait much and that creates a lot of artist “instability” that we see now. The many and varied Hellboy books seem to have a good handle on this problem. Its been pretty consistent across last ten plus years anyway.
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I’m usually trade waiting for books anyways. I’m surprised that anyone still picks up their monthly single issues at the comic store anymore, but they do. Probably a good thing,
else comics might not even be around. But like you said, single issues are a pain to store, so I wait for trades or hardcover collections if it’s something I really like. Brubaker has started to release some of his stories straight into collected formats and that seems to be working good for him and Phillips. I’d be happy if that was more the norm.
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Its really expensive to read issues. I was telling my brother, who doesn’t read comics, that a lot of people are spending $50-100 a week on books these days. Part of this is that Marvel and DC are doing what everyone is doing. Cranking out more and more content to try and squeeze more money out of people. There’s also the expensive variants that people buy which increases how much they spend too. I couldn’t afford to read comics like that and keep up with the cost of miniatures and paint or buying video games so there’s no way I’d take up reading issues regularly.
I completely agree on Reckless’s format. I think it would be cool if more stories were released that way. Reading a single issue is such a small chunk of a story. I think getting a full volume is much more satisfying to me as a reader. Reckless is on my list of things I want to check out!
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Reckless is good, though I think I enjoy Criminal even better. I really enjoyed Kill or be Killed too.
Yea, I forgot that prices of single issues has risen over the years as well! I can’t remember the last time I bought a single issue (other than some out-of-print back issues). I was collecting comics regularly in the 90s. I could get to a comic store at that point, so I could actually follow titles as they came out for the first time. It was an interesting time, because Image and Valiant came on the scene. Plus Dark Horse had pulled in some creators to do their own comics (which is how we got Hellboy!). But then we got the beginning of the overuse of variant covers, holofoil, sealed bags, etc. Pretty soon I found I could not financially afford to follow all the titles that I wanted. Probably shortly after the Death of Superman/Return of the Superman stuff, that I just called it quits.
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I think The Fade Out might be my favorite though I can’t say that Criminal or Fatale are far behind it. I liked Kill or Be Killed more than expected too. The only one I didn’t like is “All My Heroes are Junkies” or something to that effect. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t that great either.
The issues I bought are $4 and $5 each. I know those are on the lower end overall though and there’s nothing particularly special about them. Marvel and DC are putting out issues that cost more like $8-10 which is a lot. There’s no way I could keep a “habit” going at those kind of prices so I don’t blame you at all. Trades are just so much better value than single issues.
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Holy #%€, $8-$10 each?! No wonder kids don’t buy comics anymore! My brain is comparing that to my childhood…when we could buy a comic for $.25. We usually could scrounge together a dollar or so for a trip to the store. Which would buy us some candy, a comic or two, and a soda. Whereas 6 comics is about the price of a console game. Ok, rant over.
The Fade Out was pretty good. Fatale was decent, but not really my fave. Even though you have WildCATS, I really liked Sleeper. I think Incognito was their attempt to redo Sleeper, but I preferred Sleeper overall. He’s one of the few modern authors that keeps me buying comics though.
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Yeah, a few are that bad. There is a Predator vs. Wolverine series that just started and it is $8 an issue. Sometimes they’re double or extra-sized to justify that price but I don’t think that one is shockingly. I think $8-10 is way too high too. For what a comic is, its hard to justify that price.
I never read Sleeper or Incognito. I would definitely do so if I get the chance because I’ve heard good things. Brubaker’s Captain America run is good as well. There is a great panel somewhere in that run with a gorilla brandishing a machine gun yelling, “Death to America” haha. That is one of the most comic book things you’ll ever see. His Daredevil run is a bit disappointing though. I bought all of those trade paperbacks after loving Bendis’s run only to feel underwhelmed in the end.
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Definitely check out Sleeper if you get the chance. It’s an early one in his career, but I think that also makes it interesting.
Captain America was good, overall. But it suffered a bit from the story jumping around, probably from different Marvel events happening at the time. I didn’t read it for the longest time, because I had heard they brought Bucky back as a cyborg assassin and that sounded really dumb. After reading it though, I’d have to say it’s probably the best thing that ever happened to that character. He definitely did his research beforehand (unlike Bendis!!).
I don’t remember the gorilla with a machine gun. There’s a DC villain “Monsieur Mallah”, who is essentially that, so maybe he was doing an homage or something.
I didn’t care for his DD run, and sold it off. Same for Batman, the trades were kind of unreadable because of the crossovers. Brubaker has said that writing Batman (or most of the main superheroes) is not fun because of the crossover events and lack of control.
I did enjoy Immortal Iron Fist, but it changes the character quite a bit. Which probably made a number of people mad.
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Will do! I think I’ve only read Brubaker’s Captain America run. I’m pretty ambivalent about the character overall. It is far from my favorite comic book series but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
Brubaker’s Daredevil run started off promising but became an absolute mess by the end. It kind of seemed like he didn’t know what to do with Matt other than to have him make really dumb decisions that would hurt the character further. Lady Bullseye has a cool design though!
Immortal Iron Fist was really good I heard. I’ll have to check that out because I don’t think I ever read it. Yet another one to add to my growing list! Cheers, Brian 🙂
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I’ll have to agree to disagree on Lady Bullseye! 😉
I think he did a nice job on capturing the essence of Captain America (Brubakers father was also in the military, which might have helped).
I think he took parts from his favorite writers and stories and did a good job on making the character believable. He can definitely be a very boring character otherwise, a lot like Superman.
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Haha, I’m only saying her design/costume is cool. There’s almost nothing else about the character that was a good idea to be clear! 🙂
Its also totally fine if you don’t like the design too! Agreed on Captain America being too much like Superman. There’s something about him that can be a bit boring or predictable.
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I could see the benefit of reading digital comics, especially if you zoom in. I find myself doing the two finger zoom on hard copy items and get irritated at myself for doing it and for it not working!
New Conan? Might have to go and check that out.
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I use Comixology to buy comics and then Marvel Unlimited when I feel like subscribing and binge reading comics and both allow you to view one panel at a time or a whole page and that tends to work pretty well for me. Since tablets come in all different sizes, I’m sure some of it depends on how large your screen size is too though.
Whenever I check out Conan, I’ll report back! I definitely want to read it whether its digital or physical.
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Also depends on how old your eyes are! 😂
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Or perhaps if you see well up close versus far away! 🙂
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Looks like the models is coming along great mate, I can certainly see why you say it must be a nightmare to photo, looking forward to seeing how you plan to tackle the base!
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Thanks, mate! I’m excited to work on the base and see how it turns out too. Its testing my patience to keep pushing it off but I think it will be worth it in the end.
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Progress on the mini looks good Jeff! 🙂 The comic sounds good!
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Thanks, John! 🙂
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Progress is progress Jeff, no matter how small, and a lot of finishing will get done when it’s all together, and in place as you will need to check where the light and colours will be, but it’s looking great so far.
Sounds like a great read, and I will have a look out for it.
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That is very true. I think motivation can quickly dissipate when progress seems slow or that is often the case with me. I do think you’re right that final adjustments will be really important on this miniature and it may all come together at the very end. I think Old Man Logan is right up your alley and it is a self-contained story so if you read that one volume, you’ll get to experience the whole story which is always nice too.
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Nice job on the mini, nice to see it come together. You’re right that the lighting conditions will really matter for this, under normal lighting, i.e. from somewhere up the lit up areas will be in shadow and vice versa which might make it hard to read. Under even lighting it should stand out really nicely, such a cool effect.
Never read much marvel comics, but I did enjoy the Logan movie and that comic looks really interesting. I’ll check it out!
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Thanks, Nic! I really don’t know how this mini will be received in any competitions. There’s always a danger of being too creative or different when it comes to artistic endeavors I figure.
Marvel has tons of good comics if you like their characters and general style of storytelling. While I like other comics publishers just as much, I prefer Marvel to DC overall. It still surprises me how much Old Man Logan stands apart from the Logan movie but in hindsight, I think that’s a good thing. You can enjoy an aging Wolverine in two pretty different versions of the future US. You’ll have to let me know what you think of Old Man Logan when you check it out!
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Standing out from the crowd is no bad thing when you’re surrounded by other good entries! You always risk not being to the taste of the judges but I think that’s better than being overlooked because the entry blended in with the rest.
I find the same thing works for army painting if you’re going for painting awards at tournaments. From standing height, a medium looking army and a great looking army look much the same. But if you have elements that make people stop and have a closer look that’s half the battle! I’ve seen some exquisitely painted armies get completely overlooked because they weren’t eye grabbing. Especially true for lord of the rings armies where you have lots of muted natural colours.
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That is a very good point that I hadn’t thought about. At GD, you would think that taking some risks on a miniature might pay off (with the exception of fiddling with GW’s lore, of course!). It will be interesting to see how the mini does because I wouldn’t venture to guess at this point!
That is a great point on army painting as well. I truthfully have never tried to do much army painting because of how slow of a painter I am. Do you think that having a unique or eye-catching scheme is more likely to win than someone who paints a bunch of Ultramarines blue really well? I could definitely see that myself because something a little different will stand out more.
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At tournaments the painting votes are almost always done by the participants so are definitely much more subjective than what a judge would do. People vote for their mates, armies they got a good lock at because they happened to play against them etc. So yes I’ve seen armies that stand out because of colour choices do much better than nicely painted armies. The trend these days is to do display boards for armies, so you have terrain in there to catch the eye as well. It’s an arms race!
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That makes sense on how voting works. I completely agree on how its turned into an arms race. Armies on Parade should be renamed to Display Boards on Parade if you ask me! I think as much thought goes into that as the army itself and the results are impressive.
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Yes some truly awesome boards pop up in that these days! I’ve been meaning to enter, but I keep forgetting the dates, need to look for when the next one will be!
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That would be an awesome project for you to take on, especially with some of the army-based projects you’ve been working on lately. While the scale of what people do is impressive, I don’t know that the painting always matches that and I think with your painting abilities, you have a chance to win some acclaim with your project!
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Well with that encouragement how could I resist! I need to figure out how it works nowadays, not sure if it’s store based or online still.
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We’re all nothing if not enablers 🙂 I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts on it and what project you decide to take on too. It will be a big undertaking to be sure!
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Yeah I can understand that with an underneath light source the highlights would be hard to capture. The whole thing will probably come together in the end. 😀
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So far it seems like they’re harder to capture and harder to paint too. I hope it all ends up looking good and this mini wins many painting awards haha. We shall see!
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I have not yet seen Logan because I heard it was depressing. Do you think I need to see it? It does not sound as grimly depressing as that comic storyline of a supervillain dominated wasteland. I would however point out, you need to see Unforgiven. Really. Make the time. You will not regret it.
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I would like to see Unforgiven one of these days. Its on my periphery but I’ll try to move it up the list and give it a watch.
Your question is tricky to answer without giving away too much. The best I can do is say that Logan has a pretty depressing ending and is a depressing version of our near future. One of the things that I didn’t love about Logan is that it covers the Weapon X experiments that created Wolverine and those parts of the movie have a bit of horror to them. Not really jump scares but just a little psychological horror that ominously predicts what could happen down the road. The movie also depicts a future world where corporations and military cartels seem to have much more power than average people (even more than now). Probably because the cartels are using super soldiers that are genetically enhanced. I think all of this felt real enough that it was depressing and not a fun world to live in over the course of a movie. I expected the movie to be sad but I found it depressing and not a fun or entertaining watch. There are some great parts in the movie like the main villain who is charming and menacing in equal parts but as a movie, I wouldn’t call it fun and it stands out as being a very unique and almost strange inclusion in the MCU.
Old Man Logan explores how the world as Marvel fans know it fell apart and why Wolverine became a pacifists. Its also an interesting exploration of how that world would change in a kind of apocalyptic event. I found this to be a much more satisfying story (especially the ending which has some silver lining to it). All in all, the voyage and the ending were more entertaining and felt less depressing in Old Man Logan.
For me, there’s no competition. Old Man Logan is the better of the two very different versions of an aging Wolverine. Having said that, I think tastes will vary and there’s a good chunk of people out there who might not like either of these two and prefer seeing Wolverine in his prime.
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Unforgiven is sad but entertaining, something of a classic in my opinion, on the shades of grey that is my current take on the Wild West.
You make Logan sound very much like something other than my cup of tea and definitely not something for Mrs. GG, who REALLY dislikes dystopian futures. I only really like dystopian stories for a glimmer of light (hope) in the darkness of the setting.
All that said…. As an old warrior who has changed some of his own views over the years I do tend to be interested in tales of heroes past their prime.
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Unforgiven sounds great to me. And yes, I don’t think Mrs. GG would be into it. I stupidly took my wife to the movie and she was incredibly kind for watching it as she doesn’t like that kind of movie either.
I think there is another component to Logan which adds to its dystopian nature. There seems to be an underlying message about people who live in the “have not” countries will be the ones who suffer in the dystopian future. I can’t help but feel that part of the movie was influenced by the politics of a certain former President who will be out on bail in four different states by the end of the day. So take that for what you will.
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I much prefer my dystopian futures to be fictional. Every time I look at the news I find myself increasingly disappointed. As an American having lived in Europe for over two decades now, I really do not recognize the land of my birth and wonder how much my youthful vision of America actually reflected reality. Of course the UK news also surprisingly continues to disappoint as well. And yet… deep down I continue to think of myself as an American. I wonder if that will ever change.
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Yeah, the dystopian stuff in Logan is too realistic and relatable for me anyway. If you give it a watch, I’ll be very curious to see what you think. I think the world we live in is becoming more complicated all the time and since COVID, a lot of people are really acting out in ways that none of us have seen before. Politics seem to be getting worse and more dysfunctional all of the time as well. Its hard not to worry about the future. I can only hope it gets better and America starts to live up to what it could be. I’ll certainly do my part but an individual can only do so much.
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I think freedom of information thanks to the internet has caused people to both learn more “truth” as well as become more easily manipulated by those deciding what is the “truth”. And there is not enough responsibility to go with all the freedom. Not enough critical thinking. So much power, everyone has more knowledge at their fingertips than the greatest scholars of our history. But likes and echo chambers dominate those without the ability to think independently.
What makes me so frustrated with America is the hypocrisy and missed potential.
All men created equal… and yet the “greatest generation” fought racist fascism with a segregated army trained on bases named after Confederate generals.
The most powerful, most expensive military in the history of the world built to protect Americans and yet how does America protect itself from something like Covid? Life in Europe has really changed my opinion on health care.
America has so much potential. The ideals enshrined in the Constitution are so enlightened. America should be leading humanity on the path to a brighter future but instead so many of the powerful people in America seem only focused on themselves.
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I agree that the internet and technology are radically changing politics in ways and generally not for the better. In addition, I think technology is creating new issues for society. For example, where I live for the past couple of years, teenagers use some kind of app where they can talk anonymously to plan “takeovers” where they swarm downtown, commit minor crimes, and generally be a nuisance. The police are really struggling to stop these kinds of things from happening because technology is advancing quickly. I think the same kind of technology is being used to pull off robberies of high end stores where people wear masks and swarm them essentially. Each person may only get a handbag or two but law enforcement seems to have little to no way to stop these things from happening.
In my opinion, money and business seems to corrupt a lot of ideals in the US. There are forces who try to advance protecting the environment, improving conditions for workers, etc. and then on the other side businesses try to often roll those things back or advance their interests. It doesn’t serve the average person very well and is holding the country back from being greater. Its not a new thing and its always been a problem in America but I think it is becoming more and more pronounced. Or in other words, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
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I completely agree.
Law enforcement can not really do much to stop things unless they are present. And cops can not be everywhere. Policing alone can not deal with these issues. Attempts to increasingly expect the cops to handle everything leads to a police state. As a former cop I definitely do not want to live in an overly authoritarian police state. Which means really we need citizens able to largely shoulder the task of dealing with issues surrounding crime. Healthy communities where people care about each other and are brave enough to risk helping out when required. That means they need to believe the system will help them if they put their head over the parapet.
As for our past…
I am reminded of Teddy Roosevelt being called a socialist for establishing national parks in order to preserve nature. As well as the various violent trade labor union conflicts. America is a land of extremes and extremes are filled with risks.
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Hear, hear! Many of the best ideas in the US were done in desperation (The New Deal) or somehow the pro-business party acquiesced and we were all bettered for it.
Unfortunately, with everything going on in the US crime-wise, there has been no meaningful debate on how to improve communities and prevent people from wanting to commit such crimes. I completely agree that that is likely the only way to solve these problems unfortunately.
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A big part of the problem is various American law enforcement leaders who are more interested in pandering to politicians than actually innovating and leading change within law enforcement. I am not opposed to either use of force or social work within policing, in my opinion it needs to be a mix of both schools of policing. But too many police leaders lean too heavily one way or the other. The community policing social workers need to learn to deal with the necessity of lawful police violence and the gun fighter cops need to understand that they have a duty of care for the suspects they shoot.
And the public needs to understand it is on them, not the police or politicians to solve everything for them. By handing over increasing power to these people they reduce their own freedom. A lesson Europeans also need to learn.
The idea that the state has a monopoly on use of force terrifies me as it is a direct pathway to totalitarianism.
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That makes a lot of sense and I am in agreement. There is an idea here that you have to be tough on crime and if you’re not, the political opposition attacks you for it. I tend to think that causes a lot of machismo, I guess you could call it, both in use of force by officers and punishing people harshly for crimes by judges. Either way, I think we’re a long ways away from solving this and body cameras and things of that nature are exposing bad actors more than ever before so its hard to say where this will all end. Hopefully not in totalitarianism…
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The “war on everything” concept does not help. War on Crime, war on poverty, war on drugs… American culture is so often extreme in nature. It can be endearing but at times quite exasperating. I see it in myself compared to many of the Europeans around me.
But for me the biggest issue is this… having lived for years now in both the UK and Germany, there is definitely an issue in American culture (and to a lesser degree in the UK) a problematic glamorization of criminality. Bonnie and Clyde syndrome. Trump calling Al Capone a great gangster. Tupac and the gangster rap crowd. Natural Born Killers. Smokey and the Bandit. Dukes of Hazzard. The A-Team. “Good folks just sticking it to The Man”.
Then you also have the all too common “the only good cop is a rogue cop” trope. Dirty Harry, Lethal Weapon, Robocop, the French Connection, Die Hard.
Modern day fables that undermine law enforcement. This is how you get cops that see the Punisher as a role model.
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I concur with everything you’ve said. I think the problem with American culture is more that the only way for some people to achieve sticking it to the man and becoming wealthy is by selling drugs and engaging in criminal activity. The US needs to make sure that people actually have a chance to be healthy and financially secure and then a lot of negative behavior will become a lot less common. I know that is very political and leftist but I do think that is the only way forward if we ever hope to solve these kinds of things. I admit that the older I get, the less likely I think this is to ever happen.
Do you think that comic books and the TV shows and movies they inspire foster the Punisher role model as well? Obviously that’s where the Punisher comes from but characters like Batman, Daredevil, and Moon Knight are only a bit better than Frank Castle in their morals in some ways. They’re definitely taking the law into their own hands which is why we admire them.
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We definitely seem in agreement.
I think heroes such as Batman have increasingly become more like Frank Castle (Mack Bolan) over the years.
What irks me is that many of these stories could be told with characters exercising their legal rights to successfully act where official authorities fail rather than operate outside the law and thereby undermining the rule of law in society.
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That is well said. I’ve never been a fan of The Punisher and I think its the morals of the characters that I find questionable.
By the way, Ahsoka’s reviews seem to be getting better since I badmouthed the concept behind the show so maybe I don’t know anything and shouldn’t be listened to! Life does surprise me from time to time and this is one of those occasions.
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The Punisher to me should be a cautionary tale not a role model. Although not all “Punishers” are the same thanks to so many writers having their own personal take on the character. This is probably best shown by the differences in the widely different cinematic versions of the character.
While I feel like we may be missing out on some of the nuance as we have not watched much of Clone Wars or Rebels, Mrs. GG and I have really enjoyed the first two episodes of Ahsoka. Similar to the Mandalorian, lots of tropes but tropes done well. Where the Mandalorian felt like a Space Western, Ahsoka feels like a Space Asian Martial Arts Adventure. Less dour than Andor but still has some interesting politics and immersive world building. Casting has been excellent. Editing and pacing good for us, although some folks have complained it felt slow. I highly recommend it so far.
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Indeed. I agree on Punisher. I’ve never read any of his solo titles before because I doubt I will like them but maybe I should try one or two for “educational” purposes and see how I feel. It could certainly lead to some interesting thoughts/critiques, if nothing else.
That’s great to hear on Ahsoka. I will look forward to more thoughts as it wraps up. I just looked at the list of Marvel movies that have come out and realized that I’m waaay behind so its going to be tough for me to find the time to watch everything I’d consider watching, but I’ll certainly see what I can do.
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Check out the connection between The Punisher and the Mack Bolan series of books. Then on YouTube look up a video on the Mack Bolan convention. Ah, the machismo of my youth.
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Will do! Thanks for the recommendation, mate.
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It is almost like a glimpse into a different world of the distant past. I believe while watching it I was laughing at my younger self. I tried listening to a Mack Bolan audio boom recently and just could not enjoy it despite those books being a huge part of my teen years.
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Thanks for the recommendation on Old Man Logan. I’ve only every seen the film (which I thought was fine as far as it went) but this comic run sounds very exciting. I do love a post-apocalyptic setting. I also think it’s a sign of how big the Marvel franchise is that they can afford to do runs like this that treat their characters very differently to the normal fare.
The mini continues to look amazing. I think it shows how skilled an artist you are that you see flaws where I’d be delighted to do work on anything like that!
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You’re welcome and I agree with your assessment of Logan. I think you’ll enjoy Old Man Logan. It is pretty rewarding to Marvel fans as it has a lot of references in it.
Thanks for the kind words as well. My critical eye has developed alongside my painting. You can’t leave any stones unturned when it comes to painting competitions either!
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I forgot to ask you on the last post what comics you’re reading. Logan is a pretty good choice. The movie had some differences because they didn’t have the rights to all the characters, but I think they did a decent job. I’d have to give them another look to say which I really liked best, but I do like them both either way.
Old Man Logan was inspired by different things like Dark Knight Returns graphic novel, Kingdom Come, and yea it has some elements of The Road too.
I can’t remember if Hawkeye was missing an arm? If so, that’s a rip from Dark Knight, where Green Arrow lost his arm.
The art in the book is pretty incredible, more so than the writing to me. If you like the style, you might want to check out some of Geoff Darrows work too. I don’t think he’s doing much in comics anymore, but the stuff he did was incredible.
The mini is really coming along at his point. I can’t believe you made the rookie mistake of gluing him down before finishing the underside! Way to up the difficulty level!! I didn’t realize that block on the end of the chain has some metal elements to it. Nice job picking those out in gold. 😃
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I didn’t think about the rights coming into play with Logan… That explains quite a bit about that movie. Hawkeye is blind in Old Man Logan which is kind of hilarious because he insists on driving. You’re right that Old Man Logan isn’t wholly original but it still feels fresh and is well done (to me anyway). The art is the best part as well. Geoff Darrow just released a new comic/graphic novel called Shaolin Cowboy so I’ll have to check that out when I see it on sale! His name is Geoff so he must be good people! 😉
And thanks for the kind words on the mini as well!
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Oh yea, he was blind. Geoff Darrow started Shaolin Cowboy long ago. I can’t remember if this was the 2nd or 3rd book. If you can find it, Hard Boiled is really good too. He also
did design work and/or storyboards for the Matrix. I think that was when he essentially left comics and went into movies.
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We’ve definitely lost some talented comic artists to movies over the years. I will see if I can’t track down both Shaolin and Hard Boiled. Thank you for the recommendations!
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