Obsession Perception #12: Freeform Brain Rantings

Hello readers,

This week on Obsession Perception, I want to try something different. Different doesn’t always equate to successful so I may spend this time typing this all up and then decide that there’s no way in hell I would post it and delete it to accomplish little more than wasting my time. If you’ve read my column in the past you probably know a bit about how it goes, I talk about something in comics I love, or I read recently, or I talk about the comics community and how I perceive it (hence the title). Usually my “process” (Man I feel like a pompous jerk calling it a process) is I spend a good chunk of the week leading up to the bit of time I have etched out thinking of a topic to go on about, then I pull up a blank page on my iPhone notes app and go to town, and finally at work I email it to myself and edit it and upload it for the editors then to fine tune and post for you to enjoy. I’ll be honest with myself and with you all about this week. I’ve been in the process of house hunting, which lead to finding a house, which lead to signing a lease, and now that’s leading to moving next week. I work 60+ hours a week, so the time that it takes to do all these necessary life things has to come from somewhere and it unfortunately came out of my comic reading time as well as my planning time for this very column. That being said, I’m sitting behind the computer at work as we speak (well as I type) only because my tattoo appointment for the evening postponed on me. Otherwise, I was going to have to take a bit less time to email Mr. Tyler Goulet, our fearless leader here at all-comic.com and regretfully inform him of my infidelities to my weekly commitment to produce a column which I am thankful to be granted the opportunity to write for such a great site. Tyler’s always cool about it when I have skipped a week in the past, but I always feel bad about it. So, Mr. Goulet, Obsession Perception/all-comic readers this one is for you!

It’s much easier for me to carve out time to do some mini-marathoning on Netflix before I go to bed than it is to read comics and think about long form topics to write about so I want to start by talking about my experience (and very much now, my dismay) with Green Lantern: The Animated Series, which I am currently about half way through thanks to Netflix. I have no real previous connection with Green Lantern or the whole mythos of Green Lantern outside of a few comics I’ve read and the Ryan Reynolds starring movie (which I really didn’t hate the way everyone seems to) so I went into watching the animated series kind of blindly with no expectations. That being said, holy crap! this cartoon is amazing. The animation is a small stone’s throw from Pixar quality and the writing and portrayal of these characters is absolutely superb. GL:TAS is making me really care about and invest in Green Lantern as a whole, which in turn is going to make me try harder to read more Green Lantern comics and really dig into its obviously rich mythology. The tone, while children-friendly, is complex and deep and does nothing to patronize or pander to the child demographic Cartoon Network was trying to aim it toward. Which brings me to this, first of all Cartoon Network is seemingly making a habit of canceling quality programs before they can reach their potential. GL:TAS had 1 season to prove it’s worth. When I use the word “worth” I don’t mean it’s quality because for me it proved that within the first 2 episodes, the problem is that Cartoon Network defines “worth” as marketability and merchandising possibilities, this means that they didn’t see the potential of selling toys to children who watched the show. I do not at all feel as if it’s the fault of the show itself or the creative minds behind it, to me GL:TAS got the ax before it’s time because CN couldn’t figure out a plausible and profitable way to market SUPERHERO TOYS to boys ages 5-12!!! Do you know how ridiculous that sounds to a dude that grew up in the 90’s with Batman, Spider-Man and X-Men animated series!? All of which had tons of action figures, play-sets, t-shirts, and God damn shampoo for every character! It’s sad that the fate of an intelligent, positive superhero show built around a character that stands for protecting the innocent and doing the right thing was decided by executives that wear ties and sit in comfy leather chairs and can’t wrap their heads around manufacturing and pushing plastic toys of the characters kids see on the tv! It’s even sadder that shows like Young Justice and now, Beware The Batman see the same fate as it will now have its remaining episodes thrown on the 3 a.m. time slot in between dubbed Japanese cartoons that have a very small niche audience that certainly doesn’t include the kids the show was originally aimed at. What is this all for? To make way for another one of the half-dozen Adventure Time clones that they so desperately want to turn into a cash cow of similar proportions? Have kids changed that much in the last 20 years? Do they only have the attention span for bite sized 15 minute, brightly colored randomness? Don’t get me wrong, I like Adventure Time and Regular Show and there is definitely a need for that sort of cartoon but do we need even more of that. Teen Titans GO feels like it’s only getting its due time because it’s essentially, Adventure Time with a DC Comics skin loosely wrapped around it. It absolutely sucks that GL:TAS is now a thing of the past. A little advice Cartoon Network, Next time you launch an intelligent, well animated, and high quality DC animated series put it on at a prime time slot, market it towards the proper audience and let the creators be creative for more than a season and I guarantee you that you will find that, if you allow those of us who bitch about these things after the fact the proper time to discover these shows, the ratings you so desperately thirst for will be there. Teens, young adults, and nostalgic nerds are real demographics and they like to spend money too! Put out your shows, back them for the long haul and sell $30-$50 blu-ray box sets and see what happens ya bunch of jerks!

So aside from falling in love with a cartoon and immediately feeling let down, I’ve been trying to spread the comics seed. I’ve lent out (or pushed on) several trades to friends with high hopes they’ll read them and enjoy them enough to converse about them with me, so that’s always fun. I’ve been trying to push Bendis and Maleev’s Daredevil on my girlfriend since I’ve finished it. She’s pretty hard to sell on superhero comics and tends to read more current Image books and indie stuff that appeals to her so peeling her away from Rat Queens and putting DD in her hands has been a chore. I got her to start Book 1 of the “Ultimate Collection” paperbacks so we’ll see. I lend my other friends/former roommates the final volume of Locke and Key as well as Rachel Rising vols. 1-3 which they enjoyed and I’m trying to brow-beat a coworker to start reading Sweet Tooth so I guess I’m doing the Lords work to be able to talk about all these books with the people in my life who don’t read comics which is pretty much all of them. I suppose I always have you, dear Obsession Perception friends. Though it’s been a little bit sporadic here and there, I’ve had a few great little conversations and in some cases debates with people who read these. So thanks for that, it’s therapeutic and fun.

Also, I know I’ve been on a Marvel kick lately. I apologize to those who may be sick of reading me talk it. I promise to talk more about some DC stuff soon. It’s more difficult because aside from Swamp Thing I completely trade wait for all the current DC stuff I read (which is pretty much just the Batman books). By trade wait I don’t mean waiting for the hardcovers to come out 4-6 months later, I mean waiting for the trade paperback versions to come out like 6-8 months after the hardcover, which is really a drag, but it saves me a few bucks with which I, in-turn can spend to buy more books, about which I can talk about here so, see the pattern? I read Marvel and the handful of indies in floppy copy form, DC a year later. I’m mid way through “The Death of the Family” trade now so maybe I’ll spend a column talking about that soon, so look out for that, and my column about “Zero Year” in 2015 sometime.

Tyler, Readers, and friends, I think I’m running out of steam a bit for this week (clearly, as each paragraph was smaller than the previous). So I’ll wrap it up here. Thank you for reading if you’ve made it this far. Tyler, I know you gotta read this far for edits so yeah, I’m moving next week so I may or may not have an OP ready for then 😉 thanks for understanding buddy! Please feel free to reminisce with me about GL:TAS or argue with me about something else in the comments below, and as always www.all-comic.com has all your comics news, previews, reviews, and editorial-style ramblings like this one so keep it locked on your home screen and I’ll see you next time for Obsession Perception!