Open Source Comics at SXSW 2009

My friend and New Hampshire Media Makers cohort Bryan White (Cinema-Suicide.com) has been working together with another NHMM regular, Nick Plante (zerosum dirt(nap)), on an idea involving “open source comics,” and he wants to do a panel on that topic at next year’s South By Southwest Interactive Conference. Bryan explains:

My idea for a panel is actuallly about comics.  Open source comics, to be exact.  Myself and Nick Plante of Zerosum have been talking this out over the last week or so.  A social network aimed at artists and writers to create a line of their own comics in a single mythology, similar to the Marvel Universe or the DC Universe.  It is to be completely non-commercial with a very rigid and limited set of editorial constraints.  Everyone is free to be a part of it. The foundation of the panel is to suggest one alternative direction for social networks so that the web doesn’t become a series of tribes of Myspace of Facebook folks but to actually give social networks some purpose.

I think this is an amazing idea. As someone who’s had a comic book idea kicking around in the back of his brain for the past ten years or so, I can’t wait to see how this develops. And I definitely think it’s a great idea for a panel at SXSW. If you think so too, vote for Bryan’s idea here.

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Greatest American Hero on the Silver Screen?!?

Newsarama is reporting that a film version of The Greatest American Hero may be forthcoming. The short-lived 80s television program, about a guy who finds a super-suit and then promptly loses the instruction manual, is a big favorite amongst my extended family, and while I can barely remember any of it, except for the theme song ("Believe It or Not” by Joey Scarbury, which is a five-star song in my iTunes library), I am incredibly psyched to hear this news. I think the property could gain a whole new following if a movie came out. And I think it deserves a much larger following than it has now.

Stephen J. Cannell, the creator of the series, speaks about how a film version might work:

“It’s Ralph Hinckley and Pam Davidson and Bill Maxwell,” Cannell said, indicating that the original three characters from the TV show would still be the focus of the movie. “We rehung it slightly in the screenplay. And with most action movies, you’d try to get an MPAA rating on it of PG-13. But this movie script we’ve got is a PG. I want it to be something that kids can go and see. So it has a lot of humor in it; it’s got a lot of effects. But basically, it’s still Ralph with the suit destroying his life, and Maxwell’s the Fed he can’t control, and all those elements that were in the last story were rehung slightly. You don’t want to do just a cookie-cutter reproduction of the pilot. You want to bring it to life for a new audience and a new generation.”

I like that the creator is involved, that he still has a certain reverence for the source material, and that he wants to keep it (relatively) kid-friendly. Good for him.

In the meantime, while we wait for this piece of cinematic awesomeness to arrive, we can check out comic books and an animated series based on the misadventures of our favorite superhero named Ralph. More on that in the Newsarama piece.

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Worth Your Consideration 007 - A GF5 Linkdump

• News Askew is reporting that NBC will re-air Saturday Night Live’s inaugural episode this Saturday night, an episode which was hosted by the recently departed George Carlin. The classic episode will apparently be aired in its entirety, which, according to News Askew, doesn’t happen all that often on NBC.
• I’m embedding George Carlin’s take on the Ten Commandments above because it’s criminal that I didn’t embed something of his when I posted my initial thoughts on his passing.
• On a much lighter note, Gary Vaynerchuk has posted the episode of Wine Library TV that was filmed in Boston recently, an episode that I made it into the city to see last week. I think it’s a perfect “entrance” episode for anyone who is mildly interested in wine and in seeing what Gary does. There’s a great blend of humor, education, and flat-out thunder here.
• Apple will apparently be releasing a free remote control application for iPhone and iPod Touch users which will allow them to control iTunes from anywhere in their house. This is something I’ve seen quite a few people clamoring for on the Apple boards across the Web. The real key, for me, and for a lot of others, will be if this works with the Apple TV. I loves me my simple two-button Apple TV remote, but it would be nice to have something a little more robust when I needed it.
• Lastly, for the comic book fans out there, be sure to check out Newsarama’s poll of what titles the pros think we consumers are missing. The Walking Dead, which Brandice recommended to me recently is one book that gets mentioned as a must-read.

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Garfield Minus Garfield

My brother John flew in from California for the weekend to celebrate our cousin Michael’s graduation and, of course, Father’s Day. While he was here, he told me about Garfield Minus Garfield, an amusing comic strip remix by Travors which Jason Kottke is also covering today.

The idea of Garfield Minus Garfield is best summed up by the summary that Travors includes in the header of every page:

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.

Apparently, even Garfield creator Jim Davis is a fan of the strip.

I loved Garfield growing up, and I still love the strip when I remember to pick up a newspaper and read it, as I did at my parents’ house yesterday. Here’s Sunday’s strip, which is what got me off on this whole tangent.

What does the Geek Force think of Garfield? Are there any other newspaper comic strips that you enjoy?

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Newsarama Can Haz RSS?!?

Congratulations to comic book news site Newsarama on their recent redesign, and on finally joining the 21st century and hooking all of us readers up with some RSS love. I have been wanting to subscribe to a Newsarama RSS feed ever since the day I signed up for a Google Reader account a couple of years ago. They remain my favorite site for comics-related news, but I haven’t been getting over there more than once a week lately because I haven’t had Google Reader to remind me that new articles are up. I guarantee that I’ll be visiting more often now, which, I guess, contradicts the commonly held belief that RSS feed availability contributes to dwindling page-views. But hey, I’m weird.

Any Geek Forcers have sites that they visit regularly that still don’t provide RSS? Tell your stories of woe in the comments.

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