Thursday, October 20, 2005
Unfathomable Thursday Comic Book Blogging!
Darn. Scooped by my own paper!
I had planned to do a post today on the amazing pop culture renaisssance of -- of all "people" -- Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas. Well, "renaissance" might not be the right word given that the guy has never been what one could call "cool. Anyway, I was going to write about it -- only to find that I have been beaten to it by my New York Post colleague, Don Kaplan --mild-mannered TV writer by day, super-stud comic-book fan by night.
Don hits on all the points I was going to make: Not only is there the appearance tonight of a buff King of the Seas on Smallville, a fictional big-budget Aquaman movie has been the main backdrop in HBO's Entourage. I would also add that, casually walking aroung Manhattan this summer, it was surprising to see how many young guys were wearing Aquaman (circa '60s cartoon show) T-shirts.
Don explains -- in a very accessible way for the non-fan -- the character's background, multiple origins and why he's never been seen as cool. (Um, yeah, I know what you're thinking: A guy who talks to fish not-being-seen-as-cool -- does that really require much explanation? True, but even given that, Aquaman has come up short -- never even reaching the hipness quotient of a certain pointy-eared guy with wings on his feet.)
Well, all that has changed. For whatever reason, all the stars have lined up -- this is Aquaman's moment.
And that's no fish story.
Oh, Mr. Kaplan also had a great interview last weekend with American Splendor creator Harvey Pekar. Check it out.
UPDATE: As comprehensive and well-reasoned defense of Aquaman comic book character as you're ever likely to read can be found here.
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I had planned to do a post today on the amazing pop culture renaisssance of -- of all "people" -- Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas. Well, "renaissance" might not be the right word given that the guy has never been what one could call "cool. Anyway, I was going to write about it -- only to find that I have been beaten to it by my New York Post colleague, Don Kaplan --mild-mannered TV writer by day, super-stud comic-book fan by night.
Don hits on all the points I was going to make: Not only is there the appearance tonight of a buff King of the Seas on Smallville, a fictional big-budget Aquaman movie has been the main backdrop in HBO's Entourage. I would also add that, casually walking aroung Manhattan this summer, it was surprising to see how many young guys were wearing Aquaman (circa '60s cartoon show) T-shirts.
Don explains -- in a very accessible way for the non-fan -- the character's background, multiple origins and why he's never been seen as cool. (Um, yeah, I know what you're thinking: A guy who talks to fish not-being-seen-as-cool -- does that really require much explanation? True, but even given that, Aquaman has come up short -- never even reaching the hipness quotient of a certain pointy-eared guy with wings on his feet.)
Well, all that has changed. For whatever reason, all the stars have lined up -- this is Aquaman's moment.
And that's no fish story.
Oh, Mr. Kaplan also had a great interview last weekend with American Splendor creator Harvey Pekar. Check it out.
UPDATE: As comprehensive and well-reasoned defense of Aquaman comic book character as you're ever likely to read can be found here.
