Jimmy Palmiotti has more comic book credits
under his belt than can be sensibly listed in a sidebar biography.
He's done lots. Trust us. We don't lie. Much.
Notable amongst the above mentioned credits
are: Co-creator of 21Down, The Resistance,
Gatecrasher, Ash, and Painkiller Jane. Editor
and founder of Marvel Knights, working on Daredevil,
Black Panther, Punisher, Killraven, and
The Inhumans. Writer/co-writer on Beautiful Killer
and Superboy.
Jimmy is also one of the comic industry's
most popular ink artists, having put his pen to Superman, Batman, Catwoman, Midnight Mass, Codename ; Knockout, Sci -Spy, Punisher, Nick Fury, Brotherhood, and many, many more.
Justin Gray has been extremely lucky in
that he has managed to slide his way into a number of exciting
and interesting situations for which he was distressingly under
qualified. He traveled to the mountains of the Dominican Republic
and mined amber with the local people, spending his nights partying
on the balconies of Santa Domingo. Along with eccentric inventor
Roy Larimer, Justin has delivered previously undiscovered species
of insects to the curator of entomology at American Museum of
Natural Histrory.
Currently Justin is co-creator and co-writer
of 21Down and The Resistance, with Jimmy Palmiotti,
as well as being co-writer of Chastity Re-imagined from
Chaos! Comics.
His upcoming projects include a piece of
sequential fiction for the official Matrix
Movie Website with artist JG Jones.
Last month’s hit song is now a commercial. Either that or its background noise for some saccharine TV show to impress upon you how cool this show is because you can instantly identify with the song and therefore the players in this half hour drama. I hear catchy pop tunes overlaying catchy little silver cars with post teen party people in love with life.
Your parent’s and your grandparent’s favorite songs are now commercials. Their rock gods have hair sprouting from their ears, they are wrinkly, out of touch sipping juice boxes before parading their saggy asses around on stages before an audience of people that love to play their songs in dive bar jukeboxes.
I am told that the Hives, White Stripes and Vines are innovative rock and roll on its bleeding edge looking to grab control in the void left by Cobain’s shotgun blast and the, in with a bang out with a whisper grunge movement. At least Cobain had the balls to call himself a hack before pulling the plug. The truth is after years of boy bands and Britney Spears canned pop, two blind monkeys pounding a dead hamster sounds like rock and roll.
Things haven’t been this uninspired since the days when zebra spandex was something that made teenage girls wet their panties. Christian Rock is now mainstream, with acts like POD and of course Creed blasting in suburban skate parks, somewhere Stryper is launching a comeback.
Someone please turn me onto something good. I haven’t found anything in a while. Ten Benson’s holding me over for now, barely. Until then I’m going to be living in the sonic arcade…the videogame soundtrack electric that is ADULT.
Filling The VOID
The Situationists of the 1950s and 60’s took up Henri Lefebvre’s evaluation of the alienated human and began a quest to challenge the environment created by a commodities driven society.
Disregarding the Marxist overtones of the movement, we see that Situationist’s sought to recapture everyday life, more specifically reclaiming the spirit of desire unclouded by the artificial environment created by a commodity culture, where citizens were motivated into a passive consumption of leisure, and deprived them of the ability to build and participate in their own reality.
Situationists originated as a small band of avant-garde artists and intellectuals influenced by Dada, Surrealism and Lettrism. There was a movement to blend poetry, art and music ultimately, so they hoped, would transform the urban landscape. The movement began with concerns over the "suppression of art”, believing that under capitalism, the creativity of most people had become diverted and preprogrammed. Art was no longer a functioning part of society outside of brandishing product packages and advertising campaigns.
What we have now, to a large extent, is art-vertising, geriatric coffee table bullshit manufactured not to offend but to appeal to the fad mentality.
To the Situationists, the disgusting part of the society of spectacle is its boringness. As recently as the 1940s, art forms which shared punk's ugliness, discord, and bohemian roots -- dada and surrealism in the visual arts, existentialism in philosophy, and serialism in music, to name but a few -- were considered scandalous and offensive by middle-class culture. Whatever notoriety these art forms attained in their day, they were suppressed for being attempts to destroy aesthetic, political and moral values. Since then, middle-class culture has come to regard these works of art as "classics," as "realistic" perspectives on society, things to be studied in the universities and copied -- minus their critical edge -- by the advertising industry. As a result, our generation has grown up with the mistaken idea that these gestures of opposition are reified monuments to a dead culture, rather than starting points in our efforts to create a world without alienation or boredom.
And here I insert my plug for Automatic Kafka, which doesn’t apologize for being what it is, an adventure in the structure and medium of comics. Say what you will, both Casey and Wood have decided to recreate the environment of comic book storytelling in a way that makes people uncomfortable. The same goes for Grant Morrison’s Filth, which repeatedly bends the shape of reality. Thanks to them the world is a little less boring.
Plugging In 2.0
Relax and look directly into the circle...you are getting sleepy....you are under our control...
September 25 Wildstorm will be releasing our second title The Resistance. You want to buy The Resistance. The Resistance in stores September 25th is full of vitamins and nutrients. The Resistance is action, Sci-Fi, mermaids, gunfights and things you won't see anywhere else. The Resistance has Art by Juan Santacruz and Francis Portella. Colors by Paul Mounts. Edited by Bob Harras. When I snap my fingers you will be compelled to purchase The Resistance on September 25th. (SNAP!)
Gee That’s Familiar
For the fun of it I’ll address the blatant and undisguised homage to "Fight Club" Jimmy and I used in the first issue of 21Down. Well, here it is: Read Don DeLillo’s White Noise and get back to us with your thoughts. To all of you that bought the book and posted on the numerous message boards across the internet... Thank you!
Too Much Information?
Tired of constantly being hammered with sights and sounds, billboards, radio commercials, gossip, TV, people’s voices, the wailing of kids in brightly lit stores, the honking cars in traffic, gunshots at midnight, grandma talking about her bunions? Try a little sensory deprivation.
Paging Mr. Palmiotti...
Now if your wondering where Jimmy is this week, lets keep in mind that he's writing Beautiful Killer, inking and co-writing 21Down, co-writing The Resistance, inking Master of King Fu, Birds Of Prey and various other books I can't tell you about, my man needs some time alone to wine and dine the wonderful lady in his life. You might recognize the name of that special someone as Amanda Conner, let her have her man this week. I know James Brown was once the hardest working man in show business, but he has been dethroned.
As the sun sets slowly in the west, we bid you a fond farewell
OK, on behalf of Jimmy and myself thanks for dropping by and remember to tip your stripper, she's pissing off the Taliban in her own special way (funny thing to note, Microsoft word knows the correct spelling of Taliban, but the US Government didn't know about the September 11th attacks before they happened) I'm outta here, be safe and be kind to each other.
