Funny Reddit Comments (on Tumblr!)
-
-
-
#reddit #redditcomments
-
Reddit is BRUTAL.
-
Wildfires of Northern California (Via NYTimes)
-
What is Hypertime?
Anonymous
Hypertime was/is a model for reality that was devised by Grant Morrison and Mark Waid that was essentially a rejection of traditional views of continuity and canon.
Traditionally, there is One True Canon at any given time, and that canon gets rebooted on the reg thanks to things like Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis, Flashpoint, and so on. These changes “invalidate” the “realness” of past events and make only current canon “real.” CoIE means John Byrne’s Superman is real, and Curt Swan’s doesn’t count any more; Flashpoint means Scott Lobdell’s Superman counts and Byrne’s doesn’t.
Hypertime is a repudiation of this idea. Under a Hypertime model, everything that exists happened and is equally valid. Dick Sprang Batman is just as real as Neal Adams Batman is just as real as Frank Miller Batman is just as real as Christian Bale Batman is just as real as Brave and the Bold Batman.
In terms of an actual cosmological model, the idea is that reality works as a series of streams that are usually parallel, but occasionally intersect, so that, story-wise, we usually follow one main stream, but sometimes switch to another stream. This doesn’t mean the other streams cease to exist, and we can still revisit them at any time.
There’s a pretty good visualization of Hypertime given by the Batman At The End of Time in Return of Bruce Wayne #2, but I can’t find a good scan of it for some reason.
Anyway, you don’t have to worry too much about Hypertime, because like all the best ideas by Waid and Morrison, it has been roundly rejected by every other writer and editor and basically has failed to become the working model for continuity, which, in my opinion, is a shame.
I think it’s a confusing concept but an incredibly interesting one. Having read Multiversity, it seems that Grant Morrison kind of references Hypertime in the miniseries (can’t think of a specific example but the use of the Kirby New Gods (rather than the redesigned ones by Cliff Chiang) I suppose is one)). And with Convergence, DC has in some respect acknowledged that everything pre Flashpoint (and everything pre-Crisis) is still canon. But I don’t think Convergence used Hypertime in the way Waid and Morrison intended it to. I wouldn’t know cause I didn’t finish Convergence but read just summaries of the last issues and scanned pages.
-
“So it’s in that spirit that I’d like to say this: Phil Hoffman, this kind, decent, magnificent, thunderous actor, who was never outwardly “right” for any role but who completely dominated the real estate upon which every one of his characters walked, did not die from an overdose of heroin—he died from heroin. We should stop implying that if he’d just taken the proper amount then everything would have been fine.
He didn’t die because he was partying too hard or because he was depressed—he died because he was an addict on a day of the week with a y in it. He’ll have his well-earned legacy—-his Willy Loman that belongs on the same shelf with Lee J. Cobb’s and Dustin Hoffman’s, his Jamie Tyrone, his Truman Capote and his Academy Award. Let’s add to that 10 people who were about to die who won’t now.”
-
“The tension between rules-based continuity and a more free-form approach reminds me of the various metaphors used to describe the Holy Trinity. Some Christians compare the different aspects of Father, Son and Holy Spirit to the human soul, body and spirit; the three states of water (liquid, solid, gas); or the three parts of an egg (shell, white, yolk). Others think of God as wearing different hats, or fulfilling different roles (friend, parent, spouse). It’s difficult to conceptualize. Recently, however, I heard a new metaphor, attributed to theologian Jeremy Begbie: three notes in a musical chord. Each note stands on its own, and each can be heard when the chord is played, but the chord itself is also a distinct musical expression.
In terms of comic-book continuity — and please note I don’t intend to compare continuity directly to one of the big mysteries of faith — I think the older stories are used in much the same complementary fashion. Although not every story is successful, every story stands on its own. When an ostensibly out-of-continuity story gets referenced in a current one, we’re aware of the distinct “voices,” just as we’re aware of the distinct notes within a chord. What matters, both in music and in this sort of narrative, is that the interaction creates the intended emotional response. If the interaction works, you can find a way to rationalize it — but rationalization isn’t the point.”
-
“ It is another year of growth for Marvel, so there is that. But, I think it is clear at this point that Marvel, at least in the Bookstore market, isn’t really that significant of a player able to drive very many hits. Yes, they’re largely dominant in the Direct Market channels, and they rule periodical comics, but their backlist strategy does not seem to be paying off with any kind of solid results — in either market.
I remain frustrated by this because Marvel is clearly a stronger brand than DC, better known, more established, and, for many “civilians,” practically synonymous with “comics” itself. Further, Marvel does rule the periodicals, and strong periodical sales really should yield strong backlist sales — it is audience tested material!
”—Brian Hibbs looks at the bookstore sales for comics and graphic novels in 2013. As ever, it’s a good reminder of what the true mainstream really is, but I remain stunned that Marvel — arguably one of the biggest brands in entertainment today — remains in seventh place in terms of bookstore sales for western publishers.
On the plus side, Hawkeye sold well for them — as did Deadpool vs. The Marvel Universe, fascinatingly; only 4,000 copies less than Hawkeye — but still. It’s mind-boggling to me that the publisher is apparently unable to break out of the comic stores, especially considering the quality of a lot of the work there right now. Is it just distribution woes, or something else, that’s behind that?
(via graemem)
My guess is that Marvel doesn’t advertise the release of their paperbacks and hardcovers very well. One of the reasons I think DC holds back from releasing the collected editions of their books for so long is because they try to find a good release window for their collected books an advertise the hell out of them. One example I can think of is last year’s Batman: Death of the Family book, where the book came out on October 30th, which is perfect because the book can now be advertised as something to go along side the rest of the Halloween celebrations. And because of this, the book remains on the New York Times Bestseller list (even today) for 15 weeks and the tie in book has been on for 16 weeks. Granted, it could also be because it has the word Batman on the title, but it’s also difficult to remain on the list for such a long time if it weren’t for good advertising, I would think.
It seems to me Marvel has never been good in the advertising department. One of the things that struck me as weird was: why were sells down as a whole for the month of January in the periodical side of comic books when Marvel’s All New Marvel Now initiative had begun? I would imagine that these initiatives would boost sells as a whole because it brings attention back to ALL comic books and not just Marvel’s. Perhaps it was a lack of advertising? But I could be wrong since I really don’t know how the direct market works.
-
my name is matt and i'm an alcoholic and a drug addict seven years and three days ago, i spent christmas in an emergency room in florida. food poisoning. we went to make sure i’d be okay to fly and ended up there most of the day waiting out the real tragedies and injuries. my wife, her great aunt, and an endless loop on CNN about the death of James…
A quote from the book Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon.
“Being part of a group seems consistently to have meaning; the redemptive power of intimacies born from struggle is immense."(via mattfractionblog)
