George Lucas on the need for peers.

Francis Ford Coppola & George Lucas

"There's no way of getting through any kind of endeavor without help from friends. And trying to be the number one person, ultimately, is a losing proposition. You need peers, you need people who are at the same level you are. You never know in life when you're going to need help, and you never know who you're going to need it from."

– George Lucas

The Electric Slight - Black Superheroes Show Disproportionate Distribution of THIS Power

COMMITTEE FOR THE EQUAL
DISTRIBUTION OF SUPER POWERS
1976 S. Isabella W. Cockrum Avenue, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20002

"CRISIS IN ELECTRIC LADYLAND"

July 11, 2011

To all whom this matter may concern:

It has come to the attention of the Committee for the Equal Distribution of Super Powers (CEDSP) that there are at present as many as ten (10) black characters in comic books and cartoons whose names, powers, or visible manifestations of power are related to electricity. Included in an initial report filed with the CEDSP in 2009 were the names of the following four (4) characters:

STORM

BLACK LIGHTNING

STATIC SHOCK

JAKEEM THUNDER

As an organization whose primary concern is the equal distribution of super powers, the CEDSP has drafted this 6-part notice to inform publishers that the quota for black characters with names and powers directly or superficially related to electricity has been grossly exceeded. Please be advised that no additional characters beyond those presently in existence will be permitted.

––––––

PART II.
EXHIBITS A-D
 EXHIBIT A: STORM

EXHIBIT B: BLACK LIGHTNINGEXHIBIT C: STATIC SHOCKEXHIBIT D: JAKEEM THUNDER

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PART III. 
CLARIFICATIONS

In the interest of reaching a full and complete understanding with all concerned parties, we say again that the Committee for the Equal Distribution of Super Powers henceforth prohibits the creation of any new superheroes of African ancestry whose names, powers or visible manifestations of power have any relation (either loosely or literally) to the following:

e•lec•tri•ci•ty n 1. a fundamental form of kinetic potential energy created by the free or controlled movement of charged particles such as electrons, positrons and ions

juice n (slang) electric power

light•ning n flashes of light seen in the sky where there is a discharge of atmospheric electricity usually occurring during a thunderstorm.

shock n a sudden painful physical reaction consisting of nerve stimulation and muscle contraction caused by an electric current flowing through the body

stat•ic n a stationary electric charge that builds up on an insulated object, for example, on a capacitor or a thundercloud

storm n 1. a disturbance in the air above the earth with strong winds and usually with also rain, snow, sleet, or hail and sometimes lightning and thunder

thun•der n 1. a loud rumbling noise caused by the rapid expansion of air suddenly heated by lightning

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PART IV.
ASSESSMENTS

It will hereby be observed that in our initial report it was noted that from 1975 (when the Marvel Comics superhero known as Storm was created) until the present time Marvel has consistently and ethically maintained a quota of one (1) black character with powers directly or superficially related to electricity. The members of the CEDSP applaud Marvel Comics for this achievement.*

Conversely, however, DC Comics has grossly exceeded the quota and ignored ethical guidelines by having five (5) such characters in its comics. Even more... shocking, four (4) more characters of this type were created by affiliates of DC Comics for use in animated TV shows. Included in a secondary report filed with the CEDSP in 2010 were the names of these additional characters:

THUNDER

LIGHTNING

BLACK VULCAN

SOUL POWER

SPARKY

JUICE

Because the CEDSP believes it should shoulder at least some of the responsibility for failing to prevent the disproportionate distribution of names and super-powers directly or superficially related to electricity to as many as ten (10) different black characters in comics and cartoons, no penalties for the infractions cited above will be assessed.

Be advised, however, that harsh penalties will be levied henceforth and forthwith against any and all parties who knowingly and willingly or unknowingly and unwillingly conspire to create yet another superhero of African ancestry whose name or power is either directly or superficially related to electricity. After 35 years, this insidious practice must come to an end.

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PART V.
EXHIBITS E-G
 EXHIBIT E: BLACK VULCAN, LIGHTNING, THUNDEREXHIBIT F: SPARKY, SOUL POWER, JUICEEXHIBIT G: JAKEEM THUNDER & THE GENIE "THUNDERBOLT"
 

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PART VI.
CONCLUSION

Because the CEDSP also believes in working as an agent of positive change, members of the committee have determined that quotas for black characters with abilities derived from every other known power grouping have NOT yet been exceeded. These include: fire, ice, speed, intelligence, radioactivity, magic, martial arts, robotics, genetic mutation, mythology, alien ancestry, wealth and childhood trauma.

Please note, however, that though the quota for the speed grouping has not yet been exceeded, it should be avoided. Track & field statistics dating to as far back as 1936 have rendered powers from this grouping extremely unimaginative and cliché. Furthermore, the speed grouping can be superficially linked to electricity, as in: That Usain Bolt guy is as fast as lightning.

For private inquiries related to this extremely sensitive issue, please e-mail questions to the Committee for the Equal Distribution of Super Powers. For any concerned parties who are at the present time prepared to make public statements regarding this matter, please feel free to post a comment in the area designated below.


Thank you.

St. Paco
CEDSP Chairman


 *Despite meeting the minimum requirement for inclusion, the Marvel Comics character Thunderball has been exempted from this report.

"Crisis in Electric Ladyland" © Paco D. Taylor 2011 • Storm ™ & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • All DC Comics characters and the distinctive likeness(es) thereof are Trademarks & Copyright © DC Characters, Inc.

In memory of Dwayne McDuffie & Gene Colan

Jimi Hendrix - Have You Ever Been...

The Camera Club of NY Zine & Book Fair

Domy Books, Austin. Photo by Lindsey Castillo

Over the upcoming weekend of July 16th & 17th, the Camera Club of New York will be hosting its 2nd Annual Zine and Self-Published Photo Book Fair. I will have copies of Page After Page and Octopussy #1 on hand for both perusal and purchase. If you happen to be in the Manhattan area, feel free stop by and browse the racks. There's gonna be a great selection of zines and other self-published works there to satisfy even the most discriminating of tastes. For more information, please visit the CCNY website by clicking here.

The 2nd Annual Zine and Self-Published Photo Book Fair
Saturday, July 16 & Sunday, July 17, 2011, 12-6pm
The Camera Club of New York
336 West 37th Street, Suite 206
New York, NY 10018-4212

Finding Fast Willie Jackson

Finding Fast Willie Jackson
By St. Paco

The "Say No to Racism" sign in the window of R-Galaxy, a comic book shop located a few blocks away from the University of Arizona, should have been the first tip-off that something good was waiting inside for me among the store's numerous back issue boxes. But it would take some time for me to realize what was really 'in store' for me there.

The sign, by the way, is one of two at the shop which makes plain the proprietor's view on SB1070, the apartheid-like law that targets Arizona's Latino population. Knowing first-hand how often Arizonans say "yes" to racism (there're still lots of backwards idiots here who yell racial slurs from passing cars), the signs are a bold step for any business owner, and I applaud them.

When I first moved to Tucson back in January of 2000, R-Galaxy was located two miles west of where I lived on Broadway. At that time, I would visit the store at least twice a month. But after they moved, two other comic book shops opened on my side of town and I saw no need to travel to central Tucson to visit the store's present location.

Well, a few days ago I was on that side of town taking care of some business. R-Galaxy is only half a block away from where I was handling my affairs, so when things were finished, I stopped in to check out the store. And – for more than just political reasons – I'm really glad that I did.

I'm not sure of exactly how many back issue boxes are inside R-Galaxy, but if there's one hundred, then I went through all one hundred. I mean, nothing sucks like walking out of a comic book store empty-handed because you were simply too lazy to "let your fingers do the walking." So, I always make sure that my digits get the full back-issue-box-work-out.

Side note: My record collectin' homies tend to consider themselves masters of the exquisite art of "digging," but I tend to think that it was comic book collector's who first studied and perfected this ancient shopping discipline. As for me, I have mastered the Iron Fist, the Snake in Eagle's Claw, and also the Dim Mak (death touch) digging techniques.

Fast Willie Jackson #1, Oct. 1976

For some months I had been waiting for a copy of Fast Willie Jackson #1 to pop up on Ebay that fit my buying criteria, in terms of both condition and price. I had seen some low-grade copies going for surprisingly high prices, and high-grade copies going for as much as $50 bucks–which is much more than I wanted to spend on a high-grade copy.

Well, it was near the end of my search through the last of the back issue boxes at R-Galaxy when my fingers flexed and flicked up a copy of Fast Willie Jackson #1–in surprisingly good condition, too! Almost near mint, but not quite due to some wrinkling at the cover's top right corner. But it was better than most of the copies I've seen posted on Ebay and priced to sell at $11.95!

Page 1

Now, you'll just have to forgive me for the forthcoming allusion to the 1960s civil rights struggles (I mean, R-Galaxy has two "Say No to Racism" signs), but I still had to chuckle at the seeming irony of it all when I found the book and then thought to myself in the most sarcastic tone: I would find a book like this at the very back of one of the last back issue boxes.

Moving back the same way I came, I strolled in reverse through the isles to make sure that I didn't miss out on any other old school coolness. But I couldn't find anything else like what I'd come up with. When I walked up to the counter to pay for my find, even the cashier (and part-owner?) had to make an expression of surprise when she saw the book's badness for herself.

Page 8

Published in 1976 by Fitzgerald publications (in the virtually line-for-line art style of Archie Comics), Fast Willie Jackson only ran for seven issues. As such, I didn't know anything about the title's existence until about a year ago, and had been periodically on the hunt for the first issue ever since. Now the hunt – for this one particular book, at least – is over.

Sock it to me, mami.

Archive #6: The Sure Shot Flyer Rockers

When I moved to AZ in the mid-1990s, I met and became fast friends with the crew behind Tempe's now gone, but legendary Style Rock Hip Hop Shop. From Kangol brims, vintage Adidas Run-DMC jerseys and suede Puma Clydes, to b-boy breaking videos, spray tips, fat laces and graffiti mags, the Style Rock Shop had it all– and had it in spades.

To promote the shop, a weekly series of handbills were made by Style Rock staffers Storm (aka Weapon X) and RobGoblen. The dynamic duo rocked these flyers under the collective moniker of Sure Shot Flyer Rockers, a name that – for folks like myself – recalled the freshness of New York's "sure shot" flyer rocking king Phase 2.

Some time back, Storm gave me a rough idea of how many of these flyers had been made over the span of a few years, but I can't recall that number now. I only collected nine of 'em, which isn't at all being said as a lament; until today I didn't recall having any at all. And even a small collection of these flyers gives a nice snapshot of a very cool time in Phoenix-metro area hip-hop.

Submitted for your perusal: the Style Rock Shop flyers.

Bruce Lee on human potential.

"Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one's potential."
– Bruce Lee

Goin' Postal...er, "Digital"

I've mentioned in my zine and maybe even here in the blog that when I was a design student, I would save cool-lookin' pages from magazines that I was about to toss. Quite frequently, a lot of those sheets met the business end of an X-Acto™ knife, and the images they held were layered into collage pieces that I was rockin' at that time. Other pages were stored away in binders to be mined later for inspiration or design ideas.

Well, it has been in my head to do this for some time now, but I have finally begun to digitize a lot of the stuff that was collected then. Those old pages don't appear to have much influence on my current work, but I still can't bring myself to just trash 'em. Digitizing and uploading them to share on the web seems like a much better way to go. There's lots of blog-able material there.

I've decided that some of the pages will be tagged or watermarked and some won't. It just really depends on how I feel at the time. This isn't being done to assume some undeserved credit for the actual imagery, but because it's my ass that has kept these items safely archived for 15+ years, and also my ass that is doing the job of digitizing them for posterity. (I say this for the pricks out there who complain about watermarks on images–like me!)

There are other things that I have collected over the years that will also be scanned for posting, like comics, graphic novels and even mixtapes. And there's a good reason for all of this.

Unexpectedly, when I changed the name of this blog a few weeks back it caused a sizable focus shift. I'm feeling free to take a real 'anything goes' approach to blogging. So, from now on I'll be hittin' cyberspace with anything and everything that I can get my hands on. If it ain't nailed down, I'm coming with it.

Gene Colan (Sept 1, 1926 – June 23, 2011)

Giant Size Chillers Featuring Dracula #1, June 1974

Just yesterday I was just reading one of the books that I bought at Phoenix Con that the legendary Gene Colan penciled. A lot of the comic books in my 1970s stash are there specifically because his art graced the pages: Daredevil #137, Doctor Strange #17, Howard the Duck #26 and Tomb of Dracula #45, especially.

Even when I was eleven years old, when I didn't exactly recognize Jack Kirby's art on sight, I recognized Gene Colan's art. And of all the old school masters, he's the one that I most wish I had the chance to meet.

Archive #5: Versace + Madonna

Versace Presents Madonna

Exactly which mag it was that the item pictured above was removed from from I cannot say (Harper's Bazar?), but it's a fold-out folio that features five black & white photographs by photographer Steven Meisel. When it's completely unfolded, the other side reveals a full-color poster (21" x 21") featuring a really sexy shot of the material girl in a shimmery, violet-colored dress.


At the time that I was trashing the mag that this insert was in, I thought it was just too cool to discard, so it got saved to the image archive. But while I've always had an appreciation for her as an artist, I've never been a collector of Madonna-related ephemera. So this one is gonna get listed on Ebay the next time I post items. With all hope, I'll find a home for it with a big Madonna fan.

Archive #4: Fall into the Gap Magazine Ads

Miles Davis wore khakis.

Even when I think back to my teens, I don't remember ever purchasing anything from the Gap. Nonetheless, I was impressed with their 1990s ad series which featured monotone images of various pop culture figures all wearing khakis. I don't know how many of these were produced, but 15 of 'em were saved to the archive. Submitted for your perusal: the GAP Khaki ads.

Legendary

Muhammad Ali

Chet Baker

Salvador Dali

Sammy Davis Jr.

James Dean

Jack Kerouac

Elia Kazan

Carol Lombard

Steve McQueen

Arthur Miller

Andy Warhol

John Wayne

Zsa Zsa Gabor

Archive #3: Paramount Parodies

Paramount Pictures clearly knew a good thing when they saw it. So, when it came time to promote their 1992 Coneheads movie, the marketing department produced this fairly clever parody of the Gap Khaki ads. It was running in magazines at the same time the Gap khaki ads were, and made a very amusing impression. Probably a better one than the movie itself.

MP3: "Exception" by Mane One

She likes to dance to a big band
Reciting all the lyrics to a Cool J jam
My 'around the way,' you got me goin' berserk
You can tell me why Picard is cooler than Captain Kirk
– Mane One

I wouldn't call my homie DJ Mane One's new song "Exception" nerd core, but it's straddlin' a pretty thin line. I mean, the tune is far from gangsta rap and not exactly backpack rap, but could qualify as a close cousin of the latter. And then again, like the name of the song itself, maybe this track is just an 'exception' to the usual rules of hip-hop cool. Thus, over a chopped-n-screwed Sam Cooke sample, Mane One waxes poetic over his idea of the perfect woman: an 'around the way girl' who can rap along to LL Cool J tunes, speed read Harry Potter novels and kick the ballistics on what makes Jean-Luc Picard the captain of all Enterprise captains. She disses Twilight, 'hearts' kung-fu flicks, sports Pro-Keds and can boogie with the best of the b-girls. Okay, homeboy's standards are so friggin' high that they could be considered hella unrealistic. But isn't that the stuff that every dream lover is made of?

Verdict: Mane One's kung fu does NOT suck.

Check out "Exception" by clicking here.

Archive #1: Another 'Great Day in Harlem'

The original image is called "A Great Day in Harlem," and it's probably the single-most famous image associated the with the jazz music culture. Taken in 1958, within the image's borders stand 57 jazz musicians all assembled on the sidewalk and on the stairs of a Harlem brownstone. Artists like Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Mary Lou Williams and 51 other jazz greats.


In 1998, XXL magazine paid homage to "A Great Day in Harlem" by remixing the image with 144 contemporary hip-hop artists, and a smattering of actual hip-hop legends. Photographed by the even more legendary Gordon Parks, the fold-out cover graced the magazine's November issue. Submitted for your perusal: another 'great day in Harlem'

The Notorious B.M.P.

Last year, when I thanked my ex for the small batch of movies that she sent me in the mail, I withheld the fact that I hadn't watched one of them. In fact, I purposely avoided seeing this one particular movie when it came out, and was a little put off by the fact that–because of her–I now had a copy of it on my shelves.

Well, fast forward to late last night: I wanted to watch a movie, but didn't feel like leaving the apartment to hit up the nearby Redbox. There also wasn't anything I owned that I felt like re-watching. So, I went ahead and popped in the flick that–for well more than a year–I had been avoiding like the monthly notices of a credit card company.

Back when The Notorious Bettie Page came out, I recall reading a decent review of the film. But the critic didn't make me feel as if it was something I wanted to see. Even more, despite the fact that it was basically a good review, somethin' seemed amiss in how the film impacted the critic. I saw that as a reflection on the writer/director Mary Harron.

Having Bettie Mae Page's story virtually committed to memory, there was no way I was gonna sit though some filmmaker's heavy-handed hack job that got dolled up as an "artistic vision." I had a pretty film idea of what went down in my head, and that made me extremely reluctant to give audience to someone else's version of the facts.

Because I had published a zine dedicated to Page a few years ago, I was also a tad bit concerned that I might have gotten something wrong. I'm pretty thorough when I research the subjects that I write about and try hard to avoid mistakes. And though I still find myself regularly making peace with typos and misspellings, I'm pretty hardcore when it comes to matters of fact.

Adding to my reluctance was another very real concern: that maybe some actress was given the role of Bettie Page because she was the casting directors' 4th cousin on her father's side. I didn't know who Gretchen Mol was, but based on what I saw in the trailer, and even on the DVD cover, she didn't come across like a "Bettie Page."

Well, after finally facing down my long list of concerns, I can say that something about that review I read was seriously amiss. But it wasn't because of the writer/director. It was the movie reviewer.

Like I said, the writer actually turned in a favorable a critique, but something wasn't connecting. I find myself now thinking that it was some young critic-in-training who didn't completely get it. I mean, sure, they recognized that it was a good movie (and it really, really was), but maybe it also came across like a history lesson, and history just wasn't their strong suit.

Or maybe they weren't so young at all, but still couldn't completely submit to the work because it didn't exactly conform to the sanctioned view of life in the 1950s.

I have older friends who like to pretend that life in America was so great in the '50s, and only got bad in the 60s and 70s. The brutal reality is that this country's dirty laundry was just finally getting aired, and the inconvenient truth was that our shit smelled just as bad as everybody else's. Maybe even more so, because people had lied to themselves and said it smelled like laundry detergent.

During the 1950s, intentional efforts were often made by publishers, editors and others to present a world through radio, magazines and movies that was largely falsified. And people (like the ones I know) clearly drank the Kool-Aid. But the times were not simple, and life was not like the then-weekly radio broadcasts of Father's Knows Best.

In the real world, children could get molested by their father's, women could get raped by "nice guys," and the careers of countless wannabe starlets could go from a screen test to a cum-stained casting couch, and no further. Exploitation in all its heartbreaking forms would be as rampant as in any other era, but people were too frightened into submission to talk about it.

As tastefully as such subjects could have been handled, it were those darker realities of life in the 1950s that were put on display in The Notorious Bettie Page. I can't say that the look was an unflinching one, but it was one of the boldest attempts that I've yet seen. And as disturbing as it could be sometimes be, it was also still refreshing to see that such issues were addressed.

With regard to actress Gretchen Mohl, I think that she did an excellent job. Much better than I ever would have expected, having known nothing about her before hand. I could tell that she studied her ass off for the role of Bettie Page, managing to even nail some of the famous pin-ups most subtle poses and facial expressions.

With the exception of the always likable Lily Taylor, I enjoyed the fact that there were no overly recognizable faces in this film. Well, there was one other guy whose face I recognized (playing a French photographer), but he was really good in the part, and looked a lot scruffier than when I saw him as a very clean-cut character in Chinese Box several years ago.

Well, David Strathairn (Good Night, Good Luck) was also in it, but he's such an understated actor that you almost forget who he is. And he didn't play a central part either, which really helped to keep me immersed in the illusions of the film

As far as the production, I thought it was very effective that the telling of the story was done mostly in black and white, with some splashes of color. From the trailer, and even the stills on the back of the DVD, it wasn't marketed that way. That was probably a smart move. There are two things that the average movie-watcher in the U.S. avoids: the first is subtitles, and the second is black and white movies.

Had I known in advance, though, that the film had been shot that way, I might have taken a chance on it sooner. I think it shows that the filmmaker really has balls. Yes, it was written and directed by a woman. I was being ironical.

Then again, had I known that a woman was behind the film, it might have influenced me to see it sooner. Male perspectives on stuff like this can be a little...well, redundant.

If one of the usual suspects had made this film, it's likely that the significance of pin-up maker Irving Klaw's sister and the photographer Bunny Yeager would have been underplayed. Maybe even the fact that the guy who got Page into modeling was black. Things like that get glossed over all the time. It was only after seeing the director's name in the credits that it made sense.

For me, it also helped to explain an early scene in the movie, when Bettie started her pin-up career by posing for amateur shutterbugs. One of the the photographers was a very masculine woman. (The term trans-gender didn't exist then, so I ain't retroactively applying it now.) I actually had to rewind that part to see if I'd actually seen it correctly. It was stroke of genius.

On a personal note, it felt pretty validating to see that the filmmaker took the same approach to this story that I did when writing a brief text piece for my Page After Page zine. Like Harron, I used the 1955 Kefauver Hearings on the Senate Sub-committee on Juvenile Delinquency as a framing device. It seemed like a great way of explaining why this country's most popular pin-up suddenly faded from public life.

The only real difference in our approaches is that I highlighted the significance that comic books played on the formation of that committee. Men's magazines and pornography were secondary considerations. Anyway, as I watched it all unfold, at times it felt as if my zine was a little companion piece to a much larger work, like movie keepsake booklets from back in the day.

Though I've already thanked her, I have to again thank my ex for sending me The Notorious Bettie Page. Good art will often inspire good conversation, and this one-sided convo was provoked by a cinematic work of art that I really enjoyed. A work that I'm now pretty pleased to have featured among the movies on the shelves.