I’m off for a couple of week’s holiday from tomorrow, but I’m going to leave you all with this highly important question to ponder before I go. As you may know, The Carusometer has been this blog’s mascot, as well as the implacable, absolute determinant of TV quality, for rather a long time.
But David Caruso, from which The Carusometer gains its power, has had his long-running TV show CSI: Miami cancelled. No more Caruso on the air.
So the all-important question I must now ask you is:
Should we find a new source for The Carusometer’s power – if so, who? – or should we continue rely on David Caruso?
It almost goes without saying that whomever you recommend needs to have the same, universally regarded acting skills as David Caruso, if such a thing is possible.
So, if you’ve been living under a rock for a while, you won’t have heard about 50 Shades of Grey, in which a former Twilight fan fiction writer decides to make explicit the implicit subtext of Twilight by writing a BDSM book featuring, ahem, a lot of restraint – but absolutely no copyright-infringing characters from Stephanie Meyer’s original works. I’m assuming you don’t live under a rock though, otherwise your internet access would be rubbish and you wouldn’t be reading this, so I guess this is all old news to you.
What might be news is that copyright doesn’t last forever and an enterprising publisher – Total-E-Bound Publishing (no, really) – has decided to follow the path trod by EL James by taking classic works and characters from out-of-copyright fiction (Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Sherlock Holmes, et al) and filling them with sex scenes as part of its ‘Clandestine Classics‘ range. The first of the ebooks are due to be released on Sunday, so you too can read about Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff’s bondage sessions or how Holmes takes care of Watson’s sexual needs, in the comfort of your own Kindle while you’re on holiday. No one need know.
But today’s question is therefore the simple but limitless:
Which work of fiction, classic or otherwise, do you think should get a 50 Shades make-over and why? Or do you think it’s all a bit silly and/or distasteful?
So one of the big stinks of the last year in the world of comics has been Before Watchmen, DC’s prequel to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s famous 1980s graphic novel series, which ended up being made into a beautiful, faithful but somewhat emotionally empty movie a few years ago.
Now, Alan Moore hasn’t endorsed Before Watchmen. He’s not writing it. Dave Gibbons isn’t illustrating it. In fact, Moore at least is dead against it, not least because he was told he was going to get full ownership of the original once DC had stopped printing it – something that DC has never done. In fact, just about the only person involved with the original who is part of Before Watchmen is Len Wein, who ‘edited’ (he didn’t do a lot, on the grounds that ‘Who copy edits Alan Moore?’) Watchmen, and he’s only writing one of the prequel strands.
Meanwhile, Darwyn Cooke, Brian Azzarello and other writers have sat down and written prequels stories for several of the Watchmen characters. So far we’ve seen prequels for Silk Spectre, the original Minutemen (including the first Nite Owl and Silhouette), Ozymandias and the Comedian, and there are more to come.
And I have to say it’s all largely pointless. The stories even at their best (Cooke’s) just add some flesh and bones to stories already hinted at in the original, rather than adding anything new. Yes, there’s something to be said for giving Silhouette a bit more of a backstory, but that’s about it.
Meanwhile, Brian Azzarello – typically not bothering to read existing series before writing for them – completely contradicts what’s implied in the original Watchmen and what’s explicit in the movie: that the Comedian assassinated JFK. In his story, the Comedian is friends with the Kennedys and is sent on a diversionary mission so that he can’t prevent the assassination in Dallas.
So today’s questions are:
Is there a point to Before Watchmen, beyond making money? If you’ve read the current issues, have you enjoyed it? Do you feel they’ve added anything to the story? And on a larger point, is there generally much point to a prequel, or does it inevitably merely feed off the original, without adding much that’s new?
A question that no doubt has been bothering you most of your life is finally about to be answered thanks to DC Nation. Apparently, there’ll be more of these, next week’s featuring Shanghai Bane.
Happy Birthday, The Medium is Not Enough. Yes, seven years ago (whimper), this blog emerged into the light of the Internet with its first two posts: previews of Prison Break, the not-unpopular Supernatural and the still-unseen Global Frequency; and tedious cruft about The Omega Factor (which I ended up writing a review of after all when I got stuck for a Lost Gem).
The thank you list to all the commenters has now grown so long it’s actually impossible for me to thank you all individually, but an especially big thank you to the regulars Toby, Rullsenberg, SK, Bob the Skutter, Aaron, Mark Carroll, Stuart Ian Burns, Robin Parker, Adam Bowie, benjitek, TheReader76, Craig Grannell and the other David, as well as a big “Welcome aboard” to all the new commenters who joined in this year. Without you, I’d have given up long ago.
As always, it’s time to do some market research: if you have any suggestions for what else you might like to see on the blog, please let me know below. Please don’t ask me to watch more British TV though.
Happy Birthday, The Medium is Not Enough. Yes, seven years ago (whimper), this blog emerged into the light of the Internet with its