josheiserike.com - Josh’s Comics & Writings Online

A few weeks ago I made some predictions for various music magazines’ picks for album of the year. I did pretty well, due to how predictable these things are. I called pitchforkmedia.com’s selection of Panda Bear’s “Person Pitch,” but was off by one with Rolling Stone. I thought they’d give it to Springsteen, but instead they awarded him the number two slot behind M.I.A. Spin was really the only surprise, giving their top pick to Against Me! I thought they might honor Radiohead or The White Stripes. Good for Spin, for demonstrating that music can be unpredictable and that not everyone has to conform to what their readers expect. Hopefully, my list will be a bit more unpredictable. Read the rest of this entry �

Contains my biggest contribution to date– an entry in the MAD 20 (list of 20 dumbest things of the year). I won’t spoil here, but if you’re at a supermarket or bookstore in the next couple weeks, flip through to check it out.

I’m on page 32, #14. I’m thrilled to be illustrated by Hermann Mejia, one of my favorite artists. Check him out here www.hermannmejia.com and you can see a couple MAD 20 preview samples here (but not mine).

Is it just me or was 2007 an excessive year for covers?

(That is, musicians playing other musician’s songs, not blankets and sheets.)

A sample of bands that released entire cover albums in 2007: Placebo, Dashboard Confessional, Ben Lee, New Found Glory. Add to that the tribute, benefit albums and soundtracks (John Lennon, Smashing Pumpkins, “Across the Universe” to name a few)—and that’s before every other cover tossed off in the studio or captured at a live concert on a cell phone.

If I’m right—and I don’t have the time to spend on the Internet compiling a database of covers released in 2007, compared to previous years—I think it’s indicative of the rise of iTunes and the return of the single as the preferred music purchase. Besides, a well-placed cover can be a great way for a band to get attention (Limp Bizkit, anyone?). Read the rest of this entry �

Of the A-list comic book heroes, who is most like his readers?

Superman, an alien from another planet? Batman, a billionaire industrialist? Or Spider-Man, a nerdy teenager?

The answer—and the character’s appeal—is fairly obvious.

But, over the years, Spider-Man, the nerdy teenager, grew into a self-assured man who happened to be married to a supermodel, Mary Jane Watson-Parker. Today, over 20 years after the wedding, Spider-Man is just as much like his fans as is, say, the Martian Manhunter.

The editorial staff at Marvel knows this. But, a divorcee or widower is even more removed from Marvel’s target au-dience. Finally, they have an answer, a way to un-marry Peter Parker without a messy divorce or killing off MJ.

Peter, it seems, will strike a deal with the devil: His marriage for Aunt May’s life. Read the rest of this entry �

Last week, my friends and I engaged in one of the bloodiest, below-the-belt e-mail exchanges I have seen in a long time. There was name-calling, a bunch of French words, and, as in any passionate debate over the Internet, invocation of the Holocaust for moral high ground. 

We were arguing over a kids’ movie. Read the rest of this entry �

My impression of Luc Sonnet was that he loved to exaggerate.

Sonnet, an artist who until recently lived in Dumfries, told me:

“I can still throw a 50-yard pass through the eye of a needle.”

And “At 3 years old I started doing classic realism.

And, about one of his pieces of art, “You’d have to write a dissertation on that one.”

The first two claims made it into my Aug. 9 story, “Spiritual Machines.”

I felt comfortable enough to use these quotes because they were clearly hyperbole. I felt they added insight to Sonnet’s character.

He was a difficult subject. I couldn’t follow much of what he said. My notes from that conversation are a jumbled mess of words like “unification” and “spiritual truth.” Most of our discussion was about his spirituality and its reflection in his artwork. But, in the hour or so I spent with him, I gathered enough material about Sonnet and his artwork to craft a short profile.

Turns out I missed the biggest exaggeration - no, fabrication - of all: Luc Sonnet himself. Read the rest of this entry �

I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

End of year lists? I hate them. Hate them, hate them, hate them.

Okay. I used to love them —if a favorite movie or album made an Important List, it was as if my tastes were validated.

Read the rest of this entry �