Change!

All right, AFB.  If you've set your imaginary browsers to bookmark this blog, then I've got another one for you to bookmark.  Or to at least edit the bookmark for this site to go to that site.  Or whatever.  Do what you want.  Imaginary fans can be so fickle sometimes.

Anyway, I've been thinking that a blog entitled Smitch Loves Movies that lately talks almost exclusively about Wednesday Theology really doesn't jive that well.  So I've been working on correcting that.  With that, I now ask you all to please direct your attention to the official Wednesday Theology blog.

Exciting, isn't it?

If you ever want to peruse previous WedTheo posts, don't worry.  I've already moved them all over to the new site.  I've got your back, AFB.  Just like you've got mine.

But what about this site?  Will it go away?  Well, no.  It will probably revert to it's previous status of never being updated.  But if it is ever updated, hopefully it will talk once again about movies.  And then the title might actually make sense again.

Speaking of movie news, have you heard the recent rumors that after Daniel Craig finishes his run as James Bond, Idris Elba might be considered for the role?  I love that idea!  Likely, the idea of a black 007 would stir some controversy, but who cares about that?  Watch the BBC series Luther and you will likewise be eager to see Elba with a license to kill.

Also, the season finale of Doctor Who is tomorrow!

Okay, now go check out Wednesday Theology.

CFP: On the Scholarship of Religion and Comic Books

I'm taking this straight from A. David Lewis' website.

Call for Papers: On the Scholarship of Religion and Comic Books

Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association

April 11-14, 2012
Boston, MA

Area: Religion & Culture, Comics & Comic Art (joint session)
Moderator: A. David Lewis (Boston University)

Overview:  The last half-dozen years have seen an explosion in U.S. publications addressing the intersection of religion and comics, but little has been said on the body of work taken as a whole. Outside of individual reviews, rarely are these works discussed in terms of their applications, their intertextuality, their audiences, their shortcomings, or the new questions they raise. This panel is to act as a forum addressing either portions of these works, entire books, their shared space, or the next steps to which they may all lead. In addition to the print publications recommended below, this panel also invites reflections on some of the websites and blogs conducting similar work, also listed:

Books: Superheroes: Religion and Popular Culture (2005), Up, Up, and Oy Vey (2006), Our Gods Wear Spandex (2007), Superheroes and Gods: A Comparative Study from Babylonia to Batman (2007), Disguised as Clark Kent (2007), Holy Superheroes! Revised and Expanded Edition (2008), From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books (2008), The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches (2008), Jews and American Comics (2008), India’s Immortal Comic Books: Gods, Kings, and Other Heroes (2009), Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels (2010), Supergods (2011), The Seven Spiritual Laws of the Superhero (2011), Do the Gods Wear Capes? (2011)

Online: ComicAttack.net “Comics Are My Religion” columns, ComicBookBin.com “Religion and Comics” columns, By Rao! Religion and Religion site, Jewish Comics blog, Faith in Four Colors site

Other English-language, U.S. market pieces of scholarship may be considered, but the focus should remain on already-produced analysis, not on works-in-progress nor on the comics themselves. Submissions should be thoughtful reflections on how these pieces function, what opportunities they present, where they may fail, and what has been overlooked.

Abstracts of 100-250 words, a C.V., and brief bio are due by December 1 to ADL at bu dot edu for consideration.

-----------------------

See? I'm not alone in my crazy obsession with this topic!  There are others out there.  You should be afraid.

The First Truth of Batman

Warning: this is going to get rather sentimental.  But it's okay.  It's also going to contain a lot of Batman.

Maybe the most powerful aspect of stories is how we can relate to them.  A story can be absolutely outlandish, absurd and impossible, but still be good, if the reader can connect to it.  It doesn't even have to be a big connection.  Sometimes the smallest correlation between the story and the reader's life can make the biggest impact.

And sometimes that impact doesn't occur until long after we have finished with the story.  Narratives are meant to stick with us.  They linger in the recesses of the mind, ready to pop right back into our recollection whenever needed.  Many times when we first read a story we can find some aspect that reminds us of experiences we've had in life.  Sometimes, though, it is life that reminds us of a story.

This is one of those times.

Sacrilegious Comics

I don’t think there’s a built-in conflict or controversial element between comics and religion. But, like film, it’s a visual medium, and it invites spectacle. Unlike film, though, it’s far less policed and less corporately involved, so more extreme — and, yes, more sacrilegious — works can make it through to the market. Frankly, being sacrilegious isn’t a bad thing in and of itself; there can still be a great and entertaining story there. There can even be a useful message to or between religious communities. It’s when a work sets out to insult or persecute another group when the line must be drawn. Personally, I don’t think either Preacher or Chosen crosses that line.

- A. David Lewis

In the Name of God

They do this in the name of God?
How could they think their God would approve of this?
But how could that same God take my mother and father from me?

- Red Robin #22

by Fabian Nicieza and Freddie Williams II

Made-Up Story, You Idiot!

"People say kids can't understand the difference between fact and fiction, but that's bulls--t," he says. "Kids understand that real crabs don't sing like the ones in The Little Mermaid. But you give an adult fiction, and the adult starts asking really f--king dumb questions like 'How does Superman fly? How do those eyebeams work? Who pumps the Batmobile's tires?' It's a f--king made-up story, you idiot! Nobody pumps the tires!"

- Rolling Stone interview with Grant Morrison

A Poisoned Story

Savoy: So what's special about Jud Suss?
Lizzie: Goebbels turned it inside out. Turned it into its own opposite. Tommy! Tommy where are you?
Savoy: Don't evade the question, lady.
Lizzie: I"m not. It was a novel written by a Jew from a Jewish perspective. It became the most successful anti-Semitic movie of all time. Think about it.
Savoy: I'm thinking. Nothing is happening.
Lizzie: It's a canker. If you torture a story, it turns into a canker. This whole place formed around it--that's how powerful it is.

Lizzie: It--Wilson calls it a canker. It happens when a story gets corrupted or complicated too much. When the energy inside it gets poisoned.
Tom: So this is because of Goebbels? Because of the movie?
Lizzie: It's because of the contradictions. In the novel, Suss sins, but finds salvation through his religion. In the movie, he's just a monster. When enough people had seen the movie--there was a crisis. An imbalance.

 - The Unwritten #11

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

My Deal with Stories

So I was eating at Taco Bell the other day with a member of the AFB (Avid Fan Base).  All right, all right, you got me.  There is no AFB outside of the stories I tell about the AFB.  Well, this is one of those stories about the AFB.  Anyway, while I'm starting to munch on my delicious gordita that came with my $2 Meal Deal, the AFB asks me a question.  And, for simplicity's sake, I'm just going to refer to this one particular member of the imaginary AFB as a personification of the entire AFB.  Wait, how is that simple?  Shh...you're interrupting the story.

The Song of Roland

Tom: It was a long time ago, Savoy. Twelve hundred years or so. The emperor Charlemagne had been campaigning in Spain, which was in Saracen hands. He won a lot of big victories. But on the way home, his rear guard was attacked at Roncevaux Pass and wiped out to a man. Someone wrote a song about it, and it hit the top of the charts. That's why this place was on the map. Not because of the battle, but because someone told the story of the battle.

- The Unwritten #6

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

Tom: If it even happened.
Savoy: Wikipedia doesn't lie, Tom.
Tom: The point is, nobody knows. They only know what's in the poem. The Song of Roland. The song was like medieval viral marketing. It spread across Europe, and stirred up anti-Muslim feeling wherever it was sung. French kings led army after army into Spain to make it Chrisitan again. Partly because that song kept the old wounds open and hurting.

- The Unwritten #7

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

Tom: Savoy, just listen, okay? There never was any young, heroic Sir Roland. There was a fat, middle-aged baron named Hruodland who got shot off his horse in some stupid border skirmish. The rest is just the usual patriotic bulls--t. Great poetry, but still--bulls--t.

- The Unwritten #9

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

I Heard Only Silence

My Mom was a little religious, my Dad not at all.
So when she was killed--and my Dad was left in a coma--I didn't have a strong foundation of faith to turn to.
By the time my father was killed--then so many of my friends--all I had left to turn to was anger. It was easier than believing in a God who had let that happen.
But anger solved little and when the world was in crisis--
--I prayed.
I heard only silence.
So I confessed my sins...and realized I had none.
How could someone who tried so hard to be good--did so much for so many people--be asked to endure so much?
...God works in mysterious ways...

- Red Robin #22

by Fabian Nicieza and Freddie Williams II