'Nuff Said: American Graphic Media

Comic books have always generated a strong fandom. With the accessibility of new video production and editing tools, that fandom has grown more and more adept at producing content inspired by the characters they love. The scope and variety of fan produced content continues poses a challenge as fanfic starts to look and feel like professional productions. Where do we draw the line to protect intellectual property? At what point does a character woven into the cultural landscape through decades of storytelling become an object of public domain worthy of manipulation for creative purposes? The legal fight around fair use looms in the background, but the immediate answer is clear. Fan engagement is a byproduct that license holder wants, but they rightly prevent fan products from generating profits. This fan film inspired by Hawkeye fits neatly in the space created by contemporary circumstances. Recognizable characterization, good production values, and clear story inspiration from the awar...

  This fan film has been in the work for at least a year. You can find out more about the director here . 

A second Storm of Carnage trailer dropped last week. What's coming next?  This behind the scenes video gives us a hint.

I was able to speak to the star and director of Storms of Carnage: The Black Panther Unleashed for Canada's Digital Journal .  With +14,000 views and climbing, the little fan film hints at the possible demand for a live action Black Panther film. Will Marvel Studios listen?

A great fan film based on Marvel's Black Panther.  Over the last decade the quality and scope of films coming from fandom has skyrocketed.  While major corporate owners are quick to stifle any attempt to make money, fan films continue to grow as non-profit exercises.  Many showcase the skills of all involved.  A smart move would be to create some path for these creators to move into producing content license holders.  Top Cow's Talent Hunt competition does this in comics, YouTube can easily do this as well. 

The action at MegaCon is on the convention floor. Great cosplay from every corner of geek culture on display.

I’m attending MegaCon as part of my ongoing engagement with urban popular culture. The category “urban popular culture” is broad enough to be useless for an analytical perspective, but that ambiguity serves to allow the enterprising academic like myself cover to explore the transformation of U.S. culture in the contemporary context. To be sure, cultural studies grounded in the latest theoretical lens dissect events like MegaCon on a daily basis. Those analysis, framed as they are for academic audience provide depth to our understanding of how media manipulate desire and creates the distortions that problematic the relationship in our society. As I have mentioned before, my interest in comics, specifically superhero comics, is grounded in my assertion that superheroes represent one demonstrative effect associated with urbanization in the United States. Having created the superhero genre, the superhero comic has evolved to represent the U.S. experience. More broadly, the modern c...