Watching Tories lose is fun

I’ve been watching the local election results in England and the Tory decimation is quite a thing to see. John Curtice makes clear just how bad this is and how it may translate to a general election which is going to happen at some point between now and January 2025, and it looks as if the Tories are going to hold on til the very last minute. I don’t think I’ve seen a sitting party in government so scared to go to the polls, especially as it’s now clear so many Tory MPs are going to be out of a job.

However, I approach the general election unclear as to where my vote goes. I obviously won’t vote Tory. The Lib Dems are a joke. The SNP are at best, a shadow of their former selves while the Greens have become flaky lunatics. So that leaves Labour who are playing it so safe in order not to alienate voters after the disaster of 2019, but as much as I need to see the Tories gone do I really give my vote to a probable party of government who is as far away from even the social democracy of Tony Blair’s first few years in government?

So I dunno, I expect to decide nearer the time. One thing is sure, whatever happens the Tories need to be out of power for a generation at least after the damage they’ve done in the last 14 years, especially as much of that damage could well be irreparable.

Ed Piskor & the comics industry’s mob mentality.

The last ten days or so has thrown up the dark rotting heart of the online comics industry which ended with the suicide of Ed Piskor this week. Here’s a decent summary of what happened in the last week from of all place, the Daily Mail which itself has form for bullying, but this article covers a lot of things the comic press fails to cover for reasons which will become clear.

If you don’t want to give that site a click, the short version of what happened was that Piskor was accused of grooming a female creator when she was 17. Other women said they’d had issues with Piskor & then a number of accounts on social media (mainly on Twitter) went after Piskor while at the same time, a local TV network where Piskor lived revealed his address and doorstepped his family. In a few days Piskor went from being a successful comics creator who with Jim Rugg, ran the excellent YouTube channel Cartoonist Kayfabe, to having book deals cancelled, his home doxxed & being accused of terrible things by people online in the worst ways. Even Jim Rugg was being accused of grooming and perversion. Blood was in the water and a number of people wanted to feed.

At this point there was no police investigation as they’d said no crime had been committed, and all that’d happened was a few messages were published out of context. No due process had happened but people online took it upon themselves to cancel Piskor having taken upon themselves to be the vigilantes policing comics. If it also helped settle some grudges then even better. And this wasn’t just the Comicsgate crowd who hated Cartoonist Kayfabe as they never got covered on there, but supposed ‘progressives’. It was basically, an online mob.

Piskor in the meantime was accused of having sockpuppet accounts, and with no evidence at all accused of worse and worse things while many accounts carried on sticking the knife in. Jim Rugg eventually released a statement saying he was distancing himself from Piskor, their YouTube channel was taken down & while some people were calling for calm, there was a large vocal crowd looking to ensure Piskor had nothing left. Remember, at this point there’s no investigation by the police and yes, the court of public opinion is important yet at this point Piskor wasn’t there to make his case as the mob by now had ensured even if he was in a state where he could, it wouldn’t be heard.

Then he killed himself. He published a note on his Facebook & the letter is online should you wish to search for it, but in there he admits to being, well, a bit creepy and inappropriate but also he throws doubt on the released messages and their context & names several fans and creators who led the attacks on him. He also outlines to his family how to deal with his finances so members of his family don’t go short. It’s a tragic letter and such a waste of a life, which is especially being made clear by his family’s social media output since then that shows Piskor wasn’t the person many on social media were painting him as. There was a human being there as well as the man who loved comics to the extent it was his life.

In a fair world people would have held back, let Piskor made his case & if necessary, let the police do their job but this never happened so now a man is dead having seen his life ruined by an online mob that didn’t wait, show any humanity but instead jumped to punish someone in the worst ways.

This sadly, is far, far too common these days to the extent people have been saying for years that this comics cancel culture was going to result in a death. Now it’s happened and we’ve got most people numbed by it, yet some are desperately trying to use his death to settle scores, or just as bad, we’re seeing people critique his suicide note or even say he did the right thing. People’s narcissism & self-righteousness knows no bounds. I guarantee few lessons will be learned from this & by the end of the year, or sooner, we’ll have another case in comics where someone is cancelled and people fear we’ll see another Piskor.

‘But cancel culture is consequence culture’ you might say and I’d ask who the hell put you in charge? It’s one thing to react after criminal convictions or full evidential proof, and it’s another to jump on online rumours to ruin someone because (and let’s be blunt here) they enjoy it and see themselves as the arbiters of public opinion. There’s a thin line between a genuine reaction to something that’s been proven to have happened and the mob mentality that gets off on seeing someone suffer, especially someone people have an issue with for the slightest of reasons.

Here’s another example of it only a few people know. Around a decade ago a small group of fans were trying to get A Major Comics Writer cancelled, and in the process take A Well Known Fan/Writer with him. There was also an attempt to sell the story to a major UK daily newspaper but thankfully they were so crap at it, plus all their plans were exposed as it was happening that it resulted in one of them wrecking their career and another eventually ended up being cancelled himself when #metoo started. There’s more stories like this in the world of comics normally swapped in the wee hours of the morning in a bar where few people are still sober or awake enough to share them. Even before social media there’s examples of creators trying to get others sacked so they can get their jobs, or fans acting in ways that in retrospect, should have seen them in front of a judge.

The majority of people in the comics industry are ordinary people. Some are nice, some are iffy, most are just plain ordinary people with a love of comics who want to do well. A core aren’t. They’re the worst people in the world & any perceived or actual power they have, especially in cases like Piskor where they can get ‘revenge’ for whatever it is about the person they hate, the better. I’m not naming specific names as in one reads Piskor’s letter these people are named, plus it seems possible a civil court case may well happen though I’m unsure of the laws in Piskor’s state. In the UK, there would have been an inquiry so I find it odd looking in that the same thing isn’t happening there.

The warnings were there & the same people have been involved in many cancellations, not to mention just plain, ordinary online bullying for years. People have suffered incredible amounts of bullying having committed no crime, or even an accusation. They’ve just been attacked by these people for reasons like politics, jealousy or just plain old bullying of the type you’d see in school.

So people are rightfully angry. Maybe this is a point where things change. Perhaps it will to an extent, but the damage is done & those people who led the mob will probably just carry on. A life has been lost and others ruined all for what? Internet likes? Ego boosting? A sense of self-righteous fury? Certainly not justice or kindness or even trying to help Piskor as some have pretended they were really trying to do when they’d helped ruin his life.

It’s a shite situation & people are going to take a long time to deal with this.

The Scottish Hate Crime Act becomes law today

Today the Scottish Hate Crime Act becomes law and that means anyone living in Scotland can report any ‘hate crime’ that falls under any protected characteristic.

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 creates a new crime of “stirring up hatred” relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex. The maximum penalty is a prison sentence of seven years.

The first thing to note is that misogyny is absent from this list which has been controversial since the law was being drafted, and indeed, some say this wasn’t an error but by design which means we now have a situation where one could abuse a woman to the limit of the current laws. Scotland is a country where women are warned about domestic violence before every Old Firm game, and where domestic violence and misogyny are endemic. We have a real problem with how misogyny is rooted in Scottish society across classes as well as political beliefs yet Holyrood considered it not worthy of inclusion which is frankly, not where we should be as a society in 2024.

A decade ago Scotland was full of debate during the independence referendum about how we could turn the country into a better place for everyone, yet here we are now throwing women to the wolves in a poorly drafted law which many KC’s are saying online won’t stand up when European Court of Human Rights legislation is applied and people’s Article 10 rights are applied. In England and Wales the idea of a ‘non-crime hate crime’ is strictly regulated whereas here we’re still unclear what is going to be recorded and whether it’ll be available on a disclosure, so effectively one could have committed no crime bar a ‘non-crime hate crime’ and has no idea what’s going on til they apply for a job and they find out there’s something sitting there on their records.

But if you’ve committed a hate crime that’s on you, right? Well no, because this is on Police Scotland’s site where one can report someone.

The person making the report doesn’t even need to think or know the law has been broken. As long as someone is unsure and feels a crime might have happened then under this new law one can report it and the police has to act upon it as the Scottish Government has made it clear the police are going to investigate every report. By now it should be clear that this is open to vexatious reports which again, is something that seems to be part of the design of the act rather than an accident. There’s a clear potential chilling effect as people could report someone because they disagree with them or have been offended or consider something offensive or ‘hateful’. It might not end up in court (and many KC’s are saying if it does, Article 10 rights would mean most cases would be thrown out) but by then someone will have went through months of stress as well as losing electrical equipment, even possibly jobs, before a case is dismissed either in court or on appeal.

Though we’re promised the likes of comedians or actors won’t be targeted, but realistically that chilling effect will kick in and again, it doesn’t take much to realise some comedians such as Jerry Sadowitz will be targeted so how this is going to play out at the Edinburgh Fringe or just in Scottish cultural life remains to be seen but there’s a real fear that people will go through court cases.

Now we have existing laws that deal with hate, and this law had the removal of blasphemy as its main purpose but what’s the point in replacing blasphemy with another form of blasphemy? Badly constructed laws that limit free speech and expression, not to mention creating an environment where people will be reporting anyone, and the police will be clogged up with reports at a time when crimes like robbery and even rape are barely being prosecuted by the police and courts. There’s no attempt to deal with the economic problems Scotland has or improving people’s lives and standard of living which has declined or even attempt to further the cause of Scottish independence.

And finally there’s an assumption in the law that the main perpetrators of hate are from working-class groups, people in poverty or deprived groups at the lower end of the economic scale which is not just middle-class elitist arrogance, it’s presuming other groups cannot be prejudiced or hateful which is nonsense. There’s no self-criticism or even awareness from the Scottish cultural and political class. Just a firm belief that they’re morally right and anyone with concerns are themselves wrong, bigoted and probably deserve to be reported for a non-crime hate crime. It’s an incredibly conservative position from supposedly progressive people.

Now, the law will fall apart as far too many laws and policies have in Scotland the last few years but the damage is already done. Not only will free speech be threatened, people be criminalised for ‘offence’ but the critics of Scottish independence need only point at this law and say ‘look, this is what an independent Scotland is going to be like’ and the prospect of independence ends up going back another generation or two. As said, I cannot believe that in a decade we’ve went from discussing how to improve the lives of ordinary people to making a law that’ll limit their rights, and as we know from history, rights lost are difficult to regain.

What I thought of Late Night With the Devil

I first heard about Late Night With the Devil near the end of last year and the idea of a Found Footage film produced by the director of Lake Mungo (in my mind, the best horror film of the 21st Century) and starring David Dastmalchian, (an actor who by now should be A list rather than impressing in smaller roles) I was sold. Expecting it to head right to Shudder I was nicely surprised it gained a cinema release which in the current climate is impressive for a small independent film.

The setup is simple. A recently found master tape of an American late-night chatshow’s final episode where all hell breaks loose, literally. Night Owls with Jack Delroy, tries to compete with Johnny Carson but always just falls short so Delroy (played by Dastmalchian) and his sleazy producer, come up with more and more outrageous stunts to climb up the rating. After Delroy’s wife dies of cancer, Delroy takes time out but finds things even tougher so for their Halloween show they decide to have a psychic, a sceptic and a paranormal writer and her subject, a possessed girl called Lily.

The film starts with a short introduction dealing with Jack’s rise to fame, his connections to a possible supernatural cult (Bohemian Grove) & his decline. There’s a note-prefect 70s feel here even down to the Mad cover reconstruction and period jokes. There’s even a Billy Carter joke which is probably going to be lost on Millennials and Gen Z, but it’s the sort of gag you’d expect a chatshow host to crack in 1977.

From here there’s spoilers so beware.

What the film does well is set things up perfectly. The psychic is clearly a conman yet something happens to throw doubt on not just his abilities, but that perhaps Jack is playing with things that he’s unaware of. Indeed, the first 20 minutes or so is about teasing the audience with supernatural events, then having the sceptic Carmichael debunk what we’ve just seen. It’s when things start to show themselves as perhaps something more that Jack, and his crew, start worrying about what may have been unleashed yet Jack is more excited by his producer telling him his ratings are going through the roof.

Once the possessed girl comes on, then hell does start breaking loose quite literally & only then does Jack have to face what he’s done to become famous, and the sympathetic but flawed character starts to show another side & by the end of the film he’s damned himself.

My big problem with the film lies in the end. It spends so much time building up the idea this is found footage of the show & of B-roll footage that it breaks that conceit in the ending like say, The Last Broadcast did and for me, it takes me out of the film suddenly when it really should be rubbing the premise home to its conclusion. Perhaps I’ll think again of the ending on a second viewing or even eventually grow to like it begrudgingly as I did with The Last Broadcast, but for now it disappointed me.

However, the journey to the end of the film is a joy. Writer/directors the Cairnes brothers know their conspiracy/ supernatural stuff not to mention their 70s history, though there are a few anachronisms but nothing too annoying. There’s little details that’ll make you grin if you know your stuff, not to mention there’s some fine practical effects to go along with some digital effects. I also need to address the AI issue which has caused a lot of controversy since it was revealed a few weeks before the film’s cinema release. There’s around three seconds of AI used in this and there’s a few ways one can deal with it.

You can either boycott Late Night With the Devil as many are doing but this isn’t a Disney film, this is a small indie film so you’re now failing to support the cast and crew. Or you can see the film and hope the small usage of AI is removed for streaming or just think perhaps, there’s bigger battles to fight? I don’t know what’s the right answer as frankly, there isn’t one as it boils down to what you as a person wants to do based on all that you know but as David Dastmalchian has said, we need a conversation about AI as it’s not going to go away and at some point there’s going to be an outcome that won’t please anyone 100%.

Also, there’s the Ghostwatch connection. This is not as some have said, a Ghostwatch rip-off but it most certainly takes some cues from it especially in how it builds up the paranormal events & the use of the sceptic. Beyond that all they share is a genre though that’s enough as Late Night With the Devil may not be as good as Ghostwatch, yet few films will be as that is one of those defining moments in a genre that rarely, if ever, get repeated.

So I recommended Late Night With the Devil. It’s a fun, well-made film with a powerful lead performance by Dastmalchian and problems with the end aside, it’s most definitely a film I’ll watch again not to mention one that’s going to probably inspire a new wave of Found Footage films. Most of which will probably be rubbish of course, but I’m sure we’ll get a few good ones. See it if possible with an audience before the cinema run ends but do see it if you’re a fan of horror and Found Footage.

Relive the glory days of going to the cinema

Going to your modern multiplex cinemas is a basically soulless experience. Sure, there’s exceptions and some very good multiplex cinemas out there, but on the whole it’s seeing films in a warehouse with people who might behave, or might talk loudly while playing on their phones.

But cinemas weren’t always like this. We used to go to amazing buildings that were a century old and it was often thrilling, especially when you were younger and of an age when going to the cinema was like going to the theatre for the working class. Those days can now be relived, after a fashion, thanks to this wonderful YouTube channel that recreates as much as it’s possible the trailers, adverts and sometimes the short films we’d get before the main feature.

Here’s Predator.

And here’s Superman II.

Moonraker.

There’s plenty more but each one is a joy, even if you can’t smell the smell of beer-stained carpets, nicotine-stained walls and the sweet smell of Butterkist popcorn. The sound of the Pearl and Dean music, or the extravagant, but now unsettling ads for tobacco and of course, the excitement of seeing a trailer for a film you knew nothing about. Back in the days before the internet this was the only way most people would find out about a forthcoming film.

So check the channel out and just wallow in that sweet nostalgia.

Why people don’t understand Starship Troopers

Over the last week we’ve seen discussion of the Paul Verhoeven film, Starship Troopers, break out online and I fear for people’s ability to understand media in 2024. Here’s an example.

Starship Troopers is a 1997 film that on the pure surface level is an SF/action film, yet it doesn’t take much to see what the creators of the film intended. They dress people up in as close to SS uniforms as you can get.

The writer, Ed Neumeier, and director Paul Verhoeven had worked together on Robocop, another unsubtle satire which on the surface level can be seen as a pure action film but it doesn’t take a genius to see it as a satire and commentary on American culture which most of Verhoeven’s American films to date are. Getting back together for Starship Troopers, the pair created one of the best satires on America and it’s military culture that’s ever been made. We know this as for the last 27 years both men have spelled out exactly this in interviews and if you listen to the DVD commentary you’ll hear how they made it as simple as possible to pick up what they were doing.

But over the last week or so people have decided to ignore decades of fact, and state that actually, Starship Troopers isn’t a satire. Again, here’s an example.

A look through Twitter or Reddit, or anywhere online finds takes like this from people who can’t see the huge glaring signals that actually, the humans here are terrible people, that fascism is a bad thing & that actually, being a society that prizes militarism isn’t a healthy one.

Why this is can be put down to people not wanting to admit they find fascism attractive however there’s also a lack of media literacy not to mention just basic comprehension, even when it’s spelt out so simply that it’s near impossible to not notice it unless, of course, you’re willingly ignorant. We live in a time where ignorance and stupidly is rife, even to the point where it’s celebrated and that media illiteracy doesn’t exist.

When I was younger there was no end of TV discussions, or in books & magazines that discussed film and the stuff you don’t get the first time round. The world now has things like Cinema Sins not to mention online criticism which is just ‘THING IS BAD’ without getting any other reasoning, then there are the ones who just hate stuff because it’s made by women or anyone who isn’t white. You might think you don’t need media literacy to get through life but it’s really just an aspect of critical thinking that you most definitely do need to get through life otherwise you won’t question things like this, and you do end up not just being unable to recognize fascism in fiction but in real life. If you consume everything via YouTube or TikTok done by people looking to drive engagement for likes and money then a lack of critical thinking brings us to a point where people can’t recognize a satire when it’s right in front of them.

One more year…

It’s my birthday today so I feel like this.

The truth is the last decade has been a struggle, with the last few years being an exceptional struggle but maybe, just maybe, things might improve. Hopefully!

Anyhow, I know I’ve not been posting regularly here for a while but health issues have gotten in the way but I’m going to try to up my posting rate before this site dries up like me!

What I thought of Scala!!! Or, the Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World’s Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits

I’ve always been a fan of cult movies, before I even had heard of the phrase ‘cult movies’ thanks mainly to the BBC’s horror double bills of the 1970s I used to absorb as a child. By the time I was a relatively spot-free teenager I’d be making regular trips to the GFT or any cinema in Glasgow to lap up anything that’d be on from Betty Blue, to Terminator, to Subway, to Kiss of the Spider Woman, to Re-Animator. Nothing was off limits.

By the time I hit my early 20s, I’d moved to Leicester to work for a company distributing comics and one of the things I did a lot in those early days was to visit London to see gigs, drink, and on one night after missing a last train home I ended up at the Scala. The Scala was in Kings Cross just down from St Pancras Station, and in those days it wasn’t a part of London you wanted to hang around too long. The place was full of dealers, prostitutes, muggers & all the sort of people you really didn’t want to engage in any sort of conversation in case you ended up getting mugged, stabbed or boiled down into glue. However, the Scala offered a safer option than kipping down in a station or calling up mates at one in the morning then trying to get across London assuming, of course, they were awake or at home or had space for you to crash.

So the Scala was there. I knew it was there of course as they used to run all-nighters during UKCAC, the big comics convention held in London & I knew they ran regular all-night film shows so off I went to the cinema to see what was on. I went through the doors into another world. You were thrown from a dangerous, risky world into something dark, mysterious and once you got into the screen, very sticky and uncomfortable, but fuck it. It was warmish, you could buy snacks and drinks, have a seat and oh look, Cat People is about to start!

I’d missed Cat People at the cinema when I was younger, so I instantly sobered up and was glued to the screen only making vague notes at some of the stuff going on around me. I’d sat fairly near the front but behind me someone was dozing off who kept snoring for a few seconds before waking up suddenly with a shout & people would be coming into the cinema possibly in the same situation as myself to see what was playing. After the film, I spent most of the rest of the night/morning sitting in the bar chatting to people til we eventually all had to leave as even the Scala had to close. I got the first train back to Leicester pumped full of excitement at this new place I’d discovered as well as what felt like litres of coffee to keep me awake in case I fell asleep on the train and ended up in Leeds. Over the years I’d visit the Scala frequently, especially of a weekend as I’d be working in London or visiting friends or girlfriends in the city & if there was something good or interesting on I’d head to the Scala. I used to especially spend a Sunday there as a place to hang out after the Camden Comic Marts which were held just over the road from Kings Cross Station behind the library in a maze of streets which lurked some of the seediest places you’d ever come across. It was a fantastic time, though, like any fantastic time you never realised that when you were having it.

Jane Giles and Ali Catterall’s documentary about the Scala captures that era perfectly but without the smells or the exceptionally dodgy people you’d avoid on the way out the Scala at six in the morning. Sure, there were similar venues across the UK in Glasgow, Bristol, Nottingham and elsewhere but Scala was a hub that drew everyone in & it was a place for people to meet & experience films and many other things that’d you’d not get anywhere else in the same way, especially for young kids like me. The late 80s/early 90s were a grim time for so, so many people yet there was a huge amount of creativity and excitement to be found in places like the Scala for working class kids, gay or lesbian youth & the sort of misfit that gravitates to London. It was a melting pot that in its own small way influenced so much of UK culture and if you want to get a jist of what it was, then watch this documentary.

The Scala is gone now. The building remains as does the name though now it is a nightclub/venue while Kings Cross has been gentrified to a degree. There’s still an edge to the area & I’m sure the Scala is a decent venue for its current punters but for a generation it’ll always be that grimy cinema where anything could, and often did, happen.

Back the Comics Scene Kickstarter for their 40th anniversary of AKA Books and Comics

Comics Scene is one of the last print magazines about comics out there and deserves your support anyhow, but their next issue is all about the 40th anniversary of AKA Books and Comics. Now, you could search this blog for AKA and you’ll find dozens of articles about AKA, and the history of comic shops in Glasgow, so I’m not going to repeat myself but the short version is that AKA was a comic shop in Glasgow that proved to be massively influential in helping made Glasgow a creative centre for comics creators. It helped launch many a comics creator as well as fan who would come in and buy their weekly comics and back issues. It’s the sort of shop that was crucial in the 80s in growing the scene & happened just at the time when arguably the American and UK comics industry was at its peak.

So for a tenner you can catch up with a bit of history about one of the most important parts of 80s British comics culture. You can back it here.

One thing though, I think the 40th anniversary was last year, 2023…

The adventures of Mickey Mouse in the public domain

As of the start of the year, the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse is in the public domain, so everything in this is free to use.

Seems simple. Avoid using the gloves and anything trademarked by Disney and you’re fine. Roll out endless version of ‘Steampunk Willie’ and the bound-to-be-terrible, slasher film versions of Mickey Mouse. Beware though, the legal situation isn’t as clear cut as one may think and the use of Mickey Mouse can end up dropping you in trouble if for example, you use anything trademarked and decide to sell it on Etsy or at a comic convention. I’m almost certain by the end of the year a number of people will have crossed the line enough for the notoriously litigious Disney to hit people with lawsuits.

Best thing to do it either hold fast for now til the rush is over and things are clarified 100%, or have a huge team of lawyers going over everything like Adult Swim did so they could do this.