Dec 4: Remember that time we learned Clark Kent totally peeked at all his Christmas presents with his X-Ray vision? (Justice League, “Comfort and Joy”)
Because Clark is awesome and loves christmas.
remember that time we learned clark kent is a grown man who still believes santa exists
He’s an alien and a superhero who knows other superheros in a world with a talking telepathic Gorilla, ofc he believes, anything is game.
Thats because Father Christmas/Santa Claus totally DOES exist in the DC universe, and every year, without fail, Santa fights through Apokolips’ defenses just to give a lump of coal to Darkseid.
On April 18th of 1961, it was announced that iconic Hollywood star Gary Cooper was dying of cancer after a glittering 36 year career that saw him amass countless fans, plaudits, and awards across the globe. Weeks after that news broke, and just days before he died, Cooper received the following fan letter from Kirk Douglas, who at the time was producing and starring in Lonely are the Brave(titled The Last Hero during production), an adaptation of Edward Abbey’s Western novel, The Brave Cowboy.
(Huge thanks to Paul Ryan. Photos: Gary Cooper in The Winning of Barbara Worth, 1926, via Wikimedia; Kirk Douglas in 1955, via Wikimedia.)
The Letter
Western Skies Hotel
Albuquerque, New Mexico
May 4, 1961
Mr. Gary Cooper
Beverly Hills
Dear Coop:
When for years you’ve had affection for a guy and you find it suddenly turning to resentment you begin to think it deserves some kind of comment. When the guy you find yourself disliking is loved by the entire world you know damn well you better explain.
What I’m talking about is me not liking you.
Put yourself in my spot. I’m doing a picture that should have been done by only one guy. I know it–my entire company knows it.
Start with the title–”The Last Hero.“ Now whom does that fit–me? Hell no!
Next the author. Edward Abbey–a ranger working in the Petrified Forest. They tell me before I meet him that he’s written about himself. So now he comes to Albuquerque where we’re shooting and I go to meet him at the airport. Fifty guys step off the plane but I spot him immediately. Why? He looks like Gary Cooper. To make matters worse when I meet him he talks like Cooper!
So now we start shooting and I learn first that I have an insensitive director who doesn’t give a damn about anything except making the picture real. I give you verbatim my first–and only–direction–"Just try and play this the way Gary Cooper would.”
When I say “only" I don’t mean I get this “hint” once–I mean it’s the only thing I hear before each shot–and by the fourth day I have now decided I must get close to being Coop just so I can stop being hounded.
Ah–but there’s the rub. It sounded easy to me–because I say to myself Coop is a simple man–natural. So I’ll just be natural. Then I learned the big–big lesson. It ain’t easy. My temptation is to ask how the hell have you done it? What is the secret to this peace with yourself and your world? But then I know you couldn’t possibly tell me–I’d have to live your entire life–grow–adjust–mature–as you have done.
And I know now that at best I will come remotely close. But more important–I do know also, that just trying to be you–will make a better me.
So, Coop–even though I may be sore as hell at you now–thanks.
I love this piece of art so much: a Moebius painting of Death from 1994. It was the only Sandman art I bought (the rest of the Sandman art on my walls I was, at some time or another, given by the artists). It was displayed and sold by the Four Colour Images gallery in New York, a comics-based gallery who did some great Sandman exhibitions, and a wonderful Mr Punch exhibition too. I paid, if memory serves, about $2000 for it, and cheerfully turned down a French Moebius collector’s offer of a sum about a hundred times that a decade later, because what made me happy (and still makes me happy) was that I had this Moebius picture of Death on my wall.
Born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Mass., George Bush became a decorated naval pilot who flew torpedo bombers during World War II. He was shot down on September 2, 1944 while completing a mission over Chi Chi Jima Island and, tragically, lost his two crewmen William “Ted” White and John Delaney. By the time he was honorably discharged in September of 1945, Lieutenant Junior Grade Bush had logged 1,228 hours of flight time, 126 carrier landings and 58 combat missions. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the U.S. Navy Air Medal with two gold stars. Mr. Bush graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University in 1948 with a degree in economics, and immediately moved to Texas with his wife Barbara and eldest son George W. to begin making his way in the oil business.
President Bush’s career in politics and public service began in February of 1963, when he was elected chairman of the Harris County (Texas) Republican Party. He was elected in 1966 to the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas’ Seventh District and served two terms. Before serving as vice president from 1981 to 1989 under Ronald Reagan, President Bush held a number of senior-level positions: Ambassador to the United Nations (1971-1973); Chairman of the Republican National Committee (1973-1974); Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in China (1974-1976); and Director of Central Intelligence (1976-1977).
In 1980, Mr. Bush lost his first bid for the Republican presidential nomination to former California Governor Ronald Reagan, but accepted a spot on the GOP national ticket and served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. In that position, Mr. Bush managed federal deregulation and anti-drug efforts, and headed the Reagan administrations’ effort to combat terrorism. In foreign policy, President Reagan dispatched Vice President Bush at a pivotal and contentious time to help manage negotiations with key NATO allies leading to the deployment of Pershing II missiles in West Germany – a critical turning point in the Cold War.
Sworn in as the 41st President of the United States on January 20, 1989, George Herbert Walker Bush helped usher in a new and more hopeful geopolitical era marked by the spread of freedom and free markets. During his historic term in office, the West prevailed in the Cold War; the Soviet Union gave way to a democratic Russia; the Berlin Wall “fell” and Germany was unified within NATO; and President Bush signed two treaties to drastically reduce the threat of nuclear war. After Iraq’s unprovoked invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Mr. Bush forged an unprecedented coalition of disparate nations to uphold international law. His deft handling of this international crisis enabled him to convene the Madrid Peace Conference later in 1991. Throughout his presidency, George Bush worked closely with his international counterparts, including Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, in ways that advanced America’s interests in peace and economic opportunity.
This is gonna sound rich coming from me, but I am very very very tired of seeing creative people diminishing themselves and their skills.
Maybe it’s a symptom of a genuine effort to stay humble, or maybe we’ve fostered an environment so critical and poised for relentless social deconstruction that online creative spaces have increasingly become pits for trading memes about self-sabotage and nursing one’s own aversion to the incredible challenges of the creative process - rather than embracing hard work, challenge, and that oh-so-critical devil: failure.
Watching people tear themselves apart no longer feels relatable. The world has enough ugly things in it. Watching creators eat themselves feels pointless and uninspiring, like spitting in the well. And now, seeing others mistreat themselves the way I always have, if I’m feeling even a fraction of what people feel when I start spouting such-and-such “I’m the worst” internal polemics against myself, I’m making a much fiercer commitment to stop. Because this is bullshit.
Artistic self-shame is exhausting, it’s harmful, it’s bogglingly untrue. I don’t have to be the shining paragon of any skill in order to admit I’m not garbage at it either, to admit that it’s still worth the effort of trying. To give myself permission to fail, and fail often, and fail with enthusiasm. Nobody’s perfect, but nobody is worthless, either. Stop saying you’re untalented. Stop disqualifying yourself because you don’t have a degree, or a published work, or a what-the-fuck-ever. Enjoy a thing, work hard at a thing, and admit that the desire to create imparts you with some modicum of value in and of itself.
I love it when you can pick up an animator’s quirks.
I’ve read in old interviews with Milt Khal’s fellow animators that he did the swaggle to purposefully show off. Moving the head in 3-d space is an exceptionally hard thing to do but Khal upped the level of difficulty to a place many animators wouldn’t go. Not only are they all doing the swaggle you’ll notice they are all TALKING while they are doing it. This is back in the days where you had to use a timing sheet to pace your animation and a head swaggle doesn’t work if its too slow or too fast so he had to figure out the right speed so it looked natural while the character finishes what they have to say while not interfering with the distinct mouth shapes. Not only did Khal do it without any shifting weight problems or timing issues he would often do it while moving the rest of the body. This isn’t his signature move just because he was good at it.This is his signature move because he was one of the only people skilled enough to DO IT AT ALL.
510
