ISH #4 @77SILICONSTRIP "LUXXXCORP'S LOSS LEADER/FOLLY" OR, AS THE BRITS SO ODDLY PUT IT, "HAVING AN A _ _ ." OR, POLITELY, ...A GO WITH YOU" KIDDING

The results are in! Everbody hates me! Just look!

ebay comics chat

luxurioso Mar-02-06 12:33:43

Some thoughts:

Those Milk & Cheese figures would make great McDonalds, etc., Fun Meal toys. To bad about that link to Satan. Hmmmm. Would a RETCON work? Nah.

LUXURIOSO (nee: LUXXCORP)

Outlaw Love #15 (Marvel) - Recommended.
The only way to get back to those "big numbers", (whatever became of ish #3 of that oversized comic) big numbers of comics published, bought and devoured, (more than half by girl's and women. The love and romance roster of titles was bigger than ALL the rest combined) back in the comic's heyday of the 1950's. Comics aren't doomed to extinction, of course, at least for the foreseeable future. Manga helps. It, also, helps if we make it easier for kids to tear their focus away from way better media. It's hard, for them. I've seen it. But, as is said, reading is fundamental. Just let them pick it out and make sure they stick with it at a specific time of day for a certain length of time NO MATTER WHAT EXCUSE THEY THINK THEY HAVE. (Except if it's reasonable.) No weedling or weasling out of it. No if, ands or buts. Get it? Got it? Good. Git 'er done, now.

"And now, for something completely different..." isn't the same as posting in the wrong forum/thread/board.

It is hijacking it."

rashka Mar-02-06 12:37:49 Crazy Psycho (Posts psycho "Preacher" cover.)

cominatrix Mar-02-06 12:43:49 I am all for mainstreaming "special" people into society teaching them skills and helping them get jobs...but when they stop taking their medications and start spamming their auctions on various chatboards it's off to the dark dank asylum with them..prolly wore a helmet till he was 12..LOL you know me ...poking his badger with a spoon ...maybe it will make him runaway and start spamming some other poor board well at least ones he's not BANNED from for being such waste of time.

whbjr Mar-02-06 12:48:07 C'trix: That's it - the Tough Love approach! (Except for the "love" part)

luxurioso Mar-02-06 3:30:14
I have the greatest respect for the opinions of Rash & Trixie,
so I take the liberty of responding to their views of me.
I'm famously boring and longwinded, so I hope you will bear with me:
Biologically speaking, reading skills are very important.
My sanity is relevant only to those more interested in advancing
their own prejudices over the best interests of this board/chat room.
Whoops--I forgot about argument by assertion.
Please realize that what you seem to think is clever is really just demonstrating illiterate ignorance.
Your fretting reminds me of the language police who lose sleep because writers
are now allowed to legally split infinitives.
Actually I have many tricks but there is simply no reason to waste them on someone like yourself,
who struggles with very simple constructs.

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -Albert Einstein

cominatrix Mar-02-06 03:43:10 You consistantly show yourself to be a simpleton

Reaching for his inhaler, (and in a measured tone) LUXXXCORP responded without posting, trying desperatly to push down the rage building inside him, and succeeding, for the most part.
"People can be driven to psychosis by mean, ugly inside, bullies like you. Then...what ya goin' t'do, (whatcha gon do win th' s--t jumps off?) when the s--t jumps off?"
- "Damn it feels good to be a gansta" - Geto Boyz

"These two women must hate me. Perhaps I will try being more concise and less pretentious. Not unlike Chris Ware. Whatever is to be done to improve the situation, they will ALWAYS have some hate, in their hearts, for me."
- LUXURIOSO (nee: LUXXCORP)

Jeez, I'd hate to take a bit outta you. You're pure poison, kid.
- Burt Lancaster as " " to Tony Curtis as " " in Sidney Greenberg's film adaptation of his Broadway smash/London bomb "He's Fincklestein. I'm the Schnorer." (I know it's wrong. I just don't remember the details.)

In our next issue:
The Joys of Yiddish are explored as we open "The Big Book of Maladicta" and turn to the Yiddish section. Those vaudevillians were right. This stuff is innately funny, at least to me, because it, literally, sounds funny. Like in the old Warner Brothers cartoons "Next stop: Cucamonga, Chowchilla, Petaluma, Tarzana and San Berdoo. All aboard!"
They're just funny-sounding words that make my 10 year-old son crack-up when I try to speak to him in a reasonable Yiddish/English hybrid I'll call Yiddlish. (Of course, he has no idea what I'm saying when I launch into my shtick.)
(OH...MY...GOD...NOT YIDDLISH! Jeez, I gotta be careful what I write; not being Jewish, and all.
I have the greatest respect for the Sons and Daughters of Israel. And I claim my God-given, American Right to try and be funny even if you don't get it. So, I hope you'll bear with me.
I am in no way whatsoever casting aspersions on anyone or anything and if you think so you're nuts.
Please, don't bother me. I had to learn it to be able to parse my grandfather's weekly "Variety" newspaper, (Made in Hollywood, U.S.A.) back in the Seventies. Remember "HIX NIX STRIKE PIX" and "WALL ST. LAYS AN EGG"?)

"I kid...because I love." - Don Rickles

"Jews swing, baby!" - apocraphal Sammy "Candyman" Davis, Jr. quote (Allright. I admit it. I made it up. So what?
He might've said it. It sounds like something he may've said.)

...picking up the thread from ish #3, MYSTERY EASTER EGG TREASURE CHEST SCAVENGER HUNT

The trial against LUXXXCORP in Auckland, New Zealand, is coming to an end, as closing arguments began today. LUXXXCORP pleaded he could not be held responsible for the copyright infringements perpetrated by its users,
as it cannot control how the software is used.

(Indescribable Sound/Song verse, (like another language, distorted electronically,
{'cause I like that sound. I could live with it.): something ripples across the water.
Wave goodbye is all you can do.

Meanwhile, our cannon-fodder, some of whom have quite lethal powers, are all set to give their all in a mass brawl where accidents could happen even if everyone was pulling punches. And they're all strangers to one another.
They don't know which way the other is gonna jump and, guessing wrong, could accidentally kill one another.
The survivors would need years of R & R.

A team with no training or experiance at working together as a team will, probably, suffer some casualties due to friendly fire. There is a direct link between the number of hours spent training/practicing and the number of casualties, both friendly and enemy.

We have people shooting streams of fire, bolts of electricity, two shooting flechettes at 10 RPS, and another character attacking with a bladed 20-story crane. Sure, they all may be pulling their punches and mostly attacking people that can take the hits (which is itself kind of weird when you are trying to be one of the last people standing), but accidents happen.

Death is not the best, but the easiest, solution to a comic book universe crawling with these guys. Plus it thins out the background characters that haven't become popular, enabling fresh, new characters to appear in the background. Until they become popular. Or not. Just rinse and repeat. No RETCON'S, though. If someone dies, finito, that's it. No second chances. If "The Dead" appear, you can be sure we're either in a flashback, dream, hallucination, real "spirit/soul" encounter of the first kind, (possibly second or third kind) or a bogus seance. Or lunatics take up the mantle. They're easily dispatched. They're lunatics, after all. And there'll be no relatives filling in and taking over after whomever died. Like Dr. Evil and his son, Steve, the apple may not fall far from the tree but that's no where near "Like father, like son." Usually, children go in the opposite direction of their parents. They end up not too far away from each other; but enough to notice big differences if you look closely enough. Of course, the opposite of everything I've just said could be true, as well.

Intro Mz. Martinette - Your basic story about a second tier suped-up hot-head wanting to break into the top tier.
Rides a "Fast-Ass-Sum-Bitchee" rice-burner.
She's the type that does "Crazy Ivans" until the wheels come off, goes off a cliff and, finally, lands on the shark, ending up partially eaten, washed up on shore, a feast for the local fauna, re-joining "The Tantric Wheel" or "The Ebb and Flow"
(Nicknames of Eb'n Saud - Gracious Royalty who's deep regard for everyone he meets is called noblesse oblige.
Not one of those "Hi-Toned" MF's.
And Florida - the very funny voice of reason and his aide-de-camp. Condo Rice to his Georgr Bush II.)
ex: Florida, to Eb'n: "Yeah, I'm takin' that "HI-TONE", with you. Problem? I didn't think so."
But never when anyone else can see or hear them. Y'know, behind closed doors, in the privacy of ...
( Mind out of the gutter, please. Thaaaaanks.)

Here's one case where reading LUXXXCORP'S blogspot posts really helps.
He's mining continuity of a rather obscure sort, even for him (and remember, this is the guy who brought back The Sons & Daughters of Lilli Martin, "The Swinger" - Intro, DC 68 page GIANT "Young Romance" #170 comic book - circa 2005 Overstreet Guide NM =$55.00 U.S. A female "Then Came Bronson" except she was a folksinger/troubedour/goddess of wisdom & beauty/considered the font of all things. She retired to Madeira Beach, ("Mad Beach" to the locals) and, now, all of her chicks have come home to roost. What's to do?)

77SILICONSTRIP, by Luxurioso, Studioso and Philomusus, is not exactly treading original ground, but does have a vaguely original angle on the point. It's present-day America and LUXXXCORP is led by it's CEO, under whom an army of superheroes manque, (superheroesque?), are occupying their time inspiring Americanish-types worldwide by fighting exciting battles.

Unfortunately, there's a catch. As lead character LUXXXCORP is hired as the new AsstDepSec "Turn-Around" artist to write a biography of the LUXXXCORP'S history to be used in lobbying governments for money, he discovers hard-copies of really insidious stuff. Makes the latest scandals seem tame, by comparison. The whole thing's a bit of a sham, anyway. They're real superhumans (well, some of them are), and yes, they genuinely help out with disasters and low-level crime. But there aren't really any major threats. They're just manufactured threats designed to give them a chance to be inspiring. Which way's LUX gonna jump? Jump ugly? Be nice? Run like hell? You decide. I have trouble making these decisions. It's better to be told what to do, and have a deadline, than to try and wrap up loose, open ended decisions based on second-guessing other people's tastes. Here. (Hands you the controls.) You drive. I'll write whatever you want. But you have to tell me. I'm not a mind-reader, yet, but if you blow in my ear I'll know what you mean. Just take over, for a little while while I catch some ZZZZ's. Please, try to control yourself and not wreck anything. This thing is only held together by the mearest gossamer of threads and some duct tape.

"Virtue has it's own rewards.
And all that s--it." (Laughs)
-- soundwave of LUXXXCORP, encrypted throughout the code of his logo, burned into his brain, seared into his heart, quoting Joe Gill, the most prolific author of love/romance comic book scripts. Ever.

On his family crest are the words:
"Trust Everyone. Trust No One." which means, "Be open-minded but suspiscious until there's proof." Meanwhile, baffle 'em with scientific-sounding gibberish, back it up with fear-inducing statistics and, finally, dazzle 'em with "Shiney, Happy People Having More Fun Than You." Whatever works. The keys, here, are to be flexible AND always on time. Timing is, after all, I don't have to tell you, everything.

I will, anyway.

Drama & hilarity should ensue.

Of course, the basic idea of the story - that the corporations are deceiving
the public and America's mythology as a means of social control -
is far from original. The corporations, themselves, aren't evil.
There is no big nasty conspiracy. They just...want to inspire people.
Because that makes people feel good and secure.
And what's wrong with that?

There are also some collossal works of art, really boffo, to liven up the proceedings. Naturally the cast come equipped with their own standard-issue "whatever's hot at the moment" swipe.
Many different skins/formats/themes are in inventory.
But you've got to love any story that includes a suit called Chance Hapnin,
(who bears a striking resemblence to LUXXXCORP..)

But bits of the story don't really add up. If LUXXXCORP is as
incorruptible as we're told, why is he willing to have anything to do
with the scam? More to the point, the analogy of benign propaganda
doesn't hold up because the battles are unequivocally shown as
causing massive property damage and, perhaps, costing LUXXXCORP
his job when his electronic sigue becomes checked-off as "banned everywhere"

Even if you're prepared to accept that nobody is actually getting hurt,
it's difficult to see how this sort of thing is going to make the
public feel better about anything, if they actually believe in it.
Perhaps that's the point, and instead of truly inspiring anyone, LUXXXCORP
is just creating a sort of facile dependence through the
dramatically-convenient last-minute comebacks.
The bigger issue is, obviously, how will the public react
when the sham is exposed and their source of inspiration is fatally undermined.

It's an interesting take on a well-established theme, but slightly
marred by aspects of the set-up that become less and less credible the
more you think about them.

LUXXXCORP might very well plug these holes in the script. But only when HE addresses them, if ever.

And his approach to humor is sometimes a bit too low brow, to appeal to my tastes.
Sometimes, even, approaching toilet humor. Perhaps he works best with original characters, where he can cut loose a bit more while not causing damage.

LUXXCORP RESPONDS BY REPEATING THE FIRST LINE, ABOVE, WAY AT THE TOP. Y'KNOW ... THE TITLE. And then: "I may suck. But you, (can) blow (me)." (ed. note - Now, see here, young-buck, that's uncalled for. That's the type of thing that get's your ticket punched and your auctions yanked. Knock it off, dammit.) OK sorry. *slinks off*

Here's a spin-off for Punch after he kills himself in ish #1. One-Shot or 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 ish mini-series? You decide! (SCREWY LOUIE LUXXXCORP.)

Like's Mayhem... - I don't know if LUXXXCORP deliberately set out to make his little story evoke the kitsch of days past, but it's certainly what he's managed to do. In a largely wordless story, (with a little cheating using blackboards and signs) the murderous Punch kill's himself in order to escape justice, as well as go on an infinite roundelet through the Afterlife. He wants to end it all and rest in peace, badly, but can't. Doomed. Forever. In a hell that he never made.
Disturbing fun follows. (If you lived through the 70s, you may recall (if you're unlucky) pop art involving little children that were sort of chibi, but had button-like eyes and very wide but shallow smiles that curled oddly at the ends. They show up, here, as Satan's Hood Ornaments.)

It appears this is meant to promote an upcoming webcomic rather than an ongoing paper comic, although the webpage only contains pages of script from this comic. So far.

As an aside, it's kinda weird to see books like this and Clive Barker's stuff on the same shelf as Transformers.

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Parnassus Plays, a series of three scholastic entertainments performed at St. John's College, Cambridge, between 1597 and 1603. They are satirical in character and aim at setting forth the wretched state of scholars and the small respect paid to learning by the world at large, as exemplified in the adventures of two university men, Philomusus and Studioso. The first part, The Pilgrimage to Parnassus, describes allegorically their four year journey to Parnassus, i.e. their progress, through the university course of logic, rhetoric, etc., and the temptations set before them by their meeting with Madido, a drunkard, Stupido, a puritan who hates learning, Amoretto, a lover, and Ingenioso, a disappointed student. The play was doubtless originally intended to stand alone, but the favor with which it was received led to the writing of a sequel, The Return from Parnassus, which deals with the adventures of the two students after the completion of their studies at the university, and shows them discovering by bitter experience of how little pecuniary value their learning is. They again meet Ingenioso, who is making a scanty living by the press, but is on the search for a patron, as well as a new character, Luxurioso. All four now leave the university for London, while a draper, a tailor and a tapster lament their unpaid bills. Philomusus and Studioso find work respectively as a sexton and a tutor in a merchant's family, while Luxurioso becomes a writer and singer of ballads. In the meanwhile Ingenioso has met with a patron, a coxcombical fellow named Gullio, for whom he composes amorous verses in the style of Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare, the last alone being to the patron's satisfaction. Gullio is indeed a great admirer of Shakespeare, and in his conversations with Ingenioso we have some of the most interesting of the early allusions to him.

A further sequel, The Second Part of the Return from Parnassus, Or the Scourge of Simony, is a more ambitious, and from every point of view more interesting, production than the two earlier pieces. In it we again meet with Ingenioso, now become a satirist, who on pretence of discussing a recently-published collection of extracts from contemporary poetry, John Bodenham's Belvedere, briefly criticizes, or rather characterizes, a number of writers of the day, among them being Spenser, Constable, Drayton, John Davies, J. Marston, Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare, and Thomas Nashe; the last of whom is referred to as dead. It is impossible here to detail the plot of the play, and it can only be said that Philomusus and Studioso, having tried all means of earning a living, abandon any further attempt to turn their learning to account and determine to become shepherds. Several new characters are introduced in this part, real persons such as Danter, the printer, Richard Burbage and William Kemp, the actors, as well as such abstractions as Furor Poeticus and Phantasma. The second title of the piece, The Scourge of Simony, is justified by a sub-plot dealing with the attempts of one, Academico, to obtain a living from an ignorant country patron, Sir Roderick, who, however, presents it, on the recommendation of his son Amoretto, who has been bribed, to a non-university man Immerito.

The three pieces have small literary and dramatic value, their importance consisting almost wholly in the allusions to, and criticisms of contemporary literature. Their author is unknown, but it is fairly certain, from the evidence of general style, as well as some peculiarities of language, that they are the work of the same writer. The only name which has been put forward with any reasonable probability is that of John Day, whose claim has been supported with much ingenuity by Professor I. Gollancz (see full discussion in Dr A. W. Ward's Eng. Dram. Lit. ii.640, note 2), but the question still awaits definitive solution.

As to the date there is more evidence. The three pieces were evidently performed at Christmas of different years, the last being not later than Christmas 1602, as is shown by the references to Queen Elizabeth I, while the Pilgrimage mentions books not printed until 1598, and hence can hardly have been earlier than that year. The prologue of 2 Return states that that play had been written for the preceding year, and also, in a passage of which the reading is somewhat doubtful, implies that the whole series had extended over four years. Thus we arrive at either 1599, 1600 and 1602, or 1598, 1599 and 1601, as, on the whole, the most likely dates of performance. Mr. F. G. Fleay, on grounds which do not seem conclusive, dates them 1598, 1601 and 1602.

The question of how far the characters are meant to represent actual persons has been much discussed. Mr. Fleay maintains that the whole is a personal satire, his identifications of the chief characters in 2 Return being (1) Ingenioso, Thomas Nashe, (2) Furor Poeticus, J. Marston, (3) Phantasma, Sir John Davies, (4) Philomusus, T. Lodge, (5) Studioso, Drayton. Professor Gollancz identifies Judicio with Henry Chettle (Proc. of Brit. Acad., 1903-1904, p. 202). Dr. Ward, while rejecting Mr. Fleays identifications as a whole, considers that by the time the final part was written the author may have more or less identified Ingenioso with Nashe, though the character was not originally conceived with this intention. This is of course possible, and the fact that Ingenioso himself speaks in praise of Nashe, who is regarded as dead, is not an insuperable objection. We must not, however, overlook the fact that the author was evidently very familiar with Nashe's works, and that all three parts, not only in the speeches of Ingenioso, but throughout, are full of reminiscences of his writings.

The only part of the trilogy which was in print at an early date was 2 Return, called simply The Return from Parnassus, or the Scourge of Simony (1606), two editions bearing the same date. This has been several times reprinted, the best separate edition being that of Professor Arber in the English Scholars' Library (1879). Manuscript copies of all three plays were found among T. Hearne's papers in the Bodleian by the Rev. W. D. Macray and were printed by him in 1886 (the last from one of the editions of 1606, collated with the manuscript). A recent edition (as of 1911) in modern spelling by Mr O. Smeaton in the Temple Dramatists is of little value. All questions connected with the play have been elaborately discussed by Dr. W. Lflhr in a dissertation entitled Die drei cambridger Spiele vom Parnass (Kiel, 1900). See also, Dr. Ward's English Dramatic Literature, ii. 633-642; F. G. Fleay's Biog. Chron. of the Eng. Drama, ii. 347-355.

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, a publication in the public domain.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parnassus_Plays"

Categories: 1911 Britannica | British drama