Boss Fight Studios 1/12 and EPIC HACKS

For me, especially with certain franchises and their creators, my belief is that once the art is out there, it's not theirs anyway. And we see this everyday when people make art or fanfic or cosplay or they explain why something is important to them, even if that's not even what it was meant to in the original medium.

It's what the people took away and how it reinforced their life. So even if the Creator is a s*******, it's too late.

But I know that's very contentious among other people, especially with things like Rowling. But what do you want. Those lives were changed two or three decades ago at this point. You cannot support it going forward. And maybe you decide you don't want to revisit movies and books.

God knows I went through it with Gaiman. I'm still terrified to be like I like these books in public.

But I think to hold that standard for everybody else is where you lose people as I've talked about in the political thread.

Anyway the toys. Yeah it's shady. I'm sure there's all kinds of shady stuff. I need to eke out the happiness I can, and I don't see anyone else giving me Red Sonja. Other people are giving me Conan, but this one looks like you can actually play with it.
This is really well put, and it is often very personal to each individual as to how they deal with the issue of a creator turning out to be awful.

Also went through it with Gaiman, especially as his work really shaped my interests in literature when I was younger. Ultimately though, the art has meaning beyond the artist and it's impact on your life is a completely personal experience. In that regard, I refuse to let another person's (even the artist's) reprehensible actions diminish that.

It's difficult though, and with some things I've just walked away entirely. I still haven't re-read anything of Gaiman's since the news came out and I won't financially support anything he does in the future.

In other news... that Hellboy is pretty massive tho.
 
Re: size

Back in the day they used to do Two Ups, I think it was called. Do they even need to do those anymore or is everything just straight digital to prototype now?
 
Also went through it with Gaiman, especially as his work really shaped my interests in literature when I was younger. Ultimately though, the art has meaning beyond the artist and it's impact on your life is a completely personal experience. In that regard, I refuse to let another person's (even the artist's) reprehensible actions diminish that.
Particularly with Gaiman (And maybe it's the case for others that I just don't consume) once I read a lot of the allegations, there were certain stories and characterizations that immediately came to mind and it just made too much sense to me even before I heard the defense.

The other big one for me is the band Anti Flag. That one was too monumental and I will never go back. Which sucks. It's weird when some of your ethics and awareness comes from people that work actually just being performative so they could be disgusting. Anyway.

Toys.
 
Particularly with Gaiman (And maybe it's the case for others that I just don't consume) once I read a lot of the allegations, there were certain stories and characterizations that immediately came to mind and it just made too much sense to me even before I heard the defense.
Neil was on my list of like, five men I was like "PLEASE DON'T LET ME DOWN." I don't think I have anybody left on that list. Not that they all let me down, but there were so few I just don't want to admire anyone anymore. I'll never go back to Neil, but that's because it felt like a personal affront.

My line for consuming their work is if they're still a) actively making money off it and b) still actively bad people. There's a few writers who were outed as sleazy, disappeared, might write a TV episode or a novella once in a while and basically owned their banishment and went away. I don't hold them nearly in the contempt of folks who try to brush things off. And then you've got Joann who just invents new ways to be shitty every day. I think of how James Gunn got called out for some shitty statements from 18 years ago - you can become better over time if you say harmful things. Nobody's perfect, but you can choose to double down or be better.

Meanwhile, Lovecraft was a garbage human, but he's dead and his work is in the public domain. I'll still read his stuff sometimes because there's no ongoing harm.

I don't think humans are all irredeemable but it's the ones who tell you what they are and continue to do harm that I write off completely.

I reckon there's a lot of dead men who created characters in toy lines I love I wouldn't respect if they were still kicking, but they've shuffled off this mortal coil, so enjoying their work feels less dirty to me.
 
Re: size

Back in the day they used to do Two Ups, I think it was called. Do they even need to do those anymore or is everything just straight digital to prototype now?
I definitely haven't seen a 2-up in a while. I think it might be that step got deleted with the advent of 3d printed prototypes.

The more I look at the Hellboy today the more I think I might pass on him. Not because he doesn't look good, but just because I don't know if I need to start another line. I think he does look like a pretty loving render of Mignola's style, so at least by that metric the line seems successful.
 
I think, like with most stuff, there's no one-size-fits-all answer. Everyone's personal moral event horizon is different.

Somewhere else I talked about how I basically can't watch The Professional anymore because it feels like a confession now, and it's hard even to watch Fifth Element, a movie I really love, because of the added context of what's going on with the lead actress, Diva's actress, and the director. By the same token, I'm not getting rid of my copy of L.A. Confidential just because of Spacey. He doesn't get to ruin that whole movie for me by himself. I reserve the right to be inconsistent.

I think there is utility in not supporting people who are ongoing threats to various communities (like in the case of Rowling who puts a LOT of effort into being awful). But I'm also not going to ditch a friend who reads Harry Potter to their kids and whatnot. I don't buy Rowling's stuff, but I don't think buying a HP wand remote is the same as spending a majority of your free time actively lobbying to end trans healthcare. And i don't think there's a single major media thing that I could engage with at this point that isn't, on some level, deeply compromised. A shitbag will have worked on it, or it will have been financed by Weinstein, or it will be subtly military propaganda, or the company who made it will have laid everyone off six seconds after completion and kicked their dogs or something. Nothing is pure.

I guess my take is conscientious consuming is good, absolutely, but less than conscientious consuming isn't necessarily evil.

And I reserve the right to change my mind and be inconsistent on that thought too.
It's really hard. As you say, there is no one-size-fits-all response.

I don't have a hard and fast rule, but generally, I try not to support shitty people. There are a lot of good people making good things, so I try to support them instead. Case in point: I loved the first season of FX's The English Teacher. The creator and star was accused of some awful things. Not watching the show made my life slightly worse, but it was a small sacrifice to take the moral high ground. I'm sure that sounds sanctimonious, but as the world falls to shit because of morally compromised people, I think we need more of it. Case in point:


And this is the quoted post, which isn't public:

bafkreih2zqvcgpj6zpyrwbkuac3jcytgt53m4or77wtkbbyvp3behzhh7u@jpeg


Being a good person used to be important.

Normal folks enjoying art that changed their lives is a lot trickier. Rowling is the perfect example. I won't look down on you for reading Harry Potter to your kids, but I'm never giving that woman another dollar. You have to decide for yourself.

Buying a $40 Hellboy or Conan figure isn't going to make or break the world or the shitty people in it. You just have to get to a place where you're morally comfortable with your actions.

I don't want to go down the "no ethical consumption under capitalism" road, but I'm sitting next to a cabinet of Marvel & DC figures. You know who never paid their writers or artists fairly?

I think if you're having the conversation and thinking about it critically, you're on the right path.
 
Neil was on my list of like, five men I was like "PLEASE DON'T LET ME DOWN." I don't think I have anybody left on that list. Not that they all let me down, but there were so few I just don't want to admire anyone anymore. I'll never go back to Neil, but that's because it felt like a personal affront.
The MeToo era was instructive. I try to keep my parasocial relationships with celebrities at arm's length now.

Louis CK and Joss Whedon were the two big heartbreakers for me. CK was my favorite comedian and "I like Joss Whedon" was my whole personality in college.

Accusations against Marc Maron and a few different directors (Scorsese, PTA, Bong, and Park) would still get me today.
 
It's really hard. As you say, there is no one-size-fits-all response.

I don't have a hard and fast rule, but generally, I try not to support shitty people. There are a lot of good people making good things, so I try to support them instead. Case in point: I loved the first season of FX's The English Teacher. The creator and star was accused of some awful things. Not watching the show made my life slightly worse, but it was a small sacrifice to take the moral high ground. I'm sure that sounds sanctimonious, but as the world falls to shit because of morally compromised people, I think we need more of it. Case in point:


And this is the quoted post, which isn't public:

bafkreih2zqvcgpj6zpyrwbkuac3jcytgt53m4or77wtkbbyvp3behzhh7u@jpeg


Being a good person used to be important.

Normal folks enjoying art that changed their lives is a lot trickier. Rowling is the perfect example. I won't look down on you for reading Harry Potter to your kids, but I'm never giving that woman another dollar. You have to decide for yourself.

Buying a $40 Hellboy or Conan figure isn't going to make or break the world or the shitty people in it. You just have to get to a place where you're morally comfortable with your actions.

I don't want to go down the "no ethical consumption under capitalism" road, but I'm sitting next to a cabinet of Marvel & DC figures. You know who never paid their writers or artists fairly?

I think if you're having the conversation and thinking about it critically, you're on the right path.
I also think an aspect of that public virtue stuff, is that it's a lot easier to not worry about the consumption end of things as the moral barometer of our society when the laws hold powerful people to task for their crimes. Or when they are generally ostracized from their professions for bad behavior. A lot of the reason we're getting to wring hands is because other people offloaded that burden.

Like, HBO doesn't need to produce a Harry Potter series. That's a choice they made, and they could have put that money elsewhere. Could've said "thanks for the movies, Jo, but we're moving on." It's sort of like I said in the politics thread, so much of the job of policing the powerful is falling not on other powerful people who can deliver punishments or close doors, but on everyone else to do these little micro-demonstrations of morality. You are required in your life to make a calculation on whether or not another Harry potter series (or whatever) is something you can engage with because there was no way the C-Suite was going to pass it up unless it was positively radioactive.
 
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I think if you're having the conversation and thinking about it critically, you're on the right path.
Honestly, this is all we can all do. There's no one size fits all barometer. Having some measure of public decency and public ethics would be nice, though, but it feels like our society has moved on from that.

To save myself from more soul-crushing cynicism, I'm just going say something thread-appropriate and point out that the photos of pirate Sonja from NYCC makes me regret not preordering her even though I have two Sonjas I'm pretty happy with overall already. I really thought "niche Red Sonja" was an easy pass for me money wise, but she really pops.
 
Man, I'm really tempted by that Popeye box set.
If you're referring to the one at Walmart, I think it's a good deal for those figures. You'd get the big three Popeye characters for a good price. The only drawback is that the set (which is wave 1 of the line) has Castor Oyl (Olive's brother) instead of Wimpy, who is the 4th most popular character (he is in wave 2).
 
Yes. I've been admiring the line from a far since it started and am a massive fan of the Fleischer cartoons, but just wasn't sure about the quality of the figures. I'd be okay with Castor since I liked his character in the movie, and them having Jeep in the set almost makes up for no Wimpy.
 
Was considering the blue Immortal Champions skeleton on Walmart but looks like they sold out. Maybe it'll pop up again.
 
Yes. I've been admiring the line from a far since it started and am a massive fan of the Fleischer cartoons, but just wasn't sure about the quality of the figures. I'd be okay with Castor since I liked his character in the movie, and them having Jeep in the set almost makes up for no Wimpy.
Popeye Classics is one of my favorite lines. The figures look pretty unique on the shelf. The articulation isn't anything remarkable, but it's enough. Be careful with the Olive figure. Mine broke at the shoulder, likely because they are so skinny. Popeye's hair gets in the way of his hat. Those are the biggest knocks on wave 1. The wave 3 figures are great, and supposedly there'll be a 4th wave.
 
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