For anyone who missed it, it began with what I can only described as “Previously on the Vancouver Winter Olympics…” Lights up on those 3 raised prongs, with the fourth stubbornly in its Opening Ceremonies position of stubborn unraised stuckage. Out comes what my stagehand friends are already dubbing “Techie-Clown”, who takes a hammer from his toolbelt and gets the thing into position, and on we go.
That’s just awesome. It’s having the sense of humor to say “OOPS” on the big stage. The world was watching, we dropped the ball big time, and we’re the first to laugh at it. How can you not love that?
Then there’s Domino’s Pizza. I was in (ironically) a pizza shop the other day and they had CNBC running. Fourth quarter earnings from Domino’s Pizza are through the roof. There’s this thoroughly depressing chart depicting fifty companies with the same basic type of customer in terms of income, geography, etc. For the last 6 quarters, they’re all doing pretty much the same thing: down, down, down, down, and down. No real surprise there. Then, last month, there’s this one red line on the graph whose head pops up while everybody else goes down. Domino’s. WTF? Domino’s? Really? Domino’s pizza? Yep. You know why? The “we were making a really stinky product” campaign. The “We were the only ones not admitting and now we are and we’re fixing it” campaign. Domino’s own CEO came right out and said they were doing everything right in terms of corporate identity, advertising, logistics, business model, staffing—everything right except THE PRODUCT. They problem wasn’t the advertising, the economy, or the staff, it was as fundamental as the crust, the sauce and the cheese. They admitted it and then they fixed it. Reward: record profits.
I’m just sayin’.
Okay, enough of that crap, back to CT. It was a really good week for the Tales. Chapter 3: Gallows Humor was released, and Jokers fans were pleased to see that even though this was laughing boy’s first major appearance since The Dark Knight, Cat-Tales Joker is still very much Cat-Tales Joker (Accept no substitutes, Kiddies! HAHAHAHAHAAAA! Discontinue use if you experience sudden bouts of sanity or develop normal skin pigmentation.)
IMO, the landmark Joker escapades in other media occur when Big J is trying to make a point. From driving Jim Gordon crazy (to prove that all it takes to turn anybody into him is one really bad day) to the TDK Joker’s blow up the other ferry challenge (Milleresque attempt to prove everyone is just as corrupt, ugly and morally bankrupt as he is), the cruelty and carnage is not cruelty & carnage for its own sake. It’s to make a point. That’s not something our CT Joker excels at. He just doesn’t have the attention span, most days. I’d say that’s a big reason he’s come to rely on Harley more than he ever planned to: she carries the one. In Gallows Humor, he did have a point to begin with, but as BenRG noticed, he started having so much fun, the whys behind it got away from him. Silly ass.
Anyway, the chapter was very well received, and Jacker’s first foray into another rogue’s theme seems to have been sufficiently creepy. The other development last week was that I finally got around to swapping out the old artwork on the website. For those who aren’t aware, “Wanders Nowhere,” the CT insider who pens the Capes and Bats spinoff, is a fantastically talented cgi artist. Last year he made a virtual Gotham City and allowed me to take a bunch of snapshots of our favorite feline in situ, prowling the rooftops as nature intended. Those pictures have been sitting here on my harddrive for at least 6 months, waiting… waiting… waiting. Finally I got around to popping them into place. It’s nice to have a more realistic Catwoman up there, just to help with that division between The Post and Reality.
Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com
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