The Color of Catwoman

The Color of is a fascinating new website "to find the colour of anything." Give it a word or a phrase and it searches through Flickr, selects its best matches, and ingeniously manages to combine them without making mud.

 

The result are some lovely canvases that would look right at home on the wall of an art museum, and that's exactly what we've done at The Gotham Museum of Modern Art at The Cat-Tales Visitor Center in Second Life. The Color of Gotham exhibit gives The Color of treatment to many familiar names associated with Batman, as well as items like the Batsignal, Batarangs and the city itself. Those who cannot visit the museum in digitized person can enjoy this slideshow.

 

While the Color of Gotham exhibit at the MoMA will run through the summer, the Rogues Gallery Masks will be on display at the Visitor Center itself only for the duration of the current Cat-Tale: Comedy of Errors.

Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com

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*Discreet cough* Oh Mr. Nolan, A Word in Your Ear

There’s an ad out right now for Netflix or some similar outfit that talks about the different levels a good children’s movie should have: accessible to kids but with more going that speaks to adults. The Toy Story universe is a perfect example, it has its own analogy for
Death, for God's sake. While the toys can cease to exist by being utterly destroyed, that’s not it. They might fear winding up on Sid’s worktable and having fireworks strapped to their ass, but that’s not a fate that is going to befall every toy. There is a different reality, a painful one that every one of them will have to face sooner or later: the children who play with them will grow up. They all know it, and like us living folks and the Grim Reaper, they try not to think about it. There is a REASON the staples of our popular storytelling revolve around heroes who can die but don’t, who come through dangerous situation after dangerous situation and always come out triumphant and unscathed—and that reason isn’t because car chases are cool or explosions look awesome on the big screen. It’s because we are all food for worms and we know it. As always, those who understand the moving parts that make a story work will keep on pulling off these amazing hits, while those grasping desperately at stunt after stunt will keep on failing.

Pixar is one of those who understand. They succeed more often than is statistically possible, and a huge part of that is drop-dead perfect storytelling. When they made Toy Story 2, there were exactly two sequels to spectacularly popular movies which were recognized as better than the originals: The Godfather Part II and The Empire Strikes Back. John Lassiter, et al STUDIED those movies, not in a dumb superficial way but by delving into their structures and content: how much of the first films were referenced, how much was built on, how much was new. Not just churning out more of the same. Not trashing everything that made the originals what they were. Theme and variation, theme and recapitulation. It was a magnificent effort, and the results were amazing. Toy Story 2 is a damn good movie. So is 3, btw, but I’m talking about first sequels for a reason.

There is now a third movie sequel that is significantly better than the original. It’s
The Dark Knight. The difference is that the original was no Godfather. Batman Begins was not a great movie. It was good, but it was seriously flawed—and while certain fanboys may start to howl at those words, Christopher Nolan and his band are certainly not among them. They know their first film was flawed because they set about fixing every single one of its shortcomings in the second. They even TOLD US that’s what they were doing. What was it Bruce said stitching himself up? “I learn from my mistakes.”

NOW, not in 2005 but now, today, Christopher Nolan is in that same position as Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and John Lassiter. He’s made the perfect Batman movie. How in the name of Robert Abraham Kane do you top it? I say take a page from Toy Story and analyze those two great sequels: Godfather II and ESB, and also--this is important--forget Batman Begins ever happened. Calm down, I’m not saying scrap its continuity. I know that kind of talk makes the fanboys heads explode. I’m saying for sequel-writing purposes, Batman Begins is no foundation. Approach B3 as a second movie with the goal of surpassing
TDK as if it was the only Batman movie ever made. All Begins had to do was be better than Schumacher. The aforementioned Netflix ad can do that much. The video for the Batman rollercoaster at six flags that instructs you how to use a seatbelt—better than Schumacher. So making Begins posed none of those expectations challenges. Then, making
TDK, begins left you with a nice checklist of errors to fix. That isn’t the case here.
TDK was perfect. It was PERFECT. So this is terra incognita, Mr. Nolan, and it’s time to turn our attention to Pixar’s approach, looking to the great sequels and cracking the code of what made them work. That done, that formula achieved, apply it to the “original” --but that original to be drawn upon and built upon is
TDK.

One woman’s opinion, of course. Your mileage may vary, except in Wisconsin. Batteries not included.

In other news, not a lot of writing happened last week. The triple release of the visitor center, the cocktails, and the new website burned up a lot of purple kitty energy. But not to worry, ground is broken on Chapter 7, and now that The TBA that Ate Tokyo is TBA no more, everything will be going a lot faster.

Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com

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From the Mailbag: Logo Evolution

Here's some fun. A friend sent me this evolution of the Batman logo from College Humor

Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
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This Week in Cat-Tales

Gave the first tour of the TBA. That was beyond exciting. I was hoping to actually ANNOUNCE said TBA at the end of the month, but it’s already the 28th (how the hell did that happen?!). Right now, it’s looking like some technical issues may delay it another week or so, but still, it’s exciting to have it in sight. And speaking of technical issues, I’ve about had it with this laptop acting up. I was planning to put off a new ‘puter as long as possible, since it will probably necessitate a move to Windows 7 and experience has shown it’s best to give any new MS operating system a loooong time to work out the kinks. But now I’m having second thoughts. I’m looking at traveling a lot more again in the future, like I used to, and a RELIABLE laptop is a necessity. Apologies to Eddie, but any computer where start-up is a GREAT BIG QUESTION MARK is not desirable.

Anyway, back to CT. Finished the pre-conversion edits on Cat-Tales #55: I Believe in Harvey Dent, which means it is now available for Kindle and Mobi Readers, as well as the ever-popular printable PDFs. I also finished work on Chapter 5 of Don’t Fear the Joker, which is now out for beta. The first reader got back to me already, the other… eh, might be a few days yet. But it will be ready soon.

And that concludes the catch-up on Cat-Tales. We just have time for one quick catch-up from the mailbag backlog. Check out this Original Comic Art Marketplace at Thrillist.com

Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com

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The Week in Cat-Tales

Whew. Two major projects coming to a head at the same time. Let’s try not to do that again for a while.

First things first: Congratulations to Loren Weisman on the epoch-making launch of The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business. Huzzah! Apparently the after party at Seattle’s famous Tini Bigs was quite the event, complete with – be still my heart – a new signature martini made for the event by one of the country’s great mixologists, Shane Sahr.

As for the book, you know, most creative fields are beset by an Echo Boomer problem: kids coming out of a system where they have been rewarded for participation and not achievement. The result is they hit the real world with no clue what they are actually good at and where their talents are barely adequate. They come in expecting the real world to be set up the way their previous environments have been: designed to help them achieve and to advance them as quickly as possible – or preferably faster. This in the industry of “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” Surprise, kids! No theatre, no movie studio, no nightclub, no record label, no publisher, no agent, no manager, no anybody anywhere is going to do that, even if you actually have the once in a decade talent you believe you do. Loren’s book is a milestone in actually letting aspiring artists IN on those realities. Instead of talking about them behind closed doors, he talks to them, explaining the facts of life frankly but honestly. IMO, at least half will react like Talia: hysterical scream fits, angry assertions that her deluded fantasy Is, Was, and Always Will Be. You’re a big fat meanie for even suggesting otherwise, all her Facebook friends say so too and so does her mom and so does the Easter Bunny. Elvis lives! In all probably, innocent crockery will die… But the other half, that’s who this book is for. They can and will step up, grow up, and become real artists.

Anyway, book release. Despite that excitement and the next phase – testing – on the infamous TBA that ate Tokyo, I did manage to complete edits and roll out the kindle and mobi for Cat-Tales #54: War of the Poses. Even got a few chapters done of CT55. Speaking of CT#55, it appears that Christopher Nolan appeared at something called WonderCon not too long ago and surreptitiously waved the checkered flag on a viral for his upcoming flick: Inception. That set off a slew of new visits to our Dark Knight viral sites. So CT-readers, if you missed out on the alternate reality game the first time, just a heads up that those websites are still out there for your vicarious Gotham-living pleasure.

And finally, yes, writing is ready to resume on Don’t Fear the Joker. It was a good weekend for Laughing Boy, which is to say, a crappy weekend for Gotham, but what can you do. That’s the way the clattering teeth clatter, HAHAHAHAAAAAAA!

And, since I am several weeks behind sharing goodies from the mailbag, check this out: a “Kodak Moment” doesn’t begin to cover it.

Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com

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Vancouver, Domino’s Pizza and You (know who you are)

Okay, who watched it?  This is supposed to be the Cat-Tales blog, and we’ll get to that in a second.  But first, who watched the closing ceremonies? 

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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