Confessions of a Superhero
by When I was a kid, I collected Archie comics. Yup, those cheery, wondrous excursions into surburban, middle-America. For someone growing up around the somewhat tame beaches of Sydney, Australia, this window into the girl vs boy fixation of American teenagers — as reflected in the bright eyed adventures of Archie and his crew — bordered on the obsessive. I had garbage bags of them, comic book after comic book piled up and dog eared from repeated reading. Oh, and I had a crush on Betty. But that’s another story altogether. This documentary, Confessions of a Superhero, which chronicles the day to day existence of four faux superheroes panhandling on Hollywood Boulevard, makes me feel a whole lot better about that traumatic day at age sixteen when, convinced I had finally outgrown them, I packed up my entire collection of Archie comics and sold it to a kid down the street. Sigh. I still recall the sense of loss that enveloped me as I handed the bags over in exchange for $50 and a thick wad of football cards. But now I’m grateful for that moment of belated epiphany. Afterall, I could’ve easily ended up sporting a red wig, op shop clothes and flogging fake smiles and hugs on LA’s tackiest strip.
Tagged: comics, Los Angeles, superheroes
RELATED
The Secret Confessions of Cartoon Heroes
Ever want to know what your favorite superhero is really like? Ever wondered what was going on in the head of one of your childhood cartoons? The truth is that they think of random stupidity, just like everyone else. The Munchausen Affect has given you a passage to those intimate, personal, and downright silly thoughts.
The Museum of Jurassic Technology, Los Angeles
At this unique privately owned museum in Los Angeles, one has to walk through a maze of corridors within the softly lit exhibits where you are introduced to an alternative history that you would not read in history books. Read more
Plumed Serpent: unique head-dresses by Daniella White
Daniella White is the designer of Plumed Serpent, extravagant headdresses that she hand makes herself in Los Angeles. Each headdress is a magical blend of feathers, recycled furs, vintage jewels and gems, fine fabrics and chains. You truly become a goddess, a queen or whatever your heart desires when you wear her pieces. Where do you wear them? I like to walk around the house in my bathrobe with my fancy Plumed Serpent pieces. Yes, I collect them and I feel fabulous. Read more
Also by ZOLTON
Maths explains the origin of superhero characters
I love the colours and simple reasoning in this clever series by Scottish illustrator Matt Cowen, which uses basic maths equations to explain how certain pop culture icons came to be. Read more
Star Wars Uncut: a fully crowdsourced version of Episode IV
The project of creative technologist, Casey Pugh, this full length version of the George Lucas masterpiece was created from multiple 15 second segments recreated from the original movie and submitted by thousands of Star Wars fans, which were then spliced together by editor Aaron Valdez to form the final product. Genius, as both a commentary on contemporary pop culture trends (there are references to LEGO, stop motion, memes and the like) and on the power of tapping your audience for quality material.
Filmmaker creates LEGO stop motion to propose to girlfriend
Now, this is one for the ages: back in 2010, Atlanta film-maker Walter Thompson created a jaw-dropping LEGO stop motion to propose to Nealey Dozier, his girlfriend of four years. The video took 22 hours of shooting and some 2,600 pictures to splice together, a small sacrifice to pay for years of happiness together. Right? Right! Oh, and she said yes. Bonus.
YOU'RE SAYING (0)
No comments yet.
HAVE YOUR SAY
We asked New York-based photographer Mitchell Feinberg where he draws his inspiration from: ‘It can come from anywhere: a window display, a sculpture exhibit, even the basement of a hardware store. Sometimes I will have an old idea that takes many years to gel. Sometimes I’ll come up with something at the last minute. The Muse never tips her hat. As for still life photographs, Karl Blossfeldt’s plant studies, Steichen’s patterns for Stehli silks, and Mr. Penn’s still lifes stay with me, like old friends’. There’s an extensive interview with Feinberg on the Feature Shoot photography blog.
I aspired to be the sort of illustrator Wesley Allsbook is when I was a kid. I wanted to be precise, detailed, and expressive while being light-handed, loose, and artsy comic-worthy. Read more
Seldom has black humour been done so well. On the surface, this film about the everyday lives of some unusually mundane characters, sounds extraordinarily boring. But it is instead a cutting comment on the absurdity and drudgery of everyday life. The characters try to break out or change their lives without success, and the results are bleak and hilarious. Read more
Foster + Partners has declared that the walled city of Masdar in Abu Dhabi will be the world’s first zero-carbon and zero-waste city. Read more
This is a simple, fun interactive website that lets you play and construct your own models that follow simple physical laws. It’s very immediate and fun to start throwing the models around and enjoy hours of wasted time.
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs are primarily remembered for the song Wooly Bully, but I’ve been incessantly listening to Little Red Riding Hood. As a metalhead, any song that features howling makes me happy.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
North Carolina-based company CityFabric offers t-shirts with figure-ground diagrams of various cities printed on them. I’m waiting for them to make a Baltimore one.
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Pitched as ‘Ulterior Motives in Contemporary Art’, Disorder Disorder is running until November 14 at Penrith Regional Gallery. It’ll be well worth the trip out west of Sydney: the Australian, Japanese, American and European cast reads like a warriors of street art roundup and includes Mike Giant, Ed Templeton, Anthony Lister [artwork above], Ozzie Wright, and Jonathan Zawada. Read more
Nerd-attack! Man, this TARDIS zipper robe is so much cooler than any Star Wars crap people are hawking this days. This is for the true gangsta nerd.
Francoise Nielly’s Yellow series
Parisian visual artist Francoise Nielly brings technicolour to the forefront in her latest series, Yellow. Featuring thick impasto palette knife strokes and trippy neon hues, Nielly captures the vulnerable expressions of her muses to a tee. Read more
Honest Food Preparation Instructions
Yes, we’ve all been there: the chinese food from last week that still looks edible amongst the bare surrounds of an empty fridge. But really, we shouldn’t. Just let it be. Or College Humor will expose you! Read more
Baltimore Mural by Josh Van Horne
My friend Josh Van Horne, a local Baltimore artist, did this amazing mural in our neighborhood that depicts the history of this warehouse-laden area.
This cool black unisex t shirt by UK label Client is made in England, printed in Berlin, and beautifully packaged in East Berlin cartonage, especially designed for Client. Read more
If you have a Twitter feed that focuses on cool pop cultural things and you’d like to swap Tweets with Lost At E Minor and other like-minded Twitterers, drop us a note (with Tweet Swap in the title). We have a system in place and we’d like to have you in on it! [illustration by Brad Fitzpatrick]
FOLLOW US
DISCOVER MORE
SO...
SEARCH: Can't find what you're looking for? Do a search..
IS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?
We hope you're enjoying your time on Lost At E Minor, but it's not over yet. Got something to share? Tell us about it and we'll look to publish it. If you want to have your work featured on the site, we'd love to hear from you. Pssst, we also have an online store stocking some of the goodies we feature on the site.
If you're a media agency and want to use this platform to connect with our readership, then drop us a line and tell us about it. Oh yeah, and we do digital consulting for cool brands that want to reach the sort of demographic that visits this site.
