Howdy
My name’s Jason, and I’m a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of Texas at Austin. I’m (hopefully) less than a year away from finishing my dissertation. I study popular fictions in the mediasphere (X-Men, EverQuest, The Matrix), considering issues of authorship, audience participation, “narrative management” and story multiplicity. I’m being kind of obtuse here, but I hope you’ll get a better idea as you read the entries.
I’ve just come back to school after 3 years in “the world” developing Web applications: a year at ActiveInk Corporation during the heady days of start-ups and two at Cirrus Logic after that bubble burst. I’ve been working with ExploreLearning this summer and hope to keep doing so throughout the year. Most of my time’s been spent with Java/J2EE and ColdFusion. I’ve done a lot of XML programming (Java XML APIs, schemas, XSLT), and XML’s holding a lot of my interest at the moment. I’m also about to enter the world of PHP with an app here at school.
I’m married to a fantastic guy named Mike.
I read a lot of comics.
Crafty,
Nice web page and long time no see. Nice pic of you and Mike btw. I have a few questions for you as a scholar of popular culture.
1)Why does Weapon XIII still use pistols if he is so advanced to have his nervous system outside his body?(If it’s only to look cool, ok)
2)Have you or do you read Rex Mundi?(comic)
3)Is there a comic in print or in the works that is as insightful and entertaining at so many levels as the Simpsons TV show?
4)Are you writing your own comics or screenplays now?
5)In your opinion, have mainstream comics(Marvel in particular) gone too far into “reality” or “real world” issues like terrorism and become too “preachy” or not enough in that direction.
6)Do mainline comics publishers use consultants for stories to actually try to portray thinks accurately? e.g. religion, language, places, etc. I see so many mistakes made in my particular field(religion).
Hope all is well.
Good luck finishing your dissertation.
The Rev. Jonathon Jensen
Rector
Trinity Church
Lawrence, KS
Hey Jonny! I just found your comment… still not a Movable Type expert.
1.) Of course it’s to look cool! Fantomex is the cool one, that’s his media persona!
2.) I didn’t know Rex Mundi until a minute ago… I just it looked up. I’ll check it out on Wed. when I go to the shop — I can see why it would be your speed
3.) If The Invisibles was funny, then it would exceed The Simpsons. The Simpsons is tough to beat, though I’m willing to go on record with the controversial assertion that Futurama is actually better right now.
4.) I’m not allowed to write anything besides my dissertation!
5.) I think “reality comics” is a great trend when done right — take a look at Peter Milligan’s stuff, X-Statix and Human Target. Of course, they’re all about the unreality of reality… anyway, preachy comics don’t usually work well, but the comics that engage actively with our culture make comics reading worth it, imho.
6.) I don’t think they use consultants at all, and they don’t use them in movies either… ask me about the realistic portrayal of software development in Swordfish sometime.
Thanks for the comment, Jonny! I’ll drop you an email…