As you can see, I’m trying something new yet again with the newsletter. After seeing that a few people whose newsletters I enjoy have been coming from Substack, I wanted to give it a try. The content will largely remain the same, but don’t be surprised if I keep changing things up because I’m horrible at making decisions.
Recommended Reading
Apple Music's Next Era -- And the New Leader Spurring Global Growth
While Apple Music was thriving on the outside though, there was strife within the company. Despite having nearly $250 billion in cash on hand, Apple always had focused on executing quietly, on time and on budget. Iovine, the old-school music executive, spent what, sources say, some in the music division considered an excessive amount of money on exclusives, music videos and documentaries. A rift arose between his acolytes and Apple traditionalists.
The music industry spends quite a bit of money on artists, especially ones that are already big and bringing in the bulk of the money. Iovine comes from an era where money was poured into new artists with potential and it comes as no surprise that he may have overspent in an attempt to make Apple Music into a powerhouse in the streaming world. However, I don’t think I’ve ever watched maybe more than one music video on the platform. The exclusives were never why I subscribed and I know I can’t be the only one.
Everything else in the article is worth a read, too. Nice job by Micah Singleton on this one.
What's Already Good, Bad, and Ugly About JOKER
I love Batman’s gallery of rogues as much as the next person, but I don’t want executives assuming that Joker’s possible success means that audiences want movies about villains. The Joker is arguably the most notable comic book villain of all time, and it makes sense from a marketing standpoint and even a creative one to have him headline a picture. And while some antagonistic characters have enough malleability to them where they certainly could be the star of a one-off feature, that is one of the least interesting repercussions that Joker could cause.
My friend, Drew Dietsch, wrote about Joker and all the ways the film could turn out for WB/DC and fans. It can either go well or horribly wrong with a few potential options in between. I highly recommend reading this if you have mixed feelings on the movie (or even if you don’t).
Recommended Viewing
Well, I will definitely be going to see Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark.
Podcasts
Welcome to Geekdom 142 - Toy Story 3
Tim Mathews returned for a discussion on Toy Story 3. Hopefully we’ll be talking about Toy Story 4 soon, too!
Chat Sematary 36 - A Return to Salem’s Lot
Alex DiVincenzo from Broke Horror Fan made his first appearance on the podcast.
Matt Fraction is at it again with Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen
When I first saw that Matt Fraction was going to be working on a Jimmy Olsen story, I knew right away that I’d have to read it. Artist Steve Lieber was recently on Off Panel talking about his work and of course this series came up. To have these two guys working with each other along with Nathan Fairbairn and Clayton Cowles makes for a great creative team.
Jimmy Olsen is one of those characters who has been by Superman’s side more often than not. He’s not a hero in the typical sense, but he is a sort of sidekick to Superman. Jimmy is all about documenting the action and this first issue dives into the many problems that it tends to cause along the way.
There’s plenty of action in it, since that is what Jimmy documents, but it also covers the idea that, yes, someone does need to pay whenever damage is done. For The Daily Planet, Jimmy is a liability and Matt Fraction gives us a look at a side of the publication that we don’t see usually.
Is this comic something that is going to be super deep and make you think about it for a long time? Maybe not, but it sure is a ton of fun. Jimmy Olsen is one of those quirky characters who is basically famous by association. Without Superman, he might not even be working at the paper still.
Marvel and DC have long done major event storylines that call for reading multiple titles at once to get the full picture. However, with a 12-issue maxi-series, this allows for Matt Fraction to tell a consolidated story without having to worry about what the various Superman titles are doing. It’s a fun way to get a glimpse at characters who aren’t always at the forefront of the stories. Sure, Jimmy Olsen had his own series before, but I get the feeling this one will be quite different.
I’m excited to see how this series turns out and I highly recommend reading any comic that Matt Fraction has worked on.