Webcomic Extinction of the Month: The Goddamn Panty Brigade

A couple of years ago, there was a comic by the title of The Goddamn Panty Brigade! or Panty Brigade as it was most commonly known. It was about a group of girls who spent their time doing nerdy fangirl things (playing video games, card games, watching anime, etc. Each one was actually assigned a geeky obsession), talking about sex or just being slutty (not going to say promiscuous) and doing random acts of violence. Overall, the artist's favorite things about FLCL and Tank Girl (his supposed inspirations/aspirations).

The comic's art wasn't that bad mind you, there are some anatomy problems, but it did have a nice color and energy in the FLCL style. Humor and story wise, it was all sexual references, typical nerd references, and random acts of violence. But that's just the humor. The story revolves around the group trying to start up a band, but realize they can't play any instruments (except the "skin flute" according to one of them) and end up just starting up a myspace page for their fictional band. Some desperate guy contacts them and sets them up to play at a friend's party, where they proceed to steal beer, attack people, meet a new friend, and eventually destroy everything. Afterwards, with new group member on board, they hold and a yard sale and begin to kill everyone because coins come out of them. Like enemies in Super Mario Bros.

All of this was the original incarnation.

Then the artist decided to give the series a reboot because a review from Bad Webcomics Wiki. And so The Goddamn Panty Brigade was reborn with all of the characters, save for the new one (Jecks Huegrack), giving their spiel about how lonely and awful their life was before they met. It was a nice attempt, but lacked any real sentiment. This is where I left off.

Time Passed...

I recently thought about the comic during a recent visit to Bad Webcomics Wiki and thought about looking it up for old times' sake. What I ended up looking at was a page telling me that it no longer existed. Naturally, I tried looking it up with google and was led to a few hosting sites that had the last twelve comics of another recent reboot of the comic. I read through them and found it to be just be a remake of the original story, only without the sex and violence and stereotypes. The characters were cleansed of most of their original personalities and now lacked one of the original five members (the pyromaniac aptly named Cherry Bomb) as well as the newbie Jecks. The story switched from ruining a kegger to actually trying to start a fake band and win an online competition. The comic ends with them asleep after a long night of partying.

After finding this, I tried looking for the original comic again, but found only same page from before telling me it didn't exist. I then found the artist's own website, found nothing except new work and a small page talking about the reboot. From that point on I went on his deviantart account and found only a few pages from the original comic. They were last few pages of the second story from the first incarnation before he ended it and tried to flesh out his characters with a new story. I'll never know what happened after that and what led to the story that remains now, but a bigger question remains? What caused him to get rid of his comic and why? Was it attention to his other webcomic projects? Or maybe The Goddamn Panty Brigade wasn't working for him anymore. Maybe Bad Webcomics Wiki just got to the poor devil and realized no matter how hard he tried to make the comic appealing, it just wasn't going to work. I guess only he knows.

Here are some links of what remains of this comic.
Second story of the original incarnation: http://pandah-khan.deviantart.com/gallery/23720567
The third reboot or follow up to the second one: http://thegoddamnpantybrigade.smackjeeves.com/comics/956485/chapter-1-destroyer-idols/

Wapsi Square Conversation FINALLY Ready

Hello devoted followers, devoted few!

Afters months on hiatus, the Tetrad blog is back with a vengeance! Up for your download on Mediafire is a 40-minute dialog between our members David Mitchell and Carlos Enriquez. This dialog concerns the ups and downs, the diegetics, and the overall themes of the long-running comedy/drama webcomic, Wapsi Square.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zi0b7elz2ijftvk

Keep an eye out for more updates soon, Tetrad fans.

YouTube Noir #1

There is always a point in a video maker's life where he or she wants to do a film noir video. This usually ranges from parody to homage to straight copying, but one thing can't be denied, it's out there in spades. And rather than criticize it for its plentiful existence and clichedness, I've decided to do the opposite and look these many videos as a movement like it's originators or as a point in a young film/video makers life. I myself have done a few films in the film noir mold, so looking at these videos gives me a chance to see how film noir is interpreted by others, whether it is the classic staples or some new ones. 

Rather than going through it all scattershot, I've decided that the best way is to view these works in order according to what shows up when I search for Film Noir. These two videos are among the first.

Film Noir by PlaxinProductions

Two things strike me about this movie: one, it's simple title, which is what it aspires to be and two: What it is. What it is is a Sin City homage. From the opening titles to the cinematography to the music. Initially, I have no problem with this as it is a well made video and definitely emulates what it is paying homage to. In fact, the scene where the main character and attacks his teacher and beats him was one of the scenes I found very striking, but because it tries to be like Sin City so much I feel as though it would be a long shot to title it simply as Film Noir. Being a fan of the graphic novels by Frank Miller, I understand where his work was coming from as well as the movie in terms of drawing from Film Noir, but going as far as paying homage to an homage to film noir and then titling it as such seems too much like a stretch and ultimately displays a lack of understanding of the genre and movement itself. This is a good example of taking something that looks like the original and thinking it's the real McCoy. If there is anything that connects it to what it is trying to be it is the voiceover's resemblance to Fred MacMurray's voiceover in Double Indemnity, but as soon as that's over the credits start and we are back in the world of Sin City again.

Film Noir by ynikomarov

Where as my first discovery of YouTube Noir, mislead me in terms of content, my second one completely caught me off guard. From the beginning, the lighting and cinematography and jazzy musical score evokes the classic or cliched look of what Film Noir is to us. The Handheld camera movements and shots of musicians and use of negative space establish this piece as a minimalist work. But as setting starts to reveal itself a little more, we start to see sparkling and shiny surfaces that evoke less Film Noir and more the visual style of Josef von Sternberg. Already, there is a different take on what I'm watching. Then we're introduced to two characters who have a little conversation in another language. Rather than go look for another video to watch, I've become too involved with the visual style and mood to look away. A few more minutes into their conversation I can see that it is a simple one (they talk about jazz music), and because of its simplicity it becomes somewhat refreshing. Rather than seeing another piece about revenge or infidelity, I get a nice little scene between two people just having a good time. No beatings or shootings or affairs, just two people enjoying themselves. That in itself reminds me that half of Film Noir isn't just mood or rough stuff, it's these little moments in between where characters show a side that is often forgotten.

-Carlos F. Enriquez

New Work from this Year

Work by the Tetrad completed in 2009/2010.

Black Horizon: Our first completed work pre-formation. It is the story of a breakup gone horribly wrong involving a femme fatale, a hitman, a man in black, and henchmen. B/W 16mm.

Invasion Radio: Our first real collaborative project after forming our collective. It is about a ham radio alien conspiracy theorist and his assistants and a mysterious disc that is sent to them. Color 16mm.

Retrato de Gente(Portrait of People): My first work on Super 8. A solo piece, it is a documentary about the lack of interaction between people in the city. The footage is juxtaposed with the sound of a family singing together. B/W Super 8mm.

B for Body/C for Canal: Another solo piece, it is a docufiction about children and their stories about a fictional dead body underneath a bridge in a canal. Color Video.

"Goner!": My second film on Super 8 in collaboration with Barbara Little. It is about a girl and her dissatisfaction with society and her reactions to it. B/W Super 8mm.

The Cops: Shot back to back with Invasion Radio, this is considered a light piece with the intention of multiple versions. This mine. Color 16mm and super 8mm.

-Carlos F. Enriquez

Between Personal & Autobiographical Films

I know it's strange to start off a post without a concrete idea of where you got a quote, but I once read somewhere that, it it might of been for either comics or film, it is always a bad idea for your first project to be autobiographical or personal. I found that idea kind of strange, as most people who make films or comics always do that first. Why? Because you do something you know about. Yet, at the same time, it seems too easy to do that. And it's even easier to do something that is directly about yourself. But does it make it bad? I think yes and no. But that's where the line is drawn.

In a personal film, you do a film about something that affects you or has something to do with you. It's usually an experience, point of view, an opinion, an idea, etc. The film can be about an entirely different group of people from you, the protagonist can be someone else, but what you put in is entirely yours. Rainer Werner Fassbinder is a good example as is Francois Truffaut. Both directors made films that dealt with ideas or experiences that were very close to them. For Fassbinder, it was about postwar Germany, his postwar Germany. For Truffaut, it was about his childhood experiences and relationships with women. Woody Allen and Federico Fellini fall into this category as well in that case. What separates these films from autobiographical films is their the directors detachment from the material. And thus, their acceptability is put slightly away from that fine line I mentioned.

Autobiographical films, on the other hand, are problematic because of how close they are to their subject. Granted, directors who these sort of films have the ability to bear themselves to the public, but the other task at hand is how important what they're showing about the audience is. In a fictional film, this would be acceptable as their experiences become accessible to the public in the form of a character that doesn't exist. When it is the director telling us about themselves, then the question is why? Why are we watching this? What do you have to say that is new or different, let alone important? In comics this could be interesting, but on film, I feel it is the amateur's initial idea. Perhaps this is why it is no longer a common occurrence. 

The day of the autobiographical film is over, but remnants of it still show up in spades on the internet in the form of vlogs. But that is a different matter all together. Now, the only situation left to deal with is the safety net that is being created by the personal film. It is becoming the first thing beginning filmmakers are turning to. And as it grows, the amount of personal information put in these films will grow. If this allowed to happen, then I fear that the personal film will become part of the pantheon of amateur work.

-Carlos F. Enriquez

Restraint & Cinema

Restraint- restraint is an easy enough word to define as a noun, but as a characteristic which can be held by a person or thing, it is a more vague notion. It's a subjective quality that works in tandem with potential and vision- restraint is the ability to have potential and choose not, a significantly different quality than the lack of potential or vision and therefore the inability to choose. In a CGI age, potential has become virtually limitless- plausible and possible have become par for the course when any vision may be realized by the digital wizards behind films. In an age where potential and vision have no restraints (noun), it's become more important than ever that filmmakers learn restraint (verb).

I'm no Luddite, mind you. I'm not anti-CGI, and I don't think CGI is "ruining movies". CGI is a tool used by filmmakers who choose to use it, and like a tool of carpentry, it can only ruin a piece if it's used incorrectly. Some pieces may need it more than others, and some may not need it at all. I consider the uses and non-uses of CGI today after completing my viewing of 2009's live-action remake of "Blood: The Last Vampire". The original film was an animated feature put out by Production IG in the year 2000, and it happens to be among my favorite anime films. With a total run-time of only 45 minutes (opening and closing credits included), the original "Blood" was a film which showed great restraint in many regards- the short length was reminiscent of a horror short story, giving you enough time and information to understand the world but ending quickly enough to leave the mystery and atmosphere intact, never allowing you to become comfortable within the fiction you have entered. Characters in the original film are few, and dialogue is sparse and economical- we understand characters through their actions rather than via monologue, narration, or flashback. This deliberacy- of the classic film mantra "Show, don't tell"- is more akin with Roman Polanski than Rob Zombie.

The original "Blood" was not just an exercise in good storytelling, however- the masterminds at Production IG made "Blood" one of the premeire vessels through which CGI could marry into the traditional cel-animation canon. Using digitally animated paintings first experimented with in Ghost in the Shell (1995) and Princess Mononoke (1997), "Blood" showed technical advancement which enabled it's animators to visualize the world of "Blood" in ways which animation could never had done before- the CGI is used cautiously but effectively, allowing for gentle pans, perspective shifts, and scenes of great crowds which would have simply not been possible by hand. It's the cautious and deliberate use of CGI which make the original "Blood" so exemplary in the world of contemporary filmmaking, but it tragically underlines the flaws of it's live-action remake, which is far less judicious in it's digital rendering and is ultimately symptomatic of the problem with far too many modern films.

The new "Blood" is a mess of a film in all too many ways, chief among them being the substance for which the title is named- for some reason, the considerable amount of blood spilled from slashed enemies is as CGI as can be imagined. Globby and in particle-effect "strands", the CGI blood (which is supposed to be no different than the blood in the veins of you or I) is unfortunately more akin to the CGI blood of Rob Zombie's "The Devil's Rejects" than it is akin to the gallons of colored corn syrup in classics like "Evil Dead". But why CGI blood? What's the point? What does it bring to the table? I can't imagine hundreds of man-hours developing L-system subroutines for liquid physics (I have no idea if any of those are applicable terms, but bear with me) is somehow easier than having Saya slash open a ziploc bag full of corn-syrup and dye. The computer synthesized plasma paired with 300-inspired slow-motion, cheap and ugly "magic smoke transformations" for the vampires, and altogether too much digitally enhanced wire-fu made for an aesthetically unpleasant film that didn't even have the decency to tell it's story properly. The flashbacks were forced in to tell a story that couldn't be shown (and didn't need to be, for that matter), the characters were elaborated upon to a degree at which all mystery was lost, and too many subplots distracted from the atmosphere that all great horror films need.

I'm not against CGI by any stretch, but please, filmmakers, show some restraint. Take a look at why "Blood: The Last Vampire" (animated) is so darn good and why "Blood: The Last Vampire" (live-action) is so darn terrible.

A Few Good Reads for Horror Fans

Sorry for not writing something more original this week, but I'll direct you to some really great reads to hopefully make up for it. We at the Tetrad Initiative are all fans of horror, but I must confess to myself being the most intense of the horror aficionados. Or so I would estimate myself, while my partners may disagree. A timid child, I never particularly liked horror movies at all- in fact, I was easily scared of virtually anything more intimidating than the mundane. Regardless, I've grown into an enormous horror fan due to my love of horror atmosphere and aesthetic, and I've seen all too many horror films due to the beautifully cheap rentals at my local Family Video store. Here are a few great articles to check out-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/04/television-simon-pegg-dead-set

This is a nice little write up from Simon Pegg, star of Shaun of the Dead and zombie fan extraordinaire. In this opinion article he wrote for the Guardian, Pegg discusses the merits of traditional slow-zombies and argues for their relevance in an increasingly fast-paced horror world.

http://io9.com/5524998/what-sick-john-carpenter-moments-will-the-thing-prequel-explain

This is nice little interview from io9 with the screen-writer of the upcoming prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing. While most horror fans will remain cold and cynical about the 20+ year late sequel to one of the greatest horror movies ever made, this interview actually gives me some hope for the project. There's an intensity and passion behind the writer's words which make me think there may be some great love for this project. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2002/harper.htm

This one is an oldy but a goody. From one of my favorite journals of essays comes this decent gem about consumerism in Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Now, it's old hat, I'll admit. Everyone has probably read an essay about consumerism in Romero's magnum opus, and everyone also probably knows my pathological love for the film. But really, it's worth reading, I promise! This is probably the best essay I've read on Romero, largely thanks to the pedigree associated with the journal. Definitely worth checking out, whether or not you've read Romero in the past.

That's my offering for the week, I'll try to throw up something totally original next week.

- David Mitchell