Tag Archive for ‘singles’ at AudioShocker

Welcome to the 1st Annual AudioShocker YOU DON’T SUCK Awards for 2008, where we celebrate the few pieces of mass media that didn’t completely blow last year. In keeping with our “Music. Movies. Comic Books. Pop Culture. Media is kind of our thing.” credo, we’ve carefully evaluated offerings in the categories of Music (by Neal), Movies (by Pete), Comics (by Nick), and TV (by all of us). Here are the results:

Music (Arists, Singles, Videos, and Albums)

The nominees are:

Lil Wayne - A Milli / Ms. Officer / any of his collabos.
Pink - So What / Sober (both from Funhouse)
Vampire Weekend - Oxford Coma
The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing
The Cool Kids - The Bake Sale
Portishead - Third

The 2008 YOU DON’T SUCK Music Winner is: The Cool Kids

Neal says: It’s always hard to decide with music. This is the most subjective category there is. Lil Wayne was stellar, but vocoders prevent us from giving him top honors. Pink returned to relevance with killer singles and Vampire Weekend brought us alternative music (and a video) that didn’t suck. New favorite The Ting Tings and Pete’s pick Portishead rounded out our noms. I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the nominees, but there can be only one winner. The fantastically hip Cool Kids know how to make a good record and their beats have ridiculous knock.

Movies (Films, Flicks, and Moving Pictures)

The nominees are:

WALL-E
In Bruges
Burn After Reading
Slumdog Millionaire
The Wrestler

The 2008 YOU DON’T SUCK Movies Winner is: In Bruges

Pete says: In Bruges was the best-written movie of the year and has incredible performances from its three main actors (Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrell, and Brendan Gleeson). This is the first film from writer-director Martin McDonagh, and in that regard this strikes me as another reason to single out the film, since we can be optimistic about another strong filmic auteur (though the man is, apparently, a well-seasoned playwright) making the scene. Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler were excellent, but neither topples In Bruges as my pick for the all-caps not sucking distinction.

Comics (Ongoings, Minis, One-Shots, and OGNs)

The nominees are:

Avengers: The Initiative #14-19 (Marvel Comics)
Kill All Parents! (Image Comics)
Terra #1-4 (DC Comics)
War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #33-35 (Marvel Comics)
Water Baby (Minx / DC Comics)

The 2008 YOU DON’T SUCK Comics Winner is: War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #33-35

Nick says: I’m obsessed with War Machine thanks to this story arc. These issues (a.k.a. Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #33-35) follow Jim Rhodes after an electronic recording of Tony Stark prompts him to prepare for an impending crisis (Secret Invasion). Christos Gage, Sean Chen, Sandu Florea, Jay David Ramos, Joe Caramagna, Adi Granov, and Bill Rosemann are all in top form as they deliver the best comics of 2008. (This goes without says that I’ve been nursing an addiction to Marvel vs. Capcom lately and Rhodey happens to be my fighter of choice.)

Television (Shows, Finales, and Premiers)

The nominees are:

Chuck
Avatar
Metalocalypse
Mad Men
The Spectacular Spider-Man

The 2008 YOU DON’T SUCK Television Winner is: Avatar: The Last Airbender

We say: Honestly, was there ever really a doubt? Avatar has been an AudioShocker favorite since before there was an AudioShocker.com! This Nickelodeon original made us sit up and take notice with its tremendous visuals, compelling story, and surprisingly mature themes. We’re sad we couldn’t give Chuck and Mad Men higher marks, but Buster Bluth and Don Draper would want it this way. Now we’re keeping our eyes peeled for new episodes of Big Love, BSG, Entourage, and Spectacular Spidey!

Yeah, so last week I ran The Top 9 Reasons Why Comics Don’t Need to Be Saved - Part One, which consisted solely of reasons nine thru six. Why? Because I’m a dick.

And now, for your consideration, are the decidedly more irreverent Top 9 Reasons Why Comics Don’t Need to Be Saved reasons five thru one:

5. Newspaper comic strips are dying because fewer and fewer people want to read newspapers, not because they don’t want to read comics. Now they go and read this stuff on the Internet. They’re called “webcomics” and those are doing just fine.

4. Seriously, Hollywood wants to give comic books fellatio right now. In fact, they may have already finished the fellatio and moved onto the hardcore doggiestyle section of “Filmstriptease presents Cramming Comics vol 1.” Soon they’re going to be finishing off vol 1 with a spectacular facial (which could be as soon as Watchmen or as far away as the Avengers movie). It all depends on how long Hollywood can keep it up.

3. Single issues are really a niche product at this point and I don’t think there’s anything that’s going to change that. I’m part of that niche audience and I love the singles, but most people want a bigger chunk of story. If that’s the case, let the singles slowly fade away and bring on the graphic novels because…

2. Graphic novel sales continue to look hopeful. Bookstores are carrying graphic novels by the hoard and putting them up in huge floor displays all the time. I don’t think that would happen if there wasn’t some serious coin to be made. Guys whose names have been on the tip of my tongue for the majority of my natural life are slowly becoming adored literary idols for a new generation of readers. Fuck, I just saw Watchmen sitting on a shelf in Borders in their “Bestsellers” section when I went to buy the Iron Man DVD.

1. Comic book storytelling continues to improve. I see it every week when I read my Wednesday haul of new comics. And at the end of the day, it’s all about good content.

Next: The Top 9 Things That May Have Gone Wrong with Last Defenders - Part One

Why the Top 9? Because 10 is too many and 9 is better. 3 X 3 = Awesome. Now that’s what I call math.