I wish I could kill nostalgia

[ctc]

>The dark humor of that is not lost on me.

I AM THE IRONY KING!!!!!

>I thing looking back at the past can teach us lessons that can (but only occasionally does) lead us to do better in the present.

I agree; but I think there's a difference in learning from the past, and ruminating there. I loves me some 8" Mego figures, but not 'cos of the warm fuzzy memories so much as the realization of what a great design they are. Playable, versatile, ingenious from a manufacturing perspective....

>The desire to kill what one cannot control or understand...well that speaks for itself, doesn't it?

But the doctor seeks to kill ailments BECAUSE they understand....

Don C.

[ctc]

>As adults, we look at the present and presume that the crap we see will be nostalgia.

I think a lot of it will, becuase nostalgia is a time thing, not a quality thing. And I think as adults we have a tendency to poo poo stuff that's new, and assume it has no staying power 'cos we assume the feelings kids have for it are the result of marketing, and not genuine.

>Anyone have nostalgia over a pet rock?

Yup; but it's more the "hip, ironic" kind of nostalgia. Pet rocks show up as gags a lot. (such as Peter Griffin's rock wetting the floor....)

Don C.

[emeraldknight47]

Hating nostalgia on a nostalgia site. The dark humor of that is not lost on me.

Actually, Werewolf, I'm not sure if that dark humour or simple irony....!

[Jason73]

There is a song by Jello Biafra called "Nostalgia For An Age That Never Existed". In some ways, things really were never truly how we remebered them. One of the lines goes something like "Living in the past insures that your best days are behind you."

[Cmonster]

Every generation has their own take

True, but ours is the best!

SC

[Nostalgiabuff]

i couldn't not post on this one....ahem....

nostalgia is a beautiful thing as long as it does not control you present. we are all different ages here and so many of us have different aspects of our childhood we are nostalgic for......most of us I think have fond memories of playing with Mego's or Cpt. Action and so collect them now. some who were children of the eighties probably feel the same about the 3.75 inch joes, and heman and transformers.....
who are any of us to look down on whatsomeone else might feel nostalgic about??

[ctc]

>nostalgia is a beautiful thing as long as it does not control you present.

I think the trick is to learn, without withdrawing. Two examples:

-The Supercollector action figure. Brilliant stuff! It follows the 70's Mego aesthetic in both design and construction.... but it’s engineered with modern techniques and has added features. (Like the swivelly arms.) It builds on the past, but isn’t trying to copy it and thus creates something novel.

-I’ve heard the DC retro comics haven’t been selling so good. The problem I suspect is that they’re trying to recreate the past, not build on it. A technique doomed to fail. 70's comics were the way they were ‘cos they happened in the 70's, surrounded by a whole world that was different from ours. The notions of what made a good design, what made a good story, even the IDEA of what a comic was were all different, and the result of the times. You can recreate the books, but not the culture they were originally done in.

Don C.

[Werewolf]

My problem with the retro-active comics so far is they totally half arsed them instead of giving it their all and letting the Bronze age go out in a blaze of glory.

They don't read or look like vintage comics to me. The art in the 70s WW was inexcusably bad and instead of focusing on the more popular and iconic Lynda Carter era WW they did the depowered 60s version. Also, no epic battle with bronze age Cheetah or other villians. You get a weird pointless story that just abruptly ends.

The $5 price can't be doing them any favors either. It was a great idea. But poorly executed so far.

[samurainoir]

I think the problem you describe is less nostalgia in and of itself... It's the lack of self awareness of some people engaging in it as a measure of "quality". It also tends to benefit from hindsight and historical context giving it a frame-work of analysis. (ie the aforementioned All in the Family... Simpsons is also reaching that point in terms of measurability of cultural impact, if only for the ubiquitous nature of animated adult satire now).

[Nostalgiabuff]

the simpsons has been running so long now that people can have nostalgia for different eras of the show....LOL

[ctc]

>My problem with the retro-active comics so far is they totally half arsed them instead of giving it their all and letting the Bronze age go out in a blaze of glory.

I thyink that's part of what I think is the problem.... they CAN'T really go all Bronze any more 'cos a lot of the stuff that was acceptable then isn't now. Not in the "offend the audience" way, but in the "anything can happen" sort of way. There was SO MUCH weirdness back then; strage baddies, off the wall plot twists.... it's part of what made them entertaining.

>They don't read or look like vintage comics to me.

And really, they can't. Comics aren't made the same way any more.... either physically, or the way the writing and art is done. That's why I don't think trying to replicate what made old stuff nifty is a good idea: it's either impossible, or not worth the trouble. Far better to pick out the cool bits and adapt them for the modern era.

>The art in the 70s WW was inexcusably bad

They got a lot of the old guard back, didn't they? That can be problematic too.... some of these guys have been on hiatus for a long time. They're not at the top of their game.l They might not actually give a damn any more. They're older, and there's physical deterioration.

>The $5 price can't be doing them any favors either.

DEFINITELY! It's too high for an impulse buy, so folks aren't likely to pick something up on a whim. 'SPECIALLY when you can get REAL old school comics for less than half that.

>It's the lack of self awareness of some people engaging in it as a measure of "quality".

That's a good way of putting it.

>the simpsons has been running so long now that people can have nostalgia for different eras of the show

Holee Smokes! You're right!

Don C.