Just a very brief K ‘n’ B this time out; we have a giant stockpile of links but not a lot of time today.
§ The story of Indian cartoonist Aseem Trivedi’s sojourn on Bigg Boss has ended. He got kicked out of the Big Brother house on Friday, but not before being spotted getting chummy with another housemate, and upon leaving made some blockbuster accusations:
Talking to a leading daily, Trivedi said, “Salman Khan misbehaved with Sapna. When he overstepped the line of decency, she obviously retaliated. But then, any self-respecting individual would have done the same thing. I and Sapna were constantly talking about corruption and women’s empowerment inside the house, but after coming out, I was zapped to learn that none of those things were telecast. Even Sapna’s comments on Salman were edited. When she comes out, she will be so upset that she wasted so much of time for nothing. These guys lied to us. We were told – you will not have to do any naach gana and you will just have to put forth your views on revolution, society and corruption. But it was all humbug!”
The above paragraph is perhaps the greatest statement ever by a living cartoonist.
§ Are comics modern pastoralism? That’s the view of Wesleyan English professor Sean McCann:
A: What do you think of graphic novels as expressions of political realities?
SM: I don’t have any assumption about that at all. I did a tutorial a couple of years ago on the graphic novel, so I’ve read the big ones, the ones that people talk about a lot. I haven’t seen anything that leads me to think that they’re generically suited to some subject matter or some reader rather than another. My friend has a good view on this. He sees the graphic novel as a form of modern pastoralism in the sense of the word used by W. R. Empson…that it’s a kind of literature that puts complex ideas in simple containers.
§ Alan Gardner has a good write-up on Michael Jantze’s current legal kerfuffle. The creator of The Norm is being sued for $400,000 after he claims he was working for free and has started an Indiegogo campaign to pay for what he calls a frivolous suit.
He’s posted the relevant legal documents in the matter (see links below). My quick read through the documents indicate that some level a partnership was formed between the plaintiff and Michael and his wife. The suit alleges that the Jantzes promised investor funding of $400,000 and the company made expenditures based on that belief, but the money never materialized. The Jantzes deny the promise of a $400,000 investment and are alleging that they spent a year helping this company foregoing other business opportunities and were supposed to be compensated for their efforts but never were.
The legal documents are linked to above. The whole thing seems to be an ugly offshoot of one of those “working for free” situations that someone thought was an investment. Not good.
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