Five Years Ago Today

Aquaman The Dissertation - 2010

This is a page from an honest-to-Neptune doctoral dissertation, done this year for the University of Washington by a guy named Mark Chen.

Mark wrote to me a month or so ago, asking if he could use my Aquaman BP cover "as an example of remixes and mash-ups as a form of cultural production, giving new meaning to existing images." I said sure, and just a few days ago Mark sent me the entire paper (over 300 pages!), and there it was on page seven. How fun, thanks Mark!

With this baby is in his paper, how could he have gotten anything less than an A?

What They Said

The Observer - 7/11/10

I've been dying to talk about this!

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by the British newspaper The Observer, asking if they could run my Aquaman/BP mock-up cover as part of an article about the internet's response to the Gulf Oil Spill. Of course I said yes, and after sending in the cover, the paper asked me a couple of questions to go with the piece.

After being delayed a week to cover some other breaking news, the article ran in the Sunday, July 11 edition (page 17 of the Culture section to be exact), which is what you see above. The copy they sent me just arrived yesterday, and I was thrilled to see the cover got such a large chunk of space!

In addition, there are a couple of quotes from me, which was way more than I ever would have expected--not to mention having Aquaman as part of the headline. I was doubly thrilled to see the quote I specifically asked to be included--where I credit Nick Cardy for the original cover--be on there (click the graphic to see a readable version).

I'm glad The Aquaman Shrine could be even a small part of the ongoing "response" to the BP spill, and my everlasting thanks to Tom Lamont of The Observer for asking me to be part of the article.

Geoff Johns Twitter

Check out Geoff Johns' Twitter avatar!


(Note to Mr. Johns re: an interview with The Aquaman Shrine: anytime, anywhere).


(h/t: F.O.A.M.er Joe Slab)

The Aquaman Shrine Goes Viral, Ctd.

Well, I guess The Aquaman Shrine really has "made it" because now someone has taken my Aquaman BP cover and made it into a bootlegged t-shirt, violating all sorts of copyrights!

Not only is it wrong to steal someone's idea for personal financial gain, but the end product won't even be any good--the bootleggers don't have access to anything but a low-res version of the cover, resulting in a fuzzy, crappy looking shirt, a fact any buyer won't realize until their shirt arrives in the mail.

The Aquaman Shrine Goes Viral, Ctd.

Wow, this little cover image I threw together last Saturday really seemed to strike a chord. Since posting it on May 22, the image started bouncing around teh internets. Here are a small sample of some of the places it showed up, usually with an attrition to the Shrine:

Nerdcore

Eclectic Banana

Interweb 3000

Dangerous Minds

My Modern Met

United Liberty

Techland

Popped Culture

Stranded Kosmonaut

The NY Daily News(!)

One Peg Genius

Jim Smash!!

Buffet Complet

Technology Blogged

Tier1DC

Oliver Willis

Military.com

Sex, Cigars, and Booze

Liberalsarecool.com

Great White Snark

Absolute Punk

Rockstar

Caffeinated Joe To Go

Content Ninja

Tumbling In The Zeitgeist

9gag.com

Newlaunches

Oof! Blog! Aargh!

Dependable Renegade

Untamed Dimensions

Beltway Blips

Swag Like Me

105.3 The Fan

What The F**k Have You Done?

Democratic Underground

Loyal KNG

Spill.com

Humid Beings

My Power Is Beyond Your Understanding

Film School Rejects

The Geek Couch

Lampara Esa Movida

The 17th Man

Graphic Policy

Flickr

Drake's Way

Wild Ammo

Sharkdivers

Comic Book Bin

Cubiclebot

CBR Forums

Suppe Von Slash

Funny Daze

Comics Alliance

Geek Propaganda

SyFy Network

MRod Nation

Zoklet.Net

Daily Sell Out

GeekPron

My Own Private Geekdom

Maniac World

Stinque

Sacramento News & Review

Byrne Robotics

Portland Mercury

What Had Happen' Was

The Chatterheads

Groonk.Net

106.5 The Buzz

X96

Chris Cummings' Posterous

The Huffington Post

The Washington Post

Boing Boing

Major Spoilers

WhyteWolf

Fockery

Frank 151

Bleeding Cool

Forex Trading Lifestyle

Neon Monster

On top of that, the Shrine's audience went up 400% between Monday, May 31, and yesterday, June 1. Of course, much of that audience will disappear after that one day spike, but hopefully the Shrine will be able to keep a couple of those new visitors!

If you find the Aquaman Shrine BP cover on a blog or site not listed above, leave a comment and let us know so I can add it to the list!


Post Script: One thing I wanted to add, for anyone visiting the site who isn't a die-hard Aquaman fan: I've seen this cover attributed to me and the Shrine exclusively.

Yes, the idea is mine and I did the Photoshop work, but the original cover art is by legendary illustrator Nick Cardy. I wouldn't want anyone giving me credit for the art, since I had nothing to do with it. All I did was come up with the idea, and add the oil and the BP logo.

So if anyone wants to use this image on their site, please do; but be aware that crediting the original artwork to me would be incorrect: it's thanks to the genius of Nick Cardy that I could do my BP version in the first place!