Crazy, out of control madness going on behind the scenes here at Must. Be. AWESOME!!! Central. I wanted to break radio silence though to share an exciting event for people in the Washington, DC area.
Darwyn Cooke will appear at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on Saturday, January 30, 2010, at 4PM. Cooke is by far the absolute BEST graphic artist working in the comics business today. Not only is his style reminiscent of the clean, inspired animation art of Bruce Timm, but his composition on the page changes the way you think about sequential art. He will be reading a few selections from his most recent work, an adaptation of Donald Westlake‘s “Parker” novel The Hunter(from which the panel to your left is taken; free preview at this link). If you’re at all into modern art, comics, or animation, Cooke is a great talent to experience. You’ll find his paw prints all over some of the most eponymous prodigious artistic endeavors of the past 20 years, to include Batman Beyond, Catwoman, and Jonah Hex.
Your Intrepid Host of AWESOME will be at the Smithsonian for said event, easily identifiable with the massive Absolute New Frontier hardcover weighing me down as I cravenly strive to persuade Darwyn to give me a personalized head sketch. Prepare for nerdgasm.
This is Must. Be. AWESOME!!! Dot com.
Cooke's seminal New Frontier from DC Comics. (Image courtesy of Geekshow Entertainment)
RCA Type 77-DX microphone used by Edward R. Murrow (courtesy of oobject.com)
In Must. Be. AWESOME!!!‘s continuing mission to seek out new AWESOME things, your cuddly and adorable host has been conducting a series of experiments in podcasting. Currently, I’ve found TweetMic to be the easiest program to use in recording and instantly uploading audio podcasts to the web via Twitter, particularly because its iPhone app is so easy to use. I like the quick and dirty, no-edit style of podcast deployment this tool offers, but I also recognize some people’s preference for well-produced regular podcasts that can be downloaded outside of Twitter on channels like iTunes. If you have suggestions on how my podcasts can improve, either through programming or tools, please drop me a line and let me know.
In this information overloaded culture in 2010, Our Foul Year of the Interwebz, the noise to signal ratio has never been higher. Anyone who communicates on the web these days faces a growing competitive landscape across different media, so much so that it becomes necessary to develop and nurture trust networks amongst one’s social familiars to even have a slight hope of getting your content seen (much less acted upon).
Courtesy of Chris Sims of The Invincible Super Blog
While said trust networks naturally develop audience loyalty and attention over time, there is another method you can employ that will guarantee eyeballs on your content.
Make your fucking content ENTERTAINING.
At the end of the day, people are going to remember the stuff that makes ‘em laugh or tickles their AWESOME bone. As a content provider, you should be aiming to deliver entertaining stuff every time. You want everyone who stumbles across your content to come away having the same reaction you did when you walked out of the opening day IMAX screening of The Dark Knight: “THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!!!”
Entertainment enables AWESOME. You must perform. You have to raise your game to match and beat web personalities like Gary Vaynerchuk, whose every video blog is a blast to watch even if you don’t immediately dig his content (which caters to wine). You have to transcend this homogenization of social capital across the web and bring thunder like you’re a goddamn Greek god.
I’ll challenge you to take an even further step out on the ledge: your entertainment must be provocative. Don’t just think that by adding a soundtrack to your podcast you’re automatically more entertaining. What kind of music is it? Is it AWESOME? Do your listeners rock out to it and pay more attention to your content because of it? Using provocative methods like dirty words, shocking images, and flat-out ballsy boldness will punch your signal past all the other noise.
Many will decry my endorsement of such methods as mere shock tactics; causing controversy to draw an audience in. Well, no shit, sherlock. Content providers are competing against so many different channels of entertainment today that you must enable some Shock and Ahhh to be heard. This doesn’t mean you should let these tactics overshadow your content or your message. You can be entertaining, shocking, memorable, and deliver great stuff people will love.
Here are some examples of AWESOME entertainment across a couple different online media:
Chris Sims’ Invincible Super-Blog raises the bar on comics commentary by incorporating funny, often ridiculous instances of comics AWESOMENESS. Chris likes his comics full of punches and kicks, and not just normal punches and kicks, but punches and kicks delivered in the most insane ways possible. Ergo, the Punisher punching a polar bear.
"Cuddly. Lovable. Docile. That won't do at all."
Jon Stewart transformed the face of mainstream media and news through the simple art of making fun of it. The Daily Show provides a hilarious take on current events and the personalities that report on them. Comedy Central wisely made all episodes of this show available via its website as more and more of its audience professed that they get their news from The Daily Show versus other traditional news reporting.
The maestros at The Cheezbuger Network took photo editing comedy to the next level with Comixed.com. In this new crowdsourcing experiment in hilarity, Comixed encourages people to remix 3-4 photos into panels that tell a story (similar to a Japanese manga technique explained here). This entertaining site has birthed several great new internet memes like “The Reaction Guys.”
The Reaction Guys
I confess I’m having a tough time finding some badass examples of online music or podcasting that really flip my shitbiscuits. If you have any suggestions for AWESOME content I should be paying attention, by all means comment away.
Now, I admit I’m just as guilty of not being as entertaining as I could be on this blog. We’re gonna change that today. If the above pics and links weren’t AWESOME enough for you, let me leave you with this little bit of Alec Baldwin love that never gets old:
My resolution this year is to make everything I do AWESOME. I will launch an AWESOME consultancy. I will publish an AWESOME book. I will deliver AWESOME content to the readers of this blog. I will get married…AWESOMELY.
In this, Our Year of AWESOME, I invite YOU to join me.
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