I realize I haven’t posted on here in a very, very long time, but I have an excellent reason… I’ve been working on a major non-profit initiative called Reading With Pictures. Working in conjunction with Diamond Comics Distributors, Northwestern University and numerous other educators, academics, publishers and cartoonists, we plan to revolutionize the way that comics are used in the classroom.

And you can help by clicking on the link below to vote for Reading With Pictures in the IdeaBlob business concept contest and give us the seed money to make this idea a reality!

…And became part of the Twitter cult. I’m @JoshElder if you want to follow.

At last my failure is complete…

This an oldie but a goodie… stick figures fighting to the death in a fight scene that would make (young) Jackie Chan sit up and take notice.

Check it, you won’t regret it.

So I want to say thanks to Brendan for introducing me to this YouTube masterpiece, Beastmaster Jr. It’s a bizarre fan parody of the pulpy, guilty genre pleasure 1982 fantasy flick Beastmaster, starring a hero who is, as the name implies, a master of beasts. So it starts out with some rand 3rd grader learning that he can control beasts. Then a particularly scuzzy-looking wizard kidnaps a beautiful princess and our young hero has to fight a bunch of renfair rejects to get her back. Which is all well and good. Typical bizzarre Internet parody stuff.

THEN the completely random 80s hair metal dude with the leather jacket and mesh shirt shows up reeking of booze to tell the kid: “You and me, let’s kill some people.” And they do. Oh, but they do. My favorite Weapon of Pet Destruction? The bag of angry cats. Marc Singer can only dream of material that good…

Devil horns flying high, Beastmaster Jr.!

Posted at Big Hollywood in response to Bill Willingham’s post on Superhero Decadence:

Superhero Decadence. What a sadly necessary phrase to add to our lexicon. As someone who’s written the kid-friendly animated Batman comics and has designs on writing a fairly adult in its themes and presentation superhero project down the line, I certainly believe there’s room for any and all interpretations of the characters. They contain multitudes, as do we all.

The problem is in making the “adult” version the dominant version and on insisting that your ongoing adventure serials reflect that darkened world view. The current crop of creators on “Amazing Spider-Man” have been doing some of the most light-hearted and entertaining takes on Spider-Man in years. Only here’s the problem — eventually fans will demand drama. The villain is going to have to truly “hurt” the hero. Spider-Man will win the end as he always does, but we all know the bad guy will come back. They always do (Marvel has action figures and licensing deals to think of, after all). Only next time, the villain will have to raise the stakes or else why bring him back?

In contemporary mainstream comics, the heroes ALWAYS lose… even when they win. When the villain comes back, someone has to die (and then the next character to die has to get eaten by the Blob on panel), or get raped (but we don’t show the actual penetration, so it’s still tasteful). And that’s just the villains. The heroes fare little better.

It’s as if every episode of “Law & Order” ended with the convicted defendant vowing vengeance on Jack McCoy — and then next episode he breaks out of prison, murders McCoy’s beloved niece and then stuffs her dismembered corpse into, say, a refrigerator. Does anyone think that would actually make “Law & Order” more realistic? More relevant or interesting or adult? It certainly wouldn’t make it more popular.

I guess my problem comes down to the fact that most so-called “adult” takes on superheroes are adult in the same way that a late night movie on Cinemax is “adult.” They have pretensions to sophistication and sneer at the “kid’s stuff” while reveling in their gratuitous sex, violence and “shocking” subject matter. That’s not adult, that’s juvenile.

And Superman, Batman, Spidey… they deserve better than that.

Go Ninja, Go Ninja, GO!

Truth time: I kind of dig Vanilla Ice. Sure, the dude may have stole the baseline for his biggest hit from Queen, starred in one of the most egregiously bad movies of the 90s and the less said about his “hardcore” rock/rap phase the better, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t stop, collaborate and listen anytime I hear “Ice, Ice Baby.” You know all the words, too — don’t deny it.

And, of course, Mr. Rob Van Winkle also gave the world the “Ninja Rap” from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze. That was a watershed musical moment for young Josh Elder, and I’ve spent the better part of two decades crafting my response: “Ninjaz ‘N the Hood” off the Straight Outta Cherry Creek LP. Prepare for Awesomeness! And also sympathetic embarrassment as I once more make a complete fool of myself in a public forum.

Yo gather round and I’ll tell you a story.
It’s got heroes, villains, honor and glory.
It’s ‘bout this ninja from Clan Yoshida…
Cuts through evil like warm Velveeta.
Silent and deadly, like a thief in the night.
Clothed in darkness, he fights for the light.
Old school ninja, he’s a man of action –
Hit you so hard he’ll put your mom in traction.

Mail Order Ninja!
He’s the man in black.
Mail Order Ninja!
Teamed up with T-Mac.
Mail Order Ninja!
Is on the attack.
Mail Order Ninja!
You best watch yo’ back.

Won in a contest, arrived in a crate,
Started kickin’ butt right out the gate.
Took the bullies down a notch or two,
Overthrew the rich girl who ran the school.
But the rich girl swore to bring Jiro down.
Got herself a ninja then took over the town.
The ultimate battle ‘tween two shinobi –
More hardcore than Vader versus Kenobi!

Mail Order Ninja!
He’s the man in black.
Mail Order Ninja!
Teamed up with T-Mac.
Mail Order Ninja!
Is on the attack.
Mail Order Ninja!
You best watch yo’ back.

A dark shadow fell ‘cross the land.
Felicity’s triumph was close at hand.
But the good guys won, and I’ll tell ya why:
Heroes like Jiro, they never say die.

Mail Order Ninja!
Yeah, it’s all good.
Mail Order Ninja!
‘Cause we got Ninjaz ‘N the Hood!

SPECIAL BONUS TRACK!!!

And if your eyeballs haven’t melted out of your skull after reading the previous affront to the laws of meter and rhythm, I have an even greater test of your endurance in store. My compadre David Precht recently threw down the guantlet in an epic rap battle for the ages. I have answered his challenge:

Down the rabbit hole.
Where it stops, I don’t know…
That’s just how I flow.

So you wanna kick it?
Then I guess I’ll just stick it
Where the sun don’t shine
‘Cause my rhymes turn on a dime.

They call me Seximus Prime.
I’m so good it’s a crime,
But I won’t do no time.
Be sippin’ Bacardi and lime
While I shut you up like a mime.

Yeah, I ripped this mic up,
Now it’s time to wrap up,
So I can get crunked up.
And you get to follow up,
But don’t don’t get your hopes up…
You’ll probably just choke up.

Here, the mic’s gonna pass.
Yo, I’m out like Lance Bass.

So I recently updated and revamped my wikipedia page (and no, I didn’t create it, I was just revising the one someone else put up there) and was forced by the gods of online editing to find biographical citations and references lest I have my edits erased by those with better sourced accounts OF MY OWN LIFE.

Post-modernism, thy name is wikipedia!

My humble recommendation for a new Northwestern fight song for the 21st century.

One of my old Northwestern (Go ‘Cats!) chums, Ms. Lindsay Muscato , now of the Neo-Futurists, recently posted an interview with me on the writing process over at the Gapers Block.

Eldarius Magnus returns!

It’s taken me a while, but I have at last returned. A lot’s changed since I last updated this thing. I’ve kept writing and kept making appearances at schools and libraries. In the process I’ve got to live out a childhood dream by writing Superman and have inexplicably become a national expert on comics for kids. Life has been good, and I have to admit that it’s getting better all the time.

Updates will be coming several times a week from here on out, so prepare for awesomeness!

And speaking of awesomeness, here’s a cinematic ninja haiku courtesy of www.xtranormal.com.

Ninja Haiku