You might think that an artist who doesn't "have visual access right now" might wait until he had visual access to make the promotional video for
his Kickstarter project, what with the "visual" being so important to video as a medium. You might also think that if an artist lacked visual access, he might err on the side of making his promotional video no longer than absolutely necessary.
Not
Christopher X.
Brodeur. His spoken-word video devotes 12 minutes and 16 seconds to promoting his Batman parody. In the opening minute, Brodeur describes the video itself as both "shitty" (true) and "quick" (untrue). This video-sans-motion runs four times as long as most Kickstarter videos, and over six times as long as most good Kickstarter videos.
Artists promoting their work often note their influences. This is one of the few points on which Brodeur is mercifully brief, for he admits, "I don't really follow graphic novels or comics."
A further difference between
BAD-MAN and its peers: most Kickstarter projects do not appear to be the product of untreated mental illness.
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| "I'm Christopher X. Brodeur's beard, and I approve of this message." |
Even my fascination with misguided self-promotion has limits, and this "video" lies beyond them. My resolve fails. It's not "so-self-important-it's-good," or "so-inept-it's-good." It just hurts.
Sample the video at your leisure. For now, I will present an example of Brodeur's prose. His description of the project is a single, monolithic paragraph of the kind written by people who should be taking heavy psychiatric drugs, but aren't. Step into its flow anywhere:
... There were some scenes I wrote that chilled me to the bone and others that brought me to tears, and they will you too. MY Bad-Man is merciless and even blinds and burns off the genitals of criminals (and especially billionaire mayors!) using acid! YIKES! I'm infamous for my gallows humor and having the darkest sense of wit ever, and that shows up thruout this brutal book. (I'm arguably the most controversial artist of all time, despite having won shitloads of awards and acclaim -- and even my enemies call me a "genius" which I guess is flattering. And the fact that I've won so many "Best EVER" awards in the Capital of the World [NYC], suggests that it's not my ego talking. I'm also banned from most periodicals in NYC and dozens of performing spaces in NYC, which should tell you how bold my words are! ...
Brodeur the artist shares ground with Frank Miller circa 1986, in that he sees New York as corrupt, he sees previous versions of Batman as inadequately violent, and he sees everybody except the hero as weak, stupid, or venal (or all three). I never thought I'd say it, but I've finally found a comic-book writer that I dislike more than I dislike Miller. I imagine that regardless of my differences with Miller--on politics, gender, justice, history--if we met in person, the two of us could still at least have conversation, taking turns.
Brodeur, however, talks and writes as if no worthy interlocutors exist. His audience consists of persecutors, dupes, and Christopher X. Brodeur.
