NY Times: "Even at a Comics Event, You Can’t Defy Gravitas"

"Even at a Comics Event, You Can’t Defy Gravitas," by Michael Cieply, New York Times, July 13, 2012.

Just about then, something very loud began thumping through the floor. It seemed to be coming from the convention center’s Hall H, where Lionsgate was prepping for its presentation of “The Expendables 2,” a thought-free action film filled with mayhem, starring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger

And, finally, it sounded like fun.

This entire article implicitly equates "comics" with "mindless, escapist fare that isn't worth thinking about in any way." The writer -- and he is not alone, to be sure -- seems unable to grasp the concept that, for some people, analysis can in fact be an act of appreciation and enjoyment.

It says something about the level of research and thought involved that the one thing that sums up what Comic-Con "really" should be about has nothing to do with comics. Bonus points for the visual-rhetorical flourish for illustrating an article primarily about comics scholarship with a photo of a Superman cosplayer.

(Photo credit: Denis Poroy/Invision, via Associated Press. Note: There's nothing wrong with the photo itself, and the costume is actually quite well done. It just doesn't serve any purpose with this article except as an attempt to trivialize the article's subject matter.)