By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Jami Bernard's Blog Debuts at MCN; Devastated Daily News Reaches Out to Fanboys
Dave Kehr will be so pleased: On the morning when critic Jami Bernard’s blog debuts right here on Movie City News, Bernard’s former bosses the New York Daily News have given one of their general assignment reporters a Web-only fanboy column.
That is not a misprint. “Ethan Sacks Unmasked” will feature the author’s biweekly stroll through the subculture of comic-clutching, Tolkien-fellating, pajama-swaddled 35-year-olds, getting out all the latest updates about “genre entertainment, including comic books, sci-fi, fantasy, kung fu flicks, anime and video games” that will have his readers creaming their X-Men underwear. (For the uninitiated, The Reeler has an understanding-fanboy-culture cheat sheet here.)
It should be noted that Sacks is not replacing Bernard; rather, his work symbolizes the News’s shift from supplying reasonably useful film writing to a shining new era in condescension. In fairness to the paper’s efforts to draw younger readers, I should probably add the obligatory “At least they are trying.” But you could also deduce from Sacks’s bio that they are trying a little too hard:
Ethan Sacks has worked at the Daily News for almost ten years; he has been a fanboy geek for most of his thirty-three years on this planet. His proudest moment? Having Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee dub his daughter “an official Superheroine, forevermore entitled to wear the colors and insignia of the fabled House of Sacks. So hath it been stated. So shall it be.” A close second was the actual birth of said daughter….
So. Excited yet?