Adam (known ‘round these parts as BulletProofHeeb) is a fan of the subversive. His love of comic books and the heroes within has inspired his life as an artist, a photographer, and his interest in “real” piracy. Find out what comics have to offer the disenchanted, why Adam started snapping photos in the first place, and who really wins that whole DC vs Marvel thing.

Buzznet: Marvel or DC?

Adam: I used to read more Marvel for the soap opera-like plots but respected DC more because of their tradition of using classic-style archetypes. Because of recent(ish) events in both universes I've damn near given up on both of them. I am so sick of these continuity changing arcs, like DC's Crisis stories or Marvel's House of M, Civil War, World War Hulk, etc. that I'm pretty much down to side imprints and indie press books. Other than anything by Whedon and Ellis, of course.

Buzznet: Ok, seriously though, what drew you to the comic book world? What keeps you there?

Adam: I didn't get into comics until after most other people. At Pitt [University of Pittsburgh], most of my classes were across from one of the larger libraries in the area. I got into the habit of running over there and flipping through books between classes. Well, once my workload kicked in, I started looking for things that I could either read faster or read in spurts rather than full novels. As it turns out, the library had a rather large selection of comics.

I tried to do the big names in Marvel, but had no time to look up all the back plot points I was missing. I started looking at the odder stand-alone titles and got hooked. I think the earliest stuff I looked at was Grrl Scouts, Foot Soldiers and Lazarus Churchyard. Then I tried some of the series they had: I couldn't get into Metabarons, liked some of the Grendel books and fell in love with Rising Star. I began seeing other things like that, with layers of character built with powers. Astro City really cemented comics for me. It's not the blatant post-modern deconstruction a la Alan Moore, but a subtler way of opening people rather than breaking them apart.

Comics just seem to be parallel to other forms of media rather than in line with them. It's not part of the classic prose canon, or at least hasn't been until recently. People seem to think that it's a natural cousin to movies, but that's not right either. If anything it should be cousin to television, with it's penchant for long-running series or short-but-intense mini- and maxi-series. So it's like television with the pacing of a novel. You never have to watch/read it a second time right after because you're free to stop and examine the art as you're reading it the first time. It's one of the few visual mediums that gives the audience control over pacing almost to the degree of inviting them to be the editor.

Buzznet: Were you ever interested in photography before joining Buzznet?

Adam: Oh yes. My dad was really into photography and always kept me stocked with camera bodies and lenses. I ended up at a summer camp in PA that had photography as an elective. Well, I ended up signing on for both halves of my stay there each summer so for the first half I'd usually be the only kid signed up. By the second half I'd talk it up so much other kids would join, but by then I'd be weeks ahead of them in progress on my projects. I'd end up with my own teacher or just going off alone. Later, I ended up using my dad's darkroom equipment all year long when he started teaching it [photography] and was given a darkroom space. So I've been shooting for years.

Here's a secret, though. I got into photography because I really wanted to be an artist when I was little, but quickly realized I had absolutely no talent in drawing or painting. I had an odd aptitude for mask making, but no skill whatsoever for making pictures. I figured the next best thing was photography, and that started out well in the darkroom since I was very science inclined. It turned out that I had a pretty good eye from composing shots so I stuck with it. But photography was actually my consolation art form when I started.

Buzznet: You're pretty well-versed in copyright law and the philosophy behind the modern pirating movement. What do you recommend to someone who's just getting acquainted with copyright, either through torrents or through a place like Buzznet?

Adam: The best line of advice I can give is pretty universal: Know your rights. Photographer? Know your rights. Citizen? Know your rights. And now, because companies are getting tyrannical about everything anyone has ever produced: know your rights. Copyright was actually created to ensure that the public domain (things that belong to everyone and can be used, adapted, disseminated and reproduced without permission from anyone) is full of fresh ideas. It's only recently, in terms of history, that companies have bent and abused it in order to maintain control over their property as well as other peoples’, in many cases.

In this age where technology outpaces law and consumers outpace corporations there's a lot that's up in the air. But there's a lot that's already been set. Everyone should learn what the true meaning of "fair use" is before they learn the pledge of allegiance.

Not everything copied is piracy and not all piracy is bad. Hollywood was actually founded by people who wanted to make movies but, being in the eastern half of the US, were under restrictions because Thomas Edison owned all the rights on cameras and other filming technology. So a bunch of pirates went out west where the law didn't or couldn't reach them and started making their own, original productions. Hollywood was founded by pirates. Rappers who sample, people who write fan-fiction, artists like Warhol who use recognizable images in various states of recognizability. All pirates.

I recommend that everyone try to learn the basics. I would start with The Pirate's Dilemma, which you can name your own price for here:

http://thepiratesdilemma.com/download-the-book

And if you set the price to $0.00 that's fine and legal. If you're unsure, do that and then pay later if you like it. After that I'd move on to Cory Doctorow's book of essays, available here:

http://craphound.com/content/download/

RiP: Remix is a free and open source movie about the mashup/remix music scene, mainly focusing on the most excellent performer Girl Talk. Get the whole movie here, also a set your own price deal:

http://www.ripremix.com/getdownloads/

Creative Commons is the new big deal. It's an alternative licensing system as opposed to copyright. Learn all about it here:

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ

and learn about companies that use it here:

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Case_Studies

If anyone has questions or ideas, feel free to message me on here. If there's interest we could even start a group for it.

Buzznet: Did you ever experience any backlash against your LOLHeroes episode recaps? Do you believe you can simultaneously be a fan of something while being critical of it?

Adam: Heh. This ties right into copyright and piracy, doesn't it? I mean, I am taking copyrighted works (Heroes episodes) and remixing them within fair use. But the worst backlash I've ever had was along the lines of "this isn't that funny." Other than that people seem to enjoy it. Some of the stuff Heroes tries to get away with is terrible and really needs to be poked at.

The earlier ones were done with much more love because that's before Heroes started hanging out with the wrong crowd (not Bryan Fuller). Back then I did it because individual frames or even full scenes looked hilarious out of context. I think that the Nathan/squirrel shot that I did got tons of laughs for a long time after I posted it.

Now I don't do them as often because it just wasn't fun to watch an episode a second time. I mean, when I went back scene-by-scene, I noticed so many little things about the characters, like powers Sylar may or may not have stolen. I'd catch details that I didn't even know I missed the first time around. Then, when the show got bad, I stuck with it as an audience member but I wasn't invested enough to go another round each week. I've started up again because the end of this past season wasn't as bad as it has been. Hopefully the upswing will continue and then so will the LOLHeroes.

Buzznet:  How's your own comic strip going?

Adam: Which comic? I had one in college that ran for a few strips. Somewhere in the teens or twenties. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work, and I haven't even hooked my scanner up to my current computer, so that tells you how long since I worked on that.

I do some quick commentary strips over at Toonlet (http://toonlet.com/creator/bulletproofheeb), which I really should do more of. Great site. I recommend it to anyone who wants to try their hand at a web comic. The format is one character, head on, per panel so it's a bit restrictive. On the plus side, it's fast and takes no inherent artistic ability!

And then there's my actual comic script that I've been working on forever. I've actually made a lot of progress on it recently, but the plot is pretty dense and the timeline is tight, so it takes a lot of work to plot stuff out before I can even think about scripting it. I'll start putting updates on my blog once I get further along. And I'll probably also ask around for artists to perhaps partner up with...