Word: proto
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Answer: Great Britain. Small wonder something this eccentric would come from the land of William Blake, the mystic poet and proto-comix artist, and Alan Moore, the mystic contempo-comix writer. Appearing mostly in the British small press (i.e. photocopied) scene, "Abe" gathers together almost fifty short pieces that have appeared over the last fifteen years. They all star Abe Rat, an ironically cruel name for a nebbishy character who mostly just wants to figure out what makes him happy...
...needs a cautionary tale about the impermanence of popularity, Koizumi need only call on former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa. In 1993, Hosokawa was a proto-Koizumi: a young, telegenic maverick, who promised to mend Japan's then newly burst bubble economy and reform old-style politics. And yes, he too had a youthful, blow-dried haircut. Hosokawa bolted from the LDP, cobbled together a coalition and became Prime Minister with Koizumi-like approval ratings. True to his word, he opened the protected rice market and introduced campaign-finance reform. But a minor scandal and an unwieldy coalition deflated Hosokawa. Eight...
Hong Kong stars work hard. Some make a dozen films a year; others record four or more CDs a year while maintaining a grueling schedule of concerts, TV gigs, commercial endorsements and personal appearances. "Last year I released five or six albums," says proto-hunk Nicholas Tse, 20. "For most artists that's almost a law. Sometimes your companies just need fast cash and you gotta make this album on time. By the time it's released, you don't even remember what you sang." Canto-stars sing lyrics in Cantonese, Mandarin or English. Now they're turning Japanese...
...contrast, the "American Pies" are about a group of buddies, and said buddies are essentially crowdless. Finch is a scrawny proto-intellectual who wears black Converse sneakers (timeless badge of the high school rebel) and speaks as if he wants to be Jeremy Irons when he grows up. Chris Kleins lacrosse player, "Oz" Ostreicher, not only doesn't want to beat Finch up; he actually appears to like Finch and regard him as a bro. The other dudes are middle-of-the-road types who don't seem particularly interested in sports other than dessert-humping but who show...
...foresight to sign Sonic Youth and Dinosaur, Jr., bands whose followings both eventually dwarfed that of Black Flag and those of their `80s punk contemporaries, like Boston's Mission of Burma and Washington D.C.'s Minor Threat. The shows they played were booked at venues older proto-alternative bands had already played, but they had their work cut out for them selling America and Europe on innovative, unpolished sounds...