Better Living Through Graphic Storytelling

2008-07-09T02:11:00.001-05:00

2008-02-19T09:35:00.001-05:00

This is of particular interest to me since I'm a huge fan of EC Comics and Gaine's publishing work, as well as a long-time Mad fan. Keep in mind, as "right on" as Gaines is portrayed as, this is essentially after he "stole" the magazine from Harvey Kurtzman, in the 1950s. Still, Gaines' reign over the magazine did successfully last quite some time.

2008-02-07T09:28:00.001-05:00

2008-01-18T19:10:00.001-05:00

Fell #9

Fell is not dead. It's just been traveling the world, and promoting vampire movies. Or maybe it's been sitting in England...NOT WRITING. Regardless, delays in books like Fell don't really matter because it's always worth the wait. This issue was like a kick to the chest.

GO READ IT.

Quick Note...

2008-01-18T19:07:00.001-05:00

I really really really liked Spiderman being married.
But I like Dan Slott more...
BECAUSE HE'S A REAL PERSON.

2008-01-04T11:00:00.001-05:00

2007-12-13T09:36:00.001-05:00

Is it me, or did anyone else who saw this picture think, at first glance, that that was Brian K. Vaughn?

Crecy

2007-08-25T18:20:00.001-05:00

In England, the word cunt is punctuation.

The other day I had gone back and re-read a few stories from Warren Ellis' brief run on Hellblazer, which was really quite good. Ellis is one of those creators that I trust, but only as far as I can throw him. When he hits the mark, he hits it hard. But unfortunately, he often misses the mark too. Ellis is an "idea man", and while I think that this is something sorely lacking in most modern comics, it can also hold a good writer back.

All of this occurred to me while I was reading Hellblazer because, frankly, it's really fucking good. Ellis' famed smarminess (see Warren Ellis (dot) Com for examples) has been a useful tool over the years, but too often it is apparent that most of his protagonists at this point are little more than Spider Jerusalem derivatives, who himself was admittedly a Hunter S. Thompson derivative. All of this nut-kicking, chain-smoking, and swearing is quite charming in the beginning, but it begins to wear itself pretty thin after a while. Especially when considering that Transmetropolitan is 10 years old now.

The reason I frame this in the context of Ellis' Hellblazer run is because Ellis is just that much more convincing when he's writing British characters. Looking back on series like Desolation Jones reaffirm this suspicion.

Crecy, Warren Ellis' new graphic-novella released by Avatar Press as part of his Apparat Line, is another perfect example of why Warren Ellis should not be writing Thunderbolts and should be writing Wisdom instead. Crecy is a surprisingly economic piece of work about the Battle of Crecy, from the British point of view.

There's a reason why Hugh Grant movies sell in America. Warren Ellis' omniscient narrator is a perfect example of how the British could be verbally abusing you to your face, and you'd still walk away from the conversation having been charmed. Take out the racism, the perpetual class-warfare, the hatred of everything not English, the constant need to correct everyone who is not English that they are wrong and backwards, and you'd have a Summer Blockbuster on your hands right there.

Crecy doesn't read quite like a story, but it also doesn't quite read like the overt history lesson that it is. More than anything it reads like a lament and an admission of not only the things that the British got right, but also the ugly things that the British had to get wrong in order to survive. The combination of admitting your mistakes while also admitting that it is necessary to continue them is extremely powerful when handled by Ellis. These are the kinds of lofty experiments that make it worth buying as many Warren Ellis books as possible.

Crecy bodes well for not only Avatar, but for comics as well. With the release of both Doktor Sleepless and Black Summer, the Apparat line has shown that it is not only alive and well, but more than willing to kick in your nuts.

Gay as in...

2007-08-24T07:57:00.001-05:00

Michael Davis, over at Comicmix, has the answers to the comic industries problems - Happy Heroes! (tm & (c) Michael Davis 2007):

*For the uninformed (Republicans) a 40 means a 40 ounce beverage in a glass bottle. In this case the beverage would be a beer, more specifically a malt liquor such as Colt 45. If by chance you are ever in the “hood” and you want to appear “down” or “cool” then by all means order a Colt 45 in the bag. That’s a plain brown paper bag. Do NOT order a Sam Adams or some such weak ass brew. That would most likely result in a beat down…yours.

Whatever happened to the good 'ol days of self-deprecating satire?

Text vs. Meta-Text

2007-08-15T11:46:00.001-05:00

Been a while. How have you been?

So... This and this have been making the rounds (please read the original blog entries). Not quite in a this kind of way, but enough to make me go "WTF, man?" this morning. Why did I go "WTF, man?"? Because this argument seems pointless to me. Why is it pointless?

Because both Ms. Superheroine and Ms. Hudson are completely right.

I think the issue that many people have with 'Angry Fangirls' on the blogosphere is that there is confusion as to what makes up the content of a comic book.

There's text...

...and then there's meta-text.

ou’re supposed to be disgusted with what happens to Barbara Gordon—and to Commissioner Gordon—because it’s disgusting. That is, in fact, the entire point. It was brutal and pointless and ugly and terrible, and that's why it hurts so much.

That's the text of Killing Joke.

It doesn't take the perspective of a woman into account. It doesn't take into account that some women might be so very disgusted with the book & what happens to Barbara Gordon in it.

That's the meta-text of Killing Joke.

You can review the text of a work. You can't really do that wholly with the meta-text, however, you can certainlyevaluate a work based on its meta-text.

The Killing Joke has been mentioned by Alan Moore as one of his most disappointing works. He states that it is about "nothing". I may be wrong, but I also believe that he did not intend for that story to be necessarily in continuity, and certainly did not intend for this story to be an impetus for getting "rid of" Barbara Gordon/Batgirl. He just needed something that he, as a fan, felt disgusting and offensive enough to actually have been committed by a character like The Joker.

We can't forget the story. The story is the most important part. But we also can't forget that art is supposed to inspire people. Whether it inspires people to make works of art themselves or inspires them to become life-long fans of the character. Even if all it inspires in people is that they should not shoot women in the spine, a piece of art should inspire on any level. Should we be all-accepting and forgiving of the more annoying tendencies of our fanperson compatriots? Probably not, because then most of us comic book bloggers wouldn't have blogs anymore, but we also can't forget that things like this stem from love and appreciation.

Ms. Superheroine was disgusted by The Killing Joke. Not disgusted but inspired like Ms. Hudson, or myself at age 13. In my opinion, that is reason enough for someone to dislike a particular work of art, regardless of whether I share that reaction or not.

The only thing that I would mention to Ms. Superheroine is that The Killing Joke was published in the late 80s (a very, very culturally dark time), before the pictoral abuse of women in comics was as rampant as it is today. This is before "Women in Refrigerators". This is before Stephanie Brown was senselessly and unfairly killed. This was before Brad Meltzer ran off copies of his first novel at Kinkos.

Given its historical context, I would say that Mr. Moore's decision to depict Barbara Gordon being shot might be inspiring. A lot of terrible abuses were happening to Women all over the world in 1988. This is still fairly fresh off the Women's Liberation movement, when we had thought that if we tried hard enough we could eradicate sexism, only to see it all come crashing down with the rise of Heroine Chic and the Crack Epidemic. However, in comics, no one was talking about these things. When Jim Gordon is forced to watch footage of his daughter being abused by the Joker, we're right there with him, because we love Barbara too.

However, given the present day context of Mike Turner variant covers and the legal name change of Dr. Light to Dr. RapeityRapeRape-Rape, yeah, it's uninspired and irritating.

Whoziwhatnow?

2007-08-01T15:15:00.001-05:00

Seriously, the next person who claims that it was illegal downloading that "killed" the music industry....

Argh.

You know what? You're entitled to your opinion. If your opinion is that the Music Industry as we knew it could have survived, had the onslaught of P2P sharing networks, such as Gnutella and Slsk not become ubiquitous, then so be it. I've made very clear in the past my advocacy of downloading media (illegally or otherwise), and how I honestly believe that it makes people more responsible and conscientious consumers. It allows us to make informed decisions about what we pay for.

Maybe I should have mentioned something though...

I'm a musician. My father's a musician. My roommate's a musician. Most of the people I was around, growing up as a kid, were musicians, both professional and otherwise. Some of these people work for small record companies as their day jobs. Now that they all have iPods, they all download music. Before the internet, they used to tape music, either off the radio, or from records borrowed from friends or the local library. We're musicians and we steal. Fuck you.

I mean, even if one were to blame Napster for the death of the music industry (looking at you Lars Ulrich), did we really want the music industry as we knew it to survive? Be completely honest with yourselves now.

Illegal downloads f**ked the music industry seriously, and while I'm all for sticking it to the "man," it all does end up negatively impacting the artists and their art -- ESPECIALLY SMALLER "NICHE" MUSICIANS!

I would say that music industry executives, and the framework of the industry is what really f**ked musicians and artists, long long long before the internet was around. Don't believe me? I know some dudes in Plainfield that worked as studio musicians on some historically important records and never saw a lick of the album profits. That's not because they were screwed over by anyone with any specific malice towards them. That's because working studio musicians only get paid a one-time fee. Even if you provide an improvised excerpt in a song (i.e. solo), which many musicians like to refer to as "spontaneous composition", you get a one time fee. No publishing rights, nothing. Why? Because that is the going contract for studio musicians. That is the way in which the Music Industry was designed at its very inception.

I mean, you want to talk artists' royalties, the situation is not much better. We're talking a couple cents per unit, and that's after the label has recovered expenses (i.e. shipping, packaging, production, any sort of advance, touring costs, etc.). A couple cents per unit. The average CD costs less than a dollar to manufacture. The cost of an individual album, including shipping, production, artwork, packaging, is somewhere between $3 - $4. It might be even less at this point. Meanwhile, music consumers are being charged anywhere between $11 - $18 on average. That's about $10 more than the CD cost to make. That's a $10 profit per unit, and the artist is getting paid a couple cents per unit. This was the case well before Napster, and last time I walked into a record store, it was the case several years after Napster.

The music industry does not respect you. The music industry does not respect it's "talent". All the music industry has done, since its inception, is convince you, the consumer, that there was a need for a middle-man.

Before The Music Dies is a fairly decent documentary which investigates this issue further, by interviewing music fans, studio technicians, professional songwriters, musicians, and former A&R reps. The nicest thing about this documentary is that they are selling both DVDs and DRM-free, downloadable digital copies of the movie (both at compressed and DVD quality) via their website. No middle-man. If your curious about this issue, and how it relates to music fans and musicians, check out the site.

Now, in relation to the BoingBoing.net post, I don't really think that the issue is whether or not illegal downloading is right or wrong. The real issue is that the RIAA does not want you downloading music, period, and that this is another piece of propaganda to add to the pile. It just so happens to feature a comic book character. That has always been BoingBoing's stance. Sure, pay the artists for their work, but don't let the record company tell you how to use your music (i.e. Digital Rights Management). Intellectual property is a very slippery slope of an issue, but property formal is less so. If you pay for a record, whether it be the physical record or a digital copy, the record company should not be able to prevent you from sharing it with your friends, burning multiple copies for whatever reason, or play these files on another machine.

Let's put this in terms of another media industry. Let's say you bought the Civil War tradepaperback. Your buddy comes over, sees you have the book. He's interested in buying the X-men tie-in trade, because he's a big X-men fan who happens to be one of those wait-for-the-trade guys, but he hadn't read the main story yet. He's a bit of a tightwad when it comes to his cash. So you offer to lend it to him. Now imagine that the minute the book exchanges hands, Joe Quesada pops up out of nowhere, snatches up the book and says to your buddy, "You didn't pay for this! You don't get to read it!" That's DRM in a nut-shell.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but most comics pros are currently advocating that you lend out your comics. They're telling you that word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool. It's the one thing that could get non-comic book readers to read comics again, and hopefully save the industry. I don't think that BoingBoing is anti-artist by any means. I don't even think they're anti-paying for your art. I'm pretty sure what they are against is rich white men telling you how, and under what circumstances you are allowed to enjoy the art which you have already over-paid for.

Again, there are lots of resources out there on this issue, and how it pertains to any number of mediums. Go read some of this stuff and decide for yourself. As for me, I've made very clear that I download illegally in order to be a more concientious and responsible consumer. I'm downloading in order to make an informed vote with my money. This way, I am doing my personal best to ensure that the material I want to see on the shelves every week will be there next month, and that the crap I have no interest in is not. I'm trying to personally ensure that the comics industry is putting out what I personally think are good, intelligently made comics, in a language that they actually listen to. Money.

Except when it comes to the music industry. I am clearly out to fuck them. Hard. Because every day they are trying to fuck my friends and family even harder, and that doesn't sit right with me.

UPDATE Wow. Just read those opening paragraphs. I'm a dick, aren't I?

In the comments section of Occasional Superheroine Ms. Superheroine talks about the comics industry adopting a download platform for authorized digital comics (e.g. iTunes store for comics). I agree, wholeheartedly. My only issue is that DC & Marvel will probably be strong advocates of using DRM to ensure that these comics are not shareable, and I've mentioned above my feelings on DRM, and how I think that that would contradict previous statements made by professionals. The only reason this concerns me, is because there's only a small handful of books coming out from those publishers that I want to pay money for, but they have enough clout to set the standard for all the other publishers.

Ms. Superheroine makes an excellent point (again in the comments section) when she points out what really killed the music industry was not so much the emergence of downloading technology, but rather going up against the downloading technology. She believes that working with emerging technologies might help keep the mainstream comics industry afloat. I think that the heads at the big 2, as well as publishers like Image and Dark Horse are pretty well aware of this, and are at least trying to work with the future instead of fighting it. Hell, Avatar is putting out that web-exclusive Warren Ellis project.

Does anyone but me remember Marvel's short-lived, Flash heavy Dot-Comics? They used to feature a lot of classic books (I can't tell you how many times I've read Amazing Fantasy #15 at this point in my life) as well as the two main Ultimate titles. It was pretty sweet, and it's sort of how I got back into super hero comics when I was in college. I thought that that was a format that worked well, because you had to actually read the comic on Marvel's website, but you could share the link with you pals or whatever. Sure it's not portable, and the initial load time could be slow, but it was well worth it for me. And I suspect it was worth it for Marvel, because I've been reading and buying Ultimate Spiderman as a direct result.

weekly reads.

2007-07-06T14:19:00.000-05:00

so, tonio asked me to write about this week's reads. so, here you go.

Thor #1
I like it. I like the return of Donald Blake. I like the reverence to the past and, admittedly based on interviews with J. Michael Strkfdsfjkahkfaf, I think the direction he's going will be interesting without fucking up what came before. Clever things abound in an issue without much going on. Self contained, while still leading into issue #2. All in all, a good #1.

Black Canary #1
Surprisingly tight comic. I mean, I knew all the back story, so I can't quite tell if people not informed would be able to follow the references, but I enjoyed it. Little more than that though.

All-Star Superman #8
I'm not one of those guys who was blown away by this series. I mean, it's good comics, but I wasn't hooting and hollering after reading it. But the Jimmy Olsen issue really worked me up because of it's glut of craziness, and so I expected Bizarroworld to do the same, but, eh, there are good moment, but, mostly, it was pretty good. I'm sure when I read the trade I'll get more excited.

Mutant X
So, i found all the back issues of Mutant X so I'm reading them. I think I picked up an issue of this when it came out, #2 or 3 maybe, and i remember kind of liking it. And you know what? I do. It's not making me think differently about anything. And it's no world changer, but it is fun comics. The characters are somehow immediately likable because they are so intensely flawed. Also, while most books seem to need to know where they're going, there's something about the forward pace of this book without looking forward at all that appeals to me. It's definitely written for the issues.
The only complaint about this book, even the weird major shift at the one year mark that seems rushed is okay by me, is that each issue is starts in medias res and then flashes back. I hate that everywhere and here it's in every issue.
Here's the thing though, I don't know if I'd suggest this book to anyone. I like it, but I think I'm just a sucker for alternate worlds. Love em. Always have. They are the place where all logic dies and comics logic begins. LOVE EM. Gimme more alternate worlds!

Haven't read anything else yet. Will update if I do.

Someone Else Has Probably Already Posted This

2007-07-03T10:26:00.001-05:00

But I don't care. It's still sort of awesome.

news

2007-07-03T09:32:00.000-05:00

According to Beaucoup Kevin Marvel is in talks with Michael Agrusso (responsible for the possibly over exposed Mac/PC ad parodies which pit a Marvel action figures against a DC action figures) to produce similar videos for the Marvel website. It begs two questions:

1. Who would win in an ad? Plastic Thor, or plastic Supmerman?

2. Is overtly insulting a fellow publisher really ok?

Sure stuff like this is great for fans to produce, but have we gone back to the days when Marvel & DC dedicate letters columns to subtely dissing "the competition"?

Then I came across this picture:

All I heard in my head was "Hello. I'm a Gertrude Stein," and I thought that was funny.

In "real" news, Dean Haspiel & Michael Fiffe are bringing Immortal and Panorama to print in October. Image Comics will be printing both strips (which debuted on Act-I-Vate) in a single book simply named Brawl.

Also, Paul Gravett (hearts) Krazy Kat

Oh, and there was this:

really good idea.

2007-07-02T02:25:00.000-05:00

Tonio told me i had to post about this and a mouse just showed up crawling on my bed so i got really stoned and here you go, marvel and dc, take it or leave it:

The gray Hulk (Mr. Fixit), the extra-mutated Thing (the pineapple one), Kilowog, and Strong Guy all move into an apartment together to be able to afford a place that can accommodate their over-sized frames.

The only fighting that will happen in this book is bickering turned into wrestling between the main characters. We get to learn interesting things about each of them as they're forced to interact with each other constantly. Did you know Strong Guy receives medicinal marijuana for his constant upper body pain? How about that Kilowog's a total bookworm and it's totally gross when he brushes those weird things on his face?

Enjoy watching the lives of these four characters, giant in both size and heart.

I can't stop thinking of scenes where Kilowog and Strong Guy get stoned watching tv. Or where Grey Hulk and the Thing get drunk playing poker. But also surprisingly serious late night conversations like I've often had with room mates. What would mafia enforcer Mr. Fixit talk to genetic scientist Kilowog about at four in the morning? Also, I'm pretty sure every character in this book smokes cigars. Though, now that I think of it, maybe Strong Guy doesn't.

If the world is lucky, I will come up with a pitch for the first year of the book.

Right. There you go, Tonio, now I look the fool.

holy motherfuck.

2007-06-30T06:06:00.000-05:00

this is probably my favorite image ever. i stole it directly from here.

P.I.R.A.T.E.S.

2007-06-28T09:16:00.001-05:00

So without any new solicitations to view, comic book piracy has become the new hot issue on the web right now.

That is not to say that this is not an issue worth discussing, and I'm really really glad to see everyone from comic creators to fans to unabashed comic pirates chiming in and explaining their positions in a seemingly civil manner.

I am a life long comic fan. I still go to the store every Wednesday and spend approximately $20 a week on brand new floppy comics. That amount does not include the price of trades, collections, or graphic novels. You may even say that I, like many of my fellow fans, am addicted to reading comics.

Unfortunately my budget is smaller than I would like it to be. My salary is paltry. My rent is high. The cost of living in New York City is consistently rising at astronomical rates.

Did I mention that my weekly comics budget 6 months ago was $30 a week? And that 6 months before that it was $40 a week? That was not always the average amount I spent per week, but it was my maximum price range.

In the past two years we have seen the price tag of the average mainstream floppy rise from $2.50 to $2.99 per book. That bump may not seem significant, but as most fans will point out, we are essentially getting 22 pages of a 5 - 7 issue story. That's a minimum $15 minimum per story. That's approximately $15 for 110 pages of story.

Now, I'm not saying that the $2.99 price tag is not justified, and as grateful as I am for better coloring technology and better quality printing, $15 per story is still a lot, considering that the average Dean Koontz paperback, which is probably closer to around 200 pages of story, costs about $10, and it takes me about 30 - 40 minutes to digest the average trade paperback.

Maybe I should curb my habit (more than I already have). Maybe I should do that thing where I don't read floppies anymore and simply wait for the trade. Unfortunately, a lot of my favorite books are not guaranteed release in a collected format. They need to sell enough floppies in order to do that.

What downloading comics allows me to do is be a more conscientious comics consumer.

I was first introduced to Alan Moore's Promethea series via a collection of cbr files that my buddy past along to me. Now I own all of the trades, as well as several others in Moore's ABC line.

I shelled out a $100 as part of DC's special 52 subscription plan. I didn't get all of my issues, the ones I did get were all at least 2 weeks late (2 weeks, after the 1 week delay we were told about in advance), and some of them showed up in my mailbox fucked up. I wouldn't have minded if I had enjoyed the series more, but I didn't. It was a waste of $100. That's a $100 I could have spent on rent or bills or food.

I was a fan of Ultimate Spiderman in the very beginning of the series. For one reason or another I stopped reading it regularly. A few years back I got back into it. How? Reading the trades for free in THE LIBRARY. What story lines my local library didn't carry, I caught up with by downloading the torrents. I have been buying the floppies every month since then.

I have a friend who makes his living primarily as an artist. That means money is infrequent and irregular most of the time. He's also a huge comic fan. When he does come across money he immediately spends it on comics. When he doesn't have money (and I mean, doesn't even have enough for food or clothing) he downloads his books, and buys the hard copies when he gets paid. As an artist who makes his life selling his art, he surely recognizes the necessity of comic creators being paid fairly for their hard work. He simply can't afford to support artists on a regular basis on the terms of the current market.

This is not everyone. There are quite a few people who have no shame in downloading or uploading comics on a regular basis, with absolutely no intention of ever paying for one. But as a few people have rightly pointed out, that is not really taking money away from creators as much as never offering it. I suppose it is the difference between being mugged at gunpoint, and being pick-pocketed.

I have no qualms about downloading comics regularly, simply because I still do give my money to the books that I think need it or deserve it. I'm not willing to sacrifice my own lifestyle in order to ensure the lifestyle of everyone else in the comics industry, but I am willing to compromise my lifestyle a bit in order to ensure the lifestyle of a handful of creators and publishers that I think merit my support, in exchange for 22 pages of culture. If you personally enjoy reading Countdown or World War Hulk: Frontline, please buy it. Please support those books. But if you are not, don't. Please. That is worse than stealing it in my opinion, because that just means that books you don't enjoy will be stealing shelf-space and potential budgeting for books that you do or will enjoy. This is a scheme that the Big 2 are banking on, because it is easier to sell crappy stories with existing properties than it is to conceptualize new ones with good stories.

I would also like to point out that maybe 40% (that's a really rough guess) of the comic torrents making the rounds out there is material currently unavailable. Like the underground Wimmen's Comix collection or a lot of scantilated manga & BD (which does often make it's ways into the hands of US publishers). So, as a note to publishers, don't just look at torrent stats as a way of determining who is stealing money from you. Also look at it as a way of determining what sorts of stories, or what sorts of old material there is a demand for that is not being met by the current market.

The last thing I will say is that going to the store and paying $20 for a collected edition of any comic series is far more convenient than configuring your computer and your router to run some of the better, and therefore more popular, bittorrent clients. The fact that so many people are willing to take the more frustrating route says something.

Our Thoughts Are With You, Mr. Gerber

2007-06-26T11:46:00.001-05:00

Legendary comic writer Gerber, has announced that he is sick. At this point, he has already received aid from the HERO Initiative. If you are able to, please donate to them.

I would just like to point out that Gerber may not be as well known beyond his creation of Howard the Duck, but let me assure you that the man knows his craft and has written some damn fine material. I refer you to his interview The Comics Journal which can be found in their The Comic Journal Library: The Writers(Buy this book fast. You may have heard they're being sued over it.)

Saturday Doctor Who

2007-06-23T11:02:00.000-05:00

In case you didn't know, the MoCCA Art Festival is going on right now here in NYC. I'd really like to go, but for reasons I leave unspecified, I doubt I'll be able to. Also, Subway Cinema is holding this year's Asian Film Festival which includes the New York premiere of I'm A Cyborg But That's OK. Again, we'll see if I can make it.

In any event, the third Season of the Doctor Who revival continues it's three-part finale tonight. For all of you DW fans eagerly anticipating tonight's episode, here's something to tide you over:

I'll try to continue posting images like this each Saturday, in attempt to ensure everyone's weekend goes well.

Oh The Irony...

2007-06-23T10:34:00.001-05:00

This from Tom Crippen's 2006 review of Civil War (from The Comics Journal #281):

The Marvel heroes are fighting each other in a very serious, no-fooling-around war, like a Shakespeare history play but with mutants and Nick Fury robots and everything else we're used to seeing. The effect is weird. We are supposed to feel the tragedy of Reed Richards' and Tony Stark's fatal flaws, but it takes a tremendous leap to believe they can have fatal faults. You have to believe that this time the editors won't snatch the ball away and there won't be a Reed clone or some secret mind control or a reality shift.

Skrulls, dude. Skrulls.

Sorry.

Crippen makes an excellent point in his involved description of the giant-sized funeral of Goliath - Civil War turned out to be fucking hilarious. I know everyone's pissed off at Marvel right now, but you have to admit that they have given us no shortage comedic material since the whole 'Cap must die for MySpace' thing.

I suppose that is Crippen's point. Super hero comics, by there very nature need to be fun, not 'realistic'. Of course, every piece of fiction must have the ability to resonate on a realistic or human level in order for readers to relate, but wasn't that sort of subtle awareness always what was so great about some of our favorite comics?

Ultimately things like this mean nothing. Next week, or the week after that, there will be some other ridiculous marketing ploy designed to shock us (or delight us) into buying more units. Some of us will comply. Some of us will not. This does not diminish our love of the medium. It only strengthens it, and makes it clear where we stand and what we are willing to put up with.

In spite of being point on about why we as comic fans should probably not make a big deal about the zombie Mary Jane cover, Steven Grant is incorrect about the story featuring a zombified Mary Jane in it. I love what they've done with the Out-of-Continuity Mary Jane comics, but that's not what irritates/upsets me about this cover. What is upsetting is that it's just another crass example of consumer capitalism desperately flailing its arms around in an attempt to survive. More than anything, the seriousness with which the most ardent fans and the publishers themselves take these stories, characters, and images, is pitiful.

I'm not saying that our beloved fictions are not important. What I'm saying is that they're too important to let it be bogged down by the same exact bullshit we have to deal with. So let's all be good grown-ups and let the play be play.

Let's have some fun...

..with Skrulls.

Flash #13

2007-06-20T12:03:00.001-05:00

This just went down at the comic store:

Mark: Captain America dies, you saps all pour in. The Flash dies, nobody cares.

Dude: That's because nobody cares about Barry Allen. We're talking Steve Rogers, here.

Me: Actually, it's Bart Allen.

Dude: Good. So the whole Allen line is dead. They'll just kill another one next year.

Other Dude: What about his brother, Larry?

Claire: Didn't he pitch for the Sox?

I don't care how many times I see it. I don't care if they release nothing but 13 issues of the Flash dying. I will fucking cry each time, man.

There are only two things I get super fanboyish about (some would dispute that):

The Flash
Doctor Who

Thank you, Mark Guggenheim, for giving us Bart Allen fans the ending we deserve. Without spoiling anything, if you are a fan of the Flash legacy, regardless of who is your personal favorite, the last three pages will kill you.

Kill you.

Like you were involved in a company-wide cross-over.

Kill you.

UPDATE/SPOILER ALERT:

They seriously killed off Bart to bring Wally back? The twist on this better be really fucking good. Better than just bringing back Barry Allen. Seriously. And we had to wade through all of that excrutiating JLA/JSA cross-over to get to this point? Although, having the Legion of Superheroes be the ones to bring back a Flash was good. We'll see.

Miller + Owen + Chandler = A Close Approximation of That Sin City Sequel You're Never Going to See

2007-06-20T08:52:00.001-05:00

Seriously, as much as I'd love another Clive Owen movie, is this really necessary?

Fastest Book Alive

2007-06-18T09:19:00.001-05:00

This weekend was Father's Day weekend, so I had more important things to do than sit on the internet, hitting the refresh button on my browser over & over again, in an attempt to get the news from Wizardworld.

It was only this morning that I heard the news, and all I have to say is...

FUCK YOU!

Seriously, fuck you, DC. Fuck you Bob Wayne & Dan Didio. Fuck. You. Mark. Waid.

This new Flash series was just starting to get good! You know how long I've waited to see Bart's moment in the sun? You know how long I've waited for this book to finally come out?

Since I was 13, motherfuckers! Since I was buying Impulse, another one of the few ongoing comics that I KEPT BUYING when no one else was. And when it was cancelled, what did I get?

I got Young Justice starring baby Lobo.

FUCK YOU DC.

Now as exciting as it is for fans to see Mark Waid helm the book again, I have to admit that it doesn't really do anything for me. Sure his run on The Flash was great, all those years ago, but isn't it somebody else's turn? Isn't it time we got over this very slim minority of internet assholes who just troll the message boards screaming "WE WANT BARRY BACK!!", even though these fuckers weren't even alive when Barry Allen was the Flash?

Fuck you! You took away Wally. Now you're taking away Bart? Have we loyal Flash fans done nothing for you DC? Have we not tried our damndest to ensure that whoever it is behind the red and gold, that The Flash remain one of the cornerstones of the DCU? Don't we fans of Bart Allen deserve something for sticking with The Flash, Impulse, Young Justice, and The Teen Titans?

The only thing that might make this news bearable for me, is that Waid is writing the new series, entitled All-Flash. "All-Flash"? What could they mean by that? Don't they mean "All-Star Flash"? Like the proposed All-Star series featuring Barry Allen? Or do they mean....

We'll see, Waid. We'll see, Didio. Let's see how long you can keep me faithful to this book when you're disappearing all my favorite characters in the DCU. We'll see if All-Flash can serve the same purpose as The Flash, as the only mainstream superhero DC book I continue to spend money on each month. We'll see...

UPDATE: Wow. I just re-read that post, and I only now realized how unnecessarily harsh that sounded. So I apologize guys. I love you Bob Wayne. I love you Dan Didio. And, I especially love you Mark Waid. If not for you, we wouldn't even have Bart. Just warning you guys, no matter what the internet says, there are some hardcore Flash fans out there (not Barry fans, not Wally fans, not even Bart fans; Flash fans). I've been reading the Flash since the days that I was able to buy my comics with saved-up pocket change. I lamented the end of Impulse. Be careful, Mr. Waid. I know you have a handle on the legacy and the characters, but sometimes wanting to go beyond that is what seperates a good comic from a great comic.

This Is Weird

2007-06-12T08:29:00.001-05:00

For anyone reading either of these blogs...

I used to have a personal blog entitled ResonTence. It was pretty stupid, but I got a bit of traffic due to my exorbitant amount comic book related posts. Good times. Good times.

Anyway, in case you haven't noticed, I no longer maintain that blog. That's essentially what I've created these two separate blogs for - one for discussing comics, and the other for discussing...well, mostly science fiction I guess, but in theory I get to discuss other things (like this, which might as well be science fiction, but it's not...)

What does any of this have to do with anything?

Well someone re-registered the blogger URL that I was using before, as well as the blog's title/name. All of this is pretty amusing to me since, as far as I know, it's a word I made up when I was drunk.

When you visit the URL in your browser, nothing pops up though (except that wretched pistachio background thing), but in my RSS reader a post entitled Prescription drug purchasing pool when an employer..., written by "Steve" pops up.

For anyone occasionally bothering to visit the old URL, this is not me. I wish I had this man's access to the bevy of prescription medication, but no, this is not me. I don't review drugs. My name is also not "Steve".

Call me paranoid, but all of this is a bit hard to believe. Why on earth would anyone register the URL for a blogger account that includes a word I made up on a whim? Is it possible that that person thought they were making up the same word? Were they drinking the same thing I was when I made it up?

It's a bit odd to say the least. I'm going to refrain from making any assumptions that don't include coincidence, but it still creeps me the fuck out.

Japan Vs. America... FIGHT!

2007-06-08T08:58:00.001-05:00

Yet again, Blog@Newsarama's point/counterpoint column addresses one of the many differences between the Japanese manga market and the American comics market.

On the Manga Johou forum, a translated article by Yoshikazu Hayashida, which basically states that the Japanese manga market is able to produce a lot more groundbreaking material with great frequency due to the weekly anthology format, which publishes maybe tens of short serialized comic stories in one volume. This format, according to Hayashida, allows a handful of proven successful manga stories to bear the brunt of keeping up sales, while allowing other stories to experiment a bit more. Given the sheer quantity of "filler" manga stories not responsible for making or breaking sales of a title, the efficiency with which one of these stories will strike a chord and eventually become successful enough to be the next torchbearer in terms of sales, is that much more likely than a magazine/book that features only one story/creative team on it.

Dave Carter of At Yet Another Comics Blog concedes that Mr. Hayashida is correct in many aspects of his analysis, he strongly disagrees that the American comics offers only the one format adopted by most mainstream publishers for their superhero comics. Carter argues that the American indie/alternative/comix has offered an alternative to the ghettoization of the medium for over 30 years.

At this point, this is not a new argument. American manga fans have been arguing that the manga format offers more possibilities in terms of storytelling than American comics. Non-exclusive manga fans, however, have been arguing that their is plenty of diversity in American comics if you look beyond the superhero genre which tends to take up most of the shelf space in any given local comic book shop.

I think both commentators are missing the point.

Carter is correct in that Hayashida is equating American comics with a single genre (admittedly born and raised here in the states). However, what Hayashida is talking about is not a diversity in experimentation present in American comics, but rather the presence of this diversity and experimentation in a format that is as widely available as the most popular best-selling comics. Imagine, if you will, being able to buy an anthology that not only included Countdown or what have you, but also something a kin to The Invisibles as well as an Anders Nilsen strip or an Ivan Brunetti strip.

For some reason, the anthology format is not one that mainstream publishers have tapped into for a long time. If they do, it's generally in the form of a collection of "indie" renditions of popular properties (see: upcoming Marvel "indie" anthology or Bizarro World by DC). The only other publishes putting out anthologies with any regularity are independent ones, who tend to focus on artists already established within the "indie" or "alternative" comic communities.

There is no cross-breading here.

And that's just the way Americans are.

The fact that we're still having this discussion - the fact that we're still making a hardline distinction between "manga" (usually lumped in with it's other aesthetic brethren man-wha and OEL manga) and "comics" proves that we as a community have not really evolved beyond petty playground territorialism. It's essentially the same argument as "DC vs. Marvel", and I'm astonished that we're still giving this any credence.

Yes there are lessons to be learned from the Japanese manga market, just like there are lessons to be learned from the French BD market. Just because one format is dominating the American market currently, doesn't mean it's the answer to every single problem we have with the medium. It's not a question of aesthetics, and it's not a question of form. It's a question of format and marketability.

Dirk Deppey stated it best in a post when, referring to an old George Carlin joke, stated that comics are "resilient". By this he means the medium, just like printed text or moving images, will continue to surivive any changes in technology or the market. I mean, if your big concern is that when manga takes over the American comics market entirely, you may not be able to get your Superman comics on a monthly schedule anymore, then I'm just going to continue to ignore you and pretend you didn't blog anything.

Getting back to the point, I would also like to make reference to the fact that British comic publishers have been putting out weekly anthologies, much like the Japanese, of comic stories long before 52 or Countdown. I mean, British comics may not have produced any American blockbuster film adaptations like a Spiderman or an Ironman or a Batman or a Ka-ChingMan, but their was a time when this format allowed British comic creators to revolutionize the way in which we interact and thought about the comics medium on a regular basis.