Random Notes -- I miss when Christopher Butcher used to write Previews Review, a monthly tour of the goddamned Diamond Distribution catalog. This week he posted something similar. Part One, Part Two.

When I wrote my somewhat glowing review of the new hardcover Alan Moore Swamp Thing release, I didn't realize how much DC had screwed it up (although I am not surprised at all).

The silver lining has been artist Steve Bissette looking at the project and sharing copious notes about Alan Moore's collaborative process. Part One, Part Two, Part Three. Jesus, what I wouldn't give to have a complete set of the photocopies Bissette says he has of all of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing scripts. (Thanks to Leigh Walton for turning me on to all this discussion, and also in general for being a rockin' comics-type human being. My favourite quote from him on this Swamp Thing cock-up is this, regarding DC Comics: "Is not making your creators hate you really such an impossible task?")

Noteworthy: It only took a decade, but Chris Allen has finally written about something I hate so much I am not reading his comments. No offense, Chris, I just really, really fucking hate American Idol.

I wish I could afford to go to the Toronto Comic Art Festival this (or any) year. If you go, do have fun for me, eh?

I haven't read Sean T. Collins's review of the new David Mazzucchelli graphic novel yet, but once I've read the book, I will. Two things I love are comics by David Mazzucchelli and reviews by Sean T. Collins.

Labels: corporate comics, linkblogging

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 1:37 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Flimsy Final Crisis Thoughts -- Here's an email I received from Dave:

I'm generally against these "big event books" although I did enjoy the concepts for House of M, Civil War, and Secret Invasion (the execution, not so much...and the tie-ins...CHRIST, the tie-ins...). I haven't bothered with any DC stuff aside from All-Star Superman since Grant Morrison is the best kind of acid trip.

Which leads me to my question: have you checked out Final Crisis at all? Amazon has the HC up for pre-order for $16.99 which seems ridiculously cheap. I've only read sample pages but for that price I decided to give the HC a shot. I know you enjoy Morrison as well which is why I've been hoping to see a Final Crisis review and get your take on it. Your two cents are often worth a great deal more.

I read all of Final Crisis, and ultimately I think the only worthwhile thing that came out of it was the Final Crisis Sketchbook, which had a pure view of Morrison's ideas and plans. Those plans went pretty seriously awry in the actual series itself. That, coupled with the unfortunate inability of JG Jones to do all the art for the entire series, resulted in what I thought was a profoundly disappointing final product. Getting it at a discount is certainly a wise idea, and you may get more out of it than I did, but I far prefer to just re-read Marvel Boy and remember how good the combination of Morrison and Jones once could be.

By the way, now is as good a time as any to remind you that if you buy something from an Amazon.com link or through the Lone Star Comics/MyComicShop.com ads and links on this site, it helps support this site, and is much appreciated by me.

Buy Final Crisis from amazon.com, or better yet, buy Marvel Boy from amazon.com.

Labels: corporate comics

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 5:31 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
"Hey, What Are You Reading?" -- It was as recently as two or three years ago that I was astonished by the discipline of friends of mine in comics that started "waiting for the trade," eschewing monthly floppy comics in favor of their sturdier, often more handsome collected versions. I had been making weekly treks to the comics shop (in one form or another) since I was 8 or 9 years old, and the thought of actually waiting months, or even a year or more, to read stories I could read in serialized for right now (well, once a month), seemed beyond the limits of my imagination.

Then bad writers seemed to take over superhero comics, packing once-beloved titles with mediocre (or worse) stories, often tied into "events" that mattered not a bit to me, whether it was House of M, Infinite Crisis, or any one of a dozen other gimmicks that drove me away from current-day superhero comics. These "events" are designed to increase sales, but in my case, the proliferation of truly lousy comics just made me throw my hands up and give up on the North American corporate-owned superhero comic as something I needed to keep up with on a weekly basis.

So it's always a weird moment for me when someone asks -- and they do, from time to time -- "What are you reading these days?" I genuinely have to think about it to remember what I've read recently that I enjoyed. More often than not it's a standalone graphic novel, probably of the artcomix variety, but of course the person asking my opinion is usually a superhero comics fan and is interested in knowing what I think is good in that neck of the woods. "Nothing much at all," would be the answer these days, of course.

But there are regularly-published titles that still jazz me up -- just, very few of them are monthly. The Scott Pilgrim series of manga-sized books is as good as comics get these days, completely deserving of all the hype it gets, and better than sex, pizza and the new Battlestar Galactica combined.

It's easy to take Love and Rockets for granted after all these years, but the new annual format provides an amazing slab of great comics. There are no better living comics creators than Los Bros -- a few equals like Clowes and Ware, but no one is better. Do I love the idea of waiting a year between "issues?" No, of course not. I'd like my L&R fix weekly if possible, and there was a time a decade ago or so when it seemed like that was actually happening -- but I'll wait that year, knowing that in the end I'll be rewarded with comics that are among the best and most entertaining ever created.

I'm looking forward to the Cold Heat collection from Picturebox -- I was just starting to "get" the floppies when they canceled it, due to Diamond's inability to properly market and distribute single issues of non-superhero comics. Frank Santoro (one half of the Cold Heat creative team) is pretty amazing if you like artcomix; Storeyville was superb and Incanto, a mini-comic he did, was beautiful and mysterious.

Then we come to the actual, traditional stapled, floppy, monthly-type comic books. Godland from Image, Buffy from Dark Horse and Criminal and Incognito from Marvel/Icon are about the only monthly floppies I still bother with. I am, indeed, waiting for the trades on Conan (not as transcendent as it was under Busiek/Nord, but still very good, and fun to read, adventure comics).

I'd talk about the horror/detective procedural Fell if I thought it was ever coming out again. And speaking of Warren Ellis, I wonder if the last issue of Planetary will be published this decade.

Labels: corporate comics, culture, industry

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 9:19 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 2 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
JLA Deluxe Vol. 1 -- The Justice League as a concept was worn out and creatively bankrupt at the time Grant Morrison and Howard Porter came along and reinvigorated the series, starting with a new #1 and the simple idea of bringing back the original seven team members, which seemed novel at the time simply because it had been so long since anyone had done so.

"Novel" is what Grant Morrison is about, at his best, and he brings just enough of his imagination to the party to make these stories vibrate with nervous energy. Nostalgia for the simpler time these seven characters represent is not invoked by the creators, but perhaps imbued by readers familiar with their earlier eras. Morrison first throws weird, even somewhat perverse opponents at the League in the first storyline, and re-reading the stories in this new collection I was struck by how cleverly he managed to both hide their true identities and make it obvious in retrospect. Clues abound, but they come so quickly that they're easy to miss. Of course these issues blew readers' minds: Morrison was actually trying to create good and inventive stories, something rarely done with the JLA.

The best story in the book comes in the standalone fifth chapter, reprinting the series' fifth issue. "Tomorrow Woman" tells the tale of a mysterious new heroine who joins the League to battle against an implacable, unstoppable foe. She comes at a time when help is sorely needed, but she has a secret. The secret is kept from the JLA, but not from us, and Morrison has some fun with the true villains of the piece. Their final line is priceless, and as close to nostalgia (the poison in the well of most present-day superhero comics) as Morrison's scripts ever get.

Artist Howard Porter is a fascinating conundrum to me. His work here is awkward, static and oftentimes outright unappealing, when considered apart from Morrison's words. Morrison is a writer whose work, from Animal Man to New X-Men to the current Final Crisis is often compromised by the presence of less-than-ideal artistic choices. On the surface you might think Porter would qualify for that description; the two chapters here drawn by Oscar Jimenez are clearly visually superior. But somehow they lack the urgency and sense of modernity that Porter brings to the other stories in the book. Howard Porter, somehow, was the perfect choice for Morrison's JLA, and a decade on these stories still, in their own paradoxical way, look exciting and fresh despite Porter's deficits as artist qua artist.

The biggest compromises, then, in JLA Deluxe Vol. 1 are not artistic. Rather, they are the same compromises that plague corporate superhero comics year after year.

As the book begins, Superman has long hair and his traditional blue, red and yellow costume. Why does he have long hair? A few chapters later, he is made of electricity and is blue and white. Not just his costume, his entire body. Morrison does some hand-waving with a line like "We live in interesting times," but only longtime readers like myself will even remember the reason for this and other strange differences from the current DC Universe. Why is Green Arrow so young? Why does Green Lantern have a crab on his face? Later on, in chapters in future volumes in this series, Wonder Woman's mom will take over for her for a while. Wonder Woman's mom.

It's not that these inconsistencies, all born out of "big events" happening in other titles at the time these stories originally saw print, hurt Morrison and Porter's narrative. Morrison is a strong enough writer that these tales hold up despite the compromises forced on the creative team. But it's a good example of why series like Morrison and Frank Quitely's All-Star Superman seem so much more inventive and timeless. Writers and artists should be free to tell the stories they want to tell, in the way they want to tell them. Having to dump The Electric Superman or Wonder Woman's Mom into the middle of your otherwise meticulously-planned narrative really looks kinda stupid ten years later when your stories are collected in a deluxe hardcover.

Despite all that, though, these are JLA comics that deserve the upscale treatment. They are as close as you'll get in printed comics to the creative heights reached by the Justice League animated series, which is the very best use of these characters in any medium (and highly recommended if you've never watched the series). Morrison and Porter's run on JLA (it should take another three or four volumes to reprint the entire series) was a blast, and it actually gets better from here, with storylines bringing back The Injustice League and, oh, the end of the universe, if you haven't heard. It gets much wilder from here, but this first volume lays a strong foundation for what is to come, with unpredictable adventures that make good use of some of the most well-known superheroes in the world.

Buy JLA Deluxe Vol. 1 from amazon.com.

Labels: corporate comics, reviews

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 3:39 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 5 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Batman and Teddy Roosevelt -- Check out a feature in the Glens Falls Post Star on parallels between TR and Batman, which includes a couple of quotes from your humble correspondent.

Labels: corporate comics, linkblogging

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 3:24 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Quote of the Day -- Courtesy of Sean T. Collins:

"The problem with Iron Man in the wildly popular, not good Marvel event series Civil War wasn't that he was wrong, but simply that he was written wrong."

Read Sean's review of Invincible Iron Man #1-4 here.

Labels: corporate comics

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 5:45 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Quote of the Day -- Dick Hyacinth on Grant Morrison and Howard Porter's 1990s JLA run:

Almost every superhero comic looks dated once you're far enough away from its original publication, but harpoon Aquaman, electric Superman, and crab mask Green Lantern are quite the trifecta.

Yeah, pretty much sums it up. Too bad the issues couldn't have been redrawn (and tweaked to remove references to the bad '90s "updating" missteps) for the deluxe hardcovers that will be showing up in stores soon.

Labels: corporate comics, linkblogging

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 7:16 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Truth and Actual Justice -- Amazing news on the Superman legal front. Here's good commentary from:

* Christopher Butcher

* Uncivil Society

Expect tons more from everyone on Monday.

My take is basically that, contracts and legal niceties aside, whenever a company or corporation benefits from its employees' or contractors' work in a way that neither party could have anticipated, and which results in unimagined and unimaginable magnitudes of revenue for the company or corporation, it's not just the ethical thing to do to recognize the actual creators of the unexpected windfall; it's good business. A large reason why DC and Marvel have been so creatively bankrupt for decades (save the occasional, almost accidental Moores and Morrisons) is because generations of creators have now seen that there's no real reason to give your creative best when working-for-hire in the virtual superhero sweatshops.

This is how we have ended up with truly, indisputably shit superhero writers like Loeb, Johns, Bendis, Straczynski and the rest of the Fan Fiction Age of Superhero Comics seen as visionaries, when they are just enthusiastic typists exercising wrongheaded stewardship of international storytelling treasures on a massive, tragic scale.

In the 1930s, '40s, '50s and '60s, the ideas good and bad flew fast and furious, a decades-long surge of new characters, settings and tropes that endured for years and years and years. In the 1970s and '80s, when creators saw how criminally awful people like Siegel and Shuster and Simon and Kirby were ultimately (mis-)treated by the companies they allowed to exist and thrive in the first place, the floodwaters of creativity receded to a trickle of new ideas. How many enduring characters have been created, work-for-hire, at Marvel and DC since 1975? Elektra comes to mind -- along with Marvel's ultimately going back on any promises they made to her creator, Frank Miller. How many successful superhero movies are being made about characters created work-for-hire in the past thirty years? Face it, the good superhero ideas were virtually all created by writers and artists who got the shaft from the corporations they made the mistake of trusting with their best interests, their livelihoods, their very ability to feed their families.

So, I don't know exactly what the consequences of this decision are, but it can only be seen as a landmark day for creators rights, and a shot across the bow to two arrogant, shortsighted corporations that, if they had better treated the people that created the entire foundations of their existence, would be far better off these days and facing far less ill-will, among intelligent readers, among the creative community, and inside the legal system, which has finally meted out a little truth and justice in a seemingly never-ending battle.

Labels: corporate comics

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 4:10 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 5 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Spider-Man: More Lost Than Ever -- Being the guy who approved the original idea for a column (Life of Reilly) about the 1990s Spider-Man clone storyline, I have more than a passing familiarity with analysis of disastrous decisions involving Spider-Man.

When Comic Book Galaxy launched Life of Reilly, written by Andrew Goletz and former Spidey editor Glenn Greenberg, there was a mini-quake of nerd outrage. Why would a reputable comic book website devote over half a year of coverage to one of the worst, most mishandled story lines in superhero history?

As it turned out, the column was extremely popular; if you click the link above, you'll find out why. In addition to summarizing every event of the misbegotten saga of Ben Reilly (a character I retain an inordinate fondness for, despite or perhaps because of the fan reaction to his existence), Andrew and Glenn provided extensive interviews with the people who carried out the story, providing, perhaps for the first time, a journalistic behind-the-scenes view of one of the most controversial stories ever to occur in the pages of North American superhero comics.

And now, even those who cheered when Marvel killed off Ben Reilly and tried to return Peter Parker to his previous status quo must be longing for the days of The Scarlet Spider.

Comic Book Resources this week has been rolling out a five-part interview with Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada (Part 1; Part 2; Part 3), wherein Quesada explains the reasons for, and creation of, the most recent Spider-Man storyline "One More Day," which dismantles (despite Quesada's claims) decades of Spider-Man stories and sets Peter Parker down in a new universe in which he never married, and Harry Osborn is just returning after months (decades, in real-world time) in rehab following his freak-out on "the drugs" back in the Stan Lee days.

Among the many interesting details in this train wreck Quesada has created is the fact that Amazing Spider-Man writer J. Michael Straczynski apparently wrote his own story contrary to what the committee that generated this miserable narrative had intended. Straczynski's story would have reset the clock on every event in Spider-Man history back to those Stan Lee/Gil Kane days, meaning among other things, Gwen Stacy would still be alive. Obviously this would have been a bad idea.

But you know what? The outcome of the rewrite that Quesada inflicted on One More Day (a bad story to begin with, let there be no doubt) is even worse. Quesada claims in the CBR interview that only three things are changed by One More Day: the marriage of Peter and Mary Jane is wiped out by the story (in which Peter and MJ make a deal with Mephisto (AKA Satan for those of you not into Marvel continuity), Harry Osborn is back and in Peter's social circle, and the unmasking of Peter Parker from Civil War is forgotten and his identity once more a secret. Quesada believes these are good fixes that allow the character to move on in a positive direction.

But it's virtually impossible to imagine a Spider-Man reader who won't be alienated by the utter lack of regard this story has for the characters and their history. I'm not saying Spider-Man doesn't need to be fixed -- clearly he's been lost in the woods since well before the clone story of the 1990s -- but this doesn't fix anything, and creates only more problems. Primary among those is the fact that if MJ and Pete never married, if Harry Osborn is alive and well and freshly home from rehab, and if Civil War (a vomit-worthy story in and of itself) never happened in quite the way readers remember, then the floodgates are wide open for the next wave of fan fiction stories within the pages of Marvel Comics, filling in all the gaps and mysteries that must now exist as a result of these, sorry Joe, monumental alterations to decades of stories -- some of them actually good stories.

And look, I am not a continuity porn kind of guy. I stopped reading Amazing Spider-Man regularly years ago, when it became obvious (sometime around the Norman/Gwen fuck flashback) that JMS's Spider-Man was firmly entrenched in the Fan-Fiction Age of Superhero Comics, and was not, as it was sold, an attempt to just tell good superhero stories.

Alan Moore once famously said that he worked to give readers not what they want, but what they need. When a superhero storyline fails as spectacularly as One More Day has failed, it can almost always be traced to that brilliant axiom. In this case, though, reading the CBR interviews with Quesada (and I recommend you do), keep in mind one thing: In this case, the fan being given what he wants is just one person, named Joe Quesada. And that his need to make this cruddy story a reality was so strong that he overrode the (forgive me, God) artistic vision of a better writer (Straczynski), and wrote and drew Spider-Man into the worst narrative corner he has ever been forced into.

For those of us who enjoy good comics, for those of us not addicted to superheroes but rather fond of them when they are used to create good stories, Spider-Man is lost to us. More lost than ever.

Labels: corporate comics

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 5:01 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 5 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Highwaymen "Correction" -- I made somewhat of a misstatement the other day in my year-end wrap-up, saying Wildstorm's Highwaymen had been canceled. Not that I was the first person to state this, but since I also pointed out how mediocre and unimpressive a comic Highwaymen was, I got the writer's attention. Of course, even he has already gone on record explaining that, while the initial arc may always have been planned for five issues, if it didn't suck, there would have been more:

A fella could ask himself, "Why?" Not, "Why isn't Wildstorm going to do another arc worth of Highwaymen stories." I know why. Because it didn't sell. We moved a hair under 10,000 copies of issue #1. At the time, we were told that was as good a number as one could expect for a book about two characters no one had ever heard of, created by three guys no one had ever heard of. But issue #2 took a 40% dive—which would be fine if we were a movie; that's considered a pretty good hold in week two. However, we're not a movie. And it's not enough to warrant doing more. I get that. So, the question is, "Why didn't it sell?"

Of course, Planetary, which Highwaymen kind of desperately wanted to sort of be, when it wasn't aping The Authority (specifically Frank Quitely's bloated-but-presidential Bill Clinton talking to the protagonists via high-tech), was also about characters no one had ever heard of and created by a mostly unknown creative team. And it was one of the best things Wildstorm ever released. It's also largely why Highwaymen failed; it called too much attention to its "inspirations" (government conspiracies investigated by a team led by a white-haired guy in a white suit, hello!) not to beg comparison in the minds of its readers.

But in all fairness, as a completely fair blind taste-test, I left Highwaymen #1 on a table in my house, where either one of my children -- both of whom love good comics -- could easily find it, read it, and ask for more. Possibly based on the cover, about which a fellow critic privately told me "you can tell right from the cover you're getting watered down goods," neither of my kids -- who again, like good comics and are willing to give just about anything a chance -- ever even bothered to pick it up, never mind ask me to get them more. Which I would have, if they asked, because my policy is to buy any age-appropriate comic for my kids that they ask for. I'm just a good dad (and good comics evangelist) in that way.

In short, don't blame me because your comic got canceled wasn't good enough to continue past a limp, initial story-arc -- blame yourself. Or blame Warren Ellis, John Cassaday and Laura Martin, if you must deflect the blame that is so obviously yours and yours alone.

Labels: corporate comics, linkblogging

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 7:18 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 2 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Strange & Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko -- If you saw the recent BBC special on Steve Ditko, this news will be about the most exciting you've seen all year. If not, it probably still is. Here's the press release from Fantagraphics Books:

ANNOUNCING “STRANGE & STRANGER: THE WORLD OF STEVE DITKO”

COMING IN JUNE 2008 FROM FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

On his 80th birthday, Fantagraphics Books is proud to announce the
June 2008 release of the first critical retrospective of Steve Ditko,
the co-creator and original artist of the Amazing Spider-Man.

In the wake of the astonishing success of Sam Raimi’s three Spider-
Man movies, Steve Ditko’s status as a driving force behind the pop
culture icon has been revealed to an audience the world over. But, in
the context of Steve Ditko’s 50-year career in comics, his creative
involvement with Spider-Man is merely the tip of the iceberg.

Ditko is known amongst the cartooning cognoscenti as one of the
supreme visual stylists in the history of comics, as well as the most
fiercely independent cartoonist of his generation. From his earliest
days in the 1950s, working for the notorious low-budget Charlton
Comics (the Roger Corman Productions of the comics industry), Steve
Ditko broke every convention in comics, with his innovative special
designs and imaginatively hallucinatory landscapes of Dr. Strange,
the almost plebian earthiness of The Amazing Spider-Man, and his
black-and-white views on morality and justice through his
uncompromising vigilante of the late 1960s, Mr. A (inspired by the
work of Atlas Shrugged author and Objectivist philosopher, Ayn Rand).

Why will this book appeal to such a broad readership, to those who
may not even be comic-book, or Steve Ditko, fans? “For the non-comic-
book reader,” says author Blake Bell (author and essayist for the
Marvel Comics’ line of Ditko-related Omnibus reprint projects), “we
tell the narrative of Steve Ditko, the artist, from humble beginnings
in Johnstown Pennsylvania; to the dizzying heights of co-creating
Spider-Man; to the spectacular Howard Roark-like determination, and
tribulations, in bringing his personal and philosophical vision to a
recalcitrant audience. There’s a fantastic, dramatic storyline
running through Ditko’s career; the artist having walked away from
the Spider-Man franchise (and the billions it was to generate) as it
was reaching the height of its popularity. What price did Ditko pay,
and what was the impact on his work?”

Comic-book fans have also been waiting for a definitive examination
of Ditko the artist; a chance to have the entire artistic scope of
his career in one volume. “Fans of Ditko, and comic art, will not be
able to put the book down,” says Bell, “as we explode many of the
myths surrounding key moments in Ditko’s career, as well as present
reams of rare and unpublished Ditko artwork. For the comic art
scholar, we also break down the “hows” of Steve Ditko as a great
sequential storyteller, dissecting his work in depth for the first
time, also with analysis and commentary by some of the most skilled
and articulate comic creators of the day.”

While Steve Ditko himself remains absent for the World Wide Web
(minus a summer back in 2001, when Bell himself worked for Ditko as
his official web site designer), Strange & Stranger will assault the
’Net with similar intensity to that of the creator himself.

In addition to updates to Bell’s unofficial Steve Ditko web site at
www.ditko.comics.org, readers will be able to keep abreast of updates
with pages on Facebook, MySpace, and a dedicated feature page at the
Fantagraphics web site, found through the portal
www.steveditkobook.com and launching soon. This will have a web log
offering on-going commentary on the process of creating the book,
with commentary by Bell and the staff at Fantagraphics. It will also
publish commentary by professional comic-book creators on Ditko’s
career and artwork, and feature artwork that won't make it into the
book. As the book speeds to its June 2008 release date, teasers,
convention appearances by Bell, as well as book store signings will
be featured on the site.

2008 will mark the year when Steve Ditko fans the world over will
have the opportunity to celebrate the artist’s 50-plus year career
with this definitive volume from Blake Bell and Fantagraphics Books.

TITLE INFORMATION:

Strange & Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko
By Blake Bell
$39.99 Hardcover
220 pages, full-color, 9” x 12”
ISBN 978-1-56097-921-0
PUBLICATION DATE: June 2008

Labels: art, corporate comics, recommendations

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 4:43 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Spurgeon on The Spirit -- Over at The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon reviews the first hardcover collection of Darwyn Cooke Spirit stories. It's the best think-piece Spurgeon has done in some time, and think-pieces are his stock in trade, so click over and give it a look.

Cooke's Spirit is a temporal anomaly that demands just this depth of analysis; Cooke is fantastically talented and yet out of step with the current corporate superhero comics zeitgeist in profoundly fundamental ways. I've enjoyed the series to date in single-issue form, but probably not enough to invest in the hardcover. And I don't find myself lustfully drooling over it like I do the New Frontier Absolute Edition, which sooner or later I hope to find the cash to own. Most interestingly to me, the fact that Cooke is off the book after issue #12 comes as a relief, in the same way the end of the Millar/Hitch Ultimates did. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but it's time for it to be over, and I'm glad it is.

Which is a weird state of mind to be in for someone who loves excellent comics, and maybe points to fairly basic problems with each of the titles. In the case of The Ultimates, I think the party went on about 13 issues too long. With The Spirit, I think it was a noble but ultimately futile effort to bring Will Eisner's characters into a 21st century that only really has use for them as 20th century icons. I know I'll be re-reading DC's The Best of The Spirit, collecting many of the very best Eisner Spirit stories, far more often in the future than I will ever re-read Cooke's stuff. Cooke really should be pursuing his own vision, as Spurgeon seems to hint at, and hopefully now he will. Some icons, like Batman and Superman, are wide-open enough that Cooke's approach fits them like a glove. Eisner literally said everything that needed to be said about The Spirit before Darwyn Cooke was born. But it's no shame for Cooke to have tried and ultimately not really succeeded at making The Spirit his own. If Alan Moore couldn't do it when he took a stab at writing Eisner's creation, chances were probably pretty good no one else would ever really be able to either. But both Moore and Cooke made noble efforts, it was fun while it lasted, and again, it's probably better for all concerned if we just move on to something else now.

Labels: corporate comics, linkblogging

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 11:20 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 1 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
The Monday Briefing -- Only one piece of news worth talking about from Wizard World Chicago...

* Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch Take Over Fantastic Four in January. The Stan and Jack FF, by the way, not the Ultimate version. As of now, the claim is that Hitch has drawn five issues, while Millar has written ten. As is usual with Hitch-illustrated projects, the talk will be more about how soon the book will run off the scheduling rails, rather than what their plans are for the characters and storylines. Me? I find myself caring less than I might have a few years ago.

Millar and Hitch and company obviously created some exciting comics with The Ultimates, although Ultimates 2 seemed to lose the sense of purpose the first series had, and by the final issue I was just glad it was over. There's not a force on Earth that could move me to buy -- or even download for free -- Ultimates 3, given that the new creative team is Shitty McBadstory and Lousy McGoofyart. So I'm well and truly done with that title and those characters.

Honestly, I wish Millar and Hitch would get their way and be given free reign on Superman. I think it would require both of them to stretch muscles they haven't in a while, and I'd guess the resulting comics would have the potential to be as great as All-Star Superman and Superman: Secret Identity, to name two of the very few great Superman comics of the past 15 years. One of the other ones in that rarefied territory is Millar's own Superman Adventures work, which deserves a far better fate than the miniature digest-sized reprints it's been collected into. Despite his sometimes grandiose claims, Millar really was born to write Superman, and you can feel that on every page of his Adventures work.

Hitch's style is so far away now from its original Alan Davis/Jose Luis Garcia Lopez-inspired look that I hardly recognize it, although it remain appealing to the eye. I do wonder if the added levels of detail contribute to his scheduling difficulties, and I honestly like his work best around Stormwatch Vol. 2 and the first 12 issues of The Authority, but I'm always interested in seeing what he does.

So I'm open-minded about what comes out of this announcement, but it would be incorrect to say I am excited about it. Excited would be if Grant Morrison and JG Jones got to do Marvel Boy 2, or if Warren Ellis and Tom Raney were working together again on a monthly title, or if Garth Ennis and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez had been the creative team for Ultimates 3.

Related: ADD interviews Mark Millar; and then he does it again.

* I really enjoyed Roger's Household Hints.

* Check out Matt Brady's reviews of the new Love and Rockets collections Human Diastrophism and The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S., and please tell me you're getting these low-priced volumes of some of the greatest comics of the last 100 years. Matt's review prompted me to pull my massive Locas volume down off the shelf, and damn, "The Death of Speedy" is some goddamned storytelling.

* Echoing my recent interview with James Howard Kunstler (and thanks for the link, Tom!), it appears Peak Oil is officially here. Well, don't say I didn't tell you so.

* If you're a blogger (and these days, who isn't?), you might find this useful: 31 Days to a Better Blog. I'm trying some of these tweaks already.

Labels: corporate comics, linkblogging, monday briefing

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 4:59 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 2 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Cooke Off The Spirit -- Kevin Church has the worst superhero comics news of the year: Darwyn Cooke is leaving The Spirit after issue #12.

With Cooke as writer and artist, DC has done the impossible in continuing Will Eisner's characters in spirit without wallowing in nostalgia or aping Eisner. It's been a rollicking, exciting adventure comic, and I'm gonna miss the hell out of it.

Like I say in the comments section, it's impossible to imagine continuing to buy the book, unless the publisher announces some amazing creator or creators that could do as well or better than Cooke has.

Somewhat related: I saw the first post-Millar/Hitch Ultimates art posted somewhere. I won't even bother posting a link, just trust me: The Ultimates ended the moment they were off the book (if not the issue before, ahem).

Labels: corporate comics, linkblogging

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 1:18 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Zuda Doobie Doo -- What, you thought we were finished with this subject?

Over at Comixmix, Glenn Hauman has some extremely apt observations about the non-rollout of DC's new attempt to poach unwitting amateurs in their web of webcomics.

"We have no idea what they'll be launching with, they have nobody lined up that they're willing to talk about. Way to build confidence, guys. You couldn't find anybody? Every other time there's been a launch of a line from DC (Piranha, Paradox, Vertigo, Helix, Minx, CMX) there was content to go with it, to show what they were talking about. Here, nothing."

Also worth noting is this comment from myideais.com:

"I remember reading a longish historical essay about Marvel’s attempt to put out an 'underground' comic in the early seventies, which was called 'Comix Book.'

I have a vague thesis floating around in my head that Zuda Comics from DC, an attempt to emulate existing webcomics collectives, might be comparable to Marvel’s effort back then, in that they’re trying to to take on the hip new kids on their own turf. I’d like to read that essay again and see if I can look more closely for parallels."

In my original post on Zuda, I was quite explicit in referencing Epic Comics and DC's New Talent Showcase as other historical examples of the corporate companies trying to lure talented amateur creators more with the promise of greater exposure than any solid offers of a prevailing wage or (Good God, Y'all!) creators rights. There's no question in my mind that Zuda is just the latest, if by far the most under-developed and ham-handed iteration of this somewhat sleazy and pathetic scheme.

Labels: corporate comics, industry, linkblogging

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 4:07 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Zuda: Day Twoda -- So Newsarama has posted an interview with DC Comics Preznit Paul Levitz about Zuda Comics, the AOL/Time Warner International Entertainment Megacorporation's online webcomics initiative, the announcement of which broke the internet in half -- or possibly quarters -- yesterday.

Preznit Levitz hardly seems to be any kind of expert about comics and their relationship to the internet and computers. For example, he tells Newsarama:

"I haven’t seen a lot of evidence yet that people want to read 20 pages of a comic book on their computer screen."

Well, Mr. Preznit, I have. Try searching Demonoid or Z-Cult for comics sometime. You might find a few of your own on there, even. Here's some. The fact is, thousands of people read 20 page comics online for free every week. I wonder how much more positive press DC might have gotten out of this story if instead of the still-murky copyright questions and vague plans that have been laid out, DC had issued a bold and definitive plan for competing with BitTorrent sites, offering a legal, low-cost alternative to capture the attention of those who want to read their comics online in downloadable .cbz and .cbr format?

Ah, well. Coulda-shoulda-woulda. At least Preznit Levitz is effusive with his deeply moderated praise for people who blazed the trail Zuda hopes to ride on the coattails of:

"You do have guys like Fred Gallagher or Scott Kurtz that are just terrifically competent at building the business and technological means around that to do something that works not only creatively, but profitably for them."

I hope someday someone calls me terrifically competent. That seems like high praise, indeed.

And I realize that Newsarama's Matt Brady has to go along to get along with the AOL/Time Warner International Entertainment Megacorporation, but Jesus, Matt, you couldn't at least ask about copyright and creators rights? Oh, wait, I found two references to copyright on the page the interview appears on:

Copyright ©2000 - 2007, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright 2006 Newsarama.com, LLC

Well, at least someone understands the importance of copyright.

Update: Tom Spurgeon explains reaction to the Zuda announcement in plain English. Spurgeon wins.

Labels: corporate comics, industry

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 6:09 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Internet Officially Broken -- The Zuda Comics story has actually broken the internet in half, just as I predicted. Proof? Here's X-Axis reviewer Paul O'Brien agreeing with my take on the story in the commments thread of the Blog@Newsarama story. I don't have the energy to prove this is the comics internet equivalent of lions lying down with lambs, so if you're new to these parts, just trust me. Longtime followers of me or Paul or both will know exactly what I am talking about. Also eerie: So far all the comments in that thread are more or less civil.

Related: An attorney gives his first impressions of the whole imbroglio at Warren Ellis's The Engine.

Somewhat Related: My review of Ellis's new novel Crooked Little Vein is coming up, probably tomorrow morning.

Labels: corporate comics, industry

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 6:08 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
The Monday Briefing -- Back to work for me today after being off since the last half of last week. We had no major family events or trips planned, but I knew there wouldn't be much to do at work, and if I'm going to be bored, I'd rather be bored at home, frankly. That's where I keep my funnybooks, y'see.

* Internet-Breaker of the Week: At Casa Spurge, Tom Spurgeon gets the first headline on DC's newest new talent showcase, Zuda Comics. Or is that New Talent Showcase? DC and Marvel never do get tired of coming up with new schemes to let idealistic and untested creators do the heavy lifting for free (or close enough so as to not make a difference). (Maybe that guy in Ohio that did that awful book for Epic Comics before it crashed and burned can revive it online for DC! Yay, comics!).

Tom Spurgeon wonders (with tongue firmly in cheek, no doubt) if DC, a subsidiary of the Time Warner international entertainment megacorporation, will let new creators keep the rights to their work. I don't wonder that at all. Ask Alan Moore about DC's generous rights policies. Then duck.

Of course, nothing will apparently be online for readers to look at until well into this fall. I can see how announcing it now will allow them time to collect material from Epic Comics victims hopeful creators, but that's a long time for a whole lotta nuthin' to be sitting there driving away people who click over thinking there'll be comics to read. It's also long enough for savvy would-be creators to talk to, oh, a lawyer or two about their "deal," so, hopefully they'll do that going in, so they can't claim later on they had no idea that an international entertainment megacorporation might have the audacity to put its own needs and profits before those of would-be creators with stars in their eyes.

You can be sure the comics will be progressive as all hell, after reading this quote from DC's Ron Perazza: "If [creators want to do] a straight-on newspaper strip, like a Doonesbury or something like that, great. If [they] want to do something a little more abstract, like a Family Circus that’s all in a circle, fantastic." That's right folks, The Family Circus is abstract. Is their no boundary to their imagination?

At Journalista, the creators rights angle and chances of making a splash in the already-established webcomics nation are vetted by keen observer Dirk Deppey. I don't normally say things like "vetted," but since the Zuda Comics people like to say it, why not me?

The funniest quote in the New York Times article Spurgeon links to announcing the new initiative comes from DC Preznit Paul Levitz, who must have been shocked to learn: "We’ve seen a real wellspring of creativity [by people posting their online comics], and it’s been a different kind of material than publishers have been putting out." Of course, Levitz means different from the kind of comics superhero publishers have been putting out, because only the direct market is slavishly obsessed with superheroes to the exclusion of all other types of stories. The internet gets out to a far broader and more diverse audience, which is why there aren't many top-of-mind superhero webcomics out there. But don't hold your breath waiting for DC to bring you the new Achewood or Diesel Sweeties or American Elf. Here's a thought: Maybe they would have brought you the old ones if they were all that smart and interested in the future of comics.

* Also at The Comics Reporter, I enjoyed Tom Spurgeon's weekend interview with comics journalist Jeet Heer. Jeet is a fine writer, and even contributed a couple of items to Comic Book Galaxy a few years back. Here is Jeet Heer's review of McSweeney's #13, the comics anthology issue edited by Chris Ware.

* Unlike most comics bloggers, I did not take the weekend off; here's what I was up to: reviews of the new MOME Summer 2007, Douglas Wolk's Reading Comics and the fairly atrocious new Thor #1, as well as my thoughts on Nine Graphic Novels to Read Before You Die.

* Christopher Butcher weighs in on the whole what-manga-sells-and-does-not-sell-and-to-whom issue. Butcher knows more about selling comics than you or I do, so pay attention.

* Chris Allen recommends Patton Oswalt's new CD, and I could not agree more. I gave it a listen after reading his review, and I am not kidding when I tell you that I almost lost consciousness, I was laughing so hard.

* The fine folks at AiT/Planet Lar have posted a kind welcome back to The ADD Blog (thanks, gang!) and a handy roundup of links to my reviews of their books.

* Tony Isabella is back from hiatus with a new Tony's Online Tips. Glad to hear he's bouncing back from recent health problems -- click over for his story of trying to take a sleep apnea test, because I just know that's exactly how it would go for me as well. Get much better soon, Tony.

* By the way, here's a reminder that if you prefer to get The ADD Blog posts in your e-mail, you can subscribe through Google Groups. Also, if you have a blog or website and would like to set up a reciprocal link, e-mail me.

* Roger Green looks at nicknames he's been called. I'll plead guilty to having referred to him as "Rog," though I may not from here on out, insert smiley face here. As for myself, like Roger I will also eschew revealing nicknames I've been called in the context of romantic relationships, but in college a friend took to calling me "Webster" because he thought I knew every word in the dictionary (hardly; I just knew more words than he did). My friend Jake used to call me "DOANE" and it always seemed to be in all-caps, a blend of affection and exasperation: "Oh, DOANE." One ex-girlfriend's nickname for me (I'll reveal just this one, okay?) was "Doaney," which strangely I didn't mind. A girl I had a huge, utterly unreciprocated crush on in college called me "Al," as did the wonderful older gentleman who was our building manager from 1995 to 2004. Other than those two, though, that's where I differ from Paul Simon: You Can't Call Me Al.

Labels: corporate comics, industry, linkblogging, monday briefing

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 3:01 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 1 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Thor #1 -- At least two moments in the opening pages of this first issue will remind you of Mark Waid and Alex Ross's Kingdom Come, but in all fairness to the creators of this new attempt to make a comic book about the Norse god of thunder work, Waid and Ross stole Ragnarök from Norse mythology more than Straczynski and Coipel are stealing from Kingdom Come.

Of course, Ross's best artwork had the proper sense of majesty to convey something of the enormity of a war between gods (or god-like beings), while Coipel's generic craftwork conveys precisely the fact that Marvel has a monthly series about Thor again, and here's an issue of it.

Any reader who rankled at the mystic hooey in Straczynski's dire Amazing Spider-Man run will be surprised only at how much further said hooey is ratcheted up in Thor #1. You'd think the character and milieu would easily accommodate such baloney, and perhaps it might, if it were not of the vague variety Straczynski hauls out to coax Thor from out of the narrative mothballs he's been in for the past however-long-he's-been-"dead." Lots of mumbo-jumbo between Thor and (I guess) Don Blake as they stand amidst the generic swirly-stuff of the void (Mr. Coipel, you're no Gene Colan when it comes to generic swirly-stuff) chit-chatting about how Thor has freed himself from the cycle of Ragnarök and is now free to rock out with his hammer out all the live long day, and by the way, all your presumed-dead supporting characters friends are just waiting for you to wish them back out of the cornfield.

Once Blake and Thor return to Earth, Straczynski shows us how clever he is by having a woman Blake rents a room from note that "Weatherman says we're expecting a thunderstorm." Blake grins and says "I wouldn't be at all surprised." Yikes. The era in which Straczynski was able to create genuine tension and humour in his characters -- around the second and third seasons of Babylon 5, frankly -- seem far, far away from what he delivers here. Well, a straight-to-DVD B5 release is pending; maybe he saved his good stuff for that.

The final page of this debut issue (with "to be continued" on it and everything) has to be the least-compelling cliffhanger I think I have ever seen in a superhero comic. No stakes are raised, no mysteries are offered, and unless one has been powerfully seduced by this most average of stories, it's almost impossible to imagine anyone saying to themselves "Man, what happensnext?"

Varying eras of Thor have risen and fallen in quality, as is true of any corporate superhero franchise unwinding over decades. The best-written was almost certainly also the best drawn, when Walt Simonson was following his bliss on the title in the 1980s. But Dan Jurgens's stories a few years back were serviceable, and certainly Mike McKone and Tom Raney delivered much better art than the thunder god enjoyed since Simonson's storied run ended so long ago.

This first issue delivers none of those pleasures, though -- both story and art feel uninspired and painfully, joylessly mediocre. Despite the sales figures of their other recent Marvel work, ultimately neither Straczynski or Coipel are much more than slightly-above-average talents when it comes to the creation of corporate superhero comics circa 2007. So you'd have liked to think they would have brought their very best efforts to the table in re-launching a key Marvel series, with the added bonus of a more-or-less blank slate upon which to make their mark. Instead, they deliver a run-of-the-mill effort that is impressive only in how mightily it fails to impress.

Labels: corporate comics, reviews

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 5:41 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Pitching to Vertigo -- Over on The V, comics writers Brian Wood and Alex de Campi get into an interesting and revealing discussion about pitching to Vertigo.

Wood points out that de Campi may be burning a few bridges with her honesty, but when it comes to corporate superhero publishers, I'd vote for lots more of that, thanks. Potential creators should have the sort of information de Campi is sharing available to them before they decide to cast their lot with a company that may eventually own all the rights to their work.

Labels: corporate comics, industry, linkblogging

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 2:32 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Diamond, Dealers and Advance Copies -- Commenting on my post yesterday, Tom Spurgeon makes some observations about Diamond's First Look/Sneak Peek program (third item down in that post) and catches an angle that hadn't occurred to me:

"[W]hat I found valuable is [Doane's] note that the store The Beguiling doesn't use a first-look program of early shipping in order to better prepare itself for the ups and downs of the periodicals market. The thought that the maybe the best way to share information with stores about upcoming product -- giving them the product -- exists as a [Diamond] pay-for program instead of routinely used in the course of maximizing sales for a book speaks to a key dysfunction in that comics market...

I italicized the crucial phrase there, because I think it's important to note Spurgeon finds this situation unusual. Tom and I seem to often differ in our evaluation of the state of the Direct Market as served by Diamond; he often seems to think things are not that bad, while I, of course, think that 90 percent of existing comic shops serviced by Diamond are apocalyptically awful in the way they service (or fail to service) their customers, both real and potential. In fact, Spurgeon's very good point about how wrong-headed it is for Diamond to charge for the First Look/Sneak Peek books struck me as worth mentioning because I just took it for granted that everyone understands that Diamond misuses its monopolistic power virtually every chance it gets.

Spurgeon makes another good catch as well, in the same paragraph:

"...speaks to a key dysfunction in that comics market, as, from the other end of things, does word that a retailer used to sell those comics to Doane."

There's a whole, as I referred to it the other day, "semi-sordid" story there, and maybe I'll tell it all someday, but yes, around 2000-2001, the shop I was getting my comics from was selling me their First Look/Sneak Peek packs. In the interest of fairness to that dealer, he did sell them to me at his cost, which if I recall correctly was ten dollars each for the Marvel and DC advance packs, which arrived either Wednesday or Thursday the week before they were to go on sale.

At the time, my reviews were heavily-weighted toward Marvel and DC, and the arrangement I made with that dealer (who I am not naming, because he is still retailing comics, although I haven't been in his shop in years) was to take the advance packs off his hands at his cost, but he wanted to keep, I believe, any Spider-Man or X-Men titles for his kids to read. Given that there were five to seven or so issues in each pack, ten bucks was usually less than the collective cover price for one of the packs even with the Spidey and X titles removed from the equation. The biggest revelation to me in the year or so that I received the books was just how horrible the average week's worth of corporate superhero books were.

When the time came that I no longer bought the books, it was a huge relief to not be exposed on a weekly basis to all those mediocre comics. It was a rare week, indeed, when more than two or three total from Marvel and DC combined was actually worth reading, a situation which seems to have pretty much held steady in the years that have passed since then. "Same as it ever was," one supposes.

Labels: corporate comics, industry

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 11:33 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Previews -- Just made my way through the newest edition of Previews, and I don't think I'm pre-ordering anything this time around. Maybe Mark Millar and Anthony Williams's Unfunnies #3-4, because I am curious how that story ends. I'd love to get the new Adrian Tomine hardcover Shortcomings, but I have the single issues it collects and am kind of broke at the moment. The real ache this month comes from the new hardcover Walt and Skeezix Sundays collection, which looks to be out-of-this-world gorgeous. But at $95.00, that definitely is not in the budget at the moment.

It's funny, when I see Previews is arriving in a given week's Diamond shipment, I get a little excited to see what it holds in the good section, the one past the Marvel/DC/Image/Dark Horse whatever section -- not that there aren't occasionally books worth reading in that part as well -- but every month, when I actually grab a pen and a piece of paper and start slogging through it, man, it's a relief when it's over. And that's even with ignoring the crap like t-shirts, toys and whatever else is past the section with the good funnybooks in.

I am curious about Dwayne McDuffie's run on JLA, which starts with the issue solicited in this month's Previews, and may take a look if the word of mouth is good, once it's collected under one cover. But the taint of Brad Meltzer on the title and the fact that they have frigging Ian Churchill drawing the multiple covers of McDuffie's first issue? That's a lot of negative factors that just won't let me give the nod to my retailer to set one aside for me.

And wow, those Spider-Man "One More Day" covers are godawful hideous. At the shop last night, my son surprised me by asking if I would buy him the newest issue of Spider-Man Adventures, and I did, and I'm glad there's at least one Spider-Man title that appeals to an 11-year-old boy, even if it is the ghettoized "Kiddie" version. Which is to say nothing at all against the Marvel Adventures line -- most of the titles seem well-crafted and appeal to the target audience -- I just don't understand why you can't apply those factors to the main Marvel Universe titles. Are they so afraid the superhero convenience shop junkies won't support comics that aim to entertain rather than arouse?*

* By "arouse," I don't mean sexually, I am referring to Marvel and DC's ongoing use of "events" and "deaths" to arouse interest in SCSJ** instead of quality comic book storytelling that would attract a far wider audience.

** SCSJ=Superhero Convenience Shop Junkies.

Labels: corporate comics, pre-ordering

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 8:15 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Viewer Mail -- My most recent review has garnered a couple of comments...like this one from Jim:

"Sigh. And me being a Green Lantern fan boy/continuity porn junkie who hasn't been too happy with Hal's regular series lately, I thought Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps was outstanding. Powerful, intense, full of big bombastic scenes of congregating evil and high octane unleashed drama (I thought the sniper sequence was 'cool' in an action-packed way), I loved the entire issue, and it felt good to be twelve-years-old again, if only for a few minutes. Oh, well. I did enjoy your thoughts on the book!"

See? You don't have to agree with me to be civil -- cheerful, even! More simpatico with my take on the book, Is uspect, was Andre, who had this to say:

"Hey Alan!

This…

'Johns's writing always reminds me of an 8-year-old playing in the tub, making up stories with his action figures as he neglects to wash his ass.'

...is probably the funniest line I’ve read on the Internet this year. Well done, sir."

Keep those cards and letters coming, folks!

Labels: corporate comics, meta

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 2:07 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special #1 -- You won't find a slicker, more vapid superpeople comic on the stands this month than this one. It's created by Geoff Johns, Ethan Van Sciver, and -- this gives me pause -- Dave Gibbons, who I would have hoped could find better things to do with his gifts than this. Johns and Van Sciver, I expect this sort of thing from. And in fairness to Van Sciver, his style here -- aping George Perez more than his previous style of aping Brian Bolland -- seems to find him more comfortable. The work reads as more of a natural outflowing of his talent. It's just too bad it's all in service of such garbage.

Oh, dear. Where to begin? Oh, that's right, I remember -- Johns said it all for me, right on page one:

"We live in a place rotting with hedonism and chaos. A place untamed and morally devoid. A place of darkness."

Johns's writing always reminds me of an 8-year-old playing in the tub, making up stories with his action figures as he neglects to wash his ass. Here, Geoff brings his entire collection of abused DC trademarks -- action figures, from the Anti-Monitor and the Reverse Flash to -- of course -- Superboy Prime. Yes, kids, if Infinite Crisis wasn't a big enough waste of time, money and mis-allocated creative effort, here's pretty much the direct sequel. This death-obsessed continuity porn is all that's left of the goddamned DC Universe proper, isn't it?

Ach, the plot.

Sinestro wants revenge, or something; a bunch of power rings are flying through the universe, which always seems a small -- tiny place, in the hands of unimaginative writers like Johns; the "secret of the 52" is invoked, and I discover my goosebumps-generator must be on the fritz, 'cause I got nothin'. What else? Hank Henshaw The Evil Cyborg Superman Fooled Ya Folks is back, in the custody of The Guardians of Oa, who were all far better off dead. All the GLs we all love so much get together for a family picnic. Here's Hal, John, Kyle and Guy, all hanging out and even giving each other noogies. I bet you think I'm making that up, don't you? One supposes Johns writes such scenes and thinks he's developing character.

Anyway, during the big picnic all of a sudden "We got a sniper!" and it's the grassy knoll all over again for the Green Lantern Corps. All your favourite Lanterns get a moment in the "spotlight" and then "OH SHIT EVIL SUPERBOY PRIME HAS ESCAPE THE TUB -- I MEAN, HIS 'SCIENCELL!'" What will happen next?!?

Well, as you may recall from the abominable Green Lantern: Rebirth, YELLOW IS THE COLOUR OF EVIL and also PEE. And bananas, this shit is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s. Now Kyle Raynor is all Parallaxed (FANGASM!!!111!) up, and then Dave Gibbons draws a Johns-written back-up story that is far more readable than it has any right to be, based solely on the power of Gibbons' artwork and the goodwill far better stories than this have earned his work.

Just to compare two spectacular corporate superhero events taking place this summer, World War Hulk went a ways toward mending my loathing for the current state of the Marvel Universe by telling a tight, logical story that intrigued me enough to want to read the rest of it. Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special #1, on the other hand, is a ham-handed, undercooked bunch of baloney that obviously took a great deal of misplaced effort to create. If I had one wish for corporate superhero comics, it would be that Geoff Johns's mother had never let him take his action figures into the tub.

Labels: corporate comics, reviews

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 6:47 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 1 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
The Priceless Candy Bar -- I really enjoy The Simple Dollar, a daily blog about how to live more frugally. I've reduced or eliminated a lot of my bills over the past three years or so, but I'm not obsessed with frugality, so a lot of the penny-pinching blogs don't hold my interest. The Simple Dollar's philosophical approach and excellent writing have kept my attention since the first time I found it.

Today's post on a three-dollar candy bar is a great example of where the blog's thoughtfulness about spending meets the intangible value that can be found in something that seems too expensive. It's a wonderful post on its own, but it also reminded me of one of the most intelligent things anyone has ever written about the value of comics. Tom Spurgeon:

"I usually don't criticize anything for simply costing a lot. The only comics that are too expensive are shitty comics."

People who buys piles -- literally piles of mediocre superhero comics every week because they are "keeping up their collection" and "don't want to miss an issue" are usually the ones that complain about a comic costing "too much."

I remember when IDW began publishing their line of comics at a base price of $3.99, and some people felt that was "too expensive." But if it's too expensive, don't buy it. Nobody holds a gun to anyone's head and forces them to buy funnybooks.

What I think they really mean when they say that is, "I want to add this to my giant mindless pile of crap comics every week, but it costs a buck more than most of the other crap." I remember when IDW hit the ground running with quality titles like 30 Days of Night (I speak of the excellent, original mini-series here, I can't say anything about the sequels as I haven't read most of them), that featured not only outstanding storytelling but top-notch production values as well. Another title I've sampled from IDW that met that standard was Supermarket. I liked the first issue enough that I decided to wait until it was collected as a graphic novel, and if I recall correctly that compiled three issues for something close to twenty dollars -- more than the cost of the individual $3.99 issues, but the added benefit of being a sturdy book I can put on my shelves made the price worthwhile for me.

No comic can be objectively "priced right" or "overpriced." I've picked up Free Comic Book Day releases that were a ripoff for free, factoring in the time and effort to find and read (or attempt to read) them. Multiple publishers have tried 9 cent, 10 cent and 25 cent stunt releases. Some, like the 25 cent zero issue of Conan by Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord, convinced me to continue on with the monthly title, which would have been a bargain at four bucks, or even five, because it featured quality storytelling and adventures that stand up to multiple re-reads years later. The vast majority of current series set in Marvel and DC's universes aren't even worth reading for free, as that recent V survey of comics downloaders definitively demonstrated.

Obviously if you're struggling with money, if times are tight and every penny counts, you should not be dropping 75 or 100 bucks on a Marvel Omnibus or an Absolute Edition from DC. In fact, if money's really tight, you hopefully eschew wasting money on entertainment until you can right your faltering financial ship, to brutalize a metaphor.

But if you've got a good job and a portion of your income can comfortably be devoted to pursuing an artform you love, then hopefully you're buying comics you truly enjoy. Comics that engage your mind and thrill your senses and will amortize their own expense by providing you with years and years of repeat enjoyment. I never get tired of re-reading Watchmen, or Love and Rockets, or The Authority, or Eightball, just to name four titles that I have bought in single issues, trade paperbacks and expensive hardcover collector's editions. "The only comics that are too expensive are shitty comics," Spurgeon said, and by now he's probably sick to death of me bringing up the quote whenever the opportunity strikes. But it's true, and it speaks to far more than just comic books. The money you make is the direct product of time from your life that you've given up and will never get back.

Whether it's a gourmet candy bar shared with your family in a moment of mad glee, or a comic book good enough to totally immerse yourself in, its wonders to behold -- think about your spending, and whether its rewards will be returned to you in the future. Memories like that candy bar, or a great story, will provide a lifetime of joy. Is that what you are spending your money on? If not, why not?

Total coincidence, Zen Habits also writes about materialism and spending habits today.

Labels: corporate comics, FCBD, linkblogging, real life

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 5:22 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
The Fan-Fiction Age of Superhero Comics -- Over at Dick Hates Your Blog, Mr. Hyacinth observes the schism between fans of Brad Meltzer's lousy superhero comics versus Brian Michael Bendis's. Meltzer takes the baton as the leader in the race to create the worst superhero comics available today, but Bendis makes a strong second-place showing. The fact of the matter is, both are guilty of being master planners in the current, awful Fan-Fiction Age of superhero comics. From Straczynski's Spider-Man to Millar's Civil War, from Johns's Infinite Crisis to Bendis and Meltzer's narrative ass-rape of Marvel and DC's two top team titles (or TTTT as I like to call 'em), any informed observer of the current state of Marvel and DC's "universes" can see that the past few years are populated almost solely by events and storylines that just cry out to be retconned out of existence by creators who are actually committed to telling good stories with every drop of their creative gifts they can muster.

Unfortunately, the days when top creators were willing to give their all to corporations servicing superhero trademarks seem long past. I remember vividly when Frank Miller came along and reinvigorated Daredevil; when Walt Simonson showed us why Thor was so goddamned cool; when Claremont and Byrne were humble enough to exercise their talent before their egos and create probably the best X-Men comics ever created; when Alan Moore took Swamp Thing from industry joke (sorry, Mike!) to the most compelling comic book being published.

Creators today -- the smart ones -- take their best work to companies that will allow them to own their own work. So it's hard to imagine who the next Frank Miller or Alan Moore or whoever will be. Not that we need anyone to rehash those creator's visions or steal their best ideas -- that kind of bullshit is what has gotten us where we are now in corporate superhero comics. No, what is needed is, to paraphrase Alan Moore, someone to come along and twist the knobs to a setting no one ever thought of before. A new paradigm that makes corporate superhero comics not only readable, but fun and entertaining again.

Marvel and DC will probably have to shift some paradigms of their own, first, though. It wasn't that long ago, but can you imagine Marvel giving Grant Morrison a free hand to do what he did with New X-Men in today's market? Sure, DC let Darwyn Cooke create New Frontier, but why not allow someone that gifted and committed to the genre to just take over one of the main titles? Why ghettoize the quality stories while dosing fanboy junkies with the sort of continuity porn found in Meltzer/Bendis/et al's "hot" titles?

Another observation Moore once made was that he tried to give readers what they needed, not what they wanted. It may be a subtle distinction, but it's at the heart of what is wrong with corporate superhero comics at the moment, and why the direct market is locked in the death-grip of The Fan-Fiction Age of Superhero Comics.

Labels: corporate comics, linkblogging

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 6:14 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Kicking Shit While It's Down -- I'd guess Tom Spurgeon got his copy of the final issue of the most recent, failed attempt at a Flash series the same way I did -- a review copy mailed by DC Comics. Spurgeon has posted a lengthy review of The Flash #13, and while I agree with pretty much everything he says, even I am shocked at the extent of his negativity.

"It was sort of like being dragged behind a boat for ten seconds after falling off your waterskis. There's no permanent damage, but it's unpleasant as all hell while it's happening."

Tom Spurgeon is more or less the best writer about comics who is currently blogging on a regular basis, and in this review he seems to me to be a bit more blunt than usual in his assessment of The Flash #13, which to my way of thinking pretty much defines the current state of corporate superhero comics: Utterly bereft of quality or entertainment value, marketable only to those who cherish trademarks over storytelling, and in fact may be incapable of even recognizing a story well told ("I don't know if it sucks or not, but I recognize that lightnng bolt on his chest!").

I know I aggravate blinkered superhero junkies who see my desire for better superhero comics as anti-superhero rhetoric. But the fact of the matter is that I don't hate superhero comics as a genre, at all. If you check out my pull list in the sidebar, you'll find a lot of superhero titles. I would love to have more good superhero comics to read, just as I would love to have more good crime comics to read, and more good autobiographical comics to read. I'll freely admit to hating bad superhero comics, though, and Flash #13 certainly falls squarely in that category.

DC sends me an occasional book for review -- not a lot, but they publish a lot of comics, and I appreciate whatever efforts they make to keep me and other critics current on what they think their best efforts are. Unlike Tom, I didn't see much reason to review Flash #13, because, well, what's the point? Not to disparage Tom's choice to review it -- he has a lot of things to say about the book and what it represents, and I'm glad he wrote about it -- but to me Marvel and DC's mainline of superhero comics taking place within their established "universes" are so universally poor that it's personally exhausting for me to spend much time reviewing them. Or even reading them, honestly.

Now, a few days ago I did review a new DC/Wildstorm comic, and my review was almost uniformly negative. But in this case, it was a first issue, and it was set outside the DC universe, so going into it I had hoped it would be entertaining. But it proved such a ham-handed pastiche of previous, better Wildstorm efforts that I found nothing much in it to recommend. Interesting that folks who mostly review superhero comics seemed to like Highwaymen #1, which says something about their critical faculties, or at the very least about the comparative value to be found in the average, say, X-Men comic vs. Highwaymen #1. The latter might be crap, but at least it's not X-Crap.

By the way, I was delighted that the writer of Highwaymen #1 didn't take my review personally, because it wasn't meant personally.

I wonder, though, how the Flash creative team will take Spurgeon's review? Did they honestly believe they were doing their best? I suppose anyone who has only read corporate superhero comics for the past 15 years or so could honestly believe something like Flash #13 represents quality storytelling. People who refuse to look outside superhero comics to all the vast riches the artform offers may think the current boatloads of shit offered up by Marvel and DC are actually the best "comics" has to offer. They could not be more wrong.

Maybe it's the editors at the corporate superhero companies, unable or unwilling to scout actual talent anymore. Maybe truly gifted creators just eschew the "Big Two" because they know they won't own their work or ever see even a fraction of what it earns for the companies, should it become popular and enduring. Maybe it's just that Marvel and DC are mostly staffed by a generation raised to think Image circa 1993 was radically good superhero comics. Whatever the reason, Flash #13 was shit. And while it's somewhat atypical for Tom Spurgeon to kick shit while it's down, I'm glad to see someone else speaking the truth about the sorry state of corporate superhero comics circa 2007.

Labels: corporate comics, essays, linkblogging

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 3:27 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 2 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
The Highwaymen #1 -- Perhaps sensing what a creative loss it is for the excellent series Planetary to be mostly over (writer Warren Ellis says the final issue is written, but it's allegedly a PS to the already-concluded main story), Wildstorm inflicts this shoddy effort upon the world.

Conspiracies abound and a droll old guy in a white suit leads an effort to uncover the hidden BS that will be far less interesting than anything Ellis cooks up for the final issue of his far superior series. Highwayman guy in white suit, I knew Elijah Snow; you, sir, are no Elijah Snow.

An image here or there echoes Frank Quitely -- the lumpy visage of President Bill Clinton looks swiped straight from Quitely's first issue of The Authority, but for the most part the art here is rubbery and unimpressive and as dull as the story. Check out the fourth page from the end's final panel for the most blatant Planetary nod.

I found nothing to like about this first issue at all, from the generic cover art to the painfully forced "banter" between Elijah -- I mean, the white-suited Highwayman, and his reluctant partner. It all takes place in the future, at the request of long-dead President Bubba via video file, and it all has been done far better before. Save yourself the three bucks and re-read any random issue of Planetary, or even Planet Terry. You'll thank me.

Labels: corporate comics, reviews

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 6:50 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Dirk and Comics Piracy -- Check out today's Journalista for Dirk Deppey's observations about the nature, availability and scope of online comics piracy via bit torrent sites.

"Virtually every genre-oriented comics pamphlet is scanned and posted online within a day or two of its release in stores. This includes everything released by Marvel and DC, of course, but also most of the material released by smaller publishers as well."

That's merely one of the eleven valuable points Dirk makes about this growing phenomenon. Much, much more in the link -- scroll down to the seventh section, "Digital Comics," for the rest.

I've dabbled a bit in downloading comics from bit torrent sites, and I don't have eleven things to say about it, but here's a couple:

* Many, many times I've downloaded a comic out of curiosity only to enjoy it enough that I have gone on to buy the actual comic. Recent examples would include World War Hulk #1 by Greg Pak and John Romita, Jr., and the entirety of Garth Ennis's Punisher MAX series, which I have liked so much I bought all the trade paperback collections, and then went on and bought those stories again in the oversized hardcover collections. In the latter case, this is an investment of something like $200.00 or so. Lesson? The availability of free, downloadable comics in .cbr or .cbz format can and will lead to large outlays of cash, but there's a catch.

* Many, many --the majority -- of corporate superhero comics I have downloaded are so ham-handedly amateurish and uninteresting that I haven't even bothered to finish them. And those are the ones that I bothered with, because like the vast majority of downloaders responding to this comics piracy poll at The V Forum, (quoting the poll here) "I cherrypick which titles I want to read so I don't waste time downloading crap I don't want." So yes, the availability of free, downloadable comics in .cbr or .cbz format can and will lead to large outlays of cash, but there's a catch.

The comics have to be worth reading.

As Dirk notes, the majority of available comics that you can download are corporate superhero comics. I'd submit to you that "I cherrypick which titles I want to read" would not be doing so well in that (admittedly unscientific) poll, if Marvel and DC would spend more time investing in and nurturing talented creators, encouraging them to do their best work and then rewarding them for it. Instead, they continue, decade after decade, to pander and pile up the crap on the shelves of the direct market -- crap that the V poll clearly suggests is not worth reading even when easily available for free.

There's an obvious business model for Marvel and DC to follow here, if they want to compete outside the direct market with the greater mainstream audience for comic books. Because surely not all the people buying comics on Amazon, at Borders, or Chapters, or their local independent bookstore, want to buy Fruits Basket or Persepolis or the other titles they choose; some of them would probably like to spend their money on quality adventure fiction, some of that even superhero fiction. So what's pretty clearly called for is more emphasis on quality, and less on overwrought continuity porn and bland trademark maintenance. One more time:

To be worth buying, the comics have to be worth reading.

Labels: corporate comics, essays, linkblogging

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 7:29 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
The Plain Janes Discussion -- I've been having an interesting discussion with Abhay Khosla on the Image message boards about the recently-released Plain Janes, drawn-but-not-written by Street Angel's Jim Rugg.

The discussion began when Abhay said he almost bought The Black Diamond Detective Agency by Eddie Campbell, but then went with Plain Janes instead. That prompted me to say:

Well, the Eddie Campbell isn't his best work, but Plain Janes is REALLY dull and Rugg's art seems especially toothless for the most part. I would have rather had more Street Angel myself. Hopefully he made a lot of money on it, anyway.

As message board posts are wont to do, that made me sound a good bit more dismissive than I meant to be, which Ivan Brandon called me on, especially disliking my use of the word "toothless" and conflating it with "hackwork," which you may or may not realize is not a phrase I tend to use much. My response to that:

I mean it lacks the vitality and spontaneity Rugg evinced in Street Angel. It seems managed, calculated, and not anywhere near as interesting as his earlier work. If someone is interested in Plain Janes based on the excellence of the cartooning in Street Angel, chances are they'll be a bit disappointed. It's good, professional illustration and that's about all it is. I didn't say it's hackwork -- that's not a word I generally throw around much, and I'm sure Jim fulfilled the assignment with as much passion and professionalism as he could. I just personally found a hell of a lot more passion and personality in Street Angel. YMMV.

Once Abhay has read the book, he feels myself and others who didn't enjoy the book very much may be judging it too harshly...But his thoughts aren't uniformly enthusiastic, either, and says "I hope [Rugg] does a 180 from this material in his next thing because... because again, it just doesn't play to how much fun he can bring to... to.. to movement...? It doesn't utilize everything he's capable of."

My final thought on Plain Janes and similar efforts to integrate artcomix creators into the world of corporate comics is summed up like this:

I always wonder if Marvel and DC are deliberate in their habit of hiring great artcomix creators (Rugg and Horrocks come immediately to mind) and then tasking them with jobs that don't reflect their obvious true gifts, but which keep them busy NOT exercising those talents for their own benefit, however much it might pay in the short run. Or, do the "Big Two" just take a cog for a cog and not even think about anything other than forwarding their own "mainstream" agendas...

There's lots more in the link to the discussion above, but I wanted to get my own thoughts on the book and on the issues it raises here on the blog.

Labels: art, corporate comics, industry, linkblogging

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 7:41 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
The Monday Briefing -- Father's Day has come and gone, and as I mentioned in a conversation last night with Chris Allen, while I don't think I am as invested in the idea of a perfect Father's Day as my wife is in a correspondingly perfect Mother's Day, it's still nice to be the family belle of the ball for one day. A joke comes to mind, but it's kind of gross and I haven't had breakfast yet.

Roger Green mentions it's Roger Ebert's 65th birthday today. After a few years of very serious health issues, I'd guess he's glad, indeed, to be here to see this day. I'm not much of a celebrity-watcher, but I have to admit I've worried at times about Roger Ebert recently as much as I do my wife or kids when they are sick. He's managed to pull through some extremely serious health problems, and I am profoundly grateful for that. Roger Green mentions Ebert's great gifts as a film critic, and I'll second all that. If you have any interest at all in criticism in general or film criticism in particular, you should really take a look at Ebert's two "Great Movies" essay collections. They are fantastic reading that will send you off on an exploration of some of the best and most compelling movies ever made, even as they allow you to get to know Ebert and his sensibilities in a manner that is direct, engaging and most importantly fun.

Roger Green also points out that it's Paul McCartney's 65th birthday, but, you know, his big landmark birthday was obviously last year. Roger runs down a good list of McCartney post-Fab Four songs worth listening to, but I'll spare you the top ten and say that all of Band on the Run holds up really well, and at least half of Tug of War is really good, too.

Not much to say about comics at the moment -- scroll down through the past few days for plenty on that subject -- but I will say the comic that surprised me the most last week was World War Hulk #1. After browsing it for free at The Favoured Store, I broke down and bought it. It's a good, old-fashioned Marvel Comic in the best sense of the word, and even manages to make Iron Man not seem like a villain. Except to the Hulk, which is kind of the impetus to the whole kerfuffle. Good, fun superhero storytelling, the kind of which you don't much see in either Marvel or DC's main universes anymore.

Labels: corporate comics, linkblogging, monday briefing, recommendations

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 5:26 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
What? -- Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, from a report at Newsarama:

An audience member brought up recent controversies like the Mary Jane statue and the cover of Heroes for Hire #13, and asked that given that most people who work for Marvel are men, they could possibly be seen as sexist. Quesada refuted such complaints and said that he believes Marvel has the strongest female characters in comic book history.

Whatever, dude.

Labels: corporate comics

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 5:43 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
The Friday Briefing -- Hello, good day and welcome to -- you know, I just want to say, it really does feel good to be blogging regularly again. Thanks to everyone who has dropped me a line to welcome me back. I really, really appreciate it.

Now then, as to the subject of the week -- no, not Zombie Mary Jane, although I will say I saw Chris Butcher's point crystal-clear once I saw the Zombie poster side-by-side with the original comic, which I vividly remember buying for my daughter a few years ago. I love me some Marvel Zombies as much as anybody, but for me the Suydam covers were never a part of the attraction, and I have to agree that this one goes over the line.

No, the subject hereabouts has been the future of comics retailing. I started off with a revision of an old essay on the subject, which didn't quite hit all the points I wanted to make. So I wrote more on what kind of shops exist now, and what kind of shops will likely survive in a changing marketplace. Basically I think that superhero-centric stores are living in the glorious past of the '80s and '90s, when it kind of made sense to emphasize superhero comics because that's all there were, and all they could sell. But in the 21st century, the world outside the direct market is gobbling up comics in ever-increasing numbers, just, superhero comics are not in the majority of what it is they're buying. Manga and artcomix have both made huge inroads since the century began, albeit in different manners and different numbers, but they're indisputably the comics that sell outside the insular (I always want to say "inbred," but I'm trying to be nice), misinformed (again see that David Beard piece in the new Comics Journal) and ultimately self-destructive world of the direct market.

One criticism angrily lobbed by hardcore superhero convenience store customers at me, one of the many mischaracterizations of what I wrote, is that I don't want superhero comics available at all, anywhere. Well, how would I buy my Marvel Zombies, then? Or Paul Dini's Detective Comics? All-Star Superman?

Engine member David Wynne really latched on to a point I guess I meant but kind of buried in what I wrote, and I'll confess that my distaste for dirty, disorganized comic shops that open late on a regular basis may have caused me not to see I didn't make this point clearly enough. So I'll let Wynne put it in his words. Responding to an Engine reader who implied that comic stores currently must rely on superhero fanatics to stay in business, Wynne gets it exactly right when he says:

"...but those customers are already hooked. As long as a shop continues to stock the crap they come in for, they'll still keep coming in. Which means it doesn't need to be pushed right up in the front window, making any casual passers by think that they won't find anything else inside."

When discussing this obvious fact in casual conversation, I usually say something like "You could stock all the superhero comics in a dumpster behind the store, and you wouldn't lose one superhero-oriented customer. If it's Wednesday, they know what they want, and they'll do whatever it takes to get it."

Have you ever experienced a superhero-heavy comic book store on Wednesday afternoon? It's quite a lot like watching addicts line up for methadone outside the clinic. Damn it, now I've cast another aspersion. It's like I have Aspersions Syndrome. But what I am saying is, all that space -- all that goddamned space -- retailers at superhero convenience shops devote to superhero comics? It's a total waste of their retail space. The vast majority of such shops could easily cut that space in half without dropping a single title, and devote the new space to comics other people would like. People like the wives, girlfriends, children and friends the superhero addict drags along with him to the store. What if those people find something to read? Would it really be so awful, Mr. Diamond-Centric Retailer, to get the money from both your regular superhero guy and his girlfriend?

Believe it or not, the answer in some cases is yes. A lot of retailers are extraordinarily comfortable with the established "Good Ol' Boys" atmosphere of their shop, and they would gladly eschew growing their business if they don't have to deal with women. Or kids. Or, oh my god, women and their kids!

Don't believe it? Then you haven't been in many comic book stores.

Speaking of which, yesterday I also posted about my favourite comic book stores. If you visit one or two or all of them, I think you'll see why my standards are so high for comics retailing. I mean, if your store meets most of my criteria for being a good one, then I have no problem with you. I am, in fact, not even talking about you. But if women and children feel unwelcome in your shop, if you are rude or deceptive to your customers, if you don't open on time and can't for the life of you imagine why anyone would want to read comics that you don't want to read -- or stock -- then yeah, I am talking to you. Well, talking about you.

Because, really, I am talking to people who buy comics. Not "Comics consumers," not "collectors," "fans," or little-z Marvel zombies. I am talking to people who like to read comics, who want to share their passion for the artform with their friends and loved ones, and who want to support stores that have a good chance of surviving the current transition from floppy monthly pamphlet comic booklets to the comics the whole world has said it wants to read: Comics with a spine and a complete story.

If that sounds like you, well, hello. I've been talking to you all week and haven't really said a proper hello. And what I want to say to you during this, The Friday Briefing, is this:

Please vote with your dollars. Please support the shops that work hard to present the best face for the artform we love, and who try damned hard to sell comics to everyone that wants to buy them, whatever country they originated in, and whatever format they are presented in. If your dealer presents a sloppy retail environment, or demonstrates unprofessional business practices, or worse, both, then find a better shop. They're out there. We're not really talking about stores that only exist in my imagination, they already exist right now. Some are better than others, but if you are buying from a dead-end retailer, you already know there's a problem. I've just been trying to help you put into words what the problem is, and suggest some solutions. I'm not trying to ban superhero comics, I'm just lobbying for a world in which superhero comics don't continue to alienate readers of other comics, who already exist, and who want to buy more comics -- from anyone who wants to sell them to them, in a welcoming and professional manner.

Labels: corporate comics, essays, good comic shops, industry, monday briefing

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 5:10 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
The Monday Briefing -- Hello, good day and welcome to the Monday Briefing for June 11th. June 11th?!? So the year is virtually half-over? That doesn't seem possible, and yet, I know the kids are almost done with school and summer is about to begin.

I kind of felt like my summer vacation already happened with Friday's trip to Northampton. Sure it was just one day, but my daughter and I had a great time. I'm still making my way through the comics and graphic novels I picked up at Modern Myths. Which is funny, because I browsed the shelves for something like three hours and still felt like I might have missed something. MM has a lot of books. Oh, one thing I failed to mention on Friday was manager Jim Crocker's hardcover policy, which I noticed right away and was blown away by. Any hardcover graphic novel that has a dustcover is reinforced with a library-style clear plastic sleeve. Every single one. It makes the books look classier and adds protection to the book that will extend its shelf-life and even enhance its re-sale potential, if that's your thing. And how much does Modern Myths charge for this feature?

Nothing.

Since the first time I walked in the door, I thought Modern Myths represented the best possible future for comic book stores, and that feeling has only grown over the years. If you're anywhere near Northampton, Massachusetts, stop in and see if you don't agree.

The Sopranos wrapped up last night, but I haven't seen it yet, so, don't spoil it for me. Hopefully I will get to it this evening after work. Last night my wife and I re-watched the pilot episode from the first season, and it was interesting to see what's changed and what hasn't. Paulie hasn't changed a bit, but guys like him never do, do they? James Gandolfini seemed to be talking in a higher pitch, maybe invoking Joe Pesci. He was also much less dark, both because Tony Soprano was trying Prozac for his depression and because the worst years of his life were to come in the next decade. Gandolfini's acting has been a consistent joy to watch over the course of the series, and if you somehow have never seen the series, add it to your Netflix pile or keep an eye out for an eventual complete series DVD collection. The individual seasons have been criminally (ho, ho) expensive, but if they make an affordable full-series set, it would be a great addition to the video library of anyone who enjoys quality storytelling.

Except the Columbus Day episode, yes, but that's the exception that proves the rule.

Over at The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon interviews Joe Casey again. I think this is the third time? At least? Spurgeon 'fesses up to a desire to interview Casey every few years, and that would be fine by me. Their original Comics Journal interview found Casey discussing the occasional disconnect between his ideas and getting them intact into his comics. Given how many interesting titles Casey has worked on that ultimately did not quite work out, he's a great case-study for what can go wrong and right when working in comics, especially corporate superhero comics.

I think Casey's greatest creative success was probably Wildcats Vol. 2 and Vol. 3.0 before the "Coup d'Etat" event destroyed not only that title but the Wildstorm universe as a viable storytelling milieu. Casey mentions his Iron Man: The Inevitable mini-series in the new interview, and, well, I'm sure there was a good idea in there somewhere.

Speaking of Iron Man, do you think Marvel will eventually reset or redeem the character, or will he just remain the outright evil supervillain he's been since Civil War began? You know what would have been a great ending for that? Garth Ennis writing the last issue, as Frank Castle blows away Tony Stark and everyone cheers, The End. (Andrew Wheeler nicely sums up the series' flaws in this post at The V).

I've been thinking about this since borrowing the first three issues of The Avengers: The Initiative from The Favoured Store. Is there a character left in the Marvel Universe that is actually a good guy?

I talked to Jim Crocker on Friday a bit about my conviction that the current era of corporate superhero comics will one day be recognized as The Fan Fiction Age, due to the poor quality of the storytelling, which often reminds me of an eight-year-old playing in the tub with action figures: "Then Superboy PUNCHES THROUGH TIME!" "Geoff? Make sure you wash behind your ears, now!" "Aw, mom!!!"

I can't remember the last time I read a Marvel or DC story that seemed canonical with the comics the companies produced in the 20th century. I fully expect a writer to emerge in the next five years or so who will successfully kick off a new paradigm that makes Marvel and DC's characters not only viable, but appealing again.

And sure, there are creators working today who could do that: Darwyn Cooke, Grant Morrison, and Warren Ellis all come to mind. But the companies either marginalize their best efforts, things like New Frontier, Nextwave or Seven Soldiers are off to the side and don't really have an impact on the universes proper. Or, like Morrison with 52 or Ellis with Thunderbolts, these creators choose to play in the fan-fiction sandbox the companies have endorsed, with the resulting comics not quite meeting the best standard the creators have proven themselves capable of.

Back in the early 1980s, Alan Moore, Frank Miller and some other folks came along and re-energized the Marvel and DC universes with storytelling that looked at the characters and their settings in a way far different from what had been the status quo. I doubt Moore would want the job these days, and God knows Miller isn't fit for the task, but what is needed is someone with that same sort of energy, intelligence and passion for comics storytelling to come along and inject superhero comics with those very qualities. Until then, folks like Johns, Straczynski and others will continue to create comics that damage the longterm viability of the characters even as they sell like hotcakes to borderline psychotic nerds who actually think these comics are any better than the crap Marvel and DC pumped out by the metric fuckload in the 1990s.

I'm pretty far from the John Byrne "Superhero Comics Are For Kids" bandwagon -- I think there should be all types of genres and storytelling modes available for readers of all ages, genders and interests. But what I see coming out of Marvel and DC these days, their core books -- they are about as far from what they could and should be as is even imaginable. Max Lord taking a bullet through the melon on-panel, and The Elongated Man's wife getting raped doggie-style both seemed to me like superhero porn at the time, and things have only gotten worse from there.

My kids are 11 and 13, and there's not a single Marvel or DC universe book that appeals to them. Check my pull list in the sidebar to the right -- anything with an asterisk (*) is a title I have reserved for them. I guess as a parent it makes me a little sad that they can't enjoy the superhero universes that entertained me so much when I was their age, because of the poor stewardship of the characters on the part of the current management at the two major corporate superhero publishers. And if you're thinking that the publishers have all-ages titles like Avengers Adventures for kids, my response is, why should they have to? When I was 10, 11, 12 years old, Avengers was a title any superhero fan could enjoy, of any age. I've tried the Adventures titles on my kids, but somehow I think they sense the pandering and condescension that is inherent in the need for all-ages versions of characters that are, by definition, meant to be enjoyed by readers of all ages anyway. I can't think of any other reason why most of those titles fail to generate any interest in my kids. Or in me, come to think of it.

Labels: corporate comics, good comic shops, linkblogging, monday briefing

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 6:12 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
The Problem with North American Superhero Comics -- Writing for The Comics Journal's weblog Journalista, Dirk Deppey pretty much explains why North American superhero comics suck so much (scroll down to the panel of Catwoman facing some swordsmen and read from there).

These days, my litmus test for whether anyone knows anything at all about the artform of comics is whether they use the word "comics" to mean comics, which includes everything from Naruto to Peanuts, from Abandon the Old in Tokyo to Tintin, and, yes, from Spider-Man to Kampung Boy. And lots more.

But I find myself tuning out completely when I hear or read someone say something to the effect of "Comics suck right now," and then go on to complain about Infinite Crisis or Civil War, betraying the fact that said commentator is dissatisfied (and rightly so) with North American superhero comics, specifically, as Dirk nails it, "New York corporate comics culture."

In the end, only one of two people can have ultimate authority over a story being created for the public: the creator or the publisher. If it’s the creator, than the editor’s job is to assist said creator in bringing the completed story to market to the best of his or her ability. If it’s the publisher, however, than the editor’s job is to serve as the publisher’s hands in guiding a corporate property to market in the most saleable condition possible. -- Dirk Deppey

Dirk's example, and it's a painful one for me, is DC's destruction of Ed Brubaker's Catwoman.


When Brubaker and artist Darwyn Cooke relaunched the title, it had been an amateurishly-drawn piece of garbage for years on end. With a single, visionary stroke, Brubaker and Cooke turned it into one of the best superhero comics published in the past 20 years.

But that "corporate comics culture" inserted itself: A succession of good artists, including Cameron Stewart and others, continued the pop noir feel Cooke had infused the title with, but DC didn't think it was selling well enough, and chose not to nurture a creatively exceptional title long enough for its potential audience to find it. Instead, as Dirk notes, DC assigned Paul Gulacy to illustrate Brubaker's scripts, and the series immediately degenerated into a parody of its previous excellence.

The lesson will go unheard at the highest levels of corporate comics, but Brubaker's Catwoman is a fine example of the damage that can be done by short-sighted fiddling with what is clearly visionary work. Every once in a while something beautiful comes out of Marvel or DC, whether it's the first 24 issues of Catwoman or Grant Morrison's New X-Men. But almost inevitably, someone higher up than the title's creators or editors takes notice, makes some "suggestions," and good work with great potential is squandered.

In the long term, speaking as someone who's 41 years old and has been reading comic books since I was 6 years old -- it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth, and generates enormous ill will and profound doubt about the corporate companies' ability to shepherd their characters, many of whom have a sentimental or even profound importance to the greater culture at large.

So this is why I am always leery when a creator I respect signs on to a new project at Marvel or DC. I am always hopeful, but there's always that fear that even if the work is good, there will be no real creative control by those best equipped to weild it: The creators.

Labels: corporate comics

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 6:33 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 5 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Civil War Lateness Endangers Superhero Convenience Shops -- You'd think Brian Hibbs suing Marvel for being chronically late might have been an early indicator that maybe you shouldn't tie your personal fortunes to the publisher's timeliness. But greed and the promise of short-term gain are historically more powerful than, well, paying attention to history. I cannot personally imagine allowing Marvel and/or Diamond to determine the health of my personal financial stability this late in the game. I have kids to feed.

I've been reading both the timely 52 and the now-late Civil War for free from the internet's Preferred Store (as it's known). I like CW enough to actually buy the eventual hardcover, whenever the hell it comes out. I loathe 52 enough that I have stopped reading it even for free.

The message to retailers, it seems to me, and it's been apparent for at least a couple of years now, is that the day of the fucking floppy is over, and you need to transition to the new reality. In other words, when BORDERS starts bitching about how Civil War is late, then I'll think it matters to comics as a whole.

This "tragedy" is mainly impacting superhero convenience stores, who should know by now that Marvel's Slurpees are an unreliable factor when planning out their long-term financial health. Over the next three or four months, the three-out-of-four people in my household who read comics every week will be affected exactly not at all by Civil War being late -- two of them (my kids, on the very cusp of becoming independent, comics-buying adults) read graphic novels and non-Marvel periodicals, and the other, the fat old nerd that hooked them on comics, is waiting quite patiently and happily for the trade, which will have a consistent writer and artist all the way through, and which may not be Watchmen, but will still be of interest to sooperhero fans ten years from now, unlike the timely-as-hell 52.

Diamond is no longer comics. Marvel is no longer comics. Look around, in libraries, in real bookstores. Comics is bigger than one distributor or one publisher, especially a distributor and publisher who historically cover their own asses to the detriment of those they do business with. Diamond and Marvel essentially supply Slurpees to sooperhero convenience stores, and they're all managed by guys who, if they are professional businessmen -- you know, have READ HIBBS'S BOOK ON BEING A PROFESSIONAL COMIC BOOK RETAILER -- know they need to study the history of their industry and of their own store, and make sound business decisions based on the information they have. The information about Marvel has been clear forever, to anyone not suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Every smart retailer I know has spent the past few years diversifying their product line, opening up alternative lines of distribution so that their future and their financial well-being is not entirely, fatally tied to Marvel and Diamond.

I can imagine quite a few sooperhero convenience shops going under because of this. And you know, I felt bad for the people who had 100 percent of their stock in Enron, too. But they should have known better. I know nothing about investing, but I know you have to diversify your portfolio if you want to be solvent and prosperous in the long-term.

Diversification would have saved Enron's investors, and in the long run, it's the only thing that will allow comic book stores to exist in another five to ten years. The smart retailers already know this -- walk into Million Year Picnic in Cambridge, Massachusetts or The Beguiling in Toronto. Yes, they have Marvel available. As one of the many, many publishers they carry. And they have diverse customer bases that wants comics of all sizes, shapes, genres and languages. What percentage of income do you think Marvel represents for Borders? The ones near me all have some Marvel stuff, and quite a bit more Manga.

There's room for superhero comics, especially in North America. But the day of Ellis's Nurse Novel is long since over, and bravo to him for pointing this out so long ago:

"I don't doubt that there are excellent nurse novels in there. But the fact that in our nightmare bookstore, 90% of all books published everywhere are about nurses tends to choke off all other genres and a literary mainstream."

Diversify or die, comic book stores. The Civil War debacle is very likely the final warning bell.

Labels: corporate comics

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 6:59 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 8 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
What I Learned from 52 #4 -- Dan Jurgens doesn't know the meaning of the word Avatar.

Labels: corporate comics

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 5:47 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Thought for the Day -- The conclusion of Infinite Crisis must be accepted by all rational observers as definitive proof that Geoff Johns is, without doubt, the Rob Liefeld of writers.

Labels: corporate comics, industry

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 6:38 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Covering Iron Man -- Tom Spurgeon highlights a classic Gil Kane image as a springboard to discussing how Iron Man has had a lot of bad covers over the years; I thought I would separate the wheat from the chaff (or the Iron from the Man?), and look at some of the few great* Iron Man covers from throughout the character's history (click the issue numbers to see the covers):

Iron Man #1 -- Of course, if you can't get a striking cover for the first issue of your own ongoing title, you know you have a problem. Actually, as eye-catching as this one is, that's more to the (overwrought) sense of drama artist Gene Colan gave to the character; the first-issue ribbon/banner (it looks slapped-on, har-har!) does nothing for the design, and the tiny background elements would distract from the overall design if not for the colour choices made to make Iron Man himself pop out. So, while the cover achieves the goal of likely luring the eyes of potential readers scanning racks full of comics, it's more down to the primary element of Iron Man himself and the way the colours play down everything else in the image. Hmm, Spurgeon may be on to something.

Iron Man #47 -- It only took 47 issues to give us a virtual repeat of the cover to #1, but at least here Gil Kane delivers a body shot that has power and grace without the melodrama inherent in Gene Colan's cover for #1. Vince Colletta's intention-destroying, time-saving, fine-line inking actually looks okay on the primary cover element (Iron Man), and this is about as iconic a depiction of my favourite Iron Man costume as you're likely to find.

Iron Man #54 -- This cover just looks great, no caveats at all. The poses are dramatic and fluid, the jagged lines of the bursts of water reflect the rage of Namor, and the backgroud perspective works perfectly to enhance the excitement of the image. A great example of why I think Gil Kane is one of the best artists ever to work in comics.

Iron Man #80 -- I've always been a sucker for this image, probably my favourite Iron Man cover of all time. Sure, the perspective is wonky (if not downright awkward -- why do we see the bottom of Iron Man's ill-advised 1970s-style "nose" in the way that we do, as his body angles downward and away from us? Why are his arms posed like that?); despite everything, though, the figure, the spectacular background images and the colouring all work to present a virtually 3-D portrait of the Armoured Avenger that is powerful and suggestive of a thrilling adventure that was almost certainly not found within the actual pages of the comic that it was wrapped around.

Iron Man #118 -- The Layton era had some of the series' best and worst covers. This one was one of the best, in terms of accurately reflecting the comic's innards and providing an arresting visual image that stood out on the stands.

Iron Man #128 -- Probably the best-remembered and most evocative cover in the history of the series. This one is so convincing in its seediness -- can't you just smell what a wreck Tony Stark has become? -- that it's almost a wonder this EC-like depiction of addiction got by the Comics Code. That it did is probably due to the clear message the creators thought they were sending -- that alcoholism is a devastating disease that destroys the lives of those who have it and those who love those who have it. Unfortunately, if memory serves, the simple-minded actual message was that alcoholism can be overcome in less than 30 pages if you have a hot girlfriend, clenched fists and a fashionable sports car. The End.

Iron Man #142 -- Another outer space scene (see issue #80, above), nicely contrasting the shiny precision of the armor (a new variation, another interesting element) against the blackness of space (much less dynamic a place than in Kirby's #80 cover, and yet it seems to make Iron Man stand out oven more if he is not competing with galaxies a-borning). The boot-jets are meant to add a sense of motion, but actually detract of the power of the figure work.

Iron Man #243 -- As you might guess from the huge gap between this entry and the previous one, the title entered a long, dry spell of really bad covers; this one actually isn't much better than average for the time, but the design element of the newspaper makes it stand out from a large crowd of lousy covers, and extra points to whoever decided to provide actual text for the newspaper rather than the more-standard gibberish or straight lines. The art on the inside is worth noting for having Barry Windsor-Smith's inks over Layton's pencils; it's clear from the art that BWS more than likely extensively revised Layton's work in some places, making for a much better than usual issue as far as the art goes. The script, if memory serves, was the usual overripe melodrama that weighted down the character long after the brief, now terribly dated-seeming heyday of the original Michelinie/Layton run.

Iron Man #256 -- What is it with me and these outer-space shots? I just think this one grabs the eye quite well, and the repulser rays and boot smoke actually work this time around. The most striking thing about this image, I think, is the well-placed use of shadow to suggest power and drama.

Iron Man Vol. 3 #1 -- Sorry, Heroes Reborn fans, but unsurprisingly Vol. 2 of the title turned out no covers worth noting (the current Vol. 4 has likewise failed to grab the eye with its samey-samey designs and washed out colours). But this energetic image suggests the character in full motion, charging into an exciting new era. As it turned out, the Busiek/Chen era was mainly highlighted by very good artwork (Chen was born to draw Iron Man). But it's worth noting that Busiek's handling of the character is probably the best extended run he's ever had storywise, consistent and informed by an obvious love of the character and his setting.

I didn't start out intending to make this my Ten Favourite Iron Man covers, but as it turns out, ten good covers is about all the character can claim since its inception. As I said, it's pretty clear Spurgeon is on to something...

###

UPDATE: Johnny Bacardi threatens to turn Covering Iron Man into a meme, but luckily he's a canny enough observer that his choices are worth checking out. Especially noteworthy are this genuine classic by Johnny Craig and this lovely offering by Barry Windsor-Smith (marred, I think, by the garish purple background; imagine the effect if Iron Man was presented in front of a background of (you'll pardon the pun) stark white, a la this classic Frank Miller Daredevil cover.

* Grabs the eye, stands out on the racks, exceptional depiction of the character or story, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah, your mileage may vary, member FDIC.

Labels: art, corporate comics, linkblogging, lists

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 7:54 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Chaykin on New Avengers -- As a fan of Howard Chaykin's art from almost the very beginnings of his career, I have to say that the Chaykin art from New Avengers #21 (at Newsarama) looks like some of the best work he's done in years.

City of Tomorrow intrigued me until I read the first issue, Mighty Love didn't hold my attention even that long, I just can't get interested in Hawkgirl, but: Chaykin drawing an angry Captain America for a complete issue? Looks great.

Labels: art, corporate comics

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 6:20 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
The Comics Journal Library: Frank Miller -- I've discussed before how formative an experience it was reading Frank Miller's work as a teenager; he was rising to stardom on Daredevil around the same time I was discovering the greater world of the comics artform beyond the narrow parameters of Marvel and DC. Even within those parameters, Miller managed to bring a singular new sensibility to his comics work, and I maintain that his Daredevil work with Klaus Janson, David Mazzucchelli and others is among the best superhero comics ever created.

The latest in the Comics Journal Library series focuses on Miller, with all his various TCJ interviews re-presented, a new interview, a career overview, and top-notch design throughout.

What comes through primarily is Miller's fascination, love and loathing for New York City -- which in retrospect is what his Daredevil run was all about. No surprise, then, that the attacks of September 11th, 2001 had such an impact on his work -- resulting in the fractured, divisive DK2. Miller discusses that work at length with Gary Groth, and that alone is worth the cost of the book. I still think DK2 was a massive failure on just about every level, but I have more sympathy for Miller's intent after reading his thoughts, and I hope that his struggle to deal with September 11th someday manages to coalesce into a work more worthy of the subject, and worthy of Miller himself.

He's a great talent, and one of the biggest influences on how I think about comics. He's not without flaws, but you'll find in some of the earlier interviews that he was positively prescient about the current state of the American comics industry, and I think this book is something every comics reader should study carefully. It's one of the most important pieces of comics journalism to be released this year.

Labels: art, corporate comics, recommendations, reviews

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 9:13 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
What's Good For Spider-Man? -- You see a lot of Spider-Man DVDs these days. Displays in seemingly every store push hundreds and hundreds of copies of the webhead's film debut at you. Buy. Me. Now!!

Is it good for consumers? Well, it makes a desired film easy to find.

Is it good for comics? I don't see how it can't be, considering how much more intertwined with the industry this movie is than any previous comics film. I wish Ghost World had had as much information related to Dan Clowes and Eightball as the Spider-Man DVD has stuff about John Romita, Stan Lee and the other people who contributed to the book over the decades. It's impossible to view the DVD without having an acute awareness that this is a character with a rich history, and hey, in case you want to see more, there's a coupon for three free issues right in the DVD case.

My six-year-old son recognized Spider-Man on sight before we took him to the movie, but he didn't really care about him one way or the other. Since the film, the character has captured his imagination and I've never seen him so interested in devouring everything he can about a fictional character. Action figures, t-shirts, comics, hats, snow boots, all are plastered with Spider-Man, and he loves it. As a comics reader with a full 30 years invested in reading and enjoying comics, it's extremely gratifying to see him take such delight in Spider-Man. I don't care too much for any of the current comics series, but you know, when I was my son's age, I did. Today I think From Hell, Ghost World, Forlorn Funnies and other great comics show the vast potential for a medium that I fell into partly because of -- Spider-Man (and thanks, Gerry Conway and Ross Andru -- they were there when I discovered the book and you know how that is). So maybe 30 years from now my son will have similarly matured and refined tastes. Maybe he'll move on to something else. Who cares? Right now he's deliriously happy with something that won't hurt him, and that's good for him.

Is it good for Spider-Man? I don't really know what that means. Marvel's characters have lagged behind DC's for decades in terms of becoming genuine cultural icons. To the vast, uncaring public whose known for decades that Clark Kent was Superman and Bruce Wayne was Batman, 15 years ago only real fans knew who Peter Parker was. Now everyone knows.

The Spider-Man movie has pushed the character over the edge into full-fledged cultural icon status.

Labels: corporate comics, movies

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 12:21 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Ketchup -- I read Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson's final Transmet this week, and you know, they wrapped that up nicely. The resonance with the first issue set the proper tone, and the surprise ending was both hilarious and touching -- a fitting reward for readers who've hung in for all these years. I can't say I'm not glad it's over -- but the ending really summed up nicely the overriding themes of the series.

I got through about half of the second episode of Firefly, and gave up. The series is a dead-in-the-water stinker, with no hope of salvation. The core idea is very, very bad, and it doesn't get any better anywhere else along the way.

My wife finally got her car back yesterday after a week in the shop, preceeded by just five or six hours of ownership. I have serious doubts that it won't break down again; I'm a big believer in the law of averages and when a car breaks down twice in the first 6 hours you have it, well, that does not bode well for the future. But she has it back and in fact is out there driving around even as I type these words. She has a CD player in her car; I have a cassette deck that doesn't work. In this regard, at least, yes, I am a bit jealous.

Mark Millar is to be applauded for his disturbing new interview with Mark Alessi. CrossGen's publisher appears to bluntly answer most of Millar's questions, but I'll tell you, if you're old enough to understand a bit about life and business and how they interact and should be kept seperate, there's some scary, scary shit in what Alessi has to say. Millar's definitely trying to make a point with his interview, obviously knows a bit more than he's saying, and the whole thing kind of scares the hell out of me. Check it out.

Labels: corporate comics, real life

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 12:10 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Image Ten years On (and On) -- The debut of Image Comics ten years ago marked one of the lowest creative points in comics history, as a mostly talentless but flashy batch of comics "superstars" plus Jim Valentino (who certainly got the last laugh) left one vacuous, ethically and creatively bankrupt company to go and form their own vacuous, creatively bankrupt company with at least two partners with serious ethical failings (yes, Todd and Rob, I am glaring right at you two).

Surprisingly, many, many good things have come out of Image despite its uninspired beginnings: Powers, Fused and Bastard Samurai are always at the top of my reading stack, and other acclaimed titles regularly issue forth from Image as well. Savage Dragon has been a mostly-entertaining superhero book with a unique point of view and an impressive ten year run by creator Erik Larsen. Jim Lee's Wildstorm imprint started at Image, so without it we wouldn't have had Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary and Laura Depuy's The Authority, even if it was published by DC. I wonder how different things would have been if the later Millar/Quitely run had been published by Image? Astro City was originally issued forth from Image as well, before moving to DC. Hmm, do I sense a pattern here?

Image still publishes junk like Witchblade and some of the current heinous nostalgia-trend books, but I definitely depend on them for some of my favourite reads. A new news story at The Pulse outlines some of Images upcoming publishing plans, and as with the past ten years of history, it's a mixed bag.

Icons is the name for Image's new superhero line of books, and from history we know that most of these books will be mediocre at best and perhaps one or two of them will be any damned good at all. Dominion is by Keith Giffen and Claude St. Aubin, and we know that Giffen books are often fascinatingly iconoclastic, and rarely sell well in the long run; its survival is unlikely at best. Jim Krueger and Matt Smith offer up The Clockmaker. Krueger's one of the guilty parties involved in Marvel's Outhouse X series of books designed to keep Alex Ross from doing anything good, so we'll see if it's at all readable. Smith is a good artist who deserves a quality title. Venture by Jay Faerber and Jamal Igle and Invincible by Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker don't excite me, mostly due to my being unfamiliar with any of the names attached. The silliest news so far is that Shadowhawk is returning. Here's a character that no one has ever made interesting, and most of the books he appeared in were quite awful. But I suppose if they keep the name and throw out everything else, something could be done with it.

Image is also planning to hop on the expensive hardcovers bandwagon, and such titles as Mister X and Torso definitely merit the format. Brian Bendis's entire Image library is promised in hardcover, and I hope that includes Powers, as an affordable HC collection is long overdue. As is the overpriced one that was solicited long ago, too, come to think of it. My big hope is that Fortune and Glory is included in the hardcover plans -- it's Bendis's best, most personal work, and also the first thing by him that I ever read.

Creatively, artistically, Image is troublesome. Any company that has moral idiot Todd McFarlane in its executive ranks will never really be able to claim any sort of high ground for long. On the other hand, they do a lot of cutting-edge and otherwise wonky stuff (Age of Bronze, say) that is way too over Bill Jemas's head to ever have a chance at the even more vacuous Marvel. So I'm happy to see they have some exciting plans for the months ahead -- and I hope that we're already seeing the ass-end of the nostalgia craze, because the idea of an Alex Ross-variant-covered Care Bears 2002 #1 is just about more than I can take.

Labels: corporate comics, essays

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 11:09 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Entry 0018 -- I picked up this week's comics Thursday afternoon, so expect some reviews any day now. Filed under "Impulse purchase" was the new Blue Beetle action figure. I am a sucker for Steve Ditko, and Blue Beetle was probably the last great expression he made in the superhero genre, as memorable as his Spider-Man work. I'd love to see an Archive Edition of Ditko's Blue Beetle and Captain Atom stuff. With the Thunder Agents being given just that treatment, can the Charlton action heroes be far behind?

Labels: corporate comics

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 8:31 PM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE

 
Creators Rights and Why They're Right -- There has been much debate over the issue of Creator's Rights in the comic book industry as a result of recent court actions by the estate of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and Captain America creator Joe Simon.

I have been debating the issue for a while now with some people who, at times, seem utterly incapable of wrapping their brains around the concept that the creator of a given character should have the absolute right to decide that character's destiny.

Copyright laws have changed in the past few years, allowing creators of works six decades ago to reclaim their legal rights to the characters and concepts that have made literally millions (in some cases hundreds of millions) of dollars for the companies that have dominated the American comic book scene for the length and breadth of its existence.

The greatest works in the artform of comics have been created by writers and artists who have been allowed to express their vision with a minimum of editorial interference. The list, though familiar, is undiminished in its power to those who have devoted any real time to investigating the artform:

* Will Eisner's The Spirit
* Dave Sim's Cerebus
* Dan Clowes' Eightball
* Jack Kirby's Fourth World Saga
* Frank Miller's Daredevil
* Dave Lapham's Stray Bullets
* Harvey Pekar's American Splendor
* Kurt Busiek's Astro City

And of course, the list could go on and on. These comics don't even necessarily represent a list of my personal favourites, but by any critical standard they have elevated the artform as expressions of their creator's singular vision, unimpeded (in most cases) by editorial whim or economic considerations.

Some have been more successful than others, in terms of sales, but all in their various ways represent the finest that comics in the United States can be.

Virtually none of them would have been possible under the oppressive, unfair system the comics companies operated in the early days of the industry. Only the Spirit thrived in those days, and even then, only because Will Eisner fought to retain his rights and see his vision through.

Frank Miller was able to do what he did at Marvel with Daredevil for two reasons: the book was dying and no one cared much what happened at the time Miller established the milieu and concepts his Daredevil operated in; Miller also benefited from the fact that editor Denny O'Neil was himself a writer, and did not try to direct the overall plot in the way that the modern day editors (think of the recent X-Men and Spider-Man runs) do.

In the 1930s and 1940s, for the most part, the publishers had the writers and artists over a barrel, and they knew it. They had all the money, they had all the power, and very few artists who wanted to work in the industry were able to take control of their creations.

I am writing now not to excoriate the admittedly unfair system that has existed for most of the life of the artform, but to celebrate and affirm the rights of creators to express their vision.

The system that 99 percent of the comics published by Marvel and DC over the past 60 years were produced under has created, for the most part, readable junk. Only rarely have the writers and artists working for these companies risen above the level of entertaining mediocrity to produce something more; something inspiring, innovative and new. What, really, would be the impetus to do otherwise?

For most of the time there has been such a thing as comics, the majority of creators had no hope of any kind of long-term benefit from their work. Once they cashed the checks for their page rate (many of which beginning in the late 1970s had despicable Work-For-Hire contracts printed on the backs, which some creators wisely chose to cross out before endorsing), that was it. No health insurance, no pension plan, and in many cases not even any reprint royalties.

Jack Kirby, without whom we wouldn't even be having this discussion, lived and died without ever seeing just reward for what he did. He created (in some cases along with Stan Lee) some of the most enduring, mind-blowing concepts in the history of the artform. The Fantastic Four, the Inhumans, Galactus, the Incredible Hulk, The Avengers and, oh yeah, the X-Men. Will Kirby's estate receive a dime from the profits on the X-Men movie? Even if it does, it will be a fraction of one percent of the profits that will be divvied up by people and companies that, in many cases, didn't even exist when Kirby created the characters and concepts that sustain the industry today. Many people who will doubtless get rich on that project have probably never even heard of Jack Kirby. It's beyond insulting; beyond contemptible. It's a fucking crime.

Think of the work Frank Miller did on Daredevil. Roy Thomas and Barry Smith's Conan. Bill Sienkiewicz's brilliant work on Moon Knight and New Mutants. These rare highlights came in spite of, not because of, the industry standard that presumed the companies owned all the non-licensed work they published.

You'll note that in these and many other cases the joy of seeing these works of art appear every month like clockwork is short-lived. In the case of the artists, it often has happened that they grow weary of the limits placed on the expression of their ideas (Sienkiewicz, Smith, Miller) while for many gifted writers, they often take the characters into directions the editors simply cannot allow (think of the Charlton project created by Alan Moore that became Watchmen, admittedly a not-unhappy development; Moore's successor on Swamp Thing, Rick Veitch, was forced from that title for the direction he wanted to take the character in).

Contrast these cases with works like Eightball, Stray Bullets or Cerebus, unencumbered by Work-For-Hire restrictions. The creators are able to do literally anything they want, and while they aren't all churning it out on a monthly basis, the titles do appear regularly, and are regularly brilliant. And have been for years and years and years.

I have long had a theory that there is an inverse ratio of art to names when it comes to the creation of comics. When the writing and art are the work of one creator (Eightball, Sin City, most of the work of R. Crumb), the brilliance shines through in nearly every panel.

When you divide the work between a writer and artist, the work can still be good (Astro City, Claremont and Byrne's X-Men), but the more and more names you add (think of some of the credits boxes in some Image comics, with a Plotter, Dialoguer, multiple Pencillers and Inkers, Letterer and Colourist all jammed in there) the further and further away you get from Art with a capital "A."

Of course, the typical argument from some quarters is that "Art" cannot be objectively evaluated, and that any one opinion is worth as much as any other.

At the risk of being accused of hyperbole once again, that's just crap.

Virtually no enduring work of art produced in the medium of comics has ever had more than two (or three, in rare cases) major contributors. I don't mean to disregard the contributions of colourists and letterers, but they're not really the topic here. I am talking about the writers and artists that generate the concepts that fire the imagination and inspire the soul.

What work in any other medium is the work of a committee of the type that the mainstream, Big Two comics system supports and encourages? What painting, what musical composition, what great work of architecture or sculpting, has as many creators as the average issue of, say, Wolverine?

Let's take film, for example. The only movie I can think of that was great by committee was probably Casablanca, and that was a long goddamn time ago. Perhaps that is the exception that proves the rule.

It's a difficult thing to extend this metaphor from comics to film, but I think it's instructive to try. I'm not sure, though, who you'd equate the actors in a TV series to in the production of a comic book.

Specifically dealing with film, though, I use the term "creator" to mean the screenwriter or director. I think those terms roughly equate to the writer and artist in a comic book.

While there have been many great, and even more good, actors since the 1940s, I would submit that very few of them appeared in any great work of art that was created by hack writers and directors equivalent in talent to a Rob Liefeld.

The high quality of The Practice, just to pick a current show which features uniformly excellent actors at the top of their craft, would certainly suffer greatly were the creator (David Kelley) and the various writers and directors replaced with, say, the creative staff of Full House.

Of course, Marvel and DC love the committee-oriented process they have maintained. Under it, each creator becomes, to paraphrase John Byrne, a cog in the creative machine. Alan Moore left Swamp Thing, but penciller Rick Veitch stayed on, and with him many of the readers that otherwise would have bolted. Chris Claremont left X-Men, but Jim Lee stayed on. Every time a gifted creator leaves, the company attempts (and usually succeeds) in keeping some remnant of the creative team that made the book a success. Because every name that remains in the masthead represents thousands of readers that will stay, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits. For the companies.

So it is that most of the truly visionary artists have turned to self-publishing, or to companies that allow them at the very least to retain the rights to their characters and concepts. So it is that the majority of the books from the two biggest publishers are a celebration of mediocrity. So it is that even when a gifted creator is brought on a title, they are manipulated and edited and oppressed to the point (think Mark Waid and Peter David) that they choose to leave, even giving up the current royalty system, rather than see their vision compromised.

That word, compromised, is an interesting one. One Marvel fan said he believes it is more important that the Marvel Universe not be compromised by the removal of Captain America, than that Joe Simon be allowed, in the twilight of his life, to decide the fate and direction of his creation.

Anyone who doesn't think that the environment that has so oppressed generations of talented writers and artists, who only want to share their gifts with us, the readers, hasn't already compromised the Marvel Universe, is really not getting what this is all about.

It's not about comic books. It's not about Universes or shared realities, it's not about page rates and characters and costumes.

It's about freedom.

If this were a comic book, and Joe Simon were a character in a Captain America story, just whose side do you think Cap would be on?

It's about freedom.

Originally written prior to the launch of the ADD Blog.

Labels: corporate comics, essays, industry, pre-ADD blog posts

// posted by Alan David Doane @ 6:35 AM [LINK TO THIS] | 0 COMMENTS | E-MAIL ADD | SUBSCRIBE