Fanboy Rampage!!!

There aren't many reviewers online that I pay a lot of attention to. Two who I do are Paul O'Brien of The X-Axis and Johanna Draper Carlson of Comics Worth Reading, both of whom review Astonishing X-Men #1 and touch upon concerns I had when reading the book. Johanna writes briefly about the expectations she brought to the book through previous associations with the writer:

"I kept trying to compare what was going on to what I'd seen on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, whether it was snarky insults or inspirational speeches from remote blondes. I think I would have enjoyed the setup more if I had been able to approach it on its own terms, but comments about, for example, specifically deciding on costume fabrics made that impossible. The team having one of those 'let's all walk purposefully down the hall' moments would work better on screen, I think, and saying they need to be astonishing was the last straw for believability. Sure, I'll be back, because this is the only hope I have of having a readable X-Men title, and the team is classic enough for me to feel welcomed instead of put off."

Paul, on the other hand, approaches the sense of anticipation brought to the book by the hype surrounding it:

"What's missing here, I think, is a sense of occasion. There's no momentous shift here, and Whedon isn't taking the book in any particularly new direction. It takes Morrison's run as its starting point and mid-eighties Claremont as its inspiration. Nothing wrong with that, but little about this truly seems original. It's more the sort of comic that you wish Chris Claremont still made... It's still good. And the art is absolutely stunning. But it doesn't feel different. Rather than taking the ball and running with it, Whedon takes the ball and goes for a genial amble in the park. It's a beautiful park. I like the park. I don't mind seeing it again. But nonetheless, it doesn't feel like an event. And it was meant to, wasn't it?"

One-time Cornerstone Of The Comics Blogosphere Alan David Doane returns with a brand new version of Comic Book Galaxy, bringing with him reviews of Planet Of The Capes, The Filth, Monkey and Spoon, Voice of The Fire, and Comics Poetry, as well as ADD's notes on the recent comics output:

"Astonishing X-Men #1...Whedon's writing was better than I expected on this. I liked the confrontation between Logan and Cyclops and the matter of fact manner in which Scott and Emma's relationship is treated. But, for a title that is treated as such a big deal, why is it printed on toilet paper? It's so thin and poor-quality that it crinkled up from the humidity in my bedroom, which isn't a lot. Whatever happened to decent paper stock like Wildstorm used for The Authority and Planetary? Those half-decade old issues of mine are in better condition than this fucking X-Men comic I bought yesterday. Good old Marvel, they always find a way to fuck it up. And hey, isn't this comic by JOSS WHEDON, CREATOR OF BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER? Y'might have mentioned that on the cover too. Ball: Dropped."

Tony Lee's mother writes a report of the Marvel panel at Bristol:

"The UK Bristol Comic Festival has had a long reputation as being the 'one where Marvel doesn't bother to turn up', and this year there was exception. Whereas DC brought the big guns, releasing up to the minute news and announcing Dave Gibbons' new exclusive contract, Marvel was left with several creators who had been given nothing to announce. We had been promised David Finch, who hadn't appeared. Instead, we had newly Marvelised Mike Carey, David 'District X' Hine, Staz Johnston and X-Book rookie Tony Lee who to be honest everyone believed had only been put up there to build the numbers. The audience knew that they had been stitched. The creators looked sheepish. Nothing happened. And then, something unexpected happened. After a pause, the rookie took the ball and ran with it. Recapping the best of last weeks WizardWorld announcements for the non-internet contingent, Tony Lee took control of the panel, quipping that this panel seemed to be like the scenes in the old epic movies where 'the christians are in the arena and the lions are looking hungry.' With no new news and nobody there of a senior level to confirm and deny various rumours, the panel were always the underdogs against the hungry crowd, but Tony fielded the questions like a veteran for the team, and after several questions where the creators quite happily put their hands in the air and claimed ignorance, even invited Lying In The Gutters' Rich Johnston to join the panel at one point, making one of Marvel's biggest headaches suddenly it's biggest allies in one fell swoop. Rich was able to give a journalistic view of Marvel for the panel and confirm things that the creators couldn't and things went smoothly from there on. People who had left even came back in... [T]he star of the show, hands down was Tony Lee. For a nobody, with only an Unlimited credit to his name and no announced projects to step up to the mike and take the show over, fielding questions and on several occasions having the floor in stitches, Marvel might have found a creator to fly their UK panel flag. Or at least a damned good PR man for next years panel. I for one will be watching this man with interest."

Dave Gibbons signs an exclusive deal with DC:

"We were speaking about various creative matters, and it just seemed to me that a useful way to go would be to do it under contract, because I do tend to get quite a few phone calls with offers that tend to be distracting, or tempting little things come up that I find it very hard to say no to, so I can sometimes overburden myself with work... For those reasons, and because the work I’m going to be doing for DC is interestingly enough creatively, and would assure me of the kind of income that I like, it just seemed to make perfect sense to do it all under contract. Obviously, from DC’s point of view, it’s very nice to slot people into the schedule, and know that they’re going to be available to do the work. So, we came to a mutual agreement about it – and there are certain benefits to being under contract as far as bonuses are concerned and page rates, and so on, so it seemed a good thing to do."

Not being unkind or anything, but is Gibbons really still a big draw these days?

Ray Tate reviews JLA #99, the conclusion of the Byrne-Claremont-Ordway run and decides to look over the run as a whole:

"This run of JLA was not meant to be read solely by adults. Think about the future. Kids are not reading comic books. Why is that? Well, are there any cool comic books for kids? DC's canceling two of them--the very best, but oh, look, here's one super-hero run kids can actually read. The super-heroes in JLA act like super-heroes. They do not watch while people die. They put together the puzzle. They team-up with the Doom Patrol, and they save lives! This is what it is all about! This is the magic of the super-hero. It's not about how six trade paperbacks chronicle Batman's tortured psyche as he copes with being framed for Vesper Fairchild's death. It's not about Superman--the Man of Steel--finding himself no match for ugly, empty suits of armor. It's not about Wonder Woman dating a black, bearded effeminate named Trevor. It's not about the Atom being reverted into a teenager. It's about super-heroes saving lives. It's about Batman deciding that no one would suffer the way he did. It's about Superman deciding that he would use his powers not to rule but to help. It's about Wonder Woman protecting humankind. It's all about denying Lord Acton's belief: 'Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.' Is the super-hero an illusion? Sure, but the concept's a beautiful illusion that has existed ever since Sherlock Holmes pitted his intellectual might against fiends and villains of all ilk."

First off, he really did say "a black, bearded effeminate".

Secondly, and as a counter-point, I'd like to point out that the run featured cliched dialogue, fake danger (Oh no! Wonder Woman is dead! Oh wait... She's WONDER WOMAN.), lazy plotting in general (end one issue with a cliffhanger, start the next with a flashback showing what led up to that cliffhanger, two issues in a row), two-dimensional new characters and generally a story that went beyond old-fashioned to just plain old and boring. The run may not have been meant to be read solely by adults, but the average kid would've been bored by the second issue; only masochists like me and old-school Byrne and Claremont fans will have stuck around for all six issues.

But your mileage may vary.

Delphi forum The V talk sense:

"Serious question, folks... Why is Austen's work loathed so much?"

"Because he's much, much worse than merely bad. He regularly produces stories that make you think, 'Jesus, what the fuck were they thinking?' I can think of plenty of Chuck Austen stories that leave you wondering how they could EVER have seemed like a good idea, even at the initial pitch stage."

"Austen when on 'form' can write legible english - unfortunately this doesn't happen all that often. His characterisation is contrived, shallow and usually ripped from somewhere else. He does little to no research for stories outside his comfort zone and shows little reguard for backstory or established conventions which help maintain the readers ability to loose themselves in the story. Take as an example the two main characters in the Kentucky Shakspeare story in UXM - how many 16 years olds talk like that? (On top murdering Romeo & Juliet he proceeded to bugger about with a relatively simple and quite effective back-story for Cannonball and his entire family)

"Also he often makes absolutely no sense. Plots, characterisation, speech patterns and frequently the laws of physics can take drastic turns all in the space of one issue. The classic would be Skins funeral, which is appalingly written and horribly drawn. As contrived and mawkish as 'a true life' TV movie and he also managed to get the characters name wrong three times in the space of 28 pages. There's no subtlety to Austen when he's trying to make a point either, he has a thing for women rights (which in it's self is no bad thing) but MUST we have it hammered over our heads again and again by a pointed dig at the Canadian social services inability to protect Sammy or the throughly un-necessary rape flashback of the new Captain Britain? Add all that to the fact he's writing on some of Marvels top books (the well loved, well followed stuff that attracts the casual readers as well as the hardcore fans) and that's why he's been singled out."

"The problem with Austin is not as much that he´s a bad writer, but the fact he includes his own beliefs into stories even if they aren´t adequate to the character or the story, he always finds a way to talk about sex, wife beating or misogny in his stories, sometimes this ideas come so out of nowhere that they not only hurt the pace of the stories they also make them incoherent."

John has gone mad. But in a good way.

(I never get good Google searches for people coming to my blog. *Sob*)

Glenn Fabry talks about Bricktop, his strip in the upcoming A1 anthology. The editors, however, feel they should clarify something:

"At this point, we the publishers of this publication wish to point out that while Glenn’s comment somewhat accurately describes the tone and flavor of the book, the description of the story elements deviate from his passage a little. In fact, they deviate from it completely, BUT it is very funny and the artwork is brilliant, so let’s just buy it by the truckload so we can make Glenn a very happy bunny. Thank you."

Brian Michael Bendis deals with a complaining poster:

"Mr Bendis r u really going to wait till issue six... for Secret Wars to get really started. We get two issues of just setup but come on. You can tell me u dont write for trades."

(When challenged about why he still reads the book by other posters, the complaining poster explains:)

"I love the damn dialogue and the character interaction that he does. I just hate that the pacing is so slow and the action is so little. Im excited about the story but all it is is two issues of set up... When you have four issues of just setup and nothing else with the last 2 having action. Its writing for trade and it hurts the comic buying spending. Stories are taking so long to get interesting that people rather buy the complete arc. Im not trying to insult any writer but im just stating my opinion. Bendis is a damn good writer but sometimes his pacing sucks. Or like with the ultimate six mini we got all set up and no payoff... You can like some things about it which i do but not like other things. Right now i like the characters,art,and story but i hate the pacing."

Bendis responds:

"i appreciate what you are saying, but maybe, JUST MAYBE, you like the story and characters BECAUSE of the pacing... just want to put that out there."

Newsarama posters wonder what the dumbest moment in comic books is:

"My first nomination: The Punisher becoming a black man with the help of plastic surgery and then teaming up with Luke Cage."

"Dr. Doom losing a battle to ... Squirrel Girl?!?!?"

"Ok Ok, I got another one, and this one is specific. Supes/Bats #7... The giant Robo/mecha/gundam fight with superboy and robin in the armor suit thingies. Sorry....but no. Just, no, shouldn't happen."

While no-one was paying attention (apart from Matt Maxwell, who sent the link to me), Grant Morrison updated his Crack!Comicks site with information about his new wave of MorrisonWorld titles, where he revamps old rejected pitches as mini-series for various publishers that'll all ship late while he struggles with computer problems. No, wait, I mean his three all-new creator-owned mini-series for Vertigo. As no-one can do over the top hype quite like Morrison, let's let the man speak for himself:

"Remember thinking, 'Sure we all everybody love Japanese manga but sometimes manga just take ways too long time to read. All those pages, huh? Those big eyes. Forget it. What we need is a western manga more easy to read and faster to throw away…' well crack!comicks read your mind months before you even had that thought and just in time for you to have it again we now solve problem proudly present the first western manga – MTV manga - supercompressed fun for busy minds only here!"

There're also creator bios and art previews there, too. Go and see.

Shawn Hoke makes me want to buy the new McSweeney's even more than I already did, having seen it in Green Apple the other day:

"Inside McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Number 13, provided you can put down the ridiculously entertaining Ware cover with its eye popping Gary Panter mural on the backside, you will find endpapers that feature Ivan Brunetti’s classic comic character caricatures. At this point, you may have marveled and giggled, but you haven’t even arrived at the index page. When you do, you will notice that the book contains comics by guest editor Ware, Joe Sacco, Ivan Brunetti, Julie Doucet, Joe Matt, Seth, Adrian Tomine, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, Robert Crumb, Gary Panter, Dan Clowes, Jim Woodring, Chester Brown, Richard Sala, Kaz, Charles Burns, Jeffrey Brown, David Heatley, Mark Beyer, Debbie Dreschler, Mark Newgarden, Lynda Berry, Archer Prewitt, Ben Katchor and Art Speigelman. There are also comic strip features on Budd Fisher, Richard McGuire, George Herriman (which show and discuss the six daily strips that were found in various stages of completeness on Herriman’s table when he passed away), Rodolphe Töpffer and preliminary sketches of Peanuts strips by Charles Schulz. Additionally, there are complimenting text pieces and short stories by John Updike, Chip Kidd, Michael Chabon, Ira Glass and Glen David Gold."

From this week's celebrity gossip Popbitch mailer:

"I met one of the guys who worked on the Batman costumes for the new film, Batman Begins. Apparently the batsuits for Christian Bale are pretty different from the last movies - four were made, for a total budget of £1 million. One of the suits is covered in fibre-optic lights, while another one is plain white. The designer also told me that, before delivering the finished products, he and his boyfriend enjoyed a weekend of superhero sex in the costumes."

Wash those outfits, Christian.

I have just been emailed the greatest thing ever.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank Chaz Ervin for this. It's what the world has been waiting for.

CBR launches Comic Book Idol. Since when has Paul Weller worked as Managing Editor for Image? Also, this was interesting:

"This year, our 'selection committee' consists of five of last year's contestants: Jonathan Hickman, Martin Redmond, Chris Ring, Frank Weber, and our reigning Comic Book Idol, who makes his Big Two debut in 'Marvel Age Spider-Man' this July, Patrick Scherberger."

Mike Carey talks about Hellblazer's 200th issue:

"Without giving too much away, what we're doing is following up three key relationships in John's life... And at first it might look like we're doing a kind of 'how it might have been' story- a Hellblazer 'What if...?', but gradually, as each scenario plays out, you realize that there's something a whole lot more sinister going on, and that this is all real. Everything is at stake, and if John doesn't figure out what's going on then he stands to lose everything that makes his life worth living. We've got John way out of his normal territory, even though there's some supernatural stuff going on - and we've got him making disastrous mistakes because really this isn't somewhere he's ever been or imagined himself being... And as with 'Staring at the Wall,' this isn't a story that's just going to reach an end point and then stop. There are going to be consequences, and the consequences will play themselves out over the year to come. This is a story that largely defines the future of John Constantine."

How does a failing publisher lose even more goodwill with its fans? By ending a book prematurely, it seems:

"I read issue 34 [of Crossgen's Sojourn] last night and am sad to say that I have never seen any form of entertainment end with such a thud. Not in comics. Not on tv. Not in movies. Wow. It was SO bad that I lost a lot of sympathy for CrossGen as a company. They have an incredible fan base that basically were handed a big 'F You!' of a climax. Wow. Horrid. Anyone else read it?"

"So what your saying is the fact I will never read the finale (since I read the trades and the chances of a fifth and final one are zilch) is not a bad thing?"

"No. Not a bad thing at all. In fact, I am so pissed that they hoodwinked a final $2.95 from me and my wife that I am actively telling you not to buy any more Sojourn products because there is no ending."

IDW announces two new series: Another CSI series and a new series by Steve Niles, Secret Skull:

"Secret Skull #1 will have story by Steve Niles and art by Chuck BB. Described as a 'horror pulp,' the story features a mysterious killer who only kills bad guys."

Horror pulp, huh? Good to see Niles branching out into new genres and not just running the schtick that found him fame into the ground.

John Byrne really thinks too much about how Superman's powers work:

"In WORLD OF METROPOLIS I address the idea of Superman writing at super speed, using his heat vision to keep the pencil sharp. But over the years we have often seen Superman use a convential ballpoint or fountain pen to write at super speed, without any consideration of how fast the ink would flow. Likewise we have seen him type at super speed. On a manual typewriter this would be out of the question. Even on an electric. And I am not sure the buffer of the best computer would be able to keep up. Also we have seen Superman do things like showering at super speed -- which of course does not take into account the speed with which the water flows from the shower head. He's also cooked at super speed, using his heat vision -- but without taking into account the fact that heat can travel only so fast, even thru the best of conductors, and most foods are lousy conductors! That's why they cook at all! Bathing a steak in heat vision is not going to cook it any faster than popping it in the microwave."

Now, scientifically, he may be right, but scientifically, there also isn't a Superman in the first place and he should really not be so anal about the whole thing.

In a weird way, there really may be nothing funnier recently that watching Mark Millar deal with his computer worries. For the sake of ease, we'll start with this thread, even though the problems go back further. Millar, you see, was having problems with his old computer:

"I've got the whole last issue of WANTED here and I tried to save and it said WORD CANNOT COMPLETE DUE TO A WORD PERMISSION FAILURE. I haven't hit OK yet because I think the whole fucking thing is about to disappear. What can I do? I tried going into OPEN and issue six just does not exist here. I have the issue in front of me, but what now? How can I save this? I have no back-up copy!"

This lead him to a major decision:

"Tomorrow morning, I'm buying a new machine and as much as I love PCs I'm definitely going for a Mac. One quick question: Does this mean that I will almost never get a virus again as these things are designed for PCs? I know I could upload a weekly virus checker, but I also know I won't and so I need something with a minimum fuss on my end. No matter how easy it is, I really, really won't do this and so need that Mac guarantee. Do they have some built-in thing?"

There were, however, problems:

"GOOD NEWS: I BOUGHT MY G4 powerbook... Bad news: I'm missing missing AC plug, power adapter and AC cord. Good old PC WORLD. Basssstardsssssssss...."

Oh, and some more problems:

"Alice and Craig were a good help, but I needed to call my server and even HE seemed baffled. He said I either had a crap ethernet connection lead or there's something wrong with the port in my Mac. Fuck! Gill has driven down to this shop four times in eighteen hours and it's TEN MILES AWAY! I'm going to have to try the new lead and if THAT doesn't work take it back. Trouble is, it was the last one they had and they didn't know when they'd get more in. AGGGGGHHHHHGHGHGHGHHGHGHGH!!!!!"

...And some more problems...

"Well, just back from a comp shop with a new ethernet lead and it's still not working. Thus, it must be the port which means I need a new machine. I can't get a ride there until the morning so that's another day where I get fuck all done!"

Eventually, it becomes very obvious that Millar should just never be let near a computer at all, in a thread named "HOW DO I EJECT A DISK?, REALLY URGENT!!!":

"I'm taking this back and have a disk inside. How do I eject on the ibook? I'm trying F12 and nothing is happening"

(Millar's reaction to the advice is equally amusing: "Wait. I've got BROADBAND INSTALLER (the disk)running and can't close. It's got NEXT and a shrink function, but no X. How do I close this? How do I QUIT APPLICATION???" After someone tells him to press the Next button he's just mentioned, he replies "What NEXT button? Is it a symbol?")

CALL THE HELP DESK FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MILLAR.

Upsetting news about one of my favourite Silver Age (ish) creators from Mark Evanier:

"Longtime comic book fans will be dismayed to hear that one of our great writers, Bob Haney, is currently in a nursing facility following a massive stroke that has left him unable to speak or even (apparently) recognize his friends. I was told about this a few days ago but I hesitated to post it because I didn't know if his family would want it publicized. Someone however has appended the information to this otherwise lovely piece about Bob and his retirement to San Felipe, Baja, Mexico. Bob, who is well known to readers for his work on Teen Titans, The Brave and the Bold, Blackhawk, The Unknown Soldier and so many others moved there a few years ago to enjoy his senior years. For the last few San Diego Cons, he has occasionally shown up unannounced (he claimed to not even have a phone for a time there) and I always enjoyed talking to him and squeezing him into panels as a last-minute add. A friend at DC Comics says they're keeping in contact. If Bob shows the slightest ability to appreciate fan mail, I'll get an address and post it here so we can deluge him. But at the moment, I'm told, it doesn't look good."

Bob Haney wrote some of my favourite goofy comics ever. This is really sad news.

Following Dark Horse's lead, Marvel creates a prose publishing line:

"Marvel Comics, the nation's leading comic book publisher and a division of Marvel Enterprises, Inc., will enhance its successful growing front list of graphic novels with the creation of its first prose imprint - Marvel Press. Based upon characters in the Marvel Universe, the new line of fiction broadens Marvel's reach in the fast-growing graphic novel market by penetrating both traditional and new markets. Marvel has hired seven-year veteran of children's and young adult publishing, Ruwan Jayatilleke, formerly of Scholastic, to head Marvel Press and oversee its aggressive launch list with three prose novels scheduled for 2004 and a minimum of 12 for 2005."

Paul O'Brien and Marc-Oliver Frisch look over April's sales. O'Brien offers an interesting thought on Marvel's numbers:

"Surprisingly, [Fantastic Four is] the only Marvel title to show a 6 month gain - and even then, it's only 0.2%. Of course, there are plenty of books which Marvel have axed in the last six months and replaced with higher selling books. Still, if you've only got one book that's had an overall gain in sales over the last six months... well, isn't that a little worrying? It won't be true for long, mind you. The X-books will all be showing six months gains thanks to Reload for some months to come. And soon the Avengers books will be doing likewise. Still, it's a statistic that ought to raise eyebrows."

Frisch looks at the launch of the Azzarello/Lee Superman:

"While it's hardly surprising that SUPERMAN is heading the charts this month, it's well worth noting that Jim Lee's first issue of BATMAN, in comparison, had initial orders of 113,061. Since that was before Diamond provided information on actual sales, we can't directly compare the two. It should be obvious, however, that the debut of Lee's SUPERMAN is dwarfing most of his BATMAN issues. (The notable exception is BATMAN #619, which remains the best-selling book in the direct market in recent memory with 233,775 copies sold in its initial month of release -- with the help of two alternative covers, mind you.) The next issue, by the way, is going to feature a variant cover by Michael Turner, which will no doubt boost sales. At Newsarama, meanwhile, the rumor is that orders for May's other juggernaut, ASTONISHING X-MEN #1, are only at about 225,000 so far. While I wouldn't place any bets on that information, SUPERMAN #205 could be a tough nut for Marvel to crack -- which they know, and which is why we're currently seeing a new version of the 'Variant Cover Wars,' I suppose."

Over at Comix-Fan, Jim Lemoine considers the idea of the "definitive run" on a title:

"The Definitive Run is respectful of a character's past in a way that other runs aren't. Claremont took Stan Lee's original 'protecting a world that hates and fears us' premise much farther than Stan Lee or subsequent X-Men writers ever did, focusing on the all-too-real evils of prejudice and bigotry - bringing out the root (and to that point, ignored) strength of the X-Men revitalized the franchise. Simonson tore Thor away from day-to-day superheroics as usual to go back to the root mythology of the character. Mark Waid made the 'America' matter for Cap with a present-day relevance that Steve Rogers had always lacked. In lieu of a Definitive Run, writers (the good ones, anyway) base their stories around the franchise's origin... the aforementioned 'Formative Character.' That's what the best runs build on, and attempting to contradict or ignore it almost always leads to disaster for creator and sales alike."

Art Spiegelman returns with In The Shadow Of No Towers:

"Furious at the direction the United States was taking Spiegelman returned to cartooning, and in spite of the fact that he 'never wanted to be a political cartoonist,' he began exploring and explicating the post 9/11 world in a series of oversized, full color two-page spreads, a format that echoes the early newspaper comics, which were born in the 1890s on Park Row, just a few blocks from ground zero. Spiegelman found solace in the adventures of the Yellow Kid, in the anarchic antics of the Katzenjammer Kids, and in the lyrical absurdism of George Herriman's Krazy Kat and these vintage comic strips inform In the Shadow of No Towers in numerous ways. The result is a 42-page collection, which mixes early twentieth century cartoon characters and twenty-first century political controversy."

Image plans The Art Of Greg Horn:

"Image plans to release The Art of Greg Horn in August, in $39.95 hardcover and $59.95 limited (1500) signed and numbered hardcover editions. The 144-page, 9" x 12" book will feature art from all three of Horn's main work areas -- comics, advertising, and videogames (he's done nearly 35 covers of videogame magazines). Most of the art pieces will be accompanied with editorial or creative comments from Horn. The book will also include a step-by-step tutorial on digital art; Horn says that half of the questions he gets from fans are of the 'how-to' variety."

The other half are from fans wondering if they can get wipe-clean versions of their comics so that... Nah. Too obvious.

Fabian Niceza is taking the relaunch of X-Force as seriously as it deserves:

"Story-wise, we're still gathering the Magnificent Seven as I write this, but there will be a variety of perspectives involved. At the end of the day, the overriding threat to mutants and humanity should and will supercede and individual qualms about hooking up again. And if we do our jobs right, Cable will come back into each of their lives while in the middle of a ridiculously convoluted life and death struggle that will require lots of open mouth yelling, but very little introspection about the fact that Cable is back in their lives... This is X-Force we're talking about, wherever there's panel space available, I will fill it with horrifically overblown dialogue."

The Bendis Board REBELS!:

"Congratulations Marvel... you have completely broken me of any thoughts of ever buying another variant cover. I just found out today that the store I help out is not getting 25 copies of the variant Cassaday cover to Astonishing X-Men like I thought, but only six. He's getting 75 copies of the Dell'Otto cover, but SIX of the cover I like. I wasn't impressed with the lame Wolverine claw cover and was hoping to get the comic with the artwork I thought looked nice, but there is NO WAY I'd ever drop $90 for a copy of Astonishing X-Men. I'd rather go buy The Goon trades I've had my eye on. Or Strangers in Paradise, or any other batch of books I could get for $90. So is anyone here willing to plunk down the 90+ dollars it will require to get this cover or will we tell Marvel to stick it where the sun don't shine so we don't see this kind of crap again?"

"Don't they remember that the speculator's market had nearly killed the industry once before? God, I love comic books, but they sure can be retarded sometimes."

"Wow...I'm only getting three copies in my store (and for that I'm sitting on a SHITLOAD of Chuck Austen's X-Men, the others in Reload sold fine, but not that one). I've already promised them to my subscribers that have already asked for them, but I wasn't going to charge any more than cover price. Maybe in good conscience I could buck it up to five bucks because of the Austen title, but 90 bucks? There's just no way I could justify that. I'd rather make my customers happy, not anonymous ebayers."

Ross Richie (who owes me an email) interviews the great Dave Johnson:

"Most people are trying to make superheroes grittier and darker, and I don’t know, I kind of see Cap as a big red, white, and blue ball of fun. When I’m doing those covers, I was kind of re-living my childhood with Joe Sinnot inking and the old style Marvel comics. 100 Bullets covers have got to be gritty, different. I was given carte blanche to do whatever I wanted. Another thing I learned from advertising art school, we had to design a bill board, and they told us the general rule of billboards is that if you can’t read it in 3-5 seconds, the billboard fails. If you have to look at it too long, you’re going to drive off the road. It became clear to me to do that with covers. There was a point where I was making the covers really busy, but they don’t jump off the stands as well as a simple, bold design and color. When you’re scanning the cover and something with three colors is going to make you see that much easier than something with a million colors, say a George Perez all-out battle with 40 different characters each with every color of the rainbow as opposed to one guy, blocky back color (red against black or something) – BAM! that hits you in the face like a speeding train."

Mark Waid and Barry Kitson confirmed on a relaunch/revamp of The Legion Of Super-Heroes:

"As Waid explained it, DC approached the creators for the revamp of the franchise. 'Legion editor Steve Wacker, who is a delight to work with, started the ball rolling, Dan DiDio added to its momentum, and ultimately Paul Levitz sat down with us, listened to our pitch, made some terrific suggestions, and gave our approach his full and invaluable blessing,' Waid said. 'Barry and I seem to be on DC's short list of creators who are very respectful of their characters but who are eager to find new ways to interpret them for tomorrow’s audience instead of just yesterday’s.' Or – in Kitson’s words: 'DC asked if I was interested in working with Mark on it ...and it took me less than a nano-second to say 'yes!'. As you no doubt know, I've always been a huge Legion fan - and to get the chance to work with Mark in actually shaping a chapter of their history is a dream assignment! To add a little more 'meat' to the answer though - I think Dan Didio and DC were pleased with what Mark and I had done with Empire - and saw some potential in letting us loose on the 30th century... Everyone has really been enthusiastic and encouraging about what we've come up with so far!'"

Reduced blogging today due to WORK HELL. Best be warned.

EDIT: Actually, never mind. WORK HELL turned out to be a false alarm, and I've blogged more than usual today.

Interesting stuff from the Joe Quesada forum:

"Heard from a pretty reliable source that Crossgen is closing up shop this week. Whether for good or temporarilly I don't know. But, from what I heard, all books are ending, the company is going dark, & all of the remaining employees are either moving out of Florida and/or looking for work elsewhere. Negation War. Gone. Abadazad. Gone. Game over."

Why do THEY hate the X-Men? Newsarama poster YDLM cuts through the "BS" to give us the truth:

"BS:The continuity is too confusing.
SANITY: Please tell me of any mainsteam title that has been in existence for more than 40 years and has had countless creative team that doesnt have a conitinuity holes that Rosie ODonnell could waddle through.You dont need to be aware of every appearance that a character made to enjoy the book. I didnt need it when I started reading Spidey in 1984, when the character had already been around for twenty years.
BS:The title/concept has gone downhill since The Dark Phoenix Saga.
SANITY:I just got a conference call from Chris Claremont,John Byrne,Jim Lee,Paul Smith,Mark Silvestri,Whilce Portacio,Peter David,Louise & Walt Simonson,Bret Blevins,Art Adams,Mark Millar,Ann Nocenti,Terry Austin,Fabian Nicieza,John Francis Moore,Adam Pollina,Joe Maduiera,Joe Quesada,Grant Morrison,Scott Lobdell, Andy & Adam Kubert,Mark Waid,and about a hundred other guys and they said 'EFF YOU'!"

Other Newsarama posters are happy for YDLM's stand:

"YDLM, you are my new hero for creating this thread. Ever since I started visiting the comic book sites on the internet, I've seen countless amounts of blind bashing of the X-books, and most of the criticism that I saw can be applied to a ton of other books on the market by ANY publisher. What I especially hate is when all these bashers try to pigeonhole us fans by saying the only reason we read the books is because we're a bunch of completists/collectors/speculators. You know what? I buy and read X-books because I like them. I don't like all of them, I recently had to drop one of them from my collection, but it's more or less the same now as it was when I started reading them 15 years ago. I like the stories, I like the characters....why is that only acceptable for any other franchise?"

"I couldn't have said it any better YDLM.. No.. really.. I couldn't have."

The Fourth Rail reviewers aren't overly impressed with the first issue of Astonishing X-Men. Don MacPherson:

"In and of itself, this is a decent introduction to the X-Men and a new lineup for the core team. In the greater context of the line of X-Men titles, though, it's much weaker. Whedon offers another student orientation scene, something we saw twice last week, in New X-Men #1 and X-Men #157. The script doesn't acknowledge the new statuo quo in Uncanny, or in the adjective-less X-Men. Should the writing on this title be judged by what's going on in other books? No, I suppose not, but the editing can be. Marvel is marketing the entire X-line as one entity with the "X-Men Reload" brand, encouraging readers to follow mulitple titles. Consistency is called for, but it's not to be found."

Randy Lander:

"There's a disconnect in the tone of Astonishing X-Men. At the same time that Whedon's characters are talking about returning to costumes and team ethics and being superheroes, Cassaday gives us costumes that are bland and unremarkable, and which look less flashy than the black leather costumes that the characters are mocking. While the feel of the book is undeniably old school, several chances for an opening action scene are passed by in favor of the more talky style embraced by Marvel in general these days. And while Whedon embraces some of the continuity changes, like Emma as headmistress rather than villain or the changes in the Beast, his Kitty Pryde doesn't really ring true to the character that we've seen in recent years, seeming instead like a throwback to her previous incarnation."

Marvel are expected to release a statement that, really, they could give a shit about reviews.

Warren Ellis gives more information on his upcoming Ultimate Nightmare series for Marvel on his Bad Signal mailing list:

"Once again, I'm picking up the slack on something [Mark] Millar was originally slated for but didn't have time to do. It's based on a story idea from Joe Quesada and illustrated by Trevor Hairsine. First issue's in August, I think. The basic idea is that a Weird Unknown Event disrupts all world communications systems, and that the epicenter of the disruption appears to be in the remote Tunguska region of Siberia.

"Exactly one hundred years ago (in the Ultimate Universe timeline -- I'm monkeying with actual history just a little) an object exploded over the Tungus River Valley. The Tunguska Event, as it's known, may have been an exploding meteorite, a comet strike, an anti-matter event -- nobody knows. But this disruptive signal is emanating from Tunguska Event Ground Zero, exactly one hundred years later. The Ultimates, the US superhuman defense initiative, send in a team to investigate and solve with extreme prejudice. Since they're without their Psi-Division of tame telepathic mutants, they're unaware that the signal also extends into neuro-readable frequencies. The X-Men, believing that these are the telepathic wails of a traumatised mutant, send in a team, with no knowledge that the Ultimates are also en route. And none of them know what's really at Tunguska Ground Zero. People who like PLANETARY might get a kick out of this one."

Augie De Blieck Jr. wasn't impressed by the DC panel at WizardWorld:

"The disorganization wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that DiDio acted like a drunken lout through most of it, giggling at his own jokes and several others that went unheard. I could be charitable and think of it as a nervous reaction to the flop sweat appearing on his brow, I suppose. The best he could come up with was asking creators on the panel what they thought of books they had nothing to do with - or which had just come out three days ago. When one mentioned he hadn't read the book yet that DiDio was asking him about, DiDio mockingly (I hope!) scolded him for not reading through his comp box. The book just came out on Wednesday! Comp boxes are monthly, if I've heard correctly... DiDio bad-mouthing Humanoids was what really sealed the deal for me. He hyped TECHNOPRIESTS as 'now fitting on your bookshelf while maintaining the same aspect ratio.' He quickly followed that up with a laughing, 'I'm sure that means a lot to you guys.' Well, yeah, it does mean a lot to me, and to an awful lot of fans who are concerned about the change in formatting. I'm sure he was just making light of the technical detail in an otherwise boring and useless write-up for a well-respected series of stories, but he didn't sell it very well. If he doesn't believe in the books DC publishes, DC has a big problem. I'll even give you this: for the books he doesn't believe in, he should shut his yap about it, read the card like a good automaton, and move on."

Stuart Moore closes out his A Thousand Flowers column by commenting on the state of comics' future - "The comics industry has the capacity to do some incredibly stupid things. But on balance, I’m not worried about its future. If, for instance, the direct market isn't supporting creator-owned monthly comics well anymore, we just have to (a) wait till the cycle comes around or (b) find another way to publish them. And we will." - before closing with a strong political statement. Now, I'm not saying I disagree with his politics or his points (I don't, but that's neither here nor there), but I can't help but feel that this was the wrong place to make such a statement, considering it has nothing to do with comics. Coming at the end of his last column, it feels like he's suddenly declared "Now that I have your attention, I have to tell you THIS!" before being yanked offstage by Matt Brady with a long hooked stick. Your mileage may vary, however.

Marvel head for the direct to DVD market, aiming to produce such quality animated features as The Land Before Time 7:

"Under terms of the agreement, Lions Gate will provide Marvel with licensing fees for character rights and fund all of the development, production, distribution and marketing for each title. Marvel will spearhead creative development and production. After each animated project's home video window expires, the companies may exploit the movies in other entertainment media domestically and internationally including television and Video On Demand (VOD). Both companies will share in the profits from the venture. Marvel will choose from a roster of leading production partners, including Lions Gate's own animation production partner, CineGroupe. Each animated picture will have a minimum running time of 66 minutes and specific titles and characters chosen for animation will be announced at a later date."

Oh, it had to happen. From the Bendis board. It starts here, in a thread about Paris Hilton and Ron Jeremy flashing each other:

"[Ron Jeremy's penis] never seemed that large to me, of course i've only seen it a few times, but it struck me as barely above average"

"average? are you talking about average porn star? cause he's way bigger than the real average.... not that i have ever looked at his penis. not that there is anything wrong with that. uhmmm.. i 'll shut up now."

Before moving on to this (Scroll down):

"Waiting for the eventual 'Post your Penis size' thread. Which is bound to happen. Trust me. This is the Bendis Board. Said thread will run 5-6 pages, with mostly jokes. Then Denny will lock it. Someone will start a 'Post your bra size' thread in response to the locking. It will happen. This is the Bendis Board."

The penis size and bra size threads appeared, as if by magic.

This week, Barb Lien Cooper doesn't like heroes:

"Heroes bore me. Superheroes, therefore, superbore me. Uh, Barb, comics are all about heroism. How can heroes bore you? Because their heroism paints them into a corner. Or rather, in the hands of authors who don't make the effort to understand the complexities of a character (or to even understand that said complexities exist), heroism is a real yawn fest. You see, it deprives the characters of the right to be human. A hero can't have a bad day, any more than an anti-hero can have a nice one.

"A hero in comics, the unwritten fan and writer rule seems to say, has to ACT like a hero, you see, according to the rules of fair play, being morally superior to the villains, and not killing the criminals, no matter how justified. UNLESS it's a dark, boring, anti-hero like the Punisher. Those authors who break said rules may have a certain number of fans biting at their heels saying, 'Heroes or Anti-heroes don't do that', but I think that those type of writers usually just want the world to understand that, to be realistic, even heroes need the anima/animus/shadow sides to them."

Apparently Barb seems to have missed any moral complexity in superhero comics since, well, Marvel came on the scene (Not that superhero comics are really morally complex, but come on, they go somewhat beyond "a hero can't have a bad day" on a regular, melodramatic, basis). Perhaps unsurprisingly, Barb ends by hoping that one day more comics will feature characters as morally complex as her own Gun Street Girl webcomic.

Millarworld respond to Joe Quesada's latest phone stunt at WW:Philly ("Quesada made several phone calls during the panel to Brian Michael Bendis and pretended to call DC's Dan Didio. Quesada quipped to the phone/fake Didio, 'Sorry we are taking all your talent, sorry we have a 45% market share.' The audience responded with lots of laughs to his joke. He also told attendees [that Marvel is] 'raiding DC's talent pool.'"):

"It's good to see Joe laughing while all his good work at Marvel over the last couple of years is being undone around him."

"Marvel definitely does nothing but take potshots at DC about sales just cause the Zombies keep buying their books out of sheer inertia. And that's why they laugh at all his jokes. Cause he pokes the Zombies with a cattle prod if they don't. Stan Lee was NEVER like this. Dido and Levitz don't come out and make fun of Quesda and Buckley. Then again they don't have to. Common sense tells us the two of them will eventually end up shooting themselves in the foot pubicly much like Jemas did. And Quesada has to do nothing but crow bout sales. Its certainly not like they're getting accolades for their good stories. DC is still the one who will always be getting thanked by GLAAD, the Eisners, Harveys, etc. Quality over quantity anyday of the week. All Marvel has is the Wizard Awards. And its run by Zombies to begin with."

"wow i didnt know there were so many dcfanboys over here ,., stop hating marvel just cause more people buy their books.,thats ridiculous .,and theres nothing like having a little fun with your competition, joe Q having a little fun is okay.,,.if you take something like that to offense you need to qrow up.,,.im sure dan didio isnt talking to his mom saying something like,.,
'oh mommy that publisher from that other company is making fun of me" boo-hooo-hoo' i read what i like ,.everything from novels for my many literature classes in high school and college.,.ive developed a taste for all readings,.,. over the many years reading comics both marvel and dc have held much of my attention.,.,but its always been marvel that provides the more entertaining reads,., hence most of my pull list is always over 50% marvel"

Mike Allred on his current projects (which no longer seems to include the Evan Dorkin Metal Men mini, sadly):

"My blood is pumping faster. My hands are feeling tingly... I have to be pulled off the drawing table. I just love so much what I'm doing right now. Part of it has to do with working with one of the comic book biz's best writers for so long and be let loose on my own path again--making all creative decisions again after learning so very much from working with Axel [Alonso] and Peter [Milligan]. Also, I'm now starting with Mark Chiarello on Solo, and Darwyn Cooke will tell you what a blessing that is; clicking with my brother, Lee, who sat with me on the lawn drawing our own comics when we were kiddies and now doing it with him for real."

Rich Johnston and Mark Millar talk to each other in a code which may mean that Warren Ellis is going to be writing Iron Man and Mark Millar is going to do an Ultimate Captain America mini-series. Or it may not.

Marvel's Wizard World news gets rounded up by Newsarama:

* Runaways not cancelled after all, Brian Vaughan forgets who publishes the book: "And no, I'm not sure if we'll be coming back as Runaways #1 or Runaways #19."

* A new Black Widow series illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz is upcoming.

* Mark Millar signed a new exclusive deal with Marvel... last year: "I signed the two year exclusive with Marvel in late summer of last year so I'm 100% exclusive this year and most of next." I have no idea why this was announced as news.

* Ed Brubaker hopefully will get shitloads of money for his upcoming Marvel book.

* The Spider-Books get desperate, apparently bringing back Gwen Stacy and turning Spider-Man back into a mutated man-spider-thing again.

So, nothing really exciting, then.

Newsarama reports on the X-Panel from Wizard World Philly:

"A new Gambit miniseries will kick off in September, written by John Layman with art and covers by Georges Jeanty. The series will return Gambit to his roots of swashbuckling adventure and roguishness... The long-rumored Nightcrawler series was announced, to be written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and illustrated by Darick Robertson, with covers by Greg Land. The series will debut in September, along with Gambit."

So there will now be, what, five solo X-Men books (Gambit, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Wolverine and Emma Frost)? Seven, if you include Mystique and Madrox, although neither of them are actually members of the team anymore. Eight, if you want to count District X as a solo Bishop book... Plus the five separate books featuring a team calling themselves X-Men (X-Men, Uncanny, Astonishing, X-Men: The End, and New X-Men), not to mention the satellite books featuring core characters of the franchise like Excalibur and popular secondary teams and characters, or the Ultimate X-Men book. Marvel are really out to milk that franchise dry, aren't they? It's almost making DC look restrained with the Batman books.

"Good Lord! The Black Panther has become so irritated that he is burning Hawkeye's arrows!"

That Tony Harris sure can draw purty. Don't believe me? Look at the preview art for politico-superhero series Ex Machina.

It's back! Once again, Comic Book Idol appears to make you wonder how certain people got into the last ten. This year, the top prize is to illustrate an IDW book, which may mean that they're about to have money problems, same as Crossgen last year. Maybe it's a curse...

Bill Willingham dodges and occasionally answers questions about his Robin run:

"True, there has been some positive responses [to Tim Drake retiring and a new Robin appearing], but in the entirely unscientific method of browsing the internet, most of the reaction seems to have been one variation or another of, 'How dare I?,' and 'just who the hell do I think I am?' One of the more entertaining anonymous posters has deduced that I obviously think I am God. That’s not true, by the way. It’s been years since I even applied for the job. Others are calling openly for Chuck Dixon to return and wrestle the series away from me. This is fine. My one real worry, when taking over Robin, is that no one would care. I can deal with fear and loathing, and even get a kick out of it, because it takes a lot of reader involvement to work up a good rage. But yawns scare me."

Rick Shea writes about variants at Newsarama:

"Here’s the burn - most people won't pay the ridiculous prices for the variants, but the completists will indeed give an arm and a leg to get a copy, and that's the part that I think could kill the industry. Someone spending up to $100 for a new comic when that could buy them 40 other great issues is a big waste of money. I won't hold back saying that. There are more good comics out now than there have been in a long time, and I'd hate for those 40 issues not to sell so that someone can have that uber-incentive cover with the same story as the $2.99 comic. I feel the same way about the CGC garbage with grading and slabbing new comics at 9.8 and selling them for ridiculous prices. Another thing the industry can do without."

Recieved in spam email this morning, a message with the heading "fanboyrampage The Direct Market is in bad condition!ghtxa". Thanks for the heads up, Ghsjcs Mxxxjl. Are you related to Mr. Mxylptlk, by any chance?

More Crossgen troubles, as El Cazador is (temporarily, apparently) cancelled:

"The ship that is EL CAZADOR will be putting into port at the end of issue 6. We’re bringing it to rest while Cap’n Chuck goes off in search of a pencilin’ privateer that can fill the boots of our departing Steve Epting. Steve’s been kidnapped by the crew of the good ship Marvel under the terms of exclusivity or death! (Perhaps we’re exaggerating a bit about the death part...) It’ll be an arduous search, but El Cazador will leave port again, 'cause we’d as soon scuttle this scow as gnaw off our own pegleg, so you can be certain you haven’t seen the last of ARRRRRRRR favorite pirate epic!"

Newsarama has the Marvel solicits for August. Of note:

* Two new Ultimate minis: Ultimate Nightmare by Warren Ellis and Trevor Hairsine, and Ultimate Elektra by Mike Carey and Sal Larocca.

* Ultimate Spider-Man #54 gets rescripted and released as a "variant" comic.

* Avengers #500 gets the "Director's Cut" variant treatment.

* Best line of the Captain America solicit: "Featuring an appearance by everyone's favorite Frenchman, Batroc the Leaper."

* How to blow your own secrets. From the X-Men #160 solicit: "The return of... Xorn!"

* The unintentionally hilarious Spider-Man solicit award is a tie between Spider-Man ("Guest-artist Frank Cho (Liberty Meadows) comes on board to blow people’s minds, and to blow some things up for Spider-Man in a very unfriendly neighborhood! The brash, bold Mark Millar continues to beat the stuffing out of Peter Parker in new and inventive ways that you will not want to miss!") and Amazing Spider-Man ("Holy! Looks Like--! It Can’t Be... Is It!?! The biggest Spider-Man event in years continues to shake the wall-crawler’s world, leaving you, and us, breathless!"). Okay, ASM gets it.

* Runaways is cancelled.

The latest in the line of Millarworld (over)reacting to (unintentionally) comedic criticism:

"Millarworld: Voted 'The internet's Most Fucked-up Nazi Dictatorship' for 2004!"

"Ahh the exciting life he must lead if he has time to right a long rant against an internet message board. I'm suprised he could take time off from all the constant sexing he must be getting from a plethora of highly attractive women."

This could just be blowing off steam in a weird way, coming as it does after some bizarre shenanigans for MW. The entire Pub (general discussion/silliness) forum was deleted, which made some people feel rather uncertain about what they should do with their time and others rather upset:

"From what I can gather the Pub was taken offline because another shitstorm erupted. You want to be angry because someone said something mean about you fine. Go ahead be mad. Why knock the Pub offline for all but who have been chosen to still post? That's about as mature as a second grade sandbox slap fight. I PM'd two mods to get an answer and since niether of them responded I figured I'd post the question in here."

"As far as I can tell, there was a small fight between a smal group of posters, and this exploded into a pub lockdown. Im fine with that, maybe we could all use a cooling off period, a chance to get off the net and use the bathroom. But I agree that locking the pub down with no explanation to the majority of users and then allowing a small group of "divine" people to post there while mocking those who can't respond might NOT be the best way to handle the situation. We're almost all adults here, barring Nic and Zeichman, who will forever be a man child. Can't we deal with shit like this in an adult manner?"

"well said. At least do me the courtesy of posting a "you all suck, and this is why" thread. If you have a few bad apples, so be it. Better yet, ban me for a few weeks. I'm irritated, and I guess this means I DO spend too much time on this web site. So do me a favor, really. Explain it or ban me. I'd like to think that I'm reasonably level headed. Right now, I'm torqued, and the most disturbing thing is? I don't know why."

Eventually, an explanation was forthcoming, in a thread helpfully titled "Michael Tegler Nuked the Pub & Lorcan Nagle locked, you out":

"so again you can stop blaming the mods who had no idea what lorcan and i did. Millarworld doesn't owe you access to any of it forums. You see guys in blue? They can do anything on this forum to you they want. and they will. Hence the magic of Millarworld. Like Disney without the happy fucking music"

(Thanks, Jake).

Retailer John Miller is concerned about Marvel's attitude towards comic retailers:

"Don't get me wrong -- I know Marvel loves us, we buy their comics every month (with no return policy, unlike Wal-Mart stores or bookstores ). We buy them if they are late (Ultimates) or we never get them (anything by Kevin Smith ). And don't forget the months that they ship two books a month, doubling our invoices and giving us less shelf time to sell through. I especially loved it when they publish books every week such as New Mutants and X-treme X-Men, and my customers who come in once a month miss out on some books."

ICv2 reports on two graphic novels coming from mainstream publishers - Persepolis 2 and, more interestingly for me, Birth Of A Nation:

"Crown Publishing, a division of Random House, will be releasing Birth of a Nation July 24th in hardcover for $25. This original graphic novel will be co-written by Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder and director Reginald (Ladies Man, Bernie Mac Show), with color art by Kyle Baker, who's done seven graphic novels and various other comic gigs, as well as numerous cartoons for major magazines and animation work. Birth of a Nation is the story of the secession of East St. Louis from the U.S. in frustration over the disenfranchisement of its voters in a disputed election, the creation of the Republic of Blackland (with an anthem sung to the tune of the theme from Good Times), and the surrounding events... The book is being promoted by a major national publicity campaign, a radio campaign, print ads, and a major online promotion."

Screenwriter Ron Shusett talks about his upcoming Sharkman strip in A1:

"Since becoming involved in this project I've been impressed by such writers as Frank Miller and his Sin City series, as well as various comics written by Warren Ellis and Neil Gaiman. Plus, I loved Max Allan Collin's Road to Perdition. There really is so much imagination coming from the people in this field. It's a lot of fun to be a part of it."

The CBLDF are (understandably) worried about something called the "Parents' Empowerment Act":

"'This bill is troubling on several levels,' explains CBLDF Director Charles Brownstein. 'It appears to allow for civil actions against any, or every, member of the dissemination food chain, from the retailer to the distributor to the publisher, of work that an individual parent may object to. So any citizen, using their own sense of what is obscene or harmful to minors, can bring suit. Considering that comics still suffer the cultural and legal stigma of being perceived as a juvenile medium, this bill could become a dangerous weapon in the hands of an individual who walks into a comic book store and is shocked to find that comics offer much more than Archie and Superman.'"

Newsarama looks at the sales for last month:

"The double team of Superman #204 (by Brian Azarello and Jim Lee) and Superman/Batman #9 (by Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner) blocked Marvel from the top spots, pushing down Spider-Man #1 by Mark Millar and Terry Dodson to #3. Anecdotal reports place Superman’s numbers comfortably over 200,000 copies, although no one is denying that a healthy dose of speculation played a role on lifting the number of copies shipped that high. This is also the first time in recent memory that a Marvel debut with a creative team on the caliber of Millar and Dodson, teamed with a popular character didn’t debut at #1."

Artist Casey Jones talks about his upcoming Marvel series, Guardians, starting by setting the record straight:

"Nope, no ties to the 'Guardians of the Galaxy,'... These are all new characters to the Marvel Universe. While there are a few nods to some established characters, for the most part it's all new stuff. It's a story about a group of kids who run around playing super-heroes, and one day they have an actual 'alien encounter!' When they end up saving the little guy from danger, they tell him that if he ever needs their help again to just let them know. Well, 14 years later, the alien comes back to Earth and takes them up on their offer! It's up to them to rise to the occasion. It's a really fun story that has elements of 'The Goonies,' 'Last Starfighter,' and even 'Lilo and Stitch.' I'm a big geek over 'The Goonies' especially, so I'm definitely enjoying it. I'm also really enjoying the way the story unfolds. It's kind of like Stephen King's 'IT,' where there's a dual narrative with the characters as both kids and as adults. It was pretty ambitious on Marc Sumerak's part, and it worked out really well."

Steven Grant presents an idiot's guide for wannabe creators wanting to make a good impression at conventions:

"This is the absolute first thing you must do: bathe. (Showers are acceptable.) Wash your hair. Comb it. Use a deodorant. Every day you’re there. You’d be amazed how many people don’t seem to know this. San Diego is hot in July and August. The convention is crowded and stuffy. An editor remembering you for your body odor is the last thing you want, 'cause you're never going to see the inside of his office. Dress decently. You can be comfortable, you don’t have to wear a suit, but anyone approaching an editor while wearing nothing but bikini underwear held up by suspenders with Pokemon stickers all over them is going to be viewed as several buffalo short of a herd. Your work’s got to be pretty damn good to overcome that sort of first impression."

Grant Morrison, again, proves very quotable over at ComiX-Fan:

"I’d have to say that the sustained absorption of the X-Men’s frantic, paranoid mood affected ‘real’ life quite badly - the soap operatic qualities of the book raged through my day-to-day existence for three years since around the time of 9/11 – death, loss, shattered friendships, triumph, tragedy, breakdown, recovery – it’s been an evil rollercoaster and I blame the X-Men for foolishly trying to do good in a world that hates and fears them... Crime and Punishment would seem joyous and cathartic after the X-Men’s miserable lives of persecution, so yeah, I’d have to say that everything I’ve written since X-Men has felt like spring showers following a long, dark night."

"The real bummer of course is Flex Mentallo. As every child knows, the unavailability of Flex is a crime almost equal in magnitude to the Jack the Ripper slayings or the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Imagine a comics industry where important and influential works like Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen were kept out of print and languish in obscurity. The influence of Flex Mentallo can be seen all over the place but the series itself remains trapped in limbo like some Golden Age superhero waiting for Geoff Johns to notice him."

"I’ve seen a couple of [the Millarworld titles]. My favorite bits are the dozens of mentions Mark gives himself in every issue, like those comics you used to hand draw as a kid – Written by me. Drawn by me. Lettered by me. Colored by me. Published by me…Thought up by me etc..."

Tales of Wonder.com respond to Barnes and Noble's supersized Ultimate Spider-Man hardcover by offering the first three regular USM hardcovers for the same price:

"We don’t begrudge anybody having an exclusive product. Obviously, if we could do an exclusive product like that, we would do it, so it’s hard to be angry when someone else takes the opportunity and does the same thing... But – that said, we think we can offer a better product for the same price. The B&N edition is going to be a monstrous hardcover, and no one is sure how easy it will be to read, or how long it’s going to stay together, given that the binding for the book is going to be so big. Plus, already when you put a spine on some of these collections, it’s hard to see the art all the way in at the edge of the page near the spine – this way, the artwork will be seen in its glory, nor manipulated to meet some different design standards. Not to mention, Marvel is sequentially numbering the Ultimate Spider-Man hardcovers, so by the time volume 4 rolls around, it will follow 1-3 on bookshelves, rather than a huge edition that’s not numbered. And hey, we all know that reading the individual volumes won’t cut off the flow of blood to your legs while reading it in a chair."

Andi Watson's lovely Love Fights goes on hiatus:

"'Now, before anyone freaks out,' Oni Press soon-to-be departed editor in chief Jamie S. Rich said, 'you should know that this wasn't due to low sales or me kidnapping Andi Watson and taking him away to my mountain lair before James Lucas Jones could get his butterfingers on him-it's a simple case of creative choice (just like my run-on sentences). Andi originally planned two arcs of LOVE FIGHTS, but eventually it became one twelve-issue story that encompassed everything he wanted to say. He sat down to plan out the next story line and realized everything he came up with was too similar. Rather than give folks a retread of what had come before, he decided to give the book a vacation. I am guessing somewhere tropical.'"

Peter David has some preview art for the upcoming Madrox series at his blog. I loved David's X-Factor. Whatever happened to Larry Stroman, anyway?

Micah Wright is back and telling the world what happened to the Vigilante series:

"Why DC didn't release a two-sentence press release announcing the cancellation of the book rather than leaking half of the truth to a gossip columnist is beyond my understanding. I'd have been much happier if they'd just said 'Micah's a fucking liar, he padded his resume and we're killing his book, no further comment.' Instead, they leaked half of the story to Rich Johnston, spun in such a way as to make me look as bad as possible. Nice. Professional, too."

It had to happen:

"What five comic characters would you most like to f***? My list: Mary Jane (Spidey 616); Tulip (Preacher); Nancy (That Yellow Bastard); Desire (Sandman. Does that make me bi?); Black Cat/Felicia Hardy (Spidey again)

"Realized in reminiscing that Spider-man and Daredevil have both had a lot of fine women in their lives, what? I gotta say Pete's ladies outclass Matt's, though. Tim Sale's Catwoman/Selina Kyle is a runner-up for sure. Come on. You know you'll have fun posting on this one. You don't have to tell anybody about it."

Best response:

"I never thought MW would stoop this low."

(And later in the thread: "It's threads like this that are getting M-W on Fanboy Rampage as a home to unintelligent, pointless discourse. We need a purge. NNNNow.")

You know there's a bandwagon somewhere when Courtney Love jumps on it:

"One of rock’s more celebrated bad girls is looking to stake out a little territory in comics, and she’s aiming for the widest possible audience currently in the medium – Courtney Love is writing manga for Tokyopop... 'Certain elements of [lead character] Princess Ai's personality, experiences, and fashion sense are based on Courtney and her life,' [editor Rob] Tokar said. 'When it comes to Ai's fashions, in fact, Courtney had a very significant influence on Ai in the character design stage. Courtney even supplied some rough sketches of different outfits, shoes and looks along with character and personality notes. When I saw the faxed pages, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the drawings. I know lots of musicians are artistic in many ways, but I didn't know she could sketch.'"

Apparently we're nearing Manga Meltdown or something:

"ICv2 has learned that American manga publishers are planning to issue over 1,000 English language manga volumes in 2004. The pace of manga publishing has picked up as we enter the spring and summer season and should reach a crescendo by the fall."

Onetime Marvel editor and creator Danny Fingeroth talks about his new book, Superman On The Couch:

"I wrote the book for people interested in why superheroes mean so much to us. Why is it that someone who would find the idea of putting on a costume and mask to pursue vigilante justice repugnant still thinks that 'Spidey is cool'? Why do most people have at least a nostalgic smile come to their face when they see a picture of Superman? Why is it that people completely uninterested in pop culture or action-adventure in any medium, know the basics of the origin of Batman? I think these are interesting questions and that the answers I propose in the book would be of interest to comics fans, academics, pop culture aficionados, and, significantly, to people who may not have ever devoted much time to thinking about superheroes but for whom the characters maintain some kind of significance."

Those fine folks at Millarworld ask themselves "How to save Crossgen?":

"I say make the place a creator owned heaven. No editorial interference, money up front (since they have so much to thrwow around), pocket sized TPB would be great for graphic novels that can be produced on the cheap, great exposure in Barnes and Nobles. It makes sense for Crossgen to do this, their titles did not work, so give the creators that they have already worked with an opportunity to make them some real money."

"That's exactly what I wold have suggested they do... Three years ago. Now? Sell the office furniture."

"It's kinda hard to be a haven for creator-owned stuff when you have a widespread reputation for not paying creators what they're owed. CG is done. Even if Alessi was somehow booted (which isn't feasible), the brand name is totally poisoned."

The creators of new Image title Ultra clear up those pesky "Sex In The City meets Powers" comparisons:

"Josh Luna: Ultra is not so much a derivative of another specific work as it is a combination of various inspirations we’ve picked up along the way.

Jon Luna: But if we had to associate it with something out there, [yeah], I’d say it’s Sex and the City meets Powers.

Josh Luna: In the sense that it’s about people with powers who happen to have sex, uh... in a city."

The return of old independent comics continues:

"In a move certain to rock the diamond top ten, ibooks announced today the acquisition of rights to issue a 'Best of Megaton Man' collection featuring Don Simpson's comical superhero. In a deal negotiated with Denis Kitchen and the Hansen Agency, ibooks acquired volume rights to a new collection that will be issued in Oct. 04 to remind the audience for pixar's THE INCREDIBLES of the character who made the world safe for modern superhero parody , which itself followed in the tradition of Harvey Kurtzman's MAD pastiches."

Comics Continuum has DC's August solicits up. Of note:

* War Games, the uber-Batman crossover, starts with 9 issues in the first month. Collect them all, and then realise that you probably could have missed out half of them and still understood the story.

* Superman/Batman #13 has a variant cover. Joe Quesada was right!

* More fun and gorgeousness with the Julie Schwartz-tribute DC Comics Presents "event" concluding, including Stan Lee and Darwyn Cooke on Superman. Excelsior.

* The Doom Patrol solicit seems to know how desperate the book looks already: "It's a 'Cold Night's Death' when mysterious creatures from before the dawn of time draw the Doom Patrol to the Antarctic, where the team is tested for the first time! With uniforms and everything!"

* Philip Bond covers Fallen Angel #14.

* Plastic Man continues to sound wonderful: "Plastic Man waves through a confusing muddle of interlocking storylines and wildly varying art styles to track down a villain who¹s messing with Plas' life and the entire DCU."

* My love of weird DC stories has been rewarded: Weird Secret Origins 80-Page Giant!

* Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's We3 launches with a wonderful cover:

Brian Wood leaves his Delphi forum:

"as if you all couldnt read the writing on the wall, i think this forum has outlived its usefulness. Delphi is turning into kind of an unpleasant place anyway. i'll be around, but its not worth keeping a running forum anymore, not like it used to be."

Newsarama has the Tokyopop TV adverts for you to see, in case you didn't see them on TV.

Ed Cunard interviews Kyle Baker over at Comic World News:

"CWN: Do your kids read your comics, or comics from anyone else? Is there anything you won’t let them read? What are your feelings towards the "maturation" of superhero characters that were initially created for a younger fan base?

KB: Only my oldest daughter is currently interested in comic books. She's five. I think it's sad that I can't give a five year old girl a copy of Wonder Woman or Supergirl, because those books are all ass shots. Supergirl is fourteen. Why am I looking at a fourteen-year-old girl's ass in the shower? Isn't that illegal?"

Millarworld continues to ask the questions that no-one else dares to:

"Who are the non-'geeky' people making comics these days? The ones who don't instantly come across as nerdy fanboys or fangirls, and who don't remind you of that comic guy from the Simpsons? The ones who may even give comic books a good public image...? Grant Morrison, obviously. I'd also add Christina Z after finding her website (www.christinaz.com). Who else? (First person to say "Peter David" gets a kick in the place where their balls should be... <_< )"

"All comic creators are geeks. You can dress a geek up like a rock star and he might even act the part. But they're still geeks deep down. 'Normal' people wouldn't want to work in comics and I think that's great."

"After reading the Wizard article on Millar, I would have to say that he is the second coolest person in comics next to Kevin Smith."

Markisan Naso retires as SBC's resident rumourmonger:

"[R]educed booty action aside, there are really two things that made me decide to step down. The first is this sense that the weekly gossip column is becoming a tired institution. Nearly every comic site has cloned Rich Johnston, and editors are starting to realize they can cover gossip from newsgroups and message boards in their regular news sections. Second, despite this spike in activity, rumors are increasingly hard to come by. Publishers are Big Brothering down on employees to plug information leaks and people aren’t as willing to talk as they used to."

Despite the fact that the weekly gossip column "is becoming a tired institution", SBC's not canning the column - Blair Marnell takes over next week.

For those who recieve Warren Ellis' Bad Signal mailings, who else read this this morning - "So last week I came up with a newish take on superhero fiction and a newish way to tell it. Which is a huge pain in the arse. First, I'd want to own it. For another, it'd need to come out fairly quickly, which removes DC from the equation. For another another, I'd need to get paid for it, which takes out most of the indies. For another3, variant covers would remove some of its object-based intent, which sadly takes out friendly old Avatar, whose bottom line still depends quite heavily on variant cover sales. (The Apparat books are variant-free, but as a one- time favour.) So here I am with a superhero/sf book idea that could conceivably break new ground, and no way to do it." - and immediately imagined Joe Quesada almost leaping for the phone shouting "ICON!" over and over again?

Inker Keith Champagne on his first writing gig:

"It's been as far from easy getting a gig as a writer as it could possibly be... I've gotten much further along cold calling Hollywood - where I know nobody - than I have in comics, where I know almost everybody. I don't really know why that is. It can be really frustrating. It took me about three years of pitching before an editor--in this case Mike McAvennie--took a chance and assigned me something. Even after knowing I was going to get to write a book, it still took six months before I knew what that book was and a couple of months after that before I was able to start writing. In the meantime, I tried to be persistent without being a pain in the ass about it and it finally paid off."

After American Flagg, fellow First comic Grimjack returns:

"After the demise and, ultimately, the highly contentious bankruptcy of First Comics’ public parent/owner, all rights to the GrimJack property became tied up in a knot of legal complexities. Ken F. Levin, one of the country’s leading developers and producers of comic art properties for movies, television, publishing and video games, immediately undertook a crusade to free the rights. Levin, a co-founder of First Comics, and his fellow First Comics co-founder Mike Gold, GrimJack’s longtime original editor, then began an odyssey of blind alleys and intense negotiations. Their efforts have finally resulted in the resolution of all rights issues and the formation of a new company, The NightSky GrimJack Rights and Production Vehicle (Four Wheel Drive Model), LLC. GrimJack creators John Ostrander and Timothy Truman have substantial equity positions in the new venture."

Now I'm waiting for someone to revive Badger. Surely someone could do that...?

"And here at The Corporate Institutional Bank of Time, we find ourselves reflecting...Finding out, that In fact, we came back...We were always coming back ..."

Brian Hibbs on comics advertising:

"Comics have some other problems when it comes to advertising – reading is, perforce, a solitary experience, and comics largely look dead and static on television. We’re really much better suited for print advertising because the nature of our product. Advertising comics can work, I think, but it needs to be regional, and focused on driving customers to specific locations. That’s really key because as much as I appreciate the Comic Shop Locator that Diamond runs or Mark Adam’s The Master List, you’re running only mediocre odds that you’ll find a comic shop in your community, and that it will be any good whatsoever. Sending a 'civilian' to a bad shop is frankly much worse than sending them to no shop at all. Further, by sending them to specific locations, you can 'ensure' that the material advertised is actually in stock – otherwise the demand you’re generating can’t be filled.

My suspicion is that any increase in sales for Tokyopop in general, or the specific books they’re advertising during their television campaign will not be directly traceable to the advertisements themselves. Hopefully we’ll have a clear picture of this when I look again at the Bookscan numbers in January. I very much hope that I’m wrong, and these efforts will work amazingly, spurring new and real demand for comics – but I don’t think they will because they’re too diffuse and they’re ignoring the same supply-side problems that comics have had for the last two decades."

Randy Lander really loves the Gotham Central trade:

"Some books just read better in collected format, and Gotham Central is clearly one of them. Oh, I've been championing this book from almost the very start, and continue to do so, but it's clear in reading In The Line Of Duty how much more I'd enjoy the book (and how much easier it'd probably be to sell) if it were published in trade paperback format in the first place. In these stories, which take our detectives through a manhunt for a cop-killing Bat-foe (and into a larger scheme) and on a search for the death of a teenage girl which leads somewhere unexpected as well, the character arcs seem clearer, the plots tighter and the overall storytelling just stronger. It's not - it's the same stories I've been reading - it's just that the pacing is so much better when the whole story is read together. So if you've been waiting on the trade for Gotham Central, or even if you picked up the single issues and couldn't get into the book, now is the time to check this book out. It's ten bucks for two damn fine stories and artwork, and the format that the book was really meant for in the first place."

Kevin J Anderson talks about his upcoming Starjammers series at Marvel, and his love for his collaborator:

"The biggest advantage, though, was my man Ale Garza -- his artwork captured everything about this, the full-on look and feel of a sweeping space opera adventure with cool characters, great outfits and ship designs. His stuff rocks."

Sad, then, that the interview finishes with this note:

"This interview was conducted before Ale Garza announced he would only be drawing issue one of the series. Marvel has not informed THE PULSE who Garza's replacement would be for the series."

Del Rey plans Batman novels:

"Del Rey Books has announced that it has formed a "creative partnership" with DC Comics for the development of fiction based on DC's Batman characters. Three Batman novels have been announced, for Spring 2005, Fall 2005, and Spring 2006. All will be written by former Batman Animated writer Michael Reaves and Steven-Eliot Altman. DC editors will be involved in the development of the storylines."

Insert your own cheap Paul Levitz/Bob Schreck joke here.

Newsarama posters respond to Barnes and Nobles' Ultimate Spider-Man hardcover collection:

"That sucks for independent comics retailers. It truly, truly does. That said, I can see this bringing hundreds of new comics readers into the fold, which ultimately (hah!) will benefit comics specialty shops in the long run. Heck, even I'm tempted by this book, and as a confirmed Dc-head I have virtually no interest in USM. Leaving aside the exclusivity deal for a moment, I wish that more American comics were packaged this way. How sweet would it be to have the entire run of Sandman in three huge volumes? Or the enire run of Promehtea or other closed-ended projects in one volume? I know that i would personally rather have one honkin' volume of an entire series instead of eighteen difficult-to-locate-on-eBay trade paperbacks. From Marvel's perspective, I'm sure this is a good move. The shouldn't cry later, though, when the perception of Marvel as a compnay antagonistic to retailers continues unabated."

"Truly DISPICABLE!!! of marvel to do this. My store stocks every marvel TP and HC in print. They have had several key TPs (like the Daredevil #4 the first Bendis TP) out of print for a long time now, among others (Williamson's Thor #1 and Wolverine Legends #1 come to mind) but yet they can take their now "FREE" products and sell them again to places like B&N where the person won't even get help or education about comics. What a pile of crap! How does it help a responsible store owner like me who stocks Ult. Spiderman TPs 4 deep at all times to make sure anyone can always get them? Now I am screwed. This is my first post here, as you can tell, nothing has ever made me angry enough to rant but this is SICK!!!"

"I know this sucks if you are a retailer, but do the math. If this book sells (off the top of my head) 20,000 copies and just 5% of those people get hooked and look for the comics, then there are 1000 new customers. Since the current estimate of comic book stores in this country if just a little shy of 3000, that means that 1 out of every 3 LCS will receive some sort of business. And then it's YOUR responsibility, retailers, to keep them coming back."

Sojourn officially cancelled by Crossgen, as confirmed by Barbara Kesel on the CG messageboards:

"...as you may have guessed from last issue’s enigmatic ending, SOJOURN #34 was the last issue of the series that will be published for the time being. As is the case with many comics these days, while the audience for Sojourn was loyal and vocal, there were simply not enough readers to allow us to continue publication of this title in its current comics format. This decision was made after weighing our available resources, both creative and administrative, and determining that the quality of this series would likely suffer if we chose to continue it at this time. We thank you for following Arwyn’s journey this far, and we hope to return to her story sometime in the future."

Kesel continued that "weighing available resources" roughly translated into "we'd lost track of who was still at the company these days and only realised that the writer had quit when the plot for issue #35 didn't appear on time", before breaking down into tears and resigning from the company herself.

Dustin Nguyen is finally confirmed as the new Authority artist, to work on Ed Brubaker's upcoming run:

"I had already planned to head back to WildStorm after Batman... I promised a lot of people I would, plus I’ve always felt at home there. They were the first to give me a shot at things, so I was hoping if Batman had gotten me any good press or recognition, I could drag that back with me to WildStorm and see what damage I could do there. Plus it’s all one world to me... I still get to hang out at the DC booth every year, so that's plenty... Knowing that Ed was involved really made it for me though. I like saying his name. Brubaker...heh."

(Also, scroll down and read Apollo Oscar's post for sheer surreal entertainment value...)

And today's What The Fuck moment: Mike Allred's new project:

"Yes, I'm drawing the entire Book Of Mormon. And, of course, Laura has my back on the coloring. I'm sure most of you have heard of it and many may even know what it is. But to me it is the most adventurous, spiritual, romantic, action packed, visionary, and enlightening book in the history of mankind. And it's all true! And I intend to prove it! Call me crazy, (Mike, you're CRAZY!) my hands are shaking as I type this out, but I've never been so excited. Think 'It's A Wonderful Life meets Conan the Barbarian'! The first volume should be out september/october depending on when we get the solicitations in previews. The challenge has always been authenticity, clarity and simply doing it justice---and all sytems are go for nailing it!"

Johanna notices another Marvel-Barnes-and-Noble exclusive, and asks a sensible question:

"Why does any comic store bother supporting Marvel after this and the Masterworks paperbacks? Why would anyone want to support a supposed retail 'partner' who so clearly isn't interested in helping them at all?"

According to those who may be in the know, it's not just one previously assumed to be gone character that the X-Men Reload revamp is bringing back, it's two.

Heidi MacDonald hopefully puts to bed the non-issue of the fact that she thinks some comic blogs are dopey. In other news, I think that some comics are dopey (even ones that I like, like Superman/Batman, or love dearly, like Jack Kirby's Forever People), and there are definitely ones that can be ignored. Does that mean that I hate all comics?

(Via John Jakala, who I never link but should do more often).

If only I paid attention to the shitty newspapers:

"USA Today got on the manga story in a big way on Wednesday, with an above-the-fold illustrated story on page 1 of the Life section and another illustrated story on the back page of the section. Headlined 'Girls get their 'shojo' working in comic book shops,' the lead article in the section featured cover illustrations of Del Rey's Tsubasa and Viz' Boys over Flowers and quotes such industry experts as Tokyopop's Steve Kleckner, Golden Apple's Bill Liebowitz, and ICv2's Milton Griepp. The article calls manga 'the fastest-growing segment of the publishing industry,' and cites the backpack-friendly size, the back-to-front format, low price, wide distribution, and content different from American comics as sales drivers."

Mark Millar, how did your morning go?:

"Woke up, had a pee, made a cup of tea, played with my daughter for ten minutes and then stuck my computer on to find several emails saying that Spidey #2 is friggin' FLYING off the shelves. I never understand this whole #2 thing. Does anybody still BUY comics for the collectible value??"

The Crossgen reminiscing at Broken Frontier gets heated when Ian Feller (former CG managing editor) appears:

"While I agree that the majority of the poor choices were handed down from WAY on high, no one forced anyone to remain there if they felt so strongly about how terrible the books were or how poorly the company was run. I don't remember but two people leaving because of those reasons. It seems to me that I'm reading the rants of a bunch of cry babies. For all those years it was very easy to take the easy money and tow the company line and not express your negative opinions. Even with NDAs people still did it when they felt strongly enough and wanted to stand up for it. But now that times have changed, how easy it is to spew venom."

(Thanks, Chris).

If any of you care, I'm going to spoil the end of Excalibur #1 now. So don't read the rest of this post. You see, it turns out that Magneto isn't dead. Again. Millarworld isn't happy:

"Basically I think the character's worn out. I thought Morrison degrated his death by having him 'come back' during the Planet X arc. I would have rather he had died like we thought he did, when the Sentinels attacked and annihilated Genosha. I thought it cheapened his death to return him and to have him come back yet AGAIN! That's just overkill......literally! lol"

"overused? worn out? zillionth time[?] do Wolverine and Spider-Man have any right to live?"

"Did Wolverine or Spider-Man ever die (Eve of Destruction), come back, die two issues later (New X-Men 115), come back thirty issues later (New X-Men 146), and die again after another five issues (New X-Men 150), JUST TO COME BACK six months later (Excalibur)? It's ridiculous."

Inspired by the recent blog Losers giveaway, perhaps, Andy Diggle and Jock launch their own Losers contest:

"The winner will receive a full issue of LOSERS breakdowns... 22 pages of 'done in a second' ™ layouts, in glorious black and white, detailing (or not) every detail and panel breakdown that goes into an issue. Sound good? Tell all your friends!! Broadcast it loudly on the internet!!! Harass innocent people on the the street!!! Ignore it entirely- it's up to you..... I'm not entirely sure what the question/ challenge should be though, so the first set of layouts will go to the person who comes up with the best suggestion... although it could be nice, I'd rather the suggestion of 'the best drawing of Aisha and Cougar getting it on' not be a suggestion, though creative, interesting challenges will definitely score highly."

The winner will also recieve a signed script. For those with luck, go on. You know you want to enter.

Graphic novels for idiots. Sounds like an intro to someone talking about people desperately hoping for Chuck Austen's Worldwatch to come out in OGN format, but instead, it's a beginners guide for those wanting to create a graphic novel of their own...:

"[The book] covers the entire process of creating a graphic novel -- and by that, we mean longer-form comics stories, whether serialized in a pamphlet or released directly in a single book -- and getting it to market... So we cover coming up with a concept, fleshing out and designing your characters, finding collaborators, writing the script, penciling, inking, lettering by hand, lettering by computer, coloring, finding a publisher, publishing it yourself, getting distribution, and promoting the work."

The Joe Quesada board consider the (carcrash-esque, in my opinion) Byrne/Claremont collaboration on JLA:

"As far as I'm concerned, 'if it weren't for my training with the ring. I'd be taking her 'suggestions' as gospel' is definitively painful dialogue"

"It's a quick line that explains his resistance, and is something that could be reasonably thought in such a situation. When faced with a challenging situation, it's common to reflect on whatever enables you to overcome it. I know in school, whenever there was a pop quiz, I'd think 'Thank God I studied this material'."

"If Claremont wrote your thoughts you would be thinking : 'If it wasn't for that textbook I have used for a studying purpose yesterday, I would not know the correct answer to some of the questions asked in this pop quiz'."

Millarworld wants to see Wildstorm return to the Jim Lee superhero antics that got the company started:

"I’d definitely be interested in a new Wildcats title, but always thought they functioned best in the context of the Kherubian-Daemonite war, their raison d’etre. A possibility would be to reopen the series with the fall of the Kherubian Empire; and the outbreak of assaults on Kherubian and their progeny throughout the galaxy (including Earth) by vengeful, formerly subjugated Daemonites, formerly oppressed Purple People and even rebellious Spartan Robots – thus precipitating the recreation of the Wildcats of old, with a whole new set of internal conflicts and issues. (And yeah, I’d love to see Jim Lee return to this title, someday in the future as well.)"

"Stormwatch needs to be restarted by the Monarchy characters on the moon since Santini's not really in charge of Stormwatch anymore...they carry the name but they aren't official. Jackson King could accuire the name...then there would be a clash between the two Stormwatch's."

"when they launch these revamps i would like to see a greater cohesion between the wildstorm titles. creating the sense of a shared universe and continuity will lay the groundwork for great crossovers and general interactions between the characters. out of all the books i hope wildcats gets the attention it deserves i always thought this book had a tremendous potential to be great."

Top Cow and Marvel do a variant cover for their crossover. TC president Matt Hawkins draws the short straw and has to try and make this non-story interesting:

""We wanted to give retailers who stocked up on this book an unexpected gift for doing so... Marc [Silvestri] couldn't resist getting a chance to not only draw his creation, the Darkness, but take a stab at a well-known comic icon such as the Hulk. Plus we simply wanted to do something to call attention to the unique nature of these Top Cow/Marvel crossovers."

Asked to explain what the cover will look like, Hawkins said that he wasn't sure, but would lay money on there being people with rather flat faces on it probably grimacing or silently shouting, adding that he would also guess that there will be lots of unnecessary lines on the page as well to make it "look cool". He closed by expressing his sadness that the nature of the crossover made it unlikely that Silvestri would be able to include a pouty, impossibly-proportioned woman on the cover, as much as he would like to.

Tokyopop announce ten new titles with an abundance of adjectives:

"TOKYOPOP Inc. delivers an autumn to remember with its stellar October-November lineup of dazzling manga debuts! Leading off the top-ten list is Crazy Love Story, a delicious teen drama that puts the cool back in school. This highly stylized manga keeps good company with Guys' Guide to Girls, a 'revealing' property that's been all the rage in Japan. Joining this dynamic duo are other first-rate titles: Diabolo, Dragon Voice, Flower of the Deep Sleep, Hands Off!, Cross, Hyper Rune, The Queen's Knight and the long-awaited all-new relaunch of Peach Girl. From award-winning romance to scream-inducing horror, TOKYOPOP's legends of this fall will be unforgettable treats for all manga fans!"

Metal Gear Solid, which apparently is one of these new-fangled video games that the kids are so into these days, comes to comics from IDW. As is now traditional with IDW releases, Ashley Wood is involved:

"In reference to the comic book adaptation of Metal Gear Solid, Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid series Director and Producer, and Vice President of Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, Inc., says, 'Personally I have always been a fan of Mr. Ashley Wood. I am very glad that Metal Gear Solid will be made into a comic with his talented artwork. I have a lot of confidence in the people at IDW Publishing who understand the world of Metal Gear Solid. I have great hope for this new development of the series through the work of these people.' Konami is aggressively seeking to license its game content in order to strengthen its brand power."

Dynamic Forces goes exclusive with Diamond. DF president Nick Barrucci celebrates the union with a pun:

"Bill and the team at Diamond have impressed us with just how far they've gotten in such a short time on the book side. And of course Diamond has been the leader in the comic book and hobby markets for years... This makes for a terrific one-two punch for a company like Dynamic Forces, where we have product lines that appeal to multiple audiences in different markets. When you combine our enthusiasm for the projects with Diamond's knowledge and appreciation of the systems to distribute, you come up with a truly dynamic force!"

Warren Ellis's latest Bad Signal posting contains details of his Imaginary Comic Line project:

"This month, I'm telling you what the line is called.

"Apparat. Or the Apparat Singles Group, depending on my mood.

"Four first issues from a line of comics that don't exist, from an imaginary label called Apparat.

"Apparat will work in partnership with the Avatar Press of Illinois, USA, who are generously funding this stunt. The Avatar Press mark will appear on the backs of the books only. Otherwise, to all intents and purposes, these will appear to be works of the Apparat Singles Group."

Four books, to be illustrated by two Avatar talents (Jacen Burrows and Juan Jose Ryp) and two Ellis favourites (Laurenn McCubbin and Carla Speed McNeil). Should be worth a look.

Who's going to die in Identity Crisis? Brad Meltzer drops some pretty heavy hints (and probably some misdirection, too).

Newsarama gets optimistically power-mad:

"I'm wondering if it's possible for the posters here at newsarama to make a book that normally falls in the top 100 get into the top 10. Are there enough posters here to make a difference? If we all got together and agreed to buy a particular book, would that be enough to take it to the next level? I'm thinking we'd have to order the book through Previews, and that the book would be worthy of our attention."

"I don't think we have that kind of clout. But if you got everyone here to by 2 or 3 copies and agree to give the extra's away you may be on to something. But I still think top 10 is a little of a stretch. Even if we had 10,000 people here and we all bought 3 copies that is only 30,000 books. Which would give a book a nice surge, but nowhere near top 10 which is unfortunate. It would be nice to think we had that much power."

"Anyone remember the Sandman story 'Dream of a Thousand Cats'? 'Dream the world. Not this pallid shadow of reality. Dream the world the way it truly is. A world in which all cats are queens and kings of creation. That is my message. And I shall keep moving, keep repeating it until I die. Or until a thousand cats hear my words, and believe them, and dream . . . And we come again to paradise.'"

(Thanks, SK)

A retailer writes:

"What worries me for the market today? Just compare the Marvel, D.C., and other companies Previews listings with their listings from one, two, or five years ago. I'll pick on Marvel just to make my point. I can't speak for other retailers, but who really wants to see District X? Captain America and Falcon? Amazing Fantasy? Spider-Man/Doc Ock mini's? Spider-Man Unlimited? Rogue? Excalibur? Starjammers? And on and on.

"There are only a limited number of dollars to be spent on comics of the same type. All of these new offerings are only going to dilute the sales from other titles. And when the writing or art starts to fall off, then the consumer is completely disinterested. Especially when every new title is $2.99 or more! We don't need more X-Men titles, Spider-Man titles, or others. Just give us good books on time. Couldn't there just be a good story in Captain America that involved the Falcon for a series? Starjammers in an X-Men story or Doc Ock in Spider-Man? And if you want to reach new customers, then put the effort into new products that will entice them. Don't just put out more books of the same."

The Jerry Seinfeld and Superman AmEx commercials will air on TV after all:

"Variety is reporting that comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who helped make NBC's Thursday night lineup "must see" TV, returns to the network on Thursday, May 20 at 8:45 pm, when the network will air The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman long-form commercials, which are currently available only on the Web."

Today's best rant, from Chad Nevett at Millarworld, in response to someone wondering when rumoured projects will be officially announced:

"When they decide to, because they have all the power and you have none. Basically, you are their bitch and they can make you wait as long as they want. They can drop hints and tease you, and you will stick around and they will laugh. And laugh. And then laugh some more. Hell, they can say they're going to announce it on a certain day and then not. Oh yeah, they can do that. You best believe they can do that. And what are you gonna do in return? NOT pay attention to the news? I doubt it! See, that's the problem right there. You actually want to hear this 'news' right now and then spend time waiting around for the actual comics to come out. You've got to fight back against these creative team tyrants! You've got to say to them, 'Tell me whenever, I don't care. I may buy the book. I may not. I'll flip through it on the stands when it comes out.' Apathy will set you free! PRAISE THE LORD!"

Kevin Lau talks up Iron Fist:

"All I can say is that if you liked the '70s TV show Kung Fu, you'll love Iron Fist! And if you didn't like the '70s TV show Kung Fu, you'll also love Iron Fist! Finally, if you are completely unfamiliar with the '70s TV show Kung Fu, you, too, will absolutely, positively love Iron Fist!"

Stuart Moore probably ruffles some feathers:

"[T]he real reason indy comics have never successfully staged a revolution over mainstream ones is simply that there’s no quality control. Certain publishers have become known for excellence in content and/or presentation, yes. When you look at 'indy comics' as a large field, though, there’s no consistency at all. You may not like the gloss and sheen of mainstream comics, and it’s inarguable that both major companies have strayed from their standards now and then. But for the most part, when you pick up any X-Men comic published between 1962 and today, you have some idea of what you’re going to get. Action; recognizable, costumed characters; bright colors; readable lettering. That may not sound like a very impressive list. But with indy comics, there’s no guarantee of anything."

Chuck Austen talks about his DC work, including this interesting tidbit of information about how he sees his portrayal of Superman:

"Ivan [Reis] has done just an unbelievable job of translating the scripts into something far more than they were when I envisioned them. His expressions, his attention to detail -- it all just blows my mind. There are no words for how incredible each issue looks as it comes in. He and Marc Campos make a sensational team. Ivan gets all the Cary Grant charm I wanted across wonderfully, and makes Superman cool and intense without coming off as dippy and goofy."

Cary Grant was many things, but "cool and intense" was rarely* amongst them (He was often dippy and goofy, though, which was one reason why he was great)...

(* - Edited because Notorious was mentioned, thereby disproving my previous "never")

For all those who were... interested? Appalled? Whatever, about Kirk Boxeleitner's proposed comic book porn forum... It now exists.

There's a new player in the comic book industry:

"So I went to the store last night and bought my weekly comics. Included in this week's loot was Firestorm #1. I was very happy to see it. I've been waiting for this one for a long time and it's a great book. Then I came to the pages where Jason receives the Firestorm Matrix. My jaw hit the ground. The times had been changed. Where the arrival of the Firestorm Matrix was clearly shown in the Wizard Preview (written, pencilled, inked, lettered, colored and edited) as happening during the same timeframe as events in the pages of Identity Crisis #1, the captions were re-lettered and new times were put in place. Okay, somebody's going to say it so I might as well call myself on it: 'It has nothing to do with your thread on Newsarama.' But I think it does. For many reasons, one of which I can't disclose without violating someone's confidence (and that fact is one I'm sure Dan DiDio would be interested to hear). The changes to the Firestorm pages occurred after the analysis posted on this Newsarama thread. I don't think it's a coincidence."

And later, from the same poster:

"They never should've changed the captions in the book--now I know we've got their attention and I intend to exploit that to my benefit. Getting the attention of industry professionals in comics is literally THE biggest hurdle. If they wanted me to go away and stop sharing what I know, paying attention to what I write was the complete opposite of what they should have done. I'm taking full advantage of the spotlight they have so cavalierly given me... If I have any pull at all in the comics industry (and apparently I have at least a little), then I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure Ronnie maintains permanent residence in the DC cemetary right next to Barry Allen. I'm on a crusade to keep Jason Rusch in the red & gold and see that he becomes to Firestorm what Wally West has become to The Flash. You can quote me on that."

GenXMaverick, ladies and gentlemen. He may be the most powerful fan ever.

(Thanks, Ed.)

Crossgen's ex-employees talk about the company (via Johanna):

Ron Marz: "I do think the two biggest mistakes were the inclusion of the sigil as a unifying theme and, even more so, the expansion to WAY too many titles. But, these were decisions made from on high. The creative staff's opinions were solicited, but not always followed. I don't think the majority of today's comic market wants an uber-complex, connected universe that runs through a dozen titles. If you want that, you've already got the Marvel and DC universes. A new publisher has to stand on the merits of its individual books, not an overall universe."

Andrea Di Vito: "Too many titles, too many characters that were 'all-powerful' and bidimensional. But most of all, too much control on the titles from management, being the boss or second in command DOES NOT make you a writer."

Andy Smith: "What do you have with a dicktator for a boss, I hope I spelled that right, and an ex-gym teacher in an executive and creative position....a recipe for success...not. I know lot's of people that have read comics thier entire lives, but that doesn't mean they know how to run a company and write or control the direction of comic books. There were and still are a lot of talented people that worked under one roof but just weren't utilized the right way. We were always told it was 'our company' but it was more like sit down and do it thier way or the highway."

Drew Geraci: "We were browbeaten scapegoats because management couldn't sell a contrived micro-managed line of dull books. Easier to chew out a pack of passive artists than forces beyond your control, like an indifferent marketplace. The place was not as open to creators as the bill of goods we were sold suggested. How else do you explain an absolutely pointless book like Crux? If Waid and Epting were on a half-hour car trip to a comic convention, they could've come up with a superior book by themselves, but that was one of those Sigil-verse timeline books that was dictated to them."

Randy Lander channels Delphi's Baker_Baker to explain why he really doesn't like Mark Millar's Spider-Man book:

"So basically, the entire sequence is one, long, pointless joke at the expense of the superheroes involved with no payoff. It's too bad, because there are genuinely good moments here, particularly the portrayal of Spider-Man as someone who can give a well-armed SWAT team a run for their money, but even that has a bit of a logic problem to it as the reader starts to wonder when the Avengers started having cops protect their mansion from internal breach. Millar combines this contrived plot with elements like mocking the genre as hard as he did in The Ultimates, with the Avengers coming off as a bunch of spoiled playboys and several pages given over to making fun of the secret identity as concept, showing off how badly almost everyone at Marvel misses the point of that genre convention these days. Millar's attempts to work with continuity as it stands also backfire, as he not only gives away a key element of Bendis's first arc in The Pulse (guess we know how *that* one turns out now, huh?) but presents The Owl as an effective would-be Kingpin, which is considerably different from where Bendis left the character at the end of his arc on Daredevil."

Gail Simone gets to write the end of The Legion, as the series gets cancelled after her run. Editor Steve Wacker shows psychic promise:

"The book has been quite lucky to have a parade of great writers and artists throughout the years... The editors have all stunk, though. You can bet, however, that once people get the news that this book is cancelled, the readers will be screaming for my head."

Park and Barb Cooper look at why women aren't reading comics:

"Take a tip from Buffy! Write active, brave, smart, sexy but REASONABLY sexy female characters. Make them do active things. DON'T make them passive victims. DON'T constantly have them saved by men. Yes, throw in some romance and relationship stuff, but DON'T make the comic EXCLUSIVELY a romance comic, as those things usually are unappealing to both sexes. If you throw in some eye candy for men, throw in some eye candy for the women, too (assuming the women are straight, which is a fairly BIG assumption). Make both sexes of characters people that you can like, admire, and even (if that's your fancy) develop a crush on.

"Only after you take these considerations to heart should you ask the $64 question of whether chicks will ever dig comics. Because the answer is, some very well may. Actually, we already do. Who do you think are buying all those manga graphic novels, anyway? Oh, those aren't REAL comics? They're selling $100 million dollars in sales a year, a lot more than a lot of indie comic imprints. To me, that's pretty damned real."

Brandon Thomas looks at two new launches into what he sees as a stormy market for new comics:

"The direct market is eating its own young, and making it exceptionally difficult for anything new to survive in the face of the established and the familiar. This makes any title’s opening campaign that much more important, because if the initial vibe proves elusive, there’s a considerable chance that your book won’t live to see double digits. New projects ultimately succeed or fail on the strength of their formula, an arcane mixture of creator, character, and voice that puts the un-established at a distinct disadvantage, so without instant credibility, the climb heads uphill in search of the buzz and word of mouth that’ll allow you to reach a second story arc. End of the day though, whether you’re an unknown or Mark Millar, you’ve gotta hit em hard out the gate or become fuel for some retailer’s bargain bin."

Newsarama previews John Romita Jr.'s Image series, Grey Area. On the plus side, I love Romita's art, and John Workman does the lettering. On the negative, the script really doesn't look that great...

First off, what's with this fucking ugly new look for Blogger? Aiee.

The Bendis board thread about Millarworld gets invaded by Millarworlders who, amongst other things, reference Danny Donovan in an injoke frenzy:

"You're an evil man. But I love you! Can I be one of your divas? Please! Huggyloves to Diva Daddy!"

Things make more sense if you read the MW thread about the Bendis thread. There's probably some lame cross-continuity crossover joke to be made here, but I can't be arsed. And I really don't hate Millarworld, despite what some may think...

When Grant Morrison talks, I want to quote everything. Instead, I'll just do snippets:

"...I had the idea to develop Seaguy into a weapon I could use to fight back against the trendy and unconvincing 'bad-ass' cyncism of current comics, most of which are produced by the most un-'bad-ass' men you can possibly imagine. In the current climate, it seemed like an act of rebellion to deliberately create 'the new sentimentality' and produce work that was almost embarrassingly dripping with tender and awkward feelings. There's a strange kind of Edwardian vibe hitting the world right now - a kind of slowing down, a promenading feel as people rebel against manufactured 'cool'. Seaguy can be seen as art at the vanguard of this new attitude."

"I can no longer care how people ‘see’ me or I'd go mad - the public image comics readers have twisted into place around me is so bizarre and so severely distorted that it no longer matters what I actually say or do to affect it - so now I just do the stories I want and hope that my dedicated readers are willing to follow me on the next jaunt into the unknown."

"My work’s always been sweet and gentle – it’s about animals and losers and hapless dreamers. I dedicated twenty years of my life to the welfare of six abandoned cats and I give my money to numerous charities and causes. I’m from Glasgow; land of the sentimental hardman. I can nurture to Olympic standard."

Go and read.

What is this, the silly Messageboard season? The Bendis board ponders Millarworld:

"I don't think it sucks but it isn't the most friendly place on the net. I think its like the cool kid clique in high school. (Though since we are talking about comic fan boys and girls i'm using the term cool loosely) I lurk over there every day but have posted very rarely. One day I want to make a single post that violates every singal rule on the board. Yes that is a silly desire but I am a very sad person."

"The main edges the Millar World boards have on this on is that the comics talk is firmly seperated from the bullshit and you don't have posters who view derailing a thread as a thier secondary hobby to comic collecting and it's not insular over there. You can come in and have a debate and not get ran off or chased away by someone. No cliques and shit."

"This is NOT true. If you say anything critical about say the Ultimates you will get 10 types of shit for it. Arrogance runs rampant over there. That used to be my primary board for posting after WEF went away, but I abandoned it after seeing one too many post just jerking creators off that happen to post there from time to time. This board has some of that, but there is enough humor amongst everyone to balance it out. Plus if you have a differing opinion and get attacked for it someone usually comes to your defense. Bendis Board has it's cliques, but Millarworld is one giant clique. That's why I ditched them for here back in November/December."

Kevin Melrose interviews Brian Wood about Demo:

"What a lot of people don't get is what a massive risk this book was for us to do. Seriously. I am not just talking financial risk, although that is considerable and much thanks to Planet Lar for taking that leap on a book that was almost impossible for me to properly describe ahead of time.

"The creative risk was hefty as well. In an industry where 95 percent of the comics are totally safe, status quo books that sell to fans who want nothing but, Becky and I decided to take a year out of our lives and do something entirely different for us, different for the genre, intensely personal at times, and switch it up month after month. We have new characters, new settings, new vibes and, in a way, new art, month in and month out. We took a gamble people would respond, and they have. I honestly and truly wish more people in comics took risks like that, even if they fail. Without stuff like that, we die. And the people who do take those risks now, they have my respect. I wish them all the success they can handle."

You know what I've always thought that Newsarama needed? A theme song. Turns out, I wasn't alone...:

"Here's the story of a kick ass website,
Who was filled up with many nasty trolls.
All of them had ideas of hate, like their mother,
The youngest one in discontent."

Don't like that? What about this:

"Should they wear Leather or Spandex,
the Movie or the Cartoon X,
each have devout, devoted fans,
lock them in a cage until one fan stands..."

My favourite may be this one:

"Na-na-na-na-na-na-na POSTING!
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na POSTING!
POSTING! POSTING! POSTING!"

Jim Starlin returns to comics with a change of pace: A down-to-earth romantic comedy about two brothers in Mexico who are in love with the same woman. Oh, okay, he's actually writing a big cosmic epic again. But wouldn't it be nice for him to try something else?:

"I don’t like drawing horses and cars, plus it’s much more interesting to make a new world, rather than use the world that’s there... If you tell a story in a city on earth, you’re inhibited by the reality of earth, but if you let your audience know form the beginning that your story is going to be set among the stars, you’re not stuck to working within a certain reality. Anything is possible, and the story can be story-driven, rather than restricted by the environment. Plus, it’s fun to draw this stuff. I’d rather draw a bunch of aliens with robots chasing them than a ’57 Buick. Sorry, no slight to fans of the ’57 Buick, but that’s just me."

Ultimate Fanboy Rampage:

Millarworld doesn't like wannabe-creator Danny Donovan. And, it has to be said, they have good reason, if some of the stories they tell are true (Licking the neck of a fan? Hmm.). Mind you, I'm sure there's a line that gets crossed somewhere when you go from not liking someone to:

* Invading their messageboard to have a fight with their fans (especially when the majority of fans in question are just disguised posters from Millarworld taking the piss; it starts here)...

* Getting stroppy with the moderator of said board (Comixtreme moderator: "Can you please stop now? I mean, your point has been made. You hate the guy, and have no respect for him. Now it is just getting out of hand. It has crossed the line from a 'Danny vs Millarworld' to 'Millarworld vs CX' and I personally think that sort of thing is retarded. Besides, we have a lot of people on our board who like Mark Millar - why can't we have more 'civil' discourse? I mean, you guys are going to do what you are going to do. I just want to know what the point is, and when you plan on stopping it. I am not going to get in a flame war with you people, I just want this whole thing to go away. We would have been more than welcoming of your posts discussing the things you LIKE on our board. Why assault CX like that?" MW moderator: "Um, don't take this as an offense (actually, I don't care, truth be told), but you just HAPPEN to host Danny's forum. Had it been another forum, we would have said what we said there. Frankly, your forum is nary a blip on the radar of anyone here. Millarworld forging a 'war' with ComiXtreme would be akin to Paulie Shore calling out Ben Kingsley for an 'act-off.' Seriously. Get over yourself. PS - Hint: We're not Paulie Shore.")...

* Not to mention, getting into another fight with a collaborator of Donovan's (including bizarre threats of physical violence: "Threaten to hit my friend, show up, act violently towards anyone there and see what happens. MADSCIENCESTUDIO. We'll be at Heroes and Dragon Con so far, and it is an ardent desire on my part. I'll have to talk it over with Paul, he's a Fed, but I somehow think I'll be A-OK." "You and your boys should pay for me to come down to one of these cons, you can chalk it up as a marketing expense. You can advertise to every fansite that you guys are gonna have a fight with some message board loser. Think about how 'punk' that is you little avril bitch. I will gladly sign any legal waiver you require.").

The fifty-four page thread starts here.

The Joe Quesada board list things that annoy them about Marvel. No, really:

"I'm a bit bothered by this sudden 180 turn in creative direction for most books. Comics weren't 'working' for a while. Marvel tried something different, took a gamble, & it paid off. Why now go back to the "same ol', same ol'?"

"I don't think Marvel, or certain individuals within the company, are honest with us. I think a lot of it is smoke and mirrors. Propaganda. They say what they think we want to hear rather than the truth. Or rather, what we *need* to hear to buy the book, rather than the truth, since they utilize controversy...or did during Jemas' reign. The most obvious was U-Decide of course. I think the main thing Marvel needs to do is just be honest with what they're doing."

"[M]y biggest criticism of Marvel is their categorical refusal to diversify their line with new concepts, creator-owned or otherwise. There's a big bookstore market out there, and Spider-man ain't flying off the shelves at Barnes and Noble. I really like the Icon idea, but so far all we've seen from this is Marvel nabbing two already established creator-owned projects from their original publishers. And, really, this is one of the first instances of Marvel publishing ANYTHING where the books weren't part of their shared universe (remember when Spider-man met the Transformers?) Where's the new?"

It's the story that won't die, but at least Ed Brubaker puts the Micah Wright story in some perspective:

"I just think it's sad to see this all come out like this, and it's sad he did it in the first place. Does that make him a hack? Technically, no. Lying and claiming to have witnessed things you didn't doesn't make someone a hack. It usually makes them a politician (I met a man in Georgia today who lost his job and he said blah blah blah...). This is just semantics, but it gets to why this is more sad than anything. A hack is a word with a specific meaning. You can not like him and not respect him and not want to read his work again, certainly, but he did put effort into his writing. He just should've done more of that and less of the fictional persona in the first place."

Pat Broderick leaves Micronauts to work with the NFL. Meanwhile, Spider-Man 2 logos are no longer going to appear on in-field bases at baseball games on the weekend of that movie's release. Newsarama is like ESPN all of a sudden.

Oh, wow:

"Over the past few days, at least a handful of folks have offered to use their memberships to set up a forum devoted to comic book and cartoon porn for my DelphiProle ass. The idea interests me, but if I'm going to do this, then I'm going to get some feedback on how I should go about doing it first, because I'll goddamned if I have somebody set up a forum for me and nobody shows the fuck up because I didn't do it right. So, let me start by telling you what I had in mind.

"If I do this thing, it's going to be centered about pornographic interpretations of comic book and cartoon characters. This wouldn't just be about fan fic or fan art, but it would also, and hopefully primarily, be concerned with threads much like the ones I've perpetrated on here and in various other Delphi fora, speculating on the sexual sides of these characters and encouraging creative debates on these matters. However, while the forum would be open to discussions regarding the live-action television and movie versions of these characters, I would prefer to limit the forum's focus to characters who are primarily comic book or cartoon-related."

Christopher Butcher reports that The Complete Peanuts is almost completely sold out, three days after its official release. Good, says I. It's a fucking incredible book, and I'm glad it's a success.

Millarworld is all about hype today:

"In the end, when you surrender to hype, you're left with an unpleasant feeling, the feeling that you could have gotten a lot more if you had spend the money on a grade A hooker instead of comics.
Because at least the hooker delivers on het promise, when the comics don't deliver on the hype."

"hype doesn't kill a book for me. when i read something, hyped or not, I prefer judge the material in the same way, using the same scale."

"We're forgetting one very important thing. While hype may lead to the disappointment of a bare few, without hype there's a vast majority that would enjoy these books but wouldn't know a lot of them exist. Beyond your enjoyment of a book (or lack thereof) is an industry that we need to work towards keeping alive. By we I mean all of us... We need hype. Hype is the lifeblood of this industry. If a book doesn't live up the hype for you, hey, that's fine. It happens. Pass that book along to someone else who you think WOULD like it. It's really that simple. Work with it."

Newsarama officially launches a review forum. It even comes with rules:

"The review has to be that – a REVIEW. Not a rant, not a whine, and not a veiled rant/whine whose central message is 'I can write this better!' We can all see through that, and you look pathetic when you do it."

May God have mercy on Matt Brady.

Andy Diggle confirms what was already confirmed in the "DC in Demand" pages of yesterday's DCU books; namely, that he's doing an Adam Strange mini-series with severely underrated artist Pascul Ferry:

"The rumours have been circulating for months, and finally we can announced it officially - I'm writing an 8-issue ADAM STRANGE mini-series that's spearheading a new direction for many of the DCU's sci-fi characters... Tentatively titled PLANET HEIST, it's being drawn by Pascal Ferry of ACTION COMICS and WILDCATS 3.0 fame. He has such an incredible talent for sci-fi character and environment design, it's going to be hard to resist the temptation to post every page here for you all to boggle at... But I won't. Guess you'll just have to read the comic instead! In stores September."

Sara Grey, a California retailer, isn't too happy with the timing of Marvel's announcement of their push into schools with advertisements for FCBD:

"Had we known that Marvel would run a kids-friendly ad for a large number of intended recipients, you could bet that many stores would have ordered more freely this year. Obviously, this year's FCBD event has had a lot of us in a tizzy. It's timing, books being pulled out, scheduled movie tie-ins being moved... All of those things added up to me ordering 'conservatively' this year as opposed to what I ordered last year. Compound this with the new announcement of advertising, and it makes ME, the retailer, feel like a moron for doing something that for all intents and purposes TWO WEEKS AGO seemed like a great idea."

ICv2 has a quick chat with Erik Larsen about what Image is up to for Free Comic Book Day:

"We're dong a new comic book and the idea on my end is to have various people who are doing ongoing Image titles give you sort of an 8-page sampler of the kind of thing that you might expect in their regular ongoing books... But that's the idea, so that a reader who will read this will get an idea of what these guys are all about or get a summary of where these characters have been and where they're going next. And from what I've seen so far, they're nicely done little stories that give you a taste of what these characters are. And I think it's kind of neat that while everybody else is doing these Free Comic Book Day stories that are essentially reprints of stuff that's a year or more old, here you've got somebody who's doing something new. Although I expect somebody to get pissed off at us... There's always somebody, you know. 'You finally gave us a book we could sell, and we have to give it away. What's wrong with you.'"

The Bendis board reports on the rumour that Eminem isn't happy with Mark Millar saying that he was interested in starring in any prospective Wanted movie:

"If this is all truely what Millar intended, I just went from having a deep respect for the man to actually loving him."

"Millar is a fucking genius."

"Eminem cant act... Id get a no-name actor to play wesley. Good move on Millar either way."

Millar's own comment?:

"Bwaha hahahahahaha! Now... Chosen."

Newsarama talks to CP Smith, artist of the upcoming Invaders series:

"It's cool to make up the looks of the characters. My initial attraction to the project was that I'd be able to make up a whole bunch of commando gear. Issue #1 is going to look completely different from issue #0. #0 was kinda tacked on in front of #1 to link up with the Avengers story that Chuck was writing to introduce the new team. So, that issue is drawn with Scott Kolins' designs. #0 should butt up with the Avengers. Issue #1 takes place several months later. I like to draw the Blazing Skull and Union Jack because visually they're not to cluttered and it's always cool to draw a guy with a skull head."

Marvel give free comics to millions of kids:

"As part of the Summer Reading Challenge, Marvel will include with the reading calendar a free copy of Marvel Age: Spider-Man #2, meaning that two million elementary school children will be getting copies of the wall-crawler's adventure in the month before FCBD! In addition, in continued support of Free Comic Book Day, the inside front cover and last page of this specially-printed edition will read: Spider-Man's adventures continue regularly in Marvel Age Spider-Man comics and digests. For a free copy of the comic book Marvel Age Spider-Man #1, visit your local comic shop on Free Comic Book Day - July 3, 2004. For more info and to find a comic shop near you go to www.freecomicbookday.com."

I like Demo, you like Demo. Hell, if you don't like Demo, then... well, either it's not to your taste for some reason or more likely, you've just not read it yet. Now you can rectify that situation by posting your fanboy fantasies for all to see. Go here for details.

(Now linked on the sidebar on the front page of Newsarama, too).

Where should all the disillusioned Micah Wright forumites go? After suggestions of Andy Diggle's forum, Heidi Macdonald's forum and the Alternative Comics forum, talk turns to Millarworld, and that's where the fun begins:

"I really wouldn't recommend Millarworld. Too narrow-minded and judgemental towards anyone who doesn't share their exact believes towards what comics should be and of criticism towards Mark Millar, his work, and his 'do as I say, not how I do' form of politics as seen by his work with the Ultimates...."

"So it's exactly like the WEF, then?"

"Except with more Mark Peyton brownnosing."

It gets more fun when Mark Peyton himself appears...

Andy Smith gets paid by Crossgen. And it only took a measly little lawsuit to get them to do it:

"Well there was no judge involved - it never went to trial. It's a long story but basically back on March 23rd I went to a pre-trial to see if CG was willing to pay me. Jennifer Hernandez, CG's counsel, was there representing Mark Alessi. They felt I wasn't owed any money and that I was 'paid twice'. The reason being is they let it be known at the pre-trial that they were going to counter sue me for supposedly stealing artwork. Needless to say I was pretty shocked by that statement. When I received the paper work from them explaining the counter-suit I was in total disbelief of what I was reading. They accused me of stealing artwork to The First #37, my last issue for the company. They also accused me of co-conspiring to steal Way of the Rat #1 with other people that now don't work at the company anymore. I assume their reasoning behind saying they paid me twice is because of the value they put on the artwork is more than doubled what I was owed. These allegations have no basis whatsoever. In short their counter suit was a frivolous attempt to get back at me for suing them for what I was rightfully owed. Because of this counter-suit I contacted a lawyer. After only a week of his involvement in the case CG dismissed the counter-suit and along with that letter was a check for my full amount owed."

Smith adds, at Broken Frontier:

"I do think that if other people owed sued they might get paid. I don't think CG wants a judgement on public record against them. I think that's the only reason I got paid is so they wouldn't have a judgement against them, well except for the small filing fee they still owe."

Newsarama tries to whet your appetite for Mark Millar's Spider-Man by previewing the second issue with random panels. The overall effect is more than a little disjointed, like a badly put-together movie trailer, if you ask me...

Steven Grant hits the spot, as ever:

"Crossgen existed less as a comics publishing concern and more as a monument to Mark Alessi's ego. I know that sounds harsh, but it's not as judgmental as it sounds. That's considered not only perfectly appropriate behavior in our business but expected behavior. After all, that's the model that most aspiring comics companies have dangling in front of them (and which talent like Alan Moore have reverently lampooned): Marvel Comics under Stan Lee, which was the highly successful epitome of egoism as marketing concept. It worked for Stan, because it was new, it was different, it was perfect for a time when the country was coming out of the grimness of the '30s and '40s and the cultural blandness of the '50s (at least as far as corporatized culture went). Stan brought to comics such a massive dose of good-humored narcissism that, particularly compared to the religiously staid anonymity of voice in DC Comics of the time, it was infectous. But if that were all Stan brought, Marvel wouldn't be here today. If the comics published during Stan's reign weren't any good, Marvel wouldn't be here today. Stan talked a good game, but he had the cards to back it up. And that's where most companies fall down."

Lettering God Of My Youth (him and Steve Potter from 2000AD) Tom Orzechowski on Wondercon:

"Steve Chung and I returned books we'd loaned each other. He'd picked up an impressive bag o' swag from dollar boxes. Among them, a couple of early issues of Luke Cage, Power Man. These are noteworthy as they sport my first Marvel cover logo. It ran for two or three issues before being dropped in favor of one that was, how shall I put this, attractive. Well, there was a Luke Cage, Power Man action figure for sale at the con, and its packaging features that short-lived logo of mine. Go figure. Maybe someone in merchandising is out to get me."

Jennifer Young tries to talk up her first book, Cold Summer, from her company, the wonderfully-named Cute Girl Demographics:

"Cold Summer is my first non-superhero series... It's about a rich Southern belle whose view of the world is pushed to the limits when she's sent off to a holistic camp up North to quit smoking. Since the main character, who's based on one of the first women I've ever met coming to Atlanta, narrates the story, we never really get an objective view of what really happened or how the other characters really are. This then questions the accuracy of time and memory, and the human bias. Uh, well, it really isn't that profound. Most books, comic books or otherwise, have that inherent questioning as well."

Antony Johnston gets his second Newsarama interview about his second new project (from a second publisher) in as many days. Yesterday it was his Oni series The Long Haul, and today it's HP Lovecraft time with the new book Yuggoth Creatures:

"The initial impetus was Avatar's. William [Christensen, Avatar Editor-in-Chief] and I had wanted to do a Lovecraftian book for some time, but we wanted to be sure that when we did, we'd do something a bit unique, something to make it more than 'just another' Lovecraft homage. Then William called me up one day and said he'd had an idea; he wanted to publish a bestiary of Lovecraft's various monsters and gods, as a showcase for some great art and a kind of primer for people not overly familiar with Lovecraft and his works. That was a fine idea, but it didn't leave much for me to do. So I suggested writing a short story to go with each monster, and then subsequently thought, why not make those stories connected, and part of a larger story? That led to the idea of Professor Ericsson, this extraordinary man who's lived through almost the entire Mythos, sitting down to write his memoirs and warn the world of its impending doom..."

Wildstorm rebrands itself in, presumably, an attempt to reposition itself post-Wildcats and Stormwatch cancellation:

"Starting with the EX MACHINA promotional items, projects from WildStorm Productions will feature a new set of branding marks. The three redesigned brands - to be displayed on covers, advertising, posters, the WildStorm website and elsewhere - encompass series set in the WildStorm Universe, creator-driven projects, and licensed and other properties. The brands will appear on all WildStorm projects and include the following: * WILDSTORM UNIVERSE: for projects set in the same universe, such as SLEEPER, THE AUTHORITY, SLEEPER SEASON 2, PLANETARY and others. * WILDSTORM SIGNATURE SERIES: for creator-driven projects such as ASTRO CITY, ARROWSMITH and EX MACHINA that are not part of the WildStorm Universe. * WILDSTORM: for licensed properties such as THUNDERCATS and others."

They still have that horrible WS logo, though.

If you're not with John Byrne, you're an idiot:

"Anyone with a working braincell could have predicted a Byrne/Claremont recombination would have pushed up the sales on whatever title it happened to be attached to. No evaluation of quality inferred. The mere fact of this 'event' would be enough to spike the sales, as it has on JLA. So. . . those who fancy themselves to be so much 'in the know' have really missed a bet, haven't they? Rather than predicting (and trying to promote after the fact) the idea of dismal failure for this JLA arc, if they were really as on the ball as they like to think, they would have predicted the clear success of the arc again, no value judgement involved) and then roundly congratulated themselves when the sales came in. They could, effectively, have claimed the success of the book, instead of presenting themselves as idiots by trying to deny the obvious reality."

Atom! at Brave New World answers those who are wondering whatever happened to NYX:

"NYX was a success. The books were coming out more or less on-time and it was gaining all sorts of critical success and surprising sales for an X-Men book with a Mature Content label. Then the guy who created the character introduced in #3 took a look at issue #3 after it was printed. Turns out that the creators 'went another way' from what was approved of by this guy who was smart enough to negotiate complete control over his creation. He placed a (what I’m going to assume was a tension-filled) call to Quesada and now they are rethinking it. It seems that the Owner of the lead character had not envisioned her as the prostitute that she is that book. Or is she? The current buzz is that they are re-writing the subsequent issues and portraying her as more of an S&M dominatrix without the sex. Sure. Why not? Will we ever see the rest of this series? I hope so, but I won’t be waiting underwater."

Using this as my starting point -

"I have to admit, I dug the first issue of the Azz/Lee Superman run. I was ppleasantly surpirsed, because I was not a fan of Azz's work on Batman recently. But I was mucking around on CBR and I found this... http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/preview.php?image=news/superman206.jpg.
That's [unfortunately-named Authority villain] Three Willie Seth, yeah? Is it supposed to be him or is it just an unfortunate design choice. Cool though."

- I'd like to make the following prediction about Azzarello and Lee's Superman arc: The "vanishing" of a million people all over the world is due to them having all gone over, somehow, to the Wildstorm Earth, while Wildstorm has given the DC Earth Majestic, Seth and some other characters who'll probably appear over the next year or so. Crisis on Earth Wildstorm anybody?

Bob Greenberger brings me good news:

"Our 'lost' annuals and replica books do well enough that we plan to continue to produce them but they're certainly not going to be found on best seller lists. To my mind, they work as low-priced entry points into our collected editions and archive programs... We have one more for the year, which is a 'lost' annual rescued from the vault of obscurity. Editorially, we're approaching it as the last of the 80-Page Giants before they made way for the Super-Spectaculars. It's a bit of a cheat since the giants were already down to 64-pages by then but it'll be worthwhile. Under a new Jerry Ordway cover, we're digging up the origins of Animal Man, the Spectre, Dr. Fate, Enchantress, Congorilla and El Diablo -- a collection actually suggested to us by an old-time fan, Steven Utley. That'll be out in August."

I'll be in geek heaven.

APE and Wondercon swap months for 2005:

"As you know, our event is subject to the availability of the center... In fact, as you'll notice, this year our dates were end of April, beginning of May. Unfortunately, there were no dates in April for next year and the show would have to have been moved either one month prior, or one month later. Because of the amount of shows on the comics calendar now, the decision was made to hold the event in February (normally our APE month) and then see if we could move APE to April (normally our WonderCon month). Luckily, the Concorse Exhibition Center was available for APE... So the decision was made to make the switch. Official dates of the show are: WonderCon: February 18, 19, & 20, 2005[and] Alternative Press Expo: April 9 & 10, 2005"

Millarworld consider comics that they think don't deserve the hype:

"I've always thought V for Vendetta would have been much better if Moore had tried it later in his career. He's always been more about ideas than characters, but his best stuff at least blends the two. V has some intriguing ideas, but I'm not sure it actually has any characters. And, I have to say, I don't think either League of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume is a patch on, say, From Hell or Watchmen or Promethea. Sometimes he seemed more concerned with showing us just how much obscure Victoriana he'd read... rather than showing us why we should CARE how much of it he'd read."

"Dark Knight Strikes Again. I know a lot of people will say I 'didn't get it' and missed the message Frank Miller was trying to get across, and maybe they're right. But the reason I missed the message is that Miller did a poor job of conveying it in a coherent and cohesive form. It was, in a word, sloppy. I enjoy experimental comics (Automatic Kafka comes to mind as a recent example; Ted McKeever's Plastic Forks is another, older one). But they have to be consistent, whatever their particular style, otherwise the seams start to show and suddenly all I can see are the flaws. In the case of DKSA, all I could see in the final issue were the flaws."

"Bendi's Daredevil and Morrison's New X-Men did nothing for me. Tried them out for four issues each and was so bored with them that I couldn't bring myself to buy anymore."

Marvel continues to make money, I wonder why I haven't heard of a planned Nick Fury movie before.

X-Statix is to end with the end of the Avengers arc, as rumored for a long time. Mike Allred confirms:

"We wanted to do something big and special and fun, and I don’t know if it was gratitude for our efforts, but we were given permission to play with The Avengers. By that point, I think everybody-- everybody at Marvel, us-- just decided, 'Okay. Now’s the time.' So we're gonna do this arc, have an epilogue issue, and say goodbye."

Mark Millar posts on the Micah Wright story:

"I've never read anything this guy's done. In fact, I think I've only read a single feature on him (around the time I was leaving Authority) where he was bitching about one of my storylines being politically naive or something, trying to make a name for himself and where, I think, this Ranger idea was first mooted as a means of sounding cool and hard. However, I also appreciate that companies generally do absolutely nothing to promote new creators and you have to do what you can before you end up like 90% of the OTHER new creators who've tried to break into the business. Yeah, he sounded like a bit of a dick in that interview I read and yeah this Ranger thing was kind of sad, but he's hardly the Washington Sniper. As far as crimes go, pretending to be a former member of the United States armed forces barely registers for me at all and yet so many people out there are ready to castrate the poor bastard. In all honesty, this story actually makes me semi-curious to pick up a comic I had absolutely no interest in whatsoever before so it's kind of worked on some level. A backhanded compliment perhaps, but maybe this kind of crazy shit is the only way anybody's ever going to pay attention to this rapid succession of new guys before they disappear off the radar altogether."

Controversial! He then changes his mind less than an hour later when he finds out what he was talking about:

"To be honest, I couldn't be arsed reading all the details on the various sites, but the more I'm reading the more this seems less like a PR stunt/ scam and more kind of tragic. It's uncool to have people defending your lies month after month like that and letting them make fools of themselves. However, in the global scheme of things, I'm more upset about all those bodybags coming home from Iraq. Man, I'm getting awfully Christ-like and forgiving in my old age."

And then, even later, backtracks some more:

"Seriously, though, I think the guy is an ass and from what I hear from others he's an objectionable character, but the idea that his projects are suspended and his income halted because he was an idiot seems a bit severe."

Brandon Thomas is excited:

"Three days from now, my very first Marvel comic hits the stands, and I feel obligated to deliver some poignant reactive thought about it, but it’s really all one word responses in here. Wild. Gratifying. Crazy. Exciting. Unbelievable. Bizarre. Unreal. I managed to snag a First Look copy of the issue last Wednesday, and still haven’t thought of anything moderately intelligent to say. The phrase, “it’s cool,” only carries so far, right? But that’s it right there, that’s the word I’m using anytime someone asks me how it feels. It’s cool. Cooler than I can express."

Free Comic Book Day gets sponsored:

"Free Comic Book Day 2004 is receiving a big boost in the promotions department with the help of the RED service, the hugely successful online experience for teens from America Online. The RED service is coming to the aid of the FCBD effort like a classic super-hero and will supply a powerful promotion for FCBD in the months leading up to the big event, leveraging its subscriber base of more than five million teens to spread the word about Free Comic Book Day."

Isotope is having Ed Brubaker signing on FCBD this year, so I may finally get to meet him after failing the last two times he was in San Francisco...

Speak of the Devil:

"In light of the events concerning Micah Wright, his confession that he was never an Army Ranger, and the Washington Post reporting that Seven Stories has dropped his next book, Newsarama asked DC in regards to the status of Wright’s Vigilante series, which was announced at last summer’s WizardWorld: Chicago. As of now, DC has no comment on the status of the series at this time."

One more time:

So, the biggest news story of the weekend wasn't that Greg Rucka wants Dame Judi Dench to play Wonder Woman's mum in any WW film that gets made (an injoke for those at Wondercon on Friday), but that Former-Army-Ranger-Turned-Writer Micah Wright may have to change that whole "Former-Army-Ranger" thing... Yes, Micah Wright admitted the truth, except... well, it might not be the whole truth. Of all the outrage on this, the comics internet, none was more deserved than that on Micah's own forum, where posters had - on more than one occasion - defended Wright from claims that his Ranger service was just a lie:

"A part of me hopes that it will turn out that someone hacked your account and posted this to discredit you. The bigger part of me wants to break your nose, and other body parts, for all the times that I and others here sprang to your defense when people attacked you on the basis of your past."

"Yeah, you guys were so good to Micah durring that time. I feel bad for all of you. The publisher of the poster book should sue. If only to save face. I have not always agreed with Micah but I always though of him as an honest-to-a-fault type guy. Not so much anymore."

"I feel that your work would have stood on its own without the lie, but we will never know if that would have been the case. I am devastated and made nauseous by this news. I didn't do the research because I took you at your word, something that came easy."

Kurt Busiek stopped in at the forum, to talk sense:

"The only way to recover, to whatever extent you're going to, is to move forward -- not make more unverifiable claims, but buckle down and do good work. Whatever hole you're in, deal with it -- you dug it, it's your hole. Do enough good work, and people will start to judge you on that. Do it long enough, and it'll outweigh this. But don't get huffy about the criticism and bitch about how people are being unfair to you. You lied to them. You admitted it. Stand up, take the reaction your statements have brought on you, and move forward.

"And if you feel you took a few unfair lumps in the process, too bad. Think about the people who you called liars and haters, think about Carlos D'Anda suddenly having devoted months of his life to a tainted project, think about the folks at Oni dealing with having a big stack of inventory they thought your name would help but will now actually hurt, think about how fair that is, and quit bitching that you don't like the criticism. You didn't 'make it all better' by admitting the truth. That it was the right thing to do doesn't mean that it balances out doing the wrong thing, or that it erases the damage other people have and will endure due to your actions. Just shut up for a while and let people throw bricks at you for your stupid behavior. You earned them."

Other messageboards were also upset. Millarworld, for example:

"I wouldnt have as big a problem with it as i do if not for the fact that he perpetuated the lie to get work published. THATS despicable. I for one will steer clear of anything this guy writes."

"He's no better than he makes the oil companies and the Administration out to be - lying for money, prestige and notoriety. Bastard. I have no intention of buying any of his work in the future and will probably sell in bulk his SW:TA stuff. I financially supported the guy when he was doing this? I read up on him, his Ranger stuff, in online articles when the series was announced and thought, "Oh, a fresh, experienced voice for this title - what validity this adds. I'll definately pick it up now. And now it turns out he's been lying all this time? This isn't a political statement on his part, this is just being a fucker."

Newsarama, meanwhile, goes slightly further:

"It always amazes me how liars try to justify their lies by deflecting to someone else. But unlike this Liar, Bush did serve, whether Wright wants to admit it or not,Bush served. He may not like or accept the paperwork Bush released, But who the hell is he, A Liar, to question anyone else's legitimate service. But something about this whole thing sounds like another Lie to get some controversy going.Confirm the story if you would, make sure this guy isn't just pulling legs again to promote his books."

"no respect for this clown whatsoever. Get some counseling, moron."

"Do you know how retarded it is to be talking about BUSH and politics and crap pertaining to the mutha fucking COMIC INDUSTRY! Give me a break. For people actually out there working on stuff, dealing with readers day to day, in person.. stories like this put a bad taste in their mouth. The dude obviously wants to be some controversial guy like Aaron MacGruder, but he's doing a crappy job at it. Aaron doesnt lie about things to get his points across. IT sounds like this was just a 'OH SHIT, IM BUSTED, HOW DO I GET OUT OF THIS LIE??? OH THATS RIGHT, THE GOVERNMENT ARE BASTARDS!'---- get the hell out of here with that. People are smarter than that shit."

Meanwhile, the rumors that his upcoming DC book Vigilante has been killed have already started...

The perils of doing longform blogging: I'd just spent an hour on a post about Micah Wright's Ranger lie, and then my computer crashed.

Fucker.