Fanboy Rampage!!!

More political science, as Heidi asks various comics celebrities who they'll be voting for. This is just the kind of thing that rankles the Broken Frontier faithful, who are currently upset about Alex Ross's Village Voice cover:

"I don't quite understand why 'celebrity types' think I care about what they think about politics. I care about how they act in the latest movie or how they draw my favorite characters. If they want me to care about their political stance, they should go into politics. I prefer to think for myself on the issues, thank you very much."

"It's a the sad state of the power of media & the even more scary state of of the ingorant youth of today. Celebrities do not care one bit whether you know what their political views are, but the democatic party cares, & the celes care about the publicity that the democrats give them. The left are aware that there are a lot of young voters that know absolutely nothing about politcs, but they see in their MTV commercials all the time how important it is to vote. Since they know nothing about politcs, but a man called P-Diddy keeps yelling at them that they will die if they don't vote, they figure 'hell, I guess I should vote, but I have no idea who to vote for, yet. . . since Titanic is my favorite movie & Leo is dreamy, then I should vote for Kerry'. As sad as it seems, that is the sad truth. It's just simple memory association, there are voters that know nothing about either candidate, but they remember the name Kerry more b/c there are constant commercials & shows with celebrity names attached to Kerry so that is who they vote for in the polls."

"Personally, it makes me sick to my stomach when so called 'celebrities' attempt to use their popularity to influence the political arena (On both sides)...maybe in a way, because it tends to demonstrate so clearly how incredibly stupid or shallow some people can be, when their minds are swayed simply because one of their favorite entertainers think along certain lines. (And yes, it really does happen; I've actually met one or two like that!)... The really strange part though? I don't have the same reaction when it involves comics, and a creator simply says something in an interview or whatever that I don't agree with...it only seems to affect me when their personal art form is used to express their political view...haven't quite figured that aspect out yet, but it's what happens to me. I'm afraid that Mr. Ross has now dropped a bit on my 'respect-o-meter.'"

For those who, like me, enjoyed the last sneak peak of Five Fists of Science:



Cheers, Larry.

The Bendis board hits another high note:

"Just showed my girlfriend the Alias Anal scene... She thinks I'm reading too much into it. She doesn't think it's anal."

"1) She's wrong. 2) Dude, there's better ways to broach the subject."

"I never thought it was actually anal, either, but Bendis himself said it."

"by her saying that you were really reading to much into it, what she really meant was not in a million fucking years."

"This is true. But she just showed me her boobs, so I think if I get offline now I am going to get some. Goodnight, Bendis Board."

Intermessageboardweb War! Mark Millar wasn't happy with the Marvel.com "Who gets to be a bad guy in Millar's Wolverine run" poll:

"That Wolvie poll over at www.marvel.com has Venom in the lead. I like Venom well enough, but I'm doing my Venom story over in MK Spider-Man and I can't be arsed writing another one. The two I really wanted on this poll were Blade and Bullseye. These are the ones I was torn between (Blade edging ahead) and the others were just notions the Marvel guys filled out. But fucking Venom is in the lead here and this thing is finished tomorrow. Blade is currently 12 points behind and I can't go back on my word when I start WOLVERINE: AGENT OF SHIELD (the other half of this big revenge story). Help a brother out and do a last minute splurge for the vampire killer. You know it makes sense."

Millarworld heed his call to action:

"I should be access about 30 different PC's/Internet connection tommorow morning and about the same amount from lunch so will get voting :)"

"As a Marvel employee and designer and maintainer of the Marvel.com site, it would be morally wrong for me to point out ways of skewing the poll, such as clearing your cookies after each time you vote so as to bypass the 24 hour lock on voting in our polling engine. It would be completely unethical for me to say something like that on a public message board."

"Ok, so I just voted 44 times, and I am getting a headache. Do you have to stop voting if your head explodes??"

Meanwhile, the Joe Quesada board aren't happy with this blatant abuse of power:

"Millar is such a cheater... He's telling his board to flood the Marvel.com poll with votes for Blade before the deadline (tomorrow at noon) because he doesn't want to write Venom. And it's working. *** him. I'm going to flood it with votes for Venom, not even because I want to see him that bad, but just because I don't like the idea of the writer rigging his own poll. If you don't want to respect the fans choice, why do the poll? If you want to join me in my protest, block Marvel.com's cookies and just keep going back to page to vote. In Internet Explorer, you can do this by going to Tools, Internet Options, Privacy, Edit, and then type in marvel.com and click Block. Grrr. The Millarworlders will probably win this, though. What a rip."

"Never underestimate the power of interweb spammers. I wonder what everyone who thought it was cool of Millar to do this poll is gonna think now. Bet they'll be miffed."

"I voted for venom and as soon as results came up it was 36,857 total votes, hit refresh and in the course of 2 seconds it jumped to 36,932 votes. This is fucked up."

"I think Millar should just ignore that poll and declare it invalid coz of all the fixing of votes and write Blade v Wolverine anyway!!"

And the winner is?

"After a last minute surge in voting (and a not-so-subtle get-out-the-vote campaign from a certain Scottish comic book writer), the World’s Deadliest Assassin, Bullseye, beat Spider-Man arch-foe Venom by a hair. Bullseye will rumble with Wolverine...but keep your eyes peeled for special cameos by the also-rans. Thanks everyone for voting!"

You've got to beware of those subliminal political messages in the final days before the election, according to those at Newsarama:

"GL: Rebirth as Pro-Bush Propaganda? Okay, let's weight out the similarities here: 1) Both Hal Jordan and George W. Bush joined the air force as pilots long ago. 2) Both Hal Jordan and George W. Bush once got slapped with a DUI 3) Both Hal Jordan and George W. Bush are being given a second chance to be Green Lantern/President, despite going mad with power and putting the Earth itself in jeopardy. 4) Their community of peers seems to be highly suspicious of their motives. Green Arrow = England, Batman = France, Flash = Canada. There's no way around it folks."

"Hmmm, good theory. But everyone knows GL: Rebirth is pro-Kerry propaganda! Look at how he flip-flops! (I'm Green Lantern, fighting cosmic war! No, I'm a social activist now, hanging out with Green Arrow and the hippies! No wait, now I'm crazy! I'm Parallax now! No, no, the Spectre! Did I say the Spectre, no I meant I'm Green Lantern again. I've always been pro-Lantern!)"

Wizard, not content with spoiling the end of Avengers Disassembled, are now doing the same to Identity Crisis according to those at the DC boards (Possible spoilers, for those who care):

"look at the best villain category [at] http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazines/wizard/WZ20041027-wzfa.cfm <<-
dick grayson (identity crises)OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Are you kidding me? I hope this is a red harring or I would sue the pants off of Wizard for letting this out."

"Well, if Dick really was listed there (you know, if it wasn't a red herring from Wizard or a fanboy prank), then he's not on the list now."

"yep hes been taken off the list. that was pretty mean. The biggest clue ever that it is not dick [...] wel that narrows it down to everyone else"

Josh Farkas fights The Man, but not The Man that you might be expecting:

"The CBLDF claims that their mission is to fight against First Amendment infringements in the comic community.Yet, in their own words the CBLDF's programs have been more about spreading the word that censorship exists, then actually defending cases... What is this great enemy they're fighting? Usually small religious organizations bent on banning any material that may be potentially offensive to minors in their community. But the beauty of our system is that just because a case is brought to court, does not mean that the law is bound to attack any form of art. Judges and juries are well aware of the power of First Amendment rights. In many cases the CBLDF touts their influence (this includes 2 main stories on their website as of 10/24) but it is the law who reacts accordingly by reviewing the law, and dismissing the charges as unfounded. This action wasn't due to the attempts of a committee, it was due to the legal system being built on checks and balances.

"...Imagine that tomorrow you wake up to see the lead story on the news, 'Movie Industry sides with Pornographers, Pedophiles, & Purveyors of Violence'. The reporters then say the movie industry is abolishing a rating system, and will be aggressively prosecuting anyone that infringes on their right to express themselves as artists. X-rated films are now playing as previews before Disney movies in the name of higher art. Why don't you think this will happen? A better question would be, why does the comics community side with the push to make our chosen passion even more inaccessible? Sure it is our right as comic artists and readers to enjoy work we find entertaining, even if it may include heavy violence or sex. But demanding that these materials be placed beside Funny Animal comics without restriction is insane. It is this same introverted approach of 'with us or against us' that has driven comics to the crippled place they stand today."

Joe Casey and Matt Fraction have trouble ending it all:

"The concept of endings is something that mainstream comicbooks -- their creators and their readers -- seem to have trouble grasping. Writing monthly superheroes certainly promotes the never-ending story. After all, you're maintaining a trademark and trademarks can never really end, can they? But with the advent of mini-series and, to a lesser extent, the story arc, the opportunity to provide some sort of ending to whatever story you're telling becomes much more feasible. Except that most mainstream comicbooks still aren't very good at it. In fact, they kinda suck at providing good endings. And, on top of that, most mainstream readers aren't used to appreciating endings if and when they happen to occur... mainly because they don't get enough good endings to be able to identify them.

"Look around at the books that are currently in fashion. Personally, I see a lot of well-done set-ups (beginnings), some great story meat (middles), and piss-poor endings. Stories that simply... end. Or worse, just peter out when the pages run out."

Wizard accidentally spoil Avengers Disassembled. Millarworld reacts:

"The spoiler surprised me because I didn't believe it could be so obvious. That's who I guessed by reading the name of the arc on the cover of #500."

"Don't worry guys, a month or so after Bendis leaves the Avengers, it will be revealed that Scarlet Witch wasn't Scarlet Witch, but in reality it was the long lost sister of Xorn who was possesed by someone, and that the real Witch has been hanging in Wundagore mountain all the time."

"The true fall from grace isn't the villian of disassembled, and that was predictable, and shouldn't even be respected enough to consider it a spoiler, but the true fall from grace is Brian Michael Bendis. Marvel's got some new blood arriving soon in Ed Brubaker and Robert Kirkman, and new writers like Dan Slott seem primed to move up the ladder quickly, so Bendis' fall from the top won't really hurt in the scheme of things, it's just a shame that he started trying to be Stan Lee. Pride comes before the fall , as they say."

"wow, do you have something against bendis, larry? i mean, i was upset that he offed gwen too...but this is too much. trying to be stan lee? pride? bendis' fall from grace? i said this over in his board, and i'll say it again...if the worst thing you can do is write a bad issue once in a while, you're doing alright."

Paul Jenkins leaves Spectacular Spider-Man, and the books gets cancelled. Joe Quesada explains, after a fashion:

"Paul is a true professional but I also know that over the last year and a half he's been fighting some difficult health issues all the while giving Spectacular and the fans his best work. We at Marvel really want to thank him for his years of hard work he's put into Spider-Man and we're sorry to see him leave the title. Much like Ultimate Team-Up was a vehicle created for Brian Bendis to shine and then canceled with his departure, the same can be said about Spectacular Spider-Man. Spectacular Spidey was created for Paul and Humberto to tell their brand of Spider-Man stories. Without them attached to the series we've decided to close up shop on the title and call it a day with issue #27. But on that note, stay tuned for some new and exciting Paul Jenkins announcements!"

Okay, this time I really am back, barring any more family emergencies that make me fly across the world. Thanks again to Chris H, Ed, Chris Butcher and John for covering for me while I listened to terrible stories about how close my mother came to death (clue: Very close indeed. She had a heart attack that required 25 shocks to return a pulse, which is apparently very rare and very bad), and then was part of assembled family who watched as she recovered much quicker than doctors expected. She's still not out of the woods - or even hospital - yet, but we're hoping that that's going to only going to be a matter of time. Thanks, too, to those who emailed nice thoughts when I needed them.

Still, this kind of exhausted personal stuff is not why you come here, so I'll be back on the snark tomorrow when I'm less jetlagged and can think straight again.

I'm thinking, with Tony Lee addresing himself as a "Spin Doctor" instead of the PR Manager for AP Comics, he'll get everything coming to him and more.

"Better get spinning then. Word around town is that they aren't sure what "creator owned" means. *shrugs* http://www.indiegods.com/IGPages/interviews1.htm I hear they're working on a new Darkham Vale series even after the creator left the company without his concept."

"Not sure - although I believe there's an upcoming TV series in the works, and Jack's due for a nice royalty cheque if it goes through - so I think he's still involved in a way..."

"So he doesn't own his creator owned project? I'm interested in hearing what the "other side of the story" might be, if there is one."

"Congrats on your position. Here's some advice from a long time promotions agent: Referring to yourself as a 'spin doctor' not only ruins any credibility you may have already, but it sets a precedent that your are engaging in covering up lies, untruths and attempting to shine a positive light on negative events for your employer. Unless that's exactly what you are doing, you should try your best not to give yourself such self defeating monikers right out of the gate. Clay is NOT a spin doctor. He's a Marketing & PR Coordinator. If you fail to see the difference, you might be in over your head."

Fanboys made good. Real. Good.

"Today, breaking both in The Hollywood Reporter and The Wall Street Journal, it was announced that Platinum Studios and Gold Circle Films (firs domestic release - My Big Fat Greek Wedding) have signed a development deal for 10 movies based on characters from Platinum’s library for $200 million. According to Platinum, this is the largest deal in history between studios, financiers and comic book producers."

Prime and Badrock are guaranteed money makers, I'm sure.

Looks like those Hal Jordan fans really did buy 20 copies apiece.

"With the first issue of the red-hot miniseries GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH (AUG040383) sold out at DC Comics days before its in store date of October 27, the publisher has rushed the issue back to press. Written by Geoff Johns with art and cover by Ethan Van Sciver, GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH #1 Second Printing (SEP048097) is scheduled to arrive in stores on November 17 with a new cover by Van Sciver."

Ok, who the hell is publishing these guys nowadays? First Image, then Devil's Due, now Image...

""Most writers just string together action sequences and space them out with a little bit of description and exposition," said Sean Jordan, editor of the adaptation of The Seventh Shrine. "But not Mr. Silverberg. His writing style is almost overwhelming to new readers because it's so detailed and immersive.""

And to explain the immense popularity of Robert Silverberg and his book, The Seventh Shrine, here's Mike S. Miller.

"I'd never heard of Robert Silverberg prior to beginning this project."

Admit it, Larry Young almost got ya. Yes, he did.

"AiT/Planet Lar publisher Larry Young announced today that issues number five and number six of the acclaimed miniseries DEMO by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan are completely sold out!

"Oh, wait; no, they’re not," said AiT/Planet Lar publisher Larry Young. "There WAS a brief time there when they were unavailable, though. In fact, in WIZARD #157’s price guide, they’re listed as rare. But because I’m a big believer in giving people what they want, we’ve gone back to press to ensure that all issues of DEMO are available as long as people want them. And it looks like people are going to be wanting them for a long, long time."

The Pulse lets you accuse the Identity Crisis murderer.

"My guess is Capt. Boomerang's never before heard of son.
The motivation?, To shock readers and sell comics.
And to make long time readers feel like they've been reading about a bunch of jerks for all these years.
#4 was my last pre-ordered issue so I expect I'll find out on these boards who it ultimately is.
But on a related note, I see Sue's body is in much better shape for her JSA appearance than it was in IC."

"I still believe it was Boomerang. He has used Mirror Master's equipment before (Suicide Squad) and is probably trying to show that he can still run with the big boys. Something that no one seems to believe anymore.
I'm guessing this will get him killed and his son will take over the "family business". Of course, that's my opinion, I could be wrong."

"The Elongated Man"

"first choice: J'onn J'onzz
second choice: Barry Allen
third choice: Sue Dibny and Elongated Man - maybe that's not really Sue's body but someone else's"

"Who: Captain Boomerang's kid.
Why: To impress his dad who he idolizes.

How: Was given access to Rogue paraphenalia by the other rogues who view him as one of the family.

How it will end: Badly for Captain Boomerang. (not so hot for the kid either)."

"The DC Encyclopedia has Amanda Waller listed as a villain, when actually there have been more villainous characters and they're only listed as "Presumed Villain". It kinda makes sense when it comes down to it. Dr. Light, Slipknot, and Captain Boomerang were all members of her Suicide Squad. Boomerang was even sent to murder her in the SUPERMAN SECRET FILES 2004 leading a Squad of his own for this group called the Cabal, which has Checkmate under their belts. It was even hinted that General Eiling belonged to the Cabal in SUICIDE SQUAD #62 - in fact in that story arc the Cabal were going after the Atom to learn the secrets of the other Justice Leaguers in SUICIDE SQUAD #59-62 (which is why he faked his death). The Cabal also appeared again in an issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE TASK FORCE, but I'm not sure to what extent.

Anyway, the Wall may not be the killer, but I'm sure she's involved somehow - maybe working with Luthor rubbed off on her...?"

"Here's the problem: I think that Meltzer has simply not done enough to make it possible to guess. Whatever strengths this comic has - and ther are many - one big flaw so far is that there are no real clues as far as I can tell. Everything is a red herring. 5/7th of the way home, and I see nothing that seems to be of any real use.
Suspects? Maybe the Calculator. Maybe all the former members of the Suicide Squad. But we have no motive, and no clear sense of "who benefits?" Who would beneift from a horde of distraught, disorganized heroes and also from a group of similarly chaotic villains? And who among all the bad guys either could figure out Superman is Clark Kent, or would have reason to even suspect it?

I am concerned that Meltzer, who like many of his peers in the suspense novel industry, is less interested in the mystery than in the effects of the mystery. As a result, he might leave us with an ending as contrived and dimwitted as that in "Hush." "Hush" was so close to being a classic Batman story till that last issue, and then everything broke apart like overcooked meat. We've seen this too often in all sorts of so-called "mystery" stories in all media, and I am not getting my hopes up this will end any better.

All that said, I'm left hoping it's Lex Luthor, though there is no reason to suspect him as he's playing dead right now and hasn't even been mentioned once. But it does make a little sense that he would strike back at both the villains he hated dealing with in his pervious careers, and the heroes he hated with a passion. But I can't figure out hwo he would find out Supes' identtiy again o why he's play a game so complex as this."

Following up on Graeme's recent posts about the Bendis board being closed, Neilfarted explains to everyone how the Internet works on the temporary Bendis board.

"ok, you people have no idea how the internet works. i'm sure allen probably would have been glad to explain it to you if you didn't come off like complete assholes, or like you people own the image boards. craig, i'd like to see you try to keep dudemetal off your forums and permabanned from here if he wanted to stay.

It's called proxy ip addresses. he uses different public, anonymous proxy ip addresses to post and to create multiple names. It's not as simple as you people seem to think it is.

sure, allen and most of the regulars caught on to his multiple ids, and figured it out. so you expect him to continue to waste his energy on banning his multiple accounts every time a new ID is suspect? even if dudemetal created 100 multiple accounts, and admitted to being dudemetal, that's still 100 accounts that allen has to delete.

dudemetal has been to my forums. he spammed the board with multiple accounts and flooded my forum with useless posts. i was able to install a modification on my forums to deal with the flooding and spamming, but if he wanted to continue to create multiple accounts, i would be useless to do anything but waste my time and delete each one, or close the board to open registration. obviously, the second option isn't reasonable to do on the image boards. do you really think it's worth allen's time to have to deal with this guy?
put yourself in his shoes. allen's done more for the community than he ever gets credit for, and all you people do is whine and bitch and show how unapreciative you are for the FREE fucking pacifier you all use.

and i'd love to see someone put up the funds to host a board that could handle the amount of bandwidth the image boards get on a daily basis."

James Sturm talks about the Center for Cartoon Studies and its differences.

"NRAMA: For a long time, the Joe Kubert School has been the primary, if not only, school devoted to comic education. Not to disparage Joe or the facility, can you tell us how CCS stands apart from it?

JS: I would never disparage Joe nor his faculty. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Joe as a cartoonist and for what he’s accomplished with his school. I do think CCS will differ from the Kubert school in a few ways. For starters, CCS emphasizes self-publishing. This emphasis obviously means the teaching of a lot of marketable skills but more importantly it allows the students to disseminate their work regardless whether they get hired by Marvel or DC or possess a more “commercial” style. Looking at Joe’s distinguished career and his instructors you can see there is a bias on a certain style or type of cartooning. Lynda Barry, Peter Arno, Julie Doucet, William Gropper, Crockett Johnson, and Rory Hayes are as important to the medium’s history (if not more so) than people like Barry Windsor Smith or Gene Colan. This is not meant as a slight to these great cartoonists. They certainly influenced me and have their place but there is so much more to the history of comics than the story of the larger publishing houses."

Collector's Paradise is still pissed about Bone.

"As a retailer, I was sore that he did this, but I would be totally over it if after that it was available to retailers. I have been trying to do reorders on this book WEEKLY, and have received a total of TWO copies reordered so far in the months since SD. That is TERRIBLE, not only am I loosing sales (and I am I could sell 3-5 per week easy), but also I have my customers going all around looking for them, Pointlessly of course, as my competition does not have it either, but in the meanwhile, they are shopping elsewhere. I can understand them, they are looking for the copy, but they really should not have to.

And for the last comment about the multiple printings, what do you think he should do, just keep those for the few who got them? A collectable TPB market? seriously? No, he should print a buttload of them and make it available so that the retailers who put him and his book on the map could FINALLY make some money off selling it. Who cares is if it's going to be "WORTH" something. That is the worst thing..."

The Bendis boarders react to the closing of the Bendis board. Over at the "temporary Bendis board", the thread that shut the whole board down is identified, and essentially it's just people being assholes to each other for no immediately apparent reason. Of course, the thread on the temporary board soon becomes a fight between one of the guilty parties and Allen Hui, Image Site Admin:

"That's the thread that caused the board to close. Read it and then if you want yell at me later. Apparently, I should have been banned for what I said. I'll post some comments later after I calm down because right now I am really pissed off about something allen said to me."

"It was clear that your comment to about maturity would've been taken personnally by cda031076 as it was in regards to his dispute with DrWhom. If it means anything now, you would've been unbanned well before the other two. But whatever, stay pissed off if you want because I sure as will be."

"Excuse me for offering just a small word of wisdom to him during a fight he started in my thread. I ignored him, but it grew really annoying and unnecessary to have this fight. And yet, when he personally attacked me by saying my own mother should have flushed me down a toliet I did not attack back. So allen, i fail to see where I abused him anywhere as close to as he did, when I did not abuse him in anyway, and made one comment to just frankly grow up, because if he hadn't been so rude in his first post I would have given him the link to the place."

Meanwhile, over at the Image Central board, there's a better sense of the whole situation, and even some self-awareness:

"Are we the only group on the internet that are SOO Addicted to our message board, we actually keep a spare??"

"I hope so"

"It's a wonder any of us get laid"

But back to the Temporary Bendis Board, where all is pain and misery and never their fault:

"So apparently, [consistent troll] dudemetal started enough shit to get the board locked? Has Allen or Denny or anyone considered that this shit is THEIR fault? They had to ban that little asshole the first time he trolled the board, and when we saw he was back, they did NOTHING. And now, we're ALL punished for some stupid, petty, horseshit. Fuck a bunch of this. And I was going to post a bunch of random shit, too!"

"Agreed...on all counts about dudemetal AND the lockdown being bullshit"

"It's not as much as that crazy fucker as it is the fact that even though he said that your mother should have flushed you down a toliet when you were a baby not only doesn't warrant a ban, but the finger is pointed at you for 'baiting' him. I really don't want to talk about this anymore because it upsets me everytime I think about it."

Call me somewhat suspicious, but isn't it unusual that the Brian Michael Bendis message board has been entirely locked since yesterday? Image Comics board admin Allen Hui explained why:

"This message board has seen far too many arguements this weekend. All of them seem to be based on misunderstandings and gut reactions to insult someone else or joining in to escalate a minor dispute. If there is a misunderstanding, please refrain from insults or any inflammatory speech because that can only result in further misunderstanding. If you say something someone doesn't understand, apologize and clarify. Understand that if your words are misinterpreted, it is partly your fault. Try not to use profanity. I know it's ridiculous to want to censor profanity so I won't do that. However, the use of profanity can often make a point more unclear and in many cases, serve to invalidate the point. This is not about censorship or free speech. This is a matter of courtesy, etiquette, respect and the basic principles of effective communication.

"Some users have gotten banned and returned to join the community. Others who hold grudges against these users should let it go. Any attempts to try to get someone else banned or to cause another dispute only proves the point that this board has become elitist and unwelcoming.

"I don't want to treat everyone here like children but I'm sure that's how it appears because locking the board is, in a sense, "a time out." I also know it's unfair to punish everyone for the behavior of a few, but we are all partly responsible for allowing, encouraging, participating and/or inciting certain behavior.

"We have gone over these exact problems over and over again. This is the last straw."

The board, shut down yesterday at 10:30 at night, reopens today at 3:00pm Pacific Time. It'll be fun to see the reactions on the reopened board itself to the second enforced shutdown so far this year (The first being, of course, in reaction to some boarders planning to rape women at Wizard World Chicago. The regulars' reaction at that time went from "That was terrible" to "How dare they close down our board" in record time).

Stealing Melrose

Your Daily Satrapi Sighting (from the Oct. 25, 2004 New Yorker; click for larger image):



Also, Mike Sterling is a sweetie Swampie.  (Well, and a sweetie, too.)

Fun with Plagiarism

In honour of Graeme (note the 'u'), might I present two fun bits of "Mark Millar is a dirty plagiarist" links that I've stumbled over in the past few days? The first comes from Mark's own mouth, in discussing his work on Ultimates Volume 1. Found via The Precocious Curmudgeon:

Millar: "I nicked this exact set-up from the episode of "er" where Kovacs kicks the ass of the violent neighbour who beat up Abby..."

David at Precocious Curmudgeon has some choice words about Millar using sensationalism as a crutch for storytelling, let alone plagiarizing work outright, you should go check that one out.

The next instance comes from the always entertaining Beaucoup Kevin, who notes that the opening to Wolverine #20 seemed... a little familiar to him.

Beaucoup Kevin: "It was as I was turning the first page of the issue, I realized something. This is familiar. This story, I know it from somewhere. That's when it hits me. Mark Millar outright swipes from one of my favorite Kurosawa movies - High And Low. I understand nods, winks, even a good homage to a worthy source, but this is ludicrous - outright thievery. Taking the exact same plot as a movie (even down to the occupation of the father whose child was kidnapped) and using it as a reason to get Logan in Japan smacks of a writer who's overextended himself and trying to look clever without working hard because, hey, who watches black and white Japanese movies?"

"I do, you lazy Scottish bastard. I do."

Hope you're feeling better Graeme!

(Edit to fix link to the BeaucoupKevin rant)

Apparently, John Byrne has managed to alienate one of his fans. I have no idea how.

"After reading John Byrne's comments on his message board today regarding the fact that he believed that there was "nothing heroic in what happened to Christopher Reeve, or how he dealt with it", I thought this would be a great time to purge my collection of Byrne material. I am selling 46 conservatively graded NM- issues of the Fantastic Four ... 100% of all proceeds from this auction will be donated to the Christopher Reeve Irvine Research Center, and I will post a scan of the check I send to the foundation and a copy of the receipt I get back, on the CGC comic boards."

Link found via NeilAlien.

- Christopher

Mark Millar pays.

"Hey,

The Warner execs, two of the producers and several others folks wanted Jim Caviezel, but Bryan wanted an unknown and, in the end, the director has won out. I just heard last night that this is 100% confirmed and so I sent Harry the following email (which should go up later today). It's a shame Warners never got their way, but I trust Singer as a director and am looking forward to this enormously, like I say in the email.

++++

Dear Harry,

The battle of the geeks is over and the best geek won. Bryan faced down Warners and got his unknown for the lead in Superman and poor Jim Caviezel can now only wear those blue tights in the privacy of his own home. It's a shame because Cav would have been my personal choice too, but I'm such a Superman freak that even losing a $1000 has been far outweighed by the recent news of Bryan's upcoming plans and the heart-stopping announcement that Williams is back with the best score of his career.

Despite the fact that the cheques were supposed to be written on the first day of principal photography, this new development has been absolutely confirmed by pretty much everyone I know and since the Clyde Coast Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre is actively looking for funds this month I think it's only right to do the decent thing and fire off this cash immediately. The cheque was sent this morning and I'll fax you a copy of their thank you letter. Thanks also to everyone who bought the Wolverine relaunch these royalties came from. Our first issue came out earlier this month and, since sales have doubled on the title since we took over, John Romita Junior and I would just like to say thanks for making this bet a little easier to afford. Our second issue is out next Wednesday and my wife has already put a ban on me getting involved anymore internet bets, saying she wants to use this and any future Wolverine royalties to decorate the kitchen.

Thanks again for a fun time and congrats on retaining your crown, Harry.

Cheers,
Mark"

Want to make a quick buck? Sell Thor!

Whoddathunkit?

Ron Marz discusses the genius that is Witchblade.

"Procedures and other aspects that are often overlooked because many people dismiss the series as just being one for looks rather than one with substance. Marz said the easiest way to get around that label is to "pick up my first issue. Look, I'm not going to sit here and act like having a sexy woman as the lead character isn't part of the book's appeal. I'd be a fool to completely ignore that aspect. But that's not going to be what drives the book. Story comes first. I think if people pick up the book and give it a try, they'll come to the conclusion that my main interest is telling a story, not figuring out a way to get Sara Pezzini out of her clothes. The police aspect is always going to be there. It's part of Sara, it's who she is. Even the first arc, which involves some big supernatural/apocalyptic stuff, will definitely have its police aspects. There won't be any issues that leave the readers wondering what Sara does for a living."

The revelation that Sara is actually a cop does not bode well for the series because for years readers just knew that she was a stripper.

Steven Grant just tells it like it is.

"ADD: You're doing some adult comics, what some might call "porn." Tell me what you think you bring to the table, and what you hope to achieve in this arena.

Grant: Let's not mince words: it's porn. I'm not sure I brought anything to the table, but I'd never written anything like that before and I wanted to see if I could. It was an excuse to do crime comics, mainly, since there are few other markets for them and I wanted to do some; if there's graphic sex involved, that's not out of the realm of crime comics, though ultimately the sex has to take center stage. I wanted to see how well I could integrate the demands of porn with the structure and pacing of crime stories. I haven't seen the results yet so I don't know if it came out okay, that's up to readers to decide, but I generally liked what I did. The stories and characterization were much more structured and formal than in most porn stories, and my goal was to have the stories stand up as stories even if the sex was taken out.

That's about as much as I hoped to achieve. I can't say I'll never do any more but I don't have any plans to at the moment. It's a fun place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.

Oh, the paycheck. That was the other thing I wanted to achieve."

(For everyone wondering where I disappeared to again, so quickly and without warning: There was (and still is) a family emergency that I needed to return to Scotland for on Wednesday . Thanks to Chris, Ed and John for keeping the blog afloat in my absence, again. I'll try and post some while I'm here.)

Jimmy Palmiotti ain't having it.

"just to clear things up...

this is a larger size hardcover of the original pro book we worked on 2 years ago.

We did a new 8 page story for the back that takes place in the timeline of the original story.

garth wrote a two page intro in the front, amanda shows some of her sketches in the back.

this book was done in the larger size with the hardcover so it could get out to other markets besides comic shops , and also made for the die hards that loved the book and wanted to have it in a larger hardcover format.

adventurer. hdefined, cerebud, dougie...if its all crap, why come here and post that? isnt it enough that you just dont buy it? no one is MAKING anyone buy the book twice...this is america. choose what you want to do, but there has to be better ways to spend your time.

the book is a spoof... an eisner award nominated spoof of superheroes.

I understand if you dont get it, dont like it...ect...but the anger here...my god. it is embarrassing. we worked hard on this book and invested time and our own personal money to do it...just so you understand that when you attack it, i HAVE to take it personal on some level.

calling things crap is just too easy...

OH, and last i checked rent girl just came out, unlike the pro which is over two years old, and the only thing they have in common is that a hooker is the main character...after that, its like comparing donald trump to iron man. either way, I hear good things about rent girl...so i am going to give it a chance in spite of your reccomendation to everyone to just " skip it" when buying the pro.

ok...now give me some shit for this...lol...

JIMMY"

Don't worry, Jimmy. They will.

Augie De Blieck Jr. digs deep to ask these questions:

"Is six minutes a comic too little? As much as I hate to admit it, I almost hate getting stuck on the same comic for much longer anymore. The last comics I'm likely to read each week are the ones that require the most reading. Books like UNCLE SCROOGE or QUEEN AND COUNTRY are likely to get placed in the back of the line, just because I don't want to get bogged down in them. When I read them, of course, I enjoy the heck out of them and have a more satisfying experience. Getting there, though, can be a grueling process.

Am I turning into an MTV generation slacker demanding instant gratification without any work put into it at all? No, that can't be it. I still read the occasional novel."

Don't worry, Augie. Reading the novel redeems all else.

Image boarders ask the important questions, like "How has the Vulture gotten so much poon?"

No, really. "Poon".

"The guy's been like 80 years old since 1963. Yet in the past few months we've found out that he has a daughter on death row (Identity Disc) and a grandson who thinks he's the bees' knees (MK Spidery-Guy). Umm... EEW."

"He's an old bitter basterd who frequents sperm-banks to get money for his rent. It aint cheap living in NYC."

"I kinda dig this de-laming of the Vulture. I never much cared for the guy (He's an old man who flys. Whoopy.). Any way of making him a decent villian is fine by me. I also kinda like his weird friendships with Sandman and Electro."

"Its called slack editing and no communication. I'll buy Vulture having one daughter out there, but not two that we find out about at roughly the same time. I'm all for making Vulture about something, but I was disappointed in Disc. He can be about something too without killing everyone in sight like in MK Spiderman."

Millarworld wonders about Milllar's next project. Millar responds:

"Funnily enough, the plan is for two more Marvel projects (a relaunch and a special project) after Wolvie, Spidey and Ultimates 2 and then I'm taking a year off company-owned characters. During this year, I'll get working on the movie stuff, some charity work I'm starting up and, more importantly, Millarworld Phase Two.

Where I pop up after this, who knows???"

I'll go ahead and ask the question on many people's minds: Who cares?

Millarworlders discuss Spectacular Spider-Man #20. SPOILERS!

"So apparently, in this week's upcoming Spectacular Spider-Man #20 (Avengers Disassembled Tie-in), Peter turns into a giant Spider, then transforms back into a human. But, here's the kicker: upon reverting back to human form, he gains organic webshooters, an obvious side effect of the transformation. Yep, just like in the Spider-Man movies. Another case of readers lose, big-screen fans win? God help us all."

"I REALLY REALLY hope they aren't going through with this. Spidey's webshooters worked fine for 42 years. Why change things?"

"It seems that between Gwen dying in USM, the revelation of Gwen's unfaithfulness in ASM (in conveinient Goblin-ninja form) and this organic webshooters thing, that Marvel is really pushing to make the source material more like the movies. I can understand why, but I don't really agree with it - the source material was good enough to inspire the movies in the first place, after all, and is it really that hard for mainstream America to be told "he uses wrist-guns in the comics?""

"What the hell is going on in the 616!?"

"so when will Cap get his Electric Blue Costume?"

Did Graeme forget to mention that Fanboy Rampage is one year old? Why, yes, I believe he did.

Happy (late) Birthday, Fanboy Rampage! (It was on October 16, actually)

Feel free to lavish curt criticisms, snide remarks, and other such snark upon the Snark Godfather.


(Thanks to Matt Maxwell for the reminder)

Marvel does what you knew they were going to do, just later than you thought that they would do it. They call it a "surprise".

"Three new titles will be starting: Spider-Man Tales, Fantastic Four Tales and the return of Power Pack. Power Pack was the most asked for series to start in the Marvel Age line and we have been working with some great talent to bring that to fruition. And Marc Sumerak and Gurihiru will be introducing a whole new generation to Power Pack -- and it’s just so good!!!"

Surprise.

"Industry bible Variety is confirming the rumor that took the internet by storm over the weekend: Brandon Routh will play Superman."

Mark, really, just pay up...

John Byrne on the danger of fans turning pro (Scroll down to around midway on the page):

"Most of us, as fans, will find ourselves occasionally reading a favorite title and thinking 'That's not what I would have done!' We the border is crossed, and a fan becomes a pro, there is a tremendous temptation to actually do all those stories and 'bits' that we thought up in years of reading. It takes a great deal of self-restraint (more than some writers possess, apparently) to hold back and look at the characters and the stories, and realize that maybe something we didn't like is either serving a purpose in the greater scheme of things or, even more likely, simply best left in the past, to fade away of its own accord."

That's right - John Byrne says that creators should try and stay away from pointlessly retconning away things that other creators did to beloved characters. We can only hope that, after typing the above, he was suddenly struck by a moment of clarity and broke down, crying, asking "What have I done? My God, what have I done?" to himself over and over again as he tears up Doom Patrol pages.

The writers of quietly-cancelled book The Monolith talk about that quiet cancellation:

"It’s a difference of perspective. What people might view as failure, we view as gigantic success. We got a whole year of 21 Down books and a trade out. We got a good deal of issues of Resistance out there and now a full year of The Monolith. We got the opportunity to create three worlds of characters, got to work with some of the best creators in the industry and got them published by one of the biggest comic publishers in the world. Really…at the end of the day, we are proud to say we created universes from scratch and although the numbers might have been lower than the regular monthlies out there…our audience reflected a different kind of reader, willing to take a chance on something new. The people who followed these books and follow our work are the most important thing to us. The numbers will grow and the audience will too... and we will keep fighting for every single new project we do."

Millarworld thinks about reprinting Secret War:

"So what now, Marvel does reprints again? Oh, I get it, now, the public opinion officially matters and they actually want their books to end up in more peoples' hands, I get it. Guaranteed they change something about the cover so that it becomes like the 'New-Commemorative Edition.' This is a 'Secret' that he can shove up his ass."

"It's one thing to discredit the plans and purposes of a company, but that line regarding Joe Quesada is as incredibly distateful and objectional as I've seen. I don't visit Millarworld for garbage like that, and I would hope others feel the same."

"You see, this is why I hate the internet. Right here."

"why is this bad? Have I suddenly drifted back to Newsarama? This is great for the poor buggers like me who missed the first few issues! Bring on more I say!"

On the Marvel website, Mark Millar gets interactive:

"As part of our celebration of the 30th anniversiary of everyone’s favorite diminutive Canadian super-weapon, we’re offering up a special opportunity for you, the dedicated Marvel.com fan to get in on the action. Super-star scribe Mark Millar (The Ultimates, Marvel Knights Spider-man) has promised that the winner of this week’s Marvel.com poll will appear in a knock-down, drag-out brawl with the volatile mutant in an upcoming issue of Wolverine."

The choices? Silver Samurai, Bullseye, Namor, Blade, Mystique, or Venom. As to whether Millar will actually go along with the results:

"Sure... as long as it's either Blade or Bullseye"

Joe Bennett signs an exclusive contract with DC:

"It's a real honor to be a DC exclusive artist,' says Bennett. 'It's always rewarding when people enjoy what you do, and it's even more rewarding when you love doing it! DC has been very kind to me since the beginning of our relationship. And the DCU is a vast territory for me to explore in the years to come. Working with Editor Stephen Wacker, writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray and inker Ruy José on HAWKMAN has been a real joy for me. And I can't wait to see what comes next!'"

Via Ryan Higgins, the full text of Marvel's solicitations for January. As usual, they have to work on their spoilers (Anyone who wants to keep some secrets for this week's Fantastic Four, don't read the solicit for that title), and almost everything else is pretty dull, to be honest. Of some interest, though:

* Spider-Man/Human Torch sounds like fun: "It's five ALL NEW old school adventures featuring your favorite web-headed hero and his pal, the walking matchstick! Follow them through the years – from high school to present day, from the Negative Zone to the Coffee Bean, from Dorrie Evans to Mary Jane Watson-Parker. It's all here! And first off, see what happens when young Johnny Storm wants some of Spidey's front page exposure... And hires Peter Parker to be HIS personal photographer! This one has doom written all over it – DOCTOR DOOM that is!" Written by She-Hulk's Dan Slott and drawn by Ty Templeton, it should be worth a look.

* Sara Barnes, who is certainly not JMS's protege, no sir, writes Spectacular Spider-Man and follows up "Sins Past". Wonder if Paul Jenkins is off the book for good?

* Combat Zone turns out to be a "groundbreaking series", written by "long-time embedded journalist Karl Zinsmeister" and drawn by Dan Jurgens. Yes, Dan Jurgens, the first choice of all editors for realism.

* Editorialising about the quality of their own series? You be the judge with this opening for the solicit for the final issue of the Bullseye mini-series: "There’s bad, there’s very bad, and then there’s Bullseye."

* New Thunderbolts, meanwhile, crosses over into Mark Millar's Wolverine run. As does New Invaders.

* Peter Milligan takes over X-Men.

* From the solicit for Excalibur: "Magneto has returned to Genosha, and he’s got someone with him…someone who promises to shake things up for Professor X and his ragtag team! (There is something huge brewing here, hot on the heels of "Avengers Disassembled" – don’t miss it)." So, the Scarlet Witch is appearing, d'you think?

* The closest the solicits come to the greatness of the last couple of months is this line from the Alpha Flight blurb: "Find out what would have happened if the original Alpha Flight had become American heroes! We’ll give you a hint; it rhymes with duclear folocaust!"

Billy Tucci proves that he is, indeed, an asshole in this surreal interview with Beau Smith:

"Beau: What annoyin’ celebrity would ya like to smack in the head with a shovel?

Billy: That’s an easy one, Beau. Barbara Streisand. But to be honest, (and since I’m a power hitter.) I’d probably kill the stupid bitch. That wouldn’t be such a good thing, because more and more folks are realizin’ just how silly, simple and retarded the big nosed whore really is. I’d also like to hit that fat dickhead, Michael Moore a couple of times too."

Former Marvel editor Teresa Focarile joins Bill Jemas's new company, 360ep:

"360ep, the well-rounded entertainment property management company, today announced the appointment of Teresa Focarile as Director of Development... In the coming months, 360ep will begin to develop its properties through online and print publishing of comic book and Manga style stories, and Teresa will play a lead role in recruiting talent for those projects."

Joe Casey and Matt Fraction nerd out, comparing DC to Marvel:

"Back in 2001, we'd actually come up with a huge story where Superman's secret i.d. is exposed, Lois is killed and Superman travels to the 5th dimension where he makes a deal with Mr. Mxyzptlk to use his powers to 'fix things.' So Mxy plays a trick on him. He sends Superman back, and everyone had forgotten his secret i.d.... including Lois. The twist was, Superman remembered everything, so the burden of his life was restored... could he now stand to protect Lois by not marrying her? He became, in a weird sense, the Wandering Jew, which to me brought him right back to the kind of superhero Seigel and Shuster created in 1936. Denying that kind of intimate, lifelong relationship... it was the ultimate sacrifice. It was celibacy, basically... So, we'd found a new paradigm that was in the greatest traditions of the character... and the suits shut us down. Perfectly within their rights, but I don't think any of us -- not me, Loeb, Joe Kelly or Mark Schultz -- ever recovered from that kick-back. That was the beginning of the end. First Loeb took off, then Schultz, then Kelly and I. Maybe you're right. Maybe they were shying away from any religious overtones. That's when I started equating Superman to Muhammad Ali. I thought that'd be a safer role model... A few years later, Geoff Johns did a good take on that same kind of Forgotten Identity Storyline in THE FLASH. Then again, Flash is a 2nd tier character. Not quite an icon. Hence the opportunity to get away with that kind of story.

"For a comparison, I think a story of that magnitude for practically any Marvel character would be embraced by management. I could be wrong, of course, but I don't think so. After all, they killed Gwen Stacy, they killed Jean Grey (the first time, back when it mattered, man...!), they made Iron Man a drunk, Sue Storm had a miscarriage, they got Spider-Man hitched. At Marvel, characters can take those journeys. And, by extension, so can the reader."

The V consider X-Men: The End, including this wonderful portrait of Chris Claremont by Matt Craig:

"He's Mister X-Men. His middle name is Inertia. He has a bag of tricks like a sparrow's scrotum. That's it. He makes money for the company whatever he writes - as long as it has an X on it. Otherwise we'd all be sneering at the Sovereign Seven movie."

Brian Michael Bendis sets the record straight about the Batman/Daredevil crossover thing:

"I blew it. I flat out have to say that I blew it. That's why I apologized right afterwards. I'm not a wrestling dude, and it turned into one of those wrestling situations. It was my fault, too. It just happened out of my control. I should have stopped it immediately, but even as it happened I was intrigued by the fact that it was happening. 'Wow! This is happening!' And I was in the middle of it, and could not stop it, because I was just too curious that it was happening."

It happened out of his control? Wait, I could be wrong, but wasn't he the guy that made the whole thing public in the first place?

Matt Adler posts the Marvel titles shipping in Jnauary 2005 at the Joe Quesada board, albeit without solicit information. Nonetheless, what's "Combat Zone: True Tales of GIs in Iraq" (A five-issue mini with two issues shipping) or "Arana: Heart of the Spider"? Also, X23 gets her own mini, Spider-Man and Human Torch get a mini, as does something called "Fantastic Four Foes"...

Millarworld asks "What's the deal with Dave Sim?":

"I rememebr once there was full page photo of Dave Sim in a Wizard feature, and it made me downright sick to my stomach. No one looks good in 50x magnified photo, blackheads and pimples and sweat and all, little red veins and shit, big hobbly nose. Gah! That photo damn near made me vomit...and has ruined that man in my mind."

"Spending over 25 years writing and drawing the adventures of a talking ardvark is enough to drive anyone beyond crazy."

"Anything that takes that much money and that much time to finish and involves an aardvark does not warrant my attention. Never heard much on the misogynist thing but if he's an opinionated one it probably wouldn't be too hard to see an example of that. If I could be bothered to look, that is."

King Features offers an online subscription service, DailyINK.com:

"On November 1, King Features Syndicate will provide comic strip fans with the ultimate treat as it launches DailyINK.com. This unique, new online subscription service will mark the only place - both on the internet and in print - to enjoy timely delivery of King Features complete line-up of approximately 75 comic strips, including such favorites as The Amazing Spider-Man, Blondie, Mutts, Zits, Bizarro, Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, Mallard Fillmore, Pardon My Planet, and Baby Blues - each updated daily. In addition to today's premier strips, DailyINK.com will spotlight content from King Features' vast vintage and classic comic library that dates back to the 1930's. Subscribers will be able to experience the early years of such groundbreaking strips as Krazy Kat, Popeye The Sailor Man and The Phantom. The site will also offer a wide range of editorial cartoons, puzzles and games not available anywhere else online. A subscription to DailyINK.com will cost just $15 a year and gift subscriptions are also available... DailyINK.com will enable subscribers to truly customize the way in which they experience the site's vast content. Members will create their own personalized comics page featuring their favorite current and vintage strips and editorial cartoons laid out as they desire. They can choose to have the page e-mailed to them daily or accessed via a password-protected area on the web site. Each current strip will be archived, allowing members who miss a day to catch up on the adventures. New vintage and classic strips will be introduced periodically with Krazy Kat, Popeye The Sailor Man and The Phantom being available at launch. Some of the vintage strips will unfold from their origin, allowing readers to experience these hits from the beginning."

If it's the third Monday of the month, then it must be time for DC's solicits for January 2005. Of interest:

* The third Catwoman trade, Relentless, collects Cameron Stewart's first run on the title as well as the amazing Javier Pulido arc immediately following it, which gets my vote for best superhero story from the last ten years if not more. Which means nothing to you, I know, but buy the book and read it anyway.

* Greg Rucka's Adventures of Superman gets traded, somewhat surprisingly, as does a second collection of his Wonder Woman run.

* Michael Lark provides the traditional loveliness on Gotham Central covers:



* People seem to think that the solicit for Adventures of Superman has an Identity Crisis spoiler in it, but it doesn't; it's a reference to something that happened a couple of months ago in AOS. Sorry, all those who got temporarily excited.

* Proof that DC have no idea what Kyle Baker is doing in Plastic Man anymore comes in the solicitation for #14:

"See what the critics are raving about in a new tale by acclaimed writer/artist Kyle Baker! This issue: still more plasticky goodness, whipped up for your reading delight!"

* The 2000AD collection program reaches one of the comic's best series, as Peter Milligan's Bad Company gets the trade treatment, with a Jock cover to boot.

* Keanu-fever reaches Vertigo, with the Constantine movie adaptation, as well as a trade collecting the movie adaptation and the start of Jamie Delano and Garth Ennis's runs, a kind of Hellblazer's Greatest Hits collection, and original graphic novel and a reprint of the Secret Files special issue from a few years ago. Woah.

* Meanwhile, Seaguy gets traded and We3 finishes.

* Unsurprisingly, Fables has a beautiful James Jean cover:



* No new issue of Ex Machina, but the first five issues get a quick collection.

* Following on from his recent miniseries, Majestic returns to the Wildstorm Universe in a new (ongoing?) series.

* But perhaps more exciting than any of the above is the advance solicit on the DC site for February's Bizarro World:

"Where else could the world's greatest alternative cartoonists run rampant through the DC Universe in an all-new anthology of utterly unhinged stories and art? It could only happen in the BIZARRO WORLD! This big slab o' comics features work by many of the fantastic creators who worked on the BIZARRO COMICS book (and made it an award-winner)! This time the contibutors weaving strange and wonderful tales about the quirky Bizarro include Tony Millionaire, Kyle Baker, Evan Dorkin, Dylan Horrocks, Harvey Pekar, James Kochalka, Peter Bagge, Scott Morse, Ben Dunn and a host of others, along with some double-secret surprise guests! All this, topped off with a cover by Jaime Hernandez! It's big! It's indisputably rectangular! It stays crunchy even after you pour on the milk!"

The full list of contributors?

"Written and illustrated by Tony Millionaire, Danny Hellman, Roger Langridge, Kyle Baker, Evan Dorkin, Hunt Emerson, Farel Dalrymple, Dylan Horrocks, Eddie Campbell, Dave Cooper, Harvey Pekar, Dean Haspiel, James Kochalka, Tom Hart, Leela Corman, Gilbert Hernandez, Peter Bagge, Derek Kirk Kim, Dave Roman, Raina Telgemeier, Kurt Wolfgang, Brian Ralph, Scott Morse, Ben Dunn, Andi Watson, Bob Fingerman, Paul Grist, Carol Lay, Craig Thompson, Ivan Brunetti; Cover by Jaime Hernandez."

The cover?



You know you want it.

Green Arrow #43 sells out at the publisher:

"Just two days after GREEN ARROW #43 (AUG0403886) arrived in stores on October 13, the issue has sold out at DC Comics. This powerful story, written by Judd Winick with art by Phil Hester and Andy Parks and a cover by Marcos Martin, reveals that Green Arrow ' s aspiring partner Mia Dearden is HIV positive. '[Editor] Bob Schreck, Phil, Ande and the whole GREEN ARROW crew are thrilled that this story is reaching so many people,' says Winick. 'We feel it's an important story as well as a meaningful one. It's very heartening to see it getting out there.' 'We're very pleased by the response to this issue and the creative team ' s strong, heartfelt work,' says Bob Wayne, DC's VP - Sales & Marketing. 'We suggest retailers check their orders on upcoming issues to be sure they have enough as this story arc develops.'"

Alex de Campi ponders superhero death:

"So if you're going to give us pretty spandex people, and you want to shock us, do not devalue the coins of truly horrifying things like a hero's death, or a heroine's rape, which for many women would be a fate worse than death. I'm told some comics companies keep lists of their active and inactive characters, with the ones that have been killed off listed as 'currently dead'. I love that: currently dead. The grave has become just a brief inconvenience, and rather than feeling pathos for these beautiful creatures who face situations so much worse than our own, yet who struggle on nonetheless, we just count the issues until the inevitable reboot."

With rumours all over the shop that the movie Superman has been cast and it's someone other than Jim Caviezel, Mark Millar admits he was wrong and gives his $1000 to charity:

"*yawn* As per my original statement, 1000 bucks HAPPILY paid to the MS centre if Jim Caviezel isn't cast as Supes on first day of principal photography. I don't see how this changes anything. It's just another rumour and, like I said, there's two publicity stunts prior to the final announcement according to chums at WB."

Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing what Mark writes on the first day of principal photography. I'm expecting something like "As I've said before, I'll happily pay $1000 on the REAL first day of principal photography if it's not Caviezel. This whole filming thing is just another WB publicity stunt." And then, when the movie is released: "Still a publicity stunt! When will you all believe me and my secret sources? Caviezel will be the new Superman when the real movie starts shooting, trust me. Have I ever lied to you?"

Warren Ellis talks about design and comics, thereby guaranteeing my attention:

"Cover design and graphics can actually do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of situating the reader. It's a little like the classic set-up of an acid trip -- creating the environment, situation and mindset for the user to go into the experience. It's something beyond just having a scene from the story as a cover image, which is one of the usual bugbears of the back-to-basics conservative crowd. It's about planting a feeling. Evoking something that you take into the story. The third PLANETARY cover, the one done as a widescreen still from a Hong Kong action movie, wasn't just about the story -- we wanted you to look at it and be primed for the exhilaration of John Woo gun-fu. The cover image for issue ten -- I was yelling 'Joy Division!' at Cassaday -- just bleeds with sadness and loss and cold, and I can't imagine anyone opened that book with pictures of kittens in their head. Unless, you know, they were dead."

Brian Hibbs explains his thinking behind ordering each month:

"More or less, you 'read' cycle sheets in terms of trends – is a book shrinking, growing or staying flat? Because we generally order comics one to four issues in advance of them arriving (depending on the publisher), every order that a retailer makes is inherently speculative. Even with cycle sheet data there’s a 'crap shoot' aspect to ordering because the customers and their tastes today are, at best, indicators of what they’ll want a few months from now. I mentioned that orders are 1 to 4 months in advance – this inconsistency because different publishers offer differing systems and support. The idea is that we’re never really more than two issues in advance (It is currently October, and I am ordering December books), but there’s a few quirks in the system that doesn’t make that a rock-solid 2-issues-only. For example, Marvel offers a 'Final Order Cut Off' system where your final orders aren’t actually due with Previews, but with a weekly e-mail approximately 3 weeks before a book is shipped. Thus, whatever order you place for Marvel through Previews is much more of a 'first draft' (assuming you don’t screw up the weekly e-mail deadline, like I have a few times)

"Marvel is the only publisher that allows you to lower orders post-Previews. Every other publisher has your Previews order as a firm commitment. Except that this commitment only kinda flows one direction. See, Diamond allows publishers a certain amount of 'buffer' in their shipping – while a book might be due to ship in, say, January, publishers actually have 30 days to actually ship their book before it is considered late. This means that a book scheduled for January could actually arrive to Diamond as late as March 2nd, and still be considered 'on time'. And the calculations are based solely on when it arrives to Diamond – Diamond can take another 2-3 weeks to distribute the book out to the stores, so it is entirely possible for a 'January' book to arrive in April and not actually be technically late. Even then, publishers can offer order reductions or returnablility within other generous windows. Thus, it is possible for solicitation to be months and months ahead of publication. For an example of the extremes this could fall to, until just a few months ago, we were ordering Spawn a full year in advance of publication! Sure, once they arrived, every issue of Spawn was 100% returnable, but if, say, you were opening a new store you wouldn’t receive a Previews-ordered issue of Spawn for an entire year! Wacky, huh?"

I go away for a few days, and when I come back, the Pulse has gone to hell. It all started when The Geek, the new Jess Lemon, reviewed Mark Millar's Wolverine debut and included this line:

"And who’s better to put Wolverine back in his tights, without making it look faggy (Not that there is anything wrong with that.), than Mark Millar?"

People complained:

"This is out of line."

"Don't try to defend it, because there's really no excuse for it. You may have meant it as a joke, but that doesn't make it any less offensive or ignorant. It's a slur, plain and simple, and The Pulse should be embarrassed for running with it."

The Pulse, it seems, was embarrassed, and pulled the line. Jen Contino wrote: "The review has been edited. I'm sorry if it offended anyone." But was this good enough? Of course not!

"Censoring this review is just as offensive."

"WTF. Just get over it and actually talk about the reviews. It was offensive yes but it has been dealt with."

"Editor's Rule of Thumb is that you *never* cave in to whiners like that unless it's obvious that the reviewer meant to insult a LOT of people deliberately, with no intent of humor present. And even then, it's best to simply issue an apology and a disclaimer of 'hey, it's *his* views, not ours! Shoot him!'"

All of you, please, shut up.

(EDIT: Heidi points out that The Geek isn't the new Jess Lemon because he's real. Not only real, but the son of Dee Snider (as pointed out in the comments section here last week. See? I'm not here and THAT's when people break news here). Somehow that makes the whole thing less fun.)

Image Comics moves to Berkeley to be closer to Erik Larsen:

""What this move is going to do is allow Erik to be more hands-on, which is something we both feel is fairly necessary at this point. The whole office will operate much more efficiently, because there won't be any lag time between, say, sending artwork to Erik for review and then awaiting a response. Erik is only a phone call away right now, but that's really no substitute for being able to walk down the hall and go over things in person... The staffing situation will remain more or less the same, but in any situation like this, some employees are more wary of the move than others... Not everyone is gung-ho about picking up and moving three hundred or so miles away, especially if they have families to consider."

Scanning comics is killing the music industry, or something. Millarworld investigates:

"As if the comic market wasn't having enough troubles, various scumbags are all over eBay selling CD's of various runs of comics! Look under 'full runs'...they will either be blatantly labeled 'on CD' or will have a price that is too god to be true (i.e. Uncanny X-Men 1-450 for 9.99)! Report these folks! E-mail 'em and let 'em know you DON'T approve! Do SOMETHING! These folks are ripping off your LCS!"

"That's actually a good idea. What's the problem? No one's getting ripped off. That's like saying prints of paintings are ripping off art gallery owners. Now, having to pay thousands of dollars for comics that originally cost a few cents... that's a rip off!"

"[T]he scanning community is mainly about... 1.) digital preservation 2.) promoting worthy comics (I now BUY both Bloodhound and Fallen Angel after enjoying downloaded issues...the same way I BOUGHT the new Hives record after downloading a song or two) 3.) getting epic stories tied up in legal limbo OUT THERE (i.e. Flex Mentallo and MiracleMan) [...] The scanning community is made up of true comic lovers...people making quick buck off of their work and the work of the creators are WRONG!"

Rich Johnston sadly doesn't call any item in this week's LITG "Lazy Line Painter Jane", but this was unexpected:

"Image Comics are currently in talks with Scottish pop group Belle & Sebastian and with British songwriter Stephen Duffy to create graphic novel anthologies, transforming their songs into comic book stories."

Bizarrely, that could be amazing.

Mike San Giacomo reviews Michelle Tea and Laurenn McCubbin's Rent Girl, making some interesting statements along the way:

"There is a lot of nudity in the work, which is certainly not for minors, but only some of it is erotic. The point that Tea and McCubbin were trying to make is that the life of a prostitute, even a part-time one, is not glamorous no matter what they showed in Pretty Woman... There’s an extensive section dealing with the least of the social diseases, crabs. Reading that alone is enough to make someone celibate, or at least make one avoid seedy encounters with hookers... Last Gasp showed guts publishing a work like this in these conservative times. It’s a haunting book that will make every reader rethink his views of prostitution."

So, to recap: Only men would read this book, Mike wants to be celibate (or at least avoid seedy encounters with hookers) now that he's read about crabs, and Pretty Woman wasn't telling the truth about prostitution. Just so that we're clear about this.

Diamond kicks Josh Blaylock of Devil's Due in the crotch. Or, at least, that's how Matt Brady describes it:

"For a new line of titles, Devil’s Due’s Aftermath has been kicked in crotch. Specifically, Defex #2 and Breakdown #2, both of which are due to ship in November. The first issues of each title (shipping this month) were produced with two covers each, with retailers able to order different quantities of cover A and cover B. Given Devil’s Due Publisher Josh Blaylock’s feeling about variants covers, the first issues were the only issues that were to have them. But then...'I don't have a total explanation, but due to a changeover in the computer systems or something along those lines, issue #2 of both titles was solicited with two covers each... covers A and B,' Blaylock said. 'The thing is, there is no variant cover on either issue. Just one per title.'"

So friends' weddings are a lot of fun (Congratulations again, Mary and Dave), but regular Rampage blogging resumes tomorrow morning as if I'd never left. My thanks to Chrises Hunter and Butcher, Ed and Mike for filling in for the last few days (and to John for his now traditional weekend supplements), and feel free to use the comments thread to tell me if I was the only one that thought that the second half of "The Fortress of Solitude" by Jonathan Lethem was very disappointing.

Separated at Birth?*



Special No-Prize to the first person to correctly identify the comics these panels are from!

* (Apologies in advance to the person whose schtick I'm stealing this time.)

Bendis board posters ask: What would you say about a black Superman?

"Lets say they decide to cast an African-American man to play Superman in the next Superman movie? What would you say/think about something like that...? I only mention this 'cause I was thinking of Caviziel playing Superman and I remembered Al Sharptons guest role on Boston Legal from 2 weeks back talking about having a Black girl playing Annie."

"Are you kidding? Superman is the whitest of all white superheroes. Now had you said Batman..."

"While I personally, wouldn't have a problem with it, I think we're more likely to have a black president than a black Superman."

"I'm sorry but I prefer my Superman white because that's the way he was created. I certainly don't want George Clooney to portray the Black Panther and I like him, too. Instead of tampering with formulas that have been a mainstay, promote characters like Luke Cage, Panther, etc. It works just as well. Just look at the Blade franchise."

"I think being black is a large large part of the Black Panther and, although plenty would say different, being white is not a large large part of being Superman. Yes, Superman was created in a time when "truth, justice and the American way" didn't really apply to black people, but maybe the world is ready for it."

"If there is one thing we've learned about Superman as comics fans over the years it's that:

"Everyone dislikes Superman until something about him is changed - at which point everybody screams bloody murder about changing a comic book archetype."

"If you go back far enough, we're all black."

No, really, it was just a joke, because apparently Millar likes to conduct his interviews much like the way he writes his comics, just staying a tad ahead, so that it "has some resonance in the real world."

I can't even tell if this is serious or not: "The Geek" interviews Erik Larsen.

Green Lantern fans answer that age old question: How many copies are you buying?

"I'll be buying 5 copies of each issue of Rebirth because that's the most I buy of any one issue of anything. I bought 5 each of JLA/Avengers, for example."

"3. One to read, another in case the pages get stuck togerther, and one to kep in mint condition."

"i have 10 reserved already and if it is good then #2 will be up to 15 ishes."

"5. 2 for safe keeping, 1 to read over and over, 1 for my son and 1 for a buddy. The numbers on this book should make DC very happy indeed. So happy, they'll have no choice but to put Hal back in the JLA, the Corps title and who knows maybe even have him show up on the JLU cartoon to replace John and or Kyle."

"Twenty. No kidding. I have been thinking about this for a long time. I often told myself that, if DC ever made the commitment to do right by this character, I would make the commitment to support it."

That's right, folks. There's no better way to tell DC "F**k you!" for all the years that DC didn't "do right by this character" than buying 20 copies of this issue. That's getting 'em back, I tell ya!

Chris Ryall, you big tease:

"As far as other projects that’re in development now, there’s Richard Corben on Bigfoot (co-written by Rob Zombie and Steve Niles), adaptations of books like Matheson’s Hell House and Clive Barker’s The Thief of Always; a sci-fi zombie tale called Containment, written by screenwriter Eric Red (The Hitcher, Near Dark) and drawn by our own Nick Stakal (Hyde). There’s… I don’t know, there’s a lot of great stuff coming. We have Kelley Jones doing another Cal McDonald book (and we have other plans for Cal beyond a mini, too); there’s the return of GrimJack and Jon Sable, and also Badg… er, well, let’s wait on announcing that one and a couple other returning properties. Down the line, we’ve got a project with Igor Kordey and a few others I’m really aching to announce but want to wait a bit longer. I’m into tantric press announcements."

Badger? I feel funny inside... It's like I'm actually looking forward to something. Well, looking forward to that, and Graeme coming back.

Paradigm shift: Batman is NOT a superhero.

"Batman is NOT a super hero. He is a costumed crimefighter. He has no super powers. He has trained his mind and his body to work at their very best and he's an expert martial artist as well and the world's greatest detective. Basically... he's the best there is... bar NONE.

— Bob Schreck, Group Editor, BATMAN"


(Thanks to Matt Maxwell)

Steve Higgins talks about Being Chuck Austen:

"Will Eisner is one of the most innovative comic creators of our time, but unfortunately even he must grow old. And unfortunately with him getting up there in years right now, we have to deal with the possibility that he might not be with us much longer.

But what if we didn’t? What if there was a way for Eisner to escape death and continue to grace comics with his presence for years to come?

Chuck Austen is a creator decried by many fans as undeserving of many of the assignments given to him. although I've never felt he was all that bad (he was capable of producing several mediocre superhero soap opera scripts on time each month, so why wouldn't the Big Two love him?), a lot of fans were vocal that there had to be some reason this guy kept getting assigned books, perhaps some kind of cover up. He had photos of Joe Q in compromising positions, perhaps, and was blackmailing him into getting his placements on various books, say the comics conspiracy theorists.

And what if they're right? not about the photos, but about there being some kind of sinister plot behind Chuck Austen's assignments?

What if there is a portal into the mind of Chuck Austen in Will Eisner’s studio?

When the Chuck Austen vessel is ripe, Eisner will enter into him and thus take control.

That’s why Austen is getting so much work right now. The Big Two know about the portal, know that sometime down the road Eisner will BECOME Austen and they need him working for them already."

Now it should all make sense, folks.

In case you didn't already love Augie enough...

Somewhere, in a dark, damp corner, Warren Ellis weeps.

Well, it looks like the Rampage is rampaging itself. Pretty soon, the message boards are going to start linking us.

I hate to be left out, though, so I'm going to continue with the redundancy. So, let me be Butcher's consigliere, and point out what the pros are saying:

Scott Kurtz: You may be the only one [who will be sad that Mia has HIV]. Mia is a fictonal character who had potential , but now she's going to be reduced to puppet whoring DC to the mass media.

That's what most people are sad about. Mia's potential character development has just died.

Nat Gertler: Yeah. Just like they couldn't do anything more with the Daredevil character once they went and made him blind. Or Captain America once they turned him into the anti-Nazi poster child...

A character who is dealing with the looming figure of death can be a very interesting one, if well-written. It was not a mistake for Frank Miller to make "A man who intends to die can do anything" his motto for the Ronin series. Some folks cite a similar thematic situation as being the most interesting part of the short-lived Deluxe version of THUNDER Agents.

Judd is capable of doing good work. I won't claim he's infallible, but this is the guy who did both Pedro and Me and The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius (which I was just recommending in an article I was writing... followed shortly thereafter by a positive aside about PVP, as it happens), so his quality material has a range.

Jimmy Palmiotti: Saying a writer should not touch on things that they experience is silly...everything and everyone in our lives leaves an impression on us...good and bad. we can't help it...at birth we are programmed to absorb and experience.

I think the best thing anyone can get out of what we are doing in monolith is that we have characters that society has played with, pushed around and tried to ignore...and yet they still fight for their rights and a chance to better themselves no matter what life throws at them.

To me, that defines the superhero in everyone.

Paul O'Brien has a great column on fandom:

"It's no coincidence that the happiest and most upbeat fandoms in comics tend not to be fans of titles, characters or publishers, but fans of individual creators. There's still the possibility of the creator losing his touch and producing work they don't want to see, but at least these sub-fandoms tend to be oriented around the work the creator is doing right now, rather than a desire to recapture something he was doing at some point in the past."

Contrary to Michael's beliefs that Winick "Doesn't Know What To Do" with Green Arrow's new sidekick, thanks to the nice folks at The Associated Press, Winick explains this has been the plan for a good long while.

"We've been hinting all along the way that she's interested in taking up the mantle, being a sidekick, getting out there in the streets and helping out," Winick told The Associated Press. "Green Arrow won't hear of it." The revelation, according to Winick makes Mia push Green Arrow even more to let him allow her to be his sidekick. "It's not as a death wish, but she can't fool around anymore. This isn't about an abbreviated life span. It is about life having focus," he told the AP."

But don't worry Michael, there are still a bunch of rational, intelligent people around that agree with you. Like, say, The Newsarama message board posters!

"Could comics get any more depressing?That's rhetorical by the way."

"I think it's pretty ridiculous that she's going to have HIV and become someones sidekick, join a team of young crim fighters, and all the rest. First of all, she's going to be put in harms way constantly, which means she could get busted open. This is going to lead to so many stupid ass stories. Plus being that she ahs HIV how will the Titans, a bunch of kids who despite saving the world and all are still just that, immature kids. They won't want to be hanging around with her for fear of cathcing the disease. It just sounds like a stupid plot element. Just like Terry Burg, Winnick relies on Pablo again...." (That's Pedro, actually. and Terry Berg.)

"Well, statistically speaking, it's very difficult to get HIV through anything but illegal behavior anymore. Having said that, I think it's interesting that Winick has dealt with homosexuality in his Green Lantern run, and now has HIV/AIDS in Green Arrow. Makes me wonder what social issues he's going to bring up in Outsiders."

Apparently, SOMEBODY doesn't pay attention to the solicitations.

But no, no, I kid. Actually, the Newsarama message boards had quite a bit of enlightened thought about the HIV issue.

"it's an interesting viewpoint and for many people living in North America, HIV is about people living their lives with a disease and not a death sentence. Understandably, Winick has a personal stake as his best friend Pedro Zamora passed away several years ago. what I am glad is that this is not a gimick but is a character facet which shows another side of the character."

"I think the intentions are very, very noble and that it is healthy and beneficial to discuss things like this. I just wish that they it wasn't via prostitution that both characters earned HIV. ... I think it would present the threat of HIV as being more omnipresent than just someone who put themselves in high risk lifestyle. And I don't mean this anyway against any of the creators of either books. It's great to be doing what they are doing, it just seems it's too common to make someone gather HIV through prostitution."

"I would also prefer that at least one of the two characters had contracted HIV another way. Two characters both get HIV, and they both got it through living "unhealthy, dirty, etc" lifestyles. Kinda misses the point that it can happen to anyone, doesn't it? Regardless, I hope that both series present the characters in a positive light and tell some strong stories."

You know, as soon as I heard about this story, the first thing I did was rush over to Newsarama to repost the opinions of the posters there, here. I mean, it'd been a pretty slow news-day, all things considered, and here was something guaranteed to elicit a ton of Fanboy Rampaging. And then what do I get, rational enlightened thought? What good does that do ANYONE on the internet?

Luckily, all I needed to do was keep reading.

"Bye bye Mr. Social Activist! Ahh, what a total shame. I gave it a
shot, but I knew he'd do this to me. Johns too? Why can't people keep this kind
of crap OUT of my comics? I'm a sensitive as the next guy to the plight of those
with HIV. If I want to learn about it or find ways to help, or gain more
compassion I'll CHOOSE to do it on my own.

Let's just pause for a second, here. Let that set in.

"...I don't want it in my comics. They might as well do stories about Batman's
insurance getting dropped, have the Titans lose their mortgage, or maybe
Nightwings checking account will be overdrawn and he'll have to argue on the
phone with customer service?

Hahaha... Wait, he continues:

"Admittedly, getting HIV is a billion times worse, but if we're going to riddle comics with real-life "very special" issues I don't want to read them. I read them for escape from reality, not immersion in its cornucopia of suckitudes. Comic books are not a place to push a social agenda. If they do it, they lose my money. Even as much as it would pain me to drop a Johns book, if the HIV becomes a subplot or constant concern on the Titans I'll drop that too. Outsiders was on the outs due to the John Walsh (give me a break!) story anyways. Bottom line? Get this crap OUT of comics."

One less reader for Johns, and this guy in pain. I dunno. Sounds like a win-win to me... And this guy is awesome, in his paranoia:

" "Cornucopia of suckitudes" is such an excellent saying and I agree with you 100% I think this stinks. Why? Because I like Mia and have long been hoping that she would become a real sidekick to GA. Now they are finally doing that but they strike the character with a terrible illness which will no doubt now become the focal point of her existence. She'll be "the one with HIV" from now on and writers like Winick will push their agenda by bringing it up every chance they get.

Winick's agenda.

"It's not that I don't agree that Aids awareness is a noble cause,

I bet some of your best friends are black, too!

"...but I don't want it foisted on me in every issue of the comics I read.

I think this is the third superhero comic about AIDS, possibly ever, by the way...

"...Of course, I dropped Green Arrow when Winick came aboard in anticipation of
a stunt like this. It's a shame that Winick had to damage a viable long term
character in order to spread his social message. Also this comes right after
this same plot has been used in another comic. I like Monolith a lot but I was a
bit concerned over the recent developments. Hopefully they won't turn it into
the focal point of the book or the character. Also, I don't necessarily have a
vested interest in the future of a character like Twist like I would for the new
Speedy.

It's at this point that I should mention that this poster, Brian Langlois, is a "Proud Member of H.E.A.T." Just in case you weren't capturing the subtle nuances of what he's saying here...

"There's a legacy there and I would like to see it continue. This is exactly why I find Winick to be one of the worst writers out there. Everything he does is sensationalistic and agenda driven. Just like the homophobia story in Green Lantern this will no doubt garner a little mainstream press, though I doubt it will send anybody flocking to the comic book store to buy their copy. I wonder what he'll do when he takes over Batman? Why can't more writers just kick back and let comics be fun and uplifting?"

Poor dumb bastard, the whole world's against him. Actually, he's got some really great stuff on Page 2 of this discussion as well, where's he's begging for all of the comics he reads to be mindless superhero punch-ups. It's awesome.

Then Matt Brady comes in and tells everyone to behave, which is sad for those of us looking on with glee. The posts following this are filled with reasoned responses and discourse (with the interjections of the clearly stupid, blathering on about Winick's agenda, of tolerance, but I think instead I'll go out on a snarky, sarcastic note. Thanks to "Conor E" for this one:

"Yeah, when the hell has a Green Arrow comic ever dealt with a social issue before?"

Here's the solicitation for Dark Horse's Apocalyptic Nerd #1, by Peter Bagge:

"Imagine yourself in a post-apocalyptic world, where all the creature comforts that you've spent an entire lifetime taking for granted were suddenly gone for good. How do you see yourself reacting to such a situation? Would you "suck it up" and be stoically content? Or would you spend most of the time cursing your fate? We all like to picture ourselves as the former, though the latter is probably a more accurate portrayal‹and that's exactly what our "hero" is like in Peter Bagge's new mini-series.

Marvel as our protagonist, an asthma ridden, myopic former middle manager for a software company, has his limited survival skills continually put to the test, only to continually come up short! Thrill as his dumb childhood friend Jeff Beasley bullies him around, as he abuses his new found status as the undisputed alpha-male of the two! Cringe as what's left of human civilization continually deteriorates around them, and they along with it.

Each issue will also feature a back of story detailing poignant yet humorous anecdotes about America's Founding Finally, George Washington and his gang will be starring in comics of their own!"

Plus, Mark Waid writes The Hire, Sin City second printings, and more.

In Randy Lander's Ultimate Spider-Man #66 review, he says "the laugh a minute tone seems a little inconsistent with the death of Gwen Stacy not four issues ago." Well, Peter already described how Gwen's death ruined his life; now it's time to get over it. No point living in the past.

Peter David discusses the Fallen Angel giveaway on his blog. In related news, here's an excerpt of an interview with him in CSN #899:

"If having my name on high-profile stuff [like Hulk: Tempest Fugit] reminds people that there's books like Fallen Angel out there, so much the better."

Great strategy. My question is: Does this work? Example: Will people who read Superman try Loveless?

Zap2it.com dives into some animated FF history:

"Depending on your way of counting, this will be either the third or fourth television take on "The Fantastic Four," beginning with the 1967 Hanna-Barbera cartoon. The 1978 "The New Fantastic Four" omitted the Human Torch. Very few fans are likely to count the 1979 Hanna-Barbera offering "Fred and Barney Meet The Thing," which somehow managed to mix Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble with the rock-bodied "Fantastic Four" character."

Newsarama posters aren't impressed.

"The art looks pretty good, excpet for the fact that in 7 pages NOTHING HAPPENED! What a complete waste of space. no wonder theres 48 pages, since I know 7 are worthless right off the bat. Why are comics in general becoming like this? NOTHING HAPPENED, it might as well have been solid black pages, or better yet, solid white so you can draw a relevent story in the 7 pages that were wasted. I'm sure the excuse is it's to show off the new costume, well thats great, but 1 splash page does that. I'll wait for the trade like I always do so that in the 150 page trade i get at least 20 story pages."

"Everything I've seen from Ellis over the last 2 months has been like this. Half the books are pinup pages with no dialog. UFF, Ultimate Nightmare, the 4 page Ocean preview I looked at Monday and now this. It may look pretty, but that looks like some pretty lazy storytelling to me, especially for the prices they charge nowadays."

"I went into UFF kind of neutral on Ellis, since I hadn't read anything of his in a number of years that I can remember and nothing recent. But everything I've seen of his seems like a major rip-off from a story standpoint. I've been buying Iron Man since Heroes Reborn, through the ups and downs, but I'm not going to pick up something that is only going to take me 5 minutes to read."

"Whats so hot about Warren Ellis? He and Grant Morrison (outside of JLA) are two of the most over hyped writers in comics. Ellis does'nt even like Super hero comics, a fact that shows in his writing of them"

Grant Morrison overhyped? Oh, hell...

Do you want to be a professional comic book writer? Of course, we all do.

Sorry. I just have flashbacks to that '80s diploma/certificate commercial with Sally Struthers (I think it was Sally Struthers) every time I see something like a list of ways to become a comic book writer.

Yes, the snob in me did recoil at the "[y]ou have this Wolverine story that will change the way people look at comics and the world forever."

Still, I don't know if I would go as far as this:

"The first thing I did was make a list. I pulled out all the comics I had been collecting over the last 10 years and wrote down every e-mail address I could find in the letter pages and e-mailed them about my book. I also went to www.the-master-list.com and sent a free copy of my book to every comic book store in the country. Then I called them and talked to them about my book. Then I called them and pretended I was someone else looking for THE GIFT. Then I hit the message boards and PM everyone I could about my book."

Well, maybe I would. But I certainly wouldn't admit some of that in public.

"So anyway, because I know that you bidders are all label whores who care only about the number on the label and not at all about the actual state of the book in the slab, this book will sell at a substantial discount. And why? Well my friends, it is all because of that silly zero after the "9." It has a great psychological effect upon each and every one of you and causes a great puckering of the you-know-what that keeps you from pulling more money out of your wallet to buy this beauty at some ridiculous multiple of Guide price."

"If you want any additional pictures of the book or bigger scans, then there is probably something wrong with your eyesight and I would recommend that you see an eye doctor immediately. I mean, come on -- the scans in this auction are huge. So if you email asking for more scans, I'll most likely either refer you to an optometrist or will scan a picture of my butt cheeks and email that to you. Or, I might indulge you and send you a larger scan of the book. It's 50/50 either way, so you are taking chances if you ask for a bigger scan."

"In fact, if you are at all paranoid about the possibility of being swindled, you can email me for my phone number and we can talk for hours and hours about comics and life in general until you are perfectly satisfied that your transaction will flow as smoothly as whale (bleep) on an ice floe (to paraphrase Robin Williams). Unless, of course, you are one of the people who receives a butt cheek scan from me (see above), in which case I will probably not be giving you my phone number. Anyone who would be interested in calling me after getting one of those scans, believe me, I don't want to hear from you."

Take that, fanboys and "collectors"!

So, while Graeme's on a mini-vacation, a few of us are keeping his seat warm for him. Now, aside from my fill-in for Graeme a year ago, and my still somwhat new blog, I'm still inexperienced with this whole thing.

So, how to balance me and my interests with the tone of Fanboy Rampage...

I know! Newsarama posters discussing hip hop! The question of the day: has Eminem jumped the shark? It's almost like they are discussing comics:

"First of all, if you like Kanye West and Outkast, then you're opinion means shit.

Eminem has been making vids like this for his entire career. It's what he does. Each album debuts with a comedy track (My Name Is, The Real Slim Shady), followed by darker, more serious tracks."

Because, you know, if you don't agree with me, your opinion is invalid.

Poor Marc Mason...

"I bet you feel real powerful in the position you are in as a reviewer, but to me you have disrespected your position by abusing it."

"I feel sorry for you Marc. Comic book reviewer is all you'll be in life...but mom's still proud of you, so everything is OK."

"Hey Marc, _ _ _ _ you! Can you fill in the blanks?"

Seriously, in nineteen years of profesional freelance journalism, no one ever told Marc that you have to christen any comic given to you with a positive review!

Poor Marc. He tries so hard...

For this thread alone, it's almost worth renaming the blog Fanboy Hissyfit. Two posters at the Bendis board get a ridiculous argument about Joe Casey saying he had no comment about Avengers Disassembled. Well, really it's some surreal clash of egos and politics, but it starts off with Casey. It really starts with regular Bendis booster Travis "Cth" Howard's rationale for the lack of comment:

"Yeah, he might feel that Bendis is getting all the attention with his Avengers project, instead of his. At least he's being more tactful than he used to be"

"Sonnylarue" disagrees:

"[O]r, he may just not like the story, or the plot idea itself. I like it fine, but can't another writer just dislike it, without any hidden meaning?"

Cth responds: "Wow. This from the same guy who consistently does the same thing in regards to Bush. Hypocrisy, thy name is sonnylarue."

Back to Sonny, who isn't fazed by the introduction of politics into things: "Keep it simple and general Cth, just like Bush followers like it."

Cth: "Dodge the issue, as a Kerry supporter would. Grow up sonny."

Sonny, avoiding the cheap "Dodging? You mean like Bush did with his National Guard service?" joke: "Hilarious comming from someone who wishes to project 'Jealousy' onto Joe Casey, take your own advice Cth , thy name is DENIAL."

Lacking his own cheap political response to that ("Denial? I thought that was more John Kerry's thing, what with his denial that Saddam Hussein was a threat!" or whatever. And, yes, I know that he didn't actually deny that, but I'm just riffing off each party's talking points here, and the current GOP talking points include Kerry being weak on terrorism, Saddam Hussein and Doctor Doom, amongst others) and looking to convince other people that Casey really is jealous, Cth posts the following Casey quote as proof:

"More like a cross between the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. And, I gotta' say, I'm so fucking sick of the whole 'celebrity superhero' angle that I figured I'd come up with a book that not only skewered the entire concept, but examined the dark side/slippery slope of the whole thing. I'm really hoping that Anti-Fame will be the next trend in superheroes (taking us back to their original "mystery men" aspect) so I guess I'm just trying to put a final nail in the current coffin with this particular series. But, no matter what the approach, this IS a superhero comicbook (which is why we proudly say so on each and every cover)."

No, I don't see the connection between that and Bendis-jealousy either, but, y'know, whatever. Sonny, again:

"I can see Casey's dislike for the Disassembled story, and direction for the New Avengers from your cited quote, but I'm still looking for the jealousyyou so obviously see."

Cth, back on form: "Well, you'll just have to wait for Michael Moore to serve it up to you in a film for you to believe it. Or you can try and do your own research. You know how to do that, right? *shrug*"

Michael Moore! Bam! Realizing that he can't follow up on that level of wit, Sonny makes a play for the onlookers instead: "I read the Comix Fan & Basement tapes articles and didn't arrive at your conclusion. I think Casey's no comment and description of his dislike of the 'celeb superheroes' has existed decades before Bendis. JLA AUTHORITY, etc [...] Casey has always written darker non traditional stuff, and I think he's very happy that a core following of fans dug Wildcats 3.0 and A-Kafka, and look forward to his original projects. Mostly I heard an Avengers Fan talking, regardless of his writing background. I guess in Cth's world, pros can't just dislike a book , because it's not in their taste, jealousy is just as likely. I don't get that vibe from Casey. I think he's happy to be a working writer, who gets to create his stories his way."

Cth, meanwhile, also decides to change tack. You see, really, it's all about him: "Yup.. spin, spin, spin.. Show me where I say it's not ok for a creator to dislike a book. And if it's a BS shot at Casey, how come I profess to be a fan of his? Genius. I swear, you guys will argue anything simply because my name is on the post. It's flattering really, but c'mon."

Sonny?: "what an ego. when I question a quote it's all about the comment not the poster, until the poster wants to attack me, rather than defend the quote, then we're off to the races. it's all mental tennis [...] nothing more. I think we've found our McEnroe."

Quick, Cth! Have a zinger of a comeback!

"Sure thing Anna."

So, to sum up: Joe Casey won't say what he thinks of Avengers Disassembled. Some people want to read into that that he dislikes it because he is jealous of Brian Michael Bendis. For some reason, it was important for these two to bring politics into this. And Cth has a rather inflated view of himself.

Also on the TCJ website, part two of Dirk Deppey's look at Marvel's X-Men Reload event, which concentrates on the success of Marvel to grow their market:

"If Marvel's adventures in the greater American market suggested inexperience and a limited ability to successfully grow its audience, however, its actions in the Direct Market seemed to demonstrate something bordering on contempt for the very retailers it serviced. With the bookstore market delivering limited dividends, comics shops would have to be milked for all they were worth if Marvel's publishing department was to continue to increase its revenues and justify its existence to upper management. This meant a return to many of the practices that the company had used during the Bad Old Days of the mid-1990s: variant covers, limited series, a flood of first issues and 'ordering incentives' that retailers were required to fulfill if they wished to get certain 'collectible' products."

At The Comics Journal's site, Tom Spurgeon talks to retailers about mini-comics:

"While some cartoonists seem to expect too much of their work as a potential profit centers, others have ascribed a rigid morality to different ways of selling it. Many people in the small-press world treat comic-book retailers as actors in opposition to purer, more traditional ways of disseminating handmade comics. This seems wrongheaded in two ways. Once the decision is made to sell, there should be nothing wrong with utilizing whatever opportunities exist to make the pitifully few dollars available from one's minicomic investment. More importantly, providing your work to comic book stores that sell minicomics can simply reflect the desire to have one's work seen, whether or not it's in a traditional form. Now more than ever, comics shops make up an important part of the general distribution network for minicomics, and everyone can take advantage. Stores friendly to minicomics may be the best way of getting a physical product into the hands of total strangers equipped to experience a comic on its own merits, a desirable audience no matter your attitude towards any money involved."

Marvel revise the New Avengers variant scheme:

"Under the revised plan, the order plateaus condition has been dumped, and now allows the retailer to purchase a variant cover to New Avengers #1 for every 20 regular editions that they buy. The main difference comes in the following issues, as retailers no longer have to meet 95% of the previous issue’s numbers."

Did I miss Chris Ware accidentally spilling the collective online comic community's pint the other day or something? If it's not Kevin complaining that Ware gets too much credit in the mainstream (and Chris agreeing), then it's the V discussing whether Jimmy Corrigan is the World's Most Boring Comic:

"I demand debate on JIMMY CORRIGAN so I can vent my rage about that UNSPEAKABLY BORING PIECE OF SHIT! 'Oo, I'm miserable. Oo, my granddad was miserable too. Ooo, look at this panel construction. Oo, I'm so miserable.' Meanwhile, the Flash races Sonic The Hedgehog across time and space to save the universe. I know full well which I'd rather read."

"I thought JIMMY CORRIGAN pretty much sucked as well. Can't really deny the artistic skill and draftsmanship blah blah blah, but it was just a horrible story that I couldn't even see the point of spending years to tell. Chris Ware gets on my nerves. He an Adrian Tomine should get put on a rocket ship to fly them off to boring-land."

"I don't even think Chris Ware read all of JIMMY CORRIGAN. Fuck knows I didn't."

Aren't backlashes meant to happen slightly sooner than three years after something is published? Coming in 2006: "I hate Blankets, me."

Jesse Baker is back with more genius:

"OK with Marvel out and out stating that they are purging the established fanbase of the Avengers in order to make the entire franchise dependant on Brian Bendis's microscopic fanbase of die-hards (and I say that on the grounds that Bendis has his own problems with his fanboys telling him his Avengers revamp smells like cow dung) should they make a big point of balancing the scales by way of kicking Millar and Hytch to the curb and tearing down/rebuilding The Ultimates as a proper Avengers franchise with it's target audience being those Avengers fans who won't touch the Bendis spawn New Avengers with a ten-foot pole?

"And it can be done. Simply fire Hytch and Millar after their first arc (which by all accounts can be descibed given what Millar has said as 'Operation Let's Fix All of the Fuck-Ups From the First Arc') and let a new writer/artist team turn the Ultimates into a proper 'Avengers-lite' for new readers. Let them jetison the baggage/bad plot devices: like say outing Black Nick Fury turn out of be a villain (ala Unbreakable) who's pumping the team filled with nanities to make them follow the company line and in the case of Iron Man, threatened with insta-death ala the X-Files if he steps out, revealing that Betty Ross is a Skrull sent to be a shit-disturber who acted like a whore to try and turn Hulk into a murderer, and perhaps do a total 180 with Hank Pym by establishing Giant Man as his evil persona and have him become a stand-up figure under his more benevolant Yellowjacket persona. Bring in some fan favorite characters (the female Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Mockingbird, and Quasar) and play off the absurditity factor.

"Let's see shit like Mockingbird as a novice super-hero who means well but who constantly humiliates Clint (who takes it all in strides rather than beating her like most writers would have him do). Let's see a take no shit DEA Captain Marvel patterned along the lines of CCH Pounder's character from The Shield serve as the team's token law enforcement figure and serving as the conscience of the team. Let's see Ultimate Cap be someone so depressed and utterly clueless about modern times that he acts like an anti-PC asshole that no one can be mad at because they all see that Cap is a big scared boyscout who is scared and frightened and generally the type of person you want to hug.

"Let's put Tony in a 12 Step program and have the Ultimates have to help him through all 12 steps. Bring Sandman onto the team and have the team be tormented by the media who want to know why they should give Sandman a second chance (while at the same time having Sandman and Cap bond and have him defend Will to the media. Let's see Black Panther join the team, reveal his ID to the press and basically treat the Avengers as a PR move for his country and generally annoy the team with his Batman-lite antics. And let's bring Heather Hudson onto the team as their new US Gov't contact and have her and Madison Jeffires (who's a thousand time more interesting than the boring as shit original Guardian) be the Sue/Ralph Dibney-esque den parents for the team.

"And let's see some GOOD villains show up. Let's see the Serpent Society show up and play up the numerous soap opera-esque inner conflicts inside the team. Let's see Skrulls and the Chitari have a throwdown on Earth over the Chitari being fuck-ups who talk shit about being behind all of the miseries of humanity but are a loser race that just sold Hitler rocket parts in the final days of WW2. Let's see Akron, Grim Reaper, Kang, Moonstone, Masters of Evil, and shit fight the team in all of their 'campy' pervert suited glory.

"In short, let's make the book FUN. The Ultimate Line has ZERO fun books. Ult. Spidey is all teenage drama and Peter letting every single enemy find out his secret ID. Ult. X-Men is equally depressing as well. The Ultimate line needs one fun book, so why not make it 'The Ultimates'?

"Hell there is a perfect writing team out there to give my proposal justice: Giffen and DeMatthies. Let them write The Ultimates and make it a FUN BOOK TO APPEAL TO AVENGERS FANS NEW AND OLD!!! After all, if new readers can memorize all of the Pokemon, then there are no excuses for them having to hunt down information to get an 'Ultimates' book targeting old-school Avengers fans...."

Some, of course, disagree:

"A.) Just because you want to see Giffen and DeMattias on any book you can, does not mean the rest of us do. Especially DeMattias and his many foray's into spirituality. b.) Same with Igor Kordey. c.) In re: to Iron Man in a twelve step program. How about... no? How about, it's been done to fucking death at this point. d.) Do you understand why a lot of the characters you want to see never last very long and and the ones you utterly hate do? It's because you're in the minority. The rest of us fucking hate those characters. We want Thor, Cap, IM, Wanda, Hawkeye, Wasp, Yellowjacket, Vision and Wonder-Man in the Avengers, with the occasional appearance by the Panther, the Beast and a few other select favorites. But nobody wants to see Photon in the Avengers anymore. Or Hercules. Or the Sub Mariner. Or any others. e.) in short, Jesse, More than just you want to be able to read the book.

"I like Ultimates. And I like the Avengers, especially when it's written by someone competant (I'll agree with you on Bendis' hitch on Avengers so far.)"

Ninth Art has some good stuff this week. Paul O'Brien considers comic book fans, and fandom in general:

"The fans are an odd audience. A normal person, knowing nothing about fandoms, might assume that the fans actually like comics. They might think that, if they went to a convention or a comics message board, they would be besieged by people overwhelmed with enthusiasm and love (perhaps of a rather tiresome sort). And they would find a bit of that.

"But they would also find a hell of a lot of complaining, grumbling, general discontent, cynicism and so forth. Far from discussing their love of comics, the fans seem to spend more time debating the precise reasons why they suck, with particular reference to why things aren't as good as they used to be - whether 'used to be' goes back two years, five, ten or twenty. This, of course, is the basic joke of THE SIMPSONS' Comic Shop Guy. For a man who's devoted his life to comics, he doesn't actually seem to like any of them very much.

"And remember, these are the people who really adore comics. Just imagine what the people who can't stand them must be like."

Andrew Wheeler, meanwhile, looks at the seven warning signs of a comic writer going off the rails. Warning sign number one? The internet:

"The internet has its uses. Pornography, illegal music downloads, pop-up advertising, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, its single greatest use appears to be narcissism, which is why everyone in the world has a blog, and the worst of us have a message board, too.

"Message boards have been one of the greatest curses of the modern comic industry. Not only do they take writers away from their work with the same irresistible pull that an X-Box exerts over a comic artist, they also provide writers with a bounty of yes-men who'll feed their every delusion and reinforce their every vanity.

"That's not to say that every comic creator with a message board is already lost to reason, but it's a dangerous first step. The real trouble comes when the creator - or his more rabid fans - turns the place into a critical vacuum, where the party line is always enforced and the master is never wrong. You know a creator is too far gone when his forum regulars say they'll pay good money for his shopping list."

Mark Millar's had enough with claims that his Spider-Man and Wolverine runs, both one year long and having lots of guest-stars and villains, has anything to do with Hush, Jim Lee's Batman run that was a year long and had lots of guest-stars and villains:

"Nobody's compared [Wolverine] to Hush. What Rob said was that it out-Hushes Hush in terms of using all the orgasm-inducing ingredients the long-term reader will appreciate."

Of course, some would say that saying that Wolverine out-Hushes Hush is, indeed, comparing it to Hush. But Millar continues nonetheless:

"Even Spidey is nothing like Hush. My inspiration for Spidey was about four classic Batman stories (ranging from Moench back to Englehart) where a villain finds out his secret and he has to fight his way through all his baddies to win. It's a classic superhero formula, employed by the Hush team too, but this was just STANDARD for a big story, especially in the 70s and 80s. All My Enemies Against Me was the last one I read (Batman 400). And yes, I do know this from memory. Kill me now."

This week's Basement Tapes is little more than Matt Fraction and Joe Casey talking up Casey's new Wildstorm book The Intimates. But, dammit, it worked. Now I want to pick up the first issue...:

"[E]ven though it makes for good promo, I don't really give much of a shit about the 'Anti-Decompression' side of things. At the same time, I'm interested in exploring different styles of narrative. If I was going to write a book about teenagers, I wanted it to reflect their info dump, media swarm lifestyles. Everything all at once. Pulling out the cinema terms, I wanted to experiment with editing techniques. One of my favorite things about the original DARK KNIGHT was Miller's frenetic cross-cutting. No one has since attempted that kind of staccato narrative. Your comment on the 'narrative presence' has some validity, too. A big influence on the writing is THE OFFICE. Brilliant fucking television. In that show, the camera is ostensibly a documentarian recording the mundane events of this paper merchant office space. Each episode is edited in a documentary fashion. It's damn near eavesdropping. That's something I wanted to capture here... that you, as a reader, are actually in the classroom with these kids, eavesdropping on practically every mundane aspect of their lives.

"Besides all that pseudo-intellectual stuff, I just think current comic books move too goddamned slow to keep kids' attention. As adults, we can gaze upon the decompressed style and be suitably impressed, but I can't imagine a 21st Century kid being anything but bored out of their skull. Of course, going back to Silver Age-styled, 'compressed' stories aren't quite the answer, either. Pull out a Lee-Ditko SPIDER-MAN or a John Broome FLASH and a modern kid probably wouldn't even consider them quaint. So then what can we do in comic books to engage a kid's attention? I guess THE INTIMATES is my first shot at that new kind of comic book... Just as decompression -- or Westerners' misunderstanding of it -- has turned most superhero comic books into bloodless, spacious things that can oftentimes take less than two minutes to read, I figured a kid's true media language is all about piling on information all at once. They learn how to decipher it, each in their own way. Giving readers more input than they think they can handle, but what comes out of that is that every reader finds their own narrative within the info we're providing them. Again, comic books as an interactive experience (that's right… that old chestnut!).

"The overall graphic design is something that I think we're all contributing to -- writer, artist, letterer, colorist, logo & cover designer -- purely on instinct, but still with purpose and vision. I honestly don't know where some of this stuff comes from. But it's felt right so far. It feels like something you won't be able to get anywhere else. Without getting to heavy-handed, it's seems to be fully and gloriously embracing the idea of comic books being -- wait for it -- a bastard medium. Reflecting the culture while, at the same time, contributing to it."

The Joe Quesada board think about Marvel's attempts to break the outside mainstream market and fear of the word cancellation:

"The only thing that irks me is that there are some books [that Marvel] don't go to the effort of planning relaunches or comebacks or claiming they're merely on hiatus. They just cancel 'em, and FU to the fans. They seem to play favorites with certain pet projects, even if the sales suck equally, and arbitarily claim they'll do better in bookstores based apparently on nothing more than intuition."

"It's no coincidence that, on the whole these 'pet projects' are ones intended to reach outside the market. Ones that have some kind of basis for expecting that from - Mary Jane follows a manga pattern that appeals to a young female audience. Amazing fantasy has a latina hero. The ones they don't hold out such hopes about are the kinds of title that have no reason to expect success outside the direct market. You might not like it, but there's very understandable reasons for it."

"Actually, my guess with the bookstore geared books which get a hiatus is that they're not getting the bookstore orders that Marvel expects, so they put them on hiatus to try to find a way to get them to the primary market (i.e.. bookstores) without the feeling of being "failures" in the direct market. I think they'd do well with a packaged release with digests of Mary Jane, AF & the already successful in digest form Spider-Girl as a bookstore initative."

Newsarama posters discuss "The most pretentious description of a comic book ever" (their words):

"I was flipping through the recent Previews figuring out my order for this month when I came across this gem, from Conundrum Press (p. 254):

-----------------------------
Mac Tin Tac GN
by Various

Mac Tin Tac, a dystopic allegory of modern life told through a unique combination of myth and hard-edged realism, was originally serialized in five comics between 1990 and 1995, but was uncollected until now. To illustrate their vision, Montreal authors Tessier and Oliver commisioned the emerging talent of Quebec's avant garde. The story is a mix of Orwell's 1984 and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's magic realism. Mac's desperate attempt to create beauty in a bleak world is the overarching theme in the book. But the dazzling variety of drawing styles keeps the reader immersed in the lives of various peripheral characters as well. Mac Tin Tac, which includes new material done especially for this edition, is an impressive cultural document from Quebec's fin-de-seicle underground.
---------------------------------

If I thought there was any chance this was farce, I'd think about buying it. As is, it reads like the members of the Eltingville Comic Collective if they moved north."

"I remember reading in Previews 10 years ago solicitations for 'Billy Comics' that I think had one or two titles, but each solicitation always began with 'At sixteen years of age, Billy [Last Name] is the youngest kid working in comics today.' If 'working' means turning out 3rd period English class doodles. Did anybody ever see these, or worse, read them?"

"So if I don't read this or if I read it and don't understand it I must be an uneducated borish phillistine right?"

The Idiocy of DOOM!

David Welsh points out that when Dr. Doom isn't being a creepy old letch he's often initiating schemes that call into question his status as supposed super-genius.  Following up on David's example, I offer up Doom's master plan from Daredevil #37-38 (reprinted in Essential Daredevil Volume 2).  In order to infiltrate the FF's headquarters, Doom kidnaps Daredevil and, using the Transformatron, switches bodies with the crimson-clad crimefighter.  Neat trick, right?  Unfortunately, Doom didn't really think this one through.  Instead of incapacitating (or killing) Daredevil, Doom simply locks him up.  But since Daredevil now occupies Doom's armored body, all DD has to do to get out is order Doom's lackeys (who weren't in on Doom's plan) to free him.  Daredevil then keeps Doom from reaching the Baxter Building by ordering Doom's subjects to "declare war on every nation that borders Latveria!"  Hearing the news on a transistor radio, Doom-as-Daredevil rushes back to the Latverian embassy to cancel Daredevil-as-Doom's order, which necessitates being back in his own body once again.  Once back in his own body, DD smashes the body-transferral machine to ensure that Doom can never use it again.

Impressed with Daredevil's resourcefulness, Doom allows DD to escape without incident.  But Doom hasn't given up hope completely.  He still attempts to salvage something from the botched plan by crank-calling the FF and telling them that Doom is coming to attack them...disguised as DD!  And the FF fall for it because Doom uses his "electronic voice modulator" to mimic DD's voice!  That wacky Doom!

Doom's backup plan seems set to work as the FF (minus the Invisible Girl) battle Daredevil (plus Spidey and Thor, who agree to help DD defend himself).  Unfortunately, Doom undercuts even this effort by making a public appearance that's picked up by news.  Seeing the report, Susan Richards realizes the Daredevil that the FF is fighting is the real one and rushes back to the Baxter Building to break up the fracas.

Oh well, at least Doom learned that Daredevil is the blind lawyer Matt Murdock, right?  Nope.  Doom never even bothered to remove DD's mask while he was in DD's body.  But how could Doom miss the fact that he was blind while he was in Daredevil's body?




Uh, Doom, don't you want to do anything to confirm or refute that hypothesis?  No?  Don't you remember what happened the last time you were so cavalier towards the scientific method?

So I'm offline from Wednesday through a week today - If anyone wants to take over the blog for those dates, email me at fanboy rampage at yahoo dot com.

In honor of National Coming Out Day (with yet another tip of the hat to Dorian at Postmodern Barney):



"That's funny:  I never feel queasy when I cook for myself, so why do I feel so disoriented whenever Betty and Jane invite me over for dinner?  I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's almost as though the answer is looming right over me..."

Dan DiDio talks about his time at DC, and what's to come:

"It’s okay not to love everything, you know? That’s the wonderful thing about how we publish what we do – you can live in the ‘40s, ‘50s ‘60s, the current times, anywhere, because the material is available to you. What we’re doing right now is telling exciting, compelling stories for people who are enjoying comics at this moment. That’s what it’s about. We are writing to the audience that we believe we have right now, and the reason that we’re going to such lengths, and making sure we’re so careful in the way we tell stories is because we don’t want to insult anybody. That’s the last thing we would ever want to do. We want to tell stories that excite them and that anger them. Apathy is the worst response to anything that we create. Everything should have a strong response, whether positive or negative, that’s what I look for. Something should generate a response, because what I want to do is make you come back the next month and buy the next book. As long as we do that, then we’re doing our job... Look, you can look at what’s going on in the DCU in one of two ways – you can look at it as the editors have forgotten about continuity, and forgotten about what has happened in the past, and are just moving things forward. We can look at a couple of characters and a couple of books and say that very plainly. Or, we can say that there might actually be a plan here that’s slowly rolling out in the DCU that has long-term implications for people who want to get on what’s probably going to be the most exciting ride of their lives."

Some fans can't help but give their heroes the benefit of the doubt:

"Did Anyone Else Translate What The Kree Said in Avengers 503 [...] Page 12: 'Insert threatening alien kree font dialogue!' Page 13, panel 1: 'You mind telling me what this is about, soldier?' Page 13, panel 4:
'Insert alien kree font dialogue!!' Bah.. was hoping for some Doop like hints.. ah well.. more fodder for the theory that Bendis isn't tipping his hand, so Wanda is likely a red herring."

Hmm... More fodder for the theory that Bendis isn't tipping his hand, or more fodder for the theory that Bendis didn't think that anyone would translate the Kree and so didn't bother writing actual dialogue in the first place? Tough decision...

Pantheon offer a competition to win a signed copy of Art Spiegelman's new graphic novel, In The Shadow of No Towers.

Dan DiDio gets promoted at DC, going from Vice President - Editorial to Vice President - Executive Editor. Insiders say that he's still not sure whether this means his actual job is going to change, but he's apparently confident that it means he'll get a bigger office.

Is Mark Millar about to pass JMS as the Spider-Fans' target of hate due to a pointless retcon? One fan offers his suggestion for the secretive bad guy in Millar's Spider-Man title:

"Could it be Uncle Ben, back from the grave somehow? It doesn't necessarily have to be Ben himself, but I think someone may be controlling his corpse, and the break-in at Oscorp could have something to do with how they're keeping the corpse alive. This whole thing started with Ben's tombstone being fucked up, and Rachel said that May and Peter knew this person, but they're a lot different now. The vision we see just shows May and a tombstone, and she just guessed that May was dead from that. The way I see it, those images could be coming through because May is thinking that Ben should be dead, so she thinks of his tombstone."

Millar's response?

"this boy just might be onto something..."

Of course, Joe Quesada touched on this subject in his Newsarama interview on Friday:

"Let’s say we had the idea to bring back Uncle Ben, well we would of course have people in the office losing their minds, even at the very notion. Then you ask why not, and you get a litany of reasons, chief amongst them that you intrinsically change Spider-Man at his core. The killing of Uncle Ben is so entrenched in what makes Peter, Peter and what makes him Spider-Man that to bring Ben back would hurt the character... That said, our creators are also very aware of the iconoclastic status of many of our characters and they of course know what is taboo for the most part. So when something like this comes up, it usually makes for some great inter office conversation."

Is Millar stirring? Is Quesada trying to misdirect fans? Is it anything other than lots of hype?

The Comics Journal board gets confused, turns into Newsarama for a second:

"Incredible as it may seem now, in the sixties it was the coolest thing in the world to be 'into Marvel'. The feisty little company was all the rage from coast to coast, on campus and on the cocktail circuit, feted by Fellini and Tom Wolfe and Ken Kesey, written up in Esquire and Rolling Stone; the darling of hippies and hipsters. And of course, the comics themselves were so vital. Kirby and Ditko at the top of their powers, Stan Lee's snappy dialogue. Flash-forward to 1976: Marvel is this big, stumbling ox of a schlockhouse. Far from being cool, a Marvel reader was likely to suffer the scorn well-deserved by the geeky. So what happened? Was there a defining moment?When exactly did Marvel jump the shark?"

"When Kirby left, and when uber-nerds like Roy Thomas started writing the books, filling them with trivial retread 40s characters, crippling back stories, and convoluted, impossible-to-follow continuity."

"I started reading Marvel around 1982 or so... it wasn't great, but Paul Smith on X-Men, Simonson on Thor, Miller on D.D., Byrne on F.F. and the odd Michael Golden or Michael Mignola comic kept me interested. That all seemed to go right into The Shitter when the 25th(?) Anniversary/New Universe began. That's when I quit reading, anyhow...
Maybe the question should be 'How many times has Marvel jumped the shark?'"

"I can't think of a specific moment for the shark-jumping, but i'm pretty sure that they had sliced open the shark's gut, allowed the contents to spill onto the deck, and said 'This was no boating accident' when the Onslaught storyline began. That was finally the death of Marvel for me."

Luckily, David Fiore, Tom Spurgeon and others are on hand to take the question more seriously than me, making the thread worth checking out...

Millarworld accentuate the positive, with a thread about the glory of bagging your comics:

"How about a bags ruined one of my comics story. I was taking my older brother's Savage Dragon #2 out of the plastic, and the damn tape got caught on it. As careful as I was, I tried to pull the tape off and it peeled a good portion of the cover off. My brother beat my ass for that. Then made me buy him another copy. I no longer get bags and boards at the LCS."

"There've been a few times where I was drinking water, or a beer, and spilled it on a stack of bagged comics. The bags saved the comics every time. I've gotten the cover caught on tape a few times as I took it out of the bag, but so far it hasn't done any harm to the cover. The trick is to pull the tape off as gently and slowly as you can."

"Many a Vampirella/Danger Girl/Fathom/Ultimate Spidey book has been saved from destruction by the bag as I shot me load all over the cover."

Christopher Reeve dead.

Comic creator slash, courtesy of Brian Michael Bendis:

"IN MY STUDIO RIGHT NOW... david mack and alex maleev are sitting on my couch looking at art books... ... and touching each other innapropriately"

The fans lap it up:

"Post pictures!"

"You know the mental image that just instilled in my head? How disturbing!"

"I am SO diddling myself right now"

Warren Ellis writes Lying In The Gutters this week:

"Yes, I am making a mockery of everything Rich has done here. Why do you ask?"

Nonetheless, for those who visit, there's news on Chris Weston, Brian Wood, the sequel to Top 10, and more proof that Rian Hughes is a design god. Or, as Warren admits, "I may actually have made up everything here." U-Decide, as the saying went once in more innocent days.

Following up on the unseemly goings-on David Welsh has spotted in Essential Avengers Volume 2, here's a disturbing scene I ran across in Essential Super-Villain Team-Up.  While out for a stroll through his kingdom, Doom reflects on how letting his "mask of benevolence" slip has certain...side benefits:


Doom escorts the young woman to a secluded spot in the woods where he releases his hounds to hunt the local wolves.  Speaking of his hounds, Doom turns to Gretchen with this charming thought:


Thankfully, before he can complete that creepy parallel (or exercise his "absolute right" with Gretchen), Doom is attacked by the Shroud, who has come to kill Doom.  The two fight until, in an ironic twist, Doom is knocked over a cliff by his own hounds who had chased a wolf right into Doom.  (Get it?  Doom was attacked by his own hounds because he was being a "wolf" with the young Latverian woman.)

So in the end, comic book morality triumphed, but it still leaves the unpleasant thought of Doom trolling through Latveria for young women whenever he was feeling emasculated by the FF.

Joe Quesada looks back at his four years and two months as Marvel EiC, including his reputation as shit-stirrer:

"Bill J use to say that we could announce free milk and cookies with every Marvel comic and someone would complain that we were trying to kill them because they were lactose intolerant. It is however a fascinating exercise to watch. Even as I say this I can hear the Newsarama regulars spinning my words out of control. It's the fun thing to do I guess, it certainly is funny to watch. It's like when I watch online fans go after creators who have somehow done wrong by their favorite character. They come to the defense of their beloved two dimensional, fictitious characters as though they were real people, with feelings and family, yet treat the people who create, write and draw these characters as though they were fictitious and two dimensional without any regard for their feelings and family. I also feel that part of it is just the inherent cruelty that comes with human nature. They would never say this to us personally because that would involve confrontation and having to deal with the problem in a head on fashion and for the people who do this sort of stuff; the strength comes in the anonymity. But hey, that's cool, they help spread the gospel the way I see it [...It's] a legacy that has been in place since Marvel has dominated as the number one company. It use to be what the comic shop coffee clutches always talked about and now it's just in a larger electronic town hall style format called the net. I remembering speaking with Chris Claremont about story lines like the Dark Phoenix Saga and how incredibly radical it was at its time. He and Marvel received so much hate mail at the time from fans saying that Marvel shouldn't be doing this story line - sound familiar? - and we just got to thinking about how it wouldn't have been any different if the net existed back then only that all those people could have saved themselves postage stamps. Marvel is and will always be a lighting rod for the fans. The day that stops we might as well close up shop."

The new issue of The Comics Journal (which has a great Sean Philips cover) includes an interview with Ed Brubaker:

"I learned a long time ago to stop making a real separation in my head between the work-for-hire stuff -- unless it's something that I'm ordered to write where I have no feeling for the character and it's non-stop plot. That stuff is boring to write and you can't put yourself into it. But if it's something where you've created the whole storyline, there's always going to be big pieces of yourself in there. I'm exploring the same themes in my Batman comics and my Catwoman comics that I was probably exploring in Lowlife: family relationships, personal relationships, people not being able to escape their past... That's the stuff that interests me, and that's the stuff I write about. I don't make such a big differentiation in my head any more between the stuff that I write for a paycheck and the stuff I write because I want to. There are ideas I have that I don't think I could get paid by DC to write, so I sit on those sometimes, but the nice thing about what I've been doing for the last couple of years is I get to write about stuff that I find interesting and somebody pays me."

Adhouse Books announces two new collections from small press creators:

"AdHouse Books is excited to announce their plans to publish two new series by two unique creators who attended this year's SPX show: The Secret Voice by Zack Soto, and Zig Zag by J. Chris Campbell.

"If the name Zack Soto sounds familiar, it's because he edits and contributes to the Ignatz award-winning anthology Study Group 12. Zack's comics and illustrations have also appeared in Hi-Horse Omnibus, Kramers Ergot, and the backcover to this year's SPX anthology. The Secret Voice will be Mr. Soto's first effort into the realm of extended sequential art. J. Chris Campbell has been cranking out his sequential form of hilarity for some years now. Under the imprint of Wide Awake Press, Mr. Campbell has produced a number of high-production pamphlets that will tickle your funny bone, and other parts. His book, Zig Zag, will be his own anthology, a virtual cornucopia of yuck-yucks!

"Chris Pitzer, publisher of AdHouse Books had this to say, 'While it might seem strange to have such different creators sign on to work with AdHouse, they really are similar in one regard: they have their own distinct voice... and, they make great comics. OK, I guess that's two reasons.' Look for The Secret Voice and Zig Zag in Spring and Summer of 2005."

Between these, Skyscrapers of The Midwest, Project: Superior (Nick Abadzis!) and Process Recess, Adhouse have clearly decided that it's time they went for the "balding Scottish transplant to San Francisco" demographic.

Brian K Vaughan explains the final page of the first issue of Ex Machina (Spoilers for those who haven't read the book, but really, why not? It's very good, you know):

"I wanted to write a story about politics and New York City in the twenty-first century, and I couldn't think of a way to do that without addressing 9/11. I really was conflicted about showing the one tower still standing on that final page (especially when I considered real readers who may have lost someone in that building), but like all good science fiction, our story is about a world only one DNA strand different from our own, and I thought it was important to SHOW that DNA strand still standing there in our finale. I was confident that Tony Harris and I could handle the moment with dignity, even if it was difficult for many of our readers, and even if it made some of them (like you) never want to look at another issue. You can say that the moment was a cliffhanger, but I'd disagree with that term. If we had ended on a shot of the Great Machine trying to stop one of the planes, with a caption that read 'Will he make it in time?!' or some bullshit, that would have been a cliffhanger. But that final page wasn't even directly addressed in the next issue, which began a whole new arc. EX MACHINA #1 was a completely stand-alone story, and my only goal was to end on the strongest moment possible, as I try to do with all of my stories.

"Whether or not the moment was exploitative or in bad taste or shameful or whatever is something that only you can decide; all I know is what my intentions were. I love escapist, entertaining comics (I like to think I write a few), but I didn't want EX MACHINA to be one of them. I wanted it to be the kind of haunting, challenging book that you might carry with you into the real world after you closed it, the kind of book that would make you angry or emboldened or simply make you think about at least some small part of the world in a slightly different way. Yeah, I know it's just a superhero book, but when I saw Bush wearing that flight suit, or an action hero being elected governor of my new state, or Kerry running on his military service from thirty years ago, I knew that superheroes would be the ideal metaphor for talking about politics and politicians in a post-9/11 world, a world where people seem desperate for leaders who are also 'heroes,' whether or not such a thing really exists."

This just in from the land of mass generalizations! Mark Millar asks:

"Which has the gayest fans? Wonder Woman? Legion of Superheroes? Doctor Who? I don't think I've ever met a fan of any of these things who isn't gay, especially Doctor Who. This has a HUGE gay following over here. LSH was always a big gay thing and, again, I don't think I've ever met a straight Legion fan. But my money is almost definitely on WW."

The classiest response (I may be being slightly sarcastic here):

"I think, on average, cock is far more popular with gay men than any of these. I say this as a straight married man who likes all three."

Oh, Millarworld...

Erik Larsen talks about his experience after eight months of being the publisher at Image:

"I pick the books, and it’s really Eric Stephenson and me who are going over stuff as it comes in. A fine line is drawn with me – I’ll approve some stuff that Eric will tell me he’s not so sure about, and I’ll convince him, and in the end, hope I’m right. Sometimes it doesn’t always work though – you want it to, you hope it does, but that one time in ten or so, you put something out there that’s just…ouch. But there have also been some really cool books that have come out. I’m really pleased about Ultra, and the way that book looks and reads. For me, that was a success story. Likewise, I was really pleased to find and be able to publish the Flight book – there’s going to be more of those... I’m not looking for any specific balance, because it’s always a matter of creators coming in with what they want to do. If I’ve got six creators that are all coming in with Westerns, and they’re all great Westerns, then suddenly, we’re in the Western business. If nobody is sending in a Western, I’m not going to be worrying about doing one, or thinking about chasing someone down to do one. Ultimately, we’re not a company that does that particularly – we really are a company that’s about publishing things that other people own, and helping them to be able to realize their dreams and get their things out there. It’s a different kind of thing than everyone else. Do I look at the line and say, 'we’re doing good,' or 'I’d like to add a ____ style of book?' Sometimes. There are things that we’ve passed on that have turned out okay elsewhere – not that I’ve passed on, specifically, but 'we' as a company. [laughs]"

James Sturm gets the 5 Questions attention at Newsarama, including talking about his soon-to-open Center for Cartoon Studies:

"The majority of colleges still posses a very antiquated idea of what comics are about. Only a few schools offer a comprehensive curriculum in comics and I could not picture myself as a faculty member at any of them. The type of comic art school that I wanted to teach at did not exist. As stupid as it may sound I felt my only option was to start a school... What I hope to accomplish? To create the best cartooning school that I can. Comics have been a vehicle for my ideas and stories and have taught me many skills that have supported me financially through the years. Perhaps CCS is a way to repay the debt I feel I have incurred. I'd also be lying if I didn't mention that I am doing this because it’s a lot of fun. Starting a school is a lot or work (raising money, recruiting, accreditation, etc.) but at the same time it's exhilarating watching it take shape. We are only excepting 20 students our first year and applications are just starting to come in. It's inspiring reading the application essays. We open our doors in the fall of 2005."

The Youngblood: Bloodsport backlash continues, this time with an open letter to Mark Millar at Millarworld from a reader:

"I myself am a freelance writer and don’t entertain the idea that I could do the work you do. However the material in this issue is so over the top with so little substance to back it up I felt obligated to confront you. The very fact that the book begins with an assault on Civil Rights leaders is proof enough. I am fully aware of what you were attempting to do, in some post-deconstructionist way, however you know as well as I do that when an artist ventures that far out into sacred ground you sure hell better have some good reason to. You may have but it does not come across in the book and it borders on racist. The same goes for rest of the book. Over the top cursing and drug use and perversion with no substance to give it reason.

"I’m not attacking you or your career, I personally thought that much of what you did on Authority was very good. Same type of outrageous material but with the substance to give it life. I guess that is why I’m writing you, disappointment. Samuel Clemmons once said something to the effect that people can reach a certain level in their careers where everything they do is perfect, not because they have achieved perfection in their art but because no one wants to be the guy that tells Da Vinci something he did sucks. I don’t think this book is representative of you body of work and I have hard time believing you do either."

All Zombie lovers! Go to Shane's blog, to see the brand new Dead in 24 Days contest, where he's giving away a copy of the first Walking Dead trade as well as a copy of the 24 Hour Comics trade to those who send him a zombie comic strip. Those of us who are currently working on zombie books to be released at the end of the year are probably not allowed to enter.

Retailer rampage over at the Bendis board:

"Back in June of thise year, there came to be solicited in Previews a new Youngblood comic from Arcade Comics (I thought Liefeld was Awesome Comics, but whatever). I understand that there is a contingent of customers that like Youngblood, as it was in the 90s with Liefeld art and everything. So, I ordered a few copies. Very few. Incidentally, this Youngblood Bloodsport #1 was a resolicit from August of 2002, so its been pending for a while. I figured it wouldn't actually come out, but further on to the point. Copies went on the shelf yesterday. We sold one to a good customer who was curious and one to a random guy. Out of morbid curiousity one of my employees flipped through it and was frankly shocked by what he saw within. Hardcore language, drug use, nudity. This comic was NOT solicited as being mature readers. Matter of fact here's the full text: From the Ultimate writer of Wolverine and Spiderman, and the creator of X-force! Wizard top writer Mark Millar, teams with Rob Liefeld in bringing you one of the most controversial chapters in Youngblood history! See what fans have been talking about since last convention season, available now for the first time to the specialty market! Ships with three all-new covers by Rob Liefeld, Frank Quietly (New X-men) and Andy Park (X-men Reloaded)! RES. from Previews vol. XII #8. FC 32 pgs. $3.99.

"That's it. You can see it for yourself in your June 2004 Previews. The point is that, aside from some really poor taste (scott and logan in drag servicing Battlestone and Seahawk, Shaft destroying re-animated zombie corpses of civil rights leaders named by name), this book is simply not as advertised. There is a M mature readers on the back cover only, nowhere on the front. Somewhere, between now and the weekend, this book will be sold to a minor and then it could hit the fan and be really bad for comics in general. It could be sold to an adult thinking its a general audiences super-hero comic and passed on to a minor. When situations like this happen, its not Arcade Comics or Rob Liefeld or Mark Millar that will catch the heat, its the Local Comic Shop. Other than the comic book legal defense fund, there's not much of a safety net for the shop if a parent wants to push it or local law enforcement is bored and wants to generate an example. I've emailed Diamond to sent out an advisory to customers who ordered this book based off of the solicitaion (from the writer of Spider-man and Wolverine (general audiences books) indicates that Youngblood Bloodsport is also genral audiences) to be aware of its content and contain it. Diamond is also to blame for this and has to look out for its retailer customers by giving a heads up. Personally I want it recalled and I want my money back because its not as advertised. I told a good customer about it and he said I was bordering on censorship, which I took personally. I explained that as a business man it wasn't the content so much as the fact that it is a different product than I was led to believe and that we have to protect ourselves because no one else will. I think he understood that. Personally, I think the content is over the top. Ultimates is 'controversial' this is something different. So before you start calling me out for being a censor, or a Millar-hater (which I am), think of it from a business standpoint."

"My previous retailer did his fucking homework. Hit the messageboards and comics news sites religiously. You HAVE to. Otherwise you're lazy and uninformed (i.e., most of the comics retailers out there). In any industry, you have to be informed to perform well consistently. Mind you, I'm not saying that copy above isn't misleading, but you said that ALL you have to go by is the Previews material. That's not true. If you think it is, you *might* want to reconsider how you order because you're probably not very good at it. There's no way you can order properly without checking online interest and past performance. This isn't 1991. You can't just put 50 or 0 across the board in the 'Quantity' column. You have to do your homework."

"There's a difference between retailers being lazy and publishers taking responsibility. If Rob Liefeld published a book with material inappropriate for younger fans who may just now be discovering him thanks to X-Force, it's his responsibility to let the public know that the book isn't for kids more than just saying 'controversial'. Specific details, like graphic scenes of sex and violence, need to be included either on the cover or in the solicits."

"well, if you are a retailer , i would assume you would flip though books and see some content taht shouldn't be sold to kids.... a store by me bags all adult books and doesn't seel them to kids. see? a store that takes responsapilty!!!!!!"

Will Pfeiffer talks about the end of H-E-R-O at The Pulse:

"I always had an idea for an ending to H-E-R-O, a way to both tie up the whole story and wrap it up in a way that I think is surprising, yet completely in the spirit of the comic. The ending (at issue 22, out in November) definitely came earlier than I wanted, but DC gave us plenty of warning, so I could plant the seeds for the big ending, then have time to ease it along instead of making everything seemed rushed... I enjoyed focusing on the people instead of the powers. Anyone can throw lightning bolts around or turn invisible, but it’s more interesting to me to see how that sort of power changes a person – what they do with it, and what it does to them. I also liked focusing on everyday people who live in the DC Universe – treating it as a 'real' place where, odds are, you’re never going to meet Superman or Batman, but you live in the same world as them and there mere existence has an impact on your life."

Warren Ellis talks about his Marvel work in Streaming this week:

"ULTIMATE NIGHTMARE was originally intended as a set-up for a big Ultimate-line event that Mark Millar was going to do. Mark, however, has had health issues for some time, and that and his workload led to him bowing out and me once again being asked to step in and help out. And then, while I was getting into NIGHTMARE, Joe Quesada had the idea of turning this event into a trilogy. And after that McNiven became available. So I needed to come up with a credible second step in the trilogy fairly quickly. I ended up scanning through Sixties Marvel timelines on the web, and turned up Captain Marvel. Going with the thought that the Ultimate stuff is really just accessible modern retellings of the original Marvel comics, I decided it was time to introduce a retake on Marvel's original Captain into the line. Especially since the regular Captain Marvel title had been cancelled -- a company called Marvel Comics letting a title called Captain Marvel go away seemed like a lapse, somehow."

(More interesting for me was the mention of a Georgette strip by Eddie Campbell and Dave Harwood... Presuming that this is the same Georgette as Graffiti Kitchen, I now want to track this down...)

The Bendis board gets moralistic:

"not sure what people think about this here....but i just discovered that you can download comics and they have this comic book reader that you read them with. it's way cool!!!! i'm downloading every spiderman comic from the 60's, complete transmet, complete preacher, complete mage, ton of british alan moore stuff. i can't stop downloading comics!!!!!! i'm not reading them....but damn, it's cool to have them...."

Yeah, I'm not sure why he's downloading them if he's not reading them, either... Anyway, the reaction is swift and harsh:

"Thief! Thief!"

"Go on acreators board and talk about stealing comics. SMART"

"Loser"

When the original poster responds - "unreal..... you people kill me. i defy anyone on this board to tell me that they never downloaded anything? a song, a whole cd......movies.... now granted that there's stuff that's ok to DL, but napster, newsgroups, kazaa....come on people...." - that's when things get fun:

"Morals are something you decide on yourself. If you have few morals, or easily flexable morals, then that's just something you have to live with. Don't try to make yourself feel better by yelling 'everyone else is doing it' though, that's lame."

John Byrne weighs in on the issue of late-shipping comics:

"There is no reason for any book ever to ship late. Let me repeat that: NO REASON. EVER. If the books are being done on a reasonable, intelligent, realistic schedule to begin with, the artist could have both hands chopped off and the writer could spontaneously implode, and there would be plenty of time to find replacements long before the book missed shipping. Books are late because of unprofessional people. No other reason, and therefore no excuse."

He elaborates later:

"If the processes behind the manufacture of a product are taking longer, then the schedule/timetable on which that product is being
produced should be altered accordingly. Thus, if, in order to hit a July 1st release date 'in the olden days' meant everything had to be finished by June 1st, then it was easy enough to count up the number of jobs, work out how long each one should take, factor in some fudge time, and say that work on the book would have to begin, say, January 1st. If the time for any of the jobs stretch out, make it December 1st. Make it November 1st. Hell, make it July 1st of the previous year.* In other words, TAKE AS LONG AS YOU NEED TO GET THE BOOK DONE -- but don't schedule it until you know how long that is!

"*I have seen some microbrains complaining that TRUE BRIT, which ships this month, is 'late'. Their justification for this complaint is that the book did not come out within a couple of months of them first hearing it was in the pipeline. But TB was not scheduled when it was first announced as a work in progress. It was not scheduled until it was ready to be released -- not until the work was done, in other words. So the book, all 93 hardcover bound pages will, barring Acts of God, come out exactly when it was announced it would. (And you can be sure there will be people who complain that you can see it was 'rushed' to meet deadline.)"

I'm waiting for the issue of Marvel Team-Up where Spider-Man is joined by Spot, the Target Dog, myself...:

"As part of its 'Ready. Sit. Read!' program, Target launched a new initiative to promote childhood reading through a partnership with Marvel Enterprises, Inc. and its educational resource division, Cover Concepts. Together, the companies are producing and distributing a series of custom comics featuring Marvel's greatest Super Heroes, including Spider-Man and Captain America, in adventures that showcase the importance of reading. The comics were recently disseminated through a portion of Cover Concepts' authorized in-school network to nearly one million students in third and fourth grade classrooms nationwide... 'Target believes that developing creative and engaging programs like this will help to get children excited about reading,' said Laysha Ward, vice president, community relations, Target Corporation. 'Studies show that if a child can't read by the third grade, he or she may never catch up. Our partnership with Marvel and its Cover Concepts division helps us reach many children at a critical point in their reading education.'"

Because they were bored, the Joe Quesada board discuss Warren Ellis' perceived double standard:

"'I really have no interest in Star Wars,, seeing as I'm no longer nine years old' [...] Warren Ellis said that. I find it humorous. He writes Iron Man and Fantastic Four for Marvel Comics, but he considers himself too grown up for Star Wars"

"He's right. Star Wars is for kids."

"And you're both wrong. It's for anyone who enjoys it."

"Boo. That's what paedophiles say too."

Millarworld list talent that they think is wasted where it is:

"Sean McKeever. Mystique and Mary Jane really aren't the best media for him to show off his talents. I say put him on Ultimate X-Men. I think he'd be great on it, and, as talented as Brian K. Vaughan is, his style really isn't ideally suited for it. However, he'd be great on something like The Pulse. And put Robert Kirkman on anything but Jubilee."

"When Travis Charest was doing that Darkstars series (well he did only a handful, so...) I thought that was a very dumb concept and a waste of his talent. Bendis on Avengers. Bagley on the Pulse is a waste considering there are much better artists to suit that style of book."

"Dan Fraga working in the entertainment industry instead of comics comes to mind. Good for him though since he's probably making more there and is having fun. Hopefully he comes back though to do a Black Flag thing or something."

Today, the Bendis board demonstrate what fine perspective they have on things:

"i love my gf. really i do. if i didn't she'd be DEAD right now. she had circle of blood in her backpack today, cos she's been reading it. the signed copy i bought from mack. the coolest FUCKING BOOK EVER.
and she left her backpack on the bench at a park for a few minutes. AND IT GOT STOLEN. i really hope that when i pick her up she tells me in a happy bright voice, 'well at least your comic is safe in my car.' or i'm gonna cry, man."

"never let girls borrow signed comics"

"Never let girls borrow ANY comics if you want them to stay in good condition."

"It's true; my girl has lost a couple of my comics. New X-Men and Ultimate X-Men, methinks."

Scott Tipton writes an open letter to J. Michael Straczynski about the recent retcons in Amazing Spider-Man:

"I’m now supposed to believe that Gwen Stacy, drawn by Norman Osborn’s 'strength and magnetism,' would have sex with the father of her boyfriend’s best friend? I’m assuming that this 'strength and magnetism' business is your emergency-exit out, that it could be revealed that Osborn used some sort of hypnotic or mind-control hoodoo to force Gwen to have sex with him (and let’s face it -- with hair like that, he’d probably need it...), but even if you do go that way, why? What does this story arc really do for the character in the long-term? ...It kind of makes one wonder what the role of editorial at Marvel is these days, between this and the Parade of Pointless Death currently going on in AVENGERS. It seems to me that there should still be someone whose job it is to look at the long-term picture, to act as a caretaker of the characters and say 'Sure, that’s a great shocking idea for sales today, but where does that leave us down the road? Do the short-term sales and buzz outweigh the loss of our fan base of long-term readers?' As I suspect Marvel will find out when the traditional AVENGERS fans abandon the new title, and after Bendis has left the series and taken his hardcore fans with him, it’s a lot harder to get people back once you’ve scorched the earth and spat upon the ashes."

(Thanks, Mike D)

Crossgen goes for one meeeeeellion dollars:

"According to Noel Boeke, counsel for CrossGen in its bankruptcy proceedings, the former publisher’s assets were sold yesterday to Cal Publishing Inc. According to Boeke, Cal Publishing, Inc. offered the high and best bid of $1 million for the assets of CrossGen and CrossGen IP and CrossGen technologies. The company is an indirect subsidiary of Disney, according to Boeke. The next step in CrossGen’s proceedings comes Friday with a hearing at 2:00pm when the judge will consider whether or not to approve the sale. If the sale is approved, the deal with Cal Publishing must be closed, and afterwards, the bankruptcy trustee would distribute the money CrossGen’s creditors."

Heidi will kill me, but Whitney Matteson's SPX report in USA Today is kind of cute. Of course, Heidi's report is more indepth, says he hoping to avoid trouble...

A poster on the Bendis board takes a stab at explaining Marvel's Earth X/Universe X/Paradise X series:

"Earth X, Universe X and Paradise X are a trilogy of really, really long stories set in a future of the Marvel universe. Earth X is a great read that provides great explainations for pretty much everything in the Marvel Universe while showing us the Marvel heroes' darkest hour. It also features STUNNING art by J. P. Leon. Then we enter Matrix territory. Even tho' Earth X left very little unresolved, the writers claimed that they always wanted to make a trilogy, and the first one was successful, so they were allowed to do it. Only the sequels fucking suck. Universe X starts out ok and quickly spirals out as it attempts to make up explanations for things that didn't need explaining while telling a convoluted story of everyone trying to kill Death. The last series is complete drek with not one redeeming quality. Also, by then, Marvel was fed up with publishing 18 issue maxi-series and told them to truncate it, so the ending is rushed and doesn't make any sense. And the best part of Earth X, the art, is the gone, as JP was replaced with the utterly mediocre Dougie Braithwhite for both Universe X & Paradise X. Save your money on those two, but by all means grab Earth X."

Rebellion announce the 2000AD titles that DC will be releasing for the first half of next year. Jamie Boardman must've been reading my mind for one of the titles in June:

"THE COMPLETE INDIGO PRIME
Writer: John Smith
Artists: Chris Weston, Mike Hadley, Pauline Doyle and Mick Austin
Suggested for Mature Readers"

All we need now is the Complete Revere, and I'll be the happiest John Smith fanboy around.

The Fantastic Four to return to TV, as announced in a press release that suggests that it may be like Bill Jemas's idea for the comic, way back when:

"Given the long history of the franchise, Arad said the new 'Fantastic Four' series would aim for an all-ages audience a la 'The Simpsons,' with humor that works for adults who remember the original comics as well as kids who will be introduced to the characters next summer."

Brian K. Vaughan's website officially opens. It has a blog. It has a forum. It has Brian talking about his work:

"As part of DC’s somewhat ill conceived line of “international” annuals, I wrote JLA ANNUAL #4, which introduced the world to my Turkish super-heroine, the Janissary! This book got some of the worst reviews of my career (I think Randy Lander gave it a 1/10), but I’m still proud of the plot twist that involved the JLA confusing a tip about the real Turkish city of Batman with the hero of the same name. Come on! That’s gold!"

Classics Illustrated returns yet again, this time from Penguin books:

"Puffin Books, a division of Penguin USA, is betting that classic books can make a comeback among young readers—in the guise of graphic novels. Starting next summer, Puffin will publish a line of classics produced as book-sized comics, or 'graphic novels' —today’s hottest category among young readers. The first titles in the new Puffin Graphics line will include Macbeth, illustrated in manga style by an authenic Tokyo-based illustrator Tony Leonard Tamai and Black Beauty, illustrated by June Brigman which has been given a cinematic look. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, rendered digitally in tones by noted UK comics artist Frazer Irving and Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, by long-time documentary comics artist Wayne Van Sant, will follow."

I love that graphic novels are called "today's hottest category among young readers". It's only one step away from "It's what the kids call comics these days. Those young scalliwags and their new-fangled terms!"

Happy Birthday, Graeme!


Now you know why Graeme is always going on about how the Ultimate universe isn't as good as the "regular" Marvel universe:  Graeme's old.  Heck, Graeme just got over the Silver Age "reimaging" of Marvel's Golden Age characters, so be patient with him.  In another sixty years he finally might come around to appreciating Ultimate Gambit.  Excelsior!

Mark Waid answers Pulse posters' questions about his new Legion of Super-Heroes series, including what he thinks went wrong with the last continuity reboot, post-Zero Hour:

"Well, failing to let potential new readers know that it was a jump-on point--right down to keeping the old numbering, the same artists as great as they were, and even the old logo, for pete’s sake--really crippled any chance we had to rope in a fresh audience. Everyone who wasn’t already reading Legion assumed this was more of the same. A lot of truly wonderful talent poured a lot of great ideas and energy into the next ten years, but it all started from a very disadvantageous point. That’s NOT the case here. We’re finally being given every advantage by DC because they believe in the Legion fo Super-Heroes, they believe in us, and we’re doing our level best to exceed their expectations. We’ve been given a great opportunity and we’re not squandering it."

Joe Casey is, again, emailing Matt Fraction (who is, again, replying), and they are, again, creating the Basement Tapes:

"Yeah, I love watching artists groping to find themselves. There's a raw energy to someone's early work that often can never be recaptured. Not that the artists in question would necessarily want to. I've looked back on my CABLE run and, while I appreciate the energy and the commitment I put into it, I wouldn't want to go back there. Not only did I learn my lessons, I earned 'em. It is kind of neurotic, isn't it? That need to put yourself out there when a part of you knows damn well you're just a bit short of being absolutely 'ready'. Maybe there's something that drives us to the comic book medium that's intrinsically related to that need to potentially embarrass yourself.

"However, growing up in public doesn't just apply to the work. At least not in this business, where creators are often called upon -- or at least compelled in some strange way -- to fashion some sort of public persona for themselves. That's where the real embarrassment can occur. You and I are both battle scarred veterans of the Weekly Column and I can tell you right now... there are things I've said under the auspices of the 'op/ed' piece that make me cringe way more than some dumb plot twist I came up with in the X-MEN/FANTASTIC FOUR annual I wrote back in '98. The missteps that occur when you're finding your public persona can often overshadow the work itself."

Millarworld has a thread called "Sexualized Superheroes/ines, Is there a fe/male $lut glut?"

No, really:

"I'm all for the sexual powering of the female superheroines. Respect."

"I think its a matter of societal perspective and how well the characters are treated or behave aside from their bedroom antics. Are they just perverts, do they just enjoy casual sex, or is it that we're just not used to seeing women express themselves sexually and then going out to save the world afterwards?"

"I think it's a matter of comics fans (as a reflection of general society) being scared to death of active women."

"I don't think this is so much about superheroines being sluts, as it is about them actually having a sex life. Donna Troy has had sex with at least 3 men (her husband Terry, Kyle Rayner/Green Lantern, and Arsenal, though this last one I think may be just specualation by fans that I picked up). That doesn't make her a slut (unless she did them all in a matter of hours or days, it just means that she's sexually active."

"Well, there's no argument that [Green Lantern supporting character] Jade's a bit of a slut. I mean, she slept with a guy while Kyle was away. And the guy she was cheating with was sleeping with other woman in between. And Jade still went back to the guy. And she had no good reason why she cheated on Kyle. Damaged goods."

"What surprises me is the lack of sex at comics, really. Take for example the Avengers. They're adults who all live in a house together, share every experience and spend their days fighting battles that get their adrenaline and their blood pumping. If one sees a reality show, one knows that there should be sexual tension all over the place. Oh, and She-Hulk is considered to be slutty too, Cap even asked her to move out of the mansion because she was a security risk. Yap, this from the guy who has bangin' Diamondback."

The Bendis board think some more about Avengers Disassembled:

"Anyone disappointed by Avengers Disassembled? I'm not calling it crap, I'm just saying that I find the whole thing to be a let down."

"I think Bendis is the best writer in comics, but he's at his best when he's telling stories with a fairly small cast. His mojo isn't quite as strong when he's doing group stories. Bendis' strengths as a writer like in characterization and dialogue. Avengers Disassembled has been all plot so far. Not bad by any means. But not great."

"Bendis still has one more part left. A lot can happen in that one issues. Wait it out"

"Even if it ends strongly, that doesn't mean the first three parts aren't terrible."

"I just feel kind of overwhelmed by it all. Also, if the villain turns out to be the person everyone's guessing, that's gonna be a huge let down. The #1 suspect is SO OBVIOUS that if the guesses are right... it's just gonna suck. And this week's LITG sez the guesses are right. So... I'm just gonna wait'n'see."

Retailer Rick Shea looks at the return of the variant cover:

"My problem with variants is this. Once they are out on the market or even announced, you've got that faction, no matter how small, that 'has to have it.' I probably have about 500 people or so that buy comics from me on at least a monthly basis. Some of those are fairly casual and some are pretty hard-core collectors. It's usually the hard-core collector that rushes in to see when I'll be able to get him that copy of the Wolverine 1 in 65 variant and wants to know how much it'll cost. Although I only have a handful of customers that really 'need' to get that variant, because they have every other variant before this, it's still a frustrating situation. Unfortunately, we have to jump through several hoops or order a ridiculous amount of copies to get certain variants that our customers are looking for."

5 Things I have learned from Alan David Doane's 5 Questions with Mark Millar:

1. ADD is adept at kissing ass:

"[Mark Millar is] one of the most powerful people in the comics industry, able to get competing publishers to allow him to publish a line of comics called 'Millarworld' across corporate borders, to levels of success I don't think anyone was expecting, including Millar himself. He and artist Bryan Hitch recreated Marvel's Avengers for the Ultimate line, turning The Ultimates into an adult, action-packed comic book that won over readers and redefined what could be accomplished with decades-old corporate superhero icons... Millar and Hitch's unique take on Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the rest resonates as the best take on those characters in many, many years -- in large part due to the very obvious joy that the creators are taking in playing around in Stan and Jack's sandbox in a way no one has ever quite done before, or likely ever will again."

2. Despite the one constant on all of Millar's late books being Millar himself, it's not his fault:

"Millarworld Phase Two is scheduled for Spring 2006 and I'll be doing the same thing again. That is, dropping well-paid work (for a little longer this time) and focusing on at least five new titles. I've already got the artists lined up and, the big lesson I've learned from phase one, will make sure they're mostly in the can before publishing. Artists, no matter how good their intentions, are always slower than they think."

3. ADD is really adept at kissing ass:

"The Ultimates returns this December for a second volume, and all I hear in the comics shop is doubt that the book will stay on schedule. Despite that, no one argues that the book isn't absolutely beautiful, and even though I have been extremely aggravated by delays on some titles in the past, you and Hitch managed to keep the quality so high that it really doesn't both me much."

4. Millar isn't really obsessed with rape. In fact, it's your problem, Americans:

"Wanted, Chosen and The Authority all had rape references, sure, and The Unfunnies had child molestation so I think it's fair to say that it's cropped up a few times. But so what? Each and every one of those comics had fifty murders to every rape and nobody ever mentions them, despite the fact that rape and sexual assault is a far more common crime than murder. That really strikes me as odd. I think American audiences are quite interesting in that they can handle almost any amount of violence, but the moment the violence becomes sexual violence it immediately becomes an issue. Europeans don't really think about this stuff as much."

5. ADD is really, really adept at kissing ass:

"I recently read and enjoyed the hell out of your all-ages Superman Adventures comics; with such an obvious affinity for the characters and such a gift for crafting exactly the kind of stories they should be featured in, what the hell is wrong with the comics industry that you aren't currently writing Superman comics?"

It's like they knew it was my birthday or something.

Oni's James Lucas Jones declares war on the idea that the superhero comic represents the mainstream:

"Comics mainstream needs to get in line with what the rest of the world acknowledges as the mainstream. At Oni, we really feel like we’re pushing the real mainstream on the comics populace... Oni’s output would include the romantic comedy that would gross $30 million on an opening weekend. It would be the cult teen flick like Napoleon Dynamite that just plays forever and has repeat viewing after repeat viewing. But because they’re comics, the subject matter is marginalized and pushed to the side, because ‘that’s not what comics do – comics are for big, splashy superhero stories.’ We’re not the only company that publishes this kind of material, but we’re probably the oldest one that publishes this breadth of stories, and probably have the largest library of anybody other than the manga publishers. We’re the largest North American company, I would say, just in terms of backlist.

"Different publishers have carved out their own little niches. IDW has carved out a really nice horror niche in addition to doing the licensing books. Slave Labor has always embraced the goth culture, and have done really well with it. For better or for worse, Oni... well, we don’t want to be stuck publishing just one genre. We’re going to do whatever we think is going to be good, and whatever we think we can market and hopefully have success with in the marketplace... It’s latching onto the concept of redefining the comics mainstream to be more in line with the actual mainstream, and leading the charge in that attack."

DC to publish Secret Origin of Harvey Pekar shocker! Artist Dean Haspiel explains:

"This really is his origin – the first panel is Harvey as a baby. I may have him being smacked in the butt or something along those lines, I haven’t decided yet. To me, that first image has to set the tone for everything that’s to come – it’s a semi-violent story…he basically goes through the motions of trying to secure a job, or make people like him, or make ends meet, and there’s always a little twist where you just think, 'Oh my God – Harvey, what are you doing?' You really start to feel for the guy in this story. He’s got a real problem, and he talks about a problem. It’s never been qualified, but you feel real sympathy for the fuck up that is Harvey Pekar."

Written by Pekar, drawn by Haspiel, published by Vertigo of all places, "The Quitter" is due to appear next fall.

John Parker is concerned about the creative direction of independent comics:

"I'm not saying that I dislike realism in comics, but within the independent and alternative circles, it's as abundant as superheroes in mainstream comics. And just like superheroes in mainstream comics, autbio/realism in independent books gets very old very quickly. The emphasis placed upon realism has resulted in quite a few mediocre works being labelled great simply because they depict the same 'real' things over and over again. Boy, relationships are hard. Work sucks. I can't get along with my parents. I sure am coming of age. Men are stupid, women are crazy, people are sad sometimes, et bloody cetera. People complain about the hegemony of modern superhero comics but rarely notice the same patterns in the soap opera and sitcom-influenced smaller press.

"Everything gets old eventually, and unless a creator takes a fresh approach to a work of autobiography - Eddie Campbell is a spectacular example - it burrows into the same artistic rut that hundreds of others have ploughed before. No new ground is broken and few great works are written, but because they portray something familiar, we treat them as if they're reinventing the medium."

Millarworld ponder politics' place in comics:

"I think it's more socially irresponsible to EXCLUDE politics in art. In, fact, it's almost impossible. If art is the exchange of ideas and an expression of the artist, then political ideology should be a part of that. That's what art is all about: expressing thoughts that others might not share. Of course, I don't think DC and Marvel comics generally qualify as 'art,' but that's another issue."

"I think the central point for me is the quality. Aside from comics I also read political non-fiction and even though I may disagree with or dispute an interpretation from one side of the political spectrum I admire and can be entertained by it still so long as it is respectful and, simply put, good. The best comic examples to demonstrate this are the Joe Kelly JLA issue which was basically an allegory for the war in Iraq and the final issue of Volume 1 of the Ultimates. I agreed with the former's politics as I was against going to war but man did it suck. On the other hand I thought Captain America's 'Do you think this A stands for France?!' in Ultimates 13 was a little wrong but being in a good comic and fitting in the story as it did I had a little laugh at the moment and moved on - no harm done. So long as creators are considerate of the fact that people of all political spectrums may be reading what they write and therefore make their point in a way of sufficient quality I see no problem with it."

"Basically, the left uses whatever chance they get to bash the right - calling it fair, calling it accurate, not agreeing that it's past insulting but hate-filled - and get away with it. Why? Because the left is cool now (though you still want money, but you don't want doctors or businessmen or small business owners to have it). Because a few rich Senators told you so. Because Hollywood/Billboard liberals with driftwood for brains told you so (as they rake in millions every year, spend thousands of dollars on things like flowers, jewelry, clothes and the like, all the while bemoaning the plight in foreign countries that they don't really want to help but think the-rich-that-aren't-them should give their money to). I've ranted about this before, about the jerking shift to the left comics have taken. I don't care if people want to put a message in their stories, but there's a difference betweening realistically weaving something in and writing a manifesto in the form of a mainstream corporate comic. Personally, writers who do such things are doing a disservice to political activism. Yelling your point gets you heard, but for the wrong reason - you're loud, not insightful or intelligent (hence, the main problem I have with Michael Moore and oh so many of the Left, and a few on the Right)."

Mike Oeming talks about his current and upcoming projects at Newsarama, including his wrap-up of Thor:

"I had so much fun... Hard work too. I didn’t just want to write an action story, I wanted to write a story with meaning. Digging up such themes as Father/Son, King/Kingdom, God/Mortal is tough stuff- tough to give it resonance. Finding a way to wrap up this 40 year series in a way that brings it back to its roots, using Donald Blake and why Odin sent Thor to Earth. Thinking that stuff up was hard, but once the ball got rolling, lots of fun. I’m not so much saddened that the series is over as excited for the future of Thor. Its like ‘killing’ Superman, you know he'll be back."

Rich Johnston on those thinking about bidding on Crossgen:

"I'm told that Warner Bros are bidding only on the movie rights (and the considerable pre-production that comes with them) - the bid comes from the Hollywood side, not the comics side. Classic Media have bid for the whole thing and while Disney has yet to bid, it is expected to. Stalking horse John Taddeo is linked to another bidder [...] It seems that a number of people who were approached to invest previously are now returning to the corpse, as Marc Alessi is no longer involved."

Look below, my friends. It's John Jakala back from the dead, and blogging once more. This makes me happy, although sadly Dorian apparently doesn't feel the same way...

Subtext Implicit Meaning or Underlying Theme? What Subtext Implicit Meaning or Underlying Theme? (With a tip of the hat to Dorian at Postmodern Barney.)


From the perversely horrific (or is that horrifically perverse?) The Red Snake from DH Publishing.  (Read Bill Sherman's excellent review for more info, and click here for more sample images.)

Grant Morrison talks about his upcoming JLA rerun:

"The basic conceit is that a serious emergency arises while the JLA are lost on a mission in another universe. What happens when the world goes to hell and the only superheroes available to save the day get co-opted and used as weapons by the villains? I also fancied the idea of doing a story that was even more 'supercompressed' than I'd attempted before - this three-parter is like being loaded into a laser gun and fired at the moon. Lots of crazy things happen and they all happen very, very fast. It's a rushing thrill ride. Don't expect sensitive character studies or grieving men in spandex."

Newsarama chats to one of the greats, Joe Kubert:

"I’m extremely proud of the stuff that myself and the other guys are doing in our business, as well as the fact that we’re gaining, not so much recognition for ourselves, but acceptance as an artform. I think it’s great for us, and I think it’s good for the publishers as well. It’s always been ironic to me that here in the United States, where comic books started, comics are still seen as a kids’ medium – something for children. The message was always there – adults and anyone with any brains at all, why would you look at comic books? In Europe, where they kind of followed us along with the comic books and interesting cartooning, it’s always been considered an adult medium, it’s always been considered something that kids can read, sure, but it doesn’t bar adults from reading the same thing. I think we’re slowly moving closer to that model of comics as a whole.

"My own motivation, and I think most of the guys I know when I came into the business, we did stuff that we felt we enjoyed ourselves. It wasn’t as if we were slanting it towards adults or to kids, we were trying to tell a good story. Christ, if we can execute a story that’s accepted on a number of levels – for kids, for teenagers, and for adults, that’s great. I won’t knock that."

It's the most controversial comics storyline of the year that isn't Identity Crisis or Avengers Disassembled (and only if you give a fuck about Spider-Man)! Gwen Stacy - she of the permenent headband and getting killed by the Green Goblin way back when - had kids! And NORMAN "Only the Green Goblin himself" OSBORNE is the father! Holy shit retcons! Luckily, Millarworld aren't pulling any punches:

"I personally think it's one of the best Spidey stories I've read in quite some time, and I'm usually not one for the soap opera stuff."

"OK, time to chime in here. I always figured out it was Norman who was the father of the kids. See some of the other posts on this. While it is twisted and diabolical, it is also brilliant. I always wondered why Norman decided to off Gwen. It always seemed like something was missing, and now we know what it was. Not that Stan or Gerry planned that, but it fills some holes. I agree that this will finally put Mary Jane at center stage. I always liked the idea that Gwen was the one, but this puts a hole in that one. Kudos to JMS for coming up with this continuity-driven story. Marvel needs more of this stuff nowadays!"

"I don't understand the complaining either, the story is far from finished and it's been awesome so far."

"Norman Osborn has always been characterized as a steely bastard. He can manipulate anybody. He screwed over Mendell Stromm and stole his research and framed him for embezzelment. Then he used that research to create the Goblin formula. He's been a figure in the New York City underworld for decades. Do you honestly think he could NOT seduce a young woman? GWEN said he was sad. Norman is assholeish enough to feign sadness just to catch somebody (like Gwen) at a weak moment. And then he struck. I like this storyline. It connects a lot of dots left over from before."

"I hope we can all agree that ASM 512 was an AWESOME piece of work as stand alone art. Mike D was on his game as each character's face told the story with their emotions. And JMS' scripting was so heartfelt and powerful!!! This is what good storytelling in a comic is all about. This is what the current trend of 'decompression story telling' (I hate that term) should be trying to emulate. In a superhero book where no punch is thrown and now laser blasts are fired the tension was palpable. Example, Peter having to clear his throat while talking to MJ was an excellent portayal of his emotion at the time. I say Bravo to JMS and Mike D! Excellent work! Probably one of the best 616 mainstream titles I have read in a long time!!!"

Thankfully, things are slightly more sensible at the V:

"I'm just kind of baffled as to who this is meant to appeal to. If you actually remember and have some attachment to Gwen Stacy, you'll almost certainly hate it. Personally, I have zero attachment to Gwen. Not only was I not reading comics when she was killed off, but I wasn't going to be born for another two years. For people like me, she's not a character, she's just an all-purpose avatar for the demise of the Silver Age. Who gives a fuck if she has kids by a psycho?"

Well, Millarworld, it seems. Anyway, Matt Craig and Nick Locking even have a go at trying to fit it into continuity:

"The Goblin Formula may be trotted out at some point, as it was when Norman returned from the dead. It gave him a Healing Factor (nnrrrg), after all, so why shouldn't it accelerate the development and aging of his love-children, what with it being a volatile chemical and not a gene-altering therapeutic drug. OH! Gwen fucked off to London (apparently: she 'clearly' 'lied' and went to France, instead) during Essential Spider-Man 5 (if you want something to go to next time you're in the comic shop, this would be it). This was in response to the stress over her father's death, and Spider-Man's part in it."

"I remember the bit where she fucks off to London - Peter goes and runs into her there as Spider-Man! Maybe he just didn't notice that she was FUCKING PREGNANT. Naturally you're correct on the Goblin Goo theory - but she only has the sprogs two months early, so there's still seven months of gestation to explain. Maybe I forgot all those 'GET ME SOME FUCKING ICE CREAM AND GHERKINS, DADDIO!' bits in the original Spider-Man run. 'Gwenski is upchucking violently in the bogs, hepcats! Upchucking like bad!'"

"'Maybe it's the RADIATION in my BLOOD that's making Gwendy SICK! After all, a BLOOD TRANSFUSION gave Aunt May RADIATION POISONING*. Maybe my KISSES are KILLING the GIRL I LOVE! No WONDER she won't let me get past SECOND BASE! Is virginity the price I must always PAY for being...SPIDER-MAN?' * - Amazing Spider-Man #10, 31-33"

I say again - Matt Craig should be writing Spider-Man. Someone post this idea on the Bendis board. Apparently they have the ear of the industry...

What starts off as a discussion about Ed Brubaker's upcoming Authority at Millarworld quickly turns into one about where the book went wrong in their eyes:

"Reading the Ridley and Olivier Authority: Human on the Inside, made me realize how sick and tired I am of seeing the Authority portrayed as weaklings, degenerates and bad guys. Here, they aren't even anti-heroes... here they were non-heroes. Moreover I couldn't buy into their decision to take over the government of the United States, esp. after Millar's Brave New World. I see them saving the planet, not pulling off Coup D'Etats' - The members of the Authority are super-heroes, not politicians and bureaucrats. I knew that was a set up to turn them into 'the bad guys', and have them, once again, get punished for trying to make the world a better place."

"I'm not that interested in seeing an Authority that is just another metaphorical allegory for the tired old adage 'absolute power corrupts absolutely.' I want to see a radical, left-leaning JLA who beats up on corporate fascists and religious fundamentalists. I want the same escapism you get out of any other superhero book, but with particularly radical and controversial viewpoints opposed to the standard conventional and notably conservative fare you get from DC proper and Marvel."

"As others pointed out, it's become very irritating to see yet another writer treat the Authority as though they're degenerate tyrants, as though they're the bad guys in the story: I feel it misses the entire point and premise of the team, not to mention it makes them less and less likeable as time goes by."

"They were always the bad guys, because they were super-powerful and used that power. It's like America in the eyes of much of the world: we're the 'evil empire' not necessarily because of the true evil in our actions (obviously debatable), but for two simple reasons: We are the top dogs in military might, and we USE our military might. The most powerful country will always been seen as the 'bad guys' by a large portion of the Earth, not for the actions, but the existence of the unmatchable power. I always took the Authority to be a metaphor for America... tampering wherever they please, across all borders, etc."

Micah Wright's forum discusses the upcoming Legion of Super-Heroes reboot, with lots of lovely Jesse Baker ranting. Jesse on the current state of the Legion:

"[F]or the record, the book IMHO has been utterly unreadable ever since the departure of Coipel, as without him DnA's writing went horribly downhill as they tried to court the casual reader with such shit as Dream Crime and their bastardization of the Great Darkness Saga. And I won't even bring up the Gail fill-in arc... My only hope is that Waid doens't get hung up on the whole 'The only LSHers that matter are the early Adventure Comics era members' thing and stacks his new Legion with Timber Wolf, Jeckie, Wildfire, and company right off the bat."

Jesse on the how well the book sells:

"When Legion is good it sells moderately well but when it's bad the sales are horrific. Saleswise the book peaked in the the early 1980s during Keith Giffen's original run as artist and the book had a bit of an upswing in the mid 90s with the release of the Legionaires spin-off/reboot. The book tanked in the last half of the 1990s until DnA took over, which boosted sales back up to a very respectable level for DC. Also the Legion Archive HCs are said to be THE top selling Archive HC series and that the money they bring in help DC take chances in regard to releasing obscure stuff like the war comics as part of the Archive HC line. And yes, Legion has survived for as long as in the 90s/early '00s do to it being Levitz's pet franchise. Though being his pet franchise hasn't made the Legion immune to Levitz's pettiness given how it's recently become public knowledge that Levitz is refusing to trade the DnA run (which was designed to bring new fans into the Legion and provide the franchise with new TPBs) simply because DnA's main artist dared take an offer to work for Marvel...."

Jesse on the rebooted Projectra being turned into a snake-woman, and post-reboot portrayals of the female Legionnaires in general:

"[T]hey made the whole Snake thing work by making Jeckie a fully developed female character despite being a snake, which was an extremely rare thing at the time given how all of the other female LSHers at the time were either one-dimensional bitches (Kinetix and Umbra), screwed up (Tinya and Vi), 1-dimensional cardboard cut-outs (Spark and XSE), or evil slutty whores who treat their boyfriends like shit while screwing his best friend without even the common decency to do it in secret (Saturn Girl). But in terms of writers who outright fucked up Jeckie, I have to blame TMK for that one since they turned Jeckie back into one-dimesional royalty who did nothing but sit on her throne and get gassed by the Khunds... And seriously, the horrifically 'Fuck-You' nature of what they did to Wildfire is a hell of a lot worse than what they did to Jeckie..."

And more on the above:

"Well think of it this way, they could have made Jeckie an evil whore who treats her pussy-whipped boyfriend like shit, sleeps with his best friend and flaunts said relationship in front of pussy-whipped boyfriend, and who routinely rapes other men and then gets pissy/holier than now whenever someone dares to suggest to her that MAYBE she should be using her powers to stop bad-guys instead of raping men like they did Saturn Girl."

With his love of superhero comics, his passionate opinions and his tendency to state said opinions and rumour as fact, Jesse Baker is hereby named the patron saint of this blog.

The John Byrne forum earns its keep in a discussion about Avengers Disassembled and Identity Crisis, with this wonderful post (Scroll down to find it) from Emery Calame:

"Dear Comic Book writer peoples:

"Please bring back at least some of the wonder and the taste of sweet sweet bubble gum that you seem to so enjoy pissing on. Stop trying to shock me, depress me, politically manipulate me, make fun of me, and prove that you are smarter than me every damned month and consider not churning out long slow pointless crossover works that are overly complicated and flowery. Also please stop the gratuitous refereneces to contemporary elitist fad literature that you feel marks you as especially trendy, and well loved classics that your work will never ever ever even begin to come close to much less stand shoulder to shoulder with.

"Also please consider introducing legalized hunting to thin the ninja population. There are too many for Marlin Perkin's assistant Jim to safely move to the Wyoming brush at this point. If something isn't done soon then Galactus will probably make a ninja herald with a glowing cosmic katana and cosmic shuriken and nobody wants that except maybe Rob Lefield's bunch. Speaking of Leifieldian influences please don't name heroes and villains after the Readers Digest word of the day. Yeah I know that stuff like 'The Melter' happens from time to time and there are only so many words for 'bat' that anyone has heard of but 'Parallax' and 'Extant' and 'Cable' don't sound like superheroic names at all. Cosmic threats named 'Extant' suck. If they barely got away with 'It was some kind of...Vision!' then Extant just isn't goign to cut it. Aren't we already neck deep in mongoose blood and shallow afterthought origins?

"Thanks.

"Yer chubby 33 year old underachieving pal,
Emery"

Newsarama posters wonder who likes monthlies the most:

"There was a recent thread for comics nibblers and dieters: 'Anyone read 10 or fewer monthlies?' So, this is for comics gluttons, guys like Knightmaresbane and Xaraan who are true trenchermen by devouring massive quantities of comics each month. It's also for folks who may have cut back to about 50 books a month, definitely gluttonous by any standard. And it's also for folks in the 20-book-a-month range, surely gluttonous by the 10-or-fewer standard. Basically, it's for folks like me who have a hard time saying 'no' to comics... The '10 or fewer' thread starts with an opinion regarding trades, so let me state mine: I think 'it reads better as a trade' is the biggest myth in comics discussion. Folks might like trades better than monthlies, and I can understand that. Trades are easier to store, they contain complete arcs and sometimes more than one complete arc, they're sometimes a buck or two cheaper than what one would pay for buying all the collected issues individually, and they sometimes contain extras like sketchbooks, etc. But, as for the stories themselves, they 'read' exactly the same -- each segment of a story is reproduced in a trade exactly as it appeared in the monthly issues. Objectively, they don't "read" any differently from one another. So, it's really a subjective thing, and maybe what folks who subscribe to that theory ought to be saying is, 'I like to read trades better.' Me? I like to read monthlies better, but I buy trades to catch up on series I'm currently reading or maybe series I missed because it's usually easier to get in trade form than tracking down back issues."

Posters then list their monthly shopping lists, and Good Lord, a lot of them get a lot of comics every month:

"I actually started that other thread because I feel that I was a glutton. I was reading in the 25-30 range each month. But now, after reading this thread, I realize I was just your average comic consumer."

"Yeah, I say 25-30 comics a month really isn't that bad, it's a good average if your a comic reader with a steady paycheck. I read 25 titles, an at 3 dollors an issue average (for me any way) that's only $75 a month if they all come out on time. Giving me $25-50 to play with on Graphic Novels and TPBs (my monthly comic budget is in the 100-125 range)"