Archive for February, 2009
Get this: I was enjoying the comics of the late 1990’s so much, I’ll even list as one of my favorites a second generation X-Men spinoff featuring a character created by Rob Liefeld!
Cable #67
I came into this series rather late, for obvious reasons. The title character was a central figure in the worst books of the early part of the decade, and was a product of the doodlings of one of the hot superstar artists who made things so unbearable in our corner of the world for several years. Not being familiar with much X-Men related comics since before Romita jr. was drawing them, I’ve inferred that the backstory which dragged along behind this guy was one of the more convoluted elements of the mutant universe.
That said, writer Joe Casey made it easy, distilling the basics of the character for someone just coming in. Cable’s from a ruined future world, having traveled back to change history for the better (to this day, that‘s all I know, or need to know, about the character). Arch-villain Apocalypse is the main bad guy who is gearing up for some big nastiness at the coming turn of the millennium, and he’s sent an unstoppable brute to start wiping out the humans as the first stage of his plan. The population of Manhattan has taken refuge in underground shelters while Cable and a few plucky guest stars make a desperate stand against their enemy.
This series is all kinds of old-school Marvel cosmic, which is what initially drew me to try a couple issues. Ancient threats, a sense of discovery, and heroes uttering their lines with as much drama as could be mustered. Great stuff. Mark Millar gives us the Avengers sitting around playing the fan-men game of imagining who might play them in a movie; this book has them battling a foe who is so badass that it finds its way back from another dimension where it had been zapped by Thor in just a handful of pages. Which do you want to read?
Jose Ladronn provides the pencils, which look like a beautiful collision between Jack Kirby and Moebius. I really dig what he does here; it perfectly complements the tone and scope of the story. Even Apocalypse looks cool here in his Aztec getup, rather than his usual look that never did anything for me (if Walt designed the original look, I apologize.)
Either this team had a relatively short stint on this title, or I came in near the end; either way, I wish I’d seen a lot more of Casey & Ladronn on this series, but I did get a handful of really cool issues.
This time Clint gets the Alive treatment. Clint went to CCAD about the same time I did. All around swell guy. He got hooked up in the world of gig posters: creating and selling limited edition silkscreen posters for bands like Coldplay and My Morning Jacket. Locally you may have seen his work on the North Market.
Check out more of his handy work over at his site.
Shortly after the speculator bubble burst in the 1990’s and the Ponzi scheme known as comic collecting had been dealt a brutal blow, I was speaking with a friend whose father owned stock in Marvel (the guy was a comic collector since his own childhood– I could show you a shed full of old comics you’d love to spend a few hours in) about the state of the industry. He made a remark that rang true to me: for all the talk about the terrible shape Marvel and DC were in, the books they were putting out at the time were as good as they had ever been. Tony wanted some examples of my “second golden age” of comic collecting, so I’ll add to Matt’s impressive list (ooh– I’d forgotten about Orion. The best non-Kirby Kirby book ever!) with a few weeks of the WBM dwelling in more recent history.
Avengers (vol. 3) #7
The Busiek/Perez Avengers stands right up there with the Thomas/Buscema or Stern/Buscema days in my mind. This issue is the concluding chapter of the four-part “Live Kree or Die” story that wound it’s way through several Avengers-related titles. The strangest thing about this crossover event is that each issue was a self-contained story! Any chapter can be enjoyed as a complete read without having to chase after other titles you might not normally pick up; take that, Grant Morrison. This issue is also wonderfully compressed, giving us a story that would have been spread over four to six issues and cost up to $18 today. I write as if those things were remarkable; back in 1998, that wasn’t the case. These days were the last gasp of accessible, story-driven all-ages books that set the bar for quality pretty high.
The first part of the book deals with the court-martial of Carol Danvers, the once-and-future Ms. Marvel then known as Warbird. She had developed a problem with alcohol that endangered her fellow Avengers on a couple missions, so the team had to drop everything to stage a drumhead trial to determine her fitness to continue with the group. Writer Kurt Busiek uses the trial setting as a device to supply the reader with all the context needed to catch up on the plot and enjoy the story, something which was once taken for granted in just about any comic.
The trial is interrupted by a signal from the moon; a group of Kree fanatics have assembled a weapon that, when aimed at Earth, will alter the genetic structure of any humans that survive its activation, turning them into genetic duplicates of the Kree and making them susceptible to the mind control of the Intelligence Supreme. The Avengers scramble for the Earth-like atmosphere of the moon’s Blue Area, leaving an embittered Warbird behind. She attempts to fly to the moon under her own power in order to prove her worth to her teammates– and fails spectacularly.
The big battle scene follows! A Bendis Avengers story would stretch the scene over three issues in an effort to rob his readers of their comic buying dollars while delivering much posturing and little story; Busiek confines this most satisfactory climax to the back half of this single issue, and it’s all the more enjoyable for it. Reading these scenes, I was reminded of the awful pinup fight scenes in Secret Invasion, wherein the totally forgettable artist haphazardly crammed a jumble of figures into repeated double page spreads with no regard for backgrounds or storytelling. George Perez, on the other hand, is the master of delivering a host of characters and action while still maintaining a sense of order and context in every panel. This stuff is beautiful as always.
Another great thing about the Busiek/Perez run was it’s longevity; these guys gave us close to forty issues on the series. That’s a lot better than a creative team that cranks out a couple tpb’s worth of issues and then wanders off, calling that two-or-three story contribution (likely never referred to again by the series of unrelated teams to follow) a “run” on the series.Found a link to this gem over at the Byrne forums:
The Batman pin-up theme continues. Have at it:
(click image to enlarge)
(previous weeks: 9/12/2005, 9/19/2005, 9/26/2005, 10/3/2005, 10/10/2005, 10/17/2005, 10/24/2005, 10/31/2005, 11/1/2005, 11/2/2005, 11/3/2005, 11/4/2005, 11/5/2005, 11/6/2005, 11/7/2005, 11/14/2005, 11/21/2005, 11/28/2005, 12/5/2005, 12/12/2005, 12/19/2005, 12/26/2005, 1/2/2006, 1/9/2006, 1/16/2006, 1/23/2006, 1/30/2006, 2/06/2006, 2/13/2006, 2/20/2006, 2/27/2006, 3/6/2006, 3/13/2006, 3/20/2006, 3/27/2006, 4/3/2006, 4/4/2006, 4/5/2006, 4/6/2006, 4/7/2006, 4/8/2006, 4/9/2006, 4/10/2006, 4/17/2006, 4/23/2006, 5/1/2006, 5/8/2006, 5/15/2006, 5/22/2006, 5/29/2006, 6/5/2006, 6/12/2006, 6/19/2006, 6/26/2006, 7/3/2006, 7/10/2006, 7/17/2006, 7/24/2006, 7/31/2006, 8/7/2006, 8/13/2006, 8/21/2006, 8/28/2006, 9/4/2006, 9/11/2006, 9/18/2006, 9/25/2006, 10/2/2006, 10/9/2006, 10/16/2006, 10/23/2006, 10/30/2006, 11/6/2006, 11/13/2006, 11/20/2006, 11/27/2006, 12/4/2006, 12/11/2006, 12/18/2006, 12/25/2006, 1/1/2007, 1/8/2007, 1/15/2007, 1/22/2007, 1/29/2007, 2/5/2007, 2/12/2007, 2/19/2007, 2/26/2007, 3/5/2007, 3/12/2007, 3/19/2007, 3/26/2007, 4/2/2007, 4/5/2007, 4/9/2007, 4/16/2007, 4/23/2007, 4/30/2007, 5/7/2007, 5/14/2007, 5/21/2007, 5/28/2007, 6/4/2007, 6/11/2007, 6/18/2007, 6/25/2007, 7/2/2007, 7/9/2007, 7/16/2007, 7/23/2007, 7/30/2007, 8/6/2007, 8/13/2007, 8/20/2007, 8/27/2007, 9/3/2007, 9/10/2007, 9/17/2007, 9/24/2007, 10/1/2007, 10/8/2007, 10/15/2007, 10/22/2007, 10/29/2007, 11/5/2007, 11/12/2007, 11/19/2007, 11/26/2007, 12/3/2007, 12/10/2007, 12/17/2007, 12/24/2007, 12/31/2007, 1/7/2008, 1/14/2008, 1/21/2008, 1/28/2008, 2/4/2008, 2/11/2008, 2/18/2008, 2/25/2008, 3/3/2008, 3/10/2008, 3/17/2008, 3/24/2008, 3/31/2008, 4/7/2008, 4/14/2008, 4/21/2008, 4/28/2008, 5/8/2008, 5/12/2008, 5/19/2008, 5/27/2008, 6/2/2008, 6/9/2008, 6/16/2008, 6/23/2008, 6/30/2008, 7/7/2008, 7/14/2008, 7/22/2008, 8/4/2008, 8/11/2008, 8/18/2008, 8/25/2008, 9/8/2008, 9/22/2008, 9/29/2008, 10/6/2008, 10/13/2008, 10/20/2008, 10/27/2008, 11/3/2008, 11/10/2008, 11/17/2008, 11/24/2008, 12/1/2008, 12/8/2008, 12/15/2008, 12/22/2008, 12/29/2008, 1/5/2009, 1/12/2009, 1/19/2009, 1/26/2009, 2/2/2009, 2/9/2009)
Man, with all the rants and state of the comics biz talk, I almost forgot to post this weekend’s “versus”. Here it is, courtesy of PANELista Craig Bogart:
Superman vs. Muhammad Ali was published in 1978 by DC Comics, from an original story by Dennis O’Neil which was adapted by Neal Adams, with pencils by Adams, and figure inks by Dick Giordano with background inks by Terry Austin.
As the back cover blurb says, “can you spot the celebrities watching the greatest fight of all time and space?” No? Then maybe this Wikipedia page can help.
Rantz finally rolled out his Longbox project at NYCC. He’ll be hitting the local cons this year promoting and demoing the software. I’m excited to check it out. *Comics desperately need something to curb the generation gap. This might be it.
*not webcomics. I think they’re their own separate animal.
CB Cebulski made a comment that’s interesting: Marvel’s track record of hiring cold submissions through the mail is ‘zero’. More than not, it’s through word of mouth and I guess schmoosing /meeting people at cons. For those still interested in breaking into work-for-hire, there you go. He’s been spreading little nuggets of helpful info on his twitter feed this weekend.
Illustration/freelancing is not your traditional path to getting a gig. Nobody breaks in the same way. There’s no real pat answer to that. So I’d like to pass along some helpful words of wisdom before the convention season really kicks off…
- Do some research before you go to a con, portfolio in hand. Know your publishers before you go bopping in. With the internet, there’s pictures of the editors out there. Some of them have blogs. It’s like stalking sort of but this way you know exactly who to look for at a con. I’ve seriously had people come up to me at cons asking me if I was hiring. I’ll look at your book but clearly I’m not a publisher.
- DO NOT BRING ORIGINALS TO SHOW. Bring copies. It’s personally annoying for me, but whipping up specific samples of each company’s characters is recommended. Have a mix of talking heads and action sequences. Make a portfolio with leave behinds, or simply have leave behinds. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but on each sample I’d put your email, website and phone number on there. I stuff them in a big mailing envelope then make a color label with your art on it. It’s a hook, trust me.
- Pitches. I haven’t done much of this but I have looked at a few. Don’t pitch it like a tv show for crying out loud. Don’t make wild claims about how it’s going to make that publisher a crapload of money. Shut the hell up and keep it to the story you’re trying to tell. Write up a short synapsis, and 5 to 10 sample pages. Maybe throw in some character outlines. If a company says they’re not looking at any pitches, it’s just to slow the flood. The lovely *Jen De Guzman’s slushpile thread is full of many ways not to pitch a story.
Lastly, there’s no such thing as an aspiring cartoonist or artist. Either you’re doing it or you’re not. With Diamond’s wack new minimum policies, it’s rough out there. Indy publishers have all but put a kabosh on the serial comic. It’s all about the OGN (original graphic novel). Some well before these policies happened. If I were a comic shop, I’d be worried about POD, downloads, and web to print. Diamond’s encouraging it and I think it’s going to kill them off faster. In my opinion, it’s been that way for the past 3 or 5 years. The economy’s bad out there, but at the same time everyone cutting back on spending is only going to make it worse. Now go out there and break a leg.
For Christ’s sake, buy something!
*I hope I spelled her name right. If I haven’t, sorry Jen.
Just a clarification, based on comments from both Matt and Craig to my Final Crisis rant below…
It’s not that I’m entirely disillusioned and disgusted with “mainstream” Marvel and DC comics in general, it’s more the case that I just found Final Crisis a poorly executed load of horse pucky from a writing and marketing point of view.
I read very few superhero books, and the 2 or 3 that I do read tend to be the B and C-list characters, where the writers still have some creative room to weave non-status quo stories. I read these books partly for the nostalgic factor, partly for the lightweight entertainment value, and partly because I grew up on 4-color heroes and it’s just so ingrained in my pleasure system. And that’s why I don’t normally get fired up over a particular series that I think has “taken a turn for the worse”, or an editorial decision that I might feel has “ruined the character”. In those cases, I just vote with my wallet and stop buying the book. As former coworkers of mine used to say “chill out, they’re not live organs, nobody’s going to die”.
So why did I get so fired up over Final Crisis?
I’ve been asking myself that since before writing that whole rant, and as I mentioned above, I think it just boils down to 1) how bad the execution of the story was (from a supposed “superstar” writer who should know better), and 2) how misguided and downright mercenary the packaging and marketing of the book was. I won’t talk any more about the latter, since I said all I needed to in my previous rant (e.g. $256).
But the writing…
I don’t claim to be a masterful writer, and certainly not an “author”. But I’d like to think that since I’ve been writing and publishing stories on both an amateur and professional level for a few years now, that I at least know a little bit about the craft; story structure, pacing, character development, etc. And I’m blown away by how Morrison violated and discarded every single one of these storytelling conventions, but not in service of some other grand storytelling scheme. Or at least, not a successful one.
Now, I’m actually a huge fan of non-traditional, non-linear, and yes, even “obtuse” storytelling. I love David Lynch films, I loved Memento, I love the manic and psychedelic way that Milligan’s Shade the Changing Man unfolded (and yes, even Morrisons’s Doom Patrol). But in all of those examples, and dozens more that I could list (Run Lola Run, David Cronenberg films, etc.) the work taken as a whole has a cohesive and unique feel to it, that makes it succeed as a story despite it throwing so many “traditional” elements of storytelling out the window. The sum of the parts becomes something much greater, and conveys the theme or mood of the piece better than a run of the mill 3-act play could.
But FC never achieved this cohesion. It was fractured, stilted, choppy, and at odds with itself. Even Morrison’s repeated claim that he’s telling the story of “the day evil won” never materialized. Evil kinda’ sorta’ won, and then was defeated in an anticlimactic one-page sequence. But wait, right after the supreme bad guy, evil mastermind, uber-antagonist of the story, Darkseid, is unceremoniously and abruptly defeated (mostly off-panel), Morrison tacks on a completely unrelated and never-mentioned-before second conflict-and-resolution (in the form of Mandrakk). WTF? Where did this guy come from? Who is he, even? Did we just read 7 issues of the epic struggle between the DC heroes and Darkseid, or was that all just a prelude to this done-in-6-pages sideshow?
I’m sure in his mind, Morrison had a grand design. I’m not saying he’s a hack who phoned it in. I’m sure he tried to craft a very poetic take on the good vs. evil struggle, a “thematic” take on DC’s various Crisis series, a series that’s less about the story and more about the DC universe as an organic sentient force, blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, I feel that what he delivered was incomprehensible to even people like me who are open to, and in fact fans of, metaphysical stories.
The closest analogy I can think of is when artists talk about the importance of learning and mastering the rules of good anatomy and perspective first, before deciding which rules to break for a more dynamic effect. I feel that Morrison is certainly talented enough a writer to know the rules and conventions of his craft, and although he’d done it successfully in a few places before, this time he broke all the rules but still utterly and miserably failed in achieving a higher effect. To me, the final product was no different than what an inexperienced, untalented writer would have produced if thrown into the deep end of the DC pool.
Or maybe that’s exactly the effect that Morrison was going for. I’m just not smart enough to “get it”.
A comment in a post below brought up the “Golen Age is 12” rule of comics nostalgia. I reject that rule (even if it was coined by Roy Thomas), in part because I saw how good comics became in the late 1990’s after years of being awful, and also because there are obvious and quantifiable differences between the way they are made now versus yesteryear. One in particular:
The comics I grew up reading were a synthesis of words and pictures, each equally important. Today we function under the mistaken impression that comics are akin to a cinematic storyboard, dumping the bulk of the exposition on the visual narrative and forgoing expository dialogue and captions. Cinematic techniques certainly have a place in the visual side of comic storytelling, but ceding too much to them has given us car crashes stretched over three pages and entire passages devoted to creating atmosphere rather than driving plot; when you only have 24 pages to grab a new reader who has just picked up a book, the latter is wasted space. (Of course, we’ve given up on “grabbing new readers”, and delivering a fair amount of story for our comic-buying dollar seems out of the question.) Worse, the elimination of captions has removed the ability of the writer to affect a literary tone in their storytelling, which creates a denser, more challenging read; Sean McGurr once compared the time a good Essentials volume sits on the nightstand versus the short time it takes to read a tpb reprinting a newer mini series.
Also popular is the use of natural sounding dialogue, as if the talk across the table at an Avengers meeting would sound like the banter at the beginning of Reservoir Dogs. These guys fight Galactus and Blaastar, they shouldn’t sound like you and me. The most absurd example I’ve seen recently was an Avengers issue showing Doctor Doom as he sees something going wrong on his view screen, yelling “Damn!” repeatedly instead of launching into a flowery diatribe. I might yell “damn”; Doom should not be so pedestrian. (I would scan those panels to contrast with proper Doom dialogue, but I used that piece of crap issue to get a fire started in the fireplace.) Besides the exaggerated drama, the old school way actually allowed for a more sophisticated vocabulary. Moench and Thomas regularly had me running to my dictionary; Bendis sounds like the snarky jackass sitting across the table in the lunch room.
My point being: Today’s comics, allegedly made for an older, more sophisticated audience, are for the most part a dumbed-down reading experience compared to previous decades.
Well, I thought if I waited a week or so, I’d maybe change my mind a bit, or at least not feel so negatively about the mess that was Final Crisis.
No such luck.
Disclaimers & Disclosures: I’m not a big Grant Morrison fan, save for his Doom Patrol, which I’d actually describe as “brilliant”. I’m put off by the fact that people defend his incomprehensible, scattershot, bizarre storytelling approach by claiming his detractor just “don’t get it”. But, I do like DC comics and I like my occasional “superhero decadence” mega-events. I loved 52.
Now…
I hated FC with the burning passion of a thousand dying suns.
I was not only disappointed and underwhelmed, but actively insulted, offended, and angered by it. And believe me, I realize how silly and ridiculous it is to say so, considering that it’s just a comic book; a piece of fiction intended to entertain. But still, this bloated, incomprehensible, poorly planned and hideously executed “story” failed on so many levels, I feel cheated not just because of the money it cost me, but because it robbed me of my time and intelligence. Yes, it actually reduced my capacity for knowledge, as only a metaphysical force like Grant Morrison could.
He had some clever bits in there, floating like a few tiny diamonds in a cesspool the size of Texas (I loved the whole bullet-shot-back-through-time), but that’s about it. There were no clear protagonists in it, no character development, no clear resolution…pretty much nothing you’d remotely associate with a story. I’m all for non-traditional and non-linear storytelling, but in this book the whole was much, much weaker than the sum of the parts.
But here’s the main thing that burned my britches: I hated the fact that most of the story wasn’t even told in the damn series! You have to go buy the ancillary mini-series and one-shots to figure out why all of a sudden Black Lightning shows up as a Justifier, or where the hell Superman’s been all this time, or who the hell this Mandrakk character is who shows up out of nowhere in the last issue. It cost $28 to buy this 7-issue series, and for that you got bits and pieces of a story from a dozen disparate books and series. It will be a complete and utter joke when they collect this thing in a TPB.
On this particular gripe, I place the blame entirely on the editorial side. Crossovers and “event” comics are designed to sell lots of books, and get you to go buy other titles. I’ve been reading comics for 20+ years, I get that. But in general, those other books just complement the main storyline. Not so here. Almost all the major plot elements and turning points of the story are told in books outside of the series! Here’s what you’d have to buy to figure out who all the monitors are, what happened to the New Gods, what the deal is with Darkseid, why the Tatto Man is important…basically attempt to make sense of this story:
Death of the New Gods (8 issues = $28)
Countdown (52 issues = $156)
Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds (5 issues = $20)
Final Crisis: Requiem ($4)
Final Crisis: Submit ($4)
Final Crisis: Resist ($4)
Final Crisis: Revelations (5 issues = $20)
Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge (3 issues = $12)
Final Crisis: Superman Beyond (2 issues = $8)
So there you have it: in order to make a modicum of sense out of this $28 comic book mini-series, you’d have to spend an additional $256 on other comics!!!
I’ll let that sink in a bit…
This isn’t a case of “I don’t really follow the Flash and Green Lantern books, so I don’t know all their continuity, but it’s ok, I can still understand what’s going on in this story”. It’s more a case of “who the f— is Monitor Nix Uotan?”, or “What the hell’s going on in Bludhaven?”, or “Who’s killing all the New Gods, and why?”. Plot elements and characters integral to understanding the story, yet only revealed in other books. $256 worth of other books. And the ending? 52 different Supermen showed up and did what, exactly? Aquaman is shown in one panel, even though he’s not in the previous 6 issues? Superman whistled into a magical deus ex machina?
Are you f—ing serious? In what reality is this considered remotely good storytelling?
Oh, right. The “Grant Morrison is a Genius and you’re an idiot who just DOESN’T GET IT!” reality. My bad.
So just because I’m still flabbergasted how such a bloated corpse could have possibly been approved, produced, and marketed, I feel a few awards are called for:
- Grant Morrison is awarded the “Epic Fail: Pretentious Wanker” trophy for his incomprehensible, masturbatory piece of fanfic.
- Associate editor Adam Schlagman and editor Eddie Berganza earn the “Epic Fail: No Balls” award for completely and utterly failing in their jobs as editors to reign in the drug-addled writer.
- Senior VP and executive editor Dan Didio is awarded an “Epic Fail: Mismanaged Clusterf—” for supposedly overseeing this whole mess.
Yes, I absolutely blame myself for continuing to pick up FC when after #3 it was pretty clear that this was a horrid mess. The only tie-ins I picked up were Submit and Resist, because they were basically issues 3.5 and 4.5 of the series. I don’t blame DC for costing me $36. I blame my own stupidity.
But at the same time, I can easily say that I’m done with Grant Morrison for good. No more.
Rating, on a scale of 1 to 10: a gangrene sandwich served with a side of fish vomit.
