Blogathon 49: End It

And that's 24 hours..........now!

We have raised $1020.00 so far for the Hero Initiative. That is well beyond my highest expectations. But, if you want to donate still, I'll keep the window open until Tuesday at 4:45 EST when Random Thoughts goes up over at Comics Should be Good. The ways you can donate:

* Direct donations to the Hero Initiative (click on the Pay Pal link)
* Purchasing products from their site, including annual memberships
* Purchasing products from their eBay store
* Donating funds to Peter David and his family through the Hero Initiative

Just shoot me an e-mail at chevett13[AT]yahoo[DOT]ca to let me know how much you donated to help keep track.

Thanks to everyone who has donated so far. Thanks to all of the guest posters. And thank you to my wife, Michelle, who supported me all day by giving little pep talks and bits of encouragment and bringing me food and generally beind amazing.

This was the most difficult Blogathon yet -- and the most successful. A hell of a way to go out.

Thank you.

Good night.

Later

Blogathon 48: 2012 - The Year Everything Ended

Maybe it was because the world was supposed to end, but 2012 was the year where everything else ended. From the middle of summer until the end of the year, a large chunk of the comics I loved all disappeared. RASL, Scalped, The Boys, glamourpuss, Bendis's Avengers, Brubaker's Captain America, Gillen's Journey into Mystery, Butcher Baker, the Righteous Maker, even Joe Casey and Nathan Fox's Haunt... I'm probably forgetting some others as well. In there are some big books for me and they're all gone away. I knew some would be given what was said about them by the creators, but some took me by surprise in good and bad ways. The end of Butcher Baker was inspired in its surprise, while glamourpuss was painful to read with Dave Sim's editorial at the end. I don't know, they all just seemed to end at the same time. It was hard to deal with. And I had already committed myself to leaving. I never questioned that. In two days, I turn 30 and I'm done. This blog ends and I'm gone. Everything ends. I'm sure there's a way to see that as a good thing. I see it as a good thing, because something began in 2012 that trumps all of those endings: my marriage. That's the balance: comics stuff ends; personal stuff begins. It's an easy trade to make (not that it's really a trade). While I've filled some of the holes in my pull list, I don't feel like I've really filled the holes left by some of those books. There's no new Boys, for example. Bendis taking over the X-titles is nice, but it's not the Avengers. After all, is there a mutant equivalent of Luke Cage? No? Not the same then. Everything ends, everything changes. But, why so many endings all at once? That's what I can't get over. 2012 wasn't a year of endings really given all of the new books I tried and loved; it just felt that way because of the second half where even the new stuff got drowned out by the deaths of so many comics. But, it's a good thing. Most of them ended when they wanted, on their own terms. What more could you want? It's like your friend moving away to take a great job. It sucks, but it's all right. Or something. It's nothing like that. It's just comics. It's just comics.

In 30 minutes, I end this.

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 47: Whether Comics Critics Should Turn Pro (Ryan K. Lindsay Guest Post)

[Note: Ryan was kind enough to step in and write a quick guest post to fill a half-hour gap. Thanks a lot, Ryan. I do appreciate it. I will be back in 30 minutes with a post on 2012 as the year where everything ended.]

I’m always intrigued by this as a topic for discussion because it always sounds like there’s some binary dichotomy of which we should all be respectful. I honestly don’t get that.

There is no line in the sand. At least, I don’t see it. Of course, I can see where problems might occur but I think – whether going critic to pro or vice versa – this can be circumvented with one simple rule: don’t be a dick. Shit, maybe just follow this for life and see 75% of your troubles disappear.

I’ll be very open here: I am a comic critic, and I am also a comic writer. I’ve written reviews for CBR for the past few years, I write and manage theweeklycrisis.com in my other hours, and then I write comics for IDW, Action Lab Entertainment. ComixTribe, and Challenger Comics. In doing this, I understand there might be some grey areas but I’m careful to tread lightly and not be a dick. I don’t think I’ve ever ended up in a spot where I feel my integrity has been compromised. At all.

I don’t review work for companies at which I’m presently employed, and I’ve never traded a positive review for the ability to pitch or be considered for the job, before you even have to ask. As it stands, I see the two writing jobs as never really crossing over. I do them both because I like to write, it honestly is that simple. I’ve been writing for years now, sometimes for free, sometimes for money, but pretty much always for love. I love comics so it seems obvious that I would like writing them as much as I like writing about them. They scratch different itches for me.

This year I’m writing a My Little Pony one-shot from IDW (it’s dropping in March, it’s about rainbow Dash, you should check it out), I’m also editing a book of essays about Daredevil called The Devil is in the Details: Examining Matt Murdock and Daredevil from Sequart publishing (in which I’ve written many words, and it should be debuting at ECCC at my table), and while doing this I’ll be writing reviews for CBR. None of these things cockblock the others because they are just writing gigs. Maybe I’m missing something, maybe I’m making a dick move, I don’t know, but I don’t think so. I just think I’m writing, and writing things I love, so why consider which side of the beast they are on if I really don’t have to?

When my Pony book drops, or any other book drops, I don’t see how that affects my CBR reviews at all. And if you think it means I cottonball my reviews so I can buddy up to creators later then I’ve only got harsh words for you. Read my reviews, they might not be scathing (see my rule, I’m not a dick – I’ll write about things I don’t like but I’m not out to needlessly be a dick with my words for sport or any other cause) but they aren’t all praise. I’ve dropped 1-5 stars across all publishers and I’m happy to continue to do so. This might cause me an interesting situation at a con, I don’t know, it would be fascinating to have editorial tee me up with an artist I had previous reviewed poorly, but I don’t think about that. I’m sure there’ll come a time where I’ll have to drop reviewing because I’m too close to too many publishers but until then I like writing reviews and I’ll do it while it’s still something I like and can do.

There is the possibility I could play both sides of the coin in a terrible manner, I admit, there is that possibility. I don’t know how I could do so for my own benefit but I get the whole idea of conflicts of interest. I get that. But I also see it not occurring in my world. Perhaps you disagree, I’d certainly love to know why, but I don’t get it. Why can’t a reviewer write a comic? Riddle me that. Is there a document that states once you’ve written about comics then you can never cross the floor and write an actual comic? If so, why would this idea even be started in the first place? Why would the two arenas be kept SO separate?

Man, this one doesn’t feel like a polished piece at all, sorry Chad, it’s really just a rant. Really not at place on this site at all J I couldn’t even boil down the central thesis but I think that’s because I don’t know what I’m arguing against.

I do know what I’m arguing for, I’m arguing for people to write that which they are passionate about. I’m arguing for people to not worry about the bitter incursions of others online, and I’m arguing for others to support and be happy for someone writing what they love. I’m arguing acceptance in the face of a tide of “Nuh-uh, you can’t, it’s not fair, and I can’t explain why, or how, but I just know I don’t like it so stop it before I complain more.”

As for future reviews, I have to agree with Chad, having written them for a while now I know exactly what they are so when they come in for my work I know I’ll be able to handle them for what they are. I’m not going to email the reviewer and bitch, I’m not going to get all passive-aggressive on Twitter about it, I’m going to accept it as someone else’s opinion and respect it as that. Always.

TANGENT: I’ve heard many people bitch that every comic ‘journalist’ wants to also break into the industry and that you don’t see movie critics trying this bullshit. To that all I can think is, who cares? I don’t plan my steps on what anyone else is doing, or what trend might be occurring, and neither should you. If you want to write about comics for free, do it, if you want to make webcomics with your mate, do it, if you want to make on online webseries about you reading comics, goddamn, go for it. I’m not worried about overall trends, I’m worried about filling my spare time doing things I love.

If you want to do something but first stop to see what other people are doing around that or thinking about it then I can’t imagine what decision making in your head must be like. Just do it, screw ‘em.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I wrote this piece during the Blogathon when I saw Chad write that some people didn’t participate and he was trying to fill the voids. I am currently waiting for my wife to finally drop our second child into the world as it is incredibly close. I am tired. But happy to help.

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 46: Joe Casey Youngblood Rewrite (Part 2)

Tim knows me too well. It all went down the way he said it would go down. It's like he was sitting next to me as I bemoaned what I was reading. He even nailed the part where I lost interest and kept reading, because I am a Joe Casey Scholar. I am the Joe Casey Scholar. I can say that with confidence and pride. I read this comic out of duty to that position, for the Blogathon, and because I paid money. Three good reasons to see it through to the end. Some random bits:

* I love the spots where word balloons have been moved and the art needs to be fixed.

* I like how they reused some panels. Why not? I would have liked to see more rearranging.

* The subplot with the two alien races coming to Earth did not pay off at all in this hardcover. It also has a big number 1 on the spine. I wonder if there was a plan to redo the rest of the Youngblood comics and it never happened. That's the only explanation I can see for a two-page subplot scene that never goes anywhere.

* The story just sort of ends, doesn't it?

* Kirby is such a strange character. A musclebound warrior with Jack Kirby's head. Only Rob Liefeld could think of such a thing...

* Tim will need to tell me if Psi-Fire is as psycho in the original as he is here. That's one bit that I really liked by Casey. It actually felt like something he would write.

* There's a bit of that in his dialogue for Shaft. The way he shuns the spotlight and tries to play the game. It's not terribly exciting always, but it was clever in its way.

* I'm a little disappointed that Tim didn't discuss the bonus pre-Youngblood comic included in the hardcover. Do I smell an upcoming When Words Collide?

* I should reread Joe Casey's Youngblood run sometime...

* Combat is the worst name ever.

* But I do like his full costume.

* And the best green-or-blue hero is Martian Manhunter. He's green and has a blue cape. He wins.

In 30 minutes, Ryan K. Lindsay returns for a surprise guest post!

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 45: Joe Casey Youngblood Rewrite (Tim Callahan Guest Post)

JOE CASEY’S ROB LIEFELD’S YOUNGBLOOD

A guest post by Tim Callahan

To fulfill my self-appointed role as Youngblood archeologist and once-and-future Rob Liefeld acolyte, I dug through my longboxes to find my original (First print! Collect-them-all!) issues of the 1992 series so when I sat down with the Joe Casey/Rob Liefeld Youngblood redux hardcover, I could do a fascinating side-by-side comparison.

And maybe I will do that. But I can imagine your exhaustion as you approach the end of this 24-hour blogathon. I’m writing this well in advance, so I don’t even know if this will ever go live, or if you’ll crack under the weight of responding to comic book punditry from all sides and cramming your brain with insights and allusions and analysis ranging from “Who is the best green-or-blue-colored superhero?” to “If Robert Kirkman traveled back in time to the middle ages, what comic book series would he launch and what distribution methods would he use?”

Were those actual topics in the blogathon? They should have been. I think your responses would have been amazing.

So keep your spirits up, Chad Nevett. The light-at-the-end-of-the-home-stretch-tunnel-is-barelling-toward-the-break-of-day. It’s almost over. You can rest soon enough.

But. First. YOUNGBLOOD.

Boy I’m curious to read what you have to say about this 2008 hardcover edition of Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood, as rewritten by Joe Casey. I’ll probably be asleep by now. Dreaming of Kirkman’s Battle of Hastings/Zombie Jesus mashup tapestry. But I’m still curious.

I’m guessing that you read the Youngblood hardcover with some interest, looking at how Joe Casey played with the superhero-as-celebrity motif that he has so often examined in his own comics work. And even with that beacon to guide you, it was difficult to make it to the end of the Youngblood volume. You lost interest soon after John Prophet was introduced, and the rest of the book slipped away even as it shouted at you from a distance. Oh, you finished reading the book, I’m sure, because you are a blogathon champion. But you read the last half of it with disinterest. Reminding you of why you’re so glad to walk away of this ridiculous not-really-a-job of writing about comics that you wouldn’t normally want to waste your time with.

Or maybe I’m projecting.

Because I know I found that Joe Casey revision of Youngblood pretty difficult to digest. I read every single page. But I don’t remember most of them. I remember it being self-referential, and defiantly aware that it’s a comic that was once ridiculed for its bad writing and so Joe Casey puts in a lot of “aha! Look at this ridiculous scenario and/or pose” dialogue to make light of the whole thing, while staying true to the originally-stated, if originally-not-quite-conveyed premise of Shaft and Badrock and friends becoming some of the first of the celebrity superhero breed. Casey hams up that angle, as he should, given the circumstances of the comic, and the pages that were in the Hank Kanalz/Rob Liefeld original first issue pop with verbal vibrations that they never had before.

But here’s a secret – and this is where my honorary Associate’s Degree in Youngbloodology comes in handy – the original issues are better.

You wouldn’t know that, I assume, because you likely ignored the original Youngblood series when it came out (you were too young, or your father had refined taste, or you just hated fun) and never dared to go back to the source. And it was safe to stay away. Sure. Common practice.

But since I went through all the trouble of digging out the first few original Youngblood issues, I took the next logical step and actually re-read them (after I had recently read the Joe Casey revision in the hardcover) and, yes, they are clumsily written and completely direct and without any kind of subtext, but they are amazingly, hideously-beautifully colored in their original habitat – something the hardcover strips away and replaces with Frank D’Armata-meets-Justin Ponsor computer stylings which are all the rage in the 21^st century.

But Youngblood isn’t a 21^st century comic. It’s a 1992 comic, born out of a diet of Legion of Super-Heroes issues and James Cameron and Joel Silver movies and pen and ink and the imagination and passion of the teenage Rob Liefeld. Sure, Liefeld was no longer a teenager by the time Youngblood #1 was released – and kicked off the entirety of Image Comics, let’s not forget – but the series was born out of teenage Rob’s mind, and if there’s one thing Rob Liefeld has been able to do in all the years he’s been working in comics, it’s his ability to tap into his teenage psyche.

The “Awesome” appellation was never a pose. It’s an essence.

So the 1992 comic, which lacks the self-awareness and meta-sophistication of the Joe Casey rewrite, is a knuckleheaded comic. But it’s a comic meant to punch you in the teeth with a barrage of images and characters and motion lines so dynamic that they often shatter the very panel borders designed to contain them. It’s five fists of superhero science, coming straight at you from twenty-plus years in the past. Rob Liefeld. To take you home.

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 44: Joe Casey Youngblood Rewrite (Part 1)

It's been forever since I've looked at the origin Youngblood comics. I can't remember, honestly, if I read all of the originals that Joe Casey rewrites/reedits in this hardcover. But, I have wanted to check it out for a while and see what Casey could do with the art done by Liefeld. After all, it's bit different than a regular scripting job where at least Casey would have delivered a plot to Liefeld. Instead, he's working from pages he had no input on and has to deliver a quality comic.

I don't think he quite succeeded. This is still an uneven work that never quite coheres. The dialogue doesn't pop the way Casey's dialogue usually does. He tries to emphasise the 'superhero celebrity' aspect of the concept and even lay some groundwork for his own run on the property where he expanded into supervillain celebrity in an interesting way. However, things are too limited by the art and the existing mythology to really transcend what it was to become something a bit more Casey's than Liefeld's.

That probably wasn't Casey's intention anyway. If anything, this reminds me of Casey's work on something like the Project: Superpowers books he worked on. Competent and forgettable to a degree. Less like his than him working to achieve someone else's vision. Which, oddly, you rarely see in comics he does for Marvel or DC. Those comics usually have a distinctive Casey voice to them. There are a few moments in Youngblood where he peaks through -- like the woman in Chapel's bed wanting to see him in the uniform.

Worse, by adhering so closely to the concept laid out by Liefeld, the work still seems somewhat antiquated and of the early '90s. While it's true that Youngblood was forward-thinking in its treatment of superheroes as celebrities, that's an idea that's been explored quite a bit in the meantime and it doesn't stand out as much here, especially since it's been rewritten. The originals could feel dated or antiquated, because they are to a degree. You expect a little more from a rewrite like this. Some fresher dialogue or something that makes it stand out -- and able to stand alongside other comics released now. The closest thing we get is Badrock's constant whining. I did like that.

Judging from a picture Tim posted on Twitter the other day, he's actually gone back to the original comics for a little comparison. In 30 minutes, we'll see what he found out.

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 43: Different Formats

From Augie de Blieck, Jr.: "Which comics would you most like to see in either a smaller or large page format? Who's art would look better at a larger size? Whose artwork might work best shrunken down a tad to tighten up the lines? Include any current reprints that you like for these reasons, or surprises along the same lines, good or bad."

I'm not going to choose to shrink art too often. Though, I will say that Frank Miller's Sin City stuff looks great in the smaller paperbacks. Even the edition of The Hard Goodbye that I have that came with the DVD of the movie looks great and it's quite small. However, the only reason why I would choose to have a comic shrunk would be to make it more portable, not because I think it would look better. Some may well look better. I'm familiar enough with shrunken down art to say which books would benefit and which would be hurt by it.

Larger is a whole other story. I would love to see Kirby's stuff done bigger. Absolute Fourth World! A larger edition of Automatic Kafka would be great -- or Elektra: Assassin. Actually, this could be a long list. Almost any comic I think looks great would probably look better bigger. I know it won't be the case, but Marshal Law on Absolute-size pages... oh dare I dream it.

My favourite oversized hardcover is Absolute Authority vol. 1. The first twelve issues of the Ellis/Hitch/Neary/DePuy run of the book. Gorgeous pages that look even better at that size where everything seems to have more room to breathe. The colours just overwhelm you. I love the way DePuy did the sky at the end of issue three. That hazy dawn loook... wonderful. No other colourist has matched it. Gorgeous pinks and purples.

By the same token, a giant, blown up That Yellow Bastard could be a sight to behold. I've seen it smaller than standard size, now I want a giant version. It's the boldest of Miller's Sin City, visually. Big, thick lines to go along with big pictures. And that final scene... on large pages... It would be fitting.

In 30 minutes, I'll turn my attention to the Joe Casey rewritten/edited Youngblood hardcover with Tim Callahan.

We're up to $1020 raised!

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 42: Whether Comics Critics Should Turn Pro

This is one of Graeme McMillan's topics...

Sure, why not. My reason for this is actually selfish. I would like to assume that any comic critic who turns pro would have the good sense not to bitch about critics so much. Not to e-mail critics complaining. That they would understand what's happening. It's not personal, it's just reactions to what's being read. Unless that's not how it is for them. Then, we're screwed.

I've never spoken to him or read what he has to say on the topic (I assume he has), but I've been interested for a while in how Kieron Gillen views reviews/criticism of his work. He spent a long time as a video game reviewer and would have a good understanding of what the job is like. There are some other pros who were once where we are. I don't have a lot of contact with creators or hear a lot of gossip so I don't know if they're better/worse than other professionals who were never critics. But, that understanding of what writing about comics is like, you'd assume they would better pretty easygoing.

Then again, maybe they would assume they should get a pass -- or that any negativity is just sour grapes. And that could be the case sometimes. I don't know. I've yet to deal with a situation like that. And I doubt it will come up in the next couple of days. I hope it doesn't.

There was a time when I wanted to write comics, but I don't anymore. it doesn't appeal to me terribly. The business side of comics disgusts me quite a bit. What you need to do and put up with... fuck no. I don't care that much about seeing any of my 'great ideas' in print. Besides, if you turn pro, you can't be honest about comics anymore. I'd never be able to do that. Someone would ask me the wrong question and I'd answer and, BOOM! I'm on Bleeding Cool in a Twitter war with someone. Sounds awful.

I would like to see more comics pros become critics as well. I like seeing pros write about comics. Even if it's just positive shit. Warren Ellis is still one of my favourite writers about comics -- that aspect of his career is my favourite, actually. It would be healthy to see a bit more crossbreeding between the two worlds. Next Boxing Day, how about all of the pros and all of the critics switch places? Sounds good to me.

In 30 minutes, something else. It's a surprise!

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 41: Recommending Comics to Others

And now we hit the point where two people did not agree to a topic and/or turn in a post. So, now I panic, and start stealing other topics people offered (hopefully they won't mind). This one was on Tim Callahan's list...

I tend not to recommend comics to others specifically unless asked. I've had people ask me what they might like, especially when it comes to Joe Casey's output. They'll say they enjoyed, for example Wildcats Version 3.0 and wonder what else they'd like by him. People will ask about the stuff I know about or have mentioned reading. This past summer, someone saw that I had gotten Heavy Liquid and 100% by Paul Pope and asked which one they should read. I'll answer direct questions like that.

The only other way that I recommend comics is through what I write about them in a general sense. I've had a surprising number of people say they really do follow what I say. If I say something is great, they'll give it a shot. That's extremely flattering -- but also pure chance. They just happened to have found someone who shares their opinion more often than not. That's not exactly something I should be thrilled about. But, I am flattered, because it seems like a validation of what I think. I want to say that it's more than a shared opinion -- that I'm someone who's trusted to know what's good and what's not. That's a little absurd to me, because I know how specific my tastes can be. There are some things that I know I like that most people won't.

I never go out of my way to recommend comics. It's not my place. If someone wants a recommendation, they'll ask or just take it from my general writing. I never feel the need to really champion comics, to get people to pick up specific things. The closest you'll get to that is me simply praising a book a lot. I make my feelings clear and let other people decide what to do with the information. What else can you do?

One person I never recommend any comics to is my wife. She's read some X-Files comics and that's about it. And that's only because she loves the X-Files. Comics are my thing and she's shown little interest. I prefer it that way. I like having these to myself. We share a lot of TV and movies, so something that's just mine is nice.

All of that said, if you haven't already, go get One Trick Rip-Off and Rare Cuts by Paul Pope. New hardcover from Image Comics.

In 30 minutes... something else.

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 40: Spaceman (Part 2)

When Spaceman was announced, it was so surprising. Azzarello and Risso doing a... scifi comic...? The duo best known for 100 Bullets along with a few Batman comics and they're doing scifi? It was hard to fully grasp. Now, it seems so natural. They did their sort of story in a scifi setting. A world that Risso brings to life with stunning background and scenery setting. While I'm more likely to pay attention to the writing, because that's what I'm most comfortable with -- and far more likely to write about, because I'm far more comfortable with it in this arena -- it's hard to ignore the enormous role Eduardo Risso plays in Spaceman being as good as it is.

He makes the spacemen look different from one another. And not in big, obvious way. He maintains a sense of 'they all look alike to me' that would come with something as different and weird as the spacemen are. They have subtle differences like body language and haircut. Their faces are quite similar, which is fitting. Their hunched over bodies are strange, too. I remember reading when I was a kid that astronauts had to be six feet or under (maybe even less) -- yet these spacemen seem taller. Interesting choice.

That first shot of the docks is stunning. Perfect lines and colours.

Adam is right: this future isn't really much different from the world we know or have known for a while. There's the rich, the poor, and there's corruption One of the most chilling moments of the series is at the end when we see the cops now working security for the Ark. Money wins. Money always wins. That makes me wonder if we left the fantasy too soon. If Spender wouldn't actually fall victim to his brothers, because money wins.

I never would have guessed how much I like seeing Risso draw a spacesuit.

Of course, the dialogue Azzarello writes is so fun to read and figure out. It's a natural progression of what English is now, with some dropped letters and mispronounciations that I wouldn't be surprised were already occurring. But, it's not the language spoken in the Dries. That's something Azzarello is very mindful of. What we see is 'poor English' as it were. It doesn't even seem like it's out of place.

Trisha Mulvihill's colours... the reds and oranges... the paleness of Mars... spectacular.

Like Adam said, this is a comic. Nothing but a comic. Damn right.

In 30 minutes... I don't actually know entirely.

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 39: Spaceman (Adam Langton Guest Post)

So Chad Nevett is insane and relishes putting himself through this blogathon business every year. Presumably the only motivation is masochism. But I am nothing if not an enabler, so heeeeere we go!

Sick and tired of comic books and comic creators that are all but begging for a film adaptation? Ever since the big comics2film boom of fourteen years ago, new comics (not the boring rehashed superhero fare) have become more and more like storyboards, complete with Hollywood hook. Hell, we’ve even got idiots like Mark Millar selling his yet-to-be-made comics to Hollywood studios, only to eventually turn out absolute garbage like “Super Crooks.” It would seem that our beloved little medium has become little more than a springboard in the minds of these men and women, rather than the home for original stories that couldn’t be told anywhere else.

Well that aint true for Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso; my evidence? “Spaceman.” “Spaceman” is one of those rare, delightful comic book stories that couldn’t work in any other medium. The best part is, it doesn’t have to work in any other medium--it’s perfect in a comic book, as it is. An original, self-contained sci-fi serial, “Spaceman” takes the trope of the everyman caught up in extraordinary circumstances... only in this case, Orson is anything but an everyman. Genetically engineered to survive space travel, Orson’s mission to Mars has come and gone; now, he has fallen the wayside in a futuristic world that doesn’t look very different from our own.

You’ve got to love Azzarello for creating a sci-fi future where life absolutely sucks for the vast majority of people. That is the way life has been on Earth for the past few millennia, why should it suddenly change a hundred years from now? When you think of the creation of a sci-fi landscape you immediately begin envisioning different directors ‘bringing it to life,’ but screw you, because Risso already did that. Combined with colours from Patricia Mulvihill and Giulia Brusco, Risso’s scenes featuring Orson’s flashbacks to Mars look and feel starkly different from the darkness of his life on Earth; the two stories are balanced beautifully, leaving the reader guessing at both until they dovetail into one another in a thrilling conclusion.

Wow, two storylines that both work on their own accord, dovetailing into one another at the close: why mess with the classics? “Spaceman” doesn’t need eighty twists or ten false-finishes. In fact, I stick to the word “classic” because that’s what “Spaceman” reads like: a modern version of a story from the 1800s. While the setting and plot involve all of the details and trappings of modern life, the storytelling and theme are decidedly old-fashioned, allowing the reader to glimpse an argument about our quotidian lives being made within each page.

Celebrity, priority, greed, money, society... all lambasted through the eyes of a man who never asked to be born, never asked to be different, and has merely been trying to wait out his years in our messed up reality. A reality that is obsessed with a simulacra of reality; be it the reality television that is anything but, the promise of riches that never come to pass, or the sexual fantasy of virtual pornography that cannot be realized, the reality of Orson’s world is one where the simulation has won: just as in our own.

Everything from the larger-than-life spacemen themselves to the very language of “Spaceman” refutes the argument for adaptation. While it would be distracting to listen to actors wrestle with the quirky dialogue that Azzarello has given his characters, on the page the reader is allowed to develop their own ear for the new slang, listen to it at whatever pace they are comfortable with in their minds. The result is a deeper immersion into this world the creative team has made, whereas in other media the language would achieve the opposite result.

“Spaceman” and comics like it are the reason that our beloved art form will still be around no matter how long the Comics2Film craze persists. Let 95% of creators make books for no other reason than a potential lottery ticket to Hollywood riches; the rest of us will cleave to creators like Azzarello and Risso and keep enjoying comics for what they are and what they’ve always been: simple, fantastic, occasionally subversive tales that let us see ourselves differently.

Kudos to anyone and everyone involved in “Spaceman.”

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 38: Spaceman (Part 1)

Spaceman was one of my favourite comics of 2012. It barely missed out on my top ten books of the year and I was glad that Adam is giving me a chance to talk about it (and a reason to reread the whole thing in one sitting).

Something that I didn't have as much of a chance to focus on when the series was coming out was the dream/fantasty Mars sequences. Some call them flashbacks, but every bit of information suggests that the mission never happened. Yet, they're incredibly detailed, telling a complete plot over the course of the series. Bits and pieces of dialogue relate those scenes to what's happening at the moment in the comic. That seems like a clue, but it's a technique that Azzarello uses frequently, so there may not be a connection beyond his preferred method of scene transitions. In the first issue, it's strongly suggested that the Mars stuff is something that Orson is dreaming... and, then, it continues while he's awake...? Or are we seeing the entire dream -- the unrealised dream?

After all, the mission to Mars was what he was born for -- it's his dream and the dream of the people at NASA, but it never happens. We get to see it continue. We get to see the dream fulfilled and it's a disaster of greed and betrayal between the spacemen. It's meant to be Orson's dream of what his life should have been, but it's infected by what his life actually is. It's sad. But, there's a glimmer of hope at the end as the remaining spacemen choose one another over the gold. They choose to be brothers...

There are so many implied things. Like, Bubba -- is he another spaceman? He calls Orson brother in one of the Mars fantasies and Orson seems to speak to him a few times throughout the series, including at the end. Or, is that what he calls everyone on the phone? Bubba was the ground man it seems -- the Earthbound one, their Mars mission's contact. Orson seems to not have any contact with his brothers, though. Unless he keeps his connection to Bubba private.

With Azzarello, so much is in the interpretation of language, so much that can be misread or misunderstood. The basic plot is simple, but everything surrounding it is given in little pieces here and there -- and never all of them. But, that's the way with his noirish storytelling. The plot is something basic like a kidnapping gone wrong or a group of guys find some gold and starting killing each other... It's the same shit you've seen a million times before at its core. But, the world surrounding it is so rich and different. Instantly recognisable, too. You know pretty much what happened without having it spelled out. Azzarello puts a lot of faith in his readers. I wish more writers did. We may get it wrong sometimes, but we're trying -- and we're thinking.

In 30 minutes, Adam Langton will drop a little knowledge on us all.

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 37: Identity Crisis (Part 2)

I hadn't thought about the influence of Watchmen specifically on this book. Unless there are some very specific allusions, I never consider Watchmen specifically. I just assume it's an influence and move on. That's a terrible habit and I need to break it.

I don't know why, but they never seem to consider the limitations they'll face before undertaking projects like these, do they? Shawn and I both said some similar things (him better than I) and the main thrust is that Identity Crisis tried to tell a story that require the superheroes not to be DC superheroes. They needed to exist outside of concerns over next week's comics, because the story demanded that they not be limited in such a way.

I have never understood Batman's outrage at mindwiping Dr. Light. That always seemed inconsitent with his character, which seems to have only one line: he doesn't kill. Everything else is fair game. Except there needs to be a reason for them to mindwipe him, too. Because they need a dark secret. The story came first, the characters second... in a world where the characters always come first, even over real people. ("Of course," says Grant Morrison, "Because they're more real than us! They'll outlive us all!") How does this slip through the cracks? To call it the beginning of the era of "DON'T SAY NO TO PEOPLE WITH NAMES THAT SOMEONE ON THE STREET MIGHT RECOGNISE" isn't right, because that had begun years prior with Kevin Smith and J. Michael Straczynski.

Books like this make people like me wonder what an editor's job is. And if they're proud of having it. You can just picture a group of nervous people muttering about all of the flaws while Dan DiDio stomps around, froth at the mouth, eyes everywhere, shouting "I SMELL MONEY!" over and over again until the muttering dies down and he's free to take a giant shit on each of their desks in peace.

In a comic of dumb moments, the dumbest always seemed to be the part where Green Arrow stabs Deathstroke in his eyepatch eye. Why wouldn't you blind the asshole? Why even introduce the idea that Green Arrow would do such a thing and not follow through on the logical path? It's stuff like that that confounds me. (So much about this comic does!) What does one think when they decide to have Green Arrow stab a guy in his eye that doesn't work instead of blinding him? Are we to assume that Green Arrow is a moron? That he think it too cruel to blind the assassin? What is the fucking point?

I shouldn't have picked this topic. It brings up bad memories.

One last question: what's worse, Identity Crisis or Infinite Crisis?

In 30 minutes, we move onto a good comic: Spaceman with Adam Langton!

We have hit ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS raised. Actually, it's $1010 officially. I keep running out of ways to express my shock at how much money has been raised, but it's still there. Over one thousand dollars. Amazing.

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 36: Identity Crisis (Shawn Starr Guest Post)

The failure of Identity Crisis is that it’s goals outweighs it’s author’s abilities by such a large margin that it collapses in on itself and reveals the fatal flaw of realism in comics, that it is impossible.

Meltzer attempts, with Identity Crisis, to recreate Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen within the confines of the DCU, but Meltzer (no matter how many New York Times Best Selling titles are in his bibliography) is not Alan Moore, and even Alan Moore knew better than to be saddled with the DCU (or Rags Morales for that matter) while writing his magnum opus. What we end up with then is a surface level mimicry of Moore’s masterpiece, Identity Crisis touches on many of the themes of Moore and Gibbon’s Watchmen (generations, maturity, violence, sexism, political commentary, and the psychosis of a “hero”), but it never strains to go deeper than to push those buttons while misinterpreting why they were there in the first place.

Watchmen redefined what superheroes could be; Identity Crisis shows us what they cannot be.

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The biggest failure of Identity Crisis, and the one which doomed the entire series from the start, is the DCU itself. Even though much of the continuity and characterizations in the DCU were relatively new compared to Marvel (following 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths), Meltzer still had to deal with nearly twenty years of history. Where Watchmen used analogues (characters with the perception of history, but devoid of any experience Moore himself did not craft explicitly), Meltzer had to contend with the lived in originals (A.K.A. “The Big Boy Toys”). This forced him into the dilemma of retconning in major moments (the rape of Sue Dibny) in order to make his mystery have any legs. The problem with this is all the stray threads it produces. Joss Whedon called Identity Crisis an epiphany in his introduction in that he changed the very concept of DC history, I’d call it lazy writing.

Once the League chose to alter Dr Light’s mind following several threats to rape their wives (for about 14 pages) in the early days of the League, why didn’t the idea of neutering every villain in the DCU become commonplace? Dr Light was a dufus following his “realignment”, a straight up joke. The plan had worked! So why not just “R.P. McMurphy” the Joker and be done with him? He kills people, I mean a lot of people, and so why is the Flash’s wife more important than the lives of every citizen of Gotham? Huh, Flash? Huh?

(They even mind wiped Batman for Christ sake!!!)

Where Anthony Burgess could deal with the idea of reprogramming the mind, and its moral implications in A Clockwork Orange, Meltzer simply opens a Pandora’s Box of implications and tries to ignore he ever opened it. He needed that rape to happen, so that we knew it wasn’t like the old days. The difference is Burgess controlled his universe, both future and past like Moore, Meltzer though could not by definition as the old days still existed.

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Another odd trait of Meltzer’s writing is its political aspect; Meltzer grafts onto the superhero community a definitive post-9/11 “American Vigilantism” reminiscent of the Bush Administration and also found in Neoconservative wet dreams.

Green Arrow’s vow of revenge against those involved in the killing of Sue Dibny "And whoever did this-he better pray the cops get him before we do." reads more like a Clint Eastwood line from Dirty Harry than something the DCU's permanent liberal would say (Unless he experienced an overnight epiphany like Christopher Hitchens). That vow though is, inevitably, expanded upon to mean anyone that could be connected with the perpetrators (fire was used, you use fire, you’re on the list) which resulted in goon squads of super heroes busting down anything that even resembles a hideout.

Wonder Woman goes so far as to choke and physically abuse an inmate because he used a specific type of knot while committing his crimes (a knot so common its Scout 101, as Superman comments), even when the perp had been incarcerated during the assault.

The political aspects of Meltzer’s scripts may be the most successful thing about the series; the only problem is that they cast the heroes in the role of the villain, and the villains as the oppressed to a large extent. A league of Rorschach’s defiling the Geneva Convention and habeas corpus to solve a crime one of them committed only to create a greater monster in the now-unwiped Dr Light.
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This political message also ties into Meltzer’s attempt at “serious comics about serious stuff”. While many argue (and to some extent are correct) that the 90’s Image era was based on a misreading of Alan Moore and Frank Miller works (along with a dozen other creators I’m omitting because I don’t have all day), most of those comics (at least the popular ones) are the definition of anti-seriousness. Rob Liefeld never dropped his V for Vendetta for a reason, and the latter half of Miller’s career only goes to show where his allegiances lied.

Meltzer and the generation that followed him, the Post-Image, are the ones guiltiest of a wild and unsophisticated appropriation of Moore/Miller motifs. They make a mockery of it, with the intent of honoring it. Meltzer along with the Geoff Johns and now Scott Snyder’s, pile on these moments of seriousness, rapes, murders, miscarriages, etc., until they collapse on themselves and become a Johnny Ryan parody.

The final page of Identity Crisis #1 depicts Elastic Man holding the charred corpse of his wife (which as a scene is rather well done on its own), it’s not that exploitative, but then Meltzer just has to add onto it with just one more panel, to really nail the scene. That panel is of course of a pregnancy test lying on the floor with a note attached “Daddy, Two lines = POSITIVE!” and then that scene just becomes the funniest thing I’ve read since the opening story of The Furry Trap.

This isn’t the only instance, following the rape of Sue Dibny by Dr Light; Light spends 10 pages hunched on the ground foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog screaming about how he’s going to rape everyone’s families. Everyone from The Flash’s wife, Batman’s wife, Superman’s Wife, Green Lanterns alien lover, Whatever Hawkman does stuff with. I figured he would start threatening people’s dogs next if the page count allowed for it.

He just can’t stop himself from going that extra step, and it ruins everything he was trying for.

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Then there's the ending of Meltzer’s mystery which is a last minute twist no one saw coming, just like EC comics, and just like Watchmen. The problem though is Ozymandias's plan was foreshadowed the entire time, it just that no one saw it coming. It was a perfect reveal because it made complete sense, but you couldn't see it coming (His confession at the end and the “I did it 35 minutes ago” meme it spawned is also a brilliant deconstruction of the villain plot reveal).

But Identity Crisis, I still don’t get it.

It doesn't make any sense. It’s like Armageddon 2001 where they just changed it at the last minute, but at least in the case of that book it was because people guessed the ending, but in Identity Crisis no one ever could because there is nothing in the prior text to predict it.

It certainly is Jean who killed Sue, that's undeniable, or it’s undeniable in the face of 10 pages of exposition as confession which says just that. A “fair play mystery” this is not.

The problem is that as Batman (A.K.A. the voice of reason) keeps repeating, who Benefits? I still don’t know the answer to that query. For example, how did Jean think she would benefit from this? The Atom in the beginning seems to still be in love with her, she seems past him (she was the one who left him), moving onto new experiences (signing back all his patients so she wasn’t indebted to him). So how did it go from that, to grabbing one of his suits and killing an unrelated person (which she brought additional weapons for, even though I guess it was an accident?) only so that she could get The Atom to come back to her and fall in love all over again. And how did that plan work?


Just to give an alternative scenario, a “cape killer” in Watchmen did not make Silk Spectre fall in love with Dr. Manhattan MORE after they began to disconnect, all it did was accelerate her leaving him and having awkward couch sex with Nite Owl. Jeans plan to have had the exact opposite effect and pushed him towards getting freaky with Tigra.

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So my point is Identity Crisis isn’t as good as Watchmen.

Or something.

“An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted." -Arthur Miller (from Identity Crisis)

P.S: Chad picked the joke book off my list.

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 35: Identity Crisis (Part 1)

I'll be honest: I picked this book, because it seemed like a funny thing to make Shawn Starr write about. Hey, it was on his list...

I don't own this comic anymore. I had the trade and have since gotten rid of it. I don't miss it. This was a bad comic series. It had some nice small moments of emotion and an interesting core idea, but the execution was usually so poor -- and the mystery handled with such retched abandon that it's embarrassing -- that it just made me feel sad to look at it. A work that convinced so many people that it's worthwhile somehow...

I'll never understand how mediocrity thrives so much. What did people like about Identity Crisis so much? I'll grant them the initial stuff with Ralph, but... after...? Was it the convoluted storytelling? The mystery that didn't really add up? The big eyes and mishapen faces? The endless parade of narrators that were used when convenient?

I'm struggling here to see it. It almost seems like it was a popular comic because it was a popular comic. Does that make any sense? The way that some people are famous for being famous? Can that happen with stuff like comics? Can it simply be that this comic was going to be popular and so it was popular? Fuck quality or reasons -- this is just what it is and nothing I or you or anyone says will change a damn thing. That makes sense to me. If God came down and said that, yeah, that's what happened, I would accept that explanation and move on with my life. But, that people genuinely like this comic... how do you stomach that?

What's weird is that I'm not sure that I know anyone who likes it. Those people exist, but I don't... know... any of them...? It seems like I would. Will Shawn be one of them? How will I look him in the eye after...

The part where the book really lost the plot was when it suddenly became about Captain Boomerang being all concerned about his kid. Like heroes and villains have anything in common in this story. A story where heroes know the secret identities of most of the villains those villains families live their lives, while there's a concern that, should the villains learn the heroes' secret identities, all of the heroes' families would be slaughtered. In what world would you tell that story and then try to create a parallel between the two groups? It makes no sense. When Batman is licking his lips at the possibility of dressing your son up in tights and having his way before slitting his throat with a Batarang, then we'll pretend like we give a fuck about lame tubby villain wanting to reconnect with his kid before he goes off and kills Robin's dad.

There's also the fact that we're confronting an issue where typical superhero morality fails. Batman's outrage is laughable in how pathetic it is. Their fear should have been that the villains would learn their secret identities and that would force them to kill every villain. Because they would have to. Or fuck them and their cowardly morality that only got their loved ones killed. In many ways, this is a series that shines a light on how superheroes are awful, irresponsible people who preach a limited morality that doesn't work when things go bad.

It doesn't help that you turn the typical supervillains into stone cold murderous rapists. The worse the bad guys get, the dumber the heroes look. Do they not realise that? Every time the ante is upped, the heroes look that much worse for not doing anything about it. Every Joker story lessens Batman. Sorry, but it's true.

Awful comic... I think Shawn will agree... let's see...

We're up to $970 raised!

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 34: Monthly Quality (Part 2)

There is no answer. At least none that I can see that are viable. I mean, there's always "Be better," but that doesn't seem very practical. Or nice. It's interesting that Ryan approached the topic from the writing standpoint. That's not something that occurred to me as much. It's struck me that the bigger problem is the artistic side and the inconsistent art on these stories that aren't quite as good as last month's.

I guess the problem is where do you draw the line? Say monthly isn't right -- what is? I'm all for nuance, but that's not the way corporations are going to work. I doubt they would want Comic A monthly because the writer feels that that schedule works for his muse, but Comic B is every 9 weeks, because that writer's muse is a bit slower. Nah, they'll just fire Writer B and see if Writer A can fit Comic B into his schedule. Because companies aren't interested in art. They're interested in sales.

The art side of things has to come from the writers and artists. That's the way it's always worked and that's the way it's going to keep working. The company wants to make money, the creators want to make money and art. The minute a concern becomes money, a compromise is made. The issue isn't every month producing a masterpiece, it's producing something that allows you to produce something else next month. If you produce something amazing, of course you're not going to repeat it next month probably. But, here's the thing: you're likely to never repeat it. I don't think "Otherworld" (to use Ryan's example) would have been significantly better if Remender had more time. It might be a little better, but the basic framework would have been the same and that framework was weaker than what had come before.

Besides, deadlines are good. Some of my best writing has come in the face of deadlines. I used to purposefully write essays in school the night before, because that would force me to think better. That's when the mad ideas come. You need to think quickly and make connections you might not have made otherwise. There's an energy there. And I'll always take energy over dull perfection.

It comes down to what matters: art or money. Make the choice and live with it. If the art suffers too much, the money will too and a change will be made. I don't even know exactly why I'm talking about this. (I say in my calmest voice.) There's a part of me that doesn't care, actually. Why am I worrying about why other people can't do their jobs properly? This is a side of comics that I can never fully get into. Yes, it impacts the quality of them... but, what about the ones that aren't impacted -- or are made better? This isn't an issue there. All that means it that, for this job, those other people are better. That doesn't mean that the system is broken necessarily, it means that, maybe, someone isn't best suited to work in it.

God, that sounds so cold and mean... but it's true. Horrible things to say while raising money for the Hero Initiative. But, where is the line? Where does business and the fact that I'm spending my money begin and where does not being a prick about it end? I want to say with my wallet and my pull list. If a writer can't write five books a month, a writer shouldn't write five books a month, because that's a decision that will hurt the art in the shortterm and the money in the longterm. Who wants to keep paying a guy churning out crap no one likes?

So much of this deals in areas that I know little about. Money issues and such and how much people make and how much they need and... I don't have any answers. Just awful realities that make me sound like an uncaring asshole.

Maybe the system should change. That begins with the readers. And what's their vested interest?

In 30 minutes, I talk Identity Crisis with Shawn Starr...

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 33: Monthly Quality (Ryan K. Lindsay Guest Post)

Can We Expect Greatness Multiple Times Every Month?

Making monthly comics is hard. This thought recently crossed my mind as I’ve started doing it. However, at Marvel and DC, some people are doing it multiple times a month. Many of the stable creators at the Big Two regularly pump out 4 issues a month, or more. It’s a mammoth feat and one to be respected but how can we expect greatness from every title under this factory produced mentality. I’m not saying it doesn’t occur, Uncanny X-Force and Batman recently prove you can make the donuts and have them be insanely delicious, but I’m asking why we make the hub of comics (in both sales and stewardship) a production line where creativity cannot be key because the deadline is always going to crush it.

Let’s chat about why making comics on a neverending deadline of 30 day periods might not be the best thing for the industry.

Let me please assure you, I am not here to bash the Big Two, nor any of their creators. This isn’t a negative post but one of curiosity. I will also openly state I read plenty of Big Two books, as many as I read from outside the Big Two. I’m not saying they make terrible books, but I do think their system lends itself to closer to that than epiphanic dreams and nightmares on the page which will enlighten and broaden entire generations.

Hitting deadlines is important. Publishers often talk of missing deadlines and then losing numbers. If someone expects your book to be out on Date X then that’s exactly when it should ship. If not, people will wander away and spend their money on someone else’s tale. Obviously, deadlines are important. No one wants to wait years for the next issue because the muse hasn’t struck you yet. That’s just garbage and not to be tolerated but what we have right now is a culture where creators land on a title and then stick on it for years at a stretch. And this is quite possibly because of the audience. Fans want to know how long creators will be on a title and if they drop off after 6-12 issues then they deride the entire run as being a flash in the pan and unworthy of their time. Why this is so I cannot fathom because so many great comics are made in short bursts. In fact, if you pick the greatest comic stories of all time you’ll find a very large majority of them came when a creative team hit it and quit it. Frank Miller knew not to overstay his welcome on Batman and Daredevil after dropping what many believe to be the best stories for each character.

If someone today of Miller’s calibre circa the 80s tried to drop in and tell their tale and get out they would find many harsh calls from the internet. People want Bendis level runs that capture a decade and define a generation of readers. Look through many interviews and you’ll find one of the most common questions for a creator is how long they will be on their latest title. And if it’s a short run those creators rarely talk about it. They focus on their story.

The opposite is Jonathan Hickman who says he’s already planned 60+ issues of his forthcoming Avengers run – and I can’t help but feel that locks me out of trying it because I worry I won’t get great stories. I’ll get miniscule pieces of this grand operatic drama that I’ll have to commit hundreds of dollars to if I want to see if I like it. To digress, when Hickman took over Fantastic Four, he led with a 3 issue storyline. It was excellent. I loved it. It remains one of my favourite FF stories of all time. But then his run devolved into this insane tapestry that intrigued me but didn’t ever grab me in that month with that single issue. However, I am aware, this could just be me. Plenty of others loved his FF saga and will no doubt adore his Avengers work, and big ups to them.

Back to the point, if a creator feels they have to be locked into a title for a run that will cover 50 issues and thus many plots, how are they expected to hit it out of the park each and every arc? Making a masterpiece isn’t a science and no one should expect it to happen every time. Yet fans often do. Rick Remender was the writer and main creative force between the first year of Uncanny X-Force and in that time he told The Dark Angel Saga which, for me, is pound for pound the greatest superhero tale of the past ten years. This is the icon that this era of comics will be hung from. Yet, with its conclusion, Remender was expected to back it up the next month (I haven’t checked solicits but it may very well have been the next fortnight due to UXF being a ‘double-shipped’ title that drops twice a month). Is it likely that you will tell the greatest story of the year and then start the next greatest story within 30 days? No, it’s not bloody likely. And so the next arc of UXF, Otherworld, was good but not on the level of TDAS and so fans complained. Now, Otherworld was very good, let’s give Remender credit that the man knows how to do his job, but it wasn’t TDAS. I don’t expect to see the next TDAS for another decade. And that’s fine.

Creating a masterpiece, especially in comics, is contingent on so many things occurring. The story must be quality and still broken up perfectly to match page beats and issue rests. The art must be grand – in pencils, inks, colours, and the other skills that go into fantastic arting (composition, storytelling, X factor). When a creator is on a title for 5 years and 50+ issues, I don’t expect every start from the gate will be clean. Hell, even Remender wrote one stinker of a UXF issue that I did not dig at all (sorry, Mr Remender).

I’m happy to accept that a guy writing two 20 page scripts a month for one book (while possibly writing similar copy for other titles) and doing so for anything more than a year is not going to be slapping ball after ball into the bleachers so he can round the diamond once more. In fact, while I’ve adored Remender’s UXF, I found his Venom flat, and his Secret Avengers fun but also thin. UXF proves to me, alongside Franken-Castle and Fear Agent to only name a few, that Remender knows how to play this game of making comics exceptionally well. But I don’t expect him to do it for every issue of every title he’s writing. He said recently, on Kieron Gillen’s amazing process podcast DECOMPRESED, that at one time he was writing UXF, Secret Avengers, Captain America, and Uncanny Avengers all at the same time. That doesn’t even take into accunt the outside Marvel work he’s been cooking up. How can someone hit all those marks and think anymore than the odd one will be a bullseye?

Let’s look at another Marvel stalwart (and university accredited architect) Matt Fraction. I am a massive Fraction fan but not every single issue from Marvel has been genius, which can be heartbreaking because we know he is capable of genius, many times over (see: Casanova, Immortal Iron Fist, some of Punisher: War Journal), but do we really expect him to write 46 issues of Thor (I think he said it was 46, I can’t find his tweet now – and be damned if I’m digging through wikipedia to navigate the many number changes and minis he done to verify it, what am I, a journalist?) and every single one of them will be gold dust? I cannot fathom how it is possible to churn out scripts for Fear Itself, Invincible Iron Man, The Mighty Thor, and possibly Casanova at the same time and expect all of those title to be masterpieces. This all probably came while he was planning out Hawkeye, Fantastic Four, FF, and his new Image books. Again, I’m not saying they all have to be winners, but wouldn’t it be nice if they had the chance? Under the pressures of doing so much, they cannot. I know comic creators need to survive, and feed families, etc, but at what point does a comic creator break?

I find it interesting to see that the point in which a comic creator breaks appears to be 2012. You’ve all seen the recent Image news of multiple Big Two creators running to the ‘independent’ scene to just make great comics. I feel like Vaughan and Kirkman did it long ago, but now we see Brubaker, Fraction, Morrison, Rucka, et al all heading off into the rosy sunset of Image Comics to hopefully make the same bang for their buck (easier to do with smaller sales if you are reaping a higher percentage) and also ensure the highest quality of their work by not needing to do four titles a month, with extra shipping on some of them. Little editorial fiddling with things, no continuity or crossover to align with, and the ability to paint with the widest and most durable canvas possible.

The exodus of Big Two creators intrigues me because it finally proves a point I had worried about, how good can your work be when it’s manufactured and not created? Ed Brubaker was the first crack I truly studied (and he’s a guy whose Marvel output was pretty spectacular at times).He churned out an intense amount of product for Marvel and while some was spectacular other stuff would only be okay. It’s the nature of the game. Now Brubaker is off to the golden lands of creator owned comics and film script work based off his own IP (wink).

It seems like Brubaker is now looking at a future of writing what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants. Hell, he’d already been doing that with Criminal and Incognito and look at the great results there. Some of the best comics from the past decade, without a doubt. It surely has to be easier to find greatness through your own creative process rather than doing it on a timed schedule like a caged egg farm. I mean, Brubaker even started alternating between writing Criminal and Incognito, and now Fatale, just to switch it up and keep himself (and always amazing amigo Sean Phillips) fresh. That seems like a smart move and the product supports this statement. If you are stuck on Uncanny X-Men for 3 years then you don’t get to walk away and refresh yourself. You just keep faking it until you make it.

Now Matt Fraction says he’s written [insert large number mentioned on Word Balloon here] issues since last January and he’s burnt out. He wants a break. He’s going to pick up the FF duo on the Marvel NOW! initiative, he’ll have Hawkeye (which is sublimely stellar), and he’ll do his weird tales over at Image. That just about seems manageable. I think over the next 12-24 months, you’ll see many more creators realising their best creations don’t come from being poked monthly (and twice monthly) and be expected to hand it over.

Look at BKV with Saga. I’m a massive fan and I’m content with just this series for now because he’s got all the time in the world to make each issue’s script sing. Admittedly, he’s also got the fanbase and sales to back up only doing this book and still paying the bills, but it shows that making the golden egg come out of the goose takes care and effort, it doesn’t just happen.

Who knows, maybe runs will become shorter? Maybe creators will move more. Maybe. But I doubt it. Fans don’t want that, it would often appear, and the companies like a good brand behind and for the title. It isn’t just the Avengers, it’s Bendis’ Avengers and there has to be something said for the power of such a claim to hold over a title. But who reading this can tell me the perfect Avengers story that Bendis told? Which tale will stand the test of time as the pinnacle that title, and those characters, have to offer? And don’t think I’m being a dick, I think Bendis wrote one of the most solid runs in the history of comics. The quality didn’t often dip below the dreaded ‘drop this title’ line but it never seemed to soar above the clouds and look down as a titanic classic. Bendis’ Avengers is like the John Hughes best friend who will not and cannot and should not ever be the boyfriend. He’s just there for a hug and some quality time, he won’t rock your socks off at 2am after too many tequila slammers. His Daredevil, however, will crush you and leave you breathless in the back of his car.

My final question is; we all want the best comics we can possibly buy, so why do we currently have a system where some of our favourite characters are rushed into hands each month without the greatest care being that of quality? Is there a better way? If there is, I’m sure only Chad Nevett has it…

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 32: Monthly Quality (Part 1)

It all comes down to the readers. The Image founders proved that readers would wait. Marvel proved that readers would buy the next issue no matter who the artist is. Really, it's about what people will buy. Apparently, we don't care. We'll wait or we won't. It doesn't matter. Whoop dee fuck.

Of course, the conflict is there between the things I said were proven. What happened to the skilled artist that could produce monthly? They skill exist, obviously, but why are they the rarety? Some say advances in printing technology mean that pages must be packed with more detail. I can see that argument, but it doesn't seem like an automatic to me. I look at Kirby's pages and I look at the pages of these slow, 'detail-focused' artists and, I've got to say, I'm not favouring the latter. Detail doesn't mean quality. Now, you're not going to do better than Kirby, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. I'm convinced that that's what Romita, Jr. is doing these days...

Now, maybe I'm not the best person to listen to about favouring the deadline most of all (see... um, almost every post I've written today...). Nor do I necessarily believe that. However, there's something to be said about a company's willingness to stick to a schedule. Of course, Marvel doesn't help matters by creating a schedule that, literally, only Jack Kirby could meet. And Kirby's dead. Not the best fucking plan.

But, this issue over artists seems like the biggest problem when it comes to maintaining consistent quality on comics. We've got the writers, we've even got colourists working in a heavyhanded style to maintain some visual consistency... But, it comes down to the line artists. Their ability to meet a deadline. A reasonable deadline would be nice. It really would. Knowing that next issue will look something like this issue would be nice. I was just writing about Uncanny X-Force and, holy fuck, are those issues between Esad Ribic and Jerome Opena's return dreadful. Just awful, ugly, subpar (by the standards set by the likes of Opena). And, yet, there they are. Fucking up the third trade of that series. And that's how it will be forever until I get the money to pay Opena and Dean White to redo the art for my own private edition of that comic. Maybe it will read better than, because it reads like shit now.

Artists interpret and present the writing and they can fuck it up in such obvious ways that I am surprised that anyone would take chances with that. More than that, it's sad to see them pretend like artists are somehow interchangeable. Oh wait. No, that's us, the readers. See, the Image founders proved that we'd wait... and then they took advantage and we got sick of fucking waiting. Now, we'll take a new comic with any hack's scribblings, because, hey, it beats waiting seven years for yet another promise that the issue is almost done. They had it and, then, they lost it. We all fucked up. Whoop dee fuck.

In 30 minutes, Ryan K. Lindsay will share his thoughts and probably use "fuck" less.

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 31: Uncanny X-Force (Part 2)

Kaitlin makes a pretty decent argument for why Uncanny X-Force is good. I guess my problem is that not connecting to any of the characters, in particular, Psylocke, much of it is lost on me. But, I covered that. Now I will attempt to tell you what I like about Uncanny X-Force and, maybe, talk myself into buying the final two trades...

* I genuinely enjoy the way Rick Remender writes Deadpool. He's not funny, but he's unhinged and tries to be funny. A character like Deadpool shouldn't be funny. He's too weird for that. Remender gets that.

* Evan was raised to be Superman.

* The art. Sometimes. But, I also think that I've passed by the rough patch (aka "The Dark Angel Saga" book one).

* Wolverine talking to Psylocke about killing folks.

* The way it ties in with Secret Avengers.

* The Final Four Horsemen.

* The idea of returning to the Age of Apocalypse and how it led to that comic. I like that comic.

* Seriously, Jerome Opena and Dean White!

* I like Remender's ambition. He doesn't think small. He thinks big. And he tries to make the characters matter. He simply falls into the bad habit of telling us things matter.

* Okay, I liked the art in the "Otherworld" story... it was me!

* That there's an end point.

In 30 minutes, Ryan K. Lindsay and I begin discussing the issue of maintaining monthly quality.

We're up to $960 raised!

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]

Blogathon 30: Uncanny X-Force (Kaitlin Tremblay Guest Post)

Right from the get-go, Uncanny X-Force had everything I loved: a team of hired guns, which included Psylocke and Deadpool, taking care of dirty work incognito. And it was this team, and Remender's ability to create an ensemble cast where no character felt tacked on or left out, that ultimately hooked me. Each member brought their own unique strength and provided something to the story nobody else could -- whether it was Pyslocke’s compassion/telekenesis holding the team together, Logan’s battle-weary wisdom leading them on, Deadpool’s sheer insanity saving them from situations a sane man would run from, Angel’s psychosis testing their limits and Fantomex’s bravado threatening to break them apart. They worked as a team and moved as a team, and even when the story got a little too wacky -- which, oh boy, it did -- watching X-Force play together was always worth the read.

Despite all that, ultimately, Uncanny X-Force reads more as Pyslocke’s, or at least the Psylocke we’ve known so far, swan song -- a sort death with the ultimate hope of a rebirth for Betsy Braddock. We start off with a fairly recognizable, traditional, none-too-complicated Betsy: her unapologetic ass-kicking and her loving relationship with Warren. After The Dark Angel Saga, Betsy undergoes a series of events that are ultimately about redefining her: her mind becomes shattered; emotionally, she becomes wiped clean; she severs her relationship with her brothers and family in Otherworld; she sees a future version of herself as a Minority Report-esque fascist leader, killing people before they can commit murder in a world ruined by Apocalypse; she tries to kill herself to prevent this future; and after all of it, her mind becomes potentially irrevocably shattered in the final battle to prevent Evan from turning into the evil Apocalypse Take Two.

Everything contained within Uncanny X-Force is a steady loss of what is important to her, and her frenzied, chaotic and disastrous attempts to reconcile these events with her life. She gives up her ability to feel in order save Fantomex after killing her brother. After the horrid experiences with Angel, this is the next big step in her downward spiral. So much of Uncanny X-Force is Betsy fighting and jumping between extremes of what she feels is right and what she feels she needs to do. At the end of issue 28, when she sees herself in the future, she justifies her suicide attempt by saying "If I am the woman who brings this all about -- I'll kill her before she can." Her disassociation from herself in this scene points to the splitting that has occurred within her mind: there is the Psylocke she sees she will become, and the Psylocke she currently is, and both are wedged into her body in this moment, a moment that has been building for the entirety of the Uncanny X-Force run.

Betsy is steadily losing everyone and everything. She loses Jamie, and because of that, she also loses Otherworld. She loses Warren, she loses Fantomex. She loses her ability to feel, her ability to think properly in her own mind. By the end of issue 36, she even loses the ability to tell what is real and what is fantasy, as Fantomex points out to her on the final page. But the crucial part of this loss and descent is that it is paving the way for a creation of a new Psylocke. Uncanny X-Force ends with Betsy's assertion that, even if this is all in her head a la a Nolan movie, then at least she's going to take control and make it something meaningful for herself.

Ultimately, then, I would say Uncanny X-Force is the stage where Betsy Braddock’s life and identity plays out like a tragedy in order to take Psylocke’s character in a newer direction.  With the MarvelNOW! Uncanny X-Force run beginning including Spiral, the character who forged Betsy’s mind into Kwannon’s body, all signs appear to point to a refiguring of Betsy’s identity and characterization.

[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]