Where Did It All Begin?

Where did your love of comics begin?
I'm writing for the comics audience here, and assuming that those of you reading have a love for the form to begin with. If not, it's your loss and you probably won't find anything of value on this blog.
While I remember reading comics and watching superhero cartoons as a very small child--I particularly remember having an Aquaman action figure I was very fond of at about five and a handful of issues of a late '80s Captain America run that I re-read over and over--it wasn't until after I'd had a hiatus from reading them, that I truly found my place in comics.
When I was in middle school, I didn't have a great many friends. As such, any time I wasn't spending with my two younger brothers I spent with the small number of people at school with whom I was close. One of those--my friend Jonathan Bidwell--still figures prominently in my life, but for the most part they've moved on to other things. One such friend was a guy I'll just call Joe. Now, it was 1992 and we were 12 or 13 years old. It was getting to the end of summer vacation, as I recall, and we were up until all hours of the night at his house (his father had left and his mother was a third-shift nurse, so we were basically watching ourselves whenever I spent the night there). Joe and I were watching the 11 o'clock news when a story came on--featuring some truly ugly critters drawn by Jon Bogdanove--to say that DC Comics had announced the forthcoming death of Superman.
Having been a fan of other characters, liked the Batman movie of the late '80s and never really getting into Superman, I remember very distinctly sitting in the bedroom at Joe's and thinking, "I gotta see that character die!" It was really just one of those mean-spirited teenage boy things, inspired by a desire to see bad things happen to a (too-) good character more than anything else. It began a love affair with comics that has now lasted almost two decades, and my admiration for the way the stories were carried off (by Roger Stern, Tom Grummett and Dan Jurgens, among others) was so impressive that I followed the series until they were all gone, and have continued to follow Jurgens' career for years after.
As a result of getting on board with mainstream American superhero comics at that time, of course, I've got a unique perspective. While there's a healthy amount of hate for the '90s out there, much of it justified, there are a lot of perfectly good comics that get painted with a broad brush. On top of that, we're now in the throes of a period in comics history where everything that happened between 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths and 2004's Identity Crisis. It means that all the character and plot development that I followed for the ten years that most engaged me in mainstream superhero comics and the soap-operatic universes they create for their characters...well, it doesn't "count" anymore. And that's kinda irritating. That's what's got me writing this column.
Next time: The Fastest Man Alive.

Coming Soon

Just a note - starting tomorrow, I'll be updating this blog much more frequently. I've got a column I'll be launching that's exclusive to this blog, and I'll be making it a point to add DVD and comic reviews to here just a few days after Comic Related and Blog@Newsarama get the same. Anyone who might actually see this, check back in 24 hours for the first installment.

Comics in the Classroom, Camelot and Candidates (of the Rogue Variety)

Some quick notes on things I’ve noticed in the last few days…

First of all, it was called to my attention after I wrote up JMS’ new-to-video release Ninja Assassin yesterday that Straczynski’s bestselling and wildly controversial Spider-Man: One More Day is available for only $6.97 in hardcover in the bargain section of Barnes & Noble bookstores all over the country. Seems like a great chance for continuity junkies who didn’t like the story, but feel like they ought to own something so important, to get it cheap.

There are only 60 days remaining to make yourself part of the upcoming Reading With Pictures Anthology, which is being funded through Kickstarter. It’s 45% funded, with $4,500 of its final $10,000 already pledged. The book involves a bunch of really cool creators working together for a good cause, so I’d say to at least check it out. If somebody else doesn’t contribute in the next month, I’m going to have to raise the level of my contribution. And I’m a cheap bastard, so don’t make me do that!

Speaking of worthy causes on Kickstarter, Ted Rall’s sequel to his great To Afghanistan & Back is still up in the air, with only about half of the total cost donated and a little under two weeks before he’s got to report back to the publisher. Rall’s one of the most fearless and funny graphic novelists in the market right now, so I’d suggest everyone check his work out and think about helping him get funded.

Third and final fundraising shill (for now): Zach Roberts, who masterminded the Greg Palast/Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. comic book Steal Back Your Vote (of which I was an editor–full disclosure here), has a forthcoming documentary about Sarah Palin called Rogue Candidate; it’s not up yet, but he’s been discussing some very interesting and comics-related promotion avenues for the film, so keep your eyes and ears open; it may be the first documentary film ever to have a comics adaptation.

Starz is not only taking some stories from England, but a style of televising them, too; the network has greenlit a Camelot miniseries that will run for ten episodes and be written by Chris Chibnall of Torchwood fame. Removing “Starz” from this sentence, when I first heard that this was happening, I assumed that it was a BBC or BBC America series being reported. It will, however, go nicely with their Spartacus: Blood and Sand series.

Last week at South by Southwest, Warner Brothers announced that they planned on using DC superheroes as tentpole films starting in 2012 or so to replace the departing Harry Potter franchise. There’ll be some overlap, of course, with the last two Harry Potter movies not yet released and Green Lantern already shooting, but it’s a sound business idea on paper, I think, and setting them up as tentpoles unto themselves means that people will have to start thinking of them as viable commercial franchises instead of just talking about how there are all these random superhero movies being made and when will they go out of style. Should be interesting and really fun for comics fans…provided that Warner can make it work.

Booster Gold #30: “Things Are Booming in Coast City, OR Rip was tripping on mushrooms and no one was even there.”

Check this article out on ComicBook.com!

Linkblogging

Compliments of Simon Pegg's Twitter site, fans and press alike have been clamoring over a four-minute clip from the American, McG-helmed remake of Spaced that was almost unleashed on an unsuspecting public a few years back in the wake of The Office and House proving that British television can work on a major American network. See for yourself why it was axed after only the pilot (little things like the original creators freaking out and a Facebook campaign to boycott the damned thing notwithstanding, I mean). For my part, I'm skeptical of what this proves. Certainly it's pretty godawful, but it's hard to figure out for my part whether it's awful because it's awful, or just because it's beat-for-beat a ripoff of the UK show and so I know how it "should" look and sound. Bear in mind, the US version of The Office is a critical and audience favorite six years in, and the pilot for that show was basically a line-for-line ripoff of the UK version, too.

Kirby Krackle's new record, E For Everyone, hit this Tuesday. I'm checking it out now and will have a review and interview when the band return from this weekend's Emerald City ComiCon. A single from the record, "Ring Capacity," was released a few months ago. The ode to Green Lantern was clever and catchy, and bodes well for the album.

Warner Home Video has a Scooby-Doo promotion starting on Monday. Originally it was going to start today, but after I'd already written this column the press guys wrote back to ask reporters to hold off on the announcement until Monday, presumably so they can get the website to the stage where they want it or something. More on that later.

Hill & Wang, a division of Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, will publish Ted Rall's forthcoming book about his forthcoming trip to Afghanistan (a kind of sequel to his popular 2002 NBM hardcover To Afghanistan and Back)--assuming there is a trip. Rall's success in getting the project funded through Kickstarter haven't panned out yet, and the amount he says he needs isn't just to cover crappy hotel rooms. Rall describes the $25,000 goal as necessary "for travel expenses, including bribes to avoid capture." Rall's last graphic novel, an autobiographical confessional with art by Pablo Callejo called The Year of Loving Dangerously, was one of last year's best.Listen to me talk to Rall about it on Comic Related's "Related Recap" podcast.

Gearing up for convention season, a couple of smaller publishers have reached out to fans this week: Brant Fowler has put out some feelers about low-cost print advertising for as little as $5 in his upcoming comic, and Alterna Comics has approached their mailing list about both paid advertising and website advertising trades. Gotta pay for gas somehow when you're driving all over the country, folks!

Following on the heels of the Amazon debacle, apparently not only has Barnes & Noble faced some similar glitches, but Amazon has revoked the "buy" buttons from comics and graphic novels until the issue is resolved to their satisfaction. Ouch.

Yes Men Press Release

ADM Tries to Take Down Funny Video; Big Business Has No Solutions; Now What?

• ADM video still available here, here, and (for download and reposting) here; page here
• Fake initiatives pages, with links to organizations seeking change on these issues
• More information about last week's website and videos
• Contact: scurrilous@theyesmen.org, bportello@cinemalibrestudio.com

A legal complaint from agribusiness giant ADM has resulted in the removal from Youtube of a fake video of ADM's CEO making over-honest pronouncements. (The video is still available here, here, and, for download and reposting, here.)

Last week, the filmmaking team behind The End of Poverty? partnered with the Yes Men to create a parallel, imaginary World Economic Forum in which world leaders came up with real solutions to poverty. The leaders seemed, in a < href="http://www.we-forum.org/en/events/AnnualMeeting2010/index.shtml">series of videos, to be supporting a set of initiatives based on 10 Solutions to End Poverty, a petition for which the filmmakers are trying to get ten million signatures by the end of 2010.

Each of those initiatives pages has links to organizations that are fighting hard for change on these issues.

In contrast, the actual World Economic Forum ended Sunday with a profound lack of results, some seemingly satirical but all-too-real headlines (like Goldman Sachs's Lloyd Blankfein's rumoured $100 million bonus), and one fruitless complaint to Youtube.

"If we can bail out bankers to the tune of trillions of dollars, surely we can solve poverty, which will just take a few structural changes, plus a whole lot less money," said Beth Portello, the producer of The End of Poverty?

"All the crises we're facing are rooted in massive inequality and poverty," says Philippe Diaz, the film's director. "If these leaders really wanted to make a difference, they would work towards ending poverty, however uncomfortable that might be for business."

"It's easier to remove funny videos from Youtube," added Portello.

“World’s greatest superheroes?” I just don’t see it.

The first issue featuring the newest incarnation of the Justice League of America’s lineup hit this week, and over the top of the title, DC blares that the book features the world’s greatest supeheroes. While no more inherently ridiculous than the Fantastic Four’s long-held claim to being the greatest comic magazine, this one’s a lot more offensive. Why? Because the cover features Congorilla, Mon-El/Valor wearing a Superman logo (everybody’s doing it—the Eradicator, raised from the dead without explanation in this month’s issue of The Outsiders, is back to sporting a big, red S as well) and Starfire, who’s come to this team straight from the orgy of failure that is The Titans. Joined in this comic by fellow Titans (not Teen Titans—Titans. There’s a difference) Donna Troy, Dick Grayson and Cyborg, it soon becomes clear that the Justice League of America has become the dumping-ground for promising characters who just don’t fit into DC’s idea of what they want to do with other titles (like letting a crazed badguy who’s already been overexposed since Identity Crisis lead his own team of “Titans”). Mon-El and The Guardian, both so incredibly popular with the fans that during the time they’ve starred in the Superman titles, sales have dropped by about forty percent, represent the Metropolis contingent with Batman’s understudy and Hal Jordan (currently featured in three monthly books as well as guest-starring all over the place) being the closest thing this team has to A-listers. Seriously, folks, I think that the upcoming Justice League: Generation Lost by Keith Giffen and Judd Winick, which will feature Guy Gardner, Booster Gold, Fire, Ice and the rest of the old JLI—once known as the all-time bottom of the Justice League barrel—may feature a more prestigious lineup than these clowns.

Inside, Red Tornado has been torn to pieces for something like the 185^th time in his last 185 appearances. Vixen, the only representative of the Detroit Era JLA to make it into this volume of the title and who has been, to the disappointment of many fans, a member of the team since J’Onn J’Onzz left for no reason after having been with the team since its founding, decides that she’s got to quit the team, because she’s ashamed of what they did at the end of the hideously misguided editorial abortion known as Justice League: Cry For Justice (yes, the end of the miniseries that hasn’t ended yet).

The rest of the team struggles to recover from the aftereffects of Blackest Night (yes, the end of the miniseries that hasn’t ended yet), which raised many of their old teammates from the dead as villains, and even forced some living heroes to play dead for a while so they could be villains. Don’t worry, James Robinson assures the readers, “We ‘awoke,’ though. We survived.” That’s good news, I guess, for the thousands of readers who are eagerly awaiting February 24^th’s Blackest Night #7 (of 8), in which the story of those heroes who have been taken over by Nekron continues to play out. I’m sure nobody would mind being told that the biggest event of the year, in which many fans have invested hundreds of bucks following every arcane tie-in, comes out alright enough in the wash.

All of these little editorial gaffes might be forgivable…if the comic were any good. Or original. Or fun. It’s none of those things. Mark Bagley’s art looks rushed and is outright hideous in some places (look at Damien’s face as he declares himself part of the Justice League, or Donna’s as she arrives to invite Batman. Also, if Hal Jordan’s body hasn’t been horribly mangled on a torture rack of some kind by the end of Blackest Night, there’s no reason whatsoever for the length of his torso and legs in comparison the rest of his body on the final story page). The story is dull and something we’ve all seen a hundred times before—Wonder Woman, acting as the only member of DC’s trinity not currently dead or living in outer space, picks a League and the rest of the issue is spent on a recruiting binge. There’s very little in terms of logical, reasonable cause to bring the characters together. Instead, it’s a team that’s being forced together out of the disparate pieces that DC editorial have decided, and Wonder Woman has prescribed, will compose it. It’s a whole issue of going through the motions, and the cardboard dialogue and pedestrian plot has to remind readers of last week’s awesome Starman #81 that James Robinson is best when he’s not handling the icons. Taking a franchise that nobody believed in or cared about, he crafted arguably the best ongoing monthly of the 1990s. Taking control of Superman and the Justice League of America, he’s created a directionless mess filled with uninteresting takes on third-tier characters.