The Best of 2016

Red, Black and Dead

"We also assert our continued confidence
in Publisher Harry Montevideo and
the professional staff he has assembled.
We added to that staff recently to
improve the learning experience
we offer our student journalists." -The
Editorial staff of The Red & Black

Earlier this week, a memo by one of the board of directors for the University of Georgia's ostensibly-independent student newspaper The Red & Black was leaked, and it was incredibly damning.

The memo showed a total lack of understanding of the way journalism and education are supposed to work, and a disregard for the truth in service of coddling the school administration and advertisers. The student editorial staff of the newspaper, dismayed by the statement that was to be aimed at them, walked out en masse.

Over the past week, they've fought against the school's well-paid puppets, who have intentionally distorted and misrepresented the situation and, in one case, actually physically assaulted a reporter who was covering the story for the college's other newspaper.

There have also been at least two resignations on the part of board members--one who wrote the memo that led to a media firestorm and one who left today when he felt his fellow board members weren't standing strong enough in their opposition to the student journalists.

And along the way, it reminded me of my college newspaper and the way that things were run there. It was strikingly similar, except that nobody ever stood up to it. The Oswegonian is a nominally independent newspaper, but it exists to serve the school, not the students or the Oswego community. I was incredibly proud of the "Red & Dead" crew, the young reporters who left the comfort of their prestigious school paper and struck out on their own in the name of truth, openness and the principles of journalism that are too often shunted aside for convenience's sake in today's media, both student and professional.

And today, they issued a statement declaring victory. It may have been an actual victory, and it almost certainly seemed like it to them, but the neutered, corporate-friendly statement they had to rubber-stamp after interviewing to get the jobs back they'd walked out on because their boss--who will, incidentally, remain their boss and makes more money in a year than I owe in student loans--had no idea what the hell he was doing really just withered any optimism I had that these young writers represented some bright future for journalism.

Instead, what I see is a group of kids who got their hands on an eye-only document they weren't supposed to have, who splashed it up on the Internet to get some quick attention and who went back with their tails between their legs when the school's tools threatened to take away their resume-padding editorial positions.

I had hoped that this group of young students would be indicative of some kind of movement that spoke to the future of journalism in our country. Unfortunately, it looks like I was right.

Unpaid Labor

Bear in mind, this isn't sour grapes, just a decision made when I looked at where my life and priorities were right now.

I'm going to look more in-depth at this issue very soon, but I just wanted to share with my friends and readers a portion of an e-mail I sent to one of my editors at Newsarama about my decision to no longer provide unpaid work to any site I know for a fact to be turning a profit off my efforts:

Throughout the week I've tried to contact [one of my editors] about a few things with no success; it appears that he has decided my e-mails don't rate unless he wants free con coverage or my help in setting up [one of their staff writers] to interview one of my contacts. A friend of mine, union organizer and public-interest lawyer Jonathan Tasini, has filed a lawsuit against The Huffington Post this week, challenging their long-standing business model of making money off of people who work for "exposure," always promising their freelancers and contributors that there will be some eventual light at the end of the tunnel and never coming through with a red cent. And it reminded me of the numerous conversations that I had with [two of my editors] around last years' New York Comic Con--[senior management]'s claims that "There'll be paying work if you just trust us, get there, and start writing." It just didn't feel right and I didn't know why--and then it hit me. When I started working for Newsarama, I did so because, even though I had a personal and financial investment in Comic Related, 'Rama was offering me paying work at conventions and a steady gig on their blog, which earned me street cred and free books from people eager to get exposure. They very quickly stopped paying for anything (literally within a couple of months after I got my first check from them, they asked me to cover a second convention but this one they "couldn't guarantee" any payment--ultimately none at all was forthcoming or ever seriously discussed and I don't think I even made the show in the end) and yet I continued to write for them because, well, it's Newsarama. But I've got a serious day job, a kid and two graphic novels underway right now. I just can no longer see myself contributing unpaid work to a company that doesn't give a shit about me in exchange for free comics that come from a third party (or several). Newsarama is never going to see another unpaid word from me--it's just not worth my time and trouble.

The Gold Exchange: J.M. DeMatteis on BOOSTER GOLD #43

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Blue Beetle's dead, new Beetle's red, Savage Dragon is black (and so is the mood at Marvel)--a colorful week in review

Red Beetle appears directly above Manhunter on the right.

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Erik Larsen Talks Savage Dragon #169 (My final Newsarama column)

A new age begins–officially, at least–today with the release of Savage Dragon #169, Malcolm Dragon’s first full issue as the titular protagonist after last issue’s, ahem, electrifying conclusion. A new era for us here at DragonQuestions, too, as we head back to our original home at Comic Related. 

Starting next month, the column will be running predictably on Wednesdays at Comic Related, although this month’s interview is going to be handled in a kind of odd way. Gavin’s questions, which nobody’s seen or heard before, will be published here and now, while tomorrow an expanded edition will go live over at Comic Related that will feature not only Gavin’s questions for Erik on the occasion of this momentous issue, but a number of questions transcribed from the podcast interview I did with Larsen last month (which have never appeared in the column, only on The Related Recap.

Speaking of the Comic Related podcasting network, this Monday I launched Panel Discussions, a biweekly podcast that will, after the technological fiasco that was our first episode, feature me with a rotating cast of guest-hosts. This week was just me, however, talking with J.M. DeMatteis about leaving Booster Gold in May to make way for Flashpoint and Troy Brownfield (formerly of Newsarama fame) about the Buck Rogers annual he recently wrote with former ‘Rama honcho Matt Brady.

All that said, let’s make way for Gavin and Erik to talk about a very special episode of Savage Dragon.

Gavin Higginbotham: The opening sequence being a reworking of the opening sequence from the very first issue was perfect. It’s a great way to introduce new readers while also giving a massive nod to old readers who were around at the very start.

Erik Larsen: That was fun to do. There are a few outright swipes there from myself and other panels that were simply reminiscent of what I’d done before. I think they work both as an introduction to something new and as a callback for old readers.

GH: We’ve had a few second generation heroes (or future heroes) in the past, but Cutthroat Kid is the first child to carry on their villainous parents’ legacies. Will this be a recurring theme?

EL: Absolutely. Though a lot of it will be somewhat behind the scenes because we haven’t exactly been privy to a lot of the villain’s family lives.

GH: Malcolm clearly doesn’t have the same confidence when it comes to witty banter with his enemies. Is it fun working out Malcolm’s character traits like this? That simple line of “Anyway… yeah” was brilliant. It showed that Malcolm isn’t quite as settled into his new role yet. Good fun.

EL: A lot of Malcolm’s speech patterns come straight from my son Joe and he actually suggested the battle with Cutthroat’s kid that started off the issue. Joe’s a few months younger than Malcolm is but I’m using him as something of a guide for Malcolm. But yeah, I don’t want Malcolm to be a carbon copy of his old man. Malcolm is his own man and it’s fun exploring his personality.

GH: Speaking of fun, the artwork really shines here. Did you enjoy yourself more than normal with this issue? There weren’t necessarily a lot of surprises in this issue but it was incredibly exciting in terms of building the future of this series.

EL: It’s an exciting time to be on the book because it’s transitioning into being something else. In a way that started with #151 where the kids started taking a more active role but with this issue it’s an even bigger step as they fully take control of the book. I had a ball. Malcolm is just fun to draw–as is Angel.

GH: The funeral scene featured a number of characters that haven’t really been seen for a while. Was this just to allow them to bid farewell to Dragon or is this a way of re-introducing these characters for more regular appearances?

EL: A little of each. Barbaric and Ricochet will be more active shortly and I wanted to touch on some of the others.

GH: With the confirmation that Dragon’s body remains and Virus is still being kept frozen in Rex Dexter’s laboratory, are these hints that Dragon could return one day?

EL: That remains to be seen. But regardless of what happens in the future–this is Malcolm’s book now. The comic is set in real time and these characters age. If Dragon returned, he’d be pushing 50 and the reality is, at a certain point, crime fighting becomes increasingly less feasible. In the real world boxers retire, athletes retire, older police get desk jobs. We’ve all read enough comics to know that a resurrection is possible. The pieces are there and pretending they’re not is just silly. I’m not going to sit here and pretend that it can’t be done. At the same time, I want to make it very clear that the torch has been passed and that the focus has shifted.

GH: Angel’s feelings of being ignored are really quite sad. Was this purely part of the story or was it mirroring things outside of the book itself, i.e. readers referring to Malcolm taking over the book when Angel is the child that’s been around the longest?

EL: It’s funny. That page was originally going to be something else entirely–and the last page in the book–but I decided after it had bee sent to Tom that the scene with Captain Stewart which worked better as a lead in to the new reality. There was a time when I was saying to folks that Angel Dragon would eventually be the star of the book and, in a way, that is the case, but Malcolm’s a better front man, visually. The book’s going to be more of a shared title, like Powerman/Iron Fist from back in the day. I guess the closest equivalent now would be Batman and Robin but they’re not really partners or equals in the way that Power Man and Iron Fist were.

GH: Jerry Rivers returns for the first time in many years. His aging appearance is another reminder that in this series, the characters really do age.

EL: Yeah. I’ll be doing more of that. The clock is ticking with these characters. That’s actually something I’ve been thinking about more and more, especially given the size of the cast. We can literally go years between appearances. In some cases there are villains that appeared once or twice early on and haven’t appeared since and we’ve missed them in their prime. That’s a bit sobering. I recently came into contact with a friend I hadn’t seen in a couple decades and in the real world that can make one hell of a difference.

GH: Frank Jr. becoming a dependable older brother figure to Malcolm brings about a new incarnation of the Frank and Dragon relationship. The death of both their fathers brings them closer together and it’s nice seeing Malcolm get a stable home life for once.

EL: The one scene missing here was an establishing one showing the whole family unit. We got a glimpse of that in earlier issues but I could have stood to shown that here. Basic stuff–here’s the house–here’s who lives there. That sort of thing–but there’s time to do that and yeah, it is nice to show these things. Frank hasn’t had a lot of panel time.

GH: Krull’s visitation with Malcolm ties up the dangling thread about Kurr having sent a message to his people but a pretty major thread remains, just how did WildStar return to Earth and where are Glum and Angel?

EL: We’ll get to them in the next few issues. There are a lot of characters to get to. Just making a list it’s kind of overwhelming how much there is to do. There are tons of villains the kids have never met and there are a lot of characters to touch on. With Overlord too, his real identity may not mean a hell of a lot to Angel or Malcolm so I need to get the suspects in place so I can eventually solve that mystery.

GH: Krull acknowledging Malcolm as his brother is one thing but does either Malcolm or Angel still have any other family out there? With Angel, she had a great aunt and uncle at one point and her grandmother was seen alive not too long ago, and we never found out what happened to Malcolm’s grandmother (Rapture’s mother), so could we see the kids gaining new family eventually to upset the dynamic set up with the Darlings?

EL: Oh, sure–especially with them being thrust in the spotlight. It’s not inconceivable that they both would have surviving relatives. We’ve met several of Angel’s relatives in the past. Angel’s grandmother was in #139 in an old folks’ home and she dropped a few names and Malcolm’s mother’s past is something of a blank slate. Now that the focus is squarely on the kids it’s somewhat natural to bring in more supporting characters–especially ones that are human who could help ground the characters in reality.

GH: Was the mentioning of OverLord being at war with the Vicious Circle on the final page to simply set up future stories or also to remind readers that even though we’re in a new era, the old threats still remain?

EL: Yeah, and there’ll be more of that but I do keep in mind that every issue is somebody’s first issue so I do make an effort to fill readers in on who these characters are and what they’re all about.

GH: The setting up of the new status quo with Malcolm and Angel unofficially working for Captain Stewart sets up the series for the foreseeable future. With the city’s primary protectors being two teenagers, is Chicago in big trouble? Or should we have faith in Dragon’s kids?

EL: Well, they’re not alone. At this point Overlord is fighting the Vicious Circle and the Golden Age Daredevil is still active–but it’s a different world, to be sure. Neither have to experience or skill of Savage Dragon. It’s not going to be easy for either of them.

The Gold Exchange: J.M. DeMatteis on BOOSTER GOLD #41

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The Gold Exchange: Dan Jurgens on Time Masters: Vanishing Point #6

The first question here is a biggie, I’ll tell you that up front. And while many fans (notably Kevin Allen, who often comments on The Gold Exchange and who posts regularly on Boosterrific.com) have already guessed at it, it’s something that not only hasn’t been officially announced yet by DC, but which delayed the whole Gold Exchange interview by almost a full day while Dan Jurgens called around to get clearance and make sure we weren’t breaking any rules. So I’m happy to make it the first thing I ask in our last Gold Exchange here at Blog@Newsarama.

Time Masters: Vanishing Point #6 hit this week and has already been stirring up reactions from non-Booster Gold readers with a chalkboard at the end of the issue that’s dangling a number of enticing Flashpoint plot threads in front of readers months before Geoff Johns’ ambitious time-travel crossover story even begins in May…and with a “to be continued” tag at the end of this story that saysBooster Gold #44 and Flashpoint #1, it seems pretty likely that DC’s premier behind-the-scenes time-travelers (That’s Rip and Booster) will play a fairly substantial role in that story.

The Gold Exchange: So—as we’ve done once or twice before, last thing first: Back when it was announced you’d be leaving Booster Gold for a while to take on Time Masters: Vanishing Point, it became public knowledge after an issue of Booster Gold had “To Be Continued In…” tagged at the end. Now that story is finished and the last issue of Time Masters says “To be continued in Booster Gold #44.” Will you be the one continuing your storyline in a new title here, as you did after The Tomorrow Memory?

Dan Jurgens: Yes. I’ll be jumping back to Booster Gold as of issue #44, which I’ve just started drawing. It’s good to be home! 

GE: It’s interesting—the bookends in this series have really served as a stark reminder of something that I already have had in the back of my mind since the reveal that Booster is Rip’s dad—nothing really bad can happen to our hero, since he lives at least long enough to raise a son and do the stuff he does in The Tomorrow Memory. That being the case, Booster is left without one of the big “stakes” that a writer in an adventure story has to fall back on. How do you compensate for that?

DJ: I think there are a couple of things that come into play in a situation like that:
Yes, we’ve seen the older Booster. But we’ve also made it clear that, while the past is solidified time, the future can be changed. So it’s possible that something could happen to Booster, thus eliminating his older self.

I suppose it’s also possible that his older self could be from an alternate future.
Or he could be from Booster’s future and everything will work out just fine.

GX: Also—a lot of people know that Booster is from the future, but the idea of his stealing the artifacts is not (apparently) well-known. It’s not only mentioned here, but has become the premise of Keith and JM’s current plot, which has him being returned to the 25th Century for trial. Are these disparate facts all connected intentionally or was it just an easy way to remind readers that he’s from the same time as Reverse Flash?

DJ: The idea of Booster being pursued from the future for the crime of theft is something I dealt with in volume one, so it isn’t an entirely “out of the blue” element. And because it’s his origin– every bit as important to him as the Wayne’s murders are to Bruce– it’s a natural to play with and connect.

But, yes, I wanted to point out the potential connection between Booster and the Reverse Flash.

GX: Given that this version of Professor Zoom is really just a color-reversed version of Barry’s outfit, is there anything really notable you do differently in terms of how you approach drawing him versus The Flash? Or is it enough to separate them in your head because you haven’t really drawn that much Barry in your career as compared to Wally?

DJ: Yeah! It’s more than color! The lightning bolt on the chest goes the other way too!
And he has more of an evil look to him, which is always fun. In many ways, bad guys are more fun to draw than good guys.

GX: It might just be that I just re-read The Tomorrow Memory, but I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I never saw the Daniel twist coming until this issue—and that this month I saw it immediately. Is it kind of a nice tool to have in your arsenal that Old Booster can pretty much turn up when he’s needed now?

DJ: The Supernova suit can provide excellent cover for a time traveler. I tried to kind of play it down the middle, thinking there was enough for people to come up with the idea, or certainly connect the dots once I revealed it.

GX: Is Booster’s “I’m not really an expert on time travel” comment heartfelt or is that for Hal and Superman’s benefit?

DJ: I’d say that’s heartfelt. He isn’t an expert on time travel– yet. He’s a Time Master in training who’ll eventually get there. But if he was on his own it’d be a struggle because it’s not as though he has the knowledge or skill to actually build a time sphere.
Don’t get me wrong– he understands a great deal more than he did but there’s still room for improvement.

GX: It kind of looks like Supernova isn’t fighting back while Black Beetle whomps on him. Is that a sign that Black Beetle has a role to play, and that Old Booster isn’t comfortable with the possibility of taking him out of action at this stage in his career? Rip is similarly blasé about the fact that he can’t pick up the Beetle’s trail when Superman asks him to.

DJ: It isn’t that Supernova didn’t fight back– more like the speed and ferocity of the attack took him by surprise.

And, yes, Rip was blase, but there were clearly other, more urgent matters to attend to.

GX: A handful of fans have asked on message boards about whether the DC Universe at large had ever found out about Booster as Supernova. Did he make an announcement at some point or is it only a few select people, like Superman here, who know?

DJ: I’ve always worked under the impression that only a few people know. I think that’s part of him saving the Multiverse and keeping that a secret.
Remember– Booster is the greatest hero you’ve never heard of.

GX: The change made to Liri Lee’s character is an interesting one—I really expected The Linear Men to bring back Waverider in a more conventional way and enter Flashpoint as a counter to Rip, Booster and Skeets.

DJ: I think there’s some fun to be had there and some good stuff to explore. A natural evolution for where the characters were left.

GX: That asked, what do you see as the central difference between the Time Masters and the Linear Men?

DJ: The Linear Men, in my opinion, were always more open to changing and altering time to fit their grand vision. After all, Waverider himself is from an alternate time. As I see it, Rip is much more firm on the idea of leaving time alone and not changing it.

GX: Will we see The Linear Men coming up in Flashpoint and/or Booster Goldanytime soon?

DJ: Stay tuned!

GX: There’s a little bit of a workaround built into the end of this story—were you handed the facts that “Vanishing Point is destroyed” and “Batman may infect/ruin the timeline by returning home” as starting points for this series? They were both very important early on, but dispensed with pretty quickly here at the end.

DJ: More or less. But it’s important to note, and we said this from day one, that the series would transition from a “Return of Bruce Wayne” tie-in to aFlashpoint tie-in.

GX: I really do like the explanation Rip gives at the end of the story as to why they couldn’t find Batman earlier but now they can. It makes sense in the time-travel logic of your Booster stories and it also gives readers a little gift: From here on out it’s established that while the present may not be solidified time yet, it’s also not necessarily something Rip can mess with any more readily than anyone else. Is that part of the “setting the rules for time travel” that you guys talked about at the start of this series?

DJ: Somewhat. It sort of leaves the window open as to concurrent events. Yes, Batman might have been lost in the past, but he was still experiencing those things at the same time as Rip and company were looking for him. Batman had to complete his journey and actually solidify that time for them to find him.

GX: So the look at Mrs. Carter here really does suggest a blonde—something that we chatted about a little bit early on but that you sidestepped, saying that it could have just been an artistic choice by Hi-Fi. Is Mrs. Booster someone we’re likely to see soon, or someone the readers have already met, perchance?

DJ: No comment! There’s still more to come on all that!

GX: I know a lot of the longtime fans will take a blonde as a pretty decent indication it could be Trixie Collins.

DJ: Really? She isn’t the only blond in the DCU!

GX: So…Darkseid put all of this in motion, but Rip actually says he planned it all. He IS a god, but how far ahead do you think it’s reasonable to say he could be planning? Could he have a hand in Flashpoint? Beyond? Or just until Bruce returned and the Omega Effect wore off?

DJ: I think Darkseid would be capable of planning Batman’s push through time, but not the reception he’d necessarily get when he returned, or anything to do with those who were searching for him.

GX: You know, it’s funny—as much as the pizza runner is played for laughs here, it begs the question: How long has it been since this miniseries started and any of these heroes ate anything? Alternately, of course, you can fall back on the oldMystery Science Theater 3000 mantra (:Repeat to yourself, ‘it’s just a show—I should really just relax’.”).

DJ: In my head, I’d say it was a couple of days for Rip, Booster, Superman and GL, while much longer for Batman.

But it’s the kind of reaction we should see more of.

GX: Over on The Source, David Hyde spotlighted the reveal at the end of the issue—a “Rip Hunter blackboard,” the fans’ favorite plot device from the Geoff Johns run on the title and 52—but this one’s not written by Rip. Whose idea was it to bring the board back into play after it’s been absent, or at least substantially downplayed, for a while?

DJ: It was something that Geoff, Eddie Berganza, Mike Carlin and I came up with as we were trying to find a good way to set up Flashpoint.

I had used it a couple of times and loved it. It’s a great device, which I’m sure my good friends at Marvel must agree with, since they started using it as well.
That and black bags with a “Death of…” issue inside.

GX: I know you can’t really say it—but I’ll put it out there: All that writing, and all of it supposedly meaningful, done in five minutes? What’re the odds that some anonymous super-speedster made that blackboard happen?

DJ: If it’s a time travel story, why would it have to be a speedster? It might not have been there a few minutes earlier, but moving in time between moments, well… anything is possible!

EXTRA: While Comic Related got this item first, Blog@Newsarama gets a few extra questions coming from some bona fide Booster Gold superfans: frequent Gold Exchange commenter Kevin Allen, and Boosterrific webmaster Walter Stephens.

Kevin Allen: Is Mrs. Booster Gold wearing the exact Goldstar costume that Michelle wears, or is that merely another one? And is the fact she is wearing it at all a hint to her identity?

DJ: The only answer I can give on that one is that what you see is what you get.

For now.

KA: People have said that Time Masters had little to actually do with “The Return of Bruce Wayne” and was more about Rip and Booster going on an adventure with Supes and GL along for the ride. Some view this as a fault, others view it as a strength. Do you feel that this is a valid point? Why so or why not?

DJ: I don’t think we ever said we were going to tell a story in which Rip Hunter finds Batman.

Did they go looking for Bruce Wayne?

Yes.

Did we continue to build the relationship between Rip and Booster?

Yes.

Did we try to clarify some elements of time travel within the DCU?

Yes.

Did we build a connection between Rip and some of the main players in the DCU?

I’d say yes.

Had we said Rip would find Batman and bring him back, I think there’d be room for complaint. But that’s not what we did.

Walter Stephens: Were you able to tell the story you wanted to? (i.e., how much of what we got was editorially mandated [issue count, guest stars, story tie-ins, etc.])

DJ: The only thing that was editorially mandated was the issue count, which is simply the way things work. It wasn’t a problem. Had I said I could only do four issues or wanted to expand it to eight, we might well have been able to do so. It never came up, however.

WS: How satisfied are you with the finished product?

DJ: This may sound like a cop out, and I really hope it doesn’t come off that way, but I’m too close to the project to judge it. That happens all the time– not just on this one.

In general, I’m satisfied with it and accomplished what I wanted to. But every once in a while, four months later, the light bulb will suddenly appear and a writer might say something like, “Whoa! I should have put Anthro in Booster’s costume! That would have been awesome!”

So I generally wait a bit to draw any final conclusion.

Erik Larsen Talks Savage Dragon #168 [Newsarama]

Okay, folks—I’m really sorry about this one. It’s crazy late, and everyone from readers to Gavin have sent me hate mail. The reasons are many and unpleasant, but Gavin was on time and this should have been posted a long while ago. Rather than taking more time transcribing my extensive conversation with Erik Larsen, which has already been playing for a while on the Related Recap podcast (found here, at the once-and-future home of Russ Burlingame, Comic Related), I’ve decided to include the link and run Gavin’s questions. It’s a huge, huge issue and deserves better, but off we go…!

Gavin Higginbotham: That first page is a pretty powerful image! Malcolm unloading on his old man with his lightning punches as Angel lies bloodied and dead on the floor… The art and coloring really combine well here. Nikos looks to be on fire! Didn’t this issue have to be completed in record time in order to get to the presses on time?

Erik Larsen: Kind of. I actually drew issues #167 and 168 at the same time because I wanted to make sure it all fit in the space I had available. So when I finished inking #167 I was able to roll right into #168 without a break to pencil and script it. It was a bit more frantic than usual but it wasn’t as crazy as you might have thought. I inked the issue in six or seven days, which is stepped up quite a bit, But both Tom and Nikos were up to the challenge and they were as determined as I was to make that deadline. I was happy with how well it turned out.

GH: The death scene of Malcolm was disturbing. We’ve seen Kurr kill all kinds of people before but biting his own son’s throat out before decapitating him and eating his brain… that’s beyond anything we’ve seen from him.

EL: Yeah. I’ll be the first to admit that it was pretty disturbing. Kurr is a vicious, brutal, yet resourceful killer and that’s a big part of why he has been successful. When pushed to the wall he’ll scrape and claw his way out of his dilemma.

GH: Virus seems to be fully under the control of Dragon now. Was it the sight of his children dying that enabled Dragon to become the dominant personality?

EL: That’s it–kind of a shock to the system that sharpened his focus and attention. There were a few ticks after his initial attack–some awkward pauses and whatnot but for the most part he was in control. Given more time the others would have asserted themselves some more and even as it was I imagine there was a lot of voices buzzing around in his head–he even makes mention of that later.

GH: We see the stalker is Damien DarkLord. How long have you been planning his return? Is this the same Damien we last saw put in a hospital by Malcolm in issues 101-102?

EL: That’s not really established but I wasn’t thinking it was that one specifically. He was left in a hospital bed as that Earth exploded. But with Darklord it doesn’t seem to matter much. There’s a group think there–a hive mind, if you will, so any one could step over and deliver a speech like that. This one was a young guy though–if not the same one at least one roughly the same age, presumably from our time not the future.

GH: Dragon finally learns his origin. That’s a major revelation for the guy, and not the best of times for him to discover it.

EL: No, but it was a moment I wanted to include.

GH: We also get to see Dragon interact with his original species and Kurr’s son, Emperor Krull. It’s interesting that despite having very different personalities and backgrounds that both Kurr and Dragon are natural, commanding leaders.

EL: I think there’s a piece of Kurr in Dragon as much as they would both hate to admit it. There are traits they both share. And there are things he says and does in his origin story that echo things he says and does as Dragon. Some of that boils down to that old nature/nurture argument. How much of who we are is our upbringing and how much comes with the package? Dragon is basically Kurr only raised with the values of Earth’s television broadcasts. Some of the stuff under all that is the same stuff. He has the same basic intelligence and whatnot.

GH: Dragon somehow gets restored thanks to his people’s technology and DarkLord’s powers. Was this a case of Virus’s form being transformed into Dragon, ending the threat of Virus? Or is Dragon in a cloned body with his memories extracted from Virus?

EL: My thought was he was pieces together like Frankenstein’s monster using Kurr’s body and Virus’s brain and then allowed to heal and become a whole person. Both bodies were used and what was left over wasn’t enough to do anything useful with. I’d imagine whatever remained would be incinerated. The threat of Virus and of Kurr would be over.

GH: The use of time-travel to save the day could be considered as something of a cheat or at least a retreat from the Armageddon that caused the previous two issues. Was this a case of changing your mind or was this always the plan, having already told stories set in a post-apocalyptic landscape?

EL: That was the plan from early on. The world Kurr wanted to create was created and his people did find a home there but their story wasn’t one I was interested in telling. I could just as easily have followed them and made the book about Kurr’s people with very few familiar faces. I have a list of possible survivors as you well know and I could always have some humans that were in airplanes of submarines that avoided Kurr’s onslaught but that wasn’t a book I wanted to do. I did consider it though. It would have been a really wild direction to have gone in but it would have closed me off to the Image universe and I think I’d eventually regret having gone in that direction. It’s one thing to do something surprising just for the sake of surprising people–it’s quite another to do that and end up being stuck with a book that I wouldn’t want to do.

There were guys in the office down to the last minute offering suggestions that would have resulted in a very different book but again, this was what I had set up–and if I decided to change directions abruptly, what followed may not have made much sense or be a book I wanted to do. At the end of the day I wanted to have a book left that I was excited about working on.

GH: Dragon’s comment regarding the nurse (from the original story featuring Virus) was funny to see.

See? I addressed the other personalities!

GH: After a brief bit of dialogue last issue, we’ve finally got to not only see Dragon but also enjoy his personality again. You seemed to finally bring back your favorite character but… You’ve killed him?! Is this really the death of Dragon? We’ve thought him dead and gone before (recently too) but Dragon’s always returned… can he again?

EL: I said on Twitter the other day that sometimes doing an ongoing book is like telling a joke and after delivering the punchline having a heckler should out, “and THEN what happens?”

There’s never an end. Not really. A story like Emperor Dragon may seem like this exciting six-part epic that closes a chapter but there’s always going to be a next chapter. There’s never a happy ending or any ending–there’s always going to be another day. Frank Miller wrote this nifty self-contained Daredevil yarn called Born Again where he reworked the character and gave him a new life and new purpose and it was a hell of a story but the next month–another creative team had to follow up with what they were left with and continue the adventures of Matt Murdock: Short Order Chef. Frank’s ending wasn’t an ending–it was the next creative team’s starting point and they had to make something of it.

Can Dragon come back? Sure he can. We’ve all read comics–we’ve seen characters brought back from the dead a hundred times. Superman died, Batman died, Captain America died, Bucky died and the list goes on and on. Can I bring him back? Absolutely. If Bucky can come back–and for years he was the gold standard of dead–I can absolutely find some way of digging up the Dragon. Will I? That’s another question entirely.

GH: Regardless of the fate of Dragon, Malcolm seems set to take over from his father as star of the book. Is this an exciting moment in the series’ existence for you? A fresh start with the younger generation of Savage Dragon characters? Can you give us any hints for the future?

EL: It’s a whole new book in a way–and it’s not in another because Malcolm and Angel have really been the stars of the book for a while as Dragon was cast as the villain. It’s different in that Dragon is no longer the central figure and his life is no longer the direction of the book but that’s okay. We all knew this day would eventually come and I’m excited to do a book starring Malcolm and Angel. I have a ton of stories to tell and a lot of characters to introduce. In a way it’s like Invincible where the star is living in the shadow of his famous father. In a way it’s Spider-Man where he’s suddenly forced to cope without a parent. But unlike both, Malcolm has a support group. He lives with a family–he has a step sister and he’s living with a woman that had a son so there’s that dynamic–plus there are none of the secret identity trappings so it’s its own thing at the same time. It’s kind of fun because it’s a new book but at the same time an old one and all of the villains and other supporting characters are there. It’s a new challenge and I can’t wait to face it!

Zack Snyder no longer waiting for his Superman

Tom Welling may have to wait an extra week to throw on a pair of blue tights after this week's announcement that Smallville will return on February 4 instead of January 28 as previously planned--but not everyone is so hesitant to super-suit up.

Cavill

Numerous reports, including E! News, have Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures releasing a statement today naming Henry Cavill, best known as the king's best friend on Showtime's The Tudors, as Superman in Zack Snyder's upcoming Superman: The Man of Steel movie.

Cavill himself hasn't yet made a statement, but Zack Snyder is quoted in the press release:
"In the pantheon of superheroes, Superman is the most recognized and revered character of all time, and I am honored to be a part of his return to the big screen. I also join Warner Bros., Legendary and the producers in saying how excited we are about the casting of Henry. He is the perfect choice to don the cape and S shield."

The choice seems to straddle the well-established Superman path of casting an unknown with the safer financial move of using somebody that people can recognize and get behind. While The Tudors hasn't ever been the kind of ratings colossus that The Sopranos or even Weeds have been on pay cable, reviews have always been great and the show's fans have been vocal and loyal.

I had been expecting to see an announcement come out of the studio soon, with rumors seeming to increase in frequency and in the level of credence the media was giving them, particularly after sources claiming to be close to the production told the press last week that True Blood's Joe Manganiello was a done deal.

There Is No Man Behind The Curtain

One of my Wizard stories

Wizard Magazine, the publication where my comic book career started, released its final print issue today, as near as I can tell.

That may not be true--as a monthly, Wizard usually operates about three months ahead, and it's possible that we'll be getting ghostly reminders of what was for the next couple of months. Anyway, this Monday it was announced that the magazine was closing its doors effective immediately and ceasing publication, making way for a February launch of "Wizard World", an online equivalent which presumably will cost publisher Gareb Shamus and his newly-public corporation less overhead while keeping the brand alive.

I was only there for a year or so, and it was more than ten years ago now. But it really has shaped my comics experience, both as a fan and as a professional. Zack Smith over at Newsarama wrote a great "eulogy" for the magazine that said a lot of the things I would have wanted to say--and a conversation with Eric Ratcliffe last night for the Why I Love Comics podcast (ours isn't on the site yet--the link leads to Eric's most recent episode) laid bare a lot of my feelings about the place, and anecdotes about my time there...but it seemed like I ought to write...something.

I met Dan Jurgens (over the phone) on my first day at Wizard. As an intern, I was given a list of people to call and to introduce myself as the new Wizard guy so that if we needed to get an interview quickly, the introductions would already have been done. One of those guys was Jurgens, who I ended up talking to a week later about his Titans/Legion of Superheroes crossover. We got along well from the start, and he actually called my editor to put in a good word for me after that second conversation/first interview. Needless to say, ten years later as we were doing commentary tracks on each individual issue of Booster Gold I thought back to Wizard and imagined that The Gold Exchange probably wouldn't have existed without it.

I was also introduced to Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise there, when I saw a piece of original art hanging on the wall of Andrew Kardon (a staff writer there at the time) being bawled out by one of the characters. Andy had apparently written good things about SiP and that was what came out of it. Strangers in Paradise, for those who don't know, is my personal pick for the single greatest achievement in American sequential art.

I also first heard of Frederic Wertham there. When we did our end-of-the-century issue, and I had to cover the '50s, it exposed me for the first time to the Comics Code crunch and to things like Terry & the Pirates. Even though it was just one issue, that moment for me was so essential to a full and sophisticated understanding of American sequential art that I was always able to dismiss the people who bitched about Wizard being nothing but a PR tool for the big two. Yeah, there was a lot of that--and its role grew as the magazine aged--but even at the height of its hype they took time (this was a story mandated by Managing Editor Joe Yanarella and not someone's passion project) to talk about something that many mainstream fans were (are?) probably woefully unaware of. And my writing about it took page count away from whatever Alex Ross was doing that month!

I also met a number of good people and good friends there, from Matt (Robot Chicken) Senreich, who used to do Twisted Mego Theater for Wizard and ToyFare, to the spectacularly nice Rus (The Walking Dead) Wooton, who used to be a design-and-layout guy at Wizard before taking his lettering skills on the road. I probably still owe both Rus and Mel Caylo (who's currently in charge of PR for Archaia Comics) a few bucks, considering that I was dead broke at 19, living in an expensive part of the world and making basically the $250 a month my internship provided, and we somehow still managed to go out to Taco Bell like three times a week. Lars Pearson, the old price guide guy, gave me a galley print of his Dr. Who book I, Who, which remains in my collection despite the fact that I don't particularly care for Dr. Who. Brian Cunningham, who inquired about putting me back on the freelance list after an eight-year lag only to find himself working at DC Comics a few months later, was one of the nicer and more helpful editors I ever knew. And Joe Yanarella, the editor who started giving me freelance work when he found out how broke I was, probably helped more than anyone else by editing my stuff mercilessly (seriously--I think he hated my actual writing) and giving me the notion that journalism was something I could do long-term.  Of course, given the state of the journalism industry (and of Wizard), I may want to slap him around for that.

And those are just the life-altering things. I got to dress up as the Wizard Bunny and swing a hammer at someone called Keep-Squeezin'-Them-Monkeys-Lad for a photo shoot. I got to do another photo shoot where I dressed up as a typical comic nerd with a Flash t-shirt and a flannel and taped-up glasses and swat one of my co-writers in the face with a copy of Watchmen. I got to work with a number of great people in a truly bizarre and sometimes stressful work environment, and years later I met and befriended Josh Elder of Reading With Pictures and Brendan McGinley of Dose over our mutual frustration with the direction the magazine had been taking when we worked there...even though I hadn't worked directly with either of them.

If you want to know what I think about the whys and hows of Wizard's downfall, listen to the Why I Love Comics podcast. I talk a lot about the things that were done wrong and about a bizarre incident in which I tried to tell my editors that they should have a better web presence, only to be put on a feature that spotlighted OTHER comics websites IN the print magazine. For the moment, though, I just want to say thanks to all the people who made my brief time at Wizard a little bit better. Without it--without them--I would never be working at Comic Related (or Newsarama) now, and would likely not be working on a graphic novel right now. I'm raising a glass to Dan, Rus, Mel, Matt, Andy, Lars, Yanarella and the rest tonight...and even to Gareb, who (even though I barely knew him) built something great.

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.