The Four Color Media Monitor

The Chicago Tribune interviewed the pretentious James Tynion, and are making a big deal out of the horror genre he's specialized in writing:

One of my favorite contemporary writers is this guy from Milwaukee named James Tynion IV. It’s a haughty name, except he writes horror comics. He writes other things, too, nothing that would suggest gravitas: Batman comics, Batman meets Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comics. That is, unless you know the finest monthly comic books these days are far from indifferently written, or as hilariously overwritten as they once were, full of characters delivering tsunamis of exposition.

Naturally, it's never explained why horror is such a great genre compared to comedy or optimistic adventure. And if Tynion's written any Ninja Turtles comics, that's bad news too. And what's that supposed to mean past comics were "overwritten" or even indifferent? Sounds like something somebody who's not a fan of comics would say, IMO. Here's more, including allusions to his politics:

Q: Did Wisconsin shape your writing voice? Speaking of paranoia and conspiracy, it is the home of the John Birch Society now.

A: It’s in so many of my books. Where you spend your teen years is burned deeper than anywhere else, I think. Now that I’m in my mid to late 30s, my view is tipping toward my time in New York. But being from Milwaukee, there’s a feeling of being on the outskirts of culture. I was growing up as a young queer person during the Bush II years, and Wisconsin was a very purple state. Both sides were loud, so feeling caught in the midst of all that was formative. I was figuring out if I wanted to go to Pride Fest, for instance, even as I had classmates arguing whether or not there should be a Pride Fest. There was also a primal feeling from big dense woods. I had a ravine behind my dad’s house. Seeing it now: OK, there are houses there, and it’s not that huge. But as a child, it felt like staring into another world, and things were happening in the darkness.

Q: Conspiracy, as a theme, became your thing.

A: Yes, since horror reflects society. There’s a fear now that we are living in all these broken systems no longer intending to save us. Yet we have to use those systems. You ask yourself: What do I have to become to survive this? What am I willing to let myself become? I realized I could come at that theme from so many different angles. Right now I am doing a book called “Spectregraph,” and it’s a ghost story, and yet ghost stories are always about a fear of death. Instead, I wanted this one to be about a fear of life, partly told through the decay of capitalism. There is so much tension now in the fear of tomorrow and persisting, and I wanted to dig into that feeling, while using this genre.

So what's so inherently wrong with capitalism, as he implies? Or, what's so wrong with capitalism that isn't so wrong with socialism? Russia, not exactly a big supporter of the LGBT ideologies Tynion follows and upholds, led to millions of deaths over the past century, and China's one-child policy made things worse, many Islamic countries hurt women badly to boot, so why does he not consider those destructive as he does capitalism? As for Dubya, if he's complaining, were there bad things he did in his time? Sure, and the way they handled Afghanistan after the raid in the early 2000s was bizarre and defeatist, but if Tynion sees nothing wrong with anything built on left-wing ideologies, that's got to be speaking volumes. As a result, how can we believe he's not employing horror themes for the wrong reasons like sensationalism, or just plain failing to offer any better alternatives? That's why what they tell here falls flat.

Q: Starting out, did you look to classic horror comics for inspiration?

A: Honestly, I didn’t even know this was a lane to pursue. My way into comics was very much through Superheroland, but then I kept discovering the full potential of what comics could be. Neil Gaiman and “Sandman” made me want to pursue writing as a career, period. I also can’t deny the giants of pop lit. Lately, I’ve been rereading Stephen King and Agatha Christie, and what comes across is how effortlessly good they can be.

Seriously, none of the above 3 "inspirations" impress me much from a modern viewpoint, even though I do find it appalling how Christie's novels have undergone unfortunate censorship in recent years. That aside, King's decidedly one of the most overrated authors of horror thrillers, and very few of his stories interest me. I do admit, as somebody who once watched Cujo, that it was well made for its time in 1983 as a film adaptation, but there's only so much else King authored that's just plain appalling, mainly because the horror genre is all guys like him seem to care about. And as I once noted before, Gaiman's Sandman run insulted my intellect, based on how he handled Lyta Hall, and there were crude moments that turned me off too.

Q: The funny thing is, as a young writer out of the creative writing program at Sarah Lawrence College, you were not only going into comics — historically known for bad writing — but horror, a maligned niche of a maligned medium.

A: Absolutely, though I love that older schlockier stuff tremendously. And yet, to try to write in that voice is me trying to wear my dad’s old coat. It’s not how I write, and it doesn’t pull from my influences, and besides, there is a contemporary storytelling pace that you must work with now. And you can do that without leaning into nostalgia or the tropes of classic comic books, but I can see why older comics writers approached this material the way they did, and I can still take pointers. Especially with horror, which was always short stories, about the economy of storytelling. I still have to figure out how to squeeze something unsettling out of, say, only four or five pages. So you lean into that density. Horror is playing with tension. Yesterday and now, that’s what it is.

Pardon me? Comicdom is known historically for "bad" writing?!? What makes them conclude that, and how is the horror genre "maligned", yet not capable of seeing any bad writing in its own way come about? Not to mention there have been much longer stories published in the horror genre, including some of King's own novels. This sure sounds like the writing of somebody who's not really a comics fan, if at all, because what kind of entertainment writer would say such a thing, obscuring any and all good moments from past storytelling? Also, the part about "contemporary pacing" is another that smells of political correctness.

Let's also not forget Tynion was one of the writers who've kept up the sad status quo of Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott as gay, and further suggests he's plying his writing trade more for virtue-signaling than any real interest in storytelling that can provide something positive for the world. It's very sad how, not only has the comics medium fallen victim to leftists only interested in agendas, there's also newspaper writers who seem to love putting down the medium's past achievements while making it sound as though today's writings and art are superior in every way to the past's. And that's just plain insulting. Especially whenever comics with more optimistic themes are ignored in favor of the bleaker ones.

Labels: golden calf of LGBT, history, indie publishers, islam and jihad, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, politics, violence

According to the Mainichi, an animation company in the still-communist north Korea was discovered to have worked on both an anime production in Japan, and even the Invincible cartoon in the USA:

North Korean animators are believed to have worked on programs produced by Japanese and U.S. studios despite sanctions against doing business with the country, a research report released Monday said.

U.S.-based website 38 North, which covers events related to North Korea, said that documents accessed online showed the programs worked on included "Dahliya In Bloom," a Japanese animation series due to air from July and a third season of "Invincible" produced by California-based Skybound Entertainment and to be broadcast on Amazon Prime.

The report said there is no evidence to indicate the studios knew that part of their projects had been outsourced to North Korean animators.

Even so, this certainly sounds scandalous. Animation Magazine has more:

A new report from researches at Washington-based North Korea watchdog program 38 North raises flags that animation artists in the country have worked on animated projects from overseas studios. Files discovered on a DPRK internet server included animations, written instructions and comments that appear related to certain productions, and appear to be tied to subcontracting work from Chinese studios.

38 North revealed that potentially involved productions include Season 3 of Amazon MGM Studios/Skybound Entertainment’s Invincible, for Prime Video. Files contained both the series title and that of a Skybound subsidiary, Viltrumite Pants, LLC, the production label behind the show. Skybound told Reuters it had no knowledge of North Korean studios working on its animation, and has initiated an internal review as well notifying and cooperating with “proper authorities.”

Also possibly impacted is Iyanu, based on the African superhero comics created by YouNeek Studios and being produced by Lion Forge Entertainment for Cartoon Network and Max. No additional comment from the studios and streamers was offered.

Well, this could be telling too. China's a communist-led country as well, and even if north Korea wasn't cited as an issue here, China's involvement still raises some red flags. It sure embarrasses whatever reputation Skybound has along with Invincible. Lion Forge could also be tainted by the news.

What this makes clear is that if the Japanese and USA studios involved really don't want to embarrass themselves, they're going to have to check carefully what sources are involved in the development of their proudctions. This does not look good for the studios involved, in Japan or the USA.

Labels: animation, Europe and Asia, manga and anime, misogyny and racism, politics

State College reports there's a retailer who's opening a specialty store around Westerly Parkway, and here's what they're offering:

Comic Cove will hold its grand opening from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday in its new space at the Westerly Parkway Plaza, next to NovaCare Rehabilitation.

The shop will offer new and vintage comic books, Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering trading cards and more, said State College resident Justin Behrens, who co-owns the store with his wife, Liza.

On the subject of the MTG trading card franchise, who knows if it's worth it to buy their packs, considering it's fallen victim to wokeness over the past decade? Maybe Pokemon would make a good choice, but whatever's owned by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro may have suffered badly as the result of political correctness.

Saturday’s grand opening will feature deals, giveaways and appearances by artists Kevin Conrad, who has worked on titles such as “X-Force,” “Spawn,” and “Kiss: Psycho Circus,” and Chris Ring, who has created and worked an a number of series. Conrad and Ring will be available to do sketches and sign comic books that they’ve inked, Behrens said.

An Army veteran, Behrens became a comic book enthusiast while serving in Iraq, when his family sent him “Iron Man” comics. From there, he began seeking out other titles he found interesting.

I wonder if the IM stories he got were published after the early 2000s, when Marvel went downhill? Some very bad ideas were shoved into every Marvel book at the time under both Joe Quesada and Bill Jemas, and I wouldn't recommend anything coming after 2003. But now, here's where the store's MO becomes fishy and disappointing:

He said he wanted to open a store as a way to make comic books accessible and affordable for everyone.

“There’s not a place around here to get older comics or vintage comics and I wanted an opportunity to get them into the hands of people,” Behrens said. “Alan Moore is one of my favorite writers in comics, and he made a comment in an interview one time that comic books are no longer for the middle class; they’re for the rich because the prices are going so high. So I want to get them back in the hands of the middle class.

“I want the younger kids to get back into comics and people that said ‘You know I really wanted that fancy No. 1 ‘Iron Man’ but I can’t spend that exorbitant amount of money,’ I want to make sure I can give the opportunity for them to get it at an affordable price.”

On this, here's the challenging query: does he advocate for archive collections? Both Marvel and DC have put out specific paperback and hardcover archives reprinting their past storylines from pre-2000, in example, and anybody who wants various storylines complete should be able to afford said archives. Unfortunately, if the following answer says something:

The store will also offer a “subscription” service.

“Back in the day when we were kids you could order subscriptions and the comics would be mailed to you,” Behrens said. “What I’m doing is, people would come in, they’d tell me they want a ‘subscription’ for ‘Iron Man’ and I would then make sure I have the ‘Iron Man’ available for them every single month and it would be at the store so that they could pick it up.”

Comic Cove will have a membership club with incentives and discounts, and each month members who spend $100 will be entered in a raffle to win a free “slab,” or professionally graded comic.

What is this? He wants everybody to get specifically into buying monthly pamphlets instead of paperbacks and hardcovers, and to top it all off, he even wants to cater to the speculator market? Wow, this is insulting to the intellect. And once again, we have people here who're not thinking forward by a long distance. This is not how to encourage anybody to get into readership and hobby at all.

Unless anybody in the press and industry starts making a serious case for why the time's come to make a wide shift towards paperback and hardcover, no concrete steps will ever be taken to improve the industry's fortunes going forward, and no improvements will come to artistic merit either.

Labels: Iron Man, marvel comics, msm propaganda, sales

Newsarama is fawning over an alleged satire of corporatism titled Roxxon Presents: Thor #1, that's written by a certain SJW:

April 17's Roxxon Presents: Thor #1 is a tongue-in-cheek satire that offers up an exacting look at what the absolute worst case scenario of corporate comics can be, with the evil Roxxon Corporation, led by the vicious minotaur Dario Agger and powered by the Asgardian villain the Enchantress, having bought and warped all of Thor's adventures into the corporate synergy comic to end all corporate synergy comics.

In other words, it's exactly what was promised when the frankly hilarious initial announcement of Thor's reinvention as Chad Hammer went out a few months ago. But does the satire have teeth when the call is coming from inside the house?

First off, this comic is funny as hell. Writer Al Ewing, artist Greg Land, inker Jay Leisten, colorist Frank D'Armata, and letterer Joe Sabino, who are all credited as "Roxxon's Al Ewing, Roxxon's Greg Land," etc, all understand the assignment, as the kids say.

Sorry to say, but when a writer as woke as Ewing is doing the scripting, it'd be ill-advised to purchase this item. Besides, if Marvel's owned by Disney, the chances they'll say anything objective even in terms of satire are very minimal.

I'm sure there's independent creators who could develop the satire far better outside the confines of the Big Two, but anybody who thinks somebody like Ewing, who already produced some of their wokest writing of the past several years, will actually take issue with the downsides of corporatism directly within a corporate-owned product would definitely be expecting too much.

Labels: marvel comics, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, Thor

Superhero Hype talks about a character from the Marvel movies making her debut in the Marvel comics as well, though here, it appears to be an issue from a modern volume of the What If? anthology, combined with Venom:

From Agent Colson to Darcy Lewis, there are many MCU creations who were later officially introduced into the comics. Madisynn, the party-girl who befriended Wong in She-Hulk: Attorney At Law just made her first appearance in a Marvel comic… but not where you think!

Rather than appearing in a Doctor Strange or She-Hulk comic, Madisynn’s cameo came in What If…? Venom #3. Written by Jeremy Holt, with art by Manuel Garcia, the comic explores an alternate timeline where the Venom symbiote bonded with other people besides Eddie Brock after separating from Peter Parker. In this issue, the symbiote bonds with Doctor Strange, after he confronts it Chinatown shop.

Even if this had taken place in the 616 universe proper, the time's long past where it could matter. Back in the mid-1980s, Marvel's writers decided to introduce a counterpart for Firestar from the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon of the time into the MCU proper, and it did lead later to a significant role for Angelica Jones in the New Warriors. But today, when bad and woke writing's long trashed continuity and character integrity, that's why it no longer matters.

Also worth pondering is that, as John Nolte at Breitbart notes, with the movie sales waning, Marvel studios is scaling back their output:

No matter how you spin it, these layoffs stem from one primary problem… This “reduction in Marvel’s slate of film and TV titles” was caused by lousy products. Almost all of those “film and TV titles” stunk, so Disney chief Bob Iger has called for a slowdown of The Fail.

Marvel movies have started flopping at the box office. Marvel’s streaming shows were always so terrible and did nothing to boost Disney+ subscribers—quite the opposite. Disney+ is losing millions of subscribers and billions of dollars.

[...] Marvel lost the real Black Panther, emasculated Thor, showed us two hairy guys necking in Eternals, and who knows what they were thinking with that Ant-Man movie… But The Marvels is where audience disgust with all this gay/woke/feminist/anti-fun finally had itself heard. Enough! Can we get back to Iron Man’s private jet and stripper pole, please? You know, some fun, some sexiness…? How about going back to making Marvel movies for Normal People?

Sadly, it's doubtful they'll reevaluate how their woke directions have wrecked their prospects. But what's really sad is how Marvel wound up becoming victimized by political correctness as a publisher, and a shame they didn't stop publication in the early 2000s, if that's what could've minimized the damage. Publication of the comics had to continue for this?

Labels: Black Panther, Captain America, Doctor Strange, golden calf of LGBT, Iron Man, marvel comics, msm propaganda, Thor

Entertainment Weekly reports Marvel's producing a crossover between Avengers and Aliens, in another example of too many needless combinations between comics and movie franchises that've since been coming way too late to matter, and written this time by one of the most overrated writers to work for Marvel:

Over the course of the Alien franchise, the fearsome creatures known as Xenomorphs have encountered — and eviscerated — all types of enemies, including workers, soldiers, prisoners, scientists, and even Predators. But this summer, they'll reach a new level when they come face to face with superheroes.

Now that Disney owns the rights to both Marvel and Alien (the latter stemming from the studio's 2019 acquisition of Fox assets), Entertainment Weekly can exclusively report that these two franchises are colliding in the crossover comic Aliens vs. Avengers, from writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribic.

That creative team last worked together on the Secret Wars event comic (which has been teased as a potential future Marvel Cinematic Universe film) and are two of Marvel's most accomplished creators. Ribic handled art on Marvel's recent Eternals comic (which was miles better than the movie), while Hickman has been busy with all kinds of projects over the last few years, from revitalizing the X-Men to bringing back the Ultimate Universe.

[...] Aliens vs. Avengers definitely sounds like a strange combination. The superheroes are accustomed to fighting villains who wield fists and energy blasts, not parasites who burrow into bodies and lay eggs. (The Brood, a Marvel alien race clearly inspired by Alien, are typically a problem for the X-Men.) Meanwhile, the Xenomorphs are used to ripping apart flesh-and-blood humans, not living gods with indestructible skin and mythic weapons. But Hickman suggests the pairing will make more sense than it seems.

If this is an excuse for nasty bloodletting, it's not impressive, and quite the opposite, is as off-putting as any of the drabbest Marvel storylines published over the past 2 decades. The part about a recent Eternals comic being better than the unsuccessful movie sounds pretty forced too. (It was written by Kieron Gillen, who messed up Iron Man a decade ago, in case you needed another reason not to buy it.)

The Aliens franchise, much like the Terminator, largely lost significance after 2 movies, and horror thrillers like Aliens is not something I find appealing. However this crossover comic is structured, I'd rather not take the journey. This is not something the Earth's Mightiest Heroes need to be shoehorned into.

Labels: Avengers, bad editors, crossoverloading, dreadful writers, marvel comics, msm propaganda, violence, X-Men

ComicBook reports one of the worst social justice-advocating writers is returning to Marvel to script one of the first of their creations from the Golden Age, Prince Namor:

Jason Aaron and Namor are reuniting for a new Marvel series. Aaron may no longer be a Marvel-exclusive writer, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have more stories to tell in the universe. After taking Earth's Mightiest Heroes to the farthest reaches of the multiverse in Avengers, and expanding the God of Thunder's mythos in several Thor series, Aaron is taking on a different challenge with Namor the Sub-Mariner. Namor played a prominent role during Aaron's Avengers run, but this time the former King of Atlantis is getting the spotlight all to himself.

Marvel announced Namor, a new eight-issue miniseries by Jason Aaron, Paul Davidson, and Alex Lins. The publisher is promising some major changes by the time Namor concludes, stating, "The eight-issue epic will forever reshape the seas and bare the dark history of Atlantis and its fiercest, most infamous defender. Stay tuned for more information." The cover for the first issue by Alexander Lozano shows Namor in a torn, orange inmate costume with several probing devices plugged onto his stomach, chest, and arms, as well as bandages covering various parts of his body. You can also see the bruises on Namor's face. For those that remember, Namor was arrested for his crimes in Aaron's last Avengers comic, Avengers Assemble Omega #1.

Sounds like Aaron's decided to blame prince Namor for questionable writing of the past, not the writers themselves. Or, Aaron's exploiting past writing to justify any bad directions he's taking currently. If anything, all he's doing is running the gauntlet of making past storytelling better than his look bad. Back in the Silver/Bronze Age, if and when Namor engaged in mayhem, he usually refrained from killing innocent people, and did have a sense of honor when it came to the human world on the surface. If Aaron's made things worse in modern times, he's humiliated Namor along with past, better storylines from up to the turn of the century.

It's so sad we have to have a writer as awful as Aaron continue to tarnish the remnants of Marvel, and make a mockery of veteran artists and writers' hard work of the past. Let's hope nobody buys this horrible project that's coming about.

Labels: bad editors, dreadful writers, history, marvel comics, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, politics

Sometimes, I've thought, and I'm sure with much accuracy, that DC's done much worse than Marvel in terms of going out of their way to write up company wide crossovers that leave no room for stand-alone storytelling. Now, Newsarama's reporting without any objectivity that DC's got a "massive" one coming in the summer called "Absolute Power", and it appears to put an anti-heroine created by John Ostrander into a villain's role instead:

There's a new DC summer event on the way - one that will have far-reaching ramifications for the heroes of the DC universe. As previously reported, Absolute Power is set to unite a "trinity of evil" - three villains who are dedicated to eliminating the world's metahumans. Amanda Waller, Braniac, and Failsafe have all been making big power plays over the last few months in various ongoing comics, and now they're set to unite and wreak havoc.

Absolute Power is big. Really, really big, spanning by our count eight separate titles and 15 issues. We've got the full breakdown of the comics that make up the event as well as a whole heap of art and release dates for when you can pick them up below. Let's get into it...

Absolute Power Free Comic Book Day Special Edition

A 32-page one-shot featuring an original 12-page story by writer Mark Waid and artist Mikel Janín, plus a recap of some of the important events leading into Absolute Power, as well as a preview of Absolute Power #1. Available for free in participating comic shops on Saturday, May 4.

This is practically unintentional comedy at this point when the news sites say it's "big". Because it's not, and certainly not in terms of artistic quality, which was lost long ago. That it's prelude may be available for free does not make it worth buying as a whole. And look how Waid continues to make a fool of himself in this day and age by taking part in any way in projects that brought down superhero comicdom in past decades, by tangling plenty of series in crossovers that disrupt and deprive creative freedom and stand-alone integrity.

We do not need a story like this in the format of a whole company wide crossover event, and it's shameful how they keep doing it that way, instead of trying to develop a stand-alone miniseries that could do the job more palatably. And then, DC even has the gall to take a character from Ostrander's original Suicide Squad run from 1987-92 and turn her into what appears to be a full-fledged villainess to boot. We could decidedly do without that too. So it's to be hoped that consumers have learned their lesson and won't fall for DC's latest cynical ploy, many of which reek of attempts by DC to outdo Marvel in terms of shock value. That's what really makes them awful.

Labels: bad editors, crossoverloading, dc comics, dreadful writers, golden calf of villainy, msm propaganda