The Four Color Media Monitor

The New York Times has written about how, as Marvel Entertainment concerns itself far more with their movie business, and far less with their comic books, it's becoming less certain what their future is as a publisher of the latter. Predictably though, they didn't ask any hard questions, and the employees mentioned didn't acknowledge any of the reasons why they've declined so badly.

AXEL ALONSO, the new editor in chief of Marvel Comics, was recalling how, about 10 years ago, when he was less experienced and recently hired by the company, he persuaded the British writer Peter Milligan to take over a struggling superhero comic called X-Force.

But they don't mention that it was canceled not much more than a year later.

One day last month in the company’s office in Midtown Manhattan, its top creative talent — 30 or so people, mostly male, many bald or bearded, or both — were gathered in a conference room known as the Hulk room, for what felt like the simultaneous meetings of a corporation, a television writing staff and the traders of the New York Stock Exchange. [...]

Though the meeting could at times be rigidly precise, it had moments of spontaneity (like when Brian Michael Bendis, the author of Marvel’s Avengers, New Avengers and Ultimate Spider-Man series, observed that an enigmatic writer named TBD “has got a lot of books” assigned).

Whenever Bendis is around, I'd think things could only take a turn for the worse.

Marvel, acquired in 2009 by the Walt Disney Company, can make a claim to being the No. 1 publisher in its field, often beating its rival DC Comics, the home of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, owned by Time Warner, in the total number and dollar value of comics it sells each month.

And that's about all they can do, since their sales are declining steadily.

Now, here's where they at least get a little into the coming twilight of their publishing arm, a problem that DC will be affected by too if they keep up their own abuse of their properties:

Though Marvel’s publishing side does not directly control the content of Marvel films, Kevin Feige, the president of production at Marvel Studios, said the storytelling in the comics had a strong influence on the movies “because it’s a hell of a lot less expensive to take a chance in a comic than it is take a chance in a movie.” Repeating a phrase he said he had heard from Mr. Quesada, he added, “It’s the cheapest R&D there is, but the best R&D there is.”

What is less clear is if superhero movies influence readers to buy more comics. Rich Johnston, who writes about comics at the Web site Bleeding Cool, said Marvel was just as likely alienating fans by preparing for the releases of Marvel Studios-produced movies like “Thor” (which opens May 6), “Captain America: The First Avenger” (July 22) and “The Avengers” (planned for May 2012) with the publication of lots of comic books and graphic novels featuring these characters.

“In order to read Thor,” Mr. Johnston said, exaggerating a bit, “you have to buy 10 mini-series for $4 an issue at 22 pages each.” Anticipating a reader’s reaction, he added: “You know what? Let’s not.”

A more worrisome problem, Mr. Johnston said, was a sense of “ennui amongst Marvel readers,” who have become tired of the publisher’s reliance on annual companywide mini-series, like House of M and Civil War, to shake up the status quo in its narratives while its monthly comics advance these soap operas infinitesimally.

Mr. Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter agreed that comics fans “feel the strategy of it,” and that “it’s really easy for an exhaustion to set in.”

Sales figures seem to bear this out: In 2006 and 2007 Civil War, in which Iron Man and Captain America battled over whether superheroes should register their powers and identities with the government, sold nearly 300,000 copies an issue. But last year the mini-series Siege, in which Captain America, Iron Man and Thor were reunited, sold just over 100,000 copies an issue. (This hasn’t discouraged Marvel from moving forward this year with the companywide mini-series Fear Itself, which will emphasize Thor and Captain America.)

From the outside Marvel is buffeted by big-picture publishing crises: the closing of comics shops and bookstores, a downturn in sales lingering through the recession and the increasing threat of digital piracy.

We can credit them for acknowledging that crossovers are driving away audience. Unfortunately, they fail to acknowledge that terminating the Spider-Marriage, abuse of the Avengers and defamation of Scarlet Witch, overt lefty politics, among several other horrendous steps, have alienated the audience too. Sales of Spidey are down, and Avengers has gradually gotten lower receipts as well. Add to this how quite a few writers and artists, not to mention Marvel's own editorial staff, have been alienating the audience with contemptible statements, including Quesada's telling he doesn't care if we're alienated.

They do acknowledge what I suspected could be a case - comics stores are closing. Quietly, no doubt (and we can't expect the MSM to let us know), but it's happening. Part of the problem, I figure, is that the stores are relying far too much on the big two instead of other companies who could probably have some better products to offer than Marvel and DC's current output.

From within, the company wrestles with narrative strategies and promotional events that will lure new or lapsed readers while trying to satisfy the hard-core fans who have followed its heroes’ adventures for years, if not decades.

Well they're not doing a good job, now are they? If they won't reinstate the Spider-Marriage, repair the Scarlet Witch, cut out the ultra-leftist politics polluting their books, including their assault on the Tea Party movements, then I don't think they're going to lure many new customers, if at all.

“We love the guys that have been here every month,” said Tom Brevoort, Marvel’s senior vice president for publishing, who joined the company as a college intern in 1989. “But it’s not an exclusive relationship. It’s an open marriage where we see and seek others as well — and as many others as we can get in.”

Uh uh. It's only those whose POV they consider fit to go with theirs. Brian Bendis is a leading example of a writer favored by these terrible editors, because he's willing to take everything apart and do with it as he pleases, which they're quite comfy with since they don't have respect or faith in their own material. J. Michael Stracynski is another example along the same lines.

Yet Marvel and the industry journalists said the company’s publishing business is still profitable. Mr. Johnston estimated that a comic book that sold as few as 20,000 or 30,000 copies could still make money. And while the full effects of the company’s purchase by Disney are an open question, the opportunities created by the deal were potentially exciting.

“I can’t even speculate,” Mr. Brevoort said. “There is ‘Disney on Ice.’ It’s not a great stretch to go, ‘There will someday be “Marvel on Ice,” ’ whether that’s ‘Iron Man on Ice’ or ‘The Avengers on Ice.’”

(And while Marvel’s editors have no hand in the struggles surrounding “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” they were unconcerned that the musical would hurt the character or his legacy. “Spider-Man’s been around longer than I’ve been alive,” Mr. Alonso said.)

Wow, what a laugh that line in parenthesis is. Alonso was and still is part of the problem surrounding Spider-Man: as one of the series editors, he, along with Quesada, oversaw the desecration of one of Spidey's most notable stories, the death of Gwen Stacy, in the Sins Past storyline that claimed Gwen slept with Norman Osborn, and Mary Jane Watson-Parker supposedly knew about this and only later told Peter Parker. It was a killing 2 birds with one stone concoction, and most embarrassingly bad.

And let's say that almost all current comics went down as low as 20,000-30,000 copies in sales: they wouldn't have much on the whole, and that they're selling so low already is a joke. If they were selling in several million, that would be a success. A paltry 30,000 is nothing but sadness.

They're right though, that Disney's purchase and its full effect, is an open question, one that may soon stand to be shut. Part of the problem is that Marvel got into Hollywood showbiz entirely at the expense of their publishing division, and clearly cares more about making money through movies, toys and theater plays than they do about publishing comics. With Quesada's ascension to a higher rank within their showbiz department, it wouldn't come as a surprise if he'd rather work in the big movie biz, since that's where the big bucks are found.

It's worth noting that all this abuse of the company properties by Alonso and Quesada, among others, is exactly why trade paperback sales are nothing to write home about either. Why, if they're publishing nearly every event in complete trades, that could have the effect of discouraging book buyers from bothering too: why should they have to buy several trades that could cost $20 or more?

(In fact, that's a surprising problem with quite a few of their trades, for both old and new material: they cost noticeably more than DC's trades can, with some costing a colossal $35. By contrast though, I don't think DC has ever published their hardcover Golden/Silver/Bronze Age archives in less expensive paperbacks, which makes for a definite fault on their part.)

Alonso and Quesada's names alone may have had the effect of alienating a considerable number of fans, who rightly figure that any story published under their editorship could only be dreadful. As long as they're within even miles of Marvel books, there's no chance for recovery. I estimate that in time, Marvel will close its book publishing arm as it no longer turns any profit. It'll be very sad, but Quesada and co. led to it, and are not willing to take responsibility.

I'm hoping that in time, a smaller company/conglomerate in the book business could take over the ownership of Marvel and DC's publishing arms together, and then restructure them into something that would sell better in the standard book market. That way, it would be possible for them to recover, as a book publisher like Simon & Shuster, for example (they own the rights to the former Stratameyer syndicate creations, and usually did a respectable job with them), could know how to better market their characters and universes without resorting to cheap gimmicks. And if both Marvel and DC were under the same ownership, the best part is that they could both use words like "mutant" and "metahuman" without legal wranglings. They could even maintain better relations with the heirs of Siegel & Shuster and Jack Kirby than Time Warner and Disney ever could.

But for now, that's only a pipe dream, and it may never come to be.

Labels: Avengers, bad editors, crossoverloading, dc comics, dreadful writers, marvel comics, msm propaganda, sales, Spider-Man

It turns out that the producers decided to listen to the voices of those who didn't dig the costume design they're using for the new WW TV series in production. Now they've changed the pants part so that there's a row of stars on the sides. The color blue is darker though. And they say that:

Time will tell if these modest changes to Wonder Woman's threads have a positive effect on the show when it premieres on NBC this fall.

More like time will tell if anyone likes the script for the pilot episode. Again, if they intend to use the script already found, there's no telling if this'll work out.

Labels: dc comics, Wonder Woman

The Connexion reports about how Asterix co-creator Albert Uderzo's daughter Sylvie has been taking them to court because she's furious that he's selling out their famous creation to profiteers.

The really sad thing here is how the family is falling apart in the process.

Update: here's more news about this from the AFP.

Labels: Europe and Asia

Deadline Hollywood published a letter by the late wife of Superman's co-creator to Time Warner's CEO Jeffrey Bewkes where she protested the ill treatment of their lawyer for representing them in regaining the main rights to Superman.

They certainly deserve much better than what the company is now giving them. This just illustrates how badly corporations can deteriorate as they become consumed with greed. The very greed, in fact, that leads them to destroy the rest of the DC properties kept in their grasp as well. If Warner is smart, they'll withdraw that lawsuit and save themselves a lot of trouble. If not, I don't think this is going to go over well between them and the Siegel estate in the end.

Labels: dc comics

I discovered that Jim Shooter, former teen scripter for Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes before he became Marvel's EIC, has set up his own blog earlier this month. He does have some interesting things to talk about, but the problem that puzzles me is that he uses titles like "The problems with Marvel Comics" and "The impending death of the comics industry" without actually telling what he thinks has gone wrong in modern times.

Certainly there's merit and interest in his memories of what life was like years before and his burgeoning career in comics, but it's a shame if he doesn't actually tell what he thinks has been leading to the demise of a once prominent art.

Labels: dc comics, marvel comics

Almost missed this, but in more movie-based news, AWR Hawkins wrote on Big Hollywood that the upcoming movie based on Thor depicts masculinity and heroism very positively:

Thanks to political correctness, ours is a rough day for masculinity. Strong men are painted as tyrants, heroic men as ego-centrists, and moral standard bearers as bigots, or worse. This is particularly true in Hollywood, where a purposeful revisionism toward manhood has been under way for decades.

Not surprisingly, big screen super heroes and mythic figures of valor – male figures – have been among the hardest hit by this revisionism. As a result, the mighty have learned to cry, the powerful to admit vulnerability, and the brave to second-guess themselves, all in an effort to win over the effeminized masses. And this is what makes the screenplay for the upcoming feature film, “THOR,” so wonderful: not because it carries on the ridiculous revisionism, but because it shatters it with a hammer blow from Thor himself.

Through its clear portrayal of an unapologetically strong male who comes to the rescue of female characters, risks his life in the defense of right and wrong, and loves his world (his realm) in an undying fashion, “THOR” promises to revitalize masculinity in 2011 the way “The Expendables” did in 2010.

That's interesting that this, of all movies of its kind, is one where the scriptwriters didn't cave in to PC disaster, as the third Spider-Man movie did a few years ago (we can only wonder though what the reboot will be like, which isn't coming out till next year). So it might end up being a far better adaptation of a comic book than some recent others.

Labels: marvel comics

Now they're publishing an edition called Absolute Identity Crisis, and promoting it with a gushy statement by the author:

“IDENTITY CRISIS changed my life. It truly did. And it let me be a part of something that was so far bigger than myself. I’m honored that it’s being given the Absolute treatment and that we’re adding so many extras. And I just want to say a special thanks to every single person who told me that IDENTITY CRISIS was the book that got them back into comics.” – Brad Meltzer

Did it? When you look at how low sales numbers are today, even in paperback sales come to think of it, his sensationalized quote couldn't be more laughable, though given how horrific the miniseries was, that's why it's really not funny at all. It's just repulsive.

The really sad thing besides the prejudices the miniseries has is that here, it's been 7 years since they published it, and still, if this tells anything, they just won't let it go, nor the directions they've been setting with it.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, violence

Via Hot Air, here's a clip of the movie's first official promo trailer.

Labels: Captain America, marvel comics

An article in the Japan Times about a new exhibition the Kyoto International Manga Museum is holding about at least 2 women artists, Watanabe Masako and Kai Yukiko, and how they depicted their female casts.

Labels: Europe and Asia, manga and anime

This news article from PR-USA tells that a time travel story by H.G Wells called The Chronic Argonauts, that's not as widely known as the Time Machine itself, is being developed into a graphic novel.

Labels: Europe and Asia

London 24 writes about the upcoming manga festival being held in Bexley this April, which also contains reminders of the recent earthquake in Japan.

Labels: Europe and Asia, manga and anime

This posting on The Cool Kidz Table discusses what went wrong with the New Teen Titans over the years. And they're correct that Wally West and fans have been robbed over the past 2 years; he should be the real Flash and representative of speed in the JLA, and the grossly overreaching editorial mandate of recent is the reason he was ousted, and almost completely obscured from view since.

Labels: dc comics, Flash, Titans

Warner has released a picture of the costume design they're using for their new Wonder Woman TV series (via Big Hollywood). I'd say it's not that bad, even if it uses trousers. The real problem is if they go by the teleplay already found, which is downright embarrassing. So far, it's not clear if they're still going with it or moving away from it.

Labels: dc comics, Wonder Woman

Just when you thought they couldn't stoop any lower, Marvel has published a story in their current X-Factor volume (issue #217) that's like an allusion to the Ground Zero mosque case. This rabid leftist site called Death and Taxes has come out in favor of this disturbing story featuring an anti-Muslim protest that depicts it pretty unflatteringly:

“America for Americans,” shouts one of the all white crowd, while another declares, “We don’t need more Muslim terrorists getting in here!” Yet another concurs, “They’re as bad as mutants!”

Wow. Did it ever occur to them how the Koran might look upon mutants, if they existed in real life? The Religion of Peace certainly considers non-Muslims inferior, and also women, as indicated in Sura 2:228, and any mutant who didn't practice Islam would be decreed as such too. On top of all that, they even resort to what's become a staple of how the leftist MSM depicts the Tea Party movements, for example: that they're allegedly all white, and no blacks, Latinos or Asians could possibly support them. They also don't care about how Islamic slave trade in Sudan has victimized many blacks.

The book in question also contains this peculiar panel:

It’s here that buxom hero Monet flies in with a special announcement, “I’m a Muslim and a mutant!” Girl knows how to make an entrance.

But the writer of this piece does not. What's absurd here is how it depicts a girl with cleavage, something forbidden in the most extreme Islamic regimes like Saudi Arabia, identifying herself as a Muslim (she's said to be of Algerian background not unlike Batman Inc's Nightrunner), shades of corrupt NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg's own knee-jerk blather. Though there are some Muslim women who don't dress in burqas/niqabs, there's still plenty of Muslim males, even in the west, who're willing to force women to wear those oppresive garments, and in many Islamic regimes, the more oppressive it is to the point where the death sentence can be given to those who don't wear them, and the Koran condones it. Thus, the irony is that not every Muslim male around the world, not even in the west, is going to be impressed with that scene in X-Factor 217. They could've made this a scene depicting a gay/lesbian identifying with the ummah, and given that many Muslims are violently hostile to gays and lesbians, you can be sure not every Muslim would be impressed with a scene like that either. Also, to use a phrase columnist Mark Steyn may have coined, there may be moderate Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam, and the extremists far outnumber any moderates.

The book also contains the following:

Shouts one protester, “All mutants want to take over the world,” as a cohort concludes, “And Muslims, too. It’s right in your sacred texts. You guys are at war with Christianity. And your mosques are really secret terrorist training camps.”

Yes it does, and another example of this is Sura 8:12 in the Koran, which says, "I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers: you smite them above their necks and smite all their fingertips off of them." (via FaithFreedom) But this story, unfortunately, is unlikely to contain any such verses providing an understanding of that, and it appears to be structured so as to make the protestors look like the baddies. And they're clearly unconcerned about how the people involved in the mosque project have shady backgrounds and hire equally shady cohorts.

That aside, Marvel has really gone beyond the pale this time. It's bad enough if they took blame-America standings with Captain America in past years. Now they're even going so far as to desecrate the victims of 9-11 and offend those closest to them by implying it is democratic Americans opposed to violent ideologies, shariah, and also a building project that desecrates the memory of their loved ones who are the problem, not the jihadists themselves, and they refuse to distinguish between religion and race. Their current product is an offense to a lot of people I respect like Debra Burlingame and 9-11 Families for a Safe & Strong America, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Brigitte Gabriel and Steve Emerson.

And who wrote the X-Factor story here? Peter David, I'm afraid. The man who once wrote a story in the same named series back in the early 90s where they and the Hulk took down a Saddam Hussein-ish dictator now does 360, and explains why I don't think I'll want to read his writings anymore. Once, I thought he was smart enough to avoid this kind of propaganda, and he did once signal he respects Israel. Guess I was wrong. Now, he's plumbing new depths and suggesting he condones imposing sharia on America.

Labels: islam and jihad, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, politics, X-Men

The Miami Herald tells that Sailor Moon, which was very popular as both manga and anime in the mid 1990s, is being sold again in the US by publisher Kodansha.

Labels: Europe and Asia, manga and anime

As part of their latest foisting of a crossover (Flashpoint), they're ending the current volume with issues 12-13.

On the one hand, it's an open signal that forcing Wally West out for the sake of Barry Allen didn't work in the long term (sales dropped to the 50,000s if anywhere, and they led to additional loss of interest with the delays in publication of a few issues). On the other hand, it all stinks of something not unlike Age of Apocalypse, where the titles for X-Men series were altered as part of the alternate timeline story.

And on top of all that, Bob Harras, as the new EIC (and he was also Marvel's EIC at the time Age of Apocalypse was published), really is turning out to be bad karma.

Labels: bad editors, crossoverloading, dc comics, Flash

The Comics Journal, recently redesigned, reviewed Jim Starlin: a Life of Words and Pictures, published by IDW.

Labels: good artists

Newsarama is reporting that overrated Brian Bendis has announced C2E2 may be his last convention attendance for possibly years now.

Let's hope so. I'd wager nobody going to these conventions cares about him anymore, with good reason. After all, he's been so disrespectful of the audience, I can't see why anyone would want to attend any lectures he gives. I don't know if this signals he'll be leaving the Avengers soon, but even if he does, Axel Alonso will no doubt see to it that the Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Marvel continuity continue to lie in ruins with another bad writer.

Labels: Avengers, bad editors, conventions, dreadful writers, marvel comics

One of the few voices of sanity at CBR tells what's wrong with Brian Bendis' take on the Avengers, which has pretty much affected the rest of the Marvel universe to boot. A leading problem: if heroes like Spider-Man and Wolverine are going to comprise much of the roster, as was the case a few years ago and still is, then the book clearly isn't being sold on its own terms, but rather, is using them as a cheap sales gimmick. And maybe one of the silliest things here is when:

We also learn that Iron Fist doesn’t have a driver’s license, a cute touch to a guy you don’t really think of as a roadster, but when an essential part of your plan involves driving trucks away, it looks like you really didn’t think things through.

Considering how long Danny Rand's been around, I'm sure he would've learnt how to drive and got a license. This is just a contrived storyline Bendis put in for no good reason.

The writer slips, however, when she says that:

They’re not going to change a thing, however. The rants and railings of one lone comics blogger won’t change the world; it’d be just as foolish for me to think I could as it would be to needlessly put a highly trained scientist SHIELD agent where she could get shot in the ensuing chaos. The New Avengers book sells, hands down, no questions asked. Bendis has made Luke Cage a household name, and his scripting of an Avengers title is going to be consistently sold, month after month.

Actually, it's been declining consistently for 3 years now, along with Bendis' undeserved popularity as a writer. As recent sales charts tell, it sold just barely 63,900 copies. And while it would be great if Luke Cage were a household name, Bendis has not made him one, not for long anyway. Nor is Bendis suited to the task. One of the problems is that Luke Cage is being cast in the wrong book, as is Doctor Strange; the team series best suited for them would be Heroes for Hire and the Defenders. And that's another of Bendis and Marvel's mistakes, similar to the ones they've made with Spidey and Wolvie: instead of making a serious effort to promote them in teams and books with directions where they'd really work well, they put them implausibly into those where the direction and approach doesn't suit them. Again, it's not because it makes any sense that they're turning the Avengers into a series for these kind of heroes, but because they don't know how to market them on their own, or because it makes a "good" sales gimmick. And let's not forget how they trashed the Scarlet Witch, their first big mistake.

Bendis is losing influence, and the takes on the Avengers that he's influenced have lost a considerable amount of audience, but it's clear he won't leave until he's run the Earth's Mightiest Heroes into the ground of cancellation.

Labels: Avengers, dreadful writers, marvel comics, moonbat writers

I think Topless Robot is stumbling with this one, a list where they talk about 10 crossovers that actually matter. It begins by saying:

Like it or not, the prevailing business model for Marvel and DC for the past decade-plus of comics has been to build up to crossover events, publish events and set up crossovers within the events they're publishing. It's a cycle that'll continue as long as people to continue to buy them, which probably isn't going to end any time soon.

And just what is that supposed to mean? That only the sales matter, and not the quality of the story? Apparently. But I think it is going to end soon, and even if it doesn't happen today, that doesn't mean it won't happen tomorrow.

Then, here's what they say about House of M:

You'll recall that this list is of comics crossover events that "mattered," not necessarily those that are good. Avengers Dissasembled, which led into House of M, featured a lot of character deaths and a whole bunch of mutants being demutantized. That's mostly been reversed (still waiting for Jack of Hearts to make his comeback, though), but one thing that has persisted in the years since House of M is Marvel's distinct changes in the character of the Scarlet Witch. She's still an enigma wrapped in a mystery in a crazy lady, and the recent Young Avengers series, The Children's Crusade, is all about the lasting legacy of this crossover.

And about Identity Crisis:

Again, I'm talking about what matters, not necessarily what's good here, so I have to bring up Identity Crisis because of its continuing influence on the DC universe, in its need to be Dark and Adult. It'd be hard to imagine a DC where superheroes could torture people like they did in Cry for Justice or have crazy hallucination sessions with dead cats as in Rise of Arsenal without the prominent rape scene and heroes-being-jerks plot of Identity Crisis.

And then there's One More Day, where they fumble a bit more noticably:

The crossover that ended Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson's marriage forever with a simple snap of Mephisto's fingers will forever be notable as possibly the event that resulted in the most pissed off fans in history. But you know what else it resulted in? The best Spider-Man comics in like 25 years (though many have argued that those comics could be more or less the same, with the marriage intact). Still, three years after the big change, Marvel shows no signs of restoring the marriage.

They may try to defend their post by saying that this isn't only about "events" that are good, but still succeed in galling nevertheless, and their claim that Spidey's been at its best since OMD is the most noticable error they've made. Isn't this more a case of the companies acting astoundingly stubborn and callous in their vicious grip on these directions that have only succeeded in alienating tons of customers in the long term?

If there's anything here that does matter, it's how these "major events" have only managed to destroy tons of storytelling potential and drive away fans of their universes. And their failure to make this abundantly clear is exactly why these embarrassments will continue. Because the apologists won't do anything to call out the big two on their abysmal offenses.

Labels: Avengers, crossoverloading, dc comics, Justice League of America, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, Spider-Man, violence

A ludicrous indie series that's sadly been going on for too long. This review on Broken Frontier of Irredeemable's 23rd issue signals that Waid's negative take on heroism has not changed:

Mark Waid has created a truly oppressive atmosphere in which all heroism has turned to something foul or sick, and every character’s motives only deepen the pit of madness and corruption.

If all he can think of doing is presenting heroism in such a tasteless light, then he's not helping at all. He's only precipitating the demise of modern day comics.

Labels: dreadful writers, moonbat writers, violence

Well, here we go with another new low in sales. This time, even the highest selling title, Green Lantern, was still very low in digits, selling only 71,500 copies, the lowest number ICV2 has recorded since they began their site a decade ago. From there, it continues downhill. I'm annoyed at their sugarcoat of crossovers though:

Sales were hurt by a lack of major crossover events

Oh, would they please wake up and smell the coffee. Those crossovers and events are just what in the long term destroyed sales. It doesn't matter if there's any or not; they'll only lose ground. And by the end of this decade, I think we'll have seen just how badly they trashed a once great art form.

Labels: crossoverloading, sales

A poster on the Dixonverse forum describes what the Ultimate take on Captain America has become:

So, I picked up the first issue of the New Ultimate Captain, where the 40's Cap runs into the Vietnam-era Cap. The issue ends with 40's Cap taken hostage by 60's Cap who is about to show him the true face of what America has become since WW 2. The latest issue #3, which, I did not buy has 60's Cap reading the 40's Cap about the 'crimes' done by America during the Cold War, quote 'Illegal Bombings by the most evil man ever Richard Nixon" the overthrow of the democratically-elected elected govt of Chile replaced by Pinochet, playing a US Backed Contras audio tape of torture and screams and ending with 60's Cap 'waterboarding' the 40's Cap as it's 'not torture?' I'll tell you what is torture the continuous rewriting of real history by far-left zealot writing in comics and media and the whitewashing of the greatest crminals since WW 2 Nazis, the Communists. I think I'll be adding the writer of this stuff to my do not buy Alex Ross list. Keep it up and the only people who'll be buying your books is Mickey Moore at a Wisconsin rally.

I'm guessing the people behind this series don't think Jimmy Carter, by contrast, was one of the worst presidents ever? They sure do like to live with their heads in the sand. I think it's high time the Ultimate line was put to bed. It was a very mixed bag when it began in 2000, though the biggest problem in its early days was that it was not the younger readers level concept they initially marketed it as. They probably will end it in time anyway, just like DC has been discontinuing a few of their own subsidiary brands as they no longer pay to keep publishing.

Labels: Captain America, marvel comics, moonbat writers, politics

Scott McCloud wrote a special post for Google's official blog celebrating what would've been the 94th birthday of late, legendary Will Eisner.

Update: here's also an article from the NY Sun about an exhibition of his work at the Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art.

Labels: good writers, museums

This USA Today article certainly makes it sound that way:

The true love for drawing really didn't take hold until he had moved to Toronto and was about 15, when he was turned on to the artists in the newly formed Image Comics stable in the 1990s — guys like Marc Silvestri, Todd McFarlane, Whilce Portacio, Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee.

While I do think Lee's artwork is good, and McFarlane's beginning work in the early 80s was okay before it went downhill several years after, mixing Rob Liefeld into this whole discussion is misleading everyone. This was the so-called artist who ruined the New Mutants in its final year, later turned Captain America into a swelling balloon and is inconsistent in the size and width of his characters, and who tragically still gets jobs today, and the MSM never seems to mention any of that. Even Image's own wretched storytelling history is swept under the rug, and that too goes unmentioned by the press.

And I'm really not happy that Manapul is citing Image as his leading inspiration for drawing. At the very least, Liefeld should've been left out because his "artwork" could scare away anyone with common sense. Thus, Manapul hasn't done them a favor at all.

Labels: dreadful artists, indie publishers, msm propaganda

James Hudnall of cartooning fame has written a review of Bosch Fawstin's graphic novel The Infidel for Front Page Magazine.

Labels: indie publishers, islam and jihad, terrorism

Speed Force blog has a guest post by a Flash fan who's dismayed by Geoff Johns' rendition of Lisa Snart, alias the Golden Glider, who was Barry Allen's only - but still very effective - female foe. When she first debuted in 1977, the late sister of Captain Cold got into the supercrook game not because she wanted a serious life of crime, but because she wanted to seek revenge upon the Flash for allegedly killing her boyfriend, the Top. I have a few back issues of the Flash in my collection featuring Lisa Snart, including #257 Vol. 1, where she put his family* in jeopardy, and it's very effectively written, without being forced like today's "offerings". But Johns forcibly altered much of that in 2002, by rewriting her to sound as though she'd taken up villainy out of villain-worship of her brother. I posted some scans of that here. And the original premise, save for one minor reference, has been almost completely obscured.

Not only that, as the writer says:

Johns has publicly stated that he wants her to stay dead because it makes her brother more interesting, which actively disparages her to prop up another character.

There's a worthy argument that can be made that Johns' retcons are very much like J. Michael Stracynski's own terrible changes to Gwen Stacy and even Mary Jane Watson-Parker (and DC's changes of Jean Loring), taking a character who's the all but the opposite of them and changing her to suit his own ambiguous standings. It's made all the more absurd when we consider that Lisa did not have a very warm relationship with her brother Leonard, nor was she close with the other Rogues. She'd figured out the Flash's real ID as Barry Allen, and this was her final card to play if she wanted to. And I suspect that too has been negated.

I've sometimes wondered if Mark Waid may have spoiled her in later years when he wrote that she'd all but gone back into criminal activity with a handful of villains who would take up the guise of Chillblaine, finally falling victim to one who turned against her, but Johns has gone far beyond that, throwing her effective premise that made her more than just a common supercrook out the window and turning Lisa into something more standard. It makes me feel glad I'm not wasting my time on his Green Lantern work, because I hesitate to think of what he's doing with Carol Ferris as Star Sapphire.

* And lest we forget what a grave disservice he did to Barry parents too, when he wrote that the Reverse-Flash slaughtered Barry's mother and framed his father! All for the sake of more forced darkness.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, Flash, misogyny and racism