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Thursday, February 04, 2010
 I should have mentioned this earlier in the week, but I Forgot. The gents at Comic Book Geek Speak have be back yet again, and I get all pontificatey in episode #777, which you can listen to here: http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/episodes/comic_geek_speak-999.php Enjoy! -B Labels: Brian, Comic Book Geek Speak Click Here to Read More...I'm pretty good about doing my own research, most of the time, but as I wander through my BookScan Analysis this year (Sheesh, I'm at 12,000 words, and I still haven't touched 2 of the 4 categories!) I'm hoping I can depend on YOU to help me a bit. What movies based on comics were released in 2009? Watchmen, obviously. And Wolverine. Astro Boy. But then I start to blank. Name me some titles, would you? Thanks in advance!! -B Labels: Brian Click Here to Read More...Tuesday, February 02, 2010
I'm drowning in work, so I'll keep this super-double short this week... JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE #6: You know something's gone wrong with scheduling when a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ARTIST THAN SOLICITED (Scott Clark, rather than Mauro Cascioli) does the interiors. Clark's work has enough surface similarities that it isn't jarring (and, in fact, if you didn't check the credits, it is possible you didn't notice), but man that's some tacky shit. There's not much to this issue, other than "Prometheus kicks roundly everyone's ass, except for the one guy he doesn't have a file on" (well, and a sucker punch) -- which is pretty much exactly the plot of the LAST "canon" Prometheus appearance. I don't think there's a lot that you can really DO with a "reverse Batman" like this, but at least Prommie has read his copy of WATCHMEN (Which that issue of "The Question" shows was published on Earth-DC), because he pulls an Ozymandius, and POOF! goes a fictional DC city. I guess I just felt all the way through this "Been there, read that", and it all seems... well, I don't know if "Cynical" is too strong, but poofing away cities and mutilating heroes -- both possible because no one cares all that much about that city or character -- well, it's all so 1990s, y'know? "Maybe people will care about this character again if we put unspeakable tragedy upon them" or whatever. Feh. By which I mean: AWFUL JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #41: In a certain way, this is even worse, because it totally spoils CFJ #7, AND BLACKEST NIGHT (though, in the latter case, I don't think anyone expected the Big Guns to stay Zombies or whatever), which is such a... well, it is a Marvel-move, and we all expect much more from DC. It also shows why having Big Events with Lots of Moving Parts can be a really awful idea, since if they don't ship in the correct order everything breaks down and your Willing Suspension of Disbelief fails... and what is a superhero universe except a REALLY BIG W.S.D.? Having said that, I enjoyed the "tone" of this issue pretty well - much like the STARMAN comic from last week, it feels like Robinson has found his sea legs again, and is getting refocused on character development, as well as crazily obscure DC minutiae (Darwin Jones, indeed!) I'm not really all that enthused by a JL that's largely characters from TITANS "graduating", anchored by not-quite versions of the Big Three (Donna, Dick and Mon-El), but one nearly imagines that's just a stop-gap problem. I was also deeply underwhelmed by the GL/GA sequence which takes place seemingly nowhere, AND manages to totally undersell the tragedy of a major city going "poof", but there seems to be enough groundwork being laid here that, yeah, maybe this will end up being a good run, eventually. BUt, for what is probably too many Meta reasons, I'll go with OK here. As always, what did YOU think? -B Labels: Brian Click Here to Read More...Monday, February 01, 2010
Whoops, the new order form is due tomorrow. Guess I better start it? Also? Publishers: We can't make money if you don't ship us comics.... 28 DAYS LATER #6 ALADDIN LEGACY OF THE LOST #1 (OF 3) A CVR DJURDJEVIC ANGEL HOLE IN THE WORLD #3 AUTHORITY #19 BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #41 BETTY #184 BLACKEST NIGHT WONDER WOMAN #3 (OF 3) BOYS #39 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #32 TWILIGHT PT 1 (OF 5) JO CHEN CV CABLE #23 CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #46 CINDERELLA FROM FABLETOWN WITH LOVE #4 (OF 6) CONAN THE CIMMERIAN #18 CRIMINAL SINNERS #4 DAFFODIL #2 (OF 3) DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #896 DEMO VOL 2 #1 (OF 6) DISNEYS HERO SQUAD #1 DOCTOR WHO ONGOING #8 DOOM PATROL #7 EXISTENCE 3.0 #2 (OF 4) FALL OUT TOY WORKS #3 (OF 5) GHOST RIDERS HEAVENS ON FIRE #6 (OF 6) GI JOE ORIGINS #12 GOD COMPLEX #3 GREAT TEN #4 (OF 10) GREEK STREET #8 HOUSE OF MYSTERY #22 INDOMITABLE IRON MAN B&W INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #23 JONAH HEX #52 JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA ANNUAL #2 KILL AUDIO #5 (OF 6) LONE RANGER #20 LOONEY TUNES #183 MARVEL HEARTBREAKERS #1 MILESTONE FOREVER #1 (OF 2) NOVA #34 QUESTION #37 (BLACKEST NIGHT) REALM OF KINGS SON OF HULK #1 (OF 4) RED ROBIN #9 RED SONJA WRATH OF THE GODS #1 (OF 5) RED TORNADO #6 (OF 6) SAVAGE DRAGON #157 SCALPED #34 SIEGE #2 (OF 4) SIEGE EMBEDDED #2 (OF 4) SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #209 SPIDER-MAN NOIR EYES WITHOUT A FACE #3 (OF 4) STREET FIGHTER II TURBO #11 A CVR CRUZ SUPERMAN WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #12 (OF 12) SWEET TOOTH #6 TANK GIRL SKIDMARKS #3 (OF 4) TORCH #5 (OF 8) TOY STORY #1 ULTIMATE COMICS X #1 WARLORD #11 WIZARDS OF MICKEY #1 WOLVERINE SAVAGE WOLVERINE WEAPON X #10 X-MEN NOIR MARK OF CAIN #3 (OF 4) ZORRO #19 ZORRO MATANZAS #1 (OF 4) Books / Mags / Stuff ALAZARS FETISH FANTASIES TP BEAST MASTER GN VOL 02 (OF 2) BERSERK TP VOL 33 COMPLETE DRACULA HC CROGANS MARCH HC DARK TOWER FALL OF GILEAD PREM HC DOMINIC FORTUNE IT CAN HAPPEN HERE AND NOW TP FABLES TP VOL 13 THE GREAT FABLES CROSSOVER GREEN LANTERN SECRET ORIGIN TP I HATE GALLANT GIRL TP LITTLE LULU TP VOL 22 BIG DIPPER CLUB NARUTO TP VOL 47 (RES) RECIDIVIST HC (O/A) SHOWCASE PRESENTS SECRETS OF SINISTER HOUSE TP SMILE SC STAR WARS ADV TP VOL 03 LUKE SKYWALKER TREASURE DRAGONSNAKES TINY TITANS SIDEKICKIN IT TP VIETNAM JOURNAL TP VOL 02 IRON TRIANGLE What looks good to YOU? -B Labels: Brian, Shipping Lists Click Here to Read More...Sunday, January 31, 2010
 This is a song about Louisiana and some of the people in it. Or outside it. Or nearly anywhere in these United States as the 1950s approached, and superheroes declined as charismatic rogues stood tall, proud like they knew we'd miss them once fatedly laid low. It's a nostalgic record. Let it play. Can I offer you a drink?  This is Hadacol. *** Twelve Percent True  (Being a second and updated version of a post of January 31, 2010, amended to include exciting superhero art and duly expanded/adjusted text and formatting.) *** Hadacol was a popular 'patent medicine' of the late 1940s that transformed into a full-blown national fad as the century's midpoint arrived. "A Dietary Supplement," as you can see, Hadacol was supposed to be taken four times per day -- once after every meal, then right before bed -- as diluted in water, half a glass for one tablespoon. A typical bottle retailed for $1.25 (over $11.00 today), chock-full of vitamins B1, B2, and B6, with Niacinamide, Iron, Manganese, Calcium, Phosphorous, and sweet sweet honey. And... diluted acid hydrochloric, which the product's Wikipedia page happily informs us (without citation) was intended to open the body's arteries to facilitate better absorption of the Hadacol health mix, including its 'preservative' - 12% alcohol, roughly as much as in a typical bottle of table wine. By literally every account I can track down, Hadacol was absolutely disgusting, which probably didn't matter: it was healthy! Sort of! At least, enough so to circumvent the legal/moral/religious concerns of 'dry' communities across the land, while giving even the most saturated household a special license for consumption. Plus, it was fun, the ballyhoo of it all, much grander than that behind the boozy potions of earlier American miracle vendors, dating back to before the revolution. A new, modern, postwar country needed a contemporary elixir, and Hadacol cured just what ailed 'em. Dr. James Harvey Young provided a detailed overview of the Hadacol phenomenon in his 1966 book The Medical Messiahs: A Social History of Health Quackery in Twentieth-Century America (rev. 1990, free online), so I'll just run down the highlights. Hadacol was the brainchild of one Dudley J. LeBlanc, a Louisiana politician, entrepreneur, and quintessential Colorful Character from Down South prone to boasting that he got the inspiration for his bottled success in 1943 by way of swiping an injectable prototype from out of a doctor's office after the nurse had left the room. It wasn't LeBlanc's first patent medicine endeavor; one earlier project, Happy Day Headache Powders, in fact ran afoul of the Food and Drug Administration. Apparently not one to lay down and accept defeat, LeBlanc compressed the name of his former Happy Day Company into Ha-Da-Co-L, the 'L' being his own last name. But if this time it was personal, LeBlanc didn't show it - mostly, he liked to say that he hadda call his product something. I bet that's not the first time you've heard that joke. Hell, it's not even the first time today if you listened to that song like I asked you. But don't go thinking the lore of Hadacol entered into song and jest unassisted - it's said that LeBlanc himself commissioned Everybody Loves That Hadacol, licentious subtext and over-the-top claims and all. I mean, did that guy grow new toes?! Hadacol sounds scary. Did the song end? Here, try this. LeBlanc started out hawking Hadacol in French to Louisiana's Cajun population, to which he belonged, but it didn't take many years for the earthy nostrum to build its way up to the level of a genuine south-to-midwest consumer craze, aggravated by aggressive advertising tactics and lavish spending prompted by the possibility of tax write-offs. Mad culmination manifested in 1950, in the form of the Hadacol Caravan, a massive traveling spectacle accessible to the consumer only with the presentation of two Hadacol box tops (one for kids). Plenty more would be available inside, as the caravan wasn't a particularly new idea - it was a medicine show, of a type rapidly withdrawing into antiquity. Leblanc's affair was way bigger and far more monied than avarage, but it was essentially traditional, and I can't imagine some happy Hadacol purchasers didn't grasp the implication as to the, er, palliative qualities of the medicine accordant to such shows. Ann Anderson's 2000 study Snake Oil, Hustlers and Hambones: The American Medicine Show positions the Hadacol Caravan as effectively the last great example of its folk entertainment kind, though poorer docs continued to wander into the 1960s. The form went out with a bang: among the Caravan's features, albeit not at the same time, were Hank Williams, Roy Acuff, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Jack Dempsey, Jack Benny, Sharkey Bonano's Dixieland Band, Bob Hope, Carmen Miranda, Dorothy Lamour, Rudy Vallée, Cesar Romero, Mickey Rooney, Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante, a chorus line, clowns, acrobats, vaudevillians, beauty queens, prizes, fireworks, and, of course, LeBlanc himself, cruising up through the venue in a white Cadillac. While he was serving in the Louisiana state senate, mind you. By the show's 1951 season, audiences ballooned to number in the tens of thousands. Interestingly, Anderson's description of the show's over-the-top disposition -- purportedly adorned with unsubtle nods toward the star concoction's primary ingredient and winks at an aphrodisiac quality -- falls right in line with the awfully tongue-in-cheek tenor of the extended jingles we've already heard. Writer Jeremy Alford's account is similar, presenting some of the Caravan's action as approaching a prolonged and elaborate in-joke between Dudley J. LeBlanc and interested personages in Dry America: A clown dressed in a police uniform stumbles around on stage and makes his way into the audience. A spotlight follows the ensuing folly as every time the clown takes an energetic step, an oversized bottle of Hadacol nearly jumps out of his pocket. He reaches quickly for the tonic and helps himself to a healthy swig. His massive glasses glow in the evening shade with each pull on the bottle. It's obvious that this is one drunken clown, and he's soon joined by another inebriated fellow whose nose lights up when he takes sips. The crowd ' children and adults ' loves it and screams into the night air. Now, make no mistake, this is hardly the first instance of 20th century advertising adopting a fairly sardonic posture in re: the product at hand. Witness this 1932 marvel, fronted by a pair of New York City brothers that everybody reading this site has heard of: And that's for Oldsmobile, as opposed to the most noxious libation this side of Jeppson's Malört, one that would be drained damned dry almost as soon as the '51 Caravan was through. Yet people often still think of mid-century advertising as goofily forthright in its glosses and fibs, even while the Fleischers long ago poked at the virile promise of automobile ownership, and LeBlanc, decades later, sometimes giggled openly at the carnival pitchman's shamelessness of his own endeavor; this was a man with the trickster's spirit enough to stand on stage with an inter-party political rival and, at one point, switch his address to French so as to excoriate the man next to him to the delight of fluent attendees, as the target smiled. Needless to say, he also got into comics publishing. One comic, as far as I know. A superhero comic. About a superhero that gets his powers from an authentic, eminently purchasable health product of dubious medicinal value, 24 proof.  That treasure took seventeen hours to find, because Captain Hadacol is smashed. And that's because the secret to his powers is booze. VITAMIN BOOZE. I don't actually own this comic, nor do I know who wrote or drew it. All scans to follow come courtesy of the Deborah LeBlanc Collection, which informed me that Captain Hadacol -- whom I'd only known of by barest reference in product lore -- is a Superman-Popeye hybrid character, a plain man granted enormous temporary powers through imbibing the sponsor potion (available now, just $1.50). This came as a relief, since Cap looks strikingly like a 'vitamin'-addled normal guy who perhaps only thinks he has powers. Also, his costume looks like stuff he found. Then again, it probably does take a hero to successfully navigate in over-the-knee flat boots; I hope Marvel is taking notice for its upcoming Heroic Age, 'cause those Napoleonic puppies are back in style. Just look at that wholesome, concerned face, bedecked with the same deadly squint promotions connoisseur Chris Ware sometimes uses for his Super-Man, which puts me in dire fear for Twelve Percent Lad's health. I just made up a superhero name right there; the proper name of that boy on the cover is "Red Reddie," whose family appears to have some firm connection to "John," the top-secret bespectacled identity of Captain Hadacol. "Comic Book No. 2" sees the Reddie family and their blonde chum cutting loose down on the ranch:  Now if you're like me, your first thought is "gee, nice colors!" It's not unlike the anonymous, popping fresh style that does a lot to compliment Fletcher Hanks' (earlier) work. But the more you get into this comic, the more you notice its odd stylistic tics, like how four out of its nine story pages utilize the same motif of an expanded center panel, bordered on one side with a smaller column of panels and capped top and bottom with two thinner panel rows. Two additional pages utilize an even wider midsection, giving the comic an eccentric expanding and contracting feel.  Then there's the in-panel art, prone to a curvy sort of caricature, with scenery elements that border on the expressionistic - dig that wiggly drawer balancing the composition! Anyone who knows me is fully aware that I'm literally the worst worst person at spotting Golden Age art in the whole of North America's comics readership, so maybe this is some phenomenally well-known talent cashing a Hadacol check anonymously, but it's also possible that a local illustration hand put this thing together in the spirit of just having a go at the form.  Use as directed, kids! Actually, Anderson's book describes a totally different Captainn Hadacol -- possibly the contents of the otherwise elusive issue #1 -- in which Our Man entreats a boy to slam eight consecutive bottles of Hadacol for immediate super-strength. "The alcohol in eight bottles of Hadacol equaled a pint of bonded whiskey," Anderson notes. And while that's coincidentally where my powers come from too, apparently in this issue the power of Hadacol has expanded sufficiently to charge a man up 'by the label,' in addition to changing his clothes, which suggests a brand of humor doubtlessly better suited to the Hadacol Caravan.  Here's another iteration of Artist X's layout style, with the interrupted big panel now up top. You're not missing any story reading along in this abridged manner, by the way; it's a totally uninspired genre short, propulsive mainly from its heavy breathing page compositions. Quite a thing for shadows too.  I mean, wow - Captain Hadacol's ready to kick some ass up there! I pretty much came out of this story hoping that nobody else discovers the secret of Hadacol, given what it does to you! So, in that apparently everyone is a superhero by way of Hadacol's intervention, I can only conclude that the premise is broadly the same as that of The Boys. And sure enough, Captain Hadacol has the same basic superman look as the Homelander, as well as similar military-corporate interest superheroes from Marshall Law or Power and Glory, down to that faintly Aryan appearance beloved by talents eager to tease Fascist implications from superhero characters, as it takes only a few modifications to go from flat boots to jackboots. Captain Hadacol isn't a fascist, of course; indeed, while I may be stretching, there's perhaps an interesting ethnic specificity to his costume, its cape seemingly patterned after the blue and white of the Hadacol box, but its overall blue, white and red-striped color scheme, with a single point of gold in the belt buckle, very loosely approximating the colors on the flag of Acadia, from where the Cajun people came (this is not to be confused with the present, similarly-colored Louisiana-specific Acadianan flag, which was not designed until 1965). Given that the costume itself appears to be slipped over a normal dress shirt and slacks, I wonder if Captain Hadacol 'himself' didn't make any promotional appearances at local events?  This is the back of the comic, listing the real treasures boys and girls can discover with Hadacol's aid; this whole 'comic' 'story' business is plainly secondary. In teeny tiny type at the bottom, it also lists a possible date of publication, January of 1951, right at the roaring height of the craze. We can accept Captain Hadacol as a rhetorical forerunner to all those crafty satiric superheroes, selling stuff to the public from the out the seat of authority, though most of us know that superheroes weren't really so idealistic at birth, certainly not the murderous ones sprung from the pulp tradition (say, Batman). Still, comics are older than superheroes, just as medicine shows were older than Dudley J. LeBlanc. The most recent (39th) Overstreet guide contains no mention of Captain Hadacol -- given that the issue at hand is #2, there was presumably at least a #1, unless LeBlanc was pulling the contemporaneous comic book stunt of starting a run at a higher number to create the illusion of demand for nonexistent early issues -- although its lovely Promotional Comics section does mention that comics relating to patent medicine date back into the mid-19th century, much like the American medicine show, a fellow promotional entertainment. The two are thereby historically linked. And look at the differences! If the Hadacol Caravan -- at least from the scattered historical record available to me -- seemed awfully wry and rightly sophisticated in its rib-poking promotion, Captain Hadacol the comic occupies a promotional area where LeBlanc wasn't kidding around - simple entertainment for kiddies, if enlivened by oddly emphatic art, and forthright appeals to Mom and Dad. Behold:  It'd probably be in the Hadacol spirit to make a beer muscles joke here, but instead I'll observe that the promotional comic, as opposed to the promotional live jamboree, operates on these pages as appropriate for a naïve form. As the song goes: my ex she lives near Bayou Blue Ha, you see? Comics are stupid! Adults who read them are STUPID! They're for little kids, everyone knows this, you can reference it in a song and everyone will get the joke! That's why it's the perfect means for kids to deliver these urgent testimonials to their parents - how could a dumb, childish art form like this lie? It's on-the-nose advertising, and in an inappropriate venue for the arguably more mature posture of the more colorful Hadacol hype. In case you can't see the small text: -- I must express my honest and sincere thanks to you and the people who discovered the remarkable HADACOL. My little girl, Jean, 7 years old at last birthday, has been weak and underweight since birth. She ate very little at lunch and supper and went to school without eating breakfast. Regardless of how much I coaxed or begged, she just wouldn't eat, was pale and listless. Always complaining, I was afraid to let her out to play because she cried from nervousness. Some of my friends recommended HADACOL. At first, I didn't pay much attention but she grew worse and something had to be done, or, else, she would have to miss school. So she now is on her third bottle of HADACOL. Already my husband and I can tell the world of difference. She eats breakfast and is gaining in weight. She is as spry as a cricket. I cannot praise HADACOL enough. I shall continue to use HADACOL as long as it is sold. -- My little daughter, Brenda Sue Miller, had been rundown and had a very poor appetite. She took two bottles of HADACOL. She has been eating better, and she feels better. She is very glad she is taking HADACOL. She is ten years old. -- I have given my little five year old girl HADACOL and it has helped her so much. She would not eat much, but after taking two bottles of HADACOL, she eats everything. So, I will keep on giving her HADACOL and I will try some myself. --  And, you know, comic books were immature at that time, though superheroes were rapidly hibernating by 1951, in favor of crime and (increasingly) horror comics. And Disney comics and Archie comics, yes, but the nasty stuff caught the attention of society's guardians, terribly concerned for the well-being of susceptible youth. No worries of this sort from Dudley J. LeBlanc - like Wu-Tang, nearly half a century later, Hadacol is for the children: -- I have a little son, 7 years old. He was thin and delicate. He would have one cold after another, had no appetite. Early this Fall, I began giving him HADACOL. I have given him three large bottles. Now, he goes to school regularly and eats twice as much as he did before, sleeps much better, and he has gained weight. I'll continue to use HADACOL and recommend it to others. I can't praise HADACOL enough. I think it is wonderful for both young and old. -- I can't praise HADACOL enough, for what it has done for my little girl Melba Jacobs, who is 10 years old. She started taking HADACOL. She was nervous, and rundown, and, didn't have any appetite, and didn't feel like going to school, and she couldn't rest well at night. Since taking HADACOL she eats well, sleeps well, and feels better in every way. Thanks to HADACOL. Her little playmate is taking HADACOL also, after I told him about it. -- I can't praise HADACOL enough. My little six year old girl was weak, nervous and rundown. I heard so much about HADACOL and decided to try it. It seemed to help her more than anything. She now eats and seems to enjoy eating. Anyone that has a poor appetite should try HADACOL. I cannot praise HADACOL enough. -- My daughter, Marilyn Sue, is 5 years old, and for some time lacked energy, had a poor appetite, was generally rundown. Since giving her HADACOL, we have noticed wonderful results. She has a much better appetite, eats everything on the table, and doesn't seem tired like she used to. Incidentally, she likes to take her HADACOL too. -- My little boy is 10 years old and had always been nervous and he didn't sleep well. He has taken 3 bottles of HADACOL, and now he sleeps much better and feels like going to school. He eats like he'll never get enough. I can never praise HADACOL enough. -- Man, this is a lot of testimony! How about another song? Feel free to do the Hadacol Boogie along at home (or an especially liberal workplace), although I think it might be a euphemism for sex. Hey - where do you think the kids come from? -- Sometime ago, our little boy, James Edgar was so weak. We had to give him liver, and all kinds of food that would build blood. He couldn't run and play. Also, his food hurt him. I heard about HADACOL. I decided to try it. Before I gave him many bottles, I could tell a great difference. He has taken fourteen bottles. He is eleven years old, weighs 92 pounds, plays on the school ball team, rides his bike, runs and plays like other boys, and feels grand, sleeps all night, without waking. I can never praise HADACOL enough. I have recommended it to all my friends and got them to take it. They are thrilled over finding such a fine formula. -- I want everyone to know what HADACOL has done for my little six-year old girl. She was weak and rundown. She was so easy to take a cold. So, we decided to try HADACOL on her, and I can't praise it enough. We have given her about ten bottles and are going to give it to her the rest of this winter. She is going to school. I am enclosing a photograph of my little six year old girl, Ruth Munsey. HADACOL has done so much for her. -- We have a son, Philip Oren Wood, eight years of age, who became very nervous, and due to this we had to take him out of school. He had no appetite, and could not sleep at night. We were advised to give him HADACOL. He has been taking HADACOL for about two months. He has again entered school, he has a good appetite, and is beginning to sleep as he should. We are thankful for this wonderful discovery. -- My little boy, 8 years old, was thin, rundown and was so weak he could not run and play without lying down and resting 2 or 3 times during the day. He would not eat like he should. And, then, I heard about HADACOL for children. So, I began giving him HADACOL. Now, after the first bottle, he eats better, sleeps better and is so full of vim. Just feels fine and plays all the time. I will always keep a bottle on hand. -- But she wouldn't have much time to do it. In late 1951, LeBlanc sold his interest in Hadacol to investors up north. Six weeks later, they discovered that Hadacol was in fact in tremendous debt, and distribution soon collapsed amid FTC complaints and mounting criticism of the product's unique not-all-that-healthy approach to diatary supplementation. LeBlanc was saddled with a hefty tax bill, and never again realized that level of success; a non-alcoholic vitamin drink, Kary-On, proved unpopular. However, despite unsuccessful bids for the U.S. Congress and the governorship of Louisiana, he remained popular enough in his home district that he died in office as a state senator, 77 years old in 1971. In 1952, the year after the end of the Caravan and the fall of Hadacol, a comic book titled Mad debuted from the increasingly notorious comics publisher EC. Under founding editor Harvey Kurtzman, it would bring a skeptic's eye to comics books, something typically reserved for newspaper or magazine cartoons, or more favored species of the comics form, devoting itself to cracking the codes of superheroes and advertisements and gala shows and everything else. And in 1954 the Comics Code Authority was formed, and then comic books couldn't speak ill of judges. But, you know, the seed was planted. As for Captain Hadacol himself, indulge me this advertisement of my own: *** HELP ME. I AM RUNDOWN AND LACKING IN VIM, AND THE ONLY CURE IS INFORMATION. IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT CAPTAIN HADACOL -- WHO WROTE OR DREW IT, HOW MANY ISSUES WERE PUBLISHED, WHERE OR HOW THEY WERE DISTRIBUTED OR SOLD -- PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT OR SEND ME AN EMAIL. *** Hell, maybe all my half-formed and tenuous ideas as expressed here will change with a little more Hadacol context. Maybe the discovery of future rip-snortin' Cap'n Hadacol adventures will yet boast a texture unique in promotional funnies; its creator didn't seem the type to leave any ballyhoo hanging in the air without the special grin of a born gamer. But as it stands now, Captain Hadacol is more an oddball exhibit of neat visual qualities speaking to a sophistication that comic books, in their stories and their society, could not embody, and so the joke could only be on them.  Let me sum it all up with a story that appears in nearly every Hadacol-related text, starting with Martin Gardner's 1952 omnibus expose Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, which I have not read. Accordingly, I'll print the legend. It so happened that Dudley J. LeBlanc, as Hadacol boomed, was being interviewed by Groucho Marx, whose brother Chico had played/would play the Caravan, which, all things considered, probably provided a nice payday for hard-working performers transitioning away from hot stardom. At one point, Marx turned to LeBlanc and asked what Hadacol is good for. "It was good for five and a half million for me last year," LeBlanc replied. *** - One million thanks to the Deborah LeBlanc Collection for the wonderful scans and information. Labels: Jog Click Here to Read More...Tuesday, January 26, 2010
I really REALLY should be working on the new TILTING (I finally got the BookScan numbers, and it's like a 20+ hour job to write that column each year), but promises are promises.... BRAVE AND THE BOLD #31: Comics like this really make me say "Double-you-tee-eff" out loud, and get my six year old asking me "What does that mean, daddy?". I decline to state for Ben, but for you? Look, the problem with this comic is it literally could have been any character in the Atom role. Oh, sure, he's the only one who naturally shrinks, but there wasn't anything besides his power that he added to the story. Couple that with a Joker origin that doesn't match any other Joker origin anywhere, and I'm wondering what's going through DC's head. I'm of the mind that the Joker works (or, maybe "works") because he's transcendentally insane, not because he's a garden variety crazy person who kicks puppies, or whatever -- I mean, if you're going to contradict Alan Moore, then you really need to be much better than him. And this isn't that. JMS said in some interview somewhere or another that these B&B stories are going to add up to something down the line -- but I can't see anyone but the most extreme DC completest staying the course until he gets where ever he thinks he's going. So far he's had issue after issue of showing he doesn't really "get" most of the characters he is writing about, and they're just puppets acting out ill-fitting roles. Puppet show or Spinal Tap? I'll take Spinal Tap, please -- this was purely AWFUL. CAPTAIN AMERICA #602: I kind of like the conceit of having the follow-up to the Cap/Bucky thing being called "Two Americas", and not having Steve Rogers have anything to do with it whatsoever, but I think I would have liked this a lot better if we hadn't had to have that 8 month (or whatever) gap. I trust Brubaker to go somewhere with this, but it FEELS like Time-marking here, and CAP really didn't need to have been interrupted to have told this story. I might have gone with a "Good", but, damn, that "Nomad" story is totally out of place here in tone and craft, and it raised the price by a buck, and even DC seemed to quickly figure out that the concept of "extra content" doesn't go far for the extra price. Downgraded to OK because of "Nomad". DARK AVENGERS #13 SIEGE: Another serious "double-you-tee-eff" moment here as Bendis rewrites Sentry's origin YET AGAIN to not only suggest he's a junkie thief, but also is, apparently, God, with a Capital G. Either that, or Capital G God isn't actually God, but it, dunno, an Alien or something maybe? Who knows what Bendis is thinking here, really? The big problem with Sentry is he's become like a Silly Putty transfer from a comics page -- all stretched out and weird and not looking very much at all like the original any longer. The big problem with this comic is it really isn't a "Siege" tie-in, except in some sort of nominal and distant way -- anyone picking this up BECAUSE of the branding is, I think, likely to be extremely disappointed, unless something bugfuck happens in SIEGE #2 or later. At least it was pretty to look at. EH. DARK WOLVERINE #82 SIEGE: There's something wonderfully creepy about Dakan and his sexually charged powers. Not something that I would read for pleasure, no, but at least it is sufficiently different than anything else I read this week. The cliffhanger was entertaining, too, though one can't imagine that's going to stand, and, if it does, this is a pretty major spoiler... OK JOE THE BARBARIAN #1: I liked this quite a bit. Not quite loved, because I thought the writing of some of the transitions were a bit awkward, but I just loved the art to death, and the premise seems like it has solid potential. I was also pretty thunderstruck by how well it sold -- we were out by Friday, and I placed a reorder of 50% of my initials, which basically never happens, unless you're talking about initials under 5 copies. My initials here were my third highest order of the week. VERY GOOD. OUTSIDERS #26: Really, the Eradicator? Eh. PHANTOM STRANGER #42 (BLACKEST NIGHT): I don't understand how the Black Lantern rings can control the Spectre, which is an aspect of Capital G God, but I guess it makes sense to someone, somewhere. I also don't like the Phantom Stranger being much other than DC's The Watcher -- he actually DOES stuff here which seems wildly out of character, but then what do I know? Merely OK RASL #6: This, on the other hand, was really superb -- it's taken a while for RASL to get up to speed, but now it is cooking on all burners, and I'd really quite like to read the next issue now now, right now. EXCELLENT. STARMAN #81 (BLACKEST NIGHT): You may not be able to go home again, but you can at least do a drive by. I'm not certain I agree with all of Robinson's choices here, but who cares what I think -- these are clearly his characters and his Proper Voice, and I think I'm glad that he's been writing some not very good comics this last year because I went into this with low expectations, and had them greatly surpassed. I thought it was VERY GOOD. SUPERMAN / BATMAN #68: The Hat Trick in my "Double-you-tee-eff" week as I wonder why anyone thinks that anyone is interested in post-game "Our Worlds at War" crossovers. Plus, it kinda wasn't anyway. This is now official a comic book series Without A Point. AWFUL. As always, what did YOU think? -B Labels: Brian Click Here to Read More...Monday, January 25, 2010
Finally, a normal sized week... right at the end of the month *sigh* 2000 AD PACK DEC 2009 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #619 GNTLT ARCHIE #605 ASTRO CITY THE DARK AGE BOOK FOUR #1 (OF 4) ATOM AND HAWKMAN #46 (BLACKEST NIGHT) AVENGERS INITIATIVE #32 SIEGE BATMAN AND ROBIN #7 BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #201 BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM #12 BLACK TERROR #7 BLACKEST NIGHT JSA #2 (OF 3) BUCK ROGERS #8 CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN #6 (OF 6) CHEW #8 COMPLETE ALICE IN WONDERLAND #2 (OF 4) DAREDEVIL #504 DARK REIGN HAWKEYE #5 (OF 5) DKR DETECTIVE COMICS #861 DIE HARD YEAR ONE #5 DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP #8 (OF 24) DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #350 FALL OF HULKS RED HULK #1 (OF 4) FOH FANTASTIC FOUR #575 FRANK FRAZETTAS DARK KINGDOM #4 (OF 4) FRAZETTA CVR A FUTURAMA COMICS #47 GFT PRESENTS NEVERLAND #0 (OF 6) GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #8 GREEN LANTERN #50 (BLACKEST NIGHT) (NOTE PRICE) GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #22 HALO BLOOD LINE #2 (OF 5) IRON MAN I AM IRON MAN #1 (OF 2) IRON MAN VS WHIPLASH #3 (OF 4) IRREDEEMABLE #10 JACK OF FABLES #42 JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #157 JUSTICE LEAGUE CRY FOR JUSTICE #6 (OF 7) JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #41 CVR A JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #35 KICK ASS #8 KIDS OF WIDNEY HIGH ONE-SHOT KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #158 MADAME XANADU #19 MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #59 MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ #3 (OF 8) MS MARVEL #49 NEW AVENGERS #61 SIEGE NORTHLANDERS #24 OFFICIAL INDEX TO MARVEL UNIVERSE #13 PILOT SEASON DEMONIC #1 PREDATOR #4 (OF 4) PRESIDENT EVIL #4 YES WE CANNIBAL PUNISHER #13 RESURRECTION VOL 2 #7 ROBOCOP #1 SARAH WINCHESTER #1 SECRET WARRIORS #12 SIEGE STORMING ASGARD HEROES AND VILLAINS SPIDER-MAN CLONE SAGA #5 (OF 6) STAR TREK TNG GHOSTS #3 STAR WARS LEGACY #44 MONSTER PT 2 (OF 4) SUPERGIRL #49 SUPERMAN #696 SUPERMAN SECRET ORIGIN #4 (OF 6) SWORD #21 TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #60 TEEN TITANS #79 TERRY MOORES ECHO #19 THOR #606 ULTIMATE COMICS ENEMY #1 (OF 4) UNKNOWN DEVIL MADE FLESH #4 UNKNOWN SOLDIER #16 VICTORIAN UNDEAD #3 (OF 6) WALKING DEAD #69 WALL-E #2 WEB #5 WILDCATS #19 WITCHBLADE #134 SEJIC CVR A WOLVERINE ORIGINS #44 WOLVERINE WENDIGO #1 WONDER WOMAN #40 WORLDS FINEST #4 (OF 4) CVR B X-BABIES #4 (OF 4) X-FACTOR #201 X-FORCE #23 XN X-MEN FOREVER #16 X-MEN LEGACY #232 XN Books / Mags / Stuff AFRODISIAC HC ALIAS ULTIMATE COLLECTION TP BOOK 02 ART OF GREG HORN HC VOL 02 COVER STORIES AVENGERS WORLD TRUST PREM HC BARBARIAN CHICKS & DEMONS TP VOL 02 (A) BATMAN UNDER THE COWL TP CARS TP VOL 02 RADIATOR SPRINGS COMPLETE WORLD WAR ROBOT HC DEADMAN WONDERLAND GN VOL 01 GEAR LEFT OF CENTER O/T UNIVERSE AUDIO CD HOUSE OF MYSTERY TP VOL 03 THE SPACE BETWEEN INCREDIBLES TP VOL 01 CITY OF INCREDIBLES JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA STRANGE ADVENTURES TP LOSERS VOLUME 1 AND 2 TP MAN WITH NO NAME TP VOL 02 HOLLIDAY IN THE SUN MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN AND AVENGERS TP DIGEST PREVIEWS #257 FEBRUARY 2010 (NET) REMEMBER GN ROCK N ROLL COMICS TP VOL 01 BEATLES EXPERIENCE SONIC THE HEDGEHOG ARCHIVES TP VOL 12 TALES OF THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS VOL 02 TANK GIRL REMASTERED ED TP VOL 05 APOCALYPSE WIZARD MAGAZINE #222 MARVEL SIEGE CVR WIZARDS TALE HC VOL 01 What looks good to YOU? -B Labels: Brian, Shipping Lists Click Here to Read More...Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The one problem about promising to do this weekly for the quarter (well, or perhaps more properly promising to TRY) is sometimes I feel stupid and tired and without anything meaningful to say. So this one will be short! ADVENTURE COMICS #6: I sort of wonder if Geoff Johns had really intended to be on this book for more than the 6 issues or not, but it all ends this issue. The "what would Superman/Luthor done?" thing gets buried here, too -- and none too fast to my tastes. That whole thread really didn't work, given the possible end-games, and it is hammered in all of the wrong directions here as Luthor does something stupidly evil here. Mostly stupid. I've got to go with... well, I started typing "eh", but actually I think I'll mark that as AWFUL. There are no LSH bits this issue, and I sort of wonder if everything that was meant to be building up for... geez, it feels like 3 years, can that be right? with all of the LSHers in the present time is just going to peter out and come to nothing in the end as well? BUFFY #31: I dunno if it just lagged out on the main plot that doesn't happen the same way when it is a TV show coming into your house for free, but I've been itchy with BTVS for the last few issues -- I'm especially not liking this whole "everyone loses their powers/Buffy is superpowered" thing that just doesn't really work in the time spans comics are released. My bigger problem with the book, and especially the expanding cast is how weak some of the likenesses have gotten recently. Is that Oz at the top of the issue? Is the wounded soldier supposed to be Riley? Is that Andrew that Twilight has there in the middle? I can't fucking tell! While it isn't "natural", having characters say one another's names to make these things clear would be a swell idea. The Xander/Buffy conversation was very nice, but, overall, we're getting into merely OK territory for this reader. INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #22: Part 3 of 5, and it really felt like a time marker to me. Not much HAPPENS so far in this story, and this is the least-happening of them. If you're jumping on IM because critics like me like it... don't start here. OK POWER OF SHAZAM #48: Are there ANY rules to these BN crossovers? I'd thought we were told quite explicitly that the zombies WERE NOT the actual dead people, that the rings were simply accessing memories. WTF is going on here then? Without rules Science Fiction is just Fantasy, and most fantasy is just AWFUL. SECRET SIX #17: Editing 101: if you're doing a three part story, and part one was not in the same series you're currently reading then you NEED to put some sort of "continued from SUICIDE SQUAD #xxx" note in the comic SOMEwhere. Anyone getting Sec6, and who didn't pick up the SuiSq lead in to this would be COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY LOST. Even having read both I was kind of meh on the endless rolling fight scene. EH. That's all I got for this week... what did YOU think? -B Labels: Brian Click Here to Read More...Monday, January 18, 2010
Orc Stain #1: This is a VERY GOOD Image comic about orcs and stealing and penises and conquest. It didn't come out this week, but I didn't get hold of a copy until Saturday, which is okay by me; this is a perfect comic to find, to turn around in your hands and marvel at how 32-page all-story comics still exist at $2.99, in color, out of the front of Previews, embodying in their small confines a pure worldview, like the underground genre comics of 40 years ago, and their 'alternative' children going all the way forward. These days $2.99 feels like underground pricing too.  Tradition is highly pertinent to the case of creator James Stokoe, still in his mid-20s, I think, and probably best known right now for his two-volume Oni Press series Wonton Soup (2007, 2009), a high-spirited fusion of comedic sci-fi and cooking manga, presented in those 200-page b&w packages that will probably connect Oni to Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim until the sun has consumed the Earth. However, Stokoe is best compared with a former studiomate, Brandon Graham, whose own King City is also ongoing from Image and gets a place of honor as this comic's one and only advertisement. In-story, meanwhile, artist Moritat gets a shout-out; he's been the primary artist for Richard Starkings' Elephantmen series at Image, which as of late has served as something of a focusing point for some artists in this Image/Oni-centered group, particularly Marian Churchland, whose graphic novel Beast was also released by Image last year, to some acclaim. And while these projects aren't all very similar -- King City is digression-prone urban sci-fi relationship drama paced like popular manga (and initially released in 2007 as an OEL manga from Tokyopop) while Beasts is as politely contained a literary comic as one can imagine -- they do reflect an embrace and intuitive parsing of international comics-as-comics styles, apparently disinterested in provincial aesthetic concerns or old-timey genre biases, instead basing creative decisions on the personal impact of diverse older works. This isn't so different from other periods of comics activity, ranging from the '60s underground through the 'alternative' comics era, but now the solitude of the American, Franco-Belgian and Japanese scenes has faded, stretching the plane of influence to true IMAX proportions, to say nothing of non-comics influences like gaming or animation or graffiti art - indeed, what sets these artists apart from Ben Jones & Frank Santoro of Cold Heat or C.F. of Powr Mastrs is the comparable absence of 'fine' art in the mix, although Graham was also part of the same Meathaus group as artists like Dash Shaw, and anyway was publishing with manga-friendly North American outlets as early as the mid-'90s. I think the best times will arrive when ill-informed future historians concoct the Meathaus vs. Fort Thunder rival schools kung fu narrative.  Orc Stain is cognizant of all of this, but especially drawn toward that earliest American period for comics like this: the underground era. The presence of Vaughn Bodē can be felt as much as the whimsi-mythical creature designs of Hayao Miyazaki (let's say), or the pulsing ultra-detail of Euro-fed seinen manga from decades back; it's maybe also helpful to think of Cobalt 60 as a touchstone, although I don't know if Stokoe ranks it himself, since its mid-'80s Epic Illustrated origins brush against many of these aspects. The story is airy and fairly simple, as happens in a lot of these current comics: the powerful Orctzar is in search of a "god-organ" that will bring him domination over all the highly fractious and dick-obsessed orc planet, and prophecy provides that a one-eyed soul can hook him up. Fitting the bill is a young thief up north, a dissatisfied master at cracking organic locks, making money by robbing the graves of the great orcs of the past, the only personages allowed names, which are really only numbers. Summarizing the plot does this comic little good, though; much of it is spent on looming sights and explorations of how those sights function, like how to best crack open a monument to a fallen hero, or create a foreign language potion (by locating a creature that speaks the language, roasting it, bashing its skull open and pouring water through the hole and out its mouth, as you might have guessed). Such visually swollen work is really very fitting for Image, founded on art and artists chasing their desires - work like this both brings that impulse into the present while sitting it in a historical context, although these days all of history seems to exist at once, in the way that Stokoe's interest in near-parodic manly combat virtue by way of bodily function seems both linked to Johnny Ryan's Prison Pit and the old anatomic detail of Richard Corben.  I realize I'm going on a lot about history and interrelated artists here. That's because this is frankly a comic that leans heavily on experiential factors for its value; to study it best is to know how fun and lovely comics can still crackle with new energy, even while evoking old comics books, in a rather old format. It's not random that orcs have ruled their planet for countless years without accomplishing a lot, or that young orcs don't have names anymore, or that the best money is in working smartly on the legacy of the older and richer. All the orc world is open to artists and thieves now; knowing fulfillment is knowing where to hammer. *** Army of Two #1: Ah, but what of the living legends? Peter Milligan could hardly expect to co-write one of my favorite comics of all time -- that'd be Rogan Gosh -- and expect me not to follow him down every odd road he finds. And man, these days I can hardly keep track of him - our own Douglas Wolk had to clue me in on the very existence of this project, the first output of EA Comics, a joint venture between IDW and Electronic Arts, aimed at dedicated proliferation of video game-licensed series. Have you heard about Orson Scott Card co-writing the Dragon Age comic? First comes Peter Milligan and Army of Two! Unfortunately, the best I can say of this book is that I think it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, and I say that knowing that Milligan himself has described it as more or less a character piece, on which terms it unequivocally fails as a compelling introduction. But really: it's a sequel to the original game, which I haven't played (although I hear it's the kind of thing where your character plays air guitar on his weapon after a particularly awesome accomplishment, so I'm thinking it's not entirely serious itself), following a pair of highly bad dudes that sadly live in a time where you can't just rescue the President from ninja, you've got to bring down your corrupt private military company from within and form a new PMC with the two of you as apparently its sole agents.  This issue begins a ripped-from-the-headlines story about drug gangs in Mexico, following a hapless young lad recruited into a world of violence while our hockey mask-wearing heroes charge into an inter-gang hostage situation, only to discover that the hostages have already been shot. Then they pause and wonder if they should have tried to negotiate, but it turns out that hostages were actually dead a long time ago, so it turns out only harder and nastier lethal action is the answer! There's also a Mexican army major that brings up the culpability of the U.S. drug market in funding such activities, but then the villains shoot him to death and the Army of Two shoot back, remarking "Who needs drugs when you got this kinda rush?" There's also a green recruit that provides pathos via getting shot to death, covering his entire projected character arc in the space of the first issue. In other words, it's Peter Milligan writing, basically, a Mark Millar comic. He's hampered on two major points: (1) artists Dexter Soy (pencils) & José Marzan, Jr. (inks) work in a proficient, unemphatic style that'll probably pass a technical spot check but adds virtually nothing to the dialogue beyond the illustrative qualities of who's going where or who's talking, even sometimes garbling that as characters lose detail in longshot; and (2) Milligan's "visible writing" -- i.e. his dialogue and the basic scenario -- are subdued to the point where it depends on the art for visceral or funny or dramatic impact, be it a function of "invisible writing" -- script directions to the artist dictating mood, panel layouts, etc., which obviously aren't invisible on the page, they just can't be attributed to the writer without looking at the script itself -- or simple trust in the artists' burden. The result is a comic that totters uneasily between winking at hoary conventions and simply adopting them in a dryly self-evident manner; as guitar rock simple as its premise might seem, it's actually a bit more overtly demanding on the story-art blend than a more literary, writerly thing. Case study, this. AWFUL place to be. *** Neonomicon Hornbook: But what happens when we do have the script in front of us? This is a $1.99 preview of Avatar's new Alan Moore/Jacen Burrows project due out later this year; note that it's Moore's first totally original script for the publisher, as opposed to an adaptation of a story or poem, or a project reprinted or continued from another source. The solicitation promised design sketches and an interview with Burrows, but the final product is simply nine pages of completed art from issue #1 paired with Moore's original script for four of those pages, with an unidentified splash page I presume is a cover preview. That's fine by me; I like reading Moore's scripts, and I'm thinking Avatar is very interested in showing off the all-new, all-Moore state of the writing. The Magus himself has proven less forthcoming about the project, at one point remarking "I don’t know about my story, it might be a bit black, I don’t know, you know." He then went on to heap praise on Burrows, who also drew Avatar's 2003 The Courtyard, a Moore prose adaptation (formatted for comics by Antony Johnston) that serves as the inspiration for the current project. And while not all of the publisher's Moore adaptations have been successful as comics, the Courtyard benefited from a very simple, prose-specific concept: disguised as a police mystery, the story is really an avalanche of H.P. Lovecraft references, culminating in the big idea of Cthulhoid language as a drug, which serves as a metaphor for the addictive, lingering influence of Lovecraft himself, as embodied by the story entire. Bringing this to comics actually opens it up nicely, in that language (magic) is of such paramount importance to Moore that placing it all in a visualized locale gives the basic plot a grounded feel absent from the source material. Burrows was a good choice for that; as currently on display in Crossed, his specialty is taking smooth, animation-ready characters and contorting them into horrible states in open, chilly spaces.  But how do you read a comic like this - a comic and script? I mean, if you don't like script excerpts you save your two bucks, but since I do I find myself reading them in tandem, interested in correlation. I know the comic is supposed to be the only real part of the story, but 16-page books like this compel me to accept all the information as dual parts of the content (particularly when two bucks are on the line). I realize this doesn't always do the artists many favors, since working full script often requires picking and choosing representations from "the shimmer of murky possibilities" accordant to some prose, in the words of biblical translator Robert Alter, evaluating Robert Crumb's The Book of Genesis Illustrated. Moore doesn't much benefit from scriptural ambiguity of concision; a 47-line block of text, excerpted above, is followed by "OKAY, I THINK THAT'S PRETTY MUCH IT FOR THIS OPENING IMAGE," after which there are eight more lines before the dialogue begins. Yet Moore's script is remarkably demanding, and slick to boot - he isn't just telling an artist what to draw, he's building parts of a rather self-sufficient story in all that text. Describing the contrast between one character safe in a cozy car and another acting agitated outside in the cold, Moore presents what I suspect is a synecdoche of their dynamic as an opening flourish. That's lovely, but it's demanding too, benefiting from the evocation of language so that only superior visual nuance could fix it in full as image. This isn't Burrows' strength; his figures aren't so much expressive as liable to be dramatically twisted, while environmental effects (or the disparity between environments) don't tend to register on his cool, clean planes. Yet reading Moore's script doesn't reflect all that badly on him, partially because I think even the most uncharitable reader knows it's rhetorical dirty pool to count the absence-on-page of each and every one of Moore's voluminous stage directions against him, but also because Moore's writing is often so close to 'proper' prose it sometimes begs for its own comics script adaptation; it's like when I read Voice of the Fire and I decided it was better than most of Moore's comics, and then I frowned a little.  Oh, what? How's the comic? Well, I'm afraid it mostly resembles The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier from this segment, specifically the early bit with Allan & Mina washing up while rolling out an awful lot of stilted exposition; it was like Moore couldn't wait to get the characterization out of the way so he could launch into Ideas, which is the appeal for some readers, granted, but I'm starting to think the all-lecture final issue of Promethea is going to end up as the representative success of the writer's late period, a 'success' based in part on dispensing with characters and plot altogether. And I loved that issue of Promethea, but Neonomicon does appear to have a plot and characters, and unlike the self-contained Black Dossier we're being asked to only read the setup for now, wherein characters uneasily banter about debilitating personal problems and at one point devote a panel's worth of conversation to summarizing what happened on the prior page. Then there's a final panel reveal that doesn't offer a lot of clarity on its own, but at least restates the Courtyard's worldview-in-a-package outlook in a manner not entirely at the mercy of language. Ironically. OKAY for the sum of it, but if all you want is the comic, it's probably best to wait. *** Starstruck #5 (of 13): Here's a different take on comics and prose as an ongoing comic book, with the added benefit-burden of being a genuine series rather than a preview item, albeit a series that's up to its fourth incarnation of some of this material. Good news, though: five issues in, and it's becoming clear that IDW's Starstruck is a nearly Chris Ware-caliber feat of creative reconstitution, poking and prodding and expanding and clipping writer Elaine Lee's & artist Michael Wm. Kaluta's stuff into something that seems born for funnybook serialization.  Not that it's transformed into a lightning-quick read, oh lord no - like the aforementioned alternative genre comics of today, Starstruck isn't so much concerned with brisk plotting as enjoying the sensation of being in its detailed world. Unlike those comics, Lee accomplishes this through wildly info-dense, time-skipping story bursts that don't betray any immediately obvious story goal; as the old Epic house ads used to say, "It's not just a comic book. It's an entire universe." IDW's series exploits this universal state of being by envisioning each issue as not so much a story in the way we expect to see 20-22 pages of comics inside a 32-page book but as a collection of materials: some of it comics, some of it text, and much of it narrated by totally different characters, addressing different points on the series' timeline. Most of the text is placed in between comics segments too, forcing the question of its inclusion as part of the story. You don't have to read it, but it always compliments the dizzy style of the comics segments, which devout fans know will not reach a climax upon issue #13 - the characters will have barely been introduced by that point, again highlighting the grab bag nature of the whole. It'll read differently as a collected book, sure, but that's the collection's concern. This is comics.  Anyhow, this issue's main comics bit sees hapless Molly Medea -- the future space legend Galatia 9, if you've been reading the text segments, or any of the series' prior incarnations -- advanced to age 21 and her art terrorist phase, despite not being much of an artist or a terrorist. Her struggle with wicked half-sister Verloona Ti lands her in a perfectly absurd prison break situation with a muscular cellmate, foreshadowing future adventures with fellow quasi-protagonist Brucilla the Muscle, who's still a little girl in the issue's backup comics section. Shot through it all is Lee's fascination with interactions between women in an allusive, often parodic sci-fi universe. Verloona may not deal in, say, genetically engineered sex slaves that die after their virgin use, but she does run a chain of beauty outlets exploiting women's fascination with men's fascination with those things, thus furthering the series' complex interest in notions of sexiness, which can be misinterpreted as sexism or exploitation, because it refuses any simple pro-cleavage/anti-cleavage categorization. Too expansive a universe for that. VERY GOOD. *** PunisherMax #3: But in the interests of ending this on a more traditional high note, since I am a traditional man, here's a GOOD current ongoing series from Marvel, where Jason Aaron's and Steve Dillon's story and art function in lovely concert, and that's the whole show. A different Marvel-published writer, Kieron Gillen, also of the Image series Phonogram -- and perhaps more pertinently, the fine gaming news and criticism site Rock, Paper, Shotgun -- recently suggested that writers-on-comics refrain from bifurcating attribution of "innovation" to any specific member of the creative team, in that the writer usually dictates some aspect of the visual presentation (my "invisible writing," as seen above), while the artist inevitably affects the writing with any given choice in page layout, panel-to-panel storytelling, etc. The point is, the terms 'writer' and 'artist' are somewhat vaporous in the realpolitik of comic book creation; Gillen's suggested alternative is to treat the creative team as a "faux-cartoonist," i.e. an even more illusory single person, so as to more effectively address the totality of a work. I'll go even further than that: we also labor under an illusion in merely accepting the names in the credit boxes, particularly in collaborative Marvel/DC comics, because an editor certainly could have directed some of an issue to put it in line with the wider continuity, or the writer might have fallen ill and asked a friend to put together some stuff, or the artist might be utilizing an uncredited background artist to get the work together in time, or maybe just one panel was inked by a more established artist as a gift or a favor and that panel happened to turn out especially well. But we typically don't address these possibilities because we need a calm, steady space in which to position our analysis, even if it's less 'real.' Mind you, Gillen obviously isn't suggesting that his offered paradigm is somehow more 'real' -- I mean, faux is right in the fucking name -- but rather a more agile mirage, capable of phasing out rhetorically troubling zones. So I'm fine with that, though I don't think it's a cure-all; there's a lot of forms of writing-on-comics, and some of it rightly ought to hone in on a single member of a creative team. To use one of Gillen's examples, it is no doubt useful to look at a Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely comic as a work by a faux-single entity, yet there's little use in denying that Morrison tends to draw some power from referencing and questioning and building upon his own, real-single body of work, which of course stretches across multiple separate collaborations; indeed, All Star Superman functions as much as a continuation of Morrison's DC meganarrative as a discreet look at the Man of Steel, urging some isolation of themes and plot qualities. Moreover, if you're looking at Detective Comics right now, I obviously consider some study of J.H. Williams' work across his own career instructive on how the book does and does not succeed, although surely you can't credit every bit of the visuals to him (or Dave Stewart). The question you have to ask is: what kind of criticism do I want? What do I want to talk about? How can I accomplish that without making things up, unless it's a really good joke?  This is all a long way of saying that Jason Aaron (lettered by Cory Petit) and Steve Dillon (colored by Matt Hollingsworth) can very easily be taken as one person, so unified is their drive. Mind you, this is a mid-story bit in a series somewhat famous for flowing more as a segmented book than as chapters, so it doesn't have the same kick as some of the comics covered above, but it is progressing nicely. The primary theme at work is family, covering the ruined crime families Wilson Fisk is playing off for the sake of his own family, driven by the broken family of his older days, much in the way Frank Castle himself shoots away the ghosts - a nice bit of mirroring panels in issue #2 summed this up, concluding with Fisk stepping into the arms of his son and the Punisher hovering in a doorway in shadows. This issue introduces a super-assassin character from a plot-convenient extreme Mennonite sect that also struggles to preserve his home, a delicate thing indeed in this series. Garth Ennis' set of themes were similarly bleak, and this new run continues to beg comparison by revisiting the scene of a famous prior set piece. But this new entity-featuring-Steve-Dillon is gradually demonstrating how different it is in the same setting, replacing the Dillon-drawn comedy of early Ennis issues with a more wicked lightness of being, as an arm's length Punisher wipes out every obstacle in the MAX Universe proto-Kingpin's way, and the delight isn't just the reader's but his. As established by Ennis, Aaron continues: the Punisher is gross, so the most fun to be had with his efforts is by the most wicked character around. There's your returning artist's pictures slightly shifted by a new writer's words, like he's a new man, fake or not. Labels: Jog Click Here to Read More...Comics are still on Wednesday this week, despite the Monday holiday. AIR #17 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #618 GNTLT ANNA MERCURY 2 #3 (OF 5) AUTHORITY THE LOST YEAR #5 (OF 12) AVENGERS VS AGENTS OF ATLAS #1 AZRAEL #4 BARACK THE BARBARIAN FALL OF RED SARAH ONESHOT BATMAN STREETS OF GOTHAM #8 BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #13 BEYOND THE WALL #3 BLACK WIDOW AND MARVEL GIRLS #3 (OF 4) BLACKEST NIGHT THE FLASH #2 (OF 3) BRAVE AND THE BOLD #31 CAPTAIN AMERICA #602 COWBOY NINJA VIKING #3 (OF 4) DARK AVENGERS #13 SIEGE DARK WOLVERINE #82 SIEGE DARKNESS SHADOWS & FLAME (ONE SHOT) DEADPOOL MERC WITH A MOUTH #7 DEATHLOK #3 (OF 7) DOCTOR VOODOO AVENGER OF SUPERNATURAL #4 FABLES #92 FARSCAPE ONGOING #3 GARTH ENNIS BATTLEFIELDS HAPPY VALLEY #2 (OF 9) GEARS OF WAR #11 GFT PINOCCHIO COLLECTION A CVR SEIDMAN GI JOE #14 GLAMOURPUSS #11 G-MAN CAPE CRISIS #5 (OF 5) GRAVEL #16 GREEN LANTERN CORPS #44 (BLACKEST NIGHT) GREEN LANTERN CORPS #44 VAR ED (BLACKEST NIGHT) HELLBLAZER #263 HULK #19 FOH INCORRUPTIBLE #2 INCREDIBLE HERCULES #140 INCREDIBLE HULK #606 FOH JERSEY GODS #10 JOE THE BARBARIAN #1 (OF 8) JUGHEAD #199 MICE TEMPLAR DESTINY #6 MIGHTY AVENGERS #33 MUPPET PETER PAN #4 NOLA #3 NOVA #33 OUTSIDERS #26 PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #138 PHANTOM STRANGER #42 (BLACKEST NIGHT) POWER GIRL #8 PROJECT SUPERPOWERS CHAPTER TWO #6 PVP #43 RAPTURE #6 (OF 6) RASL #6 REALM OF KINGS INHUMANS #3 (OF 5) SIMPSONS COMICS #162 SOLOMON KANE DEATHS BLACK RIDERS #1 (OF 4) SONIC UNIVERSE #12 SPIDER-WOMAN #5 STAR TREK DS9 FOOLS GOLD #2 STAR WARS DARK TIMES #15 BLUE HARVEST PT 3 (OF 5) STAR WARS KNIGHTS OLD REPUBLIC #49 DEMON PT 3 (OF 4) STARMAN #81 (BLACKEST NIGHT) SUPERMAN BATMAN #68 SUPERNATURAL BEGINNINGS END #1 (OF 6) THUNDERBOLTS #140 TINY TITANS #24 UNCANNY X-MEN #520 UNCLE SCROOGE #387 WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #4 GNTLT WOLVERINE WEAPON X #9 ZOMBIES THAT ATE THE WORLD #8 (OF 8) (NOTE PRICE) Books / Mags / Stuff ATOMIC ROBO TP VOL 01 BAD KIDS GO TO HELL TP BAREFOOT GEN TP VOL 09 BAREFOOT GEN TP VOL 10 BARRY WINDSOR SMITH CONAN ARCHIVES HC VOL 01 CAPTAIN AMERICA ROAD TO REBORN TP CARTOON INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMICS TP VOL 01 MICROECONOMICS ( HOTWIRE GN VOL 03 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA SANCTUARY TP JUXTAPOZ VOL 17 #2 FEB 2010 LEES TOY REVIEW #206 JAN 2010 LOST OFFICIAL MAGAZINE #27 SPECIAL PX ED LOVERBOY IRWIN HASEN STORY TP NOT SIMPLE GN OISHINBO VOL 07 IZAKAYA PUB FOOD PLUTO URASAWA X TEZUKA GN VOL 07 PRISM COMICS LGBT GUIDE TO COMICS MAG 2009-2010 REBELS TP VOL 01 THE COMING OF STARRO STREET FIGHTER IV TP VOL 01 SUPERBOY THE GREATEST TEAM UPS EVER TOLD TP TEZUKAS BLACK JACK TP VOL 09 THOR BY J MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI PREM HC VOL 03 VEIL TP VOL 01 WOLVERINE BLACK CAT CLAWS TP X-MEN ASGARDIAN WARS HC YOUNG LIARS TP VOL 03 ROCK LIFE What looks good to YOU? -B Labels: Brian, Shipping Lists Click Here to Read More...Saturday, January 16, 2010
 It's 2010. I wanted to start the decade by talking about the future. But, heck, I don't know anything about the future. This one is just about webcomics. WARNING: this one is also particularly image intense. If that's a concern for your computer, you might want to skip this one.  If you google "overstimulated"-- the seventh link google finds, at the time of this essay, is for a webcomic. The Webcomic List lists 15,075 comics at the time of this essay. That isn’t the total number of webcomics in existence; that’s just the number of webcomics that signed up for that particular website. So: more than 15,075. Maybe a little more, maybe significantly more-- either way, more. Scott McCloud on March 20, 2009: "I expect webcomics to continue to grow in number and importance to the comics scene in coming years. [...] I was saying that I expected it to be a decade or two before webcomics 'slowed down' — i.e., stopped growing." More and more and ever more. How do you find the good one? I wanted to write about the future. What does the future look like?  Like the goodly Mr. Hibbs, like maybe Erik Larsen, I was reading the Beat's Annual End of the Year survey-- the word tablet was used by the all-professional respondents 23 separate times. Tablets, tablets, tablets, tablets. The future is people reading comics on tablets. Have these people noticed the numbers? It's never mentioned. But if you agree with their premise, if the future is even more demand for digital comics thanks to tablets that we'll all presumably be buying for... some reason(?), an increase in demand is likely to lead to an even further increase in supply. Which is to say: even more webcomics. More and more and more and more. What are people reading on those tablets?  When the number of comics available breaks six figures, which of the comics on the Webcomic List win? Do professional comic creators assume it'll be one of their comics? Why?  At the start of the last decade, there was a lot of talk about the “infinite canvas"-- the idea that webcomics would exploit the geographic freedoms of web-browsers in order to create an entirely new kind of comic. And I guess there are still experiments out there being done with how webcomics are presented-- this one, most famously. But I'm not aware of too many so either they're all getting by me (very possible) or they're in the minority. Infinite canvases didn’t turn out to be very good at selling ugly clothes, and ugly clothes seem to be the petrol that drive the whole webcomics engine. (Which-- comics relying on unfashionable people isn’t anything new, but I don’t know—do you ever feel like God is becoming less subtle with his metaphors?) There’s Motion Comics, I guess…?  There are defense mechanisms slowly forming to that tidal wave of material. There are the "communities of cartoonists" sites like Act-i-vate, Transmission-X, Dumm Comics, cartoonist-curated sites featuring like-minded talent. Act-i-vate features about 71-ish comics, maybe; Transmission-X features about 13-ish, I think. If I get an urge to read a webcomic, I tend to stick to those sites. I try not to contemplate the 15,000 titles.  Why not, though, for a change of pace? Why not start the decade like that? Why not start by staring into the abyss?  At the moment, the “Most Visited” comic on the Webcomic List is COLLAR 6, “a comedy/quasi-drama with bondage and latex fetishism as the backdrop.”  Once we get past our initial Puritan knee-jerk reactions, that sex is dirty and Hester Prynne is a slut and… maize is delicious, COLLAR 6? It basically conforms to my most base prejudices of what to expect from webcomics visually. It kinda-sorta-almost-not-quite-not-really-okay-not-at-all looks like manga. It crudely imitates the surface elements of manga, but none of manga’s underlying intensity of craft. That seems to be the norm for a vast swath of webcomics; it’s to be expected: after all, manga won the battle for youth culture, for various reasons. (One reason: it showed up to the battle for youth culture, at all, in any way whatsoever.) (A QUICK PARANTHETICAL DIGRESSION ABOUT PURITANS: After typing Puritan in the last sentence, I typed “Pilgrim porn” into Google Image—everybody needs a hobby. Of the 20 results, 7 were images of SCOTT PILGRIM comics, and 1 was an image of Deena Pilgrim from POWERS. None of the images were of Pilgrims celebrating a “Thanksgiving feast.” Conclusion: comics ruin everything.) So, I don't think I'm in touch with my bondage/latex-fetishism fantasies enough to evaluate the story of COLLAR 6 in a helpful way...? Or maybe I need to start with a webcomic about necking or dry humping, and work my way up to COLLAR 6. I didn't find myself wanting to be handcuffed while reading COLLAR 6. I wouldn't mind a turkey sandwich...? Are there handcuffs made out of turkey sandwich? I want to be restrained by deliciousness. What else is there to look at? There’s a webcomic portal named Drunk Duck. Famous more for being run by shitty people, it nevertheless presently claims to be the home for 14,934 webcomics. 14,934 webcomics by creators left alone and ignored by "polite" comics society-- mostly kids, I think: high schoolers, college students, that sort of thing. Here is an excerpt from "How to Make Webcomics" Episode 5: on the subject of "Texting"--  So, the milk tastes a little funny at Drunk Duck, but it's a convenient microcosm. Drunk Duck categorizes its comics visually as follows: Cartoon, American, Manga, Realism, Sprite, Sketch, Experimental, Photographic, and Stick Figure. What strikes me about that list is there’s a category marked “Experimental” that ISN'T supposed to include comics made of stick figures, photographs, or “sprites.” Think on that for a second. Any of those things being featured in print comics, me personally, I think would qualify as an experiment. Hell, I’ve read comics my whole life-- I don’t even think I know what a “sprite comic” is, actually. Sprite?  ...am I close? Wikipedia says a sprite comic is a comic that uses computer sprites. Wikipedia defines a computer sprite as “a graphic image that can move within a larger graphic.” This raises a question: what time is Matlock on? Because I’m an old, old man, and I don’t understand any of you kids and your slang. A graphic image that -- ? Man, I just want to watch Andy Griffith solve crimes and/or have sex with the Mayflower. Something like Andy Griffith saying “I put the Magna in the Magna Carta, Aunt Bee.” Something like that. "Andy Griffith didn't penetrate Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock penetrated him!" Something with a story.  But imagine growing up taking that level of choice for granted. Imagine growing up and having equal access to COLLAR 6 and BOMBSHELL FIGHTS FOR AMERICA. BOMBSHELL jumped out at me the most of the "Featured" Drunk Duck comics-- it's paranoid science fiction, an alternate history thriller where upon killing herself, Marilyn Monroe is recruited across realities by a conspiracy run by Lyndon Johnson and Howard Hughes to battle a rival conspiracy lead by Richard Nixon.  All done with manipulated photographs of Nixon, Johnson, and Norma Jeane. In print comics, colliding Phillip K. Dick and James Ellroy like that might generate some attention. If I heard someone at Vertigo had that in mind instead of ... instead of everything but SCALPED that they publish, I'd be pretty excited. But webcomics? It's one of tens of thousands.  It co-exists on the same site as PUTRID MEAT, another likable comic colored with what appear to be colored pencils(?). I don’t think I entirely understood the story—it appears to be about a garbage collector in a 2000AD-ish future, having what I think might be ultraviolent adventures. I didn't honestly comprehend what was going on exactly, but I liked it anyways-- I just like how the art looks like something I’d worry about finding in a locker, if I were a junior high school vice-principal.  Both on the same site as the apparently very popular (according to the Browse function of the site) I WAS KIDNAPPED BY LESBIAN PIRATES FROM OUTER SPACE-- that one with more traditional art taken and digitally "scratched up", chewed, manipulated to create the appearance of pages that had aged.  As the not-my-thing-at-all low-brow machinima comic CRU THE DWARF... As Hyperactive "manga"-style comics, funny animals in carefully shaded pencil, weird monster-looking stuff, etc. And that's just one site, one tiny corner of the internet I don't usually make it a point to visit. That's not counting Keenspot. That's not counting what happens when you go way off reservation.  Want to read German superhero photo-comics? Or would you prefer your superhero photo-comics to be by Americans? How many options do you WANT exactly? Want to read extremely Not-Safe-For-Work gag comics of Alan Moore ejaculating while having rough anal sex with his own doppelgänger? I don't either, but it's there if you want, need it, crave it. It's there if you can find it. And not just the sub-professional or the weird. Let's do a compare-contrast. Here is a page from BOXER HOCKEY.  And for comparison purposes, here is a page from COWBOY NINJA VIKING.  If you've never heard of either, can you tell me without looking which is available for free and which you have to pay for? Answer: the previous page was free, on the internet; the latter page, Image Comics charged $3.50, for the pleasure. How about art-comics? Here is a page of comic I strongly disliked recently, Danica Novgorodoff's SLOW STORM. That one costs about $18.00.  I googled "what is the strangest webcomic"-- what did I find? I found a bunch of photos of Myles Standish getting stuffed with cocks. What-?? How did--?? But eventually, I found my way to PERFECT STARS:  It wasn't my ideal comic experience, but whatever "odd and unique comic experience" itch I was hoping that SLOW STORM would scratch? It certainly did a better job of it.  Let alone the constant stream of classic material coming online everyday. Did you see those Winsor McCay drawings from Golden Age Comic Book Stories the other day? Holy shit. In summary: have you guys heard that there's a lot of stuff on the internet? For serious-- stuff for days, guys! Maybe you hadn't heard.  If the future is digital comics, if the future is webcomics: how do people expect to cope with the deluge of material? How is anyone expected to find what they consider signal in that noise? Surfing through webcomics, past Achewood, past Kate Beaton, past "respectability," it's hard for me to stop and pay attention to any one comic. There's always some other comic to surf over to, you know? With that level of choice, how do you know when to stop and actually spend time on any one thing? How do you know there's not something just a little better a couple clicks away? How do you find what you like? How do you find a needle in a haystack? How do you find a cliche to type into an essay? You ask me for one because you know how much I love them. You're welcome. Webcomics, for me, are a prime example of the Paradox of Choice. The paradox of choice (which I think Jeff alluded to previously) describes how greater consumer choices invariably lead to greater consumer anxiety. Consumers with fewer choices buy more, are happier with their choices. But "consumer hyperchoice"? That usually leads to "frustration, fatigue and regret." I know a lot of people are waiting for an iTunes for comics, but frustration, fatigue and regret? Dude, that sounds like a stone bummer. I probably shouldn't worry. There's a lot of free music out there, and that hasn't stopped iTunes. I'm not the guy to ask about that-- between youtube and mp3 blogs, not counting concerts, I haven't paid more than $10 in a year for music in more than a decade. But I guess somebody out there is...? The internet didn't stop Lady Gaga. Neither did ears. Go figure.  You can say: "Oh, there should be critics who guide you to the good stuff. 95% of everything is shit, so we need critics to find that 5%." Who can possibly wade through tens of thousands of comics in a meaningful way? With the number & range of webcomics both predicted only to increase, what will a "knowledgeable opinion" even look like? If you believe that 95% of everything is shit, and only 5% is good-stuff, if you accept "Sturgeon's Law", at 15,000 comics? That means there should be about, oh, 750 great webcomics in existence. I would bet that I can name maybe ... twenty...? And I like less than I can name. Comixtalk did a year-end roundtable in December 2009, in which they spoke to not less than eight people. Between the eight of them, roughly five billion webcomics are mentioned over the course of the round-table. So: be sure to check those out...  I think the anxiety that the Paradox of Choice creates is... To find what you like, with that many choices available, boy, you probably need to have a very precise idea what it is that you like. Who has that? I sure don't. If hyperchoice creates an anxiety, isn't it ultimately an anxiety born of questions of self-knowledge? What do you like? What are you looking for? Do you even know what you're looking for? What do you want OUT OF LIFE? WHO ARE YOU? EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK.  The other day, I watched a video by a 14-year old kid on youtube, this strangely affecting moment of him and his girlfriend in a convenience store set to music. It's going around the tumblr parts of the internet, I guess...? The same day, I was looking for pictures of pretty girls on the internet—everybody needs a hobby—and I came across Look Book, a website of “fashion inspiration from real people”—regular ladies and gents, dressing up in their Sunday’s best, showing off looks they’d created, part-time models, pretty people celebrating looking fancy instead of, you know… consider the following example of the more official and “legitimate” industry of “Fashion”:  You guys know more about Batman than I do-- when did Joker decide to murder boners???  And then today, I started listening to this nerdcore mixtape, I AM JUST A RAPPER, by Donald Glover and DC Pierson of Derrick Comedy, Mystery Team and Community fame—you know, just comedy guys putting dopey, dorky rhymes over that Sleigh Bells song or Animal Collective songs.  Or, besides Jimmy Kimmel slaughtering Jay Leno on his own show, or that movie YOUTH IN REVOLT (which I thought was underrated), my favorite thing this week is Ask 60's Bob Dylan Anything. People send in questions, and “60’s Bob Dylan” answers them. It’s just started, but I don’t know—something about the idea of that website really makes me laugh… The “democratization of media"-- I think that's the technical term for it all.  What I think unites the examples above, it isn’t just that the internet’s opened up an opportunity for more people to be in “show business”— it’s that it’s increased the total range of what’s "normal". These are all examples of things that really didn’t even exist when I was a kid, at least for all intents and purposes. Short films? Mixtapes? Man, I grew up in Cincinnati—we have good chili, but it’s not exactly the Sorbonne. Photos of pretty girls? A kid got in trouble for that sort of thing when I was growing up; well, he had a camera rig hidden in his closet, not 100% the same thing, maybe, but close. What does normal even mean anymore? With comics-- I grew up with “house styles”-- entire publishing companies, trying to recreate the styles of 2, maybe 3 artists. And I suppose if you asked me to picture a comic in my head, I’d picture something that existed in one of those house styles. What would someone picture in their head after growing up with comics after this explosion of different styles and approaches?  What would it have been like to grow up with not just an explosion of comics, but amidst this entire cacophony of animated gifs, youtube videos, facebook status updates, blogs, twitters, texts, chaos? My attention span is swiss cheese-- I can't even do simple math anymore; that part of my brain is gone. And yet comics seem to have thrived in that environment, have thrived in that chaos, now even themselves reflect that chaos. What does the future look like? Do you just picture one thing-- can you just picture a tablet? Or is it just a jumbled, writhing, shrieking mess? Did you know if you google "overstimulated"-- the seventh link google finds is for a webcomic? Wait, wait-- did I say that already? Labels: Abhay Click Here to Read More...Friday, January 15, 2010
Oh, I forgot to link this earlier -- here's the latest Tilting at Windmills on CBR. Their message boards seem to be down, so feel free to comment upon it here! -B Click Here to Read More... |
Smart-ass comic reviews, and comics retailing intelligence, by Brian Hibbs, owner of San Francisco's Comix Experience. And friends!
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Brian Hibbs |
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Jeff Lester |
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Tucker Stone |
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Douglas Wolk |
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