Nostalgia as an older person?

I've recently had an interesting experience in my comic reading.  I read all the X-Men comics.  From the sales numbers, there seem to be about 35,000 of us out there who will read any additional title that says, "X-Men" on the cover.

Didn't they forget a few of these story lines?

So, of course, I've been reading Uncanny X-Force by Rick Remender and (sometimes) Jerome Opena.  The comic is getting a TON of positive press from the blogosphere.  "Best comic being published by Marvel right now" is a common refrain.  And that puts me in a funny position because I think it's okay, but I hardly think it's the best thing being published by Marvel (that would be Amazing Spider-Man).

However, I've noticed that the guys who LOVE X-Force are all a little younger than me.  They were reading comics when the original Age of Apocalypse when it came out in 1995.  I wasn't reading comics at the time.  I was mostly into using my new legal drinking status to buy drinks for for attractive young ladies.  Since I "returned to comics" a few years back, I've read AoA and I think it's a fine X-story, but reading a old story as a grown-ass man is different because AoA will never be connected to some of those wonderful memories that we all have from our teenage years.

Genre comics & superheroes

"Why can't we have more non-superhero work from Marvel and DC?"


That's a common refrain that you'll see on any comic book message board.  The Big 2 make a living on superhero comics, but why can't we get more material like war comics or westerns or crime comics?

A few months ago, it seemed like the publishers might be listening.  One of the comics I was looking forward to most among the new DC52 was Men of War and they had a sexy sounding western title called All-Star Western.  Marvel got in on the act with the recently released Six Guns, which seemed to be a modern-day western.

But, all of these new series have fallen very flat for me because they are still tied to their respective superhero universes.  Men of War tells the story of what it's like to be a solider in a world with superheroes.  All-Star Western puts Jonah Hex in fricking Gotham City.  And Six Guns features bikers and bounty hunters dealing with D-list Marvel heroes and villains.

All of these comics are well written and well drawn, but I lost interest the second I saw that they contained superheroes.

Granted, once you get away from the Big 2, the world is your oyster if you want a non-superhero comic book, but why can't the Big 2 use their financial muscle and access to talent to make it a little better.

How about you?  Do you like having a helping of superhero in your genre comics?

- Dean Stell

What is difference of opinion and what is "wrong"?

Interesting things happen when you interact with the public, especially when you interact with the comic book public and talk about things like art in comic books.

As some followers know, I write reviews for 7-8 current comics every week at www.weeklycomicbookreview.com.  It's a fun thing to do and I think it has made me a better comic reader because I'm constantly trying to think of ways to put into words what a comic makes me feel.

But, you see some interesting things in the comment thread....  And, I LOVE our comment thread.  There's no better feeling that knowing that something you wrote caused someone to spend some of their time interacting back, so I always try to respond to everyone on our threads.

Ordinarily, I think comics should be a no arguing zone.  I mean....when I think of the people who get into fist-shaking rages over comic book arguments, I feel kinda the way Allen Iverson used to feel about "practice".  My attitude is usually, "C'mon....we're arguing about comic books!  Are you fricking kidding me??"

And, you'll see that attitude on most of the "feel good" internet comic forums: Hey! We're all entitled to our opinions!

But....what if their opinion is legitimately dumb?

Bias & Fanboyism in Comic Reviews

As most of you know, I review new comics over at Weeklycomicbookreview.com.  It's an interesting avocation because there is no established source for comics journalism.  Even the "big boys" of Comic Book Resources, Newsarama and iFanboy probably aren't making much money on this stuff and if you go down a notch further down to sites like WCBR, you're talking about folks who are creating content just for fun.  Yet, there are fans and readers who want objective reviews.  

One's life as a comic reviewer is interesting.  You start out just flinging reviews into the ether.  You can see the traffic stats for your reviews and see that you're getting a whopping 15 page views per day and that most of those are search engines.  Then something interesting happens: You get an email from a real, live comic book creator who is thanking you for saying something nice about their comic book.  

You get an epiphany at this point, "Creators read this stuff!"  And, many of those creators are friendly guys.  Lots of them doing creator-owned comics at places like Image aren't getting paid anything and have dreamed of doing comics their whole life and suddenly they've got people critiquing their work in public.  

I don't know about you, but I don't love it when my professional work get's critiqued in public.  

Eventually you get friendly with some of these guys.  You become friends on twitter, learn that you have things in common with a few of them, see them at conventions, have them as sources to ask insider questions, etc.  Yet, along the way....you are still having to review their work.  At some point, it becomes like being asked to critique a friend in public.  It's also good to remember that it is a one-sided relationship in that way......Ryan Stegman probably isn't going to start blogging about my skills at writing patent licenses.

Writers getting details wrong...

Writing material that is going to be published isn't easy:  You're putting material out there for a world full of chuckle-head bloggers (like me) to nit-pick the smallest aspects of what you're created.  Heck....I feel their pain.  I've published a few articles in scholarly journals in my professional life and in my avocation I always have to be careful when reviewing comics at Weeklycomicbookreview.com for fear that I'll screw up some detail of Age of Apocalypse or the Clone Saga and have some rage encrusted troll attack me in the comments section.  So, I get it.

But, one thing I just can't forgive in a writer are those who purposely include details in their script but then get the details wrong.  All of us have those little areas where we know a hell of a lot.  So, anytime an writer decides he wants to fling around specific terms like the type of engine found in a particular car, scientific details, etc. they do so at their peril because someone reading the material is an expert on that subject.  And, when they screw up those details, especially in a fictional work that is meant to be anchored in reality, it pops the whole bubble.  We, the reader, are supposed to be suspending disbelief and letting the story flow over us: "This stuff could really happen!"  But, then these factual FUBARs arise and suddenly the suspension of disbelief is gone and the reader is on Wikipedia checking your facts instead of reading the story.

Sex & Violence in comics

Dan Slott started a twitter conversation last night where he asked comic readers who are parents what level of sex and violence they want to see in comics.  As you can imagine, the responses ran the gamut from full on NC-17 content to no sex/violence at all.

But, one theme that did pop out repeatedly was how much implied sexual content existed in shows "we" watched in the late 70's and early 80's.  One example that Slott brought up was Three's Company.  That show had the running gag that Jack was homosexual (which was why it was "okay" for him to live with single women) and tons of sexual innuendo.  

I tend to fall pretty strongly into the "unlimited violence but no sex" in my Marvel/DC comics.  Now, non-Big 2 are another matter as I love anything with pretty girls in it (although I am more a cheesecake fan than a sex scene fan).  Why is that?

Here's what it comes down to for me: I have a daughter.  I worry not one iota about her slicing off a friend's head with a sword or shooting up her school while imagining a scene from Punisher.  But, my biggest worry as a parent is pregnancy.  Pretty much all the other juvenile problems can be healed.  There is rehab for drugs and even if you go through a phase of stealing cars as a juvenile, you can eventually still go to college and lead a productive life.  Heck...you can even stop being a stripper.

Pregnancy is different.  My hat is off to those who have thrived as teen parents, but I'm talking about this from a parent's (specifically a father's) point of view.  But, no father in 2011 hopes that his daughter will have a child before she is (a) finished with her education, (b) established in her career and (c) married.  That's the optimal that we're all shooting for.

Double page spreads & Digital comics

This DC relaunch sure has been fun, right?  I've enjoyed a number of the titles immensely and I'm reading them all digitally.

One thing I was very curious to see was how DC's creators approached double-page spreads with the knowledge that these comics would be distributed digitally.  The problem with the double-page spread is that they don't work digitally.  They take what should be the most majestic scene of the issue and make it the least impressive.

Don't believe me?  Look at this comparison of areas (in square inches):

• Normal comic book page: 72.2
• Double page comic spread: 144.4
• iPad2 screen: 45.9

I'm honestly surprised that the iPad's screen is only 63% the size of a standard comic page because reading normal comic pages on the iPad isn't off-putting at all.  But, the double-page spreads end up being displayed at less than 1/3 of the intended size.  Suddenly all the scale and majesty is lost as we squint to even read the words on the page.

But, sometimes it works better than others.  Let's look at a few examples:


Justice League #1 by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee:

This is kinda the no-harm/no-foul of the digital double-page spread.  Maybe we don't get the thrill of a BIG image, but we digital readers can still see the whole of the action because the double-page spread is just one big image.  However, Johns/Lee could have accomplished this same effect digitally with a single-page slash image and that would have freed up an extra page for Batman and Green Lantern to talk to each other in the sewer.

Iceman vol. 1 - Back Issue Review

Originally published: December 1984 - June 1985

Length: 4 issues

Writer: J.M. DeMatteis

Pencils: Alan Kupperberg

Inks: Mike Gustovich

Colors: Bob Sharen

Letters: Janice Chiang

Editor: Bob Budiansky

The Review: This series sprang out of the mid-1980's Marvel miniseries initiative.  There were some real jewels in that era, some real crap and some that are just kinda so-so.  Iceman is one of the so-so ones.

The basic theme of this mini is that of relations with one's parents as we see Bobby Drake doing his darnedest to please his demanding parents while also becoming an adult man.  In this way, it is an interesting window into the times.  In the 1980's, comic books were targeted at young boys, so it makes a lot of sense to portray the parent/child relationship through the eyes of the child.  Everything is through Bobby Drake's eyes and has a very, "Why can't they just understand me and let me be my own person?!?!" vibe to it.  In 2011, when comics are more targeted at middle-aged men who are more likely to be parents themselves, so we're more likely to see the parent/child relationship explored by seeing Wolverine taking a young mutant under his wing and being exasperated by her childish behavior.  Times change...

Event Miniseries - ARGH!

Not to get into hyperbole, but there are few things more frustrating to me than the miniseries that tie into comic book "events".  You know they'll probably be mediocre, but we buy them because we don't want to "miss something."

By way of personal example, I skipped ALL of the Flashpoint tie-ins and did feel like I missed a lot reading just the main series.  Oh...I was able to figure out what happened, but it always felt like I was only reading half of the story.

On the other hand, I bought everything for Fear Itself and am now kicking myself.  When it is all over, I'll have invested WAY more time and money in the miniseries than in the event itself.  Let's run them down:

Fear Itself: Black Widow - I recall thinking this was okay and liking the art, but I don't remotely remember what happened.

Fear Itself: Deadpool - Awful and unimportant.  Uncanny X-Force has showed that Deadpool can be a real character, but this miniseries was dreadful.

Fear Itself: Fearsome Four - Terrible.  This has had the most jumbled art team imaginable.  My only excuse for this is that Marvel thought Michael Kaluta was doing this series (which would have been good), but when that fell through....they soldiered on anyway.  The high point has been a few pages with Simon Bisley art.

Fear Itself: Fellowship of Fear - Ugh.  A recap of who the Worthy are in FI.  Seem to recall this was all reprint material.  

The problem is "Comic Book Guy"...

Anyone who follows sales numbers for comics knows that our hobby is hurting.  And...if you frequent message boards online or follow interviews with creators and editors, you know that there is all this chattering about attracting the "new reader".  Heck...the entire DC relaunch is about getting new readers.

"Official Spokesman"

But, the fly in the ointment is that comic books have a severe image problem.  If you mention comic books to a "civilian, they will first think of our "official spokesman": The Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons.  Ugh....although CBG has had a few moments of heroism over the two decades that The Simpsons has been on the air, he's mostly an object of ridicule.  

No boy wants to grow up to be the CBG, no man wants to hang out with the CBG and no woman wants to sleep with CBG (or even stand next to him on public transportation).

She looks SO happy, right?

If you continue your conversation with your civilian friends, they will doubtless ask whether you watch The Big Bang Theory.  These guys are only an improvement on CBG in that they are not obese.  But they have the same basic problems as CBG: no boy wants to grow up to be those guys, no man wants to hang out with the Big Bang Theory Guys and women usually don't want to sleep with them (although it being a fictional show....the geek does occasionally get the girl).  

Digital Comics - Why I love them...

For my inaugural posting here at A Little Nonsense, I wanted to do something that is near and dear to my heart: Digital Comics!

Due to my background, I'm pretty interested in the business of comics. Not at the retail level, but the bigger, macro level where it is obvious that the industry has significant problems with their current business model.

There are lots of edgy things to say about digital comics and many of those will find their way into future posts. Honestly, I tried to write some of those, but they didn't come out right without first giving some grounding in my basic thoughts about digital comics.