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.

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.

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.

O Comics! My Comics!

Art: Steve Ditko from the story Deep Ruby,
appearing in Eerie #6

Why do we do it? What makes comics so important to us? What makes us stand tall in the face of mockery from obnoxious, ignorant, outsiders? What makes us suffer the sometimes rude, elitist, and cruel words that fellow fans will spew from behind the anonymity of the internet? Why do comics affect us on a deep, emotional level that few other mediums ever have or could? Why would I spend the time writing this column that is coming dangerously close to being a cry for personal validation?

The answer to all of those questions is a simple one: comics are an end in themselves. Neither comics, nor I, need any additional validation. Their very existence proves their worthiness and that they are a worthwhile pursuit.

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.