Comics I've Read Over The Past Few Weeks AND For The Record: Fuck The Laughing Ogre

This one deserves a bit of an introduction.

So my comic buying habits have slowed a bit lately. I'm now down to buying comics every 2 or 3 weeks, as opposed to buying them every week as I used to do. The reason for this is because I now buy my comics at Packrat Comics - a store that's about 15 miles from where I live. Weighing the price of gas and how painfully thin my monthly paychecks are, I figured it was best to reduce the number of trips to the store and come back with a thicker load each time.

The most sensible question to ask in response to this is why I would shop at a store so far from where I live when there are in fact two stores within a 4 mile radius of me. The answer is simple - those stores suck.

Most people would then point out the Laughing Ogre. Conveniently situated uptown, enormous selection, and frequent signings by well known writers like Jason Aaron and Brian Wood. Okay, okay - the store itself doesn't suck. It's got a pretty interior and has all the books I'd ever want to buy.

But there still remains one enormous deterring factor that keeps me from going there. The employees are complete and total assholes. Nearly every time I go there, there's about three or four of them working, and they only seem to talk to each other. Nearly every time I ask one of them a question or try to engage them in a conversation about comics, the question gets answered succinctly and they go back to their conversation as if I was merely an interruption.

Never, never in my life have I been to a comic book store where employees pretended the store was a record store, a setting where it's socially acceptable to act too cool around the customers. Most stores I've gone to, even the poorly lit ones with overweight workers too situated to get off their chairs, have employees that aren't just willing to converse with the customers about comics, they're eager to. Back home in Southern California, at Nuclear Comics I would usually go and shoot the breeze with whoever was working that day for at least an hour.

I love that. I love to be able to get all kinds of recommendations, to hear about all kinds of books I haven't read, and even to argue a little bit whenever contrary viewpoints are espoused. What makes the comic community unique is that the art form is so distant from mainstream audiences that everybody that reads comics is serious about them and usually loves to talk to others about them.

And to be honest - I don't even care that much for reading comics in issues. Trade paperbacks make for a smoother read, they're a self-contained work that you can loan to people, and they look sexier on a bookshelf. To boot, you can get them for much cheaper, especially if you order online or look for them used. The only real reason I buy comics in issues is to give me an excuse to go to comic book stores more frequently, hereby giving me more opportunities to shoot the breeze with comic book store owners and sometimes even other customers.

When I first walked into Packrat Comics, the owner greeted me enthusiastically, asked me if I needed help finding anything, and was more than eager to delve into a long, meandering conversation about comics. I didn't come back for another month and a half, but when I did, the guy remembered me from before. After a decent length chatterring about comics, I made my decision. This is the store I want to set up my comics subscription at.

So that's that. And for the record, fuck the Laughing Ogre.

A word before the three weeks of comics - I forgot to buy the newest issue of INVINCIBLE, so I'll have to pick that one up next time. Also, the store has been sold out of the newest FANTASTIC FOUR, so once they get in a new copy I'll post a review of it.

1. DEADPOOL #3
Writer: Daniel Way
Artist: Paco Medina

This issue surprised me quite a bit. So I've stated previously that what really makes Deadpool fun to read is the silliness and shenanigans in the book coupled with the extreme amounts of violence. All of that is still there, and the book is still making me laugh out loud a little while reading (a feat pretty rare for any print medium), the book is actually surprisingly plot-oriented. At first I thought the Secret Invasion tie-in was meant to be a little bit of a joke, but it looks like Deadpool's actions are going to be pretty integrally tied into other big players in the Marvel Universe. So the book is now three things in one - it's gritty, it's plotty, and it's funny.

I'm still waiting for Deadpool to use a samurai sword again, though. I've always got a craving for some katana.

By the way - I mentioned the last couple of times how much I wanted DEAR DEADPOOL back. Well, when I talked to Daniel Way (ironically, at The Laughing Ogre), he said he wouldn't mind writing it, but it's up to the editors whether or not it will get printed. We'll see!

2. ACTION COMICS #870
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Gary Frank
I think most would expect me to trash this issue after the pretty thorough rant I gave about the newest SUPERMAN issue.

But, truth be told, I liked it. Geoff Johns has been doing a good run on the book. I think he's one of the few writers that knows how to write Superman for the long-term, in that he a) introduces enough twists and originality into Superman's life b) he doesn't use these twists in a gritty, post-modern type way - the book feels fresh while still preserving what people like about the character and c) he brings out the sympathy in the character. When you read his work, you like the guy.

If nothing else, Superman is a guy you're supposed to like. You can read Wolverine without thinking Wolverine's a good guy, you can read Daredevil without empathizing with Daredevil, and you can even think Batman's a little bit off his rocker and still enjoy the book. But with Superman, you really cannot enjoy the book unless he's portrayed as a likeable, charitable guy. If the writer can't accomplish that, the book fails miserable.

This issue was by no means a great issue. And this storyline as well as the previous one hardly compare to Johns' wonderful Escape From Bizarro World, but nonetheless, it's a fun read. This issue had some confusing moments in it. Particularly, I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, which seems to be leading heavily into the New Krypton 12 part arc coming right up. I'm being intentionally vague about this because I don't want to spoil anything.

Gary Frank's art is still awesome, by the way.

3. THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #6
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Salvador Larroca
I've made no bones about the fact that this is probably my favorite book on Marvel right now. Iron Man is a likable and witty guy for a change and it's been really wonderful to read a book about him that reminds me of how hard Tony Stark works to be a good guy and how hard he is on himself for his failures.

This was the final issue in the arc and had a big confrontation with Ezekiel Stane. While in some respects the resolution follows a rather predictable pattern, the nature of the confrontation itself does not. The book had some well paced action and an ending that really nailed the tone of the story arc.

I can't wait to read more.

4. THE WALKING DEAD #53
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Charlie Adlard
I'm really kicking myself for not having bought that Invincible issue. That way I could have reserved the whole latter half of this entry for a Kirkman Korner and shown that goofy picture of him wearing that Savage Dragon hat. Until next time...

I used to say that this was my favorite book to read in issues - that every issue had something major and climactic and it was always really well-paced and fun to read. Looking back, I think part of the reason I said that was because at the time I was reading the No One Is Safe arc, which was pretty damn incredible. Now that the pace has slowed down (back to its normal pace), the book is a bit sluggish in the single issue department.

This issue really felt like a transition issue. It was mostly dialogue, which is usually fine with me, except the dialogue didn't really speed the pace or advance the plot, it mostly was just normal chitter chatter. Small talk, even. There was a cool punchline at the end that piqued my interest, but naturally, I can't reveal it here.

- - - -

That's it for now. In a couple of days I'm probably going to have a fun X-Men corner activity. Bring the kids!

Why Hasn't DC Hired Mark Millar to Write Superman?

DC is kind of in the dumps right now. While Marvel is enjoying the obvious big success of their major titles like the Avengers books, Spider-Man, and the whole lot of X books, they've also had enormous success in elevating the statuses of their lesser known heroes. IRON FIST, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THOR, DAREDEVIL, and more recently, GHOST RIDER, have all experienced major overhauls in sales and critical appraisals due to shifts in their creative teams.

DC, however, only seems to be kept afloat by their more major properties. Sure, the JUSTICE LEAGUE, JUSTICE SOCIETY, and BATMAN books all sell really well, but what else does? And moreover, now that ALL-STAR SUPERMAN is done and now that Greg Rucka has left CHECKMATE, what is on DC that's really worth your time and money?

What boggles my mind is when there are big name creators that explicitly state that they really want to work on and overhaul certain DC characters or properties, and yet, the creators never get their crack and we don't get to see the books change.

There are a whole bunch of cases of this happening, but for now, I'm going to single out just one. Superstar writer Mark Millar has stated numerous times that his life goal is to be the long-term writer of SUPERMAN or ACTION COMICS. This isn't just a recent proposition - he's been outspoken about this in interviews for pretty much as long as he's been interviewed. Why the hell has he not been put on the book?

Let's go over some facts about the guy to illustrate how absurd this situation is:

• The term "superstar", especially "superstar writer" is kind of a joke. However, in this case I deemed it appropriate for usage because if there's anybody for whom this applies, it's Mark Millar. Nearly everything this guy writes sells like hotcakes. It's extremely rare for any of the books he writes to not break the Top 10 or 20 in sales. He's had blockbusting runs on MARVEL KNIGHTS: SPIDER-MAN, ULTIMATES, WOLVERINE, ULTIMATE X-MEN, and more recently, on the FANTASTIC FOUR.
  
  
• To boot, he's possibly the most successful creator in the industry after Alan Moore. He's really the envy of the creator-owned world, as his books Wanted and Chosen ended up rivalling big name Marvel and DC books in sales. This is incredibly rare. His newest book, KICK ASS, sold 60,000 copies of the first printing of the first issue. Most creator-owned books rarely rarely rarely sell over 25,000 copies.
  
  
• He's not only a big name in comics, but in the film industry as well. The Wanted movie grossed enormous numbers, which is pretty rare for a non-Marvel or DC comic book movie adaptation. A Kick Ass movie is already in development, and there's talk of adapting Chosen and War Heroes.
  
  To further compound the ridiculousness, many of his changes to Marvel status quo have come around to influence the movies. It was his decision to model the Nick Fury of the Ultimate universe after Samuel L. Jackson - a man who now appears to be playing the character in all of the newer Marvel movie adaptations. Nearly all of the talk around around the upcoming Avengers movie is how much it will resemble Millar's run on THE ULTIMATES.
  
  Translation of all of this: This guy can't write something that's not cinematic.
  
  
• While some might still be reserved about the guy for his inexperience in writing for the DC Universe, he actually has already written Superman several times. Millar initially cut his teeth writing the kid friendly SUPERMAN ADVENTURES book, but more importantly, Millar was the author and brains behind the now classic Superman: Red Son book. I've heard accounts from several that they had hated Superman before reading that book and still thought the book was an absolutely incredible read.

- - - - - -

Is it just me, or does after considering all of this make DC seem absolutely insane for not hiring this guy to write one of their Superman books? This one is such an obvious no-brainer: hiring the guy is almost guaranteed to produce big sales and critical acclaim. Anybody that refuses to hire Mark Millar for a project that he's genuinely excited to undertake must just not want to make money or make fans happy. That's honestly the only explanation I can think of.

WATCHMEN: The Movie Will Be Awesome

I'm routinely bad about keeping up with things, so maybe everybody has already seen this, but just the other day I just found this interview with Dave Gibbons talking about the Watchmen movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbnLAVV856E

(I also haven't yet figured out how to display YouTube videos in a blog. If anybody knows, please tell me.)

Seeing that has actually assuaged a lot of my doubts about the upcoming movie. I was a little nervous about the choice of Zack Snyder because frankly I found the 300 movie a little dull and was also getting paranoid that the unique neon and rain-soaked vision of New York presented in the comic would be replicated using green screens and gaudy digital visuals.

Instead, they seem to be using live sets for what looks like nearly all of the scenes taking place in New York. On top of that, the sets look UNBELIEVABLE and really recapture that meticulous eye for detail that the comic had.

I have to admit - this sounds like comic book heresy, but I'm really quite excited for this movie and have only been getting more so the more I hear about it. To all the naysayers out there who keep repeating like a mantra "It's not going to be as good as the comic!", I have this question for you:

What the fuck is? Honestly?

If I were to only watch or own works of art that were up to the quality that Watchmenis, then I would probably own about 6 comics, a handful of movies, and maybe a small stack of novels. This is a harsh criterion that really shouldn't be leveled on ANYTHING.

So I pose this question to all of you: Instead of constantly belaboring about how the movie will never be able to replicate certain aspects of the comic, how about thinking about a thing or two that the movie will be able to do betterthan the comic?

I, for one, can already name a couple:

1. Judging from the footage in the trailer and what I've heard about the movie, Zack Snyder seems to be remaking a lot of the scenes panel for panel, completely retaining the artistic vision. It's going to be really amazing to see all of these classic scenes in motion with vivid detail. The scene in the trailer with Dr. Manhattan trouncing through Vietnam and vaporizing Vietcong soldiers gave me the chills. The way he does it so dispassionately... he doesn't even change his completely neutral facial expression. Scares me just thinking about it right now.

2. Music and sound. I'm obviously a huge proponent of comic books as an art form - the fact that I made my own comic book blog and post on it frequently while I have no blogs for movies or books or whatever really shows my dedication. In my snottier moments, I will go as far as to argue superiority of the form over film, television, books, whatever.

So I hate to say this, but if there's one thing that comic books are sorely lacking, it's music and sound. Star Wars wouldn't have worked as a comic - it's combination of enormous visuals and a big orchestrated soundtrack made an amazing operatic production. A great, evocative soundtrack in a movie will often make a movie very emotionally engaging, make you just tingle all over - a sensation that I rarely get from a comic book.

So while Watchmen: The Movie may not cause as many intellectual discussions or be as cerebral, it may, just may, completely destroy Watchmen: The Comic in the raising-the-hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck factor.

3. See below:


I don't know about you guys, but expect to see me line for the midnight showing on opening night. Of course it won't be as good as the comic, but chances are it will be more than worth the 10 dollar ticket price and 2 hours of my time.

An Awesome Album Cover (Why Hadn't a Comic Book Artist Thought of This?)

I was just listening to this band I was rather fond a while back, The Afghan Whigs. Their biggest album, Gentlemen, always had a cover that I thought looked really cool, but I never realized just how good of a photograph it was until today.

I mean, just look at how much the kids look like adults in the middle of a complex situation. The girl is looking at him with a kind of a tender look, but the boy has a little bit of bitterness in him.

You can tell he's thinking something to himself along the lines of "Man, how am I gonna get rid of this bitch? She was good for a lay but not much else." And yet, even though his resentment feels restrained and very adult, he's still a kid for crying out loud! You look at him and want to pinch his fucking cheeks!

Classic. While this isn't remotely comic book related, it's such a great shot and really has so much story embedded in it that it's something I would expect to see on the cover of a comic book story about a relationship drama instead.

And also, it's my blog, so I can post whatever I want. One day you could come on here and just find pictures of kangaroos playing volleyball, essays about botany, or a crude pictorial history of the invention of the phone book.

And there won't be anything you can do about it. Because at that point, I will have gone mad with power.

Most Handsome Man in Comics?

I've been wanting to make a detailed post that borderlines on being an article about how awesome Matt Fraction's writing is. It would detail his early creator-owned work to the more recent epic CASANOVA and even his Marvel work and how he was able to really bring to life many lesser known or previously seen as unlikeable characters. All of this would lead to a sort of argument that Matt Fraction is a guy to really watch in comics - somebody that might be as important as Grant Morrison in ten years.

But somewhere along the line, I got lazy.

Yeah. Work does that to you.

So instead, I'm going to make a much easier argument. I'm going to say that Matt Fraction just might be the Most Handsome Man in Comics right now.

Don't believe me? Compare him to these ugly schmucks.

Jeez, Frank. I wouldn't look so smug if I was sporting your ugly mug.

And this might be the first time anyone has ever referred to Alan Moore as an "ugly schmuck." I'm just THAT edgy.

Marvel Apes

Just about anything bad you can say about the series MARVEL APES is totally valid.

But you can't deny that the covers have some pretty funny references.

(The original cover, CAPTAIN AMERICA #25, which featured the death of Captain America, is on the left, whereas the new, parody cover is on the right.

More Industry Speculation - Will Marvel Lose its Fire?

This is an addendum to the piece I wrote yesterday about Marvel. I was just thinking about it today and realized that there are a whole bunch of points I forgot to talk about in that already overly long article.

So here we go. More fun with industry speculation that will most likely be wrong anyways.

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The most obvious analogy I can give for the way Marvel is operating today, in terms of creative output, the working creators, and the working business model, is the way DC operated in the 80's.

Think about it. Back in the 80's DC had all the coolest creators: Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, John Byrne, Peter Milligan...

...who am I forgetting? There might be a few others. I can't remember all of them.

They were all revamping books left and right. Gaiman's SANDMAN, Moore's SWAMP THING, Miller's work on Batman, etc. etc. There were even newer original works by creators, like Miller's RONIN, and the most obvious, Moore's WATCHMEN. All were highly successful, highly critically acclaimed. Hell, even artsy fartsy guys like Scott McCloud hold Moore and Gaiman's work at DC to be some of the best work produced in the medium.

Slowly, however, the creators (with the exception of Grant Morrison) all left. Some goodbyes were like messy breakups and had a lot of mean words exchanged, while some just seemed to get better offers elsewhere and didn't look back. But if there was any one single unified grievance, it was this:

Creator rights.

No matter how much fun a writer is having with editorial leeway and the revamping of a character, no matter how much a creator is being paid to do corporate work - in the end, they never feel all that great about losing ownership of the characters and icons they create for the corporate books.

Fast forward 20 years to the present and we're in the same situation. Marvel has all the Eisner winning creators, they're doing revamps left and right, sales are good, smiles all around...

...but is it just me, or is there a ghost about to rear its ugly head? Somewhere along the line this issue of creator rights has to pop up. When I was talking to Daniel Way, he mentioned that editors keep pushing the writers to create new characters and none of the writers want to do it, because not only do the creations belong to the company, but even the content in the pitches belongs to Marvel.

Come to think of it, this would probably explain why Terry Moore is doing work for Marvel and not creating something new. I've said in the past it would be pretty awesome if he wrote something just like STRANGERS IN PARADISE but taking place in the Marvel U, but why the hell would he bother creating a book for Marvel when he could create a book for another company and retain full ownership?

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So here is my theory for all of this:

Some of the big name writers are out. I mentioned Kirkman, but I forgot to mention Brian K. Vaughan. He's done great work for the company, but now he's a huge name, has a lot of critical acclaim - he doesn't need the Marvel paycheck or the name boost. I am willing to bet he'll never be doing any work for Marvel again.

Then there's Warren Ellis. He seems pretty entrenched, doing a whole bunch of books for them. But do you think he'll honestly stick around if any of his Avatar books break the 30 or 40k mark in sales? Hell no.

It's only a matter of time before many other of these creators start to make decent sales on their creator owned books and take off. Think about it - the pay is better and most of the writers claim they have more fun doing it. It's a no brainer, huh?

My take on all of this is that in the coming few years, it's going to be hit then split for creators at Marvel. Once their creator owned books become hits, that's it - they're gone.

Again - I could be completely wrong about this.

(In fact, that's most likely the case)

Will Marvel Lose its Fire?

Just today, I met Daniel Way, writer of WOLVERINE: ORIGINS and DEADPOOL for Marvel while he was doing a signing at The Laughing Ogre here in Columbus. Normally writers are pretty quiet at signings. A month ago when Jason Aaron was at the same store, he signed my books and answered a question or two of mine and that was about it. With Daniel Way, he just kept talking and talking - I got a good 25 or 30 minutes of chatter out of the guy. I'm just glad there weren't too many people waiting.

Among the things he talked about, what really piqued my interest was his discussion of a lot of the editorial and corporate practices at Marvel. One of the things he said that really worked to Marvel's advantage was their flexibility about scheduling. Apparently at DC, stories are plotted up to two years in advance and once they're plotted, they're set in stone. If anybody comes up with cool stuff they'd like to use in a story at a creative retreat or some kind of editorial meeting, well, um... too bad. No way to fit in. Way commented that at Marvel, things were fluid enough that they were willing to change the schedules in order to fit in cool ideas.

Which is the way to go, as far as I'm concerned. A policy like that has Quesada editorship (is editorship a word? I need an editor) written all over it. Joe Quesada is seriously the Bill Clinton of Marvel. He came in at a time when Marvel was in the dumps and had lots of innovative ideas for reforming the company; all of which tied back to a central thesis - "It's the storytelling, stupid!" So he put storytelling first, and voila: the books flourished, and even no-name titles with less popular characters like DAREDEVIL and CAPTAIN AMERICA topped the charts. Remember the 90's? Anything without Spider-Man or the X-Men simply didn't sell.

However, while the focus of the editors at Marvel is largely on creating cool stories, Way also mentioned that the corporate structure is in a very conservative swing. I didn't know much about how Marvel works as a business, but apparently the editors are totally swamped. The fact that the books continue to sell and be profitable doesn't make a difference - editors only continue to get more bogged down. Apparently assistant editors rotate through the company like crazy because the work is not only intensive but pays piss poorly - about 24,000 dollars a year, which doesn't seem bad until you consider that you have to live in New York for that job. Additionally, he mentioned that Marvel only hires a new editor for every three that leave.

He also commented that new ideas are becoming less and less of a prerogative for the company. He said it's no surprise that we're witnessing the third crossover in a row with popular heroes fighting popular heroes. They're not changing the established formulas, they're going with what they're confident will sell.

And with that, he smiled and said he'd kinda like to see it all come crashing down, just to see what happens.

-

This led me to some thinking - will the prosperity that Marvel has been experiencing over the last 5 or 6 years level off or decline? Let's think about the factors:

1) What Way described was typical corporate cost-cutting. That's the nature of the beast - it's how it feeds itself and how it stays alive. But - corporate structures and artistic minds don't always go hand in hand. When a company is conservative, they become more efficient, but they considerably cut down their chances of having out of the blue, surprise hits. Marvel's ideas will get recycled, while other companies might capitalize off the pique value.

2) Creators are already leaving. Sure, their stints were fun, they loved working with Quesada, but few of the top level talent took the work as a permanent job, with some exceptions (I'm looking at you Bendis).

• Matt Fraction commented that his major motivation for doing corporate work was to pay the bills that his creator owned work couldn't. You can imagine that once his name becomes big enough that his creator owned work will do better, he probably won't be as interested in working at Marvel.
• I believe Mark Millar only has one more Marvel project scheduled. After ULTIMATE AVENGERS debuts and finishes, I think he's going to do creator-owned work exclusively. Hell, all of his creator-owned books sell like hotcakes. If any creator has a book that sells half as well as WANTED did, he or she would most likely be making more than any major Marvel title will.
• It's only a matter of time before other major, critically acclaimed creators jump ship. Ed Brubaker got his second Eisner in a row for Best Writer and sales for CRIMINAL continue to increase. It's only a matter of time before he gets offers to do whatever the hell he wants, and at that point, why work at Marvel?

3) Where can Marvel get new talent? Their previous strategy was siphoning big talent off of DC, who are now almost completely dry. They can fish in the indies, but if you look at Marvel's catalog, they still just don't have many books which offer fresh starts for newer talent.

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I could be completely wrong about this, but my bet is that FOUR YEARS from now, the company will be very different from it is today. The big name creators that are recognizable now will all be gone, Image Comics will have stolen a lot of their thunder, and crossover fatigue will have set in a lot of the comic buying audience.

Don't believe me? Let's meet here four years from now at 8 o'clock and discuss it. If I'm wrong, dessert's on me.

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POSTSCRIPT:

I forgot to mention this and I thought it was kind of neat. When I told Daniel that I loved his story about Tombstone in TANGLED WEB, he smiled and looked and sounded really flattered.

That's one of the things I love about meeting newer, lesser-known creators - when you tell them you like their work, they sincerely sound flattered. Grant Morrison won't bat an eyelid if you mention that - not because he's a jerk (actually he's quite the opposite with fans), but just because he gets that all day from people.

Backwash: Newly Discovered Comics - THE COMPLEAT (sic) MOONSHADOW

No, the "compleat" isn't a typo. It's actually written in the title.

Why? For what effect was it intended? I have no idea. Just another bizarre and irrational bit from the mind of J.M. DeMatteis - who, as I understand from reading this work, has a mind that you can't begin to understand. All you can do is sit and enjoy the fanciful ride that his stream of consciousness takes you on.

I discovered this book just a little while ago when I was perusing through a copy of 500 Essential Graphic Novels while killing some time at Barnes & Noble. It was a neat little book that had at least 10 recommended graphic novels for just about every genre you could think of, from the obvious ones like superhero and crime to the less obvious, like war, romance, fantasy, and sports.

Yep - sports. There are some odd folks out there that like sports so much that they don't just want to write books about them. They want to make comics about them.

While flipping through the "fantasy" listing, I came upon some really obvious suggestions.

FABLES? Already read.

THE SANDMAN? Reading comics for years and not having read any of The Sandman is like going out in the rain and not getting wet.

BONE? I was beginning to think the listing wasn't going to throw me one.

But then I saw the listing for MOONSHADOW. I had never even heard of it. And judging from the description, it sounded like I should have. The review claimed that while Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN is the most popular fantasy comic in the industry, MOONSHADOW is truly the pinnacle of the form.

One can't hear a review like that and not have his curiosity piqued. I immediately added to my list of reserves at the local library. A few days later it popped up, I picked it up, and I set to work in reading the 450 page text heavy monster.

The first thing I noticed was how distinct the storytelling was. The comic featured a text-heavy prose narration. I'm not usually fond of a style like that - my philosophy is that the writer should usually back off from the pictures as much as possible; letting the still images breathe unoccluded by talky talky prose. But this book was certainly an exception. The narration exudes a unique charisma that is rare to find even in novels. It's almost as if Douglas Adams, author of the excellent Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, traded his irony and wit for sentimentalism and got ambitious about writing a meandering ongoing comics narrative after reading Alan Moore's The Ballad of Halo Jones.

Despite the talky-talkiness of the work, there was still a perfect synergy between DeMatteis's prose narration and Jon J. Muth's beautiful watercolor artwork. Some of the most powerful scenes in the book are actually where DeMatteis's narrator shuts up entirely, giving us a sequence of wordless panels that have the awkwardness and tension of a cocktail party going deathly silent.

As for the comparison to Gaiman's Sandman, MOONSHADOW touched me in a way that The Sandman had not. MOONSHADOW takes place in a world much like ours, except it seems to be populated by giant, omnipotent happy faces that zoom and zip around the galaxy, performing extraordinary feats that dont' seem to correlate with each other. The story is about a wide-eyed young boy,who was raised on one of these happy face's intergalactic zoo, heading out an intergalactic expedition, where he will experience adventure, love, hate, sex, death, as well as explorations of who God is. This sets quite a contrast to The Sandman's main character, Dream, who was dull, unadventurous, and stoic. Also, while the book feels like a work of classic fairytale fiction, the surrealistic elements and fantasy characters seem fully unique and non-referential.

The only criticism I can level on it is that the ending is rather disappointing, cutting off much of the momentum and symbolic exploration that was progressing through the story. I suspect what may have happened was that DeMatteis and Muth expected to keep going and tell the story in 20 issues or so, when all of a sudden they got a phone call from Marvel (despite the collection edition being published by Vertigo, it was Marvel that initially published the book in the mid 80's) saying the sales numbers weren't high enough to justify the series. I don't know if this was the case for sure, but that's the only justification I can hypothesize for why a creative team with such a coherent vision would prematurely end the book in such a blunderous fashion.

Your local library might have this. Check it out. While it's totally reasonable to be weary of paying 40 bucks for a book like this, there's no reason to pass up something like this for free.

Comics I Read This Week 4: 10/01/08

It's New Comics Day! And I'm doing a Comics I Read This Week! Am I actually updating on time?

No.

These are all comics I read last week, minus the new Mark Millar/Bryan Hitch FANTASTIC FOUR issue I wanted which was sold out the store. Booooo.

I'm listening to the New York indie rock quartet The Forms sing about making plans and other mundane subjects and making it sound so good.

First up!

1. IMMORTAL IRON FIST: ORSON RANDALL AND THE DEATH QUEEN OF CALIFORNIA
Writer: Duane Swierczynski
Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli

I wish I could say this was awesome. Or at least as awesome as ORSON RANDALL AND THE GREEN MIST OF DEATH from Matt Fraction's run was.

The story's of a seedy noir sort and set in Hollywood in the 20's. Unfortunately, the plot is rather dull and predictable. None of this seems to really tie into the current Iron Fist story arc, either, which isn't really a problem in and of itself. It's just that if the story's boring, what's the point?

2. RUNAWAYS #2
Writer: Terry Moore
Artist: Humberto Ramos
I am SO surprised at how little I'm liking this book.

I figured it was a shoe-in. A great concept, great characters, and a great creator handling the scripting duties that most likely has an editorial carte blanche with the story.

But what do we get?

Some kind of confusing story about alien lineages. Does anybody REALLY care? I always thought people read the book because it was a well-written adventure story that featured kids that actually act like kids for a change.

I'm not sure about what every Runaways reader wants, but this one doesn't want big sci-fi or a Secret Invasion tie-in. I want what Terry Moore does best - writing engaging characters that feel like realy people.

3. DEADPOOL #2
Writer: Daniel Way
Artist: Paco Medina
This one was fun. Much more fun than the last one, at least. We're seeing what this book is really about:

Shenanigans!

There's still no "Dear Deadpool" at the end, but hey - as long as this book can make me laugh, I'm going to keep buying it.

4. SUPERMAN #680
Writer: James Robinson
Artist: Renato Guedes
Was this really written by the same James Robinson that did the acclaimed run on STARMAN?

Is there another James Robinson in comics?

Or by chance did he employ writers of the ghost variety on his critically acclaimed books?

The reason I'm asking is because man, did this book blow.

This is the closing issue of a 4 issue story arc that was almost entirely Superman and Atlas punching each other in the face. Through the first three issues, Atlas beats Superman to a pulp without Superman being able to do much in response at all. The question that lingered was how a pretty strong, but not EXTRAORDINARLY strong guy could so easily take on the big guy in blue.

So what was the reason revealed in this issue?

Atlas has magic.

Oh boy. I'm so glad I kept on reading.

There's also some lame shots of Krypto the Wonder Dog fighting Atlas while giving silly narration in the process like "BAD MAN, STOP BAD MAN".

Colossal multi-issue fights tend to be boring in superhero comics. Give us some plot. Give us some dialogue. Give us some character development. This was boring enough when the X-Men slugged it out for 5 or 6 issues in Messiah Complex. This ESPECIALLY doesn't work in a Superman comic.

Mr. Robinson, please consult Mr. Morrison on how to write a fun and engaging Superman comic. Thank you.

--

Post-script:

Is it kind of bizarre that I mentioned in my Kirkman rant that most books I read are creator-owned, and these are entirely in the big-two? Yes, it is. In my defense, what I read in the floppies and what I read in the trades are two very different things. I'll post some reviews of collected creator-owned work pretty shortly.

Kirkman's Cruise to Save Comics

I realize this was a while ago, and most people have already read this, but I wanted to weigh in my opinions on Kirkman's controversial claims about creator-owned work in the industry. Not necessarily because he's wrong, but because his argument is very very scatter-brained and he misses the mark on some issues.

If you haven't seen his editorial, watch it here.

First, being the feisty guy I am, I'm going to pick his argument apart, piece by piece.

"If you give people the option of Spider-Man or your creator-owned book... they'll choose Spider-Man, that's something time-tested versus something new. New has to be the only option."

I'm not really sure about this. Walk into your average comic book store.

And when I say average, I mean AVERAGE. Not the hip trendy store downtown where all the employees are cute girls that like indie rock or the stores with couches and lounges in them and have every Top Shelf book on display.

I mean the ones that have giant statues of Spider-Man and don't even a trade paperback section yet.

In most of these stores, most people don't even follow the creative teams involved. They just buy books with their favorite characters in them. I highly doubt sales of Matt Fraction's CASANOVA would be at all affected by him dropping his Marvel duties on INVINCIBLE IRON MAN or UNCANNY X-MEN. Even if you wrote "From the writer of all your favorite Marvel books!" on the cover.

"If that results in a mass exodus of creators leaving Marvel and DC, don't panic guys, I love their books as much as everyone else -- nobody wants to hurt them in the process. Look at it like an opportunity, that's the time for Marvel and DC to step up the plate and make their comics viable for a whole new generation. Less continuity, more accessible stories -- not made for kids, but appropriate for kids. Books that would appeal to everyone still reading comics, but would also appeal to the average 13 year old too. "

Would this really result in a creative resurgence at Marvel or DC? Let's look at some historical examples.

Let's roll back five years. Ed Brubaker was introducing new readers to Selina Kyle in his reboot of CATWOMAN and at the same time, along with Greg Rucka, was giving us a gritty detective drama very much akin to TV shows like NYPD Blue or Hill Street Blues on GOTHAM CENTRAL.

Mark Millar made a Superman fan out of me (and many others) in SUPERMAN: RED SON.

Brubaker, Millar, AND Warren Ellis were all doing incredibly provocative work at DC's child, Wildstorm.

Then they all left to do work at Marvel. And what happened to the DC Universe?

INFINITE CRISIS, COUNTDOWN, DEATH OF THE NEW GODS, and now FINAL CRISIS. Heavily continuity-driven books that were very unfriendly to new readers.

Let's go back even further, to the entrance into the 90's. Nearly every major name creator, from Jim Lee to Alan Moore, had all left the big two to do work at Image, Dark Horse, or other independent companies.

What happened to the books at the Big Two?

The Death of Superman happened, along with a billion other superhero deaths. And crossovers.

I think Kirkman is way wrong on this point. I think most of history has shown us the opposite - that when the good creators leave, quality and accessibility of the books goes way down.

In some ways he's correct, in that some of the books that really appealed to all ages were ones in which DC or Marvel were taking big chances on new talent. Bendis was a no-name indie guy when he was given ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, and now, everybody in the last 6 years swears it's what got them reading comics again.

But there's two points that need to be considered with that: 1) That all-ages accessibility is really a prerogative of the editors more than anything. DC editors don't seem to care much for that at the moment. 2) It usually takes several years for the company to get desperate enough to take chances with no-name talent.

"A comic industry where there are more original comics, so there's more new ideas, more creator-owned books by totally awesome guys that are selling a ton of books. Those books are mature and complex and appeal to our aging audience that I count myself among who are keeping this business alive. And we also have a revitalized Marvel and DC who are selling comics to a much wider audience than ever before. And that audience, as they age, may get turned on to some awesome creator-owned work eventually. So everyone is happy."

Kirkman envisions a kind of creative renaissance in comics due to an exodus. I think what's more likely to happen is that many of the creators would flop like fish out of water. Most comic readers don't take chances on buying new creator-owned books until at least a trade is put out, so many of them would suffer financially almost immediately. Most of them would just go back to working at the Big Two right away. Marvel and DC can hold their breath much longer than the creators can, and it would take a long time to erode the market to the point where buyers HAVE to buy creator-owned work in order to read something good.

--

It seems like I'm being really negative about creators in this. I really don't want to appear that way at all. I love creator-owned work and actually prefer reading it much more to the usual monthly titles on Marvel or DC.

I will even agree on the point that most writers at Marvel and DC should be doing much more creator-owned work. I would love to see awesome writers like Matt Fraction, Grant Morrison, Jason Aaron, Brian Bendis, and Peter David have AT LEAST as much creator-owned work being published as corporate work.

And Kirkman pointed out one thing that's really critical and misrepresented - while most creator-owned work isn't profitable, it has the potential to be INCREDIBLY profitable, more lucrative than any high paying job at Marvel.

The biggest selling blockbuster comic at Marvel is usually a crossover issue, and that usually hits about 250,000 copies. The average #1 during a non-summer crossover month is around 110,000 copies. And even if you had a big seller like this, most of the profit goes to Marvel, the real owner of all of the characters.

But did you know that there are still comics that sell in the MILLIONS? They're not making it on the Diamond lists, but that doesn't mean they don't fly off of bookstore shelves. Comics like Jeff Smith's BONE, Chris Ware's JIMMY CORRIGAN, Marjane Satrapi's PERSEPOLIS, and Craig Thompson's BLANKETS are all huge worldwide sellers, with some of these selling multiple million copies.

So it's possible to sell ten times the copies of a hit Marvel comic, while at the same time, getting a much bigger profit share. Ever since launching the Millarworld comics, Mark Millar has probably been driving Ferraris.

Do the math. All the wealthiest in the industry own their own creations. So while Kirkman may be wrong about EVERY creator, he's right in that there are a few more that would be able to launch a book that critics adore and at the same time puts a Ferrari in the garage.