I was knocked down with the flu this week, a combination of post Toronto Fan Expo physical fatigue, many nights lacking proper sleep, and, oh yeah, my daughter projectile vomiting her fever germs all over me. It was some serious Linda Blair exorcist shit going down (little girls are not made of sugar and spice, but rather strawberries and vomit I discovered). Anyway, laid up in bed on Wednesday I decided to take care of the mess that lay beside it... the mess of paper and staples, bags and boards. There must have been, I kid you not, 200 comics, thirty graphic novels collecting there.
My first step was to sort through, separating the things I've read from the things I haven't. Easy enough. My to read pile consisted of about 20 books (a handful of Unwritten issues, a bunch of Free Comic Book Day titles, and a few stragglers from the past few weeks) and about a dozen trades (I'd just acquired the complete run of Buffy Season 8 at Fan Expo days before so that comprised most of them, the rest were massive omnibuses which always tend to gather dust once I put them down, generally getting about halfway through).
The next step, sort by title, grouping any one-shots or mini-series into one pile to conserve space. To my surprise I (well, we, as my wife is complicit in this too) wasn't collecting as many titles as I thought, with only about fifteen total ongoing series, making the fact that I'll be checking out nearly two dozen new DCU titles pretty ridiculous. I also realized that I hadn't sorted my comics in some time, as there were upwards of seven issues in some stacks.
Step three is bagging the suckers up. I should really do this step more often as some of my loose copies tend to get a little dog-eared with my daughter trying to squeeze between the comic stacks and the bed, or slightly crinkled as the cat uses them as a launching pad to get up to the window. But then my collector days of comics are long gone. I don't buy and preserve them like I used to. I certainly don't individually bag and board each issue. I now tend to group, stuffing in as many comics into a comic bag as will fit without rounding at the edges. It's my nod to conservationism. It's probably not great for their resale value but fuck it, I'm not in it for the money, it's entertainment.
Once I've sorted and bagged, the comic bricks get put beside the bed, for dispensing to the basement shelves ("the keeper pile") or to the long boxes in the shed (the "get rid of someday pile"). What I've noticed, however, is the "get rid of someday pile" is just as large as the "keeper pile" which means I'm buying a whole lot of books that, essentially, I don't really ever want to read again. That's not only a lot of wasted space in my house (or shed) but also a lot of wasted paper and printing and machining and transportation etc. on something that's not worth keeping around. I'm not even concerned by the money aspect, after all, I got whatever entertainment out of it I wanted.
For my reviewing gig, I've had the opportunity to read more digital comic than I can count, and I continue to have that opportunity, but I cannot stand reading comics on a computer. Reading PDF comics drives me bonkers. Scrolling up, zooming in, scrolling right, zooming out, scroll zoom scroll zoom... I hate it. It's not the comics reading experience I like or want. I do it from time to time but I am resistant to it. I'd much rather have the tactile.
But this Wednesday, again, laid up in bed, I couldn't make it out to the comics shoppe, and even though I was undecided about whether I was going to read the first issue of the new Justice League, the first offering from the New 52, I have to admit my curiosity was piquing. I was actually planning on browsing the book and making a game-time decision at the store whether I'd take it home or not. Chances were, considering what a light week it was, that I would buy it, but at the same time, I didn't want Justice League, just as I don't want so many of those books that are sitting beside my bed. I do want to read them, I just don't want them around. This is where the digital comics come in... they allow you to read them, but you don't have them in the physical sense, they're available but they're not taking up any real space, and getting rid of them requires minimal physical effort (a few keystrokes or screen taps and they're gone).
So, curiosity getting the better of me, I downloaded the Comixology app for my iPod Touch, I purchased Justice League #1, and I read it.
A LONG WAY TO GO TO GET TO THE PONT...
To my surprise, I liked the experience. I liked it quite a bit. The comic itself was okay (Devon has a good review dropping later today that almost fully mirrors my own thoughts), but that's not what I'm talking about. The Comixology app, firstly, is free... as should any shopping app be. Secondly, it's fairly easy to use. Browsing their shop is relatively simple (though a search function would be nice), organized in different categories (series, publisher, genre, creator, story arcs, free comics) it's layered nicely to indicate the amount of content you will find within each layer, and once you get to your selection it provides enough useful detail (writer, artist, release date). The Free Comics section is particularly well-stocked with first issues of various indie titles and some original content from DC in the form of character primers (that take you all the way up to Flashpoint, but are, I guess, irrelevant now) and lots of preview books.
What the store doesn't have is a Search function, which is disappointing, nor does it have a graphic novel section which would make it easier if you were looking for collected stories or original graphic novels instead of having to wade through the individual categories. As a plus though, the store does have a "Day and Date" release section on its title screen showing all the new releases of books coming out the same week as print editions (which is handy now that DC has gone D&D) as well as a "just released" area for new-to-digital books just being offered.
Finding the new Justice League book wasn't hard at all, and buying it was even easier as an "in-app" purchase it was paid for through my Apple store account. This means I didn't have to give my credit card info to any new sources, though I'm going to have to investigate how the App connects to the Comixology on-line in case I want to access my comics through there (ah, turns out I already have Comixology account from before).
Reading the comic on the iPod isn't the same experience as reading a physical comic, and on such a small screen a lot of the flavour of the comics visual storytelling process is lost. You don't really get to see full page's layout, so I imagine reading something like J.H. Williams III Batwoman stories from Detective Comics wouldn't translate very well, but for the most part you see one panel at a time through the Comixology's "guided view". Basically as you thumb through it, it takes you from one panel to the next, sometimes it takes you to a zoomed-in section of the panel first either to note details or read text, then zooms you out to see the full image (you have the option of zooming in or out at your leisure as well, though you rarely get the option to view the entire page unless it's a full page spread). It's actually a bit more cinematic reading this way, partway towards being a motion comic in some sense. The "guided view" technology gets in the way occasionally but helps more often then not, and makes reading the story rather smooth.
As well, being able to zoom in closer on the art and see details is both good and bad. Jim Lee's not really known for his minutiae, and his backgrounds are so loose, almost impressionistic in a sense, so zooming in on his artwork doesn't really reveal anything but a mess of lines. His work is best viewed as a whole image. I imagine this would benefit looking at a George Perez book or even Sergio Aragones' work.
One of the other things the guided view does nicely is it saves you from "the spoiler on the next page" or even "the spoiler on the same page"... you know, when something surprising happens on the adjoining page or later on the same page and it's the first thing you saw when you flipped the page, and you say "holy shit" before you've even gotten to the "holy shit" moment. Well, with the guided view the "holy shit" moment will sneak right up on you. Not that Justice League had any holy shit moments, but I can see how it has its pluses.
The further advantage is, frankly, it makes comics readable on a bloody iPod/iPhone. I'm not sure I'd want to read all my comics on an iPod (my eyes are already paying the price of tiny-screen-eye-strain from so much Peggle and Angry Birds) but it's a nice option to have for toting around some reading material without actually having to tote around reading material or worry about having a page-flipping hand free while holding onto a handrail on a manic stop-starting bus.
Of course, the only real issue I have with it is paying the same price for a digital item as opposed to a physical item. I understand the logic behind it, especially for DC and Marvel, who can't afford to undercut their brick-and-mortar, and I appreciate that DC will be dropping the price of each new-release book when the next issue hits the stands by a buck, but there's still, at least to me, a lack of value to digital media, especially such as this where it's a proprietary item, usable only by a specific format and never actually yours. If Comixology goes under, poof, so does your digital collection with it. So while $3.99 for a 24-page story was excessive, especially for a digital edition, I'm willing to do it once. I think after the first month of the DCnU I'll be waiting for the $1.99 editions of anything I want to read, but don't want.
I've already lined up a few of those 22 new DC titles as digital only purchases, and maybe even catch up on some older stories this way. I doubt a fully digital transformation is happening anytime soon, but I'm actually, finally excited about the option it presents.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Lest We Forget
It's time to say good-bye.
To the Secret Six,
I never felt like you had a plan, a destination you were heading to, and I enjoyed that. Not every book needs to have an end game in place, in fact, that was kind of the point of comics was that characters could live on forever. Alas. You were twisted and weird and darkly funny, showcasing that, yes, villains are still human. All those freaky love stories and disturbing innuendo. Gail Simone, you made Catman respectable, you gave Bane an actual personality (and, finally, a reason why he should be a premiere Bat-villain), and your original creations, like Scandal Savage and Jeanette, despite their blah names were welcome additions to the DC canon. You will all be missed.
To Batgirl,
Stephanie Brown, what can I say? You got screwed. There are plenty of entertaining and exciting books on the stand each month, but yours was the most fun. I would like to think the New DC is born out of the "Batgirl" model, a hero who's already established, but still rough around the edges, still learning, still fallible, still struggling in their fight against crime. Not all heroes need to punch-out bad guys with a smile on their face, in fact it would seem rather out-of-place for most characters, but for Steph, you could tell she was having fun doing good. Hopefully you will be back, and soon, in the new DC... you're just too bright a character to be pushed aside.
To Xombi,
Well dude, the fact that after 15 years you got to have a comeback at all was freaking awesome. I'm not sure why you couldn't have been a Vertigo book and perhaps be granted a longer life, as you would seem far more at home there, alas, it was good to see you and your strange crew again. If it's true what they say about you, that you cannot die, well mate, I hope to see you again.
To the Teen Titans,
Oh Titans, you'd been so mishandled for so long that I thought you'd never get back to being what you once were, but with J.T. Krul in charge, you looked the part and acted it. You're adventures felt like vintage Wolfman-era Titans, but instead of George Perez's hyper-detailed settings, and super-sculpted figures, you had Nicola Scott's more natural take, exquisitely rendered environments populated by characters who looked less like comic book characters and more like people. When I see what they've done to you in the new DC, dear Titans, I feel immense sorrow for what we've just lost, and great pity for what's about to come.
To Oracle,
There's the old adage "Knowledge is power" and if that's the case then you were one of the most powerful characters in the DCU, capable of accessing virtually all knowledge stored or transmitted electronically. And you did it all from a chair, proving that the body doesn't always need to be strong to fight. You were an inspiration, not just to the handy capable but also to the wimps and tech geeks, the timid and the tredpidatious. You made us believe that we could still contribute by sitting on our asses. It's not a great message, really but there you go.
To Wally West,
I miss you, please come back.
EDIT:
To Action Comics and Detective Comics
Your longevity as titles is your legacy, and I'm sorry to see that taken away from you. You have both survived for many, many decades, and indeed will continue on for decades more, however your issue numbers are tragically being reset, which would be like McDonald's reformulating their hamburgers using soy instead and resetting all their volume served signs to "0". Action, you're less than a decade from your 1000th issue, which is a phenomenal feat, and doubtless there will still be a celebration in that honor, but it does actually mean less knowing that it's not contiguous as it should be.
To the Secret Six,
I never felt like you had a plan, a destination you were heading to, and I enjoyed that. Not every book needs to have an end game in place, in fact, that was kind of the point of comics was that characters could live on forever. Alas. You were twisted and weird and darkly funny, showcasing that, yes, villains are still human. All those freaky love stories and disturbing innuendo. Gail Simone, you made Catman respectable, you gave Bane an actual personality (and, finally, a reason why he should be a premiere Bat-villain), and your original creations, like Scandal Savage and Jeanette, despite their blah names were welcome additions to the DC canon. You will all be missed.
To Batgirl,
Stephanie Brown, what can I say? You got screwed. There are plenty of entertaining and exciting books on the stand each month, but yours was the most fun. I would like to think the New DC is born out of the "Batgirl" model, a hero who's already established, but still rough around the edges, still learning, still fallible, still struggling in their fight against crime. Not all heroes need to punch-out bad guys with a smile on their face, in fact it would seem rather out-of-place for most characters, but for Steph, you could tell she was having fun doing good. Hopefully you will be back, and soon, in the new DC... you're just too bright a character to be pushed aside.
To Xombi,
Well dude, the fact that after 15 years you got to have a comeback at all was freaking awesome. I'm not sure why you couldn't have been a Vertigo book and perhaps be granted a longer life, as you would seem far more at home there, alas, it was good to see you and your strange crew again. If it's true what they say about you, that you cannot die, well mate, I hope to see you again.
To the Teen Titans,
Oh Titans, you'd been so mishandled for so long that I thought you'd never get back to being what you once were, but with J.T. Krul in charge, you looked the part and acted it. You're adventures felt like vintage Wolfman-era Titans, but instead of George Perez's hyper-detailed settings, and super-sculpted figures, you had Nicola Scott's more natural take, exquisitely rendered environments populated by characters who looked less like comic book characters and more like people. When I see what they've done to you in the new DC, dear Titans, I feel immense sorrow for what we've just lost, and great pity for what's about to come.
To Oracle,
There's the old adage "Knowledge is power" and if that's the case then you were one of the most powerful characters in the DCU, capable of accessing virtually all knowledge stored or transmitted electronically. And you did it all from a chair, proving that the body doesn't always need to be strong to fight. You were an inspiration, not just to the handy capable but also to the wimps and tech geeks, the timid and the tredpidatious. You made us believe that we could still contribute by sitting on our asses. It's not a great message, really but there you go.
To Wally West,
I miss you, please come back.
EDIT:
To Action Comics and Detective Comics
Your longevity as titles is your legacy, and I'm sorry to see that taken away from you. You have both survived for many, many decades, and indeed will continue on for decades more, however your issue numbers are tragically being reset, which would be like McDonald's reformulating their hamburgers using soy instead and resetting all their volume served signs to "0". Action, you're less than a decade from your 1000th issue, which is a phenomenal feat, and doubtless there will still be a celebration in that honor, but it does actually mean less knowing that it's not contiguous as it should be.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
What If?... Millar Fully Didn't Write The Ultimates
Grant Morrison recently alluded in a Rolling Stone interview that he'd not received credit for certain works of his. On December 29, 2008, I wrote something and left it in draft form and sort of forgot about it. That was until yesterday when someone reminded me about a conversation we'd had almost three years ago...
Take it as pure speculation on my part...
At the time of The Ultimates' release, Grant Morrison was moving on from his Marvel exclusive contract and started in with his new Vertigo/DC assignments. As many folks know, writers Mark Millar and Grant Morrison were great friends and had been known to help shepherd Millar into comics. Millar and Morrison had gone on to receive co-writing credits on such books as The Flash and Skrull Kill Krew.
Millar after having a fairly well publicized fallout with DC Comics' following their handling of his Superman: Red Son series, left to go to Marvel and one of the first announced titles was yes, The Ultimates, a re-imagining of Marvel mainstay, The Avengers.
Ultimates comics suddenly started coming in with some frequency and they seemed to be more polished, less snarky and even snappier than some of Millar's previous solo works. Ultimates Volume One possessed the "Rah! Rah! We can conquer all spirit" I'd very much liked about Morrison's JLA run and less of the cynicism of Millar's Authority work. Frankly, it read as a perfect melding of the two's sensibilities and was generally received as such.
Ultimates Vol. 1 wrapped up to overwhelmingly positive reviews and then a few months later Morrison's work started seeing the light of day at DC. Later on, Ultimates V. 2 came out and fell into the more jaded, cynical style Millar has sort of become known for.
To this day, I am convinced, after reading nearly everything Morrison has put out, that he had a MAJOR hand in ghosting Ultimates with Flash co-writer and friend Millar. If you ever doubt it, read volume two of his JLA run back-to-back with Ultimates and you'll see what I'm talking about. Without Morrison's input, Ultimates Vol. 2 would go on to read as very cynical and dark, something more in line with Millar's Autority work.
Again, speculation but hey, go back and read between the lines of the interview.
Take it as pure speculation on my part...
At the time of The Ultimates' release, Grant Morrison was moving on from his Marvel exclusive contract and started in with his new Vertigo/DC assignments. As many folks know, writers Mark Millar and Grant Morrison were great friends and had been known to help shepherd Millar into comics. Millar and Morrison had gone on to receive co-writing credits on such books as The Flash and Skrull Kill Krew.
Millar after having a fairly well publicized fallout with DC Comics' following their handling of his Superman: Red Son series, left to go to Marvel and one of the first announced titles was yes, The Ultimates, a re-imagining of Marvel mainstay, The Avengers.
Ultimates comics suddenly started coming in with some frequency and they seemed to be more polished, less snarky and even snappier than some of Millar's previous solo works. Ultimates Volume One possessed the "Rah! Rah! We can conquer all spirit" I'd very much liked about Morrison's JLA run and less of the cynicism of Millar's Authority work. Frankly, it read as a perfect melding of the two's sensibilities and was generally received as such.
Ultimates Vol. 1 wrapped up to overwhelmingly positive reviews and then a few months later Morrison's work started seeing the light of day at DC. Later on, Ultimates V. 2 came out and fell into the more jaded, cynical style Millar has sort of become known for.
To this day, I am convinced, after reading nearly everything Morrison has put out, that he had a MAJOR hand in ghosting Ultimates with Flash co-writer and friend Millar. If you ever doubt it, read volume two of his JLA run back-to-back with Ultimates and you'll see what I'm talking about. Without Morrison's input, Ultimates Vol. 2 would go on to read as very cynical and dark, something more in line with Millar's Autority work.
Again, speculation but hey, go back and read between the lines of the interview.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
A call to arms
If you haven't caught it yet, Rolling Stone did an interview with Grant Morrison (as Devon amusingly put it on Facebook "Well, they're only 20+ years too late but Rolling Stone finally "discovers" Grant Morrison.") The online sidebar is a "deleted scenes" grouping of questions and answers that didn't make it into the print version.
Within contains this juicy tidbit regarding the fact that some think superheroes need to disappear from comics altogether to be relevant:
Will this be the point where the shit really hits the fan, placing a further dividing line between the alternative and the mainstream? Morrison was one of the few crossover voices between the two worlds, in terms of the people who wish to only see comics as an art form and the people who generally like it for entertainment. Morrison's rather epic brain stimulated the art-crowd-kids ("the ACK") in a way few other genre writers do, and his books were routinely the few mainstream works that would penetrate the ACK best-of lists over the years. I imagine there is already a plethora of message boards, blogs, tweets, websites rallying against what Morrison says here. My main bone of contention would be that a lot of these ACK never went to college, and also that a great many of them aren't American. There's a lot of them in Canada too. I see them all over the place here in Toronto, many of them taking after the Crumb aesthetic of what a starving ACK comic artist should look like, so they're easy to spot.
I also don't think most of them are all that rich, which I'm sure he's going to get shat on for generalizing. Perhaps he should. But he's going to have a huge target on his back, or perhaps in the middle of his brow like Bullseye.
Back to the point, is it an elite viewpoint to say that superhero comics are irrelevant? Yeah, it is. To say that any genre is inherently without merit smacks of elitism. The general attitude Science Fiction was saddled with for decades, or marginalizing Fantasy up until Lord of the Rings went from being juvenile to phenomenon. Like Star Trek did at addressing certain issues in the 1960's via metaphor, superheroes frequently have that same capability to transcend the sheer entertainment value. Entertainment is so often the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down.
That said, I'm not sure I fully get the gist of Morrison's comment, and really what he's calling Ware and his ilk out on? He states:
So is he upset with those that see comics only as an academic exercise, who only look at the material produced as inferior and beneath their time or attention. Is he basically pointing out the same kind of ACK snobbery that some people have towards cinema, the foreign film goers versus the Hollywood plebs, or the indie music scenesters who immediately dismiss anything that broaches the mainstream? Is he upset with exclusivity, because I don't think he's just upset that TCJ gave his book a bad review (sounds actually like he could care less).
I think the Art Crowd Kids, the ones producing very insular, very depressed little books about their own narrow, self-marginalized lives, I think many of those artists and writers simply reject the mainstream in advance of the mainstream rejecting them. Look at Marvel's Strange Tales collections, with indie and alternative writers/artists providing their own vision for Marvel's characters. You have to think so many of the ACK really do want to write/draw superheroes but just don't fit the mold, so to speak. In that way, I think a lot of the ACK's downplay of the mainstream stems from that fear of getting ostracized or having their fragile egos further demeaned. I should note I'm saying none of this in a derogatory fashion, there are plenty of damaged and broken people out there and the ones that are fortunate enough to learn how to express it creatively, through art, music, comedy, etc often produce something that is rewarding, influential, meaningful and helpful to plenty of others through the curing powers of the shared experience. Then again, there are those that say that dwelling in one's self to the point of mental illness is a form of elitism and entitlement, a by-product of socialist societies and the corruption of primal survival instinct. But I digress.
As a regular reviewer of comics for the past 7 years, I've tried, heartily and often, to embrace the entire medium, but I still trend towards genre works, seeking out the cream of escapism rather than sinking into the morass of the alternative world of comics. The books I tend to review the highest, however, are genre books that do more than tell a story, they have an emotional, social, or political contingent to them, sometimes subversively, others overtly, though I'll also rate highly a book where the story fails but the art succeeds, so I'm not beyond looking at things strictly for the art of it.
There shouldn't be an "us versus them" debate in comics. There's enough crossover material on either side that people, even if they're preferential to one or the other, could find something to enjoy. Shitting on one or the other, as a collective perpetuates an old, fruitless argument that further minimizes the medium as a whole.
(NB. Morrison said a lot more that deserves commentary but I wanted to try and stay on topic here.)
Within contains this juicy tidbit regarding the fact that some think superheroes need to disappear from comics altogether to be relevant:
I can appreciate someone like Chris Ware for his artistry, which I think is beautiful, but I think his attitude stinks, it just seems to be the attitude of somebody really privileged, and honestly, try living here, try living on an Indian reservation and shut up, and really seeing all that nihilistic stuff, it really makes me angry, it's unhelpful to all of us, and it's coming from people who have money and success to talk like that and bring those aspects of the way we live in favor of all the others, and it's indefensible.
So I never liked that stuff, I always thought that I had a real Scottish working class thing against the fact that these were done by privileged American college kids, and they were telling me the world was flat. "You're telling me the world is flat, pal?" And it's not helpful, it doesn't get us anywhere.
Will this be the point where the shit really hits the fan, placing a further dividing line between the alternative and the mainstream? Morrison was one of the few crossover voices between the two worlds, in terms of the people who wish to only see comics as an art form and the people who generally like it for entertainment. Morrison's rather epic brain stimulated the art-crowd-kids ("the ACK") in a way few other genre writers do, and his books were routinely the few mainstream works that would penetrate the ACK best-of lists over the years. I imagine there is already a plethora of message boards, blogs, tweets, websites rallying against what Morrison says here. My main bone of contention would be that a lot of these ACK never went to college, and also that a great many of them aren't American. There's a lot of them in Canada too. I see them all over the place here in Toronto, many of them taking after the Crumb aesthetic of what a starving ACK comic artist should look like, so they're easy to spot.
I also don't think most of them are all that rich, which I'm sure he's going to get shat on for generalizing. Perhaps he should. But he's going to have a huge target on his back, or perhaps in the middle of his brow like Bullseye.
Back to the point, is it an elite viewpoint to say that superhero comics are irrelevant? Yeah, it is. To say that any genre is inherently without merit smacks of elitism. The general attitude Science Fiction was saddled with for decades, or marginalizing Fantasy up until Lord of the Rings went from being juvenile to phenomenon. Like Star Trek did at addressing certain issues in the 1960's via metaphor, superheroes frequently have that same capability to transcend the sheer entertainment value. Entertainment is so often the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down.
That said, I'm not sure I fully get the gist of Morrison's comment, and really what he's calling Ware and his ilk out on? He states:
My book wasn't academic. I can't take on those Comics Journal guys, they flattened me, as they did, it's just defensive, smartass kids.
So is he upset with those that see comics only as an academic exercise, who only look at the material produced as inferior and beneath their time or attention. Is he basically pointing out the same kind of ACK snobbery that some people have towards cinema, the foreign film goers versus the Hollywood plebs, or the indie music scenesters who immediately dismiss anything that broaches the mainstream? Is he upset with exclusivity, because I don't think he's just upset that TCJ gave his book a bad review (sounds actually like he could care less).
I think the Art Crowd Kids, the ones producing very insular, very depressed little books about their own narrow, self-marginalized lives, I think many of those artists and writers simply reject the mainstream in advance of the mainstream rejecting them. Look at Marvel's Strange Tales collections, with indie and alternative writers/artists providing their own vision for Marvel's characters. You have to think so many of the ACK really do want to write/draw superheroes but just don't fit the mold, so to speak. In that way, I think a lot of the ACK's downplay of the mainstream stems from that fear of getting ostracized or having their fragile egos further demeaned. I should note I'm saying none of this in a derogatory fashion, there are plenty of damaged and broken people out there and the ones that are fortunate enough to learn how to express it creatively, through art, music, comedy, etc often produce something that is rewarding, influential, meaningful and helpful to plenty of others through the curing powers of the shared experience. Then again, there are those that say that dwelling in one's self to the point of mental illness is a form of elitism and entitlement, a by-product of socialist societies and the corruption of primal survival instinct. But I digress.
As a regular reviewer of comics for the past 7 years, I've tried, heartily and often, to embrace the entire medium, but I still trend towards genre works, seeking out the cream of escapism rather than sinking into the morass of the alternative world of comics. The books I tend to review the highest, however, are genre books that do more than tell a story, they have an emotional, social, or political contingent to them, sometimes subversively, others overtly, though I'll also rate highly a book where the story fails but the art succeeds, so I'm not beyond looking at things strictly for the art of it.
There shouldn't be an "us versus them" debate in comics. There's enough crossover material on either side that people, even if they're preferential to one or the other, could find something to enjoy. Shitting on one or the other, as a collective perpetuates an old, fruitless argument that further minimizes the medium as a whole.
(NB. Morrison said a lot more that deserves commentary but I wanted to try and stay on topic here.)
Sunday, July 31, 2011
The Gateway at PopCultureShock
Recently, I was given the privelege of having my own twice-monthly comics opinion column at PopCultureShock.I'll focus mainly on all things geek, shining a light on what's floating my boat and what's attempting to sink it.
Most of all, I'm looking to write things that will get you talking and loving your comics again.
So, please, take a look and don't be afraid to let me know what you think.
Best,
Devon Sanders
THE GATEWAY
THE GATEWAY: YOU, LIFTING THE VELVET ROPE AND CHRIS MELONI
THE GATEWAY: YOUR SUMMER OF AWESOME
THE GATEWAY: THE NEW MYTHOLOGY
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)