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Thursday, October 27, 2005
Yesterday's Comics
Yesterday, of all days, I failed to take notes on the thoughts that occurred to me as I was breaking down boxes of the new comics. And I really wish I had, because I have this vague memory of this week's comics making me very angry, and now I can't remember, precisely, what it was that angered me so.
Well, a new issue of Wizard came out, so that might have been it. That's always good for a mix of anger, annoyance, and plain old confusion as they try desperately to spin for DC and Marvel, while filling up the magazine with two to three page articles with only a tangential relationship to anything going on in comics right now. I especially liked how they spoiled a particularly important plot point about the upcoming Superman movie on the cover.
There was also the new issue of Solo, with a focus on Mike Allred. That one actually made me a little bit mad at comic fans, especially those with blogs. See, I remember a few people getting in a huff because DC "wouldn't let" Allred do an Adam West Batman story. This opinion was based solely on the fact that the cover as solicited wasn't the same cover that it was printed with. Well, the issue shipped, and lo and behold, there's an Adam West Batman story in there. And the people who complained should be really happy, because the meat of the story is that if you don't like silly, goofy Silver Age super-hero comics, you're a bad person. You know, I like silly, goofy Silver Age super-hero comics a great deal myself. But I don't think whether or not you like them is any great indication of moral virtue. And I certainly don't need a lecture on the topic in comic book form. So while I mostly enjoyed the rest of the issue, that particular story left such a bad taste in my mouth I'm very unlikely to ever pick up any more work by Mike Allred.
Which actually led me to remember something else that annoyed me recently: the lament that DC and Marvel should only publish collections of their old material, since the people making the lament apparently find everything they publish now distasteful. Because, as we all know, wallowing in nostalgia is exactly what the comic book industry needs right now.
There was one bright spot with this weeks books, Myths of the Modern Age, Win Eckert's new collection of Wold Newton scholarship. I've always enjoyed the Wold Newton work of Philip Jose Farmer and others, because it's a fun game of literary scholarship, emphasis on the word "game" there. I strongly recommend the book to anyone who enjoyed Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and are curious about what Moore ripped off shamelessly was partly inspired by.
And to show you all that I'm not really as grumpy/angry/pissed off as I may sound, I leave you with this: Have you ever said to yourself, "Self, I really wish there was a Quicktime movie I could watch featuring three white guys rapping about the history of video games?" Well now there is.