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May 30, 2006

No, I haven’t died and neither has this blog. I’ve just been unbelievably swamped between completing a project for a client (business would be so much easier if I didn’t have to deal with clients – it would also much more closely resemble unemployment), dealing with sick family members and youth baseball. Every time I sit down to write something about comics I wake up 30 minutes later to find drool on the keyboard and an entry that looks like this:

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And I’m completely behind on whatever is the hot comic blog topic de jure. Oh well. Maybe I’ll just recycle an old IDENTITY CRISIS post.

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Even with my cramped schedule I thought about creating my list of 50 Best DC characters. I love stuff like this even though I’m constitutionally incapable of completing a list that long. My ADD kicks in around number 25 at which point I start rattling off any characters I can think of just to finish the thing. Hmm…Ace, the Bat Hound, uh, Triplicate Girl, Kid Eternity, and, er, Brother Power The Geek…

I will say that I would probably have The Creeper farther up the list than most of you, Composite Superman is on there somewhere and Darkseid doesn’t get a sniff. After that it’s pretty much the usual suspects. I can’t even tell you who my number one is because that changes from moment-to-moment, book-to-book too.

Anyway, what were we talking about?

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All Star Batman & Robin The Boy Wonder #4

This title has the weirdest distribution of time I’ve ever seen. Each issue covers what, about an hour? It’s like 24 - without all the action. And I could easily see Kiefer Sutherland as Miller’s Batman – after a few “training” sessions Barry Bond’s chemist anyway.

The six page Batcave pullout was cool in the way these often are. Six pages seems like one-upmanship though. Did the last guy do a five page pullout? The multi-page Batcave spread has become one of those stock Batman images that every artist has to have in his repertoire. Everyone does it pretty well because the concept is so cool, but the basic problem is that everyone does it. (And I can’t imagine this the first one Lee has done - I’m just too lazy to go back and find another.) So to differentiate they add pages. Eventually someone will publish an entire comic that’s just one big foldout of the Batcave. Or has that been done too?

So not much really happens, but Miller does manage to work in a little de-creepifying of the whole Batman as Dick Grayson’s stalker theme. And Bruce Wayne does not eat rats. That’s just wrong. I think to further prove the whole tough guy talk was largely that, my panels would look something like this (click for larger):

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SQUADRON SUPREME kind of fell off the truck in issue #3. This group has always been Marvel’s little bastion of superhero meta-commentary but Straczynski turned the thing into an anti-US screed and kind brought the train to a grinding halt. The writing has been on the wall since the early issues of SUPREME POWER, but honestly, I didn’t expect the whole of the first plot line to be resolved like this. Eh. It seemed like even the Squadroner's themselves were looking around at each other thinking, "What just happened?"  If I want real-world influenced plot lines I’ll read CIVIL WAR. At least there I’ll get Cap surfing a fighter plane.

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FANTASTIC FOUR: A DEATH IN THE FAMILY would make a perfect FCBD comic. I offer this advice free of charge to the Marvel powers that be.

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Speaking of meta-commentary…

If you’ve read this blog for a while you’ve noted that I’ve a weakness for the super hero genre, particularly ensemble (i.e. super teams, but not always) efforts by smaller publishers. I’ve followed titles like GROUNDED, BATTLEHYMN, INTIMIDATORS, PLANETARY BRIGADE and LIVING IN INFAMY all to varying degrees of satisfaction. Of all the derivations I’ve read so far, John Ridley’s THE AMERICAN WAY has been the best.

There’s a lot going on here, and I’m not completely sure Ridley will pull it all off, but so far he’s hit most of the notes pitch-perfect. I love his choice of eras and he’s very deftly established a large cast of characters by spinning off slight variations on the standard archetypes. This kind of thing can easily fall in to the “me too” category, but Ridley avoids that. The last few pages were a bit grizzly. For a minute I thought I was reading a Geoff Johns’ book and then I realized the violence wasn't gratuitous.

May 19 2006 – 52, DC Stuff and FCBD

I may have to stop using this date-in-the-title format – it’s too easy to tell how infrequently I’m posting these days. I’ll be back to full strength soon, just waiting for the yellow rays to kick in.

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I don’t feel like discussing 52 yet. I will say that I think it’s a fairly good concept and I like DC’s plan not to release any trades until after the thing has run its course. Smart. I would definitely wait for trade on something that could likely put one out every six weeks or so.

I’m not sure I agree with Douglas Wolk’s analysis that the 52 heroes are analoging for the Big Three – idealizing/idolizing, maybe - but I do think there’s a bit of a WATCHMEN homage going on. Either way, his post was a great read and I hope he can keep the fires burning for the full run of the series – or at least until just after I get bored with it.

And I’m somewhat curious to see how the Question in Gotham is rectified against what’s been going on with Two-Face in the pages of Batman. Didn’t Batman leave Harvey in charge? It's a big city I suppose.

Do you think they’ll really bring back Sue Dibny? (I can’t even find where I saw the hint of this…) If so it will confirm my suspicion that the real purpose of INFINITE CRISIS was not to reset the tone of the DCU but simply as a Get Out Of Continuity Free card. 

Guess I did want to discuss 52 – a little.

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So it looks like Bart Allen is not to be the new Flash and clearly Jay Garrick is not going to set his helmet aside and don the red and gold, so who is the new guy going to be? I find it interesting the creative team for the revamped book was part of the production team for the TV series but that gives little hint to any character direction. Now if I had to guess, based on the ads alone, I’d say the new Flash was going to be black – it could simply be the lighting in this pic, but it certainly could go either way.

This would disappoint me. As I’ve said before, awarding super speed to a black character is one of the biggest current cliché’s in comics. I’d love to see more black characters but let’s be a little more imaginative about it.

Having said that, how about some idle speculation: if I were in charge of DC I think I’d have Black Lightning “discover” that his lightning/electrical powers had imbued him with super speed as well. I’ve always liked the BL character and DC has worked him into the IC story prominently – albeit briefly - enough that I think the timing would work.

If I’m completely truthful, part of my fondness for the character is that Jefferson Pierce was supposed to have been an Olympic gold-medal winning decathlete, which was my event in college. I think all decathlete’s make great superheroes.   

UPDATE: If you're coming here from Newsarama, you know by now that the new Flash is very likely not black, based on the covers of the upcoming issues. I'd say those are decidedly more reliable than what I've provided here. (Which is "unretouched" as they say.) But hey, what's more fun than a little idle specualtion?

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The current run settles it, Superman is more interesting when he’s less powerful. But you knew that.

I have to imagine he’s easier to write as well. There’s a big difference between writing about a god-like hero which forces a writer to spend all their time coming up with villains and plot devices that might possibly be worthy, as opposed to coming up with ways for your protagonist to find victory over your plot devices and villains.

Let’s hope Johns and Busiek don’t feel the urge to boost Superman to full, universe-crushing power too quickly (if at all).   

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The last two issues of JONAH HEX have been the best so far. I’m not a big Palmiotti and Gray fan, but they seem to be making strides away from the Western-by-the-numbers storytelling of the first few issues.

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I've given up on Hawkgirl already. Just didn't resonate for me. I'm giving Aquaman a couple more issues.

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Finally got a copy of the Marvel offering from Free Comic Book Day. Gaaack. Talk about mailing it in. They should have just pasted together odd pages from a random selection of books and left it at that. Hey, wait a minute…

For DC FCBD is about the kids, and the first issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED is certainly a solid effort in that direction. My oldest was disappointed that it was the first story from his digest edition, but just as the adult fare wasn’t truly aimed at someone like me, this book isn’t really for kids who already are reading or have access to comics.

After five years FCBD has become something different for every retailer. Anecdotally, it seems like savvy, newer(ish) retailers are leveraging it into a larger promotional effort that builds goodwill, the customer base and generates a decent sales bump on the day itself. For the more established it’s a busy event than may or may not do a lot for long-term or even day-of sales, but still generates a fair amount of buzz and once again, goodwill. My own LCS falls into this category. Others question its worth altogether – I’ve seen it characterized as a “pain in the ass” and as an event that creates neither same day sales nor return customers of any kind. That's unfortunate.   

Outsiders perspective: as a recognizable grass roots campaign I give it a B+. If a retailer is of a PR mind he can probably garner some free media coverage out of it (and believe me, this type of coverage goes farther with the general public than your garden variety business profile piece) but the event itself has settled in to a bit of a comfort zone where the big gun publishers participate in the most painless way they can and the smaller ones target the existing base. From a retailer perspective it’s natural to start wondering if the payoff is truly worth the effort, but I think this is one of those vague marketing things that sees its return not so much in same day sales or near-term customer loyalty but in broader good will and industry awareness.

As a retailer (and I was one for nearly 15 years of what seems like another life now) when you invest in a marketing/advertising campaign you really want to see results NOW. Particularly small to medium sized retailers. Branding, good will, industry awareness - those niceties are for the big boys to spend their sheckles on. And an event like this, which, for some at least, has meant lots of traffic but not lots of dollars, is one that feels great the first time you do it, on the fifth pass through it becomes a chore. I sympathize with that, but suspect this event does actually raise awareness and help even those retailers who participate in a limited fashion to some degree.

To those who have lost faith in FCBD I’d say, stay the course, make the most of it, and remember that if it truly doesn’t work well for you it’s only one day a year. For the rest, thanks for your involvement and here’s hoping FCBD is a permanent fixture.

 

May 10, 2006

Free Comic Book Day. Missed it by that much.

I was pulling in to the parking lot when my wife called to say she’d misread the invitation to a birthday party my oldest was attending and it was actually ending NOW, instead of 30 minutes from now. And from there it was off to yet another makeup baseball game. We had four of those on Saturday, thanks in large part to an April that had Fresno vying for the title, Most Rained on City Not Found in a Rain Forest or Named “Seattle”. I really don’t mind. I love baseball, especially kid’s baseball, although making up rained out t-ball tilts (which accounted for two of the games) makes about as much sense to me as complaining about it on a comic book blog.

So I missed out. I’m not too broken up about it, truth tell. There wasn’t anything offered that really grabbed me and I’ll probably be able to get copies of the kids titles tomorrow and I’m not really the target for this promotion anyway, am I? I feel a little guilty about not showing my LCS some love, but the $40-50 a week I spend there goes a long way towards internally absolving myself of that.

More on the marketing aspect of FCBD another time.

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Douglas Wolk’s Salon article on the recent DC and Marvel Crisis events is excellent. (Hat tip: The Beat.) Wolk provides an excellent sum up of CIVIL WAR:

The figurative significance of "Civil War" is easy to see: It's supposed to address the question of trading privacy and liberty for security. That's not exactly new to mainstream comics, though. The "government makes superheroes unmask/register or quit" plot was used in the '80s in both Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' "Watchmen" and James Robinson and Paul Smith's "The Golden Age," and a few years ago in Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming's "Powers." Millar's great at writing action scenes and delving into his characters' ideologies, but a few seconds' thought reveals that his metaphor for America's security mania is actually pretty deeply flawed. It's hard to imagine either "army" of familiar characters countenancing any kind of civilian casualties, or voluntarily deciding to get in step with the government -- if superpowers are outlawed, only outlaws will have superpowers, as they say. And despite all of Marvel's "No, really, nothing will ever be the same again, you can't miss this, really" publicity, it's inconceivable that a major change in the status of Spider-Man or Captain America or the X-Men could last more than a few months -- as we've seen in every other crossover, the company's got too much riding on its icons staying pretty much the same forever.

I’m sure this idea struck the Marvel powers that be as wonderfully topical and relevant given the current political climate. Time is the built-in rate-limiter on that sort of thing as the news cycle renders these type of issues rapidly irrelevant, or at least pushes them below the fold and then to page A17. I think Marvel is probably a year or two late with this story, as the fear of lost privacy - largely fueled by the formation of Homeland Security - has receded from the national consciousness.

Which is not to say that the people have stopped worrying about electronic privacy, digital surveillance, etc. - it’s just not the hip topic to be angry about right now.

This doesn’t even address the question of whether or not we readers really want our comics to cut that close to reality, allegorically or not. But when Joe Q makes a comment like this:

I just came back from doing an ABC radio show with a reporter who told me he could wait for Civil War: Frontline. Outside of being a comics’ fan he was also an imbedded reporter and loves the idea behind it. He also mentioned that he would be sending issues of Civil War and Frontline to some pals he has on Capital Hill. As he told me, “this story is that important.” That made me feel great.

I do start to wonder if he remembers who he assigned to this little project.

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On a more comics related note, from the same link as above, Our Man Quesada posits this:

House of M was the opening salvo. The loss of all those mutants got the attention of many people in positions of power. With so many mutants depowered, the whole superhero landscape changed dramatically. It’s like super-power nation suddenly announcing that they’ve lost three quarters of their military and all of their nukes. You could be sure that other countries would be looking over at their borders and thinking thoughts that they may not normally have and there would also be internal upheaval. The power structure in the Marvel Universe has taken a radical shift.

I’m not buying that one. Are you? Weren’t mutants the group the government least trusted and most feared? If anything I’d think House of M would have all the legislators breathing a sigh of relief.

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I thought INFINITE CRISIS #7 was okay until I read Brian Hibbs’ review and realized I didn’t really like it all. I hate when that happens.

For all the build-up and fanfare I have a hard time envisioning this one having the lasting impact on the DC universe that CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS has had. And no matter how they package it I can’t imagine a $100 “Absolute Edition” gaining any traction 20 years from now.

May 5th, 2006 - Indies, Infinite Crisis & Civil War

Picked up the first two books (can’t really call them “issues”, they’re more than that) of SKYSCRAPERS OF THE MIDWEST. I won’t be buying the third whenever it should publish. As well done as these are, I can’t handle the unrelenting pessimism and glumness. The darn things come with their own dark little rain clouds that hover over you as you read them and then follow you around for the rest of the day.

The first book is sort of a “life sucks” montage that serves as a nice primer to Joshua Cotter’s state of mind. Some of the stories were good, some just okay. The second book is more cohesive and nuanced, and perhaps slightly less depressing as you can tweeze out a few upbeat notes if you close your eyes and squint in the right places. Though not my poison of choice, Cotter's work is very affective.

For a bit different perspective read Guy LeCharles Gonzales’ review of book two and the interview with Cotter that follows it.

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Staying on the Indie circuit.

I picked up the first two volumes of Scott Chantler’s NORTHWEST PASSAGE and if you like “pulse-pounding western action” or “two-fisted historical adventure” this is for you. I lean more towards heart-hammering frontier exploits, but I loved these anyway.

The pacing and storytelling are very solid across the two books and Chantler ably balances a large cast without crossing the line into caricature and stereotypes. As a period piece it really holds up well, although Chantler has taken unabashed Hollywood style liberties with certain character and plot points – all to the best in my opinion.

My understanding is the third volume hits in August. I can’t wait.

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Did it feel to anyone else like Perez’s cover for INFINITE CRISIS #7 should have been a wrap-around?

Not  a completely unsatisfying ending but the whole of it could have used much more cohesive pencil work and the Wonder Woman resolution was way too pat. I felt kind of bad that Gail Simone’s wonderful set up from the VILLAINS UNITED special was resolved in about six panels. But that’s the way of these things. And there’s a half dozen or so other threads still dangling so I guess we’re lucky for what we got. My general feeling is one of a rush to the finish. You get the sense DC wanted to just wrap this baby up and move on with 52 and the One Year Later stuff. Whether or not the plot was intentionally loose, allowing the ongoing books and relaunches to address all the unresolved plot points or forcing them to, would make for an interesting debate. Some combination of the two, I suspect. For all the long-range planning and promotion, I think Johns let this get away from him somewhat.

Nice wrap-up for Breach, by the way. Made me think of that line from the penguin skipper in MADAGASCAR, “You didn’t see annnnnything.”

And Hoover Dam! That last two-page spread was intriguing, wasn’t it?

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CIVIL WAR.

This one just doesn’t quite grab me like IC or even HOUSE OF M. The overriding theme isn’t particularly original and maybe a little too grounded for my taste. Superheroes divided over legislation. Whoopee. Of the various Marvel bullpenners I wouldn’t have thought Mark Millar the obvious choice for this type of saga -- Ed Brubaker perhaps -- but maybe that means this will take a turn towards the grand, exploding dénouement, which would be fine by me.

The first issue was solid enough, although the whole Captain America sequence felt extremely compressed and forced. Or maybe I’ve been reading too much Bendis lately.

I’m also skeptical of this event-in-seven-parts having a lasting impact on the Marvel Universe. Which is fine if the event itself is entertaining, but the build-up so far hasn’t been. Time will tell I guess. If this thing boils down to the government deciding maybe they went too far on the superhero registration thing, but to go ahead and register mutants, immediately followed by six new X-books, I may swear off Marvel “events” for good.   

May 1st, 2006 - Variants, GØDLAND and Suits of Armor

New format. For a while.

Rather than tailor each post to a specific topic I’m going to try one large, column-like post a few times a week, wherein I’ll run the gamut of what’s on my mind. Lately I find I’ve got lots of partial thoughts across a variety of comic subjects and quite less time to fully flesh them out; I’m sitting on about a half dozen half-finished posts, none of which meet even my own modest standards for blog publishment. I figure this format allows me to disguise these fragmentary thoughts as cleverly tossed off observations. I assume you’ll humor me.

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I’ve been thinking about variant covers a lot lately. You’d think I have nothing better to do, but that’s not so. I simply tend to obsess over things I perceive as business problems.

What I find fascinating about this topic is the crankiness it engenders from those who have no horse in the race.

For most of us variant covers simply mean one more buying decision, Lee or Perez? The decision is made all the easier if one version happens to cost 10 times the other – hey, the inside’s the same, right? For some reason the idea of one book carrying a different cover, lower distribution and costing more is in itself an affront to people who have no intention of buying either book. A few weeks back I listened to a youngster at the LCS rail for several good minutes about the horrors variant covers are perpetrating on the industry – you’d think the things had sprung right off a Moreau operating table. “With all the great books out there people could find something better than a lousy Neal Adams Green Lantern cover to spend $50 on,” he concluded and then plopped about 15 “great” X-books on the counter.   

The mistake, I think, is in believing that variants are about comics. Oh, sure peripherally it is, but only that.   

Now I certainly don’t claim to know the motivation behind every variant cover purchase, but let’s generalize and say that most are sold to people who view the purchase as an investment of sorts. And this refers to those variants whose supply has been artificially limited or incentivized by the publisher, causing them to be sold above cover price. Comics that just happen to come in a variety of cover flavors without invoking a premium for any particular cover are part of another discussion.

You can argue the soundness of this type of investment all you like -- and believe me, making a case against variants as a long-term investment is pretty easy -- but every investment channel carries with it a certain amount of speculation, often fueled by emotion. Whether it’s the stock market, real estate, precious metals, stamps, coins, beanie babies or comic books, a certain segment of the investing populace is buying the wrong thing at the wrong price for the wrong reason. Unfortunately, dissuading someone from that $70 WOLVERINE variant doesn’t guarantee they’ll turn around and use that money for any other comics, let alone something new and deserving. Let’s say you convince Comic Variant Guy of your argument that variant covers are a lousy investment vehicle and a gross waste of his money. Maybe, maybe, he diverts some of those funds to GØDLAND or ROCKETO or insert-your-favorite-comic-that-isn’t-selling-what-you-think-it-should-sell-here, but these don’t really satisfy his need to throw money into the intersection of potential profit and nostalgic fondness. So what does he buy instead? I’m sure you can think of other ways for him to spend that money but you’re playing with fire when you start trying to mitigate this sort of thing and dealers run a real risk of alienating these buyers entirely. There’s always the Internet you know.

And the Internet, specifically Internet Robber Baron eBay (truth is I love eBay, so read that with the dollop of sarcasm intended), is fostering a lot of this activity. The impetus for many variant purchases is towards turning the issues for a quick eBay profit. I’ve studied this a little and while it’s a very narrow window, it’s definitely a profitable niche for those who can get their hands on variant cover books at below the variant ratio adjusted price. I am curious about the folks who finally end up with these books in their collection but I’m willing to let the market play out in odd cases like this as examples of irrational exuberance or maybe an exhibition of some folks dominant collector gene.

So who gets hurt? Near as I can tell the short straw goes to the small or start up comic shops who can’t possibly move the enough of the incentive books to justify the variants certain clients demand. And can’t really afford to lose those client’s to other shops or the Internet. To an extent I sympathize with that, largely because I’ve been on that side of the equation and I know that it ain’t fun watching your customers go to a competitor because you’re simply not big enough to get the product they want. But I’ve been on the power side of the aisle as well and know that better pricing and special deals is one among a number of advantages you have when you’re big – or at least bigger than the other guy. And there’s no crime in this, in fact it would be folly not to try and leverage the position as much as possible. Update to “legally possible” if your ethics weren’t molded by one of our fine business schools and you’re not a member of congress. In the end, it sucks to be small and new in business.

For the non-involved -- guys like me, and presumably most of you, who are as likely to pay a premium for a comic with a sketched cover as we are to pass on a free one -- I think the whole variant topic smacks too much of 1993. I get that, but I’m not really worried about it. I’d like to believe the industry learned something from that mess and won’t tread too far down that path again.         

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GØDLAND is quickly becoming, for me, the best-book-not-enough-people-are-buying; I like it so much I even went to the trouble of checking the character map for the funky, slashed “Ø”. But the roughly 5K units per issue it moves is pathetic given the quality and heritage. I can’t help but think if it were flying under Marvel or DC’s banner it would move six or seven times that. I wonder if the overt Kirby homage is actually turning some people away? If I want to listen to Elvis, I’ll listen to Elvis. Not some guy in a wide lapelled jumpsuit and sunglasses on a Vegas stage, no matter how good his “thank you very much” sounds.

I keep expecting the sales numbers to start improving, but so far it's not happening. There's about 5,000 of you out there holding out on this book, and you know who you are.

If you haven’t tried GØDLAND with 3D glasses it’s probably because your kids weren’t watching Sharkboy & Lavagirl while you were trying to read the latest issue. Try it, it works marvelously – you’ll think they designed the book for that purpose.

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Speaking of Joe Casey, his IRON MAN THE INEVITABLE is one of several Tony Stark/Iron Man perspectives I’ve tried to digest of late. It’s probably just me, but I can’t get a bead on what Marvel wants us to think about this character right now. I kind of like the over-confident, arrogant ass we’re starting to see in IRON MAN #7 but that doesn’t really jive with the Tony Stark in NEW AVENGERS or the Tony Stark in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN or Casey’s TONY STARK.

Maybe this is the effect of all these mini-series. Or it’s just me. In any event, I'm getting tired of being told what a heavy hitter Iron Man is by every other Marvel character and shown little to consistently back that up nor any cohesive editorial effort to at least make Stark interesting.

And maybe it's just the conspiracy buff in me, but I've had the impression of late that Marvel is making a supreme effort to keep Iron Man in front of the public as much as possible while they ramp up for a potential movie. I don’t think this character has the icon status they’d like for him to have but Marvel seems to think if they repeatedly tell us how important and powerful and, well, iconic, he is we’ll start to believe it.

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Speaking of suits of armor, have you read ZOOM SUIT? A lot of effort was put into the trade dress and variant cover distribution – the cover of the one I bought was thicker than the walls of my first apartment. Animated shorts, web sites, Metal FX printing technology, staccato screening processes, contests, trading card sets, incentive variant covers - there’s all kinds of kitschy promotional efforts wrapped around this book. There’s been a lot written about the various marketing maneuvers, not so much about actual story in the book itself. The reason may be that the single most apt word for it is “unremarkable”.   

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My April Comics By The Numbers column is posted over at PopCultureShock, covering March’s numbers. Go. Read. Now.