Category: Comics

So Newsarama previews an issue of Daredevil. There’s a semi-naked woman, and a big guy terrorizing her.

I’m not going to make any real commentary on the content. I gave up on Daredevil 3/4 through Bendis’ run (I’ll probably finish it off one day, after I’ve bought the other 150 books on my wishlist). Brubaker’s a pretty decent writer, but his work doesn’t do anything for me.

However, there are those who comment and discuss the issue of whether it’s appropriate for a big guy with buzz saws on his wrists to be beating up a semi-naked blind woman. (It’s Newsarama, after all; I must say, though, that the debate is reasonably fair-minded for that site.)

Then Ed Brubaker shows up:

Why not wait to, you know, actually READ the comic before jumping to any conclusions? Or is that too logical for the internets?

As I said, I think Brubraker’s a decent writer, and he usually seems like a pretty smart guy. As such, it’s kind of bizarre that he so completely misses the point.

It’s a preview. Marvel sent it out to get people excited about the book. They want people talking about the book. Which is perfectly sensible, but they don’t get to decide what people say about it.

I’d kind of like to see this argument come up some time:

Internet Fan: This book looks awesome! Writer X rules!
Writer X: Why don’t you just shut up and read the book before leaping to conclusions?

Marvel released a five-page preview. Three of those pages show a supervillain menacing a scantily-clad woman, and the solicitation text calls up Daredevil’s history of dead girlfriends. And you’re somehow surprised that people leap to conclusions?

I’m not the sort to get offended by stuff Marvel puts in a superhero comic, but the reactions just end up making them look like either jerks or clueless nitwits. “Your opininon is wrong” and “We don’t know what you’re talking about” just aren’t very good PR.

Brubraker also says this:

Also, when I wrote the script, she was in a nightgown. But Michael thought, and rightly so, that being in her underwear was both more vulnerable, and reminisent of the scene where she first met Bullseye.

Ed, you do remember that she’s blind, right? And doesn’t have any sort of superpowers or special skills? So really, I think that covers off the “vulnerable” angle pretty well. But if that’s really the idea, then why not just go whole hog and make her naked?

Oh, right…

Today’s Dinosaur Comic may be the best ever.

I kid you not.

I’m a pretty big Sam Kieth fan. Not his biggest fan, or anything, but I generally like his stuff. He’s got a unique and distinctive style, and a bizarre sense of humour. If I was the sort of person who would buy a Batman/Lobo team-up book, I would definitely buy Kieth’s Batman/Lobo team-up book.

But I’m not. I’m sorry, Sam, but Batman vs. Lobo? Did I fall through a gap in the space-time continuum and end up in 1995? Why does this keep happening to me?

Which wouldn’t be so bad on its own, I suppose; if Sam Kieth wants to draw Batman fighting Lobo, and seemingly channel a bit of Simon Bisley, that’s his business.

However, I feel more than a little disappointed that Kieth is doing a project of this calibre while My Inner Bimbo continues to sit in limbo: The first issue came out almost a year ago and the second is nowhere to be seen. I’m not sure if Inner Bimbo made a whole lot of sense, but it’s a far, far, far more interesting project than yet another generic (even with Sam Kieth!) teamup book.

Booooo!

Oh yeah.

Newsarama asked Joe Quesada what he thought about the notorious Heroes for Hire cover, and here’s what he had to say:

First, I think people are reading way too much into that cover than was ever intended. I heard terms such as “tentacle rape” being thrown around when that in no way is what’s happening, nor does it happen in the book. Those tentacles are the arms of the Brood who appears in the issue and is a major story point, the Brood have tentacles, sorry about that.

Secondly, the concept for that cover, soup to nuts came from a female artist. Thirdly, not being a deep follower of manga, I have no idea what recurring theme people are referring to or concerned with. While I appreciate the sentiment and the feelings that some may have about this, I honestly feel that there is way too much being read into this cover.

Also, HFH is a book that features two strong, lead female protagonist who kick major ass; somehow folks have forgotten to focus on that.

Somehow, Joe managed to sound both clueless and weaselly. Let’s try this again:

Yeah, I can see where people are coming from. Sana Takeda, who’s a great artist, did a fun cover that parodied and homaged a relatively obscure and completely absurd genre.

And while it’s obviously a bit of artistic license, it does hint at the issue’s content – there are plenty of tentacled aliens inside! But rest assured, there’s far more butt kicking than tentacle rape. After all, no one would put rape in a superhero comic. That’s just silly.

We really didn’t set out to offend anyone, but offer our apologies if we did. From what I’ve seen, most of our fans don’t have a serious problem with it, and I’m sure our audience is going to dig it even more when they read the issue.

There, that wasn’t so hard, was it? At least acknowledge there’s an issue, even if you don’t really care about it.

I was going to make some sort of substantive post, but it’s Friday. Fuck it.

Instead I bring you this Heaping Amount of Awesome, found via Warren Ellis, who got it from Jess Nevins.

This, my friends, is what life is all about.

Bonus Awesome: Check out Jennifer DeGuzman’s Fun With Slush and find out what insane people expect SLG to publish.

Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis is probably one of the most successful and acclaimed graphic novels of the last decade. This week, the film version – co-written and directed by Satrapi herself – debuted at the Cannes Film Festival. In the fall, it will be released in North America with an English voice cast of Gena Rowlands, Catherine Deneuve, Kirsten Dunst, Iggy Pop, and Sean Penn.

Is there a more compelling story than Satrapi’s life and her accomplishments? Is there a more successful woman working in the comic book industry? (And by “industry” in this case, I refer to the actual industry, not just the genre-niche occupied by Marvel and DC)

But somehow, a limited-edition statue and the cover to a book that was the eighty-ninth best-seller in March are bigger news.

Don’t get me wrong: These things deserve to be mocked. But they deserve to be mocked swiftly and briefly, and then ignored.

Warren Ellis made a great point in his Bad Signal mailing list yesterday:

If your issue is that there aren’t enough female voices writing your favourite corporate-owned superhero titles, then, frankly, your problems are deeper and broader than you think.

Keep fighting. Keep kicking. But never, ever act like the women already working in the medium aren’t there, just because they’re not writing Batman or Supergirl.

It’s worth remembering that change seldom begins in the mainstream. Marvel & DC are going to continue to put out whatever crap sates their primary audience until they notice someone else making more money doing something differently. They deserve to be called out when they do the particularly stupid stuff, but that’s not nearly as important as recognizing the people who actually are changing things.

1. No one will ever retcon the endings to Seaguy or WE3 or Vimanarama.
2. Hellboy is the sort of comic Jack Kirby would have gotten around to eventually.
3. Madman is friends with Mott, from the planet Hoople.
4. Renée Montoya is a pretty interesting character, but she’s still just a watered-down and wimpy version of Tara Chace.
5. Alan Moore doesn’t write mainstream superhero comics any more.
6. Warren Ellis really shouldn’t write mainstream superhero comics. Except for Nextwave, anyway.
7. The two major elements in Phonogram are magic and Britpop.
8. Demo is the best X-Men story of the last decade.
9. Blankets may not be the best thing ever, but there’s still less whining and angst than in many modern superhero comics.
10. You probably never thought Louis Riel was interesting until Chester Brown came along.
11. Seth had an exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Jim Lee did not.
12. Scott Pilgrim gives you all the best aspects of romantic comedy, action-adventure, and 1980s video games.
13. Scott Pilgrim also gave the world Kim Pine, for which it shall always be blessed.
14. Just when you thought Cameron Stewart was an pretty darn good superhero artist, he does The Other Side and shows he’s a totally awesome everything artist.
15. J.H. Williams’ covers to Promethea. Also everything he did inside Promethea.
16. Maus is just as good as its reputation. Probably better.
17. Bone. Big, funny, sweet, and scary. Fighting evil is easy when you’re an invincible alien, but less so when you’re a short, white, pudgy fellow.
18. Rex Libris is an intergalactic librarian who talks like a forties gumshoe. He fights alien snowmen and his sidekick is a small bird with dreams of world domination.
19. Looshkin is the evolutionary pinnacle of the crazy, fucked up cat cartoonists have been developing since humanity learned to draw and figured out that cats were crazy, fucked up animals. Let’s see Heathcliff drive a tank or befriend a giant squid.
20. Street Angel fights ninjas, conquistadors, satanists, and poverty.
21. Desolation Jones: Hitler porn and Phillip K. Dick. Plus the best artwork J.H. Williams has ever done.
22. While Optic Nerve comes out less frequently than Ultimates or All-Star Batman & Robin, no one ever pretends it’s supposed to come out more frequently. And it’s always worth the wait.
23. Barry Ween and Pedro and Me will allow you to understand why Judd Winnick still gets work.
24. Crossing Midnight has one character who’s the Lord of Blades, and another who rules over needles. Also a dragon-headed samurai dude who likes chopping off heads.
25. All Star Superman is pretty great, but it’s WE3 that shows off why Frank Quitely is one of the best artists ever to pick up a pencil.
26. Johnny The Homicidal Maniac finds inventive uses for sporks and is a big fan of Terry Gilliam.
27. Filler Bunny is totally, utterly, amazingly disgusting. It is so wrong and so right.
28. Corey Lewis fixed everything that was wrong in Sharknife and kicked it up a couple notches for the super-fun Peng!, in which we learn about Canadians’ rock-throwing habits.
29. Top Ten combines the best attributes of superhero comics and Hill Street Blues.
30. Autobiographical indie comics look pretty crappy until you get to I Never Liked You. Then you understand what the fuss is all about.
31. Brian K. Vaughan saves all his best cliffhangers for Y The Last Man.
32. Niko Henrichon turned a story about lions and political allegory into one of the most gorgeous and moving books of the year.
33. Project: Superior: Superheroes, if they were fun and occasionally a bit silly. Where else do you get James Jean, John Cassaday, Bryan O’Malley, Tara McPherson, Scott Morse, and many, many others all in one book, all doing their own thing?
34. Chris Ware does more with sequential storytelling in one volume of ACME Novelty Library than most artists do in an entire career.
35. Ramona Flowers just really likes her hammer.
36. Serenity Rose can float, capture vampires in giant balloon ponies, and has great goggles.
37. Peter Milligan’s Skreemer is the best post-apocalyptic gangster epic ever committed to the page.
38. Teamups are actually cool: Madman has met Hellboy, Superman, and the Big Guy, and it’s fresh and exciting because it doesn’t happen every other month. Scott Pilgrim appeared in Peng! and it was still cool even while being totally gratuitous.
39. Grant Morrison.
40. I have no idea what the actual plot of Shaolin Cowboy is, but dear god that’s a pretty comic: Kung fu, gunfire, evil spirits, mean crabs, disembodied heads, and a giant freaking shark.
41. The best comic book movies (Ghost World and History of Violence) have had nothing to do with superheroes.
42. Mike Carey started with the mythology Neil Gaiman created (and appropriated) for Sandman and made it even bigger in Lucifer.
43. Gaudium and Spera, the bickering fallen cherub siblings, are the best comic relief in comics.
44. One of the greatest stories Neil Gaiman ever wrote was about cats.
45. Many people have complained about there not being enough women or minorities in comics, but few people seem to have read the Martha Washington books.
46. Local can make you cry.
47. Love Fights is a screwball romantic comedy set against a world of superheroes. It also features a talking cat.
48. Usagi Yojimbo is a rabbit with a sword.
49. Next Men was the last time John Byrne was interesting.
50. Absolutely anything can happen when your characters don’t have to appear on lunch boxes.

* By “mainstream superhero comics” I refer to Marvel & DC’s traditional fare. Vertigo, Wildstorm, Max, and Icon are fair game, though I’ve tried not to rely on them too heavily.

** Of course, many superhero comics are more than “good enough”; several are downright awesome. They’re just not good enough to consume an entire medium.

And no, it’s not even the Spider-Man thing. The cover to Ultimate Power #7:

(Note Kitty and the Thing at the bottom)

And then the cover to Ultimate Fantastic Four #31:

Oh, and two other drawings I pointed out here.

The Thing might not be quite the same, but Kitty is certainly in the same pose he’s used for the Invisible Woman three times already – the disappearing leg-stump is a dead giveaway. At least he changed the costume this time.

It’s really pretty funny at this point. Imagine how many of these things I could find if I actually read any books he drew.

Speaking of the DC solicits, we get this “description” of All Star Superman #9:

ALL STAR SUPERMAN #9
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Frank Quitely & Jamie Grant
Cover by Quitely
Behold the Eisner Award-winning creative powerhouse in another fantastic exhibition of All Star bravura! Perils loom as Superman faces the strangest of adversaries.

The reason for this utter vagueness must be one of the following:

1. Grant Morrison hasn’t written the script yet;
2. Grant Morrison has written the script, but no one at DC understands what it’s about. Maybe it’s a Mtzlplk story written completely backwards and features Superman being turned into a flying goldfish by red Kryptonite.