There have been so many shocks and surprises and the internet just can’t be broken anymore. It’s become tougher, like when you tear a phone book into pieces and eventually it just won’t rip anymore. How do you tell who’s who and what’s what in this new world out there? Don’t worry. I’m here to comfort and guide. Welcome to the world outside B@N. Welcome to Meanwhile….
Ragnell continues the 50 Things I Love About Comics Meme.
I didn’t even notice one of the reasons I like Manhunter until she mentioned it either.
Manhunter is divorced. She is not a castrating bitch. Her husband is not deadbeat Dad. They are two decent people who couldn’t make it work out, and there was no need to make anyone the villain to make the other look better.
Steve Lieber visits the set of Whiteout and comes away happy.
The set visit went great and I’m not going to share any information, but I’m VERY, VERY happy with everything I saw. The weather in Montreal was foul, but that aside, I spent the visit wearing expressions that alternated between a big goofy grin and awestruck wonder at how cool it all was.
A few sneak peeks:
Anatomy of a cover: Fables #65
The cover to August’s Superman/Batman #39.
Eddie Campbell shows how a cover can change over time with Immortality Isn’t Forever.
Andrew Hickey discusses Countdown and Scheduling Problems.
The delays caused by Civil War last year were bad - it held up release of a significant portion of Marvel’s line, and may well have actually put retailers out of business - but delays to Countdown could be catastrophic for DC. The problem is that Countdown is tying into other comics. While 52 was set in its own year, Countdown is supposed to reflect what’s happening in the other titles. The question is, how is that going to be possible? Action’s supposed main story is so delayed that there have been whole fill-in ‘arcs’ between issues in the main storyline. While they’re getting the title itself onto something like a regular basis (another fill-in issue is out next week), there will have been a four-and-a-half-month gap between issues by what is supposedly the regular writing team by the time the next issue by Johns & Donner comes out (and they’re only back for one issue before another fill-in).
What If..fans ran the Marvel Universe?
Free Comic Book Month is still going on.
YOCBB links to a new John Romita Jr. Interview.
Chris Bird isn’t pitching Legion to DC?
DC Comics hasn’t contacted me in any official capacity. Not Dan Didio, not Legion editor Mike Marts, not the mailroom boy, nothing. I just want to make sure everybody understands this so DC’s position on this isn’t mis-represented.
Is this trying to squash a rumor or squash the truth so DC isn’t enundated with more of these types of pitches.
HEY EVERYONE! DR.STRANGE ISN’T GAY!
Because just as undeniably, Doctor Strange is a stud with the women. He makes any jacket a smoking jacket. Haven’t you ever seen a pimp before? Hugh Hefner! Doc is the product of being an originally-Asian mystic in the hippie/Playboy 60’s and 70’s, with nary a wayward glance that his also-Asian doorman has been anything more than just a cigar in over 500 stories. Meanwhile, Doc’s been barely-off-panel screwing (er, engaging in “tantric exercise” with) Clea, Morgana Blessing, Night Nurse, etc. (follow that Photon Torpedoes link for several images and Doc stories). These women aren’t beards; Frasier and Niles Crane are straight and dandy, and so is Doc (he proceeded to have a relationship with the woman who asked him above if he was gay). The issue here is more context than subtext- it’s not that Doc’s screwing Wong, it’s that the concept of cultured masculinity has changed on Doc over time.
For a moment an exhausted Diana considered abandoning the unconscious pilot to the mercies of the strange plant and animal life that was borne to earth by the ill-timed death of the moonlet-sized creature. Living within its flesh, both hostile parasites and beneficial microbes were set free from their usual world of thick shell to attack and twist the Earth.
Johnny Bacardi speaks out on the whole MJ Issue.
I can’t help but wonder if anyone’s taken the time to consider that since Marvel and Sideshow Collectibles aren’t backing down on this issue, that all that this brouhaha has accomplished is REAMS of publicity for a product that otherwise few people would have paid attention to otherwise (I’m mostly referring to people who would never be caught dead in a comics shop) and even fewer would have actually purchased. I gotta believe that this overpriced little trinket would have been issued and forgotten about three months later, movie or no movie, if not for all the attention.
Jog says more about All Star Batman and Robin #5 than I thought possible.
You see, to my mind, Miller is doing (in part) the same thing with this All Star book as Grant Morrison is doing with his All Star Superman - he’s folding bits and pieces of his own varied contributions to the title character’s lore into a type of ultra-summary of the character’s essence, as he sees it.
Like Hanna-Barbera’s Birdman, Superman in some ways is a living solar battery.
On Reduction: The Secret Joys of Pull-List Asceticism
The tipping point is always the same: the realization that I’m buying more books than I’m actually reading. So begins a new era of austerity and restraint. The nature of pleasure becomes converted into its opposite. Delight no longer resides in addition but in subtraction—a metamorphosis often marked by a symbolic excision, the cutting loose of a long-cherished darling.
One of the Savage Critics hangs it up. We’ll miss ya Jeff.
ADD checks back in for a bit. That’s Alan David Doane for those who weren’t around way back when.
I miss being “Alan David Doane: Comics Blogger.” If you loved or hated this blog in its heyday, there’s no denying it was a blast to write, and I appreciate every reader who read what I had to say, especially those who found actual value in my opinions from time to time. Believe it or not, I still have opinions, and I still want to share them with anyone who wants to know what I think, but after all of the above, I really am left kind of scratching my head wondering how to recreate this blog so that it still in any way matters in a world where Dirk, Tom, Johanna and a select few others really have good blog writing about comics kind of all sewn up.
You know, I wouldn’t mind so much if I thought the book being cancelled meant that DC realizes that the new Aquaman was a big dud and that it’s time to bring back the real Aquaman with a big splash. But I’m really afraid they will point to this as proof that “Aquaman can’t carry his own title”.
True Tales of Comic Book Horror
And we’ll end this week’s links with a little bull with a sense of humor.
Peace.
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:05 am
I like the separators.
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:44 am
Thanks for the namecheck, but you’ve got the wrong text there after. I haven’t reviewed All Star Batman & Robin, yet! Perhaps if I can get it for 75¢ like I did 1-4, I will!
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:15 pm
That ASBARTBW excerpt if from Jog–the Blog’s review.
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Ugly American- Thanks. I don’t know why I didn’t use them before. It seems obvious now.
Johnny & Bill- I apologize for that guys. It was a missing ” in the link.
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:00 pm
For the want of a “…
As much as I’d love to take credit for Jog’s words, glad you got it straightened out. No apologies necessary!