Rachelle Goguen talks with writer Joshua Elder about Tokyopop’s Mail Order Ninja and DC’s The Batman Strikes!
Goguen: One of the criticisms I read somewhere of Mail Order Ninja (and I don’t know if this is a common criticism) is that the premise is ridiculous, or at least poorly explained. It struck me that there is something tragic about the modern comic reader’s inability to embrace absurdity. In the silver age a story about a kid ordering a ninja out of a catalog would have been downright sensible. Do you feel that there are limits on what a comic writer can get away with these days ? Are you as sad as I am that everyone needs their comics to make sense all the time?
Elder: To puree a metaphor: People in spandex houses shouldn’t throw stones. At least the premise (Boy orders ninja from catalogue, ninjinx ensue.) of “Mail Order Ninja” doesn’t ask anyone to actually take it seriously. Unlike, say, the straight-faced assertion that the Hulk’s many, many rampages never generated a single fatality, or that ultra-dense material from a white dwarf star can somehow be engineered into a shrinking device. These critics are encountering my out-there premise as adults rather than children and judging it accordingly while giving equally outrageous superhero conceits a pass because that’s what they grew up with. I speak from experience on that one.
Elder’s first issue of The Batman Strikes! was August’s Issue 36. According to the interview, he’ll be writing more early next year.
October 4th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
This is a bit of a straw man, isn’t it? Who on earth is actually criticising a book called MAIL ORDER NINJA for having a silly premise? A completely unsourced “One of the criticisms I read somewhere…”, apparently – and that’s a pretty flimsy starting point for grumbling about the stupidity of the superhero readership.
October 4th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I don’t think that I said that comic book readers were stupid, I just have observed a trend toward needing everything to be well-explained all the time. Granted, this is mainly because the majority of comics are now written for adults, and thus can’t get away with loose storytelling. Absurd characters that don’t make any scientific sense are now forced to live in a very realistic world. Anyway, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that comic readers are often making criticisms like “That would never happen.” Or “That doesn’t make any sense.” Read any messageboard or go to any comic shop.
But if you want specific reviews for Mail Order Ninja that criticized the absurd plot, you can find one here and another one here. This was just an interview, so knowing that Josh had received these kinds of criticims, I was curious about what he had to say.
October 4th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Paul, I’m definitely not calling superhero fans stupid. If I was, the thousands of superhero comics and hundreds of superhero trades I own would make me the biggest idiot of all. My point was that people give concepts they grew up with a pass that they don’t or won’t give to concepts they first encounter as adults. Seriously, try to explain the plot of “Infinite Crisis” to any non-comic reading adult and see how far you get before they start giving you that “I don’t think he’s right in the head” look.
Not that superhero fans are the only folks guilty of this. Sci-fi fans do it, fantasy fans do it — heck, I’ll bet romance novel readers do it. Of course I’m guilty of it as well, but I try to recognize my prejudice when it rears its ugly head.
S’all I’m sayin’.
October 4th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
I want to know when he’s coming out with Mail Order Ninja Vol 3.
The book is goofy and fun and very cool.
Nother year and I may see if my niece wants to read it.
October 4th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
I don’t disagree with the point as such – actually, it’s undoubtedly true that people become blind to the intense silliness of aspects of the genre. I’m just a little baffled by the way in which you guys are talking about this as if it was a significant body of opinion.
I can see Rachelle’s point about the first review, actually. It’s definitely on the literal-minded side. But the other one by Johanna barely even mentions the issue in passing – all it has to say about the credibility of the premise is “(?)”. (In fact, I googled for reviews before making the initial post and didn’t see any sign of this being a common response. Most of the reviews, for that matter, were positive.)
October 4th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Paul,
It’s true that it’s not really a common criticism, but I have heard it before and Rachel did ask about it so I felt I should answer.
And Evan, the third volume is coming out in June and I’m currently in talks with Tokyopop to take the book quarterly after that and even release a special companion volume that collects the original short story and the newspaper strips.
October 4th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Stop blaming Rachelle and Josh! Can’t you see the real villain here?! This is all Kevin Melrose’s fault for posting that little snippet for the sheer sake of getting all us super hero fans in a tizzy!!
AND IT WORKED!!!!
October 4th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
I-I … I did no such thing!