Comments on: Creator Q&A: Joshua Elder

By: Kevin Melrose

Kevin Melrose — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 01:02:36 +0000

I-I … I did no such thing!

By: Spencer Carnage

Spencer Carnage — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:56:37 +0000

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!!!!

By: Josh Elder

Josh Elder — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:50:38 +0000

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.

By: Paul O'Brien

Paul O'Brien — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:07:38 +0000

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.)

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 23:11:55 +0000

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.

By: Josh Edler

Josh Edler — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 21:41:45 +0000

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’.

By: Rachelle

Rachelle — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 18:16:46 +0000

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.

By: Paul O'Brien

Paul O'Brien — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:07:16 +0000

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.