The Bendis Board isn’t impressed by comic creators and their lack of geographical knowledge:
“Maybe I’m all alone here. But this is twice now I’ve read a comic by a big writer where the setting is North Dakota and there are huge mountains all over the place. Warren Ellis and Steve Niles have both done this now. When I see stuff like that, it tends to really ruin the rest of the story for me as it slaps the fuck out of my suspension of disbelief that there are superheroes and what not, but that there are huge mountains in North Dakota. If you need mountains, just set it someplace else. There are plenty of remote locations. Montana, Colorado, Idaho, whatever.”
“I like how there are tall cactus plants when set in Texas. I have yet to see one of these fabled plants.”
“Writers always fuck up New Orleans and make people talk like they’re from Georgia 200 years ago or French. No one talks like that in the city. Maybe in the swamps. But NOT in the city.”
“Don’t forget the majestic mountains of Dallas.”
Won’t someone please buy those poor comic creators an atlas?
November 20th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
I grew up in the Wilkes-Barre Scranton area, so any time I watch The Office and they go outside I cringe.
November 20th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
This is one of the reasons I like DC. Most of the characters live in imaginary cities and places. So artists can freely make up geography and buildings.
Though I’ve noticed that comics taking place in South Dakota are always at Mount Rushmore. The exception was a couple years ago when the Outsiders came to Sioux Falls, SD where I live. That was fun (and I’m still trying to figure out where that empty warehouse was supposed to be).
November 21st, 2007 at 12:03 am
Hey the Punisher wore a long leather coat in Tampa during the summer. After that I’ll believe anything.
November 21st, 2007 at 5:39 am
And that’s because people usually doesn’t notice the mistakes that creep every time a super-hero comic is set in a place OUTSIDE the US. Ouch!
In a recent Mighty Avengers issue the Eiffel Tower was shown in Brussels, for dog’s sake!
Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)
November 21st, 2007 at 10:39 am
I’m not sure what London looks like in a comic, the fog always gets in the way.
November 21st, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Heh. Apparently Checkmate’s eastern canadian office is 75km east of Halifax. Which, unless someone changed the east coast, is in the Atlantic….
(On the plus side, it wasn’t in Toronto, which is usually the only Canadian location in comics…)