“I could relate my thrilling trajectory as a comics consumer… how stories set in Riverdale left me with a completely inflated sense of the centrality of the malt shop in teen life… how I believed for some time that the comics medium could offer no greater spectacle than Valkyrie quelling a riot in a women’s prison in an old issue of The Defenders… how I realized somewhat belatedly that habits are unhealthy and hobbies should be fun and took steps to expand my comic-reading horizons. But you’ve heard that trajectory described a million times, and my version is probably even more boring than the average.”
- David P. Welsh, being anything but boring with his first Flipped column in its new home at The Comics Reporter
“There were assorted times during the thread when somebody would nominate a story or a sequence that i thought was just utter rubbish, and I’d despair a bit, and hope for somebody else to come along and knock it down. But it all shows that everybody’s tastes are just a little bit different, and even the crummiest comic books appeal to somebody.”
- Tom Brevoort, reflecting upon the 10 Marvel Classics “audience participation” thread trends (And fostering some interesting discussion with that post and a few other of that ilk in the past week)
“I like giving stuff away. I think it’s sensible. I like that you can read Sandman #1 on the DC Comics site, for example. (It’s at http://www.dccomics.com/media/excerpts/1696_1.pdf. (Although for reasons known only to DC, they have put the last two pages of the story in the wrong order.) We’ve got five short stories up at http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool%20Stuff/Short%20Stories, and I just realised on poking around that I’ve put more essays and things up over the years on this blog than have ever made it into the essays section, and a lot more audio than ever made it to the rather threadbare audio section (although there’s lots of free audio now up at http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Gaiman)”
- Neil Gaiman, considering the nature of free, as part of his effort to celebrate the seventh birthday of his blog by posting a free copy of American Gods
“I suppose I wanted to do something that was a little bit autobiographical. I wanted to tell it from the perspective of someone who was a wee boy in that year. And personally, I think the high watermark for comics over the past fifty years was the mid-1980s. You had Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Walt Simonson, John Byrne, etc. All the really great guys working at the same time. 1985 is right smack in the middle of that. It’s also the year that I was probably at my most obsessive comic-fan stage. I almost lost my mind I was so into comics at that age. So I wanted to write a book about a kid like that. The doorway from the Marvel U. to our world is set in this kid’s small Midwestern town. These guys start coming through the doorway, and he’s the only one that knows who they are.”
- Mark Millar, detailing why he picked the year 1985 for his upcoming Marvel project
Five Years Ago
“With thirteen — count ‘em, thirteen — movies based on their company-owned characters in development in one form or another, Marvel Comics continues its well-known penchant for blindly using gluts of product to turn boomtimes into busts. The current tally: Hulk, X-Men II, Spider-Man II, Iron Man, Namor, The Fantastic Four, The Punisher, Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, Deathlok and three announced this week, Werewolf by Night, a Daredevil sequel and an Elektra spinoff film. Presumably there are more on the way. The sound you hear is a dull knife sawing diligently on the throat of Marvel’s golden-egg-laying goose.”
- Dirk Deppey, speculating at a time none of us could have envisioned a Fantastic Four sequel would sport a Dodge vehicle as the Fantasticar…
One Year Ago
“Clearly, I’m the only comics fan on-line who watched THE JANICE DICKINSON MODELING AGENCY. Just a couple of weeks back, one of her new clients was the International Fight League. They were looking to hire a couple of her models to be ring girls. And who was amongst the executives in her offices to have a look at potential ring girls? WIZARD head honcho Gareb Shamus.”
- Augie De Blieck Jr., revealing what some folks do when not reading comic books.
Less than a month ago
“Archie Goodwin gave me my first American comics work and basically taught me the superhero genre. I owe him my career, and I still miss him.”
- Warren Ellis, in the comments section of my post remembering Archie Goodwin. Goodwin died 10 years ago today.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:06 am
Where is our Deathlok movie!!!????
March 2nd, 2008 at 6:58 pm
It came out in 1987, under the title “Robocop”.