“No one else can do much more”: That’s R.C. Harvey talking about the characters of Sherman’s Lagoon raising awareness about the BP oil spill in this piece for The Comics Journal examining the ways various newspaper comics and cartoons have confronted the ecological disaster.
So, what’s up with the Earth-One line, exactly?: No one knows for sure, apparently. Well, maybe that’ s not quite true, but a lot of folks were trying to figure it out over the course of the last few days. When DC Comics announced a new line of new reader friendly comics by top creators with the old pre-Crisis branding of “Earth-One” last year, they set a lot of tongues a-wagging (and fingers a-typing). Not simply because of the stories, but the way in which DC was planning to publish them—a series of original graphic novels, bypassing the traditional serial publication in stapled comics format. Well, friend of the blog Kevin Huxford noticed something odd from panel reports coming out of San Diego, Johanna Draper Carlson wondered about what sounded like a change in plans (noting that the management has changed between the original announcement and now) and then Comics Beat’s Heidi MacDonald asked DC about it and got a not-terribly-specific reply, and more and more blogs took note. Finally, JDC offers a follow-up with some lessons to learn here. (Speaking of the upcoming Earth-One books, doesn’t the new new Batman costume look an awful lot like the one designed for the Batman: Earth-One series?)
Everyone knows women love to shop though, am I right, guys?: The New York Times puts together a story stating the obvious, although the twist here is that some women shop for things you (or New York Times editors?) would think only men would shop for. The aforementioned Heidi MacDonald, who was apparently interviewed for the piece, notes an obvious problem with the article. And while I’m linking to The Beat like crazy, attaching myself like a remora to MacDonald’s shark-like blogging, here’s another gynocentric piece, linking to a couple of very talented cartoonists’ comics about Comic-Con.
Ahahahahahahahahahahahah!: (Inhale) Ahahahahahahahahahahah!
“It also reminds the reader that a large part of the superhero formula used to be protecting the innocent as opposed to simply reacting to personal danger”: You know, for a guy who doesn’t consider himself a superhero guy, Tom Spurgeon sure writes very well about the genre, as evidenced in this review of Invincible Iron Man Annual #1, part of a modern super-comic series that Spurgeon regularly name-checks as being one he follows and enjoys on his Comics Reporter blog.
August 11th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Well won’t that be a shocker if another suppoedly bright idea from DC, one that was announced months ago and pretty heavily hyped, ends up not happening or turns out to be a colossal disappointment?
Oh, wait, no it won’t… That’s pretty much everything has gone with DC since Didio’s been in charge.
August 11th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Caleb, judging by the first comment, you may have added to the confusion by reporting so heavily on the controversy, but describing JDC’s post explaining what happened (the one where JMS sets things straight) only as “a followup with lessons learned.”
Not really meant as a criticism; just wanting to make sure people aren’t still assuming things when it’s been resolved by JMS himself.
August 11th, 2010 at 11:16 am
But JMS has given several statements to that effect, one of which, from CBR says, “This is coming out first in hardcover…” I would like to highlight the use of the word first. What happens second, is anyones guess. He has barely clarified, and should have simply said, “no single issues.”
August 11th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Thanks for the link, Caleb!
This mess is sadly still going on, as JMS’s clarification doesn’t jive with what he was recorded saying on the panel. Even in those clarifications, no one has expressly denied the single issues. It would seem that JMS is trying to deny that the second volume will be serialized BEFORE it is available as a GN, but I’d need a more direct statement of fact on that before buying in.
This is, also, the JMS that angrily denied Rich Johnston’s rumors about his Superman run when some of it has proved to be more accurate than he indicated. So I might actually need to see the second volume debut as an OGN before I’d believe there’s no change in their plans.