Well, lookit this! Within a few short days the comics blogosphere has found its first major unnecessarily heated feud and its first self-appointed, inaccurate parade-pisser-on’er! Color me impressed!
(Actually, regarding the comic that started the aforementioned tussle, the Coober Skeber Marvel Benefit Issue, let me just say that I’d kill to get my hands on one. Published by Highwater, I believe, it’s out of print, and contains “tributes” (some sincere, some less so, I think) to the Marvel heroes by a pantheon of up-and-coming altcomix luminaries, including a bunch of Fort Thunder types, Ron Rege Jr., and James Kochalka. Kochalka’s contribution, a short story featuring the Hulk’s battle against rain (seriously), was reprinted in the last Incredible Hulk Annual, and for my money gets directly to the heart of what makes this rage-filled “hero” so compelling when he’s done right. It’s both the best Hulk story I’ve ever read, and the best thing Kochalka’s ever done. Seek it out if you can.)
Dirk Deppey says “fanboy, heal thyself,” laying the blame for the woes of the Direct Market not at the feet of the publishers, distributors, or even the retailers, but of the customers themselves. Yeah, basically. Remember when we all were talking about how no one should be buying comics they know are mediocre? Dirk explains why.
Brian Bendis talks about two of the three books he’s writing on which he’s conducted major overhauls, Powers and Daredevil. I don’t know why Newsarama didn’t conduct a separate interview about The Pulse (formerly Alias). Maybe Bendis was sleepy and had to get in his pajamas, I dunno.
If people with foreign-policy philosophies as different as Jim Henley and me can agree that the new issue of Captain America is pretty good, that pretty much settles it, right? Seriously, Bob Morales manages to both humanize Cap (in the “he’s eats at a diner and flirts” sense, not in the “he gets the crap kicked out of him and we see he’s vulnerable blah blah blah” sense) and inject him into a highly topical, politicized adventure that assumes neither “everyone knows Bush is Hitler” nor “everyone knows all the towelheads should be rounded up and shot,” which surprisingly enough seems difficult for super-writers to manage these days. Add in the art of Chris Bachalo, which though occasionally hard to follow (I had to go back and reread the shoot-out on the bridge like everyone else) is some of the most dynamic and unusual art currently on the superhero scene, and you’ve got a promising start.