Greetings, fight fans! For a complete round-up of the “superheroes are good” and “groupthink is bad” memes, I hereby toss this post into the ring.
Kevin Melrose points to a dense and readable interview with DC President and Publisher Paul Levitz, by the Pulse’s Heidi MacDonald. Two things spring to mind upon reading it. One, isn’t interesting how Levitz’s lack of bravado and bluster, which once made him seem like yesterday’s news, now makes him come across like the savvy and erudite voice of the future? Two, as Kevin picked up on in his link to the piece, Levitz breaks down the manga/bookstore debate in a novel and intriguing fashion, saying that in terms of buying patterns, comics that look like books (i.e. manga, trade paperbacks, and graphic novels) sell similarly in both the Direct Market and the bookstores. While that would tend to shore up my belief that book-formatted comics are the future of the industry, Levitz also says that he’s seen little evidence to suggest that manga-formatted non-manga comics will sell to manga readers. That would naturally poke a hole in my “make tankubon versions Sandman, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Love & Rockets!” prescription. However, if book-formatted comics are doing well in the Direct Market but manga itself isn’t, that suggests that there is a market to whom such formats appeal… great stuff to chew on, either way.
J.W. Hastings takes a look at three recent comics by ADDTF favorite Brian Michael Bendis, and contrasts the effectiveness of Bendis’s trademark dialogue-heavy writing style in each. Of the three, I’ve only read Daredevil #57, and I must say that this is one case where I found the constant chit-chat as distracting as many other pundits seem to. Reporter Ben Urich’s intrusive voice-over drained the enormous drugged-up Yakuza fight scene of much of its momentum and tension; going back and re-reading the passage without reading the captions made this clear as a bell. In fairness to Bendis, this isn’t usually his style: When a big, important action sequence breaks out in Alias or Powers, he usually shuts up, giving these silent scenes new power by way of their contrast to the talky stuff that surrounds them. Strange that he’d make this misstep in Daredevil, a book he took several months off of to think through.
Will Eisner, still indomitable at nearly 90 years of age, is taking on world anti-Semitism with his new graphic novel The Plot by debunking The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The New York Times has the scoop. (Link courtesy of a friend who emailed it to me.)
Alan David Doane interivews more altcomix luminaries by Tuesday than most people interview all week. Today’s special: Chester Brown, author of acclaimed bio-comic Louis Riel and seminal (literally, in some cases) autobio comics The Playboy and I Never Liked You.
Christopher Butcher and Scott Robins are back to the Previews Review front. This batch of capsule preview-reviews include raves for Ito’s Gyo and Miyazaki’s Nausicaa, high hopes for the new non-princess oriented arc of Milligan & Allred’s X-Statix, and disappointment in the once-promising but strangely uncompelling Top Shelf work of altcomix fantasist Jennifer Daydreamer.
(Regarding Daydreamer, I wonder why T.S. has been publishing these pamphlety books of hers, which strike one as glorified minicomics, and not holding out for something more substantial–and, I’d imagine, more potentially successful.)
David Fiore didn’t like The Dark Knight Returns, which is unfortunate, but in his opening salvo on the book he’s compared Batman to Conrad’s Mr. Kurtz, which has me salivating like Francis Ford Coppola after three months in the Phillipine jungle. If this is going to be a pan, methinks it’ll be a whole fucking lot more worthwhile than your everday “Miller’s a fascist, Batman is corporate, fanboys are stupid, rinse, repeat” critique. Hooray!
T-minus one issue and counting before the Age of Austenpocalypse, and David Allison is looking at the most recent Grant Morrison New X-Men story arc with an eye towards how, and if, he’ll wrap it all up. It’s going to be a deeply weird and emotional experience for old Sean T., reading the last Morrison X-Men ish when it comes out in a few weeks. This title is pretty much single-handedly responsible for getting me back into comics after several years away (reading only a friend’s copies of Savage Dragon and Acme Novelty Library, and buying whatever Frank Miller produced). This magical mystery tour into funnybookland is why you’re reading this right now, of course. When Morrison leaves, an era will end–and not just for me, as it seems that the New Marvel Renaissance I’ve so enjoyed is winding down, too. Sigh. Anyway, Paul O’Brien doesn’t share David’s enthusiasm about the present arc, while Antipopper (if you can plow your way through the Marxist gobbledygook) offers a reason not to share David’s pessimism about future ones.
Finally, a note to Johnny B.: Deleting some of those sidebar graphics and promising an in-depth look at David Bowie? What, did I win the lotto?