* And the bald shall inherit the earth: ICv2 has released its November sales chart for the direct market. Of particular note is how Brian Bendis and his “give the people what they want” take on event comics, Secret Invasion, took the top slot and five of the top 10, while smug Scottish middlebrow mediocrity Grant Morrison and his utterly incomprehensible abject failure of a fan-rejected event comic, Final Crisis, plummeted all the way to #2 on the charts and took a paltry, embarrassing three of the top 10. Your revolution is over, Mr. Morrison! Condolences! The bums lost!
* Speaking of Final Crisis, the reactions keep rolling in. Tim O’Neil reveals just how angry this comic book made him, which quite frankly is way more angry than any comic that isn’t some vile piece of filth, some hideously racist or sexist or homophobic horrorshow, should make anyone. I think there are any number of factual errors and unsupported business and critical assumptions in there, to say nothing of the hyperbolic mischaracterizations of other people’s viewpoints and the admitted ad hominems directed against them. Moreover, the main, underlying argument seems simply to be a particularly vehement and event-comic-specific expression of “you got chocolate in my peanut butter,” which as I’ve said before strikes me as odd in this particular case. But the main thing I take away is that it can’t possibly be healthy to get that worked up about a comic book, or a comic book creator’s interviews, or comic book readers’ comments, not when they’re not doing anything actively evil. It certainly doesn’t lead to Tim’s finest hour as a writer, as an overabundance of elaborate fecal analogies, snarky “you know”s, and the rather pot-kettle concluding demand that Grant Morrison “grow the fuck up” would indicate. It’s not just my feelings about Final Crisis that make me skeptical about this approach, mind you–I’ve said for a long time that commentators whose primary mode of interaction with art is based on rage don’t do it for me.
* Also on the FC beat, Tucker Stone be-bops and scats all over the thing. Honestly there’s a little too much be-bopping and scatting for my taste, but then I don’t get these crazy kids and their rock and roll. My main problem with it is that it obscures his actual point, which I believe is that FC had its ups and downs but it’s ultimately pretty neat that Morrison did it his way. It’s interesting how Tucker seems to come away from the comic sharing many of the reservations that Tim does, but taking the exact opposite positions–Morrison doesn’t have contempt for his audience, he has faith in them; there’s merit to experimentation regardless of whether it leads to an Ang Lee Hulk situation from a business perspective–than the ones Tim ends up taking. Tucker’s takes on recent issues of Bendis’s Ultimate Spider-Man (of which he is a vocal and frequent proponent) and Ed Brubaker’s Captain America and Daredevil are also worth a read, provided you’re okay with him working blue.
* ICv2 reports that the Christopher Handley case has been postponed until late March. Handley has been hit with child-pornography charges rooted in his possession of manga. I’ve discovered continued support among some relatively prominent online comics commentators for the notion that unpleasant speech does not deserve protection; some of that support is so extreme that it seems tailor-made to demonstrate the slippery slope argument in action. This attitude is disturbing and both legally and morally wrong. Support the CBLDF.
* One aspect of the story that Reed is setting up a Chicago comics convention to compete with, and possibly supplant, Wizard World Chicago that I haven’t seen noted by anyone but Heidi MacDonald is that Reed’s concomitant move of the New York Comic Con to early October starting next year will move the NYC show into closer competition with altcomix shows like SPX and APE. However, given the really embarrassing lack of an alternative and literary comics presence in the programming and exhibitor list for NYCC–a show based in New York freaking City!–I’m not all that worried. If anything, this may simply guarantee that alt/lit publishers avoid NYCC permanently.
* Speaking of Wizard, sorta: Back when I was still with the company and me and the other guys there who like alternative comics got a booth at MoCCA 2007, a few of ’em chatted with Tim Leong of Comic Foundry, who told them that he liked us and liked a lot of stuff we did but kept bashing us because it got him attention. I found that level of open, unabashed duplicity oddly refreshing, so in that sense it’s nice to see that he stuck with it till the bitter end.
* Here’s a Seattle Post Intelligencer article on my old pal Davey Oil (the other half of my oft-told Blair Witch Project origin story!) and his comics/performance-art project, the Slide Rule Comic Strip Slideshow Players.
* Josiah Leighton, who I am happy to report will be attending the New York Comic Con with me this weekend, does his thing with Nicolas De Crécy’s Foligatto.
* I really enjoyed the latest Five for Friday over at Tom Spurgeon’s, because it reminds you just how much we’re losing as the alternative comic book dies off. And I say that as a big proponent of book-format comics and a pretty big skeptic of the pamphlet format, mind you.
* Speaking of Spurge, his review of Robert Kirkman’s Invincible/Astounding Wolfman crossover offers a pretty interesting take on the core idea behind Invincible, the character’s equivalent of “With great power comes great responsibility.” For my part, I’ve always felt that the book’s success stemmed from a great deal of initial pep, slowly giving way to a meticulously planned roll-out of long-term storylines. That and Bill Crabtree’s coloring.
* Holy God these images from an upcoming Kyle Baker Hawkman project look amazing.
By all means, Mr. Baker, do indeed draw everything like this from now on. (Via Kevin Melrose.)
* Curt Purcell does a one-man Manly Movie Mamajama by way of Super Bowl counterprogramming. The initial results of his back-to-back first viewings of Point Blank and Get Carter made me giggle.
* Whitney Matheson’s Best of the Lost Comments post this week is as much of a treasure trove of “why didn’t I think of that?” as ever.
* There is no possible answer on any possible Earth to the question “Whatever happened to Bill Jemas?” that could ever be better than this one. (Via Heidi MacDonald.)
* Seeing David Lynch starring in a short film called The Soul Detective now, I feel as though my stomach is filled with a team of bumblebees.
* Looks like They are still planning on remaking The Birds.
* Bruce Baugh serves up some WoW-blogging odds ‘n’ sods, including an image of a gigantic sea turtle that’s right in my water-monster/immensity wheelhouse. (And don’t worry, Bruce, I’ve got the patience of a saint.)
* Hilzoy and Glenn Greenwald, two commentators who to the best of my knowledge do not carry water for the Obama administration when it comes to torture, civil liberties, and human rights, debunk recent reports, gleefully promulgated by torture enthusiasts, that the administration will be continuing the Bush 43 practice of extraordinary rendition as a backdoor to torture.
Jesus. Those Hawkman pages are outstanding. Can’t wait to hear what it’s all about.
On the cons, I didn’t mention the changed proximity because of what you say — I don’t see significant overlap unless it were the exact same weekend. Maybe I’m wrong.
Glad that Tim Leong anecdote is finally out there for the world to see.
Shaggy: Apparently it’s about violence?
Tom: I’m pretty sure you’re right. Really I guess it’s not all that much more a hassle than the summer con glut–just enough to make people who might have been on the fence stick with the more targeted shows.
I don’t feel like Grant Morrison has any real disdain for his audience, I feel like his audience has disdain for everybody else.
Replace “disdain” with “contempt.”
Those Hawkman pages are astounding. Just astounding.
The Bill Jemas thing is fascinating. Phildickian, in its own way.
I don’t think that’s fair to say as a generalization, Ben. I mean, Grant Morrison’s audience, according to the charts, includes over 100K people. Some of them, like me, just enjoy many of his comics, and will debate people who don’t, but contempt or disdain doesn’t enter into it.
Fair enough on the generalization front (my bad), but dude, seriously, you don’t think you convey any tone of annoyance/condescension when you not so subtly wag your finger at the people who dared make Secret Invasion a better seller than Final Crisis in this very post?
You’re right in that you personally are more than charitable towards anybody willing to debate rationally with you, but I have observed in most Morrison hardcores a kneejerk need to skewer those who “don’t get it” as part of their go-to argument and who continually express more frustration with their fellow readers than is necessary (in my opinion).
Because I decided to be an asshole rather than just make my point, it was obviously unclear that that opening segment about the sales charts was a very specific reference to a very specific post about how terrible Final Crisis was and how it’s an obvious failure from a business perspective–not a slam on Secret Invasion doing well, or on the people who made that happen. I’m comfortable wagging the finger at Secret Invasion itself because I think it’s a bad comic, and all things considered I’d rather people buy and read good comics than bad ones, but as a critic I’m not really interested in arguments based on how well a thing does in the marketplace, for good or ill. So I promise I’m not wagging my finger at those who “dared” to buy Secret Invasion, though again, I’ve got no one to blame but myself for giving that impression.
I’ve never liked “you just don’t get it” arguments, fwiw. There was a lot of that going around among fans of The Dark Knight Strikes Again back in the old days of the comics blogosphere, which I found really unfortunate, because I love that book and telling people who don’t that “you just don’t get it” is a surefire way of preventing yourself from making an effective case for it.
Now, I do think that sometimes there are cases where people “just don’t get it”–the one that comes to mind are Sopranos fans who are in it for the murders and tits, which I don’t deny are important to the show’s appeal but are pretty far from the be-all and end-all. But I think with Morrison it’s more of a case of people wanting/looking for something he’s not interested delivering, rather than him being on some higher plane of existence that the proles can’t possibly dig–you know? I think most people who don’t like Morrison’s stuff “get it,” it’s just not what they want.
I do dig.
Like I said, *you* don’t need to defend yourself here, I consider you one of the good ones, as you know. When I said “his audience,” I was (as we’ve both said now) unfairly generalizing and you don’t fall under the group I was half-heartedly taking to task.
I fear I may be guilty of what Ben’s talking about, but I hope it’s more because my poor attempts at humor through swearing came off wrong than any honest attempt I made at slagging people who don’t enjoy a book I enjoyed. Honestly, I do find it really frustrating when people dismiss anything (comics or otherwise) out of hand because they had a limited experience with it, decided it “didn’t make sense” on a basic plot mechanics level then called it bullshit up and down. I don’t expect everyone to put a lot of work into delving into supposed deeper meanings on something, but not expending a little effort on a work of art that you feel ready to openly bash seems really stupid.
Like Sean, I appreciate people telling me why they hated something I loved when they come to their argument with personal issues left at the door, and I hope I’m engaging the debate in the same way.
I don’t think a vague suck it argument is very convincing on behalf of Morrison, Sean. From what we know of ordering habits and tendencies and the ability of the big companies to massage certain types of comics into hits the Final Crisis stuff underperformed and the Batman stuff did okay. We’ve known since Jim Shooter Cheneyed his ass into the Secret Wars captain’s chair that you can have a range of creators running the show and still get a solid performer out of it.
It might work the other way, too. Remember how they had Alfonso Cuaron direct that one Harry Potter movie? I think it’s the best-directed one by a significant margin, but they also gave him the only film in the series they opened front of summer (the “Willow” strategy) and they gave him the one whose climax is three middle-aged dudes in a room screaming at one another and a saved by magical Bullwinkle scene as opposed to the Gauntlet Of Magical Olympics or Ali vs. Louis Magical Battle In Their Primes or whatever. So no surprise it underperformed a few million dollars, but it definitely did underperform a few million dollars.
No doubt it underperformed because it’s weird and off-kilter for an event comic, and unless this groundswell of ill will really does manifest itself into a full-fledged line-wide backlash, I’m sure Blackest Night will do better. Still, #2 and 3 of the top 10 doesn’t scream abject failure to me. People are making it sound like it was greeted the way Countdown was. I think people who talk about sales also fail to consider just how much Marvel is killing it lately. They can get any book into the top of the charts that they put their mind to, seemingly: events, licensed books, Ultimate books, Spider-Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, Wolverine, the X-Men, the freaking Avengers…they’re firing on all cylinders. Meanwhile, DC’s been wobbly since the end of Infinite Crisis. With that in mind it’s hardly surprising that the number two company produced the number two event of the year.
I think the Batman thing is seen to have done better than okay, but I don’t really know much about these things.
I find it kind of perversely amusing that apparently FC supporter Sean T. Collins is besieged on all sides by people saying it was a Countdown-level cock-up while FC detractor Ben Morse feels deluged by people proclaiming it the second coming of Watchmen.
I think we maybe need to swap RSS feeds, STC (just kidding, I have no idea how to use an RSS feed).
Um….switching topics:
“However, given the really embarrassing lack of an alternative and literary comics presence in the programming and exhibitor list for NYCC–a show based in New York freaking City!–I’m not all that worried. If anything, this may simply guarantee that alt/lit publishers avoid NYCC permanently.”
Do you think maybe these people are just like “look, MOCCA is our target audience, let’s just put our energy there”?
I think that’s maybe what’s happening, Matthew. And part of me agrees with that line of thinking. On the one hand I’d like to say having a major comic con with mainstream companies and alt/lit companies side-by-side (or eben on the same bill) would be a GOOD thing and go far to expose both audiences to the wares of the other, but realistically speaking, I feel like alt/lit companies just wouldn’t benefit financially from predominantly mainstream shows like NYCC or SDCC. I guess that’s the vicious cycle part, because keeping them separate has cultivated the way shows are today.
And financially speaking as a fan, I know I like the shows separated. I spend too much at MOCCA and SPX as it is. Combine that with a mainstream show like NYCC or SDCC and I’d be in trouble.
I think that most of those publishers have a presence at San Diego, an even bigger and crazier and more extravagant and probably more expensive con, because San Diego is extremely well run and makes a concerted effort to attract those publishers and provide programming for fans of those comics. NYCC doesn’t seem to give a shit about anything but heroic fantasy and nerd culture. Which is one way to go, I guess.
I think there’s room in New York City for two indie-friendly conventions currently spaced half a year apart, where one of them is extremely targeted, and the other gets you in front of the collective publishing and media world.
That wasn’t super-clear–what I meant was that I think it’s mostly down to NYCC not making the effort, which makes the decision by such publishers to stick with MoCCA and its more targeted experience a no-brainer. Maybe NYCC bends over backwards to no avail, I dunno, but I doubt it.
I don’t really blame NYCC for being more geek-centric. There is already a popular annual art comics event in the city, it’s covered. That audience has their thing, and NYCC may as well be a total dorkfest.
I think that’s maybe what’s happening, Matthew. And part of me agrees with that line of thinking. On the one hand I’d like to say having a major comic con with mainstream companies and alt/lit companies side-by-side (or eben on the same bill) would be a GOOD thing and go far to expose both audiences to the wares of the other, but realistically speaking, I feel like alt/lit companies just wouldn’t benefit financially from predominantly mainstream shows like NYCC or SDCC. I guess that’s the vicious cycle part, because keeping them separate has cultivated the way shows are today.
And financially speaking as a fan, I know I like the shows separated. I spend too much at MOCCA and SPX as it is. Combine that with a mainstream show like NYCC or SDCC and I’d be in trouble.
SDCC is actually a pretty great indie show.
My problem with NYCC just being a Wizard World is that comics is bigger and better than that, and it would be nice if the only big con in the media capital of the planet reflected that.