Is that all there is? I finally downloaded a few comics onto my iPad using the updated Comixology app. I mean, I’m on record as being a lover of comics on paper, as well as the comic book shops that sell them. However, I’m also a big fan of prose on paper, as well as…
Superhero comics have been re-booted and re-vamped and up-dated and back-dated for so long that we hardly notice anymore. However, there are some story elements that are fixed in the past, and maybe not in a good way. For example … • When Superman was first created, it was entirely believable that the rocket ship…
This is the week when everything is supposed to change. The first of the New 52 comics is on the stands. Since better folks than me are weighing in on the new stuff, I want to talk about what went right before. Specifically, Flashpoint. While I like team-up stories, I’m not a big fan of…
Inevitably, when discussing the best way to market comics to a larger, non-indoctrinated audience, someone will suggest “good writing and art” as the sure-fire remedy. The mirror image of this is accusing publishers of employing “cheap publicity stunts.” I was on the receiving end of this charge from Gary Groth of The Comics Journal when…
Everything’s Okay: My Journey to Building a Joyous Life After Surviving Childhood Cancer by Alesia Ellen Shute 80 pages If you’re lucky, you won’t get this book because you need it. Don’t get me wrong. It’s really good. Maybe even great. You should hunt it down. But it’s about something very scary – childhood cancer…
When I started out in comics in the late 1970s when dinosaurs walked the earth, the comic book business was like a small town. It was possible to be at least a nodding acquaintance of all the major players on the publishing side, and quite a few of the retailers as well.It was a small…
There used to be ten comic book stores within a mile of my apartment. Now, there are two. To be fair, this is two more than most people have. And when I expand the radius to two miles, there are more than a dozen. Which, again, is more than most people have. There used to…
According to stories like this, there was quite the kerfuffle at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con about the decline in the number of female artists and writers on the new DC reboot. Raising questions about this is guaranteed to get one labeled a bitch (or worse). Kudos to Batgirl for being the bitch. It’s a…
Androids may or may not dream of electric sheep. Lately, however, I dream of Paul Levitz. No, not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter. Yeesh. Having said that, it’s still a disturbing experience. I’ve known Paul since the late 1970s. He was my boss’s boss for the ten years I worked at…
The staff at my regular comic shop wants to know what I think about the DC re-launch. I’ve been shopping there for decades, and I buy DC comics every time I go in there. I don’t only buy DC, but I buy almost everything they publish. That’s the way it’s been for me for more…
Originally, I wasn’t supposed to have a column. Mike Gold wanted to have regular writers contributing during the week, Monday through Friday. He had the list of people he wanted to include – comics veterans like John Ostrander, Denny O’Neil and Michael Davis, plus popular blogger Elayne Riggs – and he wanted a soapbox for…
Halloween is Friday. Before the American Marketing/Advertising Complex discovered that All Soul’s Eve was a terrific occasion to sell home decorations and slutty costumes, it was the National Holiday of Greenwich Village and the Vast Homosexual Conspiracy. Before that, it was a chance for kids to dress up and beg for candy from the neighbors. What…
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