What’s Wrong With Wonder Woman, by Mike Gold
In this space on Friday and Saturday, my esteemed colleagues Mr. Davis and Ms. Thomases waxed on about the political situation of the day. Whereas there is no more important issue facing us as Americans in this moment in time (and it has considerable impact on non-Americans as well), I will not follow in their wake this week. I’m sure I will in the future.
Instead, I’m going to take a point central to their themes, and those expressed to a somewhat lesser extent by Ms. Riggs last week, and talk about comic books. Specifically, about Wonder Woman.
Since I’m in a name-dropping kind of mood, I should point out that my comments have been heavily influenced by recent conversations with Ms. Adriane Nash, a frequent commenter here at ComicMix, as well as our new editorial proofreader (for those items that come in early enough to be proofread…). And, oh yeah, she’s my savvy and opinionated daughter.
So what’s wrong with Wonder Woman? Positioning. Not unlike what many people think the McCain campaign did by selecting a fundamentalist book burner as their vice presidential candidate, under the theory that women are so stupid they’ll simply vote for one of their own no matter what her position is on the issues. You know, just like the conservatives.
Back in the 1940s, Wonder Woman was fabulously successful. She had as much exposure as any DC/AA hero (but not as much as, say, the real Captain Marvel). She had her own title, she starred in a monthly anthology book, she starred in a regularly published giant-sized star-studded superhero thing, and she briefly had her own newspaper strip. All she was lacking was a cheap movie serial.
By the time the 70s rolled around, DC had a hard time giving Wonder Woman away. As of this date, she’s undergone more revisions, reboots (one, quite literally, brought her original boots back), reinterpretations, and make-overs than Madonna. What happened?
Andrew D. Cooke, director of the full-length feature film documentary Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist, and his brother Jon B. Cooke, writer/co-producer of that movie and editor of the award-winning Comic Book Artist magazine, will be guests of New York City’s acclaimed improv comedy group the Comic Book Club this coming Tuesday, Sept. 9, at 8:00 p.m., at the Peoples Improv Theatre on 154 West 29th St., in Manhattan! Tickets are five bucks each.
Torso, the film adaptation of Brian Michael Bendis’ graphic novel, is looking to start shooting in early 2009. The movie, set to star Matt Damon as the famed Elliot Ness, is looking to film in Cleveland but is seeking tax breaks to make extended shooting financially reasonable.
Alysse Soll, formerly the Vice President of Marketing of the National Hockey League, joins the DC Comics staff as Vice President, Ad Sales & Custom Publishing, it was announced by DC Comics President and Publisher, Paul Levitz. In this position, Soll will develop and manage new advertising initiatives, oversee DC’s innovative custom publishing program, identify cross-platform opportunities with other media companies and supervise the advertising sales team.
Charles Kochman was recently named Executive Editor of Abrams ComicArts, a new imprint at Harry N. Abrams. The publisher rewarded Kochman with the promotion and imprint in recognition of his successful efforts to celebrate comic books and graphic storytelling with best-selling books. Kochman, a former book editor at DC Comics, joined Abrams several years back and has published a wide variety works that have garnered reviews and award nominations starting with Mom’s Cancer. His Diary of a Wimpy Kid has earned a place atop The New York Times best seller list and merited national acclaim.
The first book I edited with Mike was a Back to the Future movie storybook, adapted by Bob Fleming. In addition, we published books on licenses like Photon, The Bionic Six, and An American Tale. I also got to write many coloring and activity books, including ones on dinosaurs, unicorns, and the Universal monsters. It was good training. The dinosaurs coloring book actually hit the B. Dalton bestseller list for some reason, which shocked all of us, including our president. I still have the note he sent me where he wrote âHoly shit! Bravo!â on a copy of the list.
You can tell the summer is over just by looking at the box office gross chart and see that the cool films have arrived and we’re in a lull as people focus on school and the arrival of the fall television season.
Philadelphia’s
Often when I talk to new people the topic of roleplaying games comes up (particularly after I’m asked “so what do you do?”), at which point I learn whether they’re gamers or not. If they’re not I usually get the classic question, “What’s a roleplaying game?” Then I explain about tabletop gaming—most often I define it as “collaborative interactive storytelling, like a mix between improv theater and a staged reading.” Sometimes they ask a few more questions about how it works, but that definition is enough to satisfy most people. But then I may get the follow-up question: “Why?”
