Hey Geeks! Of course you all know about Loot Crate, right? It’s where you can get your nerd on via toys & collectables in the mail. Well, Loot Crate’s LVL Up+ brings you nerdy things to wear. You can add level by level what kind of extras you want.
ThereâÂÂs a rule for tightrope walkers: donâÂÂt look down. If you look down, youâÂÂll fall. Focus instead on the other end of the wire, where youâÂÂre headed. Focus on the goal. IâÂÂve always felt thatâÂÂs good advice for writers as well.
DonâÂÂt look down.
If you doubt that you can write, you canâÂÂt. If asked if you are a writer, your answer has to be âÂÂYes.â If youâÂÂre asked if you are a good writer, your answer has to be âÂÂYes.â If youâÂÂre asked if you are the best writer that you can ever be, your answer should be âÂÂNot yet.â You not only have to say it, you have to believe it. If you donâÂÂt or canâÂÂt, then you are looking down.
DonâÂÂt look down.
This isnâÂÂt about being humble. ItâÂÂs not about modesty. If youâÂÂre going to be a writer, you have to believe that you are good enough to be read. If you want to be a professional writer, you have to believe that you are good enough for people to want to pay money to read you. You have to believe it and you have to continue to believe it even despite evidence to the contrary, even if people tell you that you canâÂÂt. Margaret Mitchell was rejected 38 times before she sold Gone With The Wind. J.K. RowlingâÂÂs first Harry Potter book was rejected by 12 publishers before finding a home. Agatha Christie was rejected for five years. Louis LâÂÂAmour got 200 rejection letters. They stuck it out.
You canâÂÂt just say you believe. You have to choose to believe. Any belief worth having must be chosen.
Can you falter? Yes. IâÂÂve looked down a few times. I doubted. I fell. You wonder, you question, you doubt. In the end, if youâÂÂre going to continue to write, you have to look back up and choose to believe that you can write, that you are a writer. Every time I start a story, every day that I sit down at this keyboard, itâÂÂs an act of faith.
That doesnâÂÂt mean you shouldnâÂÂt be critical of your own work. You just have to criticize without ego. You have to take criticism without ego. I know people whose whole sense of self-worth is tied up with their work. Writing is too slender a reed on which to place such an existential weight. ItâÂÂs not about you; itâÂÂs about the work. Your objective should always be to make the work better. You must also accept that some parts will be better than others and some parts worse. Some parts will, in fact, be good. Deal with it. If you have any talent, any skill, some parts of the work should be good. ItâÂÂs okay to claim that.
Your writing will never be perfect. ThatâÂÂs inherently impossible especially when writing on a deadline. All it can be is as good as you can make it at that moment. It doesnâÂÂt have to be perfect; Shakespeare isnâÂÂt perfect. If you doubt me, go read the climax of Cymbeline.
Whenever IâÂÂm asked what I think is my best story, I invariably answer, âÂÂMy next one.â That has to be true. If it isnâÂÂt, IâÂÂm done. Might as well quit. I like writing too much to want that to happen. Well, most days I like it too much. Some days I hate it and thatâÂÂs normal, too.
The best way to become a better writer is to write. We all start with a certain amount of crap in our systems and you have to write the crap out. There are no shortcuts; just accept that a certain percentage of what you do is crap and keep working. Over time, with diligence, with luck, youâÂÂll write less crap. DonâÂÂt worry about the doubts or the fears; we all have them and we all wrestle with them. Some days they win but, as you go on, those days become fewer. So keep at it. And remember. . .
DonâÂÂt look down.
Debuting on March 27th, ComicMix’s resident twin teen geeks The Tweeks will be bringing us a new monthly feature! Maddy and Anya will present their LootCrate LVL Up+ unboxing.
But the fun doesn’t stop there! Quite appropriately, the March LootCrate theme is “Versus.” Since there is only one of each LootCrate goodie but two geeky girls, it means they’ll be battling it out for each cool item each month! No, we aren’t encouraging sister on sister violence, they’ll compete in a different geeky ways for the awesome swag.
That’s where you come in dear ComicMix Reader! We are going to need suggestions for feats of geek!
Is there a game you want to see them play to decide who gets the coolness? Let us know!
Got a pop culture trivia question for the twins? Email it to me at Adriane@comicmix.com
Did you ever endure some sort of traumatic injury knowing full well that a minute or two after the moment of disaster it was going to hurt a hell of a lot worse?
ThatâÂÂs how I felt after seeing Batman v Superman. Bright-eyed fanboy that I am, I walked into the theater with the highest of expectations. I had heard from a couple of friends who saw the Los Angeles screening that it was pretty good. Now IâÂÂm reconsidering my position on medical marijuana. Maybe the fault here is mine: I had been on OxyContin following some dental surgery earlier in the week and I guess I quit taking that shit too early. I wanted to like the movie â for one thing, it took two and one-half hours out of my life. For another, successful movies inure to the benefit of the comics medium and, arguably, my cash flow.
HereâÂÂs the good stuff. The camera really loves Gal Gadot, particularly when sheâÂÂs in her Diana Prince guise. I enjoyed her work so much I even briefly considered watching her Fast and Furious movies, and I lamented the fact that I lacked the foresight to join the Israeli army when she was a part of it. Also, and I guess this is critical, Ben Affleck was fine as Old Man Bats. Granted, standing next to Henry Cavill would make Emo Phillips seem like Robert Redford, but Ben did just fine. Diane Lane is always a joy to behold and her talent exceeded her part. And Jeremy Irons seems to have found Michael CaineâÂÂs Miraclo stash and became Alfred the Butler for about an hour.
All that in the aggregate does not come close to balancing out Jesse EisenbergâÂÂs turn as Lex Joker Junior. If you saw him in any of the trailers then let me assure you that what you saw is what you get. Spoiler alert: he channels Gene Hackman at the end. Somewhere Kevin Spacey is buying him a condolence card.
And, holy crap, why does everybody in the damn movie have serious mommy issues?
The story is irrelevant. And negligible. Clearly, director Zack Synder thought he wasnâÂÂt spending enough money so he finagled a nice big CG Doomsday for reasons so oblique they do not bear repeating. Lois Lane starts out as the awesome investigative reporter sheâÂÂs supposed to be and then quickly devolves into perpetual rescue bait. Jimmy Olsen turns out to be something Jimmy Olsen would and could never, ever be. The Flash zipped through just long enough for the audience to realize the filmmakers are idiots. And Aquaman was portrayed as an angry deep-sea fur ball with a fork.
The blame for this fiasco is squarely on the director. Zack Synder should not be given a blank check. By the end of the movie I was hoping the after-credits scene (note: there is none) was of John Wayne Gacy returning from the dead to eat ZackâÂÂs brains. Gacy, of course, would have been played by Samuel L. Jackson.
IâÂÂll see Suicide Squad because I was there at its conception and because Affleck was swell. IâÂÂll see Wonder Woman because Gal Gadot is that impressive. But the Justice League movies? If I succumb to peer-group pressure (the comics world remains a small donut shop), IâÂÂll be hoping for that Gacy scene.
The best part of Batman v Superman? The trailer for Civil War.
Let’s get this point out straight away: I haven’t seen Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Just Angry Dudes Who Like Destruction-Porn.ÃÂ Beyond the trailers, I have done everything in my power to not read spoilers. I’ve put on blinders on whilst perusing my social media feeds, allowing me to catch only shreds of the shared rage boiling over amongst my closest 927 friends. So, my column this week explores the deeper issue fans are complaining about the most these days: gritty realism.
The clamber in the streets is about how DC is taking itself too seriously. How leaning into grit, grime, explosions, and death is ruining childhoods, and fans. But I beg the question: when your director previously worked on 300, and the lukewarm sepia-washed Watchman adaptations and delivered his own mighty opus in the video-game-cum-popcorn-film Sucker Punch, well, pardon me: what the fuck did you think he was going to do with Batman and Superman?! The output of Snyder shouldn’t come with a single measurable iota of surprise.
The deeper issue then gets tied back to Chris Nolan’s interpretation setting the table for what has come since. Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises were once applauded for removing the kitch from the Bat-franchise. Nolan’s Knight was as real as you could get with the base-concept. The interpretation of the Joker was chilling â and not in the gutter-punk way Jared Leto appears to be aping Ledger’s performance mind you. And Bane? Well… he spoke in a weird accent, and had an appreciation for coats of the 70s. Those three Bat-films begat what we’re getting now. And that includes the popcorn fart that was the spectacular â Trump-level â Green Lantern movie.
So why is Marvel so beloved? As we’ve seen the table set for Civil War… for all the fun we had laughing at SHIELD agents playing Galaga, and Ant Man cracking wise, we’ve been privy to just as much world destruction. New York? Invaded. Washington D.C.? Had helicarriers dropped on it. And that fake-sounding country in Avengers 2? Well, it done went and turned into a low-grade meteor. Pair that with a few Hulk-smashed cities, and all those dead goats in Ant Man, and you have plenty of grit to chew on.
The difference being the actual plot and characters in service to it.
Man of Steel, much like The Avengers featured the destruction of a city (and maybe a few suburbs). Iron Man, Cap, and pals were lauded as witty-brilliant. Kal-El was deemed a dour dolt by the very same folks. One movie was held up in reverence. The other, kicked to the dollar bin with a sigh. For the record? This is as it should be. The Avengers took the time to showcase their heroes making attempts to save the people of New York. Superman was basically shown punching for the last 40 minutes of his film; subsequently followed by the murdering of the villain, a quick bit of snark, roll credits. It would seem, based solely on the 10-20 sentences I’ve half-begun to read on my feed… BvS is much in the same vein. And not a surprise either… I saw the trailers, and can put one and one together.
Spoiler-free knowledge of BvS dictates that Batman was in Metropolis during the Kryptonian scuffle. And true to his comic-counterpart (to whatever degree you agree with me), he sees an unchecked level of power on display and finds need to be fit to control it. Superman is the gun that took Bruce’s mom and dad until he can prove it otherwise. What follows â I’ll safely assume â is 90+ more minutes of fighting, yelling, and teeth gnashing. And Wonder Woman is there to make girls happy or something.
Don’t get me me wrong. I believe we need to look to our ComicMix cohorts Mike Gold, Denny O’Neil and John Ostrander when we talk on the topic of grit and realism. Pick nearly any yarn spun (and edited) by those gentlemen, and you’ll see how the heaviest of topics can be touched on without leaving a fanbase in ruin. Hell, check out the very first issue of Wasteland, and ask how the material could be covered within its pages and still leave you with a bit of a smirk.
When it comes down to it, I will see the new Batman and Superman movie. I’ll do my best to withhold judgment until the last frame is projected. I’ll do whatever I can to suppress expectations to anything higher than a whisper. I’ll give credence to the filmmakers, writers, and producers to prove to me they have a way to bring the heroes and villains of their catalog to life in direct completion to the House of Mouse.
But, at the end of the day, the devil is in the details, not the CGI decimation of untold thousands. So, I’ll just guess there won’t be a need for any follow up review, kiddos. No worries: Civil War is just around the corner.
Comics in the White House!
My esteemed colleague, Mindy Newell, recently notedÃÂÃÂÃÂàthat our current president is a big olÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂàcomic book nerd. We knew that. Way back when this site started up, we ran the photo of Obama in Metropolis, Illinois, striking an iconic pose next to the Superman statue.
Last week, as part of its celebration of WomenÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs History Month, our Geek-in-Chief invited Marvel ComicsÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂàSana Amanat to the White House to celebrate. Amanat presented the President with a copy of Ms. Marvel.
While this is not the first time super-heroes have had an official White House Moment (indeed, I was there for the launch of the anti-landmine comic DC created for UNICEF, and if I could find it, IÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂd post the picture of me with Hillary Clinton), it is perhaps the most heart-warming. To have a person who is not only female but also Muslim and Pakistani-American with the President to represent comics is an enormous change.
It helps that Sana does brilliant work on great comic books. I mean, really, <a href=”
at how cool she is. Still, I think that she could have been every bit as talented twenty years ago and never received the attention she has, or been able to take advantage of the opportunities she deserves.
So, just when I was feeling like my beloved comics community was growing up, I read thisÃÂÃÂÃÂàannouncement that the Comics and Cola blog was shutting down. I confess that I didnÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂt tune in there that often. The woman who ran the site, Zainab Akhtar, is an English Muslim, and her perspective (check this outÃÂÃÂÃÂàfor a taste) is quite different from mine, which I love. I should have tuned in more.
Apparently, the last straw for her was best expressed in this postÃÂÃÂÃÂàby Kim OÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂConnor. OÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂConnor saw her work dismissed by a white male comics critic based on nothing more than his entitled perception that her opinions didnÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂt matter. HeÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs a white man in his 20s, so obviously no one is qualified to reasonably disagree with him.
(That is much too simplistic an analysis, I know. Read the link. ItÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs great.)
As a straight cis white woman, IÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂm very much aware that I miss a lot of subtle bigotry. I can watch an entire night of television with stories about white people (who might have sassy black friends) without noticing how skewed that is. When a protagonistÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs race and gender are not specified, I often assume that person is male and white.
ItÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs a habit from my 60+ years in the culture. ItÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs a bad habit, and one I struggle to change. Not only is it wrong ethically and morally but, more important, it limits my enjoyment of the world.
The President gets this, even if 20-something white boys donÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂt. But then, we no longer assume that the President can only be a straight cis white man.
We took a road trip up to San Jose last weekend to check out the first ever Silicon Valley Comic Con. This was Steve Wozniak (of Apple fame) & Stan Lee’s venture. As we should have guessed by the location alone, this wasn’t the kind of con we’re used to. It was nerd on nerd (tech meets comics) and way more male-centric than the cons we usually go to. There were some great guests though like Nathan Fillion, Jeremy Renner, William Shatner, and a Back To The Future reunion. Watch the video to see how it all went down.
Also, interesting to note, there were far fewer Deadpools (our count was barely in the double digits) and instead Marty McFly & Spider Man cosplay were every where we turned. And also we only saw one Spider Gwen, but tons of girls wearing Spider Man and Spider-Woman costumes. This says something about SoCal vs. NorCal, we just don’t know what.
The Second World War had not yet started, at least not for the United States, when I drifted through a wall and into office space in one of the Manhattan business buildings. Anyone seeing me would assume that I was a man in his thirties, but actually I was less than a year old. Astral reality, as you might know, proceeds via different reality routes than Other reality, particularly as regards time, which would explain everything, if only you could understand it. I should also mention that I’d done a Chronological Slurp, jumped ahead a half century or so and spent a nanosecond – your time, of course – acquiring knowledge I wouldn’t learn for – your time – decades.
I was in a conference room the likes of which were in dozens of New York offices. Long wooden table, chairs, little else. A meeting was in progress. I recognized none of the men present – they were all men – but the guy over near the door might have been a very young Sheldon Mayer and the man at the far end of the table could have been Vin Sullivan. Sullivan, or whoever he was, glanced at me, paused, and returned his gaze to the yellow legal pad in front of him. My guess is, he saw me, immediately repressed the fact that the back of my chair was plainly visible through my body, and maybe thought I was a newcomer who belonged there. After all, this was a new company plying a new product and there were probably strangers continually wandering in and out.
I listened to the editors (for surely that’s what they were) discussing the success of Superman comics and the forthcoming Superman radio program, and the newer Batman, another winner. Then a bald guy asked about All-Star Comics, just that week making a newsstand debut. I gathered from the ensuing conversation that All-Star was a comic book anthology: short stories, each featuring a different hero. The bald guy seemed to think that All-Star’s multi-heroed format had no staying power and was doomed to early extinction. The rest of the group didn’t seem to know what they thought.
“Why not have the heroes all working on the same problem?” I asked everyone. “Fighting the same villain or group of villains. Make it a team effort. Don’t Americans love teams?”
“If they’re the Brooklyn Dodgers,” somebody muttered.
“It’d be a production nightmare,” the bald guy said.
The guy who may have been Sullivan said, “No, we could make it work. Interesting idea.”
That started a fresh dialogue that may have lasted until Christmas.
A few months later, All-Star Comics #3, featured The Justice Society of America, with a bunch of heroes, some of whom appeared in their own comics, gathered together to battle evil. Wonder Woman didn’t join until issue #8, but she was just a girl.
By then, my astral self was long gone. While the editors were still deep in discussion, I drifted away, into the Clutchesphere, where my astral self morphed into a neutrino and joined the cosmic dance.
My other, one-year-old self, wet his diaper.
Most comic fans have a lot going on this week. Marvel’s Daredevil out on Netflix or DC’s Batman Vs. Superman out in theaters. A new bevy of comics out today. A few religious holidays this week too, including Purim and Easter. Even with all that, this is not a good week.
It has been a bad week. Frankly, it has been a bad few months.
I struggled to write a column this week. It is a really hard time to talk about comics.
It is a hard time to focus on entertainment when the world keeps being thrown out of whack. When presidential candidates speak in terms of hate. When attacks are ignored or mourned depending on their heritage.
The world community needs to work together to solve this problem. It’s hard though when the world community never seems to get along.
Last week, I wrote about Young Justice. If only we had that team here to help us now. Or the Justice League. Or the Avengers. Someone to guide the world around the pitfalls or hate and fear. But those teams only exist in the world of fiction. We need to take out cues from the superheroes we’ve created and admired. We need to be the heroes now.
Yes, this week is a bad week. Attacks like this should not happen in the world. So whether you sit down to watch a superhero battle or crack open a new issue, keep in mind the lessons learned from the superheroes you admire. Use those lessons to make this world a better place.
Dichotomies. Every day brings hundreds if not thousands of choices. The red blouse vs. the blue blouse. Filet mignon vs. butt steak. Marvel vs. DC. Sugar and Spike vs. Guido Crepax. Which to pick?
Right now IâÂÂm struggling between writing about two totally different types of comics, and here âÂÂtotallyâ is an understatement. Fantagraphics just released a beautiful reprint of Guido CrepaxâÂÂs work, titled The Complete Crepax: Dracula, Frankenstein, And Other Horror Stories. It weighs in at over six pounds. Meanwhile, DC Comics has released the first issue of its new anthology series Legends of Tomorrow, taking the name but only one character from the CW teevee series. IâÂÂm thinking of discussing only one of the four features therein, Keith Giffen and Bilquis EvelyâÂÂs Sugar and Spike.
ThatâÂÂs Crepax art on the left, and thatâÂÂs Sugar and Spike art on the right. IâÂÂd like to think this is the first time somebody has used Guido Crepax and Keith Giffen together in on sentence, but IâÂÂm probably mistaken about that. Hmmmm⦠What to do? What to do?
Well, Keith wins. DC has endured a fair degree of public grief over its incessant rebooting and wandering storylines, some of that from ComicMix, and, well, gee, some of that from me. I donâÂÂt want to give the impression that I in any way dislike the company, at least not until IâÂÂve seen Dawn of Justice. Besides, DC always has led the industry in experimenting with new formats and new packages. Dan DiDio and friends maintain my respect for Wednesday Comics.
Besides, of all the stuff released by the company during the past several years much of what IâÂÂve truly enjoyed carries Keith GiffenâÂÂs byline â one sometimes shared with Publisher DiDio. So when it was announced that Shelly MeyerâÂÂs classic creation Sugar and Spike was going to be brought into contemporary times as young private detectives, I recoiled in fear of a Dark Sugar and Spikeseid. Then I noticed KeithâÂÂs name and decided that, at the very least, this should be at least as interesting as it is non-commercial.
I cannot state with authority that the Sugar and Spike in Legends of Tomorrow are in any way related to ShellyâÂÂs paramount creation. His name isnâÂÂt on it, and for all I know the young man / young woman duo with similar hair color and physical features with the exact same names is the latter-day version of MeyerâÂÂs toddlers. It could be just a remarkable coincidence. ThatâÂÂs why we produce lawyers, guns and money. But if it is, well, itâÂÂs not a reboot as it does not contradict anything from the original series. I suppose we shall see.
Here, Sugar and Spike are young detectives who hire themselves out to, letâÂÂs say, the super-powered community to do stuff that the Powers (heroes and villains alike) would be too embarrassed to do.
ItâÂÂs a cute concept â not as âÂÂcuteâ as the original, but the original was about a couple of extremely young children who did not have P.I. licenses. And itâÂÂs executed in a highly enjoyable manner, with nifty dialog between our heroes and the bad guy and, later, our heroes and their client. Spoiler alert: beware of misdirection!
But for the aging comic book fan the real fun is in trying to figure out how those two darling toddlers became young adults who are enveloped within the rest of the DC universe. I hope this series lasts long enough for the creators to give us some clues.
Besides, I seriously doubt that IâÂÂll be seeing that âÂÂSugar and Spike Omnibusâ any time soon. Such a tome would outweigh both Sugar and Spike.
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Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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