There hasn’t been a Mission: Impossible comic since Rob Liefeld’s adaptation of the first in the current film series. However, now that Rogue Nation is out on disc, Paramount has dipped a toe back into comics with an eight-page prequel which explores what happened when Ethan Hunt went rogue and started tracking down The Syndicate. The comic with the story by director Christopher McQuarrie and artwork by Owen Freeman, debuted over at Wired.
Let’s just get this out of the way, kiddos. I know ComicMix is a site built on the back of the abundance of comic book geek culture that is out there to cover and pontificate on. But I imagine all of you reading my column this week are likely nursing a hangover from catching Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the eighth time.
I tend to write my articles a few days before we post it up here on ComicMix. It just so happened on the evening I was penning this article, I put the Republican presidential debate on my second screen. I wanted to write about Batman, or Deadpool, or something heroic. Instead, I find myself with villains on the brain.
Make no mistake: I’m as left as left can go. In college – prior to watching The West Wing – I was more or less a moderate. I thought waging war on people half a planet away was a great idea; it clearly keeps the killing away from us. And I thought big government and tons of taxes meant less money in my pocket, and drug addicts getting to prance around with my tax dollars. And then 9/11 happened. And I found The West Wing. And I started paying a bit more attention to the world around me. Blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda, and poof! I’m rainbow-flag-waving, democratic-socialist-loving, left-hearted-softy. But I digress.
Watching the debate between the Republicans on Tuesday evening felt like spying on the Legion of Doom holding their annual holiday bash – as moderated by an old, bearded Jimmy Olson. Everyone was given free reign to voice their mutually exclusive opinions, loudly, while an audience of well wishers hooped and hollered at the end of every verbal stanza. But with these words tic-tic-tacking on my left screen, and the infernal musings from the best the GOP had to offer in my periphery… I find myself staring at the space between my monitors “Wait, no, seriously? People are applauding this?”
Take for starters, the wave of opinions on global threats like ISIS. I heard things like “carpet bomb them until the sand glows in the dark”, “arm like-minded people over there to fight this on the ground”, and “we just have to do what we did the last time we were there!”. Really? The term “bad guy” was bandied about with as much frequency as “kryptonite” might at a Legion kegger. When asked direct questions about their chosen methodology and tactics? We got exactly what we’d get from Solomon Grundy or the Riddler: either odd non-sequiturs or feckless verbal gymnastics.
When the Legion, err, candidates (I guess?) weren’t pandering to the crowd of blood-thirsty gun-toters (I assume, as all liberals do), they were arguing amongst themselves. We were treated to Toyman and Black Manta sniping at one another over who would be allowed into Keystone City (in short: no one). Bizarro and Captain Cold spent time calling one another “chaotic” and “weak”. And all the while… Giganta prattled on how she was a woman, and Grodd demanded people remember he was a lawyer, and around September 11th. Funnier still then, that the silly ape forgot the time he hugged the Flash after Hurricane Sandy. I bet that pissed off the Weather Wizard something fierce.
By the end of the evening I was angry and exhausted. It was only in the wake of the in-fighting, hate-mongering, and Blitzer-bashing that a voice of reason flew in from the Internet. You know the Internet, right? It’s that thing you can turn on and off on a whim, because… America. Or science. Or something. Anyways. The voice was clear, humble, and weathered. “…not one word about income inequality, climate change, student debt, or racial justice. Not one serious idea to defeat ISIS — just chest-thumping.”
But what was this Supermench really hoping for? And to be fair: they did title it the “Foreign Policy Debate”, so not mentioning the problems at home isn’t that big a surprise. But, I get the deeper point: it’s not enough to spend 2 hours with 9 people who all basically agree that the Justice League can’t stop the bad guys, and it’s time to get busy snooping and killing, or get busy crying and dying. Like we do.
It seemed to me that last night, those who are desperate to lead us cared more about violence in the name of freedom, boldly telling lie after lie, and spewing fearspeak… then they cared about using insight and wisdom to suggest solutions to the problems we’re all facing.
Then again… care is a concept not held highly by super-villains.
THE SPIRIT AND LAWYERING OOPS
“Look at my diploma. Does it say Placebo State University?”
That’s what I wanted to say to my clients then they complained that they didn’t want a public defender, they wanted a real lawyer. Now I always thought I had made up good ol’ Placebo State. Then I read Will Eisner’s The Spirit #5 and the dialog of one Chadwick Swineheart attorney at law. Then I realized there really must have been a P.S.U., because Chadwick obviously attended that august institution. And based on the knowledge of law he demonstrated in this story, Swineheart attended it in July.
In said story, the Spirit, masked crime fighter of Central City, was trying to find out the current whereabouts and master plan of The Octopus, master criminal and the Spirit’s archenemy. Spirit broke into the office of the Octopus’s lawyer, the aforementioned Mr. Swineheart, rifled Swineheart’s files, and started reading like a teenager devouring the Twilight trilogy. When Swineheart caught Spirit in flagrante lectio, Spirit asked Swineheart, “So tell me … Where’s The Octopus? What’s his latest game?”
Swineheart steeled himself and said, “Private, stolen documents are against the law. Inadmissible as evidence.” To which Spirit answered, “One of the many reasons I’m not a cop.” After this compelling legal argument, Swineheart coughed up everything he knew about the Octopus. And, considering the way he was portrayed, Swineheart probably dislodged a hairball, too.
So how many different legal mistakes did Mr. Swineheart make in said scene? Surprisingly, not violating the code of professional responsibility by revealing privileged information about his client. That’s one of the few things Swineheart didn’t get wrong.
Swineheart told Spirit that the Octopus “is running some big scam to sell inferior plate steel to a government contractor.” I added the emphasis, because it showed the Octopus was running an on-going criminal activity and was going to commit future criminal acts. The Code of Professional Responsibility permits an attorney to reveal privileged information when a client is going to commit a future crime in order to prevent said crime from happening. So Swineheart was correct on this one.
However, one out of several is only a good record if you’re playing Football in Cleveland. For lawyers it’s lousy. Even Hamilton Burger won all the ones he tried after Perry Mason told him where to look.
So what did Swineheart get wrong? Let’s start with the concept that “Private, stolen documents are against the law. Inadmissible as evidence.” Sure they are. If someone stole a bunch of private documents from a business to sell to its competitor, wouldn’t those stolen documents be admissible in the industrial espionage trial as proof that the theft occurred? Of course they would. So private, stolen documents are admissible as evidence.
Now before you accuse me of being fast and loose with the law, because Swineheart obviously meant that you can’t steal private documents from him and use them as evidence against him or his client, let me respond to your accusation. You’re right.
But don’t go gloating that you caught me in an error; not yet. Sure Swineheart probably did mean you can’t steal private documents from him and use them as evidence against him or his client. It doesn’t matter. Either way you interpret Swineheart’s statement, he was incorrect.
Private citizens can break into lawyer offices – or other places – and steal private incriminating documents – or other incriminating evidence – and turn that information over the police. The police and prosecutors office may then, in turn, use that information as evidence in prosecutions against the persons who had evidence stolen from them.
I’ve written about this before, so everybody let’s say it together, It’s the Silver Platter Doctrine. Hey, Swineheart, I didn’t hear you back there. I said, “everybody!”
The Fourth Amendment forbids the police from making illegal searches and seizures. When they do, the evidence seized during said illegal search and seizure is excluded by the Exclusionary Rule. As the United States Supreme Court explained in Mapp v. Ohio, the rational of the Exclusionary Rule is that the police should not be able to benefit from it’s illegal behavior and excluding the illegally-seized evidence will deter the police from committing similar violations in the future.
The police don’t like the Exclusionary Rule. Prosecutor Offices don’t like the Exclusionary Rule. And, truth be told, neither do courts. In fact, the only people who seem to like the Exclusionary Rule are the criminals.
No one likes letting criminals go because key evidence that would have convicted said criminal has to be excluded. As a result, courts have carved some exceptions into the Exclusionary Rule. And by “some,” I mean courts have carved so many exceptions into the Rule it looks like a turkey one hour after Thanksgiving dinner.
One of the chief exceptions to the Exclusion Rule looks at the rule’s justification that it deters future police misconduct The courts routinely hold that if excluding the evidence would not deter future police misconduct, then there is no underlying justification to excluding the evidence and it should not be excluded.
So if private citizens make an illegal search and find evidence which they turn over to the police, the underlying future misconduct justification doesn’t apply. Excluding the evidence would not deter future police misconduct, as there was no police misconduct in the first place. The misconduct was all on the part of the private citizen.
Sure the private citizen might have broken the law by trespassing and stealing evidence, but the police did nothing wrong. So the evidence should not be suppressed. See, Burdeau v. McDowell, a decision of the United States Supreme Court which holds precisely what I just wrote.
Naturally it did. If Burdeau didn’t support the argument I was making, would I have cited to it as support? Maybe if I were Chadwick Swineheart. But I’m not, so the Burdeau case says precisely what I argued.
The Burdeau case came out in 1921. It’s not exactly new law. Even if this current Spirit series takes place sometime in the past, it still has to take place after 1921. After all, The Spirit didn’t even start until 1940. So there’s no reason for Swineheart not to have know Burdeau’s rule and that evidence stolen by the Spirit would be admissible in court.
Okay, there’s one reason: Swineheart is to legal scholarship what the Quadruple Bypass Burger is to Jenny Craig.
But here’s what really hurts in the whole Swineheart matter. I’ve written about the Silver Platter doctrine before. I don’t think several times before would be an exaggeration. You’d think that a lawyer who’s an actual comic-book character would read the column of the foremost comic-book legal analyst. But >>sob<< he doesn’t.
Maybe that’s why he’s such a lousy lawyer.
So since Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens today, and since I’m not going to go see it until after this weekend at the earliest, I thought I would do a trip down memory lane combined with a little bit of pop culture history.
You know, a nostalgic story about the experience I had seeing the first one in a theater, then a reference to Jack Kirby, and a sideline into older types of mythologies that tell similar tales. By the end, we would have deduced that there are no new stories, only new ways to tell them, and we would have been entertained and elevated.
And then, I got lost on the Internet.
Apparently, Star Wars in general and J. J. Abrams in particular are all part of a plan by the Jews to eliminate the Aryan race.
I’m not going to put in a lot of links to substantiate my points. I don’t want to drive any more traffic to the sites. I feel soiled enough that I looked at them.
Look, I get that there are crazy people out there, people who get set off by things that, for the rest of us, are innocuous. So when John Boyega was cast as one of the leads in the new film, racists went nuts saying the film is anti-white propaganda. Because, clearly, all leading roles in movies are by Divine Right given to white men. If they aren’t, it’s because of some social justice warrior affirmative action social engineering. Or, something.
I liked the original Star Wars trilogy. I liked parts of the next three movies (I would watch Ewan McGregor do just about anything, including crawling through sewers). Even when I didn’t like something, I was interested in what Lucas wanted to do.
When he sold out to Disney (and then gave most of the money away), I was nervous about what would happen. As it turns out, I like J. J. Abrams more than many of my fellow nerds. I liked his Star Trek movies, despite my friends’ attempts to prove to me, empirically, that they’re bad. I liked a bunch of the television shows he produced. I like saying “Bad Robot” when the animated logo comes on.
So I want to see what he does with Star Wars.
It is interesting to me that so many who decry “political correctness” and “censorship” and “social justice warriors” demand exactly those things when the person speaking has another point of view. in this case, the person speaking is Abrams (with the implied consent of Lucas and Disney). If he chooses to make a film about a white woman, a black man and scores of characters of many species, that’s his right.
I mean, Kirk Cameron made Saving Christmas, a movie I have no desire to see, and I didn’t call for his death.
I certainly didn’t see it as part of a millennia long conspiracy to destroy my way of life, and therefore a call to rain down violence and destruction on those who chose to buy tickets. The people at the crazy websites who don’t like Boyega & Co. use Hitler as a good example to support their positions. Because J. J. Abrams is trying to “kike” things up. (Yes, they use that word.)
You know, there are always the crazies in the world, of all stripes. Usually, they have enough common sense and/or shame to try to disguise their craziness. No one in the United States, in my lifetime, has wanted to be seen as a Nazi. Maybe an extreme conservative, even a racist, but not someone in favor of death camps.
Until this election cycle.
If you don’t want to see John Boyega, if that’s an affront to your morality, don’t go. More seats for me.
We won’t judge. It’s perfectly okay if the whole Star Wars fandom passed you by. We can’t all be into everything. Choices sometimes need to be made. Maybe you’ll come to it eventually, maybe it will be because of The Force Awakens, but until that time, you may feel really uncomfortable trying to follow everyone’s conversations. So, this week, we are providing a service to those who need to bluff or their way through conversations about the last six movies. We go through the major story arcs of six movies in 10 minutes stopping only for geeky nerd facts & a clip of Benedict Cumberbatch doing a Jar Jar Binks impression. We know geek peer pressure can be hard, May the Force Be With You!
Yo, fellow geeks! Are we holding our breaths? Can we squirm with anticipation for another day or two? Because, as you well know, this is the week. The latest Star Wars flick is about to open and hey! I thought the fuss surrounding the release of the last Batman movie was a big honking deal, but that, compared to the Star Wars fuss, was a third grade talent show.
At what point will we see it (and be assured that, despite our extreme maturity, we will see it because under our wrinkles live, well, geeks.) Will we be waiting at the 21-plex when its cute little machines and pleasant humans begin ticket-selling on Friday morning? Or will we exercise a little self-restraint and avoid the mall for another little while until the dust settles and maybe there’s a few more parking spaces? (But who am I kidding? It’s the holiday season and there will never be enough parking spaces, at least not until January. Then maybe.)
Television commercials and magazine covers and news stories…
Yep, big honking deal, all right and a stark contrast to the release of the first Star Wars entertainment, way back in 1977. I saw that almost be accident. I was doing something or other in Los Angeles when I encountered David Gerrold, science fiction writer and editor who had, bless him, published an early sf story of mine in an anthology. David was going to a movie screening and had an extra ticket and was I interested and… why not? I knew virtually nothing about the movie but David was pleasant company and the screening was in a theater owned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – the Oscar awarders – which made it the toniest theater I’d ever visited. I was going to pass that up? Nope.
What followed was a great afternoon in the dark.
And Star Wars quickly became a hit (and helped spawn an interest in mythology) and, along with its sequels, has been in our heads ever since. All to the good? Shrug. I’m a pop culture guy – read: geek – and you’re not about to catch me knocking the stuff that’s given me so many good moments and, not incidentally, kept me warm and nourished for about a half century.
But I look at the news media and behold the shabby state of the world and wonder if, as a civilization, we aren’t paying too much attention to our amusements and not enough to matters that make us squirm, not with anticipation, but with dread. Global warming. Terrorism. Mass shootings. Mutating microorganisms. Racism. Education. You know. To find relief from the planet’s woes we engross ourselves in all things pop culture, and let’s include athletics and gossip in that category, and we neglect what’s genuinely important and when the world worsens from the neglect, we again run from the fear the neglect causes by seeking refuge in the trivia that, arguably, has been contributing to the worsening. Round and round and round…
But, you know? Maybe if we get to the mall early, before school lets out, we might find a parking space…
(The editor would like to thank Nick “Winters” for inspiring today’s headline. His Christmas special presently airs on Netflix.)
During the holiday season, I really get into gift giving. It’s my thing. I go out of my way to get the weird and unusual gifts for people. It doesn’t matter for what religious holiday; I just really like shopping and need a way to justify the spending. Plus, it’s nice to make people happy with an item they never knew they wanted.
So, naturally, I’m a big supporter of Toys for Tots. I firmly believe that every child, no matter what religious celebration, should have some fun in their year. So when a geek I knew criticized me about giving “good toys” to Toys for Tots, I was seriously disappointed.
Here is a little detail in what happened. I am lucky in that I do get some nice toys throughout the year from various companies. The ones I don’t want or get a chance to do something with, get saved for donation at the end of the year. It seems like the least I can do. The best part is that they are usually geeky toys. I like being able to share toys that I loved as a kid with other kids today. So, the toy that drew the ire of another geek was a Masters of the Universe action figure. Cool, right? This geek was shocked that someone would donate that. As per him, this was too good to give away to Toys for Tots. Considering that the bin was mostly filled with discount toys, I was happy to have added some variety to the bin.
What I told him was that I can donate what I want and I wanted to share that toy with a kid who needs a toy. There was no need for me to keep it (I mean, it was cool but not a must have for me) so why not share it with someone who can really enjoy it. I also encouraged him to go shopping for toys he loves to share with kids in need.
At the end of the post, I’m going to encourage you all to do the same and donate toys. But first, I’m going to remind you that most successful franchises are considered successful based on toys sales. Think about that for a second. Do you have a franchise that you love that might be struggling? Maybe picking up some toys could help, not just to spread the word but also bump up those sales numbers. And hey, while you are at it, buy female characters too. That is, if you can find them.
I also want you to remember that as geeks, we are kinda honor-bound to pass on the things we love. I buy my niece tons of geeky presents even though she is two and has no idea what any of it means. I want her to feel comfortable with starships and superheroes from as young an age as possible. That is the other reason why I share these toys with charities. I grew up with the original MOTU and I loved it beyond belief. It is time for the younger generations to enjoy it too. Yes, kids can play with toys without knowing the backstory. But unlike our own childhoods, with the internet you never know what a kid may discover and what they might fall in love with. Spread your fandom and share that thing you love.
I’ve touted before that geeks can be very generous with their time and money. Donating for Toys for Tots is right up our alley! Toys are awesome and we all have ones we love and still play with. Times are tough for everyone but if you can afford it, please spread the joy this holiday season. Head to your local toy store, pick out something that you love, and share it with a kid in need.
Our friends at Marvel Comics have informed the world that âthe biggest Marvel event of all timeâ will come to an end four weeks from today, on January 13, 2016.
Of course, the âbiggest Marvel event of all timeâ is in the mind of the beholder. Personally, I would have picked the release of the first Fantastic Four #1 back in 1961, or the release of Marvel Comics #1 back in 1939. But thatâs just the way I see it, and Iâm the one digressing from the point.
Theyâre talking about the release of the ninth and final issue of Secret Wars, the third such dull mega-event employing that title. The penultimate issue came out last week, and that one was late. This one is later. In fact, it is so late that the entire Marvel Universe which was supposed to be upended by this series (opinions differ) already has been upended to the extent that it was to be upended, and the âAll New All Differentâ #1s started shipping last month. The House of Idea delivered something like six second issues this week alone, plus one or two third issues, plus two All New All Different first issues. Again, Iâm talking about what arrived in the stores today.
So, to the extent that the âeventâ was an event, the ending is not. Well, maybe a little, as Alex Rossâs beautifully subtle cover suggests (as does Scottie Youngâs variant cover, but itâs done is a somewhat different style). Iâm not knocking the series itself; itâs pretty much as good as those things get and, having stewarded one of these things myself, I know how difficult that is. Well, maybe not: I worked for Dick Giordano and not for the ghost of Walt Disney.
But most all of the cats are out of the bag, and the one or two left in were clearly in need of kitty litter. Once you blow the ending in many dozen comics that precede the finish, youâve got no finish. Just one long, nicely illustrated footnote.
Secret Wars 2015 has been a fiasco. Counting the number of comics that tied in to the series is a lot like guessing the number of jelly beans in the jar at the voterâs registration office: it could be done, but itâs far easier to just talk a walk. There were Ultimate tie-ins, 2099 tie-ins, Age of Apocalypse tie-ins, Marvel 1602 tie-ins, House of M tie-ins⦠and something called âBattleworld.â
I read a number of the many Battleworld mini-series, and some of those were pretty good. Therefore, some were not. But, really folks, we used to get those sort of stories in one sitting in a giant-sized comic book called What If? Battleworld should have been titled Why Bother?
Having talked with my fellow comics fans at a ridiculous number of conventions and store appearances lately, I know I am not the least bit alone in saying this. âAll New All Differentâ is just more of the same old same old, to be dicked around with in next summerâs Big Event.
Marvel said Secret Wars 2015 wasnât a reboot, and as far as I can tell it mostly sort of wasnât. Itâs a reboot in the way that the Doctor Who revival a decade ago was: some things have changed, but that change came in a linear fashion. However, there is one important difference: the Doctor Who revival was quite, quite good.
Iâve been a Marvel Comics fan since Fin Fang Foom was a hatchling, so I donât want to end on a downer. So Iâll say this: despite its many problems, its overreach and its oversaturation, Secret Wars 2015 made a hell of a lot more sense than Convergence.
It’s entirely possible that I am simply too old to enjoy Krampus. The built-in audience for the movie seems to be families with perhaps older kids who still want to see a movie together for the holidays. It’s a safe movie in that way, with broad humor and a more passive approach to scaring people that relies less on jumps and thrills and more on the idea of stuff that happens out of frame. It didn’t work for me at all, it seems like a spectacular waste of a gifted cast to make them do such tired, dreary material. And while I can be a bit wimpy at times during horror movies, I certainly prefer scared to bored.
Krampus has the kind of cast that you would expect to be capable of elevating any material put in front of them. Adam Scott and David Koechner are gifted comic actors but between this, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, and Hot Tub Time Machine 2 I’m beginning to wonder if both of them have lost their discriminating taste when it comes to scripts. Toni Collette and Conchata Ferrell have slightly less sterling comedic bona fides but they know how to deliver punch lines, or rather you’d figure they would. The comic work is so bad in this film that I wonder if some months down the road we’ll see an outtakes reel with all the takes that worked. This is either a stunning disappointment or the worst editing job in movie history (non-The Room division).
I’m not the kind of person who believes a movie has to be 100% original or that there’s no use going over old things trying to find a new perspective. That said, I’m not entirely sure what this movie brings to the space of vaguely supernatural Christmas horror movies that kids can watch genre that Gremlins didn’t do much better 31 years ago. There’s even a scene in Krampus where all of the attacking minions are coincidentally Gremlin-sized and in spots it feels a lot like the toy store scene in Gremlins. I would believe it was an homage if Krampus didn’t suffer so badly in the comparison.
But while I was thoroughly unimpressed by Krampus, I could not say the same for the young man sitting a few rows behind me. When the film was over he turned to his dad and excitedly said, “that was the most twisted ending ever” and while I found the last ten minutes of the film deeply unsatisfying, it worked for that preteen and he’s the audience this movie wants. He and his friends command a fair amount of capital and this time of year can get their parents, siblings and friends to go to the movies with them. I can shout from the rooftops (or more productively from here on the pages of ComicMix) and it’s not going to cost Krampus a lick of business but this kid who just saw his first bleak ending could put 12 more people in seats.
God bless us everyone indeed.
There’s a new digital comics platform on the horizon, and it looks fantastic in its simplicity. The new mobile comics platform, coming to us in early 2016, is called Stela (pronounced “Steela”). It is a both an app and a publisher, being a platform optimized for smartphones that offers exclusive original content by award-winning writers and illustrators, including Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Joe Casey, Irene Koh, Brian Wood, Ron Wimberly, Stuart Moore, and many more.
The founders of Stela come from the comics, gaming, and mobile gaming industries; and its leadership includes Creative Director and Editor-in-Chief Ryan Yount, and Senior Editor Jim Gibbons (formerly of Dark Horse Comics). Stela intends to bring new content to the app every weekday, and will be available via subscription.
What’s interesting about the design of Stela is that not only is the app optimized for smartphones via heavy use of the vertical scrolling that we’re already so used to doing when we read Twitter, Tumblr, or news articles on our phones, but the comics themselves are also designed to fit this format. So while you may not see, for instance, wide splash pages in the stories, you will get a storytelling mode that doesn’t require pinching and zooming, or swiping in several directions to see a whole page. Instead, the stories, which look great on the iPhone, fit the vertical screen and are easy to read without a lot of fuss (which is great when you’re crowded on the Metro with barely one hand or finger free for scrolling, I can tell you).
I’ve been able to play around with an early version of the app, currently available on iPhones and other iOS devices, and in design, it’s super easy to use, and intuitive for anyone who’s used to consuming content on smartphones. Selecting a story to read is a simple matter of scrolling horizontally through a menu of covers; and once you’re in the story, you can easily access chapters, general info (synopsis and creator information), and a comments section, as well as a “like” button, from a main info page.
Story chapters are aligned vertically from newest to oldest; and once in the chapter, reading is a simple matter of scrollin’ on down. The app also saves your place in a chapter when you exit, so you can pick up exactly where you left off. To navigate in the app anywhere from the main menu for all stories all the way down to the individual pages is as simple as single taps and vertical swipes. In its logical organization and simplicity of use, the app is pretty exciting.
The sample content that is available so far is also worth paying attention to. The four stories that have a few chapters available, plus the sneak peaks at other upcoming stories, already showcase that the variety of styles and subjects in both story and art should offer something for everyone. From a Roman alternate history story with a realistic art style (Rome West, by Justin Giampaoli, Brian Wood, Andrea Mutti, and Wangjie Li) to a story about a haunted town with a somewhat more cartoonized look (Ghost FM, by Caleb Goellner and Wook Jin Clark) it’s clear the publisher is not limiting itself. Other offerings include Inheritance, a fantasy tale with beautiful art about a magical child living in a treacherous world (by Breakout Bit, Kinman Chan, Ryan Yount, Sam Lu, and Yumiki Hong), and The Winternational, an adventure story with a slightly stylized look, about an agent trying to use recently-acquired “powers of cold manipulation” for good (by Man of Action’s Joe Casey along with Luke Parker, Sonia Harris, and Brad Simpson).
After exploring the new platform, I turned to Senior Editor Jim Gibbons for further information on what Stela’s goals are and what we can expect. Here’s what Jim had to say:
What industry gap does the company see the mobile platform filling?
Jim Gibbons: Right now, comics are penetrating pop culture in a huge way with TV shows and movies. While we’re seeing very healthy numbers coming out of the direct market and implications show a growth of the audience, aided by digital comics as well, making it easier than ever before to find and buy comics, there are still a number of aspects that get in the way of bringing in new readers. Our goal is to make comics as accessible as possible by beaming curated content directly into your pocket for a small monthly fee. There’s less, “Where do I start?” and, “How do I get started?” Instead, you just pop into the app store, plug in your info, and you’re reading incredible comics within seconds.
Do you see this as competing with, or complementing, other digital content out there? What is the vision for how this company will grow?
Jim Gibbons: Our goal is to provide great comics content to as large an audience as possible. I view it as complementary to comics, both physical and digital, that exist within the current comics industry. We’re a publisher curating mobile native content meant to be read on your phone. It’s not intended to replace current comics–more to make comics easier to take on the go, easier to read wherever you are, and easier to introduce to non-comics readers. The amount of people who own iPhones is massive. We’re looking to not only deliver comics for current comic book fans, but to reach into the mobile market and convert those iPhone owners into comics readers. Hopefully that leads our audience to the direct market much like we hope our curated, exclusive content brings people to us from the current comics audience, as well.
Why iPhone only? Will it eventually be elsewhere?
Jim Gibbons: iPhone is only the beginning. You gotta start somewhere, right? But the goal is then Android and beyond.
How is this priced, and how is it set up financially for creators? Is this going to change as it grows?
Jim Gibbons: The cost for readers will be comparable to the monthly subscriptions paid for streaming services like Hulu Plus, HBO Go, or Spotify. For creators, we’re paying competitive page rates up front for fully creator-owned content. Creators also receive money on the backend through revenue sharing. Readers who support our app and our publisher are directly supporting our creators. I like to think of us as creator-fueled as we fuel our creators! It’s a partnership and we’re in the business of making dope comics with our creative partners!
I’m sure we’ll change as we grow, but that commitment to our creators and the commitment to making engaging and rewarding comics for our audience will be a constant.
Do you think this is going to change the way comics storytelling is done in bigger ways than just the app? What affect do you hope to see on the comics industry?
Jim Gibbons: While there are certain ways in which our vertical format affects storytelling, it’s still panel after the next as far as a reading experience goes. It’s been inspiring to see creators get excited about knowing exactly what image a reader will see, one after another. I mean, there’s no accidentally seeing a spoiler a few panels down or on the next page. In essence, every panel could be a reveal, and that allows for some suspenseful storytelling.
Hopefully, like all new ways of doing sequential storytelling, we’ll see our format introduce another way of thinking about comics into the minds of creators. Webcomics and comic folks on Tumblr have been playing with format for years. We’re just hoping that we can provide another great venue for those experiments and, in turn, just add another creative jolt to comics as a whole.
What’s the reaction been like from creators working in this format so far? (e.g. limitations resulting from the scrolling design, or any opportunities it’s created in design? How has it affected the storytelling?)
Jim Gibbons: There’s definitely been a learning curve, but primarily people have gotten really excited about the possibilities of the format and the delivery method. I’ve seen an enthusiasm and a speed to back it up on so many projects that I think comes from the thrill of being part of something new. I think each creative team has, in ways, found their own ways to utilize the format and I think they’re all—and hopefully readers will be too—excited to see what they’re adding alongside the innovations others are creating!
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After spending some time with Stela, I’m definitely excited to see what else will be coming out of this new company. And although I’ll always love paper comics and their format, I also like having quality content to easily read while on-the-go; and for that, it looks like Stela may be the mobile comics platform I didn’t even know I was waiting for.
Until next time, stay tuned for more info and teasers of upcoming content on Stela’s Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram … and Servo Lectio!
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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