Tagged: Mike Gold

ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending August 3, 2008

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  • August 3, 2008

August?  August?  Where did July go?  As if anyone’s recovered from San Diego yet.  As the dog days approach, ComicMix is still barking up all the right trees with our regular columns and features; here’s what we’ve broughnt you this past week:

So cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of peace!

Shiny, Shiny Superheroes, by Mike Gold

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  • July 28, 2008

Despite the graphic to the right, this week’s column isn’t another screed against “everything you know is wrong and will be wrong again” superhero plotting. We’ve pretty well strip-mined that topic, and unless I get inspired by original thought I’ll wait for DC and/or Marvel to make the next move.

This column is in the wake of a lengthy and continuing series of conversations I had with my ol’ pal John Ostrander. Having such conversations is the best part of the job; really, if you like talking with knowledgeable and highly creative people, I strongly recommend you become a comic book editor. I can’t quote from these conversations – for one thing, you’ll be seeing some of the results right here on ComicMix, and for another, I understand the Wi-Fi reception down at Gitmo isn’t so good. But I can give you the gist.

We were talking about doing superheroes in 2008. John does a lot of ‘em; depending upon your view of GrimJack and Jon Sable, I don’t do all that much in the genre. But I like it. I’m an American comic book fan and I proudly admit I enjoy a good superhero story. But there’s that “relevance-to-our-times” thing.

Brand-new superheroes were created in two waves: the build-up to World War II (Superman, Batman, Sub-Mariner, Captain America, Captain Marvel) and the cold war build-up to Vietnam (Spider-Man, The Hulk, Iron Man, The Question). There wasn’t a truly successful superhero created in the ten years following World War II, and the only totally original superhero created in the post-Vietnam years that comes to mind is Len Wein and Herb Trimpe’s Wolverine.

It’s easy to understand the element common to each of these two fertile periods: the reader had an overwhelming need for security. In the early “Golden Age” we were in a devastating economic depression with unemployment hovering around 25% and surrounded by massive international inflation. Japan had invaded China, Germany was beginning to engulf its neighbors and nations historically friendly to us were looking to us for war material. We had a lot of unemployed people who could aid their, and later our, war effort. (more…)

ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending July 27, 2008

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  • July 28, 2008

With so much news coming out of San Diego from ComicMix HQ (at booth #3208) and elsewhere, it’s my job back here in New York to make sure all our regular columns and features don’t get lost in the hype! Here’s your weekly one-stop shopping source for all our exclusive goodies:

So, I hear there’s a convention going on this weekend…

ComicMix Radio: Preview Night At Comic Con

 It’s Preview Night at San Diego ComicCon!

The doors opened to the first lucky badge holders on this sell out weekend and we take you along with the first of our special extended ComicMix Radio broadcasts.
Join us as:

  • ComicMix Editor In Chief, Mike Gold, joins us as our special co-host with news on the Big Plans we have here at SDCC
  • Nixon’s Pals Creator Chris Burnham talks comic projects new and future
  • We meet Kid Flash – really

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-2558792 or RSS!

 

We Will Think For You, by Mike Gold

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  • July 21, 2008

Here’s what I don’t like about politicians.

Well, actually, even Bill Gates doesn’t have the bandwidth to list all the things I don’t like about politicians – although I’m sure listing it all would generate some great comments. But here’s what’s at the top of my list.

Politicians who are partisan by definition feel completely comfortable speaking on behalf of the entire American public. Not just those of their political persuasion – which would be presumptuous – but everybody. Which is anti-democratic and pro-demagoguery.

Case in point: The Obama campaign felt compelled to issue a statement regarding cartoonist Barry Blitt’s cover to last week’s New Yorker magazine. The artwork speaks for itself, and is represented herewith. Entitled “The Politics of Fear,” the piece is supposed to be a satire of, well, the politics of fear as applied against the Obama campaign.

But the Obama campaign believes we’re too stupid to get it and feels compelled to pass moral judgment on behalf of us dolts. Their spokesman Bill Burton said “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.” 


Never on to miss an opportunity to stick their right-wing noses in the air, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds rose to the challenge with “We completely agree with the Obama campaign. It’s tasteless and offensive.”
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Review: ‘Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko’

As a history of Steve Ditko’s career as a comics artist, Strange and Strange: The World of Steve Ditko is an unquestionable triumph, the latest in a top-notch series of art books from Fantagraphics.

Blake Bell’s book ($39.99) features hundreds of beautifully reprinted Ditko pages, from his earliest horror stories to his triumph with Amazing Spider-Man run to his eventually paying-the-bills work in cartoon coloring books. This art comes with insightful analysis from Bell, who even gives side-by-side comparisons with art from some of the artists who inspired Ditko.

Yet, I came away from the book disappointed, because as well as it explains Ditko as an artist, it hardly begins to explain him as a man.

Admittedly, that’s a tough task, as the reclusive Ditko hasn’t been interviewed since bell bottoms were cool (or thereabouts), but it’s the task Bell sets out upon. The chapters accompanying the art read more than anything like a more-detailed Wikipedia page, full of facts but empty of story.

We hear about all the important moments in Ditko’s career, often fleshed out through the quotes of his acquaintances, but we hear less than whispers of his personal life or childhood. Perhaps Bell put on a reporter’s hat and tried to find some such information, but if so, he includes neither that information nor an account of how he failed to obtain it.

The few included quotes from Ditko are flatly boring descriptors of his work, overladen with parentheticals. And, again, they only hint at who he is.

For people who come in with a familiarity of Ditko’s story, like ComicMix editor Mike Gold, that’s a pardonable offense. But for any more unfamiliar reader looking to [[[Strange and Stranger]]] as a true biography, they’re sure to find it sorely lacking.

There’s a clear narrative to Ditko’s life; it’s a tragic story of a man who followed the philosophy he thought would make him great, but instead Ayn Rand’s objectivism would prevent him from achieving that greatness. And that story remains untold.

Van Jensen is a former crime reporter turned comic book journalist. Every Wednesday, he braves Atlanta traffic to visit Oxford Comics, where he reads a whole mess of books for his weekly reviews. Van’s blog can be found at graphicfiction.wordpress.com.

Publishers who would like their books to be reviewed at ComicMix should contact ComicMix through the usual channels or email Van Jensen directly at van (dot) jensen (at) comicmix (dot) com.

Comics’ Greatest Enigma, by Mike Gold

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  • July 14, 2008

bbv11a-5671197If you’re interested in comics creators, it’s been a good couple months for biographies. First, we had Mark Evanier’s Kirby: King Of Comics (Abrams, $40.00); now we’ve got Blake Bell’s Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko(Fantagraphics, $39.99). We’ve covered Mark’s book extensively, and our very own Rick Marshall did a swell interview last March.

My column today is not really a review of Blake’s book; it’s a blather about comics’ greatest enigma. Blake is the ultimate Ditko historian, and his book (and website, Ditko Looked Up) reflects his passion. It’s well-written, well-researched, and wonderously designed by Adam Grano. If you’re into Ditko or comics history, it’s a must-have. Kudos to Blake; that’s my review.

Steve Ditko is another matter. I can’t say he’s been denied his rightful place in history – his is always the third name in the phrase “Marvel Comics as we know them was created by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and together they brought comic books kicking and screaming to an adult audience.” If he gets short-shrift, it’s because Steve refuses all interview requests, convention appearances, and celebrity signings. He says he prefers to let his work speak for itself, and I’m sure that’s true. He’s also very shy and has no problem with one-on-one (or two-on-one) conversations in his studio, at the publishing houses, or in restaurants. That’s his prerogative.

On the other hand, he’s a public figure – even inadvertently. This makes him subject of many an article, long-winded editorial (like this), and Blake’s book. I’m told he’s not happy with the attention focused on him from Strange and Stranger; having known Ditko. I’m not surprised. Maybe a little disappointed, but again, that’s his prerogative.

I think from the commercial perspective Steve Ditko’s role in the success of Marvel Comics and its transcendence to the college-student market has been severely underrated. It was The Amazing Spider-Man that put Marvel on the map and in the college bookstores. It was Spider-Man that became the first comic book character to achieve icon status since Superman, Batman and arguably Wonder Woman. That’s the first in a generation. And, maybe, the last to date.

As the 1960s progressed Steve became more and more political, embracing the values of a form of Objectivism so fundamentalist that it even scared its founder, Ayn Rand, who asked Ditko to print a note saying his work reflected his values and not necessarily hers. Objectivism, for the Google-challenged, is the philosophy that holds “there is no greater moral goal than achieving happiness. But one cannot achieve happiness by wish or whim. Happiness requires that one live by objective principles, including moral integrity and respect for the rights of others. Politically, Objectivists advocate laissez-faire capitalism. Under capitalism, a strictly limited government protects each person’s rights to life, liberty, and property and forbids that anyone initiate force against anyone else.” (Excerpted from The Atlas Society).

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ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending July 13, 2008

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  • July 13, 2008

New York is busy gearing up to host this year’s All-Star baseball game, as the ubiquitous banners in Manhattan announce.  They’re even having a parade on Tuesday.  There goes my commute!  But never mind that, we have some heavy hitters of our own, and here’s what we’ve knocked out of the park for you this past week:

RIP Bobby Murcer, you were one of the good ‘uns…

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Why Comic Book Sales Suck, by Mike Gold

comicrak-6153652Last week, ComicMix commenter Alan Coil and I got into a brief discussion about what constitutes decent comic book sales. It is certainly fair for Alan to compare sales against current trends; I like to compare sales against sales potential in the marketplace.

There’s a market for comic books. This is borne out by the fact that ComicMix, much like Wizard Magazine and other venues over the past decade or so, attracts a bigger audience than the vast majority of all comics published in the United States, as measured by the number of different people who actually read the stuff. Yet despite all the success of comic book product in other media – from Iron Man to Road To Perdition – there has been little if any increase in domestic comics sales. How could this be? Herein lies a history lesson.

Forget about the never-ending über-convoluted and oft-retconed continuity. I’ve bitched about all that before, and, happily, our commenters comment consistently thereupon. To look to the root of this particular evil, we must set our WaBac Machines way back to, oh, around 1948. That’s when the comics publishers started to piss in their own soup.

In 1948, comic book publishers were sailing in dire straits. Average sales were down, the number of titles were up, rack space was getting crowded, and super-heroes weren’t selling like they used to. Clearly, that trend was winding down. Magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post and Reader’s Digest were telling parents that comic books caused juvenile delinquency and promoted homosexuality. Neighborhood candy stores and newsstands started to disappear, as did local drug stores. Bolstered by the G.I. Bill, young adults with small children were leaving for the suburbs – a mysterious land with higher-rent open air shopping strips where drug store owners couldn’t make a buck off of selling high-maintenance items for 10 cents.

Creeping Werthamism aside, comics publishers were not alone in this situation. The diminishing presence of traditional newsstands grossly affected newspaper and magazine sales across the board. Papers raised their price from three or four cents to a nickel; a substantial increase, percentage-wise. Magazines raised their prices in a similar fashion; the dime novel, which by now was 15¢, was being replaced by the 25¢ paperback book.

So what did comics publishers do? Did they follow the other publishers in raising cover price? The other publishers weren’t fighting PTAs and major magazines and, eventually, senate subcommittee hearings as they were. They felt that increasing their price to 15¢ was a bad idea. So they cut content. (more…)

ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending July 6, 2008

When exactly did July 4 suddenly become “[[[Independence Day]]] Weekend?” Are we as a nation so addicted to three-day holiday weekends that we lose the original meaning of what we’re celebrating? Won’t someone think of the children? And the flags? And the sales? And what about all the ComicMix goodness we’ve brought you this past week, huh?

At least my neighbors seem to have used up all their fireworks on Friday, it’s been a blessedly quiet weekend…

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