Month: December 2011

I don’t know why I’m fascinated with the existence of Spanner’s Galaxy…

filed under Categories low content mode, spanner's galaxy 9 Comments


…other than being a fun oddball superhero sci-fi mini-series published by DC in the mid-1980s. There were a fair number of these from DC at the time, like Atari Force (nominally a tie-in to the video game company, but ended up being an imaginative and exciting adventure series beautifully drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Eduardo Barreto) and Sun Devils (Dan Jurgens’ space opera, characters from which appeared in later Superman comics, if I remember correctly).

No point to this really, other than a brief twinge of nostalgia for when DC would publish comics like these, not under a separate imprint like Vertigo or Helix, not as any kind of spin-off or tie-in to a superhero comic…just short runs of strange sci-fi or fantasy stories (or, rather superhero comics with sci-fi or fantasy trappings) that were here, told their stories, and were gone.
 

from Spanner’s Galaxy #1 (December 1984) by Nicola Cuti & Tom Mandrake

No post today.

filed under Categories low content mode 7 Comments

…Yeah, I know, I suck. Sorry, it’s just been one of those weeks so far, and it’s only…about five minutes past midnight on Tuesday as I write this? Urgh.

Anyway, I am going to get to the New 52 comments eventually, I promise, and I’m working on other site content-type stuff, so I’m not going anywhere. But, you know…Christmastime abhors a vacuum, and my free time has been pretty much shot for the next day or three. I’ll be back up to speed eventually, but for the time being…please have some patience, and sorry for the lack of real, or at least coherent, content.

…Er, yeah. No post today. See you tomorrow, with any luck.

So I don’t even know why I do this to myself.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, publishing, reader participation, superman 4 Comments

I suppose I should probably get around to discussing your responses to my inquiry about how folks feel regarding DC’s New 52 initiative. …Especially since, thanks to Jim, we’re up to 52 comments! Coincidence? …Nah.

I’m probably going to go through over the next day or so and respond more thoroughly to specific comments, but the first thing that I noticed was that a few people are not entirely thrilled with Action Comics thus far, citing plot or art concerns. And, I can understand that….

A PROGRESSIVE RUIN ACTION ALERT! Okay, I just deleted several rambling paragraphs about changes to the Superman franchise and how this new status quo may be interfering with Morrison’s storytelling, or at least reader interaction with same, and blah blah blah you can read what I already wrote about some of my disconnect with this New 52 Superman here. In essence, I think Morrison may have been better served picking up from where the previous Superman creative teams left off, and just telling crazy new stories with the franchise’s toys (like he did with his New X-Men run) without having to deal with these editorially-mandated alterations. Of course, “Superman’s New Costumes!” gets more real world media attention than “Mad Scottish Writer Takes Over Superman, Vows Revenge” so that probably wasn’t going to happen.

Anyway, a lot of what I wrote felt awfully dismissive of people’s reactions to the actual plotting and pacing of the stories, which I totally wasn’t intending to do, so out all that went. I do think there’d be less of a disconnect if it were stories about the Superman we knew and not the post-Flashpoint version, but that wouldn’t necessarily address any storytelling concerns folks might have. I mean, I like Morrison’s Action quite a bit, and it’s selling very well for us, but I can see where people might not be so into it. “‘Your mileage may vary,’ he clichéd.”

I do admit that I’m not sure I like how Jimmy Olsen is being drawn in Action. I prefer the “Representational Archie Andrews” version of the character.

Urgh. My struggling over even that bit of incoherent weblogging took up all my ProgRuin time tonight, and then some, so I’ll get to your specific comments and such tomorrow. Especially those terrible, terrible things being said about Swamp Thing.

…Yes, today’s post was bit of a carwreck. Please enjoy its flaming glory, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

That really is one of my favorite Superman covers.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, obituary 10 Comments

We’ve lost some fine comics folks recently…Batman artist (and man credited with creating the Joker) Jerry Robinson, Captain America cocreator Joe Simon, and fine comic book and comic strip artist Eduardo Barreto. There’s a lot more to those folks than my too-brief intros above, so I suggest reading the linked articles. Or Google around.

In particular, whenever I think of Barreto, I immediately associate him with two things. One, I remember him as the guy who took over from Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez on Atari Force (and did a swell job, by the way); and two, I remember him as the artist, both covers and interiors, for this two-part Kryptonite Man story:


To this day, that Superman issue remains one of my favorite examples of a real attention-grabbing comic book cover.

So long, Jerry, Joe, and Ed…my condolences to their family, friends, and their fans.

• • •

In entirely unrelated news, I’ve been informed that there may again be a glitch in the RSS feed for this site, and new posts may not turn up as “new” in the feeds. If you’re not seeing new posts from me in your readers, unsubscribe then resubscribe and see if that fixes things. I’ll test things from my end over the next day or three and see what I can determine.

…If you’re not having problems getting new posts from my site in your feed, please disregard everything I just said. If you don’t read my site, you stink. So there.

The nose grew progressively less pointy as the years wore on.

filed under Categories firestorm 3 Comments


Yeah, what about Classic Cliff Carmichael, personal nemesis to Ronnie (Firestorm) Raymond, and reboot-victim of DC Comics’ post-Flashpoint universe? Oh, sure, there’s still a Cliff Carmichael in the new Fury of Firestorm comic, but whither the attitude? Whither the pointy nose? Whither the amazing near-Asimovian sideburns? Nowhere, sez I. Well, maybe a little of the attitude, but still, without those sideburns…just not the same.

Speaking of the post-Flashpoint DCU, I still want to hear what you think about the New 52 so far, and if your opinions have changed on any of the titles in the three or so months we’ve been reading. Again, not sure if I’m going to have any kind of significant follow-up to all this feedback, but you’ve had some interesting things to say, and besides…doesn’t it feel good to get these feelings out? Sure it does.
 

image from Justice League of America #179 (June 1980) by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin

“…Or maybe I have been turned into a…a walking skeleton..?!”

filed under Categories green lantern 6 Comments

So, those odd x-ray superhero t-shirts in the current Diamond Previews, as featured in the latest installment of The End of Civilization?


I believe I’ve found the inspiration for at least the Green Lantern shirt:


Maybe they’ll pull more t-shirt designs from this comic. Like a Brainiac versus Ibis the Invincible image on a nice pastel-colored ring-tee. …But not as skeletons, that’d be weird.
 

image from Justice League of America #137 (December 1976) by E. Nelson Bridwell, Marty Pasko, Dick Dillin & Frank McLaughlin

Believe it or not, I wasn’t specifically looking for “Swamp Thing” on Archive.org.

filed under Categories sir-links-a-lot 5 Comments

So I’m still looking for your opinions on the New DC titles now that we’re a few months in and can see how everything’s shaking out at this point. I’m sure in a day or two I’ll get around to doing some kind of meta-analysis of your responses…or more likely, I’ll just directly respond to some of your comments in my trademark “writing a post for a weblog” fashion. At any rate, I’m enjoying what you’re having to say, and I look forward to more responses.

In the meantime, let’s do some linky-linky:

Yes, I said “the ‘real’ Superman”…deal with it.

filed under Categories publishing, reader participation 56 Comments

So we’re three issues deep on the New 52 DC titles (and onto the fourth issue for the first-weekers), and we’ve now seen how sales are shaking out for the various series. Justice League, Action Comics, Batman and Detective seem to be the big winners, at least at our shop. Animal Man and Swamp Thing were the surprise hits…and not just at our shop, so you can’t blame the Sterling Factor for the Swampy sales. (“Hey, did you get the new Swamp Thing?” “Nah, wasn’t interested.” “You should really buy it.” “I said I wasn’t….” “I’m putting it in your bag…you’re BUYING IT.”)

But now that we’re a little over three months in…how are you, as readers, liking the titles? Did some start strong for you, then sort of peter out? Or did some grab you right away and then just sort of meander their way out of your hearts and pull lists? Or did some just plain hit the spot right out of the gate, and continue to satisfy month in and month out?

In my case, I thought Justice League started weakly, but improved a bit with subsequent installments. Granted, I don’t know that we needed a “watch the team slowly assemble over several months” storyline, but it’s been enjoyable, and Wonder Woman’s introduction in #3 was a hoot.

Fury of Firestorm didn’t do anything for me at first, which may have more to do with my reaction as a longtime fan to the drastic rearranging of the character’s premise than any particular “flaw” in the book. As more issues have come out, I’m come to appreciate and enjoy the series, though my fanboy jury is still out in regards to the All-New, All-Different Cliff Carmichael.

The other book I didn’t much care for at first is Superman, which, as I noted at the time, was more exposition-dump than story, and more interesting than, you know, entertaining. And that interest stemmed from curiosity about how the New 52-version of Superman differed from the Supes we knew before…I mean, aside from the terrible costume. Again, as more issues have come out, things have improved slightly and the direction of the story is a little more clear. However, I still can’t shake the feeling that we’re not reading stories about the real Superman, but rather some Elseworlds/parallel universe version, which, I suppose, we are, in a way. (And perhaps it seems even more removed to those folks who think the mid-’80s reboot Superman is an imposter.)

Swamp Thing I am still enjoying, naturally, though I do wish a bit that they’d swamp or get off the pot already and get Alec Holland back into Swamp Thing-form. Yes, I know, they’re leading up to it…I’m just being impatient.

That was probably the worst thing I had to say about the New 52 books I’m following…the ones I didn’t care for I dropped right away (Mister Terrific – just didn’t like the writing or art; Justice League International – nothing about it really grabbed me). So, overall, aside from those two, the New 52 titles I started with in September I’ve either continued to enjoy or have moved from “eh” to “okay, I’m enjoying it now” – in the latter case either the books actually have improved or my taste is declining, and there are solid arguments for both possibilities.

Just for the record, here are the New 52 titles I’m reading: Action, Animal Man, Aquaman, Batgirl, Batwoman, DC Universe Presents, Demon Knights, Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E., Fury of Firestorm, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Justice League, Justice League Dark, O.M.A.C., Red Lanterns, Superman, and Swamp Thing. …Gee, looks like a lot when I write ’em out like that. Also, for someone who sure complains about multiple titles for the same franchise, I sure do read a lot of Green Lantern series.

Anyway, please let me know in the comments…how are you feeling about the new DC books you’re reading thus far? Have they improved? Have you dropped any? Have any surprised you? Isn’t O.M.A.C. the greatest? GIVE ME INPUT.