Rolling Comic Books 2019

Yup, it's King. I'm a big fan of his but the quality of his varies.... wildly.

it sure does lately, yes

I'm guessing that one page is from Heroes in Crisis?

One thing I think that is different in some of these modern comics is that editorial kind of plans the general plot on some of those big crossover stories. And I think to try to make the plot fit, there ends up being some wacky stretches to tie the story together. This scene looks pretty much par for the course in stuff like JLA: Cry for Justice or that wacky Meltzer mini-series where the Atom's wife is a murderer.

The other type of big mini-series is where you take a story that might work as your usual series arc and then try to force it into some big crossover mini-series. I'd say the old DC Genesis series is like that one and that Daredevil Shadowland crossover was a couple of those type of series.

Heroes in Crisis actually is pretty bad on its own merits, but to be fair it didn't have a huge impact on the DCU and you didn't need to read the spinoffs to get it

By contrast, even though I'm reading Event Leviathan and Batman I'm totally confused about how this whole Year of the Villain thing shakes out (not even considering Doomsday Clock is finally about to end)

Every event is just ridiculous now. I mean the number of books Marvel put out for both War of the Realms and Absolute Carnage is insanely offputting, even for someone like me who alread buys 20-30 floppies a month

Just read the crossover miniseries, if there is one, and the main title it spun out of. Despite it not being the explain everything every issue era, they tend to summarize or duplicate the key points

It’s more irritating when a title gets diverted from a main plot via editorial mandate and you can’t be sure whether the regular story is just going to touch on the crossover junk or it’s a throwaway issue.

DC crossovers are maybe worse than the Marvel ones in that they feel the need to jack with every character’s status quo

in my experience, the dead giveaway is when the issue that’s part of the crossover has a different writing/art team and the regulars are back the next issue post-crossover. just leave it on the shelf!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z32rTai1w3s

i believe ty templeton ghosted the newhart comic art
marc silvestri is like twice jim lee's height

I watched that whole thing looking for some art that might be by Ty, you owe me ten minutes back

afaipk Ty had nothing to do with the TV show, and iirc most or all of the ghosted Newhart art was by Paul Power (although Ty was acting in Canadian sitcoms around this time?)*, who also appeared in the "bullpen" doing the same role on-camera


Ty wrote and cartooned and lettered one side of the tie-in flip-book comic series, a faux-1960s replica of the original Mad Dog comic Bob had done in the series. This is great, a cross between Mad parodies and the Batman TV show.

Evan Dorkin wrote, and various other people pencilled and inked and lettered, the other side, which was the faux-Image reboot of the comic that was being made in the present day of the TV series. Dorkin did not know that Ty was doing the other side, or that he was allowed to make it a parody, or be funny at all, so it is played straight and sucks total dog dick unless you have watched the TV show and understand why it is bad. (In the latter case, it only sucks 98.5% dog dick.)



* I caught him playing a priest in one episode of something, by chance, but no idea what. I rewound his scene on a VHS rental of Sea Of Love several times when my dad got it out, but was never convinced I was seeing him. Bob, though, I was regularly setting the VCR to record at 4am and then stopping it when I got up at 6. Absolutely not worth it, and until that youtube my recollection was that Kirby and Aragones appeared visiting the studio, with Evanier and others in tow.

(Evanier for sure wrote an episode about Fredric Wertham turning up to apologise for thinking comics were bad and having hauled Bob in front of the Kefauver hearings, though.)

sic, are you the Uatu of the comics industry or what

sic you crazy bastard, i said nothing about ty being in that video; i said i believe he ghosted the comic art. likely at the credits; never heard of Paul Power. I have the same issues of Mad Dog you do apparently and yes they are great.

looking for some art that might be by Ty

can’t believe this disrespect to the author of The Rock Warrior in Skateman #1 who also storyboarded the reshoots of the last half hour of Predator

looking for some art that might be by Ty

i like the phrase "Storyboarding Some Movie Called Predator," might delete later idk

turn in your I Like Ty The Guy fan club membership card imo

when I was a #teen in the ‘90s I thought Continuity colouring was lurid and weird and ugly. now, instead that panel makes me sigh for how the entire American assembly-line comics industry apparently took every wrong lesson from Adams that they could

I Like Ty the Guy! On Instagram even!

Those reading who are less familiar with Templeton's work should check out his excellent (and not updated since harlan ellison died) comic journal blog:
https://tytempletonart.wordpress.com/

I had to Google 'Uatu' , handing in my M.M.M.S. membership card :-(

"I can't believe you're in a position where you can't name a Watcher!"
"Well, Uatu."
"No, I can name several!"

https://thenib.com/lighten-up-4f7f96ca8a7e

has anyone in the ol’ USA ever done a 2000ad/megazine paper subscription? cycled off of some other magazine subs and I am tempted to opt in for a year. how’s the shipping delay, condition of the comics when they arrive, etc?

I've been following a cartoonist named Jordan Jeffries who does one-panel movie scenes on Instagram. He's pretty good. I think this gave me the inspiration to read Julia Wertz's memoir Drinking at the Movies, which was... sigh.

As a human being, I have some respect for anyone who does a memoir and exposes their warts to the world, and there are several funny jokes in this, but Christ, the quality of artwork is just so bad. If I were a more positive person, I would use this book as an example to young students to scream "YOU SEE? Anyone can be a professional cartoonist. Absolutely anyone, if this is possible." Instead of being astounded that someone can accomplish this when I see hundreds more talented individuals desperately selling their wares at NY ComicCon every year for crumbs. Or hell, even at the indie festivals.

Julia Wertz is great!

Tbf she’s gotten much better w the art

yeah, wertz developed her art really really well and some of her earlier work does not reflect where she landed.

Got some cool back issues at the small local con we had here that my local shop hosted. Getting close on completing a couple of runs of stuff I have been working on for a few years. Got a good stack of various old Savage Sword of Conans for a buck or two each. Got a couple of old 70s Marvel monster reprints for a buck each too. First con I had been to for a few years. It was a pretty fun haul.

Wertz has always (Fart Party started fifteen years ago!) been a great writer-in-pictures, pacing her gags and effectively communicating her characters through very basic conventions. She also would have probably been both better and more successful if she had more range and depth to her drawing.

She obviously doesn't think so, though: even after getting into the New Yorker and then a big hardcover book deal based on her detailed, representational drawings of buildings, she's now doing her gag cartoons for TNY as straight-up stick figures drawn with a pen.

picardfacepalm.gif

I’ve been reading some of the current Sonic the Hedgehog IDW series with my son... it’s surprisingly dark for a kids’ book. The plot beats will be very familiar to anyone over the age of six (a ragtag band of heroes tries to save a populace from a spreading zombie infection; as the heroes themselves succumb and are transformed, one by one...) — but it’s done well, with solid dialogue and brisk plotting. The art is strong, too. There’s something compelling about these cute mutant-animal characters being placed in a straightforward action narrative, without irony or condescension. I guess there are whole genres like that, but I don’t usually encounter them.

I'd say that's most Sonic games since Adventure; I hate what they did with those but ymmv.

https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/russo-brothers-marvel-vs-dc-docuseries-quibi-1203402642/

RIP, Tom Spurgeon.

:-(

RIP

A great writer, a long-time force for good in comics, and a lovely person.

^^^

btw Jon I read your ^^^ last night, then went to bed and you turned up as a "character" in the comic I read

https://www.instagram.com/p/B40uSVDFAFO/

Spurgeon was a nice refreshing voice amid the rest.

Xpost sic was this a comic you read while dreaming or are you referring to the issue of Fatale where Tom H and I get iced?

gonna need an issue number here

was this a comic you read while dreaming or are you referring to the issue of Fatale where Tom H and I get iced?

neither! Rookie Moves by N0vember G4rcia


Spurgeon was a nice refreshing voice amid the rest.

gonna disagree with the implication I'm reading here: a major project of Tom's in his life and his work was to highlight and enhance the wide variety of interested, caring, and worthwhile voices that are talking about comics everywhere, all the time.

Perhaps I'm just remembering a specific time when I was mostly around Comics Journal associated circles but I got the impression that he was a lot mellower and less deep into feuds than everyone else. Not to say there weren't a lot of good people, because there was and that community was important to me but that's just how I remember his place in it.

Top of the head, if I try and think of writers that Tom brought into the Journal, it's mild-mannered Chris Mautner, Bart Beaty writing about untranslated European albums, Ray Mescallado getting a monthly superhero column, gentleman Gil Roth... (while the feud-free Spurge himself was adding a Melody-Maker-style two-page spread of opening snark to every issue, and writing things like Shit List! and The Butt-Eye Address by "David Peters")

Agree that he didn't hold or build personal feuds in public, but this was more a function of him seeing disagreement and argument as valuable in discussion of art and labour.

this gave me the inspiration to read Julia Wertz's memoir Drinking at the Movies, which was... sigh.

[...] there are several funny jokes in this, but Christ, the quality of artwork is just so bad.

I’ve never looked at old artwork and been like, this is fine. But luckily I’m also aware that it doesn’t actually matter at all. pic.twitter.com/TEQQTPuRsg

— Julia Wertz (@Julia_Wertz) November 15, 2019

that... is... some regression

You’re gonna plotz if you ever find out about James Thurber

TCJ's Spurgeon obit is up

how mad Dean must have been to work in the same office as a fat person 20 years ago

Borrowed/read the three deluxe Wayward collections. As they advertise, mix of Buffy & Scooby gang with Japanese (and later Irish) mythology / monsters. Took some angles I wasn't expecting, which was cool. Liked the artwork a lot.

Don't know if I'll listen to these episodes but I love this podcast
http://www.scottedelman.com/2019/07/19/mark-evanier/

http://www.scottedelman.com/2019/11/15/paul-kirchner/
http://www.scottedelman.com/2019/11/29/larry-lieber/

Had no idea Lieber was still around.