|
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Marvel Does the Solicits Game
First, a few links. Dave Fiore does an excellent job talkin’ Ditko, one of my favorite comic book artists of all time. He also posts a panel that proves to me that Steve Ditko is such a treasure. Going through Essential Dr. Strange I can see why the 60’s counter-culture, a group who was looking for new and fantastic “trips,” were intrigued by these books. While Jack Kirby, who I also love, is known for being the master of imagination and invention I would say Ditko is in the same league even though he doesn’t have as many well-known characters to his name. I can see why his obsession with Rand might turn off some. While I don’t agree with most of what Rand preached, I can certainly enjoy looking at the works Ditko created in the midst of his obsession.
Dave mentions Matt Rossi, who is going through The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, currently on the Golden Age stuff (I linked to the latest one but it should be easy enough to work backwards). There’s a part of me that really likes those stories because Bill Finger and Gardner Fox are probably the best writers of the Golden Age (Finger’s Wildcat story collected in The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told was particularly impressive). Still, Bob Kane’s artwork is kind of a turn off for me. The costume is great, but apparently Finger had to redesign the whole thing for Kane so it would look cool. It’s a shame that every damn thing that has Batman’s face on it features Kane’s name but Finger is known only to a small group of comic book aficionados.
And now, let’s see what Marvel brings us for December.
Ultimate Stuff
I liked what parts of Millar and Hitch’s Ultimates I read and might buy that hardcover one day. But that’s just it, if there’s a book to be read in trades it’s one that takes two minutes to read while taking five months to get on the stands. This second volume might be better in terms of scheduling…but it might not.
In fact, any Ultimate book I have interest in reading I can wait for the trade. Brian Vaughn and Warren Ellis are good writers, but if I can save money. After all, if these trades are a forgone conclusion what’s the pointing of buying the monthlies? There’s no rush to read something like Ultimate X-Men.
X-Shits
That was stolen from Jamie Hernandez, I should let you know.
Nope. Not for me. Liked it when I was a kid, but to just be that much of a consumerist pawn I can’t imagine it. It seems the enjoyment in the X-Men franchise seems to come from reading the news about it on Newsarama than actually going through the books.
Marvel Heroes
I like the Captain America character because he’s a superhero that demands the creators not avoid politics. It might not be prominent, but it always is there. A character like that in Ed Brubaker’s hands sounds good to me.
In the case of Iron Man we have a corporate raider, Secretary of Defense, alcoholic and handicapped superhero. I can’t wait to see what Warren Ellis is going to do with Stark.
What If?
Now this just seems like a waste. More comics from Bendis? I could never get into that guy’s work. Very few of the What If? stories were any good, although the Frank Miller Elektra one and the Tony Isabella/Gil Kane one about Gwen Stacy stand out as quality work. It seems like putting out more What If? books seems like a joke.
Then look, Ed Brubaker is writing one. Crap, now I’ll have to buy one.
Or maybe two. Wha…Huh? (ask for it by name!) looks like it will be good. Garth Ennis, Mark Millar, Brian Vaughn and Peter David having fun in the Marvel world could be good. And then I see that Stan Lee is writing one story and I know I’m buying this book.
I love Stan’s work. Reading those old Marvel books he comes off as if a commercial copy writer decided to hang out with a bunch of Beat writers and then have a go at writing his own stories. The work is unmistakable, it really feels like the rhythm and styles of the times bled into his prose. If he wrote cheap, pulpy paperbacks he would be discovered in garage sales around America and be proclaimed by hipsters everywhere. No matter how times I read them, the proclamations of The Thing, Spidey, Dr. Strange, Thor and others just sound right when “The Man” was putting words in those fellas’ mouths.
Really, after that what can I say? I don’t really want to write about revivals of Tomb of Dracula (of Gene Colan ain’t drawin’ it I ain’t buyin’ it!) or collected editions of Maximum Carnage. I’m a DC head and honestly very few Marvel books outside of the work done in the 60’s and 70’s interest me. It really doesn’t shy away from being this corporate behemoth that pumps out books simply because a handful of people will always buy anything with Spider-Man or Wolverine on it. DC is like that too, but at least DC attempts (and usually fails) at creating a variety of books. By variety of course Lord forbid they put out more than a few books that don’t share the same aesthetic values of mainstream superhero comics.
Well, I can feel this post drifting away so I’ll just end it here. Remember people, keep loving each other.
Permanent Link: 8:11 PM |
0 comments
Comments:
-- Home
|
