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Monday, July 11, 2005
My bad
One of my favorite radio shows is Sound Opinions with Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot. It is “the world’s only rock ‘n’ roll talk show” and hearing thought provoking discussions about pop music on a mainstream radio station (I listen over the internet) is quite a joy (also, I recommend DeRogatis’ book of Lester Bangs). One of their better shows was the May 24th program where the hosts talked about their previous appreciations of certain albums they now think were wrong headed (look for it under “May 24” in the archives). I certainly believe that no one is to be trusted if they cannot admit when they are wrong sometimes so I figure there’s no harm in devoting a blog post to my mistakes in judgment.
Ground zero for my repentance comes as this post on the DC solicitations for September 2004. Oh yes, I do regret that immature tone of rage I took, although when it comes to getting out some DMV frustration comics that 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000065% of the world’s population is emotionally invested in are hardly sensitive targets. It’s just that what I admitted to liking was really embarrassing.
Let’s start with this quote: I like the Jim Lee/Brian Azzarello Superman. You know who wrote that sentence? A fucking idiot wrote it. That first issue really captured me because for some reason I was really into the philosophy behind the Superman character. I think this was around the time of Seagle/Kristiansen book It’s a Bird… and David Carradine’s little Superman speech in Kill Bill Vol. 2. Having Superman converse with that priest was, I thought, a pretty interesting way to go with the character, finding out what made him tick and all. Then the series went on and got slower…and slower…and slower. I read six issues before I figured I can get more and better story and art by picking up a reader’s copy of an old Marvel book in the dollar bin as opposed to buying a year’s worth of these Superman books. Apparently the book just got worse as it went on, which I can’t say I’m too surprised with. The thing is the Austen/Reis Action Comics was the polar opposite with its break-neck action but was just as boring. I don’t think Superman’s a character that really fits into modern superhero comics where so much of the character isn’t taken for granted anymore. If you create stories about the Big Blue and you don’t include that childlike wonder you’re just wasting your time. It’s like writing a Sherlock Holmes story where he doesn’t have a mystery to solve.
Another area in which I think my enthusiasm for a particular book was misplaced was in my brief flirtation with being a hard core Vertigo fan. I used to go through the “Miscellaneous Vertigo” bin at the store all the time in 2003 and counted Y the Last Man and The Losers among my favorite books. Now I think “what was the point?” I did find a lot of great books in that back issue bin like Face by the Enigma team of Pete Milligan and Duncan Fegredo but I honestly cannot remember the majority of stuff I bought there. Y and Losers were okay books but why on Earth did I want to become on of those few who come in month after month devoting myself to 60-odd issue runs? Vaughn never had his book live up to the potential of its high concept (see also: Ex Machina) and while I did enjoy the action going on in The Losers the idea of thinking “I wonder what happens next to these characters” is a young man’s game. I like to think my life is getting started now and simply don’t have the time to becoming a “subscriber” to any book. Vertigo proved with books like Sandman and Preacher that reading comics that way can be very rewarding but no way did either of the books I was into came close to the other two. I suppose I was really into all the ins-and-outs of the plotlines but now that I’ve dropped the books I feel like I was wasting my time and money.
I don’t know, I guess I’m weird when it comes to genre books. I can’t really get into something that has everything on the surface and yet sometimes I want that kind of story as a fun diversion. A lot of Vertigo books try to be both very deep and genre at the same time. I think it’s a worthwhile endeavor as we have gotten a lot of good stories that way but I think we’ve probably had just as many failures come our way from that type of pursuit as well.
So, what are some of the books you read that make you go “what was I thinking?”
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