Thursday, May 3, 2007

Darkseid is taking fashion tips from c. 1996 Ben Grimm

-David Brothers really does a favor for all of us who don't want (or can't even conceive of ever having) a MySpace account: he posts the 10 preview pages for Countdown. Thanks, dude.

So now that I've had a chance to read these pages, I have to express one major concern: Darkseid looks all wrong. Is this the current, official, on-model version of Darkseid? Cause it looks really, really bad compared to Kirby. What's up with the bucket head? Why does he have those weird fanning shoulder pads? Why is only the right one extended? I have to tell you, the Fourth World stuff is the only real attraction for me at this point. The Red Hood sequence is okay--I still think that character has the potential to be interesting, especially if he's out of Winick's hands--but the Mary Marvel section seems terribly, terribly misguided. Which, frankly, is what most of us are expecting based on the preview art. Oh well.

-Speaking of weekly comics, here's Keith Giffen's post-52 Newsarama interview, linked mostly for posterity because there's not a lot of noteworthy stuff there. The only thing that stands out is Giffen repeating his belief that criticism boils down to "I wouldn't have done it that way." I'm still not sure if he means this as a universal truth for all criticism or if it only applies to other creators. Honestly, though, there's a lot of non-creators (esp. on message boards) seem to take the former approach when criticizing comics. This kind of prescriptive criticism is especially common among the continuity-first crowd.

-Another stupid list from that college newspaper guy who wrote that terrible list of the five best comics of all time (hey, did any of you go to a college where the newspaper was awesome? cause I sure didn't), this time covering the worst comics of all time. Here's a better one, using the Motorbooty 100 Worst Albums of All Time Formula. As a bonus, it's over twice as long.

1. Kingdom Come
2. Y the Last Man
3. Sleepwalk
4. That Monica Lewinsky comic by Tom Hart and James Kochalka
5. Iron Wok Jan (bear in mind I'm a vegetarian)
6. Thunderbolts
7. Crisis on Infinite Earths
8. Penny Arcade
9. Everything by S. Clay Wilson ever
10. Li'l Abner
11. Mark Millar's Authority

-Hey, as long as I'm being a philistine, did anyone else think Ron Rege's "Then" was better than his "Now"? (Via Flog, BTW. Exhibit home is here, and the whole thing is pretty awesome.)

-I didn't expect both Gary Groth OR Harlan Ellison to manifest in the comments thread to this Beat post (thanks to Kevin Church for pointing it out). What I really didn't expect was for Shannon Wheeler to call Peter Bagge a "jerk." I first read about Too Much Coffee Man in the Hate letter column, which was probably the highest profile plug Wheeler had received at that point. Boo, Shannon Wheeler. [After Shannon Wheeler left a comment questioning whether TMCM was ever mentioned in Hate, I went back to check the issue I thought it was in. I couldn't find the plug, and now it's obvious I had the whole thing mixed up. My apologies to Mr. Wheeler. Boo, Dick Hyacinth.]

13 comments:

SallyP said...

You...you don't like Li'l Abner? I am flabberghasted.

Dick Hyacinth's Ghost said...

He represents a stereotype that is hurtful to us Southern bumpkins. I'm not a hillbilly just because my father wears suspenders without a shirt when he's gardening and still uses the word "Yankee" in an un-ironic way.

shannon said...

You're making a judgement from gary groth quoting me out of context when he's in the middle of slagging me? Hmmm. I write a little about it on my blog:
- http://tmcm.livejournal.com

and I don't think Peter Bagge plugged too much coffee man in his book. I could be wrong, but I never saw it.

Unknown said...

Ah, Dick, you make me laugh, always trying to get people riled up. How dare you diss Y: The Last Man?!?!?

Dick Hyacinth's Ghost said...

I could have sworn I remembered reading that exact quote in an issue of Hate, but now I'm wondering if I read it in an issue of TMCM. I actually checked the letter column for the issue of Hate I thought it was in, but I couldn't find the reference. Oops. I'll edit the post to retract this statement.

But where exactly did I hear of TMCM if not from TCJ or Hate? I think I bought one or two issues, c. 1995, from a record store which sporadically carried alternative-type comics. I had heard of TMCM before I bought it, but I was just out of high school and had grown up in a very un-hip part of the country. Was it covered in that Palmer's Picks column in Wizard? Don't laugh, but I used to read about those columns and wonder why my local store never carried anything like that. My head nearly exploded the first time I visited a genuinely well-stocked comics store (Bizarro Wuxtry in Athens, GA).

Anyway, I'm sorry for trying to reconstruct the past from memory. I'll check my references next time.

shannon said...

No worries.

I did a Converse Tennis Shoe animated commercial. Maybe you saw that? Around that time the Washington Post wrote a profile on me, as did the Chicago Tribune. Wizard wrote about JAB #3 (the comic we shot with a gun). I sold 22,000 copies of my too much coffee man mini comics. I don't know.... if Peter did mention me, it wouldn't have been my biggest exposure.

I just hate that Gary quotes me out of context to make me sound bad. I really like Peter Bagge's work. He was a jerk to send me that postcard and later go on to write super hero stuff, I guess. But who really cares. It's not a big deal. I hate that Gary blows it out of proportion. I was probably drunk when I did the interview calling Peter a jerk anyway. It's pretty irrelevant to the pissing party that's going on over at the beat.

Anonymous said...

How can you not enjoy S. Clay Wilson's historically accurate depictions of cabin boy sodomy and pirates who use the severed vaginas of their amazon enemies as a food source? At the very least, you have to give them credit for being more entertaining than the last Pirates of the Carribean movie.

Viagra Online said...

Marvel section seems terribly, terribly misguided. Which, frankly, is what most of us are expecting based on the preview art. Oh well.

pharmacy said...

Great post! Keep it up the good work and also keep posting.

Louis Vuitton Outlet said...

This topic was really educational and nicely written.

Koreatown los angeles said...

Hi..Great Blog!! Would recommend to all of my peers. Thanks for sharing... keep it up.....

price per head said...

I think here author did a great analysis about topic..Great efforts shown..Keep working and posting!!

price per head bookie service said...

wow great i have read many articles about this topic and everytime i learn something new i dont think it will ever stop always new info , Thanks for all of your hard work!