Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Ghost Rider Annual
First look at the color art, plus a wide-ranging interview with me.
More on GHOST RIDER ANNUAL #1 here.
Elsewhere, on Johanna Carlson's site, I seem to be involved in a debate about the Zuda contracts. The best solution: Blast them with the Penance Stare. Then you'll know a company's true intentions!
Friday, September 21, 2007
Eye to Eye (Marvel Edition)
Preview of NEW AVENGERS / TRANSFORMERS #4 -- the heavy-metal conclusion.
Two nice reviews of MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS #1:
Augie de Blieck at Comic Book Resources.
Stacy B. at The Comic Stew.
A Love Story
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Qvote Unqvote
"Mike Nichols told me long ago that there is no such thing as a career -- that if a person has done five great things over three decades of work she is indeed blessed."
-David Mamet, BAMBI VS GODZILLA
-David Mamet, BAMBI VS GODZILLA
Monday, September 17, 2007
Marvel Comics Presents
Out this week: Marvel Comics Presents #1, featuring no fewer than four stories (update/correction: FIVE!) of, and by, Marvel's finest:
COVER BY: J. SCOTT CAMPBELL
WRITER: MARC GUGGENHEIM
STUART & KATHYRN IMMONEN
STUART MOORE
RICH KOSLOWSKI
PENCILS: STUART IMMONEN
CLAYTON HENRY
DAVE WILKINS
LETTERED BY: DAVE SHARPE
THE STORY:
Classic heroes! Top talent! All-new stories! Jump on board the landmark first issue of MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS! 4—count ‘em 4—brand new stories with a landmark wrap-around cover by J. Scott Campbell! Inside, you’ll find these incredible mysteries: Who is DAMIEN CROSS? Why will his murder shake the very foundations of the Marvel Universe? Why is SPIDER-MAN needed in outer space? Patsy Walker is HELLCAT. But then who’s the other HELLCAT? What is the SYSTEM? And what does it mean for the future of super heroes? Extra-sized first issue!
48 PGS./Rated A …$3.99
IN STORES: September 19, 2007
My story, "Unfriendly Neighborhood" featuring Spider-Man, is a great little eight-pager. And Clayton Henry (UNCANNY X-MEN) did a really sweet job on the art. If you ever wondered what would happen if John Romita Sr.'s Spider-Man joined the Green Lantern Corps...well, this is probably about as close as you'll ever get.
Preview the stories here, and read about them here.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
The New Swamp Thing
More from the vaults:
At some point, Swamp Thing was flagging a bit, so Tom Peyer and I decided to brainstorm some new approaches. First Tom drew this enticing "teaser ad":
Then I drafted this idea over an existing piece of Mike Hoffman art (sorry, Mike):
However, in high-level discussions, it was deemed that World War II books were on the way out. So Tom came through with this inspired redesign instead, brilliantly revamping the character for the '90s:
Sadly, "the suits" didn't see it that way, and life went on.
At some point, Swamp Thing was flagging a bit, so Tom Peyer and I decided to brainstorm some new approaches. First Tom drew this enticing "teaser ad":
Then I drafted this idea over an existing piece of Mike Hoffman art (sorry, Mike):
However, in high-level discussions, it was deemed that World War II books were on the way out. So Tom came through with this inspired redesign instead, brilliantly revamping the character for the '90s:
Sadly, "the suits" didn't see it that way, and life went on.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
A Tom Peyer Classic
I was just cleaning my files...
This is from the period where Tom and I were the two pre-Vertigo Vertigo editors. Note the Hellblazer logo briefly used on the early Garth Ennis issues.
I've got more embarrassing nonsense I can put up if people want. For the Tom Peyer of 2007, go here!
This is from the period where Tom and I were the two pre-Vertigo Vertigo editors. Note the Hellblazer logo briefly used on the early Garth Ennis issues.
I've got more embarrassing nonsense I can put up if people want. For the Tom Peyer of 2007, go here!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
O Say Can You See
On sale Wednesday: NEW AVENGERS / TRANSFORMERS #3. Where it all hits the fan belt. Luke Cage and Ratchet infiltrate the Array in search of Spider-Man, while the Avengers and Autobots, including Giant Iron Man, battle the Decepticons. And what's Doctor Doom up to? (For that matter, what's Ramjet up to?)
Check out the series everyone's talking about.
Also out this week: CRUEL AND UNUSUAL, a dark comedy by Jamie Delano, Tom Peyer, and John McCrea, originally edited by, uh...let's see...me. For details, see our sister blog, Beer & Meat.
Comic Shops and Such
This article by Tom Spurgeon does a really nice job of breaking down the direct market's purpose, potential, and problems in refreshingly unhysterical (ahysterical?) terms. I have a similar feeling about the worth of this market: Without comic shops, I'd have "aged out" of reading comics in my twenties, too.
I'd add a couple notes to the "scheduling" section. This issue tends to get heated very fast because it's actually two very different problems with related, self-reinforcing reactions. Fans hate late comics because, well, they want their comics, and because many of them grow to adulthood with the gradual realization that institutions they've trusted (parents, Presidents of the United States, DC and Marvel) aren't perfect and, in fact, sometimes do bad things. Late books are a very simple proof of a broken contract. And because the draconian newsstand distribution system of the '70s and prior made late titles almost unheard of, their current presence is evidence of a Decline in Overall Professionalism. (Which it's not, really. It's just that when Gil Kane or Neal Adams was late, the company would slap in a fill-in or a reprint.)
Late comics are a different and serious problem for retailers, especially cash-strapped ones. Comic shops budget tightly on nonreturnable product, and a late title -- or, to be precise, a high-profile late title -- can cause them real trouble, especially when that book misses its solicited ship date by months. It's therefore in retailers' interest to rile fans up about a popular title that's absent from the shelves for several months at a time. And the retailers' understandable agitation justifies the fans' feelings that the companies are screwing them.
Despite this, as I've said before, there's no evidence at all that fans stop reading late books. Readers read books they're interested in and stop reading books they're not, whether those books come out as solicited or months later. (Tightly-plotted crossover titles are a special case, but even there it's not clear the interest goes away unless the order of books published is seriously compromised. I don't think anybody's sitting on unsold copies of the later CIVIL WAR installments.)
There are ways to deal with late books; I used most of them when I was a full-time editor. And they should be dealt with, for the sake of retailers' fiscal health. But this topic kicks up a lot of smoke that obscures the real issues.
I'd add a couple notes to the "scheduling" section. This issue tends to get heated very fast because it's actually two very different problems with related, self-reinforcing reactions. Fans hate late comics because, well, they want their comics, and because many of them grow to adulthood with the gradual realization that institutions they've trusted (parents, Presidents of the United States, DC and Marvel) aren't perfect and, in fact, sometimes do bad things. Late books are a very simple proof of a broken contract. And because the draconian newsstand distribution system of the '70s and prior made late titles almost unheard of, their current presence is evidence of a Decline in Overall Professionalism. (Which it's not, really. It's just that when Gil Kane or Neal Adams was late, the company would slap in a fill-in or a reprint.)
Late comics are a different and serious problem for retailers, especially cash-strapped ones. Comic shops budget tightly on nonreturnable product, and a late title -- or, to be precise, a high-profile late title -- can cause them real trouble, especially when that book misses its solicited ship date by months. It's therefore in retailers' interest to rile fans up about a popular title that's absent from the shelves for several months at a time. And the retailers' understandable agitation justifies the fans' feelings that the companies are screwing them.
Despite this, as I've said before, there's no evidence at all that fans stop reading late books. Readers read books they're interested in and stop reading books they're not, whether those books come out as solicited or months later. (Tightly-plotted crossover titles are a special case, but even there it's not clear the interest goes away unless the order of books published is seriously compromised. I don't think anybody's sitting on unsold copies of the later CIVIL WAR installments.)
There are ways to deal with late books; I used most of them when I was a full-time editor. And they should be dealt with, for the sake of retailers' fiscal health. But this topic kicks up a lot of smoke that obscures the real issues.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
My Buddy
Ladies and gentlemen, Puck the Cat. Seventeen years old, slowing down a little but still a complete asshole. He needs medicine swabbed in his ear twice a day; one time, when a sitter tried to do it, he pissed all over the sitter and THEN all over the sitter's duffel bag. That sure ruined somebody's plans for the evening, didn't it? DIDN'T IT YOU CUTE LITTLE WOOBIE DOOBIE?
Puck's favorite period was when we had a bachelor pad, just the two of us. He still hasn't forgiven me for moving us in with a woman. In 1993.
He went to the doctor recently. When they pulled him out of the carrier, he went postal, spazzed his way past two trained vets onto the floor, then calmed down completely. I think he just had to let them know: I still got it.
He's my best friend.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
My Boyfriend Won't Wash the Dishes in the Sink...
...but my couple-times-a-month e-mail newsletter just went out today. Most of the information is also provided here on the blog, but you never know. Sometimes I slip in a bon mot so juste , you'd hate to miss it. This installment covers THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY, GHOST RIDER ANNUAL, and TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT: RAMJET, among other topics.
You can subscribe to the newsletter by sending an email to me at stuartcomics at mindspring.com. Just replace the "at" with...you know.
(No, I don't really have a boyfriend. It's just an obscure song I've always liked.)
You can subscribe to the newsletter by sending an email to me at stuartcomics at mindspring.com. Just replace the "at" with...you know.
(No, I don't really have a boyfriend. It's just an obscure song I've always liked.)
Monday, September 3, 2007
Two from Dos Passos
aren't you coming to the anarchist picnic there's going to be an anarchist picnic sure you've got to come to the anarchist picnic this afternoon it was way out at Garches in a kind of park it took a long time to get out there we were late there were youngsters and young girls with glasses and old men with their whiskers and long white zits and everybody wore black artist ties some had taken off their shoes and stockings and were wandering around in the long grass a young man with a black artist tie was reading a poem. Voila said a voice c'est plutot le geste proletaire it was a nice afternoon we sat on the grass and looked around le geste proletaire
But God damn it they've got all the machineguns in the world all the printingpresses linotypes tickerribbon curling iron plushhorses Ritz and we you I? barehands a few songs not very good songs plutot le geste proletaire
--Nineteen Nineteen (U.S.A. volume two), 1932
--
it was the speech that clung to the ears, the link that tingled in the blood; U.S.A.
U.S.A. is the slice of the continent. U.S.A. is a group of holding companies, some aggregations of trade unions, a set of laws bound in calf, a radio network, a chain of moving picture theatres, a column of stockquotations rubbed out and written in by a Western Union boy on a blackboard, a public-library full of old newspapers and dogeared historybooks with protests scrawled on the margins in pencil. U.S.A. is the world's greatest rivervalley fringed with mountains and hills. U.S.A. is a set of bigmouthed officials with too many bankaccounts. U.S.A. is a lot of men buried in their uniforms in Arlington Cemetery. U.S.A. is the letters at the end of an address when you are away from home. But mostly U.S.A. is the speech of the people.
--Introduction to the U.S.A. trilogy, 1930
--
Happy Labor Day.
But God damn it they've got all the machineguns in the world all the printingpresses linotypes tickerribbon curling iron plushhorses Ritz and we you I? barehands a few songs not very good songs plutot le geste proletaire
--Nineteen Nineteen (U.S.A. volume two), 1932
--
it was the speech that clung to the ears, the link that tingled in the blood; U.S.A.
U.S.A. is the slice of the continent. U.S.A. is a group of holding companies, some aggregations of trade unions, a set of laws bound in calf, a radio network, a chain of moving picture theatres, a column of stockquotations rubbed out and written in by a Western Union boy on a blackboard, a public-library full of old newspapers and dogeared historybooks with protests scrawled on the margins in pencil. U.S.A. is the world's greatest rivervalley fringed with mountains and hills. U.S.A. is a set of bigmouthed officials with too many bankaccounts. U.S.A. is a lot of men buried in their uniforms in Arlington Cemetery. U.S.A. is the letters at the end of an address when you are away from home. But mostly U.S.A. is the speech of the people.
--Introduction to the U.S.A. trilogy, 1930
--
Happy Labor Day.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Lazy Labor Day Links
Interview & preview: NEW AVENGERS/TRANSFORMERS.
Likewise: MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS #1.
Review: THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY.
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