Occasional Links: Mad Ideas, Watchmen, Star Trek, more

Current Internet-meme-du-jour, Carl Winslow.

Was this Dilbert cartoon from 2005 yet another Nostradamus-type prediction for our current financial crisis?


Steven Grant on Grant Morrison & Final Crisis:

"Anyway, at this point the one remaining major comics writer who has consistently clung to and through his work championed the cause of mad ideas is Grant Morrison, who packed FINAL CRISIS with more mad ideas per square inch than virtually all other "mad ideas" comics combined. Many of them are brilliant, in their context. But as I mentioned last week, it hits such a density it becomes a virtual black hole of mad ideas, with such a gravitational pull that story can barely escape it, and then only the edges of the story are visible. Story in FINAL CRISIS isn't story, as traditionally understood in western literature, and certainly not in comics; it's the event horizon of mad ideas."

Joss Whedon says there will be no Dark Horse comic book tie-in for his new TV show Dollhouse:

"You know, the science fiction of this is much more fiction than science. Ultimately it’s actors acting differently, which is not that - Something you really need to see drawn. There is, however, CSI comic books. So I guess everything could be a comic book. But I don’t feel it lends itself in the same way that my other fictions have."

Take a look at Donald Duck's Family Tree.



Would Alan Moore be cool about this Watchmen video game?

"I'm not going to spoil it for those of you who haven't read the graphic novel, but I can at least say that while Watchmen was all about miserable people dealing with their own personal crises, the game wisely takes place before the events of the book."

Oy.


Eddie Izzard set to appear in Day Of The Triffids remake for the BBC...with Jason Priestley and Brian Cox! Awesomeness!


CBS is streaming classic Star Trek (that's SHATNER TREK to you, none of that Picardo stuff) in HD on their website. Episodes include Turnabout Intruder, The Trouble With Tribbles, and Mirror, Mirror.

Just to show that fan discontent transcends just comics, pro wrestling fan takes the WWE to task and tells them to Stop The Crap. An interesting point made in the post?

"Want some free promotion? Get with the times. Allow us to embed your videos!"

A look at JLA T-shirts through the ages, with a focus on Firestorm. Found on the Firestorm Fan site, of course.
Finally, this Los Angeles promotional video from the 90s gives me hemorrhoids...and not in a good way!

I love the stuttering video effects in this. Made me want to smack that drink right out of Jack Wagner's hand.

Grant Morrison: Mercenary Or Awesome?

The Red Bee -- Apparently A Favorite DC Character To Pitch

Just a footnote to this quote by "James" on Grant Morrison spotlighted by today's Journalista:

"During the brief time I worked at DC, it was interesting to contrast Morrison's proposals to others'.

Morrison's proposals were always driven by economics and re-establishing brand identity. This is what DC Comics are good at; this is an untapped market need; these characters are valid trademarks and can perhaps be rehabilitated into spin-off children's cartoons.

I'm not clear whether Morrison can take this approach because of his high level of authority within the DC creative structure... or whether Morrison attained his high level of authority because of that economically-minded approach.

But for all of his reputation as a madcap, drug-addled sentimentalist, his approach is extremely mercenary. Nobody else apparently gave any thought to such matters in pitching new series, and it shows."

What I remember -- granted (pun!) this was several years ago --

Grant (and many other writers) would pitch stories and series featuring really obscure DC characters. And I'm not sure if there was a tacit understanding between him and management that he was creating these characters to extend "brand equity."

Specifically, I remember the complaint (and this wasn't just regarding Grant):

"All they're giving me is Red Bee pitches! Rag Man and Red Bee pitches!"

If anything, the "crew" were a little exasperated that Grant chose to focus on those characters more than, say Superman. And so what you really had was more of a trade-off -- "I'll see you your obscure mini-series for one blockbuster Superman series."

Which makes Grant a little less of a "mercenary" and more like, say, Owen Wilson.

Owen Wilson does awesome arty movies (either as an actor or behind-the-scenes), and then he does "Shanghai Express IV." He does "Shanghai Express IV" in order that he can do awesome arty movies.

Let's take another look at Owen, just for my edification:


See? "Drillbit Taylor" -- but also the writer of "Rushmore." And rocks a Black Sabbath T-Shirt.

And if he was a comic book writer? Red Bee pitch. Absolutely.

Should Comic Creators Speak Publically About Conflicts?

The comic book industry schadenfreude (my current $10 word) that began with Grant Morrison's comments about Final Crisis and continued with Chuck Dixon's commentary regarding his departure from DC has brought up an interesting point:

Should comic book creators go public in their conflicts with their publishers, if only to clarify points that might have been misunderstood by the media?

Dixon, while having many supporters, has also caught some criticism over his remarks. His side of the story is:

"I simply stated that I was off my titles and that I did not quit. This was to get out in front of the rumors. I have a career and a reputation to maintain and I’ve had it maligned before in situations juts like this where I took the high road and the other party used it as an occasion to smear me."

Well, honestly, part of the reason I wrote "Goodbye To Comics" was to clarify/explain points that were misunderstood by some of my acquaintances in the industry based on things they heard that were not accurate. Whether the inaccurate things were purposely spread or simply inferred because of lack of information, I completely do not know. But, I had the desire to set the record straight. Because you bust your ass for years in an organization, you get the "golden carrot" award (literally, a f**king award based on Bugs Bunny's carrot), you get combat pay for dealing with crazy people, you get tons of praise, you get books in on time, and then in the end you watch your reputation go in the toilet. And so what do you do?

Dixon busted his ass for decades in comics, and now he's going to just sit back and be silent while people report that he was suddenly yanked from his books? Honestly, if I had read that news and heard nothing from Dixon, I would have assumed he had f**ked up somehow. Was he late? Did his "political views" get him canned? Maybe he just wasn't a good writer anymore. Who knows? You don't know. You assume. It's a bad habit to assume, but you do. At least now I have some perspective. It's not a full story to be sure. But, it's a start.

There are two central tenets to public relations that I've learned from both study and practice in my jobs:
1. Be transparent.
2. Assume that every skeleton in your closet will eventually be brought to the light of day, and develop a strategy now on how to deal with it when that day inevitably comes.

My boss at at PR firm I worked at when I was 21 told me the latter. A former PR person for (I think) George W. Bush or another Republican wrote about the former in a book. And she admitted that it had become harder and harder for her to put that philosophy in practice, but she still stood by it. She said you need to "own" the publicity before the publicity "owns" you.

Which is what Dixon did.

Fangirl Fridays: Where Is DC's Matt Fraction? (And Other Questions)

" I actually had a different approach to the character. I had an opening four-issue arc that was very, very different that I was going to do, and I took way too long to come up with it. I was right on time getting it in before my first issue deadline -- and of course I didn't tell anyone what I was going to do. [Laughs] Then I turned it in and found out that there was a very specific continuity problem with the core aspect of what I was going to do, and so I had to start over and go really, really fast to come up with something for the first issue. So I'm not where I should be with the character and what I want to do with her. "
--Kelley Puckett on his current run on Supergirl

The question popped into my mind as I entered the comic store the other day:

"Who is DC's Matt Fraction?"

Matt Fraction is of course the writer on The Punisher, Iron Fist, etc., the originator of the "kicksplode" school of comic writing. His style is very distinct and he is, what they refer to in the current nomenclature, as a "hot young writer" [Fat Cobra = Character of the Year!].

Marvel seems to be developing a whole stable of these new voices, it seems, not content to merely rest on the laurels of Bendis and Brubaker. Here are a few names just off the top of my head: Matt Guggenheim, Greg Pak, Brian Reed, Dan Slott, Daniel Way, Jason Aaron. The actual list is far longer than this.

On the other hand, DC's writing lineup hasn't really changed all that much in the last 5 years. Grant Morrison is still the guy All Hopes Are Hung Upon. Geoff Johns and Keith Giffen are still the emblematic DC writers. Judd Winick is still the guy nobody understands why he is still writing these books but somehow he is.

Around the time Countdown launched, DC seemed to have an influx of new writers, and the anticipation was great. Tony Bedard, Sean McKeever, Dwayne McDuffie. And yet, what has happened?

Bedard gets caught in a (to my mind) a particularly cruel game of "writer musical chairs." I haven't been able to read a long enough run of his DC work to formulate an opinion of it.

McKeever & McDuffie get their debuts tangled in the editorially-driven clusterf**k.

Veteran writers like Tom Peyer, Kelly Puckett, and Chuck Dixon are without warning suddenly plopped into existing titles, forcing them to hastily come up with a new storyline and direction. Bedard is now added to that mix with Birds of Prey.

A great writer like Will Pfeiffer gets crucified by readers for a miniseries that was largely out of his control, a slave to editorial dictates.

Mark Waid & Greg Rucka are for the moment out of the picture.

Pete Tomasi might be considered as part of the mix of DC's hot new crop of writers, but frankly the fact that he was so very recently an editor there and now suddenly has two high-profile titles makes it slightly harder for him to prove himself. Personally, I have not read enough of Nightwing to make a determination one way or the other.

Gail Simone is the great writer who has proven herself for years -- but if her current run on Wonder Woman doesn't do fabulous, DC will use her as an internal example of why "woman books don't sell, and women writers don't sell" (I've heard this argument before).

And then there is DC's most high-profile writer of all: DCU Editorial.

Case in point: Countdown, which reads like it was put together by robots, by the same manatees that write Family Guy. No humans actually wrote that series. It was just a bunch of post-it notes strung together. That series was written by overworked, jaded editors, not Paul Dini, McKeever, Bedard, et al.

So what is DC's game plan in terms of writers? Can it be that all the DCU books are lame ducks anyway because Final Crisis will change everything? Should I even bother buying another DCU book until that time?

If I was sitting in the DC executive seat (sometime around when pigs fly and that The Dark Knight Heath Ledger talking doll with a pull-string comes out), I'd probably look to get Brian Michael Bendis & JM Straczynski . I have no inside information on that, I'm just trending this out.

And if I was at Marvel, I'd find a way to complete my collection of the best and brightest and look up whatever young DC talent is left. Including Brian Wood, who would be the biggest prize of all. Again -- no inside information, I'm just trending this out. I'd also find a way to get Neil Gaiman doing more projects. Call it the Morrison Vs. Gaiman free-for-all.

That said, 2008, in my estimation, will be interesting. Because whatever the situation at DC, if it doesn't improve it will change. And for Vertigo this goes triple (tho Will Dennis on the whole seems like a good developer of new, "kicksplody" books).

The answer to a lot of these woes is to get editorial staff who can seek out aggressively new talent. And retain them. The best they have right now is Mike Marts. He was the result of a strategic investment on DC's part, poached from Marvel. And Joey Cavalieri is like their quiet talent hunter, especially for indy talent, though I don't think he gets the recognition for it that he deserves.

That "strategic investment" aspect should drive everything DCU does from this point forward. This industry is entirely too competitive to do otherwise. There is a whole wide world of talent out there. And there is talent under their own banner that have been mishandled.

Anyway, those were just some things that popped into my head as I was buying comics the other day. Have a great weekend!

The One With The Crazy
Grant Morrison Post

Okay, here is the long-awaited post where I interpret "All-Star Superman" #8 as an allegory primarily of "fan comics" versus "art comics," with a bit of good ol' fashioned Red State critique thrown in as well.
The basic premise:

Superman = "pure" Grant Morrison -- the one who writes "art" comics

Zibarro (not to be confused with that excellent faux-Italian restaurant Sbarro) = "sell-out" Grant Morrison -- the one that needs ta pay da billz

Bizarros = mainstream fan culture/comics

So one day poor Superman is trapped on this square planet (square = Jimmy Olsen, Barry Allen, DC circa early 1990s, etc). This planet is filled with stupid creatures who do everything backwards and think crap is king -- except for one struggling soul gifted with the ability to be artistically sensitive.

"Must only Zibarro see the beauty in a sunset?" Zibarro sighs.


Just like Grant Morrison in a sea of lesser talents.

"I'm so alone here.

"There's no one to talk to.

No shred of intellect exists with which to communicate my thoughts and feelings!"


Zibarro keeps trying to pawn off to Supes a book with his poetry in it or something. Obviously old memories of starting out, trying to show harried editors his try-out scripts:

"I just wondered if maybe there was still time for you to take a look...at my work...it's not much...just thoughts really."

But Superman just wants to get off the square planet. These awful Bizarros are driving him crazy. They are stupid...and uncouth...and they worship garbage and fools like Le-Roj.

"His twisted behavior has made him king of all Bizarros..."

Of course, I need not have to tell you who Le-Roj is.

"He always encouraged me to be a great idiot..."

Why can't Superman fly off Bizarro world? Because of the red sun.

Get it? Red Sun? Red State?


It's devious, I tell you. A regular DaVinci Code of hidden social commentary.

Finally, Superman decides that if "am can beat them not join them."

So he talks in "Bizarro-ese" to communicate with the rabble.

Yes, friends -- this is how we got "52".

"Me am offer Bizarros chance to be lazy, good-for-nothing slobs!

"Me am no offer Bizarro civilization a chance to make monument to last all time!

"Chance to no make most useless, boring fireworks ever for unglory of Bizarros..."

The Bizarros clank their neanderthal clubs against their Liefeld comics and grunt for joy. Then they sing a tortured rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner," because in addition to being chalky-skinned morons they are also apparently patriotic:

"No say does am spar-spangled shroud hang limply! Under land of no free!"


Of course, Johnny Depp approves. Because he likes France.

Does Superman ever read Zibarro's story pitches?

"Your writing has...nnn...a unique quality..."

In other words: Zibarro, your writing sucks. And I lost most of your pitch on the train. No, actually there was a wet spot on the only available seat on the train and I used your pitch to absorb it so I could sit.

The pain never goes away, no matter how successful you become...

But at least Grant has reconciled his need to write the occasional "paycheck" comic book:

"I know you think of yourself as a flaw, an imperfection, but you're something more, Zibarro.

You're proof that Bizarro-home is getting smarter."

Yes, for every "Animal Man" and pseudo-Vertigo book about Klarion the Witch Boy there is...there is an "All Star Superman."

As Superman blasts off into space, the Bizarros are left behind to melt into the fetid muck they are too stupid to extricate themselves from. A wrecked Statue of Liberty (conspicuously absent from the new "7 Wonders Of the World" -- obvious anti-American sentiment to be sure) is prominent. Maybe it's just a Planet of the Apes rip. Or maybe it's something more.