Well friends, I suppose writing this on a Tuesday doesn’t really qualify as a “midweek” mailbag but hey- this isn’t a journalism site so give your humble and gregarious host a break, yeah?? I’m barely coherent and yet still decided to delve into the ol’ inbox to finally response and share a horrid host of haggard jabs & boasts for your reading pleasure! No need to thank me- it’s what I’m here for.
Honestly, I’d had hopes that more people would leave comments- of the genuine sort- but, for whatever reason (and I’ve been given a few), most people either comment on various social media channels where an FCS article has been shared, whether it be Facebook, Reddit, BlueSky.
In the past few months however, we’ve been receiving a regular dose of emails, to my pleasant surprise.
Unlike the comment section, the majority of these emails are largely related to ongoing discussion of the articles published, though a few regular readers contribute their own research and suggestions which I’m happy to share a little of below. I did have one fellow who worked at Publishers Weekly and wanted to complain about Heidi MacDonald and Calvin Reid to me over some slight he received like eleven years ago… I have no idea why someone (especially if I don’t know you) sends me things like that.
That being said, I do believe going through correspondence would be slightly informative and mildly entertaining.
So, let’s get to it in no particular order:
“I saw The Beat won the Eisner Award for Comics Journalism… did it irk you at all, tell the truth.” – ‘Andy’
“Swear to God I’m not trying to stir shit up. Can you imagine though the Wall Street Journal having an abundance of typos and fanfic masquerading as journalism and still winning the Pulitzer?’ – name withheld by request
So, right off the bat I will tell you that I received about six or seven emails either directly asking about The Beat winning an Eisner or The Beat winning an Eisner was one of several questions someone asked (see above) on a list of other concerns.
I’m reluctant to really get into it only because I do not want, in any way, shape, or form to come off as if I want to have a “feud” with any established personality in comics writing and/or as if I want to be responded to by a “name” and known entity, which Heidi is.
Quite frankly, I offer sincere congratulations to The Beat. I’m happy for them and happy they’re happy and I want them to prosper. But in what way does giving sincere well wishes also mean I am prohibited from giving my honest criticism of their work??
I’ve been struggling to find the best way distinguish my own feelings and criticism on the Eisners– as my personal opinion on the Eisner Awards are irrelevant as I’m not a comics professional– simply to clarify the reasoning behind said comments since I’m aware of what they mean for other people.
Again, I find the comics industry to be very tier based and pompous; I believe Gary Groth articulated it better in some issue of The Comics Journal back in the Eighties where he- and I’m paraphrasing here- said that the heighted level of confidence in all people working in comics and working in fandom were a direct result of an uptick in comic conventions and the imbalanced importance they projected onto those in the game and those looking from the outside of it.
As I’ve stated before, I feel any industry awards ceremony is largely a incestuous circle jerk of legitimizing a select few based on a myriad of topical and political/career-minded motivations.
There’s plenty of creators I’m fans of- Evan Dorkin comes to mind- that I believe are possibly helped by being nominated for an Eisner. Or his publisher is? I mean, I’m buying Beasts of Burden regardless of whether or not it has “Eisner Award Nominee” on the cover. But here’s the thing: I’m aware that not everyone feels the same way.
So what does it matter who thinks what? So long as the recipient cares- and their audience cares- that’s what matters. Right?
That being said, two other readers wrote in- and those two sent me more examples of blatant typos in articles published after the Eisner win. (Hey, please don’t send me that sort of thing- I feel like I’m grading papers. Thanks!)
While I don’t really care to police any other site’s spelling errors- of which I make many, but hey- I’m not, you know, a journalism site- it does sort of validate my criticism of the Eisner Awards themselves. Not because Ollie Kaplan makes multiple errors in a week where the entire staff should think “Now, we’ve got even more eyes on us- every article has to be on point!”, but because if you’ll grant what is apparently the most prestigious award in the industry on a site where 85% of it is press releases from corporations and overwrought, autobiographical bios of the contributors that tell us who their celebrity crush is- what does it say about what your journalistic standards are? Oh, but I forgot- the entire staff loves comic books! That absolves them of ANY criticism.
Anyway, on to another contentious subject…
“Sorta surprised you haven’t covered Mark Waid’s career or the whole ComicsGate affair. Will you ever write about this?” – name withheld by request
I don’t mean this dismissively but I’m not sure why anyone would expect me to cover Mark Waid’s career per se. I generally touch on things I’ve exhaustively studied over years and years, and in realms that I was more involved in to some degree- for example, in the past I was very involved with raising and sustaining financial assistance for a few aging comic professionals so had more reasons to educate myself in various minutiae regarding their specific careers, things they’d said in interviews over the years, how those things corresponded or contrasted with things other professionals said, and so on- as such, I was genuinely not paying attention to modern comics for the most part from the period of the late nineties to the present.
This isn’t any sort of dodge but I’m late to the ComicsGate thing, which I was vaguely aware of as it was happening- but not really paying attention to comics.
Notably at that time I was already flirting with being arrested (again) on the street for various civil rights protesting and marching- I’m not saying that supersedes pushing back against ComicsGate (which I have now been catching up on in the last couple weeks), just that I don’t like to write in the manner that I do unless I’m reasonably well versed, backwards and forwards, on the matters of the case at hand.
I do know Mark Waid has been very critical of the work here and insulting of me personally, but I’m pretty much in accord with his stance on right-wing terrorism in modern times so there’d be no controversy there on my part. Anyone against Nazis is someone I’m in alliance with, I don’t give a fuck what they say (incorrectly) about me. After all, I’m never ever trying to curry favor with people who were celebrated by Wizard Magazine.
I will always call out conservative fucks that threaten people online though, so it is possible I’ll get to the ComicsGators.
Here’s a topic more productive, though. I’ve been exchanging emails with a regular reader who is also a critically acclaimed and prolific indie comics creator, to my delight. Von Allan has shared with me his journey being a self-published creator based out of Canada, who has created a brilliant series featuring a female protagonist called WOLF’S HEAD.
Von- it has suddenly occurred to me that I have never thought to ask if ‘Von Allan’ is the full last name, or if his first name is ‘Von’- I’ll just keep calling him ‘Von’ until he corrects me, sorry man- was answering my questions about getting his work out there. I should also like to clarify that Von didn’t ask me to hype or promote or mention his work here, and possibly might be annoyed that I did so without asking him in advance.
But the point I’m getting to which connects to other things I’ve touched upon is just this- Von received a grant for Wolf’s Head. Which I would think, for any independent creator, is fantastic news! I congratulated him and then asked what comic news outlets picked up on this story.
I was surprised when Von responded to me that NO comics outlet had covered this. Again, allow me to explain that I don’t even mean this as a congratulatory/promotional device for Von’s comic…
…but because this news story would be very important for OTHER INDEPENDENT COMIC CREATORS RIGHT NOW. I told him I was somewhat surprised that no site supposedly dedicated to “comics criticism” and/or “comics journalism” would find the merit in sharing this story, if only to nudge other indie creators to look into getting a grant of their own.
“I’m baffled. I honestly am, partially for what you noted (getting a grant is possible!) but also because the grants are newsworthy, especially given what passes for news nowadays. They are judged by a jury and all of that. I don’t know who the most recent jury was, but the previous two juries that awarded me the grants are formally listed in the result PDF up on the City’s website. So it’s not like they were given to me by some random guy. Hell, the 2022 judges that awarded me that particular grant are Manahil Bandukwala, Sarah Raughley, and Donna Sharkey; all three are women, all three are authors, and two of them (Bandukwala and Raughley) are women of colour. And THEY found WOLF’S HEAD worthy of a grant. Oh, and I should add that I don’t know any of the judges in 2020 and 2022 personally (and I doubt I’ll know any of the 2025 ones), so it’s not like it was nepotism or some such.” – Von Allan, August 2025
I will add that I did suggest to Von to submit his story to Tiffany Babb, so we’ll see if he takes me up on that advice. I remain somewhat baffled at what “stories” these outlets merit for publication. Any independent creator getting recognition and financial support for their goals as a creator- you need to report on that shit. You need to report on it because not every creator is even aware this is possible.
“Did you see the announcement from SDCC about (John) Byrne returning to the X-Men? Do you think this is a move of desperation from Marvel?” – Gary
“Any commentary on (Jim) Shooter beyond what you’ve said in the past in your Kirby stories?” – Apt2Care
No opinion on John Byrne and his return to the X-Men whatsoever; never was a fan, never got it, think it’s all pretentiousness that enabled holier-than-thou comic fans in the Eighties to think they were deep. When I was a little kid, Byrne was on Fantastic Four for the most part but I never responded to his work. Uh, good for Marvel and fans of that sort of thing I guess.
As for Shooter- stay tuned.
“Aren’t you ever worried about Roy Thomas and, to a lesser extent, Cimino trying to sue you?” – name withheld by request
This thoughtful reader also shared how Thomas alluded to his critics saying “potentially libelous” stuff in his latest issue of Alter Ego, but the answer is no, I’m not worried about being sued. I’m being serious when I ask what could they sue me for- compiling quotes that they themselves once said…? I did enjoy that John Cimino was prefaced by “to a lesser extent”.
Regular reader and contributor Kevin Koch has been looking through other university archives for reports of Stan Lee’s period as a prolific public speaker besides the oft-cited ones in Lee’s official archives at the University of Wyoming. This morning he wrote me to share some interesting observations:
“I don’t know if it’s a misprint, but they interestingly give Kirby full credit for the Fantastic Four. It has nothing about a campus talk, though, instead it’s a visit to the Marvel offices. It appears that often the campus newspaper didn’t consider Stan newsworthy enough to send someone to report on his talks…”
“An advanced search of the Duke Chronicle yielded the following:
Feb. 27, 1969 lecture and two seminars on Comics and Animation with Robert Lawrence (producer for Grantray-Lawrence Animation studio, makers of the Spider-Man animated TV show). There’s only a photo of Lee from the panel discussion, but no summary article. [The newspaper shows that two days later Janis Joplin was playing an indoor concert, admission $2.75. What a time to be alive!]
The second seminar, or perhaps it’s the lecture, on Feb. 28, is summarized, with the mention that Lee spoke to “a small group of dedicated comic book fans about the future of comic books.” It ends by noting he “consented to autograph some half-dozen of his fan’s comic books.”
I assume this was half a dozen fans, but either way it doesn’t sound like he was exactly being mobbed by adoring college students. In any event, this talk sounds vacuous. Looking at the Duke newspaper compared to other student newspapers, it’s very sophisticated and full of articles about the war, Nixon, racial discrimination, women’s issues, and a lot of serious stuff. I wonder if Lee was surprised by the gravity of their questions (the one’s mentioned in the article are one’s Lee would never be asked by Marvel zombies) and he just didn’t seem to have glib answers ready.” – Kevin Koch
I found that to be interesting and wonder if Lee’s attendance numbers were sometimes inflated for the sake of his promotional items. (Lee was really going for a second career as a public speaker for a few years, to the point of hiring an outside booking agent and stylist.) Notably, Kevin attended one of Lee’s college speaking gigs while a freshman at Murray State in Kentucky.
“I went to the lecture out of nostalgia and a two-fold curiosity. First, did he have anything interesting to say about future directions at Marvel. 1977 was a time of tremendous innovation and experimentation in alternative comic books and comic magazines, not to mention a growing proliferation of quality reprints from the past. Was Marvel going to ride that creative wave and recapture the energy and innovation that made the company so compelling in the early 1960s? Second, I was curious to see how Lee would be received by my fellow students. Was he the campus rockstar he repeatedly made himself out to be? Were there a bunch of students who were secretly passionate about comics?
The answers were ‘no’ and ‘no.’ First, I was taken aback by how empty the auditorium was. I didn’t expect an overflow crowd, but I felt bad for Stan. The auditorium (the smaller of several on campus) was mostly empty, with less than 60 people in the room. It might have been as few as 30-40. We had almost eight thousand students on campus. There were about a dozen true believers in the front row (I imagine each with a stack of comics to be signed), and others scattered around the room.
Stan’s talk was glib, superficial and, frankly, boring. He looked smaller (almost shrunken) and older than I expected (granted, he was 54, though he was always ageless in his representations of himself). Virtually every story he told I’d read before, though some of the details seemed changed. He didn’t refer to notes, and seemed to be winging it. I’d read multiple times that he loved giving these campus talks, and expected something impressive — maybe some posters or A-V aides, more enthusiasm, and some actual contemporary references (especially to Heavy Metal, which was a true game-changing publication that had just burst on the scene a few months before, or even to Star Wars).” – Kevin Koch
I’d like to thank Kevin again for sharing those personal recollections, and I’m also going to pretend he submitted the above photo just for the heck of it. Anyone else out there who might’ve attended one of Lee’s 60s’-70s’ college lectures who want to share their experience please feel free to reach out: fourcolorsinners@gmail.com
There’s a plethora of other emails but they mostly cover the same topics- and a handful of them seem to want me to call out people working in comics but people I am unfamiliar with, therefore how can I call them out? Do you think I’m like Mark Waid? Good heavens!
In closing, I know this wasn’t a typical entry in the Four Color Sinners canon but I wanted to share some of the correspondence I’ve received. After all, there’s literally thousands upon thousands of you reading and sharing this shit; someone must be finding it interesting.
A more substantial reading experience is coming up next. You’ll want to be on top of that one, I assure you. Thanks for reading (those who do) and remember to demand better from comics journalism- you deserve it!
(With sincere thanks to Kevin Koch, Heidi MacDonald, Ollie Kaplan, Von Allan, Michael Hill, Henry Kujawa, Gary Reynolds, Miss Jackson, Scott Edelman, and Mr. Martin)
Four Color Sinners 
Actually, you wouldn’t know Heavy Metal was a game-changer from the coverage it got in fanzines. There wasn’t much; TCJ almost completely ignored it. What little there was echoed the same complaint: the art was unbelievable, and people were looking forward to finally being able to read the stories they saw in imported foreign-language books in the bigger cities, and when they finally got to crack open Heavy Metal…the stories were mostly incoherent. This got blamed for a while on incompetent translation, but I’ve seen all of the recent Druillet reissues from Titan, and in too many of them the writing still has problems. So, who knows?
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Not sure why you’d expect American comic book fanzines to even be interested in Heavy Metal. By fanzines, I assume you mean the CBG? RBCC? Wasn’t TCJ an adzine called “The New Nostalgia Journal” in 1976, and only became TCJ in 1977, and then only adopted a magazine format in 1978? Were there other fanzines I can’t remember, and did any of them do anything except engage in retrospective naval gazing about the Golden and Silver Ages?
I can tell you that readers, comics artists, and publishers certainly noticed. The magazine was an instant hit, and it didn’t take long for Marvel to bring out their lame-ass imitation Epic Illustrated. HM directly inspired an Ivan Reitman-produced (and disappointing) animated movie. Moebius was immediately pulled to Hollywood where he had a profound effect on the movies Alien, Tron, The Fifth Element, Blade Runner, Willow, The Abyss (and much later Prometheus). The magazine led to a long friendship between Giraud and Hayao Miazaki, and directly inspired Nausicaa. Otomo was also deeply influenced and many of the seeds of Akira came from what was published in Heavy Metal.
Dozens of US comics artist almost immediately began cribbing from Moebius, but since Giraud’s drawing skills were so advanced, many settled for borrowing from his inking style. The most infamous ‘borrowing’ was by Frank Miller in Ronin. As an artist I can see a profound ‘before-and-after’ in much of comic art, with the years 1977-1978 as the dividing line.
Moreover, the magazine was a gateway to American audiences for Jose Munoz, Guido Crepax, Hugo Pratt, Jacques Tardi, Vittorio Giardino, Enki Bilal, and many others, few of whom could be called ‘incoherent’. That said, I totally agree with you about Druillet (and I think Jean Giraud came to the same conclusion eventually, if I am correctly reading between the lines of some of his comments and the history of their association). He was a loud, phony European comics version of Jean-Luc Goddard.
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The old Nostalgia Journal was an adzine. Gary Groth/Fantagraphics took it over in mid-1976, renamed it the New Nostalgia Journal and continued the tabloid format for a while, but the adzine aspect was dropped immediately. There were actually a lot of fanzines around then(if the review section of Inside Comics is any indicator); the ones you mentioned were the most noticeable(you left out the Comic Reader). Not all were focused on Golden/Silver Age comics. Quite a few centered on animation and foreign comics.
Epic actually debuted in 1980 and was pretty much the last HM imitator to show up. Previous ones were Gasm, Rump, and Warren’s 1984; all in 1978. The fact that they all had Richard Corben stories(to a varying degree) was the dead giveaway.
And since HM was basically all-comics from National Lampoon’s publisher, why wouldn’t the fanzines be expected to notice?
I don’t dispute that the magazine was influential, but all the examples you cite were derived from the artwork. The incoherency charge for the writing never really went away. Just before posting this, I dug out all the issues serializing Moebius’ “Airtight Garage”, reread them, and the artwork still impresses like it always did…and the story is still an indecipherable mess.
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@SDF, I would love to know the names of the “quite a few” fanzines that focused on foreign comics. Do you mean things like The Menomonee Falls Gazette, which billed itself as “The international newspaper for comic art fans” and reprinted US and British newspaper comic strips? I vaguely remember The Comics Reader from that era, and it was nicknamed “the TV Guide of comics” for a good reason – it was totally focused on US mainstream comic books, and catered to people who had an interest in breaking into Marvel or DC.
There’s a good reason none of these fanzines covered Heavy Metal (except TCJ, which by 1979 indeed gave it serious coverage), and that’s because HM magazine wasn’t sold anywhere near comic books, and retailers had a strict “no one under 18” policy. I remember the guy at the college head shop where I bought my Heavy Metals (before I got a subscription; there were literally no comics shops in my state at the time) chasing me away from the sales rack because he was sure I was some 16 year old trying to pull a fast one. I had to show my ID to buy the damned thing. How many of those “many” fanzines of the late 1970s gave coverage to underground comics? How many were giving coverage to Pilote magazine, which was far more mainstream and had been publishing amazing Franco-Belgian comics since the 1960s? How many of those fanzines were paying attention to what Japanese manga artists were putting out? The fact is, US comics fans have always been extremely insular, just like the mainstream US comics producers have been. How long did it take DC to understand and respond to the “Marvel revolution”? How long did it take Marvel to realize they were running on fumes throughout the late 1960s and the entirety of the 1970s?
In any event, my point was that HM signaled a sea-change in the overall comics world, and the impact was almost immediate. You mentioned several obvious imitators from 1978, which makes my point. HM was immediately recognized by Hollywood and Japanese creatives, as well as the best US comics artists/creators. The best measure of influence is not fanzines, which are always backwards looking. It’s the actual work product of people making comics and movies, and it’s overwhelmingly apparent starting almost immediately.
The Airtight Garage was a playful steam-of-consciousness exercise my Moebius. He never intended it to be an ongoing ‘story.’ Once he started doing it regularly, he intentionally tried to leave the ‘narrative’ in an impossible spot at the end of each episode, and he usually resumed the next episode without consulting what he’d already done. It worked beautifully when read a few pages at a time each month. Do all the Arzach episodes make logical sense? Was that really the point? Do you sit down and read a book of short stories, essays, and poems by Borges and wonder why they don’t have sufficient coherence?
There were plenty of Moebius HM stories that are coherent: The Long Tomorrow, The Incal episodes (at least as coherent as reading a series of Dune books, or Kirby’s later works), Garden of Aedena, among others. Remember, HM was a SF/Fantasy anthology book, and like literary SF/Fantasy anthologies, the individual stories vary widely in how logical and ‘coherent’ and meaningful they are. And, if ‘coherency’ is the gold standard, then don’t the overwhelming majority of American 4-color comics fail miserably?
And, yeah, the impact was especially related to the artwork, but this means the visual storytelling, rendering, coloring, innovative forms of visual expression, etc. Comics are, and always have been, primarily a visual medium., but the best comics are great for the combined artwork AND the ideas expressed by that artwork. I think this applies to the best of what was published in HM. And, to give an US comics example I’m sure you’ll like, why Ditko’s version of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange were groundbreaking and compelling, and why it was so disappointing to read those books after Ditko left, despite some very good artists providing very good artwork.
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The fact that HM was racked with magazines, not comics, wouldn’t have stopped fanzines from covering it. Warren’s magazines weren’t racked near comics either and that never stopped fanzines from covering them in detail. The undergrounds were subject to “no buyers under 18” also, but that didn’t stop fanzines from covering them either, especially the Comics Reader. I do have the complete run of it, and independents and undergrounds were given no less mention than anything from DC or Marvel. Since there were far fewer undergrounds issued from 1976-1980, then there logically would be fewer books to cover. There wasn’t much manga being issued in the USA in that time period either.
The fact that the Airtight Garage wasn’t designed to be written coherently doesn’t make it any more of a good experience to read if you expect anything more than pretty pictures. The Arzach stories were different; they were all pantomime and couldn’t suffer in translation. I should point out that Moebius did not actually write all the stories you mentioned; Dan O’Bannon wrote the Long Tomorrow and Alejandro Jodorowski wrote the incal stories. Sure, Jodorowski’s films tend towards dreamlike storytelling often, but at least you can tell what the hell’s going on in them. Too often in HM you couldn’t and the translations didn’t help. I know Moebius’ body of work got fresh translations later from other publishers and that probably made the difference.
I’m not sure what the argument is here. I never claimed that HM wasn’t an influence among publishers, movie producers, etc. I said you wouldn’t know this from the attention fanzines gave it, which you seem to agree with. And I’m sorry, but I’ve got the run of NNJ/TCJ from 1976-2013 and I don’t recall it giving HM any serious coverage around 1979(there weren’t any reviews of it that I recall) outside of taking note of Ted White’s becoming, and later being fired from, the editor position. I do recall later stories of HM having financial difficulties and static between HM and Les Humanoids, but that isn’t quite the same thing.
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@SDF, I have to admit some frustration, and it’s probably my fault. I assumed when you emphasized that fanzines didn’t cover HM magazine that you were suggesting it wasn’t the game-changer I made it out to be, as if you were saying, ‘of course Stan Lee didn’t mention it; nobody in comics was.’ I apologize if you didn’t mean that at all. I stand by my contention that it influenced not just publishers and movie producers, but comics artists and creators, along with adult comics fans.
Here’s Kevin Eastman in a TCJ interview: “. . . it was a magazine that I found in 1977 that changed my life. [Like] a lot of people. It introduced me/us to underground artists like [Richard] Corben and [Vaughn] Bodē and all those cutting-edge and brilliant European artists and writers.” I’m not going to dig out quotes from other key artists/writers of that time, but I’ve read similar statements many times, and even without this admission you see it in the art and content of US comics creators in the late 1970s onward.
Two final notes: (1) The Comics Journal started to find its footing as a journalistic and critical force in 1978-1980, but even then it was overwhelmingly focused on Marvel and DC personalities. A quick search, however, shows a major interview with the staff of Heavy Metal in issue 49 from 1979.
(2) The Airtight Garage is a lot like Twin Peaks. You either get it, and adore it, or you don’t, and you don’t. If you want to give it another chance, here’s a website I highly recommend: https://www.openlistpublishing.com/watch-this-space/36-excursions-excavations-in-the-hermetic-garage/ and https://www.openlistpublishing.com/watch-this-space/rediscovering-moebius/. The author does touch on some of the problematic translation issues which you might appreciate.
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Great to read a first-hand experience of one of Lee’s college speaking tours. I’m glad I read about Von Allan’s grant here first, although I suppose your laser focus on comics lets you out of the running for an Eisner next year. My only experience with Mark Waid (I’m not familiar with his work) was on Bob Beerbohm’s facebook page where he was giving Bob a hard time. I was happy with his comments regarding Roy Thomas creator credits but I have nothing but disrespect for his attitude about Stan Lee.
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Being a student of the Marx Brothers, I would never join any club that would have me as a member Sir! Not that I’d ever be in the running for an Eisner, but yeah.
Waid brought me up as “arrogant” on someone’s podcast, while grudgingly admitting my stuff was “well researched”- what he meant was that I wasn’t someone who kissed the ring the way a Salkowitz does, and I do not stand on ceremony, so he didn’t approve of my AUDACITY in SPEAKING UP. Of course, he has no idea of my background or experiences with these people.
He also deliberately tried to use misdirection and misinformation to dilute Andy Olsen’s story by repeatedly- and in different places- referring to him as “Andy OWENS” and being extremely dismissive and bemused.
Let’s consider that a man nearing 70 that dresses up like Marlon Brando as Jor-El can NOT remember the last name ‘Olsen’- it’s a joke. He knew Andy Olsen’s name. He just wanted to dilute the story as much as he could.
I was very disappointed in Waid’s conduct when he called out- rightfully, I might add- Rob Granito. It was him reveling in it after the fact and boasting about it in the comics press like he’d just beaten Marvin Hagler or something. Waid carries influence, so I would expect better from him. He could have kicked the guy out of the convention and, you know, just not boasted about it. Whatever. These guys have been pumped up by fanboy culture and think they can speak to people in a certain way. The rules of that world only work if you’re operating in that world.
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I suggest you take a look at the last issue of Amazing Heroes. It has a telling piece by Kim Thompson about Waid’s time as a Fantagraphics employee. I think it also had the first mention of an infamous story of Waid totally losing it emotionally in front of witnesses that still goes around today.
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Unfortunately, I do not have a collection of Amazing Heroes but I know about the incident you reference as it was recounted in the oral history of Fantagraphics published a few years ago, WE TOLD YOU SO.
That being said, that account would not change my already established opinion of Waid, who I do not find relevant to MY work here on FCS. I know he is a very valid and respected writer of modern mainstream comics for the past thirty years or so.
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Love the reference to Marvin Hagler! Damn, those were ‘peak boxing’ days. They just don’t make ’em like they used to.
On Mark Waid, I’ve only known of him though some of the comics he wrote, which I rather liked. Reading just now about his behind-the-scenes behavior in the industry (wow!) reminds me again of the often extreme contrast between the work someone does and the nature of their personality.
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Does this leave a public comment or private e-mail?
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Carr, it depends. If it’s complimentary, it’ll be public. If you’re criticizing me, it’ll be a private e-mail.
No, this is for public comments. But I welcome any statements from you Sir.
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I can’t wait to hear from Carr and Heidi.
Carr can tell us about running two successful comic shops out of business. He can also tell us about being a social friend with one of the bigger accused sexual harassers at DC Comics.
Heidi, I think this same accused person was one of your after hours social buddies at many a comic convention.
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The Eisners are worthless. They are a comics-community in-group circle jerk.
Award programs in every other media field are a promotional tool. Winning the Nobel Literature prize, the Oscar, the Booker, the Pulitzer, the Tony, or the Cannes Festival Palme d’or is a promotional boon for the work or the creator in question. That’s their value.
Comics field awards have never been treated as a promotional opportunity. I like award programs. I study them, as I’m very interested in canon formation for various media fields. Award programs are a good starting point for that kind of inquiry. Comics field awards have always been about in-group self-congratulation. They’ve never been about promoting work to readers.
I could go on. I was especially offended one year when a nominee was short-listed by a nomination committee that included the nominee’s spouse, and for a book said spouse co-authored. In any other field, this would be a scandal. I let it go because I realized it didn’t matter, as the Eisners were worthlessly incestuous anyway. No one would care, because no one should.
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Thanks for the mention! Much appreciated! First name is ‘Von’ is correct!
And yup, I did take your advice and emailed Tiffany Babb on the morning of August 3rd. As of today, August 13th, I have not heard back. We’ll see if that changes.
For anyone interested, more details about the grant are up on my website at https://www.vonallan.com/2025/07/city-of-ottawa-grant-support-round-3.html. I would also encourage any artist to look into what grants are available in their community and apply. Preparing them properly does take time, there is formal reporting one usually has to do, and there are obviously no guarantees that an artist will receive one, but they do help. Especially given what we know about contemporary industry page rates.
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First, congrats on the grant! Second, thanks for the link to industry page rates. Sadly, it’s worse than I suspected.
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Thank you! It’s a really lovely “lift”. As I think you know, creating comics is difficult at the best of times; being recognized by the community (especially given the judging process) is a nice “lift.” And not to be crass, but the money doesn’t hurt.
Page Rates: Yes, they’re awful, especially when adjusted for inflation from earlier eras. I wish I had something pithy to say, but I don’t. It’s grim.
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I definitely think you’re more than just “a blog” now since too many people in the industry have started discussions prompted from the interviews/articles here. You’ve got a voice and a writing style that registers but the one piece of advice is maybe suggest to you is to remember that sites like Comicsbeat have their importance to quite a number of fans… fans who do care about the latest press releases from the big two. If you’re going to call out classism be cautious you don’t fall into the same dressings you’re criticizing.
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Thanks for the kind words. I do think I’ve tried to stress that I do know the reporting at The Beat and other sites which cover the comics industry is of value to other readers who aren’t me but that I feel re-presenting pre-existing press announcements doesn’t constitute real journalism or real work.
And I believe if you’re going to present yourself as a beacon of top tier reporting in a specific industry, you’d better not make so many recurring and amateurish mistakes! I don’t think I can be mistaken as classist since I come from the slums proudly and would never brag about my industry connections. (And never have.)
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thanx for sharing von allens grant, I can tell you from experience that ZERO comic news sites will cover or review independently-produced comics or graphic novels anymore or even give you a rejection email! Magnifying the shite they DO report on really shines a light at how weak assed the comics “press” is. The only “community” they think of is the free shows they get comped for and who they can name drop. cons also stick great creators in artists alley and don’t give a F+, they’d rather bow down to TV actors. It’s worse for comics on all levels but you see very little coverage or discussion on it!
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Thanks for those thoughts Rev, it gives me a notion that perhaps a larger discussion can be started about what the collected comics press reports on when it comes to self-published creators. Granted, there are a lot of reviews on various sites so I don’t mean to give the impression that no one touches upon the less heralded comics out there, but Von’s experiences at getting zero responses over his grant- which again, is newsworthy for other creators to read about- speaks volumes.
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“S*** L** Superhero Creator“
WHAT???
lame-ass imitation Epic Illustrated
The only thing I can remember worth reading in that was Jim Starlin’s serial that led into DREADSTAR. I finally met him at probably the last comics convention I ever went to, at the then-new convention center in Philadelphia. One of the best half-hour chats I ever had at such a show, decades overdue. Marvel’s creator-owned Epic Comics line was better, because buyers could pick and choose which things to spend their money on. For quite a few years, that included GROO THE WANDERER. Best thing “Marvel” published for the entire time they were putting it out!
Warren’s 1984
The last time I looked over the issues I had, I’d say they were batting at best a 50% average. WONDERFUL stuff, side-by-side with ABSOLUTE CRAP. Frank Thorne was at the top of the heap, but, ironically, his GHITA OF ALIZARR was 10 times better when it wasn’t being cut up into little 8-page chapters. Way-better-written than any RED SONJA comics Marvel ever put out, by a mile.
HM directly inspired an Ivan Reitman-produced (and disappointing) animated movie.
My #1 all-time top favorite animated feature film, by several miles! Funny thing, I was slightly disappointed by it the first time I saw it, in a theatre, because DEN was edited down to 10 minutes, when they could have done 30, 45 or 60 minutes on just that one story. Also, the rock music lyrics tended to interfere with movie dialogue. And so on. By I also recall, when I taped it off HBO, then ran it for my best friend, by then, all my worries had already vanished, and I continued to like it more each time I’d watch it. I didn’t even realize “Captain Stern” was based on an actual comics story, didn’t read that until decades later in a reprint.
More recently, in a backwards sort of way, I ran across something about Ivan Reitman I had never realized or connected for decades. It was when I saw the 1933 Czech comedy, LELICEK IN THE SERVICES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. People I described the film to all told me it sounded like a film I’d never seen called DAVE. I looked it up. It was directed by Ivan Reitman. Seems Reitman also did STRIPES, which I figured out years ago was an American remake of an English comedy, CARRY ON SERGEANT, with Warren Oates playing the William Hartnell role. Seems Reitman on at least 2 occasions did American remakes of Euro comedies. In the case of DAVE / LELICEK, turns out Reitman was BORN in Czechoslovakia– the Czech half, as it happens– so as a kid, growing up, it seems very likely to me he KNEW of comic actor Vlasta Burian and the LELICEK film. I love discovering connections like that.
LELICEK feels like what you’d get if you crossed a silent movie with The Marx Brothers– and Woody Allen.
Ronin
I couldn’t stand that thing. I’m hoping sometime to UNLOAD about 85% of my comics collection (and that goes for my magazines as well), and that one I feel almost inspired to just take out back and set on fire… along with Keith Giffen’s “Five Years Later” run of LEGION. That may not be a joke.
Guido Crepax
While spending way too much time, effort and money getting my hands on a ton of foreign comics containing adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories, I got all 3 separate magazines with Crepax’ Poe adaptations. So far, I have only processed one of them– his first, from 1968– “Murders In The Rue Morgue“. Fantagraphics was planning to do the first-ever translated collections of his work, but there were delays, and those books were looking to be too expensive, but insanely ironic, I could afford the ORIGINAL magazines from way back when. And due to the delay, MY English version of Crepax’ “Rue Morgue” was posted online at my blog BEFORE Fantagraphics’ book was finally published– and, MINE was in COLOR!!! I was very proud of that. (I’m making ZERO money off this “fun” project, so I hope nobody is ever a real bastard enough to ask me to take it down. I got an e-mail from some artist in YUGOSLAVIA who demanded I take down his BOY’S LIFE “Stories From The Bible” installments, because he doesn’t want to be associated with them anymore. I got that message and thought… WHAT THE F***??? I wonder, did he ALSO ask the BOY’S LIFE website to take them down?? I could only imagine the guy after 2 decades suddenly did not want to be associated with stories related to a country currently involved in unrestrained MASS-MURDER and GENOCIDE.)
Vittorio Giardino
I have several gorgeous-looking graphic novels by this guy. I wish I had time to go back and re-read more of my collection. There are parts I would like to hold onto. Kirby, Wood, Aragones, Thorne, Corben, Gulacy, Rude, Foglio, etc.
a student of the Marx Brothers
WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT suddenly made more sense to me when I read that the insane character of psychiatrist “Dr. Fritz Fassbender” was written specifically for Groucho Marx. But he turned it down. Now that I know, every ridiculous word out of the mouth of Peter Sellers, with that INSANE accent, I can clearly hear Groucho saying it… 10 times better than Sellers did. (So far, it’s the only Woody Allen movie I’ve upgraded to Blu-Ray. Among other things, I like his character in the film more than the ones he plays in 95% of his later movies. Less whiny, by far.)
Unfortunately, I do not have a collection of Amazing Heroes
Unfortunately I do. With zero interest in ever re-reading any of them.
I swear, the ONLY thing I’ve spent too much money on over the decades I have no regrets for is my huge music collection. Though, I must admit, the DVDs and Blu-Rays I started buying about 5-6 years ago, I’m getting that same feeling for. I’ve been collecting movies & TV shows since November 1979, but the last few years, I’ve been enjoying doing so MORE THAN EVER.
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During the time it was out I did buy several issues of Epic Illustrated – I think all of them because they contained something by Barry Windsor-Smith. My impression was that it’s what you get when you give a bunch of talented artists and artist/writers, who have made their careers in the sausage factory of US comics, the freedom to do whatever they want. It was indeed the best thing Marvel was putting out then, but how high a bar is that?
I agree with you on Ronin. Reading it with more than a grade-schooler’s understanding of samurai culture, and after seeing Moebius and Lone Wolf and Cub, was a sad and depressing experience. Sad because it’s terrible. Depressing because younger colleagues pressed it on me, certain I’d find it as ground breaking as they did, and I had to do my best to not tell them what I really thought.
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I guess the EIsner Awards do have some value if an offbeat or Vertigo-esque type GN can put that on the cover and the casual reader sees that, it may give it some leeway and prestige and make a sale?
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Hello again, thanks for the sincere good wishes from various parties on our Eisner win. Mea culpa on typos – we surely can do better in that category, and I make more than my share of them. It’s something we are always actively working to improve, but the cost of a proofreader is prohibitive unless someone wants to do it on a volunteer basis. We formerly had just that but they are no longer available.
That said, I take extreme offense at the “fanfic” comment that is used as the headline for this article. Can you please give me examples of fanfic that we have published on The Beat? I will wait.
…
…
Reading further it appears that someone is OBJECTING TO THE CONTENT OF STAFF BIOS. This comment is so picayune, condescending and gatekeepy that I’m genuinely flabbergasted. I don’t care if people take shots at me (deserved or not) but I will defend my staff and continued cries of “We weren’t attacking the staff!” when this is very clearly a personality not content-based complaint is what I’m talking about.
Likewise, the outrage here over no one picking up the story of Von Allan getting a local grant…you mean….we didn’t cover a press release? Getting the grant is laudable and once again makes me jealous of the Canadian impulse to actually support the arts where it matters, with money. Acting like the comics press is ignoring a huge story is a strange take though – it’s a feel good story for sure, but given the rest of what (for instance) Tiffany Babb covers, it’s hard to see how it slots in unless it’s part of a large story on comics getting local support, which only happens in Canada, it seems.
BTW the Beat is a long time Von Allan supporter, at least going back to his first effort “The Road To God Knows” – I even got him coverage in Publishers Weekly, in a story now removed from the internet alas.
https://www.comicsbeat.com/von-allan-joins-girlamatic/
I remember Von back on the old CBIA retailer forum where he created lots of talk and promoted himself very well.
I enjoyed the rest of the comments here that relived the Epic Illustrated era. I was just talking about that on a new historical podcast I’m doing with Dave Elliott and we talked a little about the whole international comics revolution of the late 70s-early 80s. Looked at from an international perspective – Metal Hurlant, Judge Dredd – it was quite a leap. I’ll be talking to him about his whole career and I welcome questions for him from here or other platforms.
Finally, The Beat is fair game for honest criticism, but I feel that this particularly comment section is lacking in a certain self-awareness. When I read a statement like
>>>>The Eisners are worthless. They are a comics-community in-group circle jerk.
perhaps it is time for a look in the mirror.
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Hi Heidi, thanks for writing.
A quick clarification: every title of every article on Four Color Sinners is a quote from whatever I’m covering, never a title that I came up with out of thin air. So that person who sent that email to fourcolorsinners@gmail.com will have to clarify what they mean by ‘fanfic’- I think I know what they meant, but I don’t want to speak for someone else.
You say the “outrage” this is getting here… that is misleading. A few comments on a nothing blog like mine do not constitute outrage.
I do not speak for the people making comments on FCS any more than you do on The Beat. I would not tolerate anyone saying hateful, slanderous things about you and I hope you know that.
By the same token, why respond at all? This is a lowly blog by a writer you don’t think highly of. I gave you my word I’d stop visiting and/or commenting at The Beat and I’ve stuck to it; I was simply responding to the e-mails I got with the thoughts and opinions of other people who ARE reading The Beat. And, notably, I told a couple of them to not send me typos or tell me stories about people I don’t know who know you, etc. etc.- a little credit here!
This is a singular voice on Four Color Sinners, not a news site. You are a public figure, the journalists on The Beat are public figures. They are going to have to deal with people having opinions on their work. Never will you hear me attack a contributor to The Beat over their personal lives or appearance or any shit like that. My conscience is clear, I assure you.
If I hadn’t received multiple emails about The Beat, I wouldn’t have written about it. It was purely responsive and not proactive. As Fran Lebowitz has often said, “Why are people so outraged that I’d give my opinion? I’m not on the Supreme Court, I can’t affect your life!”
Dear Readers, from this point on please refrain from daring to ever criticize anything regarding The Beat. I’m not being sarcastic! But you still may disobey me since, you know, who am I?
Heidi! Stay hydrated in this weather.
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A look in the mirror to you, Heidi. Not me.
I’ve given this field a detailed treatment of a noteworthy historical event–Steve Gerber’s lawsuit against Marvel over ownership of Howard the Duck. This was a landmark situation in the creator’s-rights history of the field. In so doing, I made all significant documentary evidence immediately available public record. What have you done that can compare?
I conducted and organized a field-wide poll, with over 200 qualified contributors, about the best work the comics field has to offer. The model was the Sight & Sound decennial film poll. As I recall, you publicized this effort. You treated it as something of worth. Have you done anything as noteworthy?
I also provided a factually inassailable revisionist discussion of Jim Shooter’s editorial tenure at Marvel. Its influence can be seen across post-mortem discussions of his career. Have you ever corrected the historical record about anyone and anything to this extent?
I’ve never seen the comic-book industry as a means of supporting myself. Unlike you. What I write an publish has always been about a commitment to the truth, compensation be damned. Can you say the same about yourself?
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“What I write an (sic) publish has always been about a commitment to the truth, compensation be damned.”
LOL (for the comment, not the misspell)
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” >>>>The Eisners are worthless. They are a comics-community in-group circle jerk.
perhaps it is time for a look in the mirror. “
That’s Bullshit. We fight amongst each other a LOT. We disagree about things a LOT. Sometimes it’s civil, and sometimes it’s not. Personally I tend to be pretty agreeable with people on my own team, but people show their OPINION’s and what got them there and defend them HARD with each other. No one exemplified this more than Bob Beerbohm, who argued hard with people within his own like-minded groups.
We’re not a Circle Jerk. We’re an Individual Collective of DICKS*.
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Thanks for taking the time to respond. I know running a comics news site isn’t easy, especially with so many stories and creators to cover (and limited time and energy, too!).
That said, I’m curious about how The Beat balances its coverage between big-name creators who already have large audiences and lesser known or local creators who also contribute a lot to the comics community. It seems like some creators get a lot of attention, while others don’t get much coverage at all, despite their achievements. This raises questions for me (and maybe for other readers), especially when it’s hard to tell what’s “just” promotion and what’s real, in-depth journalism. Transparency about these choices really matters. Others have pointed out similar concerns, obviously Four Color Sinners here being one.
My emailed comments to FCS actually were not aimed at The Beat but at the comics media more broadly. I do stand by the arguments I made regarding the lack of coverage and support I’ve seen in comics media overall but, because you brought it up, I feel I need to respond to your comments about how The Beat has supported my work. Here goes:
To be clear, I’ve now received three City of Ottawa grants (totalling $12,000.00) to support “WOLF’S HEAD”, including my recent $4,000 grant. I agree with you; Canada’s arts support, like the City of Ottawa grants, is fantastic and different from what most American creators get. That’s exactly why I think it’s worth sharing; these juried grants make a big difference for creators in Canada, helping projects like “WOLF’S HEAD” to keep going. Maybe this could have been a chance for The Beat to talk about why these differences exist and how having real money behind creative work helps make comics happen and keeps creators working, instead of just brushing it off as a feel good “local” story? Isn’t that a newsworthy angle?
The documentary film “I Am Still Your Child” — which features my artwork and my personal story and was directed by Megan Durnford — aired nationally on CBC and streamed on CBC Gem, but The Beat’s only mention was tangential (due to Durnford also writing a short piece on me that ran on the CBC’s website) in a 2017 small press roundup. Now in my emailed comments to FCS I did single out the late Tom Spurgeon. As you know, Spurgeon regularly posted a lot of simple links (i.e., birthday wishes, his “Random Comics News Story Round-Up”, etc.) and I had hoped the documentary would at least warrant that kind of coverage. But nope. To be fair to Spurgeon, he may have felt that because the film wasn’t streaming in the United States, it wasn’t relevant to his readers. If that was the case, however, then why did he promote other non-US events?
Partially as a result of “I Am Still Your Child” as well as my comics work around mental health, I was honoured with the 2019 CBC Trailblazer Award, which did get national coverage in Canada (due, of course, to the CBC) that recognized my work; however, that didn’t receive any coverage in The Beat.
The limited coverage “WOLF’S HEAD” did receive in The Beat happened because I contacted reviewer Philippe Leblanc, who happens to live here in Ottawa. When I discovered that fact, I reached out to him and we went for coffee, something we’ve now done a number of times. Without that outreach, I’m afraid to say that I doubt the series would have been covered by The Beat at all.
One other pesky example that stands out: I sent a press release to a number of comics media sites about Librarie Astro/Astro Books and the struggles they were then having with their landlord. That release, when it ran on Sequential, was credited to me properly. But The Beat, when it ran the press release verbatim, simply credited an anonymous “reader” instead.
I’m not bringing this up to complain (though these decisions, taken collectively, do make me question how much The Beat really supports my work), but because I want to see better, more consistent and transparent journalism that actually supports a broader range of creators. It’s important that serious accomplishments by creators everywhere aren’t just brushed off as “local” news, especially when other content on The Beat (and, to be fair, in many other places) sometimes reads more like industry PR than real journalism. This is especially important when a site like The Beat wins an Eisner for Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism.
Thanks for hearing me out.
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Dude,
>By the same token, why respond at all? This is a lowly blog by a writer you don’t think highly of. I gave you my word I’d stop visiting and/or commenting at The Beat and I’ve stuck to it; I was simply responding to the e-mails I got with the thoughts and opinions of other people who ARE reading The Beat.
Don’t let your tremendous sacrifice hit you on the way out!!!!! You are absolutely free to continue posting on The Beat – that’s YOUR decision not anything I ever asked; “I don’t “don’t think highly of” is YOUR perception not something I ever said.
That said, you DID pick the word fanfic from your correspondents, so I assume you can be held accountable for that? If I were to receive an email that claims “Four Color Sinner eats pizza with a fork!” and used that as a headline, it would be perfectly logical to assume that I endorse this vile accusation or at least feel it is worthy to put out into the world, an accusation that can never again be erased.
You may say you only chose the word, but now it’s out there, and the suggestion that The Beat runs fanfic is frankly so divorced from reality that I’m surprised someone who values the truth as you say you do, saw fit to endorse it.
LCS reader, please continue to give your frank thoughts on The Beat. We are open to criticism, and listen to it and take it seriously. Maybe I have been running a fanfic site all these years and didn’t know it. If this is the time and arena for my awakening, so be it.
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It’s my impression or belief that this person- who I know purely through exactly two, impersonal emails- is attempting to make the implication that some of your articles are *pretending* to be journalism, hence the use of “fanfic”.
Now, again: that’s just my assumption- I don’t know, maybe this reader did mistake a Brian Hibbs column for a stream-of-consciousness “On the Road” type short story- as it is, I did pick that quote but more for the use of “Pulitzer”.
As I allude to in the article, I was sort of put off by people writing to me about other article’s typos but I had mentioned it before so I guess I had it coming. By the same token, yes, yes, a thousand times YES, you are THE BEAT. You are PRESTIGIOUS. Or you wouldn’t have won a slimy Eisner, yeah?! Then, you know- be better.
I sort of don’t get it- you’re a somebody in the business. Has the rise of geek culture and levels of “cool kid” tiers within a shrinking industry made all of you think that anyone who dares to speak against you is breaking some sacred understanding? I don’t subscribe to any of that.
UPDATE: I went back to listen to Heidi’s interview with Atom Freeman and freely admit I conflated and/or misunderstood the tone of when Rich Johnston was mentioned- Heidi is not friends with Johnston (whom she did point out goes about getting his stories in an unethical way), but due to Freeman mentioned him first, I can see now Heidi was a bit more sardonic in accepting Johnston, pointing out that he did “work hard”- I mistook this as a more chummy relationship than it was and apologize to Heidi MacDonald for my error.
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“This is a singular voice on Four Color Sinners, not a news site. You are a public figure, the journalists on The Beat are public figures. They are going to have to deal with people having opinions on their work. Never will you hear me attack a contributor to The Beat over their personal lives or appearance or any shit like that. My conscience is clear, I assure you.”
This is the issue with comics journalism in a nutshell. Stan Lee laid the groundwork – ‘what is said, can NOT be questioned’ – I’ll just hire a fanzine writer and he’ll follow up by hiring OTHERS! It literally IS the definition of a circle jerk. It’s why they defend Lee to this day – “It’s OUR Circle Jerk, and it’s GREAT! You can’t tell us otherwise!”
It’s the reason WIZARD Magazine was a monster hit. The biggest fanboy circle jerk in history published every month. (Its reputation didn’t kill it – creative accounting and the internet did.) This is what the fanboy’s WANT.
It just continues online now.
Real Journalistic Critique of the Artform? LOL.
Where’s this generation’s Gary Groth? He could dish it out, take it, and argue back. He ENCOURAGED the discourse, because that’s what it’s all about! It’s IMPORTANT vs NO it ISN’T. Well then WHY? I loved it. I LEARNED from it.
Today, it’s just about commerce.
Most of these online Comic Book ‘News’ sources are just promotional releases for the comics. Which has a place, but… for god’s sake, can we get an entrée with this? They wonder why no one clicks – there’s no MEAT.
It’s all ‘check out the variants on this new series!’ and ‘merges classic superhero bombast with Ultimate melodrama’… lol, that HAD to be Marvel who wrote that, and not a Comics Beat writer, right? What are we really judging these new series against? What they actually ARE or how well we can suck up to the publishers, because…. stay tuned for our SDCC overview!
Modern Mainstream Comics are dead. Once TCJ gave up on them, no one held the Big Two up to a standard and it just became a money grab of who could convince more dummies to buy pure regurgitated shit. Nothing happens that isn’t eventually retconned – nothing is done that hasn’t been done multiple times before – and most of it is unreadable/painful attempts at sequential art.
And… can’t writers spell check their own work? With all the tools available to them in this day and age? Do we need a no-prize system for online comic sites?
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I’m pretty sure Gary Groth is the one who said the worst thing that could’ve happened to the fledgling medium was to become so totally subsumed by superheroes. He remains correct. For the first time in three years, I went to a con over the weekend. I only bought indies. I prefer the energy, the enthusiasm, and the willingness to tackle other genres.
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international comics revolution
I think I may have bought more genuine foreign comics (stuff I can’t read without using Google Translate) for my POE project than anything else. I took great pride in that. I just feel a certain sadness that I may never get around to translating most of them now. I’m WRITING again… and no matter how fast I can do it, it still takes time. Not anywhere near as much as trying to do ART ever did, thank God.
Here’s one of my favorites, a digest from Italy in 1968, art by Gino Dauro.
https://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2016/08/poe-1968-pt-18.html
Steve Gerber’s lawsuit against Marvel over ownership of Howard the Duck
If this were a civilized country– and a civilized INDUSTRY– creators would OWN all their work, not publishers. And I don’t want to hear cry-baby FANBOYS wailing that if that happened, they wouldn’t continue to get their steady stream of NEW STORIES about their favorite CHARACTERS.
Nothing happens that isn’t eventually retconned
When ZERO HOUR finally rebooted the LEGION 8 years after CRISIS, my late best friend Jim said, “Why should I care, if they’ll just do the same thing 5 years down the line?” BOY, did he call that one right!!! There was a series that NEVER should have been rebooted… and now, I couldn’t tell you how many reboots they’ve had. (My best friend Kevin could tell me… but he fails to grasp, I DON’T GIVE A S*** anymore. I stopped buying a few months after Mark Waid NEEDLESSLY rebooted the series for the 3rd time– I mean, HE rebooted it 3 times ON HIS OWN. WTF was that guy’s problem, anyway?)
can’t writers spell check their own work? With all the tools available to them in this day and age?
Aside from my fingers these days often operating at different speed than my brain– letters reversing has become an all-too-annoying problem– and my usually going back and proof-reading not only words but phrases and other things– certain words continue to be spelling problems. LUCKILY, there’s Google Search. I just copy a word into there and BAM, up comes the correct spelling! It sometimes get amusing when there’s 2 different correct spellings between the US and the UK. For those, I make a judgement call, based on how I’m feeling at any given moment.
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The firsthand account of Stan Lee’s lecture was most interesting for me. This combined with his Carnegie Hall trainwreck makes me curious if anyone has written extensively on Stan’s touring days as a public speaker. Its notable (to me at least) that this era of his life sort of dries up by the late Seventies.
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I actually thought this was super interesting as well!
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I recently did as much research as I could trying to track down contemporaneous reports of Stan’s campus talks, and it’s amazing how little info there seems to be. I found some notices in campus newspapers that he was coming to speak, but then later issues of the same campus paper wouldn’t even mention the talk. I also found a video of one of his 1977 talks, which felt very consistent with the talk I remember (i.e., same old stories, glib but superficial).
I think what happened is that Marvel comics went from the high energy and excitement of the Kirby/Ditko era, with a brief boost from Steranko and Barry Smith at the end, so in the late ’60s Stan was flying high with tons of positive mainstream press and energized fans. By the mid ’70s, reading Marvel Comics was like visiting a wax museum of yesteryear’s film stars, with tiny exceptions (to my mind, this was Starlin/Warlock and Gulacy/MoKF). Stan’s actual ‘creative’ days were well in the past, and he was repeating the same old stories to dwindling crowds.
In the 1960s, some very creative people sought Stan out, and major news outlets were interested in talking to him. I think outside of hard-core comics fandom, by the late 1970s and 1980s the wider world realized “there was no there there,” or simply considered comics and Stan Lee irrelevant. Fortunately for him the comic convention scene, and later the Marvel movies, gave him additional lives and even more exposure.
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First, if my body build resembled Marlon Brando as Jor-El, I’d go to the gym instead of highlighting that fact.
Waid is also talking out of both sides of his mouth when it comes to Wolverine. He slams Roy Thomas (as we all should) while disrespecting the contest winner and character creator. If Waid can’t win a fight, he will whine all day and night. While Dan DiDio did a lot of boneheaded moves at DC, he did not buy into the cult of Mark Waid being the keeper of DC history so Waid pouted publicly for years.
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Google Search
The other day, I finally figured out how to correctly spell Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
Thought some might find that amusing.
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