Blogging by Bullet Point
Wow, guess my wife was wrong when she said not much would happen while
we were on vacation for a week. Of course, she was mainly
referring to work and family & friends—how it seems as though time
remains "normal" for those stuck at home while it slows down and expands
for you on vacation (
Weren't we gone for month or two?
No? Only a week?)—not to the weird world of comic books news,
but I'll admit I didn't expect to have much to catch up on when I got
home. So I was a bit surprised to find that:
- CrossGen has stumbled rather badly, if not fallen
completely. I won't even bother linking, since the news and
speculation are everywhere. You'd have to have been in a foreign
country without Net access not to have heard this story already.
- ADD
has closed down Comic Book Galaxy and his corresponding blog.
Damn. I know Alan could rub a lot of people the wrong way
(including me at times), but I always respected him for writing about
what spoke to him, and his writing was always lively. I'm sure
this won't be the last we'll hear from him, but it's still a bummer that
we can't get our regular dose of ADD.
- Prophecy
Magazine is officially kaput, although according to this
press release on Prophecy's site, they are going ahead with the
backup plan of publishing all work completed at this point into an
anthology or two. Heck, checking the site again, I just noticed
they've even changed most of the text to refer to "Prophecy Anthology"
now. They even have a definite release date for the anthology,
and it looks like it'll be sold through traditional comic shops (unlike
Prophecy's earlier plans to bypass the direct market altogether):
"The first anthology is set for release on November 30th, 2003 and will
be distributed through the Prophecy website as well as in comics stores
internationally." I'll probably check this out if it comes out,
but I won't hold my breath. Although I may change my mind
depending on the price: The "Who We Are"
page claims that "Prophecy Anthology is available for advanced purchase
via our website for a discounted price of $25." Discounted price
of $25? I wonder how much the planned
graphic novels (featuring the work from the winners of Prophecy's "Annual
American Student Graphic Novel Contest") will run for. Based on
the samples shown on the site, I think I'll pass on the graphic novels.
There was also some positive news:
- Shawn Fumo finally has
his own blog (and is already blogging circles around me, the
bastard). Welcome, Shawn!
- Fan-favorites Mark
Waid and Mike Wieringo have been restored to creative duties on FF.
The news doesn't really do anything for me since I thought everything
after the 9-cent issue was a letdown, but I know there a lot of people
who will be made very happy by this news, so I'm happy that
those comic fans are happy, at least.
- Neil Gaiman continues his whirlwind PR tour for Sandman: Endless
Nights (Dirk Deppy has a ton of links over at Journalista,
but I haven't seen anyone link to this
Salon piece yet. There's also a short article on Gaiman's
return to comics in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly (with Uma
Thurman on the cover) but I didn't see it on EW's site when I checked
yesterday).
And then there was a lot of interesting blogging going on (which I'll
probably never properly comment on because I'm feeling so behind at the
moment, but that shouldn't stop you from checking it out):
- Bill Sherman had a number of interesting entries, including: an overview
of Iron Wok Jan (which I've also been reading and enjoying);
a farewell
to ADD; and a correction
to Dirk Deppey's illness-addled attribution of my old review of Shonen
Jump #3 as a review of the current issue. Thanks, Bill, and I
hope you're feeling better, Dirk.
- Jason Kimble writes about decompression
and padding in comics (not the same thing, as he helpfully points
out).
- Jim Henley has a couple excellent posts
demolishing all of the usual objections to same-sex marriage. Like
Jim, I just can't see any good reason for discriminating against
same-sex couples by prohibiting them from getting married. (Yeah,
it's not about comics, but same-sex marriage is a topic I've felt
strongly about for a long time.)
- And Sean
Collins just continues to entertain with everything he writes, so
I'm not going to single out a specific entry. Go read.
Oh yeah, and
Marvel's
solicits for December 2003 went up while I was away. I know I
promised to sift through them and make with the snark, but there's just
nothing in these solicits that inspires me to comment. About the
best I can come up with is a variation of an old Monty Python
line: "I can't think of anything worse than calling them 'typical
Marvel Solicitations.'" They're just so awfully dull: Dull
cover images and dull copy. About the only cover image that came
close to moving me was the cover for
CABLE/DEADPOOL #2 (Rob
Liefeld will probably once again win the coveted "Grotesque Anatomy"
award based on this image), but why waste energy coming up with funny
digs about how atrocious this cover is when
it's
already been done (and is probably much cleverer than anything I
would have come up with anyway)? Once again my pull list remains
Marvel-less.
Finally, I should be getting my monthly dose of comics sometime this
week, so I'll finally be able to comment on the comics everyone else was
talking about last month. Man, no wonder I'm always feeling
behind...
