Breakdowns Beatdown
Chris Allen
of Breakdowns fame is always good, but his smackdown of John Byrne's
most recent idiocy really made me smile:
John Byrne would rather you buy his work in monthly issues
or not at all, and if you’re not the direct market pig getting his
weekly feeding at the specialty shop trough, then fuck you, apparently.
What I’m getting from these comments is that Byrne wants to control how
you buy his stuff, to the extent that he’d rather turn away those who
would potentially buy it in a format not of his choosing, i.e. the
trade paperback. Here’s a thought: maybe not everyone is aware of every
goddamn comic coming out every week, or they’re sick for a while, on
vacation, or were going through some financial difficulties, or are
even new to comics, and they find that his run on JLA or something is
in its third issue. If the shop doesn’t have the previous issues, is it
now wrong for them to wait for the trade? Mr. “Don’t Be a Mind Reader”
has decided that the only reason people buy trades now is because it’s
KEWL to do so. Hmm. Can’t think of a less likely explanation offhand,
nor can I think of many comics trades that project “kewl” at all.
There's more on why Byrne is wrong, as well as several new comic
reviews and a look back at the Good Graphic Novels of 2003 (how fitting
that Byrne is mentioned in the same column as this list). Go
read.
