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ComicSpace - Murder Moon - Preview One
Pages 3-7 of Murder Moon posted on my new site over at Comicspace. I'm hoping to get all of the first chapter up as a preview of the book so folks know what they're getting in to. We'll see how that works out, bet that I'd break my bandwidth limit at Comicspace, though.
Off to SF for the rest of the day and tomorrow.
By the way, the category "Logos" has nothing to do with corporate emblems, but more the Greek concept of the underlying order beneath the face of nature, beneath even chaos itself. That explains something, I hope.
1) I've finally booked my hotel space for SDCC 2007. I haven't done that since the convention was being held in the old Civic Center auditorium back in 1988, when we crammed 5-6 of us in a room and people slept wherever they could. I'm an adult now! I get my own room and my own bed and everything! Just that it's a touch further out than I wanted to be, but it's not costing me $350 a night, either. I have to say, this is all going to be very weird, coming back to the city that was home for the last seventeen years, just as a tourist.
2) TESTAMENT is the only regular Vertigo book I'm still reading. And that last bunch of launches looked so promising, too. But somehow Doug Rushkoff's alternate retelling of the Old Testament with a celestial cast wrapped around near-future conspiracy adventure in which we're left to doubt whether or not the Good Book is as rock-steady and fundamental as we've been led to believe. The Babel/Marduk storyline went down pretty well, probably because it wasn't as directly tied into the retelling of the bible stories as some of the first few issues were. Still some neat stuff being done with panel/page layouts too.
3) Congratulations to Larry, Mimi and young master Walker (who's too young to get Walker, Texas Ranger jokes, but that time will come.)
4) Listening to Savage Republic never gets old. Damn but that's some good stuff. I wonder if the CDs are still available through IPR?
5) Strangeways, under the title MURDER MOON, has gone out to Diamond for approval. I don't see them turning it down, but then some really strange things have happened along the way, so who knows?
Don't thank me, thank Mr. Spurgeon.
I've clicked it, but I'm not exploring it all this afternoon. I'm supposed to be writing.
Okay, first. If this hadn't been a Wellington zombie book, I'd have looked right over it on the table. The cover design doesn't do a single thing to sell the book, whereas ZOMBIE NATION had a compelling image and a much more vivid type treatment. The choice of images doesn't really do much for me, either. But then I'm pretty darn fussy when it comes to book covers. I also don't buy *for* the covers, but a good cover will make me consider the book, if it intersects with my interests.
Overall, a solid read. And by solid, I kept reading and wanted to see how things ended up, finishing the book in...four hours or so (too many distractions). I thought all the nods to the previous books were rewarding, rather than obligatory tying off of loose ends. Not that there were too many surprises in that regard (though the connection between Gary and Dekalb was a great touch, and even the irredeemable Gary finds a way to put his selfishness to a greater use.)
Ayaan's transformation from defiant human to submitting lich (okay, perhaps the wrong word, but the right word is escaping me now) was strong and believable. Also, a great illustration of how even the most singleminded determination can be turned around to serve other purposes. Now, whether she was right or wrong is another issue entirely. It's not perfectly clear whether the Tsarevich was going to have his pure goal of reconstruction corrupted -- he never really had the chance. But then he was pretty unequivocal in the means justifying the end (a stance that even Mael didn't take in MONSTER ISLAND.) So maybe Ayaan was duped, and maybe she really was working for the greater good (assuming you hold the reconstruction of civilization as a good thing.)
Equally well-handled was Sarah's growing up and changing, illuminating one of the central and unspoken themes of the book -- that only the living can grow and change; the dead are what they are. Yes, the vast hordes of mindless zombies can be harnessed and focused, but that's not the underlying truth. Take away the lich controlling them, and all of a sudden, using them as mindless labor doesn't seem like such a great idea. But Sarah, being just about the only living protagonist by the end of things, can actually mature and go from being a pushed-around child to an adult capable of grasping her own life. Dekalb can't (or won't) be anything other than a controlling protector, Gary can't be anything other than selfish, Ayaan herself won't accept Sarah's adulthood (leading to her final end). The dead are what they are. They can't see past the end of the world (with perhaps the exception of Nilla.)
So yeah, themewise, plenty of meat to hang on the bones of the plot. But then I also expect this from Dave's work (if he'll pardon the over-familiarity). In terms of action, MONSTER PLANET delivers, of course. There's even some new touches added to make the zombies extra-scary (sawed-off hands replaced by spikes of bone while wearing bulletproof helmets). And, surprisingly, there's a few touches of pure lunacy (liches driving monster trucks and mummies firing shoulder-mounted rockets while riding in a helicopter -- no I can't make this stuff up) that are welcome, even if they distract from a sense of horror. But I'm a purist when it comes to some things.
About the only knock that I can put on MONSTER PLANET is that there weren't many outstanding bits of prose. Dave delivered those in MONSTER ISLAND particularly, but also in MONSTER NATION. Oddly, they didn't seem to be as present in this outing. Maybe I wasn't looking for them, or maybe plot/character took the driver's seat this time. I'm not sure. And yes, I missed them, but only a little. There was plenty else to keep me going with the fresh takes on old monsters and explorations of what it really means to be dead and alive.
There’s a lot tied up in this, and it’s going to sprawl, shoggoth-like (shoggothic?) a bit over the landscape. Bear with me. It’s been awhile since I actually tried to order my thoughts on this sort of thing. And after that much time, you get lazy and flabby, gelatinous, even. You poke at your brain and it recoils like a… like a… thing, a thing that recoils from something hot.
Like I said, flabby.
So, like a lot of other people, I’ve jumped to conclusions about the sudden injection of Skrulls into the continuing melodrama that is the Marvel Universe. For those of you who don’t know, Skrulls are shapechanging plot devices (er, aliens) that can take the form of anyone or thing. Usually they end up taking the shape of a punching bag, though John Byrne, of all people, injected some menace into them (Fantastic Four annual somethingorother) as well as a sense of regal pathos (when Byrne had Galactus eat the Skrull Homeworld during his run on FF as well). Anyways, Skrulls are usually introduced to explain someone’s erratic behavior (“Hey, why is Power Man fighting Iron Fist anyways, I thought they were tight?”). And in a couple of years peppered with plot-hammering forcing characters to act in un-accustomed to manners, Marvel as a whole has to cut their readers some slack in our ability to prevent our eyes from rolling right out of our skulls. (Not that I’ve been following this stuff closely – sorry, Ed, but even you can’t make me read these tie-ins).
So, what we’re looking at is a reboot. After Civil War. After the reboot of House of M. After the reboot of Avengers Disassembled. What it’ll get rebooted into, who knows? But we can be sure it’ll be another SHAKING OF THE UNIVERSE DOWN TO ITS FOUNDATIONS YEA ITS FUNDAMENT. That’s okay, we’ve ridden those out before.
And really, I wouldn’t mind at all if it were taking place over six months of madcap comics printed on newsprint for thirty cents a pop. Hell, I’d be eating it up. But now, it’s all just so cheap. Of course, the really funny thing is that Marvel (and DC, let’s be fair) have been doing a fair bit to convince readers that they were past that sort of deus-ex-machina-driven kind of storytelling. “Hey! We’re not that Greasy Kid’s Stuff no more! Look at how dark and deep we are! We’re MATURE! We won’t pull cheap stunts! We’re all about gritty and realistic comics that are printed on totally glossy paper and are totally worth ten times what you used to pay for them!” Yeah, that brush is a mile-wide. Maybe I should back down a little bit. After all, Marvel’s still publishing CRIMINAL. But still, when I see dependence on this kind of cheap stuntery, it gets my back up.
‘Cause when you explain away stuff by “The Skrulls made me do it,” then I may as well be watching the last season of Dallas with the Man From Atlantis getting all lathered up and revealing that the last couple seasons were a dream. It’s a cop out. It’s a tease. It’s disrespectful to the characters and the readers. Yes, I’m one of those internet blogger dudes who believes that the characters themselves deserve some level of respect. This doesn’t mean enshrining them in Lucite and painstakingly painting in the wrinkles on their costumes. This means having a working knowledge of what drives the characters and serving that honestly, and not turning them out for a cheap thrill. And oh yes, having them mind-controlled or being replaced by a double formed out of the raw stuff of the universe or revealing that they were dirty Skrulls all along constitutes a cheap thrill. Yeah, I don’t mind a cheap thrill in my pulp comics, but when you’re selling your wares as relevant and as something more than cheap entertainment, then cheap thrills don’t get you very far.
This is not to dis the cheap thrill. On the contrary, we could use some more imaginative thrills (cheap or not) in superhero comics these days. Instead we get twists on continuity or distant reverence or pandering. Yeah, there’s bright spots here and there, but when the superheroes themselves live in comic books that are all plot-hammered or event-driven or set in realistic worlds, you kinda put a throttle on imagination. Some folks know how to get around it, but most don’t know or care to. And I’ll let people in on a secret. Imagination is the only thing that comics can do better than movies, at least in terms of superhero comics. Okay, there’s plenty of comic devices that simply don’t work in movies, go read Scott McCloud’s book to get a look at those.
But when the rubber hits the road, comics can envision worlds that the CGI monkeys (and I used to be one, remember) can’t get a grasp of. The movie guys (and gals) can’t get a grasp on it either. They can’t tap the kind of elemental, primal imagination that comics artists at their best can. Reality itself becomes infinitely malleable, humanity forced to share the cosmic stage with unimaginable entities that would make Lovecraft soil his britches, titanic spectacle that would make DeMille weep enviously. And that’s being sold out. It’s the only thing that superhero comics can do well, and it’s being forgotten while the ink dries on movie deals and toys languish on the shelves.
It died when comics swore off newsprint and moxie and daring. It died when comics stopped being cheap enough to roll up in a back pocket (not that I ever did that, mind you, strictly mylar and backing boards for my babies – until I got over it). But please don’t mistake this for a “Let’s all hold hands and defeat this evil with the power of LOVE” moment. That chapter in comics is done. We’re past cartooning and in love with tight draftsmanship. Cut colors? Get outta dullsville, pops! It’s all about the GRADIENTS, baby! And make my paper glossy, so glossy that I can see my own reflection in all its glory! EXCELSIOR!
We’re where we are now. In a post-innocence, post-disposability era. The question is will creators know what to do with it? Will superhero comics figure out what to do with themselves? Will artists get why those cockamamie stories worked in the first place? And perhaps someone will figure out that you can’t just willy-nilly search and replace “corn” with “grim” and still come up with something readable. Perhaps.
Oh, and maybe someone will step up and say that writing the kinds of stories that only appeal to superhero comic readers won’t net you any new readers. I know, not that either of the big two give a rat’s patoot. New readers aren’t in the cards. But those same two hundred thousand buyers, that’s something you can build an industry on.
For a little while.
EDIT to qualify the likely number of habitual buyers out there. My bad.
Corey Lewis goes all emo. And psychedelic. Not safe for work, at least if they look close.
Courtesy Dirk comes The Realist Archive Project (with not-safe-for-work banner image...might wanna rethink that choice.) The Realist was strangely influential on my teenaged mind (strangely because it wasn't commonly available and my exposture to it was through an omnibus volume that my dad had picked up long ago.) The Realist is savage, ruthless satire for a time that demanded such. Its return is welcome indeed.
THE BEAT - DC Comics Month-to-month Sales: April 2007
Okay, a quick look at the above, skipping over the bulk of the numbers and right to the 6 month numbers, I'm struck that only thee monthly titles (out of thirty-five surveyed)have shown growth in their sales (according to the numbers given, granted.) And that growth, largely, is pretty anemic.
Things look better on the one year comparison, where at least one title (JSA) shows great growth (84%), but the next highest growth figure is MANHUNTER at 9.5%. That's a major, major gap.
On the two year numbers, the growth is better still, with three titles posting more than 100% growth. Then DETECTIVE shows 44%, MANHUNTER 20%. A couple more titles follow and then we're looking at shrinkage again.
Interestingly, average sales per title are up, pretty substantially. From 25K or so in 2003 to 39K in 2007. So which of these figures is truthin'? And what happens when you remove event books or 52 from the mix? I'd suspect that the numbers wouldn't be quite so rosy. I know, that's the kind of easy call you expect me to make these days.
Not only do the Big Two like event comics, they depend on them. Without them, I see a lot of belts tightening and a major drain on resources that allow them to even try to get into markets aside from the DM.
But it begs the question, why is this format still hanging around when it's clear that the market for it doesn't seem all that sustainable? What happens when SECRET WARS III doesn't blow the doors off of everything? Not that this seems likely given the market we're in, but one day, it's something they're gonna have to face.
Kudos, as always, to Paul and Mark-Oliver getting the numbers crunched every month.
Can't miss it.
I managed to finagle a day off from watching the munchkins. It happens from time to time. Just that I'm silly and geek enough to take that time off and drive a couple of hours to comic shows. In this case, to the San Jose Super-Con, which takes place in pleasant downtown San Jose. I'm not lying here. San Jose is a relaxed, nice little place to have a show. Plenty of places to eat within a short walk of the convention center, pleasant weather, nearby Pleasanton to complete the pleasant trifecta.
The funny thing was, they didn't hold the Super Con inside the Convention Center. Well, technically, they did hold it in the South Hall. But as it turns out, the South Hall was basically a big circus tent on a bigger concrete slab, with miles of blue and white plastic sheeting held up by a network of metal ribs. Yeah, I didn't get it either. Maybe the convention folks decided that it was eaiser to take down the tent and wash it out than to clean the hall year after year. Who knows?
In terms of scale, the show was perhaps a bit smaller than the last Wizard World LA that I attended, only the size of the venue actually made it feel bigger, rather than holding a show in a ridiculously oversized hall, making it feel empty no matter how many people showed up. Lots of places to spend money, including a pretty brazen bootlegger who had copies of Spider-Man 3 on DVD in plain sight. I thought that sort of thing didn't happen in the open anymore, but what do I know. Lots and lots of discount graphic novel sellers, but my reading list is so backlogged that I can't even go to those anymore. I'll just come out with a foot of books that I won't be able to read for another six months, wondering why I spent money on those instead of being able to buy clothes for the kids.
Though I did drop a few dollars over at Ryan Higgins' unnamed bargain comics booth (mostly on TANGLED WEB OF SPIDER-MAN issues by artists that I really love). Oh, and Lee's Comics spinner rack claimed a victim as I dropped eight dollars on books that I could have had for a dollar, back in the day. But I did manage to find a copy of the WHAT THE? issue of WHAT IF (the assistant editors struck hard and fast in those days.) I'll probably write up a bit on that bit of pure awesomeness. Of course, whenever I say I'm going to write about something I never do, so scratch that.
And yes, Jane Wiedlin (spelling -- I'm too damn lazy to look it up) was there. Hers was the only panel that I sat through on Sunday, mostly her telling stories about the Crazy Eighties in Los Angeles and why she's pissed off that she doesn't have a jet pack or rocket car. But her stories of her sci-fi-inspired interior decor makes me wish she'd post a gallery of it online.
Talked a bit with Michael Golden, who I'm glad to see making a reappearance in comics. Apparently he's illustrating a Spirit story, which should be good fun. Other than that, he assured me that he was still busy in comics and adapting to the changing marketplace. I don't know why he's not parked on a monthly book, though. Maybe he's not manga enough. I hear the kids love that there manga these days.
Chatted with some Sacramento-area guys who are launching a new superhero universe in a miniseries format. I guess they're talking to Diamond right now. I wish 'em the best of luck with it. May even talk about their book here, once I get through the Pile. Though I will say right off the bat that black and white superhero books (while cheap) are going to be an uphill battle at best. But maybe they'll buck the trend.
Was hoping to run into Paul Smith there (especially after being reminded of how good his work was after reading Parker's X-MEN: FIRST CLASS SPECIAL). But I guess I was out of luck as I didn't see him at his table the whole time. Same with Jim Lee, though, and Douglas Rushkoff, who'd been advertised as coming. Perhaps next time.
While there, I also ran into James and Kirsten from The Isotope and had a grand time watching James rummage through the .10 boxes. That's right. TEN CENT COMICS. Damn straight. Had a lovely time chatting comics with them over Patrón Margaritas (actually not a waste of perfectly good Tequila, either, though it's even better straight.) A lovely afternoon of light geekery if I do say so.
Back to work, though.