Originally published October 15, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1352
As I sit here in the shelter constructed for refugees, huddling to avoid the wrath of Hurricane Floyd, I wonder how I will find the strength to go on. Everything that we own, gone. Everything we…
Originally published October 8, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1351
As of this writing, Hurricane Floyd is bearing down on my neck of the woods, so I’m not sure how much time I have to produce this column. Originally we had been assured that by the time it got here it would be downgraded to a tropical storm. Unfortunately, no one informed the hurricane of that.
Sometimes I truly wonder who’s more useless: weathermen who practice such an inexact science that they constantly get it wrong, or us because despite all the times they get it wrong, we still pay attention to them every time. It’s as if we all have terminal short-term memory problems.
So I’m going to try and be succinct and just do a few scattershot thoughts before running outside and battening down the garbage cans and barbeque…
Originally published October 1, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1350–Special Peter David-themed issue
When I was informed that I was the theme of this issue, my first thought was, “Good lord, why?” My second thought was that writing the column for this issue might seem like overkill. I mentioned this to my long-time friend and writing partner, Bill Mumy, and Bill immediately volunteered to fill in. With a disturbing lack of trepidation, I said, “Sure.” Twenty-four hours and half a bottle of wine later, Mumy produced the following:
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Originally published September 24, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1349
So we were busy last week ushering in the Marvel Age of non-coincidence, as espoused in the relaunches of mainstays such as Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk. It had been the humble suggestion of BID that Marvel obtain the rights to Classics Illustrated (which shouldn’t be much of a stress; after all, they used to publish Marvel Collector Items Classics) and put John Byrne in charge so that he could work his magic touch on all those annoying literary coincidences which have plagued various works. Coincidence, happenstance—these are antithetical to quality comics stories, and the new MCI would do away with such unlikely circumstances as:
Originally published September 17, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1348
Happenstance vs. Conspiracies. Fate vs. Machinations. The Incredible Hulk Annual vs. Incredible Hulk #1. Save the first two for later, let’s look at the third.
Now, let’s be candid: You all know that I feel more of an emotional attachment to the Hulk than most other characters. And certainly John Byrne’s publicly expressed sentiments that my being forced from the title might be viewed as proof that “there is a God” didn’t exactly endear him to me. So the following is not exactly… how shall we say it… unbiased. Then again, it’s an opinion column, so what else is new? To say nothing of the fact that the title is burning up a considerable amount of bandwidth on the computer boards, so there must be something worth discussing here unmotivated by personal history.
Originally published September 10, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1347
So there I was, working on the plot for Young Justice #4. It was intended to be a startling opening sequence, in which the character Arrowette is depicted having been gravely wounded, with an arrow protruding from her shoulder. For a series that had garnered a reputation for tongue-in-cheek silliness, it was to be a departure. A signal to the reader that the title should not be taken for granted. That it was capable of changing mood at a moment’s notice. I didn’t want anyone to get too comfortable, because nowadays, once readers figure they have a bead on you, that’s when you become disposable.
What was uppermost on my mind in working out the sequence, you may ask? Was it the impact it would have on the reader? The shock value? The drastic means taken to introduce Arrowette (plus the other girls) into the series?
Nope.
It was the Comics Code Authority.
Originally published September 3, 1999, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1346
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
–John Donne, “Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions”
There are two movies out at the moment, one squarely comic book related, the other tangentially related, both of which serve to remind me of my earliest days of comic reading. Specifically, what heroes were about, or at least what they were supposed to be about.
Continue Reading “Movie reviews: Mystery Men, The Iron Giant”
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