Category: comics

Mr. Mandel […] now has two homes in Los Angeles: one where he lives with his wife and two children; and another, his former bachelor’s apartment, that houses his extensive collection of comic-book and “Star Wars” memorabilia.

Source: The ‘Veep’ Head Writer David Mandel Builds a Private Museum – The New York Times

I read this article, and now I’m super-jealous of this guy. He has the best of both worlds: a nice house, with a wife and kids, and a spare apartment on the side, filled with comic books and toys! Meanwhile, I’ve still got just the apartment: no house, no wife, no kids. And I donated most of my comics to charity, so I don’t even have them to keep me warm at night.

I’m also jealous of his original art collection, which he started putting together in the 90s, at San Diego cons, when prices were (relatively) low. I, too, spent some time at those cons, but, for me, original art was always outside my budget. He was writing for Seinfeld at the time, so his budget at SDCC was likely a bit larger than mine. He talks about spending $5000 at the show on art; my budget for a given con was never more than $500. (I usually came home with a big bag full of discount trade paperbacks and random single issues out of the dollar bins.) Of course, if I knew how much some of that art would appreciate in value, I would have taken a loan against my 401(k) and bought a bunch of it. I’d be selling it about now, and taking early retirement.

I get a kick out of the fact that this was published in the “Men’s Style” section of the Times. (Not a section I would normally read; it only surfaced for me due to my keyword search on “comics.”) I’m not sure when having a spare apartment full of comics and toys went from “disreputable eccentricity” to “admirable lifestyle choice,” but I’m glad it did.

I just started reading Warren Ellis’ comic Transmetropolitan. I bought the whole series (60 issues plus a couple of specials) on Comixology a few years ago, when they had it on sale. I’ve been wanting to read it, but I kept putting it off. Starting into it seemed like a daunting task, given its reputation.

I’ve gotten through the first nine issues this weekend, and I’m really enjoying it. In some ways, it’s a bit dated, but in others it’s quite topical and relevant. The Guardian ran an article recently, in fact, on how relevant it is to the current presidential election here in the US. (And here’s another recent article, from Comics Alliance.)

I’ve also been reading Ellis’ current blog, at morning.computer (yeah, that’s a weird address, but it works). Lately, he’s been posting a lot of random stuff there, nothing earth-shattering, but often interesting or insightful. And he often links to good books and good ambient music. (Though I think some of the music links only get posted to his tumblr page.)

Spider Jerusalem is based somewhat loosely on Hunter S. Thompson. I’ve always liked his work too. I just read about how Thompson’s widow recently returned a stolen set of antlers to Ernest Hemingway’s family. Fun stuff.

Once in a while, I get nostalgic for the heyday of comics journalism, when magazines like The Comics Journal, Comics Interview, and Amazing Heroes were being published regularly. There’s not much left in the way of (print) comic book journalism, though TwoMorrows publishes some interesting stuff.

Some good interviews show up on the web now and then, though. For instance, I recently came across good interviews with Trevor Von Eeden and Christopher Priest. Von Eeden and Priest are both black, and they were both working in mainstream comics at a time when comics writers, artists, and editors were almost exclusively white men. So their perspective on the culture at Marvel and DC in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s is interesting.

I was a big fan of Von Eeden’s work at DC in the 80s, particularly Thriller and his Green Arrow mini-series. (In fact, I own a page of original art from that Green Arrow series.) At the time, I didn’t really know much about the creators working on the comics I read, so I didn’t even know that Von Eeden was black. I just knew he was good. And I really didn’t know what happened to him after he stopped working for DC. I just assumed that he (like many comics creators) moved into another field, like animation or commercial art or something.

I never read the original Black Lightning run by Tony Isabella and Von Eeden. I’ve followed Isabella for years (mostly via his writing for CBG and his blog), so I knew about Black Lightning from Isabella’s perspective. That whole situation seems to be a mess, and I don’t really have any particular opinion on it, but I’m curious about the series. I see that it’s now been reprinted in a trade paperback (see here and here for some info from Tony). So it’s great that there’s a collection out, and that Isabella and Von Eeden will both get some money out of it. (I should probably buy a copy.)

I’ve been aware of Christopher Priest’s work on and off, without ever really following him closely. I was aware of his name change from Jim Owsley to Christopher Priest, but had no idea why he’d changed his name. (And I guess I still don’t, though it doesn’t particularly bother me.) I knew that his work on Black Panther was popular and held in high regard, but I’ve never gotten around to reading it myself.

His observations on the Marvel bullpen in the 80s, under Jim Shooter, are interesting. Most of the stuff I’ve read about Shooter’s editorial tenure at Marvel is pretty negative, but Priest casts him in a different light. And his anecdote about being the first guy at Marvel with an answering machine and a PC, and how he paid for that PC, is entertaining. I guess he was ahead of his time on that (and/or Marvel was really behind the times).

So now I’m thinking about maybe picking up some of his Black Panther run. I need to be careful reading all these interviews, or I’m going to wind up with an empty wallet and a huge stack of trade paperbacks that I’m never going to have time to read!

Quite an interesting essay from J. Michael Straczynski, about why he won’t be doing any more comics work. This was interesting to me on several levels. I too have some vision problems which may get worse, though hopefully not to the level he experienced. And I too make my living by staring at computer screens and typing on a keyboard. So that’s a bit scary.

And his compulsion to shake things up whenever he gets too comfortable is admirable. That’s something I really don’t have, at least not to the extent that he has. If I get comfortable at something, or in some place, I usually just try to hang on. Though I do try to learn new things often, and my last job change was largely motivated by a desire to shake things up a bit. So I guess I’m not a total “stick in the mud.”

I’ll miss his comic book work. I enjoyed a lot of his stuff, including Rising Stars and Midnight Nation.

Then one day, that same voice, the voice that keeps challenging me and kicking over the apple cart and forcing me to start over, said “You’re done, move on, find something else to do, stretch yourself as a writer, take chances, risk failure.”

Source: Why J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI Is Leaving Comic Books, In His Own Words

I just finished reading Grant Morrison’s Action Comics run. (He wrote the first eighteen issues of the New 52 Action Comics relaunch, starting in 2011.) As with a lot of his work, it’s a bit overwhelming. There’s a good review of the run here, and an “exit interview” with Grant Morrison about his run here.

I really liked the Rags Morales art, especially in the early issues. The simple design of his costume (t-shirt, jeans, and work boots) works better than I thought it would. And Morales and Morrison made a conscious choice to reference the look of the earliest Superman stories from the 30s, in terms of the way the character moves and interacts with his environment.

The narrative goes a little crazy, fairly early. It almost seems like Morrison just had a short attention span or something. But pretty much everything ties together in the end. The “fifth dimensional” aspect of the story explains the time jumps and the seeming lack of connection between some of the stories.

This series makes a good counterpoint to his All-Star Superman series. That one featured a more mature Superman, influenced by the Silver Age Superman comics. This series is more about the Golden Age Superman.

If you wanted to pick up the series, it’s completely contained in the first three of these Action Comics trade paperbacks. It’s definitely not a story for everyone. You need to be able to appreciate Morrison’s oddball approach, and be OK with a somewhat non-linear narrative. And it helps to have a good sense of humor about some of the more ridiculous aspects of Superman’s history.