You all know my name, how I earn a livin’.
Friday means a lot of things to a lot of people. For some it’s pleasure boatin’, dog fishin’. Day sailing. For others, you get a little shakin’, a little tenderizin’, and down you go. For others still, you’ll get your heart broken by Mary Ellen Moffat. It’s all fun and games.
Until they bite you, and the horrible screaming starts.
But there are too many captains on this island, so for the guys who run iFanboy, Friday is letter column time. College boys…
You write. They answer. Very simple.
As always, if you want to have your e-mail read on the any of iFanboy’s shows or answered here, in the letter’s column keep them coming to contact@ifanboy.com
I’m finally reading the Ultimate Spider-Man Peter Parker series after years of hating it. Why? I always considered it an Amazing-wanna be, a red-headed stepchild. I even avoided all things Bendis for some time. I got over this problem once I saw the new Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. I “get” it now, and I’m really enjoying the trades, and yes, I have enjoyed Bendis’ work for some time.
Which leads to my question(s): Have you ever avoided a book or creator/company due to their philosophical views or their vision for a particular book? I personally don’t understand why some readers complain when certain authors infuse a book with their “personal or political tirades.” As long as it contributes to the story, it’s fine by me. How about you? Can you enjoy a book with that kind of personal writing?
Steve from Orlando, Florida
I feel like you’re talking about a couple of different things, or you’re upset with something about Brian Bendis that you haven’t illustrated. Maybe you hate the bald look. I don’t know, but if that is that case, it’s just not his fault! Anyway, what you did was grow and change, and, delightfully, accept that change, and you were rewarded for it. All of us go into stories (regardless of medium) with preconceived notions of what it is and whether we like it. Sometimes it’s based on the content, and sometimes it’s based on the creators. Everyone has a different yardstick for what’s acceptable. There are some authors whose work I have loved, but when I found out what sort of causes they were supporting and espousing, I couldn’t in good conscience continue to support them. So I don’t read Ender books anymore.
But in a larger sense, if you’re reading and thinking about what you’re reading over time, your tastes will change and shift. Or they can at any rate, and probably should if you’re getting anything out of it other than a quick action thrill. It’s a thing that comes up with me sometimes when people talk about how I don’t read the same comics I used to, or don’t like the same things I did before. I need things to cycle around and change, and I tend to appreciate different things about comics these days than I used to. I was a gigantic Brian Bendis fan. He’s one of the most important creators out there to me, but lately, I don’t feel like he’s writing for me anymore. It’s not that he’s bad. It’s that I’ve changed in ways that his work hasn’t. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it is the way it is. I do still read Ultimate Spider-Man though!
On the other hand, and we’ve talked out this, there are some creators who I’ve gotten to know via social media, and I can’t look at their work the same way anymore. Sometimes it works out for them, and sometimes it doesn’t. No, I’m not going to name names. You can make up your own minds about what you’re willing to read. If you can separate the artist from the work, good for you. I can’t always. That’s the other side of our bold new digital era!
Josh Flanagan
I’m writing to say I’m doing something crazy. This message is traveling through time.
I’m sending this from the present, but I’ll only get it back on the future, but then it will be the past.
I’ll explain: I’m a Marvel Digital Unlimited user and I’m reading back issues in chronological order and listening to the iFanboy show from that week, like I’m up to date. It’s been a fun ride. Right now I’m ending Civil War, starting Morrison’s Batman and falling in love with Invincible. I’m from Brazil, so my best comic choice is online. I’m loving The New 52 and the whole digital-Comixology-on the same date-thing. Actually I got an iPad specially for that and to help me at work (I teach children).
Comics here take one year to get, because of publishing planing and translations. That’s why I’m a digital comic lover.
Love you guys.
André B from São Paulo, Brazil
PS – There’s no Frappr map anymore right? 🙂 I’m kidding…
This is crazy. It’s totally awesome and sounds like a lot of fun, but it’s crazy.
Conor Kilpatrick
I was recently re-reading my Wednesday Comics hardcover, and was wondering what sorts of characters and creative teams you’d like to see if Marvel ever did a similar series? Or if DC did a second volume, what characters or creative teams would interest you in picking it up? I have no idea if the series was successful enough to warrant sequels or imitators, but I just thought it’d be a fun hypothetical question for you guys to discuss.
Kyle from Columbus, Ohio
Personally, I loved Wednesday Comics. I thought it was one of the most creative and unique things that DC Comics has ever done. So often we get so focused on the continuity and ongoing soap opera nature of our comics and sometimes people forget that comics can be fun and we can have stories that aren’t tied to the ongoing periodicals. Every now and then it’s good to celebrate these characters we love and just let the talented creators tell great stories with them, without and limitations.
I would love it if Marvel took the same approach, although I doubt they ever would. Rather we’ve gotten some fun stories like the Strange Tales anthologies, but an oversized collection of stories by great creators would be fantastic. So we’ll ignore the fact that it probably never would happen and we’ll play fantasy for a moment.
If love to see Fabio Moon or Gabriel Ba’ tackle ANY Marvel or DC Characters. I was trying to figure out who would be a great fit for them and realized, you know, I’d read a D-Man story if it was by either of the brothers, or both. I’d love to see Jeff Lemire write and draw a Daredevil or Silver Surfer story. Given the style he’s developed on The Wizard of Oz, it would be really terrific if Skottie Young applied that style to some Marvel characters. After that run of covers he did, it would be great for Wolverine and Kitty Pryde team up story or maybe Spider-Man. I would say that I’d want a Gabe Hardman drawn Captain Britain story, but we’ve kind of gotten that in Secret Avengers, but I’d take Hardman doing an Excalibur tale, that would be a ton of fun. It would be really special if Marvel could get Frank Quitely to come back and see him take on some non-X-Men characters, like perhaps the Fantastic Four.
I could probably go on and on with my wishlist of creators and characters. I thought about doing the same for DC Comics, but we already got a Wednesday Comics from them and I can’t imagine them topping that line up. Well, maybe if they added Darwyn Cooke…
Ron Richards
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Josh, thanks for the nice answer. I really don’t know what I had against Bendis at this point. Wasn’t the bald thing though.
By the way, thanks to you guys for another great recommendation on the podcast: I picked up Manhattan Projects #1 and #2 and they’re awesome. I found my next Chew.
Manhattan Projects has been so great! Image is doing some amazing stuff right now
Jeff Lemire has gone on record saying he’d love to write a Punisher story, and a Wednesday Comics-style anthology would be a cool opportunity to let him do that.
Marvel’s weird and wonderful side characters aren’t getting as much respect since the Cancelpocalypse, and a Wednesday Comics project would be a great way to reverse the trend a little — kind of like they did with Strange Tales, but on a more epic scale. I’m thinking back to that James Stokoe Silver Surfer story in Strange Tales II and imagining how much more awesome it would have been if he had had newsprint-sized pages to work with.
For me there are a few creators that tI avoid like the plague, i don’t know them personally, but simply based on their work. There’s one who is doing a couple of the DC 52 books and based solely on his track record I’m not touching the books he’s on. There is another creator who was a bit of a tool at a convention, but his work is still good, good enough that I’ll still buy things he works on if it involves characters i like. But someone’s work leaves such a shit taste in my mouth I just can’t go back to that well again.
Well I refuse to buy anything from Erik Larsen after his views on women from that incident a year ago. I’m sure he doesn’t put those views in his comics but I’m sorry….how that man can get away with saying those things and still have a job is beyond me. People get fired for saying far less terrible shit on Facebook then that.
@TNC-What did he say?
You’re referring to his remarks on the Neil Gaiman/Todd McFarlane lawsuit, I take it?
@k5blazer – http://aol.it/cyHA5Q
The Next Champ is a feminist, of course
Respect for women is his platform
Not cool Erik…but I believe his wife is an attorney, so double-not cool…
Views on women? Seems to me he was joking about how American women fall all over themselves for men with British accents.
Wow! Thank you so much for answering my e-mail! I’ve visited the site for a few years now but had never sent an e-mail to you before.
I love the Skottie Young suggestions! and I think Ba and Moon would be great for a project like this. Maybe a Nick Fury story or an X-Men story? I actually think I’d put Darwyn Cooke on a Captain America and the Invaders story, or maybe even an Avengers story. And yes! I think a Morrison/Quitely Fantastic Four short story could be something special in this format.
It’s also a place where characters you don’t often read about get a spotlight, like how Metamorpho, Kamandi and the Metal Men got their own feature, so you could do stories with characters like Elsa Bloodstone or Machine Man, the Inhumans or the Eternals. So many possibilities. Thanks again!
Wow. I had no idea about the author of the Ender books (Josh didn’t call him out by name so I won’t either). What a bummer to learn that though.
Huge huge bummer.
I just read Ender’s Game a few weeks ago. I liked it a lot, and was interested in the other books in that series, but now that I’ve looked at the author’s wikipedia page… I think I’ll find something else to read.
Wow! All you have to do is look at Card’s ‘Personal Views’ section and it’s an easy 1-2-3 to fully hate him.
thats unfortunate. Ender is one of my all time Sci-Fi books.
As a general rule with pop culture, i don’t like to meet the cow before i grill it, y’know what i mean? I try to keep the personalities of the authors and artists as far away from their entertainment product as i possibly can.
Here’s something I learnt about one of my favourite artists recently; I hope you have never used Gill Sans or Arial (mircosoft’s cheap knock-off) during your daily routine. After all, Eric Gill was a known pedophile, was in an incestuous relationship and preformed beastality. That’s WAY WORSE than Larsen or Card
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Gill
I had no clue. i agree. huge huge bummer. god damn the world is backwards when a science fiction author is so intent on keeping humanity in the dark ages. doesn’t change how good some of those books are, but definitely makes you aware of where your money could possibly be going by supporting him. Bummer central.
@Edward,
It’s what he’s about, but not what he does.
And srsly, I LOL’d.
Josh won’t name names, but I know he has a “special” connection with Alex Robinson 😉
What?
If Marvel did a version of Wednesday Comics, I’d like to some Westerns, some horror, some cosmic stuff, some vintage stuff, some war comics, and several heroines all get a shot.
The Lost 1940s Captain America Newspaper Comic Strip Comic Book by Karl Kesel that came out a while back was really fun. I wouldn’t mind seeing some other “Golden Age” Marvel stuff (or even the retconned stuff) like Invaders, All-Winners, or Liberty Legion get the same kind of treatment, a la the Darwyn Cooke stuff for DC.
Red Wolf, Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt, Two-Gun Kid
Werewolf-by-Night meets the Man-Wolf
Lady Sif, Valkyrie, Thundra & She-Hulk
Heroes for Hire vs. Defenders
Invaders/Crusaders: Doom Must Die!
Masters of Evil: War of Succession
War Is Hell: Howling Commandos/SHIELD
Knightress & the Spider-Women
Viper: Queen of Hydra
Captain Marvel Corps
Josh, have you seen this? Pretty hilarious.
http://www.funnyordie.com/articles/f814fde23b/the-avengers-request-to-remove-clint-hawkeye-barton?playlist=featured_pictures_and_words
The only circumstances under which I would read a Sentry story would be Feral Dalrymple doing one in a newspaper strip style. I imagine it being all about how much he cries.
André B, Brazil
Thank you so much for posting my message… I really love your shows and I know what I’m doing is crazy…Catching up comics and podcasts… You guys are my video game time company now…
Imagine need for speed, but with jokes about the weather and riiiiiich people…
Love. God bless.