Cavebird

February 17, 2012 1:04 pm Sherlock by Josh Adams blindingly brilliant!

January 13, 2012 9:42 am Wow! I love the range of styles and mastery there of. Great fun commentary also.

September 30, 2011 12:40 pm Yes Phil Noto does it again, But Bat girl by Mahmud Asrar is also simply astounding. Little Thor is a lot of fun too.

September 23, 2011 10:39 am Electra by Phil Noto I can see a personality in that drawing that really fits that character

September 16, 2011 3:27 pm wow, those first two questions, I feel compelled to ad my views to the mix. Collecting comics, determining the value of individual issues. If supply outweighs demand the thing has little to no value. -In the market place. Radjack made a good point about good individual issues that never get collected. The first nine issues of Static come to mind. That stuff is amazing! -never got collected. They are now rebooting the book. And looks terrible compared to the original creation. Other include the first run of Archer and Armstrong, House of Secrets, Rubber Blanket. Batman Year One had really beautiful cover in the collection they kind of messed those up. So those books are precious to me. My system of reading comics is as follows When I first get a book I'm all exited and I read through it for the experience of the story. If I really like the book I'll read it again more slowly pausing in all the great places. This often involves picking it up repeatedly. My favourite book I read again and again with some month in between. Some books really speak to what I'm churning through in my mind and so I'll have another look.

June 30, 2011 12:28 am I like to think what Warren Ellis is getting at is this:
DC has to give their talent licence to do something different, something new.
They did that with Sandman and Y and Fables and Transmetropolitan, and  Planetary;
And those books are all classics now that just keep on selling.
DC took chances on other stuff too that didn't work out so well. 
But in the balance the winners more than made up for the losers.
When they seize to encourage new and seemingly crazy stuff (like the Dark Knight Returns)
Then they seize being a publisher and become a reheat/reprint shop.
Milking old Allen Moore ideas. bringing film genre trappings to comics,
updating silver age stories, -not good enough.
Also I'm sure there are things can be done with digital comics that would be impossible in print. 
Come on DC let's see some creators go off the rails. 

June 29, 2011 10:11 pm

Capekiller wrote:

This one says it all....



This one's got it all: 

1. Prism Foil Cover.

2. Impossibly large guns for super-powered characters that really don't need to use them.

3. The ubiquitous 90's leather jackets/vests with multiple pockets/pouches.

4. The nonsensical sight of the Human Torch wearing a leather jacket. What...is he cold? Is the ability to burst into flame and fly not quite cool enough?

5. The Thing's ridiculous bucket-helmet, tights, white booties, and ammo belt.

6. The desperately self-conscious and condescending "This is not your parents' comic magazine" line at the top of the cover.

Last, but most certainly not least...front and center:

7. Sue Richards, a.k.a. "Ms. Naughty Stockings, Space Prostitute".

Stolen from:
http://comiccoverage.typepad.com/comic_coverage/2008/01/worst-cover-eve.html

And you'd swear Liefeld drew this.. where are the feet? THE FEET!!!!!????



I just found this at comiccollectorlive.com
Everybody who wants to bring back the nineties raise their hands.

abstrackgeek 

"Vertigo and dark horse actually sell less than dc books. Hardly a motivation to nurture or reward talent"

Vertigo has a bunch of books that just keep on selling.
After a decade or two they might even make as much money as the damn Death of Superman.

And yeah because DC would screw their talent especially in the nineties, they lost out on properties
like Hellboy, Sin City, 300...
Dark Horse sells less but but they've got significant market share the only company to to that other
than image. 


 

June 29, 2011 9:39 pm JohnVFerrigno well said.
A little odd that Ellis doesn't mention the collectors bubble.
Why would anybody contemplate bringing back the horror of the nineties?!
Are comic books so worthless that we have to sucker people into buying them
with promises of pie in the sky.
The same crappy attitude that pushed the Death of Superman into our faces.

Has it occurred to a Dan Didio that quality books like most of Allen Moore's books,
much of Neil Gaiman's stuff, Frank Miller, Transmetropolitan, Fables, Y... well all the classic stuff;
Those books don't just sell. They go on selling for decade after decade. 
DC knows, they turn all that into big oversize books.
I guess nurturing talent (hail Karen Berger and Vertigo) or god forbid reward your talent (All praise Dark Horse) It isn't as easy as selling those profitable collectors items or death of the DC Universe comics.

May 10, 2011 7:16 pm I'm inspired!

January 31, 2011 12:29 pm

Yes the industry is dominated by super heroes.

But anybody remember what it was like in the eighties let alone the seventies.

 

Suppose we begin by giving credit to the people who made comics more diverse.

Back in the day, alternative books were way outside the mainstream. Fantagraphics ,Drawn & Quaterly are the two surviving publishers who nurtured alternative creators like Dan Cloves, Peter Bagge, Seth, the Hernandez Brothers;

Who wasn't a little disappointed when the Image creators did nothing but more superhero comics (mostly)

Dark Horse Comics and the Creators collected under the Legend imprint made a big difference. I have little doubt that Frank Miller had something to do with all those crime comics presently on the market, including Gotham Central.

If only Alan More had been smart enough to go to a publisher like Dark Horse.

He could have owned ABC. 

Karen Berger's Vertigo imprint did much to diversify comics.

There is Jeff Smith' Bone of course making comics cool for children.

Warren Ellis Transmetropolitan. Terry Moores Strangers in Paradise,

the list goes on. Here is the point.

These are creators and creations compelling enough to attract people who don't read comics. And publishers like Dark Horse can offer the production values of the big two without going for all the rights. Actually DC and Marvel publish creator owned books too, but they are much less motivated to do so.

So let's give credit to the creators and publishers who did diversify comics.

And encourage more people like them.