ohcaroline

May 21, 2012 2:00 pm I'm also frustrated with the pre-order system, and it's a rare occasion when I actually do it. However (and this isn't the point of the article but is the tone of a few comments) I don't think it's fair to blame creators for wanting to educate people about how the system works. Every consumer should make their personal choice, but if a new book needs pre-orders to survive, it's only fair for that to be part of the educated decision.

May 14, 2012 2:27 pm I'm impressed and surprised you're still reading 8 DC books! My main development in the past six months is not having any idea what is going on with the Avengers. Also I have forgotten the existence of every single book Ed Brubaker was writing and accidentally stopped buying them. This is not a slam on either the Avengers titles or Ed Brubaker's books so much as my ability to keep track of title changes. (I am still pulling 'Captain America & Hawkeye' for some reason? Does it have to do with taking over the numbering for the old Cap title? Perhaps!)

May 7, 2012 11:30 pm It's really cool to see this from the perspective of a dedicated Hulk fan. Just about everybody I've talked to about the movie mentioned how great the Hulk plot is first (which is pretty impressive since this is ALSO the best Captain America movie I can imagine -- and we already had a pretty good one -- and a hell of a lot better than I'd imagined we'd get of a Black Widow movie; Hulk doesn't just shine because there's no competition, is what I'm saying.) But none of those folks were avowed Hulk fans (or, at best, haven't been fans since the TV of their childhood), so it's particularly cool to read this from you. Did we ever establish what the greatest Hulk moment ever was? Was it, "I'm always angry?" Punching Thor? Using Loki as a rag doll? That last moment might sincerely have ruined monologuing narcissistic villains for me, forever. I'm going to be watching "Richard III" at the local theater in a month and I'm going to go, "OH MY GOD WILL HULK COME GRAB HIM BY THE LEG AND JUST START WHAMMING HIM INTO THE STAGE?!"

April 29, 2012 3:27 pm What a great interview. I've been incredibly impressed with Mr. Murphy's work since the first time I saw it, and it's great to hear the candor and self-awareness about creative process that goes along with the talent. I'm always impressed with Josh's interview style as well -- well-informed and personable and genuinely engaged with the topic. Great work. Listening to this really made my afternoon.

April 11, 2012 9:17 am Very cool! I've been a fan of Reilly Brown's work since he was on "Cable & Deadpool", and we have the same hometown. Glad to see him featured!

April 4, 2012 10:06 am One thing to consider is that the whole idea of telling 'original stories' is relatively new to the realm of literature, and, particularly, of drama. I think Shakespeare made up one original story in his entire career. For the majority of human history, "adaptation" has been the norm. Now, arguably, the reasons that people had for retelling myths and legends and stories has faded over the years -- most people who care have access to books, we can watch previous productions and adaptations in pristine DVD quality any time we want. Still, I think, "This is how dramatic productions have worked from the beginning of time" is not a bad argument for adaptation as a valid art form. If any part of this phenomenon is new in recent years, I imagine, it's the level of nitpicking.

March 11, 2012 7:50 pm I think I said Thern when I meant Thark. This may be indicative of another exposition problem. .

March 11, 2012 5:59 pm Lots of great points in this review. I really do appreciate the ambition and the imagination and the obvious love that went into this film. Unfortunately, despite my efforts, I really couldn't follow the story -- the relationship between the two different species of Martians was never clear to me, and I had trouble following various beats from point A to point B. And honestly, the human leads just didn't work for me. I love the idea of a sword fighting genius scientist Martian princess, but way too many of Dejah and John's scenes just ground the story pacing to a halt. Plus, as you said, after an awesome and promising introduction the story turned into damseling + 'John Carter gotta bust up a wedding.' And Taylor Kitsch was just a nonentity to me. I see what you're saying about him not being the hero we expect, but he mostly came off as a cipher to me. I do wish Dominic West's character had more dimension, because he was clearly having a blast. And while I am contractually obligated to say this about any character played by James Purefoy, I truly would have watched a whole movie about Kantos Kan. The all-too-brief scene of his 'take-me-hostage' gambit was the kind of swashbuckling hijinks I'd been hoping for from the whole movie. I found the Thern characters way more interesting than the humanoids, but visually I had some trouble telling them apart and -- as mentioned above -- I couldn't figure out how they fit into the rest of the Martian society. But the animation and voice acting in their parts, along with the imaginative design and motion of the airships was the part of the movie where the love really shown through for me. I wish more of that had translated to the human actors.

February 20, 2012 12:15 pm Yes to all this. If the character had died 5 years ago, would anybody notice?

January 29, 2012 6:23 pm Though it doesn't answer the exact question that was asked here, about page rates at major comic book companies, Faith Erin Hicks made a really interesting post, with real numbers about her actual income, regarding making a living as an indie creator. This has already been linked around a bit, in case you missed it: http://www.friendswithboys.com/2012/01/page-175/