biftec

September 24, 2009 7:54 am

However gauche this may be, and however tired Moore's "i hate superhero comics" schtick may be, I actually think he's kinda right here.  Blackest night is derivative, and poorly written.  It's not provocative or interesting at all.  It's tired, it's old, it's crass. and it's transparent.  And if someone was doing that kind of thing with stories I created, I'd be disappointed too.  

There's a reactionary quality to a lot of Geoff Johns's storytelling that i think is the antithesis of Moore's project in a lot of ways.  Is Moore being a jerk about it?  Is he being disrepectful to Johns in the particular way he phrases his objection?  Yeah, i guess.  But does he have a point about the failures of Blackest Night as mega-event comic he's probably never read?  I think he does...

September 3, 2009 11:57 am Also, i forgot the torture porm.  WTF, James Robinson?  And then there's the whole "coasting on the coattails of something Grant Morrison wrote twelve years ago" thing.

August 1, 2009 10:18 am Property is theft.

July 31, 2009 5:29 pm

@ Conor

That's the digital millenium copyright act and subsequent similar legislation, yes, but there are some very valid critiques of that argument...

July 31, 2009 5:24 pm

@Conor

And if I buy a cd, downoad it into itunes, and email copies of it in .mp3 form to my friend?  I don't think your definition of stealing respects constitutionally protected "fair use"doctrine.  The notion that any uncompensated copying is stealing ahistorically restricts how folks have used and circulated cultural texts and objects for a very, very long time.  Just my two cents...

July 31, 2009 5:17 pm

@Conor 

 What if i borrow a cd from a library and burn it into itunes?  Is that stealing?

And if someone were to download, say, Flex Mentallo from bittorrent, didn't someone intially have to purchase the series (probably from ebay) in order to scan, compress, and upload it?  Would it be illegal for me to make a high quality paper copy of final crisis and give it to my friend, or relative, or pet?  (Like, if my Iguana was a huge Grant Morrison fan?)

July 31, 2009 5:04 pm

Hey Conor,

 

Do you consider checking a book or CD out of the public library stealing?  What abot borroing your friend's copy of ultimatum because you want to know what happens but can't justify paying for something that bad.  It seems to me that what's at stake here is at least in part an enclosure of the commons, the space in which objects circulate outside of commercial exchange, a space which has always been central to how folks have read comics.  (I.E., passed from back pocket to back pocket, discovered in uncle's basement, regifted, even bought at flea market, a secondary commercial transaction from which the publisher gets no $$.)  MPAA/RIAA claims notwithstanding, I am not sure downloading comics is any different.  I buy all my comics to support my local retailer and because i like being able to read the printed page, but the moral discourse around downloading falls short in several important respects.

July 18, 2009 9:16 pm No.  I've read every issue of GL since rebirth, and I think this is not where the story needs to go, badly executed, and just generally sophomoric.

July 17, 2009 11:12 pm Legacy villains in DC - Trickster, Captain Boomerang, Scandal Savage.  In Marvel, Sin.  And captain cold is basically just the silver age version of the icicle, right?

July 17, 2009 6:32 pm I agree.  Best letter ever.