The Four Color Media Monitor

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

The Tenth Comic Book Carnival
2007-07-01 09:41:00
Welcome to the July 1, 2007 edition of the comic book carnival, the tenth I'm posting so far. Here's all the results for this month.Hube presents "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" review posted at The Colossus of Rhodey.K-Squared presents Dead Flash Covers posted at K-Squared Ramblings.PirateDaycare presents Marvel Trolls Craze Sweeps the Nation posted at Pirate Daycare.Shark presents Cherokee People: The Downfall of Comic s posted at The Shark's Bite.paris lia presents RULED! - THE COMIC STRIP THAT WHITENS AND BRIGHTENS posted at LOLette, saying, "blog carnivals rule"MCW presents UNCANNY X-MEN # 487 posted at MarvelComicsWeekly.Mark25 presents Comic Book s - Did you know? posted at HotStrategies.com.That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition ofthe comic book carnivalusing ourcarnival submission form.Past posts and future hosts can be found on ourblog carnival index page.Technorati tags:the comic book carnival, blog carnival.
More About: Carnival , Tent , The Ten

AP Wire blabbers on and on about Capt. America's "death"
2007-06-30 23:14:00
I am so NOT impressed with this sugarcoated article the AP is running about the death and burial of Capt. America, though it does tell, curiously enough, that the sniper who was captured wasn't the one who shot at Cap. It does, however, seem to give some focus on the othewise overrated Jeph Loeb, who's been writing some of the pointless stories connected with this. But it doesn't ask why it's so easy to kill of Cap but not to deal with any raw issues of the current day and age.
More About: Death , Wire

Mike Wieringo talks about Bart Allen's death, and how comics came to be rui
2007-06-29 10:02:00
I'm glad to see that Wieringo, co-creator of Impulse along with Mark Waid, is speaking out and lamenting the death of Bart Allen , and also talking about how comics were ruined by Image Comics for starters (Via Newsarama blog):I?ve had many conversations with creator friends of mine about the pendulum swing that happened in the wake of the IMAGE explosion back in the early 1990?s. The sort of ?we don?t need no stinking writers? attitude of the IMAGE founders resulted in what were nicely drawn comics with little story, for the most part. They became commodities and not comic books with good stories to go with the flashy drawings. The other major companies, in response, tried to emulate the initial massive success IMAGE had by doing similar types of books with crazy cover gimmicks thrown in for good measure? and the quality of the entire industry, for the most part, suffered. It drove many long-time fans away. In the aftermath of that sales bloodbath, the creative pendulum swung in th...
More About: Death , Mike

Amazons assassinated
2007-06-29 01:10:00
From tarnished Flash Rogues we move on to the even more disturbing case of Amazons being tarnished in the DCU. From what this thread on CBR tells, Amazons Attack sounds even more sick. Now, Wonder Woman's sisters, including her revived mother, are being villified by executing innocent civilians in Washington D.C.Even if this isn't a camoflaged attack on the US government's policies in real life, or an anti-war metaphor, or even an attack on policies regarding illegal immigrants, it's still in very bad taste, and is going to require tons in order to fix. Years ago, most other writers respectfully depicted them as noble and honorable, but this is very one-dimensional. It doesn't matter if they do push the reset button, this is clearly wallowing in sensationalism.Here's one description from the responses on the thread about what this is like here:What I'm surprised [at] are the prison camps for women who might know an Amazon.I mean come the heck on.DC just hit Marvel Civil War l...
More About: Assassin , Nate , Assassinated

New volume of Outsiders ends
2007-06-29 01:05:00
Discovered on this thread on CBR's boards that the new series that's been running for about four years now is ending with the 50th issue. This reminds me of how The Titans ended at that very number too. And what's this supposed to lead to? It seems that they may be making Batman into a leader of this team once again, as he was in the mid-80s.
More About: Ends , Volume

A flashback to Capt. America #174, another time when Steve Rogers may have
2007-06-27 20:41:00
On Comicon's Pulse, they take a retrospective look at Capt. America and the Falcon #174 from June 1974, an older story in which Capt. America may have pretended to be dead, if anything, and a time when he had a meeting with Banshee in one of his earliest appearances, as well as the X-Men.
More About: Steve , Time , Flashback , Rogers

Secret Wars: the secret (or not so secret) war against good storytelling
2007-06-27 07:23:00
According to this writer on Comicon's Pulse (via Molten Thought), Secret Wars is what killed many major comic books of today with the overkill of company wide crossover "events":For a very long time I read comic books religiously, perhaps literally so since Batman and Superman had a greater impact on my moral outlook than any church did. Even when I drifted away I would still occasionally visit the comic book shop or see a cover that caught my eye at the rare newsstand that still carried comics and pick it up to visit with my old friends.I can?t do that anymore. If I pick up a mainstream Marvel or DC comic I don?t have a clue what is going on and I?m not going to get anything approaching a complete story. I?ll get one part of a six part story arc if I?m lucky; if I?m not I?ll get one part of a story spread over six different titles instead.I understand the motivation. It is to get the reader hooked. If the story ends on page 22 they don?t have to buy the next one but there is no gr...
More About: The Secret , Good , Storytelling

An excerpt from Douglas Wolk's upcoming book
2007-06-27 05:37:00
Salon published an article that's partly taken from a book Doug las Wolk is going to publish about comic books next month ("Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean" by De Capo Press). The beginning subline, though, is something I've got to at least partly disagree with:With the rise of the graphic novel, comics have hit the big time. It's time for fans to quit whining and celebrate their favorite art.It depends on what we're talking about. If it's the indies, of course there can be what to celebrate there. But if it's majors, how can we when they've been turned into a politicized, prejudiced wasteland?Jun. 23, 2007 It's frustrating to love comics, because there's so much cultural baggage that goes along with loving them. The blessing and curse of comics as a medium is that there is such a thing as "comics culture." The core audience of comics is really into them: we know that Wednesdays are the day when new issues appear in the stores, we populate endless ...
More About: Book , Upcoming , Ming , Douglas

"Lightning Saga" I'm sure it's godawful alright
2007-06-27 05:33:00
Comics Should be Good thinks its a horrific mess, and I wouldn't be surprised if it were. (Interestingly enough, on Dick Hates Your Blog, blogmaster Hyacinth ran a poll about this, and I discovered on said poll that all those who cast their votes think Meltzer is even worse than Bendis). Let's hope that Brad Meltzer doesn't ever get hired to work on any major comic books ever again, because it's high time already to be hiring writers according to how well they understand the concepts, and not out of publicity stunts.
More About: Lightning , Sure , Saga , Alright , Awful

Stan Lee talks about the Fantastic Four
2007-06-25 20:17:00
On Comicon's Pulse, they interview Stan Lee about a miniseries he's going to write called the Last Fantastic Four Story, one of his rare writing efforts today, and about his experiences when he'd first entered the comics field.

Cross-overload
2007-06-24 22:20:00
On the Independent Review blog in Minnesota*, one contributor makes an important point about the increasing number of company wide crossovers (via The Beat blog): Like I've said in my last blog, I am an avid comic book reader, and I am beginning to notice a disturbing trend in the "big two"(DC Comics and Marvel Comics), and that is an overload of crossover events. Simply put, a crossover event is something that brings characters from many different titles together, which usually involves the universe collapsing on itself....I don?t have a problem with "Crisis on Infinite Earths" or its recent sequel "Infinite Crisis", but I do have a problem with continued crisis' like DC's new weekly comic book "Countdown" (another name that has been showing up a lot lately). These books make it sound like readers are only interested when the entire universe is about to collapse.He's right, there's been far too many crossovers lately, and it's hurt a lot of chances for anyone to write a sto...
More About: Cross , Ross

This article must've been written too soon, too early, and way too sloppy
2007-06-24 22:14:00
The Knoxville News-Sentinel goes sugary over recent DC developments, but as far as I can tell, it was probably written way too early to really make sense, and there's some really sloppy parts to it in the latter half too:DC Comics -- the world's largest publisher of monthly comics -- is considering the notion of going weekly.The company had a successful launch in 2006 with "52," a weekly comic book featuring B-list characters such as Animal Man and Adam Strange. "52's" stories, told in "real time," set stories in the same week the book was released.Late in the spring of this year, DC released "Countdown," a story also told in real time but starring more popular characters such as Superman and the Justice League."I believe in the weekly format. That's why we are doing ('Countdown')," says Dan Didio, executive editor of DC. "It's a strong way of (publishing). It takes full advantage of our distribution system ... We are tempted by that."Sounds pretty fluff-coated to me. Already...
More About: Article , Early , Must , Been , Artic

Stan Lee gets his own action figure from Hasbro
2007-06-23 21:40:00
Now isn't this amazing: Stan the Man Lee is getting his very own Marvel Legends figure!Comic book fans already know Stan Lee is a Marvel legend. Now Hasbro is making it official.The company will pay plastic tribute to the 84-year-old creator of Spider-Man, the Hulk, X-Men, Fantastic Four and other comic-book heroes by interpreting him as a 6-inch tall Marvel Legends action figure. The toy shows Lee's likeness wearing khaki pants, a blue windbreaker and eyeglasses."We feel it's long overdue that Stan Lee be immortalized as an action figure, much like the dozens of marvelous characters that he has created for years and years," said Eric Nyman, Hasbro's vice president of marketing.The limited-edition, $14.99 toy will be introduced next month in San Diego at Comic-Con International, the annual comic-book convention.Boy, is Stan lucky!
More About: Action , Figure

Singapore develops its local talents in comics
2007-06-23 21:36:00
ChannelNewsAsia reports that Singapore 's Media Development Authority is nurturing local talents in creating comic books with classes on the subject.
More About: Comics , Local , Talents , Talent

I did not ask for Bart Allen to be killed off!
2007-06-21 16:13:00
I wrote earlier that Bart Allen should go back to being Impulse. It appears now that I spoke too soon. Flash #13 vol. 3, which came out now, ends with Bart being slain by the Rogues.I'm quite offended here. If it were that Murmur monster or even the Girder guy, I could believe that, since they're um, lethal cretins, but if it's Captain Cold and the Trickster, no way, since they're too honorable to do things like that. It's only because of the character destruction that Geoff Johns himself pretty much worked on them that they could possibly stoop to such depths. Even if the Top was just blabbering, that still doesn't excuse Johns' whole idea of "undoing" any mind alterations Roscoe Dillon supposedly worked on them years before.Yes, Wally and Linda and their children are back (in the tenth JLofA issue) but this is the price paid. I guess this is supposed to be Wally's new motivation for being the Scarlet Speedster? His teen cousin's assassination?Once more, we're dealt the t...
More About: Kill , Killed

Chuck Dixon was asked for his thoughts on the abuse/obscuration of Spoiler,
2007-06-21 07:28:00
At Dixon 's own board, he was asked what his thoughts are on DC's destruction of Stephanie Brown, who appears to have been slain during "War Games", but worse, DiDio and company almost act as though she'd never even existed. In his response, he says that Marv Wolfman is bothered by these kind of things too. That's good to know. Most astounding thing is how DC pretty much wrecked a lot of good character development Dixon provided for Spoiler for almost a decade.Stephanie most definitely shouldn't be forgotten, and there's still a lot of work needed if she's to be revived. The best option would be not to buy Robin as they're doing it now, if that's how they're going to behave.
More About: Abuse , Thoughts , Chuck

The new JLA writer will be Dwayne McDuffie
2007-06-20 15:55:00
A writer/animator who's worked on the cartoon series of JLA, of all things (via Occasional Superheroine). Now, maybe they'll start putting out a book for a change that doesn't rely on absurd media hype and a writer based on presumed reputation alone, and if McDuff ie knows his job here, maybe he'll remain on the book for about 4-5 years too! After all, the book has been incredibly neglected for over the past four years. Maybe now, they'll start proving that they can keep a regular writer on the book for more time than most other writers have been on it, and not just hire them as literal hacks.
More About: Dwayne , Writer

Suddenly, everyone's a Skrull
2007-06-18 11:46:00
Well maybe not everyone, but certainly some. Now, the 31st issue of the current Avengers volume has come out, and lo and behold: Elektra turns out to be a Skrull.This appears to be the explanation they've giving for why so many Marvel heroes have been acting out of character, because they've been replaced by Skrulls, or, because they've been brainwashed. No surprise if Captain America, Scarlet Witch and Iron Man turn out to be Skrulls as well.Unfortunately, that's still no excuse for hijacking only so many books into a crossover crisis and depriving them of any real story development better achieved in a stand-alone story of their own. This whole crossover-itis of recent was uncalled for, and did nothing to improve any books that were already going wobbly under writers like J. Michael Straczynski and Brian Bendis, the latter who's interviewed in what I linked to.And if the other Marvel heroes were abducted by the Skrulls and hidden elsewhere while the alien armada took their pl...
More About: Everyone

Jumpin' jets! Third Flash volume is kaput and going back to prior volume's
2007-06-18 07:25:00
I don't know if this is saying that DC now realizes the error they made with throwing out Wally West (who used that above expression until the end of the Silver Age, just like Robin did some of his until that time), but what's this? DC apparently told at the Phila. Comic-Con that with issue #13 of the third volume they put out, they'd be cancelling the third volume and going back to the numbering of the previous volume, resuming at number #231. And it turns out that Mark Waid will be returning to write it after all.To prove that they apologize for that mistake, they will bring back Wally and Linda West. Better still, they'll knock off this replacement of one superhero for another trend for a change, and most importantly of all, they'll stop doing it based on defeatist story elements (namely, that Barry Allen took part in a mind-wiping while being made to look bad).Now, all we can do is wait.
More About: Flash , Back , Jets , Jump , Lash

Economists should remain economists, and not try to determine so easily how
2007-06-17 04:23:00
An economist for the Ludwig van Mises Institute wrote an article for them last week that seems to miss more than a few points about why Spider-Man's popularity and sales dropped in the mid-1990s. First, I'll point out in fairness that their not turning the profit bookstores wanted, leading to their banishing from the bookstore scene for many years, was what caused losses in sales, but there's still a lot more to this that the writer predictably doesn't consider. Let's look at the following:Whose Fault Is It?Basic economics tells us that if the demand for Amazing Spider-Man increases at an existing supply, more will be offered for it and the price will rise. Profits at Marvel, Spider-Man's publisher, would grow, and managers at Marvel would therefore increase the supply of comics, or competitors would enter the market with similar products. This increase in supply would reduce prices and profits. Conversely, a drop in demand should result in a decline in price, profits, and sup...
More About: Econ , Term , Economists

But Quesada IS guilty
2007-06-16 23:18:00
The 4th Letter talks about Joe Quesada, points to how he'd done wrong by attacking DC Comics by saying they should be called "AOL Comics". And yet, there's a lot here that I simply cannot agree with. Bendis, for example, may have shown promise on Daredevil, but since then has done little more than mess up the Avengers, and insult fans in the process, proving himself to be just overrated.What's more, Quesada has been drowning their comics in infinite crossovers lately, and that's one more reason why defending him is really not worth it.
More About: Guilt , Sada , Guilty

Reed Tucker on the Marvel/DC rivalry
2007-06-15 15:53:00
New York Post columnist Reed Tucker writes an item on all the Marvel /DC movie possibilities in development, and points to how they've maintained an almost juvenile rivalry for more time than one might think:"When either one of them talks about the other, no matter who it is in the company, there's tension and rivalry," says Gerry Gladstone, co-owner of Midtown Comics. "There is a rivalry almost to a childish point. It's been there since Day 1."Indeed. And since the 1990s, it's gotten to the point where they sought to put a copyright on words like "mutant" and "metahuman". And you know how much this may have undermined storytelling quality in both companies? That's why I find their rivalry really dismaying, because they took it to such extremes as to go sue each other in court over a few trivial words that wouldn't affect the sales and success of either company, which may have diluted scriptwriting quality not just for the two of them, but even for other smaller companies that ...
More About: Riva

Comic Book Creator software
2007-06-14 19:42:00
CBS News has an article about a new program called Comic Book Creator that helps teach users how to draw comic illustrations, and possibly to even include already existing ones:Comic Book Creator (CBC) is an interactive entertainment software application that puts PC users in the artist's chair. It allows them to easily import original authentic digital images from just about any source and create a personalized comic book and comic strips.I wonder if any coming generations of comic artists will learn a lot of their trade and style through computers for starters? That's a good question, and remains to be seen.
More About: Software

Will Wolverine's origin really be told? Somehow, I doubt it
2007-06-13 10:51:00
This item on The Pulse tells about yet another miniseries that's supposed to tell the origin of Logan of the X-Men. But in all due honesty, why do I get the feeling that it may still come up short, and only be a lead-in to yet more miniseries of the same? The big cop-out when Marvel first put out a miniseries that purportedly was going to tell Wolverine 's origin was that it otherwise ended without giving anything clear, and it turned out to be intended as a launching pad for at least a few more miniseries!If they're really serious this time about telling Wolverine's origins, then they'll do it all in one stroke, and end it right there and then. Writing miniseries like these as an excuse to get people to spend more and more money without any way to tell if they'll be getting their money's is the wrong way to be doing these things, and I wouldn't be surprised if some people have since lost interest in if they'll ever get to know how Logan began his life.
More About: Doubt , Told , Really , Ally

A Countdown to a serious loss of sales!
2007-06-11 11:09:00
At the Savage Critic blog, it's discovered that ComixExperience in California has lost a lot in sales of DC's Count down weekly, which certainly tells that people may be starting to smarten up to DC and Dan DiDio's tricks.Though it may not really be a company-wide crossover in the way that Marvel's World War Hulk and DC's WW3 are turning out to be (the x-over even extends into the "All-New Atom", with even Jason Todd making an appearance), it is a case of the superfluous, and no one should be forced to spend their money on something that could likely turn out to be another underwhelming ripoff. If Countdown does turn out to be a flop, DiDio will certainly be receiving a well-deserved lesson for repeatedly short-changing the audience.
More About: Sales , Loss

Whatever news Bendis has now fails to excite me
2007-06-10 22:00:00
The Pennsylvania Express-Times runs an article about the upcoming WizardWorld tour on June 15 in Philadelphia, but the problem is that it sugarcoats all surrounding Brian Michael Bendis, and when he tells them in here that"We're going to pop some big news."I can only feel like yawning. At the same time, his popularity is startling as it's inexplicable. Will he eventually peter out in popularity? I just don't know.
More About: News , Excite

"Tovarisch Smurf": how Peyo pulled the wool over many an eye
2007-06-09 16:10:00
There are times when some of us sadly have to question the things we spent our time on in our childhood, but if we're to ensure that our descendants don't make the same mistakes, that's why it pays to.How long has it been since I had the Smurf s seriously on mind? A little over fifteen years, perhaps? But with the discoveries I've made about it of recent, that's probably why it's a good thing I haven't thought about it in so long, and why I'm glad I don't remember much of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon either.Two years ago, when the Belgian UNICEF outfit exploited the Smurfs for anti-war propaganda, that's when the subject returned to mind. And that's also when I discovered, more than I had before, that the Smurfs, alarmingly enough, bore traces of Marxism when they were first created.The Smurfs (or, as per the original Flemish pronunciation, Les Schtroumpfs) first debuted in 1958 in a Belgian comic strip called Johan et Pirlouit drawn by one Pierre Culliford, a Belgian comics ...
More About: Pull

Jerry Ordway talks about the potential damage done to Mary Marvel
2007-06-08 07:27:00
On Comics Should Be Good, Jerry Ordway sent in his thoughts about the potential darkening of Mary Marvel , sister of Capt. Marvel. He tells at least one thing that really raises my eyebrows: what Peter David once wanted to do with her: have her violated. What?!?I see that a few of the commentors on this one say that we should wait-and-see before passing judgement on this. Unfortunately, that's exactly the problem: DC isn't willing to tell anything clearly, which by now is dishonest. If they're not taking Mary down the dark highway, there's no reason why they shouldn't just say so. It will cost them no sales in that case, and no one will be discouraged then from reading it. They could actually help restore credibility to themselves then. What should be the use then of reading Countdown?Refusal to say clearly what direction they'll take might not be a confirmation that they'll really go down the dark path, but it does show a lack of communication and respect for the audience.
More About: Damage , Tent

It's always worth asking...
2007-06-07 20:46:00
There are some very good questions surrounding what if Identity Crisis had contained more than just simply misogyny, and what would be the defenders' and apologists' reactions then, that are always worth asking, and I guess I may as well take the opportunity now to do so.What if Sue Dibny and Jean Loring, rather than being white, were black, Latina, Jewish, Asian, or caucasian, and Dr. Light had raped Sue out of a hate crime, and that too were trivialized in favor of concern for Dr. Light's getting mindwiped? Would there have been a different reaction to the miniseries then? Come to think of it, what if any character in the miniseries had called Sue and Jean a "dirty white girl", or even the C-slur? Or, what if Deathstroke, when he slugged Zatanna, had hurled a racial slur against Italians at her? Would the response then have been different, and the MSM less inclined to whitewash and sugarcoat the whole shambles?I thought about this while reading La Shawn Barber's commentary on ...
More About: Worth , Always , Wort

Another rabbi who's inspired by comics
2007-06-06 17:15:00
Besides the rabbi Simcha Weinstein, it looks like there's another rabbi who's also drawn inspiration for his work, that being Cary Friedman of New Jersey, who wrote Wisdom from the Batcave: How to Live a Super-Heroic Life, and is a special consultant for the FBI. The New Jersey Jewish News wrote an article about him this week.Boy, now this too is amazing stuff.
More About: Comics , Inspire , Inspired , Rabbi