Mass Communicatin'

To my own perception and regret, the Internet has been lousy with my work this week, what we cliche-hounds call 'a perfect storm.' I don't post 'em I only write 'em, so there. I deem this 'internet-famous' like barrage, 'Sacks-ing' after the benevolent overlord of Comics Bulletin, Jason Sacks, as in "I had four posts go live on Comics Bulletin this week! I am so Sacksing right now!" Trust me, it's a thing.

 

Sacksing can't happen without the great editors I work with at Comics Bulletin, Danny Dejeljosevic and David Fairbanks. Without them I'm one hand-clapping. Thanks men!

 

Here's a quick rundown of the week and remember if you haven't seen it or read it (Reddit?) it's new to you:

 

Jamil Scalese and I form a new team on Comics Bulletin with a look at FF #1. NOW! Jamil and I agree on most of what Mike Allred and Matt Fraction have to offer here. What struck me most (and I think Jamil agrees) is this -- for Jamil it's better, for me, worse -- is another #1 that over-promises and under-delivers. It might be a great series once it gets going, but this issue, for me at least, never gets out of first gear.

 

Daniel Elkin also helped me keep pace with a visit to the Supermarket, Brian Wood and Kristian Donaldson's 2006 mini-series. It's good clean fun with an 'eep' or two and some cartoon violence thrown in to keep it spicey. Elkin took me to task (rightfully so) for not taking Supermarket at face value. It's dismissive to call anything 'minor' in an artist's oeuvre, so let's call this a welcome departure from Wood's heavier work and, oh yeah, I want more of this Donaldson.

 

Next, I weighed in over at the Two-Headed Nerd with an essay on why I write about comics. A lot of it is all 'sweetness and light;' however, more than a love letter to my own ego, I tried to make it a call to arms to get more people writing and talking about the comics they love and why they love them (and if those comics happen to be creator-owned, all the better). I also added my voice (and my arms) to new column that THN calls Slave Revolt. Tony Doug Wright of Champion City Comics led the charge while Aaron Meyers and I took to the battlements beside him.

 

The biggest bombshell to drop was a piece I wrote with David Fairbanks: 'Why I Want to Pour Gasoline on Corporate Comics.' This is really a companion piece to the one that ran on THN except it's more acidic. It's a conversation-starter that I hope gets more people 'thinking' about 'why' they buy the comics they buy and not only 'what' they buy.

 

The piece I'm most proud of is something I hinted at a month or so ago: Old Mutants, New Ideas: Bill Sienkiewicz's New Mutants. I'm writing about Sienkiewicz's complete thirteen issue run and trying to capture what Sienkiewicz means to me and what it was like to be twelve-years-old and in love with comic books, words and most of all, art. For me, Bill Sienkiewicz represents the art of the possible. ¶ There is more that I've written that's yet to post (thank Crom!) and (better yet) more to write. I'm going to work to make IiSF? my library at Alexandria -- oh, yes, I know hype and how to be pretentious -- and keep it updated with the 'new' and the 'new to you.' As I said at the end of my essay for THN: go and do likewise, go and do likewise.