A Bit of a Rant to Anyone Who Believes They Are Too Good for Comic Books

Have you seen the trailer to this summer's blockbuster film 300? It’s a story of Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Greek Spartans hold back a Persian invasion force of thousands. I am sure the exact numbers have been exaggerated for dramatic effect, but it’s an impressive real life story. Guess what, it’s an impressive comic book too. Frank Miller turned the story into a graphic novel (a classier word for comic book) and from what I understand, it’s a pretty darn good adaptation. Well, because Sin City (another comic book, a crime series by Frank Miller) was received so well by movie audiences, Hollywood has put its resources into making another one of Miller's comics into a movie. It looks like it will be fun. What I don't get is if you read anything in your spare time and you watch these movies (Sin City, X-Men, Spider-man, etc.) what do you have against reading a comic book?

Especially now, with media changing because of the impact of technology. The majority of movies have little content, which I believe has made a lot of people seek gaming as an alternative. And now the video game industry makes more money than Hollywood. Television got boring. Any media with in a serial format is going to get tired over time. Plots get recycled and then the only time they are interesting is when they get spun according to current events. When reality television came around, it became really popular because it was something different, which put pressure on the people writing television to come up with better stories to compete. They have, there is a lot a of good television programs out today. The comic book industry has been around since the 1930's. It has gone through a series of up periods and down periods. Right now it is in one hell of an up period. The later half of the 90’s was the last really bad period. In the early 90's collectors bought as much as they could, thinking all four variant covers of X-Men number one were going to pay for their way through college. All the industry had to do was release variant covers, holo-gram covers, foil covers, and they would make more money. When people figured out they weren’t going to be getting rich through comics they bailed. The industry went into one of those down periods until guys like Mark Millar, Brian Michael Bendis, and Grant Morrison started writing. Now BK Vaughn, Robert Kirkman, and Greg Ruka are writing along side those already named and comic book veterans from the past twenty years. Add to the equation guys like Damon Lindelof (co-creator of Lost), Bryan Singer (Superman Returns, X-Men, Apt Pupil, The Usual Suspects), and Brad Meltzer (The Book of Fate) and there are a crap load of great comic book stories being told right now. Stories with depth. There are also a lot without depth. Stories that are only clever and not that deep, like Civil War. If CW isn’t your thing, fine, it is a story designed for those who like super heroes, but if you like good story telling there are plenty of other comics, with intelligent thought provoking content, that you can read instead of super hero. Sin City and 300 are both steps in the direction of what comics can do outside of super heroes, but they are still very much action adventure stories, which are more clever than intelligent. However, I just read the first book of Maus, which tells the story of the author’s father’s experiences through the Holocaust. It anthropomorphizes nationalities to tell the story (Mice for Jews, Pigs for Poles, Cats for Germans, etc.), but so does Animal Farm and that is considered literary. My point, if you like to read, I guarantee there is some form of graphic story telling you could enjoy, if you only gave the medium the slightest of chances.

I Am Either the Dorkiest or I am the Most Awesome Comic Fanboy Ever

I proclaim myself Most Awesome, but I will let you judge for yourself.

If you have been brought down by the delay, I wrote this speech to raise your spirits. Of course, I modeled it after the St. Crispin's Day speech in Henry V.



Disgruntled Fanboy: Oh man, I wish Civil War had the consistent schedule of 52.

Enlightened Fanboy: What? Who wants Marvel’s Civil War to be like DC’s 52?
If this crossover was going to be worth our time and money,
We deserve the magnificent pencils of Steven McNiven.
By the spirit of Kirby! Do not ask for a fill in artist.
Fanboy, I am not collecting all of the variant covers.
If you are buying this crossover, for a resell profit on eBay, you’re cool with me.
This isn’t a Marvel vs. DC thing.
That rivalry doesn’t have much weight anymore.
But if it is dorky to get excited about comic books,
Then I am the biggest dork there is.
No, fellow fanboys, do not wish for a consistent six week schedule.
On Kirby’s grave! I would not lose McNiven’s art
For a crap alternative, which I believe a fill-in artist would deliver.
Instead, put in on the internet,
Anyone who is pissed off about the delay,
You can drop the series. There are plenty of other comics that come out more often.
I would not post on a message board with the fan
That does not have the patience to let great art be made.
This day is Wednesday, new comics day.
The fanboy who can tolerate the long wait for this comic book,
Will be rewarded when he pours over every awesome panel.
And we will be psyched whenever anyone talks about Civil War.
He that gets through this day and does not have the plot spoiled,
Will go onto iFanboy.com and post about it with other comic book fans.
He will post, “Holy Crap! Spider-man really unmasked to everyone!”
Then will he bare his love of super heroes and show his geekieness.
And say, “I am blown away by Mark Millar’s cliffhanger endings.”
Bad crossovers get retconned; Let all go through a Crisis,
But Civil War will echo through every future story arch,
In the Marvel Universe. As familiar as mainstream pop-icons,
Captain America, Iron Man and Spider-man,
Daredevil and Falcon, Goliath and Thor,
Will be talked about in every good comic book store.
This crossover will a good collector give to his son.
And future publisher wide crossovers will never go by
From this series, until the collapse of the industry,
But we fanboys will be remembered
We dorky, we happy geeks, We Band of Brothers,
For he today that buys this comic,
Shall be my brother, Even if he is the biggest nerd there is.
This day will make him a little cooler.
And those readers who are too embarrassed to walk themselves into a comic book store,
Will spite of us but not admit that they ARE jealous, when their co-workers talk,
About what happened, in Marvel’s Civil War!

In the Absense of Marvel's Civil War...

...lets take a look at a comic about another war. This was done by Civil War writer, Mark Millar, for a Scotland newspaper, The Sunday Herald. It appeared a while back. It is a good view of what comics can do outside of the super hero thing. A lot of comic book story telling is about feeling the story rather than coming to an understanding. Comic books are poetic in that they can convey emotion without putting them into words. Look at Blair's face, a part of the guy is hurting inside.





Don't forget Civil War #4 comes out next week (September 20th)!

Me So Happy

From Newsarama...

CB CEBULKI TALKS MARVEL's LONERS
by Vaneta Rogers

Right behind the news that Runaways is getting a new creative team comes word from Marvel that fans of the series are also getting a new spin-off series beginning in January.

Loners, written by C.B. Cebulski with art by Karl Moline, will pick up the story of "Excelsior," the support group for former teen superheroes that debuted in the "True Believers" story arc in Issues #1-6 of the current Runaways volume.

Holding meetings in a church basement, the Excelsior support group attempted to help former child heroes adjust to their new lives as normal teens. The group included Turbo of the New Warriors, former Green Goblin Phil Urich, Darkhawk, Ricochet of the Slingers, and Julie Power, also known as Lightspeed.

While the humor of self-help group members reminiscing about their past heroic adventures caught the attention of long-time fans, things really got exciting when the group was encouraged by a secret benefactor to take their mission a step further and forcibly convince other child heroes to stop as well -- including the young Runaways.

Although they didn't succeed in stopping the Runaways, the group took on some high-powered Marvel villains and found out that their secret benefactor was none other than Rick Jones, a former teen hero himself, who stood ready to continue supporting their mission. All the right elements seemed to be in place for more adventures with the teens under the leadership of Jones, but the "Excelsior" members haven't been revisited since.

But now, Marvel has obviously decided it's time for the group to continue their mission. As Cebulski visited the Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend, he took a few moments to chat with Newsarama about the new spin-off series and what fans can expect from the group of wayward superpowered teens as they begin anew in their own series.

Darkhawk was my all time favorite comic book in the 90's. He was a teen who found and amulet that turned him into a super hero. He had team ups with Spider-man and the New Warriors. He was apart of a Spider-man series with Moon Knight. He fought Venom and Hobgoblin. He was a reserve member of the Avengers West Coast.

Recently, he appeared in an arc of Runaways. He was a lot darker and a little bi-polar. He was bad ass! Also he appeared in a Marvel Team-up as the leader of the Legion of Losers.

Comic books are so good right now. I can't wait to get new Darkhawk stories.

I've done some thinking on the Iraq War too...

I have always had the view that the Iraq war has been
about establishing another US-friendly state in the region. Weapons of Mass
Destruction, I believed were a possibility. I believed
Saddam, or his sons afterwards, could become
sympathetic to Al-Qaeda interests in an "enemy of my
enemy is my friend" kind of way.

I don't like the war. I think the administration has
done a poor job of running it. I don't think it was
justified in any legal way, but I haven't decided
whether it was necessary or not. Of course the loss of
life is ugly, however if you aren't willing to put you life at
the risk then don't sign up for the service.

Saddam may not have been a threat beyond the first
Gulf War, now almost 15 years ago. However it is likely
his sons would have taken power afterwards and it is
my impression they were worse monsters than their
father.

I don't know what to make of the war. Anyone who
expected it to be easy is stupid. Nothing I have ever read has made real war seem like a picnic. Anyone who believes
war is ultraistic is stupid. Conflict is about killing. Usually, killing that serves the personal interests of the leaders of the country starting the war. Iraq had no connection to
9/11 and I have never believed it did. However, after 9/11,
the US was going to establish itself in the Middle
East. More significantly than it already was. Apart of securing that
presence was dealing with states that were a threat to
US forces in the region. Iraq was one threat. Iran is
another. The Bush Administration chose to deal with
Iraq using military force. Me, I would have pushed
covert means to eliminate Saddam and his sons. I would
have pushed the Iraqi people to fight Saddam. Then
again, I am not president. Also a Civil War would be just as ugly as what is going on now. And what would it have taken to get the Iraqi
people to trust the US after what happened at the end
of the Gulf War?

Before we leave Iraq we need to make sure the
government is friendly to the US. We need to get
western businesses into the country. We need to make
sure the Iraqi people have a system that lets them
take care of themselves. Lets them feed themselves and
gives them something to choose other than going to
Islamic fundamentalist groups. Saddam was an alternative, but he isn't there anymore. I want the US to provide
the region with an alternative. Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah get access to their
followers by preying on people who have little other choice.
That is the problem. That is the war we should be
fighting. How do you fight that kind of enemy?

Is it the United State’s place to have any role in the region? Honestly, I don’t know. I do know we need the oil.

I've done some thinking on 9/11...

I like a good conspiracy theory. I like thinking outside the box. I am all for standing up for what you believe in even when everyone else says it’s whacked. Just be able to back up you ideas.

Here are some of my thoughts on 9/11.

We don't know that the government lied, because there
are heaps of facts that say it didn't.

The man in the cave didn't call up on September 10th
and say, "I got an idea I want to try, sends some guys
to America and do this..." I would be inclined to believe he didn't
even have any knowledge of it before watching it on television. He
had money he made available. He put together an organization that has expanded. I
accept the idea that some guys, who weren't criminals
at the time and free to do whatever they want, were
able to get into America. I can also accept that it would have been possible for people
to steal control of several planes for
their own purposes. They weren't dog fighting the
Luftwaffe, they steered one large object to crash into
the largest object in their sky. I doubt it takes a lot
of skill to be able to fly like that. Most people who have read the manuals, gone through basic training and have ever played a
video game could probably handle that much.

There are strange things about the event, but that
doesn't necessarily mean there is a grand conspiracy.

I can accept that these people were psychos who were
brainwashed into doing this thing. I imagine there are
US soldiers in Iraq who think similarly. Dying for
their country/cause is acceptable and might even aspire to it.

People over here don't love their politicians. This
country was built on distrusting power and attacking
it when it becomes harmful. If there was proof that
our leaders are criminals and that proof was spoon fed
to us. We would turn on them. That is the problem.
Things are too complicated so people choose not to
engage them. Give people an in for the problem and
they will take it, but don't expect them to go
looking for the facts on their own. Not when the system
gives them enough to make them comfortable and happy. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you, especially when it feeds you such delicious treats.

You could take that stuff away from them. Take away
their comfort and scare them into looking at things
your way, but if you are pushing you message through fear,
doesn't that make you some sort of terrorist? People
need to be smart enough to think about the subject.
The "truth" is that whatever the facts show, most
people aren't intelligent enough to understand what the data means. They need someone to tell it to
them, someone like CNN and Fox News or any media source. When that
happens, it’s the side with the better resources
that gets to make the "truth."

Don't give me crap about facts. Give me a network to
educate people. You want to do something to change
things. Teach people and let them come to their own conclusions, don't preach to them.

Check it out...

I went with a new look. Like the dots? Also I added to my profile. Because you know you haven't been getting enough of me. I offer more information about moi.

A Memoir on my Reading and Writing

My earliest memories of reading and writing are of lessons that I can barely remember. Sitting in a classroom at a very young age and learning my ABC's, how to diagram a sentence, and proper grammar use. I went to a Catholic grade school. My spelling lessons were taught by an elderly nun. I probably spent just as much time trying to figure out what that oddly dressed woman was all about as I did studying the words she wrote on the board.
My elementary school was a very rigid entity. Lessons were presented to us and it was our role as students to soak up as much of the knowledge as possible. There were some teachers who made learning a chore, but there were others made it fun. I remember English class being the same set of lessons grade after grade. We would be assigned stories out of a text book. We would have a certain amount of reading due for the next class. When a story was completed we would have a set of questions that needed to be answered. The questions were designed to reward you with a good grade if you knew what happened and punish you with a bad grade if you were not able to follow the plot. The classes were always divided into two groups. One group would talk about the reading while the other group has assigned work to get through. At some point the groups would switch. We had the Book It program, which was the only reason we had for reading whole novels, other than reading for personal enlightenment. However, a lot of us had sports and Nintendo games that we played with when weren't in school. In that environment it is easy for one to develop a nasty habit of reading only what is necessary to and then indulging on friends and media when the lessons are over.
Around the end of elementary school I would write a short story of my own from time to time. The first time was in March of 1993. The reason I remember the date is because it was the year there was a huge blizzard in Pittsburgh. My family always goes to the St. Patrick's Day parade, but we didn't that year (also the only year we haven't) because of the huge amount of snow that hit Pittsburgh. Instead, I was trapped in the house with my family while the snow piled up outside. For whatever reason, instead of honing my skills at Super Mario Brothers 3, I picked up a small red notebook and started to write. I spent most of the weekend in my room writing a story. I don't remember what the story was about, but I was intensely focused on it during that weekend and through the follow snow days that kept us out of school. My friends came over or I would go to their houses or we would be outside shoveling snow off of sidewalks and flinging it at each other, but for a couple of hours each day I wrote in that notebook. I wish I could remember what the story was about.
In my high school English classes I began to read at a little more depth. We read a lot of novels. We had several novels assigned to us as summer reading. I remember feeling discouraged over having to read so many pages. Some novels ended up being surprisingly enjoyable and others a huge bore. We always wrote reports. We practiced the five paragraph essay from Freshman year through Senior year. We wrote about novels or plays, but occasionally we could do a report on a film or a television show. My Sophomore year I had an American Literature class where we watched an episode of the Simpsons and wrote an essay on it. The reading I did in high school was focused on the Western Canon, but to be more specific, British and American works. We read Shakespeare, Chauser, Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingwey, Steinbeck, and others. In high school, the primary lesson I learned about reading were that it took a lot of concentration to get through. Literature was thick with words and events I knew little about. Every now and then an unusual word would appear. A familiar word from the vocabulary lessons that were being drilled into our memories for the sake of better SAT scores. It was fun to see it appear in context. Little things like recognizing an unusual word were fun to me. I may not have had command of Hemingwey but I was learning a new vocabulary.
In high school I had inherited my sister's word processor to write my reports on. The computer we got went into her room, because she was in college and had more prestigious use for the machine. I had the word processor with no internet and no gaming ability for my room. It was adequate for writing my papers. It worked well for writing stories. At some point over the summer, when friends were away on vacations or working summer jobs, I would find myself at home alone. Every now and then I would go back to writing stories. It was as much out of boredom as it was out of some passion for writing. I remember one story about a solider at the D-Day invasion during WWII. I wrote another about a kid on summer vacation. Nothing too epic, just stories where things happened to people. I didn't think that things like an antagonist, conflict, a tone or even an ending needed to be put into a story. It was my assumption that if you just sat down and wrote, those elements would just work themselves in to piece. I never even realized my stories needed those elements, because I never showed my stories to anyone. They read fine to me and it wasn't my intention to present them in any form. I never did any revisions. Half the time I never even finished the story.
In college I became a lot more interested in reading on my own. I was still in the canon. It was still very difficult to get through the language. When I did understand what was going on beyond the plot that understanding (sometimes not until months after I finished the novel) I felt personally empowering. I educated myself outside of anyone else's lessons. I pushed myself into knowledge, I wasn't lead there by anyone else's expectations.
My writing was over three different areas. I wrote fiction for my creative writing and fiction classes. This was the first time I would share my work with anyone else. It wasn't as difficult as I expected. A lot of times other people's stories were just as bad as mine. Grammatically bad, I mean. However I was not feeling as passionate about my stories as I felt I should be. It was discouraging to write creatively for the sake of a lesson. I felt that if I was going to feel anything about my writing I had to be doing it for myself. I was writing essays for my History classes, which largely concentrated on answering one of several essay questions. I wrote in some variation of the five paragraph essay structure and rarely felt inspired enough to offer any uniquely brilliant answers. I did what was expected of me to get the assignment done. I wrote on my own very seldomly. I was writing so much during the months I was in class that when I didn't have any assignments I didn't want to sit in front of the computer screen. So I read, but I also worked a lot.
Today, I have come back to writing fiction, but at a limited capacity. I think I have a couple ideas I can turn into books. I work on something for a couple nights over a week or two and then not even look at it again for months. In between I chat and debate through email. I have recognized I take away more pleasure from writing when I am not working towards a grade. When I do it on my own. I concentrate less on form, I am able to push out ideas at more depth. Those early vocab and grammar lessons allow me to communicate, but I find myself constantly having to confirm definition and rules even years later. My interests in reading and writing have gone through periods of heavy study and periods where I lost almost all interest. I expect things to continue along those lines. I have several ideas for entertaining stories. If I develop my ideas enough I could probably turn them into a couple of novels, but at the pace I have been going that won't happen until years from now. It is not my desire to become an accomplished novelist. I just have some ideas I want to get out of my head. Once they are out, why not see if anyone wants to buy them?