DC News & Views: Minx is Coming!

News

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. Everyone, that is, who celebrates this US holiday. If you do not, I hope that simply had a delightful Thursday November 23rd.

Here’s one of the stops I made along the way on my crazy voyage.


This is at my Gram and Gramp Guyette’s house. Seated around the table are, starting with the first photo and moving left to right, my cousin Eric, my uncle Gary, my uncle Bob, my stepmother Diane, a small portion of my fathe’s face, and the back of my aunt Nancy’s head. In the second photo, we have my dad Jonathan, my brother in law Joe vaguely visible in the distance, my aunt Nancy (her face this time) Janelle, and myself. And yes, for some reason, it appears it was quite hazy inside my grandparents’house that ay. Also before anyone is tempted to same something witty about lack of hair running in the family, the only one there I am related to by blood is my dad and, as you can see, he still has all his hair. So, there. For what that’s worth.

And now, as a bonus, a picture of my nephew on the world’s ugliest couch.


Kicking it Midwestern Style

As much of America spent the weekend winding down from the Thanksgiving holiday, some dedicated comics fans left the turkey casseroles behind to catch up with their favorite creators at the Mid-Ohio Con in Columbus.

Newsarama talked to a few of the show’s guests to get the buzz from the con floor.

Join Newsarama in the America’s political bellwether for some buckeyes (they are quite tasty).

Mid Ohio Con! Wooooooooooooo”¦?

Look, I’m sure it is great convention, but goodness does it need a better name. Something with pizzazz. Something like”¦ COLOSSAL CON: DESTROYER OF YOUR PUNY EXPECTATIONS!!!

What? No? Too much?

Well, I’m just saying they should think about it is all.

Let’s just bounce around this article and find what matters to this column, shall we?

You’ve gotta love Adam Hughes’ honesty, “Be patient. Don’t listen to DC Comics when they talk about when the book’s coming out. They’re going to tell you when they’d like the book to come out, but I have a better appraisal of my speed, so listen to when I think the book’s going to come out.” I just hope DC respects his opinion on his speed enough not to solicit issues before he says he can deliver them on a consistent basis. We shall see.

Mike Norton should, if possible, draw a book a week for each comic book company. And I do mean each. He’s underappreciated on almost a Cliff Chiang or Marcos Martin level, I kid you not.

So is Roger Stern writing a completely out of continuity story here in JLA: Classified? If not, when did Black Canary join the first Justice League? See, DC, you can’t “fix” anything without making more problems. By the way, I respect Stern and enjoy a lot of his work, but goodness, someone needs to kill JLA: Classified and quick. I’m digging JSA: Classified, (which is weird considering how weak it was out of the gate in comparison to JLA: Classified), but JLA:C needs to change it up and quick or just put it self on an ice float and push off into the Bering Strait.

This has almost nothing to do with DC, but I get a huge kick out of Beau Smith. I think his “last real man in comics” persona is at least 50% put on, but he never fails to make me smirk when he embraces it.

Every time DC comments on how they find new talent, it just depresses me a little bit more. Yes, there is the selfish reason because, hell, I’d love to work for them. But if I don’t, it is hardly the end of the world. I have another “more serious” career chosen that I pursuing so I’m set in that department. It really depresses me because I just think it breeds complacency, which inevitably leads to the industry cannibalizing itself. A big part of the comic book twenty year cycle is popular creators burning out, moving to other fields, or going “indie” and the big 2 being left with also-rans because they never bothered to develop a strong bench. I know reviewing portfolio after portfolio or bound writing sample after bound writing sample must be a pain in the neck that passes all understanding, but that does not mean it is unnecessary.

Also it bugs me that artists can more or less break in all by their lonesome but writers should come in with an artist to get DC’s attention. Talk about devaluing a large portion of the creative team.

Beau Smith (you know, that guy I was loving a few paragraphs ago) shows up in the talkback section to really drive the nail into the coffin though when he says that it is probably easier now to get into the NBA or the NFL than to break into comics at the Big 2. Sure, that’s true for me because I throw a perfect spiral fifty yards down field and dunk from half court, but for everybody else? Shouldn’t it be just a little easier than becoming a professional athlete?

I just have to say that I would love to get one sentence cryptic e-mails from Grant Morrison. Is there some sort of service where I can sign up for that? Seriously, how great would it be to open your e-mail box on a Monday night and read an e-mail for Morrison that simply said, “Travel the chasm, the rest does not matter” or something equally obtuse? I think that that very well might make my week if that happened.

Women Reading Comics. Wait”¦What?!

Focusing specifically on teenage girls, it was announced today that DC Comics will launch Minx in May, a line of graphic novels targeted towards young female readers.

The Minx line will be overseen by Karen Berger and Shelly Bond of DC’s Vertigo imprint, and will include between six and seven titles in 2007. The original graphic novels will be slightly larger than manga digest sized, and will retail for under $10. Minx will be the first concerted effort by a US publisher at an entire line of graphic novels aimed solely at this specific audience.

The line, according to a report in The New York Times Arts section, is seen by DC as an alternative, not only to superheroes and its other output, but also to manga, which has found a rock-solid audience among young girls. The stories, Berger told Newsarama, will not be manga-esque, or in manga format, but rather, all-new works aimed at the specific audience. Clarifying the content for the Times, Berger said the new OGNs will be “about more than going out with the cute guy. This line of books gives them something to read that honors that intelligence and assertiveness and that individuality.”

Watch Newsarama aid and abet DC as they ruin everything.

Just so you know, that link line above is sarcastic. Please, please, please don’t write me to express outrage about it. Unless you are complaining about me using sarcasm. Then, please, write away.

I think it is great DC is giving this a roll. I mean, what the hell, why not try to expand the audience? One thing I will never fault comics for is taking a risk to grow the business. Even if it does fall a bit into the stereotype trap of “boys like power fantasies, girls like relationship fantasies”. Hey, baby steps, right?


My instincts tell me things are not about to go well for Jane.

All of this said, I will not tolerate anyone castigating me for not buying these books, for not supporting DC’s risk. That’s not to say I am or am not planning to check them out, but if I do not or if I do and find them not to my liking, that’s a valid choice. Remember, these are not marketed towards the likes of me. In fact, if it takes me (and others like me) buying them to support the line, well, the mission has sort of failed anyway. I like comic companies doing things differently, taking risks, etc, but it is not specifically my job to support all of those endeavors.

Sorry, just a little pre-emptive strike against message board chatter if this does not work out.

Can we outlaw labeling girls and women who enjoy dancing in clubs as “whores”, please? Also, women or girls who wear skirts that are short or shirts that expose their stomachs are not whores. Female characters who have sex with more than one character or with a character you do not like are not whores. For that matter, real life women who have sex with more than one person, or enjoy having sex, or dress provocatively, or whatever, are not whores. Good God! If I have to read this epithet thrown around in one more talkback I swear to you, to me, and to all that is holy that I may just lose my mind. Why oh why are we a.) such ridiculously reactionary prudes and b.) so quick to label female behaviors that we disagree with, for whatever reason, as slutty or whorish or bitchy or whatever other derogatory synonym we can come up with at that time? It’s disgusting and I am tired of being disgusted.

Come on fellow comic fans, end this. Do it for your mom, for your sis, for your daughter, cousin, niece, aunt, girlfriend, fiancée, boss, co-worker, etc, etc. Or just do it because it is right. Either way, stop. Now.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

52 WEEK 30

Now 100% more Batman centric!!!!!

TEEN TITANS #40

Just making a prediction here: Red Star leads a cavalry made up of all those briefly Titans from OYG to save the core team. Not sure if it will happen or not, but to me, that is the only way to justify the creation of all those “almost DC heroes, but younger” and barely (if at all) showing them.

I still like Titans, but I’m hoping this issue signals the start of strong storyline plots like the book was boasting for most of its run prior to Infinite Crisis and OYL. Right now, it is fine, but it still feels very”¦stagey to me.

AMERICAN VIRGIN #9

Maybe this’ll be the week I decide if I like this book or not.

OPINIONS ON THE WORK OF PEOPLE FAR MORE TALENTED THAN I

52 WEEK 29

So forgettable that even as I write this, merely two hours after reading the issue, I’m having a hard time remembering what the heck happened. Oh, Thanksgiving, right. Okay, I’ve got my bearings again.

Still, not so hot. The despondent JSA stuff was decent, culminating in a great, sad moment for Wildcat. The b-story, a very Mad Scientist Thanksgiving, was funny for a moment, but lasted about half the issue. Too long to go to setup what we all knew was coming: Magnus being stripped of his psych meds.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and call this my least favorite 52 to date.

CONNOR HAWKE: DRAGON’S BLOOD #1

For a book called “Connor Hawke: Dragon’s Blood” this book was oddly light on the Connor. Still it was more face time than he garnered in a while so it is not all bad.

In fact, the rest of the issue is pretty good as we meet various archers who will be competing in a contest to commemorate a Chinese myth. Dixon does a nice job of giving us vignettes that give us a peek at the other archers’ personalities without staying any one place too long.

It still suffers from a case of setupitis which does not much bother me, but probably will bother others. It is very much like the gathering of forces like you would see at the beginning of any movie about competition or disparate groups of people being recruited for probably hidden reasons. I like that sort of feel so it worked for me. If you don’t, be warned.

WONDER WOMAN #3

Wow. I hate to say this, but Circe was making a lot of sense at the end there, huh?

This issue, like the last one (if you can remember all those many months ago), looks great, moves fast, and feels”¦empty. While I’m reading it, I’m liking it. However, moments later, the memory of it has dissipated. It is like cotton candy in text and pictures form. What should be momentous, the return of Diana after a year long absence, is all spectacle, no substance.

That’s why Circe’s monologue at the end sticks out so much. It lends substance to an issue that otherwise seems to just be in a rush to move from one action set piece to the next.

As you can see, we still have a ways to go, but the column is pulling itself together. Hopefully next week, the cover graphics will return and I’ll have changed a few text category headers (like Coming Attractions) over to graphical ones (like Shooting Back at the Grimace). Hope to have you here for that.

In the meantime, drop me an e-mail at parallax2@juno.com or hit the message boards and let me know what you think.

Un Gajje Loves Sausage Stuffing