Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Thrillerfest kicked off yesterday at the Grand Hyatt Hotel here in New York and I had the pleasure of attending the full day — I’ll be back tonight and most of Saturday — meeting some great people, picking up some interesting books, and taking in some insightful information on the publishing game from the perspective of successful authors in the thriller genre. Prior to attending, I considered myself a fan of thrillers but quickly realized the genre I tend to enjoy most is classified more as mystery than thriller — marketing semantics that, according to several authors, means more money for the thriller genre — the difference being the former’s focus on figuring out what happened while the latter emphasizes something that’s going to happen and the clock is ticking.

Lawrence Block’s Scudder series, my hands-down genre favorite, definitely falls under crime mystery, while Charlie Huston’s Thompson and Greg Rucka’s Kodiak series are thrillers, though neither author is in attendance at the show nor represented in the Barnes & Noble bookstore on-site, presumably because neither is a member of the sponsoring organization, International Thriller Writers. Inspired by the energy of the conference, I picked up four novels by authors I’ve never read before, including Kathleen Antrim (pictured, right), Steve Berry, Andrew Gross and David Liss, all but the latter I saw or met yesterday. I’ve started reading Antrim’s Capital Offense, which she describes as “What if the First Lady was plotting to kill the President?” and so far, it’s a brisk read that hits all the right notes expected from the genre.

The first session of the day, Learn How to Pitch Your Book (conducted by Antrim & Bob Mayer), was particularly fascinating for its breakdown of the process of developing a 25-word summary of your book that serves not just as your pitch to agents and editors — the only two influential people who will have actually read your entire book before it hits the bookshelves – but when done well, will represent it all the way through the sales process, internally and externally.

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No spoiler warning necessary at this point when it’s now the featured story on Yahoo’s main page!

It was “spoiled” for me on the way to work today thanks to a page 3 article in the Daily News, “Captain America killed!“. Even Marvel has now revealed it on their web site, after teasing it with a Daily Bugle: A Hero has been Shot story earlier today that didn’t identify the victim. Cute.

Of course, despite most not having read the story in question yet, the blogiverse is already cynically chiming in with variations on “So what?” and “Quesada sucks!” in response to this rumored development, one which admittedly caught me off-guard since I’d assumed it would happen in Civil War, and when it didn’t, forgot about it completely.

One of my favorite comments comes courtesy of RobN, via Blog@:

Well this just proves a miseriable fucking company Marvel has become under Quesada. This “Do anything and fuck continuity, fuck the characters and fuck the fans mentality” is going to cost Marvel big.

Now, I have some issues with Joe Quesada’s handling of the MU, but credit where credit’s due, he’s kept Marvel on top of the direct market heap for a few years running now, fending off a strong attempt by DC to unseat, or at least match them. Marvel also makes no bones about where their focus is — squarely on superheroes and the direct market, with an increasing emphasis on leveraging their properties for a variety of licensing purposes, including film — and they’ve been quite successful following that formula.

Considering Captain America hasn’t exactly been a significant seller in many a year — excepting the recent boost from, you guessed it, Civil War, and despite Ed Brubaker’s generally lauded run to-date — killing him off isn’t going to cost Marvel anything in the long-term. One of two things will happen: 1) they capitalize on his death and the fragments of potential left behind in Civil War’s wake, and tell some amazing stories that demonstrate how dramatically the Marvel Universe has changed over the years; or 2) they botch it and bring him back before the year is out, no muss, no fuss.

The latter, obviously, would “cost” them a bit in the credibility department, but they already have a huge deficit there, so it’s not a big deal. Hell, Quesada and company would probably find a way to spin it so that enough fans are placated, turn it into another PR coup and enflame the blogiverse all over again.

As a reader and fan of Brubaker’s Captain America, I have full confidence in his ability to make it all work, though. Of course, if he doesn’t, I’ll simply drop the title from my pull list and move on; no muss, no fuss.

I’m reminded of the recent three-episode arc on Grey’s Anatomy, where the fate of the lead character, Meredith Grey, hung in the balance. I never thought they’d actually kill her off [they didn't], and so was more focused on how the possibility of her death affected her friends and co-workers and how it moved their characters forward, which I think they handled beautifully. Not everyone agrees, many expressing their disappointment on the show’s writers’ blog, but I’m willing to bet when new episodes return in a couple weeks, it will remain amongst the highest-rated shows on TV because it has earned that audience over a period of time by telling compelling stories featuring an amazing and diverse cast of characters potrayed by talented actors. If/when the ratings start to dip — as often happens, sometimes seemingly on a whim — they’ll need to retrench and figure where they went wrong.

Not unlike, to the objective observer, the team of creators currently running the Marvel Universe through its paces. While YOU may not like the current state of the union, just like not everyone’s a fan of Grey’s Anatomy or Lost or CSI, Marvel’s “ratings” are currently high enough that they’re not changing direction any time soon and it simply means you’re not their target audience.

And, you know what, that’s okay, because there’s a ton of other comics out there that are perfect for you. Instead of bitching about the ones that aren’t, why not find the ones that are and laud them instead?

Reading is fundamental. Read what you like; don’t waste your time reading bad comics out of habit!

My weekly look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 3/7/07. The full shipping list, as always, is available at ComicList.

[NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it. If not, find another one; or try Khepri.com or MidtownComics.com]

The Living and the Dead

Legacy has replaced Conan, which I still enjoy, as my favorite licensed comic. NOTE: For context, it should be understood that I consider all of Marvel and DC’s spandex titles to be licensed comics, too.

DC COMICS
Detective Comics #829, $2.99
Helmet Of Fate Zauriel #1, $2.99
Jonah Hex #17, $2.99
Shazam The Monster Society Of Evil #2 (Of 4), $5.99
Uncle Sam And The Freedom Fighters #8 (Of 8), $2.99

I’ll have to revisit the Helmet of Fate: Black Alice issue sometime in the near future, because it was the most interesting of the one-shots so far, but overall, this has to be one of the more pointless series of stories I’ve ever read. I can’t imagine what the payoff will be, or how it’s all supposed to add up to buzz for the ongoing series, though. *** While I enjoyed Jeff Smith’s fun take on the Big Red Cheese, it wasn’t so good that I can’t skip the pricey serial format and wait for the trade. *** Palmiotti and Gray continue to deliver the off-kilter goods in Jonah Hex, and among the announcements coming out of NY Comic Con was the great news that there’s more Uncle Sam… coming, though it might be via Countdown, which isn’t so great.

DEVILS DUE PUBLISHING
GI Joe Dreadnoks Declassified Sauve Cvr A #2 (Of 3), $4.99

I totally punked out on my decision to shift to GI Joe to TPB-only after the recent price increase to $3.50, and the first issue from the new creative team, focusing on Baroness, was actually pretty good. The Declassified stories have been consistently good reads, too, so I guess Devil’s Due maintains a hold on their small slice of my personal market share.

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT
Lone Ranger Directors Cut #1, $4.99

Anyone out there who’s not a Cassaday sycophant who thinks this is worth picking up? I’m curious, but haven’t been moved yet to jump on the bandwagon.

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
Living And The Dead GN, $9.95

I’ve mentioned this in the past, but there’s something odd about the fact that I consider myself a Jason fan, have positively reviewed a couple of his books in the past (The Left Bank Gang was among my Best of 2006), and yet am always surprised to see a new release from him pop up on the shipping list. I know I’m not necessarily part of Fantagraphics’ target readership (though I probably am, more than either of us might realize) but with as many blogs and comics’ Web sites I scan daily, it absolutely baffles me that is the first I’m hearing of this latest release. Anyway, this is apparently a sequel to You Can’t Get There From Here, which I haven’t read yet, so I’ll be picking both of these up tomorrow.

IMAGE COMICS
Bomb Queen III #1 (Of 4), $3.50
Dynamo 5 #1, $3.50
Nat Turner Book 2 Revolution TPB, $10.00

Image titles are few and far between on my mental pull list these days, never mind my actual list, but the first two issues of Nat Turner were amazing and a great pickup for the publisher. Dynamo 5 seems like it might be good, too, though the $3.50 price tag gives it a really short leash and will have to make an immediate impression on me. Bomb Queen, OTOH, doesn’t interest me at all, but I like Jimmie Robinson so I’m glad to see it’s found an audience and is selling well enough to survive in the otherwise barren wasteland that is the Shadowline imprint.

MARVEL COMICS
Captain America #25 CW, $3.99
Civil War Initiative, $4.99
Criminal #5, $2.99
Fantastic Four #543 CW, $3.99
Hulk And Power Pack #1 (Of 4), $2.99
Incredible Hulk #104, $2.99

Like DC’s One Year Later, while I wasn’t thrilled with how they set the table, I am curious about what Marvel’s serving up post-Civil War, so there will be some sampling in my future as Dwayne McDuffie on Fantastic Four and Dan Slott on an Initiative ongoing have some appeal. Hopefully it plays out better than OYL, which resulted in more drops than adds for me.

NBM
Dungeon Parade Vol 1 TPB, $9.95

I think Midtown got this a week early, as I’m pretty sure I flipped through this last week, and it looked interesting, but not enough for an impulse buy. A couple of good reviews might do the trick, though.

RANDOM HOUSE
Persepolis The Story Of A Childhood SC New Ptg, $12.95

The Persepolis movie is nearing completion, so it seems Random House has smartly released a new edition of the book. If you haven’t read it yet, you should, because it’s very good.

So yeah, “minor” surgery is still surgery, and coupled with a drug industry and medical profession that takes “side effects” a bit too casually, I missed the entire NY Comic Con. The whole damn thing. The PopCultureShock party, too, which pisses me off the most, actually, as I was hoping to meet up with some people I hadn’t seen in a while as well as putting some faces to blogs I enjoy.

Ugh.

Anybody out there who did attend the party? I can live vicariously through your feedback!

I spent most of the past week laid up in bed, periodically hobbling around the apartment to take a break from marathon sessions on my rarely used Xbox: Destroy All Humans!, Just Cause and Fable: The Lost Chapters. Not a single comic book tie-in among them, although throughout Fable I was thinking what a great license it would be to adapt for comics. It features a pretty solid storyline that’s ripe for embellishment, especially since the main character is so malleable, by design, but driven towards his destiny by forces beyond his control, that much of the subtext takes place in the player’s head.

I wonder if the rights are available and how ridiculously expensive they might be?

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