Say What?: 6/28/06

“I felt that Marvel wasn’t doing comics that reflected this generation. For better or worse, we live in the hip-hop era, and Spider-Man was the Beatles. I love Spider-Man and I love the Beatles, but what about kids who listen to Kanye West?”
–Reginald Hudlin, THE WEDDING PLANNER: REGGIE HUDLIN Q&A

“Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that the stories about DC’s new Batwoman, the thrust of the movie Superman’s story and the character’s ongoing appeal, the controversy over sexualized kid-lit characters in Lost Girls and questions about the shelving of certain kinds of manga all have kind of unspoken, little-articulated darker sides, including but not limited to accusations of ruining ‘pure’ creations for the sake of some abstract idea of political correctness, the notion that gay creators are out of control and unable to make art from a hetero point of view, the noxious and false notion that pedophilia is a mostly gay phenomenon, and that objections to depictions of sexuality are more justified if the sexuality in question is same-sex. Anyone else feeling this?”
–Tom Spurgeon, Comics On Culture War’s Hidden Front

“People link to some things I write, too, occasionally because they like what I wrote, but recently, because they think I’m an idiot. The other day I came across a LiveJournal on which the writer claimed I can’t review comics because I didn’t remember that the Amazons had a purple healing ray. If you think that’s stupid, well, you’re not alone.”
–Greg Burgas, In which Greg cops an attitude…

“Continuity’s a double-edged sword, but when it comes right down to it, the only times I can remember being in an real uproar over mishandled continuity is when the story/characters weren’t good enough to keep me from overlooking it.”
–Chris, 2 Guys Buying Comics, On Continuity

“I feel a bit bad about Hawkgirl: I really ought to support Chaykin and Simonson, but just feel like title’s treading water, with Chaykin looking dated and Simonson ill-adapting to the current decompressed climate. Before you say it: yes, I am neglecting two living legends while gleefully partaking in multiple Civil War tie-ins …. I know I’m killing comics.”
–Mark Fossen, This Week’s Releases: June 27, 2006

“I like how they defeat the Xorn energy cloud thing, by having the Sentry throw it into the sun. That should be the ‘Plan A’ for defeating every supervillain. Stiltman just rob a jewelry store? Have the Sentry throw him into the sun.”
–Pat McCallum, NEW AVENGERS #20

“Because when you ask ‘HOW ABOUT MAKING WRITERS AND AUTHORS STICK TO DEADLINES???’ there clearly has to be an ‘or else’ built into the equation. And the honest ‘or else’ that I see based on your approach is that all of a sudden all of the best people are working for the competition, and their books are suddenly great, and Marvel’s books suddenly stink, but come out regularly.”
–Tom Breevort on Accountability

“Actually we found out some disturbing news today. While Image has record of receiving issue 3 of Emissary…they claim never to have received issue 2. That’s right. It was sitting there at our ftp site for over a month and it was never snagged, never went to the printer, and no one asked us about it until we inquired today.”
–Kris Simon on Emissary #2

“I see small publishers settling into comfortable niches, if they’re lucky, but I don’t seem [sic] many with active plans for building their markets or even many with worked out plans for generating a company identity, and among those that do, even fewer whose company identity is positively reflected by the books they publish.”
–Steven Grant on Dog Days of Summer

“A world gets lost every few years. Gone are the early days of Mad Magazine, or the heyday of classic comics. But nothing in nature stands still; it either regenerates or degenerates, withers or grows. Right now, the graphic novel has stepped up as a major vehicle for human expression, a valid literary form, a valid artform, as well as [producing] some of the most exciting, edgy entertainment. Food for the soul and great beach reading.”
–Mark Siegel, A New Era in Comics Publishing: A Roundtable

Written by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is the Chief Content Officer for LibraryPass, and former publisher & marketing director for Writer’s Digest. Previously, he was also project lead for the Panorama Project; director, content strategy & audience development for Library Journal & School Library Journal; and founding director of programming & business development for the original Digital Book World.

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