Let Me Get This Straight...

Jim Lee is, apparently, more excited about the iPad as a content CREATION device than he is about it being a content DELIVERY device? That's what his responses about digital comics on the iPad and his posting a step-by-step sketch done on the iPad via his Twitter account would suggest.

With the quality of that Wonder Woman sketch, I guess you can't blame him...

Really Late, Yet Spoiler Free Blackest Night #8 Review

(I originally wrote the review below for the Newsarama Best Shots Extra coverage, but I got it in just a little too late for it to be included. I'm not going to flesh it out with specific plot point references and the like. Feel free to discuss "spoiler" bits in the comments section, as it has been out for 2 weeks now.)

Well, Blackest Night is over. That’s probably the only thing that everyone reading this issue will agree on. As conclusions go, I think this issue was rather weak and that it exposes some weaknesses in the event overall.

I normally strive to judge an issue on its own merits, rather than putting the weight of the rest of its arc on top of it. But, in this case, there are some elements of the larger story that you can’t ignore in looking at this individual issue.

With how many issues/pages were kept locked on the pitched battle with Nekron and his Black Lanterns, the resolution seems too neat, tidy, quick and unsatisfying. There are more costume changes that seem designed to sell action figures rather than service the story. The handling of the happy little side effects to the light beating the darkness, with each getting a few panels of attention, seems like just enough room to acknowledge that something happened and so little room as to boil down to kind of annoying quick hits. In a final issue of an event that already had a somewhat unmanageable number of characters and subplots to focus on, devoting eight (not always efficiently used) pages to reactions and “telling” instead of “showing” would appear to have hurt the ability for the first part of the issue to breathe and flow.

Now, I’m fully aware that the final issues of events often suffer due to having to tie a pretty bow on the wrap up. But I don’t know that it has to always be that way. In fact, I think that expectation has helped perpetuate the trend. Instead of languishing over making the flow tight, it is as if creators and editors are liberated by the idea that the audience will complain of a letdown to some degree regardless, so they put more of a priority on making sure they clearly spell out how everything has changed and what comes next. That they seemed to have failed to create much excitement for what comes next through how they presented it here just underscores the problems with this final issue.

Jim Lee: My Digital Comics Comments Were Misconstrued

At a Wonder Con panel, Jim Lee suggested that his comments on digital comics were taken to mean that DC had no interest in pursuing them.

Given that he said they were talking to software companies, I find it hard to understand how that happened.

What I took his comments to mean, though, was that DC's answer is the same as it has been for years: we're always looking into it, but we don't see anything all that exciting about it, so we're not making it a priority.

Would it be misconstruing his comments to think that DC Comics is, officially, still adverse to change and progress in how they make their product available?

How long has Marvel's digital offering been around while DC has made no apparent strides? When a killer device/app comes along, they still basically say that print is where it's at? That they can't just offer scans of books because that's already (illegally) out there?

I read Jim Lee's comments as being tone deaf on the issue of digital comics. Pretty sure I didn't misconstrue them.

Worst Con News EVAR!

Rucka leaving DC? Nah, because it is hard to call a creator moving on to prevent stagnation the "worst news". Sad that he leaves before he got to do everything with Batwoman that he wanted, but not the worst news.

This, though?

Will Robinson be on Justice League for a while? "I have ideas now for at least two years, maybe more. I can stay on the book until they drag me off," Robinson said. Sattler: "He's not going anywhere."

-shudder-

Terrible.

How Long Until This Gets Shut The Fuck Down?

http://www.htmlcomics.com

This should make for interesting news over the next week or two...

Wow...For Such A High Tech Man, He Has Low Tech Vision

Jim Lee said, according to Newsarama coverage of the DC Nation panel, the following about digital comics:

4:36

Next question concerned "digital initiatives." Lee said he's never seen anything on the digital side that is as compelling for him as a printed comic, saying you can't replicate things like the four-page spread in Blackest Night #8.

4:37

Another advantage of printed comics, according to Lee: "You can read them on an airplane as you're taking off."

4:37

"They're not a huge part of anyone's business, regardless if you're on the iPad tomorrow or not," Lee said of digital comics.

4:38

"We're talking to a bunch of different vendors, software companies about it," Lee continued. "It's going to be more than, 'hey, here are some scanned comics,' because frankly, that's out there already."

Really? A gatefold, four page spread (that isn't really quite four pages) can't be replicated on a computer screen?

And I sincerely hope tongue was planted firmly in cheek with that "read them on an airplane" comment. Besides, that's really more of a trade paperback selling point than a periodical selling point. One clearly travels better than the other.

They aren't a huge part of anyone's business, even if they're on the iPad tomorrow...when the effects of being on the iPad haven't been seen yet? When the question was forward looking, not asking about how digital has performed thus far, seeing as how DC hasn't really even dipped their toe into the water yet?

The offerings have to be more than "hey, here are some scanned comics" because illegal scans are already out there? Seriously? Even when we're seeing that motion comics aren't setting the world on fire and the more bells and whistles that get added, the higher you have to price the content to make a profit, which inadvertently pushes readers back to the printed version?

This is the guy that just got promoted to one of the most important positions at DC Comics? All of a sudden, I'm much less enthused about that move.

March Meta-Human Madness?

Just thought I'd pass along this bit.

Colin Cowherd's ESPN radio show is doing a super-hero bracket this year. Last year, they did cereal and they were amazed by how many people they got listening to the show/podcast and participating in it. So this year, they decided to go with super-heroes.

I'm a sucker for dumb stuff like this, so I voted in it.

Superheroes - Krypton (which he keeps pronouncing as "cryp-tin") Region:

1. Superman
8. Thor

4. Green Lantern
5. Aquaman

3. Wolverine
6. Spawn

2. Spider-Man
7. Flash

Superheroes - Gotham Region:

1. Batman
8. Robin

4. The Hulk
5. Silver Surfer

3. Wonder Woman
6. Daredevil

2. Captain America
7. Iron Man

Supervillains - Metropolis Region:

1. Lex Luthor
8. Punisher

4. Red Skull
5. Catwoman

3. The Riddler
6. Sabretooth

2. Dr. Octopus
7. Bizarro

Supervillains - Marvel Region

1. The Joker
8. General Zod

4. The Penguin
5. Venom

3. Green Goblin
6. Two-Face

2. Dr. Doom
7. Brainiac

Go give it a vote and feel free to discuss it here.

Samaritan X?

Wow...JMS just seems to be mixed up in all kinds of questionable decisions lately.

I love the idea of original graphic novels. I was one of the first to buy Son of the Demon at my local comic shop back in the day. I love this sort of thing.

But one of your few forays into in-continuity OGNs is...about a Gotham hospital?

This is the kind of project with a severely limited initial audience that seems destined to have a poor sales performance and lead to corporate thinking of "well, we tried an in-continuity OGN and it failed, so no point in trying it again" while completely disregarding the fact that you picked a project with very limited initial appeal.

I get that it might be critically acclaimed and generate further printing and extended sales. But it seems silly to put out a project like this in a format that you don't regularly do a lot of business with when initial sales expectations have to be low. Putting out a project where you have to hope that word of mouth starts to grow the sales seems like something you do AFTER you become a little more comfortable producing OGNs on a regular basis.

I'd love to see more OGNs. I'm disappointed in this announcement because history tells me that this isn't going to sell in large numbers out of the gate and will likely be used to dismiss calls for more in-continuity OGN projects in the future.

Wait...What?

JMS is on Superman and Wonder Woman?

I thought when JMS got the Superman: Earth 1 project, his mission to write Superman was resolved. But now you're putting him in control of the main Superman and the alternate Superman?

That doesn't seem like a smart move. It would seem more likely that people pick one JMS Superman project over the other. There is the possibility that there seems to be less differences between the two versions, because it is likely that JMS writes the core of the character rather identically in each version. There's a reason why Marvel didn't just slap Bendis on the traditional Spider-Man title after JMS left, beyond the chance that Bendis didn't want to write two versions of the same character.

The addition of Wonder Woman to his writing schedule makes much more sense, though. With how he seemed to have brought a new level of interest to the THOR title at Marvel, slapping him on to the DC character that deals with a pantheon of gods seems to be a no-brainer.