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Media Watch Someone is watching the watchmen...
By
Christopher Butcher.
...Stan Lee, in bed with DC!...
This has been a big and cool month for comics getting mentioned
in the mainstream media. The biggest news of all though has been
Stan Lee jumping ship to do comics for DC. It seems Stan the Man
is going to be doing a 12 issue miniseries for DC Comics called
JUST IMAGINE STAN LEE CREATING... that re-invents from
the ground up the major players in DC's pantheon of characters.
Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, the Flash, Green Lantern,
Aquaman, the Justice League of America, the Legion of Super Heroes,
the Titans, and the Sandman are all getting the Lee makeover,
with the 12th issue to apparently be a re-working of the memorable
CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS crossover from 1984.
Yeah, this is all sort of strange, but what's even stranger is
the extent to which the announcement was covered. USA TODAY, E!
ONLINE, VARIETY, and a host of other entertainment and "lite news"
sources all picked up and elaborated on the press release, which
is really quite amazing when you think about it. I guess when
you have a multi-million-dollar IPO, you get moved up in note-worthiness
a little bit, eh?
Check out the full articles at:
http://entertainment.msn.com/news/eonline/
0417/superman.asp
and:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lds027.htm for the complete articles.
--
...TIME MAGAZINE features Boring story...
Yes, usually Time Magazine features a lot of boring stories,
but this one is about boring, or rather Boring. The books section
of this month's TIME MAGAZINE featured a review and short article
on Daniel Clowes' EIGHTBALL, specifically the fact that
the newest issue (#21) finished up the multi-part David Boring
saga that has been progressing steadily for the past few months.
Seems there's a bit of a buzz around Clowes now, whose graphic
novel GHOST WORLD recently started production. It's got
a cast of pretty decent young actors involved, and it seems the
man who once self-parodied himself and the industry as Dan Pussey
is going to be a big-time Hollywood Star. Still, this has got
to be Gary Groth's wet-dream, seeing "intelligent comics" being
reviewed - positively - in "intelligent" magazines.
Full Story:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/
articles/0,3266,43144,00.html
--
...Bendis agrees that WIRED agrees that the Internet is REINVENTING
COMICS...
Brian Bendis is always a great source for this column, because
he's constantly posting full-text articles about comics and film
stuff to his great message boards at
http://www.wfcomics.com/boards/bendis. The only problem is
that sometimes he doesn't name the source. So, if this is from
your comics/entertainment/news site and we're quoting bits of
it without crediting you, we're really sorry. E-mail us and we'll
print a correction.
That said, WIRED magazine apparently loves Scott McCloud. And,
not only that, they're eagerly awaiting his next book, REINVENTING
COMICS, as much as the rest of the comics industry is. Basically,
some news source summarized a feature article appearing in the
May 2000 issue of WIRED that interviews comics industry guru and
UNDERSTANDING COMICS author Scott McCloud. Basically, he
talks about a synergy of the internet and the comics dynamic,
and how they're coming together in many different ways. It's a
fairly straightforward article with a lot of hyperbole about the
internet, but for those of us dying to get our hands on REINVENTING
COMICS (coming to stores June 2000) it only makes the wait
seem even longer and tougher.
Still, you can read the actual article in the current issue of
WIRED magazine, or read the summary at Bendis' forum:
http://www.worldfamouscomics.com/
boards/bendis/?read=7140
--
...The Shadow-Comics Industry...
There are comics being made. Lots of comics, featuring your favorite
stars, in blockbuster situations. Comics with a motion-picture
feel and sensibility that would be a welcome breath of fresh air
into the superhero-dominated mainstream.
And you're never going to see them.
Well, that's not exactly true, and it's also not quite as insidious
as it sounds. If you were a comics fan in the middle of the boom/bust
of the early 90's then no doubt you heard about the "Upcoming
ZEN THE INTERGALACTIC NINJA Movie" based on the small press
comics creation of the same name. You probably saw all the comics,
and the variants, and the action figure, and all of the marketing
garbage that surrounded what was eventually just a lot of hype
and about 50 different "Ultra-rare-collectors-item-first-issue!!!"'s.
Well, it's 2000 and no movie. What happened to that movie, anyway?
Well, the movie is still optioned, but the people making it decided
to move out to Hollywood and start producing "boutique" comic
books for people looking to pitch their projects to the Hollywood
machine. Comics people in the know tell me that this is nothing
new, that even larger companies have produced comics that are
never distributed on to the comics market (and we're not just
talking about the ELSEWORLDS 80-PAGE GIANT, either...)
On the one hand producing a comic book exclusively to pitch your
project sounds like an interesting way to get your project noticed.
You don't have to worry about some high-ranking dumbass exec not
knowing what "Telekinesis" is, you can just show it on the page.
On the other hand, producing vanity comics for porn stars just
seems tacky.
Either way, check out the article at:
http://www1.internetwire.com/iwire/
release_clickthrough?release_id=7415&
category=Entertainment
--
...Fuzzy Human-Interest Story: a Remarkably Balanced Look
at Comics and Pop Culture...
We're going to end this month's MediaWatch on a really up note.
Recently, the LA TIMES weekend edition did an extensively researched
and well-written feature article on Golden Apple Comics owner
Bill Liebowitz. It was a cover story at that. This is perhaps
the most intelligent assessment of the comics industry I've seen
in a mainstream publication, and although they do get into a few
other "sexier" areas of discussion (like Yo-yo's, Porn Stars,
and Movie spin-offs), it's a really interesting article about
a man who has loved comics, and put together a fantastic store,
for over 20 years.
I really urge you to read the complete article, despite its length
(it's pretty massive). As an industry watcher I found it really
engrossing from start to finish. I think you will too.
Full Story:
http://www.newtimesla.com/issues/
2000-04-06/feature_p.html
Christopher Butcher is a small,
small man.
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