I apologize for not updating this column more often, but as the Galaxy has grown, I find more and more of my time dedicated to managing the outstanding contributions of the many talented folks that are presenting their writing for you here. In the past week, we've introduced some features I am truly excited about. If you haven't checked out Sal Cipriano's Broken Donuts yet, you're denying yourself a treat, and a chance to get in on the ground floor of a strip that I think will prove Sal to be a real contender. His ability to depict simple human emotion and the bittersweet nature of a friendship with a former love is simply astonishing, and I'm grateful to Sal for sharing it with all of us.
Field Guide by d. emerson eddy is also an exciting new addition to the Galaxy, a weekly guide to what to keep an eye out for in the comics shop. Make sure you check it out before heading out the door each Wednesday. Field Guide and Broken Donuts can both be found in the Galaxy's Opinion section.
I had a hard time getting out the door over the past couple of days. The blizzard the media keeps telling me was much ado about nothing here on the East Coast dumped over two feet of snow in my neighbourhood and made my ride to work extremely treacherous two days in a row. In fact, I turned around and went home early Monday morning after it took me half an hour to drive what is less than two minutes by car in good weather. With zero visibility and even 18-wheelers off the road, it was a no-brainer to try to get back home after I calculated I would get to work just in time to go home. Turns out, some stores in the Northeast won't get their comics until Thursday or Friday because of this snowstorm. Luckily, the only thing on my pull list for this week that I didn't get already is X-Men: The Search for Cyclops #4, and frankly, I'm not that excited about that.
Anyway, we've dug ourselves out, and I'm here with some random thoughts on current events.
First up is my favourite whipping boy, Rob Liefeld. Turns out someone is suing him. Good. I can't think of anyone who deserves to be called on their own bullshit more.
Liefeld's made a career (several, actually) on smoke and mirrors, obfuscation and misdirection, and probably more shattered deadlines than any other creator in the history of comics. He's disappointed readers, publishers, distributors and retailers, and generally is one of the vilest, most untalented rats ever to accidentally fall into undeserved success in an industry that has been packed to bursting with opportunistic scum ripping people off since its earliest days.
His attempts at fooling readers into thinking major talent is working with him (Alan Moore and Kurt Busiek, to name only two creators he's victimized in this way) are only exceeded by his putrid, pathetic attempts at stealing characters belonging to other companies. Remember his Captain America ripoff he tried to get off the ground after he was fired from Marvel during the Heroes Reborn disaster? Only Liefeld could make Marvel of that era look good by comparison.
Needless to say, I hope Robbie loses. I hope he loses big. As big as the thighs and biceps on his grotesque mockeries of the human form. I hope his bank account is left as dimunitive as the pygmy baby-teeth his characters mouths are stuffed full of.
Alan David Doane, packed with vitriol and fueled by hate.
It's finally going to happen. I've been waiting literally decades for George Perez to draw a JLA/Avengers crossover, and finally, it may actually happen before I die.
The only two comic books I ever directly subscribed to from their publisher were The Avengers and Fantastic Four, and at the time (1976-77 or so), they were both being drawn by George Perez.
I was relieved to learn that Perez has announced the cancellation of Crimson Plague. I was enormously disappointed by this series, which seemed more than anything an excuse for Perez to have hot strippers in his studio so he could include them in the comic. I understand the motive, but the resulting title was virtually unreadable, and better off forgotten.
Perez has a gift for drawing team books, a gift that shines best when he is working with a talented writer. His three-year run of Avengers with Kurt Busiek was one of the best, most consistent mainstream comics runs ever, so it is with great anticipation that I await the creative team's work on JLA/Avengers, whenever it comes out.
Of course, waiting for comics is a popular pastime these days. This month should finally see the long-awaited James Kochalka's Cartoon Diary from Top Shelf (quietly becoming the best comics publisher in the country), while most mainstream fans are eagerly waiting for Stan Lee's DC project (which I fear may be lost after the Stan Lee Media debacle -- Perez has already bowed out of the project). A better bet for release sometime in the next year or two is Frank Miller's Dark Knight II project. I'm almost embarassed to admit it, but I'm much more excited about JLA/Avengers than DK2.
Miller's Batman: Year One with David Mazzucchelli was, in my opinion, a far superior work to the original Dark Knight, and I'd be a lot more intrigued to see Miller and Mazzucchelli reteaming than I am at the thought of more bitter old Batman, even in the hands of Miller, who does bitter like nobody's business (check out Sin City: That Yellow Bastard).
Speaking of bitter...a bitter pill to swallow is the recent news that yet another gifted creator, colourist Laura DePuy, has been absorbed by the CrossGen Collective.
DePuy's sublime talents in large part made the first twelve issues of The Authority the great work of art that they are. It was one of the first times I really began to believe in the power of modern colouring techniques to enhance, rather than detract from, comics as art.
I can't help but feel that disappointed that CrossGen has secured her talents. This makes three of my favourite creators (Mark Waid and George Perez being the other two) that will now be doing work for a company that has yet to convince me to buy more than a single issue of any one of their series. Perhaps you're enjoying some or all of CrossGen's output. If so, more power to you. I find the entire concept for the line a massive bore, and unless Waid, Perez and DePuy somehow find a way to rise above this sorry mishmash of science fiction and fantasy elements, I'm afraid I'm not going to be reading any of their work for as long as Mark Alessi keeps pumping dollars into his noble, but flawed, vanity project.
I'm also deeply saddened that Waid's Empire project with artist Barry Kitson has been delayed, perhaps indefinitely, by the CrossGen situation. I'm all for Mark Waid getting rich off CrossGen, but Empire had one of the most promising starts I've ever seen, and the lack of forward momentum on this so far excellent series is most disappointing.
Finally, beginning next month, I'm going to be starting work on maybe the most exciting project involving comics that I've ever been a part of. I hope to have more details for you soon, and I apologize for the Bendis-like hinting around, but all the letters that need dotting and crossing are not yet dotted and crossed, and I'd hate to jinx something that means this much to me. I promise to share more with you at the very earliest opportunity.
In the meantime, there are plenty of great comics out there waiting for you to discover them. Go out and sample Peter Kuper's Speechless from Top Shelf, Brian Michael Bendis's excellent work on Ultimate Marvel Team-Up with Matt Wagner, or any title in the always-astonishing America's Best Comics line from the brilliant, fevered imagination of Alan Moore.
And when it comes out, I absolutely order you to pick up Kochalka's Cartoon Diary. It's the book I am most looking forward to in 2001, and it's only a small part of the library of daily strips Mr. Superstar has waiting for us. If this book succeeds, hopefully we'll get to see the rest of these strips. If the book fails, man, I'm gonna be pissed.