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Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Cthulhu Dreamt Kickstarter
Sunday, March 26, 2023
THE LAST BARBARIANS 1 & 2
THE LAST BARBARIANS
Issues 1 & 2
Published by Shadowline/Image
For Anomaly Productions
Words by Brian Haberlin with Hannah Wall
Art by Brian Haberlin
Colors by Geirrod Van Dyke
Lettering by Francis Takenaga
Produced by Hannah Wall and Matt Hansel
Flats by T.R. Briar
Reviewed by Alex Ness
March 27, 2023
To no one's surprise I won't let you linger wondering if I liked this, I did. One hell of a lot. And I say this because people comment in private, don't you dislike anything you read? I dislike many things I read. But I've explained that I normally won't run negative reviews, unless I can explain why it didn't work for me, and suggest who it might work for better. I developed this aversion to negative reviews when I received a great many comics for review per month, and would know, I could write two hundred pages of reviews, and not cover all of what was sent, and then ask myself why would I spend so much time featuring things I didn't like. If something is good, and good enough to share, I want to share the most I can about such good comics.
I've deeply enjoyed Brian Haberlin's previous projects Sonata, The Marked, and Hellcop, so I had to try this work. I am gratified to say, I think this demonstrates how Brian's writing has become more nuanced, layered and delightful. Especially true, I am appreciating an added flavor of the world, and the depth of dialogue and character development present. It would be true to say I love David Hine's work in accord with Brian Haberlin. But in this work Brian shows growth and excellence.
I will get to the discussion of the book soon, but wanted to address something a retailer told me, even though he had sold through his initial purchases of issue 1. Sonata, the Marked, and Hellcop by Brian Haberlin and the Last Barbarians shown here, (and there are more than shown) are offered in numerous covers. I don't know if they have limits, or chase covers. It doesn't really matter to me. The retailer said, he'd sell more comics if they came in just one cover. I asked him why. He said, "People like me wouldn't have to try to figure out the math of how many to order and exactly which ones more than others." As someone who hasn't worked in comic book retail for over 3 decades, I don't know if this is true. I don't know how ordering of multiple covers works, and if you order 10 do you get 2 of every cover... I'm not saying this for the truth of it. I'm saying it because I think the retailer might have OCD and wants to have a space allotted for each cover, and thinks it takes up space other comics could fit. But, HE SOLD OUT. If you sell out you should take that as proof that people enjoyed having a choice.
Let's begin with the covers... I think they are truly beautiful, give a look towards the characters who will show up, and a flavor towards the kind of fantasy story this will be. The beauty of the work is not off set by the fact that there is danger implicit and that one is led to wonder why they are called THE LAST BARBARIANS. Is this like "The Last of the Mohicans" where the last two of the tribe are featured, and if they die, surely they've gone extinct? Additionally there is an appreciated lack of front cover baloney giving the reader reasons to buy it. It allows in the pure form for the readers to just enjoy at will. Amen to that. Grade A for the quality of covers, and for the trade dress and information being kept at a reasonable level.
The art creates a real looking fantasy world, with ugly, normal, beautiful, odd and entirely average citizens, visitors, beasts and warriors. The landscape has foundation in reality, but is firmly in the world of fantasy. A grand mound with a skull made of bone, stone, or otherwise, stands as a reminder to the generations of various meanings and inspirations. The oceans are filled with life, wild waves, flying fish, whales of amazing talents, and ships that are striking in their powerful construction. The faces offer emotive and expressive features, the action is clear and well expressed, and there isn't one panel that is wasted in vanity pages or wasting pages to lengthen the book. Grade A
The plot is similar in some fashion to that of adventures in the RPG world. You are someone with talents, but little money, bad luck, situations that just seem to reek of possibility or disaster. The first issue lets the reader in on the world the main characters, Sylver, a bright talented rogue with some magic abilities, and her brother Shadow a mentally deficient massive fighter type. Others come into the scene, but eventually, in a desperate situation, no lodging, no work, no hope, the two take low ball offer to help a less than trustworthy character who wants to rescue a person he doesn't seem to know his relation towards. All the while, there is a great power relegated to using two lesser beings with his trusted property. And three beings who might want the same things as the adventure party with Sylver and Shadow. Grade A
I can't reveal more, and frankly, I've revealed enough and more than usual. But this is a solid story, with the slow start setting the stage in issue one more than made up for by the wicked fast pace of issue two.
Watch for these coming soon:
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Not All Comics are the Same, Your Quest Begins
QUESTS TO BEGIN
You might have missed them
By Alex Ness
March 26, 2023
Click images to enlarge
I've
tried for quite awhile as a member of the amateur press to give reasons
for people to go to a comic store and go on a quest. Some are easier
than others, because rarity or how well or poorly the comic shop did
upon the first run of a comic. If they cycle their new comics that
didn't sell into well organized, bagged and boarded back issues, you've a
better chance to find what you are seeking. What you are willing to pay
is a different story, since you might think used equals worth less. It
might be, but usually there will be a cost in the price tag that comes
from being boarded, bagged, and inventoried. While you might find a
fantastic deal, it will never be free.
Just come in to the shop
with a price and negotiate inside your mind what it is worth to you, if
it is more than you like, don't buy it. No one exists to make certain
products are cheaper for you than anyone else. There is an idea people
have that comics are used, even when they are in a bag and never have
been opened to read.
In no particular order of preference and little of any connection via genre, except for fantasy, these are suggested as works that would be able to be found in a comic store, of recent vintage, and at a large enough store, they might not be marked up much beyond original cover price. I think The American and The Peacemaker will be, but there are collections of The American, if not also Peacemaker.
Jonny Quest is particularly well done, but what is most fun about collecting it, I've never seen anyone read it and not enjoy it it. Whether it is nostalgia, or simply the quality of stories told, I can't say.
Team Yankee is not a flashy work, on first look it could be mistaken for a GI Combat, GI Joe or Sgt Fury and his Howlin' Commandos. But rather than feature generic equipment and stories based upon tropes and comic book war depths, Team Yankee is an adaptation of a rather intelligent book, by Harold Coyle, and the story is not, at all, generic. It focuses on a Warsaw Pact invasion of Europe, with the US and NATO trying to prevent defeat. Seen through the eyes of a tank crew, it is an intelligent book, if too compressed to fully adapt the novel. With current madness in Ukraine, it is still worth a read.
I included the three reprint books from Valiant, as they each reflect the base character they created their universe upon, and had to begin somewhere. They aren't important in comic book history. But they are fun reads.
The 13th Son by
Kelley Jones from Dark Horse was building to tell a much greater
story. But sales, I believe prevented it from going further. But the
story told through the first 4 issues (maybe 5) was solidly told, dark
without being evil or even unpleasant. The story followed a person who
was born at the end of a curse cycle of a family. Rather than accept
fate, he chose to embrace a destiny.
With Sunglasses after Dark
by Nancy Collins and Stanley Shaw investigate a supernatural and human
darkness. Take all of the human common sorts of sinning, the worst
imagined sorts of sins, and then the most perverted sorts, and they
function as the setting and background of the story. The main story is
of a chase, of one vampire hunter and that vampire hunter's creator and
master. It is dark, and it was done in such a way that vampires aren't
sexy or fashionable. They may be killers. (So, if you are sensitive,
avoid this).
MARVEL UK's Knights of Pendragon did exactly what MARVEL's Excalibur
really didn't do. It embraced the superhero team ethos in the UK, as a
emblem of the nation or people. It was fantastically imbued with
mythology, dialogue and situations that were all perfect and unique in
the comic world. The writing was amazing, the art was excellent. All of
that, including the editorial voice and shadow, everything considered,
wove a new branch of the King Arthur story that went beyond simple
retreads or revisitation, it created a new legacy.
There is a deeper story in The American
that can be spoiled by too much description, so I'll just say, it turns
the concept of a patriotic hero upside down. And it asks, what role
does the authority of society have in making the people believe in the
ideal of the nation. Can a hero embody such a belief?
The character The Peacemaker I
came to experience and enjoy as an adult, was/were imperfect, much of
the concept, the stories and characters, are rather silly upon first
look. However, I confess, I found that innocent and great fun and for
me, not a problem. It was about an organization dedicated to world
peace, and engaged in small actions to prevent great outbreaks of
violence. Later, the comic team from the DC comic Vigilante adapted the
Peacemaker, to their story, and created a mini series featuring
Peacemaker.
I reviewed Medieval Lady Death rather well
when it came out from CrossGen, and found it especially rewarding since
it revealed a polished well conceived character, one that had previously
languished as a sex fantasy character with little depth. The new
version was well illustrated, perfectly defined, and told a compelling
story. Thrud the Barbarian was not a story meant to linger in your heart. First appearing, that I know of in British RPG magazines, it is a broad and deeply loving satire of Conan the Barbarian, and it is simple humor, but humor that pokes holes across the fantasy genre. I loved it.
I liked and came close to loving the movie Dragonslayer by Disney. It was adapted into comic form and digest form with a great deal of quality. Both during the film and reading the adaptation, I found myself thinking about the future, as the work of the time was quite good, but the effects were not perfect. Some time later we would indeed see a evolution of even greater effects.
GETTING REVIEWS?
I can be found on Facebook, Twitter or through email Alexanderness63@gmail.com. I accept hard copies, so when you inquire at any of these places, I'll follow through by telling you my street address.If you send hard copies for review I will try to always review them, but if you prefer to send pdf or ebooks to my email, I will review these at my discretion. I don't share my pdf/ebooks, so you can avoid worry that I'd dispense them for free to others.
My Creative Blogs:
My 5000 poem Blog AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com
Cthulhu Alien Horrors CthulhuDarkness.Blogspot.Com
Atlantis & Lost Worlds AlexNessLostWorlds.Blogspot.Com
Published Work AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com/2007/01/My-Work.html
Support: Poplitiko.Blogspot.Com/2022/06/for-sale.html
All images are copyright © their respective owners, use is simply as fair use and no ownership rights asserted.
Monday, March 20, 2023
KIDS, DIABETES, HEROES
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Sunday, March 19, 2023
BRONZE STAR an upcoming comic by two talented veterans of Comics
Mike Baron and Pat Broderick present one of the weirdest westerns that comicdom has ever seen…
During a card game, Confederate veteran Harley kills Brad Knorr in self-defense. Knorr’s father Wilfrid, a powerful land owner, raises a posse, forcing Harley to flee to the remote mining town of Cobb’s Gap at the base of the Canadian Rockies.
Harley rents a room from young widow Nika Grahovac, who emigrated from the same Croatian town as the sheriff. Nights are quiet, card games polite.
No one goes to the old silver mine. There’s something there… something in the shadows. And when Knorr’s posse arrives, all the secrets of the town of Cobb’s Gap will be exposed.
VISIT https://bronzestarcomic.com/ for more information and more images to amaze yourself with.
Saturday, March 18, 2023
LIFE AND BOOKS
RECENT EVENTS
By Alex Ness
March 19, 2023
As some have become aware, I have cancer in my body, in numerous places, and of numerous varieties. My (adoptive) mother had it five times, with two terminal diagnoses included, that she the defeated. I'm aware that for some folks that might mean I've got the correct DNA to fight it. As I was adopted I will have no DNA assist but, I watched as my mother, that little old lady 5 feet tall and feisty, fight every battle her life, everything mattered to her, she fought as if the survival of the world depended upon it. I don't plan to quit posting here, I might slow down. Chemo can be brutal. I'd someone as a role model who showed me never to give up. In the last two decades someone, more than a few someones, chose to ghost me, ignore me, stop talking to me, for whatever reason. And since they never said why, I kept talking to them. Eventually that pissed them off enough to tell me why they now hated me. Well, I am going to deal with cancer that way too, keep fighting until there is nothing left but life or death.
TO REVIEW OR NOT TO REVIEW ISN'T THE QUESTION
This edition of this blog isn't really any different than most, but I am cognizant of the facts that I might not have many more editions of it, if cancer interrupts my work. So, I have wanted to change up from Q&A or comics, even if that is what my audience seems to prefer. In this edition I am trying to expand my reach, and I am here thinking of doing a multi review blog of books with different genres, with recently purchased not solely new or used, from different genres. Whatever you might read, therefore, I am hoping that perhaps I might guide you to a good find.
BOOK 1
Genre Action/Adventure:
Biker book 4, SONS OF BITCHES
by Mike Baron
Book 1 of the Biker series was reviewed here. And I liked it very much. Book 4 review below, with the image of book 4 shown above with the other books being considered. Josh Pratt is a private investigator and motorcyclist who works in a world of revenge seekers, vigilante justice, and most unexpectedly comic book art and Muslim outrage.
Mike Baron himself has experienced being canceled, not yet fully. I've not met Mike Baron in person. I can say, however right wing that people perceive him as being from outside the comics industry (this book is prose) in my 20 years of knowing him online and many email exchanges, whatever the topic, I've not seen him say the things people like him are said to think or say. I don't believe he holds back his true thoughts. If you saw him edit a work, all he cares about seems to be making a written work better than it is at the moment. In that, he seems to give not one F'k for your feelings. This book was very well written, and if the subject alone doesn't interest you, know that he tells a real, fully wrought story, with excellent dialogue, original thoughts, and the writing itself is damn near perfect.
BOOK 2
Horror/Splatterpunk:
EXACTLY THE WRONG THINGS
by Franklin E. Wales, Joseph M. Monks & Candace Nola
This is not a book for anyone with a sense of proper and polite, good winning over evil or anything like a sense of righteous or moral sensibilities. It takes a concept, that all the authors must begin with, then follows up with how each author tells their tale that "blossoms" from the seeds that it was begun with. I am not going to detail each or anything like offering the synopsis, because anything you start with here, is going to lead you to make assumptions, and the point of this book is to show how F'kd up things can progress, when the only rules are to begin with the same paragraph and proceed from there. Do I love it? Well I think from the premise it isn't meant to be loved, so no, but I definitely appreciated the premise and the offerings. Do I think that you the average reader will love it? I think what it does is done well, so perhaps if you enjoy works about serial killers or enjoy graphic violence or horror. Do I think you should buy it? If a horror fan, yes, absolutely. If you are looking for something with a happy ending? HELL No. But as a practice of how to tell a scary story, how to expand from a common or central thesis? Hell yes. I am aware that people all have different tastes, have different mindsets regarding how to tell a story and how to see the steps of how a writer follows a personal path of writing to deliver a work, however short or long, that is exactly what they intend. As an exercise, if you enjoy horror, I'd say this is pure horror, and something you won't forget, once reading.
Fringe History:
THE SECOND MESSIAH
by Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas
This work is by two researchers/explorers/theorists of Freemason history and the odd paths it would take. They previous wrote works exploring the mysteries that form the backbone of the secret society of the Freemasons. I am not a big fan of the Freemasons, but mostly because people take a subject area I am highly interested in, the Templars, and force the ideas and practices of the Freemasons into it, falsely. The Templars were secretive, but anything but liars and vulgar practitioners of cultic and evil practices. Having said that, this work presents an actually clever and perhaps true theory. The Shroud of Turin was an artifact said by some to be the burial shroud of Christ. The Catholic church suggests it is miraculous not for the provenance of history showing it was the shroud for Christ, but that this clothes is marked, somehow with a ghost image of someone with looking like Christ, have suffered the wounds of Christ, and who, for the content of the work, has a known trail of control of who owned the work. I know a lot of the facts of the work, including dates of the threads being made, the fires in the chapel that might have changed the fact base, regarding the DNA or carbon 14 evidence of creation.
I don't know if I believe in the authenticity of the shroud or not but I do believe in Jesus Christ as a historical figure,
and I am a believer in the spiritual aspects of his being. However these two authors make sure I'm to be less
convinced that the image upon the shroud is an image of Christ. They
take careful and manifestly engineered efforts to achieve a path of
supposed facts, the setting upon which the events happened, and then
slowly and rather convincingly show, the date of creation of the threads
and provenance of owner ship really only show one thing. This is not a
hoax of the Christ image. It isn't an image of Christ.
Quar nous navons volu ne volons le Temple mettre
en aucune servitute se non tant come il hy affiert
No, it is said to be not a hoax, but a similarly holy image of Jacques de Molay, the Templar grandmaster who was gruesomely tortured and then burned. This happened shortly after the Templars were broken apart, their monopoly upon money lending and financial stability destroyed, and the possible use of their quality of arms against a standing monarchy or any trek or quest by one or another private houses of trade or finance ended forever, sort of. I think that the writing of this is quite good, but I also believe Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas are likely wrong. It doesn't change the fact that the book is rather good, especially if you know the facts going in. I do recommend it, but not as a book of history nor of a book solving a standing mystery. It proposes theories that have a chance of being accurate.
BOOK 4
True Crime, Crime Drama, Noir:
THE BLACK DAHLIA
by James Ellroy
The true story of the killing of Beth Short, known by the press of her era as The Black Dahlia. She was called such for her attention to style and dress, her style of hair, and make up. She was living in public, but had very little life in private. She had to do many things to simply have a place to sleep at night. The three best books about the Black Dahlia all have aspects of fiction and truth. That isn't in any way meant view any of the three best books are written to create a fabric of falsehood, or to create a narrative that lies about the life of Beth Short, the sadly imperfect Black Dahlia of media and the popular culture's imagination. This woman was kicked out of numerous homes, even of friends, she was forced to pawn beloved items, but never let the most important possessions out of her sight, the letters to the various war heroes and simple soldiers she longed to be wed to for life, and the ultimate house, two children, and proper existence, with admiration and adulation.
What James Ellroy has done, is not altogether something that anyone would want to do, nor do I think he did so for prurient or cynical purposes. He saw the Black Dahlia as the mother he lost, and by writing a fictional narrative, he tries to weave a story that makes sense of the the various strands of truth, and tie it together into a form that can stand the test of questioning and inspection. His writing is amazing, and the story he tells is compelling, but it doesn't seem to have proved the case, only asked more questions. And worse, to some it seemed, and I disagree, that Ellroy cynically used his mother's tragic life as fodder for fiction. And that his own story was added, to create a layer of verisimilitude, a feel of truth, without it being true. Which is fiction, is a very powerful tool and talent to possess.
I've known someone and interviewed him and became friends with him, who
might well have found the killer, discerned his motives, and nearly led
the police to the capture. John Gilmore found someone almost perfect,
and just like a perfect mystery, as the police were coming to inspect
and interview the subject, he died, from smoke inhalation and burns from
when a cigarette lit his bed afire, that also burned the evidence left
that could prove the case.
Steve Hodel wrote a very solid work,
about a man, his father, who well could have been the killed of Beth
Short. James Ellroy even believed, for a while, that Hodel had perhaps
named the proper suspect. But when certain aspects of the story were
expanded upon, the Hodel case proved flawed, and while his father was a
terrible man, he might just have been an terrible man who didn't kill
Beth Short, but killed many others, without being apprehended.
BOOK 5
Earth mysteries, History, Myth:
ATLANTIS
by Ignatius Donnelly, illustrated by Gustave Dore
There is a thought that the world that existed before our current, extremely modern world, the ancient prehistory time existed with some level of sophistication, but... The world of today ignores much of what was known, forgets what was found, and argues over times, whether there is a difference between 12000 years ago, and even 5000 years ago, or more. My suggestion, and that of Donnelly, is that for whatever disaster that destroyed Atlantis, there was a higher form of sophisticated knowledge in the deeper past, than the more recent past. His was not a thesis based upon science, truly, but of observation of artifacts, evidence, and basic knowledge making less sense than the myths and legends that were claimed by the non-science thinkers. Donnelly wasn't correct, but like the theories of Immanuel Velikovsky, based on observation rather than pure science, there are reasons for the arguments of Donnelly that have some basis for belief.
If the society of Atlantis existed and fled the disaster, wherever they fled to, would have the benefit of the advanced ideas of Atlantis. Lost ages of technology could EASILY have happened. The concept of sophisticated ancients suggests aliens, well, that ignores something much more likely, a branch of humanity that somehow learned new ideas suffers from a natural disaster, and spreads in a vast diaspora, fertilizing each distinct people with seeds of intellectual advancement. This book is beautiful and rather interesting, but like most books that offer a proposal of new ideas, it is at least important to consider the points that were valid and interesting. Gustave Dore's art was alone in his day, excellent and beyond the typical imagination.
END NOTES:
I usually find myself writing months and months ahead of schedule. But losing my sister in January 2022 began a slow down in my work. Having health issues that turned out to not only be painful and real, began at a point in fact when I'd stopped using any meds for pain, stopped drinking any alcohol, and refused to seek advice from doctors who suggested I was imagining my pain. A single scan from that doctor would have shown what was later found 6 -7 months later. But before that happened, I thought I broke a second rib, the pain felt like a knife in my back. Due to what the previous doctor said, I avoided seeking help. And in the end of December 2022 upon a trip to help my son find his forever fur friend, in Ohio, I learned that my brother died. He was perhaps not a perfect person, and neither am I, but I will miss him for as long as I exist.
But while I went through being told I had stage 3 lymphoma and possible other killer things, I did not. I had something I'll discuss further later, when I know things. While this was written as one of the last three I would write, it isn't. I am not dying, yet.
LINKS:
My 5000 poem Blog AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com
Cthulhu Alien Horrors CthulhuDarkness.Blogspot.Com
Atlantis & Lost Worlds AlexNessLostWorlds.Blogspot.Com
My Published Work AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com/2007/01/My-Work.html
All images are copyright © their respective owners, use is simply as fair use and no ownership rights asserted.
Saturday, March 11, 2023
WHY?
Why? i.e. more Q&A
By Alex Ness
March 12, 2023
There are times when people send me questions that ask important, relevant, interesting questions. And some ask questions I can't answer, because I don't know, I know but can't share, or don't have access to the information that might answer the question. I am by no means any sort of genius, so on most questions of a deep probing nature, I can't speculate accurately enough to go deep, or to guide the reader to any sort of closure. So, take this for what it is.
WHO is the talent you wish could/would sit for a full length and deep in every subject area sort of interview by you?
That's a hard question for me, since I've done over 400 interviews, enjoyed most of them, 99% at least. I don't really keep a bucket list, I used to, but the moment my interviews improved the most was on the point where I decided to be happy with what I've had the experience of, and not long for pie in the sky sort of desires. Having said that, I interviewed John Gilmore, a journalist, an actor, and someone who wrote the book Severed (about the Black Dahlia slayings), and was a friend of famous actors and actresses. He was really happy with the end result. I interviewed Ray Harryhausen, and I not only connected with a great and legendary talent in movies, and special effects, I was told by various artists and writers, I fulfilled a fantasy they had, of speaking with a legend in film. Another time I'd written a longish piece and utilized comments by talented comic creators who'd had work appear at Eclipse Comics, (Timothy Truman and others), Publisher Dean Mullaney wrote to tell me my work was very good and he liked the piece and my website Popthought a great deal. For a few years I wrote to Jeffrey Catherine Jones and we became friends, she said she'd do an interview but never felt comfortable doing them. But when we were done, she told me how much better that went than previous interviews by others.
WHAT was the worst experience in comics or comics journalism that you've experienced and why?
I learned that a publisher's PR person and editor's assistant and eventual editor, during the era of my most active journalism was being physically, sexually, and mentally abused by her boss. I wasn't aware of it at the time. When she began sending less normal, hopeful, happy emails, I took them entirely the wrong way, and I assumed it was about me. So rather than ask if she was alright, I acted like a shit head, and a bit crazy, and entitled. By doing this I added to her pain. When I learned what happened, it broke my heart, if she were to write or call me, I'd not be able to face her. While I wasn't responsible for her situation, I did nothing to help, and I was demanding, and I made her situation worse. She was a friend I used the word love regarding, she is/was a wonderful human, and I treated her like I was an over privileged prick.
WHO is the most important comic book talent of all time? I think I know you well enough to guess who you'll say. Surprise me?
I think five different people are likely the greatest in importance, for their talent but how they aimed it and changed the medium, they are Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Frank Miller, Neal Adams, and Jeanette Kahn. Now, people will aim at a variety of reasons for my choices, but here is my reasoning for my choices...
Jack Kirby understood the visual aspects of sequential story telling better than anyone of his day, but beyond that, designed the characters and costumes, the look at the creative energy for three different eras of comics. He told more than comic stories, he told stories that explored human existence, God, science, and legend.
Stan Lee said, what do people of the 1960s want in comics, that is different and new? He came up with characters along with Ditko and Kirby assistance. But it was how he told the stories that changed comics. DC Comics were based upon iconic characters, Marvel told stories of everyone. Making the stories interconnected, where Daredevil would meet Spider-Man and other similar meet ups, the stories could be larger, broader, and connect further and generations away, still have relevance to the comic at hand.
Frank Miller did many things, but mostly, he was a writer and artist who had different ideas, new technology to use, wanted complete control over the stories told, the processes used, and the maturity level reached. He wanted to shake up typical story telling with modern and adult outlooks, and however dangerous, utilize violence in stories as a means of telling the reader how serious consequences of crime or choices could be.
Neal Adams changed how art was utilized in comics, made the artist the director of the story, and in an era when artists of comic books rarely received art back when it was done, Adams created a system to pay royalties and return art on a regular and fair basis. He is also thought to be one of the most influential artists in the medium.
Jeanette Kahn was a powerful, thoughtful, and innovative publisher at DC Comics. But I don't include her for publishing Captain Carrot or Claw or any specific comic, she tried new ideas, introduced new rights of the creative talents, introduced new paper, and led a path to creating new brands within DC, such as Vertigo comics. She didn't follow the rules, of her predecessors, rather, tried to create new venue streams, new choices for readers, and offered opportunities for people who'd never have joined the efforts, had the same talent pools been utilized again and again.
HOW important do you think the medium of comics could possibly be? How important could it be when the typical comic book writer or artists learned from reading comics or tracing them?
I think that question is a load of shit. I do understand what you are asking. I can also sense your hostility towards the creatives. Let us for a moment say you are correct that the talents in the world of comics never read books, never see paintings in a museum, all their cultural learning happened in the pages of comic books. 1) I think if that is their experience they've done well learning and becoming able to create their own stories. 2) By doing this, it reveals that comics are silly meaningless creations, but have a value and story of their own to tell. I was told a while back, almost 2 decades back, that a certain creative talent had never read a book, and only ever read comics. He has since written prose novels, and he has made a ton of money. I can't speak to whether or not he had never read a book before then. But he could surely read, and read and write well enough to do his own stories. You might see me here as defending such comic talents, and perhaps that is here a little, but I doubt the assumption you've made in the questions you ask ever happen much. And if they do, how does that hurt anyone? And no, I am not saying who I heard that fact about.
IF Comic books have a golden and silver age, what is the rust age, or the lead in the water pipes age of comics? Doesn't every fandom create their own gilded eras, as well as new generations rediscover one tossed out previous ages, rediscovering the quality others missed out on?
You certainly can argue all of that, since the decision of era and quality are all relative things, without many specific traits or qualities that can be held for above the others, especially since all of the arts appeal differently to different generations. Also, one reason people create new gilded eras, new perceptions of quality, is that most people forget to look upon the past as a step or evolutionary link in a chain, rather than a period of less quality and less sophistication. But there is a reason Kindergarten students don't begin with Algebra, or 1st Grade students don't start with nuclear physics. Every step of learning, of sophistication, allows new heights, but rather than look upon the previous eras as miserable or primitive, try enjoying it for what it is rather than what is not.
Some of my very favorite books growing up were from the 1930s and 1940s, because I could see the roots of the medium, not the greatest works in terms of art, or writing, but you could see an energetic or stylistic artist could take bare bones of a story, and make humorous, exciting, mysterious or just worth the experience. We are so freaking spoiled by modern comforts, that we tend to lose sight of the fact that a story really is first told in the mind. Whatever follows is window dressing. That isn't to scold anyone, you can like and you can dislike whatever you want, taste follows its own path. But I've known people who refused to read some truly magnificent works, due to a distaste for the artist, or worse, there are people I know who refuse to read something, and will still say it sucks, because of their dislike for a person's politics. You can certainly do that, it is your prerogative, but maybe instead of saying it sucks, maybe say I think it sucks, or perhaps, I've heard it sucks.
It stinks to declare a work of someone's craft and effort as sucking, when what you refer to has nothing to do with their craft or art. And if I haven't answered what age we are in or have just left, we'll be just fine until we arrive when you don't even have to read or look at a work to know it is great or sucks crap.
WHAT is the best part of comics, is it reading, collecting or joining a fandom that shares your hobby?
I realize no one is looking for warm feelings here, but, I don't do well with these kinds of questions because I think mostly that a hobby is what you make of it. I knew someone in grade school who built plastic ship models, would take them out on their large back yard pond, and would set them on a rock to look as if a ship in the midst of the ocean. He'd them use a pellet gun and see how much damage they could take. My brother and I thought it was madness. You spend 20 bucks for a plastic ship model, you paint it and enjoy building it, and then BLOW IT UP? Well, that's what the person did.
Presumably he enjoyed doing it, and all of it, picking it out, building it, painting it, were as much fun as sinking it. When I was in college, some friends and I went out a nature hike during finals week to unstress and we came across someone's shooting gallery in a rock or sand quarry and it was filled with plastic model, in pieces, scattered melted or burned remnants. It should have been cleaned up, but it wasn't my land and I didn't step in it. But clearly, someone else liked blowing up ships they'd built.
So what the hell does that have to do with comics? Only this, people get what they want from a hobby. If you like collecting, I am sure that aspect of the hobby will appeal to you. If you like discussing, arguing, remembering great characters or stories, you'll find some form of fandom to suit you. For me, it is all reading, I don't buy without intending to read whatever I buy. But, I did have my own group I belonged to from the beginning. My brother read all the time, Batman comics, and all sorts of others. We'd read and chat, for hours. I hadn't done that with him for a while, but can't again, since he passed away. But it was my brother who modeled the behavior of reading for a habit. But, if I didn't read the comics, the rest of the hobby wouldn't be at all important to me.
If you'd like more Q&A, send your questions to me at AlexanderNess63@gmail.com
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