Monthly Archives: October 2009

Wednesday Comics: The Giant Coffee Table Book

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All right! DC has announced that they’ll be collecting Wednesday Comics as an oversized hardcover book at 11×17″!

It’s not the full size, which would be ideal, but I do think an oversized hardcover is the best way to collect it. Shrinking the art to standard size would diminish the experience of reading it, and trying to do something this size as a paperback is unwieldy at best, judging by Comic Book Tattoo. There’s a reason I bought the hardcover of that book, and it wasn’t so that I could carry extra weight around the convention floor. (It wasn’t to weaponize a comic book, either, but I’m sure I could knock someone out if I hit them over the head with it.)

Amazingly enough, they plan to sell it for $49.99, the same price as the archive books that clock in at the same page count but smaller page size. Back when I tried to figure out how Wednesday Comics could be collected, I figured a coffee table book from DC would end up costing a lot more.

I do have to wonder how they’re going to manage the paperback edition, but with this option available for this price (and you know it’ll be discounted in places like Amazon)…does it really matter?

Note: I managed to delete the original post when I intended to edit it, losing the comments made earlier this evening. Sorry about that!

On the Comics Code

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The Comics Code Authority is little more than a rubber stamp these days, but in the 1950s, it was a last-ditch attempt to save the industry from a popular backlash against perceived immorality, primarily (but not exclusively) in crime and romance comics. (Though some people thought super-heroes were even worse.) Its restrictions, eventually relaxed during the 1970s, are no doubt responsible for many of the silly story elements of the Silver Age.

Check out the Illustrated Comics Code, which uses Golden Age comics panels to demonstrate just what the original version of the code prohibited. (Be warned: the first image on there is kind of gruesome. And misspells Wertham.)

The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America (David Hajdu)On a related note, I recently finished reading David Hajdu’s The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America. It’s a fascinating look at the early years of the comic book industry, the cultural landscape around it, and how a moral panic (not unlike current controversy over video games — actually, more or less exactly like current controversy over video games) nearly destroyed the industry.

Quick Thoughts: Weekly Twitter for 2009-10-11

Co-Feature

  • Sad to see such negativity on the Flash co-feature. What, it’s not enough for Barry’s fans to win, Wally’s fans have to lose too?
  • The negativity seems to be from Barry fans who don’t want Wally to have backup stories in Barry’s book.
  • Thank you, @RokkKrinn! I just read Comic Bloc this morning and all 4 major Barry boosters there weighed in against it or w/reservations. in reply to RokkKrinn
  • Re-reading the comments on an old post from March: Co-Features, or How To Make All Flash Fans Happy.
  • To go w/Barry fans who don’t want Wally polluting their book, I’ve found Wally fans who find a backup insulting. Some ppl r never satisfied

Planetary and Delays

  • I have held Planetary #27 in my hands. Only question now: Do I read it tonight, or reread the whole series first?
  • Thanks for the Planetary suggestions. Think I’ll take the life’s uncertain: eat dessert first approach, read it tonight, THEN reread the series
  • After waiting years for Planetary to wrap, a couple months for Flash: Rebirth seems trivial. Annoying&frustrating, but hardly infuriating.
  • Funny: just realized when the previous issue of Planetary came out, BART was the Flash.

Other

  • Created a Flickr pool for Long Beach Comic Con b/c I couldn’t find one. Turns out one existed, but spelled it “Comicon.” That’s not its name
  • Some cons are “Comic Con” or “Comic-Con,” others are “Comicon.” It’s like calling the pool “Long Bach Comic Con.” Who’s going to find that?
  • Comic bloggers worth reading: @JohannaDC @HighFiveComics @RokkKrinn @TheNerdyBird @OnceUponAGeek @WeeklyCrisis #FollowFriday
  • Realized why the Japanese name for Optimus Prime bugs me: “Convoy” implies more than one vehicle. Maybe it’s a translation issue?
  • Does no one on Smallville connect Clark, the guy who wears red & blue and is always around weird stuff, with the “Red-Blue Blur?”
  • Site update: Bart Allen on Smallville.

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Speed Reading: “Science,” Homages, and an Atomic Banana Peel

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CBR Live found themselves “Flashed” by Warner Bros. — or rather, by an advertisement for The Big Bang Theory at their studios in Burbank, California.

What Were They Thinking? uncovers the amazing science behind Jay Garrick’s origin and more Golden Age “science.”

High Five! Comics notes a pair of Flash cover homages: the latest Irredeemable’s homage to “Flash of Two Worlds” and a tale of two Flash #105s.

Mark Waid has found the Flash’s ultimate adversary: the atomic banana peel. No, I am not making this up. And neither is he.

Breaking off-topic a bit, here’s the *ahem* cerealized Blackest Night that’s been making the rounds the last few days.

Blackest Night Breakfast Cereal

Lost “Flash” Game Footage Surfaces

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I’m not entirely sure how I missed this when it was posted in June, but check this out:

According to the user who posted it on YouTube:

This is early game footage from the cancelled Flash video game. When our publisher Brash folded we were about 6 months into full production with about a year still to go on the game so please excuse the roughness of how it looks at this stage. A lot of the core elements were just starting to surface and we were all really saddened that the game couldn’t be saved. It was showing much potential. As such we just wanted to share a sample of what the game could have been like. Enjoy!

The Brash/BottleRocket game would have been for XBox 360 and PS3. I’m not much of a gamer myself, but I have to admit that this looks like it would have been really cool!

(Found via Superheroes R Us and Comic Book Movie. There’s a long thread at Topless Robot as well.)

TwoMorrows Companion Sale

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I keep meaning to post about this and forgetting! TwoMorrows Publishing is running a 30%-off sale on their line of Companion books through October 31. Of course this includes Keith Dallas’ The Flash Companion.

The book is full of interviews with artists and writers, articles about the various eras of the character’s history, and more. I actually contributed a couple of Rogue Profiles to the book.

Check out past entries about the book for more info and some excerpts. It’s absolutely worth picking up.

The sale applies to purchases made on TwoMorrows’ website through October 31, 2009.