Category Archives: Opinion

If You Could Only Buy Three Comics…

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A few weeks ago I talked about decluttering the pull list. Over the weekend, noscans_daily took things it a bit further, asking people to consider how they’d cut down to three titles. I didn’t properly do the suitcase test last time, since I approached it from the “What can I drop?” perspective instead of “What do I have to keep?” but a specific number — however harsh — really puts things into perspective.

If I had to cut it to three, I think I’d go for:

  • The Unwritten – My favorite new series of the year. I’m always a sucker for stories about stories, and this one’s holding up well.
  • Madame Xanadu – My favorite new series of last year. I never had any interest in the character before, but casting her as a magical detective/troubleshooter rather than simply fortune teller, and making it possible to tell stories anywhere from Arthurian times to the present, has made this
  • The Unknown – Mystery, a protagonist whose key feature is intelligence, and exploring the boundary between science and the supernatural — or at least what seems to be supernatural to us. This is currently on its second 4-issue miniseries, and Mark Waid said at Long Beach Comic-Con that he could see it going for 3 or 4 minis depending on how long they can keep the artist.

The other more-or-less regular books, not counting miniseries with only one issue left:

  • Flash: Rebirth – At this point I’d be perfectly willing to wait until they launch the ongoing next year, by which time The Unknown should be finished. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I’m looking forward to Blackest Night: The Flash, which will overlap. But just based on what’s in progress now, I’d drop it if I had to. (Of course, since I run a Flash fan site, that’s not really an option!)
  • Fallen Angel – This would be the hardest one to cut. If I were choosing my top 4 instead of top 3, it would definitely be in there.
  • Astro City – I can wait for the trade on this one.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer – I’m pretty far behind on this, which should tell me something.
  • Dynamo 5 – It’s the best superhero book I’ve read in a while, but I’ve also been losing interest in superheroes.
  • Farscape – I’m waiting until each mini finishes to read it anyway, so I may as well trade-wait.
  • Wheel of Time – I half-suspect this is on hold anyway.

The surprise for me was finding that neither Flash nor Fallen Angel — two books which have been my #1 favorites at various times in the last few years — quite made the cut. I hope this will change once the ongoing Flash and Kid Flash series launch.

So…If you had to buy only three comics a month, what would you choose?

Con-flict: Big Apple vs. NYCC — FIGHT!

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Comic Book Resources and The Beat both noticed something interesting in the program for this weekend’s Big Apple Comic Con: the dates for next year’s event. It’s going to be October 7-10, 2010 — the same weekend as the larger, well-regarded New York Comic Con.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Sketchy

It’s only been 3 months since Wizard World[1] announced Anaheim Comic Con (in California) would launch on the same day as C2E2. Okay, they’re halfway across the country from each other, and that can happen with a crowded convention season. This year’s WonderCon (San Francisco) and MegaCon (Orlando, Florida) seemed to manage just fine on the same weekend. On the other hand, Anaheim and C2E2 are both new shows. More importantly, C2E2 is run by Reed Exhibitions, who run NYCC, and is setting up in Chicago, the same city as Wizard/Shamus’ flagship Chicago Comic Con. There’s already bad blood there.[2]

Of course, Big Apple Comic Con and New York Comic Con aren’t across the country from each other. They seem to be just down the street, about a mile apart. That’s closer than my hotel was to the San Diego Convention Center during Comic-Con International this year — and I walked that distance. Twice.[3]

You don’t accidentally schedule your con for the same weekend, in the same city, within walking distance of the #2 show in your market. Especially when you’ve already scheduled another show to conflict with the same organization’s only other event in your industry. (Reed is big in general, but NYCC and C2E2 are the only shows that overlap with Wizard’s field.) Obviously they deliberately chose to compete with NYCC.

Goal?

What I can’t figure out is: What do they hope to accomplish?

Given all the good will NYCC has picked up over the last few years, and all the good will Wizard has lost over the same period of time, I can’t imagine that if forced to choose one over the other, the comic book industry would side with Big Apple at this point. Publishers will probably split delegations[4], and I can imagine some guests setting up at both cons if contracts allow it, and I’m sure Big Apple will be able to get some exclusive guests…

…but it really reminds me of the attempt a few years ago (2006?) to launch Wizard World Atlanta on the same weekend as the well-regarded Heroes Con. The industry came down solidly on the side of Heroes Con, and Wizard World Atlanta was canceled. If anything, Wizard’s reputation is worse now than it was then.

Given their relative size, reputation and location, I can’t imagine that Big Apple expects to beat New York Comic Con by going head to head with it. So what are they tying to do? Ride on the other con’s coat-tails? Interfere with NYCC’s guests and exhibitors? Interfere with NYCC’s attendance? It just doesn’t make sense.

Update: It gets better! Big Apple kicked out 3 NYCC staffers today — just like they kicked out an LBCC staffer from Philadelphia a few months ago. (via Robot6)

Mr. Shamus, Wizard, whoever: you’re really making it hard for me to justify going to Anaheim Comic-Con next year. And considering it’ll take me longer to find a parking space than to drive to the convention center, that should take some doing.

Update 2: Reed Exhibitions has responded to the scheduling announcement, saying, “We confidently welcome any competition, whomever they may be.”

Notes

1. Or whoever actually runs the conventions that Gareb Shamus owns, since they seem to be downplaying the Wizard brand.

2. Robot 6 goes into more detail on Wizard/Shamus’ history dealing with other conventions.

3. Okay, the second time was a mix of walking, running and a pedicab ride, but still, it was walkable.

4. DC Comics will often hold DC Nation panels at two cons on the same weekend, sending Dan Didio to one and Ian Sattler to the other.

Flash May Get “Secret Origin” Treatment

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Buried in a Newsarama interview about Superman: Secret Origin, Geoff Johns remarked that he’d like to do more “Secret Origin” stories…with the Scarlet Speedster his first choice for number 3.

My hope is to continue these, most likely with The Flash: Secret Origin, which would include the beginning of the Rogues as well.

Personally, I’d rather see some genuinely new stories for a while instead of yet another origin retread. The series has been (in my opinion) far too focused on the past for several years now. Bring back Wally West. Bring back Barry Allen. Spackle the Rogues’ actions during Countdown. Bring back Bart Allen. Bring Back Professor Zoom. Bring back Max Mercury. Retcon Barry’s childhood, early career, and the nature of the Flashes’ powers. Explain Barry’s bow tie.

(Also: he’s already written origins for at least five of the Rogues — six if you count Trickster II.)

Geoff Johns makes the point that origin stories serve as starting points for new readers, but I think The Flash #1 would also be a good place to start. And while I can’t speak for new readers, this long-time reader would like to see something that he hasn’t already read in half a dozen variations.

(Thanks for Fastest for the link.)

Decluttering the Pull List

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The Weekly Crisis writes about taking the suitcase test (figuring out what you really need to buy or keep based on what you’d put in a suitcase for a long trip) and applying it to comic books. It’s an interesting way to look at a hobby dominated by completism and collecting for collecting’s sake. I’ve been doing something similar over the last couple of years, with two major changes to my buying habits.

Events

The biggest decision for me was to stop buying event books just because they were events.

I understand the desire to read everything “important” and keep up with the universe. My DC reading practically started with Crisis on Infinite Earths, and I read a lot during the event-heavy 1990s. But after 10 years of annual crossovers, I found myself sick of them. I got sucked back in with the buildup to Infinite Crisis in 2005, but after the weekly Countdown to Infinite Crisis I realized I needed to focus on books I actually liked.

So I bought Final Crisis because it looked interesting and Rogues’ Revenge because I couldn’t pass up Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins on the Flash’s Rogues. I skipped Final Crisis: Revelations, and I’ve skipped Blackest Night so far, because the stories just didn’t appeal to me.

The only exception I’ve made so far is Legion of Three Worlds, and that’s because I run a Flash site and it featured the return of Kid Flash.

Falling Behind

I’ve also started taking how far behind I am on reading a series as a measure of how interested I am in it.

  • Am I a few weeks behind? No biggie.
  • Waiting for a story arc to finish? Maybe I should start buying it in trades instead.
  • A couple of months behind? Time to catch up and see If I really care.
  • 6 months behind or longer? It’s probably time to drop it.

I’ve dropped several series based on this criteria…and I still haven’t gotten around to reading the issues I’d bought before dropping them. I can’t quite bring myself to drop Buffy the Vampire Slayer, though, even though I’m 8 months behind.

At this point I’m reading 12 more-or-less monthly series: 7 ongoing and 5 miniseries. It’s manageable, except when I’m really busy, and keeps my monthly budget around $40 to 50.

What to Keep?

I’ve got my comics buying habits sorted out at this point, but the hard part is figuring out what to keep. The last time I moved, I set myself a goal of having fewer long boxes of comics the next time I moved. Unfortunately I haven’t really gotten around to (a) sorting and (b) actually selling much.

I did, however, put some boxes in storage, and it’s been enlightening to compare the items I’ve gone back for (Girl Genius trades, for instance), the items I keep meaning to go back for when I have time to read them (Sandman), and the items that I just haven’t thought about.

So I guess my suitcase criteria would be reread and research. Anything I’m likely to reread stays. Anything that I may need as reference material for my website stays. (Unfortunately that means I have to keep Countdown for now.) I’m not willing to toss the rest of it just yet, though, which is why I have 15 or 16 long boxes.

Eventually, though, I’ll go through them all and make some decisions.

Can the Flash Survive Another 6-Part Epic Relaunch?

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Flash: Rebirth #1 - Variant - thumbnailThe writers and artists have changed. The face under the Flash’s mask has changed. But there’s one thing that the three Flash relaunches we’ve seen since Infinite Crisis all share: pacing.

For some reason, every time DC has relaunched the Flash lately, they’ve done it with a slow burn.

Rising Action: Speedsters Slowing Down

Now, I have no problem with slow burns in general. I really did like most of Final Crisis, for instance (and that was almost all slow burn), and as frustrating as Flash: Ignition was at the time, I really like the story in retrospect — but as a break from the crazy pace of Run Riot and Blitz. Just about everything I’ve read or watched by JMS has used a slow build-up to something huge, from Babylon 5 to Squadron Supreme (some to better effect than others).

But I don’t think it’s the best structure to launch a character whose main claim to fame is speed…especially when it’s serialized.

Continue reading →

Wizard World on the Way Out?

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Chicago Comic-Con is running this weekend. Yes, Chicago Comic-Con, not Wizard World Chicago as it’s been called for most of this decade.

And that name change brings up all kinds of questions.

Back in 1997, Wizard bought the Chicago Comicon, at its time the #2 comic book convention in the country after Comic-Con International in San Diego. They renamed it Wizard World Chicago and started building a series of conventions across the country. At its height there were five shows in Chicago, Los Angeles, Texas, Philadelphia, and (briefly) Boston.

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Then in January 2009, Wizard dropped a bomb: citing the economy, Wizard World Texas and Wizard World Los Angeles were being canceled. People planning for WWTX at least got fair notice, but WWLA had been scheduled for March, just two months away. They insisted that WWLA was merely “postponed,” but made no indication of when the show might return.

That left two: Wizard World Philadelphia in June and Wizard World Chicago in August.

Rebuilding and Rebranding

Over the next few months, though, something odd happened: the convention series started growing again, as Wizard owner Gareb Shamus bought Big Apple Con, then bought Paradise Toronto Comicon. Neither show was rebranded as a Wizard World event, and Wizard quietly started referring to WWC as “Chicago Comic-Con.” And then they launched Anaheim Comic-Con.

So now there are again five conventions under the umbrella, but only one, Philadelphia, still has the Wizard World name. Chances are pretty good that they’ll rename it by next June…or possibly cancel it the way they dropped WWLA.

Whither the Wizards?

The obvious question is: why?

Well, Wizard World has acquired a bit of a bad reputation. Maybe they’re rebranding in hopes of escaping that.

Or maybe they want to give the shows a more local feel, rather than corporate.

Or maybe it’s something else. Judging by the announcements, it’s not Wizard Entertainment that’s been buying and launching these new shows — it’s Gareb Shamus. I wonder whether he might be planning to sell off Wizard and keep the conventions, or otherwise split the cons and the magazine into separate companies.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Update (August 11): After reading this article on “Comic-Con” vs. “Comic Con” vs. “Comicon,” I’ve gone back and tried to make sure I have the official spellings for each convention.