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Showing posts with label indies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label indies. Show all posts
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Thanos creator gearing up for lawsuit? - Comics News - Digital Spy
Thanos creator gearing up for lawsuit? - Comics News - Digital Spy
Jim Starlin has offered proof that he created Thanos, leading to speculation that he may launch a lawsuit against Marvel Comics.
The writer and artist has posted an early concept drawing of the Mad Titan from before he began working at the publisher, reports The Beat.
Interest in the character is growing following his cameo in The Avengers movie, the speculation of an upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film and the announcement of a Thanos: Son of Titan miniseries from Joe Keatinge and Richard Elson.
"This is probably one of the first concept drawings of Thanos I ever did, long before I started working at Marvel," Starlin wrote on his Facebook page. "Jack Kirby's Metron is clearly the more dominant influence in this character's look. Not Darkseid.
"Both D and T started off much smaller than they eventually became. This was one of the drawings I had in my portfolio when I was hired by Marvel. It was later inked by Rich Buckler."
Marvel is reportedly struggling to find records relating to the period in the mid-'70s when Thanos debuted in its comics.
"This is the second film that had something I created for Marvel in it - the Infinity Gauntlet in Thor being the other - and both films I had to pay for my own ticket to see them," Starlin previously said.
"Financial compensation to the creators of these characters doesn't appear to be part of the equation."
The writer and artist has posted an early concept drawing of the Mad Titan from before he began working at the publisher, reports The Beat.
© Jim Starlin
Interest in the character is growing following his cameo in The Avengers movie, the speculation of an upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film and the announcement of a Thanos: Son of Titan miniseries from Joe Keatinge and Richard Elson.
"This is probably one of the first concept drawings of Thanos I ever did, long before I started working at Marvel," Starlin wrote on his Facebook page. "Jack Kirby's Metron is clearly the more dominant influence in this character's look. Not Darkseid.
"Both D and T started off much smaller than they eventually became. This was one of the drawings I had in my portfolio when I was hired by Marvel. It was later inked by Rich Buckler."
Marvel is reportedly struggling to find records relating to the period in the mid-'70s when Thanos debuted in its comics.
"This is the second film that had something I created for Marvel in it - the Infinity Gauntlet in Thor being the other - and both films I had to pay for my own ticket to see them," Starlin previously said.
"Financial compensation to the creators of these characters doesn't appear to be part of the equation."
Friday, June 8, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Reviewing the "death of comicbooks"
I was recently reading savage critiques of Christianity, and as amusing as the vitriol was, and indeed as impressive as some of the scholarship was, it sent my mind on other tangents- chief amongst them the failure of the American superhero in comicbooks.
Stupidly high prices, a desire to maintain monopolistic controls over publishing, the plagiarism factories, smug false feelings of superiority and all the rest seem to me to have followed, rather than caused, the decline and fall of Marvel and DC.
In truth both Marvel and DC, just like Roman Empire in its time, exist in name only, with barbarian rulers in place of their original temporal and spiritual leaders. No one in their right mind could suggest that the current enemies within the gates are originating and exploring as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and the rest did in the early 1960s- establishment mentality is now dominant, with a "priesthood" and an "orthodoxy" preventing anything more than endless repetition.
With this state of affairs in place, what will happen then to what were once highly popular comicbooks?
By a process of slow death one can see several probable and highly probably steps towards total extinction.
Firstly, the feudal system of hirelings and fake independents will in fact establish itself even more firmly, with the fusion of the false facades of Marvel and DC with their true owners, and true cores, being Disney and Warner respectively. These latter organisations are classical media companies- faceless, resolute, unapologetically mercenary, soulless, adhering to mainstream agendas, disinterested in innovation, never releasing copyrights that have fallen to them.
Secondly, due to this fascistic control, and the alliance of corporations such as Disney and Warner with the current dominant controllers of the media, when that centralised empire falls, so too will Disney and Warner fall. This may not be as far off as some imagine. In the mean time, the battlefield between those outside the cosy walls of this incestuous industry and the slave soldiers of the corporate media will be the coopting of public domain properties and the attempt to revitalise the uneven battle by true independents by the discovery, more or less at random, of something that will decisively turn the struggle in their favour.
Thirdly, the corporate properties, already grim parodies of themselves, will continue to be debased to the point that they disappear from view. For evidence of how this happens consider the life cycle of Flash Gordon- from dominant cultural entertainment to plagiarised bastardised Star Wars version at the hands of Lucas to today where not only Flash Gordon is fading from knowledge but Star Wars in its turn has lost all cultural potency. Per Dale Arden, Sic Princess Leia.
Stupidly high prices, a desire to maintain monopolistic controls over publishing, the plagiarism factories, smug false feelings of superiority and all the rest seem to me to have followed, rather than caused, the decline and fall of Marvel and DC.
In truth both Marvel and DC, just like Roman Empire in its time, exist in name only, with barbarian rulers in place of their original temporal and spiritual leaders. No one in their right mind could suggest that the current enemies within the gates are originating and exploring as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and the rest did in the early 1960s- establishment mentality is now dominant, with a "priesthood" and an "orthodoxy" preventing anything more than endless repetition.
With this state of affairs in place, what will happen then to what were once highly popular comicbooks?
By a process of slow death one can see several probable and highly probably steps towards total extinction.
Firstly, the feudal system of hirelings and fake independents will in fact establish itself even more firmly, with the fusion of the false facades of Marvel and DC with their true owners, and true cores, being Disney and Warner respectively. These latter organisations are classical media companies- faceless, resolute, unapologetically mercenary, soulless, adhering to mainstream agendas, disinterested in innovation, never releasing copyrights that have fallen to them.
Secondly, due to this fascistic control, and the alliance of corporations such as Disney and Warner with the current dominant controllers of the media, when that centralised empire falls, so too will Disney and Warner fall. This may not be as far off as some imagine. In the mean time, the battlefield between those outside the cosy walls of this incestuous industry and the slave soldiers of the corporate media will be the coopting of public domain properties and the attempt to revitalise the uneven battle by true independents by the discovery, more or less at random, of something that will decisively turn the struggle in their favour.
Thirdly, the corporate properties, already grim parodies of themselves, will continue to be debased to the point that they disappear from view. For evidence of how this happens consider the life cycle of Flash Gordon- from dominant cultural entertainment to plagiarised bastardised Star Wars version at the hands of Lucas to today where not only Flash Gordon is fading from knowledge but Star Wars in its turn has lost all cultural potency. Per Dale Arden, Sic Princess Leia.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Steamtown
Also available as a digital comic:
http://theillustratedsection.com/flying-tiger-comics
And in print- keep up to date at the blog:
http://flyingtigercomics.blogspot.com
And look for Steamtown at IndyPlanet:
http://indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5133
And the publisher website:
http://www.flyingtigercomics.com
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Review: The Rainbow Orchid
The Rainbow Orchid by Garen Ewing (UK) is a brilliant ligne claire comicbook series, also available online as a webcomic.
Ewing has very adeptly turned in a Tintin-style adventure. His art is a little restrained compared to Herge- who of course remains the grandmaster- so shall we say that the Rainbow Orchid sits between Blake & Mortimer and Tintin himself in terms of style.
The story is beautifully illustrated in every panel and the research behind it is suitably professional. The mysteries are gently offered, the action is brisk, and the characters well drawn. It is definitely a product of modern Great Britain, which could be bad but in this case- there is nothing "PC" to complain of.
The first two volumes out of a total of three are already available in print, and are well worth it!
The story is a great new addition for people suffering withdrawal symptoms having exhausted the Tintin canon.
Ewing has very adeptly turned in a Tintin-style adventure. His art is a little restrained compared to Herge- who of course remains the grandmaster- so shall we say that the Rainbow Orchid sits between Blake & Mortimer and Tintin himself in terms of style.
The story is beautifully illustrated in every panel and the research behind it is suitably professional. The mysteries are gently offered, the action is brisk, and the characters well drawn. It is definitely a product of modern Great Britain, which could be bad but in this case- there is nothing "PC" to complain of.
The first two volumes out of a total of three are already available in print, and are well worth it!
The story is a great new addition for people suffering withdrawal symptoms having exhausted the Tintin canon.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
CAPTAIN MARVEL: The Ligne Claire Superman
Captain Marvel had much the same sensibility as Tintin too- innocent orphan boy reporter hero, whimsy, some full blown elements of fantasy - super intelligent Snowy is more than matched by hepcat Tawky Tawny for example.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Silver Age can return. Just not as the Silver Age.
What is lacking is the original Marvel concept of a shared universe, changing and evolving. Better blogs than mine (see left bar - Wastebasket for example) set out the truth. From 1961 to 197x where x < 6 Marvel had a shared universe whose characters went through equivalent experiences to their readers, including college, birth, death and marriage - even tax problems, psychoanalysis and divorce etc.
The art back then ranged from superlative to quite crude - in fact Jack Kirby ran the entire spectrum embodied in one man - but the other driver was an inexhaustable font of ideas. Good ideas, terrible ideas, ideas spawned from current headlines - and lots and lots of conspiracy theory ideas. Take Marvel's two antithetical team books- the Avengers and Defenders. The Avengers had a published charter, a rich white guy's club (nicely skewered in its own pages too many times to count), government liaisons- and on top of all this, personal dramas, driven dark stories, villains more sympathetic than the heroes at times- a rich tapestry.
Then there's the famous non-team- The Defenders. Never equalled let alone bettered, Steve Gerber's run on the Defenders and his other Marvel books is probably the single biggest influence on today's Marvel writers, despite never being acknowledged. The Defenders featured Nighthawk- a realistic take on Batman minus the homoeroticism, Doctor Strange at the height of his bohemian lifestyle period (you could just weep for the shit they've put this character through in the last decade), Valkyrie (ditto), Hellcat (more modern and more interesting than any retconned "Jewel" or other such shit), and of course- The Hulk. Superb. The occasional extra fillip such as Submariner, Silver Surfer, and the antics of Power Man, Daredevil, Black Panther, Moon Knight, LMD Nick Fury- the book even after Gerber kept its powerful college kid doing drugs and pontificating feel.
Through all this DC was always like the polyester-suited standup comedian in one of those excruciating TV specials, but hey, you gotta have the bread as well as the turkey for a sandwich.
All it takes for the Silver Age to come back roaring into existence is for some of the first class indies to take off. And with sales figures in free fall for the brand managers, that could happen. The economics of monthlies means that the brand managers will always win that battle, but the war will be won in the graphic novel department. With even "hot!" "popular" "amazing" GNs selling 3000-10,000 copies, loads of indies can crack that market.
I disregard all claims of indie status for anything by anyone who takes coin from either Warner or Disney. With that sort of economic support, their "indie" projects are just hobbies. True indies are people outside that closed circuit of sympathy, doing it tough and truly independent. This is the same situation film was in, where real indies are up against "indie" "projects" by slumming Hollywood A-listers and producers desperate for the fata morgana of cinematic credibility.
Hit up IndyPlanet. Go through some of the lists. Feel that glorious Silver Age rush again. Walk amongst the crude, the sublime, the colorful to the point of distraction, the passionate to the point of embarassment. THAT is the Silver Age. And we are about to go into the Second Golden Age, the Great Fifty Years of Comics. I promise you that.
World War 3 and the generation of young warriors who fight it will help make this Great Fifty Years a true Golden Age- for all the same reasons as the first Golden Age, sadly enough.
Captain America might be part of it; Superman will lamely struggle on like the bastardised concept it is. Batman will unfortunately be part of it, at least at the beginning; but the Great Fifty Years will belong to the true indies.
Then in time they will become the new establishment, and the Toynbee cycles will continue...
TOYNBEE IDEA IN KUBRICK 2001 MOVIE
RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPITER
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