* From Disney's John Carter movie debacle, to its acquisition of the Star Wars franchise, to the success of The Avengers movie, Disney was like a ravenous and unstoppable monster in calendar year 2012. In a justifiably angry and embittered end-of-the-year post, Steve Bissette pulls no punches in looking at how monstrous a year it truly has been, especially for freelancers hoping to find gigs in the current corporate environment. This is a long and depressing assessment of creative media and how it treats the human beings it requires in order to exist, and it is absolute must-reading.
* An interesting counterpoint to the above-linked Steve Bissette piece is Tony Isabella's Tribute to Stan Lee, on the occasion of Stan's 90th birthday. I have found it fascinating how Lee, who served Marvel to the detriment of freelancers and their rights for many years, later became as much a victim as anyone, when Marvel tried to screw him out of royalties he was entitled to as a result of the first Spider-Man movie. It's always interesting to me how people like Jim Lee and Brian Bendis can allow themselves to be utterly co-opted by comics corporations and apparently imagine they'll always be taken care of, in an industry that has fucked over Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and virtually every other name that matters as well. In that light, writer Ed Brubaker's move not only to reclaim his old work (Scene of the Crime) but by all apparent evidence re-dedicating himself mostly to work he owns himself (Fatale), makes perfect sense. You'd think more writers and artists would see the logic and benefit of conducting their careers in a similar manner, but that all-encompassing passion to write compromised cape comics for capricious corporations seems to die very hard, indeed. Well, look how Straczynski's stint at Marvel ended up for him. I'm sure that could never happen to Jonathan Hickman or any of the new breed. I'm sure things are different now. Yeah. Go read the Bissette piece.
* Oh, and I should note, I really did enjoy Tony Isabella's personal and joyous reflection on working for Stan Lee. It's all the more interesting to me both because of the irony I noted above, and because Tony is a guy who has been screwed by corporate comics more than once himself, and yet is still positive and decent enough to acknowledge the good parts of his career, such as his relationship with Stan Lee, and knows the difference between the personal and the professional.
* I wrote a farewell to James Kochalka's American Elf (which is scheduled to end at the same time 2012 does), although I didn't write it as well as I should have, clearly, as James took it in a way I really did not intend. You can see our brief back-and-forth on the subject on the AE forum.
* I bought a new desk lamp yesterday. It only handles up to 40-watt bulbs, but it does better illuminate my laptop's keyboard when I am using it at my desk at home. So yes, after nearly a nearly three-month break, I am thinking of writing a little bit, here, now and then in the new year. As noted in a previous post, writing about comics really became NOT FUN for me over the course of 2012 (which I wrote a bit about in my 2012 year in review), but I am hoping to find a new angle from which to approach the subject. We'll see how that works out.
* Happy new year, by the way. I hope you and yours enjoy a peaceful and prosperous 2013.
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