* If you liked browsing for single-issue Marvel titles at Barnes & Noble or other major book retailers, you appear to be out of luck: Marvel Comics is no longer making single issues available to mainstream booksellers. This will either make Brian Hibbs very happy or cause his head to explode, I am not sure which. But if it makes him happy, I hope he realizes that it means many people will no longer even be aware that Marvel Comics exist in single issue form, and likely hasten the demise of new, single issue funnybooks as an actual thing that exists in the real world at all. So long, floppies -- it was nice knowin' ya.
* At The Tearoom of Despair, Bob Temuka makes a good case for Fury MAX: My War Gone By being the best comic of 2013. There are some Garth Ennis comics that leave me cold, and then there are Garth Ennis's Punisher MAX and Fury MAX comics, which are just brilliant. My War Gone By saw Ennis's words accompanied by Goran Parlov's pictures, making it even better. Parlov is a true comics storyteller in the classic sense, and Ennis and Parlov's stuff together always actually reads like comics to my brain, in an era when almost nothing calling itself comics actually looks or feels like what a comic book should be.
* Bleeding Cool has a preview of the imminent Bojeffries Saga by Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse, published by Top Shelf and Knockabout.
* The Comics Reporter's holiday interview series continues with Tom Spurgeon chatting with cartoonist Nate Powell. I've liked and supported Powell's work since I first read Walkie Talkie back in 2002, and I'm delighted at the level of success he's achieved since then.
* Ted Rall looks at the inevitability of marriage equality, and what other basic human rights might be recognized next.
* Uncomics: Charles Simic at The New York Review of Books examines The Age of Ignorance. The piece highlights some of the most virulent and blatantly false memes spread by the Tea-Baggers on the far right for the past few years, like the "persecution" of Christians in the United States, climate change denial, Obama being a Muslim and more. Let's not forget the just-passed annual decrying of "The War on Christmas." Just to bring it all back around to comics, remember, Brian Hibbs believes the world wants every story told in comics form to be serialized in floppy comic books, no matter how little the true mainstream readership wants anything in that format, or how little even Marvel Comics wants them to exist anymore.
* Uncomics: James Howard Kunstler looks at The End of Pretend.
* Hey, it's the end of the year already. I wish I had something profound and witty to say about that, but it just kind of snuck up on me. This was a wild year of changes for me personally and professionally, and all I can say is I think I am in a better place than I was a year ago. I hope you are too. In lieu of a lengthy piece examining where we've been and where we're going, let me just say a very sincere thank you for making me a part of your internet reading experience. It's good to be doing this again on a (somewhat) daily basis, and I appreciate you taking the time to read what I post here. I hope you and yours have a happy and healthy new year.
Single-issue comic books will always be with us. I have two storage units that prove that. Oh, you meant new single-issue comic books. Never mind.
ReplyDeleteSeriously...I would mourn the loss of the single-issue comic books. A lot of great work has been published in that format. Great work is still being published in that format. And there's a sense of community around fans and readers making that weekly trip to the comics shop for the latest single-issue comic books. (Can you tell I dislike the term you use?)
On the other hand, today's writers, editors and publishers aren't making much use of the single-issue format. Stand-alone stories of quality are rare. Padded serials with little or no humanity are the thing, even in Archie Comics.
The loss of the single-issue comic book will sadden me, but it won't change my life much. I don't write for the mainstream comics houses. I have dozens of boxes filled with unread comic books. I'm good. But I think the loss will still be a loss.
I don't necessarily disagree, Tony, although publishers as a whole would have to unify behind the idea of each single issue having unique value unto itself in a way few seem to anymore. I think that idea lived longest in alt-comix like ACME Novelty Library, Love and Rockets and Eightball.
ReplyDeleteAnd just to be clear, when I use the term "floppies," it's not meant as a derogatory. I loved living in a world where two bucks would buy me a weekend worth of reading in good ol' floppy comic books, but that world seems long past now, no matter what Brian Hibbs wants to believe.