Mike Gold: Old Farts Are The Best Farts

Mike Gold

ComicMix's award-winning and spectacularly shy editor-in-chief Mike Gold also performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com and on iNetRadio, www.iNetRadio.com (search: Hit Oldies) every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week – check www.getthepointradio.com above for times and on-demand streaming information.

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12 Responses

  1. Martha Thomases says:

    One factor that helps the quality of graphic story-telling today is the wider variety of publishers. Abrams. Houghton-Mifflin. Even University of Alabama Press. These companies (or their equivalents) would never have published comics in the 1960s and 1970s. DC and Marvel would never publish today what these companies publish today.

    Which I guess is saying, apples and oranges.

    • Mike Gold says:

      The question is, should they? I can argue both sides of this one, and I guess DC sorta tried on a couple occasions.

  2. GrimJack is my favorite comic and I’d gladly read more of John’s stuff any day than virtually any new writer.

    Not to say I don’t love some of the newer writers, but they aren’t superior by a long shot…

  3. Kyle G. says:

    Maybe this is just my fault as a young reader, but I’ve read collections of Grim Jack, I own John’s whole run on Suicide Squad but when I read something like Jonathan Hickman’s run on Secret Warriors or his Fantastic Four run, I just think he’s hit some high notes I’ve never seen before.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Hickman’s one of the most talented writers out there today, and nothing takes anything away from that. I’m actually sad he’s leaving the Fantastic Four (I mean, it hasn’t affected by sleep, but still) and I look forward to his taking over The Avengers this fall.

      And if I did my year-end Top 11 list right now, I strongly suspect his MANHATTAN PROJECTS would be number one.

      With a bullet.

  4. Reg says:

    Mike…”Stay thirsty, my friend.”

    You are one of the most interesting men in the world.

  5. Well, I’d like to address all your points here… but I don’t necessarily disagree with any one of them per say. Your laundry list of talent and mine can’t really face off in a “writer’s bowl” to see who is the best. Nor can one really determine who could write better than someone else. Barring the fact that my son could out-write Rob Liefeld.

    I guess my over-arching point to my last article though was in response to Marchman. Do you believe that the quality of scripts being published today are responsible for the decline of sales throughout the industry?

    You postulate (I think) that because the writers of yesteryear were “writing on two levels” and somehow that might make their contributions more valuable then a modern day writer. But if you think for a second a book like All-Star Super Man, Y: The Last Man, or the current run of Animal Man/Swamp Thing aren’t aiming at a few demographics at once? Well, you better go take some fiber and take a few more books into the “library”.

    It might very well be an apples-to-oranges comparison though. As you said… there’d be no today if not for yesterday.

    Beyond that though? Modern writers are far prettier.

  6. Adam Black says:

    If you’re going to mention Grimjack, I’d like to point out that most (if not all) of the comics made by First back in the 80s were great reads.

    My personal favorite was Whisper. To this day, I can’t think of a better-written female protagonist.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Thank you, Adam, on behalf of everybody on the original First Comics crew.

      I, too, liked Whisper. Steve’s been asked many times about reprint opportunities, but he’s not interested. I think he would like to re-do the series, a start-over more than a reboot. That would probably inure to the long-term viability of the property better than a stand-alone reprint. Either way, it would be great to see her return.

      • Adam Black says:

        I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t realize who you were until now!

        First was my favorite comic company back in the 80s! Most everything I do now is inspired by Whisper, Jon Sable, and all the rest.

        Must. Not. Fanboy. Out…

  1. June 16, 2012

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