Tagged: Mike Gold

Editing Comics In The 21st Century, by Mike Gold

Editing Comics In The 21st Century, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • January 14, 2008

As you may know, as part of the ComicMix ruling triumvirate I spend my spare time editing comics published on, and soon by, ComicMix. It’s the most fun part of the job, and I really enjoy the catalytic experience. I’ve been editing for a million years, much of that time editing comics, and I try really hard not to get set in my ways. Having a short attention span helps.

So does working on the Internet. Case in point:

I’ve been working with John Ostrander and/or Timothy Truman since the week before fish crawled out of the ocean. It’s one of my happiest experiences; it’s great fun to work with talented people with whom you share culture, worldview and personal history. But I’m always concerned that creatively we’ll fall into a rut and take things for granted. So far, so good.

Our process (and this differs for each creative team as well as on each project) is simple. Either John or Tim comes up with an idea and we kick it around in an endless series of witty and self-referential e-mails. Eventually Tim decides he’s read enough. John and I continue for a bit just to make sure Tim didn’t change his mind (or maybe just to annoy him; I can’t tell anymore). Then John writes up a plot for the first chunk of story. Before the Internet, that would usually be a 22 – 24 page segment; now, it’s whatever John feels like. We kick it around a tiny bit, and Tim takes it away and draws whatever he feels like drawing. John dialogues it. At each step of the way, I make snarky notes and cultural references that would confound Dennis Miller. 

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One More Day Too Many, by Mike Gold

One More Day Too Many, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • January 7, 2008
Damn. They blew it.
 
Pulling off those universe-shattering “everything you knew yesterday will be wrong tomorrow” budget-busting bookshelf-breaking crossovers is a bitch. Few of them prove to be worth anybody’s effort, most of them are contradicted within a few weeks of their conclusion, and there have been way, way too many such “events” for any of them to be actual events. 
 
Marvel’s Civil War was different. For one thing, it was actually about something – it took on issues and concerns that were metaphors for what has been going on in the so-called real world. For another, it had at least three really, really interesting story-threads: the devolution of Tony Stark’s humanity, the death of Steve Rogers (as opposed to the death of Captain America, which didn’t happen), and the outing of Spider-Man and the resultant impact it had on Peter Parker, his career and his family.
 
I was left with a degree of personal involvement that had been much greater than previously. Marvel had instituted real change, and while we all know change is a constant and that at some point some of it would be contradicted eventually – somebody, at some point in the future, will probably resurrect Steve Rogers, although I hope not – the “event” ended with my being more curious about what would follow than any other such mega-crossover. Silly me.
 
O.K. Now we get to the spoilers, so if you haven’t read the last few Spiders-Man, and you haven’t seen any of the covers or house ads, and you haven’t listened to the hubbub at your friendly neighborhood comics shop, and you’d temporarily gone deaf and blind after seeing Alvin and the Chipmunks, you might want to stop right here. Or you can view this as a public service. And now, back to our regularly scheduled rant.
 

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Caucus for ComicMix Columnists

Caucus for ComicMix Columnists

  • News
  • January 6, 2008

Well, about 19% of eligible voters in the first atypically-populated state with way too much power to decide the country’s fate have spoken, Presidential campaign-wise, and rendered moot at least three candidates on the Democratic side, who are no longer Biden their time as they Dodd-er back to Washington with Gravel-y voices.  Thank goodness Kucinich didn’t drop out yet, his name is awfully hard to pun.  Meanwhile, a couple of our weekly ComicMix columnists have become a bit political of late; with the campaign season being so long there’s almost sure to be more where that came from.  Here’s what we’ve given you this past week:

Say, did you know there was also a Republican caucus in Wyoming?  How come Iowa and New Hampshire get all the press?  (Just ’cause Wyoming Democrats caucus separately, two months from now?) If I were Cheyenne I would sue.

The Happy Optimist, by Mike Gold

The Happy Optimist, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • December 31, 2007

 

As I write these words on the final Friday of 2007, I’m already tired of all the “best of” lists on all the media, so I’m going to go in the other direction and point my antennae towards the future. Chipper li’l guy that I am, here’s some of the reasons why I’m looking forward to 2008.
 
• Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark in the Iron Man movie. I can’t think of a better casting choice, except maybe for Howard Chaykin – and I’m not sure Chaykin could pull off the moustache thing. Downey’s got the right look, the right attitude… we’ll see if he gets the right screenplay.
 
• The inauguration of ComicMix: Phase Three and ComicMix: Phase Four. Actually, Brian tells us Phase Four might be ready before Phase Three. If so, we’ll probably rename Phase Four Phase Three. I went to school for this, you know.
 
• The end of Campaign 2008. Maybe we’ll get somebody worthy of the job. There’s a better chance of that if we all go out and vote at least once. I suspect I’ll be voting twice, as I once registered in Chicago.
 
• The most amazing and astonishing Munden’s Bar story ever told. With luck, we’ll have it done in 2008. It’ll be worth the wait.
 

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Hail the new, ye lads and lasses

Hail the new, ye lads and lasses

  • News
  • December 30, 2007

While it’s been a rather quiet week news-wise, our weekly ComicMix columns have seen lots of activity.  We were particularly honored to host an online wake of sorts last Thursday, reuniting members of the old CompuServe Comics and Animation Forum (myself included) in the comments section of John Ostrander’s touching remembrance of Paul "Zeus" Grant.  Here’s what else we’ve written for you this past week:

We wish everyone all you wish for yourselves in 2008 and beyond.

An Editor’s Night Before Christmas, by Mike Gold

An Editor’s Night Before Christmas, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • December 24, 2007

 ‘Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house

Deadlines were mounting, so I emailed Herr Claus

The scripts were all posted on the Internet with care

In hopes that the editing elves would soon be there

The artists were nestled, all snug in their beds,

While visions of royalty checks danced in their heads.

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Tidings of comfort and joy

Tidings of comfort and joy

  • News
  • December 23, 2007

On the off-chance that anyone else out there is spending their Christmas holiday engaged in online reading rather than in more traditional pursuits (eating, opening pressies, eating, singing carols, eating, watching heartwarming holiday specials on TV, and eating), we herewith present this past week’s ComicMix columns:

Have a safe and peaceful Christmas, everyone!

The Variant Question, by Mike Gold

The Variant Question, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • December 17, 2007

Despite my firm belief that I know everything about everything, I humbly admit there is something about this variant cover thing I don’t understand. Therefore, I’m tossing these questions out to you, the public, for comment. I’m not really trolling for comments; I honestly don’t understand this stuff.

I got into this because I just finished filling out my part of the retailer’s order form for Diamond distributing. My wife will do so tomorrow, my daughter already did. None of us are particularly interested in variant covers. In fact, I can’t recall any of us ever ordering one, let alone juice up our orders so we can procure one of those “for every ten you get one” deals.

Some publishers release as many as five different covers on damn near each title they publish. Some only restrict themselves to two, and then only occasionally. I understand how the device works as a sales incentive for comics shop owners, but, really, do you – as a reader – enjoy this? Do you usually buy alternate covers? All of them? Some of them? Only particular artists? Do you ever pay a premium for one?

More important, if you can’t get one at your store, do you buy it at a premium on the collector’s market? If there’s an alternate cover out there you want, do you track it down online or at conventions or sic your friendly neighborhood retailer on the quest?

Collecting mania aside, there’s really nothing new about alternate covers – the magazine business has been at it since the invention of the staple. In our little donut shoppe, it goes back at least as far as 1956 – Mad #28 had three variant covers. About 15 years ago, our hobby (as opposed to art form) was consumed by gimmick covers: prisms, holograms, lenticular pasties, all kinds of stuff. More recently, we’ve even combined the two with the variant gimmick of the “pencil” cover. Yep, you’re paying more for an unfinished product.

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Let’s Go Burn Some Books, by Mike Gold

Let’s Go Burn Some Books, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • December 10, 2007

I haven’t seen the movie The Golden Compass, but I will, and soon. I don’t care if it’s a complete piece of crap – I want to see it because the Religious Right told me not to.

They say that sort of thing a lot. Here’s what pissed me off. They said the author of the books upon which the movie is based, Philip Pullman, is an atheist. They’re afraid that if your children like the movie, they might actually pick up the book and read it. Somehow, the book will destroy their belief in the unigod.

Now that seems a little paranoid to me, but even if it happens, well, damn, we sure don’t want kids to make up their own minds – overruling the evidently flimsy influences of their parents, their relatives, their pastors, and their friends just by reading a damned book, right?

This sort of thing frightens me. According to these folks, we live in a Christian nation, founded by good Christian god-fearing men who were really, really stupid when they built religious freedom into our Constitution.

I’ll tell you what scares me even more. Last week, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said, and I quote, “Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom.”  Say what? Historically, organized religion and its militant outreach has been an astonishingly awesome suppressor of freedom. That’s history, folks, and we’ve had a hell of a lot of wars, crusades, pogroms, inquisitions, cross-burnings, and Jihads to prove it.

“In recent years, the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning,” Romney went on to say. “They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America – the religion of secularism. They are wrong.”

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Well, Not Quite Like A Virgin, a review by Mike Gold

Well, Not Quite Like A Virgin, a review by Mike Gold

  • News
  • December 8, 2007

If I were to tell you that a major British icon has returned, and you hadn’t read the headline above, what image would first pop into your head? Winston Churchill? The Union Jack? Pete Townshend?

Well, all those icons are still around, but I’ll admit that if I weren’t a comics fan, Pete jumping in his jump suit would certainly come to mind. But I am a comics fan, so that space in my filing lobe belongs to Dan Dare.

In case you didn’t know, Dan Dare was to the Brits what Superman is to Americans: their seminal comics hero. This makes Judge Dredd the Brits’ Spider-Man, which, to me, is a funny image. Sadly, Dan hasn’t fared quite as well as the Man of Steel, and he’s suffered through almost as many “reboots.” Created in 1950 by Frank Hampson, who drew most of the stories in that decade. A number of artists succeeded him, first and foremost the astonishingly talented Frank Bellamy. Since the Brits tend to favor (okay; favour) the anthology format, Dan Dare appeared in Eagle (after which the awards were named) and later in may different titles, including the birthplace of the “modern” British comics movement, 2000 A.D.; Dave Gibbons was among the artists on that venture. Much of his career has been chronicled in album reprints and he’s had his share of video games, audio dramas and spud guns.

Dare was a science fiction hero in the classic sense: perhaps more like Buck Rogers than Flash Gordon, but with the requisite sexless British stiff-upper lip. He’s been referenced in rock songs, and a band named itself after his Doctor Doom, a little green tyrant named The Mekon.

Okay. That’s the backstory. The new story is, Virgin Comics has leased the rights and relaunched the series, the first issue of which is on sale now. And it’s damn good.

This is no surprise. Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine are the creative team, under alternate covers by Bryan Talbot (pictured) and Greg Horn. Virgin honcho Richard Branson is a long-time fan and has also glommed onto film, television and video game rights.

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