How is possible that "fans" of comics and these editors who say they want to produce great comics and are not begging the real talent in the industry (checkbook open), are remotely in control of who works and who does not? These arrogant f**ks decide that a creator "cannot" produce work that kids will read, today? That they're "too sophisticated" for the artwork and writing style of the past? Whoever says that is NOT talking about kids under 12. They're talking about men, not kids. Not even young men, frankly. Men my age, who should be doing everything they can to make the kids feel the way they did, when they began reading comics.

And let me tell you, this is not one of those "sophistication" points. When I was a kid, I lived in the greatest film decade outside of the 1940s of all time, the 70s. Television showed REAL films with REAL talent making them, as well as some of the greatest shows of all time. Paperback originals were still hot sellers and the science fiction market was blowing up. I had Count Gore De Vol's "Creature Features" and "Kung Fu Theatre" on Channel 20 out of DC. We still had "Famous Monsters" magazine. Muhammed Ali fought heavyweight championship fights on regular bloody television. And against guys like Joe Frazier. You could still hear Oldies stations that played real 1950s Rock and Roll, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, all that (now "Oldies" starts at about 1965, yeah right). Saturday mornings with Super Friends and Flash Gordon and Warner Bros and H&B Thundarr and Herculoids. Beta and video gave us access to everything, not just a select few films released over and over in "Special Editions". MTV played music videos also, and yes this was early 80s. I had all the sophistication I needed and I still loved comics, mainly because there was NOTHING ELSE LIKE THEM. They were unique, unflaggingly and doggedly willing to entertain, promising and paying off almost EVERY time. And there wasn't an erect nipple or a beheading anywhere, except in CONAN.

Now comics are just printed "films", and their very essence has been altered to reflect this shift. I don't see that my "sophistatication" was any more dumbed down than the kids today, except I didn't have ready access to online porn videos. And video games weren't around. And crack. But are those the things comics are in competition with, because everything else is mediocre at best, from films and television and music on down. I'd think this would be the ideal time for comics to flourish, but I'm obviously WAY wrong. I guess comics merely reflect the overall mediocrity of the current culture. Way to go, "Full House" generation!

QUOTE: I wonder, does anyone on this board purchase the comics Ditko is publishing now?

IS he publishing anything now?  I've snagged the Ditko trades from Pure Imagination and the "Package" books (5 total, I think), but that stuff's mostly reprints.  If he has new work coming out, I'd love to get it.  But I never hear anything about him.

Curt Swan IS a dynamic artist. He further defined one of the greatest characters ever created.

His Superman will forever be how I see the character. ( I swear you come in a close second JB, honest.)

While some of us are busy dissing the "dynamism" in Curt's work, let me
remind you all that he did a fill-in issue of TEEN TITANS during Perez's
original run that actually required the reader to look at the credits to know it
wasn't George.

************

JB,

I knew instantly it wasn't Perez, or at least I knew it wasn't the artist who had been drawing the previous issues; it looked VERY different to me and I was only 9 when that issue came out.  Also, doesn't a blanket statement like "it actually required the reader to look at the credits..." violate some of your own rules or at least standards of over-generalizations and assumptions that cannot possibly be proven.  Especially when it alludes to thousands (tens of thousands?) of readers of that issue..

Sorry for the thread drift, but isn't this like the third time in as many days that somebody has griped about "Why isn't so-and-so getting any work?  The industry hates him and kicked him out!" only to have someone else (in one case, myself) point out that same creator's current work?  Yes, it is a crime that many great writers and artists can't get mainstream, flagship titles to work on today.  But what JB says is dead on.  The fans dictate what sells and what sells is always the newest thing around, unfortunately.  Does anyone think that Infinite Crisis would have sold any less if the flavor-of-the-month had drawn the Perez pages?  Nothing against Perez in anyway intended here, but I personally don't think he was the selling point.  It was the latest stunt comic.  And stunt comics promising big changes always sell.  Only to not really make the big changes and the fans come around again for more of the same with the next stunt. 

I think that many older fans have a bias against the big 2 due to drastic changes made in their favorites and therefore don't know what is being created by whom in the big pond.  A similar bias exists from those who refuse to see beyond anything NOT published by anyone but M***** or DC.  Many 70's era creators are working.  But not on the big titles.  Unfortunately too many blinders are up and fans usually don't know when somebody they really admire from their youth is working on something in the present day.  How many of you bought Dick Ayers' Chips Wilde or Bob Layton and Dick Giordano's Future comics?  What about Mike Vosburg's Linda Lovecraft?  JB gets the same crap from folks who refuse to try his latest, greatest stuff by insisting that it's X-Men and FF or nothing.  And of course, then they miss wonderful, fun comics like DP or BotD.  This thinking only leads to dwindling sales that is translated into premature cancellations on these books and deprives all of us of entertainment. 

O'Brien I'm not paying rent on your soapbox anymore.  I'm investing in my own!

By the way, Did Rob really leave? Or is he lurking around fighting the urge to jump in?